› added 10 years ago

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TIL Jason Alexander, the actor for George on Seinfeld, once questioned Larry David about the script saying, “This could never happen to anyone, and even if it did, no human being would react like this.” David replied, “What do you mean? This happened to me once, and this is exactly how I reacted!”

6EWYX TIL that Gerald Ratner, ex-CEO of a budget jewelry chain, destroyed £500 million in company value with a single speech in which he called his products "total crap" and "cheaper than an M&S prawn sandwich but probably wouldn't last as long." Such gaffes are now known as "doing a Ratner."
OoX04 TIL that there is a defunct Philippine Basketball team that went by the name the FedEx Express and the Burger King Whoppers.
x65Lb TIL Miklós Lászlós play Parfumerie was the basis of the movies The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime, and You Got Mail, and the musical She Loves Me, among other adaptations; all based around two people who hate each other in person but fall in love via correspondence.
a4WN TIL that there’s a 307-mile highway in Italy that was started in the 60s, isn’t yet finished, what is finished is falling apart, received $471 million in EU grants but most of the money went to the Mafia.
4JPw TIL in the 18th century many prominent voices were concerned by an ‘epidemic’ affecting young people whereby they were spending too much time reading books. It was diagnosed as 'a dangerous disease’ called 'reading rage, reading fever, reading mania or reading lust.’