TIL Thread: Today I learned...

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sun Nov 14, 2021 11:57 am

TIL that there was an actor named Harrison Ford. No, not the guy who played Han Solo and Indiana Jones, but an unrelated silent movie actor who died in 1957.

To make it even more confusing, both actors received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Harrison Ford the silent film actor's star is located at 6665 Hollywood Boulevard, while the current Harrison Ford's star is in front of Dolby Theater.

While I'm at it, two unrelated people named Michael Jackson have a star on Walk of Fame, one for the singer and another for a radio host (who is still alive). When the singer died fans left flowers on the radio host's star because the singer's star was blocked off due to a film premiere going on at the same time.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Mon Nov 15, 2021 9:01 pm

Pocket wrote:
Tue Nov 09, 2021 5:48 pm
People keep comparing NFTs to star registries so I decided to do some digging on how those actually work, thinking maybe it was something run by NASA as a way to fund astronomy research or whatever... turns out not only is it just some random people, it's multiple groups of random people, so there is a good chance the same star has occasionally been "sold" to multiple people by different agencies.

So yeah, it's a pretty spot-on analogy actually.
I had some relative buy me a star in one of those star registries as a Christmas gift somewhere near two decades ago. It was mildly interesting at the time, but I was mostly just sad once I realized those were just fancy presentation. It's the thought that counts, I suppose.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Pocket (?) » Sat Nov 20, 2021 2:57 am

I keep making Unicode discoveries. Like, you know how in comics, sound effects are sometimes written inside of half-asterisks, like

🗦BLAM🗧

Well, TIL there are, as you can clearly see, Unicode versions of those symbols, for some reason. Except apparently whatever default font is being used as the fallback to support it on most websites pads them with big spaces (I didn't indent that paragraph up there), which makes me suspect that it's there for some very specific purpose that has nothing to do with comics.

Still, anyone out there designing a "comic book lettering" font is quite welcome to make use of them. They're U+1F5E6 and U+1F5E7 respectively.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Nov 20, 2021 3:54 pm

TIL that one of the writers for Nickelodeon's "Angry Beavers", Micah Wright, got himself in a hot water in the early 2000s because he lied about being a military veteran while making comic books for DC with anti-Iraq War themes (he claimed he faked his credentials in order to give his anti-Bush stance weight).

DC cancelled the comic when the news came to light.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Nov 27, 2021 9:47 pm

TIL that Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, had his life saved from a possible train accident by Edwin Booth, the brother of the guy who shot his father.

I should note this happened before the assassination (about a year or two, although the exact date is unknown), but it's still somethin'.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Pocket (?) » Tue Nov 30, 2021 4:02 am

TIL "Sleigh Ride" by Leroy Anderson was released in instrumental form only one year before the first version with lyrics, sung by the Andrews Sisters. I bet most people think of the lyrics version as being a more modern take on a considerably older song that had already become a Christmas-radio staple.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Tue Nov 30, 2021 9:31 am

Yeah, I would have guessed the lyrics came decades later like with "Carol of the Bells".

TIL the story of "Carol of the Bells":

It began as a Ukrainian song named "Shchedryk", composed in 1916 and inspired by Ukrainian folk chants. The original lyrics refer to good tidings for the coming year -- it's really more of a New Year's song.



"Shchedryk" got performed in the US a few times, then in 1936 a Ukrainian-American composer said "you know what would sound good with this? Bells" and wrote a new arrangement with bells and Christmas lyrics. And there you have it.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Orange Fluffy Sheep (?) » Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:39 pm

Mr. Big wrote:
Sat Nov 27, 2021 9:47 pm
TIL that Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, had his life saved from a possible train accident by Edwin Booth, the brother of the guy who shot his father.

I should note this happened before the assassination (about a year or two, although the exact date is unknown), but it's still somethin'.
The guy who shot Booth performed a home vasectomy and had a nice dinner and a walk before going to a hospital for the self mutilation.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Pocket (?) » Wed Dec 01, 2021 7:25 pm

TIL Carrie Fisher owned a copy of The Star Wars Holiday Special (not a recording off TV, an official copy that she finagled Lucas into giving her in return for participating in the DVD commentaries of the original trilogy... which proves that he didn't actually destroy every copy he could find after all) and would put it on to get rid of houseguests who had overstayed their welcome.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Adiwan (?) » Thu Dec 02, 2021 3:41 am

:gonkity: BUT I WANT TO SEE THE HOLIDAY SPECIAL
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Thu Dec 02, 2021 11:35 am

Let's hope Carrie Fisher didn't have to deal with Ted Forth. Watching the Holiday Special is a Thanksgiving tradition for him, much to Sally and others' chagrin.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Dec 04, 2021 9:59 pm

You know that meme of Ralph Wiggum in a bus saying "I'm in danger?" TIL that came from a "Family Guy" crossover.



Honest to god I thought it came from an older episode :-I

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sat Dec 04, 2021 11:11 pm

TIL that older typewriters didn't have a key for 1, because it was deemed interchangeable with lower-case L. There was also no exclamation point key. To add one, you had to type in a period, go back a space, and type an apostrophe.

It wasn't until the 1970s that both keys became common in typewriters.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Adiwan (?) » Sun Dec 05, 2021 4:40 am

I had a touch typing course where we classes on electronic typewriters. There I had a lesson about when a key fails and on how to compose letters from other languages like ę (e with comma) or ł (l with /). The homework typ1n6 e><er(is3 tur|\|ed 6radu11ly fr0/\/\ n0r/\/\a1 t3><t to 13375|°34|<.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Wed Dec 08, 2021 2:06 am

TIL about the Pig War, involving a territory dispute between US and Britain on some remote island hardly anyone knows due to confusing treaty agreements. It caused an international incident because an American settler shot a pig belonging to a British subject.

Despite "War" in the name, there were no casualties (except for the pig) because, well, starting a major war over some guy shooting a pig is really dumb.


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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Adiwan (?) » Wed Dec 08, 2021 4:15 am

Pig-adjecent:
There is a rare German pig breed that resembles the Danish flag.
It was bred because under Prussian rule the Danish minority was prohibited from raising the Danish flag.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Protest_Pig
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Tue Dec 14, 2021 10:47 am

TIL that while Colonel Sanders spent time in the army, that's not where the Colonel part comes from. Kentucky has a non-military title called the "Kentucky Colonel" which the governor can bestow on good Kentuckians. He got his Kentucky colonelship in 1935 for being good at chicken.

Around the same time he got in a literal shootout with a competitor because Colonel Sanders was an OG.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:01 pm

reading the first part: oh yeah,i remember reading that

reading the second part: wtf
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Orange Fluffy Sheep (?) » Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:04 pm

a man died over painting ads on barns
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:06 pm

wtf?!
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Orange Fluffy Sheep (?) » Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:23 pm

beloved icon harlan sanders got into a gun fight over painting ads on barns, but I think it was sanders's buddy that actually shot a man dead
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Orange Fluffy Sheep (?) » Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:29 pm

he also fucked

a lot
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Tue Dec 14, 2021 3:08 pm

lol
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Fri Dec 17, 2021 10:09 am

You know how in "Over a Barrel" trains were pulled by a bunch of Ponies?

TIL that horses pulling a railway was, in fact, a thing. More info here

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Fri Dec 17, 2021 11:59 am

yup!
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Fri Dec 17, 2021 12:00 pm

in the uk they used to also ship stuff via canals and the boats were pulled by horses on the shore
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Fri Dec 17, 2021 12:01 pm

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Smoke (?) » Fri Dec 17, 2021 3:01 pm

Not just the UK, although in The Netherlands it was mainly passenger transport.

Also interesting is that the 17th century Dutch in that article is still understandable for Dutch speakers these days.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Pocket (?) » Fri Dec 17, 2021 4:00 pm

DaikatunaRevengeance wrote:
Fri Dec 17, 2021 12:00 pm
in the uk they used to also ship stuff via canals and the boats were pulled by horses on the shore
That was an American thing too. "I got a mule and her name is Sal, fifteen miles on the Erie Canal." I got to see some old canal boats once on a field trip; they still had the long pole attached that would hook onto the mule's yoke.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Fri Dec 17, 2021 4:50 pm

DaikatunaRevengeance wrote:
Fri Dec 17, 2021 12:00 pm
in the uk they used to also ship stuff via canals and the boats were pulled by horses on the shore
Sometimes one of the mules would escape, change its name and become a respectable citizen, and then an inspector mule would hunt it obsessively for years. That only happened a couple times though.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Fri Dec 17, 2021 7:06 pm



JUSTIN: This is a *huge* fucking stationary steam engine, which occupied a whole building and generated 65 horsepower.

[laughter]

ALICE: I mean, it makes a lot more sense if you know that the precursors to locomotive-driven railways were just a tramway where you have a single horse pull a cart down some rails, but Jesus Christ.

JUSTIN: “We have a whole building, that’s like having 65 horses! Which is the same number of horses that were sucked into the pipe last month.”

ALICE: That’s what the horsepower measures.

JUSTIN: This is the law of conservation of horses.

ALICE: Yeah, you feed the horse into a closed system …

[laughter]

JUSTIN This has definitely been one of our dumber episodes.

ALICE: Look, no one can say that we just read the Wikipedia page, because the Wikipedia page isn’t a one-paragraph summary of the facts and a seven-scroll-deep monologue about horse viscera.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Wed Dec 22, 2021 9:20 pm

Mechanical Ape wrote:
Tue Dec 14, 2021 10:47 am
TIL that while Colonel Sanders spent time in the army, that's not where the Colonel part comes from. Kentucky has a non-military title called the "Kentucky Colonel" which the governor can bestow on good Kentuckians. He got his Kentucky colonelship in 1935 for being good at chicken.

Around the same time he got in a literal shootout with a competitor because Colonel Sanders was an OG.
Yeh! It was similar with Elvis's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, except from Louisiana instead of Kentucky.

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Pocket (?) » Thu Dec 23, 2021 12:40 am

It's kind of an American equivalent of a modern-day knighthood, when you think about it
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Thu Dec 23, 2021 9:21 am

“Arise, Sir Loin of Beef!” Except for fried food because America :jingo:
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Thu Dec 23, 2021 10:47 am

Mechanical Ape wrote:
Thu Dec 23, 2021 9:21 am
“Arise, Sir Loin of Beef!” Except for fried food because America :jingo:
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Pocket (?) » Thu Dec 23, 2021 1:31 pm

About a decade ago, the writer and artist of Dick Tracy retired and was replaced by Joe Stanton and Mike Curtis, the latter of whom had been active in the furry community for a long time as the artist and co-creator of the Shanda the Panda comic book series and co-founder of its publisher, Shanda Fantasy Arts.

Well, TIL Stanton retired this year and was replaced with Shelley Pleger, a name I recognize from my early days on the Internet... although why, I'm still trying to figure out. Best guess I can give is that she was one of the contributors to the Ozy and Millie fan art archive that's long gone now, although I might be getting her mixed up with Laura Howell.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by DaikatunaRevengeance (?) » Thu Dec 23, 2021 1:51 pm

til dick tracy is still going
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Thu Dec 23, 2021 9:19 pm

Pocket wrote:
Thu Dec 23, 2021 1:31 pm

Well, TIL Stanton retired this year and was replaced with Shelley Pleger, a name I recognize from my early days on the Internet... although why, I'm still trying to figure out. Best guess I can give is that she was one of the contributors to the Ozy and Millie fan art archive that's long gone now, although I might be getting her mixed up with Laura Howell.
She, like Mike Curtis, was part of the furry comics days, including Shanda the Panda

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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Thu Dec 23, 2021 9:23 pm

DaikatunaRevengeance wrote:
Thu Dec 23, 2021 1:51 pm
til dick tracy is still going
It's pretty damn rare for legacy comic strips like that to actually ever end, in my experience.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...

Post by Pocket (?) » Fri Dec 24, 2021 12:02 am

Little Orphan Annie might have been the longest-running comic strip to be retired. (So, naturally, characters from it have since made appearances in Dick Tracy.)
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