Weirdest Thing You've Researched?

[ShelbyDawn57]

Most of the walmarts around here don't stay open overnight anymore. But there's still Waffle House for wee hours weirdness.

Waffle House is proof of multiple dimensions, I'm convinced of it. Each location is its own little pocket dimension where extradimensional aliens come to hang out...

 

[Thirsty_Hellcat_J]

Well, let's see... For Exploring the Bounds of Normal, I researched nemotodal worms that infect male Mayflies turning them into genetic females, Lockian philosophy, extra dimensional theoretical physics, and magical realism with a nod to Pablo Escobar.

This I would find fascinating. What was your conclusion.

 

[Bamagan]

Waffle House is proof of multiple dimensions, I'm convinced of it. Each location is its own little pocket dimension where extradimensional aliens come to hang out...

Oddly, I once wrote about each Waffle House being the same one... existing in a state of quantum superposition of sorts. The protagonist discovered how to exploit that for a kind of teleportation... albeit primarily only in the SE US.

 

[yowser]

Piracy in 18th century Madagascar. Took weeks of reading (and futile writing.)

Maybe someday...

 

[NoTalentHack]

What I use Wiki and google for always makes me think of the movie Se7en when Samuel L Jackson mentions the FBI tracks what people check out at the library.

That was Morgan Freeman, but now I really want to see the alternate universe version with Sam Jackson.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

This I would find fascinating. What was your conclusion.

So, from nematode worms to Lockian philosophy, theoretical physics, and magical realism, I guess some things just can't be explained and some things probably shouldn't. In the long run, it's all a game, just try and collect as many tokens as you can and, no matter what happens, remember to have a good time.

You'll have to read the story to see how it all fits together. it was a blast to write. Exploring the Bounds of Normal

 

[MetaBob]

Sounding.

Ditto.

 

[MrPixel]

The weirdest? I guess it would be the neighborhood around the IRL nudist/swinger hotel in Hollywood, FL (north Miami area). Spent a whole lot of time on Google Streets looking for various shops and restaurants where the characters could walk to when they weren't doing each other (and everybody else) at the hotel. That also included going to every website for the individual shop locations.

Strangest outcome of that research was discovering that Margaritaville (the themed hotel/resort next door) appeared to not have a sit-down breakfast restaurant - just a Starbucks-like coffee shop in the lobby. That didn't work in the story because one of my favorite scenes to do is the banter at the breakfast table reviewing the prior night's shenanigans. Found another place a block away.

I had lots of fun with that story.

 

[Rob_Royale]

So far - butterflies.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Oh, golly... Just a few. Some got used, some haven't been (yet).

Ancient Dionysian revels​

Parisian parks​

Ice locks​

Ancient Scythian female armour​

Pulley ratios (reviving very old high school lessons)​

French Polynesian governance​

Yacht sail rigging​

Air traffic control procedures​

Taptic engines and similar​

Great War British Army pay rates​

FAA rules re small(ish) balloons​

It’s been a journey!

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

I try to make my occasional period story be as accurate as possible so this is from memory on a couple of stories over the past few years:

Bras -- invented in the mid-1870s, improved over the next 30 years, but not very common until 1900s.
Belt loops -- despite all of the marshals, sheriffs, gunmen, robbers, and cattle herders having them in western movies, not commercially available until early 1920s.
Zipper flies -- Not commercially available until the late 1930s.

and

Side saddles -- Ancient versions are depicted in art but their workings are largely unknown. The early known version dates from the Middle Ages, but the modern side saddle was reinvented in the 1830s.

 

[Comshaw]

1. Can you make lamps with tallow

Yes.

2. Can you make tallow from raccoons

Yes, but you gotta' fatten them little trash bandits up some. But use some kinda' nose plugs. The smell ain't what you would call floral.

Fishing a salmon run in Alaska and how to not get eaten by bears (and naturally bear videos)

From my experience that would entail carrying a .50 SW sidearm or a 45-70 lever action over a shoulder. Or if you are a no-guns person a BIG canister of bear spray! Of course, there are the rare exceptions where bear spray just pisses off a hungry, angry bear and you end up as their lunch.

Comshaw

 

[SimonDoom]

Innkeeper worms (Urechis caupo) and their morphology, habits, and distribution, for my story Penis Fish.

The taste of pee, and how it's affected by what one eats, for a fetish story I've been working on for a while.

Anal hygiene practices.

Hucows.

The law of "reasonable accommodation" under the Americans with Disabilities Act, for my story "Reasonable Accommodation," about a woman who claims her exhibitionism and nymphomania are conditions that must be reasonably accommodated in the workplace.

Ernest Hemingway's writing style (not really weird, except maybe in the context of this story).

 

[onehitwanda]

Innkeeper worms (Urechis caupo) and their morphology, habits, and distribution, for my story Penis Fish.

I hate being literate sometimes.

 

[StillStunned]

I hate being literate sometimes.

There's nothing like spending a few hours in the AH to make a person feel less weird.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

The taste of pee, and how it's affected by what one eats, for a fetish story I've been working on for a while.

I don't know much about the taste of pee, but have heard that if your boyfriend eats lots of pineapple his semen gets sweet.

 

[MetaBob]

Hucows.

Also, how to induce lactation in women (and even men) who have not recently given birth.

 

[SimonDoom]

I hate being literate sometimes.

It's tough being you. One sympathizes.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't know much about the taste of pee, but have heard that if your boyfriend eats lots of pineapple his semen gets sweet.

I've read that asparagus is the one thing you really want to stay away from.*

*I have no personal experience with this subject. My research is online, only.

 

[onehitwanda]

One sympathizes.

You lie, sir.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

You lie, sir.

Um, one is a generic singular not necessarily indicating the voice of the speaker, and can imply there is at least one person out there somewhere that cares...
I like his odds.

 

[SimonDoom]

You lie, sir.

I don't lie. I prevaricate. And I don't prevaricate.

 

[StillStunned]

You lie, sir.

It's not about whether you lie. It's about who you lie with.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I don't lie. I prevaricate. And I don't prevaricate.

Well, I provokitate. I also make up words when the mood hits me...

 

[TheLobster]

Does browsing thesaurus, looking for synonyms to "hard," "hot" and "wet" count? If so, then I do research all the time.