# You couldn't make this stuff up! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 13, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340 "2011-06-13T18:54:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/1 "2011-06-13T18:54:52Z")
Sometimes life presents us with things that are so appropos that you know they are true because noone would make them up. You would probably think it was stretching things a bit for an author to name a congressman who sent pictures of his crotch to women “Congressman Wiener”. But it happened. Many years ago the archaeologist who discovered the long-lost statue of Aphrodite, the Greek god of love, was named Iris Love. What other examples of actual events that “you couldn’t make up because noone would believe it” can you cite? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/2 "2011-06-13T19:12:50Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > Many years ago the archaeologist who discovered the long-lost statue of Aphrodite, the Greek god of love, was named Iris Love. In college I took a class on music synthesis. The teacher’s name was Chris Noyse. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/3 "2011-06-13T19:21:11Z")
From a few years ago: [Ted Kennedy wrote a book intended for children, narrated by his Portuguese Water Dog named Splash.](http://www.amazon.com/My-Senator-Me-Dogs-Washington/dp/0439650771) Those words are precisely the ones that came to mind when I heard about it. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/4 "2011-06-13T20:19:53Z")
Couldn’t they have come up with a more imaginative name than “de Gaulle” for the guy who led the Free French during WWII? Than, of course, there’s [Thomas Crapper.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapper) ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/5 "2011-06-13T20:34:08Z")
The surname of the married couple involved in the suit that struck down miscegenation laws in the US? [Loving.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia) ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/6 "2011-06-13T22:06:19Z")
Cardinal Sin is the one that comes to mind right now. Best wishes, hh ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/7 "2011-06-14T20:28:52Z")
My favourite is [Lord Brain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Brain), eminent British neurologist, author of _Brain’s Diseases of the Nervous System_ and editor of the medical journal _Brain_. I wonder how much his name influenced his choice of profession? ---
**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:** [June 14, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/8 "2011-06-14T20:34:14Z")
A woman who has written some true crime articles gets a contract to write her first book about the disappearance and murders of several young women in the area. At the time, there are no suspects and no clues as to who is commiting these crimes. The author was Ann Rule, and the murderer was her good friend Ted Bundy, whom she met while working on a suicide hotline years ago. Trying selling that one as fiction. ---
**Author:** ![santiago42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@santiago42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/santiago42)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/9 "2011-06-15T05:56:44Z")
My dentist as a kid had the first name Mona. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/10 "2011-06-15T07:38:12Z")
My wife had a dentist named Dr. Drilling. Joe ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/11 "2011-06-15T07:41:28Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > My wife had a dentist named Dr. Drilling. I had one in [Macon, GA](http://www.hollidaydental.com/) named Doc Holliday. He’s a member of the same family as the more famous dentist named Doc Holliday and decorates his office with Holliday/Earp memorabilia and paintings. (The famous Doc Holliday, like the Macon dentist, was from Griffin GA, about 50 miles from Macon.) ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/12 "2011-06-15T07:46:57Z")
I had a optometrist as a kid called Doctor Doctor. She was married to Doctor Doctor. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/13 "2011-06-15T07:47:54Z")
There was a longtime legislator and occasional D.C. Rep from Alabama for a few years named June Bugg. She not only had a cute “June bug” personality, she was bug-eyed and usually wore bug themed jewelry. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/14 "2011-06-15T08:00:05Z")
I used to work with a redneck male nurse who was from Notasulga, AL (current population 916 and most famous as the last place to pee indoors before you get to Auburn from if you’re coming from the west). He casually mentioned one day- totally not name dropping- that his uncle had been Pope. We thought he was either joking or delusional (he had experiences with both) until one day he brought in a newspaper clipping about his grandmother going to see her brother, Pope John XXIII, in Rome. Her maiden name was Roncalli, she was a member of an enormous Italian peasant family, she was a WW1 bride who married an Alabama farmer, and her much older brother gradually climbed the ladder through the hierarchies to the Vatican. She remained a religious and observant Catholic but her family here was Baptist. She was much written about in Bama papers when he became Pope in 1958, sometimes trumping even the school lunchroom menu or the minutes from the Eastern Star Countywide Meeting. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/15 "2011-06-15T12:29:49Z")
Had two cookery teachers. Mrs Cole and Mrs Burn. The guy who covered for the woodwork teacher was Mr Carpenter. My orthodontist was called Mac Savage. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/16 "2011-06-15T13:24:45Z")
> [@Girl\_From\_Mars](#): > > I had a optometrist as a kid called Doctor Doctor. She was married to Doctor Doctor. That’s funny. I know someone whose last name is Docter. Her brother is in medical School. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/17 "2011-06-15T13:36:36Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > That’s funny. I know someone whose last name is Docter. Her brother is in medical School. Hopefully her brother will marry the daughter of the couple in **Girl from Mars’s** example, and they’ll hyphenate their last names. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/18 "2011-06-15T14:08:50Z")
One of the more successful gynecologists where I grew up is [Dr. Bush.](http://www.healthgrades.com/directory_search/physician/profiles/dr-md-reports/dr-john-bush-do-ddd1179e) ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/19 "2011-06-15T14:20:47Z")
The obstetrician into whose hands I was born was named Dr. Catcher. My first optometrist was Dr. Glasser. His wife was a dentist and went by her maiden name, making her Dr. Picke. And along with Congressman Weiner and his infamous pics, we have another dude named Weiner, a county commissioner in New Mexico, [who thinks rape jokes are hilarious](http://news.change.org/stories/rape-jokes-arent-funny-advocates-rally-to-demand-commissioner-wieners-resignation). ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340/20 "2011-06-15T17:56:27Z")
My fencing instructor in college was Mrs. Pearce. And she drove a Buick LeSabre. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-couldnt-make-this-stuff-up/585340.md?page=2)