The Official DP Interesting Fact Thread

[Mashmont]

Why no love for Robin?

Robin isn't exactly handsome.

 

[Threegoofs]

Robin isn't exactly handsome.

You really are perceptive. I bet people tell you that daily.

 

[humbolt]

Louis Armstrong introduced Bing Crosby to a lot of things, including marijuana.

Well, that explains Bing's Do You Hear What I Hear. It's metaphysically impossible for such a thing to happen.

 

[aociswundumho]

Dublin, Ireland: In 1875, the Chamber Street Fire spread quickly and soon engulfed Malone’s malt house, which had 5,000 barrels of whiskey stored:

The fire spread quickly. As the flames reached the wooden casks holding the liquor, they burst open, sending a burning river of whiskey flowing through the streets. By the time William and John set out for the blaze, the flow measured 2ft wide, 6 inches deep and stretched more than 400m down one side of Mill Street.

13 people died, but not one from smoke inhalation or from burns. All died from alcohol poisoning, from drinking the whiskey flowing in the streets.


The night a river of whiskey ran through the streets of Dublin

 

[RAMOSS]

The actor Ewan McGregor's brother Collin McGregor is a pilot in the Royal Airforce. His aviator nickname is 'Obi-Two'.

 

[RAMOSS]

The actress Lisa Walker, who played Chessy in the 1998 version of The Parent trap, where two girls, born on Oct 11th, conspired to bring their parents back together had twin boys a few years later. They were born on Oct 11th.

 

[Mashmont]

The actress Lisa Walker, who played Chessy in the 1998 version of The Parent trap, where two girls, born on Oct 11th, conspired to bring their parents back together had twin boys a few years later. They were born on Oct 11th.

The 1998 version was as good as the 1961 imo.

 

[Mashmont]

Today is the 220th anniversary of George Washington's death. On December 12, 1799, he went out on his estate in the snow and sleet, then came in and stayed in his wet clothes not wanting to keep his dinner guests waiting. The next morning he woke up with an inflamed throat, but went out in the bad weather again. Doctors bled a pint of blood from him, a common practice at the time. He died the following day, December 14.

 

[Keridan]

Cats, like humans and their hands, have a dominant paw.

I've actually observed this! The crap face uses the same paw to knock everything off the shelf at 4 am because he woke up hungry - I use the same hand to try (and miss) slapping him

 

[Bullseye]

If you play Surrealistic Pillow backwards it sounds like Barry Manilow.

 

[Mashmont]

If you play Surrealistic Pillow backwards it sounds like Barry Manilow.

Where are the S and P sounds in Barry Manilow?

 

[Bum]

You can artificially create plasma ( one of the states of matter ) in a microwave with two grapes.

 

[bluesmoke]

My bedroom walls were plastered with posters of Andy Gibb when I was a teenager. I was sooooooo in love with him.

It's amazing what a truly big star he was, yet I just don't hear much about him and it seems many hardly ever heard of him. Mercury could be the best rock vocalist ever and he said what he did. Mercury had a four-octave range. Even Queen's drummer, one of the best, Roger Taylor, could go from bass to falsetto.

 

[bluesmoke]

He was addicted to cocaine, went through rehab and got clean. Died clean, but of a heart attack at 30, possibly brought on by damage to his heart when he was using.

Yeah. Indirect cause. Good that he died clean.

 

[bluesmoke]

You can artificially create plasma ( one of the states of matter ) in a microwave with two grapes.

Unfortunately, it isn't of a blood type of any kind.

 

[bluesmoke]

If you play Surrealistic Pillow backwards it sounds like Barry Manilow.

U just ruined my day.

 

[bluesmoke]

Why no love for Robin?

He always seemed to me as not a Gibb, because of his looks. Just could not find the similarities. I loved his singing, though. I guess that counts as a similarity.

 

[bluesmoke]

The thing about Dylan’s lyrics is that nobody can understand them.

That's why people kept asking him what they meant and he'd say stuff like "I don't know."

 

[Superfly]

It's amazing what a truly big star he was, yet I just don't hear much about him and it seems many hardly ever heard of him. Mercury could be the best rock vocalist ever and he said what he did. Mercury had a four-octave range. Even Queen's drummer, one of the best, Roger Taylor, could go from bass to falsetto.

I love Freddie Mercury. I couldn’t even watch that movie with Rami Malek because I didn’t want Mercury to be diminished. I was afraid they would do like most bio-pics, and show that he was fallible. I didn’t want him removed from the pedestal that I put him on. :lol:

 

[bluesmoke]

I was taught the myth that Mozart wrote "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." He did use the melody*, but he didn't compose it.

*Also the melody of "The ABC Song" and "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep."

I always thought "This Land is Your Land" was all Woody Guthrie. But, the melody came from a Baptist melody arranged by A.P. Carter of The Carter Family, the originators of Country music, called "When the World's on Fire". The interesting thing is that Carter wrote the song in criticism of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" and 7 yrs later Guthrie wrote his lyrics, using the melody, in critical response to Kate Smith going around the country singing it.

 

[bluesmoke]

I have searched high and low for an old interview tape of a very old John Ford.

John Ford - Wikipedia

Ford very often worked with John Wayne and directed some of the best early western films.

The interview was near the end of Ford’ life and I cannot remember who the interviewer was; my favorite part wnt something like this,”Mr. Ford, when you made “Stagecoach,” what artistic message were you trying to achieve?” John Ford was a pipe smoker and mostly had a pipe lit or unlit clenched between his teeth. He also was blind in one eye, by then, and one lens of his glasses was taped up. Ford removed the pipe, thought for a moment and then replied, “young man, when I made “Stagecoach,” I was trying to achieve a check!”



Edit: found another interesting link re the above: John Ford and John Wayne | Pappy and the Duke | American Masters | PBS

The John Wayne/John Ford "Stagecoach" is one of film I can repeatedly watch.

 

[bluesmoke]

All US dairy cows are descended from two bulls.

A tapeworm can live 25 years.

A mushroom (and other fungi) are genetically more similar to humans than to plants.

Mosquitos have killed half of all humans who have ever lived.

All nuclear power plants operating today were engineered using slide rules.

Total fungi weigh more than humans and all animals put together.

 

[Josie]

In case you were wondering:

 

[bluesmoke]

I love Freddie Mercury. I couldn’t even watch that movie with Rami Malek because I didn’t want Mercury to be diminished. I was afraid they would do like most bio-pics, and show that he was fallible. I didn’t want him removed from the pedestal that I put him on. :lol:

I would have to have people whose judgement I wholly trust on such a thing recommend that movie to me before I would ever watch it.

 

[Mashmont]

Yeah, Freddy died of AIDS. Such a shame. So preventable.