› added 10 years ago

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TIL Paralyzed Writer Jean-Dominique Bauby developed a method of communication based around blinking just his one working eyelid. his final book, about 140 pages long, took Bauby an estimated 200,000 blinks to complete. The book ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ was a critically acclaimed hit.

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YpZ1A TIL that when the very famous mime Jean-Gaspard Duburau (creator of the modern Pierrot) was accused of murder in 1836, hundreds of Parisians came to the courthouse. Not for the trial itself but just to finally hear the voice of the mime.
LEvZ TIL that a Turkish cell phone mis-rendered a text message, making it look as though a husband was accusing his wife of cheating on him. This caused a fight in which the wife was stabbed and subsequently died. The husband later killed himself in prison.
VMJlG TIL the Catholic Church has a zero-tolerance policy on revealing confessions. If a Catholic priest reveals anything someone confessed to him, he is automatically excommunicated and can only be forgiven by the Pope.
BK0L TIL J.R.R. Tolkien would begin his lecture series on Beowulf by loudly reciting the beginning lines of the poem…in the original Anglo-Saxon language.
x68Pg TIL Cyndi Lauper sang a parody of her 1985 song "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" for the Bob's Burger's Season 2 premiere which aired in 2012. The episode is a parody of The Goonies. She said, "My son really wanted me to do it. He loves the show and was like, 'C'mon, Mom, it's hysterical. Do it."