WEBVTT - Listener Mail: The Braid of Nastenka 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:11.039 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:14.880 Listener mail. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:16.840 and it's Monday, the day of the week that we 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.080 bring you some of the messages that you've sent in 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.440 over over the past few cycles of the show. Uh, 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:25.279 let's see, rob Should I start off with this one 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:34.360 about crabs? Oh? Please do? Okay? This is from Nick. 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:37.600 Nick says, I'm catching up on some of the Stuff 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.080 to Blow Your Mind backlogged episodes, and I just finished 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:44.360 your second episode about crabs and food. My brain connecting 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:48.320 crabs and food? Why not cookie dough crab? This a 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:51.200 little confusing, but but he makes sense of it. Nick says, 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:54.360 a few months ago, this picture of a sponge crab 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:56.640 came across my feet and it took me the better 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:59.080 part of the morning to determine if it was a 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:02.279 crab that looked cookie dough or if someone made a 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:06.360 cookie that looked like a crab. Either way, delicious regards 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:10.960 Nick uh Nick, I would be really impressed if this 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:14.480 was actually cookie dough. This does look like a real decapod. 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.240 Crustacean to me, But I see exactly what you're saying, 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:21.080 because you're dead on the text you're covering this animal 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:24.319 looks exactly like we're all cookie dough. And I can't 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:26.720 tell because I don't know what species this is. This 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:29.320 is just an image from the internet. It does look real, 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:32.280 not faked, but I can't tell if this is like 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.679 an animal with wet sand stuck to it, or if 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:38.560 this is just what the carapace of this crab species 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:41.640 looks like. Well then the end, they are also a 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:44.400 number of different types of sponge crab. I'm kind of 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.080 stand but I do remember when this was making the 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:49.960 rounds Initially. I think one of the things that jumped 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:52.520 out to me the most is that the crab essentially 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.160 looks like the ginger dead Man from the two thousand 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.520 five Full Moon picture starring Gary Busey. That is a 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.680 very unfair comparison to make to this this beautiful Arthur pod. 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:06.600 But yeah, I want to know more. Is this sand 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:09.280 or is it not sand? Could it really be that 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:13.399 the crabs shell looks like that has that kind of wet, granular, 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.600 cracked appearance seems too perfect? Yeah, Yeah, I mean I 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:21.760 think they have like a spongy looking shell, but we 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.239 have don't think we've actually looked at them like covered 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:27.000 them on the show before. We've covered a number of 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:28.960 different types of crabs, so who knows, we'll have to 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:31.280 come back with with more crab content in the future. 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.320 All right, A speaking of other organisms that we have 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:41.760 covered on the show, here's a bit of listener male 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:47.239 from Sarah the subject ditch which this areas of course, 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.800 responding to our episodes on the tumbleweed. Hi, guys, I 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.280 recently listened to your episode about the tumbleweed or ditch 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:56.280 which I found the information about the possible origin of 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.320 some of the plants commonly known as tumbleweeds very interesting. 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:01.880 I am ascended it from and live in an area 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.480 of Kansas settled by Volga Germans or Germans from Russia 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.160 who immigrated to the Great Plains in the late eighteen hundreds. 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.920 Due to its similarities to the Russian steps. There are 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:15.840 also communities of Volga Germans in South Dakota. I find 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.920 the theory about the Russian thistle seed being unintentionally introduced 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:21.880 by contaminated grain plausible. I know that many of these 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:25.239 immigrants brought other plants seeds with them on purpose. For example, 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:29.480 a berry of the nightshade family called schwartz barren uh, 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:32.680 commonly called blackberries. This berry is not well known outside 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.880 of Volga German communities, but I have fond memories of 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:38.720 picking buckets of them in my grandparents backyard and eating 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.760 delicious pies and kutchins made by the family. In performing 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.640 genealogical research, I have found that this berry is also 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.320 found in Volga German communities. In South Dakota and elsewhere. 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:52.760 The Russian thistle and other tumbleweeds are very well known 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:56.320 here in my rural area, high winds and tumbleweeds are common. 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:58.440 But about a month ago we had a windstorm that 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:00.440 was out of season and had win ends up to 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:03.600 almost a hundred miles per hour in some places. Many 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.400 areas lost power due to the winds, and anything not 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:10.040 held down disappeared from yards and lots. The day after 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:12.560 the storm, I had to travel for work, and it 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.400 was incredible how many tumbleweeds were caught in the miles 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:18.960 and miles of barbed wire fences. It sounds hyperbolic, but 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:22.200 they were so thickly pushed into the fences and piled 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:24.640 so high on top of one another that you could 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.920 not see through the fences. Being used to running over 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.039 the occasional tumblewheed on the highway, I can't imagine what 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:34.320 it would have been like to drive through the windstorm. Anyway, 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:37.000 Thanks for always providing such a great show, and keep 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:40.799 up the great work, sincerely, Sarah. Oh, thanks Sarah. Well, 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:42.560 but now I want to know or the schwartz speer, 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:46.040 and so you say they're not well known outside of 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:48.480 these communities, so that makes me think they're different than 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:52.400 other blackberries. They're just a different fruit also called blackberries. 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:54.760 I don't know if you know anything about schwartzpeer and 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:58.280 I do not. This one is a new one on me. 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:02.360 But just quick sir on the subject seems to seems 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:04.920 to back up the claim here. Okay, I just looked 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.200 them up. Yeah, they look more like kind of more 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:12.040 like blueberries. Yeah, I if I saw them, I might 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:13.800 be afraid to eat them, because they don't look like 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.800 blue blueberries I'm used to eating, you know, But they 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:20.000 look they look edible in the dangerous way to me, 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:21.760 like like it looks like I could eat them, so 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:24.280 I probably should not. But unless, of course, someone said 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:26.160 these are safe to eat, you may eat of them, 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:29.680 and then I would say, yes, okay, I will have some. Well, actually, 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:31.680 I'm gonna say that this is a fruit that appears 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:35.479 to have thoroughly confused Google image search, because if you 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:38.520 do a Google image search for it, you get results 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:42.800 that are clearly blueberries, and results that are clearly the 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.680 commonly known blackberries, and then also these other things that 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:50.440 look sort of like blueberries. Well, I just ran across 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:54.640 a whole page about them on recipes from a German 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:58.719 grandma on online, So that seems to check out. Well, 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:01.040 isn't that nice? Well, yeah, I'm not. Who are you 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.400 gonna doubt somebody's German grandma? No, I would never I 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:12.040 would never doubt your berries. All right, I'm gonna read 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:15.599 this next message from Owen, also about Tumbleweeds and says, hey, guys, 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:18.360 I love the first episode on Tumbleweeds, and oddly enough, 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:21.599 I'm super excited to hear more. I live in Utah, 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:25.080 and although tumbleweeds don't seem especially common here, I did 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:27.720 have a sort of wonderful moment with one last year. 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:30.280 I live in a valley and my house sits right 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:32.880 up against the mountain. Side atop a series of mild 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.560 hills overlooking the main part of a city. Anyways, I 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:38.640 was walking up the road to my house on a 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.440 blustery winter day when I saw a tumbleweed ambling toward me. 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:45.000 I don't know why, but I couldn't take my eyes 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.800 off it. Maybe it was that unpredictable bouncing, but it was, 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:52.320 as you mentioned, almost like an animal. I watched it 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:54.880 as if it were a fox, moving toward me, then 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:58.200 slowly away. I watched it until it turned to bend 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.599 and was out of sight. I been the rest of 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:03.360 the walk home in awe. They may be a problem, 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.119 but they are certainly a natural beauty in my eyes. 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:08.800 On a more comedic note, there's a scene in the 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:13.040 movie The Ridiculous Six where Adam Sandler sort of transforms 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:16.080 into a tumbleweed in order to sneak past a group 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.800 of men. Certainly bizarre, but I loved it. Here's a 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:22.080 link to the clip. I went and to watch this clip. 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:27.480 I all the best with whatever movies you like, but 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:31.080 I I have to note that he's making the you know, 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:35.160 the infamous Adam Sandler noises while he rolls in tumbleweed form, 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:37.800 so he's you know, Abby Dubie, and all the way 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:41.160 past the guards, he does look like he just trying. 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:43.760 I'm watching the clip now on mute and um so 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:46.200 I'm not getting to hear this wonderful soundary describing. But 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:51.520 he does appear to transform magically into a tumbleweed. Yes, 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:54.080 and then Owen Wilson's brother is there to watch him. 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:57.960 So how would you how would you describe the Adam 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:03.760 Sandler vocalization. It's like it's like angry baby. Yeah, there 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:06.760 is kind of an intentionally uh like you know, in 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:12.080 juvenile kind of silliness, uh, you know to the voice. Um, 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:14.160 I guess it's one of those those things that that 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:16.240 kind of took on a life of its own. Like 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:17.720 I don't know if he could stop doing it if 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.920 he wanted to write right, Yeah, now he just is 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:25.880 the Adam Sandler noise and and his body belongs to it. Yeah. Though, 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:27.600 I mean credit to Adam Sandler. He was really good 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:29.920 in that movie Uncut Jim's a couple of years back. 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:33.080 Oh man, that was a good one. Yeah, depressing, not 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:35.400 not not a feel good movie, but that he was. 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:37.520 He was quite good in it. Not a comedy. It 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.640 had some funny parts. Though, Yeah, but I agree, very 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.320 good in that. Oh but I gotta say also, Owen 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.800 includes another movie reference. I haven't seen either of these movies. 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:49.680 Uh so the first one is that Adam Sandler movie. 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:54.480 The second is the latest SpongeBob movie. He says it 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:57.199 was oddly funny, but he says there's a scene that's 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:00.520 oddly funny where Keanu Reeves is a tumble weed that 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:04.600 gives advice. Uh, though it seems to be implied that 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.280 he's made out of sage brush. Uh. And I found 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:10.640 one link of this scene that's one of those looped 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:13.280 for ten hours videos. I don't know somebody did that, 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:15.600 but they did well. This is this is actually very 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.280 well executed. I'm not current on my SpongeBob, so I 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:22.320 was just expecting the standard animated format. But this is 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:26.920 computer generated and with a real life Kanu Reeves inside 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:32.400 of this kind of beautiful tumbleweed looking structure. Very well executed. So, 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:34.120 I gotta be honest, I don't know if this is 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:37.120 a good thing to loop for ten hours. Something that's 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.840 a ten hour loop has to have a certain inherent 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.440 loop nous to it, like the ten hour Hipno Toad. 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:46.480 I think is my ideal. It's the platonic form of 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:48.920 the ten hour loop video. I mean, I guess at 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.400 this point you just you just probably create a lot 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:53.760 of ten hour videos of just about everything and just 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:55.520 throw them. Throw him on the wall and see what sticks, 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:57.720 see what takes off. Oh, I just thought of one. 0:09:57.760 --> 0:09:59.240 I don't know. If it exists, you would be good. 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:01.839 It would be a ten the hour loop of uh 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:05.240 ned rein Jurassic Park going. Ah, you didn't say the 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:09.840 magic word. Uhh. I mean I'd be surprised if it 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:18.080 doesn't exist already. Anyway, thanks for getting a touch owen Rob. 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:19.920 You want to do the next one? All right? What 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:23.280 do we have? Uh, it's a duck episode. It's a 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.400 duck email. Now it's a tumbleweed one. It's titled Duck 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:30.079 a tumblewheed Um. This is from Meg. Meg writes as 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:33.480 asked a New Mexico voice, but maybe not with answers 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:36.600 to your questions as a transplant from Cleveland. I loved 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:40.120 your opening discussion about driving and the tumbleweed onslaught bilemma 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:42.800 do I hit the big one or the bigger one? 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:45.920 I still recall moving here and seeing my first real 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:48.600 tumbleweed roll in front of me and having the holy crap, 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:52.000 it's real moment, and it has never left. I regularly 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:55.400 pause class to point out one rolling by the window, 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:58.760 and recall odd moments in lacrosse coaching when I had 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:02.160 to pause practice until the tumbleweeds rolled across the field. 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:07.040 Spring is crazy windy in Avluquerque. If you're ever passing 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:09.680 through again at Christmas time, right near the Big Eye 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:15.000 where I fort cross, there is a huge tumbleweeds snowman. Okay, 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:17.719 I think I'd seen stuff online about tumbleweed snowman. I 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:20.600 don't think I saw one when I was there, but 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:24.040 I was in this area anyway. Meg continues another thought. 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.960 Road runners, another Southwest thing that still makes me stop 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:30.760 and pause. Watching them hunt in my front yard is 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:34.360 so cool. You really cannot but see micro raptors stalking 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.520 their prey. They have I have had many a clever 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:41.400 girl moments. As one slowly approaches me cox its head, 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:44.240 looks at me, clicks and runs away. I know it's 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:47.600 thinking if only it was bigger, it could attack. If 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.320 you haven't done a podcast on the continuation of Avian 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:53.320 dinos into birds, that would be cool. Oh thanks, meg 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.360 uh I don't know if that's ever been the subject 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:58.520 by itself of a podcast, but it comes up all 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:02.559 the time. But road runners, j oh, they are dinosaurs 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:04.800 that like, they are the dinosaurs that did not die 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:08.440 out at the at the KPg extinction. I sadly only 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:11.800 have one verified road runner siding to my credit. And 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:13.679 it was one of these situations where I saw it 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:16.280 and then I described it to someone and I was like, 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:18.160 was that a roadrunner? And they're like, oh, yeah, yeah, 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:20.319 that was probably a roadrunner. So I didn't really get 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:22.800 to appreciate it in the moment so much. The real 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:25.080 clue is when it paints a tunnel opening on a 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:29.320 on a cliff face and then you run into it. Yeah. 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.120 I mean that's that's probably what was the confusing thing 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:34.280 about it is they don't really look like the cartoon 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:37.479 road runner. Uh they do? They look more like dinosaurs, 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.839 um and uh. And I guess that the one I 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.920 saw it, it seems it looks like scraggier than the 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.199 ones I see in pictures. I don't know, maybe they 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:50.040 just had a run in with a dynamite laden coyote 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.480 or something. I know what you And I guess Meg 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:53.960 was saying the same thing. I know what Meg and 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:56.439 you are saying about them looking like dinosaurs, though, folks, 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:58.880 have you never seen a road Runner? Look one up? 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:02.560 They they look like an illustration from one of the 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:07.640 more current dinosaur books. Yeah, speaking of avian dinosaurs, um 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:11.280 my mind. That turns back to our previous discussions on 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:16.280 on the basilisk, which in some incarnations, you know, are 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.719 artistic representations they look like avian dinosaurs, you know, or 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:22.720 they look more they end up looking more like chickens, 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:26.080 I guess. But I have to say the second season 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.640 of The Witcher, which which we finished, uh, it has 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.839 some some basilists show up in the final episode, and 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.000 they really brought them to life in an interesting way. 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:38.719 They essentially look like big dinosaurs without looking too much 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:45.440 like dinosaurs. Very cool feathered monsters. I know. For some reason, 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.040 I see my future. I'm breaking down on this. At 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:49.560 some point Rachel and I are going to end up 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:54.240 watching this Witcher show or we you know, like I said, 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:58.000 like actually watching it instead of just like briefly glazing 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:02.400 at the first episode. Yeah, I've I've enjoyed it. It's 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:06.640 um you know, it's uh, it's The Witcher. Um, so 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:09.480 you know, you gotta go into a certain expectations, but 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:11.319 I don't know. I've I've I've got into it. It's 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.080 got some good magic, some good monsters, and uh and 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:16.440 ultimately I think it does some good character stuff. You know. 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:18.240 I hate to be the person who has a weird 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:22.240 plausibility nitpick with the show that's full of fantasy and magic. Anyway, 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:24.360 the one thing that always gets me about the Witcher, 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:26.320 this is there in the video games too, is dude 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.160 he has he carries his long sword in a thing 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:32.080 on his back. You know, you your arm isn't long 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.480 enough to pull it out of a scabbard on your back. 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:38.440 That's why people keep the scabbard on their side. I mean, like, 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.320 just imagine trying to do that yourself. Like the blade 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:43.800 is too long, it's longer than your arm is, so 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:46.200 you can't actually get it out of the holster if 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:48.880 it's on your back. True. Yeah, yeah, I mean I 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:52.720 I do find myself pausing at times and thinking about that. 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:55.160 That's sort of kind of like a guitar case on 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:58.720 his back swords in it, which seems to imply not 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:00.560 not like a quick draw Situa should have been more 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.000 of like I'm a professional. I ever now arrived at 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:05.480 the scene. I will now prepare my weapons and kind 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:07.520 of go in. I don't know, Oh, well, that makes 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:09.960 sense I'm thinking about. I guess maybe it's different in 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:12.080 the show and the games. He just wears them like 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:13.880 a person would wear, you know, like he can draw 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:15.840 them quickly from the scabbard, but they're on the back. 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:19.080 I don't know why that drives me crazy. I don't know. 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:21.240 I I'd have to have to rewatch some of the 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.480 episodes to really weigh in on that. I don't I 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.600 don't remember exactly exactly how he pulls out his swords, 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:30.040 but once he does, he just really slings them around. 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:35.000 Maybe maybe that's magic too, it is a magic scabbard. Anyway, cool, 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:38.800 basilis I recommend the bast Okay, Well, I look forward 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:48.360 to seeing them all right, Well, I think maybe we 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:52.040 should jump ahead to a response. We got to our 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:56.800 Weird House Cinema episode on Jack frost Ak a Moro's 0:15:56.880 --> 0:16:01.040 co the the Russian fairy Tale Christmas Time Movie, and 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:03.560 this was a message we got from Natalia. It was 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:06.120 a really excellent letter that was very long, so I 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:08.880 had to edit it down A good bit are you ready, Rob, 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:10.720 I'm ready, let's do it. This is a this is 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:13.080 a great emo. I really enjoyed this one. Yeah, so 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:15.720 I'll say I'll summarize a bit at the beginning on 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.680 Natalia starts off by saying some very nice things about 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.080 the show, and she introduces herself as Natalia from a 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.640 city in Russia called Kazan, Kazan or Kazan. I think 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:29.000 I've seen it pronounced both ways, um, but anyway. She 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:32.240 gives some personal background, saying that she has the Russian 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:36.400 equivalent of a PhD in biology and once worked in BioResearch, 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.400 but then later in life got interested in English, which 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:43.120 she now teaches professionally. And she says she's been listening 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:45.000 to the show for a while but finally had to 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.440 write in after our episode on this very familiar movie, 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.480 because she says she's fifty years old now and grew 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:55.640 up watching Morosco at least once every year. Apparently our 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:59.080 episode gave her the idea to use Russian movies dubbed 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:03.040 into English in her English classes. And if I understand right, 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:05.639 it sounds like she she's saying that she developed a 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:10.040 multimedia lesson in her classes involving a dubbed version of 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:14.679 moros Co and our Weird House Cinema episode which she says, 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:17.119 as she says, was a hit with her students ages 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:19.720 sixteen to thirty two. And if that is true, that 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:23.160 that is so nice to hear. But from here, I'll 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:25.040 just go into the text to the email where she 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:29.400 shares some Russian cultural insights on questions that we had 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:31.320 about the movie. There's there were some things where we 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:33.159 were like, I don't know if this is like a 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:37.000 historical Russian thing or if this is just a weird 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:40.080 thing about this movie on its own. Yeah, Like is 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:42.320 this something isolated to a folk tale or is this 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:47.399 something that is indicative of of a larger reality and 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:50.920 Russian culture? Yeah? Uh so? And I tell your rites. 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:54.600 As a gesture of appreciation, I'd like to make some comments. 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:57.280 Not sure you'll find them useful, but you wondered in 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:59.520 the episode, and this is the least I can do. 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:03.399 First of all, regarding hair now as a as a 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:06.600 bit of explanation, Remember there is a lot of attention 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:10.920 paid to hair and braids in Morosko. For example, the 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:14.399 wicked stepmother is often threatening some kind of violence to 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:18.320 Nastia's braid, so like, she's she'll threaten to cut off 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:21.280 her braid as some kind of dire warning. Yeah, or 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:26.520 especially the step sister really wants Mama to cut off 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:29.240 that braid. Cut off her braid, Mama, that you And 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:30.880 she's like, well, what will I pull her by? Then? 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.479 Right to cut off the step sister's braid. Yes, steps 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:37.240 cut off the stepsister's braid. Yeah, it's it's too beautiful, 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.600 so to tell your rights. The tradition of particular respect 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:45.240 to hair goes back to pagan times. Our ancestors believed 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:49.040 that one who held your hair held your destiny in 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:52.399 their hands. That's why cut or combed out hair was 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:55.919 never ever thrown away. Hair was thought to be a 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:59.080 source of wisdom and strength, and hair style was very 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:03.000 informative than men and women. I read that Russian warriors 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:05.960 used to shave their heads, leaving a single strand on 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:10.080 the top, which they braided, supposedly pulling that braid. A 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:15.040 Slavic god uh Svarog either took the luckiest sons of 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:18.879 his from the battlefield or transported the deceased heroes to 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.679 the other side, although in most pictures warriors simply have 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:25.760 long hair. And then she goes on to explain some 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:29.280 of the traditions about what you were supposed to do 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.159 with your hair in these older times. She says that 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:36.760 girls started growing hair approaching their teenage years. Girls should 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:39.040 always wear their hair in a single braid. If a 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:42.439 young maid was engaged, she changed the way of weaving 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:46.000 a ribbon into her braid. Married women wore two braids 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:49.919 a symbol of tuneness and covered the hair completely. For 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:52.480 showing your hair in public was a dreadful shame and 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:56.159 nearly a deadly sin. Spinsters were not allowed to have 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.360 two braids, no matter the age. Widows cut their hair 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.639 and large the hair and braid was not only the 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:06.120 sign of physical health, but the main asset of a bride, 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:08.520 and a groom had to pay for it a separate 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.600 charge to the family. Losing a braid was a real 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.520 disaster and shame, and the girl or woman had to 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:17.320 stay at home until it grew back. Cutting off the 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:22.000 braid was one of the severest punishments. M uh, and 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:24.159 this is interesting in a lot of this kind of 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:27.840 reminds me of traditions that we talked about, you remember, 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:31.359 Rob in our episode on on nail trimmings, We got 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:35.720 into that history of Religions paper by Bruce Lincoln, the 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:40.720 religion scholar, about about lots of different traditions from widely 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:45.240 disparate religions, about how you're like all this special care 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:49.919 taken to properly dispose of cuttings from people's hair and 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:53.560 their fingernails or toenails, and that he there were a 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:57.760 number of different explanations for for these traditions, but Lincoln's 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:02.359 idea was that it went back to the creation myth 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:06.239 of the Proto Indo European religion that had something to 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:10.159 do with a person being killed and then their body 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.280 turning into the earth, so that the vegetation of the 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:17.000 earth was the growing of of this dead body's hair, 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:20.120 and thus like, in order to sort of live your 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:23.000 life according to this sacred myth, you had to take 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:26.080 special care about what happened to your hair because in 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:28.879 a way it was a symbol of the fertility of 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:32.440 the earth itself and the crops. M hmmm, yeah, yeah, 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:34.399 that was That was a fun episode. And you're getting 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:38.640 into also the uh, like fingernail ships and all the myth. 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:40.960 Oh yeah, yeah, that's a good one. But of course 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:44.400 she doesn't just share information about about braids. She also 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:48.359