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VII Things We Learnt Last Week

  • Vincent Van Gogh chopped off his entire left ear, not just a slice, and gave it to his maid whose son had been bitten by a street dog, not to a prostitute in a brothel
  • 300 languages have gone extinct in India since 1947
  • Philistines were not uncivilised, reveal excavations at a 3,000-year-old cemetery
  • Toilet paper was used by the ancient Chinese­—the fact left later Arab travellers intrigued
  • “Imran Khan” was the codeword for the male organ among Pakistani studs (according to Hanif Qureshi)
  • There are only two journalists left on Fleet Street, both sports journalists
  • Sophia Loren, Italy’s answer to Marilyn Monroe, was once so thin she was called ‘stuzzicadenti’ (toothpick)

Compiled by Alka Gupta

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