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Holiday Classic: The Strange History of Antarctic Fruitcake · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Well well, well,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: welcome to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thanks for
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: tuning in. It's the end of the year and we
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  Speaker 1: are bringing it in with a little bit of a vacation.
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  Speaker 1: But we didn't want to leave them hanging, did we
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  Speaker 1: know them? No? Never, bet never would we want to
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: leave our beloved Ridiculous Historians hanging. Um. And it turns
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: out that we've pretty recently crossed over that coveted threshold
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: of three episodes where iTunes or Apple podcasts starts to
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: cut things off and you can't get them anymore. Um.
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  Speaker 1: So new listeners to the show might not be familiar
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  Speaker 1: with these two Christmas classics that we're going to release
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  Speaker 1: this week, starting with today's episode about a perfectly preserved, um,
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  Speaker 1: let's say, little time capsule of Christmas cheer that was
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  Speaker 1: found in antarcticum. Yes. Yeah, so you know these days,
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  Speaker 1: fruit cakes are sometimes considered a punchline to the holidays, right.
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  Speaker 1: You hear people joking all the time like whoa fruit
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  Speaker 1: cake and use it as a doorstop? Yeah, there we go.
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  Speaker 1: But there's been a lot of actual research into how
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  Speaker 1: long a fruitcake can last and remain edible. And today's
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  Speaker 1: story is about an extreme version of this, what happens
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  Speaker 1: when you take a fruitcake to one of the most
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  Speaker 1: inhospitable climates on the planet and you just leave it there.
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  Speaker 1: I'm excited about revisiting this one with our super producer,
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  Speaker 1: Casey Pegram as always, because no, I'm gonna have figgy
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  Speaker 1: pudding for the first time this week. Are you serious? Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I gotta figgy pudding. What even is figgy pudding? Well,
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna find out, man, I'll text you a photo.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds good. Welcome to the show, Friends and neighbors,
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  Speaker 1: fellow would be Antarctic explorers. My name is Ben, my
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  Speaker 1: name is Nol. Ben. Are you a fan of fruitcake?
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  Speaker 1: I am a fan of food history, nol, and I
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  Speaker 1: am a fan of food mysteries. But fruitcake itself, I
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  Speaker 1: don't have the same problem with it a lot of
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  Speaker 1: people have. I'm just not super you know. I don't
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  Speaker 1: lay awake at night dreaming of it. Oh yeah, do
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  Speaker 1: you think anyone does? I feel like there's some guy
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  Speaker 1: in England. I feel like there's one guy in England.
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  Speaker 1: It has such a storied history. The confection itself, but
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  Speaker 1: it really has this reputation as just being something you
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  Speaker 1: could build a fireplace out of. Did you see Coco,
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  Speaker 1: the new Pixar movie. Think it's talked about this in
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  Speaker 1: a previous episode. I have not, but I do remember
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  Speaker 1: the conversation you and I had, particularly about the opening
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  Speaker 1: act for that film. Yes, the much maligned Frozen themed
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  Speaker 1: featurette that involved Olaf, the reanimated snowman, wandering around the
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  Speaker 1: snowy woodland tundra of Aarondel in search of Christmas tradition,
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  Speaker 1: and one joke that in search of Christmas tradition, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: he's basically trying to help out on on Elsa and
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  Speaker 1: help them find a tradition because they don't have any
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  Speaker 1: family Christmas traditions. So the whole short is him wandering
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  Speaker 1: around talking to different people in the town about what
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  Speaker 1: their Christmas traditions are in song form. But one joke
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  Speaker 1: that that I thought kind of landed is there's this
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  Speaker 1: fruitcake that is just indestructible and it it gets burned,
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  Speaker 1: it gets you know, run over by a sled, it
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  Speaker 1: even gets taken by a hawk and eventually dumped back
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  Speaker 1: into the scene. So you know, fruitcake has this reputation
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  Speaker 1: as being this bulletproof material, and that is very much
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  Speaker 1: the case with today's story. Yes, absolutely, today's story puts
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  Speaker 1: a little truth to the stereotype people have about fruitcake.
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  Speaker 1: Often considered one of the more lowly desserts of the world.
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  Speaker 1: Combination of candied fruit, nuts and spice is often heavy
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  Speaker 1: with rum and brandy. It turns out, as ridiculous as
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  Speaker 1: it might sound, there is some sand to the rumor.
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  Speaker 1: A one hundred and six year old fruitcake, still in
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  Speaker 1: the original box, was discovered at an outpost in Victoria Land,
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  Speaker 1: East Antarctica. That's right, and according to the Antarctic Heritage Trust,
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  Speaker 1: which is a nonprofit based in New Zealand that seeks
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  Speaker 1: to preserve artifacts and history surrounding Antarctica, and a lot
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  Speaker 1: of that, as we talked about in our Who Solves
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  Speaker 1: Murders and and Arctica episode, involves researchers and expeditions. So
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  Speaker 1: according to the Trust, the cake likely dates back to
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  Speaker 1: the Cape a Dare based Northern party of Scott's Terra
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  Speaker 1: Nova expedition, which took place between nineteen ten and n
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  Speaker 1: and that is Robert Falcon Scott. You beat me, that's
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  Speaker 1: One of my favorite facts of this place is that
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  Speaker 1: guy's middle name is Falcon. Yes, Captain Robert Falcon Scott,
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  Speaker 1: a British Royal Navy officer. Uh. Famous. We're leading two
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  Speaker 1: separate expeditions to the Antarctic area, the Discovery Expedition and
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  Speaker 1: then the Terra Nova expedition. Uh. He set a couple
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  Speaker 1: of world records in his time exploring. And luckily Antarctic
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  Speaker 1: is not a place that is very peopled nor very populated,
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  Speaker 1: so it's easier for experts to trace back uh this
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  Speaker 1: fruit cakes provenance. And you're probably asking yourselves, Uh, super
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  Speaker 1: producer Casey Pegrom Noel been how long can we regularly
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  Speaker 1: expect a fruit cake to last? The answer is easily
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  Speaker 1: three decades and still be eaten. And as Noel said, Uh,
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  Speaker 1: this is you know, a lot of the history of
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  Speaker 1: Antarctic is based in research. This was found in a
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  Speaker 1: research station and the fruitcake was one of about fifteen
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  Speaker 1: hundred artifacts discovered in these huts at the Cape Dair Outpost.
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  Speaker 1: An interesting point of fact about this research station, um,
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  Speaker 1: is that it was a series of huts and they
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  Speaker 1: were actually the first ever built on Antarctica, so they
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  Speaker 1: were historical in and of themselves, even at the time.
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  Speaker 1: They were built in eight by a man named Carston
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  Speaker 1: Borsch Grevink, who was a Norwegian explorer and then was
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  Speaker 1: used for several of Captain Scott's expeditions and also other
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  Speaker 1: members of his party. And here's how it went down.
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  Speaker 1: Two months after the expedition had launched their endeavor to
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  Speaker 1: reach the geographic South Pole, they finally made it. It It
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  Speaker 1: took him two months, but they made it just at
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  Speaker 1: the very beginning of nineteen twelve January seventeen. And when
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  Speaker 1: they got there, they discovered a real real kick in
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  Speaker 1: the pants for explorers. Yeah, they had been beaten by
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  Speaker 1: I think it was mere weeks been by a Norwegian expedition. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: thirty three days prior to Scott's expedition reaching the pole. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: an expedition by a Norwegian operative. I don't know what
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  Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like he's a spy, uh named rold Ahmundson
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  Speaker 1: had reached the pole. And as an additional complication, and
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  Speaker 1: additional and terrible kick in the pants, blizzards deleted the
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  Speaker 1: return and this delay became permanent. Yeah, it's true they
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  Speaker 1: did not make it back alive, but they did have
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  Speaker 1: some pretty lap of luxury as far as Antarctic expeditions
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  Speaker 1: go moments um prior to that. In these huts that
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  Speaker 1: we talked about earlier. There's a fantastic image on an
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  Speaker 1: article from How Stuff Works by Lori L. Dove that
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  Speaker 1: pictures Scott and his team gathered around a gramophone listening
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  Speaker 1: to music, puffing on their pipes. Uh. And then I
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  Speaker 1: found an article from the BBC with another image inside
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  Speaker 1: where they're gathered around a table with beer and all
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  Speaker 1: kinds of different foods, And they apparently had access to
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  Speaker 1: fresh bread, rhubarb pie, and they would make their own
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  Speaker 1: stews and curries a lot of times out of seal meat.
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  Speaker 1: That's according to Joseph Coulson Um in the article Scott's
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  Speaker 1: Antarctic Diet Stewed penguin and Champagne so right, stewed penguin Um.
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  Speaker 1: Apparently they used penguin blubber to try to cook with,
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  Speaker 1: but they realized that that was a pretty foul tasting
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  Speaker 1: cooking oil, so they kind of ditched that. But they
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  Speaker 1: would have several courses to their meals, including things like
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  Speaker 1: roast beef, turtle soup, and stewed penguin breast in various
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  Speaker 1: jellies and crystallized ginger, and they had champagne of flowing,
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  Speaker 1: so you know, at least when they were trudging to
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  Speaker 1: their death through the frozen wasteland, they could you know,
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  Speaker 1: I have some fond memories of them, of hanging out
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  Speaker 1: and you know, partying down with with penguin meat and champagne.
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  Speaker 1: Especially it's such a brutal Antarctic climate. It's it's tough
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  Speaker 1: to fathom how important even the smallest luxuries can become. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: there's a reason they took fruitcake as well, because it
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  Speaker 1: has this staying power. And although fruitcake is often a
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  Speaker 1: punchline in conversations in here in seventeen, as we record this,
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  Speaker 1: oh at the very end of for where ages past,
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  Speaker 1: fruitcake was both a reliable food stuff and it was
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  Speaker 1: itself it seemed to be luxurious. According to an article
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  Speaker 1: in the Smithsonian by Jesse Rhodes, ancient Romans made something
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  Speaker 1: that was fruitcake esque, a mishmash of barley, pomegranate, seeds, nuts,
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  Speaker 1: and raisins, and the descriptions of it all make it
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  Speaker 1: sound kind of like an energy bar. Quick backstage peak
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: here at the ridiculous History Office. We have an embarrassment
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  Speaker 1: of riches when it comes to energy bars, and we're
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  Speaker 1: trying different ones. But I gotta say, man, maybe that's
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  Speaker 1: why I'm off fruitcake. Maybe an energy bar is too close.
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  Speaker 1: The modern fruitcake can be traced back to the Middle
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  Speaker 1: Ages because dried fruits became more widely available and fruited
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  Speaker 1: breads entered Western European cuisine. It's not a fig Newton,
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  Speaker 1: it's fruited cake. Yes, exactly, exactly, uh. And there are
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  Speaker 1: different regional variations of this, but it makes sense when
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  Speaker 1: you are thinking from the viewpoint of an expedition, right,
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  Speaker 1: you want to bring stuff that you can transport easily
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  Speaker 1: so it doesn't weigh much and it's not going to
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  Speaker 1: spoil because your only other alternative is going to be catches.
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  Speaker 1: Catch can pursuit of the resources in the area, like
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  Speaker 1: the penguins. Lizzie Meek, who is the artifacts manager for
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  Speaker 1: that Antarctic Heritage Trust Um, says in a statement regarding
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  Speaker 1: the the ancient fruitcake that it was ideal for Antarctic
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  Speaker 1: conditions because it was high energy, and it's actually still
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  Speaker 1: a favorite today when people are making these kinds of journeys.
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  Speaker 1: And it turns out that the company that manufactured this
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  Speaker 1: fruitcake is a company called Huntley and Palmer's, a British
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  Speaker 1: um confection maker, and they were very popular and they
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  Speaker 1: exported their products all over the world, and the company
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  Speaker 1: itself actually boasts that their products have turned up in
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  Speaker 1: some of the most unexpected places and that is no joke. Um.
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  Speaker 1: When this fruitcake was discovered, folks from the trust described
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  Speaker 1: it as having a very very slight rancid butter smell,
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  Speaker 1: but other than that it was in pretty good shape. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: they transported this time capsule fruitcake for lack of a
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  Speaker 1: better term, to a lab in christ Church, New Zealand.
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  Speaker 1: Uh the lab that was operated by the Canterbury Museum.
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  Speaker 1: And the plan is to clean the fruitcakes container, which
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  Speaker 1: is a tin, so they want to remove the rust
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  Speaker 1: from that, they want to stabilize it chemically, and they
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  Speaker 1: want to repair the wax paper covering the cake. And
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  Speaker 1: then to the weirdest thing is after they restore the fruitcake,
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  Speaker 1: they're taking it back to the hut where it was found.
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  Speaker 1: And that's because it is considered an Antarctic Specially Protected area,
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  Speaker 1: which I'm imagining does this mean they're recreating those conditions
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  Speaker 1: so that you can go check it out, sort of
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: like a moment out of time or like going to
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: you know, visit, uh the boyhood home of a president
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  Speaker 1: or something like that. Yeah, that's a great question. So
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  Speaker 1: especially protected areas start showing up around nineteen sixty four
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  Speaker 1: as part of several international agreements, and since its inception, UH,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: the a t c M has emphasized the need to
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: protect sites or monuments of historic interests. So you're absolutely right,
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  Speaker 1: that is one of their primary goals, along with you know,
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  Speaker 1: environmental protection and conservation. So if we as a group,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: you me casey every and listing and a mysterious stranger
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  Speaker 1: that you'll meet eventually, if all of us high tail
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  Speaker 1: it to Antarctica and we build something and hopefully we
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  Speaker 1: don't die, if it is deemed of historical significance, these
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  Speaker 1: would be the people protecting it exactly. And The New
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  Speaker 1: York Times spoke to a guy named Matthew Williams who
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  Speaker 1: manages the Reading Museum, which is where this biscuit maker
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  Speaker 1: was headquartered. In his headquarters, I believe, and he says
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  Speaker 1: this modern research has shown that the polar parties daily
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  Speaker 1: ration of forty calories was eight hundred calories short, and
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  Speaker 1: their diet was deficient in vitamins as well as energy
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  Speaker 1: producing elements. So part of their downfall was that they
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: just kind of did the math wrong as far as
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: what their rations were. And apparently also they focused much
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: more on protein, too much on protein, and less on vitamins, minerals,
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  Speaker 1: and fats, and this is hugely Wharton. I'm really glad
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  Speaker 1: you brought this up, because there's a thing that can
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: occur when you are subsisting off entirely protein, and it's
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: something it's called rabbit starvation. That's how I heard of it.
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  Speaker 1: But I think the more property aim is protein poisoning.
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  Speaker 1: So it is absolutely possible to feel like you're eating
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  Speaker 1: an adequate amount of sustenance but slowly undergas. Yeah, slowly
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  Speaker 1: undergoing terrible, terrible medical consequences, which, by the way, this
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: is a dark fact, Noel, But that's one of the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: reasons I think you and I talked about this on
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: a different show, that cannibalism survival cannibalism is such a
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: bad decision because by the time people finally violate that
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: taboo and consume human flesh, they're consuming the flesh of
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: someone who was already starving, and they're only really getting protein,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: so they just enter a different stage of starvation. Speaking
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: of fantastic say ways, I don't want to stop on
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: a cannibalism note. I looked into other old foods and
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: I found this great article by Mental Floss, by an
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  Speaker 1: author named Teresa O'Neill. And folks, if you're a fan
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: of our show, then uh, you probably already are aware
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: of Mental Floss. We actually hang out with the founders,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: who are super cool Will and Mingeesh, and they have
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: a show called Part Time Genius, which we appeared on.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: It's true we talked about Ikea furniture. That's yeah, they
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: quizzed us and they were a much more kind, gentle
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: quiz master than um than than we're maybe used to. Casey,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: can we get a little foreshadowing music? Just a little there?
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: We go? Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. But first we'll
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: explore a couple of other examples of ancient foods and
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: I want to see what you think of these. So first, wine, right,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: how old can wine be? Isn't it like the older
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: the better kind of And that's what people seem to say,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: And sometimes it's mishandled, it can turn to vinegar, but
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: they could talk about a good year. And some of
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: the ones that are like really revered are quite old. Yes, So,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: excavators in Germany found the oldest known wine that is
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: still in a liquid state. It dates back to the
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Roman era. They found it in a sarcophagus along a
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: bunch of other wine bottles that had dried up, and
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: it's been aging for sixteen hundred years. Do you think
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: I would get you really really lit or with the
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: alcohol kind of diminish over that longer period. Apparently it's
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: the ladder and the alcoholic content has gone after that
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: long so there's probably a window of time for good wine.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Burnt British bread was discovered that was five thousand five
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: years old, not edible, no, I'm sure. Um Bone soup,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: which does sound like something I would try, was discovered
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: having turned green over two thousand, four hundred years of storage.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: It's still contained bones, but they did not eat them.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: This was discovered in China. Bone soup like broth, the
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: broth evaporated, so they really just found the bones that
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: have been sitting there for a while with a green,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: gelatinous sludge of some kind, yes, yes, uh. And then
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: people have also found beef jerky that was buried in Wanly, China.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: I was hoping so man it had. It was two
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: thousand years old and it was a black and green
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: carbonized mess described by the archaeologist. None of the people
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: are trying to eat this, which is I guess I
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: understand it. But out of all the old foods that
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: you and I found when we're looking into this, the
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: fruitcake is unique because again, despite that very slight rancid taste,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: it could still be edible. And one of our questions
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: today is what's your opinion of fruit cake? Do you
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: think that we have been doing a disservice to this
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: noble noble I don't know, to this culinary tradition, you know,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: ben I, I I don't think us spilling any ink over
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: fruitcake is going to really change its legacy. I think
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: it's pretty well entrenched. You don't think we're fruitcake influencers.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know, man, I just I just feel like
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's day in court has passed, you know.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I feel I feel like, you know, the cultural place
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: of fruitcake is is pretty pretty solidified, and nothing we
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: say or do is going to change that. It's pretty congealed. No,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: this is not however, the end of our show, is it? No,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: it's not. And what is that ominous music? Oh boy,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: I'm getting nervous. This seems like such a good idea
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: before it was actually happening. I'm it's time, Jonathan stan
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: that's the Quister to you, guys. Yeah, welcome to the
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: most cringe worthy segment in all of our podcasts, across
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: all of our brands. Gentlemen, where did you even come from?
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Have you actually have been under the table the whole
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: time and been You've been kicking me for the last
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: twelve minutes. I got restless legs, man, I'm sorry I noticed.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: So here's the thing, gentlemen, I have decided that to
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: truly become experts in ridiculous history, I'm going to test
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: you on your knowledge of truth versus fiction. I will
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: present to you occasionally a scenario, and you must decide,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: within the time span of three minutes, man, whether or
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: not the scenario I give you is real or fiction.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Now you will be able to talk amongst yourselves. You
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: may even pose quests towards me the Quister. Should you
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: feel that necessary. May the questions be posed in the
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: form of questions? They maybe, But I'm glad you brought
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: this up, Nol, because I think this is far too simple.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: If I just give you a scenario and you just
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: give me an answer, but seek me. But I respect you, Ben,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: so i'd like you know. So, I am going to
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: make an arbitrary rule every time I appear on this
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: show that will pertain to that and that time only,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: So next time I'm here this rule will be totally different.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: But today the rule is, should you wish to pose
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: a question to me, you must preface it with the
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: phrase quister, I have a quick query, followed by your
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: question quister, I have a quick query quick, and I
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: have a quick queer every time you want to ask
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: me a question. Now, do you have a timer ready
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: for three minutes? We do? We do excellent? I like
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: I like that. It's a will that's enormous. It is
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: a cartoonishly large time. It takes up an entire wall
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: of the studio. I don't know how I missed it.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: It's a grandfather timer. I will I will point to you,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Ben to start it. But I'm going to read out
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: the scenario. First, so that way you will have a
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: full three minutes and feel free to answer before the
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: three minutes are up. Should you feel confident? And let's alright,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: here is your scenario for this week. Gerald Jerry Scrivener
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: not only made history but ate it when he mistakenly
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: consumed a ten box filled with one hundred ten year
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: old chocolates which were actually meant to be a museum
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: piece sponsored by the St. Andrew's Preservation Trust begin the time. Okay,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: so he ate it, he ate it? But quiz quiz
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: quiz master, I have a quick query, close enough, ms.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Whatever did he work at the museum? He did? Okay,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: so he worked at the museum, says him. Yeah, he's
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: he's the most unreliable narrator we could possibly have here. Quister,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I have a quick query. Yes, are the answers that
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: you give us true? Yes? Wait? I didn't think that
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: out very well, did I? Okay? Um, quister, I have
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: a quick query. Yes, could you briefly restate that? Certainly?
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: All right? Um? There was this box of chocolates, boxes
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: made out of ten t I n Okay. The chocolates
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: themselves date from well ten years to the point where
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: he ate them. The actual box of chocolates was first
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: gifted to someone in nineteen o two, and this museum employee,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Jerry Scrivener Gerald, to some mistakenly can assumed the chocolates,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: thinking they were simply chocolates and not realizing they were
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: meant to be put upon display. Okay, I would argue
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: that Jerry Gerald worked at a museum, he would know
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: pretty well whether he was looking at an artifact like
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: an old, ancient box of chocolates, or if it was
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: something to be consumed. So I am leaning towards faults. Okay.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: I think that's a really good point, because you know,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: you would expect there to be some sort of bar
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: for employment in a museum, you would think, and not
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: a chocolate bar. Uh. But I'm I'm wondering because of
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: the specificity. I'm wondering if it's true. Huh. But Jonathan
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: is a very pedantic quiz master. He's going to, you know,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: down to the detail, try to trick us every chance
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: he gets. So I I don't know it rings true,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: but it also I really think Jerry Gerald, you know,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: if he was worth his salt as a museum employee,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: would know he was looking at an artifact and not
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: a delicious treat for him to consume. Also, and let's
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: be honest, Jerry Gerald doesn't sound like the most plausible name.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Jerry Gerald. Scrivener Gerald is his name? Jerry is what
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: is in air quotes? Okay, man, I gotta tell you,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: we've got thirty seconds. No, you didn't follow the rule
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: of those you get an electric shock. Sorry about that.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: I I was so excited to just follow along with
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: your your amazing journey. Okay. I I feel like it's true. Wow, yeah,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: we're at it in past. I feel like it's false.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Do you want a deathmatch? Rock paper? Second? One two
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: three shoot? One two three shoots? Okay, first with scissor scissor.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: That was the next scissor paper, which means we're going
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: with false all right, because you said false enough okay,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: and that's our time. Ah, time is up, gentlemen, Congratulations,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the answer is false. In fact, the St Andrew's Preservation
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Trust did have a ten year old ten of chocolates.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: They were gifted from a mother to a daughter. After
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: the mother had received them as a as a gift.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Upon King Edwards ascension to the throne, handed them over
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: to her daughter. She did the same to her daughter,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: so on and so forth until they gave it to St.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Andrew's Preservation Trust. It is in a museum, it is
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: on display. Uneaten Scrivener was a complete fabrication, all right. Hey,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: I hated that with every being, but I'm I feel
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: good about it. That was a lot of fun. I
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: we did not think it was going to go down
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: to a rock paper scissors death match. I like it
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: because it tells me two things. One, you are both
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: very clever, and too I'll get you next time. I'll
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: be gone, ladies. A gentleman our evil quiz master Jonathan
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Strick lends I, I can't get someone open the door.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: You can't open the door from the side. That's well,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming, and nol I owe
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: you a personal thanks because we would have We would
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: have gotten that incorrect on our very first time out.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: And coddenly knows what happens when when you get it wrong.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, you got an electric shock just for not
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: following his sinister rules. And it already had jittery legs.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be a rough afternoon for me. I've developed
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: jittery leg just from this whole thing. It has stressed
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: me out, but we hope you guys found it at
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: least a little bit enjoyable. It really was like there
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: was high anxiety going on there. Yeah, we hope you
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: enjoyed it. Um, this is not the last you have
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: heard of our historical quiz centric arch nemesis. Yeah. I
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: have a feeling he'll probably materialize again. I'm still here.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: I think he's still here and we are going to
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: head out. We hope you have an excellent end of year.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. We do
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: not have a my Space. No well I I I
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: do still floating around out there somewhere you can look at.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: You can look for it. Noel Brown my space dot
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: com slash Noel Brown. I was one of the first
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: to get like a you know, personalized U r L nice. Yeah,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: yeah I was. I was one of the original verified
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: my spacers. In fact, oh whoa hey, I was friends
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: with Tom getting to know you. You wouldn't even mention
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: that this is kind of a Christmas themed episode, Um,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: holiday theme? How about that? Because fruitcake does hold a
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: special place. It's not even Christmas centric. It's just like
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: a weird thing your grandmother gives you whatever her religious is.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: And if you were a fan of a fruitcake and
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: you have a really amazing fruitcake recipe, uh, send it
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: to me and I'll try to make it. And maybe
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: we can all get together here in the office and
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: give it a shop and wat sail yes, yes, and
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: we will lest sale. And for now we're going to
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: was was sail away? Save me here? Man? What's sail away?
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Heay lo? Wait say lo wait? Send us your free
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: kick recipes ridiculous at how stuff works dot com, all
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: the social media stuff that Ben mentioned except Pinterest, and
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: we hope to see you next time on a new
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: episode of Ridiculous History. And happy holidays everyone. For more
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.