Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. (Oscar Wilde)
One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool. (George Orwell)
Museum curators describing literally any portrait of a woman: She boldly meets the viewer's eye, confronting our gaze. (@molochofficial)
The premise that the “popular kids” in high school would go on to be failures has never been true. (@OliverJia1014)
"It was a received idea that all Frenchmen were undersized and lived on frogs." John Henry Newman, The Grammar of Assent. (@lazarusatgate)
My doctor grandfather used to say he would know what phase the moon was in without having to look based on what patients would come in and what they would complain about. (@itinerantfog)
Experience showed good and evil fortunes fall to the lot of pious and impious alike; still they would not abandon their inveterate prejudice, for it was [easier] for them to class such contradictions among other unknown things than start afresh. (Spinoza, paraphrase)
You cannot have original thoughts if you only read writing and ideas from within the 100 years you were born. Read very old books and see how they thought, reasoned, what they believed. You'll see how many of your ideas were thoughtlessly downloaded from your environment. (@megha_lilly)
A lot of “ancient tradition” is just 19th-century nation-building. (@marcportermagee)
In 1917 journalist H.L. Mencken published an article in the New York Evening Mail claiming that the bathtub had been invented in 1828 and the first bath was introduced to the US in 1842. Although this is obviously nonsense and was debunked almost immediately, the story refused to die and was mentioned on television unironically as recent as 2008. (@Fakehistoryhunter.net)
The final 12cm diameter of the CD was a compromise during 1979–80 negotiations between Sony and Phillips. One popular story credits Sony with pushing for enough capacity to hold Beethoven's Ninth Symphony uncut. (My theory – they were made to fit men’s hands and are just too large for a woman to pick up easily.)
There’s a lot of Internet misinformation about white ravens being social pariahs or eaten by their mothers at birth. (@BluebellRaven)
Islam is the only religion on earth who has addressed cleanliness as special mention no other religion even has of concept of bathing, washing, wearing clothes, nail cutting, shaving, dental cleaning etc. Muhammad Bath invented the bathroom. (@Syed22549150 and others. Rests on dubious accounts by rotten historians from 100 years ago and more.)
It seems that the sophistication of French cuisine arose from the need to mask the lack of freshness of the ingredients – much as perfume came from the need to compensate for bad hygiene. In contrast, Italian and East Med cuisines make salient the freshness of the ingredients. (@TalebWisdom)
When the masses were able to afford spices, haute cuisine became about "the simplicity of the dish" and only using a few ingredients. (@wtflanksteak)
‘Japanese’ tempura comes from the Latin ad tempora quadragesima: ‘during the time of Lent’. (@robbertleusink)
When a Christian missionary gave a sermon to the Pitjantjatjara people of Central Australia, he mistranslated the phrase ‘tongues of fire’, instead saying the Holy Spirit would descend on them in a deluge of wallabies. (@qikipedia)
Every year on Ash Wednesday some Europeans pretend that ashes on the forehead are an American thing, which is just… a lie. (@pegobry_en. In my memory the cross was faint, and faded during the day.)
Sitting in Almaty, the city of apples, I fondly recall the Kazakh (or was it Kyrgyz?) scholar who once claimed that Adam and Eve were Kazakhs because in Kazakh the word for apple is "alma"--and the word for "don't take" is also "alma," so they must have spoken Kazakh in paradise. (@BeilinsonOrel)
“Romance” is white supremacy, black studies professor says. (2026)
Is romantic love a Western invention perpetuated by Hollywood movies, pop songs, and Valentine’s Day cards? (@SteveStuWill)
In the Southern States of the US, porch ceilings are painted “haint blue” (sky blue). It discourages insects like wasps and spiders from nesting (they mistake the ceiling for open sky), says Grok. Black residents think the blue will deter ghosts and spirits.
When New College Oxford was built in the 14th century, the builders planted trees that would be mature by the time the roof rotted – in the 18th century – ready to repair it. (@joelmiller, paraphrase.) Another authority says that the college had owned forests since 1441, and the oak trees used to repair the roof came from there.
Reminds me of the story I read where there is a forest of oak trees managed by the US navy that exist solely to replace boards on the USS Constitution as needed. (@collins_daman)
You need to learn and forget something 7 times before you know it permanently. (@alex451g)
The old church recipe compilation books? Full of missing secret ingredients because of gatekeeping. When I would go through those books with my nana, she would tell me who left stuff out of their recipe. (@korinreid)
The Museum of London’s collection of codpieces was originally classified by the Victorians as ‘shoulder pads’. (@qikipedia)
Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley. Buddy was his school nickname. He adopted Holly as his stage surname after his real name was incorrectly spelled on a recording contract. (@FXMC1957)
Darin took his stage name, Bobby Darin, when he began recording. One
version of how Darin got the name is that the first three letters on a
Mandarin Chinese restaurant were burned out. According to another version, he adapted it from the first name of actor Darren McGavin, TV's Mike Hammer. (Wikipedia)
Deaf people are super strong. (@wallywooyeah)
It's strange how things used to go viral with nothing but Chinese whispers. It was seven blokes' worth down in Hampshire. (@bloodykingghost)
The Swan with two Necks, Stockport. Not a myth: The name is not a reference to a mythical creature but is a corruption of "The Swan with Two Nicks". "Nicks" refers to the notches made on a swan's beak to denote ownership. Two nicks traditionally identified swans belonging to the Worshipful Company of Vintners. (@PubMaverik)
This belief – that the world would be better if the population was reduced by 90% – is alarmingly popular among boomer social engineers & technocrats. The belief goes back to the 1920s & "utopian" eugenics. It resurfaced in the 1970s w/the debunked book "the population bomb". (@MrEwanMorrison. Espoused by Jane Goodall. This week someone's saying it would be better for the human race if it went extinct. The book was by Paul Ehrlich who died recently.)
London cab drivers have an enlarged hippocampus. You lose half your body heat through your head. Mobile phones give you brain cancer/make you sterile. Every glass of water you drink has been through at least seven people. Swimming too soon after lunch gives you cramp. (Via Giles Coren)
Received opinion as late as my childhood (1980s) was that Victorian brick architecture was ugly, tasteless and inefficient. Keble was still derided by my Oxford peers. When Betjeman & Co. started campaigning to save St Pancras in the 70s they were regarded as campy contrarians. (@RichardBratby)
Did anyone else’s parents say you couldn’t shower during a storm because you might get struck by lightning? (@Ughhmantha)
Worryingly, around a third of psychologists still believe in repressed memories. Imagine if a third of physicists still believed in phlogiston! (@SteveStuWill)
What happens to students identified as gifted, highly gifted and profoundly gifted at age 13 by the time they reach 50? They do really well, as you would expect, although for some reason we want to believe the opposite. (@marcportermagee)
The grand staircase of St. Pancras Hotel in London was deliberately designed wide enough to allow two Victorian women in bustles to pass each other comfortably. (@bymortalhand. Bustles stuck out at the back – perhaps you're thinking of crinolines.)
Jaws was the first film where people were queueing round the block, hence “blockbuster”. (Interviewee on BBC. There were blockbuster bombs in WWII, powerful enough to destroy a concrete bunker. In the 20s and 30s all movies were so popular that queues went round the block.)
Europeans wore fur stoles and perfume – the fur stoles were to attract the fleas away from their bodies, and the perfume was designed to cover the stench of unwashed bodies. (@ReasonVsFear)
In 1947, Kix cereal offered the "Atomic Bomb Ring" for just 15 cents and a box top. Shockingly, the toy contained polonium-210, one of the deadliest radioactive substances known to man. (@BiancoDavinci. Toy was safe, say @Grok and others.)
My best friend in my youth was a Russian girl. Her mom would NEVER let her out in the snow in shoes that would make her feet cold because that would make her infertile. She always wore the warmest boots and carried her heels in a bag. (@megha_lilly)
James McNeill Whistler never planned to paint his mother. His model canceled at the last minute, so he turned to the only person available, his 67-year-old mother. She could not stand for long, so Whistler seated her sideways. The result became Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1. (@CultureExploreX)
Nobody was educated in those days apart from the very, very wealthy. (FB reels)
At my sister’s graduation. Speaker is claiming that “talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not”. What claptrap! What twaddle! (@captgouda24)
Someone will tell me that a college doesn't have sororities because it counts as a brothel in their state, and I'll be like "OMG actually that's an urban legend", and they'll just go to someone else and be like "Do you know we don't have sororities because it counts as a brothel". I once tried to tell my sister-in-law that the brothel thing is a myth. Turns out her university is the one university where that was actually true. (@LinkofSunshine)
Raymond Cusick was given only an hour to come up with the design for the Daleks and was inspired in his initial sketches by a pepper pot on a table... In 1964, [writer] Terry Nation told a Daily Mirror reporter that the Dalek name came from a dictionary or encyclopaedia volume, the spine of which read "Dal – Eks". He later admitted that this book and the associated origin of the Dalek name were completely fictitious, and that anyone bothering to check his story would have found him out. (Wikipedia)
It’s impossible to accurately measure intelligence because there are too many variables to consider. Traditional IQ tests don’t really push the boundaries of testing your cognitive skills but rather how well you can conform to rigid structures. (@ihyFawa)
The man who argues merely proves that he is less, that doubt has sapped his vitality. (E.M. Cioran)
Once you commit to nonsense, it's pretty difficult to un-commit, not least when your relationships and job depend on being committed. Enter the West's progressive overclass, which committed to nonsense years ago – and can't just un-commit on discovering it was a bad idea. (@bencobley)
In 14th century Puglia, dry-stacked stone houses (trulli) were designed to be disassembled when the taxman came. When he arrived, there'd be large piles of stone and a lot of "homeless" families standing around. (@shagbark_hick)
The gift of a pair of gloves has long been considered a romantic promise. In the 1800s, ‘glove flirting’ rose to popularity with an entire coded language surrounding it. Turning them inside out meant ‘I hate you,’ but to drop both gloves was a declaration of love. (@Kerria)
A very funny, common belief among normies is that God created a “soulmate” to every living person that he randomly drops into your life as a generated character from his large reservoir of soulmates. (@stundholz)
"The courts are a clumsy means to negotiate social relationships" is an argument men have used to deny the need for women's rights in law so many times. (@glosswitch. Dec 2025 and after an unsatisfactory judgement Sandie Peggie is appealing.)
Everybody is stupid now because they all had Covid without knowing it – you may have no symptoms. (Net)
My favorite fact about Jane Austen is that her works were largely popularized because British soldiers serving in World War I read them while away from home. (@cmclymer. Maybe from a Kipling story The Janeites about men in the trenches reading her books and forming a secret society.)
Another old one: “hocus pocus” comes from English Protestants mocking the Latin Mass (“Hoc est corpus”). (@peterawolf)
In the 17th century, Venetian lace was so fashionable that France smuggled 20 Venetian women into the country to teach French lacemakers how to make it. Venice threatened to execute their families for treason if they didn’t return immediately. (@qikipedia)
Do not go after big goals because you think achieving them will make you a happy and fulfilled person. Go after big goals because you think the process of pursuing them will make you a happy and fulfilled person. 99.9 percent of life is the process. (@BStulberg)
We now have to make sure potential teachers haven’t graduated carrying a toolbox full of education myths and misconceptions. Learning styles. Left-brain vs right-brain learners. Cone of learning pyramids with fake percentages. “Discovery first, instruction later” as a default. Brain-based labels with no grounding in cognitive science. The idea that more engagement automatically equals more learning. These ideas are still taught, recycled and assessed in many education programs, often presented as settled science rather than claims that failed to hold up under evidence. (@AmmarMerhbi)
East Asians like ducks because they are believed to mate for life. (Tim Wonnacott, Antiques Road Trip)
Traditionally, Navajo rug weavers leave a small mistake in their work to make sure their spirit isn’t trapped in it. (@qikipedia. See Persian rugs, crochet, mosaic floors etc.)
We are a “bundle of impressions whose existence as a unified self is ontologically uncertain”.
(@John_Attridge. He is sending up the idea.)
Idk who else needs to check their family pumpkin pie recipe, but apparently my grandmother’s was not passed down from generations as I was led to believe… it’s off the Libby’s pumpkin puree can. (@mandalynns23)
The eye patch associated with pirates was to keep one eye acclimated to the dark so they could read the maps inside the ship. (@DTBERKIS. Ships had windows and lighting.)
Melania Trump destroyed the White House rose garden. “Melania improved the drainage and sunlight (by removing dead infected trees) to the Rose Garden, whose namesake flowers had failed to thrive over the years. Only 12 original rose bushes remained when Melania oversaw the addition, she added 200 new rose bushes, which were the same type as the original rose bushes, that had died.” Says
@Likeshesays.
A very good Mothering Sunday to those celebrating (for the record, this is a different day to the American version, so don't panic, and started in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, as a day when servants visited their mother church). (LW)
The Grand Hotel in Scarborough, designed by Cuthbert Brodrick, opened in 1867 as Europe's largest hotel and brick building at the time. The landmark features a V-shaped plan, four towers symbolizing seasons, 12 floors for months, 52 chimneys for weeks, and originally 365 rooms for days. Built in tawny brick with Baroque/Second Empire influences, it used over 6 million bricks. (@dutchbuildings. The story is also told of Arts and Crafts house Avon Tyrrell, Hampshire. Maybe there was more than one "calendar house".)
Just learned that the Irish name Fearghal is from Virgil. (@TomBFlanagan)
The section of underground between South Kensington and Knightsbridge is long and bendy and loud because it needs to bend around to avoid both a grave of plague victims, and the Harrods cellars, which are layers and layers deep. (@ladygreenkirtle)
The theft of Napoleonic treasures in the Louvre followed a change in the display cases in 2019. Before then, the Rococo display cases had armoured glass and if disturbed the treasures would drop into a safe. They were later replaced by “modern” displays with normal glass. (@CyberPunkCortes. Modern is always better?)
Pricing everything in a number that ends in .99 is a kind of financial atavism. We tell a story that it was for psychological reasons, but originally it was so that cashiers had to open the register for each transaction, thus recording a sale, so they couldn’t just pocket the cash. (@owenbroadcast. I've only just worked out that they had to open the till to give the customer the penny change.)
Socrates was killed for not believing in the Greek gods. Plato said Homer and Hesiod should be banned and new myths created. (@romanhelmetguy)
For all my years on this earth... It was only yesterday that I learned that rap stands for "rhythm and poetry" I'm ashamed. (@xAsamoahx)
People move to Denver and get Paris syndrome when they learn it’s not in the mountains and people are not affable and folksy. (@SYNESTHEIZURE)
The "School of Architecture" is ALWAYS the ugliest building on campus. (@aaron_lubeck)
The full set is here, in my book What You Know that Ain't So.
More here, and links to the rest.
