WEBVTT - 9 Warm, Cozy Facts About Sweaters 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.519 You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:14.760 and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will? What's that Mango? So you've 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:18.160 probably noticed that ugly Christmas sweaters have become big business 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:21.360 over the last decade, with some companies breaking in as 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:25.800 much as five million dollars each year from kitchy knitwear. 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:28.640 But do you know that the sweaters also have their 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:30.480 very own holiday? Yeah? 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:32.760 I think I think they call it a Christmas right. 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:37.040 Yeah, But a truly goers sweater deserves to be seen 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:40.760 more than at least one year, and that's why. Ever 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:44.120 since twenty eleven, the third Friday in December has been 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:48.639 set aside as National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day. The practice 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.000 started here in the US, but it's now celebrated by 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:55.400 the fashionably unfashionable all across the world. Some people mark 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:58.560 the day by running a charity race, throwing a party, 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:02.520 or organizing a pup. But you can really celebrate however 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:05.200 you want provide. Of course, you also do it while 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:07.360 wearing a chunky, cheerful sweater. 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.119 You know when this whole thing started with the ugly 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.480 and ridiculous Christmas sweaters, I have to admit I didn't 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.120 see it having this kind of staying power that whole 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:20.160 like day glows sweaters with tensil and pom poms and 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:23.759 light up reindeer. It's just not something I fully expected 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:24.800 to stick around this long. 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.600 Yeah, So it actually turns out that ugly Christmas sweaters 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.640 are a much older concept than you might think. The 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.400 idea of wearing special festive sweaters for the holidays dates 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.880 back to at least the Victorian era, but back then 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:43.039 they were advertised simply as Christmas sweaters, and the designs 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.480 were farm were reserved. But things changed by the nineteen 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.560 thirties with the rival of so called jingle bell sweaters, 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:53.960 which featured both embroidered bells and real metal ones that 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:55.440 would jingle as you walked. 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:58.040 So, as you think back to those earlier times, or 0:01:58.040 --> 0:01:59.920 you think back to the nineteen thirties or whatever like, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.080 were those sweaters ironic as well? 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:06.560 No, they were still considered tasteful at that point, even 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:10.560 elegant in some cases, and by the fifties, sweaters started 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:13.640 incorporating things like Rudolph the Red Nose reindeer and Frosty 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.560 the Snowmen, especially on kids Christmas sweaters, and as the 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:21.040 decades progressed, adults continued to favor more subtle designs, things 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.720 like snowflake patterns or argyle made to look like wrapping paper. 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:29.120 But it isn't until the nineteen eighties that Christmas sweaters 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:33.280 became truly tacky. Designs of previous decades had mostly stuck 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:36.520 to one holiday icon per sweater, but designers of the 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:40.400 eighties adopted sort of a kitchen sink approach. Right. They 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:42.880 put on candy canes, and then they threw on Christmas 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:46.200 trees and skiing polar bears, and it all went onto 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:47.840 the same garments. 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:49.799 All right, So I have to guess by this point 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:53.000 you're finally seeing that this is like a joke, right, 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.320 like where they considered a joke at that point, I 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:57.160 need you to get to the point where they become 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:57.840 a joke. 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:02.160 So it it doesn't become a joke until ten years 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:06.040 later in the nineteen nineties, when American culture gets a 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.840 little more jaded and movies like Dumb and Dumbers start 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:12.960 making holiday sweater jokes. But from then on, ugly Christmas 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:16.680 sweaters became something to wear ironically, and people started competing 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:19.560 to find the most over the top patterns. In fact, 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.520 the growing trend pretty much wiped out the supply at 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:26.280 thrift stores, and by the twenty first century, companies were 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:30.880 pumping out brand new, purposely TACKI designs to meet the demand. 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:32.920 Set Mango, this is like a roller coaster for me 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.880 because I'm now I'm going the opposite direction where it 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:38.480 doesn't feel tongue in cheek enough when people are buying 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:40.920 these things off the racket full price. So I don't know. 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:41.960 We're gonna have to talk through this. 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:46.280 That is definitely true. But our ugly sweater history is 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:49.720 just the first of nine warm facts to usher in 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:52.720 sweater season. So let's get cozy and dive in. 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:16.520 Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:18.720 Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.240 friend mangesh Hot Ticketerter and on the other side of 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.839 that soundproof glass. I have to be honest, I was 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:26.040 looking forward to this today because you never know what 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.320 this guy's going to be up to. He's a super 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:32.080 talented guy. As we've discussed many many times before. He's 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:35.400 knitting a sweater for everything. Today of course, knit himself 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:38.000 a holiday sweater. He knitted ones for each of us, 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.520 which was very kind, and then he made a sweater 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.039 for the lamp in there, made a cozy frame for 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.200 the whiteboard in there. It's actually getting a little bit 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.840 out of hand, but that's our talented producer, Dylan Fagan 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:49.279 over there. 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:51.720 Yeah. I think he said he wasn't going to stop 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:56.160 until he'd yarn bombed the entire studio, and I don't 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:59.479 know exactly what that means, but he clearly has a vision. 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:03.680 So yes, well we're talking sweaters today, a topic I 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.240 know since the first day we started the show all 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.040 these years ago, you said, Mango, we have got to 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:12.159 do a show on sweaters, but not yet, not yet, 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:12.560 not yet. 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:13.279 It wasn't ready. 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:15.680 And then last week you were like, remember how I 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:17.760 wanted to do that show on sweaters all those years ago. 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.680 Now is the time. It's finally the time to do this. 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:22.200 What fact do you want to start with? 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:24.800 Yeah, I was trying to get you in studio immediately 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.200 to do and you weren't ready at that point. But 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:30.520 now we're both here, We're both ready. Dylan's ready, And 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:34.520 of course, in doing a whole episode on sweaters, the 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.400 first thing I looked up, which won't surprise you, was 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:39.960 the story behind the Sweater Song from Weezer. 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:44.160 Oh man, I know that song as Undone, and I 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:46.560 feel so old because that song came out like our 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:47.800 freshman year of high school. 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:50.039 Yeah, it's been it's been a minute, for sure. But 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:52.440 you know what's interesting is that the Sweater Song, which 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.719 was their first big breakout song, was also the first 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:59.000 Weezer song that frontman Rivers Cuomo ever wrote. 0:05:59.320 --> 0:05:59.920 I had no idea. 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.280 Yeah, I always thought Undone was this quirky fun song, 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.680 but it's actually more bleak than you might think. So, 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.400 as Cuomo told Billboard Magazine, people thought we were just 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:14.080 being sarcastic and ironic. But when I wrote the Sweater song, 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:16.960 to me, it was a very sad song about depression, 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.200 and people heard it and they thought it was hysterical. 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:23.680 That is so weird. I do not associate that with 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:26.840 any sort of rough emotions. It's just like a happy, 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:27.640 fun song to me. 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:30.640 Yeah. Apparently this goes back a few years before Weezer's 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.599 first album. The band was struggling to stand out in 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.719 the LA music scene, so Cuomo decided to enroll in 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.000 community college sort of as a backup plan, and then 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:42.640 one day, during a lecture on essay writing. He had 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.479 an English professor who was explaining the importance of a 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.760 strong thesis statement, and he likened it to the thread 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:51.720 of a sweater. He was explaining, a strong thesis statement 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:54.839 gives kind of shape to the entire essay, but a 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:56.919 weak one is like a loose thread. So if you 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:01.320 pull on it, the whole thing unravels. Image sticks with Cuomo, 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.800 and so after class it goes home and he incorporates 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:08.160 it into a chorus. Three years later, the same song 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:10.680 proved to be the big break the band had been 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.360 looking for. I always love stories like this, like you 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:15.880 never know where the inspiration is going to come from. 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:18.320 But while the Sweater song might not be as funny 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:20.520 as people think, the band did have a sense of 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:22.600 humor about it by the time they came to shoot 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.960 the music video, as all four members made sure not 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:27.640 to wear a sweater for the filming. 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.560 That's funny. So since we're talking sweaters, of course, I've 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:34.640 got to bring up my main man, Fred Rogers. Now, 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.320 we did a whole episode dedicated to mister Rogers way 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.880 back in twenty seventeen, which people should check out if 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.000 they haven't, and in it we mentioned one of the 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.080 most well known facts about him, which is that many 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:50.480 of the cardigans Fred wore on the show were actually 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:53.640 knit for him by his mother. But one thing we 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.320 didn't cover in that episode is what a hard time 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.200 the production team had trying to source new sweaters for 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.480 Fred after his mom passed away in nineteen eighty one. 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:06.080 So the stockpile of hand knit sweaters she left behind 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:09.280 kept her son Confiance screen for upout another ten years. 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:13.520 But by the early nineteen nineties, after two dozen seasons 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.520 and hundreds of episodes, many of the garments were starting 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:18.240 to look their age right. They were starting to get 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:20.720 a little threadbare, and it was clear that a new 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:24.000 crop of cardigans was needed. But of course, this is 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:26.560 public television we're talking about, and the show didn't have 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:30.160 this huge budget commission a new hand knit wardrobe or 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:33.760 anything like that, So instead the art department launched this 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:38.839 desperate search for lookalike sweaters. They poured through catalogs, they 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:42.160 hunted the rats at stores all over Pittsburgh, but nothing 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:46.559 they found matched the style of Fred's trademark cardigans, And, 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:50.400 as the show's producer explained to Smithsonian quote, nobody wore 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:54.600 those zippered sweaters. They just weren't cool then, so what 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.400 do they end up doing? The show's art director Kathy 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.800 Borland found a suitable stand in. Eventually, it wasn't from 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:03.320 a store, though. She actually spotted a postal worker on 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:06.440 the street wearing a zippered cardigan that kind of looked 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.680 like Fred, so she chases him down. She gets the 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:12.400 name of the manufacturer from his sweater's label, Like I 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:14.920 imagine her just sort of like pulling it and looking 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:16.480 at the tag, although I'm sure it was a lot 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:19.080 nicer than that, And she was able to buy a 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.600 whole bunch of white sweaters and then she dyed them 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.079 different colors in this giant soup pot. 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:27.760 That's amazing. I know you said she probably was very 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:29.720 nice about it, and I'm sure she was, But I 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.360 also like to imagine her in a sense of panic 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:34.680 and just having to basically like rip this thing and 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:38.080 being like I need it for mister Rogers. That I 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:40.559 get it, I get it. I would happily dedicate a 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.000 sweater to that, But you know, I know that he 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:46.840 wore different colored sweaters, but honestly, when I picture mister Rogers, 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:49.000 he's always wearing a red one. 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:51.120 You know what I mean. Yeah, I think most people 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:53.760 actually remember the red ones because that's the color he's 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.680 usually wearing in all the marketing materials. He also donated 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.600 a red sweater to the National Museum of American History 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:02.280 if after his mom died. It was one of the 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:04.760 ones she had knit for him, and he was always 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:09.080 so proud that something she had handmade was in the Smithsonian, 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:10.760 which you know, is super sweet. 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.719 That is very sweet. It does make me curious, though, 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:15.240 and I know this is the type of thing that 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.200 our crew loves to dig into. Did he wear a 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:20.640 certain color more than the rest or was it pretty 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:21.520 evenly split? 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:24.520 I actually had a similar question, and Gabe looked into 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:28.040 this and he found a data writer named Owen Phillips 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.720 who made this handy chart that tracks the color of 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:34.800 every sweater mister Rogers wore from nineteen seventy nine until 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.200 the show's finale in two thousand and one. And the 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:42.439 chart actually does reveal some fun surprises. For instance, Fred 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:46.040 wore a neon blue cardigan exactly one time in the 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.320 early nineteen eighties and then never again. 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:51.280 That's a little too wild, I think. 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.600 Also as the years went by, mister Rogers gradually moved 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.280 away from pastels in favor of darker earth tones, And 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.240 in fact, it turns out that green was the color 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:05.400 he wore most frequently. He donned a green sweater in 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:09.320 seventy four episodes, compared to just fifty four in which 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:12.959 he wore a red one. That said Fred Rogers was 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.840 also red green colorblind, so really it all looked brown 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:18.080 to him. 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:20.840 And I also would like to see if there's data 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:25.079 on which one Eddie Murphy wore most often playing mister Robinson. 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:28.400 Of course, a spoof of mister Rogers on SNL. So, Gabe, 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:30.760 if you can look into that, that will be helpful 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:32.120 in the next very helpful. 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:33.959 Yeah, you know. So. 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:35.960 One thing I didn't realize is that there was a 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:39.600 time where you could actually receive negative attention for wearing sweaters. 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:42.880 And this is a story about a woman named Francine Godfried, 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:45.840 and for a brief period in the late nineteen sixties, 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:49.640 she was better known to New Yorkers as Wall Street's 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.640 sweater Girl. Now, this goes back to a more prudish 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:55.439 era when in the mid twentieth century many people were 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:57.960 downright scandalized by the side of a woman in a 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:01.120 tight sweater. In fact, the derice of terms sweater girl 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:03.840 was going to describe any woman who wore a tight, 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.200 form fitting sweater. This was a look that was popularized 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:11.600 by Hollywood actresses like Glanna Turner Jane Mansfield. But in 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:15.240 nineteen sixty eight, the most famous woman to sport it 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.920 was this twenty one year old clerical worker named Francine Gottfried. 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:21.440 She was a Brooklyn native. She lived with her parents 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:24.760 in Williamsburg, and she just started working in New York's 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:28.640 Financial District in May of that year. But by late August, 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:30.800 there was a small group of men who had taken 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.520 notice to the tight sweater she wore, and they began 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:37.040 timing her daily arrival at the Wall Street subway station. 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.960 This all sounds so weird, but it's actually true. So 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.319 over the next few weeks, those initial group of gawkers 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:48.240 told their creepy buddies, until finally, in mid September, there 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:51.640 were more than two thousand leering men just waiting to 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:54.840 catch a glimpse of her, some of whom reportedly climb 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.800 trees and lampposts to get a better view. I mean, 0:12:57.840 --> 0:12:59.440 how strange is this mango? 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.560 That is so weird? Also, can you I mention how 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:04.880 scary that must have been, Like You're just trying to 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:06.920 go to work and suddenly there's this mob of Wall 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.720 Street guys lining up to augle you at the subway. 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.280 It sounds terrible and it's obviously very strange, But the 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.240 wildest part is that the crowd of sweater girl watchers 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.760 just kept growing. So in the afternoon of September I'm 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.920 not kidding, like these numbers are just bananas here. So 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:26.760 on the afternoon of September nineteenth, more than five thousand people, 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.319 five thousand people left to work early to go watch 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:32.720 fran scene exit the subway. There must not have been 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:36.400 anything in the world interesting happening at that point, and 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:38.960 it was such a madhouse that police had to close 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:42.200 the streets and escort her through the crowd. And this 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.200 chaotic scene was reported by all the papers later that day, 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:49.240 with the New York Times even publishing Francene's measurements, which 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:52.040 is perhaps the most upsetting part of all of this. 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:55.400 It's like, you expect certain people to just be dumb 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:58.000 about certain things, but when a paper like that joins 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:00.520 in and is publishing stuff like that, it's just it's 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:02.000 just ridiculous. 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:06.240 And I'm sure getting more press attention only slowed down 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:08.520 the crowds right right, people were over it by the 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:10.959 end of the reporting. 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:16.120 Exactly right. Well, unfortunately, the following day the crowd doubled 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.000 to ten thousand people. I know, all this sounds like 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:20.760 a joke and I'm just going to keep making up 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:24.720 bigger numbers, but this is true now, that is no, 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:27.240 You're exactly right. And none of them got what they 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:30.720 wanted that day, as Francine stayed home, understandably for her 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:34.000 own safety, but the mob was unfazed. They came back 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:36.800 the next day to try again, and so The Times 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:38.840 of course gets in on the action. Reporting on it, 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:43.680 they described the anticipation, writing quote ticker tape floated down 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.119 from the high buildings. Newspapers as far away as Australia 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:50.440 waited for pictures, and for the second day, a cheering, 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.400 good natured crowd of more than ten thousand jammed Broad 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.160 Street in front of the New York Stock Exchange and 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.240 nearby Wall Street from wall to wall. 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.760 That's so crazy, one that like international press was suddenly 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:05.880 coming in for this, but also like to call it 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:08.400 good nature. It feels so bizarre. 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:09.600 Yeah, That's what stood out to me. 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:14.000 But what happened, like did Franccene start driving to work 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:16.720 or go incognito or what happens from here? 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:19.120 Not exactly. I mean she did start getting off at 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:22.720 a different station, and about a year later she reportedly 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:25.480 left her job on Wall Street. And I do want 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:27.760 to note that Francine was not the first or even 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.160 the last sweater girl to be leered at by big 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.280 crowds on Wall Street. But it is interesting to see 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:36.480 how the growing women's movement decided to push back. 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:37.280 How did they do that? 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:41.720 So in nineteen seventy the first national oglein was held 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.920 in Wall Street in which women use these cat calls 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:47.560 and harassed stockbrokers on their way to work to make 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.520 a statement both in real life and depressed that they 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.520 were tired of being pestered and objectified when they were 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:55.200 just trying to walk down the street to work. 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:58.760 That's interesting that that was the way they pushed back. 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:02.040 But why don't we move away from the upsetting side 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:05.480 of sweaters and back to the cozy side. And what 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.480 better way to do that than by telling you and 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:13.720 our audiences about the Australian Wildlife Clinic that distributes handmade 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:14.960 sweaters to penguins. 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:19.200 You know what, coming into this, I knew I could 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:21.960 count on you for a good mister Rogers fact, and 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.080 I knew you'd find something good related to animals and 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.200 penguins just takes it to another level. So why do 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:29.920 they give out sweaters to penguins? 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:32.800 You know? Well, I thought you'd never ask, but. 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:35.360 Yeah. 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.880 The program started in the late nineteen nineties after a 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:43.760 series of oil spills off Australia's Phillip Island threatened local wildlife, 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:48.440 including the island sizable population of little penguins. And to 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:50.160 be clear, I'm not trying to be cute here. The 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:54.640 species name is actually called quote little penguins. They're like 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:58.840 these pocket sized penguins, also known as fairy penguins, and 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:01.280 most of them are about twelve inches tall. 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.680 Oh wow, yeah, that's pretty cute. So I have to 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:07.840 ask why do penguins need sweaters other than the fact 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:09.360 that obviously it sounds adorable. 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:13.200 Yeah, every tiny animal should own a winter or wardrobe 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:13.840 of sweat. 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:15.320 But I forget I asked, Yeah, that's right. 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:19.879 So, actually, oil spills are a problem for penguins of 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:24.160 any size because oil clumps their feathers together, and this 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:27.280 can expose their skin to freezing temperatures, but it can 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:29.760 also weigh them down as they swim and they hunt 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:32.359 for food. And the worst part is that when a 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:35.080 penguin tries to preen and clean off the oil with 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.439 their beaks, they actually wind up ingesting the oil, which 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:42.040 of course makes them sick. So these sweaters act as 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:44.399 a barrier to keep the penguins from picking at their 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:47.800 oily feathers, at least until the rescue staff can wash 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:48.760 them and clean them. 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:51.560 It's a really smart idea and really sweet too, but 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:54.240 I mean, honestly, it is still sort of weird, but 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:55.840 that's I like that they came up with it. 0:17:56.080 --> 0:18:00.000 Yeah. So the practice was pioneered by the rehabilitation team 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:04.480 at Phillip Island's Penguin Foundation. They started a program called 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:08.240 Knits for Nature to collect as many tiny sweaters or 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:12.640 jumpers as they're called there from local volunteers. Then, as 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:16.080 word spread, people began to knit and donate penguin sweaters 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.040 from all over the world, and they've collected well over 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:23.560 two hundred thousand sweaters over the last couple decades, although 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.400 not all of them are deemed suitable for actual penguins, 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:28.920 like some are too big or too small to fit correctly, 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:32.320 and others came embellished with like pomp pomps that would 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:35.480 potentially pose a choking hazard. But you don't have to 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:38.840 worry about it. Those sweaters still get used. All of 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:42.360 the takier sweaters, like all the Christmas sweaters, etc. Are 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:46.080 put on plush penguin toys and then sold to raise 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:50.640 funds for the island's conservation efforts. And since twenty twelve, 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.600 the sale of the sweater penguin plushies has raised roughly 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:56.440 four hundred thousand dollars. 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.040 That is wild and pretty awesome. So are they still 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:01.480 accepting donations then yeah, but at. 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:03.399 This point and it's for nature, has enough sweaters to 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:06.040 meet demand for many seasons to come. But they still 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.040 accept sweaters to sell on their plush penguins. So for 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:12.280 any animal loving knitters out there, you can find all 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:15.880 the information and the free jumper patterns at Penguin Foundation 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:16.680 dot org. 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:19.800 That's pretty cool, all right. Well to go in a 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.920 different direction though, I guess a little bit animal related. 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.439 Did you know that one famous musician wore a sweater 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:29.920 so distinctive that it actually inspired his lifelong stage name. 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:32.120 Please say it's Snoop Doggy Dog. 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:34.960 I will not say that. It is not Snoop Dogg 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.840 and it's not bad Bunny either. It's actually Sting, the 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:42.280 former frontman of the Police and current Mega mentor on 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:46.880 NBC's The Voice Mengo Mega Mentor. That's how it's amazing. 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:50.000 His birth name is Gordon Matthew Sumner, which I actually 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:52.399 did not know that. But he often wore a black 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:55.800 and yellow striped sweater as a teenager, and his bandmates 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:58.679 teased them for looking like a giant bee, and so 0:19:58.720 --> 0:19:59.960 they started to call him Stif. 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:03.119 That's really funny. For some reason, I always assumed it 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:04.679 was like a nod to the Lord of the Rings 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:08.040 because Frodo has that little glowing sword called Sting. But 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:12.159 oh yeah, getting a nickname from a funny looking sweater 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.639 is way way better. And I actually really love that 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:17.520 he kept the nickname all those years later. 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:21.639 Yeah. By the way, if anyone ever wondered whether we're nerds, 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:23.600 we give them one little fact like that every once 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:25.320 in a while that you thought maybe it came from 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:27.439 Lord of the Rings and remembered the name of the 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.239 sword that Frodo had it's pretty great. We need one 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:32.840