› added 10 years ago

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TIL In English, adjectives go in this order: Opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose-noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife.

GYOLj TIL Spike Milligan, member of comedy team The Goons, joked after fellow member Harry Secombe sang at Peter Sellers' funeral, "I hope you die before me because I don't want you singing at my funeral." 22 years later, at Milligan's memorial, Secombe's son played a recording of his late father singing.
VMgP4 TIL the nurse being kissed by the sailor in the iconic V-J photo went unidentified for 20 years, when she self-identified and explained she "had stepped outside to see what the commotion was when I suddenly found myself in a sailor's embrace." The two had never met, and the photo was caught by luck.
xV8D0 TIL that Senator John Ashcroft is the only Senator to lose reelection to a dead person. His opponent died in a plane crash 2 weeks before the vote and his name was unable to be taken off the ballot.
yV0OX TIL In 1920s Paris, artist Waldo Peirce gifted his concierge a turtle and, as a prank, secretly swapped it for several progressively larger ones, convincing her its growth was a miracle. Once the neighborhood marveled, he reversed the prank, using the same turtles, leaving her utterly baffled.
xV0D5 TIL a Starbucks Venti size differs for hot (20 oz) and cold (24 oz) drinks. Grande (16 oz) and Tall (12 oz) sizes remain the same for hot and cold drinks.