Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. Listener mail. This is Robert Lamb.
And this is Joe McCormick. And it is Monday, the day of each week that we read back messages from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind email address. If you have never gotten in touch before, why not send us an email. You can reach us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Whatever you want to send us fair game. But of course we always appreciate if you have something interesting to add to a topic we've talked about on the show, and Rob if you don't mind, I am going to kick things off by
reading this message from Elena, which does just that. It adds to our series on the monstrous cats of Japanese legend.
Go for it, let's hear it.
So I think this is probably connecting to our digression in that series where we were talking about why it is that sometimes cats seem like a powerful beings in a way that other domestic animals do not. Elena says, Hi, Robert and Joe, given the recent episodes about cats, I wanted to share the cat entry in the first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica seventeen sixty eight to seventeen seventy one. I read about this recently, and then she includes just
a paragraph here. I shall now read from the eighteenth century Book of Wisdom. It says, of all domestic animals, the character of the cat is the most equivocal and suspicious. He has kept not for any amiable qualities, but purely with a view to banish rats, mice, and other noxious animals from our houses, granaries, et cetera. Actually it doesn't say et cetera. It says ampersan c. I don't know
how you pronounce that. Although cats, when young are playful and gay, they possess at the same time an innate malice and perverse disposition, which increases as they grow up, in which education learns them to conceal but never to subdue. Constantly bent upon theft and rapid though in a domestic state they are full of cunning and dissimulation, they conceal all their designs, seese every opportunity of doing mischief, and
then fly from punishment. They easily take on the habits of society, but never its manners, for they have only the appearance of friendship and attachment. This disingenuity of character is betrayed by the obliquity of their movements and the ambiguity of their looks. In a word, the cat is totally destitute of friendship. He thinks and acts for himself alone. Man, they did encyclopedias different back then. That is so good. I had to look it up and see for myself.
So Elena was telling the truth. This is indeed what the original Encyclopedia Britannica said about the cat. But the entry does not stop there. That's just like the second paragraph of a longer thing. And there is so much other good stuff there. So rob, do you mind if I share a few more titbits.
Let's have some more blatant anti cat propaganda from a bunch of dead men.
Yes, okay, okay. It also says the cat is incapable of restraint and consequently of being educated to any extent. However, we are told that the Greeks in the island of Cyprus trained this animal to catch and devour serpents with which that island was greatly infested. This, however, was not the effect of obedience, but of a general taste for slaughter, for he delights in watching, attacking, and destroying all kinds of weak animals indifferently. He has no delicacy of scent.
Like the dog, he hunts only by the eye. Neither does he properly pursue. He only lies in wait and attacks animals by surprise, And after he has caught them, he sports with and torments them for a long time, when at last kills them parentheses, when his belly is full, purely to gratify his sanguinary appetite. Okay, okay, not enough, right, you want to hear more cats. Lander author here says, although cats live in our houses, they can hardly be
called domestic animals. They may rather be said to enjoy full liberty, for they never act but according to their own inclination. Besides, the greatest part of them are half wild. They do not know their masters, and frequently only the barns outhouses amper san sea, unless when pressed with hunger. Cats have a natural antipathy at water, cold and bad smells. They love to bask in the sun and lie in warm places. They likewise have an affection for certain aromatic smells.
They are transported with the root of the valerian.
I have read that the valerian root has a similar effect on them to catnip, but I can't remember if I've tried it. I may have tried it.
What actually is catnip? What is the plant?
The plant joe is a Nepetacatarium, also known as cat'swort and cat miant. So yeah, it's a particular variety of plant that they like. It has a psychotropic effect on them.
Okay, I'm gonna wrap this up with two more short selections. The editors of Encyclopedia Britannica say cats eat slowly and are particularly fond of fishes. They drink frequently. Their sleep is light, and they often assume the appearance of sleeping when in reality they are meditating mischief. They walk slowly without making any noise. As their hair is always dry, it easily gives out an electrical fire, which becomes visible when rubbed across in the dark. Their eyes likewise sparkle
in the dark like diamonds. The wild or savage cat couples with the domestic one, and is consequently the same species. It is not unusual for domestic cats, both male and female, when stimulated by love, to repair to the woods in quest of these savage cats.
Wow, I think I have I have heard descriptions of purely fantastic animals that contained fewer lies than this particular rite up. I mean it sounds. I mean, some of it is sort of like like exaggeration of cat character as it is often observed, but a lot it's just like, where'd they even get this had this person been around a cat at all?
Well, I'm struck by how much of this is is like not even in the realm of descriptive fact true or false. It's just sort of like a personal evaluation and speculation about the inner life of a cat. The stuff that like would not, whether it was true or false, be in an encyclopedia.
Today.
This is way more just like qualitative and almost appreciate and lyrical than than I'm used to.
It's Yeah, it makes me want to hear that the dog entry. I wonder if it's like really glowing and they're like the dog is an animal of wonder and kindness that never smells of excrement and so forth. I mean, one can only imagine.
It is, though, like so expressive and like relentless in the way it develops its picture of cats. It's almost like one of those ancient Mesopotamian hymns about a god. You know, there's just like these repetitive forms of statements that are just like dwelling on the same idea but expressing it in different words over and over.
You know, I went ahead and looked it up. You can pull all this up on the Britannica dot com website, pull up the old entries from the first edition, and yeah, the dog entry is full of just blatant pro dog propaganda about how, Yes, in his savage state, he is fierce, cruel and voracious, but when civilized and accustomed to live with men, he is possessed of every amiable quality. He seems to have no other desire than to please and
protect his master. He has gentle obedience, submissive and faithful, and so forth he goes.
It says, it says, he will this, This seems on brand. He will not eat the bones of a goose, crow or hawk, but he devours even the putrid flesh of most other animals. What that can't be true?
The dog runs around when about to lie down, in order to discover the most proper situation. That seems like a just a flowery way of saying. He like just turns around before.
Oh, so the dog walks in circles.
Yeah, yes, but runs around. That makes it sound like I mean, I mean, all these descriptions just take actual, realistic observations and like twirl them into some sort of poetic maelstrom. Now this this has some some has some fact to it, I think, for the excrements of a dog destroy almost every vegetable or animal substance. They are such a putrid nature that if a man's shoe touches them when recently expelled, that particular part will rot in a few days. I guess part of the shoe will rot.
What.
Yeah, I mean, I've stepped in some dog crap before, but I've never noticed that it made my shoe rot. That's they were feeding them differently back then.
Oh, here's some more science facts. When oppressed with sickness, to which he is very subject, especially in the beginning of summer, in order to procure a puke, he eats the leaves of the quickened grass, the bearded wheat grass, or the rough cock's foot grass, which gives him immediate relief.
Oh.
Also, when he steals a piece of flesh. As conscious of the immorality of the action, he runs off with his tail hanging and bent betwixt his feet. I think the editors of Encyclopedia Britannica first edition did not have large enough sample sizes of dogs and cats to observe when drafting these entries. They just got like one guy who hated cats and had seen two or three cats, ever, and he did the whole thing. And this guy doing the dog entry is just talking about his dog, who's the sweety.
Pie And that one dog Poopy stepped in that rotted his boot, Yeah, rotted his boot. Still, this is remarkable. I did not know that the ill Britannica entries that had this much wonder in them.
Yeah, despite their dubious quality as a source of true information, they're wonderfully written.
All right. It's not all cats and dogs. Though. We also heard from listeners about our episodes on shadows. This one comes to us from Matthew Good Evening Team. First off, a great series on shadows and the cultural attachments to them. I've always thought that shadows were also a way of showing one's vitality, the shadows shrinking when one ages because of the human body stooping and shrinking. But that's just me.
On the aspect of gaming itself, there is a great twist on the show from Dark Sun. Dark Sun being a a world in the Dungeons and Dragons universe. I don't think it. I don't think it has been has yet been reintroduced into fifth edition, but it had a lot of great art back in the day. Gerald Brahm was involved in much of it. Is like a world that's been destroyed by sorcery and wizardry and now just like a barren, post apocalyptic world for the most part.
So sort of like Dungeons and Dragons meets Mad Max.
Yeah yeah, kind of, Okay, so the author continues here. They are known as the Shadow Giants, and they are not actually giants compressed lore. The previous inhabitants of the Dark Sun's setting disappeared into the shadow plane and they were taken over by the shadows themselves. Shadow Giants are actually hobbit halfling size when there is one hundred percent light all around them. The changes come when the lighting
is reduced. If someone were to hold only a torch, these creatures would grow to giant size and have the same strength and temperament as a giant would. It is a delightful twist on shadows and the trope of carrying a light source. If you have one light source on you, you doom yourself and your party to the destruction at
the hands of these giant beasts. You would be better off submitting to the darkness completely and letting the shadows consume you, especially if you can't get the light of the sun to bathe the area for every step you take. Just imagine how chilling it would be to have your trusty night light betray you because you wanted to keep the shadows at bay. Great shows is always much appreciated, and I am looking forward to more so I can
start jotting down some ideas. All the best, take care, and you are more than welcome to use this email in any broadcast or podcast or shadow cast as you wish.
Matthew, I knew about none of this, but I'm a little confused on So why is it worse to have a one single light source than to have none at all?
Well, I'm assuming if you're encountering this creature, I guess it would depend on where you were encountering it. Right, If you were, So let's let's put it together. Let's let's imagine the encounter. I guess. Let's say we're in a in a room with sort of like mild ambient lighting from outside. Right, what kind of shadow does this is cast by this hobbit being hobbit size being, and then by having a light source in the room, are
you creating an elongated shadow? And I'm guessing that's kind of the idea here.
Okay, yeah, directional light source will Okay.
But this does make me interested to look up the old monster entries for Dark Sun. I never had any of the Dark Sun material when I was younger, and like I said, they haven't reintroduced it, so I haven't picked up anything new for it. So I am curious, though I might have to dive into it.
All right, I'm going to do another message about shadows. This one is from well. I don't think this person meant to be anonymous, but they did not provide a name, so we'll say anonymous for now. If you want to add a name next time you write in, go for it. Anonymous says, greetings, Robert and Joe. I just listened to the two parts of your episodes on shadows. You shared a lot of interesting aspects of the topic, many I was not aware of, such as the halo effect of
do or highligenshine. At the end, you mentioned that three D objects are often considered quote shadows of some higher dimensional entity or force, like a temple being a shadow of a god. The fact that shadows are always a dimension lower than the object casting them actually allows them to be used in the reverse. Shadows are one of the few phenomena that can be actively used in an
attempt to peer into or understand higher dimensional things. This is probably why they are associated with metaphysical things ghosts and gods. Mathematicians and physicists also use this property of shadow, though, to explore higher dimensional phenomena. The curvature of spacetime is higher dimensional than we can perceive, but the shadows of its effects can be tracked in three dimensions just as
easily as our two dimensional shadow on the ground. In that case, three dimensional shadows maybe the most a three dimensional being like humans can perceive of any higher dimensional entity, force, or phenomenon. The second connection I wanted to point out involves eclipses, with two major eclipses this month, and this would have been October of twenty twenty three, the solar Ring of Fire eclipse on October fourteenth, and the lunar eclipse that the other side of the Earth saw this week.
Eclipse shadows have been more in my consciousness. One of the fascinating shadow effects is seeing multiple partial eclipse crescents in the shadows under trees. During assault eclipse, the leaves are acting as camera obscura or pinhole cameras, reversing the image of the eclipse itself. Yeah, I remember seeing this. I didn't get into the path of totality for the twenty twenty three eclipse, but the last one that came through around this region it was years ago.
Now.
I went out to a university campus in Tennessee to watch with my family, and yeah, it was really great. I was standing near a tree, and I remember exactly this thing, like all the little bits of light filtering through gaps in the foliage on the trees became little like pinhole camera representations of the crescent of the sun as it was being blocked out. It was really cool.
But the listener goes on the reason we do not normally notice this odd camera effect within shadows is because our light source is usually round, reversing a round object still gives you a round object. There is no difference or contrast. To see that this is happening all the time. You can intentionally use the same effect in photography with
lens flares. If you photograph the sun rising or setting at the horizon or against an object halfway there, the light source will be a half circle, the lens flare created will be a reversed half circle. So shadows are as much a function of the shape and nature of the light source as the object that just happens to
be between the light and surface. I think this has some interesting metaphysical extensions and may further explain the association with quote godly light and the condition of whatever physical manifestations are connected with that God. Lunar eclipses demonstrate another aspect of shadows, the permeability of the object casting the shadow. Earth's atmosphere casts a different shadow on the Moon than the Earth itself. The same difference happens through water or glass,
or any substance that lets life through. Selectively, this effect of permeability can be used to explore the properties of the object casting the shadow. Again with higher dimensional phenomenon. This may be the most that can be directly perceived. I think it's interesting that Shadow Puppetry does this intentionally. Thank you for all you do. Smiley face. I guess that's sort of the smiley face is the signature.
Well, that's yes, some of my excellent thoughts in there. Thanks for writing in smiley.
Yes, thank you smiley.
All right, real quick, we heard from Brett. Brett Roode wrote in about our Ignobel episodes. It says, hey, guys, just getting around of the Ignobel awards, and upon hearing the rock tasting story, I was very surprised that Robert did not bring up Professor Farnsworth's smelloscope in Futurama. It was the first thing I thought of. Indeed, my apologies Professor Farnsworth. It is one of his most famous inventions
that allowed him to smell distant planets. All right, now I'm going to move on to some weird house cinema listener mail. This one comes to us from Jimmy. Jimmy says, hey, guys, I've been a big fan of your podcast for a long time. Thanks for all the great episodes. I just wanted to let you know that I am one of the few people out there that loves that Stone Ground
is in Dracula Ad. I am a musician that was born and raised in Concord, California, and stone Ground was from Concord, probably the most famous band from my hometown. So when I was a kid in the nineteen seventies, a couple of my older siblings were definitely stone Ground fans, So I have always had a soft spot for them, even if they weren't the most exciting band.
Jimmy, Oh, Jimmy, don't apologize for loving stone Ground. We wholeheartedly endorse your love of stone Ground.
Yeah. Yeah. And plus, I mean, as we discussed in the episode, it's not like stone Ground, We're awful and they seem to have, you know, real musical pedigree. It just felt like a random inclusion.
Yeah, I feel random, But.
Like like the Hammer executives were like, all right, the producers, who can we get who can we get to show up and be the cool band playing in the in the early part of this film to bring in the youth.
They're like the Korman movie using pre footage from pre existing films that they had the rights to. As stone Ground is in there.
Like that. Yeah, and hey, kudos to Stone Ground forgetting to appear in a hammer horror film. I mean, that's that's pretty cool.
Even for an alligator man. That is a rare accomplishment.
All right, well, we're gonna go and close up the mail bag here, but we would love to hear from you right in, because every Monday we do a listener mail episode right in about past episodes, future episodes, current episodes, stuff to blow your mind, Weird House, Cinema, anything we do, it's all fair game. Just a reminder that our core episodes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays and on Fridays. We set aside most serious concerns to just talk about a weird film on Weird House. You can find our podcast
wherever you get your podcasts. Check out our social media feeds that are active again if you're on social media already, and bear in mind that on Instagram we are stbym podcast. That's the newer account there. The old one got all locked up. So if you think you follow us on Instagram, you might not. You might be following a dead account. You don't want to do that. Following a dead account. That's a gateway to hauntings and so forth. You never know what's going to crawl out of there.
Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest a topic for the future, or just to say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
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