Speaker 1: You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, what's that mango?
Speaker 1: So you know how small towns like to beef up
Speaker 1: their tourism by advertising a weird claim to fame, Like
Speaker 1: how Riverside, Iowa prides itself as the future birthplace of
Speaker 1: Captain Kirk. I really love that's right, And how Montpelier,
Speaker 1: Vermont claims to be the rotten sneaker capital of the World.
Speaker 3: Yeah, though I'm not convinced that gross old sneakers are
Speaker 3: that much of a draw.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's just me.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Well, sometimes I think it pays to
Speaker 1: think outside the box, and that's especially true on the
Speaker 1: remote island of Newfoundland. The top three attractions in the
Speaker 1: Canadian province are icebergs, whales, and puffin. But since visitors
Speaker 1: can experience all of those things in just about every
Speaker 1: coastal town there, having a unique offering can really help
Speaker 1: the smaller town stand out from the crowd, and one
Speaker 1: of the best examples of this I found is a
Speaker 1: tiny fishing village called Elliston at the tip of the
Speaker 1: Bonavista Peninsula. For the last twenty five years, Elliston has
Speaker 1: touted itself as the uncontested root seller capital of the world.
Speaker 1: It has more than one hundred and thirty documented root
Speaker 1: sellers built into hills and banks all over town, and
Speaker 1: about half of them are still in use today. That
Speaker 1: means that with a population of about three hundred people,
Speaker 1: there's one active root seller for every five residents.
Speaker 3: Sell I mean, I got to say, I'm surprised more
Speaker 3: people haven't visited just to see all those root sellers.
Speaker 3: Mango speaking, which what what's a root seller?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's basically a cold, underground storage spot for
Speaker 1: storing root, vegetables and sometimes fruit. The oldest sellers are
Speaker 1: nearly two hundred years old, and from the outside they
Speaker 1: look like cozy, little hobbit homes built right into the hillside.
Speaker 1: And while it might sound strange to take a tour of,
Speaker 1: you know, a bunch of random root sellers, the underground
Speaker 1: structures actually reveal a lot about the story of Newfoundland.
Speaker 1: For centuries, European settlers relied on root sellers to survive
Speaker 1: the harsh winters, and as a result, many of the
Speaker 1: region's most famous dishes are based on the foods that
Speaker 1: were stored in them. For example, the traditional Sunday meal
Speaker 1: in Newfoundland is Jigs dinner, which consists of boiled carrots, turnips, potatoes, cabbage,
Speaker 1: peas pudding, which is a savory pudding made of slit
Speaker 1: peas and salt beef. And no trip to Newfoundland would
Speaker 1: be complete without trying it. And the truth is you
Speaker 1: kind of appreciate the meal a little more once you
Speaker 1: visit a cellar.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have to met, you're winning me over with
Speaker 3: the dinner angle here. But you know, if Jigs is
Speaker 3: a regional dish, then I'm guessing root sellers aren't exactly
Speaker 3: unique to Elliston, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: So underground sellers are scattered here and there throughout the province,
Speaker 1: but Elliston is definitely home to the highest number of them.
Speaker 1: It's also the town that still makes most use of
Speaker 1: them today, not only as a tourist attraction, but as
Speaker 1: a part of daily life. So many local families still
Speaker 1: depend on the food that's stored in their cellars, whether
Speaker 1: for their own subsistence or as a commodity to sell
Speaker 1: to you know, neighbors or to tourists. And because underground
Speaker 1: storage is one of the greenest methods of preserving food.
Speaker 1: Between the hyper local ingredients and a zero power storage system.
Speaker 1: Elliston's eco footprint is about as small as it gets.
Speaker 2: That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: It's funny because root sellers seem very much like a
Speaker 3: thing of the past, but if you think about the
Speaker 3: residents of Ellis ten, it's like they're using them to
Speaker 3: make the community more sustainable going forward.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and actually that's a very new Finland approach to
Speaker 1: cultural traditions. Like the whole spirit of the region is
Speaker 1: sometimes likened to a fisherman in his boat. He moves
Speaker 1: the vessel forward to his destination, but he sits backwards
Speaker 1: while rowing. And the idea is that sometimes in order
Speaker 1: to get where you want to go, you kind of
Speaker 1: have to keep your sight on where you came from.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I like that, And I'm guessing by now our listeners
Speaker 3: have probably figured out our next destination. Newfoundland is one
Speaker 3: of those mysterious places that we've always been curious to visit,
Speaker 3: and today we are finally getting that chance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the US and Canada I haven't been
Speaker 1: getting along too lately, but it's a country we adore
Speaker 1: here on the show. So in the spirit of friendship,
Speaker 1: we thought we'd spotlight one of the country's most unique
Speaker 1: and far flung destinations.
Speaker 2: So let's dive in.
Speaker 3: Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome the part time genius. I'm
Speaker 3: Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
Speaker 3: friend Mangesh Ticketer. On the other side of that soundproof
Speaker 3: glass showing off his Royal Order of Screecher's Certificate, that's
Speaker 3: our friend and producer Dylan Fagan. Now he claims the
Speaker 3: certificate makes him an honorary Newfoundlander, but it looks like
Speaker 3: the kind of thing you could just print out online.
Speaker 3: So I'm a little bit skeptical. I always want to
Speaker 3: trust Dylan, but this one seems a little fishy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I read up on this and taking part
Speaker 1: in a screech in ceremony is pretty obscure and wonderful,
Speaker 1: And of course it's no surprise that our show's most
Speaker 1: interesting person, Dylan, has screeched.
Speaker 2: Wait wait, wait to back up a second. What is
Speaker 2: a screech in?
Speaker 1: So getting screeched is basically a tongue in cheek tradition
Speaker 1: for welcoming visitors to Newfoundland. It started in the capital
Speaker 1: city of Saint John's back in the nineteen seventies, and
Speaker 1: while the exact ritual varies from one pub to the next,
Speaker 1: it mostly consists of three parts. First, you recite a
Speaker 1: vaguely vulgar oath loaded with maritime lingo. Then you take
Speaker 1: a shot of locally bottled Jamaican run called screech, and lastly,
Speaker 1: you plant a big wet kiss on a frozen codfish.
Speaker 3: You are lobbying hard for that trophy for this week's
Speaker 3: episode with just that fact. What a ridiculous tradition and
Speaker 3: I love it, But does getting screeched have any basis
Speaker 3: in the region's history year Is it just some drunken
Speaker 3: nonsense and fish kissing.
Speaker 1: A little both? Actually, there are stories of Newfoundland sailors
Speaker 1: performing similar joke initiations, and this goes back to the
Speaker 1: nineteen forties. And as for the rum of the fish,
Speaker 1: that's a nod to the region's colonial history, when French
Speaker 1: and British settlers traded salted codfish in exchange for rum
Speaker 1: from the West Indies. Now, I'm not sure exactly how
Speaker 1: kissing got added to the mix, but I'm guessing a
Speaker 1: lot of rum definitely had something to do with that.
Speaker 3: Only you, though it sounds like tourists are the ones
Speaker 3: who are kissing the cod. I know that Newfoundlanders are
Speaker 3: pretty fond of the fish themselves. So for hundreds of years,
Speaker 3: codfishing was the backbone of the region's economy, and even
Speaker 3: though the Canadian government put a stop to commercial codfishing
Speaker 3: from nineteen ninety two all the way to twenty twenty four,
Speaker 3: the lean whitefish still holds an outsized place in the
Speaker 3: local food culture. In fact, I read that cod is
Speaker 3: so ubiquitous there that when Newfoundlanders say the word fish,
Speaker 3: they really just mean cod, like that's the default.
Speaker 1: Kind of How like coke is a word for soda
Speaker 1: in the South.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know what other words.
Speaker 1: And when you say what kind of coke do you want,
Speaker 1: the answer is always great bica.
Speaker 3: Salmon is a salmon and tuna is a tuna. But
Speaker 3: fish only is ever caught there.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that, And it also highlights just how
Speaker 1: crucial cod was to New Finland's development. Like think about
Speaker 1: an indigenous group settled there thousands of years ago because
Speaker 1: of the rich cod filled waters, and then English, Irish
Speaker 1: and French settlers did the same throughout the sixteenth all
Speaker 1: the way to the nineteenth centuries. Cod was so tasty
Speaker 1: and so abundant that it lured people from all over
Speaker 1: the world and convinced them to plant roots in this
Speaker 1: really rugged and honestly very isolated area.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3: I mean the lure of the codfish is a big
Speaker 3: reason why Newfundland is the cultural melting pot that it
Speaker 3: is today. But for all of our fish reverse listeners
Speaker 3: out there, don't worry. Even though seafood is king on
Speaker 3: the island, there are plenty of other local delicacies that
Speaker 3: don't have fins, chief among them moose meat and in particular,
Speaker 3: moose baloney.
Speaker 2: What do you think about that, mango?
Speaker 1: I've never heard of moose bolony.
Speaker 3: I had not either before we were talking about this episode.
Speaker 3: The largest member of the deer family was introduced to
Speaker 3: the island in the early twentieth century. This was back
Speaker 3: when Nufouland was still a British colony, and its meat
Speaker 3: quickly became a staple and mini island kitchens and moose
Speaker 3: boloney proved especially popular with the locals, not only due
Speaker 3: to its low cost and long shelf life, but also
Speaker 3: its versatility. So today people there serve up moose boloney
Speaker 3: in every way you could think of fried baked barbecue, stewd,
Speaker 3: canned curried, you name it, They've got it.
Speaker 1: So is all this bolooney on the island moose bolooney
Speaker 1: in the same way all fish is shorthand for a cod.
Speaker 3: I mean moose BOLONEI is definitely the default, but you
Speaker 3: might not see it called that on a menu. Instead,
Speaker 3: people there have their own joking nickname for it. They
Speaker 3: called it noofy steak.
Speaker 2: Oh I like that.
Speaker 1: And you know there's another unique island cuisine I want
Speaker 1: to tell you about. But before that, let's take a
Speaker 1: quick break. Welcome back to part time genius. Okay, Well, so,
Speaker 1: going back to what you said about Newfoundland being a
Speaker 1: melting pot, did you know the island has its own
Speaker 1: style of Chinese food?
Speaker 3: You know, I actually saw something about that in the
Speaker 3: research and it seems kind of an outlier for an
Speaker 3: island in the North Atlantic. So I'm curious what the
Speaker 3: story is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So this goes back to the late eighteen hundreds
Speaker 1: when a large number of Chinese immigrants came to Canada
Speaker 1: to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway and many of
Speaker 1: the families stuck around once construction was completed, and because
Speaker 1: the laws were racist at the time, and they barred
Speaker 1: Chinese men from working most professions. A lot of them
Speaker 1: wound up opening their own restaurants. Now, just like in
Speaker 1: the States, Chinese immigrants weren't able to find many of
Speaker 1: the ingredients that they were used to cooking with. They
Speaker 1: kind of had to improvise and develop new dishes to
Speaker 1: cater to their Western customers, and this resulted in this
Speaker 1: whole slew of regional fusion dishes, including things like peanut
Speaker 1: butter dumplings in Montreal, ginger beef in Alberta, and stir
Speaker 1: fried macaroni in Quebec.
Speaker 4: I mean, that actually sounds pretty incredible, I know, and
Speaker 4: I'm surprise there hasn't been like a Canadian Chinese place
Speaker 4: that opened in Brooklyn like that. Sure there is one actually,
Speaker 4: but those improvised dishes, which became known as Chop suey cuisine,
Speaker 4: were served all over Canada by the mid twentieth century,
Speaker 4: and as chefs continued to expand into more remote regions,
Speaker 4: the search for Chinese ingredients got even tougher.
Speaker 1: That was especially true in Newfoundland, where it was next
Speaker 1: to impossible to even get the basics like soy sauce,
Speaker 1: bock choi or things like egg noodles, you know, which
Speaker 1: were hard to ship onto the island, and this meant
Speaker 1: that tried and true dishes couldn't be prepared as they
Speaker 1: were in other parts of Canada. So once again China,
Speaker 1: these restaurant tours got creative and gave the island their
Speaker 1: own regional specialty, New Finland style chow Maine.
Speaker 3: But actually I'm thinking about this. Chow main literally means
Speaker 3: fried noodles, So how do you make it without egg noodles?
Speaker 1: Well, apparently you substitute cabbage, or at least that's the
Speaker 1: solution that one of their resourceful early chefs came up with.
Speaker 1: He sliced the cabbage into long, thin strips so that
Speaker 1: they'd at least look like noodles, and then he stir
Speaker 1: fried them with veggies and chicken, and whil New Finland
Speaker 1: style chow Maine was worn. The dish proved such a
Speaker 1: hit with locals that it was quickly added to Chinese
Speaker 1: menus all over the island.
Speaker 2: And is this something you can still get today?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So these days it's obviously much easier to import
Speaker 1: noodles to the island. But just like with cod and
Speaker 1: moose boloni, this new Finland original remains the default. So
Speaker 1: if you order chow Maine there, you'll absolutely get a
Speaker 1: big bowl of cabbage strips. But if you want noodles instead,
Speaker 1: you have to ask for them specifically.
Speaker 3: I do love that they serve fried noodles without the noodles,
Speaker 3: and nobody thinks that's we somehow, and it does make
Speaker 3: me wonder though, like, is there the same stigma surrounding
Speaker 3: Canadian Chinese food as there is with you know, like
Speaker 3: American Chinese food, because we always hear that our take
Speaker 3: on the cuisine is inauthentic and shouldn't really be considered Chinese.
Speaker 2: I'm curious is it the same up North?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Canadian Chinese chefs definitely feeled many of the same criticisms,
Speaker 1: But it really comes down to what someone means by
Speaker 1: real Chinese food. Like there's this book called Chop Suey Nation.
Speaker 1: It's by this Chinese journalist and we and in it,
Speaker 1: she goes on this big road trip to small town
Speaker 1: Chinese restaurants in Canada, including the ones in Newfoundland, And
Speaker 1: while she starts out kind of dismissive of this food,
Speaker 1: the island's take on cho main ultimately wins her over.
Speaker 1: She said the cabbage actually made the dish more flavorful
Speaker 1: than the traditional version, and that realization makes her completely
Speaker 1: rethink her stance on Chop suey cuisine. In fact, she
Speaker 1: writes quote, this dish, from its origin story to its
Speaker 1: ingredients to its execution, was utterly completely Newfoundland. It told
Speaker 1: the story of this place.
Speaker 2: It was as.
Speaker 1: Canadian as it was Chinese. The families behind it had
Speaker 1: created cuisine that was a testament to creativity, perseverance, and resourcefulness.
Speaker 1: It wasn't fake Chinese, but instead the most Chinese of all.
Speaker 2: The most Chinese of all. Wow, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3: Well, I'd say that's a pretty strong endorsement, and it
Speaker 3: does make me want to give this noodle free noodle
Speaker 3: dish a try.
Speaker 2: I just somehow can't get past this.
Speaker 3: But all right, now that we've covered some of Newfoundland's
Speaker 3: history and food culture, feel like we should run through
Speaker 3: a few of the favorite activities to try while visiting
Speaker 3: the island. After all, we don't want to spend our
Speaker 3: entire vacation hanging out in root sellers. So beyond food,
Speaker 3: Newfoundland really has a lot to offer, and visitors to
Speaker 3: the island are especially spoiled for choice. When it comes
Speaker 3: to wildlife watching, You've got puff and breeding season in
Speaker 3: the spring and summer. You get whale migrations in the
Speaker 3: summer and then early fall. And if you want to
Speaker 3: see a moose, apparently you can just go out to
Speaker 3: the highway at dusk and you'll probably find a few
Speaker 3: that'll be there licking season off the pavement.
Speaker 1: Oh I love that, and it really sounds kind of spectacular,
Speaker 1: all this wildlife, you know. I actually checked to see
Speaker 1: if there was a good moose watching tour I could book,
Speaker 1: But it turns out that's not a thing. Like moose
Speaker 1: are just such a normal part of the scenery there
Speaker 1: and you don't have to go out of your way
Speaker 1: to spot one, Which brings me to my next travel tip.
Speaker 2: If you want to.
Speaker 1: Blend in with the locals, don't let on that you're
Speaker 1: excited to see a move.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: That may be hard for me to do, but I
Speaker 3: also know we've got a couple non moose related sites
Speaker 3: to recommend. Before we get to that, let's take another
Speaker 3: quick break. You're listening to part Time Genius and we're
Speaker 3: sharing our muscye stops while touring Newfoundland.
Speaker 2: All right, Mengo.
Speaker 3: So, staying on the subject of animals that evoke a
Speaker 3: profound sense of awe, there's a sign on Newfoundland's code
Speaker 3: called Mistaken Point, and it's actually the final resting place
Speaker 3: of the earliest ancestral animals on the planet. They're known
Speaker 3: as Eddiacrin organisms because they date back to the middle
Speaker 3: of the Eddiachrn period, which, as you know very well,
Speaker 3: was roughly six hundred million years ago, and they represent
Speaker 3: the earliest examples of large biologically complex life forms, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of an important leap and evolution here.
Speaker 1: So I assumed these guys were some kind of sea creature.
Speaker 1: But you said there's a fossil site, So what exactly
Speaker 1: did they look like?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 3: Well, based on the more than ten thousand fossil impressions
Speaker 3: found along the coastline of Mistaken Point, Eddiochrins ranged in
Speaker 3: size from a few centimeters to nearly two meters in length.
Speaker 3: They were soft bodied creatures that lived on the deep seafloor,
Speaker 3: and they had several different body types, all of which
Speaker 3: were incredibly bizarre.
Speaker 2: Mango, that is so rude.
Speaker 1: Well, we don't body shame on this episode.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying I just can't help it.
Speaker 3: And some of them were tubular blobs, others look like
Speaker 3: fern leaves. But the strangest of the bunch had to
Speaker 3: be one of the ones that looked like these flat
Speaker 3: ribbed pancakes. So here's a fossil photo so you can
Speaker 3: see what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's definitely a pancake with.
Speaker 2: Ribs, exactly what it is.
Speaker 3: But the really cool thing about mistaken point is that
Speaker 3: hundreds of fossil impressions are readily visible on the surface
Speaker 3: of the rock, including ones left behind by those pancake
Speaker 3: looking guys. Now, if you look closely, some of the
Speaker 3: impressions actually formed trails. They're sort of like footprints.
Speaker 1: Wait, so did eddie acrans have feet?
Speaker 2: They did not.
Speaker 3: In fact, feet did not exist at that point, either
Speaker 3: did walking or swimming or really any form of locomotion.
Speaker 3: So most living organisms just sort of floated along wherever
Speaker 3: the currents took them and ate whatever bits of food
Speaker 3: happened to pass by. But that's what's so amazing about
Speaker 3: these fossil trails in Newfoundland is that they're thought to
Speaker 3: be the earliest known examples of an animal moving on
Speaker 3: its own. Oh wow, some bold little diocrans figured out
Speaker 3: how to move their muscles and move intentionally really from
Speaker 3: one place to another. This was an adaptation that forever
Speaker 3: changed life on Earth.
Speaker 1: And this is all going off those ancient proto footprints.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, thanks to the research of paleontologists Alexander
Speaker 3: lou we now know that the crescent shaped impressions left
Speaker 3: in the rock were likely made by this suction cup
Speaker 3: like appendage that some of these creatures may have had,
Speaker 3: and they used it to adhere to these flat surfaces,
Speaker 3: just like you know, see an enemies and other creatures
Speaker 3: like that. And in some areas of Mistaken Point you
Speaker 3: can actually see a whole bunch of those crescents nested
Speaker 3: together in a line. So the thinking is that those
Speaker 3: impressions were left behind by an ediocran that managed to
Speaker 3: stretch out its suction cup foot and kind of drag
Speaker 3: itself forward like one shaky step at a time.
Speaker 1: Cool.
Speaker 3: Anyway, next time you're in Newfoundland and you want to
Speaker 3: mix a little science history and your animal sight seeing,
Speaker 3: you should check out the fossils at Mistaken Point and
Speaker 3: tip your hat to the planet's og travelers.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, eddie Acrians might be embedded in for
Speaker 1: the whole world to see. But there's another kind of
Speaker 1: island wildlife that is far more elusive. And I'm talking
Speaker 1: about the Newfoundland faerry.
Speaker 3: And I'm guessing that Newfoudland fairy was just another word
Speaker 3: for cod No.
Speaker 1: It turns out the province is home to a surprisingly
Speaker 1: rich fairy folklore tradition. Fairy sightings in the region date
Speaker 1: back to long before the rival of Europeans, when indigenous
Speaker 1: groups told stories of reclusive little people with supernatural powers
Speaker 1: who supposedly lived alongside them. Then, when settlers from Celtic
Speaker 1: cultures came to Newfoundland in the sixteen hundreds, they added
Speaker 1: to the island's lore by drawing on the fairy legends
Speaker 1: of their hometowns in Ireland, England and Scotland as well.
Speaker 3: This sort of proves our earlier point that Newfoundland is
Speaker 3: much more of a melting pot than you might expect exactly.
Speaker 1: And the result of all that cultural blending is this
Speaker 1: distinct oral tradition and folklore that really doesn't exist anywhere
Speaker 1: else in Canada. So even though Newfoundland fairies don't actually
Speaker 1: exist as far as we know, there's still a super
Speaker 1: important part of the island's culture. Most locals have at
Speaker 1: least a few fairy stories to tell you, many of
Speaker 1: which have been handed down through their families for generations.
Speaker 3: And I'm curious, though, what are these stories about, Like,
Speaker 3: are they cautionary tales or adventures or what?
Speaker 1: So the main through line in all these legends is
Speaker 1: that fairies are mischief makers, so a lot of the
Speaker 1: stories are recountings of people's supposed encounters with fairies and
Speaker 1: the different pranks they like to play on humans. Some
Speaker 1: of the fairi's favorite tricks include knocking over stacks of firewood,
Speaker 1: braiding together the tail of all horses in a stable,
Speaker 1: and confusing berry pickers by conjuring a bunch of trees
Speaker 1: in the middle of a pathway.
Speaker 2: As little trouble makers.
Speaker 3: Like it's more like a leprechaun than your typical Disney
Speaker 3: fairy or something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and another difference is that Nuflin fairies don't have wings.
Speaker 1: In fact, their physical appearance changes depending on the story,
Speaker 1: and sometimes they look like children or knee high adults,
Speaker 1: so again much like leprechauns. But in other cases they
Speaker 1: just appear as glowing lights or.
Speaker 2: Even as animals.
Speaker 1: They can use their shape shifting power to play some
Speaker 1: pretty mean tricks too. Like there's this old belief that
Speaker 1: if a happy baby suddenly gets temperamental, or a healthy
Speaker 1: baby grows sickly, then it's probably because a fairy has
Speaker 1: swapped the real infront with the changeling, which is basically
Speaker 1: a fairy in disguise.
Speaker 3: I mean, that seems like a pretty low bar for
Speaker 3: deciding your baby's an imposter like that, How do you
Speaker 3: know it's not a real baby who just needs a nap.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or a snack or something. Right, But apparently it's easy.
Speaker 1: According to legend, if you sneak into a nursery really
Speaker 1: quiet and you catch the baby's doppelganger smoking a corn
Speaker 1: cob pipe, then you know it's a fairy and which
Speaker 1: point the spell will be broken.
Speaker 2: Okay, well that's a good good rule of thumb there.
Speaker 1: Well, the good news is that there are some ways
Speaker 1: to protect yourself from fairy mischief. Carrying bread in your
Speaker 1: pockets is a surefire way to ward off fairies, and
Speaker 1: if you wear a piece of clothing inside out while
Speaker 1: walking in the forest, they won't be able to tell
Speaker 1: where you're going and can't lead you astray. And lastly,
Speaker 1: coins are thought to be another charm asient against fairy
Speaker 1: which is why the more superstitious locals still pin silver
Speaker 1: coins to their clothing or even hide them inside baby carriages.
Speaker 1: So when visiting Newfoundland, stuff some rolls into your pockets
Speaker 1: and wear your shirt inside out. You might get some
Speaker 1: weird looks, but also you'll be safe from the fairy attack.
Speaker 2: Better safe than sorry.
Speaker 3: I guess I'm curious that, like, why are Newfoundland fairies
Speaker 3: so averse to coins and bread?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think there's an official explanation or anything,
Speaker 1: but I did read an interview in Canadian Living with
Speaker 1: this guy, Dale Jarvis, who works for the Heritage Foundation
Speaker 1: of Newfoundland, and he pointed out that the region's fairy
Speaker 1: folklore is deeply tied to the natural world, and that
Speaker 1: the fairies themselves are kind of a personification of nature.
Speaker 1: As he puts it quote, they're neither good nor bad.
Speaker 1: They don't follow human rules. Fairy stories are how we
Speaker 1: talk about our interaction with the unpredictability of nature. They
Speaker 1: take place at the end of the garden where people
Speaker 1: go to pick berries, in the meadow, at the beach,
Speaker 1: or slightly away from the house. In the border zone
Speaker 1: between the wild and the So in that light, it
Speaker 1: kind of makes sense that fairies would shy away from
Speaker 1: bread and money, since those are products of human society
Speaker 1: other than nature.
Speaker 3: You know, it is interesting that Newfoundland fairies are something
Speaker 3: to be avoided instead of a culture where you know,
Speaker 3: fairies grant wishes or improve people's fortunes. But let's just
Speaker 3: say one of our listeners wanted to throw caution into
Speaker 3: the wind and try to find one, like, where might
Speaker 3: they cross paths with a fairy in Newfoundland?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So, one of the most notorious gathering places for fairies
Speaker 1: is the so called Fairy Ring, which is in the
Speaker 1: town of Harbor Grace on the Avalon Peninsula. It's this eerie,
Speaker 1: perfect circle of thirteen massive beast trees and it's surrounded
Speaker 1: by an otherwise barren field. So you can imagine why
Speaker 1: this has sort of gained this loure, and according to legend,
Speaker 1: fairies meet there under the cover of darkness to dance
Speaker 1: hand in hand in the moonlight. I wouldn't recommend trekking
Speaker 1: out there, though, according to legend, if the fairies catch
Speaker 1: you crashing their party, they'll spirit you away to their
Speaker 1: underground Kingdom and never let you go. But more importantly,
Speaker 1: the area is on private properties. You'd be trespassing if
Speaker 1: you go there. For a much safer fairy outing, I'd
Speaker 1: say head to Saint John's and take a tour of
Speaker 1: Pippy Park. They have a woodland trail with fairy homes
Speaker 1: scattered throughout, and the ones who lived there seem to
Speaker 1: be much better behaved.
Speaker 3: I do like that our sight seeing suggestions have highlighted
Speaker 3: an extinct animal and now a mythological creature, respectively. So
Speaker 3: one of the most practical travel advice guides here at
Speaker 3: part time genius.
Speaker 1: I mean, whales and puffins are given, right, So we're
Speaker 1: taking people off the beaten path.
Speaker 3: I guess that's right, especially given that Newfoundland is pretty
Speaker 3: out of the way itself.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is not the easiest place to get to.
Speaker 1: It's actually the eastern most part of Canada and of
Speaker 1: North America in general, and if you do make the
Speaker 1: trip out there, you're in for a one of a
Speaker 1: kind experience. But before we take off for the day,
Speaker 1: why don't we do a quick fact off.
Speaker 3: So one of the most popular destinations in Newfoudland is
Speaker 3: the area known as Iceberg Alley. It's the stretch of
Speaker 3: the North Atlantic Ocean that runs along the eastern host
Speaker 3: of the province. In every spring, it's host to a
Speaker 3: slow parade of enormous ancient icebergs. Between four hundred to
Speaker 3: eight hundred icebergs pass through the alley each year, and
Speaker 3: the vast majority of them come from ten thousand year
Speaker 3: old glaciers. These are coming off of western Greenland. Now
Speaker 3: during the spring and summer months, you can easily watch
Speaker 3: the icy procession from all along Newfoundland's northern and eastern coast.
Speaker 3: You can also book a boat tour or even go
Speaker 3: scuba diving if you want to see them up close.
Speaker 3: That sounds incredibly cold. The best part is you can
Speaker 3: take your time doing it because the average speed of
Speaker 3: an iceberg zero point four miles per hour.
Speaker 1: That is amazing and it does sound so cool, But
Speaker 1: every time you say iceberg, I think of a boon
Speaker 1: yang and that iceberg.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: But if watching icebergs isn't your thing, you can also
Speaker 1: try drinking one. Several companies in Newfoundland offer beverages made
Speaker 1: with genuine, locally sourced iceberg water. They send out boats
Speaker 1: to collect bits of ice that have broken off from
Speaker 1: the berg, and once it's melted down, they use the
Speaker 1: water in the production of specially wines, beer and spirits.
Speaker 1: And there's also good news if you like your drinks
Speaker 1: on the rocks, because they also sell iceberg ice cubes.
Speaker 1: Of course, for myself, I don't think i'd feel comfortable
Speaker 1: drinking an iceberg while looking at an iceberg. That just
Speaker 1: seems very.
Speaker 3: Yeah, somehow that feels off all right. Well, here's a
Speaker 3: quick one about birthday celebrations. There In some parts of Newfoundland,
Speaker 3: there's an old custom called grease face, which is just
Speaker 3: fun to say.
Speaker 2: Grease face.
Speaker 3: It's where you sneak up on the birthday boy or
Speaker 3: girl and smear a blob of grease on their nose. Now,
Speaker 3: it's typically a parent who does the initial greasing, but
Speaker 3: the other relatives and classmates or even teachers have been
Speaker 3: known to join in throughout the day, which seems like
Speaker 3: that would just get pretty old. But the messy practice
Speaker 3: is thought to have originated in Scotland. There are a
Speaker 3: few competing explanations as to what it's supposed to mean.
Speaker 3: Some sources say the grease is to keep bad luck
Speaker 3: from sticking to you in the year ahead. Others say
Speaker 3: it's to help you sort of flied into the new
Speaker 3: year in the same way you slid out of the womb.
Speaker 2: I guess I really don't want that many people touching my.
Speaker 3: Face, especially that one grease It sounds horrible, but anyway,
Speaker 3: if that wasn't weird and embarrassing enough, grease face is
Speaker 3: often followed by another birthday custom called bumps. This is
Speaker 3: when four people grab your legs and arms and lift
Speaker 3: you up and down, bumping your butt on the floor
Speaker 3: once for each year. This sucks as we get older,
Speaker 3: and then again for good luck. So according to one
Speaker 3: Newfoundlander quote, getting the bumps was done to each of
Speaker 3: us as soon as we were old enough to walk,
Speaker 3: and ended only when we could run faster or manage
Speaker 3: somehow to avoid getting caught.
Speaker 1: Why are all these good birthday customs also vaguely traumatic?
Speaker 2: Definitely are well.
Speaker 1: Here's a quick one to keep in mind when heading
Speaker 1: to New Finland from the mainland. You have to set
Speaker 1: your watch forward half an hour when you get there.
Speaker 1: And that's because the island actually has its very own
Speaker 1: time zone. It's called New Finland Standard Time or NST.
Speaker 1: It is one half hour ahead of Atlantic Standard time
Speaker 1: and an hour and a half ahead of Eastern Standard Time.
Speaker 1: The funny part is that, geographically speaking, most of the
Speaker 1: province should technically be on Atlantic time, but the capital
Speaker 1: of Saint John is a tiny bit east of the
Speaker 1: dividing line, and since that's the island's largest population center,
Speaker 1: everyone else just follows their lead and pretends it's a
Speaker 1: half an hour later.
Speaker 3: Well, if you think of bespoke time zone as odd,
Speaker 3: you're going to like this next fact. So in the
Speaker 3: remote Fogo Island, roughly nine miles off the coast of Newfoundland,
Speaker 3: the locals recognize seven distinct seasons. In addition to the
Speaker 3: Big four. They have berry season, which runs from September
Speaker 3: first until Halloween. It's perfect time for foraging, of course.
Speaker 3: Then you have pack ice season, which is when ice
Speaker 3: flows surround the island in the month of March, and
Speaker 3: then finally in June, there's trap birth season, which is
Speaker 3: when fishermen would traditionally stake out their fishing grounds for
Speaker 3: the year by placing stationary nets or cod traps there. Now,
Speaker 3: if you think seven seasons has a lot to keep
Speaker 3: track of, keep in mind that Fogo Islanders claim the
Speaker 3: true count is closer to seventeen.
Speaker 1: I don't want to mainland explain Fogo Island, but that
Speaker 1: feel like way too many seasons.
Speaker 2: I was on board with seven. You can't have.
Speaker 1: More seasons than you have months. But I do like
Speaker 1: that you have something to look forward to, and I
Speaker 1: like that you were able to loop things back to
Speaker 1: Cod one more time. So I think you got today's trophy.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3: It does always come back to Cod, the first fish
Speaker 3: in the hearts of the Newfoundlanders, and now in mine
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: I am still a goldfish man myself, but that's going
Speaker 1: to do it. For today's Part Time Genius from Mary Gabe, Dylan,
Speaker 1: Will and myself. Thank you so much for listening. If
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode, then come find us on Instagram
Speaker 1: at part Time Genius or leave us a review on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts. We'd love to hear which fish is the
Speaker 1: first in your hearts or any cool facts about Newfoundland
Speaker 1: that we forgot to mention. Be sure to tune in
Speaker 1: next week for another brand new episode. Part Time Genius
Speaker 1: is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is
Speaker 1: hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongae Heatikler and research
Speaker 1: by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support
Speaker 1: from Tyler Klang. The show is executive produced for iHeart
Speaker 1: by Katrina Norvell and Ali Perry, with social media support
Speaker 1: from Sasha Gay, trustee Dara Potts and Viny Shorey. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.