Guess what, mango, what's that?
Well, I'm not sure if you've ever been to the Secret Museum in New York City. There's a secret museum. Yeah, it's hidden in this elevator shaft, and it's pretty incredible. Each shelf is considered its own wing of the museum, and they have all sorts of weird things in there, from vintage magazines to a gallery of weird toothpaste from around the world, to the shoe that was supposedly thrown
at George Bush at that Iraqi Press cow rest. It's so strange, and it's all hiding in this tiny hidden museum that commuters just walk past all the time.
It's strange how many like little museums and galleries there are hiding all around us. Like I feel like I only learned about this micro toy museum in my neighborhood when it showed up on my son's Pokemon Go So that thing did prove useful very.
The crazy thing is they are actually more museums in the country than Starbucks and McDonald's combined. Like, according to the Washington Post, there are over thirty five thousand museums in this country and they cover every conceivable topic, from a forest fire museum in Idaho to a museum of maritime pets and a Napos maritime Pets.
I really want that museum to just be a giant gallery of parrots owned by famous buccaneers.
I'm pretty sure that's what it is. We have to check it out, but doesn't it feel like a waste? I mean, if there are that many museums hiding all around us, shouldn't we be taking advantage of them? So that's what we're going to do in this episode. We're creating a weird summer travel guide filled with obscure places that deserve way more attention. What do you say we 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 Ticketter, and today we're talking about finding ways to fit.
In a little weirdness into your summer.
So, as you know, Mango, a few weeks ago, while we were recording a few episodes, my wife and kids were doing their annual trip with three or four other moms and a herd of kids the Great Smoky Mountains. They go in they camp there for three nights in Elkmont, Tennessee. And it's not just for the camping. It's because there's a species of firefly that light up in synchrony. That's right, synchronize fireflies. And it only happens for about two weeks in June.
Just two weeks, like that's such a short window.
It is, but it sounds magnificent and it's one of the only places in the world where you can see them. There have been some others found in the swamps of South Carolina and some other areas of the Appalachians, but this has become such a big deal in the Smokies that the camp sites at Elkmont book up a year in advance. But during the second week in June you can take a trolley up to the area and see the fireflies, even if you're not a camper.
That's something I definitely want to see. Well, that's what got me.
Thinking, somemer may have already started, but it's not too late to find lots of other unique and weird things to see and do around the country before the season ends.
Definitely not and to help us find some of the most interesting off the beaten path places and events around the country, we turn to our friends at one of our favorite websites at liss Obscura. Now, if you don't know atless Obscure, you've got to check it out. And in a bit will be joined by Dylan Thuris, one of the founders, to hear about some of his favorite spots.
And I'm sure you've got a ridiculous quiz ready for two lucky people.
Of course, who are.
We going to have on the line today.
Well, we've got a travel theme, so we've got two travel agents from Virginia and they'll be joining us to play weird world laws.
All right, Okay, well let's get started. So we know it can sometimes be tough to schedule around exact dates that we'll still get to a few awesome festivals later on in the episode, but let's start with some places you can go to pretty much any week. And because we love museums that are focused on very specific things, I think we should kick this off with a few of those. I see you've made a big list here, Mango.
Yeah, I've got this list of one hundred and thirty one must see museums around the country right now.
Well, that's great, but I'm not sure we have time for one hundred and thirty one places, and in fact, you're moving from Brooklyn to Atlanta this summer. Yeah, I'm barely even getting a summer. So why don't you say, why don't we pick eight and we'll talk about those.
I'm gonna cut my list off right here. Okay, let's begin right here on the East Coast and start with the museum dedicated to one of my favorite instruments, the kazoo. Whoa, I'm talking about the Kazoo Museum at the Kazoobi Kazoo Factory in Bocher at South Carolina. Did you know the kazoo is actually one of the only homegrown instruments in the US.
All right, Well, while I can't say I'm an expert on weird instrument history, I actually do know this one because of its origin. So a few episodes ago, you got to share lots of fun facts about your home state of Delaware. So I feel like it's my turn to recognize some of the very important facts about my home state of Alabama. I don't know if you've noticed, but we come from some pretty influential states here, Mayory.
But I know this one because the kazoo was invented by an Alabama vest and clockmaker, Thaddeus von Klegg, almost two hundred years ago.
That's right. And do you think we're going to be the first podcast to mention a clockmaker from Alabama?
Probably?
So?
But did you know that the kazoo is also known as the down South summer?
Good God, no, I didn't.
Now I feel bad for running away from that man who asked if I wanted to check out his down South submarine.
This sounds like a really fun museum.
By the way, did you know that kazoo is sometimes called the most democratic.
Of all instruments?
Oh?
Yeah?
Why is that?
Because they're cheap and approachable and basically anyone can just pick one up and play it immediately. There's this avant garde piece from the nineteen seventies called With one Hundred Kazoos, and audience members are given kazoos to a company, a little orchestra of real musicians, and they don't sound bad because kazoos are that easy. All right, But let's move on. Where do we go from Beaufort, South Carolina. Let's head
one state up to North Carolina to a museum. I have to admit I didn't even know existed when we went to college in the state. It's the Museum of the Alphabet in Waxhaw, North Carolina. And what happens at the Museum of the Alphabet, Well, it started out as a project intended to translate the Bible into as many languages as possible. But even if that's not your interest, it's a pretty fascinating project. It's really a celebration of
the history of the ridden life language. There are twelve galleries dedicated to individual languages or families of languages, from Greek to Hebrew to African languages. But I think what's most interesting about it is the focus on minority languages that are only spoken by a small number of people, and they might be going extinct if they're not preserved.
I remember seeing a fact somewhere that of the seven thousand languages in the world, about a third of those lack a written alphabet, So all of those would definitely be at risk of being lost completely if people stop speaking them.
Yeah, my family actually speaks a tiny dialect of a language called Konkni, which doesn't have its own script, and it was great growing up because it's basically like a secret language that I had just with my parents. There are so few speakers, but it's really not that useful
if you're trying to get around India. But it's fascinating that the Museum of the Alphabet is really trying to preserve languages, and one of the ones they focused on is that of the Galah communities of South Carolina, Georgia,
and Florida. It's a creole language of some of the African American populations in the coastal region, and it was developed out of several West African languages in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a way for slaves or different backgrounds to communicate with one another.
It's so interesting. I definitely want to check this place out.
Well. While you're there, you can also see how your name would look and cling on.
That's pretty cool too.
Actually, that reminds me of the time you and I went to speak to the employees at Google and Mountain View, California. Remember this trip definitely. Because we'd heard they were so smart, we decided to put them to the test and had a few language experts create the world's geekiest crossword puzzle, so every answer was in a constructed language like Klingon and Elvish and Esperanto, and we told them whoever completed
it would get a free T shirt. Now, not only did we run out of T shirts because so many of them completed it, but they were correcting our grammatical mistakes.
And these constructed languages, I guess they are pretty smart.
Yeah, it's so crazy.
Okay, So another fascinating spot.
Where to next?
Well, there are two other spots in the South before we head up to the northeast. The first is right here in Georgia in Statesboro at the Georgia Southern Campus. It's the US National Tic Collection and it's the largest collection of its kind in the world.
Wow, this definitely seems fitting for this time of year when we're all searching for ticks after we go for a hike, and especially that one that makes people vegetarian because it gives you an intolerance to eating meat.
How weird is that?
I know, it's like the meat lobby's nightmare.
But how big could this tick collection be? Are there really that many kinds of ticks out there?
I was so surprised. They have over a million specimen and there are eight hundred and sixty species of these bloodsuckers collected from all seven continents.
Wow. I just opened the website here and I see that they're open just a couple of days a week for a couple hours each, so you definitely need to plan in advance. Oh and this collection is actually owned by the Smithsonian Institution.
That's pretty cool.
M hm. And my other span in the South is in Scottsboro, Alabama.
Yes, another Alabama fact. And I know this one, so please let me talk about it. I mean, you owe me after all the Delaware facts and the tax savans issue.
Okay it a floor is yours.
So this is the Unclaimed Baggage Center in North Alabama, and it's not technically a museum, but it might as well be. It's where every piece of lost luggage from around the country goes. It's a forty thousand square foot facility and they take all the best stuff from the lost luggage they acquire from the airlines and put it on sale there.
How weird is that?
Is so weird?
And it's been around since the seventies. I think it was an insurance salesman who decided to buy unclaim luggage from a bus station first, and then he'd set up shop somewhere and sell all this stuff. This was all before you expand it into the airline world, and there are literally millions of items passing through there every year.
Have you actually ever bought anything from there?
Where? Do you think I got this awesome American flag cowboy hat? Anyway, it's definitely worth a visit, if only just to see the weirdness of all the stuff people have lost.
Well, the unusual thing to me, too, is that it isn't just a pile of junk like from what I've read. It's actually kind of a nice shopping experience.
Yeah, they've got a guest services desk with a concierge who can help you find some great dining options in the city. They'll provide you with personal shoppers. They even have someone take care of your pet while you rummage. It's a full service thrift shop. But thanks for letting me talk about it. I think it's what that's four places now?
Next, Well, I figured i'd owed you, but we've done a little music, some language, some bugs, and I think we deserve a break. So we're gonna head up north where we can kick back, hand our kids some quarters and then ignore them for a while while we bask in the warm globe screen.
Nice.
Actually these are two different places, but they're very much related. The first is a dream spot for retro arcade nerds. It's called the American Classic Arcade Museum in Laconia, New Hampshire, and according to Guinness, it's the largest arcade in the world.
Wow.
So it's a museum, but you can also play the games they have.
Definitely, there are hundreds, and the focus is on many of the classic coin operated games that were so popular before there was a significant shift in the eighties and early nineties to the more violent stuff.
Okay, now I'm looking at their website and I see they not only have the Kiss that's the band pinball machine, but also the Harlem Globe Trotters, Sandball, the Sheet And I see we miss something called Brofest. I feel like I'm okay with that, though I might prefer to visit when it's not Brofest whatever that is.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure Profest is like a big networking event for professionals from all over the globe, of course, But speaking of pinball machines, that's the perfect segue into the other half of this thing we're pretending is one visit, and that's the Pinball Hall of Fame and Museum in Hopewell Township, Pennsylvania. They have four hundred vintage games in pinball machines, with over twelve hundred more in storage.
I actually love the history of penball.
It's so weird.
So did you know that after pinball was invented in the nineteen thirties, Mayor La Guardia, you know, the one that New York's least successible airport by public transit is named after. Anyway, he had more than two thousand pinball machines confiscated in the early nineteen forties because they were considered gambling machines.
Yeah. This classic photo of him holding a sledgehammer winding back getting ready to go after one.
That's a tough guy to destroy a penball machine. But yeah, I really do want to see this place, so Pennsylvania. All right, Well, before we head to our next destination, what do you say we take a little detour and
talk to one of our favorite adventure lovers. Dylan Thuris is our old friend and co founder of Atlas Obscura, a definitive guide to the world's most wondrous and curious places In addition to cataloging the world's wonders and web and book form, Atlas has also hosted incredible events where you can meet wolves at bars, explore subterranean graveyards, learn lock picking from expert locksmiths, and even how a duet
with a gibbon. It's truly one of our favorite sites to get lost in and we're so excited to have him here today.
Welcome Dylan.
Hey, thanks for having me on. Man, guess it's so exciting to be here.
All right, all right, So Dylan, tell us a little bit about how you founded Atlas Obscuro.
Yeah.
So I met Josh, my co founder, way back in my two thousand and seven and I was about to go on a big trip. I was moving to Hungary to Budapest for a year, and we were done through previous projects about ideas of wonder and discovery, and we started talking about travel and the kinds of places we like to find and how difficult it could be actually to find these sort of tiny museums or you know, collections of mummies, or the sort of stuff that really
like stuck with you when you traveled someplace. So basically it came out of a desire to create a database of that kind of stuff for ourselves as travelers, and we thought, you know, I bet you there's tons of people out there who know about some incredible place that they grew up next to or they happened upon on a trip, and we should make a kind of a place where people can put those incredible locations. And so
that's how it started. And living in Eastern Eurofe, I traveled around and started finding some of these things with myself, and then in two thousand and nine we launched alis Obskira and it's always been a kind of open platform where people tend to submit a place and so yeah, to this day, people still send stuff in it's totally mind boggling that you've never heard of.
So how do you make time in your life to explore with a busy job and all this other stuff?
Yeah, I mean, I think one of the thesist statements of Alice Obscira is that you can find incredible wonders, you know, around the corner from you, that you don't have to travel around the world. And so a lot of times it's just trying to be really curious about what is already around you. It's sort of if you see something unusual that you drive by, it's like taking the time to stop and knock on the door or
see if you can get in somehow. You know. I recently moved, and so I've been exploring this area around where I live, and I found out that there's a you know, maybe a minute from me, there's a gigantic, huge mine that is open to the public that you can just kind of walk into and they host like concerts there. Sometimes it's really incredible and it's always surprising. What's you know, just right around the corner from you.
Wow, that's pretty cool. We're talking in this episode about several of the oddball museums around the country, and you know, Mangesh came up with a pretty awesome list of this. And do you have any favorite museums around the country, you would say, just for our listeners to check out this summer.
Yeah, sure, I mean, if we're going to sort of keep it specifically unusual museums, there's a few really good ones. Obviously this is a really well known one, but the Muter Museum or Mutter Museum in Philadelphia is America's greatest medical museum, and it is just an incredible collection of skulls and wax faces with horrible skin diseases. It's not, you know, it's not for the week of stomach if
you have. If you're not comfortable with that kind of stuff, it's probably like you might want to take it slow. But it really is an unbelievable museum. And it's really an example of a kind of museum that was more prevalent than sort of mentally eighteen hundreds and still exists all over Europe. The just earn't very many of them there in the US. And the Muter is an incredible museum. It's questionable if you can call on a museum exactly.
But one of the places that started me on this whole journey this past is a place in Wisconsin called the House on the Rock. And the House on the Rock is kind of a like a legendary tourist stops. It's tucked back in the woods of Wisconsin. If you weren't kind of told about it or hadn't heard of it, you wouldn't have any reason you wouldn't kind of sort
of stumble across it. But what it is is it started out as one man's kind of architectural project the sort of at least the myth is that it was a screw you to Frankloyd Right, that this guy went to work for Franklood Right and he told him I wouldn't hire you to build a Chicken cooper a cheese great and the guy said, I'm going to go build the greatest Francloid Right house ever. So it's this weird
off brand Frankloyd Right house. And whether whether the myth is true or not, I mean, it's almost certainly not, but it works, and you definitely, it definitely is a very sort of Frankloyd Wrong vibe as you as you go through who Over time, this house sort of started acquiring other collections and other museums, and they attached this enormous set of warehouses sort of buried in the forest, and you really can't tell how big the place is. He start going through it and it takes like five
hours to go through. And inside of this house is a whale, a sculpture of a whale fighting a squid that is the size of the Statue of Liberty. It's like my house. The world's largest carousel is in the house with the world's most diverse collection of carousel animals.
The house is actually it's a big set piece in Neil Deaemon's book American Gods, and he is said on the record that he had to tone down the craziness of the house on the rock because no one would believe even though it's a book of fantastical fix the actual house is too much, too intense. So that I went to that place when I was like twelve on a road trip with my parents and it kind of set me on this path. Wow in a way.
And is another big day coming up, and I've seen you guys are promoting it on the website as well, on August twenty first as the complete solar eclipse. So tell us a little bit about how you guys are celebrating this and where you will be on that day.
Yeah, I am so so freaking excited about this. So you know, August twenty first is going to be like this once in a lifetime celestial experience, total solar eclipse cutting across almost the entire United States. And you know, short of traveling all over the world, there are these eclipse chasers who basically go all around the world seeking kind of the next great eclipse. For most people in the US this will be their best chance to see a total solar eclipse I at least for forty some years.
So we are having a big three day party out in kind of rural Oregon, in an area that's weather wise is thought to have one of the best chances of getting a totally clear view of the eclipse. And we've got Science Friday from MTR coming out. We've got a ton of musicians and performers. We have the Sun Raw Orchestra performing sort of themed themed celestial act and it's just going to be a celebration of kind of the science, the wonder and the beauty of this this natural event.
Oh that's awesome really and I'll be me and.
The fam will will be out there. Wow, yeah, it'll be good.
Well, that's going to be great.
We're going to be watching it from from Nashville, which is I know in the band that's supposed to see it, so so not quite.
As remote as you will be.
But I've already purchased my solar clips viewing glasses.
Great.
Excited for that, But almost as exciting as this is the quiz that we're about to take.
So Mango, what what game is done? Playing today.
This is a game called Trucking in Puns and it's based on Atlas Obscure. Is incredible catalog of crowdsourced puney titled food Trucks.
Trucking in Puns I like it. So basically, we're going to take an incredible food truck name and give you a clue and you have to tell us its punny name.
So don't worry. This will be fun and we hope you're ready to play.
You ready, Dylan, I think, so prepare for disaster.
All right, We've just got a few questions here. Okay, here we go.
This food truck combines a Vietnamese soup with the number of tires it has.
It's in Washington, d C.
Okay, here we go. Question number two. This food truck combines a cure song about days in the week with a breakfast dish that comes sunnyside up or over easy.
God, that's hard.
Oh man, Wow, nicely done.
So this is a real food truck. Yeah, Frida egg I'm in love. Good job. Wow. Okay, next question.
This food truck name combines a French loaf of bread and something Tony Soprano might tell you after he does you a small favor.
Oh I actually I remember this one is one of my favorites. Forget about it?
Yes, all right? Two more, here we go.
This food truck celebrates pork while naming itself for Tupac's rival from Clinton Hill.
Oh, notorious pig.
It's gotta be it is okay?
Last one here a famous Rolling Stone song which shows compassion for Satan combined with a place you might get a cold cut sandwich like Cats Is in New York City.
I really want this to be about Satan. But if not, is it sympathy for the deli?
You got it?
Five for five?
Wow? Five for five? So what is Dylan one today?
Well that earns him an official certificate of admiration from us here at Part Time Genius. Thanks so much for joining us, Dylan, congratulations.
That's my actual only skill is.
But we hope all of our listeners will check out Alice Obscure if you have not already. Dylan, thanks so much for joining us today.
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Welcome back to Part Time Genius.
So Mango has been taking us on a tour of the weird museums to get out of the summer heat. Now we hit up the Kazoo Museum in South Carolina, the Museum of the Alphabet in North Carolina, the US National Tic Collection in Georgia, Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama, the American Classic Arcade Museum in New Hampshire, and then the Pinball Hall of Fame in Pennsylvania.
All right, where to next, Mago.
Well, all this touring has probably made you a little hungry, so let's head over to the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota.
Hey, by the way, I had this.
Funny experience in college where I was at a party in chatting with this guy and he said he was from Austin, and I said, Oh, that's such a cool town. And he just went off talking about how great the Spam Museum is, like at length, and I kept thinking, I mean, there's south By, Southwest city Limits, barbecue, so many cool things. Why is he hung up on spam? And then I eventually I figured it out. Yeah, but all his evangelism did make me want to go.
Now, have you ever had spam Mango?
No, I have no interest in trying it, but I like it as a punchline.
I actually haven't tried it either, but I feel like we need to change that in a future episode. Maybe we'll find a way to incorporate it into a food quote. I do think the history of spam is super interesting, and because I can't stop pulling up the websites of places you're mentioning, I see they're celebrating a big birthday this year.
That's right. Spam was first created in nineteen thirty seven at the Hormeelle Foods Corporation plant, so they're turning eighty. And at the museum you can follow its history and see tons of memorabilia from World War Two and the role it played in the war. I mean, it's such a massively popular food in several of the island cultures of the Pacific. Because of the spread during the war, can was an easy way to give sustenance to soldiers in far flung visions, and the military really doubled down
on it. I think we shipped over a hundred million or possibly even one hundred and fifty million pounds of spam to soldiers around the world during the war.
Wow, I know it was so present in the soldiers daily lives. They actually started referring to Uncle Sam as Uncle Spam.
Yeah, there's so many interesting facts about spam, Like did you know that Hallie Selassi, the Rastafarian messiah and Ethiopian leader, took a tour of the Spam Museum when he visited the States. Actually, I know it's not time for the fact Off yet, but maybe we should have a special mini fact Off Spam edition.
Oh that's a great idea. Okay, Can I go first?
Definitely?
All right?
So, there used to be a mascot named Slam and Spamy. According to the Daily Meal, he was a machine gun toading, bomb hurling, angry face pig introduced by Hormel to help support the war effort, and he showed up on everything from clothing to bombers.
I want that T shirt too. The McDonald's breakfast platter in Hawaii actually includes a slice of spam.
Well, in Guam they eat an average of six cans per year.
In South Korea, it's considered a luxury food and it's appropriate to give to a host when you attend their party.
So there used to be a kosher spam distributed by the Israeli Army. It was made of chicken or beef, but they phased it out in two thousand and eight.
Okay, Well, if I say you win, will you agree to go check out this museum with you?
Totally? All right? Next?
All right? The next one is one of the craziest and most interesting places people have never heard of. And it's in Hutchinson, Kansas.
All right, Kansas. So what is it.
It's a place called Stratka and it's a huge salt mine where the Kansas Underground Salt Museum lives. So this mine is insanely big. It has veins that extend all the way to New Mexico. Oh wow, But there's a museum down there that's sixty five stories underground, Like that's basically an underground skyscraper.
Yeah, you can.
Take a tram tour there. And there's apparently a two hundred and fifty million year old salt crystal that researchers have actually found a living bacterium in.
Wow. That place sounds pretty cool.
And I'm not even done. The mine is also a storage location for government records. Do you want to find master prints of like Gone with the Wind or The Wizard of Oz, Well, this is the place.
To look, oh way.
And also sometimes they host something called Murder in the Mine at the dinner theater there.
All right, you're just making this up at this point.
It's so serious you should look it up. I mean, even on every other website related to this tour of Weird Museum.
I am and holy crap, you're not making this up. I've got to see this place. So it looks like you've got one more place to take us to before we break for a quiz, and then I'm going to share a few fun festivals everyone should check out this summer.
Okay, so I know we said eight, but let me just say, if you're already in Kansas, it would be a shame if you didn't just make a quick trip up one state to Paul's Valley, Oklahoma. This is the home of the Toy and Action Figure Museum, with over thirteen thousand action figures, and the coolest part of the museum is the diorama that showcases thousands of different action figures from over the years, including a Peewee's playhouse.
So I was going to call you out on going over your quota, but you won me over at Peewee.
Okay, you're right, it does sound cool.
And just one more we're headed out to cal but you might as well stop off quickly at the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho, if only to see the world's largest potato chip, a pringle measuring twenty five inches long. It's been there since nineteen ninety one. Good lord, can you imagine how stale that thing is now?
All right?
I know you can't help yourself, and that is another good addition. They're just too many good places. I think we should do another episode on museum. All right, So what's your final stop on the museum front.
Well, this one's going to come as no surprise to you since you've known me so long. It's the Berlin Game Museum of Pez Memorabilia in Berlin Game, California.
I should have known you'd end your list with this, all right, So tell me about it.
They have all five hundred and fifty plus characters ever produced and the largest Pez dispenser in the world, which looks like a snowman.
Nice.
And by the way, I know a lot of people know that Pez was started as an adult candy as a way to help smokers avoid smoking, which is why the original dispensers look like lighters. But my favorite thing about Pez is that it used to come in so many weird flavors, like this is so much earlier than this kitcat trend where they kick cats come in like soy sauce and baked potato flavor or whatever. Right, but early on PEZ came in coffee, eucalyptus, and even chlorophyll.
What I want to try those? I really hope they sell them in the museum lobby.
For some reason, that PEZ fact about its origins, I forget it, and then every time I hear it, I'm like, oh, that's so interesting. It used to help people quit smoking. So all right, well that's a terrific list of museums. Congratulations for managing to actually fit in eleven museums on your list of eight. So while I take a minute to process that math, let's take a break.
Bro quiz, So mango, who do we have on the line today?
So we've got two wonderful travel agents on the line. We've got Susan Whitson from King and Whitson Travel in Washington, Virginia and Martha Rhoads from Travel with Martha and Richmond, Virginia.
All right, well, let's welcome them both. Now.
Susan, I understand that you actually before your career as a travel agent worked at the White House.
Is this true?
That was Laura Bush's press secretary for a couple of years in the second administration, before I went home and had some children and decided to embark on a career and travel.
Wow, that's been an interesting gig.
Yeah.
No, it was a wonderful experience, wonderful career, and I think part of the recent why I went into the travel business was simply because I went through I had these amazing experiences travel around the world with the President. I've tried to recreate a lot of those from my clients. The only thing I cannot do is I cannot get air Force one. I like to think I could do everything else other than get Air Force one.
Well, this call is over, you know. That's what we were going on for you and Martha.
Speaking of interesting experiences, I heard you had an interesting experience recently trying to go through security at the airport and you were pulled aside.
Huh.
Yeah, Well, I think I would offer your listeners what I call a newly acquired travel tip in the category of learned this the hard way. Yeah. I tested Paul for explosives at TSA this week, and I was quite concern about what that could possibly be. And after my first pat down, the agent's gloves tested positive for explosives, and I got very comforted maybe I wasn't going to
be allowed on my flight. And a second pat down and the gloves were clear, And it took me a little while, but I realized that it was probably the body powder that I put on before I went to the airport, and consulting with my engineering son, I learned that body powder has magnesium carbonate, which is also used to make gunpowder and flash powder and rocket fuel. So that's something for people to know, is to skip the body powder until you get to the other side of security.
Wow, well, I'm glad. I'm glad you made it through.
So, speaking of advice that you have to give your clients, that's actually related to today's quiz. What quiz are we playing with these guys today, Mango.
We're going to play a game called Weird World Laws.
Okay, weird World Laws.
So what's going to happen is we're going to give you a law from a certain place around the world, and all you guys have to do is tell us whether that is true or false. We're gonna let you guys work together on this one. There are five questions you guys.
Ready to go?
Sure?
All right, here we go.
Question number one or statement number one, feeding the pigeons in Venice is against the law.
True or false?
So, Susan, I think that's probably true. I think it's probably true too, but I know people do it anyway.
It is true and mango, God give us the explanation for that one.
Yeah, Venice has a pigeon problem and all those birds cause extra work for the cleanup crew who have to polish the town statues. And in fact, you can get a hefty fine if you feed the pigeons.
Wow, it's good advice there. Don't feed the pigeons.
Great to know.
Number two.
In Luxembourg, it's illegal to put holy water in a water balloon.
True or false?
I would say true. Who has access to holy water? And we I mean, you know, you could just go in and you could get like a little cup and get it out of the little font if you wanted to in there, if you really wanted to. So I would say that would be pretty bad. But some mischievous child could do that. I'm gonna say that's false because that just seems like not even a law you would need.
Yeah, you're right, it's false.
All right, that's one of those you want.
To I want to put that in our travel tip work, all right.
Question number three. In Barbados, wearing camouflage shorts is a crime unless you're in the Barbados military.
True or false?
You know they have that they Martha, they have that rule in Africa. They have that law in Africa, I know. Is loud enough? Yeah, when you go in Safari, Yeah, I don't. I don't know about Barbados. Why would you be wearing camo and Barbadoes? Anyway? With true, I'm gonna go with true one. I'll go too.
You guys are right, it's true. And uh. The reason is because the rule came out in the eighties when gang members impersonated the military and robson banks and since then the last on the books.
Wow, well done, these guys are what three for three? Three?
Well, Martha is I miss one? I'll give Martha's.
You guys are a team. You stick together. Okay, here we go. Question number Question number.
Four, travel agent code.
That's right, That's that's right.
Travelers stick to the other buddy system here. Okay, it's illegal to reincarnate in China without government permission. It's illegal to reincarnate in China without government permission?
True or false?
Could reincarnate not reproduce? Right?
That is good?
I think that's false.
I don't know Martha's.
I think that's false.
What do you think, Martha? Okay, they went with false? What's the answer?
This one's actually true?
Wow, let's hear the explanation.
Really.
Yeah, the law was in acted partially to prevent the Dalai Lama from reincarnating in Tibet. But if you want to be born there in your next life, you actually have to seek the blessing of the Chinese Government's interesting stuff.
So remind your clients. Remind your clients to reincarnate, and in.
Travel tips, clients, a little known facts about your upcoming trip to China.
That's right, all right? Last question. These guys are three for four. Let's see if they can get the last one. Number five is it's illegal for foreigners to handle or pet a pure bred French poodle in the Maldives. Poodle mixes, however, are fair game? True or false?
I have no idea on this one. I think we got to goru okay, true.
Okay, yeah, Theno's kind of a trickster when he comes up with these.
What's the answer is, It's actually false. Anyone can touch a French.
Right there.
But I think I think in our official rule book of travel agent quizzes, what did they have to score to win the big prize?
I think three out of five? And what did they get?
So Martha and Susan combined for an astounding three or five, which wins them a certificate to their moms or boss singing their praises from us and where I'm going to send you a pickle luggage tag as well the classiest pickle luggage tags on Etsy.
Wow. Congratulations guys.
Thank you guys so much for joining us today and I hope you have a great next trip.
Thank you with you.
Welcome back to part time Genius Mango. I think you've given our listeners some great museums to visit when they want to escape the heat this summer. But I don't think summer can really be complete without visiting at least one or two weird festivals. So with that in mind, I wanted to quickly share a few must attend events for the remaining months and I'm must attend. Okay, let's hear them all right, listeners, you're gonna have to move quickly to make this first when it's down in New Orleans.
It's the Sand Firm and Bull Run, and the festival takes place from July seventh to ninth. Now, I know you've all heard of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, and that's pretty much exactly what this is. But instead of bulls, participants are being run down and beaten with foam bats by the.
Big Easy roller girls.
Last year, the run attracted fourteen thousand participants.
I can't believe people I should come for that. It's amazing, it's a big deal. Well what else do you have?
All right?
Then you'll have a couple weeks to recover for two very different festivals on back to back nights, but it's really worth it to make it to both. First, you have the Great Texas Mosquito Festival Inclute, Texas, and this is where you'll see the Mosquito calling contest and Willie man Chew, which is the twenty six foot tall mosquito mascot wearing a cowboy hat and boots.
I'm a little skeptical of taking a trip just to hang out with a giant mosquito.
I think you're forgetting. It wears a hat and you can't miss that.
Okay, and there's a second festival right there on that second night.
No, not right there.
You'll need to catch a flight from nearby Houston up to Detroit and then make the easy one and a half hour drive up to Yale, Michigan for the annual Balooney Fest. I mean, you don't want to find out who's crown this year is King and Queen of Boloney on Twitter?
Right? You want to be there.
Plus you can enjoy the Baloney Derby and the outhouse races Outhouse Races.
I guess this is because of where you need to run after eating a bunch of ballooney.
I get the impression that is the case, But I'm pretty sure I've told you before. Why can't stand the smell of baloone even to this day?
Why is that? Again?
Well, because I grew up across the street from Triplet Boys, who were younger brothers and my friend Mike, Well, their mom would return home from the grocery store and she would always buy them packs of baloney. The baloney would never make it to the refrigerator. It would just hit the kitchen table and the boys would tear into it like a pack of wild dogs.
I can still hear it now. It's so gross.
Well, it seems like the right thing to do to attend the Baloney Festival is a tribute to them. So where to you next?
All right, Well, I've got two other stops, the first of which is perhaps the only thing more gross to me than baloney. It's the Wisconsin State Cowchip Throw in Prairie do Sac, Wisconsin. This happens to be in very early September, And in case you didn't know, a cowchip is a piece of hardened cow dung. So the whole idea behind the throwing contest is to see how far you can throw, or rather fleeing like a discus, these cowchips. And apparently the record is two hundred and forty eight feet.
But the best part about the whole thing might be the rules, as the homepage of the event's website says no gloves, but licking your hands is allowed.
To get a better grip.
So discussing, well, it's clearly not that disgusting, because forty thousand people show up every year to check it out. There's even a corporate division, Mango. So I'm thinking maybe we should get the House Stuff Works Gang to sign up for this.
How state cowshit throws work. I like that, all right.
And here's another thing I know that they're all excited about, and that we talked about earlier with Dylan, and this is the solar eclipse happening on August twenty first. It's the first one in the United States in our lifetime and won't happen again for decades.
As I mentioned.
Earlier, We've ordered our solar eclipse glasses and I can't wait to see it. Anyone in the band that runs diagonally across the country from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina will be able to see it in totality, but even those who aren't will at least be able to see a partial eclipse.
Yeah.
There's a terrific episode of Every Little Thing, one of our favorite new podcasts, that covers this event and the super weird and fun world of eclipse chasers.
It's pretty great. Well, speaking of pretty great, you know what time it is.
Time for the part time genius fact off. This is the part of the show where we share some of the incredible facts we found in our research but didn't get a chance to share yet.
All right, Mango, you want to kick it off? Sure?
Do you know that every year about half a penny from each American taxpayer it goes to something called the International Boundary Commission, whose job it is to keep a clean border between the US and Canada. This area is known as the Slash Slash and it's a twenty foot wide zone that goes the distance of the border. Definitely a destination for geography nerds and slash.
That's pretty cool. I've actually never heard of that. I can't imagine how many hours are spent keeping that area cut.
It's so weird.
Speaking of weird, if there's one thing that was reinforced as we were looking into places to visit, it's that Florida is weird but also pretty awesome. So did you know that Florida is home to the world's first underwater hotel. Now it's the Jewels Undersea Lodge and Key Largo Undersea Park. Now, you do have to be scuba certified, but if you are, you can watch the fish swim around outside your bedroom.
You'll have access to a full kitchen. There's even a lounge with books and movies to enjoy, all while being twenty one feet under the surface.
That's pretty cool.
So if you're looking for a place to take a nice long stroll, why not head to Weldon Spring, Missouri, where you can walk on the nuclear waste Adventure. This fifty four acre park sits on the land of what used to be the largest explosive factory in the country and a uranium factory during.
The Cold War.
Oh wow, Yeah, the US Department of Energy decided to throw a whole bunch of rocks on it in the eighties, and now you can take that walk knowing you're strolling on top of asbestos and mercury, uranium TNT all sorts of fun things go.
That's crazy, all right, But like I was saying, Florida is weird. It's not only home to the first underwater hotel, but there's also an underwater cemetery just a few miles off the coast of Miami. It used to be called the Atlantis Memorial Reef, which I think sounds cool, but it's now called the Neptune Memorial Reef. But if you visit, you'd see these huge columns with lions guarding the entrance. Now inside you'd find stone roads and other evidence of
this lost city. And when someone passes away and is cremated, their remains are then put into concrete memorials inside the city where divers can visit all of this forty feet below the surface.
That's crazy and also a lot of Florida. Yes it is, Okayins you just talked about death, I'll talk about a pretty huge existence of life known as the humongous fungus in Grant, Oregon. It's this huge network fungus that scientists think maybe both the largest and oldest life forms still found on Earth. It spreads twenty two hundred acres and
it has been growing for twenty four hundred years. No way, And while it has a sweet name, the honey mushroom, the main way scientists know how widespread it is is to see how many of the trees above ground are dying, because it's a parasite that takes over the root systems of these trees above and eventually kills No. No, I'm so sorry. I was trying to make this about life.
Yeah, that one took a surprising turn, all right, So back to Florida. You know one thing I wish I could still experience there is the sound of the singing runway at the abandoned Disney World Airport in Orlando. It was only used for a year or two before they decided not to allow flights to come directly into the
Magic Kingdom. But even better than the convenience to Disney was the fact that the grooves and the runway, you know, the ones that are kind of like the ones that run along the interstate there, decided to make them play when you wish upon a star when driven over it forty five miles an hour.
It's such a fun surprise for passing.
Oh I love that, And after the emotional roller coaster we experienced in this fact off, I think I have to give it to you for ending on a happy note, so you win this week's edition.
Thanks Mango. That's it for today's Part Time Genius.
Happy travels out there, and thanks 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.
Christa McNeil does the editing thing.
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy mixy sound thing.
Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Gabe Lozier is our lead researcher, with support from the research.
Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve.
Jeffco gets the show to your ears, Good job, Eaves.
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.
Do we do? We forget Jason?
Jason who