# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Dragonblink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Dragonblink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragonblink)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/81 "2002-03-22T07:20:05Z")
[hijack] Okay, I’ll back up my Hamlet reference … Hamlet wants not only revenge against his uncle but the throne itself. Evidence in the play points to the fact that Claudius wasn’t doing too bad a job as king, so any direct action against him would result in accusations of treason and/or assassination. This would get Claudius off the throne, but Hamlet would be in jail, facing execution. He has to wait it out if he wants everything … pretend madness so he looks harmless, and wait until he can prove that Claudius offed his father. But waiting is never easy. His two choices: to “suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” – wait it out, deal with the horrible spot he’s in and the crap he has to put up with – or “take arms against a sea of troubles” – give up his little political games and try to take the throne by force. Forgive me on this half-arsed summary, it’s been a while and I’ve been dealing with some killer finals this week. Incidentally, this evaluation of the speech is mainly from Isaac Asimov’s guide to Shakespeare. I just happen to agree with the late Doctor on this count. [/hijack] And the only moon of the planet Uranus not named after a Shakespearean character is Uriel – the first two were named Uriel and Ariel after spirits from classical literature (forget what exactly), and the next person to discover some moons assumed that Ariel was a reference to “The Tempest,” and named the next two Titania and Oberon. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/82 "2002-03-22T08:33:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dragonblink \* > \*\*Oh, and Hamlet wasn’t talking about suicide. \*\* What, then? To exist or not to exist. To suffer or oppose one’s troubles. If not about suicide, what? Or are you throwing out a reference to another speech? Cite, please. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/83 "2002-03-22T08:39:29Z")
Oops! Sorry **Dragonblink,** but I hadn’t read the rest of the thread when I posted that last. I still don’t agree with you and Dr. A though. ---
**Author:** ![apollo9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@apollo9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollo9)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/84 "2002-03-22T09:03:48Z")
I used to be a big Roman history buff back in college. I remember reading that the word “forx” was responsible for the eventual creation of the word “fornication.” The forx was the lowest arch of an aqueduct, that of course ran through the length of an entire city. In the city of Rome Herself, in selected quarters, the “forx” was also a meeting place of prostitutes and potential customers. The activities were later deemed to be seedy, hence the definiton of the word “fornication” today. I don’t actually know the exact history of the definition itself though, but I gather that the church may have had some serious input. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/85 "2002-03-22T09:47:27Z")
The rationale behind the US Interstate numbering system Which teams played in which Super Bowls and when Why many red lights in traffic signals seem to look different in texture than green and yellow lights Why the Eastern Sierras have less vegitation than the Western Sierras The top 10 most populous cities in California in order Other tidbits of geography and history, particularly California All Duran Duran albums in order of release, and I can usually name the artist and title of any popular '80’s pop song in about 3 notes or fewer Why “corned beef” is called “corned” ---
**Author:** ![Jeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/86 "2002-03-22T09:54:27Z")
I know that _swiving_ means partaking in orgiastic debauchery. I know that the explorer Simon Fraser, during his famous travels through BC in 1808, was referred to by natives as the Sun, because of a shiny emblem he wore on his hat. I know that Cervantes and Shakespeare died on the exact same day. I know that Cervantes, George Orwell, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Alexander Pope all died the year after they published their best works (_Don Quixote_, _1984_, _The Brothers Karamazov_, and _The Dunciad_, respectively). ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/87 "2002-03-22T10:08:12Z")
Nobel laureate physicist Max Born was singer Olivia Newton-John’s grandfather. James Garfield was the only U.S. President besides Kennedy to die in his 40s. Two Vice Presidents were born in Maine: Hannibal Hamlin and Nelson Rockefeller. ---
**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:** [March 22, 2002, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/88 "2002-03-22T10:42:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Darwin’s Finch \* > \*\* > > And they are symbolic of the four apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (the numbers for all of the other days are symbolic of various Catholic beliefs as well; indeed, the whole song is thought by some to be something of a 17th-century Catholic mnemonic device). \*\* Um, get thee to [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/holidays/xmas/12days.htm) for another think on that one, **DF**. Speaking of music: In Renaissance madrigals and chansons (especially French and Italian ones), references to “death” and “dying” often actually referred to sex. (Don’t believe me? Have a listen to a recording of Monteverdi’s “Si ch’io vorrei morire” sometime.) The opening of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony represents a orchestra tuning up. Also, the music for the “Froh!” section (tenor solo and male chorus in the last movement) is essentially a “Janissary band” or Turkish military marching band, characterized by the use of cymbals, triangles and martial rhythms. Another of Beethoven’s little musical jokes. The famous Adagio by Tomaso Albinoni was actually written (“reconstructed”) in 1945 by Italian musicologist Remo Giazotto, based on a fragment (a bass line and six bars of melody) by Albinoni found in the Dresden State Library. (I don’t know whether the rest was destroyed in the firebombing, or if that’s all the Library ever had.) Which is not to say that it’s not a good piece of music; only that it ain’t by Albinoni. ---
**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:** [March 22, 2002, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/89 "2002-03-22T10:47:47Z")
Oop. another useless fact that sticks in my head: The year 1453 is significant in that it marked the end of the Hundred Years War, the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks, and the death of John Dunstable (or Dunstaple), possibly the most influential English composer on the Continent ever. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/90 "2002-03-22T10:57:27Z")
Xapno Mapcase is from _Harpo Speaks!_ , the autobiography of Harpo Marx. He took a trip to Russia to do comedy there, and remarked that his name, transliterated into Russian, looked like it spelled “Xapno Mapcase.” It’s one of those phrases that never leave you once you’ve read the book. Re. Hamlet and suicide: Nonsense. He has been contemplating suicide since his first soliloquy (“Or that the everlasting had not fixed his canon/'Gainst self-slaughter!”), and in the “To be or not to be” bit, when he examines his options: “or to take arms against a sea of troubles/And by opposing end them,” he means that one option for fighting against all the bullshit in your life is to fight against yourself, i.e., commit suicide, and you are sure to end the troubles. The problem is that you won’t end them in a satisfactory way, since the awful situation will still be there, just without you. (All quotes from memory; line breaks may be misplaced, but words are correct, I am certain. I used to teach this.) Youngest person to serve as U.S. President: Teddy Roosevelt. Four: Only number which denotes its number of letters. Michelin Tire Man’s actual name: Bibendum. First oil well in the U.S.: Titusville, Pennsylvania. Oldest continuously inhabited city in North America: Saint Augustine, Florida. First spot in Asia that the sun hits every morning: Mt. Fuji, Japan. Top-selling band of all time whose band-name starts with the letter X: X-ray Spex. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/91 "2002-03-22T11:37:37Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by TN_hippie \* > \*\*I know Arlo Guthrie’s phone number. > > * * * > > youcangetanythingyouwant, > TN\*hippie \*\* Let’s call him up at 3AM, & ask if his refridgerator is running! Or, if he has Prince Albert in a can! Or ask him to page Mr. Freely–first initials “I.P.”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/92 "2002-03-22T12:39:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*The Basque language spoken in northern Spain and southwestern France is a language isolate; it has not been shown to be related to any other language. \*\* Not directly disputing this, as it’s probably just coincidence, but I remember reading that the (Etruscan?) word for death was the same or similar as the Basque word for “sickle”, which was used as a symbol for death. (Or vice versa, Basque death=Etruscan sickle). However most theories linking these two languages are considered to be crank. But interestingly Etruscan is related to another mountainous language - Raetic, recorded in the Alps. And I also remember hearing that the first five numbers in Basque are similar to the first five numbers in Tibet. Again that’s easily explained by a wandering Tibetan monk teaching numeracy, if it’s true. Probably factoids, but they fascinate me… ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/93 "2002-03-22T13:23:25Z")
Dog urine, unlike human urine, does not contain urea. Ha! Except for the urine of a Dalmation. I licked my elbow just now, just because I could. Then I looked out the window and saw a lady staring at me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/94 "2002-03-22T13:37:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Arden Ranger \* > **All natural radio waves radiate on a wavelength of 9 feet.** Fascinating. But also totally perplexing. Please elucidate. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jackelope \* > \*\*Top-selling band of all time whose band-name starts with the letter X: X-ray Spex. \*\* I suspect this information is out of date. In the mid-1990s, XSCAPE had four top-40 hits in the U.S., including three that made it to the top 10. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if XTC has also outsold X-ray Spec. (Both XTC and X-ray Spex are British bands. XTC had one Billboard Hot 100 hit in the U.S, X-ray Spex had zero). ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/95 "2002-03-22T13:41:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ludovic \* > **On the original 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide, page 95 contains a sample dungeon. This is the same dungeon used in the 3rd Edition dungeon masters sample dungeon.** I noticed that too when I got my 3e DMG. I was pleasantly surprised. ---
**Author:** ![TN\_hippie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TN\_hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TN_hippie)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/96 "2002-03-22T14:42:00Z")
On the subject of Brands “X”…_Xanax_ has gotten pretty popular, too. Also, drugs ending in “-cet” do not necessarily contain aspirin. They do contain acetaminophen, however. * * * ask me drug trivia, TN\*hippie ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/97 "2002-03-22T14:50:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by whitetho \* > \*\*Fascinating. But also totally perplexing. Please elucidate. > \*\* If I could, I wouldn’t consider it quite as obscure. I remember those first two things from a science class I was an assistant in but never took. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/98 "2002-03-22T15:22:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Youngest person to serve as U.S. President: Teddy Roosevelt. After exhaustive (for me) research I find that **jackelope** is correct! From the White House web site, which contains biographies of all the presidents: [Theodore Roosevelt](http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/tr26.html) … “With the assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, not quite 43, became the youngest President in the Nation’s history.” [John F. Kennedy](http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jk35.html) … “On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin’s bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. **Kennedy was the youngest man elected President** ; he was the youngest to die.” Kennedy was born May 29, 1917. In November 1960, when he was elected he would have been 43, right? Also 43 when he took office the following January. 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. So why does the White House site say **both** were the youngest elected president?? Grr. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/99 "2002-03-22T15:40:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by booklover \* > **The word “avocado” is derived from a South American native word for “testicle”.** Not South American. Mexican. It’s from Nahuatl _ahuacatl_. Language of the Aztecs. Gotcha! > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bad News Baboon \* > **The phrase ‘ojala…’ (Sp?) means almost the same thing in Spanish as it does in Arabic.** _Ojalá_ is from Arabic _in shâ’a Allâh_ ‘if God wills’. In medieval Spanish, the letters j and x were used to write the sound of “sh” which has been lost in Modern Spanish. This explains why x stands for the unknown quantity in algebra. Algebra (from Arabic _al-jabr_ meaning ‘reassemly of broken pieces’) was invented by the Iranian mathematician al-Khwarizmi, who wrote in Arabic. For the unknown quantity, he used the Arabic letter _shîn_, abbreviation of the Arabic word _shay’_ ‘a thing, something’. When his work was translated in Spain into Latin, the translator used the Spanish equivalent of _shîn_: the letter _x_. Incidentally, the word _shay’_ ‘a thing’ is derived from the verb _shâ’a_ ‘to will’. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Arden Ranger \* > **The Kriss of India was once quenched in arsenic instead of water so that even a scratch could be deadly.** Not Indian. Malay. Another fun fact about the Malay _kris_: each individual _kris_ is believed to be inhabited by a spirit. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Palve \* > **The English and French plural ending “-s” is the same only by coincidence.** Not really a coincidence, they both go back to the Proto-Indo-European plural forms. > [@](#): > > The Latin word “habere”, meaning “to have” is unrelated to English “have” or German “haben”; also a coincidence.\*\* English _have_ comes from Proto-Indo-European \*kap- ‘to seize’, source also of the verb _capture_ (from Latin). Apparently for the Proto-Germans the way to “have” something was to grab it. Latin _habere_ comes from Proto-Indo-European \*ghabh- or \*ghebh-, also the source of English _give_. It could mean either ‘give’ or ‘receive’. For the Proto-Indo-Europeans, to give was to receive and vice versa. A society of mutuality and sharing? > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by istara \ ***And I also remember hearing that the first five numbers in Basque are similar to the first five numbers in Tibet.** Let’s verify that, shall we? Fighting ignorance and all that. # Basq Tibetan 1 bat gtshig 2 bi gñis 3 hiru gsum 4 lau bzhi 5 bost lnga Well, so much for that “factoid”? ---
**Author:** ![CuriousCanuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@CuriousCanuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuriousCanuck)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345/100 "2002-03-22T15:53:43Z")
> [@](#): > > I know that you can skip someone in the batting order if the person due up is currently on base (and, yes, it can happen – but that’s another long story) Just curious on thins one… care to explain? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obscure-thing-you-know/99345.md?page=6)