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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh,

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Speaker 1: and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. All of us are

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Speaker 1: wearing bowling shoes, are feet hurt, they look kind of weird,

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Speaker 1: and we're ready to go. I want to shout out.

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Speaker 1: This was a genuine listener suggestion. Oh nice, what listener

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Speaker 1: Mark bowls? No, not b O w L. It's b

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Speaker 1: O L e s. But still kind of funny since

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Speaker 1: we're talking about I watched a video on automatic pin

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Speaker 1: setters by a kid name While a guy named Matt Boland.

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Speaker 1: He's a pin setter technician. So there's some some weirdness

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Speaker 1: going on here. I had a dentist named Dr Tuggle. Mmm,

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Speaker 1: that sounds painful, like you just made my scrotum shrink

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Speaker 1: up into myself. And I had a h My proctologist

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Speaker 1: is Dr Fingering. But what his first name finger in,

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Speaker 1: his middle initials in, and then his last name is

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Speaker 1: but no, his whole last name. I think his name

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Speaker 1: is Robert Fingering Butt, And I think, oh, yeah, doctor Fingering,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, maybe Finland or something. I don't know. I

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Speaker 1: just call him Robert Bobby Bobby Fingers. Yes, but Chuck,

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Speaker 1: the hilarious thing is, we're not talking about proctologists right now,

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Speaker 1: not at all. As a matter of fact, I'll be

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Speaker 1: very surprised if they come up again in this episode

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Speaker 1: because instead about talking about bowling. That's right, and big

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Speaker 1: thanks to Mark Bowls for this. He just simply wrote

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Speaker 1: in and said, hey, I bet you bowling has a

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Speaker 1: pretty interesting backstory, and it kind of does. I think, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it does. Mark Bowles was lazy, uh and wanted us

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Speaker 1: to do it for him, and here we are. And

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Speaker 1: we want to also give an even bigger thanks to

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Speaker 1: Ed Grabinowski for helping us out with this one. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and before we get to that interesting history, though, bowling

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Speaker 1: seems like the kind of thing we could just say, hey,

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Speaker 1: we're doing one on bowling. Everyone knows what that is, right,

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Speaker 1: but at the risk of not covering our bases, we

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Speaker 1: can very quickly just sort of describe the game, right.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I think that's a good idea because ten

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Speaker 1: pin bowling, which is what we're talking about. There's tons

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Speaker 1: and tons of different variations on bowling, but ten pin

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Speaker 1: bowling is specifically what we're talking about, and it's an

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Speaker 1: American invention. So it's entirely possible that there's people out

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Speaker 1: there who listen who have never played ten pin bowling.

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Speaker 1: Who knows I'm making it up, but it's a good guess,

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Speaker 1: I think. All right, So what you do here, and

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Speaker 1: it is keen to point out and we'll also get

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Speaker 1: to this in the history that bowling is is a

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Speaker 1: variation of just a game, which is it seems like

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Speaker 1: kind of one of the earlier kinds of games, which

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Speaker 1: is throw something at those things, whether it be corn

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Speaker 1: hole or horse shoes or any kind of rolled object

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Speaker 1: at a club or a pin or something. And tin

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Speaker 1: pin bowling is a variation of that where there are

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Speaker 1: tin pins arranged in a triangle starting at the headpin.

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Speaker 1: So you got your one, and then you've got two pins,

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Speaker 1: and then you got three pins, and then you've got

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Speaker 1: four pins, all in rows. So it forms a nice

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Speaker 1: little triangle. And you throw a bowling ball down a

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Speaker 1: lane that is forty two inches wide and sixty ft

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Speaker 1: long from the foul line to the headpin. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: the entire lane itself is sixty two ft and ten

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Speaker 1: and three sixes long. To be precise, something that one

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Speaker 1: ever needs to know right, well, I mean, somebody put

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Speaker 1: it out there. I wanted to know, so I hats

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Speaker 1: off too. I can't remember what site helped me, but so. Um,

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Speaker 1: at the end where you're rolling the ball, where you

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Speaker 1: the player the bowler is standing, there's a line. It's

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Speaker 1: a foul line, and if you cross it, you just

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Speaker 1: gave up any points you might have accrued for that

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Speaker 1: shot up. Yeah, and then just to make it even harder,

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Speaker 1: to make it that would be amazing, kind of like

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Speaker 1: a running Man version of bowling or a squid game thing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the new running Man, frankly bring it into the modern era. Yeah, yeah, um.

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Speaker 1: And then to make it even harder in addition to

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Speaker 1: the threat of exploding if you cross the foul line,

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Speaker 1: there um these troughs on either side of the lane

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Speaker 1: that your ball can easily move into. They're called gutters,

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Speaker 1: and balls are usually about eight to eight and a

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Speaker 1: half inches in diameter. Gutters are a nice snug fit.

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Speaker 1: They're usually about nine and nine and a quarter inches

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Speaker 1: in diameter, so there's a little bit of room for

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Speaker 1: the ball to move along, but it's snug enough that

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Speaker 1: it's not coming out of the gutter once it goes

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Speaker 1: in there almost always. I've seen some aggressive bowlers have

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Speaker 1: one pop out of the gutter if it gets a

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Speaker 1: nice rock going. But you know, I think like that's

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Speaker 1: sort of like kitting a sevententh split. But you would

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Speaker 1: have been in that, Yeah, exactly. Bow nice foreshadowing. And

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Speaker 1: even if you had never bowled, you've probably had at

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Speaker 1: least heard the term gutter ball. It's just kind of

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Speaker 1: a catch all term for things that stink that happened

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Speaker 1: to you, whether you like it or not. Yeah, And

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Speaker 1: these days they have if you go bowling with your

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Speaker 1: younger kids or just someone who really wants to make

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Speaker 1: the game a lot easier, they have these little uh

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Speaker 1: gutter guards, little gates that lift up automatically if you

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Speaker 1: so choose, are not automatically, you trigger it to and

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Speaker 1: then that way, your six year old can throw a

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Speaker 1: bowling ball down and it'll just go side to side.

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Speaker 1: Hitting those things all the way today. Yeah, and they

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Speaker 1: might get lucky and ricochet it right into the pocket,

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Speaker 1: which is the sweet spot between those pins, between the

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Speaker 1: first pin and either one of the two behind it,

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Speaker 1: depending on whether you're a left hand or right hand bowler. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean it's good that you brought that up that

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Speaker 1: if anyone ever didn't bowl much and thought, well, why

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Speaker 1: did those pro bowlers and uh and certain jerks at

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Speaker 1: regular bowling alleys really try to spin that ball hard,

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Speaker 1: so it's like kisses that gutter and then flies at

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Speaker 1: an angle. That's you know, they discovered that is the

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Speaker 1: best way to knock down all ten pins for a

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Speaker 1: strike is to come in at that sort of diagonal

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Speaker 1: between the headpin and the pins behind it. Right. They're

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Speaker 1: not doing it just because it looks cool. No, No,

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Speaker 1: that's basically how you bowl. If you're actually trying to

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Speaker 1: do you try to spend. I haven't bowled in a while,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, I definitely tried to try to spin, because

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Speaker 1: you don't want the ball to just skid along without

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Speaker 1: rolling on the on the the lane you wanted to spin.

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Speaker 1: You know. I never tried to spin. I was I

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Speaker 1: was never strong enough or good enough, but I was

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Speaker 1: an okay bowler in my bowling heyday. Same here. I

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Speaker 1: definitely peaked at bowling in about six to seventh grade,

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Speaker 1: when I was actually in an after school bowling program

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Speaker 1: that was much later. Okay, well, I also peaked at

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Speaker 1: basketball in second grade when I played on the Maroon

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Speaker 1: team in the Royal Blue team at the y m

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Speaker 1: c A. Were you taller earlier? No, it was just

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Speaker 1: I was less afraid of getting an elbow in the face,

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Speaker 1: so I was way more aggressive taking it to the

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Speaker 1: to the basket. My whole secret when my bowling game

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Speaker 1: was on, and you know, I wasn't going out there

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Speaker 1: and bowling like a two twenty or anything like that.

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Speaker 1: But you know, if I walked out of there with

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Speaker 1: like a one eight on a any game, I've considered

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Speaker 1: that a really good score for me. Yeah. My whole

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Speaker 1: trick was to just bullet really really straight. I was

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Speaker 1: pretty good at that, and to not launch it three

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Speaker 1: or four ft down the lane. It was a very

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Speaker 1: smooth action, making contact with the floor kind of right

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Speaker 1: at the foul line, and it all resulted in just

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Speaker 1: a pretty true throw. Nice, non professionally good. Okay, but yes,

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Speaker 1: one eight is definitely I mean, I wouldn't go around

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Speaker 1: boasting at it in some random bar you just walked into,

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Speaker 1: but it's still you could probably impress your closest friends

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Speaker 1: with that, you know. I mean, that's probably like my

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Speaker 1: best score, just to be clear, got you okay? Um

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Speaker 1: And speaking of scores chuck uh. Today, if you go bowling,

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Speaker 1: a computer keep score for you. You don't have to score.

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Speaker 1: And that's actually a huge relief for a lot of

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Speaker 1: people because scoring in bowling is really complicated and there's actually,

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Speaker 1: um I've seen a theory or hypothesis. I guess that

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Speaker 1: one of the reasons why bowling has become less of

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Speaker 1: a thing in America over the years is because it

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Speaker 1: is computerized scoring and people don't understand the game like

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Speaker 1: they used to when you had to keep score yourself. Well. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but the goal for every single time you throw the

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Speaker 1: ball is to knock the pins down, right, But if

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Speaker 1: you don't, then you've got a problem on your hand.

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Speaker 1: And even if you do knock all the pins down,

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Speaker 1: you don't so that's a strike. By the way, for

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Speaker 1: those of you who have never played ten pin bowling,

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Speaker 1: if you knock all all ten pins down in your

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Speaker 1: first throw, you get two throws per frame. There's ten

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Speaker 1: frames per game, right in any given frame, you have

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Speaker 1: two possible throws. If you knock all ten pins down

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Speaker 1: with your first throw in a frame, that's a strike

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Speaker 1: and you're done. Okay, No, you're you're Are you done? Well?

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Speaker 1: You're done, if it's until your next if it's if

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Speaker 1: it's one through nine, you're done. And the in the

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Speaker 1: ten frame you get those bonus balls, which we'll get to.

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Speaker 1: Got you, So it's scoring. Since you knock called ten

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Speaker 1: pins down, you think, okay, you get ten points per frame.

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Speaker 1: If you bowl the strike in every frame, you'd have

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Speaker 1: a hundred points, like that's the maximum number of points.

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Speaker 1: It's actually not correct. There's bonus points in bowling, so

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Speaker 1: that if you bowl a strike in any given frame,

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Speaker 1: then the number of pins you knocked down in the

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Speaker 1: next two frames affect your score in that first frame

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Speaker 1: that you you bowl the strike in. Okay, I told

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Speaker 1: you it's really complicated, and ian scoring strikes is easier

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Speaker 1: than scoring spares, which I'm hesitant to even get into.

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Speaker 1: But the upshot is there are there are bonus points

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Speaker 1: and scoring a spare and a spare, by the way,

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Speaker 1: is when you knock down all ten pins. But it

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Speaker 1: takes you both of your throws in a single frame,

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Speaker 1: right right, which can happen. You can knock down one

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Speaker 1: pin and then nine pins, or you can knock down

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Speaker 1: nine and then one, or any combination therein. Yeah, as

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Speaker 1: long as all of the pins are knocked down by

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Speaker 1: your second throw, right, that's a spare, and then your

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Speaker 1: next throw in the next frame, those points get added

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Speaker 1: to that frame previously where you threw a spare the

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Speaker 1: frame before. It's way more nuanced than that actually, But

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Speaker 1: that's Frankly, I'm very relieved because that's a pretty good

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Speaker 1: overview of scoring and bowling. Yeah. And in the old days,

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Speaker 1: when we were growing up, pre computerized scoring, I felt

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Speaker 1: like there was always somebody in the group that knew

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Speaker 1: how to do it. They were kind of the de

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Speaker 1: factove scorekeeper, and you would indicate a strike and it's

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Speaker 1: still indicated via computer with an X and a spare

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Speaker 1: with a slash mark through the square. Uh. And of

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Speaker 1: course now with a computer thing, you can you know,

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Speaker 1: when you bowl a strike, they flash your name up there,

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Speaker 1: so people inevitably list their names, you know, Chewbacca or

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Speaker 1: fart Face or something, yeah, something really fun. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean it's it's kind of incumbent upon you to

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Speaker 1: come up with a silly name unless your name is

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Speaker 1: ductr Finger. But and then you definitely just use your

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Speaker 1: real name. Right, So you've got like the scoring with

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Speaker 1: the spare scoring with the strike. Those are exceptional. Those

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Speaker 1: have bonus points. If you take two throws in a

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Speaker 1: frame and you knock down two pins and then in

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Speaker 1: your second throw you knocked down five, there's nothing special

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Speaker 1: about that. That's seven points for that frame. Boo. But

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Speaker 1: the thing is um, if you if you notice when

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Speaker 1: when you throw a strike, the next two frames scores

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Speaker 1: are added to your that's that phrase where you scored

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Speaker 1: a strike. If you score a strike in every frame,

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Speaker 1: it just keeps going down the line to where you

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Speaker 1: end up eventually with thirty in each frame. And then

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Speaker 1: by the time you get to the tenth frame, since

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Speaker 1: if you roll the strike in that tenth frame, you

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Speaker 1: actually get two more throws because you're basically adding two

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Speaker 1: more frames or one more frame. And um, if you

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Speaker 1: bowl a strike in every single one of those, including

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Speaker 1: your two extra throws, you will have just bowled twelve

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Speaker 1: strikes in a row, and you will have accrued a

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Speaker 1: score of three hundred, which in bowling is considered a

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Speaker 1: perfect game. That's right, uh, And bowling is all about

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Speaker 1: those strikes and spares and those bonus points. If you

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Speaker 1: want to score high because if you think about it,

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Speaker 1: if you if you knock down nine out of those

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Speaker 1: tin pins, you might think that's pretty good, But if

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Speaker 1: you do that ten times, you've only scored a ninety.

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Speaker 1: So you really need to hit those strikes and spares

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Speaker 1: or ideally a turkey, which is three strikes in a

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Speaker 1: row at least at one point during the game, and

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Speaker 1: you really really want to that money ball is that

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Speaker 1: last frame, Like that's where you can really, um add

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Speaker 1: a lot to your final total, right exactly. So, I

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Speaker 1: mean this isn't meant to be like an exhaustive primer

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Speaker 1: on bowling scoring. I think if this episode like gets

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Speaker 1: you into bowling, like you'll probably need to look up

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Speaker 1: some more you know, explanation of the rules or have

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Speaker 1: it taught to you or something like that. Um, But

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Speaker 1: that's that's generally like how it works, and it is

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Speaker 1: really really kind of difficult to understand. But it also

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Speaker 1: like kind of to me it's a throwback of when

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Speaker 1: the general public was a little smarter because we didn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily rely on computers for stuff like this. We had

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Speaker 1: to do it ourselves. Like now, if you can type

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Speaker 1: in Chewbacca, then you can bowl. It's misspelled. There's like

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Speaker 1: a capital letter randomly in the middle of it. All right,

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Speaker 1: I think that's a good break, right. I think so too, Chuck.

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Speaker 1: We're in sync right now. Yeah, let's do it. So

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Speaker 1: we'll come back and we'll talk about oh, all kinds

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Speaker 1: of fun stuff, bowling gear and and more. Right after this,

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Speaker 1: all right? Uh, ed Is uh wisely points out that, um,

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Speaker 1: there's quite a bit of bowling gear for a game

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Speaker 1: that you can play in short pants while drinking beer. Uh.

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Speaker 1: We'll talk about the ball in a second. But well,

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Speaker 1: let's go ahead and talk about the ball. Yeah, what

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Speaker 1: are you waiting for? I don't know. Uh. The original

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Speaker 1: bowling balls were would It was a hardwood, uh, native

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Speaker 1: to the Caribbean in South America, called lignum. I even

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Speaker 1: looked it up. Vit Yeah, or the um gia con

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Speaker 1: gia coon tree. Oh? Is that is that the tree?

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Speaker 1: That's the tree? That's the Yeah, you said the taxonic name.

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Speaker 1: I think one of the common names is kei khn okay.

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Speaker 1: But it's very hard, you know, dense wood. And that

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Speaker 1: worked out for a little while, but then the twentie

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Speaker 1: century rolls around and they said, hey, we got new

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Speaker 1: things like rubber, so let's make them out of rubber. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And they had a core which was either one or

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Speaker 1: two piece that would be connected by pegs and then

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Speaker 1: like a one inch outer shell and then bruns. What

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Speaker 1: came along the rubber men was the crew that worked

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Speaker 1: on this project and developed something called a mineralite bowling

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Speaker 1: ball in the nineteen tens, which ED couldn't figure out

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Speaker 1: what that was. And from what I saw, I don't

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Speaker 1: know if you didn't digging, I found that it wasn't

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Speaker 1: a substance, but it was more of a process, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And I think that the process resulted in a hard

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Speaker 1: rubber ball, right, but it was a ball that floated

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Speaker 1: in liquid mercury that they would continually kind of uh

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Speaker 1: used to tweak the ball. Is that right? I didn't

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Speaker 1: see that. That must have been amazing and dangerous. Well

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Speaker 1: that's what I saw, because you know, mercury would be

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Speaker 1: the mineral. So I think it's it's a process of

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Speaker 1: making the bowling ball using this uh liquid mercury. And

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Speaker 1: we should say bowling balls didn't used to be made

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Speaker 1: out of like bouncy rubber. That would be an entirely

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Speaker 1: different game from what we're talking about. This is like

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Speaker 1: hard rubber, like a hockey puck. Yeah, not or flubber

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Speaker 1: you know what that? Oh no, no, chuck. And by

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Speaker 1: the way, if I'm wrong about the mineral ie, it

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Speaker 1: is pretty hard to find out a lot about that

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Speaker 1: for some reason. Yeah, I don't know either. Uh if

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Speaker 1: someone had, If I was wrong in that and someone

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Speaker 1: knows what it is, please let me know, right, um.

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Speaker 1: And then also chuck, they're the balls eventually were made

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Speaker 1: from plastic polyurethane UM and then resin took over in

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Speaker 1: the nineties, and the nineties were a decade Like each

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Speaker 1: decade basically brought along a pretty big sea change with

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Speaker 1: bowling balls, but the nineties are arguably the decade of

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Speaker 1: the most change because with that reson they started um

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Speaker 1: messing around with different codings on the outside of the ball,

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Speaker 1: the resident. They called it um reactive Resident, I think,

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Speaker 1: and it would actually kind of grip. It would give

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Speaker 1: the ball some grips and all of a sudden you

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Speaker 1: could control that ball way better. And because of that

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Speaker 1: um that change in balls, Chuck, the number of perfect

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Speaker 1: games exploded starting in the nineties. Look at this. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: in the nine nineteen sixty nine season, the US Bowling Congress,

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Speaker 1: which is this umbrella or umbrella organization that covers all

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Speaker 1: bowling from people who just show up at a lane

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Speaker 1: to you know, the highest paid pro bowler the The

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Speaker 1: USBC recorded nine d and five perfect games in the

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Speaker 1: sixty nine season. Okay, thirty years later in season, there

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Speaker 1: were thirty four thousand, four hundred and seventy perfect games. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and not only that, so that's at increase. But not

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Speaker 1: only that, there were two thirds fewer bowlers bowling in

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Speaker 1: that season than there had been in the nine season

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Speaker 1: bowling tech thank you, right, Yeah, I mean that. But

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Speaker 1: that's what the change in the balls did. It just

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Speaker 1: completely revolutionized the game. It made it way more easy.

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Speaker 1: You could also say a lot more fun, um for

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Speaker 1: the average casual bowler. Yeah, I would say so. Uh.

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Speaker 1: It's interesting if you look inside a bowling ball on

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Speaker 1: the internet, like a cross section. They do have a core,

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Speaker 1: but uh, it's it's not round, and it's really kind

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Speaker 1: of strange. There's some interesting and kind of odd shapes

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Speaker 1: uh that are inside bowling balls. In different shapes of

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00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:54,919
Speaker 1: the core will give it different characteristics as it rolls

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00:18:55,600 --> 00:18:58,320
Speaker 1: or is uh spun or not spun? What do they

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00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:04,719
Speaker 1: call it? Uh? Um uh hooked hooked. Thank you hooked

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00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:09,520
Speaker 1: down the lane. Uh. And then you've got your cover stock,

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00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:11,920
Speaker 1: and that is the final outer layer that is now

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Speaker 1: that reactive resin that apparently changed the game. Yeah, totally. Um.

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Speaker 1: And if you want to make sure your bowling ball

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Speaker 1: is regulation, you want to get yourself one of those

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Speaker 1: things they used to measure. Um, what's it called a caliper.

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Speaker 1: You want to get a caliper and you want to

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Speaker 1: measure and make sure it's between eight point five o

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Speaker 1: o and eight point five nine five inches in diameter.

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00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:39,440
Speaker 1: That's a regulation size bowling ball. There's no minimum weight,

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00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:42,240
Speaker 1: but the maximum it can weigh sixteen pounds, which hurts

348
00:19:42,280 --> 00:19:45,080
Speaker 1: my elbow just thinking about that. Yeah, we're a heavy

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Speaker 1: ball guy, or not medium for sure? Medium to light

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Speaker 1: yeah I was. I was light to medium okay, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: well I think it's the same thing. We were just

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Speaker 1: going in opposite way. I mean, I definitely preferred lighter.

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Speaker 1: I was in still am a weakling so a big,

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Speaker 1: heavy bowling ball just it was no good for me. No,

355
00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:05,879
Speaker 1: it's it's not that fun. Um. And then the last

356
00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:08,720
Speaker 1: requirement for regulation bowling ball is that it has to

357
00:20:08,760 --> 00:20:14,000
Speaker 1: be gaudy. Yeah, I mean some of them are kind

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00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:16,600
Speaker 1: of crazy looking. I mean, you can get all kinds

359
00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:18,960
Speaker 1: of Like if you're a real bowler and you want

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00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:21,200
Speaker 1: to buy some weird specialty bowling ball that has a

361
00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:25,359
Speaker 1: crystal skull in it, you can, um but you know,

362
00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:27,119
Speaker 1: they have the plain black ones. But they also have

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00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:30,840
Speaker 1: all sorts of fun marbleie colored bowling balls, and those

364
00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:33,199
Speaker 1: are always kind of fun. I found the one that

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00:20:33,359 --> 00:20:37,760
Speaker 1: um Bill Mark Bill Murray bowled with um on in Kingpin,

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Speaker 1: the clear one with the rose in it. Okay, was

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00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:43,640
Speaker 1: it a rose? I couldn't remember. Yeah, and you can

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Speaker 1: get it for like two fifty bucks online. I mean,

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Speaker 1: not the one he was bowling with, but you know,

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00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:52,640
Speaker 1: a remake of it, but it's it's out there for sure. Okay.

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Speaker 1: I just might add that to the old Christmas list

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Speaker 1: for special podcaster nice. I hope you're talking about me

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Speaker 1: and pin bowling. Been bowling, right, Yeah, and my mind

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00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:09,480
Speaker 1: just went there. That's funny. Should we talk pins? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's not a lot of interesting thing about pins as

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Speaker 1: far as I'm concerned, except for the fact that they

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Speaker 1: have to replace them about once a year because they

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00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:18,760
Speaker 1: get so beat up. Yeah, and they're not a single

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00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:20,880
Speaker 1: piece of wood. They used to be a single piece

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00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:24,120
Speaker 1: of solid maple carved out, but since the fifties they've

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00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:29,520
Speaker 1: been glued together in sections right um and then uh.

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00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:34,119
Speaker 1: Also the lane itself is um its own kind of

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Speaker 1: piece of master work because it looks like you know,

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Speaker 1: individual pine boards. And the reason that it looks like

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00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:44,919
Speaker 1: that is apparently they it's an homage to how lanes

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00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:48,040
Speaker 1: actually used to be built, which was individual pine and

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00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:51,040
Speaker 1: then maple boards. Depending on what part of the lane

388
00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:53,480
Speaker 1: you were talking about, you put maple at either end

389
00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:56,560
Speaker 1: because that's where most of the heavy action was going on,

390
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:58,840
Speaker 1: and then in the middle you would make it pine.

391
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:01,119
Speaker 1: But they were a little any links of boards that

392
00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:05,320
Speaker 1: were nailed down and screwed down to um like plywood.

393
00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:08,119
Speaker 1: Basically that was on top of heavy beams and that

394
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:10,600
Speaker 1: was your your lane, and you had to varnish it

395
00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:13,520
Speaker 1: and then sand it and varnish it and varnish it again,

396
00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:17,000
Speaker 1: maybe once or twice a year, just to keep the thing,

397
00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:20,600
Speaker 1: you know, intact from all the wear and tear. Yeah,

398
00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:22,679
Speaker 1: and we should say that they use pine in the

399
00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:26,840
Speaker 1: middle because pine is really soft. If we have heart

400
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:30,320
Speaker 1: pine floors from the nineteen thirties and our house, and

401
00:22:30,359 --> 00:22:32,880
Speaker 1: they're just if you look at it wrong, it can

402
00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:36,080
Speaker 1: dent and scratch. So it's a it's not a very

403
00:22:36,119 --> 00:22:39,800
Speaker 1: hardy wood. So that's why they had the hard super

404
00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:43,159
Speaker 1: hard maple where you're throwing that ball down at the

405
00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:46,119
Speaker 1: beginning and at the end where the pins are exploding

406
00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:49,879
Speaker 1: after you throw your sixteen pound ball down there, steve

407
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:56,159
Speaker 1: you right. But nowadays bowling lanes are synthetic in that right, Yeah,

408
00:22:56,240 --> 00:22:58,280
Speaker 1: And again like that's it's funny that they make it

409
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:01,040
Speaker 1: look like they're individual boards because it's it is. It's

410
00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:05,880
Speaker 1: all just synthetic. Apparently the manufacturers of lanes um keep

411
00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:09,119
Speaker 1: their their exact recipes as trade secret secrets, but ED

412
00:23:09,160 --> 00:23:12,720
Speaker 1: turned up one that described its um substance that it

413
00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:15,119
Speaker 1: made the synthetic substance that makes the lanes out of

414
00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:19,320
Speaker 1: his phenolic, which is a kind of synthetic resin made

415
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:22,800
Speaker 1: from formalde hyde. So it's not it ain't pine or

416
00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:26,639
Speaker 1: maple anymore, is basically what I'm saying. Yeah, I like

417
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:28,520
Speaker 1: the fact that they do make it look like the

418
00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:31,359
Speaker 1: olden days, but I I think they could get a

419
00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:36,479
Speaker 1: little more creative in some bowling alleys and just you know,

420
00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:38,800
Speaker 1: they're trying to get people bowling again, and another they're

421
00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:42,160
Speaker 1: doing all kinds of fun stuff with you know, cosmic

422
00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:44,399
Speaker 1: bowling and all these kind of crazy ideas. But I

423
00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:48,679
Speaker 1: think they could make the lanes look really interesting. Remember

424
00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,720
Speaker 1: those uh you remember that whatever that substance was made

425
00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:54,320
Speaker 1: out of that you'd find around like a brass bowl

426
00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:56,600
Speaker 1: in the nineties, but it was all sort of different,

427
00:23:56,640 --> 00:24:01,400
Speaker 1: weird colors mixed together, sort of okay, something like that,

428
00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:03,760
Speaker 1: or tied I want to not do tied eye bowling

429
00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:06,440
Speaker 1: lanes like it's synthetic. You could make it look any

430
00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:09,520
Speaker 1: way you want it, or maybe like the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

431
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:11,879
Speaker 1: Oh you know, it would be fun. You know people

432
00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:14,120
Speaker 1: do that sidewalk art that makes it look like the

433
00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:17,919
Speaker 1: sidewalks crumbled away the three dr awesome. That would be

434
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:20,760
Speaker 1: so cool. It would so chuck. I think, um, we

435
00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:24,760
Speaker 1: should talk a little bit about um lane oil because

436
00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:28,040
Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting actually, and it kind of changes things.

437
00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:31,120
Speaker 1: Are you cool with talking about it at this point? Yeah? Yeah,

438
00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:34,000
Speaker 1: the the whole, the whole deal from the end. Yeah,

439
00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:37,919
Speaker 1: totally so um the despite it already being made of

440
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:42,359
Speaker 1: pretty slick material. A bowling alley lane is actually coated

441
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:47,080
Speaker 1: in mineral oil, and it's coated in different places, and

442
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:51,159
Speaker 1: not just across bowling alleys, Like a different bowling alley

443
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:54,439
Speaker 1: will have oil in different they apply it in different

444
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:58,720
Speaker 1: patterns in different ways. Yeah, and this is um this

445
00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:01,240
Speaker 1: is the reason why. And Ed sort of pose the

446
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:03,919
Speaker 1: question if a shmo like me can go out there

447
00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:07,760
Speaker 1: and bowl a one eighty and the average professional bowler

448
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 1: bowls between two tin and two twenty, like I might think, hey,

449
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:15,000
Speaker 1: I'm pretty close to that score, Like I could do

450
00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:16,360
Speaker 1: this a couple of times a week and I could

451
00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:19,399
Speaker 1: be a pro bowler. And apparently that is not the

452
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:24,000
Speaker 1: case because of the fact, this one fact that a

453
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:28,560
Speaker 1: standard bowling alleys where schmos like us bowl, uh, we

454
00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:34,240
Speaker 1: get the mineral oil application and pattern that is the

455
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:38,040
Speaker 1: most forgiving and I guess the easiest and most geared

456
00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:41,639
Speaker 1: towards amateur bowlers. Right, So, like if you get a

457
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:45,240
Speaker 1: gutter ball or you just somehow miss all of your pins,

458
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:49,040
Speaker 1: you have really failed at a just normal bowling alley

459
00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:52,000
Speaker 1: because they're actually setting you up as best they can

460
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:54,960
Speaker 1: to get a strike every time. So you're actually really

461
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:57,960
Speaker 1: working against the workers at the bowling alley. At that point.

462
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:00,800
Speaker 1: But the upshot of it is is that, like it's

463
00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:04,960
Speaker 1: geared toward making the casual bowler a better bowler. If

464
00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:08,280
Speaker 1: the casual bowler stepped out and started bowling on the

465
00:26:08,359 --> 00:26:12,120
Speaker 1: lane that had a p B a Professional Bowlers Association

466
00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:16,360
Speaker 1: approved oil pattern, you would be totally lost. You would

467
00:26:16,359 --> 00:26:19,160
Speaker 1: probably get a gutter ball every single time. And that's that's,

468
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:21,400
Speaker 1: like you said, that's the difference between the casual bowler

469
00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:24,359
Speaker 1: and the pro bowler. It's so much harder to bowl

470
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:27,520
Speaker 1: in the pros because of that oil that they put

471
00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:31,800
Speaker 1: in different kinds of patterns, depending on the the tournament,

472
00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:37,280
Speaker 1: depending on the alley, depending on sometimes probably bowlers preferences. Yeah,

473
00:26:37,359 --> 00:26:39,399
Speaker 1: and the sort of the simplest way to describe it

474
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:42,880
Speaker 1: without getting too dense into the patterns themselves. If there's

475
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,760
Speaker 1: less oil, then it's not going to be a slick

476
00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:48,480
Speaker 1: and it's gonna have a little more grab. So, and

477
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:50,720
Speaker 1: if you get the house oil treatment, which is what

478
00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:54,120
Speaker 1: they call the standard treatment for amateur bowlers, there's gonna

479
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:57,880
Speaker 1: be less oil along the edges and along the sides

480
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:01,159
Speaker 1: near the gutters. So hopefully if it veers that way,

481
00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:04,720
Speaker 1: it'll grab and try and veer itself back toward the center,

482
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:09,719
Speaker 1: and it's not you know, I think it's fairly subtle.

483
00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:12,240
Speaker 1: It's not so much that you can just obviously throw

484
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:14,760
Speaker 1: one up there and it'll just sort of ping pong

485
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:18,120
Speaker 1: down there towards the middle because of the oil application. Um.

486
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:22,720
Speaker 1: But apparently the pro patterns which uh have animal names

487
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:26,320
Speaker 1: or they're named after famous bowlers from the past, like, uh,

488
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:30,639
Speaker 1: there's a scorpion pattern stuff like that. Um, apparently that

489
00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:33,480
Speaker 1: stuff is there's a lot of nuance to how you

490
00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:36,800
Speaker 1: bowl on those and those PBA bowlers are are great

491
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:39,359
Speaker 1: at it. Yeah, And so like at a p B

492
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:44,600
Speaker 1: A approved tournament or championship, Um, everybody's bowling on the

493
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,879
Speaker 1: same oil pattern. The oil pattern is established at the

494
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:51,920
Speaker 1: official practice and then it's they they reapply it throughout

495
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 1: the tournament. So, but it's the same type of patterns.

496
00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:57,199
Speaker 1: So they've got these patterns down so well that you know,

497
00:27:57,359 --> 00:28:00,480
Speaker 1: after a day the oils worn off, but put on

498
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:03,920
Speaker 1: the same exact pattern that night into the bowler who

499
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:07,480
Speaker 1: comes the second day, it's like bowling exactly like it

500
00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:10,400
Speaker 1: was the day before. That's how that's how exact these

501
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:14,720
Speaker 1: patterns are. I saw that some like the oil is applied. Uh,

502
00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:19,120
Speaker 1: the um the measurement that they use are like micro leaders,

503
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:22,600
Speaker 1: Like that's how exact these oil patterns are. And there's

504
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:25,119
Speaker 1: actually when I saw Chuck that's named after Chris Paul,

505
00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:29,040
Speaker 1: the NBA player, he's that much of a bowling enthusiastic

506
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:32,159
Speaker 1: has own oil pattern named after I didn't know he

507
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 1: was into it. I love that. I like Chris Paul. Yeah,

508
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:36,680
Speaker 1: oh yeah, he's huge into bowling for sure, but he's

509
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:41,560
Speaker 1: still an amateur. Uh. And also the pro bowlers will

510
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:45,920
Speaker 1: maybe dial in a certain ball, like they might have

511
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:49,400
Speaker 1: several balls in their arsenal, and depending on what kind

512
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:51,520
Speaker 1: of pattern they get, they may use a different ball,

513
00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 1: and they may you know, they may throw it and

514
00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 1: hook it a little bit differently, or they invariably will

515
00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 1: depending on what kind of pattern. But they know the

516
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:02,920
Speaker 1: patterns and they know what to do right. And then lastly, Chuck, UM,

517
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:06,600
Speaker 1: the coutrement uh that you want to make sure you're

518
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:09,840
Speaker 1: outfitted with if you're going to bowl are bowling shoes.

519
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:12,960
Speaker 1: And if you're a pro bowler, your your bowling shoes

520
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:15,280
Speaker 1: are rather different from the kind that you or I

521
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:17,720
Speaker 1: would get from a guy who just sprayed it with

522
00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:21,440
Speaker 1: some weird disinfectant and handed them to us because they're

523
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:24,600
Speaker 1: not normal bowling shoes. Yeah, that's such a classic part

524
00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:27,520
Speaker 1: of bowling. It's just seeing them grab those and spray

525
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:31,440
Speaker 1: it in, right. Yeah, who was it that did that

526
00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:36,640
Speaker 1: for a living in some movie? Uh? I don't know,

527
00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:38,719
Speaker 1: I don't know. I want to say there is a

528
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:41,000
Speaker 1: heist movie where one of the characters was like a

529
00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:43,880
Speaker 1: bowling shoe hand er outer. Okay, I bet you somebody,

530
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:45,040
Speaker 1: all right, And I would like to know that too,

531
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:50,400
Speaker 1: because that sounds to But the bowling shoes, uh, that

532
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 1: you will be probably renting unless you do bowl a lot,

533
00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 1: if you're in a league, you probably have your own shoes.

534
00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:57,880
Speaker 1: But they have the right amount of amount of slip

535
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 1: and grip to send you gliding down the floor but

536
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:04,479
Speaker 1: not slipping all over the place. And they are in

537
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:07,920
Speaker 1: fact made ugly and the ncomfortable, so you don't take

538
00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:12,080
Speaker 1: them home. That's a true thing. That's awesome, But people

539
00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:15,480
Speaker 1: still do take him home. I mean once in the

540
00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:18,120
Speaker 1: I think I did that once in my twenties when

541
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:22,440
Speaker 1: it was kind of cool to wear bowling shoes around. Shame, shame, shame,

542
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,800
Speaker 1: whatever became of them. Did you take him back? Who knows?

543
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:30,959
Speaker 1: You know, that stuff in the twenties just it's it's ephemeral,

544
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:33,960
Speaker 1: you know. Did you wear them out? Yeah? Yeah, I

545
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,440
Speaker 1: would wear them mountain Athens and be like a he's

546
00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:40,600
Speaker 1: chucking his bowling shoes. You're such a hipster. Uh. And

547
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:43,160
Speaker 1: the the last bit of equipment we can mention is

548
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:45,960
Speaker 1: if you're pro bowl or maybe if you have like

549
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:49,240
Speaker 1: even risk problems, or if you're just a league bowler

550
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,280
Speaker 1: who's highly enthusiastic, you might have a risk brace and

551
00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:54,480
Speaker 1: maybe a rosin bag to dry your hand off. Even

552
00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:57,560
Speaker 1: though they do have those great little air blowers at

553
00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:01,720
Speaker 1: the ball return station, Yeah, they really do. It's pretty great.

554
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:03,560
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about that in a minute, Chuck, because

555
00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:05,960
Speaker 1: I propose we take a break and come back and

556
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:09,560
Speaker 1: talk about one of the most profound developments in the

557
00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:33,040
Speaker 1: history of bowling, the automatic pin setter. So, Chuck, for

558
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:35,160
Speaker 1: this first part, I want to direct everybody to our

559
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:38,280
Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen episode Jobs of Bygone Eras, because we

560
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:41,680
Speaker 1: talked about something that really ties into bowling, which was

561
00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:46,240
Speaker 1: pin monkeys or pin boys. They were human people who

562
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:49,040
Speaker 1: would stand at the back of a bowling lane. Sometimes

563
00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:52,160
Speaker 1: they were responsible for one lane, sometimes for two. And

564
00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:55,080
Speaker 1: then as people bowled, they were responsible for removing the

565
00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:58,760
Speaker 1: knocked over pins called deadwood, leaving the other pins up.

566
00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:02,440
Speaker 1: And then when was when a frame was done, resetting

567
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:04,760
Speaker 1: the pins by hand, they would just set the pins

568
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 1: out in a triangle. They would also take somebody's ball

569
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:10,200
Speaker 1: and roll it down a little incline back to them.

570
00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:14,120
Speaker 1: That was a human based job for a really long time. Actually,

571
00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:17,480
Speaker 1: that's right. Uh. Then they advanced it a little bit,

572
00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:21,720
Speaker 1: uh to where there was a machine that would position

573
00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 1: and set the pins, but there was still a pin

574
00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:27,080
Speaker 1: boy because it wasn't fully automated. They would like use

575
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:30,000
Speaker 1: the lever to lower lower it down, but it was

576
00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:33,080
Speaker 1: still like a mechanical machine that was helping getting them

577
00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:38,080
Speaker 1: in the exact correct position, eliminating human error I reckon,

578
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 1: Yeah sure, but also making it a lot faster too.

579
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:46,400
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, way faster. Uh. And then they finally I

580
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:50,240
Speaker 1: guess this was the early nineteen hundreds. Um, they tried

581
00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 1: to automate it a little bit more and never really

582
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 1: caught on that well. And then a gentleman name Fred

583
00:32:56,400 --> 00:33:02,040
Speaker 1: Gottfried Fred Schmidt from New York State uh figured out

584
00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:06,280
Speaker 1: a machine that would actually clear the pins, lift them up,

585
00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:09,600
Speaker 1: set the pins, and it was bought in nineteen forty

586
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:13,280
Speaker 1: one by the American Machine and Foundry Company, which, if

587
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:16,239
Speaker 1: you don't think that sounds familiar, if you look at

588
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:18,200
Speaker 1: if you go to any bowling alley, you'll see a

589
00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:21,800
Speaker 1: lot of equipment with a MF branded on it. UM,

590
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:25,200
Speaker 1: and that's where it comes from. American Machine and Foundry Company. Yeah,

591
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:28,960
Speaker 1: and that was a really really good purchase of those

592
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:32,560
Speaker 1: patents by a MF. UM. They opened a factory in

593
00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 1: an old I think bicycle factory in Shelby, Ohio. They

594
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:38,520
Speaker 1: started out with two hundred employees, and those two hundred

595
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:42,000
Speaker 1: employees could make two hundred of these automatic pin setters

596
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:44,960
Speaker 1: a year at first, but they caught on so quickly

597
00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:48,120
Speaker 1: and the pin setter changed the game so much that

598
00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 1: they they just started hiring and building more and more

599
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:54,840
Speaker 1: and more, so much so that from nineteen fifty to

600
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:58,800
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty eight, forty thousand a m F pin setters,

601
00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:00,960
Speaker 1: and a pin setter is a huge machine at the

602
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:03,880
Speaker 1: back of every lane in a bowling alley. Forty thousand

603
00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:06,200
Speaker 1: of them have been sold or leased out to bowling

604
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:09,279
Speaker 1: alleys just in the United States alone. So it was

605
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:14,240
Speaker 1: like a a revolutionary shock way that went through bowling

606
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:18,360
Speaker 1: because bowling was no longer a slow and unpredictably paced

607
00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:22,040
Speaker 1: game anymore. It was fast and it had a rhythm

608
00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:24,239
Speaker 1: that you could get into it. As a matter of fact,

609
00:34:24,320 --> 00:34:26,600
Speaker 1: a m F tuted that, um, this was a new

610
00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:29,480
Speaker 1: type of bowling. They called it rhythm bowling because it

611
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:32,440
Speaker 1: was automated, so you could kind of determine when the

612
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:33,880
Speaker 1: ball was going to come back, when the pins are

613
00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:35,960
Speaker 1: gonna be ready, and it was just much more fast

614
00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:38,719
Speaker 1: paced than having some kid hands setting up pins in

615
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:41,200
Speaker 1: the back, which is what it had been like, you know,

616
00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:44,360
Speaker 1: just a decade before. It's interesting you mentioned the rhythm,

617
00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:47,399
Speaker 1: like you don't really think about it, but even an

618
00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:51,480
Speaker 1: amateur schmo like me, when the thing messes up or

619
00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:54,480
Speaker 1: when you're bald and come back right, it does you

620
00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:56,359
Speaker 1: do feel a little put out, Like, oh man, I

621
00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:58,799
Speaker 1: was like I was feeling things. I was in my

622
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:01,799
Speaker 1: groove and now I got to push that button to

623
00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:04,000
Speaker 1: make you know, the person from the front desk come

624
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:06,839
Speaker 1: over and talk to it. Yeah, that's funny, because I

625
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:09,279
Speaker 1: don't feel disappointed. I feel like I did something wrong,

626
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:11,400
Speaker 1: and I'm about to get in trouble for doing something

627
00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:14,600
Speaker 1: to their ball. That's how I always felt. Really yeah,

628
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:16,759
Speaker 1: I'm coming to realize that that's like a hallmark of

629
00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:19,280
Speaker 1: my entire life that I really need to get past.

630
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:21,160
Speaker 1: It's not your fault. You don't need to hide in

631
00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:24,200
Speaker 1: the bathroom. Thanks. I wouldn't quite hide in the bathroom,

632
00:35:24,239 --> 00:35:26,279
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't make eye contact with the person came

633
00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:28,560
Speaker 1: over and you know fixed it well, you know you

634
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:30,640
Speaker 1: were probably had a scarring thing at a young age

635
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:34,799
Speaker 1: where someone came back and went, would you do? Would

636
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:37,719
Speaker 1: you do with that bull? I'm crumbling right now. That

637
00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:40,040
Speaker 1: was like such a perfect impression. You didn't do anything,

638
00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:44,359
Speaker 1: Todd Gack, you didn't do anything, Thank you? Walking back

639
00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:48,960
Speaker 1: and forth. So we're gonna get into, um, not the weeds,

640
00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:50,640
Speaker 1: but we're gonna get a little bit into the nitty

641
00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:53,200
Speaker 1: gritty of the modern automatic pin center, which is just

642
00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:57,440
Speaker 1: a truly amazing machine. If you like watching uh how

643
00:35:57,480 --> 00:35:59,720
Speaker 1: It's made, or any of those shows about like factory

644
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:04,360
Speaker 1: mechanical processes, then look no further than the automatic pin setter.

645
00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:07,480
Speaker 1: And I can recommend, I think we both can. A

646
00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:11,600
Speaker 1: YouTube video from a gentleman named Jared Owen Animations, So

647
00:36:11,719 --> 00:36:14,640
Speaker 1: just look up Jared Owin Animations pin setter and he

648
00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:19,239
Speaker 1: does he's great, Uh, animations of mechanical processes. And this

649
00:36:19,280 --> 00:36:23,080
Speaker 1: one was so cool and fascinating. It's not how amazing

650
00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:26,560
Speaker 1: it is this how great this this animation was. And

651
00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:28,960
Speaker 1: then also I want to just re recommend pin setter

652
00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:32,640
Speaker 1: operation video. Kind of a sterile title, and it's live action,

653
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:36,919
Speaker 1: it's not it's not um it's not animation by Matt

654
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:40,520
Speaker 1: Boland again, who's a pin setter mechanic, and he took

655
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:43,200
Speaker 1: apart all sorts of different components of the pin setter

656
00:36:43,239 --> 00:36:45,719
Speaker 1: to show how they worked in operation and explains it.

657
00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:48,200
Speaker 1: So both of those videos are really good at explaining

658
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 1: how pin setters work, right. And one last thing before

659
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:54,440
Speaker 1: we get into it, uh, I did think of a

660
00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:56,960
Speaker 1: lot of ideas along the way, like the you know,

661
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:00,360
Speaker 1: the plaid bowling lanes and things to get bowling more interesting. Again,

662
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:04,239
Speaker 1: I say, get rid of the facade in front of

663
00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:07,560
Speaker 1: these machines and let people look at them. It's amazing

664
00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:10,200
Speaker 1: looking and it would be super cool. It would be

665
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:12,520
Speaker 1: super cool. But one of the things that's really critical

666
00:37:12,560 --> 00:37:15,479
Speaker 1: on those facades is another a MF invention that helped

667
00:37:15,520 --> 00:37:19,160
Speaker 1: change bowling. What's called the magic triangle, which shows which

668
00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:22,799
Speaker 1: pins are still standing in their location on that facade,

669
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:26,400
Speaker 1: so that you know how to throw your balls. Can

670
00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:28,120
Speaker 1: get rid of that, They could put that somewhere else.

671
00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:32,200
Speaker 1: And apparently a MFUM really tried to call this thing

672
00:37:32,239 --> 00:37:35,200
Speaker 1: the pindicator and it never caught on. Everybody called it

673
00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:38,200
Speaker 1: the magic triangle like in indicator. I'm surprised I didn't.

674
00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:41,160
Speaker 1: I didn't catch it did not catch. All right, should

675
00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:44,080
Speaker 1: we get into this? Yeah? Also, real quick shout out.

676
00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:47,319
Speaker 1: I think it was Richmond County history dot com, which

677
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:51,320
Speaker 1: was all the info I got that um, Shelby, Ohio

678
00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:56,560
Speaker 1: a MF info from all right, shoutouts. Over Here we

679
00:37:56,600 --> 00:38:00,880
Speaker 1: go with automatic Concenter, one of the human kinds greatest inventions.

680
00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:03,960
Speaker 1: The first thing that's gonna happen. You're gonna throw your

681
00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:07,239
Speaker 1: ball down there and hit pins. And as soon as

682
00:38:07,239 --> 00:38:10,680
Speaker 1: your ball crosses that little threshold where the pins are,

683
00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:14,839
Speaker 1: there are sensors on both sides that tell the pin

684
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:18,520
Speaker 1: setting machine, Hey, the ball has passed through. It's time

685
00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:21,959
Speaker 1: to go to work. Right, So a bunch of things

686
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:25,240
Speaker 1: happen initially, Like obviously, when you throw a ball really

687
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 1: fast that weighs up to sixteen pounds down sixty ft

688
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:31,760
Speaker 1: of lane and it knocks into a bunch of wooden

689
00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:34,880
Speaker 1: pins that suddenly go flying, you need some sort of

690
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:37,359
Speaker 1: backstop or barrier, and they have that. They have like

691
00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:40,400
Speaker 1: some sort of tarp or sheet that's um that covers

692
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:44,000
Speaker 1: rubber stoppers that are mounted to like a wood panel,

693
00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:47,640
Speaker 1: and that's like the backstop. And then directly below the backstop,

694
00:38:47,719 --> 00:38:51,200
Speaker 1: between it and the end of the lane is a

695
00:38:51,239 --> 00:38:54,160
Speaker 1: little conveyor belt that pushes everything that got knocked over

696
00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:58,960
Speaker 1: towards the backstop back away from the lane. That's that's

697
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:03,280
Speaker 1: going on simultaneously while the sweep and the pin setter

698
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:05,520
Speaker 1: come down right right. And the other thing we should

699
00:39:05,560 --> 00:39:09,480
Speaker 1: mention that is happening ideally, if it's working correctly, is

700
00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:14,439
Speaker 1: your ball is going to be sort of shuttled over

701
00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:17,480
Speaker 1: to what's called an accelerator and it's just a really

702
00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:20,600
Speaker 1: fast moving conveyor belt on a pulley and it's gonna

703
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:23,480
Speaker 1: shoot that ball, uh pretty fast actually, But it's all

704
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:27,160
Speaker 1: happening underground. Again, make these things clear, like people want

705
00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:30,640
Speaker 1: to see this stuff, and it goes through that tunnel

706
00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:34,040
Speaker 1: between the lanes. It's uh, you know, the lanes share

707
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:37,080
Speaker 1: one of those ball return machines. And then at the

708
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:40,520
Speaker 1: very end, when it reaches the big uh covered up

709
00:39:40,560 --> 00:39:43,200
Speaker 1: thing that shouldn't be covered, you have an S shaped

710
00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:48,120
Speaker 1: uh sort of system with two spinning tires and it

711
00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:50,480
Speaker 1: just sort of grabs the ball and shoots it through

712
00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:54,960
Speaker 1: this s S track for lack of a better term,

713
00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:57,200
Speaker 1: out to where you are, and you can kind of

714
00:39:57,200 --> 00:39:59,560
Speaker 1: think of those spinning tires. It's like a like a

715
00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:02,640
Speaker 1: baseball all pitching machine. When you stiff the baseball in

716
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:05,040
Speaker 1: between the two uh, the two tires, and it shoots

717
00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:07,960
Speaker 1: it out right, but not only shoots it out, it

718
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:11,440
Speaker 1: moves it upward vertically, which is pretty cool because again,

719
00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:13,840
Speaker 1: this is a sixteen pound ball. And then I looked,

720
00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:15,840
Speaker 1: and I didn't see anybody say anything about it, but

721
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:19,320
Speaker 1: it looks like that top wheel spins in a direction

722
00:40:19,400 --> 00:40:22,400
Speaker 1: that will put spin on the ball, so it loses

723
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,600
Speaker 1: momentum as it's coming up because it's spinning the opposite

724
00:40:25,719 --> 00:40:28,520
Speaker 1: direction of the direction it's traveling. I'm not a high

725
00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:32,919
Speaker 1: percent sure that's based exclusively on my own information or observation,

726
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:36,000
Speaker 1: and I haven't conducted any sort of scientific study of

727
00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:37,759
Speaker 1: it because you gotta watch those fingies when you got

728
00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:40,160
Speaker 1: to pick the ball up for sure, because I mean,

729
00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:42,319
Speaker 1: that's that's a lot coming out. But I think that

730
00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:44,480
Speaker 1: they put spin on it to make it slow down,

731
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:49,399
Speaker 1: that's right, alright. So meanwhile, you've got a rack, uh

732
00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:53,080
Speaker 1: that's gonna drop over the pins, and you have um

733
00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:56,319
Speaker 1: a you know, obviously if you if you don't knock

734
00:40:56,360 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 1: everything down, there's something called a sweep wagon or a sweeper.

735
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:02,560
Speaker 1: It's gonna sweep away those pins, but you want to

736
00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:06,879
Speaker 1: keep those pins that are there. And this machine drops down, uh,

737
00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:10,239
Speaker 1: it's there's something called the pin detecting plate that's gonna

738
00:41:10,280 --> 00:41:12,719
Speaker 1: detect whether or not there's a pin there, and then

739
00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:17,880
Speaker 1: it will engage these grasping claws called spotting tongs. Is

740
00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:21,160
Speaker 1: that right? Yeah? I think so, okay, and they grab

741
00:41:21,239 --> 00:41:24,680
Speaker 1: that pin and pick it up, yeah, because it's really

742
00:41:24,680 --> 00:41:27,960
Speaker 1: important that the whatever pins are left standing after the

743
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:30,279
Speaker 1: first throw in the frame. You want to move them

744
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:32,319
Speaker 1: up and out of the way before you sweep the

745
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:35,120
Speaker 1: dead wood that's left on the lane back towards that

746
00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:38,120
Speaker 1: conveyor belt, right, and then it brings it back down,

747
00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:40,680
Speaker 1: sets them back in place, and then the pins that

748
00:41:40,719 --> 00:41:43,479
Speaker 1: are lists back up and it's ready for that second throw.

749
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:46,799
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, that conveyor belt that's moving all

750
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:48,960
Speaker 1: the dead wood in the ball that was swept back

751
00:41:49,480 --> 00:41:52,799
Speaker 1: beyond the lane that's moving, so the ball has been

752
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:55,520
Speaker 1: shunted off into the ball return and what's left or

753
00:41:55,600 --> 00:41:58,000
Speaker 1: pins that are just kind of spinning around, bobbling around.

754
00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:00,560
Speaker 1: It almost looks like a lot of sheen with the

755
00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:03,359
Speaker 1: balls pop bump, but like jumping around inside of it

756
00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:08,160
Speaker 1: and behind right behind that conveyor belt. UM is an elevator,

757
00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:11,360
Speaker 1: and an elevator is designed UM with a bunch of

758
00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:14,960
Speaker 1: I think fourteen different little buckets. In each bucket very

759
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:19,239
Speaker 1: snugly holds a bowling pin, and the bowling pinches kind

760
00:42:19,239 --> 00:42:22,480
Speaker 1: of fall into the elevator one by one, yeah, sideways

761
00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:24,600
Speaker 1: on their side right, and then one by one they're

762
00:42:24,640 --> 00:42:27,480
Speaker 1: lifted up and UM taken to the top of the

763
00:42:27,520 --> 00:42:30,640
Speaker 1: pin setter and some more magic happens to Yeah, some

764
00:42:30,719 --> 00:42:33,200
Speaker 1: more magic happens. They have the centering wedges that get

765
00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:36,200
Speaker 1: them all ready to go. And we should point out

766
00:42:36,239 --> 00:42:39,759
Speaker 1: they can be laying either you know, skinny side left

767
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:43,239
Speaker 1: or skinny side right. Uh. And they are horizontal and

768
00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:46,319
Speaker 1: then they when they're dropped off, they're just sort of

769
00:42:46,719 --> 00:42:49,200
Speaker 1: you know, one end of it is sort of smacked

770
00:42:49,239 --> 00:42:51,719
Speaker 1: around and it goes down a little shoot. So they

771
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:55,680
Speaker 1: are sitting upright again. Yeah, they're all facing the same

772
00:42:55,719 --> 00:43:00,000
Speaker 1: way with the base at the board. Yeah, at the

773
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:02,400
Speaker 1: bottom toward the towards the person. So yeah, there's all

774
00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:06,560
Speaker 1: sorts of little like thins and shoots and just little

775
00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:11,200
Speaker 1: things that that manipulate how the bowling pin um moves

776
00:43:11,239 --> 00:43:14,440
Speaker 1: around and where it's laying and how it's oriented that

777
00:43:14,480 --> 00:43:20,080
Speaker 1: are really simple in design, but they're also extremely ingenious. Um.

778
00:43:20,320 --> 00:43:23,080
Speaker 1: And it's like it's not like the kind of thing

779
00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:25,719
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't intuitively figure out if you sat down

780
00:43:25,719 --> 00:43:29,160
Speaker 1: and thought about how to do it. But somebody sat

781
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:30,880
Speaker 1: down and thought about how to do this, and they

782
00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:37,080
Speaker 1: came up with a really elegant, really complex electro mechanical solution,

783
00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:39,879
Speaker 1: which is the pin setter. Yeah, and they I'm sure

784
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:41,640
Speaker 1: there are other places around the country, but I know

785
00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:44,600
Speaker 1: there's one in l a and Highland Park called Highland

786
00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:47,280
Speaker 1: Park Bowl, which was a bowling alley from the nineteen

787
00:43:47,320 --> 00:43:50,880
Speaker 1: thirties that they restored to its original beauty, um, not

788
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:53,359
Speaker 1: too too long ago. And they do leave the pin

789
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:57,239
Speaker 1: setting machines exposed there and it's super cool looking. Yeah. So,

790
00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:00,160
Speaker 1: so you've got eventually ten pins that are lined up

791
00:44:00,160 --> 00:44:03,200
Speaker 1: in the pin setter and they are um, they're knocked

792
00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:07,600
Speaker 1: into a vertical position, standing upright. And then eventually that

793
00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:11,000
Speaker 1: same pin setter that lifts up the remaining pins after

794
00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 1: the first um after the first throw, that same pin

795
00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:18,400
Speaker 1: setter drops down ten pins after the second throw, resets

796
00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:21,040
Speaker 1: everything and the whole thing starts all over. That's right,

797
00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:23,919
Speaker 1: it's beautiful again. Go watch one of those videos. It's

798
00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:26,840
Speaker 1: really really interesting to see how how it works because

799
00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:29,359
Speaker 1: we haven't quite done it justice if you ask me. Yeah,

800
00:44:29,400 --> 00:44:31,480
Speaker 1: and I imagine they're expensive and there are a lot

801
00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:33,799
Speaker 1: of them in a full size bowling alley like it's

802
00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:35,520
Speaker 1: it's a it's a lot of money going on there,

803
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:39,279
Speaker 1: for sure. So should we talk about some of the history. Yeah,

804
00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:42,320
Speaker 1: we'll finish that with some history. Uh So, like we said,

805
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:45,160
Speaker 1: this started out as a lot of human games, which

806
00:44:45,200 --> 00:44:48,920
Speaker 1: is throw something at something else to knock it down. Uh.

807
00:44:48,960 --> 00:44:53,040
Speaker 1: They have found things in Egyptian tombs that show that

808
00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:56,640
Speaker 1: they might have done something like bowling. Uh, they definitely

809
00:44:56,680 --> 00:44:59,040
Speaker 1: know that. In the Middle Ages, they were bowling on

810
00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:02,120
Speaker 1: lawns like a bowling green. That's where that comes from.

811
00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:06,400
Speaker 1: And at various times bowling became super popular and various

812
00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 1: kings got angry that bowling was popular, and so they said,

813
00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:16,080
Speaker 1: you you cannot bowl anymore. But also Germany is tagged

814
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:19,720
Speaker 1: as possibly the beginning of uh, not what we modern

815
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:23,440
Speaker 1: tinpin bowling, but early bowling in the three a d

816
00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:27,799
Speaker 1: s as a religious religious right in ritual where you

817
00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:30,080
Speaker 1: would roll a stone at a bunch of standing clubs

818
00:45:30,120 --> 00:45:35,600
Speaker 1: to absolve your sins. Yeah, it was religious bowling. I

819
00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:38,840
Speaker 1: love it. Yeah. Germany still has claimed to the invention

820
00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:42,400
Speaker 1: of bowling based on those monks that used to do that. Again,

821
00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:45,800
Speaker 1: that's ninepin and eventually, Um, we don't really know where

822
00:45:46,040 --> 00:45:48,960
Speaker 1: ten pin or win or who I should say, who

823
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:51,920
Speaker 1: created tenpin and exactly where and when it was created,

824
00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:54,680
Speaker 1: but we do know it was an American invention in

825
00:45:54,719 --> 00:45:58,480
Speaker 1: the very late nineteenth century. And there's a long standing

826
00:45:58,600 --> 00:46:02,200
Speaker 1: rumor an old saw you will, about um where ten

827
00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:05,440
Speaker 1: pin came from, and that was that there were there

828
00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:08,960
Speaker 1: are all sorts of prohibitions on nine pin bowling because

829
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:11,719
Speaker 1: it had become a means of gambling or something to

830
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:14,960
Speaker 1: be gambled on, and so to prevent gambling, there were

831
00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:18,040
Speaker 1: prohibitions on nine pin bowling, so they added a tenth

832
00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:21,439
Speaker 1: pin to get around those bands. And that's supposedly where

833
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:24,879
Speaker 1: ten pin came from. Apparently it's never no one's ever

834
00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:27,759
Speaker 1: really turned up any original source material saying that, but

835
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:31,080
Speaker 1: it's a pretty good story. I like it. Uh. In

836
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:36,720
Speaker 1: a gentleman named Joe Thumb, the grandfather of modern bowling,

837
00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:40,759
Speaker 1: brought together a bunch of people and it formed the

838
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:44,960
Speaker 1: American Bowling Congress, the ABC, which is now what you

839
00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:49,080
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, the USBC, the United States Bowling Conference. And

840
00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:51,640
Speaker 1: over the years, you know, bowling is kind of ebdon

841
00:46:51,680 --> 00:46:54,600
Speaker 1: flowed in its popularity. Uh. There were beer leagues in

842
00:46:54,640 --> 00:46:58,719
Speaker 1: the thirties and forties where um beers would sponsor tournaments

843
00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:03,200
Speaker 1: and sponsor bowlers. The Mafia got involved for a while

844
00:47:03,280 --> 00:47:06,160
Speaker 1: with um action bowling, which is like, hey, let me

845
00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:08,480
Speaker 1: get some action on this, and it there were some

846
00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:12,279
Speaker 1: pretty high stakes games going on in uh in New

847
00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:16,040
Speaker 1: York back then, right. Yeah, Supposedly action bowling would take

848
00:47:16,080 --> 00:47:18,640
Speaker 1: place after the leagues were done, and it would start

849
00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:21,120
Speaker 1: around midnight or one am, and sometimes these games would

850
00:47:21,120 --> 00:47:23,520
Speaker 1: go to seven in the morning. And their stories of

851
00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:26,160
Speaker 1: people who were into action bowling in New York who

852
00:47:26,160 --> 00:47:29,280
Speaker 1: would walk out of there with ten thousand plus dollars

853
00:47:29,320 --> 00:47:33,400
Speaker 1: that they won from these basically gambling on bowling late

854
00:47:33,480 --> 00:47:35,680
Speaker 1: at night. And it was a huge thing in New York,

855
00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:37,719
Speaker 1: and it got to be so big that some of

856
00:47:37,719 --> 00:47:41,920
Speaker 1: these action bowlers ended up getting so good that they

857
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:44,960
Speaker 1: became pros. They ended up in the Pro Bowlers Association

858
00:47:45,040 --> 00:47:47,640
Speaker 1: because they couldn't find anybody who would take their money anymore,

859
00:47:47,680 --> 00:47:50,080
Speaker 1: because people just knew how good they were, so the

860
00:47:50,120 --> 00:47:53,399
Speaker 1: only people they could compete against where other pros. So

861
00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:58,160
Speaker 1: Ed has uh the nineteen eighties he lists the peak

862
00:47:58,200 --> 00:48:02,800
Speaker 1: of bowling's popularity. I'm gonna take issue with that. Maybe

863
00:48:02,840 --> 00:48:08,600
Speaker 1: in the eighties it was the peak of televised professional bowling. UM,

864
00:48:08,640 --> 00:48:13,320
Speaker 1: but everything I saw clearly indicated like the nineteen fifties

865
00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:16,440
Speaker 1: and sixties was when bowling was at its peak of

866
00:48:16,520 --> 00:48:20,000
Speaker 1: popularity as as far as the American public goes bowling

867
00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:22,719
Speaker 1: is concerned. Yeah, let me give you an example of that.

868
00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:25,640
Speaker 1: And I got this from a price inomics article by

869
00:48:25,719 --> 00:48:28,240
Speaker 1: Zachary Crockett. I think it's called The Rise and follow Bowling.

870
00:48:28,680 --> 00:48:31,400
Speaker 1: Zachary Crockett is one of my favorite writers on the web.

871
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:34,120
Speaker 1: He's just awesome. He's popped up in a bunch of

872
00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:37,080
Speaker 1: our episodes because he just writes about the most interesting

873
00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:39,480
Speaker 1: stuff in a really great way. But in it he

874
00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:43,800
Speaker 1: cites that the first athlete of any sport, chuck, any

875
00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:48,160
Speaker 1: sport to land a one million dollar contract was Don

876
00:48:48,239 --> 00:48:51,680
Speaker 1: Carter in nineteen sixty four. And that's one million dollars

877
00:48:51,719 --> 00:48:55,480
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four dollars, so it's about more than

878
00:48:55,520 --> 00:48:58,480
Speaker 1: seven and a half billion dollars today. And that's pretty

879
00:48:58,520 --> 00:49:01,040
Speaker 1: astounding that a bowler was the first one to land

880
00:49:01,080 --> 00:49:04,520
Speaker 1: a million dollar endorsement contract. But it's even more astounding

881
00:49:04,680 --> 00:49:07,880
Speaker 1: when you juxtapose it against what some of the other stars,

882
00:49:07,880 --> 00:49:10,120
Speaker 1: some of the other sports stars were getting at the

883
00:49:10,120 --> 00:49:15,080
Speaker 1: same time. Right, yes, ye, the top bowler was a

884
00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:19,040
Speaker 1: man named Harry Smith, and he made more money than

885
00:49:19,760 --> 00:49:22,759
Speaker 1: baseball m v P Sandy kofax and NFL m v

886
00:49:22,880 --> 00:49:28,400
Speaker 1: P uh y eights it will combined. Yeah, also, yeah, exactly,

887
00:49:28,440 --> 00:49:31,759
Speaker 1: And then also, um, there were other sports figures who

888
00:49:31,800 --> 00:49:34,920
Speaker 1: had endorsement contracts, but they were nothing like a million

889
00:49:34,920 --> 00:49:38,600
Speaker 1: dollar endorsement contract. Arnold Palmer had one with Wilson for

890
00:49:38,719 --> 00:49:41,759
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars that's less than forty thousand dollars in

891
00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:47,680
Speaker 1: today's money. Joe Nameth had one with I think Shick Razors.

892
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:51,800
Speaker 1: He had a contract for ten thousand dollars, which is

893
00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:55,320
Speaker 1: worth about seventy five grand today. A bowler in nineteen

894
00:49:55,360 --> 00:49:59,960
Speaker 1: sixty four got a million dollar contract. That's how popular

895
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:04,600
Speaker 1: bowling was at the time. Yeah, it was huge. The

896
00:50:04,600 --> 00:50:07,640
Speaker 1: those a legend named Dick Webber. Uh and he has

897
00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:09,920
Speaker 1: a son named Pete Webber, who's probably one of the

898
00:50:10,000 --> 00:50:12,920
Speaker 1: more well known bowlers today. And the only reason to

899
00:50:12,920 --> 00:50:15,960
Speaker 1: bring him up is because Ed pointed out a very

900
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:22,440
Speaker 1: fun video of of Pete Webber in after winning a tournament,

901
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:25,680
Speaker 1: and you got to see it because it just Ed says,

902
00:50:25,719 --> 00:50:28,839
Speaker 1: you know, he shouted nonsensically, who do you think I am?

903
00:50:29,120 --> 00:50:31,319
Speaker 1: Or who do you think you are I am? And

904
00:50:31,360 --> 00:50:34,000
Speaker 1: I was like, what does that mean? And I said

905
00:50:34,040 --> 00:50:37,319
Speaker 1: it was nonsensical? But did you see the video? Oh? Yeah,

906
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:39,319
Speaker 1: I kept watching it over and I did too. It's

907
00:50:39,360 --> 00:50:42,040
Speaker 1: so funny. He gets so fired up and he's screaming,

908
00:50:42,600 --> 00:50:44,919
Speaker 1: and he just goes, who do you think you are?

909
00:50:45,120 --> 00:50:49,279
Speaker 1: I am? And just the double thumbs and everyone went

910
00:50:49,480 --> 00:50:52,560
Speaker 1: what yeah, And and of course has happened in two

911
00:50:52,600 --> 00:50:54,799
Speaker 1: dozen twelve, So it immediately became a meme. And so

912
00:50:54,880 --> 00:50:56,640
Speaker 1: a lot of people who are not at all the

913
00:50:56,760 --> 00:50:58,879
Speaker 1: bowling are familiar with who do you think you are?

914
00:50:59,040 --> 00:51:02,560
Speaker 1: I am? Apparently it's on coffee mugs and shirts and

915
00:51:02,600 --> 00:51:04,560
Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff. Yeah, I've not heard of it

916
00:51:04,560 --> 00:51:07,600
Speaker 1: before then, but I looked into is definitely a meme.

917
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:10,719
Speaker 1: But yeah, he was. He was the kind of like

918
00:51:10,760 --> 00:51:13,960
Speaker 1: the John McEnroe of bowling, but he from what I

919
00:51:13,960 --> 00:51:17,160
Speaker 1: could see it, I mean, it's definitely great in a personality,

920
00:51:17,200 --> 00:51:20,680
Speaker 1: but um, he also did it to keep attention on

921
00:51:20,719 --> 00:51:23,719
Speaker 1: bowling at a time when bowling was losing viewers like

922
00:51:24,080 --> 00:51:26,160
Speaker 1: left and right. As a matter of fact, the Pro

923
00:51:26,280 --> 00:51:29,839
Speaker 1: Bowlers Association the p b A was purchased in two

924
00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:34,719
Speaker 1: thousand by three Microsoft employees for five million dollars. That's

925
00:51:34,800 --> 00:51:37,239
Speaker 1: the state that bowling was in back in the day.

926
00:51:37,560 --> 00:51:40,520
Speaker 1: That's how far it declined, And slowly but surely it's

927
00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:42,959
Speaker 1: starting to tick back up. And I've got a couple

928
00:51:42,960 --> 00:51:46,000
Speaker 1: of stats. If you'll indulge me real quick, because I've

929
00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:49,600
Speaker 1: got more okay, so um. In the heyday in the sixties,

930
00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:52,879
Speaker 1: there was something like twelve thousand bowling alleys and there

931
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:57,000
Speaker 1: were ten million Americans who were considered regular bowlers. Today,

932
00:51:57,000 --> 00:51:59,520
Speaker 1: there's less than half of that in the number of

933
00:51:59,560 --> 00:52:02,720
Speaker 1: bowling alleys, and it's down to less than three million

934
00:52:02,760 --> 00:52:06,120
Speaker 1: regular bowlers. So it's been a pretty precipitous drop. And

935
00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:09,040
Speaker 1: one of the things that that this group White Hutchison,

936
00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:11,640
Speaker 1: who from what I can tell, is basically the KPMG

937
00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:15,960
Speaker 1: consultants of Amusement Um Games. Uh, they did a bunch

938
00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:18,480
Speaker 1: of studies and focus groups and they kind of put

939
00:52:18,520 --> 00:52:21,920
Speaker 1: their finger on the idea that the old bowling alleys

940
00:52:21,960 --> 00:52:25,640
Speaker 1: were kind of neglected as customers dropped off and they

941
00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:30,080
Speaker 1: got to be really sad, cigarette e stale, beer smelly

942
00:52:30,080 --> 00:52:31,960
Speaker 1: places that you would not want to take your family.

943
00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:34,600
Speaker 1: It was just a pressing place to hang out. And

944
00:52:34,680 --> 00:52:37,799
Speaker 1: now people are starting to tear those down, remodel and

945
00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:41,600
Speaker 1: replace them with these new, happy, huge fund centers, and

946
00:52:41,640 --> 00:52:45,400
Speaker 1: as a result, bowling is actually starting to make a comeback. Yeah,

947
00:52:45,440 --> 00:52:47,839
Speaker 1: and a league bowling too, has been a big part

948
00:52:47,840 --> 00:52:50,760
Speaker 1: of that hit. Um, I think it used to account

949
00:52:50,760 --> 00:52:55,480
Speaker 1: for about sevent of total bowling revenue. And I mean

950
00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:58,000
Speaker 1: when you and I are growing up, like my parents

951
00:52:58,080 --> 00:53:00,920
Speaker 1: didn't do it, but league bowling was big thing, like

952
00:53:00,960 --> 00:53:03,799
Speaker 1: a lot of people did it. Uh. Now that's down

953
00:53:03,840 --> 00:53:08,239
Speaker 1: to total revenue is from league bowling. And you're right

954
00:53:08,320 --> 00:53:10,560
Speaker 1: like with I think like Lucky Strike is one of them.

955
00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:13,320
Speaker 1: And there's all kinds of sort of new fancy schmancy

956
00:53:13,360 --> 00:53:16,360
Speaker 1: bowling centers that where you can get you know, like

957
00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:20,080
Speaker 1: a quality cocktail and like for bowling alley maybe decent food.

958
00:53:20,960 --> 00:53:23,800
Speaker 1: Definitely more family friendly for you know, holding like birthday

959
00:53:23,800 --> 00:53:27,439
Speaker 1: parties and stuff there. I mean, those places are fine.

960
00:53:27,520 --> 00:53:29,080
Speaker 1: I am a fan of just sort of an old

961
00:53:29,120 --> 00:53:32,359
Speaker 1: school um you know, not gross, but like an old

962
00:53:32,400 --> 00:53:34,719
Speaker 1: school bowling alley. No, I know, to mean for sure,

963
00:53:34,760 --> 00:53:37,040
Speaker 1: that's what I grew up into. Yeah, if you can

964
00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:39,520
Speaker 1: find one, I do want to shout out. They're both

965
00:53:39,520 --> 00:53:42,680
Speaker 1: closed now, but I know I've talked about the Hollywood

966
00:53:42,680 --> 00:53:44,799
Speaker 1: Star Lanes, which I lived down the street from an

967
00:53:44,920 --> 00:53:48,040
Speaker 1: l A Lebowski Lanes where they film The Big Lebowski

968
00:53:48,680 --> 00:53:51,000
Speaker 1: and on any given Friday night, you know we'd be

969
00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:53,160
Speaker 1: in there. Hanging out and there'd be like, you know,

970
00:53:53,239 --> 00:53:55,640
Speaker 1: the cast of the seventies show bowling and Vince Vaughn

971
00:53:55,640 --> 00:53:58,200
Speaker 1: and Jon fabrou over there having a drink, and it

972
00:53:58,280 --> 00:54:01,040
Speaker 1: was like a really cool place to see celebrities on

973
00:54:01,080 --> 00:54:04,080
Speaker 1: the d l uh. And then when I moved, we

974
00:54:04,120 --> 00:54:06,160
Speaker 1: moved to Eagle Rock and there was Eagle Rock Lanes

975
00:54:06,200 --> 00:54:09,160
Speaker 1: which had a killer karaoke uh. And I just looked

976
00:54:09,200 --> 00:54:11,040
Speaker 1: up in Eagle Rock Lanes closed a couple of years ago,

977
00:54:11,040 --> 00:54:14,080
Speaker 1: which makes me very so I want to shout out

978
00:54:14,160 --> 00:54:17,040
Speaker 1: my home lane, which was not nearly as hip or

979
00:54:17,160 --> 00:54:21,520
Speaker 1: celebrity studded as yours. Um Southwick Lanes, where the bowling

980
00:54:21,560 --> 00:54:24,400
Speaker 1: alley I grew up bowling at. And also, if I

981
00:54:24,400 --> 00:54:27,480
Speaker 1: remember correctly, the place where I first really smelled a

982
00:54:27,520 --> 00:54:30,120
Speaker 1: cigarette and thought, I wonder what it's like to smoke

983
00:54:30,160 --> 00:54:34,120
Speaker 1: one of those. Yeah. I probably bowled more in my

984
00:54:34,320 --> 00:54:36,840
Speaker 1: twenties when I lived in l A and early thirties

985
00:54:36,840 --> 00:54:40,680
Speaker 1: because it was just fun and you know, pretty cheap,

986
00:54:40,760 --> 00:54:43,840
Speaker 1: like these new places are a lot more expensive. I

987
00:54:43,840 --> 00:54:45,680
Speaker 1: mean you used to could go in there and bowl

988
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:49,040
Speaker 1: for you know, ten bucks or so for a couple

989
00:54:49,080 --> 00:54:51,080
Speaker 1: of hours, you know, not including your beer and stuff,

990
00:54:51,080 --> 00:54:54,200
Speaker 1: but um, maybe we should close on the seventin split.

991
00:54:54,640 --> 00:54:58,920
Speaker 1: Oh nice thinking, buddy. So I've always heard about the

992
00:54:58,960 --> 00:55:02,880
Speaker 1: dreaded seven tin split, which means the only two pins

993
00:55:02,920 --> 00:55:07,040
Speaker 1: remaining are the ones on the very very back corners

994
00:55:07,080 --> 00:55:10,400
Speaker 1: opposite one another, uh, the seven pin and the tinpin.

995
00:55:11,000 --> 00:55:13,560
Speaker 1: And I knew it was like a really hard thing

996
00:55:13,600 --> 00:55:17,640
Speaker 1: to do, but I had no idea, literally until today,

997
00:55:17,680 --> 00:55:22,160
Speaker 1: that it's only been done four times in like televised

998
00:55:22,160 --> 00:55:25,600
Speaker 1: pro bowling tournaments. Yeah. I think the first time it

999
00:55:25,719 --> 00:55:28,040
Speaker 1: was ever shown live was like two thousand and ten

1000
00:55:28,120 --> 00:55:30,880
Speaker 1: or twelve. When was that one? Well, I mean I

1001
00:55:30,920 --> 00:55:33,480
Speaker 1: saw I don't know about live, but I saw clips

1002
00:55:33,560 --> 00:55:37,479
Speaker 1: from the eighties. Okay, so so, so what I saw

1003
00:55:37,520 --> 00:55:40,160
Speaker 1: on CBS Sports is that there was a bowler who

1004
00:55:40,160 --> 00:55:42,319
Speaker 1: did it. It was a PBA bowler. He did it,

1005
00:55:42,360 --> 00:55:44,239
Speaker 1: and it was the first time it was captured on live,

1006
00:55:44,400 --> 00:55:47,440
Speaker 1: live television. The last time that it had happened was

1007
00:55:47,480 --> 00:55:51,880
Speaker 1: like and apparently it wasn't televised live, So it is

1008
00:55:51,920 --> 00:55:55,480
Speaker 1: extremely rare and the chances of you actually making it

1009
00:55:55,560 --> 00:55:59,600
Speaker 1: happen are really really slim. I saw something like a

1010
00:55:59,640 --> 00:56:02,680
Speaker 1: point eight five or maybe even point zero eight five

1011
00:56:02,719 --> 00:56:07,520
Speaker 1: percent chance point eight m of sinking a seven ten split.

1012
00:56:07,560 --> 00:56:10,280
Speaker 1: And it's because you have to hit either the seven

1013
00:56:10,280 --> 00:56:13,000
Speaker 1: pin or the tenpin in such a way that you

1014
00:56:13,120 --> 00:56:16,440
Speaker 1: knock it directly into the other pin opposite it, in

1015
00:56:16,480 --> 00:56:21,719
Speaker 1: a direction that's perpendicular essentially to the direction the ball's traveling.

1016
00:56:22,440 --> 00:56:25,239
Speaker 1: And in that sense, you're you're knocking both pins down,

1017
00:56:25,320 --> 00:56:27,399
Speaker 1: using one pin to knock the other pin down. It's

1018
00:56:27,440 --> 00:56:29,920
Speaker 1: extremely hard to do. I didn't realize how hard it

1019
00:56:29,960 --> 00:56:32,200
Speaker 1: was to do either. I'm like you. I was just like, yeah,

1020
00:56:32,280 --> 00:56:34,839
Speaker 1: the seven tenths play. Everybody knows that's hard. Yeah, but

1021
00:56:34,920 --> 00:56:37,319
Speaker 1: I did not know is that rare? And just to

1022
00:56:37,320 --> 00:56:40,239
Speaker 1: shout out the gentleman who did it most recently, you

1023
00:56:40,280 --> 00:56:42,280
Speaker 1: can look it up on the internet, eighteen year old

1024
00:56:43,120 --> 00:56:46,879
Speaker 1: name Anthony Newer. Uh. It's kind of fun to watch

1025
00:56:46,880 --> 00:56:49,319
Speaker 1: because people go nuts. It's it's you know, it's kind

1026
00:56:49,320 --> 00:56:51,880
Speaker 1: of fun to see something like that happen. But the

1027
00:56:51,960 --> 00:56:55,360
Speaker 1: announcer screamed out because his kids got red hair. The

1028
00:56:55,480 --> 00:56:59,880
Speaker 1: ginger Assassin, he did say that not only is the

1029
00:57:00,040 --> 00:57:03,520
Speaker 1: have red hair, he's got a luxurious mullet. I believe

1030
00:57:03,800 --> 00:57:05,719
Speaker 1: it looked pretty mullody. I didn't get a side of view,

1031
00:57:05,760 --> 00:57:07,719
Speaker 1: but it looked like he was partying in the rear.

1032
00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:11,839
Speaker 1: It definitely did like Molody too, So congratulations to you, sir,

1033
00:57:12,600 --> 00:57:14,879
Speaker 1: Um And I guess that's about it. Bowling still goes

1034
00:57:14,920 --> 00:57:17,880
Speaker 1: on that the change in balls didn't just change it

1035
00:57:18,360 --> 00:57:20,720
Speaker 1: for the casual bowler changed it for the pros too,

1036
00:57:20,760 --> 00:57:23,520
Speaker 1: so that it's undergoing or in the process of a

1037
00:57:24,040 --> 00:57:26,000
Speaker 1: big sea change as far as how the game is

1038
00:57:26,040 --> 00:57:28,360
Speaker 1: played by the pros. But it's still hanging around. I

1039
00:57:28,400 --> 00:57:32,320
Speaker 1: think bowling is ever going extinct anytime soon, agreed, I need.

1040
00:57:32,400 --> 00:57:34,200
Speaker 1: I haven't been in so long. This has inspired me

1041
00:57:34,280 --> 00:57:36,720
Speaker 1: to go go out. I think I think my daughter

1042
00:57:36,720 --> 00:57:38,919
Speaker 1: would enjoy it at this age. Would be fun. I'll

1043
00:57:38,920 --> 00:57:41,600
Speaker 1: see you there, Chuck, Let's do it. And one more thing,

1044
00:57:41,600 --> 00:57:44,440
Speaker 1: I want to shout or direct everybody to the um

1045
00:57:44,640 --> 00:57:46,680
Speaker 1: song that I usually think of any time I think

1046
00:57:46,680 --> 00:57:50,360
Speaker 1: of bowling, Camper Van Beethoven's take the Skinheads Bowling, which

1047
00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:54,960
Speaker 1: is a surprisingly happy song. You know. Uh. And since

1048
00:57:55,120 --> 00:57:58,280
Speaker 1: I said it's a surprisingly happy song and Chuck said, yeah,

1049
00:57:58,400 --> 00:58:03,680
Speaker 1: that means it's time for a listener mail. I'm gonna

1050
00:58:03,720 --> 00:58:08,000
Speaker 1: call this a quick pronunciation tip. This is from Teresa

1051
00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:12,280
Speaker 1: and Melbourne, Australia. Hey, guys, enjoy the podcast. Firstly, I

1052
00:58:12,280 --> 00:58:14,280
Speaker 1: would like to know which one of you had the

1053
00:58:14,320 --> 00:58:17,160
Speaker 1: delightful giggle. Oh, I think we know who that is.

1054
00:58:17,240 --> 00:58:21,400
Speaker 1: I guess that's me, right, I was gonna say Jerry, okay,

1055
00:58:22,280 --> 00:58:24,600
Speaker 1: but that is not my genuine question. Like many Americans,

1056
00:58:24,640 --> 00:58:27,920
Speaker 1: you struggle to pronounce English towns and cities and locales

1057
00:58:27,920 --> 00:58:31,560
Speaker 1: and government names. Particularly. I've noticed the ones that end

1058
00:58:31,640 --> 00:58:37,160
Speaker 1: in s h I r e sheery the unofficial rule, guys.

1059
00:58:37,720 --> 00:58:41,960
Speaker 1: When standing alone, it's pronounced shire like wire, but when

1060
00:58:42,040 --> 00:58:46,760
Speaker 1: used as a suffix, it's it rhymes with beer, so Oxfordshire,

1061
00:58:47,960 --> 00:58:53,560
Speaker 1: Worcestershire obviously instead of Worcestershire or Leicestershire. I say worh

1062
00:58:53,640 --> 00:58:56,920
Speaker 1: to sure worceter Shire, Worcestershire, sauce. I don't say any

1063
00:58:56,960 --> 00:58:59,280
Speaker 1: works us. I say it three times in secession just

1064
00:58:59,400 --> 00:59:02,080
Speaker 1: like that. Pronounces correctly and you will probably get many

1065
00:59:02,080 --> 00:59:05,040
Speaker 1: free beers next time you're in the UK. Uh. And again,

1066
00:59:05,040 --> 00:59:07,880
Speaker 1: that is from Teresa in Australia. Thanks a lot of Teresa.

1067
00:59:07,960 --> 00:59:11,440
Speaker 1: That was a great one. Cheer, cheer, delight um. If

1068
00:59:11,480 --> 00:59:13,480
Speaker 1: you want to be like Teresa and give us some

1069
00:59:13,560 --> 00:59:16,520
Speaker 1: tips on how to talk good. We would love to

1070
00:59:16,560 --> 00:59:18,640
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send us an email to

1071
00:59:18,680 --> 00:59:25,160
Speaker 1: Stuff podcast at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff you Should

1072
00:59:25,200 --> 00:59:28,160
Speaker 1: Know is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts

1073
00:59:28,240 --> 00:59:31,640
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

1074
00:59:31,760 --> 00:59:33,600
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.