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TIL the expression "avoid like the plague" originates from priest and theologian Saint Jerome (c. 347–420), who wrote, "Avoid, as you would the plague, a clergyman who is also a man of business.” Back then, clergymen were also politicians.

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QJjN9 TIL sculptor Tom Otterness adopted, chained, then shot and killed a dog for an art film and continues to get multi-million city contracts for sculptures.
ADXon TIL that songwriter Esther Dean composed “S&M” for Rihanna, then was later cast as Cynthia Rose in the Pitch Perfect movies. This means in the “riff-off” scene in the first movie, Esther got to sing her own song, but as a completely different person. Full circle.
kJ981 TIL all of Australia's 200 million wild rabbits are descended from a group of 13 European rabbits released in 1859 by Thomas Austin, a British settler released for him to hunt on his farm, by 1920 they peaked at 10 billion before a mass scale poisoning to prevent causing more environmental damage.
aw450 TIL in 1945, a school dropout and self-taught electrical engineer named Percy Spencer was working at Ratheon. He stepped in front of a magnetron, a device that powers radars. He noticed a chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. Later that year, he filed a patent for the first microwave oven.
XjbX TIL the Alferd G. Packer Memorial Grill in the cafeteria of UC Boulder is named after an infamous cannibal who ate his five companions during their journey across the Rockies in 1874. Their slogan is, “Have a friend for lunch!”.