1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:27,560
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to

2
00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:30,800
Speaker 1: the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much

3
00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:33,360
Speaker 1: for tuning in. Let's give a big shout out to

4
00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:37,960
Speaker 1: our super producer, Max Encyclopedia Brown Williams, Shamon Lamedinga.

5
00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:39,919
Speaker 2: I am here, Yes you are.

6
00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:43,319
Speaker 1: I am Ben Bullen, joined as always with the Man,

7
00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:47,200
Speaker 1: the Myth, the Legend, mister Noel Brown, returning from adventures

8
00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:48,239
Speaker 1: on Distant Shores.

9
00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:50,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, that didn't quite make well, you know, I did

10
00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:52,800
Speaker 3: you know what I did do? I was I got

11
00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:57,600
Speaker 3: a lovely tour around foggy, foggy Malibu. I saw Shares House.

12
00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:00,760
Speaker 3: It was pretty cool, if shrouded in far and I

13
00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:03,720
Speaker 3: ate fish and chips at a really cool old divy

14
00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:06,360
Speaker 3: biker hangout called Neptune's Net.

15
00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:08,560
Speaker 1: I love a good fish and chips close to.

16
00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:10,240
Speaker 3: The shore as I got them. But it was a

17
00:01:10,319 --> 00:01:12,200
Speaker 3: nice time. I got to go to the Magic Castle

18
00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:15,240
Speaker 3: of an Evening, which I had been once before during

19
00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:18,399
Speaker 3: the daytime, and which is a kid friendly and it

20
00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:20,840
Speaker 3: was a hoot. I tipped the player piano and had

21
00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:25,000
Speaker 3: it play Gangster's Paradise irma the famous Well it's not.

22
00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:26,360
Speaker 1: A player Piano. RMA is a ghost.

23
00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:29,639
Speaker 3: I was actually scolded for calling it a player piano

24
00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:31,080
Speaker 3: because it is in fact a ghost.

25
00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:34,200
Speaker 1: Arm as a ghost. That was neat. It'll She'll play

26
00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:36,000
Speaker 1: any song you want for the right price.

27
00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:38,680
Speaker 3: I actually tipped twenty bucks and then got a second

28
00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:41,320
Speaker 3: request a little later, which was be My Baby by

29
00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:43,840
Speaker 3: the Ronnets. It was a good time classic follow up

30
00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:47,000
Speaker 3: to Gangster's Paradise. So I think I used to have

31
00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:48,200
Speaker 3: a I was.

32
00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:52,080
Speaker 1: Having a lot of weird word adventures. There's a natural

33
00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:55,480
Speaker 1: segue here. Yeah, we ran into it haunted. I was

34
00:01:56,320 --> 00:02:03,960
Speaker 1: writing the Worcestershire Research and eventually the term lost all meanings.

35
00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:07,200
Speaker 1: Smantic saciations when you just say a word repeatedly, no

36
00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:09,840
Speaker 1: matter what it is, after a certain threshold, it just

37
00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:12,400
Speaker 1: becomes like a meaningless jumble of sounds in your mouth.

38
00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:14,320
Speaker 3: Oh but you know, you know one way to get

39
00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:16,600
Speaker 3: over that is pronounce it differently every time.

40
00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:19,040
Speaker 1: Oh that's cool, that's a good idea. I mean, that's

41
00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:19,640
Speaker 1: kind of what we did.

42
00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:21,440
Speaker 3: I think that's why maybe we said it so many

43
00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:23,320
Speaker 3: times throughout the course of that episode.

44
00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:27,880
Speaker 1: Right, It's funny because you know, we all cook a lot,

45
00:02:27,919 --> 00:02:31,079
Speaker 1: and so after we recorded that I went, I was,

46
00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:35,200
Speaker 1: I was prepping to make some dinner stuff and I

47
00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:37,520
Speaker 1: had to add the Worcester shirt and I thought, how

48
00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:41,960
Speaker 1: crazy man the English language. This is something we've all accepted.

49
00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:45,919
Speaker 1: And that's where we go to today's episode. No, there's

50
00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:48,440
Speaker 1: something you Max and I have been talking about quite

51
00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:52,240
Speaker 1: often off air and a little bit on air. One

52
00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:57,440
Speaker 1: of our favorite sources to site is the Encyclopedia Britannica.

53
00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:03,480
Speaker 3: Right, Alas not the hard copies because it's twenty twenty

54
00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:07,800
Speaker 3: four and those have unfortunately become a relic of the

55
00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:09,880
Speaker 3: past and now everything's online.

56
00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:14,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there are fascinating stories about this. This is

57
00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:17,720
Speaker 1: a little bit of a meta exploration. As a research associate,

58
00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:20,960
Speaker 1: Max said, we're studying the history of history books and

59
00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:28,519
Speaker 1: reference works because the Encyclopedia wasn't always around. We can

60
00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:32,160
Speaker 1: start at the beginning. One of the best sources on

61
00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:37,360
Speaker 1: the Encyclopedia Britannica is wait for it, can you guess?

62
00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,800
Speaker 1: Is it? The Encyclopedia Britannica nailed it? Nailed it? Hey,

63
00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:47,960
Speaker 1: so absolutely. It's if we look at the people writing

64
00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:51,920
Speaker 1: for Encyclopedia Britannic on their self same article, we see

65
00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:55,560
Speaker 1: three authors Michael Levy, Donald D. Stewart, and Christopher Hardy

66
00:03:55,680 --> 00:03:58,520
Speaker 1: Wise Kent point out, Yeah, yeah.

67
00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:00,600
Speaker 3: That's I mean, I mean that a good positive. That's

68
00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:02,080
Speaker 3: that's a very powerful name.

69
00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:07,360
Speaker 1: They say this is the Oldish General Language Encyclopedia in English.

70
00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:08,000
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.

71
00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:09,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, makes sense with a name like that.

72
00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:13,400
Speaker 3: Originally it had a bit of a fancier name spelling

73
00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:17,320
Speaker 3: at the very least it was the encyclop Pedia, but

74
00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:20,640
Speaker 3: probably still pronounced pdia. But it's that cool AE hyphen

75
00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:22,760
Speaker 3: it kind of letter that squishes them together like in

76
00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:23,520
Speaker 3: a tool album.

77
00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:27,280
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah, there's a name for that. It's

78
00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:32,479
Speaker 1: it's the character. It's the Latin diphthong. That's the one.

79
00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:34,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was gonna say, is it the schwa? I

80
00:04:34,720 --> 00:04:38,279
Speaker 3: never really know the diphthong. Well, it diphthong is a

81
00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:42,680
Speaker 3: type of thing. This is just Latin gliding vowel and hey,

82
00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:46,440
Speaker 3: uh hot tip pro tip if you're trying to make

83
00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:49,359
Speaker 3: some cool death metal text in your phone, if you

84
00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:52,080
Speaker 3: hold down on the letter, it gives you a drop

85
00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:55,600
Speaker 3: down menu have all of the weird extra versions of

86
00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:58,039
Speaker 3: that letter. So I think you can get this AE

87
00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:01,800
Speaker 3: one by holding down on the I would.

88
00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:03,479
Speaker 1: Have it will help you also with till days with

89
00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:06,400
Speaker 1: accent marks and um lauts.

90
00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:09,040
Speaker 3: If it's a power user trick and not everybody knows it,

91
00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:10,840
Speaker 3: maybe everybody does know it at this point. But when

92
00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:12,880
Speaker 3: I learned it, I learned it from my kid, which

93
00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:15,599
Speaker 3: says something probably, but I thought it was a really cool,

94
00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:16,120
Speaker 3: cool trick.

95
00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:18,599
Speaker 1: I learned it when I was trying to text one

96
00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:22,640
Speaker 1: night friends who primarily speak Spanish, and I thought that

97
00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:26,080
Speaker 1: I had been hacked exactly because I held the E

98
00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:29,360
Speaker 1: down too long. I was like, wait a second. It's

99
00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:32,320
Speaker 1: like when you find out a transformer has another function,

100
00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:35,479
Speaker 1: you know, the transformerschoice. You weren't seeing the final form

101
00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:39,240
Speaker 1: at all, exactly. And the Encyclopedia Britannica took a while

102
00:05:39,279 --> 00:05:42,400
Speaker 1: to reach its final form. Was first published in seventeen

103
00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:47,680
Speaker 1: sixty eight and it started reaching the masses in Edinburgh, Scotland.

104
00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:51,920
Speaker 1: And since its founding it's been a kind of pro

105
00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:56,280
Speaker 1: to Wikipedia, much more heavily vetted, but they crowdsource right

106
00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:58,839
Speaker 1: outside experts and then in house editors.

107
00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:02,400
Speaker 3: Yeah again, I haven't put my hands on a real copy.

108
00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:04,000
Speaker 3: And we're going to get into the whole history of

109
00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:07,320
Speaker 3: that and the salesmanship of it all. But what were

110
00:06:07,320 --> 00:06:10,600
Speaker 3: the citations? Do you guys remember what the citations read

111
00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:13,080
Speaker 3: like in the physical Encyclopedia Britannicas.

112
00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:17,520
Speaker 4: It would depend on which era, So the earliest stuff

113
00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:23,280
Speaker 4: would generally only reference the editors, but later on it'd

114
00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:24,920
Speaker 4: be like, this article is written by this person, but

115
00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:27,880
Speaker 4: then the editors would edit the entire thing, got it.

116
00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:29,479
Speaker 4: There was so many different diditions of it too, that

117
00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:30,960
Speaker 4: it changed a lot throughout the history.

118
00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:34,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you're looking at things like if you're

119
00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:38,159
Speaker 1: looking for something like the usage case of the linguistic thing,

120
00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:41,240
Speaker 1: that'll be in there. But you know, we all recognize

121
00:06:41,279 --> 00:06:45,760
Speaker 1: these articles. It's something like case ADA being a sandwich

122
00:06:45,839 --> 00:06:49,279
Speaker 1: form from blah blah blah originating from and they've got

123
00:06:49,320 --> 00:06:52,479
Speaker 1: the etymology or whatever. We don't know. We haven't read

124
00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:55,200
Speaker 1: the case of DA article, but we do know that

125
00:06:55,880 --> 00:07:01,719
Speaker 1: in general, throughout its different iterations, the Britannica had one

126
00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:06,279
Speaker 1: thing in common with every version the entries and almost

127
00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:10,600
Speaker 1: said entrees. The entries are fact checked, edited and copy

128
00:07:10,760 --> 00:07:14,680
Speaker 1: edited by those in house editors, and that is all

129
00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:20,200
Speaker 1: to maintain accuracy and interestingly enough readability. Because you know,

130
00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:23,480
Speaker 1: we've talked with a lot of subject matter experts, and

131
00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:29,160
Speaker 1: sometimes they can be a bit a bit esoteric. I

132
00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:30,520
Speaker 1: was going to say the same thing, man.

133
00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:33,800
Speaker 3: I think the thing that sets Britannica apart from a

134
00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:37,280
Speaker 3: lot of other kind of deep, divy researched homes is

135
00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:38,360
Speaker 3: its accessibility.

136
00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:41,600
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a really good point, Noel.

137
00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:45,720
Speaker 1: We can also go to the National Library of Scotland. Surprise,

138
00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:50,560
Speaker 1: the National Library likes to brag about the Encyclopedia Britannica.

139
00:07:50,840 --> 00:07:53,640
Speaker 1: They call it one of the enduring achievements of the

140
00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:54,800
Speaker 1: Scottish Enlightenment.

141
00:07:55,400 --> 00:07:57,960
Speaker 3: So to your point, Ben, it was first issued officially

142
00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:02,440
Speaker 3: in seventeen sixty eight with the sort of shorthand of Britannica,

143
00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:06,760
Speaker 3: which is very nationalistic. Let's just go right out and see.

144
00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:10,080
Speaker 3: It's like rural Britannia kind of vibes, you know, which

145
00:08:10,120 --> 00:08:11,360
Speaker 3: is absolutely cool.

146
00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:12,720
Speaker 1: They should own it and they do.

147
00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:17,000
Speaker 3: It was published by one Colin. Wow, I love it,

148
00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:21,040
Speaker 3: Colin mcfarquhar. Yes, I think that's right.

149
00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:23,000
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure that's right.

150
00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:26,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's that's good enough for government work.

151
00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:28,920
Speaker 1: I also like how it sounds like an obscure curse,

152
00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:31,520
Speaker 1: you know, Well.

153
00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:33,800
Speaker 3: There was a character in the Shrek movies. Remember Lord

154
00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:36,760
Speaker 3: Farquhar or far Quad. He was Fari was the little

155
00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:41,600
Speaker 3: fellow with the with the big the musical. It's great

156
00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:43,920
Speaker 3: because the guy that plays that character just walks around on.

157
00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:47,240
Speaker 1: His knees dances too. He's a he's a dancer full

158
00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:49,040
Speaker 1: It's a good effect. Yeah.

159
00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:53,360
Speaker 3: And then mcfarquhar was a printer, and he also you know,

160
00:08:53,400 --> 00:08:56,080
Speaker 3: if you're a printer, you need an engraver, And in

161
00:08:56,120 --> 00:09:00,040
Speaker 3: this case, Andrew Bell came to his aid and the

162
00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:03,160
Speaker 3: first edition was issued in it was like a weekly,

163
00:09:03,320 --> 00:09:06,160
Speaker 3: almost like a serie, one hundred weekly parts.

164
00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:09,480
Speaker 1: So you didn't it didn't come right out of the.

165
00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:12,440
Speaker 3: Gate with the massive tome that you once saw before you,

166
00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:14,719
Speaker 3: at least in terms of the what the door to

167
00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:15,200
Speaker 3: door sales.

168
00:09:15,280 --> 00:09:17,679
Speaker 1: It was like a really dirty comic book that later

169
00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:19,560
Speaker 1: got collected in trade edition.

170
00:09:20,200 --> 00:09:23,000
Speaker 3: So it took about three years for the full volume,

171
00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:25,480
Speaker 3: or at least a full volume to be produced, and

172
00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:27,920
Speaker 3: when it was completed in seventeen seventy one, it is

173
00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:30,480
Speaker 3: just three volumes actually, and we know, of course it

174
00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:32,720
Speaker 3: went on to consist of many more than that. Bell,

175
00:09:33,480 --> 00:09:37,120
Speaker 3: who had a very fine reputation as an engraver for

176
00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:41,680
Speaker 3: The Scots magazine, produced all one hundred and sixty copper

177
00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:42,640
Speaker 3: play illustrations.

178
00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:43,319
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.

179
00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:46,400
Speaker 3: Another thing that Britannica is known for having really cool

180
00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:50,520
Speaker 3: illustrations early on that went on to become really nice

181
00:09:50,520 --> 00:09:51,800
Speaker 3: full color photographs.

182
00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:56,880
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and also have become artifacts of history in

183
00:09:56,920 --> 00:10:00,920
Speaker 1: their own right. You know. Just I love diving into

184
00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:06,800
Speaker 1: the incredibly specific copper plates illustrations, the diagrams. The executive

185
00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:10,079
Speaker 1: editor of Britannica, whom Max has a little bit of

186
00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:14,280
Speaker 1: a crush on, is quoted in a December thirtieth, twenty

187
00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:18,920
Speaker 1: eighteen article with CBS News celebrating the two hundred and

188
00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:22,320
Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary of the Britannica and this guy, the executive

189
00:10:22,400 --> 00:10:26,400
Speaker 1: editor tem Pappas. He says Britannica did something unique. It

190
00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:32,679
Speaker 1: combined long scholarly essays with short, definitional entries and practical information.

191
00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:36,440
Speaker 1: There was also this is a funny story. In this interview,

192
00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:39,480
Speaker 1: he says, there was also a third person in addition

193
00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:44,839
Speaker 1: to mcfauquar and Bell who was responsible for the genesis

194
00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:51,120
Speaker 1: of this thing, a guy named William Smelli sne Llie. Sorry, Yeah,

195
00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:54,000
Speaker 1: he was sort of their Tyrian. He was very learned

196
00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:59,280
Speaker 1: and according to Papas, also had a quote wonderful capacity

197
00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:00,559
Speaker 1: for drinking.

198
00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:04,400
Speaker 3: Oh and perhaps with an accompanying odor, and perhaps, if

199
00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:08,960
Speaker 3: nominative determinism is to be believed, right, wonderful he drinks

200
00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,520
Speaker 3: and he knows things, and he's a little bit smelly.

201
00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:14,360
Speaker 1: Then we have three guys. Two of them have no

202
00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:18,160
Speaker 1: formal training. The one who does have formal training as

203
00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:21,200
Speaker 1: a man of letters and an editor, is you know,

204
00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:24,960
Speaker 1: he likes the sauce. He's a pretty saucy boy. So

205
00:11:25,080 --> 00:11:28,280
Speaker 1: the fact that they were able to actually bring this

206
00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:32,960
Speaker 1: wildly ambitious work into the real world is pretty fascinating.

207
00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:38,959
Speaker 1: But they also had, you know, with the benefit of retrospect,

208
00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:41,280
Speaker 1: we can see that they had some times where they

209
00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:44,280
Speaker 1: played jazz a little bit. They made some educated guesses.

210
00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:46,160
Speaker 3: Well that's the thing though, And you know, and I

211
00:11:46,600 --> 00:11:48,760
Speaker 3: hear you, and maybe you could easily look at that

212
00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:53,880
Speaker 3: and be like, ooh, not necessarily the most highly vetted,

213
00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:58,720
Speaker 3: most let's just say, illustrious of sources, you know. But

214
00:11:58,880 --> 00:12:01,719
Speaker 3: I think the fact that it kind of came from

215
00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:06,240
Speaker 3: curious people is interesting because I mean, that's sort of

216
00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:08,320
Speaker 3: our whole thing here. Our ridiculous history is we're not

217
00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:11,360
Speaker 3: what you'd call experts per se, but if anything, we

218
00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:16,280
Speaker 3: are just professionally curious, and I think that oftentimes leads

219
00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:19,679
Speaker 3: to some interesting discoveries that maybe might not even be made,

220
00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:22,320
Speaker 3: or questions that might not even be asked by the

221
00:12:22,400 --> 00:12:28,400
Speaker 3: more you know academic of types agreed, I am agreed.

222
00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:29,560
Speaker 2: The more smelly of types.

223
00:12:29,640 --> 00:12:35,600
Speaker 1: Indeed, I am a great disciple of an evangelizer for curiosity.

224
00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:38,640
Speaker 1: It's one of the most amazing parts of the human experience.

225
00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:42,920
Speaker 1: And so you know, we forgive the foibles we have to.

226
00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:47,360
Speaker 1: You know, if you read the seventeen sixty eight edition,

227
00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:50,199
Speaker 1: you see that they've added an extra L to the

228
00:12:50,280 --> 00:12:54,559
Speaker 1: name of California and gotten some you know, some facts

229
00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:57,360
Speaker 1: about that a little bit incorrect. They didn't know if

230
00:12:57,400 --> 00:13:00,520
Speaker 1: it was a peninsula or an island. It's maybe it's

231
00:13:00,559 --> 00:13:03,000
Speaker 1: easy for people to scoff at that, but I would

232
00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:07,520
Speaker 1: also ask, where's your encyclopedia? Well, you know, show us

233
00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:11,199
Speaker 1: your encyclopedia where you wrote one. Oh wait, did you not?

234
00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:15,720
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? So they these guys also,

235
00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:20,599
Speaker 1: they're so hungry, they've got such a drive, and curiosity

236
00:13:20,679 --> 00:13:22,600
Speaker 1: is at the core of their mission, the idea that

237
00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:27,160
Speaker 1: the world is both understandable and worth understanding. They after

238
00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:30,160
Speaker 1: they release this thing, they take like a little bit

239
00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:32,120
Speaker 1: of time off and then they start working on the

240
00:13:32,160 --> 00:13:36,439
Speaker 1: second edition, which is even more ambitious.

241
00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:45,960
Speaker 3: So I have a question in these days, are these

242
00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:53,200
Speaker 3: additions alphabetical per volume? Are they covering different source, different

243
00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:56,280
Speaker 3: subject matter material? Is this meant to be a compendium

244
00:13:56,559 --> 00:13:59,040
Speaker 3: of all things? Because in my knowledge of the Encyclopedter

245
00:13:59,080 --> 00:14:01,240
Speaker 3: Britannica from back in the day was that you had

246
00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:03,199
Speaker 3: your a's and your B and your C and your D.

247
00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:04,840
Speaker 2: They better not have that.

248
00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:06,400
Speaker 4: Yeah, So at this point it was like, these are

249
00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:09,280
Speaker 4: things that we think is important, like people like uh,

250
00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:12,560
Speaker 4: they had like a I think a thirty page article

251
00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:15,960
Speaker 4: about smoke, right, how smoke? It was a lot of things,

252
00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:18,360
Speaker 4: and it was interesting like they had a couple of

253
00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:20,360
Speaker 4: chapters that were shorter than they would also have like

254
00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:22,920
Speaker 4: just random writings that weren't titled, that were like longer

255
00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:23,600
Speaker 4: than chapters, and.

256
00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:27,920
Speaker 1: Just like it was an intrigued scientific thought, philosophical stuff,

257
00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:31,480
Speaker 1: the nature of famous works of art, you know, they

258
00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:37,640
Speaker 1: did they were aiming to be as comprehensive as possible,

259
00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:40,120
Speaker 1: but going into it. They knew that they wouldn't be

260
00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:43,560
Speaker 1: able to include everything, so it was not as it

261
00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:47,560
Speaker 1: was not as comprehensive as later versions, and perhaps that's

262
00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:51,320
Speaker 1: why they so quickly got to make in the second edition.

263
00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:54,640
Speaker 1: This the first one, like we said, three volumes, the

264
00:14:54,680 --> 00:15:01,680
Speaker 1: second one ten volumes, nine thousand pages according to the scuttle,

265
00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:05,600
Speaker 1: but people generally believe the first edition had two three

266
00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:09,680
Speaker 1: and ninety one pages. So this is explosive growth.

267
00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:12,440
Speaker 3: And surely, despite you know, there may be having been

268
00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:15,120
Speaker 3: some issues with the facts in some of these first volumes,

269
00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:18,280
Speaker 3: these are highly sought after collectibles. I can only imagine

270
00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:19,960
Speaker 3: they're worth a pretty penny.

271
00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:22,920
Speaker 1: Oh sure, yeah, and could you even put a price

272
00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:28,040
Speaker 1: on owning that that part of history. I'm sure places

273
00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:30,280
Speaker 1: like Sopha Bees do they tried to do something.

274
00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:32,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, we should do the best of their ability.

275
00:15:32,240 --> 00:15:35,320
Speaker 1: We should. Definitely, we should do a history of auction houses.

276
00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:35,960
Speaker 1: That'd be great.

277
00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:38,520
Speaker 3: That's a really, really good idea. I'm making a mental

278
00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:40,360
Speaker 3: note of that. Yeah, I'm sure Max is making a

279
00:15:40,360 --> 00:15:43,000
Speaker 3: physical note of that. That's really cool.

280
00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:44,040
Speaker 1: No, it is.

281
00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:45,840
Speaker 3: You always ask like, how can you put a price

282
00:15:45,920 --> 00:15:48,040
Speaker 3: on this? Well, somebody can, and it's literally their job

283
00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:51,440
Speaker 3: and it has been a historical occupation. But no, the

284
00:15:51,480 --> 00:15:56,440
Speaker 3: second edition is when the editor James Tyler, but with

285
00:15:56,480 --> 00:16:01,360
Speaker 3: two teas for no good reason. No good reason there,

286
00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:03,840
Speaker 3: let's just throw a second silent tea in there, just

287
00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:05,920
Speaker 3: to juz it up a little bit. He joined the

288
00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:10,920
Speaker 3: family and the second edition went well beyond the aforementioned

289
00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:14,840
Speaker 3: scope of simply arts and science. They wanted to take

290
00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:18,040
Speaker 3: it much larger in scope, which is why Smelly whose

291
00:16:18,120 --> 00:16:21,000
Speaker 3: name will never not give me a chuckle, he didn't

292
00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:26,400
Speaker 3: care for including biographical material, so he actually opted out

293
00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:28,360
Speaker 3: of being the editor because he felt like they were

294
00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:33,400
Speaker 3: going against his particular philosophy of what these volumes should consist.

295
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:36,480
Speaker 1: Of, right, which is largely what we will call stem

296
00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:42,720
Speaker 1: knowledge and maybe classical arts. But the idea was, look,

297
00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:46,320
Speaker 1: I don't want this to fall into I don't want

298
00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:51,400
Speaker 1: this to be eroded into like meandering jeremiads about tamer

299
00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:56,320
Speaker 1: Lane or something, and this I'm sorry jeremiads. Yeah, jeremiad

300
00:16:56,480 --> 00:16:58,760
Speaker 1: is a word for a long complaint.

301
00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:03,400
Speaker 3: That's because like, how are people named jeremiahs supposed to

302
00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:03,960
Speaker 3: feel about this?

303
00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:07,560
Speaker 1: They know what they did, I guess they do, so

304
00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:11,000
Speaker 1: it's like a bitter lament. It's it's a sad story.

305
00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:14,439
Speaker 3: I'm adding that to my list of esoteric words to

306
00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:15,400
Speaker 3: throw around at party.

307
00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:19,040
Speaker 1: Bear me your Jeremiah's. And they're saying, and I just

308
00:17:19,119 --> 00:17:22,680
Speaker 1: didn't like the live action death note, And yeah, I said,

309
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:23,359
Speaker 1: good day.

310
00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:25,720
Speaker 3: Oh, the live action death note was quite bad.

311
00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:28,720
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it, you did, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed

312
00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:29,119
Speaker 1: parts of it.

313
00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:31,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, I enjoyed parts of it, I suppose, But overall

314
00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:33,400
Speaker 3: it just seemed a little a little flabby. And see,

315
00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:35,440
Speaker 3: mine was the opposite of a Jeremiah, which is a

316
00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:39,760
Speaker 3: very pithy complaint. The live action death note was quite bad.

317
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:42,200
Speaker 3: Moving on, So moving.

318
00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:47,760
Speaker 1: On, James Tyler, whose name may not be a typo.

319
00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:51,919
Speaker 1: We're not quite sure, because again, yeah t t y

320
00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:55,080
Speaker 1: l e R we are oh t t y l

321
00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:57,000
Speaker 1: e R. He's a talk.

322
00:17:56,880 --> 00:17:59,640
Speaker 3: To let's keep going. We don't have to waste quite yet.

323
00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:01,320
Speaker 3: He's a talk to you later.

324
00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:05,920
Speaker 1: This name may have been a typo. I mean, these

325
00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:08,760
Speaker 1: are the same people who, not too long ago, at

326
00:18:08,800 --> 00:18:11,359
Speaker 1: this point spelled California with two l's.

327
00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:16,680
Speaker 3: But he as Anthony Keitas intended, right, he is.

328
00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:23,159
Speaker 1: He doesn't get the best description from the Britannic itself

329
00:18:23,359 --> 00:18:29,480
Speaker 1: and from the from contemporaries like the Scottish poet Robert Burns,

330
00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:31,919
Speaker 1: most famous for Burns Day. At the time when the

331
00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:38,800
Speaker 1: world and nerds hagis, Robert Burns described him as an obscure, tippling,

332
00:18:39,119 --> 00:18:44,080
Speaker 1: but extraordinary body. And Britannica themselves says this James Tyler

333
00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:48,280
Speaker 1: guy was a brilliant but penniless polymath, like, hey man,

334
00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:50,639
Speaker 1: why are you so good at numbers? But you're so broke.

335
00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:52,960
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I did really well on the

336
00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:55,080
Speaker 3: verbal part of the set and not so well on

337
00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:55,560
Speaker 3: the math.

338
00:18:56,200 --> 00:19:01,800
Speaker 1: So they also in Britannica they note that James T.

339
00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:08,399
Speaker 1: Tyler was outlawed for printing a seditious handbill and he

340
00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:11,840
Speaker 1: died in Salem, Massachusetts because of his zene.

341
00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:15,760
Speaker 3: Because but they didn't suspect him of witchcraft or anything.

342
00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:19,919
Speaker 3: Did The Salem, Massachusetts is just a coincidence. Just edition, Okay,

343
00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:25,160
Speaker 3: fair enough, just edition. So onward into expanding this volume.

344
00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:29,600
Speaker 3: This ragtag crew went releasing the third edition between seventeen

345
00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:34,000
Speaker 3: eighty eight and seventeen ninety seven, upping the number of

346
00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:39,280
Speaker 3: additions to eighteen and fourteen thousand, five hundred and seventy

347
00:19:39,359 --> 00:19:43,400
Speaker 3: nine pages. We're that we're quickly approaching what some might

348
00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:45,040
Speaker 3: call a ponderous tome.

349
00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:50,960
Speaker 1: Do like a ponderous tome? Yeah, this is getting unwieldy, right.

350
00:19:51,760 --> 00:19:56,680
Speaker 1: This edition is edited by MEFA. Kwar, but he passes

351
00:19:56,720 --> 00:20:01,800
Speaker 1: away in seventeen ninety three and they have another guy,

352
00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:06,120
Speaker 1: a clergyman named George Gleig, take over the work. The

353
00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:12,520
Speaker 1: third edition does something that is enormous for Britannica. They

354
00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:16,520
Speaker 1: give recognition to the authors who are writing a lot

355
00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:21,240
Speaker 1: of this. They used to just print a list of publications, right,

356
00:20:21,560 --> 00:20:25,080
Speaker 1: we got this from you know, our version of Town

357
00:20:25,119 --> 00:20:28,280
Speaker 1: and Country. But the third edition has a preface where

358
00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:30,480
Speaker 1: it names the chief contributors.

359
00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:31,800
Speaker 2: This means that you.

360
00:20:31,760 --> 00:20:37,159
Speaker 1: Can see the authors of these things and you also,

361
00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:40,439
Speaker 1: because copyright law is very different back then, they also

362
00:20:40,560 --> 00:20:44,000
Speaker 1: still just reprinted stuff that they got from other books.

363
00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:47,600
Speaker 3: So there was a bit a cutt and pa no citation.

364
00:20:48,359 --> 00:20:50,880
Speaker 1: I think they did cite the books. Okay, okay, cool

365
00:20:51,359 --> 00:20:54,520
Speaker 1: fair news like this is from this is a description

366
00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:58,159
Speaker 1: of auras from Twilight or whatever. Gotcha.

367
00:20:58,440 --> 00:21:01,360
Speaker 3: This is a reprinting of the Rix to Amber by

368
00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:04,560
Speaker 3: the seminal nineties rap rock band three.

369
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:09,399
Speaker 1: Eleven right, right, and at this point Britannica notes that

370
00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:12,520
Speaker 1: things are taking off. They sold ten thousand copies of

371
00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:17,000
Speaker 1: the third edition and the profit for the original two

372
00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:21,920
Speaker 1: creators Bell and mcfaukuhar was forty two thousand pounds. If

373
00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:24,600
Speaker 1: we want inflation, calculate that we do have the number

374
00:21:24,800 --> 00:21:31,439
Speaker 1: and a boot hoop boop five million, six hundred and

375
00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:36,120
Speaker 1: five thousand, nine hundred ninety nine dollars and sixty two

376
00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:38,040
Speaker 1: cents today.

377
00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:42,560
Speaker 4: With a very large margin of error because going modern

378
00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:45,240
Speaker 4: day to this period time and changing from pounds to

379
00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:47,160
Speaker 4: dollars not great.

380
00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:48,800
Speaker 1: It was a lot of money, is what we're saying.

381
00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:51,400
Speaker 1: These kids, we were basically set for life.

382
00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:53,440
Speaker 3: Except for line. I was about to say, that's borderline

383
00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:57,080
Speaker 3: retirement money. I would say, depending on your what kind

384
00:21:57,080 --> 00:21:58,320
Speaker 3: of lifestyle you choose to live.

385
00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:00,600
Speaker 1: That's like for breeze people.

386
00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:03,159
Speaker 3: Surely, I think so, that's I would the excirement right,

387
00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:04,840
Speaker 3: I think it would be, yes, correct, This is so

388
00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:06,879
Speaker 3: hard hard to say these days, with the price of

389
00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:07,679
Speaker 3: eggs going through.

390
00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:09,760
Speaker 1: The price of caviar spoons alone.

391
00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:14,000
Speaker 3: Indeed, the nineteenth century was, of course a time of

392
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:17,119
Speaker 3: great growth and expansion throughout the world, you know, in

393
00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:21,000
Speaker 3: terms of you know, science and technology, and just an

394
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:25,960
Speaker 3: exponential movement of ideas and things. Therefore the encyclopedia had

395
00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:29,840
Speaker 3: to keep up. A big change was with a growing

396
00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:35,959
Speaker 3: collection of archive writings that were becoming more readily available. Therefore,

397
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:39,000
Speaker 3: it took a lot less time to dig all this

398
00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:42,280
Speaker 3: stuff up right and to write new things, new kind

399
00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:45,919
Speaker 3: of hot takes. Yeah, because let's keep in mind in

400
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:48,280
Speaker 3: these early days, so we're still in the early days.

401
00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:52,520
Speaker 3: In these early days, these guys weren't you know, googling stuff.

402
00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:56,080
Speaker 3: They had to go find books, and these books were

403
00:22:56,119 --> 00:23:00,280
Speaker 3: not in infinite quantities, so you might have to us

404
00:23:00,359 --> 00:23:04,000
Speaker 3: go find the one library that has the one manuscript

405
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,840
Speaker 3: that you need because it's the best explanation of you know,

406
00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:11,600
Speaker 3: gravity or smoke. Right, So this is what they were

407
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:14,160
Speaker 3: working with. We want to be very clear. They were

408
00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:20,000
Speaker 3: doing hard, arduous research, and you know, we can we

409
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,080
Speaker 3: don't want to get too far in the weeds. But

410
00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:25,760
Speaker 3: they get the fifth edition in eighteen fifteen, it's a revision.

411
00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:29,120
Speaker 3: In the fourth edition, they started doing this thing where

412
00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:32,240
Speaker 3: they would publish corrections and the final volume of a

413
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:35,560
Speaker 3: collection when they were still doing it like on weekly disbursements.

414
00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:40,160
Speaker 3: Then they did the sixth edition, then they did the

415
00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:42,640
Speaker 3: fifth edition, then they did the you know, it goes

416
00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:47,040
Speaker 3: the eighth, ninth, tenth, twelfth, thirteenth. By this time we're

417
00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:51,240
Speaker 3: in you know, we're in the early twentieth century, and

418
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:58,160
Speaker 3: unbeknownst to many many people, except possibly some international banking interests,

419
00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:02,439
Speaker 3: Britannica and every business in the West was about to

420
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:06,640
Speaker 3: be a big, big trouble. Yeah, it was inevitable we

421
00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:09,040
Speaker 3: were going to get there. At the beginning of the

422
00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:14,200
Speaker 3: nineteen thirties, Britannica, much like everybody else on the planet,

423
00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:18,359
Speaker 3: fell a victim to the Great Depression.

424
00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:20,960
Speaker 1: We can't afford to a penny candy. How are we

425
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:24,200
Speaker 1: going to buy this encyclopedia set? Well, yeah, I mean

426
00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:27,240
Speaker 1: it just it makes you realize how much it's how

427
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:31,080
Speaker 1: easy it is to take for granted the acts of

428
00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:35,840
Speaker 1: the time, to access and ingest knowledge and to study.

429
00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:39,040
Speaker 3: It's not necessarily a survival pastime, if there are, I

430
00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:42,600
Speaker 3: don't think any survival things would qualify as pastimes. Those

431
00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:45,680
Speaker 3: are things that are meant to pass the time. Survival

432
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:50,960
Speaker 3: stuff is you know, food, shelter, water, protection from marauding

433
00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:54,840
Speaker 3: bands of roving cannibals or totally a thing. Yeah, a

434
00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 3: million percent. So not to mention that to own a book,

435
00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:04,159
Speaker 3: you know, let alone a massive volume or series of

436
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:07,240
Speaker 3: volumes of this kind of stuff, was a very privileged

437
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:08,080
Speaker 3: thing to be able to do.

438
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:11,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is. And you know, even if you

439
00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:15,800
Speaker 1: are a huge, diehard fan of knowledge and reading and learning,

440
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:20,119
Speaker 1: when it comes down to being able to either buy

441
00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:25,920
Speaker 1: food or water versus buying a book, most people worse,

442
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:28,040
Speaker 1: come to worse, are going to have to buy the

443
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:30,879
Speaker 1: food or water. It's an excellent point. The publisher at

444
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 1: the time resigns. Nineteen thirty two, the vice president of Sears,

445
00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 1: a guy named Elkin Harrison Powell check out our series episode,

446
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,600
Speaker 1: is chosen to replace him, even though he has no

447
00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:46,680
Speaker 1: publishing experience, and Powell brings something new to the game.

448
00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:52,919
Speaker 1: He says, We're going to do direct sales. Yes, direct sales,

449
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,960
Speaker 1: door to door, door to door, encyclopedia salesman. I gotta

450
00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:00,199
Speaker 1: tell you, I am so happy, you guys. Never you

451
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:03,920
Speaker 1: guys didn't see a lot of my on stage sketch comedy.

452
00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:06,920
Speaker 1: One of the dumbest sketches I ever wrote was door

453
00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:10,320
Speaker 1: to door door salesman. So it's a guy who goes

454
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:13,120
Speaker 1: door to door selling doors.

455
00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:15,800
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I mean there could you can make

456
00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:18,879
Speaker 3: a case for a door being in disrepair perhaps, you know,

457
00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:21,720
Speaker 3: and say, boy, do I have a solution for you.

458
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:22,960
Speaker 1: It might be it might be good.

459
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:26,280
Speaker 3: If he added doors and door accessories, though I think

460
00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:26,960
Speaker 3: it goes so.

461
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:30,400
Speaker 1: Far off the rails. He also sells doors themed doors,

462
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:34,840
Speaker 1: like Jim Morrison, so he's door to door doors door salesman,

463
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:36,320
Speaker 1: and that's fun.

464
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:39,240
Speaker 3: I have to say, though, you know, we we really

465
00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:42,160
Speaker 3: do think of this as kind of the golden age

466
00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:45,800
Speaker 3: of the Encyclopedia Britannic of simply by virtue of the

467
00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:48,680
Speaker 3: fact that most people, even if they don't really remember

468
00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 3: this time, which we don't directly, it became I think

469
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:55,879
Speaker 3: more mail order or you know, like a phone number

470
00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:56,240
Speaker 3: over a.

471
00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:58,240
Speaker 1: Blue screen on TV. Maybe when we were younger.

472
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:01,879
Speaker 3: The idea of the traveling salesmen, you know, or the

473
00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:04,879
Speaker 3: vacuum cleaner salesman who would do a demo for you,

474
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:08,760
Speaker 3: or you know, the encyclopedia salesman. It's such a golden

475
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:11,680
Speaker 3: kind of image of like Americana, you.

476
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:16,560
Speaker 1: Know, yeah, it's it's difficult to overstate just how common

477
00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:19,240
Speaker 1: door to door sales were, you know, and some of

478
00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:22,080
Speaker 1: these things continue today. But I think it's safe to

479
00:27:22,119 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: say in many parts of the United States, an unannounced

480
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:30,000
Speaker 1: visitor at your front door, especially a stranger, is not welcome,

481
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:33,600
Speaker 1: even people they know. I would assume that. I think

482
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:36,879
Speaker 1: we would all assume something was up if one of

483
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 1: us just showed up at the other one's house unannounced.

484
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:41,800
Speaker 1: Because we can text each other, we could do a

485
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:44,320
Speaker 1: phone call. If even if I get a phone call,

486
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:48,080
Speaker 1: I'm concerned. I assume someone has died, right a phone call.

487
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:49,960
Speaker 1: If you showed up at my I mean, I have

488
00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:52,000
Speaker 1: you guys back. But if either of you showed up

489
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:55,159
Speaker 1: at my house unannounced, I would be like, get the fuckin,

490
00:27:55,560 --> 00:28:00,680
Speaker 1: turn off your phone. Are the cops involved yet? Exactly? Yeah?

491
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:02,520
Speaker 3: Where where do we need to? Where's the body?

492
00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:05,720
Speaker 1: Where are we going? I'm pulling up the Delta app now?

493
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,560
Speaker 1: Or are we just going off the grid? Exactly?

494
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:11,880
Speaker 3: But you know, it makes sense though that the Seers

495
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 3: guy sort of spearheaded this.

496
00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:14,200
Speaker 1: Yeah.

497
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:18,040
Speaker 3: Sears also is famous for their catalog and kind of

498
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:20,880
Speaker 3: creating this image of exactly what I was just describing.

499
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:23,560
Speaker 3: That kind of American dream sort of bliss, you know,

500
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:26,159
Speaker 3: the hell they had like a whole house kit that

501
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 3: you could buy and build the symbol yourself.

502
00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:32,959
Speaker 1: I would say. There's also another great contribution the Powell

503
00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: makes to the Britannica. He says, look, we are going

504
00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 1: to engage in continual revision. So instead of completely resetting

505
00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:47,400
Speaker 1: additions at long intervals, they're going to print a new

506
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: version of the encyclopedia every year, and with each printing

507
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:55,479
Speaker 1: they're going to assume that some percentage of material is

508
00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:57,680
Speaker 1: going to need to be updated, or they're going to

509
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:01,440
Speaker 1: need to add a new suddenly relevant a piece of content,

510
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:05,440
Speaker 1: and everything else is just going to be reviewed annually

511
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:09,520
Speaker 1: until it's time to revise it, like new countries or something.

512
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:11,920
Speaker 3: Well, so were people I mean, I guess maybe if

513
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 3: you were wealthy enough you could afford it. Were people

514
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:17,960
Speaker 3: like buying entirely new sets every year. I don't think

515
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:22,440
Speaker 3: so I couldn't have I mean addition, Yeah, but even then,

516
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:24,160
Speaker 3: like you know, yeah.

517
00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 1: Like institutions are buying this and people are going to

518
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:27,720
Speaker 1: those libraries.

519
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:29,520
Speaker 3: It is probably that's a good point. They had to

520
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:31,800
Speaker 3: have a lot of business from those kinds of institutions.

521
00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:34,360
Speaker 3: You're absolutely right, But he's got to wonder, like, what's

522
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:36,360
Speaker 3: the business model here? It seems like the kind of

523
00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:38,840
Speaker 3: thing where you sell it once and then it's sort

524
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:41,200
Speaker 3: of like we were not going to buy another set

525
00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 3: of encyclopedias.

526
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:45,880
Speaker 1: Ah, this is where they get to something what a

527
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:48,920
Speaker 1: great setup. This is where they get to something even cooler.

528
00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:53,400
Speaker 1: So now they have they have created some new problems

529
00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:57,120
Speaker 1: trying to fix the existing problems. So now they have

530
00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:01,000
Speaker 1: to require now they need a full time, permanent staff

531
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:04,560
Speaker 1: of professional editors instead of people who are you know,

532
00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:08,080
Speaker 1: like three beers in and say yeah, man, i'll do it.

533
00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:12,680
Speaker 1: I'll write about Croatia like the early days. So they started,

534
00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:15,080
Speaker 1: they hit the same So they've got to hire these

535
00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:18,080
Speaker 1: guys full time, these people full time, and then they

536
00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,640
Speaker 1: reach this other problem I think you outlined quite well,

537
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:26,600
Speaker 1: which is we know that folks don't have a ton

538
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:32,000
Speaker 1: of disposable income to just always spend on encyclopedias. So

539
00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:34,959
Speaker 1: we have to stay relevant, right, And that's where they

540
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:39,640
Speaker 1: come up with a group of unsung heroes. The answer girls,

541
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:43,520
Speaker 1: No boy, but yeah, it didn't age perfectly. But they

542
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:47,760
Speaker 1: were this crack team of women who would you. If

543
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:51,280
Speaker 1: you owned Encyclopedia Britannica, you could reach out to the

544
00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:55,200
Speaker 1: Answer Girls. They would research and answer any question you

545
00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:58,840
Speaker 1: might have. So you could send them a postcard, attach

546
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:01,520
Speaker 1: a stamp and ail it to them and they would

547
00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:04,640
Speaker 1: type a detailed report of up to ten thousand words.

548
00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:07,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bulk at that.

549
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:09,600
Speaker 3: For some reason in my mind, I was picturing them

550
00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 3: as being like dressed as like Vegas showgirls or something,

551
00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:15,760
Speaker 3: and just had being sort of like a problem. Look

552
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:20,440
Speaker 3: women with knowledge, what a novel idea? And they're lookers too,

553
00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:23,640
Speaker 3: you know, So my mistake. That's actually pretty interesting. So

554
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 3: this came essentially with your I guess there wasn't a

555
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:29,800
Speaker 3: subscription per se, but you you had access to this

556
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:32,880
Speaker 3: without having to pay like a per use fee or something.

557
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:35,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you just well you had to pay for

558
00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:38,320
Speaker 1: the stamp. But I stand. I thought that was a

559
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:41,880
Speaker 1: really cool answer, you know, to the The Answer Girls

560
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 1: are great answer to that question. And these changes also

561
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:50,960
Speaker 1: are reflected in the fourteenth edition. This one differs because

562
00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:56,280
Speaker 1: it is constructed differently in terms of its structure and

563
00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:59,680
Speaker 1: it has a different scoop. This means they're a lot

564
00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:03,520
Speaker 1: more editors, fifty associate editors in London and New York

565
00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:07,080
Speaker 1: all told. They kind of have an area of expertise

566
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:11,960
Speaker 1: on specific subjects, and then they have staffs and offices

567
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:15,400
Speaker 1: that coordinate everything to keep people from writing the same

568
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:19,440
Speaker 1: article twice or something like that. And they are not

569
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:24,680
Speaker 1: able to really remake the encyclopedia until everybody gets through

570
00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:28,320
Speaker 1: first the Great Depression and then World War Two. So

571
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:32,080
Speaker 1: it's like the nineteen after the nineteen fifties that they say,

572
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:41,960
Speaker 1: let's try to judge it back up. Well, that's right.

573
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:44,920
Speaker 3: It wasn't until the mid nineteen fifties, You're right that

574
00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:49,160
Speaker 3: this sustained effort to kind of reinvent the wheel here began,

575
00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:53,040
Speaker 3: and it happened to coincide with Encyclopedia Britannica's two hundred

576
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:58,280
Speaker 3: birthday in nineteen sixty eight, which was when this task

577
00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:02,040
Speaker 3: had kind of been completed. The encyclopedia had a lot

578
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:05,160
Speaker 3: less old material in it, probably than ever before in

579
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:09,880
Speaker 3: its entire history. Fast forward to the nineteen eighties, with

580
00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:14,920
Speaker 3: the advent of a lot more access to digital editions

581
00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:20,920
Speaker 3: of technology obviously had improved significantly. The Internet was very

582
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,800
Speaker 3: much the twinkle of it had begun, right, if not

583
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:28,240
Speaker 3: the actual Worldwide Web, we wouldn't really see reach the

584
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:31,280
Speaker 3: public until the nineties. The nineteen eighties did see the

585
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:35,080
Speaker 3: development and spread of the PC and disc technology, which

586
00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:38,040
Speaker 3: was of course, you guys raally remember this definitely a

587
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:41,120
Speaker 3: precursor to the Internet, where you could get things that were,

588
00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:44,480
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of information that was crammed onto

589
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:47,160
Speaker 3: a single disc or a set of discs that would

590
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:51,680
Speaker 3: take up way less space than a massive series of books.

591
00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:52,280
Speaker 1: Of bound books.

592
00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:55,160
Speaker 3: So while it wasn't access to everything, which is the

593
00:33:55,160 --> 00:33:58,840
Speaker 3: click of a mouse, it was a pretty significant step forward.

594
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:01,600
Speaker 1: Oh no kidding, I remember I had a couple of

595
00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:05,720
Speaker 1: editions of these growing up. There was the two disc

596
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:09,879
Speaker 1: CD that had illustrations and photos, so kind of kind

597
00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:12,880
Speaker 1: of just a digitized version of the original thing, but

598
00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:15,720
Speaker 1: a little bit easier to search. But then the next

599
00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:19,680
Speaker 1: edition a few years later had video and animation and

600
00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:22,719
Speaker 1: even audio clips, which was a big deal back in

601
00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:26,480
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven. Oh man, I'm not so old and

602
00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:30,720
Speaker 1: this At first they were charging like the same price

603
00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:33,200
Speaker 1: for these CD sets that they would charge for the

604
00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:39,719
Speaker 1: physical copies, but overall the price plummets across time and

605
00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 1: sometime in like the I guess late nineteen nineties or so,

606
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:49,239
Speaker 1: Britannica releases their website eb dot com. It's a subscription

607
00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:53,640
Speaker 1: service where you can digitally use the encyclopedia. Who signs

608
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:57,200
Speaker 1: up for online subscriptions, you might be asking yourself because

609
00:34:57,200 --> 00:35:02,440
Speaker 1: they're not as common today outside of like streaming platforms, right, Uh.

610
00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:04,839
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess that's you know, that's funny. You said

611
00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:06,359
Speaker 3: that out loud, and I was like, I've got a bunch,

612
00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:10,840
Speaker 3: but but they are largely video or music streaming services.

613
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:14,880
Speaker 3: I don't necessarily subscribe to any database, but but you

614
00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:17,480
Speaker 3: do have you can subscribe to like Lexus, Nexus and

615
00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:19,719
Speaker 3: and things like that, But don't you also have to

616
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:25,080
Speaker 3: be from a representative of an institution or some bona

617
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:29,600
Speaker 3: fides like we could get into the newspapers or newspapers

618
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:33,000
Speaker 3: you have, man, people bulk at those, oh dude, And

619
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:35,200
Speaker 3: they really do. And I've certainly signed up for a

620
00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:37,400
Speaker 3: few here and there because we use them all the time.

621
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:40,359
Speaker 3: But uh, it's only human to try to get as

622
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:42,719
Speaker 3: many free articles as you can before they block you

623
00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:45,040
Speaker 3: out behind that paywall and then it resets.

624
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:49,400
Speaker 1: So yeah, I do wonder about that. I always wanted.

625
00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:52,600
Speaker 1: You know, in my family there were a couple of

626
00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:59,160
Speaker 1: sets of of OED but as well the Encyclopedia Britannica.

627
00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:02,760
Speaker 1: And the thing is they're just so they're they're prestigious

628
00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:06,080
Speaker 1: and it's beautiful and it is a phone knowledge, but

629
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:10,360
Speaker 1: they're so cumbersome. Man. Yeah, it's it's a lot to

630
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:13,480
Speaker 1: move around, like I I has the main reason I

631
00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:16,200
Speaker 1: hesitate to move. You've been to my house before. I

632
00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:20,160
Speaker 1: have a lot of books, dude, and it's like it's

633
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:24,399
Speaker 1: always a culling period when it's time to time to move.

634
00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:27,799
Speaker 1: So maybe the CD is the less sexy but for

635
00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:29,960
Speaker 1: the time more efficient. Answer.

636
00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:32,799
Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting too because I don't have nearly as

637
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:34,640
Speaker 3: many books as you do. I have some, but I

638
00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:38,319
Speaker 3: have quite a lot of instrument piece and instruments, but

639
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:41,600
Speaker 3: I have I guess my my eggs. My comparison here

640
00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:45,200
Speaker 3: is with you know, I subscribe to different streaming services,

641
00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:48,680
Speaker 3: but I also buy a lot of physical albums and

642
00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:52,799
Speaker 3: that's because those are the ones that I want if

643
00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:57,799
Speaker 3: the Internet explodes, if the streaming services go bust. Also

644
00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:00,359
Speaker 3: the ones that I want those artists to actually get

645
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:03,680
Speaker 3: decently paid for, because we all know that artists and

646
00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:08,880
Speaker 3: surely writers aren't getting nearly as much money for streamed

647
00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:12,960
Speaker 3: or digitally accessed content. So but I also know I

648
00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:15,000
Speaker 3: like having the physical copy of an album that I

649
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:16,839
Speaker 3: really want to listen to from front to back and

650
00:37:17,080 --> 00:37:18,719
Speaker 3: have the full color art and all that stuff, and

651
00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:20,839
Speaker 3: I think that applies to physical books as well.

652
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:24,680
Speaker 1: Agreed, Agreed, you know. And also I'm still paranoid from

653
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:29,080
Speaker 1: one of the very first books that was issued through

654
00:37:29,239 --> 00:37:32,799
Speaker 1: I think Kindle or something. It was nineteen eighty four.

655
00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:36,920
Speaker 1: People purchased it and then due to a rights disagreement,

656
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:39,879
Speaker 1: it was pulled from their kindles. So I don't feel

657
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:42,520
Speaker 1: like you really own something unless you have the tangible

658
00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:45,280
Speaker 1: artifact of it. Oh, we know that to be true.

659
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:48,440
Speaker 3: Like, for example, I think it was with PlayStation there

660
00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:51,000
Speaker 3: was something with PlayStation Network where if you bought a

661
00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:52,480
Speaker 3: you know, I think it was to do with the

662
00:37:52,520 --> 00:37:56,120
Speaker 3: Warner brother acquisition, you know, by discovery that if you

663
00:37:56,200 --> 00:38:00,359
Speaker 3: had quote unquote bought some of these HBO shows or

664
00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:02,920
Speaker 3: whatever it was, some HBO content or something involved in

665
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:06,200
Speaker 3: the merger, they changed the nature of those rights and

666
00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:09,920
Speaker 3: the way that stuff worked, and you really didn't own.

667
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:10,600
Speaker 1: That stuff at all.

668
00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:12,359
Speaker 3: And a lot of that stuff just vanish and it

669
00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:14,560
Speaker 3: was like, well, we've got your money and you didn't

670
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:15,359
Speaker 3: read the fine print.

671
00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:16,960
Speaker 1: So I completely agree with you.

672
00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:20,319
Speaker 3: I don't believe that I own anything unless I have

673
00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:21,880
Speaker 3: it in physical form.

674
00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:27,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, possession nine tenths. So we know that Britannic is

675
00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:31,040
Speaker 1: still around today. It had a lot of recent news

676
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:34,120
Speaker 1: as we get closer to the modern the modern times.

677
00:38:34,200 --> 00:38:37,799
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety six, Britannic is sold to a financia

678
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:43,880
Speaker 1: named Jacob E. Saffra, and he really leads a restructuring

679
00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:48,920
Speaker 1: all Britannica overall as company, as an institution, as an enterprise.

680
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:53,880
Speaker 1: The sales of the print encyclopedia naturally are declining, the

681
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:58,839
Speaker 1: sales force the door to door encyclopedias. They get disbanded

682
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:02,840
Speaker 1: in nine ninety nine. They launch a different site, britannica

683
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:07,239
Speaker 1: dot com. It is free. It also has subject channels.

684
00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:09,240
Speaker 1: Currently that's the one we use largely.

685
00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:13,279
Speaker 3: If we're citing it, we're citing something that we've found there, right, right.

686
00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:16,200
Speaker 4: The truth of the matter is the two things eventually

687
00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:19,160
Speaker 4: like they basically did the fusion dance and became.

688
00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:24,160
Speaker 1: One right exactly, and they also it was so popular

689
00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:27,960
Speaker 1: when it came out that several times it crashed because

690
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:31,719
Speaker 1: too many people were too curious. You know, I'm not

691
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:32,200
Speaker 1: gonna lie.

692
00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:36,440
Speaker 3: I mean, curiosity is such an important facet of being

693
00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:39,080
Speaker 3: a human and it is also literally our bread and butter.

694
00:39:39,200 --> 00:39:42,080
Speaker 3: So I hope people never stop being curious because it

695
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:43,720
Speaker 3: is kind of what pays our.

696
00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:45,520
Speaker 1: Bills and gives us a reason to get up in

697
00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:47,439
Speaker 1: the morning. Is we don't do this stuff just for money.

698
00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:50,040
Speaker 3: I mean, we're genuinely curious people, which is I think

699
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:53,080
Speaker 3: what has allowed us to do okay in this in

700
00:39:53,120 --> 00:39:54,719
Speaker 3: this field, our group text.

701
00:39:54,400 --> 00:39:57,520
Speaker 1: Are so weird, you guys. I think they're interesting. I

702
00:39:57,600 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 1: think they're interesting.

703
00:39:58,920 --> 00:39:59,919
Speaker 2: But you guys.

704
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:02,160
Speaker 1: Ever comes it on my new game purchase, by the way,

705
00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:04,040
Speaker 1: was it was a Marrow Wind.

706
00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:07,600
Speaker 4: Which I made sure to get off of the streaming

707
00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:09,520
Speaker 4: source that I bought it from and onto my PC

708
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:10,920
Speaker 4: because of your port earlier.

709
00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:13,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was when I say I'm back. Was that

710
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:15,360
Speaker 1: pre elder scrolls or posts?

711
00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:16,560
Speaker 2: It's older scrolls three?

712
00:40:17,080 --> 00:40:19,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's in the franchise and it's back when they

713
00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:23,000
Speaker 1: were Oh man, I enjoy that one, but I kind

714
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:25,040
Speaker 1: of hate enjoy it, if that makes sense.

715
00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:28,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I'm looking forward to when, like I'm

716
00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:30,799
Speaker 4: moving up. Daggerfall had to put down because it's just

717
00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:34,880
Speaker 4: so holding. It's really just brutally boring. Yeah, but uh,

718
00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:38,560
Speaker 4: I'm kind of looking forward to oblivion. They have D

719
00:40:38,680 --> 00:40:41,560
Speaker 4: and D dice rolls on your attacks and more. When

720
00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:43,480
Speaker 4: I found a mod that turned that off, and I'm like,

721
00:40:43,480 --> 00:40:46,080
Speaker 4: thank god. Basically, you know, if you swung get somebody,

722
00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:48,160
Speaker 4: there's a chance you hit. Even if you're swinging right

723
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:48,640
Speaker 4: out them.

724
00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:53,400
Speaker 1: They're like, maybe you hit. And I do kind of

725
00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:56,560
Speaker 1: like that turn based combat, like you know, that's.

726
00:40:56,520 --> 00:40:58,560
Speaker 2: It's not it's not turn based, it's not even not no.

727
00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:01,239
Speaker 1: It's just it's rolling the dice. And then so you

728
00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:03,719
Speaker 1: could end up wiping several times no matter what.

729
00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:06,719
Speaker 2: And then you get killed by a mud crab.

730
00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:09,640
Speaker 1: Boulders Gate three. Let me just prostly that's what I heard.

731
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:10,239
Speaker 1: I was about to ask.

732
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:15,440
Speaker 3: Seems alley too much, it's too much fun. I'm still

733
00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:18,759
Speaker 3: back in in in Skyrim Land. I've been away for

734
00:41:18,800 --> 00:41:20,359
Speaker 3: a while, i haven't had access to it. I'm looking

735
00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:23,480
Speaker 3: forward to jumping back in and watching the new Fallout series,

736
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:26,359
Speaker 3: which I think kicks. But it was amazing, really making

737
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:29,960
Speaker 3: me want to just play Fallout UH New Vegas. I

738
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:32,239
Speaker 3: was also just out in Vegas, so be fun to see.

739
00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:34,799
Speaker 3: I stopped by Prim on the way to UH to

740
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,120
Speaker 3: Joshua Tree. Some of the cities are real and like

741
00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:40,800
Speaker 3: the roadside Dinosaurs. But the first one that really reinvigorated

742
00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:44,440
Speaker 3: that was just what Fallout three? Yeah or three? That

743
00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:46,880
Speaker 3: was the one that the two was still kind of

744
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:50,200
Speaker 3: top down three. Wait, no, three is one Bethesa had

745
00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:52,160
Speaker 3: Bethesda bought it after two.

746
00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:53,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.

747
00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:54,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it changed it around.

748
00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:56,080
Speaker 1: So that's when it really starts being the one we

749
00:41:56,239 --> 00:41:57,239
Speaker 1: know in love. Yeah. Yeah.

750
00:41:57,280 --> 00:41:59,200
Speaker 2: They used a lot of the stuff they had built

751
00:41:59,200 --> 00:41:59,680
Speaker 2: out for more.

752
00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:03,960
Speaker 1: It's like the UH Encyclopedia Britannica. A lot of it

753
00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:06,839
Speaker 1: is why not? Why wouldn't it be? Why is any

754
00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:10,719
Speaker 1: We will not allow anything to be beyond compare we

755
00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:14,120
Speaker 1: We're okidding though, really quickly though, we talked about, you know,

756
00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:18,480
Speaker 1: how valuable a physical copy of the first edition might be,

757
00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:21,879
Speaker 1: and we let's see if we can find one first.

758
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:28,399
Speaker 3: Edition uh in Cyclopedia Britannica. While I'm googling that though,

759
00:42:28,600 --> 00:42:31,279
Speaker 3: whether or not you can put your hands on one

760
00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:34,000
Speaker 3: and or you have one it's worth a bundle. You

761
00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:38,560
Speaker 3: can't access it online and see how how it's aged and.

762
00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:41,960
Speaker 4: Ald to correct myself from earlier, Yeah, it's a A

763
00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:42,520
Speaker 4: through Z.

764
00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:45,239
Speaker 1: It is, but it's an incomplete A through Z. And

765
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:49,280
Speaker 1: the very first thing like they they alphabetize their entries,

766
00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:52,239
Speaker 1: but they know they're not getting to everything right, so

767
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:54,800
Speaker 1: there are countries they know exists that they don't include

768
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:57,239
Speaker 1: in there. Things like that in the first edition five

769
00:42:57,320 --> 00:42:59,520
Speaker 1: and you can you can see this real you can

770
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:03,280
Speaker 1: read the first edition free digitally exactly.

771
00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:05,000
Speaker 3: I do want to just drop this in the chat

772
00:43:05,040 --> 00:43:06,879
Speaker 3: guys real quick so you can take a look. Because

773
00:43:06,880 --> 00:43:09,120
Speaker 3: we were how we talked about it was almost like

774
00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:11,360
Speaker 3: a comic book for super nerds, because comic books are

775
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:14,000
Speaker 3: already for nerds. These look at the way these these

776
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:17,720
Speaker 3: are put together. They're in these boxes like a freaking

777
00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:21,000
Speaker 3: graphic novel compendium that you might buy, and each of

778
00:43:21,040 --> 00:43:24,760
Speaker 3: these individual volumes is about the size of a graphic novel.

779
00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:28,160
Speaker 3: And here on AbeBooks dot com you can get a

780
00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:34,239
Speaker 3: first edition let's see two slightly incomplete sets bound in

781
00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:38,480
Speaker 3: one hundred and seven volumes for thirty five hundred dollars.

782
00:43:38,239 --> 00:43:40,319
Speaker 1: Which is honestly lower than I thought it would be.

783
00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:42,000
Speaker 1: It's way lower than I thought, but I just wanted

784
00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:42,920
Speaker 1: to give a frame of purpose.

785
00:43:42,960 --> 00:43:47,640
Speaker 3: I imagine that a complete set would be maybe not exponentially,

786
00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:49,920
Speaker 3: but probably quite a bit more valuable.

787
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:53,640
Speaker 1: Look at the way they wrote it, though, two relatively

788
00:43:53,760 --> 00:43:56,839
Speaker 1: incomplete sets. So are they saying that there's a Venn

789
00:43:56,880 --> 00:44:00,960
Speaker 1: diagram of missing books because it's two sets? Are they

790
00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:04,920
Speaker 1: both missing the same books? Who was stolen? Volume seven?

791
00:44:05,719 --> 00:44:08,640
Speaker 3: I thinker than others. They're not all of uniform length

792
00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:10,440
Speaker 3: like they're They're kind of all over the place. And

793
00:44:10,480 --> 00:44:12,360
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I look as i'm zooming in, I'm realizing

794
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:15,719
Speaker 3: these are just in kind of like those office move boxes.

795
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:18,320
Speaker 3: Is kind of crazy. These were not bound and sold

796
00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:22,160
Speaker 3: the case. Yeah no, but it's still pretty cool, man.

797
00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:24,840
Speaker 3: Like some of these are really thin, like what was

798
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:26,600
Speaker 3: in this one over here on the far right. It

799
00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:31,000
Speaker 3: looks like it's literally like a single article like bound.

800
00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:31,680
Speaker 3: It's realiant.

801
00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:36,959
Speaker 1: It's that's the one about farts modulance, which you know naturally.

802
00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:42,320
Speaker 4: They they expand, they expand that volad over time.

803
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:45,920
Speaker 1: This is a great way to end our exploration today, folks.

804
00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:51,040
Speaker 1: We have a great Ridiculous Historian Award to give to

805
00:44:51,120 --> 00:44:55,400
Speaker 1: our friend A. J. Bahama's Jacobs, who has reputedly read

806
00:44:55,560 --> 00:45:00,160
Speaker 1: the Encyclopedia Britannica in its entirety. I remember talking with

807
00:45:00,239 --> 00:45:00,799
Speaker 1: him about this.

808
00:45:01,200 --> 00:45:04,040
Speaker 3: Pretty sure he's also read the Bible in its entirety

809
00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:08,359
Speaker 3: at the very least the Old Testaments constitutions. Well, that's

810
00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:11,480
Speaker 3: like the least impressive of the three things. We just no, no, no, no,

811
00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:13,759
Speaker 3: it's true. Yeah, and again we need to we need

812
00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:15,480
Speaker 3: we needed that. We're actually probably going to see him

813
00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:17,959
Speaker 3: relatively soon, so we need to quiz Hi a little

814
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:21,400
Speaker 3: bit about which edition are we talking here, and what

815
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:22,840
Speaker 3: were your impressions overall?

816
00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:26,759
Speaker 1: I feel like I talked with him about that at

817
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:29,920
Speaker 1: some point. Uh. And he's such a humble guy, folks.

818
00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:32,719
Speaker 1: We can't say enough good stuff about Bahamas. So check

819
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:34,919
Speaker 1: out his show The Puzzler. He's got a book coming

820
00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:37,200
Speaker 1: out that will have him back on to talk about it.

821
00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:41,680
Speaker 1: But he's actually yeah, the Year of Living Constitutionally also

822
00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:42,040
Speaker 1: check out.

823
00:45:42,160 --> 00:45:43,200
Speaker 3: I think we're going to have him on for a

824
00:45:43,280 --> 00:45:45,600
Speaker 3: sort of constitutionally themed episode.

825
00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:48,200
Speaker 1: Oh he knows so much weird stuff now, it's so cool.

826
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:51,080
Speaker 1: I really like that guy. And I got into him

827
00:45:51,200 --> 00:45:54,160
Speaker 1: because of the year of living biblically, which absolutely slaps

828
00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:58,120
Speaker 1: as well. Uh but yes, big big things to mister A. J.

829
00:45:58,280 --> 00:46:02,240
Speaker 1: Bahamas Jacob's big big thing Jonathan Strickland aka the Twister.

830
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:05,640
Speaker 3: I like Jonathan Strickland too. We give him a lot

831
00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:07,520
Speaker 3: of crap. We sort of couched him as this sort

832
00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:10,600
Speaker 3: of villain in our universe, but we like spending time

833
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:12,560
Speaker 3: with Jonathan too. I don't want his feelings started thinking

834
00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:18,360
Speaker 3: that he play a shinier, newer puzzle related person behind this.

835
00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:20,600
Speaker 1: Very nice and I'm glad. I think it's an important

836
00:46:20,600 --> 00:46:22,720
Speaker 1: point for us to make. But peek behind the curtain.

837
00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:26,360
Speaker 1: It was Jonathan's idea to be the bad guy for

838
00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:28,520
Speaker 1: this show, and he wanted to be a heel, always

839
00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:30,759
Speaker 1: been and that's the phrase he used. So he is

840
00:46:30,800 --> 00:46:34,120
Speaker 1: our number one heel. We don't need to Achilles heel.

841
00:46:34,160 --> 00:46:36,080
Speaker 1: We got quister heel huge days.

842
00:46:36,120 --> 00:46:38,560
Speaker 3: Alex Williams, who composed this theme, christopherraciota Is and he

843
00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:42,680
Speaker 3: Eves Jeff Coates here in spirit Max. I'll thank you again,

844
00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:45,279
Speaker 3: Ben already did sorry we last do so many of these,

845
00:46:45,360 --> 00:46:48,920
Speaker 3: I can't recall. You're awesome and this is a great episode.

846
00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:51,680
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for the crack research and Ben,

847
00:46:51,920 --> 00:46:52,839
Speaker 3: thanks to you as well.

848
00:46:52,880 --> 00:46:55,080
Speaker 1: I'm glad to be back. By the way, I'm glad

849
00:46:55,080 --> 00:47:00,319
Speaker 1: this didn't turn into a jeremiahed against encyclopedias. We'll see

850
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:01,240
Speaker 1: you next time, folks.

851
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:12,040
Speaker 3: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

852
00:47:12,080 --> 00:47:14,240
Speaker 3: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.