Obscure facts ya know!

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Yep. Not only professions, but ethnic groups too. Back when I was in grade school in the Sixties the Today's show was run by the then young pair of Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters. I vividly remember Hugh Downs telling this riddle: "There is a big Indian (Indian as in Native American)and a little Indian. The little Indian is the son of the big Indian, but the Indian is NOT the father of the little Indian. How can that be?"

All of the other grown ups on the TV screen (Barbara Walters, and the guests they had with them at the time) were all stumped. I thought to myself "the big Indian is the little Indian's MOTHER. Duhhhh".

Then Hugh Downs gave the answer, and (surprise! surprise!)I was right.

Funny how, after fifty years, I still remember that moment.

Maybe today we are more aware of Indians as fully dimensional people, but back in the Sixties, the only way most Americans ever thought about American Indians was as characters in Hollywood horse operas- as daring warriors on horse back attacking the settlers, and fighting the US Cavalry. So it took some kind of special intellectual leap to think of indigenious Americans as being anything other than male.

Some Converse sneakers have a thin layer of felt on the bottom.

Its only purpose is to save the company money, because shoes with fuzzy soles technically qualify as slippers, which have import taxes up to 30% lower than regular shoes.

Wow.

keyboard artist robert hunter [RIP september 2001] had, for contractual purposes, 2 pseudonyms- charlie dobson and georges montalba.

Prehistoric women had super strength. Studies of their bones show they had extremely strong arms due to a lifetime of rigorous manual labor. They had greater arm strength than even top-end modern athletes.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister in UK) from 1606-1614 was Sir Julius Caesar. One of the opening batsmen in the first England cricket team to tour Australia in the 1860s was Julius Caesar (not the same person, obviously). One of his teammates was called Richard Daft.

I never got that riddle. I got the woman part that's freaking obvious what throws me off is ...why can't you operate on your son?

Have you heard of the Indian cricketer called Napoleon Einstein?

^ No, but it sounds interesting, I'll look it up!

I was fascinated as a kid by the fact that the Indian cricket team had a player called The Nawab of Pataudi.

Bless my soul!

The wicketkeeper for the Indian test cricket team in the late 60s/early 70s was called Farokh Engineer, and the captain of the side in the late 50s/early 60s was Nariman Contractor. I suppose these very 'non-Indian' sounding surnames must have been a legacy of British colonial rule.

I once saw Farokh Engineer play in a Sunday League match at Old Trafford in around 1970. Clive Lloyd and Mike Procter were also playing - veteran followers of Test Cricket will appreciate the legendary status and ability of these individuals.

as soon as magnetic audio recording tape was invented, somebody figured out how to use it to speed up or slow down speech without altering pitch [this was the basis for the invention of the video tape recorder, btw].

My dad and brothers would...they know everything about cricket....cricketers' stats ....even the older ones.

I have heard of Clive Llyod and I guessed from the name he was from West Indies... Googled him and it was Guyana specifically.

Cricketers from the West Indies always have names like that. Very dignified-sounding.

^ West Indies sides of the Clive Lloyd era were the best in the world in terms of ability, they were almost unbeatable in the 1980s, but their ultra-competitiveness sometimes spilled over into something that couldn't be described as dignified at all....

I can't tolerate watching test cricket so I'll take your word for it. Their names are nice though. Aspiring towards dignity perhaps.

I heard that the expression "shiver me timbers" has nothing to do with pirates, nor with old time sailors on sailing ships, but comes from the sport of cricket. If you hit the wicket wrong it vibrates- hence "shivering your timbers".

Not sure I buy it, but that's what I heard.