The first book printed in English was The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, translated and printed by William Caxton (c. 1422-1491) at Bruges, 1474-75.
In 1960, during a party celebrating his announcement as candidate for mayor of New York City, writer Norman Mailer stabbed his second wife, Adele, after she told him he wasn’t as good as Dostoyevsky.
Elk meat contains more than twice as much of the sleep-inducing chemical L-tryptophan as turkey breast (746mg per portion, vs. turkey’s 333mg).
The Bataclan theatre in Paris, site of recent terrorist attacks, takes its name from an operetta written and composed by two 19th century Jews. Composer Jacques Offenbach set a libretto called “Ba-Ta-Clan” to music, which was written by Ludovic Halévy.
The reason orange juice tastes bad after you brush your teeth is the detergent sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) which is in 99% of all toothpastes. Companies add the ingredient because it creates a lot of foam that makes you feel like your teeth are getting cleaner, but it also inhibits your sweet taste buds.
This article appears in December 4 • 2015.