This is the thread for unusual details in wikipedia articles.

For some, the lyrics evoked the Christian belief of salvation and had a Christian Rock feeling. (e.g. Waitin' for the train to come home sweet Mary," etc.) Without comprehending the drug reference to the word "toke," a cover version was performed in early 1971 by Gail Farrell and Dick Dale on The Lawrence Welk Show. (Welk was seemingly unaware of the song's drug references or the meaning of the word "toke," and had programmed it after mistakenly concluding that the song was a "modern spiritual.")

Reiger was found to be carrying a loaded revolver and a box of cartridges. His letters to Roosevelt had asserted that people's names should correspond to their professions (e.g., carpenters should be named Carpenter), and that the present manner of naming people had caused a war among the flies.

From Chubby Checker's page:

In 2013, Checker sued HP over a WebOS application using his name. The application, before being pulled in September 2012, was used to unscientifically estimate penis size from shoe size. The district court said that Checker's trademark claim survived HP's motion to dismiss, but his other claims were dismissed per Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilu_Henner

Henner, who has hyperthymesia, was a consultant for the CBS drama Unforgettable, which starred Poppy Montgomery as Carrie Wells, a woman with the same ability. Henner guest-starred as Carrie's aunt.[7]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthymesia

Hyperthymesia, also known as hyperthymestic syndrome or highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM), is a condition that leads people to be able to remember an abnormally large number of their life experiences in vivid detail. It is extraordinarily rare, with fewer than 100 people in the world having been diagnosed with the condition as of 2021.

Macca talks for about a minute, but then catch Marilu Henner talking about this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UidGrceG5Z8

classic pplains with the otm out of nowhere

She was 17 years, 3 months and 15 days old.

costas should have asked her how good it was

Stigwood remained active during his later years, primarily in musical theatre, taking a role in stage revivals of Grease and a theatrical adaptation of Saturday Night Fever. In 2005, he sold the Barton Manor estate on the Isle of Wight, which had been his home for many years.[20]

Stigwood was homosexual.[21]

oooh, i also like this bit

Not all of Stigwood's films were popular. The third film of his Travolta deal, Moment by Moment, which co-starred Lily Tomlin, was panned by critics and is credited with turning Travolta into 'box office poison'.[15]

i really enjoy the use of the word "credited" there.

The Mutants appear in The New Batman Adventures episode "Legends of the Dark Knight", with the Mutant Leader voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, Don by Mark Rolston, and Rob by Charles Rocket.[6]

Goddamn. CHARLES ROCKET. Balls nasty.

https://i.imgur.com/3MHrrJ2.png

Regarding the director who wanted to make a pornographic film about Jesus:

Thorsen was also a jazz musician and co-founder of the group Papa Bue's Viking Jazzband.

The things people said about that film and the "Gay Jesus Film Hoax" that followed it:

Modern People News has revealed plans for the filming of a movie based on the SEX LIFE OF JESUS in which Jesus is portrayed as a swinging HOMOSEXUAL. This film will be shot in the U.S.A. this year unless the public outcry is great. Already a French Prostitute has been named to play the part of Mary Magdalene, with who Christ has a blatant affair. We CANNOT AFFORD to standby and DO NOTHING about this disgrace. We must not allow this perveted world to drag our Lord through the dirt. PLEASE HELP us to get this film banned from the U.S.A. as it has been in Europe. Let us show how we feel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Jesus_film_hoax

The proposed plot of the film (the script of which was published, but only in a Danish translation)...

Thorsen was fascinated with both Jesus and sex, appearing on a magazine cover in 1963 as a crucified Santa Claus with a cannon for a penis.[10] Creating a pornographic film about Jesus became his greatest goal.[11] He explained:[12]

I believe the best way to give the Pope a forceful kick in the ass is to turn up the heat on Jesus. ... In the film when Jesus rises up out of the grave he'll ball a farmer girl. A nice blonde girl. That by itself signifies in my opinion what Jesus ought to stand for, instead of standing for the repression of life and eroticism.

Thorsen's planned film, The Many Faces of Jesus, would depict Jesus as a drunk, a bank robber, and a lover of both John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene.[16] In one scene, Jesus was to strip in the presence of a group of prostitutes and chant "Prophet save us, God Hare Krishna, Hallelujah, Red Front, Heil Hitler".[8]

Real "A Serbian Film" vibes.

As in other countries, the plans sparked controversy, including inspiring a country song, "Hey Jesus, Don't You Worry", written by Edward A. Boucher and performed by Van Trevor.[57]

I was unable to find a recording of the country song online.

Hey Jesus, don't you worry
Nothin' wrong with lovin' a nice farm girl
Maybe cool it on the Heil Hitler though

let he who is without heil cast the first sieg

The leading UK dance music magazines Mixmag and Muzik were enthusiastic, with Mixmag saying that "Orbital are still light-years ahead of the competition"[24] while Muzik said that "billed as six unrelated 'sound scenarios', In Sides neatly illustrates why Orbital remain light years ahead of the competition.

From the Wikipedia thread on Aimo Koivunen, a Finnish soldier in the Continuation War and the first documented case of a soldier overdosing on methamphetamine during combat:

Koivunen was a Finnish soldier, assigned to a ski patrol on 15 March 1944 along with several other Finnish soldiers. Three days into their mission on 18 March, the group was attacked and surrounded by Soviet forces, from whom they were able to escape. Koivunen became fatigued after skiing for a long distance but could not stop. He was carrying his patrol's entire supply of army-issued Pervitin, or methamphetamine, a stimulant used to remain awake while on duty. He consumed the entire supply of Pervitin, and had a short burst of energy, but soon entered a state of delirium and eventually lost consciousness. Koivunen later recalled waking up the following morning, separated from his patrol and having no supplies.

In the following days, Koivunen escaped Soviet forces once again, was injured by a land mine, and stayed in a ditch for a week, waiting for help. In the week that he was gone, he subsisted only on pine buds and a single Siberian jay that he caught and ate raw. Having skied more than 400 km (248.5 mi), he was later found and admitted to a nearby hospital, where his heart rate was measured at 200 beats per minute, and he weighed only 43 kg (94.8 lbs).

The first and only Hearts World Championship was held in Budapest, Hungary in 2002, shortly after the development of the World Wide Web enabled millions to play Hearts across the globe. It was won by an Englishman named Steven Wilson, who discovered his skill at the game after winning the perfect round of 104-104-104-0 against a computer in 1999. Wilson demolished all of his opponents at the 2002 Championship, it was not renewed for a second year because too many top players dropped out as they were so distraught by the loss. The Hearts World Championship has yet to be renewed since.

they really did... lose heart(s)

Hearing DJ John Peel mention on-air that he was hungry, Bragg rushed to the BBC with a mushroom biryani, so Peel played "The Milkman of Human Kindness" from Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy albeit at the wrong speed (since the 12" LP was, unconventionally, cut to play at 45rpm). Peel insisted he would have played the song even without the biryani and later played it at the correct speed.

It has since been said that several of his bandmates knew where Burns was the whole time, and that he simply did not want to be involved with the book. On Oct 3rd 2024 he was pictured on that there TwiXter with MB, clearly very much alive.

Caveat: I know nothing about cricket, so maybe these details are not unusual and are commonly known and discussed by all fans of the sport:

Many of Warne's most spectacular performances occurred in Ashes series against England; in particular, the "Gatting Ball", better known as the "Ball of the Century", which drifted significantly out of the hand, pitching well outside leg stump and sharply spun past the front of the bat, clipping the top of Off Stump, bowling a bemused Mike Gatting in the 1993 Ashes series.

Those details are not unusual and are commonly known and discussed by all fans of the sport.

Or rather the ball bowled by Warne was certainly unusual but the details of it are commonly known and discussed by all fans of the sport.

Yeah like NFL fans discussing famous Hail Mary plays decades after the fact, I get it.

A campaign in Oklahoma from 1934 to 1945 dynamited 3.8 million birds.

That means they liked it very much, in 1938

Based on a mistaken belief that the British monarch owns all the swans in Britain, it is popularly believed the British monarch is the only person allowed to eat swans in the United Kingdom.

I just like this photo.

Bingo game on Labor Day in Sheffield, Vermont, 2017

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Bingo_Sheffield_Field_Day_2017_Labor_Day_Sheffield_VT_September_2017.jpg

Hallinan grew up in a 22-room mansion in Ross, California.[4] At age twelve, he fell off his horse, fractured his skull, and spent five days stranded outside Yosemite before being rescued by helicopter.[5]

As a young man Hallinan developed, in the words of California Supreme Court Justice Raymond E. Peters, a "habitual and continuing resort to fisticuffs to settle personal differences."[6] He became a ward of juvenile court in 1954 when he took a case of beer from three sailors after he and his brother had run them off the road on Point Reyes and beat them.[5] The juvenile court banned him from Marin County so he got a job in a warehouse in Sacramento before clerking for the Longshoremen's Union in Hawaii.[7] Shortly after turning eighteen, he pleaded guilty to battery for punching the proprietor of the Edelweiss Ski Lodge.

In 1957, he punched a fraternity brother who denied him admission to a private party. He was indicted in 1959 after he broke a man's jaw during a brawl at a Greenbrae bowling alley. While at UC Berkeley, he boxed for the Golden Bears and sparred with Muhammad Ali in the 1960 Olympic boxing team eliminations.[8]

Hallinan's propensity for fistfights continued in law school. When he and his brother were picketing in San Francisco against the House Un-American Activities Committee, some of their classmates arrived to picket them.[6] Strong words ensued and a fight was arranged in Golden Gate Park. Initially Hallinan was part of the crowd of UC Hastings student onlookers but he soon began a brawl with one of the opposing spectators. He also engaged in fistfights at a Young Democrats meeting and over a woman while at UC Hastings.[6]

....

As a student, Hallinan also became interested in nonviolent resistance. While attending the London School of Economics, he was arrested with Lord Bertrand Russell during a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament sit-down demonstration in front of the U.S. embassy.[9] When he returned to America, he joined the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and spent the summer of 1963 in Mississippi.[7] Local authorities jailed Hallinan twice but the U.S. Attorney General and the National Council of Churches intervened to secure his release.[6]

Was remembering back to the candidate I voted for (TWICE!) over Kamala Harris in our local District Attorney races oh about 21 years ago.

I don't think his wikipedia article had this level of detail back then... 😬😬😬

At the age of seven, Bede was sent as a puer oblatus[20] to the monastery of Monkwearmouth by his family to be educated by Benedict Biscop and later by Ceolfrith.[21]

At three o'clock, according to Cuthbert, he asked for a box of his to be brought and distributed among the priests of the monastery "a few treasures" of his: "some pepper, and napkins, and some incense".

I Was a Teenage Magoo (later released on the TV series Mister Magoo retitled "Teenage Magoo"; submitted and screened at the 33rd Academy Awards for an Oscar consideration, but wasn't nominated[6])

Planters is best known for its processed nuts and for the Mr. Peanut icon that symbolizes them.[1] Mr. Peanut was created by grade schooler Antonio Gentile for a 1916 contest to design the company's brand icon.[1] The design was modified by a commercial artist and has continued to change over the years.

Ward was a very sensitive man and needed to be reassured regularly.[2]

from The Thrills' So Much for the City

The song "Say It Ain't So" appeared on US President George W. Bush's iPod in 2005.[18]

In 1975-76, "Sandy" was in Bergamo, Italy studying Montessori Elementary education. He participated in the congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and spoke in Italian to his friends there. At the final exam, he became nervous over a question and the examiner asked him what he would rather do. Not thinking that a different question/demonstration was being offered him, he responded he would rather be playing his guitar.[citation needed] He returned to Utah and married.

Ward was a very sensitive man and needed to be reassured regularly.[2]

It's all true

"Victoria Helen McCrae Duncan (née MacFarlane, 25 November 1897 – 6 December 1956) was a Scottish medium best known as the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act 1735."

In 1944! Albeit for "fraudulent spiritual activity," which is both ironic and pretty uncool.

The siege was captured by Pathé News cameras—one of their earliest stories and the first siege to be captured on film—and it included footage of Churchill.[15][106] When the newsreels were screened in cinemas, Churchill was booed with shouts of "shoot him" from audiences.[126]

... and here is the footage by the way, serial attention seeker Churchill shows up about 90 seconds in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0wPKpAVDGE

"Victoria Helen McCrae Duncan (née MacFarlane, 25 November 1897 – 6 December 1956) was a Scottish medium best known as the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act 1735."

In 1944! Albeit for "fraudulent spiritual activity," which is both ironic and pretty uncool.

The 'fraudulent use of cheesecloth' event for which Duncan was imprisoned happened not far from me in the Copnor district of Portsmouth. It is mentioned in the lyrics of The Fall's Psykick Dancehall #2.

no bedknobs & broomsticks spoilers pls

Here's a meta-weird one. On Thanksgiving we played some trivia game where the clue was something like "Alabama resident bla bla became the first person to do what while she was sleeping on her couch in 1954," or something like that. The answer was she was the first person to be hit by a meteorite.

Wiki:

At 12:46 PM (CST) on November 30, 1954, a meteorite fell through the skies of Sylacauga, Alabama. It split into at least three fragments, with one of the fragments falling through a roof and then landing on Hodges, who was napping on her couch.

So we just happened to get a random trivia question almost exactly 70 years to the day after its point of trivia happened!

The lawsuit was initiated after Ross was informed by a friend playing slots at a casino of a "Happy Days" machine on which players win the jackpot when five Marion Rosses are rolled.[8]

Finding cracks in the metal coating required diving into the pool, which was out of the question due to the gamma radiation levels in the vicinity of the nuclear waste drums reaching 17,000 R/h. An attempt to eliminate the leak was made by pouring in 20 sacks of flour, thus filling the cracks with dough. However, the leak continued, and the service personnel discovered icing on the right side of the building.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtown_Jets

Honours and records
...
Career records

Most tries
109 – Ray Preston

Most points
1,001 – Ken Wilson (25T, 447G, 28FG)

Most murder convictions
1 – Chris Dawson

Her dates, most of whom are never seen, shower her with expensive gifts, allowing her to live in a huge penthouse apartment with a piano and a doorbell that plays the song "Fly Me to the Moon" (in the original network run) or "Beautiful Dreamer" (in subsequent syndication and the original Fox Season 1 DVD release.[2] Shout! Factory restored the original doorbell chime for their subsequent DVD releases.[3])

A pilot for a show called Dude, This Sucks was cancelled after teens attending a taping at the Snow Summit Ski Resort in January 2001 were sprayed with liquidized fecal matter by a group known as "The Shower Rangers". The teens later sued, with MTV later apologizing and ordering the segment's removal.