Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey you, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. Listener Mail.
Speaker 2: This is Robert Lamb.
Speaker 3: And this is Joe McCormick again. Listener mail, of course,
Speaker 3: is what it sounds like. This is the type of
Speaker 3: episode we do where we get into the stuff that
Speaker 3: comes into our email address. If you are a listener
Speaker 3: to the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast, or your
Speaker 3: fan of even any of our subshows. If you like
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Speaker 3: episode like this one. Contact at stuff to Blow your
Speaker 3: Mind dot com. We love all kinds of messages. If
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Speaker 2: All right, let's dig into the old mail bag here.
Speaker 3: All right, This first message is in response to our
Speaker 3: series on Manta rays. Rob, would you like to take
Speaker 3: this or should.
Speaker 2: I sure I can do it? This one comes to
Speaker 2: us from Graham. Graham says, Hi, Joe, Rob and the team.
Speaker 2: After listening to your Manta ray episode, I had a
Speaker 2: couple of very quick thoughts for you both. Joe, you
Speaker 2: tried to recall a film with a glowing manta ray
Speaker 2: tighte being. Could you have been thinking of the creature
Speaker 2: in The Abyss? I seem to remember that being ray shaped.
Speaker 3: Well, Graham, absolutely, that is exactly what I was thinking of.
Speaker 3: I was thinking of the I think it's sometimes called
Speaker 3: the NTI, the non terrestrial intelligence in James Cameron's The Abyss.
Speaker 3: This is, of course the sort of the top shelf
Speaker 3: of was it nineteen eighty nine, the year of the
Speaker 3: Underwater movies, where that we also got Leviathan and Deep
Speaker 3: Star six and like all came out at the same time.
Speaker 3: But this was like the biggest budget of them and
Speaker 3: probably the most the most serious minded of them. This
Speaker 3: was a James Cameron film that I don't know, I
Speaker 3: think is remembered less than like the Terminator movies and
Speaker 3: Aliens and some of his other stuff, but it has
Speaker 3: a lot of virtues. There's good stuff about the Abyss.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been meaning to check it out. Last time
Speaker 2: I really got into nineteen ninety nine underwater films. I
Speaker 2: don't think it had been released on Blu ray, or
Speaker 2: if it had, it was just like standard blue ray.
Speaker 2: And I think it's received a little bit better treatment
Speaker 2: since then anyway.
Speaker 3: But yes, Graham, I looked up this image and there
Speaker 3: is one of the glowing underwater entities is absolutely manta
Speaker 3: ray shaped. Rob. I put a picture of it here
Speaker 3: in the outline for you to look at that. That
Speaker 3: is one hundred percent what I had in mind and
Speaker 3: couldn't remember.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's very mantilike. Obviously they're jellyfish shades to
Speaker 2: it as well. It's illuminated. It's great. I do not
Speaker 2: really remember it that much though. Anyway. Graham continues and says, Rob,
Speaker 2: have you tried bog Snorkeling? Could be a fun day
Speaker 2: out for the family. Images attached all the best Graham
Speaker 2: from the South Dorset coast in the UK and the
Speaker 2: images here, And I believe these are now that I
Speaker 2: look at the tag on and these are Getty Images shots,
Speaker 2: and they are of people snorkeling in an English bog,
Speaker 2: so very brown water, not unlike the brown water sho'll
Speaker 2: encounter in non bog environments such as many lakes and
Speaker 2: so forth. So I've you know, I've definitely gone swimming
Speaker 2: in waters this murky looking before, but I did not
Speaker 2: even know that bog snorkeling was a thing.
Speaker 3: We talked about this in another episode, and I think
Speaker 3: we were a little confused at first, like is this
Speaker 3: a joke. It sounds contradictory, because I rob, you're the
Speaker 3: snorkeler here. I don't know what I'm talking about, really,
Speaker 3: but I assumed snorkeling was primarily a sight seeing activity
Speaker 3: that like, while you're snorkeling, you are, you know, you
Speaker 3: have the mask on and the snorkel on so that
Speaker 3: you can keep your eyes fixed underwater and look around
Speaker 3: and take in the sights of what's happening down there.
Speaker 3: Is that the basically your experience.
Speaker 2: That's my experience, that's the way we do it. And
Speaker 2: I I like a lot of sunlight. I like being
Speaker 2: able to see all the colors and if it gets
Speaker 2: a little flolly, you know, I'm kind of like, well,
Speaker 2: maybe it's time to get out of the water. But
Speaker 2: I also have to realize there's a lot of different
Speaker 2: types of snorkeling evidently, and a lot of different types
Speaker 2: of diving. Like I hear when I go do these
Speaker 2: these excursions, will end up chatting with divers, and I
Speaker 2: hear about some of the crazy places some of these
Speaker 2: divers go diving, and and so I'm surprised but not
Speaker 2: but also not surprised that there is bog snorkeling.
Speaker 3: But so yeah, so if you look up bug snorkeling,
Speaker 3: you will see people with snorkel and mask on, face down,
Speaker 3: swimming in a trench cut in a peat bog and
Speaker 3: rob if I can correct you, I think this is
Speaker 3: not in England. I think this is in Wales. But yeah,
Speaker 3: so it's in like there's one main place where I've
Speaker 3: seen like the multiple videos of this happening. I don't
Speaker 3: know how more widespread it is. It might be in
Speaker 3: other places too, but in this like Welsh competition, they've
Speaker 3: got this trench dug and it's just this gross looking
Speaker 3: muddy water in the trench and people are snorkeling. They're
Speaker 3: essentially racing, so that's the answer to like, why would
Speaker 3: you snorkel in this bog. They're not actually seeing the sites.
Speaker 3: They're not trying to like glimpse the life at the
Speaker 3: bottom of the trench, because that would be impossible. The
Speaker 3: water is totally opaque. It's a racing activity that seems
Speaker 3: to be done with some lightheartedness, like it looks like
Speaker 3: a cheese rolling kind of kind of spirit thing. The
Speaker 3: people are dressing up in costumes doing interviews beforehand. We
Speaker 3: watched a video of people who were doing I think
Speaker 3: it was like the twenty twenty four Bog Snorkeling Chainchampionships,
Speaker 3: and so there were people dressed up as shrimps and
Speaker 3: people dressed up as Kermit the Frog, and one guy
Speaker 3: who was like towing a big banana float. It seemed
Speaker 3: only like half serious as an athletic competition and mostly
Speaker 3: like a chance to get out and have fun and
Speaker 3: do a kind of yurukyara spirit type activity.
Speaker 2: My family and I recently traveled to Wales. Nobody mentioned
Speaker 2: this to us, and we did not, of course think
Speaker 2: to ask about snorkeling in Wales. But when you do
Speaker 2: a search for Welsh snorkeling, this is the main thing
Speaker 2: that comes up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess the Welsh coast is not known for
Speaker 3: like its blue water coral reefs.
Speaker 2: I believe.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 2: Now if I look a little deeper, I do see
Speaker 2: some other things popping up that are not bog related.
Speaker 2: So I think there is some scuba diving and snorkeling
Speaker 2: in Wales that is not in a bog. But this
Speaker 2: is a new area for me, so I'm gonna have
Speaker 2: to learn more.
Speaker 3: So to answer the question, is this a joke? No,
Speaker 3: but it's jokey like it is a real thing that
Speaker 3: people do. But it seems there's a lot of humor
Speaker 3: involved in the in the doing of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems gleeful.
Speaker 3: All right, you ready for the next message?
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's see what we are.
Speaker 3: This one comes from Michelle. This is a response to
Speaker 3: a long ago Invention episode on Spoons. I barely remember that.
Speaker 3: Michelle says, Hi, Robert and Joe, I wanted to say
Speaker 3: thank you for a probably unanticipated parenting tip from a
Speaker 3: very old episode many years ago, I think during the
Speaker 3: Invention days. During an episode on Spoons, Robert mentioned that
Speaker 3: he has a competition between various items in his dishwasher.
Speaker 3: I have been listening since the five minute episode days
Speaker 3: and had and have no idea why this particular tidbit
Speaker 3: stuck in my mind, but it has proved extremely helpful.
Speaker 3: My recently turned four year old seems to have moved
Speaker 3: out of the phase of wanting to quote hell, but
Speaker 3: it's gotten more interested in counting. I remembered the dishwasher
Speaker 3: competition and have implemented it with my daughter, who will
Speaker 3: now happily empty the silverware caddy to count forks, knives,
Speaker 3: and spoons to see who will win. I'm starting to
Speaker 3: introduce some simple math with it, like how many more
Speaker 3: spoons than forks. It's not as much of a competition
Speaker 3: now that it's hot an ice cream season has it,
Speaker 3: but she still enjoys it. Thank you again for the
Speaker 3: unintended parenting hack, Michelle rob I barely remember what this
Speaker 3: is responding to. What's this competition thing?
Speaker 2: Ah, this is the thing that I used to do it,
Speaker 2: and I guess I still do it every now and then,
Speaker 2: where in order to sort of get through the boredom
Speaker 2: or tedium of emptying the dishwasher in the morning, I
Speaker 2: will think of it as a competition which are there
Speaker 2: more spoons or more forks or more knives in the dishwasher.
Speaker 2: Whichever team has the most representation in the dishwasher has won.
Speaker 2: So it's just the way of sort of keeping tabs
Speaker 2: as I loove the dishwasher and mildly amuse myself with
Speaker 2: who's winning. And then if you think deeper about it,
Speaker 2: it's like you then you ask yourself, well, why did
Speaker 2: the spoons win? What did we have to eat yesterday?
Speaker 2: What did we have for dinner? Did we have a
Speaker 2: dessert that required spoons? And so forth. We do use
Speaker 2: a lot of spoons in our households. So on average,
Speaker 2: team spoon was the winner, but occasionally you know that
Speaker 2: the team knives would come out ahead, or even team forks. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you never know exactly what's going to happen in this sport.
Speaker 3: I feel like it would be boring at our house
Speaker 3: because it would always be spoons. We just always have
Speaker 3: more spoons in there.
Speaker 2: It's just I prefer the spoon. I used the spoon
Speaker 2: when I should use the fork. But I'm glad that
Speaker 2: not only was someone else able to find some amusement
Speaker 2: in this practice, but they were able to employ it
Speaker 2: in their daily life.
Speaker 3: In fact, I would say I probably used chopsticks more
Speaker 3: than forks. I think my ranking would go spoon, chopsticks fork.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, we do use a lot of chopsticks, and
Speaker 2: I'm sometimes inclined to use chopsticks when some might think
Speaker 2: I shouldn't. But it I don't know if Team Chopstick
Speaker 2: ever won because that, you know, you have to have
Speaker 2: to build up a lot of chopsticks. Really, I don't
Speaker 2: know if we have enough chopsticks to beat Team Spoon. Also,
Speaker 2: there's a I don't know, you can get really casual
Speaker 2: and even cavalier whether you use of spoons. At least
Speaker 2: I find myself doing that. You know, you get a
Speaker 2: spoon out, single use and then he goes to the dishwasher.
Speaker 2: You're cooking, you need to taste what you've been cooking,
Speaker 2: while you just whip out a spoon, use it for tasting,
Speaker 2: and now you know, I'm not going to double dip,
Speaker 2: I'm going to put it in the dishwasher, and so
Speaker 2: by the time I'm done, it's like that's five spoons
Speaker 2: just from cooking.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Rachel and I were talking about exactly this just
Speaker 3: the other day, about how like we'll be cooking and
Speaker 3: find ourselves in need of a spoon and realize we
Speaker 3: just dropped a spoon in the in the dish pile
Speaker 3: like four seconds earlier. I don't know, there's this habit
Speaker 3: to instinct to get rid of it when you're gonna
Speaker 3: need it again almost immediately.
Speaker 2: You know. And I like putting peanut butter on things,
Speaker 2: but sometimes there's nothing to spread it on. I am
Speaker 2: not too proud to take a spoon, put it in
Speaker 2: the peanut butter and then just have the peanut butter plane.
Speaker 2: But again, I'm not going to double dip. I'm going
Speaker 2: to get a fresh spoon, even if it means that
Speaker 2: I'm going to go through five spoons just in the
Speaker 2: course of a snack. And I'm not going to use
Speaker 2: a knife. And what lick the knife? Gary oldman? Vampire
Speaker 2: style bloody peanut butter.
Speaker 3: All right, let's see. You want to get into some
Speaker 3: of the responses about ice skates.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do take your pick. All right, let's see,
Speaker 2: we'd just start at the top here. This one comes
Speaker 2: to us from Quinn on the subject of ice skating
Speaker 2: on frozen lakes. In your ice skate episode, you pondered
Speaker 2: about skating at a slower speed on frozen water bodies
Speaker 2: because of a fear of going through the ice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we were wondering about that because we didn't know,
Speaker 3: like if there is more of like a variable thickness
Speaker 3: in the ice on a lake, and like, would there
Speaker 3: be a danger that would make you kind of have
Speaker 3: to tread more carefully, like slow down because you don't
Speaker 3: know what's ahead of you. We didn't know because we
Speaker 3: don't have experience ice skating on natural bodies of water.
Speaker 2: Well, Quinn chimes in here and says, most of the
Speaker 2: time this is not a factor at all. Ice s
Speaker 2: gets deep in cold places fairly quickly after freezing over,
Speaker 2: and you can clearly see how deep it is, similar
Speaker 2: to the way ice cubes crack when dropped into water,
Speaker 2: but do not come apart. Lake ice cracks. If you
Speaker 2: see the cracks go three inches deep, you're good to go.
Speaker 2: Most of the time, it's more like ten plus inches plus.
Speaker 2: Pickup trucks dragging ice fishing houses on the lake are
Speaker 2: very reassuring. Pressure ridges can make local danger zones, But
Speaker 2: I have skated for miles without such obstacles. I'm fairly
Speaker 2: comfortable on skates, but lack sharp turning and fast stopping
Speaker 2: skills displayed by hockey and figure skaters. So the wide
Speaker 2: open spaces of a whole lake means I am not
Speaker 2: impeded by slower ice skaters and constant turns that are
Speaker 2: normal at indoor rinks, so I can skate faster. Lake
Speaker 2: skating is not, however, easier. It is quite rare that
Speaker 2: the ice forms without any wind. The result is little
Speaker 2: ripples that you do glide over, but with a little
Speaker 2: chatter that is not as efficient as smooth ice. Also,
Speaker 2: it is common to have thin collections of snow that
Speaker 2: you can usually skate through, but with more drag, and
Speaker 2: occasionally those snow spots are deep enough to bring you
Speaker 2: to a quick but manageable stop. Of course, there can
Speaker 2: be exceptions to the normal. Once the lake had frozen deep,
Speaker 2: then there were a few warm days with rain before
Speaker 2: going cold again. The rain mostly smoothed out the lake,
Speaker 2: but here and there were puddles that had not quite
Speaker 2: frozen through to the base layer of ice. Hit one
Speaker 2: of those and your skate breaks through The ice blade
Speaker 2: then has to either rip through the top ice sheet
Speaker 2: or come to a sudden stop. The ice would generally
Speaker 2: not give way. If you were on one skate, you
Speaker 2: could stumble through to solid ice, but if both stopped
Speaker 2: at once, there was nothing you could do to prevent
Speaker 2: going down. On a totally different note back on the
Speaker 2: cotton candy episode, you commented that cotton candy is not
Speaker 2: that great tasting, as it is always the same sickening
Speaker 2: sweet flavor. There is a local vendor who shows up
Speaker 2: at my kids after school events who has a full
Speaker 2: menu of flavors. Not liking standard cotton candy that much,
Speaker 2: I have tried both chaiki and earl gray flavors. Sweet, yes,
Speaker 2: but quite enjoyable.
Speaker 3: Oh thanks, Quinn. I'm honestly having a hard time imagining
Speaker 3: a tea flavored cotton candy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it does make sense
Speaker 2: that it would still be sweet. I mean, I don't
Speaker 2: think you can have anything but sweet cotton candy.
Speaker 3: As it made of the sugar.
Speaker 2: Yeah, having savory cotton candy, but but yeah, I hadn't
Speaker 2: really thought about there being any additional flavor profile to it,
Speaker 2: So I don't. No, I don't know if it's enough
Speaker 2: for me to actually try cotton candy again. But I
Speaker 2: don't know if there was somebody doing upscale bespoke cotton candy,
Speaker 2: I guess I would perhaps give into the temptation cotton candy.
Speaker 3: Earl Gray hot.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: But also thank you Quinn for the feedback on what
Speaker 3: it's like to skate on lake ice. Yeah. Yeah, we
Speaker 3: have no experience here, so that's interesting. And we have
Speaker 3: another message on this subject from Taylor, who says a
Speaker 3: subject line here the freedom of lake ice. Hello, Robert
Speaker 3: and Joe. I enjoyed your recent episode on the Invention
Speaker 3: of ice skating, just as I've enjoyed all your episodes
Speaker 3: for the past six years or so. In the episode,
Speaker 3: Joe speculated that a skater might feel more confident on
Speaker 3: a rink than on lake ice because the danger of
Speaker 3: thin ice is controlled. I have found just the opposite
Speaker 3: to be true. I grew up in Utah, where I
Speaker 3: only had access to a handful of ice rinks, and
Speaker 3: these were always thoroughly congested with skaters. My experience with
Speaker 3: ice skating was stalled permanently in that always remembering how
Speaker 3: it's done zone, and consisted mostly of trying to stay
Speaker 3: vertical and not run into anybody on the densely packed rink. Frankly,
Speaker 3: I found ice skating miserable and never understood the appeal.
Speaker 3: Then last year, my wife and I moved to Minnesota.
Speaker 3: In Utah, I was a big downhill skier, but have
Speaker 3: traded my mountains for lakes. I have had to find
Speaker 3: a new way to stay active and enjoy the outdoors
Speaker 3: in the long winter months. My wife and friends suggested
Speaker 3: ice skating, and at first I was hesitant, having only
Speaker 3: had my packed like sardines Utah rinks to inform my experience.
Speaker 3: But eventually I relented and tried my first skate on
Speaker 3: lake ice. It was a completely different experience. Without being
Speaker 3: crowded by bodies on every side, I felt free to
Speaker 3: explore my movement on the ice in a way I
Speaker 3: had never been able to on a public rink. I
Speaker 3: progressed rapidly past the plateau skill I'd always been stuck
Speaker 3: at before, and experienced the euphoria of gliding fast and
Speaker 3: frictionless over frozen water. Now granted, these experiences were on
Speaker 3: well tested, thoroughly frozen lakes with little danger of falling
Speaker 3: through the ice. Many lakes in Minnesota also have sections
Speaker 3: conditioned by small hand pushed to Zamboni's to smooth out
Speaker 3: the skating surface. But if you have never experienced skating
Speaker 3: on an open lake and you have the opportunity to
Speaker 3: do so safely, I would highly recommend it. I am
Speaker 3: thoroughly snobbish about rinks now and will shamelessly say that
Speaker 3: the experience doesn't even compare as always. Thank you for
Speaker 3: filling so many hours of my life with your thought
Speaker 3: provoking ruminations. I get a little spike of joy every
Speaker 3: time I see a new Mainline or Weird House episode
Speaker 3: in the feed, Thanks tailor ps. I think the big
Speaker 3: factor here is the alleviation of social pressures created by
Speaker 3: a rink. If you take a spill on a rink,
Speaker 3: at best you embarrass yourself and inconvenience others, and worst
Speaker 3: you injure someone else. But on a lake you have
Speaker 3: enough space that messing up only means hurting yourself. That
Speaker 3: freedom to fail allowed me to enjoy the sport in
Speaker 3: a way I never could before.
Speaker 2: Hmmm, Oh that's a good point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks Taylor, great perspective. I can totally see that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Like when I have I skated recently here in Atlanta,
Speaker 2: it is not only the fear of falling down, but
Speaker 2: falling into people or in front of people. And the
Speaker 2: only kind of ringks, to my knowledge that we have
Speaker 2: around here that we get during the colder months are
Speaker 2: going to be just your basic going around in a circle.
Speaker 2: And yeah, there are going to be a bunch of kids.
Speaker 2: Many of them are going to be using those little
Speaker 2: trainer props you know, which can is good. It helps
Speaker 2: kids from falling down, but it also creates this kind
Speaker 2: of like additional obstacle that you might crash into.
Speaker 3: In my experience, and I've gone in circles before.
Speaker 2: I mean it's going in circles is great once you
Speaker 2: get it going though. Oddly enough, now coming back to Wales,
Speaker 2: when we were when we visited Wales, we did see
Speaker 2: some ice outdoor ice rinks there that were a lot
Speaker 2: more elaborate, like almost they kind of reminded me of
Speaker 2: some of the race tracks for hot wheels or whatever,
Speaker 2: the motocross, Yeah, that sort of thing, and I was
Speaker 2: really impressed. We did not really have time to check
Speaker 2: it out, but I was like, man, I kind of
Speaker 2: wish we had ice skating like this back home. All right.
Speaker 2: This next one comes to us from l and this
Speaker 2: again is in response to our episode on roller skates.
Speaker 2: The listener here begins by mentioning that they were listening
Speaker 2: to our show. Then they listened to a different show,
Speaker 2: and then they came back to ours, and they were
Speaker 2: delighted to see that we had an episode on roller skates.
Speaker 2: And they have the following to share. Personally, I remember
Speaker 2: going to roller skating rinks as a summer camp excursion
Speaker 2: in the very early nineties and always feeling a sort
Speaker 2: of dread whilst attempting to skate upon tiny va. The
Speaker 2: stopping mechanisms were always completely beyond my comprehension. Later, I
Speaker 2: remember roller skating rink birthday parties being a mild fad
Speaker 2: in late elementary school. I actually really enjoyed them because
Speaker 2: I was then wearing far more intuitive roller blades, as
Speaker 2: they seem to function more like ice skates. Anyways, the
Speaker 2: main reason for my male is to bring to light
Speaker 2: a weird Shakespearean reference. Towards the end of the episode,
Speaker 2: you read a passage from Ja Harwood's Rinks and Rollers
Speaker 2: in which he states these violent beginnings have violent ends
Speaker 2: fifty eight to twenty. I include the time stampley the
Speaker 2: detail this.
Speaker 3: Are you a librarian well.
Speaker 2: Or perhaps a podcaster? Yeah themselves. This is a reference,
Speaker 2: perhaps unintentional, to Romeo and Juliet, when the character Friar
Speaker 2: Lawrence says these violent delights have violent ends, commenting on
Speaker 2: how Romeo and Juliet's intense passion slash love will ultimately
Speaker 2: lead to a tragedy of equal intensity spoiler for Romeo
Speaker 2: and Juliet, they continued. When I heard you read his lines,
Speaker 2: I thought, Jesus, surely roller skating will not result in
Speaker 2: such genre defining tragedy. Best of luck in your continuous
Speaker 2: pursuit of knowledge. This is a great point, because yes,
Speaker 2: that quote was ludicrous. I mean there was that whole
Speaker 2: article was got kind of ludicrous, and that's why that's
Speaker 2: why I had to read it, because, Yeah, this idea
Speaker 2: that like this frenzy, this this lust for roller skating
Speaker 2: was just like unhealthy for the general public.
Speaker 3: Because it would exhaust the body. Wasn't that one of
Speaker 3: the reasons they gave, like people shouldn't be getting this
Speaker 3: much exercise.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and the argument too is I think the
Speaker 2: roller skating rinks are not open long enough for the rinkers,
Speaker 2: and so they're just getting in there and they're working
Speaker 2: way too hard. If you just remain open longer. Then
Speaker 2: they won't tire themselves out, so they won't just throw
Speaker 2: themselves at it so hard.
Speaker 3: That is odd logic to say the least.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, so this. I don't think this came up
Speaker 3: when we were talking about our own experiences with roller
Speaker 3: skating rinks, But I just had a random memory now
Speaker 3: that the main roller skating rink that you know, where
Speaker 3: all the birthday parties in my elementary school were. So
Speaker 3: I was going to this thing all the time. Uh
Speaker 3: it It had a roller skating section, but it also
Speaker 3: had an arcade with like, you know, cabinet arcade games
Speaker 3: like it had I think Mortal Kombat two or something,
Speaker 3: and I remember being in there and playing those arcade
Speaker 3: games with skates on, which was funny because you'd be
Speaker 3: standing there at the machine like trying to you know,
Speaker 3: press the buttons but losing your balance.
Speaker 2: Also, yeah, it's still like that. I've been to a
Speaker 2: number of local Atlanta roller rinks and yeah, there's there's
Speaker 2: still going to be a line of arcade machines over
Speaker 2: on one side of the roller rank.
Speaker 3: The kids can't be bothered to take the skates off
Speaker 3: to play them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, there some du some, don't you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But anyway, I thought of that because the violent
Speaker 3: delights have violent ends. I mean, there was some real
Speaker 3: violence at my roller skating rinks, but it was of
Speaker 3: the sort of cartoon video game variety.
Speaker 2: All Right, what else do we have here, Joe in
Speaker 2: the old mail bag?
Speaker 3: Okay, let's see, I'm going to do this message from
Speaker 3: Bow about phishing emails. And this has been a recurring
Speaker 3: subject on listener Mail since our episodes earlier this year
Speaker 3: on cynicism. The context was we talked in those episodes
Speaker 3: about how I think digital scams like these text message
Speaker 3: and email scams are more damaging than is often realized
Speaker 3: because they don't only hurt the people who get scammed
Speaker 3: and lose the money. I think the kind of constant
Speaker 3: hum of ongoing scam threats in the background of our
Speaker 3: lives undermines general social trust, which is terrible for us
Speaker 3: in so many ways. So that's what we were talking about.
Speaker 3: And then Bo comes in here about these fishing emails. Hi, guys,
Speaker 3: after listening to your recent listener Mail episode where you
Speaker 3: touched on the subject of phishing fishing with a pH,
Speaker 3: I have to write you about a couple of experiences.
Speaker 3: A few weeks ago, I received an email from FedEx
Speaker 3: stating that I was receiving a reimbursement payment click on
Speaker 3: the link for details. Obviously a phishing attempt, I thought
Speaker 3: and deleted the mail. However, a couple of weeks later
Speaker 3: I received a payment from FedEx of about two hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty dollars on my credit card. What but the
Speaker 3: amount did ring a bell. Several months earlier, I had
Speaker 3: helped some colleagues in Greenland with a shipment of some
Speaker 3: tires bought in the US for their flying club SESNA.
Speaker 3: Shipping from the US to Greenland is expensive, so the
Speaker 3: plan was to send the tires to Canada, where I
Speaker 3: was attending an air Greenland aircraft in for heavy maintenance,
Speaker 3: and then put them on that aircraft when returning Greenland.
Speaker 3: Good plan, except there was a hefty customs fee charged
Speaker 3: by FedEx. I did the paperwork and payment not thinking
Speaker 3: much more about it. But as the tires were re exported,
Speaker 3: the fee was reimbursed, although it took a long time
Speaker 3: and I had forgotten all about it. The moral of
Speaker 3: the story is that what looks like a duck and
Speaker 3: quacks like a duck may actually not always be a duck.
Speaker 3: In this case, what clearly looked like a phishing attempt
Speaker 3: was actually legit, but doing nothing did not hurt the situation.
Speaker 3: In any case, do not click on links, log into
Speaker 3: the company page separately, or call you know, Bo. It's funny.
Speaker 3: This kind of illustrates exactly what I was talking about
Speaker 3: with the undermining of general trust because of our awareness
Speaker 3: of scams. Like, you see something that kind of looks
Speaker 3: like it could be a scam, so you just delete
Speaker 3: it and don't think a second thing about it. In
Speaker 3: the case, in some cases it actually turns out to
Speaker 3: be a real communication. Though you're right that you know,
Speaker 3: there's not a whole lot that seems to be gained
Speaker 3: from like actually clicking links and following through and you know,
Speaker 3: especially not going through a line to enter any information,
Speaker 3: even if it is a real point of contact. You know,
Speaker 3: you can go the outside in way that Bo mentions,
Speaker 3: like you go to the company's website and you you know,
Speaker 3: contact them. But Bo goes on to say, the second
Speaker 3: thing is about active training to spot phishing or other
Speaker 3: malware distributed by email. There are plug in apps that
Speaker 3: companies can put on their mail server that allow any
Speaker 3: user to report suspected malware by one click on an icon.
Speaker 3: The brilliant thing is that the app sends out simulated
Speaker 3: malware mails once in a while. If you spot it
Speaker 3: and report it, you get points and eventually quote batches
Speaker 3: and a ranking within your company. If you click it,
Speaker 3: you get a short instruction on how to spot it
Speaker 3: next time. It actually becomes a challenge like a game,
Speaker 3: where you are incentivized to constantly be on the out,
Speaker 3: on the lookout for suspect mails. Hawks Hunt is the
Speaker 3: one I'm familiar with, but there are certainly others out there. Sorry,
Speaker 3: this mail became too long, but a shout out to
Speaker 3: encourage the use of mail training programs would be nice.
Speaker 3: Phishing slash malware is an increasing problem that can be
Speaker 3: devastating for companies, and such apps can help preventing it. Also,
Speaker 3: if your company does it, everyone becomes more alert, even
Speaker 3: on their private channels of communication. Best regards, BO from Copenhagen, Denmark,
Speaker 3: sometimes Greenland and Canada. Well, BO, I assume many listeners
Speaker 3: are having the same thoughts Rob and I are here,
Speaker 3: which is like, oh, yeah, my company does this all
Speaker 3: the time. I don't know if we use a software
Speaker 3: tool like the one you're talking about. But you know,
Speaker 3: people in all kinds of corporate environments are probably constantly
Speaker 3: getting from their local information security officer, getting little tricky
Speaker 3: emails that look like one of these various scam attempts,
Speaker 3: and you know, if you click the link, you'll get
Speaker 3: a little gentle like, hey, that's why you know you
Speaker 3: shouldn't do this. But they try to train you to
Speaker 3: be suspicious of them, and you know what, that's a
Speaker 3: good thing to do. It certainly is. But at the
Speaker 3: same time, it does make me ignore legitimate emails. This
Speaker 3: has happened to me before.
Speaker 2: I mean, basically the whole situation makes me assume all
Speaker 2: email is is a scam of some sort. Unfortunately, as
Speaker 2: we've been discussing, it just sort of like breaks down
Speaker 2: your trust. But but yeah, I do agree that these
Speaker 2: training programs are good. I you know, sometimes it might
Speaker 2: make me roll my eyes a little bit, but at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, it's like I it makes
Speaker 2: me a little sharper that oftentimes will break down the
Speaker 2: the email that they sent afterwards and say like, these
Speaker 2: were the fishy parts. How many of these these these
Speaker 2: these suspect aspects of the email that you pick up on,
Speaker 2: and I think I find that pretty helpful.
Speaker 3: But then it's also hilarious when, like the company actually
Speaker 3: does send you an email from an external address that
Speaker 3: has typos in it and wants you to click a link.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's kind of what BO is referring to here, right, Like,
Speaker 2: eventually an official email email is going to come to
Speaker 2: you that has that is going to light up your
Speaker 2: suspicions one way or another. There'll be something weird about it,
Speaker 2: and it may be legit, but you know, it's kind
Speaker 2: of on them for making it look fishy to begin with.
Speaker 2: All right, let's move on to a little bit of
Speaker 2: weird house cinema, shall we.
Speaker 3: Sounds great?
Speaker 2: This one comes to us from Ariel Ariel Wrights and
Speaker 2: and says, I'm Ariel he from Argentina, writing to you
Speaker 2: for the second time. The first time you read my
Speaker 2: email on the show, it completely made my year. Stuff
Speaker 2: to Blow Your Mind remains my favorite podcast, especially because
Speaker 2: of your in depth explorations from multiple viewpoints and your
Speaker 2: eloquent ways of expressing complex ideas. I recently finished reading HG.
Speaker 2: Wells classic eighteen ninety five book The Time machine, and
Speaker 2: I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd love to hear your perspectives,
Speaker 2: especially regarding a particular aspect that caught my attention, the
Speaker 2: method of time travel itself.
Speaker 3: We've talked about this novel multiple times on the show.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I don't remember exactly all the episodes that's
Speaker 3: come up, but we've done fairly deep dives on it
Speaker 3: in the past. I think we certainly talked about it
Speaker 3: a bit in our Weird House Cinema episode on Time
Speaker 3: after Time, which is a fictionalized version of HG. Well's
Speaker 3: chasing Jack the Ripper through time in a time machine.
Speaker 3: But we've also talked about it in core episodes going
Speaker 3: back many years now. But yeah, this is a book
Speaker 3: I've I read when I was in high school, and
Speaker 3: I remember being very interested in at the time, and
Speaker 3: I come back to it every few years and think
Speaker 3: about it in some new ways.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a very readable book. It's quite short as well.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we might be a little suspicious of older books
Speaker 2: and we think they're going to be a little too
Speaker 2: crunchy for easy consumption, but this one goes down rather
Speaker 2: easily and has a lot of thought provoking ideas. And
Speaker 2: some wonderful world building in it. Yeah, anyway, Aeriel continues
Speaker 2: and says, this is the earliest story I've encountered where
Speaker 2: the time traveler literally travels through time, experiencing it like
Speaker 2: a sort of accelerated fast forward, rather than instantly teleporting
Speaker 2: into another era. Often wondered why in teleportation style time travel,
Speaker 2: the traveler doesn't reappear floating in space, given that the
Speaker 2: Earth itself has moved. Wells's method neatly addresses the issue.
Speaker 2: The character remains physically anchored as he moves forward in time,
Speaker 2: akin to tossing a ball straight up into the air
Speaker 2: and catching it on a rapidly moving plane. After finishing
Speaker 2: the book, I began looking into adaptations and learned that
Speaker 2: at least three films have been made based on this story.
Speaker 2: And he's about to list these movies. These are all
Speaker 2: films that we could potentially cover on Weird House Cinema. Obviously,
Speaker 2: the nineteen sixty film, directed by George Powell, celebrated for
Speaker 2: its visual effects and closeness to the original novel. I
Speaker 2: should also add this film is responsible for giving us
Speaker 2: what we might think of as the iconic cinematic morlocks
Speaker 2: and then there's the nineteen seventy eight television film adaptation
Speaker 2: by Sun Classic Pictures. Not sure I've seen this one myself.
Speaker 2: I haven't either, And then we just referenced this one
Speaker 2: on a recent episode of Weird House. The two thousand
Speaker 2: and two film, directed by Simon Wells, h G. Wells's
Speaker 2: own great grandson, which notably introduces major narrative changes, such
Speaker 2: as a romantic storyline and a different cause of civilization's collapse.
Speaker 3: I think I've only seen the nineteen sixty film, and
Speaker 3: that was a long long time ago, so I basically
Speaker 3: have not seen any of these as an adult.
Speaker 2: I saw the two thousand and two and when it
Speaker 2: came out, and I remember enjoying it. It's it's wild,
Speaker 2: but you get to see Jeremy Irons as an uber Morlock.
Speaker 2: So that's that's worth worth the ticket right there. Hey Yeah,
Speaker 2: So anyway, he continues and says, I decided to watch
Speaker 2: the nineteen sixty adaptation, but upon viewing the trailer, I
Speaker 2: realized there's only one way for me to truly enjoy
Speaker 2: it as part of a Weird House Cinema episode. Once
Speaker 2: I saw how the Morlocks the monstrous subterranean creatures of
Speaker 2: the future were portrayed. It seemed perfect for a Weird
Speaker 2: House discussion. Thank you once again for your brilliant content.
Speaker 2: I hope you consider covering this fascinating story in It's
Speaker 2: a Aaptation sometime warm regards Ariel Argentina.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Ariel. Yeah, great suggestion. I would be shocked
Speaker 3: if we don't come back to at least one of
Speaker 3: these time machine adaptations at some point.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, we need to, so stay tuned, all right.
Speaker 3: This next message comes from Maya. Maya says, Dear Robin Joe,
Speaker 3: since I listened to your episode on La Caabina. The
Speaker 3: original email here said I think Lacaeseta, but I'm positive
Speaker 3: Miamin's Lacabina, the telephone box movie that we covered on
Speaker 3: Weird House, the Spanish film and Lia says, since I
Speaker 3: listened to your episode on Lacabina a few months back,
Speaker 3: I've been meaning to write about El Angel Exterminador The
Speaker 3: Exterminating Angel, a classic by Luis Bouniel filmed in Mexico.
Speaker 3: It explores many of the same themes and has the
Speaker 3: same aura of incomprehensible oppression as Lacabina that I guess
Speaker 3: many Spaniards felt after the Civil War and Franco's regime.
Speaker 3: It has many levels of weirdness that you might enjoy also,
Speaker 3: and just for your eyes, since I don't think it
Speaker 3: was ever dubbed, I recommend the short La Puerta The Door,
Speaker 3: also by Bouniell. It has a transcript that I guess
Speaker 3: can be translated, but in the end it can be
Speaker 3: understood even without it. Perhaps you find it entertaining. Many
Speaker 3: other bouniel films have the same weird texture to them,
Speaker 3: for instance, Unpero and de Luz an Andalusian Dog. I'm
Speaker 3: sure that's come up on the show before. He and
Speaker 3: other Spanish refugees represent another side of Mexico's golden age
Speaker 3: of cinema, more serious perhaps, but not totally devoid of
Speaker 3: alien Fem's fatale best maya.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, this is this is interesting that that this
Speaker 2: listener should bring up The Exterminating Angel. I've never seen it,
Speaker 2: but it's it's been, always been. It's been on my
Speaker 2: radar for a while because in a supporting role. It
Speaker 2: does feature Claudio Brook, who continues to be I think
Speaker 2: one of my favorite Mexican actors.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this has been on my list to check out
Speaker 3: for a while. I I haven't seen it yet either,
Speaker 3: though I had the classic experience of my freshman year
Speaker 3: of college was when I saw I learned it as
Speaker 3: in chin Andalou, the French name I guess the Andalusian dog.
Speaker 3: The film Bouniel I think, made with Salvador Dali, is
Speaker 3: that right where they There are many famous shots in it.
Speaker 3: The most famous is the cutting open of the eyeball
Speaker 3: where they substitute in. I think it was actually like
Speaker 3: a sheep's eyeball that they slice open. You see the
Speaker 3: jelly come out, so it's like one of the original
Speaker 3: Gore films. But also has I remember just being very
Speaker 3: interesting in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2: It is often that clip is often featured in any
Speaker 2: content that's talking about sort of like the power of cinema.
Speaker 2: So I've seen that clip multiple times without ever having
Speaker 2: actually watched the original production.
Speaker 3: But yeah, absolutely. Once again, thank you for the recommendation, Maya,
Speaker 3: and thanks for writing in.
Speaker 2: All right, here's another one. This one comes to us
Speaker 2: from a listener by the name of Chuck. Chuck says, Hello,
Speaker 2: Robin Joe. I have written in before, but again I
Speaker 2: wanted to say that the amount of care and attention
Speaker 2: to detail to the subject matter you bring to each
Speaker 2: episode or series of episodes is impressive. You have trained
Speaker 2: me quite well to reserve my judgment on topics where
Speaker 2: I initially think I will have little interest, because you
Speaker 2: always managed to bring up interesting facets or divergent conversation
Speaker 2: threads that end up making excellent party conversation starters. So
Speaker 2: thanks for what you do. It is appreciated. However, I
Speaker 2: am writing today about several Weird House Cinema episodes and
Speaker 2: I was curious to know your thoughts. Most importantly, though
Speaker 2: it is quite late to say at this point, and
Speaker 2: I add it's never too late write in any episodes. One,
Speaker 2: but thank you for covering a John Carpenter directed film,
Speaker 2: Prince of Darkness. I am old enough to remember the
Speaker 2: newspaper movie ads for it, and despite the poster really
Speaker 2: having so little to do with the actual content of
Speaker 2: the film, it definitely hyped my interest. My friends and
Speaker 2: I all went to see the movie on opening weekend.
Speaker 2: We were not yet seventeen, but my friend's mother, who
Speaker 2: thought the movie was a Christian film about avoiding the
Speaker 2: temptations of the devil and that the R rating was
Speaker 2: due to a graphic depiction of the Crucifixion, bought our
Speaker 2: tickets and dropped us off at the theater.
Speaker 3: Wow, that is a switcheroo.
Speaker 2: I mean, I do have questions about the train of
Speaker 2: thought that led to that specific interpretation or the misinformation
Speaker 2: that led her towards that. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: I mean, when you have promotionary promotional material for films,
Speaker 2: especially without access to IMDb in the old days, you know,
Speaker 2: you ended up building these narratives out about what this
Speaker 2: film was, what its values were, and what kind of
Speaker 2: experience it would be. So, I mean I did that
Speaker 2: all the time.
Speaker 3: But the mom bought them all tickets, thinking she was
Speaker 3: sending them in to see like an R rated left Behind.
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean I know plenty of I've heard I
Speaker 2: think I mentioned this in our RoboCop episode. You know,
Speaker 2: I know plenty of people whose moms were like, oh, yeah, RoboCop.
Speaker 2: This sounds like it's the kid's movie. Here, you go,
Speaker 2: rented it four years you kids, just watch it tonight,
Speaker 2: you know, without even without looking deeper and just thinking like,
Speaker 2: it's a film about it's called RoboCop. How could that
Speaker 2: not be appropriate for children? All Right? I'll continue with
Speaker 2: Chuck se okay okay. Chuck says, anyway, we love the
Speaker 2: film with all its weird mix of sci fi and horror.
Speaker 2: The science concepts went over our heads, but we loved
Speaker 2: the cast and sprinkled humor throughout. The final shot of
Speaker 2: the protagonist reaching out to touch the mirror and maybe
Speaker 2: about to really be able to reach through it, before
Speaker 2: the scene cutting to black sent a loud gas through
Speaker 2: the theater. As we walked home from the theater back
Speaker 2: to our subdivision, we passed by a small man made pond.
Speaker 2: The night was windless, so the surface was you guessed it,
Speaker 2: like a mirror. We wondered how big the anti god
Speaker 2: of the film really was. Did the entity need a
Speaker 2: mirror surface this large to actually come through or was
Speaker 2: the entity going to come through the wall mirror like
Speaker 2: toothpaste from a tube. After all, the initial attempt with
Speaker 2: the makeup mirror was unsuccessful for being too small a portal,
Speaker 2: and did the entity need a mirror or just a
Speaker 2: mirror surface? But we were all wigged out by that
Speaker 2: pond and by bathroom mirrors for a long while after
Speaker 2: we saw Prince of Darkness, and for many years afterwards,
Speaker 2: and many subsequent viewings. One of our in jokes is
Speaker 2: to refer to people we've met by saying that was
Speaker 2: Susan who radiologists classes. I totally, I totally get all
Speaker 2: of these these thoughts about the mirrors. I love mirror
Speaker 2: based speculative fiction, horror, sci fi, and I I guess
Speaker 2: most of its horror and supernatural because, as I think
Speaker 2: we've discussed in the show before, it like digs into
Speaker 2: some basic human inabilities to understand mirrors at times, and
Speaker 2: when I watched something like Prince of Darkness or Oculus,
Speaker 2: or I read say Stephen King's The Reaper's Image or
Speaker 2: something like that, it does kind of mess with my
Speaker 2: perceptions of mirrors for a while. And I may even
Speaker 2: think things like these mirrors we have today are irresponsibly large.
Speaker 2: Who knows what could crawl through? Borges being another, and
Speaker 2: he has some wonderful works about mirrors.
Speaker 3: The mirrors are somewhat potent for me as a horror
Speaker 3: image for all of those reasons. Certainly, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 3: like the counterintuitive aspects of a mirror that you look
Speaker 3: in them all the time so you think you fully
Speaker 3: understand them. But as we've talked about on the show,
Speaker 3: like people actually intuitively incorrectly predict how mirrors work and
Speaker 3: kind of unfamiliar scenarios, like they misunderstand how the light
Speaker 3: reflects on them and how the angles work and everything.
Speaker 3: So there is definitely all that. But also when I
Speaker 3: was a kid, when I was like in elementary school,
Speaker 3: I went through a mirror phobia phase. I think this
Speaker 3: was started by a kid at like a summer camp
Speaker 3: telling me about the Bloody Mary Party game, and I
Speaker 3: got freaked out, Like I was scared of that for
Speaker 3: a while. I don't still have any of that fear,
Speaker 3: but I think the mirror retains some horror potent, see,
Speaker 3: because I can kind of remember that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'm not going to ask you to say
Speaker 2: your name two more times, so don't bring all right,
Speaker 2: Chuck continues and says, I also wanted to add a
Speaker 2: short comment and a brief board game suggestion based on
Speaker 2: your coverage and discussion of Akira Krissawa's Dreams. Specifically, you
Speaker 2: said that one of the film's main themes is respect
Speaker 2: for and attunement to nature through contemplation, meditation, and joy.
Speaker 2: This theme seems to be all throughout Nyazaki's work as well,
Speaker 2: so I am curious how much influence came from that
Speaker 2: or if that was the general vibe in Japan at
Speaker 2: the time of production.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you'd say it was the general
Speaker 3: vibe in Japan, but I would say that environmentalism and
Speaker 3: ecological consciousness is a popular theme with many artists in
Speaker 3: filmmakers in twentieth century Japan.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I have seen interviews with Nyazaki where he
Speaker 2: does refer fondly to Kurasawa's work and praises Kurisawa's work,
Speaker 2: so there's some connection there as well. Yeah, Chuck continues.
Speaker 2: Also because the game is amazing and follows the theme
Speaker 2: of respect for and attunement to nature as well, I
Speaker 2: heartily recommend earth Born Rangers by Earthborn Games, now in
Speaker 2: its second printing. Earthborn Rangers is an open world adventure
Speaker 2: card set I guess a card games set in a
Speaker 2: post post apocalyptic Earth of the far future. Players take
Speaker 2: on the role of rangers who patrol a valley and
Speaker 2: encounter strange plants, animals, and eclectic people, artifacts and settlements.
Speaker 2: The game's environment interacts with itself in very interesting ways
Speaker 2: as the players explore. Additionally, all the art is highly
Speaker 2: reminiscent of Studio Ghibli films. Now, I have no stake
Speaker 2: in Earthborn Rangers. I'm just a player, but I can't
Speaker 2: say enough good things about it. Between the art, the
Speaker 2: sci fi theme, and the way the game sticks with
Speaker 2: you after you play, It's like being in your own
Speaker 2: Miazaki film. My eleven year old loves it as much
Speaker 2: as I do. As a bonus, the entire game is
Speaker 2: sustainably produced. Thanks again for your time and your work
Speaker 2: since early Chuck, Well.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Chuck. I never heard of this game, but
Speaker 3: it sounds interesting.
Speaker 2: All right. I'm just good. I had never heard of
Speaker 2: this game either. I'm pulling it up here. I'm just
Speaker 2: scanning some of the art in Yeah, I'm getting getting
Speaker 2: a kind of relaxed Miyazaki inspired vibe, you know, from
Speaker 2: all of this, So I'm gonna have to check it out.
Speaker 2: We're always looking for good games in this household.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll keep this in mind as well. On the
Speaker 3: subject of Miyazaki Robot, I don't know if I told
Speaker 3: you this yet, but just the past couple of weeks,
Speaker 3: we showed my daughter Kiki's delivery service and it was
Speaker 3: a big hit, and so she's she's riding her broom
Speaker 3: around the house right now, she's a witch.
Speaker 2: Oh that's awesome. You know, my kiddo was really into
Speaker 2: two Kiki, maybe around the same age. Now refresh my memory.
Speaker 2: Your kids watched Totoro already, right?
Speaker 3: Yes, basically the only two full movies she's seen are
Speaker 3: My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service. And she's watched
Speaker 3: part of Rock and Roll Wolf.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, just speaking for me as Acui films, I think,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, those are definitely the two to start
Speaker 2: with and from there, I don't know. We switched on
Speaker 2: to nausicaa pretty early, just because I love it so much,
Speaker 2: and I felt like every kid's different obviously, but I
Speaker 2: felt like mine could handle it.
Speaker 3: But I can't wait to show Nausica to her though
Speaker 3: I know it's that one's got some scary stuff in it.
Speaker 3: I think I need to wait till she's a bit older.
Speaker 2: Pontio was another one that we watched pretty early, but
Speaker 2: like with all of these, they touched on some serious elements,
Speaker 2: and you know, every kid's different. Again. When we showed
Speaker 2: Ponio to our kid, initially they were not into Ponto's
Speaker 2: father at all. Who's voiced by Liam Neeson in the
Speaker 2: Dutch version. They were like, he's way too serious, He's
Speaker 2: way too serious.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I never get tired of the Small Child as
Speaker 3: movie critic routine. I mean, I'm interested in their opinions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but back to Keiki, Yeah it's terrific. I love
Speaker 2: the dub and just love the film.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just beautiful.
Speaker 2: So good. All right, let's see what do we else
Speaker 2: do we have? Looks like we have just a couple
Speaker 2: of quick emails where people are pleading with us to
Speaker 2: cover certain pictures. Do you want to take one of
Speaker 2: these and then I'll take the other? Oh? Sure?
Speaker 3: Yeah. So the first short one is from Louisa. Luisa says, Hi, guys,
Speaker 3: as always, you are my favorite company for my chore
Speaker 3: doing time, both your Core episodes and Weird House. I
Speaker 3: recently came across this movie and immediately thought of you
Speaker 3: two Colossus the Forbin Project. I didn't write the year,
Speaker 3: but I think this was from nineteen seventy if I
Speaker 3: remember correctly, Luisa says, let me know if you've watched
Speaker 3: it already. Lots of love. Well, Louisa, thank you for
Speaker 3: the recommendation. This is already on my list, and I
Speaker 3: do hope to get around to it sometime. Though it
Speaker 3: is about a I think a giant killer artificial intelligence
Speaker 3: or supercomputer, which is a subject that I don't know.
Speaker 3: Just a few years ago I thought was a lot
Speaker 3: more fun and feel good, And now that's the subject
Speaker 3: to that genuinely kind of freaks me out.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, So maybe that means it's it's the
Speaker 2: wrong time or it's the absolutely the right time to
Speaker 2: discuss Colusus the Foreman Project. It's not one that I've seen,
Speaker 2: but I've long been familiar with it. I would I
Speaker 2: could be misremembering here, but what I want to say
Speaker 2: that Joel Hodgson of m ST three K was a
Speaker 2: fan of this film, though you know, I don't think
Speaker 2: it was ever rifted or anything like that.
Speaker 3: Well, either way, it is on the list and I
Speaker 3: hope to check it out sometime in the near future.
Speaker 2: All right, And then Aaron writes it and says, this
Speaker 2: may be a type of and I'm going to read
Speaker 2: it as written. Hell Robin, Joe Poulder, guys, please pretty
Speaker 2: please do Poulter, guys. Thanks warm regards, Aaron.
Speaker 3: The regards have got to be warm. They're coming from Hell.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we we've referenced Polder Guys before. I have a
Speaker 2: lot of thoughts about Poulder Guy. I don't know. I
Speaker 2: don't know. I have a lot of thoughts about Polar Guys.
Speaker 2: But it was perhaps the film that scared me the
Speaker 2: most as a child. Somehow I was able to watch
Speaker 2: part of polter Geist as a child, like on a
Speaker 2: VHS tape, and it just really wigged me out, and
Speaker 2: I've gone. I was resistant to returning to it for
Speaker 2: a long time. Then I rewatched it and I found
Speaker 2: a lot to love about it. Some of the effects
Speaker 2: didn't hold quite as well, but some of the effects
Speaker 2: are amazing. There's we could easily do a Poltergeist episode
Speaker 2: for sure. Yeah, even if we did, like there's Polder
Speaker 2: Geist is. I feel like it's a film that is
Speaker 2: sometimes overshadowed by various stories about its production and speculation
Speaker 2: of like, oh, did Toby Hooper direct it? Or did
Speaker 2: Steven Spielberg secretly directed and so forth? And I don't know.
Speaker 2: I feel like if we would have to acknowledge that discussion,
Speaker 2: but I think we would probably focus more on the
Speaker 2: picture itself and all the amazing, weird and sometimes stupid
Speaker 2: things that happen in that movie.
Speaker 3: I think we've briefly talked about the kind of roller
Speaker 3: coaster tone that some elements of it or are more
Speaker 3: like a have more of that Spielberghia kind of the
Speaker 3: family focused, a little bit more family friendly of a story,
Speaker 3: even if it gets a little scary. And then you've
Speaker 3: got these little stabbing moments like the face melting in
Speaker 3: the mirror scene that I just feel like they're from
Speaker 3: something else.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and then oh like just like the weird
Speaker 2: white dragon from the other side, and then the little
Speaker 2: girl getting stuck into television. There's so many, so many
Speaker 2: things in that that that really did creep me out
Speaker 2: as a kid. And you know, when you're a kid,
Speaker 2: you're I don't know, you're you're more susceptible to some
Speaker 2: of these things and gets in your gets in your mind,
Speaker 2: it embeds itself. And yeah, so Poultry Guys has has
Speaker 2: a special place in my heart for being weirdly traumatized.
Speaker 2: All Right, We're gonna go and close up the mail
Speaker 2: bag for now, but keep it coming right in about
Speaker 2: anything we discussed in this episode, anything we've covered in
Speaker 2: recent episodes of stuff to blow your Mind, short form episodes,
Speaker 2: and certainly Weird howse Cinema right in We would love
Speaker 2: to hear from you. Just a reminder that Stuff to
Speaker 2: Blow Your Mind is primarily a science and culture podcast,
Speaker 2: with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, short form episodes
Speaker 2: on Wednesdays and on Fridays. We set aside most serious
Speaker 2: concerns to just talk about a weird film on Weird
Speaker 2: House Cinema.
Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,
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