Guess what, Mango?
What's that? Will?
I know?
You know I'm a big candy corn fan. I'm super excited Halloween's coming up. But did you know that candy corn used to be.
Called chicken feed? What?
According to Better Homes and Gardens, the revolutionary tricolor candy was invented by a company called Wonderly Candy Company.
Isn't that a great name? In Philadelphia?
This was back in eighteen eighty And do you know what the original slogan was, No, I don't something worth crowing for, which, actually, as I'm saying that aloud, do chickens crow?
I mean they're both birds.
I guess you're right, And it's the perfect slogan for chicken feed. And it's just the first of nine Halloween theme facts We've got for you today.
Let's dive in.
Hey their podcast listeners, welcome to part time genius Will Pearson And as always, I'm joined by my good friend mangesh hot Ticketter and on the other side of the soundproof glass, dressed up in his homemade costume.
I think he's a dentist. Is that what he was saying?
I think is our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. It's an impressive costume, whatever it is. And back from vacation. Joining us on the phone is our brilliant researcher, Gabe lucyer.
Hey, they're Gabe.
Hey, guys, nice to be back. Thanks for having me on.
All right, well let's talk some Halloween facts.
I know I usually let somebody else go first, but I'm not done talking about candy corns.
If you don't mind, I'm gonna kick this thing off.
So did you know what actually wasn't started as a Halloween candy? In fact, as late as nineteen fifty seven, Brocks was advertising it as this summertime candy. And I guess it makes sense because corn is kind of a summertime food. But I do have some really important statistics to share with you guys. So, according to a study, forty three percent of people eat it at the narrow end first, ten percent eat it at the wider end first, and forty seven percent of people just pop the whole
kernel in their mouths. Who doesn't just pop the whole kernel.
In their mouths?
I eat it from the narrow end.
Do you really gave? How do you eat it?
I honestly just try to avoiding it altogether.
All right, Well, now you at least know the percentages.
Okay, so there's my first fact, Mango, you want to go next.
So this comes from our friend Stacy Conrad. But she told me that tricker treaters in Des Moines can't just say trick or treat and expect they get like candy shoved into their pillowcases. They actually have to tell jokes for their truths. And apparently the tradition started in the thirties when there was this outbreak of Halloween vandalism. The director of recreation around there decided to encourage more constructive
Halloween activities. So here's actually what you told residents. Quote Eats should be given only if such a trick as a song, a poem, a stunt, or a musical number, either solo or in group participation, is presented. Eighty years later, the tradition still continues, and while the poems, stunts, and musical numbers have kind of gone out of style, kids still tell jokes for their candies.
So this has common all over Des Moines. I guess.
So, oh wow, I'd never heard that before either. That's a that's a pretty good one, all right, Gabe. So you're back from vacation, hopefully not too rusty. You got a fact for us?
Oh yeah, absolutely, And this one actually is in a you know, it's similar vein to you know, a public stand against Halloween nusances. So silly string is actually banned in Hollywood on Halloween night. And this is according to a Los Angeles Municipal Code ordinance that pass in two thousand and four. And it's anyone caught selling, or using or even possessing a silly string between midnight October thirty first and New November first can be fined up to
one thousand dollars. Oh and the reason for that is over one hundred thousand people routine only flocked to Hollywood Boulevard on Halloween night looking for something to do. And that something often includes, you know, buying shilly string from street vendors and reading havoc. Not only that, but you know, there are also environmental concerns. Big clumps of philly string, as well as the empty cans have a tendency to
claw storm dream and eventually flowed out the sea. Since LA's dreams empty directly into the Pacific Ocean.
Wow, this is a big issue. I had never heard this either me either. Good job, that was a good fact. All right, let me see what I have next here. I've got a really important fact about Halloween Eve. So I actually didn't realize how many people around the world have a name for Halloween Eve. There was a poll by the Cambridge Online Survey and they were looking at if people had a name for it. So seventy five percent of people don't call Halloween Eve anything, but twenty
five percent of people have names. So it was kind of fun to look at the list. So there's some that we've heard of before. There's beggars Night, Mischief Night, Devil's Night, Gate Night, trick Night. But two that I have never heard before. In New England many people call it cabbage Night, and in parts of New Jersey they call it Goosey Night.
You ever heard that goosey Knight? Now, all right, manga we have next.
So this is about a Halloween mess. And in nineteen ninety six, Spirit Halloween, which is a change, started keeping track of their political mass sales and they've picked up on this odd trend. They realized that whichever candidate's mass sold more, the candidate would win the election. And since nineteen ninety six, all six elections have gone in the direction of the more popular mask, and Trump sold fifty five percent of the mask to Hillary's forty five percent.
Wow, I'm actually kind.
Of surprised he didn't outsell her in even more, you know. Yeah, But anyway, that's uh, that's really interesting.
All right, Gabe, what do you have next?
Okay, So this is the fact that I was really surprised to learn. Apparently they're not one, but two cities in the United States that both claim to be the Halloween Capital of the world. And the first is Salem, Massachusetts, and you know, that makes sense. It's the home of the famous Salem witch trial, so it definitely has some
creepy cred in its favor. But the other is Anoka, Minnesota, And strangely enough, but Anoka claims to be the capital because it was the first city in the US to throw a Halloween celebration in order to stop kids from you know, sewing mystic around the town, like soaking up
people's windows and tipping over outhouses. So in nineteen twenty, the Anoka Commercial Club and the Yenoka Kiwanis Club through a big celebration that included a parade, a bonfire, foods, drinks, and you know, of course candy and then later expanded the events to include other things like pillow fights, costume contests,
and even a fireworks display. And the event is actually still being held in Anoka, and it has been every year since, with the exception of a prepliinatus during World War Two when citizens had, you know, bigger thing to storry about, the zeedding their houses.
The Halloween capitals are the competing Halloween capitals of the US.
That's very interesting. I'd never heard that.
All Right, we've each got one fact left, and I've saved what I think maybe my best for last. Even though it's not about candy corn, it's about Houdini, who appropriately.
Died on Halloween. I don't know if you guys knew this.
So he was rushed to the hospital a week before October thirty first, but then he ended up dying on October thirty first. Now, his death was the result of a ruptured appendix, and doctors were able to remove the appendix, but the damage had already been done. And you know, there's some speculation that the rupture was due in part to a man that was punching him in the stomach repeatedly to see if he could live up to the
rumors that he could withstand hard punches to the abdomen. Now, Houdini's wife would hold seances every year on October thirty first to remember him. This happened for about ten years after his death. All right, Mango, one last fact from you.
So this isn't a Halloween fact per se, but it is one about candy and maybe also a cautionary tale. So you know, in the movie Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, there's that character Violet Beauregard who's always chewing gum. So, according to the UK paper, they expressed sugarlest gum didn't produce the right bubbles, so she spent nine weeks on set chewing regular gum, which resulted in thirteen cavities after filming.
Wow, all right, you closed pretty strong with that one, I think, So, Gabe, do you want to bring it home?
Yeah? And I actually I do want to end on a creepy one. This is one of the creepiest things I came across, actually, and that's that The candy industry influenced daylight Saving time. You know, the actual dates when Daylight Saving Time occurred, right, And this is according to Michael Downing, the author of spring Forward the Annual Madness
of Daylight Saving Time. It's the great title, by the way, but the candy industry is actually the reason that DFP was extended by four weeks beginning in two thousand and seven. He told MPR, quote, for twenty five years, candy makers that wanted to get trick or treat covered by daylight saving figuring that if children have an extra hour of daylight,
they'll collect more candy. In fact, they went so far during the nineteen eighty five hearings on daylight saving has to put candy pumpkins on the seat of every senator, hoping to win a little favor. And the creepiest part about this is that have worked. The candy industry eventually got their way. Two thousand and five, President Bush signed a bill into law that extended daylight Saving Time to
include Halloween. And you know, supposedly the Gulf and barbecue industries are also said to have been in on this. On this push for extending.
It, I mean, it is pretty smart, and I do like those candy pumpkins.
They're pretty good.
Too.
Yeah, taste kind of like candy corn, but totally different shapes. All right, Gabe, you know, Mango and I are always deciding who the winner is, but you've done this with us a few times now, so I'm going to let you decide who takes the crown today.
Oh man, that's that's a lot of pressure. And you know, I don't want to shoot my own horn or anything, but that that was pretty creepy. And this there is a Halloween episode, so.
I like his confidence, so well, we'll agree to that. We'll give it to you, Gabe. Congratulations, Guy's good. Thank you guys for listening today. We'll be back with a full length episode tomorrow.
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