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Bird of Passage · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
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  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Aviation history is populated with tales of success.
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  Speaker 1: There was the Right Brothers fabled first flight, to Charles
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  Speaker 1: Lindbergh's solo trip across the Atlantic. Every triumph pushed the
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  Speaker 1: limits of what we thought was possible. Limburgh may have
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  Speaker 1: been the first to complete a transatlantic flight on his own,
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  Speaker 1: but there were others who had attempted it before him.
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  Speaker 1: Two pilots, John Alcock of England and Arthur Brown of
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  Speaker 1: Scotland managed to fly their Vickers Vimmy bomber from Canada
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  Speaker 1: to Ireland in nineteen For some though, that distance wasn't
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  Speaker 1: far enough. That same year, a New York hotel owner
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  Speaker 1: named Raymond Orte came up with a contest. He offered
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  Speaker 1: twenty five thousand dollars to anyone who could fly NonStop
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  Speaker 1: from New York City to Paris within the next five
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  Speaker 1: years well, five years came and went without a winner,
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  Speaker 1: although many did try. Prescoire Coli from France certainly did,
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  Speaker 1: though it hadn't gone as planned. Colli had been a
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  Speaker 1: pilot during World War One, and with his buddy Paul Tarrascan,
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  Speaker 1: the two set out to win the Orte Prize. The
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  Speaker 1: only difference was that they were going to fly from
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  Speaker 1: Paris to New York instead. Unfortunately, they hit some serious
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  Speaker 1: turbulence along the way. Coolie's plane went up in flames,
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  Speaker 1: burning Tarrascan and putting him on the sidelines. So Coolly
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  Speaker 1: gave his pilot role to a young ace named Charles Nagaire.
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  Speaker 1: Nota was going to make the trip by himself, but
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  Speaker 1: decided to use Coolly as his navigator. At the request
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  Speaker 1: of playing designer Pierre Louvasser, Coolie and Naja Sair collaborated
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  Speaker 1: with Louivisier's team on a new aircraft, the Louivisier b
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  Speaker 1: L eight biplane. It featured a wooden fuselage to allow
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  Speaker 1: it to land and floats on water. Its unique cockpit
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  Speaker 1: was open on top and wide enough for both men
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  Speaker 1: to sit next to each other. The plans three fuel
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  Speaker 1: tanks were large enough to carry just over a thousand
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  Speaker 1: gallons of gasoline in total, plenty for the trip they
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  Speaker 1: had planned. By April of ninety seven, the p L
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  Speaker 1: eight was ready for testing. Naja Sare performed several short
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  Speaker 1: flights around France, reaching altitudes as high as sixteen thousand feet.
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  Speaker 1: Everything seemed in fine order, and after several weeks it
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  Speaker 1: was time for the two men to set their world record.
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  Speaker 1: The morning of May eighth of ninety seven, Coolie and
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  Speaker 1: Naja Sare strapped into their bright white b L eight
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  Speaker 1: biplane nicknamed Louis ou Blanc or the White Bird, all
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  Speaker 1: gassed up and ready to go, and as it turned out,
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  Speaker 1: that amount of fuel combined with their body weight made
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  Speaker 1: for one pretty heavy aircraft, so they ditched the undercarriage
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  Speaker 1: and after a few bumps, took off for the US.
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  Speaker 1: They're planned route had the pilots flying over England and Ireland,
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  Speaker 1: then arching down through New England until finally touching down
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  Speaker 1: in New York right in front of the Statue of Liberty.
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  Speaker 1: All in all, it should have taken about forty hours
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  Speaker 1: from start to finish. The White Bird was spotted by
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  Speaker 1: many across Europe, including a British submarine commander who caught
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  Speaker 1: side of it just twenty nautical miles south of the
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  Speaker 1: Isle of Wight. As the hours passed, spectators started gathering
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  Speaker 1: in Battery Park, Manhattan to watch the white bird make
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  Speaker 1: its water landing near the Statue of Liberty. Some even
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  Speaker 1: claim to have seen it flying over nearby Long Island.
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  Speaker 1: Papers in France jumped on the news, publishing stories about
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  Speaker 1: Cooley and nase Sare's successful voyage. They made history as
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  Speaker 1: the first people to complete a NonStop transatlantic flight. There
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  Speaker 1: was just one problem. The plane hadn't actually landed. Despite
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  Speaker 1: being seen along the East and cboard, the White Bird
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  Speaker 1: never made it to New York. A man named Anson Barry,
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  Speaker 1: who had been living in Maine at the time, told
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  Speaker 1: a reporter that he'd heard a struggling aircraft overhead on
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  Speaker 1: May nine, but he never actually saw it. The clouds
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  Speaker 1: and fog overhead had instructed his view. One theory was
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  Speaker 1: that a passing squall had taken down the plane, while
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  Speaker 1: others thought Najas and Cooley had landed in Canada and
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  Speaker 1: were now living amongst the native population. Over the years,
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  Speaker 1: investigators and enthusiasts tried locating the crash site. Some even
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  Speaker 1: found plane wreckage, though none of it was explicitly tied
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  Speaker 1: to the White Bird. Had the two men succeeded, they
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  Speaker 1: would have completed the first true transatlantic flight from Paris
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  Speaker 1: to New York, and their victory would have discouraged another
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  Speaker 1: aviator from trying the same thing. U S Mail pilot
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  Speaker 1: Charles Lindbergh was going to abandon his shot at the
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  Speaker 1: Orte Prize after hearing about COOLi and Najare. But twelve
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  Speaker 1: days after they took off from France, Lindburgh departed from
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  Speaker 1: New York in the spirit of St. Louis. It landed
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  Speaker 1: in Paris after a thirty three and a half hour flight.
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  Speaker 1: The white Bird nor its pilots were never found. It's
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  Speaker 1: been called the everest of aviation mysteries, one that no
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  Speaker 1: one has been able to summit in the ninety four
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  Speaker 1: years since it happened. Somewhere out there are the remnants
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  Speaker 1: of a white wooden bird, one that flew too close
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  Speaker 1: to the sun and paid the ultimate price. The Chinese
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  Speaker 1: philosopher Laotsu once said nothing is softer or more flexible
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  Speaker 1: than water, yet nothing can resist it, and he wasn't
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  Speaker 1: wrong when a hurricane strikes, it's not the wind we
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  Speaker 1: have to worry about so much as the storm surge.
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  Speaker 1: Rising water levels can result in massive flooding and devastation.
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  Speaker 1: In two thousand five, Hurricane Katrina caused a storm surge
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  Speaker 1: so large the ensuing floods turned much of New Orleans
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  Speaker 1: into a river, damaged the city's main roads, and killed
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  Speaker 1: over eight hundred people. One years earlier, a tropical cyclone
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  Speaker 1: in Australia caused a storm surge measuring forty two feet.
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  Speaker 1: Hundreds died, thousands of fish, sharks, and dolphins were discovered
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  Speaker 1: miles inland far from shore. The wind was so strong
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  Speaker 1: it drove rocks into tree trunks, and countless shipwrecks have
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  Speaker 1: shown us that when the ocean's churn, all it takes
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  Speaker 1: is one rogue wave to bring down a ship and
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  Speaker 1: its crew. Forever. Water nurtures, it gives life, it quenches
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  Speaker 1: our thirst, and yet it also has the power to destroy,
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  Speaker 1: much like it did in Bopaul, India in two thousand nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: Bopaul is a city located in the state of Mada, Pradesh,
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  Speaker 1: about fourteen hour drive north of Mumbai. It's been the
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  Speaker 1: birthplace of politicians, authors, athletes, and movie stars. It was
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  Speaker 1: also the site of a may your industrial disaster in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four, when a gas leak at a pesticide
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  Speaker 1: plant killed thousands of people, but bou Paul has turned
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  Speaker 1: itself around since then. The city, which boast a population
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  Speaker 1: of almost two million, is home to numerous educational and
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  Speaker 1: research facilities. It was also named India's cleanest state capital
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  Speaker 1: city for three consecutive years. And just like much of India,
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  Speaker 1: both Paul is prone to a phenomenon that occurs during
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  Speaker 1: the months of June through September called monsoon season. During
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  Speaker 1: monsoon season, a region can receive as much as ninety
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  Speaker 1: percent of its annual rainfall amounts in only a short
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  Speaker 1: few months. The monsoons also triggered dangerous floods capable of
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  Speaker 1: wiping out buildings, streets, and even killing people. In two
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  Speaker 1: thousand nineteen, however, the rains were nowhere to be found.
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  Speaker 1: A drought had struck Boau Paul and locals were desperate.
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  Speaker 1: Without rain, crops would not grow and famine was set
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  Speaker 1: to plague the region. But rather than wait for Mother
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  Speaker 1: Nature's help, Bopaul residents saw a different solution to jump
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  Speaker 1: start their rainy season. They conducted a ritual known by
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  Speaker 1: different names in the Hindu culture, but in beau Paul
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  Speaker 1: it was called the Manduca Paranaia. Manduca translates to frog,
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  Speaker 1: and paranaia means wedding, literally a frog wedding. During the ritual,
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  Speaker 1: a male frog and a female frog are selected by
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  Speaker 1: the people in town. The male is named Varuna, after
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  Speaker 1: the god of water, while the female is dubbed Barsha,
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  Speaker 1: meaning rain. The frogs are then dressed in ceremonial attire
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  Speaker 1: before they are married by a priest. Prayers are sung
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  Speaker 1: and the event is treated much like human wedding, after
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  Speaker 1: which a large feast is held and the frogs are
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  Speaker 1: placed in water for their honeymoon escape. The hope is
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  Speaker 1: that the union of the two amphibians will please Indra,
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  Speaker 1: the Hindu god of rain, and will end the draft.
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  Speaker 1: So on July nineteenth, two frogs from beau Paul entered
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  Speaker 1: into holy matrimony as a way to stave off an
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  Speaker 1: impending famine, and it worked almost immediately. Bopaul accumulated nearly
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  Speaker 1: sixty seven inches of rain in September alone right after
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  Speaker 1: the wedding. Their previous record had been said in two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and six, when rainfall amounted to a total of
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  Speaker 1: sixty six inches. Unfortunately, the frog wedding worked a little
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  Speaker 1: too well. Waters filled the streets, cars were brought to
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  Speaker 1: a standstill, Homes and businesses were flooded. It seemed as
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  Speaker 1: though there was no end in sight to the damage,
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  Speaker 1: and more rain was coming. A group of volunteers decided
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  Speaker 1: to do something to stop it. Using to clay frogs
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  Speaker 1: as proxies for the original couple, the volunteers held a
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  Speaker 1: ceremonial divorce. They chanted mantras and physically separated the frogs
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  Speaker 1: to symbolize the end of their brief marriage. The rains
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  Speaker 1: ended just a few weeks later. Curious you better believe it.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankie in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
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  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com and until next time, stay curious,
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  Speaker 1: ye