Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world
Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Everyone knows about the big government
Speaker 1: organizations that monitor things like our money, our Internet activity,
Speaker 1: and our impact on the environment. From the I R
Speaker 1: S and the n s A to the f d
Speaker 1: A and the e p A. There seems to be
Speaker 1: a department that touches almost every aspect of our lives.
Speaker 1: But beneath the FBI and the CIA, there are other organizations,
Speaker 1: some clandestine, others that have fallen through the crack due
Speaker 1: to obscurity or lack of funding. For example, NASA has
Speaker 1: an unknown division known as the Office of Planetary Protection.
Speaker 1: It's responsible for preventing cross contamination of the Earth by
Speaker 1: space based organisms and vice versa. Even specific foods used
Speaker 1: to have their own agency. In eight seven, the Board
Speaker 1: of Tea Experts was formed to make sure any tea
Speaker 1: imported into the United States met specific guidelines for public consumption.
Speaker 1: The members of the organization assembled for two days each
Speaker 1: year to sample a variety of tea. Their findings were
Speaker 1: then sent to the FDA, which used the tasting notes
Speaker 1: as a rubric for which to judge all imported tea.
Speaker 1: But perhaps the strangest government agency of all was the
Speaker 1: International Board of Hygiene, formed in nineteen six. It was
Speaker 1: created by Honorable J. Fortescue, a prominent surgeon from San Diego, California.
Speaker 1: The members, all doctors and physicians, almost never met within
Speaker 1: the United States itself, choosing to hold their meetings all
Speaker 1: over the world, and unlike other government organizations, those who
Speaker 1: joined were not assigned to their stations. Anyone could become
Speaker 1: a member for life simply by attending a single meeting.
Speaker 1: Fortescue sent the League of Nations a formal proposal for membership,
Speaker 1: which was accepted several weeks later. As the years went on,
Speaker 1: interest in the Board grew among the other agencies, especially
Speaker 1: where its elusive founder was concerned. He was invited to
Speaker 1: join other groups, including the American Conference on Hospital Service,
Speaker 1: and he was added to a government list of child psychologists,
Speaker 1: although that wasn't part of his medical background. Over time,
Speaker 1: Fortescue worked his way up the ladder of success, winning
Speaker 1: prizes and getting published in numerous journals. He traveled the
Speaker 1: world as part of work with the Board of Hygiene
Speaker 1: and invited anyone he thought would benefit from membership to join.
Speaker 1: The organization grew by leaps and bounds thanks to Fortescue's work.
Speaker 1: He was revered all over the world until his untimely
Speaker 1: death in nineteen sixty three. Except his death wasn't that untimely.
Speaker 1: The Honorable J. Fortescue never really died because he never
Speaker 1: really lived. Fortescue was the creation of Dr Ross and Piccard,
Speaker 1: pathologist who really was from San Diego. He and a
Speaker 1: group of fellow doctors like to get together and knock
Speaker 1: back a few drinks at a local turf bar during
Speaker 1: the Prohibition, and one day Piccard and his buddies came
Speaker 1: up with the persona of the Honorable J. Fortescue and
Speaker 1: his new agency, the International Board of Hygiene. From there,
Speaker 1: the surgeon took on a life of his own. What
Speaker 1: started out as a harmless joke eventually became a formally
Speaker 1: recognized organization by the League of Nations and its founder
Speaker 1: a sudden celebrity throughout the medical profession. Fortescue's name wound
Speaker 1: up in a nineteen thirty six edition of Who's Who
Speaker 1: in San Diego. His backstory grew to include a lengthy
Speaker 1: stay in Paris, as well as author credits on articles
Speaker 1: penned by Piccard himself. None of the other founding members
Speaker 1: made as big as splash as Fortescue, who remained an
Speaker 1: enigma until after Piccard's death in nineteen sixty three. For years,
Speaker 1: everyone believed the International Board of Hygiene was a real
Speaker 1: agency focused on promoting good health and commenting on everything
Speaker 1: from proper vitamin regimen to polio. As a side note,
Speaker 1: Fortescue was also the only fake winner of the very
Speaker 1: real Fleishman Prize, an essay contest held by the Fleishman
Speaker 1: Yeast Company each year, his prize ten thousand dollars. No
Speaker 1: matter how outlandish piccards hijinks were, no one ever figured
Speaker 1: that the International Board of Hygiene wasn't real. They assumed
Speaker 1: it was just one more obscure government agency, which means
Speaker 1: we should all probably re examine the real ones, just
Speaker 1: to make sure. Many of our favorite foods can be
Speaker 1: traced back to unusual origins. For example, in nineteen oh five,
Speaker 1: eleven year old Frank Epperson left a cup of powdered
Speaker 1: soda and water outside his house one winter night. The
Speaker 1: next morning, he woke up to find the solution had
Speaker 1: frozen and the mixing stick he left in was now
Speaker 1: stuck in the middle. By running the cup under hot water,
Speaker 1: he was able to pull the icy treat free. He
Speaker 1: called it an epsicle. Over the years, Frank kept freezing
Speaker 1: water and powdered sodas for his friends. By the time
Speaker 1: he became a father himself, his children suggested renaming them
Speaker 1: from epsicles to popsicles, a mixture of the words pops
Speaker 1: and sickles. He patented the name in nineteen three, and
Speaker 1: two years later popsicles were in grocery stores all over America.
Speaker 1: But some things don't have such wholesome, delicious beginnings. In
Speaker 1: Dawson City, Yukon, there is a drink unlike any other.
Speaker 1: It all started in the nineteen twenties with bootleggers Louis
Speaker 1: and Otto Lin. A blizzard had moved in while the
Speaker 1: brother as were on their way back from a delivery. Louis,
Speaker 1: unable to see where he was going, stepped through a
Speaker 1: thin patch of ice and got his foot wet, the
Speaker 1: temperature outside dropped considerably, and by the time they made
Speaker 1: it home to their cabin, Louie's foot was frozen. One
Speaker 1: of his toes had become badly frost bitten and at
Speaker 1: risk of turning. Gangrenus Otto, thinking on his feet, so
Speaker 1: to speak, pulled out his axe and chopped off the toe.
Speaker 1: Then he poured some alcohol into a jar and dropped
Speaker 1: the toe inside, a trophy for his heroic actions. Fifty
Speaker 1: years later, Captain Dick Stevenson was cleaning the cabin when
Speaker 1: he came upon the jar. Rather than throw it out
Speaker 1: or donate it to a local university, Stevenson opted to
Speaker 1: do something a little more adventurous. He carried it down
Speaker 1: to the local bar, the Sour Dough Saloon, and created
Speaker 1: the Sour Toe Cocktail Club. Membership could only be obtained
Speaker 1: one way, by consuming a drink with the toe in
Speaker 1: the glass. As Stevenson put it, you can drink it fast,
Speaker 1: you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch
Speaker 1: that gnarly toe. He would go around asking to fellow
Speaker 1: patrons wanted membership in his club, at which point he
Speaker 1: would drop the toe into their drinks. Lichens Severed Toe
Speaker 1: made the rounds for almost a decade until in July
Speaker 1: of that year. Gary Younger, an eager member of the
Speaker 1: Sour Toe Cocktail Club, was going for a record. He
Speaker 1: had already consumed twelve glasses of Sour Toe champagne and
Speaker 1: was about to finish his thirteen when he leaned back
Speaker 1: a little too far in his chair and fell over,
Speaker 1: swallowing the toe. It seemed the membership to the club
Speaker 1: was done for good, but people are resourceful and morbid.
Speaker 1: Over the last forty years, the Sour Dough Saloon has
Speaker 1: welcomed the additional seven toes through their doors. Some were
Speaker 1: the result of frostbite like lichens, while others came from
Speaker 1: botched surgeries and amputations due to diabetes complications. In one case,
Speaker 1: a toe was donated with a note that read, don't
Speaker 1: wear open toad sandals while mowing the lawn. Two came
Speaker 1: for him an older man who just wanted to reward
Speaker 1: the nurses taking care of him with a few drinks.
Speaker 1: And along with the random toes also came new fines
Speaker 1: from the town which were aimed at preventing such a
Speaker 1: gross pastime from continuing. In the summer of two thousand,
Speaker 1: a tourist from New Orleans ordered a sour toe shot
Speaker 1: and swallowed the toe with it. Doing so cost him
Speaker 1: five and a lot more. Apparently, his little stunt angered
Speaker 1: the locals, who chased him out of town and banned
Speaker 1: him from the bar. Since then, the fine has been
Speaker 1: increased to that might seem steep to most people, But
Speaker 1: somewhere out there is a person looking for one more thrill,
Speaker 1: one more way to stand out from the crowd, someone
Speaker 1: who will happily foot the bill. I hope you've enjoyed
Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show
Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
Speaker 1: by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore
Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,