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Did Soldiers in World War I Really Team Up to Fight Wolves? · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
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Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you as always
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Speaker 1: so much fortuning in. That's Mr Max Williams on the
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Speaker 1: audio ones and twos. Here they called me ben uh Noel.
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Speaker 1: Have you ever met a wolf? From that one? I
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Speaker 1: didn't like, Buddy, here we go. I like that positive vibe. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I um, I've I've been lucky enough to encounter wolves
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Speaker 1: in uh non aggressive way. I've also met some wolf dogs,
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Speaker 1: which are you know, a combination of some percentage wolf
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Speaker 1: some percentage dog. Max, you ever had a run in
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Speaker 1: with a wolf? I have not had to run in
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Speaker 1: with a wolf before. I would be Yeah, I'm trying
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Speaker 1: to think now. I can't think of a single time
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Speaker 1: I would be absolutely terrified. You know, I prefer the
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Speaker 1: felines over the canines. But at this always wondering why
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Speaker 1: they call you Max the wolf Williams. Then where'd that
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Speaker 1: come from? I think, you know, I don't know, especially
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Speaker 1: because that's like the first time I've ever heard that. Um,
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Speaker 1: you know, I don't know. Surely you jest, Max, surely
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Speaker 1: you jest. I we also had here in Atlanta. I
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Speaker 1: don't know whether you guys remember, but we had a
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Speaker 1: furniture tycoon, local furniture tycoon named the Wolf Band and
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Speaker 1: he was his commercials were also was a hollerin who
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Speaker 1: was always beefing with a lady named Donna. So congratulations
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Speaker 1: to the to the five people who will get that reference.
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Speaker 1: Oh more than five people are gonna get that one
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Speaker 1: people know that reference. He I didn't grow up around here,
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Speaker 1: so I did not see these surely delightful local television commercials.
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Speaker 1: And where I grew up there was a place. There
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Speaker 1: was a place called Master Fabricators. It was like like
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Speaker 1: a garage shop, but they had like a song. It
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Speaker 1: was like you always get the chaft, the drive chaft
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Speaker 1: and Master Fabricators. Nice. That's that's all I have to
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Speaker 1: say about them. There we go, well, uh, there's there're spokes.
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Speaker 1: Creature was a monkey nice. Well you know, I know
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Speaker 1: some of our Atlanta crew are going to be a
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Speaker 1: bit disappointed that this episode is not about the wolf
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Speaker 1: Man and Donna, But it is about wolves because even like,
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Speaker 1: think of the people that you have had your differences with, um,
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Speaker 1: whether they're family members, whether they're you know, friends from
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Speaker 1: college or high school, what have you? The fact of
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Speaker 1: the matter is that when people's lives are on the line,
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Speaker 1: humans are pretty good at putting their differences aside temporarily too,
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Speaker 1: in the interest of mutual survival. Right, So this is
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Speaker 1: where our story takes place. I first ran into this
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Speaker 1: idea in the world of graphic novels and comic books
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Speaker 1: and short stories, and then later films. Uh, it's it's
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Speaker 1: a trope almost now. It's the idea that during World
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Speaker 1: War either one or two, the legend goes opposing sides
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Speaker 1: of the conflict in a remote part of Europe actually
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Speaker 1: teamed up to protect themselves from wild animals, and it's
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Speaker 1: now often called the Wolf Truce. Today's question, No, I
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Speaker 1: think we're going to have to figure this out. Did
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Speaker 1: it really happen? Like have you have you seen those
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Speaker 1: movies where they you know, they depict stuff like this
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Speaker 1: or the stories. No, not not so much war related.
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Speaker 1: I mean, obviously we've talked about the brotherhood of the
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Speaker 1: wolf in the past, like the Beast of right, I
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Speaker 1: think we did that one on this show, um, where
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Speaker 1: there was a mysterious beast on the loose killing you know,
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Speaker 1: regular civilians and uh folks had to kind of band
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Speaker 1: together to do something about it. But uh, this does
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Speaker 1: seem like excellent fodder for some some fiction. It's also
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Speaker 1: very appropriate considering the situation we find ourselves in now
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Speaker 1: geo politically, where Russia is concerned. So let's travel back.
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Speaker 1: I don't think there's any wolves in the mix yet,
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Speaker 1: but you know, it's it's an ongoing, developing story. There
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Speaker 1: were more wolves back then, but humans have never really
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Speaker 1: needed the help of other species to harm each other sadly.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, so I like that comparison though. So let's
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Speaker 1: travel back to the winter of nineteen seventeen, not necessarily
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Speaker 1: the Winter of our Discontent, but I think they were
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Speaker 1: probably some pretty discontented people, yes, wandering around. Yeah, yeah,
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Speaker 1: this is World War One. If you're a Russian, you're
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Speaker 1: probably fighting some Germans. Your German, you're probably fighting some Russians. Uh,
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Speaker 1: And you have all the worries of a typical war, right,
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Speaker 1: people are shooting at you, people are trying to kill you.
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Speaker 1: But then also you have a bunch of diseases that
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Speaker 1: you could get in the brutal weather. It's easy to
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Speaker 1: get frostbite, sniper fire is a thing, artillery, and then
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Speaker 1: also wolves because it's nine. So on top of everything wolves. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: not to mention trench foot. That sounds that sounds tough.
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Speaker 1: Trench foot, yes, it was. It just trench mouth a
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Speaker 1: thing too, was Are they related or they I don't know,
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Speaker 1: I think they are, But trench foot was definitely like,
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Speaker 1: uh like a sort of ganger in a situation. Do
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Speaker 1: you get as a result of wallowing around in the
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Speaker 1: muck and the mire of trench warfare, leaving your feet
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Speaker 1: in water or in the wet for long long periods
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Speaker 1: of time. I suppose you could get trench hand too,
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Speaker 1: if you just didn't move your hand. I don't know.
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Trench mouth was just basically a really gnarly
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Speaker 1: form of gingevitis that was also caused by life in
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Speaker 1: the overly moist and monkey trenches. I like the idea
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Speaker 1: of of theoretically everybody part possibly being affected with this,
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Speaker 1: Like you could get trench ere, someone could get trench elbow.
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Speaker 1: What we're saying is war is a nasty thing, and
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Speaker 1: these people were in really nasty, brutal conditions and they
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Speaker 1: were shooting into each other. So the First World War
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Speaker 1: was one of the most uh widespread, really conflicts in
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Speaker 1: the history of humanity because you had mass transportation, you
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Speaker 1: had multiple conflicting alliances in the patchwork of European countries,
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Speaker 1: and this would mean that millions of people joined the fray,
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Speaker 1: like millions of soldiers yea. And millions of people died
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Speaker 1: in the Fray, including seven to twelve million civilians. On
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Speaker 1: about fifty five million people sustained serious injuries. Because of
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Speaker 1: the First World War, several empires essentially vanished, UH. The Russian, German,
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Speaker 1: Austro Hungarian, Ottoman empires for all intents and purposes ceased
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Speaker 1: to exist uh. And this war was also a major
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Speaker 1: tipping point for a number of other revolutions. One of
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Speaker 1: these revolutions seemed to take place in the the Animal Kingdom.
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Speaker 1: The wolves, it seemed, were restless and we're on the move. Yeah, yeah,
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Speaker 1: because this does occur in the natural world, right, so
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Speaker 1: ecology is affected as well. We're specifically looking at the
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Speaker 1: Eastern Fronts, which is an area extending from the Black
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Speaker 1: Sea in the south all the way to the Baltic
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Speaker 1: Sea in the north. This here's what happened. So war
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Speaker 1: is like a great whale passing through water, a great
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Speaker 1: and terrible leviathan. It leaves ripples, it leaves things in
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Speaker 1: its wake, and in this case it also war left
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Speaker 1: a lot of corpses, and you see scavengers of all types,
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Speaker 1: human and non human, coming to see what they can
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Speaker 1: get from these battle fields. So you will have let's
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Speaker 1: be clear, there were humans robbing dead bodies. That's part
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Speaker 1: of it, and it's gruesome, but it really happens. But
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Speaker 1: then there were animal scavengers, carrion eaters, and wolves who
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Speaker 1: got forced from the Eastern Front. Most wolves don't want
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Speaker 1: to mess with you. They're not interested in you. You know,
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Speaker 1: most wild animals don't really want to hang out with you.
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Speaker 1: And if they do want to hang out with you,
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Speaker 1: run But but the walked slowly away and try to
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Speaker 1: make yourself as big as possible. But the uh, the
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Speaker 1: thing with the wolves is they're more than happy living
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Speaker 1: in the wild and never seen a human beings. When
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Speaker 1: they get forced out by like the noise and the
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Speaker 1: chaos of war, they gotta go somewhere. Yeah, it's twofold, right.
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Speaker 1: I mean they're not only you know, forced from their
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Speaker 1: natural habitats, which would make them pretty cranky. They're also
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Speaker 1: attracted to the smell of rotting corpses. Out in the battlefield,
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Speaker 1: and it's sort of easy pickings for them to to
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Speaker 1: have a little snack. Once they've exhausted this food supply
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Speaker 1: and get a little boulder, they start to target like
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Speaker 1: the kind that's still walking around. Yeah, they're naturally going
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Speaker 1: to prefer the animals that they prey on already in
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Speaker 1: the pre war ecology, right, But those animals are getting
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Speaker 1: hunted by soldiers. Those animals are also getting driven away
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Speaker 1: or just randomly shot by board people, so they have
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Speaker 1: to resort to some sort of sustenance. And like you said, no,
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Speaker 1: they started eating corpse is and eventually, you know, the
10:03
Speaker 1: same thing happens with man eating lions or tigers. In
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Speaker 1: those situations, usually the animal has had its teeth or
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Speaker 1: its jaw damage, or it's older such they can't hunt
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Speaker 1: its natural prey, so then it goes to humans, which
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Speaker 1: are relatively easy to take if you're a lion, a tiger,
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Speaker 1: and so on. We know that the media was aware
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Speaker 1: of this. There's a great Mental Floss article that explains
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Speaker 1: this by Lucas Riley. Remember that name, folks, Uh, yes,
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Speaker 1: we know him. We know Lucas and he does an
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Speaker 1: excellent job with this story. Of mental floss, and he
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Speaker 1: notes how people were talking about this. Authorities were talking
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Speaker 1: about this as well. In February of a report from
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Speaker 1: Berlin just flagged this and they said there are big
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Speaker 1: packs of wolves that are coming out of Lithuania and
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Speaker 1: other parts of Europe, other parts of rural Europe, into
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Speaker 1: the inner area of the German Empire, the interior. And
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Speaker 1: they're not too far from the front lines. They've been
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Speaker 1: driven from their homes. They're just looking for something to
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Speaker 1: eat before they start hunting people. They go through everything else, livestock, sheep, scoots, cattle,
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Speaker 1: possibly children in a couple of cases. So let's let's
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Speaker 1: backtrack just a little bit um again. Winter nineteen sixteen,
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen. We're in Lithuania and Belarus um in the
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Speaker 1: cove No no no Vilna Minsk district, which would today be
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Speaker 1: considered vill Vilnius, Lithuania. We've got these starving wolves starting
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Speaker 1: to attack German and Russian troops. At first, we see
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Speaker 1: them attacking kind of stragglers, um. But again I mentioned earlier,
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Speaker 1: they get a little bit more, you know, tough and bold,
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Speaker 1: and they start to attack groups. Um. We have reports
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Speaker 1: coming out of St Petersburg. Like he said, the media
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Speaker 1: was aware of this, that the wolves were becoming so
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Speaker 1: hard to deal with on the battlefield that they were
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Speaker 1: actually one of the few things that could cause cooperation
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Speaker 1: between the two sides, between the Germans and the Russians.
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Speaker 1: This report out of St. Petersburg had this to say,
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Speaker 1: parties of Russian and German scouts met recently and were
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Speaker 1: hotly engaged in the skirmish when a large pack of
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Speaker 1: wolves dashed on the scene and attacked the wounded um
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Speaker 1: and presumably, you know, anyone that was trying to stand
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Speaker 1: in their way. And that dispatch from the battlefield was
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Speaker 1: reprinted in the Oklahoma City Times and it goes on
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Speaker 1: hostilities were at once suspended in Germans and Russians instinctively
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Speaker 1: attacked the pack, killing about fifty wolves. So there was
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Speaker 1: kind of almost this like unspoken bond established between these
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Speaker 1: enemies where they understood that if there was a wolf attack,
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Speaker 1: it was like that scene in Waynesborold where I was
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Speaker 1: like car and then you kind of, you know, deal
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Speaker 1: with that and then game on. So yeah, it became
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Speaker 1: this kind of rallying moment for just a moment, just
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Speaker 1: a brief moment there's just these exact circumstances. The Russians
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Speaker 1: and the Germans had to work together once the wolf
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Speaker 1: threat was dealt with and it was back to shooting
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Speaker 1: at each other. Yeah, kind of like the Christmas Truce.
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Speaker 1: It's like a more metal version of the Christmas Truce
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Speaker 1: where military stopped and then when and celebrated the holiday
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Speaker 1: of Christmas and then went back to their trenches and
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Speaker 1: continued fighting each other. Uh. There, there's a really important
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Speaker 1: part here. So we've we've made it clear that at
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Speaker 1: least once this happened, but it doesn't end there. This
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Speaker 1: probably happened multiple times. It wasn't a single pack of
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Speaker 1: wolves in a single incident. Were a lot of wolves
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Speaker 1: in those days, and throughout the forests of Lithuania, in
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Speaker 1: the areas that would now be Poland and Belarus. These
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Speaker 1: incidents occurred repeatedly, and there would be German and Russian
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Speaker 1: forces who are just otherwise mowing each other down with
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Speaker 1: machine guns, who would just stop and say, oh wait,
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Speaker 1: we got wolves pulled up, guys, we got wolves. Wolf break.
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Speaker 1: I like that's a wolf break. I like that word.
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Speaker 1: So the you mentioned the snipers, So the snipers, we're
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Speaker 1: very powerful aspects of this war, and they would be
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Speaker 1: able to see when the regular infantry stopped attacking each other,
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Speaker 1: and then they would take a break, and everybody would
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Speaker 1: try to fight the wolves because the wolves kept coming.
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Speaker 1: And wolves, Russian wolves, they're big. This is like some
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Speaker 1: seriously Lord of the Rings kind of business, right, I'm
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Speaker 1: just picturing these magical dire wolves just bounding through the
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Speaker 1: field of battle and just unstoppable foes, you know, coming
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Speaker 1: at these soldiers. Yeah, and I feel so bad for
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Speaker 1: the wolves because again, yeah, they were forced in the situation.
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Speaker 1: Nobody asked them what they thought of the Ottoman Empire
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Speaker 1: or Austro Hungarian Empire. They were just one day they
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Speaker 1: were dear and then there worked and there were monsters
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Speaker 1: of foot and everything smelled terrible. Uh. And these wolves,
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Speaker 1: you know, their entire population is moving, it's getting hunted.
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Speaker 1: They're attacking out of desperation, and as they become increasingly starved,
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Speaker 1: they become increasingly bold and they start you know, you
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Speaker 1: said they were picking off soldiers one by one, Right,
15:47
Speaker 1: somebody wanders away from the crew, maybe to take a
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Speaker 1: pea break, and then boom, they get got this. Now
15:55
Speaker 1: they are let's it's not a wolf makes when it
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Speaker 1: gets you. Now, if his soldier is not fast enough,
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Speaker 1: he is down there was. Military dot Com wrote it saying,
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Speaker 1: if a soldier isn't fast enough with his weapon, he
16:12
Speaker 1: might have a close encounter of the K nine kind,
16:15
Speaker 1: which is really fun to say, but uh, but yeah,
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Speaker 1: this was a constant threat. It really was. It really
16:22
Speaker 1: was a constant threat. Um because you know, wolves are
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Speaker 1: very very nimble, and if they are starving, are going
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Speaker 1: to become more and more aggressive and desperate and take
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Speaker 1: serious risks. Or they don't even see it that way,
16:37
Speaker 1: perhaps because again they don't really know what a gun
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Speaker 1: is quite but they do find out that many, many wolves,
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Speaker 1: the lives of many a wolf were lost in this conflict, alongside,
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Speaker 1: you know, the humans that they were trying to munch on.
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Speaker 1: But you're right, then it is really sad because of
16:52
Speaker 1: all of the casualties of this war. Uh, they probably
16:55
Speaker 1: were the ones that were at least complicit, but yeah, yeah,
16:58
Speaker 1: slot of civilian casual too. I mean, I don't know,
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Speaker 1: it's just the whole thing more as hell, and it
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Speaker 1: never changes. There were other methods for dealing with these wolves.
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Speaker 1: The Russians and Germans did you know, kind of collaborate
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Speaker 1: on some of these as well, including laying traps for them,
17:14
Speaker 1: poisoning some of the food they were trying to to eat, actually,
17:19
Speaker 1: like booby trapping the perimeters. But it just wasn't enough
17:23
Speaker 1: because there were so many of them. These forests were
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Speaker 1: just teeming with wolves. Gradually the wolves were collected, rounded up,
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Speaker 1: and eventually several hundred of them were killed on mass.
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Speaker 1: The others kind of getting the picture at this point,
17:38
Speaker 1: started to to take off, you know, for greener pastures
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Speaker 1: or at least less you know, aggressively deadly ones. And
17:46
Speaker 1: I imagine this this would have been a cause for
17:49
Speaker 1: what could be tracked as a great migration of these
17:51
Speaker 1: types of the species. Yeah, I think that's a good point. Now,
17:54
Speaker 1: if you've heard this story before, or if you've seen
17:57
Speaker 1: works of fiction based on something like this, a lot
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Speaker 1: of the inspiration is going to come from New York
18:03
Speaker 1: Times article that ran in July. We just want to
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Speaker 1: cite that. Uh, we're pulling a lot of information from there,
18:11
Speaker 1: and some of the other sources we found are also
18:13
Speaker 1: pulled a lot of information from that article, which you
18:16
Speaker 1: can view on New York Times right now. If the
18:20
Speaker 1: spirit so moved you so still, it's a war, like
18:25
Speaker 1: you said, car Pause, game on, And that's what happens.
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Speaker 1: The soldiers do manage to kill a lot of wolves
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Speaker 1: and they scatter the rest so they you could think
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Speaker 1: of it this way, they break the wolf army. If
18:39
Speaker 1: you want to go, uh, Lord of the Rings, you know,
18:42
Speaker 1: Battle of the Five Armies with the Hobbits. They break
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Speaker 1: the wolf army, and now the wolves are out of
18:46
Speaker 1: the picture, so they start fighting again. The truce was temporary,
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Speaker 1: and there's a really sad moment cited in war history
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Speaker 1: line from the memoirs of a nurse named Natalia Linka.
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Speaker 1: She wrote a book called the First World War, and
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Speaker 1: she talks about meeting wolves who sound like defeated survivors.
19:14
Speaker 1: She says, on January four, eighteen, she was at a
19:18
Speaker 1: fourth stop at a fortress called Hassan Kale in Turkey, Um.
19:23
Speaker 1: There were ten people in this truck and then a
19:26
Speaker 1: howl cut through the silence of the night. It became terrible,
19:30
Speaker 1: but we pulled the cover off the entrance and looked
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Speaker 1: out not far from us on white snow. Slowly a
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Speaker 1: small pack of wolves passed, moving in lines, one after
19:40
Speaker 1: the other. They approached us, sometimes stopped and lifting their
19:45
Speaker 1: muscles up, howled softly and sadly. I don't have a
19:49
Speaker 1: lot of feelings, to be honest, but this one got
19:51
Speaker 1: me softly, just just just a plaintiff melancholy. Oh, they
20:01
Speaker 1: didn't attack, they didn't attack, they were they laid their
20:05
Speaker 1: arms down or their paws they leave their paws down.
20:09
Speaker 1: And no, this one's getting me. Yeah, I know, I know,
20:12
Speaker 1: I'm feeling that, you guys, I'm not joking. It's kind
20:14
Speaker 1: of welling up a little bit, I know. Yeah, as
20:16
Speaker 1: someone who has way too much emotions, this one's getting me.
20:23
Speaker 1: You know. This reminds me of in a lot of
20:25
Speaker 1: ways the the me is the beautiful Miyazaki film Princess Mononoke,
20:30
Speaker 1: where like, you know, nature literally kind of rises up
20:34
Speaker 1: against these essentially machines of war or these kind of corruptions,
20:40
Speaker 1: right you know, well, and of course guns there there
20:42
Speaker 1: are soldiers you know in that in that film as well.
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Speaker 1: Uh So it is kind of like man versus nature.
20:47
Speaker 1: That that is what this is. This really is kind
20:50
Speaker 1: of a very close analog to what happens in that film, uh,
20:54
Speaker 1: with much less mystical properties and not not a happy
20:57
Speaker 1: ending and a lot of bad stuff happens in Manonoke
20:59
Speaker 1: is Oh, but it ultimately does, you know, have a
21:01
Speaker 1: happy ending. Real life doesn't often have one of those, doesn't. Yeah, yeah,
21:06
Speaker 1: real life just sort of goes and then it stops.
21:09
Speaker 1: So so wow, maybe the weather has affected us today.
21:13
Speaker 1: Two guys, it's it's a dreary morning here in Atlanta.
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Speaker 1: But we started this by asking whether this really happened,
21:24
Speaker 1: and at this point we see an alternative narrative come
21:28
Speaker 1: into play. It starts weirdly enough with a video game
21:33
Speaker 1: first person shooter that I've never played, called Tannenberg. It's
21:36
Speaker 1: set in World War One. It's inspired by the Battle
21:39
Speaker 1: of Tannenberg, and they created a thing in the game
21:44
Speaker 1: called Wolf Truce. All of a sudden, the game mode
21:48
Speaker 1: turns into you fighting wolves instead of soldiers. And they
21:51
Speaker 1: based this on that New York Times article we cited earlier.
21:56
Speaker 1: But the thing about that Times article is not a
21:59
Speaker 1: ton of people actually checked the sources quoted by the paper,
22:04
Speaker 1: which is why folks like Russian hunting scientists Sergey matt
22:09
Speaker 1: Vitchel said that there were no Russian sources for this information,
22:14
Speaker 1: and people started wondering whether it was a tall tale. Yeah,
22:21
Speaker 1: that's right. And in Russia. Um, you know, when folks
22:25
Speaker 1: were looking through their sources about this Eastern campaign, there
22:28
Speaker 1: aren't any mentions of any wolf truce. I mean, to
22:33
Speaker 1: be fair, it wasn't like there was like it was
22:35
Speaker 1: like the Great Wolf Truce, like it was some singular
22:38
Speaker 1: thing that happened. It was more of a functional series
22:42
Speaker 1: of micro truces that that that that that had to
22:45
Speaker 1: happen to functionally allow both sides to fight another day.
22:49
Speaker 1: But it is a little bit of a tall order.
22:52
Speaker 1: It's the kind of thing that sort of gives you
22:54
Speaker 1: hope for mankind or you know, the the idea of
22:57
Speaker 1: sort of like why can't we all just get along
22:59
Speaker 1: and rally to get there, especially if there's a common
23:01
Speaker 1: threat um which we've all agreed is ultimately the victim
23:05
Speaker 1: in this story, that that threat. But it is it
23:09
Speaker 1: is a lot. It's a lot, yeah, exactly, It's a
23:11
Speaker 1: lot to expect um in this situation because honestly, you know,
23:16
Speaker 1: what you and I was thinking all along is that
23:18
Speaker 1: one side or the other would use it to their advantage.
23:21
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, Like snipers would use it,
23:23
Speaker 1: would use it and they wouldn't be picking off the wolves,
23:26
Speaker 1: they'd be picking off all the troops that were distracted
23:29
Speaker 1: by the wolves, you know, and it would just be
23:32
Speaker 1: kind of bedlam. We we do know for a fact
23:34
Speaker 1: that this wolf infestation was a real thing, though right well,
23:38
Speaker 1: we know that not everybody agrees there. I think most
23:43
Speaker 1: people will argue that it that it did happen. They're
23:48
Speaker 1: just question maybe the extent of it. It's it's true
23:52
Speaker 1: obviously that wolves were eating dead bodies. It's true that
23:55
Speaker 1: they were driven from their natural environment. So it seems
23:59
Speaker 1: to me completely possible, even plausible really, that there may
24:04
Speaker 1: have been multiple instances where soldiers stopped firing at each
24:08
Speaker 1: other long enough to get rid of wolves. But that
24:11
Speaker 1: harrowing Lord of the Rings Game of Thrones type scene
24:15
Speaker 1: with this the endless onslaught of of of wolves from
24:20
Speaker 1: the from the tree line, that could be a little
24:22
Speaker 1: bit of a fantasy, couldn't Yeah, I would totally write
24:25
Speaker 1: it for ridiculous history. Studios would be cinematic. We'd need
24:28
Speaker 1: to add some stuff though, we'd need to have some protagonists.
24:31
Speaker 1: You know what, Let's do it from the wolves perspective.
24:34
Speaker 1: That's what we do. I like it yeah, I like it.
24:43
Speaker 1: So this one is uh, you know, a bit emotional
24:47
Speaker 1: for the three of us. We're officially teen Wolf, not
24:50
Speaker 1: teen Wolf, but and uh, I I don't know. I
24:55
Speaker 1: still think it's it's an amazing story because I'm stuck
25:01
Speaker 1: on it, Nolan, stuck on the idea of framing this
25:04
Speaker 1: from the perspective of the wolves. They were, they were
25:08
Speaker 1: like their own conscript army. You know, they didn't volunteer
25:11
Speaker 1: for this, They had to do it. Um makes you think.
25:14
Speaker 1: And if we've learned anything, you know, on stuff that
25:16
Speaker 1: I want you to know and researching, you know, junk
25:19
Speaker 1: food and just weird marketing behind food, is that you
25:23
Speaker 1: gotta eat. You gotta eat. Wolves gotta do what a
25:26
Speaker 1: wolve's gotta do. Wolves gotta have a code. That code
25:30
Speaker 1: is we want to eat. So we are going to
25:33
Speaker 1: call it a day. We hope you enjoyed today's episode.
25:37
Speaker 1: Thanks as always to our super producer, the Man, the Myth,
25:40
Speaker 1: the wolf like Legend, Max Williams. Thanks of course, as
25:45
Speaker 1: always to Gabe Lousier, Thanks to Christopher Hasiotis, Thanks to
25:50
Speaker 1: who Alex Williams who composed this banging track. Jonathan Strickland,
25:54
Speaker 1: the Quister. Eventually, eventually, if I spoke his name, it
26:06
Speaker 1: was his You know how I knew it was time.
26:16
Speaker 1: I saw a teen wolf with a Chinese menu in
26:18
Speaker 1: his hand walking through the streets of the race. Was
26:22
Speaker 1: his hair perfect? He was? He was and playing basketball?
26:28
Speaker 1: Because you know, teen Wolf? Great movie. I'm glad you
26:31
Speaker 1: guys talked about teen Wolf. Finally all those emails I've
26:34
Speaker 1: been sending into the show saying when are you going
26:37
Speaker 1: to talk about teen Wolf? I know it's not really
26:39
Speaker 1: your purview, but I feel that this is something that
26:41
Speaker 1: needs to be addressed, and now I understand you finally
26:44
Speaker 1: done it. Sorry, I've missed all the emotional payoff of
26:47
Speaker 1: the talking about the climax of teen Wolf and and
26:51
Speaker 1: really the thro of Michael J. Fox. But I'm glad
26:54
Speaker 1: I'm here at the end. I don't bury the lead here.
26:56
Speaker 1: Don't don't forget about teen Wolf. Also, yeah to Bot
27:02
Speaker 1: Jason Bateman, Jason batemand for a long time, what about
27:07
Speaker 1: what about the teen Wolf reboot? Well? You know what?
27:11
Speaker 1: More more importantly, Jonathan, Happy New Year? I in February. Alright,
27:18
Speaker 1: Happy New Year? Do you tell you this? I don't
27:21
Speaker 1: know what the Statute of limitations. This is the first
27:23
Speaker 1: time you've been on the show in two If you
27:25
Speaker 1: came on in October, I would also say Happy New Year.
27:28
Speaker 1: I am so glad you brought up the fact that
27:31
Speaker 1: it has been a very long time since I've been
27:33
Speaker 1: on the show. As such, I have decided to punish you. Okay,
27:40
Speaker 1: what else is new? It's just like it's been too long,
27:43
Speaker 1: so you I'm sorry you did this to yourselves. But
27:47
Speaker 1: for those who do not know, you have entered into
27:49
Speaker 1: the most cringe weathery segment in all of podcasting. What
27:52
Speaker 1: are I the quiz to well then present to uh
27:56
Speaker 1: fair hosts some scenarios and some of them are true
28:02
Speaker 1: and some of them are made up. In this case,
28:04
Speaker 1: one is made up. They have to determine which of
28:06
Speaker 1: the four told you you're getting You kept me off
28:14
Speaker 1: the show for fall too long? Okay, first of all,
28:17
Speaker 1: there's no keeping you off the show. You are like
28:20
Speaker 1: like like the wind. You know, You're you're like like
28:23
Speaker 1: nuclear fall out. You know, you just kind of drift
28:26
Speaker 1: wherever you want to go. You're like the center and
28:28
Speaker 1: no wins. I make things weird. That's a crazy ex
28:32
Speaker 1: girlfriend reference. You're like you're like a wolf in World
28:35
Speaker 1: War One. Man, you're just roaming. It's not your fault.
28:38
Speaker 1: Pleasure rider is crazy. We have to save up to
28:41
Speaker 1: get you on the show. Now, listen, these these these
28:45
Speaker 1: brownie bites, they don't pay for themselves. All right, I
28:48
Speaker 1: gotta be rolling in brownie bites. That's just how I go.
28:51
Speaker 1: All right. So here here's there are the rules. I
28:54
Speaker 1: would be three, three are real, one real, one is fake.
28:58
Speaker 1: Three are real, one is fake. You must you must
29:00
Speaker 1: suss out the fake one, and I will present to
29:03
Speaker 1: you the four scenarios. They're long, so this is gonna
29:06
Speaker 1: be a nice long segment. You're welcome, audience and um.
29:10
Speaker 1: And then after I give you the four scenarios, you
29:13
Speaker 1: have three minutes to debate between the two of you
29:16
Speaker 1: which of the four is the fake one. If you
29:18
Speaker 1: wish to ask me any questions, then you must preface
29:22
Speaker 1: it with a phrase of my choosing. In this case,
29:25
Speaker 1: it shall be I'm not throwing away my shot. Because
29:28
Speaker 1: we are going to talk about dueling and the reason,
29:31
Speaker 1: the real reason why there are four scenarios not three.
29:35
Speaker 1: It's because y'all people have engaged in duels for stupid,
29:41
Speaker 1: stupid reasons, and it was hard to narrow down which
29:44
Speaker 1: ones I was going to use. But I shall now start,
29:48
Speaker 1: and once I am done, you will start the timer
29:50
Speaker 1: for three minutes as enormous trucks go passed by house,
29:54
Speaker 1: and you will then have to give to me the
29:58
Speaker 1: the fake out of the four. All right, here we go.
30:01
Speaker 1: Scenario one. Gomez Suarez de Figuero I Cordoba, a gay,
30:08
Speaker 1: the first Duke of Feria, was Spain's ambassador to the
30:12
Speaker 1: court of Queen Elizabeth the First. He left that position
30:15
Speaker 1: in fifteen fifty nine, and shortly after arriving back in Spain,
30:19
Speaker 1: challenged Alvaro de la Quadra, another nobleman, a bishop in fact,
30:24
Speaker 1: to a duel and the reason. Gomez had taken offense
30:27
Speaker 1: to de la Quadra's pronunciation of liturgical Latin, claiming the
30:32
Speaker 1: bishop was butchering the language, so naturally the two were
30:35
Speaker 1: unable to resolve their differing opinions and pronunciation and settled
30:39
Speaker 1: to duel with swords. Both received injuries but survived the encounter,
30:43
Speaker 1: considering the matter settled. Scenario two. In eighteen sixteen, a
30:48
Speaker 1: French admiral named de la Sous took offense to the
30:51
Speaker 1: way a Prussian danced, saying he was quote waltzing against
30:57
Speaker 1: him end quote, and so De la sous infronted the
31:00
Speaker 1: Prussian and the two agreed to sort out their disagreement
31:03
Speaker 1: in cutting a rug the old fashioned way pistols. At dawn,
31:07
Speaker 1: the two faced off and the Prussian fired first, but missed.
31:11
Speaker 1: De la Seus's aim was better, and he hit the
31:14
Speaker 1: Prussian squarely in the chest, and yet the man fell
31:17
Speaker 1: but was otherwise unharmed. De la SEUs then discovered that
31:20
Speaker 1: the Prussian had been wearing a breastplate and resorted to
31:23
Speaker 1: kicking him repeatedly LEO three to death. I'm sorry, I'm
31:27
Speaker 1: not going away my shot. Well, no, we haven't gone
31:31
Speaker 1: through all the scenarios yet, but no, just just just kicking.
31:34
Speaker 1: Just spen a minute. Yeah it has been a while. No,
31:37
Speaker 1: it's you know, fair game scenario three eight nine two Liechtenstein,
31:43
Speaker 1: the Russian Countess Kielman Seg and the Viennese Princess Pauline
31:48
Speaker 1: Metternich were hard at work arranging flowers at the Vienna Exhibition. Unfortunately,
31:53
Speaker 1: the two simply could not agree on how flowers should
31:56
Speaker 1: be arranged, and the disagreement scaled escalated rather to a duel,
32:00
Speaker 1: which was arranged. They decided that they would fight with
32:03
Speaker 1: rapiers and whomever bled first would lose. They had women
32:07
Speaker 1: as seconds as well as a woman as metic, making
32:09
Speaker 1: this an all female affair. Oh they also fought topless
32:14
Speaker 1: woho and both received wounds, the princess on the nose
32:18
Speaker 1: the countess on the arm, at which point they kissed
32:21
Speaker 1: and made up and finally scenario four. In nineteen seventy,
32:26
Speaker 1: a stage director in Copenhagen named Togo Esben was insulted
32:31
Speaker 1: to discover that the theater program for a production failed
32:34
Speaker 1: to include his name in it. He then challenged the
32:36
Speaker 1: stage company's press secretary, hennig did Live, to a duel.
32:41
Speaker 1: They chose flintlock pistols. During the duel, only one pistol
32:44
Speaker 1: managed to fire, and that one missed the target. The
32:47
Speaker 1: two men, apparently satisfied that the matter had been dealt with,
32:52
Speaker 1: retired to drink champagne and add Esben's name to the program.
32:56
Speaker 1: Begin the timer. I am running to our grand other
33:00
Speaker 1: clock and go okay um, I ain't at the topless one.
33:07
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's why why I think that was
33:11
Speaker 1: no no precedent, I no, no precedent for this. Yeah.
33:13
Speaker 1: I think that one's real though, because I I feel
33:16
Speaker 1: like I've heard that before because it was rather unusual
33:21
Speaker 1: for you know, dueling was kind of the dude thing, right,
33:24
Speaker 1: so people would rememb Also, I don't think Jonathan wants
33:28
Speaker 1: a reputation for inventing pervy sce audios to throw my yeah,
33:33
Speaker 1: to throw my hat in here. I think the first
33:36
Speaker 1: one is definitely real. Two dudes dueling over Latin that yeah.
33:43
Speaker 1: And I think the last one is that seems like
33:45
Speaker 1: dumb enough because it was like nineteen seventies that that
33:48
Speaker 1: just you know, a one pistol working and then they
33:51
Speaker 1: just drink champagne afterwards. That sounds you know, pretty real
33:54
Speaker 1: to me too. I don't know, man seventies a propressed secretary.
33:59
Speaker 1: I am not throwing away my shot. Yes, Mr Bolin,
34:04
Speaker 1: could you give us just the like quick highlights of
34:06
Speaker 1: number two again? I want to pay more attention to that. Yes,
34:10
Speaker 1: number two. You have a French admiral named de la
34:12
Speaker 1: Seuse who's at a ball, a dance as it were,
34:17
Speaker 1: and a Prussian is dancing all up on him. He
34:21
Speaker 1: was a rather rotund fellow, a rather rotun The Prussian
34:25
Speaker 1: waltzing against him, and so then the French admiral challenges
34:31
Speaker 1: the rotun the Prussian to a duel. They meet the
34:36
Speaker 1: next day with pistols. The Prussian misses, the admiral hits.
34:40
Speaker 1: The Prussian turns out to have also cheated by wearing
34:43
Speaker 1: a breastplate under his clothing. Okay, guys, I think it's
34:47
Speaker 1: a detail two or four? What's the I'm not throwing
34:51
Speaker 1: away my shot? Shot shot? Uh? What's the year again
34:55
Speaker 1: for number four? Number four, nineteen seventy Why? But that
35:00
Speaker 1: would have been illegal, is heck? Yeah, you can't duel
35:03
Speaker 1: and maybe again that's what makes it remarkable, and these
35:06
Speaker 1: people were just nuts. But I don't know. I think
35:08
Speaker 1: it's four. Yeah, But then again, I don't know if
35:11
Speaker 1: Jonathan would have given away his hand by having such
35:13
Speaker 1: an obvious, you know, uh, non dueling year. This is
35:17
Speaker 1: like the Princess Bride poison moment, you know, Uh, are
35:22
Speaker 1: we up against the Sicilian when death is on the line.
35:24
Speaker 1: But but this is there's another thing here too, Max.
35:28
Speaker 1: I know we're running close to time, but noticed that
35:32
Speaker 1: more details came out in number two the second time
35:35
Speaker 1: we asked him about it. That's kind of how that
35:39
Speaker 1: asking thing works. But yeah, okay, thank you for telling me.
35:43
Speaker 1: Thank you, Let me ask, Let me ask. I'm not
35:45
Speaker 1: throwing away my shot. Yes, producer person, uh Jonathan, when
35:49
Speaker 1: are we gonna hang out against him? Man? If it
35:52
Speaker 1: has been a minute like you know, well, I'll have
35:55
Speaker 1: to talk to you about that offline because there's the
35:57
Speaker 1: possibility of that a certain show that might be coming back.
36:01
Speaker 1: But I can't really talk about it. We're we're at time.
36:05
Speaker 1: We're at times. Was question, you guys want to go
36:11
Speaker 1: for all? Right, let's lock in for let's go for
36:14
Speaker 1: three to one. Well you've locked in number four. This
36:21
Speaker 1: is what I tell you. All the cup for poison,
36:23
Speaker 1: they were all made up. No, I'm just I'm just kidding. Now,
36:26
Speaker 1: four four was real? You lost four is real? Dancing impression. No,
36:33
Speaker 1: the dancing impression was real. The fake one was Number
36:36
Speaker 1: one was in fact ambassador from Spain to England. Uh
36:43
Speaker 1: Alvaro de la Quadra was his replacement. He was the
36:47
Speaker 1: next ambassador to from Spain to England. He replaced Gomez.
36:53
Speaker 1: But the two never dueled. They never had any disagreement
36:56
Speaker 1: with one another. Nope, that was the one that we
37:00
Speaker 1: thought that we all instantly agreed. We I was the
37:03
Speaker 1: one who said, yeah, nerd fights are real. That checks out,
37:06
Speaker 1: and and they have happened before. There was There was
37:08
Speaker 1: supposedly a a duel that Ben Johnson, the playwright into
37:15
Speaker 1: it into that had something to do with either pronunciation
37:19
Speaker 1: or intonation or something along those lines. But I didn't
37:22
Speaker 1: include that one because I'm a Shakespeare guy, not a
37:25
Speaker 1: Johnson guy. Title man, I know so well played, Jonathan,
37:30
Speaker 1: you got us this time. Uh maybe it's because there
37:35
Speaker 1: were more choices at play, but I won't do I
37:38
Speaker 1: won't do that again. That was That was only because
37:40
Speaker 1: I was really stung that one. It's been so long
37:43
Speaker 1: since I've been on and to you guys were on
37:45
Speaker 1: a streak that was dirty pool old man. But I
37:51
Speaker 1: respect the game. I respect the game, I respect the grift. Well,
37:54
Speaker 1: what say we do it this way? I was thinking
37:56
Speaker 1: about this in the times that we between when we spoke, Um,
38:00
Speaker 1: what say we now that it is two and it's
38:05
Speaker 1: your first appearance, first return here, what say we reset
38:09
Speaker 1: the board and have you have the official score one
38:11
Speaker 1: nil and just reset it every year? What do you think?
38:15
Speaker 1: Sounds like? I love that because then that means that
38:18
Speaker 1: that we won last year. I mean I always just
38:24
Speaker 1: looked to the future. I don't even know what last
38:27
Speaker 1: year Wasn't this boyd so well? Can you at least
38:30
Speaker 1: just say it's Jonathan? Can you say it? Um? I
38:34
Speaker 1: failed to beat you last year? How about that? Wow? Okay,
38:38
Speaker 1: I know how you really feel. I I read your blog, Man,
38:41
Speaker 1: don't play So it is, however, an enmity aside, it
38:47
Speaker 1: is always an absolute pleasure to have you back on
38:50
Speaker 1: this show. Man. We recorded recently in person, and I
38:54
Speaker 1: can't wait for a Quister segment in person. Jonathan, are you?
38:57
Speaker 1: Are you still? Are you still? Contributing to Anathan Strickland
39:00
Speaker 1: ak the Quister Dog blogspot dot com. You know, it's
39:04
Speaker 1: been a while since I've posted anything. Um. I was
39:07
Speaker 1: for a while giving a rewatch review of Community, just
39:11
Speaker 1: going by episode by episode, but I kind of gave
39:14
Speaker 1: up about episode four of the fourth season, you know,
39:16
Speaker 1: the Gas League year. That's when I decided I was
39:19
Speaker 1: really just done with it, so it kind of lost Steve. Yeah,
39:23
Speaker 1: it was good when it was good, though whenn't it?
39:25
Speaker 1: It was really good when it was good. I have
39:28
Speaker 1: season five of that show excellent. You know it is.
39:33
Speaker 1: It is a great show. Actually, I just rewatched it.
39:36
Speaker 1: I do have one question unrelated to your villainy in
39:41
Speaker 1: the world of podcasting, uh and it is this, what
39:45
Speaker 1: are you and Max hanging out about? Are you guys
39:47
Speaker 1: in a hot tub? Everybody on this show gets in
39:49
Speaker 1: a hot top except for me. Well, you know, it's
39:52
Speaker 1: never been in a hot tub. I'm not invited like
39:55
Speaker 1: hot you with me? He wants me in a hot
39:58
Speaker 1: tub with me? Guys, that's that's been boiling all the
40:01
Speaker 1: way down. It was a hot tub of opportunity, my friend.
40:04
Speaker 1: You just had to have been there already. It wasn't
40:06
Speaker 1: like really a hug, you're invited to the hot tub,
40:09
Speaker 1: You're It was just sort of like whomever was around
40:11
Speaker 1: were invited into the hot tub. That's when you get
40:13
Speaker 1: tapped to be the lead on a branded show, you know,
40:17
Speaker 1: one of the shows that makes a lot of money,
40:19
Speaker 1: one of those shows. It's when you're tapped to do that.
40:22
Speaker 1: You just it's a different, different experience. It's all Mr Bowlin.
40:25
Speaker 1: It's fine to play around in this space, and there's
40:29
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with it. It's just must occasionally have to
40:32
Speaker 1: step into what we call the big leagues. Well, I
40:36
Speaker 1: refused to be part of any club that would admit
40:39
Speaker 1: me as a member. So um, as always, I'm also
40:43
Speaker 1: not a sellout, Jonathan, So so as always, as always, UM,
40:50
Speaker 1: I love you man, deeply, deeply resent you. How dare
40:54
Speaker 1: you out fox this? Uh? And can't wait to have
40:58
Speaker 1: you back on the show to even the score In
41:01
Speaker 1: the meantime, Jonathan Strickland ak the quister. Where can people
41:04
Speaker 1: learn more about your work? Well, you can always call
41:08
Speaker 1: it that. You can listen to my podcast tech Stuff,
41:12
Speaker 1: where I talk about tech stuff, or you can listen
41:16
Speaker 1: to large nerd dron Collider, which is the fun geeky
41:18
Speaker 1: news podcast where we also mash up different geeky things
41:24
Speaker 1: to find something new. For example, we just recorded an
41:28
Speaker 1: episode where we mashed up the classic film Harvey, the
41:32
Speaker 1: Jimmy Stewart film with who framed Roger Rabbit? And mine
41:35
Speaker 1: was really sad. Harvey is the one with the giant
41:39
Speaker 1: invisible rabbit, right it is? And Roger Rabbit is the
41:42
Speaker 1: one with the giant visible rabbit. Yes, and uh wish
41:48
Speaker 1: you the best of luck. You can also find Jonathan
41:52
Speaker 1: Strickland on Twitter where you can see us occasionally, and
41:58
Speaker 1: you can find him prowling the odd back alley cities,
42:05
Speaker 1: just in alleys. They're yes driven, you know, in Sewer,
42:10
Speaker 1: speaking out of Sewer graats, you know, with the you know.
42:14
Speaker 1: It's often said there are two wolves inside of you,
42:17
Speaker 1: and one of them is Jonathan strickland Ak the Twister,
42:21
Speaker 1: and hopefully the other wolf inside of you is the
42:23
Speaker 1: one that asked you to tune in next week when
42:27
Speaker 1: our ridiculous historical adventures continue. Thank you as always to
42:32
Speaker 1: Jonathan strickland Ak the Quister, and no thank you. I
42:36
Speaker 1: feel like we should, I don't know, adopted a wolf
42:40
Speaker 1: fund fund to Wolf Sanctuary, get get our job to
42:45
Speaker 1: do it. I'm gonna. I'm gonna let you have that one. Wow.
42:49
Speaker 1: After all, you're a better person than I. You're a
42:52
Speaker 1: better person that I know. It just seems like a
42:54
Speaker 1: lot of work. The wolves seem very neaty, you know,
42:57
Speaker 1: and hungry. I just don't know if I have enough
43:00
Speaker 1: to give. You got a real lone wolf and cub
43:03
Speaker 1: situation going on here. It's true. Let's see you next time, folks.
43:15
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I
43:17
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
43:20
Speaker 1: your favorite shows,