The "Today I Learned" Thread • Page 6

TIL there is a lyric in the French National Anthem about watering their fields with the blood of their enemies. Kinda metal ngl

 

Gotta ask, what does YHL mean? Google did not help me.

 

Since this was something I told my coworker, YHL = Yesterday he learned

 

TIL Mongolians use horse spines as percussion instruments. Also very metal

 

Thanks!

 

TIL what YHL means

 

I mean… I guess I made it up. Not sure of anyone else before me has used it lol

 

I still learned it, it counts!

 

TIL: Bacon was not considered a breakfast food until the mid-1900’s. Beech-Nut, a packaging company which was branching out into food production recruited public-relations expert Edward Bernays to increase sales of bacon. He did so by persuading 5000 doctors to sign off on a letter urging people to eat a hearty breakfast including bacon and eggs.

Ultimately, it worked. Bacon sales went through the roof and bacon has since become an institutional breakfast staple

 

If Disney ever got their hands on Knotts I'd be so sad

 

TIL: A day before Weezer released Pinkerton, they were sued by a California security firm named Pinkerton Inc for copyright infringement and claimed the band was trying to capitalize off the company’s reputation. Rivers Cuomo wrote a six-page essay defending the album name and a judge ultimately threw out the case.

A big Weezer fan, specifically of their first two albums, I’m genuinely surprised I only learned of this today

 

TIL: Ryan Piers Williams, the actor that played Gloria’s husband in Barbie (2023) is actually America Ferrera’s real-life husband. Greta Gerwig convinced Ferrera to have him play the role in the film after Ferrera told her that Williams was also learning Spanish on Duolingo just like his character

 

I just learned this last week when I saw him front row at the Oscars and was like " WTF is that dude doing there?"

 

TIL in 1963 France and Brazil nearly went to war with each other over the fishing rights of Lobsters in the mid-atlantic.

 

TIL Tunnel Biking is a thing

 

Here’s an interesting one for all you old-school Nickelodeon fans

TIL: Roger Price and Geoffrey Darby, the creators/producers of You Can’t Do That On Television created a show named Don’t Look Now! for PBS. The show was created to be a clone of YCDTOTV and literally follows the exact format/formula of the series (even the slime!). The duo basically created it as a back-up show out of fear that YCDTOTV would possibly be cancelled.

It only lasted for five episodes. It’s still not clear as to why it didn’t last, but it’s speculated that Nickelodeon was either not happy about the show and forced the duo to abandon it and/or parents complained about the content.

Wiki: Don't Look Now (1983 TV series) - Wikipedia

And the first episode if anyone is curious:

 

TIL: The opening to Dead And Bloated by Stone Temple Pilots is just Scott singing into the pickups of Dean’s Les Paul

 

TIL*: J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. played guitar with SNL’s house band in 2000 when Christopher Walker was guest host (the episode of the infamous “More Cowbell” sketch)

*I actually learned this Monday but forgot to post lol

 

That Ace Enders full name is Arthur Carl "Ace" Enders III. So fancy.

 

TIL: A segment of Mythbusters was filmed where they successfully made a bomb with a “widely available material” and yielded a powerful explosion. They wound up wiping the footage from existence and it never saw the light of day.

Wiki Article:

 

TIL water only processes in your body once it's close to matching your body temperature. So lukewarm room temp water is actually better if you want to get hydrated fast. The pro to cold water is that it helps if you're trying to lose weight, because your body burns calories from warming the water in your system.

 

Interesting! Years ago I read somewhere that drinking a glass of cold water in the morning when you wake up helps boost your metabolism (which is still part of my morning routine to this day), but it didn’t explain why this was the case. But that makes total sense

 

TIL: There’s a Barack Obama-themed gas station in Ireland for some reason

 

TIL*: In 2002, Pizza Hut recruited Ween (yes, “Ocean Man” Ween) to record a jingle for their new-at-the-time Stuffed Crust Pizza. The band submitted a song they wrote named “Where’d The Cheese Go?” Pizza Hut wound up unsatisfied with the song so they fired them from the project.

Six versions of the jingle exist (it would be rerecorded a few times due to Pizza Hut asking them to make revisions.) The two most well-known ones are in this video which features the final draft of the song and a joke “dirty” version.

*I’ve actually kind of known about this for a while but only recently learned of the entire backstory and lore of this song. Oh what could’ve been…

 

TIL Taco Bell has long struggled to break into the Mexican market where they would be compete with authentic Mexican food. They have tried several times. The last attempt at opening a location in Mexico in the late 2000's they tried the novel approach of leaning into the gringo-ness of their food and marketed themselves almost as Mexican-American Fusion cuisine with french fries and ice cream prominently featured on the menu, with " Taco Bell: It's something else" as their tagline It still failed.

Critics have said trying to bring Taco Bell to Mexico is " like Americans coming to the Arctic to try to sell ice "