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Josh and Chuck's Christmas Extravaganza 2012 · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to you Stuff you Should Know Fromhoustuffworks dot com. Hey,
0:11
Speaker 1: before we get on with the Christmas shenanigans, what how
0:13
Speaker 1: about we do a little TV show reminder for the
0:17
Speaker 1: folks out there. We have a TV show called Stuff
0:19
Speaker 1: you Should Know at debuts Saturday, January nineteenth at ten
0:23
Speaker 1: pm after the hour long season three premiere of Idiot
0:28
Speaker 1: Abroad with Carl Pilkington and.
0:30
Speaker 2: Ricky Gervais, and then comes to our show.
0:32
Speaker 1: Then comes our show when we're airing two episodes back
0:35
Speaker 1: to back on premiere night. Then following that on Saturday
0:39
Speaker 1: nights at ten pm, you will get to see one
0:40
Speaker 1: episode thirty minutes long. And if you don't have cable
0:44
Speaker 1: in any of that junk, you can get them on
0:46
Speaker 1: iTunes the day after release and watch them there at
0:50
Speaker 1: buck ninety nine.
0:51
Speaker 2: That's right, But there's a Christmas present here. Yeah, the
0:56
Speaker 2: first episode you'll be able to get for free iTunes
1:00
Speaker 2: today after its premiere. Yeah.
1:02
Speaker 1: And you know what, this is just me talking. If
1:04
Speaker 1: you're going to throw down a buck ninety nine per
1:05
Speaker 1: episode for ten episodes or gets nine, you could probably
1:09
Speaker 1: upgrade your cable package for that and get Science.
1:12
Speaker 2: Channel all bet of.
1:14
Speaker 1: Course, you know it's a per month fee.
1:16
Speaker 2: But you know what I'm saying, But not only will
1:18
Speaker 2: you get our great television show stuff you should know
1:20
Speaker 2: where we play ourselves as podcasters in this fictionalized office
1:25
Speaker 2: world that we live in. Yeah, you'll get all the
1:28
Speaker 2: other great shows that Science Channel has to offer, including Idiot.
1:31
Speaker 1: Abroad, Yeah, and Oddities Through the Wormhole Through the Wormhole
1:35
Speaker 1: of Morgan Freeman.
1:36
Speaker 2: Yeah.
1:37
Speaker 1: And I watched one on the Hindenburg last night.
1:39
Speaker 2: It was really good.
1:39
Speaker 1: It just one of their one offs.
1:40
Speaker 2: Hey, you're saying Hindenburg And what was the other one?
1:43
Speaker 1: The nuclear bomb that is off the coast of Savannah.
1:46
Speaker 2: There's a show in that that's right anyway, fascinating.
1:48
Speaker 1: We're very happy to be on Science and help support
1:52
Speaker 1: It's January nineteenth at ten pm.
1:54
Speaker 2: Yes, and if people want to hang out with us
1:57
Speaker 2: in person, they can come to Brooklyn and do it
2:00
Speaker 2: on January eighth, Tuesday at the Bellhouse.
2:02
Speaker 1: Right, that's right. We are throwing a premiere party slash
2:06
Speaker 1: variety show for the TV show, featuring performances by people
2:09
Speaker 1: like John Hodgman, people like Lucy Waynwright other special guests. Yeah,
2:14
Speaker 1: Lucy's in the show other special guests. There are gonna
2:18
Speaker 1: be some other special guests, not performing, just kind of
2:20
Speaker 1: milling about.
2:21
Speaker 2: In the crowd, hanging out.
2:22
Speaker 1: And this all goes down at the Bellhouse in Guanas, Brooklyn,
2:26
Speaker 1: January eighth. You actually have to buy tickets for this one. Yeah,
2:30
Speaker 1: we're trying to cover costs on this one. Everything else
2:33
Speaker 1: has always been free, so we'll get mad at it. Yeah.
2:35
Speaker 2: And plus I should tell you like, this is gonna
2:36
Speaker 2: be a big show.
2:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's only ten bucks though, so buy your
2:39
Speaker 1: tickets at the Bellhouse ny dot com and doors are
2:45
Speaker 1: at seven thirty. Showtime is at eight, and that's it.
2:50
Speaker 1: The Bellhouse that is in Guanas, Brooklyn, specifically seventh Street.
2:55
Speaker 2: Nice. Okay, so we're done. It's time Chuck, finally for Christmas.
3:01
Speaker 1: Yay, It's Christmas.
3:04
Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's
3:09
Speaker 2: Charles W. Chuck Bryant. And where's a couple of little
3:13
Speaker 2: elves ready to do this thing? How do you feel?
3:16
Speaker 2: And do you have some glad tidenings around you?
3:18
Speaker 1: We're not naked elves, which that is foretelling from later
3:22
Speaker 1: on in the podcast.
3:24
Speaker 2: You're a bespectacled elf.
3:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got glasses at forty one.
3:28
Speaker 2: Looks good.
3:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, the aging hipster thing is now full fully formed.
3:32
Speaker 2: As it is a velvet jacket.
3:36
Speaker 1: Yeah. They're just for reading in computer stuff.
3:38
Speaker 2: Though, and to look cool with because you look cool.
3:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. But I can't walk around to them, well, because
3:42
Speaker 1: they're for reading. It's like, you know, i'd mess up
3:45
Speaker 1: my eyes.
3:46
Speaker 2: Oh I thought you meant like you physically can't, like
3:48
Speaker 2: you can't chew gum and walk at the same time.
3:50
Speaker 1: No, but I am having to get used to it,
3:52
Speaker 1: you know.
3:52
Speaker 2: Oh you need to put those on a little chain
3:54
Speaker 2: to dangle around your Yeah, you can like look at
3:58
Speaker 2: a bill like yeah, like an older it's kosher.
4:01
Speaker 1: Well, it must be Christmas because it's ninety degrees in
4:03
Speaker 1: the studio, right, it's.
4:04
Speaker 2: Warm about seventy five degrees outside.
4:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, but the building doesn't know that. No, the building
4:09
Speaker 1: thinks it's wintertime. Right, So I'm sweating.
4:12
Speaker 2: Yeah I am too, So don't feel bad. Good, So
4:14
Speaker 2: it's a little gamy here in our Christmas studio. But
4:17
Speaker 2: it is Christmas time, that's right. And like I said,
4:19
Speaker 2: we do have glad tidings.
4:20
Speaker 1: Of great joy, So.
4:23
Speaker 2: I guess I don't have anything more to say before
4:26
Speaker 2: we get to.
4:26
Speaker 1: This to you, let's just kick it off.
4:28
Speaker 2: I'm very excited im too.
4:29
Speaker 3: It is after all, this gets me in the mood
4:32
Speaker 3: Christmas time, Chuck josh As.
4:46
Speaker 2: This is our Christmas extravag cans. There's lots of celebratory stuff,
4:49
Speaker 2: but there's also a lot of really good solid information.
4:55
Speaker 1: Yeah.
4:55
Speaker 2: Specifically like if you it being Christmas Day and all
4:59
Speaker 2: haven't selected a Chris yet, Yeah, we have. We have
5:02
Speaker 2: some tips on how to select one and how to
5:05
Speaker 2: care for it.
5:06
Speaker 1: Really, all kinds of Christmas tree stuff.
5:09
Speaker 2: So with Christmas trees, the vast majority of Christmas trees
5:14
Speaker 2: sold in the US, yeah, are real trees. And this
5:17
Speaker 2: is actually like a huge, huge industry, isn't it.
5:21
Speaker 4: Uh.
5:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, We've got thirty to thirty five million Christmas trees
5:25
Speaker 1: produced a year, and that's worldwide, but about twenty million
5:31
Speaker 1: or so of those are produced here in the US, Yeah,
5:34
Speaker 1: which is a lot.
5:35
Speaker 2: There's also in the United States. The National Christmas Tree
5:38
Speaker 2: Association that is a thing, says that the industry supports
5:43
Speaker 2: twenty one thousand growers and employs more than one hundred
5:46
Speaker 2: thousand people. Those are job creators.
5:49
Speaker 1: This is a crop. Yeah, and that's the way. And
5:51
Speaker 1: we'll get into whether or not it's green to have
5:53
Speaker 1: an artificial tree or a real tree. But here's a hint.
5:57
Speaker 1: It's a crop, and that's maybe how you should think
5:59
Speaker 1: of about it.
6:00
Speaker 2: Right. It is about a million acres of land are
6:04
Speaker 2: set aside to grow Christmas trees in the US.
6:06
Speaker 1: Correct, That is correct? And my stats say Oregon leads
6:12
Speaker 1: the United States by a long shot in producing trees
6:16
Speaker 1: about six point eight million in two thousand and seven. Yeah,
6:19
Speaker 1: North Carolina about three, and then Michigan at one point five,
6:22
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania one point two, and it just goes down from there.
6:25
Speaker 1: But apparently Michigan and Pennsylvania it's like they're they're dropping,
6:28
Speaker 1: are there thirty percent down?
6:30
Speaker 2: Well, every state in the Union except for Alaska has
6:35
Speaker 2: a Christmas tree farm on it somewhere.
6:37
Speaker 1: Why not Alaska is every cold? I don't know.
6:40
Speaker 2: I would think that southern Alaska would be able to
6:43
Speaker 2: grow them. Too cold, they're just too too hardy to
6:47
Speaker 2: pay for a Christmas tree. They're like, we'll just go
6:49
Speaker 2: get our own.
6:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe that.
6:50
Speaker 2: We're Alaskans. So while there's what how many how many
6:53
Speaker 2: did you say we're going to be sold in the
6:55
Speaker 2: US every year.
6:58
Speaker 1: I think about twenty million million in the US.
7:02
Speaker 2: Okay, there's still four hundred million growing in the US.
7:07
Speaker 2: Because it takes about six to seven years for a
7:10
Speaker 2: tree to mature to a five to six foot harvestable height.
7:14
Speaker 2: How long six to seven years? I understand. Yeah, and
7:19
Speaker 2: during that time you're going to have a lot of
7:22
Speaker 2: shearing going on, which is very important. Yeah.
7:25
Speaker 1: Is that what gives it the shape or is it
7:27
Speaker 1: already sort of shape like that?
7:28
Speaker 2: I think it's already kind of shaped like that. But
7:30
Speaker 2: then to convert it from that wild Christmas tree that
7:33
Speaker 2: never quite does the trick to the hallmark card Christmas tree.
7:39
Speaker 2: The people who grow these, the fine Christmas tree farmers,
7:42
Speaker 2: shear them on a pretty regular basis, and they cut
7:46
Speaker 2: off the lateral branches that go out. Then they'll cut
7:48
Speaker 2: off the top too, depending on how pointy they want it,
7:50
Speaker 2: how wide they want it.
7:52
Speaker 1: Do you get a real one still?
7:53
Speaker 2: No? We have an artificial one do Yeah. It's very nice, good,
7:57
Speaker 2: just drenched in ornaments.
8:00
Speaker 1: That's not when it was pre ornate or ornated. It's
8:02
Speaker 1: pre lit, Okay.
8:04
Speaker 2: But no, we know we collect our own very special ornament.
8:07
Speaker 1: Well, sure, because that's what normal people in society do, right,
8:11
Speaker 1: But I didn't know that they made them pre decorated
8:13
Speaker 1: as well for the madmen do there. Yeah, that's what
8:16
Speaker 1: it said in this article. You can get one fully
8:18
Speaker 1: decorated that you just see.
8:21
Speaker 2: You've just put your Christmas tree up, and then start
8:23
Speaker 2: eating your hungry man dinner and then cry Christmas.
8:27
Speaker 1: And then bury another body in the backyard.
8:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's what that's for. Uh So where did
8:32
Speaker 2: Christmas trees come from? Right? I mean this seems like
8:35
Speaker 2: a pretty recent phenomenon, the idea of going to a
8:39
Speaker 2: Christmas tree lot and buying it. It's actually way older.
8:42
Speaker 1: Yeah. Apparently, like many things Christmas did, is German and tradition,
8:48
Speaker 1: and maybe as early as a d. Seven hundred they
8:51
Speaker 1: started cutting down trees and putting them in the house.
8:53
Speaker 2: Yeah. I've always heard the story that it was Martin
8:55
Speaker 2: Luther who was the first to actually decorate them, though,
8:57
Speaker 2: oh really with candles, which is a fire has but
9:00
Speaker 2: that's a long tradition with Christmas trees too.
9:02
Speaker 1: He was the first and last to decorate with candles,
9:06
Speaker 1: And of course, you know, like all things German, it
9:09
Speaker 1: spread to England, which spread to America and that's why
9:12
Speaker 1: we eat sauerkrop today.
9:14
Speaker 2: Right, And again, you would think that up until maybe
9:17
Speaker 2: the fifties or something, when the cities were really starting
9:20
Speaker 2: to boom. Well, no, I guess that's when the suburbs
9:23
Speaker 2: started to boom, that people went out in their backyards
9:26
Speaker 2: and cut down trees. Right. But apparently there have been
9:29
Speaker 2: commercial Christmas tree lots in the United States since the
9:32
Speaker 2: mid nineteenth century.
9:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, that really surprised me. Yeah, I figured for sure
9:37
Speaker 1: that people in the eighteen hundreds would just take the
9:40
Speaker 1: axe out and cut one down in their own backyard.
9:42
Speaker 2: Sure, that's a logical thing to think, but no, apparently
9:46
Speaker 2: we've always relied on guys from that movie A Christmas
9:49
Speaker 2: Story to sell us.
9:51
Speaker 1: Jeez. I saw a lot the other day in New
9:53
Speaker 1: York that was just like on a sidewalk. And then,
9:56
Speaker 1: you know, obviously space is at a premium there. I'm
9:58
Speaker 1: sure there are lots, like empty parking lots where they
10:01
Speaker 1: do this, but it's not like the suburbs. It was
10:03
Speaker 1: literally just on a sidewalk. Some dude had set up
10:06
Speaker 1: his little farm.
10:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, why not, It's an American tradition. So you've got
10:12
Speaker 2: the you've got your your Christmas tree, have it all selected.
10:15
Speaker 2: You're like, I like the plump, short one, so I
10:17
Speaker 2: know that they shear the top off several times in
10:20
Speaker 2: addition to the lateral branch. Yeah, and I'm going to
10:23
Speaker 2: bring it home. But I don't know what to do
10:26
Speaker 2: with this thing. We're going to tell you because it's
10:29
Speaker 2: very much like cut flowers. It's a plant that's.
10:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, dying, Yeah.
10:33
Speaker 2: That you can keep on life support for a little
10:36
Speaker 2: while by feeding it water.
10:38
Speaker 1: That's right, and you should these days, you can get
10:40
Speaker 1: the little trunk a little inch or so cut off
10:43
Speaker 1: of the bottom of the trunk, yeah, by your Christmas tree,
10:46
Speaker 1: dude or dudet probably, but if not, you should do
10:49
Speaker 1: that yourself because a fresh cut is what you want
10:51
Speaker 1: down there. And I guess the reason is it drinks
10:55
Speaker 1: up the water more readily.
10:57
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it's the same thing as bringing home flowers.
10:59
Speaker 2: When you get flowers, you want to cut them again
11:01
Speaker 2: before you put them in the water stems. Yeah, but
11:04
Speaker 2: there's actually a rule of thumb for how much water
11:07
Speaker 2: you want to give a Christmas tree, basically a live
11:11
Speaker 2: tree or fresh cut tree as you call them, Yes,
11:15
Speaker 2: can drink up to a gallon of water a day.
11:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I am remiss every year. It's it's here's how
11:22
Speaker 1: it goes in my house. Oh crap, I haven't checked
11:25
Speaker 1: the water in like three days, and I'm going stick
11:27
Speaker 1: my finger in there and its dry as a bone. Sure,
11:29
Speaker 1: and the needles'll fall off of my hair. Yeah, and
11:31
Speaker 1: then I pour water in it and the tree just
11:33
Speaker 1: looks at me like, thanks, jerk.
11:34
Speaker 2: Well, apparently there's a there's a way to handle this, right,
11:37
Speaker 2: So you get a Christmas tree stand that holds I
11:40
Speaker 2: think you want probably up to a gallon what with
11:43
Speaker 2: the tree in it? Sure, because a lot of people
11:46
Speaker 2: will say, oh, it holds a gallon. Well, if you
11:47
Speaker 2: put a four inch diameter Christmas tree trunk into that,
11:50
Speaker 2: it's going to hold less than a gallon.
11:52
Speaker 1: Or it's gonna spill out on your floor.
11:54
Speaker 2: And you need to give your tree a court or
11:57
Speaker 2: a leater of water, depending on where you live in
11:59
Speaker 2: the world, for every inch of diameter of the trunk. Okay,
12:05
Speaker 2: So if you have a four inch diameter Christmas tree trunk,
12:08
Speaker 2: which is pretty substantial, sure, you want to make sure
12:11
Speaker 2: that your tree holder can hold a gallon of water.
12:14
Speaker 2: And you want to add a gallon of water every day. Yeah.
12:16
Speaker 1: I used to have heard some sort of like syrup
12:18
Speaker 1: or sweetener or something helps, but I'm not sure about that.
12:21
Speaker 2: I've never heard that one.
12:22
Speaker 1: Really. Yeah, I've heard that, but I don't know if
12:24
Speaker 1: it's true.
12:26
Speaker 2: Well we'll find out.
12:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I should have looked it up. I
12:29
Speaker 1: guess it just hit me.
12:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've not heard that one. Really. That's good stuff.
12:33
Speaker 2: But like maybe it's just like a tree for the
12:36
Speaker 2: for the tree. Yeah.
12:36
Speaker 1: Maybe.
12:37
Speaker 2: So here's some sat back. So if you if you
12:40
Speaker 2: don't feel like keeping up with live Christmas tree, you
12:44
Speaker 2: can always of course go the artificial route. And those
12:46
Speaker 2: are actually also older than I realized.
12:48
Speaker 1: Boo boo artificial trees.
12:50
Speaker 2: Man, I'm telling you, your artificial tree is awesome.
12:54
Speaker 1: What does it smell like?
12:55
Speaker 2: It smells like heaven, it smells like love?
12:59
Speaker 1: Or does it smell like PDC made in Asia?
13:03
Speaker 2: No, I mean I know what should mean. But we
13:04
Speaker 2: have like a cinnamon and cinnamon broom behind it takes
13:08
Speaker 2: care of everything. Does your tree smell like cinnamon? I
13:10
Speaker 2: don't think it does.
13:11
Speaker 1: No, it smells like a tree, a lovely fir tree.
13:14
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm anti artificial. But I get it. Some
13:17
Speaker 1: people don't like the fuss of going out and getting one,
13:20
Speaker 1: or cleaning up needles or whatever your reason is.
13:23
Speaker 2: So chuck. Apparently people have wanted to get around that
13:26
Speaker 2: fuss for many, many years. Apparently again in the nineteenth century,
13:31
Speaker 2: artificial trees were around.
13:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems like it sort of mirrored the Christmas
13:35
Speaker 1: tree lot. Yeah, you know, around the same time, I
13:38
Speaker 1: guess yea. And they were originally you know, made to
13:43
Speaker 1: look like real trees, many which still are. But in
13:45
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties it got a little crazy, and we
13:48
Speaker 1: actually have one of these trees from the nineteen fifties.
13:51
Speaker 2: You don't put it up, yeah, I put it up
13:53
Speaker 2: in you.
13:53
Speaker 1: Know, it's small. So we have one in the sun room.
13:56
Speaker 2: So you selectively pooh pooh artificial trees.
13:59
Speaker 1: I selectively pooh whoo using an artificial tree in lieu
14:02
Speaker 1: of a real tree. So we have our little fifties
14:04
Speaker 1: retro with a color wheel the fire hazard tree in
14:07
Speaker 1: one room.
14:07
Speaker 2: What color is it?
14:08
Speaker 1: It's silver?
14:09
Speaker 2: Nice? Yeah, do you have like the bright colored ornaments
14:12
Speaker 2: on it and everything?
14:13
Speaker 1: We just do like, uh, I think we just do
14:16
Speaker 1: like one kind of single red ball not a single ball,
14:20
Speaker 1: but one single style all over the tree.
14:22
Speaker 2: Very tasteful.
14:23
Speaker 1: And it's not like our regular tree we have, you know,
14:26
Speaker 1: all of our childhood stuff and the stuff we bought together,
14:29
Speaker 1: stuff like that, and our our Exon commemorative and our
14:34
Speaker 1: Chevron commemorative ornaments McDonald's ornaments. No, but you know how
14:39
Speaker 1: like every corporation on Earth Christmas ornaments. Could you imagine
14:42
Speaker 1: if that's all you add.
14:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, that'd be kind of sad, that'd be awful. So
14:46
Speaker 2: you were saying that a lot of people turn to, uh,
14:50
Speaker 2: turn to fake trees because of the mess and all
14:52
Speaker 2: that stuff. There's also another really good reason that people
14:55
Speaker 2: increasingly are selecting artificial trees. And there's some really top
15:00
Speaker 2: notch artificial, expensive artificial trees out there that look very
15:05
Speaker 2: much like real trees. Yeah, and it's becoming a growing
15:10
Speaker 2: alternative for people who are eco conscious. And there's developed
15:14
Speaker 2: this big debate over whether artificial trees or regular trees
15:18
Speaker 2: are better for the environment. Yeah, and it seems very
15:22
Speaker 2: logical if you grow a tree, to cut it down,
15:25
Speaker 2: to use a gallon of water a day to keep
15:28
Speaker 2: it alive for a few weeks before you throw.
15:30
Speaker 1: It out, well, right, throw it out, mulch it.
15:33
Speaker 2: Maybe not everybody does. I'm just saying it. It seems like
15:36
Speaker 2: an environmental nightmare.
15:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, it could be.
15:38
Speaker 2: But so the artificial tree would seem smarter. But apparently
15:42
Speaker 2: there's a study done in two thousand and nine that
15:44
Speaker 2: basically said once and for all, like no, actually, depending
15:48
Speaker 2: on how long you keep your artificial tree, you're better
15:51
Speaker 2: off getting a real tree every year.
15:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, they did the study in Montreal and they said,
15:56
Speaker 1: and they said, this is the most definitive study yet said,
16:00
Speaker 1: you have to reuse that artificial tree for more than
16:02
Speaker 1: twenty years to be greener. This includes greenhouse emissions, resources,
16:08
Speaker 1: human health impacts. Like I said, a lot of fake
16:12
Speaker 1: trees contain PBC. They're generally manufactured in Asia and shipped
16:17
Speaker 1: over here. You definitely cannot mulch those. No, once you
16:21
Speaker 1: get sick of it, it's probably gonna have been a
16:23
Speaker 1: what do you call it a garbage lot?
16:25
Speaker 2: What do you call those?
16:26
Speaker 1: Landfill?
16:27
Speaker 2: Landfill or field?
16:29
Speaker 1: Landfield? Is that no? So, of course the chairman and
16:35
Speaker 1: chief executive of Balsam Hill, makers of artificial tree, says no,
16:39
Speaker 1: no ours for more green.
16:41
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, he was saying the point he makes is
16:43
Speaker 2: that if you take all of the emissions created by
16:47
Speaker 2: all of the Americans driving to a Christmas tree lot,
16:50
Speaker 2: getting their Christmas tree, and driving home, in addition to
16:53
Speaker 2: like whatever transportation costs. Because you know, most of those
16:55
Speaker 2: Christmas tree lots around here, other trees are coming from
16:58
Speaker 2: North Carolina. Yeah, and they're being then ami down and
17:01
Speaker 2: all that. You put all that together, you compare that
17:03
Speaker 2: to a ship carrying fifty thousand artificial Christmas trees from China.
17:07
Speaker 1: Yeah.
17:08
Speaker 2: The artificial trees more environmentally conscious. Yeah, but this study
17:13
Speaker 2: supported it too, which one Well, the study eventually Oh sure,
17:18
Speaker 2: over the course of I mean, you'd have to take
17:19
Speaker 2: care of your tree for twenty years, but yes.
17:22
Speaker 1: Well and look at the bright side, your tree will
17:24
Speaker 1: then be retro twenty years later.
17:27
Speaker 2: You can use nothing but red ornamental exactly.
17:30
Speaker 1: So that's all I got except for you know, multier
17:33
Speaker 1: trees afterward, because they can end up you know, I mean,
17:38
Speaker 1: you don't have to do it yourself. Most Citi sub
17:39
Speaker 1: programs where you can put it out and they mulch
17:41
Speaker 1: it and it'll end up on a playground somewhere, a nice,
17:44
Speaker 1: fine smelling playground of Douglas fur or.
17:48
Speaker 2: If you have an artificial tree, you can reuse it.
17:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, just box it up, put it in the attic,
17:53
Speaker 1: use it again next year.
18:02
Speaker 2: So, Chuck, you've heard of NORD, the North American Aerospace
18:06
Speaker 2: Defense Command, Right, I'm a big fan. They're basically like
18:10
Speaker 2: the Missile Defense Group for the US and Canada. Yeah.
18:15
Speaker 1: I did not know it was a joint effort by
18:18
Speaker 1: both countries. I did not know it was US and Canada.
18:21
Speaker 1: It makes sense. I have a feeling I'm probably wrong
18:25
Speaker 1: that the US like set this all up and then
18:27
Speaker 1: told Canada, Hey, we need to put some of our
18:29
Speaker 1: stuff up there.
18:30
Speaker 2: That's a distinct possibility and it'll keep.
18:32
Speaker 1: You safe if you just give us that plot of land, right,
18:35
Speaker 1: And they said sure.
18:36
Speaker 2: Yeah. Hey. Well, nor AD, famous for tracking missiles, is
18:42
Speaker 2: also famous for a Christmas tradition of tracking Santa Claus.
18:45
Speaker 1: Pretty great tradition. Yeah.
18:46
Speaker 2: Back in nineteen fifty five, this serendipitous accident happened when
18:52
Speaker 2: a serious department store accidentally listed CONEAD, which is the
18:57
Speaker 2: Continental Air Defense Command, which was the our assessor to
19:00
Speaker 2: nor ED. The series listed conad's operations hotline as Santa
19:05
Speaker 2: Claus's number. So all of a sudden, Conad started getting
19:10
Speaker 2: all these calls from the little kids wanting to talk
19:12
Speaker 2: to Santa Claus.
19:12
Speaker 1: Right, that's right, And instead of being an old curmudgeon,
19:15
Speaker 1: the director at the time, Colonel Harry Shop said, you
19:20
Speaker 1: know what, We've located Santa Sleigh on the radar here
19:23
Speaker 1: and we're tracking him as we speak, no doubt to
19:26
Speaker 1: the delight of the dozens of calls received from the
19:30
Speaker 1: kids right that year. And it started a little tradition
19:34
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty eight and all of a sudden it
19:36
Speaker 1: was a thing.
19:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, nineteen fifty eight was when Nora d started right.
19:40
Speaker 1: Oh before that it was Conad, you're right.
19:42
Speaker 2: And then the FAA got in on it, right, And
19:45
Speaker 2: as of two thousand and six, the FAA clear Santa
19:47
Speaker 2: for flight every year, which.
19:49
Speaker 1: Is pretty cute. I wonder if they did they just
19:52
Speaker 1: say yeah, we're tracking him, or do they put a
19:54
Speaker 1: little like, you know, realism into it, like if the
19:56
Speaker 1: sleigh weighed this much and he's traveling this fast.
19:59
Speaker 2: Oh, there's like all website you can go to if
20:01
Speaker 2: you'd like to delight kids science. It's not a dot
20:06
Speaker 2: CoV slash. Santa brings up all sorts of different stuff,
20:10
Speaker 2: this whole epic saga about Santa's preparations for his Christmas deliveries.
20:16
Speaker 2: And then if you want to track san at home,
20:18
Speaker 2: you can go to Nora Adsanta dot org.
20:25
Speaker 5: All right, Josh, let's talk about one of my favorite
20:37
Speaker 5: Christmas time drinks.
20:39
Speaker 2: Eggnog as one of my favorites too.
20:41
Speaker 1: And I don't drink it much to have about one
20:45
Speaker 1: solid cup at my Christmas party.
20:48
Speaker 2: That's all you have a year?
20:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean how much of that can you drink?
20:52
Speaker 2: You're totally out of it.
20:53
Speaker 1: Plus at the at what you drink a lot?
20:55
Speaker 2: You need to open your eyes, buddy, what do you drink?
20:58
Speaker 2: You can drink more than one cup of eggnoggy?
21:00
Speaker 1: Well, I mean when do you drink it besides Christmas?
21:02
Speaker 1: Or do you drink it multiple times at Christmas?
21:04
Speaker 2: Multiple times around Christmas?
21:05
Speaker 1: Okay? Yeah, I just I make a batch homemade, of course,
21:08
Speaker 1: if you buy it in the cart and I just.
21:10
Speaker 2: So you make it. Oh, sure, have you tried George
21:13
Speaker 2: Washington's recipe?
21:14
Speaker 1: No, but that's gonna be on the list this year.
21:17
Speaker 2: I can tell you that I tried George Washington's recipe
21:19
Speaker 2: using store bought, but with this booze and it is
21:24
Speaker 2: out of sight. We'll get to it soon, but let's
21:26
Speaker 2: talk about eggnog and its origins first.
21:28
Speaker 1: All right. They can trace it back to possibly the
21:31
Speaker 1: fourteenth century, and of course it was the medieval Englishman
21:35
Speaker 1: drinking something known as posset, yeah, which didn't have eggs
21:39
Speaker 1: though it was hot milk curdled with ale wine, often
21:43
Speaker 1: sweetened and spiced, which sounds really nasty, eh, curdled milk,
21:50
Speaker 1: all right. They were trying to get bombed, That's what
21:53
Speaker 1: they were trying.
21:53
Speaker 2: To do, pretty much. And then eventually somebody said, hey,
21:56
Speaker 2: let's see what happens when we add eggs some.
21:59
Speaker 1: Raw and they could make you sick.
22:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did. Eventually the wine came to be replaced
22:06
Speaker 2: by sherry and madeira. And as this this drink that
22:11
Speaker 2: eventually became eggnog, became more complex, it became more expensive,
22:15
Speaker 2: and over in Europe, basically you had to be rich
22:18
Speaker 2: to have a decent glass of eggnog.
22:20
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, became the stuff of I don't know, would
22:23
Speaker 1: you say aristocrats or zach wid a little too high flutine?
22:26
Speaker 2: No? I would say that, okay, And we should say
22:28
Speaker 2: we want to thank our friends over at Mental Floss
22:30
Speaker 2: for providing us with this one. This one. Yeah, here's
22:34
Speaker 2: our glass of eggnog. Crazy to you guys.
22:35
Speaker 1: Boy, I wish I was drinking it right now. Actually, so,
22:39
Speaker 1: the first eggnog in the US apparently was drank by
22:43
Speaker 1: Captain John Smith.
22:45
Speaker 2: At his settlement. Yeah, sixteen oh seven.
22:47
Speaker 1: Sure, what are you gonna do? Kick back in James
22:49
Speaker 1: sound have a little agnogs.
22:50
Speaker 2: Yeah.
22:50
Speaker 1: And because it's the US, we had plenty of eggs
22:53
Speaker 1: and plenty of booze, so it wasn't like in England,
22:56
Speaker 1: and it became pretty popular here.
22:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's still in England. Its popularity went down
23:02
Speaker 2: the tubes and even still like some people drink eggnog there,
23:05
Speaker 2: but not very often. It's very much an American thing,
23:09
Speaker 2: even though we totally cribbed it from Europe.
23:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, good for us.
23:14
Speaker 2: And they actually think that the word eggnog. One of
23:18
Speaker 2: the one of the origin stories for the word was
23:20
Speaker 2: that it's a contraction of egg and grog, which is
23:24
Speaker 2: what Americans used to ask the bartenders for at the
23:27
Speaker 2: at the end of the eighteenth century.
23:29
Speaker 1: Right or came from the word noggin, which was the
23:33
Speaker 1: little small wooden mug that they served it in. And
23:36
Speaker 1: yet another says a Norfolk slang nog refers to the
23:41
Speaker 1: strong ales that were served in those cups.
23:44
Speaker 2: Yep.
23:44
Speaker 1: So somewhere in there lies the word origin. Which one
23:48
Speaker 1: do you like?
23:49
Speaker 2: I like the American contraction? Yeah, eggnog all right, regardless
23:54
Speaker 2: of where the name came from, the first use of
23:57
Speaker 2: eggnog to describe this drink came at eighteen hundred and
24:01
Speaker 2: there's a guy named Isaac Well Junior who described eggnog
24:06
Speaker 2: as consisting of new milk, eggs, rum, and sugar beat
24:10
Speaker 2: up together. Pretty simple.
24:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, he had to put new milk in there, I
24:13
Speaker 1: guess because the old version was curdled milk or buttermilk.
24:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, ooh, can you imagine buttermilk eggnog.
24:20
Speaker 1: I've never even had buttermilk except in.
24:23
Speaker 2: When you were bad.
24:24
Speaker 1: Things in the ex bad And what makes me drink buttermilk?
24:28
Speaker 1: I've only had it in like recipes that I've used
24:31
Speaker 1: for cooking and baking, and I might very well like
24:34
Speaker 1: it to this day, but I've been so grossed out
24:36
Speaker 1: my entire life because my dad drank it and he
24:38
Speaker 1: would put like a whole thing of corn bread in
24:41
Speaker 1: it and stir it up until it was just a big, mushy,
24:44
Speaker 1: goofy mess, and he would eat it with a spoon.
24:47
Speaker 1: And I just can't even look at it to this
24:48
Speaker 1: day because that grows me out so much as a kid.
24:50
Speaker 2: I don't blame you. That's the Southern thing, are you sure?
24:55
Speaker 1: Oh? I'm positive? Okay, buttermilk with corn bread very big?
25:00
Speaker 2: Uh? Okay, so uh, washing is very American.
25:03
Speaker 1: Yeah.
25:03
Speaker 2: What's more American than George Washington?
25:05
Speaker 1: Not much.
25:06
Speaker 2: George Washington's eggnog. Yeah, we have his recipe. He left
25:09
Speaker 2: his recipe and he must have been sousd when he
25:13
Speaker 2: wrote the recipe because he forgot to include how many eggs?
25:16
Speaker 2: But he included everything else. And this is a the
25:20
Speaker 2: verbatim recipe left by George Washington found in the Mount
25:25
Speaker 2: Vernon records.
25:26
Speaker 1: Okay, yep, may I please?
25:28
Speaker 2: One court cream, one quart milk, one dozen table spoons sugar,
25:34
Speaker 2: one pint brandy pint, one half pint rye whiskey, one
25:38
Speaker 2: half pint Jamaica rum, one quarter point pint sherry.
25:41
Speaker 1: So that's two and a quarter pints of liquor. We
25:44
Speaker 1: should point out.
25:45
Speaker 2: Right, which makes which makes a court in a quarter
25:50
Speaker 2: court in an eighth. Okay, that's a lot of liquor.
25:53
Speaker 1: That's a lot of booze.
25:54
Speaker 2: I want to point out here that you can you
25:56
Speaker 2: can do an easy conversion here. If you take the
25:58
Speaker 2: cream in the milk, that's six four ounces, You take
26:02
Speaker 2: the two and a quarter pints, that's thirty thirty six ounces,
26:12
Speaker 2: and you can do some easy conversion. So basically, if
26:14
Speaker 2: you do four, if you do four, if you want
26:18
Speaker 2: to buy your eggnog, this is my tip here. This
26:20
Speaker 2: isn't in the recipe. If you want to buy a
26:23
Speaker 2: commercially made eggnog, you use four ounces of that to
26:26
Speaker 2: one ounce brandy, one half ounce rye, one half ounce rum,
26:31
Speaker 2: and a quarter ounce sherry, and you will be pretty
26:34
Speaker 2: close to Washington's little concoction. A back to the recipe.
26:39
Speaker 2: Mixed liquor first, Then separate yolks and whites of eggs.
26:43
Speaker 2: Add sugar to beaten yolks. Mix well. Add milk and
26:46
Speaker 2: cream slowly beating. Beat whites of eggs until stiff and
26:50
Speaker 2: fold slowly into mixture. Let's set in cool place for
26:53
Speaker 2: several days. These days, that would be a refrigerator taste frequently,
26:57
Speaker 2: which means go get a buzz every day. Make it
26:59
Speaker 2: su you'renogs, all right?
27:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, And apparently Georgie Boy loved the stuff.
27:04
Speaker 2: Oh he did. He loved his liquor.
27:06
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's why his teeth are all rotten. Nextly,
27:09
Speaker 1: that's not true. It might have contributed. Yeah, So if
27:15
Speaker 1: you get eggnog in the stores these days, you're probably
27:18
Speaker 1: not gonna have a lot of egg in it. FDA
27:20
Speaker 1: regulations say that about only require about one percent of
27:25
Speaker 1: the final weight be made from solid egg yolks, and
27:29
Speaker 1: then egg flavored eggnog. Flavored milk is really just milk.
27:33
Speaker 1: It's got maybe point five percent egg yolk. So I say,
27:37
Speaker 1: make it yourself.
27:37
Speaker 2: It's fun if you do make it yourself. Though, you
27:39
Speaker 2: want to use pasteurized eggs, because you should. If you
27:42
Speaker 2: use fresh eggs, you could come down with salmonella. A
27:46
Speaker 2: lot of people say, well, wait a minute, I'm putting
27:48
Speaker 2: two and a half pints two and a half two
27:50
Speaker 2: and a half pints of booze in this concoction. Of course,
27:53
Speaker 2: it's going to kill all the salmonilla. FDA says, not necessarily,
27:57
Speaker 2: don't risk it. Just use pasteurized eggs.
28:00
Speaker 1: Don't use pasturized eggs. I should, though, yeah.
28:02
Speaker 2: You should. Do you boil your water when your nettie pot?
28:06
Speaker 1: Yet no, I live by the seat in my pan.
28:09
Speaker 2: Well they don't even bother using pasteurized eggs.
28:11
Speaker 1: Then I don't look, I'm not the one that's always sick,
28:15
Speaker 1: all right? So is that it on eggnog?
28:20
Speaker 2: Unless you want to tell the story of Judge Garnet
28:22
Speaker 2: of Matthews County, should be sure.
28:25
Speaker 1: All right. In nineteen hundred, Good Housekeeping ran a story
28:29
Speaker 1: about the tradition in Virginia, and it had this anecdote.
28:33
Speaker 1: So religiously is the custom of eggnog drinking observed? The
28:37
Speaker 1: Judge Garnett of Matthews County tells a story of rushing
28:40
Speaker 1: in on Christmas morning to warn his father that his
28:42
Speaker 1: house was on fire. The old gentleman first led his
28:45
Speaker 1: son to the breakfast table and ladled out his glass
28:47
Speaker 1: of eggnog, drank one with him, and then went to
28:50
Speaker 1: care for the burning building. That is the love of agog,
28:55
Speaker 1: Oh and little whip cream on top. Li'll cool whip.
29:08
Speaker 2: To Josh.
29:09
Speaker 1: One of my favorite parts of Christmas because I don't
29:11
Speaker 1: have a working fireplace, even though I'm working on that.
29:14
Speaker 1: By the way, you see the soot on my hands.
29:17
Speaker 2: Oh nice.
29:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been clean at my chimney.
29:20
Speaker 2: Very nice.
29:21
Speaker 1: It's awful work, by the way, I imagine, and I
29:23
Speaker 1: have black lung and I'm sneezing up black boogers. So
29:27
Speaker 1: because of all this, one of my favorite traditions is
29:29
Speaker 1: the yule log on the TV set.
29:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's actually dates back to nineteen sixty six
29:35
Speaker 2: when a guy named Fred Thrower, who is a programming director,
29:38
Speaker 2: realized that a lot, a lot, a lot of New
29:41
Speaker 2: Yorkers who subscribe to a station WPIXTV New York didn't
29:46
Speaker 2: have fireplaces. Yeah, so he figured out, maybe we should
29:51
Speaker 2: take a video loop of a nice little fire set
29:55
Speaker 2: to Christmas music and broadcast that not only does everybody
29:59
Speaker 2: get a fire in their head else, but we all
30:01
Speaker 2: get the day off, except for the one engineer who
30:03
Speaker 2: has to make sure that this is going right. Yeah.
30:05
Speaker 1: And I didn't see this in there, but I bet
30:06
Speaker 1: a bunch of people in programming thought this is not
30:09
Speaker 1: gonna work. This is a really stupid idea.
30:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it became a pretty big tradition. So Fred
30:15
Speaker 2: Thrower came out on top, right, it's right. In two
30:18
Speaker 2: thousand and four, they started broadcasting it in high definition.
30:21
Speaker 2: Cable picked it up pretty shortly after cable came around,
30:24
Speaker 2: and then now you can find it on YouTube.
30:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll watch it on my local cable provider. You
30:29
Speaker 1: just searched through during Christmas time and it's the ulog
30:32
Speaker 1: right there.
30:32
Speaker 2: Do you prefer Christmas music or crackling fire sound?
30:36
Speaker 1: I do my own Christmas music, so therefore I prefer
30:39
Speaker 1: the crackling.
30:39
Speaker 2: Fire sound very nice. Yes, you I like the crackling
30:43
Speaker 2: fire myself. Yeah?
30:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, so do they do that?
30:46
Speaker 2: Do they?
30:47
Speaker 1: They don't give you both.
30:49
Speaker 2: Not Fred Thrower's neighborhood. It was set to Christmas music.
30:53
Speaker 2: But if you go like onto YouTube, you can find
30:55
Speaker 2: one two three hour increments of just crackling fire. Nice.
31:09
Speaker 1: Hey, Chuck, hey Josh.
31:10
Speaker 2: Have you ever heard of a guy named the Grinch? Yes, dude,
31:16
Speaker 2: you've seen the Grinch. She stole Christmas many many times?
31:18
Speaker 1: Right, How the Grinch stole Christmas? Yeah?
31:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, it is how the Grinch stole Christmas. I've
31:24
Speaker 2: seen that many times. I've seen the movie. I love
31:26
Speaker 2: the Grinch.
31:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Jim Carrey movie pretty good.
31:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, not bad at all. Really got into
31:31
Speaker 2: the who's blew your mind at the end that it
31:33
Speaker 2: all took place on like a molecule and a snowflake. Yeah, yeah,
31:37
Speaker 2: I was surprised by that spoiler, is it? Well?
31:41
Speaker 1: Sure, but who hasn't seen that?
31:43
Speaker 2: I don't know. Yeah, hopefully no one listening to this.
31:47
Speaker 2: But we've got the origin story thanks to our buddies
31:49
Speaker 2: at MPR, right about how the Grinch stole Christmas and
31:54
Speaker 2: how Ted Geisel aka doctor Seuss created this thing.
31:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, apparently, guys, will it was a little more like
32:01
Speaker 1: the Grinch than your average who in Whoville in the
32:06
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, he was an illustrator and the very first
32:11
Speaker 1: idea of Grinch came about when he was drawing illustrations
32:14
Speaker 1: of basically what looked like a boogeyman combined with Sanna. Yeah,
32:18
Speaker 1: and it was sort of the first little inkling that
32:20
Speaker 1: like a malevolent Sanna was around and spoiling things for people.
32:27
Speaker 1: So he was apparently a bit of a curmudget I saw.
32:29
Speaker 1: I think one of his daughters said that he was
32:32
Speaker 1: Grinch on his bad days, and cat and the hat
32:34
Speaker 1: on his good days.
32:35
Speaker 2: I could see all those based on himself. Sure, sure, Well,
32:39
Speaker 2: with the Grinch. He published that in nineteen fifty seven
32:42
Speaker 2: at age fifty three, and it was pretty much an
32:46
Speaker 2: an instant success.
32:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was literally inspired. Apparently one day he looked
32:52
Speaker 1: in the mirror. He was doing a self portrait like
32:54
Speaker 1: Rockwell style, where you look in the mirror, and he
32:56
Speaker 1: said he looked in the mirror and saw the Grinch
32:58
Speaker 1: looking back. It was very much based on his perception
33:02
Speaker 1: of himself at least.
33:03
Speaker 2: Sure. Yeah, So the book takes off, and then in
33:06
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty six, CBS says, hey, man, let's make a
33:13
Speaker 2: version of this, a TV movie version. Yeah, And this
33:17
Speaker 2: is how The Grinch became green, actually thanks to a
33:20
Speaker 2: guy named Chuck Jones, who made a name for himself
33:22
Speaker 2: creating characters like the Roadrunner, Wiley, Coyote, bugs, Bunny, just a.
33:28
Speaker 1: Name of you. You know, his granddaughter listens, Oh is
33:30
Speaker 1: that right? Yeah, she wrote in a couple of weeks
33:33
Speaker 1: ago about you know, I can't remember what it was about,
33:36
Speaker 1: but she says, by the way, I'm Chuck Jones's granddaughter.
33:38
Speaker 2: Oh that's cool.
33:39
Speaker 1: And I wrote her back, said you're messing with me,
33:41
Speaker 1: and she's like, oh, no, I'm not.
33:43
Speaker 2: I get that all the time.
33:44
Speaker 1: I'm the real deal.
33:46
Speaker 2: Well, it's a good thing that Chuck Jones came on
33:49
Speaker 2: board because he ended up being to Doctor Seuss what
33:53
Speaker 2: Stanley Cooprick was to Stephen King in the Shining. He
33:56
Speaker 2: took a very classic, awesome idea, yeah, and put the modern,
34:02
Speaker 2: possibly better spin on it, brought it to life. You
34:05
Speaker 2: could say that's true people around the world.
34:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, because it wasn't black and white in the book,
34:10
Speaker 1: a little pink here and there. But like you said,
34:13
Speaker 1: Chuck Jones made him green and apparently changed the face
34:17
Speaker 1: a little bit to look like himself from the original book,
34:20
Speaker 1: which he said he liked to do and a lot
34:21
Speaker 1: of his characters was give a little bit of himself.
34:23
Speaker 2: Well, he said that. I heard he subconsciously he snuck
34:28
Speaker 2: himself in when he looked in the mirror, like Norman
34:30
Speaker 2: Rwell or Doctor Seuss, to kind of get an expression right, right,
34:34
Speaker 2: he would end up inadvertently drawing himself as well.
34:37
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool.
34:37
Speaker 2: Yeah.
34:39
Speaker 1: So the original cut was about twelve minutes long, which
34:41
Speaker 1: was too short, so it was up to Jones and
34:45
Speaker 1: Geisel to fill it out, and one of the main
34:48
Speaker 1: ways they filled it out was through Max the dog,
34:51
Speaker 1: who Jones felt represented the audience, and Max became a
34:56
Speaker 1: much larger character in the short TV short he was
35:00
Speaker 1: in the book. Yeah.
35:01
Speaker 2: He, I mean a lot of stuff hinged on him.
35:04
Speaker 2: He had to keep the sleigh from going over. That's
35:07
Speaker 2: a lot to put on a little dog.
35:09
Speaker 1: It is.
35:10
Speaker 2: Another thing that brought it to life is the soundtrack.
35:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was.
35:14
Speaker 2: Narrated and the voice of the Grinch was done by
35:16
Speaker 2: Boris Karloff. Of all people like they were like, well,
35:19
Speaker 2: let's see who's the master of horror movies at the time. Ah, yah,
35:23
Speaker 2: you you come do the voice for this children's cartoon.
35:25
Speaker 1: Well, I saw an interview with Chuck Jones and he said,
35:27
Speaker 1: I'm glad that that ended up happening because he knew
35:30
Speaker 1: what a great voice actor he was. And he said,
35:32
Speaker 1: not many people, because back then he did a lot
35:34
Speaker 1: of voices without people knowing it was him. Yeah, because
35:37
Speaker 1: you just couldn't google it and find out, you know
35:39
Speaker 1: who did that.
35:40
Speaker 2: As they very aptly put it in this NPR story,
35:42
Speaker 2: Boris Karloff nailed the story simultaneous, lighthearted and ominous tone.
35:47
Speaker 2: I think that's pretty fair assessment.
35:49
Speaker 1: I agree.
35:50
Speaker 2: Albert hag wrote the songs and then You're a mean one,
35:52
Speaker 2: mister Grinch.
35:53
Speaker 1: Yeah wrote the music, but guys will actually wrote the lyrics.
35:56
Speaker 2: Oh he did.
35:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, mean that seems appropriate, Yeah, totally.
35:59
Speaker 2: But You're a one mister Grinch, of course was sung
36:02
Speaker 2: by Thurle Ravenscroft.
36:05
Speaker 1: Had no idea and I think, like most people, I
36:07
Speaker 1: believe that it was Boris Karloff.
36:09
Speaker 2: Oh no, it's Tony the Tiger.
36:10
Speaker 1: But yeah, he was Tony the Tiger Raven's croft. They're great. So, uh,
36:20
Speaker 1: Ravenscroft was uncredited in the in the original film, Yeah,
36:24
Speaker 1: so was June fora who did Cindy lou Who? And
36:27
Speaker 1: apparently Chuck Jones and uh and guys that were both
36:31
Speaker 1: like pretty upset about this, and like every interview they
36:34
Speaker 1: ever did made sure they pointed out, like it's not
36:36
Speaker 1: Karloff singing, like he couldn't even sing and June four
36:40
Speaker 1: a was Cindy lou Who, And so they tried to
36:42
Speaker 1: get it in as many articles as possible.
36:44
Speaker 2: That nice, Yeah, good for them. Everybody loves the Grinch
36:49
Speaker 2: except for two brothers, David and Bob Grinch, who lived
36:53
Speaker 2: in Ridgefield, New Jersey, and wrote a letter to Theodore.
36:57
Speaker 2: Guys all and said, hey, can you change the name
36:59
Speaker 2: of the Grinch because that's our last name and everybody's
37:01
Speaker 2: teasing us. And doctor Seuss wrote back, yeah, and I
37:06
Speaker 2: hope that they still have this letter because it read,
37:08
Speaker 2: I disagree with your friends who harass you. Can't they
37:11
Speaker 2: understand that the Grinch in my story is the hero
37:14
Speaker 2: of Christmas. Sure, he starts out as a villain, but
37:17
Speaker 2: it's not how you start out that counts. It's what
37:19
Speaker 2: you are at the finish.
37:21
Speaker 1: And he sealed it with a kiss. So I've got
37:24
Speaker 1: the lyrics here for the classic song and the Grenches
37:28
Speaker 1: compared to many things in the song Charming as an eel,
37:32
Speaker 1: cuddley as a cactus, a bad banana with a greasy
37:35
Speaker 1: black peel, an empty hole, brain full of spiders, garlic
37:39
Speaker 1: in your soul, a sea sick crocodile, a heartful of
37:44
Speaker 1: unwashed socks, that's my favorite one. Or a dead tomato
37:49
Speaker 1: squash with multi purple spots.
37:51
Speaker 2: That's pretty good.
37:52
Speaker 1: Crooked jerky jockey and he drives a crooked horse. You're
37:57
Speaker 1: a three decker sauer Kraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce.
38:02
Speaker 2: I'm very president understand that doctor Seuss wrote the lyrics
38:05
Speaker 2: of the song.
38:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's different when you read it. When it's sung,
38:09
Speaker 1: it just sort of goes along you read it. It's like, man,
38:11
Speaker 1: this is the work of a madman. So you got
38:14
Speaker 1: anything else?
38:15
Speaker 2: No?
38:15
Speaker 1: It ran on CBS for twenty two years and then
38:19
Speaker 1: TBS acquired it and now you can find it all
38:22
Speaker 1: over the place thanks to TBS.
38:24
Speaker 2: And thank you, mister Brinch.
38:40
Speaker 1: All right, Josh, I see dangling the missletoe above my head.
38:44
Speaker 1: You know what that means? Come over here, give me
38:46
Speaker 1: a big smacker.
38:47
Speaker 2: There's actually there's a procedure to all this. When a
38:51
Speaker 2: people kiss under the missletoe, the kiss initiator takes a
38:55
Speaker 2: berry from the missiletoe.
38:57
Speaker 1: I never knew that.
38:58
Speaker 2: And eventually, once all the berries are used up, the
39:00
Speaker 2: missletoe's used up, there's no longer good luck for kissing
39:02
Speaker 2: under it.
39:03
Speaker 1: That's right, And it's supposed to be good luck for
39:05
Speaker 1: married couples, means their marriage will be successful and long.
39:10
Speaker 1: Bad luck if you don't and you're a married couple,
39:13
Speaker 1: And if you're a single woman who fails to get kissed,
39:16
Speaker 1: you will not get married for another year.
39:18
Speaker 2: A year don't even bother. And this is a very
39:21
Speaker 2: very very ancient tradition. They think that it dates back
39:24
Speaker 2: to the Vikings, thinking that this was a fertility plant. Yeah,
39:29
Speaker 2: it possibly. It possibly derives from enemies who would meet
39:35
Speaker 2: under the missletoe. If they happen to be under a missletoe,
39:37
Speaker 2: they would put their arms down and embrace and go
39:40
Speaker 2: on a cease fire for the day until they took
39:44
Speaker 2: up arms again the following day.
39:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly like our little story last year, remember that, Yeah,
39:48
Speaker 1: the Christmas truth. Actually they partied well into the new year.
39:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did.
39:52
Speaker 1: I wonder if there was missiletoe it would seem appropriate.
39:56
Speaker 1: So what else? It's a source of luck, It is
39:58
Speaker 1: a sexual symbol of virility, and what else do youy Oh?
40:05
Speaker 1: Apparently maidens would place it under their pillow at night
40:08
Speaker 1: like a tooth fairy style, But I don't see what
40:10
Speaker 1: they would get in return.
40:11
Speaker 2: They would get to dream of their prince charming. And also,
40:15
Speaker 2: if you were a maiden, you could burn some missletone
40:17
Speaker 2: and find out how your marriage is going to go.
40:19
Speaker 2: If it burned very steady and long, you were going
40:22
Speaker 2: to have a nice, long, happy life with marriage. And
40:26
Speaker 2: if you if the flames flickered, you might want to
40:31
Speaker 2: work a little extra hard.
40:33
Speaker 4: And that is missletone, Chuck.
40:47
Speaker 2: You've heard of Santa Claus sinsor Claus Crompus, all those guys, right, Yeah.
40:52
Speaker 2: Sat Nicholas is the Dutch version of Santa Claus, and
40:56
Speaker 2: he's not as nice as our American version. In fact,
40:59
Speaker 2: he had a little help for an elf named Black Pete.
41:02
Speaker 2: And Black Pete's job was to accompany I know, Saint
41:06
Speaker 2: Nicholas on his rounds and to keep up with the
41:09
Speaker 2: naughty boys and girls. And when they encountered one of
41:11
Speaker 2: the boys or girls who's naughty, Black Pete would whip them.
41:14
Speaker 2: That's the Dutch Santa Claus.
41:17
Speaker 1: I just yeah, I love it.
41:18
Speaker 2: Well, you found a great story for us about elves
41:21
Speaker 2: that I think we should read word for word because
41:23
Speaker 2: it's just beyond adorable.
41:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is classic. You've heard this before, right.
41:27
Speaker 2: I have, but it's been a very long time.
41:29
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was the same way, and there's been different versions.
41:31
Speaker 1: But this is called The Elves and the Shoemaker from
41:34
Speaker 1: The Brother's Grim and uh. It is our annual Christmas reading.
41:39
Speaker 1: Last year we did Night Before Christmas. Yeah, this year
41:41
Speaker 1: it's the elves and the shoemaker. So without further ado.
41:47
Speaker 2: A shoemaker, by no fault of his own, had become
41:49
Speaker 2: so poor that at last he had nothing left but
41:52
Speaker 2: leather for one pair of shoes. So in the evening
41:55
Speaker 2: he cut out the shoes, which he wished to begin
41:57
Speaker 2: to make the next morning, And as he had a
41:59
Speaker 2: good conscience, he lay down quietly in his bed, commended
42:03
Speaker 2: himself to God, and fell asleep. In the morning, after
42:06
Speaker 2: he had said his prayers and was just going to
42:08
Speaker 2: sit down to work, the two shoes stood quite finished
42:11
Speaker 2: on his table. He was astounded, and he knew not
42:14
Speaker 2: what to say to it. He took the shoes in
42:16
Speaker 2: his hands to observe them closer, and they were so
42:18
Speaker 2: neatly made that there was not one bad stitch in them,
42:21
Speaker 2: just as if they were intended as a masterpiece.
42:24
Speaker 1: Soon after a buyer came in, and as the shoes
42:26
Speaker 1: pleased him so well, he paid more for them than
42:29
Speaker 1: was customary, and with the money the shoemaker was able
42:32
Speaker 1: to purchase leather for two pair of shoes. He cut
42:34
Speaker 1: them out at night, and next morning was about to
42:37
Speaker 1: set work with fresh courage. But he had no need
42:39
Speaker 1: to do so, for when he got up they were
42:41
Speaker 1: already made, and buyers also were not wanting who gave
42:46
Speaker 1: him money enough to buy leather for four pair of shoes.
42:50
Speaker 1: The following morning, too, he found the four pairs made,
42:53
Speaker 1: and so it went on constantly. What he cut out
42:56
Speaker 1: in the evening was finished by the morning, so that
42:58
Speaker 1: he soon had his honest independence again, and at last
43:01
Speaker 1: became a wealthy man.
43:03
Speaker 2: Now it befell that one evening not long before Christmas,
43:06
Speaker 2: when the man had been cutting out, he said to
43:09
Speaker 2: his wife, before going to bed, what think you if
43:12
Speaker 2: we were to stay up tonight and see who it
43:14
Speaker 2: is that is lending us this helping hand. The woman
43:17
Speaker 2: liked the idea and lighted a candle, and then they
43:19
Speaker 2: hid themselves in a corner of the room behind some
43:22
Speaker 2: clothes which were hanging up there, and watched. When it
43:25
Speaker 2: was midnight, two pretty little naked men came sat down
43:28
Speaker 2: by the shoemaker's table, took all the work which was
43:32
Speaker 2: cut out before them, and began to stitch and sew
43:35
Speaker 2: and hammer so skillfully and so quickly with their little
43:38
Speaker 2: fingers that the shoemaker could not turn away his eyes
43:40
Speaker 2: for astonishment. They did not stop until all was done,
43:44
Speaker 2: and stood finished on the table, and then they ran
43:46
Speaker 2: quickly away.
43:47
Speaker 1: Next morning, the woman said, well, I would have said
43:51
Speaker 1: a lot of things, but this is what this lady said.
43:53
Speaker 1: The little men have made us rich, and we really
43:56
Speaker 1: must show that we were grateful for it. They run
43:57
Speaker 1: about so and have nothing on and must be cold.
44:01
Speaker 1: I tell thee what I'll do. I will make them
44:04
Speaker 1: little shirts and coats, and vest and trousers, and both
44:08
Speaker 1: of them a pair of stockings. And do thou too
44:11
Speaker 1: make them two little pairs of shoes. The man said,
44:14
Speaker 1: I shall be very glad to do it. And one night,
44:17
Speaker 1: when everything was ready, they laid their presents all together
44:20
Speaker 1: on the table instead of the cutout work, and then
44:23
Speaker 1: concealed themselves to see how the little men would behave.
44:26
Speaker 1: At midnight, they came bounding in naked and wanted to
44:31
Speaker 1: get to work at once, But as they did not
44:33
Speaker 1: find any leather cut out, but only the pretty little
44:36
Speaker 1: articles of clothing, they were at first astonished, and then
44:39
Speaker 1: they showed intense delight. They dressed themselves with the greatest rapidity,
44:43
Speaker 1: putting pretty clothes on and singing.
44:45
Speaker 2: No, we are boys so fine. To see why should
44:48
Speaker 2: we longer cobblers be. Then they danced and skipped and
44:52
Speaker 2: leapt over chairs and benches. At last they danced out
44:55
Speaker 2: of doors. From that time forth they came no more.
44:59
Speaker 2: But as long as the sh shoemaker lived, all went
45:01
Speaker 2: well with him, and all his undertakings.
45:03
Speaker 1: Prospered, the elves and the shoemaker by their brothers grim.
45:12
Speaker 2: So I guess the moral here is, if you are
45:15
Speaker 2: ever helped by any unclothed elves, clothe them. That's what
45:21
Speaker 2: I got from this one.
45:22
Speaker 1: That's what I got to. So I've got no listener mail.
45:26
Speaker 1: Let's say we should just give our annual glad tidings.
45:30
Speaker 2: I agree, I agree, glad tidings to you all. Happy holidays,
45:34
Speaker 2: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanza. Yeah, have a tiptop.
45:38
Speaker 1: Tent, however you celebrate this time of year, And even
45:41
Speaker 1: if you choose not to, I just hope you're feeling great. Yeah,
45:44
Speaker 1: we'll put Chuck, sure.
45:46
Speaker 2: I wanted to say a very special Merry Christmas to
45:49
Speaker 2: my lovely wife Umi. It's very nice, uh, and to
45:52
Speaker 2: your wife as well, Chuck.
45:53
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks to.
45:54
Speaker 2: All of our families. Merry Christmas, Yes to all of
45:57
Speaker 2: our listeners. Thank you for a very wonderful, wonderful year
46:00
Speaker 2: with you guys, and we look forward to another wonderful
46:03
Speaker 2: year with you as well.
46:03
Speaker 1: Yep, Jerry, do you echo the sentiment?
46:06
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
46:08
Speaker 1: Merry Christmas everyone. For more on this and thousands of
46:16
Speaker 1: other topics, visit HowStuffWorks dot com.