# You learn something new every day. Here's my contribution. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 15, 2016, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012 "2016-07-15T23:02:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/21 "2016-07-22T21:02:08Z")
Budapest is actually two cities: Buda on one side of the river, and Pest on the other. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/22 "2016-07-22T23:03:18Z")
> [@cormac262](#): > > Budapest is actually two cities: Buda on one side of the river, and Pest on the other. I was about to complain that you shouldn’t be making up joke facts in a thread like this but then I looked it up. It really is true! :eek: I am sure I can use that fact to win money sometime because it sounds like complete bullshit but isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/23 "2016-07-22T23:17:20Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_House_for_Mr_Biswas), the James Bond theme is based on a song called “Good Sign, Bad Sign.” It was written for a musical called _A House for Mr. Biswas_, based on a novel of the same name. > > You can listen to the song [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6EuzGhIyRQ). Good God, that’s horrible! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![yo\_han\_go](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yo_han_go/32/130_2.png) [@yo\_han\_go](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yo_han_go)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/24 "2016-07-23T11:56:13Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I was about to complain that you shouldn’t be making up joke facts in a thread like this but then I looked it up. It really is true! :eek: I am sure I can use that fact to win money sometime because it sounds like complete bullshit but isn’t. And once Turks conquered it (both), Hungarians moved their capital to Bratislava, which is now capital of Slovakia. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/25 "2016-07-24T13:08:47Z")
Hmm. There are two Isabel Allendes, and they are cousins. The worldwide best-selling author is not the daughter of elected-then-assassinated Chilean president Salvador Allende, but his niece. Salvador also had a daughter, Isabel, who became the first ever female president of the Chilean Senate. ---
**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/26 "2016-07-24T13:37:54Z")
I learned that there is one actor in common between “The Silence of the Lambs” and “The Burbs”. The Bichon that shits on everyone’s lawn is the same dog as Buffalo Bill’s pet. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/27 "2016-07-24T13:42:53Z")
> [@cormac262](#): > > Budapest is actually two cities: Buda on one side of the river, and Pest on the other. And Óbuda, as well. It’s not considered separate cities today. They all merged in 1873. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/28 "2016-07-24T14:04:19Z")
To clarify: Budapest is the merging of _three_ cities in 1873: Buda, Óbuda, and Pest. Budapest is one city now, but the west side of the river is referred to as Buda and the east side as Pest, so the separate names are used to describe geographically the two sides of the city. (Buda is the hilly side, a bit leafier and quieter, and generally considered more upscale, and Pest is the more urban side, where the bulk of the city’s goings-on are.) Óbuda is what is now known as the 3rd district. ---
**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:** [July 24, 2016, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/29 "2016-07-24T15:33:26Z")
> [@minlokwat](#): > > If you’re eating pistachios and can’t open the nut because the slit is too narrow or too tight to open using your nails, take a used shell half, insert it into the opening, turn it like you would a key and “Viola!” you got yourself some fresh pistachio innards! And you should also have learned that “Voila!” is not spelled the same as “viola,” a string instrument. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/30 "2016-07-24T16:27:22Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > To clarify: Budapest is the merging of _three_ cities in 1873: Buda, Óbuda, and Pest… Today’s fun fact, the meaning of the city names: “Buda” means _surprise_ “Óbuda” means _ruthless efficiency_ “Pest” means _an almost fanatical devotion to the pope_ ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/31 "2016-07-24T16:43:30Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Today’s fun fact, the meaning of the city names: > > “Buda” means _surprise_ > “Óbuda” means _ruthless efficiency_ > “Pest” means _an almost fanatical devotion to the pope_ Hey, made-up trivia is over in the Thread Games forum! 🙂 (“Buda” probably comes from the Slavic “voda,” meaning “water.” “Ó” means “ancient” in Hungarian. And “Pest” seems to come from a Slavic word meaning “oven.” Interestingly, the old German name for _Buda_ was “Ofen,” meaning “oven.”) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/32 "2016-07-24T17:22:52Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > I learned recently that “gaol” and “jail” are pronounced the same way. I’m 42 and had always thought “gaol” was an archaic spelling _and_ pronunciation of today’s “jail”. This the basis for the Montague Egg story, “A Shot in Goal”, where the misspelling is the critical clue that solves the mystery. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/33 "2016-07-25T21:25:48Z")
Today I learned that _talus_ and _scree_ don’t mean the same thing to hikers. Among hikers and hiking guides, scree refers to a slope covered with small loose stones while talus refers to a slope covered with large boulders, not typically very loose. I always thought the two terms were synonymous, and I still believe they are to geologists. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/34 "2016-07-25T22:44:18Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > Today I learned that _talus_ and _scree_ don’t mean the same thing to hikers. Among hikers and hiking guides, scree refers to a slope covered with small loose stones while talus refers to a slope covered with large boulders, not typically very loose. I always thought the two terms were synonymous, and I still believe they are to geologists. Yes, that’s true. I think climbers and hikers call stuff that’s small and loose “scree” (you can “ski” down it if it’s small & steep enough), and stuff that’s large enough to be in a semi-stable configuration with gaps between lumps of rock that your leg could become trapped in “talus”. The difference is emphasized because of the difference in techniques by which you’d move across the terrain. Coloradans climbers have told me that they use slightly different terminology - scree is gravel to pebbles, talus is maybe baseball-sized to a little larger, and the stuff that everyone else calls talus is called “boulder fields”. But that’s probably just because they are such hipsters. And I agree that so far as I know geologists don’t emphasize any qualitative distinction, because there’s no qualitative difference in the weathering mechanisms that produce them. I’m less certain about this, though. ---
**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:** [July 26, 2016, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/35 "2016-07-26T13:27:39Z")
The bus I take home after working on Sunday changed its schedule from every hour to every 75 minutes. I wish I knew that before wasting 70 minutes of my life waiting for it Sunday. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/36 "2016-07-27T01:11:14Z")
I have just discovered that Christopher Pine, who plays Capt. Kirk in the _Star Trek_ reboot movies, is the son of Robert Pine, who played Sgt. Getraer on _CHiPs_. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/37 "2016-08-01T05:53:10Z")
It’s fairly well-known that the sickle cell trait offers a degree of protection from malaria. Less well-known, and more recently discovered, is that a gene that is linked to reduced fatality from trypanosomasis (African sleeping sickness) is also linked to an increased risk for kidney failure, and some scientists think this may explain, at least in part, why black people of equatorial descent have a much higher rate of kidney disease. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/38 "2016-08-01T06:38:10Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > I found out that Firemen (at least in my city) can write tickets just like policemen. I was working with a Fire/Rescue Captain at the local high school when we encountered someone’s car parked in a fire lane. He insisted the owner move his car and clear the lane. The owner objected until the firemen began writing a ticket and called on his radio for the city to send a tow truck. > > It makes sense I suppose, but I hadn’t realized a fireman could actually write tickets for parking violations. Here in New Zealand the Fire Service have the authority to do whatever it takes to protect public safety. If that means shunting a car off a hydrant or smashing the windows to run a hose through the car, they have the legal right to do so. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/39 "2016-08-05T04:52:33Z")
Last year, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut announced that they are, over the next couple of years, phasing out artificial flavorings in their foods. That includes black pepper FLAVOR. Um, really? Never knew there was such a thing. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012/40 "2016-08-05T13:45:45Z")
There was ANOTHER Winston Churchill, an American, who was born just a few years before the famous one. To make matters worse, they both wrote books. > [@](#): > > Churchill met and occasionally communicated with the British statesman and author Winston Churchill (no known relation). It was the American Churchill who became famous earlier, and in the 1890s he was much better known than his British counterpart. The two are still occasionally confused, mostly by sellers of second-hand books, although the British Churchill wrote only one novel, Savrola, being better known for his journalism and popular histories (which eventually won him the Nobel Prize in Literature). > > Both Churchills had political careers, and were both noted amateur painters. The similarities extend to their tertiary education; both attended service colleges and briefly served (during the same period) as officers in their respective countries’ armed forces. One was a naval, the other an army officer. > **[Winston Churchill (novelist)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill_%28novelist%29)** > > Winston Churchill (November 10, 1871 – March 12, 1947) was an American best-selling novelist of the early 20th century. > He is nowadays overshadowed, even as a writer, by the more famous British statesman of the same name, to whom he was not closely related. > Churchill was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Edward Spalding Churchill by his marriage to Emma Bell Blaine. He attended Smith Academy in Missouri and the United States Naval Academy, where he graduated in 1894. At the Naval Academy,... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-learn-something-new-every-day-heres-my-contribution/760012.md?page=3)