Random Shit You Know

[RathBandu]

As film/movie/book geeks, we have a lot of useless information in our heads. A lot. And I'm not talking about the stuff that will one day win you trivia contests. I'm talking about stuff like all the words to the internet flash video "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny," or the ability to rattle off hair bands or name every best picture winner since 1990. These are all things that I've been able to retain, and I'm pretty embarrased about that fact from time to time. What is some of the most random and useless information you've aquired in your years?

[EdHocken]

Ed O'Neill is from Youngtown, Ohio

Tom Dewey was the last major party candidate to have facial hair

Bunny Breckeneridge (The Guy Bill Murray played in Ed Wood) was the grandson of John Breckenridge, James Bucanan's VP and Confederate General.

Matthew Broderick once killed a guy

Van Nuys, CA was the place where some of the special effects for Star Wars was done. The final scene in Casablanca was shot and it was where Nirvana recorded Nevermind.

[Doc Happenin]

hehe Ultimate Showdown...

I actually knew all the Best Picture winners once, along with most of the best actor and actress categories from about the seventies onward. Actually, I always thought it would get me mad points if I ever got on Jeopardy.

I can tell you how the Millenium Falcon made the Kessel run in under twelve parsecs, despite a parsec being a unit of distance and not time. But I can't for the life of me remember when my two brother's birthdays are.

[Richard Dickson]

I can identify the main title from each of the three original Star Wars films just by listening to the opening crash.

And there was a point where I could recite all the dialog from Star Wars from memory.

[RathBandu]

Other random shit I know: All the words to Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction."

[Richard Dickson]

Other random shit I know: All the words to Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction."
Ditto.

I also know the lyrics to multiple songs on the Pac Man Fever album.

[General Zod]

I know tons of worthless information about 70's/80's sitcoms.

I know way too much about Kristy McNichol.

Star Wars info is a given.

[Chowyunfrag]

I can tell exactly what theater (and sometimes seat) I've seen every movie at with 100% accuracy with the exception of stuff from 76-82 when I was but a youngin. Alot of my close freinds find it pretty amazing which is rather sad, lol.

Friend: "Where did you see the original Batman?"

Me: "At the Century 12, over on Lamb and Sahara. It was playing on the left side and was adjacent to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I sat in the center along the aisle"

Oh and on Thanksgiving Day American's will expel enough gas from the Turkey they eat to fly over 40 Hindenbergs from NY to LA.

[horrid]

Oh and on Thanksgiving Day American's will expel enough gas from the Turkey they eat to fly over 40 Hindenbergs from NY to LA.

Yeah, yeah, but you were so preoccupied with whether or not you could, you didn't stop to think if you should.

[Chavez]

the ability to rattle off hair bands
Guilty as charged. My knowledge of 80s metal on an across-the-board basis is fucking stupid.

Did you know every member of Testament (nee Legacy) has a matching tattoo on their shoulder?

Did you know Les Claypool played bass for a speed metal band called Blind Illusion?

I can name everyone who was ever a member of KISS and I don't even like them!

Dokken's George Lynch was known as Mister Scary; Great White's Jack Russell was known as Mista Bone.

[RathBandu]

I don't know anything about these bands, though, I just know their names, which is kind of why it makes it so sad.

[DARKMITE8]

- The Capybara is the world's largest rodent.

- The capital of Nebraska is Lincoln, not Omaha (thanks, Kentucky Fried Movie!)

- I know all the words to the Beastie Boys' "Paul Revere" by heart.

[Brendan]

- Character actor Matt Craven (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002023/) is from a town only about 30 minutes from my town.

[Chavez]

- Character actor Matt Craven (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002023/) is from a town only about 30 minutes from my town.
Terry O'Quinn is from a town about an hour away from my hometown.

EDIT - actually, if anyone reads Hemingway anymore, his hometown is right near the Big Two-Hearted River.

[Kiluhs]

The square root of 2 is roughly 1.414213562375...

Ben Franklin once saved a man from falling over the edge of a ship and drowning by grabbing him by his hair and pulling him back on board.

Quarks come in 6 flavours: Up, Down, Top, Bottom, Strangeness, and Charm.

I can tell you the location where I bought/obtained any CD I've ever owned.

I unfortunately know what the cremated remains of a dead lady tastses like. Salty. Very salty.

[James Kimbell]

A few days ago I noticed that lyrics from the musical episode of Daria were popping back to the forefront of my mind for no particular reason.

[Smeagol]

- The Capybara is the world's largest rodent.

Tick fan, are you?


I can tell you how the Millenium Falcon made the Kessel run in under twelve parsecs, despite a parsec being a unit of distance and not time.
I've read somewhere the line was supposed to show Han was prone to making shit up to hustle people, hence the error.

[Greg David]

My youth as a Trekkie has left me with all kinds of vestigial knowledge that I don't really want anymore, but won't go away. Like the fact that the tube Scotty kept getting up in to fix stuff was called the Jefferies Tube, after Matt Jefferies, who designed it and most of the ship. I know that a lot of McCoy's instruments were novelty salt shakers. I know that the episode Assignment: Earth was a pilot for a separate series. I don't need to know these things, but there they are.

[Nexus-7]

I have a ton of DVDs and CDs(well in the hundreds for both), and I could tell you where I purchased each one. If you gave me an extra moment or two, I could probably tell you how much I paid too.

[KaPabLe]

Homer J. Simpson stands for Homer Jay Simpson.

Vasquez always thought Gorman was an asshole.

Alaska is roughly one fifth the size of the continental U.S.

The detroit red wings Mikael Samuelson has played 11 game against the San Jose Sharks Goalie Evgeni Nabokov, in those he scored 7 times and had 2 assists.

In Texas Hold 'em, the term being pipped refers to a hand where the value of a player's pocket pair is negated by two higher pair appearing on the board.

[Litmus Configuration]

All I know is that the only way to tell the gender of a penguin is by autopsy.

Oh, and that in Spanish, the word "esposa" means both "wife" and "handcuff."

[Luca S.]

Squirting female orgasm is achieved by stimulating the inner wall in a hand-gesture not unlike Spidey firing his webshooters.

[WayDen]

Homer J. Simpson stands for Homer Jay Simpson.

Ha! I met a girl the other night whose middle name was Kay, and I told her the story of how Homer figured out what his middle name was (mural his mom painted for him). She thought it was funny, we hit it off, and I got some action.

"She was a demon in the sack!"
"Oh, heard about that, did you?"

Thanks Simpsons!

Matthew Broderick once killed a guy

Really!? Any details?

[Bryan J]

- Character actor Matt Craven (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002023/) is from a town only about 30 minutes from my town.

Bing Crosby is from my neighborhood (Tacoma, WA).

WayDen, getting action because of the Simpsons should be a crime.

[Uth Vaspetad]

Ketchup was sold in the US as medicine in the 1830s.

The skin of an adult human body weighs approximately six pounds.

For many years, urine was used as a sterilizing agent for surgical instruments.

President Millard Fillmore's mom thought he might have been retarded.

Malloy wrote Morte d' Arthur while serving time in prison on a rape charge.

When J.F. Kennedy was assassinated, it was not a federal felony to kill The President.

Shakespeare probably never saw a practicing Jew.

Jennifer Love Hewitt loves coloring books.

[Richard Dickson]

I've read somewhere the line was supposed to show Han was prone to making shit up to hustle people, hence the error.
I've read that the retconned explanation is that the Kessel Run is a very difficult bit of navigation, so difficult that success is measured not by how fast you make it through but by finding the shortest route through it. Therefore, getting through by traveling only 12 parsecs means you cut lots of tight corners and were pretty much flirting with disaster the whole way through.

[stelios]

I know that the correct pronunciation for Cthulhu, as Lovecraft intended, is khlulhu pronounced from the back of the throat.

[Richard Dickson]

I corrected a friend of mine when he mispronounced The Children of Hurin. It's Hoo-rin, not Hyu-rin.

[Phil]

Really!? Any details?

I thought everyone knew that. The popular theory is he was driving on the wrong side of the road...

In 1987, Broderick was involved in a controversial car accident while driving in Ireland with Jennifer Grey (his fiancée at the time). The accident killed a woman and her daughter. Broderick (who fractured his leg and a rib) was cleared of all charges but paid a fee of $175 to the victims' family. Drinking was not involved in the crash. Martin Doherty, the elder victim's son, was quoted by Bill Hoffman in 2002 saying "I would like to reassure him that there are no bad feelings from us." The accident occurred close to the US release of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

[WayDen]

Thanks for the info!

$175 for two deaths? I think he would have to add some zeros onto that if it happened in the US....

[Timothy225]

I can look at any hologram and tell you whether it was shot using a dot matrix, hi-res, or electron beam laser. I can also tell you that counterfeiting is a billion-dollar global business, with much of it occurring in China, and that cigarettes and tax stamps are perhaps the most counterfeited products on the planet.
I also know the names of every superhero figure produced by Mego in the '70s, damn near anything you'd care to know about Spider-Man, the band Rush, Suzanne Vega, Carl Sagan, how Cheetos are made, tuxedo (Jellicle) cats, and how to tie my own shoes.

[Rumteldat]

I've read that the retconned explanation is that the Kessel Run is a very difficult bit of navigation, so difficult that success is measured not by how fast you make it through but by finding the shortest route through it. Therefore, getting through by traveling only 12 parsecs means you cut lots of tight corners and were pretty much flirting with disaster the whole way through.

I've heard that too, but I prefer the hustler explanation.

I know that the correct pronunciation for Cthulhu, as Lovecraft intended, is khlulhu pronounced from the back of the throat.

According to Wikipedia, Lovecraft said you say it with the tip of your tongue touching the roof of your mouth, and then saying "Kloo-loo". Even that is just the closest a human can come to pronouncing his name.

EDIT: Smeagol here. Sorry.

[Richard Dickson]

Not really knowledge, but a sage observation -- David Tennant played Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in which he trapped Mad-Eye Moody in a box that was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. He then went on to play Doctor Who, who travels around in a box that's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

[Paul McCartney]

A few days ago I noticed that lyrics from the musical episode of Daria were popping back to the forefront of my mind for no particular reason.

For a song that a) came out in 1997, and b) I don't even fucking like and never went out of my way to listen to, I sure know an awful lot of the lyrics to "Just the Two of Us" by Will Smith.

"101 Dalmatians on mah CD Rom
A CD-ohm
Tryin' to pretend I know
On my PC
Where dat CD go
A-ha!"

[RathBandu]

Not really knowledge, but a sage observation -- David Tennant played Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in which he trapped Mad-Eye Moody in a box that was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. He then went on to play Doctor Who, who travels around in a box that's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

Roger Ebert had a whole column dedicated to connections like this. The one I remember is Sam Neill in The Hunt For Red October, whose dying words were "I wish I could have seen Montana," going on to play a Montana rancher in "The Horse Whisperer."

[WayDen]

Roger Ebert had a whole column dedicated to connections like this. The one I remember is Sam Neill in The Hunt For Red October, whose dying words were "I wish I could have seen Montana," going on to play a Montana rancher in "The Horse Whisperer."

And digging up dinosaur bones in Montana...

Or was that Utah?

[EdHocken]

He was digging up bones in Montana.

Plus I always thought it was weird we had a Chief Justice named Earl Warren and then right after him was a man named Warren Earl Burger.

Also, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust was written in English first before being translated into Japanese.

[Belethedheliel]

Most of the random things I can think of that I know are actually useful bits of trivia for my job, but seem random to others. For example, horses can't vomit, and they don't get frost bite of their feet.

I do have a huge amount of random trivia in my brain. Not movie trivia, just random information.

[James Kimbell]

I think I've read every entry on snopes.com.

[Andrew Joe]

I thought everyone knew that. The popular theory is he was driving on the wrong side of the road...

Ferris Bueller's 100% Death Proof.

[LisaNY]

While everyone knows that Jean Harlow died of kidney failure at age 26, here are some really nasty facts about her death in particular:

Apparently, when she was 14, she developed scarlet fever, which destroyed most of her kidney function, but was never diagnosed. Due to her mother's religious beliefs as a Christian Scientist, no doctor ever examined her.

When she became ill at 26, no one ever knew that from age 14, she had been functioning on about 10% of one single kidney for the past 12 years. Since these were the days way before kidney transplants and dialysis, she went pretty fast.

Something particularly gruesome that I read in a biography about Clark Gable. He and Carole Lombard went to see Harlow on her deathbed, basically to say good-bye to her. He later said that he bent over to kiss her cheek, and when she breathed on him, he could smell urine on her breath, and he could smell it on her skin, too. Her kidneys had failed so completely that her body was trying to excrete the waste in any way it could - through her exhaling breath and through the pores of her skin.

[Casey Moore]

Most of the random information I Have in my head pops up in conversation, buthere are some things off the top:

John Glenn's wingman in Korea was Ted Williams the baseball player and the last player to ever hit .400.

My high school's mascot was designed by Walt Kelly who created Pogo. The high school is the same one attended by Harry Connick Jr, Will Clark, and Jay Thomas.

And something more recent, most of Bug was shot in the gymnasium of Grace King High School in Metairie, La.

[Belethedheliel]

Something particularly gruesome that I read in a biography about Clark Gable. He and Carole Lombard went to see Harlow on her deathbed, basically to say good-bye to her. He later said that he bent over to kiss her cheek, and when she breathed on him, he could smell urine on her breath, and he could smell it on her skin, too. Her kidneys had failed so completely that her body was trying to excrete the waste in any way it could - through her exhaling breath and through the pores of her skin.

That's just typical of anyone dying of kidney failure. The uremia is pretty obvious at that point.

[Evi]

The look of Santa Claus was created for Coca Cola. And the name Santa Claus is just a mispronounciation of Saint Nicholas's name - Sant Niklaus.

The reindeers were first named in that song.

The story of Dracula is an amalgamation of the stories of the Hungarian despot Vlad Dracul (in fact, "Dracula" means son of Dracul) and Elizabeth Bathory.

[LisaNY]

That's just typical of anyone dying of kidney failure. The uremia is pretty obvious at that point.
Yeah, I know now. But at the time that I read that, it was the first I'd ever heard of it, and it completely freaked me out.

I have to run some errands, but later I'll post more useless tawdry crap about the death of 1940s screen actress Lupe Velez. You probably already may know it, but it's one of those stories where you aren't quite sure whether to laugh or cry.

[Chavez]

Guilty as charged. My knowledge of 80s metal on an across-the-board basis is fucking stupid.
.
I was watching Vh-1s "Metal Mania" last night and the number of bands I could name at least 1/2 the members of was embarrassing.

[Angles]

I oddly am incapable of forgetting this number -

92631043

I won't say where it's from, because I know at least one of you bastards remembers it, too. It's probably the most trivial bit of movie trivia I know.

[Rene (Mr.Eko)]

Richard Burgi was on Seinfeld, so was Tom Towles.

[Anderson]

I oddly am incapable of forgetting this number -

92631043

I won't say where it's from, because I know at least one of you bastards remembers it, too. It's probably the most trivial bit of movie trivia I know.

You just made me remember "Ghost".

I've got some stuff, but I'll wait until later.

[EdHocken]

Tommy Lee Jones was Al Gore's Roomate in college.

Word had it at the time that the creators of Back to the Future wanted Ronald Reagan to play the Hill Valley Mayor in 1885. Reagan did in fact consider it before declining the offer.

The Solicitor General is the #3 man in the Department of Justice and is responsible for arguing the government's case before the Supreme Court. Te position is to be considered the highest position for a lawyer. It requires a distinct outfit including a waistcoat and vest. No word as to what a woman would wear because there never has been a female Solicitor General.

In England, lawyers are either solictors or barristers and only barristers do arguing in court. Solicitors are the lawyers who do the contracts and other office related stuff.

[Spook]

I've read that the retconned explanation is that the Kessel Run is a very difficult bit of navigation, so difficult that success is measured not by how fast you make it through but by finding the shortest route through it. Therefore, getting through by traveling only 12 parsecs means you cut lots of tight corners and were pretty much flirting with disaster the whole way through.

As I was reading The Making of Star Wars, I noticed that George Lucas noted that "the modifications [Han] made to [the Falcon] are rather extensive--mostly to the navigation system to get through hyperspace in the shortest possible distance (par-sects) ." (My emphasis).

I don't know if that sheds any light on the debate, but it seems clear to me, despite Lucas' misspelling of parsecs, that he knew that parsecs was a unit of distance. Perhaps hyperspace is more in line with space travel in the movie Event Horizon, where the hyperdrive shortens the distance between two points by bending space. I think that's how warp speed works as well.

Any thoughts?

[Chavez]

Any thoughts?

Yes, I think people are putting more thought into the whole "parsecs is a unit of distance not time" than George Lucas ever did.

[Greg David]

And that worrying about accurate science in the Star Wars movies is like using the Bush administration to illustrate points on ethics.

[Richard Dickson]

Yes, I think people are putting more thought into the whole "parsecs is a unit of distance not time" than George Lucas ever did.
The answer to this whole question is in Ben's reaction right after Han says it. The look on his face says, "You've gotta be fucking kidding me," and Han even picks
up on it by the way he says, "She's fast enough for you, old man." Han was trying to pull one over on the two rubes and Ben caught him.

[Jeremy Jochman]

Along the whole Kessel Run thing, I vaguely remember this: In one of the Jedi Academy books by Michael J. Anderson (OK, so this is all EU stuff), they make specific reference to the whole parsec thing. The planet (maybe moon) of Kessel is near a double-black hole called the Maw Cluster. Supposedly the trick was to get from Kessel to some point beyond the black holes. While most would skirt around one of the holes, Han managed to go between them. So essentially the holes were next to, but not touching one another. Han somehow slid past on that "cosmic taint", if you will, to shorten the distance to 12 parsecs.

Again, this is something that I kinda-sorta remember from a book I read once almost 15 years ago. Feel free to set me straight!

[Greg David]

Again, this is something that I kinda-sorta remember from a book I read once almost 15 years ago. Feel free to set me straight!
Okay: stop reading Star Wars novels. Consider yourself set straight. And don't make me do this again. If I find out you've been reading Dragonlance novels, that's a paddlin'.

[Jeremy Jochman]

I'd love to say those were the last ones, but I had to read that Zahn two-parter some years back. Ohhhhhh... *hung head in shame*

Back on topic, I know more one-hit wonder bands than I should, but not nearly as many as my dad.

[Will Kane]

JFK's brain is missing from the National Archive because RFK came and claimed it during the autopsy.

[Patrick Ripoll]

There was going to be a Red Baron game for the Nintendo 64.

[Richard Dickson]

I can name all thirteen dwarves from The Hobbit from memory.

I know the names of the other two wizards Tolkien never mentioned in LOTR.

I can calculate THACO.

I know where all the sensors are on all the aliens on the Men in Black ride at Universal Studios Florida, and can hit maximum score about 2/3 of the way through the ride.

[EdHocken]

I've been following the Harry Turtledove "If the South Had won the Civil War" since the beginning and can tell you about the poltical structure with in it.

Not to mention I can practically lip sync to Livin on a Prayer.

[Casey Moore]

Chuck Yeager is one of only two soldiers allowed back to the European Theater after having dealings with the French Resistance. He had to ask permission from Eisenhower in person.

[Leonard]

Van Nuys, CA was the place where some of the special effects for Star Wars was done. The final scene in Casablanca was shot and it was where Nirvana recorded Nevermind.

Another bit of final scene trivia from CASABLANCA: cardboard mock-ups of the planes and midgets for the mechanics were used in the background to achieve the perception of background distance from the hangar.

[Belethedheliel]

Chuck Yeager is one of only two soldiers allowed back to the European Theater after having dealings with the French Resistance. He had to ask permission from Eisenhower in person.

Resistance, or Vichy?

[Casey Moore]

I just remember it as the resistance. I would have to go dig through some books to find out. It is just one of those random bits though that sticks in my head.

[Chavez]

I've been following the Harry Turtledove "If the South Had won the Civil War" since the beginning and can tell you about the poltical structure with in it.

I fell off the wagon with that after A Time In Hell or whatever it was.

[Hundred]

Steve Buscemi is from the same town as I am.

[EdHocken]

What I still can't believe but it's true was that Buscemi was an FDNY firefighter for a few years back in the 80s

[Ianthe]

In England, lawyers are either solictors or barristers and only barristers do arguing in court. Solicitors are the lawyers who do the contracts and other office related stuff.

Really? Not sure that's the case. Australia pretty much follows the English system and one becomes admitted as either a 'solictor and barrister' or just a barrister. I'm getting admitted this week, so I would hope I have a decent grasp on things by now, but anyway, solictors do act as advocates in court appearances on an almost daily basis. Barristers (aka Counsel) are specialists in certain areas and have a higher threshold for expertise and more rigorous obligations imposed upon their duty to act. For instance, barristers are subject to the "cab rank" principle wherein they may not refuse work offered to them unless they have relatively serious concerns about the merits of the case, the dodginess of the client (ie: complete unwillingness to remunerate Counsel) etc. It's the foundation for equitable access to "justice" and the right to legal representation. And also the reason the guy who prosecuted the case against Charles I of England was later hanged, drawn and quartered for his trouble.

Anyway, in short: solicitors do lots of arguing in court. Barristers are bloody expensive!

[drearylouse]

Nihilism is correct.

[EdHocken]

I must admit, since Ianthe is being admitted into law profession. He would in fact have a better grasp of the concept than I. :)

However on another note

The phrase Normalcy was actually a mistake created by Warren Harding when he mispronounced the phrase Normality.

[Anderson]

The Opera "Aida" was written as a way to honor the opening of the Suez Canal.

The first ever televised murder case appeared on TV during the week of December 5th-9th, 1955. The accused was Harry Washburn.

China was the first country to permit kissing on film. The year was 1926.

The UNIVAC 1 was the computer used to decide the 1952 Presidential Election.

Bambi was originally published in German.


Golf was banned in England in 1457 because it was considered a distraction from the serious pursuit of archery.


The silhouette on the Major League Baseball logo is Harmon Killebrew.

[Ianthe]

I must admit, since Ianthe is being admitted into law profession. He would in fact have a better grasp of the concept than I. :)


Er, she :)

[Greg David]

Er, she :)
I think having nude Winslet as your avatar threw people off.

[Ianthe]

Blame Samurai Mike.

I'd change it at some point if the confusion persisted but as I don't think she's unattractive either, I quite like the image and am happy for it to be my public representative on the boards.

In short: it's Mike's fault.

[Greg David]

Hey, I'm not complaining. I'm happy for it to be there myself.

[GungaDin]

On SUNSET BLVD, during the scene where William Holden is on the lot talking to the script girl about her nose job, he says he'll walk her home by "way of Washington Square". He is refering to the set of William Wyler's THE HEIRESS, which was shot at Paramount a year earlier. Washington Square was also the name of the book the film was based on.

Also, when washing the nacho cheese/pizza sauce servers, hold them underwater while you power spray them to avoid having it shoot out into your face. Putting on disposable food service gloves is easier if you wet your hands first. It is easier to wash dishes and stock everything first, then make pizzas/prep dough after the place has closed with no interruptions. Always spray the no-stick on top of the breadstick dough to brown it while cooking, otherwise it gets flaky and nasty. Never spit in people's food, somebody at the factory has probably already done that for you.

[Mad Man Mundt]

The silhouette on the Major League Baseball logo is Harmon Killebrew.

That's cool, I never knew that. I do know that the silhouette on the NBA logo is Jerry West.

[EdHocken]

Er, she :)


D'oh!

[Casey Moore]

Buck Rogers is older than Flash Gordon.