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Speaker 1: Fellow ridiculous historians. Thank you so much for joining us

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Speaker 1: in today's classic episode. We've been on a bit of

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Speaker 1: a World War two kick this week.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and also a bit of a whirlwind tour of

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Speaker 2: the world, which is why we're giving you a few

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Speaker 2: extra classics this week. We appreciate you bearing with us. Ben,

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Speaker 2: have you ever heard that insult that the Gallagher brothers

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Speaker 2: tend to throw at one another? I believe it is

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Speaker 2: Liam calling Nol a potato.

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Speaker 1: I have I have heard of that. I thought you

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Speaker 1: were talking about different Gallagher brothers. Yeah, throwing it stuff

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Speaker 1: at each other, and that also checks out it does.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that would be probably watermelons. But I don't know.

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Speaker 2: I think it's a kind of a bit of a

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Speaker 2: misnomer to use a potato as an insult. The humble

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Speaker 2: potato is a staple food stuff. It is delicious, it

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Speaker 2: is hearty, it is resilient, and apparently also can be

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Speaker 2: used to win naval battles.

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Speaker 1: Yes, as a fan of food fights, this one has

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Speaker 1: always been fascinating to me. This episode from twenty eighteen.

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Speaker 2: Long time ago, dow.

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Speaker 1: Weirdly enough, we are sharing some classics, as we mentioned earlier,

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Speaker 1: because we are.

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Speaker 2: On the road.

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Speaker 1: I have been in our hometown of Atlanta only like

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Speaker 1: twenty six hours this month. So from Afar we returned

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Speaker 1: to you with the true ridiculous story of a World

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Speaker 1: War two naval battle, one using potato.

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Speaker 2: That's right, the usso bannon using potatoes against a hapless

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Speaker 2: Japanese submarine. What a food fight. Indeed, let's roll it.

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to the show.

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Speaker 1: Presley Neville O'Bannon was born in seventeen eighty four and

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Speaker 1: has nothing to do with this episode other than the

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Speaker 1: fact that there is a ship named after him, the

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Speaker 1: USS O'Bannon.

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Speaker 2: But Ben, what did he do? Why they name a

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Speaker 2: ship after him? Can we make the episode about him

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Speaker 2: instead of the ship? I'm intrigued.

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Speaker 1: I have been trigued as well. Nol Well. He did

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Speaker 1: join the Marines in eighteen oh one, and as a

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Speaker 1: first lieutenant, he commanded a detachment of Marines in the

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Speaker 1: War with Tripoli, and during his operations with the US Navy,

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Speaker 1: he led a successful attack on Dern in April twenty seventh,

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Speaker 1: eighteen oh five, and this gave the Marine Corps its

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Speaker 1: a mortal phrase to the shores of Tripoli. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: so he's you know, he's done stuff.

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Speaker 2: I had some stirring stuff right there.

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Speaker 1: Enough to get a ship named after him.

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Speaker 2: Right, did you say my name? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: You're I think so you're nol R.

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Speaker 2: I am okay. It's just a ritual thing. Yeah, we

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Speaker 2: should have the ritual. We got it, and I'm ben,

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Speaker 2: Yes you are. How do you feel about potatoes? I

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Speaker 2: feel great.

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Speaker 1: I like them almost as much as I like super

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Speaker 1: producer Casey Pegram, which you know, sets the bar very high.

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Speaker 1: Potatoes are pretty amazing.

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Speaker 2: Right, Boil and mash them, stick them in a stew. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: right on, Charroo mets some Japanese sub mariners. There we go.

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Speaker 1: They have many uses, and today's episode is about one

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Speaker 1: of those uses. We are exploring the story of the

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Speaker 1: USSO Bannon, which is a Fletcher class destroyer, right, and

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Speaker 1: some innovative warfare techniques. They used a story so bizarre

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Speaker 1: that I don't know about you man. At first, I

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Speaker 1: was skeptical. Did a beg credulity a bit?

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Speaker 2: It did? Yeah, it did, it did. But then when

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Speaker 2: you really get down to the nitty gritty of it,

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Speaker 2: you can kind of see how this absurd farce could

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Speaker 2: play out in real time. So how should we set

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Speaker 2: the scene. Let's talk first a little bit about the

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Speaker 2: ship in question, the uss O ban And you mentioned

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Speaker 2: it was a Fletcher class destroyer. What's a destroyer band?

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Speaker 2: It sounds scary, it's a great band, I said, yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's a dude, Dan Bihar, Yes, I love destroyer. But

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Speaker 2: you know the shift. What's the ship?

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Speaker 1: They're these very fast, long endurance ships that are meant

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Speaker 1: to function as escorts in a fleet or a battle group.

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Speaker 1: So I guess before World War Two you would say

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Speaker 1: destroyers were pretty light vessels, and they weren't great at

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Speaker 1: unattended ocean operations. They had to roll with a gang

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Speaker 1: of other ships, so typically there would be a number

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Speaker 1: of destroyers together. But after World War Two, guided missiles

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Speaker 1: allowed destroyers to step up and take the rolls that

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Speaker 1: used to be filled by battleships and cruisers exclusively.

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Speaker 2: Right, And the destroyers would, like you said, kind of

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Speaker 2: flock together in a squadron. And the squadron in question

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Speaker 2: today is Desron twenty one. Yesdes ro o N short

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Speaker 2: for Destroyer Squadron twenty one.

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Speaker 1: There we go. Yeah, I like the way you're pronouncing that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that squadron consisted of the Fletcher, the Radford,

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Speaker 2: the Jenkins, the Lavalette, the Nicholas, the O'Bannon, which was oh,

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Speaker 2: the Nicholas was actually the flagship, the O'Bannon, the Chevalier,

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Speaker 2: I think it was in after Maurice, the French singer.

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Speaker 2: Surely Casey Maurice Chevalier. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, Okay,

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Speaker 2: Casey on the case, big underwhelming case in the case,

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Speaker 2: but by no fault of his That was a silly

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Speaker 2: question because it's not fair for me to put that

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Speaker 2: much on Casey.

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Speaker 1: You know what, though, we do hold him to a

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Speaker 1: very high standard.

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Speaker 2: Well, he is the standard. He is the bar which

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Speaker 2: we strive for on this show every day, daily basis.

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Speaker 1: But I like how we're talking about assumptions because an

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Speaker 1: assumption is going to play a big role in this story.

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Speaker 1: Oh and by the way, I should mention that, yes,

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Speaker 1: the USS O'Bannon was named after the famous hero of Derna,

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Speaker 1: Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon, but it was actually the second ship

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Speaker 1: to be named after him.

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Speaker 2: This guy is ship rich. Oh and then, just to

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Speaker 2: wrap up the squadron list, we've also got the Strong,

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Speaker 2: the Tailor, the de Haven, the Howorth, and the Hopewell

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Speaker 2: the Hope.

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Speaker 1: Well, that last one's pretty inspiring, right. So this is

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Speaker 1: the group of ships known as Desron twenty one. On

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Speaker 1: April fifth, nineteen forty three. They were returning from a

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Speaker 1: night of shelling attacking shore installations deep in the Solomon

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Speaker 1: Islands in an area known as New Georgia. A lot

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Speaker 1: of this story comes to us from a first hand witness,

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Speaker 1: a sailor named Ernest A.

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Speaker 2: Hare.

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Speaker 1: You can read his direct account on destroyerhistory dot org.

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Speaker 1: So there they are, they're on the way back from

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Speaker 1: shelling these installations, and one destroyer, the Obannon picked up

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Speaker 1: a radar ping that turned out to be Dunt Dunt Dune,

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Speaker 1: a huge Japanese submarine cruising on the surface.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and the uh the Japanese naval men sub mariners.

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Speaker 2: I said that earlier. I don't know if that's accurate.

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Speaker 2: And I know it's a superhero, the sub mariner. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: sub mariner works work, okay, because you know they're on

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Speaker 2: a submarine. They're like asleep on the deck. Seems super risky, right, Like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I don't even think of submarine really having a deck,

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Speaker 2: it's got this tower that you crawl up. But then

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Speaker 2: I guess it's got a flat parth that you can

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Speaker 2: hang out on. And that's what they were doing, and

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Speaker 2: they were asleep. And one description I found of this

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Speaker 2: event on shipcomrade dot com has a very specific description

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Speaker 2: of these sleeping sailors has them wearing dark shorts and

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Speaker 2: dinky blue hats. So I'm guessing in substantial little blue.

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Speaker 1: Hats, yes, small or insignificant.

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Speaker 2: Is that part of the nay of the Japanese naval

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Speaker 2: uniform It must have been.

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Speaker 1: I mean navies have uniforms, but yeah, these were dinky

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Speaker 1: would mean tiny, so essentially saying that they have tiny.

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Speaker 2: Ye and bring that word back. You're gonna bring it back. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I don't think people use that word or not. You know,

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Speaker 2: Chuck likes to use hinky. That's different.

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Speaker 1: He goes through a hinky phase every so often. That's

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Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant from movie Crush and stuff.

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Speaker 2: You should know. That just means things are a little

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Speaker 2: dicey or there's like a yeah problem, it's like wonky.

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Speaker 2: It's not quite problematic, right, but it's getting there. It's

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Speaker 2: get it could well get as is this situation. Hey, hey,

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Speaker 2: nice Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so this submarine, wonder of wonders is already surfaced,

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Speaker 1: and it's not appearing to react to the presence of

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Speaker 1: these destroyers of the Obannon in particular, so they take

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Speaker 1: the advantage. They say, well, if we have caught this

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Speaker 1: enemy vessel unaware, we better make the best of it.

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Speaker 1: They approach at a rapid speed and they're preparing to

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Speaker 1: ram the sub to you know, physically knock the tar

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Speaker 1: out of it.

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Speaker 2: Because I saw some videos actually of these destroyers at

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Speaker 2: work doing that, and that was a thing I didn't

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Speaker 2: didn't really think about that. But they were like these

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Speaker 2: you know, seaborn battering rams, and they could pick up

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Speaker 2: speed pretty quickly and were made of pure steel and

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Speaker 2: could withstand tons of damage and inflict tons of damage

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Speaker 2: on smaller vessels.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and think about it from a strategic standpoint, you're

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Speaker 1: saving resources if you don't have to waste any kind

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Speaker 1: of artilleries, right, So in.

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Speaker 2: A close range that's probably a more effective way of

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Speaker 2: dealing with it anyway, especially if you're pretty sure that

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Speaker 2: the lookouts of said target are asleep at the wheel

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Speaker 2: or the periscope as it were, or in this case

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Speaker 2: on the deck of the submarine. Right, So the.

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Speaker 1: Captain of the Obanon is trying to identify what sort

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Speaker 1: of sub this is, and then at the last minute

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Speaker 1: they said, wait, we shouldn't ram this thing because we

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Speaker 1: might blow ourselves up. If this sub is, for instance,

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Speaker 1: the kind of sub that lays minds in the water.

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Speaker 1: I don't know why I say it in the water.

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Speaker 1: It's not like they're just laying mines in Poughkeepsie.

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Speaker 2: I don't know.

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Speaker 1: Maybe that's a very weirdly specific type of sub. But

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Speaker 1: so they didn't want to blow themselves up, and they

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Speaker 1: decided that they're not going to ram them. So at

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Speaker 1: the last minute they swing to avoid collision, and they're

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Speaker 1: really close to the submarine.

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Speaker 2: I imagine that probably caused the Japanese sub mariners to

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Speaker 2: awake with a start, right, wouldn't you think, because.

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Speaker 1: As you said, they were on board the sub the

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Speaker 1: surface of the sub right, yeah, asleep. So they are

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Speaker 1: close enough now because of their last minute decision not

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Speaker 1: to ram the submarine. They are close enough now that

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Speaker 1: they can actually see the Japanese sailors on the deck.

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Speaker 1: And you know, while that might sound weird for them

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Speaker 1: to be just sleeping out in the open on deck.

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Speaker 1: We have to remember how claustrophobic a submarine environment could be.

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Speaker 1: You're gonna do whatever you can, probably to get some

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Speaker 1: fresh air.

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Speaker 2: A friend of mine, who was talking about the story says,

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Speaker 2: I bet submarines smell like farts all the time.

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Speaker 1: Oh man, have you heard of hot racking?

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Speaker 2: No?

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Speaker 1: Okay, so this is just a side note. Space is

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Speaker 1: at a premium and so I believe it's called hot racking.

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Speaker 1: Different different individuals will share the same bunk just based

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Speaker 1: on their schedule. So you could have like three people

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Speaker 1: sleeping in the same bunk depending on their shift. So

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Speaker 1: you get up, you go to work, someone else lays

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Speaker 1: down in the bunk, they get up, they go to

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Speaker 1: work at the same time. You're walking back, and you

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Speaker 1: sleep where they slept.

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Speaker 2: What does this have to do with farts.

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Speaker 1: I'm just saying it's an unhygienic situation.

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Speaker 2: Ah, yes, yes, agreed.

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Speaker 1: I don't want a hot bunk hot rack with anybody.

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Speaker 2: Well, as you said hot bunk, and I immediately thought

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Speaker 2: of hot box. Oh no, that's just where you fart

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Speaker 2: and pull the covers up. Wow, this is really gone

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Speaker 2: off as an it man so here we go.

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Speaker 1: It's understandable that these guys want to get some fresh air.

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Speaker 1: But the ship is now awkwardly, very awkwardly close to

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Speaker 1: this submarine, and they have this Larry David seinfeldesque moment,

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Speaker 1: that level of awkwardness because their ship was way too

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Speaker 1: close for them to fire guns on the sub and

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Speaker 1: since no one on deck carried a gun either, there

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Speaker 1: was not a shot at all from the US side.

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Speaker 1: See what I'm saying. They were too close for the

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Speaker 1: trajectory of their guns to work.

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Speaker 2: Those are meant to be like longer range weapons, or

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Speaker 2: at least medium range. You got to be able to

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Speaker 2: get a beat on them and get a little arc right,

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Speaker 2: because these are shells. These aren't just like high powered

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Speaker 2: machine guns you can shoot directly. You got to kind

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Speaker 2: of lob these things. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Oddly enough, there was a similar situation on the

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Speaker 1: Japanese sub because none of the people on the deck

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Speaker 1: there had handguns. There was one gun that could have worked, though,

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Speaker 1: right at least on the sub.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like a three inch deck gun. What

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Speaker 2: does that mean? Three inch like caliber? What are we

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Speaker 2: talking about here?

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Speaker 1: I think it means primarily that the gun fires a

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Speaker 1: projectile that's three inches long.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so that would be much more of a machine

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Speaker 2: gun type situation, right right, much more powerful than a handgun,

249
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Speaker 2: but also much more able to fire at close range

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Speaker 2: and hit a target. True, So these Japanese sailors are

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Speaker 2: scrambling to get to this gun because they, you know,

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Speaker 2: this giant ship is just right up on them. Can

253
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Speaker 2: you imagine how terrifying that must feel. Oh yeah, on

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Speaker 2: both sides, well, on both sides, but especially on the

255
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Speaker 2: dudes who were just naked up there on top of

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Speaker 2: this little raft thing. I mean, not that a submarine small,

257
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Speaker 2: but in comparison to the size of the destroyer, it

258
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Speaker 2: would have been like, you know, being out in the

259
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Speaker 2: ocean and like coming up on a whale that wanted

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Speaker 2: to kill you. Right.

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Speaker 1: And then on the obannon side, on the US side,

262
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Speaker 1: can you imagine the escalating panic they see when they

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Speaker 1: realize that they can't fire anything and they're watching, They're

264
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Speaker 1: literally watching the folks on the submarine wake up, see

265
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Speaker 1: what's going on, and start running toward that deck gun

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Speaker 1: and they have to think fast.

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Speaker 2: They did think fast, Because you may have mentioned this before, Ben,

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Speaker 2: I apologize if I missed it. But the Americans didn't

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Speaker 2: have handguns either on them for whatever reason, I guess,

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Speaker 2: I guess that's not I guess naval officers don't really

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Speaker 2: carry handguns.

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Speaker 1: Well, the thing I think that's important here is on

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Speaker 1: a destroyer, you're not really building it with the assumption

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Speaker 1: that you will get boarded or the individuals will be

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Speaker 1: in close hand to hand combat, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 2: And just the official word is that no, Navy officers

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Speaker 2: do not carry handguns. They're trained in weaponry, but that

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Speaker 2: is not part of their kit, that is not part

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Speaker 2: of their uniform, their usual equipment.

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Speaker 1: Right, So they have to think fast, flicking around, who

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Speaker 1: has a gun? No one has a gun. Wait, the

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Speaker 1: sub has a deck gun and if they if these

283
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Speaker 1: guys reach it, then we are in for a terrible,

284
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Speaker 1: terrible time. So the guys on the USS obannon look

285
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Speaker 1: around and they see these storage bins.

286
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm not it's not even clear from

287
00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:20,040
Speaker 2: reading up on this if they really, even in the moment,

288
00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:22,720
Speaker 2: knew quite what was in there. I think they were

289
00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:27,120
Speaker 2: just kind of like just frantically grabbing at anything, scrabbling

290
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Speaker 2: for purchase. And it turns out that these bins were

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Speaker 2: full of potatoes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and they so they started throwing these at the

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Speaker 1: guys on the submarine, and the Japanese sailors panicked because

294
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Speaker 1: they thought the potatoes were hand grenades, because that's the

295
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Speaker 1: kind of thing you would logically throw at someone in

296
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Speaker 1: a war.

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Speaker 2: Well, these Japanese folks must have thought that these American

298
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Speaker 2: sailors had their act together much more than they actually did.

299
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Speaker 2: They gave them a little credit thinking, oh, surely they're

300
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Speaker 2: lobbing hand grenades at us, and it was dark, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

301
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Speaker 2: but you think when they gripped it, they would sense

302
00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:05,920
Speaker 2: the feel of the potato and then not have those

303
00:16:05,960 --> 00:16:08,440
Speaker 2: you know, traditional hand grenade rivets that you'd be used

304
00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:10,000
Speaker 2: to feeling, probably if you were a soldier.

305
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Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think the adrenaline, yeah, it probably triggers

306
00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:15,080
Speaker 1: a fight or flight things.

307
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Speaker 2: The mind took over and made those potatoes into hand

308
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Speaker 2: grenades in the mines of the Japanese and so they

309
00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:25,040
Speaker 2: started lobbing back. Yeah. Yeah, they didn't run away. That's

310
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Speaker 2: the best part.

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Speaker 1: This is essentially a food fight at this point because

312
00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:32,240
Speaker 1: the Japanese sailors think that these are hand grenades, and

313
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Speaker 1: they try to get rid of them by picking them up,

314
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Speaker 1: catching him, throwing them back at the obannon, and then

315
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Speaker 1: as this ensued, just lobbing potatoes back and forth at

316
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Speaker 1: each other. The crew of the obannon was able to,

317
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Speaker 1: as Ernest Harris says, put a little distance between our

318
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Speaker 1: ship and the sub essentially to get far enough away

319
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Speaker 1: to be outer range of that deck gun. And it's

320
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Speaker 1: important to note at the same time they're getting out

321
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Speaker 1: of range of the submarine's deck gun, they're getting far

322
00:17:04,320 --> 00:17:09,359
Speaker 1: enough away for their own guns to come into play. Specifically,

323
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Speaker 1: those guns are five dual purpose five inch thirty eight

324
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Speaker 1: caliber guns on single mounts, and those those five guns

325
00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:21,399
Speaker 1: are not the entirety of the armament. There were also

326
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Speaker 1: torpedoes aboard, and they also had anti aircraft armament, but

327
00:17:25,960 --> 00:17:30,399
Speaker 1: those five guns themselves, the five inch thirty eight caliber ones,

328
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Speaker 1: that's a game.

329
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Speaker 2: Over, yeah, for sure. And it was game over because

330
00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:36,639
Speaker 2: they lobbed off a good shot and they caught the

331
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Speaker 2: Japanese right in the little tower thing what's it called,

332
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Speaker 2: with the conning tower conning tower, which is where they

333
00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:46,560
Speaker 2: you climb out of it to get to the top

334
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Speaker 2: to get to the deck. And I believe that's also

335
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Speaker 2: where the periscope is located, I believe, so run up

336
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Speaker 2: into that and that's the little piece that you see

337
00:17:53,200 --> 00:17:55,119
Speaker 2: if that's always you know, kind of floating over the

338
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Speaker 2: top when them when the submarine's not fully fully underwater

339
00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:01,040
Speaker 2: but mostly submerged, because yeah, I was trying to go

340
00:18:01,119 --> 00:18:02,879
Speaker 2: for a dive. It was trying to get out of there,

341
00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:05,199
Speaker 2: and they must have caught it right in the nick

342
00:18:05,240 --> 00:18:08,520
Speaker 2: of time because they you know, hit that tower and

343
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Speaker 2: it disabled the sub enough that it wasn't able to escape.

344
00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:16,520
Speaker 2: And then the the obannon uh kind of maneuvered on

345
00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:19,160
Speaker 2: top of it and hit it with a depth charge. Yeah,

346
00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:21,520
Speaker 2: which is like, how does that work?

347
00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:25,879
Speaker 1: Just picture a picture like a slow orb or bomb

348
00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:29,320
Speaker 1: dropping down. Yeah, so a bop on the head, Oh

349
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Speaker 1: my gosh, which is I you know which. I'm not

350
00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:36,560
Speaker 1: saying to diminish the tragedy of human life, but all

351
00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:39,440
Speaker 1: indications we could find show us that the sub did

352
00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:43,119
Speaker 1: indeed sink due to that depth charge and the shot

353
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Speaker 1: at the Conning Tower.

354
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Speaker 2: Human life is indeed quite a tragedy.

355
00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:49,800
Speaker 1: Ben Yeah, yeah, I don't want to diminish that. And

356
00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:53,960
Speaker 1: off the obannon went. But we have we have two

357
00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:57,880
Speaker 1: other things that we thought were very interesting about this story. Uh,

358
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Speaker 1: the Association of Potato Growers of heard about this potato

359
00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:03,800
Speaker 1: battle and they loved the idea.

360
00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:06,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did. They loved it so much. And they

361
00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:11,439
Speaker 2: presented the crew of the Obannon with a plaque with

362
00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:13,560
Speaker 2: some problematic language.

363
00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:17,119
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, a tribute to the officers and men of

364
00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:22,160
Speaker 1: the USS Obannon for their ingenuity in using our now

365
00:19:22,359 --> 00:19:27,240
Speaker 1: proud potato to sink a And again this is a quote.

366
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Speaker 1: This is an offensive phrase to sink a submarine in

367
00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:34,520
Speaker 1: the spring of nineteen forty three, presented by potato growers

368
00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:39,200
Speaker 1: of the State of Maine on June fourteenth, nineteen forty five.

369
00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:41,720
Speaker 1: One thing it's weird about this is they have sink

370
00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:42,680
Speaker 1: in quotation marks.

371
00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:45,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, that seems like kind of a dig. Was it slang?

372
00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:48,600
Speaker 2: I don't know sure. I have a question too, bem. Yeah,

373
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Speaker 2: why why is this considered a main incident, the main

374
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Speaker 2: potato episode? And why were they in the waters of

375
00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:56,120
Speaker 2: Maine though I thought they were lake somewhere else.

376
00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:57,879
Speaker 1: No, they're in this by the Solomon Island.

377
00:19:57,960 --> 00:19:59,440
Speaker 2: I know, That's what I thought. So why would Maine

378
00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:00,080
Speaker 2: have to do with then?

379
00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:03,159
Speaker 1: I guess because they grow potatoes.

380
00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:06,800
Speaker 2: I no. I mean they literally called this event the

381
00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:09,280
Speaker 2: main Potato episode. I've seen it called that a bunch

382
00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:09,600
Speaker 2: of times.

383
00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:12,200
Speaker 1: Must have been main potatoes. Then the potatoes were supplied

384
00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:12,639
Speaker 1: by Maine.

385
00:20:12,680 --> 00:20:15,800
Speaker 2: It's so weird, dude, It's such a strange nomenclature. Like

386
00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:19,159
Speaker 2: the only mention of Maine other than the fact that

387
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:23,000
Speaker 2: it's called the main Potato incident multiple places, is the

388
00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:29,240
Speaker 2: fact that the O'Bannon itself was forged in Bath, Maine.

389
00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:32,399
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, that's a good call back in March of

390
00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:36,520
Speaker 1: nineteen forty one. So so now we don't know for sure,

391
00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:38,880
Speaker 1: but we have two I would say, pretty good guesses.

392
00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:42,919
Speaker 1: It was made to main or it was using potatoes

393
00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:47,320
Speaker 1: for Maine. There's a main element here, mainly mainly a

394
00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:49,560
Speaker 1: main element. It's not the main part of the story,

395
00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:52,440
Speaker 1: but now Maine is an important But we got there, we.

396
00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:53,879
Speaker 2: Got it there, here we are I think this is

397
00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:56,280
Speaker 2: the end. Well, no, no, there's a little bit more.

398
00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:57,560
Speaker 2: Do you want to talk a little bit more about

399
00:20:57,560 --> 00:21:00,720
Speaker 2: the ship and about destroyers, just as a little supplementary

400
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:01,199
Speaker 2: wrap up?

401
00:21:01,359 --> 00:21:04,720
Speaker 1: Sure, man, because destroyers are fascinating ships in the Obannon

402
00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:09,320
Speaker 1: in particular has way more war stories than just this

403
00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:10,760
Speaker 1: one potato incident.

404
00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:13,000
Speaker 2: Right right. And there's another great account from this guy,

405
00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:17,359
Speaker 2: Ernest Hare, just about like being a cadet or what

406
00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:20,199
Speaker 2: do you call, like a rookie first year sailor on

407
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:23,440
Speaker 2: the Obannon, and you know, going into the Battle of Guadalcanal.

408
00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:26,879
Speaker 2: And it's an angel fire website, which I thought I

409
00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:30,280
Speaker 2: thought went the way of geo cities still around. Huh, Yeah,

410
00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:33,200
Speaker 2: it's crazy. You ever try to find your old MySpace profile? Ben,

411
00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:35,440
Speaker 2: not a door I always care to open still around.

412
00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:37,399
Speaker 2: I'll have to look it up and report back. But no.

413
00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:40,199
Speaker 2: In this account, he talks about his early days on

414
00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:44,800
Speaker 2: the brand new, shiny new destroyer, the Obannon, fresh from

415
00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:46,959
Speaker 2: the iron works, he says, of bath Maine.

416
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:50,360
Speaker 1: Also, the crew was as new as the ship, right.

417
00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:52,480
Speaker 1: Seventy percent of them were just.

418
00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:57,400
Speaker 2: Raw recruits, a green ballz R. His stars in their eyes, right.

419
00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:00,280
Speaker 2: But they're training, they're learning how to, you know, put

420
00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:04,600
Speaker 2: on gas masks and you know, nurse severed limbs and

421
00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:06,520
Speaker 2: all of this stuff. And he says, a really interesting

422
00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:08,399
Speaker 2: thing we're talking about the gas masks. Says, surely we

423
00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:10,320
Speaker 2: are not going to be so unlucky as to need

424
00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:12,480
Speaker 2: one of these things. Everyone knows you can get hurt

425
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:14,760
Speaker 2: out here and maybe even killed, but these are things

426
00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:17,520
Speaker 2: that happened to the other guy, not you. Nevertheless, a

427
00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:21,080
Speaker 2: laugh or a smile became a rare item. And then

428
00:22:21,119 --> 00:22:24,120
Speaker 2: you refers to people over thirty as being old timers,

429
00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:26,760
Speaker 2: which makes me feel like a Grandpapa's right.

430
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:30,040
Speaker 1: But again, you know a lot of these recruits are

431
00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:33,080
Speaker 1: people who are straight out of high school too, you know,

432
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:34,600
Speaker 1: in many ways still kids.

433
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:37,520
Speaker 2: That's right, But in this account he does take some

434
00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:40,440
Speaker 2: solace in the fact that he's told his whole crew

435
00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:44,520
Speaker 2: is told that this ship is damn near impenetrable and unsinkable,

436
00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:47,880
Speaker 2: and is loaded with all kinds of bells and whistles.

437
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:49,480
Speaker 2: What kind of bells and whistles are we talking about it?

438
00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:51,440
Speaker 2: We've mentioned a few, but what else we got right?

439
00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:54,160
Speaker 1: So we mentioned some of the guns, both the anti

440
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:58,719
Speaker 1: aircraft and the surface guns, also torpedoes, and you know,

441
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:01,520
Speaker 1: we mentioned depth charges are but he points out that

442
00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:04,520
Speaker 1: submarines actually run from this destroyer.

443
00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:07,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, except when they're you know, asleep right.

444
00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:11,640
Speaker 1: Right right, which again we have to empathize with the

445
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:16,720
Speaker 1: utter terror the Japanese sailors must have felt with this thing.

446
00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:20,240
Speaker 1: Rolling up on them, as you said, like an angry whale.

447
00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:23,520
Speaker 1: But let's get more specific. We mentioned those five inch guns.

448
00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:27,200
Speaker 1: They also had ten forty millimeter guns for anti aircraft,

449
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:33,520
Speaker 1: seven twenty millimeter anti aircraft guns, ten torpedo tubes, six

450
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:38,600
Speaker 1: depth charge projectors, and two depth charge tracks. So this

451
00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:40,320
Speaker 1: thing is pretty much ready to tangle.

452
00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:42,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. And you know, like I said, the

453
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:45,600
Speaker 2: crew of this Maiden Voyage, you know, took some comfort

454
00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:49,840
Speaker 2: in that fact. But they were first engaged in a

455
00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:53,560
Speaker 2: battle called the Battle of Guadalcanal, which was fought in

456
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 2: the Pacific Theater of WW two around the island of Guadalcanal,

457
00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:02,720
Speaker 2: and it was the first big attack by the Allies

458
00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:06,000
Speaker 2: against the Empire of Japan. And this is the moment

459
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:09,280
Speaker 2: when Hair and his sailor buddies kind of got a

460
00:24:09,359 --> 00:24:12,320
Speaker 2: taste of what war was really like. We always hear

461
00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:15,720
Speaker 2: about this idea of the romanticization of war by these

462
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 2: young bucks that come in thinking they're going to find

463
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:23,879
Speaker 2: glory and instead they find you know, severed limbs and destruction,

464
00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:26,000
Speaker 2: flotsam and jetsam floating in the water.

465
00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:30,359
Speaker 1: It reminds me of a poem from World War One

466
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:33,639
Speaker 1: by a guy named Wilfred Owen called dulce it decora mest.

467
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:36,000
Speaker 1: I won't recite the whole thing because it's a little

468
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:41,600
Speaker 1: bit long, but it I think encapsulates this I don't know,

469
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:47,560
Speaker 1: this universal idealism and then disillusionment and often death. It's

470
00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:50,959
Speaker 1: involved with war. The first engagement of the naval Battle

471
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:55,879
Speaker 1: of Guadalcanal was relatively short in terms of time, but

472
00:24:55,920 --> 00:25:00,760
Speaker 1: there was massive damage to American light cruise and four

473
00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:05,000
Speaker 1: destroyers went down. Two Japanese destroyers were sunk.

474
00:25:05,359 --> 00:25:05,679
Speaker 2: It was.

475
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:14,480
Speaker 1: It was terrible war as well, and so I think

476
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:18,320
Speaker 1: we've established that the obandon had a number of other

477
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:24,040
Speaker 1: adventures that were not potato related. However, I gotta say

478
00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:27,280
Speaker 1: the war is a terrible, terrible thing. I love the

479
00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:30,720
Speaker 1: image of these grown people having this sudden food fight,

480
00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:31,560
Speaker 1: to say.

481
00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:33,720
Speaker 2: It's a food fight, you know, among grown men. I

482
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:36,159
Speaker 2: love it. Yeah, I know we need more food fights

483
00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:38,159
Speaker 2: in general. It did it did It did end in

484
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:42,200
Speaker 2: the Japanese men being you know, brutally exploded by a

485
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:44,720
Speaker 2: depth charge. That is true. That's not super cool.

486
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:50,280
Speaker 1: No, but again, food fights. Let us know, if you

487
00:25:50,359 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 1: ever want to get involved in a food fight, I

488
00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:55,960
Speaker 1: would totally be in a Wait. Really, no way, you

489
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:56,600
Speaker 1: wouldn't do it?

490
00:25:56,960 --> 00:25:59,159
Speaker 2: No way? Do you hate fun? I don't hate No,

491
00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:00,960
Speaker 2: it doesn't sound like fun to me. It sounds like

492
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:03,119
Speaker 2: a mess. I don't even like it when it happens

493
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:05,240
Speaker 2: in movies. It grosses me out. Oh really yeah?

494
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:07,399
Speaker 1: I think it depends on the type of food for me,

495
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 1: Like a potato is not a messy thing. And actually

496
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:11,920
Speaker 1: potato could hurt you if it's hard enough.

497
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:14,359
Speaker 2: You ever shot a potato gun I built? Do you

498
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:17,240
Speaker 2: ever make napalm? No? No, just potato guns?

499
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:22,119
Speaker 1: And let us know about your experience with Where do

500
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 1: we go here? Potatoes? Life in the Navy building potato guns?

501
00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:29,159
Speaker 2: Anarchist cookbook recipes what you.

502
00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:31,840
Speaker 1: And speaking of you? Enough about us? What do you

503
00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:33,320
Speaker 1: say to some listener mail?

504
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:39,720
Speaker 2: I say asa. Our first listener mail comes from Michelle k.

505
00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,480
Speaker 2: Subject is weird people who built with beer bottles? Hello.

506
00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 2: I had gotten a little behind and finally listened to

507
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:47,760
Speaker 2: the Weird people who Built Weird Things episode on the

508
00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:49,919
Speaker 2: five hour drive to visit my parents in the small

509
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:53,760
Speaker 2: California coastal town of Cambria, which is just below Hurst Castle.

510
00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:57,000
Speaker 2: It's about halfway between San Francisc's the Famoushurst Castle of

511
00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:02,560
Speaker 2: William Randolph Hurst, famously depictedtionalized in Citizen Kane, but it

512
00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 2: is literally as it sounds, a castle. It's about halfway

513
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:08,000
Speaker 2: between San Francisco and Los Angeles. In that episode, you

514
00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:10,600
Speaker 2: asked about other weird buildings, and I had one immediately.

515
00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:13,439
Speaker 2: One of my favorite places in Cambria history is a

516
00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:17,640
Speaker 2: truly bizarre home built by hand called Nitwit Ridge, which

517
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:19,760
Speaker 2: I love. It was built by a man named Art

518
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:22,280
Speaker 2: Beal over the course of fifty years, mostly out of

519
00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:25,280
Speaker 2: trash that he dragged down the coast of Hurst Castle,

520
00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:28,439
Speaker 2: where he worked in native materials such as abalone shells.

521
00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:31,480
Speaker 2: Tying in with another episode. There are beer cans built

522
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:34,679
Speaker 2: into the structure as well. It's about our Heineken Bottle

523
00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:37,960
Speaker 2: Bricks episode. He lived there for most of his life.

524
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 2: It's uninhabitable at this point, but still sound enough for tours.

525
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,280
Speaker 2: It's a time capsule inside because when he left, he

526
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:47,520
Speaker 2: left everything behind, so there are old clothes, food cans,

527
00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:50,359
Speaker 2: et cetera. And then she attached a couple of photos

528
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:56,400
Speaker 2: here and it looked like a crazy Peter Pan treehouse.

529
00:27:56,800 --> 00:27:58,720
Speaker 2: It's awesome. Thank you so much for the podcast. I've

530
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:01,480
Speaker 2: enjoyed every episode so far and look forward to many more.

531
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:03,760
Speaker 2: Thanks for the company on my long drive.

532
00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Thank you so much for writing to us, Michelle.

533
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:12,679
Speaker 1: Also thanks to everyone who responded and sent us weird

534
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:15,879
Speaker 1: buildings from your neck of the Global Woods. You know,

535
00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:20,680
Speaker 1: please keep sending them as well, and let's do one more.

536
00:28:21,119 --> 00:28:23,080
Speaker 1: May M writes to us and says, Hi, there, Ben

537
00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:24,840
Speaker 1: and Noel. I'm a big fan of the show. I

538
00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:28,359
Speaker 1: love the segment Casey on the case, Hi, Casey right on.

539
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 1: I just finished listening to The States That Never Were,

540
00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:35,359
Speaker 1: says May and during the episode, I was pondering, note,

541
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:38,160
Speaker 1: I am from Massachusetts, where I feel the attitude on

542
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:41,600
Speaker 1: the South can often be derogatory or patronizing, but I

543
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 1: try my best to be inclusive of all folks.

544
00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:46,760
Speaker 2: It's cool. We feel the same way about you in Massachusetts.

545
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:48,160
Speaker 1: I think Massachusetts is great.

546
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 2: No, it's great.

547
00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:52,200
Speaker 1: I'm joking, so May continues. I can't help but notice

548
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:54,520
Speaker 1: the two of you do not speak in a Southern accent.

549
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:56,960
Speaker 1: I heard one of your fathers during extra credit and

550
00:28:57,040 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 1: was delighted by his pride in his Southern heritage and accent.

551
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:03,120
Speaker 1: I was wondering if you two naturally have an accent

552
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:05,840
Speaker 1: and smooth it over because you're on the radio and

553
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:08,520
Speaker 1: it alienates others, or if it's a thing you picked

554
00:29:08,600 --> 00:29:11,320
Speaker 1: up from TV and other media. I don't mean to

555
00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:13,800
Speaker 1: be rude. I'm and you're not being rude. Made this

556
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:17,000
Speaker 1: is a great letter. I'm just curious on the ridiculous

557
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:19,040
Speaker 1: history of why there is this divide and how our

558
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:21,880
Speaker 1: country speaks, which is quite diverse in reality but in

559
00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:25,040
Speaker 1: movies and TV only if it is relevant. Is the

560
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:28,280
Speaker 1: Southern accent ever used late for work? Have to get going?

561
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 2: Should we show her our real voices? Ben? All right, man,

562
00:29:33,680 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 2: that's May. That's a real voice May. The first time

563
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:40,080
Speaker 2: ever is May no Brown? This is how I sound,

564
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 2: bear my soul for you people. No more putting on

565
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 2: airs for this podcast.

566
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:48,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can hear Nole's German accent.

567
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:53,719
Speaker 2: Coming out there. No, I'm obviously kidding. No, I don't know.

568
00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:57,360
Speaker 2: It is funny though we don't have any kind of

569
00:29:57,400 --> 00:29:59,400
Speaker 2: Southern accent. You're very strong. Do you have a code

570
00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:01,480
Speaker 2: switch though, and you're around like your folks, or you

571
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:05,240
Speaker 2: go back home to Tennessee and you see some family

572
00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:06,760
Speaker 2: who have more of an accent. Do you ever kind

573
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:09,120
Speaker 2: of find yourself drifting into it a little bit? No?

574
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 1: No, The only thing is sometimes vowels will come out strange,

575
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:17,960
Speaker 1: you know. But I actually I responded to this, and

576
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:21,120
Speaker 1: one of the points that we wanted to make is

577
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 1: that here in the information age, a lot of people,

578
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:28,560
Speaker 1: at least in the US, are going to speak with

579
00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:32,720
Speaker 1: a more neutral Midwestern kind of accent because that's what's

580
00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:37,000
Speaker 1: encouraged in television on your local news station, for example.

581
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 1: And I think we can all agree that diversity of

582
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:44,440
Speaker 1: accents is a really fantastic thing, and they could be

583
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:50,680
Speaker 1: more well represented in the media. Also, this is great embarrassment.

584
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:53,840
Speaker 1: I cannot pronounce you all to save my life.

585
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:54,600
Speaker 2: You just did it.

586
00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:58,400
Speaker 1: No, you know what I mean? The contraction. Yeah, you

587
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:00,479
Speaker 1: can't say y'ao. I just can't pull it off. Kind

588
00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:01,520
Speaker 1: of Southerner are you?

589
00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:03,400
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know.

590
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:03,720
Speaker 1: Man.

591
00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:07,120
Speaker 2: I quarrel with this, but well you got I got

592
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:10,600
Speaker 2: quarrel with you now, Oh yeah, af up.

593
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:15,360
Speaker 1: Well, our creative differences aside. The point that I think

594
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:18,880
Speaker 1: the three of us wanted to make with accents is

595
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:21,600
Speaker 1: that regardless of how people may or may not judge

596
00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:24,320
Speaker 1: you for the way you speak Uh. I would say,

597
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:25,360
Speaker 1: embrace your accent.

598
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:26,240
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.

599
00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:29,200
Speaker 1: It's part of what makes you you. And also accents

600
00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:32,719
Speaker 1: are dynamics. So if you move somewhere where people pronounce

601
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:38,000
Speaker 1: things differently, such as Madonna moving to the UK or

602
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:42,880
Speaker 1: US moving to Australia, eventually some things are gonna sink in.

603
00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:45,680
Speaker 1: You're gonna start I mean, you're not automatically gonna start

604
00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 1: yelling gooday at people.

605
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:52,320
Speaker 2: But good day. But we tend to we tend to.

606
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:55,480
Speaker 1: At least UH speak the way that people around us speak.

607
00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 2: It's true.

608
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,280
Speaker 1: So thank you so much to May and Michelle and

609
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:03,040
Speaker 1: everyone else who wrote in. This is the end of

610
00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:08,200
Speaker 1: listener mail, but not our show. You can find us

611
00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:12,960
Speaker 1: on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We're especially delighted with our

612
00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:15,400
Speaker 1: community page, Ridiculous.

613
00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:18,600
Speaker 2: Historians that we are. We made some lifelong friends there,

614
00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 2: ridiculous Historians, and you can be a part of that

615
00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:23,760
Speaker 2: pool of humans as well by going to Facebook and

616
00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:27,000
Speaker 2: signing up. All you gotta do is tell the robot

617
00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:29,960
Speaker 2: what our names are, only one of them, and we

618
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:32,160
Speaker 2: get a kick out of the ways people spell my

619
00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:34,960
Speaker 2: name and the ways people spell your last name. Ben.

620
00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:38,360
Speaker 1: It is whot We also we also have T shirts

621
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:39,600
Speaker 1: now we're legit.

622
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, with our names on them spelled correctly.

623
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 1: You can find one of our favorite T shirt designs

624
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:49,640
Speaker 1: featuring our old pal slash nemesis Jonathan Strickland, the quister.

625
00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 2: Yeah used to go to tea public dot com slash

626
00:32:51,280 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 2: ridiculous History. And you can get that stuff slapped on

627
00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:56,480
Speaker 2: a mug or a mouse pad, or a backpack or

628
00:32:56,520 --> 00:33:00,560
Speaker 2: a laptop sleeve, anything pretty much you can think of

629
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:02,520
Speaker 2: you you can slap a logo on it there. And

630
00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:05,320
Speaker 2: if you have ideas yourself for designs, anything you hear

631
00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:06,680
Speaker 2: in the show you think would be cool on a

632
00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:08,600
Speaker 2: piece of merch, let us know rt us at Ridiculous

633
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 2: at HowStuffWorks dot com. I'd like to thank super producer

634
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:14,480
Speaker 2: Casey Pegram, like to thank Alex Williams, who composed our theme.

635
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:18,480
Speaker 1: Like to think, our research associates, Christopher Hasiotis Eves, Jeff Coat,

636
00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:21,360
Speaker 1: and most importantly, thank you for tuning in.

637
00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:31,160
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

638
00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:33,400
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows