› added 11 years ago

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TIL that the original Gettysburg address was a disaster: no one expected Lincoln to show up, he wasn’t the key speaker, and the reaction from the audience was so muted that he considered the speech a failure

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oMmK TIL George R. R. Martin, writer of ASOIAF (Game of Thrones) refered to Breaking Bad as “Amazing” and noted that “Walter White is a bigger monster than anyone in Westeros”, then said it has influenced him to make an even worse character in future books to “fix this”.
OGP57 til E. E. Cummings preferred capitalizing his name. "e. e. cummings" was popularized by his publishers, to reflect his odd style. After his death, one critic claimed the author legally de-capitalized his name, but Cummings' wife said this was an utter lie. Still, the tradition stuck around.
K04w TIL it is illegal to homeschool in Germany, and that homeschooled children may be removed from their parents even if these children are found to be well taken care of.
5YR6r TIL about the existence of "reverse money laundering", the process of disguising the use of clean money to finance illegal activities.
V7b8 TIL: Harry Truman, before he became the President, tried to enlist in the Army. He was refused after an eye chart test determined him having 20/400 vision in the left eye (past the standard for legal blindness). He took the test a second time after memorizing the eye chart and got enlisted.