Speaker 1: Guess what will? What's that mango? So I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if you're on Twitter, but everyone's been talking about buttons
Speaker 1: this week, like Kim Jong un was bragging about his
Speaker 1: which caused our Chief of State to brag about the
Speaker 1: size of his nuclear button. Yeah, I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: you have to be on Twitter to have heard this news.
Speaker 1: It feels like it has been everywhere this week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is obviously a really fun game for world
Speaker 1: leaders to play, but it's been driving up my anxiety.
Speaker 1: And then I started focusing my attention on all the
Speaker 1: other buttons in this world, Like did you know that
Speaker 1: the Victoria's Secret model Carolina Kurkova was born with a
Speaker 1: medical complications, so she has no belly button, Like every
Speaker 1: time she's in the magazine, they actually have to photoshop
Speaker 1: a button in. Actually, I didn't realize humans could be
Speaker 1: born without belly buttons. I thought that was just animals
Speaker 1: that hatched from eggs. Yeah, well, I don't think she's
Speaker 1: a reptile, if that's what you're implying. Like she had
Speaker 1: an operation when she was a child, so she has
Speaker 1: this strange, smooth belly. But apparently she's not alone. There
Speaker 1: are lots of people in the world without belly buttons
Speaker 1: as well. And it isn't just an Adam and evening.
Speaker 1: But that's just the first of our button facts on
Speaker 1: today's Nine Things. Let's dive in. Y Hey, their podcast listeners,
Speaker 1: welcome to part time Genius and I'm Will Pearson and
Speaker 1: as always I'm joined by my good friend Man Guesh
Speaker 1: Ticketer and the man on the other side of the
Speaker 1: soundproof glass wearing a very fancy cardigan. And those buttons
Speaker 1: are so big. I actually think for those buttons on
Speaker 1: top of buttons, Manko, I think so wow. That's our
Speaker 1: friend and producer Tristan McNeil, and it's it's a real
Speaker 1: shame that our regular superstar Nine Things guests, Gabe Bluesier
Speaker 1: is not here in studio to appreciate this cardigan, but
Speaker 1: he is joining us by sky pay their Gabe. Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. Well, let's talk buttons. You want
Speaker 1: to uh, you want to go first? Do you have
Speaker 1: a good fact? Yeah, definitely. So. Since Mango kicked this
Speaker 1: off by talking about the President, I thought i'd tell
Speaker 1: you about the time that President Carter hit a secret
Speaker 1: panic button in the bathroom. Apparently He thought it was
Speaker 1: the button for a flush, but was shocked when a
Speaker 1: Secret Service agent basically kicked the door down, gun in hand,
Speaker 1: only to find the President zipping up his trousers. According
Speaker 1: to the agent Marty Venker, Carter was quote pretty chilly
Speaker 1: to him after that. Oh way, I really want to
Speaker 1: know like where this panic button was and how it
Speaker 1: could be placed somewhere that could be confused for like
Speaker 1: a flush button that's just on top of the toilet. Ah,
Speaker 1: that is so weird. All right, well I've got a
Speaker 1: slightly different button. Fact, I'll go next here. So I
Speaker 1: actually didn't realize this used to be a thing in cars,
Speaker 1: but this was the floor mounted dimmer switch. And it
Speaker 1: actually comes from our old friend Karakvalchick over at Mental
Speaker 1: Floss and she told us about this. But apparently the
Speaker 1: switch for high beams used to be this little button
Speaker 1: that was next to the brakes and so if you
Speaker 1: tapped your left foot on it, your brights would then
Speaker 1: turn on. So this this is another one for me,
Speaker 1: was like, why was it ever thought to put it
Speaker 1: right there? It just seems like a kind of a
Speaker 1: strange place to have it. Alright, Mango, you got one? Yeah, definitely. So. Uh. So,
Speaker 1: you know, everyone knows about the Staples easy button, right
Speaker 1: like it was featured in their ad campaign forever ago.
Speaker 1: And you might have known that the company sold easy
Speaker 1: buttons in their store and they made a fortune off
Speaker 1: of them. But did you know that they actually came
Speaker 1: in different varieties. So in addition to the one that
Speaker 1: said that was easy like the traditional button that they had,
Speaker 1: they also had an easy for parentence button that said
Speaker 1: things like of course you're right, and your house your rules,
Speaker 1: as well as an easy for kids button that said
Speaker 1: go ahead and stay up late and good news, no homework.
Speaker 1: It's always so strange to me when things like that
Speaker 1: take off. I wonder how many of those they actually sold.
Speaker 1: That such a bizarre thing. Yeah, definitely, all right, gay,
Speaker 1: what's your next fact? Here's something I've never thought about
Speaker 1: until I came across an article in Slate, But apparently
Speaker 1: in early colonial America, people used to make their own
Speaker 1: buttons at home, and according to the article quote, working
Speaker 1: class families counted themselves lucky if they owned a handheld
Speaker 1: button mold. So basically, you you'd heat up this mold
Speaker 1: on some coals, fill it with lead, and then let
Speaker 1: it cool into a button shape, and then you'd you know,
Speaker 1: decorate the heavy button or wrap it in fabric something
Speaker 1: like that. That's amazing. We're gonna do a little button
Speaker 1: history here too, because I've I've actually got a button fact,
Speaker 1: an old button fact as well. So at one point,
Speaker 1: buttons were so popular and often fashion so tiny that
Speaker 1: your fingers weren't actually helpful in getting the button through
Speaker 1: the loop, and so people kept these button hooks around
Speaker 1: and so basically there were these scary looking kind of
Speaker 1: crochet type instruments that you'd use to pull a tiny
Speaker 1: button through a narrow eyehole. And often you'd have to
Speaker 1: have different button hooks for different size. But it just
Speaker 1: seems like such a hassle I have to do all this.
Speaker 1: It is. It is exactly the opposite of what Tristan's
Speaker 1: got going on, where I think for those huge buttons,
Speaker 1: you actually need two hands to be able to get
Speaker 1: it through the hoop there. Alright, Mango, what's your next fact?
Speaker 1: That's that's a funny bit of history. So um that
Speaker 1: actually reminds me of something I read about why women's
Speaker 1: buttons are on the left side of the shirt and
Speaker 1: men's are on the right. And there are a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of theories about this, Like some people claim men
Speaker 1: needed their dominant hand for holding weapons in the Middle Ages,
Speaker 1: so the button on the right made it easier for
Speaker 1: their non dominant hand to button the shirt one handed
Speaker 1: or mental Floss says this theory about how women tend
Speaker 1: to hold babies with their left hand so that their
Speaker 1: right hand is free to do things, and that's why
Speaker 1: the buttons are on the left side of their blouses.
Speaker 1: But the theory with the biggest support is that more
Speaker 1: fancy women were dressed by others, and when you're buttoning
Speaker 1: a lot of buttons for an impatient royal or duchess
Speaker 1: or whatever, having the buttons played your dominant hand is useful.
Speaker 1: So they're on the handmaids right or the noblewoman's left
Speaker 1: to speed up the process. Oh, actually makes a lot
Speaker 1: of sense, All right, Gabe, what's your what's your last
Speaker 1: factor the day? Here's a really cool and So the
Speaker 1: first remotes for TVs were called lazy bones, and they
Speaker 1: had a wire that connected directly to the TV set.
Speaker 1: But Zenith improved on this design in n S with
Speaker 1: their wireless Space command remote, and it worked in a
Speaker 1: totally different manner than you might expect. So when you
Speaker 1: press the button, it would cause a tiny hammer inside
Speaker 1: to hit an aluminum bar that would then cause an
Speaker 1: ultrasonic tone, and the TV would interpret those notes as
Speaker 1: commands to change the channel or turn the set on
Speaker 1: and off. According to Time magazine, the hammer made enough
Speaker 1: noise when it clicked down that people started calling the
Speaker 1: space command a clicker. Alright, well, I've got one last
Speaker 1: fact that I was saving this one because it's pretty gross,
Speaker 1: but also because it relates to mangoes belly button fact
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the show, and that is that
Speaker 1: scientists have figured out how to use bacteria from belly
Speaker 1: buttons and adding milk to make cheese, which I know
Speaker 1: that sounds disgusting, right it. The whole point of the exhibit,
Speaker 1: which took place in Trinity College, Dublin, was to expose
Speaker 1: people to the range of microbial communities in the human body.
Speaker 1: But according to NPR, while people started by quote making
Speaker 1: these grossed out faces, they then smell the cheese and
Speaker 1: realize it just smells like a normal cheese. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure that makes it any less gross. That just makes
Speaker 1: me think that belly buttons smell like cheese. All right, Gabe.
Speaker 1: Since your long distance today, I feel like you get
Speaker 1: to choose who wins today's nine Things. Ah, I gotta
Speaker 1: give it to you then. I mean you brought it
Speaker 1: full circle with that belly button fact, so I think
Speaker 1: you take the trophy. I knew it, I was, I
Speaker 1: was going to be disappointed if I didn't well listeners.
Speaker 1: If we forgot any facts about belly buttons or buttons
Speaker 1: in general that you know, feel free to share those
Speaker 1: with us. You can always reach us part time Genius
Speaker 1: and how Stuff Works dot com. You can also call
Speaker 1: us on our seven Fact hotline one eight four four
Speaker 1: pt Genius, or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.
Speaker 1: It's been really fun hearing from you guys, with lots
Speaker 1: of ideas for some of our future nine Facts episodes,
Speaker 1: so keep those coming and we'll be back tomorrow with
Speaker 1: a full length episode. Thanks for listening.