› added 11 years ago

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TIL that the word “nickname” is just a screwed up version of “ekename,” which means “additional name.” People confused “an ekename” enough that it became “a nickname.”

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via reddit.com

gOkD TIL the first issue of Life magazine, entitled “Life Begins,” featured the birth of a baby named George Story. A month after LIFE announced its closure in 2000, Story died of heart failure, and Life’s final issue was entitled “A Life Ends.”
rN9b0 TIL that the Tim Tam came after the Penguin
LrKd TIL Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in DC, faced harassment based on her ethnicity after her design was picked, including presidential candidate Ross Perot calling her an “egg roll”.
5YQ6B TIL about "whisker fatigue" in cats - they eat only from the center of their food bowls and then cry about it because brushing their whiskers on the side of the bowl causes sensory overload
VMKgm TIL of Alexis Benoît Soyer (born 1810) who was one of the first “celebrity” chefs. In addition to creating recipes, he invented a stove for soldiers to use during the Crimean war, wrote books and pamphlets on cooking, and did a lot to help the suffering in Ireland during the potato famine.