The "Today I Learned" Thread • Page 3

TIL:

 

WTF?! I can’t explain why I hate this so much.

 

Apparently the reason why most people in the US don't know about Cashew Apples is 1) they supposedly taste bad, very sweet and very bitter at the same time. Not marketable. 2) they spoil fast, so it is hard to ship it overseas.

 

TIL Chestnut Trees are "functionally extinct" in North America after a disease wiped out most of their population in their natural range by the late 20th century. This is why most people alive have never actually experienced eating roasted chestnuts on Christmas

 

Also TIL scientists are now attempting to use biotechnology and genetic engineering to create disease resistant Chestnut Trees to bring them back

 

TIL that the Chick-fil-A sandwich was originally sold at Waffle House. it was so successful that it outsold their regular menu

also learned this is a very real thing:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House_Index

 

TIL what rizz means

also that it’s officially recognized as a word by Merriam-Webster

I feel so old

 

TIL Texas Pete isn’t even made in Texas

talk about false advertising

 

Today I learned that the yellow bear on this album cover actually isn’t another bear, but a guy in a bear suit

 

Also, (this won’t make much sense to people not in SoCal) I learned recently that apparently San Pedro isn’t its own city, but a neighborhood of LA, despite the fact they aren’t connected at all. This fucked me up for some reason

 

TIL that White Castle was the first fast food place to ever exist. would’ve thought it was McDonald’s for sure

 

TIL most of the remaining US WW2 veterans are expected to die by the end of this decade. There were 1,000,000 alive in 2015, there were 300,000 still alive in 2020, It projected to be around 65,000 by 2025, and less than 10,000 left by 2030.

 

TIL that Subway is set to release foot long cookies and that knowledge only serves to terrify me

diabetic comas for all

 

…and to all a good night?

 

TIL: In Manhattan Beach, CA, a handful of homeowners technically don’t own their own patio. They’re all owned by the city and the homeowners get to use the patio via an encroachment deal

 

Today I learned that sticky or glue traps are one of the least humane ways to catch mice (or any animal for that matter). I just assumed the mouse sticks to it, and I could pull it off and release it into the wild. Turns out that usually causes more harm to the animal and a straightforward kill trap would be more humane. Luckily I was able to clear out all of the glue traps before any mice got caught in them. Gonna have to another way to get these little guys out.

 

TIL during WW2 many ships would keep live chickens and pigs onboard for meat because refrigeration on ships was less reliable back then. They were kept in buoyant cages, so when ships were sunk oftentimes pigs and chickens would be the only survivors among the wreckage. Because of this sailors started getting pig and chicken tattoos on their feet for good luck in case their ship went down. This is still a tradition among sailors to this day.

 

TIL: Jack Cutmore-Scott, the actor that plays Freddie in the Frasier reboot is actually British. He puts on an American/Boston-sounding voice playing him on the show. This is blowing my mind haha

 

TIL the "wedding finger" came about during the Ancient Greek times as they discovered it's the only finger with a vein which leads directly to the heart. Moreover, the Ancient Greeks were the first to objectify love as a result.

 

That gift bags are a rip off. I should've realized sooner lol but with inflation I pay more attention lately and I was shocked at how much they are. I can buy reusable trader joes bags for less than 80 cents and then the gift receiver gets a reusable bag out of it so it's way more worth it than one that'll just immediately end up in a landfill

 

Here’s a fun one for Christmas. TIL, in A Christmas Story, during run-throughs of the Chinese restaurant scene, the moment when the employee chops the duck’s head off was planned, but completely unrehearsed. The reactions of the head being chopped off were all genuine, because they didn’t actually know it was coming.

Happy Holidays, all!

 

Another Christmas one is that Will Ferrell barfed after eating the dessert spaghetti in Elf

 

TIL about Giant African Snails. In the US they haven't made too much of an inroad as an invasive species yet, but authorities are so terrified they will that just the sighting of a single Giant African Snail in someone's garden will cause states to quarantine off an entire area. They are considered a huge biosecurity threat

They're huge, they breed insanely quickly, they can ruin entire fields of crops, and worse of all they can spread parasites to crops that cause Meningitis in humans if consumed.

 

They're kinda cute ngl