Speaker 1: Guess what, mango? What's that? Well? All right, so you
Speaker 1: know that game Clue, and I think you know this fact,
Speaker 1: but you know it came from the game Cludo in England, right, Yeah? Actually,
Speaker 1: I think my cousins in India told me it's a
Speaker 1: pun on the word ludo, which was an old Roman
Speaker 1: game or something. Yeah, that's right. So they changed the
Speaker 1: name in the US because nobody here plays ludo. But
Speaker 1: that isn't the only thing they changed. It was kind
Speaker 1: of interesting to look at the list. So did you
Speaker 1: know that in the British version, the murder weapons include
Speaker 1: a fireplace poker, a syringe, an axe, and even a bomb,
Speaker 1: which is insane. I mean doesn't feel like things you
Speaker 1: have around the house. I mean, except for the fireplace poker,
Speaker 1: you don't have a lot of syringes or bombs around
Speaker 1: the house. But also the characters are different. There's a
Speaker 1: Doctor Black, a Mr Gold, and a Colonel Yellow instead
Speaker 1: of Mustard for some reason that makes no sense. I mean,
Speaker 1: Colonel Mustard is definitely a better name, but why change
Speaker 1: it from yellow? Like Americans know what yellow? I feel
Speaker 1: like Americans know what yellow is. But that's just another
Speaker 1: mystery for players to solve, which is perfect for today
Speaker 1: a show because it's all about mysteries. So let's dive in. Hey,
Speaker 1: their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Speaker 1: Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
Speaker 1: Man Guesh Ticketer and sitting behind the soundproof glass dusting
Speaker 1: office collection of Hardy Boys Mysteries. That's our good pal
Speaker 1: and producer Tristan McNeil. So. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: feel this way, but every time I hear the word
Speaker 1: hardy boys, now I think of that Dirty Rock episode
Speaker 1: where Jack Donneghe orders like a wine sprinter from the bartender.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking about, Yes, I do. I
Speaker 1: love it so much because like he gets the drink
Speaker 1: and the fartenders like here's your Nancy Drew and Jack
Speaker 1: donneghe goes for men. It's a hearty boy. So were
Speaker 1: you in the mysteries the same way? I was this
Speaker 1: a kid? I mean, I like them, but hearing you
Speaker 1: talk about how much you were into them, I definitely
Speaker 1: wasn't Sherlock Holmes for three straight halloweens like you were.
Speaker 1: So so why were you so obsessed with I don't know,
Speaker 1: I mean I think I liked the idea of being
Speaker 1: my neighborhood Encyclopedia Brown And actually my mom got me
Speaker 1: these abridged classics as a kid. I don't know, did
Speaker 1: you ever have those? Yeah? Definitely. Yeah, Like I remember
Speaker 1: reading like Charles Dickens and Jules Verne and whatever. But
Speaker 1: I really got hooked on the Sherlock Holmes one and
Speaker 1: so much so that I actually started reading all the
Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes books in third grade. I mean I read
Speaker 1: Shlock Holmes, I read uh acta Christie and all the
Speaker 1: Miss Marbles and all that stuff. But I was just
Speaker 1: totally obsessed. So how long did this obsession last? I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like, you're not that into mystery stuff now,
Speaker 1: are you? No? Not not just hiding. I mean I
Speaker 1: do remember trying to solve little mysteries around my neighborhood.
Speaker 1: And so there was this kid who was just a
Speaker 1: total liar, and uh when he first came into the neighborhood,
Speaker 1: we'd all pull up in front of his house like
Speaker 1: on our bikes to greet him, and he immediately set
Speaker 1: off telling everyone he was like the second grade kids
Speaker 1: world boxing champion, which I don't think it's a thing,
Speaker 1: but you know. I mean, he was tough looking but
Speaker 1: clearly lying, and I just looked at him. It was like,
Speaker 1: you don't have any tan lines. If you're you're the
Speaker 1: world boxing champion, you'd have tan from like being around
Speaker 1: the world. And uh, I'm pretty sure I read something
Speaker 1: like that in Encyclopedia Brown. But you know, all the
Speaker 1: kids around me were like, yeah, he's a liar, right right,
Speaker 1: So he was claiming to be the second grade world
Speaker 1: boxing champion. I love that. I also love that you
Speaker 1: just wanted to take him down so much, but like
Speaker 1: count box him. Good for you for cracking that case. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, today we're talking about mystery, so I'm guessing
Speaker 1: you've got some other good stuff up your sleeve. So
Speaker 1: do you do you have a first fact for us? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean I actually like the fact that you started
Speaker 1: with Clue, because I've got a Clue fact of my own.
Speaker 1: But this is actually about Clue the movie, and you
Speaker 1: saw their doing a remake, right, Yeah, I'm super scited
Speaker 1: about it. I mean, if you look at the line up,
Speaker 1: there's so many movies that are up my alley right now,
Speaker 1: Like there's a Clue movie coming out, there's a there's
Speaker 1: a Muppets mystery for adults that's coming out, and then
Speaker 1: to Mr Rogers Movies. I know, actually I saw they
Speaker 1: got Tom Hanks to play him, and it was based
Speaker 1: on that Tom's you know Esquire article. It was a
Speaker 1: ton of fun having Tom on the show not too
Speaker 1: long ago. But anyway, you were saying, yeah, so clue
Speaker 1: the movie. Uh. The funny thing about that movie was
Speaker 1: that it bombed in theaters. And you know how when
Speaker 1: we watched as kids, it had all three endings together
Speaker 1: at the end of the film. Well, when you actually
Speaker 1: saw in theaters, you only got to see one of
Speaker 1: the endings. So why did they do it that way?
Speaker 1: It was a gimmick to get people to get to
Speaker 1: see the movie more times, Like if you want to
Speaker 1: see all three endings, you actually have to pay for
Speaker 1: three different tickets. Wow, which I'm guessing was very confusing
Speaker 1: to the audience. And I also can't imagine the movie
Speaker 1: would be as good without those three endings together. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So critics mostly panned whatever version they saw, like the
Speaker 1: fun really isn't seeing all the endings together, And I
Speaker 1: guess newspapers eventually tried to give a lift by you know,
Speaker 1: revealing what ending you were going to see. They said, uh,
Speaker 1: in the listings that will be ending A B or C.
Speaker 1: But but no one really caught on and it actually
Speaker 1: only became a hit once it came out on video.
Speaker 1: Al Right, well here's another fact for you. So did
Speaker 1: you know that Sherlott Colmes was almost named Sharing Ford. No,
Speaker 1: it actually sounds like you're just making up a name
Speaker 1: on the spot and you couldn't quite come up with
Speaker 1: something with. According to Conan Doyle's original note, he was
Speaker 1: leaning towards either sharing Ford Holmes or Sharon Ford Homes,
Speaker 1: either a real name. But this was all until he
Speaker 1: played a game of cricket. I mean I did know
Speaker 1: that Conon Doyle was a super into cricket. Actually I
Speaker 1: read this book. Um, he played on Jam Barry's team
Speaker 1: who wrote Peter Penn and uh and the team was
Speaker 1: filled with all these British literary all stars like people
Speaker 1: I love like H. G. Wells, a million, Richard Kipling, P. G.
Speaker 1: Woodhouse was on one team. Yeah, and they were supposed
Speaker 1: to be super fun to hang out with but also
Speaker 1: aggressively mediocre as player. Well, I guess he got inspired
Speaker 1: on the pitch because as he puts it, quote, years ago,
Speaker 1: I made thirty runs against the bowler by the name
Speaker 1: of Sherlock, and I always had a kindly feeling for
Speaker 1: that name. Well, I mean, Sherlock Holmes is so much
Speaker 1: of a better name than Sharing for It's kind of
Speaker 1: how like Google would be so much less popular if
Speaker 1: it went by the name of BackRub Original. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: remember that, alright, So so what else you got? Okay,
Speaker 1: So here's a fun one about murder, she wrote. According
Speaker 1: to the BBC four, when reporters crunched the numbers, they
Speaker 1: found that Cabot Cove, which I'm not sure if you remember,
Speaker 1: but that's the queen idyllic town where Angela lands for
Speaker 1: his characters from uh, it would actually be the murder
Speaker 1: capital of the world. Really. Apparently two percent of the
Speaker 1: town's residents died over the course of the show's twelve
Speaker 1: which already feels a little high, but the murder rate
Speaker 1: for visitors was even higher. And if you tab it
Speaker 1: all up, it would be the murder capital of the
Speaker 1: world right now, and it puts the current murder capital
Speaker 1: to shame. I love that they actually took the time
Speaker 1: to to calculate the all right, well, here's a mystery
Speaker 1: that's a little less murdery than that one. It's the
Speaker 1: secret to dumb, dumb lollipops mystery flavor. So I always
Speaker 1: love the mystery flavor, and I'd assume they just picked
Speaker 1: one flavor a month and wrap them up in a
Speaker 1: mystery wrapper, which actually has a much more interesting story.
Speaker 1: So basically, the mystery flavor is really just a smart
Speaker 1: way for the manufacturer to not have to throw out
Speaker 1: any candy or even spend too much time cleaning the machine.
Speaker 1: So according to our pal caracovalchick over at Mental Floss,
Speaker 1: it's the flavor that mingles together when one flavor rolls
Speaker 1: off the assembly line and another one comes on. That's
Speaker 1: really cool. So the mystery flavor is always changing. I
Speaker 1: guess yeah, that's right now. If your taste buds are
Speaker 1: really sophisticated, you might be able to solve the mystery
Speaker 1: and figure out what two flavors are in the next
Speaker 1: there lollipop con Well, we've got four more facts to
Speaker 1: go and a trophy to wrestle over, But why don't
Speaker 1: we pause for a little break. Welcome back to Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius nine Things, where today we're talking about mysteries
Speaker 1: that man go. We'll get back to the facts in
Speaker 1: a minute. But what do you think about all this
Speaker 1: recent analysis of Sherlock Holmes. I mean, some versions think
Speaker 1: that he might be gay. There are people who think
Speaker 1: he displays classic signs of Asperger's or maybe that he's
Speaker 1: even a sociopath. I know, I'm actually in two minds
Speaker 1: about this. Like I have such a fondness for homes
Speaker 1: from when I was a kid that I kind of
Speaker 1: just wanted to be like the character I imagined. But
Speaker 1: I kind of love those lists that analyze fictional characters now,
Speaker 1: like I saw Aerial from The Little Mermaid has been
Speaker 1: labeled a hoarder because you can't get rid of forks
Speaker 1: and things, or that you know your is a depressive,
Speaker 1: which I never thought about as a kid because I
Speaker 1: just thought he was like bumbling and slow. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's a serious type. I want you to think
Speaker 1: about that great Jeff Reuben interview with Dr Batman now, listeners,
Speaker 1: if we haven't talked about it before. Our pal Jeff
Speaker 1: has a great show called The Jeff Reuben Jeff Reuben Show,
Speaker 1: and he interviews really interesting people. But one of the
Speaker 1: people he talked to was this guy who has a
Speaker 1: doctorate degree in Batman. How weird is that? Well, part
Speaker 1: of the interview was about how Batman is actually a
Speaker 1: number of characters. Now. He's campy to some people, like
Speaker 1: fans of the old TV show, He's more of a
Speaker 1: detective to some, and more dark and brooding and some
Speaker 1: of them. Yeah, I mean, he's allowed to be all
Speaker 1: these things in parallel universes. And I guess that's kind
Speaker 1: of the same with Holmes and all these different interpretations
Speaker 1: of him. Yeah, that's a good point. So I watched
Speaker 1: the new Ericio Poirot movie and in the first scene
Speaker 1: I'm really not giving away, but he sets this physical
Speaker 1: trap for someone, and I was like, why does every
Speaker 1: detective now have to be an action hero? Like why
Speaker 1: can't he just settle for being really, really smart? Yeah?
Speaker 1: All right, Well, speaking of really smart, what's what's your
Speaker 1: next fact? Mag So here's one that kind of builds
Speaker 1: off your dumb dumb story. Did you know that the
Speaker 1: recipe for chartruss is a highly kept secret. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like Coca Cola or KFC And the story is
Speaker 1: pretty cool. So apparently it's a blend of a hundred
Speaker 1: thirty herbs, plants and flowers that go into it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the recipe was given to monks in sixteen oh
Speaker 1: five by an officer in Henry the Fourth's court, and
Speaker 1: for some reason it's been treated as a secret ever since.
Speaker 1: Only a few months at anytime. I actually know the recipe,
Speaker 1: and you know, a monk's not going to tell the secret.
Speaker 1: But here's the cool thing about it. The color Charterers
Speaker 1: actually gets its name from the color of the liqueur,
Speaker 1: which itself gets its name from the Grand Chartreuse Monastery,
Speaker 1: which is where the alcohol is brewed. It's just a
Speaker 1: long chain of it gets its name from. That's very good.
Speaker 1: All right. Well, since you mentioned KFC, I do have
Speaker 1: to tell you one fact about that, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: bump off one of my other mystery facts I had
Speaker 1: and I'll save it for the future. But in two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen, Colonel Sanders Nephew claimed to have found a
Speaker 1: copy of the famous chicken recipe in an old scrap book,
Speaker 1: and he even allowed the Chicago Tribune to give it
Speaker 1: a try. I mean, how much of a jerk is
Speaker 1: this guy? We're doing as a family secret man. But
Speaker 1: here are the ingredients, so salt, thyme, basil, oregano, sell
Speaker 1: re salt, black pepper, dried mustard, paprika, garlic, salt, ground ginger,
Speaker 1: and white pepper. I mean for being such a secret,
Speaker 1: like none of it's that surprising. It's not like they
Speaker 1: had like oric acid, and and that's what gave it
Speaker 1: the tang that the reveal was a little anticlimactic. But
Speaker 1: when they tried it out, apparently it was indistinguishable from
Speaker 1: KFC seasoning. Alright, well, let's get back to some real mystery.
Speaker 1: So what's your last fact of the day. Mego, So,
Speaker 1: this is an amazing story I read about on Reddit
Speaker 1: and then followed a link to a newspaper. But it's
Speaker 1: from two thousand and eight, and this crime is genius.
Speaker 1: So a guy wearing a yellow safety vest, safety goggles,
Speaker 1: a blue shirt, and a respirator mask and a respirator
Speaker 1: mask walked up to a guard at a bank in Monroe, Washington.
Speaker 1: Apparently Munroe is about thirty miles north of Seattle and
Speaker 1: it's on a river, And as money is being taken
Speaker 1: off the truck, he sprays the guard with mace, then
Speaker 1: grabs a bundle of cash and braces off But here's
Speaker 1: what's interesting about it. When the cops come, there are
Speaker 1: dozens of people wearing the same uniform that this guy
Speaker 1: was wearing all around. He'd actually posted a job ad
Speaker 1: on Craigslist for construction workers, and he told them to
Speaker 1: show up at a particular time and wear the same outfit,
Speaker 1: and he promised wages of twenty nine dollars an hour
Speaker 1: to them. Enough that there was like this huge crowd
Speaker 1: of them, and so he disappears into this crowd. But
Speaker 1: this is the funniest part. Instead of using a getaway car,
Speaker 1: he'd gotten an inner tube and tubed down the river
Speaker 1: and that was near to the bank and made this
Speaker 1: clean escape, but not a quick escape. But did they
Speaker 1: find him? I know, it feels so relaxed. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess they didn't, because the last article I found
Speaker 1: was a journalist trying to track down Craig from Craigslist
Speaker 1: to see if he had any clues. Wow, that's pretty good. Okay,
Speaker 1: Well I've got a pretty good mystery to close this.
Speaker 1: So have you heard about the President's mystery? I don't
Speaker 1: think I have what is it? And I don't know
Speaker 1: how I hadn't either, But it was fun looking this
Speaker 1: up for this episode. So Franklin Roosevelt was apparently obsessed
Speaker 1: with mysteries, and he didn't think there were that many
Speaker 1: good ones out there, so he started to write his own. Now,
Speaker 1: he came up with an idea. So there's this guy,
Speaker 1: Jim Blake, who doesn't really love his life. He's in
Speaker 1: a bad marriage, dead end job. So he decided to
Speaker 1: try to scam five million dollars and then disappear without
Speaker 1: being traced. But the thing is, Roosevelt couldn't quite figure
Speaker 1: out how Blake would get away with it. So he'd
Speaker 1: come up with an idea, then figure out a solution
Speaker 1: for finding him, and so he decided to take his
Speaker 1: problem to an author that he liked, Bolton or Sler,
Speaker 1: And then this is where we get political. They decided
Speaker 1: to solve it by committee. So they recruited five or
Speaker 1: six other top mystery writers at the time, and each
Speaker 1: of them took a chapter within the story. They'd have
Speaker 1: Blake run, then leave him in this bad situation for
Speaker 1: the next person to figure out. And it was really good.
Speaker 1: So the story gets serialized in a magazine and it's
Speaker 1: called The President's Mystery. Then it was published into a
Speaker 1: book and even turned into a movie in nine teen
Speaker 1: thirty six, which gave Roosevelt a movie writing credit as
Speaker 1: a sitting president. But the coolest thing about it, no
Speaker 1: one actually solved FDR's original problem, at least not until
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven, when Earl Stanley Gardner wrote a final
Speaker 1: final chapter and had his hero Perry Mason closed the case.
Speaker 1: Actually had a fact about Roosevelt's son, Elliott, who was
Speaker 1: a mystery writer and uh based his lead detective on
Speaker 1: his mom Eleanor Roosevelt. But even though I'm a homes fan,
Speaker 1: and even though I had an Eleanor Roosevelt fact, I
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna let you walk away with this week's
Speaker 1: fact Off Trophy. Thank you. I'm honored. Actually, before we go,
Speaker 1: we just wanted to say we got a note on
Speaker 1: Twitter from one of our listeners, Nicole, and she had
Speaker 1: a difficult thing happened to her recently and asked for
Speaker 1: a light episode this week. So Nicole, we hope this
Speaker 1: did the trick. Thank you guys for listening. Se