"Tell Me Something I Don't Know": Trivia & Fact Thread

[Bastet]

18 hours ago, Ancaster said:

We all (I think!) know that baby kangaroos are called joeys, but today I learnt that all marsupial babies are called joeys - koalas, wombats, etc.  Makes sense, but seems like it could be a good Jeopardy! question.

I can't find a "Marsupial babies are called this" clue in the archive, but they have acknowledged that fact on the show:  There was an entire "Joey" category once, and the correct responses were wombats, kangaroos, gliders, and bandicots (one clue didn't ask for the animal; it was about marsupial anatomy).

[Blergh]

I recall in my youth that the term 'joey'  when used for non-adult kangaroos as per the contemporary dictionaries was supposed to have been a word from an Australian Aboriginal language (but which of the 900+ known languages was not specified). Now it has 'unknown' origins so I'm wondering if perhaps the early English settlers might have asked a local Australian Aborigine what they called non-adult kangaroos and the individual responded- but whoever the first English speaker to use it might not have bothered to ask which TRIBE the Australian Aborigine informant came from.

One thing I'm sure  that EACH surviving Australian Aboriginal language has individualized terms for non-adult wombats, kangaroos, gliders and bandicots! Just like each European language has individualized terms for non-adult dogs, cats, horses, cows and sheep- instead of just terming them 'puppies'!

BTW, 'kangaroo' IS somewhat documented as having been first recorded in 1770 from a Northeast [Queensland] Australian tribe and I guess that a British mariner wrote it down and it would be used from that point on (which is better than just having them being called 'pocket-hoppers']!

[Blergh]

OK, I talked about FDR's somewhat force-of-nature mother Sara Delano Roosevelt but I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the parents of his wife Eleanor (1884-1962)- Elliott (1860-1894) and Anna Rebecca Hall Roosevelt (1863-1892). Yes, they both would die quite young when their daughter was still a child but they'd have lifelong impacts on her.

Elliott had been sent west to Texas for adventure then became one of the first US Americans to explore India and the Himalayas while Anna not only came from a prominent old family but was a stunning beauty- to the extent that many decades after her death, her daughter would describe her as 'one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen!' and their 1883 marriage was considered to be THE match of the season. Alas, they weren't to live happily ever after. For one thing, Elliot had started to develop an alcohol problem and Anna had had to somehow help her widowed mother Mary keep the family from going under after her own father's death when she just seventeen. Then, in February,1884, Elliot's mother 'Mittie' and his sister-in-law Alice Lee Roosevelt  both fell mortally ill which got the somewhat highstrung Elliot to declare to his elder brother Theodore that their house was cursed with Theodore having to run between floors to tend to his dying mother and wife -barely consoled that their daughter Alice somehow was born healthy two days before her mother's death. Neither Theodore or Elliott ever got over this double tragedy. Though Elliot seemed quite grateful when his own young wife Anna safely bore their firstborn child eight  months later and doted on her from the start. Alas, Anna seemed somewhat put out that this daughter had not inherited her beauty and early on tagged her 'Granny' because she considered the child to be 'so old-fashioned'!  Anna did care for Eleanor -urging her to become educated but even she couldn't  completely overlook her daughter's comparative plainness saying 'you certainty aren't a beauty so you'd better be smart!'. Elliott also wanted Eleanor to be well-educated but he wasn't without his own faults- including one time leaving the six-year-old girl who'd he'd taken on a walk  to wait outside a 'private club' while he was to pop in 'for a few minutes' but wound up drinking himself unconscious and only when the staff was in the process of carrying him home did they notice little Eleanor still waiting outside in the cold- six hours later  after which a doorman deposited her back home!

In 1889, Elliot severely broke a leg in an accident and would be prescribed morphine which he soon became addicted to along with the alcohol. Not surprisingly Anna became alarmed at his sudden decline and herself would develop severe migraines which Eleanor would help her mother through by messaging her temples.

After 1891, both the Roosevelt and Hall families decided that Elliott had become too unstable to be relied upon to provide for Anna and her children and fully supported Anna's decision to separate herself from him while he was exiled in the mountain resort of Abington, Virginia.

In 1892, Anna would die from complications of diphtheria at the young age of 28 leaving her children to be cared for by her mother Mary.  In the meantime, Elliott would occasionally visit Eleanor and her surviving baby brother Gracie 'Hall' Roosevelt and write letters promising a future of travel with her making a home for him (and she would consider her baby brother to be their child). While  Elliott would claim to greatly mourn Anna to Eleanor in his letters to her, he didn't mourn alone.  It turned out that he'd gotten a German-born servant  Katy Mann in the family way and she'd stay his companion the rest of his life.

Alarmingly, Elliott became so distraught  between his addictions and his painfully wonky leg that hadn't been set right that he attempted suicide at 34 by leaping out a 2nd floor window. He survived the fall but would die of a seizure the next day.

After this, his brother Theodore visited his troubled late brother's 'love nest' and,to his shock, discovered that Elliot had plastered it with photographs of his late wife- including one right over the very bed he and his mistress had slept in!

Eleanor would choose to only focus on Elliot's attentiveness to her and lessons he gave her rather than his glaring shadowside. In fact, she not only saved his letters to her but she'd take them with her on countless journeys to all corners of the world -somehow making sure they were never lost or damaged -rereading them before going to sleep almost every night for the rest of her life.

In spite of her birth parents' flaws, Eleanor WOULD have a positive maternal love from an unexpected source: from the ages of 15 to 17, Eleanor would be sent to a boarding school in England run by an aging French headmistress named Marie Souvestre (1830-1905)who not only taught her to speak fluent French but, more importantly, encouraged Eleanor to expand her intellect and gain self-confidence! Alas, against the protests of both Eleanor and Mlle. Souvestre, her maternal grandmother (and legal guardian) Mrs. Hall insisted that Eleanor return back to New York  to make her formal debut in Society (which,not surprisingly, Eleanor considered a disaster)  instead of staying the last year to complete her coursework . However, Eleanor would never forget Mlle. Souvestre's kindness and encouragement and would keep a portrait of her on her desk in her homes the rest of her own life.