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Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is

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Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,

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Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

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Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet

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Speaker 1: of Curiosities. When it comes to musical instruments, certain names

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Speaker 1: tend to jump out, even to non musicians. Gibson, Les,

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Speaker 1: Paul Steinway, and perhaps the most prestigious of them all,

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Speaker 1: Strata barius. A strata various violin is widely considered to

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Speaker 1: be the finest string instruments ever made. Some experts attribute

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Speaker 1: the quality to the method of their construction. More recent

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Speaker 1: findings suggest the cool temperatures at which the trees grew

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Speaker 1: between sixteen forty five and seventeen fifty led to their

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Speaker 1: superior sound. For Antoni Strativari, it was his love of

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Speaker 1: music and woodworking, which he poured into every instrument he crafted,

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Speaker 1: that made them so coveted. Born in Cremona, Italy around

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Speaker 1: sixteen forty four, Strativari was apprenticed to the notable instrument

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Speaker 1: maker Nicola Amadi. By the time he was just twelve

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Speaker 1: years old. Under Amadi's tutelage, Strativari learned how to shape

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Speaker 1: wood into curves and carve ornate headstocks for his violins.

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Speaker 1: Over time, he honed his techniques manufacturing musical instruments under

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Speaker 1: his own unique style. Early Strativarious violins were a bit

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Speaker 1: smaller in size compared to his later works, which were

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Speaker 1: not only larger but more ornate and deliberate in their design.

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Speaker 1: They featured deep bevels along their edges and richer colorings

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Speaker 1: thanks to a darker varnish. His violins and cellos earned

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Speaker 1: him fame around Italy and all throughout Europe. In sixteen

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Speaker 1: eighty two, a banker from Venice ordered one of every

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Speaker 1: instrument Strativari had ever made, with the intention of gifting

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Speaker 1: them to King James the Second of England. They were

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Speaker 1: never given away, and nobody knows what happened to them.

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Speaker 1: At the time of his death in seventeen thirty seven,

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Speaker 1: Strativari was thought to have built over a thousand string instruments,

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Speaker 1: spanning violins, cellos, and violas, but there was another model

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Speaker 1: in his repertoire. Though he didn't make many of them,

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Speaker 1: its roots could be traced back as early as the

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Speaker 1: eighth century to an instrument with a large wooden body,

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Speaker 1: a long neck, with a fingerboard and strings that ran

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Speaker 1: almost its whole length. It then evolved into the loots

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Speaker 1: of the Middle Ages to become what the Spanish called

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Speaker 1: the viola. Today we call it the guitar. Its body

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Speaker 1: style changed over hundreds of years, as well, shedding the

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Speaker 1: bulbous back of the loot to accommodate to more tapered look.

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Speaker 1: During the Baroque era, it shrunken size to not much

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Speaker 1: larger than a ukulele. The maker's inlaid ornamental filigrees and

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Speaker 1: accents onto its face and fretboard. The guitar are became

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Speaker 1: a work of art in and of itself, except where

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Speaker 1: Stratavarry was concerned. The Rawlins strata Varius was a different

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Speaker 1: kind of Baroque guitar. Created in seventeen hundred, the rawlins

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Speaker 1: Stratavarius bore very little ornamentation on its front or frets.

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Speaker 1: It featured a mother of pearl inlay around a carved

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Speaker 1: rose in its circular sound hole, which was about as

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Speaker 1: fancy as Strativari was willing to get. He focused his

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Speaker 1: work on shaping the instrument as well as the materials used.

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Speaker 1: He modeled it after his violins, with gentle curves that

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Speaker 1: sloped inward towards the center. It's back and sides were

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Speaker 1: made of maple, a unique choice for such an instrument,

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Speaker 1: which was typically constructed of harder woods like ebony. For

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Speaker 1: the front or top, he chose spruce, which is still

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Speaker 1: used on guitars made today. Those strata Varry made several

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Speaker 1: guitars early on in his career, only four still exists today.

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Speaker 1: The Rawlins Strata Varius is now on display at the

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Speaker 1: National Music Museum, part of the University of South Dakota.

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Speaker 1: Strataverry was better known for his violins rather than his guitars,

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Speaker 1: but his contributions to the instruments development have become the norm.

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Speaker 1: As of the eighteen fifties, the guitars form and function

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Speaker 1: have been fairly standardized, though it comes in different shapes

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Speaker 1: and sizes, electric or acoustic. The guitar has become a

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Speaker 1: standard part of almost every band and orchestra in the world.

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Speaker 1: In fact, it's importance was recognized by Congress even before

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Speaker 1: the formation of the United States. One man saw the

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Speaker 1: guitar as a gateway to new and better music, someone

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Speaker 1: who had fostered a love of music early on in

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Speaker 1: his life, spending money he'd gotten for Christmas one year

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Speaker 1: on a fairly price eat whistle. While his older brothers

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Speaker 1: made fun of him for it, That whistle sent him

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Speaker 1: on a path of musical discovery. As he got older,

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Speaker 1: he started playing more complicated instruments, such as the harp,

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Speaker 1: the violin, and, yes, the guitar. He became proficient at

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Speaker 1: all of them, even going on to invent his own,

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Speaker 1: but the guitar was the only one he was known

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Speaker 1: to have taught to others. His writings and contributions to

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Speaker 1: American independence may have made him a historical icon, but

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Speaker 1: musicians everywhere can tip their hats to this early American

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Speaker 1: guitar teacher for tuning the world into the beauty of

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Speaker 1: the instrument. Who was he? Benjamin Franklin. When a nation

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Speaker 1: wants to show the rest of the world what it's

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Speaker 1: made of, it holds an exhibition. The Olympics are a

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Speaker 1: demonstration of athletic ability and stamina. Other types of exhibitions

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Speaker 1: are comprised of booths, pavilions, and arenas designed to give

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Speaker 1: each country the chance to both witness and present wondrous

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Speaker 1: new ideas and technologies. In America, these events were known

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Speaker 1: by a catchier name than international exhibitions. They were called

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Speaker 1: world's fairs. Putting on a World's Fair cost millions of

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Speaker 1: dollars and required the work of multiple architects and teams

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Speaker 1: of builders. Together, they would change the landscape of a

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Speaker 1: city by paving new walkways and installing elaborate features. Massive lagoons,

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Speaker 1: for example, would allow guests to tour the fair by rowboats.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen o four, one of the biggest and most

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Speaker 1: impressive fairs came to Missouri, featuring almost fifteen hundred buildings

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Speaker 1: across twelve hundred acres. The St. Louis World's Fair was

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Speaker 1: open for eight months and welcomed nearly twenty million visitors

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Speaker 1: through its gates. It was a feast for the senses

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Speaker 1: to Listeners who walked into the festival hall could hear

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Speaker 1: the blaring sounds of the world's largest pipe organ, whose

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Speaker 1: construction led to the bankruptcy of its maker, the Los

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Speaker 1: Angeles Art organ Company. A natural history fossil exhibit by

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Speaker 1: the Smithsonian put dinosaur skeletons and a full sized model

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Speaker 1: of a blue whale on display, while the Palace of

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Speaker 1: Horticulture featured a jumbo elephant made entirely of almonds, which,

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Speaker 1: when you think about it, it's just nuts. The fair

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Speaker 1: was also the launching pad for countless inventions and ideas

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Speaker 1: that flooded American popular culture. It inspired the hit song

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Speaker 1: Meet Me in St. Louis, which in turn led to

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Speaker 1: a feature film starring Judy Garland. Forty years later, ragtime

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Speaker 1: composer Scott Joplin wrote a song about the waterfalls outside

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Speaker 1: the festival hall called Cascades. It was a venue for

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Speaker 1: the innovations of the era and provided audiences with glimpses

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Speaker 1: into the future. The X ray machine, an early wireless phone,

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Speaker 1: and the precursor to the fax machine all wild audiences

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Speaker 1: and had them talking long after they'd left the Palace

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Speaker 1: of Electricity. But perhaps the most important developments to come

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Speaker 1: out of the fair were the ones the guests could taste.

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Speaker 1: In fact, it's been said that the World's Fair in St.

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Speaker 1: Louis marked the debut of the food court, and although

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Speaker 1: they had been invented several years earlier, Culinary delights such

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Speaker 1: as the hamburger, the hot dog, and cotton candy became

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Speaker 1: big hits after appearing at the fair. One food, however,

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Speaker 1: not only appeared for the first time at the nineteen

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Speaker 1: o four World's Fair, It said that it was invented

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Speaker 1: right there on the spot by a man named Ernest Hamley.

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Speaker 1: Ernest was a Syrian baker who ran a modest pastry

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Speaker 1: booth at the fair, Operating among the other food stands.

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Speaker 1: He was selling a Persian style of an Indian and

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Speaker 1: Arabic dessert known as Zalabia. Zalabia was made by frying

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Speaker 1: dough in hot oil and then coating it in syrup

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Speaker 1: and rose water. Ernest was doing well for himself, especially

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Speaker 1: given the variety of foods available to fair goers. However,

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Speaker 1: his next door neighbor was doing a lot better, selling

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Speaker 1: a sweet treat of his own, ice cream. There was

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Speaker 1: just one problem. People couldn't get enough of the ice cream.

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Speaker 1: He did so much business on one day that he

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Speaker 1: ran out of paper cups, so the vendor panicked. Without cups,

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Speaker 1: he would have nothing to scoop his ice cream into

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Speaker 1: for his customers. Ernest couldn't let the man flounder, so

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Speaker 1: he stepped in with the solution. He took a thin

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Speaker 1: layer of piping hot Zalabbia dough, rolled it into a

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Speaker 1: cone shape and told his neighbor to drop his ice

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Speaker 1: cream into it. The ice cream cooled the dough, quickly

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Speaker 1: hardening it into something customers could hold upright. Everyone loved

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Speaker 1: the delicious new creation, so much so that it took

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Speaker 1: off like a rocket throughout Missouri and eventually the rest

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Speaker 1: of the country, and it became a regular way for

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Speaker 1: people to enjoy their favorite treat. Ernest Ham, we had

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Speaker 1: stumbled onto a much more lucrative business than selling pastries

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Speaker 1: from booth, which led to a whole new company instead,

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Speaker 1: the Corner Copia Waffle Company their number one product the

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Speaker 1: ice cream cone. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour

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Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast

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Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky

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Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award

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Speaker 1: winning show called Lord, which is a podcast, book series,

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Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it

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Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until

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Speaker 1: next time, stay curious. Yeah,