Speaker 1: Guess what, mango? What's that? Well, so, I know I
Speaker 1: asked you if we could cover today's topic, but I
Speaker 1: didn't tell you exactly why, And that's because I wanted
Speaker 1: to save this story for you. So, uh, this actually
Speaker 1: happened in a town a Silicaga, Alabama, my home state
Speaker 1: of Alabama. And so this happen in nine A woman
Speaker 1: named An Hodges was taking a nap on her couch
Speaker 1: when a softball sized chunk of meteorite crashed through her roof,
Speaker 1: came through the ceiling, bounced off a radio, and smacked
Speaker 1: her right in the thigh. That is that but funny
Speaker 1: the same Why is it so much funnier that hit
Speaker 1: her in the thigh? It is, isn't it? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: can't handle it anyway. There are photos online of this
Speaker 1: giant bruise if you if you want to check this out.
Speaker 1: But so, there was an astronomer from Florida State. His
Speaker 1: name is Michael Reynolds, and he was talking about how
Speaker 1: rare this occasion would be. Says, you have a better
Speaker 1: chance of getting hit by a tornado, a bolt of lightning,
Speaker 1: and a hurricane all at the same time than getting
Speaker 1: hit by a meteor RTE. That's amazing. And apparently there
Speaker 1: was a ton of controversy see after the fact about
Speaker 1: who got to keep this rock. So so the public
Speaker 1: demanded that the government give the rock back to Anne,
Speaker 1: and they finally complied, but then they were sued by
Speaker 1: the landlady, who claimed it was her since it fell
Speaker 1: on her property. What kind of person does this, This
Speaker 1: woman's been hit by a meteorite. I am right, And
Speaker 1: so Anne's argument was, though, that God intended for it
Speaker 1: to hit me. After all, it hit me, That's what
Speaker 1: she said. And so they settled out of court, and
Speaker 1: the meteorite was eventually donated to the Alabama Museum of
Speaker 1: Natural History and it's still on display there. So I'll
Speaker 1: admit I had heard this story before, but what I
Speaker 1: didn't know is that there's actually a monument to it.
Speaker 1: It commemorates the whole bizarre happening, and it's in front
Speaker 1: of the town hall in Silicago. And so that's why
Speaker 1: we decided to do today's episode on nine weird statues
Speaker 1: and monuments around the world. Let's get started, he their
Speaker 1: podcast listeners, welcome the part time genius. I'm Will Pearson
Speaker 1: and as always I'm joined by my good friend man
Speaker 1: Guesh Ticketer and the man on the other side of
Speaker 1: the soundproof glass who's been standing perfectly still for what
Speaker 1: like the last forty five minutes. I think I even
Speaker 1: I saw him blink once, But that's about it. That's
Speaker 1: our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. And also joining us
Speaker 1: by phone today is our researcher Gabe Lousier. Gabe, how's
Speaker 1: it going going well? Thanks for having me back guys.
Speaker 1: All right, Gabe has been trying to claim that the
Speaker 1: weather in l A today is is Chris. I'm not
Speaker 1: buying it. Yeah, I don't think they've ever experienced Chris.
Speaker 1: But alright, Gabe, So you've done your research on some
Speaker 1: some monuments and statues around the world. Do you want
Speaker 1: to take the first one? Yeah? Sure, Actually I have
Speaker 1: another statue from Alabama to go along with yours. You guys,
Speaker 1: bizarre statues out there, I guess, um. And this is
Speaker 1: that it's a bullweevil monument in Enterprise, Alabama. And so
Speaker 1: this is a marble statue of a Greek woman holding
Speaker 1: a bowl above her head, and in the bowl there's
Speaker 1: this fifty pound bronze bull weevil and the bull weevil
Speaker 1: was actually added about thirty years ago after the statue
Speaker 1: was originally dedicated, and it was erected because bullweevils have
Speaker 1: this history of, you know, destroying cotton crops in the South,
Speaker 1: which back in the day it forced local farmers to
Speaker 1: kind of branch out and try a new crop instead,
Speaker 1: and that was peanuts. So Coffee County in Alabama became
Speaker 1: the largest producer of peanuts in the US. And it
Speaker 1: also ended up planting and prospering from potatoes, sugarcane, sorghum,
Speaker 1: and tobacco. And that's thanks in part to the bull
Speaker 1: weevil kind of you know, disrupting the cotton trade. So
Speaker 1: the dedication on the monument actually reads in profound appreciation
Speaker 1: of the bull weevil. And as far as anyone knows,
Speaker 1: it's the first and probably only monument to honor and
Speaker 1: add a cultural pest. And this is one I have
Speaker 1: actually seen. I can verify this one. So if you,
Speaker 1: if you ever happen to be passing through Enterprise, Alabama,
Speaker 1: make sure to check out the bowl weevil statue. Alright,
Speaker 1: so two facts about weird statues or monuments from Alabama. Mango,
Speaker 1: do you have one from Alabama, No Russia, Okay, club, alright,
Speaker 1: what you got. So obviously there are a lot of
Speaker 1: monuments out there that celebrate you know, great men, tyrants, ballplayers, whatever.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if that many monuments that are
Speaker 1: there to bring warmth and comfort. But that's exactly what
Speaker 1: local artists intended when they created this monument to the
Speaker 1: radiator in Samara, Russia. Apparently it's in Russia because Russians
Speaker 1: claimed the quote hot box, as the radiator was originally called,
Speaker 1: was invented in St. Petersburg by this guy in eight
Speaker 1: before he took it to Germany and then the US.
Speaker 1: But the best part of the whole thing is that
Speaker 1: the sculpture isn't just some radiator on a pedestal. It
Speaker 1: also has a cat sprawled out on a giant window
Speaker 1: sill over. Russians also invented cats, so they yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't know that fact. That's really good. That's also not true,
Speaker 1: all right, I've got one coming from Paris. So this
Speaker 1: is a huge three D molding of the sculptor Caesar
Speaker 1: Baldachinie Thumb, and this was put up in nineteen sixty five.
Speaker 1: It's over forty ft tall and weighs eighteen tons and
Speaker 1: it's so out of place because it's actually right and
Speaker 1: kind of the business district there in Paris. And then
Speaker 1: you just turn the corner and there's this giant thumb. Well,
Speaker 1: it turns out it's not the only one of baldachinie
Speaker 1: thumbs out there in the world. Turns out you can
Speaker 1: find one at Olympic Park and Soul. There's another one
Speaker 1: in Germany, and a couple others, you know, of different
Speaker 1: sizes and uh and colors all around the world. Baldacinie
Speaker 1: thumbs just waiting to get hitchhiked exactly, alright, Gay, what
Speaker 1: you got next? Alright, So for this one, we got
Speaker 1: a head over to Riverside, Iowa, which is a real
Speaker 1: town that has a monument commemorating the future birth of
Speaker 1: the fictional character Captain James T. Kirk from Star Trek
Speaker 1: so I. According to the official Star Trek website, Kirk
Speaker 1: will be born in Riverside, Iowa, on March twenty two,
Speaker 1: in the year two thirty three. But that's kind of
Speaker 1: invented by the town itself, because the creator of Star Trek,
Speaker 1: Gene Roddenberry, he only ever specified that Kirk was born
Speaker 1: in a small town in Iowa. Riverside took advantage of
Speaker 1: that vague reference to you know, claim him as their own.
Speaker 1: And so if you go into the town, there are
Speaker 1: plaques denoting where Captain Kirk will eventually, you know, grow
Speaker 1: up and do this or that, and even where he
Speaker 1: will be conceived. Apparently this is this is a joke
Speaker 1: from a local bar owner. Wow, all right, that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: All right, mango, what's your next one? So? I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about this Abe Lincoln statue. And obviously they're
Speaker 1: Abe Lincoln statues all over, but this one special because
Speaker 1: it's called Abe Lincoln talks to Perry Como. That's the
Speaker 1: name is as well. Actually it's not the statue's real name.
Speaker 1: The real name is the Return Visit. And the statue
Speaker 1: is looking outside the place where Lincoln spent the night
Speaker 1: putting his finishing touches on the Gettysburg address. But the
Speaker 1: whole idea of behind the statue is to show a
Speaker 1: cool Lincoln chatting with modern day tourists. So the dude
Speaker 1: he's talking to is wearing a white cable knit sweater
Speaker 1: and a collared shirt and khaki cordroy is you know,
Speaker 1: the common man and Lincoln's just talking his ear off.
Speaker 1: But the dude looks like a young version of that
Speaker 1: singer Perry Como. So that's how the statue got nicknamed
Speaker 1: that ice. That does sound so cool. Actually, I have
Speaker 1: a Lincoln statue fact as well. This is weird alright.
Speaker 1: So this one is the Lincoln Watermelon Monument in Lincoln, Illinois.
Speaker 1: And actually in nineteen fifty three, former Congressman Abraham Lincoln,
Speaker 1: he had not been president yet, he visited a town
Speaker 1: in Illinois to help christen the town name, which was
Speaker 1: to be Lincoln, of course, and it was actually the
Speaker 1: only town to be named after Lincoln while he was
Speaker 1: still alive again, and this happened before he was even president.
Speaker 1: But while he was visiting there, he poured watermelon juice
Speaker 1: on the ground to baptize it. I don't really know why.
Speaker 1: There are other reports that he spit watermelon seeds on
Speaker 1: the ground to christen it. I've never heard of using
Speaker 1: water homies to do this, but anyway, in nineteen sixty four,
Speaker 1: the local kawanas and Lions and rotary clubs all united
Speaker 1: in order to commission this steel sculpture of a watermelon
Speaker 1: in order to mark this historic event. It's such a
Speaker 1: strange things and I want to check this out. Soide,
Speaker 1: that's pretty great, alright, Gabe, your last fact of the day.
Speaker 1: What do you have? Al Right? So this this was
Speaker 1: a really weird one. And uh, it's a monument to
Speaker 1: rats and mice that have been used in DNA research.
Speaker 1: And uh, it's it's found over in Russia and it
Speaker 1: was made by an artist named Andrei Karkovitch. And the
Speaker 1: statue it depicts an anthropomorphic mouse wearing glasses and a
Speaker 1: little lab coat and he's he's knitting with strands of
Speaker 1: DNA and uh it sits near Russia's Institute of Psychology
Speaker 1: and Genetics, and the institute actually collected fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: and donations to fund this statue. And according to them,
Speaker 1: it commemorates lab animals who have been killed as a
Speaker 1: part of our ongoing attempts to understand the nature and
Speaker 1: workings of d N. A. Wow, that's very sweet to
Speaker 1: remember them in that way. And he said this is
Speaker 1: in where where did you say it is in Russia? Uh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't say on purpose, but no votes Cerberus. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: that was a good final fact. From you, Gabe. Okay, Mango,
Speaker 1: you got one more? Yeah, definitely. So I guess we're
Speaker 1: all on some sort of Russia kick because they have
Speaker 1: the best statues. But have you guys ever heard of
Speaker 1: the Enema statue? And Zella's no votes? I have not.
Speaker 1: But the Monument to Animals features a giant animal bulb.
Speaker 1: It's five ft and eight hundred pounds of bronze. Uh,
Speaker 1: and it's held up by three tiny angels. And so
Speaker 1: the angels are based off this bott of Chelly painting.
Speaker 1: And while the sculpture claims the work was designed with humor,
Speaker 1: the spot director who commissioned it disagrees, and if arts
Speaker 1: in the eye of the beholder, there's no irony hiding
Speaker 1: and all that bronze. Wow, so we we We've covered
Speaker 1: one that was dedicated to the radiator, and then the
Speaker 1: and gay did with about the the lab mice and rats,
Speaker 1: and and now the Enema. Wow. What a collection of statues.
Speaker 1: That's that's pretty great. All right? Well, my last one
Speaker 1: happens to be about one statue that is in the
Speaker 1: world's largest sculpture park, or at least the world's largest
Speaker 1: sculpture park made by a single artist. There are two
Speaker 1: hundred and twelve bronze and granite sculptures there in the
Speaker 1: Vigilance Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Now there is one
Speaker 1: specific one that's worth looking up, and it's called man
Speaker 1: attacked by Genie. And I actually didn't know the plural
Speaker 1: of genie. Just has two eyes at the ends, you
Speaker 1: know this. I didn't even know how to pronounce it
Speaker 1: at first when I was looking at it. But this
Speaker 1: is why you need to look it up, because it's
Speaker 1: apparently this guy that's being attacked by these genie. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, what it really looks like is
Speaker 1: just this naked man heroically fighting off four toddlers. So
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to check this out. So anyway, well
Speaker 1: those are facts of the day. But before we go,
Speaker 1: we need to decide decide who's one today. What do
Speaker 1: you guys think that meteor in the thigh? I think
Speaker 1: just the word thigh, I think. Okay, I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: it to myself on this. Yeah, you can take the
Speaker 1: crown home. That's right, all right, Well, thank you guys
Speaker 1: for listening. We'll be back with a full length episode tomorrow.