Are Potatoes Dangerous?

Welcome to Part Time Genius, a production of iHeartRadio.

Guess What Mango?

What's that?

Will? All right? So I know we both love mister potato Head. At least I remember that you loved mister potato Head. Did you remember that I loved mister potato head?

I did not remember that at all.

Yeah, big fan, big. And you know who invented mister potato Head. It was George Lerner, created back in nineteen forty nine. Uh huh.

So my favorite thing about mister potato heead was that it was initially just a bag of like face parts, and kids would supply their own potatoes to jab these face parts into it.

Right, that is exactly right. You could use any like use your imagination here. You could use carrots, turnips, or really any root vegetable that you wanted, But potatoes were chosen. This was interesting. Actually I didn't know exactly why. But one, they're cheap. Of course, they were affordable, and they were available year round on plus, I guess you could argue they're funnier they're mister turnip head, but I don't know that.

I don't know if you knew this, I did not know that what was before it.

Well, it was the first with three D pieces, so they added a D to what was being done out there in the world. It was competing with these these potato head toys at the time that were using two D pieces, like more like paper product type stuff, and so you would stick these just onto the vegetable. But what's interesting is that in nineteen thirty one, this was a full eighteen years earlier, So think about this, like potato toy technology was not fully evolved yet. But the

I don't know if you remember this.

In college when you thought you were a vegetarian and yet then you realize that the potatoes had been cooked in animal fat. But but I thought we'd make a whole show about potatoes.

I am all about this. Let's dive in.

Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer on the other side of that soundproof glass wearing a shirt that says in my readings, I think it says over haters. Is that what it says? Yes, I don't know what that means, but I love it and I feel like I need one as well. That's our good pal, Ramsey. So so Mango, what's up this week?

So I want to apologize to the listeners for this tease. We had a few I guess like a month ago or months ago, and thank them for being so patient because you and I got to make an episode right before my dad passed away, and my dad just loved it and he listened for the hospital. And you know, I had every intention of just plombing through and turning

Yeah, I still love this and I'm.

Just so grateful that we get to do this. So thank you for making time this.

Week to talk about potatoes whatever diculous topics.

So, yeah, where do you want to start?

Do you want to talk about how the universe might be shaped like a Pringle ship, or how the Alaskan gold Rush during it, desperate miners used to actually trade gold for potatoes because it was so nutritious, or what.

Are you going to start with these? That's there's some good teases there I feel like should be considered. But I'm actually gonna start with a fact about France back in then seventeen hundreds, when the potato mango it was actually declared illegal. Okay, yep. So potatoes came to Europe by way of the Spaniards, who themselves had brought the vegetables back from the Inca Empire in South America, of course,

Wait wait wait, yeah, yes, so you've done like a word search and found that potatoes aren't aren't found in the Bible.

That they are not. No, I did the full search. No, I actually just read through it. I should have done a search all, but I just kind of read through the whole thing didn't find it once. So anyway, basically nobody will touch these things, even hungry commoners. And then potatoes get blamed for things like when leprosy spreads, of course everybody blames it on the potatoes. In all this mayhem,

Wow.

Wait, so can I tell you how excited I am to have Nord VPN sponsoring our little show part time genius. You know, when I get excited, I make lists, and I'm going to tell you why Nord is so great in listical form. First off, VPNs make the Internet a safer, cozier place. VPN stand for virtual Private network. Basically, they hide your IP address and protect your online identity and data, which is especially good for people like me who use

And three, one.

NordVPN subscription can be used on up to ten devices, which is incredible. I mean, I don't want to do the math for you, but whether you use ten cell phones or you have like nine desktop computers and one last top or six iPads, three phones and one personal computer, there are a lot of ways to stretch this deal. I mean, I'm joking, but also I have like a million devices, So the idea of spreading this across ten

Anyway, if you love.

Our show and you want to support a show and you need a VPN, this is absolutely the deal for you. To get the best discount off your NordVPN plan, go to nord vpn dot com slash ptg. That's NordVPN dot com slash ptg. Our link will also give you four extra months on the two year plan and there is no risk no risk with Nords thirty day money back guarantee. That is NordVPN dot com slash ptg. Or you can

So there's this army officer Antoine Parmentier, and he gets captured by the Prussians in the seven year war, and so basically he's fed potatoes at this prison, and he doesn't notice any ill effects, like he's supposed to get leprosy and get all sick and all these other things. He stays healthy pretty much the whole time. But also he notices that France at the time has stopped exporting grains and the Prussian army actually uses potatoes as a

So what's his greatest stunt.

He plants a potato patch. He puts a ring of armed guards around it, so everyone starts thinking of them as like this luxury. I mean, this really is pretty smart. I think of them as this, you know, very valuable thing. But then he quietly tells the guards to accept bribes and allow people to start stealing the potatoes. So in seventeen seventy two, all these peasants steel potatoes and treat

French science is just on top of it.

I was right and know what they're doing.

So is Parmentier like famous in France for doing this?

I mean, I guess kind of. And he, you know, the potato helped France get through some difficult famines, and Louis the sixteenth rewarded him for his work, actually declaring how important Parmentier was keeping the masses fed. And when he died, Parmentier's casket was actually placed in a plot circled with potato plants, and in the middle there's this bronze statue of him handing a potato to a commoner who's standing below him.

So just so you know, I would also like a statue of me handing out potatoes to commoners, just so I can remember it as like a man of the people.

Yeah, no, I kind of expected this. So there's already one in the works. I've started out paying in installments so that it'll be ready. It's going to be very expensive. But anyway, enough about Parmentier. What fact are you going to start with?

I've got one about baseball. So you've heard of the old baseball trick where a first baseman might.

Walk up to the pitcher and fake hand on.

The baseball, but actually he keeps the ball on the glove and ye when he walks back to the bag and the base runner steps off the base take a lead, he sort of tags him out.

Yeah, of course, And it's like this old trick that mostly gets used. I don't know, I feel like in kids movies about baseball, like you remember this Rookie of the Year, I mean, one of the greatest films of all time.

I think, yeah, it is a very Rookie of the Year play. But this minor league catcher for the Williamsport Bills. His name is Dave Bresnahan. He was completely obsessed with this trick play and this was in the late eighties, like nineteen eighty seven, and Bresnahan was actually obsessed with a variation of that trick using a fake baseball.

I love that n anybody was obsessed with this trick. But anyway, how does that work?

Yeah, so in this case, the catcher replaces the ball in his glove with the potato because you know how people always confuse like baseballs for potato.

Yeah, it always happens.

So the way the trick works is that the catcher accidentally throws the potato into outfield like it's an error, and then you know, when the base runner tries to steal home, the catcher shows that he actually has the baseball hidden his glove the whole time and tags them out.

And do people they actually did this in baseball games.

So according to the La Times, which is where I read about the story, I guess a few people got away with it in their earliest days of baseball.

It was called the Tater trick.

And anyway, so Bresnahan decides he's going to pull off the tater trick in a real game, and he goes all out.

He pays an artist to carve a.

Potato and paint seems on it like it's a real baseball even picks the perfect game. He wants to do it against the Phillies farm team in Reading because the Philly fanatic will be there and that means they'll be more of a crowd, right, and he starts trying to lay the groundwork like in games before the big one, he starts trying to pick off players at third, so he's kind of getting this reputation as a catcher who picks off players.

Mm hmm.

Anyway, the big day arrives and in the sixth inning he gets into the perfect situation. There are two outs and a man on third, and Reresnahan knows this is his moment, so he comes up with this excuse. He tells the empire that the webbing on his glove is off and he needs to replace his glove, and then he walks to the dugout, grabs this ridiculous carved potato and then walks back.

So does anybody notice that he's doing this.

The whole team?

Like, I don't think the manager new but the whole team starts laughing, and they're having a hard time like controlling themselves because they know what's up. And Presidahan himself

And here's the.

Thing, right, Presihan assumes if his team follows him, the other team will walk off too and the game will just move on and continue.

So does this work?

Not at all?

Oh man?

The officials are super confused. His teammates stay on the field. In the meantime, the third base ump goes to inspect this you know, broken up potato, and when he realized what's happened, officials just award the runner home plate and then Bresnahan gets pulled from the game for his Shenanigans and the next day he's fined fifty dollars and cut from the team.

Oh my gosh, that we have way more sad than I expected. That's a funny trick.

Reresnahan actually didn't mind that much because he was not that great a player, and the fans loved it, so he became such a like fan favorite or this legend that the team ended up retiring his jersey at the sold out game. And uh, and they charge a dollar for tickets where not only could you attend, but you also got a potato with your ticket, And actually the largest chunk of that potato he threw in that Phillies game is in a jar of alcohol sitting on display

And yeah, he came out on top. That's pretty fun.

So what do you have that's next? All right?

How about a quick one from the Farmer's Almanac. I know you're a fan of the Farmer's Almanacs, so I feel like that's where my favorite of the Almanacs. Oh, definitely, definitely. So if you've got a knife with some small rust spots, you can actually use a potato to fix that.

So how's that work? Do you like use the potatoes to sprub away the rust or what?

I mean? That would be one way, But according to the Almanac and quite a few other online sources, it's actually even easier than that. So you just insert the knife into the potato, let it sit, and the oxalic acid and the potato will work on the rust and soften it so that it then rinses away.

How great would it be if that was like the best way to clean all your utensils, Like you just stab them into potatoes and leave them overnight to clean them.

Be the best feelings. Just keep stabbing potatoes.

I'd have so many potatoes around.

Speaking of a lot of potatoes, here's a trend I kind of want to bring back from twenty twelve in Japan, and it's the McDonald's potato party.

I mean, we've established you do love McDonald's French fries.

I know with sweden sower sauce. It's it's like one

And I would agree with that. But did this become a trend?

Yeah, Like potato parties started popping up all over the place, and some kids saw the twenty three fry order as a challenge. Obviously, so in Okinawa, some kids ordered forty large fries. At the McDonald's near Okayama Station, a small group of kids ordered sixty large fries, and that photo got retweeted tens of thousands of times apparently, and so, like, you know, the kids are supposed to finish these fries, and they actually do, like like I think, it takes them about three hours, but.

The employees get super upset.

Apparently the fries took up a whole large table on their own, and then all the people watching these kids house these fries take up another large table. So you know, it felt like they were losing business. And one employee from the restaurant took to Twitter and just asked for it to quote please stop, please stop. That said, if you are heading trays and trays of fries over to kid, you've got to expect there's gonna be a little chaos.

When you said the three hours, though, the only thing I could think of is like, while the fries are delicious, after about thirty minutes, if they're sitting there, they go from really good to pretty gross pretty fast. I wonder they must have just kept ordering them rather than ordering a bunch at one time, because I don't know I'd have to see how that works. But how did the trend finally die down?

So McDonald's just up the price on the fries to their regular price and it kind of stopped really soon after that, which is a pretty simple fix.

Yeah, yeah, all right. So here's a weird When I was watching this documentary about potato chips and ed her from Hers Potato Chips, and he said that if they still made potato chips the way they used to, this was about fifty years ago when the company started, they would have to charge twenty five dollars a bag.

Twenty five dollars the back. Why is that?

I mean, that's just how much the industry has automated since then. It's actually kind of amazing to watch how it all works. So when a truck full of potatoes goes to the Hers factory, the trailers pulled onto a scale where the potatoes are then weighed, and then it lifts the potatoes and dumps the potatoes onto a conveyor belt and the whole process starts kind of without humans.

That is amazing, you know.

Speaking of potato chip bags, here's a quick interesting one. So people absolutely hate that potato chip bags are over fifty percent air. In fact, Korean college students in twenty fourteen protested this fact by taking one hundred and sixty potato chip bags, binding them together with plastic and tape, and using them to build a raft to float across the river. And apparently two hundred plus people watch that feet. But the question remains, why do potato chips have so much air in them?

Mm hmm, yeah, And do you have an answer to this?

Yeah, it is intentional. It is called slackvill and that's the industry term. Basically, those bags are pumped full of a little extra nitrogen to both keep the chips preserved but also because if the bags are packed with air, they won't get mishandled, and you won't end up with a bag full of crumbs. A way to protect you from getting a half bag of like fully round chips.

Oh that's interesting. I guess we always assume that it's just too to be cheap or cheat us out of a certain number of chips or something. But that's pretty interesting. All right, We've got a couple more facts to go, but let's pause for just a quick break. Welcome back to part time Genius, where we're talking about a really important summer topic, potatoes, of course. So Mango, we've each got one fact to go. What do you want to close with?

Well, I know you're probably a little late to celebrate this, but I want to point out to you that in two thousand and eight, the UN declared it the International Year of the Potato.

Okay, well, we're just what fourteen years behind celebrating this historic event. That's never too late, It's okay.

Well, it's kind of interesting why the UN decided to do this. As they put it, they wanted to shed new light on a hidden treasure, and part of the reason is that growing potatoes is surprisingly efficient in combating

I agree. I kind of like that too.

So how are you gonna close this up?

All?

Right?

Well, I was torn. There were a couple facts I was looking at, but I'm gonna save one of them for this. I think we need to do a follow up with nine more great facts about potatoes because they're just so much. But how about a fact about couch potatoes? So unlike most etymology, which can be pretty frustrating because the origins are always you know, pretty murky. We've dealt with that on several topics before. There is an exact

None of this sounds real, this.

Joke parade to parody the Tournament of Roses Parade. But one day in nineteen seventy six, Lsino called up Armstrong and when his girlfriend answered the phone, he asked, Hey, is the couch Potato there? And apparently she looked over saw her boyfriend just planted on the couch and started laughing. And after that they rebranded as the couch Potatoes and tried to trademark the word, but it actually became too popular in pop culture for them to protect the mark.

So that is so funny that there's actually a person who invented that phrase, Tom Lasino. I think you deserve this week's trophy for best Fact, But since I don't actually know you, I think will you should accept this award in his honor.

All right, I guess I'll do that. Thanks so much, Tom, I appreciate it, buddy. That's it for this week's Part Time Genius. Will be back with more very important facts soon.

Thanks so much for listening.

Part Time Genius is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show.