Speaker 1: I guess what, mango? What's that? Well, so I was
Speaker 1: thinking about Halloween last week. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: knew this, but but Halloween was was last week? I
Speaker 1: think I heard. I think I heard it was last year.
Speaker 1: It turns out, turns out it was last week. But anyway,
Speaker 1: there were so many great costumes out there, and I
Speaker 1: think one of the things I realized is that as
Speaker 1: many new costumes as there are, you know, things like
Speaker 1: Fortnite and Black Panther and p J Mask, I mean,
Speaker 1: you still see so many costumes that just never seem
Speaker 1: to go away. So what do you think about all right? Well,
Speaker 1: I was actually looking up the most searched for Halloween
Speaker 1: costumes in America this year, and I wrote down some
Speaker 1: of these. So here's some of the classics on that list.
Speaker 1: You've got dinosaur, Unicorn, pirate, Princess, Ninja, mouse, which, mermaid, Rabbit.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like these could have been the
Speaker 1: most popular Halloween costumes from like twenty or thirty years ago,
Speaker 1: except rabbit. Like, you know, rabbit, why are you? Why
Speaker 1: are you looking up like how to make a rabbit?
Speaker 1: It feels pretty easy, you know, obviously for all the
Speaker 1: listeners out there. We meant to do a Hallyween episode
Speaker 1: last week, but we had some technical issues and we thought,
Speaker 1: why don't we make up for it this week. Why
Speaker 1: don't we use that list of like popular costumes to
Speaker 1: inspire some new facts that everyone can share. All right, well,
Speaker 1: I'm game for that, so let's dive in. Hey, their
Speaker 1: podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
Speaker 1: and as always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh
Speaker 1: how Ticketer and sitting behind the soundproof class with at
Speaker 1: least ten tiny old Jack Lannards on his desk. I'd
Speaker 1: say maybe a dozen or even a Baker's, doesn't Mango
Speaker 1: all sitting on that desk and they are so old.
Speaker 1: He carved each of these last week, and each one
Speaker 1: is after a different Jack. Like he's got Jack Donneghee
Speaker 1: from thirty Rock, He's got Jack Kennedy, one Jack Welch,
Speaker 1: because I guess Tristan is really into g even a
Speaker 1: Jack O'Brien from The Daily es Christ. I mean, Tristan
Speaker 1: is truly an artist. That's right. That's our friended producer
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil. Now go, like we were saying at the
Speaker 1: top of the show, there are a lot of Halloween
Speaker 1: costumes that tend to repeat themselves year after year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's funny. I I think one of the best things
Speaker 1: about having kids is that you get to see them
Speaker 1: dress up, and even better that you get to force
Speaker 1: costumes on them when their babies. Like this is more
Speaker 1: common enough. But the first time I was at this
Speaker 1: cafe and I saw this guy walking past with this
Speaker 1: giant building on his head, and I thought that is
Speaker 1: kind of strange. And then he turned and he had
Speaker 1: this little baby dressed as a gorilla just clinging to him,
Speaker 1: and you realized it was King Kong on the Empire's
Speaker 1: Day building. Like I loved it so much, but every
Speaker 1: time I tried to make my kids go with me
Speaker 1: for Halloween, they just completely rejected him. So what have
Speaker 1: you wanted to go as? Like? I don't even remember
Speaker 1: that Some of them are just costumes I thought the
Speaker 1: kids should have. Like Ruby was into Star Wars one year,
Speaker 1: so I thought Ruby one Kenobi would be funny, but uh,
Speaker 1: instead she decided to go as Darth Baggings, which which
Speaker 1: is that a thing? I think she was crossing Darth
Speaker 1: Vader and Bill go Bag And one of my only
Speaker 1: successful costumes was as a refrigerator years ago, and it
Speaker 1: had like kids art on it, and when you opened
Speaker 1: the door there was a light on and like funny
Speaker 1: foods that were inside, and then there was like a
Speaker 1: cord as a tail in the back. So I thought
Speaker 1: maybe I should reprise that and go as a fridge
Speaker 1: and then have like Henry go as a mini fridge,
Speaker 1: but that got rejected to so I've had lots of
Speaker 1: these fails. I love the stories. It seems like there's
Speaker 1: always a good story that comes out of your your
Speaker 1: Halloween experiences. I remember I think Henry was like two,
Speaker 1: maybe almost three, and he told you he was going
Speaker 1: to go as a fireman, so you and Lizzie of
Speaker 1: course had a fireman called to them all picked out,
Speaker 1: and then at the very last minute he insisted he
Speaker 1: said fire truck. And so unlike me, who would have said, nope,
Speaker 1: you're a fireman, you ended up having to make him
Speaker 1: turn into a fire truck instead. It was pretty amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a lot of cardboard reviews, but you know,
Speaker 1: as you'll see, Darth Waggins and fire truck are not
Speaker 1: on the list of most research costumes. But I do
Speaker 1: think we should dig in. So what costume are you
Speaker 1: going to talk about first? All right, well, I feel
Speaker 1: like we should start with with unicorns, which I guess
Speaker 1: are the fourth most research costume this year. And I'm
Speaker 1: actually gonna tie this to Marco Polo. I'm guessing you
Speaker 1: didn't see that coming and his no idea, It's true. So,
Speaker 1: on his trip to China, Marco Polo finally found unicorns,
Speaker 1: only unfortunately they weren't as beautiful as the old myths
Speaker 1: and legends had made them out to be, and he
Speaker 1: honestly felt tricked, And so he later wrote about this encounter,
Speaker 1: and here's what he had to say. They have hair
Speaker 1: like that of a buffalo, feet like those an elephant,
Speaker 1: and a horn in the middle of the forehead, which
Speaker 1: is black and very thick. 'tis an ugly brute to
Speaker 1: look upon. And that makes a lot of sense, you know,
Speaker 1: since the thing Marco Polo had actually found were, of course, rhinoceroses.
Speaker 1: I do love the idea of like every little girl
Speaker 1: out there, a little boy going out as a unicorn
Speaker 1: is actually a rhinoceros. Like it's amazing. I I kind
Speaker 1: of feel like it's uh, it's a little like when
Speaker 1: I heard that mermaids were the result of sailors spotting
Speaker 1: manatees in the ocean. Like I remember thinking, like, how
Speaker 1: is that possible? Of mermaids are depicted as these like
Speaker 1: gorgeous you know, model like creatures and and manatees as
Speaker 1: much as I love them, have you know, never been
Speaker 1: on the cover of though if they were, I might
Speaker 1: pick up my first copy of Oogue. Actually, there's another
Speaker 1: great unicorn fact that I think you should know, and
Speaker 1: so if you want to try your hand at tracking
Speaker 1: down a unicorn, you can actually get a unicorn questing license.
Speaker 1: Now this comes from Lake Superior State University in Michigan,
Speaker 1: and you pay for it. Is it just like a
Speaker 1: novelty license? Well, I guess the practice began as this
Speaker 1: pr stunt and this was you know, over forty years ago.
Speaker 1: This is the nineteen one. But to this day the
Speaker 1: university continues to issue these unicorn hunting licenses to anybody
Speaker 1: who's interested. Though there are a number of regulations, and
Speaker 1: so here here are a few of them. For instance,
Speaker 1: all unicorn questers are encouraged to bring their own flask
Speaker 1: of kognac and pinking shears on any expedition and and
Speaker 1: you're actually limited to hunting one unicorn per month, no females.
Speaker 1: And the good news is that, according to the terms,
Speaker 1: the licenses quote good for a lifetime and beyond except
Speaker 1: for Valentine's Day. So I do love that you've had
Speaker 1: too great unicorn facts to kick this off. But uh,
Speaker 1: you know, one thing I see every Halloween season is witches,
Speaker 1: and I do not know why it's such a popular outfit,
Speaker 1: Like I get that which is our part of Halloween.
Speaker 1: It it's weird to me that, like everyone wants to
Speaker 1: be a witch. I feel like I gave out candy
Speaker 1: to at least fifteen of them this year. But I've
Speaker 1: got a great gross fact for you about witches. So
Speaker 1: if you need to find out if a witch is
Speaker 1: making you sick, there's a little historical life hack Gid
Speaker 1: found for us. All you have to do is collect
Speaker 1: some of your own urine, mix it with rye meal,
Speaker 1: and then form it into a little pack, and then
Speaker 1: you take that witch's cake as it's called, and feed
Speaker 1: it to a dog. Now you have to know any
Speaker 1: dog will do, because, as the history books will tell you,
Speaker 1: they're all familiar with the doll. Right of course, Then
Speaker 1: if the dog comes down with the same symptoms you're exhibiting,
Speaker 1: you'll know for sure that you're being afflicted by witchcraft.
Speaker 1: And as an added bonus, the dog will even help
Speaker 1: you find the witch who did it, because when he
Speaker 1: eats the cake, the witch you cursed you and your
Speaker 1: urine will feel it and cry out and pain. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's one of those things you just wonder how
Speaker 1: they possibly made this up. It's just science, scientific method.
Speaker 1: But you know, obviously this is ridiculous and no one
Speaker 1: should try it at home. But the residents of Salem
Speaker 1: Village believed this back in because the witch cake practice,
Speaker 1: I guess was pretty well known in England at the time.
Speaker 1: And of course it didn't work that well. You know,
Speaker 1: they tried to put in practice, but nothing came of it,
Speaker 1: which is good news for both witches and I guess
Speaker 1: the dogs of the I'm going to say I think
Speaker 1: the dogs benefited the most. But a well, here's a
Speaker 1: quick one about Black Panther that actually just learned this week.
Speaker 1: So comic readers were first introduced to Black Panther in
Speaker 1: July of nineteen sixty six, and this was in the
Speaker 1: pages of Fantastic four number fifty two, and of course
Speaker 1: his appearance was historic. I mean it marked the first
Speaker 1: time that a superpowered African character had appeared in a
Speaker 1: starring role in an American comic. What's interesting is that
Speaker 1: the superhero's name doesn't come from the activist Black Panther Party,
Speaker 1: you know, the one that rose to prominence in the sixties.
Speaker 1: The characters theybut actually pre dates that group's formation by
Speaker 1: about three months. So instead, it's actually meant to reference
Speaker 1: a famous African Americ contink battalion from World War Two,
Speaker 1: and they were not allowed to serve alongside white U
Speaker 1: S troops during the war, and the unit was nicknamed
Speaker 1: the Black Panthers after this insignia they wore, which was
Speaker 1: a profile of a ferocious panther with the motto come
Speaker 1: out Fighting written under it. Now, the Panthers later received
Speaker 1: a Presidential Unit Citation for their actions and are actually
Speaker 1: considered by some historians to be one of the most
Speaker 1: effective tank battalions in the entire war. M that's pretty fascinating,
Speaker 1: But how did Marvel come up with this name for
Speaker 1: the character? Apparently Stanley and Jack Kirby, you know, they
Speaker 1: had lived through World War Two and remember the battalion
Speaker 1: and its nickname, and obviously black Panther is better than
Speaker 1: the original name that they were thinking of, which was
Speaker 1: Cold Tiger. Coal Tiger is a terrible namebor. Sure. You
Speaker 1: know one of the costumes I'm terrified of is clowns.
Speaker 1: And actually this year we went to this house around
Speaker 1: the corner from us, and the entire family dressed up
Speaker 1: like killer clown and they were so clearly out to
Speaker 1: scare kids. And you know, my two kids are so different,
Speaker 1: Like Henry decided he didn't need any candy that at
Speaker 1: least he just stood outside the gate and told jokes
Speaker 1: and uh and Ruby just kind of strolled in and
Speaker 1: demanded candy. But curious, did you like clowns as good?
Speaker 1: You know, I know a lot of people are terrified
Speaker 1: of them. I guess I didn't feel strong. They didn't
Speaker 1: really understand them, like they weren't somebody that I wanted
Speaker 1: to be entertained by. But I wasn't. I wasn't terrified
Speaker 1: of them. Yeah, I mean, I feel like I watched
Speaker 1: u um Bozo the Clown on TV, like in the afternoons,
Speaker 1: and and you know, I absolutely loved seeing them at
Speaker 1: Barnum and Bailey, And this is actually where my fact
Speaker 1: comes in. So I started thinking about how clowns crammed
Speaker 1: themselves into these like tiny cars, and I started wondering, like,
Speaker 1: there's got to be some kind of trick to it, right,
Speaker 1: Like fifteen cars will just spill out of these tiny spaces.
Speaker 1: And of course I turned to Gabe and I asked
Speaker 1: him about it, and he found this quote according to
Speaker 1: Greg Descent, who's executive director of the International Clown Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame and Research Center, I mean, you know, Gabe
Speaker 1: finds the best likedle source. Greg says, quote, there's no
Speaker 1: trick to the clown car gag. There are no trap
Speaker 1: doors and stadium floors, and the cars are real cars.
Speaker 1: So basically the car is fully functional, but its interior
Speaker 1: has been completely stripped and gutted and freed up as
Speaker 1: much space as possible, so like they take the seats out,
Speaker 1: often the driver is sitting on a milk crate instead
Speaker 1: of like a like a proper stool or or a
Speaker 1: regular chair, you know. And uh, from there, it's just
Speaker 1: a matter of cramming in as many clowns as possible,
Speaker 1: and the average compact clown car can fit anywhere between
Speaker 1: fourteen and twenty one clowns which props they have inside
Speaker 1: with them. Yeah, that is impressive, twenty one people fitting
Speaker 1: in a car like that. It actually kind of reminds
Speaker 1: me of how you probably remember this, How it felt
Speaker 1: like at least once a week during college, we would
Speaker 1: pack people into that tiny little Honda and for some
Speaker 1: reason we would go a Macaroni Girl and then they
Speaker 1: were playing of good restaurants where we always went to.
Speaker 1: It's just so strange. Well, anyways, speaking of terrifying things,
Speaker 1: people have been scared of zombies and in one form
Speaker 1: or another for thousands of years now. And actually I
Speaker 1: didn't realize how long we've been scared of them, But
Speaker 1: apparently archaeologists have uncovered ancient Greek burial sites with skeletons
Speaker 1: that were pinned down with rocks and these other heavy
Speaker 1: objects put on their chest, and this was all to
Speaker 1: stop the corpses from coming back to terrorize the living.
Speaker 1: Now today zombies seem to have, you know, this larger
Speaker 1: role in the cultural zeitgeist than it feels like just
Speaker 1: about any other time in history. And believe it or not,
Speaker 1: actually the atomic bomb maybe to blame for that. So
Speaker 1: according to Stanford literary scholar Angela Bicara vigor wide scale
Speaker 1: disasters of the mid twentieth centuries such as the bombing
Speaker 1: of Hiroshima that actually paved the way for the rise
Speaker 1: of zombie narratives and these other stories that focus on
Speaker 1: math destruction and and really all these desperate survival situations
Speaker 1: that resulted from those. I guess I just wouldn't have
Speaker 1: put it together that that, like in all kind of
Speaker 1: the atomic bomb stuff. Yeah, and it's it's it's actually
Speaker 1: not just the storytellers who have tapped into the cultural
Speaker 1: fears that that led to this zombie mania. So the
Speaker 1: CDC or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention actually
Speaker 1: got in the act a couple of years ago by
Speaker 1: launching this zombie Preparedness website, and it's actually a smart
Speaker 1: way to get people thinking about how to prepare for
Speaker 1: all sorts of disasters, whether they're zombie based or not.
Speaker 1: And it's actually been a pretty big success. Oh, that's
Speaker 1: pretty fascinating. So, in a totally different fath I'm going
Speaker 1: to talk about mermaids. Mermaids feel like the opposite of
Speaker 1: zombies to me. But you know, back in two thousand
Speaker 1: thirteen Animal Planet air these two fake documentary specials called
Speaker 1: Mermaids The Body Found and Mermaids New Evidence, and they
Speaker 1: basically showed these fake scientists proving the existence of mermaids.
Speaker 1: But it's kind of like that old BBC hoax we've
Speaker 1: talked about before about spaghetti farmers who row pasta on trees,
Speaker 1: and then you know, millions of people wrote in wondering
Speaker 1: where they could get their own spaghetti trees. You know,
Speaker 1: I guess the people who watched this Mermaid special didn't
Speaker 1: realize the disclaimer in the credits that said certain events
Speaker 1: in the film are fictional. And so there were so
Speaker 1: many people affected that Google searches for our Mermaids Reel
Speaker 1: outpaced questions like our Aliens Reel and our Ghost Real
Speaker 1: for the year. And it got so bad that the
Speaker 1: n o A, which is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
Speaker 1: they received so many inquiries that they actually issued an
Speaker 1: official statement denying the existence of mermaids. That's pretty funny. Well,
Speaker 1: I know we have two more facts to go, but
Speaker 1: let's get to those after a quick break. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Part Time Genius. We're talking facts inspired by Halloween costumes. Now,
Speaker 1: chances are you've seen those inflatable t rex costumes that
Speaker 1: have been popping up all that of internet memes and
Speaker 1: videos lately. You know, I I saw a ton of
Speaker 1: them around this year. But if you're wondering just how
Speaker 1: anatomically correct the costumes are, I'm so sorry to break
Speaker 1: it to you. They're not very accurate. And they probably
Speaker 1: weren't as like wobbly as they look when people love
Speaker 1: them on. I'm guessing yeah, they weren't a laughing stock
Speaker 1: t rex is apparently. I'm gonna start with the thinly
Speaker 1: little arms that everyone finds so funny. You know, the
Speaker 1: t rex is arms are usually portrayed as like disproportionately
Speaker 1: small compared to the massive body, But in reality, the
Speaker 1: t rex Is arms were over three ft long, and
Speaker 1: they supported biceps strong enough to bench press at least
Speaker 1: four thirty pounds each, so pretty strong. You know. It
Speaker 1: actually means that the Rex's arms would have come in
Speaker 1: handy if a t Rex was ever you know, knocked
Speaker 1: over and had to lever itself off the ground, and
Speaker 1: also if it just had to hold on tight to
Speaker 1: squirming prey before chomping um. And then there's a matter
Speaker 1: of scales versus feathers, so fluffy dinosaurs were basically the
Speaker 1: norm when it came to smaller species. But when the
Speaker 1: remains of this feathered, nearly t rex sized dinosaur was
Speaker 1: found back in two thousand and twelve, the door was
Speaker 1: open to the possibility that rex is also sported feathers,
Speaker 1: at least when they hatched. So paleontologists contend that the
Speaker 1: animals may have had fluffy feathers their whole lives, which
Speaker 1: would have really made for both like more interesting and
Speaker 1: gleamed up costume. You know what, if there's one thing
Speaker 1: people really love, Mango, it's when other people fact check
Speaker 1: their costumes. So I'm sure you're really popular on Halloween.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I'm gonna end this on a fact
Speaker 1: about wonder Woman. It just feels appropriate and I love
Speaker 1: this one, so we all. No wonder Woman herself is
Speaker 1: a force to be reckoned with. But that famous invisible
Speaker 1: jet of hers is actually something of a joke, or
Speaker 1: at least that's how MATEL treated it back in two
Speaker 1: thousand and ten, and that's when they released this fake
Speaker 1: mock up of an invisible jet toy as an April
Speaker 1: Fool's joke. Now, the unexpected part came when fans began
Speaker 1: clamoring for the product to actually be released, and so
Speaker 1: Mattel eventually answered their prayers by offering an exclusive Hot
Speaker 1: Wheels and Visible Jet at Comic Con. So here's the catch.
Speaker 1: There was no toy in the box at all. Instead,
Speaker 1: the package just contained a plastic tray with the shape
Speaker 1: of a jet molded into it, along with a couple
Speaker 1: of small weights, you know, to make the box feel
Speaker 1: like there was a real toy inside, of course, for
Speaker 1: fans who you know, keep their collectibles mint in box. Anyway,
Speaker 1: this wasn't much of an issue, and funny enough, Mattel
Speaker 1: wasn't the only one to pull such a stunt. Back
Speaker 1: in two thousand fifteen, the Smithsonian did something pretty similar
Speaker 1: also on April Fool's Day, of course, except they took
Speaker 1: things to a whole another level. So for one day only,
Speaker 1: the National Air and Space Museum put Wonder Woman's Invisible
Speaker 1: Jet quote on display. So they released this video on
Speaker 1: YouTube announcing the jets arrival and documenting how the workers
Speaker 1: were able to suspend it from the ceiling. But you know,
Speaker 1: since it's an invisible jet and all, you kind of
Speaker 1: just have to take their word for it. Oh I
Speaker 1: love that. I actually really love when museums played a
Speaker 1: like pop culture and get people into, you know, the
Speaker 1: exhibits that way. Like I really think you should take
Speaker 1: the trophy home this week. All right, Well, thanks so much,
Speaker 1: and thanks to all of our listeners for being patient
Speaker 1: and waiting an entire week to get their Halloween facts.
Speaker 1: I know all of you were just sitting there waiting
Speaker 1: for this, but anyway, from Gave, Tristan, Mango and me,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for listening