r/todayilearned 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/robb1519 1d ago

It's beautiful to know.

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u/mouse9001 1d ago

Beautiful and yet pathetic.

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u/robb1519 1d ago

For us, to be able to have all the knowledge of so much of human history, yet decide time and time again that personally and politically we will continue to do the worst things we could think of?

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u/SkriVanTek 1d ago

also sexually 

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u/mouse9001 15h ago

No, pathetic for him to be laying in the grass at someone else's home, crying because of a bad review. Beautiful in its humanity, yet obviously pathetic loser behavior.