› added 8 years ago

106

TIL the small cloth placed over the back of your chair on a plane or a train is called an ‘antimacassar’. They are so named because they were originally used to protect the fabric of the chair from macassar oil; a very famous hair product in the Victorian period.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

NXybQ TIL about the "Cabbage Patch Kids War" of 1983, a phenomenon where parents across the United States engaged in frenzied shopping battles to secure Cabbage Patch Kids dolls for Christmas. The demand for these dolls far exceeded the supply, leading to store stampedes, fights, and even injuries.
7rjNx TIL that the Ancient Egyptian text Debate Between a Man and His Soul is about a man deeply unhappy with life without the will to continue to live, saying one cannot find friends anymore and that nobody is good anymore. It is considered the oldest text on depression. It ends on a positive note.
LkyyZ TIL Christopher Walken saw a photo of Elvis in a magazine in the 1950s and thought he looked like a Greek god. At 15 he changed his hairstyle to emulate him, and hasn’t changed it since.
75XL TIL Earth’s crust under the Solar Eclipse of Aug 21 will rise about 40 millimeters, due to the combined gravitational force of the Sun and the Moon.
XEM7j TIL that AllSpice is not a mixed spice. Also known as Pimenta, AllSpice is made from the dried unripe fruit of Pimenta dioica and originates from Central and South American. It was named ‘Allspice’ by the English because it combined the flavours of clove, nutmeg and cinnamon