1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,840 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 2 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:07,560 Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know 3 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:18,479 Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, we're back. I 4 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:21,520 Speaker 1: guess you could say it's a part two of two. 5 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:24,360 Speaker 1: This is the second concluding part of our two part 6 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:27,680 Speaker 1: series on America, the part of the July. You gotta 7 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:29,639 Speaker 1: say hey and welcome to the podcast because this is 8 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:33,440 Speaker 1: uh the beginning of part two. Yeah, but we're technically 9 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:35,880 Speaker 1: in the middle. All right, Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 10 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:38,320 Speaker 1: Thank you? You feel better? All right? So this is 11 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:40,920 Speaker 1: uh picking up where we left off. We still don't 12 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:43,400 Speaker 1: know where we cut off, so our guess is as 13 00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:47,560 Speaker 1: good as yours and vice versa. Awesome. This is stuff 14 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:50,279 Speaker 1: you should know about America from the serious X Time 15 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:53,160 Speaker 1: studios in New York City. Now more it's from Josh 16 00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:56,880 Speaker 1: and Shucks actually doing Thank you Jay, Thank you Jill. 17 00:00:57,680 --> 00:00:59,200 Speaker 1: That was as great as I hoped it would be. 18 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:02,319 Speaker 1: Joe Angel something when he told me he's like, we're 19 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:03,960 Speaker 1: gonna need another mic in a v I P seat 20 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:07,560 Speaker 1: because I got someone doing footnotes, like what what does 21 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:11,120 Speaker 1: that mean? And now I know? And knowing is half 22 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:14,600 Speaker 1: the battle. That's what I do. So chuck. Um, I 23 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:17,559 Speaker 1: don't think we could do a July four show reasonably 24 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:20,640 Speaker 1: and not talk about fireworks, right, It'd be a big 25 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:23,199 Speaker 1: rip off. I mean, I don't think there's any better 26 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:27,120 Speaker 1: way to enjoy a fireworks display than to know the 27 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:31,080 Speaker 1: chemistry that's going behind it, right. I feel like you 28 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:34,520 Speaker 1: take that that kind of understand well, whether you like 29 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:37,840 Speaker 1: it or not, we're going to teach you this right now, right. Yeah, man, 30 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:40,959 Speaker 1: you're the expert on this, but I do like, well, 31 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:43,480 Speaker 1: I'll chime in. Go ahead, it's gonna be like I 32 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:46,120 Speaker 1: like the name of the Chinese manual. Well, you take 33 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:48,040 Speaker 1: the name of the Chinese manual first. Let me set 34 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:51,800 Speaker 1: you up, okay, um? So, uh, fireworks are based on 35 00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:54,880 Speaker 1: black powder, which has been around since at least ten 36 00:01:54,960 --> 00:02:00,200 Speaker 1: forty four. Uh, and it was discovered in China, right, Um. 37 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:03,120 Speaker 1: It was either the result of some alchemists who are 38 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:06,920 Speaker 1: looking for a way to preserve youth or a hapless 39 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 1: chef who accidentally discovered it. Can I stop you there, 40 00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:14,160 Speaker 1: because I've the first one doesn't make any sense to me. 41 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:17,560 Speaker 1: The second one does, I get it. Chinese chef making 42 00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:21,160 Speaker 1: bananas foster or something. Boom and all of a sudden, 43 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:25,240 Speaker 1: there's there's gunpowder. But how does gunpowder figure into trying 44 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:27,600 Speaker 1: to make yourself look younger? Is what I wanted. I 45 00:02:27,639 --> 00:02:29,959 Speaker 1: don't know. I have no answer for that. I charcoal, 46 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:35,720 Speaker 1: I guess, potassium nitrate, which is saltpeter, and then the sulfur. 47 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:39,040 Speaker 1: I think if you applied those things separately to your 48 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:41,440 Speaker 1: face and then wash them off well enough and just 49 00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:43,560 Speaker 1: don't light it right, well, if you know, if you 50 00:02:43,639 --> 00:02:46,119 Speaker 1: got too close to a fire, then ka boom okay, yeah, 51 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:48,160 Speaker 1: all right, well that makes sense now, but those are 52 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 1: the three ingredients in black powder, right, that's right? And uh, 53 00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:53,560 Speaker 1: I wanted to point out the Chinese. Uh, we know 54 00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:56,320 Speaker 1: it has been around since ten forty four because it 55 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:59,919 Speaker 1: was in the Collection of the most Important Military Techniques. 56 00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:02,280 Speaker 1: That's what they called their book. It is a good 57 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:06,520 Speaker 1: book name, pretty straightforward. So um, however they discovered it 58 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:10,520 Speaker 1: um Now, I don't know if they understood what was 59 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:12,359 Speaker 1: going on back then. Now we have a pretty good 60 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:16,360 Speaker 1: understanding of what's going on with black powder. Right. So 61 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:20,520 Speaker 1: you've got um, potassium nitrate, which is saltpeter, which is 62 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:28,239 Speaker 1: um an oxidizer. Right, Yeah, that's like the mix is charcoal, 63 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:31,840 Speaker 1: which is fuel, and then you've got sulfur, which is 64 00:03:31,919 --> 00:03:34,880 Speaker 1: a reducing agent, and that's the last ten percent, that's right. 65 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:39,040 Speaker 1: So you mix them all together, you introduce flame, which 66 00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:43,080 Speaker 1: ignites it, and all of a sudden, the potassium nitrate 67 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:47,080 Speaker 1: starts releasing all this oxygen which feeds the charcoal a right, 68 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:49,720 Speaker 1: binds to it and creates the light and the heat 69 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:55,000 Speaker 1: that you see in fireworks. Right boom, Right, we're almost there, um. 70 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:58,800 Speaker 1: And then you have the oxygen from the potassium nitrate 71 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:03,480 Speaker 1: also re acting with the sulfur to create this explosive force. 72 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:07,320 Speaker 1: As c O two and nitrate, nitrogen are produced and 73 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:14,600 Speaker 1: they expand and that's the boom right yeah, okay, and okay, 74 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:17,160 Speaker 1: you just hit it earlier to get a point. So 75 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:21,279 Speaker 1: you've got the sulfur and the oxygen binding together, creating 76 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:24,240 Speaker 1: C O two and nitrogen and that's where you get 77 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: the explosive force. Boom, Thank you, it was good. You 78 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:31,279 Speaker 1: wouldn't think it'd be that hard. Um. And that's that's 79 00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:35,040 Speaker 1: the basis of um fireworks, right, Yeah, that's the basis 80 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:38,279 Speaker 1: of the firecracker. And so now we move on to sparklers, 81 00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:40,520 Speaker 1: which is pretty much the same thing it pretty much is. 82 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:42,359 Speaker 1: But what you do with the sparkler is you have 83 00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:44,840 Speaker 1: that black powder, add a little sugar, add a little water, 84 00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:46,919 Speaker 1: and you get something called you know, sort of like 85 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:50,680 Speaker 1: a slurry. You dip your stick into it, as it were, 86 00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:55,400 Speaker 1: and uh metal stick. And because everything's spread out, it's 87 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:57,760 Speaker 1: not gonna be like as volatile and create a big 88 00:04:57,800 --> 00:05:01,160 Speaker 1: flash bang boom, it's over. It's spread out because it's 89 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:03,720 Speaker 1: mixed with a slurry. And you add a little uh 90 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:06,960 Speaker 1: whatton metal to that, like some sort of metal dust 91 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 1: or shavings, and then that heats up and jumps off 92 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:13,320 Speaker 1: and becomes incandescent. And there's a sparkler. What's the noise 93 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:18,680 Speaker 1: for that sparkler? Okay, there we go. There's just sparkling. 94 00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:21,440 Speaker 1: And the reason this is important is because when you 95 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:23,320 Speaker 1: go out on the fourth of July wherever you do 96 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:25,279 Speaker 1: that here in New York, imagine there everywhere and you 97 00:05:25,320 --> 00:05:30,640 Speaker 1: see the big pyrotechnic display, it is really just versions 98 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:34,560 Speaker 1: of sparklers and firecrackers, right. The sparkler and the firecracker 99 00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:37,560 Speaker 1: the basis of all other fireworks. Right, that's right. So 100 00:05:37,640 --> 00:05:40,720 Speaker 1: these aerial displays, it's just a shell which is like 101 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:44,320 Speaker 1: a ball filled with black powder and then little pellets 102 00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:48,760 Speaker 1: of um sparkler composition that they call stars, right, And 103 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:51,320 Speaker 1: in the middle of that is a firecracker, and you 104 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:53,520 Speaker 1: use a lifting charge to send it into the air, 105 00:05:53,560 --> 00:05:57,719 Speaker 1: and the lifting charge ignites the fuse nice and then 106 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:00,280 Speaker 1: when it when it hits a certain altitude and that 107 00:06:00,279 --> 00:06:02,719 Speaker 1: that fuse goes off and the firecracker in the middle 108 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:06,039 Speaker 1: blows up. It ignites the black powder. Right. So there's 109 00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:09,599 Speaker 1: your explosion, and that in turn sends the pellets the 110 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:13,120 Speaker 1: stars scattered lights them and there's your firework. That's it, 111 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:15,760 Speaker 1: as you say about it being bot a boom bon 112 00:06:15,839 --> 00:06:20,159 Speaker 1: Jovi fireworks. Let's say that. And you can get fancy 113 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:21,880 Speaker 1: with it if you want to cobble these together. You 114 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:25,400 Speaker 1: cobble the shells together, add something called a breaking charge, 115 00:06:25,720 --> 00:06:27,760 Speaker 1: and that is when you see like the one shell 116 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:31,200 Speaker 1: explode and then that breaking charge sets off the other ones. 117 00:06:31,279 --> 00:06:32,920 Speaker 1: And that's where you get the cool little things that 118 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:35,400 Speaker 1: everyone ooze and oz at. Right. And then you add 119 00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:40,320 Speaker 1: some chemical salts for color. That's right, like, uh, what 120 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:44,560 Speaker 1: do we have blue for copper? Blue is copper, Stronium 121 00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:50,800 Speaker 1: is red, and then stronium and copper make purple. Wow, 122 00:06:51,279 --> 00:06:55,159 Speaker 1: look at you. I got sodium for yellow, calcium for orange, 123 00:06:55,279 --> 00:06:59,960 Speaker 1: aluminium for my British friends, uh is silver and bare 124 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:04,000 Speaker 1: m is green. Pretty neat, right. So now when you're 125 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:06,800 Speaker 1: watching the fireworks display, you can curse us because you're 126 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:10,400 Speaker 1: sitting there thinking about the sulfur is a reducing agent? 127 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:15,720 Speaker 1: What's that smell? Oh, that's the reducing agent. Just give 128 00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:18,000 Speaker 1: me a beard and shut up exactly. So that's a 129 00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:21,320 Speaker 1: that's a fireworks, right. But but that's just like fireworks 130 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:25,000 Speaker 1: when they go right, that's that's the optimum of what 131 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:27,520 Speaker 1: can happen with firework what we just said, right, But 132 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:29,520 Speaker 1: we live in La la land in a lot of ways, 133 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:33,000 Speaker 1: and fireworks don't always go well right. So um, we 134 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:36,800 Speaker 1: have our friend Hallie heglind here to talk to us about, 135 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:39,520 Speaker 1: um when fireworks don't go so well. Right, that's right. 136 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:42,800 Speaker 1: Hally apparently has a pretty true story for us. So 137 00:07:42,840 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 1: everybody welcome Holly. All right, let's see that's right. I 138 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:56,920 Speaker 1: was good? Is this good? Should I lower this? Or 139 00:07:57,760 --> 00:07:59,440 Speaker 1: I don't even know who I'm talking You can probably 140 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:03,480 Speaker 1: you can write angle it down. Okay, this is the 141 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:07,200 Speaker 1: highlight of the show. Yeah, never let it be said that, Um, 142 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:10,440 Speaker 1: Josh and Chuck, don't teach the controversy, because that's why 143 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:17,000 Speaker 1: I'm here. Um, alright, Well, I have some facts and 144 00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:19,840 Speaker 1: figures in my presentation, so I may need to refer 145 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:23,480 Speaker 1: to my notes. Um. But I'm sure that you've all 146 00:08:23,520 --> 00:08:28,160 Speaker 1: seen the public service videos that local news stations roll 147 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:30,720 Speaker 1: out around this time of year. You know, there's like 148 00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:37,599 Speaker 1: a fake adorable child posed in a field of grass 149 00:08:37,800 --> 00:08:41,360 Speaker 1: and uh, you know, obviously celebrating something because they're wearing 150 00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:45,240 Speaker 1: something really nice from the local J C. Pennies. Um. 151 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:49,040 Speaker 1: And uh, you know it's a mannequin that's completely faceless, um, 152 00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:52,360 Speaker 1: and yet human like because they put a straw sun 153 00:08:52,679 --> 00:08:56,640 Speaker 1: sun hat on the head to remind you, like, be careful, 154 00:08:57,040 --> 00:09:02,000 Speaker 1: this fake child is sensitive to the sun. So you know, 155 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:04,360 Speaker 1: so that so that, so the mannequin is posed in 156 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:08,800 Speaker 1: like some position of youthful curiosity, and all of a 157 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:13,960 Speaker 1: sudden boom, you know, a Roman candle blows its head off, 158 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:17,200 Speaker 1: and in the blink of an eye there's nothing but 159 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:20,960 Speaker 1: like a cloud of smoke and lime dust and a 160 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:26,920 Speaker 1: sin straw hat two feet away in the grass. So um, 161 00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:30,840 Speaker 1: this is uh what we all see every day. You 162 00:09:30,880 --> 00:09:34,640 Speaker 1: know the hazards of fireworks, and if it's if it's 163 00:09:34,160 --> 00:09:37,400 Speaker 1: a low budget sort of news station, they actually just 164 00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:42,720 Speaker 1: blow up a watermelon. But either way they teach you 165 00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:46,840 Speaker 1: the havoc that fireworks can wreak upon our nation's children 166 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:51,959 Speaker 1: or our nation's fruit. Yeah. So if you don't think 167 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:55,760 Speaker 1: fireworks are dangerous, can I ask you a question? Okay, 168 00:09:56,080 --> 00:10:00,880 Speaker 1: since how many fireworks fact stories do you think have 169 00:10:00,960 --> 00:10:06,320 Speaker 1: burned down? According to my not very thorough research, it's 170 00:10:06,400 --> 00:10:12,920 Speaker 1: up five okay, so Denmark, Holland, the UK, England, and 171 00:10:12,960 --> 00:10:17,079 Speaker 1: the Philippines. So here let me get my numbers. If 172 00:10:17,080 --> 00:10:24,040 Speaker 1: you don't think they're dangerous, just ask the one one thousand, 173 00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:27,880 Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty people in n Shade, Holland left 174 00:10:27,920 --> 00:10:32,120 Speaker 1: homeless after nine ms, which I did the math. It's 175 00:10:32,240 --> 00:10:36,040 Speaker 1: one thousand, nine hundred and eighty pounds of fireworks were 176 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:39,800 Speaker 1: accidentally detonated at their local factory. Or talked to the 177 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:42,959 Speaker 1: people of Cavite in the Philippines who felt the ground 178 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:46,640 Speaker 1: shake nearly two miles away from the explosion when a 179 00:10:46,679 --> 00:10:51,840 Speaker 1: demonstration at their local firecracker factory went wrong. Or the 180 00:10:51,920 --> 00:10:56,480 Speaker 1: two thousand people evacuated from ceased to Denmark, when factory 181 00:10:56,480 --> 00:11:00,199 Speaker 1: workers accidentally dropped a container of fireworks somehow called using 182 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:05,680 Speaker 1: it to ignite. I watched a lot of internet videos 183 00:11:05,720 --> 00:11:08,640 Speaker 1: in my research, and I will say, if you have 184 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:13,800 Speaker 1: to witness a human tragedy firsthand, um, a fireworks factory 185 00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:18,120 Speaker 1: exploding is definitely the coolest you are going to come by. 186 00:11:18,160 --> 00:11:22,440 Speaker 1: I mean, it's like cooler than the Disney World fireworks display. 187 00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:27,079 Speaker 1: I'd say, yeah, Um, did you know that while celebrating 188 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:30,280 Speaker 1: Chinese New Year in two thousand nine, it only took 189 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:35,280 Speaker 1: one stray firecracker to burn down Beijing's thirties story luxury 190 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:40,920 Speaker 1: Mandarin Hotel. Now, to be fair, the Chinese are unincredibly 191 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:44,200 Speaker 1: efficient people, so what took them one firework would probably 192 00:11:44,200 --> 00:11:48,360 Speaker 1: take us like reliefs of box okay um. In the 193 00:11:48,440 --> 00:11:51,800 Speaker 1: United States, in two thousand ten, the Consumer Products Safety 194 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:56,840 Speaker 1: Commission reported three firework related desk deaths, which is up 195 00:11:57,280 --> 00:12:01,120 Speaker 1: fifty percent from two. That was in nine, when only 196 00:12:01,240 --> 00:12:05,760 Speaker 1: two firework related deaths were reported. And I don't expect 197 00:12:05,840 --> 00:12:08,760 Speaker 1: the trend to turn around, because, let's face it, the 198 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:12,360 Speaker 1: economy is going to hell this Fourth of July. Americans 199 00:12:12,360 --> 00:12:14,920 Speaker 1: are gonna want nothing more than to just throw back 200 00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:20,120 Speaker 1: a six pack and just sparkler the world away. Okay, Okay, 201 00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:25,000 Speaker 1: So maybe the cold hard statistics don't touch you. Maybe 202 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:29,520 Speaker 1: something more anecdote will get through to you. So I 203 00:12:29,559 --> 00:12:33,840 Speaker 1: have witnessed the brutality of the firework firsthand. Let me 204 00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:41,320 Speaker 1: take you back to Denver, Colorado, five of July. I 205 00:12:41,440 --> 00:12:43,960 Speaker 1: am about to turn ten and my older brother Eric 206 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:47,480 Speaker 1: is fourteen. And you should know in Denver there is 207 00:12:47,559 --> 00:12:49,880 Speaker 1: about a week right around the fourth of July where 208 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:56,439 Speaker 1: summer drought and a child stockpile of fireworks both simultaneously 209 00:12:56,440 --> 00:13:00,560 Speaker 1: reach their peak. Um, so we have really hoarded this 210 00:13:00,640 --> 00:13:04,240 Speaker 1: incredible stash. I mean we had every kind of fire work. 211 00:13:04,280 --> 00:13:07,040 Speaker 1: We had snaps, we had sparklers, we had bottle rockets, 212 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:10,440 Speaker 1: we had Roman candles, we had tanks, we had snakes, 213 00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:13,600 Speaker 1: we had bird cages, and of course we had smoke bombs. 214 00:13:14,840 --> 00:13:17,040 Speaker 1: So um, we had sort of burned through most of 215 00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:20,800 Speaker 1: our reserves. On the driveway the night before. My father 216 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:22,720 Speaker 1: has all these pictures that he took of us at night, 217 00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:25,360 Speaker 1: and we're like crouch next to the garage door, and 218 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:29,160 Speaker 1: I'm wearing this Mexican pueble address that my mom bought 219 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:32,960 Speaker 1: for me. In Portavayarta, and my brother's wearing his hot 220 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:37,160 Speaker 1: pink jams, and you can see we're just sort of 221 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:41,520 Speaker 1: mesmerized by this black cat screech and scream fountain that 222 00:13:41,559 --> 00:13:45,680 Speaker 1: we've just ignited. And uh, you know, there's like a 223 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:50,120 Speaker 1: deadness in my eyes and something about how I never 224 00:13:50,160 --> 00:13:52,480 Speaker 1: brushed my hair that I'm really like spot on for 225 00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:57,000 Speaker 1: Drew Barrymore and the fire starter posters, and um, my 226 00:13:57,040 --> 00:13:59,680 Speaker 1: brother just keeps begging, like just one more, just one more, 227 00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:01,400 Speaker 1: like like he's going to go into withdrawal if we 228 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:05,800 Speaker 1: stopped lighting fireworks. So what I'm saying is I feel like, 229 00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:09,280 Speaker 1: looking at this picture, you could tell we were already 230 00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:14,199 Speaker 1: struggling with some pretty serious demons. The next day, I 231 00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:17,120 Speaker 1: was in a fog all day, you know, despite a 232 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:21,160 Speaker 1: full night of sleep. I was exhausted after our explosives bender, 233 00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:25,760 Speaker 1: and so, uh, sometime in the afternoon, I went to 234 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:27,920 Speaker 1: the basement to find a cool place, and I was 235 00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:31,240 Speaker 1: watching a current affair if you guys remember that, and 236 00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:34,080 Speaker 1: I I must have drifted off because I remember I 237 00:14:34,120 --> 00:14:38,360 Speaker 1: was awakened by a sound of sirens. Now my brother, 238 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:41,000 Speaker 1: I didn't know this at the time, was upstairs with 239 00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:43,800 Speaker 1: three other boys from our block on the street, and 240 00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:47,400 Speaker 1: they were playing this game that we played in our 241 00:14:47,400 --> 00:14:51,360 Speaker 1: neighborhood all the time. I really hope no children are 242 00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:53,400 Speaker 1: listening to this, and if you are, this is really 243 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:56,840 Speaker 1: bad game, so don't play this game. I was sort 244 00:14:56,880 --> 00:14:59,800 Speaker 1: of um, you know. It was a spinoff of ding 245 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:03,480 Speaker 1: on Ditchum. So one person would go stand on the 246 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:07,320 Speaker 1: porch um poised to ring the doorbell, while another person 247 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:10,320 Speaker 1: would stand in the street with a smoke bomb. So 248 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:12,560 Speaker 1: as soon as the smoke bomb was lit in the street, 249 00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:14,320 Speaker 1: the person on the porch would ring the doorbell and 250 00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:16,400 Speaker 1: then run away and the person in the street would 251 00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:21,080 Speaker 1: throw the smoke bomb. So ideally, your neighbor opens their 252 00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:23,680 Speaker 1: door to a cloud of smoke and they think like 253 00:15:24,200 --> 00:15:28,440 Speaker 1: a wizard just rung the door, and then they got 254 00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:34,760 Speaker 1: really shy or something. But let me remind you again 255 00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:37,960 Speaker 1: that Denver was a tinder box at that time of year, 256 00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:42,520 Speaker 1: so my brother and his friends probably should have skipped 257 00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:45,880 Speaker 1: the house across the street, the four Stads House, which 258 00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:50,960 Speaker 1: was flanked by these two huge juniper trees. Uh actually 259 00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:54,320 Speaker 1: historic trees. We later found out they were planted by 260 00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:59,200 Speaker 1: the then governor Roy Romer's father in law, and about 261 00:15:59,200 --> 00:16:03,560 Speaker 1: fifty years fire, and every so often the roamers would 262 00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:05,800 Speaker 1: pile in their car and just drive through the neighborhood 263 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:09,480 Speaker 1: to check out how their trees were doing, because that's 264 00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:12,480 Speaker 1: really what people in Colorado do for fun, They go 265 00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:14,960 Speaker 1: and check out trees that they planted a long time ago. 266 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:20,080 Speaker 1: So it was actually my brother who threw the offending 267 00:16:20,120 --> 00:16:24,200 Speaker 1: smoke bomb, and the smoke bomb was blue, so he 268 00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:26,680 Speaker 1: he lit it and he aimed at the porch, but 269 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:29,280 Speaker 1: his aim was off and so instead of landing on 270 00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:32,000 Speaker 1: the porch, it landed in the juniper tree on the right, 271 00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:35,960 Speaker 1: and everyone just sort of sat there, stunned as the 272 00:16:36,080 --> 00:16:39,960 Speaker 1: smoke billowing from the tree turned from blue to light 273 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:46,400 Speaker 1: blue to gray, and then you just heard this crackling sound. 274 00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:49,240 Speaker 1: And it didn't take long for the fire for the 275 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:52,520 Speaker 1: fire in one tree to spread to the adjacent tree, 276 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:55,440 Speaker 1: and then to the roof of the four Stats house, 277 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:57,880 Speaker 1: and then to the roof of the neighbors of the 278 00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:01,240 Speaker 1: four Stats House, and they just sort of stood there 279 00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:04,359 Speaker 1: stunt like, how could this game have possibly gone back? 280 00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:08,240 Speaker 1: And my mom, actually I was talking to this morning, 281 00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:10,480 Speaker 1: and she reminded me of the fact that she at 282 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:12,600 Speaker 1: some point had come out onto the porch and when 283 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:15,080 Speaker 1: she saw fire, and she just saw the kids frozen 284 00:17:15,119 --> 00:17:17,679 Speaker 1: in the street, and and they just looked her and 285 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:19,320 Speaker 1: they we don't know what to do. We don't know 286 00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:22,120 Speaker 1: what to do. But then instead of running to my house, 287 00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:24,040 Speaker 1: they ran to one of the other boys houses because 288 00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:27,359 Speaker 1: the mom was way nicer, and they hid in the 289 00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:32,200 Speaker 1: bathroom while the mom called the fire department. So, you know, 290 00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:35,840 Speaker 1: after all there were there were the two trees were 291 00:17:35,880 --> 00:17:39,200 Speaker 1: totally destroyed, and there was serious damage to two roofs, 292 00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:42,280 Speaker 1: and also the four stops car which had been marked 293 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:46,560 Speaker 1: in the driveway. So that night, um everyone assembled for 294 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:49,960 Speaker 1: sort of a disciplinary meeting on our side porch would have, 295 00:17:50,119 --> 00:17:54,840 Speaker 1: which happened to offer a prime view of the charred, 296 00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:58,720 Speaker 1: scorched earth across the street. And uh, you know, it 297 00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:00,760 Speaker 1: was all the boys and all the parents, and I 298 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:02,960 Speaker 1: sort of tiptoed out and was just standing on the 299 00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:07,080 Speaker 1: edge watching everything, and all the parents thought that the 300 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:11,359 Speaker 1: boys were just staring down because they were so shamed 301 00:18:11,520 --> 00:18:14,520 Speaker 1: and sort of in shame and deference, when really I 302 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:17,159 Speaker 1: was just nobody wanted to look up because if they 303 00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:20,080 Speaker 1: look sideways, they would just burst out laughing. I mean, 304 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:23,480 Speaker 1: it was so pathetic how this forest house looked. It 305 00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:27,080 Speaker 1: was it looked like one unlucky house on like a 306 00:18:27,119 --> 00:18:31,800 Speaker 1: beautiful block had just been struck by lightning. And as 307 00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:35,119 Speaker 1: they discussed what kind of work the boys could do 308 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:40,000 Speaker 1: to pay off the four thoughts insurance deductible, I listened 309 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:42,960 Speaker 1: and I really, I really had no impulse to laugh 310 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:47,359 Speaker 1: because I thought about how easily that sorry smoke bomb 311 00:18:47,359 --> 00:18:51,000 Speaker 1: toss could have been mine. And so as they laid 312 00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:54,480 Speaker 1: out chores that they could possibly do, I just thought, there, 313 00:18:54,520 --> 00:19:00,280 Speaker 1: but for the grace of God, go I I feel sure. 314 00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:03,879 Speaker 1: Now that's a true story, right, yeah, she said, She 315 00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:09,639 Speaker 1: talked to her mom. Oh well that makes it true, right, So, Um, Chuck, 316 00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:12,840 Speaker 1: I used to blow stuff up like crazy? Yeah, like, uh, 317 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:16,000 Speaker 1: model cars. Any guy's ever strapped like bottle rockets to 318 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:18,240 Speaker 1: their model cars and try and make them? Guys a 319 00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:22,600 Speaker 1: rather like, oh yeah, dude, still do did you ever, 320 00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:25,440 Speaker 1: um break the sticks off of bottle rockets and line 321 00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:26,760 Speaker 1: them and just throw them and see where they go, 322 00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:31,040 Speaker 1: Just see what happened? That's what actually I would. Me 323 00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:33,320 Speaker 1: and my buddy Chuck built this. Uh. I had a 324 00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:36,880 Speaker 1: friend named chuck growing up, either that or a very 325 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:43,679 Speaker 1: sad child. I built. We built bottle rocket guns in 326 00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:45,840 Speaker 1: his little wood shop he had, like his dad made 327 00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:47,760 Speaker 1: the little rubber band guns and sold them at fairs 328 00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:51,399 Speaker 1: and stuff. So we modified those two hold bottle rockets 329 00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:53,119 Speaker 1: and you drop it in and throw the little flap 330 00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:56,560 Speaker 1: down and shoot them at each other. So what what 331 00:19:56,680 --> 00:20:00,440 Speaker 1: kind of modifications are required specifically? Well, we we used 332 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:02,679 Speaker 1: the stock of the gun, it was like a rifle, 333 00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:05,480 Speaker 1: and then we basically just got rid of the rubber 334 00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:08,679 Speaker 1: band part and made a box with a flap on 335 00:20:08,760 --> 00:20:11,240 Speaker 1: top like a door because you didn't want it to, 336 00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:13,760 Speaker 1: you know, shoot back at you, so you would light it, 337 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:15,560 Speaker 1: put it in there, and we kind of dug out 338 00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:18,359 Speaker 1: a groove so it goes straight. We put a lot 339 00:20:18,359 --> 00:20:20,520 Speaker 1: of thought into this, and you know you would light 340 00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:25,159 Speaker 1: it and then shoot at your friend bon Jovi. Yea, 341 00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:29,840 Speaker 1: So did you patent that? No? We should have. Actually, yeah, 342 00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:35,080 Speaker 1: we'll have to go home and hold him in Denver evidently. So, um, 343 00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:39,240 Speaker 1: let's talk American dreams, shall we? Yeah? Man, the American 344 00:20:39,320 --> 00:20:41,639 Speaker 1: dream as a thing. And you did most of this 345 00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:44,439 Speaker 1: research and you put this one on me too. No, 346 00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:45,600 Speaker 1: no, no no, I'm not putting this one on you, but 347 00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:47,800 Speaker 1: I'm just, uh, I notice from your research when I 348 00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:50,600 Speaker 1: looked at this, the American dreams sort of his ebbed 349 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:54,480 Speaker 1: and flowed from the it's early origins, and it's sort 350 00:20:54,520 --> 00:20:57,760 Speaker 1: of coincides with like how the economy is doing. Right, 351 00:20:57,800 --> 00:21:00,600 Speaker 1: then pretty much it's either like, yes, the can dream 352 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:04,119 Speaker 1: or oh it's dead, yeah, and then it's alive again, 353 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:06,640 Speaker 1: and then it's dead. And I also noticed the American 354 00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:10,359 Speaker 1: dream is either like every man for himself and like 355 00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:12,400 Speaker 1: you just do the best you can and make as 356 00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:15,160 Speaker 1: much money as you can, or it's all about community 357 00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:17,840 Speaker 1: and looking out from one another, and all that depends 358 00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:20,959 Speaker 1: on how the economy is doing. That's right, because if 359 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:24,120 Speaker 1: everybody's broke, everybody's like, yeah, of course, government spending, that's 360 00:21:24,119 --> 00:21:27,360 Speaker 1: what the American dreams about. And uh, if if everyone's 361 00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:30,320 Speaker 1: making money, then you know, everyone turns into Patrick Bateman 362 00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:33,640 Speaker 1: all of a sudden. So let's talk about it, Chuck. 363 00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:35,720 Speaker 1: Where did where did this come from? Obviously it was 364 00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:40,040 Speaker 1: the famed historian James Truslow Adams, who wrote the ninety 365 00:21:40,119 --> 00:21:43,159 Speaker 1: one book The Epic of America, Right, yeah, and that's 366 00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:46,800 Speaker 1: where he mentioned the American Dream, but earlier than that, 367 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:51,080 Speaker 1: in sixteen thirty, John Winthrop gave his famous City upon 368 00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:55,359 Speaker 1: a Hill sermon to his fellow Puritan colonists, and um, 369 00:21:56,080 --> 00:21:58,520 Speaker 1: he didn't use the word dream, but he did detail 370 00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:02,240 Speaker 1: a vision of society where everyone could prosper, everyone could 371 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:05,159 Speaker 1: get ahead as long as you just team together and 372 00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:08,439 Speaker 1: work together and followed the Bible, right exactly. But but 373 00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:10,719 Speaker 1: that kind of laid out the groundwork for the American 374 00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:14,640 Speaker 1: dream that in America, specifically, if you worked really hard, 375 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:18,600 Speaker 1: the sky was the limit. Right, that's right. Okay, So, um, 376 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:21,880 Speaker 1: that was sixteen thirty when Winthrop gave that City upon 377 00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:25,200 Speaker 1: a Hill sermon. Uh, and then by seventeen seventy six 378 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:29,840 Speaker 1: when t. J. Sat down from June eleven to um, 379 00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:34,280 Speaker 1: it was a god given, inalienable right to succeed because 380 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:37,719 Speaker 1: it's in the it's in the Constitution. We're guaranteed the 381 00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:41,000 Speaker 1: the life, liberty in the pursuit of happiness. Right, that's right, 382 00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:43,919 Speaker 1: which is kind of the the American dream in a nutshell, 383 00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:46,199 Speaker 1: it's the pursuit of happiness. Yeah, does that? What does 384 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:48,040 Speaker 1: the Statue of liberty saying? Now, that's awful. I don't 385 00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:50,600 Speaker 1: know that is that what it says there? Now, what 386 00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:54,520 Speaker 1: does it say something? It says like yeah, all that 387 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:57,720 Speaker 1: other stuff. People are just shouting out words. He says, 388 00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:03,080 Speaker 1: welcome to Shawnees. Did you see this? And it's not 389 00:23:03,160 --> 00:23:06,960 Speaker 1: a torch, but it's a burger. So um, the the 390 00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:10,960 Speaker 1: the the Declaration of Independence really kind of gives the 391 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:13,919 Speaker 1: lift to the American dream. But it's really it becomes 392 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:17,400 Speaker 1: embodied in the nineteenth century. Um, there was a guy 393 00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:22,040 Speaker 1: named Alexis to Tokoville, right, that took this is a 394 00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:26,040 Speaker 1: sort of a snotty thing to say, laughing. Yeah, uh, 395 00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:27,640 Speaker 1: it might not have been a snotty thing to say, 396 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:30,920 Speaker 1: but because he was French, I took it that way. Um. 397 00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:34,080 Speaker 1: He visited the United States in the eighteen thirties and 398 00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:38,479 Speaker 1: he called this belief the charm of anticipated success. And 399 00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:40,960 Speaker 1: that just sounds sort of like like it's not real, 400 00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:43,560 Speaker 1: it's just the charm. He's British all of a sudden. 401 00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:47,520 Speaker 1: He could also be a Nazi. Yeah you can do 402 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:51,399 Speaker 1: that accent. Um. I took it as kind of like 403 00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:54,080 Speaker 1: a pat on the head or he was charmed himself. 404 00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:56,840 Speaker 1: Either way, he was he was an outsider making an 405 00:23:56,840 --> 00:23:59,760 Speaker 1: observation that the Americans over there think like they have 406 00:23:59,840 --> 00:24:03,160 Speaker 1: this thing called American exceptionalism, which means there's no other 407 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:05,880 Speaker 1: country on Earth like America. Right, that's right, And that's 408 00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:07,960 Speaker 1: what he was mentioning. And then um, I think it 409 00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:11,760 Speaker 1: got another boost by Henry David Thoreau. Yeah, Walden, he 410 00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:14,480 Speaker 1: really laid out the American dream as well. Yeah, and 411 00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:16,959 Speaker 1: that was eighteen fifty four. And his quote, uh, actually 412 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:20,400 Speaker 1: like this one, if one advances confidently in the direction 413 00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:22,800 Speaker 1: of his dreams and I'm gonna say her dreams, let's 414 00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:26,480 Speaker 1: modernize this, uh, and endeavors to live that the life 415 00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:29,760 Speaker 1: he has imagined, he will meet with his success unexpected 416 00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:32,840 Speaker 1: in common hours. Can you see that in like one 417 00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:35,360 Speaker 1: of those posters, it says like effort and it has 418 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:40,080 Speaker 1: that underneath there's like a whales tale. Back then, the 419 00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:42,359 Speaker 1: Walden that was like it was a guy chopping wood. 420 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,760 Speaker 1: It was Thorow himself actually, right, he was the first 421 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:50,240 Speaker 1: guy to do an inspirational poster. It was a wood carmen. 422 00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:55,959 Speaker 1: So that that's the mid eighteenth century. Um, towards the 423 00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:58,919 Speaker 1: end of the the you know, the mid nineteenth century, 424 00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:01,160 Speaker 1: I'm sorry, yes, toward the end of that you had 425 00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:04,720 Speaker 1: a lot of immigrants coming and also a westward push, 426 00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:07,080 Speaker 1: and so the American Dream kind of gets laid onto 427 00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:09,919 Speaker 1: these two things too. It's actually written about. They use 428 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:12,640 Speaker 1: the words American Dream more and more in newspapers and 429 00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:16,960 Speaker 1: you know, chok. Yeah, and magazine's the whole kind of 430 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:20,280 Speaker 1: thing where, Um, people love their ragaster richest stories in 431 00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:23,959 Speaker 1: the late nineteenth century, right, but I mean they really 432 00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:27,480 Speaker 1: loved them then, really like compared to today, it's like 433 00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:32,600 Speaker 1: but so so everything's going and going. By the time 434 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:36,399 Speaker 1: the twentieth century comes around, Um, the American Dream is 435 00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:40,480 Speaker 1: pretty much like code for upwardly mobile. That's right. That 436 00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:43,560 Speaker 1: the persons living the American dream, rather than a promise 437 00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:46,879 Speaker 1: to be able to try the American dream, is starting 438 00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:50,840 Speaker 1: to become wealthy, Like you're wealthy. It's about the time 439 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:53,639 Speaker 1: of the turn of the century. And then by the 440 00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:57,640 Speaker 1: time James Chooselaw Adams writes his Epic of America, Um, 441 00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:00,480 Speaker 1: there's a lot of doubt, right because this want. Something 442 00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:02,159 Speaker 1: really big happened that kind of put a ding in 443 00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:05,840 Speaker 1: the American dream. Yeah, the Depression came along and destroyed 444 00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:07,679 Speaker 1: a lot of these big fortunes and these people that 445 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:10,919 Speaker 1: had you know, live the American dream ras the riches, 446 00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:15,200 Speaker 1: uh self made millionaires and the like, and h Herbert 447 00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:17,520 Speaker 1: Hoover said, you know what, prosperities just around the corner, 448 00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:22,679 Speaker 1: and everyone said, screw you, three rocks. That's right, But 449 00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:26,120 Speaker 1: uh FDR came along and did usher in a little 450 00:26:26,119 --> 00:26:28,600 Speaker 1: bit of real hope after that. He did even even 451 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:32,480 Speaker 1: before going to war, which I think most most historians 452 00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:34,159 Speaker 1: kind of point to is the turning point for the 453 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,440 Speaker 1: American economy was all the military spending in World War Two? 454 00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:44,640 Speaker 1: Um so I guess um. Roosevelt introduces the New Deal, right, 455 00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:48,119 Speaker 1: which is again all the government spending social programs to 456 00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:50,080 Speaker 1: the American dream kind of becomes more of a sense 457 00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:52,719 Speaker 1: of community where America is a place where you know, 458 00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:56,160 Speaker 1: you can not only make your own way, but if 459 00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:58,600 Speaker 1: you can't make your own way, like you're elderly or 460 00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:01,360 Speaker 1: you're disabled or whatever, the community is going to take 461 00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:03,960 Speaker 1: care of you. That's right. And then we go over 462 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:07,000 Speaker 1: to Europe and to Africa and Italy and the Pacific 463 00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:11,240 Speaker 1: and kicktail and come back and the suburbs are born, 464 00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:14,200 Speaker 1: and then the americansumes just right on this up tick again. Right, 465 00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,159 Speaker 1: so we're on the uptick of the roller coaster in 466 00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:20,720 Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties. Americans at the time made up six 467 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,919 Speaker 1: percent of the population and consumed one third of the 468 00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:28,280 Speaker 1: goods and services, which means we're doing great because you know, 469 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:30,960 Speaker 1: we're Americans and we're using up all this stuff, which 470 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:35,240 Speaker 1: is awesome. Wages rose, Yeah, that was pretty good. Uh, 471 00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:39,200 Speaker 1: affluent workers moved, like you said, into the suburbs spread out, 472 00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:42,160 Speaker 1: and I guess at the time that meant, uh, things 473 00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:44,320 Speaker 1: were good if you moved to the suburbs. Well, I 474 00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:46,240 Speaker 1: wonder if the suburbs were kind of a turning point 475 00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:48,600 Speaker 1: as well, because when the suburbs started to hit their 476 00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:52,359 Speaker 1: their stride, that's when the social strife in the sixties 477 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:56,560 Speaker 1: came along, where basically, um African Americans said like, hey, 478 00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:58,920 Speaker 1: I'm really happy that you guys are having a great 479 00:27:58,920 --> 00:28:00,439 Speaker 1: time over there, but there's this whole other part of 480 00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:05,240 Speaker 1: America that's been left out so far. And MLK famously 481 00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,920 Speaker 1: redefined the American dream. Yeah, he called America a dream 482 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:10,920 Speaker 1: yet unfulfilled. And he was kind of right on the money, 483 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:13,960 Speaker 1: and he said that it shouldn't be about wealth, it 484 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:18,040 Speaker 1: should be about Thomas Jefferson t J again saying all 485 00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:21,359 Speaker 1: men are created equal and give equal rights to minorities, 486 00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:26,280 Speaker 1: rebuild these inner cities that are decaying, and let's eradicate hunger. 487 00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:29,000 Speaker 1: And people are like, wait a minute, I just thought 488 00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:30,960 Speaker 1: I was supposed to get rich and moved to the suburbs. 489 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:34,080 Speaker 1: What are you talking. At the same time, their kids 490 00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:37,280 Speaker 1: are doing the same thing. They're attacking them from from 491 00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:40,400 Speaker 1: the from another side, right, waiting for them to come 492 00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:42,480 Speaker 1: home from working, then jumping out of the closet. Maybe 493 00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:47,760 Speaker 1: um and uh they they the the sixties are at 494 00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:50,400 Speaker 1: their peak and the seventies hit and the economy just 495 00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:55,280 Speaker 1: slides down the toilet. Whoever, So there's social strife and 496 00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,719 Speaker 1: others economic strife and every at every turn, the American 497 00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:01,960 Speaker 1: dream is analyzed in this context. Right, So, which is 498 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:04,360 Speaker 1: what we're doing. We're just following in tradition. That's right. 499 00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:07,480 Speaker 1: And thankfully another French person came along to point this out. 500 00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:12,080 Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy four, French historian Ingrid Carlander published a 501 00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:16,200 Speaker 1: book called how do you pronounce it? Lazy American? It 502 00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:21,000 Speaker 1: sounds very much like lazy American? Uh, you really don't 503 00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:23,400 Speaker 1: like the press, No, I love the French. Um. She 504 00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:26,000 Speaker 1: proclaimed that America the American dream was in fact dead, 505 00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:29,840 Speaker 1: and uh that was pretty much it. And with the 506 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:33,040 Speaker 1: you know, the gasoline lines and the empty swimming pools 507 00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:35,760 Speaker 1: and uh, because you know you shouldn't put uh. I 508 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:37,240 Speaker 1: think it was l a that suffered the drought and 509 00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:39,720 Speaker 1: they were like, you know, we can't afford all this 510 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:42,360 Speaker 1: water for swimming pools even but luckily that was good 511 00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:46,239 Speaker 1: for skateboarding. It was that gave rise to skateboarding, didn't it. 512 00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:50,120 Speaker 1: It did, um And then out of California, out of 513 00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:54,520 Speaker 1: the Promised Land, came the Golden Child, right, the former governor, 514 00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:57,720 Speaker 1: a guy who came from a farm family, who had 515 00:29:57,720 --> 00:29:59,880 Speaker 1: worked his way up to a star in hell Cats 516 00:29:59,880 --> 00:30:04,200 Speaker 1: of a Navy, and uh he took over and basically Reagan, 517 00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:08,120 Speaker 1: by the way, he said, the American dream is back, baby, 518 00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:11,640 Speaker 1: I think is what his words were. Learning so and 519 00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:17,000 Speaker 1: his uh deal very uh, the very simplified version was, hey, 520 00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:21,160 Speaker 1: let's cut taxes and uh stimulate growth. Let's reduce some 521 00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:25,400 Speaker 1: of these government programs because uh, we want self reliance 522 00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:27,640 Speaker 1: and that's what it makes America strong. That's what it 523 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:34,480 Speaker 1: makes America strong Italian as well, and uh, you know 524 00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:36,600 Speaker 1: it worked to a certain degree in America started to 525 00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:38,800 Speaker 1: prosper again. But then critics came along and said, yeah, 526 00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:40,320 Speaker 1: but you know what, we don't know about all this 527 00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:43,280 Speaker 1: Uh how would really helped the common man. It may 528 00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:44,960 Speaker 1: have just been the rich you were helping out and 529 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:47,280 Speaker 1: we don't really know if you cut spending that went 530 00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:54,760 Speaker 1: who is that easy Chinese? Now? So uh, we we 531 00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:59,080 Speaker 1: find ourselves now, um, after the the affluent eighties, UM 532 00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:02,920 Speaker 1: and the nineties, which is just a party man. Um, 533 00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:04,880 Speaker 1: we we kind of we we have kind of this 534 00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:07,160 Speaker 1: hangover now where we have all this stuff, but we 535 00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:09,640 Speaker 1: also have all this debt and like reality of like 536 00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:12,440 Speaker 1: what you know, just buying stuff and just consuming without 537 00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:16,880 Speaker 1: producing anything. Because remember back in um the forties or fifties, 538 00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:20,320 Speaker 1: we were producing one third of the world's goods, but 539 00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:22,760 Speaker 1: we were consuming that too, but we were producing as well. 540 00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:25,440 Speaker 1: And then through the eighties and the nineties, we stopped 541 00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,040 Speaker 1: producing and just started consuming. And we got to this 542 00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:32,480 Speaker 1: point where this UM Harvard professor named John quelch Um 543 00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:35,760 Speaker 1: pointed out that basically, too many Americans have been expressing 544 00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:40,239 Speaker 1: the American dream through the acquisition of stuff, right, so 545 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:43,360 Speaker 1: now everybody's getting browbeaten with the American dream that's the 546 00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:46,600 Speaker 1: point that we're at right, right, It's like it's greedy. 547 00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:51,000 Speaker 1: Is that the point? I think what he's saying is 548 00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:53,720 Speaker 1: it's kind of become greedy, like it was originally an 549 00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:56,560 Speaker 1: opportunity and now it's how much stuff do you have? 550 00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:00,160 Speaker 1: So what he suggests we do is go back to 551 00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:04,440 Speaker 1: the original James truth Loow adams ideal of the American 552 00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:07,640 Speaker 1: dream and through that allow it to survive, right, right, 553 00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:10,480 Speaker 1: And we'll finish up with a quote from Adams, uh, 554 00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:12,840 Speaker 1: a social order in which each man and each woman 555 00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:15,280 Speaker 1: shall be able to attain the fullest stature to which 556 00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:18,200 Speaker 1: they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for 557 00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:22,080 Speaker 1: what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth 558 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:26,600 Speaker 1: or position. And how about that? That's right on the money. 559 00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:31,280 Speaker 1: Truth was this is stuff you should know about America 560 00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:34,520 Speaker 1: from the Sirius XM studios in New York City. Now 561 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:40,440 Speaker 1: more from Josh and Chock. So um, this is I 562 00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:45,280 Speaker 1: would argue, I might cry at this part. When I 563 00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:50,320 Speaker 1: was researching, I was crying, um laughing. We have one 564 00:32:50,320 --> 00:32:52,680 Speaker 1: of our good friends here, Joe Randazzo. He edits the 565 00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:56,160 Speaker 1: onion like we said, um, and here that it's a 566 00:32:56,280 --> 00:33:02,800 Speaker 1: big deal The Onion. I've turned into a frenchman. Um 567 00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:04,960 Speaker 1: and he uh, he was so kind as to go 568 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:08,560 Speaker 1: through their sevent three edition, right uh and come up 569 00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:11,160 Speaker 1: with some great headlines for us to share from the 570 00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:19,240 Speaker 1: era from the age. So everyone please welcome Joe Randazzo. Hi, Joe, Hi. 571 00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:21,560 Speaker 1: How are you gonna wear of those? Yeah? Yeah, I 572 00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:25,320 Speaker 1: like it. Joe put on headphones and now I feel naked. 573 00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:27,360 Speaker 1: Why do you hear your hat on? I've got nothing 574 00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:31,280 Speaker 1: that's true. I have to say that last segment I 575 00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:35,440 Speaker 1: was staving off a panic attack. Were roller coaster ride 576 00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:40,680 Speaker 1: ups and downs? What does the American dream isn't even achievable? Oh? 577 00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:43,080 Speaker 1: I thought you because you were nervous. It was no, no, no, no, 578 00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:49,720 Speaker 1: no no. It was terrible, nice, awful, terrible segment. So, um, 579 00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:53,080 Speaker 1: how how did you end up panicked? Or? I don't know. 580 00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:54,440 Speaker 1: I'm in the midst of it right now. We're gonna 581 00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,400 Speaker 1: see what happens. Well, we'll take us through some of this. 582 00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:00,160 Speaker 1: You you guys have been America's findest news source for 583 00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:03,520 Speaker 1: how many well. The Onion was founded in seventeen sixty 584 00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:09,000 Speaker 1: five by Friedrich Zwiebel, who was a Prussian tuber farmer um. 585 00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:11,279 Speaker 1: And the only words that he knew, I think this 586 00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:15,600 Speaker 1: is right, Joe were the an Onion, right, oh, mercantile 587 00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:17,520 Speaker 1: and Onion. So it was founded as the Mercantile Onion 588 00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:22,200 Speaker 1: Um with the express purpose UM of accumulating capital and 589 00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:26,680 Speaker 1: fleecing its readers and y R N y oh and 590 00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:28,919 Speaker 1: I own okay now I thought at the time though 591 00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:34,600 Speaker 1: it was no, you're way off base. UM. So then 592 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:36,400 Speaker 1: so I was found in seventeen sixty five, and then 593 00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:40,160 Speaker 1: the Mercantile and the Onion split in seventeen eighty three. Uh, 594 00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:43,120 Speaker 1: and the Onion has continued on since then independently since 595 00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:46,600 Speaker 1: seventeen three. So these are these are UM articles from 596 00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:50,360 Speaker 1: our seventeen eighty three edition, which is technically the first 597 00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:53,920 Speaker 1: issue of the Onion as it as it's now now. Okay, 598 00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:56,680 Speaker 1: So they split in seventeen yeah, okay, Well we'll share 599 00:34:56,719 --> 00:34:58,319 Speaker 1: with this some of the highlights of what was going 600 00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:00,000 Speaker 1: on that year, because it seemed to be a busy 601 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,879 Speaker 1: a year from what I what I was reading. Yeah, 602 00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:05,080 Speaker 1: it was a busy year. You know. We we reissued 603 00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:10,280 Speaker 1: this in two thousand eight, UM, so that's a fact. 604 00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:13,759 Speaker 1: So let's see where do you want to start. I mean, 605 00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:15,920 Speaker 1: one thing that we like to do in Americans day 606 00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:19,480 Speaker 1: is read books, right am? I? Right? Oh? I forgot 607 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:21,600 Speaker 1: the line I wanted to say. It was this amazing 608 00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:31,000 Speaker 1: line American Dream more like American Night terror. Um. So 609 00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:35,359 Speaker 1: this is just in this October three. These the top 610 00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:39,840 Speaker 1: twenty best selling books in print at present UM a 611 00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:42,400 Speaker 1: little section of the paper called Publisher's Corner. The twenty 612 00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:45,239 Speaker 1: top most books in print at present. Number one's The 613 00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:50,640 Speaker 1: Bible UM with two D three hundred thirty nine copies. 614 00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:55,120 Speaker 1: Number two is Common Sense UH. The third most popular 615 00:35:55,120 --> 00:36:05,680 Speaker 1: book is The Thousands upon Thousands of the Mohicans. Number 616 00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:11,239 Speaker 1: four The Return of Common Sense Back to Basics, UH five, 617 00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:17,520 Speaker 1: The Diary of a Woman Who Knew How to Write UH. 618 00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:24,760 Speaker 1: Number six The Bible with a red cover. Number seven 619 00:36:24,760 --> 00:36:29,439 Speaker 1: The Plowman's Diet. Eight top selling book is The Book 620 00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:34,719 Speaker 1: of Blank Pages. Number nine is Leeches, a comprehensive tone 621 00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:38,600 Speaker 1: of the known medical facts. Tend the Bible with the 622 00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:44,720 Speaker 1: blue cover, The Gentleman of New Amsterdam. Twelve, God's Revenge 623 00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:50,160 Speaker 1: Against Idleness a children's book, and We're thirteen Guide to 624 00:36:50,239 --> 00:36:58,800 Speaker 1: North American Jews fourteen, the Bible German edition number fifteen, 625 00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,879 Speaker 1: common sense three. It just makes sense spelled with the sea. 626 00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:07,319 Speaker 1: It's a pun uh sixteen. The lever and Fulcrum for 627 00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:16,120 Speaker 1: village idiots, Number seventeen, natural still birth and eight do 628 00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:22,160 Speaker 1: not exist. There were only eighteen seventeen books. So that's 629 00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:26,600 Speaker 1: a strong way to start write a list, rattling them off. 630 00:37:26,600 --> 00:37:30,560 Speaker 1: You guys, what else is going on at the time, 631 00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:33,759 Speaker 1: Joe ran dawzer Um, Were there any of these of 632 00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:37,520 Speaker 1: interest that kind of stood out to you? I have one, yes, 633 00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:40,359 Speaker 1: that I thought was pretty neat. The Surgeon General has 634 00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:46,560 Speaker 1: added snuff to the tobacco period. That was a controversial move. 635 00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:49,560 Speaker 1: Everybody's familiar, of course with the food pyramid, as I 636 00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:53,719 Speaker 1: stall um. But I'll just read a little excerpt from here. 637 00:37:54,080 --> 00:37:56,640 Speaker 1: So this is obviously this was written in seventeen three. 638 00:37:56,920 --> 00:37:59,440 Speaker 1: The language is a little more kind of flowery and 639 00:37:59,560 --> 00:38:04,560 Speaker 1: baroque almost, uh than what we're used to now. So 640 00:38:04,600 --> 00:38:07,120 Speaker 1: this reads from our Baltimore cousins. Comes news of the 641 00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:10,759 Speaker 1: felicitous health benefits of the powder tobacco snuff and the 642 00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:14,000 Speaker 1: recommendation that multiple pinches be taken until blood flows freely 643 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:17,439 Speaker 1: from the nose and service of balancing the humors. Pre 644 00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:20,880 Speaker 1: eminent barber, surgeon and former General of Loyalist Ilk, Thomas 645 00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:23,320 Speaker 1: Haysworth has added the cure all physic to his famed 646 00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:27,160 Speaker 1: and most singular tobacco pyramid. The robustness chart learned in 647 00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:29,680 Speaker 1: grammar schools crossed the whole of our nation and has 648 00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:36,719 Speaker 1: given snuff greater importance even than pipe smoke. Um, let's see. 649 00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:39,719 Speaker 1: The measure of snuff, suggested by General Haysworth to be 650 00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:42,799 Speaker 1: most advantageous for children under six years of age, is 651 00:38:42,800 --> 00:38:45,120 Speaker 1: not to be an excess of four sizeable nose packings 652 00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:48,399 Speaker 1: per four and twenty hours, and taken always with two 653 00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:53,040 Speaker 1: drafts of strong brandy. Those unable to procure the finally 654 00:38:53,040 --> 00:38:56,280 Speaker 1: ground tobacco should quaff freely from cuspadours at every opportunity 655 00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:58,480 Speaker 1: to derive at least a little benefit from the meritorious 656 00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:01,840 Speaker 1: effects of stuff. Obviously, snuff is no longer on the 657 00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:07,400 Speaker 1: tobacco pyramids. In the seventies, in so Joe, one of 658 00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:11,799 Speaker 1: the ones I ran across um was the there was 659 00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:14,880 Speaker 1: a woman who wandered out of her house and they 660 00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:17,520 Speaker 1: couldn't figure out what was going on. Yeah, she caused 661 00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:20,640 Speaker 1: quite a stir A mischievous woman wandered outside of home. 662 00:39:20,719 --> 00:39:24,759 Speaker 1: The headline, A mischievous woman wandered outside of home. I'll 663 00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:26,320 Speaker 1: just read a little bit of this as well. The 664 00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:28,920 Speaker 1: gentle town of Harrisburg was confronted with a most worrisome 665 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:31,759 Speaker 1: and shocking sight the day before last one, owing to 666 00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:34,560 Speaker 1: the sudden appearance of wife and child bearer Margaret Cook 667 00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:38,680 Speaker 1: from the interior of her home. Defying all reason, Cook 668 00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:42,560 Speaker 1: was observed to exit into the open air, though no 669 00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:46,400 Speaker 1: man had instructed her to do so. No domestic task 670 00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:49,120 Speaker 1: required her to be out of doors, and no sign 671 00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:54,120 Speaker 1: of suffocating fire had surfaced from her modest dwelling. Um, 672 00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:57,799 Speaker 1: so she wandered around town, brought up quite a consternation, 673 00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:00,640 Speaker 1: and then the last line of the story, Margaret Cook 674 00:40:00,719 --> 00:40:03,239 Speaker 1: was reprimanded, disowned, and hanged until dead after returning to 675 00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:10,600 Speaker 1: replace of residence. Tougher times one that you alluded to earlier. 676 00:40:10,800 --> 00:40:15,520 Speaker 1: It was foreshadowed. Um. Today we're all interested in sort 677 00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:17,800 Speaker 1: of news of the weird and these peculiar news items 678 00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:19,640 Speaker 1: from around the world. World. I think that in the 679 00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:22,640 Speaker 1: world's oldest person just recently die. Now there's a new 680 00:40:22,680 --> 00:40:30,239 Speaker 1: oldest person. Yeah, um. So this um, the world's tallest man, 681 00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:35,600 Speaker 1: towers at five ft and eleven inches. Should I read 682 00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:40,160 Speaker 1: a little passive um from the honest and sworn captain 683 00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:42,919 Speaker 1: of the bark Stilla, freshly returned from the Baltic news 684 00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:45,800 Speaker 1: of the existence of a modern blong shanks, a veritable 685 00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:50,279 Speaker 1: giant before whom many tremble said. Pantroguel, who makes his 686 00:40:50,320 --> 00:40:53,520 Speaker 1: residence in the city of Danzig, reaches nearly six ft 687 00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:57,880 Speaker 1: into the heavens. At an astonishing eighteen hands high. He 688 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:00,560 Speaker 1: is head and shoulders above even the loftiest of his brethren, 689 00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:03,439 Speaker 1: and when striding the thoroughfares of Danzig, can be seen 690 00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:08,800 Speaker 1: from thirty paces away. So colossal is he that master 691 00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:11,000 Speaker 1: carpenters cut a hole above his door and raised the 692 00:41:11,040 --> 00:41:14,759 Speaker 1: portal to accommodate his great head. This Ajax sleeps in 693 00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:17,000 Speaker 1: especially fashioned bed, so that his lower limbs do not 694 00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:20,160 Speaker 1: dangle off the edge. His tailor keeps a stock one 695 00:41:20,200 --> 00:41:22,960 Speaker 1: surplus bolt each of wool and muslin. Should the Leviathan 696 00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:26,360 Speaker 1: desire a new suit of clothes to him, our daily 697 00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:30,920 Speaker 1: bread is but mere crumbs. The proprietress of an inn 698 00:41:30,920 --> 00:41:33,400 Speaker 1: where the mammoth takes meals testified that he could devour 699 00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:36,000 Speaker 1: one half of one one hundreds of his weight in 700 00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:39,920 Speaker 1: beefsteak in one sitting. It is a further wonder that 701 00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:42,120 Speaker 1: the floorboards of his house have not given way under 702 00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:44,720 Speaker 1: his great heft, and that being estimated at nearly twelve 703 00:41:44,719 --> 00:41:51,799 Speaker 1: stone or one hundred sixty five pounds. Um, that's it. 704 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:55,560 Speaker 1: He's a giant, five ft eleven inches. I've got one 705 00:41:55,600 --> 00:41:59,840 Speaker 1: for you, Joe. We all have Ben Franklin, right, Yeah, 706 00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:04,160 Speaker 1: invented lightning, that's right. And he invented a lot of things. 707 00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:08,520 Speaker 1: And uh, from the historical archives, he invented so many 708 00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:10,840 Speaker 1: things that they would actually print them week to week 709 00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:13,920 Speaker 1: every week there was a future Ben Franklin inventions this 710 00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:17,239 Speaker 1: week and I will go ahead and read a couple 711 00:42:17,280 --> 00:42:19,399 Speaker 1: of of this week. I don't even know what week 712 00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:21,000 Speaker 1: it was. This is I think the week of October. 713 00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:27,200 Speaker 1: He invented the death kite. It's kind of needo. Uh. 714 00:42:27,239 --> 00:42:31,279 Speaker 1: He invented the carton device for conveyance of eggs to 715 00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:37,879 Speaker 1: minimize breakage on even the most uneven of footpaths. Yep, 716 00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:47,840 Speaker 1: he invented the US patent. Are these all appropriate to read? Radio? 717 00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:52,200 Speaker 1: I think the next one we shall not read. He 718 00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:58,480 Speaker 1: also apparently that we invented power windows, the inflatable oblong balloon, 719 00:42:58,520 --> 00:43:02,280 Speaker 1: the sort that hedmits a thunders one resembling sorry thunder's clap, 720 00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:06,759 Speaker 1: one resembling the loud exhale from one's nether regions, the 721 00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:14,560 Speaker 1: whoopee cushion, maidenhead glue because that one flies, uh and 722 00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:19,520 Speaker 1: math and I love the last one he invented, being 723 00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:23,440 Speaker 1: a great and pretentious old wind bag. Joe, do you 724 00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:26,560 Speaker 1: have the one about the amazing public spectacle? It seemed 725 00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:30,359 Speaker 1: like almost an advertisement or like an upcoming event that 726 00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:34,480 Speaker 1: captured my attention, I do, Josh, and public is spelled 727 00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:37,359 Speaker 1: with the K in this case, and that is right. 728 00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:45,960 Speaker 1: That's that's right, Chuck, I have it right here. No, 729 00:43:46,080 --> 00:43:50,120 Speaker 1: I need to do this. Yeah, so yeah, you know 730 00:43:50,160 --> 00:43:52,920 Speaker 1: people still needed their entertainment in in the eighteenth century. 731 00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:56,959 Speaker 1: Um so this was an amazing public spectacle. Indian taught 732 00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:01,520 Speaker 1: to wear hat see the Savage Mohican, who, by grace 733 00:44:01,560 --> 00:44:03,759 Speaker 1: of God and much patient training, has been taught to 734 00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:06,440 Speaker 1: wear a hat in the manner of an actual human 735 00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:11,560 Speaker 1: and amusing novelty for the public. Different times, but those 736 00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:15,120 Speaker 1: are different times. Can we scoff at Alexis to Tulkoville. 737 00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:19,000 Speaker 1: Again those one of the best moments. I like this 738 00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:22,560 Speaker 1: one a lot. This was very important when a kidney 739 00:44:22,719 --> 00:44:28,160 Speaker 1: being shaped organ recently discovered. Uh this was by uh 740 00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:32,400 Speaker 1: cheer of surgeons and blood letters in Boston discovered in 741 00:44:32,800 --> 00:44:36,640 Speaker 1: organelle of the body and that human excise from the 742 00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:40,279 Speaker 1: back and modeled purple in color and very likely a 743 00:44:40,360 --> 00:44:45,080 Speaker 1: kidney being in shape which removed when removed causes expiration 744 00:44:45,239 --> 00:44:50,880 Speaker 1: as with all organs. I found it. Here's the kidney 745 00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:55,839 Speaker 1: being one. Um. And then you know, even then there 746 00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:59,360 Speaker 1: was some you did the the podcast recently on on 747 00:44:59,480 --> 00:45:02,640 Speaker 1: Mouth's right overpopulations. They were even worried about this in 748 00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:05,839 Speaker 1: seventeen three, this um sort of opinion piece will New 749 00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:11,919 Speaker 1: York someday be too crowded for farming? An issue even 750 00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:14,520 Speaker 1: more worrisome to experts is the reduced acreage of cleared 751 00:45:14,520 --> 00:45:17,080 Speaker 1: forest available for farming within the city limits. Is a 752 00:45:17,120 --> 00:45:19,439 Speaker 1: well known fact that no urban community can survive without 753 00:45:19,440 --> 00:45:24,439 Speaker 1: an agricultural base on which to found the city's infrastructure. Um, 754 00:45:24,640 --> 00:45:28,359 Speaker 1: go go on line and read it, really hilarious, read 755 00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:32,520 Speaker 1: silently to yourself. And then there was another one about 756 00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:38,640 Speaker 1: New York where um, the population was expected to to 757 00:45:38,719 --> 00:45:41,640 Speaker 1: go over ten thousand, so it had already reached twelve thousand. 758 00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:44,400 Speaker 1: It was causing a lot of concerns. New York is 759 00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:47,920 Speaker 1: threatened by over crowding as population climbs to twelve thousands. 760 00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:51,200 Speaker 1: And that that had a companion piece another worried one. 761 00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:55,439 Speaker 1: Um where uh it was urban sprawl and then there's 762 00:45:55,520 --> 00:46:00,399 Speaker 1: only thirteen thousand acres of forest remaining on Manhattan. Urban 763 00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:03,319 Speaker 1: sprawling so severe settlements, cooking fires can be seen from 764 00:46:03,320 --> 00:46:08,200 Speaker 1: as far as Greenwich Village was as true today as 765 00:46:08,239 --> 00:46:11,520 Speaker 1: it was back then. Right, that's right, yeah, you got 766 00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:13,640 Speaker 1: you you have anything else too. I was gonna say 767 00:46:13,640 --> 00:46:16,719 Speaker 1: a fact, uh from real from the real history of 768 00:46:16,760 --> 00:46:21,680 Speaker 1: the world, which was um Stuyvesant was the original governor 769 00:46:21,719 --> 00:46:24,799 Speaker 1: of New York, I believe, and when he was banished 770 00:46:25,080 --> 00:46:27,799 Speaker 1: from New York, he went to retire, uh in his 771 00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:31,840 Speaker 1: farm in the West Village. That's where he went to 772 00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:37,480 Speaker 1: get away from everybody was the West Village, New York. 773 00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:40,439 Speaker 1: Only in New York. So thanks for coming by, Joe, 774 00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:45,280 Speaker 1: thanks for having me. Also, like everybody, I mean, thanks 775 00:46:45,719 --> 00:46:48,799 Speaker 1: thanks stuck. Do you realize what that means? We are 776 00:46:48,840 --> 00:46:51,759 Speaker 1: out of this, Yes, we're out of segments. I think 777 00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:54,279 Speaker 1: that means that you will be able to have a 778 00:46:54,320 --> 00:46:56,680 Speaker 1: drink in your hands soon, yes, which I know is 779 00:46:56,719 --> 00:47:03,200 Speaker 1: something you've been looking forward to every day, every day. Um, everybody, 780 00:47:03,239 --> 00:47:05,560 Speaker 1: thank you for joining us. We really appreciate you. Can 781 00:47:05,560 --> 00:47:08,799 Speaker 1: clap for yourself, vote, clap for your guys. So great. 782 00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:13,200 Speaker 1: Everybody out there listening in your car right now, clap 783 00:47:13,239 --> 00:47:15,840 Speaker 1: for yourself, but keep your elbows on the steering wheel 784 00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:18,279 Speaker 1: while you do so. Maybe everybody else in the car 785 00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:21,399 Speaker 1: can clap for you, the driver while you keep nine 786 00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:24,040 Speaker 1: and three. It's not anymore at home. You can clap 787 00:47:24,280 --> 00:47:28,360 Speaker 1: if you're listening to this in a shopping mall, clap everybody. Clap, 788 00:47:29,920 --> 00:47:32,399 Speaker 1: um and uh, and have a very safe Fourth of July. 789 00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:35,360 Speaker 1: And when you when you see fireworks, remember sulfur is 790 00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:39,480 Speaker 1: a reducing agent. Yeah, don't throw smoke bombs that brittle trees. Right. 791 00:47:39,560 --> 00:47:42,279 Speaker 1: The the American dream will never die no matter what. 792 00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:46,919 Speaker 1: And buggery is not only bestiality but also sodom. Thank 793 00:47:46,920 --> 00:47:53,759 Speaker 1: you very much until next time. The stuff you should know, so, 794 00:47:53,880 --> 00:47:58,040 Speaker 1: ma'am hoff On is that Wow? Yeah, wow, that was 795 00:47:58,120 --> 00:48:02,880 Speaker 1: epic monumental. Um, it was okay, and it ran longer 796 00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:04,560 Speaker 1: than I thought it would. I was worried about it 797 00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:07,160 Speaker 1: lasting an hour, and it was an hour and forty 798 00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:09,920 Speaker 1: five minutes. Yes, once we get Gavin, get a Gavin, 799 00:48:10,480 --> 00:48:13,440 Speaker 1: it's hard to shut us up. It lasted fourteen hours 800 00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:16,439 Speaker 1: in full bladder time. Yeah, so we want to say 801 00:48:16,480 --> 00:48:19,880 Speaker 1: thank you to h all the fans who came what 802 00:48:19,960 --> 00:48:23,600 Speaker 1: we like to refer to as the fifty um. Look 803 00:48:23,640 --> 00:48:25,200 Speaker 1: like everyone had a good time. It was good meat 804 00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:29,839 Speaker 1: and folks. I saw faces from the Brooklyn trivia night. Yes, 805 00:48:29,840 --> 00:48:32,520 Speaker 1: I saw some familiar faces. We get some bread. Chris 806 00:48:32,640 --> 00:48:34,920 Speaker 1: Kine was there, who did our two headed uh Josh 807 00:48:34,920 --> 00:48:38,560 Speaker 1: and Chuck thing. He was the dude and the Ghostbusters. Okay, yeah, 808 00:48:38,600 --> 00:48:41,280 Speaker 1: I saw that guy, but he didn't come up weird. 809 00:48:41,400 --> 00:48:42,680 Speaker 1: I don't know. It was like, dude, what's your deal? 810 00:48:42,800 --> 00:48:45,520 Speaker 1: That's really weird, Chris. And then we met kubs don 811 00:48:45,600 --> 00:48:48,080 Speaker 1: kuby ye and you called her out. I called her 812 00:48:48,080 --> 00:48:51,200 Speaker 1: out a little bit, which you heard. We also want 813 00:48:51,200 --> 00:48:53,759 Speaker 1: to thank Whyatt Sanak and Hallie Haglin of the Daily 814 00:48:53,760 --> 00:48:56,000 Speaker 1: Show with John Stewart, and thank the Daily Show for 815 00:48:56,040 --> 00:48:57,919 Speaker 1: letting him do it. Yeah, that was a big deal. 816 00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:01,120 Speaker 1: So thank you. Thanks to Jan over the Daily Show 817 00:49:01,160 --> 00:49:03,440 Speaker 1: for helping us with that, and then all of our 818 00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:07,440 Speaker 1: peeps at the Onion and Joe's and the Jill. Yeah, 819 00:49:07,800 --> 00:49:11,359 Speaker 1: thank you to all three of you. Yes, and big 820 00:49:11,360 --> 00:49:14,719 Speaker 1: thanks to Paul from Serious X him and uh, I 821 00:49:14,719 --> 00:49:16,640 Speaker 1: can't remember our engineer's name that day. He was a 822 00:49:16,680 --> 00:49:18,439 Speaker 1: really nice guy and says that he's a new fan. 823 00:49:20,400 --> 00:49:23,680 Speaker 1: And also Jeremy of Serious who came to the show. Yeah, 824 00:49:23,800 --> 00:49:26,480 Speaker 1: and he's a big wig. Yeah, and he came by 825 00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:28,480 Speaker 1: to see it. So thanks for all that. Thanks to 826 00:49:28,560 --> 00:49:30,919 Speaker 1: Roxanne our head a video for helping us out up there, 827 00:49:31,640 --> 00:49:36,160 Speaker 1: and special thanks to the video team that we had 828 00:49:36,239 --> 00:49:40,520 Speaker 1: assembled fans that said, dude, we will shoot this in 829 00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:44,680 Speaker 1: a professional fashion for free for you guys to put 830 00:49:44,719 --> 00:49:46,880 Speaker 1: on your website. And every step of the way you're like, 831 00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:49,360 Speaker 1: well you can use my carent No. No, well you 832 00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:51,760 Speaker 1: don't need to edit it. No. No, well it doesn't 833 00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:53,920 Speaker 1: need to look good. No no, So every step of 834 00:49:53,960 --> 00:49:57,759 Speaker 1: the way they've they've wowed and amazed and topped our expectations. Yeah, 835 00:49:57,760 --> 00:49:59,319 Speaker 1: so we want to plug them for sure. That would 836 00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:04,640 Speaker 1: be uh. Martin laca Henson of Handcrafted by Martin and 837 00:50:04,680 --> 00:50:07,800 Speaker 1: you can see his work at www dot hand Crafted 838 00:50:07,840 --> 00:50:13,280 Speaker 1: by Martin dot com. His live in gal he called 839 00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:18,799 Speaker 1: his wife domestic partner uh Sa Toko Sugiyama, and she 840 00:50:19,040 --> 00:50:20,880 Speaker 1: was one of the main shooters and you can find 841 00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:26,720 Speaker 1: her work at www dot The Passage Chronicles dot com. 842 00:50:26,719 --> 00:50:29,040 Speaker 1: And uh finally they had one more shooter. They had 843 00:50:29,080 --> 00:50:33,000 Speaker 1: three cameras and she did sound as well. Lari Sumi, 844 00:50:33,719 --> 00:50:37,480 Speaker 1: who um you can find her work at www dot 845 00:50:38,280 --> 00:50:41,080 Speaker 1: Lauri Sumi dot com. L A U R I E 846 00:50:41,239 --> 00:50:45,600 Speaker 1: s U M I y E very appropriate U R 847 00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:48,279 Speaker 1: L yes, And they did an awesome job and we 848 00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:50,160 Speaker 1: really can't say thanks enough. And you can find that 849 00:50:50,239 --> 00:50:52,040 Speaker 1: video look for it. We'll have it. We'll put on 850 00:50:52,040 --> 00:50:55,480 Speaker 1: Facebook to point people to the website where you can 851 00:50:55,480 --> 00:50:59,200 Speaker 1: watch this thing in pieces in full. Yeah, and thank 852 00:50:59,239 --> 00:51:02,279 Speaker 1: you your listener for plodding through this thing with us. 853 00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:05,040 Speaker 1: We hope it was worth it. And um, we'll be 854 00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:09,160 Speaker 1: back to our regular scheduled podcasts next week if you 855 00:51:09,239 --> 00:51:11,719 Speaker 1: want to, as always, shoot us an email send that 856 00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:20,479 Speaker 1: thing to stuff podcast at how Stuff works dot com. 857 00:51:20,520 --> 00:51:23,080 Speaker 1: Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff 858 00:51:23,120 --> 00:51:25,759 Speaker 1: from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we 859 00:51:25,800 --> 00:51:32,279 Speaker 1: explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought 860 00:51:32,320 --> 00:51:35,480 Speaker 1: to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, 861 00:51:35,680 --> 00:51:36,080 Speaker 1: are you