› added 9 years ago

151

TIL on April Fools’ Day 1957 the BBC current-affairs programme Panorama, purportedly showed a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from the family “spaghetti tree”. Spaghetti was so little-known that many Britons contacted the BBC for advice on growing their own trees.

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via reddit.com

5YJOR TIL that Maria Von Trapp, whose memoir inspired “The Sound of Music” and who made a cameo appearance in the film, was not invited to the premiere. Von Trapp later inquired why and producers told her, “There were no seats left,” without apology.
p5JO TIL there is a stuffed animal hospital that cleans and repairs beloved stuffed animals and dolls. The toys are called patients, shipped in an ambulance box, and returned wearing a hospital bracelet with their name.
WkV99 TIL Pythagoras' followers weren't allowed to eat beans. He believed that the flatulence caused by the beans would take away a piece of the soul.
VM7Rk TIL in 1857 Charles Lockock, believing there to be a cause-effect relationship between masturbation and seizures, began to treat his patients with potassium bromide which was known to reduce sex drive. In doing so, he serendipitously discovered what would become the first drug therapy for epilepsy.
grld8 TIL Dust jackets for hard cover books were originally only meant to protect the book from dust and damage, and were not the main focus. As time went on, they shifted from protection to decoration; however you're still supposed to take them off while reading.