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Mardi Gras! One month late · Stuff You Should Know

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, people in Vancouver and Portland. We're coming to see you,
0:05
Speaker 1: uh in March. Okay, did I step on you? No? No,
0:08
Speaker 1: I stepped on you, I think. Man. All right, well
0:11
Speaker 1: this is as clunky as we usually are. Uh, we
0:13
Speaker 1: are going to be coming to those two fair cities
0:16
Speaker 1: that I learned don't have direct flights yesterday and I
0:20
Speaker 1: can't wait regardless. So we're gonna be in Vancouver on Sunday,
0:24
Speaker 1: March twenty nine at the Chance Center. That's right. We're
0:26
Speaker 1: kicking it up a notch there, so we need your support, yeah,
0:29
Speaker 1: for real. And then the next day we're really kicking
0:31
Speaker 1: it up a notch maybe two. In Portland. We're gonna
0:34
Speaker 1: be at the Schnitzer Concert Hall on Monday March that's right,
0:38
Speaker 1: and we need your support there to Portland because uh again,
0:42
Speaker 1: these are bigger venues. We're giving it a whorld. Don't
0:45
Speaker 1: don't put egg on our faces for God's sake. Yeah. Yeah,
0:49
Speaker 1: So you can get all sorts of information, you can
0:51
Speaker 1: buy tickets, everything you need to go to s Y
0:54
Speaker 1: s K live dot com and we'll see you in March.
0:58
Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff. You should know a product enough. I
1:00
Speaker 1: heart radios. How stuff works, Hey, and welcome to the podcast.
1:09
Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles w Chuck Bryan over there,
1:12
Speaker 1: there's Jerry over there. And this is Stuff you Should Know,
1:16
Speaker 1: the super Topical Timely Edition because Chuck, this episode is
1:22
Speaker 1: about Marty Graw and we're recording it on Marty Graw, right,
1:26
Speaker 1: which in true stuff you should know fashion it will
1:28
Speaker 1: come out a month after. So what we need to
1:30
Speaker 1: do is do this a month before so it comes
1:33
Speaker 1: out on that Tuesday. Well that would that be like
1:35
Speaker 1: the Daily or something, not stuff you should know, you
1:37
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Yeah, And I've been going around
1:41
Speaker 1: the office showing everyone in my boobs all day. I
1:44
Speaker 1: was wondering you had all those beads. No, I understand. Yeah.
1:47
Speaker 1: I think we should apologize in advance to to the
1:50
Speaker 1: people of New Orleans, because when it comes to something
1:53
Speaker 1: this specific, we always just get killed. Right, it's so
1:58
Speaker 1: personal to so many people. We're gonna mess up so much.
2:01
Speaker 1: They're gonna be like, you didn't mention my crew, right, Um? Yeah,
2:05
Speaker 1: I mean I've been to New Orleans twice for the
2:07
Speaker 1: shows that we've done there. It was not around Marty
2:10
Speaker 1: Graw read a bunch about it. So now I understand
2:13
Speaker 1: New Orleans Marty Graw better than ever. But I also
2:16
Speaker 1: learned that it's one of those things where it's kind
2:17
Speaker 1: of like like researching humor, where you can understand the
2:21
Speaker 1: mechanism behind humor and you can explain humor, but it
2:24
Speaker 1: doesn't quite capture it fully. That's what we're gonna do here.
2:29
Speaker 1: This one will stink right now, it won't. It'll be fine.
2:31
Speaker 1: I've never been to Marty grow either, and I mean
2:34
Speaker 1: I just have no interest at all, mainly because of
2:38
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of cops Marty Gral New Orleans episodes.
2:42
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, it's just it's a young It's not
2:44
Speaker 1: for me, you know. But I love New Orleans. And
2:48
Speaker 1: you can find your the most hospitable people on the
2:52
Speaker 1: planet there at any time of year, and they won't
2:56
Speaker 1: get mad at us. That's what's so great about them.
2:58
Speaker 1: We're gonna mess up a lot and they'll be like, yeah,
3:01
Speaker 1: it's all right, Yeah, don't worry about a guy. They'll
3:03
Speaker 1: kill us, but they won't get mad at us, you
3:06
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Maybe also I want to shout
3:08
Speaker 1: out our friend Doug Shashary sassy. I even I practiced it,
3:13
Speaker 1: Chuck it's a tough name. Who is at our New
3:16
Speaker 1: Orleans show and brought us up what were they called
3:18
Speaker 1: Budden Balls. Yeah, it was so good. But Doug's a
3:23
Speaker 1: great guy with them without the gift of bud. Yeah, boy,
3:26
Speaker 1: that guy is like a friend to the world. He
3:29
Speaker 1: invited us again. So Shash Sassary if that name sounds familiar,
3:33
Speaker 1: the Tony Sassary seasoning. He is the is an heir
3:37
Speaker 1: to the throat. He's one of the Sasshary kids. Uh
3:41
Speaker 1: grandkids maybe, and um. He has invited us to their
3:44
Speaker 1: company Boil again this April. He has for like the
3:47
Speaker 1: last few years. We're going to get to that one
3:49
Speaker 1: of these these days we will. Uh. Just a great,
3:52
Speaker 1: larger than life guy, like doesn't know a stranger, right.
3:55
Speaker 1: We met him once and I felt like he was
3:57
Speaker 1: the best friend. Yeah, he was hanging out with his backstage.
4:00
Speaker 1: He's like great. Hey, this kind of reminds me of
4:01
Speaker 1: the time I was hanging out backstage with Metallica every
4:04
Speaker 1: time at the time I met the Three Stages. Yeah,
4:06
Speaker 1: they were great. Yeah, it's just like that's awesome man. Yeah,
4:09
Speaker 1: what a good dude. Anyway, Hey, Doug, Uh, Well, so
4:12
Speaker 1: let's get it started, Charles, Yes, Uh, Marty Gras a
4:17
Speaker 1: k A. And is it pronounced carnival or does that
4:20
Speaker 1: have to have an e on the end? I think
4:22
Speaker 1: it's Carnival. And I think it's Carnival because it actually
4:26
Speaker 1: comes from the Latin words carna or carn a vale,
4:30
Speaker 1: which means farewell to the flesh, meat, volleyball. That's that's
4:35
Speaker 1: a better interpretation. It's wrong, but I like that farewell
4:38
Speaker 1: to the flesh. Is that what it means. Yes, not
4:39
Speaker 1: to be confused with candy man to farewell to the flesh.
4:43
Speaker 1: It just means farewell to the flesh. Uh. Carny Ball
4:47
Speaker 1: and Marty Gras begin in January, and like we said,
4:51
Speaker 1: today's Fat Tuesday. So everything has been going on in
4:53
Speaker 1: New Orleans and other places. But we're talking about the
4:56
Speaker 1: New Orleans Mardy Gras, not Mobile Alabama. I'm sorry. I
5:00
Speaker 1: know that you were the o g s but apparently right. Yeah,
5:03
Speaker 1: they I was gonna say that they had the first
5:05
Speaker 1: one by a mile from from this, like I think,
5:08
Speaker 1: fifteen years before New Orleans was even founded. This, yeah,
5:11
Speaker 1: and our very own. I mean, there are various neighborhoods
5:14
Speaker 1: around the world that do stuff like this. Kirkwood in Atlanta,
5:18
Speaker 1: for some reason has a little New Orleans thing and
5:21
Speaker 1: every year they do a little Marty Gras parade and
5:23
Speaker 1: paint the signs purple and gold and green. And I
5:26
Speaker 1: don't know why. Maybe there's just some people from New
5:30
Speaker 1: Orleans who showed up. Guess yeah, that that happened to
5:33
Speaker 1: post Katrina. We got a lot of people that moved here.
5:35
Speaker 1: But yeah, there was a lot. Yeah, that's right. I
5:36
Speaker 1: wonder if that does have to do with that, and maybe,
5:38
Speaker 1: but there it does. It does seem like the history
5:41
Speaker 1: of Marty Gras and the different influences from Marty Graw
5:45
Speaker 1: kind of have converged in New Orleans. It's like, yes,
5:49
Speaker 1: give us this, We'll take this tradition. Yes, give us that.
5:52
Speaker 1: And now everybody thinks when you think Marty Gras, you
5:54
Speaker 1: think New Orleans. But one thing that I don't think
5:57
Speaker 1: this article um really pointed out very well is Marty
6:01
Speaker 1: Grass is a day that's one part of carnival. Yeah,
6:06
Speaker 1: it's the culmination of a couple of weeks of partying
6:11
Speaker 1: and parading and masquerade bawling. Yes, uh, and well we'll
6:17
Speaker 1: just see a lot of fun stuff, right, But It's
6:19
Speaker 1: so like if you go down to Rio for Carnival,
6:21
Speaker 1: it's the exact same festival, celebrated differently in Brazil, but
6:26
Speaker 1: the same thing they're celebrating the same thing as they're
6:29
Speaker 1: celebrating throughout the Marty Gross season in New Orleans or
6:33
Speaker 1: in kirk Way. I bet Brazil would be pretty fun.
6:36
Speaker 1: I can't imagine with all the all those ugly men
6:39
Speaker 1: and women that live there right just in drab like
6:43
Speaker 1: baggy clothing. Man, that's my favorite part of the World
6:46
Speaker 1: Cup is just seeing people in the crowd from Brazil,
6:50
Speaker 1: all the models. The average person is a supermodel, so
6:55
Speaker 1: that's what it says on the tourist webs that's right. Uh.
6:58
Speaker 1: And Fat Tuesday, of course, is the day before ash Wednesday,
7:01
Speaker 1: which is tomorrow and the beginning of Lent. I grew
7:06
Speaker 1: up Baptist, as everyone knows, and so I'd never had
7:09
Speaker 1: to You never got the charcoal on your forehead. No,
7:12
Speaker 1: And in fact, in the in the South in the
7:14
Speaker 1: seventies and eighties, there were so few Catholics that they
7:16
Speaker 1: throw stones at you if you had the charcol Well,
7:19
Speaker 1: I didn't even know what it was, really, I mean,
7:21
Speaker 1: I was I think I remember being in college and
7:23
Speaker 1: being like, you've got something on your head. I don't
7:25
Speaker 1: remember what the ashes for. I'm sure one point three
7:28
Speaker 1: billion Catholics will write in to tell us, but it's
7:31
Speaker 1: it's the start of Land, like you said, which is
7:34
Speaker 1: a period of fasting before Easter. Right, it's a very
7:38
Speaker 1: it's a very holy period for the Roman Catholic Church. Yeah,
7:42
Speaker 1: And I think the original idea was for the partying
7:47
Speaker 1: is hey, let's let's indulge before we have to not
7:51
Speaker 1: indulge right on, like foods and stuff. I don't think
7:54
Speaker 1: it was like let's all get super hammered. Well, I
7:56
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know. Maybe so um fire to that.
8:00
Speaker 1: Even it has roots and paganism even before the Roman
8:04
Speaker 1: Catholic like every holiday we celebrate is based on paganism
8:09
Speaker 1: and then syncretized by the Roman Catholic Church. But um,
8:13
Speaker 1: the pagan roots of it were more um pragmatic or practical,
8:18
Speaker 1: where you had stuff that was like the last of
8:21
Speaker 1: the harvest um from the summer before the fall before
8:26
Speaker 1: and it was starting to get kind of starting to
8:28
Speaker 1: turn and spoil, and you needed to eat it before
8:31
Speaker 1: that time. So it was this this period of like
8:34
Speaker 1: using up everything in the house that was about to
8:36
Speaker 1: turn bad eggs, and like you would do that. It
8:39
Speaker 1: was called um uh graw boof I believe, or boof
8:44
Speaker 1: graw no grab boof, which means fat fat cow or
8:48
Speaker 1: fat fat beef. And it was it was this idea
8:52
Speaker 1: that that, like the right, that the beef had been
8:55
Speaker 1: fattened just to perfection and they weren't gonna get any fatter,
8:58
Speaker 1: and maybe they wouldn't even make it any any further,
9:02
Speaker 1: and you just slaughter them and eat them, or you
9:04
Speaker 1: just eat all this stuff in your house. Maybe it
9:06
Speaker 1: wouldn't make any further. Like that call is about to die.
9:09
Speaker 1: It's like it's so fat, let's eat it. Uh. So
9:14
Speaker 1: they think are that there's evidence at least that there
9:16
Speaker 1: was Marty Grass celebrating going on, maybe as early as
9:20
Speaker 1: the eighteenth century, definitely from what I saw. There was
9:23
Speaker 1: a French explorer named Pierre Lemoie Sieur de Belleville. I
9:29
Speaker 1: think you you really got it, Yeah, especially if you
9:32
Speaker 1: crunch it together and speed it up. I can't. I
9:34
Speaker 1: think he really nailed it. And he was exploring around
9:38
Speaker 1: and camping out about fifty miles south of what is
9:41
Speaker 1: now New Orleans and he's like, Hey, I know that
9:44
Speaker 1: they're celebrating in France right now, so I am going
9:47
Speaker 1: to christen the site. Point do Marty Gras? Uh? And
9:52
Speaker 1: like we said, though, the real Marty Grass celebration kind
9:55
Speaker 1: of started in Earnest and Mobile, Alabama though. Right, Yeah,
9:59
Speaker 1: so he named the I don't know if he actually
10:01
Speaker 1: celebrated Marty Gras, but he named that little area, right,
10:04
Speaker 1: he named that area Ponto Marty Gras. But the so
10:07
Speaker 1: that was six apparently four years later. Um in Mobile,
10:13
Speaker 1: before it was even a town, they celebrated. They had
10:15
Speaker 1: their first like Mardi Gras party or whatever, a ball
10:18
Speaker 1: or something like that at the Fort. And then New
10:20
Speaker 1: Orleans was it was UM Incorporator founded in seventeen eighteen,
10:24
Speaker 1: and they started having UM Mardi Gras parties like shortly
10:29
Speaker 1: after that. So he's all very close to the beginning
10:32
Speaker 1: of the eighteenth century, everybody started having Marty Grass and
10:35
Speaker 1: it was like directly from the French influence in the area.
10:39
Speaker 1: And if you look into the early eight hundreds, like
10:41
Speaker 1: the eighteen twenties and into the eighteen thirties, this is
10:44
Speaker 1: when you start seeing a lit little bit more of
10:46
Speaker 1: what we're talking about as far as uh, carriages that
10:49
Speaker 1: are decorated, people parading in masks, walking on foot probably
10:54
Speaker 1: at this point or in carriages. It was largely spontaneous though.
10:58
Speaker 1: There'll just be people partying on the street wearing masks,
11:01
Speaker 1: um that way. Yeah, and they did, and then other
11:05
Speaker 1: people will walked that way too, and all of a
11:07
Speaker 1: sudden you had a parade. But the thing is is
11:10
Speaker 1: these this revelry on the streets because everybody was indulging.
11:14
Speaker 1: And the point was like that just indulge, but we're like,
11:17
Speaker 1: really over indulge. Like this wasn't just your average like
11:20
Speaker 1: village party. This is everybody was getting trashed even back then,
11:24
Speaker 1: and so people were getting in fights, and people were
11:29
Speaker 1: beating up each other, and horses were kicking people right
11:31
Speaker 1: off their feet. All sorts of crazy stuff was happening.
11:33
Speaker 1: It was yeah, cops, New Orleans, um. And so the city,
11:37
Speaker 1: the city leaders were like, we're not going to do
11:40
Speaker 1: this anymore. This is out of hand. And an eighteen
11:43
Speaker 1: fifties seven, I believe a group of actually from what
11:48
Speaker 1: I saw, transplants from Mobile who were members of a
11:51
Speaker 1: group called the Cowbellian de Rakian Society Okay, they um,
12:00
Speaker 1: they said, hey, how about this, We'll actually organize a
12:03
Speaker 1: legit parade and it will be much more orderly, there
12:06
Speaker 1: won't be this chaos. And they formed the Mystic Crew
12:10
Speaker 1: of Commas. Yeah, so there's a lot of k's in
12:14
Speaker 1: place of c's mystic as a K. But it doesn't
12:16
Speaker 1: look scary like we talked about, right and and oh
12:22
Speaker 1: does it to you? Well, not mystic crew, but it
12:24
Speaker 1: depends on what follows mystic because it could look creepy
12:28
Speaker 1: to me. But crew was spelled with a K R
12:31
Speaker 1: E W E. And we should go ahead and talk
12:34
Speaker 1: a little bit about what a crew is. It's uh,
12:39
Speaker 1: it's a group of people who get together and um,
12:43
Speaker 1: technically they are like legit nonprofits and they get larger
12:47
Speaker 1: at least charity organizations that they're supposed to be. Yeah,
12:51
Speaker 1: and they are sort of the group of people who
12:54
Speaker 1: would get together and say, all right, this is our gang,
12:56
Speaker 1: and we're gonna gang in a good way, and we're
12:59
Speaker 1: gonna make a float and do this theme this year
13:03
Speaker 1: and all get together and get super drunk. Probably not
13:06
Speaker 1: all of them, I bet you. There's a a non
13:09
Speaker 1: drinking crew like one gotta be there. Has to be
13:12
Speaker 1: at right, But they they they they were anonymous originally,
13:18
Speaker 1: like they were secret groups that were like out and
13:22
Speaker 1: proud in public, but like they wore masks and like
13:25
Speaker 1: their identity really was anonymous, Like you were an anonymous
13:29
Speaker 1: member of this group. That's right, and um. Over time
13:34
Speaker 1: now people like the anonymity is not quite as important,
13:38
Speaker 1: and it's to some though. I think I think sometimes
13:40
Speaker 1: they take it seriously. Yeah, I mean not in that like,
13:44
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe you can't get kicked out. It might,
13:46
Speaker 1: it might be more of a lighthearted thing, but I
13:48
Speaker 1: think generally they try and still respect the the masks
13:52
Speaker 1: on approach. Sure, okay, all right, but I mean, like
13:54
Speaker 1: if you told somebody like I'm a member of the
13:58
Speaker 1: Crew of Rex or something like that, not going to
14:00
Speaker 1: kick you out, it's taking your mask off during the
14:02
Speaker 1: parade specifically, I think. So, yeah, so they here about it.
14:06
Speaker 1: We got that right, we definitely want But they grew
14:08
Speaker 1: from these little tiny societies into very large groups, well
14:14
Speaker 1: funded almost across the board because they're supported by dues,
14:18
Speaker 1: and they put on parades and balls, masquerade balls on
14:22
Speaker 1: the night of Mardy craw and um. Some of them
14:24
Speaker 1: are just really enormous, have like big name celebrities and
14:28
Speaker 1: like huge bands that play, and they'll still nominate a
14:31
Speaker 1: person to be like the leader or the king or
14:34
Speaker 1: queen each year. Like you could they could say, Josh Clark,
14:39
Speaker 1: we want you to come down. They could and be
14:42
Speaker 1: the King of our crew this year. And that's how
14:45
Speaker 1: it started back in not eighteen fifty seven. I think
14:48
Speaker 1: it's eighteen seventy two that the first king of a
14:51
Speaker 1: crew was nominated, right, But eighteen fifty seven was when
14:54
Speaker 1: the Mystic Crew of Comus had what's now looked at
14:58
Speaker 1: the first as the first kind of modern Marty Gras parade,
15:03
Speaker 1: and uh aside from a few years where like World
15:09
Speaker 1: Wars interrupted things, they've kind of been doing this every
15:12
Speaker 1: year since then. Yeah, there's another. So eighteen fifty seven
15:16
Speaker 1: was a big year. Eighteen seventy two that I mentioned
15:19
Speaker 1: was another big year because that year the the traditional
15:23
Speaker 1: Marty Gras colors were added, I believe by the Crew
15:26
Speaker 1: of Rex. And there's a lot of um, a lot
15:28
Speaker 1: of misunderstanding supposedly, so that year the Crew of Rex
15:33
Speaker 1: named as their king or the leader, I can't remember
15:36
Speaker 1: which one he was. The Russian Grand Duke Alexei, who
15:40
Speaker 1: was from the House of Romanoff, And they said, well,
15:43
Speaker 1: these colors came from the House of Romanoff, the gold,
15:47
Speaker 1: the green, and the purple that we all associate with
15:50
Speaker 1: with Marty Gras. That's just absolutely not true. The House
15:53
Speaker 1: of Romanoff has like red, yellow, and blue, I believe
15:56
Speaker 1: are their colors. But that's just the legend that came about.
16:00
Speaker 1: But some other stuff happened that year, like the idea
16:02
Speaker 1: of electing a king to your Mardi Gras parade, um,
16:06
Speaker 1: throwing beads for the first time happened that year. The song, Yeah,
16:10
Speaker 1: the song what what is it? If I ever ceased
16:13
Speaker 1: to love? That's not how I was gonna say. I've
16:16
Speaker 1: never heard it actually, so you I bet you if
16:20
Speaker 1: we played it, you might recognize it. So the colors,
16:23
Speaker 1: though purple stands for justice, screen for faith, and gold
16:25
Speaker 1: for power, supposedly all just made up out a whole cloth. Yeah,
16:29
Speaker 1: And the idea with the beads was supposedly originally that
16:31
Speaker 1: you would toss these two people who you thought exemplified
16:34
Speaker 1: these traits. I'm not sure how accurate that is either. Um.
16:38
Speaker 1: Now it is, of course morphed into another tradition, which
16:42
Speaker 1: I don't even know if that's still going on. What hey, Mr,
16:46
Speaker 1: throw me something? Yeah, throw me something, Mr, Mr throwing
16:50
Speaker 1: some some combination of those words. Well, I'll show you
16:52
Speaker 1: something and you throw me something. Oh, that's different. So
16:55
Speaker 1: I think it went from you look like you're involved
16:58
Speaker 1: in justice. Here's some b to there's this traditional call.
17:02
Speaker 1: I think, um, Mr, throw me something, okay, and then
17:06
Speaker 1: I think it morphed into the boops thing that you
17:09
Speaker 1: just said. That literally quieter. But I don't even know.
17:15
Speaker 1: You know, with all the advancements we've made in the
17:17
Speaker 1: past few years, if people are doing that anymore, I
17:20
Speaker 1: would like to know about that, because I'm not gonna
17:22
Speaker 1: go down to Marty Grawl. I'll come to New Orleans,
17:25
Speaker 1: not jazz Fest and not Marty Graw, and I'll have
17:27
Speaker 1: a blast, but I'm not going to go to those
17:29
Speaker 1: things there. We were there last October, I think, so yeah,
17:34
Speaker 1: and there's candy in the streets, and I'm like, there's
17:37
Speaker 1: no way this is left over from Marty Graw. Dude,
17:39
Speaker 1: there's parades all the time. That's what I was wondering. Yes,
17:42
Speaker 1: did they just do it all the time? I mean
17:44
Speaker 1: every time I've been, there have been parties and parades.
17:48
Speaker 1: It just it just seems like one of those towns
17:50
Speaker 1: where they're always getting down throwing candy. Uh should we well,
17:55
Speaker 1: I guess we should just say quickly if you're before
17:57
Speaker 1: we break, if you're gonna go, we're not discouraging you go,
18:01
Speaker 1: but plan in advance, because it's not the kind of
18:03
Speaker 1: thing where on a the week before you can be like, hey, dude,
18:07
Speaker 1: let's go. Man, I think you can go under those
18:10
Speaker 1: for sure you'll be sleeping in the van kind of experience.
18:14
Speaker 1: Then if you like book a hotel, you're in advance. Yeah,
18:16
Speaker 1: you won't get a hotel, you won't be able to
18:18
Speaker 1: eat an Emeralds or anything like that unless you plan
18:20
Speaker 1: like far far in advance. You could storm Emeralds, which
18:24
Speaker 1: people who sleeping vans and talk like you just did
18:28
Speaker 1: mind to you? All right, So let's take a break
18:30
Speaker 1: and we'll talk more about Marty Gras. All right. So
18:54
Speaker 1: if you are the city of New Orleans, you love
18:57
Speaker 1: Marty Gras because it brings in a ton of money
19:01
Speaker 1: every year. Yeah, I think I'm like a half a
19:04
Speaker 1: billion dollars. I couldn't believe that, man, half a billion
19:07
Speaker 1: dollars so much a year, not since it started a
19:10
Speaker 1: couple hundred years ago, but every year about half a
19:15
Speaker 1: billion dollars in revenue. Yeah, and this is something I
19:18
Speaker 1: thought was super cool. They're not. There's no corporate sponsorship there.
19:22
Speaker 1: There can be. Oh really, but it's not like I
19:25
Speaker 1: don't want to interrupt you go ahead. Well it's it's
19:27
Speaker 1: not like there's one Mardi Gras committee and that is
19:31
Speaker 1: sponsored by X car brand and there's a president of
19:36
Speaker 1: Mardy Graw. Like it's all patchworks of cruise and neighborhoods
19:40
Speaker 1: and people. Yeah, and all of them operate autonomously. Yes. Basically,
19:45
Speaker 1: what the city does is say, we can have X
19:47
Speaker 1: number of parades this year. These are the routes. Get
19:50
Speaker 1: a permit if you want to do it. Everything else
19:53
Speaker 1: is up to you. But like a local crew could
19:55
Speaker 1: be sponsored by Chico's bail bondsman. Basically, yeah, okay man,
19:58
Speaker 1: that was a great deep cause right there. But um,
20:02
Speaker 1: it's customary not to. If you do that, you're you know, again,
20:08
Speaker 1: you're operating autonomously, so nobody can tell you not to.
20:12
Speaker 1: But it's just kind of looked down upon. But some do.
20:14
Speaker 1: I saw somebody sponsored by bud Lte and I could
20:16
Speaker 1: not find it. Um, so it gets that big. Yeah, dude,
20:20
Speaker 1: the I mean just the the crew of Endemon e
20:25
Speaker 1: N d y m O N. Who knows how to
20:27
Speaker 1: pronounce half of these? I'm sorry, I'm sure we're butchering it.
20:31
Speaker 1: I need to have my word butcher april on but
20:34
Speaker 1: um the crew of Endemon, I'm pretty sure I got it.
20:37
Speaker 1: There's usually ends their parade usually ends in the Superdome
20:42
Speaker 1: with bud Man basically duf man Um in the Superdome
20:47
Speaker 1: and they'll have like a huge concert like this year.
20:49
Speaker 1: I think the Superdome is under construction, so they're ending
20:53
Speaker 1: it somewhere else. But like Sticks is playing, Train is playing.
20:57
Speaker 1: There's like five bands Sticks. Dude. Sure I would walk
21:02
Speaker 1: however long to go see Sticks Sticks without Dennis too young,
21:06
Speaker 1: But that's really as he did. No, he just doesn't.
21:08
Speaker 1: They broke up and Sticks went on without their lead singer.
21:11
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, I think the crew of Endemont's
21:14
Speaker 1: got enough like cash to bring him back. You to
21:16
Speaker 1: be cool as if Endemon had Sticks and like, uh
21:20
Speaker 1: the Mystic crew had Dennis de Young on the other
21:23
Speaker 1: side of town. You got to choose, you know, your allegiance. Yeah,
21:27
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear Mr Roboto or too much
21:30
Speaker 1: time on my hands. I think Tommy Shall sing that. Okay,
21:34
Speaker 1: so when did that start? Tommy? Well, now he's always
21:38
Speaker 1: been around, but he was there was the lead singer.
21:40
Speaker 1: Then Tommy Shall played guitar and sang a few of
21:42
Speaker 1: their songs, okay, and then he took over when Dennis
21:44
Speaker 1: the Young left. Sure, okay, what do you do when
21:47
Speaker 1: the Dennis to Young vacuum opens up? I don't know,
21:50
Speaker 1: I mean step in there could also fill it with
21:52
Speaker 1: Sammy Hagar. Oh man, I was listening to some Van
21:55
Speaker 1: Hagar this weekend because that's what Emily loves. It was great,
21:59
Speaker 1: big shout up to Aaron Hagar. Yeah, this is a
22:01
Speaker 1: shout out at huh. I guess so um. I don't
22:05
Speaker 1: remember how we got on that, but oh yeah, so
22:07
Speaker 1: so yes, some of these should be so big. The
22:09
Speaker 1: super Cruise specifically, we'll talk a little more about that,
22:12
Speaker 1: but the super Cruise are like these big giant ones
22:15
Speaker 1: that are just tradition that have hundreds of members on,
22:19
Speaker 1: you know, in their parade. One of them, I think
22:22
Speaker 1: end DeMont Um has one float that's like three sixty
22:26
Speaker 1: ft long. There's like thirty two hundred floaters in their parade,
22:31
Speaker 1: just a ton of people they throw out, like I think, yeah,
22:34
Speaker 1: fifteen million throws things that they throw out, everything from
22:37
Speaker 1: beasas to balloons and all that. Fifteen million in a parade.
22:40
Speaker 1: So yeah, these things can get like bud Light corporate
22:43
Speaker 1: sponsorship level amazing. So uh, it is an integrated parade
22:51
Speaker 1: now in series of parades now obviously pre integration, Uh,
22:56
Speaker 1: there were communities, African American communities in New Orleans that
23:00
Speaker 1: got together their own jam, which I bet was quite
23:03
Speaker 1: a party. Um. The crew, the Zulu Social Aid and
23:06
Speaker 1: Pleasure Club Incorporated is one said cruise. Although I did
23:12
Speaker 1: see that there are some white people in that crew. Now,
23:14
Speaker 1: oh didn't integrate. That's cool, I think so because there
23:17
Speaker 1: was some controversy. They dress up in I think traditional
23:22
Speaker 1: African garb and they well they were grass skirts. Well
23:26
Speaker 1: they were black face, to which I saw a couple
23:29
Speaker 1: of years ago there was a call to stop the
23:30
Speaker 1: black face even though the African American and they said,
23:33
Speaker 1: but there were some white members doing it too, And
23:36
Speaker 1: they said, you know, because of the minstrel roots and
23:38
Speaker 1: which I totally want to do one on minstrel shows.
23:41
Speaker 1: Uh to not do it anymore? Other people say no,
23:44
Speaker 1: it's it's more rooted in like the mask tradition for us.
23:48
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure if they're still doing that or not.
23:51
Speaker 1: As of I was reading on their website about their
23:54
Speaker 1: history that this is not the first time they were
23:56
Speaker 1: kind of protested by UM African Americ Ricans. In the sixties,
24:03
Speaker 1: there was a big like push against him in their
24:05
Speaker 1: membership dwindled down to I think sixteen people because it
24:09
Speaker 1: was just so unpopular what they were doing. I think
24:11
Speaker 1: Louis Armstrong were black face one year as they're really king,
24:15
Speaker 1: but they so the Social Aid and Pleasure Club. The
24:18
Speaker 1: Social Aid part is that that group started out back
24:20
Speaker 1: in the day where UM, and it wasn't just African Americans,
24:23
Speaker 1: but I could definitely see during the Jim Crow era
24:25
Speaker 1: where African Americans needed to do this. They would all
24:28
Speaker 1: chip in like membership dues, and then when they fell
24:31
Speaker 1: ill that you know, that larger pot of money would
24:34
Speaker 1: take care of them, basically like insurance is supposed to work, right.
24:38
Speaker 1: But that's where the Social AIG came from. But they
24:40
Speaker 1: still are a charity organization. Interesting, and Dougie Fresh is
24:44
Speaker 1: playing at their ball today. Oh really, if you had
24:47
Speaker 1: a chance to see sticks or Dougie Fresh, which would
24:51
Speaker 1: or too young doug you Fresh? It would be pretty cool.
24:57
Speaker 1: I know of Dougie Fresh, but I'm not. I'm not
24:59
Speaker 1: hip to those j ms. You don't have to be
25:01
Speaker 1: hip to to know Dougie Fresh. Well, I mean it's
25:03
Speaker 1: been around. I mean I don't know them. I guess
25:05
Speaker 1: what I mean. I know I'm not hip already. A
25:10
Speaker 1: second ago, I think you said balloons instead of doubloons. No,
25:14
Speaker 1: I didn't, I think. So let's read why balloons? Uh,
25:22
Speaker 1: we need to pass forward. So doubloons are we've reached
25:28
Speaker 1: a new low here and here twelve Uh. They are aluminum.
25:31
Speaker 1: They are a little coin like objects and they have
25:35
Speaker 1: um the Cruise in Sydney on one side and then
25:37
Speaker 1: whatever their theme is on the other. They toss these
25:40
Speaker 1: out of people. There's a lot of tossing. Yeah, and
25:42
Speaker 1: actually those things to balloons, um fall under the larger
25:46
Speaker 1: umbrella of throws of balloons. Did I said to balloons this? Okay? Man,
25:52
Speaker 1: you got my head chuck. Yeah, those are throws throws
25:54
Speaker 1: or anything that is thrown from afloat and usually it's
25:57
Speaker 1: a very inexpensive souvenir deeds, very very customary. Those DA
26:02
Speaker 1: balloons are a little more UM saw it after a challenge,
26:08
Speaker 1: like I think, if it's like um, if it has
26:10
Speaker 1: like the groups insignia and then on the other side
26:12
Speaker 1: of the theme that year, it's definitely considered a collectible
26:16
Speaker 1: and not just generic ones. I guess I think so.
26:19
Speaker 1: And then um, like others, other people's throws are like
26:23
Speaker 1: other cruise throws are like really sought after, Like the
26:26
Speaker 1: zulus throws are coconuts um and like real coconuts. I
26:31
Speaker 1: think they were at one point. I'm not sure if
26:32
Speaker 1: they had everybody, but I read this Chowhound article about
26:36
Speaker 1: throws and they were saying, like, the Zulus don't throw
26:39
Speaker 1: coconuts anymore because of legal reasons. Well, it's funny. There's
26:43
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff in here. Um, you might as
26:46
Speaker 1: well talk about the kincakes and the chokable that they
26:50
Speaker 1: would put inside of the kincake. Uh. If you've never
26:53
Speaker 1: had a kincake, it is a big uh sugared cake.
26:58
Speaker 1: It's oval with a hole in the middle. It's like
27:00
Speaker 1: a Danish yeah, but it's a Danish just like slathered
27:04
Speaker 1: in sugar of of purple green and gold and very
27:10
Speaker 1: rich and sugary. And the tradition, of course to put
27:14
Speaker 1: the little plastic baby Jesus or represented baby Jesus. Initially,
27:18
Speaker 1: I guess it's a naked baby, sure, swaddling clothes. Uh.
27:24
Speaker 1: That started what was the guy's name, It's a Donald
27:27
Speaker 1: Intrager who started that in the forties. Yeah, the nineteen forties.
27:31
Speaker 1: So it's not like a hundreds year old tradition. Yeah,
27:34
Speaker 1: and it actually didn't survive terribly long because at some
27:37
Speaker 1: point in time in the not too distant past, Baker's
27:42
Speaker 1: started to say, we don't want to get sued either.
27:45
Speaker 1: Those zulus are onto something. We're We're going to stop
27:48
Speaker 1: baking the little plastic baby dolls into this cake. Yeah,
27:52
Speaker 1: that just seems insane because people could choke on them.
27:55
Speaker 1: So now it comes in like a little pack, like
27:58
Speaker 1: a little cellophane package that says stick in at your
28:01
Speaker 1: own risks, and then you just I guess you stick
28:04
Speaker 1: it in and then lick your hand and smooth icing
28:07
Speaker 1: back over to to cover up that part. So I'm
28:10
Speaker 1: trying to figure out the first time we went to
28:13
Speaker 1: New Orleans. I think it was around Marty Gras, unless
28:17
Speaker 1: they have another big kincake celebration, which they might. They
28:21
Speaker 1: don't is that they do. Not. Kingcake season actually runs
28:26
Speaker 1: from um King's Day, which is January six, which is
28:29
Speaker 1: the day that officially kicks off Marty Grass season in
28:32
Speaker 1: New Orleans, until ash Wednesday. You're not supposed to be
28:36
Speaker 1: able to get a kincake outside of that. So you know,
28:41
Speaker 1: it may not have been for a tour, because I
28:42
Speaker 1: did take another trip down there with our friends Gus
28:46
Speaker 1: and Matt and their son. I can't remember if that
28:49
Speaker 1: was the same trip or not, so I'm getting a
28:51
Speaker 1: mom mixed up. But whenever we were down there, our
28:53
Speaker 1: friends Makes and Jackie who lived there, uh took us
28:56
Speaker 1: on like a neighborhood kincake. That traveling party. I think
29:00
Speaker 1: that was for our show, because those people I think
29:03
Speaker 1: you're talking about came backstage that first show, Maxing Jackie
29:06
Speaker 1: definitely did okay. And then I specifically remember walking under
29:10
Speaker 1: a scaffolding bleacher painted green, maybe even purple, and it
29:16
Speaker 1: was along a street around It must have been either
29:21
Speaker 1: before or after something, but it was during the season,
29:24
Speaker 1: so I guess Ultimately, what I'm saying is the first
29:27
Speaker 1: time must have been around then. Yeah, And it's also
29:30
Speaker 1: both of our recollections together it forms a cohesive. And
29:33
Speaker 1: I'm not the first person to uh have various New
29:37
Speaker 1: Orleans trips kind of blurred together, blur together in my head.
29:41
Speaker 1: But all I know is that kincake thing was I
29:44
Speaker 1: felt like strangers, literal strangers were just like, come on
29:47
Speaker 1: in and giving you kincake, yes, and every other kind
29:50
Speaker 1: of great food and sweet. Yeah, they do have a
29:53
Speaker 1: pretty good food down there. Man. So um man, we're
29:57
Speaker 1: just knocking the traditions out, aren't we. Else? What else
30:00
Speaker 1: should we talk about? The parades? Yeah, I mean there's
30:03
Speaker 1: a lot of parades. Uh, you know, fifty sixty, seventy
30:07
Speaker 1: eighty parades. I think this year accounted seventy nine nine.
30:11
Speaker 1: Like that's the level of commitment you're getting out of
30:13
Speaker 1: Josh Clark is hand counting the number of parades from
30:17
Speaker 1: the parade schedule. Uh, the twelve days leading up to
30:21
Speaker 1: Marty Grass, those final twelve days are when now that's Carnival.
30:26
Speaker 1: I don't know why this article was so averse to
30:28
Speaker 1: saying it. Yeah, that is weird because they kept saying
30:31
Speaker 1: anything but just calling it carnival. Well, no, no, no,
30:34
Speaker 1: but it leads up to the day of Marty Gras, right, yeah,
30:37
Speaker 1: Marty Graz one day of Carnival, Yeah, which is what
30:41
Speaker 1: carnival is, the twelve days leading up to Marty CROs,
30:44
Speaker 1: including Marty CROs. That's right. But those are concentrated in
30:48
Speaker 1: the parishes of Orleans, Jefferson, um St. Bernard and Sant Tammany.
30:56
Speaker 1: M Is that how it's pronounced. Probably, But there are
30:59
Speaker 1: pre season parades like it has eked out longer and
31:03
Speaker 1: longer over the years, is the impression I get. Yeah,
31:05
Speaker 1: and just the same that King Cakes become available January six,
31:09
Speaker 1: that same day King's Day, there's a couple of parades
31:12
Speaker 1: that typically um, a couple of parades or at least
31:16
Speaker 1: events that typically um kick off this whole season, even
31:20
Speaker 1: though Carnival doesn't start until the second Friday before Fat Tuesday.
31:25
Speaker 1: Just chew on it. It's all there. Um. The actual
31:28
Speaker 1: Mardy Grass season kicks off on January six, that's right.
31:31
Speaker 1: Chew on that naked baby made of plastic. Right, And
31:35
Speaker 1: because we should also, we haven't said this one more
31:37
Speaker 1: thing about dates and calendars. It's a lot of fun.
31:40
Speaker 1: Um because the the Lenten season can change because Easter
31:46
Speaker 1: is not on one fixed day. Has to do with
31:48
Speaker 1: the moon or like rabbit reproduction or something like that.
31:52
Speaker 1: That Um, Marty Gras can actually fall anywhere between February
31:58
Speaker 1: three and March nine. That's a big long stretch that
32:02
Speaker 1: it could fall on, right, But it has to do
32:04
Speaker 1: with when Easter comes, because Marty Grass forty days plus
32:08
Speaker 1: six before Easter, that's right, those six Sundays. Right, we
32:12
Speaker 1: should have a sideshow called Calendar Talking. We should. It
32:15
Speaker 1: would be great. We just launched a spinoff just like
32:19
Speaker 1: too Close for Comfort. That's right, Too close for comfort? Right.
32:23
Speaker 1: We heard back from a few people on that. So
32:25
Speaker 1: it's not a spinoff of anything, right, No, I don't
32:27
Speaker 1: think so. Uh So, these crews have themes every year,
32:32
Speaker 1: and they they can range. Sometimes it's about a legend
32:36
Speaker 1: or a famous story. Sometimes it's a kid's story, sometimes
32:39
Speaker 1: something from literature, mythology. I think about half of these
32:43
Speaker 1: crews have names that are Greek or Roman in origin. Right, Yeah,
32:48
Speaker 1: that's well. I think it's kind of a nod to
32:50
Speaker 1: the pagan roots. Um, and it also includes Egyptian stuff too,
32:56
Speaker 1: and I saw that the whole idea of wearing masks
32:58
Speaker 1: and like masquerade balls and all that actually traces its
33:01
Speaker 1: roots back to ancient Egypt. So it's really interesting like
33:05
Speaker 1: this this stuff kind of traveled from ancient Egypt to
33:10
Speaker 1: ancient I guess Greece and then Rome and the medieval
33:13
Speaker 1: Europe and then over to the New World and then
33:16
Speaker 1: interesting that it's not like it's just been one unbroken chain,
33:19
Speaker 1: but it's it's connected enough that the current cruise name
33:25
Speaker 1: themselves after like Osiris or Isis or you know who
33:30
Speaker 1: isis the deity? Um, they're not down with the terrorists organization,
33:35
Speaker 1: right right? Um, that that that there's at least that
33:39
Speaker 1: awareness that this is rude to This whole tradition is
33:42
Speaker 1: rooted in in in in history that far back. I
33:44
Speaker 1: think it's really cool and all brought to you by
33:48
Speaker 1: bud Light and show me your boobs. Uh should we
33:53
Speaker 1: take a break? Uh sure, all right, let's take a
33:56
Speaker 1: break and we'll talk a little bit more about super
33:57
Speaker 1: cruise right after this. What's a super crew, Josh, Well,
34:22
Speaker 1: a super crew the best crew there there. Well, so
34:26
Speaker 1: typically there's a couple of qualifiers. One, they're usually um,
34:30
Speaker 1: very well funded, large membership. Um, and they'll have their
34:35
Speaker 1: parades will occur within the last few days before and
34:40
Speaker 1: including Marty Grawl. Yeah. And these are the ones, like
34:43
Speaker 1: you were saying, that have some of them three hundred
34:45
Speaker 1: foot long floats or you know, like a hundred floats
34:50
Speaker 1: in their crew. These are the ones that get the
34:53
Speaker 1: celebrities in that convertible at the front. Yeah. And just
34:57
Speaker 1: like having corporate sponsorship, it was customer. You did not
35:00
Speaker 1: have outsiders as like the king of your parade. I
35:04
Speaker 1: would think so. Um. And then it was the crew
35:06
Speaker 1: of Bacchus that was the first to kind of break
35:08
Speaker 1: from that tradition. Back in nine nine Danny Kay, the
35:13
Speaker 1: famous whig designer. What does that mean? I don't even know. Okay,
35:20
Speaker 1: I thought there was some like serious in joke that
35:23
Speaker 1: I was no, no, no, okay, just random Yeah, I gotcha,
35:26
Speaker 1: but no. He was a famous musical actor, right yeah,
35:30
Speaker 1: and wig design Uh. And the the parade format is
35:34
Speaker 1: basically where the captain I think we were calling them leaders. Yeah,
35:38
Speaker 1: they can't be called leaders to a crew leader. Uh.
35:41
Speaker 1: They are at the head of procession. They're usually on
35:43
Speaker 1: a float that is, or they could be on horseback
35:47
Speaker 1: or in that convertible like we're talking about, and then
35:50
Speaker 1: it is followed in succession by officers, kings, queens. Sometimes
35:54
Speaker 1: you got maids and dukes and everyone's just having a
35:57
Speaker 1: good old time, right, And so you said something to
36:00
Speaker 1: about the themes, right, So each parade and press processions theme.
36:06
Speaker 1: There's like you said, there's no overall theme to Mardi Gras,
36:09
Speaker 1: but there's a theme for each and every parade, and
36:11
Speaker 1: the crew selects it every year, and like their floats
36:14
Speaker 1: are going to reflect that. But what's funny is they're
36:17
Speaker 1: very frequently like children's literature, mythology, um like like historical
36:25
Speaker 1: stuff for stuff that everybody knows, like almost bland. And
36:29
Speaker 1: the reason that I kind of drew from the subtext
36:33
Speaker 1: of this article is there's a finite number of floats
36:36
Speaker 1: that you can rent in New Orleans for your parade,
36:39
Speaker 1: and a lot of them have things like little bo
36:42
Speaker 1: Peep on them, because some of these are rented and
36:45
Speaker 1: a lot of them are typically it's just the super
36:48
Speaker 1: crew that has the money and the man power um
36:50
Speaker 1: to to build a float from scratch every year, and
36:54
Speaker 1: so the super Creuse will have like way varying themes
36:57
Speaker 1: but like a smaller crew will have a theme where
36:59
Speaker 1: you know, they can cobble together some floats, some rented
37:02
Speaker 1: floats to make a cohesive um um theme. Yeah, like
37:05
Speaker 1: what do you got left too close for comfort? Right,
37:09
Speaker 1: the Jim J. Bullock float. But for that year the
37:12
Speaker 1: Zulus did the Seinfeld theme. That was right, But the
37:16
Speaker 1: but I think that the floats available have to do
37:20
Speaker 1: with the theme because um interesting, you know, there are
37:23
Speaker 1: just a there's a finite pool and there's a lot
37:25
Speaker 1: of them though, so much so that I think St.
37:28
Speaker 1: Charles Parish, believe or St. Orleans Parish, one of the two,
37:32
Speaker 1: has an ordinance that the same float can't go through
37:36
Speaker 1: the business district in more than two parades during one
37:39
Speaker 1: Mardi Grass season. Right, so let's say you have a
37:43
Speaker 1: pre parade with Little bo Peep. Uh, you can't go
37:47
Speaker 1: back out as Little bo Peep. You can you can
37:50
Speaker 1: one more time? Oh you can only do it? Can't
37:51
Speaker 1: two more? So they give you two? Yeah, the same
37:53
Speaker 1: float can't be used more than twice in more than
37:56
Speaker 1: season through the central business district. But there's four different
38:00
Speaker 1: parishes putting on Marty Gras Parade, So technically that same
38:03
Speaker 1: float could see a pretty decent amount. So that's just
38:05
Speaker 1: in each parish, just in either or Leans or St.
38:08
Speaker 1: Charles Paris, I can't remember, so a little bo peep
38:10
Speaker 1: could be seeing lots of action potentially conceivably sure, Yeah, alright,
38:15
Speaker 1: but I think that's pretty interesting. It really kind of
38:17
Speaker 1: reveals like how seriously they take their Marty Gras parades
38:21
Speaker 1: in New Orleans, their local laws saying how many times
38:24
Speaker 1: a float can be used because they want to keep
38:26
Speaker 1: it fresh and interesting. That's right. Yeah. So the other
38:29
Speaker 1: thing too, when they're selecting these leaders or the royalty,
38:35
Speaker 1: it says sometimes it's just random draws for the king
38:39
Speaker 1: and queen. I would think it would a lot of
38:40
Speaker 1: more thought would go into it than that, but I
38:42
Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe some of them do pick randomly, not
38:44
Speaker 1: if it's coming from your membership, and you know, I think, I, oh, well,
38:49
Speaker 1: that makes it fair, I guess, right, because and you
38:51
Speaker 1: can't jockey for position, But um, you can also invite
38:55
Speaker 1: celebrities other times. Um, you actually will pay for the
39:00
Speaker 1: privilege to to be the king or the queen or
39:03
Speaker 1: duke or a maid in the court. Um. I didn't
39:06
Speaker 1: see how much you would pay, but yeah, it was
39:08
Speaker 1: very curious about that. That's pretty rich. Yeah, you know,
39:12
Speaker 1: like like we pick you, congratulations, give us some where's
39:15
Speaker 1: my where's my two dollars? So the costumes and the
39:20
Speaker 1: masks are obviously a big, big part of this um
39:23
Speaker 1: that's where a lot of money is generated custom rental
39:27
Speaker 1: and making original costumes. Um. It is tradition, like we
39:33
Speaker 1: said to to leave on your mask, but they're way
39:36
Speaker 1: more flexible about it now than they used to be,
39:38
Speaker 1: I think. But yes, but Bacchus and Rex I believe,
39:42
Speaker 1: are like you can lose your membership if you take
39:45
Speaker 1: your mask off during their Marty Gras parade. I'll have
39:48
Speaker 1: you killed you well right there in the street, which
39:51
Speaker 1: is ruined more than one Marty Gras. Yeah, but apparently
39:54
Speaker 1: it's so um like the mask part of it is
39:58
Speaker 1: so um ingreened. It's such an ancient part of this
40:02
Speaker 1: that goes way back in time that it's still just
40:07
Speaker 1: totally widespread today, not just among people in the prey,
40:10
Speaker 1: but among people watching the parade too. And this article says,
40:14
Speaker 1: you might feel weird actually not having a mask on,
40:17
Speaker 1: but street vendors have you covered. You can just buy
40:20
Speaker 1: one from one of them. Of course you can. There's
40:22
Speaker 1: plastic garbage everywhere to buy and throw. Right. You used
40:25
Speaker 1: to sell it, didn't you. Oh? I sold the glow noodles.
40:28
Speaker 1: I love those, man. Uh can we talk about moon pies? Sure? Sure,
40:33
Speaker 1: So this makes a lot of sense as a throw
40:37
Speaker 1: to take the place of something that could really hurt somebody,
40:40
Speaker 1: because a traditional throw in New Orleans a sweet treet
40:43
Speaker 1: used to be cracker Jack's boxes, which are very you know,
40:48
Speaker 1: it's like any tiny box. If you throw that from
40:50
Speaker 1: ten or twelve feet away down onto someone, one of
40:53
Speaker 1: those corners can hit you in the face and that's
40:55
Speaker 1: no fun. So the tradition of throwing the moon pie,
40:59
Speaker 1: which if you don't know what a moonpie is, you're
41:01
Speaker 1: missing out. It is a Southern It's gonna call it delicacy,
41:05
Speaker 1: but that might get him at gas station, so it
41:09
Speaker 1: really isn't. But they are two Graham cracker cookies, soft
41:12
Speaker 1: ones between with marshmallow filling in between, dipped in chocolate.
41:17
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a portable s'more that's room temperature
41:21
Speaker 1: cold and soft. Yeah. Like it's not a hard gram
41:25
Speaker 1: right right, it's like soft and crumbly. Yeah, And they're
41:28
Speaker 1: you know, I haven't had one in years and years,
41:31
Speaker 1: but I'm from the South, so I've had a moonpie
41:33
Speaker 1: or two in my day. Yeah. You. We went on
41:35
Speaker 1: this little kick a few back, yeah, where she was
41:37
Speaker 1: like what is this and tribe when she's like, let's
41:40
Speaker 1: there's a gas station, let's stop and get a moonpie.
41:42
Speaker 1: And it lasted for about a week and a half
41:44
Speaker 1: and she's like, so you got gas twice shade to
41:48
Speaker 1: basically I think. I mean, they have other flavors now too,
41:51
Speaker 1: but the chocolate is the the original. Uh. And they
41:54
Speaker 1: started in nineteen seventeen when a salesman traveling salesman from Chattanooga, uh,
42:00
Speaker 1: the Chattanooga Bakery ran into as the story goes, a
42:04
Speaker 1: coal miner from Kentucky who said, you know what we
42:07
Speaker 1: could use down there in the coal mines is a
42:11
Speaker 1: a portable snack right afordable? And they came up with
42:17
Speaker 1: the moonpie, I guess. And that coal miner was Lauretta
42:19
Speaker 1: Loon's father, wouldn't that who That movie was about coal
42:22
Speaker 1: miner's daughter. Yea great movie. Uh. And this became a
42:26
Speaker 1: big Southern thing, but it didn't become a Marty Graw
42:29
Speaker 1: thing until Mobile, Alabama and they're cracker Jack's cracker Jack
42:35
Speaker 1: Ordinance two, I said, I think so where they said
42:39
Speaker 1: the city actually outlawed cracker Jack's being thrown from Marty
42:43
Speaker 1: Graw floats because people were getting injured by him or hurt.
42:46
Speaker 1: So people said, well, moonpies totally makes sense. You get
42:50
Speaker 1: hit in the eye with the moonpie, not a big deal.
42:52
Speaker 1: And now if you go to Marty grow in New Orleans,
42:54
Speaker 1: apparently you can get moonpies thrown at you all over
42:57
Speaker 1: the place. Great, and you don't even have to don't
42:59
Speaker 1: even have to duck, nope, or take your shirt off.
43:02
Speaker 1: You got anything else? No? I don't either. Happy Marty
43:07
Speaker 1: Grob everybody, Happy ash Wednesday? I guess depending on when
43:11
Speaker 1: you hear this, Happy Easter? Sure? Okay? Uh And since
43:16
Speaker 1: I said happy Easter, of course that means it's time
43:18
Speaker 1: for listening mail. I'm gonna call this the long awaited
43:24
Speaker 1: fire safety email. Thank you. I can finally clear this
43:29
Speaker 1: out of my inn box. I know you've been asking
43:31
Speaker 1: me off and on since last August. Hasn't really been
43:34
Speaker 1: that long? Yeah, oh man, but not like every week.
43:38
Speaker 1: It's not like I'm not a sadist. Uh. Here we go,
43:44
Speaker 1: I'm a research engineer that studies fired dynamics and material flammability.
43:48
Speaker 1: My group has developed campaign to educate the public about
43:50
Speaker 1: general fire dynamics, fire safety, and what to do in
43:53
Speaker 1: case of a dwelling fire. The cornerstone of this is
43:56
Speaker 1: this as good as he thought it was hoped it
43:58
Speaker 1: would be. The cornerstone of this campaign is called close
44:02
Speaker 1: before you doze, and that is c l O s E.
44:06
Speaker 1: Not clothing. Oh, I'm glad you said that. Yeah. Uh,
44:09
Speaker 1: it's focused on residents closing their bedroom doors were going
44:12
Speaker 1: to sleep because the strategy has been extensively tested in
44:15
Speaker 1: large scale and experiments and provide I'm sorry, proven to
44:19
Speaker 1: slow down the advance of the fire to provide adequate
44:23
Speaker 1: time for firefighters to conduct search and rescue. That makes
44:26
Speaker 1: sense to close your doors when you go to bed, Yeah,
44:28
Speaker 1: because if a fire does break out in your house,
44:30
Speaker 1: it will keep the smoke out a lot longer than
44:33
Speaker 1: it would if your doors open, giving firefighters a time
44:37
Speaker 1: to come get you. Did you previously sleep with your
44:39
Speaker 1: doors open? Have you always been a door closed guy? Uh?
44:44
Speaker 1: Guiltily must admit that I still sleep with the door open.
44:48
Speaker 1: I'm toast. Is there a reason or just like or
44:52
Speaker 1: you do you not even care? I don't like is
44:54
Speaker 1: it a conscious thing? I know, it's more it just
44:57
Speaker 1: feels weird to me to have the door closed sleeping.
45:00
Speaker 1: But yeah, all right, I listened to Stuff you Should
45:02
Speaker 1: Know during my morning and evening commutes to really enjoy
45:04
Speaker 1: all the research topics and the fine and I find
45:08
Speaker 1: that the way Josh and Chuck that's us present the
45:11
Speaker 1: information has always been very easy for me to relate
45:13
Speaker 1: to and understand. I think that it is a great
45:16
Speaker 1: medium to help educate the population about the potentially life
45:19
Speaker 1: saving difference a closed door can make the event of
45:21
Speaker 1: a fire. It's truly stuff everyone should know. And hope
45:24
Speaker 1: you think so as well, and help us to get
45:27
Speaker 1: this information to the public. A year later almost let
45:32
Speaker 1: me see here that is from Mark. Nice work Mark
45:34
Speaker 1: who again as a research engineer doing work in fire
45:37
Speaker 1: dynamics and safety. Nice work Mark, Thanks Chuck for doing
45:41
Speaker 1: that one. Um, I hope you guys listen to Mark.
45:43
Speaker 1: Don't follow my example. Close your door when you sleep, yeah,
45:47
Speaker 1: well you leave ours open to Yeah, we've got animals
45:50
Speaker 1: and the kids, like people need to get in and out.
45:53
Speaker 1: So uh, if you want to be like Mark and
45:55
Speaker 1: let us know a p s A to tell everybody
45:57
Speaker 1: we love doing those. We'll get to it eventually. Up promise. Um,
46:01
Speaker 1: you can go ahead and send us an email, wrap
46:03
Speaker 1: it up, spank it on the bottom, and send it
46:05
Speaker 1: off to Stuff podcast at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff
46:12
Speaker 1: you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio's How
46:14
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio because
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46:19
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