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TIL Jim Downey, who played the high school principal in Billy Madison, was a longtime writer on SNL. His famous “May God have mercy on your soul” speech at the end of the film was based on a speech Downey used to give to Chris Farley when Farley presented terrible ideas in the SNL writers’ room.

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yQa68 TIL about the Ford Nucleon, a concept car designed during the Atomic Age that was meant to have a small Uranium Fission reactor at the back. Nevertheless, the idea never materialized due to it being too dangerous and expensive.
voa8 TIL those scaffolds that cover sidewalks all over NYC are called “Sidewalk Sheds,” long enough to wrap around Manhattan six times and were due to a law passed in 1980 after a 17 year old girl was hit in the head by a falling brick. It created a billion dollar industry with sheds often up for years.
Z8GxG TIL at the end of Lee Iacocca's tenure as CEO Chrysler was so cash-strapped that they had to redesign their development process just to be able to afford making new models.
XEVDj TIL in the 1880s, the Harvard Observatory director was frustrated with his staff, and would say "My Scottish maid could do better!" So, he hired his Scottish maid. Williamina Fleming ran a team for decades, classified tens of thousands of stars, & discovered white dwarfs and the Horsehead Nebula.
OGEVR Today I Learned that the longest judicial trial in the history of the United States was the Pizza Connection Trial, where the Sicilian Mafia processed Heroin and Morphine for sale in Pizza Parlors during the 70's and 80's