Hello, and welcome to Fun Fact Friday Christmas edition. Jim Jim. Jim, Jim. Jingle bells on effects. We'll have another room. Now it's too late. We missed our chance. And you know this is live so we can't go back. There's no going back. There's no editing. Because as I always say, editing is for chumps. Right and if you edit your chump, like if you if you're looking for money, and you go into the editing business, you're a chump. Like a chump.
So when I'm editing me despod Yeah, you're Yeah, you're a champ. All right, but it's a little different with an audio drama, where you have the actors all over the world and yeah, yeah, you can't. But there's this thing called discord. So not sponsored, not sponsored. We don't do sponsored folks. Welcome to Fun Fact, Friday. We are a weekly podcast. This is our second to last episode. And we're just going to have a good old Christmas time. tell y'all
some facts about Christmas and some fun news stories. So before we start, I'd like to thank some folks, we are a value for value podcast. That means if you enjoy the show, if you get any value out of it, send us some value back. And like I said, as we're ending the show, if you are a monthly PayPal subscriber, and you'd like to go ahead and get that cancelled, so you know, you're not still unlisted unless you find value in the back catalogue. And it's it's up to you, but just let me know.
Yeah. Apparently discord has karma. Discord has karma. negative karma. Negative five karma? What does that you're gonna have karma on Discord. No. No, Hex chat. Oh, yeah. Types of discord. We're like minus, because I would do the show live. And we have an IRC chat room, because IRC is just a tried and true rock of dependability. And it's not a trendy new thing or anything, but it works. And we have a Karma bot named Gao. In our Fun Fact Friday chat room, you can get to Fun Fact friday.com and
then click the chat. And the karma bot. Discord now has negative five karma, which I'm I'm cool with. I like discord for playing video games with folks. It's a real it's a real intuitive way to also like if we're getting voice actors chat with folks. Yeah. And there's a lot of voice actors on Discord, a lot of voice acting discord channels, and it's easy to go through and listen to a whole bunch of demo reels for actors to for me to spot. Discourse now, I guess six. That's great.
But yeah, we do have a couple of boosts since the last episode. We have one from me, which I intended to go to the podcasting 2.0 podcast, but there is a bug in the podcast app I was using or I did something wrong. And it just says howdy as for me, but that one doesn't count. We got after the show in the chat while we were talking to boo last week in the post show. We got 10,101 sets from boo with a a attachment to a file that he
sent to us with some sound clips. Oh yeah. And then we just now received with the via live boost through curio caster and boost CLI. We got some live boosts we got 3333 magic number twice from servo thank you so much. And right before the show in the pre show, which we do live here also, we got 70,776 sets from blueberry and says I am doing well because we just asked How you doing boo. Yeah. Yeah, and we received we did get a Pay Pal and entertain the folks while I pull that up
because I neglected to open my email client. I said I said no entertain. Oh, oops. We've got dead air. Well edited it out. It's fine. My good news story today after we're done with PayPal is about a dog it's about a severe cold dog. Circle received a payment from Valve No, I bought some valves you did? Yeah board game called Puzzle Quest to to classic. Somebody was talking about I was like I want to play that again. All right. So where do we not get a PayPal?
Where did my results go? I just know I searched PayPal and then screen went blank for a second on on Outlook. We received a payment on the 12th which we I don't know if we said last time from Stephen Grimes. One of our longtime supporters. I believe I may have mentioned that last episode for $10 and that is a monthly sustaining donation. Steven, if you're listening, you want to cancel that and If you know since we're ending it up if you do want any refunds, I understand 100% Just let us
know. We got another payment from Dre hub Scott. Scott is an old clip from an old movie where they talked about Randolph Scott. And I've always wanted to like hire some singers to do that. But say Dred Scott instead. And it is the Oreo boost of $19.12 cent. Oreo being invented in 1912. Oh, yeah, Oreos are the best. I forget that every single time. And then today, we received a $5 from Curtis, another monthly, monthly sustaining donation. And we definitely appreciate all the
support from everybody. And we have received some notes and clips. And we have, we are going to be going through all of that next week on our final episode, and like I said, final might not be final. We may do more. We may pick it back up in a couple months. Not sure. Yeah. But I'm gonna say final for now. But we'll never know. Because nobody can tell me what to do. Especially me. Yeah. Because I am an idiot. So I shouldn't shouldn't be given myself instructions on what to do.
Anywho. So, Christmas, we have a decision to make we have a decision to make. Do you want to do the good news segment first? Or do you want to open our presents first? Oh, yeah. Okay, so since this is the Christmas episode, every Christmas on the show? I think we've done at once, but about Christmas on the show. We give each other we exchange gifts on the show. Right and I got one for you here. Uh huh. Let's let's go ahead and do the gifts. yesterday. Yeah. So it's a
little bag. Leila got me a gag gift, I think. No, I didn't. So Leila is handing me what looks like a one foot by one foot square piece of floor tile. Oh, yeah. Wrapped up in a peanuts Christmas wrapper. I'm gonna go ahead and open that. I'm gonna open mine. It's not really wrapped, but it's in a bag. That's because I don't like wrapping stuff. It's not a gag gift. What did you get? So I Yeah, it's like a fidget spinner. And Rubik's Cube is a Rubik's Spinner Fidget. Oh, geez.
I'm ripping open packages. Yeah, I can just very ASMR No, no, no, don't do that. No. Oh, I love this. I love that. Okay. Oh my gosh, how many layers? Did you rapids? It was only two. Oh, I like what I'm seeing so far. Yeah, you better I better. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, I was gonna give that to you on Christmas. But I was like, Oh, crap. I don't have anything for the show. It is a Rubik's Spinner Fidget. Not mine. I'm still opening mine. But I really liked this. So smooth too.
You can kind of think Elon Musk for that. What? In a roundabout way. So Elon Musk recently purchased Twitter, the social media platform, as you might be aware, oh, so he purchased Twitter and the uncertainty of the future of the platform. They lost a lot of advertisers. Right? Crap. I'm so selfish as I am. As I am. Scrolling through Twitter, I see what's left of the ads, which is now a bunch of cheap Chinese junk. So I see one of those. And I go to the website and it's like eight
bucks. And I'm like, All right. Let me see what it cost on other sites. And it was like four. So I was like stocking stuffer. I mean, so Leila got me. The Jun Jie Ito collection, a horror coloring book. ISBN 97817890997 to 00 Yeah, and it is a lot of the iconic images from the Gingy Ito comics I suppose sell this How are you supposed to solve it I don't know how to look it up. This is fantastic.
I'm gonna get my I'm gonna get my markers out and color me some Jun Jie Ito because I know you love ginger you horrific images. And I may cut some of these out with a razor blade and put them in frames. If I like I like color because it's a good size. It's almost square Yeah, and a lot of the images are full page. So I can definitely get these these framed. Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's how you like it. Yeah, that's fantastic. Thank you so much, Lisa. You're
welcome. I'd give you a hug later, but that would be showing affection and now we are. Okay, I was gonna I was gonna give Gingy Ito karma, but I forgot the plus plus. So yeah, thank you so much. Let's get in to be good news. Hello, welcome to the good news segments, Christmas edition two Christmas edition. So what you get for news, dog? It's always dog. It's always dog. Dinosaur with right? You know? What do you got? A dog is making the internet balanced with joy and
virality. In part because she stream it. She's extremely cute. And in part because she has a peculiar shape. Peculiar is a peculiar word, and I hate it. Mo who is a spherical toy poodle, and his nearly 100,000 followers on Instagram, all of whom are obsessed with her inability, or an explainable li round shape. To six year old from Osaka, Japan, has become such an internet sensation after her owner started sharing pictures of her online, the enamored following could not get over the
roundness of her coat. And it's just this extremely round dog. You should post the link in the chat. It'll also be in the show notes for folks who download and listen later. And eventually, actually, we'll grab it and put it put it in the folder and Dred Scott, who does our chapters for us, we'll put it in the chapter files. So if you're listening on podcasting 2.0 app, you'll see it as we're talking about it. Yes, yes. I love toy poodle so much. Because they're so cute. They're cute.
But like all of those special breed dogs are so expensive. Yeah. I know. You know, you got to breed them. And you got to do all this stuff to get it right. There was a guy at the end go on a tangent here. There's a guy at the pet store the other day had like six Pitbull puppies. And they were so cute. And he had them all like in this big wheelie cart. And he was telling the group the cashier, he's like, Yeah, I've got $15,000 in this little car.
I seen the same puppy use at the same store. I don't even know if I was with you. Yeah, well, that was yeah, you got out to go get some crickets for the plague. Oh, yes. And, and I was outside in the car. So my my news story is about a kid and a unicorn. I teased this in the pre show but a child in California asked her local animal control department if she could get approval for a unique
pet. Yeah, a unicorn. The child named Madeline sent a handwritten letter to the county of Los Angeles Department of Animal Care and Control which they posted on Facebook. Madeleine asked for approval to keep the unicorn in her backyard if she could find one. She asked if the department could please send her a response letter. And they did that and more. This brought us so much joy. So we thought we would share with everyone Madeline wrote a letter requesting and there's the
poster there. And then they sent her a pre approved unicorn license but knowing the mystical creature might be hard to find. They also gave her a unicorn stuffed animal with a heart shaped pink license to attach to its color. Oh my gosh, that's so cute. It is.
That was cute. Quote. It was always rewarding. It is always rewarding to hear young people who thoughtfully consider the requirements of providing a loving home to animals department into quote the department's director, Marcia May May Etta wrote in a reply letter, quote, I commend your sense of responsible pet ownership to seek permission in advance to keep a pet unicorn in Los Angeles County and quote Hmm Just just teaching them real young for the asking permission
from the from the government. Yeah, well, we're not gonna go into that. While Madeline easily won approval of her unicorn the license does not does sorry does come with some rules. The unicorn must be cared for in compliance with all animal caretaking regulations set for the Los Angeles County code titled 10 regular access to sunlight moonbeams and rainbows and to be fed watermelon apparently it's a favorite treat
once a week. Okay. The Department also said that unicorns hoard must be polished regularly to maintain good health. And since unicorns and sparkles now surely go together Department said any glitter used must be non toxic biodegradable to ensure the unicorn is good health. Oh, my gosh. Oh, you know microplastics are a real problem. Yeah. But I thought it was cute. I've seen that on the Good News Network. Oh, yeah. You never brought it to the show? No, because yeah,
the other one is just a just a short little story. Basically, there's a couple Cassidy and Dylan Scott in Huntsville. Doesn't say, Huntsville. Which? Which? Huntsville? Probably Alabama. Yeah. Huntsville, Alabama. They are a married couple who both share the same birthday. And they had a baby. What? on their birthday? So all three of men have a birthday. I would hate that. All three people. That'd be Christmas to Yeah. Oh, well, everybody shares
gifts on Christmas. And everybody shares gifts on the birthday. I think it would be great. Yeah, absolutely. You don't have to worry about oh, crap whose birthday is next? Of course, it's all over. Now you have to know what time everybody was born. When you play one of those games. It says the youngest player goes first. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. Or they just all go first. It's a free for all. When you play Monopoly. That's all me.
You know, he's just grabbing for dice and man. And then in the in the article. There's a bunch of birthday stats. Like, I think we've gone through these before on one of our episodes. If you take the calendar, plus the Leap Day, so 366 days, the least common days to be born are January 1 and December 25. Yeah, so January first ranks at number 365 and December 25, ranks at 366. According to styles. Leap Day, which only occurs or occurs
every four years is also uncommon ranking at 347. Other uncommon birthdays include Christmas even July 4. I would love to be born on Leap Day. How old would I be right now? I'd only be 10. You'd be three. I wouldn't be three. I could still get on to like those. You'd be your third birthday. It wouldn't be you wouldn't be three I'd be having my 10th birthday. Present. I wouldn't really get a day to celebrate my birthday. Hey, what every four years. But you just have to have a mega
mega you have for birthday parties. And one day every every four years. That would well I mean, it would. It would. It would all even out. Yeah. All right. So there we go. That's all good news. Now for our Christmas facts, or do you wanna do that? Or do you want to talk about the Christmas movies you were forced to watch in public school? Okay. public school. Okay. Public school report. Public
school report. So stretch. Now we're back. Okay, I watched four, five movies this week, but one of them was a documentary and I fell asleep. The other four were the Grinch. The elf movie. Wait, what? Which Grinch? The Earth? classic cartoon. Yeah, the classic cartoon. Dr. Seuss cartoon. Okay, because it was my English teachers favorite. So we watched elf at first. Because one of my friends brought it in on a CD and oh my gosh, a DVD. Yeah. Yeah. They look, they look alike. Yeah.
And oh my gosh, my history teachers, computer or whatever. The CD player, the DVD player was so loud every time you turn the volume up, it would go up, up, up, up, up. Or if you like, put this DVD n, it would go DVD inserted. Oh, like so the whatever you want to say whatever button you pushed on the remote, it would audibly say yeah, or if you how's it went? Pause it was real loud. It was real loud. It's fantastic. And we watch Santa Claus and Santa Claus to yesterday because
yesterday was a half day since it was the last day. Yesterday was really fun. Okay, in depth, descriptions and reviews. All right. So first three out of 10 Wow. Good concept executed poorly. And on. It's just overhyped. The visuals on it are super cool. Like the beginning of it when they're at the North Pole. Also the decorating scene where he's like decorating the mall is super cool. But actually, I changed my five out of 10. Five out of 10. That's a reasonable review for elf, and
then the Grinch. Thank you to seven on the 10. Seven. Okay, what was good? How do you feel about the music? No, no, you're one oh my gosh, we had to hear that all day to write in different classes and they're all in the same like part of building. So we would just be doing our science work, it would be like the door and we were like, Oh, we're watching the Grinch. That's a fun movie. I like Mac's the dog. Me too. We were also doing something with a poem while we
were watching it. So I didn't really watch it this time. But from what I've watched of it. It's pretty it's a pretty good story. And I like it. But it's, again, it's a little overhyped. That would make make sense. Servo is asking, is it for blind slash deaf people? wouldn't wouldn't make sense for deaf people. But for blind people. Yeah. It would make sense if your gives you an indicator. Yeah. And maybe it's like an accessibility setting that they turned on and don't know how to
turn off. Maybe. Okay, so real quick, Santa Claus. One or two? Which one's better? Santa Claus two is the Mrs. Claus right? I think so. Yeah. Brady's gotta get married or whatever. I like the first one. First one was better. Even we didn't want to go to lunch. If it Oh, yeah, I guess if they're not fully deaf, and it's really loud by default. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Especially if you're turning up the volume, and it's already at like a set thing. So like the movies like up?
Yeah, well, that means that would validate whether or not it's actually going up or not. Yeah, however. Yeah, I mean, that makes sense. That makes sense. Okay, so Santa Claus. One, close one. Just out of 10. I give it honestly. I give it an eight or nine. Oh, it was it was pretty good. It was pretty good. I liked it. I liked Bernard did Tim Allen go? Oh, no. He was mad. A lot. And he was like, I'm not Santa Claus. Rah rah rah rah rah rah rah rah rah rah rah rah rah?
Wait. Yeah. Yeah, right. And then number two, I don't remember much about number two, either, because I was coloring the whole thing right? Here literally coloring sheets, and she was let us color. So we watched one other Christmas movie this week? Uh huh. We watched diehard we Leila finally got to see diehard. Okay, so give us a review of that. Review diehard that was solid nine. That's a pretty good movie. There was a lot of there was a lot of fire. And yes,
there was a lot of cussing. Yeah. And a lot of violence, you know, but like, that's kind of what it is. Is there's a loss of give me the money, you know, right. But yeah, so the beginning, I was kind of like watching you while I was watching the movie. And you were just like, the beginning of it. You're like with this is not what I was told this would be. And then all the shooting and stuff starts. And she was she was really into it, then. Oh,
no, what's it going to do now? You know? But better, it was funny because we paused it so we get up and get a drink or whatever. And she was like, when's he gonna say yippie? Ki Yay, because I have a shirt that says you could die on it. And we're like, it's from Die Hard. And like, literally when we unpause it, it was like the next line. So that was that was funny. But it's it's been a tradition for me and my wife.
We've watched that. Most Christmases we don't hold hard and fast about we have to do this to every tradition every single year sort of thing. But is this is the first time that you've sat and watched it with us. So we enjoyed that. Yeah, now you got to watch two and three and then there's no other diehard movies. That's it. Two and Three, after three they stopped making diehard movies, are you sure except for the fifth element diehard in space, which you have already seen?
Yeah. So this diehard one diehard to Die Hard With a Vengeance. And then the fifth element Any anyways dad anything after those three. Anyways dad. Okay, sorry. We should probably get into fights with God. We're 25 minutes in Thank you very much. So facts about Christmas. Christmas Jingle Bells was the first song we played in space. Oh, on 16th of December 1965 song, the song Jingle Bells made history by becoming the first song to be played in space
during NASA's Gemini six a space flight. At least we think it was the first says you bared.ac.uk A lot of dots. So why did he say at least we think it's the I don't know or the unsure. What was he put it on my backside if they didn't know. Wow. All right. It's just an odd thing to say like yeah, maybe maybe he's talking about like Alien music? I don't know. Who knows. Who knows. What do you think Elon alien music would be like? It's probably a lot like Smash Mouth. Yeah.
They kind of look like aliens. And they talk about you know, walking on the sun and stuff. So. Yeah. Aliens. Anyways. Now I'm gonna have that in my head. I'm gonna have that song on my wall. Song. Me too. It was Princess Charlotte, who popularized Christmas trees in England. Usually when we think about Christmas trees we think about Prince Albert. Queen Victoria's consort. No, we don't.
I've never once. Never once in my 40 years on this planet looked at a Christmas tree and been like Prince Albert, Prince Albert. But the first known Christmas tree was set up at Queen's lodge in winds door, Windsor Windsor in December of 18,000. By Prince Charlotte shouts 18,000. Yeah. We got we got alien music and we got future Christmas. far
future. Okay, so servo is this safe to play on our stream? We just got a link to a musical song called a life pond axiom 20 by axiom 23 And I just want to make sure it's something that we can click and not have to edit out later. So, while we're out, no for later, God, okay, thank you. Christmas wasn't always on December 25. I'm sure maybe most folks know this though. I don't Well, Chris Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, the
actual date of the big event was lost to history. There's no mention of December 25 In the Bible, so many historians say Jesus was most likely born in the spring. Some historians posit the date was originally chosen because it coincided with a pagan festival of Saturnalia which honored the our agricultural Gods Saturn with the celebrating and gift giving tool. So it wasn't always 20/25 Yeah, it was in the spring but yeah, so I knew that was all
comes down to you know we don't I don't know. I don't know if you got better information as always send a mail FunFactFriday.com You got one week to forgive us corrections. Coca Cola is not actually responsible for how we perceive Santa Claus. Yeah, never. Yeah. What is this site? What is this site? Gosh, it's like facts made. It's like facts with a question mark. College site. This is Hugh bears college towns like the Oh, it's you. It's from the UK. Why don't we listen to I don't think
British people exist. So this is fake news. Christmas, Christmas. So this sounds like one of the sites that would have articles like the sun is going to crash into the earth next year. And that's a good thing. You know? That's a good thing after every title of every Sorry, I've had a cough let's see what some other titles on this site our Head Chef Anthony scoops National Award. What is it's from the UK for the UK disdainfully. No, okay, let's find a different
site. I got one while you're doing that. Evergreens are an ancient tradition. The tradition of Christmas trees goes all the way back to the ancient Egyptians and Romans who decorated using evergreens during the winter solstice to signify that spring would return. So if you Deck the halls with the green tree wreaths and evergreen garlin you're honoring history Yeah, I mean that's, I mean, maybe I am but it's not why I'm doing it. Doing it because it's a family tradition.
Yeah. that we got from TV probably. Hey, they're putting up a Christmas tree. It's kind of cool looking. We should do that. Right? Yeah this is from Good Housekeeping law calm ere we go America. Yeah. This is 25 Interesting Christmas facts for a fun holiday trivia night. What sounds like this sounds legit. You know, that's the side I am on. Gosh, you can think Prince Albert for your Christmas tree. Good Housekeeping on is as you can
thank Chris Prince Albert for your Christmas tree. I thought the Greeks and the Romans I thought we were just talking about the Egyptians and the Romans. It's on the same site. It's the next fact. Brew UK brew a cup of tea. Trimming your tree this year as a wrong accent Anywho. brew a cup of tea when trimming your tree this year to pay homage to its origins once Prince Albert. When the Prince Albert of Germany got a tree for his new wife, Queen Victoria of England, the tradition really
took off across the pond. A drawing of a couple in front of the Christmas tree the first Christmas tree a pillar appeared in Illustrated London News in 1848. To use the modern parlance the idea went viral. So they look they go to a country and
they put stuff on it, which is kind of cool. I mean, the tradition of Christmas trees goes back to Egyptians and Romans is what I just said it's decorated the Everglades and then the other British site says it was Princess Charlotte who popularized because it's present England anybody knows what what are we even doing here? Oh popularized Christmas trees. I am losing faith in the information that is on the internet, too. Oh my gosh. Charlotte, the German born wife of Queen of
King George the Third. Oh, so this okay, this says Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Let's see history of Christmas trees. I'm so into this now. Are you gonna get to the bottom of it? Yeah, I'm getting to the bottom of this. Early Romans, Vikings. Martin Luther. What is this about? William Bradford. Okay, so I think it is Queen Victoria and the German Prince. I think what
they're saying is the Romans and the Greeks. Okay, are the ones that made it we've got this in the chat looks like it's from his Wikipedia site. A keyword and modern. Okay, so modern Christmas trees originated during the Renaissance. In early modern Germany. Its 16th century origins are sometimes associated with the Protestant Christian Christian reformer Martin Luther, who said to have first added lighted candles to an evergreen tree. So it's just how far you go back and, and what
you want to do there. So thank you. Thank you, sir. Well, that's why having a chat room is awesome. I know. So let's see. I'll start at the bottom of this. At the bottom of the site that we're using. Tinsel has a storied history. Tensile was invented in 1600 10 or 1610 in Germany and was originally spun from real silver, making it far from the chintzy decoration it is now the US government also once banned tensile because it used to contain poisonous lead but never
fear now it's just plastic. It should still be kept away from young kids and pets, though microplastics are a real problem but it's not as bad as lead gosh, I want some lead tinsel oh we could probably make that happen you got to make some lead tensile not contained lead. Yeah, they used to make stuff every single lead lead in it. Oh my gosh. Either lead or what was it called? Mercury know what element okay. What is it called? Is a very, very
33 arsenic. Our Oh, hold on. What? It's 33. I did a science project is 33 is the magic number and arresting the Dutch. That's the title. The Dutch gave us the idea to leave milk and cookies we watched we watched the clip on YouTube. It was from the chat A maletto that has a bunch of short films. It was called a death in the family. And it was this, this family sitting around the table and this girl gets up to read a poem and it was just
it was very funny. Because, Helen Oh, try to remember to put that in the show notes. We got to write that down. Okay, so the Dutch gave us the idea to leave cookies and milk. If your kids leave Santa's little snack to keep him sated on his journey thank the Dutch. On St. Nicholas feast today and December 6, Dutch children leave him food and drinks and exchange for gifts he leaves overnight. Dutch the title What is this toxic element called? It's still pretty vague.
Most of the elements are toxic. your Christmas tree likely traveled a bit. Unless you cut it down yourself. Your fresh Christmas tree probably spent weeks out in the ground before appearing at your local retailer. And there's not likely much hiking into the woods. involved. Either. 98% sorry, who? 98% of American trees today grow on farms, mostly in California, Oregon, Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The country's top Christmas tree
producing states. North Carolina. We grow that me we've got a Christmas tree farm less than a mile from our house. Oh, we drive past it all the time. Oh, I'll point it out next time. Good. Wow, shows how much attention you pay when you're riding in the backseat. Oh my gosh, we drive past it all the time. Not every day. But it's like the person that sells. birdhouses, oh my gosh, there's there's a person who sells birdhouses in their front yard. And they're painted with like, different
logos from football teams and stuff. And there's a sense of the $25. Right. And Leila's like oh, well, they sell bird feeders there now. It's pretty cool. Right? They have always for as long as we have lived this for as long as Leila has been alive. These people been selling bird feeders or bird houses. And they're fine. Yes. They've always. No. Oh my gosh. She just doesn't pay attention. No, I don't. We're working on that. I'm just thinking about where we're going.
So hanging stockings started by accident. Oh, you're aware of that. And that's a good thing. Hanging stockings started by accident. Legend has it so this may not be a fact. This is legend. It's British Good Housekeeping. Maybe? Legend has it we hang stockings by the chimney with care. Thanks to a poor man who didn't have enough money for his three daughters. dowries. You want a dowry is kind of so like, back in the
olden days. Like the 1970s. No way before that. A dad who had a daughter would basically give give gifts of scientists, right? give gifts to the person who proposed like so like you get to marry my daughter and have a couple of goats. What? Unless I've got that backwards. You might have that backwards where the person married and gave the dad? No, because it doesn't make sense. I don't know. I have to look into it. Maybe someone in
chat can correct me. Anyway, generous Old Saint Nick dropped a bag of gold down their chimney one night after the girls had hung their freshly washed stockings. They're too dry. And then some of the gold. Some of the gold ended up in the stockings. They're interesting. Good stuff. So I had a story from a co worker said that they decided to put their to put their stockings up early. And she was like, I'm going to toss some some chocolate in there for the kids. And she decided she
was just going to toss them in there, you know? And didn't think about the fact that they were going to run the fireplace. Oh, no, they were in the fireplace with the stockings above it. So we'll take you out to write her little add on to whatever Santa was going to put in there. Ended up just a ball of molten chocolate at the bottom of Norway. Norway provides the two Tree in travel gar square. Isn't that like the biggest tree? What was the biggest Christmas tree?
I don't know. I can't. I can't see anything. Go ahead, keep going. I got a I got something spicy in my eye. Oh no. Londoners and visitors alike probably know the iconic spruce that stretches to the sky and trough of travel gar gar square each year, but few realize it's an equally iconic holiday gift. Every year since the 1970s. Since 1970 4719 47, three years ago, the people have normally donated, donate to the tree in gratitude for Britain for Britain's support for Norway
during World War Two. Now that's what we call goodwill toward men. That was hard to read. So yeah, I was right about Valerie's Darth radar said dad would give money and other valuables to the groom to take the daughter off his hands. Like, look, I know she's no prize. I'll tell you what. You take this girl off my hands, merrier. And I'll give you some stockings full of gold. That Santa Claus dropped on this chimney the other night. Oh,
wow. But no, that was that was a thing. Like, you know, because the arranged marriages were more of a thing back in the day. Yeah. So you know. I'm still trying to get over that. That's the title thing. Yeah, once you get once you get the giggles it's tough to and then of course I had like little you know, you laugh hard and you start tearing up a little bit so I rubbed my eyes and forgot I have some spicy oil from some spicy food I was eating,
apparently still on the tips of my fingers. And it burns. Washington Irving created many Santa's legends. You may know Washington Irving best for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow featuring them famous. Yeah, but he wrote a lot about St. Nicholas too. In fact, he's the one who first came up with the eight tiny reindeer. He loves Santa Claus so much that in 1835 He helped launch the St. Nicholas society of the city of New York, serving as Secretary until 1841.
All right, so yeah, you said Washington Irving. I'm like I know that name. I know that name. The Sleepy Hollow. Okay. I'm gonna look up his Christmas stuff. Because I believe that's in public domain if it's good, maybe I'll do it for me to spot yeah, see what it's like. So I was wrong. Wait, no, I wasn't wrong. But here's the thing I was talking about. The rockefeller christmas tree is the tallest gotcha the first Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center it looked more like Charlie Brown's than
the rest split in one today it was resplendent. Rest Clendon resplendent. Art resplendent is fun. Okay, Respondent one today, construction workers first place a small undecorated tree while working there in 1931. Two years later, another tree appeared in its place, this time, draped in lights, and it just kept getting bigger every year. Today, the majestic tree bears more than 25,000 twinkling lights and sees millions of selfie takers each
season. And it was a focal point of an episode of HawkEye was a mediocre show. But it had the big old Christmas tree in it so. Yeah, so your mom had just texted me? You got the dowry? Right. Couple minutes ago, she but I didn't I didn't have my notifications on estimate boundary. That was the thing where the dad pays the
groom. Oh, okay. Yeah. Candy Canes originated in Germany. National Convention Confectioners Association says a choir master originally gave the red and white striped candies to young children to keep them quiet. During marathon church services. grandmas who still sneak who still sneak the kids sweets during the droning sermons. History is on your side. It wasn't until a German Swedish Swedish immigrant decorated history with candy canes in 1847 that they became popular as a Christmas candy.
So I'm not big on new trends and modern things and we know popular ideas we know. But I am a fan of the candy canes that aren't peppermint flavored. I solved it. Guy you solve the Rubik's Cube fidget spinner. Good job. So I love the Skittles flavored candy cane so good. Starburst flavored candy. I love them. Yeah, I'm a big fan of this friend said she was gonna get me bacon candy canes. What Don't like bacon? That's, that's amazing. Yeah. All right. Do you want to get on
searched up? brave.com not an ad. And look this up. See if it's a thing or if it's just your friend messing with you because he knows you don't like bacon. She sent me a video or picture of it. No, you know, Walmart site over the Walmart site. Hmm. I may have checked that out. Maybe I'll bet it's terrible. I could just take some bacon and shape it like a candy cane and eat it. Oh, we got it. We got a link here. Let me click this visual link and oh, yeah, the old
fashioned candy flavored sticks. That's it's not a modern idea. They've been around forever. I just didn't. They're not shaped like cans and marketed at Christmas. So that's why I didn't didn't link that in my head with the root beer one and the butterscotch was the cotton candy ones are so good. Like when you go to one of the old fashion stores, you know, and they have the little stand up front with the different flavored they're they're like candy canes, but they're not a
cane. It's just a stick. It's like a candy walking stick. The 2d Fruity the cherry and the cotton candy ones are the best. Oh, the bubblegum one who are no no, no, no. Don't think of the cotton candy. That's yeah, butterscotch root beer in cotton candy. Yes, that's the three food groups that matter. Oh, yeah. The bubble gum one tastes too much like the antibiotics I took when I was a kid. So I didn't doesn't like bacon. That's it. I rage quit. I like a turkey
bacon. I don't like pig bacon. Because it's it's too greasy. Oh, you just haven't had good pig bacon. It's not that you just haven't seen good anime. Anything is like gatekeeping the reverse gatekeeping you want to get everybody into what you're into? Yeah, that's kind of me. Oh, bacon. Bacon is great. I love bacon. It's a good thing. But if I eat it too much, I'll get tired of it. So I don't want to do that. So I think we're gonna have to wrap up. Oh, four. We're about to hit 15 minutes on
the recorded episode. We will be on live. Probably gonna listen to some copyright free Christmas music. Definitely. Definitely copyright free because we don't want to infringe on anybody's copyrights on our live show. Definitely. So everybody have a fantastic Christmas, or whatever you celebrate. Just have a have a good end of December. And hopefully everybody's doing okay with this dreadful weather going on out in the country. And you know, what? Used to be like to be safe, used to be like a
thing. And then it turned into like a political thing. But, you know, just take care of yourselves out there. Yeah, I think most of our listeners are smart enough to be doing anyway. So. All right, everybody have a fantastic weekend. And we'll see you next time. Have a good Christmas. Bye. Oh, that's loud. Was did we not test it? I didn't test it. Is Kyle here today even though it's Christmas? Yeah, yeah, he actually showed up just for us. Oh my gosh,
is a metus media production. All right. Unless otherwise, if you like to help support the show, you can make a donation via Patreon over at FunFactFriday.com Just click the donations link at the top of the page. Please follow like and subscribe and join us next week for another Fun Fact Friday, you know that it's crazy that he he shows up every time and he says the exact same thing every time in the same in the same like tone. You know, that's because he's because he's professional, you know?