Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
Speaker 1: and there's Charles W Chuck Bryan over there, and Jerry's
Speaker 1: right over there. Uh, Internet speaking wise, and this is
Speaker 1: Stuff you should Know, a special holiday edition that comes
Speaker 1: out on the holiday. Chuck, Now, is this can we
Speaker 1: call this a holiday? Yeah? Groundhog Day is definitely a holiday.
Speaker 1: Are you not a pagan? Well no, I just thought
Speaker 1: holidays meant like work. You don't work in businesses, clothes.
Speaker 1: I there's gotta be somebody that's closed on groundhog Day. Well,
Speaker 1: I bet certain people in a certain town. Well, actually
Speaker 1: they're probably everything's open because they're they're just doing this
Speaker 1: to make money, right. They would be total fools if
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, I always close on groundhog Day. I
Speaker 1: didn't think that through. So um, yeah, we'll get to
Speaker 1: that town in a little bit. But first, Chuck, let's
Speaker 1: talk about groundhogs themselves. Because if you don't know what
Speaker 1: groundhog Day is, don't worry. This isn't one of those
Speaker 1: ones where we need to define it for you. Just
Speaker 1: kick back and relax and like, let us guide you
Speaker 1: down the river of knowledge. Okay right. Uh. Groundhogs a
Speaker 1: k a. Wood Chuck's podcast. Whistle pigs another name they are,
Speaker 1: uh you know what they are? There, beautiful? Um. They
Speaker 1: weigh twelve or fifteen pounds. They live. Put a pin
Speaker 1: in this stat They live six to eight years. That
Speaker 1: will come back later. They eat veggies and fruits. They're
Speaker 1: called whistle pigs sometimes because they whistle if they're scared
Speaker 1: or if they're looking for a mate. It's more of
Speaker 1: a chirping sound to me. Yeah, but chirping pigs is
Speaker 1: not as fun as whistle pig. That explains that high
Speaker 1: end bourbon. Though I had no idea why it was
Speaker 1: called whistle pig, but it's named after ground. Whistle pig.
Speaker 1: Is that high end? Yeah, it's pretty good. Okay, it's
Speaker 1: the kind they keep behind the counter. Well, it's on
Speaker 1: my shelf. I don't drink a lot of bourbon. But oh,
Speaker 1: we'll go turn it up right now while we're recording.
Speaker 1: Tell us what you think. All right, I'm back and
Speaker 1: I'm hammered everyone. Uh. They can climb trees, they can swim,
Speaker 1: and they hibernate in late fall. And this is kind
Speaker 1: of one of the important parts of wood chucks and
Speaker 1: groundhogs and how they figure in the groundhog day. They
Speaker 1: hibernate in the fall and their body temperatures drop, that
Speaker 1: heartbeat slows down from eight to about five beats a minute,
Speaker 1: they lose a lot of body fat, and then the
Speaker 1: males in February come out and say, who wants to
Speaker 1: do it? Right? What's crazy, though, is when they come out,
Speaker 1: they don't actually do it. They more like make plans
Speaker 1: for later. It's they're nervous. It's really weird. And the
Speaker 1: reason why they do this they literally break hibernation, which
Speaker 1: can kill them if they do it wrong and the
Speaker 1: timing is wrong or they don't have enough body fat
Speaker 1: stow it up. They do it because groundhogs are so
Speaker 1: ornerary toward one another. They're really territorial about their food
Speaker 1: supply and their burrow that they've probably made a lot
Speaker 1: of enemies and heard a lot of feelings over the
Speaker 1: past year. So they come out in February to basically
Speaker 1: be like, hey, how about you and I just bury
Speaker 1: the hatchet and I'm gonna go back to sleep for
Speaker 1: a few more weeks. But when I come out, we'll
Speaker 1: totally do it, and I'm going to bury something out
Speaker 1: and oh my god, and uh they do. There's some
Speaker 1: sort of agreement, uh, and they see each other a
Speaker 1: few weeks later. The groundhog goes back to his burrow
Speaker 1: and then he comes out for good. He finishes hybridating
Speaker 1: in March, and then the the groundhog fornication can begin
Speaker 1: forth with post taste. And that nuts. That's how ordnery
Speaker 1: they are. They have to come out and make plans
Speaker 1: for later. Yeah, they need a which is that chill
Speaker 1: time in between two to really gather themselves and make
Speaker 1: sure they're up for it. So that's super cute. That's
Speaker 1: a nice little primer on who these little beasts are.
Speaker 1: But this is about Groundhog Day, the holiday where America
Speaker 1: shuts down, government doesn't do business, the banks are closed.
Speaker 1: Can't buy a piece of gum to save your life.
Speaker 1: Oh man, if only so, get that gum on February one, everybody, right.
Speaker 1: But sometime between that point um between when America became
Speaker 1: a place and seven, someone looked at the groundhog and
Speaker 1: this little hibernation thing that they did, and they said,
Speaker 1: you know what, we also have this weird tradition that
Speaker 1: we're going to explain a second, where we like to
Speaker 1: try and predict when to plant crops and what the
Speaker 1: weather is going to do here towards the end of
Speaker 1: winter in the spring. And let's mash that up into
Speaker 1: a weird, weird day to honor this little thing. And
Speaker 1: that's Groundhog Day. That's where it came from. It's a
Speaker 1: couple of weird traditions, like you said, mashed together. And
Speaker 1: the other weird tradition UM in addition to the groundhog
Speaker 1: coming out UH in February, is UM. This this tradition
Speaker 1: of February two being observed as UM kind of this
Speaker 1: indicator of how much winter is going to be left.
Speaker 1: And it's based on an astronomical event called the cross
Speaker 1: quarter day, which was observed by the ancient Celts the
Speaker 1: Pagans I mentioned earlier. UM and cross quarter days are
Speaker 1: pretty interesting and that it's a it's a day of
Speaker 1: the year, and there's four of them that fall between
Speaker 1: a solstice and an equinox. And UM, do you have
Speaker 1: a solstice is where the sun is either at the
Speaker 1: most northerly or southernly part of the sky, UM, depending
Speaker 1: on what hemisphere you're in. So it's either summer or
Speaker 1: winter solstice. And then the equinox is where the equator
Speaker 1: of the Earth in the equator of the Sun are
Speaker 1: on an equal plane. Just for a minute, just for
Speaker 1: a moment, I should say, um, and you have your
Speaker 1: vernal or spring and autumnal fall equinox. Um. So those
Speaker 1: are four quarter dates, and then in between those are
Speaker 1: four cross quarter dates that carve up the I guess
Speaker 1: the year even further. And to the ancient Celts, it
Speaker 1: seems like to them the cross quarter dates weren't the
Speaker 1: midway point of anything. They were the beginning point, whereas
Speaker 1: to us the quarter dates, the solstices, and the equinox
Speaker 1: are the beginning of the seasons. The Celts didn't see
Speaker 1: it that way, and so they really celebrated the cross
Speaker 1: quarter dates. Yeah, it's kind of like I guess an
Speaker 1: American might see them as sort of a seasonal hump
Speaker 1: day where you're kind of smack dab in the middle
Speaker 1: of things, and we don't observe them like they do.
Speaker 1: But I feel like, just an instinctively, in sort of
Speaker 1: early to mid February every year, late January, my psyche
Speaker 1: sort of starts to think about, all right, we're easing
Speaker 1: towards spring. I feel like we're about halfway there, and
Speaker 1: this is in Atlanta. Even that's the ancient pagan blood
Speaker 1: coursing through your veins. It might be I think we're
Speaker 1: we're pagans, but yeah, but to the Pagans it was.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like the halfway points the beginning. So in
Speaker 1: on February twod this cross quarter day. It was actually
Speaker 1: a day called um. Well, it was called a number
Speaker 1: of things, but to the Celts it was it was
Speaker 1: the beginning of spring. Um. At first they called it
Speaker 1: in bold, which means in the belly like the world,
Speaker 1: the earth is pregnant and about to give birth from
Speaker 1: into spring. Um. Like, yeah, it was when the lambing
Speaker 1: season began, which I don't think I like that. No, no,
Speaker 1: you do. If you if you look up lambing pictures,
Speaker 1: it's like that's when all the baby lambs are born
Speaker 1: and hopping around. I thought, that's what I thought too,
Speaker 1: And and no, that probably a little bit later, but um,
Speaker 1: this is when everything's still cute and sweet. Okay. They
Speaker 1: also called it umu brigantia um after the after Bridgid,
Speaker 1: the female deity of light. And the whole point was that,
Speaker 1: you know, the sun had really kind of been hiding
Speaker 1: for most of the winter, ever since the winter solstice,
Speaker 1: and now it was starting to kind of creep out.
Speaker 1: And to those of us who are like, this is
Speaker 1: the halfway points kind of like, come on, son, keep going.
Speaker 1: And when the Christians got their hands on the Celts,
Speaker 1: the pagans Um, they said, well, how about this. Let's
Speaker 1: call this like the Festival of Lights, and we'll commemorate this.
Speaker 1: This is like, um the part of winter where it's
Speaker 1: starting to get sunny er and sunnier, by having you
Speaker 1: guys bring your candles around the church and we're gonna
Speaker 1: bless them and then they'll just keep burning for the
Speaker 1: rest of the winter. How about that? That's right, They
Speaker 1: turned them into magic candles. It became known not only
Speaker 1: as Festival of Lights, but handle moss. And you'll hear
Speaker 1: that word a few times later on. And it's sort
Speaker 1: of still grounded in seasons though. And the whole thing
Speaker 1: here is like as far as the ancient Celts go,
Speaker 1: and then you know people since then farmers, namely, is
Speaker 1: when can we when is the weather going to turn here?
Speaker 1: When is that ground gonna thaw? When can we expect
Speaker 1: good weather and not be fooled into planting, only to
Speaker 1: have it frost again and kill those early buds. That's
Speaker 1: something that you now that you're you've taken up gardening
Speaker 1: and stuff at your house, you will be frustrated by this.
Speaker 1: Now to my friend, when that happens, Oh yeah, the frost,
Speaker 1: the early frost or late frost, I should say late frosted.
Speaker 1: I can't sleep well. Emily always like when things start
Speaker 1: blooming to early. She's like, no, stop, stop, I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna frost again. It always does. I had to Uh,
Speaker 1: I had to stop myself. Now, I failed to stop myself.
Speaker 1: I fertilized too late in the season, and um, and
Speaker 1: I had a big problem with that. Man, my anecdotes
Speaker 1: have just really gone downhill in the last twelve years.
Speaker 1: I predicted your your gardening way back in the day.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember that in what episode
Speaker 1: how Gardening. Someone's gonna have to find it. But you
Speaker 1: kind of you kind of tease me, and I said,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get into it one day, trust me. And
Speaker 1: you're like, I see that doesn't sound like me. Yeah thing,
Speaker 1: huh yeah, I'm actually surprised at that. But I'll take
Speaker 1: your word for it. I do want to know. So
Speaker 1: anybody out there, if you know what Chuck's talking about,
Speaker 1: let us know what episode it is. And at times
Speaker 1: thing will be great toe so he can erase it. Right. So,
Speaker 1: like I said, they were trying to figure out when
Speaker 1: to plant, and uh, it was not a good omen
Speaker 1: if it was bright and sunny, because that was a
Speaker 1: sign of snow and a late frost to continue on
Speaker 1: and that would not be a good time to plan.
Speaker 1: And this is all a little confusing, yeah, if if
Speaker 1: I'm being honest, Yeah, So, like the the whole thing
Speaker 1: was if at Candle moss Um February two, if if
Speaker 1: it was if that day was nice out, if the
Speaker 1: sun was shining, if there were no clouds in the sky,
Speaker 1: that actually meant that there was going to be a
Speaker 1: much longer period of winter left. And the reason why
Speaker 1: that kind of makes sense from a farmer's standpoint is one,
Speaker 1: maybe you're saying, well, this pretends a growing season where
Speaker 1: it's just going to be nice out and there's not
Speaker 1: gonna be any rain. You don't want that. But also
Speaker 1: number two, it's like you said, and like that kind
Speaker 1: of weather might fool the plants into starting to grow
Speaker 1: again and then bam they get hit with a late frost.
Speaker 1: So even though it seems counterintuitive, if it's nice out
Speaker 1: on February two at candle Moss to the ancient Celts,
Speaker 1: that meant that there was more winter coming. If it
Speaker 1: was the opposite, it was overcast, maybe even storming. If
Speaker 1: it was just gross out, it meant that winter was
Speaker 1: almost over, that the it was more than halfway over,
Speaker 1: and you were probably going to see spring pretty pretty soon.
Speaker 1: So that is the initial um, the initial way that
Speaker 1: February two kind of plays into this whole thing. So
Speaker 1: you know what my problem with this is is uh,
Speaker 1: and you you put this one together and you kind
Speaker 1: of came up with some other signs found in nature
Speaker 1: and different cultures where they sort of looked to um
Speaker 1: the natural rule to kind of tell the future, like
Speaker 1: the widths of the bands of a wooly caterpillar, the
Speaker 1: size and number of webs a spider might spin in
Speaker 1: the fall, um, how the squirrels are gathering gathering their
Speaker 1: nuts like would you frantic or calm? Or when the
Speaker 1: geese depart from the north, how thick corn husks are
Speaker 1: at harvest, like I love all that that stuff because
Speaker 1: to me that is like pre science science. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think all of that stuff is kind of rooted
Speaker 1: and some maybe it might be a reach for some,
Speaker 1: but some sort of scientific basis, and it was just
Speaker 1: from people observing, which was sort of the first science
Speaker 1: was observation. But to me, this one is the least
Speaker 1: scientific of them all the because it's just one day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is, like it is. It's just one day, Like
Speaker 1: if it's February. Second, if it's candle moss and this
Speaker 1: is the condition, then that's your indicator. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess it is the least unscientific pre science measure of
Speaker 1: of what's the most Yeah, it really is. It really is.
Speaker 1: It's on par with drowning a person as a witch
Speaker 1: because you're your prediction for the the winter didn't come true.
Speaker 1: The wooly caterpillars bands didn't pretend the future after all,
Speaker 1: because there's probably something I don't know about the caterpillar,
Speaker 1: but I bet you there's some little nugget of science
Speaker 1: in there as to how their bands grow depending on
Speaker 1: whether Yeah, I like the celt stuff. Oh man, that
Speaker 1: there reminds me. So I read this article in The
Speaker 1: New Yorker not too long ago, um, and it's about
Speaker 1: we got to do an episode on it. There's this lake,
Speaker 1: a little lake way up in the Himalayas, in the
Speaker 1: middle of nowhere, in this really dangerous pass, and there's
Speaker 1: always been a bunch of skeletons jumbled together at the
Speaker 1: bottom of this lake, and you can clearly see them.
Speaker 1: So anthropologists went in and grabbed these these skeletons or
Speaker 1: some of them to take samples. And it turns out
Speaker 1: some of them seem to be from southern Italy, um,
Speaker 1: maybe even from Greece, from the Mediterranean. They have no
Speaker 1: business whatsoever. Where is it up in the Himalayas, like
Speaker 1: in Nepal right on just along uh I think a
Speaker 1: Hindu or a Buddhist pilgrimage path um, and like it's
Speaker 1: just really bizarre that they're there. But the author took
Speaker 1: some time to just kind of go off on the
Speaker 1: side and talk about how there was the spread of
Speaker 1: this group from the steps of Russia uh many many
Speaker 1: thousands of years ago. They basically brought the Indo European
Speaker 1: language our way. But also we're super patriarch article, super
Speaker 1: rapey um, super murdery and they really had an impact
Speaker 1: you can tell a lasting impact today and how just
Speaker 1: humans operate. But apparently in Western Europe and including the
Speaker 1: British Isles, the Celts seemed to be much more peaceful,
Speaker 1: much more egalitarian. UM women held much more powerful roles
Speaker 1: than than they did under this other group. And it
Speaker 1: really kind of drove home like wow, like history could
Speaker 1: have gone a totally different direction, and like where would
Speaker 1: we be right now if that other group had to
Speaker 1: come out of the steps and dominated the rest of
Speaker 1: Europe and just basically change this like um fertility worshiping
Speaker 1: nature cult into you know, this hierarchical, patriarchical, um, murderous
Speaker 1: civilization that's basically Western civilization today. I think the people
Speaker 1: in the movie Midsummer would agree with you. That was
Speaker 1: a given movie that I kept thinking about that as well.
Speaker 1: During this of course, I watched that again and had
Speaker 1: a better feeling about it. I love it the first time,
Speaker 1: some crazy folk core man like it is really something else.
Speaker 1: I haven't only seen it once. I need to see
Speaker 1: it again. Well, maybe you won't like it the second time.
Speaker 1: I hope that's not true, but it's possible. All right,
Speaker 1: here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna take a break,
Speaker 1: we're gonna regather ourselves, and we're gonna bring it back
Speaker 1: to February two right after this. Chuck, all right, So
Speaker 1: we set up what was going on back in the day,
Speaker 1: and groundhog Day is just something that survived from that
Speaker 1: ancient practice. Back then, especially in Germany, they had a
Speaker 1: tradition of waking up a badger not probably not a
Speaker 1: good idea, and seeing if it will crawl back into
Speaker 1: its borough to see if it was a sign of
Speaker 1: bad weather ahead, and then that eventually makes it over
Speaker 1: to the United States. Some people in Pennsylvania that settled
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania took that idea adapted it to groundhogs I guess,
Speaker 1: because there were more groundhogs and badgers, and started looking,
Speaker 1: uh at these groundhogs coming out and whether or not
Speaker 1: they would see their shadow, whether or not the people
Speaker 1: would see the shadow. It was the Germans who came
Speaker 1: over who said, well, wait, there's no badgers, so how
Speaker 1: are we going to tell about the whether there's winter
Speaker 1: left or not? And they said, well, groundhogs will do,
Speaker 1: I guess, And and the fact that like they were
Speaker 1: present and then brought the superstition with them that was
Speaker 1: based in this combination of badgers coming out of their
Speaker 1: borrow and going back and then candle Boss and the
Speaker 1: fact that there weren't any badgers and groundhogs will have
Speaker 1: to do. That's where groundhog Day came from, in that
Speaker 1: bizarre it is. But if you really want to talk
Speaker 1: about groundhog Day and what we'd know as groundhog Day,
Speaker 1: that's sort of goofy fun um money making scheme that
Speaker 1: they came up with. Is it can be traced back
Speaker 1: to one dude uh February seven, the very first groundhog
Speaker 1: Day celebration UM was created by climber Freeze F. R. E. A. S.
Speaker 1: The editor of the Punk Satani Spirit newspaper and Punk
Speaker 1: Sutani is about eighty miles from Pittsburgh, Um there in
Speaker 1: western Pennsylvania. It's a coal mining town and it's a
Speaker 1: very small town. I think it's indigenous name from the
Speaker 1: Native American People's was Town of the sand Flies. The
Speaker 1: LENNAPPI did they have sand flies? I guess, I don't
Speaker 1: know why else the Lennappy would have called it that.
Speaker 1: And I was like, sand flies don't sound great. Sand
Speaker 1: Flies are terrible. Not only does their bite hurt, but
Speaker 1: they spread all sorts of diseases too, and punks Punks
Speaker 1: Attorney basically means sand fly town, So I guess there
Speaker 1: was a real sand fly problem there at some point,
Speaker 1: But there's no sand western Pennsylvania. Did they have sand there?
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the United States was marshy
Speaker 1: before we started developing it, so there's probably a lot
Speaker 1: of marsh around Western Pennsylvania at the time. I thought
Speaker 1: they just might have really liked the settlement. And it's
Speaker 1: be like naming something like the bed bug or something.
Speaker 1: Isn't that why Iceland is called Iceland? And that the
Speaker 1: old story that they basically wanted to make people either
Speaker 1: that or else. They settlers of Greenland wanted to make
Speaker 1: Iceland look bad and Greenland look good, so they called
Speaker 1: Iceland Iceland something like that. I mean, that's one of
Speaker 1: the first little things you hear in elementary school from
Speaker 1: that guy. Did you know that Iceland is green and
Speaker 1: Greenland is? I said, I remember, I remember giving that
Speaker 1: kid a weggie. Oh wait, I was the kid who
Speaker 1: got the wedges. Okay, makes a lot more sense. So
Speaker 1: here we are in seven and climber Freeze has stumbled
Speaker 1: upon a great little money maker to bring thousands of
Speaker 1: people to his town to spend money. Actually, he he
Speaker 1: started a year before that, just ever so briefly. He
Speaker 1: just as the publisher of the punks Autawny Spirit. He
Speaker 1: published a line that said, today is groundhog Day, and
Speaker 1: up to the time of going to press, the beast
Speaker 1: has not seen as shadow. And the fact that he
Speaker 1: doesn't spend any time explaining what he's talking about suggests
Speaker 1: that it was already pretty well established, at least in
Speaker 1: the town of punks Autawny at the time, probably in
Speaker 1: western Pennsylvania what with their large German and large groundhog population.
Speaker 1: Um and that was it. That was the first mentioned
Speaker 1: in a newspaper in America of groundhog Day. And because
Speaker 1: groundhog Days was specifically American invention based on ancient Celtic
Speaker 1: in in German traditions, uh, this would be the first
Speaker 1: time in the world anyone ever mentioned it in the paper.
Speaker 1: So he plants that seed. He wants to get a
Speaker 1: buzz going. He's like, I'm gonna tease this out over
Speaker 1: a year. No one's gonna know what's coming. No one's
Speaker 1: gonna know. It hit him in seven and in that
Speaker 1: year that he was sort of the idea was brewing.
Speaker 1: He founded he got some folks together groundhog hunters and
Speaker 1: called it the Punk Suitani Groundhog Club that would become
Speaker 1: that in eighteen ninety nine. And they were groundhog hunters.
Speaker 1: Groundhogs were pest and they would go around kill groundhogs.
Speaker 1: Apparently they would eat them. It was a delicacy that
Speaker 1: they served to out of towners at first, I guess
Speaker 1: Jenny Biggs just to see if they died. And then
Speaker 1: the locals started eating groundhogs, which I can't imagine taste
Speaker 1: very good. But that's hilarious that the tradition of groundhog
Speaker 1: Day grew out of these people eating groundhogs like groundhog hunters.
Speaker 1: Terrible but also hilarious. And the fact that they served
Speaker 1: them two out of towners first, also, it just really
Speaker 1: gets me. But this this Punk's Tony Groundhog Club. Um,
Speaker 1: they held the first um groundhog Day in seven, as
Speaker 1: you were saying before, And I don't I could not
Speaker 1: find to save my life why they chose Gobbler's Knob. Um.
Speaker 1: But there may be a clue in why Gobbler's Knob
Speaker 1: is named that. There's two um possible reasons given. One
Speaker 1: is that I guess it was a hangout for turkeys,
Speaker 1: which okay, great um or it was the place that
Speaker 1: traditionally groundhog hunters or hunters of any woodland animal would
Speaker 1: kind of come out of the woods to this hilly
Speaker 1: area and eat what they had just caught, or cook
Speaker 1: and eat what they just caught, possibly having picnics in
Speaker 1: the area. So it would make sense that the ground
Speaker 1: Hog Club would go to Gobbler's Nob where they would
Speaker 1: normally eat groundhog if this was already associated with groundhogs
Speaker 1: in that way. But either way, that's where they helped
Speaker 1: your risk. Yeah, picturesque and um bloody, yeah, but I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, it makes sense to have a thing. There's
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, right right, so right, yeah, it is
Speaker 1: quite beautiful. But that's where the first Groundhog Day in
Speaker 1: seven was held, and it has been basically ever since.
Speaker 1: I mean, there was a stretch here there where they
Speaker 1: didn't do it, but as they were first starting to
Speaker 1: get their footings. But I think from the turn of
Speaker 1: the last century onward it's been at Gobbler's Knob every year.
Speaker 1: And I think of that first one h the groundhog
Speaker 1: saw his shadow and for parts of the area, and
Speaker 1: this is kind of how it goes. Of course, it
Speaker 1: was something that's unscientific parts of the area. Had it
Speaker 1: worked out parts of the area, it did not work
Speaker 1: out as far as winter ending sooner than later. Well,
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of par for the course for sure,
Speaker 1: of phills we'll see and so Um, although we can
Speaker 1: thank like climber Freeze for giving us groundhog Day, Like
Speaker 1: I said, like, it's clear this was already an established tradition,
Speaker 1: and I think the earliest mentioned they've been able to
Speaker 1: find somebody referencing groundhog Day goes back to one where
Speaker 1: a guy named James Morris wrote in his diary about
Speaker 1: he mentioned groundhog Day. Um, and I don't think he
Speaker 1: said whether the groundhog saw his shadow or not. He
Speaker 1: just mentions it and kind of describes it. So I'd
Speaker 1: have been around for many decades before climber Freeze came
Speaker 1: along with it, but climber Freeze is definitely the one
Speaker 1: to to popularize it. Yeah, I mean he started writing
Speaker 1: about it and writing about the you know, this amazing
Speaker 1: groundhog that could foretell the future whether and you know
Speaker 1: it's all a tongue in cheek and good fun. Um,
Speaker 1: we have to talk about punk Stani Phil, of course,
Speaker 1: the famous groundhog that is still the groundhog of record
Speaker 1: in punk Sutani full name Puntsatani Phil, seer of seers,
Speaker 1: stage of Stages, prognosticator of prognosticators, and weather profit extraordinary.
Speaker 1: Is Phil's full Name's right, and it's very cute. I
Speaker 1: guess he wasn't named Phil until I don't know the
Speaker 1: first half or the mid middle of the last century,
Speaker 1: because the the Punks Attanni Groundhog Hog Club on their
Speaker 1: website says that he is named after King Philip, and
Speaker 1: King Philip is not I don't think they're talking about.
Speaker 1: I think they're referencing Prince Philip, who is Queen Elizabeth's husband,
Speaker 1: and he wouldn't have really become a public figure until
Speaker 1: you know, the thirties, maybe the forties or fifties. So
Speaker 1: before that, um, the groundhog, you know, that's stretch um.
Speaker 1: But the groundhog was known as a bear groundhog, brother
Speaker 1: groundhog or brother groundhog. That's what they all called him before.
Speaker 1: But the thing about Punks Attorny Phil, which is what
Speaker 1: his name now, he may have had different names, but
Speaker 1: the Punks Attorny Groundhog Club maintains that he's still the
Speaker 1: same groundhog that they the group came upon back in
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty seven. That is this magically living, long living
Speaker 1: groundhog who's been alive for I guess now a hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty three years since that first Groundhog Day in
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty seven. Right, So you know we said earlier
Speaker 1: to put a pin in the fact that groundhogs live,
Speaker 1: was it like six to eight years or something like that,
Speaker 1: That ten in captivity. Sure, well, he's in captivity, but
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty three it seems like a wave beyond that.
Speaker 1: So they cooked up a fun little story there. They
Speaker 1: said that Phil is able to live so long because, um,
Speaker 1: he drinks a punch made of dandelions every summer. And
Speaker 1: I think they saw the riding on the wall and said, hey,
Speaker 1: we can make another money making day out of this
Speaker 1: thing if we have a little summer festival picnic thing
Speaker 1: where Phil drinks this uh, dandelion juice as it were.
Speaker 1: And so now they have a big celebration for Phil's
Speaker 1: annual drinking of the daisy juice or dandelion juice. And
Speaker 1: we mentioned that, you know, back years back, the groundhog
Speaker 1: was treated as a pest and eaten hunted and eaten,
Speaker 1: and that they may have had like a picnic around
Speaker 1: Gobbler's Knob to eat the groundhogs. This annual tradition now
Speaker 1: where they all celebrate Phil gaining seven more years to
Speaker 1: his life, seems to have been based on the annual
Speaker 1: groundhog hunt and roast. So they went from eating groundhogs
Speaker 1: to pretending that this one has been alive for a
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty three years thanks to this this magical
Speaker 1: potion that he drinks. I wonder if they make great
Speaker 1: efforts to get a groundhog that really looks like the
Speaker 1: original Phil think groundhogs look a lot alike to humans. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, but it's like Ugga for the Georgia bulldogs,
Speaker 1: Like they have different uggas and white bulldogs. You know,
Speaker 1: they all all the Uggans look a little bit different,
Speaker 1: and we all like that's part of the personality of
Speaker 1: of each Ugga. But I think the groundhogs you're saying,
Speaker 1: they just like he didn't have a big white stripe
Speaker 1: down the middle of his head or anything. I see,
Speaker 1: I see what you mean. Yeah, yeah no, but they've
Speaker 1: got to because it's you know, the thing about the
Speaker 1: uggas is, you know it's uga six or that's ug
Speaker 1: a million or something like that. Like they're meant to
Speaker 1: be there, different Uggas, but they're all related in some way,
Speaker 1: at least through school spirit. Um, this is supposed to
Speaker 1: be all of the successive groundhogs. Whenever they come upon
Speaker 1: you know, him and his burrow and he's not moving
Speaker 1: any longer, um like the yeah, they would, I guess
Speaker 1: kind of have to find a groundhog that looks kind
Speaker 1: of like him so that they can be like, well,
Speaker 1: this is the this is the same one. He's been
Speaker 1: around for a hundred thirty three years. All I'm saying
Speaker 1: is probably not very hard to pull the wool over
Speaker 1: human being's eyes when they're like, no, it's the same crownhog.
Speaker 1: You know. I think I think the Uggs are all
Speaker 1: the same family line, if I'm not mistaken. I don't
Speaker 1: know if all of them in history, but I think
Speaker 1: there's this very prominent Savannah family that, uh where all
Speaker 1: the Uggs come from, if I'm not mistaken. Didn't the
Speaker 1: main guy, the guy who was on trial and Midnight
Speaker 1: of the Garden of Good and Evil? Wasn't he the
Speaker 1: Ugga breeder for a while, I don't know, but it
Speaker 1: had something to do with that. I feel like he
Speaker 1: he had something. Yeah, he had something to do with
Speaker 1: the Uggs and if if not like the actual the
Speaker 1: owner of the the Ugga's mom or something. Yeah, pretty
Speaker 1: good movie. I never read the book. I did both
Speaker 1: and they were both pretty good. It was one of
Speaker 1: those ones where like the movies just about as good
Speaker 1: as the book. Back when you could watch a Kevin
Speaker 1: Spacey movie that's right, creeped out and John Kisack does
Speaker 1: a good job too, that's right. And you could watch
Speaker 1: a John Keisack movie to be crazy. So let's take
Speaker 1: let's take a break here and we'll talk about you know,
Speaker 1: we mentioned that, uh, when Phil dies in the dead
Speaker 1: of night, they have to get him out of there quietly.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about how they might do that right after this.
Speaker 1: Le Okay, so we're back and we have a dead
Speaker 1: groundhog on our hands. Yeah. Well, if punksatany Phil passes away,
Speaker 1: which has clearly happened probably ever every eight to ten years, Uh,
Speaker 1: they can do so quietly. Because Phil leads a very
Speaker 1: pampered life. Uh an indoor life, you might say, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: because he has handlers, he has a full sort of staff, volunteers,
Speaker 1: that look after Phil, and they all have funny titles
Speaker 1: like Shingle Shaker or Chief Chief health Man, and uh,
Speaker 1: they make sure Phil leads a pretty cush life there
Speaker 1: in captivity. I've read that he eats a lot of
Speaker 1: ice cream and actually had to have a tooth removed
Speaker 1: once because he had a cavity from eating so much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's he's basically kept very happy, um and strong out
Speaker 1: on junk food, I guess, um. But that inner circle
Speaker 1: that you mentioned, that's fifteen local volunteers who basically they're
Speaker 1: not the punk Stutawny ground Hog Club. They're like the
Speaker 1: the upper echelon the leaders of the punch Stutawny ground
Speaker 1: Hog Club, it sounds like. And only a couple of
Speaker 1: them are allowed to handle Phil um and the president
Speaker 1: is the only one who actually can communicate with Phil.
Speaker 1: As we'll see. Yeah, they and we'll talk about the
Speaker 1: movie in a bit. But if you've seen the movie,
Speaker 1: you've seen those tuxedos and top hats, or if you
Speaker 1: you know you got the Delpa work. Anyway, if you
Speaker 1: tune in to watch the coverage, you're gonna see those
Speaker 1: tuxedos and top hats because they say hey fills the
Speaker 1: v I P When v I P s came to
Speaker 1: town back in the day. This is what we'd wear
Speaker 1: when we met him at the train. And he is
Speaker 1: our most famous residents. We're going to pay him that respect. Well,
Speaker 1: the other thing that I saw, the other explanation I saw,
Speaker 1: and that explanation actually came from one of the former
Speaker 1: Inner Circle members. But in other explanations that some of
Speaker 1: those early like um nineteenth century depictions of Breyer groundhog
Speaker 1: Um was in a top hat, like he was supposed
Speaker 1: to be this very intelligent um uh forecaster of of weather. Um,
Speaker 1: And so they depict him in like a top hat.
Speaker 1: And I think that's probably likelier where it came from,
Speaker 1: and they just forgot somewhere along the way. Well, Phill
Speaker 1: does a lot of sleeping. Um. He does not hibernate though,
Speaker 1: because he, like I said, he's in his his climate
Speaker 1: controlled burrow. He doesn't have these cues from nature to
Speaker 1: let him know when anything is at all. Uh. He
Speaker 1: as far as he knows, it's always perfect weather, except
Speaker 1: every February when he gets yanked out of there, taken
Speaker 1: out in the cold in the middle of the night
Speaker 1: to his other thankfully climate controlled burrow that is built
Speaker 1: into a stump. If you've never seen it, you can
Speaker 1: just google an image of this. Um kind of nice scene.
Speaker 1: It's got a stage there in a stump, and it's
Speaker 1: you know, it looks like something you'd see it. Uh uh,
Speaker 1: like a show at six Flags or something that's exactly
Speaker 1: right the country bears jamboree or something totally. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's great. I couldn't quite put my finger on what
Speaker 1: it looked like, but that is exactly what I was
Speaker 1: thinking of and could find now. So um, it's a
Speaker 1: bit of a rude awakening. Like you said, it's the
Speaker 1: middle of the night, ful phill, but they give him
Speaker 1: some time to kind of real ax and like get
Speaker 1: settled into his his um stump, his showtime stump, I guess,
Speaker 1: is what you call it. But I can't imagine that
Speaker 1: he's like getting a lot of relaxation. And because just
Speaker 1: outside of that stump is anywhere from I've seen eight
Speaker 1: thousand up to twenty thousand people all hanging out on
Speaker 1: Gobbler's Knob. And this is in a town of about
Speaker 1: five thousand people, so the population might be quadruple depending
Speaker 1: on whether Groundhog days, say, falls on a weekend, and
Speaker 1: they are so loud there. It's a rowdy, boisterous crowd um.
Speaker 1: They shoot off fireworks, they have live music all throughout
Speaker 1: the night. This is all leading up to dawn. Basically
Speaker 1: from about three am to about six thirty am, they
Speaker 1: just are partying right outside of Phil's stump. And then
Speaker 1: if there's a drink, like a signature drink, yeah, I
Speaker 1: saw there's a groundhog punch that has to do with
Speaker 1: like vodka and a bunch of other stuff. But I
Speaker 1: also have a distinct impression that this might be, if
Speaker 1: not dry, at least way more family friendly than yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody wasted on punch kind of thing. No, that's true.
Speaker 1: I mean you don't want to you don't want it
Speaker 1: to be like, uh well, like the Kentucky Derby. Dude, Man,
Speaker 1: things get dark. They're real quick. You've been to one
Speaker 1: of those, right, Yeah, and it got dark. They're real quick. Man.
Speaker 1: That was like like the second the race is over. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and even no before during after it's just utter chaos.
Speaker 1: You mean I were like, we we didn't leave, we fled.
Speaker 1: It was crazy, dude. Yeah, But now I think of
Speaker 1: the impression that this is a lot more clean cut
Speaker 1: than than the Kentucky Derby. I feel when I saw fireworks,
Speaker 1: I just felt bad for Phil that can't Yeah, you
Speaker 1: must have been scared, for sure. And I'm sure all
Speaker 1: the dogs in the area are like I hate groundhog Day,
Speaker 1: you know, and neighbors that aren't really big on Groundhog
Speaker 1: Day are probably not very happy. I mean, but airbnbr
Speaker 1: place is what you do. I would guess so, because again,
Speaker 1: five thousand people live in town, twenty additional people show
Speaker 1: up and hopefully if you own a business you've listened
Speaker 1: to chuck in your businesses open that day. So you
Speaker 1: mentioned the president is the only one who can speak
Speaker 1: to Phil or understand Phil. Uh. When Phil emerges from
Speaker 1: that borough, he does speak. Um. Groundhog ease is what
Speaker 1: they call it. And the president is the only person
Speaker 1: even in that inner circle that can understand and translate
Speaker 1: for the people. And Phil is is kind of a rapper,
Speaker 1: Isn't that right? I think that's being rather generous, But yes,
Speaker 1: he he speaks in rhyme, kind of sing song rhyme. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean it looks like wrapped to me on this
Speaker 1: groundhog Day. I'm happy to say I love fruity pebbles
Speaker 1: in a major way. Was that a commercial? Yes, it
Speaker 1: was ironically well, I guess the opposite of ironically expectedly, um,
Speaker 1: fruity pebbles commercial. Uh so yeah, So he speaks and
Speaker 1: sings song, the president translates for everyone. They all have
Speaker 1: a good time. And keep in mind, this is at dawn.
Speaker 1: So I imagined the whole affair is over pretty quickly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they've got to be so tired too. Um, but everybody
Speaker 1: gets powered up by some vodka based groundhog punch. Sure,
Speaker 1: they're like, why are we drunk? Aft is right? I
Speaker 1: think that's kind of the case, at least for some people.
Speaker 1: But um, that's the whole shebang. They kind of stretched
Speaker 1: it out for a week. I've seen that the whole
Speaker 1: festivities kind of take place over the week. But it
Speaker 1: seems like February second is kind of the big day
Speaker 1: February first slash second. So is he accurate though, that's
Speaker 1: the question that The answer to that question is no,
Speaker 1: not at all, because it's unscientific. Well yeah, that's definitely unscientific.
Speaker 1: But somehow Phil is even worse than chance at predicting
Speaker 1: the weather. Now, the Groundhog Club says he's he's correct
Speaker 1: a percent of the time. Um. That's the whole tongue
Speaker 1: in cheek thing. And then some people like to try
Speaker 1: to prove them right and say, well, yes, in some
Speaker 1: parts of the country he's right, in other parts he's not.
Speaker 1: But for the punk Sittawny area or western Pennsylvania he's
Speaker 1: he's he hits between thirty and forty on any given
Speaker 1: ten year stretch between two thousand ten and two thousand nineteen,
Speaker 1: between two thousand and one and two thousand ten, um,
Speaker 1: So that's not very good. I mean, like, if you
Speaker 1: just toss a coin, you could expect to come up
Speaker 1: heads or tails better than that, And that's basically what
Speaker 1: they're doing. UM. And we should say, in Phil's defense,
Speaker 1: he's not predicting anything. This is all the very very
Speaker 1: insane inner circle who are making these predictions. So they're
Speaker 1: technically the ones who are worse than chance at predicting
Speaker 1: whether there's going to be six more weeks of winter
Speaker 1: or in early spring. Yeah. I didn't want to be
Speaker 1: there in the first place. That's right. There's I saw
Speaker 1: footage of one a bit the the gout the handler's finger,
Speaker 1: and um only got some of the glove, but it
Speaker 1: looked like it would have been pretty vicious had he
Speaker 1: gotten any of his actual finger. It was hilarious and
Speaker 1: the crowd went wild. They loved it. He literally bit
Speaker 1: the hand that feds it. Yeah, I guess, so he's like,
Speaker 1: give me some more ice cream. So should we talk
Speaker 1: about the movie? We can't not talk about the movie.
Speaker 1: I didn't think we were talking about the movie groundhog Day,
Speaker 1: a movie which I have covered on movie Crush. This
Speaker 1: was the favorite movie of Griffin McElroy, of the famous
Speaker 1: McElroy Brothers podcasting. I saw that. I thought it was
Speaker 1: Justin mclroy was a Griffin, now justin. He was on
Speaker 1: two though. He did with Nail and I another great movie,
Speaker 1: and Griffin picked picked groundhog Day, and he says. Griffin's
Speaker 1: quote was not only do I think it's my favorite movie?
Speaker 1: He said, I think it's the best movie, like literally
Speaker 1: the best movie. He had some groundhog punch himself. He
Speaker 1: loves it, and uh and love it. It's a little
Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't age super well. Kind of it's
Speaker 1: a little problematic, is kind. He's a little he's a
Speaker 1: little he's just a little aggressive. He he doesn't take
Speaker 1: no for an answer over and over and over, and
Speaker 1: that's the point of the movie. But watching it through
Speaker 1: to today's lens is sort of like he back off, Dude,
Speaker 1: She's not interested, right, So yeah, I get you. Um
Speaker 1: So the for those of you who haven't seen it,
Speaker 1: first of all, go see it. But then secondly, it's
Speaker 1: it's um about this reporter. He gets stuck in this
Speaker 1: time loop where he's living February second Groundhog Day in
Speaker 1: punks its hawny over and over and over again. His
Speaker 1: name is Phil And it had such a huge impact. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they never explained why this happens. It just happens
Speaker 1: to him, which I think is something that makes the
Speaker 1: movie that much more enjoyable. But um, the this movie
Speaker 1: had such an impact on um the culture that today
Speaker 1: people associate groundhog Day not just with you know, predicting
Speaker 1: whether there's gonna be an early spring or more winter.
Speaker 1: They predicted with weird things like losing track of time
Speaker 1: or time doing odd things, or having deja vu. And
Speaker 1: that's strictly from the movie. Like that was never a
Speaker 1: part of Groundhog Day until this movie came along. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean people will say that if something happened again
Speaker 1: to you or whatever you say. Oh man, it's like
Speaker 1: groundhog Day. Uh. And it's you know, it's pretty rare
Speaker 1: for a movie to enter the sort of public consciousness
Speaker 1: to that degree. And also it's interesting and displace something
Speaker 1: that's already taking that spot even you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: or add to it at least. Yeah, for sure. Um.
Speaker 1: When I was doing research for the movie Crush episode,
Speaker 1: I did see that thing that you included here that
Speaker 1: the original screenwriter and eventual co writer to Harold Ramos,
Speaker 1: Danny Ruben Um the original script it was ten thousand
Speaker 1: years um that he was living because is of the
Speaker 1: Buddhist principle that it takes ten thousand years for a
Speaker 1: human soul to be perfect, and they change that up
Speaker 1: in the movie. And there is a lot of robust
Speaker 1: debate about how many days occur in the movie. Um, supposedly,
Speaker 1: and I look this up in a bunch of different places.
Speaker 1: If you just look at the movie the number of
Speaker 1: times it repeats, it's thirty eight, Okay, I saw, But
Speaker 1: if there are people who have taken time to calculate
Speaker 1: how long it really is. Because you know, he learns
Speaker 1: foreign languages, he becomes a master piano player. Uh and
Speaker 1: and people have taken great links to actually calculate how
Speaker 1: long it would take to do all this, and everyone,
Speaker 1: I mean, there are some exact days that people have calculated,
Speaker 1: but everyone is sort of landed in the neighborhood of
Speaker 1: about ten years, including Harold Ramos saying, yeah, we feel
Speaker 1: like it's about ten years that he's relived in order
Speaker 1: to learn all this stuff. I like ten thousand more.
Speaker 1: I'm going with Danny Ruben's estimate. You know, well, if
Speaker 1: it was ten thousand years, he would just be like
Speaker 1: it'd be like in the matrix at the end or something. Well,
Speaker 1: at some point he says, I'm a god, so you know,
Speaker 1: maybe it still is in there. But um, yeah. One
Speaker 1: of the things about that movie too, Chuck, is, um
Speaker 1: it's part of the festivities now, the show it the
Speaker 1: night before at like the local theater, and um it's
Speaker 1: been a boon for the town as well, not just
Speaker 1: Groundhog Day, but the movie itself has drawn people to
Speaker 1: the town to kind of see, you know, Punks Attawny,
Speaker 1: and they're usually very disappointed to find out that they
Speaker 1: didn't actually shoot the town in Punks Autonny. They shot
Speaker 1: it in Woodstock, Illinois. So while they named like the
Speaker 1: businesses and took like cop cars from Punksutawni and like
Speaker 1: moved a lot of punks Tawny two Woodstock, you can't
Speaker 1: visually see like, oh this is where this this you know,
Speaker 1: this is where ned Ryerson crosses the street um to
Speaker 1: say hi, you know downtown, Like that's in Woodstock, Illinois.
Speaker 1: So I think they don't tell people that until after
Speaker 1: they've made their way to punt Stani and spend at
Speaker 1: least fifty dollars, then they tell them, Okay, this wood Stock,
Speaker 1: Illinois that you're really after. Yeah, I mean what do
Speaker 1: you think. Do you want to go to punt Stani
Speaker 1: and kind of be at the real place or do
Speaker 1: you want to go to Illinois to kind of see
Speaker 1: these real old movie locations. I would like to go
Speaker 1: to neither of those places. I'm good with the seeing
Speaker 1: clips old clips um on YouTube. That's fine with me.
Speaker 1: Like It's never struck me as like a great um
Speaker 1: uh holiday. I think, not because of Groundhog Day or
Speaker 1: the fact that it's in western Pennsylvania or anything like that, um,
Speaker 1: but because February two is just such a sucky time
Speaker 1: of the year. I hate that time of the year.
Speaker 1: Um that nothing really good can happen around then. So
Speaker 1: you know, the beginning of February always thinks, which is
Speaker 1: ironic because my wedding anniversaries in mid February. That to
Speaker 1: me is when things pick up. Yeah, I pulled that
Speaker 1: out at the end of night. You did, I forgot
Speaker 1: you guys got you got married in warm climbs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we we escaped to Hawaii because February is kind of
Speaker 1: gross in the United States. Yeah, my anniversary sometime in
Speaker 1: late April. I can never remember the day. Well, hey,
Speaker 1: just start saying after this, we'll just say all the
Speaker 1: different numbers, will find out the right one and then
Speaker 1: Jerry can edit it in all right, Um, you you
Speaker 1: got anything else? I got nothing else. Um well, if
Speaker 1: you want to know more about Groundhog Day, just go online.
Speaker 1: I think this year it's a streaming there because of COVID.
Speaker 1: They're not having people out, but they are streaming is
Speaker 1: so you can go check out the punks Attorny Groundhog
Speaker 1: Clubs website for all the links and everything. And since
Speaker 1: I directed everyone to the punks Attorny Groundhog Clubs website.
Speaker 1: As per usual, it's time for a listener. Now I'm
Speaker 1: going to call this hot off the presses. This came
Speaker 1: in thirty seconds ago and I didn't have one prepared,
Speaker 1: and this is a good one. Hey, guys, hope you're
Speaker 1: doing well. Josh, Chuck and Jerry over there. My name
Speaker 1: is Mike Martin. He him his thank you for that. Mike.
Speaker 1: I'm a classical musician, a bassist in the New World
Speaker 1: Symphony in Miami Beats, Florida. Been an avid listener for
Speaker 1: six years. My sister Jessica got me hooked on your
Speaker 1: show after we were traveling to see our family got
Speaker 1: stuck behind an oil tanker. The truck pulled to a
Speaker 1: stop on a quiet stretch of highway Rural in the
Speaker 1: middle of the night, when the driver put on the
Speaker 1: hazards jumped out of the vehicle. Confused, we attempted to
Speaker 1: go around when the hood of the truck burst into flames.
Speaker 1: After backing away to a safe distance, my sister laughed side,
Speaker 1: pulled out her phone and said, looks like we're not
Speaker 1: going anywhere. Have you heard of stuff you should know?
Speaker 1: Since then, I've listened to your entire catalog five times. Wow.
Speaker 1: So this is a long email, but I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: to the cruxt of it here. It was about the
Speaker 1: Clan episode uh in his experience as a black man.
Speaker 1: He said, I really appreciate your recent episode in the KKK,
Speaker 1: especially with Chuck mentioned about feeling you need to do
Speaker 1: a comprehensive dive on the Clan because of the terror
Speaker 1: and harm they visited on Black Americans like myself twenty
Speaker 1: six years old, and even when I was a young
Speaker 1: child in the nineties, there were cross burnings near my
Speaker 1: home in semi rural Pennsylvania. Uh. We moved a few
Speaker 1: towns over not long afterwards, but all my life as
Speaker 1: a black child living in the Northeast, I live with
Speaker 1: explicitly racist iconography. On walks with friends in the woods,
Speaker 1: we'd find swastikas and racist screeds spray painted on abandoned
Speaker 1: railroad buildings. Who was not uncommon to see Confederate flags
Speaker 1: on people's homes and cars. Even in school, I'd find
Speaker 1: nooses tied on the pool cords of blinds. I even
Speaker 1: remember the first time I was called the N word
Speaker 1: in a school bathroom in the first grade, and the
Speaker 1: principle's response to my parents in his office, we can't
Speaker 1: help what people teach their kids at home. Man, the
Speaker 1: way I was treated improved as I got older, but
Speaker 1: it prompted me to start thinking about how the more
Speaker 1: insidious and subtle elements of racism impact my life and
Speaker 1: those of others from a very young age. And then
Speaker 1: Mike went on to give a lot of great recommendations
Speaker 1: for episodes he thinks we should do uh, and he says,
Speaker 1: stay safe and be well. And that is from Mike
Speaker 1: Martin the bass player. Nice Mike, thanks a lot for
Speaker 1: writing and I'm sorry all of that could happen to you. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: and yeah, thanks for the ideas. Give me an idea
Speaker 1: that he gave us for an episode. He said jazz
Speaker 1: because he said it. It's a lot of different things
Speaker 1: that we've talked about, um, kind of coming together uh
Speaker 1: in musical movement. So that's one that we've talked about.
Speaker 1: Is just cheez like Ken Burns did. However many hours
Speaker 1: on jazz. How do we do five minutes on jazz? Whatever?
Speaker 1: We did a two part on evil kinevel. We can
Speaker 1: do anything. Be about scooda dude, you just do that
Speaker 1: the whole time, all right, Maybe we shouldn't do one
Speaker 1: on jazz. Now I think about sorry Mike. Well, if
Speaker 1: you want to get in touch with this like Mike
Speaker 1: didn't and share the horrors of your childhood, we want
Speaker 1: to hear that in a weird way, um, and also
Speaker 1: to share with the rest of you so we can
Speaker 1: all feel like a stuff you Should Know family even
Speaker 1: more than we did before. Uh. And you can wrap
Speaker 1: it up, spank it on the bottom gently, and send
Speaker 1: it off to stuff podcast at iHeart radio dot com.
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio because at the iHeart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.