Anyone who knows me is aware of my “did you know?” habit. Whether this is a good habit or a bad one depends on your point of view. But hate it or love it, the fact remains that I adore telling people about the trivia and sundry weird facts I’ve picked up during my research for my books and short stories. Here are a few of the more interesting things I’ve learned over the past few months:
- Foreskins are even stretchier than I thought.
- There’s more to know about classic cars than you ever imagined. And, in a related point, unless you’re a classic car enthusiast, you have no idea how insane people can get over it.
- Nascar has bra ads on its website. This made me laugh long and hard.
- When you write gay erotic romance, you snicker like a twelve-year-old whenever someone says ‘long’ or ‘hard’. ‘Tool’ has much the same effect.
- Alabama’s struggling Satsuma industry is making a comeback. Go ‘bama!
- Breadfruit trees have big green balls. And they secrete white fluid when cut. These facts definitely made me revert to age twelve for a while.
- Think of a vaguely cylindrical object. Any object at all, doesn’t matter how big or small it is. Got it? Okay. Someone, somewhere, has shoved that object where the sun don’t shine, taken pictures, and posted them on the web for the whole world to see.
- Related to above: even the hugest steroid-riddled man-mountain can fit an entire fist and forearm in places you would not think it would fit. To the elbow. Sometimes both arms. Yes, I also made that noise you’re making right now the first time I saw this.
- Whatever you can think of to do to the human body, no matter how sick, painful or just plain odd you find it, somebody out there does it for fun. And there’s at least one website/forum/Yahoo group dedicated to it.
- Slash fanfic is, for reasons I can’t fathom, full to bustin’ with stories of male pregnancy. Okay, so that didn’t exactly come from research per se. But there’s bound to be a thesis in there someplace.
Whether you’re researching a story or just going about your daily business, we all learn things every day that we didn’t know. So what’ve you learned lately? Share!
Have you read this ?
I saw the seventh thing and immediately thought of that, LOL.
Damn, I love your list. I was expecting something far more. . . academic.
Satsuma? You’re going to make me google?
NO! I only pressed it once! I swear I did. it’s NOT MY FAULT FOR ONCE. AAaaaaaaaanggiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeee. The blog hates me.
Sorry Ally Blue
OMG. Are you actually an adolescent boy in disguise? This cracked me up.
LOL Oh lord, I just got stuck for like fifteen minutes on that “overheard” website! Thanks just SO much for that link, I may never get anything else done again. Oh well, at least I’ll be entertained
Kate, a Satsuma is an orange-type citrus fruit. It’s little and easy to peel and soooooo yummy! I wish I had one right now!
And now, since Ciar guessed it, I have a confession. I am, in fact, an adolescent boy pretending to be a 42-year-old wife and mother in order to write gay romance. Drat, my secret is out, now I’ll have to kill you all O_O
Cute blog post, Ally. Of course, now I’m going to have to explain to my DH why I’m in here giggling like an idiot.
You said, “Long, Hard Tool.” snickers like 12 year-old. Sorry, couldn’t help myself.
I love your “do you know”‘s. They always make me laugh and they are just so right on that it’s kinda scary. The really scary part is that you were actually able to research it on the web. It’s cool, but it makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Mpreg. That’s just… something I can’t get my head around. Okay I’ve only seen it in LOTR fic but that scarred me for life o_O
The satsuma news, on the other hand, is enormously cheering. I didn’t know they even grew satsumas in Alabama. You learn something new every day g
Omg, what a list lol. And oddly enough, I have a satsuma tree. But, um, I think I killed mine a few weeks ago.
I now think Allie owes me a lot of money for the therapy I’m going to need to get some of these mental pictures out of my head. Damn her shaking fist in general western direction
LOL Angie! Hey, you want some REAL therapy-inducing pics, let me know, I’ll send you some links <snerk>
But I will not be responsible for anyone’s therapy. OR their uncontrollable giggling
<pointed looks at Amanda and J.L.>
Loribelle, too bad about your satsuma tree
I’m guessing caring for a fruit tree takes a lot of work. I’d probably kill it inside a week.
Olivia, LOL I don’t like the mpreg either, it kind of weirds me out! This from the girl who is irresistibly drawn to Fisting Central all the time…
I can’t be the only person who picks up these freaking facts! Y’all tell me what weird things you’ve seen out there
What I’ve learned in the name of research: Pigeons don’t coo. And messenger pigeons were around and untilized in ancient Rome. Oh and then there were all the sodomy trial transcripts I found from the 1800’s. It just baffles me that men were hanged for having sex. I mean I know it shouldn’t baffle me— and yes I know there are people who would string gay men up today if they could—but well, it’s still one of those things that make me go “whoa”. Oh and in those trials the tranny’s were called Mollies. And there were male whorehouses called Mollie Houses. Hmmm, I really need to find more interesting research sites don’t I? Mine are boring compared to Ally’s.
You just need to invent better excuses to cruise gay porn O_O
Man, and the most interesting fact I found in recent researching is that moose were around when wooly mammoths and saber tooth tigers existed. I need to stop researching Englands anti-invasion plans during WW2 and find something more interesting.
Now to explain to DH why I’m giggling like mad over here…except he might want me to find proof to back up Ally’s list.
Okay, I’m at work and trying my hardest not to giggle uncontrollably.
Love your list, Ally. Ummm … thought provoking. There were, however, a couple of visuals I could have done without. I’m with Angie … I’m gonna need therapy.
And since Loribelle killed her Satsuma tree, Alabama’s Satsuma industry is probably on the ropes again.
I’m sitting here shaking my head. Obviously I’m not researching properly. What have I researched on line lately: train schedules in England and for The Chunnel, Times for High and low tides on the Eastern coast of England, a nice Royal Doulton pattern which might be used in a tearoom, the name of a light pink rose, and all sorts of mundane stuff, including what a village police station might look like. But then, I’m writing a UK set murder mystery and not m/m.That has to be the reason I haven’t found any of this stuff.
Thanks for the laughs.
See? Y’all have learned some very interesting things! It’s fun, huh?
I also learned that no matter how hard you try, you can’t pinpoint a spot on the ocean floor and find out exactly how deep it is. And, there’s rather a lot of bickering in the dive community about the amount of decompression you need after a deep dive on Heliox or Tri-Mix.
I’ve found some cool helpful websites too! No not THAT kind of website… okay, yes, THAT kind too, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about stuff like the one where you can look up sun and moon data for anywhere on earth, any day of any year. Except you can’t, as it turns out, go 200 years into the future. But if you want to find out what time the moon rises on June 12th 2009, and what phase it will be in, the website will tell you. Pretty sweet
When I was editing Ally’s book, Love’s Evolution, the heroes were using a certain toy, and I wasn’t familiar with it. Since I didn’t want to Google it and end up needing therapy (I’m nowhere near as brave as Ms. Ally, here), I asked Ally to send me some photos of the toy in question.
It took two weeks for my eyebrows to come out of my hairline.
I’ve learned about lots of things as an editor, that toy and how it’s used is probably my most memorable.
And that’s why I love Ally. Well, that, and she cracks me up on a regular basis, and she writes fantastic stories and she’s a ton of fun to work with.
Aw, Sasha, I love you toooooo!!!
<hugs Sasha tight>
Yeah that pic was pretty much an eye-opener, wasn’t it? LOL
Okay I’m gonna have to get that book because I want to know what the toy was LMAO