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TIL Taking an old song and just changing the words to make a new song is called contrafactum. Earliest examples of contrafactum date to the 9th century and a famous examples is "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow", 1800s adapted from "Marlborough Has Left for the War", 1700s.

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oBE7r TIL the role of Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles was nearly played by Viggo Mortensen. Molly Ringwald recalled flying to New York to perform the final Jake/cake scene with potential male leads. “Michael Shoeffling did not kiss me during the audition, Viggo Mortensen did...He made me weak in the knees."
J1YDj TIL that Montana Pool Service is a non-profit organization founded by Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam, that builds skateboard parks in rural and native communities in Montana. So far its funded over 20 parks.
Bg7xW TIL Ernie Hudson, who played Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters movies, was rejected from a role in the Ghostbusters cartoons because they thought he didn't sound like Winston Zeddemore
kO0X7 TIL Race car driver Niki Lauda was born into a wealthy Austrian family but cut off contact because they did not support his career. Without their support he ended up having to go into debt to continue driving... but ended up becoming one of the most successful F1 drivers in history
Y7VpB TIL about the Mars to Stay initiative, which proposes that the first astronauts sent to Mars go with the intent to stay. Unused emergency return vehicles would be turned into settlements as soon as habitability becomes evident. This would both reduce cost and ensure permanent settlement.