# Your SINGLE favorite piece of information **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 4, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907 "2005-06-04T18:04:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/161 "2005-06-09T10:00:42Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It’s been a while since I read **Moby dick** , but I don’t remember this. > > I _do_ remember them dressing up the New Guy in a sheath made from the whale penis, though. (the chapter is entitled “The Cassock”) Was he the New Guy, I thought him an old hand who ‘dressed’ himself. The chapter title lets you in on the generally spooky religio-sexiness of the book. I think. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/162 "2005-06-09T22:13:53Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It’s been a while since I read **Moby dick** , but I don’t remember this. > > I _do_ remember them dressing up the New Guy in a sheath made from the whale penis, though. (the chapter is entitled “The Cassock”) **CalMeacham** : I actually learned that from a lady who did tours in Mystic Seaport when we went there one summer on our way to Newport. Perhaps she was messing with me?? :dubious: I never read _Moby Dick_, so I didn’t know whether that was mentioned in there or not. And that thing about the whale penis sheath is cool. Maybe I _should_ read _Moby Dick_. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/163 "2005-06-09T23:48:37Z")
Almost everyone has seen the little wild violets often seen in lawns as weeds. But, did you notice that the flowers are flipped over backwards and held upside down? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/164 "2005-06-10T00:01:09Z")
If you stood in the middle of Grand Central Station, New York, for a year, you would absorb as much radiation as you would if you ate a luminous-dial wristwatch. (This fact appeared in an issue of _Omni_ - I think it was the one in which George R. R. Martin’s story “Sandkings” was first published - and has stuck with me ever since. If only because they never suggest _why_ anyone would do either one of these things … ) ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/165 "2005-06-10T01:45:18Z")
> [@Creaky](#): > > Maybe I _should_ read _Moby Dick_. 😃 Nooooooo!!! Don’t do it! Read the cliff notes! Read an abridged version. Read a fifth grader’s book report on the abridged version. Any of those will be far more exciting than the actual book. The only thing I recall from my reading of **Moby Dick** is the scene where Ahab tosses the sextant to the deck and it shatters. Melville took something like five pages (it seems in my memory, at least 😃 ) to describe this simple action. The _implications_ were dealt with for the rest of the rather lengthy chapter, it seemed. _whimper_ Of course, FWIW, I also find Dumas’ style difficult to enjoy, too - so YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/166 "2005-06-11T01:09:10Z")
\*\*Your SINGLE favorite piece of information \*\* “You have been selected from a large group of applicants to fill the position.” ---
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/167 "2005-06-11T03:18:54Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > My favorite bit of knowledge is this: > > Bananas are radioactive, and can be found by searching with a sufficiently sensitive radiac. 😉 Banana plants are herbs, technically, not trees, because the stem does not contain true woody tissue. I dunno why I like this factoid. Maybe because “Shall I add more oregano or banana leaves to the sauce?” makes me giggle. And now they’re radioactive; cool. Or hot, rather. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/168 "2005-06-11T05:23:53Z")
> [@Ashes](#): > > Banana plants are herbs, technically, not trees, because the stem does not contain true woody tissue. I dunno why I like this factoid. Maybe because “Shall I add more oregano or banana leaves to the sauce?” makes me giggle. And now they’re radioactive; cool. Or hot, rather. They’re also sterile, and without the ability to stay one step ahead of diseases and pests by modifying their genome through sexual reproduction, they are vulnerable to calamity. Researchers who have tried crossing them with crappy-tasting wild bananas have thus far merely come up with slightly-less-crappy-tasting bananas. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/169 "2005-06-11T09:07:46Z")
> [@Snickers](#): > > Yalmar Vahm invented the first patented, releaseable ski binding. Too bad Bogataj’s didn’t work quite properly, no? a.k.a. Hjalmer Hvam ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/170 "2005-06-11T10:01:17Z")
> [@Steve Wright](#): > > If you stood in the middle of Grand Central Station, New York, for a year, you would absorb as much radiation as you would if you ate a luminous-dial wristwatch. And 0.1 millirems per year if you sleep with your spouse (so much for safe sex). [http://web.reed.edu/ehs/radiation\_safety/ancillary\_radiation\_safety.html](http://web.reed.edu/ehs/radiation_safety/ancillary_radiation_safety.html) ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/171 "2005-06-11T10:11:26Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > Water freezes at 0°C (273.1K) at SP (“standard” atmospheric pressure at sea level). 273.1 or is it 273.15? [http://home.comcast.net/~igpl/Temperature.html](http://home.comcast.net/~igpl/Temperature.html) ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/172 "2005-06-11T10:11:39Z")
Nice site, **Muffin**. I was about to pontificate about how 0.1 mREM/year is not a hazard. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/173 "2005-06-11T11:29:22Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > Nice site, **Muffin**. I was about to pontificate about how 0.1 mREM/year is not a hazard. I suppopsse that would depend on whose spouse it is with whom one is sleeping. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/174 "2005-06-11T11:31:08Z")
I didn’t say that there weren’t hazards to sleeping with certain spouses - just that the radiation dose isn’t one I’d worry about. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/175 "2005-06-11T13:59:37Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > They’re also sterile Forgive my ignorance, but I’m a chemistry guy, not biology. How is it that we still have bananas (B-A-N-A-N-A-S) at this point? Stupid song. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/176 "2005-06-11T14:36:25Z")
> [@chaoticdonkey](#): > > Forgive my ignorance, but I’m a chemistry guy, not biology. How is it that we still have bananas (B-A-N-A-N-A-S) at this point? > Stupid song. Vegetative propogation? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/177 "2005-06-11T15:02:35Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The team colors of the NY Knicks and NY Mets can be traced back to the colors of the flag of the Dutch East India Company when it founded New Amsterdam. > [@Neurotik](#): > > Nope. The Mets colors of blue and orange come from the Dodgers (blue) and Giants (orange). They combined them to symbolize the return of National League baseball to the city. Couldn’t these both be right – if the Giants derived their orange from the Dutch EIC flag? ---
**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:** [June 11, 2005, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/178 "2005-06-11T15:24:10Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > 273.1 or is it 273.15? [http://home.comcast.net/~igpl/Temperature.html](http://home.comcast.net/~igpl/Temperature.html) At standard pressure, pure water freezes at _approximately_ 273.15 K. ---
**Author:** ![LiQUiDBuD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@LiQUiDBuD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiQUiDBuD)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/179 "2005-06-11T15:29:23Z")
Completely OT, but doesn’t “syringe” rhyme with “orange”? At least somewhere in the world, there’s an accent which makes this so. Any comments? ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/180 "2005-06-11T18:55:39Z")
> [@chaoticdonkey](#): > > Forgive my ignorance, but I’m a chemistry guy, not biology. How is it that we still have bananas (B-A-N-A-N-A-S) at this point? > Stupid song. Replanting shoots that grow from the base of mature stalks, according to: [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/05/BUGF75VU791.DTL](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/05/BUGF75VU791.DTL) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907.md?page=10)