› added 6 years ago

94

TIL about Richard Francis Burton, a British "explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer, and diplomat." He spoke 29 languages, translated the Kama Sutra, and shocked Victorian England with his essays about homosexuality.

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78YrP TIL there is a stable population of rhesus macaque monkeys in central Florida. They were released on an island in a swamp as part of a jungle cruise attraction in 1938, but escaped the island because the tour operator didn’t know they could swim.
R5vM9 TIL other actors considered for Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs included Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Forest Whitaker. When Anthony Hopkins was offered the role by his agent, he mistakenly thought it was a family film and asked, "Is it a children's story?"
75nO TIL that “The Hound” is the same man responsible for the word “Yarp”. Actor Rory McCann played both Sandor “The Hound” Clegane in “Game of Thrones”, and Michael “Lurch” Armstrong the stock-boy/henchman in “Hot Fuzz”.
dAP7 TIL Beer steins originally did not have lids. They were added during the age of the Black Plague, to prevent diseased fleas from getting into the beer.
k4ge TIL Mary J. Blige hit her own husband in the face and screamed, “What are you gonna do, Chris Brown me?”