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TIL That two days before 9/11 Parade Magazine ran a blurb about the FBI trying to "smoke out" Osama Bin Laden and "see clearly through the smoke" with matchbook advertisements, just as they had done after the 1993 WTC bombing

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P7GE TIL that Fox originally wanted to make Matt Groening’s “Life in Hell” into an animated series, but Groening didn’t want to lose his rights to it, so he said he had “this other family, called the Simpsons,” and then he proceeded to draw figures on a napkin that he made up on the spot.
4v9X TIL that there is such a thing as a “sound laser”; a device that projects sound in a straight line. For example, you could play a song to your friend across the room and have only him hear it.
R7oe8 TIL American distributor of the movie Once Upon a Time in America shortened it to 139 minutes, without the director's involvement. That version was a critical and commercial flop in the US. Meanwhile, European Cut (229 mins) has remained as one of the best gangster movie ever by many critics
O7kX TIL that the ZIP in ZIP Code stands for: Zone Improvement Plan
8aEP4 TIL The Price Is Right rigs the plinko game for promotional ads using fishing line so that the chip lands in the $10,000 slot. The wire was mistakenly left in place and a contestant dropped 3 consecutive chips before it was noticed. She was allowed to keep the money.