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The History of Pringles: Once You Pop... · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Ye
0:27
Speaker 1: welcome back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as
0:29
Speaker 1: always so much for tuning in. Let's give it up
0:33
Speaker 1: for the one and only, the Man, the Myth, the
0:34
Speaker 1: legend are super producer Mr Max Williams. Who do you who?
0:40
Speaker 1: And let's also they called me Ben, But I want
0:43
Speaker 1: to take a moment today and I need some fanfare here. Max, really,
0:48
Speaker 1: just turn it up to eleven because we've got the
0:51
Speaker 1: band back together. Everybody, and I mean everybody, even the
0:55
Speaker 1: people are sitting next to you if they don't have
0:57
Speaker 1: their headphones in, just hit him on the shoulder and
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Speaker 1: tell the clap with you right now, returning the one
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Speaker 1: and only Mr Noel Brown. I gotta say, I don't
1:14
Speaker 1: want to be responsible for anybody doing soft violence to
1:17
Speaker 1: people on the train, you know, for my benefit. Maybe
1:20
Speaker 1: a gentle nudge, a squeeze of the I don't know,
1:23
Speaker 1: people are weird about being touched. I would maybe just
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Speaker 1: one handed clap, you know, on your thank you, thank you,
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Speaker 1: That's what I'm getting at. Thank you, Ben and all
1:34
Speaker 1: and all of you who are potentially being beaten up
1:36
Speaker 1: by strangers, uh, for my benefit, um, thank you for
1:40
Speaker 1: your service. Thank you for your service, folks. To be back.
1:44
Speaker 1: It's good to be bad. It's so good to have
1:47
Speaker 1: you back, man, Thank you. I appreciate it. Man. You
1:50
Speaker 1: you did you you didn't miss too much. We finally
1:53
Speaker 1: did the McDonald's episode. I think I told you about
1:57
Speaker 1: this in our in our offline group chat because as
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Speaker 1: you know, folks, longtime ridiculous historians, Noel, Max and I
2:04
Speaker 1: are friends in real life, so we're pretty much talking
2:06
Speaker 1: to each other every day regardless of where we are.
2:09
Speaker 1: And uh nol, I gotta tell you. We gave Jonathan
2:13
Speaker 1: Strickland a chance. I had him on as a as
2:17
Speaker 1: a guest toast. We did two episodes and I don't
2:20
Speaker 1: know about Max, but no, he had me fooled. I
2:23
Speaker 1: thought he had turned over a new leaf. He was.
2:26
Speaker 1: He was an absolute gym, absolute peach until the very
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Speaker 1: end of the second episode. He did did he transform
2:32
Speaker 1: before your very ears? He sure did? He sure did, man.
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Speaker 1: But I think it's a very important note we have
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Speaker 1: to say here. We got the trivia question right though.
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Speaker 1: That's it. Yeah, we did you proud man, So we're
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Speaker 1: we're still ahead. Well, I would have to, I would
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Speaker 1: have to soft disagree. That didn't miss so much. I
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Speaker 1: mean it sounds like there was adventure, you know, uh,
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Speaker 1: like a cultic type behavior and activities, and I mean
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Speaker 1: you bury the lead there, Ben, I was really looking
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Speaker 1: forward to that McDonald's episode. Ronald McDonald is pure nightmare fuel,
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Speaker 1: even in his final form. But man, that that early
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Speaker 1: commercial that you always threaten us with his absolute terror, Man,
3:12
Speaker 1: that is the stuff of of of absolute nightmares. He's
3:16
Speaker 1: got like a weird carrot nosed thing. It looks like
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Speaker 1: like a like a John Wayne Gacy kind of thrown
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Speaker 1: together um you know, costume. Like it's yes, just chilling,
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Speaker 1: chilling for everybody else. Noel and I have been chasing
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Speaker 1: several episodes for years, and there are sometimes where I
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Speaker 1: wish that, uh, I wish that we could record the
3:41
Speaker 1: times we're just we're like hanging out. Sometimes we'll just
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Speaker 1: meet up for a drink and then we realize that
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Speaker 1: accidentally our conversation has become a show. Maybe one day
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Speaker 1: we'll do Ridiculous History after Dark. But for you, my friends,
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Speaker 1: my brother, my ride or die, I know, I know
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Speaker 1: you love the food episodes, man, I do too. We've
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Speaker 1: got one that is another doozy for us, and uh gosh,
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Speaker 1: I like, I don't even know where to begin, other
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Speaker 1: than to ask you, were you a Pringles kid man
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Speaker 1: when you were growing up? Where we're Pringles in the hierarchy,
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Speaker 1: I'm a Pringles adult man. It's the superior chip, There's
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Speaker 1: no question about it. They stack. You can make a
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Speaker 1: little duck mouth with them. If you flip one up
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Speaker 1: right side up and the other one upside down and
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Speaker 1: put it, you can quack. It's it's a prop, it's
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Speaker 1: a chip. It's it's self storing kind of. You know
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Speaker 1: that you're never gonna that's not sure. You will occasionally
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Speaker 1: run into some cracked Pringles, but it's it's rare. It's
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Speaker 1: a lot rarer than opening a bag of lays and
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Speaker 1: the whole thing is being demolished, not to mention the
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Speaker 1: shrinkage that you experienced with with bagged potato chips. At
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Speaker 1: least when you get a stack, you know, a tube
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Speaker 1: of Pringles, you know it's gonna be mainly full to
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Speaker 1: the top. It maybe a little they might have they
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Speaker 1: might have skimped a little bit of we're gonna get
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Speaker 1: into it. It's it's the kind of story that on
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Speaker 1: the surface seems like it would be dull once you
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Speaker 1: just get past the Oh, it's a it's a cool
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Speaker 1: you know, spheric, spherical, what's the word of hyperbolic. We're
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Speaker 1: gonna get to that chip. Um, where's the where's the
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Speaker 1: hook Where's well, it's hooky. It's a hooky story. It
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Speaker 1: goes places you will not expect. Oh yeah, we want to,
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Speaker 1: of course shout out our research associate Zach Williams, who
5:22
Speaker 1: you will meet very soon, folks, as well as our
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Speaker 1: research associate Jeff Bartlett's. Uh, they're they're on the way.
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Speaker 1: You'll have to believe us. But we were so excited
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Speaker 1: about this Pringle's episode because Pringles, I I think, just
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Speaker 1: to stay on this for a second, I totally agree, man,
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Speaker 1: Pringles does something beautiful that bags of chips don't do.
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Speaker 1: And also is Pringle technically a potato chip. We're gonna
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Speaker 1: get into all of that. But it's such a disappointment.
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Speaker 1: It's such a cold shower of buyer's remorse. When you
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Speaker 1: buy a bag of chips and you open it up
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Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, how about two thirds air and
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Speaker 1: about one third chip. Pringles doesn't do that. They don't
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Speaker 1: play I got, actually got a little embarrassing story I
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Speaker 1: would love to share on the air, because where else
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Speaker 1: am I gonna share this? But this is for my
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Speaker 1: friend Ronnie with your therapists. Perhaps, uh she she's tired
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Speaker 1: of hearing all these from me. But give it to
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Speaker 1: there was There was one night I was hanging with
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Speaker 1: my buddy Ronnie at the bar. We've worked out this
6:20
Speaker 1: is probably about eight nine years ago. And let's to
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Speaker 1: say I was having a little bit of fun night
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Speaker 1: and my buddy Ronnie was gonna ride home and I'd
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Speaker 1: realized I hadn't eaten enough, and uh, I had no
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Speaker 1: food at the house. And he's like, I want you
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Speaker 1: to buy some potato chips at the gas station. I go,
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Speaker 1: absolutely not, Man, those things are like air. It's the
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Speaker 1: biggest rip off, he said. I wanted this giant rant
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Speaker 1: in the gas station, all about how much error and
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Speaker 1: potato back. So Pringles, do you know what you're getting?
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Speaker 1: You know what you're getting? Yeah, And this is where
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Speaker 1: our story begins. Ridiculous historians. We're talking innovation, we're talking intrigue,
6:54
Speaker 1: we're talking a little bit of existentialism, and of course cartoons.
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Speaker 1: Uh no, you nailed it. You set us up so well, man. Uh,
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Speaker 1: the idea of like the ultimate downer for anybody who
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Speaker 1: desperately wants a snack. You get your potato chips, will
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Speaker 1: you'll crisp as they call them in some parts of
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Speaker 1: the world, and you open it up and then you've
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Speaker 1: got crumbs, they're broken, or their stale. It's just a bummer.
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Speaker 1: You have to go back to the store. Procter and
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Speaker 1: Gamble was aware of this, right at some point. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: It's always funny to me that you think of companies
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Speaker 1: like Procter and Gamble and you think, like, you know,
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Speaker 1: the ones that make all the chemicals and stuff, the
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Speaker 1: chemical of things. But these kinds of company there they
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Speaker 1: diversify and a lot of them, you know, have divisions
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Speaker 1: that are into like flavor science and like food technology. Um,
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Speaker 1: you're right. They had a whole division chock full of
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Speaker 1: food chemists and organic engineers that they tasked, you know,
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Speaker 1: they you know, vultrond up to create what would be
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Speaker 1: considered by the world. They hoped to be the perfect
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Speaker 1: potato chip. No more of those stale you know, crummy
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Speaker 1: bits at the bottom of the bag. You know, with
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Speaker 1: that that that shock at the consumer feels when they
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Speaker 1: opened the bag and it doesn't look anything like the picture.
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Speaker 1: They wanted something that would look like the picture every time,
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Speaker 1: every single time. Yes, And to the point about people
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Speaker 1: with engineering or chemical backgrounds, Yes, folks, Procter and Gamble
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Speaker 1: has their fingers and a lot of figurative pringle cans.
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Speaker 1: They had a mission. They wanted to fix the problems
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Speaker 1: that you just described, Noel, and they did it under
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Speaker 1: the leadership of a guy named Vic Mills, who, fun fact,
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Speaker 1: also invented the disposable diaper, and then a food chemist
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Speaker 1: named Frederick Bauer. Yeah, that's well, yeah, it is well,
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Speaker 1: you know, one starts the cycle and one ends it.
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Speaker 1: I guess right. Uh, it's in terms of digestion that's gross.
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Speaker 1: We don't have to ruin pringles everyone, even though we're
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Speaker 1: kind of going to a little bit we're gonna get
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Speaker 1: into like slurry and all of the goop that these
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Speaker 1: things are actually made up. But I I would argue,
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Speaker 1: by the end of this, you're still gonna want to
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Speaker 1: you know, pop and and not stop, which is also
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Speaker 1: a bright slogan. I would argue because it challenges you
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Speaker 1: to not be a junkie. It challenges you to not
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Speaker 1: be you know, and and addicts you know, once you pop,
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Speaker 1: you can't Oh, I can't can't I pop? I can't stop. Like, dude,
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Speaker 1: I have a conspiracy theory about this. I feel like
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Speaker 1: and this is totally unfounded. This is just my speculation.
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Speaker 1: I feel like maybe there was a pang of conscience
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Speaker 1: in the engineering, which we'll get to where they made
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Speaker 1: just like bo Burnham was cavetching about in his specials,
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Speaker 1: they made the tube too small for a grown person's hands.
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Speaker 1: So you can have that crossroads moment and you can say,
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Speaker 1: have I have I popped enough? This is this hurting
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Speaker 1: my family. Bro, you have not popped enough until you
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Speaker 1: get to the crusty bits at the bottom. And then
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Speaker 1: what you do is you dip those those bad boys
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Speaker 1: right into your mouth until that until that tennis ball
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Speaker 1: tube of chips is is completely bone dry. But he
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Speaker 1: exactly Frederick Bauer right, Um, he is the food chemist
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Speaker 1: in league with this guy, Vic Mills, the diaper guy,
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Speaker 1: may start out by the siding. They want this process
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Speaker 1: to begin in a little bit of an unconventional way,
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Speaker 1: not the way potato chips are usually made, which is
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Speaker 1: like you know, deep frying slices of potato and oil.
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Speaker 1: Presumably with this one they actually wanted to use dehydrated
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Speaker 1: potatoes and create kind of this this slurry, this kind
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Speaker 1: of paste. They could then, you know, use a die
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Speaker 1: cast kind of mechanism to cut out whatever shape they wanted,
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Speaker 1: so that each chip would be like kind of stamped
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Speaker 1: out on this like line. Like think about you know,
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Speaker 1: the way like plastic toys are made, you know, they're
10:57
Speaker 1: they're cut out, or like things are like three D printed.
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Speaker 1: Even it would everything would have the exact same size,
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Speaker 1: the exact same shape, and the exact same weight, which
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Speaker 1: would allow them to kind of streamline the whole process
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Speaker 1: and really get to the root and solve it in
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Speaker 1: terms of these like these generations old potato chip problems. Yes,
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Speaker 1: and you know you guys nol Max, you know, I'm
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Speaker 1: I'm super fascinated by the often unsung history of packing innovation.
11:24
Speaker 1: Packaging innovation, I should say, yeah, this, this is this
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Speaker 1: uniformity is key to preventing breakage. These chips are made
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Speaker 1: in uh in what you might call a saddle shape.
11:38
Speaker 1: They look kind of like a wide saddle. Technically the
11:41
Speaker 1: name for that with a tie on is a hyperbolic
11:44
Speaker 1: paraboloid shape. This means that you stack them up, they
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Speaker 1: don't have room to move in the tube, and therefore
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Speaker 1: it's much more difficult for them to break inside the
11:55
Speaker 1: package nol Max. We also have to point out at
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Speaker 1: this at this juncture, this is not a sponsored episode, folks, Pringle.
12:03
Speaker 1: We didn't talk to Pringles, we didn't ask him permission,
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Speaker 1: We didn't do any of that. We just are super
12:08
Speaker 1: into potato chips. Peek behind the curtain, though, Ben, we
12:11
Speaker 1: would have gladly taken their money. Caveats with the caveat that, y'all,
12:16
Speaker 1: if we come across some darkness, we're gonna We're gonna
12:20
Speaker 1: talk about it. You know, I'll take it or leave it.
12:22
Speaker 1: That's how we do. I mean, y'all will remember the
12:25
Speaker 1: underwear episode. We got into a lot of chlamydia talk,
12:28
Speaker 1: and you know, venereal diseases and weird like washing garments
12:32
Speaker 1: with urine. I mean, just put we're putting it out
12:34
Speaker 1: there that we are not entirely shills. We will shill
12:36
Speaker 1: for you, but we will speak the truth. So if
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Speaker 1: Pringles comes to us after the fact, like let's say,
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Speaker 1: like in a week and they're hey, we want to
12:43
Speaker 1: be a sponsored content. Will we do it if they
12:45
Speaker 1: pay us in pringles? Yeah, we're gonna gonna get to
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Speaker 1: something that. Yeah, no, you'll take cash. I was gonna say,
12:53
Speaker 1: as long as they're stuffed into pringles cans. Yes, yes, yes,
12:59
Speaker 1: what are those two? So so pay attention, Prinkles. We're
13:02
Speaker 1: getting into it. Also, we're going to name some of
13:05
Speaker 1: the weird flavors we have request for you, Prinkles. Uh
13:09
Speaker 1: so all right. So Bower comes up with this shape,
13:13
Speaker 1: which is, you know, low key, it's super innovative. No
13:16
Speaker 1: other potato outfit has done something like this before, and
13:21
Speaker 1: Bower to add to his accolades, he is the guy
13:26
Speaker 1: who develops that vacuum sealed can. That's what houses the
13:31
Speaker 1: chips and cheer pointell about staleness. The fact that it's
13:35
Speaker 1: vacuum sealed also keeps them fresh. We're getting a lot
13:38
Speaker 1: of this from a great article in Food and Wine
13:41
Speaker 1: by Matt Blitz. I'm not going to give the headline yet.
13:44
Speaker 1: I don't think we do, because it's a really cool spoiler.
13:47
Speaker 1: Matt Blitz, by the way, the most superhero like name
13:50
Speaker 1: and all the Food and Wine writing. I would have
13:52
Speaker 1: to talk to um so wait, so Ben, it's a
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Speaker 1: hyperbolic paraboloid, a paraboloid that just is always overstating the
13:59
Speaker 1: case and like being really smaltsey about everything. Yeah. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: it is a hyperbolic paraboloid. Is the most extra of
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Speaker 1: all paraboloids. Yeah, everything is the end all be all
14:13
Speaker 1: for this paraboloid. You know. It's like, and that was
14:15
Speaker 1: the best I'm the best shape that ever existed. It
14:18
Speaker 1: thinks a lot of itself really kind of sucks all
14:21
Speaker 1: the air out of the room. Uh. Literally, the shape
14:25
Speaker 1: doesn't do that. They do that with a machine. But
14:27
Speaker 1: here's the thing. There is a specific science a golden
14:31
Speaker 1: ratio as kind of situation to these shapes. The two
14:35
Speaker 1: principal curvatures of this design meet each other. That's what's called. Uh.
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Speaker 1: This is from an excellent article in the Interesting Engineering
14:44
Speaker 1: dot com. By the way, uh, these zero the zero
14:47
Speaker 1: point is known as the saddle point or the mini
14:50
Speaker 1: max point, and it is this intersecting double curvature that
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Speaker 1: that is actually what causes there to be limited stress
15:00
Speaker 1: from one chip passed on to the next, so there
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Speaker 1: won't be any kind of like a breakage that would
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Speaker 1: kind of carry on from one to the other if
15:08
Speaker 1: the pressure got too great. Um, it's the same kind
15:10
Speaker 1: of principle as like arches, right, like like uh, buying
15:13
Speaker 1: buttresses and like you know in engineering and architecture. Yeah,
15:17
Speaker 1: it's similar to Okay. So one of the one of
15:21
Speaker 1: the super interesting natural engineering questions is the idea of
15:26
Speaker 1: why eggs, Uh, you know, why why eggs have evolved
15:31
Speaker 1: to have an oval shape? It redistributes stress and pressure,
15:36
Speaker 1: and that's kind of what's happening with this nifty pringles design.
15:40
Speaker 1: And as you mentioned, the author of that article over
15:45
Speaker 1: interesting engineering, Kathleen V. I Lose. She points out that
15:49
Speaker 1: this also encourages pringles to have extra crunch, whether you're
15:56
Speaker 1: biting off a piece of them or whether you're putting
15:58
Speaker 1: the whole pringle in your mouth at once, because that
16:00
Speaker 1: is like now you are you are applying some of
16:03
Speaker 1: that stress from one of the strongest muscles in your body,
16:06
Speaker 1: the human jaw. And she says, if you frequently eat pringles,
16:11
Speaker 1: you would know that they never break off symmetrically, but
16:15
Speaker 1: instead they crack in different directions. They make flakes with
16:18
Speaker 1: varying shapes. It's all due to the hyperbolic paraboloid geometry
16:23
Speaker 1: of each chip. I mean, this goes deep this article.
16:27
Speaker 1: If you are, um someone, Yeah, if you're someone who
16:32
Speaker 1: likes to uh unwind a little after work with whatever
16:36
Speaker 1: you've chosen vices, and you like learning about weird things,
16:39
Speaker 1: we highly recommend you read about the fascinating geometry of
16:44
Speaker 1: the Pringles chip. I can't believe that what we're saying that,
16:46
Speaker 1: but it's true. Yeah, we're really just scratching the surface here. Um,
16:50
Speaker 1: but check it out. Kathleen Villa loose over at interesting engineering,
16:54
Speaker 1: crunchy engineering of Pringles hyperbolic paraboloid shape. Um, we're going
16:58
Speaker 1: from that, but boys, that so much more. That's just
17:00
Speaker 1: literally one like to lead off with, like just the
17:03
Speaker 1: engineering part of it. Here was a problem though the
17:06
Speaker 1: original chips or when they started doing this and the
17:09
Speaker 1: like what do you call it, uh, research and development stage.
17:12
Speaker 1: None of this has been released to the public yet.
17:14
Speaker 1: This is them doing this bind closed doors uh at
17:16
Speaker 1: proct during gamble. They couldn't figure out how to make
17:19
Speaker 1: them not taste like trash. They were bad chips. And
17:31
Speaker 1: you know, I would argue that a lot of a
17:34
Speaker 1: lot of the the zing from even modern day Pringles
17:37
Speaker 1: comes from that dust. You know, that that Pringles does.
17:40
Speaker 1: But you can get you know, a plane pringle and
17:43
Speaker 1: it's not bad. It tastes potato eat. Does it taste
17:46
Speaker 1: like a lace or or a ruffle. No, it's got
17:49
Speaker 1: a different flavor. It's like a different animal. But they
17:51
Speaker 1: had not h they had not cracked that part of
17:54
Speaker 1: the equation yet, they thought so much about the slurry
17:57
Speaker 1: and the shape. They forgot to remember that people need
17:59
Speaker 1: to be to eat these and have them, you know,
18:02
Speaker 1: go down and enjoy them and choose them over another
18:05
Speaker 1: potato product. Yeah, this is so, this is the thing.
18:08
Speaker 1: Picture our pal Bauer, Frederick Frederick Bauer. He's nailed everything.
18:13
Speaker 1: He's got a kick ass can or twobe. He's got
18:16
Speaker 1: an amazing strategy with a lot of smart engineering behind it.
18:21
Speaker 1: But he says, I can't make these taste good. He
18:25
Speaker 1: tells the suits, it's gonna take me a while to
18:28
Speaker 1: make these actually edible potato crisp, because again they have
18:32
Speaker 1: to make it into a paste to form that provoloid shape.
18:36
Speaker 1: So soon enough the suits pull him off of the
18:39
Speaker 1: top secret Prinkles project. They put him on some other stuff.
18:43
Speaker 1: It's not until the nineteen sixties. Fast forward to the sixties,
18:47
Speaker 1: there's another Procter and Gamble researcher, Alexander Lipa, is out
18:52
Speaker 1: of Montgomery, Ohio, and Lipa comes back because and this
18:57
Speaker 1: happens in corporations all the time, because Soccer and Gamble says,
19:01
Speaker 1: all right, we need new products. Right, we're always diversifying.
19:04
Speaker 1: We're not just diaper people. We want to be in
19:07
Speaker 1: more and more parts of the grocery store shelves. So
19:10
Speaker 1: they say, let's go back to this idea. These crisp
19:14
Speaker 1: in a tube, and let's figure out a recipe that
19:19
Speaker 1: will make this something people want to eat. So they
19:25
Speaker 1: land on this recipe that has uh, let's see, dehydrated
19:28
Speaker 1: potatoes with a mixture of rice and corn as well
19:33
Speaker 1: as wheat. So these are again to be clear, these
19:36
Speaker 1: are not like lace potato chips or something. They're not
19:39
Speaker 1: sliced up actual potatoes. They take this stuff. They take
19:43
Speaker 1: the actual potato, they dehydrate it, they kind of make
19:47
Speaker 1: it up paste, and they mix it up with all
19:49
Speaker 1: this other stuff so that they can predictably press it
19:53
Speaker 1: kind of like they can cookie cutter it basically into
19:57
Speaker 1: that shape. And this is my favorite part of the story. No,
20:02
Speaker 1: this is where they get involved with some sci fi folks. Yeah, wow,
20:07
Speaker 1: that was a zoom. Did not see that coming. Are
20:11
Speaker 1: they're going to create a chip based religion or something
20:14
Speaker 1: from here? I don't know. Dune is really about pringles.
20:18
Speaker 1: When you think about the spices the dust that I
20:20
Speaker 1: was talking about earlier, and it must have otherwise the
20:23
Speaker 1: chips taste like garbage. Yeah, it's true. Bauer wasn't the
20:27
Speaker 1: only person who helped, you know, with this, uh, this
20:31
Speaker 1: development of the you know, kind of future chip. Right.
20:35
Speaker 1: There is a dude who, after a brief extent in
20:38
Speaker 1: the Korean War as a combat engineer, um went on
20:42
Speaker 1: to study engineering at the University of Houston, a guy
20:44
Speaker 1: named gene Wolf. Okay that they may sound familiar. Gene
20:49
Speaker 1: Wolf out of college got a job with Procter and Gamble.
20:54
Speaker 1: While he was there, he was on the pringles team. Uh,
20:57
Speaker 1: and his job was specifically to this is from Food
21:01
Speaker 1: and Wine dot com article, by the way, was to
21:03
Speaker 1: quote devise a means of frying molded potato shingles. I
21:09
Speaker 1: just realized that, holy crap, pringles are shingles. Don't let
21:14
Speaker 1: the word get out. Yeah, before they dropped onto a
21:17
Speaker 1: conveyor belt. So again we're picturing this, So that is
21:20
Speaker 1: the process in fact that that is still used today.
21:23
Speaker 1: That the way they're fried and then and then you know,
21:25
Speaker 1: dropped out of this conveyor belt to be sorted into
21:27
Speaker 1: those cans. But again I mentioned you might have you
21:29
Speaker 1: might have heard of this fellow. Uh, that's not really
21:32
Speaker 1: what he's known for. UM. In nineteen seventy two, he
21:36
Speaker 1: was an editor for a technical engineering magazine, UH and
21:39
Speaker 1: at that time he published his first successful sci fi novel,
21:43
Speaker 1: and eight years later, the first volume of his uh
21:47
Speaker 1: what's considered his kind of greatest work, The Book of
21:50
Speaker 1: the New Sun, came out. It was compared to some
21:54
Speaker 1: really you know, high minded literature like Ulysses, for example,
21:58
Speaker 1: by the New Yorker UH and it is considered one
22:00
Speaker 1: of the greatest sci fi collections of all time. I
22:03
Speaker 1: am not familiar with this book, Ben, I would not
22:06
Speaker 1: be surprised if you were. UM, I've heard the name,
22:09
Speaker 1: but I'm very intrigued. Yeah, honestly, it's dope. UH. Don't
22:13
Speaker 1: let if you don't like James Joyce, don't let the
22:16
Speaker 1: comparison to Ulysses fool you. It's a heck of a read.
22:20
Speaker 1: We also want to say. His first sci fi novel
22:23
Speaker 1: that was successful was called The Fifth Head of Cerebus,
22:27
Speaker 1: and it's three interrelated novellas. Uh. That one I haven't read,
22:31
Speaker 1: but I have read the Book of the New Son
22:33
Speaker 1: and I enjoyed it. We also, do you know what
22:36
Speaker 1: we should do? We should take just a second and
22:38
Speaker 1: figure out this Pringle's name, because there are theories about it,
22:43
Speaker 1: and at this point in two no one is acent convinced.
22:49
Speaker 1: One one theory is that there's a guy named Mark
22:52
Speaker 1: Pringle who way back this is true, folks, way back
22:56
Speaker 1: in ninety seven, this guy filed a U S. Patent
23:00
Speaker 1: for something called this is a Quote Method and Apparatus
23:04
Speaker 1: for processing potatoes. Mark Pringle's work was later cited by
23:09
Speaker 1: Procter and Gamble in their own patent for improving the
23:14
Speaker 1: taste of what would become Pringles. Then there's this other
23:17
Speaker 1: idea that there were these ad guys who worked for
23:20
Speaker 1: Procter and they they just said, oh, the name sounds
23:24
Speaker 1: good because they live on Pringle Drive. Like there's a
23:27
Speaker 1: bunch of weird stuff here, dude. These are also graspy
23:32
Speaker 1: to me because I think the answer is so obvious.
23:36
Speaker 1: Their potato shingles their pringles. But where's the ar come from.
23:44
Speaker 1: That's the fun, that's just the fun. That's just pingles
23:49
Speaker 1: doesn't sound good. Pingles sounds no. Pingles sounds weirdly, dirt weirdly.
23:55
Speaker 1: Pringles sounds fun. There's no Jonathan pring goal. Come on,
24:00
Speaker 1: this is absurd. Uh we there you'll maybe recall, uh there,
24:06
Speaker 1: this was in the news not terribly long ago, this
24:09
Speaker 1: whole Wikipedia scam kind of that. That led to another
24:13
Speaker 1: another possible iteration of this. Uh, the name of the
24:18
Speaker 1: pringles man the muster by the way, the pringles man.
24:21
Speaker 1: If you notice he has no mouth. He has mustache,
24:25
Speaker 1: but no mouth with which to enjoy the pringles. But
24:28
Speaker 1: he also is a pringle his head, yes, it is
24:31
Speaker 1: kind of the shape of a pringle. So presumably you're
24:34
Speaker 1: eating him or or his his life with each most
24:38
Speaker 1: project exactly. Yeah. Yeah. He was only saved from death
24:41
Speaker 1: in the two because of that amazing mustache which hides
24:46
Speaker 1: his mouth. It's weird, so okay, this is so the
24:50
Speaker 1: name is part of it. They did, regardless of which
24:54
Speaker 1: theory we want to ascribe to, And there are more
24:56
Speaker 1: than what we've named. The product was first known as
25:00
Speaker 1: Pringles newfangled potato chips, but other potato chip manufacturers raised
25:07
Speaker 1: cane about this, and it's because Noel. They said that
25:11
Speaker 1: Pringles fails to meet the definition of a potato chip
25:16
Speaker 1: because they're made from that mixture. They're made from potato dough. Basically. Uh.
25:22
Speaker 1: And this is where I would love for you to
25:24
Speaker 1: weigh in. Man, is a Pringle a potato chip? I mean, yeah,
25:29
Speaker 1: I don't. I guess I don't really have much skin
25:31
Speaker 1: in the game as far as like purest definitions of
25:35
Speaker 1: a potato chip. Is that term? I didn't realize we
25:37
Speaker 1: put so much stock in that, but I guess when
25:39
Speaker 1: the Food and Drug Administrations involved, these terms kind of matter.
25:43
Speaker 1: So a chip off the old block would imply that
25:46
Speaker 1: that was a literal, physical piece of thing that came
25:48
Speaker 1: off said block. So therefore, a chip, a potato chip
25:52
Speaker 1: needs to be a thing that came off of a
25:54
Speaker 1: physical potato in its purest form. I imagine a man there,
26:00
Speaker 1: there are so many people who are listening right now,
26:03
Speaker 1: and you're in we hear you, we know where you are.
26:06
Speaker 1: You're in your dorm, right it's maybe freshman year of college.
26:09
Speaker 1: It's probably around two three am you might be in
26:12
Speaker 1: some Pringles right now. Tell us what you think, tell
26:15
Speaker 1: us what your your pals think? Is this potato chip? Well,
26:20
Speaker 1: it's like is craft are craft singles cheese? They are
26:25
Speaker 1: crossed right, whateppens cheese product. I would argue that pringles
26:30
Speaker 1: is a more upscale snack than than but you know what,
26:34
Speaker 1: But then there there is a place for for craft singles.
26:37
Speaker 1: They melt so scientifically perfectly on a burger or like
26:42
Speaker 1: a breakfast sandwich, like an egg and cheese. Is really
26:44
Speaker 1: nothing else like it, so that there is there's a
26:46
Speaker 1: place for them. Again, I think Pringles is the superior chip.
26:49
Speaker 1: Given given my druthers, I will buy Pringles every time.
26:52
Speaker 1: Am I gonna get caught up in the semantics of
26:54
Speaker 1: all this, like I don't know food? You know, lawyer,
26:58
Speaker 1: it doesn't. It doesn't really fathered me when we are
27:00
Speaker 1: the other. It's not even the same arguments a hot
27:03
Speaker 1: dog of sandwich. I don't feel like this is the
27:05
Speaker 1: same realm. It's not a philosophical argument to me, right right?
27:09
Speaker 1: And do we need these labels in two? By the way, again,
27:13
Speaker 1: if you want to be super fun at parties, folks, uh,
27:16
Speaker 1: you can point out that the reason Kraft Cheese singles
27:20
Speaker 1: melt so well is that they contain sodium citrate. That's
27:25
Speaker 1: the secret sauce. Don't tell anyone except for the millions
27:29
Speaker 1: of other people listening to this show. Maybe we should
27:31
Speaker 1: get a secret handshake for ridiculous history. One hand we
27:35
Speaker 1: can't shake, though, is Frederick Bowers. He has passed away.
27:42
Speaker 1: You mean he was gonna have been canceled or something like.
27:44
Speaker 1: We can no longer extend our hand and gratitude because
27:48
Speaker 1: unfortunately it turns out secret Nazi, secret Nazi. That's what
27:53
Speaker 1: pringles were all about. But he Uh, it's weird because
27:57
Speaker 1: he uh, this is why we didn't spoil the excellent
28:00
Speaker 1: article that Matt wrote earlier. Uh, Matt Blitzet is the
28:04
Speaker 1: best name in food writing. Dr Bower. In his will,
28:09
Speaker 1: let's be clear, he planned this, He thought about this.
28:14
Speaker 1: He made a well informed, very weird choice for his funeral.
28:19
Speaker 1: In his will he said, bury me in a human
28:24
Speaker 1: sized pringle. Can you know it's it really is a
28:29
Speaker 1: testament to how he viewed this part of his life,
28:32
Speaker 1: like like this, this was his life's crowning achievement. Yeah,
28:37
Speaker 1: that's how he wanted to be remembered. Literally he went
28:40
Speaker 1: out like gee, he went out like a p Also,
28:42
Speaker 1: in case you're wondering for anybody with a similar bent
28:46
Speaker 1: toward morbidity in the macabre like me. Uh, he did
28:51
Speaker 1: not ask for his remains to be mixed with potatoes, rice,
28:55
Speaker 1: sweet and flower. He he just they just put the
28:59
Speaker 1: human him, without potatoes, into a life size Pringle can
29:03
Speaker 1: in two thousand. So he was not cremated like it
29:06
Speaker 1: was his his like full body that had been like
29:09
Speaker 1: um embalmed and stuff was shoved in this can. Ah,
29:13
Speaker 1: that's an excellent point. Well he was. Let me be
29:16
Speaker 1: clear there, let me clarify. He was cremated. His ashes
29:20
Speaker 1: were putting a Pringles can, but they were not mixed
29:23
Speaker 1: with um dehydrated potato, like you can't dig it up
29:27
Speaker 1: and eat it as you would have Pringle's chip. It
29:30
Speaker 1: would have been a real next level flex for him
29:32
Speaker 1: to have had his ashes mixed into a special flavor
29:35
Speaker 1: of Pringles power flavored Pringles. Um. Yeah, okay, we freach
29:42
Speaker 1: some maximum morbidity here. I will say though this is
29:45
Speaker 1: not unusual. Um. I was just in a situation where
29:48
Speaker 1: I had occasion to speak to a mortician. Um, regarding
29:53
Speaker 1: cremains and regarding what types of vessels are are able
29:57
Speaker 1: to be used, assuming that there were all kinds of
29:59
Speaker 1: like weird laws around it. Not the case. This person
30:02
Speaker 1: informed me that they have they had seen cremains placed
30:06
Speaker 1: in a Mr. Potato Head before. Yeah, surely at the
30:12
Speaker 1: request of the deceased. I would imagine, you know, that's
30:15
Speaker 1: the kind of thing you don't just kind of drum up. Hey,
30:18
Speaker 1: you know what Dad would have liked. Let's put his
30:20
Speaker 1: cremains in the old Mr. Potato head. Yeah. So. Uh.
30:25
Speaker 1: Bower's son Larry has an interview with Time magazine about
30:31
Speaker 1: this uh when when Bauer passes away in two thousand
30:34
Speaker 1: and eight, he says, when my dad first raised the
30:37
Speaker 1: burial idea in the nineteen eighties, I chuckled about it.
30:42
Speaker 1: But they knew what they had to do. They had
30:44
Speaker 1: to go to Walgreens. They didn't get a custom Pringles can.
30:47
Speaker 1: They went to their local drug store, picked up some Pringles,
30:51
Speaker 1: and they debated about which flavor to use. Ultimately, they
30:56
Speaker 1: sided with tradition, and Larry Bowers said, look, we need
31:01
Speaker 1: to use the original flavor. And that's why even today,
31:05
Speaker 1: somewhere out there in Arlington Memorial Gardens in Cincinnati, Ohio.
31:10
Speaker 1: There's a grave that contains a pringles can holding the
31:14
Speaker 1: ashes of the man who invented the tube nuts, crisp potatoes, yeah, well, no, well,
31:23
Speaker 1: and other things. We'll do that in a little bit too,
31:26
Speaker 1: as the formula has changed. But you know that slurry
31:29
Speaker 1: or or paste that we talked about, it was dehydrated
31:31
Speaker 1: potatoes and like you know, corn wheat, you know, other
31:35
Speaker 1: things went into uh rice exactly. And then again we're
31:38
Speaker 1: gonna get into you know, and then the dust is
31:40
Speaker 1: its own thing. The dust must flow. By the way,
31:43
Speaker 1: what what's your favorite potato chip dust? I'm a big
31:47
Speaker 1: sour cream and onion guy. Do you go off for
31:50
Speaker 1: the hot chips the hot dust? You know? Not not
31:53
Speaker 1: really a hot chip guy. I'm I'm hot enough on
31:56
Speaker 1: my own, I would say. Uh. The thing that I
31:59
Speaker 1: love out these conversations is that a lot of people
32:03
Speaker 1: don't know this unrelated chip. In fact, derritos they don't
32:08
Speaker 1: need that dust. Their marketing department decided that the orange
32:12
Speaker 1: dust is part of the derrito's eating experience. So you
32:17
Speaker 1: can eat you can eat dust less dorritos, or you
32:19
Speaker 1: can do like our pal Dylan taught me Dylan Fagan. Yeah, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan. Yeah,
32:30
Speaker 1: it's Dylan. Oh yeah, do you guess, So who's here?
32:35
Speaker 1: Oh he's my friend. God, that's a fun Yeah, Dylan
32:46
Speaker 1: ep good friend of ours. In the show, he eats
32:49
Speaker 1: like hot Cheetos and Dorritos with chopsticks so he doesn't
32:52
Speaker 1: get any dust on his fingers. That's kind of help
32:55
Speaker 1: you if you are eating Cheetos or Dorritos and then
32:58
Speaker 1: do a crime, you know, jeezus. Yeah, they'll leave like
33:02
Speaker 1: a like a book, a trail, like a like a
33:04
Speaker 1: snail trail of of of of of golden dust. Uh. Well,
33:08
Speaker 1: it's not like golden. It's more kind of reddish brown. Yeah,
33:11
Speaker 1: it's like an umber, I guess. But the like a
33:14
Speaker 1: bright number. But I love that we're talking about this.
33:17
Speaker 1: So chester Chester Cheetah obviously has gone down for a
33:21
Speaker 1: lot of crimes that he didn't commit. The poor guy
33:23
Speaker 1: gets stitched up, and that leads us to talking about
33:26
Speaker 1: another mascot, the Pringles mascot, which reintroduced earlier in the show.
33:32
Speaker 1: He has a bit of a mystery. His name, according
33:37
Speaker 1: to some, is Julius Pringles or Mr P. But here's
33:43
Speaker 1: why I'm saying this guy is a man of mystery.
33:48
Speaker 1: I think there's more to the story about the alleged
33:52
Speaker 1: name Julius. This guy might have a couple of pseudonyms.
33:57
Speaker 1: He does. And by the way, he's also changed as
33:59
Speaker 1: a parents a little bit over the years, like a
34:02
Speaker 1: man with a secret. You may recall the classic UH
34:06
Speaker 1: mr P design where his waxed mustache and crop of
34:10
Speaker 1: hair were a little more realistic. You know, they had
34:13
Speaker 1: like texture to them than the color, kind of a
34:16
Speaker 1: brown or like an auburn kind of color, and this
34:18
Speaker 1: little mop of hair on top, and his eyes had
34:21
Speaker 1: these little shiny little whites in them, and he was
34:24
Speaker 1: wearing a bow tie. Recently, I believe it was back
34:28
Speaker 1: in September, mr P got his first big design update
34:34
Speaker 1: UH in twenty years, and it's significant. Like many things
34:39
Speaker 1: in design, this goes for more of a minimalist approach
34:42
Speaker 1: these days. The mustache is now just pure black with
34:46
Speaker 1: no textures um, the eyes no more little glinty whites,
34:50
Speaker 1: and instead of a crop of hair, he has these
34:52
Speaker 1: disembodied eyebrows that just sort of float above the head.
34:55
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the kind of thing you could whip
34:57
Speaker 1: up in in Adobe Illustrator in like seconds. But somebody
35:01
Speaker 1: got paid a gazillion dollars for this, you know. That's
35:04
Speaker 1: how these things work. And I'm not saying I could
35:06
Speaker 1: have done it. That's like saying, oh, look at this Picasso,
35:08
Speaker 1: I could know you couldn't. You couldn't have done that.
35:10
Speaker 1: It's brilliant design work. But it is funny how how
35:12
Speaker 1: simple it is when you really get down to it. Yeah,
35:15
Speaker 1: and the issue, you know, this is happening with so
35:19
Speaker 1: many food mascots these days, Like the Quaker oats guy
35:23
Speaker 1: just keeps getting younger and younger by that that old
35:26
Speaker 1: man I trusted to give me oats is now like
35:30
Speaker 1: twenty five with a silver wig. It's a weird time.
35:33
Speaker 1: It's a weird time to be a food mascot. Also, uh,
35:37
Speaker 1: to peel the curtain, to pop the tube of Pringles conspiracies,
35:42
Speaker 1: and once your poppy can't stop, here's another one. It
35:45
Speaker 1: turns out the name Julius Pringles, even though Kellogg's claims
35:51
Speaker 1: it's officially trademarked, it was made up by two college
35:57
Speaker 1: students back in two thousand and in six. They called
36:01
Speaker 1: him Julius Pringle's know you and I were talking about
36:04
Speaker 1: this off air. They went on Wikipedia and they made it.
36:07
Speaker 1: So our moral of the story is be careful what
36:10
Speaker 1: you read on the Wiki. Always check the horses. To
36:13
Speaker 1: your point, the company was taken in by this, you know,
36:16
Speaker 1: I mean, no one is immune to the Wikipedia grift.
36:19
Speaker 1: You know, however, well intentioned and and you know, you
36:23
Speaker 1: know some of them armed with the right information, it's
36:25
Speaker 1: very easy to just read something and be like that
36:27
Speaker 1: seems right. Let's roll with that. Julius Pringle not a thing,
36:32
Speaker 1: not a thing, not a thing. But you know, uh,
36:35
Speaker 1: it's we are all the stories we tell ourselves, right,
36:39
Speaker 1: So maybe Julius will one day make that canonical. Kellogg's
36:45
Speaker 1: certainly has another person who has thought about Pringles at
36:49
Speaker 1: least as much as us. Is a guy who might
36:52
Speaker 1: recognize we're a big fan of him, Uh will pal
36:55
Speaker 1: of ours? Mr John Oliver from The Daily Show, from
37:00
Speaker 1: countless stand up appearances from Community from most recently last
37:04
Speaker 1: week tonight. So John had this thing. John and his
37:08
Speaker 1: writers had this thing kind of recently where they just said,
37:14
Speaker 1: how come we never see the body of Mr p
37:17
Speaker 1: How what is the Pringles the Pringle Man's body look like,
37:21
Speaker 1: and John actually went on a huge rant about this
37:26
Speaker 1: and listeners to last week Tonight responded and send them
37:31
Speaker 1: all these pictures of what they thought the Pringles man
37:36
Speaker 1: looked like below the neck. They're pretty fascinating. There's a
37:39
Speaker 1: lot of inspiration from the natural world, like an octopus
37:43
Speaker 1: or a hermit crab. And John was not having it. Man.
37:48
Speaker 1: John demanded that he get an answer, and he put
37:52
Speaker 1: his money where his mouth is. He said he would
37:54
Speaker 1: give ten thousand dollars to a nonprofit called Feeding America
37:58
Speaker 1: if Pringles showed a full body Mr P slash Julius
38:04
Speaker 1: Pringles on air um and they did you wanna you
38:11
Speaker 1: want to describe it? You you you you you deserve this, buddy.
38:16
Speaker 1: Well before we do that, though, did you ever have
38:18
Speaker 1: any inklear Again, I think I've made my my position clear.
38:21
Speaker 1: I believe that Julius Pringle or Mr P is in
38:25
Speaker 1: fact a Pringle himself. He has this preparabolic shaped head.
38:29
Speaker 1: He appears at the top of the can, so I
38:31
Speaker 1: would presume that his body is a can. Yeah, you know,
38:35
Speaker 1: I think that's I think that's a very reasonable assumption.
38:39
Speaker 1: If you look at the various pitches they're they're pretty neat. Uh,
38:45
Speaker 1: Pringles themselves went kind of safe with it. I'll go
38:49
Speaker 1: ahead and just send you guys a picture in the
38:53
Speaker 1: chat so you can see it. I'm a little I
38:57
Speaker 1: don't know, I understand why they did it, but uh,
39:01
Speaker 1: they made him just a dude. He's got a red suit,
39:04
Speaker 1: white T shirt, kind of supreme style, that says Pringles.
39:08
Speaker 1: He's got white gloves, regular legs, regular arms. I was
39:12
Speaker 1: hoping that he would be kind of like a a mech,
39:16
Speaker 1: like a battle mech made out of Pringle tubes. That
39:19
Speaker 1: would have been cool um or you know, a segmented
39:23
Speaker 1: serpent made out of Pringles. Anyway, they didn't write back
39:27
Speaker 1: to me, but Pringles, if you're listening, these ideas are
39:31
Speaker 1: for you. What a fascinating thing. Man. We we took
39:41
Speaker 1: a ride here and we're not, you know, like there's
39:44
Speaker 1: still more stuff to talk about. But I think all
39:48
Speaker 1: three of us are really surprised by some of the
39:51
Speaker 1: mystery surrounding Pringles. And I'll tell you what, honestly, between us, folks,
39:56
Speaker 1: I'm hungry. I I bought some snackpack Pringles for this one.
40:00
Speaker 1: You know, they're the little packs, They're not like a
40:02
Speaker 1: full tube they got like eight soda can Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
40:07
Speaker 1: So I got some of those. I'm gonna I'm gonna
40:08
Speaker 1: crack them open and celebrate, um because it's five five
40:13
Speaker 1: o'clock somewhere. Does that land Does that work Pringles? Yes? So,
40:17
Speaker 1: I mean it is possible to get drunk on that
40:19
Speaker 1: dust man. That that's stuff corrupt you. You can go
40:23
Speaker 1: straight to you. Like I said, it is, it is
40:26
Speaker 1: a it is. It is challenging you to not become
40:28
Speaker 1: an addict of their product. Where you pop, you can't stop.
40:32
Speaker 1: You're never by the way, that you're never gonna get
40:33
Speaker 1: as satisfying a pop as when you actually pop not
40:36
Speaker 1: only the little plastic lid, but the vacuum sealed little
40:41
Speaker 1: pull tab. You know, that's when you get the real
40:45
Speaker 1: It's like an air lock. I mean it literally is
40:48
Speaker 1: like an air lock. It But at this point, you know,
40:51
Speaker 1: there's more stuff we want to get to. We know
40:53
Speaker 1: we're we're going a little we're going a little long,
40:56
Speaker 1: but we've just opened the door on Pringle's lore for
40:59
Speaker 1: you fell over to iculous historians. Uh, maybe we can
41:02
Speaker 1: close out by naming some of the weird flavors of
41:05
Speaker 1: Pringles past, But before we do that. I think the uh,
41:10
Speaker 1: I think the most important part of today's episode is
41:14
Speaker 1: just to say welcome back. Man. Uh, this is such
41:17
Speaker 1: a fun ride. Pringles is awesome. We're gonna record some
41:20
Speaker 1: more in the future, but it's it's it's really good
41:23
Speaker 1: to have here. Yeah. Thanks, And just you know, just
41:26
Speaker 1: a quick heads up. I had mentioned my my my
41:29
Speaker 1: encounter with a mortician earlier and finding out some of
41:31
Speaker 1: the odd things that one can place cremains in, and
41:34
Speaker 1: that was because I was unfortunately a very similar situation
41:37
Speaker 1: that you were in not to really long ago. Man,
41:39
Speaker 1: that's kind of crazy. Um, very unexpectedly lost my mother
41:43
Speaker 1: and UM, I was dealing with all of that stuff,
41:45
Speaker 1: and and it's just kind of been a lot and
41:48
Speaker 1: thankfully so many wonderful listeners have reached out, and you know,
41:51
Speaker 1: I did share this online and um just said such
41:55
Speaker 1: kind things in terms of like, oh, you're listening to
41:57
Speaker 1: your podcast helps me when I lost a loved one,
41:59
Speaker 1: or just you know, just sending kind words. And uh,
42:02
Speaker 1: it's just nice to know that that that what we
42:04
Speaker 1: do here means something to you, and and these things
42:06
Speaker 1: that you sent back to us means something to us. Uh. No,
42:09
Speaker 1: question about it. So I felt really supported. And obviously
42:12
Speaker 1: you and super producer Max and everyone on stuff that
42:15
Speaker 1: I wants you to know have been incredibly kind and
42:17
Speaker 1: um and supportive while it's been out, And um, just
42:20
Speaker 1: if you can't tell, I'm excited to be back because
42:23
Speaker 1: this is this work and doing these these these episodes
42:26
Speaker 1: and hanging with you guys and talking about nerdy stuff
42:29
Speaker 1: really is uh a pretty great way of spending my time.
42:32
Speaker 1: And UM, I'm very lucky that it's something that I
42:34
Speaker 1: actually get, we get paid for it, so nobody get
42:37
Speaker 1: paid nobody, Yeah, nobody right to yes man, Um, yeah,
42:45
Speaker 1: And you and I are gonna be on the road
42:47
Speaker 1: uh later actually in a few hours technically, Uh, we're
42:52
Speaker 1: gonna be We're gonna be heading out to uh Texas.
42:55
Speaker 1: We're gonna be hanging in person Max. Out of respect
42:59
Speaker 1: for you, We're not going to get in a hot
43:01
Speaker 1: tub together, which is another episode. No no, no no,
43:06
Speaker 1: I would argue that we we need to get into
43:08
Speaker 1: a hot tub justus, you and I Ben, So finally
43:11
Speaker 1: there can we can get rid of this whole you know,
43:14
Speaker 1: this divide of who's been in hot tubs together and
43:16
Speaker 1: who hasn't no, no offense, man. But I think I
43:19
Speaker 1: think I think the problem Ben has that I haven't
43:21
Speaker 1: been in a hot tub with him. I know that
43:24
Speaker 1: just feeling I'm getting because you know, you and I
43:26
Speaker 1: have been multiple times, but remember multiple times, and we've
43:29
Speaker 1: had Frank there before also and stuff. Yeah we've touched feet,
43:33
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, this is it was like it was
43:39
Speaker 1: like hours upon hours been by the way. Okay, okay, okay,
43:43
Speaker 1: you're okay, let's let's dial it back. One peg. Shout
43:50
Speaker 1: out to everybody who got that vote. Get reference with bocanism.
43:53
Speaker 1: Um I jeez, uh we promised you know what we
43:58
Speaker 1: did do we are going to be on the road. Uh.
44:01
Speaker 1: We're friends and family here and if you're listening, we
44:03
Speaker 1: consider you family too, So thank you for being part
44:06
Speaker 1: of the show. Uh. Zack went above and beyond and
44:10
Speaker 1: found some absolutely ridiculous true pringles flavors. I gotta tell you,
44:18
Speaker 1: I'm familiar with a lot of these, nule but prosecco
44:21
Speaker 1: and pink peppercorn. We have to mention. We have to
44:26
Speaker 1: mention this because yeah, that we're gonna get into the
44:30
Speaker 1: whole weird flavorless because there's there's a bunch of them,
44:33
Speaker 1: much like if you go to Asian markets you can
44:35
Speaker 1: find really interesting oddball flavors of Lais like you know,
44:40
Speaker 1: crab and and things like that, and also much more
44:42
Speaker 1: off the beaten path flavors of kit cats. But these
44:46
Speaker 1: were like sort of goofs, I guess you could you
44:48
Speaker 1: are you are? Like regional kind of peculiarities that that
44:52
Speaker 1: the Pringles did, but the prosecco one actually got them
44:55
Speaker 1: in trouble. There's an organization in France called the AOC,
45:03
Speaker 1: not to be confused with Alejandro or Tasio cortez um.
45:07
Speaker 1: This is a French um I guess government body to
45:11
Speaker 1: the appal Lean de Gene control the AOC, which is
45:17
Speaker 1: a a division that determines the provenance of particular wines
45:23
Speaker 1: um that that are that are you know, from grapes
45:26
Speaker 1: growing in a particular region, and it basically enforces what
45:30
Speaker 1: labels you can put on them. So that's why you
45:32
Speaker 1: know Champagne if you remember the amazing speech from Benjamin
45:38
Speaker 1: played by Rob Low in Wayne's World, Actually, if it's
45:41
Speaker 1: not from the Champagne region of France, it's called sparkling wine. Uh. Actually,
45:47
Speaker 1: if you did not know, So that's the thing Prosecco
45:49
Speaker 1: also refers to one of these designations, and the fact
45:54
Speaker 1: that Pringles called a junk food chip prosecco, that was
45:59
Speaker 1: a real problem for for this organization. If I'm not mistaken,
46:03
Speaker 1: they came down on them pretty hard. Yeah. Yeah, you
46:07
Speaker 1: don't mess around with the prosecco. Uh. And also I
46:11
Speaker 1: love what you're saying about these regional flavors. I was.
46:15
Speaker 1: I was recently abroad for some stuff in a couple
46:17
Speaker 1: of different countries, and one thing I found is, uh,
46:20
Speaker 1: paprika as a flavor is super popular. There are parts
46:25
Speaker 1: of Europe where paprika is in like everything. Imagine your
46:29
Speaker 1: favorite food, now add paprika on top of that bad boy.
46:32
Speaker 1: In Germany, it's by far the just most traditional standard chip.
46:36
Speaker 1: It's just paprico flavorite chips. It's probably what you would
46:39
Speaker 1: maybe compared to barbecue. But you know, there's a similar
46:42
Speaker 1: and there's similarity to those players. By the way, I
46:43
Speaker 1: just have to correct myself. Prosecco is Italian and the
46:47
Speaker 1: AOC that is a specifically French organization that governs you know,
46:51
Speaker 1: French wines. This there there's a similar you know analog
46:55
Speaker 1: in Italy and um The region that prosecco comes from
46:58
Speaker 1: is called Venito, and there was an investigation by this
47:02
Speaker 1: body and they determined that this was like way out
47:04
Speaker 1: of off base for Pringles to do, and they apparently
47:07
Speaker 1: seized hundreds of cans from supermarkets in that region. Oh
47:12
Speaker 1: my gosh, this if podcasting doesn't work out, let's start
47:15
Speaker 1: like moving off the books Pringles flavors. I tell you
47:19
Speaker 1: there would be a huge market in the United States.
47:22
Speaker 1: We would be like those guys who figured out how
47:24
Speaker 1: to get kinder eggs into the States, Remember those how
47:28
Speaker 1: you can't like have kindred anyway, I'm fueled by coffee.
47:33
Speaker 1: I'm jet lagged. Attack Sorry guys, Well that's that's and yeah,
47:37
Speaker 1: I'm glad to have you back as well. Ben. By
47:38
Speaker 1: the way, um, no spoilers, I'll leave it to you
47:41
Speaker 1: to discuss your secret travels. But yeah, jet lag. Indeed, honestly,
47:46
Speaker 1: sometimes being punchy or sleep deprived or jet lag makes
47:49
Speaker 1: for fun podcasting. So, as you mentioned, Ben, these a
47:53
Speaker 1: lot of these were specialty, kind of limited you know, uh,
47:57
Speaker 1: flavors that were really more for like a kind of
47:59
Speaker 1: a pr move or like you know, sort of like
48:02
Speaker 1: a promotional kind of like thing um to create buzz
48:05
Speaker 1: around these goofy flavors. So let's name a few others
48:11
Speaker 1: that are super weird. There's a ton this like like
48:16
Speaker 1: a big old list of these. Um kicking off some
48:20
Speaker 1: of these. Yeah, sweet mayo, wait for it, cheese, I'm sorry, finally,
48:27
Speaker 1: said one person at Bringles Corporate. Uh there's also Yeah,
48:31
Speaker 1: there's also uh, this one's interesting to me, lemon and sesame.
48:35
Speaker 1: I think that's very artistic combination, it really is. That
48:39
Speaker 1: is very delicate sounding. And again some of these probably
48:43
Speaker 1: are in Asian market as well, things like soft shell
48:45
Speaker 1: crab for example. Then you have yeah, and you've got
48:49
Speaker 1: some of these sweet ones like pumpkin pie. I remember
48:52
Speaker 1: punkin pieprinkles being on the shelves here in America. It
48:55
Speaker 1: was a Chris it was a Halloween fall type promotion.
48:58
Speaker 1: And it's the kind of thing that it may sense
49:00
Speaker 1: where they do these sort of like hot take kind
49:02
Speaker 1: of like weird out their flavors because people are gonna
49:05
Speaker 1: post about them, people are gonna do TikTok videos or
49:07
Speaker 1: they like try one and make a face even if
49:09
Speaker 1: it's gross. That's kind of the point some of the time,
49:13
Speaker 1: and flavor science. I think we're both fascinated by We've
49:15
Speaker 1: got Grand Canyon French fries. Is that like rocky Mountain oysters?
49:20
Speaker 1: What are do it? It might be parts of a
49:25
Speaker 1: donkey or something. I mean, Zach points out that's oddly specific.
49:29
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and Max, Max is just yelling no, yeah, yeah,
49:34
Speaker 1: I think the Grand Canyon French fries the is the
49:36
Speaker 1: penis in thet It's too late, Max, We've spoken into existence. Uh.
49:43
Speaker 1: There's also spaghetti. French consume eggs sandwich is probably my
49:48
Speaker 1: least favorite of these. Weird how would you even do that?
49:51
Speaker 1: I mean, you know again, flavor science is interesting too,
49:53
Speaker 1: because it's it requires so much approximation, Like we have
49:56
Speaker 1: not reached Willy Wonka levels of like oh that's it's
50:00
Speaker 1: exactly like like piece soup or whatever. You know, it's
50:03
Speaker 1: always some weird kind of trick of the mind, you
50:06
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like that makes you sort of
50:08
Speaker 1: it's sort of like it's like you waived a Christmas
50:11
Speaker 1: turkey over this chip and then that's what you know?
50:14
Speaker 1: And what do they say about the flavors of Lacroix.
50:16
Speaker 1: It's like somebody whispered the name of a flirt in
50:19
Speaker 1: the next room. You know, balsamic vinegar, uh, seeweed, top
50:27
Speaker 1: Ramen chicken. You know what's funny about that, Ben, what
50:30
Speaker 1: is ramen? The pre package Ramen. It's just all about
50:33
Speaker 1: flavor powder. So it'll be really easy to make an
50:35
Speaker 1: exact top Ramen chicken chip because us the same the
50:39
Speaker 1: same dust. You're on just something. No, this is a
50:42
Speaker 1: great idea. You're on just something here, and I think
50:44
Speaker 1: we should pursue it. But uh, for legal reasons, we
50:49
Speaker 1: might pursue this off air and come back to you
50:52
Speaker 1: once we've Once we've talked with wonderful folks at Ramen.
50:55
Speaker 1: Why haven't we done an instant noodles episode? I did
50:57
Speaker 1: a stuff of genius about the creation of instant noodles
51:01
Speaker 1: and he's awesome. We should totally do that. Yes, that's
51:04
Speaker 1: a great idea. No, absolutely is a thing even down
51:07
Speaker 1: to like I remember kids in in in uh high
51:10
Speaker 1: in high school or in middle school would bring just
51:13
Speaker 1: the ramen to school and just crushed, like eat the brick, eat,
51:16
Speaker 1: eat the eat the brick of noodles and like you know,
51:19
Speaker 1: dip it in the in the dust. We've got just
51:22
Speaker 1: a few more of these. We have to while the
51:23
Speaker 1: the credits are rolling. Now we use some French I
51:27
Speaker 1: could be interesting. You know you have you ever had
51:29
Speaker 1: those bullion cubes? You know that you can make like
51:32
Speaker 1: broth similar flavor science principle, you know, meat flavored dust. Yeah, yeah,
51:39
Speaker 1: we are. Some of those sweet ones, aren't Maybe for
51:42
Speaker 1: me blueberry and hazel nuts. You might have to be
51:45
Speaker 1: at the right cafe in Amsterdam for that. That's a
51:48
Speaker 1: joke for the adults. Um, we talked about Grand Canyon
51:51
Speaker 1: French fries. Yeah, okay, yeah, we really yes, that know
51:55
Speaker 1: the entire time it well, it's all right, Max, We
51:58
Speaker 1: respect your boundaries. So you can have a packet of
52:01
Speaker 1: brushetta or tube brushetta Pringles what what a Spanish saltsa pizza?
52:06
Speaker 1: If you don't even know what that is? If you
52:08
Speaker 1: have to ask, No, I'm just kidding, honestly. The one
52:13
Speaker 1: I'm most interested about is the butter popcorn because if
52:16
Speaker 1: you guys remember this, butter popcorn jelly bean is considered
52:20
Speaker 1: the most offensive one ever chemically. I like that. I
52:24
Speaker 1: like it. Well, we're gonna have to We're gonna have
52:31
Speaker 1: to get Pringles on board. I bet you there is
52:35
Speaker 1: a museum or there is a room at Pringles Corporate
52:39
Speaker 1: wherever that is where they have like Indiana Jones style
52:42
Speaker 1: top men looking at these crates and crates of Pringles.
52:46
Speaker 1: We need to get in the Pringles Lab. Nol gotta
52:49
Speaker 1: go there. I'm speaking. I'm putting it on the vision board, man,
52:53
Speaker 1: that we've been working on ever since this show started,
52:56
Speaker 1: Pringles Food Lab. So while we are working on our
53:01
Speaker 1: vision board, we want to put we want to slap
53:03
Speaker 1: a couple more things on that. And uh, the things
53:06
Speaker 1: we're slapping on the vision board today, as always, are
53:09
Speaker 1: our thank you's. Thanks to super producer Max Williams. Thanks
53:13
Speaker 1: to Alex Williams, Thanks to Casey Pegram, Thanks to our
53:17
Speaker 1: fellow ridiculous historians. No extra big prosecco and pink peppercorn
53:23
Speaker 1: flavored thanks to you, my friend. Oh man, Yeah, that
53:26
Speaker 1: sounds delightful. What is the prosecco would probably just give
53:29
Speaker 1: it a little a little sweet, kind of like pop,
53:33
Speaker 1: and then the peppercorn would be kind of a spicy things.
53:37
Speaker 1: When I were about funky mustard, why has it gotta
53:40
Speaker 1: be funky? But I don't like what did the bool
53:41
Speaker 1: called things funky? That's good music? Should music should be funky.
53:46
Speaker 1: I don't think flavored. When people say like, oh this this,
53:49
Speaker 1: this beer is funky, they're like, you know, I don't.
53:52
Speaker 1: I don't like that, Like it's gone back. Like flavors
53:56
Speaker 1: that have that trigger sentence asia, you know, like the
54:01
Speaker 1: like a lot of soft drinks or sports drinks are
54:05
Speaker 1: really good at that. Like what flavor is the blue Gatorade?
54:09
Speaker 1: What's going on? The pool cleaner? Not a fan I see,
54:14
Speaker 1: but no, I love it. It just looks like I
54:16
Speaker 1: will always think that when I see it. It doesn't Yeah,
54:19
Speaker 1: you've never tasted toilet pool cleaner, but uh, there's something
54:22
Speaker 1: about that that that that neon bright blue. This makes
54:25
Speaker 1: me think of the stuff that Sarah Connor is going
54:27
Speaker 1: to shoot into that psych Ward Doctors. Yeah, let's also think, uh,
54:36
Speaker 1: the Sarah Connor of our show, Christopher hasciotis. I don't know,
54:41
Speaker 1: that's just like it. I don't know if that reference
54:42
Speaker 1: speaks sense. It's a test to see if Chris is
54:45
Speaker 1: tuning in. Who else should we think, Oh gosh, he's
54:48
Speaker 1: Jeff Cote, Christopher Hastiotes, both here in spirit and you know,
54:52
Speaker 1: corporeally somewhere doing things. Jonathan Strickland. I really am sad
54:56
Speaker 1: that I did not get to witness his, you know,
54:59
Speaker 1: real life transformation from a bild mannered podcaster to a
55:04
Speaker 1: diabolical quiz fiend. So but you know what, maybe that
55:08
Speaker 1: was better that way. Maybe maybe it would have changed
55:11
Speaker 1: me in ways that I wasn't prepared for him. Something
55:15
Speaker 1: tells me we'll run into that guy again. Well, in
55:18
Speaker 1: the meantime, we'll see you next time. Books. For more
55:28
Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
55:30
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.