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TIL it was custom for soldiers to sing obscene songs mocking their commanders during Roman military parades. One of the songs about Caesar survives: "Men of Rome, lock up your wives—we bring you the bald adulterer! The gold you loaned him here in Rome, he wasted on the whores of Gaul."

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7mlp TIL that a group of inmates from a maximum security prison in New York beat the Harvard debate team in a debate competition
OoED7 TIL that in 2008, Minnesotsa passed a state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots, there was an exception for performers in theatrical productions. Some bars got around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in costume, and pronouncing them "actors."
rRKZ4 TIL about Tanya Savicheva, a Russian girl that cronicled in her diary the deaths of all her family members during the siege of Leningrad, ending with "Everyone is dead. Only Tanya is left".
b4ea TIL Coke countered Crystal Pepsi with Tab Clear. The idea was that Tab was perceived as an inferior, boring diet type drink, and equating it as competition with Crystal Pepsi would damage its image. Coke succeeded and both products were dead within five months
R7Er1 TIL while "instant mashed potatoes" tend to be associated with modern and instant foods, the process of drying and grinding starchy vegetables for storage goes back to ancient times. The Incas made a freeze-dried potato food called chuño and Japanese Ainu cuisine also uses ground and dried potatoes.