Favourite special interest facts

Interesting facts.  Thanks for sharing them

I don't remember The Rocket Men. I'm going to have to do a quick google. I've listened to so many of his narrations of the classic target novelisations alongside so many of the new adventures over the years. He's my favourite Doctor Who Audiobook narrator along with Anneke Wilks. 

Hi! Yes, he narrates beautifully. We’re so lucky to have those companion chronicles. Things like The Rocket Men are wonderful additions to the expanded canon: ‘When do you know…?’ 

Yes, the mounted 'Kelt' being able to able to make a hole in the walls of Babylon quote, is a classic. I have the Penguin edition of the Alexiad.

Hi Shardovan 

William Russell is a genuinely interesting guy to listen to. I recently listened to an interview with him at Big Finish as part of the extra bits at the end. 

I love listening to him read the novelisations. I really like that original 1960's team of Bill Hartnell, William Russell, Jacquline Hill and Carol Ann Ford.

I had to read a couple of chapters of The Alexiad of Anna Komnena at university, as a primary source document on the first crusade.

In 1118, the newly acclaimed Byzantine emperor, John II Komnenos, was so wary of the possibility of assassination, organised by his sister Anna and his mother, that he refused to attend the funeral of his father, Alexios I. Within a year, another conspiracy was betrayed to John, by Nikephoros Bryennios, Anna's husband. John ensured that his mother was confined to a nunnery and his sister was entirely removed from public life. John went on to be known as 'John the Good', an able administrator and gifted general. Anna wrote a biographical history of her father, mentioning her brother only twice, once just to say that he was an ugly baby!

Sloths is a cool interest. I'd never have guessed in a million years they were such good swimmers. 

No. 5 definitely rings true. Not for the first time, I the other day looked up something I've been told I have - in this case mild scoliosis/kyphosis only to find an autism prevalence among people with that thing. In this case, it turns out that 40% of males who have Scoliosis are autistic. According to one clinic for that condition who carried out a survey of their clients/patients. 

I didn't much like (or understand, tbh) The Power of the Doctor, but I did smile when I saw William Russell at the end. Also Bonnie Langford, as she gets a lot of undeserved flak and I was pleased she hasn't been disowned by the new series.

1. You can make a dental dam by cutting off the top and bottom of a condom and cutting it in half vertically. It's often much cheaper than buying an actual dental dams
2. Some people live their whole lives not knowing they have Mosaic Trisomy 21 (Mosaic Down Syndrome), as it often results in less facial differences and less severe health complications
3. Sloths are excellent swimmers and can hold their breath longer than dolphins
4. Not really a fun fact, but I know nearly every single LGBTQIA+ pride flag and their definitions. However, I don't know what the colours always represent for each individual flag
5. There is a massive overlap between neurodivergence, being sexually and/or gender diverse, and having a chronic condition/illness. There hasn't been enough published studies into it to have a percentage, but from professional and personal experience, I'd say it's quite high

(special interests: sexual health, genetic and congenital diseases, sloths, LGBTQIA+ identities and community, neurodivergence)

It looks good.  It must have been well regarded by the critics as it showed at a lot of important film festivals.

Ever see the film Bubba Ho-tep? https://youtu.be/pXGP07vrab8
Would love to think that kind of thing was possible. Though one of the nice things in the film is the ambiguity- he might be delusional. Pretty sure his friend who thinks he’s JFK is! 

I’m not a massive Elvis fan or anything though my dad definitely was when growing up and still plays his music sometimes. But I was able to tell him a fact recently that he didn’t know: the last song that Elvis ever sang - at home, at the piano overlooking his squash court, hours before he died. Which was… 

https://youtu.be/uj4ZhaXQn3k

Thought I’d link to an alternative version to his own, just to mix it up a bit! 

It could be the real Elvis.  Perhaps he had his brain cryogenically frozen as was the fashion in the 70's.

Elvis Mobile, love that. 

Pigs prefer to sleep nose to nose because the find it calming to be close to one another. 

Pigs have very few sweat glands which is why they roll in mud, it helps to cool them down and protect their skin from the sun

Sorry, couldn't choose my fav fact so shared 2.

Alisha xx

There's an impersonator who lives near me.  I see his Elvis mobile parked in the supermarket carpark.

Nice Doctor Who fact there! Best show ever. Nice PFP!

Elvis Presley was actually blonde. He dyed his hair black. I'm an Elvis fan and obsessive fact hunter. 

Some days when I’m feeling my age I think about William Russell, nearly in his fifth decade then and still around now, and still with a twinkle and a pure heart that seems to have weathered the ages intact. And things don’t seem so bad. Like Kirk in Star Trek lI it makes me think ‘I feel young’. It’s all relative.