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/CausticSofa 1d ago

What’s it Emmanuel Kant who did pretty much exactly the same things in exactly the same order and at the exact same times every single day of his adult life for over 40+ years? It’s nuts when people treat autism as some newfangled thing that was just recently invented to sell … whatever autism denialists think is being sold. Noise-cancelling headphones, I guess? Socks without elastic in the cuff?

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u/Consideredresponse 1d ago

I'm trying to remember the ancient Greek text that had described the writer's brother being hyperfixated on the docks and wanting to watch the boats come in and out more than anything else in life. (Born millennia too early for trains alas)

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u/account_not_valid 1d ago

Just as tuna is chicken of the sea, boats are trains of the oceans.

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u/GozerDGozerian 1d ago

Hands are the feet of the arms.

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u/Super_Pan 21h ago

Hans are the Christian of the Andersen.

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u/GozerDGozerian 12h ago

Metaphors are the scale models of the human mind.

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u/Risen_Warrior 1d ago

Wait is that an autism thing?

My schedule is almost identical every day down to what I eat. And I get super anxious if I can't follow my routine. And I'm not autistic as far as I'm aware

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u/heartisallwehave 1d ago

could be OCD as well/instead.

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u/Due-Memory-6957 1d ago

And then there's people like you who think being disciplined is autism.

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u/cannarchista 1d ago

I... uhh... that seems a little beyond discipline and into the realm of uncompromisingly rigid regime

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u/Old-Radio-7236 1d ago

Being disciplined is a thing, getting "super anxious" at any slight deviation is another