Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world
Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Animals are incredible creatures. From the
Speaker 1: inky depths of the ocean to the skies above, our
Speaker 1: world is filled with seemingly infinite numbers of organisms that
Speaker 1: have evolved and adapted to live in a world that
Speaker 1: has not always been kind to them. From the peppered
Speaker 1: moths of the Industrial Revolution to today's North American beavers,
Speaker 1: Animals are being affected predominantly by one major fact, act us.
Speaker 1: Humans have changed the face of the planet through commercial fishing, deforestation, agriculture,
Speaker 1: and pollution, and our actions have resulted in the extinction
Speaker 1: of a million different species. But one woman saw another
Speaker 1: way away for humanity and the animal kingdom to coexist,
Speaker 1: and she spent thirty years proving it. Her name was
Speaker 1: Simona Cossack and she was born in Cracow, Poland, in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty three. Her father, her grandfather and her great
Speaker 1: grandfather were all painters, and she was kind of expected
Speaker 1: to follow in their footsteps. They couldn't imagine Simona growing
Speaker 1: up without a paintbrush in her hand at all times.
Speaker 1: But she wanted something different. For one, she loved animals,
Speaker 1: and so she got a degree in zoology in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 1: Her focuses in school had centered around animal behavior and psychology,
Speaker 1: and she wanted to go to a place where she
Speaker 1: could study animals in their natural habitats. To achieve this,
Speaker 1: Simona knew that she would have to leave Krakow and
Speaker 1: traveled to the Bishkada Mountains, where the environment was still untamed.
Speaker 1: She had vacationed in the mountains for the last decade
Speaker 1: and knew them well, but her current employment situation was
Speaker 1: not going smoothly, and so she decided to change things up.
Speaker 1: In the dead of winter in nineteen seventy one, Simona
Speaker 1: packed up her life and moved hours away to a
Speaker 1: place called Billo Vesia. She took a job working for
Speaker 1: the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences,
Speaker 1: where she was given a room and board. The mountains, however,
Speaker 1: still called to her, seeing that she was still longing
Speaker 1: for the great outdoors. A friend of hers invited her
Speaker 1: out to see a small, abandoned cabin in the forests
Speaker 1: of Bialovesia National Park. While they're Simona caught sight of
Speaker 1: a large ox against the stark white of the snow.
Speaker 1: The image was etched into her mind and she had
Speaker 1: an epiphany. This would be her home. All she had
Speaker 1: to do was convinced the park director to let her
Speaker 1: live there. She went to his office the following day
Speaker 1: and asked that the cabin be provided to her as
Speaker 1: staff housing while she worked at the institute. The director approved,
Speaker 1: but also informed her that someone else would be living
Speaker 1: there too, a nature photographer named Lech will Check. Like Simona,
Speaker 1: Lek had a passion for animals. He bred them himself
Speaker 1: and released them into the wild so he could photograph
Speaker 1: them in their habitats. The cabins soon became home to
Speaker 1: a number of creatures and critters. Owls, grackles, and hedgehogs
Speaker 1: all shared the little hut with Simona and Leck over
Speaker 1: the years, often leaving on their own when they were
Speaker 1: strong enough. One day, though, Lec brought home a one
Speaker 1: day old pig named Zobka. The longer she lived in
Speaker 1: the house, the more her personality took on that of
Speaker 1: a dog's, often stealing random items and trotting away or
Speaker 1: snuggling up to one of the humans and begging for attention.
Speaker 1: As she got older, Zabka grew into a full sized bore.
Speaker 1: She was just as playful as before, but now had
Speaker 1: developed a territorial side, keeping watch over the cabin and
Speaker 1: protecting her owners from visiting strangers. Eventually, a donkey from
Speaker 1: the local zoo joined their menagerie, as did a deer
Speaker 1: that came to Simona's window, a pair of moose named
Speaker 1: Cola and Pepsi, a links that actually slept in Simona's bed,
Speaker 1: a black stork that nested in a chest of drawers
Speaker 1: in the cabin, and Crassic. A terrorist crow. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what I said. A terrorist crow. That's how the locals
Speaker 1: described him. Korsek was known for stealing things like office supplies,
Speaker 1: cigarette cases, and food from the lumberjacks working in the woods.
Speaker 1: He also attacked people on bicycles, pecking at them until
Speaker 1: they fell off their bikes. Coorsek would then sit on
Speaker 1: their seats like a victorious warrior. On one occasion, a
Speaker 1: man working in the forest, had his entrance permits snatched
Speaker 1: from his pocket by the crow, who then proceeded to
Speaker 1: destroy it in front of him. It's probably easy to
Speaker 1: see why kora Sek was thought to have been sent
Speaker 1: to the people of bialov Asia as punishment of their sins.
Speaker 1: And on top of all of that, some people began
Speaker 1: to call Simona a witch because she talked to animals.
Speaker 1: In reality, Simona Cossack was a conservationist and activist. She
Speaker 1: lived in the woods in a cabin without electricity or
Speaker 1: running water for thirty years, protecting and learning about the
Speaker 1: creatures around her. A crow, on the other hand, well
Speaker 1: he may have been a demon. Let's be honest. Language
Speaker 1: is a finicky thing. To truly convey what you're trying
Speaker 1: to say is something of a luxury. There is nothing
Speaker 1: quite like that sensation of finding the exact word you
Speaker 1: want to use, complete with all its connotations and nuances.
Speaker 1: But even if you find the perfect way to say something,
Speaker 1: that doesn't guarantee that whoever you said it too will
Speaker 1: hear it the way you intended. Such are the troubles
Speaker 1: of language. Regardless. In the quest to say something perfectly,
Speaker 1: one may feel compelled to consult dictionary pages for the
Speaker 1: listed word, the only word that could ever do like
Speaker 1: an itch in the brain that only the right word
Speaker 1: will scratch. The problem is not all words up here
Speaker 1: in the dictionary, at least maybe not the right dictionary.
Speaker 1: That's part of the reason why. In seventeen forty six,
Speaker 1: a group of London booksellers contracted Samuel Johnson to write
Speaker 1: a complete dictionary of the English language. According to this group,
Speaker 1: all previous dictionaries just didn't do the trick. Johnson's dictionary
Speaker 1: would become the go to English language dictionary, making the
Speaker 1: rounds to the elites and the common folk alike. It
Speaker 1: was so comprehensive in its collection of words that it
Speaker 1: was the dictionary of choice for almost two hundred years,
Speaker 1: and only then being unseated by a more modern Oxford
Speaker 1: English Dictionary. But remember what I said about not every
Speaker 1: word being found in the dictionary, not even the most
Speaker 1: comprehensive dictionary of its time. What do you do then,
Speaker 1: when no pages provide that word to scratch your brains itch?
Speaker 1: Francis Gross may have the answer for you. Though he
Speaker 1: was not much of a library goer, Gross had a
Speaker 1: sharp mind and a voracious appetite, both for food and
Speaker 1: for knowledge. Intent on providing a well, let's call it
Speaker 1: a companion to Johnson's apparently not comprehensive dictionary, Gross set
Speaker 1: out on a word and phrase finding mission, doing all
Speaker 1: the things that he already loved to do, frequenting bars
Speaker 1: and see the establishments by night, partaking in the amenities.
Speaker 1: Only this time he wasn't there just for pleasure. He
Speaker 1: was also there for work. While he perused the finer
Speaker 1: things of midnight London, he was also taking notes on
Speaker 1: the things that were being said, what they referred to,
Speaker 1: how they were used in a sentence, as well as
Speaker 1: defining what those things might mean, all written down on
Speaker 1: parchment scrawled across bar tops and tables. That's right, Gross
Speaker 1: went into bars and compiled the words and phrases said
Speaker 1: by drunkards and scallow eggs, undoubtedly spilling their beer in
Speaker 1: grease all over his pages as he reveled with the
Speaker 1: after hours revelers. After all, Gross was apparently the life
Speaker 1: of any party that he was or wasn't invited to.
Speaker 1: He carried about him a strong wit and a sense
Speaker 1: of humor, and is remembered for delighting in jokes of
Speaker 1: all kinds, even the kinds that likened his last name
Speaker 1: of Gross to his rotund belly. It's not clear how
Speaker 1: long Gross was on this slang finding mission, but it
Speaker 1: amounted to a rather unique compendium of words and not
Speaker 1: really words, phrases and insults and maybe just maybe that
Speaker 1: word you didn't know you needed, most of which having
Speaker 1: to do with bodily functions, lack of intelligence, and other
Speaker 1: such similar things. Thirty years after the publication of Johnson's Dictionary,
Speaker 1: Francis Gross published the Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
Speaker 1: And while it would certainly not become a staple on
Speaker 1: bookshelves well, ever, it is full of all kinds of
Speaker 1: useful slang that you won't find listed in any dictionaries
Speaker 1: among civilized folk. For instance, where else would you learn
Speaker 1: that you can refer to a tall, gangly fellow as
Speaker 1: a duke of limbs, or that Irish apricots are just
Speaker 1: another name for potatoes. And where would we be without
Speaker 1: a little kittle picturing, that is the art of interrupting
Speaker 1: someone's long winded story with constant questions, which Gross adds
Speaker 1: in the margins best done in tandem, and there are
Speaker 1: plenty of other gems hidden in the pages of Gross's
Speaker 1: dictionary that will spark laughter and even the most stone
Speaker 1: faced reader. But I'll leave those to the exploration of
Speaker 1: any who feel the urge to dive into the pages
Speaker 1: of eighteenth century vulgarity. It's quite the journey, especially for
Speaker 1: someone who wants to say something a little bit gross.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed to day's guided tour of the
Speaker 1: Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: This show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,