Trivial Facts

[Debater Slayer]

This thread is for trivial facts that may be strange, amusing, counterintuitive, or otherwise interesting.

I'm watching a Tunisian movie and can barely understand anything, so I'm using subtitles for it. Due to dialectal variations, I'm a native Arabic speaker and understand Maghrebi Arabic far less than I do English; I don't need subtitles for the latter.

 

[Revoltingest]

A drug used in A Clockwork Orange is Velocette.
Velocette was a British motorcycle company.
The name is from Veloce, which is "speed" in Italian.

 

[SalixIncendium]

There is no egg in eggplant, no ham in hamburger, and a pineapple is neither pine nor apple.

Also, English muffins were not invented in England.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

This thread is for trivial facts that may be strange, amusing, counterintuitive, or otherwise interesting.

I'm watching a Tunisian movie and can barely understand anything, so I'm using subtitles for it. Due to dialectal variations, I'm a native Arabic speaker and understand Maghrebi Arabic far less than I do English; I don't need subtitles for the latter.

The traffic control centre in Ottawa (capital of Canada) used to have a "gridlock" signal timing plan that they could push out to all the city's traffic signals in case of emergency.

The idea was that in the event of an attack like a kidnapping of a high-ranking official or a terrorist attack, they could paralyze traffic to hinder the perpetrators' escape.

From what I've heard, this plan has been abandoned for impracticality, since it would also paralyze any emergency response trying to get where they need to be.

 

[Revoltingest]

There is no egg in eggplant, no ham in hamburger, and a pineapple is neither pine nor apple.

Also, English muffins were not invented in England.

Muffins have no muff.
Donuts have no nuts.

 

[exchemist]

There is no egg in eggplant, no ham in hamburger, and a pineapple is neither pine nor apple.

Also, English muffins were not invented in England.

Wiki seems to think they were: English muffin - Wikipedia

The muffins of my English childhood were toasted, by my English grandmother, in front of the fire. They were what Americans now call "English" muffins. There is a traditional nursery rhyme about the "muffin man" , which refers to Drury Lane in London.

But I'd be interested in where you get information to the contrary.

 

[ChristineM]

French fries were not invented in France


Earth has at least 3 moons.

The moon (well yeah)

2023 FW13, a temporary moon that will move on in around 1500 years

And Kamo'oalewa, that actually orbits the sun at the same rate at earth and is close enough to earth to considered a quasi-moon.

There is also Cruithne that was considered a moon of earth until recently.

 

[exchemist]

The Dutch for horseradish is mierikswortel.

It took me while to find this out when we lived in The Hague. It was most important for cooking steak, and also useful with smoked eel (gerookte paling).

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

There is no egg in eggplant, no ham in hamburger, and a pineapple is neither pine nor apple.

Also, English muffins were not invented in England.

Next you'll be telling me that grape nuts have no grape or nuts.

 

[exchemist]

Next you'll be telling me that grape nuts have no grape or nuts.

Or there's no rabbit in Welsh rabbit.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Kevin Nash was legit and accidentally stabbed by a real knife in the Punisher.

 

[Revoltingest]

Yesterday was National Ferris Wheel Day.
Ferris Bueller did not invent it.

 

[Tamino]

The ancient Egyptians, famous today for their love of cats, probably preferred dogs.

There are slightly more instances of domestic dogs depicted, as compared to pet cats. And there are also many individual names of dogs recorded, while pet cats were often just called Ta-myut... "The cat"

 

[exchemist]

"Do you know, it takes a man, in a tweed suit, 5 1/2 seconds to fall from the top of Big Ben to the ground.

Now there's not many people know that."

This catchphrase, invented by Peter Sellers, has followed Michael Caine ever since.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

The well-loved 1941 Maltese Falcon film was actually a reboot. The book had been turned into a film twice already: once in 1931 and again in 1936 (with the new title "Satan Met a Lady").

The 1936 version is reportedly very bad.

 

[F1fan]

This thread is for trivial facts that may be strange, amusing, counterintuitive, or otherwise interesting.

I'm watching a Tunisian movie and can barely understand anything, so I'm using subtitles for it. Due to dialectal variations, I'm a native Arabic speaker and understand Maghrebi Arabic far less than I do English; I don't need subtitles for the latter.

This is funny, I was thinking about starting such a thread myself.

My interesting fact:

Steve McQueen and his wife were invited to the Sharon Tate party the night that the Manson family broke in and murdered everyone. McQueen's wife was ill that evening and they decided not to go.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Wiki seems to think they were: English muffin - Wikipedia

The muffins of my English childhood were toasted, by my English grandmother, in front of the fire. They were what Americans now call "English" muffins. There is a traditional nursery rhyme about the "muffin man" , which refers to Drury Lane in London.

But I'd be interested in where you get information to the contrary.

It's something that I've heard from Brits and Americans alike over my lifetime, and over the years I've read it, but I couldn't venture a guess as to where.

This article supports the idea in saying that they are the work of an ex-Brit named Samuel Bath Thomas (yes, Thomas' English Muffins) who immigrated to the States in 1874. Apparently they were inspired by the toaster-crumpet.

Food For Thought: Are English Muffins Actually English?

The 'nooks and crannies' breakfast staple may not be as English as you think.

www.mentalfloss.com

Regardless of where they originated (I'm probably wrong; I usually am), today they are clearly more of an American staple than a British one.

 

[mangalavara]

This thread is for trivial facts that may be strange, amusing, counterintuitive, or otherwise interesting.

Fifty-two 7-day weeks is only 364 days.

 

[exchemist]

It's something that I've heard from Brits and Americans alike over my lifetime, and over the years I've read it, but I couldn't venture a guess as to where.

This article supports the idea in saying that they are the work of an ex-Brit named Samuel Bath Thomas (yes, Thomas' English Muffins) who immigrated to the States in 1874. Apparently they were inspired by the toaster-crumpet.

Food For Thought: Are English Muffins Actually English?

The 'nooks and crannies' breakfast staple may not be as English as you think.

www.mentalfloss.com

Regardless of where they originated (I'm probably wrong; I usually am), today they are clearly more of an American staple than a British one.

That's interesting but I think it must be wrong, because the nursery rhyme I mentioned is first recorded in 1820, over 50 years before this guy set foot in the United States: The Muffin Man - Wikipedia

 

[SalixIncendium]

That's interesting but I think it must be wrong, because the nursery rhyme I mentioned is first recorded in 1820, over 50 years before this guy set foot in the United States: The Muffin Man - Wikipedia

I cannot think about that nursery rhyme without hearing it in Lithgow's voice.