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TIL Charles Dickens had a talking pet raven named Grip, who terrorized his dog, buried valuables in the yard, and died eating "a pound or two" of lead paint. As a character in one of his novels, Grip is believed to have inspired Poe's famous poem, and is on display in a Philadelphia public library

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woeE7 TIL that before Jerry Lewis made it a part of his routine, "The Announcer's Test" was used to challenge the reading skills, diction, enunciation, and speed of prospective Radio Central New York announcers in the 1940's
LkO0p TIL Aloha Wanderwell was the first woman to drive around the world, befriended Chinese bandits, captured the first footage of the Bororo tribe, and disguised herself as a man to pray in Mecca.
5YaZ8 TIL between 1990 and 1998 the population of water voles in the UK dropped from 2.2 million to just 354k or 750k, depending on the source.
XEglE TIL: Horseshoe crab has 10 eyes. Some detect both visible & UV light and some help find mates during the spawning season.. The eyes are a million times more sensitive to light at night than day. They've been around for 450 million years, are not crabs actually and more related to spiders.
PZ4e TIL Peter O'Toole found his camel saddle uncomfortable while filming Lawrence of Arabia, so he put a piece of foam rubber under it. The film’s Bedouin extras saw this and copied it, and today the practice has spread to become Bedouin tradition. They call O’Toole “Father of the Sponge”.