WEBVTT - Things for Rich People (that were Originally for Poor People) 0:00:02.360 --> 0:00:05.080 I guess, well, what's that mango? So I know you 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:07.960 know this, but my family loves the writer P. G. Woodhouse, 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:11.799 Like his books are light and sweet and funny, and 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:14.840 wherever you go in India, you'll find them on my 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.480 family's bookshelves. And when I was in middle school and 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:21.720 in high school, there was this great TV adaptation of 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:24.960 Wooster and Jeeves, and it had a young Hugh Lori 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:28.639 in it, young Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie played this 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.280 rich simpleton. His name was Bertie Wooster. He was always 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:36.440 getting into silly trouble and Stephen Fry played his genius 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:39.240 butler who was always saving him. And his name was Jeeves, 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:42.680 and he was actually a valet. Isn't it proounced valet mango? 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:47.599 Not if you're British? Apparently there it's valet, But it's 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:50.400 a gentleman's gentleman. The reason I'm bringing it up is 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.280 that Jeeves in these stories is the proper one, and 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.360 he's always shuddering at these like new fangled ideas that 0:00:56.400 --> 0:01:00.280 Bertie Wooster has. And in this one episode, Bertie gets 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:04.920 his pajamas monogrammed and Jeeves just can't stand this, like 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:07.520 he thinks it's super low class and toddrey to put 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:10.080 your initials on things, and he keeps wondering if it's 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:13.320 because like Bertie'll forget who he is or or whether 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.399 he owns pajamas. So he kind of scoffs at it 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:20.399 disapprovingly through the show, which is pretty funny because today, 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:22.479 you know, if you've got a monogram on a shirt 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.600 or especially a towel mango, I mean, that is seen 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:31.280 as like real high class definitely. So the thing is 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:34.160 they are all these like strange customs and sports and 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:37.160 traditions that we sort of revere today's elite and we 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:39.280 see them as high class, but actually they started out 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.360 with much more humble origins. And today on the show, 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:44.880 we're gonna take all that stuff down to peg and 0:01:44.959 --> 0:02:08.480 that's what we're talking about it. So let's dive in. Hey, 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:10.960 their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:13.079 Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:15.359 Mangesh how Ticketer and on the other side of the 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.200 soundproof glass, I just I can't stop looking over at 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:21.000 him because he is looking so damper. He's in a 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.320 top hat and tails. That is our friend and producer 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:26.399 Tristan Michiel. I don't think I've ever seen him looking 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:30.400 so fancy dressed up. No, it's amazing, man. And as 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:32.680 you know, Tristan did say he'd be dressing up as 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:36.200 a quote wealthy elite to that. That's what he's been 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:38.840 saying all week for today's show, So I imagine that's 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:41.839 what's going on here. I have to say, I don't 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:43.919 know what you. I feel like he looks a little 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.080 more like a stage magician maybe, but but whatever I mean, 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:48.760 he looks good. I know if he had a pack 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:50.360 of cards, you could go in one direction, and if 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:52.160 he had like a monocle and caine, he'd looked like 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.240 Mr Peanut, which feels like a little less elite to me. 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:59.800 But I do admire Tristan style. Well. To be fair, 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:04.160 people have drastically different ideas about what is elite. So 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:06.240 you can ask a dozen people on the street and 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:10.200 get twelve completely different answers. And you know, while things 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.880 like wealth and privilege crop up, and most people's definitions, 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:17.280 the specifics on how that wealth and privilege are displayed, 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.080 you know, varied a lot over the years, and things 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:22.440 that were once considered a lead or high class are 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:25.320 now seen as tacky, and things that started out with 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.760 this more mass appeal of since only been set aside 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:31.400 for the rich. And I think it's that second kind 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.320 of shift that will probably focus on today, you know, 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:37.680 that lower class things that have sort of graduated to 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:40.080 the upper cross. So I feel like this is maybe 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:43.440 our Beverly Hillbillies episode, you could say. So, you know, 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:45.760 we're gonna check out some of the food, the sports, 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.320 the cultural norms that started out humbly and later became 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:53.360 these symbols of wealth and status. So let's dive right in. 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:55.119 You know, Mega, what what do you think is your 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:58.640 first rags to riches story for the day. So I 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:01.960 thought I kicked things off with the farmhouse origins of 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.880 one of the world's fanciest sounding beers, and that, of 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:08.160 course is the Belgian, says on, oh man, that does 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.000 sound fancy, although maybe that was just your impeccable French 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:15.360 accent there. I know, we pronounced valet valets. We've got 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:19.880 it's pretty amazing. But you could say that Sazon's kind 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:22.359 of taste kind of fancy too, like they're typically on 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:24.680 the dry side in terms of deer. In fact, I 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:26.280 was at a wedding some years ago where we drank 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:30.080 Sayson for the wedding toast instead of champagne. But historically 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:33.080 Szan's were most popular among the working class, and that 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:35.360 was true right up until the nineteen fifties when they 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:37.560 sort of fell out of favor all together. And if 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:39.640 you cut to today, you know, there's kind of a 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:42.680 Sason revolution that's been going on. About a dozen or 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:45.359 so craft brewery started it and they started making it again. 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:47.360 And of course the flip side is that the beer 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:50.160 is now viewed as kind of niche and not as 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:53.640 approachable as it should be to the average drinker. Well, 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.320 and I feel like it doesn't help that Sezans aren't 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:59.320 served usually in these regular pint classes. I mean it 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:02.760 feels like that you really coming these wide stem glasses, right, 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:05.280 like a brandy glass or something like that. Yeah, that 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.960 can definitely be true. The presentation changes and sometimes people 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.440 like to swirl them. But despite the fancy modern reputation, 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:15.359 Sazan's actually have these really humble roots. So they first 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:17.920 came on the scene during the eighteenth century when they 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:21.640 were brewed by farmers and Wallonia, which is I guess 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:24.680 this French speaking region of southern Belgium. But rather than 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.120 being brewed for its taste or it's intoxicating effects, sazon 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:30.840 began as a product of necessity more than anything else. 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:33.520 And and that's really because the water in more rural 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.440 regions wasn't portable at the time. It contained way too 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.600 many of these pathogens that that made it unfit for drinking. 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.479 So in order to keep their workers hydrated through those 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:47.239 busy summer seasons, farmers started brewing sesans. All right, But 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:49.560 but hadn't people have been doing that a long time? 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.520 Like that's kind of the origin of beer in general, isn't. 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:53.919 I mean, you could go all the way back to 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:56.880 ancient Egypt. I think it was fuel for you know, 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.920 the laborers there when water was either scarce or contaminated. 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:02.599 So I feel like that's something that's been around for 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:05.960 a long time. That's definitely true. And Willonian farmers definitely 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.280 weren't the first to have this beer dependent workforce. To 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:11.200 trouble for them was how to keep enough beer on 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.400 hand to last through the hot summers. And you've got 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:16.279 to remember this was all prior to refrigeration, So getting 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.640 beered for men and not spoil was pretty tricky during 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:22.479 the months when heat and all this airborne bacteria was 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:25.960 at its peak. So sesons were kind of the solution 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:28.400 to this problem. Like they were brewed during the cooler 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:31.800 autumn and winter months and then stored until summer rolled around. 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:34.920 And it's actually from the strong association with the certain 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:37.279 time of year that the beer gets its name, since 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:41.800 Sezan is actually French first season. Hm. Well, I mean 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:43.560 that makes sense, but I'm curious though. Was was this 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:45.880 beer any different from other kinds being made at the 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:47.960 time or was it just the time of year that 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:52.040 made its stand out. Yeah, saesons were actually set apart 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:54.440 in a few ways. Like one thing is that they 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:56.920 were much hottier than the other beers, and that's because 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:00.159 the hops act as a natural preservative, and they also 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:04.039 possessed these antiseptic properties, which again was super helpful in 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:07.400 fighting off those pathogens. The other standout trade is that 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:12.120 Sayson saw we're really adaptable, Like farmers typically used whatever 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:14.040 they had on hand at the end of a harvest 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:16.200 to make the next year's says on. So the base 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:19.080 ingredients and the spices varied from farm to farm and 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.440 even barrel to barrel. Like these differences made the beer 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:24.800 hard to categorize, but it also made it a bit 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:28.280 more personal. And since the average farm worker drank as 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.040 much as uh, I think it's like five leaders of 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:34.320 says on every single world day. Yeah, I'm guessing they 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:37.800 didn't mind a little variety in that flavor. Five leaders 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.880 a day, I mean imagining this couldn't have been that alcoholic, right, 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:43.680 unless I'm actually picturing all these farmers just passed out 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:47.320 in their fields by noon. But that's that's crazy. Yeah. 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.400 I read that most daisons were originally around three percenters though, 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:52.760 which would be enough to give him a buzz, but 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:55.480 you know, not so strong as to incapacitate them. And 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:57.760 of course the alcohol content went up a little over 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:00.560 time as other people began, you know, during thinking them too. 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:02.880 It wasn't just the workers. In fact, many small farms 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.520 from the era were eventually turned into family breweries, and 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:08.960 the different saisons became kind of especially drink for their 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:12.560 respective towns. All right, So if they were this popular, 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.120 why did they disappear for a while, Because I think 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:16.720 you said they kind of vanished, what was it in 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:19.960 the in the fifties or so, Yeah, this was really 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:23.680 due to industrialization. So by the fifties, refrigeration and like 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:27.040 access to drinkable water, that all it eliminated this need 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:31.080 for these summer specific ales. So demand dried up pretty quickly, 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:33.240 and what was kind of the de facto beer of 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:37.440 the working class became this artisanal product instead. And you know, 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.080 even in today's saisons, you can still find traces of 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.760 the beer's farmhouse roots because you know, aside from the 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.360 notes of fruit and spice, you'll also taste this kind 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:50.120 of like earthy funkiness in the bruise, and that really 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.839 harkens back to those like grab bag ingredients that those 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:56.280 Wallonian farmers were using. You know. Um, it's kind of funny, 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.599 like the description that's used for that barnyard flavor is 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:03.160 actually horse blanket. Like horse blanket is sup was like 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:07.319 what makes sasan so appealing? I have to admit that 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.640 horse blanket isn't generally a flavor. I think I would 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:16.079 seek a horse blanket pringles horse. Alright, Well, since we're 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.840 on the subject of elite dining, you know, I do 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.000 want to talk about lobster for a minute, because this 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:23.360 is one of those that I just found super interesting 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:25.760 and didn't know a whole lot about before we were 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:27.959 researching for the episode. But I believe it or not, 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:29.960 there was actually a time when lobster meat was the 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.120 lowest priced item on a New England menu, and it 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:35.880 was about half the costs of chicken that was pound 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.320 for pound at least, and five times cheaper than Boston 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:43.920 baked beans. Of all things, cheaper than beans means something, 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:48.040 as it does, so I actually read that lobsters used 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:50.079 to be so abundant on the East Coast, and this 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.920 is back in the six hundreds that it wasn't uncommon 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.840 to find like two foot high piles of them just 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.920 washed up on the beach. I mean, that is incredible 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:01.360 to think about. Yeah, And you know, and people who 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:04.360 stumbled on those lobster piles probably left them right where 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:07.439 they were, because back then most people wanted nothing to 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.880 do with lobsters. They were considered disgusting, and you know, 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:13.800 partially because they look like insects, and partially because of 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:18.040 their reputation as being these bottom feeders. And honestly, none 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.079 of that is too far off. I mean, lobsters really 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.920 are distant relatives of cockroaches and spiders, and in fact, 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:28.400 their name actually comes from the Old English word lop, 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:32.840 which which actually means spider. So I do like lobsters 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.480 because they're so funny. I'm sure you remember how my 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:37.439 roommate in college, Adam, and I wanted to get a 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.520 pet lobster because it would be fun to walk around 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.559 on a leash. And we even had a name, Hector 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.360 the Lobster. But of course that's where our efforts stopped 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:48.920 because we didn't really do things. We just talked about things. 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.840 It didn't stop you guys from talking about it a lot, though, 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:55.560 I remember that. So I do feel like we give 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:58.600 lobsters this giant pass because they live in the ocean, right, 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:01.520 Like like if you came across lobster the forest and 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:03.520 it's not climbing out of a hole in the tree, 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.680 you think it was like some kind of giant monster 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.839 bug and dipping it in butter would be like the 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:12.840 furthest thing for your mind. But you know, that's even 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:15.600 before you get into how weird lobster anatomy is, like 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.319 their brains are in their throats, their teeth are in 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.960 their stomachs. There the whole thing is a mess. Like 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:25.120 I can't argue with you on that, but you know, 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:28.360 as unpopular as lobsters were in the seventeenth century, some 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:30.360 people did eat them anyway. I mean, you look at 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.520 Native Americans, for instance, they ate lobsters by wrapping them 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:37.200 in seaweed and then baking them over hot rocks. But 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:39.840 to be fair, lobster wasn't their first choice. I mean, 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.679 they also used the meat to fertilize their crops and 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.480 bait their fishing hooks, and they were doing that in 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:49.640 hopes of catching something less disgusting than lobster. Well, you know, 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.080 some colonists must have eaten them too. Write like, I know, 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:54.320 food was scarce in those early days, so I can't 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:58.360 imagine everyone had the luxury of being picky. What lobster 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.480 was plentiful and as alid source of protein. So people 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.680 did eat it, just not happily and always with a 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:07.839 certain degree of embarrassment I guess when they were eating it. 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.920 But you know, times were tough and only the wealthiest 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:13.920 residents could afford chicken or pork, and that's how lobster 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:17.280 became a poor person food. And so you know, lobsters 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:20.959 were a common meal for people like prisoners or apprentices 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:25.240 or enslaved people and even cats mango. I mean, that's 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.280 what it was like. And this didn't go over well, 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.839 of course, except with the cats, who weren't as worried 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.959 about what other people thought. And you know, some indentured 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.120 servants actually had a clause in their contracts saying that 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.079 they could be fed lobster no more than three times 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:43.440 a week. I mean, that's how undesirable it was. I 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:45.880 mean it's insane because you think of like how people 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:49.440 crave lobster today, right, yeah, and lobster is one of 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:53.240 the top requested last meals for prisoners on death row now, 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:57.360 so clearly these perceptions have changed significantly over the years. 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:00.920 So I am curious what mark that change and thinking, 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:03.080 because like, going from a trash meat to this like 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:07.080 posh delicacy is a pretty big leap, even for something 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:09.680 with ten legs, which, uh, you know, I only just 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:14.040 realized they have ten legs. What they had ten legs? Yeah, 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:16.720 I've never been counting the clause. I guess they have 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.160 two pictures and then those like eight legs beneath. And 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:22.600 apparently this is pretty common. Like I saw this piece 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.240 in Slate that almost every image of a lobster in 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.240 a cartoon or drawing. And this is even on road signs, 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:32.120 for like, lobster places all have eight legs instead of ten, 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:36.760 and uh, it's anatomically incorrect everywhere you look. So you know, 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:39.079 I I got his off track, but I did want 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:41.720 to make a point of that. But that was that 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:46.040 was very important to talk about, you know, to understand. Well, 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.040 now you're gonna see it everywhere. But how did lobsters 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:51.520 get so fancy? Tell me about that? All right, Well, 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:54.640 it actually all comes down to railroads, believe it or not. 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.960 So go back to the eighteen seventies, and trains gave 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:02.000 rise to this seasonal tourism in America with wealthy residents 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:04.840 of places like New York or d C. They would 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:07.319 head off to you know, to Boston or to Maine 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:09.960 to get away from that summer heat. And it was 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:14.560 this travel boom that led to a realization for railroad managers, namely, 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:18.360 you know that many passengers were clueless about how hated 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.600 lobsters were by the people on the coast, and so 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:24.360 this allowed the trains to serve up lobster as though 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:27.400 it was this kind of like an exotic delicacy, even 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:30.240 though it actually cost the railroad much less than other 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.640 meats would have, and this russe seemed to work, and passengers, 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:37.040 soon we're heading home from vacation raving to their neighbors 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.160 about this delicious boiled lobster that they'd had while they 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:43.160 were out on their fancy travels. And so word of 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:46.440 mouth grew from there, and lobster canning became a thing, 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:50.080 and it actually launched a whole industry around this. That's 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:53.800 pretty incredible, you know. Uh, What's interesting about that though, 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:56.480 it makes it seem like the popular opinion was really 0:14:56.520 --> 0:14:59.560 the only thing holding lobsters back, right, Like, it's almost like, 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.040 add that there were people who are actually liking eating lobster, 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:05.960 it suddenly made the food tastier. Yeah, I mean that 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:08.880 that's true. But there actually was more to it than that, 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.640 because once there was really a market for lobster, it 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:17.600 gave the chefs an opportunity to start experimenting with different preparations. 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:19.880 And so you fast forward a bit, and by the 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:23.880 eighteen eighties they'd stumbled across a real game changer. So 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:27.320 they discovered that lobster looked more appetizing and tasted a 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:31.040 whole lot better if it was actually cooked alive rather 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.720 than being killed and then cooked, and that's kind of 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.920 when it went gourmet. So by the nineteen twenties, the 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:41.640 demand outweighed supply for the first time in history, and 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.920 the going rate for lobster rose to about what it 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.480 is today now. That said, lobster was still viewed as 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:50.680 food for the poor, and Maine and other parts of 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:53.120 New England where you know, kids were embarrassed to go 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:57.040 to school with lobster meat sandwiches, and that really only 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.520 changed during World War Two because lobster wasn't subject to 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.720 rationing like other forms of protein, and so that meant 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.840 that people from all regions and social classes began to 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:09.560 find out just how tasty these you know, these sea 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:14.320 bugs could be. So did did that egalitarian streak last 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.200 for long? No? I mean, by the time the war 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:20.600 was over in the nineteen fifties, rolls around, lobster had 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:24.800 fully become an American delicacy, and this was obviously seen 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.160 as a meal fit for movie stars and the one 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:30.080 percent rather than the prisoners and the poor people that 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:33.160 it had been seen as before. So we've definitely been 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.280 talking about this from a New World perspective. But I 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.000 am curious what Europeans thought like, did they hate lobster 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:42.320 as much as the North Americans? Did? You know? I 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.560 was looking into that because I actually had no idea. 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:46.760 And it seems like there's always been a market for 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:49.760 European blue lobster. It's it's it's a lot more rare 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.520 and expensive than the kind that we eat here, because 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:56.360 you know, Europeans never had the same reservations about eating them. 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:58.520 In fact, it was kind of the opposite. I mean, 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.600 lobster was believed to have these medicinal qualities during the 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:05.320 Middle Ages, even the Renaissance, and it was served pretty 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:08.639 often at these upper class feasts. And I fought your 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.040 story about wanting to walk a lobster on a leash 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:13.560 actually has a bit of a legacy. Maybe you and 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.119 Adam have been doing your reading on this, but I 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:19.200 was reading about this French poet named Gerard d Nerval, 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:23.040 and he supposedly had a pet lobster and he would 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.560 sometimes put a leash on it and take it for 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:28.720 walks at the Royal Palace in Paris. And you know, 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:31.520 when he got weird looks, he'd respond by saying, quote, 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:34.720 how is a lobster more ridiculous than a dog? A cat, 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:37.800 a gazelle, a lion, or any other animal. I have 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:41.800 an affinity for lobsters. They're easy going and serious, they 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:44.680 know the secrets of the sea, and they don't bark. 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.600 So other than the very last part of that, I 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:51.640 don't understand any of that. But I love the quote. Well, 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:53.480 I do feel like I'm in a good company, and 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:55.959 I like how he's marketing them not just as an 0:17:55.960 --> 0:18:00.400 elite food, but also as an elite pet. Perhaps relutely. 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:03.240 But now that we've covered fancy food and drink, what 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:04.760 do you say we shift a little bit and talk 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:07.840 about maybe a couple of athletic past times that had 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:11.119 more modest beginnings. Absolutely, but first let's take a quick break. 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:28.920 You're listening to part Time Genius and we're talking about 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:32.440 sports that made the switch from low brow to high class. 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:34.919 So all right, Mago, you're up first. What comes to 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:38.800 mind when you think about posh sports. Well, we mentioned 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:40.800 this in our Winter Olympics episode, but most of the 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:44.199 cold weather sports are still pretty elite, and that's largely 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:46.800 because of the travel costs, the expensive equipment that goes 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:50.040 along with sports like skiing or ice skating. But you 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:53.240 know one sport that seems needlessly elite to me is 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:57.040 squash and uh, it's a little like racketball. It's a 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.720 racket sport, but it's played with this hardball that you 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.800 have to warm up. Have you ever seen this? I've seen. 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:05.800 I've actually never played, So the first time I went 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:08.199 onto the squash court, I watched this guy just like 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:11.119 squishing the ball under his foot and just rolling it 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:14.200 vigorously to warm the ball up, because the ball actually 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:18.800 doesn't bounce until it's warm. It's pretty ridiculous. Yeah, and 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:20.560 then they played a lot in India, so I've seen 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:23.120 it there. But but you know, there's nothing that sophisticated 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:25.760 about the sport except where the courts are located, Like 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.280 mostly they're in well to do neighborhoods or in these 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:31.280 sort of elite country clubs, which is just where you're 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:33.480 hanging out all the time. So it makes sense that 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:36.159 you would have played at some point. But you know, 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.440 in our Titanic episode, we mentioned that the ship actually 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:43.120 had its own regulations squash corps for those first class passengers, 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:45.600 and I feel like that's a pretty good testament to 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:50.160 the game's reputation as being this elite sport. But since 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:52.400 you bring it up today. I'm guessing squash didn't start 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:55.359 out quite so fancy. Definitely not, so I do want 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:59.080 to clarify. In Brooklyn, in bourm Hill, there's a New 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:01.320 York Sports club. You can rent a squash court for 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:03.400 five dollars, so you can get on the squash court 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:05.800 from very I like, how worried you are that people 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.000 are gonna think you're just hanging out a country class. 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:15.920 I can't get into country class. So squash was actually 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:18.720 derived from this game called rackets, which you know, had 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:21.600 been invented by prisoners in the early nineteenth century, and 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:25.800 the inmates at this Dinner's prison in London started getting 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.199 their exercise by hitting a ball against the prison walls 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:31.400 with tennis rackets, and from there the game sort of 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.119 spread beyond the prison, with many of England's lower class 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:38.159 citizens playing in the alleyways behind pubs, and then the 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:41.560 game spread to schools where the first four wall courts 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:43.720 were specifically built just for the game. And it was 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:46.320 at one of these schools where students invented a spinoff 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:50.399 rackets game called squash, and I guess rackets was played 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.360 with this hard, hollow rubber ball that tends to be 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:56.600 pretty predictable, you know when bounced off a wall, while 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:00.119 the squash ball is is so much softer and it 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:03.760 really makes for a greater variety of shots. So what 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:06.080 made the students switch to the softer ball, Like where 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:08.400 the school seeing it as a as a safety thing 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:10.840 with the harder balls or what you know? That's what 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:12.680