Useless Stuff You've Learned, But That You Were Surprised to Learn, Anyway

Mick Jagger sang back up on Your So Vain.

You can’t hum while you’re pinching your nose

Beyoncé was originally going to be the singer for Miley's "Wrecking Ball"

Paula Abdul co-wrote Kylie Minogue's "Spinning Around."

Famous 1970s and 80s straight porn star Paul Thomas had a starring role in the 1973 film version of "Jesus Christ Superstar," playing Paul the apostle.

That the hot saxophone player in The Lost Boys, was the believer and a vampire hunter.

[quote] Mick Jagger sang back up on Your So Vain.

That it's You're and not Your. Six minutes ago.

The part of the body that sweats the most is the back.

Blondie Bumstead's maiden name is Boopadoop.

The fastest way to teach a kid of just about any age to ride a two wheeler quickly is to take the pedals off for a day or so, sometimes less.

Fat hips sink ships.

The "Nancy" comic strip was a spinoff of "Fritzi Ritz," about Nancy's Aunt Fritzi.

That cunt Nancy stole Fritzi's job.

Cathy Dennis wrote "Toxic" and offered it to Kylie Minogue first, but Kylie turned it down.

Fritzi was a tart, r12.

This animal position, with all four limbs out and tum on the ground, is called a "sploot".

Corgis are famous for it, but other dog breeds and other species do it too.

Christopher Plummer hated doing the Sound of Music and called it The Sound of Mucus.

Louise Brooks was childhood friends with Vivian Vance and her older sister, Venus, in Cherryvale, Kansas.

My cat's kangaroo pouch, as I like to call it (an adorable sack of loose skin under his belly) is there to help them break terminal velocity when falling from a high place - working as a sort of parachute when the splay all four limbs out in free fall. Cats are amazing.

Cherryvale, Kansas.

God that sounds beautiful.

r19 = MARY!!!

Coretta Scott King paid the hospital bill for Julia Roberts’s birth.

R19 Sounds better still when sung by Cyd Charrise, who was beautiful: "I was the Lillian Russell of Cherryvale, Kansas"

From "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe" from MGM's The Harvey Girls at 4:07

Cheryl Ladd sings backup on Bertie Higgins' song, Key Largo.

She's the one who goes, "We had it all..."

Bad breath is basically the smell of bacterial organisms taking shits in your mouth.

r23 Proven incorrect recently - just an urban legend

The Allman Brothers' father was murdered by a hitchhiker.

Bryan Cranston was once a suspect in a murder investigation

Did he do it?

TBD r28

Men are slightly more likely (2%) to be left handed than women.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt."

[Quote] Bryan Cranston was once a suspect in a murder investigation

I'll bet he hasn't stopped talking about it since. Insufferable twat.

Tyne Daley is Timothy Daley's (Wings and Madam Secretary) sister!?

That one had me slapping myself: WTF?

^ Daly. No e-- sorry!

Thanks, R24! I love it.

Oh NO. I meant R22, not R24.

Thanks, R22! I still love it.

Steve Jobs made the apple the logo for his company because he was a fruitarian at the time. The bite out of it is not making a reference to The Tree of Knowledge, it’s just because the designer thought the bite made it more aesthetically pleasing.

The plastic cylinder at the end of a shoelace is called an aglet.

R1 On a similar vein, John Lennon does back up for Bowie in "Fame".

The wheel was invented to make pottery.

Black people benefited from slavery because it taught them useful skills. Just learned that this year.

Dolly Sharp, who starred with Linda Lovelace in "Deep Throat," was once a famous dancer and actress named Helen Wood and had a leading role in the 1953 movie "Give a Girl a Break," starring alongside Debbie Reynolds and Marge Champion.

Sardines are baby herring

Or are related… or something 🐟

Diana Ross' "Chain Reaction" was written by the Bee Gees and you can hear Barry Gibb singing backup vocals clearly once you know to listen.

Ah r13, but Cathy Dennis also wrote "Can't Get You Out of My Head" so she and Kylie both came out ahead.

R43, Sardines are packaged under one name but can actually be from several different types of small fish.

Sardinia Island is where sardines got their name.

There original Broadway version of "Oklahoma" had a song called "Boys and Girls Like You and Me", which was ultimately cut.

The song was purchased and filmed by MGM for "Meet Me in St. Louis" to be sung right after "The Trolley Song", but it was ultimately cut.

It was recorded and shot again for "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" but it was ultimately cut.

This would lead one to believe it's not a good song, but it is!

Today I learned that hundreds of Germans on Reddit agree that you cannot be truly German unless you own a bowl like this. Apparently every family has several of them.

I read this an article decades ago, with the article citing findings from a few different studies that the third son in a family containing 3 or more sons is likely to be gay, and each son after that, subsequently more likely to be gay.

I don't know if this is true or not, but if i recall correctly, the article/studies said it had something to do with declining testosterone levels in the birthing mother?

I'm sure I'm getting part of that wrong. At this point, maybe those findings have been rendered untrue or obsolete.

R50 It's sort of true. That's Luminarc "Aspen". So it's French. But the Germans adore glass tableware from Luminarc and Arcoroc. I have huge collections, pristine condition, from thrift shops. Many different patterns. But Aspen is actually very pretty.

Young people don't want it anymore. I think just recently it's disappeared from the supermarkets and downmarket department stores where it's been a stable for decades.

FYI

But the glass tableware the Germans absolutely adored is the ultra 80s "Octime". When it's in pristine condition it's very stylish. Except that it's also associated with small German hotels who haven't updated since the 80s!

Goes well with Nagel prints.

R51 I'd read something like that but only if the second son is the second child arriving not that long after the first son was born. The theory was that Mom was still awash with elevated levels of whatever hormones appeared as a result of the first boy, but that their presence upped the odds considerably that the second boy in a row is/was gay. Not an absolute, but statistically significant.

The Carpenters huge breakthrough hit 1970 single, "(They Long to Be) Close to You" was originally recorded and released as a single in 1963 by DL fave Richard Chamberlain.

^^That's actually not a bad version and he has a better voice than one would imagine.

The gas tank symbol on the dashboard shows which side of the car the gas cap is located.... e.g. the symbol on the left side of the gas gauge shows that the gas cap is also on the left side.

that's true, r57 (in most cases). i did encounter a car that didn't actually have that symbol near the gas tank, or anywhere else on the dashboard, but i can't recall which one it was.

It's interesting to note that i didn't learn about that until my 40s even though i've been driving since i was 15 1/2 years old.

Bruce Springsteen wrote the song, “Fire,” by the Pointer Sisters.

The Mexican Freetail Bat is the only pollinator of the state flower of Arizona, which is the saguaro cactus.

Many whales exhibit "vertical sleeping" which means they sleep with the heads down and tails upwards.

Charlton Heston was a trained Shakespearean actor. Who knew?

R45 Chain Reaction is also about oral sex.

"You make me tremble when your hand goes lower. You taste a little, then you swallow slower. Nature has a way of yielding treasure. Pleasure made for you."

And

"You let me hold you for the first explosion."

It's impossible to kiss your elbow.

In the movie "Making Love," when Michael Ontkean and Harry Hamlin are naked in bed making out, it's not them.

The director went down to Santa Monica Boulevard and hired two hustlers to perform that scene. You never see the guys' faces.

I was creating a Jeopardy-type game today and in the process I learned that Grover Cleveland's first name was actually STEPHEN, and Ulysses S. Grant's birth name was HIRAM Ulysses Grant.

Black Magic Woman is originally a Fleetwood Mac song

The real name of hot General Hospital actor and big-dicked Playgirl model Steve Bond is Shlomo Goldberg.

That everyone who read this thread tried what R2 said.

Female spotted hyenas give birth through their clitoris, a pseudo-penis that also serves as a urinary tract. Because it is only an inch in diameter, birthing cubs is a very painful process and 60% of cubs suffocate on their way out.

r64 It's actually not for some people

Super Dave was Albert Einstein’s brother.

Benny Goodman's hit "Sing, Sing, Sing" was written by Louis Prima, the Just-a-Gigolo singer.

When on long migratory flights, birds can sleep while flying - they are able to put one half of their brain to sleep at a time, allowing the other half to keep an eye open and some awareness of where they are relative to their flock and to the features of the land underneath them.

r72 Not the old Al you're likely implying, but...

I implied nothing. I stated a simple fact that fits the thread title.

My cooter’s itchin real bad y’all. I’m serious!

The Woody Harrelson / Matthew McConaughey hitman dad 1/2 brother possibility

Margaret Hamilton was only 36 when she played the Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz."

"Female spotted hyenas give birth through their clitoris, a pseudo-penis that also serves as a urinary tract."

Because of this, the Ancient Greeks and Romans believed that all hyenas were male.

I have no idea when this ancient belief was debunked, and the existence of female hyenas were concerned, but I suspect it was after the believe in an all-male species had persisted for thousands of years.

Trans hyenas ARE hyenas!

John Candy and former TV personalty Jane Pauley were born the same day: Hallowe'en, 1950. He apparently was even the subject of, along with SCTV, an episode of her news show, 'Time & Again,' in June, 2000. Don't know if she mentioned the birthdays.

The song "Believe" was shopped around as a demo for years but nobody wanted it. It was retooled and became a surprise megahit for Cher, whose career was in the doldrums at the time.

Retooled! I see what you did there…

Without feathers, owls look CRAZY.

Right wing nut bag Steven Crowder voiced a character on Arthur.

R55, Chamberlain was probably thinking about Vince Edwards when he sang that song.

“Close to You” was written by the breathtakingly prolific Burt Bacharach. So was – surprisingly to me - “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me”, originally recorded in 1964 by Lou Johnson. It’s a decent recording, but if you’re my age it's impossible not to superimpose the unforgettable Naked Eyes version from 1983.

Prince’s song “Nothing Compares 2 U” was written about his housekeeper while she was on an extended leave.

That freaky owl picture really reinforced that dinosaurs still live among us, because, yes, birds are dinosaurs.

R87, "There's Always Something..." would be nothing without Hal David, the lyricist. Yes, I sound pedantic; Burt gave life to Hal's words but they are Hal's words and they are wonderful.

I think Hal David gets short-changed. Some his lyrics are amazing.

Willie Nelson wrote "Crazy" and shopped it around. Patsy Cline really wasn't that thrilled about the song, but recorded it anyway.

Dick Gautier (Hymie the robot in Get Smart) was in the Broadway Bye Bye Birdie as Birdie as the rock star.

R89 to be clear birds are descended from dinosaurs. That’s very different. You should have paid more attention in paleontology class.

Useless stuff I've learned but was surprised to learn anyway? There is no edit button on DataLounge.

I'm getting out my popcorn after seeing R93. That won't be left unanswered.

R92 Speaking of "Bye Bye Birdie," Jesse Pearson, who played Conrad Birdie in the movie version, was gay. His career really never took off after making that movie, and he ended up writing and directing porn films in the 1970s.

Ok pedants… I’ll step back because you’ll also tell me crocodiles are living dinosaurs too.

Bye—

r97 You really think we care enough

Could r93 BE any more annoying?

Actually, R97, crocodiles predate the dinosaurs.

And if that isn't a useless fact, you tell me what is.

i can do it, r2.

Steve Jobs hired a guy to create the original Apple logo, and paid him with about $700 in Apple stock. A week later, the guy got nervous and went back and asked for the cash instead.

That $700 in founding stock would be worth about $12 billion dollars today.

R59 Yes Bruce Springsteen wrote Fire and the Pointer Sisters recorded it. In the same week in January 2020 Bruce’s son and Ruth Pointer’s son were both sworn in as firefighters. That must be a very rare example of the child of a mega superstar having a ‘normal’ job.

This is the twitter link

Magnolia trees predate bees.

Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy.

r93, I'm so sorry that you failed both biology and paleontology. How embarrassing for you.

That puppies who are neutered and spayed before maturity will inevitably develop bone/joint problems and are at a higher risk for certain cancers, but the problem of dog overpopulation overrides dog health in most city shelters.