WEBVTT - Selects: Mermaids: Not a real thing 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:05.640 Hey, everybody, and welcome to Saturday. Yesterday was Friday, Tomorrow Sunday. 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:09.160 Today's Saturday. This is Chuck. Today's episode is Mermaids not 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:15.400 a real thing? This from August four, and I gotta say, 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.000 I just remember thinking this is kind of an interesting podcast, 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:22.440 and that's why I picked it for Saturday. Enjoy, everybody. 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.600 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:38.840 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. Yeah, 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:42.440 that's right. There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, Jerry's over there 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:47.639 in the ether, floating, possibly not existing, who knows. Uh. 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:50.640 And this is stuff you should know, that's right, Just 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:53.559 a couple of a couple of mermen trying to make 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.200 their way in the world, trying to keep their tails wet. 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:03.360 Yeah you know, yeah, that thing dries out. You've seen Splash. Yeah, 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.880 it's a actually post. She dried out and she was 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.720 just fine. Oh. I thought, oh, you're thinking of et 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.240 when he turned all white and dried out. I was 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:16.000 thinking a Splash because I couldn't remember. It's one of 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:17.640 It was one of my favorite movies as a kid. 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.200 It was a cute. Um. It was one of those 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:24.640 early HBO movies early Tom Hanks, which I'm a big 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:29.479 fan of early Tom Hanks. And um, I just thought 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:31.720 it was a really fun and funny movie. John Candy, Yeah, 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:33.880 it was a great movie. What's his name played the 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:40.240 evil man trying to expose her. Um, Eugene Leevy, I think, Oh, 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:41.959 was he the bad guy? Yeah, he was the one 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:44.240 that you know, that's a high quality movie when Eugene 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.199 Levy's the bad guy. Yeah, that was the SETV crew 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:50.040 And um, he actually tried to spray her and get 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:52.800 her wet so she would and in fact, kid turned 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.040 into a mermaid on the sidewalk, So that's what it was. 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:57.000 And she got wet, she turned in to a mermaid, right, 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:00.600 she got dried, no problem. Yes, And Darryl, of course, 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.840 who's running around with Neil Young? Now? Oh really? Yeah? 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:09.640 How about that couple? Sure? Why not? They're both environmentalists. 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:12.240 But there's a lot of turquoise in that bedroom. I 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.799 wonder if you hook up with Neil Young, if or 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:17.040 anyone like that, if if you're sort of a new 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.040 relationship and not like the wife they had for forty years, 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:26.240 if you're like, play a song, why don't you what like, 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:28.880 I wonder if you asked them to play music. Oh, 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:31.240 like you're actually into him? Yeah, Like if if you're 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:35.040 Billy Joel's new year old wife, do you ever say, like, hey, honey, 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:40.080 play me a tune, Play that one that you that 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.079 you wrote ten years before I was conceived. I think 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:45.200 I'm What I'm saying is I would have a hard 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:48.520 time being with Neil Young and not every night after 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:52.400 dinner just kind of nudging the guitar towards him, Oh, 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.639 I got you and saying I'd love to hear old Man, 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:59.480 please baby one for me, And yeah, he says, I've 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:04.200 played that song times. Yeah, I would guess that, well, 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:06.720 I can tell you I would. I would. Yeah, I 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:09.560 would guess that once you reach a certain point and 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:11.839 playing a song, you never want to hear that song 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:15.280 or even think about it existing again, but then you 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:17.520 still have to play it. I try not to think 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.359 about that when I'm at those shows. Yeah, it makes 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:22.359 me feel bad for him, like they might as well 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.600 be you know, in the monkey house or something and 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:28.040 you just throwing bananas at him, and God bless the 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:32.120 people who really bring it still where you feel like, man, 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:35.400 they're playing that song for me tonight, Adam Man, does 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:39.240 he still bring it? He's just who came to mind. 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:41.840 Whereas when I saw the Police on their reunion, they 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.640 were phoning it in really, even Stewart Copeland. Well, I 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:47.920 mean they were playing the songs, but it just it 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:49.800 didn't look like they were enjoying themselves at all. It 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:53.560 looked like a total money grab. Sure, they entered from 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:56.920 three separate entrances and exited from three separate and I 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.960 got the feeling they didn't even like speak much. That's 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.080 like I was reading an article on the Ramons, the 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:06.760 Rolling Stone one recently. Uh, yeah, I guess it was. Yeah, 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:08.800 they had a great article on them, so yeah, I 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:11.200 guess it was. It was definitely Rolling Stone. So okay, 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:13.760 did you read it? Yeah, then it was awesome. But yeah, 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.159 they're like they they would they would just like get 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.040 on the bus and not speak to one another, go 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.000 to the next town and get on stage and play 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:23.880 and then come off stage and not like they would 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:26.159 they would speak on stage because they had to. That 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.080 was it. Apparently, Well, at least Joey and who was 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:32.679 his big foil d there's those ones who really hated 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:36.200 each other. Yeah, supposedly they didn't speak at all for 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:40.080 like twenty five years straight, right, because Joey stole d 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.520 D's like love of his life and then they were 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:45.760 in the band together still after that it was just 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.200 like ts Man, so weird, so like a lot of songs, 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.400 especially once like the kk K Took My Baby Away. 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:57.360 That's about Joey stealing d D's girlfriend. Wow, it was 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:02.120 a great article. Yeah, good ready, um so back to Splash, 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:06.000 funny movie about a mermaid, and we're gonna talk about 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:10.320 mermaids here, and mostly what we're gonna cover is the 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:14.080 lore in history and the mythology of the mermaid because 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:19.160 there's a little giveaway there are no mermaids. What did 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:22.039 you look up like pictures of real mermaids sightings and stuff. Yeah, 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:24.320 and it's the same thing as pictures of Bigfoot sightings 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.760 and pictures of UFO sighting some weird distant blur that 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:31.520 like you can't it could be kelped or is such 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.320 an obviously doctored photo. What would be fun, though, is 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:38.480 if we had a time machine. Forget killing Hitler, forget 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:40.839 like back machine. Oh yeah, that's right. I can't believe 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:43.560 we don't put this into good use. Yeah, forget like, um, 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:46.560 you know, saving the world. They're keeping the Dodo from 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:50.640 going extinct. I would take some of these doctored photos 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:53.320 that are just so easy to make today back to 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:55.880 like the nineteen twenties and be like, look at this, 0:05:57.160 --> 0:05:58.880 and they go, yeah, I know, we still believe in 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:03.000 that stuff, with your aim being what just a freak amount. 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:06.839 Oh I figured there'd be a money angle. Oh yeah, 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:11.840 Josh is traveling Wonder Wonder Emporium. It's not a bad 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.800 idea where in which you just show them photos, but 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:17.800 I charged them like two thousand sixteen rates and no 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.279 one can possibly afford that, So I go out of business, 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:22.680 like almost immediately. Right there's like one guy in the town. 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:25.479 It's like, I'll pay twenty seven fifty to see those right, 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:31.200 step right up, towns only billionaire. Um, that's a great idea. 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:32.560 I don't know why no one ever thought of that. 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:34.880 It was a terrible idea, Like from beginning to end. 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.040 Forget going back and betting on the stock market or 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:41.200 the outcome of the World Series. I'm gonna go back 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.880 and set up a business doom to fail. Alright, So 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.880 let's talk about mermaid uh lore. Well, we can start 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:51.320 here in the more modern age, because there are still 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.520 places that try and take people for money, like we 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:57.839 were just talking about, even like me Um in fact 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:02.280 uh in Israel on the coast there, Um, they actually 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:08.279 have a town called Kiryat Yam. And if you go 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:10.880 to Kiryat Yam you could win how much money does 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:16.240 he even say? Million bucks million American dollars if you um, 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:20.280 if you provide incontrovertible evidence of the mermaid that is 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:24.440 reputed to want to live there and appear at sunset 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.120 as of two thousand nine was the first sighting there. Yeah, 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:28.880 And of course what that is is is a ploy 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:30.880 to try and get tourists and come and spend money 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:34.640 in the town and look for the mermaid. Come on, chumps, 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:37.800 welcome you to Kiryat Yam. I'm sure lock ness has 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.720 made plenty of tourist money over the years. Apparently they 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.320 have a standing offer as well, and that's where the 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:47.520 mayor of Kuryot Yam got the idea great idea. And 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.440 actually I saw that photo too. It's kind of neat. 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:53.720 I don't know what it is or who created it 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:57.520 or whatever, but there's allegedly a photo taken obviously from 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:00.920 like a cliff down on to a beat, you know, 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:04.160 a beach that will have like a big just slab 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:08.400 of rocks surrounded by sand, sand and mermaids. Right, there's 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:10.680 a mermaid on that rock, just kind of looking out 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:14.160 in the sea. And of course it could be anything. 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:16.840 It could be totally doctored, who knows, um, but it's 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:18.840 from a distance. And at least they didn't like go 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:21.760 full out like perfect picture of a mermaid of Red's. 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.920 It's it's just um suggestive enough that people who believe 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.480 in such things would be like the right there, there's 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.120 a picture of a mermaid, you know, so that that 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.160 was found in two thousand nine or that surfaced in 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:38.160 two thousand nine, and since then the surfaced right, since 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:43.800 then the town's uh had that standing offer, correct? So uh. 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.000 The really the interesting thing to me about mermaids is 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:51.400 the mythology. Did you take mythology in college at all? Yeah? 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:55.079 I did. It. Always wanted it to interest me more 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:58.160 than it did me too. It was just I don't 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:00.439 know if it wasn't explain to me quite well enough, 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:07.200 or just the ancients non bicameral mind wasn't um fused 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.480 together enough to interest people in the modern age. Well, 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.679 I think so. I think the stories themselves, as far 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:17.840 as good storytelling, we're just lacking because a lot of 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:20.920 them were just versions of one another, and there was 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:27.880 usually a very basic uh premise or or moral um. 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:29.800 And in the case of mermaids, a lot of times 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.760 they were a lot of folksore even was rooted in misogyny. 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:36.640 You know how you know there'll be a woman to 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.880 come along and screw your life up right, or if 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.679 you written up a woman, um, she will kill your 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:45.800 children or something like that, like women were not to 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.199 be trusted, and they were murderous and duplicidus and a 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:52.240 lot of mythologies to the old hag so uh, it 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:56.960 was in various I mean hundreds and hundreds of books 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:01.560 and texts, including the Talmud believe it or not. And 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:04.360 we've talked about plenty of the Elder, the Beer and 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:09.520 the Dude Rome's plan of the Elder. He in his 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:15.400 Natural History talked about a mermaid like creature called the nereid. Yes, 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.440 I think I'm pronouncing that correctly. Yeah, in E R E. 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:22.200 I d that EI is a tough transition. It is 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:26.600 because you want to say, like Nereid. Yeah, ner Red, 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:33.400 these are sea nymphs, half human, half fish mermaids and um. 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.480 He also talked about c men and we should point 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.120 out that Merman we made the joke about us being Merman. 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:44.240 I believe Merman were even first on the literary scene. 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.040 Is that correct? Well first, at least with mythology or 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:51.080 um theology. I guess there's a Babylonian god of the 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:56.920 sea named Ea, yeah, e a sports um just e A, 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:03.240 and he pops up in uh Babylonian mythology from I 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:06.400 think four thousand years ago, and they think that he's 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.319 actually the progenitor of or the predecessor I should say, 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:12.880 of Poseidon, who is the Greek god of the sea, 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:16.080 and Neptune, who's the Roman god of the sea. Because 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.440 the Greeks gave us Western culture, but they just walked 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:22.560 around to all of the neighboring cultures and picked their 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:26.040 favorite parts and put them together, and that was definitely 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:31.120 one of them. Yeah. Yeah, uh, well we talked in 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.400 our I guess it was in the folklore and fairy 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:40.360 tale episodes that were twin episodes almost um about the 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:45.720 original Little Mermaid and how you know she was disnified 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.640 to the fullest, but the original story was far darker, darker, 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:54.360 but also even more touching by far like, I went 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:57.960 back and read the last um the last like section 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:00.520 of it. Well, give me a summary at the So 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:03.439 at the end, this is where dramatically differs from the 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:08.600 Disney story. The little Mermaid is scorned for another woman 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:13.520 her the guy she loves chooses someone else and marries her, 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.760 and the Little Mermaid is like, dude, I gave up 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:20.000 my tail for you, I think, which has my tongue 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.640 kind of thing um, and I want to get back 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:26.320 my life. So her sisters came and bring her this 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:30.360 ritual knife and say, you can convert back to a 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:35.559 mermaid if before dawn you plunge this knife into this 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.840 dude's heart, this guy who loves heart, and you get 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:41.600 some of his blood on your feet, you will regrow 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:43.240 your tail and you can jump into the sea and 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.360 everything will be just fine again. So she goes and 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:50.640 she finds the guy sleeping with his new bride beside him, 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:53.560 and she just can't do it. She throws the knife 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:58.000 into the sea and um becomes c foam. She disintegrates 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.000 and becomes c foam. So she gives her her own 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:05.559 happiness up for this guy's right and dies as a result. 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.760 But even better than that, when she turns into sea foam, 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:13.000 she becomes a different mythical creature, uh like basically an 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:17.560 air nymph that goes around like helping humans um and 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:21.160 she can possibly get into heaven if she helps people 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:25.600 um for three hundred years. Hans Christian Andersen wrote it 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:28.199 way better than I just recounted it a lot less 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:34.400 ums and likes, but it's it's pretty it's worth reading. Uh. 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:38.320 Plenty also talked about merman um back in the day, 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:42.520 and there would be merman or seamen who would at 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:45.000 night climb up onto ships as a quote that so 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:47.480 I'm reading it weird, upon which the side of the 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.400 vessel where he seated himself would instantly sink downward, and 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:54.480 if you remain there any considerable time, even go underwater. 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.280 And that was something that we will see as we 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:02.360 talk more about mermaids is they are um very They're 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:04.719 often either an omen that's something bad is going to 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:08.600 happen to sailors or coastal dwelling people, or they actually 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:14.040 directly cause harm two sailors or coastal dwelling people. Yeah, 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:19.360 and most times under the guys of something beautiful and 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:23.160 like a siren. Um, they are often Well, I don't 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:25.200 we haven't even described one. Surely you know that a 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:29.680 mermaid has the head and body torso of a of 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:34.120 a woman, human woman, usually with huge boobs. Yeah, if 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:38.480 you're talking about a sailor's account, sure, yeah, she was busty. 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:43.240 Did I mention the boobs? Yes, you did, sir seven times? Um? 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:48.880 And uh from the you know torso down she's a 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:53.480 fish maybe web feet maybe not very graceful, very fast 0:14:54.040 --> 0:15:00.080 and always beautiful. Uh, it depends. Oh yeah, yeah. There 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:04.720 were some of legend that we're not ugly really yeah, 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:10.520 not ugly, or that they were not in parentheses beautiful 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:15.560 comma ugly. Uh. Well, I hadn't heard about that. Yeah, 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.400 it's it's in here. I thought. I'm just I must 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:21.520 have missed that part. It's it's it's far more frequent 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.840 what you were saying, that they were beautiful and alluring. Um, 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:52.520 but we'll talk more about that after we take a break. Huh. 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:55.680 All right, Chuck. We were saying that, for the most part, 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:58.840 mermaids are beautiful and one of the reasons why they 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.280 are supposed to be beautiful is because they are frequently 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:08.960 um accused of luring men sailors out to see to 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:11.320 their death. Yeah, and how you do that? You do 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:14.320 that one of two ways. You have a beautiful singing voice, 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.800 or you just straight up look good yourself. That's right. 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:20.840 And if you have a beautiful singing voice, you're a siren, 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.200 in which case you would not be a mermaid because 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.840 the siren is half bird, half woman, and they don't 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:29.680 even necessarily live in the water or near the water. 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:34.440 They're sometimes described as hanging out in fields. I guess 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:38.640 sometimes you can be very pretty and be a good singer, right, 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:45.560 your mermaid? But the yeah you could be, Yeah, sure 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:50.880 you'd be. Who am I to disagree? Or Alicia Keys 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:55.360 or Adele? Oh you know who I like his? Uh Rihanna? 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.360 Oh yeah, she's great man, very pretty. That part in 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.520 uh what's it called this at the end and she 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:06.879 played herself, Yeah, yeah, she's pretty great. She was pretty funny. 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:09.600 Michael Sarah likes bank her and she just immediately turned 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:11.879 around and smacked the heck out of him. Yeah. I 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:15.560 enjoyed parts of that movie, especially Michael Sarah. Yeah, playing 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.720 like a cooked out jerk. That was really funny. Um, 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:23.960 So back to the beautiful mermaids though, Uh there there 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.320 was one and one thousand BC in Syria. And her name, 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:30.679 how would you pronounce that? At her gaddis? Oh, I 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:32.760 think you nailed it. Yeah, yeah, all right, we'll go 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:35.359 with that. And she and you'll you'll see a lot 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.040 of duality a lot of these stories. And she was 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:41.280 one for sure. That was a protector, a goddess. I 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:45.240 think she protected the fertility of her people and um 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:49.240 watched over them and uh, fell in love with a 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:51.119 human man, as you will often see in a lot 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:53.919 of these stories. Dude, yeah, dude, and it and it 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.080 was fine for a little while, like in most stories, 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:01.440 and then it goes south and she kills him. She 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:06.680 crushed him with her greatness. Oh I thought, like her 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:09.160 big tail or something. I don't know. Well, she wasn't 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:11.639 a mermaid yet. This is where she becomes. That's right, 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:15.080 I forgot about that. So um, she accidentally kills him 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:17.440 and then his very shamed throws herself into the lake 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:22.040 because she wants to become a fish, and she's so 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:26.240 beautiful that it only works half as good. I really 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.160 can't figure out the math on that. But I guess 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.560 she's just so beautiful that the human beauty part of hers, like, no, 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:35.040 I won't be a fish, just the lower half can 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:37.119 be a fish. Yeah, because she had to fungus, so 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.280 that was easily overcome, but her face was really nice, 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:44.040 so the fish part just couldn't overcome that. That's right, 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.360 So she ended up a mermaid. Weird story. Well, that's 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:51.360 just weird, like like oh, it's foreign or anything. I'm 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:55.400 not being xenophobic, but it really like says a lot 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:59.720 about like humanity and like how we think of things like, no, 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.640 he was so good looking that this magic couldn't even 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:07.280 overcome that. You know that point. We place a lot 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.479 of value on that kind of thing. Uh, all right, 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:13.920 should we move on to Germany? Yeah? This one was 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:18.480 kind of interesting to me because Germany's landlocked. I never 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:23.399 really thought about it. What does Germany have a mermaid mythology? Well, 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:28.240 I mean they have lakes, I guess, but mermaids are 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:31.720 ocean dwellers, aren't they know? There are some river dwellers. Oh, 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:36.200 that's right, although I think the sirens were specifically river. Well, 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.600 then in the German myth that was a river dweller. Correct, Okay, yeah, 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:44.120 the Nixes. Uh yeah, and they lured men into the river. Yeah, 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:47.480 it was a river, and so they could drown them, 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:49.600 like again the call of the siren. Come in here. 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:53.080 Look how beautiful I am. And now I'm holding your 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:56.840 head underwater and you can't breathe anymore. And the guys like, 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:02.879 I regret nothing. But this duality that we're talking about 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:05.280 is uh what you see a lot of times in 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:11.200 mermaid myths from West Africa. The Mommy Wada, the mother Water. 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.240 She was a mermaid who was very nurturing and very 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:21.120 loving if you didn't cross her. Yeah, exactly. That's where 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:23.840 the duality comes in. I don't even know that's duality. 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:27.120 I think that's just a complex person, good, good complex 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:30.359 character there. Yeah, yeah, so she's great, but when you 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:35.040 cross her, she's murderous. Sure, all right, And that's what 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:38.080 she did. Actually, she had If you were loyal to her, 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:40.679 she would you could be wealthy from her magic mirror 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:44.879 and comb. But if you betrayed her, then what this 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:48.240 article says is she reigns down fury and destruction right 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:53.440 word from above. But the duality is as an important 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:57.199 part of it because the the physical creature itself is 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:01.359 two things, and they are also too things emotionally. And 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:05.880 but so the mermaid, the mermaid or mermaid or murf 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:09.480 folk as their call in this article. Yeah so mrf 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:13.520 folks are half fish half people, right, But they're not 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:21.080 anywhere near unique in the pantheon of mythological creatures throughout 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:25.119 the ages. Right, there's again, there's sirens, half birds, half women. 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:29.320 There's there's just tons of hat like them. The minataur 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.520 half man, half bull. The centaur was what half go 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:35.880 or horse and half man. I don't remember that sounds right, 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:40.920 I think half horse um. And I was like, where 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:45.199 did all these come from? I suspected beast reality, And 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:47.960 it turns out I may be right. Yeah, yeah, you 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:50.560 find there are some scholars out there who believe that 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:55.840 this is the product of a much more relaxed attitude 0:21:55.880 --> 0:22:01.520 towards beast reality than we modern humans have today. Yeah. Yeah, 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:05.000 I still never saw that documentary about the horse. Yeah 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:07.320 it's a good one, zoo. Yeah, I need that fell 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:09.720 off my radar. Man. It's one of those ones where 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:13.920 they largely to recreate, Like the whole thing is almost recreation, 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:16.760 And I usually am not hip on those. It doesn't 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:18.920 feel like a documentary to me, But that one changed 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:21.280 my mind about that whole technique that they did it 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:27.880 so well. It's rough. It's rough, especially like when you 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:30.399 think about you know, the animals as well. Yeah, of 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:33.760 course you know, but there's more than just that that 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:37.640 makes it rough. I need to see that, um So. 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:39.639 I guess we can talk a little bit about some 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:43.439 eyewitness accounts. They're all bunk, of course, but they have 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:49.159 happened in World War two in Japan on Indonesia's Kai Islands. Uh. 0:22:49.280 --> 0:22:52.320 Supposedly they encountered a monster on the beach that had 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:55.040 you know, webbed hands and feet and was kind of 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:57.439 part human part fish. It was like, look at these 0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:00.520 jazz hands. You can't do this. And then back in 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:06.480 the day, uh, some of our most revered explorers and 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:12.720 adventurer adventurers reported seeing mermaids, like John Smith and Henry 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:18.479 Huntson and Columbus him, Yeah, what was There's a good 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:20.760 quote in here from Columbus because he wasn't too impressed. 0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:24.919 He said, and here's the thing. I read that in 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:28.760 his diary. He's referring to himself in the third person. Well, 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:31.760 that says a lot. That's odd. He's like Ricky Henderson, right, 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:35.439 or George Costanza. So he says that he saw some 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:38.080 oh yeah, the quote cent and you got to read 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:42.399 the quote. He's sailing around, not that it e Oh 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:44.679 what is that in the ocean? I think I'll take 0:23:44.720 --> 0:23:47.280 a look through my spye glass. The day before when 0:23:47.359 --> 0:23:51.000 the admiral was going to the and the admiral is himself, Yeah, 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:53.240 that's what I'm thinking. He was the admiral of his 0:23:53.320 --> 0:23:55.600 fillet for sure. The day before when the admiral was 0:23:55.640 --> 0:23:59.680 going on to the Rio del Oro, that's the river 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:02.840 old he said he saw three mermaids who came quite 0:24:02.880 --> 0:24:04.960 high out of the water. But we're not as pretty 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:08.200 as they are depicted. For somehow, in the face they 0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:12.920 look like men. But I still thought about it. Yeah. So, 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:16.439 and what they think now, and I don't know how 0:24:16.440 --> 0:24:21.480 they substantiated this, is that Columpus was seeing manatees. Yeah. 0:24:22.040 --> 0:24:25.200 Have you seen manatees? Yeah, it looks nothing like a human. 0:24:25.240 --> 0:24:27.600 From enough of a distance, though, you're like, wait, what 0:24:28.040 --> 0:24:30.679 is that, especially if you've never seen a manatee before. 0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:33.240 I don't think it looks human like at all. But 0:24:33.359 --> 0:24:38.080