Post * GYRrQ — Curious Curator

› added 6 years ago

94

TIL 1-800-COLLECT was so popular in the 90s that AT&T launched a competing service, 1-800-Operator. However AT&T later discovered many people misspell Operator with 'er' instead of 'or' at the end, and that unfortunately, 1-800-COLLECT owned the misspelled number and had been taking their customers.

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wAnE TIL via Ancestry, that my family was a part of a eugenics study, that claimed that my grandmother was the “mother of criminals” with over 100 prostitutes and 76 convicted criminals in the family line, the family was urged not to reproduce.

8aR0K TIL there is believed to be only one remaining Jew in Afghanistan. He has special permission to butcher his own meat according to Kosher law, and is caretaker to the only remaining synagogue in Kabul. Despite his family having emigrated to Israel, he himself refuses: "Why should I leave?"

ypDV TIL in the 19th century Human Zoos (zoos that displayed humans) were quite popular. The last one was closed in 1958; oddly, the first person to ban them was Hitler.

KOpQJ TIL that the term "420" was coined by five students in 1971 at San Rafael High School to signal a meetup at 4:20 p.m. by the campus’ statue of chemist Louis Pasteur to take a hit.They chose that specific time because extracurricular activities had usually ended by then.

1aJEV TIL of Ablaut Reduplication - a subtle rule of linguistics which dictates why "King Kong" sounds more right than "Kong King", "Hip hop" sounds more correct than "Hop hip". Similarly "tick tock", "zig zag", "chit chat" etc.