- 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
