› added 7 months ago

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TIL in 1984, 13-year-old Andy Smith wrote to President Reagan asking for funds to clean his bedroom after his mom called it a “disaster area”. Raegan sent a tongue-in-cheek reply saying his funds were “dangerously low” and suggested he practice volunteerism instead to solve local problems.

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78NXP TIL that in the 1830s, ketchup was sold as a patent medicine. Dr. John Cook Bennett claimed it could cure indigestion, diarrhoea, and jaundice, and it was even sold in pill form.
oB4Rr TIL before the Beatles' film, A Hard Day's Night was released in America, an executive asked the director to dub the voices of the group with mid-Atlantic accents. Paul McCartney angrily replied, "Look, if we can understand a fucking cowboy talking Texan, they can understand us talking Liverpool."
jNZGM TIL Sean Connery was offered was 15% of worldwide box office receipts to play Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, but turned it down for "not understanding the script." The deal would have been worth about $400 million.
0wG05 TIL 'Flip-Flop', 'chit chat', 'criss cross', are actually examples of a grammatical rule in English called, 'Ablaut Reduplication'. The rule always follows the same order of vowels, 'I-A-O'. There are no examples of Reduplication that break this rule.
4ydJ TIL that for the last 17 months of Woodrow Wilson’s Presidency his wife Edith handled all official communication with her husband after a stroke left him bed ridden. Edith Wilson is now considered by some historians to be America’s first female President.