Speaker 1: I guess what will what's that mango? So in high
Speaker 1: school I did research at the University of Delaware and
Speaker 1: I hated it. So my dad is a scientist and
Speaker 1: he loves research, and I always thought I'd just fall
Speaker 1: in love with research too. But my project was studying
Speaker 1: moths and specifically seeing how baby moths react to different
Speaker 1: types of light cycles. And I was not good at this.
Speaker 1: I mean, just the fact that you called them baby moths.
Speaker 1: I think it's proof of that that's true. But I
Speaker 1: was also that because like, I wanted immediate results, and
Speaker 1: that's not how that type of science works, right, Like
Speaker 1: you're often waiting years for little discoveries. So I was
Speaker 1: at the lab late one night kind of hating my
Speaker 1: life and thinking science isn't for me. And then I
Speaker 1: saw a flyer on the wall across the way for
Speaker 1: this mechanical engineering lab, and I had these pictures of
Speaker 1: these excited engineers just building these giants, sling shots and
Speaker 1: cannons for the punkin chunkin, that big festival that takes
Speaker 1: place in Delaware, and they were just having so much fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the one where they shoot pumpkins across the field, right,
Speaker 1: and and somehow that convinced you to become an engineer.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think collecting weird facts is a better
Speaker 1: career fit for me. I just remember thinking, it's fall
Speaker 1: and leaves are beautiful, and I'm stuck in this lab
Speaker 1: while these guys are giggling and loving pumpkins, and somehow,
Speaker 1: as the weather gets Christmas years, I do think about
Speaker 1: how lucky I am not to be stuck indoors. And
Speaker 1: today's show is all about making the most of the
Speaker 1: fall and coming up with the best weirdest fall travel
Speaker 1: guy we could. So that's what we're doing today. Let's
Speaker 1: dive in a their podcast. Listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my
Speaker 1: good friend Man Gueshow Ticketer and on the other side
Speaker 1: of the soundproof glass carving our faces and to a
Speaker 1: massive pump. And have you seen this yet? I haven't.
Speaker 1: That's our friends and producer Tristan McNeil, and I have
Speaker 1: to say I'm a little bit conflicted watching this because,
Speaker 1: on the one hand, I've never had my likeness portrayed
Speaker 1: in gourd form, so I I guess I'm a little
Speaker 1: bit flattered about this. But on the other hand, Tristan
Speaker 1: is turning out to be really exacting as a carver,
Speaker 1: and the accuracy I'm seeing here is more than a
Speaker 1: little bit unsettling, to be honest with you. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's exacting about everything, and I do feel like him
Speaker 1: choosing us as subjects is flattering kind of. But I
Speaker 1: also think it's gonna be weird having these ugly Jack
Speaker 1: Lenners around for the rest of the month. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be horrible, it's gonna be a little bit odd. Well,
Speaker 1: if there's any upside to all of this, it's that
Speaker 1: at least we now have some tangible proof that it's
Speaker 1: really autumn here in Atlanta, where it's still eighties something
Speaker 1: degrees at the moment, And because we need all the
Speaker 1: reminders of the season we can get, we thought it'd
Speaker 1: be fun to devote today's episode entirely to fall festivals.
Speaker 1: But we're not talking about the typical events you see
Speaker 1: this time of year, like October Fest or harvest carnivals.
Speaker 1: Nothing against those those are always fun, but we're actually
Speaker 1: gonna shine a spotlight on some of the truly unique
Speaker 1: and unusual festivals that are taking place all across the
Speaker 1: country right now. So many of these are happening like
Speaker 1: this weekend or next weekend. And you know, because there
Speaker 1: are just so many events to choose from, we decided
Speaker 1: to lay out a few broad categories to guide us
Speaker 1: and then kind of win our separate ways found one
Speaker 1: or two examples of each and and so that's how
Speaker 1: we'll be tackling this. So first up, we've got food festivals, Mango,
Speaker 1: what's your what's your first pick for this one? So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with the Giant Omelet celebration that takes
Speaker 1: place in Abville, Louisiana, and it takes place during the
Speaker 1: first weekend of November. And for this annual festival, more
Speaker 1: than five thousand fresh eggs are carried through the streets
Speaker 1: of town and then cracked into this enormous twelve foot
Speaker 1: skillet right outside the courthouse. And from there a team
Speaker 1: of international chefs they're known as the Confury I don't
Speaker 1: know if I'm pronouncing that right, but Trinity in French.
Speaker 1: And they add like fifteen pounds of crawfish tails, fifty
Speaker 1: two pounds of butter, and a few other key ingredients
Speaker 1: and then they whip up this giant Cajun omelet. So
Speaker 1: who gets to eat this massive omelet? Everyone ever really
Speaker 1: has to eat it. Yeah, so the chefs consider their
Speaker 1: creation this omelet of friendship. So the whole thing is
Speaker 1: dished out free of charge to anyone in attendance. And
Speaker 1: there's even a six hundred egg junior omelet that I
Speaker 1: guess aspiring people can cook up, and it's in a
Speaker 1: four foot skillet right alongside the giant one, and it's
Speaker 1: called the Children's omelet, and that's also handed out to
Speaker 1: crowd and round again. How many eggs are in the
Speaker 1: big one again? So the rule is you've got to
Speaker 1: use five thousand eggs plus one extra egg for each
Speaker 1: year the festival has been around. So it's been around since,
Speaker 1: which means it was made from like five thousand, thirty
Speaker 1: four eggs this year. Oh my gosh, believable. Well, the
Speaker 1: whole thing sounds really fun and silly, and I'm guessing
Speaker 1: the omelet taste delicious. I hope after this many years
Speaker 1: they've actually gotten it down to a science. But um,
Speaker 1: there's got to be a story to like how this started,
Speaker 1: because it seems like a pretty specific way to celebrate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this one actually has a great history behind it.
Speaker 1: It goes back to when Napoleon and his army were
Speaker 1: traveling through the south of France, and this was in
Speaker 1: the early eight hundreds, and according to the legend, he
Speaker 1: and his men were staying near this small town of
Speaker 1: Bessier one night and uh Napoleon ended up eating an
Speaker 1: omelet prepared by a local chef, and supposedly he liked
Speaker 1: the dish so much that he ordered the townspeople to
Speaker 1: gather up all the eggs in the town, by anyones
Speaker 1: they could find, and cook a massive omelet for his
Speaker 1: army to eat the next morning. And this actually became
Speaker 1: a French tradition years later, like where towns would, I
Speaker 1: guess prepare these big monster omelets to feed the poor
Speaker 1: at Easter. And that's how Avil got got in on
Speaker 1: this omelet act too, like like three members of the
Speaker 1: town's chamber of commerce. They attended the festival and Bessier,
Speaker 1: France in the early eighties, and they had so much
Speaker 1: fun that they decided to bring the festival back to
Speaker 1: their hometown. And now they're actually seven cities worldwide that
Speaker 1: hosts their own omelet festivals, and representatives from each of
Speaker 1: them gather in Louisiana each year to help prepare the
Speaker 1: town's giant omelet. But if eating omelets isn't your thing,
Speaker 1: there's still a lot of other on theme activities, including
Speaker 1: both an egg toss and an egg cracking contest. Well,
Speaker 1: that seems appropriate. You know, it's gonna be a tough
Speaker 1: one to be because that does sound like a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. So I feel like I need to show
Speaker 1: a little state pride. I haven't mentioned Alabama and a
Speaker 1: few episodes recently, so I'm gonna go with the National
Speaker 1: Peanut Festival that's hosted each year in Dothan, Alabama. Now,
Speaker 1: not to brag or anything, Mango, but did you know
Speaker 1: that more than a quarter of the nation's peanuts are
Speaker 1: grown within a one hundred mile radius of Dothan? Really,
Speaker 1: I, I I honestly did not know that. But I've got
Speaker 1: to say it does sound like you are bragging. I
Speaker 1: am bragging because actually I didn't know that fact until
Speaker 1: we started doing our research for this week's episode. But
Speaker 1: maybe I should have known that. But anyway, Dothan builds
Speaker 1: itself as the peanut capital of the world, and that's
Speaker 1: not a title we Alabamians take lightly because I mean
Speaker 1: don't forget peanut farming basically saved Alabama's economy after the
Speaker 1: Civil War, and that was actually true of a few
Speaker 1: other Southern states as well. You may have heard this
Speaker 1: story before, but you know, bowl weevils complete ealy decimated
Speaker 1: the region's cotton crops during reconstruction, and you know, the
Speaker 1: peanut turned out to be just the replacement cash crop
Speaker 1: that the local farmers needed. So I I think I've
Speaker 1: heard about this before. What was it George Washington Carver
Speaker 1: who actually suggested that, Well, he definitely played a big
Speaker 1: role in getting Southern farmers to switch to planting peanuts.
Speaker 1: You know, in fact, when Dothan hosted its inaugural Peanut
Speaker 1: Festival back in nineteen thirty eight, George Washington Carver was
Speaker 1: actually the guest of honor there and there there's even
Speaker 1: a statue of him in the town today. I love that. So, well,
Speaker 1: what do you do at a peanut festival? And I
Speaker 1: mean besides eating a lot of peanuts, You definitely eat
Speaker 1: a lot of peanuts, but I mean you name it
Speaker 1: like they there's live music, petting zoos, livestock shows, of course,
Speaker 1: a parade. There's even a beauty pageant. Where women from
Speaker 1: all different peanut producing counties face off to see who
Speaker 1: will be crowned Miss National Peanut Festival. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, there's so much to do with the festival
Speaker 1: that the three day event it started as in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty eight has grown into this sprawling ten day event
Speaker 1: attended by more than two hundred thousand people. So just
Speaker 1: keep this in mind. If you're in the area anytime
Speaker 1: between November two and November eleven, swing by the festival
Speaker 1: and go nuts, I guess, or you know, stay very
Speaker 1: far away if you've got peanut allergies. Yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: that makes sense. Um. I am actually glad you brought
Speaker 1: up how peanuts saved the region because I found another
Speaker 1: food with like a similar story. It's called the Boggy
Speaker 1: Bayou Mullet Festival, and it's set to take place in Niceville,
Speaker 1: Florida this year from October twenty one through. I love
Speaker 1: that name, the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival, And I do
Speaker 1: think we should be clear here. Many people may not
Speaker 1: know this. I think most people probably think of a
Speaker 1: mullet as like the unfortunate hair style. But yeah, which
Speaker 1: which Tristan. I think committed to for one of the
Speaker 1: episodes we did about hair weeks ago. But anyway, that's
Speaker 1: not what we're talking about here. We're not talking about
Speaker 1: the hairstyle. Yeah, thankfully this has nothing to do with haircuts,
Speaker 1: because the festival is actually a celebration of the mullet fish,
Speaker 1: which are these small ray finned fish that live in
Speaker 1: warm waters all across the world. Yeah, and obviously that's
Speaker 1: much better than eating hair. So during the Great Depression,
Speaker 1: the town of Niceville, or Boggy Bayou as it was
Speaker 1: called at the time, was single handedly saved by the
Speaker 1: mullet fishing industry. So the fish were abundant in the
Speaker 1: towns nearby bayous and it's not only kept the residents fed,
Speaker 1: but it also gave them something to trade with the
Speaker 1: neighboring farmers from Alabama. And of course a lot has
Speaker 1: changed since then, so the town's got like a sunnier
Speaker 1: name now it goes by Niceville, but the fish are
Speaker 1: still the start of the show at this annual festival.
Speaker 1: So since nine people from all over the South of
Speaker 1: flocked to Niceville each fall for a weekend of live
Speaker 1: music and mullet based cuisine, and while I can't claim
Speaker 1: to have tried the fish myself. The word is that
Speaker 1: it's especially tasty when it's smoked. So vendors at the
Speaker 1: festival of actually all sorts of other preparations as you
Speaker 1: can imagine, Like you can try baked, broiled, grilled, uh.
Speaker 1: If you really want to indulge, there's a fried Italian
Speaker 1: potato mullet, or you could go Hawaiian with the tropical
Speaker 1: barbecue mullet. I like, how no matter what it is.
Speaker 1: When you said fried, I was like, I'll try it.
Speaker 1: I'm into this. I mean, as tempting as that is.
Speaker 1: I do think I found a food festival that gives
Speaker 1: the old mullet fisher run for its money, and that's
Speaker 1: West Virginia's famous road Kill cook Off. Now, this is
Speaker 1: an event that takes place in the town called Marlington.
Speaker 1: There and the local chefs actually compete to see who
Speaker 1: can cook up the tastiest dish that are using animals
Speaker 1: you'd likely see on the side of the road. So
Speaker 1: this is a festival for anyone who's ever had a
Speaker 1: hankering for exotic fair like squirrel gravy over biscuits or
Speaker 1: fried venison wantons, or the ever popular tarayaki marinated bear.
Speaker 1: What so people actually run down bears in West Virginia?
Speaker 1: Have you ever been to West Virginia? I mean, actually,
Speaker 1: that's that's the thing, like, an entry's main ingredient doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be sourced from actual road kill, and the
Speaker 1: website's rules mentioned that most of the judges would prefer
Speaker 1: that it not be, but instead the only requirement is
Speaker 1: that a dish's main ingredient has to be an animal
Speaker 1: that often winds up on the side of the road
Speaker 1: after being hit unfortunately by a car. So things like
Speaker 1: dear rabbit, possum, groundhog, snake, squirrel, or even bear, those
Speaker 1: are all fair. I can't tell you how many bear
Speaker 1: I've almost run over in my prius exactly. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure the food is great in its own right, But
Speaker 1: my favorite part of the festival is the way the
Speaker 1: West Virginian is kind of poke fun at the stereotypes
Speaker 1: that some people associate with their state. So, just as
Speaker 1: an example of this, most competitors come up with these
Speaker 1: really colorful names for their recipes, like just listen to
Speaker 1: last year's winning top three hold I've got the list
Speaker 1: here it says you've got finder fried fawn smothered in
Speaker 1: vulture vomit that took third place. You've got hill Billy
Speaker 1: Marty Gras alligator in turtle gumbo. I'd actually probably paste
Speaker 1: that to be honest, that took second place. And then
Speaker 1: this year's champion predator slash prey Chili, which was a
Speaker 1: two fur made from both bear and venice. I mean,
Speaker 1: I do like their sense of human But if those
Speaker 1: are this year's winners, then I guess the festival is
Speaker 1: already over. Yeah, that's true. It was a fun one
Speaker 1: to talk about, but we did we did miss it.
Speaker 1: It was the last Saturday in September. But there's always
Speaker 1: next year. You need to plan add for these kinds
Speaker 1: of events. But you know, as you know, if fall
Speaker 1: just isn't the same for you without a little exotic
Speaker 1: game in your life. I did find another festival that
Speaker 1: might do the trick. Now. It's called the Innis Hunter's
Speaker 1: Feet and it takes place in Innis, Montana, on October
Speaker 1: nineteenth this year. Now, the event got to start thirty
Speaker 1: three years ago. Mostly is away for the town's hunters
Speaker 1: to clean out their freezers before the next season, and
Speaker 1: in fact, the festival actually takes place every year on
Speaker 1: the Friday before rifles season opens, which I'm sure you knew.
Speaker 1: As soon as I said that, you were like, that's
Speaker 1: right before rifles season. And while there's plenty to keep
Speaker 1: people entertained, including bear spray demonstrations and bake sales, the
Speaker 1: main event is a cooking competition to see who can
Speaker 1: make the most creative dishes from wild game that's been
Speaker 1: kept on ice since the last season. So I think
Speaker 1: the question we all want to ask is do the
Speaker 1: recipes have clever names like at the Roadkill Festival. I mean,
Speaker 1: I wish they did, but unfortunately not, or at least
Speaker 1: not as far as I could tell. But the dishes
Speaker 1: themselves do sound every bit as inventive as what they
Speaker 1: cook up in West Virginia. So just looking at the
Speaker 1: list here, you've got old standards like moose chili and
Speaker 1: Elk fajitas. Then there's some of the fancy stuff like
Speaker 1: Mountain Lion Cordon Blue. Then lastly, for dessert, festivalgoers can
Speaker 1: indulge themselves with some homemade moose brownies and a fresh
Speaker 1: batch of deer fudge. Actually want to try both of
Speaker 1: because I don't know if it's I guess it's made
Speaker 1: of deer. I don't really know exactly what that means,
Speaker 1: but it's on the list here. I should have looked
Speaker 1: that up. But you know, once everybody's had their fill,
Speaker 1: ballots are cast and trophies are awarded to the year's
Speaker 1: best and most creative dishes. So it seems like a
Speaker 1: fun one. Yeah, that does seem fun. So I think
Speaker 1: we've covered enough weird food to last lifetime, So let's
Speaker 1: move on to our next category. But first we should
Speaker 1: take a quick break. You're listening to part time Genius,
Speaker 1: so we're talking about the weirdest fall fest tools that
Speaker 1: are actually worth the trip, all right, mango. So our
Speaker 1: next category was animal based festivals where you don't ep ms. Right,
Speaker 1: isn't that what we agree on? All right? So I'm
Speaker 1: curious what did you come up with for that one.
Speaker 1: So there's another Louisiana event that I want to talk about.
Speaker 1: It's called the Angola Prison Rodeo and it's held a
Speaker 1: rear in the town of St. Francisville in the fall.
Speaker 1: And we might have mentioned this on a previous episode,
Speaker 1: but it's exactly what it sounds like. It's a rodeo
Speaker 1: put on by the inmates of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Like,
Speaker 1: how does that happen? Is this some sort of like
Speaker 1: cowboy jail or something. I mean, if they have real
Speaker 1: prisoners out there riding bulls and racing horses, is that
Speaker 1: what's happening. Yeah, so they do all the stuff that
Speaker 1: you'd see it in normal rodeo, But as far as
Speaker 1: I can tell, none of the performers had rodeo experience
Speaker 1: prior to go into prison. The event was first held
Speaker 1: in I believe, and it was really just a way
Speaker 1: to entertain the inmates and the prison employees. In fact,
Speaker 1: the rodeo wasn't open to the public until two years later,
Speaker 1: and even then, spectators had to sit on apple crates
Speaker 1: or the hoods of their cars because there weren't stands yet.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming that's changed by now. And do you have
Speaker 1: to go to the actual prison to watch the rodeo?
Speaker 1: So not anymore. The event was actually so successful once
Speaker 1: it went public that the organizers invested in this seat
Speaker 1: arena and they opened it for the first time for
Speaker 1: the rodeo. And this is kind of random, but I've
Speaker 1: read that the bleachers actually collapsed during one of the shows.
Speaker 1: That year, but the crowd was so engrossed that most
Speaker 1: people didn't even get up. They just sat on the
Speaker 1: collapsed bleachers and kept watching. Must be some show, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I was checking out the rundown of events,
Speaker 1: and some of them are super wild. So one of
Speaker 1: the newer ones to be added to the program is
Speaker 1: chariot racing, but in so standing in an actual chariot
Speaker 1: with wheels on it, contestants just mount a sled that's
Speaker 1: attached to a horse and rider, and so then they're
Speaker 1: pulled at top speeds all across the arena, and the
Speaker 1: whole time, each of the sled riders is holding a
Speaker 1: picture of water, and whoever measures to hold on the
Speaker 1: longest and spilled at least water is the winner. Okay,
Speaker 1: that sounds fun actually, but if races aren't your thing.
Speaker 1: It's also this event called the wild Cow Milking, And
Speaker 1: as you might have guess, this is where teams of
Speaker 1: inmates cowboys, they start chasing cows all around the arena
Speaker 1: while trying to milk them, and the first team to
Speaker 1: bring milk to the judge is the one that wins.
Speaker 1: That one does not sound as fun to me, to
Speaker 1: be honest, but but it does sound interesting, But what
Speaker 1: about the more dangerous stuff that you see at rodeo,
Speaker 1: is like trying to stay on the back of a
Speaker 1: bucking bronco or getting chased by a bull, Like, can
Speaker 1: they do any of that or is it a a little
Speaker 1: too dangerous for the you know, I guess they're untrained prisoners.
Speaker 1: So the inmates aren't actually untrained. The whole event is
Speaker 1: overseen by rodeo professionals who helped coordinate the stunts, and
Speaker 1: they step in if things get hairy. And as for
Speaker 1: dangerous stunts, like the prison rodeo has so many of those,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. Like the strangers is probably what they called
Speaker 1: convict poker, and according to the rodeo's website, this is
Speaker 1: the ultimate poker game where every winning hand has a
Speaker 1: price and four inmate cowboys will sit at a table
Speaker 1: in the middle of the arena and they're playing this
Speaker 1: friendly game of poker and suddenly a wild bull charges in.
Speaker 1: The sole purpose is to knock the players out of
Speaker 1: the season. The last man remaining seated is the winner
Speaker 1: is an idiot. I mean, if that's not wild enough
Speaker 1: for you, you've got to stick around for the last
Speaker 1: event of the day. It's called Guts and Glory, and
Speaker 1: the object is for an inmate to get close enough
Speaker 1: to the biggest, meanest bull in the show in order
Speaker 1: to snatch a poker tip that's been tied to its horn.
Speaker 1: It is really mind blowing. Oh my gosh, we would
Speaker 1: be so bad at this. It sounds just so nerve wrack.
Speaker 1: I don't even think I could watch this, much less
Speaker 1: participate in it. Yeah, so this is probably a good
Speaker 1: time to mention that participation in the rodeo is completely voluntary,
Speaker 1: So this is an excuse to like abuse or exploit
Speaker 1: inmates or anything like that. And in fact, all of
Speaker 1: the profits from the rodeo goes straight into the prisons
Speaker 1: inmate well for a front which pays for their educational
Speaker 1: and recreational supplies. And so if this sounds fun to
Speaker 1: anyone listening, the prison rodeo takes place every Sunday in October.
Speaker 1: So if you're going to be in town for that
Speaker 1: giant Omelet celebration the first weekend of November, like, why
Speaker 1: not get there a few days early check this one
Speaker 1: out too. And aside from the rodeo itself, there are
Speaker 1: lots of arts and crafts and livestock demonstrations as well.
Speaker 1: It does seem like something forever buddy, all right, well,
Speaker 1: my Animals We Don't Eat festival is a bit more
Speaker 1: subdued than a prison rodeo, but don't worry, it still
Speaker 1: has a thrilling white knuckle race. Now. It's called the
Speaker 1: Wooly Worm Festival, and it's held each year in late
Speaker 1: October in Banner Elk, North Carolina. And you can probably
Speaker 1: tell from the name the entire festival is centered on
Speaker 1: wooly worms or wooly bears if you're from the Midwest
Speaker 1: or New England or and those are the fuzzy, brown
Speaker 1: and black caterpillars that you see around this time of year, right,
Speaker 1: that's exactly them. Well, the bonus points for remembering that
Speaker 1: wooly worms aren't actually worms at all, like you said,
Speaker 1: they're caterpillars, and the ones that survived till spring will
Speaker 1: eventually become Isabella tiger moss. But if you ask me,
Speaker 1: these guys are a lot more interesting as caterpillars. And
Speaker 1: that's because wooly worms supposedly have the ability to predict weather.
Speaker 1: According to regional folklore, the thirteen segments of a wooly
Speaker 1: worms body correspond to the thirteen weeks of winter. So
Speaker 1: the lighter a brown segment is the milder that week
Speaker 1: of winter will be, and the darker a black segment
Speaker 1: is the colder and snowy that corresponding week will be.
Speaker 1: I thought that was just so funny. So they're basically
Speaker 1: the groundhogs of the insect kingdom, Yeah, except even more complicated.
Speaker 1: That's that's pretty cool. I mean, punks and tani pill
Speaker 1: I feel like, better step up his game and he
Speaker 1: wants to be this interesting. But there's a catch to
Speaker 1: predicting the weather with wooly worms, though, because you have
Speaker 1: to study the stripes to discern the weather patterns. But
Speaker 1: each wooly worms stripes are a little bit different, so
Speaker 1: you could pick up two different caterpillars and get two different,
Speaker 1: you know, predictions from this. And so that's where the
Speaker 1: festival comes in. I mean, visitors can take part in
Speaker 1: the standard festival fair like crafts and food vendors and
Speaker 1: live concerts, but the main event is undoubtedly the wooly
Speaker 1: worm race or waste as the locals called for some reason.
Speaker 1: And so the race is equal opportunity and open to
Speaker 1: worms of all sizes and skill levels, and human coaches,
Speaker 1: as they call them, simply place the contestants on one
Speaker 1: of the many strings laid out for the race, and
Speaker 1: then whichever one climbs the three foot string the fastest
Speaker 1: becomes the definitive weather predictor for the year. It sounds very,
Speaker 1: very scientific, a lot of science that. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: I haven't witnessed one of these races firsthand. They must
Speaker 1: be pretty riveting because last year's festival drew an estimated
Speaker 1: twenty thousand spectators and about a thousand racers. So is
Speaker 1: there any kind of prize for winning? Well for the caterpillars,
Speaker 1: it's mostly just that honor of having your stripes used
Speaker 1: to predict the weather, and I'm sure that they are
Speaker 1: all very honored by that. But you know, they're also
Speaker 1: given these cool nicknames like Patsy Climb and Dale worm Heart,
Speaker 1: so I guess that's you know, there's that piece to it.
Speaker 1: But they come out with the nickname. Yeah, they come
Speaker 1: out with a nickname that seems pretty awesome. Is that
Speaker 1: not enough? But there's also a thousand dollar cash prize.
Speaker 1: But what is probably the biggest injustice of the entire
Speaker 1: wooly Worm festival is that that money actually goes to
Speaker 1: the winning worms coach, not to the worm itself. That
Speaker 1: does feel like a rip off. And even though I
Speaker 1: think I know the answer to this, I do have
Speaker 1: to ask, like, are the worms ever right about the weather?
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a fair question, and it really depends
Speaker 1: on who you ask me. Scientists will tell you that
Speaker 1: wily worms have no weather forecasting powers whatsoever. And scientists
Speaker 1: are always ruining it, you know about the claim that
Speaker 1: variants in color on a wooly worms stripes is really
Speaker 1: due to temperature levels and moisture during its first few
Speaker 1: days of life. So really, if anything, the stripes would
Speaker 1: actually tell you more about what the weather was like
Speaker 1: when the caterpillar was born than they would about, you know,
Speaker 1: what it's going to be like in the future. But anyway,
Speaker 1: that said, the festivals organizers argue that quote, over the
Speaker 1: last twenty years, the worms have had an eighty five
Speaker 1: percent record for accuracy, so maybe the scientists are just jealous.
Speaker 1: That's a good precentage. Yeah, that's not a bad percentage.
Speaker 1: But actually I do want to share this other quote
Speaker 1: from the festival's website, just because it is too good
Speaker 1: not to share. And so here's what it says. There
Speaker 1: is no other experience in life that can produce the
Speaker 1: absurd euphoria that comes from cheering for a caterpillar to
Speaker 1: climb a stream. It is so indisputably ridiculous that it
Speaker 1: becomes completely liberated. Well, I am sold, And you know,
Speaker 1: I actually came across a few different festivals that use
Speaker 1: Creepy Crawley's as weatherman. But um, I think I'll say
Speaker 1: that for our scary festivals category. All right, well, that
Speaker 1: happens to be up next. But before we get to that,
Speaker 1: let's take one more quick break. Welcome back to Part
Speaker 1: time Genius. And we all know Halloween makes autumn the
Speaker 1: de facto spooky season, so it's only right that we
Speaker 1: include a couple of scary festivals in our travel guide.
Speaker 1: Those that's what we were thinking. But as terrifying as
Speaker 1: haunted houses can be, I decided to go with a
Speaker 1: more primal fear for my pick, and that's tarantulas. So
Speaker 1: lots of people have a rachnophobia, and that's understandable when
Speaker 1: faced with spiders as big and harry as these guys.
Speaker 1: But at the Tarantula Awareness Festival, and this is in
Speaker 1: course Gold, California, the aim isn't to scare you with
Speaker 1: spiders and instead of to make you appreciate them as
Speaker 1: much as you should. I mean, I love the name
Speaker 1: of this one. I feel like maybe they're asking a
Speaker 1: bit much with that goal. I mean, what is there
Speaker 1: to appreciate exactly? So for starters, tarantulas are actually a
Speaker 1: vital part of the course Gold ecosystem, so they help
Speaker 1: control the populations of all kinds of harmful pests as
Speaker 1: well as like they serve as an important food source
Speaker 1: for local wildlife. And then there's that power to predict
Speaker 1: weather that I mentioned. So the whole festival is the
Speaker 1: celebration of the local tarantulas. And these are the guys
Speaker 1: that emerge from their borrows each fall to find a mate.
Speaker 1: And because the spiders basically hibernate all winter once they've
Speaker 1: made it, their emergence is usually an indicator that rain
Speaker 1: and cooler temperatures are just a few weeks away. That's
Speaker 1: pretty cool, but I find it kind of interesting that
Speaker 1: the festivals where we don't eat the animals as or
Speaker 1: at least as the main attraction, like these are the
Speaker 1: ones where we're using them to you know, come up
Speaker 1: with weather predictions. It's like, if I can't eat this better,
Speaker 1: at least predict the future. But otherwise, why am I
Speaker 1: not eating it? You know? Anyway? Are there are other
Speaker 1: events going on here? Is this mostly just watching spiders
Speaker 1: crawl out of the holes all day? No? Definitely not.
Speaker 1: They're all kinds of other festivity is including there's a
Speaker 1: scream off contest all right, tar angula poetry reading, Um,
Speaker 1: I think it's reading poetry about trenchlas not the trench
Speaker 1: was actually dream the reading say on there there's an
Speaker 1: arachnid presentation. There's something built on the website as the
Speaker 1: best live tarrangula derby ever, the best one ever. Wow.
Speaker 1: But the event I'm most curious about is the Hairy
Speaker 1: Leg Contest. It's open to both men and women, though
Speaker 1: apparently only for ages sixteen to that makes sense, And
Speaker 1: for anyone who's feeling brave enough to attend, be sure
Speaker 1: to crawl your way over to course schooled by October.
Speaker 1: So that's the date for this year's festival. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be tough to decide which one of these festivals
Speaker 1: to go to, because my scary festival is also on
Speaker 1: the seven this year. And you know, listeners are gonna
Speaker 1: have a tough choice to make here. But if you
Speaker 1: ask me, there's really no contest because the clear winner
Speaker 1: is the Emma Crawford Coffin Race that's held each year
Speaker 1: in Manitou Springs, Colorado. Now, who is Emma Crawford, you
Speaker 1: might ask, Well, she was a real woman who moved
Speaker 1: to the small town in the late eighteen hundreds. He
Speaker 1: was hoping that it's famous mineral springs would help cure
Speaker 1: her tuberculosis. Now, unfortunately that wasn't the case, and so
Speaker 1: on Emma's deathbed, she requested that her lover have her
Speaker 1: buried at the top of a nearby mountain. And it
Speaker 1: was called Red Mountain there, And so that's exactly what
Speaker 1: he did. Only Emma didn't stay put for long. Now
Speaker 1: here's the explanation from Atlas Obscura on what exactly happened next.
Speaker 1: It says, well, filling her wishes here, Emma laid until
Speaker 1: nineteen twelve, when evil railroad barons moved her body to
Speaker 1: the mountains south slope in order to make way for
Speaker 1: their trains. Shortly thereafter, terrible flooding eroded that spot of
Speaker 1: the land. Causing Emma's casket to go shooting down the
Speaker 1: mountain into town, where a couple of boys found it,
Speaker 1: still labeled with the silver name plate bearing her name.
Speaker 1: Fast forward a few decades and a tradition was born
Speaker 1: out of commemorating Emma's restless casket, where the crux of
Speaker 1: the sport lies in trying to put her back where
Speaker 1: she belongs. So the Coffin race is basically a bunch
Speaker 1: of people trying to carry a real corpse up the
Speaker 1: side of a mountain, like, don't tell me they'd dig
Speaker 1: up that poor woman. Every year, there are zero corpses
Speaker 1: involved in this, thankfully. The first event was held back
Speaker 1: in and it mostly consists of this big parade and
Speaker 1: Emma's honor, and it's complete with a procession of hearses
Speaker 1: and a bunch of souped up coffins on wheels, and
Speaker 1: it's just kind of like this very weird and dark
Speaker 1: soapbox derby. And once the parade is over, competitors split
Speaker 1: off into teams of five. Those teams involved four pall
Speaker 1: bears and one Emma, which is of course the costume
Speaker 1: person inside the coffin, and the others have to push
Speaker 1: this person and the coffin across the finish line. And
Speaker 1: so two teams at a time compete in these heats
Speaker 1: and they consist of a one nine yard uphill sprint
Speaker 1: and afterwards prizes are awarded, and you know, not only
Speaker 1: for the fastest time, but for the best coffin, the
Speaker 1: best entourage, and of course for the best Emma. Well,
Speaker 1: now that recruited everyone out, what do you say? We
Speaker 1: clear the air with our last category, which is feel
Speaker 1: good festivals. And these are the ones that you know
Speaker 1: there may be more laid back, a little more sub
Speaker 1: dude than the ones we've talked about so far, and
Speaker 1: you can go first this time. Well, what do you
Speaker 1: what do you pick? All right? So I feel like
Speaker 1: people want to go out with a bang, But for
Speaker 1: my last pick, I thought I'd got with more of
Speaker 1: a whisper. And that feels appropriate because for the last
Speaker 1: event I want to talk about, it's in Ocean City,
Speaker 1: New Jersey, and it's called the Quiet Festival and it
Speaker 1: takes place on November four this year, and attendees have
Speaker 1: all manner of quiet and peaceful activities to look forward to.
Speaker 1: So let me just run down the list here. You've
Speaker 1: got bubble blowing, kite flying, pin dropping paper, airplane flying,
Speaker 1: a yo yo demonstration, a quiet snoring contest. I don't
Speaker 1: know exactly how that works. And it's actually it takes
Speaker 1: place on the beach and it's called Snore at the Shore.
Speaker 1: And as always, the festival kick off in the morning
Speaker 1: with its traditional opening ceremony. Now at that opening ceremony,
Speaker 1: there's an inspirational yawn along set to the tune of
Speaker 1: Beautiful Dreamer and accompanied by the world's only windshimes band.
Speaker 1: I mean, it doesn't get any better or or eighter
Speaker 1: than this, but it makes you wonder, like, how did
Speaker 1: somebody come up with this idea? And they really went
Speaker 1: all in on this idea. So I love this because
Speaker 1: there's very little piece at my house with such loud talker. Seriously,
Speaker 1: what what is the story here? Like because this sort
Speaker 1: of sounds like an anti festival, right, Like like when
Speaker 1: when you think festival's quiet isn't really a word that
Speaker 1: springs the mind, that's true. I mean there's there's actually
Speaker 1: just one guy responsible for the Quiet Fest and his
Speaker 1: name is Mark Soyfer and he was Ocean Cities publicist
Speaker 1: for forty five years before he finally retired in two
Speaker 1: thousand and sixteen. Now, during his tenure there, Mark dreamed
Speaker 1: up all kinds of offbeat events for his town, not
Speaker 1: just the Quiet Festival, but you know, look at some
Speaker 1: other stuff. He came up with Mollusk to Day, Weird
Speaker 1: Week and Mr Mature America Contest, I'd like to see
Speaker 1: what that one is exactly, and then his very first venture,
Speaker 1: the Miss Crustacean Hermit Crab beauty pageant. So you know,
Speaker 1: I have talked to you endlessly about starting America's next
Speaker 1: top Mollusk. So I already love this guy. He sounds
Speaker 1: like my new hero um and all this sounds so fun. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean you're not alone in thinking so, because despite
Speaker 1: the fact that Mark never actually lived in Ocean City
Speaker 1: and always commuted from a nearby town, he was honored
Speaker 1: as Citizen of the Year back in nineteen and then
Speaker 1: again as Citizen of the Decade in two thousand thirteen.
Speaker 1: Citizen of the Decade. MA feels like something he came up.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure he came up with. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be pretty hard to talk that And I'm
Speaker 1: actually gonna borrow a hite from your playbook and use
Speaker 1: a little homestate pride to close this out. I knew
Speaker 1: you were going to do this. So you are there
Speaker 1: really enough people in Delaware to support a festival? I mean,
Speaker 1: ain't no party like a Delaware party. And that is
Speaker 1: especially true on the Thursday after an election day, which
Speaker 1: happens to be November eight this year, because this is
Speaker 1: when people from all the towns in Sussex County gathering Georgetown,
Speaker 1: Delaware to celebrate the Return Day festival. So what's returned today?
Speaker 1: I mean, does it they have something to do with
Speaker 1: election returns? So not exactly. No. Nobody knows when Returned
Speaker 1: Day was first celebrated, but it's thought to have emerged
Speaker 1: due to a change in state law back in and
Speaker 1: that was the year the county seat was moved from
Speaker 1: a coastal town to the more geographically central town of Georgetown,
Speaker 1: and as a result of the switch, voters from other
Speaker 1: towns now had to travel there to cast their votes
Speaker 1: on election day. Then they'd go back home, only to
Speaker 1: return two days later to hear the results that we
Speaker 1: And so after a few years of everyone in the
Speaker 1: county getting together on Return Day, they just decided to
Speaker 1: blow out the event with festivities and so like they
Speaker 1: had music, a parade, even a public barbecue where they
Speaker 1: had roast a whole ox in this big open pit
Speaker 1: roasting an ox. Well, they really didn't added a weird element.
Speaker 1: But there's no way that people still have to travel
Speaker 1: to a different town to cast the ballot. So why
Speaker 1: is it still called a return day? I mean, part
Speaker 1: of it's just for tradition, right, but but these days
Speaker 1: the festival is mainly seen as a way to kind
Speaker 1: of mend fences and healed the wounds caused by the
Speaker 1: November elections. So in that sense you can kind of
Speaker 1: think of it as a return to normal day. And
Speaker 1: for example, one of the main events is this big
Speaker 1: unity parade. We're all people who ran in local and
Speaker 1: state elections on both sides of the aisle. Both winners
Speaker 1: and losers ride together alongside these marshing bands other floats.
Speaker 1: And if that sounds a little too warm and fuzzy
Speaker 1: for you, don't worry. Delawares also got you covered on
Speaker 1: this because another big part of the Richmand Day is
Speaker 1: the mayoral Hatchett Toss contest. So basically this is where
Speaker 1: all the Sussex County mayors gather outside the courthouse and
Speaker 1: then they take turns chucking hatchets at targets to see
Speaker 1: who can throw the farthest and with the most accuracy.
Speaker 1: But you know, again, this is viewed as a symbolic
Speaker 1: way of burying the hatchets. It's not as violent as
Speaker 1: people might think. But you know, the mayors aren't really
Speaker 1: throwing the hatches at each other or anything like that.
Speaker 1: It would be a very different kind of festival. But
Speaker 1: all right, we know, I've got admit you. You really
Speaker 1: want me over on the Delaware festivals seemed so we
Speaker 1: might need to take a road trip there for return
Speaker 1: Day this year. But I think we could all use
Speaker 1: a little less political discord this season and return to normal.
Speaker 1: That that actually sounds pretty good right about now. Definitely.
Speaker 1: But before we head out, why don't we do a
Speaker 1: fact off. Well, there was one festival I didn't mention
Speaker 1: in the spooky category but would have been a pretty
Speaker 1: good fit. So, as you know this, many years after
Speaker 1: Thriller was created, I still think it's maybe the best
Speaker 1: music video ever. So it's it's no surprise that I
Speaker 1: think it'd be fun to attend the zombie pub Crawl
Speaker 1: in Minneapolis, and it's actually this weekend, so get your
Speaker 1: plane tickets ready in case you're not familiar with a
Speaker 1: zombie walk or what it is. It's it's pretty much
Speaker 1: what it sounds like like. It's this big organized gathering
Speaker 1: where lots of people show up in zombie costumes and
Speaker 1: you're encouraged to stay in character walking zombie like, dragging
Speaker 1: your legs, moaning and grunting and all that, and that
Speaker 1: this huge gathering, this involves, you know, moving between pubs
Speaker 1: in the area. So while there are some competing zombie
Speaker 1: walks out there, this one is the real deal. And
Speaker 1: they actually set a world record with over fifteen thousand
Speaker 1: attendees I guess a world record for the biggest zombie walking.
Speaker 1: But either way, that's a lot of people. That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: It is. You know, I'm a little bummed out that
Speaker 1: you said this because you actually stole my first fact,
Speaker 1: but you did leave out a couple of my favorite bits,
Speaker 1: so I'm going to add to that. Um, you forgot
Speaker 1: the zombie pub crault here, which is what do we
Speaker 1: want brains? When do we want them brains? That's great,
Speaker 1: Sorry I left that one. And also at the event,
Speaker 1: is the World Brain Eating Championship, where Joey Chestnut ate
Speaker 1: more than fifty pork brain tacos in eight minutes. Fifty Wow.
Speaker 1: Of course Joey Chestnut would win that one. I wonder
Speaker 1: how many records he holds in the food eating category.
Speaker 1: On a very different note, another festival that just started
Speaker 1: yesterday and it runs through this weekend. It was called
Speaker 1: the Trailing of the Sheep Festival near Sun Valley, Idaho,
Speaker 1: which is about three hours east of Boise. Did you
Speaker 1: know that through much of the past century they have
Speaker 1: actually been more sheep and Idaho than humans? Did you
Speaker 1: know that? That was one of those things I thought
Speaker 1: maybe you would know. But the festival is a celebration
Speaker 1: of the annual migration of the sheep to the othern
Speaker 1: part of the state. And in the Big Sheet parade
Speaker 1: on Saturday, you can trail behind fifteen hundred sheep down
Speaker 1: Main Street. I mean, imagine getting to follow fifteen hundred sheep.
Speaker 1: That seems worth the trip in itself, right, Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: Well thousand other people also show up, so it must
Speaker 1: be something pretty special. That's funny. When I was studying
Speaker 1: abroad in Tibet and Lasa, like I'd kind of done
Speaker 1: all the things I wanted to do, and on the
Speaker 1: last day was just like sort of bumbling about and
Speaker 1: there was the sheep that was just walking through the
Speaker 1: city for some reason, and I just started following it
Speaker 1: from the city and I spent like I spent half
Speaker 1: a day just following the sheep, just like walking to
Speaker 1: cafes walk out. So imagine doing that plus fourteen more.
Speaker 1: I am in. So we've talked about hot air ballooning before.
Speaker 1: We've actually had a couple of balloon pilots on for
Speaker 1: a quiz last year. But you know what we didn't
Speaker 1: talk about was the most photographed event in the world,
Speaker 1: and that's the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: cranking up in just a few days, and it this
Speaker 1: stunning image to see these hundreds of loons up against
Speaker 1: the backdrop of the mountains. And in addition to just
Speaker 1: being this beautiful, beautiful spot to see balloons, this area
Speaker 1: is apparently an ideal spot for ballooning for geographical reasons.
Speaker 1: It's known as the Albuquerque Box and it's created by
Speaker 1: the mountains surrounding this valley. And I would need help
Speaker 1: like actually explaining the signs of this, but I think
Speaker 1: it's that the winds at lower altitudes flow north and
Speaker 1: the winds at the higher altitudes flow south, which means
Speaker 1: the balloons can take off going north and then just
Speaker 1: come right back over the field as they prepare to land.
Speaker 1: Oh that's pretty cool. And I know they refer to
Speaker 1: it as the most photographed event in the world, but
Speaker 1: that may just be what they say, right, I can't
Speaker 1: imagine it's actually the most photographing was on my traffic
Speaker 1: keeper growing up. I remember that traffic keeper. Oh man,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. Al Well, you know, one of the many
Speaker 1: things I've never done but really want to do is
Speaker 1: go to a designated dark sky preserve. Now, this is
Speaker 1: a location where no artificial light is visible and stargazing
Speaker 1: is just incredible there. So I really want to go
Speaker 1: to Jasper Dark Sky Festival in Alberta, Canada. Now it's
Speaker 1: the second largest dark sky preserve in the world. Largest
Speaker 1: also being in Canada, it's the Wood Buffalo National Park.
Speaker 1: But this is the largest one that's relatively accessible from
Speaker 1: a nearby town. So really, this is is definitely somewhere
Speaker 1: I want to visit one day. That sounds pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: You know, since moving to Atlanta last year, I've been
Speaker 1: dipping my toes into as many Southern traditions as possible,
Speaker 1: and you explained to me that the most important thing
Speaker 1: to do was just eat as many unusual Southern foods
Speaker 1: as possible. So I've decided to head to the Sally
Speaker 1: Chitland Strut in Sally, South Carolina next month. And I've
Speaker 1: learned that Chilands is how you pronounced terlings or fried hog,
Speaker 1: and testines saying you know, I know you mentioned the
Speaker 1: beauty pageant to crown Miss National Peanut Festival or whatever
Speaker 1: it was, but uh, that has nothing on the Queen
Speaker 1: of the Chiland Strut, a position crowned a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks before the event, and I'm definitely gonna report back. Wow.
Speaker 1: You know, I was thinking about talking about Corky Con
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, or the Scarecrow Fest in October, or
Speaker 1: even Andy Topia. But the fact that you're willing to
Speaker 1: travel to try Chitland's, I mean, I might get gonna
Speaker 1: just wash people try Chaplin's all right. Well, either way,
Speaker 1: the fact that you're willing to learn about them, I
Speaker 1: feel like I need to give you the trophy today
Speaker 1: that sounds great. Thanks so much. All. Well, that's it
Speaker 1: for today's episode from Gave, Tristan, Mango and me. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time
Speaker 1: Genius is a production of how stuff works and wouldn't
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