Super Familiar with The Wilsons
Amanda and Josh on marriage, family, relationships, and connecting with new friends and interesting people. New Episodes every week.
Familiar Wilsons Media produces content to bring people together. We are curious, hopeful, and try not to take ourselves too seriously - admittedly, with varying degrees of success.
Super Familiar with The Wilsons
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Contact us! familiarwilsons@gmail.com
Super Familiar with The Wilsons
Wondering Through Life: From Soccer Fields to Remote Controls
Is Josh becoming less of a curmudgeon?, birthday celebrations, and hastily-repaired chairs. More talking points:
- Soccer woes with Winthrop
- "Wilson Wanderings"
- Someone lost the remote control
- National Josh Day on May 8th
- The New York Times "Flashbacks" Quiz
- Book recommendation: "How to Solve Your Own Murder" by Kristen Perrin
Super Familiar with The Wilsons
Find us on instagram at instagram.com/superfamiliarwitthewilsons
and on Youtube
Contact us! familiarwilsons@gmail.com
Familiar Wilson's Media Relationships are the story. You are made of meat, my friend, all the way down. The following podcast uses words like and and also. If you're not into any of that shit, then now's your chance.
Speaker 2:Three, two, one run. Welcome to Super Familiar with the Wilsons. I'm super familiar with the Wilson's. Get it. Welcome to Super Familiar with the Wilson's. I'm Amanda.
Speaker 1:And I'm Josh Amanda. We are on day 13 of the Wilson fundraising drive. Phone lines are now open If you too would like to join hundreds and hundreds of our other listeners in contributing to the success and welfare of the Wilson family.
Speaker 2:I have seen no returns. Are you hoarding all of the fundraising?
Speaker 1:No, your birthday's coming up and it's all to be a big surprise.
Speaker 2:All right, keep sending money my way, then, friends.
Speaker 1:Since we last spoke to you, I've had a birthday, We've had a soccer game and I thought we would start there.
Speaker 2:Oh, do we have to.
Speaker 1:Forget it. Let's do a silly quiz and then get out of here and screw sharing our lives with these people.
Speaker 2:No, it's just. Soccer is sad right now. No, just start with my birthday then that's how oh that was fine. I wasn't talking about your birthday. You said soccer and we'll start there, and that's why I was like that's that's setting us off on a depressing tone. But you had a birthday.
Speaker 2:Josh is officially nine let you do the math on what part of nine puts together his, his age. We had three sort of celebrations this week. We had one on tuesday with the family. Th night we had friends over for a lovely dinner party. And then Friday no Saturday, it was Saturday Muffy made a from scratch key lime pie, josh's favorite to celebrate him yet once again. So happy birthday Josh.
Speaker 1:And your birthday is coming up, but I bring that up to talk about this. My wife, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the most sensitive, caring people in the world, and the way that she shows her love for people is doing stuff for them or buying stuff for them.
Speaker 2:Gifts and acts of service. These are my love languages. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1:My love language is a pat on the butt and I thank you very much.
Speaker 2:Words of affirmation and physical touch. That's what you meant.
Speaker 1:Sure, whatever. But yeah, we had some folks over and the reason why I wanted to bring this up is just an acknowledgement of, as I age, I'm becoming a little less crusty.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:Meaning I bathe more, a little less curmudgeonly and a little more willing to let people in. Better late than never. And so it was lovely just to sit around with friends and eat at our dinner table, and even though the chair upon which I sat broke midway through the the dinner doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:I had a great time the thing is you never told anybody it broke. Like the next day you're like, yeah, that broke. I mean, to be fair, it had already broken and you had repaired it. So it wasn't like the weight of you broke it, it just your repair job wasn't super solid.
Speaker 1:Well, no, the weight of me did break it.
Speaker 1:This is one of those things where I put off fixing it because I really didn't know how to fix it. And it's a very nice higher chair, but the seat, the actual seat itself, just the plank of wood is like particle board and it had broken last week and I said, yeah, yeah, I'll fix it, it'll be easy. I went to the store Wednesday night, eve of my birthday, looked around I was like, oh well, I guess I've not really thought out this trip to the DIY store. I just figured I would go there and the DIY gods would gift me with enlightenment and how to fix this thing with a minimum of tools. I'll put that out there as well. Don't have a lot of tools for that.
Speaker 2:You really needed a saw that you could cut, like plywood or something right.
Speaker 1:No, I have a saw that can cut plywood. But I have a saw that can cut plywood. It's like the saw blade is very large, toothed.
Speaker 2:I'm just like you and um Rob Beckett, not me.
Speaker 1:Just like Rob Beckett, and it wouldn't be good for that fine type of work. I would end up taking a piece of wood home using the saw on it, and then there'd be splinters.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's a different kind of chair that that we do not want. Yes, what I ended up doing was taking one of the lids to one of our plastic containers out in the garage and destroying it and then gluing it to the three.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, I did not know, this is what you did.
Speaker 1:Gluing it to the four different pieces of the chair figuring. Oh, that'll hold it.
Speaker 2:What made you think it would?
Speaker 1:It did for half of the dinner.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh Lord.
Speaker 1:Is it good that I didn't tell you that beforehand.
Speaker 2:I mean, yes, and I also thank you for being the one to sit upon it and not give it to one of our guests.
Speaker 1:Well, of course I wasn't going to do that. So anyway, we had a lovely time, it was nice to have friends over, and all of that is to say I'm very evangelical right now about us getting together with our friends instead of deciding, oh, it's too comfortable not to. Well, that's great until you're 98 laying there with no friends.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's really sad. Yeah, it is isn't it?
Speaker 1:So no, you need to encourage yourself to make relationships grow that you've had for a while, and then make new relationships, and there you go. So that's my birthday.
Speaker 2:It was really lovely. I was very proud of all the food I made. Everything turned out great. But I will tell you, though, that I was feeling the 11 pm bedtime the next day in the red wine, like I'm not. Usually, you and I are in bed by nine, and so having a dinner party on a weeknight, just be prepared to to need some extra coffee in the morning.
Speaker 1:And let me just tell you me being to bed early is not a function of age. I've always wanted just to go to sleep early. That's always been a thing that I've tried to do. There's a period of time where I was going downtown and spending time downtown where I'd stay up super late. It was never good for me, Never left me at my best.
Speaker 2:I was before I met you, because you've always been a late I mean an early tucker in her. I don't know how to say that. Tuck, Do you?
Speaker 1:tuck. No, I do not tuck. So just a brief word on the soccer Saturday that we had. Yesterday Winthrop's team lost like six to one.
Speaker 2:No, it was four to one.
Speaker 1:Yesterday when we were watching the game, we sat at the end of one of the goals, like on the goal side, and we sat back because it was shady and we wanted to do that Instead of sitting on the sideline, pretty much in the middle, right up on the action, which is what we've done thus far, and at first I was a little annoyed that you wanted to sit in the shade.
Speaker 2:I told you you did not have to sit with me.
Speaker 1:But then I realized that the further away the game was, the less I cared what happened on the field.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:So it was a good thing, because they got absolutely smashed.
Speaker 2:Is that why you kept getting up from your chair and walking over to the sideline?
Speaker 1:Well, yeah because I had an option to come back when I was starting to get agitated again. So that's perfect. The further away I am from something, the less it bothers me which actually kind of reinforces my avoidant behavior.
Speaker 2:Let's dive into that one a little bit.
Speaker 1:Well, yesterday we played a very good team with a person on it that I feel should probably go pro yeah, I mean, that's how good this kid is and so we weren't gonna win. And I knew we weren't gonna win. So my job as a parent was to make sure that Winthrop didn't care.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, but he's starting to care about the winning and the losing, and the joy of soccer is starting to leave his bones.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, so here I actually need some advice here, and this is aimed at the Belsons or anybody else who's played the footy or a team sport.
Speaker 1:Or any other parents out there, let's ask. Let's rely less on Dan Belson for parenting advice and more on the parents out there, please.
Speaker 2:Dan Belson, I'm happily here because you, though, were in Winthrop's shoes, and so I'm asking about how you were parented. So excuse my husband's very limited view of your expertise.
Speaker 1:No, I think it's pretty realistic.
Speaker 2:Okay, hush. So anybody who has played have you played a team competitive sport or do you parent children who played a team competitive sport? We had this experience with Muffy, but she danced competitively on a dance team and that's different. That's a whole different ballgame right? Winthrop has been heretofore fine, because the last season he was on the team with the kid who just killed us yesterday and the two of them together made a really good team Like they. Just they were scoring, they were defending, they outshone everybody on their team. Well, this time they're on opposing teams and Winthrop has wound up on a team with kids who are younger than him, kids who haven't played before. So his just natural skill level is a little more advanced than theirs. And last season he was happy, fine, win or lose didn't care, had a good time this season.
Speaker 1:It's because they won more than they lost, although they did lose last season.
Speaker 2:They did and he was okay and they lost. I mean this is now our fourth game, right, they lost the first two games. They tied last week, they lost yesterday and that's starting to get to him. I mean he didn't want to go yesterday. My stomach hurts, but one thing we know about him when we get there he has a really good time, like he wants to go. So he was my stomach hurts and kind of like fussing on the way in and I said you're just going to do practice, because this league does 30 minute practice in the game. Do practice, see how you feel. And as soon as we got there he's like can I go? Can I go, can I go play? Like he wants to go.
Speaker 2:But you could see him start to flag Like he was still trying to stay up with this kid that he played with. You know he's. He's a pretty good defender. He's not being aggressive with trying to score like he was last season. He's hanging back a little bit.
Speaker 2:But he started to get like just real droopy and they had our team had more players than the other, so they alternated quarters and he was sitting out and he was sitting on me and he said this is why I don't like soccer because we don't win, and I think that it's not that we don't win every time, it's just very defeating because they have not won. Four games into a season they haven't won. And Josh and I might be at opposing views on this, because I am of the mindset that he's got natural talent. When he's out there, he likes it and I don't want him to become just defeated because he's trying and the other kids aren't able to or they're not trying or whatever.
Speaker 2:That is my question is how much do we push him to keep going or how much do we just say, okay, you don't like it and we stop? Josh just wants him to be happy playing and not care about winning or losing. I want him to develop some technique and get some discipline behind it. There's also a lot of research around team sports and what it does positively to your mental health I mean you can get into a situation where it's bad and also just developing teamwork skills. So, anyway, my question is do we push him or do we just let him say, well, you weren't winning, you got defeated, and we give up?
Speaker 1:Apropos of nothing, on January 6, 1994, nancy Kerrigan, an American figure skater, was struck on the lower right thigh with a baton by assailant Shane Stant as she walked down a corridor at Cobo Arena in Detroit. Kerrigan had been practicing skating on an ice rink in the arena shortly beforehand. Well, they came to find out that the striking on the knee with a baton was at the behest of Tonya Harding, or at least Tonya Harding's husband, jeff Galuli.
Speaker 2:Are you comparing my wanting the child to develop some skills with Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan? Because that's absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker 1:No, I'm saying that I would never condone doing anything to a child, but maybe we got to take out a couple of these opposing coaches.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, sorry, I didn't realize you were planning. I thought you were like here's what happens if you get competitive. Please stop, you can't take out any of the coaches.
Speaker 1:I'm not condoning hitting anyone with anything. I'm basically a pacifist, but I'm not above giving someone like a chocolate donut that is coated with chocolate favorite Exlax or something. Yeah, if you're not Because the restrooms at the field are really far away and they're really gross too, so no one wants to be lingering there for a while. So I'm just throwing that out there.
Speaker 2:No, you can't, that's not okay. But maybe we should not have him enroll in the beginner league anymore, because flat out kid we played yesterday should not be in the beginner league, like that just isn't a thing. So maybe we need to do the intermediate level, not saying advanced, but where people are trying a little bit more.
Speaker 1:All right. So parents out there or Belsons, let us know what you think. What do you think we should do? Familiarwilsons at gmailcom. Amanda, it's been a while since we've had our segment called Wilson Wanderings.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, are you wondering things?
Speaker 1:I am wondering, I wonder a lot of things. Why are there flower designs on toilet paper?
Speaker 2:That's a really good question. Are we supposed to equate the cleaning of our bottoms with, like lovely spring days?
Speaker 1:Maybe it's that in ancient times they used to use flowers and not leaves to clean themselves up. Okay, all right. Next one Is it true that scissors feel more trustworthy in elementary school colors?
Speaker 2:I don't think that it's elementary school colors. I think the blade's hard and sharp. Silly boy. Although, by the way, winthrop cut his hand today using big boy scissors like our, our regular scissors. Like, it's okay, I can do it and just cut right into his palm what color were they?
Speaker 1:red. Oh well, okay primary color that yeah, but blood are croutons, just vintage bread yes, and they're yummy. Why is there no Olympic event for sneezing multiple times in a row?
Speaker 2:Because you would win it. If there was an Olympic event for the decibel level, people hit when they sneeze you would win it.
Speaker 1:Listen, this is a thing that I cannot help, and I had to fire someone for making fun of me for how loud my sneezing was.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry what.
Speaker 1:No, not really. They make fun of me for my sneezes all the time in the office.
Speaker 2:Because there's so loud. You can control a sneeze, you can.
Speaker 1:No, you can't.
Speaker 2:Friend, I do. I can control my sneeze. When you're asleep in bed and I have to sneeze, you hold the bridge of your nose or push your tongue up on the top of your mouth and you don't sneeze.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, that is the most ridiculous thing that I've ever heard there. Cinderella, listen, if I were to try to hold my sneeze back at the force and volume, like my eyes would pop out the first time, and then things would explode. The spleen would shoot out of my armpit or something. Can't have it.
Speaker 2:Have you always sneezed this loudly?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I can't help it. I mean like, even as, like a teenager. Yes, okay, go ahead.
Speaker 1:Why does every laundry room feel slightly haunted?
Speaker 2:Because it's the ghost of all the damn socks that have lost their soulmates.
Speaker 1:If a rolling stone gathers no moss, why do ceiling fans gather dust when they're spinning?
Speaker 2:Fair point. I want an air purifier.
Speaker 1:Okay, why.
Speaker 2:Because it's supposed to keep the dust from building up in my room and all the commercials show me ceiling fans with no dust on them yeah, that's definitely why there's no dust.
Speaker 1:Why do hangers multiply when I'm not looking for one, but disappear when I need one? That's a good point too why do children's band-aids work better emotionally than medicinally?
Speaker 2:Unless you're.
Speaker 1:Winthrop and you hate sticky things and don't want band-aids on you when you need them. Why do we instinctively hold our breath?
Speaker 2:when we're thinking too hard. I don't know that. I do that. What do you mean?
Speaker 1:This is a thing that everyone does. Everyone does this.
Speaker 2:Well, you've polled the whole world. I don't know, listeners, do you hold your breath when you're thinking too hard?
Speaker 1:Yes, they do. By the way, we bought lottery tickets last night for my birthday and did you check? And I have not checked them yet, so we're going to have to check them here. Why do folded towels feel morally superior to unfolded ones? Because why do folded towels feel morally superior to unfolded ones?
Speaker 2:Because they're clean and they're fresh out of the dryer and no one's throwing them on the ground. And then picked them back up and hung them on something.
Speaker 1:You know, I prefer, like taking my towel that I've used once, by the way, and hanging it back up.
Speaker 2:I have no problem with that. I don't think you should reuse a towel every time. I do think they should be washed once a week, but I'm mostly speaking to the fact that when Winthrop gets out of the shower, he just will drop his towel wherever he feels like it, and then I find them all amongst the house.
Speaker 1:I have no problem with drying with my towel, hanging it up and then like have that be my towel for the next couple of weeks without Couple weeks is pushing it. No, it's like an old friend. Listen, I feel judged when I wash right and I go to get a towel and it's a new, clean towel, like, oh, you think you're better than me.
Speaker 2:The towel, or me for putting out the clean towels.
Speaker 1:No, the towel Okay. Why does the word ointment feel like it was invented by accident?
Speaker 2:It was invented by a pig.
Speaker 1:Why are pen caps usually single-use plastic?
Speaker 2:Yeah, do people have pen caps anymore? Because I don't think they all just click now.
Speaker 1:There are most definitely BICs that have pen caps that I guess are part of the packaging, because I always lose them, always, always, always. They are somewhere, but I don't know where they are. Why don't stairs also have emergency stop buttons? Listen, you need that. You know what an emergency stop button on an escalator is right.
Speaker 2:Yes, but it stops the thing, so you don't get sucked into the mechanism.
Speaker 1:No one is concerned that you're going to get sucked into the mechanism. This is not why there are emergencies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just. Your foot starts to go into the treads. How small is your foot? Very small. Have you seen my foot?
Speaker 1:You'd have to have a little foot like an action figure. Gi, Joe is trapped again, and where's the emergency stop button?
Speaker 2:Or if your pant leg gets stuck in it.
Speaker 1:It's not a thing that happens. Anyway, you you of all people need stairs to have emergency stop buttons, because you are constantly falling down the stairs.
Speaker 2:You fell down last. Huh, you fell down last week, so you were the last person to have fallen down the stairs. All right, we're moving on. What does an emergency stop button on the stairs do? They still person to have fallen down the stairs. All right, we're moving on. How? What does an emergency?
Speaker 1:stop button on the stairs, do it just, they still stay stationary.
Speaker 2:No, you would stop falling then if it would have to put up a gate oh there's an idea, a little net, call it the amanda stair net like the firefighters bring when you need to jump out of a building.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why are there no bear-flavored gummy grapes? That's dumb. Why do trash cans often smell worse after you've emptied them?
Speaker 2:I mean for real, though, because it has the lingering smell of all of the trash bags that have ever existed in that trash can.
Speaker 1:You know what else. Now we get these bins from the city, right. So I don't know if we're allowed to do anything, but really all of your bins should have holes on the bottom for when it rains and it fills it up, so that you just don't get that soup of just dreck and nastiness there. Why do extension cords tie themselves into more effective knots than I could ever hope to?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know, same with Christmas lights.
Speaker 1:Why does my experience at a drive-thru always feel like they're giving me a quiz? I didn't study for.
Speaker 2:Because it's just more options than you were bargaining for.
Speaker 1:It's so stressful. It is so stressful and I guess I should already know what I want. You know what they need to have. They need to have as a part of your app. If you're driving up to a drive-thru and you're waiting in a line especially if it's a longer line and you have not yet seen the menu, that it'll just. Oh, you're at Chick-fil-A which, by the way, I don't ever want to go Chick-fil-A, but you're here. This is the menu items. Also, this is what you've ordered in the past and you've liked.
Speaker 2:Well, if you click on the Chick-fil-A app, it does that Like frequently ordered meals. It will tell you.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, but I've already mentioned that. Chick-fil-a was the first thing that came to mind, but I don't ever want to go to Bird King. I'm quite certain the Bird King, but they need to. Let's put AI to actual use. Let's not use AI to take over for writers and artists. Let's task AI to sorting us out when we're going through fast food drive-thrus. This is all I am saying to you. And then the last one how does the weather app lie with such incredible confidence?
Speaker 2:My God, it does Like so convincingly 80% chance of rain, 0.1 inches, 60 degree cooling down, and then it's dry and deserty and 95 degrees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, welcome to Florida. All right, so there's some Wilson wonderings. Do you have wonderings? Let us know. Familiarwilsoncom that music tells us it's time for the news. Amanda, I have a news article for you, just want to know what you think. This is one of those things that goes into the category of funny, because it happened. I don't need to make it funny, right, it's just like it's ridiculous. Okay, did you know that a bridge in Ireland designed to swing open for ships couldn't be open for four years because the remote control that operated the swing bridge was misplaced?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:The bridge was unable to be opened until the control system was reprogrammed in 2014. So this is the Sean O'Casey Bridge in Dublin, ireland, a pedestrian swing bridge over the river Liffey or Liffey, I'm not certain which was unable to open for maritime traffic for approximately four years due to a lost remote control. How big do we figure this remote control would have been for a bridge?
Speaker 2:My question was going to be is it an Apple TV remote? Because then I understand.
Speaker 1:Let me. I doubt it was that small. Those things go all the time it was constructed in 2005. It says the remote, described as being about the size of a 1990s era mobile phone, was misplaced.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's big.
Speaker 1:Yeah, budget constraints delayed the development of a replacement.
Speaker 2:What? Can't you just go to Best Buy and get that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, universal remote. It's got the big buttons.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, not losing that shit.
Speaker 1:But I don't understand how intricate this remote had to be to signal like basically, open or close. It's an AB switch, open or close. What the hell did they need to do? I don't know, it's an A-B switch, open or close. What the hell did they?
Speaker 2:need to do.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Eventually, in 2014, an Irish firm reprogrammed a new remote control at the cost of approximately $1,800.
Speaker 2:Again, that's not much, friends Like that's not four years worth of budget constraints.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe it is. I don't know what the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, what their budget's like.
Speaker 2:If you get somebody to pay you $100 a month, you got that thing fixed in a year and a half.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but they had to spend money on, I don't know, potatoes or Baileys or something I don't know. Anyway, this highlights the challenges of relying on single points of failure. In any system, One thing happens bad and then your whole thing is screwed Not a great idea. In any system, One thing happens bad and then your whole thing is screwed Not a great idea. You should probably have, in addition to the remote control, like oh, I don't know a button.
Speaker 2:Right A switch. I can even turn my TV on and off at the TV.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh go, humans, we're the best.
Speaker 2:Yay, yay. We're the best, yay, yay.
Speaker 1:It's save the date time. No, I don't mean Amanda's birthday coming up here in May. I mean May 8th is National Josh Day.
Speaker 2:Why is it? Does it mean joshing like hitting somebody? Like we're all supposed to go around joshing people?
Speaker 1:No, no, no, it's an occasion where individuals named Josh are celebrated.
Speaker 2:We just celebrated you this whole week.
Speaker 1:I know me as a specific Josh, but then now we're widening the circle and celebrating like General Joshes.
Speaker 2:Okay, General Josh Day, May 8th.
Speaker 1:Send me flowers, contribute to our fun drive. If you give a donation today to the Wilson Fundraising Drive, just send it to me. I will make sure that come Josh Day, fun things will happen. I'll have a fun time.
Speaker 2:What will you do? You will have a fun time, but how? How does this benefit the listeners for sending?
Speaker 1:you money, I'll get a new remote for our cantilevered bridge. There you go. What time is it Game time? Who?
Speaker 2:That song means it's game time and we haven't had a flashbacks in a while. So, Josh, are you ready for a flashbacks?
Speaker 1:For all of our new listeners, the influx of people listening from Antarctica and Spain and Uruguay, please let them know what flashbacks is.
Speaker 2:The flashbacks is a quiz by the New York Times.
Speaker 1:Not a sponsor.
Speaker 2:No, but they can if they want In which they give us I think it's eight events in history and Josh has to figure out where they go on a continuum of time before and after each other. It's going to give us an anchoring event and then he has to decide is the next one before or after that? Give us an anchoring event, and then he has to decide is the next one before or after that? And josh also levels it up by trying to guess the exact time in history that this took place okay, so hit me what's the first one?
Speaker 2:here's your anchoring event two stars collide in a far-off galaxy, creating gold.
Speaker 1:It's evidence that gold can come from the stars I, I don't even fucking know what you're asking me there when did these two stars collide in a far off galaxy, creating gold? Okay, billions of years ago.
Speaker 2:No wait what not?
Speaker 1:billions of years ago but if it's in a far off galaxy? You know how long it takes to get information from a far-off galaxy. Yes, but not billions, right? No, it has to be because by the time any information that we get from a far-off galaxy reaches us, it's already like that happened, like thousands upon millions of years ago, by the time that light or information reaches us.
Speaker 2:Okay, so what's your guess?
Speaker 1:Oh, for a million years ago 140 million years ago okay, well, don't roll your eyes. You were saying billions and it's not, it's millions all right, what date is that specifically, so I can write?
Speaker 2:140 million years ago. So this is going to help you anchor. All the other things will be after this right.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying is like just after, after the universe was formed, this or that thing happened, go ahead the next thing is jesus.
Speaker 2:During the red scare, top us universities take a clear and public stance on mccarthyism compliance. Harvard will continuously buck the trend or not continuously cautiously buck the trend.
Speaker 1:So before, after the formation of the universe, I'm going to say that that's definitely in the 1950s or early 60s, 1959.
Speaker 2:1953. So good, close, okay, kept out of the official credits. An upset programmer hides his name in a secret room in an Atari game. It's one of the first video game, easter eggs.
Speaker 1:Do you know the story? No, I don't.
Speaker 2:Well, look at it after the game.
Speaker 1:Well, the Atari games are in the late 70s, early 80s, because that was the first video game I'd ever played. Well, that's not true. It's the first home video game I'd ever played. So I'm going to say 1980.
Speaker 2:We had an Atari 1980, exactly Bam extra points. And the church bell's ringing for you, Can you hear?
Speaker 1:it yeah, I can Okay.
Speaker 2:All right, a handy fashion invention, variously called the slide fastener, clasp locker or clothing closure, gets a name that sticks the zipper.
Speaker 1:Oh, I was going for Velcro. So when were zippers invented? So that's got to be way back in the day, right?
Speaker 2:I would think so, but probably not at the formation of the universe.
Speaker 1:We think that that's how zippers were created Two galaxies collided 1920.
Speaker 2:1923. You're on a roll, friend.
Speaker 1:Bam on a roll. Zipper was invented in 1923. You're on a roll, friend, bam on a roll. The zipper was invented in 1923, just in time for the Second World War.
Speaker 2:Yes, the US detains thousands of Italian Americans as enemy aliens. It stops when it realizes it needs Italian American troops to invade Europe. That sounds so much like the US.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, it's gonna be between zippers and Red Scare. So oh, unless it's World War I, I don't know. Ooh, this is a tough one. Okay, I'm just gonna have to roll the dice. We're gonna say 1936.
Speaker 2:1941. Good, good, good.
Speaker 1:That was silly. I knew it would be later than that.
Speaker 2:Oh Lord. So this next clue is a series. It's not written in English alphabet, it's a series of dashes and dots and at the very bottom, in parenthetical text, it says Morse code is invented. New York Times getting cheeky.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, they're running out of ideas. We gotta figure again that that's gotta be. It's probably earlier than I think, because I would assume then that that's around a war again, because a lot of our technological and communicative advances were based around necessity and because, hey, these people are going to kill us. So we got to figure out how to trick them or whatever. Ah, Morse code. But then there were telegraphs. Did telegraphs use Morse code? I don't know. That was in the Old West. All right, 1850, Morse code, Okay, 1838.
Speaker 2:You're doing very well friend, all right, 1850, morse code Okay 1838. You're doing very well, friend. All right, three more. The inventor, josephine Cochran, exhibits an early hand-powered dishwasher in Chicago. One issue most US homes don't have hot water.
Speaker 1:Bam, come on, josephine, Use your head for once. Right homes don't have hot water. Bam, come on, josephine, use your head for once. Hand-powered. Why are they grouping these all together, though? Because I feel like they're making it difficult on me. I've got four that are between 1838 and 1953. And I need them to spread these out a little bit.
Speaker 2:Well, no, I mean they went 140 million years ago and then, like the 19th century, they skipped a whole lot.
Speaker 1:Okay, I have no ability to guess this. I'm gonna say 1916.
Speaker 2:Okay, so after Morse code, but before the zipper, yeah, 1893. So you still got it right on the thing. All right, ready for your last, your penultimate question. Go ahead, us railroads create four time zones from eastern to pacific. Are these the people that created the time zones? I didn't know that. Americans now all have a clear answer to the question what time is it? What did we just all not know.
Speaker 1:We just all guessed um, it's a little bit more important when you have the necessity of asking someone to pick me up at the airport at such and such a time, and or like the people to switch the track so the trains don't collide.
Speaker 1:That too, I don't know. Dude, again, I feel like this is all in this. They're really trying to trip me up here. 19, shit, 1870. Okay, so, between morris code and the dishwasher. Yeah, that once they develop morris code they could send this information. Hey, also, we've it's two o'clock over there correct 1883 bam all right, last one.
Speaker 2:I mean you are going for a clean sweep here queen sweep algae first appear in earth's waters. Well, that's stupid. Some will emit dimethyl sulfide, a pungent molecule that creates the distinctive smell of sea air.
Speaker 1:Okay, so 600 BC? I don't know, dude. No, it's going to be way before that, but it's clearly, but it's not 140 million years ago, dude whoever put together today's quiz. They need to be fired, yeah.
Speaker 2:Maybe the quiz maker was out for like spring break and this is the junior writer.
Speaker 1:That's right, go ahead, so yeah between Incorrect but close.
Speaker 2:What 1.5 billion years ago.
Speaker 1:No shit.
Speaker 2:Oh, astronomers found a possible sign of algae on another planet by detecting dimethyl sulfide. Sorry friend, you were so close.
Speaker 1:I'm really annoyed. This is not a way to treat me on my birthday. I'm on birthday week, by the way. We have a dear friend of ours who doesn't live in this country who objects to birthday weeks. I'm keeping it rolling, baby, especially after I've been abused by the New York Times here.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm upset because here's the deal with the flashback. So you take it's all based on events that are currently happening, like the Red Scare. We can kind of figure out why that's on here, but I was really excited to go to the Easter egg one to figure out what game this guy hit it in. And instead, the article is Easter eggs are so expensive, americans are dying potatoes we talked about this a couple weeks ago in our podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it doesn't tell me what I want to know. I want to know the story about the guy with the atari well, you can look it up.
Speaker 1:You've got a miracle in your hands, a miracle of technology and electronics yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:so this is the first year that we did not die eggs, although muffieuffy really does want deviled eggs today for Easter lunch, so we'll have to see. I've got about six eggs left, so we can do that.
Speaker 1:You have any thoughts about any of this mess? Let us know. Familiarwilson's at gmailcom. No one likes to be told what to do, and now is the time in the podcast where we tell you what to do.
Speaker 2:Amanda, what should we do If you are at all into kind of like Agatha Christie type murder mysteries? Not like your gory stuff, but your puzzly type stuff? I am reading a new book by novelist Kristen Perrin. It's called how to Solve your Own Murder. She is a YA author. This is her first adult novel.
Speaker 1:YA Young adult.
Speaker 2:And it's yeah, it's like along the veins of Agatha Christie or Richard Osmond, is also listed on the back of this book as it being like that which Richard Osmond, if you are familiar with UK television presenters is a television presenter host in the UK that we really enjoy but also writes a very successful series of novels set in like a retirement community, and I'm just very, very much enjoying this book. So if you are interested, go get yourself. How to Solve your Own Murder.
Speaker 1:I looked at it and I noticed this written in the present tense, and I don't like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is written in the present tense and I don't mind that. I don't mind that at all, but it also it switches back and forth between so it's the great granddaughter of this woman who gets this fortune when she's 16, that she's going to die by murder, and she lives her whole life trying to figure out who's going to murder her. And then turns out she does, and so her granddaughter is trying to solve the murder. But it flips back and forth between the granddaughter's present time point of view and then the grandmother's point of view back in like the 60s. So it's interesting.
Speaker 1:All right, okay, well, there you go, as long as I don't have to read it.
Speaker 2:You don't have to read it, but I'm reading it.
Speaker 1:I like it All. Righty, amanda. That's all there is. There is no more. What'd you think of that?
Speaker 2:I mean I think that I'm happy that it is a lovely sunday morning. The church bells are ringing, um, we had some lovely little easter baskets with the children and very lovely. I made what? English muffin breakfast sandwiches with bacon and cheese and egg and it was great and sat outside and it's not hot yet, and so it's a lovely day so far and I've enjoyed spending this time talking with you.
Speaker 1:And this podcast was made possible by the tireless efforts of people who should not be allowed near electricity. So we want to make sure to thank Justin, our senior sock interpreter, matt, our inverted wind chime, tuner Antonio, our paranormal sandwich artist, josh Scar. Our acoustic beard technician, daniel J Buckets, the noise curator of Unexplained Honks.
Speaker 1:Chick and Tom our bureau chief of poultry ethics and spaghetti narration. Monique from Germany, are time-space accordionist. Refined Gay Jeff are diva frequency stabilizer, mark and Rachel are dual headed ceremonial fog machiners. And, of course, dan and Gavin are co-ministers of Chaos and Gelatin. And to you, dear listener, our passive psychic co-hosts who unknowingly influenced the entire show via your facial expressions at 12.36 pm last Thursday, we of course wish you a good and happy week until we talk to you again.
Speaker 2:Alright, go, be kind Bye.
Speaker 1:Bye, bye, thank you, and go and go. Are you ready for us to start?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you didn't.
Speaker 1:I did. You were actually reading a book.
Speaker 2:Well, because I'm really into this book and because you told me that you weren't ready yet and then usually I hear the and then you point at me and none of that happened oh no, that's not true. I pointed at you welcome to super familiar with the wilsons.
Speaker 1:I'm amanda and I'm josh.
