› added 2 days ago

TIL Rather than bathing with soap and water, Benjamin Franklin preferred “air baths” - sitting naked in front of an open window for up to an hour.

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via reddit.com

wLpv6 TIL that “cut” in cut, copy, paste not only deletes, but it also copies at the same time
yQmxV TIL about Drayton Daugherty, a doctor who cured a dying man by pretending to undo a voodoo hex in a last ditch effort after modern medicine didn't work. The man believed he was cured and lived for ten more years.
6EJ4m TIL that the "short" in shortcrust pastry refers to how the fats in the dough stop the flour from forming long gluten proteins in any direction; puff pastry has glutens in layers between layers of fat, like lasagne sheets. Overwork it, and glutens are formed in all directions, making it tough!
5J1n TIL a priest imprisoned in Auschwitz for aiding Jews volunteered to die in a stranger’s place. He lived for 2 weeks without food or water before being given a lethal injection.
YWRP TIL: Lettuce was first cultivated by the ancient Egyptians who turned it from a weed, whose seeds were used to produce oil, into a food plant grown for its succulent leaves.