Latest / Ridiculous History / Serious Diseases with Seriously Funny Names, Part One: Dropsy

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Serious Diseases with Seriously Funny Names, Part One: Dropsy · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
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Speaker 1: the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always for tuning in.
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Speaker 1: If you are a fan of brain fever, you are,
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Speaker 1: if you are consumed with thoughts of consumption, this is
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Speaker 1: the episode for you, folks. Shout out super producer mister
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Speaker 1: Max Williams.
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Speaker 2: What man, this got me thinking. There's a bunch that
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Speaker 2: we're not gonna get to in this episode. But man,
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Speaker 2: there's some fun sounding diseases out there.
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Speaker 3: Fun and quotation fingers.
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Speaker 2: I guess we don't talk about pink eye, but does
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Speaker 2: that sounds like the cutest of ailments?
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Speaker 3: You got a little pink eye?
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Speaker 1: I I uh, Ben Bolin, as a color blinds person,
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Speaker 1: have had the enviable position of having pink eye and
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Speaker 1: not knowing what pink eye looks like.
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Speaker 2: Truly, Ben, it's just kind of bloodshot and watery. It's
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Speaker 2: it's it's much. It's not pink at all, And when
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Speaker 2: you learn how you get it, it's really.
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Speaker 3: It's poop poop in the eye.
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Speaker 1: Right, everybody touch her but shut shout out to Shout
1:29
Speaker 1: out to mister Noel Brown as well. Our hour avengers
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Speaker 1: are assembled. As you might be able to tell we're
1:36
Speaker 1: slowly working our way out of our dirty humor phase.
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Speaker 2: Uh.
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Speaker 1: We went to the depths of it, the nadir of
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Speaker 1: it with James. Oh sure, Yes, all sorts of descriptions
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Speaker 1: of farts.
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Speaker 2: It's sort of a trickle its way down into our
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Speaker 2: text exchanges.
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Speaker 3: Hasn't it been has a bit? Yes, it has been
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Speaker 3: little farty texts here and there.
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Speaker 1: You know, something for the Museum of Podcasts when our
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Speaker 1: time is done, or for hr depending or for both,
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Speaker 1: for both really, if we're being honest, that's why we
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Speaker 1: were so thrilled. Max is our research associate for this one. Look,
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Speaker 1: we talked about it in the past. The English language
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Speaker 1: is weird. It's colonizer language. It's kind of a pirate language.
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Speaker 1: They just took stuff willy nilly and kind of freestyled
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Speaker 1: the rules and a lot of stuff in this language
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Speaker 1: sounds very funny. Turns out diseases are no different, especially
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Speaker 1: the further back you go in the past. We got
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Speaker 1: to give a shout out to Esther Inglis r Kel
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Speaker 1: from Gizmoto, who had a lot of the initial guiding
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Speaker 1: force for this brief in this episode.
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Speaker 2: Today, dare we say inspiration ten serious medical problems with
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Speaker 2: cute see names. You know, here's one that you know
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Speaker 2: a lot of times on our other show stuff they
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Speaker 2: don't want you to know, Or at least, we used
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Speaker 2: to do more of these kind of fakemmercials, you know,
3:00
Speaker 2: for stuff that kind of pertained to the theme of
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Speaker 2: the show, brought to you by our buddies that Illumination
3:06
Speaker 2: Global Unlimited and oftentimes Ben. You would rattle off a
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Speaker 2: list of side effects and such for things that were
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Speaker 2: maybe a potential faux medic medication of some kind, you know,
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Speaker 2: satirical medication. Hell, you don't even have to go that far.
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Speaker 2: Pharmaceutical commercials are pretty satirical in and of themselves, but
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Speaker 2: you always throw in dropsy as one of the potential
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Speaker 2: ailments that might be caused by said fictional medication. I've
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Speaker 2: never really fully known what it was, and esther inglis
3:35
Speaker 2: Arcle points out that it sounds like more like one
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Speaker 2: of Peter Rabbit's siblings than a disease.
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Speaker 3: You know, what is it?
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Speaker 2: Flopsy mopsie cottontail sort of the outlier. Dropsy would be
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Speaker 2: right at home, they would, It would at least fit
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Speaker 2: the rhyme scheme.
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Speaker 1: It also makes me think of Cropsy, which is just
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Speaker 1: a terrifying documentary.
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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, somebod us who have never really fully known
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Speaker 2: what that was about either are just sound spooky.
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Speaker 3: And is it blair witchy?
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Speaker 2: Is is it really a documentary or is it sort of
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Speaker 2: like a Faulk cumentary.
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Speaker 1: Well, I'm not gonna ruin it for people, but it
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Speaker 1: is technically so I guess the best way to describe
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Speaker 1: it is it's kind of like a documentary that goes
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Speaker 1: in a direction the filmmaker.
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Speaker 3: Did not expect. Okay, so it's not it's.
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Speaker 1: Got blair witch vibes, but it is true sort of
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Speaker 1: like that one about tickling.
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Speaker 3: You see that? God, yeah, that was frightening.
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Speaker 2: I haven't seen it, but I know that it does
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Speaker 2: that very thing. It's someone that sets out to make
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Speaker 2: a charming documentary about tickling rings and professional tickling or
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Speaker 2: tickling fetishists, and then it goes into like child kidnapping
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Speaker 2: or something crazy like that.
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Speaker 3: I think I'm exaggerate and assumed identity. What is dropsy?
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Speaker 1: Ben Drops the not to be confused with priapism, is
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Speaker 1: a kind of swelling known as a dema and bonus
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Speaker 1: points to any of the nerds who already knew what
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Speaker 1: priapism is.
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Speaker 2: Why swelling joke ising and they leave Italy leave.
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Speaker 1: It in that forever is the problem. Doctor, I'm way
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Speaker 1: too turned on. And he's like, you gotta stop listening
5:09
Speaker 1: to shout a late at night man.
5:11
Speaker 2: Or ridiculous history, because we've also been known to cause
5:14
Speaker 2: some indefinite directions, especially during the James Joyce episode.
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Speaker 1: Oh Boy, Oh Boy, have we ever? That's where our
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Speaker 1: pal Alex circa shout out. We'll see if Alex gets
5:25
Speaker 1: on air more often. But uh so, that's where we
5:28
Speaker 1: had to warn our our coworker Alex. We're like, hey,
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Speaker 1: not all of our episodes are like this. Please understand,
5:36
Speaker 1: we are trying to be adults. Adema is or edema
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Speaker 1: is a swelling caused by too much fluid, too many
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Speaker 1: cooks of fluid trapped in the tissues of your body,
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Speaker 1: and unlike priaptism, it can affect all parts of your body.
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Speaker 3: Any part can get that smoke.
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Speaker 2: Doesn't a demo also sound like it should be the
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Speaker 2: name of a tool album?
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Speaker 1: It does, really surprised it's not. It feels like Maynard
6:04
Speaker 1: has some opinions about that already, but noll. I think
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Speaker 1: a DIMA is more likely to show up in your extremities,
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Speaker 1: like your legs, your.
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Speaker 2: Feet, Yeah that's right, feet, hands, fat neck. No, I'm kidding,
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Speaker 2: I made that one up, but yeah. It also sometimes
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Speaker 2: is indicated by the symptom of having stretchy or shiny skin,
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Speaker 2: swelling or puffiness of the tissue like underneath the skin again,
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Speaker 2: especially in the arms and legs, belly or abdominal swelling
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Speaker 2: that is beyond you know, just the typical pooch that
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Speaker 2: that many of us are blessed with. And also a
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Speaker 2: feeling of leg heaviness, so like a bit of a
6:44
Speaker 2: leaden foot kind of center.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, Now all of a sudden, you feel like your
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Speaker 1: legs are two suitcases you're carried around.
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Speaker 3: And you got it.
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Speaker 1: Need for speed, baby. And here's what happens. So, this
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Speaker 1: dropsy occurs when tiny blood vessels in your bodies, aka
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Speaker 1: the capillaries, start to leak fluid. The fluid that they
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Speaker 1: leak will build up in surrounding tissue, and that leak
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Speaker 1: per the Mayo clinic leads to the swelling Mayo clinic. Also,
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Speaker 1: they're better, in my opinion than WebMD. WebMD everything is
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Speaker 1: cancer the Mayo Clinic a little more reasonable, and they say, look,
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Speaker 1: you can get dropsy from sitting in one position too long.
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Speaker 1: That's happened to a lot of people with office jobs
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Speaker 1: or during the pandemic eating too much salty food. And
7:34
Speaker 1: here's another one. This is the quote being pregnant. So
7:39
Speaker 1: that just just going to add that plot twist on
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Speaker 1: one of the strangest and often most difficult parts of
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Speaker 1: your life, ladies.
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Speaker 3: I wanted to bring something up really quickly.
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Speaker 2: It's it's sort of related, unrelatedly related, but it sort
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Speaker 2: of speaks to this whole you know what di diseases
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Speaker 2: speak to, if not the condition of being human art
8:00
Speaker 2: installation that I think it's somewhere in Scandinavia, and I'm
8:03
Speaker 2: one hundred percent sure exactly where, but I only just
8:05
Speaker 2: now found out about it. But speaking of leaking fluid,
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Speaker 2: I don't know if you guys have heard of this.
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Speaker 2: It is this robot hydraulic arm that is slowly, has
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Speaker 2: been for years, slowly leaking hydraulic fluid, and its own
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Speaker 2: only function is to sweep the hydraulic fluid back into
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Speaker 2: itself and collect it's.
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Speaker 3: Oh I saw this recently, Yeah it is, Yeah, yeah.
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Speaker 2: Wild, and it is like very if you think about it,
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Speaker 2: Like what better metaphor for like human condition than that.
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Speaker 2: You know, we're all just slowly leaking fluid and trying
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Speaker 2: our best to gather it back up and shove it
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Speaker 2: back into ourselves, knowing that one day the clock will
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Speaker 2: run out.
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Speaker 1: I love sisaphia and art, that's what I call that stuff.
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Speaker 1: Like I love figure where the you know the little
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Speaker 1: mechanism where the you put something on a box and
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Speaker 1: that opens up grabs it. Yeah, or or you have
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Speaker 1: a switch that turns on the mechanism that turns itself
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Speaker 1: off and closes the box.
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Speaker 2: Is the is the little crane that dips its beak
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Speaker 2: in the water kind of kind of in that vein
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Speaker 2: or that's I.
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Speaker 3: Think that's kind of.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a kissing cousin, and this cousin at the
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Speaker 1: very least.
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Speaker 3: It's it's a dropsy cousin. We work on it.
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Speaker 1: But this this is a serious condition. And uh, being
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Speaker 1: pregnant is a serious condition, but so is dropsy. Of
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Speaker 1: course they're very different conditions, but they will have an
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Speaker 1: effect on your life. Also to that point about our
9:34
Speaker 1: good friends at Illumination Global Unlimited and their predilection for
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Speaker 1: fine print. This condition dropsy can be a known side
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Speaker 1: effect of some medicine, So you might get high blood
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Speaker 1: pressure medication and the doctor might say, hey, just for
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Speaker 1: a heads up, man, have you heard about dropsy?
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Speaker 3: Pull up the Wikipedia. Yeah, it's it's it's it's a
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Speaker 3: good read.
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Speaker 2: It reminds me of another one that not going to
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Speaker 2: get to in depth, but I think it's worth a mention.
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Speaker 2: Gout is another condition that has a sort of a
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Speaker 2: silly name and causes certain types of inflammation or like
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Speaker 2: I believe it's urate crystals that accumulate in your joints,
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Speaker 2: and it can cause all kinds of inflammation and swelling
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Speaker 2: in the foot and the extremities I believe, but I
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Speaker 2: think it's largely in the foot.
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Speaker 1: It's it's arthritis, Like you said, too much uric acid.
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Speaker 2: Which which is usually a symptom of eating poor a
10:28
Speaker 2: poor diet.
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Speaker 1: I associate it with very prominent historical figures like the kings,
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Speaker 1: the emperors, that's right, because they add all that rich
10:36
Speaker 1: you know, potted meat and stuff. In Franklin famously a
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Speaker 1: gout enthusiasts.
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Speaker 2: There's a there's a really good episode of King of
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Speaker 2: the hill where Bobby gets gout because he becomes obsessed
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Speaker 2: with this delicatessen that opens like in their mall or something,
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Speaker 2: and he's just constantly eating like really rich you know,
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Speaker 2: deli meats and like, you know, what is it, like
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Speaker 2: liver worst and stuff. And he develops gout as a child,
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Speaker 2: which is usually not when you would develop goutgut as
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Speaker 2: sort of a condition of more, more more seasoned individuals.
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Speaker 1: It's like a lifestyle condition also to amend it very quickly. Napoleon.
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Speaker 1: I'm referencing Napoleon three, and I gotta tell you before
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Speaker 1: we move on. I have a pretty good friend of
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Speaker 1: mine in the Atlanta area, and a few years ago
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Speaker 1: he told me he had gout, and I was because
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Speaker 1: I didn't know much about it except what I've read
11:27
Speaker 1: of historical leaders. I was low key impressed, and I
11:30
Speaker 1: started treating him a little bit like an aristocrat because
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Speaker 1: I was like, that's a rich person disease.
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Speaker 2: I wonder if what's our same friend, because I know
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Speaker 2: a friend, an Atlanta friend, who also has gout and
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Speaker 2: it has definitely caused him to have to reassess his
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Speaker 2: diet and and stay away from certain things. Wouldn't that
11:45
Speaker 2: be a trip if it was the same person, we
11:47
Speaker 2: will we will not name names to protect the gout.
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Speaker 3: It right right?
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Speaker 1: Uh, you know, no one's above about of the gout,
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Speaker 1: and it may indeed be more prevalent than we think.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, oh man.
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Speaker 2: So oh well, one last thing, the gout to a
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Speaker 2: lot of uh preserved seafood can cause it because of
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Speaker 2: a lot. I think it's very high in salt and
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Speaker 2: things like cod and canned tuna, and if you eat
12:10
Speaker 2: too much of that stuff, it can you can develop gout.
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Speaker 1: Finally, for anybody who's like, man, this gout sounds like
12:17
Speaker 1: a hot new thing. How do I get in on
12:19
Speaker 1: the ground floor?
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Speaker 3: Bro? Have you been getting ads for like fancy tinned fish?
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, you're talking about fish wife, that's what
12:26
Speaker 1: uh huh yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
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Speaker 2: I'd tempted. And I find the idea of tinned fish disgusting.
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Speaker 2: But when they slap a fancy looking, colorful logo on
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Speaker 2: it and use the word, you know, like gourmet, I'm like,
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Speaker 2: sign me up, send me those sardines and the mail.
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Speaker 1: I kid you not about Once a year I go
12:46
Speaker 1: through and intelle it's because of my prepper stuff. I
12:48
Speaker 1: go through another tinned survival foods phase, and tin fish
12:54
Speaker 1: is so popular in Europe. In Japan, there's a oh god,
13:00
Speaker 1: maybe we do an episode about it. There's a chain
13:04
Speaker 1: of bars called Mister Canzo and their can Zumies and
13:09
Speaker 1: what they do They just sell canned food and they
13:12
Speaker 1: heat it up for you.
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Speaker 2: But yeah, man, but there's arobably some nice options though, right,
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Speaker 2: like some different flavors and all kinds of difference.
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Speaker 1: Oh, there's some great stuff, but then there's also some
13:21
Speaker 1: stuff that Americans would find pretty disturbing, like canned bear
13:26
Speaker 1: is like canned ballue.
13:28
Speaker 2: They've always wanted to eat the bar rather than having
13:31
Speaker 2: the bar eat me, so to.
13:33
Speaker 1: Sew it up, Like I fear that, I feel the
13:37
Speaker 1: opposite of you when it comes to again. It's like
13:40
Speaker 1: a continuing, decade long, seasonal fascination with tin fish because
13:46
Speaker 1: I love the idea of it.
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Speaker 3: I feel like it should.
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Speaker 1: Be it's it can be considered kind of fancy in
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Speaker 1: Europe too, But then when I open it, I'm always thinking, man,
13:55
Speaker 1: I could have just gone to the grocery store and
13:58
Speaker 1: gotten you know, a fresh fish.
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Speaker 2: Or you know, it's definitely not the apocalypse times. Yet
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Speaker 2: I could have just saved this, you know, for when
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Speaker 2: it really counted.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I feel that even the most opportunity kind
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Speaker 3: of you know.
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Speaker 1: When when we filmed we filmed something for stuff, they'll
14:14
Speaker 1: once you know where. I was unpacking in MRI the
14:17
Speaker 1: whole time. In the back of my head, I'm like,
14:19
Speaker 1: I better know regret this, I better get my crap together.
14:22
Speaker 1: I got to immediately replace this what happens if the
14:25
Speaker 1: world ends? Because I'm a crazy person, so we.
14:29
Speaker 3: All go a little mad sometimes.
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Speaker 2: We mentioned that that dropsy can be a sign of
14:34
Speaker 2: more serious stuff and that you should you should should
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Speaker 2: if you are experiencing the shiny skin, any of these
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Speaker 2: inflammations of the extremities, you should go see a doctor
14:50
Speaker 2: because it could potentially be a you know, a symptiment
14:53
Speaker 2: and of itself, especially if it's accompanied by shortness of breath,
14:56
Speaker 2: any kinds of chest pains, or irregular heartbeat.
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Speaker 1: And luckily, so what we're going to do with LI
15:03
Speaker 1: is we're going to talk about symptoms. We're also going
15:06
Speaker 1: to talk about how they are usually mitigated, treated.
15:09
Speaker 3: Or cured.
15:10
Speaker 1: We are not medical professionals. Do see a medical professional
15:14
Speaker 1: if you suspect you have any of these symptoms or
15:17
Speaker 1: filling discomfort.
15:19
Speaker 3: I'm glad we got that in there.
15:20
Speaker 1: We should have said it at the top, but yes,
15:22
Speaker 1: we are not doctors of medicine, so how do you
15:25
Speaker 1: cure this? Luckily, sometimes it goes away on its own.
15:28
Speaker 1: Other treatments might include wearing spanks, kid, you not wearing
15:32
Speaker 1: compression garments, that's right, and trying to trying to leverage
15:38
Speaker 1: your circulatory system, so raising the affected area higher than
15:41
Speaker 1: your heart. You can get medication to flush out that
15:44
Speaker 1: extra fluid. A big thing, just like you mentioned with gout,
15:48
Speaker 1: A big thing is changes in diet or maybe finding
15:52
Speaker 1: different medications if the side effects lead to a DMA.
15:56
Speaker 1: And Max, I fully agree with you. You have a new
16:00
Speaker 1: here in the brief where you said something we all
16:02
Speaker 1: learned recording podcasts during the lockdown. Don't sit for extended periods.
16:09
Speaker 1: Get your steps in. I think all three of us
16:12
Speaker 1: live in houses with stairs, right.
16:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well I know my studios in the basement,
16:18
Speaker 2: and I record here, work here for all of our stuff.
16:20
Speaker 2: Up and down yeah all day long at least forgot
16:22
Speaker 2: take it for granted, actually, but I definitely am up
16:25
Speaker 2: and down at least ten or thirteen times a day,
16:28
Speaker 2: if not more so, there's that.
16:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it. I love going, I love go.
16:32
Speaker 1: We've got so you guys haven't seen the new place, right, Yeah,
16:36
Speaker 1: you haven't seen this new place yet. It has an
16:39
Speaker 1: egregious number of patios, as for an apartment has two
16:44
Speaker 1: patios and a rooftop. And so, whenever I'm on a
16:48
Speaker 1: phone call, just so you guys know, because we do
16:51
Speaker 1: talk all the time, whenever I'm on a phone call
16:53
Speaker 1: and I sound like I'm I'm huffing a little bit,
16:56
Speaker 1: and I don't have the video on, I guarantee you guys,
16:59
Speaker 1: I'm just promping from the roof to the first floor
17:03
Speaker 1: and back back in, back and forth. I'm like a salmon.
17:06
Speaker 1: I'm like the the noble passage of the salmon. Has
17:08
Speaker 1: nothing to do with dropsy. You probably are wondering, folks,
17:12
Speaker 1: where does the name dropsy come from. It's time for
17:16
Speaker 1: one of our favorite things, a little bit of etymology.
17:19
Speaker 3: Azah.
17:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, indeed, we're huge fans of etymology. Here on Ridiculous History,
17:25
Speaker 2: Miriam Webster traces the etymology of drops to a Middle
17:28
Speaker 2: English word, uh drop easy. I don't know why I
17:32
Speaker 2: said it, like Italian. It's Middle English, so let's call
17:35
Speaker 2: it drop drop Nope, how is the Middle English pronoun.
17:40
Speaker 3: There you go? Or which is actually short for a
17:44
Speaker 3: not that much longer word.
17:46
Speaker 2: It just has a weird why at the beginning, which
17:48
Speaker 2: would be a drop I guess right, yeah, yeah, so
17:52
Speaker 2: let's just shorten that easy to drop the which why
17:55
Speaker 2: could well be silent here too. It feels like what
17:58
Speaker 2: a silent why would do? But who knows into English
18:00
Speaker 2: is bonkers.
18:03
Speaker 1: I had to read, uh, Canterbury Tales, which is, you know,
18:07
Speaker 1: Chaucer's great unfinished work. It sounds like the Jabberwockie.
18:11
Speaker 3: You know, I love it. I love it.
18:12
Speaker 1: It's like it reminds reading the reading Canterbury Tales in
18:17
Speaker 1: the original version of English it's written in. It is
18:21
Speaker 1: exactly like hearing that song from that Italian guy who
18:26
Speaker 1: didn't know English, and he was like, this guy, what
18:29
Speaker 1: I've got? Okay, we've got to play hit me with
18:31
Speaker 1: one clip? Okay, so if you guys can see, uh,
18:45
Speaker 1: this guy looks sort of like a werewolf with glasses.
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Speaker 3: Uh, let's fast forward to where he's actually singing to
18:58
Speaker 3: cut them off.
18:59
Speaker 2: Bat Yeah, now you're dead on man, it's like I
19:10
Speaker 2: always I said, jabberwocky vibes. But because it's always, it's
19:12
Speaker 2: all like ill swissing and pil will in the WHIPI
19:16
Speaker 2: dip in the sweet bee. You know, it's like, come on, man,
19:19
Speaker 2: what is this nonsense? I love it exactly.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, And do check out the rest of that the
19:25
Speaker 1: rest of that clip, because I believe it. I believe
19:29
Speaker 1: that song came about because the musicians said, Uh, these Italians,
19:34
Speaker 1: the Italian public, they just love English songs. It doesn't
19:39
Speaker 1: matter what you're saying. I could just make a song
19:42
Speaker 1: that sounds like that language and it would blow up.
19:45
Speaker 1: And he was right, He was all right with that one.
19:48
Speaker 1: And what might mystify some of us about the etymology
19:53
Speaker 1: here is and are actually from Latin a much more
20:02
Speaker 1: reasonable word hydropssis hydrop Okay, okay, I don't know why
20:09
Speaker 1: that seems like less of a twist than but I'm
20:13
Speaker 1: just looking for excuses to say at this point.
20:16
Speaker 2: And Ben, to your point about gout, I think this
20:18
Speaker 2: is also true of dropsy, that there are some notable
20:22
Speaker 2: individuals that were afflicted with this condition.
20:25
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, we're looking at this, Uh Beethoven, it
20:28
Speaker 1: appears did not roll over as often as he should
20:32
Speaker 1: have and as a result, had a dema. Uh and
20:35
Speaker 1: then you know, uh famously not great President Andrew Jackson
20:40
Speaker 1: also had the dropsy.
20:42
Speaker 3: And uh.
20:43
Speaker 2: Also, when I hear drops the I think I'm gonna
20:46
Speaker 2: get the dropsy on you.
20:47
Speaker 3: You know, I feel like drop trou et cetera.
20:50
Speaker 2: Uh.
20:51
Speaker 1: This this however, look, folks, we we talked off air.
20:55
Speaker 1: We know this is probably going to be a two
20:56
Speaker 1: parter because there are a lot of these diseases and
21:00
Speaker 1: a lot of them have funny names. That's what we
21:02
Speaker 1: knew before we went into this. So we're not going
21:05
Speaker 1: to get to everything today, but we do want to
21:07
Speaker 1: introduce you to just a couple moore. Uh, here's the
21:11
Speaker 1: one that always confused me. I know somebody who got
21:14
Speaker 1: this hand, foot, and mouth disease, the combo meal of
21:19
Speaker 1: medical conditions.
21:21
Speaker 3: I've got heard we got to bring meals into it.
21:23
Speaker 3: But have you heard that kids can get this? Young kids?
21:27
Speaker 3: It's the most common young kids.
21:29
Speaker 2: Actually, you get in a similar way you get pink eye.
21:33
Speaker 3: Okay, all right.
21:35
Speaker 1: I always thought it sounded like a condition for non
21:39
Speaker 1: human animals, like growing up, I always thought it was
21:43
Speaker 1: something you know they got on the farm.
21:47
Speaker 2: I think there's a version of it that that is
21:49
Speaker 2: that that is hoof and mouth disease, which is a
21:52
Speaker 2: farm animal version of this condition.
21:54
Speaker 3: If I'm not mistaken. Ah, good, so you're not wrong.
21:59
Speaker 3: It's interesting because the very similar named, but you cannot
22:02
Speaker 3: transmit them like you can't get the animal version of it.
22:05
Speaker 3: That's not called zoticonic.
22:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, potentially the COVID was potentially zoonotic. It's not related
22:14
Speaker 2: to foot and mouth disease, which is also called hoof
22:16
Speaker 2: and mouth disease.
22:18
Speaker 3: Jeez, guys, I'm started to think hands are sort of
22:21
Speaker 3: dirty or related.
22:22
Speaker 2: It's a hand in glove disease, which is a bizarre,
22:26
Speaker 2: unhealthy obsession with the music of Morrissey.
22:29
Speaker 1: Right right, or related to hand feet disease, which is
22:33
Speaker 1: a condition I made up where your feet slowly transformed
22:37
Speaker 1: into hands.
22:38
Speaker 2: Terrifying you wouldn't be able to balance. It's untenable. Then
22:40
Speaker 2: it's untenable.
22:41
Speaker 3: It's it's unreasonable. What kind of world are we living in?
22:45
Speaker 1: Well, we're living in a world with hand, foot and
22:47
Speaker 1: mouth disease still, and it's uh, it's got it's real.
22:53
Speaker 1: That's the street name the real name for this thing
22:56
Speaker 1: is we kid you not even worse, mister Brown. Do
23:00
Speaker 1: you want to do the honors on this one?
23:02
Speaker 3: Oh? Absolutely?
23:03
Speaker 2: Uh sorry, Uh cocksacky, cocksacky man. I saw the funniest
23:21
Speaker 2: clip from I think it was like outtakes from between
23:24
Speaker 2: two ferns. Was Zach Galifanakis and he was talking to
23:28
Speaker 2: what he harre else in the other one Matthew McConaughey,
23:31
Speaker 2: and he goes, so, when you and Woody were both
23:33
Speaker 2: on the set of Drew Detective, wasn't there a concern
23:36
Speaker 2: that somewhere in the world a sack was not being hackied?
23:40
Speaker 3: I remember seeing that the McConaughey cracks up.
23:43
Speaker 1: You know that I love the I love the bloopers
23:46
Speaker 1: because they show you that everybody is actually having a
23:50
Speaker 1: good time for the most but not completely agree but
23:52
Speaker 1: addictcumber Batch, Uh so, if you didn't have your accent,
23:57
Speaker 1: do you think people would know that you're not.
23:59
Speaker 3: A good actor? That's very funny.
24:01
Speaker 2: These jokes are so good because they go they start,
24:03
Speaker 2: you think you know where they're going to go, and
24:05
Speaker 2: then they take you somewhere else completely and they're so quick.
24:08
Speaker 3: Kind of almost like norm McDonald's style.
24:10
Speaker 2: They are these little mini stories that are in joke
24:13
Speaker 2: form kind of.
24:14
Speaker 3: I think it's really brilliant stuff.
24:15
Speaker 2: So yeah, cocksacky, Ben tell us about cocksacky.
24:19
Speaker 1: Well, it's going to do a lot for stand up comedy.
24:22
Speaker 1: Cocksacky or cocksacky virus is the cause of hand foot
24:27
Speaker 1: mouth disease. It lives in the digestive track. It creates
24:31
Speaker 1: these blisters on your mouth, your tongue, your esophagus. As
24:35
Speaker 1: our pal Esther Inglis article points out, it's a real thing.
24:39
Speaker 1: But Esther says, quote, naming it cocksacky virus is like
24:44
Speaker 1: naming a planet uranus. Someone should have said something before
24:49
Speaker 1: it was made official. I tend to agree, But it's
24:54
Speaker 1: tough because cocksacky is a hilarious word, right, especially if
25:02
Speaker 1: you are a very high minded intellectual like all of
25:08
Speaker 1: us listening today. But it may not have anything to
25:13
Speaker 1: do with the sort of more body or lurid associations.
25:19
Speaker 2: Nope, but does not refer to any swimsuit area related things.
25:25
Speaker 3: Yeah.
25:26
Speaker 1: Instead, we'll get to that one in a second hand
25:30
Speaker 1: foot and mouth disease or HFMD to all the people
25:34
Speaker 1: unfortunate enough to have to deal with it, so often
25:38
Speaker 1: that they just made it an acronym HFMD. It's mild,
25:43
Speaker 1: it is contagious. Like we mentioned, it is common in
25:46
Speaker 1: very young children, and it's not something that has a
25:51
Speaker 1: specific treatment, which was which surprised me because it seems
25:56
Speaker 1: like it can, as you guys point out, be really
25:58
Speaker 1: common in kids. Why can't you fix it? It's been
26:04
Speaker 1: round long enough, they I think the solution is like
26:07
Speaker 1: the early days of COVID quarantining and washing your hands.
26:13
Speaker 1: I gotta I got a finger gun from Max, so
26:15
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take that. Yes, I feel so cool when
26:18
Speaker 1: people throw the finger gun.
26:21
Speaker 2: So symptoms of this quite silly signing disease are not
26:25
Speaker 2: silly at all. They include things like fever. You mentioned
26:28
Speaker 2: the sores, but also u sore throat, additional rashes that
26:35
Speaker 2: can appear on the buttocks, even soles of the feet.
26:40
Speaker 2: And it actually the name refers to the virus that
26:45
Speaker 2: causes it, which is of course, the COCKSACKI virus. This
26:49
Speaker 2: is all one word we're gonna hear about what COCKSACKI
26:52
Speaker 2: actually is. It's it's it's it's a little less remarkable
26:55
Speaker 2: than you might think, but also pretty funny as as
26:58
Speaker 2: to why it's called this.
27:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got to note something here.
27:02
Speaker 1: It may sound like it may be something we could
27:06
Speaker 1: get lost in the shuffle, but I'm really glad you
27:08
Speaker 1: pointed out that people can get these blister like lesions
27:11
Speaker 1: on the souls of their feet. Having any kind of
27:15
Speaker 1: injury on the souls of your feet is incredibly dangerous.
27:19
Speaker 1: It's also phenomenally uncomfortable. It's so dangerous in fact, that
27:25
Speaker 1: there used to be a specific type of torture used
27:30
Speaker 1: to punish people called bastinado. Have you guys heard of this.
27:35
Speaker 1: It's a punishment from the maritime days, or at least
27:37
Speaker 1: that's where I associate it.
27:38
Speaker 2: It sounds like ostinato, though, which is a musical term
27:41
Speaker 2: that I believe refers to kind of like very kind
27:45
Speaker 2: of clipped, sort of repetitive phrases and classical music.
27:51
Speaker 3: What is a bostonado? It is? This is frighteningly specific.
27:56
Speaker 1: It is the practice of beating the souls of someone's
28:00
Speaker 1: bare feet. It's kind of flogging, just delivered to the
28:04
Speaker 1: bottom of your feet so that you can't run away.
28:08
Speaker 3: Think about the evil sanctions.
28:10
Speaker 2: Fond of that they did it like to the whole
28:12
Speaker 2: like soccer team when they disapproved of their performance.
28:17
Speaker 1: I think so it's it's loved by terrible people throughout history,
28:22
Speaker 1: and it's been used all across the world just because
28:25
Speaker 1: it's so effective. But that's me just going out of
28:29
Speaker 1: the way to mention specific types of torture, which is
28:33
Speaker 1: a totally different episode.
28:34
Speaker 3: We got to stay hooked on this.
28:37
Speaker 1: Hoof foot and mouth disease thing ahead, foot and mouth, hand,
28:42
Speaker 1: foot of mouth. Yes, hoof foot and mouth is the
28:45
Speaker 1: one for shape shifters. The good thing is it's not zoonotic.
28:51
Speaker 1: And I think we've already very clearly implied that young
28:56
Speaker 1: children get it more often because it's in the digestive tract.
29:00
Speaker 1: They need diaper changes, they need help using the bathroom.
29:04
Speaker 1: They also tend to, you know, be very exploratory and
29:08
Speaker 1: putting their hands in their mouths and stuff, and they
29:10
Speaker 1: can't see germs. So until you develop object permanence, are
29:13
Speaker 1: germs even real? Or is that just a story your
29:16
Speaker 1: parents tell you because they're lame and they don't want
29:19
Speaker 1: you to have fun and poop yourself.
29:21
Speaker 3: Oh jeez, Louise.
29:23
Speaker 2: So we've been teasing a little bit that this kind
29:26
Speaker 2: of goofy sounding name ain't for nothing, right. A lot
29:30
Speaker 2: of these names come from perhaps old English translations, you know,
29:37
Speaker 2: the maybe scientists that discovered them. There's any number of
29:41
Speaker 2: reasons that a thing can be called what it is
29:43
Speaker 2: in the medical community. This one, however, is actually named
29:46
Speaker 2: after a pretty small town on the Hudson River where
29:51
Speaker 2: this Cocksacki virus was first isolated.
29:56
Speaker 1: Right, and isolated here doesn't mean that the disease he
30:00
Speaker 1: started in this place. It means that this was the location,
30:05
Speaker 1: like in this town, that's where they found the thing
30:09
Speaker 1: and were able to get it closely studied and able
30:13
Speaker 1: to point to it and say, okay, we've figured out
30:17
Speaker 1: the cause of handfoot, headfoot and mouth disease. Sorry, I
30:23
Speaker 1: keep wayed to call it hoof, foot and mouth disease.
30:26
Speaker 3: Now just the internal it, you know. Yeah, So okay.
30:30
Speaker 1: They get described by this guy who's named Gilbert Doldorf.
30:34
Speaker 3: He was, yeah, great name, great name.
30:36
Speaker 1: Gil He was looking into outbreaks in nineteen forty seven
30:43
Speaker 1: and upstate New York, and he was pretty sure these
30:46
Speaker 1: were outbreaks of something called polio militis UH. And through
30:53
Speaker 1: this investigation he figured out that Cocksacki virus named after
30:58
Speaker 1: COCKSACKI New York is the is the cause of ham
31:02
Speaker 1: foot and mouth disease. And there's an interesting rabbit hole here.
31:06
Speaker 1: This is like, you know how, there are a lot
31:09
Speaker 1: of small towns where they have the one thing that
31:12
Speaker 1: they're famous for. It like the one the festival, every festival,
31:16
Speaker 1: the particular type of macromain, whatever, the fourth largest frying pan,
31:20
Speaker 1: and so on, world's biggest Adirondack chair exactly. Koksacky is
31:25
Speaker 1: probably most well known for the Koksaki virus.
31:28
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's kind of a bummer. I
31:29
Speaker 3: don't know if it's the pr they want, that's the
31:32
Speaker 3: one they got. Sometimes you just got to make do
31:34
Speaker 3: uh well.
31:36
Speaker 1: Max is an interesting note here, you say, as of
31:39
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, Kokshaki's population is just north of eight thousand people,
31:45
Speaker 1: and there is quote no mention whether or not is
31:49
Speaker 1: the epicenter of the New York state pornography scene.
31:56
Speaker 3: Oh that's what they're That's what they're known for them.
31:58
Speaker 3: That could be their other thing. We're not sure yes
32:00
Speaker 3: or no. But wait wait, you can either confirm Nordon
32:04
Speaker 3: I confirmed Nordon nine. Yeah, but I'm dirty, dirty boy.
32:11
Speaker 3: I've been reading too much joy we just did that episode.
32:15
Speaker 3: Uh no, no, who can play?
32:16
Speaker 1: Do check out our James Joyce episode and also all
32:18
Speaker 1: of us also you guys, Maya Kulpa. I know I
32:21
Speaker 1: instant sometimes I instantly turned into like congressional investigator. I
32:26
Speaker 1: don't think that was necessary. It's like, so, mister Williams,
32:30
Speaker 1: you have an interesting notes here. How would you respond? Uh? Luckily, Luckily,
32:36
Speaker 1: these two conditions that we explored today are not fatal,
32:41
Speaker 1: and they are often going to go away on their own.
32:45
Speaker 3: Uh.
32:46
Speaker 1: Small changes can help mitigate them. But that's not the story.
32:50
Speaker 1: With all the diseases, all the weird diseases, we're gonna
32:54
Speaker 1: cover more, I think in part two, because we're all
32:56
Speaker 1: having a lot of fun with this, we're gonna get
32:58
Speaker 1: to Ricketts, mumps, brain fever, and.
33:01
Speaker 3: I gotta tell you. I gotta tell you guys.
33:03
Speaker 1: Uh, one of my favorites for years and years years
33:08
Speaker 1: has been consumption, entirely because of Doc Holliday and Tombstone.
33:13
Speaker 2: I will be your Huckleberry Ben. Thank you for asking.
33:16
Speaker 2: It's I like a lot of these disease. I like
33:18
Speaker 2: a lot of these diseases. Y'all can quote me on that.
33:21
Speaker 2: The ones that are like band names. There's like the mumps,
33:25
Speaker 2: you know, the consumption, the flu even you know, but
33:29
Speaker 2: like I think it gives it a lot of weight
33:31
Speaker 2: and gravitaze. When you add to the to the beginning
33:33
Speaker 2: of oh.
33:33
Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
33:35
Speaker 2: Nobody says, like, well they did you say the common cold,
33:38
Speaker 2: but no one says the cold it's a cold flu. Yeah,
33:42
Speaker 2: But like there is what is it that determines whether
33:45
Speaker 2: something is worthy of getting a the You never say
33:49
Speaker 2: the rickets. You might say I got a case of
33:51
Speaker 2: the rickets, a case of the say the rickets?
33:55
Speaker 3: You know.
33:55
Speaker 2: I don't know, Ben, Do you guys have any theories
33:57
Speaker 2: about this? I'm intrigued.
33:59
Speaker 1: It's it's interesting because we see something similar. I can
34:02
Speaker 1: talk about how it happens in geography and geopolitics, Like
34:06
Speaker 1: you know, there are some places they're called the Gambia
34:10
Speaker 1: or the Ukraine.
34:11
Speaker 3: The Gambia. A lot of folks are moving away from
34:13
Speaker 3: that now.
34:14
Speaker 1: They don't care for it because, at least in the
34:17
Speaker 1: case of Ukraine, the argument is calling it the Ukraine
34:22
Speaker 1: seems to imply that it is just a region of
34:26
Speaker 1: another country.
34:28
Speaker 3: Like how you go to.
34:30
Speaker 1: Right, like how you go to the southwest or something,
34:34
Speaker 1: So I get that, but I don't think that's the
34:36
Speaker 1: same logic behind diseases. Maybe someone can help us with this,
34:41
Speaker 1: because honestly, I should have been looking this up, you guys,
34:43
Speaker 1: but instead I watched Tombstone and I went through list
34:47
Speaker 1: of doc holiday quotes.
34:49
Speaker 3: So that's on me. That's my bad.
34:51
Speaker 2: Well, a little bit of Tombstone trivia. I believe the
34:54
Speaker 2: guy that directed Tombstone is the father It might be
34:58
Speaker 2: not directed, it might be cinematographer, is the father of
35:01
Speaker 2: one of my current favorite weirdo directors, Panos Cosmotos behind
35:07
Speaker 2: the Beyond the Black Rainbow and Mandy and that awesome
35:10
Speaker 2: the visit, I believe is what it's called in the
35:13
Speaker 2: Goo Yamadultoro Cabinet of Curiosities. But yeah, his father I
35:16
Speaker 2: think directed Tombstone. Wow, John and breenco that's all I
35:21
Speaker 2: got about it. Just over your grave. Oh yeah, those
35:25
Speaker 2: are good, those are very quitable and uh and uh yeah,
35:28
Speaker 2: I think of al Kilmar did a really good job
35:31
Speaker 2: at portraying a man with the consumption exactly.
35:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, agreed, agreed, And we hope that you have enjoyed
35:39
Speaker 1: this episode.
35:39
Speaker 3: Folks.
35:40
Speaker 1: Uh, this is coming to you hot fresh on a Thursday.
35:44
Speaker 1: We hope everybody has a good weekend. We will be
35:46
Speaker 1: back with more terrible real life diseases that we think
35:52
Speaker 1: have funny names.
35:53
Speaker 3: Thanks of course, mister.
35:55
Speaker 1: Max Williams, our super producer, our research associate. Thanks to
36:00
Speaker 1: Thanks to our own funny disease, Jonathan Strickland aka the
36:04
Speaker 1: Quist missed the heck out of him.
36:07
Speaker 3: The human stains. That's a book, isn't that? Bye bye Roth.
36:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, one day, one day Jonathan might hear all these
36:16
Speaker 1: all these weird things we shout him out as at
36:18
Speaker 1: the end of episodes. I hope he doesn't get a
36:20
Speaker 1: compli compilation uh track of it, or maybe we should
36:24
Speaker 1: give it to him for you know. And into the
36:25
Speaker 1: year present. Thanks also to mister Alex Williams. Thanks to
36:29
Speaker 1: Alex Circa, we have an abundance of Alex's Alex i alexis.
36:34
Speaker 2: Indeed, Chris Rossiota is here and Spirit Jeff Coates and
36:39
Speaker 2: do please check out her new podcast called on Theme,
36:42
Speaker 2: which is a story about black storytelling in all its forms.
36:46
Speaker 1: Yes, thanks also to our pals over at Ridiculous Crime,
36:50
Speaker 1: Zarah and Elizabeth, producer Dave. Thanks to everyone for tuning
36:55
Speaker 1: in we can't wait to hang out and go find
37:00
Speaker 1: more ridiculous diseases. I've got to stop reading doc holiday quotes.
37:04
Speaker 1: I'm going to be coming in hot with a terrible
37:06
Speaker 1: holiday impression in the next episode.
37:09
Speaker 3: Ah, you do you, buddy, and we'll see you next time, folks.
37:19
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
37:22
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.