Latest / Ridiculous History / The Return of Listener Mail

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The Return of Listener Mail · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
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Speaker 1: to the show, Ridiculous Historians. We often point out that
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Speaker 1: the best part of this show, despite our three winning personalities,
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Speaker 1: is you and your fellow listeners. Today we are putting
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Speaker 1: our money where our collective mouth is. With a little
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Speaker 1: bit of listener mail. Hi, I'm ben, I am knowing
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Speaker 1: my mouth is is on my face. But when we
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Speaker 1: when our with our mouths combined, we become a collective
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Speaker 1: mouthpiece that is broadcast throughout the Internet. It's kind of
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Speaker 1: what podcasting is right in many ways. Yeah, Uh, where
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Speaker 1: would our mouths be without our superproducer, Casey Pegram. Uh,
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Speaker 1: you know, out of context that sounds weird, but I
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Speaker 1: supported I was going to say without the mouth of
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Speaker 1: our superproducer, Casey Pegram, because he is part of our
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Speaker 1: mouth trifector head. Yes, yes, he is part of the
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Speaker 1: collective mouth Thanks for thanks for coming on this show today, Casey.
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Speaker 1: You know one thing that I don't know if everybody
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Speaker 1: is aware of, is that when we get emails or
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Speaker 1: when we get tweets or Facebook comments and posts, all
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Speaker 1: three of us get these, so we're all we're all collected.
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Speaker 1: So if you if you say something. If you say
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Speaker 1: something sideways about one of us, the other two know,
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Speaker 1: and we'll come at you. We will, we come at you.
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Speaker 1: We're quite protective, the full force of all three of
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Speaker 1: our mouth because I'm just gonna keep this mouth thing going. Sure,
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Speaker 1: we receive a lot of We receive a lot of insightful, brilliant,
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Speaker 1: well written and at times hilarious email, and every so
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Speaker 1: often we reached the where we say this is too
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Speaker 1: good not to share with everyone else. So this is
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Speaker 1: a little bit of a grab bag episode. We're going
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Speaker 1: to explore some of the fascinating correspondence we've received. Spoiler alert,
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Speaker 1: we won't get to all of it. But if you
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Speaker 1: have sent us an email, uh, gird yourself, my friends,
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Speaker 1: because you may be making an appearance on air. Also,
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Speaker 1: if you want to send us an email now that
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Speaker 1: you know they go on the air sometimes, uh, feel
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Speaker 1: free to chime in. Our email address is ridiculous at
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Speaker 1: I heart radio dot com. Yeah, it's true, So hold
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Speaker 1: onto your mouth holes because things are about to get ridiculous.
2:39
Speaker 1: And that's what we do here. It's in the name
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Speaker 1: of the show where we're literally it's in our contract.
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Speaker 1: We have to have a certain percentage of ridiculousness in
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Speaker 1: each episode or we get pay cuts. We also have
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Speaker 1: to have you know, historically we have been a ridiculous show.
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Speaker 1: I wonder how long we we have to be on
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Speaker 1: the air before we start referring to stuff about our
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Speaker 1: show in that historical sense. Have we been on a year?
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Speaker 1: Has it been a year? It's been more than a year.
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Speaker 1: It's been more than a year. Casey on the Case said,
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Speaker 1: can you give us the exact number? Case you can
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Speaker 1: give us the date of episode one, episode zero, because
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Speaker 1: you love being put on the spot. Yeah, this this
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Speaker 1: would be the one time I don't have my laptop open,
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Speaker 1: so I can't just pop over to the master meta document.
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Speaker 1: Peek behind the curtain. We have a master meta document.
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Speaker 1: I got it. So we're we're coming up on two years.
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Speaker 1: We have the date of our very first full episode.
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Speaker 1: It's not a trailer or anything. When we made all
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Speaker 1: those wild ambitious promises. Uh, the date entitle of our
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Speaker 1: first episode was why do British lawyers wear wigs on October?
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Speaker 1: Was it? Was it me? Or was that sort of
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Speaker 1: that drum roll? We're out, It's welcome a little bit.
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Speaker 1: It's a long one. I found this old thing from
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Speaker 1: stuff you should know days, uh sound machine, a handheld
4:01
Speaker 1: sound machine called soundbites. Uh. It has things like car crash,
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Speaker 1: charge whistle. But as you can tell, they're all a
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Speaker 1: little bit too long. Do you feel that too. They're
4:13
Speaker 1: a little too long, and it feels like the batteries
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Speaker 1: and that thing haven't been changed since like the late nineties,
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Speaker 1: so they're starting to take on that kind of bit
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Speaker 1: crushed quality, which I sort of like. I enjoy that. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: One thing that was interesting about this Noal is that, uh,
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Speaker 1: this speaks to the positivity of our crew. The applause
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Speaker 1: button no longer works because we were always hitting it
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Speaker 1: for each other. I know, I know. I walked in
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Speaker 1: on one of our producers for a different show and
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Speaker 1: made this big to do about how it's going to
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Speaker 1: applaud him, and it was just nope, there it is.
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Speaker 1: It came back. It came back the show. It doesn't
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Speaker 1: even sound like applause anymore, does it. Well, we are
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Speaker 1: applauding you everyone who wrote in. We've got some stuff
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Speaker 1: that made all three of us chuckle, laugh out loud,
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Speaker 1: and most importantly taught us some things we didn't know before. Right, okay.
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Speaker 1: Our first one comes from Kimberly m Um. She says, Hi, guys,
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Speaker 1: I'm a big fan and came across the topic recently
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Speaker 1: that I am dying to hear you discuss trial by ordeal.
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Speaker 1: It's the practice of proving one's innocence of an accused
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Speaker 1: crime by participating in a dangerous or painful task and
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Speaker 1: either avoiding injury altogether, which would be credited to some
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Speaker 1: sort of deity, or to heal well from injuries incurred. Uh.
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Speaker 1: These trials occurred across the world, ranging from burning to boiling,
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Speaker 1: to drowning to poisoning. The list goes on. Really boggles
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Speaker 1: the mind one would have to submit to torture to
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Speaker 1: keep one's good name. I'd love to hear your thoughts
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Speaker 1: on this. Uh And boy, oh boy, do we have
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Speaker 1: some thoughts on this. The thing is this maybe could
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Speaker 1: be an episode into itself, but I don't know. I
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Speaker 1: like I like doing these in little nugget sized ones,
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Speaker 1: and this one might be a little too heavy as
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Speaker 1: a whole episode. So why don't we go into a
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Speaker 1: little bit about try out by ordeal? Yeah, it's very true.
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Speaker 1: Trial by ordeal um for about four hundred years in
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Speaker 1: the early thirteenth century, actually between the ninth and thirteenth
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Speaker 1: century in Europe, during very particularly vexing cases that were
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Speaker 1: lacking in any kind of evidence. Um, these these systems
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Speaker 1: decided that it would be a good idea to put
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Speaker 1: it in the hands of God. What better way to
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Speaker 1: do that than to expose a defendant um to you know,
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Speaker 1: the tortures of the damned, everything from you know, waterboarding
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Speaker 1: type things, being dunked in pools of holy water, or
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Speaker 1: to walk across burning uh coals that would be the
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Speaker 1: ordeal of having boiling water poured on you or being
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Speaker 1: burned by a brand um in. In certain cases, they
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Speaker 1: were even uh examples of folks being plunged into cauldrons
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Speaker 1: uh in order to fish out some sort of like
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Speaker 1: drink it kind of like bobbing for apples only in
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Speaker 1: boiling water and using your hands out of your face
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Speaker 1: because I'd probably kill you instantly. Yeah, it's it's fascinating
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Speaker 1: because there's a great article on mental flaws as well
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Speaker 1: about trial by ordeal. And what's interesting about what you're
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Speaker 1: saying regarding trial boy by ordeal in Europe in the
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Speaker 1: thirteenth century is that it was forbidden by Pope Innocent
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Speaker 1: the Third in twelve fifteen, but it was already so
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Speaker 1: prevalent that people people kept practicing it. It even came
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Speaker 1: to colonial America. It's uh process found in India, Southeast Asia,
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Speaker 1: different parts of Africa. It's in the Rama Yana, the
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Speaker 1: Old Testament. Uh. And and also this is this is interesting.
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Speaker 1: I like what you said about the different types or
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Speaker 1: different genres, because let's you already mentioned some of the hesitates,
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Speaker 1: call them greatest hits, but some of the more common ones.
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Speaker 1: Trial by hot iron water hot water, Uh, there's there.
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Speaker 1: There are a couple that I thought you would find
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Speaker 1: really fascinating is trial by host. And this occurred in
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Speaker 1: Christian communities. The priest would go before an alter pray
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Speaker 1: aloud that God would choke the accused if they weren't
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Speaker 1: telling the truth, and then they would feed the host
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Speaker 1: the Holy Eucharist to the accused, and if they were
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Speaker 1: guilty of lyne or guilty of the crime, they would
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Speaker 1: choke on the thing or had difficulty swallowing it. This
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Speaker 1: was one of the easiest trial by ordeals. There was
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Speaker 1: another one called the trial by ordeal being uh the
8:32
Speaker 1: bean b E A N yeah, a calibar bean. So
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Speaker 1: someone would be accused of witchcraft and then they would
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Speaker 1: have to eat these beans. If they threw the beans up,
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Speaker 1: they were innocent, and if they digested them, they were guilty.
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Speaker 1: But the problem is that most of the people who
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Speaker 1: digested the beans were killed by the effects because the
8:51
Speaker 1: being contained something called physio stigman, which was similar to
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Speaker 1: the effect of nerve gases that might have been used
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Speaker 1: in war. So you would die of asphyxiation. That's tough, man,
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Speaker 1: that's not That's not a good way to go out.
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Speaker 1: But you were telling me off air Noal that there
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Speaker 1: are some people arguing trial by ordeal actually function, right,
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Speaker 1: I actually worked. It wasn't a kangaroo court. Well, I mean,
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Speaker 1: it's certainly historical retrospect was something of a kangaroo corp
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Speaker 1: because it was judged by members of the clergy priests
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Speaker 1: during parts of these special masses uh and during these
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Speaker 1: ceremonies um, the priest or the judge would ask God
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Speaker 1: to show the court the guilt or innocence of the defendant,
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Speaker 1: uh in order. And the thing about it is like, yes,
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Speaker 1: it's a kangaroo corp because it's basically just torturing them
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Speaker 1: and punishing them openly, and then you know, hopefully they
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Speaker 1: won't die or they you know, limp away, just just
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Speaker 1: alive enough to be be considered yielled free. Right, Yeah, yeah,
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Speaker 1: as long as there is justice in the universe. You know,
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Speaker 1: one thing, it was interesting, It also seemed trial by
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Speaker 1: ordeal apparently may not have gone away completely. We mentioned
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Speaker 1: that ordeal being right, there's another thing very similar in Madagascar,
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Speaker 1: trial by a tagina tree or cerebra odalum. It has
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Speaker 1: the nut of this tree has something called serberin in it,
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Speaker 1: which is related to a toxin found in fox glove,
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Speaker 1: and this can cause the heart to stop beating. It
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Speaker 1: was used in Madagascar against people accused of witchcraft for
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Speaker 1: like five hundred years, and in the eighteen hundreds it
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Speaker 1: was responsible for over two percent of the deaths in
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Speaker 1: the country every year. It was banned in eighteen sixty one,
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Speaker 1: but it's still used in cases of homicide and suicide
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Speaker 1: in Madagascar, and the trial by ordeal using the nut
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Speaker 1: of this tree continue in remote areas of Madagascar today.
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Speaker 1: We could do it, we could do a two part
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Speaker 1: episode on this, you think so well, as long as
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Speaker 1: we don't have to subject ourselves to trial by ordeal?
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Speaker 1: Is it too late? Can we still do it? Or
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Speaker 1: is this too many spoilers to it to to allow?
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Speaker 1: I think we can still do it. There's a lot here,
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Speaker 1: and hey, maybe maybe that will be our trial by ordeal?
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Speaker 1: How meta is that? I'm down for it? Then, you know.
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Speaker 1: It's really reminds me of but I think it has
11:24
Speaker 1: come up in some way before. I can't remember. We
11:26
Speaker 1: talked about a lot of random stuff, but the feats
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Speaker 1: of strength in festivals, you know in the Seinfeld show.
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is like that, only
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Speaker 1: much more mean spirited and much more likely to to
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Speaker 1: kill you as opposed to just like a little bit
11:38
Speaker 1: of a weird flex right. Oh man? Uh speaking of
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Speaker 1: weird flexes, we recently heard from a listener that we
11:50
Speaker 1: will refer to as Wayne because that is his name,
11:54
Speaker 1: not exactly a pseudonym here. Uh so, Wayne, you wrote
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Speaker 1: to us and said, hey, guys, does this email address
12:03
Speaker 1: still work? We said, yes, this is us, and then
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Speaker 1: we opened the floodgates. Wayne has been going episode by
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Speaker 1: episode and answering those questions that we pose at the
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Speaker 1: end of each episode. So we're not going to read
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Speaker 1: all of these, but we'll read a couple of choice ones.
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Speaker 1: All right, so does a follow up email from Wayne
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Speaker 1: called another ten episodes down. Wayne says, I think ten
12:33
Speaker 1: at a time is good. I don't want you to
12:35
Speaker 1: be overwhelmed with the nonsense that I wrote. As always
12:38
Speaker 1: be advised, I write these from my phone. So something
12:40
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense. It's probably because I'm poor proofreading. Let's
12:43
Speaker 1: get to it. Number one, Meet Jello. No, I'm not sure.
12:47
Speaker 1: I'm happy with the knowledge of this food's existence. However,
12:50
Speaker 1: I never knew jello was used to store foods in
12:52
Speaker 1: the past. That was interesting. So the episode wasn't horrible.
12:55
Speaker 1: I did learn something not gross, No question, this episode
12:58
Speaker 1: just a request to send in more gross recipes which
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Speaker 1: I don't have. In parentheses, he says, I don't cook.
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Speaker 1: And here's here's an interesting one. Check this out and well,
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Speaker 1: he says, vitamin donuts. You remember that one, vitamin donuts.
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Speaker 1: This episode sparked a lot of commentary by me, so
13:17
Speaker 1: hold on. The episode reminded me of the time I
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Speaker 1: brought my friend taco bell when he was sick, and
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Speaker 1: I called it vitamin taco. I'm unsure if it helped
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Speaker 1: his condition, but it was a good excuse to get
13:27
Speaker 1: Taco Bell. We get it, Wayne. You guys also mentioned
13:30
Speaker 1: In and Out Burger, But as an East Coast resident,
13:32
Speaker 1: I don't often get to enjoy in and Out Burger,
13:34
Speaker 1: but when I do, I absolutely love it. I'll have
13:36
Speaker 1: to agree with no whole suggestion of a double double
13:38
Speaker 1: animal style, but I generally get two of them because
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Speaker 1: I'm a monster and I can't be sated with just one.
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Speaker 1: You guys actually bring up Taco Bell, which reminded me
13:47
Speaker 1: of the time I made a taco sandwich. We didn't
13:49
Speaker 1: bring up Taco Bell. We did it. We would never
13:52
Speaker 1: have brought up taco at some point, I need to Yeah,
13:55
Speaker 1: let's see, let's see the evidence. Let's go back to
13:57
Speaker 1: the primary source. I want to point out that Taco
14:05
Speaker 1: Bell deserves a metal for all the strange things they've
14:09
Speaker 1: tried over the years. There was, most notably, I remember
14:14
Speaker 1: the Taco Bell seafood salad, which just sounds like a
14:17
Speaker 1: terrible idea. Any notion of seafood from a fast food
14:21
Speaker 1: restaurant typically is a red flag for me. All right,
14:24
Speaker 1: so it is, what's a taco sandwich? Wayne says, I'm
14:27
Speaker 1: glad you asked. Taco is a sandwich dog It's uh,
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Speaker 1: it's it's too well as a wrap a sandwich. Different
14:32
Speaker 1: show is it's it's two crunch wrap supremes, one five
14:36
Speaker 1: layer burrito, two crunchy taco supremes, one sided nachos with cheese,
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Speaker 1: your favorite hot sauce from Taco Bell to taste. The
14:43
Speaker 1: crunch trap supremes make up the bread of the sandwich.
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Speaker 1: Those stay intact open the five layer burritos scraped the
14:48
Speaker 1: contents into the top of one of the v crunch
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Speaker 1: trap supremes. This is why I consider the condiments. You
14:54
Speaker 1: take your two crunchy Taco supremes and mash them up
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Speaker 1: into a taco salad like condition. That's the meteor sandwich,
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Speaker 1: and you had the notcher cheese and the hot sauce.
15:02
Speaker 1: I don't suggest this if you're on a diet or
15:03
Speaker 1: if you're a normal human person. Question what is my
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Speaker 1: favorite failed food craze? I'm not sure I had a favorite,
15:09
Speaker 1: but once I heard of this cookie that was advertised
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Speaker 1: as such, if you eat this cookie, you will lose
15:14
Speaker 1: weight because your body burns more calories than the cookie has.
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Speaker 1: This was proven false of course, but it really made
15:19
Speaker 1: me wish of food like this was real. I, you know,
15:23
Speaker 1: dared to dream. I might try out the sandwich. I
15:25
Speaker 1: might follow Wayne's instructions here. You don't think you dropped
15:27
Speaker 1: dead instilling. I think it would take me a while.
15:30
Speaker 1: You know, it would be a trial by ordeal. There
15:32
Speaker 1: you go. See, Look how we tie that together. We
15:34
Speaker 1: brought it back. Thanks so much for writing. Wayne. Although
15:39
Speaker 1: we're not reading the entirety of these emails on air,
15:41
Speaker 1: we gotta say I appreciate your dedication and look forward
15:45
Speaker 1: to reading more, as do I and I think we'll
15:47
Speaker 1: do just that with one from LaVar j And this
15:51
Speaker 1: comes as something of a correction, I guess or I
15:53
Speaker 1: don't know. Let's let's let's decide what we think it is,
15:56
Speaker 1: um afternoon. I've developed I love his preamble here, it's
15:59
Speaker 1: really nice before he gets to the meat of it.
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Speaker 1: I have developed a deep affinity to your podcast and
16:03
Speaker 1: listen intently for the two plus hours of commuting time
16:06
Speaker 1: I have to and from the office daily. Enjoy hearing
16:08
Speaker 1: you both discussed I had in both an interest to me,
16:10
Speaker 1: my wife and our five year old son. Though sometimes
16:12
Speaker 1: he wishes we listened to kids bop instead. Boy, do
16:14
Speaker 1: I understand where you're coming. We're listening to kids about
16:17
Speaker 1: before and after this show. I have always one earbud
16:20
Speaker 1: in with kids bob blasting at all times. It just
16:22
Speaker 1: kind of grounds me endearing it is. I'm in the
16:25
Speaker 1: process of starting from the beginning and listening to all
16:28
Speaker 1: of the previously produced podcasts. These are just as entertaining
16:31
Speaker 1: now to the purpose of the email. I've heard you
16:33
Speaker 1: both use the phrase young bucks when describing young soldiers
16:38
Speaker 1: or young gentleman. It isn't well known, but something I
16:41
Speaker 1: feel important to bring to your attention. The term young
16:43
Speaker 1: buck is quite a historically racist phrase that stems from
16:47
Speaker 1: plantation owners and slavery supporters referring to young black males
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Speaker 1: as young bucks. I myself wasn't brought into the knowledge
16:54
Speaker 1: of its etymology until I was a young adult and
16:56
Speaker 1: discovered the history on this and other terms while completing
16:59
Speaker 1: my EEG a minor in Black studies. Growing up in Virginia,
17:03
Speaker 1: there were some in your face instances of racism and profiling,
17:07
Speaker 1: and some less subtle methods like the use of that phrase.
17:11
Speaker 1: I know you both are socially conscious and speak truth
17:13
Speaker 1: to power and hope you can acknowledge its existence and
17:16
Speaker 1: history to your audience. Don't know, maybe a future episode
17:19
Speaker 1: can come about to understanding where racist phrases and names
17:22
Speaker 1: are derived and why they are used today may provide
17:25
Speaker 1: an opportunity to educate your fans where and why words
17:29
Speaker 1: and phrases may seem innocent but tend to come from
17:31
Speaker 1: a pretty checkered past. And then he links us to
17:34
Speaker 1: a site called men Without Pants Masculinity and the enslaved
17:39
Speaker 1: by Carrie Lee Merit from a website called Black Perspectives
17:44
Speaker 1: a A I H. S dot org. And it, indeed,
17:48
Speaker 1: does this word have quite a checkered past, And it
17:52
Speaker 1: was sort of a very demeaning term buck in particular
17:58
Speaker 1: of kind of du nizing black slaves and treating them
18:03
Speaker 1: like cattle and property and calling them, you know, but
18:06
Speaker 1: also being able to admire them as some sort of
18:08
Speaker 1: specimen that could do a lot of work, or that
18:11
Speaker 1: was something to remark upon because of its strength and virility,
18:14
Speaker 1: but completely robbing them of any semblance of humanity and
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Speaker 1: personality and dare I say a soul. Well, this sort
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Speaker 1: of this sort of mothering is unfortunately incredibly common throughout history,
18:28
Speaker 1: and I immensely appreciate this email because it's weird that
18:35
Speaker 1: so many words and phrases we use, especially in UH
18:39
Speaker 1: in a language like English, do have these um horrific
18:44
Speaker 1: secrets in their etymology. Buck itself is the is the
18:50
Speaker 1: pivotal phrase here because there would also be other modifiers
18:55
Speaker 1: that were added in front of that word. We can
18:59
Speaker 1: guarantee you that uh, It's safe to say the majority
19:03
Speaker 1: of people our age are not in general aware of this.
19:09
Speaker 1: This phrase is past as a pejorative. Furthermore, it made
19:14
Speaker 1: me think of other things wherein the phrase buck is used,
19:17
Speaker 1: Like most people will use the phrase bucks to describe
19:21
Speaker 1: dollars or a dollar bill in the US as a buck,
19:25
Speaker 1: But what about the phrase buck naked? You will hear
19:29
Speaker 1: people argue that this conjures up stereotypical images of naked
19:35
Speaker 1: people forced to labor under the conditions of chattel slavery.
19:40
Speaker 1: So I think it's an excellent point that we should
19:44
Speaker 1: be mindful of the past of the words we use,
19:48
Speaker 1: and we should always welcome an opportunity to learn more
19:52
Speaker 1: about them, which is why I'm I'm a huge fan
19:54
Speaker 1: of entomology. I never send I am too and I
19:55
Speaker 1: could I swear that I always associated that term as
19:59
Speaker 1: we've used it as sort of like an old timey
20:02
Speaker 1: thing that like, uh, you know, a man in a
20:04
Speaker 1: fine suit would say referring to uh, you know, a
20:07
Speaker 1: young upstart, like like he said in an email, a soldier,
20:09
Speaker 1: like some kind of young man you know. Um, But
20:12
Speaker 1: you learn something new every day, and it's certainly never
20:14
Speaker 1: our intention to say anything that's charged in any way, um,
20:17
Speaker 1: other than with ridiculousness, right right, the goal of the show.
20:23
Speaker 1: And thank you, thank you for writing in all right.
20:31
Speaker 1: Our next, Our next correspondence comes from Mike T. Mike
20:36
Speaker 1: T says gentleman thumbs up for the squirreld War episode.
20:40
Speaker 1: A few members of the family have issues with squirrels,
20:43
Speaker 1: so they will definitely enjoy this story. Speaking of pest,
20:46
Speaker 1: you like this pivot here Speaking in pest. My parents
20:49
Speaker 1: neighborhood here in Houston is diligently on the lookout for
20:52
Speaker 1: brown Herron's. My mom spends time in the backyard daily
20:55
Speaker 1: figuring out ways to scare away these birds so that
20:59
Speaker 1: they don't ston trees. Our neighborhood even has a special
21:02
Speaker 1: heroine watch with a hotline. Why you may ask I love.
21:07
Speaker 1: I love when people put these questions in here. Last spring,
21:10
Speaker 1: for some unknown ecological reason, plethora of these birds set
21:14
Speaker 1: their sights on the neighborhood. Points to you for using
21:16
Speaker 1: plethora correctly. Mike. By the way, one tree near my
21:19
Speaker 1: parents home ended up housing more than fifty nest According
21:23
Speaker 1: to my mom, that particular tree had been cut down
21:25
Speaker 1: due to the damage that that many birds were able
21:28
Speaker 1: to inflict. Also, the residence of the house by the
21:31
Speaker 1: tree had to move out for an extended period of
21:33
Speaker 1: time because one, there was so much poop that they
21:36
Speaker 1: were getting physically sick, and two they could not sleep
21:39
Speaker 1: because of all the noise. As best I can tell,
21:42
Speaker 1: the key to success is frightening the bird's way before
21:44
Speaker 1: they nest, because once they lay eggs, legally nothing can
21:48
Speaker 1: be done to them. Anyway, My mom is in her
21:50
Speaker 1: backyard banging pots and pants and looking into investing in
21:52
Speaker 1: a super soaker, water gun the last word and water guns.
21:56
Speaker 1: By the way, her neighbors considering using helium balloons to
22:00
Speaker 1: act as scarecrows. Talk about Alfred Hitchcock meets Stephen King
22:04
Speaker 1: meets Monty Python. Thanks Mike, invasive species, it's a real thing.
22:10
Speaker 1: I want to hear more invasive species stories. Uh, and no,
22:14
Speaker 1: I think you in particular would be pretty distressed if
22:19
Speaker 1: you walked into your backyard and saw a fifty of
22:21
Speaker 1: the same kind of bird. Kidding me, it's my personal Hell,
22:26
Speaker 1: I don't know what I would do. It would be
22:28
Speaker 1: my trial. You know what my trial would be. It
22:30
Speaker 1: would be to walk barefoot through a flock of geese.
22:35
Speaker 1: I don't know if you would. I think you do it.
22:37
Speaker 1: If you had to do it, and to know it
22:39
Speaker 1: have to be nude, that would be That would be
22:41
Speaker 1: what would up it, you know, because they would have
22:43
Speaker 1: to They would be pecking at my bare legs, which
22:45
Speaker 1: are very pale because I don't really let my skin
22:48
Speaker 1: be exposed to the sun very often, so very tender. Uh.
22:51
Speaker 1: They would be plucking at my leg hair. I know
22:54
Speaker 1: this image is not something you signed up for in
22:55
Speaker 1: this podcast, but there you have it. So take that
22:58
Speaker 1: and do with it what you will. I don't know, man,
23:01
Speaker 1: I wear a breach of some kind, some sort of
23:04
Speaker 1: cod peace. Yeah. Yeah, Like, don't do a loincloth because
23:08
Speaker 1: they can still get at the bottom. Then they'll snatch
23:10
Speaker 1: the loincloth, right, Yeah, then look at me. You gotta
23:12
Speaker 1: protect your little Australia. Man. Man, it's a medium Australia test. Wow,
23:17
Speaker 1: I've just been as I'm in the habit of referring
23:20
Speaker 1: to everybody's personal down Under as their little Australia. But
23:25
Speaker 1: I love all animals, I love birds and even I
23:28
Speaker 1: would not stroll through a group of them nude. That's
23:30
Speaker 1: just asking for uh trouble. How would you know if
23:35
Speaker 1: I had come through the trial unscathed, if my sanity
23:39
Speaker 1: wasn't completely just gone, if I could still stand up
23:44
Speaker 1: right after going through this herd well trial by ordeal
23:48
Speaker 1: was overwhelmingly uh an unfair thing in most situations. So
23:53
Speaker 1: you're barrier for passing, And again I'm not making these decisions.
23:57
Speaker 1: Your barrier for passing will probably be something like walking
24:00
Speaker 1: through unscathed unscathed, So that could that would be up
24:05
Speaker 1: to the judges. So if they said, look a goose
24:07
Speaker 1: bit him, he is a child of the devil. Could I,
24:11
Speaker 1: if I did make it through unscathed, could I get
24:14
Speaker 1: a badass medieval nickname like Noel Brown the Unpacked? I
24:18
Speaker 1: think I think it's worth considering. But thank you so
24:21
Speaker 1: much Mike for writing in keep us keep us informed,
24:25
Speaker 1: keep us abreast of this heroin problem which I had
24:29
Speaker 1: I had no knowledge of. And if you are listening
24:33
Speaker 1: and you are in a situation similar to that of
24:35
Speaker 1: Mike's mom and her neighbors, let us know which species
24:39
Speaker 1: are invading your part of town. Uh. The more ridiculous,
24:43
Speaker 1: the better agreed. Um. I have one here that's a
24:46
Speaker 1: nice combo letter because it's part story, part personal salutation,
24:51
Speaker 1: and part correction. And I think we need to be
24:54
Speaker 1: taken a task for our mispronunciations and crimes against humanity
24:58
Speaker 1: when it comes to history. Um, this one is about
25:01
Speaker 1: Morse Code, says. I'm catching back up on the most
25:04
Speaker 1: recent episodes. While listening to the tragic origin story of
25:06
Speaker 1: Morse Code, I wanted to share a fun fact with you.
25:09
Speaker 1: The longest document ever transmitted was the Nevada State Constitution.
25:13
Speaker 1: It's at at sixteen thousand, five hundred and forty three words.
25:17
Speaker 1: It was sent in Morse code via telegraph from Carson
25:19
Speaker 1: City to Salt Lake City to Chicago to Philadelphia, Washington,
25:23
Speaker 1: d C. It took the initial operator seven hours to
25:26
Speaker 1: send that one dred and seventy five page document. As
25:30
Speaker 1: I have just copied, and this is me talking, not
25:31
Speaker 1: the letter. I've just copied and pasted quite a bit
25:34
Speaker 1: of text from one place to another. Uh, and it
25:36
Speaker 1: took me seconds. I feel the I feel the pain
25:39
Speaker 1: here that just the idea of that taking so long.
25:41
Speaker 1: But at the same time, then the results seemed much
25:44
Speaker 1: more earned than they do today, So I appreciate that
25:46
Speaker 1: the letter goes on the reason that they sent it
25:48
Speaker 1: this way and not by the pony express or train.
25:51
Speaker 1: I was wondering that was because Lincoln was up for reelection.
25:55
Speaker 1: He needed more votes, and he desperately needed another state
25:58
Speaker 1: to tip the election in his favor. Nevada was central
26:01
Speaker 1: to the Gold and Silver rushes, but they did not
26:03
Speaker 1: have the minimum number of residents to become a state
26:06
Speaker 1: at forty thousand, needed sixty. But Lincoln pushed it through
26:10
Speaker 1: just the same. They were granted statehood in October thirty one.
26:14
Speaker 1: Every year, the last Friday in October is Nevada Day,
26:17
Speaker 1: and all the schools are out and most of the
26:19
Speaker 1: businesses are closed. There's always a huge celebration. It sounds
26:23
Speaker 1: like something Texas would do, but we Nevadas are proud.
26:27
Speaker 1: Oh then he's about to go into the correction, and
26:29
Speaker 1: I think I've been saying it wrong the whole email.
26:31
Speaker 1: Let's see Nevada. I don't know, let's see bend. So
26:37
Speaker 1: a little correction. You all have been mispronouncing Nevada. I'm
26:41
Speaker 1: gonna keep doing it. You have been saying Nevada, but
26:46
Speaker 1: it's really Nevada. Wait a minute, that doesn't make any sense.
26:50
Speaker 1: What did he capitalize? He just put the emphasis on
26:53
Speaker 1: the da instead of the va. What. I don't think
26:56
Speaker 1: that's right. You know, maybe it's not our place to say,
27:00
Speaker 1: but English is a living language, as I as I
27:02
Speaker 1: always like to point out. Wait a minute, no, no, no, no,
27:05
Speaker 1: he puts an h on the mispronunciation, so that would
27:08
Speaker 1: be nevada, but it's really nevad. Yeah, yeah, that's just
27:13
Speaker 1: the capitalization moving around is a little through me for
27:16
Speaker 1: a minute. But yes, that's very true. So we're gonna say.
27:18
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, I'm gonna commit to saying nevad duh,
27:21
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna really pronounced that duh hard because that's
27:24
Speaker 1: what you said to do. Cammy also gives me a
27:27
Speaker 1: nice pronunciation key for the name cam dash E. I
27:30
Speaker 1: look forward to your episode on Nevada Nevada. I'm gonna
27:35
Speaker 1: make go even more cartoon. Nevada Navada. When you say
27:43
Speaker 1: like Vada, it sounds like some sort of like Lord
27:45
Speaker 1: of the Rings incantation or something good. I like Niveada
27:49
Speaker 1: because it feels like someone's about to play a banjo
27:51
Speaker 1: for also true, also true. There are so many fun
27:54
Speaker 1: and little interesting things that make up our state's history,
27:58
Speaker 1: and we're overdue. We are overdue for a state by
28:03
Speaker 1: a new state centric episode. That old chestnut, that old chestnut.
28:07
Speaker 1: We can't stop now, or we shouldn't stop because it's
28:09
Speaker 1: it's an easy way for us to find episode. Just
28:12
Speaker 1: look at stuff that happened in states. Let's do that.
28:16
Speaker 1: That's what we're gonna do. UH. So we knew going
28:19
Speaker 1: into this we wouldn't have time to read every email
28:23
Speaker 1: out on the air. But we love doing these episodes
28:26
Speaker 1: and we are going to do more in the future.
28:28
Speaker 1: We hope that as you were listening along UH, you
28:31
Speaker 1: were inspired to write to us UH, to send us
28:34
Speaker 1: a paying We can't wait to hear from you. You
28:37
Speaker 1: can take a page from your fellow listeners and write
28:41
Speaker 1: to us at Ridiculous at I heart radio dot com.
28:44
Speaker 1: You can also find us on the internet we're like
28:46
Speaker 1: all over the place. Yeah, we are on the twitters
28:48
Speaker 1: or on the instagrams. I think we're ridiculous history on
28:50
Speaker 1: both of those. If you want to get a peek
28:52
Speaker 1: behind the curtain into our individual human existences, We're not
28:55
Speaker 1: just always sitting in the sweaty shipping container talking to microphones.
28:59
Speaker 1: You can check me out at Embryonic Insider on Instagram.
29:02
Speaker 1: You can also find me on Instagram. I am at
29:07
Speaker 1: ben Bolan. I just posted uh usually it's getting kicked
29:10
Speaker 1: done and kicked out of There are different cities, countries, towns,
29:13
Speaker 1: and townships. But you can see me hanging with my
29:17
Speaker 1: mom recently, and you can also see some clips from
29:19
Speaker 1: my improwd shows. What about villages. Villages are surprisingly um
29:27
Speaker 1: yeah for the first for the first day or so,
29:30
Speaker 1: but once once evening hits in rail, well it's no
29:35
Speaker 1: comments and feathered, I have not been tard North feather
29:39
Speaker 1: looks like a real that would be a real ordeal.
29:41
Speaker 1: He's painful, you know. Walt Whitman was hard and feathers. Okay,
29:45
Speaker 1: this is just one small historical fact. Uh So, Walt Whitman,
29:49
Speaker 1: before he became a a much lauded American poet, he
29:55
Speaker 1: was a school teacher. I believe in upstate New York
29:58
Speaker 1: someone wouldn't check me on that. UH, and he got
30:02
Speaker 1: in trouble for UH. Accusations are allegations that he was
30:06
Speaker 1: being inappropriate with students and he was tarred and feathered.
30:12
Speaker 1: Has he proven to be innocent? Because I don't think
30:16
Speaker 1: i've heard this about he was not proven to be innocent.
30:18
Speaker 1: I learned about this when I canceled a whitman class
30:22
Speaker 1: in UH college. Can I am not allow to read
30:25
Speaker 1: leaves of Grass anymore? It's a shame. I think leaves
30:27
Speaker 1: of Grass is amazing. And what the last part of
30:30
Speaker 1: leaves of dress to be read at my funeral? Okay,
30:33
Speaker 1: I can do that pretty Benefit'm invited. Oh yeah, I
30:36
Speaker 1: meant to tell you. I'm sorry, it's a big production.
30:39
Speaker 1: I already have. The guest list is full, and surely
30:41
Speaker 1: I've earned my way into your funeral guest list. I'm
30:43
Speaker 1: sure there will be a reception at the end. We're
30:45
Speaker 1: going to do it like a wedding. Just go to
30:47
Speaker 1: the receptions. Invite me to the next one, to the
30:49
Speaker 1: next funeral. Sounds good? And hey, you guys are invited
30:52
Speaker 1: to the next episode of ridiculous history. We'll see you then.
31:02
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
31:05
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.