this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2026
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Today I Learned

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[–] Stern@lemmy.world 205 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Anyone else breathing a sigh of relief that the childrens author with a overactive libido wasn't diddling kids?

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 51 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Or making anti-semitic comments like Roald "The Little Bastards'll Swallow Anything" Dahl.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If I recall, Dahl was some sort of secret agent for Britain during WW2. So not all that surprising that he'd be a p.o.s.

It would be like a CIA agent writing children's books.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I mean, Julia Child worked for the OSS during WWII and wasn't a POS (as far as I know).

[–] backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 14 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Christopher Lee was some sort of agent as well. However, joining the Sith, becoming an vampire, and cutting down the forests of Isengard are kinda dick moves.

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[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 7 points 4 weeks ago

Roald Dahl was an RAF pilot during the early days of World War II. He got injured and was discharged because of it. I've read his autobiography when I was a child, which was quite interesting. Shame that he was anti-semite.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's really just nice that he's going for their moms.

[–] Stern@lemmy.world 12 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Imagine growing up and one day mom pulls you aside and tells you why you own a autographed copy of "Where the Sidewalk Ends" 💀

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[–] Kenny2999@lemmy.world 177 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world 102 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yeah, the sentence definitely could have used a second draft. OP should write for Hollywod with the range of emotions I just went through.

All in under a minute too.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I sure hope it took you less than a minute to read that headline.

[–] _NetNomad@fedia.io 15 points 1 month ago

hey there were a lot of big words ok!

[–] Lightsong@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

No idea why, but that range of emotions thing just fucking killed me lmao.

[–] metallic_substance@lemmy.world 110 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

"Wealthy artist had a lot of sex a hundred years ago"

Shocking

[–] Sharkticon@lemmy.zip 27 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] garbagebagel@lemmy.world 39 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I mean, they are wrong because he was writing up until the late 80s/early 90s, but also the man was born almost 100 years ago... and that's fuckin wild man.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

the man was born almost 100 years ago... and that's fuckin wild man.

That's just ~~love~~ life. Nothing you can do about that.

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[–] CannedYeet@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What else is there to do in world before social media? Just make art and fuck.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 11 points 4 weeks ago

Man, why did we ever invent social media?

[–] randamumaki@lemmy.blahaj.zone 80 points 1 month ago

If they were of legal age and it was consensual then good for him, I guess? Who cares this much about someone else's love life? Honestly...

[–] nymnympseudonym@piefed.social 57 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Personal life

From around 1967 to 1975, Silverstein lived on a houseboat in Sausalito, California. He also owned homes on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts; Greenwich Village, New York; and Key West, Florida.[34] He never married, and according to the 2007 biography A Boy Named Shel, had sex with "hundreds, perhaps thousands of women".[2] He was also a frequent presence at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion and Playboy Clubs.

Silverstein met a woman from Sausalito named Susan Taylor Hastings at the Playboy Mansion,[35] and they had a daughter named Shoshanna Jordan Hastings (b. June 30, 1970).[36] Susan died on June 29, 1975, one day before Shoshanna's fifth birthday,[36] and Shoshanna went to live with her uncle and aunt in Baltimore, Maryland.[35] Shoshanna died of a cerebral aneurysm on April 24, 1982, at age 11.[37] Silverstein's 1981 book A Light in the Attic is dedicated to her.[35] Silverstein later met Key West native Sarah Spencer, who drove a tourist train and inspired Silverstein's song "The Great Conch Train Robbery".[38][39][40] They had a son named Matthew De Ver (b. November 10, 1984),[41] who later became a New York City–based songwriter and producer.[42]

[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world 47 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Of course he had a boat.

Because of the implication.

[–] CharcoalRushmoore@reddthat.com 15 points 1 month ago

Baby it’s cold outside…

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Tbf, houseboats are pretty dope.

They're usually just moored at a dock, so not really the same implication

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[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 54 points 1 month ago

Well... So long as it was all consensual...

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 44 points 1 month ago (1 children)

He nicknamed his unit "the giving tree".

[–] Antagnostic@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] foodandart@lemmy.zip 31 points 1 month ago

That fits for the time. The Playboy mansion was swinging in the 60's and 70's..

[–] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My low stakes conspiracy is that Shel Silverstein is actually Grigori Rasputin. I have nothing to support this and I will not be accepting criticism.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Shel wasn't "born" until 1930, so that kinda works.

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[–] tanisnikana@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago (5 children)

He’s allowed to?

Playboy Mansion is a seedy shithole coming apart at the seams though. It’s the sort of place you’d put a party together and fight the animate mold growing on the walls. But when you find the treasure chest, it’ll just be full of dirty dildoes. Not worth the dungeon crawl to get there.

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[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 25 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Well you didn't go to the Playboy mansion for the chicken wings.

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[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I am admittedly not familiar with most of his work directly, but I had no idea that Shel Silverstein was a man

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

ngl dude has always given me serial killer vibes on the jacket photos. still own a lot of his books.

[–] garbagebagel@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago (2 children)

They really went and decided to publish some, if not, the best children's poetry of a generation and then picked the absolute scariest fucking headshots they could of him.

[–] ryrybang@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Maybe those are the most flattering head shots...

[–] garbagebagel@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Nah I've seen other photos of him, he wasn't a bad looking guy. I think just not very photogenic or maybe he liked the scary pictures.

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 23 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] MIDItheKID@lemmy.world 14 points 4 weeks ago

I mean look at that mugshot. Dude probably hangs dong like a forearm. Probably through a bush thicker than the Amazon rainforest. I don't know why, but it just looks like when he unsheiths his member it hits the ground like Mjornir. He enters a room full of women and leaves it a mess of puddles and pubes. Probably stays well hydrated too.

Good for him.

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

possibly thousands of women

A new Dschingis Khan? LMAO

[–] antonim@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Khan made lots of kids tho. This one did it just for the love of the game.

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[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)
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[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)
[–] DioramaOfShit@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Where the butthole ends

[–] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Okokimup@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (5 children)
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[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Nice.

In his shoes I'd have done the same.

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