# Weird (true!) facts you’ve learned recently **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 28, 2018, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266 "2018-04-28T15:33:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/1 "2018-04-28T15:33:44Z")
Tiny Tim died onstage in the middle of singing Tiptoe Through the Tulips. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/2 "2018-04-28T15:53:38Z")
Only two of the ingredients in Cool Whip (an edible oil product!), are not toxic to humans! And one of them is water! Yipes! ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/3 "2018-04-28T16:06:36Z")
Charlie Chaplin wrote music. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/4 "2018-04-28T16:17:52Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Only two of the ingredients in Cool Whip (an edible oil product!), are not toxic to humans! > > And one of them is water! > > Yipes! I am not sure if you’re being serious or facetious here. If it’s the former, you should realize everything is toxic (including water). And everything is nontoxic. It all depends on the dose. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/5 "2018-04-28T16:25:55Z")
[Two men alive today are grandsons of President John Tyler (b. 1790, d. 1862).](http://mentalfloss.com/article/29842/president-john-tylers-grandsons-are-still-alive) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/6 "2018-04-28T16:28:19Z")
I learned today that Honorary Degrees can be rescinded. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/7 "2018-04-28T16:40:46Z")
In 2014 the makers of **Card Against Humanity** purchased an island in Maine known as Birch Island for $190,000 and renamed it “Hawaii 2.” They divided the island into a quarter million 1 square-foot lots and sold them as part of a holiday promotion ($15 bought you 10 mystery “gifts,” the last of which was your 1 square foot of land). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/8 "2018-04-28T17:06:41Z")
That Teaneck, NJ was the first American town to voluntarily desegregated their school system in 1965. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/9 "2018-04-28T17:29:58Z")
[There are no bridges that cross the Amazon River](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/3skzmf/til_there_are_no_bridges_over_the_amazon_river/) ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/10 "2018-04-28T18:23:56Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Tiny Tim died onstage in the middle of singing Tiptoe Through the Tulips. Not quite. He had a heart attack while singing the song. He collapsed while being helped back to his table by his wife. He was pronounce dead about an hour after arriving at the hospital. He may have died before he got to the hospital, but not while still onstage. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/11 "2018-04-28T20:40:45Z")
That rap is an acronym for Rhythm and Poetry. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/12 "2018-04-28T20:54:40Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Only two of the ingredients in Cool Whip (an edible oil product!), are not toxic to humans! First, I don’t believe this for a second. Second, I got it beat: Neither of the ingredients of table salt are edible to humans, or any other form of life we know of. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/13 "2018-04-28T21:25:46Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > That Teaneck, NJ was the first American town to voluntarily desegregated their school system in 1965. I am really not sure what you mean by this. In 1950 my wife moved from Brooklyn to Salem, NJ (Exit 1), the schools had recently been desegregated and she was placed in 6th grade into the old Negro school. So Salem desegregated some time between 1940 (when her step-sister was there) and 1950. If it wasn’t voluntary, who ordered it. If it was the state of NJ, then why wasn’t Teaneck still segregated? Another point. By 1965, all school segregation should have been illegal. To get back to the OP, I just learned today that there are cave paintings in Spain dated 70,000 ago. This is well before any homo saps were there so they must have been by Neanderthals. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/14 "2018-04-28T21:38:31Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Jennshark** : > > That rap is an acronym for Rhythm and Poetry. Show of hands, who believes this one? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/15 "2018-04-28T22:07:06Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > That rap is an acronym for Rhythm and Poetry. Oh, wow, I missed this one. People believe the stupidest shit, but I’d like it if you’d refrain from spreading those kinds of jokes here. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/16 "2018-04-28T22:10:28Z")
I learned, right here at the Dope, that there are no muscles in our fingers. I never knew that. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/17 "2018-04-28T22:34:43Z")
Thomas Jefferson owned some vicious sheep, one of which killed a boy by the White House. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/18 "2018-04-28T22:43:36Z")
Those fancy, super-expensive Japanese square watermelons are not edible. Well, I suppose they’re technically edible, but they are produced solely for the shape; they are not allowed to mature and ripen so they don’t taste good. They’re kind of yellow and gross looking when you cut them open. Also, not a weird fact but something I learned firsthand relatively recently: dragonfruit look amazing and taste of absolutely nothing. I’d compare it to the white part of a watermelon, but soft. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/19 "2018-04-28T23:05:21Z")
Doug Fieger of the band the Knack was the brother of Geoff Fieger who was the lawyer for Dr. Kevorkian . Doug died in 2010. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/20 "2018-04-28T23:55:57Z")
I recently learned that the demilitarized zone in Korea is a natural wildlife reserve. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266.md?page=2)