# weird trivia **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 4, 2010, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603 "2010-01-04T10:07:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/221 "2010-01-14T20:25:23Z")
Mozart’s librettist for _The Marriage of Figaro_ and _Cosi fan tutte_ later moved to the U.S., became a naturalized citizen, died here and is buried in Queens: [Lorenzo Da Ponte - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_Da_Ponte) ---
**Author:** ![blood63](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@blood63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blood63)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/222 "2010-01-15T02:11:14Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > In the city of [Tataouine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tataouine). Lucas borrowed the name and Anglicized the spelling for the movie. My favourite Indiana Jones trivia involves that most famous [scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DzcOCyHDqc) where Indy lazily shoots the swordsman after he demonstrates his amazing sword wielding skills. Harrison Ford was very ill on that day and it was very hot out. He didn’t want to be involved in any long sword battle as was scripted. He’s the one who suggested to Speilberg that he just take out the gun and shoot him. Funny how some of the most famous scenes in movies come about. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/223 "2010-01-15T02:43:00Z")
You remember those SNL sketches with the typical Bears fans? Where George Wendt was Bill Swearski? “Da Bears.” One of the other guys at the table was played by Robert Smigel, in one of his rare regular on-camera appearances on the show. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/224 "2010-01-15T15:35:21Z")
“The most interesting thing about King Charles the First is that he was 5 foot 6 inches tall at the beginning of his reign, but only 4 foot 8 inches tall at the end of it.” - Monty Python ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/225 "2010-01-15T16:40:16Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Mozart’s librettist for _The Marriage of Figaro_ and _Cosi fan tutte_ later moved to the U.S., became a naturalized citizen, died here and is buried in Queens: [Lorenzo Da Ponte - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_Da_Ponte) Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, former King of Naples and Spain, lived in exile in Bordentown, New Jersey, before returning home to die. The room that is now the Union Oyster House Restaurant in Boston was the residence of Louis Philippe, later the last King of France, during the Reign of Terror. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/226 "2010-01-15T18:28:23Z")
In the 1971 movie “The Hospital,” Barnard Hughes playes one of the main characters, a patient. In some puzzling casting, he also appears in a completely different role, with a hairpiece and fake mustache, that of Dr. Mallory, who is performing a hysterectomy. There’s nothing to indicate that they’re supposed to be the same character, and that one is pretending to be the other. For whatever reason, he ended up laying this other minor, but memorable, character. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/227 "2010-01-16T23:09:08Z")
The middle name of Milhouse van Houten, Bart’s friend on _The Simpsons_, is Mussolini. Rainier Wolfcastle’s (the show’s Ah-nuld clone) is Luftwaffe. Lisa Simpson’s middle name is Marie. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/228 "2010-01-17T17:37:28Z")
Steven King’s The Colorado Kid was largely inspired by a real life Australian incident, The \*Taman Shud \*Case. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/229 "2010-01-17T18:01:48Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > Robert Heinlein invented the waterbed. Supposedly one of the early manufacturers sent him one as a present. [Off by a hundred years.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterbed) > [@](#): > > A form of waterbed was invented in the early 1800s by the Scottish physician Neil Arnott. Dr Arnott’s Hydrostatic Bed was devised to prevent bedsores in invalids, and comprised a bath of water with a covering of rubber-impregnated canvas, on which lighter bedding was placed. Arnott did not patent it, permitting anyone to construct a bed to this design.[1][2] > > The use of a waterbed for the ailing Mrs Hale is mentioned in Elizabeth Gaskell’s 1855 novel North and South.[3] > > In 1871 a waterbed was in use in Elmira, NY for “invalids”. It was briefly mentioned by Mark Twain in his article “A New Beecher Church” which was published in The New York Times on 23 July 1871. There Twain said that: “In the infirmary will be kept one or two water-beds (for invalids whose pains will not allow them to be on a less yielding substance) and half a dozen reclining invalid-chairs on wheels. The water-beds and invalid-chairs at present belonging to the church are always in demand, and never out of service”. This article does not contain enough information to determine the form of the beds involved. > > Dr. William Hooper of Portsmouth, England, patented a waterbed in 1883. He devised it to relieve bed sore pains in his patients. Unable to contain the water and control its temperature, his invention was a market failure. David Wells and Don Larsen both threw perfect games for the New York Yankees. Both attended Point Loma High School in San Diego. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/230 "2010-01-18T05:31:15Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > …the Union Oyster House Restaurant in Boston was the residence of Louis Philippe, later the last King of France, during the Reign of Terror. AND was originally Capen’s Dry Goods Store, run by my mom’s family during the mid-1700’s … pretty innocent, huh? Except for the printing presses upstairs churning out _The Massachusetts Spy_. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/231 "2010-01-18T05:55:52Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Carrots _have_ to be good for your eyes. Have you ever seen a blind rabbit? Or a rabbit with glasses? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/232 "2010-01-18T15:03:26Z")
A good one for today: King County, which contains Seattle, Wash., was originally named for Franklin Pierce’s vice president, William Rufus King. The name was not changed, but the explanation for its origin was - it now named for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: [King County, Washington - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_County,_Washington) ---
**Author:** ![Jormungandr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@Jormungandr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jormungandr)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/233 "2010-01-18T15:43:24Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Abraham Lincoln had seen John Wilkes Booth perform on stage, but most historians doubt that they ever actually met. Even weirder, Edwin Booth, John’s older brother, had saved Lincoln’s son, Robert, from being killed by a train a few years before the assassination. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/234 "2010-01-18T16:32:37Z")
In _Arsenic and Old Lace_, one of the tombstones in the graveyard is inscribed with the name “Archie Leach”, which was Cary Grant’s real name. John Cleese’s character in _A Fish Called Wanda_ was also named Archie Leach. ---
**Author:** ![thwartme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/235 "2010-01-18T18:19:32Z")
Just read [this on wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubbing_(filmmaking)#Pro_dubbing), and thought it would fit great in this thread (check out the third paragraph under the “Pro Dubbing” heading)… When the cartoon “The Flintstones” was dubbed into Hungarian, the entire dialogue was made to rhyme. Nifty, huh? thwartme ---
**Author:** ![Klytus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Klytus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klytus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/236 "2010-01-18T18:20:45Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > He also had a small role in **Superman 2** - in the scene where the three baddies from Krypton arrive on the Moon and the Astronaut relays that he thinks he saw a girl, he was the NASA ground control guy that said “I thought he said a ‘curl’” John Ratzenberger was also in the first Superman movie, as one of the guys trying to regain control of the missiles Lex Luthor hacked into. In the IMDB listing, he has the same “name” for both roles: Controler #1. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/237 "2010-01-18T19:34:48Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Michael Keaton played the same relatively minor character, a Federal agent named Ray Niccolette, in both 1997’s _Jackie Brown_and 1998’s _Out of Sight_. He gets played for a fool by the women in both. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/238 "2010-01-18T21:07:15Z")
> [@Jormungandr](#): > > Even weirder, Edwin Booth, John’s older brother, had saved Lincoln’s son, Robert, from being killed by a train a few years before the assassination. See post #107. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/239 "2010-01-18T21:21:06Z")
> [@Kizarvexius](#): > > In _Arsenic and Old Lace_, one of the tombstones in the graveyard is inscribed with the name “Archie Leach” [Cut his own throat](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0032599/quotes), reportedly. ---
**Author:** ![fleem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f475e1/32.png) [@fleem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fleem)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603/240 "2010-01-19T01:31:15Z")
Lou Gehrig, baseball’s legendary first baseman, wound up dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease. How weird is that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-trivia/523603.md?page=13)