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Short Stuff: Plastic Pink Flamingos · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's chalk, and this is short stuff, and we're talking
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: at long last about a topic that has been on
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: my list for short Stuffs since basically the first time
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: we came up with short Stuffs, which is pink plastic
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  Speaker 1: lawn flamingos, one of the all time great pieces of
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  Speaker 1: yard art anyone's ever come up with. Do you own them? No,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I'm not mean. Okay, you're not mean. Oh you'll you'll see.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I'll describe why I think owning a pink flamingo is
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: kind of mean. Interesting, all right, Okay, you're gonna do
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: that after the break. Is it going to be a
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: setup for a teaser? Yeah, maybe that will be a
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: set up. Let's tell them first about the origin of
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: these things. Everybody knows what we're talking about, right, Like
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the plastic pink flamingos that people had on their lawns,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: especially in the fifties and maybe the sixties. Um. Nowadays
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  Speaker 1: they're super kitchy and campy. Um, but plastic lawn flamingos,
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  Speaker 1: that's right. They were created by a man named Don Featherstone,
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  Speaker 1: who was a sculptor who was hired by Union Products
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  Speaker 1: from uh Leo, Minster Mass or however they pronounced it.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: They're sure there's some strange pronunciation for that. And they
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  Speaker 1: are the cap plastics capital of the world. And he
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  Speaker 1: created the very first one as his second work assignment
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  Speaker 1: in ninety seven. Yeah, Union Union Products had two d
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  Speaker 1: um flamingos and they also had ducks, and his first
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: assignment was to turn the ducks from two D into
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  Speaker 1: three D. And the ducks were the long, long time
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  Speaker 1: biggest seller. It was called duck and ducklings, and people
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  Speaker 1: would put plastic ducks like on their yard as if
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  Speaker 1: they were just hanging out in their grass. Yeah, so
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  Speaker 1: Featherstone created the flamingos. They cost about two seventy six
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  Speaker 1: for two of them because you gotta Solomon pairs. I
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: think they're still sold in pairs. Yeah, you gotta have
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  Speaker 1: a little buddy, you don't just have one. And that's
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: by the way, that's about day. Yeah. So it's a
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: pretty good deal today because they're what like fifteen or
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  Speaker 1: sixteen bucks now. So apparently they came about because this
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  Speaker 1: was the beginnings of sort of the cookie cutter subdivision revolution,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, if you wanted to put something in
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  Speaker 1: your yard and make yourself stand out from your neighbor.
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  Speaker 1: Pink flamingo was a fine way to do so. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and the pink flamingo was um was chosen to be
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  Speaker 1: like the second one because that pink and everything Caribbean
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: was super in, like Tiki culture was kind of big
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  Speaker 1: around that time, and it was a smash hit, Like
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  Speaker 1: people started buying them by the boatloads. Um the moment
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  Speaker 1: they hit the market, it just was perfectly time. It
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  Speaker 1: was exactly what everybody was looking for. And they were
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  Speaker 1: still you know, twenty five bucks isn't you know, free,
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  Speaker 1: but they were. They were affordable but basically everybody who
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: could afford them, and so they became this kind of
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  Speaker 1: emblem of suburban working class culture. Like that was a
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: certain group of popowle prized pink flamingo lawn ornaments and
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: put them on their yards. Non ironically, that's very important, right,
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  Speaker 1: which is a very big reason why in the nineteen
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  Speaker 1: sixties there was a backlash against them. Like so many
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  Speaker 1: things in the nineteen fifties that mom and Dad loved,
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  Speaker 1: the sixties came along and the hippie said, I'm done
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  Speaker 1: with that. Screw your conformity. I'm not gonna play your games.
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  Speaker 1: I'm counterculture baby, and those lawn gnomes and flamingos are terrible.
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  Speaker 1: Get them out of here. But then, of course the
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: seventies roll back around and they're like, hey man, who
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  Speaker 1: cares those things are cool, Let's bring them back. But
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: the reason that they were cool, and the whole reason
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: they came back, you can make a really strong case
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  Speaker 1: is because of a single American director out of Baltimore,
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  Speaker 1: Maryland named John Waters that here is basically single handedly
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  Speaker 1: responsible for bringing back the pink Flamingo. But the key
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: differences that when he brought the Pink Flamingo back, he
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  Speaker 1: brought it back and ran it through a completely different
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  Speaker 1: paradigm so that it came out the other end totally schlocky,
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  Speaker 1: totally campy, and lost every bit of earnestness and was
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  Speaker 1: completely saddled with irony from that point on because he
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  Speaker 1: created a movie in nineteen seventy two known Round the
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  Speaker 1: World is one of the most offensive movies ever made
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  Speaker 1: that he called pink flamingos. That's right, And uh, I
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  Speaker 1: guess before we take that break to find out why
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  Speaker 1: they're mean, why you feel they're mean, we should mention
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  Speaker 1: that John Waters, who just called Roger Waters and did
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  Speaker 1: a retake, I feel like I should point out uh
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  Speaker 1: gay icon in the USA. And so as a result,
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  Speaker 1: gay bars started using pink flamingos mascots and you could
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  Speaker 1: find uh at drag shows. You could find them on
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  Speaker 1: earrings of performers and on their high heels. Uh. And
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  Speaker 1: then you know, it kind of became sort of this
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  Speaker 1: uh a symbol for for gay America. In the seventies
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  Speaker 1: in the United States, High High High Camp, High Camp.
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  Speaker 1: All right, let's take a break. We will take that break. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I think that's a good idea. All Right, We're gonna
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: follow up with a little bit more right after this.
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  Speaker 1: If you want to know, then you're in luck. Just
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  Speaker 1: listen up to Chuck Shoon. Okay. So when when John
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  Speaker 1: Waters like breathed a second life into pink flamingos, pink
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  Speaker 1: lawn flamingo ornaments, UM, when they came back, they were
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  Speaker 1: they were brought back, like you said, uh, in the
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  Speaker 1: gay community big time. But then they also kind of
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: spread out further and further into um, the larger community
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  Speaker 1: in America, UH and became kind of part and parcel
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  Speaker 1: with UM. Pranksterism like they were. They were frequently put
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  Speaker 1: on people's lawn as prank basically like what person could
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  Speaker 1: possibly want lawn pink lawn flamingos, Right, so if we
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  Speaker 1: put them on somebody's law, and it's a hysterical prank
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  Speaker 1: um but also in in some way, And I think
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  Speaker 1: a lot of people didn't realize that they were necessarily
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  Speaker 1: doing this, but it was part of the whole second
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  Speaker 1: life of it was mocking the people who originally enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: pink lawn flamingos earnestly and mocking their taste. And that
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  Speaker 1: is why I think pink flamingos are kind of mean
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  Speaker 1: these days. Oh so you think if you put a
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  Speaker 1: flamingo up it's uh, sort of a hipster ironic making
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  Speaker 1: fun of it kind of thing. Yeah, so do you remember,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: you know, how mom jeans are back? Sure, I could
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: not find this article. I searched all over forth, but
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  Speaker 1: I read this article, which is basically account of somebody
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  Speaker 1: in the fashion industry who was there when mom jeans
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  Speaker 1: were brought back, and they were brought back in this
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  Speaker 1: really mean spirited way among like little twenty something wave
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  Speaker 1: models who basically wanted to rub it in the faces
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  Speaker 1: of moms, um how good they looked, even in their
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  Speaker 1: frumpy mom jeans, and that's how mom jeans came back.
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  Speaker 1: That to me is basically the same principle behind bringing
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  Speaker 1: back the pink flamingos. It's it's it's the way that
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  Speaker 1: John Waters put is that they become loaded objects, classics,
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  Speaker 1: tools of the well to do, mocking the taste of
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  Speaker 1: the less fortunate, and that he says that the real
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  Speaker 1: plastic flamingo is in a sense extinct. You can't have
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  Speaker 1: anything that innocent anymore. So I realized I'm being a
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  Speaker 1: little high blown and high falutant about this whole thing,
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  Speaker 1: But I just found it really fascinating that the idea
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  Speaker 1: that it is has this certain level of mockery. That
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  Speaker 1: you're mocking the taste of people who ever thought they
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  Speaker 1: those things were neat and enjoyed them on there, you know,
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  Speaker 1: at face value. Sure, and I think both of us
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  Speaker 1: are kind of anti uh ironic, you know, flaunting ironically. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: at the same time though, sometimes we've just just gotta
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  Speaker 1: mellow out. Well, that's true too. I mean we're not
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  Speaker 1: upset about this or anything, right, Uh, are you mad? No? Okay,
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  Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. It's all good. Uh So, a few
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  Speaker 1: more things about the flamingos, though, a couple of neat things.
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  Speaker 1: In nine, if you are familiar with Madison, Wisconsin and
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  Speaker 1: the university there, they planted over a thousand of these
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  Speaker 1: in the grass of in front of the dean's office.
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  Speaker 1: And then many years later, I think they paid homage
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  Speaker 1: to that. In two thousand nine, in honor of this
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  Speaker 1: prank in the city town council named the pink Flamingo
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  Speaker 1: the official bird of Madison. That's right. So the seventies
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  Speaker 1: were huge for the pink Flamingo, but the eighties were
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  Speaker 1: even huger. For the first time ever in the history
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  Speaker 1: of Union pro ducks, I think in five, six or seven,
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  Speaker 1: the pink Flamingo out sold the duck with ducklings um
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  Speaker 1: lawn ornament. And some people say, well, it was just
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  Speaker 1: it was the thirtieth anniversary of the pink Flamingo, so
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  Speaker 1: it was getting more pressed and it had this revival.
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  Speaker 1: Other people say, no, no, no, it had nothing to
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  Speaker 1: do the thirtieth anniversary. It was the popularity of Miami
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  Speaker 1: vice that brought pink flamingos back. But again brought them
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  Speaker 1: back in this way that like people weren't really enjoying
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  Speaker 1: them at face value. There was something kind of campy
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  Speaker 1: or funny about having the pink flamingo in the front yard.
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  Speaker 1: Well here at our zoo in Atlanta, that one of
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  Speaker 1: the very first things that you see when you walk
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  Speaker 1: in are the flamingos standing there on one leg. And
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  Speaker 1: I think we should do a full episode on flamingos
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  Speaker 1: at some point, because a really neat and my daughter
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  Speaker 1: was so taken with them. We ended up getting her
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  Speaker 1: a large flamingo painting for her bedroom that was like
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  Speaker 1: twenty bucks at a flea market. And she's enjoying it earnestly,
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  Speaker 1: isn't she. Now she loves it. That's great. So then
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  Speaker 1: all of her who are mocking it, who are mocking
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  Speaker 1: pink flamingos, you're mocking Chuck's daughter directly think about that. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And there's this other cool thing that I hadn't heard of. Um,
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  Speaker 1: it's sort of like a chain letter that gets passed around.
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  Speaker 1: So here's how it works. What you do is you're
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  Speaker 1: trying to raise money for a charity and have a
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  Speaker 1: little fun while you're doing it. So at night instead
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  Speaker 1: of like teeping somebody's yard. You will set up flamingos
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  Speaker 1: in the yard of a house or a business, and
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  Speaker 1: there's a sign that says, this flock has been placed
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  Speaker 1: here for this charity. Uh, and a dollar will come
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  Speaker 1: pick these things up for a dollar apiece that goes
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  Speaker 1: to this charity, and then that gets passed onto another
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  Speaker 1: yard like a chain letter, right, which is funny. Like
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  Speaker 1: I gotta shout out Smithsonian Mental Floss and thought co
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  Speaker 1: for helping us out with this. But I think in
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: the Mental Floss article, the author it's clearly much younger
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  Speaker 1: than us because they say like old school chain letters
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  Speaker 1: from the early two thousand, so they know they go
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  Speaker 1: back a lot further than that. I just thought that
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  Speaker 1: was very funny. Yeah, And I think the person like,
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  Speaker 1: if someone put them in my yard, put like a
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  Speaker 1: hundred flamingos for a charity, I would say, all right,
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  Speaker 1: I'll pay the hundred bucks, and then now I get
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  Speaker 1: to pick and I would send them straight to your house.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, like an old school chain letter from the
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  Speaker 1: I get to pick the next house and so on
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  Speaker 1: and so on. Yep, Um, there's there. They're so they're
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: clearly still around you can still get them today, and
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  Speaker 1: I guess from what I read they still make about
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  Speaker 1: a thousand of them a day and use two hundred
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  Speaker 1: and seventy million pounds of plastic to make pink plastic
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  Speaker 1: lawn flamingos in the United States. M well booted that,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: but gated the flamingos. There's also one last little tidbit, Chuck.
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  Speaker 1: There's a rumor an urban legend who knows that if
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  Speaker 1: you see somebody with a plastic pink lawnful mingo in
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: their front yard, it's a signal that they are swingers. Right,
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  Speaker 1: But I think it's a good time to remember not
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  Speaker 1: everyone with the pineapple in their grocery cart is looking
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  Speaker 1: to hook up, and not every flamingo in the front
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  Speaker 1: yard Mains' swinger hadn't heard the pineapple one. What if
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  Speaker 1: somebody has a pineapple and a flamingo in their front yard.
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  Speaker 1: Oh well, it's all like Donkey Kong. Here you go,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: big big fish bowl with a few keys in there.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: That's right. Well, that's it for short stuff, right, That's right? Okay,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Well then that means short stuff is out. Stuff you
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: should know. Is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff
• 12:41
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• 12:47
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