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TIL In the 1800s, feeding lobster to prisoners was considered “cruel and unusual punishment, like making people eat rats”

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DvJe TIL that there is a company that comes up with brand names, and came up with ‘BlackBerry’, 'PowerBook’, and 'Pentium’
jNWLj TIL that baseball players have tried to fool base runners into an out by using a fake ball made with a frozen, painted potato. The hidden potato trick has a hundred year history, and was last used in a 1987 minor league game.
E1OYV TIL during WWII US Navy seamen would drain the fuel from torpedos (180-proof grain alcohol) then filter it though bread to make a cocktail called torpedo juice.
BrXrk TIL that Pablo Picasso demanded his mistresses to be submissive and shorter than him. He thought women were "either goddesses or doormats". Dora Maar, one of his lovers, called him "an extraordinary artist but morally worthless".
8aVo8 TIL Fort Wayne, IN had a mayor named Harry Baals, and in recent years have had to adjust street signs and buildings named after him and his family now pronounces the name 'Bales'.