Post * LQlVZ — Curious Curator

› added 1 year ago

48

TIL: "Jumbo" was a male African bush elephant who was an attraction for PT Barnum. He was hit by a train in St. Thomas, Ontario and died. He was not named Jumbo because of his size; we got the word "jumbo" because of his name.

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DkVj TIL all north and east bound flight fly at odd altitudes and south and west bound flight fly at even altitudes

K7j6 TIL, the pen name, Mark Twain, is steamboat slang for 12 feet of water.

MeP6b TIL on Kinmen (a small group of islands off the coast of mainland China controlled by Taiwan) knives are made from spent artillery shells. "Kinmen knives" were originally made from Allied artillery during WWII; blacksmiths now use shells fired from mainland China during the 1950s-1970s.

eZRg TIL that the only actual case of poisoned Halloween candy occurred in 1974 when a father killed his son with a cyanide-laced Pixy Stick so he could collect life insurance.

NX4LP TIL that Catalan families take care of a log named Tio de Nadal from Dec 8 until Christmas, when they hit it with wet sticks and sing songs until it shits presents.