# What's the most obscure thing you know? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 21, 2002, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345 "2002-03-21T14:41:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/201 "2002-04-11T09:39:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lissla Lissar \* > Polyphonic music was nearly banned at the Council of Trent. Er…not _strictly_ true, although it’s the extremely simplified version of the story. Certainly there were factions that wanted a return to monophony (or at least much simpler harmonic textures), but mostly they wanted composers to stop using secular tunes and doing text painting on every single word. Whether Palestrina was chiefly responsible for “saving” polyphony is a several page discussion neither you nor I want to get into at the moment. > [@](#): > > The Scots didn’t wear kilts during the period of William Wallace’s revolt. Man, they must have been _cold_. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mondeo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Mondeo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mondeo)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/202 "2002-04-11T12:55:07Z")
I know the time it takes a radar pulse to travel a mile, 12.36 micro seconds. pretty obscure? ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/203 "2002-04-11T23:15:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dijon Warlock \* > **There used to be such a thing as celery flavored JELL-O. We had a box when I was a young’n.** There used to be apple-flavored and chocolate-flavored JELL-O, too. ---
**Author:** ![scott\_evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@scott\_evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott_evil)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/204 "2002-04-11T23:34:49Z")
… is that guinea pigs aren’t rodents. They’re genetically closer to cows and humans. And they’re the only other mammal besides humans that doesn’t produce their own vitamin C. (I think…) I used to have two. 🙂 - s.e. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/205 "2002-04-12T00:38:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by scott evil \* > **… is that guinea pigs aren’t rodents. They’re genetically closer to cows and humans.** A matter which is not so cut-and-dried as one might like. Using purely genetic data, Rodentia as a whole was found by some to likely have to be scrapped - Rodentia as we know it is polyphyletic (meaning, of course, that _nothing_ is a Rodent). Morphologists, of course, disagree: Rodentia is monophyletic, and guinea pigs are firmly placed therein. A 1995 analysis of mitochondrial DNA agrees with the morphologists: > [@](#): > > The new DNA sequence data set presented here provide strong support for the monophyly of rodents, a conclusion that already has considerable support from morphology (Honeycutt and Adkins 1993; Luckett and Hartenberger 1993). When all molecular sequence data are considered, including tandem analyses of the nucleotide data and the amino acid data, the original claim of rodent polyphyly (Graur et al. 199 1) can no longer be supported. While additional molecular data bearing on this question will be welcomed, there is presently no compelling reason to assume that the Hystricognathi is not the sister group to the Sciurognathi or that the guinea pig is not a rodent. Ref: [_Monophyly of the Order Rodentia Inferred from Mitochondrial DNA Sequences of the Genes for 12s rRNA, 16s rRNA, and tRNA-Valine_](http://www.bio.psu.edu/faculty/hedges/65.pdf), Melissa S. Frye and S. Blair Hedges, 1995 (link is to a .pdf file) ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/206 "2002-04-12T03:33:35Z")
I know that on any IBM System/36, real memory address x’0000AFB’ will always contains a jump to a function call that will end the job that invokes it. This is used by many IBM programs (and user written assembler programs) as a way to ABEND on a critical error. Ugly ---
**Author:** ![Mirage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Mirage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirage)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2002, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/207 "2002-06-20T07:14:22Z")
"Gozer the Traveler. He will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. During the rectification of the Vuldrini, the traveler came as a large and moving Torg! Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor! Many Shuvs and Zools knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you! " ---
**Author:** ![LucysLogic101](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19b73/32.png) [@LucysLogic101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LucysLogic101)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2002, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/208 "2002-06-20T08:13:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ellen Cherry \* > \*\* > > Roosevelt was born October 27, 1858, and if elections were also held in November then, he would have just turned 43. So, this means he WAS the youngest, beating Kennedy, who turned 44 four months into his term, by a few months. \*\* WHY didn’t i read this BEFORE school let out??? That would have been the perfect revenge on my history teacher…:smack: ---
**Author:** ![LucysLogic101](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19b73/32.png) [@LucysLogic101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LucysLogic101)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2002, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/209 "2002-06-20T08:17:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jsc1953 \* > \*\*Oh, I also know … the nature of the relationship between Elrond and Galadriel. I am remarkably well-rounded. :rolleyes: \*\* do tell, ive been trying to figure it out…😕 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2002, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/210 "2002-06-20T10:46:25Z")
If you board a plane in Philadelphia and fly due south to the Tropic of Capricorn, you’ll be over the Pacific Ocean. ---
**Author:** ![majinborg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/db5fbb/32.png) [@majinborg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/majinborg)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2002, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/211 "2002-06-20T14:35:27Z")
I can identify by name any Star Trek: The Original Series episode within the first 30 seconds of the episode starting, or at least before the teaser ends. The reverse is true: given a TOS episode name, I can tell you the plot. Add to that oodles and oodles of other Star Trek trivia. Examples: -Cliff Bole, director of _many_ Star Trek episodes, is the only one to have a species, the Bolians, named after him (they even mentioned the famous Cliffs of Bole as an important geographic feature of the Bolian homeworld). -Given most any Starfleet ship, I can tell you its class; I’d be surprised if I couldn’t do so for most of the alien ships too. -I know Pavel Chekov’s middle name: Andreivich (sp?). -I know that in “Day of the Dove” Piotr is the name of the brother Chekov was brainwashed into believing he had. -I know that Data’s legs are 82 centimeters in length. I have read all published Harry Potter books several times over, have seen the only released movie several times over, have watched the scenes deleted from that movie, and know about the next book to be published: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in which Dumbledore and other good witches and wizards, including Sirius and Mrs. Arabella Figg, band together to fight the newly-arisen Lord Voldemort. I have never been bested at a game of Harry Potter trivia (although, to be fair, I have encountered some questions I didn’t know the answer to). I know what “rheology” means: the study of how an object responds to stress and strain, i.e., its properties of shear and deformation. I know what a Punnett square is (a table used for simple genetics to find probabilities of gene combinations in offspring). I know that the meter was originally defined to be the diameter of the earth divided by 10,000. I know the three main types of neutrino (a very small subatomic particle): the electron neutrino, the tau neutrino, and the muon neutrino. I know that the Epsilon Eridani system is ten light-years from Earth. I know that the Brewster angle is the angle at which light strikes a surface such that all reflected light is polarized. The tangent of that angle is equal to the index of refraction of the surface divided by the index of refraction of the other medium. I know that the index of refraction of a medium is equal to the speed of light in a vacuum divided by the speed of light in that medium. I know that Ralph Waldo Emerson, good friend of Henry David Thoreau, hated the way Thoreau wrote. Email me if you want the citation or more information. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2002, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/212 "2002-06-20T14:38:52Z")
‘Ike li kama’ means ‘shit happens’ in Tokipona. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![majinborg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/db5fbb/32.png) [@majinborg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/majinborg)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2002, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/213 "2002-06-20T15:17:44Z")
I know that Disney World’s EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. The EPCOT staff likes to say it stand for “Every Person Comes Out Tired”. (I think “Every **Parent** Comes Out Tired” is more accurate.) ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2002, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/214 "2002-06-20T15:21:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by LucysLogic101 > > > [@](#): > > > > * * * > > > > ## Originally posted by jsc1953 Oh, I also know … the nature of the relationship between Elrond and Galadriel. I am remarkably well-rounded. > > do tell, ive been trying to figure it out…[😕] \*\* Hallelujah, after all this time, somebody took the bait! Galadriel is Elrond’s mother-in-law. Elrond married Galadriel (and Celeborn’s) only offspring, Celebrian. Which also makes Galadriel Arwen’s grandmother. ---
**Author:** ![bifar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@bifar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bifar)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2002, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/215 "2002-06-20T16:09:23Z")
- In medieval times (before reliable local maps), parish boundaries were often maintained by a process known as “beating the bounds”, in which the men and boys of the parish would walk around the boundaries of the parish several times a year to restablish them. To ensure that the important markers along the way were remembered, the young boys were beaten (yes, beaten) at them each time. \* Sorry, but that sounds very folk etymology to me. I know beating the bounds exists (my village still does it) but were little boys really beaten? Got a cite, me dear? ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2002, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/216 "2002-06-20T18:29:12Z")
Plains Native beadwork is usually done in lazy stitch geometric motifs, and Woodlands in floral patterns and backstitch. I don’t know why. The Ojibwa have (at least) two words for “true”, _dae’b’wae_- True as far as I know _gaegaet_- utterly tue, assuredly I t really, really hurts to ram a beading needle up under your fingernail. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/217 "2002-06-20T18:31:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by javaman \* > \*\*When Peter Cooper founded his Cooper Institute in New York City, he made the architects leave a shaft for elevators, even though they didn’t exist yet. He foresaw that they would be essential for taller buildings and would soon be in production. \*\* I believe said elevator is round. There’s a round one and a square one in the building, now known as the Cooper Union Foundation Building. The round one was the original and the square one added later, IIRC. The round one’s a bit disorienting to be in. Another bit of obscure Peter Cooper trivia: As a small child, while chopping wood, his ax bounced off of a nail, and hit him in the head, leaving a lifelong scar. ---
**Author:** ![Barrett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/54ee81/32.png) [@Barrett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2002, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/218 "2002-06-20T19:23:25Z")
I know that Andrew Jackson had a 1,400 pound wheel of cheese by way of refreshments at his innaguration, and that his guests ate all 1,400 pounds of said cheese in two hours. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2002, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/219 "2002-06-21T00:14:24Z")
The National Anthem singer for game 6 of the 1979 World Series was Ehtel Ennis. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2002, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/220 "2002-06-21T02:53:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by malkavia \* > \*\*Torgo commited suicide about 6 months after its release. He was also a military boy, if memory serves. (Not sure which branch) > \*\* His father was in the Air Force, I’m not sure what rank or position, but I think he was an officer. Speaking of hollywood deaths… A crewmember fell to his death on the set of “The Indian in the Cupboard” Famed animator Don Bluth’s movies have starred two actresses who died prematurely: Elizabeth Hartman, who commited suicide, and Judith Barsi, who was murdered by her father. “20,000 leagues under the sea” is the only Disney movie that features a nuclear explosion. The particles fired by the “phasers” on Star Trek are called Nadions. They (Nadions) were invented for the show. And as for everyday mayhem… The “Zuni” rockets that were carried by American fighters during the Vietnam era used TNT for their warheads…which caused problems on the U.S.S. Forestal and the U.S.S. Enterprise when rockets being loaded onto aircraft on the flight deck were overheated, and exploded. And I USED to know the instructions for a pipe bomb fueled by wet trading cards bits, but I’ve forgotten it. ☹ Ranchoth [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345.md?page=12)