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Speaker 1: I guess what, mango? What's that? Well, so I was

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Speaker 1: thinking about Halloween last week. I don't know if you

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Speaker 1: knew this, but but Halloween was was last week? I

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Speaker 1: think I heard. I think I heard it was last year.

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Speaker 1: It turns out, turns out it was last week. But anyway,

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Speaker 1: there were so many great costumes out there, and I

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Speaker 1: think one of the things I realized is that as

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Speaker 1: many new costumes as there are, you know, things like

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Speaker 1: Fortnite and Black Panther and p J Mask, I mean,

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Speaker 1: you still see so many costumes that just never seem

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Speaker 1: to go away. So what do you think about all right? Well,

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Speaker 1: I was actually looking up the most searched for Halloween

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Speaker 1: costumes in America this year, and I wrote down some

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Speaker 1: of these. So here's some of the classics on that list.

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Speaker 1: You've got dinosaur, Unicorn, pirate, Princess, Ninja, mouse, which, mermaid, Rabbit.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like these could have been the

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Speaker 1: most popular Halloween costumes from like twenty or thirty years ago,

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Speaker 1: except rabbit. Like, you know, rabbit, why are you? Why

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Speaker 1: are you looking up like how to make a rabbit?

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Speaker 1: It feels pretty easy, you know, obviously for all the

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Speaker 1: listeners out there. We meant to do a Hallyween episode

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Speaker 1: last week, but we had some technical issues and we thought,

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Speaker 1: why don't we make up for it this week. Why

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Speaker 1: don't we use that list of like popular costumes to

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Speaker 1: inspire some new facts that everyone can share. All right, well,

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Speaker 1: I'm game for that, so let's dive in. Hey, their

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Speaker 1: podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson

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Speaker 1: and as always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh

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Speaker 1: how Ticketer and sitting behind the soundproof class with at

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Speaker 1: least ten tiny old Jack Lannards on his desk. I'd

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Speaker 1: say maybe a dozen or even a Baker's, doesn't Mango

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Speaker 1: all sitting on that desk and they are so old.

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Speaker 1: He carved each of these last week, and each one

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Speaker 1: is after a different Jack. Like he's got Jack Donneghee

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Speaker 1: from thirty Rock, He's got Jack Kennedy, one Jack Welch,

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Speaker 1: because I guess Tristan is really into g even a

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Speaker 1: Jack O'Brien from The Daily es Christ. I mean, Tristan

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Speaker 1: is truly an artist. That's right. That's our friended producer

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Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil. Now go, like we were saying at the

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Speaker 1: top of the show, there are a lot of Halloween

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Speaker 1: costumes that tend to repeat themselves year after year. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's funny. I I think one of the best things

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Speaker 1: about having kids is that you get to see them

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Speaker 1: dress up, and even better that you get to force

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Speaker 1: costumes on them when their babies. Like this is more

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Speaker 1: common enough. But the first time I was at this

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Speaker 1: cafe and I saw this guy walking past with this

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Speaker 1: giant building on his head, and I thought that is

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Speaker 1: kind of strange. And then he turned and he had

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Speaker 1: this little baby dressed as a gorilla just clinging to him,

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Speaker 1: and you realized it was King Kong on the Empire's

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Speaker 1: Day building. Like I loved it so much, but every

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Speaker 1: time I tried to make my kids go with me

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Speaker 1: for Halloween, they just completely rejected him. So what have

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Speaker 1: you wanted to go as? Like? I don't even remember

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Speaker 1: that Some of them are just costumes I thought the

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Speaker 1: kids should have. Like Ruby was into Star Wars one year,

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Speaker 1: so I thought Ruby one Kenobi would be funny, but uh,

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Speaker 1: instead she decided to go as Darth Baggings, which which

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Speaker 1: is that a thing? I think she was crossing Darth

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Speaker 1: Vader and Bill go Bag And one of my only

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Speaker 1: successful costumes was as a refrigerator years ago, and it

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Speaker 1: had like kids art on it, and when you opened

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Speaker 1: the door there was a light on and like funny

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Speaker 1: foods that were inside, and then there was like a

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Speaker 1: cord as a tail in the back. So I thought

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Speaker 1: maybe I should reprise that and go as a fridge

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Speaker 1: and then have like Henry go as a mini fridge,

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Speaker 1: but that got rejected to so I've had lots of

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Speaker 1: these fails. I love the stories. It seems like there's

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Speaker 1: always a good story that comes out of your your

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Speaker 1: Halloween experiences. I remember I think Henry was like two,

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Speaker 1: maybe almost three, and he told you he was going

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Speaker 1: to go as a fireman, so you and Lizzie of

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Speaker 1: course had a fireman called to them all picked out,

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Speaker 1: and then at the very last minute he insisted he

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Speaker 1: said fire truck. And so unlike me, who would have said, nope,

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Speaker 1: you're a fireman, you ended up having to make him

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Speaker 1: turn into a fire truck instead. It was pretty amazing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was a lot of cardboard reviews, but you know,

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Speaker 1: as you'll see, Darth Waggins and fire truck are not

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Speaker 1: on the list of most research costumes. But I do

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Speaker 1: think we should dig in. So what costume are you

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Speaker 1: going to talk about first? All right, well, I feel

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Speaker 1: like we should start with with unicorns, which I guess

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Speaker 1: are the fourth most research costume this year. And I'm

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Speaker 1: actually gonna tie this to Marco Polo. I'm guessing you

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Speaker 1: didn't see that coming and his no idea, It's true. So,

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Speaker 1: on his trip to China, Marco Polo finally found unicorns,

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Speaker 1: only unfortunately they weren't as beautiful as the old myths

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Speaker 1: and legends had made them out to be, and he

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Speaker 1: honestly felt tricked, And so he later wrote about this encounter,

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Speaker 1: and here's what he had to say. They have hair

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Speaker 1: like that of a buffalo, feet like those an elephant,

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Speaker 1: and a horn in the middle of the forehead, which

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Speaker 1: is black and very thick. 'tis an ugly brute to

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Speaker 1: look upon. And that makes a lot of sense, you know,

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Speaker 1: since the thing Marco Polo had actually found were, of course, rhinoceroses.

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Speaker 1: I do love the idea of like every little girl

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Speaker 1: out there, a little boy going out as a unicorn

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Speaker 1: is actually a rhinoceros. Like it's amazing. I I kind

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Speaker 1: of feel like it's uh, it's a little like when

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Speaker 1: I heard that mermaids were the result of sailors spotting

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Speaker 1: manatees in the ocean. Like I remember thinking, like, how

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Speaker 1: is that possible? Of mermaids are depicted as these like

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Speaker 1: gorgeous you know, model like creatures and and manatees as

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Speaker 1: much as I love them, have you know, never been

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Speaker 1: on the cover of though if they were, I might

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Speaker 1: pick up my first copy of Oogue. Actually, there's another

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Speaker 1: great unicorn fact that I think you should know, and

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Speaker 1: so if you want to try your hand at tracking

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Speaker 1: down a unicorn, you can actually get a unicorn questing license.

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Speaker 1: Now this comes from Lake Superior State University in Michigan,

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Speaker 1: and you pay for it. Is it just like a

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Speaker 1: novelty license? Well, I guess the practice began as this

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Speaker 1: pr stunt and this was you know, over forty years ago.

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Speaker 1: This is the nineteen one. But to this day the

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Speaker 1: university continues to issue these unicorn hunting licenses to anybody

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Speaker 1: who's interested. Though there are a number of regulations, and

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Speaker 1: so here here are a few of them. For instance,

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Speaker 1: all unicorn questers are encouraged to bring their own flask

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Speaker 1: of kognac and pinking shears on any expedition and and

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Speaker 1: you're actually limited to hunting one unicorn per month, no females.

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Speaker 1: And the good news is that, according to the terms,

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Speaker 1: the licenses quote good for a lifetime and beyond except

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Speaker 1: for Valentine's Day. So I do love that you've had

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Speaker 1: too great unicorn facts to kick this off. But uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, one thing I see every Halloween season is witches,

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Speaker 1: and I do not know why it's such a popular outfit,

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Speaker 1: Like I get that which is our part of Halloween.

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Speaker 1: It it's weird to me that, like everyone wants to

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Speaker 1: be a witch. I feel like I gave out candy

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Speaker 1: to at least fifteen of them this year. But I've

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Speaker 1: got a great gross fact for you about witches. So

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Speaker 1: if you need to find out if a witch is

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Speaker 1: making you sick, there's a little historical life hack Gid

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Speaker 1: found for us. All you have to do is collect

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Speaker 1: some of your own urine, mix it with rye meal,

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Speaker 1: and then form it into a little pack, and then

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Speaker 1: you take that witch's cake as it's called, and feed

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Speaker 1: it to a dog. Now you have to know any

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Speaker 1: dog will do, because, as the history books will tell you,

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Speaker 1: they're all familiar with the doll. Right of course, Then

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Speaker 1: if the dog comes down with the same symptoms you're exhibiting,

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Speaker 1: you'll know for sure that you're being afflicted by witchcraft.

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Speaker 1: And as an added bonus, the dog will even help

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Speaker 1: you find the witch who did it, because when he

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Speaker 1: eats the cake, the witch you cursed you and your

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Speaker 1: urine will feel it and cry out and pain. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's it's one of those things you just wonder how

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Speaker 1: they possibly made this up. It's just science, scientific method.

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Speaker 1: But you know, obviously this is ridiculous and no one

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Speaker 1: should try it at home. But the residents of Salem

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Speaker 1: Village believed this back in because the witch cake practice,

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Speaker 1: I guess was pretty well known in England at the time.

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Speaker 1: And of course it didn't work that well. You know,

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Speaker 1: they tried to put in practice, but nothing came of it,

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Speaker 1: which is good news for both witches and I guess

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Speaker 1: the dogs of the I'm going to say I think

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Speaker 1: the dogs benefited the most. But a well, here's a

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Speaker 1: quick one about Black Panther that actually just learned this week.

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Speaker 1: So comic readers were first introduced to Black Panther in

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Speaker 1: July of nineteen sixty six, and this was in the

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Speaker 1: pages of Fantastic four number fifty two, and of course

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Speaker 1: his appearance was historic. I mean it marked the first

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Speaker 1: time that a superpowered African character had appeared in a

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Speaker 1: starring role in an American comic. What's interesting is that

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Speaker 1: the superhero's name doesn't come from the activist Black Panther Party,

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Speaker 1: you know, the one that rose to prominence in the sixties.

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Speaker 1: The characters theybut actually pre dates that group's formation by

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Speaker 1: about three months. So instead, it's actually meant to reference

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Speaker 1: a famous African Americ contink battalion from World War Two,

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Speaker 1: and they were not allowed to serve alongside white U

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Speaker 1: S troops during the war, and the unit was nicknamed

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Speaker 1: the Black Panthers after this insignia they wore, which was

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Speaker 1: a profile of a ferocious panther with the motto come

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Speaker 1: out Fighting written under it. Now, the Panthers later received

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Speaker 1: a Presidential Unit Citation for their actions and are actually

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Speaker 1: considered by some historians to be one of the most

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Speaker 1: effective tank battalions in the entire war. M that's pretty fascinating,

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Speaker 1: But how did Marvel come up with this name for

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Speaker 1: the character? Apparently Stanley and Jack Kirby, you know, they

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Speaker 1: had lived through World War Two and remember the battalion

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Speaker 1: and its nickname, and obviously black Panther is better than

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Speaker 1: the original name that they were thinking of, which was

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Speaker 1: Cold Tiger. Coal Tiger is a terrible namebor. Sure. You

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Speaker 1: know one of the costumes I'm terrified of is clowns.

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Speaker 1: And actually this year we went to this house around

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Speaker 1: the corner from us, and the entire family dressed up

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Speaker 1: like killer clown and they were so clearly out to

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Speaker 1: scare kids. And you know, my two kids are so different,

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Speaker 1: Like Henry decided he didn't need any candy that at

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Speaker 1: least he just stood outside the gate and told jokes

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Speaker 1: and uh and Ruby just kind of strolled in and

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Speaker 1: demanded candy. But curious, did you like clowns as good?

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Speaker 1: You know, I know a lot of people are terrified

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Speaker 1: of them. I guess I didn't feel strong. They didn't

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Speaker 1: really understand them, like they weren't somebody that I wanted

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Speaker 1: to be entertained by. But I wasn't. I wasn't terrified

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Speaker 1: of them. Yeah, I mean, I feel like I watched

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Speaker 1: u um Bozo the Clown on TV, like in the afternoons,

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Speaker 1: and and you know, I absolutely loved seeing them at

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Speaker 1: Barnum and Bailey, And this is actually where my fact

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Speaker 1: comes in. So I started thinking about how clowns crammed

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Speaker 1: themselves into these like tiny cars, and I started wondering, like,

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Speaker 1: there's got to be some kind of trick to it, right,

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Speaker 1: Like fifteen cars will just spill out of these tiny spaces.

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Speaker 1: And of course I turned to Gabe and I asked

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Speaker 1: him about it, and he found this quote according to

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Speaker 1: Greg Descent, who's executive director of the International Clown Hall

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Speaker 1: of Fame and Research Center, I mean, you know, Gabe

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Speaker 1: finds the best likedle source. Greg says, quote, there's no

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Speaker 1: trick to the clown car gag. There are no trap

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Speaker 1: doors and stadium floors, and the cars are real cars.

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Speaker 1: So basically the car is fully functional, but its interior

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Speaker 1: has been completely stripped and gutted and freed up as

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Speaker 1: much space as possible, so like they take the seats out,

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Speaker 1: often the driver is sitting on a milk crate instead

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Speaker 1: of like a like a proper stool or or a

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Speaker 1: regular chair, you know. And uh, from there, it's just

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Speaker 1: a matter of cramming in as many clowns as possible,

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Speaker 1: and the average compact clown car can fit anywhere between

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Speaker 1: fourteen and twenty one clowns which props they have inside

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Speaker 1: with them. Yeah, that is impressive, twenty one people fitting

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Speaker 1: in a car like that. It actually kind of reminds

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Speaker 1: me of how you probably remember this, How it felt

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Speaker 1: like at least once a week during college, we would

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Speaker 1: pack people into that tiny little Honda and for some

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Speaker 1: reason we would go a Macaroni Girl and then they

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Speaker 1: were playing of good restaurants where we always went to.

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Speaker 1: It's just so strange. Well, anyways, speaking of terrifying things,

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Speaker 1: people have been scared of zombies and in one form

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Speaker 1: or another for thousands of years now. And actually I

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Speaker 1: didn't realize how long we've been scared of them, But

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Speaker 1: apparently archaeologists have uncovered ancient Greek burial sites with skeletons

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Speaker 1: that were pinned down with rocks and these other heavy

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Speaker 1: objects put on their chest, and this was all to

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Speaker 1: stop the corpses from coming back to terrorize the living.

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Speaker 1: Now today zombies seem to have, you know, this larger

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Speaker 1: role in the cultural zeitgeist than it feels like just

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Speaker 1: about any other time in history. And believe it or not,

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Speaker 1: actually the atomic bomb maybe to blame for that. So

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Speaker 1: according to Stanford literary scholar Angela Bicara vigor wide scale

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Speaker 1: disasters of the mid twentieth centuries such as the bombing

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Speaker 1: of Hiroshima that actually paved the way for the rise

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Speaker 1: of zombie narratives and these other stories that focus on

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Speaker 1: math destruction and and really all these desperate survival situations

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Speaker 1: that resulted from those. I guess I just wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: put it together that that, like in all kind of

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Speaker 1: the atomic bomb stuff. Yeah, and it's it's it's actually

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Speaker 1: not just the storytellers who have tapped into the cultural

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Speaker 1: fears that that led to this zombie mania. So the

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Speaker 1: CDC or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention actually

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Speaker 1: got in the act a couple of years ago by

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Speaker 1: launching this zombie Preparedness website, and it's actually a smart

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Speaker 1: way to get people thinking about how to prepare for

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Speaker 1: all sorts of disasters, whether they're zombie based or not.

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Speaker 1: And it's actually been a pretty big success. Oh, that's

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Speaker 1: pretty fascinating. So, in a totally different fath I'm going

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Speaker 1: to talk about mermaids. Mermaids feel like the opposite of

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Speaker 1: zombies to me. But you know, back in two thousand

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Speaker 1: thirteen Animal Planet air these two fake documentary specials called

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Speaker 1: Mermaids The Body Found and Mermaids New Evidence, and they

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Speaker 1: basically showed these fake scientists proving the existence of mermaids.

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Speaker 1: But it's kind of like that old BBC hoax we've

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Speaker 1: talked about before about spaghetti farmers who row pasta on trees,

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Speaker 1: and then you know, millions of people wrote in wondering

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Speaker 1: where they could get their own spaghetti trees. You know,

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Speaker 1: I guess the people who watched this Mermaid special didn't

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Speaker 1: realize the disclaimer in the credits that said certain events

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Speaker 1: in the film are fictional. And so there were so

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Speaker 1: many people affected that Google searches for our Mermaids Reel

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Speaker 1: outpaced questions like our Aliens Reel and our Ghost Real

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Speaker 1: for the year. And it got so bad that the

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Speaker 1: n o A, which is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,

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Speaker 1: they received so many inquiries that they actually issued an

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Speaker 1: official statement denying the existence of mermaids. That's pretty funny. Well,

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Speaker 1: I know we have two more facts to go, but

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Speaker 1: let's get to those after a quick break. Welcome back

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Speaker 1: to Part Time Genius. We're talking facts inspired by Halloween costumes. Now,

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Speaker 1: chances are you've seen those inflatable t rex costumes that

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Speaker 1: have been popping up all that of internet memes and

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Speaker 1: videos lately. You know, I I saw a ton of

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Speaker 1: them around this year. But if you're wondering just how

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Speaker 1: anatomically correct the costumes are, I'm so sorry to break

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Speaker 1: it to you. They're not very accurate. And they probably

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Speaker 1: weren't as like wobbly as they look when people love

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Speaker 1: them on. I'm guessing yeah, they weren't a laughing stock

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Speaker 1: t rex is apparently. I'm gonna start with the thinly

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Speaker 1: little arms that everyone finds so funny. You know, the

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Speaker 1: t rex is arms are usually portrayed as like disproportionately

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Speaker 1: small compared to the massive body, But in reality, the

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Speaker 1: t rex Is arms were over three ft long, and

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Speaker 1: they supported biceps strong enough to bench press at least

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Speaker 1: four thirty pounds each, so pretty strong. You know. It

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Speaker 1: actually means that the Rex's arms would have come in

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Speaker 1: handy if a t Rex was ever you know, knocked

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Speaker 1: over and had to lever itself off the ground, and

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Speaker 1: also if it just had to hold on tight to

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Speaker 1: squirming prey before chomping um. And then there's a matter

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Speaker 1: of scales versus feathers, so fluffy dinosaurs were basically the

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Speaker 1: norm when it came to smaller species. But when the

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Speaker 1: remains of this feathered, nearly t rex sized dinosaur was

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Speaker 1: found back in two thousand and twelve, the door was

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Speaker 1: open to the possibility that rex is also sported feathers,

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Speaker 1: at least when they hatched. So paleontologists contend that the

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Speaker 1: animals may have had fluffy feathers their whole lives, which

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Speaker 1: would have really made for both like more interesting and

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Speaker 1: gleamed up costume. You know what, if there's one thing

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Speaker 1: people really love, Mango, it's when other people fact check

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Speaker 1: their costumes. So I'm sure you're really popular on Halloween.

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Speaker 1: All right, Well, I'm gonna end this on a fact

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Speaker 1: about wonder Woman. It just feels appropriate and I love

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Speaker 1: this one, so we all. No wonder Woman herself is

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Speaker 1: a force to be reckoned with. But that famous invisible

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Speaker 1: jet of hers is actually something of a joke, or

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Speaker 1: at least that's how MATEL treated it back in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and ten, and that's when they released this fake

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Speaker 1: mock up of an invisible jet toy as an April

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Speaker 1: Fool's joke. Now, the unexpected part came when fans began

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Speaker 1: clamoring for the product to actually be released, and so

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Speaker 1: Mattel eventually answered their prayers by offering an exclusive Hot

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Speaker 1: Wheels and Visible Jet at Comic Con. So here's the catch.

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Speaker 1: There was no toy in the box at all. Instead,

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Speaker 1: the package just contained a plastic tray with the shape

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Speaker 1: of a jet molded into it, along with a couple

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Speaker 1: of small weights, you know, to make the box feel

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Speaker 1: like there was a real toy inside, of course, for

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Speaker 1: fans who you know, keep their collectibles mint in box. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: this wasn't much of an issue, and funny enough, Mattel

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Speaker 1: wasn't the only one to pull such a stunt. Back

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Speaker 1: in two thousand fifteen, the Smithsonian did something pretty similar

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Speaker 1: also on April Fool's Day, of course, except they took

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Speaker 1: things to a whole another level. So for one day only,

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Speaker 1: the National Air and Space Museum put Wonder Woman's Invisible

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Speaker 1: Jet quote on display. So they released this video on

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Speaker 1: YouTube announcing the jets arrival and documenting how the workers

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Speaker 1: were able to suspend it from the ceiling. But you know,

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Speaker 1: since it's an invisible jet and all, you kind of

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Speaker 1: just have to take their word for it. Oh I

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Speaker 1: love that. I actually really love when museums played a

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Speaker 1: like pop culture and get people into, you know, the

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Speaker 1: exhibits that way. Like I really think you should take

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Speaker 1: the trophy home this week. All right, Well, thanks so much,

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Speaker 1: and thanks to all of our listeners for being patient

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Speaker 1: and waiting an entire week to get their Halloween facts.

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Speaker 1: I know all of you were just sitting there waiting

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Speaker 1: for this, but anyway, from Gave, Tristan, Mango and me,

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Speaker 1: thanks so much for listening