› added 4 years ago

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TIL Brenda Vaccaro's 1980 Playtex Ad was infamous for her loud inhalations. Producers pulled the ad, took out her breathing, and re-released the ad, showing her taking breaths even though you could not hear them. It resulted in SCTV famously spoofing the Ad and the ad being pulled entirely.

nWmN7 TIL National Geographic editor Bill Garrett was fired from the magazine in 1990 because he wanted to publish more controversial features that raised production costs and stories about AIDS, Exxon Valdez oil spill were published under his direction
0wn41 TIL Nirvana considered making a video for All Apologies that featured Kurt Cobain playing Lee Harvey Oswald, singing to the camera and making a pie in the book depository. Cobain would then throw the pie out the window, which would hit Kennedy (played by Grohl or Novoselic) in the back of the head.
QYgL TIL two different men disappeared in Naples, Florida one year apart. Both were last seen being arrested by the same officer. Neither of them were officially ‘booked’ as the officer told investigators he dropped them both off at gas stations. Their bodies have never been found.
7AVX TIL that all bananas (or nearly all) consumed in the United States are picked very green, then ‘flash ripened’ by exposing them to ethylene gas. I also learned (see wiki in 1st comment) that ethylene is the most-used organic compound in industry.
gok4 TIL dust / dirt devils are called “djin” meaning “genie” or “devil” in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, and Jordan. This is where the mythical genie came from and why genies are typically depicted without legs.