456 BC: Aeschylus, Greek dramatist, according to legend, died when a vulture, mistaking his bald head for a stone, dropped a tortoise on it.
1543: Pedro de Valdivia, a dreaded conquistador, was captured by Native Americans and supposedly executed by pouring molten gold down his throat to satisfy his thirst for treasures.
1841: William Henry Harrison, ninth President of the United States, gave the longest inaugural address in the history of the United States in heavy snow and subsequently caught a cold. It developed into pneumonia and killed him in a month.
1960: Famed baritone Leonard Warren collapsed on the stage of the New York Metropolitan Opera of a massive stroke during a performance of La forza del destino. The last line he sang was "Morir? Tremenda cosa." ("To die? A terrible thing.")
Link to Wikipedia's list of unusual deaths.
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A List of Fictional Expletives:
b'zugda hiara - From Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. A scathing insult in dwarfish, which translates to "lawn ornament".
Hab SoSlI' Quch! - from Klingon "Your Mother has a smooth forehead." Worst curse/insult in Klingon language..
Nixon - used in books by Kinky Friedman, meaning a bowel movement. "The cat had taken a Nixon in my shoe."
Link to Wikipedia's List Of Fictional Expletives.
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The Tetris Effect:
The Tetris effect refers to the ability of any activity to which people devote sufficient time and attention to begin to dominate their thoughts, images, and dreams. Read more.
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