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TIL the defense mechanism of the American Opossum, "Playing Dead", is an involuntary action. The opossum will seize up, evacuate bowels, and excrete "dead thing" smell from a gland

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MLQ0 TIL current Miss America, Kira Kazantsev, was expelled from her sorority, Alpha Phi, for cruel hazing.
E1Jbw TIL From 1994-99 George Foreman was paid about 40% of the profits on each Foreman grill sold, earning him $4.5M a month in payouts at its peak. In the period it’s estimated he received over $200M, more than he did as a boxer.
8wJ8 TIL that Orson Wells’ famous radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds (which aired 75 years ago today) actually caused almost none of the public panic for which it became famous; newspapers’ over-reporting of the incident was actually an attempt to discredit radio as a news source
bAeN TIL “Mele Kalikimaka,” the Hawaiian phrase for “Merry Christmas,” is actually just a phonetic attempt to say the English phrase using the palette of sounds available in the Hawaiian language.
klLm TIL when Christmas first began, the celebrations included getting intoxicated, having sex, and singing naked in the streets (the origin of modern Christmas caroling).