# What's the strangest thing you've ever had to look up?



## Kingstonmike (Jul 13, 2014)

As for me:    ( very incomplete list)

How much sanitary pads sold for in 1968 in Seattle.

How long before a dead body bloats in the winter.

Did they have meth labs in the 60s?


Mystery novels...Gotta love writing them...


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## JimJanuary (Jul 14, 2014)

I once researched the etymology of the word 'fuck' and 'fuckwit' for an essay I wrote during uni about the language use in 'Bring up the Bodies'.


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## Caragula (Jul 14, 2014)

Nothing's strange depending on what you're writing about, but it's interesting, going back over my research, to see where it's taken me.

Slang for 'moonshine' across the world - hjemmebrændt in Denmark, Kumi kumi (kill me quick) in Kenya, for example
The uses of tree bark in Spain
The flora and fauna of first century Israel
The most sought after whisky flask manufacturers of the nineteenth century
Who played New York's Copacabana club in 1959
Etiquette when eating with Moroccans
Everything there is to know about 6th century Persia, when you can only speak English...

The last five are all for the same novella.

The great pleasure of writing fiction is the research.  I love it, I'm interested in almost everything.


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## Bilston Blue (Jul 14, 2014)

Yesterday I searched for a name for the act of killing owls. Had no luck. 

P.S. I like owls.


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## egpenny (Jul 17, 2014)

Mine was historical as in...the price of cattle in Abilene versus Texas in 1871.  In that same era the name of the most popular coffee ( Arbuckles ) and if canned food was around then ( it was, having been developed during the Civil War.)
I just finished looking into the Olmec, their art and history for the next murder mystery. It was interesting.

I love researching stuff...


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## No Man (Jul 17, 2014)

Finding another God. Success in the Dead Sea Scrolls.


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## Greimour (Jul 17, 2014)

Bilston Blue said:


> Yesterday I searched for a name for the act of killing owls. Had no luck.
> 
> P.S. I like owls.



I don't think there is one. 

If you use owls to hunt I believe it falls under the term 'Falconry' ... even though it isn't a falcon. Falconry uses Eagles, Hawks and Falcons primarily, but the act of hunting a mammal or bird is usually considering "gaming" ... the act of hunting game. Though I would hardly count an owl as game. And all that falls within hunting.

For the act of killing, there is a name that exists for killing birds, but not sure there will be one for owls.

If there is such a word it would be a -cide word.
My guess would be strigiforicide or owlicide.

Killing birds is avicide or birdicide

Personally would use Strigicide - but I have decided now I will just pm you a more detailed explanation ^_^


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## bravery101 (Jul 28, 2014)

I can't think of anything super obscure or strange right now, though I'm sure I have (I love researching), but here's one I looked up earlier today:

Can convicted felons be private investigators?

The answer is no, if you were wondering. The only exception is if the state has no license required to be a private investigator in the state and, sometimes, if the conviction was overturned. But in some states you still can't be a PI even if the conviction was overturned. Learning new things every day.


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## Ariel (Jul 28, 2014)

I didn't know I needed to know about it but I have a book on Victorian London that discusses in the first chapter the way it would have smelled.  Did you know there was an event called "The Great Stink?"  During a drought one summer before London had an adequate sewer system the River Thames dried up enough that very brave persons could walk across it?  Because of the habit ofallowing what sewers there were to flow into the river the River bottom was a morass of fecal matter, dead fish, and mud.  Not to mention the slaughterhouses and tanneries that used the river for their run-off.  Apparently the stench was so bad that it galvanized the city into reform.


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## PSFoster (Aug 27, 2014)

Not strange, maybe, but unusual for me. A few years ago I had to look up gay sex. Other than that, it was embalming (how to).


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## Savalric (Nov 29, 2014)

No Man said:


> Finding another God. Success in the Dead Sea Scrolls.



I was just looking up the dead sea scrolls the other day. I thought for sure they were about some pagan religion of long ago. Turns out, some of them are canonical Christian material. Which is too bad, I haven't even read the first book yet.


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## Riis Marshall (Nov 30, 2014)

Hello Folks

Try Googling 'necrophilia for fun and profit' and 'necrophilia for dummies' as I did for one of my projects (and, no, the project had nothing to do with necrophilia - honest!). I never expected _that_ number of pages.

And if you need a little break in your writing and you want to have a few laughs, check out something they - the 'they' were obviously always men - used to describe as 'woman's hysteria' and some suggested treatments for the 'condition' in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

All the best with your writing.

Warmest regards
Riis


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## Nemesis (Nov 30, 2014)

"Stages of decompisition in the human body" and in relation to that "how quickly do maggots hatch on a human corpse?" & "life cycles of flies and maggots"

But god, I know there are sooo many more. Everytime something comes up that I don't feel I know enough about to write (read: all the time) I google it XD


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