› added 6 years ago

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TIL Wario is named Wario because it's a portmanteau of the words 'Mario' and the Japanese word 'warui' (æ‚Șい), meaning "bad"- not because a W is an upside-down M to signify that he's Mario's evil counterpart.

Qmkp TIL famed sci-fi author Isaac Asimov refused the invitation to renowned A.I. pioneer Marvin Minsky’s lab at MIT in the 1960s because he was “Writing about really intelligent robots of the future and was sure that if he came and saw the clumsy ones that we were making it would spoil his imagination.”
QOBa TIL the sandwich was supposedly invented by the Earl of Sandwich, who was so addicted to gambling that he refused to leave the table for meals, and demanded something he could eat with one hand. It caught on amongst other players, who ordered “the same as sandwich” - thus, “the sandwich”.
VMmW0 TIL that the beloved British dish of fish&chips was the result of Portugeuse Jews fleeing the Inquisition and bringing their fried fish dish and potatoes losing their bad reputation as gross and poisonous, becoming a European staple.
8a5NG TIL that meth is called crank because the motorcycle gangs that trafficked it use to hide it in the crank case of their motorcycles.
WknmY TIL of the "national bathtub", a mass execution during the French Revolution when thousands of suspected royalists were drowned in the river Loire. At first, the perpetrators carried the drownings at night to avoid suspicion, but the dozen of floating bodies in the following days gave them away.