What was the most interesting or random thing you googled while researching your story?

The results were entertaining, so if you're looking to procrastinate, or you just want to help your fellow writers procrastinate, let us know what you googled!

Prior to 1883, the U.S. had over 144 local time zones.

What in the tom-foolery? That is insane. 

I don't see what's stupid about that, or how to word it better... all I can think of in terms of wording it differently is "when do lambs turn into sheep?" or "when are lambs considered adults?" - both of which seems waaaaay stupider. 

Can't wait to hear what your strange google was!!!

"How to get rid of body"

"Can you flush cat down toilet"

"Can you flush person down toilet"

... "How to unclog toilet"

(Honestly though, there's no way NYCM can assign me horror + flushing something down a toilet and NOT expect my mind to go to some weird places.) 

I won't be googling this just now because I'm at work, but a couple of years ago the Guardian had a series called 'My Life in Sex', and I'm sure one of them was written by a foot fetishist. If you search something like 'Guardian sex "foot fetish"' then it should come up.

Thanks so much! I managed to find a few things. For some reason my daughter and I share a Google account (or at least she can somehow see my searches on her phone) so that's an added layer of fun for me.

So, funny story. In my neck of the woods some dude recently got arrested for murdering his wife. His google history included things like:

how do I get rid of a body

if I have blood on my clothes from a crime should I wash them or throw them away

do bodies decompose faster when buried

The list went on and on. He did not use the "I'm just a writer defense." He was just stupid.

If you mean Brian Walshe, I can assure you that his fame has spread far and wide 

Give the guy some credit though, he used his kid's ipad to do the searches, he's not a complete idiot. 

I googled "anatomy of a wind chime" and learned that the center piece that the chimes hit is called a "striker" or "clapper." 

That's debatable. 

It's totally the prevailing office gossip here. It's a lot of excitement for the South Shore. 

I googled "science behind foot fetishes" and did not get porn, so maybe try that.

Every town set their clocks based on solar noon.  It was the railroads that put an end to it so they could publish schedules.

India decided nobody can tell them what time it is and set one average time for the whole country, so they're offset by thirty minutes.

Russia (11 time zones wide) tried to set all the clocks west of the Urals to Moscow time, so cities like Samara woke up too darn early, and went to bed in the late afternoon.  That didn't last long, but much like Illinois is Chicago Russia is Moscow.

The list goes on...

I tend to be stupidly curious about things, so my search history is always bizarre.  Don't use google, but they probably know about it anyway.  My browser settings are pretty draconian, but they know.

romance where everyone dies in the end

My assigned genre is spy. 

I didn't know "evil wind spirits" would bring up such a small amount of legends to choose from.

How to distract a black bear

This story is exhausting...

Now I'm dying to know your genre 

I'm not sure how much of this will make the final cut but it has been fun!

Think the post about flushing a cat down a toilet is hysterical!  Makes me wonder who in Google land does see all our crazy searches!  LOL

synonym of 'snake charmer' 

other terms for 'snake charmer'

urban dictionary def of 'snake charmer'

synonym of snake

ugh

I sat here earlier for an embarrassingly long time trying to remember the word "denial." So I totally feel you.

Supernatural had an episode on the Pishtacos. They worked at a day spa. 

I completely forgot about this episode! Amy was in it, too!

Fascinating! I learn something new every day!

I didn't get a definitive answer just the best age for egg retrieval which isn't what I need for my story at all.

I’m assuming this is something to do with chickens, but I initially thought of children doing an Easter egg hunt 😂

As a way of controlling population numbers in the world my story is set in I want them to get all the eggs out of girls at puberty and store them since women are born with all the eggs they'll ever have.

Average length of sex - wild variations here as it depends on what you say is included. Ranged from 33 seconds to 33 minutes.

Crime rate of Cwmbran compared to Abergavenny. Abergavenny is safer.

What in the world? 33 seconds? And also I feel like I know where that scene went 😂

I, an English graduate, once spent several minutes trying to remember how to spell goed (goed? gode? goad?). Goed - you know, the past tense of go.

That is fantastic. I once asked my mom in a fit of absolute frustration how to spell “of” (I was in high school at the time). She looked at me like I’d lost my mind. She said, “O-f” and I was like HOW… how is there not a V in that word?! She was like “aren’t you in honors classes?” LMAO

Is it just me, or do these also sound like good names for pharmaceuticals?

I've also done this, how is it not Ove.  I also once couldn't remember how to spell blue, I could only remember how to spell it in French, which of course has all the same letters.

Lyrics to Bonnie Tyler songs

Colours of Porsche 911s

Phases of the moon

My character took over - not things I expected to need for my story!

Whenever I can't think of a word I know that I should know, I use the OneLook thesaurus.

Basically you can type a general description of what you're looking for and it gives you many words (as opposed to a normal thesaurus where you have to type one word). For example, if I couldn't think of denial, I would type something like "when you know something is true but don't want to believe it." I just tried it and the first synonym it gave me was denial

Just fyi the word "adoption" isn't the best word to describe what was actually happening in this situation...

Ohhhh

That makes more sense 😅

I just goed look at it (sorry, I had to...  ) and it's brilliant!

I looked up whether Patrick Swayze danced across a river or a stream in Dirty Dancing! Then, equipment needed for birding. Turns out you don't need that much equipment to go birding. Who knew!

What did they call area rugs in 1900?

What noises do seals make? 

Names of seashells 

It's been fun so far ... not! But learning a lot, which I will be using to try to get on Jeopardy

rapid onset fatal virus

fatal blood-borne virus

fatal blood-borne pathogen

rapid onset fatal pathogen

...nothing to see here... 

Does anybody else spend far too long googling character names and titles? Just me?!

Not a puppet but when I helped with props for a theatre group I had to make a life-sized doll called Mr Spinalzo for a (deceased) character in a production of 'Arsenic and Old Lace'. He sat in a corner of the props room for ages afterwards scaring people who didn't know he was there.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/buffalo-slaughter" rel="nofollow - U.S. Buffalo Slaughter Summarized In One Shocking Photo (allthatsinteresting.com)

This project fascinates and terrifies me all at the same time 

Ooooooh yes. It's so, so many things all at once.

For me it was trying to place my setting in a location, finding the location I wanted does exist, finding photos and maps of the place, and having all that to work with. I had at least two dozen tabs open for this story. Closed half of them last night.

If they don't - I am writing a not for NYCM story on this 

-how can you add brass knuckles to evening gloves

-how can you make evening gloves into sap gloves

-what are the standard size and weight of brass knuckles

-when were brass knuckles invented

-what was the standard  size of a woman's formal evening purse in the 1940's

-what were the biggest political scandals in the 1950s

-which politicians wives have had to been placed under protective services due to their gossip habits

I don’t think there is an answer as Google just threw up nonsense on me instead of helping me. Or my way of phrasing my question angered the Google god so much it cursed me to never know.

This is actually how both of my grandparents met each other. My dad's mom was a secretary for a military office she went out with the office for a bowling party and met my grandfather when he was home on leave. She mispronounced his nickname which was on his bowling shirt and it became a running joke between them. All the way through their entire marriage. 

My mom's dad was in the US (he was RCAF) visiting a local factory for plane parts, and had been corresponding with my great aunt who a secretary. When he arrived at the office, my grandmother was there visiting her sister. 

Without WW2 neither of my grandparents would have met. 

The sad thing is I think I know one or two purely as I took french for so long and then learned a few when I studied abroad. Then picked up a few more last year when I read a romance novel that was set in Ottawa. The author had two characters who had a "dildo" war going on with each other. He covered a wide variety of various words in that novel.  

That is a very cool story!  :)

For my second story: cold water survival

I submitted the second story, although I like the potential of the first story much more.

1968.

This is my favorite answer so far!  I like specificity.

I recall playing Twister in the 60s.  Not that I'm old enough to remember the 60s!  I'm speaking metaphorically.  Seriously, I did not watch Neil Armstrong walk on a sound stage that looked a lot like the moon.

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I've done cold water survival.  I've done cold water 'let's go for a swim fully dressed so you'll know you can survive it'.  Twister is a lot more fun.

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...and?? How does one say "I need to take a sh**" in Old English?

Oof, 33 seconds. Yikes. 

I'm sure I'm on some type of watch list now haha Here is a small selection for you all: 

- when was modern Santa created

- how can santa be able to deliver all the presents in one night

- how would you describe the stance of a marine

- required traits for a secret service information analyst 

- Marine rank battalions purpose

- independent intelligence organisations guiding principles 

- secret service mottos 

- office chair gas lift replacement 

- theory of hydraulic pressure

Verb for being a lobsterman 

What do lobsterman wear 

How many lobsters does a small fishing boat catch in a day 

Infinite Regress

Where do the fates live?

Nothing too exciting. I will say while trying to brainstorm ideas I found an awesome visual word association website called visuwords.com

What makes firecrackers explosive