› added 2 years ago

69

TIL that when a metaphor stops needing its imagery to be understood and becomes idiomatic ("footage", "fly off the handle", "blow off steam"), it is considered "dead".

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

j6PMa TIL Zhang Zongchang, a Chinese warlord, had proclaimed that he would return only in a coffin if he was defeated in battle. When his forces were pushed back in a campaign, he was true to his word—he was paraded through the streets, sitting in his coffin and smoking a cigar
eYk5 TIL British journalist Lanre Fehintola voluntarily got addicted to Heroin in order to help him understand the lifestyle he was writing about. Last heard of him, he is still battling the addiction.
QeMk TIL That after celebrating Nazi defeat during WWII, all of Moscow ran out of vodka
EgY9d TIL the last Woolly Mammoth population still existed when the the Pyramid of Giza was being constructed.
gM1K4 TIL that the last American WWI veteran lied about his age to serve in the military at 16. He told one recruiter he was 18 but was told to go home "before my mother noticed I was gone." Instead of being discouraged, he doubled down and told the next recruiter he was 21 and was signed up on the spot.