› added 5 years ago

138

TIL the song Over the River and Through the Wood is actually about Thanksgiving, and although we don't usually associate Thanksgiving with snow, at the time it was written, in the early 19th century, New England was going through the Little Ice Age.

yPkV TIL that Ron Howard has given each of his children the middle name of where they were conceived: Bryce (Dallas), Jocelyn and Paige (Carlyle; Carlyle Hotel, NYC), and Reed (Cross; famous London street. Reed was named after the street because according to Howard, “Volvo isn’t a very good middle name.”
neXZr TIL the 1993 film Philadelphia, the story of a man who was discriminated against due to having AIDS, was itself subject of a lawsuit. The family of the late Geoffrey Bowers sued, claiming that the film heavily borrowed from the story of his own lawsuit without giving him compensation or credit.
nelR7 TIL that the Ice Bucket Challenge actually helped fund the the discovery of a gene linked to the cause of ALS. The gene, NEK1, and its variants held clues to understanding and treating the disease.
9wBwB TIL in 2015, a woman's parachute failed to deploy while skydiving, surviving with life-threatening injuries. Days before, she survived a mysterious gas leak at her house. Both were later found to be intentional murder plots by her husband.
pYrVO TIL The hit song 'Walk Like an Egyptian' was inspired when the song writer was on a ship in rough waters and the way people bent their arms as they steadied themselves reminded him of old Egyptian poses. He originally offered the song to Tony Basil (Oh Mickey) but she turned it down.