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Quite a Character · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
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  Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world
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  Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
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  Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
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  Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. We never really know how the
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  Speaker 1: people in our lives will affect us later on. As kids,
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  Speaker 1: we pick up things from parents and siblings, aunts and uncles,
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  Speaker 1: and even our grandparents. Whether it's a love of old movies,
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  Speaker 1: or the way we hold a pencil or how we
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  Speaker 1: say certain words. Our families and friends leave their marks
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  Speaker 1: on us in so many ways, and for the more
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  Speaker 1: artistic of us, they become fodder for our creative endeavors.
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  Speaker 1: That's what happened to Elsie Seeger. Seeger was born in
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  Speaker 1: the small town of Chester, Illinois eight His father worked
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  Speaker 1: as a handyman, and when Elsie was older, he often
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  Speaker 1: brought him along on the jobs. When he wasn't painting
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  Speaker 1: houses or hanging wallpaper. However, the young Seeger could be
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  Speaker 1: found playing the drums, which made him popular with local
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  Speaker 1: theaters and movie houses in need of musical support. His
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  Speaker 1: early days were spent a company in vaudeville acts, until
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  Speaker 1: he eventually took a job running the projector at the
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  Speaker 1: Chester Opera House. The owner of the Opera House was
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  Speaker 1: a man named William Schuchert, who often sent Seager out
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  Speaker 1: to fetch him hamburgers at meal times. Meanwhile, there was
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  Speaker 1: a local general store run by Dora Pascal, whose tall
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  Speaker 1: and lanky frame loomed over her customers, her hair tied
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  Speaker 1: in a loose bun that fell at the nape of
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  Speaker 1: her neck. All of these individuals left a lasting impression
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  Speaker 1: on Sieger, but perhaps none more than Frank Feigel. Figel
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  Speaker 1: was known by his nickname Rocky due to his prominent
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  Speaker 1: jawline and muscular stature. Rocky lived with his mother and
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  Speaker 1: didn't have many friends. He fought a lot and was
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  Speaker 1: not one to shy away from a brawl. He also
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  Speaker 1: spent most of his time in the town's bars. Rocky
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  Speaker 1: didn't have a steady income, instead choosing to do odd
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  Speaker 1: jobs around Chester as a day laborer. Given his shaky
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  Speaker 1: employment history and love of drinking, he earned a less
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  Speaker 1: than flattering reputation as a bum, but he wasn't afraid
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  Speaker 1: of anything. According to a story by his nephew, Rocky
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  Speaker 1: once entered a saloon where two Ruffians had a rule
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  Speaker 1: for anyone coming in. The customer either had to buy
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  Speaker 1: the whole bar around of drinks or put on the
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  Speaker 1: gloves and fight one of the thugs. So Rocky put
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  Speaker 1: on the gloves. The next thing everyone knew, the bruiser
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  Speaker 1: was on the floor, with Rocky standing over him victorious.
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  Speaker 1: But he wasn't always fighting. Despite his sour demeanor, he
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  Speaker 1: often made time to help the kids in town, especially
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  Speaker 1: the meek ones who were getting picked on by bullies.
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  Speaker 1: He would offer candy or coins to the ones in need.
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  Speaker 1: Even though he was tough on the outside, he had
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  Speaker 1: a heart of gold on the inside. Rocky could be
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  Speaker 1: easily identified by a few trademark characteristics too. For one,
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  Speaker 1: he always had a corn cob pipe sticking out of
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  Speaker 1: his mouth. He'd also lost one of his eyes, which
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  Speaker 1: led him to squint on one side. Rocky was quite
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  Speaker 1: a character and affected everyone he met, for better or
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  Speaker 1: for worse. Elzie Seger certainly remembered him when he finally
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  Speaker 1: left Chester for a job in the big city. Seger
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  Speaker 1: had started taking correspondence courses at eighteen years old with
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  Speaker 1: a dream of becoming a cartoonist. After spending a number
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  Speaker 1: of years in Chicago working for The Herald and the
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  Speaker 1: Chicago Evening American, he moved out to New York. He
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  Speaker 1: took a job at King Features Syndicate, a content distribution
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  Speaker 1: company that put comic strips in papers all over the country.
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  Speaker 1: Among his first creations at the new job was a
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  Speaker 1: strip called Bull Theater. It introduced characters that were literally
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  Speaker 1: drawn from Seeger's own life, including a tall, thin woman
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  Speaker 1: with her hair in a loose bun named Olive Oil,
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  Speaker 1: reminiscent of Chester General store owner Dora Pascal. Eventually, William
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  Speaker 1: Shooker to the Hamburger, loving Chester Opera house owner who
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  Speaker 1: had employed Seeger as a teen, also made an appearance.
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  Speaker 1: He became j Wellington Wimpy who would gladly pay you
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  Speaker 1: Tuesday or a Hamburger today. And finally there was Rocky,
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  Speaker 1: the brawling, toughest nails outsider with one good eye who
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  Speaker 1: always had a pipe in his mouth. Although he never
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  Speaker 1: worked on the water. His headstone said everything you needed
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  Speaker 1: to know about him. Frank Rocky Figel inspiration for Popeye.
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  Speaker 1: The sailor man. Before the days of jeep p s
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  Speaker 1: it road maps, travelers needed another way to know where
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  Speaker 1: they were and where they were going. Compasses helped, the
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  Speaker 1: rising and setting of the sun did too, but the
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  Speaker 1: Native Americans came up with a brand new way. They
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  Speaker 1: used the help of nature to carve out their own
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  Speaker 1: trail markers. You see, when trees are saplings, they can
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  Speaker 1: be bent in specific ways without causing the tree any
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  Speaker 1: long term damage or ill effects. These shapes will be
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  Speaker 1: retained as they grow, leaving the landscape with mature trees
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  Speaker 1: bent at odd angles and into strange shapes. Some trees
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  Speaker 1: were tied down by rocks, way down with dirt, or
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  Speaker 1: carved in particular patterns, all with the same idea in mind.
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  Speaker 1: When you see the tree bent in a ninety degree angle,
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  Speaker 1: you know where you were and where to go next.
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  Speaker 1: This method does, not, however, describe the mysterious nature of
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  Speaker 1: all bent trees. If you were to visit the small
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  Speaker 1: town of Graffino in poland take an hour walk to
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  Speaker 1: the south, passing through a regular looking pine forest, you
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  Speaker 1: would come into a grove that defined explanation, a grove
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  Speaker 1: that looks something out of a fairy tale, maybe even
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  Speaker 1: a horror story, the layer of some kind of nether
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  Speaker 1: world monster. And while most fairy tales have a meaning
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  Speaker 1: and most mystical lands have a purpose, whatever purpose this
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  Speaker 1: grove had is still unknown. It's a four acre grove
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  Speaker 1: of four hundred trees, all pines, all planted in nine
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  Speaker 1: except unlike their neighbors, all four hundred of these trees,
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  Speaker 1: as the name of the forest suggests, are crooked, almost
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  Speaker 1: all identically. So they are so uniform, in fact, that
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  Speaker 1: to describe one tree is to describe all of the
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  Speaker 1: trees in this particular grove. Just above the ground, the
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  Speaker 1: tree bends sharply, almost exactly, at a ninety degree angle
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  Speaker 1: and aims to the north. A gentle curve takes the
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  Speaker 1: trunk upward and then back toward the original center, before
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  Speaker 1: straightening out and heading for the sky. It looks like
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  Speaker 1: a land of giant wooden fish hooks, or of backward jay's,
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  Speaker 1: depending on which way you're looking at them, or of
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  Speaker 1: a side down question marks. Now, many have looked at
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  Speaker 1: this forest and assumed that had human origins. After all,
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  Speaker 1: if Native Americans can bend in shape trees, why couldn't
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  Speaker 1: the Polish but Native Americans bent and shaped one tree
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  Speaker 1: every so often to mark a trail or point towards water.
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  Speaker 1: Never four hundred trees all at once, all together, all
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  Speaker 1: exactly the same. Another theory is that whoever planted this
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  Speaker 1: forest bent the wood in this way to make it
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  Speaker 1: easier to fashion into furniture or boats. After all, boats
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  Speaker 1: are curved vessels, and perhaps precurved wood made for a
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  Speaker 1: more workable material. But if that's the case, whatever happened
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  Speaker 1: to the plan, Why were no trees cut down to
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  Speaker 1: serve this purpose? And why was there no record of
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  Speaker 1: such forethought? Still, another theory is that a heavy snowstorm
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  Speaker 1: blanketed the area soon after being planted, forcing the trees
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  Speaker 1: to push sideways underneath the snow until it melted, at
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  Speaker 1: which point they broke upwards and then curved act towards
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  Speaker 1: the sun. But there is no record of such a snowstorm,
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  Speaker 1: nor an explanation as to why the neighboring trees grew
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  Speaker 1: up just fine. And one last theory, because it's just
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  Speaker 1: too fun not to mention, that a unique gravitational effect
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  Speaker 1: pulled at the trees in this area, maybe or maybe not,
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  Speaker 1: because of an alien spacecraft. Whatever, the case, you would
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  Speaker 1: be happy to know that all four trees are perfectly healthy.
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  Speaker 1: They all reach up to fifty ft tall, as a
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  Speaker 1: good pine tree is known to do, and if nothing else,
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  Speaker 1: it provides for an excellent photo opportunity for tourists who
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  Speaker 1: are eager to post a unique picture on social media,
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  Speaker 1: because there's nothing quite like a grove of crooked trees
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  Speaker 1: to get likes and followers. Just be sure to use
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  Speaker 1: the hashtag curious. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
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  Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
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  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
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  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
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  Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
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  Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
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  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.