Weirdest Thing You've Researched?

[StillStunned]

Ended up reading a long debate on the best colour sheets for hiding cum stains and lube. Apparently dark blue or grey is good for lube not staining, even if the cum shows until sheets are washed. A surprising number of men recommended a 'sex blanket' or towels to protect the nice sheets; only one guy thought a pattern like paisley was acceptable even though patterns were agreed to hide stains well.

Am I the only one who says, "Don't mind that, it's just where the cat chucked up"?

 

[Two21B]

I had to do a crash course on "The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. It was very illuminating.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I had to do a crash course on "The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. It was very illuminating.

Personally, to be very frank, I am superglad you said 'illuminating' instead of 'empowering'.

 

[sxPlasticity]

My own sense of humor.

 

[Voboy]

Mm, cheese on toast!
Same as grilled cheese, I believe - make toast (ideally on one side), add cheese, put under grill (Yank: broiler).

Rarebit or Welsh rabbit tends to have some mustard and possibly white sauce mixed in with the cheese.

Americans think differently when we do "grilled cheese."

On our continent, it's not open-faced. You put the cheese between bread, set it on a griddle, then flip the whole thing to toast the second piece of bread.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Americans think differently when we do "grilled cheese."

On our continent, it's not open-faced. You put the cheese between bread, set it on a griddle, then flip the whole thing to toast the second piece of bread.

You mean grilled cheese is the same as a grilled cheese sandwich??

Say it ain't so. I find it hard to believe an American snack would have a lower fat and salt to bread ratio...

And I'm a fan of grilled cheese sandwiches. My mum would serve them with gherkins and cream of tomato soup. I wondered for years why she always called them grilled when they were fried in a frying pan, before learning the American definition of grill (which I'm still a bit hazy on, what with covering barbecue on a rack, cooking on a flat metal surface, grilling over a flame, but for some reason not cooking under a flame because that's broiling...)

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Americans think differently when we do "grilled cheese."

On our continent, it's not open-faced. You put the cheese between bread, set it on a griddle, then flip the whole thing to toast the second piece of bread.

One small note. The outside faces of the bread is generally buttered before it gets cooked. Bonus points for the addition of bacon or… drum roll please… whole basil leaves.

And, yes, Venerable Mom served them with pickles and tomato soup. Memories…

 

[Voboy]

One small note. The outside faces of the bread is generally buttered before it gets cooked.

Well, of course they do... we're not heathens.

I know people who use mayo for that function. I do not understand such people.

Bonus points for the addition of bacon or… drum roll please… whole basil leaves.

I often add pepper jelly as an ingredient, spread over the inside of one of the breads. It's surprisingly excellent, though messy.

 

[Cacatua_Galerita]

I enjoy the distraction of ‘research’ – not that I need further distractions. Obscure researched things from my published stories:

- Physiology of the pelvic region, including the obturator internus muscle and the most desirable sacral angle in women (angle at which the curve of the spine fuses with the pelvis)
- Invasive plant species found in Cape Cod
- Glide ratio of a Bell 47G helicopter in autorotation
- Professional video production camera models
- Monaco’s national intelligence organization
- NATO formal messaging format
- Sculpture parks in New York City
- Date of Pagan Summer Solstice rituals (they can cover about a week)
- Difference between Isopropyl Alcohol, Isopropanol, and Propan-2-ol (chemically, there’s none).

The thing I just researched was a suitable superconducting coil winding arrangement to give magnetic radiation shielding to an interplanetary spacecraft. This was sufficient: https://thespacereview.com/article/308/1

 

[KyleR215]

the impact of jupiter on earth as it approaches at its closet and its farthest orbit and its effect upon earth

 

[GemmaGemmaGemma]

Not particularly weird but my recent story had characters who met while hiking, and the male character took his camera with him. After I picked my location I had to research some rare bird sightings in the area so that he could mention he was on the lookout for them. Next thing I know I'm reading about Mediterranean gulls and looking at pictures of them in the Lake District on birdwatching websites.

 

[Hypnobitch01]

What is the weirdest thing you've had to research for a story here? I don't necessarily mean anything sex related, but I sometimes find myself in the flow and needing to look up something super niche. I had to do that a few stories back when I needed a really solid description of shoes in the 1920s. Is there anything really strange you felt like you needed to learn to make a story work?

How to spell the word necessary. I’m a little embarrassed frankly.

 

[Demiurging]

The nutritional value of a lobster one mile long.

It's a more complex question than you might think, I ended up on research papers for some fishing organization.

Didn't end up publishing/finishing.

 

[TheLobster]

The nutritional value of a lobster one mile long.

 

[StillStunned]

Don't worry. Size doesn't matter. I'm sure normal-sized lobsterlings are perfectly adequate.

 

[sxPlasticity]

The nutritional value of a lobster one mile long.

It's a more complex question than you might think, I ended up on research papers for some fishing organization.

Didn't end up publishing/finishing.

Including or excluding the shell?

 

[Demiurging]

Including or excluding the shell?

Excluding. I was looking at the meat yield/mining logistics for a kaiju and a lobster was the easiest analogue to research (the thing is/was more of a potato bug, but they're both crustaceans so whatever).

 

[RetroFan]

Spontaneous Human Combustion for my story series 'Crazy Cornelius & the Magic Pills' would have to be up there. In the story Cornelius's authoritarian father Alistair becomes so angry at Cornelius that he literally explodes in flames while chasing his son.

 

[Codoc24]

I was writing a sci-fi story and researched fusion power.
I wrote a story that included sword fighting. I had never written one before. Picked up some good ideas. #1 is never have your character whirl around in a circle. It's Hollywood BS. Nobody would ever do that in real life. They would get stabbed in the back.

 

[Duleigh]

I research everything because I want my stories to sound authentic. If I'm not researching something, I'm researching how to do something or what something is commonly called. Today alone I researched the city of Lewiston NY, How to repair a window sash counter weight and rope, who wrote Walking in a Winter Wonderland (Richard Bernhard Smith in 1934) Where did WD-40 come from? (NASA Project Apollo) What is the most affordable supercar? (Maserati Grand Turismo) what is the half circular cutout on a painter's knife for? (cleaning rollers)

Edit: and making lefse.

 

[RetroFan]

Arthropods - insects, arachnids (spiders & scorpions), crustaceans (crabs & lobsters), centipedes and millipedes as well as the extinct trilobites.
Cephalopods - squid and octopus
Echinoderms - star fish and sea stars
Cnidaria - jellyfish

This was all to come up with a cool design for a race of aliens for my Halloween story last year. I found a home for the unfriendly creatures - within Jupiter's moon Europa - and linked them to a number of purported real life UFO sightings and strange happenings. I even gave them a colour coding based on the balls used in Snooker Plus - the red aliens being the ordinary aliens, and a leadership group of a yellow, blue, green, brown, white, pink, orange and purple alien, with a black alien in overall command. Their UFO design was based off one photographed in Oregon in 1950, and I made the alien life cycle egg-larvae-pupae-adult, seen in many insects.

Having put in so much time and effort into creating these aliens in my mind and writing about them, it was only some time later when I saw a woman wearing a vintage style Sesame Street tee-shirt that I realized what my creations inadvertently looked like - the Yip Yip aliens from this show. Still, there was some differences at least. The Yip Yips were highly comical creatures; my aliens were downright unfriendly, humourless and menacing, obsessed with collecting enough humans in their flying saucer to take back and feed to their larvae on Europa.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I've been doing more detailed research into serial killers, reading articles, reports, psych evaluations, and such on the less famous ones out there.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

cricket -- I don't think I will ever understand it ...

 

[Duleigh]

cricket -- I don't think I will ever understand it ...

You don't understand cricket, you let it wash over you.

When I was in Korea we watched a lot of cricket because we were under blackout conditions and there was nothing else on the Star Network. We never understood a moment of what was going on, and we watched a lot of "Test matches." We never did figure out what they were testing. I believe it's like American Football, they add 10% more rules every year because it's a new year and no other reason.

 

[Trionyx]

Male Papilio Demoleus live for only 4 days

They mate and they die. Think about it: if you could only have the same ratio of matings to days, you would die very, very happy. An 80 year old would have had sex 7,300 times.