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Damn Good Services · Boozy Banter with Friends

• 0:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hello and welcome to boozy banter with friends.
• 0:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm Leyla,
• 0:22
  Trisha Smith: I'm Trisha.
• 0:23
  Diane Black: I'm Diane,
• 0:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: Grab your favorite spirit and join us because shits about to get real.
• 0:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hello.
• 0:40
  Diane Black: Hello. Cheers
• 0:44
  Trisha Smith: She was trying figured out a good time to take her drink. She's like whoa, oh, oh, oh.
• 0:54
  Diane Black: Okay, hello.
• 0:55
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay.
• 0:55
  Trisha Smith: Hello.
• 0:56
  Leyla Zmeskal: How's everybody doing?
• 0:57
  Diane Black: Great.
• 0:58
  Trisha Smith: I'm good. How you doing?
• 0:59
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm good.
• 1:02
  Diane Black: How you doing?
• 1:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: Good.
• 1:07
  Trisha Smith: Still good.
• 1:08
  Trisha Smith: Still good.
• 1:09
  Trisha Smith: After the third time. Anything new?
• 1:12
  Diane Black: Yes. You did something. Leyla.
• 1:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: What did I do?
• 1:16
  Diane Black: You flew out to the whole opposite end of the continental United States.
• 1:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: I did.
• 1:24
  Diane Black: And?
• 1:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: I ran a race.
• 1:26
  Diane Black: Oh, not just a race,
• 1:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: It was the Ragnar Northwest Passage.
• 1:33
  Diane Black: Yes,
• 1:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: I did that.
• 1:35
  Diane Black: Tell us where, like where it started and finished.
• 1:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: We started up in Blaine, which was right. I mean, as far to the Canadian border as you can get there was a it was a pillar, and it said United States on one side and on the backside of the pillar was Canada. And the race announcer kept stressing, do not step foot into the trench because there's like a ditch. They will detain you.
• 2:08
  Diane Black: Wow.
• 2:09
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, we were, we were right there.
• 2:11
  Trisha Smith: There's actually photos on our Instagram like the day after you ran them we posted some on there. So check them
• 2:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: It was a 200 ish ile relay race, with we had 12 out, it's pretty cool.
• 2:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: eople on our team and it end d in Whidbey Island.
• 2:29
  Trisha Smith: That's where I'm from.
• 2:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: I know,
• 2:32
  Diane Black: It's such a small world,
• 2:33
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 2:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: It was a, was the scenery was beautiful. I saw Orca. I saw a baby Orca. So I was that's one of the things that I was really hoping to see was orcas because it is that time of year and even though it was a little further farther away than I would have cared for. I still knew what was. I had the cold. You know, I had like the first documented a cold since 2019. Wasn't COVID, because I was tested, it wasn't COVID. I was absolutely miserable.
• 3:05
  Diane Black: I think that just shows your strength though to endours such a race under your physical conditions of trying to fight a cold.
• 3:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well there was my estimated time of per mile and my actual time per mile. Were a little different because I was sick.
• 3:26
  Diane Black: But you finished it.
• 3:27
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh wasn't giving up
• 3:29
  Diane Black: No, I know.
• 3:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: There's, there's no way I was I was quitting.
• 3:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm gonna finish it right even if I have to like do the Hondo
• 3:34
  Diane Black: I think that's so amazing. That is so awesome.
• 3:36
  Diane Black: roll across the damn, one of th s the, the the hills Hondo r ll across the finish line. I st ll was gonna do it.
• 3:47
  Leyla Zmeskal: I got a really cool, you know, Ragnar medal. I got lucky this time my mileage wasn't really that I think altogether I had maybe under 12 miles for the whole race.
• 3:58
  Diane Black: Oh is that all?
• 3:58
  Diane Black: That's so cool. I would love to do something like that, you in Tricia?
• 4:03
  Trisha Smith: No way! No funcking way!
• 4:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: We convinced her to do a race what once?
• 4:08
  Diane Black: You can walk it, you can walk it.
• 4:11
  Trisha Smith: Well okay, I've done several 5K's
• 4:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's a good one.
• 4:16
  Trisha Smith: Or 10Ks
• 4:17
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's a good one.
• 4:18
  Trisha Smith: For the bling. My first race I ever, ever did was with Leyla. It was so bad because I didn't train for it. I just was like okay I'll do it didn't realize how fucking far 13.1 miles is.
• 4:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's far,
• 4:43
  Trisha Smith: Leyla did it in like two hours so,
• 4:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's back when I was a runner.
• 4:47
  Trisha Smith: Right
• 4:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: A real runner.
• 4:49
  Trisha Smith: Regardless, I mean it I think it took me four and the whole time,
• 4:55
  Leyla Zmeskal: It didn't take you that long.
• 4:56
  Trisha Smith: It did take me, and the bicycle guys were like and the balloon ladies past us.
• 4:59
  Trisha Smith: They went on their way and then like the bicycle guys are like kept circling around. They're like you can do it but they're really just waiting for me to collapse on the pavement, so they can scoop me up and stick me in the van that's also following me. At some point Jodi's like there's a pregnant lady in front of you, can you please just get past her, please. I mean, I it was miserable for me. But I when I look back, I can only imagine how miserable it was for her.
• 5:40
  Trisha Smith: Because my friends stayed with me the whole time. She did not leave my sorry ass, behind and she is a runner,
• 5:50
  Diane Black: That's a good friend.
• 5:51
  Trisha Smith: Yes! And she walked she would sometimes she would run a little ahead of me so she could go use the bathroom and then I would still not be caught up by the time she was done and she would just be patiently waiting. And so yeah, I finally I look at it as being a good friend to never run with her.
• 6:14
  Diane Black: Congratulations, Leyla.
• 6:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: Thank you.
• 6:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: Alright, so he wants to start?
• 6:20
  Diane Black: So go ahead Leyla.
• 6:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, well, guess what? I'm having three guesses.
• 6:27
  Leyla Zmeskal: You only need one though. City Gates I did for you. This time I'm partaking in the City Gates Maple whiskey. And I'm also mixing it with a little bit of ginger ale. So it's like a ginger maple.
• 6:45
  Diane Black: Yeah,
• 6:45
  Trisha Smith: Nice drink. Yum, yum, yum.
• 6:47
  Diane Black: You can never go wrong with City Gates.
• 6:49
  Leyla Zmeskal: No, I can't.
• 6:51
  Leyla Zmeskal: What about you Trisha?
• 6:52
  Trisha Smith: I am having their new Grapefruit Vodka with a little bit of Sprite.
• 7:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh,
• 7:03
  Trisha Smith: It's tasty. It's a nice summer refreshing kind of drink.
• 7:09
  Trisha Smith: Diane
• 7:10
  Diane Black: Summery drink?
• 7:11
  Trisha Smith: Yeah. Good pool drink.
• 7:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: Summer in your mouth,
• 7:14
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 7:20
  Diane Black: I'm having. I don't know if it's the official name, but it's what I call a Jamaican mule. It's a mixture of the DC brand ginger beer, which is right out of Jamaica. mixed with a little bit of Wray & Nephew rum.
• 7:39
  Leyla Zmeskal: The overproof,
• 7:41
  Diane Black: The overproof,
• 7:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, yes. If you remember our guest episode with Diane with two Ns. She was drinking the overproof Wray & Nephews Rum.
• 7:54
  Diane Black: Right Mrs. Central Florida. Yeah, so yeah, stuff.
• 7:58
  Diane Black: That's what I'm having. Good stuff.
• 8:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: I just like saying overproof like that. I just think it's fun. I like how she said it though. She was like, Yes. It's so effortless.
• 8:13
  Diane Black: The only kind of Jamacians drink when it comes to rum.
• 8:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: Alright, well, today we're going to do something not so completely different. We're gonna tell each other story.
• 8:22
  Trisha Smith: I like that.
• 8:23
  Diane Black: That's my favorite.
• 8:24
  Trisha Smith: I know me too.
• 8:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: I know.
• 8:26
  Diane Black: Tell me a story, mommy.
• 8:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: That just went really weird.
• 8:31
  Diane Black: I am sorry. That's why I said I'm sorry. Tell me a story,
• 8:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: Daddy.
• 8:40
  Diane Black: Even weirder,
• 8:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: And we're...
• 8:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: Moving on.
• 8:45
  Trisha Smith: Quickly, quickly.
• 8:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: So I'm going to tell you guys a story first and I'm going to tell you about a little thing here in Florida.
• 8:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: Florida, it's a Florida, it's a homegrown Florida story.
• 8:57
  Trisha Smith: I like,
• 8:57
  Diane Black: I like those.
• 8:59
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's gonna be called the Coral Castle. Having heard of this?
• 9:05
  Trisha Smith: I think I have.
• 9:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: You've never heard of coral castle?
• 9:09
  Diane Black: I don't think so.
• 9:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: No, you've never heard of it.
• 9:12
  Diane Black: Well, maybe as I hear it.
• 9:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: All right. Well, I'm going to butcher this man's name. So. So the coral castle was built by one man. His name is Edward. Lee Cush. Lin. Li, Coalisland Li kosslyn. lead, lead scholar in lead. scallan,
• 9:33
  Diane Black: Can you spell it?
• 9:36
  Leyla Zmeskal: Leedskalnin.
• 9:36
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, there you go.
• 9:40
  Diane Black: What, what she said,
• 9:41
  Trisha Smith: Yeah.
• 9:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: Leedskalnin, Leedskalnin, um and he built this from a 1923 to 1951. Ed single handedly and secretly carved over 1100 tons of coral rock and his process is mostly unknown. But he created one of the world's most mysterious accomplishments. The coral castle is in South Florida, and it's open daily. And it's now like you know kind of museum.
• 10:12
  Leyla Zmeskal: There's a massive nine ton coral slab door at the entrance to the castle that is so perfectly engineered that it can be swung open with just the slightest push of your pinky finger.
• 10:24
  Trisha Smith: Wow,
• 10:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: The entire castle looks like a combination of a fortress and an ancient temple constructed of huge coral blocks, some of which exceeding five tons. So Ed built this castle, and everything in it all by himself over 26 years using tools he made from scavenged junkyard parts.
• 10:47
  Trisha Smith: Wow,
• 10:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: I know. He only worked after the sun went down, refusing to allow anyone to see how he shaped moved and placed these enormous blocks. An Ed by himself was not a big man either. They say he stood about five foot tall and weighed all of a buck. 10
• 11:09
  Diane Black: Wow.
• 11:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: 110 pounds. You know, it was a it was a little
• 11:10
  Trisha Smith: Wow! man. He was a wee little man. No one knows why he built the castle, the oficial there's two stories official and of course, the unofficial. The official story is that he was rejected by his young sweetheart. When his beloved Beloved, Agnes Scuffs refused to marry him, he started building the castle as a tribute to her and the life they may have had together. So the unofficial story, as told by Ed is that the castle was built as a temple to the Egyptian gods constructed using the same techniques as the ancient Egyptians used to build the pyramids.
• 11:59
  Trisha Smith: I was gonna say that, not that exactly, but I was gonna say, I think he's like an alien.
• 12:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh!
• 12:08
  Trisha Smith: Like they always say like the the pyramids were really built by
• 12:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: Aliens
• 12:13
  Trisha Smith: Alien technology.
• 12:13
  Trisha Smith: Because,
• 12:15
  Diane Black: Yes,
• 12:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: How can they do that?
• 12:17
  Trisha Smith: Right? So fast? I mean, I, you know, we've all seen 10 commandments, but I also feel like there is, there's got to be something that it's just so massive. So yeah, I was gonna say he's an alien.
• 12:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well that's funny that you say that. But if you visit the castle, you can decide for yourself like if it's, you know, a tribute to his true love or if it's actually a tribute to the Egyptian gods. There are beds made out of this coral, a heart shaped table, and rocking chairs. However, they are far less carefully crafted than the castles, shrines. occults shrines they have like a cult things and also planetary symbols and astronomical observatory. One of the centerpieces of the complex is a 30 ton lensless telescope that soars 25 feet above the castle walls.
• 13:19
  Trisha Smith: So how did he get it up there?
• 13:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: No one knows. He didn't share.
• 13:24
  Diane Black: Ancient Aliens must have done an episode on this. I have to check.
• 13:28
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm pretty sure because this the stuff that he's done is pretty amazing. The telescope is perfectly aligned with the North Star. And on the first day of winter, sunlight pours directly through the scopes aperture.
• 13:44
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 13:45
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like it's crazy.
• 13:45
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like what this man did. He also created a sundial that is accurate within two minutes.
• 13:52
  Leyla Zmeskal: Wow. Like, How weird is that?
• 13:52
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, like this is back in, you know, the 30s to the 50s. Like he did all this by himself at night.
• 14:02
  Diane Black: That's crazy.
• 14:03
  Trisha Smith: And he did it at night, so no one would see the aliens helping him.
• 14:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: No one would see anything.
• 14:08
  Trisha Smith: I think.
• 14:09
  Leyla Zmeskal: Across from the clock is a water pool call
• 14:09
  Diane Black: Yeah, carved out from a huge slab of coral with Crescent moons on each side of the basin. The crescents represent the waxing and the waning of the lunar cycles. And the circular pool itself represents the full moon.
• 14:26
  Diane Black: In 1936 was the only time that Ed asked for help. And that was because he needed help to to move the whole Castle 10 miles up the road. So the castle was originally built in like Florida city.
• 14:47
  Trisha Smith: Okay,
• 14:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: And then I guess the developers came in and started you know, buying up land so he moved it 10 miles down the road. He dismantled his entire castle and placed it and place the blocks on makeshift flatbed truck chasses, which was then pulled to the new site by a tractor that he hired. The driver was never allowed to help or even watch Ed move the blocks. The driver would show up every morning to find the truck was already loaded with several tons of coral.
• 15:21
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 15:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: No one knows exactly how he built it, Ed died in 1951 of stomach cancer.
• 15:27
  Leyla Zmeskal: Before he died. If anybody asked how we did it, he would simply say he understood the laws of weight and leverage. Well. He also stated that he had discovered Secrets of the pyramids. He did write a series of pamphlets on his experiments and magnetic forces and electricity which can be found in the gift shop. So like copies of his pamphlets are for sale.
• 15:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: One thing is for certain for someone only having a fourth grade education.
• 16:00
  Diane Black: Wow,
• 16:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: He was an outstanding engineer.
• 16:04
  Diane Black: He was a he was more than likely a genius.
• 16:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, yeah, I would. I would say that he was pretty much a genius. The castle has what has withstood Hurricane Andrew, and was completely unaffected by the storm.
• 16:19
  Diane Black: Wow.
• 16:19
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 16:20
  Leyla Zmeskal: Much of the area of the surrounding area of course, as we know about Hurricane Andrew.
• 16:24
  Diane Black: Yes,
• 16:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: Was devastated.
• 16:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: Recently, the most recent thing about the castle from what I read is that a huge gate, the huge gate became stuck open. And a crew of workers struggle for almost two days to remove and reset the gate with a winch and crane. How crazy is that? That he managed to do all this by himself which is,
• 16:47
  Trisha Smith: But to are having a hard time today, right?
• 16:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 16:51
  Diane Black: It's Yeah, it's hard to wrap your head around that.
• 16:55
  Leyla Zmeskal: Building the castle himself is not the only weird thing that takes place. As you can imagine, Trisha, it is said that the castle is a pitstop for UFOs.
• 17:09
  Trisha Smith: I believe it,
• 17:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: And the throne is really a representation of the seats used by alien pilots to control their ships.
• 17:19
  Trisha Smith: Well, you know, because they got their pyramids excavated. You know, with the modern modern times they needed a new place to land...Aliens!
• 17:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: So not only do aliens are said to inhabit the place, there's a lot of weird stuff that said to happen there.
• 17:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: Ghosts are also said to be roaming the grounds. Some say that at night, you could see by the tree lines, fireballs, during the day cameras would fritz out and sometimes people would catch a figure when there was none. The staff would also reports of shrieks and screams coming from certain spots in the castle and the most recognized phantoms recognizable phantoms is that of Ed. It is said that he could be seen before dawn taking measurements and looking over his kingdom.
• 18:07
  Diane Black: Wow.
• 18:08
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah. And you would think that would be enough.
• 18:11
  Diane Black: Yeah,
• 18:12
  Leyla Zmeskal: it's no,
• 18:12
  Diane Black: No.
• 18:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: Before the area around the castle became develop. It was said that the castle attracted a lot of wildlife. It said that Panthers and alligators and all kinds of animals would flock to the castle before everything around it got developed. It's even said that the Florida Skunk Ape used to inhabit the area around the castle.
• 18:38
  Diane Black: Skunk Ape?
• 18:39
  Leyla Zmeskal: The Florida Skunk Ape. Which is also,
• 18:40
  Diane Black: You wanna elaborate what the Skunk Ape is for those
• 18:42
  Trisha Smith: Bigfoot,
• 18:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: It would be basically the Florida version of it.
• 18:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: Do you think that would be enough?
• 18:47
  Diane Black: Yeah,
• 18:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: No, that's not.
• 18:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: Some say the castle has strange elf like creatures prowling the massive structures. On certain nights people swear they hear the chattering of the Fae around the castle grounds.
• 19:03
  Diane Black: The Fae.
• 19:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: Some visitors from Northern Europe would comment to the staff that there's a fairy infestation at the castle and even there's a fairy road.
• 19:15
  Trisha Smith: Wow
• 19:16
  Diane Black: Shut up.
• 19:17
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's what that is. Well, some Northerners say from Europe,
• 19:20
  Diane Black: They would know.
• 19:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, you want to know one Fun fact that I found by the castle. Billy Idol wrote a song about the Castle called, Sweet 16, about Leedskalnin and the castle and the beginning of the music video is a picture of Ed standing in front of the coral castle.
• 19:37
  Diane Black: Really?
• 19:38
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, there it is. That's the picture that's in the the video of Billy Idol.
• 19:44
  Leyla Zmeskal: Sweet 16. That sounds like some of the lyrics. Some of the lyrics are kind of about like the official story of why Ed built this castle, but there is said to be a lot of like weirdness, in there, it said people feel very energized when they're inside the castle because of all the supposed energies and energy lines in there and the most people himself like he had to have found a way to harness some kind of magnetic pole or energy to be able to move these huge slabs that way tons of coral and place them perfectly, seamlessly.
• 20:28
  Leyla Zmeskal: Almost they said, I've never been to the coral castle, but I've heard about it a while ago, and I always thought it'd be something kind of fun to go and see on how he did it. And then not only to build it, but then move it 10 miles up the road by himself with only tools.
• 20:49
  Diane Black: Where is this?
• 20:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like? It's in South Florida. It's an homestead.
• 20:54
  Trisha Smith: So yeah, I had to Google the and see some pictures of it to like get an idea of you know, what you were talking about? And it's it's massive.
• 21:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: Its massive and I mean, huge stone slopes coral slabs and you know, he's got.
• 21:09
  Diane Black: How could he have done that by itself?
• 21:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: Within a relatively if you think of the timespan that he was been working on at 26 years that's a relatively short time to build something like this for just one person really interesting though really, really interesting.
• 21:25
  Diane Black: It reminds me of the Puma Punku which is in,
• 21:30
  Trisha Smith: Bolivia
• 21:31
  Diane Black: Yeah, Pumapunku, they have this massive concrete construction. That is just like that so meticulously built and the age of it I mean, archaeologists say it can be 10,000 years old. How do you explain that?
• 21:51
  Leyla Zmeskal: How do you I mean, some of the things you can see that there's lots of pictures if you just Google coral castle, there are ton of pictures and knowing that this one man did this all himself with just tools that he fashioned from a junkyard is just mind blowing.
• 22:09
  Diane Black: It really is.
• 22:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: Mind blowing.
• 22:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, it's really interesting stuff and all you know like the cryptids and the Fae and the ghost and the aliens are all said to be kind of attracted to the place. I wonder if that has something to do with all the the energies.
• 22:27
  Diane Black: I think so.
• 22:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: How can one man do it?
• 22:30
  Diane Black: Yeah,
• 22:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: I think that's a lot of people's questions still to this day. He was obviously a genius to be able to figure out how to do this on his own.
• 22:42
  Diane Black: Yeah, but to move it I mean, how do you it's,
• 22:45
  Leyla Zmeskal: I think one of the things I said he built like a tripod out of a tree.
• 22:51
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 22:51
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like he, he knew just knew weight and leverage and, and energies and one thing that I read that he was sick when he was younger, and he had cured himself through magnets
• 23:03
  Diane Black: Wow.
• 23:04
  Leyla Zmeskal: I so, obviously he was a very smart man for having like a legit fourth grade education right able to you know, educate himself on all these other,
• 23:15
  Diane Black: Questionably have,
• 23:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: Questionably, I mean, it says that there's you know, in that area of South Florida, aliens supposed alien sightings all the time.
• 23:27
  Trisha Smith: Wow,
• 23:28
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like a pitstop.
• 23:29
  Trisha Smith: That's cool.
• 23:30
  Diane Black: That would be cool to visit.
• 23:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Let's go by the coral castle.
• 23:33
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, right.
• 23:34
  Diane Black: I totally into visiting that.
• 23:36
  Leyla Zmeskal: I would , I would like to visit the coral castle.
• 23:38
  Leyla Zmeskal: I think that'd be a lot of fun just to kind of see and it just go holy crap. How did this guy actually do that? Because you're you see pictures but standing there is obviously a completely different thing,
• 23:49
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 23:49
  Diane Black: Yeah,
• 23:50
  Trisha Smith: Good one.
• 23:51
  Leyla Zmeskal: Thank you.
• 23:51
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, like that.
• 23:51
  Trisha Smith: Something I think we're gonna have to road trip and check out.
• 23:58
  Leyla Zmeskal: I do too.
• 23:59
  Trisha Smith: Yeah.
• 23:59
  Diane Black: Maggie agrees.
• 24:00
  Trisha Smith: Yeah. she likes that idea.
• 24:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: Coral castle.
• 24:03
  Trisha Smith: Yep,
• 24:04
  Leyla Zmeskal: South Florida.
• 24:06
  Fireside Phantoms: Hi, I'm Carol. And I'm Holly, and we are the hosts of fireside phantoms.
• 24:09
  Fireside Phantoms: On our podcast, we will delight in telling you stories of the strange twisted dark and foreboding. creepy crawly things slinking up your leg, ghostly hands reaching out from beyond the grave, and we will ask hard hitting questions like can Slender Man fit into my skinny jeans?
• 24:29
  Fireside Phantoms: Who is wrinkles the clown? And how can you make your child's next birthday party special?
• 24:35
  Fireside Phantoms: Why shouldn't we invite the black eyed kids in what really is going on at your creepy neighbor's house? And is it okay to peek inside? and many, many more. So join us in our forest friends as we gather around a warm and crackling campfire.
• 24:50
  Fireside Phantoms: This is fireside phantoms.
• 25:02
  Diane Black: So I have just a short story to share today.
• 25:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: Share it,
• 25:05
  Diane Black: And it's about the most famous dead guy.
• 25:14
  Leyla Zmeskal: What?
• 25:15
  Diane Black: Yeah, you remember a couple episodes back. I was so curious about the paranormal activities and still stories at an Ohio, right? Because we have so we have a lot of listeners from Ohio. And one of the stories that I found was about this most famous dead guy, and he is from Sabina, Ohio.
• 25:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay,
• 25:42
  Trisha Smith: Okay,
• 25:42
  Diane Black: Ready?
• 25:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: Ready.
• 25:44
  Diane Black: Okay, so story is, on June 9 1929, 91 years ago, the body of middle aged black man was discovered in a ditch.
• 25:58
  Diane Black: It was a long the Wilmington pike in Sabina, it seemed that he had died of natural causes.
• 26:04
  Diane Black: The papers found this body led the police to a vacant lot in Cincinnati. So, Cincinnati is only about an hour away from Sabina even more mysterious was the police talking to residents of the neighborhood asking like, does anybody know him? We have this guy, does he belong to you?
• 26:37
  Diane Black: And nobody knew of him. No one seemed to recognize him. Or remember the man once they were given a description. So he seemed to just kind of show up, and nobody knew of him. And when the police came back to Sabina, they decided to give the body a name. And they named him, Eugene. And the reason why they went with the name of Eugene was he was named for the last person they spoke to in the Cincinnati neighborhood. I don't know.
• 27:13
  Diane Black: doesn't make any sense to me.
• 27:13
  Diane Black: But that's what they decided.
• 27:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay.
• 27:17
  Diane Black: So Eugene was embalmed at that point. And he was put up at the Littleton funeral home, literally put up like,
• 27:27
  Leyla Zmeskal: Displayed.
• 27:28
  Diane Black: Displayed. Yeah.
• 27:28
  Diane Black: waiting to be claimed. This wait was much longer than expected.
• 27:33
  Diane Black: He was kept at the funeral home for over 30 years.
• 27:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, wow.
• 27:42
  Diane Black: So somewhere along the line, someone thought it would be a good idea to give him a new suit, prop him up in the window, and maybe somebody would recognize him. But as the years went on, nobody recognized him.
• 27:55
  Diane Black: Nobody claimed him as a family member. So he became quite a dead character around Sabina. He literally became like a character, he was like a sideshow act, so he would sometimes be used as a Halloween prop.
• 28:20
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, my gosh.
• 28:23
  Diane Black: And he would be put on people's front porches?
• 28:28
  Leyla Zmeskal: No,
• 28:29
  Diane Black: Yeah, to scare trick or treaters,
• 28:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Can I borrow Eugene for this Halloween season?
• 28:35
  Diane Black: And sometimes local college students would take him for a drive or bring him to a frat party.
• 28:45
  Trisha Smith: Weekend to Bernie's.
• 28:49
  Leyla Zmeskal: He was the original.
• 28:51
  Trisha Smith: That's what they got.
• 28:52
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's where they got the movie from.
• 28:54
  Diane Black: Probably.
• 28:55
  Trisha Smith: That is just so disrespectful. They're just no other words. And the man was probably a transient from some other part of the country and was never gonna be identified.
• 29:07
  Trisha Smith: And they were just using him as an excuse to have a prop.
• 29:11
  Diane Black: Right? 100 percent, but his body was remarkably preserved. Although, over the years, he began to like lose a finger, here and there, but his serene composure, never left his face. It is said that he always had a expression of like content on his face.
• 29:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: I mean, he was traveling, he was he got to travel in life and he was traveling in death.
• 29:49
  Trisha Smith: I take that back.
• 29:49
  Trisha Smith: He wasn't used as a prop. He was used as a, an ad for the mortuary because they seem like they do some damn good services.
• 29:56
  Trisha Smith: I want to look like this 30 years make it happen.
• 30:04
  Leyla Zmeskal: We're goona be in the ground. I don't care what I look like,
• 30:08
  Trisha Smith: If somebody digs me up, I want to look pristine.
• 30:15
  Diane Black: I wanna look content,
• 30:16
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 30:17
  Diane Black: Yes,
• 30:18
  Trisha Smith: Whoever did their job did it correctly sounds like.
• 30:23
  Diane Black: And in 1963, the Littleton funeral home decided it was time to lay Eugene to rest, finally, right.
• 30:34
  Trisha Smith: About damn time, what 30 years?
• 30:37
  Diane Black: And bury they they buried him in Sabines. He was known as the most famous dead guy of Sabine. So they did bury him and the Sabine cemetery was a rather odd inscription on his marker, it simply said, found dead 1928 although it was actually 1929 buried 1964
• 31:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's it.
• 31:08
  Diane Black: That's it.
• 31:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: It should have also said was one of the coolest Halloween props ever. At the life of the party.
• 31:20
  Diane Black: Life of the party, yes,
• 31:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: You know, made his rounds to all the frat houses.
• 31:26
  Diane Black: Someone you could count on.
• 31:28
  Leyla Zmeskal: Someone you can lean upon.
• 31:33
  Diane Black: Yes,
• 31:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: Never talked back.
• 31:37
  Trisha Smith: Right,
• 31:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: Always looked damn serene.
• 31:40
  Diane Black: He was always happy. He was always happy Eugene. He was displayed throughout the town of Sabine, Ohio for more than 36 years. I did extensive research to try to find more information like to me with what we have nowadays. Yes.
• 32:03
  Diane Black: There's a picture of Eugene.
• 32:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: Trisha just pulled up the picture of Eugene.
• 32:06
  Diane Black: Yes.
• 32:07
  Trisha Smith: Doesn't look serene, he looks dead.
• 32:10
  Diane Black: He's very content.
• 32:10
  Diane Black: If you look at his face, I think with all the advances that we have in DNA testing, why hasn't anybody run his DNA?
• 32:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: Because he's already buried now he was buried in 60 something.
• 32:24
  Diane Black: Right, but we can egg eggs 1964. But we can exhume or I wouldn't be surprised If they don't have something. He belongs to somebody.
• 32:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: You know what, Eugene has been around enough.
• 32:38
  Leyla Zmeskal: Let's leave him where he lays.
• 32:39
  Diane Black: I did find stories where some people said, you know, he was homeless. And he showed up looking for work. And he had spoken to several towns people asking for, for jobs and for work. And that's all they knew of him is that he he had shown up so we don't know where he came from. But he belonged to somebody. And it just surprised me that with today's technology and DNA that they can't fucking run some DNA test to find out who he is and who he belongs to.
• 33:15
  Diane Black: There may have been a missing persons report.
• 33:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well, that was somethin.
• 33:23
  Trisha Smith: Interesting.
• 33:24
  Diane Black: It is very interesting. But I mean it's kind of weird right? for 36 years you, you literally like.
• 33:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's weird.
• 33:31
  Trisha Smith: I mean.
• 33:31
  Diane Black: A dead guy, Ima prop him up in my window. You want to baorrow him for a party?
• 33:34
  Diane Black: Sure. Go ahead. Just bring them back tomorrow.
• 33:39
  Trisha Smith: Even
• 33:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: Show us some ticks on life,
• 33:43
  Trisha Smith: Even if he was embalmed he would say you keep should still have started to deteriorate.
• 33:49
  Diane Black: They said he lost a few fingers.
• 33:51
  Trisha Smith: Yeah but I mean, he wasn't kept in a an environment and looking in the window. Like mummified his skin, like his skin should have started to,
• 34:04
  Leyla Zmeskal: Break down.
• 34:05
  Trisha Smith: That's no no, nope.
• 34:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah.
• 34:08
  Trisha Smith: Whoever did that.
• 34:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: We're gonna make a Eugene for your next Halloween party.
• 34:13
  Diane Black: I did find he also has a Facebook page.
• 34:17
  Trisha Smith: Oh my,
• 34:17
  Leyla Zmeskal: Shut the front door.
• 34:19
  Diane Black: I, I, he does, clearly somebody set it up for him.
• 34:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: Clearly,
• 34:25
  Diane Black: Yeah, people have put like photos that they had taken. Must have been before 64
• 34:35
  Trisha Smith: Of him in the window?
• 34:36
  Diane Black: Yeah.
• 34:37
  Trisha Smith: Oh my god.
• 34:38
  Diane Black: But or comments have I looked to see like if there had been any paranormal like hauntings of people saying oh my god, you know, that's Eugene visiting me. I didn't find anything along those lines.
• 34:51
  Diane Black: But he has a Facebook page.
• 34:56
  Leyla Zmeskal: Wow,
• 34:56
  Trisha Smith: That's insane.
• 34:57
  Diane Black: Yeah, the most famous dead guy in Sabine.
• 35:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: Wow, has a Facebook page.
• 35:03
  Diane Black: Yeah.
• 35:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: Wow, that's crazy.
• 35:04
  Diane Black: And people post on it.
• 35:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: Damn.
• 35:07
  Diane Black: Yeah. So there you go.
• 35:08
  Leyla Zmeskal: All right.
• 35:09
  Trisha Smith: Sounds like people are visiting his grave. That's,
• 35:12
  Diane Black: Yeah,
• 35:12
  Trisha Smith: That's good.
• 35:13
  Diane Black: Something,
• 35:14
  Trisha Smith: I guess.
• 35:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: All right. That's it. That's a good one.
• 35:18
  Trisha Smith: That's good and weird.
• 35:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's weird.
• 35:20
  Diane Black: Weird US, oh that.
• 35:20
  Diane Black: Oh yes, my resource Weird US.
• 35:29
  Trisha Smith: Yeah. Wow,
• 35:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay. alright. If like that story, rate and comment and so you know rating comment give us a rating, give us a review.
• 35:42
  Diane Black: Please.
• 35:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: On your favorite podcast platform, we would really appreciate that. Let us know what you think of the Eugene. Famous dead guy.
• 35:55
  Diane Black: Eugene the mummy.
• 35:57
  Trisha Smith: That, are that, story made me need to drink, ima going to refill my glass.
• 36:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm ready.
• 36:06
  Trisha Smith: All right,
• 36:07
  Diane Black: Let's do it.
• 36:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: Thanks, and uh.
• 36:09
  Diane Black: Until next time,
• 36:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: Cheers.
• 36:10
  Trisha Smith: Cheers.
• 36:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hey, like what you hear.
• 36:13
  Diane Black: Check us out on Instagram.
• 36:15
  Trisha Smith: Or send us a message at boozy banter with friends.com.
• 36:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: Thanks for listening.
• 36:19
  Trisha Smith: Until next time,
• 36:21
  Diane Black: Late-a