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TIL In fascist Italy, people deemed to be the enemies of the state were forced to drink castor oil as a punishment: this was often used after beatings as the dehydration effect complicated the recovery.

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kOx9e TIL Marquette University bought the original manuscripts and multiple working drafts of "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" from J.R.R. Tolkien for only 1,500 pounds (less than $5,000) in 1956. At the time, no other institution had expressed an interest in Tolkien's literary manuscripts.
0wMXp TIL The movie "Tootsie" was based on a nickname given to Dustin Hoffman by his mother.
7l5x TIL the unofficial fastest recorded time to drive from New York, New York to LA, California was 28 hours and 50 minutes in a 2004 Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG
d85nZ TIL that a Japanese drink company released a mixture of beer and milk that they called "Bilk". It is no longer made.
R7eR4 TIL that before women became the mainstay telephone operators were teenage boys. The change came about when the lads being pesky teenagers pulled too many pranks, got drunk on the job and swore down the phone