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Short Stuff: Vomitoria · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the shorty. I'm Josh, there's Chuck,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: there's Jerry. We don't say last names on these because
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: we're crunched for time. Does that mean we need to
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: say welcome to the long form when it comes to
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the other ones? All right, I think that's a great idea.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Change is good, But you have to roll your L
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the long for WHOA, I didn't know you
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: were so good at that. Wait, there's an L, N
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and R in there. Let's see if I can do it.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the long from How is that you look
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: like and sound like you're underwater and eating peanut butter? Uh?
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Speaking of eating peanut butter, did you know that in
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: ancient Rome, if you ate a couple of gallons of
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: peanut butter, it was very acceptable to stroll on over
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: to a vomitorium and throw it up and stick a
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: feather down your throat, or have sorry, have some young
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: child stick a feather down your throat, or Bill murray
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: so you could so you could throw up and then
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: eat even more peanut butter. That's right, Chuck, that's an
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: indisputable fact of history. Not true. No, And you know
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: what something was bugging me researching this, I was like,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I feel like I've said something like on the podcast
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: before where I referenced this being correct and it wasn't.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I probably did. But I'm in pretty good company because
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: we've got this idea that that, yeah, in ancient Rome,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: it was totally normal to go throw up basically binge
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: and purge, but purge in like a public area that's
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: designated to go purge. Um that that's been around for
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: at least since the nineteen twenties, and we can trace
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: it all the way back to Algius Huxley. Actually, who
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: who created this misconception? Yeah, I mean I thought this
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: was a true fact up until two days ago. Basically
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: everyone does. So don't feel bad again. You're in the
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: company of Algius Huxley. How you pren on that Huxley?
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Not the first name Algius Algius? What do you pronounce
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: it as Deletrius? I think you're you're swapping the U
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: and the oh Aldus Aldus. I think it's Aldus. Oh,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I like Algius, all right, I've re christened him. Well,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: he was a very alguous person. I don't know what
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: that word means. I just made it up, Okay, good,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: because I was really embarrassed for a second. Yeah. So apparently, well,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: let's go back to Rome to quote the Great Frank
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Black and the Catholic song, uh vomitorius, which is the
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: pull of vomitory Um. There were these things in ancient Rome, apparently,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: but it was just a very well, to my ear,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: weird name for a very u now common thing. Yeah,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: and they actually know who was the first two references
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: a guy named Macrobius back in the fourth century CE.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: He just used it as a term to describe, based clear,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: a passage into and out of, say like the Colosseum,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: where people would be disgorged out at such a gross
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: word into like um. Like you've been to Colosseum, right
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: to the Colosseum, Yeah, okay, same here. It's an amazing place. Um,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and there's there's just a lot of walking space that's
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: actually really effectively designed. And one of the reasons why
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: it's so effectively designed is because of these passageways to
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: basically to your seat and then back out into the
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: main walkway around the perimeter inside the Colosseum. Those places
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: in and out between the two those are vomitoria. Yeah,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: what's what do we call them today? It's a not
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: a portal but a portico maybe. No. I mean it's
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: just like it's like any modern stadium design. It's the
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: the hallway open thing that you walk through and then
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: you're like, now I'm in the stadium. What do you
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: call concourse? No? I think we should just go back
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: to calling the vomitoria. Yeah, I'm gonna say that next
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: time I go to a Falcons game. Hey, meet me
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: at the vomatory to pardon me? Can you direct me
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: to my vomatorium? I can't think of the word, and
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: it's really bugging me. I know what you're talking about,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and I want to say it's like portal too. I mean,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: it is a portal. Maybe some people call them that,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: but I think that's what they're called, like sports. Yeah,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: so there were seventy six of these though around up
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: and down the coliseum. And apparently did you say how
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: many people that they could shuttle in and out of there? Yet? No?
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Apparently fifty thousand people could get in and out of
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: this thing, uh and like to their seats within about
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. That's not bad, that's amazing. Can you imagine
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the porschemoho I just sit there in time it by
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: looking at the sun, so many went blind right until
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: it finally happened. They'd have to replace the first in
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: every thirty seconds they were carting him away. Would be like,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: I got thirty seconds. Uh, what is the name of
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: those things that's gonna buck me? I don't know. Uh.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Should we take a break and talk about Aldus Huxley again? Algius?
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: All right? Right after this? All right, so you set
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: us up with Algius Huxley. What in the world did this?
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: How could in the world could he have affected this?
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, I guess he just heard of it before,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and basically he mentions it in passing in a single line.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: He wrote a comic novel um called Antick Hay about
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: post World War one decadent like upper upper class society
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: and um he just basically mentioned like a goth coming
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: into a vomitorium, and UM. I from the line I
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: saw it didn't even really seemed to be like he
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: was talking about the goth was gonna come throw up
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: or anything like that. Um. But that was the first
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: instance they could find if somebody using it not in
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the way that Macrobius was was using it as that
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: portal thingy. Right, So so they think that he was
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: the first one to say this or put it down
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: and pen to paper. And you have to give him
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: a break because he just injected a tremendous amount of
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: LSD under his own eye before he started writing this, right,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: So we're gonna excuse him. The next person who gets
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: zero excuse whatsoever is Lewis Mumford. And he was an historian,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: he was a critic. He should have known better. He
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: did not do his which apparently had been reading al
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Drus Huxley and just basically cited it as fact in
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: one of his books, The City in History. Yeah, and
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: he he full on to find it as uh, where
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: you over eat and you go and make yourself throw
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: up And he just made that up. Yeah, as a
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: fan of Huxley's I guess yeah, I guess so. I
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: don't think he ever took a drop of acet either.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: He has zero excuse Lewis Mumford does. Uh. Well, here's
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: the thing though, and this is where it does get
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: kind of gross, because even though they did not originate
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: in ancient Rome, there are real vomitoriums, apparently in places
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: like Vietnam, and I look this up and I was
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: trying to find a picture and I did find one,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: and it looks like where you would go to the
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: sink and wash up in a public bathroom. But it
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: has it looks like a tiny toilet bowl, like it's
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: got the shape of a toilet bowl on a you know,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: like waist high. And then above this least this one
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: it had a little tiny toilet tank. Even it looks
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: like a miniature toilet except waiste high. So I saw
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: when that was like a big stainless steel sink with
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: like one of those like dishwasher like you have you
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: ever washed dishes for a living? That was the first job.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: So you know, that's right. We talked about that, didn't
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: you read out like everybody? And the Chase Barbecue? I
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: didn't d out anybody. What are you talking about? What
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: was it? I worked at JJ's. I was a boy
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: and dishwasher, but they stuck their tennis shoe and like
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: the Brunswick stewards that. Yeah, but I didn't read amount
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: I should have, Okay. Yeah, So anyway, um, so you know,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: like the dishwashing sink thing, the Fawcett it had like
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: one of those, so I guess you're expected to rinse
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: the sink out after you vomited into it. But the
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: way you know what you're doing and I saw your
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: picture too, um, is there's a sign, like a like
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: a road sign type graphic of of somebody throwing up. Yeah,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: and that's how you know to use it. So it's
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: like it's like thick action became reality. Yeah, so like
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: it has someone kind of been over heaving out. Uh.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: You know Graphic Spew great great band name, right, they're
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: sort of they opened up for Guar for a while.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Oh man, I'll bet actually I did see a band
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: called Vomitory. Um. Oh, I'm sure Graphic Spew though, man
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: a lie. But apparently all over ho Chi Minh City
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: you can find these things, and some of them even
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: have um like pictures of ancient Rome and stuff, I
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: guess as a nod to the false claim that they
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: started in ancient Rome. My head's about a pop and
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: what about Germany? That gets even grosser. So this article
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: on how stuff works says that they're puke pants. They're
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: known colloquially as a puke pants. Not true. The only
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: place I saw that on the internet is in this
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: how stuff Works article. But there are vomitoriums in Germany.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: There's a place called Hoffbrow House in Munich. It's a
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: beer hall that's known to have I've been there. Oh really,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I've been to the Hot Boy House. Did you see
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: the vomitorium? No, sorry, the puke pan. I did all
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: my puking in the potted plants. Oh there, you god,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: I think that's that's ghosh, man, that's like wearing white
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: after labor day. No, so there is one at the
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Hot Boy House. Supposedly, that's what I saw on trip Advisor.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: So our article claiming that in German frat houses that
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: first of all, I didn't know Germany had fraternitys. That's
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: got to be this. This whole thing just stinks of conception. Yeah.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Well their source was antique dash Photos whatever that is.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: It's a Crystal Lynx site. I think. So. At the
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: very least we know that in Germany there are designated
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: puke places, and anyone who's I mean, I guess. I mean,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: first of all, you shouldn't be drinking so much that
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: you regularly throw up anyway, that's point number one. But uh,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: if you've ever been in a bathroom stall and walked
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: in like Oh boy, I gotta pee and it's just
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: got vomit every where. It's one of the worst experiences
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: you can have as a human. Yeah, especially if you
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: don't have to pee but have to pooph We'll forget it.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: It's like Trainspotting. What is I never saw that movie?
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: What happens? Then? Well, there's a scene where he goes
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: to throw up some heroine that he had ingested so
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: he can shoot it. Man. It's like it's a sort
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: of a dreamy sequence of the bathroom is labeled as
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: the worst bathroom in Scotland, and it's nasty, and he
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: pukes in there and then reaches in and eventually you
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: and McGregor goes all the way into the toilet and
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: swims around. So it's it's a fantasy sequence. It does
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: sound a little dreamy, you know, everyone's fantasy about going
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: into a poop puke infested toilet and swimming And I'm
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: missing out not having seen train Spotting. Yeah, it's a classic. Okay,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: well I'll go check it out. All right, you got
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: anything else on this gross? I'm ready to move on. Yeah,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: I am to everybody. We're moving on. If you want
• 11:55
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• 11:56
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• 11:59
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• 12:01
  Speaker 1: to Stuff Podcast at how stuff Works dot com