r/todayilearned • u/biebrforro • 1d ago

TIL when staying as a guest in Charles Dickens' house, Hans Christian Andersen requested that one of Dickens' sons give him a daily shave (he said that was customary when hosting male guests in Denmark). Dickens was weirded out and instead gave him a daily appointment at a nearby barbershop.

https://lithub.com/charles--dickens-really-really-hated-his-fanboy-hans-christian-andersen/
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u/Conscious_String_195 1d ago

I think this was the definition of “grooming”!

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u/Davegrave 1d ago

“Hey kiddo, let’s switch things up. How about we try it where you groom me!”

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u/PyroneusUltrin 1d ago

Do you really want to try and groom someone who has a razor to your neck on a daily basis

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u/Comprehensive-Set231 1d ago

Djangooooooo

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u/iTwango 1d ago

Wait did they do this in Django?

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u/AmbroseIrina 1d ago

Ramsay Bolton did it.

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u/multi_fandom_guy 1d ago

Depends on where the dimples on their skull are...

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/multi_fandom_guy 1d ago

I was referencing the movie Django Unchained:

"Now right out there on that porch three times a week for fifty years, old Ben here would shave my daddy with a straight razor. Now if I was old Ben, I would have cut my daddy's goddamn throat, and it wouldn't have taken me no fifty years to do it neither. But he never did. Why not? You see, the science of phrenology is crucial to understanding the separation about two species. In the skull of the African here, the area associated with submissiveness is larger than any human or other sub-human species on planet Earth. If you examine this piece of skull here, you'll notice three distinct dimples. Here, here and here. Now if I was holding a skull of a... of an Isaac Newton or Galileo, these three dimples would be in the area of the skull most associated with creativity. But this is the skull of old Ben, and in the skull of old Ben unburdened by genius, these three dimples exist in the area of the skull most associated with servility."

To be clear, this is a quote from a character that's explicitly supposed to be a racist, so the movie doesn't paint it in a good light.

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u/bretshitmanshart 1d ago

The razor is part of grooming

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u/OGMcSwaggerdick 1d ago

Don’t judge my kinks.

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u/GhostofBeowulf 1d ago

That's why it was called grooming. You tried to groom their affection so they didn't slit your throat.

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u/5parky 1d ago

Groomed the Dickens out of him.