Interesting/Useless trivia

[Swift]

Or TIL I guess.

Did you know that 10th President of the United States John Tyler (born 1790) has two grandsons still living? Those three generations have spanned almost the entire history of the country.

[Kuetsar]

Well that's what happens when you have a child when you are a old man, then your kid has a kid when he's and old man, and the grandson lives to be a old man. Great genes though. . .

[J.T.]

Useless knowledge I've used to impress friends over the years.

- In the original 1001 Arabian Nights, Aladdin's nationality is Chinese.  He's not Persian.

- The shark is the only fish that can blink with both of its eyes at the same time.

- Mosquitos contribute to more deaths on earth than any other animal or insect.

- The word "school" is derived from the ancient Greek word for "free time."

Edited December 9, 2019 by J.T.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

Personal semi-useless information with ties to American history.

Jeffrey Dahmer was killed in prison on my 14th birthday, November 28th, 1994. 

My due date was originally December 8, 1980. I don't think I need to say what happened in New York City that day since there's nobody here young enough to possibly not know.

Edited December 7, 2019 by Nice Guy Eddie

[JLSigman]

Here in South Carolina, there's a town called Swansea. It was settled by German immigrants. It got its name because travelers would stop to ask how many miles to Columbia and the answer was "Zwanzig" (zvan-zish), which is German for 20. 

[John from Cincinnati]

In an effort to keep Spencer Tracy sober, MGM employed an ambulance driver, a doctor, and four security guards dressed as paramedics who were on call 24/7.

[AxB]

10 hours ago, JLSigman said:

Here in South Carolina, there's a town called Swansea. It was settled by German immigrants. It got its name because travelers would stop to ask how many miles to Columbia and the answer was "Zwanzig" (zvan-zish), which is German for 20. 

There's a city in Wales called Swansea. Or Abertawe, if you speak Welsh. I used to live there. It's rubbish.

My Great Great et cetera Grandfather was going to emigrate to America, but he slept in and was late to the docks, and the boat sailed without him. He was really disappointed for a few days. 

Spoiler

The boat he missed was the Titanic

 

[J.T.]

I have just learned the origin of the phrase, "Elvis has left the building," from a co-worker.

Apparently the man never played a single encore and people would sit there like lumps waiting for him to return to the stage once he'd left.  But Elvis never came back to perform another number.

So the venue owners would make the announcement that he'd departed so that people would leave and go home.

Edited December 8, 2019 by J.T.

[J.T.]

3 hours ago, AxB said:

There's a city in Wales called Swansea. Or Abertawe, if you speak Welsh. I used to live there. It's rubbish.

My Great Great et cetera Grandfather was going to emigrate to America, but he slept in and was late to the docks, and the boat sailed without him. He was really disappointed for a few days. 

  Reveal hidden contents

The boat he missed was the Titanic

 

That's pretty awesome!

 

[J.T.]

Here is my favorite bit of movie trivia.

The Wachowski's asked for a budget of $80 Million for the first Matrix movie.  They only received ten.

Honoring their contract, the Wachowski's spent the entire wad on the opening scene (from iconic lime green code opening credits to Neo / Thomas Anderson waking up in his apartment) and submitted the print as the final copy.

WB execs saw the print and it blew their minds.   Hours later, they approved the remaining $70 Million and principle shooting resumed.

The rest is history.

Edited December 9, 2019 by J.T.

[Execproducer]

4 hours ago, J.T. said:

Apparently the man never played a single encore and people would sit there like lumps waiting for him to return to the stage once he'd left.  But Elvis never came back to perform another number.

To be fair to the King, encores in his day weren't the requirement that they have become and his manager didn't want him doing any.

[Kuetsar]

My grandmothers(paternal) maiden  is Beam, and supposedly if you go back far enough there is a very distant relation to Jim Beam. When the families came over from Ireland during the famine,  One part went to Tennessee to be whiskey makers and the other side(from whence I come) went to Alabama to be bible thumpers.  At least that's the family lore anyway.

[Guest The Magnificent 7]

The Beams were German (Boehm) and settled Kentucky long before the famine.  Possible your relation married into the family down the line, though. 
 

Veteran of Kentucky bourbon tours here.

[Kuetsar]

Its equally possible that I fucked up the timeline or its just a bunch of family bullshit. My grandma died a decade ago, and that side of the family and ours are not exactly on speaking terms.  . .

[JLSigman]

12 hours ago, Kuetsar said:

Its equally possible that I fucked up the timeline or its just a bunch of family bullshit. My grandma died a decade ago, and that side of the family and ours are not exactly on speaking terms.  . .

There's a lot of weirdness in my father's father's family line, mainly because Great Grandpa Sigman married Great Grandma Sigmon and had about a dozen kids, most of whom survived to adulthood, who spelled their last names either way because fuck you that's why.  So, yeah, keeping track of who is actually related to me directly and who is a weird cousin who married in is damn near impossible. Mom tried for a while, but because I grew up far away from the core family group in North Carolina, I'm just not that interested.

[J.T.]

In the movie, Big Trouble In Little China, the villain, Lightning, is killed when Egg Shen drops a stone Buddha statue onto his head.

At the moment of his death, the electricity created by him forms a small Chinese character.

It translates to the word "Carpenter, for John Carpenter, the director of the movie

 

Edited December 10, 2019 by J.T.

[odessasteps]

In The Irishman (2019) Russell Buffalino, played by Joe Pesci, Sends Frank Sheeran Played by Robert De Niro to Meet a "Fairy Named Ferrie". Buffalino is Referring to David Ferrie, Who Was Played By Joe Pesci in JFK (1991)

[Nice Guy Eddie]

On 12/7/2019 at 10:09 PM, J.T. said:

I have just learned the origin of the phrase, "Elvis has left the building," from a co-worker.

Apparently the man never played a single encore and people would sit there like lumps waiting for him to return to the stage once he'd left.  But Elvis never came back to perform another number.

So the venue owners would make the announcement that he'd departed so that people would leave and go home.

I loved "Shawn Michaels has left the building." being announced early in his heel run with Sherri.

[J.T.]

On 12/23/2019 at 11:11 PM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I loved "Shawn Michaels has left the building." being announced early in his heel run with Sherri.

I loved him meshing the Heartbreak Kid nickname with the name for the Leg-hook Saito suplex he originally used for his finisher and calling it the Tear Drop.

Edited January 6, 2020 by J.T.

[J.T.]

Learned this today while watching Mad Max:  The Road Warrior on BBC America.

Contrary to the popular assumption, Wez (Vernon Wells) is not a homosexual.   There was an interview with Vernon shown during the movie where he says that the Golden Youth is actually Wez's son which also explains why he goes ape shit when the Feral Child kills him with the razor-rang.

Wells said that George Miller had come up with backstories to all of the characters but of course, you never know the details of their former lives before the holocaust other than Max.

Edited February 5, 2020 by J.T.

[Southside Jim]

Alan Arkin and famed children's author Avi (real name: Edward Wortis) are first cousins.