How Could All These Things Possibly Happen on One Weekend?!

be worth it? And and then we went and I couldn't stop talking about the clips for weeks, right, and this weekend, the planets are aligning in such a way that there are five massive events all coming together in one weekend, one weekend, Mango, And I'm not sure why they aren't getting more media coverage. So, I mean, I

can think of a couple of what what are these events? Well, Sunday is Easter and it's also April Fools Day, huh, And I mean I do feel like those are pretty well documented days, like people seem to know how to celebrate those. Well, that's true, but they don't always fall on the same day. Also, they're overshadowing some other huge events like Mark thirty one is National Bunsen Burner Day, and it's also National Clams on a half Shell Day. Okay, well,

I feel like you're stretching here. Well, well there's one more. It's our one year anniversary here at How Stuff Works. And today's super bonus episode is not only a quick thank you, but also some tips on how to celebrate this momentous weekend. Let's dive in. Hey there, podcast listeners, welcome to a super short bonus episode of Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend Manguesh Ticketer, and sitting behind that soundproof booth

is not Tristan. So Tristan was so emotional about this weekend, in this confluence of five major holidays, that he decided to go visit a grandmother. I actually saw I'm packing like a couple of Bunsen burners and a bag of clams, and I was wondering what he was doing. And it all makes sense now, it really does. But we have the wonderful Ramsey behind the sound proof booth, so we'll

get started now. So, Manga, what I want to do is celebrate these five massive holidays all occurring on one weekend by giving listeners one special fact to remember as they celebrate each event. How does that sound? That sounds pretty great? All right? So why don't we go with national Bunsen Burner Dave first? And it falls on March thirty one. Now I didn't know much about the German scientists Robert Wilhelm Eberhart von Bunsen. Is that not the greatest name? It is? We should totally do a full

episode on this guy because he sounds amazing. And there's a collection of weird stories about him called Bunsen Anya, which will have to read and talk about. Now. The reason we remember Bunsen is of course for his Bunsen burner, which was invented in eighteen fifty five, and he refused to patent it because he wanted to help humanity. But Bunsen also discovered the antidote to arsenic poisoning? Did you know of us? And I didn't realize that I didn't either until reading up on it for this and his

cure is still one we used today. Plus and this is maybe my favorite thing. He loved to teach, so he taught intro classes that his colleagues refused to because he wanted kids to fall in love with science. So an overall good guy. But how do you think we should celebrate him? Well, I mean, I was going to suggest everyone go out by a Bunsen burner and then like blast year speakers and wave it like you're waving a lighter at a concert. But that seems like a

terrible idea. It sounded a little dangerous, So I think instead we should all watch a Muppets clip in his memory. And that's because the character of Bunsen Honeydew is named for Dr Bunson, and if you'll remember, Honeydew is also a famous inventor in his own right. According to muppet Wiki, his inventions include quote a guerrilla detector, exploding clothes, edible paper clips, a banana sharpener, and a machine that can

turn gold into cottage cheese. All incredibly useful inventions. Oh man, and another reference to muppet wiki, I love that we do that on the show. So all right, well we should all take two minutes to watch a Bunsen and Beaker Muppets sketch. Alright, So onto the second big holiday on the list, And this one is celebrated by almost no one I know, but it should be. Yeah, I mean it's kind of the ringo star of this All

Star weekend. That's right. Well, it's National Clams on a Half Shell Day, and the holiday has some murky origins, but it was partially based on the fact that clams casino were invented a hundred and one years ago this year in Rhode Island. I mean, I like seafood, but

I've never loved clams for some reason. But I actually really loved the phrase clams casino, Like I almost want them to sell it in a toy aisle between like ant farms and sea monkeys, where I guess like kids can learn about bivolves by hangout at a clams casino. It may be the least exciting casino on So if you're not going to celebrate National Clams on a Half Shell Day and proper fashion, you know, by eating a bucket of them, how do you plan to celebrate this

fine day? Mango? Mostly by telling everyone my favorite clam fact in the world, and that's that scientists have tried putting clams on prozach I feel like maybe this is one of those dumb experiments where scientists are just trying to make a pawn like the whole seeing if jellyfish will eat peanut butter to make peanut butter and jellyfish, and and then just trying to see what that, you know, happy as a clam really means. So, so what is

this all about? It's actually that's what I thought too, Like, isn't it just kind of a curious way to see if clams on antidepressants would be happy? But uh, actually prozac has a surprising effect on claims. It's kind of like dimming the lights and playing very white for them because they just start mating like crazy on it. I love that they even thought to try this. But but that's a good way to celebrate. So we've covered the two biggies. We got Bunsen burner Day and clams on

a half shell Day. So I feel much better knowing we've put those facts out in the world. So we should probably do Easter. Of course, most people know about all the origins of Easter, and while we could go on a tangent about Jesus or bunnies or paganism or spring or ideas or rebirth, I actually want to talk about my favorite non traditional way to celebrate Easter. And that's by trying to destroy a peep. So I can't

stand the taste of peeps either. In addition to claims, but ever since our friend Michael used to like hide them in our rooms in college, I guess his mom used to like send him a ton of them and then he didn't know what to do with them, so you just like sneak into all our friends rooms and hide them in places. But I remember getting into bed once and just finding one staring at me from the bed posts, or like sitting on my bookshelf to study and and finding like little pieces all over the place.

But uh, I actually had no real connection to those candies until then, and now when I see them, they just make me irrationally happy. I'm the same way, and I love it. The idea of like our kids asking us one day about our crazy college days and like what crazy things did you do, and you're like, well, we had to go fund peeps in our dorm room

or whatever. But actually I do remember our friend Adam once brought a girl over and he was desperately trying to impress her, and everywhere she's set, like on the bed or on a chair or wherever she seemed to either step on or squish a peep. Hence she was totally not impressed for some reason. I have no I don't either, But you know what, there are a lot of great facts about peeps. The original peeps were hand

shaped by candy makers and actually had wings. You know that the town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where the Peeps factory is, it actually drops a giant peep for the New Year, you know, kind of like they dropped the ball in Manhattan and everything. And they're actually over one and a half billion of these candies consumed every spring. I don't know who's actually eating these things, because that just is insane. I'm with you, I don't love them, but I do

love that fact. But actually, my favorite fact is that in n two scientists at Emery had heard that peeps were indestructible, so they decided to test the theory. They microwave peeps, they boiled peeps, they put them in acid, tone even in sulfuric acid, and the peeps survived all of those things. It's just unbelievable. And then they have apparently put them in phenal, which finally destructed these incredible things. It melted the peeps down everything except the eyes, of course.

I mean this idea of just seeing like a peeps puddle and a pair of eyes during back at You is so creepy O kidding, But in honor of that experiment, I think everyone should take a peep and try to destroy it, use a hammer, a microwave, whatever tools you've got, and when all else fails, just eat it. Well I'm for that. So this year, Easter also falls on April Fool's Day, which we mentioned earlier, and that's strange. I actually can't remember that happening in a while though, I mean,

I guess it must have. But how do you think we should celebrate this one? Well? Maybe by not being totally skeptical of everything your friends tell you. So there are a bunch of things that have happened on April fools Day and years past that people haven't believed. The great comedian Mitch Hedberg passed away on that day and it wasn't taken seriously. Also, Nintendo and Sega decided to launch a joint sonic, the Hedgehog and Mario game. Of

course that seemed like a joke to most people. But my favorite one of these incidents that actually wasn't a prank, and this obviously has gotten some attention over the years, but in two thousand seven, Google sent out a notice to its employees that a python was on the loose in the building. This was in their New York City office, but apparently an engineer kept his ball python Kaiser around for fun and inspiration. I don't know why, and Kaiser decided he needed to get some fresh air, so he

took a tour of the offices. And this happened on April Fools that I really can't imagine, Like if I was just roaming the halls of Google and I saw a python wandering around, I'd be so terrified, like even too terrified to make like any coding and python jokes, No kidding, So anyway, So that's our advice to you this momentous holiday weekend. Watch the Muppets, share a clam fact, destroy a peep, and maybe trust your friends if if they tell you something outrageous, because it might just be true.

And one last thing, that's right, we forgot to tell them how to celebrate our one year anniversary at Part Time Junior. That's right. So if you like the show, tell a friend about it. Or write a review on iTunes to help us get the word out. We have loved every minute of doing Part Time Genius and we feel so lucky to get to connect with you every week. Thanks to Gabe, Tristan, Eve's, Amber, Ramsey, Tyler, Christopher and the entire crew here for helping us pull this show together,

and thank you so much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of how stuff works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and does the MIXI mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gabeluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan

Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve. Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave a good review for us. Did we did? We forget Jason Jason, who