Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: Listener mail This is Robert Lamb and this is Joe McCormick.
Speaker 1: And it's Monday, the day of each week that we
Speaker 1: read back some messages from the mail bag. If you
Speaker 1: are a listener to Stuff to Blow your Mind and
Speaker 1: you would like to get in touch with us and
Speaker 1: maybe have your own message featured on one of these episodes,
Speaker 1: you can write in at contact at stuff to Blow
Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Let's see, Rob Do you want
Speaker 1: to kick us off with this message from Jenna about
Speaker 1: objects hidden in walls? Yeah, this is a response to
Speaker 1: an episode I did in October while you were on
Speaker 1: parental leave. It was an interview with Brian Hoggard about
Speaker 1: his book Magical House Protection The Archaeology of counter Witchcraft,
Speaker 1: which is a fascinating topic about a lot of it
Speaker 1: coming down to the the hiding of very as objects
Speaker 1: like under the floorboards of an old house or in
Speaker 1: the walls, oftentimes with some sort of a superstitious, supernatural
Speaker 1: intent of of of confounding, capturing, or hurting the devil,
Speaker 1: or some sort of dark entities that might potentially get
Speaker 1: into your home and so uh we finally heard from
Speaker 1: somebody who had some some personal history with this sort
Speaker 1: of thing, generates in and says hello from Canada. I
Speaker 1: have loved show dearly for many years. You're both such
Speaker 1: exceptional curators of intrigue and knowledge. I am writing to
Speaker 1: share a story relating to a show you had on
Speaker 1: late last year with Brian Hoggard regarding items hidden in walls.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry I am late on writing in on it,
Speaker 1: but I think you will get a kick out of it.
Speaker 1: I live in a small coastal town in the Great Lakes,
Speaker 1: in an ancient family home that is at least one
Speaker 1: and eighty years old and predate European settlements of the area.
Speaker 1: I think it is the oldest structure in our county.
Speaker 1: But the interesting house in question is a block over
Speaker 1: from me, the house of my great grandparents. The past
Speaker 1: two sets of folks who have owned it have discovered
Speaker 1: quite a collection of objects in the walls during renovations.
Speaker 1: A woman who conducts ghost walks in our local town
Speaker 1: brought the items to my attention, but I didn't think
Speaker 1: much of it at first, but she came in one
Speaker 1: day with even more objects, and I began to realize
Speaker 1: it was quite a curious situation. Indeed, within the walls
Speaker 1: of the house were thirteen pairs or singles of children's shoes,
Speaker 1: many bottles, some with materials inside, broken plate pieces, a
Speaker 1: shark skin strap for blade sharpening, a worn down bootbrush,
Speaker 1: an old meat fork, a rusty knife, an old spoon,
Speaker 1: an old watch case with with a quote order of
Speaker 1: Isabella the Catholic cigarettes silk within it, a children's primer
Speaker 1: with many great uncle's names in it, a handsown night
Speaker 1: shirt that was rolled up tight and nailed over, a
Speaker 1: door to coral fossils, and a fragment of a muscle
Speaker 1: shell from the local beach. An empty box of ted
Speaker 1: Low's pussy willow powder, a paper heart with one large,
Speaker 1: single exclamation mark on it, a pair of worn out suspenders,
Speaker 1: a children's size beer mug, and some other broken and
Speaker 1: rusty articles. Wow, that's a hall, quite a treasure trove. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she continues, I'm sorry, I just had a vision of
Speaker 1: a new genre of YouTube videos. It's wall unboxing videos.
Speaker 1: I mean it sounds like it. I mean it is
Speaker 1: good to going back to the discussion with with Brian.
Speaker 1: I mean it is good to document these things anyway,
Speaker 1: she continues. Both my great uncle's name and the reader
Speaker 1: and the datable objects prove with certainties someone from my
Speaker 1: family places the objects there. I also know my grandparents
Speaker 1: built the home. Which one of them it was that
Speaker 1: created the protective midden I do not know. My great
Speaker 1: grandmother was a tiny woman of Scottish heritage, full of
Speaker 1: them and spirit, who also read tea leaves. My grandfather
Speaker 1: was a mate tugboat captain and fisherman. His father had
Speaker 1: Matee ancestry, and his mother was English. I sometimes wonder
Speaker 1: if the idea came from his mother's side of things,
Speaker 1: both because she had English heritage, where it is common,
Speaker 1: but also because of her family's story. She was raised
Speaker 1: in the tiny old house I live in now because
Speaker 1: of a very tragic circumstance. Her parents came over from
Speaker 1: England in the eighteen fifties with five kids in tow
Speaker 1: and one on the way who was born in Toronto.
Speaker 1: After their arrival, the family made their way north to
Speaker 1: the newly settled town of Southampton, Ontario. Shortly after their arrival,
Speaker 1: they had my great great grandmother. A large stone tower
Speaker 1: lighthouse was being built just offshore on the nearby island,
Speaker 1: and her father fell from the scaffolding and died during construction.
Speaker 1: My great great great grandmother was left widowed in a
Speaker 1: remote new town with seven children. One of the local
Speaker 1: maytee let her live in what is now my home
Speaker 1: on his lot. She raised all seven kids here and
Speaker 1: survived by taking the rich folks in rich folks laundry.
Speaker 1: Where the town was built at the river mouth by
Speaker 1: the shore was also a historic burial ground for the
Speaker 1: local Anishinabak people's I'm sure some superstition and concern about
Speaker 1: spirits impact on the family became a real worry for her,
Speaker 1: and she may have passed the idea down to her
Speaker 1: youngest daughter, who passed it on to my great grandfather.
Speaker 1: My great grandparents also cared for my great grandfather's uncle,
Speaker 1: another local captain in his older years, who also could
Speaker 1: have taken part, who was one of the kids born
Speaker 1: in England. He unfortunately suffered from dementia and wandered off
Speaker 1: one night and drowned in the lake. I sometimes wonder
Speaker 1: if the onset of dementia could have influenced his engagement
Speaker 1: in such an activity. However, the practice came to be
Speaker 1: I was reflecting upon its quaintness one evening, and then
Speaker 1: looked around my tiny cottage to see how alive and
Speaker 1: well protective magic still is in our family without me
Speaker 1: realizing it. An old horseshoe has hung above the threshold
Speaker 1: since my mother was a small girl. I had a
Speaker 1: dream catcher my mother and and I made, hanging on
Speaker 1: one wall, pearly everlasting. Hanging elsewhere from the ceilings, a
Speaker 1: spiritually protective local native plant, a Dartmoor pixies likeness embossed
Speaker 1: into a brass plate was hanging on another wall. Cedar
Speaker 1: hung above every window. I guess culture is more ingrained
Speaker 1: than we realized. How Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my
Speaker 1: eccentric little story of life here in rural Canada. Kind regards, Jenna. Wow,
Speaker 1: what a great message, Jenna. Indeed, I really appreciate it,
Speaker 1: all the history here and bringing it back around not
Speaker 1: only how our ancestors thought about these things, but how
Speaker 1: we still can think about protecting our homes and supernatural
Speaker 1: unseen threats and much the same way. So hearing about
Speaker 1: this was a real treat. Thanks a lot. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: for any of you wondering out there, I did I
Speaker 1: did ask her, and yes, did send information about this
Speaker 1: to Brian Hawkard because it's one of the things that
Speaker 1: we we talked about in that interview. He's like, if
Speaker 1: you find anything like this in your home, right in
Speaker 1: and let him know about it, because part of his
Speaker 1: work is an archaeologist, is keeping track of all of
Speaker 1: this and seeing what's out there. Um. One of the
Speaker 1: problems with the study of these artifacts is that a
Speaker 1: lot of things went unreported for so long, and there
Speaker 1: are a lot of things that may still be out there.
Speaker 1: They're only uncovered in homes that are of course sufficiently old,
Speaker 1: and then if there's some sort of a restoration and
Speaker 1: effort going on there, Yeah, gonna unbox that wall. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's see rob Do you mind if I do this
Speaker 1: message about our episodes on t from John. Oh, Yes,
Speaker 1: let's have some tea. John says, Hello, Robert, Joe and
Speaker 1: j J. I was so excited to see tea as
Speaker 1: the topic in my feed. I've always hated the way
Speaker 1: coffee makes me feel, but I find that a cup
Speaker 1: of tea is just the right thing when I need
Speaker 1: a nice, hot, pick me up. Joe, if coffee is
Speaker 1: such a dangerous game for you you should give tea
Speaker 1: a try. A few years ago, my partner's parents gave
Speaker 1: me a six month subscription to a tea service that
Speaker 1: mailed me several different types of tea every month. Pretty fun.
Speaker 1: One time the package included something called yawpon. I hope
Speaker 1: I'm saying that right? Why a U p O N? Rob,
Speaker 1: do you know how to pronounce that? Yeah, yawpon. I've
Speaker 1: never heard of it, but it's apparently the only source
Speaker 1: of caffeine that grows naturally in North America, and it's
Speaker 1: generally considered a weed. I can imagine that someday it
Speaker 1: will be the cool in thing and every hipster coffee
Speaker 1: shop will offer it. It was pretty tasty, but definitely
Speaker 1: not the same as tea. As always, Thanks for the
Speaker 1: hours of informative entertainment. Uh. And then John puts a
Speaker 1: little uh note in, says high Renata and says ps.
Speaker 1: I wrote in several years back after my mom had
Speaker 1: a stroke, and in so doing I weirdly discovered that
Speaker 1: my childhood friend Renata also listens to the podcast. Mom's
Speaker 1: doing great out of assisted living, driving again, generally living
Speaker 1: her best life. Just felt like I should give you
Speaker 1: an update on that, since of the time of my
Speaker 1: last communication, things were pretty dicey. Oh well, that's wonderful news, John,
Speaker 1: and I'm happy to hear here about your mom. Absolutely
Speaker 1: all right. We continue to hear from folks about our
Speaker 1: Horror of Walkaway episodes, so let's say this one comes
Speaker 1: to us from Eric. Eric writes, Greetings, gentlemen, I just
Speaker 1: finished listening to the fourth part of your Horror of
Speaker 1: Aakaway series, and Rob spoke about being able to at
Speaker 1: least kind of relate to the feeling described by cassadastrophobia,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to write in and say that I
Speaker 1: do too. I'm with you in an appending kind of
Speaker 1: to the sentiment, because what I experience has never been
Speaker 1: significant or extreme enough that I would call it a
Speaker 1: folk you. But I've always felt mildly uncomfortable under wide
Speaker 1: cloudless skies. I felt this as long as I can remember,
Speaker 1: but I grew up in New England, and so I
Speaker 1: was rarely confronted with them and never gave it too
Speaker 1: much thought. Now, however, I live in the American Southwest,
Speaker 1: in the Sonoran Desert, and during much of the year,
Speaker 1: days or even weeks can pass where I see not
Speaker 1: a single cloud. I've lived here more than a decade,
Speaker 1: and the unrelenting vault of blue, as I have taken
Speaker 1: to referring to the sky under such circumstances, still never
Speaker 1: fails to unnerve me, at least slightly. It is heartening
Speaker 1: to me to know that at least I am not
Speaker 1: alone in that. To talk about cassadastrophobia also put me
Speaker 1: in mind of something that came up when I wrote
Speaker 1: him once before a couple of years ago. It was
Speaker 1: on the topic of religions almost always putting paradise above
Speaker 1: and perdition below, and why that might be, which came
Speaker 1: up briefly in your Sinkholes episode. I totally forgot about that.
Speaker 1: Um you cants. You read my email where I gave
Speaker 1: my own pet theory on an epic sort of listener mail,
Speaker 1: and one of you, I'm afraid I no longer remember
Speaker 1: which of you. It was, wondered about how a religion
Speaker 1: might work that did the opposite with a heaven below
Speaker 1: and a hell up above. Being a lifelong player of
Speaker 1: Dungeons and Dragons and similar games, and also a bit
Speaker 1: of a homebrewer, that sent me off on something of
Speaker 1: a tangent I'm meant to write back and share the
Speaker 1: results with you, but I got caught up in life
Speaker 1: and forgot. Having been reminded of it by this episode, however,
Speaker 1: I thought I would take the second opportunity and share
Speaker 1: it with you now. I hope you find it amusing.
Speaker 1: I imagined a culture of dwarves whose religion centered around
Speaker 1: hard work and community contribution. They are taught that their
Speaker 1: souls are by nature buoyant and light, and float away
Speaker 1: from the body upon death, but that in the sky
Speaker 1: there are terrible monsters from beyond the world who lurk,
Speaker 1: unable to descend to the surface, but waiting to devour
Speaker 1: any spirit who drifts into their reach. Hard work, however,
Speaker 1: adds substance and weight to the soul, even as it
Speaker 1: adds muscle and send you to the body. And so
Speaker 1: each dwarf must labor all through their lives, working together
Speaker 1: for the benefit of their community and life, so that
Speaker 1: in death their souls might not float away to be consumed,
Speaker 1: but instead descend to the deep vaults of the earth,
Speaker 1: where they can join their honored ancestors who work wonders
Speaker 1: in the mighty forges. Thank you, gentlemen, again for the
Speaker 1: work you do and the fascinating insights you always have
Speaker 1: to share. Keep it up, stay safe, and stay curious. Eric.
Speaker 1: Oh what a gorgeous mythology. I love that, Eric, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I I Next time I'm using a dwarf character or
Speaker 1: doing some d MNG that involves dwarves, I may have
Speaker 1: to borrow this a bit of homebrewing there, all right.
Speaker 1: This next message is from Wayne, and this email raises
Speaker 1: an issue that I didn't get into in the Horror
Speaker 1: Vakawie episodes because of reasons I'll explain in a minute.
Speaker 1: Wayne says, Hello, Robert and Joe. Thanks for a fascinating
Speaker 1: series on horror. Kui. I had one comment on your
Speaker 1: explanation of the vacuum of space. According to quantum mechanics,
Speaker 1: which I don't pretend to understand, there can never really
Speaker 1: be a complete vacuum because of the uncertainty principle. That is,
Speaker 1: if you measure whether a particle is in a particular volume,
Speaker 1: you will always get a probability rather than a definite
Speaker 1: yes or no, and this will always have a non
Speaker 1: zero value. An equivalent way to explain this is that
Speaker 1: there is an energy pervading all space called vacuum energy
Speaker 1: or zero point energy, which is the minimum level that
Speaker 1: quantum mechanics will allow. This energy can manifest itself in
Speaker 1: transient virtual particles that always pop in and out of existence.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of evidence for this, such as the
Speaker 1: Casimir force between two parallel plates. Fortunately no medicalorians are
Speaker 1: involved now way, and I appreciate you raising this. I
Speaker 1: actually ended up not getting into it in that series
Speaker 1: I had wanted to, and then I guess we just
Speaker 1: got past it. But one of the reasons I I
Speaker 1: skipped over it at one point was that I've read
Speaker 1: different interpretations of the vacuum energy virtual particle phenomenon, and
Speaker 1: essentially I am not sure whether this the virtual particle
Speaker 1: phenomenon is best understood as a literal event where particle
Speaker 1: pairs actually do fluctuate into existence out of the vacuum,
Speaker 1: or whether thinking about it that way, it is kind
Speaker 1: of a misinterpretation based on the models we used to
Speaker 1: understand the quantum mechanical properties of space. So that's one
Speaker 1: where I think I personally don't understand the issue well enough.
Speaker 1: Yet I think I ended up concluding I would need
Speaker 1: to do at least a whole episodes worth of background
Speaker 1: research to figure that out. So I left to acide
Speaker 1: for the time. But maybe that's when we can come
Speaker 1: back on in the future, perhaps with a physicist guest.
Speaker 1: But of course I have read it characterized that way
Speaker 1: the the idea of the virtual particles fluctuating into and
Speaker 1: out of existence or into existence and annihilating one another usually,
Speaker 1: So thank you for raising it. Uh, let's see, rob
Speaker 1: did you want to do one of these weird house
Speaker 1: cinema messages? All right, Yeah, let's see what we have here.
Speaker 1: All right, this one comes to us from Dan. Dan says, hello,
Speaker 1: Robin Joe. I'm listening to your weird House cinema episode
Speaker 1: on Beauty and the Beast with regards to Fairytale Theater.
Speaker 1: This was a show that I used to watch on
Speaker 1: PBS when I was a child. I do remember one
Speaker 1: episode that will be of interest to you, The Boy
Speaker 1: who left home to find out about the Shivers. It
Speaker 1: is a grim Brother's adaptation starring Peter McNichol, Christopher Lee,
Speaker 1: David Warner, Frank Zappa as a mute hunchback like assistant,
Speaker 1: and Vincent Price as the narrator. Dan, Well, that got
Speaker 1: my attention, so I dug up some pictures from this episode.
Speaker 1: Obviously I haven't seen it, but yes, yes, here is
Speaker 1: Frank Zappa as a as an Egore type figure, and
Speaker 1: one of the pictures I found he appears to be
Speaker 1: disgustingly eating something that's kind of falling out of his
Speaker 1: mouth and crumbles. But I see David Warner here with
Speaker 1: long hair. He is staring down at Peter McNichol. And
Speaker 1: this is when I guess Peter McNichol was I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe cast more as like the young hero type before
Speaker 1: he was like Yan Ocean Ghostbusters too. He wasn't he
Speaker 1: in like a Dragon Slaying movie? Oh goodness, I don't remember.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess he's mostly known like the biggest
Speaker 1: things he's been in outside of Ghostbusters too, of course,
Speaker 1: well what Alec McBeal, And he was in Sophie's Choice,
Speaker 1: But I don't know about dragon stuff. I mean he's
Speaker 1: been a lot of stuff. He's sent a fair amount
Speaker 1: of of voice acting over the years as well. I
Speaker 1: looked it up the Dragon Slayer nineteen one film. I've
Speaker 1: never seen it, but I it apparently stars Peter McNichol
Speaker 1: as I think he's like the young hero who has
Speaker 1: to fight a dragon. Alright, well, yeah, I mean that's
Speaker 1: that's the film. That's uh, that has a fair cult following,
Speaker 1: do I think in large part to the dragon effects
Speaker 1: in it all the way back to maybe we have
Speaker 1: to check that one out someday. I'm weird House. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's got some fun cast connections in it, for sure.
Speaker 1: I as for these, uh these stills though from from
Speaker 1: this episode of Fairytale Theater. Yeah, this looks amazing. What
Speaker 1: what a strange cast. It also looks very pleasingly low
Speaker 1: budget like these are. This is not you know, deep
Speaker 1: immersion sets that this looks like community theater. They've got
Speaker 1: Frank Zappa wearing an it's kind of like a bathrobe. Okay.
Speaker 1: This next message is from Lawrence. Lawrence says, Hi, Rob
Speaker 1: and Joe, I really enjoyed your recent Weird House episode
Speaker 1: on Beauty and the Beast. This was the hourrage hurts
Speaker 1: one from the check film. Uh. Laurence says, I got
Speaker 1: a chuckle picturing George C. Scott as the Beast and
Speaker 1: found your descriptions of the seventy eight movie really lovely.
Speaker 1: This got me thinking of all the ways surrealist writer
Speaker 1: Angela Carter retold Beauty and the Beast. Her collection, The
Speaker 1: Bloody Chamber features several direct retellings, as well as a
Speaker 1: few inspired by tales. The book also has a Company
Speaker 1: of Wolves. Carter did the script for the movie adaptation,
Speaker 1: which is both a riff on Beauty and the Beast
Speaker 1: as well as Little Red Riding Hood. Would you consider
Speaker 1: doing Company of Wolves on Weird House? I'd give anything
Speaker 1: to hear you guys described the scene where a wolf
Speaker 1: comes out of a man's mouth. Lawrence. Oh, I haven't
Speaker 1: seen this movie in years, but I remember loving it,
Speaker 1: and yes, it it was mighty strange. Indeed, though I've
Speaker 1: forgotten a lot of the detail about what happens in it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like likewise, the only thing I really remember is the transformation.
Speaker 1: I might have seen just parts of it when I
Speaker 1: was younger. I don't know if I ever actually said
Speaker 1: and watched the whole thing. But yeah, it's a Neil
Speaker 1: Jordan's picture. It's got a great cast. David Warner's in there,
Speaker 1: Angela Landsberry, Yeah, Brian Glover, that was some fun stuff
Speaker 1: in there. Terence Stamp. I think it's one of those
Speaker 1: movies that's like, who is this for like, some elements
Speaker 1: feel like they're for kids, but it's also incredibly inappropriate
Speaker 1: for children. Yeah, yeah, I think that we'll have to
Speaker 1: put it on the list of potential films. Check it
Speaker 1: out and see if it's if it's right for us.
Speaker 1: All right, well, thanks everybody for writing in. Keep it
Speaker 1: coming again. We read everything that comes in, even if
Speaker 1: we don't have a chance to feature everything on Listener
Speaker 1: Mail or or or respond in person to everything that
Speaker 1: comes in. But uh yeah, if you have thoughts on
Speaker 1: past episodes, present episodes, future episodes, episodes of Stuff to
Speaker 1: Blow Your Mind, episodes of the Artifact or Monster Fact,
Speaker 1: Weird House Cinema, other episodes of Listener Mail, it's all
Speaker 1: fair game. Uh so, yeah, right in. We'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you huge thanks to our audio producer J J. Pauseway.
Speaker 1: If you would like to get in touch with us
Speaker 1: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest
Speaker 1: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,
Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow
Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more casts my
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,