WEBVTT - Ep. 6: Searching For Akerns 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:11.720 M what is that an acorn and acorn? What do 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.640 you what do you think when you hear someone say acorn? Like? Where? What? 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:16.560 I Probably I don't know if I know what that was. 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.599 On this episode of the bar Grease Podcast, we're going 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:25.120 to get a PhD in acrons, or some of you 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:29.800 might say a corns. We'll deep dive into acron biology 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:35.640 with renowned wildlife biologist Dr Craig Harper, learning some fascinating 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:40.000 stuff that every woodsman should know, and we'll explore how 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:44.320 we use language every day to define cultural identity with 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:49.040 Dr Daniel Rupe, will debunk the American myth of rugged 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:54.480 individualism as we discuss the value and the preservation of 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:59.480 regional culture. Put on your seatbelts, boys, this is a 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:04.520 wine the road of biology and social science. As we 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:08.720 search for the significance of acorns. One of the things 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:13.440 I'm most pleased with is your correct pronunciation of the 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:28.080 acorn fruit. Music to my ears, rr Harper. My name 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:31.360 is Clay Nukelem and this is the bear Grease Podcast 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:35.920 where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search for insight 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.720 and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the story of 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:52.160 Americans who lived their lives close to the land. Before 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:54.800 you get too indoctrinated, I want you to take a 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:57.600 second and note the way that you pronounced the word 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.760 spelled a c O r in. Say it out loud 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:13.160 and remember it. It means something. I've always been interested 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:16.720 in acrens. I've looked for them relentlessly since I was 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:19.359 a boy. It wasn't until I was an adult that 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.080 I realized there was national tension about the way the 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.680 word was pronounced. I've been in the arena, so to speak, 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.639 on this debate for some time. I imagine it's kind 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:30.720 of like being born into a war. You didn't know 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.359 you were fighting, and maybe you were even the one 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:38.119 instigating it, but you didn't know why acorns are important. 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:41.560 I've always felt this. But we're gonna discuss the puzzle 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:45.800 piece they play in acquiring wild meat, specifically for white 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.000 tailed deer, but I think we'll find other reasons why 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:56.680 they're important. In I cooked bear cracklins for Andrew Zimmer 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:00.240 on his show Bizarre Foods on the Travel chat All. 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:06.400 The episode was titled the Ozarks. Somehow the pronunciation of 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:10.040 acorns came up. Heart bears are acorn fed, so when 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:11.880 you see a bear fat. Can you see an acorn? 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:17.120 Same stuff that is sweet and clean? Oh my gosh, 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:20.800 that's those acorns or acorns as you would say. I 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:22.480 was trying to fit in and be one of the guys. 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:28.600 As I listened to this audio, I have to ask myself, 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:32.720 why why do I care how someone pronounces a word? 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.640 Almost a decade later, I'd find myself in the heat 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:41.240 of incoming fire from none other than my own dear pal, 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:45.560 Stephen Ranella of meat Eater. In this clip put on 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:48.920 Instagram by Steve, he's got his back to the camera 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.240 with his children by his side, and they're watching a 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:56.640 video that I made about oaks and acorns. He's pounding 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:01.480 the table and emphatically telling his kids how to pronounce 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:07.680 the word acorn correctly. I could only watch and gasp, 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:13.080 as I'm certain many of you did as well. Favorite 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:37.119 but which means highly valued life? What a hill billy? 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:42.080 Come on, bro, I'm trying to understand what all this means. 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.280 I did a little experiment at a get together the 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:50.400 other day. I pulled aside three couples from different states, 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.760 handed them an acorn, and asked them how they pronounced 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:56.960 the word. I was pretty surprised at a few of 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:01.920 their answers. Okay, I'm gonna take something out of my pocket. 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:03.680 I'm gonna show it to you and you just tell 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.880 me what you would call it. Okay, So what is that? 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:12.719 An acorn? An acren? Okay? What is this? An acorn? 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:17.440 And acorn? Yeah? Where are you from? South Dakota? South Dakota? 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.880 Is that normal in South Dakota to say acorn? Have 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:25.800 you been indoctrinated by Southerners? I have? Now, where are 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:28.040 you from South Dakota? So you were born raised in 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:32.160 South Dakota? Like, without a doubt, acorn? What do you 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:34.080 What do you think when you hear someone say acorn? 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.480 Like where? I probably I don't know if i'd know 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:43.600 what that was. Yeah, it's not gonna hurt you. Acorn 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:47.560 definitely an acorn, acorn, not an acren. I'm not a 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:52.080 clay because I've heard you correct people and I deliberately 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:55.719 try to say acorn. Now, do you really what would 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:57.279 you have said before? Though? Yeah? I think I would 0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:59.920 have said acorn acorn? Really, I think it would have 0:05:59.920 --> 0:06:01.880 being like a blend of one of the other. So 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:04.240 tell us where you're from. Casey, Oh, I grew up 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:07.239 in Louisiana, Deep South, So you would say a corn 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.920 though from New Orleans, Louisiana. Yes, sir, because it is 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:15.840 a seat. Oh are incorrect? Acre, because that's what we 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.640 called that. Yeah, where are you from? Southwest? It's an 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:25.440 acorn and acorn? Would say acorn? Really, you'd say acorn? 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:29.160 Where are you from? Where? Where we're trying? That would 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:32.800 be New York? Where did you grow up? Florida? But St. Petersburg, 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.960 which was a lot of Ohio and Michigan. What do 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.800 you think when you hear somebody say acorn? I think 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.960 they're from the south. Absolutely. Do you think this is 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:45.520 like a hillbilly? No, I just think they're from the 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:50.279 south South, as they said in North Carolina, they'd say acre. 0:06:55.240 --> 0:07:03.320 I'm still trying to understand what all this means. Sharon 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:07.520 McCrumb is a New York Times bestselling author from Southern Appalachia. 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.200 She has a knack for celebrating the history and folklore 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.520 of the Southern Highlands in her writing. Like me, she's 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:19.360 particular about the pronunciation of words, specifically the word Appalachian, 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:23.640 and she considers it a non negotiable. In this clip, 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:28.080 she gives the reason why semantics are important and how 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.640 they tell a bigger story. But first take note of 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:35.960 the way that you pronounced the word spelled A P 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:43.320 P A L A c H I A N. The 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:47.360 safest way to say it is Appalachia. And I have 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:49.520 to explain this to people because when I go off 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:53.800 on book tours, I find myself being appointed as cultural ambassador, 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:56.080 and I will get somewhere west of the Mississippi and 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:58.640 people will say Appalachia. I will correct them and they 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.160 will say, well, that's how we say around here. So 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:02.880 I finally had to come up with a story to 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:09.800 explain to them why it's not um optional. If you're 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.080 in If you're in Ireland, in the north of Ireland, 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.080 and you start out in Donegal, that city on the 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:18.320 west coast, and you're headed for Belfast, it will take 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:20.520 you most of a day to get all the way 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.480 across Ireland, and you'll be driving on the coast road 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:25.240 where if it's a clear day, you look off to 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:28.520 your left you'll see Scotland in the distance. Well about 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:33.720 halfway between Donegal and Belfast, there's a walled city which 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.920 is hundreds of years old, was built by the Irish 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:40.000 and they named it the Irish word for oak tree, 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:44.559 which is dairy. But a few hundred years ago the 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:48.040 British conquered Ireland and they changed the name of that 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:52.880 town to London Dairy. So it is one town with 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:55.440 two names. And so if you stop at a little 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:57.880 store along the way and ask directions on how to 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:00.400 get to the walled city, you can walk in and 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:02.640 tell the man behind the counter that you want to 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:05.880 go to dairy or you want to go to London Dairy, 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:08.720 and either way he will tell you how to get there. 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:11.280 But you need to know that when you choose what 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.400 you're going to call that city, you have told that 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:17.679 man whether or not he can trust you. You have 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.679 told him your politics, your religion, which side you're on, 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:26.319 and how open he can be with you. In one word, 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.840 because dairy is what the Irish call it, and London 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:35.400 Dairy means you sympathize with the British rule. Appalachia and 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:40.920 Appalachia work exactly the same way. Appalachia is the pronunciation 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:45.880 of condescension, the pronunciation of the imperialists, the pronunciation of 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.920 people who do not want to be associated with the place, 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:54.599 and Appalachia means that you are on the side that 0:09:54.720 --> 0:10:01.359 we trust. In Sharon's exam comple we see the transfer 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.839 of information in an accent, and in many cases in 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:11.880 history that personal info is carried with high stakes. Jeff 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:16.720 Shreeve is a podcaster, biblical scholar, author, and longtime friend 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:19.440 of mine. In the Book of Judges, in the Bible, 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:22.640 accents were used to determine the region of the country 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:27.120 that soldiers were from during a regional war, and life 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:31.560 and death were in the balance. For context. The word 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:35.960 we're gonna use shibbyth was the name of a river crossing, 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:43.720 or maybe it's sibyl ef Jeff Shreeve, I am trying 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:49.120 to understand how language is used. It has been used 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:54.679 in the past two define people, groups and culture, specifically 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.920 for my word that um dissecting here acorn. But I 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.600 know in the Bible there is the story that very 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:03.800 clearly shows that this has been going on for a 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:08.720 long time, using pronunciation of words and accents to identify people. 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:11.520 Tell me that story and Judges, Yeah, so there's I 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:15.040 think it's Judges chapter twelve, and there's this It was 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:16.880 really kind of like a warlord type of guy. His 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:20.320 name is Jeptha and he was kind of an outcast 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:22.560 in the land. He had his own band of Ruffians 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:24.280 that he roamed the land with. The tribes were being 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.079 oppressed by this this other nation, which is what we 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:30.000 would call him today, the Ammonites, and so the tribe 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:35.240 they reached out to Jeptha and his band of merry men, 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.000 I guess, and asked for his assistance. He went out, 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.520 conquered the Ammonites and everything was good. Well that a 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.600 neighboring tribe, they were known as the Fremonts, they were 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.160 upset with Jepthah. They were upset that this battle had 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:50.959 taken place without them, and the Afremats just wanted to 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:54.000 be a part. Well. They go to Jeptha and they said, hey, 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:56.200 you should have called us, and he said, hey, I did. 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:57.720 You never showed up. We had to go and take 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.000 care of business. And so there's this battle that breaks out. 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:02.640 They said, well, you need to leave the land, and 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.079 He's like, I'm not leaving the land. I'm staying right here. 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:07.480 I deserve to be here now. And so this battle 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:11.199 breaks out between the Afremots and Jeptha's people. Jeptha and 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:13.599 his people take the river river, They take control of 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:17.760 the river that separates the Afremots land from the Gileadites land, 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.240 and so the Afremots can't get back, and he starts 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:23.679 really whipping the Fremots like they want to get back, 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.120 they want to get back home, and so they start fleeing. 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:27.760 And they would come to the places where you could 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:31.000 cross the river, and Jephtha's people would go, are you 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:33.720 an efremote, are you a Gileadite one of our people? 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:35.640 Are one of their people? And they would say, oh, 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.240 I'm Agiliadote, And assumably they look the same. Yeah, they 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.160 all look at the same nation of people. They're all 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:46.319 Hebrew people, so they would dress the same. They just 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:50.760 have different ancestors within, except for they have a little 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.520 bit of a dialectical difference in the way that they speak. 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:55.920 And so they would come to the river and they realize, hey, 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:58.280 some of these guys are escaping because they're just lying 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:01.160 and saying that they're they're not freem Mites. And so 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:03.480 they said, here's what we'll do. We're just gonna set 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:05.679 up a test when we ask if they say, yeah, 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:08.440 I'm a gillia Dite, let me cross the river. Say okay, 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:12.960 say shiboleth. Now the area mites. They didn't say that. Evidently, 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:15.600 they didn't say that shut sound right at the word 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:19.760 sib They said sibilet instead of hivlet. And so when 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.559 they would say it, it's kind of always imagine like 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.800 Daffy Duck trying to say It's like they couldn't quite 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:27.679 get it out right, and so they wouldn't say it 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:29.760 like the frem Mites did, and that's how they would know, 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.319 and they'd kill them right there. There was just this 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:35.480 distinct exactly, and that's that's going on throughout history, like 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.959 there's always these chivalts, is what it's been called ever 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:41.000 since then in World War Two, So this has been 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:45.719 used throughout history as a metaphor. It's used right now. 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:48.640 It's used in towns, you know, it's used in warfare, 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:51.559 it's used in culture, it's used everywhere. In World War Two, 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:55.959 the Allies when they would capture German spies, frequently the 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:58.520 Germans had been trained how to speak English, and they 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:00.800 would know how to the about the culture and the 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:03.440 customs of the Allies, about the American Allies. They would 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:05.079 know about baseball, they would know I think there's even 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.959 a Twilight Zone episode about one of these captures of 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:11.960 the Nazi people are Nazi spies, but they were trained 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.720 in British English instead of American English, and so there 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.480 were little words that they would say that would give 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:21.400 them away. And so frequently they would catch a Nazi spy. 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:24.760 He would be speaking real clear English. He would talk 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.320 about the Brooklyn Dodgers. He would he would say all 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:30.640 of the right words, and they would say, Okay, let's 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:32.640 hop in that vehicle over there, and they said, okay, 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.200 I'm hopping in the lor well. The lory is what 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.400 the British would call a truck. And so there's the 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:40.320 giveaway right there, there's the ship leth and they know 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:46.480 this is a Nazi spy. What does the pronunciation difference mean. 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.400 It's not a hard word to say, a c O 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:53.840 r in. I found myself deeply planted on the non 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.440 traditional or at least phonetically speaking pronunciation of the word. 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:02.080 I've learned that the southeast astern United States, roughly twenty 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:06.080 of the country geographically pronounces the word the way I do. 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:12.680 The other pronounces it phonetically. There is certainly something bigger 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:19.000 at work here, and it might have broader implications. After 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:24.240 some research, here's what I learned. Basically, the acorn pronunciation 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:28.600 is a throwback to Old English. It's a combination of 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:33.400 Low German, whose word for acorn is ecker spelled e 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.280 c k e r, and the Dutch word. It's a 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:40.560 combination of these and the Dutch word for acorn, which 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:44.800 is acker spelled a k e r. By the fifteen hundreds, 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:48.760 that English still had an urn on the end, and 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.840 that arn still holds strong in much of the southern 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:57.120 United States. This is the audio from a YouTube video 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:01.600 titled a Quick Lesson on Southern Linguistics. It's on a 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:06.200 channel simply called rob M. It's a very interesting clip 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:12.440 about accents in the Southern United States. Most people don't 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:16.160 realize that the American Southern accent is not a sign 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:20.240 of ignorance, but actually the fact that, according to linguists, 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.000 we're the only people left in the United States who 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.520 generally still sounded like our ancestors, because if you listen 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:30.040 to native born Southern speakers, the average Southern attends to 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:33.200 sound more like this. What we call this moonlight Magnolias draw, 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.280 because if you speed up that Southern draw over time, 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.080 it rapidly becomes a British accent. Most people don't realize 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:42.840 that people that came here from Europe were largely from 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:45.240 the United Kingdom, so when they got here this was 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:47.560 more along the lines of their speaking tones. But that's 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:49.920 the first and the second generations coming off from boats, 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:53.280 not their children, but that the unfull generations. The kids 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:55.920 didn't quite something like mom and dad anymore, because they're 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.200 starting to develop a society elongation of the way they 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:01.160 talk what's today called the in your tide water accent. 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:04.399 It's not a complete Southern drawl because that support area, 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:07.119 but as you go farther into the southern interior and 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:10.000 the year's progress, the accent tends to get thicker, deeper, 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:13.439 richer by Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia peg. Yeah, you gotta full 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.639 blow to Southern drawl. But people don't realize that in 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:20.280 most cases in Louisiana, many of the native speakers don't 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.720 sound like that. They didn't design like these are guarante 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:26.000 spend a round the Bay youth, because you speed up 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:31.360 that South Louisiana Cleo accent or time, it becomes Enfans French, 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.240 with of course certain exceptions in New Orleans, which talent 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:37.760 tend to sound like more like New Yorker's because of 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:41.240 the Irish and the Sicilian Italian influence, so they didn't 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:43.280 sound a bit more like this, and people didn't get 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:45.680 a little confused because they think, what, you're from New York. No, 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:48.960 I'm from New Orleans, White. So you have to realize 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.480 that at the end of the day, Southern speakers, like 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:56.160 I said, we're not ignorant, as it's often been assumed, 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.200 but we simply sound like the ancestors that came here 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:05.280 so many years ago. This is my mother, Judy. We 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:08.520 call her Juju. She has a master's degree in teaching 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:12.080 and retired last year after being involved in public schools 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:16.159 for over forty years. She has a professional connection with 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:20.879 the words spelled A C O r N. Maybe this 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:24.480 gives some insight into why I'm so worked up about 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:34.080 it all. Juju, where are you up here? I've got 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:39.479 something here, I'm getting mud on your floor. I'm sorry. Okay, 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:45.440 what is that an acre? It's an acren? Where do 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.840 you work or where did you work? Your Acorn schools 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:54.359 for thirty two years? Thirty two years? It's a consolidated school. 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:58.080 Have you ever in your life heard anybody call it 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:03.359 acorn school? On anybody associated with the school with a 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:09.480 close knit association. Though no, no, No Acre Acren. We 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:14.240 go to Acron Elementary. We are the Acron Tigers and 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:25.160 it's the best school in Arkansas. People who are connected 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:29.080 to the land can become obsessed with natural cycles. For me, 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:34.160 a time of celebration is when the acorns start to fall. Typically, 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:36.560 I'll commemorate the first white dook I find on the 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:39.440 ground by putting it in my pocket. I just like 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:42.760 to stare at it when nobody's around. Sometimes I keep 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:46.560 them in my drawer here in my office. That might 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:50.360 seem strange for many reasons because I don't eat acorns, 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:57.240 but they're highly symbolic. My dad was like an obsessed 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:00.200 drill sergeant when it came to finding them. Mean he 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.720 still is. I spent the formative years of my life 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:08.680 searching for acrons, and I still searched for them relentlessly. 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:14.359 Here's my old dad, Gary Newcomb, the Black panther Man himself. 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:21.960 We're sitting on the front porch in a rainstorm. So 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:25.680 when I was a kid, we didn't hunt deer. We 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:28.880 hunted acrons. We weren't looking for deer, we were looking 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.639 for acrons first. And then dear sign, tell me what 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:36.080 acrons mean to Gary Nucomb, Well, no one tell you can, Yeah, 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:37.800 you can tell us a little backstory about you know, 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:40.560 no one in my family deer hunted. I didn't know 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:44.680 anything about deer hunting. And two really intelligent guys, principle 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:46.520 of a school and the guy that just had like 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:49.240 a hundred sixty I Q had a coffee shop and 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:51.320 the deer hunt it. And I'd go to their coffee 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:53.600 shop and they talked about deer hunting, and I got 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.080 caught up in it, and they would take me hunting. 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:57.800 They showed me and showed me how to shoot a 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:00.960 recurve boat, but they couldn't kill deer. And I related 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:02.960 it to play in chess. There's gotta be a way 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:06.280 to get on these deer. And one day we were 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:09.719 down in South Arkansas and a guy was at our 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:14.359 camp and he said, deer's favorite food is white oak acorns, 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.960 and if you have it was weird. Turkey hunt was 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:20.760 real hard for me to learn. A lot of stuff 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:22.480 is real hard for me to learn. But when I 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:26.280 heard that, I thought, if I'm hunting humans, I'm gonna 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:30.120 hunt at McDonald's. And I'm not gonna hunt at McDonald's 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:32.800 unless it's got a lot of trash on the ground, 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:35.200 a bunch of cars. I mean, there's gonna be some activity, 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:37.440 you know. I don't want to go to McDonald's where 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:40.480 there's not very many people. I'm going this has to 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:42.600 be how to kill him. And keep in mind, I 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:44.560 don't even hardly know what a deer track looks like. 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:47.720 So as soon as he tells me, I come back 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:50.520 to my hunting turf, and I said, I'm not leaving 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:53.399 here until I find white oak acres dropping. And I 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.679 had enough insight into it to where he didn't tell 0:21:56.760 --> 0:21:59.680 me this, but I thought, there's gotta be deer droppings there. 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:02.800 I'm not gonna hunt unless there's deer droppings. And so 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:05.359 I found two big white oak trees and I killed 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:09.600 more deer, knowing nothing about deer hunting, and all of 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:12.200 my buddies who were raised them with a boat. Yeah, 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:14.720 and I mean it's like at a time when very 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:17.119 few people were doing it consistently. Yeah, And I mean 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:19.639 I missed a couple of pretty good bucks too. But 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:22.600 the first morning I set up, I remember going home 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:24.760 and telling my mother this, and I was a grown man. 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:27.360 I didn't live at home, but I went to her 0:22:27.440 --> 0:22:30.240 house for breakfast or something, and I said, mother, you 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:34.080 won't believe what happened. I found this white oakcacren tree 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:37.159 with droppings under I put my ladder up the day 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:39.720 ahead of time, and I sit in it this morning, 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:43.159 and I had eleven deer coming in no more than 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.080 groups of two. It was just like a movement. They 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:49.320 were coming from my left to my right and it stopped. 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:51.399 It was just it was like the most exciting thing 0:22:51.480 --> 0:22:54.639 you've ever found. Ticket Do you have any kind of 0:22:54.800 --> 0:22:59.520 like emotional high when you find a big, old, green, 0:22:59.640 --> 0:23:02.400 white of acron on the ground in October? I love it, man, 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:04.399 I mean I love it. It's the first. It's just 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:18.200 tells me the time is right, it's killing time. It 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:20.840 seems honorable to me that if anybody's going to be 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:25.080 particular about the pronunciation of any word, that same fella 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:27.920 ought to have some deep knowledge of it, or he 0:23:28.000 --> 0:23:31.080 might as well be indifferent. Here's what we're gonna do. 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:36.200 We're gonna get a PhD in acrons. We're gonna nerd 0:23:36.359 --> 0:23:40.160 out on acron biology with one of the country's foremost 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:45.760 wildlife habitat experts, Dr Craig Harper of the University of Tennessee. 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:48.920 He's about as tall as an average to a high 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:52.520 school point guard, and he's built like a bobcat. He's 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:56.960 got a warm smile and overflows with hospitality. His ability 0:23:57.080 --> 0:24:02.320 to functionalize and communicate about the natural world is unusually adept, 0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:04.880 and by the looks of the turkey beards and big 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:07.760 racked white tails that adorn the walls of his house, 0:24:08.280 --> 0:24:11.680 he is a veteran hunter. This is a deep dive 0:24:11.840 --> 0:24:14.639 into some of the most interesting stuff about acrens that 0:24:14.760 --> 0:24:18.359 I've ever learned. If you get lost in this nerd out, 0:24:18.720 --> 0:24:21.840 please stick around for the last section of the podcast 0:24:21.920 --> 0:24:27.040 with anthropologist Dr Daniel Roupe. It's fascinating, but I'll warn 0:24:27.119 --> 0:24:30.440 you this talk about acres with Dr Harper will likely 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:41.200 change your life. To meet Dr Craig Harper, pretend like 0:24:41.320 --> 0:24:44.920 I don't know anything and walk me through the life 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:48.159 cycle of an oak tree in the different species. Uh 0:24:48.240 --> 0:24:51.320 they flower in the spring. There are two different groups, 0:24:51.480 --> 0:24:55.040 of course, of oak species. You have the the red 0:24:55.119 --> 0:24:58.240 oak group and the white oak group. There's a couple 0:24:58.320 --> 0:25:02.240 of real distinguishing character sticks between those. The one of 0:25:02.320 --> 0:25:06.200 the easiest and most recognizes that the lobes of the 0:25:06.400 --> 0:25:10.080 leaves of red oaks have bristle tips, and those of 0:25:10.240 --> 0:25:13.560 the white oak group do not. They have pointed So 0:25:13.640 --> 0:25:16.760 a red oak has a pointed lobe, you know, a 0:25:16.920 --> 0:25:18.960 tree in the white oaks family, and not just a 0:25:19.040 --> 0:25:21.040 point not just a pointed lobe, but it actually has 0:25:21.080 --> 0:25:25.200