26Gaddafi’s Switzerland Hatred
Muammar Gaddafi had a burning hatred of Switzerland. Following the brief detention of his family in Geneva, Gadaffi declared a jihad against the country and used all of his speaking time at the 2008 G8 Summit to propose the country’s abolition.
27. In east Africa, movies are often watched with a “VJ” or “video joker” who provides live narration over the movie for translation, contextualization, or comedy purposes.
28. Helen Keller was accepted to Harvard in 1900. Mark Twain introduced her to Standard Oil magnate, Henry Rogers, who paid for her education. In 1904, she became the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor's degree.
29. In the original ending of the Inca-inspired animated film “The Emperor’s New Groove”, the titular Emperor demolishes a rainforest to create a theme park. Sting – who spent 20 years defending the rights of indigenous people – threatened to leave the project unless the ending was changed.
30. A British man was surprised at being urgently contacted by the NHS about his health when they calculated his BMI as being 28,000. They’d written his 6’2” height as being 6.2cm tall.
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31Ol’ Dirty Bastard
When Wu-Tang Clan’s debut album achieved commercial success, one of the group’s members, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, was filmed cashing in a welfare check. This was because ODB had not yet filed his taxes, so the then-recent income did not impact his eligibility.
32. The founder of Texas Roadhouse Restaurants, W. Kent Taylor, has no ties at all to the state of Texas. Originally he had dreams of opening a Colorado-themed eatery.
33. The last words of French aristocrat Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras; were “I see that you have made three spelling mistakes”, upon reading his death sentence warrant.
34. Tour de France has a dedicated team whose sole purpose is to drive each day’s route and turn genitals graffitied on the road into owls and butterflies.
35. Thomas Linley was known as “the English Mozart.” Mozart called him “a true genius” and said, “he would have been one of the greatest.” He drowned in a lake at the age of 22 and most of his compositions were lost or burned in a fire.
