Getting smart with Yoda
Who knew there was a modern form of the phrase ‘Did you know’? Jami-Lei has been learning there are quite a lot of things we maybe didn’t know.
Even as a ‘millennial’, I still come across phrases that have been on the internet for ages but haven’t yet crossed my path. Recently I watched a video called ‘Today I Learned’, which is a phrase often acronymised as TIL. The video was full of random but fascinating facts I’d never heard before. After watching, I searched the phrase and found websites, forums and many more videos dedicated to the concept. I spent at least an hour filling my head space with probably useless facts that I hope may come up in conversation before I forget them!
Inspired, I made the phrase ‘Today I Learned’ into a challenge, a bit reminiscent of the 2005 Sainsbury’s slogan ‘Try something new today’. So, for about a week now, I have searched for interesting, weird and wonderful new facts and snippets of information – and it’s been really fun! Reddit’s forum (which you can find here) and YouTube have been my most visited sites by far for this.
Today I learned… the following ten facts!
- Panthers aren’t their own race, they’re just any black ‘big cat’, most commonly jaguars, leopards, and tigers.
- The 50-star American flag was designed by an Ohio high school student for a class project. His teacher originally gave him a B–.
- The reason artificial banana flavouring doesn’t taste like bananas is because it is based on a type of banana wiped out by a plague in the 1950s.
- The national animal of Scotland is the unicorn.
- There is an uninhabited island in the Bahamas known as Pig Beach, which is populated entirely by swimming pigs.
- Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.
- Put A Pillow On Your Fridge Day is celebrated on 29th May in Europe & USA and supposedly brings good luck and wealth to the household.
- There is a punctuation mark called an ‘interrobang’ (or interabang). It’s the name given to this symbol ‽ but is often presented as ?!
- Approximately 1,000,000 dogs in the U.S. are named as the heirs of their owners’ wills.
- It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
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