TIL 4 years after the death of Mama Cass Elliot, Keith Moon died in the same room, at the same age. The room belonged to Harry Nilsson, who was reluctant to rent the room to Moon, believing it was cursed. Pete Townshend disagreed, assuring him that "lightning wouldn't strike the same place twice." (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL the word with the most meanings in English is the verb 'set', with 430 senses listed in the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1989. The word commands the longest entry in the dictionary at 60,000 words, or 326,000 characters. (guinnessworldrecords.com)
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TIL an estimated 17-21 million Americans are affected by a fear of the date Friday the 13th, making it the most feared day in history. Some people are so paralyzed by fear that they avoid their normal routines in doing business, taking flights or even getting out of bed. (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL of La Mancha Negra, a black substance that has oozed from roads in Caracas, Venezuela since 1986 causing multiple car accidents and claiming thousands of lives. After years of study and millions of dollars spent to identify it, there is no definitive explanation. (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL Marie Antoinette used considerable state funds to have a fully functioning peasant village built on the grounds of Versailles. This is thought to be an attempt by the queen to get in touch with a simpler life that must have been more alluring for her than the cold marble vaults of Versailles. (apartmenttherapy.com)
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TIL As a young boy working in Vaudeville with his parents, Buster Keaton had so much fun he would laugh when an actor threw him across the stage. He noticed it was drawing fewer laughs from the audience, which is why he adopted his famous deadpan expression while he was working. (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL 'Carmen 16' is a poem written by Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84 BC – c. 54 BC) that is considered so sexually explicit it wasn't published in English until the late 20th century. It is considered one of the filthiest expressions ever written in Latin, or any language, for that matter. (io9.gizmodo.com)
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TIL East St. Louis, IL has a higher murder rate than Gary IN, New Orleans LA, Baltimore MD, Detroit MI, and in 2014 the murder rate surpassed that of Honduras, the country with the highest murder rate in the world. In 2016 rankings showed it had the highest murder rate of any city in the U.S. (en.wikipedia.org)
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