Post something you've learnt today

[Six String]

Beethoven drank at least a litre of wine with lunch every day.

I gather his hair tells us that he was a drunk.

That article in the times said the hair analysis indicated he didn’t drink enough to be considered an alcoholic. If he drank a liter at lunch, what about dinner? Night cap?

[Limpin' Jez McKenzie]

Beethoven drank at least a litre of wine with lunch every day.

I gather his hair tells us that he was a drunk.

That article in the times said the hair analysis indicated he didn’t drink enough to be considered an alcoholic. If he drank a liter at lunch, what about dinner? Night cap?

Presumably it was better than getting cholera from the water.

[Samoan]

Elon Musk is a keen grower of the African violet (Streptocarpus sect. Saintpaulia). The speed at which it propagates appeals to his sensibilities.
He's had a circular greenhouse constructed for the purpose with the occasional blue stained glass Twitter logo bird as décor.

[Minnie the Minx]

Yesterday when I was doing some gardening I found a small animal skull by the fence. I took some pictures of it as I couldn't identify the species. I sent it to a friend who I trust in matters of bone identification, and he thought it was a small dog. I left it on the picnic table while I tried to work out what to do with it. Today, I was reading on the porch and heard a clicky clicky clicky noise. I looked around the trees to see if it was a woodpecker, but it was coming from the picnic table. I crept up and watched a squirrel holding this skull in its hands and nibbling away clickety click. As I approached, it grabbed it in its mouth and ran off carrying it, then tried to bury it. Apparently squirrels love to nibble on antlers and bones for their teeth- I had no idea!

[pcqgod]

Carol Burnett roomed with Yvonne "Batgirl" Craig in their struggling young performer days.

[Mike Boom]

George Gershwin's dying words were "Fred Astaire".

[Rorschach]

Nominative determinism fact of the day:

Farmers are struggling to grow hops due to climate change so, in order to save beer from extinction, a new Spanish company has set up a hydroponic farm to grow them, in a town called ...

... Alcobendas!

It's all here in The Guardian, so it must be true.

[NMB]

That a lot of familiar names are still posting on BCB, which is nice to see.

[pcqgod]

A couple of weeks ago someone in line at the post office said he was there for the bees. I was wondering if I had misheard and he had asked for his mailbox keys but the clerk disappeared and came back with a loudly buzzing box!

[The Fish]

Remembered today rather than learnt today while watching TV documentary series on Ulysses S Grant.

The last civil war pension ceased payment in 2020 with the death aged 90 of the recipient, a daughter of a man who defected from the Confederacy to the Union. The soldier in question remarried late in life and his daughter was born when he was 89 in 1930.

Another fact I did learn today while checking the above was that Henry Stanley of "Dr Livingstone I presume" fame also fought on both sides in the civil war

[The Prof]

62 of the 95 people on board the Hindenburg actually survived the disaster.

[pcqgod]

The oldest continuously operating cinema theatre is the Washington Iowa State Theatre (USA) in Washington, Iowa, USA, which opened on 14 May 1897.

Today, they are showing "The Little Mermaid."

[Samoan]

The country's going to the dogs.
I got a new passport through my letter box (standard "Check and Send" at the post office) in only 9 calendar days.

[Minnie the Minx]

Just been reading about the Collyer brothers/ house. Woah!

[Minnie the Minx]

Horses can’t vomit.

[Minnie the Minx]

That Davey the fat boy wrote/writes performed/performs music and is fucking great!

[Minnie the Minx]

Connie Booth is married to the son of the bloke who played the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz!

[Hugh]

Connie Booth is married to the son of the bloke who played the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz!

John Lahr who wrote a biography of Joe Orton.

[Minnie the Minx]

Ooooooohhh!

[Hugh]

I think he gets a mention in Kenneth Williams’ diaries but possibily just in the footnotes, it’s been a long, long time since I read them.