Reply to TIL Tolkien assisted on the Oxford Dictionary's first edition, focused on 'W' words waggle to warlock. He "learned more in those two years than in any other"; and certain etymologies continued to puzzle him for years, with many pages of notes written later on 'walrus' for a lecture at Leeds by PianoCharged

Reply to comment by Jean_Crespin in TIL about lipograms: written work in which a particular letter is intentionally omitted. Ernest Wright wrote his 1939 novel Gadsby without the letter "e," and his book was 50,000 words long. by class-in-a-glass

Reply to comment by MikiLove in TIL of Clement Vallandigham, a lawyer and congressman during the Civil War. The Union deported him for supporting the Confederacy. After the war, he died by accidentally shooting himself during a murder trial while trying to show the murder weapon could have misfired. His client got off as a result by MikiLove

Reply to comment by SuperOsaka in TIL Pinky and the Brain was inspired by the peculiar personalities of two WB producers, Eddie Fitzgerald and Tom Minton with interesting mannerisms that were incorporated into the characters by QueenBee299

Reply to comment by QueenBee299 in TIL Pinky and the Brain was inspired by the peculiar personalities of two WB producers, Eddie Fitzgerald and Tom Minton with interesting mannerisms that were incorporated into the characters by QueenBee299

Reply to comment by isodore68 in TIL that only about 4% of the Earth's surface has two points on opposite sides of the world that are both on land by A_1337_Canadian

Reply to comment by isodore68 in TIL that only about 4% of the Earth's surface has two points on opposite sides of the world that are both on land by A_1337_Canadian

Reply to comment by superfogg in TIL that roosters don’t have a penis. They pump their sperm into females using a 'cloacal kiss' by [deleted]

Reply to TIL an adult female Mayfly called Dolania americana lives for less than five minutes. by Pred1949

Reply to comment by bstowers in TIL a neutron star in the constellation Sagittarius rotates 716 times per second. by shallowblue

Reply to comment by The_Thunder_Child in TIL that when a cat has a flat face (such as a Persian), that is actually a deformity. Breeders, however, are able to find ways of altering the cat’s genetics by choosing who they breed with. They do this because so many people gravitate to the smushed in face. by dioWjonathenL

Reply to TIL that Swiss Balloonist, Auguste Piccard, was the inspiration for both Professor Calculus, in the Tintin comics, and that Gene Roddenberry named Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek after him. by es_price