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Speaker 1: I guess what, mango? What's that? Will? I know? You

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Speaker 1: know I'm a big candy corn fan. I'm super excited

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Speaker 1: Halloween's coming up. But did you know that candy corn

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Speaker 1: used to be called chicken feet? According to Better Homes

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Speaker 1: and Gardens, the revolutionary tricolor candy was invented by a

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Speaker 1: company called Wonderly Candy Company. Isn't that a great name?

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Speaker 1: In Philadelphia? This was back in Do you know what?

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Speaker 1: The original slogan was something worth crowing for? Which, actually,

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Speaker 1: as I'm saying that aloud, do chickens crow? I mean

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Speaker 1: they're both birds. I guess you're right, and it's the

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Speaker 1: perfect slogan for chicken feet. And it's just the first

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Speaker 1: of nine Halloween theme facts we've got for you today.

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Speaker 1: Let's dive ina. Hey there, podcast listeners, welcome to Part

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Speaker 1: Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and it's always I'm joined

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Speaker 1: by my good friend Man Guesh Ticketer and on the

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Speaker 1: other side of the soundproof glass, dressed up in his

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Speaker 1: homemade costume. I think he's a dentist. Is that what

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Speaker 1: he is? I think is our friend and producer Tristan McNeil.

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Speaker 1: It's an impressive costume, whatever it is, and back from vacation.

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Speaker 1: Joining us on the phone is our brilliant researcher Gabe Louisier. Hey,

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Speaker 1: they're Gabe. Hey, guys, nice to be back. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: having me on. All right, well, let's talk some Halloween facts.

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Speaker 1: I know I usually let somebody else go first, but

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Speaker 1: I'm not done talking about candy corns. If you don't mind,

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm gonna kick this thing off. So did you

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Speaker 1: know what actually wasn't started as a Halloween candy? In fact,

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Speaker 1: as late as nineteen fifty seven, Bronx was advertising it

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Speaker 1: as this summertime candy. And I guess it makes sense

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Speaker 1: because corn is kind of a summertime food. But I

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Speaker 1: do have some really important statistics to share with you guys. So,

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Speaker 1: according to a study, forty three percent of people eat

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Speaker 1: it at the narrow end first, ten percent eat it

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Speaker 1: at the wider end first, and fort of people just

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Speaker 1: pop the whole kernel in their mouths. Who doesn't just

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Speaker 1: pop the whole journal in their mouths? I eat it

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Speaker 1: from the narrow end. Do you really gave? How do

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Speaker 1: you eat it? I honestly just try to avoid eating

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Speaker 1: it altogether. All right, Well, now you at least know

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Speaker 1: the percentages. Okay. So so there's my first fact, Mango,

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Speaker 1: you want to go next. So this comes from our

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Speaker 1: friend Stacy Conrad, but she told me that trick or

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Speaker 1: treaters in Des Moines can't just say trick or treat

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Speaker 1: expect to get like candy shoved into their pillowcases. They

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Speaker 1: actually have to tell jokes for their treats. And apparently

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Speaker 1: the traditions started in the thirties when there was this

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Speaker 1: outbreak of Halloween vandalism. The director of recreation around there

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Speaker 1: decided to encourage more constructive Halloween activities. So here's actually

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Speaker 1: what you told residents. Quote, Eats should be given only

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Speaker 1: if such a trick as a song, a poem, a stunt,

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Speaker 1: or a musical number, either solo or in group participation,

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Speaker 1: is presented. Eighty years later, the tradition still continues, and

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Speaker 1: while the poems, stunts, and musical numbers have kind of

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Speaker 1: gone out of style, kids still tell jokes for their candies.

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Speaker 1: So this is common all over De Moines. I guess. So,

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Speaker 1: oh wow, I've never heard that before me. That's a

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Speaker 1: that's a pretty good one, all right, Gabe. So you're

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Speaker 1: back from vacation. Hopefully you're not too rusty. You've got

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Speaker 1: a fact for us. Oh yeah, absolutely. This one actually

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Speaker 1: is in a you know, it's similiar vain to uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, a public stand against Halloween nuisances. So silly

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Speaker 1: string is actually banned in the Hollywood on Halloween night.

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Speaker 1: And this is according to a Los Angeles Municipal Code

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Speaker 1: ordinance the pass in two thousand four, and it states

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Speaker 1: that anyone caught selling, or using or even possessing a

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Speaker 1: silly string between midnight October thirty one and New November

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Speaker 1: one can be find to a thousand dollars. And the

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Speaker 1: reason for that is it over a hundred thousand people

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Speaker 1: routinely flocked to Hollywood Boulevard on Halloween night looking for

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Speaker 1: something to do, and that something often includes, you know,

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Speaker 1: buying silly string from street vendors and reeking havoc. Not

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Speaker 1: only that, but you know, they are also environmental concerns.

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Speaker 1: Big clumps of silly string, as well as the empty

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Speaker 1: cans have a tendency to claude storm dreams and eventually

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Speaker 1: float out the sea. LA's dreams empty directly into the

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Speaker 1: Pacific Ocean. Wow, this is a big issue. I had

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Speaker 1: never heard this either. Good job, that was a good fact.

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Speaker 1: All right, let me see what I have next here.

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Speaker 1: I've got a really important fact about Halloween Eve. So

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Speaker 1: I actually didn't realize how many people around the world

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Speaker 1: have a name for Halloween Eve. There was a poll

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Speaker 1: by the Cambridge Online Survey and they were looking at

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Speaker 1: if people had a name for it. So people don't

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Speaker 1: call Halloween Eve anything, but of people have names where

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Speaker 1: It was kind of fun to look at the list.

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Speaker 1: So there's some that we've heard of before. There's Beggar's Night,

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Speaker 1: Mischief Night, Devil's Night, Gate Night, trick Night. But two

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Speaker 1: that I have never heard before. In New England many

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Speaker 1: people call it cabbage Night. And uh in parts of

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Speaker 1: New Jersey they call it goosey night. You ever heard

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Speaker 1: that Goosey Night? Now alright, Mango, what do you have next?

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Speaker 1: So this is about Halloween mess and in spirit Halloween,

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Speaker 1: which is a chain started keeping track of their political

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Speaker 1: mass sales and they've picked up on this odd trend.

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Speaker 1: They realized that whichever candidates mass sold more, the candidate

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Speaker 1: would win the election. And since all six elections have

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Speaker 1: gone in the direction of the more popular mask and

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Speaker 1: Trump sold of the mask to Hillary. Wow, I'm actually

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Speaker 1: kind of surprised he didn't out sell her even more,

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Speaker 1: you know. But but anyway, that's a that's really interesting. Alright, Gay,

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Speaker 1: what do you have next? Okay, so this is that

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Speaker 1: I was really surprised to learn apparently there are not one,

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Speaker 1: but two cities in the United States that both claimed

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Speaker 1: to be the Halloween Capital of the world. And the

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Speaker 1: first is Salem, Massachusetts, and you know that makes and

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Speaker 1: it's the home of the famous Balem witch trial, so

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Speaker 1: it definitely has some creepy cred in its favor. But

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Speaker 1: the other is a Noca, Minnesota, and es angely enough,

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Speaker 1: a Noca claims to be the capital because it was

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Speaker 1: the first city in the US to throw a Halloween

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Speaker 1: celebration in order to stop kids from you know, swing

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Speaker 1: mystic around the town like soaping up people's windows and

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Speaker 1: tipping over out houses. So in the Anoka Commercial Club

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Speaker 1: and then Noca Kawanis Club through a big celebration that

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Speaker 1: included a parade, a bonfire, foods, drinks, and you know,

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Speaker 1: of course candy, and it later expanded the events to

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Speaker 1: include other things like pelo fights, copting contests, and even

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Speaker 1: a fireworks display uh and and is actually still being

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Speaker 1: held in a NOCA, and it has been every year since,

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Speaker 1: with the exception of a priest hiatus during World War Two,

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Speaker 1: when citizen said, you know, bigger things to worry about,

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Speaker 1: the kids, kids editing their houses, the Halloween capitals of

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Speaker 1: the competing Halloween capitals of the US. That's very interesting.

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Speaker 1: I've never heard that. Alright, we've each got one fact left,

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Speaker 1: and I've I've saved what I think maybe my best

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Speaker 1: for last. Even though it's not about Candy Corn, it's

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Speaker 1: about Houdini, who appropriately died on Halloween. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if you guys knew this. So he was rushed to

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Speaker 1: the hospital a week before October thirty one, but then

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Speaker 1: he ended up dying on October thirty one. Now, his

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Speaker 1: death was the result of a ruptured appendix, and doctors

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Speaker 1: were able to remove the appendix, but the damage had

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Speaker 1: already been done. And you know, there's some speculation that

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Speaker 1: the rupture was due in part to a man that

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Speaker 1: was punching him in the stomach repeatedly to see if

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Speaker 1: he could live up to the rumors that he could

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Speaker 1: withstand hard punches to the abdomen. Now, Hudini's wife would

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Speaker 1: hold seances every year on October thirty one to remember him.

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Speaker 1: This happened for about ten years after his death. Alright, Mango,

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Speaker 1: one last fact from you. So this isn't a Halloween fact,

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Speaker 1: for say, but it is one about candy and and

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Speaker 1: maybe also a cautionary tale. So you know, in the

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Speaker 1: movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, there's that carry to

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Speaker 1: Violet Buareuguard who's always chewing gum. So according to the

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Speaker 1: UK paper, they express sugar List gum didn't produce the

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Speaker 1: right bubbles, so she spent nine weeks on set chewing

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Speaker 1: regular gum, which resulted in thirteen cavities after filming. Wow,

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Speaker 1: all right, you closed pretty strong with that one, I think, so, Gabe,

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Speaker 1: you want to bring it home? Yeah, and I actually

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Speaker 1: I do want to end on a creepy one. This

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Speaker 1: was one of the creepiest things like game across actually,

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Speaker 1: and that's that the candy industry influenced Daylight saving Time.

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Speaker 1: You know, the actual dates when daylight saving Time occurred.

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Speaker 1: And this is according to Michael Downing, the author of

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Speaker 1: spring Forward the Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time, which

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Speaker 1: is a great title by the last. But the candy

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Speaker 1: industry is actually the reason the DFT was extended by

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Speaker 1: four weeks beginning in two thousand seven. He told MPR, quote,

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Speaker 1: for twenty five years, candy makers have wanted to get

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Speaker 1: trick or treat covered by daylight saving, figuring that if

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Speaker 1: children have an extra hour of daylight, bill collect more candy.

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Speaker 1: In fact, they went so far during the hearings on

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Speaker 1: daylight Saving as to put candy pumpkins on the feet

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Speaker 1: of every senator, hoping to win a little favor. The

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Speaker 1: part about this does it have worked? The candy industry

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Speaker 1: eventually got their way. In two thousand five, President Bush

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Speaker 1: signed a bill into law that extended daylight Saving time

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Speaker 1: to include Halloween. And you know, supposedly the Gulf and

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Speaker 1: barbecue industries are also said to have been in on

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Speaker 1: the on this push for extending it. I mean, it

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Speaker 1: is pretty smart, and I do like those candy pumpkins.

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Speaker 1: They're pretty good too, Taste kind of like candy corn,

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Speaker 1: but totally different shapes. All right, Gabe, You know, Mango

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Speaker 1: and I are always deciding who the winner is. But

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Speaker 1: you've done this with us a few times now, so

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you decide who takes the crown today.

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Speaker 1: Oh man, that's that's a lot of pressure. And you know,

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Speaker 1: I don't want to shoot my own horn or anything,

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Speaker 1: but that last fact was pretty creepy. And this is

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Speaker 1: a Halloween ever, so oh well, I like his confidence,

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Speaker 1: so we'll we'll agree to that. We'll give it to you, Gabe. Congratulations.

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Speaker 1: Thank you guys for listening today. We'll be back with

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Speaker 1: a full length episode tomorrow. M m m