1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,400
Speaker 1: Guess what, mango, what's that? Will? I need to give

2
00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:03,920
Speaker 1: you a heads up because I think I'm going to

3
00:00:04,040 --> 00:00:08,320
Speaker 1: start using the word snollygastar a lot more of what snollygoster?

4
00:00:08,480 --> 00:00:11,440
Speaker 1: You know, the term for an unprincipled but shrewd person.

5
00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:14,120
Speaker 1: So I have no idea where you're talking about. Well,

6
00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:16,880
Speaker 1: let's go back to two thousand three. Snolly gostar got

7
00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:19,480
Speaker 1: kicked out of the dictionary, which is just ridiculous. So

8
00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:22,520
Speaker 1: there was this huge campaign to bring it back. And

9
00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:25,120
Speaker 1: the thing is, if enough people keep using it, the

10
00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:28,320
Speaker 1: editor of the Webster's Dictionary said he'd consider adding it

11
00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:31,000
Speaker 1: back in. In fact, the word chad was on the

12
00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:33,640
Speaker 1: shortlist to get kicked out too, and then infamous Florida

13
00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:37,559
Speaker 1: election debaccle occurred and suddenly the word was back. So

14
00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:39,199
Speaker 1: what you're saying is we just have to interfere with

15
00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:41,840
Speaker 1: an election or something similarly big to get the words

16
00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:44,479
Speaker 1: snollygoster back into play. Yeah, I mean, you know, look,

17
00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:47,640
Speaker 1: there there are no bad ideas and brainstorming, but getting

18
00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:49,960
Speaker 1: a sneak peek at how the dictionary works is just

19
00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:52,800
Speaker 1: part of today's show. Today we're diving into the weird

20
00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:56,560
Speaker 1: world of reference from almanacs to encyclopedias, all to get

21
00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:59,720
Speaker 1: a better look at the human fascination for cataloging knowledge

22
00:00:59,720 --> 00:01:05,440
Speaker 1: in the delightfully skimmable way. So let's dig in, ye

23
00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:27,360
Speaker 1: he their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm

24
00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:29,399
Speaker 1: Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good

25
00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:31,520
Speaker 1: friend man guest Shot Ticketer. And on the other side

26
00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:34,320
Speaker 1: of the soundproof glass the only person I know who's

27
00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:37,360
Speaker 1: reading the Dictionary cover to cover, and actually he's already

28
00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:40,120
Speaker 1: reviewed it on good Reads. That's our friend and producer

29
00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:43,600
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil. Yeah, and he actually gave it a scathing review.

30
00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:46,600
Speaker 1: He found the whole thing disjointed, and uh, he didn't

31
00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:48,120
Speaker 1: like how the art vark at the beginning of the

32
00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:50,120
Speaker 1: book didn't show up later in the story. I get it,

33
00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:52,880
Speaker 1: I get it. He's he's a pretty tough judge. Well,

34
00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:55,640
Speaker 1: speaking of dictionaries, today's show is all about the weird

35
00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:58,240
Speaker 1: world of reference books. You know, from a young age

36
00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:00,480
Speaker 1: most of us are trained to turn to diction areas

37
00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:03,360
Speaker 1: or the sauruses and all these other reference books for

38
00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:07,240
Speaker 1: our linguistic and grammatical needs. But how did these exhaustive

39
00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:09,839
Speaker 1: reference books come to be? Why are there so many

40
00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:13,200
Speaker 1: competing versions? And just how relevant are they in today's

41
00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:16,080
Speaker 1: increasingly digital world. So these are the kinds of questions

42
00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:18,960
Speaker 1: we're gonna be tackling today, right, And the start things off,

43
00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:20,760
Speaker 1: I thought we could look at the granddaddy of all

44
00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:25,560
Speaker 1: reference books, the encyclopedia. So it's encyclopedia the oldest. Like people,

45
00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:28,560
Speaker 1: it seems like people would have started with dictionaries though, right, yeah,

46
00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:30,680
Speaker 1: that's what I would have guessed too. I mean, like

47
00:02:30,720 --> 00:02:33,560
Speaker 1: the idea of cataloging all of the current words seems

48
00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:35,919
Speaker 1: to be way easier than I don't know, like trying

49
00:02:35,919 --> 00:02:39,360
Speaker 1: to record every single thing ever known. But that's not

50
00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:42,520
Speaker 1: where humans chose to begin. So the first encyclopedias can

51
00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:45,400
Speaker 1: be traced back to ancient Syria in twelve seventy b c.

52
00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:48,680
Speaker 1: It wasn't called an encyclopedia in those days. In fact,

53
00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:50,760
Speaker 1: the word encyclopedia didn't come in to use until the

54
00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:54,440
Speaker 1: fifteen hundreds, and that word is a Latinized take on

55
00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:58,160
Speaker 1: this ancient Greek phrase for general education. But the more

56
00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:01,840
Speaker 1: interesting definition is literal one, which is training in a circle.

57
00:03:02,639 --> 00:03:05,639
Speaker 1: So why a circle? I mean, were these encyclopedias around

58
00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:08,640
Speaker 1: or something? No, so the circle was this common symbol

59
00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:11,240
Speaker 1: for the liberal arts, like the seven areas of arts

60
00:03:11,240 --> 00:03:13,400
Speaker 1: and sciences that were deemed necessary for making a well

61
00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:16,080
Speaker 1: rounded person. All right, well, that's a good title, But

62
00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:19,160
Speaker 1: it is funny to think of an encyclopedia as everything

63
00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:21,400
Speaker 1: you need to know, especially when you consider some of

64
00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:24,040
Speaker 1: the weird stuff that wound up in the really early ones.

65
00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:26,320
Speaker 1: So what are you talking about. One of the most

66
00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:28,960
Speaker 1: famous early encyclopedias is the one as symboled in the

67
00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,440
Speaker 1: first century a d by the Roman naturalists Pliny the Elder,

68
00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:35,400
Speaker 1: and it's full of information that's hilarious but maybe not

69
00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:39,280
Speaker 1: so reputable. So despite calling his epic thirty seven book

70
00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:44,040
Speaker 1: Encyclopedia the Historia Naturalists or natural history, Pliny had some

71
00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:47,120
Speaker 1: questionable ideas about the inner workings of the human body,

72
00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:50,760
Speaker 1: and one of the funniest examples is his woeful misunderstanding

73
00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:54,280
Speaker 1: of women's bodies and specifically periods. So I'm going to

74
00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:57,120
Speaker 1: read how he describes it. He says, on the approach

75
00:03:57,120 --> 00:03:59,520
Speaker 1: of a woman in this state, seeds which you're touched

76
00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:02,960
Speaker 1: by her comes sterile garden plants are parched up, and

77
00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,680
Speaker 1: the fruit will fall from the tree beneath which she said,

78
00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:09,000
Speaker 1: her very look will dim the brightness of mir hers,

79
00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:11,400
Speaker 1: blunt the edge of steel, and take away the polish

80
00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:14,480
Speaker 1: from ivory. A swarm of bees, if looked upon by her,

81
00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:18,560
Speaker 1: will die immediately. Brass and iron will instantly become rusty

82
00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:21,600
Speaker 1: and admit an offensive odor, while dogs, which may have

83
00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:25,440
Speaker 1: tasted of the matter so discharged, are seized with madness,

84
00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:28,760
Speaker 1: and their bite is venomous and incurable. Well, I don't

85
00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:30,640
Speaker 1: know about you, but it sounds like Pliny was a

86
00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:34,120
Speaker 1: real feminist. Had he even met a woman like it

87
00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:36,240
Speaker 1: feels like it would be so easy to disprove all

88
00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:38,440
Speaker 1: of the stuff I know. But that wasn't the only

89
00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:41,240
Speaker 1: inaccuracy in Pliny's books, you know. For example, he provided

90
00:04:41,279 --> 00:04:45,080
Speaker 1: one of the earliest descriptions of unicorns. So Pliny wrote,

91
00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:47,600
Speaker 1: the unicorn is the fiercest animal, and it has said

92
00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:50,280
Speaker 1: that it is impossible to capture one alive. It has

93
00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:52,120
Speaker 1: the body of a horse, the head of a stag,

94
00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:54,640
Speaker 1: the feet of an elephant, the tail of a boar,

95
00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:57,560
Speaker 1: and a single black horn three ft long in the

96
00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:01,159
Speaker 1: middle of its forehead. I'm glad you gave everyone like

97
00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:04,359
Speaker 1: a definitive account of what a unicorn. Looks like the

98
00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:06,960
Speaker 1: only party got right with the horn part right nailed

99
00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:09,560
Speaker 1: it on that though, But really, I mean, I don't

100
00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:11,680
Speaker 1: think we should pick on the Romans too much, because

101
00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:14,200
Speaker 1: when Encyclopedia has finally made their leave to England in

102
00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:17,600
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty eight, they were still cramed full of like

103
00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:21,600
Speaker 1: terrible fictional entries. So seventeen sixty eight is actually the

104
00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:24,800
Speaker 1: year the Encyclopedia Britannica was first made. It was assembled

105
00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:28,279
Speaker 1: by three Scottish men and it consisted of just three

106
00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:31,400
Speaker 1: volumes at the time. So nowadays the first edition is

107
00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:34,200
Speaker 1: mostly interesting as kind of a record of people's priorities

108
00:05:34,240 --> 00:05:36,800
Speaker 1: in the eighteenth century and just how little does line

109
00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:38,800
Speaker 1: up with our own? So what do you mean by that?

110
00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:44,760
Speaker 1: So the encyclopedia includes forty pages about horse disease, there

111
00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:48,320
Speaker 1: is no information about children, and only four words on

112
00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:51,520
Speaker 1: on the entry for women. Well, I mean, after that

113
00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,479
Speaker 1: Pliny description, I'm almost afraid to ask, but what were

114
00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:58,599
Speaker 1: those four words? It's it's super definitive the female of man.

115
00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:02,360
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I see what you mean about

116
00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:05,320
Speaker 1: skewed priorities on this. I mean, it's ridiculous. They took

117
00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:08,000
Speaker 1: the time to calculate the exact number of animal species

118
00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:10,320
Speaker 1: that were on Noah's Ark, but they couldn't spend more

119
00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:13,560
Speaker 1: than four words on half the human population. But did

120
00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:16,600
Speaker 1: they really record how many animals were on Noah's Ark? Yeah,

121
00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:19,240
Speaker 1: apparently there were a hundred seventy seven, which also doesn't

122
00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:22,359
Speaker 1: seem right right. But there's some entries where, you know,

123
00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:23,720
Speaker 1: you kind of have to give it to the Scots

124
00:06:23,760 --> 00:06:27,400
Speaker 1: for creativity. So there's one for the cure of flatulence

125
00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:31,560
Speaker 1: that they say consists of drinking cammill t and then uh,

126
00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:35,359
Speaker 1: blowing pipe smoke up your bomb. Or the entry on

127
00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:38,200
Speaker 1: Vermicelli noodles is amazing is described as a food and

128
00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:40,760
Speaker 1: great vogue with the Italians due to its use as

129
00:06:40,760 --> 00:06:43,600
Speaker 1: an aphrodisiac. Uh. You know, I was actually looking at

130
00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:45,719
Speaker 1: this edition as well, and one of the entries I

131
00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:49,960
Speaker 1: love from that first Encyclopedia Britannica is the one on California. Now,

132
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,120
Speaker 1: just for the record, the region wouldn't become a state

133
00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:55,200
Speaker 1: for close to a hundred years after this publication, so

134
00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:57,880
Speaker 1: really not much was known about it. But they didn't

135
00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:00,640
Speaker 1: even bother to spell check the thing. So California is

136
00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:04,120
Speaker 1: mistakenly spelled with two els. Also, it's referred to as

137
00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:07,120
Speaker 1: quote a large country of the West Indies unknown whether

138
00:07:07,160 --> 00:07:11,560
Speaker 1: it's an island or a peninsula or neither maybe, But

139
00:07:11,600 --> 00:07:13,600
Speaker 1: I mean you kind of have to love their confidence,

140
00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:17,480
Speaker 1: right And also as funny as accidental inaccuracies can be,

141
00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:21,600
Speaker 1: I actually still prefer the intentional ones. And I know

142
00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:23,760
Speaker 1: you and I have talked about this before, but editors

143
00:07:23,800 --> 00:07:26,760
Speaker 1: of reference books sometimes include fake entries as a means

144
00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:30,000
Speaker 1: of preventing plagiarism from their competitors. And the ideas if

145
00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:31,760
Speaker 1: you use a made up word and then that subject

146
00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:35,240
Speaker 1: appears in arrivals reference book, the originator can accuse the

147
00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:38,040
Speaker 1: other of poaching the entries, you know, which qualifies as

148
00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:41,120
Speaker 1: copyright infringement. Yeah, it's pretty crazy, and it is fascinating

149
00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:42,640
Speaker 1: to follow these things that you know, I know, in

150
00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:44,960
Speaker 1: an atlas they're called paper towns, you know, like the

151
00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:47,800
Speaker 1: places that are made up on maps. But so how

152
00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:50,400
Speaker 1: long has this been going on? So for at least

153
00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:54,480
Speaker 1: a century. In dictionaries and encyclopedias that are called Mount Weasels,

154
00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:57,800
Speaker 1: which comes from a phony entry in the nine edition

155
00:07:57,840 --> 00:08:01,400
Speaker 1: of the New Columbia Encyclopedia. According to the original entry

156
00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:05,080
Speaker 1: on her, Lillian Virginia mount Weasel was an American photographer

157
00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:09,640
Speaker 1: who received a government grant to take pictures of rural mailboxes. Sadly,

158
00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:12,680
Speaker 1: Lillian died in a freak explosion while an assignment, where

159
00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:16,640
Speaker 1: the equally fictitious Combustibles magazine man This one's kind of

160
00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:18,800
Speaker 1: a shame though, that this one shouldn't be made up.

161
00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:21,800
Speaker 1: I would totally read Combustibles Magazine. I know me too.

162
00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:24,320
Speaker 1: But Lillian's story does have a happy ending of sorts.

163
00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:27,280
Speaker 1: Like her imaginary life has since been commemorated in the

164
00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:30,040
Speaker 1: form of real Dictionary entries for the word mount weasel.

165
00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:33,080
Speaker 1: That's pretty great, actually, I just pulled up a list

166
00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:35,600
Speaker 1: of mount weasels here, and there's some really good ones

167
00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:38,760
Speaker 1: out there. So we've got a Papula do balia, which

168
00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:42,440
Speaker 1: was this made up Greco Roman sports similar to modern soccer.

169
00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:46,760
Speaker 1: And this one actually maybe is my favorite. Esquavalience, which

170
00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:51,000
Speaker 1: is defined as a purposeful error made to easily spot plagiarizers.

171
00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:53,079
Speaker 1: I love that. I feel like I missed a calling

172
00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:56,040
Speaker 1: just making up definitions for fake words, all right, So

173
00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:58,840
Speaker 1: there's obviously a ton more we could say about encyclopedias.

174
00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:02,160
Speaker 1: But since we're talking definitions, let's let's put the encyclopedia

175
00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:04,200
Speaker 1: back on the shelf and spend some time with what's

176
00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:07,120
Speaker 1: probably the most popular type of reference book, and that's,

177
00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:10,320
Speaker 1: of course, dictionaries. Just like with the idea of assembling

178
00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:13,560
Speaker 1: a compendium of knowledge, the concept of listing out all

179
00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:15,760
Speaker 1: the words in a given language is one that dates

180
00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:19,320
Speaker 1: back thousands of years. But for our purposes, let's stick

181
00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:21,400
Speaker 1: with the modern period of dictionaries. You know, when the

182
00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:24,160
Speaker 1: English version began cropping up around you know, say the

183
00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:26,480
Speaker 1: seventeenth century or so. And why is that. Well, the

184
00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:29,160
Speaker 1: number of words in the English language actually doubled between

185
00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:33,000
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred and sixteen fifty, and this was largely due

186
00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:35,160
Speaker 1: to the Renaissance, which brought a wealth of words derived

187
00:09:35,160 --> 00:09:37,360
Speaker 1: from Latin and Greek to British lips for the very

188
00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:40,440
Speaker 1: first time. But it was also a time when travelers

189
00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:43,080
Speaker 1: and traders from foreign countries were mingling new words into

190
00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:47,080
Speaker 1: Europe's vocabulary. So all these unfamiliar new words coupled with

191
00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:49,800
Speaker 1: the rise of printed books, it really set the stage

192
00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:53,040
Speaker 1: for the world's first English dictionary, and that came along

193
00:09:53,040 --> 00:09:57,079
Speaker 1: in sixteen oh, four complements of a schoolmaster named Robert Caudrey.

194
00:09:57,480 --> 00:09:59,040
Speaker 1: It's so funny. They are all these names, I know,

195
00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:03,520
Speaker 1: like Webster and Roget, but I've never heard of Caudrey. Yeah. Well,

196
00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:06,720
Speaker 1: you know Caudrey's table alphabetical, as he called it. It

197
00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:10,240
Speaker 1: wasn't exactly a general language dictionary. It's it's what's called

198
00:10:10,240 --> 00:10:13,559
Speaker 1: a hard word dictionary, and it basically provided easy to

199
00:10:13,640 --> 00:10:17,400
Speaker 1: understand definitions for all these new and difficult foreign words

200
00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:19,680
Speaker 1: which had kind of made their way into the English

201
00:10:19,800 --> 00:10:23,199
Speaker 1: language during the previous decades. That's really interesting. So when

202
00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:25,760
Speaker 1: did the first more general dictionary come about? The well,

203
00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:28,640
Speaker 1: the idea of a general dictionary for everyday words, it

204
00:10:28,720 --> 00:10:31,520
Speaker 1: kind of didn't catch on until maybe seventy or so

205
00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:34,400
Speaker 1: years later. And it was a man named Elisha Coles

206
00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:37,599
Speaker 1: who who published this dictionary that added regional terms. He

207
00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:40,680
Speaker 1: also added slang and just some other common words to

208
00:10:40,679 --> 00:10:44,040
Speaker 1: the existing slate of hard words from the previous books. Well,

209
00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:46,320
Speaker 1: I'm kind of glad you mentioned the inclusion of slang

210
00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:48,800
Speaker 1: because there's one slang dictionary in particular that I really

211
00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:50,840
Speaker 1: want to talk about. But before we get to that,

212
00:10:50,920 --> 00:11:06,200
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break you're listening to part time genius,

213
00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:10,320
Speaker 1: and we're talking about the surprisingly strange world of reference books. Now,

214
00:11:10,360 --> 00:11:12,600
Speaker 1: most people are familiar by this point with the dictionary

215
00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:16,160
Speaker 1: makers like Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster, and you know,

216
00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:18,800
Speaker 1: for good reason. It was in seventeen fifty five that

217
00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:21,839
Speaker 1: Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language was introduced as the

218
00:11:21,880 --> 00:11:25,240
Speaker 1: most comprehensive one to date. It was the very first

219
00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:28,200
Speaker 1: to use quotations to help illustrate how words could actually

220
00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:31,600
Speaker 1: be used. And then came Webster's Dictionary that was published

221
00:11:31,640 --> 00:11:33,800
Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty eight, and it was one of the

222
00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:38,160
Speaker 1: first lexicons to include definitions of more than ten thousand americanisms.

223
00:11:38,400 --> 00:11:40,960
Speaker 1: These had never been included in the British dictionaries, you know,

224
00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:44,319
Speaker 1: where it's like skunk and squash and chowder. And the

225
00:11:44,360 --> 00:11:46,400
Speaker 1: book was a product of more than two decades of

226
00:11:46,400 --> 00:11:50,120
Speaker 1: work and was crucial in helping standardize English spelling, things

227
00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:53,079
Speaker 1: like dropping the U and color for instance. But you know,

228
00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:55,720
Speaker 1: as important as these contributions where there there's a different

229
00:11:55,760 --> 00:11:57,840
Speaker 1: story that you were saying you wanted to tell today, right,

230
00:11:57,840 --> 00:12:00,120
Speaker 1: And I go, yeah, so those guys are great, and

231
00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:02,839
Speaker 1: it isn't an exaggeration to say our language wouldn't be

232
00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:05,360
Speaker 1: the same without them. But they're not the only one

233
00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:07,200
Speaker 1: that's true of And that's why I want to make

234
00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:09,679
Speaker 1: sure we talked about the Hepster Dictionary, which is a

235
00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:13,120
Speaker 1: compendium of Harlem slang that's believed to be the first

236
00:12:13,160 --> 00:12:16,360
Speaker 1: dictionary written by an African American. Oh wow, I've actually

237
00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:18,720
Speaker 1: never heard of this. So who's the author? So that's

238
00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:20,280
Speaker 1: one of the really cool things about it. It was

239
00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:23,120
Speaker 1: written by Cat Callaway, who's you know, the legendary jazz

240
00:12:23,160 --> 00:12:25,679
Speaker 1: musicians and band leader you could also do the moonwalk.

241
00:12:26,280 --> 00:12:29,600
Speaker 1: And by the way, he retired in Delaware because you know,

242
00:12:29,679 --> 00:12:31,800
Speaker 1: it was a short train ride from Baltimore and New

243
00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:33,640
Speaker 1: York City. Glad you were able to work in your

244
00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:37,280
Speaker 1: Delaware factory. Yeah, But in the ninety twenties and thirties,

245
00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:40,160
Speaker 1: Cab Callaway was this mainstay in the Harlem music scene,

246
00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:43,280
Speaker 1: and the neighborhood had become a center of African American culture,

247
00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:45,800
Speaker 1: you know, with the Harlem Renaissance and all that. And

248
00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:48,360
Speaker 1: as Aaron Blakemore put it in her article on history

249
00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:52,440
Speaker 1: dot Com, quote Harlem was full of slang. Jazz musicians

250
00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:55,319
Speaker 1: like Callaway talk jive a kind of shorthand that turned

251
00:12:55,400 --> 00:12:59,080
Speaker 1: ordinary conversation into an extended, jazzy riff. It was also

252
00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:01,760
Speaker 1: a matter of survive. Though it was spoken in public,

253
00:13:01,800 --> 00:13:04,480
Speaker 1: it was a way for African Americans to communicate privately,

254
00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:07,560
Speaker 1: a kind of linguistic rebellion that was as serious as

255
00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:10,760
Speaker 1: it was humorous. That's pretty awesome and so obviously Callaway

256
00:13:10,840 --> 00:13:13,240
Speaker 1: was familiar with jive, But how did he come to

257
00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:16,439
Speaker 1: write the Dictionary on it? Well, his songs were full

258
00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:18,320
Speaker 1: of words and phrases that eventually wound up in the

259
00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:20,840
Speaker 1: dictionary and gave actually jotted down a few of these

260
00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:26,160
Speaker 1: for me, like cool Groovy, Chick, moocher, Boogie Woogie, jitterbug,

261
00:13:26,240 --> 00:13:28,600
Speaker 1: and come again. There's all you know, we're used by him.

262
00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:30,720
Speaker 1: But but the idea to compile all of them in

263
00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:33,559
Speaker 1: print came in the late thirties when Cab Callaway noticed

264
00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:36,240
Speaker 1: that black musicians were being pushed aside by white swing

265
00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:39,360
Speaker 1: musicians and they kind of co opted the sound. So

266
00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:42,120
Speaker 1: to keep himself in the culture, he helped pioneer relevant.

267
00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:45,160
Speaker 1: Cab and his manager worked together on this slender pamphlet

268
00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:47,439
Speaker 1: that defined jib for audiences who had never heard the

269
00:13:47,480 --> 00:13:51,319
Speaker 1: streets Lang before it was published in eight I believe,

270
00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:53,400
Speaker 1: and and it became a hit with both black and

271
00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:56,800
Speaker 1: white readers, And in fact, he did seven volumes of

272
00:13:56,800 --> 00:13:59,440
Speaker 1: the thing, and it even became the official reference book

273
00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:01,600
Speaker 1: of Jive and the New York Public Library, which was

274
00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:04,480
Speaker 1: something Cab was immensely proud of. Yeah, and I love that,

275
00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:07,439
Speaker 1: you know, even though it seems to have indirectly saddled

276
00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:09,600
Speaker 1: us with the the you know, the hipsters of today,

277
00:14:09,679 --> 00:14:12,760
Speaker 1: It's it's so great that Callaway chronicled that moment in

278
00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:15,880
Speaker 1: black culture, and the Harlem Renaissance was soon eclipsed by

279
00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:18,000
Speaker 1: the Great Depression. So you know, we're pretty lucky to

280
00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:20,280
Speaker 1: have all that culture and not have it lost to

281
00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:23,280
Speaker 1: history exactly. And I actually heard this BBC interview with

282
00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:26,600
Speaker 1: a British poet about cabs dictionary, and he had this

283
00:14:26,680 --> 00:14:29,480
Speaker 1: really great insight about it. As he put it, quote,

284
00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:32,680
Speaker 1: Cab Callaway was taking ownership of language for people who

285
00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:36,440
Speaker 1: just a few generations before had their own languages taken away.

286
00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:38,960
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean I haven't thought of that. But

287
00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:42,360
Speaker 1: you know, since since we're talking about how dictionaries come together,

288
00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:44,240
Speaker 1: I do want to talk a little bit about what

289
00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:46,680
Speaker 1: it takes to get a new word added to the dictionary,

290
00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:48,720
Speaker 1: because there is a process to it, and it's one

291
00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:51,120
Speaker 1: that we don't hear about often. I mean, sure, we

292
00:14:51,160 --> 00:14:52,880
Speaker 1: hear about the list of the new words that Miriam

293
00:14:52,920 --> 00:14:55,840
Speaker 1: Webster adds with each new addition, or at least more

294
00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:59,240
Speaker 1: decidedly modern additions, you know, things like crowdsourcing and man

295
00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:02,440
Speaker 1: spread or even o MG which was added, But you know,

296
00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:04,520
Speaker 1: you don't hear much about how these new words are

297
00:15:04,520 --> 00:15:07,840
Speaker 1: actually chosen to be included. Yeah, that's a good point.

298
00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:11,160
Speaker 1: So first of all, who does decide what gets added? Well,

299
00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:13,760
Speaker 1: that's left up to the lexicographers and and for anyone

300
00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:16,040
Speaker 1: who doesn't have their own reference book handy. Those are

301
00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:19,320
Speaker 1: the people whose job it is to compile dictionaries. They

302
00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:22,560
Speaker 1: pay attention to whenever a new word or phrase becomes popular,

303
00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:25,840
Speaker 1: and then they start collecting citations of the word, including

304
00:15:25,880 --> 00:15:29,560
Speaker 1: its contextual meaning. They comb through this database to find

305
00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:32,080
Speaker 1: evidence that the word has cropped up over time among

306
00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:35,240
Speaker 1: this diverse group of people, and when that big case

307
00:15:35,280 --> 00:15:37,840
Speaker 1: file is assembled, the last step is for the dictionary

308
00:15:37,920 --> 00:15:40,200
Speaker 1: editors to review the evidence and decide whether or not

309
00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:42,520
Speaker 1: to include the new word and the next edition of

310
00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:46,240
Speaker 1: their company's dictionary. So it basically boils down to like

311
00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:49,960
Speaker 1: popularity and usage, which makes sense. But what about the

312
00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:52,280
Speaker 1: words we removed from the dictionary? Is it really just

313
00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:54,440
Speaker 1: a matter of determining how many people are still using

314
00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:56,640
Speaker 1: a certain word? Well, that's where things get a little

315
00:15:56,640 --> 00:15:58,720
Speaker 1: bit more complicated. You know. The way it works is

316
00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:00,800
Speaker 1: that the editors try to determine and which words are

317
00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:03,440
Speaker 1: most relevant today, and then then they go back and

318
00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:06,000
Speaker 1: weed out the ones that are most definitely not being

319
00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:08,920
Speaker 1: used as much today. So editors might assemble a list

320
00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:12,480
Speaker 1: of potential cuts. You've got obscure words like crunch or

321
00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:15,840
Speaker 1: pro land or octandrias that have all then cut from

322
00:16:15,880 --> 00:16:21,640
Speaker 1: the dictionary. Crunch like crunchy, wrench dressing. Oh that's cross.

323
00:16:21,720 --> 00:16:24,560
Speaker 1: I think it's a loud noise or actually I found

324
00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:27,440
Speaker 1: a Scottish reference book that said it's an alternative for crunch,

325
00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:30,440
Speaker 1: which is to crunch with your mouth. Apparently, I don't

326
00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:33,040
Speaker 1: know why we need another word for that, but it's

327
00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:35,080
Speaker 1: no longer in the dictionary, so you really don't have

328
00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:36,880
Speaker 1: to worry about it at this point. I like that

329
00:16:36,920 --> 00:16:40,760
Speaker 1: there's crunch, cringe, and crunch. Yeah, you just need to crunch.

330
00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:44,560
Speaker 1: But I interrupted. You were talking about how words get

331
00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:47,360
Speaker 1: tossed from the dictionary, right, So, so the editors have

332
00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:49,840
Speaker 1: a list of words that aren't used that often, and

333
00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:52,640
Speaker 1: then they search through sources like Google books or other

334
00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:55,560
Speaker 1: dictionaries and of course the Internet, and they try to

335
00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:59,320
Speaker 1: see how frequently these words turn up. And they're always

336
00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:02,760
Speaker 1: exceptions to you know, for example, the and thou don't

337
00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:06,000
Speaker 1: really pop up much in everyday conversation anymore. But since

338
00:17:06,040 --> 00:17:09,080
Speaker 1: they're so prevalent in all these widely read books, they're

339
00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:12,040
Speaker 1: pretty safe from the chopping blot. Okay, that makes sense.

340
00:17:12,040 --> 00:17:14,600
Speaker 1: And I actually remember reading this book word Freak by

341
00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:17,959
Speaker 1: Steven fatsis about the world of competitive scrabble, and one

342
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:19,600
Speaker 1: of the things I remember best from it was these

343
00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:22,000
Speaker 1: people who would petition to have words put back into

344
00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:24,520
Speaker 1: the dictionary. They were just these word lovers who would

345
00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:26,760
Speaker 1: spend their free time, I mean, when they weren't dominating

346
00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:29,760
Speaker 1: at scrabble, just fighting to have words reintegrated into the

347
00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:33,600
Speaker 1: English language. But here's my question, like, why target words

348
00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:35,879
Speaker 1: for removal at all? Is it just to save on

349
00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:38,359
Speaker 1: printing costs? And I think the bigger concern is that

350
00:17:38,359 --> 00:17:41,400
Speaker 1: the dictionary will become too massive and unwilldy to use

351
00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:45,080
Speaker 1: if nothing is ever omitted from it. But practicality isn't

352
00:17:45,119 --> 00:17:47,760
Speaker 1: even the only reason that words get cut. I mean,

353
00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:49,320
Speaker 1: if you think about it, there are plenty of online

354
00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:51,840
Speaker 1: dictionaries that don't have to worry about the space that

355
00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:54,560
Speaker 1: they take up, But they don't include every single word

356
00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:58,159
Speaker 1: from English language either, and that's largely because most dictionaries

357
00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:01,600
Speaker 1: are trying to present the current state of semantics, you know,

358
00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:04,600
Speaker 1: the words that most typify our language and kind of

359
00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:06,919
Speaker 1: in the here and now if you think about it. So,

360
00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:09,000
Speaker 1: you know, the only exception I could think of is

361
00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:11,960
Speaker 1: the Oxford English Dictionary, like the o e D, which

362
00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:15,800
Speaker 1: is more concerned with chronicling and preserving English and its entirety.

363
00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:17,880
Speaker 1: And to that end, the o e D doesn't remove

364
00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:20,640
Speaker 1: words or definitions. Instead, they just know when a particular

365
00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:23,200
Speaker 1: word or meeting is outdated. Yeah, yeah, that that is

366
00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:25,360
Speaker 1: an interesting exception to this. Well, you know, as long

367
00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:28,600
Speaker 1: as we're talking about the intentions behind reference books, I

368
00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:30,120
Speaker 1: feel like we should go ahead and cover the other

369
00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:32,240
Speaker 1: two biggies of the reference world, and those would be

370
00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:35,159
Speaker 1: the stars and almanacs. Yeah, but before we do that.

371
00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:46,760
Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break. Okay, Mango, it's quiz time.

372
00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:48,960
Speaker 1: I know we're talking reference books today, so we thought

373
00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:50,679
Speaker 1: it would be appropriate to bring in one of our

374
00:18:50,720 --> 00:18:53,640
Speaker 1: favorite podcasters here at How Stuff Works and someone known

375
00:18:53,760 --> 00:18:56,720
Speaker 1: for doing an intense amount of research before any of

376
00:18:56,720 --> 00:18:59,640
Speaker 1: his episodes. Scott Benjamin. Welcome to Part Time Genius. Thank

377
00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:01,439
Speaker 1: you for men. I appreciate it. You guys may know

378
00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:04,359
Speaker 1: Scott from Car Stuff, and that's what I have to admit.

379
00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:07,200
Speaker 1: You sit right across from us in the office, and

380
00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:10,760
Speaker 1: when we look over and see these stacks of research,

381
00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:13,360
Speaker 1: it kind of makes us feel like maybe we're not

382
00:19:13,480 --> 00:19:16,880
Speaker 1: doing enough. I feel like I I read at least

383
00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:19,240
Speaker 1: two books, give a bunch of books for for every episode,

384
00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:21,920
Speaker 1: and then I see this, like like half a meter

385
00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:26,000
Speaker 1: high stack of papers that they're just giving through dreams

386
00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:28,120
Speaker 1: of paper. I do it the old school way, I guess.

387
00:19:28,160 --> 00:19:31,080
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm an analog guy, right, so, um, I

388
00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:33,520
Speaker 1: don't bring a laptop in with me to podcasts, which

389
00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:36,240
Speaker 1: I think almost everybody does. Yeah, everything is on paper.

390
00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:39,840
Speaker 1: I've got color coded tabs, I've got notes everywhere. It's

391
00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:41,600
Speaker 1: a it's kind of a mess, but it's a mess

392
00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:43,440
Speaker 1: that I know how to work with. Wow, I thought

393
00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:45,720
Speaker 1: maybe it was an intimidation tactic. Do I remember this

394
00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:49,160
Speaker 1: story correctly? That there was a legend about Karl Rove,

395
00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:51,280
Speaker 1: like when he was on the debate team in high

396
00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:54,679
Speaker 1: school and he would wheel in this huge cart with

397
00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:57,600
Speaker 1: all of these containers full of where they were supposed

398
00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:00,040
Speaker 1: to be full of index cards, right that notes. It

399
00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:02,600
Speaker 1: was just an intimidation tactic. And it turns out that

400
00:20:02,960 --> 00:20:05,119
Speaker 1: most of them were just blank, but they were just

401
00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:07,439
Speaker 1: there to make it seem like he had prepped more

402
00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:09,960
Speaker 1: than anyone. I'll show you my stack of notes. I'll share,

403
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:13,720
Speaker 1: but there's there's notes everywhere in there. It's it's quite

404
00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:15,280
Speaker 1: a mess, and no one else would be able to

405
00:20:15,280 --> 00:20:18,280
Speaker 1: put it together with the information that I compile, I

406
00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:22,000
Speaker 1: just know where everything is. Yeah, it's a system that's unbelievable.

407
00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:24,480
Speaker 1: How many episodes of car Stuff did you did you host?

408
00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:27,240
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it's it was approaching nine hundred. I

409
00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:29,520
Speaker 1: don't know an exact number, but a hundred. We were.

410
00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:31,960
Speaker 1: We were on air for nine years and one month.

411
00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:35,040
Speaker 1: It was a long time. Wow, Wow, very cool. It's

412
00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:38,160
Speaker 1: an unbelievable archive there that it's really fun to dig into.

413
00:20:38,320 --> 00:20:40,359
Speaker 1: And also I so want to tell the listeners like

414
00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:42,280
Speaker 1: about your new show, but I know we've got to

415
00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:44,480
Speaker 1: kep under wraps. I'm so excited for it though. Yeah,

416
00:20:44,520 --> 00:20:47,600
Speaker 1: we've got something in the works that hopefully everybody will

417
00:20:47,720 --> 00:20:50,440
Speaker 1: also be on board with. But it's it's exciting. Yeah,

418
00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:52,920
Speaker 1: we're gonna have you on again to debut that when

419
00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:55,640
Speaker 1: when when it comes out? Very cool. We're talking reference

420
00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:58,400
Speaker 1: books today and playing a game with Scott. What's it called? Mego?

421
00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,640
Speaker 1: It's called real nonfiction title or something we made up.

422
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:04,439
Speaker 1: So every year the Diagram Book Group gives a prize

423
00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:07,119
Speaker 1: at the Frankfurt Book Fair for the year's oddest title.

424
00:21:07,520 --> 00:21:09,399
Speaker 1: So every one of these titles is either going to

425
00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:12,600
Speaker 1: be one of those strange books or something we made up.

426
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:15,720
Speaker 1: Wait are you saying real nonfiction? That's it? Yes, this

427
00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:19,359
Speaker 1: is a real nonfiction title or something we made up

428
00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:21,320
Speaker 1: in terms of a title. Okay, I'll do my bus

429
00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:23,640
Speaker 1: all right, you ready to play? Here we go number one.

430
00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:27,200
Speaker 1: The first title is Managing a Dental Practice the Genghis

431
00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:30,760
Speaker 1: Khan way real or something we made up? Oh my gosh,

432
00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:34,200
Speaker 1: I'm going to say that's made up? Oh what is it? Mango?

433
00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:37,160
Speaker 1: It's actually real. It's real. Yeah. It won the Diagram

434
00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:40,240
Speaker 1: Prize in two thousand ten. Okay, here we go, you start,

435
00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:42,120
Speaker 1: have plenty of time to come back, all right. Number two,

436
00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:46,240
Speaker 1: A Field Guide to mid Century Water Slides of North Dakota.

437
00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:49,119
Speaker 1: A Field Guide to the mid century water Slides of

438
00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:53,359
Speaker 1: North Dakota. I'm gonna say that it's not real. I

439
00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:55,000
Speaker 1: don't know how you tell the difference between the mid

440
00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:58,879
Speaker 1: century and the most of mid century. That one had

441
00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:03,480
Speaker 1: mango written? All okay. Number three, The Commuter Pig Keeper,

442
00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:06,560
Speaker 1: A comprehensive guy to keeping pigs when time is your

443
00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:14,080
Speaker 1: most precious commodity. Okay, um, I'm gonna say that one's real.

444
00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:16,840
Speaker 1: Is that one real? Mango? Yeah, it's absolutely real. The

445
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:20,280
Speaker 1: Commuter Pig Keeper, a comprehensive guy to keeping pigs when

446
00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:25,159
Speaker 1: time is your most precious keeper. I needed three breaths

447
00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:27,320
Speaker 1: to say that as a Commuter pig Keeper. We're gonna

448
00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:28,720
Speaker 1: have to get ahold of this book. I feel like

449
00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:31,679
Speaker 1: you're gonna need it for research for probably for your

450
00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:34,800
Speaker 1: next project. Guess so, alright, you're two out of three.

451
00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:38,679
Speaker 1: The next one the Circus Performers Index for high Performance

452
00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:43,399
Speaker 1: stilt Makers. Sorry, I'm trying to keep the Circus Performers

453
00:22:43,440 --> 00:22:46,600
Speaker 1: Index for High Performance stilt Makers real or something we

454
00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:48,480
Speaker 1: made up. This one is going to be made up, Yes,

455
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:52,919
Speaker 1: high performance stilts. I think you have more fun making

456
00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:55,400
Speaker 1: this stuff up than you do with anything you work

457
00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:59,160
Speaker 1: on it. I guess you could call them high performance

458
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:02,480
Speaker 1: pogo sticks if you see those, but never still, that's

459
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:06,080
Speaker 1: where otherwise it's been the Circus Performance Index for high

460
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,440
Speaker 1: performance What poco sticks piece of would have been? All

461
00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:12,560
Speaker 1: over piece of wood. Okay, here we go. Number five

462
00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:18,560
Speaker 1: Goblin Proofing One's Chicken Coop. Stop it mango. Goblin Proofing

463
00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:22,320
Speaker 1: One's Chicken Coop real nonfiction or something we made up.

464
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:28,160
Speaker 1: That one feels like it's real. You know. It came

465
00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:30,080
Speaker 1: out in two thousand twelve and it's a guide to

466
00:23:30,119 --> 00:23:33,480
Speaker 1: banishing ferries from both your home and your chickens. Gobbling

467
00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:36,720
Speaker 1: Proofing Chicken Coop. He is on a roll. The last

468
00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:40,439
Speaker 1: one for the big prize. The title is crazy Cool

469
00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:45,000
Speaker 1: Ideas for Bedazzling your thrift store straight Jackets. Crazy Cool

470
00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:48,919
Speaker 1: Ideas for bedazzling your thrift store straight jack straight if

471
00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:50,920
Speaker 1: you hadn't thrown straight jackets in I would say that

472
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:54,000
Speaker 1: was real any other garment, but straight jackets now, is

473
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:58,760
Speaker 1: that right? Mango? Yeah, that was pretty impressive. Have you

474
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:01,000
Speaker 1: ever found a straight jacket at a thrift store? I

475
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:05,480
Speaker 1: can't say that I have. Have you? I I thought

476
00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:07,600
Speaker 1: were about to get something there, saw some concern on

477
00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:11,639
Speaker 1: your face. But what an unusual findal especially be dazzled one? Right?

478
00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:16,000
Speaker 1: That's why I love that title. It's like, oh, yeah,

479
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:18,360
Speaker 1: there's a whole community of people who find their their

480
00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:20,719
Speaker 1: straight jackets at the store. Right where do you get them?

481
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 1: You love that title that you made up. So Mango, Um,

482
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:28,359
Speaker 1: how did Scott do today? Scott win amazing five for

483
00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:31,520
Speaker 1: six and that entitles them to our prize this week,

484
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:34,639
Speaker 1: which is a real book called The Stray Shopping Carts

485
00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:38,480
Speaker 1: of Eastern North America, a guide to field identification that

486
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:43,240
Speaker 1: one I would have guessed is false as a real one.

487
00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:45,880
Speaker 1: H Well, Scott, thanks so much for joining us today. Well,

488
00:24:45,920 --> 00:25:01,720
Speaker 1: thank you for allowing me to play. I appreciate it. Okay, Well,

489
00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:03,840
Speaker 1: so answer the question on everyone's mind? Is it really

490
00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:06,879
Speaker 1: the sources and not the sore? I is that on

491
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:10,399
Speaker 1: everybody's I think you might be overstating the demand for

492
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:12,680
Speaker 1: that answer, but I'll admit it, I was curious about

493
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 1: this as well, so I decided to look it up,

494
00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:18,119
Speaker 1: and it turns out both are perfectly acceptable to say,

495
00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:21,560
Speaker 1: although if you want to get technical, Grammar's points out

496
00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:24,159
Speaker 1: that the correct way to pluralize the Latin word the

497
00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:27,440
Speaker 1: saurs would be to add the suffix i, which means

498
00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:31,000
Speaker 1: the sorry is technically the proper pluralization. I feel like

499
00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:33,159
Speaker 1: I've got to carry around too the sources just to

500
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:36,320
Speaker 1: be able to bring that up in the exactly. But

501
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 1: as long as we're on the words etymology, I'll go

502
00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:41,800
Speaker 1: ahead and mention that, unlike Encyclopedia, the sores actually has

503
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:45,359
Speaker 1: this really straightforward meeting. It's derived from a Greek word

504
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:50,280
Speaker 1: meaning storehouse of precious items are more simply put, treasure.

505
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:52,679
Speaker 1: That is pretty great, and you know, plenty of writers

506
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:55,399
Speaker 1: would agree with that, including the man who supposedly wrote

507
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,760
Speaker 1: the very first the Saurs. His name was Philo of Biblos,

508
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:00,919
Speaker 1: and he was an ancient Greek scholar who wrote a

509
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 1: book of synonyms titled on Synonyms. I mean, it feels

510
00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:07,240
Speaker 1: like Pilo missed a great opportunity to drop in a

511
00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:10,399
Speaker 1: bunch of subheads like on synonyms, also a bunch of

512
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:14,520
Speaker 1: word alternate substitutes and equivalence I found for you. But

513
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,639
Speaker 1: was Filo really the first to find this? Well, Filo

514
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:19,760
Speaker 1: was first, I mean his book came out in the

515
00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:22,920
Speaker 1: first and second century CE. But for my money, the

516
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:25,639
Speaker 1: most interesting early thesaurus was actually written a couple of

517
00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:28,120
Speaker 1: centuries later. It was in the fourth century CE by

518
00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:31,720
Speaker 1: an Indian poet name A. Mara Senna, and his book

519
00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:36,200
Speaker 1: of Sanskrit words. Wasn't your typical stuffy thesaurus. Senna divided

520
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:39,639
Speaker 1: the included words into three sections. There were those relating

521
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:43,160
Speaker 1: to the divine, the earth, and everyday life, and each

522
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 1: section contained poetic verses and integrated the words so that

523
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:49,440
Speaker 1: readers could have an easier time remembering them. It's actually

524
00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 1: kind of an extraordinary accomplishment. And you know, while we

525
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:55,880
Speaker 1: know of philos thesaurus only through mentions in other people's writings,

526
00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:59,359
Speaker 1: copies of A. Mara Senna's books still survive today and

527
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:02,400
Speaker 1: that makes it the oldest the stars in existence. That's

528
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:04,160
Speaker 1: so crazy that I've never heard of him. I mean,

529
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:07,639
Speaker 1: I also don't speak sanscrit and it feels like it

530
00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:09,840
Speaker 1: would have come off. But let's go ahead to the

531
00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:12,560
Speaker 1: man whose name has become synonymous with the Sources or

532
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:16,520
Speaker 1: the Sore, and that's Peter Mark Roge. So Roj was

533
00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:19,320
Speaker 1: the British doctor behind the world's most well known the Sris.

534
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:21,959
Speaker 1: But he actually got a start in reference books by

535
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:25,320
Speaker 1: working as a contributor on medical topics for the Encyclopedia Britannica.

536
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:28,399
Speaker 1: So he was deep into reference But in eighteen o

537
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:32,120
Speaker 1: five Roj undertook a particular pastime. He started compiling words

538
00:27:32,119 --> 00:27:34,840
Speaker 1: and arranging them by meaning and grouping them into these

539
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:37,919
Speaker 1: overarching themes. And even though he was still working as

540
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:41,560
Speaker 1: a physician, Roger kept up this word listing habit for

541
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:44,600
Speaker 1: forty seven years. Wow, I didn't realize it was that long.

542
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,120
Speaker 1: That is insane. So so what happened after that? Well,

543
00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:50,440
Speaker 1: by eighteen fifty two, Roger was ready to retire from medicine,

544
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:53,480
Speaker 1: and in his newfound free time, he decided to you know,

545
00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 1: finally share his long in the works The Source with

546
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:58,719
Speaker 1: the public, which has an amazing title. You know what,

547
00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:02,399
Speaker 1: one that follow of Wiss could have replicated Roger's The

548
00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:05,720
Speaker 1: Source of English Words and Phrases, classified and arranged so

549
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:08,560
Speaker 1: as to facilitate the expression of ideas and assist in

550
00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:13,160
Speaker 1: literary composition, rolls off the tongue, right, not at all?

551
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:15,880
Speaker 1: That is crazy, and so so did this take off? Yeah,

552
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:17,639
Speaker 1: inspite of the title, And I mean the book was

553
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:20,560
Speaker 1: this culmination of half a century of work, so it

554
00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:23,199
Speaker 1: had to be the most comprehensive the source on the market.

555
00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:26,119
Speaker 1: It also differed from other reference books by sticking to

556
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:29,640
Speaker 1: Roget's thematic arrangement rather than just listening to the words alphabetically.

557
00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:32,600
Speaker 1: But whatever the reason, the public quickly caught on and

558
00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:35,240
Speaker 1: by the time roj passed away in eighteen sixty nine

559
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:38,680
Speaker 1: is the source had been reprinted twenty five times wow,

560
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:41,360
Speaker 1: and then countless times since then too. You know. In fact,

561
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:44,600
Speaker 1: Roget's The Stars has become so successful and widely used

562
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 1: that January eighteenth, which is the day of his birth,

563
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:51,440
Speaker 1: that's now recognized around the world as the Stars Day.

564
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 1: You know. Since we're on the subject of reference books

565
00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:57,200
Speaker 1: that have had surprising appeal and longevity even we should

566
00:28:57,240 --> 00:29:00,640
Speaker 1: definitely talk about Almanacs. So I know, and Franklin's name

567
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:02,880
Speaker 1: always gets tossed around when you mentioned Almanacs, But I

568
00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:05,400
Speaker 1: think the only reason I know about modern Almanax is

569
00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:07,840
Speaker 1: from Carmen San Diego, Like, do you remember that. Of

570
00:29:07,880 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 1: course played lots of Carmen San Diego. Yeah, you needed

571
00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 1: the book to look up flags of countries and see

572
00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:15,040
Speaker 1: where that these were running off too. Well, it's actually

573
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:17,680
Speaker 1: kind of genius that a computer game came boxed with

574
00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:20,800
Speaker 1: a printed almanac, and I loved it, just like having

575
00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:23,400
Speaker 1: that fresh copy. It was pretty cool. But you know,

576
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:25,520
Speaker 1: we're a little off track here, and so reference books

577
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:28,920
Speaker 1: definitely have this long history, and basically almanacs had their

578
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:32,240
Speaker 1: heyday in the seventeenth and eighteen centuries. That's when people

579
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 1: were eager for this reliable way to receive information that

580
00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:38,920
Speaker 1: was pertinent to their daily lives. So weather predictions and

581
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:42,760
Speaker 1: charts detailing times of sunrises and sunsets, these were really

582
00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 1: part of the main offerings. But almanacs expanded over the

583
00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:49,520
Speaker 1: years to include everything from health advice to recipes, things

584
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:52,720
Speaker 1: like household tips. He actually even jokes and puzzles in there.

585
00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:55,520
Speaker 1: I had no idea they had jokes and recipes, but

586
00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:57,920
Speaker 1: they were super popular, right yeah, I mean, just to

587
00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:00,880
Speaker 1: give you some idea of just how popular almanacs became.

588
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 1: By the seventeenth century, only one publication outsold almanacs in England,

589
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:09,080
Speaker 1: and that's the art of the deal. Not quiet I'm

590
00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:12,160
Speaker 1: talking about the Bible. But it wasn't just the British

591
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 1: going crazy for almanacs. You know, of course, your boy

592
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:18,160
Speaker 1: been Franklin's publication Poor Richard's Almanac that that also came

593
00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:21,120
Speaker 1: out around this same time. So here's where I get confused,

594
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:24,160
Speaker 1: Like there's Poor Richards, there's the Farmer's Almanac. I think

595
00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 1: there's even an Old Farmer's Almanac. Like are they all

596
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:29,600
Speaker 1: the same? Not exactly, I mean, they all cover pretty

597
00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:32,200
Speaker 1: similar grounds, so there is some cross over there, but

598
00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 1: all three of those are actually different publications. The Old

599
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:39,000
Speaker 1: Farmers Almanac was founded in seventeen nine two, but the

600
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:43,000
Speaker 1: modifier old was just added retroactively once The Farmers Almanac

601
00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 1: debuted in eighteen eighteen. And are either of them still around?

602
00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:50,520
Speaker 1: They are, actually both of these are still being published today.

603
00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:53,080
Speaker 1: The Old Farmers Almanac even boast of being the oldest

604
00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:56,640
Speaker 1: continually published periodical in the US. And there's reason to

605
00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:58,800
Speaker 1: believe them too. I mean, when the first issue was

606
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:02,720
Speaker 1: released in seventeen ninety two, George Washington was just beginning

607
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:06,280
Speaker 1: his second term as president. Wow, so our weather prediction

608
00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:08,880
Speaker 1: is still a big part of them. Well, it's definitely included.

609
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:11,600
Speaker 1: I mean, the Farmer's Almanac makes weather predictions two years

610
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:14,600
Speaker 1: in advance, and both almanacs claim to have about an

611
00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:18,560
Speaker 1: eight percent accuracy for hate. I mean, you know, skeptical

612
00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:22,240
Speaker 1: researchers estimate that the almanacs real accuracy is somewhere closer,

613
00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:25,720
Speaker 1: like twenty five or thirty, which kind of just seems

614
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:28,600
Speaker 1: like a good guess. But you know, the really interesting

615
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:31,600
Speaker 1: thing to me is the secrecy surrounding the formula behind

616
00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 1: the Farmer's Almanac and how they make their predictions. It

617
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:37,720
Speaker 1: includes esoteric factors like the position of the planets and

618
00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:41,560
Speaker 1: sunspot activity and title forces and you know, I mean

619
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:45,080
Speaker 1: they use astronomy and math. How sophisticated is that. But

620
00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 1: you know, the actual formula is top secret, and in fact,

621
00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:50,360
Speaker 1: there's only one soul on the planet who knows it.

622
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:53,920
Speaker 1: And his name is Caleb weather Be. Isn't that the

623
00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:56,800
Speaker 1: principle from the Archie Coon. I don't think that's a

624
00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:59,560
Speaker 1: real person. Well, you're right that the name is fake,

625
00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:03,720
Speaker 1: but the almanac swears there is a real person behind it. Apparently,

626
00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:06,280
Speaker 1: the current Caleb Weatherby is the seventh person to take

627
00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:09,960
Speaker 1: up the mantel and the publication's two hundred year history.

628
00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:12,560
Speaker 1: He's been on the job for almost thirty years now,

629
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,560
Speaker 1: and since it's a lifetime gig, I mean, he'll probably

630
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 1: remain Caleb Weatherby until the day he dies. That's amazing. Well,

631
00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:23,040
Speaker 1: one thing I've read that I find sort of fascinating

632
00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:25,120
Speaker 1: about The Farmer's Almanac is the way it kind of

633
00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:27,600
Speaker 1: offered a sneak peak of the information age to come.

634
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:30,680
Speaker 1: And this is something that Adrian le Franz talks about

635
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:33,160
Speaker 1: in the Atlantic and the idea is that the wide

636
00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:36,920
Speaker 1: ranging information and ease of access offered by almanacs was

637
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,240
Speaker 1: kind of what, you know, a smartphone was going to

638
00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:42,120
Speaker 1: be in the future, and, as she put it, a handheld,

639
00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 1: portable device that contained information about all manner of things. Well,

640
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:48,920
Speaker 1: it definitely seems true that digital sources like Wikipedia and

641
00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:52,400
Speaker 1: even smart devices like the Amazon Echo or Siri, I mean,

642
00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:55,960
Speaker 1: they have some roots in those traditional print reference books.

643
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:58,600
Speaker 1: And I guess the biggest question right now is is

644
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:01,280
Speaker 1: there room enough for both both of these? I mean,

645
00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:03,320
Speaker 1: I kind of want to believe there is, for you know,

646
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 1: I was looking at the numbers and sales of Miriam

647
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:09,160
Speaker 1: Webster's Collegiate Dictionary have definitely fallen in recent years, but

648
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 1: visits to their online dictionary have gone way up, and

649
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:15,080
Speaker 1: even on the print side, their dictionary remains one of

650
00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:18,280
Speaker 1: the top sellers, just behind the Bible. But to quote

651
00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:22,600
Speaker 1: Peter Sokolowski, who's an editor for Miriam Webster, the dictionary

652
00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:25,360
Speaker 1: in the most generic scope is being used more than ever.

653
00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:27,960
Speaker 1: You can have it as an app, it's online while

654
00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:30,000
Speaker 1: you're at work, you have it as a print book.

655
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:32,680
Speaker 1: Book sales are down, but we're seeing an overall increase

656
00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:35,479
Speaker 1: in use. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's encouraging, But

657
00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:38,000
Speaker 1: you know, you've got go to like Rog's and Miriam

658
00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:40,840
Speaker 1: Webster and they may still have a place on the bookshelf.

659
00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:44,920
Speaker 1: But I feel like encyclopedias are a different story. I mean,

660
00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:49,360
Speaker 1: even seemingly immortal Encyclopedia Britannica cease to produce print editions

661
00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:52,000
Speaker 1: back in two thousand twelve, and they decided to go

662
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:55,560
Speaker 1: online exclusive instead, And really I'm not sure who was

663
00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:58,120
Speaker 1: still buying at that point, given that the final edition

664
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:02,040
Speaker 1: costs you a cool fourteen hundred dollars, which just seems

665
00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:04,520
Speaker 1: so crazy now, But as far as I can tell,

666
00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 1: the World Book Encyclopedia is the only encyclopedia left with

667
00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 1: actual paper in the game. Yeah, and a lot of

668
00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:12,600
Speaker 1: people see the demise of print encyclopedias is a good

669
00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:15,439
Speaker 1: thing because, you know, while there's a certain nostalgia tied

670
00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:17,640
Speaker 1: up in this idea of a door to door encyclopedia

671
00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:21,640
Speaker 1: salesman or those commercials that offered beautiful, hardbound knowledge for

672
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,400
Speaker 1: a low monthly payment, the reality is that these twenty

673
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:27,640
Speaker 1: plus volumes weren't often worth the price, or at least

674
00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:30,720
Speaker 1: not for very long. Like the rapid advancements in science

675
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:34,360
Speaker 1: or politics, they all ensured that most encyclopedias were outdated

676
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:37,319
Speaker 1: by the time they were printed. Yeah, though they were

677
00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:40,960
Speaker 1: such wondrous things to explore, like thumbing through the pages

678
00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:44,239
Speaker 1: and that serendipity of learning about weird topics. I mean,

679
00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:47,319
Speaker 1: you can definitely go down these Wikipedia rabbit holes, but

680
00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:50,719
Speaker 1: the experience it just feels kind of different, you know. Yeah,

681
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:52,839
Speaker 1: But the fact that you can have endless pages and

682
00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:55,839
Speaker 1: that they can be updated immediately really is amazing about

683
00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:59,040
Speaker 1: the net. Plus, Like, one of the arguments against print

684
00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:02,320
Speaker 1: is that it looks so definitive or authoritative that it

685
00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:04,960
Speaker 1: often encourages kids to, you know, be a little too

686
00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:07,439
Speaker 1: trusting about what they read. But would you really rather

687
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:11,800
Speaker 1: kids trust the community driven source like Wikipedia instead, Well,

688
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:16,160
Speaker 1: not definitively, but you know, questioning online sources and seeking

689
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:19,440
Speaker 1: out verification for what you read, Like that's really important

690
00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:21,720
Speaker 1: and a really important habit for kids to pick up today,

691
00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:24,760
Speaker 1: you know. Uh Slate had a comment about this, and

692
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:26,840
Speaker 1: and a writer wrote, if you want to learn to

693
00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:29,960
Speaker 1: suss out the liars, there's no better training than Wikipedia.

694
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:33,080
Speaker 1: I can't argue with that. I mean, I do want

695
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:36,320
Speaker 1: to mention one last thing that's unique to print encyclopedias,

696
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:39,080
Speaker 1: and this came from a really interesting essay by David A.

697
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:41,920
Speaker 1: Bell that appeared in The New Republic back when Encyclopedia

698
00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:46,080
Speaker 1: Britannica first announced the demise if its print component. And

699
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:47,680
Speaker 1: this is kind of a long one, but bear with

700
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:50,279
Speaker 1: me on this. So he says, with the disappearance of

701
00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:53,759
Speaker 1: paper encyclopedias, a part of the Western intellectual tradition is

702
00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:57,520
Speaker 1: disappearing as well. The great paper encyclopedias of the past

703
00:35:57,560 --> 00:36:01,520
Speaker 1: had other grander ambitions. They aspired to provide an overview

704
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:04,799
Speaker 1: of all human knowledge, and still more boldly, to put

705
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:08,399
Speaker 1: that knowledge into a coherent logical order. Even if they

706
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:12,319
Speaker 1: mostly organized their articles alphabetically, they also sought to link

707
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:16,680
Speaker 1: the material together thematically, all of it. In nineteen four,

708
00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:19,640
Speaker 1: for instance, the editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica added to

709
00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:23,200
Speaker 1: the work a one volume propedia which sought to provide

710
00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:26,759
Speaker 1: a detailed outline of human knowledge while referencing the appropriate

711
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:31,719
Speaker 1: articles of the encyclopedia itself. Large headings such as life, society,

712
00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:35,680
Speaker 1: and religion were subdivided into these forty odd divisions, and

713
00:36:35,719 --> 00:36:39,759
Speaker 1: then further into hundreds of individual sections. That kind of

714
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:42,319
Speaker 1: ambition mattered. It mattered that one could look at a

715
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:45,680
Speaker 1: stack of volumes and say, here are vast libraries distilled

716
00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:48,719
Speaker 1: down into an essence of human knowledge and organized in

717
00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:51,840
Speaker 1: a logical order. The books testified to the hope that

718
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:54,920
Speaker 1: ultimately human beings had at least a measure of control

719
00:36:55,040 --> 00:36:58,640
Speaker 1: over the overpowering torrents and facts and ideas that they

720
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:04,399
Speaker 1: collectively produce. Wow, well, rest in peace, print encyclopedias. Why

721
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:09,840
Speaker 1: why don't we dedicate this backed off in their honor. Yeah,

722
00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:17,799
Speaker 1: In the very first encyclopedia Britannica. Homo sapiens were subdivided

723
00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:25,880
Speaker 1: into five categories American, European, Asiatic, African, and monsters. So

724
00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:28,439
Speaker 1: plenty of people are familiar with the Urban Dictionary. Wish

725
00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:30,799
Speaker 1: defined slang for you, But where do you go when

726
00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 1: you need new slang for your slang? The Urban Thesaurus,

727
00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:37,200
Speaker 1: of course. And while the site isn't exactly safe for work,

728
00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:39,960
Speaker 1: here just a few of the terms Urban Thesaurus used

729
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:45,200
Speaker 1: as alternatives for love, lust, crush, boo I, law, you raw,

730
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:50,279
Speaker 1: and Kurt Cobaine's killer. It's quite the list there, Mango. Well,

731
00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:52,960
Speaker 1: I'm sure you know that J. R. Tolkien was obsessed

732
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:55,759
Speaker 1: with etymologies and language, but did you know that he

733
00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:58,360
Speaker 1: actually worked as an assistant editor at the O. E. D.

734
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:01,800
Speaker 1: He worked on the Double US and wrote multiple drafts

735
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:06,880
Speaker 1: for the definitions of walnut, walrus, and waistcoat, among other things. Somehow,

736
00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:08,600
Speaker 1: it didn't even occur to me that, like, you'd write

737
00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:12,480
Speaker 1: lots of drafts for each entry. It's amazing. So here's

738
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 1: something I thought was clever. The senses to explain words

739
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:17,520
Speaker 1: and dictionaries are often meant to be simple and clear,

740
00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:20,960
Speaker 1: but also kind of boring. But this artist Jazz Burrows

741
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:24,080
Speaker 1: has been stringing them together to make really weird short stories.

742
00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:26,600
Speaker 1: He has a whole video series of dictionary stories. But

743
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:28,960
Speaker 1: my favorite is when he called the real dictionary phrases

744
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:31,480
Speaker 1: for the twelve days of Christmas. It's like the seventh

745
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:35,839
Speaker 1: day Baptist, six months of unclouded memories, five venturous young men,

746
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:38,400
Speaker 1: four slices of bread, like these are all phrases in

747
00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:41,320
Speaker 1: the Dictionary, and it's so dumb, But you know, he

748
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:44,759
Speaker 1: has a whole chorus singing, and it's pretty funny. All right. Well,

749
00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:46,560
Speaker 1: I found a great list of words that were first

750
00:38:46,640 --> 00:38:50,360
Speaker 1: introduced to the public by presidents on history dot com.

751
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:53,640
Speaker 1: So it's things like first Lady, which Zachary Taylor actually introduced,

752
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:56,440
Speaker 1: and apparently before he referred to Dolly Madison as the

753
00:38:56,440 --> 00:39:00,520
Speaker 1: first Lady, people just referred to them as the president interests. Also,

754
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:03,920
Speaker 1: to make English less English, Thomas Jefferson brought French words

755
00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:07,040
Speaker 1: to the US, including the word pedicure. I mean, that

756
00:39:07,080 --> 00:39:10,800
Speaker 1: can't be real, Like Thomas Jefferson introduced petticures to America

757
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:15,000
Speaker 1: to quote describe the care of feet, toes, and toenails.

758
00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:18,520
Speaker 1: He did it. Okay, Well, I've got one for you

759
00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:20,360
Speaker 1: that I I know you can't feet. Do you know

760
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:22,960
Speaker 1: that encyclopedias used to give away tiny plots of land

761
00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:25,200
Speaker 1: when you bought a set? You know, I'd heard about

762
00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:27,399
Speaker 1: these sorts of marketing employees before. I think we even

763
00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:29,560
Speaker 1: talked about in a similar scheme, and that the Yukon

764
00:39:29,840 --> 00:39:32,960
Speaker 1: with cereal boxes. Yeah, that's right. But here's what's interesting.

765
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:35,960
Speaker 1: So between nineteen fourteen and nineteen nineteen, you can get

766
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:38,840
Speaker 1: a slice of Huntington's Beach in California with the purchase

767
00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:42,719
Speaker 1: of an encyclopedia. And supposedly the encyclopedia lots were just

768
00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:45,400
Speaker 1: a hundred feet by twenty five ft and they were

769
00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:47,960
Speaker 1: almost stacked up like a set of encyclopedias on a shelf.

770
00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:51,000
Speaker 1: It was this like worthless gimmick that no one could

771
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:54,880
Speaker 1: really cash out on until nineteen twenty when oil was

772
00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:58,760
Speaker 1: found under all that les, So suddenly anyone who invested

773
00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:01,680
Speaker 1: in knowledge got rich. Uh. Well, you know it's nice

774
00:40:01,719 --> 00:40:04,120
Speaker 1: to know that knowledge pays off. So I agree, I

775
00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:06,319
Speaker 1: cannot beat that facts, So I'm gonna let you keep

776
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:09,439
Speaker 1: the trophy this week, Mango, Thanks so much. So that's

777
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:12,520
Speaker 1: it for today's episode. If we forgot any great facts

778
00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:15,160
Speaker 1: about reference books, and I'm sure that we did. We

779
00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:17,279
Speaker 1: would love to hear from. You can email us part

780
00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:19,680
Speaker 1: Time Genius at how stuff Works dot com. You can

781
00:40:19,719 --> 00:40:22,759
Speaker 1: also call us on our seven fact hotline one eight

782
00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:25,560
Speaker 1: four four pt Genius. We've loved hearing a lot of

783
00:40:25,560 --> 00:40:27,880
Speaker 1: the great calls that have come in recently. You can

784
00:40:27,880 --> 00:40:30,799
Speaker 1: also find us on Facebook or Twitter. Thanks so much

785
00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:47,239
Speaker 1: for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is

786
00:40:47,239 --> 00:40:49,520
Speaker 1: a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible

787
00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:52,160
Speaker 1: without several brilliant people who do the important things we

788
00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:55,640
Speaker 1: couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.

789
00:40:55,880 --> 00:40:57,799
Speaker 1: Noel Brown made the theme song and does the MIXI

790
00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:01,719
Speaker 1: mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland is the exact producer thing gave.

791
00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:04,320
Speaker 1: Loesier is our lead researcher, with support from the Research

792
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:07,480
Speaker 1: Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and

793
00:41:07,520 --> 00:41:10,200
Speaker 1: Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.

794
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:12,239
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,

795
00:41:12,239 --> 00:41:14,120
Speaker 1: And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe

796
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:16,040
Speaker 1: you could leave a good review for us. Did you

797
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:17,960
Speaker 1: did you forget ja Jason who