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Mystery Man · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
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  Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
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  Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. The world is enormous. There are places humans
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  Speaker 1: have never laid eyes on, and where modern technology has
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  Speaker 1: never reached. Though we have charted much of the globe
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  Speaker 1: over the centuries, there was a time when certain areas
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  Speaker 1: we know today were considered exotic places, where the cultures
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  Speaker 1: were so different that when someone from one of those
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  Speaker 1: lands stepped foot in the West, they caused quite a stir.
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  Speaker 1: Enter the man from Formosa during the eighteenth century. His
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  Speaker 1: story was one of mystery and intrigue. He had been
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  Speaker 1: kidnapped by a French Jesuit from his home in Formosa,
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  Speaker 1: a country off the coast of China. The missionary had
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  Speaker 1: whisked him back to Europe to convert him to Catholicism,
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  Speaker 1: but the man from Formosa worshiped the sun and the
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  Speaker 1: moon instead, so he refused to convert and was jailed
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  Speaker 1: he escaped before being captured again, then got away once
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  Speaker 1: more and fled to the Netherlands. Dutch soldiers who apprehended
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  Speaker 1: him attempted to convert him to Calvinism instead, but he
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  Speaker 1: continued to resist, and that was, however, until he met
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  Speaker 1: Alexander Innes. It Is was the Scottish priest whose sermons
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  Speaker 1: captivated the man from Formosa. After a short time in
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  Speaker 1: his successfully converted the young man to Christianity, baptizing him
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  Speaker 1: with the name George Salmanazar. Of course, he didn't only
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  Speaker 1: do this out of the kindness of his heart. George
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  Speaker 1: gave in his a unique opportunity to demonstrate his talent
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  Speaker 1: to the upper ranks within the church. He and brought
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  Speaker 1: the man to England, where he presented him to the
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  Speaker 1: Bishop of London, who intruduced him to the rest of
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  Speaker 1: English high society. George was never truly accepted as one
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  Speaker 1: of them. He was treated as something to be studied,
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  Speaker 1: but his status as a curiosity nevertheless made him the
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  Speaker 1: talk of the town. He was never without an invitation
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  Speaker 1: to a party or a soiree, speaking in his native
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  Speaker 1: tongue and regaling folks with stories about Foremosa. He talked
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  Speaker 1: about its capital Extranesta, and how the foremos and men
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  Speaker 1: didn't work clothes. They just walked around with a plate
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  Speaker 1: made of gold or silver covering their nether regions. They
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  Speaker 1: also practiced polygamy, but if a wife was ever caught
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  Speaker 1: cheating on her husband, he claimed that their husbands could
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  Speaker 1: legally eat her as punishment. The tales were fascinating, but
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  Speaker 1: something about George rubbed a few people the wrong way. Well, actually,
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  Speaker 1: there were several things about him that drew questions. For one,
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  Speaker 1: he didn't look like he had come from another land.
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  Speaker 1: His skin was pale and he had blonde hair. According
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  Speaker 1: to him, that was because he had lived in an
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  Speaker 1: underground dwelling to avoid the intense heat in the region,
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  Speaker 1: so he hadn't been exposed to the sun very much.
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  Speaker 1: There was also his language, which didn't sound like anything
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  Speaker 1: anyone had ever heard before. It's alphabet was comprised of
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  Speaker 1: only twenty letters and was outlined in a book George
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  Speaker 1: published in seventeen o four describing Formosa and its customs.
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  Speaker 1: The book only made him more popular and even led
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  Speaker 1: him to a job at the University of Oxford lecturing
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  Speaker 1: and translating religious text into formos In. Alexander Innes, however,
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  Speaker 1: knew the truth about George Salmanazar. He knew everything except
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  Speaker 1: his real name. George didn't actually hail from Formosa otherwise
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  Speaker 1: known as modern day Taiwan. He'd been born in France
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  Speaker 1: around six eighty After literally bumming around Europe as a
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  Speaker 1: young man, he realized that he could make a pretty
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  Speaker 1: good living pretending to be from an Asian country and
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  Speaker 1: asking strangers for help in his seen through the ruse
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  Speaker 1: early on, but went along with it anyway to boost
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  Speaker 1: his chances at a higher position within the church. After all,
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  Speaker 1: he'd been the one man to convert the mysterious man
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  Speaker 1: from Formosa to Christianity. Others had their doubts, but nothing
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  Speaker 1: was made official until seventeen o six, when he let
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  Speaker 1: everyone in on the secret. It got to a point
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  Speaker 1: where he just couldn't explain away the lies anymore. Despite
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  Speaker 1: his imposture, however, his foremost in alphabet still found its
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  Speaker 1: way into language texts for at least another hundred years.
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  Speaker 1: George died in seventeen sixty three, after which his final
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  Speaker 1: book was published, Memoirs of Blank commonly known by the
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  Speaker 1: name of George Salmanazar, a reputed native of Formosa, but
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  Speaker 1: he took his real birth name and why he did
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  Speaker 1: what he did with him to the grave. All he
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  Speaker 1: left behind was a legacy built on lies mixed with
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  Speaker 1: a pinch of cannibalism. One of the biggest steps in
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  Speaker 1: a couple's relationship is finding their first home. It might
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  Speaker 1: be a small apartment in a big city or a
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  Speaker 1: modest house in the suburbs. No matter the size, however,
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  Speaker 1: it is a place that will be filled with love
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  Speaker 1: and memories, a home in which to build a life together.
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  Speaker 1: But sometimes the perfect residence doesn't exist. They must be built.
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  Speaker 1: For Jose Paranella, his love for his wife and his
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  Speaker 1: love for another country lad him to one of the
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  Speaker 1: most beautiful and unique homes ever constructed, with one heck
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  Speaker 1: of a water feature. Paranella was born in the northeast
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  Speaker 1: of Spain. He spent a lot of his time as
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  Speaker 1: a child with his grandmother, who told him stories about
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  Speaker 1: Spanish nobility and the beautiful castles they lived in. These
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  Speaker 1: tales stuck with him as he got older, especially as
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  Speaker 1: he to earn his own money. Jose had a dream
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  Speaker 1: to buy a castle of his own. One day when
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  Speaker 1: he was twenty six, the newly engaged Paranella answered a
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  Speaker 1: classified ad. It was looking for men to work the
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  Speaker 1: cane fields in Australia. He saw it as a way
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  Speaker 1: to build a life for himself and his future wife, so,
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  Speaker 1: leaving his fiance behind, he hopped a boat to Sydney
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  Speaker 1: in July of nine th then migrated north to Queensland
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  Speaker 1: to scope things out. Then he spent the next several
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  Speaker 1: years earning a living tending to the cane fields there,
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  Speaker 1: and he hated it. His hands ached constantly and he
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  Speaker 1: developed blisters. But the more he worked, the more money
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  Speaker 1: he made, which he squirreled away as he dreamed of
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  Speaker 1: his castle. Eventually he saved up enough to start buying
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  Speaker 1: his own cane farms, which he then built up and
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  Speaker 1: resold for a profit, earning considerable wealth in the process.
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  Speaker 1: It was during this time when Paranella stumbled upon a
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  Speaker 1: beautiful tract of rainforest near a waterfall that had been
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  Speaker 1: untouched by human hands. He knew that this be where
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  Speaker 1: he would build his castle, but he couldn't do so
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  Speaker 1: without his fiance by his side, so he returned to Spain,
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  Speaker 1: only to find that she had married someone else. Refusing
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  Speaker 1: to go back to Australia without a companion, he asked Margharita,
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  Speaker 1: his ex fiance's younger sister, for her hand in marriage instead.
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  Speaker 1: Margharita agreed, and a year later, in nine, the couple
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  Speaker 1: sailed back to Australia. Parannella then bought the land, waterfall
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  Speaker 1: and all where he planned to build his castle. He
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  Speaker 1: started by installing a grand staircase of forty seven steps
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  Speaker 1: to help him move materials from one level to another.
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  Speaker 1: From there, he constructed a stone cottage for him and
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  Speaker 1: his bride to live in while he worked on the
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  Speaker 1: rest of the castle. The cottage even had indoor plumbing,
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  Speaker 1: a first for their part of Australia. Paranella used concrete
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  Speaker 1: made with sand from a nearby river to build the
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  Speaker 1: castle of his dreams, a castle inspired by the ones
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  Speaker 1: his grandmother used to tell him about. It featured a ballroom,
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  Speaker 1: a tower, balconies, twin staircases on each side, and balustrades
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  Speaker 1: along the various edges held up by ornate balusters, again
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  Speaker 1: all made from concrete. There was even a theater inside
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  Speaker 1: the castle, as well as refreshment rooms and an outdoor fountain.
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  Speaker 1: Around nineteen thirty three, Paranella installed a major upgrade to
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  Speaker 1: his home, a hydro electric plant which got its power
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  Speaker 1: from the churning water of the falls. Paranella Park, as
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  Speaker 1: it was called, officially opened in nineteen thirty five, too
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  Speaker 1: great to claim. Jose and Margharita hosted many parties, fundraisers,
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  Speaker 1: and dinners there for local residents, especially the Spanish community
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  Speaker 1: living in the area. When World War Two brought US
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  Speaker 1: soldiers to Australia, Paranella Park became a kind of resort
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  Speaker 1: for the troops. They spent their downtime swimming in the
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  Speaker 1: local waters and eating food made by Margharita with homegrown
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  Speaker 1: herbs and vegetables. Unfortunately, the castle had been built on
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  Speaker 1: a precarious location. A railway bridge upstream was destroyed by
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  Speaker 1: a pile of branches and logs in nineteen forty six,
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  Speaker 1: sending debris crashing down towards Paranella Park. The refreshment rooms,
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  Speaker 1: theater and hydroelectric plants were all damaged in the process,
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  Speaker 1: and even though those rooms were eventually fixed, the following
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  Speaker 1: years brought all kinds of disasters upon the home. Tropical storms, fires,
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  Speaker 1: and floods all took their toll on the house built
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  Speaker 1: with love by Jose Paranella, who died of cancer. In
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  Speaker 1: his family did their best to keep up the property
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  Speaker 1: well into the nineteen seventies, before finally selling it in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven. Two years later, a devastating fire tore
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  Speaker 1: through the park. When it was finally extinguished, only the
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  Speaker 1: concrete structure remained. Everything else, including the interiors, had been destroyed. Today,
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  Speaker 1: Paranella Park stands as a ghostly anomaly in the middle
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  Speaker 1: of the forest. Its stairs and walkways are covered in moss,
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  Speaker 1: as though the environment is slowly trying to reclaim the
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  Speaker 1: property for itself. It's a testament to human engineering, one
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  Speaker 1: that desperately tried to sis alongside nature and failed. But
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  Speaker 1: it's continued existence is a reminder that hard work and
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  Speaker 1: dedication can pay off, and that a couple's first home
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  Speaker 1: doesn't have to be a cramped one bedroom apartment in
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  Speaker 1: New York. It can be a concrete castle in the
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  Speaker 1: middle of the forest, just waiting for love to turn
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  Speaker 1: it into a home. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
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  Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
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  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
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  Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
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  Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.