The Right Word

the Cabinet of Curiosities. Animals are incredible creatures. From the inky depths of the ocean to the skies above, our world is filled with seemingly infinite numbers of organisms that have evolved and adapted to live in a world that has not always been kind to them. From the peppered moths of the Industrial Revolution to today's North American beavers, Animals are being affected predominantly by one major fact, act us.

Humans have changed the face of the planet through commercial fishing, deforestation, agriculture, and pollution, and our actions have resulted in the extinction of a million different species. But one woman saw another way away for humanity and the animal kingdom to coexist, and she spent thirty years proving it. Her name was Simona Cossack and she was born in Cracow, Poland, in

nineteen forty three. Her father, her grandfather and her great grandfather were all painters, and she was kind of expected to follow in their footsteps. They couldn't imagine Simona growing up without a paintbrush in her hand at all times. But she wanted something different. For one, she loved animals, and so she got a degree in zoology in nineteen seventy. Her focuses in school had centered around animal behavior and psychology, and she wanted to go to a place where she

could study animals in their natural habitats. To achieve this, Simona knew that she would have to leave Krakow and traveled to the Bishkada Mountains, where the environment was still untamed. She had vacationed in the mountains for the last decade and knew them well, but her current employment situation was not going smoothly, and so she decided to change things up. In the dead of winter in nineteen seventy one, Simona packed up her life and moved hours away to a

place called Billo Vesia. She took a job working for the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, where she was given a room and board. The mountains, however, still called to her, seeing that she was still longing for the great outdoors. A friend of hers invited her out to see a small, abandoned cabin in the forests of Bialovesia National Park. While they're Simona caught sight of a large ox against the stark white of the snow. The image was etched into her mind and she had

an epiphany. This would be her home. All she had to do was convinced the park director to let her live there. She went to his office the following day and asked that the cabin be provided to her as staff housing while she worked at the institute. The director approved, but also informed her that someone else would be living there too, a nature photographer named Lech will Check. Like Simona,

Lek had a passion for animals. He bred them himself and released them into the wild so he could photograph them in their habitats. The cabins soon became home to a number of creatures and critters. Owls, grackles, and hedgehogs all shared the little hut with Simona and Leck over the years, often leaving on their own when they were strong enough. One day, though, Lec brought home a one

day old pig named Zobka. The longer she lived in the house, the more her personality took on that of a dog's, often stealing random items and trotting away or snuggling up to one of the humans and begging for attention. As she got older, Zabka grew into a full sized bore. She was just as playful as before, but now had developed a territorial side, keeping watch over the cabin and

protecting her owners from visiting strangers. Eventually, a donkey from the local zoo joined their menagerie, as did a deer that came to Simona's window, a pair of moose named Cola and Pepsi, a links that actually slept in Simona's bed, a black stork that nested in a chest of drawers in the cabin, and Crassic. A terrorist crow. Yeah, that's what I said. A terrorist crow. That's how the locals

described him. Korsek was known for stealing things like office supplies, cigarette cases, and food from the lumberjacks working in the woods. He also attacked people on bicycles, pecking at them until they fell off their bikes. Coorsek would then sit on their seats like a victorious warrior. On one occasion, a man working in the forest, had his entrance permits snatched from his pocket by the crow, who then proceeded to

destroy it in front of him. It's probably easy to see why kora Sek was thought to have been sent to the people of bialov Asia as punishment of their sins. And on top of all of that, some people began to call Simona a witch because she talked to animals. In reality, Simona Cossack was a conservationist and activist. She lived in the woods in a cabin without electricity or running water for thirty years, protecting and learning about the creatures around her. A crow, on the other hand, well

he may have been a demon. Let's be honest. Language is a finicky thing. To truly convey what you're trying to say is something of a luxury. There is nothing quite like that sensation of finding the exact word you want to use, complete with all its connotations and nuances. But even if you find the perfect way to say something, that doesn't guarantee that whoever you said it too will hear it the way you intended. Such are the troubles

of language. Regardless. In the quest to say something perfectly, one may feel compelled to consult dictionary pages for the listed word, the only word that could ever do like an itch in the brain that only the right word will scratch. The problem is not all words up here in the dictionary, at least maybe not the right dictionary. That's part of the reason why. In seventeen forty six, a group of London booksellers contracted Samuel Johnson to write

a complete dictionary of the English language. According to this group, all previous dictionaries just didn't do the trick. Johnson's dictionary would become the go to English language dictionary, making the rounds to the elites and the common folk alike. It was so comprehensive in its collection of words that it was the dictionary of choice for almost two hundred years, and only then being unseated by a more modern Oxford

English Dictionary. But remember what I said about not every word being found in the dictionary, not even the most comprehensive dictionary of its time. What do you do then, when no pages provide that word to scratch your brains itch? Francis Gross may have the answer for you. Though he was not much of a library goer, Gross had a sharp mind and a voracious appetite, both for food and

for knowledge. Intent on providing a well, let's call it a companion to Johnson's apparently not comprehensive dictionary, Gross set out on a word and phrase finding mission, doing all the things that he already loved to do, frequenting bars and see the establishments by night, partaking in the amenities. Only this time he wasn't there just for pleasure. He

was also there for work. While he perused the finer things of midnight London, he was also taking notes on the things that were being said, what they referred to, how they were used in a sentence, as well as defining what those things might mean, all written down on

parchment scrawled across bar tops and tables. That's right, Gross went into bars and compiled the words and phrases said by drunkards and scallow eggs, undoubtedly spilling their beer in grease all over his pages as he reveled with the after hours revelers. After all, Gross was apparently the life of any party that he was or wasn't invited to. He carried about him a strong wit and a sense of humor, and is remembered for delighting in jokes of all kinds, even the kinds that likened his last name

of Gross to his rotund belly. It's not clear how long Gross was on this slang finding mission, but it amounted to a rather unique compendium of words and not really words, phrases and insults and maybe just maybe that word you didn't know you needed, most of which having to do with bodily functions, lack of intelligence, and other such similar things. Thirty years after the publication of Johnson's Dictionary, Francis Gross published the Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

And while it would certainly not become a staple on bookshelves well, ever, it is full of all kinds of useful slang that you won't find listed in any dictionaries among civilized folk. For instance, where else would you learn that you can refer to a tall, gangly fellow as a duke of limbs, or that Irish apricots are just

another name for potatoes. And where would we be without a little kittle picturing, that is the art of interrupting someone's long winded story with constant questions, which Gross adds in the margins best done in tandem, and there are plenty of other gems hidden in the pages of Gross's dictionary that will spark laughter and even the most stone faced reader. But I'll leave those to the exploration of any who feel the urge to dive into the pages

of eighteenth century vulgarity. It's quite the journey, especially for someone who wants to say something a little bit gross. I hope you've enjoyed to day's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. This show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership

with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,