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Thanks to everyone who submitted facts last week. We’ve got a few amazing facts making their way to the Generator as we speak, but the most
amazing fact came to us from Brent, who told us that “ETAOIN SHRDLU is a combination of the 12 most-commonly used letters in English, in descending order. Linotype machines have them arranged in the first two columns of the keyboard. When a typesetter made an error, he would quickly run his hand down the columns to type “ETAOIN SHRDLU”, to serve as a flag to discard that line of type. The phrase did, of course, occasionally make it into print.”
Brent has got a copy of -30-: The Collapse of The Great American Newspaper headed his way, and we’ve got another opportunity for you to join him in the winner’s circle.
This week I’m looking for amazing facts about detectives, both real and fictional (any facts about Munch from Homicide/Law and Order
automatically get bonus points), so leave a comment on this post with your fact, you name and your location. As always, amazing facts will be entered into the Amazing Fact Generator and the most amazing fact will win a prize. For this round we’re giving away a copy of The Official Nancy Drew Handbook - Skills, Tips & Life Lessons From Everyone’s Favorite Girl Detective.
The rules remain simple: 1. Don’t go to a competing trivia site and copy/paste a fact, then claim it as your own. 2. You only get five submissions.
There’s a lot of info in the Generator already, so take a look at it to see what type of things we’re looking for.
Comments (27)
Comment
The character Munch has been on more TV shows than any other character ever. One you may not know is he was on the Simpsons
posted by gpo on 3-18-2008 at 12:47 pm
Wow, GPO beat me to the punch. That Munch carrot just proved too strong.
To flesh it out, Richard Belzer has appeared as Munch on Homicide, Law and Order, Law and Order: Trial by Jury, Arrested Development, Law and Order: SVU, The Wire, The X-Files, The Simpsons and Seasame Street
posted by Kevin on 3-18-2008 at 1:15 pm
It’s no so much of an amazing fact as it was absolutely hilarious when I saw it:
The gang from Law & Order - SVU (Munch, Stabler, Benson, and Capt. Cragen) once made an appearance on Sesame Street, but not as real life people . The show made puppets of each of these characters, and pointedly hit on each of their personalities. Of course, the overwhelming theme in the skit was the “Chung Chung” L&O sound; everytime any one of them said something, the “Chung Chung” came in and reared its ugly head.
Not very creative, but I couldn’t hold back my laughter while watching it with my daughter.
posted by Brian, Canton MI on 3-18-2008 at 1:18 pm
The title of the BBC television program “Torchwood” is an anagram of the show from which is spun off, “Doctor Who”.
posted by Shelly on 3-18-2008 at 1:32 pm
sorry if this posts twice, i’m having problems.
After Doyle killed off the popular Sherlock Holmes in the mid 1890’s, over 20,000 readers of The Strand(the magazine the stories were pulished in) cancelled their subscriptions.
Later, a reluctant Doyle brought the character back to life for a series of further adeventures.
posted by jenni on 3-18-2008 at 1:57 pm
In the Great Mouse Detective, Bill the Lizard (with the ladder) from Alice in Wonderland can be seen as part of Rattigan’s gang.
posted by Kristin on 3-18-2008 at 2:17 pm
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote that Sherlock Holmes wore a deerstalker cap. And he never said “Elementary, my dear Watson.”
posted by punkinsmom on 3-18-2008 at 2:57 pm
Edgar Allen Poe’s Auguste Dupin is widely recognized as the first fictional detective when he solved the murders in the Rue Morgue in 1841.
posted by punkinsmom on 3-18-2008 at 3:04 pm
The same actor who plays Stabler in L&O:SVU also plays Freakshow in “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle”
posted by Anon on 3-18-2008 at 3:18 pm
Since the prize is a Nancy Drew book, I thought I would give you a Nancy Drew fact.
Nancy uses a gun once in her entire detective career. In the first edition of the Secret of Shadow Ranch Nancy uses a revolver to save herself and her bosom chums from a lynx. That is the first and last time she uses a gun. In subsequent editions the story was rewritten and the gun erased. Nancy has never used a gun since. Even when fighting gun toting criminals, Nancy disarms them, and then uses judo to take them out.
posted by Suzanne on 3-18-2008 at 4:15 pm
Kojak sucked on lollipops because the actor who played him - Telly Savalas - was trying to quit smoking.
posted by Heather on 3-18-2008 at 6:18 pm
The Anonymous Detectives:
1. Colombo had no first name. In fact, in one episode, a murderess attempting to seduce him asks what his first name is. His answer: “Lieutenant”
2. Dasheill Hammett’s most written detective was not Sam Spade or Nick Charles, but the unnamed Continental Op (later in his career, Hammett edited several early stories to make it clear that the narrator was the same man).
posted by Tim, Savannah, Ga on 3-19-2008 at 7:41 am
The Anonymous Detective and the Amazing Fact
1. Colombo had no first name. In fact, in one episode a murderess attempting to seduce him asks his name. He responds, “Lieutenant.”
2.Dasheill Hammett’s most written detective was not Sam Spade or Nick Charles but the unnamed Continental Op. Hammett later edited several of his early stories to make it more clear that the narrator was the same man.
posted by Tim, Savannah, Ga on 3-19-2008 at 7:47 am
Dennis Farina who plays Det. Joe Farina on tv’s Law and Order was a Chicago Police Officer from 1967 through 1985
posted by JORDAN on 3-19-2008 at 10:05 am
Acctually Columbo’s first name is Frank. This was figured out when the first season came onto DVD. there are a few instances where you get an upclose of his badge and the signature says Frank Columbo. I cant remember where i first read this, but i verified it on wikipedia - not a submission, just a correction
posted by Kymberly on 3-19-2008 at 10:39 am
The original Nancy Drew books consistently describe Nancy’s hair as “titian.” Someone else who famously had “titian” hair? Early Barbie dolls, starting with the #5s, which came out in 1959.
posted by Lori L. on 3-19-2008 at 11:47 am
Keeping with the Nancy Drew theme.
When originally released in the 1930s, the books consisted of 25 chapters. In the 1950s the books were “revamped” to give Nancy and update. She aged from 16 to 18; now had a convertible instead of a roadster and the books were pared down to 20 chapters.
posted by beth on 3-19-2008 at 1:53 pm
More Nancy Drew trivia:
Who was Carolyn Keene? Well she was the creation of the Stratmeyer “Syndicate”, but the author of most of the Nancy Drew books was Mildred Wirt Benson who was under contract to Stratmeyer. She received between $125 and $250 per book.
posted by beth on 3-19-2008 at 1:57 pm
An episode of Fraiser mentions the fact that Frasier and Niles wrote stories in their youth under the title ‘The Crane Boy Mysteries’.
Another tidbit about this episode is that it is titled ‘Deathtrap’ - I’m presuming this alludes to Ira Levin’s mystery play of the same name.
posted by Amy on 3-19-2008 at 11:21 pm
Oops! Frasier + Niles = 2 Cranes, so that should be BoyS… not the singular as above
posted by Amy on 3-19-2008 at 11:25 pm
Not actually a fact about a real/fictional detective but rather one about an author of detective fiction :
Anne Perry was born as Juliet Hume, and - at 16 yrs old - was co- convicted in the murder of her friend’s mother (The story is told in Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures).
posted by Amy on 3-20-2008 at 11:40 am
I yield to Kym’s correction, and also apologize for the double post.
posted by Tim on 3-20-2008 at 4:33 pm
Not only did Sherlock Holmes never say “Elementary, my dear Watson”, the closest those two phrases (”Elementary” and “my dear Watson”, that is) get to each other in the books is about one very long paragraph.
Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler of Law & Order: SVU fame are named after Dick Wolf’s two children.
Sherlock Holmes is partially based off Dr. Joseph Bell, who was one of Conan Doyle’s professors at university.
Dr. Watson, Sherlock Holmes’ biographer and friend, is the narrator of nearly all of Holmes’ stories. Of the four that are not narrated by him, two are from a third-person point-of-view and two from the point-of-view of Holmes himself.
posted by Emma on 3-20-2008 at 7:35 pm
Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, first published in Graham’s Magazine in 1841, is widely regarded as the first true piece of detective fiction.
posted by Troy Wood on 3-21-2008 at 12:26 pm
The first private detective agency was established in 1833, by Eugene Francois Vidocq, a former fugitive who used his extensive knowledge of the Parisian underworld to become a master criminologist.
Vidocq was a pioneer in the use of surveillance and disguise, ballistics, card-index record keeping, and was the first to use plaster-of-paris to take impressions of shoe prints.
posted by Troy Wood on 3-21-2008 at 1:14 pm
Here’s one more that’s too long for the fact generator, but still quite fun (especially if you don’t already know the answer):
The first recorded “locked room mysteries” was recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus, in the 5th century BCE.
A wealthy king named Rhampsinitus constructed a massive stone chamber next to his palace in which to safely hold all his riches. The chamber had only one door, which was sealed with wax, and guarded night and day by the king’s most trusted soldiers.
Nevertheless, the king was astonished to find that each morning his treasure pile was getting significantly smaller, yet the seals on the door remained intact and the guards reported seeing nobody.
With no clues as to the identity of the mysterious thieves, the frustrated king ordered that the floor of the chamber be lined with traps. The next morning, they returned to find the chamber still sealed, and inside– a single headless corpse, with no sign of the head!
(I should point out that I’m deliberately relating this story in the form of a mystery. Herodotus’ tale clearly states exactly how and why the robberies/murder are perpetrated, so it is therefore, not a true mystery.)
posted by Troy Wood on 3-21-2008 at 2:02 pm
my newest detective ‘not-so-fun’ fact: the Nancy Drew game (*cough and blush*- no I’m not 12) takes up an astounding 0.97 gigs of space- that is 3 times more than my whole MS Word package. Bye bye Nancy
sorry if this posts twice; I too am having probs with the page just now
posted by ann on 3-21-2008 at 2:53 pm