› added 1 year ago

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TIL the word "gunsel" didn't originally mean gunman, it meant catamite. Hammett used the word in the Matlese Falcon because he was sure his editor wouldn't know the real meaning, and the mistaken meaning became common usage.

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R5Bb1 Today I Learned that footmen in a great house would always be called "James" or "John" regardless of what their actual name was. This was because the footmen may have a too working-class sounding name.
P1Yrg TIL that less than half of all societies kiss with their lips, according to a study of 168 cultures from around the world and a professor of anthropology at the University of Nevada Las Vegas found that only 46% use lip-to-lip kissing in a romantic sense, excluding things like parent-child kissing.
MeNvW TIL there isn’t a single reported case of a person dying from a Tarantula bite.
9Y86X TIL: That cruise ships cause significant environmental harm by burning bunker fuel, the "nastiest and deadliest" fuel in the world.
v1lpR TIL that the Stars On 45 medley I remember from the 80s didn’t include the real Beatles, but a bunch of re-recorded versions with Dutch impersonators, and therefore got around any rights issues.