Speaker 1: Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. Now.
Speaker 1: As many of you may remember from a bonus episode
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago, our lead researcher, Gabeluisier was in
Speaker 1: studio with us here in Atlanta, and he was here
Speaker 1: a few days and something weird happened during that visit,
Speaker 1: and I felt like you should all know about this.
Speaker 1: So we just left the office. We were all headed
Speaker 1: to dinner, and Mango throws out this fact about Little Debbie.
Speaker 1: And then you can't just throw that out there and
Speaker 1: not share the facts, all right, so let me just
Speaker 1: share it with the audience. So basically, unlike Aunt Jemima
Speaker 1: or joe Is Suzu, who were pure marketing inventions and
Speaker 1: like the ideas of copywriters, Little Debbie was actually a
Speaker 1: real person. And she was the granddaughter of the company's founder.
Speaker 1: And what's strange is that her granddad used her image
Speaker 1: without her parents permission, and her parents were pissed about.
Speaker 1: I bet they were, yeah, And of course years later
Speaker 1: she became an exact at their company and then so
Speaker 1: it all worked out. That's all you have to do
Speaker 1: to make somebody happy, all right. So that was the
Speaker 1: fact that Mango shared with us. I thought it was
Speaker 1: a good fact, and and and so Gabe then made
Speaker 1: a comment about how many interesting facts are just sitting
Speaker 1: on the shelves of the grocery store. And we just
Speaker 1: happened to be passing a Kroger on our way to dinner.
Speaker 1: So that gives Mango an idea. And now I should
Speaker 1: preface this by saying, we're talking about the same Mango
Speaker 1: that so many listeners have described as always sounding happy,
Speaker 1: and many of them have said I feel like I
Speaker 1: can hear him smiling. But what they don't know is
Speaker 1: just how competitive Mango can be. So Mango just says
Speaker 1: pull over. I didn't say that. I think I said
Speaker 1: something like, I've got an idea. You can't get me
Speaker 1: pull into this parking lot. Well, I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's how he said it. And in fact, we have
Speaker 1: Gabe with us here on the line. So so, so, Gabe,
Speaker 1: can you back me up a little on this one.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think he might have said I've got
Speaker 1: an idea, But yeah, the way he said it sounded
Speaker 1: urgent and earn enough, we should probably pull over. True,
Speaker 1: that's true. Any anyway, Mango then explains his idea. So
Speaker 1: so we'd each walk to the middle of the grocery store,
Speaker 1: and he said this with such a serious face. We
Speaker 1: knew this something very real. And so then after saying
Speaker 1: one to three go, we'd all have sixty seconds to
Speaker 1: run two different parts of the store take pictures of
Speaker 1: three items that we then wanted to share facts about.
Speaker 1: But we'd have to be back in the center aisle
Speaker 1: before the sixty seconds was up, and if we were late,
Speaker 1: he said we'd be disqualified. And he didn't even want
Speaker 1: to hear our fact. Again, I didn't say any of
Speaker 1: that day. Packed me up here. We're getting kind of confrontational.
Speaker 1: Don't put me in the middle of this, guys. I
Speaker 1: really I don't remember what he said exactly, but let's
Speaker 1: just say this was definitely a side of Mango I
Speaker 1: hadn't seen before. The man was ready to compete, all right.
Speaker 1: So so before I could even ask questions or confirm
Speaker 1: whether it was one to three and then we could
Speaker 1: go on three or whether it was one to three, go,
Speaker 1: I feel like Mango just screamed go, and then I
Speaker 1: found myself running like a madman all around the store.
Speaker 1: It took me a few seconds to remember what we
Speaker 1: were actually trying to do. But so here's what you
Speaker 1: need to know the facts from this episode of there
Speaker 1: was volts of that sixty second dash. So now that
Speaker 1: you know who to thank or blame for this one,
Speaker 1: let's get started. Hey there, podcast listeners, welcome back to
Speaker 1: Part time Genius. Okay, So we talked about this ridiculous
Speaker 1: game that Mango put us up to, and for some reason,
Speaker 1: Gabe and I agreed to. So we each pulled three
Speaker 1: facts from the grocery store, and Gabe as our lead researcher,
Speaker 1: We're gonna let you start off first. I can't even
Speaker 1: actually remember which direction you ran. I was so focused
Speaker 1: on my first stop. So so, so what did you
Speaker 1: find first? Right? So I made a bee line for
Speaker 1: the candy aisle and came away with a big bag
Speaker 1: of jelly belly jelly bean. And I did that because
Speaker 1: I knew they would give me a chance to share
Speaker 1: some ridiculous facts that one of the most notorious jelly
Speaker 1: beans fans, none other than our forties president Mr Ronald
Speaker 1: Reagan's right, And yeah, it's it's no secret at this
Speaker 1: point that Reagan loved jelly beans, but I don't think
Speaker 1: most people know that he was particularly passionate about jelly bellies,
Speaker 1: and I mean for this arrangement he had with the company,
Speaker 1: he actually began receiving twenty four pounds shipments every month
Speaker 1: during his time as governor of California, which, if you
Speaker 1: do the math, because about ten thousand, two hundred beans
Speaker 1: every thirty days, that is insane. I Yet, I've heard
Speaker 1: that Reagan was a big fan of jelly beans. Mango said,
Speaker 1: you'd heard that as well, But I didn't know that
Speaker 1: it was especially jelly bellies. And I didn't realize the
Speaker 1: quantities of these. But so why did he like them
Speaker 1: so much? Anyway? Well, yeah, he first started eating him
Speaker 1: when he quit smoking in the early sixties, so they
Speaker 1: served a practical purpose, you know, beyond simple snacking. But
Speaker 1: Reagan also seemed to appreciate jelly beans is some kind
Speaker 1: of litmus test for the people he mad. So this
Speaker 1: one time he said, quote, you can tell a lot
Speaker 1: about a fella's character by whether he picks out all
Speaker 1: of one color or just grabs a handful. But anyway,
Speaker 1: that's great. Yeah. So, as weird as all this sounds,
Speaker 1: the kipper's jellybelly love of there wouldn't have each peak
Speaker 1: insanity until he made it to the Oval Office. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, the company created a new blueberry flavor jelly
Speaker 1: bean for his inauguration back in one and they distributed
Speaker 1: more than three tons of them to the attendees, and
Speaker 1: it only got crazier from there. So Reagan upped his
Speaker 1: standing order to a staggering seven hundred and twenty bags
Speaker 1: per month, over three hundred and six thousand jelly beans,
Speaker 1: and he has those distributed among the White House, Capitol Hill,
Speaker 1: and a few other federal buildings every month. And he
Speaker 1: even stocked the beans on Air Force One, where he
Speaker 1: kept them in a specially designed jelly bean holder that
Speaker 1: wouldn't spill their in turbulace. Yeah. So, you know, plenty
Speaker 1: of Americans continue to honor President Reagan and all kinds
Speaker 1: of ways, but I think the most fitting one is
Speaker 1: this portrait of him made from ten thousand Jellybelly jelly
Speaker 1: beans that hangs in his Presidential library. And Simmy Valley, California,
Speaker 1: that's pretty incredible. Well, you got us off to a
Speaker 1: good start with your first fact, Mango, you wanna you
Speaker 1: want to take the next one? Yeah, So I just
Speaker 1: went to the High Museum exhibit of Warhol in Atlanta
Speaker 1: from from Aisle seven come all the time, okay, And honestly,
Speaker 1: if you haven't gone, it is amazing. And I'm not
Speaker 1: even that big a Warhol fan, but seeing like all
Speaker 1: these giant mouths together on the purple wallpaper that Warhol
Speaker 1: had designed for the Paris exhibition, I mean, it is incredible.
Speaker 1: But of course, so when I passed the Campbell soup cans,
Speaker 1: I I knew I had to snap a shot. And
Speaker 1: and there are a couple of things I love about
Speaker 1: the Campbell Soup series, Like the first is that Warhol
Speaker 1: loved the soup and how consistent every flavor was, Like
Speaker 1: he actually appreciated that tomato soup always tastes like the
Speaker 1: same tomato soup, which kind of plays a role in
Speaker 1: the arts philosophy. And I also love that he hated
Speaker 1: that Campbell's discontinued some of the soups, Like he made
Speaker 1: a portrait of all the thirty two soups he could
Speaker 1: find at the time, but he actually wished that they
Speaker 1: still made his favorite soup, which was called mock Turtle.
Speaker 1: What is that? I know, It's apparently a Campbell soup
Speaker 1: that was supposed to taste like turtle soup. But uh,
Speaker 1: it's popular in London, but not not a mock turtleneck. No, no,
Speaker 1: But here's my actual fact about the series. So in
Speaker 1: a book called I'll Be Your Mirror, which is a
Speaker 1: collection of Andy Warhol interviews, Warhol gripes that despite everything
Speaker 1: he did for Campbell's, they never sent him a single
Speaker 1: can of free soup, and he genuinely loved the product.
Speaker 1: It was kind of weird that they didn't send himself.
Speaker 1: That's pretty great. Actually, I had another fact that I
Speaker 1: was going to start with, But I do have a
Speaker 1: Warhole connection in one of my facts, all right, and
Speaker 1: I'll get to that connection in just a second. But
Speaker 1: you know, I had to run as quickly as I
Speaker 1: could to the pop tart section. I know this wouldn't
Speaker 1: surprise you, Mango. So so Mango knows this about our family.
Speaker 1: But every year we go on a beach trip in
Speaker 1: the summer, and that's the one week of the year
Speaker 1: that my wife, Georgia, allows the kids and me to
Speaker 1: eat as many pop tarts as we want. Otherwise we're
Speaker 1: never allowed to have pop tarts in the house, and
Speaker 1: so we'll buy like ten or fifteen boxes of these
Speaker 1: things to try, all the different flavors, all the nasty
Speaker 1: new ones, just for the sake of trying them. But
Speaker 1: here's the weird thing. I learned about pop tarts recently.
Speaker 1: So Kellogg actually wasn't really planning to make them, But
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four, their biggest competitor, Post announced it
Speaker 1: was planning to release this new fruity pastry. It didn't
Speaker 1: have to be refrigerated, it could keep for months or
Speaker 1: even for years. But after the announcement, Post made two
Speaker 1: huge mistakes before they released it. So there's this fun
Speaker 1: article on Thrillist about this, which you should definitely check out.
Speaker 1: But the two big mistakes were one, they took way
Speaker 1: too long to get the recipe down and actually get
Speaker 1: the product out to market, and so it gave Kellogg
Speaker 1: time to figure out a very similar product. Then the
Speaker 1: other big mistake, and this one is just baffling to me,
Speaker 1: is they decided to call the pastries. Are you ready
Speaker 1: for this name? It's called country squares. How great? We're
Speaker 1: talking about the nineteen sixties when the words square would
Speaker 1: have definitely meant something negative. No one had wanted to
Speaker 1: buy something like this, and so they tried to recover
Speaker 1: and rename them Toast Thems, but the damage had definitely
Speaker 1: been done and pop Tarts were born. And now, as
Speaker 1: for the connection to war Haul, they definitely wanted to
Speaker 1: come up with something that was, uh, you know that
Speaker 1: that felt more hip than what than what Post had done,
Speaker 1: and Warhol was big at the time, and so they
Speaker 1: decided to call these things pop tarts. So pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, Gabe, let's go back to you. Actually,
Speaker 1: I think I ran into you on this aisle because
Speaker 1: I was also planning to try to get to a
Speaker 1: serial Fact. But I'm pretty sure you were doing something
Speaker 1: at the same time. Did you end up getting a
Speaker 1: serial Fact? Yep? I did. Um. So, you know, like
Speaker 1: most people who grew up with Saturday morning cartoons, Breakfast
Speaker 1: Cereal holds a special place in my heart, hand in
Speaker 1: my pantry. Be tough sometimes, thank you, But it can
Speaker 1: be tough sometimes trying to choose which cereal to buy.
Speaker 1: But I found the picking which cereal to share fun
Speaker 1: facts about it is even harder. And that's because there's
Speaker 1: just so many good ones out there. I am a kid,
Speaker 1: it hard, so you know, I had to go with
Speaker 1: one of my childhood's favorite Lucky Charms. Lucky Chimes has
Speaker 1: been around since the early sixties, and this was back
Speaker 1: when a product developer named John Hollohan first hit upon
Speaker 1: the idea of combining cheerios with bits of circus peanuts.
Speaker 1: You know those squshy orange marshmallows made to look like peanuts,
Speaker 1: do I that's like one of my top ten favorite candy.
Speaker 1: Most people find nasty, which is just even better for me. Well,
Speaker 1: the design is the Lucky Charms marshmallows have actually changed
Speaker 1: a good deal along the way, so the pink heart
Speaker 1: is actually the only original marshmallow shape still and used today. Um.
Speaker 1: But here's the really crazy part. According to a press
Speaker 1: release from two thousand eight, each of the marshmallow bits
Speaker 1: or market company those are actually meant to represent one
Speaker 1: of Lucky the leprecons magic powers. So the heart marshmallows
Speaker 1: granted the power to bring things to life, and the
Speaker 1: rainbows allow him to travel instantaneously from place to place. Wow.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, Mango, but I feel like
Speaker 1: I have those kinds of powers of Lucky Charms. All right.
Speaker 1: Another good fact. Wow, Gabe, I'd say you're probably on
Speaker 1: the lead so far, So Mango what do you what
Speaker 1: do you have next? So, because I can't get away
Speaker 1: from canned foods, I also had to snap a pick
Speaker 1: of Chef boyar D and and just like little Debbie,
Speaker 1: what's amazing to me is that the chef was a
Speaker 1: real person and actually an amazing chef, like Hector. Boyer
Speaker 1: D came to States as a kid and started working
Speaker 1: in kitchens at age eleven and by age seventeen he
Speaker 1: was a fixture at the Plaza Hotel. And and here's
Speaker 1: the most amazing part. He actually catered Woodrow Wilson's wedding.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that is crazy, that's pretty great. Well, somebody
Speaker 1: that did not cater Woodrow Wilson's wedding, and I was
Speaker 1: disappoint it to learn was not a real person. And
Speaker 1: that's Betty Crocker. Unfortunately, this is really disappointing to me.
Speaker 1: But she was actually created by General Mills and the
Speaker 1: twenties because of all these questions that were coming in
Speaker 1: from customers. So there was an employee there named Agnes White,
Speaker 1: and she was one of the test recipe creators and
Speaker 1: cookbook writers, and she ended up portraying Betty and these
Speaker 1: radio ads anonymously. And she ended up even starting a
Speaker 1: show where they had this kind of test kitchen and
Speaker 1: advice column that they gave to their listeners, and she
Speaker 1: was the host of that as Betty Crocker. But my
Speaker 1: favorite fact is that despite not being a real person,
Speaker 1: there was a survey from Fortune magazine that found Betty
Speaker 1: to be the second most admired woman in America after
Speaker 1: Eleanor Roosevelt. Of course, who was the first, lady. That's
Speaker 1: so crazy? Yeah, it's pretty good. All right, gavee. It's
Speaker 1: time for your last fact. Don't disappoint us. You've been
Speaker 1: great so far. What you got next? All right? So,
Speaker 1: as a self professed French, frive them. I have to
Speaker 1: go with a personal favorite this last time and talk
Speaker 1: about hind catch up. Okay, so have to do with
Speaker 1: the iconic fifty seven varieties logo you find on their
Speaker 1: catch up bottles. So the number itself was the idea
Speaker 1: of the company's founder, Henry Heinz. In two he was
Speaker 1: riding a train through New York City when he spotted
Speaker 1: a sign advertising twenty one styles of shoes. So he
Speaker 1: just really lapsed onto this idea of advertising an oddly
Speaker 1: specific number of products. So he adopted the fifty seven
Speaker 1: Varieties slogan for his own brand. You know, even though
Speaker 1: the company made something like sixty different products at the time,
Speaker 1: soft seven was just a completely made up number, right exactly.
Speaker 1: But there's one last thing about that number I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about. On every glass bottle of Heinz Ketchup,
Speaker 1: there's an embossed number fifty seven on the neck right
Speaker 1: where the bottle narrows, and only about eleven of Ketchup
Speaker 1: users know this. But the fifty seven is a secret
Speaker 1: weak spot that can be struck with a knife or
Speaker 1: fork to help to catch up poor faster. And since
Speaker 1: ketch Up typically pours from a glass bot at less
Speaker 1: than point one miles per hour, it's a pretty handy trick.
Speaker 1: I like that, you know, the speed that catch up
Speaker 1: travels out of the bottle. That's great, just off the
Speaker 1: top of my head. Yeah. But by the way, you
Speaker 1: guys know the difference between Ketchup and Captive, No, I've
Speaker 1: I've always wondered that. Well, they're spelled and pronounced completely differently,
Speaker 1: and that's it. Yeah, Otherwise there's the exact same product. Alright,
Speaker 1: good deal. I'm glad you didn't lead with that fact.
Speaker 1: That's good. No good, that's three good facts from you
Speaker 1: gave all right, Mango your last one? You got one
Speaker 1: more for us? Yeah, definitely, So Will knows I love Ramen.
Speaker 1: After college when we were waiting tables and I didn't
Speaker 1: have that much money, like I I basically lived on
Speaker 1: this stuff. And and so I wanted to take a
Speaker 1: second to talk about Momofuku Ando, who's the inventor of
Speaker 1: instant noodles and cup noodles, and the story of the
Speaker 1: founding is amazing. So basically, Japan was pushing American made
Speaker 1: bread on its citizens in the late fifties, kind of
Speaker 1: has the source of substance. And when Ando asked why
Speaker 1: not make noodles, which were more common in the cuisine,
Speaker 1: basically the response was that the fresh noodle manufacturing couldn't
Speaker 1: supply and feed the country. So Ando set out to
Speaker 1: create noodles. And this is quote in the Japan Times
Speaker 1: that he said, which I absolutely love, and it's that
Speaker 1: peace will come to the world when people have enough
Speaker 1: to eat, and noodles were his contribution to that. So
Speaker 1: I just think that's really sweet and and there's so
Speaker 1: much to say about him. But my favorite fact about
Speaker 1: Ramen and Ando is that he actually established a World
Speaker 1: Instant Noodle Summit that meets every two years, where noodle
Speaker 1: manufacturers that high standards for instant noodles, so like one
Speaker 1: of them is that the fill two lines on the
Speaker 1: inside of the cups for like how much water to
Speaker 1: pour in or or the produced on dates like that
Speaker 1: all came from him. But today they are over a
Speaker 1: hundred billion units of instant noodles sold every year. And
Speaker 1: the reason you can reliably buy a bag and it
Speaker 1: will taste good is thanks to Momofuku, Ando and his
Speaker 1: Ramen collective. Wow, that is pretty incredible. But I feel
Speaker 1: like as much as we eat at the Ramen play downstairs,
Speaker 1: we've earned a seat at that summit. I feel like
Speaker 1: we should attend this summit. And and in fact, that
Speaker 1: is so good. The fact you've managed to talk about
Speaker 1: Ramen and chef Oyerty and Warhol all in one episode.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, Gay, but I feel like
Speaker 1: we have to give the crown to Mango on this one. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, after what we saw on that car ride
Speaker 1: to Kroger, I'm thinking society you've never seen. Well, I
Speaker 1: have to admit it was a lot of fun. I'd
Speaker 1: be up for doing that again sometime, although maybe we
Speaker 1: we We just were very lucky that we didn't get
Speaker 1: kicked out of Kroger and before we ran around and
Speaker 1: got our facts. But that was a ton of fun.
Speaker 1: I hope everybody has enjoyed this. We'll be back tomorrow
Speaker 1: with a regular episode. But if we've missed any great
Speaker 1: grocery related facts that you feel like you need to
Speaker 1: share with us, you know where to hit us up
Speaker 1: part Time Genius and How Stuff Works dot com, or
Speaker 1: you can call us on our two seven fact hot line.
Speaker 1: It is still seven seven. That's excellent. That's one eight
Speaker 1: four four pt genius. We've had a blast hearing from
Speaker 1: so many of you recently, but thanks so much for listening,
Speaker 1: and we'll see you next time. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works
Speaker 1: and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do
Speaker 1: the important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Christa
Speaker 1: McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme
Speaker 1: song and does the mixy mixy sound thing. Jerry Roland
Speaker 1: does the exact producer thing. Gabe Bluesier is our lead
Speaker 1: researcher with support from the Research Army, including Austin Thompson,
Speaker 1: Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve Jeff Cook gets
Speaker 1: the show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you
Speaker 1: like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if
Speaker 1: you really really like what you've heard, maybe you could
Speaker 1: leave a good review for us. Do we do we
Speaker 1: forget Jason? Jason who