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TIL that "May God have mercy upon your soul" is a phrase used in courts by judges pronouncing a sentence of death upon a person found guilty of a crime that requires a death sentence. It is a way to attribute God as the higher authority of law & judges did not have the authority to destroy souls.

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QJdO6 TIL the saying "to work up an appetite" originated from back when people would become hungry as the result of physical labor AND THEN consume food. Wow, the more you know! These days, I've just been saying, "Man, I really jerked up the ability to binge-eat an entire carrot cake."
6E5YZ TIL about Juan Pujol Garcia, a spy who single handedly saved thousands of lives during D-Day by using his made-up network of spies to convince the Germans that another attack was going to happen in Calais instead of Normandy. He was also the only person to be decorated by both the Axis and Allies.
d87 Today I learned cicadas have evolved 13 and 17 year breeding cycles, because prime integers rarely sync with other integers making it rare that they will breed in sync with predators.
7jYL TIL In 1889 a lion escaped from a traveling show in Birmingham and ran into the sewers. When an angry mob formed, Frank Bostock, the owner secretly snuck another lion out the back. He then returned with the lion clearly visible and was hailed a hero. The escaped lion was still in the sewers.
v1RB8 TIL that during the Watergate investigation, the Nixon team offered to let a Democratic Senator listen to the 'Nixon tapes'. A Senator who was hard of hearing and on pain medication.