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How Louisiana Almost Became a Hippo Ranching Hub · Ridiculous History

• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Let's begin today show with some apparently irrelevant hippo facts
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: that will come into play later in the episode. Number one,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Did you know hippos cannot swim and they cannot float?
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: What It's true. So when whenever you see a hippo
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: emerge from the murky waters and like an adventure type movie,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: they're literally just walking on the on the bottom of
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the body of water, it's true. They walk or stand
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: on surfaces below the water like sandbanks. Ben, that's fascinating information. Thanks. No,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: they're also called land cows. Did you see that? That
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: stright my favorite things. And they're also straight sea horse teeth.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: They are, they aren't the straight sea horse teeth much
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: like our super producer Casey Pegram. Casey has the straightest
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: teeth of anyone in this crew, the most sea horse
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: of teeth. So today we've got to we've got to
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: set out maybe a couple of disclaimers. First off, this
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: one's on me. I just got back into town. My
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: body has no idea what time it is or what
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: day it is. Uh my left arms a little loopy. Yeah,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: But overall I might be a bit punchy in today's episode,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: and I might say some things that are largely irrelevant.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: It's okay, how is how is that any different than usual? Yeah?
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: I mean on either side totally. What I meant that,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: that's totally what it's it's it's true. Well maybe it
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: will be for the good of the show, hopefully, but
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: we have actually is so far. Let's the street continues.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: We also have a second disclaimer about today's episode, big
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: one mat of disclaimer and not even a disclaimer, more
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a pre recommendation. Our colleagues Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: who you know from stuff you missed in history class
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: fame um, have covered this very topic and a quite
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: meaty two parter. So, um, stop what you're doing right
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: now and listen to theirs. This is a throwaway episode
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: that we're about to do for you. Well, maybe maybe
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: listen to ours first, so we don't have to follow
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: that act. That's fair. Well, let's consider ours, like the
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: cliffs Notes version, and there's like the Encyclopedia Britannic conversion. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: the Primer I think we called it off, that's right,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: or if you're British Primer primmer. Yes, So this this
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: is a crazy story. One of our first episodes on
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History was also hippocentric. It was, wasn't it the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: first episode? It may have been the first episode the
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: wild Hippos of Pablo Escobar, which is a which I
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: think is a fascinating story. And I did check, and
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: those hippos are still running rampant maca macaca, Yes, wreaking
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: watery havoc wherever they can walk or stand in a
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: watery surface, because again, they neither swim nor flu How
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: did you happen upon this, this little tidbit about the
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: watery nature of hippos. I read a lot about hippos
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: on the plane. It yeah, because I I was too
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: cheap to pay for the WiFi, and I downloaded some
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: articles beforehand. And that's a long flight. You didn't pop
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: for the WiFi? I I eventually did not, because the
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: flight went by the north Pole, at which point, even
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: if you pay for WiFi, there's no service. Did you
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: see the pole, that barber pole that marks the spot?
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: I did not yet I did not. So that's going
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: to be for the next trip. If you want to go.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Have you revealed where you where you were traveling to
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: or we mentioned I think we mentioned previous episodes possible,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: let's just double down. Yeah Yeah, traveled to Korea for
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: a week on my continuing quest to enter not just
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: the d m Z, but what's called the Joint Protection Area,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: which is the blue building where you can walk across
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: into North Korea. That was and have you seen Conan
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: without borders the travel Then he goes into that room
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: and there's like guards and they're all wearing like in
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: sunglasses inside, and there's one side of this room where
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: you're in North Korea, one side you're in South Korea.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: And him and Steven Jon from The Walking Dead do
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: a funny little bit where they like broadcast the weather
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: from each side of the room, and surprise, surprise, it's
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: the same weather. You know, it's it's surprisingly, well not surprisingly,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: it's tricky to get into that area, uh and the
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: any number of people or institutions can cancel it day up.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: So I didn't make it this time, but I had
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: a wonderful time, wonderful trip nonetheless, and will probably be
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: returning until I can finally get into that building. In
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the meantime, let's take some advantage of those that that
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: that hippo research time. You have it out on that plane. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: what are we talking about. Let's do it today. We
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: are talking about not just hippos or and cows, but
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: a enormously influential role they almost played in American history.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: And uh, the American meat industry. Cool boy, that's the
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: whole thing unto itself. And it was a thing onto
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: itself at this point because there just wasn't enough meat.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: It was the earliest of the nineteen oh one and
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the United States was in when the throes of a
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: meat shortage, and you know, I see that, and I
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: immediately I'm like, well, why didn't people just start eating
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: more vegetables? Right right? Why don't we pursue a Michael
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Paulin esque omnivore's dilemma approach? Right? It's funny because that
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: actually does kind of figure into this a little later,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: but for now, let's set the scene. Yes, So, the
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: dawn of hippopotamus ranching, as we would later come to
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: call it, really peaked in nineteen ten and starts in
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: the early nineteen hundreds. Hits the point of, hey, it's
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: a great idea to practice. Hippopotamus ranching really hits it's
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: it's peak. There was as you said, nol Um an
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: alarming shortage of meat. This is a result of several factors.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: These were peak years of immigration, and cities were exploding
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: in terms of population, and although the meat industry itself
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: was growing by significant leaps and bounds, it was not
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: growing fast enough to keep up with all the new
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: hungry people traveling to the US and being born here.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: So consequently, beef prices were through the roof. That beef
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: bill was just astronomical. I know it was putting people
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: out of house and home just to just to keep
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: their families beefed up, I guess. But like I said,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: though that, I don't see any mention of seeking alternative.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: They don't even talk of like eating dogs like it
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: was that bad. People just needed their meat, And I'm like,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: was it I was it a taste thing? Literally? Was it?
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Like we just really loved the taste of meat over vegetables,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Like you think they would be more like urban farming
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: or something would have sprung up to kind of fill
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: that gap. But that was it was such a big deal.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: It was dubbed the meat question. Yes, it was dubbed
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the meat question. Part of it ties into the availability
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: of pasture right of land for these animals to grazes,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: right because meat was was already so popular that, you know,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: like we tend to do or we don't think ahead
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: as a country. Uh, pastures had become overgrazed because you know,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: to have beef cattle, they have to graze and feed
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: on grass and pastures. What happens when they're overgrazed right there,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: there's nowhere for the cattle to eat, and so there's
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: no opportunity to grow them into you know, delicious hamburgers
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: and ribs. We do have to bracket that idea of
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: vegetarianism just for a moment, but we will get back
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: to it, I believe we will. So into this fray, uh,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: into the midst of the meat question, come to very
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: fascinating guys, super cool. Yeah, one named Frederick Russell Burnham
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: and one named We might need a Casey assist on
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: this one. Casey, we've got a gentleman by the name
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: of Fritz d u q u E s n E.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: I'm picturing it as a sort of du Frain, like
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Andy Dufrain from the Shawshank Redemption. You can do ken,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: you can, you can you can something like that. Yeah,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Casey on the case, Casey on the case. And it's
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: funny because it's interesting to me how sometimes in French
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: you actually do pronounce those seemingly silent letters, like one
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: version of that Casey was saying the s a little bit. Well,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the yes names especially have lots of weird exceptions, and
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: sometimes you literally just have to check. There's not like
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: a hard and fest rule that you can always be
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: assured is gonna work. So double casey on the case.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: So we have these guys, Frederick and Fritz. Let's let's
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: examine the life of Frederick Russell Burnham. First. This guy
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: is quoted by some sources as being the man with
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: the most complete life ever lived. You'll hear him refer
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: to as the inspiration for Indiana Jones. You'll hear that
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: the Boy Scouts were created to mold young men into
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: a more Frederick Russell Burnham esque shape. Morally speaking, Yeah,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: the name alone just inspires me. Frederick Russell Burnham. It
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: just sounds like a real magic man, a real wrecontour,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: you know. Um. And yeah, he was an outdoorsman. I
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: guess you could say the early form of something like
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: a naturalist, right, Yeah, he would be described as emphatically
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: a man's man able active alert. Uh. He gave people
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: an impression of force and self control. In nine, Burnham
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: was forty nine years old and in September nineteenth of
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: that year, he visited the Maryland Hotel in Pasadena, California.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: What happened then, then, so so, I'm so glad you asked.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: He was there to address what was known as the
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Humane Association of California at their annual convention. This group
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: was dedicated to the prevention of cruelty to animals. They
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: had quickly become one of California's the most powerful civic organizations.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: And Burnham, later on in his life, now you know
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: he's middle aged. He is part of an eccentric brain
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: trust that was trying to launch their own innovative animal
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: project off the ground. They wanted to answer the meat question,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and they thought that the civic minded people, the philanthropist
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: of the Humane Association of California would be really good
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: folks to have on their side. Burnham was doing this
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: with a very calculated air. It's proven that privately he
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: made fun of these sorts of organizations. Like in his
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: off time, he he had no time for that kind
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: of flim flammer any that kind of pomp and circumstances.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: He wanted to be out there in the wild, communing
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: with nature, not behind a podium front of a bunch
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: of stuff shirts delivering a speech. And he thought their
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: priorities were off, you know what I mean. So he
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: wanted to get their support, nonetheless for his idea. And
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: it was an idea that was already circulating through the
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: halls of d C in the form of a bill
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: introduced by Louisiana congressman named Robert Broussard. The pitch was this,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: we don't have enough room for beef. We're not we're
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: not growing enough cattle. But we got all these swamps
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: and we don't quite know what to do with them.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: There's kind of mucky and gross and nothing really grows
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: there that we can use um. And there's also these
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: like invasive plants that are really mucking up the ecosystem.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Uh what if, what if? Mind you, there was some
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: sort of creature that couldn't really swim or float but
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: could exist just fine, and some shallow water like that,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and with graze on these invasive plants, which you might
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: be able to drop the name of then the water hyacinth. Ah, yes,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: the pesky water hyacinth. So what you there is such
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: a creature? Yes, yes, picture this like a made for
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: TV ad where Billy May says, but wait, there's more.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: So there is such a creature. It turns out a
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: creature from the continent of Africa, the creature known as
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: the hippopotamus. The hippopotamus, which is gigantic is um native
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: to similar ecosystems, you know, shallow watery depths, right, wetlands,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: marshy areas, vegetation, And so they said, close enough for
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: government work. Why don't we Why don't we walk with
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: us here? Why don't we take some hippos, a breeding
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: population of hippos from their native environment and bring them
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: to Louisiana to fight the invasive water hyacinth, also turning
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: this marshal land into something productive. And then we'll eat
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: hippos because they're delicious. As it turns out we maybe
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: they might be. That's I mean, that's the pitch. And
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: it seems way less gross than eating dogs, which we
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: were totally considering doing. We were considering as a nation
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: eating a lot of animal, a lot of animals because
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: we just had to have that sweet, sweetmeat like antelopes,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: what else, ostriches, That's what we kind of collectively referred
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: to as bush meat kind of right, It's like the
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: stuff that we wouldn't really mess with, um, but it's funny.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Obviously they have not heard our podcast about the hippos,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: the wild hippos of Pablo Escobar, because then they would
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: know that hippos can be an invasive species in and
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: of themselves very much. But none of this really came
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: to pass ultimately, so they didn't get a chance to
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: realize what a can of worms they were opening up
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: by doing this. But there's more. There's another Fritz. Let's
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: talk about our boy Fritz. What does he played into this? Yeah,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: let's talk about Fritz. So, Fritz is a bore. The
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Boers are the descendants of Dutch settlers colonizers in Africa.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: This guy is super sketchy. He he lives life. According
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: to John Mulum, this guy quote moves through life using
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: uh variety of aliases. He was a con man, and
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: you know how we love con artists here on ridiculous history.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: He fought against the British and the Second Boer War
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: and similar to Burnham, he had spent some time as
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: a kind of a freelance spy. Burnham hated Fritz and
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: once called him the human epitome of sin and deception,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: whereas Burnham had been described as the most complete human
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: being who ever lived. So couldn't be more different these two,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: and they ended up being quite the odd couple, didn't that? Yes? Yeah,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: because their interests aligned right, their interests the line. But
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: previously on a previous episode of Fritz and Frederick and
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: they have been specifically tasked to murder one another. Yeah,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't find any more about that. I
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: saw that detail in the interview with this with this
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Wired writer Mullum. But what what what happened with that? I?
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: I need to know more. It sounded like they were
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: maybe on the opposite sides of some sort of conflict.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: It's true during the Second Boer War, Fritz was under
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: orders to specifically assassinate Frederick Burnham, and he was under Burnham,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, was under a similar set of orders. It
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: did not come to pass. And then apparently they were
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: able to let igons be bygones? Are you know death
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: orders be something that's nicer than death orders? I don't know.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: After the Boer War, Burnham remained active in counter espionage
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: for Britain, and apparently a lot of his job in
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: this post war environment was just keeping an eye on Fritz,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: just specifically watching his activities and and seeing what he
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: was about. So when we fast forward to when Burnham
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: and this previously mentioned Congressman Robert Bursard are trying to
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: popularize the idea of hippos as livestock, Burnham and Bissard
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: found something called the New Food Supply Society. The idea
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: of being that they'll import what they see is useful
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: African wildlife into the US to solve the meat question.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: And Broussard needs some experts, and so he says, who
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: would be a good expert on African wildlife? These two
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: men's men that have spent a lot of time in Africa,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: and uh, you know, the whole rivalry thing aside, maybe
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: they can figure out a way to get along and
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: work towards a common goal. And they ultimately kind of did.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: They formed essentially like a lobbying group kind of Yeah, yeah,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: they formula lobbying group with the New Food Supplies Society.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: They were pushing something called the American hippo bill, and
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the American hippo bill was asking Uncle Sam for two
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty grand to import hippos into the bios
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: as a new food source and then to control the
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: other pre existing invasive species, the water hyacinth. So, just
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: to emphasize the highlight the logic here, they said, let's
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: introduce another invasive species to solve our original invasive species problem.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: This is similar in some ways to that scene in Fantasia,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: which I know I reference at nauseum, wherein the Wizard
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Mickey Mouse animates one mop and then quickly gets over
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: his head and then all the mops start going insane
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: and kind of mutate into some sort of violent, uh
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: you know mob. And this, despite this lack of knowledge
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: of Disney films on the part of Uncle Sam at
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: this time, and despite the just the weird unorthodox nature
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: of the proposal, people are largely behind it. Even former
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: President Theodore Roosevelt backs the plan. He was a man's
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: man himself, wasn't it, Yes, yes he was. And The
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: New York Times writes an article praising the taste of
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: hippopotamus meat, and I can't remember, did I say? Land
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: cow in the beginning, and okay, it's late cow cow.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: That's just a cow. But these are lake cows. And
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: the New York Times wanted to call this stuff lake
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: cow bacon. Uh So Fritz pro wide expert testimony about
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: hippos as livestock to the House Committee on Agriculture, and
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: the bill is in action. For a second, it looks
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: like it has a real chance of passing, and then
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: what it just fizzles. Doesn't get that nothing like catastrophic happened,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Like it just kind of seems like it just the
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: whole idea, I know what it was. It was sort
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: of on the edge of being able to engineer some
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: of those farmland, those uh you know, overgrazed pastures into
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: new environments. Yeah, that's it exactly. This plan would have
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: come to pass had not other other technological innovation adustrial
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: agriculture into Yeah, it's industrial agriculture. And so now we're
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: in a situation where we say, hey, we I guess
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: we don't need to import a huge population of hippos
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: and try to fundamentally reboot our livestock system. Now we
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: can just take what we were already doing to a
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: new level of scale. That's right. And this guy, this
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: writer John mulum Hope and produced his name right, please
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: forgive me from like um. He makes a point in
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: an interview with Wired that it was almost like starting
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: to resemble the kind of like local you know, locally
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: bread and slaughtered kind of like things that foodie scenes
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: are so big on, you know nowadays. They were talking
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: about importing ostriches and having ostrich farms and any other
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: kind of like animals like they could get their hands on,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: like antelopes and anything was really on the table. And
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: it was this idea of having a an incredibly local,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: locally sourced food system even though they were imported. They
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: would be kind of bread naturally locally and then slaughtered
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: locally and everything, as opposed to having everything like imported. Yeah,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: kind of a farm to table. That's the one I
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: was looking for. Certain it's weird when you consider this
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: because we're at a a pivotal point in history, and
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: it's it's incredibly tempting to speculate how things would be
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: in the modern restaurants of nineteen had this plan and
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: similar propositions succeeded, you know, we would we be in
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: a situation where food is more regional, or livestock is
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: more regional. Would we be in a situation where someone says, well,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: you have to go to Nebraska to get a good
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: hamburger because that's where we have cows. Now, that's that's
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: certainly an absurd thought, you know, considering the way things
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: are done these days. It seems like it now, right,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: it seems like it now. And you know, one of
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the things that mystifies a lot of my friends who
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: visit the US from out of the country is just
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: the ubiquitous nature of food. You can you can get
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: anything anywhere. Well, if you think about like in Japan,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: for example, like proper waigo beef, isn't that very regional
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: like that, like to actually get it that where it's
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: actually the real deal, because it's obviously it's one of
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: the things that can be thrown around, like you even
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: see it on the menu at like chilies or something.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Why you be sliders or whatever. Right, it's true. And
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: this is where we see Michael Pollen returning because Michael Pollen,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: who writes quite extensively about the problem of agriculture, the
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: problem in industrial agriculture, he would argue that ultimately it
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: is better and more sustainable for us to pursue as
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: a species, these sorts of regional models of food ways,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. He would say that had
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: the hippo industry taken off, it would have been ultimately
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: better for the planet. You know. Uh, that is not
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: where we are now. Now. We are in a reality
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: where we could the three of us and and you listening,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: we could all travel in different directions in the lower
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: forty eight States for sure, and then pretty much order
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: the same thing. You can find the same thing anywhere. Yeah,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, there's a time where the idea
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: of getting seafood in a land locked part of the
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: country would have been insane, you know, but not not
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: so much anymore with like refrigeration technology. And here in Atlanta,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: especially because we are near such a huge shipping hub
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: with the airport. Um, there's constantly flux and things coming through.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: You know, you can get here. That's probably true. I'm
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: sure it is. Yeah, I'm sure it is. Um. I
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: really recommend there is behind a paywall, but um that
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: this writer John Mullam wrote a piece for the Atavist
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: website called American Hippopotamus um and I read some excerpts
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: from it, and it's it's very very good, right. He
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: goes into the backgrounds of these two very fascinating men
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: in a very deep dive way and talks through this
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: whole uh problem in situation and what ultimately came of him.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: It is also the source of it's the first time
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: I found this quote. It's it's the source of my
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: favorite quotation about Fritz Duking. He was described as not
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: only the human epitome of sin and deception, but get
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: this stole a walking, living, breathing, Syrian, killing, destroying torch
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: of hate. WHOA. I don't think that made it into
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: the congressional record. I don't think so either, but it
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: made it into the podcast record. And I think there's
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: not much of a better way to wrap this up
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: than with that, my friend. That's true. That's true. This
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: ends our tale of the would be hippopotamus livestock empire
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: that never quite came to pass and now is currently
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: relegated to the Hall of good but ultimately unsuccessful ideas
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: such as giraffe ranches and Ostrich farms. We hope that
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: you enjoy today's episode. Let us know what we uh
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: it's I've been here the whole time. Jonathan Strickland, a
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: k a. The Quister. It is true you have been here.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Fact that you wouldn't acknowledge my existence for half an
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: hour really hurts. I'm sorry, man. If you heard any weird, labored,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: evil breathing, that was Strickland on the mic A couple
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: of times he rolled his eyes so hard that I'm
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: pretty sure translated to audio. Listen, then listen, listen, Ben, listen.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: You're talking about my boy Fritz, and you're casting expersions
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: left and right. I can't let this just go by. Ben.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Fritz is my boy. You have something of a super villain.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: And let me tell you you have not scratched the
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: surface of Fritz. Fritz was an insurance scam walking down
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the streets. He was in the movie business, worked for
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: r k O Pictures. He actually was arrested for insurance fraud.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: He sounds like he needs his own episode. He is amazing.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: And guess what, we're going to test your knowledge about
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Fritz ducan right now. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, if you
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: don't understand what's happening, I don't blame you. I don't
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: understand it myself, and I don't even have the excuse
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: of an international flight like Mr Bolin. Know what we
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: are going to do is I'm going to pose a
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: scenario to these two gentlemen. They will have three minutes
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: to discuss the scenario between the two of them, and
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: they may ask questions of me during those three minutes
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: to determine whether the scenario is in fact historical or
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: if I've made it up. Seats and so this time
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: has always I have to come up with an arbitrary
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: rule for you to say or do before you ask
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: a question. This time because one of the many things
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Fritz Ducan was known for was during both World Wars
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: he was a spy for the German government. So before
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: you ask any questions, you will have to preface it
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: with atung baby like that you records. Really, that's why
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I was kind of I was they would it's both
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: thematic and we can bring some attention. I think I
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: think it is. I think that's sort of considered that
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: one of their lesser works. I would it was really
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: broken up about that. Anyway, I will give you your
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: scenario and then we will start the enormous Grandfather clock
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: for its three minutes. Yea I'm stretching now. I've got
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: to run all the way across this gigantic shipping container
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: of those twelve hour flights, and economy is going to
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: do that to you. All right, here we go, here's
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: your Sonatio for its Ducan, as you've mentioned, was one
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: of the experts consulted for the Happy Pottus plan for Louisiana.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: That's what I used to call Hippopotamus. Little Disney thought
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: so too. But Ducan was hardly a reliable re source.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: He was a con man, He was a self promoter,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: He was a big game hunter. He actually went on
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: big game hunts with Teddy Roosevelt, and a spy for
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: the Germans with a real grudge against Britain. He had
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: two main rivals in his career. One you've already mentioned
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: the fellow hippo advocate Frederick Russell Burnham, whom I trust
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: you remember from literally moments ago. But his other rival,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: which had a very similar story in some ways, was
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: an English spy named Vernon Hall. Hall had never cross
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: paths with Ducane, which is fortunate because like Burnham, Ducane
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: and Hall were pledged to kill one another. They each
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: had orders to kill each other They were very similar
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, except for one major one.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Du Can was a spy but loved attention and would
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: bring attention on himself all the time, even posing as
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: a supposed British soldier with the Australian Light Cavalry at
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: one point. But Hall was a master of blending in
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: and not being noticed, which is particularly fascinating considering the
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: fact that he had a wooden leg. Start to the time. Okay, okay,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: I'm running, I'm running. Go okay. Are you okay? Then
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: you really took a running leap at that wall, a
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: little wind. You look a little flattened. I you know what,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: I'll be good for the three minutes it takes us
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: to figure this out. Um octung baby, yes, Mr Bo.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: So are you saying that vern Wait? Are you saying
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Fritz had a wooden leg? No, I'm saying Vernon Hall had.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Fritz loved attention. Vernon Hall was the opposite. Yeah, he
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: loved his prosthetics. Okay, baby, give me like. The log
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: line version of the entire question was Fritz Duken arch
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: Nemeses with not just one but two other spies, the
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: second being Vernon Hall and English spy active, by the way,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: during World War two, in addition to our other player
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: in our in today's from the Boer War. So that
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: was much much, much earlier. So they were he was
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: kind of an assassin. Yeah, he had been tasked. He
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: had been tasked to assassinate more than one person. So
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: then it's it does seem likely that he I mean,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: they weren't necessarily mortal enemies because they had beef with
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: each other. They were mortal enemies because they were assigned
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: by someone higher than them than their pay grade to
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: do harm to one at least initially initially. So that
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: being the case, it does seem likely that that would
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: happen more than once, or at least probably possible. Yeah,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna you know what I'm gonna ask.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: I think I've made up my mind. I've cast a lot,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: but I'm gonna ask another question, just because I like
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: the bit we're doing. I do too. I like saying
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's got a good mouth field Octogle Baby, Yes, Mr.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to say it. That's fair. Okay, you're
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: thinking true. I'm thinking true. Man. Gosh, we've been on
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: such a good streak. I hate to squander it, but
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking truth too, alright, so we gotta lock it in.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Let's do it alright, three two one true, Mr Boland,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Mr Boland, you are going to kick yourself so very hard.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: First of all, Fritz ducan was can't do it too.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: He's quite flexible. He was, in fact a spy during
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: both world wars, World War One and World War Two
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: on behalf of the Germans. He did have a very
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: strong anti British sentiment deep in his soul. He had
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: been put into prison and broke out numerous times, although
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: he was eventually caught and tried and eventually died in
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: shortly after being least because his health had gotten so
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: poor while he was in prison for fourteen years. But
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: there was no Vernon Hall. There was, however, a spy
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: with a wooden leg named Virginia Hall. Virginia Hall was
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: an American spy. Mr Bolan r. Dirty Pool not only
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: had a wooden leg, and while only was a spy
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: worked on behalf of the French resistance was it was
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: an American spy working in France. There's an entire building
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: at the CIA named after her. Why do you keep
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: saying my last name was a part of this too,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: because Mr Bolland in particular shouldn't know more about the
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Hey now, no, no dock sing here. Come on now listen.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: I called dirty pool because you literally just flipped the gender.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: No no. I also said he was an English spy,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: not an American spy. But I didn't give you any
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: details about what he did as his spy work in
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: World Wars. Okay, but my into our intuition of the
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: truthfishness of the story still held true. Well, this just
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: warns you that you can't necessarily believe anything about Fritz Duchan. Okay,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: that's that's well written. But I feel like it also
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: beats we can't necessarily believe anything you say. That's kind
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: of the point of But I feel like I'm going
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: to carry this off air with us. But but here's
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: here's what I charge you both. I charge you both
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: to you should do two companion episodes, one specifically about
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Burnham and the legendary exploits of Burnham, and one specifically
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: of Ducane and the legendary some obviously fictional exploits he
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: really did pose as a British soldier who had led
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: an Australian light cavalry. He had created an entire mythology,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: mythology including being bayonitted three times in gas four times.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: To what end? This was his cover story, like because
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: he liked the attack, like dressing up in the cavalry
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: uniform and having photographs taken of him. There are famous
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: photographs of him in that in that outfit. I mean,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: be caught would be a death sentence. So he was
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: just totally rolling the disk for funds. He just he
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: just he relished the attention. But we've all been there,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like it's you get off
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: work on a Friday. Next thing, you know, it's Sunday,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: you're in a different country and you're dressed like a
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: member their military. Stuff just happened, So we know what
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: happened in Korea, all right, Hey, speaking segues, Uh, Jonathan
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: strictly dek the quister. It looks like you've won the battle,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: but not the war. I'm winning the war too, but
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: come on, man and uh. And it just occurred to me. No,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: this is the first time in twenty nineteen that we
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: have had our friends slash Nemesis on the show. I
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: really like this one. Usually this is the time kind
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: of low key snark at the Twister here. But now
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: that was very well played, sir, and he literally gave
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: us two new episode topics. So, um, I do need
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: to point something out real quick. I recently discovered something.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: I'm a big fan, as I think we all are,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: of Scott Ackerman and Comedy Bang Bang. Um, the television
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: show Comedy Bang Bang. There is an episode wherein Tom
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Green plays a character called the Quizzler and it's it's
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: utter parallel thinking, very similar arch villain type character to you, uh,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: the Quister, Jonathan Cricle. That's want to point out that
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: this was not lifted. This was just simply parallel thinking.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: And I saw it with my buddy and he was like,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: wait a minute. We just we just know that brilliance
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: sometimes comes in pairs, you know, like calculus exactly exactly.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to put that out there real quick,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: lest anyone accuse us of of ripping off this segment.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: Quister is also a better name. I agree that Tea
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: in the middle throws it off. Got a good mouth feel,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: so just like Octo Baby, just like octog Baby. So
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on the show. Christ
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: We will get you next time. As I'm shaking my
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: fist at the air, we do also have to we
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: we have to bring up one thing. I don't want
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: to make the show too long. But off air, Jonathan,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: you learned second or perhaps third hand about this show's
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: um checkered past with the musician Cheryl Crowe. Yes, something
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: about limericks that popped up, and I don't fully understand
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: what's happening. I don't remember the limericks side. Yeah, that
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: popped up on the on the group, the group ridiculous.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: What's with the Cheryl Crow thing? She is our now
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: you're you're our nemesis. I'm your branded nemesis, as assigned
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: by contractually obligated. Every podcast has one. It's just I'm
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: the only one who's allowed on Mike. Yeah. It's like
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: a Burnham Duquesne thing, you know what I mean, like
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: this rivalry, but we respect each other and this is
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: not the case with the popular musician Cheryl Crowe, who
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: we discovered is our primary critic online and off. Really yeah,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Cheryl Crow criticized. Yeah, I mean no, no, no press
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: is bad press, I guess, but geez, she has got
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: some harsh barbs for your boys. Really, yeah, and uh,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: you know, we're we're glad. We're glad that she is around,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: because it turns out that most of our subscription numbers
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: do come from Cheryl Crowe. You know, every day is
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: a winding road. I think, yes, So so what you're saying,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: winding road the next concert tour, we should just be
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: out in the parking lots selling ridiculous history t shirts. Right. Yeah.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: We just wanted to be transparent with you because we
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: know that you are such an ardent fan of Cheryl Row.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Now I'm growing more so every day. You guys should
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: league up, maybe have our own Injustice League Excellent like it. Well,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: while you're waiting for that hellish combination to coalesce, you
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: can send us an email at Ridiculous at how stuff
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: works dot com if you would like to send us
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: any musings, any thoughts about this or any other episode suggestions.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: We love that. You can hit us up on our
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Facebook group, The Ridiculous Historians. Yes, and you can also
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: find our off air personal adventures at our instagrams. I
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: am at Ben Bolan, I am at Embryonic Insider, and
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: do you have any socials you'd like to pitch plug
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: at John Strickland, I post cute pictures of my dog. Yes,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: very cute dog. There's no h in the John there.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: So you can also find more of Jonathan working under
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: his Clark Kent alter ego at his show Text, where
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: you how would you describe Text? I'd say that tech stuff,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: and I gotta drop the whole quister thing here. The
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: tech stuff is tech. Tech Stuff is just about It's
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: about technology and about culture and about how those two
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: things intersect. So some episodes are a little more technology focused,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: where we talk about how the technology actually works. Sometimes
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: we're talking about how a technology has shaped our lives
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: and how we in turn have shaped the evolution of
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: that technology. So if you're interested in anything from an
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: iPhone to a catapult, I've covered it on Tech Stuff.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: It's true, that's true. This show has been a decade
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: and yeah there's more than so get started now for
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: for your next podcast, binge opportunity tune into Tech Stuff.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: We'd also like to thank, of course, our super producer,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Casey Pegram and Alex Williams who composed our track, and
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: we also like to thank Game are amazing research associate,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: and of course we'd like to thank you the listening public. Wow,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: that's a very clinical way of referring to our friends
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: out there in podcast land. I'll never do that again.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: But seriously, the show wouldn't be anything without you. And
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: if you want to hang out with your fellow listeners,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: check out that group we mentioned earlier, the Ridiculous Historians
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: on Facebook. I'm not looking forward to check it out.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Our score with the Twister, there's a score? Is there
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: someone doing a spreadsheet? I I don't know when there's
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: a spreadsheet, but every everyone knows we're a couple behind.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: That's fair. I think we I think we eve ended
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: up last time and now we're behind again. We got close,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: we did get close. I think you were. I think
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: you were one behind. Okay, yeah, because of course you're
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: keeping kel imagine that. All Right, that's the show, See
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: you next time.