› added 5 years ago

52

TIL that Jerry Rice (one of the greatest wide-receivers in NFL history) started playing football in his sophomore year of high school after his principal caught him skipping class. The principal noted how fast Rice sprinted away from him, which led him to recommend Rice to the football coach.

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ne8EW TIL Ben Franklin was such an incredible swimmer that he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968.
kO0em TIL that the Chinese equivalent of "when pigs fly" is "when the sun rises in the West." Other variants include "when the crayfish whistles" (Russian), "when the crow turns white" (Tagalog), "when the fish climbs the poplar" (Turkish), and "when it snows red snowflakes" (Hungarian).
VaPZ TIL JRR Tolkien was responsible for many W word definitions we have today in the Oxford English Dictionary
6EB47 TIL that most of the Methane produced by cows comes from Belching and not farting
b6YwN TIL that Leonard Cohen was never quite satisfied with his writing. He would spend days, months, and even years re-writing song lyrics until he was content. One example is his song “Hallelujah” - around 80 to about 180 draft verses were written for the song, and in the end, Cohen only chose four.