Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: Listener Mail. This is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick,
Speaker 1: and it's the first listener mail of the new year.
Speaker 1: It's two and the mail bag overflow it We have
Speaker 1: a lot of messages to catch up on, so some
Speaker 1: of these will go back a little bit into December.
Speaker 1: But you know that's what we gotta do. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Okay. I think maybe I'm gonna start
Speaker 1: with a message from Tom. This was in response to
Speaker 1: the couple of episodes we did about the history of
Speaker 1: time travel, thought and so a refresher on on what
Speaker 1: Tom brings up. In particular. In these episodes, we talked
Speaker 1: about how languages generally conceptualized time using metaphors based on space.
Speaker 1: So we talked about time like it's a type of space.
Speaker 1: You know, you arrive at home, or you can arrive
Speaker 1: at four uh, And how for English and many other
Speaker 1: modern languages, we picture that time, that spacelike time, with
Speaker 1: the future situated in front of us, in the past
Speaker 1: behind us. And in part two of that episode, we
Speaker 1: discussed one uh one previous piece of listener mail, where
Speaker 1: somebody got in touch to say that this spatial orientation
Speaker 1: is reversed for Cantonese speakers. That for Cantonese speakers, the
Speaker 1: future is behind you and the past is in front.
Speaker 1: And so Tom picks up on this by saying, Hi, guys,
Speaker 1: I just finished listening to Time Traveler zero part two.
Speaker 1: The Cantonese example of a reversed spatial metaphor for time
Speaker 1: orientation reminded me of something from an introductory book about
Speaker 1: linguistics which I have attached. According to this guide, the
Speaker 1: ancient Greeks oriented themselves in time linguistically, just as it
Speaker 1: is in Cantonese. The past, being visible and known, is
Speaker 1: perceived as in front or ahead, whereas the unknown slash
Speaker 1: invisible future is behind. I have no idea if this
Speaker 1: is still true of the Greek language of today. The
Speaker 1: book is Linguistics, a Graphic Guide by Trask and maybelin
Speaker 1: Thanks love the show, Tom. Uh So, I found this
Speaker 1: really interesting, and I actually I looked this book up
Speaker 1: and uh and found a PDF of it where I
Speaker 1: could look at the couple of pages in question here.
Speaker 1: And according to these authors, it is indeed as Tom says,
Speaker 1: but there was another interesting thing about it, which is that, Uh,
Speaker 1: at first I imagined that the distinction here was that
Speaker 1: the spatial metaphor for time among future in front people
Speaker 1: like like English speakers like us, uh, the future in
Speaker 1: front people that their metaphors would be based on travel. So,
Speaker 1: for example, if you're walking forward, the place you will
Speaker 1: occupy in the future is in front of you, Whereas
Speaker 1: whereas I assume sort of the difference was that future
Speaker 1: in back people would not be thinking about travel or movement,
Speaker 1: but instead would have spatial metaphors for time based on
Speaker 1: looking at things in space rather than moving through space,
Speaker 1: in which case it totally makes sense that the future
Speaker 1: is hidden behind you in the past is visible in front. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. And I think one of the things that's
Speaker 1: interesting about this is if you if you think about
Speaker 1: some some of the things we've actually discussed in the
Speaker 1: show recently, if you think about the power of nostalgia,
Speaker 1: if you you think about the power of um, of myth,
Speaker 1: and you think about such concepts as a future shock, um,
Speaker 1: it makes sense that the future would be the thing
Speaker 1: overtaking us moving from behind, not the thing that we're
Speaker 1: we're boldly and accurately moving into Oh well actually yeah,
Speaker 1: in stating that, so you've gotten ahead of me here
Speaker 1: the uh behind you? Right? Um, So what I was
Speaker 1: saying was I initially assumed that the difference was based
Speaker 1: on a moving versus looking distinction, but at least according
Speaker 1: to the way Trask and Mabelan presented in this book, Actually,
Speaker 1: both ways of conceptualizing time as space have some kind
Speaker 1: of idea of movement through space. It's just a question
Speaker 1: of what is doing the moving. So in this book,
Speaker 1: the way they present it is that while modern English
Speaker 1: speakers imagine ourselves moving forward through time toward the future,
Speaker 1: so the timeline is like a fixed space and we're
Speaker 1: traveling through it, the ancient Greeks would have imagined themselves, uh,
Speaker 1: standing in place and the timeline itself being the thing
Speaker 1: that moved. So you're standing still, looking out over the
Speaker 1: past as it recedes away from you, and the future
Speaker 1: rushes towards you and overtakes you from the rear. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, like I said this, this seems like it
Speaker 1: would be more in keeping with the way a lot
Speaker 1: of us actually experienced change, rather than how we we
Speaker 1: think we anticipate change. I agree. I think that there's
Speaker 1: a lot that's useful to that kind of metaphor, and
Speaker 1: it's clear that many languages apparently still largely look at
Speaker 1: it this way today. Uh so, yeah, how does that
Speaker 1: change the way you think about, you know, planning in
Speaker 1: your life and all kinds of things. If the timeline
Speaker 1: is what moves like a river that flows around you
Speaker 1: and you are standing there facing downstream, uh yeah, and
Speaker 1: it raises all kinds of questions like, for example, if
Speaker 1: the ancient Greeks, if some ancient Greek author had come
Speaker 1: up with the idea of a time machine, would they
Speaker 1: be likely to think of that as a vehicle like
Speaker 1: a you know, a chariot that travels through time. Maybe not,
Speaker 1: I mean maybe they'd be more likely to I don't
Speaker 1: know how they conceptualize it's something that that changes the
Speaker 1: flow of the river or something. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean we would have to to think, I guess about
Speaker 1: the what sort of of of metaphors they would lean
Speaker 1: heavily on and thinking about time And so in action
Speaker 1: to this, I started looking around for other examples of
Speaker 1: of other languages that think about time like this with
Speaker 1: the future in back in the past, in front. And
Speaker 1: I did find some other examples. So, for example, I
Speaker 1: came across a book chapter by a German, a syriologist
Speaker 1: named Stephen M. Mall. I don't know much about him otherwise,
Speaker 1: but in this book chapter he at least talks about
Speaker 1: how ancient Mesopotamian languages like Acadian and Sumerian did the
Speaker 1: same thing. They framed time as the as situated with
Speaker 1: the past in front of you and the future behind you.
Speaker 1: And in this chapter Mall links this two elements of
Speaker 1: ancient Mesopotamian culture, which he claims were strongly focused on
Speaker 1: the past and on tradition. And I also came across
Speaker 1: a claim where I wasn't able to hunt down the
Speaker 1: original source of this, So so I'm not a certain
Speaker 1: about it, but at least the claim that some Pacific
Speaker 1: island people's also conceptualized the past is in front and
Speaker 1: the future behind. Yeah, and come back to you know
Speaker 1: what one of them we're talking about in those episodes,
Speaker 1: the idea of mythic time, you know Alioti's treatment of
Speaker 1: of mythic time. Uh, you know, it would it would
Speaker 1: make sense. You have these ancient cultures that are that
Speaker 1: are that are more focused on what came before the
Speaker 1: important time that birthed what we are today. So one
Speaker 1: thing I would be really interested in now, and in fact,
Speaker 1: i'd be kind of surprised if somebody hasn't already done
Speaker 1: this work and I just haven't come across it yet,
Speaker 1: would be sort of establishing a family tree of of
Speaker 1: spatial time conceptualizations, because we have pretty good ideas of
Speaker 1: what languages are descended from which ancestral languages today just
Speaker 1: kind of like we can make family trees for organisms,
Speaker 1: you know, And so I would be interested to see
Speaker 1: the historical flows of like where different spatial time metaphors
Speaker 1: come from and how they trickle down into the different
Speaker 1: language groups today. Do any of these, uh, languages or
Speaker 1: cultures have more of a crab based idea of time
Speaker 1: that you're moving sideways? And yeah, I'm for the president.
Speaker 1: What a perfect call back? Yeah, great question. I don't know.
Speaker 1: All right, here's when it comes to us from Josh
Speaker 1: Josh rides Hi. Guys, first, you three are my pandemic
Speaker 1: survival kit. This cannot be overstated, neither can the gratitude
Speaker 1: I feel now. It seems to me that the timing
Speaker 1: of time travel machines corresponds to the fact that machines
Speaker 1: were in fact responsible for time dilation. If your friend
Speaker 1: lives a day's horse ride away, and now a train
Speaker 1: or car can get you there in a couple of hours,
Speaker 1: the machine has essentially transported you back in time. You
Speaker 1: leave in the morning and somehow arrive in the morning
Speaker 1: instead of that night. One can imagine someone pondering this
Speaker 1: at the time to think, what if machines get better
Speaker 1: and better at this trick until you were arriving before
Speaker 1: you have even left. The speed of travel has decreased
Speaker 1: the association between space and time. Imagine what would happen
Speaker 1: if someone built a shiny met a box that could
Speaker 1: transport you at eight miles per hour. Thanks Josh, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's a very plausible idea about where a
Speaker 1: lot of these time travel stories come from in like
Speaker 1: the late nineteenth century. Now we know that there were
Speaker 1: some time travel stories before them, but it really picks
Speaker 1: up with time travel via a device or machine in
Speaker 1: like the eighteen eighties and nineties. Yes, yeah, so you know,
Speaker 1: I have to admit any time I'm on a long
Speaker 1: flight that goes across time zones, I can't help but
Speaker 1: think about time travel a little bit, you know, you
Speaker 1: know the idea that you might get on a multi
Speaker 1: hour flight, but due to time zone shenanigans, you're actually
Speaker 1: only traveling, you know, like maybe one hour or two
Speaker 1: hours through clock time. Then don't get me started about
Speaker 1: flying backwards across the International day line or wait, is
Speaker 1: it forwards or backwards? That makes I'm not sure, it
Speaker 1: depends if you're flying Greek air or not. All right,
Speaker 1: let's turn to some messages about music and memory. So
Speaker 1: we got a number of messages about different musical mnemonic
Speaker 1: devices that people learned in school, since that came up
Speaker 1: in the episode, about what whether or not music helps
Speaker 1: people memorize verbal information, and if it does do that,
Speaker 1: how does it do that? What why, and how does
Speaker 1: it work? So I'm not going to read all these,
Speaker 1: but I did want to know that long time correspondent
Speaker 1: Jim in New Jersey got in touch to say that
Speaker 1: when he was in school, he learned a great little
Speaker 1: little sing song verse about how to how to learn Latin,
Speaker 1: and it included all of like conjugation and declension and stuff.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to read another one. This one comes
Speaker 1: from John John says, Dear Robert and Joe. Just a
Speaker 1: few minutes into your episode on music and memory, a
Speaker 1: very particular tune popped into my head. Pop Goes the Weasel,
Speaker 1: except the lyrics weren't those of the nursery rhyme, but
Speaker 1: the variables of the quadratic formula. If you'd like to
Speaker 1: sing along, all over to A is the replacement lyric
Speaker 1: for Pop Goes the Weasel? Uh? Can I sing this?
Speaker 1: Or is the let's see as Pop Goes the Weasel
Speaker 1: under under copyright enforcement. I think you're probably okay. Isn't
Speaker 1: this like fair use or educational? We're gonna the big
Speaker 1: Pop Goes the Weasel? Lawyers after us. Okay, So I
Speaker 1: think it would go something like this, Please don't pillory
Speaker 1: me if I if I say something wrong here, Um,
Speaker 1: it would be like X equals negative B plus or
Speaker 1: minus the square root of B squared minus four A
Speaker 1: c all over to A. I think you nailed it.
Speaker 1: I think you nailed it. I think it almost fits
Speaker 1: the rhythm. It's a little difficult with the minus four
Speaker 1: A c Unlet's I misunderstood that somehow. Anyway. John goes
Speaker 1: on to say, my only remaining memory from this particular
Speaker 1: high school math classes. That is, the teacher singing the
Speaker 1: equation to the class, then the class responding with laughter
Speaker 1: over its absurdity, and then the teacher's assurance that we'd
Speaker 1: never forget the quadratic equation again. Well, nearly two decades later,
Speaker 1: the jokes on us. Uh, thanks for being my second
Speaker 1: favorite podcast in my Spotify one wrapped, but number one
Speaker 1: in my heart. John, Oh, that's nice. Oh, and John
Speaker 1: also says, ps, I can also still name all the
Speaker 1: American presidents in order thanks to a song we were
Speaker 1: taught in elementary school music and memory. It's a thing. Huh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wonder what the tune was. I vaguely remember something
Speaker 1: about that, but I don't think it's stuck with me.
Speaker 1: So I've actually thought about this a good bit since
Speaker 1: we did the music and Memory episode, like if music
Speaker 1: does indeed aid with the formation of memory or the
Speaker 1: with cementing verbal memories, Uh, why does it do that?
Speaker 1: And I think I've got a pretty tentative take on this,
Speaker 1: but obviously I'm still open minded about it. But I
Speaker 1: think the two main reasons music probably helps people memorize
Speaker 1: verbal information would be, first of all, something we talked
Speaker 1: about in the episode, which is that? Uh? Which is
Speaker 1: that music? The verbal content in music is structured, meaning
Speaker 1: that lyrics have meter and rhyme, and they occur within
Speaker 1: a regular structure, usually so like you know, you'll know
Speaker 1: that the verse in this song has four lines, and
Speaker 1: there this long, and then the chorus has this many
Speaker 1: lines in there this long, and that structure is what
Speaker 1: helps you complete a half formed thought or find the
Speaker 1: next thought. So it might not be so much the
Speaker 1: tune or the melody that helps you remember the words,
Speaker 1: but the fact that when words are presented in music,
Speaker 1: they're organized and structured in a way that helps you
Speaker 1: fill in gaps. And then the second thing I think
Speaker 1: is that you're probably more likely to spontaneously rehearse verbal
Speaker 1: information that's set to music than you are too spontaneously
Speaker 1: rehearse verbal information on its own. Uh. And and I
Speaker 1: think this would tie into the idea that music is enjoyable,
Speaker 1: Like we like music and when we and we want
Speaker 1: to repeat it to ourselves. And so the pleasure in
Speaker 1: the tune or the melody is like the inherent incentive
Speaker 1: to sing it repeatedly to ourselves. And when you sing
Speaker 1: it repeatedly to yourself, this has a side effect of
Speaker 1: memory reinforcement through repetition and rehearsal. So that's my vibe.
Speaker 1: All right. Well here's another one. This thing comes to
Speaker 1: us from Matt. Matt says, Hey, Robert and Joe, with
Speaker 1: regard to your discussion in your recent episode on music
Speaker 1: and memory, I have an experience and some thoughts I
Speaker 1: would like to share with you. First the experience one day,
Speaker 1: when I was around thirteen or fourteen years old, I
Speaker 1: was playing Metroid two on my game Boy while my
Speaker 1: older sister was watching her then favorite show Dawson's Creek,
Speaker 1: a show I was not particularly interested in by any means. Now,
Speaker 1: this may seem like an odd, random fact to just
Speaker 1: mention like that, but years later I went back and
Speaker 1: decided to play the same game again, and wouldn't you
Speaker 1: know it, when the music started playing, it was like
Speaker 1: the show Dawson's Creek was playing again in the background.
Speaker 1: I would even recall specific lines that I overheard during
Speaker 1: that first play through. I thought you might find this
Speaker 1: experience interesting, specifically because music seemed to be tied to
Speaker 1: recalling information that I wasn't even paying attention to in
Speaker 1: the first place. Anyways, onto my other thoughts. I was
Speaker 1: thinking about one reason some may more readily recall verbal
Speaker 1: information when put to music when compared to without could
Speaker 1: be less to do with the music itself and more
Speaker 1: to do with the fact that we generally enjoy the
Speaker 1: experience of music far more than we do just hearing
Speaker 1: words being repeated. I think it's safe to say when
Speaker 1: we are engaged in something we enjoy, our brains are
Speaker 1: also in turn more engaged than otherwise. More engaged brain
Speaker 1: equals or retention. This brought on another thought. When we
Speaker 1: try to use music in our studies, we typically have
Speaker 1: some hand in the creation of the song we use.
Speaker 1: I have heard that one of the best ways to
Speaker 1: maintain a memory of something is to modify it in
Speaker 1: some way in your mind, even as simply as restating
Speaker 1: the information in a different way, such as thinking two thousand,
Speaker 1: one thirty seven versus two one three seven. This is
Speaker 1: essentially what we are doing when we are putting the
Speaker 1: information we are trying to remember to music. It usually
Speaker 1: involves some level of changing the phrasing or order of
Speaker 1: the information to make it fit the music. At a minimum. Anyways,
Speaker 1: love the podcast, keep up the fantastic content flowing into
Speaker 1: my ear holes. Thanks Matt, Well, thank you, Matt. Uh yeah.
Speaker 1: Regarding your point about modifying information to remember it better,
Speaker 1: I've never looked into the empirical research on this, but
Speaker 1: it certainly seems true from my first hand experience. Uh So. Obviously,
Speaker 1: like you mentioned, the simplest version is just rephrasing something
Speaker 1: and putting putting, say a an explanation or a summary
Speaker 1: of some events or something into your own words. I
Speaker 1: think definitely at least helps me remember it better. But also,
Speaker 1: like you say, you know, putting something to a song
Speaker 1: that that's doing something similar. You're forming like different levels
Speaker 1: of connections with bits of information that seemed to help
Speaker 1: but stick more. Another big one I think is making
Speaker 1: puns about something like if you're trying to remember names,
Speaker 1: if you make jokes about the names while you're trying
Speaker 1: to memorize them, I feel like they stick a lot more. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean another thing that it comes to mind is
Speaker 1: like not Yeah, not can be a pretty complicated thing
Speaker 1: to toutt h to to pull off. You know, there's
Speaker 1: a lot a lot going on there. You're engaging your
Speaker 1: you know, different memory systems here, and what do we
Speaker 1: often do well, we end up um taking a little
Speaker 1: narrative and applying it to it where we're not so
Speaker 1: so much concerned about Okay, where's the left end go?
Speaker 1: How do I what do I hold down this? No,
Speaker 1: we talked about where does the rabbit go? And and
Speaker 1: into what hole and so forth. What's the one Quin
Speaker 1: says in Jaws that you comes out of the hole,
Speaker 1: goes into the cave, goes around the poll, goes into
Speaker 1: the cave again. Oh, that's a good one. I forgot
Speaker 1: all about that part. Not too good, is it? Chief?
Speaker 1: But as to the first half of your message, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: clearly it sounds like you're forming um memory associations between
Speaker 1: between like a video game or video game music, and
Speaker 1: then some other environmental content, in this case Dawson's Creek.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I feel like I probably have memories like that.
Speaker 1: I can't call a specific one to mind right now.
Speaker 1: But if I were to to fire up the game
Speaker 1: Boy I played in you know when when I was
Speaker 1: a little kid, and hear that, uh, you know, super
Speaker 1: Mario Land music, I'm sure I would do well. I
Speaker 1: think what I would think of is like being hot
Speaker 1: in the backseat of the car. Did they leave you
Speaker 1: in there just like a long you know, long car rides.
Speaker 1: I think that was the primary Game Boy time. Okay,
Speaker 1: but still I'm guessing like stuck to that kind of
Speaker 1: um uh like, like like sweaty flesh, just just adhered
Speaker 1: to the seat. They have to peel you out at
Speaker 1: the end, still playing the game Boy. The Naga Hide,
Speaker 1: the Naga Hide was was key. Oh yeah, yeah. Did
Speaker 1: you know, by the way, I can't remember if we
Speaker 1: were talked about this, did you know that the Nauga
Speaker 1: Hide as a brand, had had its own mascot monster,
Speaker 1: the Nauga Oh my goodness. I just looked this up
Speaker 1: and no, I till this moment, I did not know
Speaker 1: they had their own monster. But this is awesome. Look
Speaker 1: at him. He's like a like the backside of a
Speaker 1: Naga Hide chair. Yeah it's he's made out of Nauga hide.
Speaker 1: But he's just all He's just a little toothy gritter
Speaker 1: and he's a Naga, or at least that's what the
Speaker 1: ad copy I'm I'm reading here is Naga the beast
Speaker 1: from which we derive Naga Hyde. I I can only
Speaker 1: imagine their extinct. Now, no Naugas were harmed in the
Speaker 1: making of this Naga Hide. The company seems to still
Speaker 1: be around, but I don't. But you go to their
Speaker 1: website and there's no Naga monster aywhere, which seems like
Speaker 1: a massive misstep. Well no, wait, there he is. He's
Speaker 1: still on the website. I take it all the good God,
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, you can actually this. Maybe we'll have
Speaker 1: to cut all this, but now I'm even more excited.
Speaker 1: You can buy a Naga. They sell nagas. You're telling
Speaker 1: me I can buy a Nauga. I have bought a Nauga.
Speaker 1: My wife has bought for her. What color is it?
Speaker 1: I think it's sort of teal. Oh nice, nice, good
Speaker 1: Naga choice. Oh my goodness. This is one of those
Speaker 1: moments where I feel like I've crossed over into another
Speaker 1: dimension because this just seems like information I should have had.
Speaker 1: I should have been been all about these Naugas. And
Speaker 1: look at this, going to Naga hide dot com looking
Speaker 1: at Naga Naga's for different seasons for oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: that maybe this is what they do. Now you just
Speaker 1: look at that cute toothy face and you think it
Speaker 1: would not be so bad for my thighs to be
Speaker 1: stripped of flesh as I'm peeled off of this creature.
Speaker 1: Oh man, Okay, you ready for this next message about
Speaker 1: time and crabs? Yeah? Bring it on. Okay, this comes
Speaker 1: from Scott. Scott says, Dear Robin, Joe, I've been a
Speaker 1: big fan of the podcast for several years and have
Speaker 1: been looking for an excuse to write in. After a
Speaker 1: recent catchup binge, I now have several first Towards the
Speaker 1: beginning of the episode Time Traveler zero, Part one, Joe
Speaker 1: seemed to suggest that the metaphor killing time wasn't especially
Speaker 1: evocative due to it being an overused cliche. I refute
Speaker 1: this stance wholeheartedly. Okay uh. To this day, I cannot
Speaker 1: hear this phrase without bringing to mind the scene from
Speaker 1: the book The Phantom Tollbooth where the main character Milo
Speaker 1: explains to talk a literal watchdog that he is just
Speaker 1: killing time, which naturally infuriates the canine chronometer. If you're
Speaker 1: unfamiliar with the work, it is a strange, meandering journey
Speaker 1: through the achning of a board child's curiosity and wonder.
Speaker 1: I highly recommend it to young readers. I've actually never
Speaker 1: read it, but I've heard of it many times. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've never read it either, though it's it's been recommended
Speaker 1: to name um, and it's been recommended as something for
Speaker 1: young readers. But I think my son read a little
Speaker 1: of it. I don't. I don't know if he's stuck
Speaker 1: with it. But we're about to get to the part
Speaker 1: of this email for which we must bring out the
Speaker 1: dishes of drawn butter, because Scott says. Secondly, in a
Speaker 1: recent Listener Mail episode, another writer suggested that the tarrask
Speaker 1: from Dungeons and Dragons was actually a Godzilla sized crab.
Speaker 1: A little later, you were lamenting the giant crabs of
Speaker 1: Dungeons and Dragons low intelligence score, and you wondered if
Speaker 1: somebody had home brewed the crab monsters from Attack of
Speaker 1: the Crab Monsters. Yeah, this came up because the crab
Speaker 1: monsters in the in the Roger Corman drive in movie
Speaker 1: are not low intelligence there, and they are not only brilliant,
Speaker 1: they have absorbed the minds of many men. And when
Speaker 1: they when they eat your brains, they gain your knowledge.
Speaker 1: Scott goes on, this is where I come in. I
Speaker 1: am an aspiring D and D five E content producer,
Speaker 1: and your show is often a well spring of excellent
Speaker 1: monster ideas e g. The leshy Yeti crabs, et cetera.
Speaker 1: I even purchased the much lauded Giants, Monsters and Dragons
Speaker 1: book for inspiration. So when you mused about the stats
Speaker 1: of crabs, I got to work now. Giant crabs are
Speaker 1: mostly low level critters that any capable adventuring party should
Speaker 1: have little problem dispatching. But if you make them a
Speaker 1: bit larger, thicken their carapasts, and add some of the
Speaker 1: abilities of an intellectual devour. I am assuming this is
Speaker 1: an example of such the mind flare brainhounds. You've got
Speaker 1: a pretty solid starting place for the aforementioned crab monsters.
Speaker 1: I've included JPEG's of the end result and another of
Speaker 1: my giant Yeti crab. I hope you enjoy them. You're
Speaker 1: some of the most engaging and amusing science communicator out there,
Speaker 1: and I can't wait to see what wonderful weirdness y'all
Speaker 1: will bring my mostly mundane workday. Best Scott, Well, Scott,
Speaker 1: this is a wonderful email. Thank you for getting in touch,
Speaker 1: but you have made a major error. You forgot to
Speaker 1: attach the images, so Rob and I are just sitting
Speaker 1: here with like bereft. Yeah, I want to see this crap,
Speaker 1: But I'm glad that that he's putting in the work
Speaker 1: on this. This is something that needs to exist out
Speaker 1: there in the at least in the Homebrew universe of
Speaker 1: of monsters and also good I'm picking up Giants, Monsters
Speaker 1: and Dragons by Carol Rose. I think I heard from
Speaker 1: another listener who had recently acquired a copy of this book.
Speaker 1: Just a tremendous treasure trove of of fantastic creatures for
Speaker 1: anyone out there who, like me, loves loves a good
Speaker 1: best fiery. Speaking of monsters, Joe, I do have to mention, Uh,
Speaker 1: my wife and I started watching the second season of
Speaker 1: The Witcher on Netflix. Okay, or The Witcher as as
Speaker 1: our main character would say, which and uh, I have
Speaker 1: to say second episode I think it is includes versions
Speaker 1: of both the Leshy and Bobby Yaga. So whoa I
Speaker 1: have to give give that show credit. Well, that's based
Speaker 1: on like Polish monster folklore, isn't it, or at least
Speaker 1: the novels are Polish. I believe so. Yes, So it
Speaker 1: makes sense that you know that he would draw that
Speaker 1: author would draw in these various folkloric concepts. Um, now
Speaker 1: I can't I haven't read them, so I can't speak
Speaker 1: to them, and I can't speak to how exactly these
Speaker 1: episodes have adapted those works. But still, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, you have somebody fighting a variation on
Speaker 1: the Leshy And yeah, my excitement was growing as they
Speaker 1: started talking about this strange house in the in the
Speaker 1: woods that had basilist lags, and I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be Bobba Yaga. Oh boy. So I haven't
Speaker 1: read the books and I haven't seen the show. Well,
Speaker 1: I think we sort of put on one of the
Speaker 1: episodes of the show, just sort of in the background
Speaker 1: for laughs. I I don't know. It might be a
Speaker 1: great show. I haven't seen it, but I have played
Speaker 1: one of the video games and it had a lot
Speaker 1: of great monsters in it. Yeah yeah, I mean the
Speaker 1: Monster the Monsters game is pretty solid in the show too,
Speaker 1: based on on what I've seen, and the lead performance
Speaker 1: very gravelly. Wait, it's that. It's the It's the really
Speaker 1: buff gamer guy, isn't it. Henry Cavill. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: didn't he like a muscled nerd? He is? Yeah, get
Speaker 1: used to him, because I think he's currently attached to
Speaker 1: the Highlander reboot. I don't know who he's gonna play.
Speaker 1: I hope the Kurgan. I think based on especially what
Speaker 1: I've seen in The Witcher. It's like he's got the
Speaker 1: gravelly voice, and I would like to see him play
Speaker 1: a villain for a for for a change. And he's
Speaker 1: a He's a solid actor, so I'm curious to see
Speaker 1: what he could do. He was riveting in Hell Razor eight?
Speaker 1: Was he was he in that? Or whichever one? The
Speaker 1: one where the one where evil goes online? The virtual
Speaker 1: reality he's in that? Oh? I was not aware of that. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's great. It's not all right. Well, let's
Speaker 1: close things out with a little weird house cinema listener mail.
Speaker 1: This one comes to us from Alan. Alan writes, gents,
Speaker 1: I recently stumbled upon your podcast and I have really
Speaker 1: been enjoying it. The origins of the Chainsaw first caught
Speaker 1: my attention. It's all great stuff, but my mind truly
Speaker 1: did come bust a little when I saw you did
Speaker 1: a weird House episode on Ewok's The Battle for Indoor.
Speaker 1: I vaguely recall my sister and I'm watching this and
Speaker 1: The Caravan of Courage when they first aired. But what
Speaker 1: I remember most was watching and wearing out the VHS
Speaker 1: tapes recorded from TV, complete with commercials and about a
Speaker 1: second of a football game where I accidentally hit the
Speaker 1: record button on the remote while watching. These movies were
Speaker 1: a big part of our childhood, so much so that
Speaker 1: my sister named her oldest daughter, now in her twenties,
Speaker 1: after Sindel or Sindel. I can't remember how the character's
Speaker 1: name is pronounced offhand. Yeah, see I in D E
Speaker 1: L Yeah. Uh. Anyway, they continue, So uh, we were
Speaker 1: all amazed how much she looked like Aubrey Miller through
Speaker 1: her early childhood. Every once in a while she still
Speaker 1: gets a knowing smile or an outright o MG from
Speaker 1: the e walks right when people hear her name. Her
Speaker 1: best friend is Wilfred Brimley. Um well, I have to say,
Speaker 1: I think that's awesome. My son's first name, in large
Speaker 1: part comes from Bastian Baltazar Bucks from The Never Ending Story.
Speaker 1: So I think, I think, I think drawing on the
Speaker 1: names of our cinematic and literary mythology are are are
Speaker 1: totally totally called for inappropriate. Anyway, Alan continues, I don't
Speaker 1: know if the tape still exists, possibly in my parents basement,
Speaker 1: But I found the DVDs years ago and introduced my
Speaker 1: kids to these gems. They are great fun and we
Speaker 1: still watch them when we're looking to watch something fun
Speaker 1: and not too heavy. My favorite character, of course, was Tick.
Speaker 1: He was just awesome and there were a few years
Speaker 1: where I thought I could actually make a glider like Wicked.
Speaker 1: If he could do it, why couldn't I. Of course,
Speaker 1: the answer to that question is because he's a fictional character,
Speaker 1: though they're still part of me. The believes I could
Speaker 1: if I had access to proper sized animal bones and skin. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks again for allowing me to reminisce. Uh. The episode
Speaker 1: was great. I really enjoyed it. Keep making great content, Alan.
Speaker 1: Oh well, thanks Alan. Uh, Yeah, this is a heartwarming email. Uh.
Speaker 1: The one thing, though, that really stuck in my mind
Speaker 1: was the part of the much beloved VHS tape where
Speaker 1: you accidentally taped over it with the second of something
Speaker 1: else that Rob. I assume you had something like that
Speaker 1: in your house. Everybody I know did. There's a famous
Speaker 1: story in my in my wife's family where they they
Speaker 1: I think they borrowed a friend's dearly dearly cherished a
Speaker 1: copy of News e s on a VHS tape and
Speaker 1: accidentally taped over one second of it with a you know,
Speaker 1: personal injury lawyer ad. And they still remember what part
Speaker 1: of news eas that where that happens. Oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean the VHS medium. Uh, you know it had so
Speaker 1: many wonderful things about it that at the time we
Speaker 1: often took for granted. Um, you know, part of it was,
Speaker 1: of course the ads. You know, it's fascinating to think about,
Speaker 1: you know, to look back on, like all those times
Speaker 1: where if you were really trying to do it right,
Speaker 1: you would try and clip out the ads that nowadays.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what I would want to see. I
Speaker 1: I don't just want to see that. If I want
Speaker 1: to watch this movie that I caught on Sci Fi
Speaker 1: Channel in the nineties, I can probably find it. But
Speaker 1: what I would really love to do is is watch
Speaker 1: all the ads with it is what commercy? Yeah, and
Speaker 1: some of that stuff is just lost, I guess. Oh god, well,
Speaker 1: I mean like it's the best part of watching the
Speaker 1: Star Wars Holiday Special. Actually, yeah, I would never want
Speaker 1: to see the Holiday special without the Ladies Garment Workers
Speaker 1: Union commercial and tow Bore and all of that great stuff. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's pretty tremendous. Um. I think I still have
Speaker 1: a few gyms like that, but there's a lot of
Speaker 1: that stuff that I just lost. I do one thing
Speaker 1: I remember from VHS some talking about VHS tapes that
Speaker 1: were just used to death. We had a copy of
Speaker 1: Jim Henson's Labyrinth, which is still of one of my
Speaker 1: favorite films, but we just watched the hell out of
Speaker 1: it so much that at one point the VHS tape
Speaker 1: broke and we had it professionally repaired, which I can't imagine.
Speaker 1: I don't even know how that worked, Like where did
Speaker 1: my parents take it to get fixed? Who did that?
Speaker 1: And why was it more cost effective than just buying
Speaker 1: a new copy of Labyrinth. But when Labyrinth came back,
Speaker 1: it was slightly warped, So it has this kind of
Speaker 1: VHS now we would think of just like a VHS glitch,
Speaker 1: kind of a aspect to the entire film, the entire
Speaker 1: film plus the trailer to the Name of the Rose
Speaker 1: that plays at the very beginning. And so nowadays, if
Speaker 1: I watched Labyrinth or I watched that trailer, uh, it
Speaker 1: just doesn't sound the same because it should be slightly
Speaker 1: warped I'm still reeling from the idea of a VHS
Speaker 1: tape repair person. I don't know who did that. That
Speaker 1: sounds like the world's best job. Did they take it
Speaker 1: to somewhere around town? Do they mail it off? I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'll have to ask my mom about Mom.
Speaker 1: If you're listening, um, call me. Well, we'll discuss Taneribell.
Speaker 1: It's labyrinth spelled backwards. All right, Well, I think we
Speaker 1: gotta call it there. But thank you everyone for getting
Speaker 1: in touch, and we'll be I'm sure catching up on
Speaker 1: more of the emails that came in over the holidays
Speaker 1: in the weeks to come. That's right. And in the meantime,
Speaker 1: if you want to check out other episodes of Stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind, we have core episodes on Tuesdays
Speaker 1: and Thursdays and the Stuff to Blow your Mind podcast feed,
Speaker 1: which you can find anywhere and everywhere you get your podcast.
Speaker 1: We do listener Man on Monday, we do an Artifact
Speaker 1: or Monster Fact on Wednesdays as a short form episode,
Speaker 1: and on Fridays we do Weird How Cinema. That's our
Speaker 1: time to put most serious matters aside and just talk
Speaker 1: about a strange movie. H Thanks as always to our
Speaker 1: excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like
Speaker 1: to get in touch with us with feedback on this
Speaker 1: episod ode or any other, to suggest a topic for
Speaker 1: the future, or just to say hello, you can email
Speaker 1: us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the i
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.