› added 8 years ago

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TIL Jelly Roll Morton, at the age of 14 tricked his great-grandmother into believing he was a night watchman at a barrel house when in fact he was working as a piano player in a brothel. In that atmosphere, he often sang smutty lyrics; he took the nickname "Jelly Roll", which was slang for vagina.

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j0Ov TIL That in 2007, renown violinist Joshua Bell once played 6 Bach pieces at a metro station in DC. He played some of the hardest songs ever on a $3,500,000 violin for 45 minutes, and made $32 with 6 people watching. He frequently sells out shows for $100 a piece. There was no applause.
OoNr7 TIL that statistically conservatives tend to be happier than liberals, and this phenomenon spans across multiple countries and that this persist even after basic demographic factors have been controlled.
8dyG TIL of the 1914 Christmas Truce. After months of fighting, German and Allied artillery fell silent, and Christmas carols filled the air instead. Both parties got out of their trenches and exchanged food, and held friendly football matches.
XE4VR TIL British spymaster Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming, the first head of the MI6 and the inspiration of James Bond's M, started the practice of using semen as invisible ink during WWI. It worked well, until they realised that the letters smelled awful when received.
nWZ5o TIL a study found that 23 cases of 'Sudden Gamer Death' (a non-violent death linked to playing video games) occurred between 2002-2021. In 18 of the cases, the gaming session before death was extremely long (ranging from a day to several days) with minimal rest.