Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: Listener mail. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick,
Speaker 1: and it's Monday, the day of the week that we
Speaker 1: bring you some of the messages that you've sent in
Speaker 1: over over the past few cycles of the show. Uh,
Speaker 1: let's see, rob Should I start off with this one
Speaker 1: about crabs? Oh? Please do? Okay? This is from Nick.
Speaker 1: Nick says, I'm catching up on some of the Stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind backlogged episodes, and I just finished
Speaker 1: your second episode about crabs and food. My brain connecting
Speaker 1: crabs and food? Why not cookie dough crab? This a
Speaker 1: little confusing, but but he makes sense of it. Nick says,
Speaker 1: a few months ago, this picture of a sponge crab
Speaker 1: came across my feet and it took me the better
Speaker 1: part of the morning to determine if it was a
Speaker 1: crab that looked cookie dough or if someone made a
Speaker 1: cookie that looked like a crab. Either way, delicious regards
Speaker 1: Nick uh Nick, I would be really impressed if this
Speaker 1: was actually cookie dough. This does look like a real decapod.
Speaker 1: Crustacean to me, But I see exactly what you're saying,
Speaker 1: because you're dead on the text you're covering this animal
Speaker 1: looks exactly like we're all cookie dough. And I can't
Speaker 1: tell because I don't know what species this is. This
Speaker 1: is just an image from the internet. It does look real,
Speaker 1: not faked, but I can't tell if this is like
Speaker 1: an animal with wet sand stuck to it, or if
Speaker 1: this is just what the carapace of this crab species
Speaker 1: looks like. Well then the end, they are also a
Speaker 1: number of different types of sponge crab. I'm kind of
Speaker 1: stand but I do remember when this was making the
Speaker 1: rounds Initially. I think one of the things that jumped
Speaker 1: out to me the most is that the crab essentially
Speaker 1: looks like the ginger dead Man from the two thousand
Speaker 1: five Full Moon picture starring Gary Busey. That is a
Speaker 1: very unfair comparison to make to this this beautiful Arthur pod.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I want to know more. Is this sand
Speaker 1: or is it not sand? Could it really be that
Speaker 1: the crabs shell looks like that has that kind of wet, granular,
Speaker 1: cracked appearance seems too perfect? Yeah, Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: think they have like a spongy looking shell, but we
Speaker 1: have don't think we've actually looked at them like covered
Speaker 1: them on the show before. We've covered a number of
Speaker 1: different types of crabs, so who knows, we'll have to
Speaker 1: come back with with more crab content in the future.
Speaker 1: All right, A speaking of other organisms that we have
Speaker 1: covered on the show, here's a bit of listener male
Speaker 1: from Sarah the subject ditch which this areas of course,
Speaker 1: responding to our episodes on the tumbleweed. Hi, guys, I
Speaker 1: recently listened to your episode about the tumbleweed or ditch
Speaker 1: which I found the information about the possible origin of
Speaker 1: some of the plants commonly known as tumbleweeds very interesting.
Speaker 1: I am ascended it from and live in an area
Speaker 1: of Kansas settled by Volga Germans or Germans from Russia
Speaker 1: who immigrated to the Great Plains in the late eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: Due to its similarities to the Russian steps. There are
Speaker 1: also communities of Volga Germans in South Dakota. I find
Speaker 1: the theory about the Russian thistle seed being unintentionally introduced
Speaker 1: by contaminated grain plausible. I know that many of these
Speaker 1: immigrants brought other plants seeds with them on purpose. For example,
Speaker 1: a berry of the nightshade family called schwartz barren uh,
Speaker 1: commonly called blackberries. This berry is not well known outside
Speaker 1: of Volga German communities, but I have fond memories of
Speaker 1: picking buckets of them in my grandparents backyard and eating
Speaker 1: delicious pies and kutchins made by the family. In performing
Speaker 1: genealogical research, I have found that this berry is also
Speaker 1: found in Volga German communities. In South Dakota and elsewhere.
Speaker 1: The Russian thistle and other tumbleweeds are very well known
Speaker 1: here in my rural area, high winds and tumbleweeds are common.
Speaker 1: But about a month ago we had a windstorm that
Speaker 1: was out of season and had win ends up to
Speaker 1: almost a hundred miles per hour in some places. Many
Speaker 1: areas lost power due to the winds, and anything not
Speaker 1: held down disappeared from yards and lots. The day after
Speaker 1: the storm, I had to travel for work, and it
Speaker 1: was incredible how many tumbleweeds were caught in the miles
Speaker 1: and miles of barbed wire fences. It sounds hyperbolic, but
Speaker 1: they were so thickly pushed into the fences and piled
Speaker 1: so high on top of one another that you could
Speaker 1: not see through the fences. Being used to running over
Speaker 1: the occasional tumblewheed on the highway, I can't imagine what
Speaker 1: it would have been like to drive through the windstorm. Anyway,
Speaker 1: Thanks for always providing such a great show, and keep
Speaker 1: up the great work, sincerely, Sarah. Oh, thanks Sarah. Well,
Speaker 1: but now I want to know or the schwartz speer,
Speaker 1: and so you say they're not well known outside of
Speaker 1: these communities, so that makes me think they're different than
Speaker 1: other blackberries. They're just a different fruit also called blackberries.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know anything about schwartzpeer and
Speaker 1: I do not. This one is a new one on me.
Speaker 1: But just quick sir on the subject seems to seems
Speaker 1: to back up the claim here. Okay, I just looked
Speaker 1: them up. Yeah, they look more like kind of more
Speaker 1: like blueberries. Yeah, I if I saw them, I might
Speaker 1: be afraid to eat them, because they don't look like
Speaker 1: blue blueberries I'm used to eating, you know, But they
Speaker 1: look they look edible in the dangerous way to me,
Speaker 1: like like it looks like I could eat them, so
Speaker 1: I probably should not. But unless, of course, someone said
Speaker 1: these are safe to eat, you may eat of them,
Speaker 1: and then I would say, yes, okay, I will have some. Well, actually,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that this is a fruit that appears
Speaker 1: to have thoroughly confused Google image search, because if you
Speaker 1: do a Google image search for it, you get results
Speaker 1: that are clearly blueberries, and results that are clearly the
Speaker 1: commonly known blackberries, and then also these other things that
Speaker 1: look sort of like blueberries. Well, I just ran across
Speaker 1: a whole page about them on recipes from a German
Speaker 1: grandma on online, So that seems to check out. Well,
Speaker 1: isn't that nice? Well, yeah, I'm not. Who are you
Speaker 1: gonna doubt somebody's German grandma? No, I would never I
Speaker 1: would never doubt your berries. All right, I'm gonna read
Speaker 1: this next message from Owen, also about Tumbleweeds and says, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I love the first episode on Tumbleweeds, and oddly enough,
Speaker 1: I'm super excited to hear more. I live in Utah,
Speaker 1: and although tumbleweeds don't seem especially common here, I did
Speaker 1: have a sort of wonderful moment with one last year.
Speaker 1: I live in a valley and my house sits right
Speaker 1: up against the mountain. Side atop a series of mild
Speaker 1: hills overlooking the main part of a city. Anyways, I
Speaker 1: was walking up the road to my house on a
Speaker 1: blustery winter day when I saw a tumbleweed ambling toward me.
Speaker 1: I don't know why, but I couldn't take my eyes
Speaker 1: off it. Maybe it was that unpredictable bouncing, but it was,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, almost like an animal. I watched it
Speaker 1: as if it were a fox, moving toward me, then
Speaker 1: slowly away. I watched it until it turned to bend
Speaker 1: and was out of sight. I been the rest of
Speaker 1: the walk home in awe. They may be a problem,
Speaker 1: but they are certainly a natural beauty in my eyes.
Speaker 1: On a more comedic note, there's a scene in the
Speaker 1: movie The Ridiculous Six where Adam Sandler sort of transforms
Speaker 1: into a tumbleweed in order to sneak past a group
Speaker 1: of men. Certainly bizarre, but I loved it. Here's a
Speaker 1: link to the clip. I went and to watch this clip.
Speaker 1: I all the best with whatever movies you like, but
Speaker 1: I I have to note that he's making the you know,
Speaker 1: the infamous Adam Sandler noises while he rolls in tumbleweed form,
Speaker 1: so he's you know, Abby Dubie, and all the way
Speaker 1: past the guards, he does look like he just trying.
Speaker 1: I'm watching the clip now on mute and um so
Speaker 1: I'm not getting to hear this wonderful soundary describing. But
Speaker 1: he does appear to transform magically into a tumbleweed. Yes,
Speaker 1: and then Owen Wilson's brother is there to watch him.
Speaker 1: So how would you how would you describe the Adam
Speaker 1: Sandler vocalization. It's like it's like angry baby. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: is kind of an intentionally uh like you know, in
Speaker 1: juvenile kind of silliness, uh, you know to the voice. Um,
Speaker 1: I guess it's one of those those things that that
Speaker 1: kind of took on a life of its own. Like
Speaker 1: I don't know if he could stop doing it if
Speaker 1: he wanted to write right, Yeah, now he just is
Speaker 1: the Adam Sandler noise and and his body belongs to it. Yeah. Though,
Speaker 1: I mean credit to Adam Sandler. He was really good
Speaker 1: in that movie Uncut Jim's a couple of years back.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that was a good one. Yeah, depressing, not
Speaker 1: not not a feel good movie, but that he was.
Speaker 1: He was quite good in it. Not a comedy. It
Speaker 1: had some funny parts. Though, Yeah, but I agree, very
Speaker 1: good in that. Oh but I gotta say also, Owen
Speaker 1: includes another movie reference. I haven't seen either of these movies.
Speaker 1: Uh so the first one is that Adam Sandler movie.
Speaker 1: The second is the latest SpongeBob movie. He says it
Speaker 1: was oddly funny, but he says there's a scene that's
Speaker 1: oddly funny where Keanu Reeves is a tumble weed that
Speaker 1: gives advice. Uh, though it seems to be implied that
Speaker 1: he's made out of sage brush. Uh. And I found
Speaker 1: one link of this scene that's one of those looped
Speaker 1: for ten hours videos. I don't know somebody did that,
Speaker 1: but they did well. This is this is actually very
Speaker 1: well executed. I'm not current on my SpongeBob, so I
Speaker 1: was just expecting the standard animated format. But this is
Speaker 1: computer generated and with a real life Kanu Reeves inside
Speaker 1: of this kind of beautiful tumbleweed looking structure. Very well executed. So,
Speaker 1: I gotta be honest, I don't know if this is
Speaker 1: a good thing to loop for ten hours. Something that's
Speaker 1: a ten hour loop has to have a certain inherent
Speaker 1: loop nous to it, like the ten hour Hipno Toad.
Speaker 1: I think is my ideal. It's the platonic form of
Speaker 1: the ten hour loop video. I mean, I guess at
Speaker 1: this point you just you just probably create a lot
Speaker 1: of ten hour videos of just about everything and just
Speaker 1: throw them. Throw him on the wall and see what sticks,
Speaker 1: see what takes off. Oh, I just thought of one.
Speaker 1: I don't know. If it exists, you would be good.
Speaker 1: It would be a ten the hour loop of uh
Speaker 1: ned rein Jurassic Park going. Ah, you didn't say the
Speaker 1: magic word. Uhh. I mean I'd be surprised if it
Speaker 1: doesn't exist already. Anyway, thanks for getting a touch owen Rob.
Speaker 1: You want to do the next one? All right? What
Speaker 1: do we have? Uh, it's a duck episode. It's a
Speaker 1: duck email. Now it's a tumbleweed one. It's titled Duck
Speaker 1: a tumblewheed Um. This is from Meg. Meg writes as
Speaker 1: asked a New Mexico voice, but maybe not with answers
Speaker 1: to your questions as a transplant from Cleveland. I loved
Speaker 1: your opening discussion about driving and the tumbleweed onslaught bilemma
Speaker 1: do I hit the big one or the bigger one?
Speaker 1: I still recall moving here and seeing my first real
Speaker 1: tumbleweed roll in front of me and having the holy crap,
Speaker 1: it's real moment, and it has never left. I regularly
Speaker 1: pause class to point out one rolling by the window,
Speaker 1: and recall odd moments in lacrosse coaching when I had
Speaker 1: to pause practice until the tumbleweeds rolled across the field.
Speaker 1: Spring is crazy windy in Avluquerque. If you're ever passing
Speaker 1: through again at Christmas time, right near the Big Eye
Speaker 1: where I fort cross, there is a huge tumbleweeds snowman. Okay,
Speaker 1: I think I'd seen stuff online about tumbleweed snowman. I
Speaker 1: don't think I saw one when I was there, but
Speaker 1: I was in this area anyway. Meg continues another thought.
Speaker 1: Road runners, another Southwest thing that still makes me stop
Speaker 1: and pause. Watching them hunt in my front yard is
Speaker 1: so cool. You really cannot but see micro raptors stalking
Speaker 1: their prey. They have I have had many a clever
Speaker 1: girl moments. As one slowly approaches me cox its head,
Speaker 1: looks at me, clicks and runs away. I know it's
Speaker 1: thinking if only it was bigger, it could attack. If
Speaker 1: you haven't done a podcast on the continuation of Avian
Speaker 1: dinos into birds, that would be cool. Oh thanks, meg
Speaker 1: uh I don't know if that's ever been the subject
Speaker 1: by itself of a podcast, but it comes up all
Speaker 1: the time. But road runners, j oh, they are dinosaurs
Speaker 1: that like, they are the dinosaurs that did not die
Speaker 1: out at the at the KPg extinction. I sadly only
Speaker 1: have one verified road runner siding to my credit. And
Speaker 1: it was one of these situations where I saw it
Speaker 1: and then I described it to someone and I was like,
Speaker 1: was that a roadrunner? And they're like, oh, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was probably a roadrunner. So I didn't really get
Speaker 1: to appreciate it in the moment so much. The real
Speaker 1: clue is when it paints a tunnel opening on a
Speaker 1: on a cliff face and then you run into it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean that's that's probably what was the confusing thing
Speaker 1: about it is they don't really look like the cartoon
Speaker 1: road runner. Uh they do? They look more like dinosaurs,
Speaker 1: um and uh. And I guess that the one I
Speaker 1: saw it, it seems it looks like scraggier than the
Speaker 1: ones I see in pictures. I don't know, maybe they
Speaker 1: just had a run in with a dynamite laden coyote
Speaker 1: or something. I know what you And I guess Meg
Speaker 1: was saying the same thing. I know what Meg and
Speaker 1: you are saying about them looking like dinosaurs, though, folks,
Speaker 1: have you never seen a road Runner? Look one up?
Speaker 1: They they look like an illustration from one of the
Speaker 1: more current dinosaur books. Yeah, speaking of avian dinosaurs, um
Speaker 1: my mind. That turns back to our previous discussions on
Speaker 1: on the basilisk, which in some incarnations, you know, are
Speaker 1: artistic representations they look like avian dinosaurs, you know, or
Speaker 1: they look more they end up looking more like chickens,
Speaker 1: I guess. But I have to say the second season
Speaker 1: of The Witcher, which which we finished, uh, it has
Speaker 1: some some basilists show up in the final episode, and
Speaker 1: they really brought them to life in an interesting way.
Speaker 1: They essentially look like big dinosaurs without looking too much
Speaker 1: like dinosaurs. Very cool feathered monsters. I know. For some reason,
Speaker 1: I see my future. I'm breaking down on this. At
Speaker 1: some point Rachel and I are going to end up
Speaker 1: watching this Witcher show or we you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: like actually watching it instead of just like briefly glazing
Speaker 1: at the first episode. Yeah, I've I've enjoyed it. It's
Speaker 1: um you know, it's uh, it's The Witcher. Um, so
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta go into a certain expectations, but
Speaker 1: I don't know. I've I've I've got into it. It's
Speaker 1: got some good magic, some good monsters, and uh and
Speaker 1: ultimately I think it does some good character stuff. You know.
Speaker 1: I hate to be the person who has a weird
Speaker 1: plausibility nitpick with the show that's full of fantasy and magic. Anyway,
Speaker 1: the one thing that always gets me about the Witcher,
Speaker 1: this is there in the video games too, is dude
Speaker 1: he has he carries his long sword in a thing
Speaker 1: on his back. You know, you your arm isn't long
Speaker 1: enough to pull it out of a scabbard on your back.
Speaker 1: That's why people keep the scabbard on their side. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: just imagine trying to do that yourself. Like the blade
Speaker 1: is too long, it's longer than your arm is, so
Speaker 1: you can't actually get it out of the holster if
Speaker 1: it's on your back. True. Yeah, yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: I do find myself pausing at times and thinking about that.
Speaker 1: That's sort of kind of like a guitar case on
Speaker 1: his back swords in it, which seems to imply not
Speaker 1: not like a quick draw Situa should have been more
Speaker 1: of like I'm a professional. I ever now arrived at
Speaker 1: the scene. I will now prepare my weapons and kind
Speaker 1: of go in. I don't know, Oh, well, that makes
Speaker 1: sense I'm thinking about. I guess maybe it's different in
Speaker 1: the show and the games. He just wears them like
Speaker 1: a person would wear, you know, like he can draw
Speaker 1: them quickly from the scabbard, but they're on the back.
Speaker 1: I don't know why that drives me crazy. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I I'd have to have to rewatch some of the
Speaker 1: episodes to really weigh in on that. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't remember exactly exactly how he pulls out his swords,
Speaker 1: but once he does, he just really slings them around.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe that's magic too, it is a magic scabbard. Anyway, cool,
Speaker 1: basilis I recommend the bast Okay, Well, I look forward
Speaker 1: to seeing them all right, Well, I think maybe we
Speaker 1: should jump ahead to a response. We got to our
Speaker 1: Weird House Cinema episode on Jack frost Ak a Moro's
Speaker 1: co the the Russian fairy Tale Christmas Time Movie, and
Speaker 1: this was a message we got from Natalia. It was
Speaker 1: a really excellent letter that was very long, so I
Speaker 1: had to edit it down A good bit are you ready, Rob,
Speaker 1: I'm ready, let's do it. This is a this is
Speaker 1: a great emo. I really enjoyed this one. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I'll say I'll summarize a bit at the beginning on
Speaker 1: Natalia starts off by saying some very nice things about
Speaker 1: the show, and she introduces herself as Natalia from a
Speaker 1: city in Russia called Kazan, Kazan or Kazan. I think
Speaker 1: I've seen it pronounced both ways, um, but anyway. She
Speaker 1: gives some personal background, saying that she has the Russian
Speaker 1: equivalent of a PhD in biology and once worked in BioResearch,
Speaker 1: but then later in life got interested in English, which
Speaker 1: she now teaches professionally. And she says she's been listening
Speaker 1: to the show for a while but finally had to
Speaker 1: write in after our episode on this very familiar movie,
Speaker 1: because she says she's fifty years old now and grew
Speaker 1: up watching Morosco at least once every year. Apparently our
Speaker 1: episode gave her the idea to use Russian movies dubbed
Speaker 1: into English in her English classes. And if I understand right,
Speaker 1: it sounds like she she's saying that she developed a
Speaker 1: multimedia lesson in her classes involving a dubbed version of
Speaker 1: moros Co and our Weird House Cinema episode which she says,
Speaker 1: as she says, was a hit with her students ages
Speaker 1: sixteen to thirty two. And if that is true, that
Speaker 1: that is so nice to hear. But from here, I'll
Speaker 1: just go into the text to the email where she
Speaker 1: shares some Russian cultural insights on questions that we had
Speaker 1: about the movie. There's there were some things where we
Speaker 1: were like, I don't know if this is like a
Speaker 1: historical Russian thing or if this is just a weird
Speaker 1: thing about this movie on its own. Yeah, Like is
Speaker 1: this something isolated to a folk tale or is this
Speaker 1: something that is indicative of of a larger reality and
Speaker 1: Russian culture? Yeah? Uh so? And I tell your rites.
Speaker 1: As a gesture of appreciation, I'd like to make some comments.
Speaker 1: Not sure you'll find them useful, but you wondered in
Speaker 1: the episode, and this is the least I can do.
Speaker 1: First of all, regarding hair now as a as a
Speaker 1: bit of explanation, Remember there is a lot of attention
Speaker 1: paid to hair and braids in Morosko. For example, the
Speaker 1: wicked stepmother is often threatening some kind of violence to
Speaker 1: Nastia's braid, so like, she's she'll threaten to cut off
Speaker 1: her braid as some kind of dire warning. Yeah, or
Speaker 1: especially the step sister really wants Mama to cut off
Speaker 1: that braid. Cut off her braid, Mama, that you And
Speaker 1: she's like, well, what will I pull her by? Then?
Speaker 1: Right to cut off the step sister's braid. Yes, steps
Speaker 1: cut off the stepsister's braid. Yeah, it's it's too beautiful,
Speaker 1: so to tell your rights. The tradition of particular respect
Speaker 1: to hair goes back to pagan times. Our ancestors believed
Speaker 1: that one who held your hair held your destiny in
Speaker 1: their hands. That's why cut or combed out hair was
Speaker 1: never ever thrown away. Hair was thought to be a
Speaker 1: source of wisdom and strength, and hair style was very
Speaker 1: informative than men and women. I read that Russian warriors
Speaker 1: used to shave their heads, leaving a single strand on
Speaker 1: the top, which they braided, supposedly pulling that braid. A
Speaker 1: Slavic god uh Svarog either took the luckiest sons of
Speaker 1: his from the battlefield or transported the deceased heroes to
Speaker 1: the other side, although in most pictures warriors simply have
Speaker 1: long hair. And then she goes on to explain some
Speaker 1: of the traditions about what you were supposed to do
Speaker 1: with your hair in these older times. She says that
Speaker 1: girls started growing hair approaching their teenage years. Girls should
Speaker 1: always wear their hair in a single braid. If a
Speaker 1: young maid was engaged, she changed the way of weaving
Speaker 1: a ribbon into her braid. Married women wore two braids
Speaker 1: a symbol of tuneness and covered the hair completely. For
Speaker 1: showing your hair in public was a dreadful shame and
Speaker 1: nearly a deadly sin. Spinsters were not allowed to have
Speaker 1: two braids, no matter the age. Widows cut their hair
Speaker 1: and large the hair and braid was not only the
Speaker 1: sign of physical health, but the main asset of a bride,
Speaker 1: and a groom had to pay for it a separate
Speaker 1: charge to the family. Losing a braid was a real
Speaker 1: disaster and shame, and the girl or woman had to
Speaker 1: stay at home until it grew back. Cutting off the
Speaker 1: braid was one of the severest punishments. M uh, and
Speaker 1: this is interesting in a lot of this kind of
Speaker 1: reminds me of traditions that we talked about, you remember,
Speaker 1: Rob in our episode on on nail trimmings, We got
Speaker 1: into that history of Religions paper by Bruce Lincoln, the
Speaker 1: religion scholar, about about lots of different traditions from widely
Speaker 1: disparate religions, about how you're like all this special care
Speaker 1: taken to properly dispose of cuttings from people's hair and
Speaker 1: their fingernails or toenails, and that he there were a
Speaker 1: number of different explanations for for these traditions, but Lincoln's
Speaker 1: idea was that it went back to the creation myth
Speaker 1: of the Proto Indo European religion that had something to
Speaker 1: do with a person being killed and then their body
Speaker 1: turning into the earth, so that the vegetation of the
Speaker 1: earth was the growing of of this dead body's hair,
Speaker 1: and thus like, in order to sort of live your
Speaker 1: life according to this sacred myth, you had to take
Speaker 1: special care about what happened to your hair because in
Speaker 1: a way it was a symbol of the fertility of
Speaker 1: the earth itself and the crops. M hmmm, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was That was a fun episode. And you're getting
Speaker 1: into also the uh, like fingernail ships and all the myth.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, that's a good one. But of course
Speaker 1: she doesn't just share information about about braids. She also
Speaker 1: gets into the sleeping arrangements in the movie, which we
Speaker 1: had some questions about. And uh and this this was
Speaker 1: very insightful as well. Oh yeah, that's right. So to
Speaker 1: tell you it goes on. She says, you were absolutely
Speaker 1: right about Marfushka's bed. Remember, Marfushka is the mean step
Speaker 1: sister who sleeps in this weird thing that looks like
Speaker 1: a crib. And we were like, to people actually have
Speaker 1: beds like that or is that saying like she's just
Speaker 1: a spoiled baby or something. So Natalia says, you're absolutely
Speaker 1: right about Marfushka's bed. It is a fictional feature, I
Speaker 1: would say, put in the scene exactly to emphasize her
Speaker 1: over indulged attitude. Teens did not sleep in cribs. In fact,
Speaker 1: you probably noticed that Marfushka's mother also has some fancy
Speaker 1: wooden bed with a carved headboard, whilst her husband sleeps
Speaker 1: on the quote Russian stove. Those are also signs of
Speaker 1: the family hierarchy and privileges. But in general, a long
Speaker 1: time ago, kids and elderly people in Russian villages slept
Speaker 1: either on the back of the Russian stove or on
Speaker 1: the huge shelves high up under the ceiling, usually adjacent
Speaker 1: to the stove called. Um. I'm not sure I'm saying
Speaker 1: this right, but I think polotty I guess in English
Speaker 1: transliteration p O L A t I. But she says
Speaker 1: those were the warmest places in a hut. And then
Speaker 1: she attaches and an image that shows a more modern
Speaker 1: house that's sort of a recreation of of the format
Speaker 1: of an old Russian hut that would have this big
Speaker 1: I guess stone or earthenware stove that would probably get
Speaker 1: warm and stay warm throughout the night. And then right
Speaker 1: next to that there's like a bunk for sleeping that's
Speaker 1: up near where the ceiling is. Yeah, now this is interesting. UM.
Speaker 1: I remember when we did I guess this is the
Speaker 1: invention episode we did on beds. At one point we
Speaker 1: talked about some similar approaches to sleeping arrangements that you
Speaker 1: encountered in UM, in Chinese culture certainly, and I think
Speaker 1: maybe more than northern climates. UM don't recall off hand, Uh,
Speaker 1: but yeah, that this idea of like a bed stove,
Speaker 1: which which ultimately makes a lot of sense when you're
Speaker 1: especially when you're imagining and a more traditional living environment
Speaker 1: where you have this this uh, this stove, this uh
Speaker 1: this this engine, this place of heat that you've invested
Speaker 1: resources into. Um. You know, of course you want to
Speaker 1: sleep next to that or on top of that, if if,
Speaker 1: if possible. Uh So that's interesting. And I love this
Speaker 1: picture that she included of of of the the Russian hut,
Speaker 1: the traditional Russian hut situation with the Russian stove. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is really interesting. So I would say everything about
Speaker 1: the sleeping arrangements in the movie then is realistic, except
Speaker 1: for the fact that Marfushka is in a crib. I
Speaker 1: think that's just because that's because like she's like weird
Speaker 1: and messed up. Yeah. And then finally Nasalia says, it
Speaker 1: can't be helped. I'm going to recommend you yet another
Speaker 1: couple of Russian movies. One of them stars in a Churakova,
Speaker 1: whom you're familiar with already. Inaturakova was the act the
Speaker 1: actress who plays Marfushka. Uh. Natalia says. Both movies were
Speaker 1: directed by the tremendously successful and very popular film director
Speaker 1: Mark Zakharov. The movies are the very same Munchausen and
Speaker 1: the House that swift built. I thought you might like them,
Speaker 1: although I'm not sure if her dubbed copies. And then
Speaker 1: she provides a couple of links. In the end, she
Speaker 1: wraps up by saying, I wishing nothing but the best,
Speaker 1: fondest regards, and I tell you so anyway, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for this excellent letter. I am so happy
Speaker 1: to hear our episodes have been useful in teaching English.
Speaker 1: So it's funny that's not the first time we've had
Speaker 1: somebody say that. At least one other person has written
Speaker 1: in before saying they were using our episodes in UH
Speaker 1: English as a foreign language classes, and and that always
Speaker 1: gives me a slight chill because I'm wondering what bad
Speaker 1: language habits of mine I'm accidentally passing on right right
Speaker 1: right now, I feel the same way. I want to
Speaker 1: say it was somebody teaching English as a as a
Speaker 1: foreign language in um in part of China. I could
Speaker 1: be mistaken on that. Yeah, we did hear that at
Speaker 1: least once, and certainly thanks for the movie recommendations. We're
Speaker 1: always always delighted to discover and explore new motion pictures
Speaker 1: just in general, but also a fair weird house. I
Speaker 1: know that we have at least a couple, probably more
Speaker 1: than a couple of Russian films on the to watch list.
Speaker 1: I know there's a there's a horror film in there,
Speaker 1: and then various science fiction features. Yeah yeah, but I
Speaker 1: guess the list of Russian films is getting larger because
Speaker 1: we'll have to add these two to it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean anytime as a shot at a mooch house in film.
Speaker 1: That sounds fun. Yeah. All right, Well, we're gonna go
Speaker 1: ahead and close the mail bag for today, but certainly
Speaker 1: go ahead right into us. Let us know if you
Speaker 1: have any thoughts, feedback um expertise to share regarding anything
Speaker 1: we've covered on the show. Core episodes of Stuff to
Speaker 1: Blow Your Mind there are listener mail episodes, are are
Speaker 1: artifact episodes on Wednesdays, or of course our weird House cinemas.
Speaker 1: All of it is fair game right in and we
Speaker 1: will read what you have to say. You can get
Speaker 1: all those episodes, by the way, in the Stuff to
Speaker 1: Blow your Mind podcast feed, which you'll find anywhere you
Speaker 1: get your podcast. That's right, big, thanks as always to
Speaker 1: our excellent audio producer sethnic Cholis Johnson. If you would
Speaker 1: like to get in touch with us with feedback on
Speaker 1: this episode or any other, to suggest topic for the future,
Speaker 1: or just to say hello. You can email us at
Speaker 1: contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind is production of I heart Radio.
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