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The Strange History of Antarctic Fruitcake · Ridiculous History

0:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, welcome to the show of Friends and neighbors. Fellow
0:27
Speaker 1: would be Antarctic explorers. My name is Ben. My name
0:31
Speaker 1: is no Ben. Are you a fan of fruitcake? I
0:34
Speaker 1: am a fan of food history, nol and I am
0:37
Speaker 1: a fan of food mysteries. But fruitcake itself, I don't
0:42
Speaker 1: have the same problem with it a lot of people have.
0:45
Speaker 1: I'm just not super you know. I don't lay awake
0:47
Speaker 1: at night dreaming of it. Oh yeah, do you think
0:49
Speaker 1: anyone does? I feel like there's some guy in England.
0:54
Speaker 1: I feel like there's one guy in England. It has
0:56
Speaker 1: such a storied history, the confection itself, but it really
1:00
Speaker 1: has this reputation as just being something you could build
1:03
Speaker 1: a fireplace out of. Did you see Coco, the new
1:07
Speaker 1: Pixar movie. I think we talked about this in a
1:08
Speaker 1: previous episode. I have not, but I do remember the
1:11
Speaker 1: conversation you and I had, particularly about the the opening
1:15
Speaker 1: act for that film. Yes, the much maligned Frozen themed
1:19
Speaker 1: featurette that involved Olaf, the re animated snowman, wandering around
1:26
Speaker 1: the snowy woodland tundra of Aarondel in search of Christmas
1:32
Speaker 1: tradition and one joke that's in search of Christmas tradition. Yeah,
1:37
Speaker 1: he's basically trying to help out on and Elsa and
1:41
Speaker 1: help them find a tradition because they don't have any
1:44
Speaker 1: family Christmas traditions. So the whole short is him wandering
1:48
Speaker 1: around talking to different people in the town about what
1:51
Speaker 1: their Christmas traditions are in song form. But one joke
1:54
Speaker 1: that that I thought kind of landed is there's this
1:57
Speaker 1: fruitcake that is just indestructible, and it it gets burned,
2:01
Speaker 1: it gets you know, run over by a sled, It
2:04
Speaker 1: even gets taken by a hawk and eventually dumped back
2:08
Speaker 1: into the scene. So you know, fruitcake has this reputation
2:11
Speaker 1: as being this bulletproof material, and that is very much
2:16
Speaker 1: the case with today's story. Yes, absolutely, today's story puts
2:21
Speaker 1: a little truth to the stereotype people have about fruitcake.
2:26
Speaker 1: Often considered one of the more lowly desserts of the world,
2:31
Speaker 1: combination of candied fruit, nuts, and spice is often heavy
2:34
Speaker 1: with rum and brandy. It turns out as ridiculous as
2:39
Speaker 1: it might sound, there is some sand to the rumor.
2:42
Speaker 1: A one hundred and six year old fruitcake, still in
2:46
Speaker 1: the original box, was discovered at an outpost in Victoria Land,
2:51
Speaker 1: East Antarctica. That's right. And according to the Antarctic Heritage Trust,
2:57
Speaker 1: which is a nonprofit based in New Zealand that seeks
3:01
Speaker 1: to preserve artifacts and history surrounding Antarctica, and a lot
3:05
Speaker 1: of that, as we talked about in our Who Solves
3:07
Speaker 1: Murders and Antarctica episode, involves researchers and expeditions. So according
3:13
Speaker 1: to the Trust, the cake likely dates back to the
3:17
Speaker 1: Cape a Dare based Northern party of Scott's Terra Nova expedition,
3:24
Speaker 1: which took place between nineteen ten and nineteen thirteen. And
3:27
Speaker 1: that is Robert Falcon Scott. You beat me. That's one
3:31
Speaker 1: of my favorite facts of this place is that guy's
3:33
Speaker 1: middle name is Falcon. Yes, Captain Robert Falcon Scott a
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Speaker 1: British Royal Navy officer. Uh. Famous. We're leading two separate
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Speaker 1: expeditions to the Antarctic area, the Discovery Expedition and then
3:47
Speaker 1: the Terra Nova expedition. Uh. He set a couple of
3:51
Speaker 1: world records in his time exploring, and luckily Antarctic is
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Speaker 1: not a place that is very peopled nor very populated,
4:00
Speaker 1: so it's easier for experts to trace back. Uh. This
4:05
Speaker 1: fruit cakes Providence and you're probably asking yourselves, uh, super
4:10
Speaker 1: producer Casey Pegrom, Noel Ben, how long can we regularly
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Speaker 1: expect a fruit cake to last? The answer is easily
4:18
Speaker 1: three decades and still be eaten. And as Noel said, Uh,
4:23
Speaker 1: this is you know, a lot of the history of
4:24
Speaker 1: Antarctic is based in research. This was found in a
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Speaker 1: research station and the fruitcake was one of about fifteen
4:32
Speaker 1: hundred artifacts discovered in these huts at the Cape Dair Outpost.
4:37
Speaker 1: An interesting point of fact about this research station um
4:41
Speaker 1: is that it was a series of huts and they
4:44
Speaker 1: were actually the first ever built on Antarctica, so they
4:48
Speaker 1: were historical in and of themselves even at the time.
4:50
Speaker 1: They were built in eight by a man named Carston
4:55
Speaker 1: Borsch Grevin who is a Norwegian explorer and then was
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Speaker 1: used for several of Captain Scott's expeditions and also other
5:04
Speaker 1: members of his party. And here's how it went down.
5:07
Speaker 1: Two months after the expedition had launched their endeavor to
5:13
Speaker 1: reach the geographic South Pole, they finally made it. It It
5:17
Speaker 1: took him two months, but they made it just at
5:19
Speaker 1: the very beginning of nineteen twelve January seventeen, and when
5:23
Speaker 1: they got there, they discovered a real, real kick in
5:28
Speaker 1: the pants for explorers. Yeah, they had been beaten by
5:32
Speaker 1: I think it was mere weeks, my right, been by
5:35
Speaker 1: a Norwegian expedition had thirty three days prior to Scott's
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Speaker 1: expedition reaching the pole. Uh. An expedition by a Norwegian operative.
5:45
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm saying, like he's a spy
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Speaker 1: UH named rold Amundson had reached the pole and as
5:52
Speaker 1: an additional complication, and additional and terrible kick in the pants,
5:57
Speaker 1: blizzards delayed the return, and this delay became permanent. Yeah,
6:02
Speaker 1: it's true they did not make it back alive, but
6:05
Speaker 1: they did have some pretty lap of luxury as far
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Speaker 1: as Antarctic expeditions go, moments um prior to that. In
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Speaker 1: these huts that we talked about earlier. There's a fantastic
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Speaker 1: image on an article from How Stuff Works by Lori L.
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Speaker 1: Dove that pictures Scott and his team gathered around a
6:27
Speaker 1: gramophone listening to music, puffing on their pipes. Uh. And
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Speaker 1: then I found an article from the BBC with another
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Speaker 1: image inside where they're gathered around a table with beer
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Speaker 1: and all kinds of different foods and they apparently had
6:42
Speaker 1: access to fresh bread, rhubarb pie, and they would make
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Speaker 1: their own stews and curries a lot of times out
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Speaker 1: of seal meat. That's according to Joseph Coulson Um in
6:54
Speaker 1: the article Scott's Antarctic Diet stewed penguin and champagne. So right,
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Speaker 1: stewed penguin Um. Apparently they used penguin blubber to try
7:05
Speaker 1: to cook with, but they realized that that was a
7:07
Speaker 1: pretty foul tasting cooking oil, so they kind of ditched that.
7:12
Speaker 1: But they would have several courses to their meals, including
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Speaker 1: things like roast beef, turtle soup, and stewed penguin breast
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Speaker 1: in various jellies and crystallized ginger, and they had champagne
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Speaker 1: of flowing. So you know, at least when they were
7:29
Speaker 1: trudging to their death through the frozen wasteland, they could,
7:34
Speaker 1: you know, have some fond memories of them of hanging
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Speaker 1: out and you know, partying down with with penguin meat
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Speaker 1: and champagne. Especially it's such a brutal Antarctic climate. It's
7:44
Speaker 1: it's tough to fathom how important even the smallest luxuries
7:50
Speaker 1: can become. Uh, there's a reason they took fruitcake as
7:54
Speaker 1: well because it has this staying power. And although fruitcake
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Speaker 1: is often a punchline in conversations in here in seventeen,
8:04
Speaker 1: as we record this, oh, at the very end of
8:06
Speaker 1: sen for ages past, fruitcake was both a reliable food
8:12
Speaker 1: stuff and it was itself it seemed to be luxurious.
8:17
Speaker 1: According to an article in the Smithsonian by Jesse Rhodes,
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Speaker 1: ancient Romans made something that was fruitcake esque, a mishmash
8:26
Speaker 1: of barley, pomegranate, seeds, nuts, and raisins, and the descriptions
8:30
Speaker 1: of it all make it sound kind of like an
8:33
Speaker 1: energy bar. Quick backstage peak. Here at the Ridiculous History Office,
8:40
Speaker 1: we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to
8:43
Speaker 1: energy bars, and we're trying different ones. But I gotta say, man,
8:47
Speaker 1: maybe that's why I'm off fruitcake. Maybe an energy bar
8:50
Speaker 1: is too close. The modern fruitcake can be traced back
8:53
Speaker 1: to the Middle Ages because dried fruits became more widely available,
8:57
Speaker 1: and fruited breads in tured Western European cuisine. It's not
9:02
Speaker 1: a fig Newton, it's fruited cake, yes, exactly, exactly, uh,
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Speaker 1: And there are different regional variations of this. But It
9:16
Speaker 1: makes sense when you are thinking from the viewpoint of
9:21
Speaker 1: an expedition, right, you want to bring stuff that you
9:24
Speaker 1: can transport easily so it doesn't weigh much and it's
9:28
Speaker 1: not going to spoil because your only other alternative is
9:31
Speaker 1: going to be catches. Catch can pursuit of the resources
9:35
Speaker 1: in the area, like the penguins. Lizzie Meek, who is
9:39
Speaker 1: the artifacts manager for that Antarctic Heritage Trust UM, says
9:44
Speaker 1: in a statement regarding the the ancient fruit cake that
9:47
Speaker 1: it was ideal for Antarctic conditions because it was high
9:52
Speaker 1: energy and it's actually still a favorite today when people
9:56
Speaker 1: are making these kinds of journeys. And it turns out
9:59
Speaker 1: that the company that manufactured this fruitcake is a company
10:03
Speaker 1: called Huntley and Palmer's, a British um confection maker, and
10:08
Speaker 1: they were very popular and they exported their products all
10:12
Speaker 1: over the world, and the company itself actually boasts that
10:17
Speaker 1: their products have turned up in some of the most
10:20
Speaker 1: unexpected places, and that is no joke. Um. When this
10:25
Speaker 1: fruitcake was discovered, folks from the Trust described it as
10:29
Speaker 1: having a very very slight rancid butter smell, but other
10:35
Speaker 1: than that it was in pretty good shape. Yes, they
10:38
Speaker 1: transported this time capsule fruitcake for lack of a better term,
10:42
Speaker 1: to a lab in christ Church, New Zealand's uh, the
10:46
Speaker 1: lab that was operated by the Canterbury Museum. And the
10:49
Speaker 1: plan is to clean the fruitcakes container, which is a tin,
10:54
Speaker 1: so they want to remove the rust from that, they
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Speaker 1: want to stabilize it chemically, and they want to repair
11:00
Speaker 1: the wax paper covering the cake. And then to me,
11:04
Speaker 1: the weirdest thing is after they restore the fruitcake, they're
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Speaker 1: taking it back to the hut where it was found.
11:12
Speaker 1: And that's because it is considered an Antarctic Specially Protected Area,
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Speaker 1: which I'm imagining does this mean they're recreating those conditions
11:21
Speaker 1: so that you can go check it out sort of
11:23
Speaker 1: like a moment out of time or like going to
11:25
Speaker 1: you know, visit, uh the boyhood home of a president
11:29
Speaker 1: or something like that. Yeah, that's a great question. So
11:31
Speaker 1: especially protected areas start showing up around nineteen sixty four
11:37
Speaker 1: as part of several international agreements, and since its inception, UH,
11:42
Speaker 1: the a t c M has emphasized the need to
11:46
Speaker 1: protect sites or monuments of historic interests. So you're absolutely right,
11:50
Speaker 1: that is one of their primary goals along with you know,
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Speaker 1: environmental protection and conservation. So if we as a group,
12:01
Speaker 1: you me casey, everyone listening, and a mysterious stranger that
12:07
Speaker 1: you'll meet eventually, if all of us high tail it
12:10
Speaker 1: to Antarctica and we build something and hopefully we don't die,
12:14
Speaker 1: if it is deemed of historical significance, these would be
12:17
Speaker 1: the people protecting it exactly. And The New York Times
12:20
Speaker 1: spoke to a guy named Matthew Williams who manages the
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Speaker 1: Reading Museum, which is where this biscuit maker was headquartered.
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Speaker 1: In his headquarter, I believe, and he says this. Modern
12:33
Speaker 1: research has shown that the Polar parties daily ration of
12:36
Speaker 1: forty calories was eight hundred calories short, and their diet
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Speaker 1: was deficient in vitamins as well as energy producing elements.
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Speaker 1: So part of their downfall was that they just kind
12:49
Speaker 1: of did the math wrong as far as what their
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Speaker 1: rations were. And apparently also they focused much more on protein,
12:56
Speaker 1: too much on protein, and less on vitamins, minerals and fats.
13:02
Speaker 1: And this is hugely important. I'm really glad you brought
13:04
Speaker 1: this up, because there's a thing that can occur when
13:10
Speaker 1: you are subsisting off entirely protein and it's something it's
13:15
Speaker 1: called rabbit starvation. That's how I heard of it. But
13:18
Speaker 1: I think the more property aim is protein poisoning. So
13:21
Speaker 1: it is absolutely possible to feel like you're eating an
13:25
Speaker 1: adequate amount of sustenance but slowly undergain yeah, slowly undergoing terrible,
13:34
Speaker 1: terrible medical consequences, which, by the way, this is a
13:38
Speaker 1: dark fact, Noll. But that's one of the reasons I
13:41
Speaker 1: think you and I talked about this on a different show,
13:43
Speaker 1: that cannibalism survival. Cannibalism is such a bad decision because
13:48
Speaker 1: by the time people finally violate that taboo and consume
13:53
Speaker 1: human flesh, they're consuming the flesh of someone who was
13:56
Speaker 1: already starving, and they're only really getting protein, so they
14:00
Speaker 1: us to enter a different stage of starvation. Speaking of
14:03
Speaker 1: fantastic segways, I I don't want to stop on a
14:06
Speaker 1: cannibalism note. I looked into other old foods and I
14:11
Speaker 1: found this great article by Mental Floss, by an author
14:14
Speaker 1: named Teresa O'Neill. And Folks, if you're a fan of
14:18
Speaker 1: our show, then uh, you probably already are aware of
14:21
Speaker 1: Mental Floss. We actually hang out with the founders, who
14:24
Speaker 1: are super cool Will and Mingesh and they have a
14:26
Speaker 1: show called Part Time Genius, which we appeared on. It's
14:30
Speaker 1: true we talked about Ikea furniture. They quizzed us and
14:34
Speaker 1: they were a much more kind, gentle quiz master m
14:40
Speaker 1: than than we're maybe used to. Casey, can we get
14:43
Speaker 1: a little foreshadowing music? Just a little there we go? Yeah, No,
14:48
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right. But first we'll explore a couple of
14:52
Speaker 1: other examples of ancient foods, and I want to see
14:55
Speaker 1: what you think of these. So first wine, right, how
14:59
Speaker 1: old can wine be? Isn't it like the older the
15:02
Speaker 1: better kind of and that's what people seem to say,
15:04
Speaker 1: and sometimes have mishandled it can turn to vinegar, but
15:07
Speaker 1: the people talk about a good year, and some of
15:09
Speaker 1: the ones that aren't like really revered are quite old. Yes,
15:13
Speaker 1: So excavators in Germany found the oldest known wine that
15:18
Speaker 1: is still in the liquid state. It dates back to
15:20
Speaker 1: the Roman era. They found it in a sarcophagus along
15:25
Speaker 1: a bunch of other wine bottles that had dried up,
15:28
Speaker 1: and it's been aging for sixteen hundred years. Jeez, do
15:34
Speaker 1: you think I would get you really really lit or
15:37
Speaker 1: with the alcohol kind of diminish over that longer period.
15:40
Speaker 1: Apparently it's the ladder and the alcoholic content has gone
15:43
Speaker 1: after that long, so there's probably a window of time
15:46
Speaker 1: for good wine. Burnt British bread was discovered that was
15:51
Speaker 1: five thousand five years old, not edible, I'm sure. Um
15:56
Speaker 1: Bone soup, which does sound like something I would try,
16:00
Speaker 1: was discovered having turned green over its two thousand, four
16:04
Speaker 1: hundred years of storage. It's still contained bones, but they
16:10
Speaker 1: did not eat them. This was discovered in China. Soup
16:13
Speaker 1: like broth, the broth evaporated, so they really just found
16:18
Speaker 1: the bones that have been sitting there for a while
16:20
Speaker 1: with a green, gelatinous sludge of some kind. Yes, yes, uh.
16:24
Speaker 1: And then people have also found beef jerky that was
16:29
Speaker 1: buried in Wanly, China. I was hoping so man it had.
16:36
Speaker 1: It was two thousand years old and it was a
16:39
Speaker 1: black and green carbonized mess described by the archaeologist. None
16:43
Speaker 1: of the people are trying to eat this, which is
16:46
Speaker 1: I guess I understand it. But out of all the
16:50
Speaker 1: old foods that you and I found when we're looking
16:53
Speaker 1: into this, the fruitcake is unique because again, despite that
16:57
Speaker 1: very slight rancid taste, it could still be at a well,
17:00
Speaker 1: and one of our questions today is what's your opinion
17:03
Speaker 1: of fruitcake? Do you think that we have been doing
17:05
Speaker 1: a disservice to this noble noble I don't know, to
17:09
Speaker 1: this culinary tradition, you know, ben I, I don't think
17:12
Speaker 1: us spilling any ink over fruitcake is going to really
17:15
Speaker 1: change its legacy. I think it's pretty well entrenched. You
17:20
Speaker 1: don't think we're fruitcake influencers. I don't know, man, I
17:23
Speaker 1: just I just feel like it's it's it's day in
17:26
Speaker 1: court has passed, you know. I feel I feel like,
17:30
Speaker 1: you know, the cultural place of fruitcake is is pretty
17:34
Speaker 1: pretty solidified, and nothing we say or do is going
17:37
Speaker 1: to change that. It's pretty congealed. No, this is not. However,
17:49
Speaker 1: the end of our show, is it? No, it's not.
17:54
Speaker 1: And what is that ominous music? Oh boy, I'm getting nervous.
17:58
Speaker 1: This seems like such a good idea before where it
18:00
Speaker 1: was actually happening. I'm scared. It's time. Jonathan Strickland, that's
18:06
Speaker 1: the Quizster to you, guys. Yeah, yeah, no. Welcome to
18:12
Speaker 1: the most cringe worthy segment in all of our podcasts,
18:16
Speaker 1: across all of our brands. Gentlemen, where did you even
18:19
Speaker 1: come from. Have you actually have been under the table
18:22
Speaker 1: the whole time and been you've been kicking me for
18:24
Speaker 1: the last twelve minutes. I got restless legs. Man, I'm sorry,
18:27
Speaker 1: I noticed. So here's the thing, gentlemen, I have decided
18:32
Speaker 1: that to truly become experts in ridiculous history, I'm going
18:36
Speaker 1: to test you on your knowledge of truth versus fiction.
18:41
Speaker 1: I will present to you occasionally a scenario, and you
18:46
Speaker 1: must decide within the time span of three minutes, man,
18:51
Speaker 1: whether or not the scenario I give you is real
18:55
Speaker 1: or fiction. Now you will be able to talk amongst yourselves.
19:00
Speaker 1: You may even pose questions towards me the quister, should
19:05
Speaker 1: you feel that necessary. May the questions be posed in
19:08
Speaker 1: the form of questions They maybe. But I'm glad you
19:11
Speaker 1: brought this up, Noel, because I think this is far
19:14
Speaker 1: too simple if I just give you a scenario and
19:16
Speaker 1: you just give me an answer. But I respect you, Ben,
19:24
Speaker 1: so i'd like you know. So, I am going to
19:30
Speaker 1: make an arbitrary rule every time I appear on this
19:34
Speaker 1: show that will pertain to that and that time only,
19:40
Speaker 1: So next time I'm here this rule will be totally different.
19:44
Speaker 1: But today the rule is should you wish to pose
19:47
Speaker 1: a question to me, you must preface it with the
19:52
Speaker 1: phrase quister, I have a quick query, followed by your question. Quister,
19:58
Speaker 1: I have a quick query. Quick every I have a
20:00
Speaker 1: quick queer every time you want to ask me a question? Now,
20:04
Speaker 1: do you have a timer ready for three minutes? We do?
20:07
Speaker 1: We do excellent? I like I like that. It's a wow.
20:10
Speaker 1: That's enormous. It is a cartoonishly large time. It takes
20:13
Speaker 1: up an entire wall of the studio. I don't know
20:16
Speaker 1: how I missed it. It's a grandfather timer. I will
20:19
Speaker 1: I will point to you Ben to start it. But
20:22
Speaker 1: I'm going to read out the scenario first, so that
20:24
Speaker 1: way you will have a full three minutes and feel
20:27
Speaker 1: free to answer before the three minutes are up. Should
20:30
Speaker 1: you feel confident and let's alright, here is your scenario
20:33
Speaker 1: for this week. Gerald Jerry Scrivener not only made history
20:39
Speaker 1: but ate it when he mistakenly consumed a ten box
20:42
Speaker 1: filled with one hundred ten year old chocolates which were
20:46
Speaker 1: actually meant to be a museum piece sponsored by the St.
20:50
Speaker 1: Andrew's Preservation Trust. Begin the time, okay, so he ate it,
20:58
Speaker 1: he ate it, but quick quiz quiz master, I have
21:01
Speaker 1: a quick query, close enough, mister whatever did he work
21:06
Speaker 1: at the museum? He did? Okay, so he worked at
21:09
Speaker 1: the museum, says him. Yeah, like he's he's the most
21:14
Speaker 1: unreliable narrator we could possibly have here. Quister, I have
21:17
Speaker 1: a quick query. Yes, are the answers that you give
21:21
Speaker 1: us true? Yes? Wait? I didn't think that out very well,
21:26
Speaker 1: did i? Okay? Um, quister, I have a quick query. Yes.
21:30
Speaker 1: Could you briefly restate that? Certainly? All right? Um? There
21:36
Speaker 1: was this box of chocolates, boxes made out of ten
21:41
Speaker 1: t I n Okay. The chocolates themselves date from well
21:45
Speaker 1: a d ten years to the point where he ate them.
21:48
Speaker 1: The actual box of chocolates was first gifted to someone
21:52
Speaker 1: in nineteen o two, and this museum employee, Jerry Scrivener Gerald,
21:59
Speaker 1: to some mistakenly consumed the chocolates, thinking they were simply
22:04
Speaker 1: chocolates and not realizing they were meant to be put
22:07
Speaker 1: upon display. Okay, I would argue that Jerry Gerald worked
22:11
Speaker 1: at a museum, he would know pretty well whether he
22:15
Speaker 1: was looking at an artifact like an old ancient box
22:18
Speaker 1: of chocolates, or if it was something to be consumed.
22:21
Speaker 1: So I am leaning towards faults. Okay, I think that's
22:24
Speaker 1: a really good point, because you know, you would expect
22:27
Speaker 1: there to be some sort of bar for employment in
22:30
Speaker 1: a museum, you would think, and not a chocolate bar. Uh.
22:33
Speaker 1: But I'm I'm wondering because of the specificity. I'm wondering
22:38
Speaker 1: if it's true. Huh. But Jonathan is a very pedantic
22:42
Speaker 1: quiz master. He's going to, you know, down to the detail,
22:47
Speaker 1: try to trick us every chance he gets. So I
22:50
Speaker 1: I don't know it rings true, but it also I
22:54
Speaker 1: really think Jerry Gerald, you know, if he was worth
22:56
Speaker 1: his salt as a museum employee, would know he was
22:59
Speaker 1: looking at an artifact and not a delicious treat for
23:02
Speaker 1: him to consume. Also, and let's be honest, Jerry Gerald
23:05
Speaker 1: doesn't sound like the most plausible name. Jerry Gerald. Scrivener
23:10
Speaker 1: Gerald is his name, Jerry is what is in air quotes? Okay, man,
23:15
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you we've got thirty seconds. No, you
23:18
Speaker 1: didn't follow the rule those you get an electric shock.
23:21
Speaker 1: Sorry about that. I I was so excited to just
23:24
Speaker 1: follow along with your your amazing journey. Okay, I I
23:30
Speaker 1: feel like it's true. Wow, yeah, we're at it in past.
23:34
Speaker 1: I feel like it's false. Do you want a deathmatch?
23:36
Speaker 1: Rock paper sis? Second? One two three? Shoot? One two
23:42
Speaker 1: three shoots? Okay, first with scissor scissor. That was scissor paper,
23:47
Speaker 1: which means we're going with false. All right, because you
23:49
Speaker 1: said false, you won enough, okay and that's our time. Ah,
23:56
Speaker 1: time is up, gentlemen. Congratulations, The ants is false. Yes.
24:02
Speaker 1: In fact, the St Andrew's Preservation Trust did have a
24:07
Speaker 1: ten year old ten of chocolates. They were gifted from
24:11
Speaker 1: a mother to a daughter. After the mother had received
24:15
Speaker 1: them as a as a gift, upon King Edwards ascension
24:18
Speaker 1: to the throne, handed them over to her daughter. She
24:20
Speaker 1: did the same to her daughter, so on and so
24:22
Speaker 1: forth until they gave it to St Andrew's Preservation Trust.
24:25
Speaker 1: It is in a museum, It is on display. Uneaten
24:30
Speaker 1: Scrivener was a complete fabrication. All right. Hey, I hated
24:35
Speaker 1: that with every being, but I'm I feel good about it.
24:39
Speaker 1: That was a lot of fun. I we did not
24:41
Speaker 1: think it was going to go down to a rock
24:43
Speaker 1: paper scissors death match. I like it because it tells
24:47
Speaker 1: me two things. One, you are both very clever, and too,
24:50
Speaker 1: I'll get you next time. I'll be gone, Ladies, a
24:57
Speaker 1: gentleman our evil quiz mass or Jonathan Stricklands. I can't
25:03
Speaker 1: get some won't open the door, like, oh, I can't
25:06
Speaker 1: open the door from the site. That's true. Well, thank
25:10
Speaker 1: you so much for coming, and Nol, I owe you
25:14
Speaker 1: a personal thanks because we would have We would have
25:17
Speaker 1: gotten that incorrect on our very first time out. And
25:20
Speaker 1: coddenly knows what happens when when you get it wrong.
25:23
Speaker 1: I mean, you got an electric shock just for not
25:25
Speaker 1: following his sinister rules. And it already had jittery legs.
25:30
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a rough afternoon for me. I've developed
25:32
Speaker 1: jittery leg just from this whole thing. It has stressed
25:34
Speaker 1: me out. But we hope you guys found it at
25:36
Speaker 1: least a little bit enjoyable. It really was like there
25:40
Speaker 1: was high anxiety going on there. Yeah, we hope you
25:43
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. Um, this is not the last you have
25:45
Speaker 1: heard of our historical quiz centric arch nemesis. Yeah. I
25:50
Speaker 1: have a feeling he'll probably materialize again. I'm still here.
25:56
Speaker 1: I think he's still here and we are going to
25:59
Speaker 1: head out. We hope you have an excellent end of
26:01
Speaker 1: the year. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.
26:07
Speaker 1: We do not have a my Space, No well, I
26:09
Speaker 1: I I do still floating around out there somewhere you
26:12
Speaker 1: can look at. You can look for it. Noel Brown
26:14
Speaker 1: my space dot com slash Noel Brown. I was one
26:16
Speaker 1: of the first to get like a you know, personalized
26:19
Speaker 1: U R L. Nice. Yeah, I was. I was one
26:22
Speaker 1: of the original verified my spacers. In fact, oh well, hey,
26:26
Speaker 1: I was friends with Tom getting to know you. You
26:30
Speaker 1: wouldn't even mention that this is kind of a Christmas
26:32
Speaker 1: themed episode, um holiday theme? How about that? Because freecake
26:35
Speaker 1: does hold a special place. It's not even Christmas centering.
26:38
Speaker 1: It's just like a weird thing your grandmother gives you
26:40
Speaker 1: whatever her religious is. And if you were a fan
26:43
Speaker 1: of a fruitcake and you have a really amazing fruitcake recipe, uh,
26:47
Speaker 1: send it to me and I'll try to make it
26:49
Speaker 1: and maybe we can all get together here in the
26:52
Speaker 1: office and give it a shop and watch sail Yes, yes,
26:55
Speaker 1: and we will lest sale. And for now we're going
26:57
Speaker 1: to was with sail Away. Save me here. Man. Let's
27:00
Speaker 1: say lo wait, say lo, wait, say lo, way, but
27:04
Speaker 1: send us your fruit kake. Recipes, ridiculous at how stuff
27:06
Speaker 1: works dot com, all the social media stuff that Ben
27:09
Speaker 1: mentioned except Pinterest, and we hope to see you next
27:12
Speaker 1: time on a new episode of Ridiculous History. And happy
27:15
Speaker 1: holidays everyone,