Tell me something useless but interesting I don't know. No googling allowed. Corrections welcomed.

[YourMaNoBraBackOfMyCar]

I love these threads so please tell me all manner of useless info. [Thanks]

Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a Friday the 13th.

Ha! I am right re flamingos!
It did strike me that the colour of the flamingos at the time was the exact same colour as the fish that they were then eating.

[But I also do realise that cows eat grass and they are definitely not green!]

Cant say that I understood your last paragraph steppemum.

Lunatic - I'm just a walking muppet encyclopaedia

Along those Muppety lines ... Bert and Ernie (Sesame Street) were named after the Taxi Driver and the Cop from It's a Wonderful Life

Yoda, Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear are all the same person (Frank Oz). Wacca wacca you will...

When Mark Curry (?) played Tik Tok in Return to Oz, he had to walk backwards as he couldn't fit into the suit facing forwards. That's why Tik Tok has that funny walk.

Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, of Disney fame (Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin...) also wrote the music for Little Shop of Horrors. Which was directed by Frank Oz Fozzie Bear

Anne Boleyn was the last of Henry VIII's queens to actually be crowned/annointed. Jane died just before hers was planned and then the treasury convinced Henry that a coronation was an unnecessary expense with the others

Rumplestiltkin means "wrinkled foreskin"

Rumplestiltkin means "wrinkled foreskin"

^ no wonder he didn't want people to know his name!

London had a road called GropeCunt Street until relatively recently.

I'd like to know what its current name is (and indeed whether it was residential or commercial).

That the band KISS didn't actually write and perform the original 'God gave Rock n Roll to you' it was another less known band and without Googling I wouldn't have a clue - was actually when I found that out (only last year )

I don't know about that one, Belfast, but there are several Grope Lanes that were changed to Grape Lane.

BelfastBloke Streets that were called Grope St or Gropecunt St were often renamed to Grove Street.

The White Ensign (a St George's Cross with the Union Flag in one quarter) is flown only on naval ships or establishments. However special permission was granted to anybody to fly it on the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.

In Leicester there's a Saxby St, College St and Gotham St near each other which were changed at the time of WW1 because they were formerly Saxe St, Coburg St and Gotha St.

Looksgood God gave rock and roll to you was originally released in the seventies by the British band, Argent.

I think the track was probably written by their founder member, Rod Argent.

On the Isle of Portland in Dorset rabbits are considered incredibly unlucky. If you say the word 'rabbit' to a true Portlander, you're likely to get told off as it's essentially offensive. When it's sold at a butchers it's called underground mutton

The community cinema on the island refused to show "Wallace and Gromit: the Curse of the Were rabbit" and the poster was not shown on any bus stops/billboards.

In an orchestra, all the other players make jokes about the viola players.

Apparently, the falalala part in old songs is to cover up the rude bits that everyone knew about but couldn't say out loud. "Now is the month of maying, when merry lads are playing, falala (wink, wink) lalala etc.

Queen charlotte was not black, one of her 16th great grandparents (15 generations) may have been.
Union jack is allowed when not flown on ships, as discussed by the admirality and parliment

elephants, Wycliffe had 'In the beginning was the word', too. Mind you he then went for the less elegant 'This was in the beginning at God', but there you go.

Did not know about Rumplestiltskin. Ewww.

yeah this is what not googling gets you! :o

There were lots of phrases invented by Tyndale though, I was thinking of "let there be light", and now I've googled it I can also suggest the following:

'flowing with milk and honey'

'the apple of his eye'

'signs of the times'

'broken-hearted'

'eat, drink and be merry'

'the salt of the earth'

'the powers that be'

'my brother’s keeper'

I would have to google most of those, but 'salt of the earth' is Wycliffe too. Sorry!

(Ok, I am a partisan medievalist. It's true.)

section 36 of the offences against the person act makes an offence of obstructing a clergyman in his duties. it is still in force

The maker of the statue of justice at Dublin Castle put a working scales in her hands, and designed her so that the rain would run off her elbow and put the scales out of alignment - i.e. to show that the government were corrupt. As it rains a LOT here, they are always unbalanced.

He's anonymous but for one of two reasons, don't know which one it is

• either because he would have got into trouble when those in charge realised the hidden insult
• or because those in charge didn't want him to get credit for the statue and the insult!

Tigers are the only cats that cannot purr.

The song "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals was recorded entirely on the first take.

(Ignore my level of pedantry is boring)

Re. the phrases attributed to Tyndall - 'flowing with milk and honey' is in the Wycliffite version. The phrase 'apple of myn eye' is there too - not 'apple of his eye', but I guess that's the same? WB has 'keeper of my brother', rather than 'my brother's keeper'. The others he's not even close, so far as I can see.

I'm only checking because IMO it's hard finding original coinages of words - my mate is an etymologist and she constantly shows me stuff that is way earlier than the commonly accepted version.

On that note, the words for 'tree' and 'truth', 'dryad' and 'druid' are all related to each other and share a root in Indo-European.

I thought Queen Charlotte had closer relatives to her than that that were black....might have to google in a mo. I think her portraits reveal a person who could certainly be mixed race.

Not sure about "flowing with milk and honey" because I think it's more a direct translation of the Hebrew text, which refers to "chalav u'dvash" which literally means "milk and honey". though the honey it's referring to is fruit honey (e.g. date syrup) rather than bee honey.