Listener Mail: The Chosen Few

growing fungus in the dark. But I think it should still be readable by the by the time we're back, which if you're listening to this now we are. I'm hoping it's going to be filled with lots of accounts of people's pet hermit crabs, people's people writing in about their hermes, telling us what they eat, sending photos. That's what I'm looking forward to, all right, Let's see. This first message comes from Benjamin and it is in regards

to Chainsaws and some previous listener mail. Benjamin says, hello, stuff to blow your mind people. This message is in reply to Chris's email from the Listener Mail episode released on the fifteenth of November, after hearing about sideline enthusiasts cheering on their favorite downhill mountain bike riders with a bar less chainless chainsaw. I can understand your skepticism. I would be willing to bet a brand new steel would

boss that this form of cheering has migrated over from motocross. Granted, this is speculation. However, I remember seeing fans cheering on motocross riders using chainsaws sands bar with a set of handlebars and number plate attached across the top when I attended a race outside Pittsburgh in the late nineteen nineties. This display makes slightly more sense as motocross bikes at the time were mostly powered by two stroke engines, just

like most chainsaws. Oh and rob By the way, when I I went back after we we read that email from Chris, and I looked it up just to make sure Chris was not lying to us. I did find evidence of people using chainsaws on the sidelines at the at the mountain biking events, so that that is apparently at least sometimes true. Benjamin goes on, While I'm on the topic, I was waiting with bated breath through both chainsaw episodes for Rob to at least mention all the

chain weapons in Warhammer forty thousand. While this class of weapon is just as improbable as most of the weapons technologies in said universe, your spotlight on the topic found me looking at the forty K chain weapon art and I noticed something I never had before. All the chain weapons I've seen in forty K have the tooth pattern associated with old saws, not the modern teeth patterned after the grub mandibles. This hadn't come to my attention prior.

Thank you for all that you do, Benjamin. Wow, that is some observation, Benjamin. So they've got the teeth would be more like the scratching knife tip type teeth rather than the uh, the the chiseling or chipper type teeth that were designed by by Joseph Cox after observing the pine sawyer beetle. Yeah, I hadn't really thought about this either. I mean, Warhammer forty K chainsaws are probably the chainsaws

I look at more than real life chainsaws. Um, And I mean I guess part of it is like these are based on miniatures that are gonna paint, and maybe it works better to have those little teeth. And also Yeah, they look like teeth. They look like jagged metal animal teeth in this weird sword. So maybe it just works better for a fantasy weapon. Rob. I don't know. I guess I hadn't mentioned this off Mike. Since we did our chainsaw episodes, I've actually had a chance to use

a chainsaw. Really. Yeah. My father in law brought one over and we used it on some I was cutting guns and brush in my yard. Yeah. Yeah, did you do do proper safety and all that? I think, well, I, you know, thinking back on it now, I didn't wear goggles or eye protection and I did get some like chips flying up in my eyes. So don't do what Donnie don't does if you're using a chainsaw. In addition to all the others that, yeah, you should probably cover

up your eyes. I can speak from experience that doesn't feel good. Yeah, they never do this in the various horror movies that we see, and um and you know the Space Marines even they yes, they have the helmets, they're supposed to be wearing the helmets, but there are plenty of images and figures where they've taken the helmet off and they have a roaring chainsaw or chain sword rather uh, and like, what are you doing? Guys? You're gonna get all sorts of weird gunk in your eyeballs.

So anyway, in the ensuing days, I've ordered about three dozen chainsaws off the internet. They should be arriving over the next few weeks. There are some really interesting chaine I remember seeing one at a store once where I'm not even sure what function this was for, but it like had a pair of jaws at the end and the little tiny chainsaw inside of it, kind of like xeno morph jaws. I'm I guess for some sort of specialized like gripping of a tree branch and using the

saw blade. But it was, well, it was weird. Oh was it a what's called it? Like a lapper chainsaw? It kind of like combines like like clippers and chainsaw blades. Oh, I don't think it was. I just had to look up this lapper chains how you're talking about, And this is a strange device. It looks at it looks kind of like scissors, but it's also a chainsaw. Crazy. There's

so many, so many chainsaw innovations these days. But I guess it did kind of look like this, uh, But imagine if it also had like a little chainsaw inside its mouth. All I can think of now is like a sort of cyborg form of dentures where your teeth are replaced with tiny chainsaws for enhanced chewing. Uh, well I have it now, Joe. I'm totally ruining my my shopping algorithm here by looking these things up. But I

think what I saw it was a jaw saw. So um, yeah, it looks like some sort of uh you know, a Lows or home Depot Xeno morph with a little chainsaw in its mouth. Oh, I see exactly what you mean. Yes, so it's got a it's almost like a guide or a guard in a y shape, and then coming out like a tongue sticking out in between the jaws is the end of the chainsaw. I guess this is like a safety measure, Like it's a way of using making use of the saw, but having within that protected like

the metal cuff of a mouth. That would make sense. I bet this kind of design is less likely to kick back and like accidentally nick you in the leg or something. I'd be interested to hear from anyone out there who's used one of these. What's it like, let's keep the chainsaw chat going. All right, here's the speaking of chainsaw chat. Here's one from Anna um Anna says, I have enjoyed the episodes about chainsaws, and I have

also enjoyed listeners responses to them. One thing I was thinking about when I was listening to the episode is the image of the lumberjack. They are generally seen as assault of the earth type of people. I grew up in Tasmania. We're logging was a big thing, so much so that wood shopping was a sport that people would go and watch. I don't know that if this is popular elsewhere, but competitors would compete to see who could chop through a log the fastest. I know you were

talking about chainsaw horror movies. I was wondering if this is just an upgrade of the ax murderer stories. I had the idea that the chainsaw is seen as a replacement for the hard working man with an AX. Now, with this new technology, people are losing the value of hard work, and maybe that is part of what makes chainsaw murders so bad. I'm not sure if I am overthinking this, but it was just a thought I had. Well, Like we talked about in the episodes, at least in

the case of the original Texas Chainsaw Masker. I think Toby Hooper seems to have had some ideas about about economics and work and consumerism in mind when when he was making the first movie. Uh. And and it certainly comes through in some of the satire in the second movie, because the second movie has my favorite scene, and the whole thing is just a scene where Dennis Hopper goes shopping for chainsaws. Oh yeah, and he gets the he gets the two smaller saws to go in holsters, and

then he gets the big daddy saw as well. But yeah, he's just at the place shopping, and the shopkeeper there is watching him, like pretending to duel, like seeing like how it feels in his hands, swinging it at things. Oh yeah, we get We do get a little a little chainsaw dueling in that film. I'm not sure if that's the first place we see it cinematically. It might be, but I know that chainsaw dueling also shows up in

I think the second Phantasm movie and uh. Of course, more recently, there's a little bit of it in Mandy, which I think was very much included as an homage to these these pictures, I would say, and in reality, based on what I have learned about chainsaws, it would be a very poor idea to try and do a

chainsaw duel. That sounds like a terrible choice. Terrible. In fact, I'm kind of curious to go back and watch these sequences just to try and figure out how they did it with any you know, even a monicum of safety, you know, while making it look like the saws are in fact running. Yeah, all right, Rob, you ready for some messages about Dune? Oh always? Okay, Well, just real quickly, I wanted to read from Sean, who is following up

from something I said in our Done episodes. Sean says, Hi, Joe and Robert, I'm listening to the Binny Jessrite episode while running. It had to stop quickly just to say, I remember the same paperback copy of Done Joe had with I would say six point font, the letters almost the edge of the page, several lines on each page, often at angles. Yeah, this I feel vindicated. This sounds

about right to my memory. Anyways, Sean says, love the show back to the episode in my run, Yeah, I might have had a copy like that at some point when I was younger. I think, uh, I think text that size would just be absolutely painful for me. At this point, I'm currently rereading a Dune on a kindle, so that it means I can change the font size to whatever suits me. Seems perfect. All right, I'm gonna read also this message from Renata discussing Dune as well

as a recent Vault episode about mushroom forging. Alright, Renata says, Hi, Joe and Rob, I loved your recent vault episode on mushroom forging. You seem impressed that deer will eat just enough of a toxic food to get a nutritional benefit while avoiding the toxic effects. But I was surprised you didn't mention that humans are masters at this game. The most clear example of this to me is alcohol. I

can't remember where I heard this theory. Uh. She thinks possibly from us, so I don't remember us talking about this, but she says, um, it is that humans developed a liking for alcohol because in our primate ancestors, it's signaled that a fruit is ripe, therefore containing more sugars. If they eat just enough of a fruit as it begins to ferment, they get maximum sugars if they wait too long, they get intoxicated or maybe worse. There are plenty of

other examples. Pineapples contain bromolin, which is used as a meat tenderizer and can cause your tongue to go numb if you eat enough. I recently developed a sensitivity to keen wa because it contains small amounts of sappinin, which is a toxin but usually thoroughly washed off when you prepare keenoa, but apparently if you're exposed to too much of it once a faithful salad from a cafe. In my case, even consuming miniscule amounts of it after that

will cause a reaction. For me that's hours of intense stomach cramps. Many foods naturally contain inulin, which is not digestible, but which is a prebiotic that can promote gut health. My favorite source is sun Chokes, but beware consuming too much. Check out this Amazon review of gummy bears containing inulin for some colorful descriptions of what can happen, and then she links to Yeah use the reviews of a product that apparently made people have a lot of defecation emergencies.

I do have to say sun chokes are are absolutely glorious. I have not had them recently, but I love I love my sun chokes or Jerusalem art at jokes if you will also, I want to follow. I was reading about sapping in on on Keenea. It is true that um grains of quinoa are naturally they tend to be coated in this uh, this organic substance called sapping in, which kind of creates a foamy, soapy like texture sometimes

when when combined with water. But I don't think that's like a reason to be concerned about eating quinoa, Like it seems like there's not really usually enough of it to hurt someone, and you can wash it off prior to eating it. Apparently, some some types of quenwa that they're sold will tell will instruct people to rinse it

before you cook it. Oh. But the thing about bromlin too is interesting because I have seen bromelin used, like Granada says, as a meat tenderizer, like people, uh, sort of mashing up a big pineapple and then soaking some some cut of meat in it in order to make it make it more tender to the tooth. Yeah. Yeah, I think I had an incident once where I had some sort of this was I don't know, this is probably I think the fish dish, or maybe it was

back when I had when I still like chicken. But uh, there was some sort of meat and it had a pineapple susa on it, and I let it set in the fridge overnight, and by the next morning, the the pineapple had like just reduced the meat to mush. It's quite interesting. Oh yeah, you don't want to You don't want to let your pineapple marinate go too long, or your dinner will turn into a melt movie. Yeah, a fine,

a fine paste. Oh but Renata goes on talking about Dune, so she says, I also wanted to comment that I went into Dune nearly cold. I watched the Lynch adaptation about six years ago, but was only half paying attention. When I heard about the latest adaptation, I purposely avoided Dune content so I could go in as cold as possible. I found it exceedingly easy to follow, and I thoroughly

enjoyed the film like you. I felt that it found inventive ways to make the necessary exposition diverse, fun and clear. The narration and on screen text at the beginning gave way to dialogue that helped explain what was happening. But most impressive to me was the way Vilnov teaches you a visual and auditory language that lets you intuitively follow

the story without endless exposition all dialogue. My favorite example was that of the force fields, which are blue when they are effectively maintaining protection and read when they're penetrated. This adaptation of Dune rivals my favorite film two thousand one of Space Odyssey for being as close to cinematically and technically flawless as you can get. Uh. Well, glad to hear another good review. I I loved it as well.

I agree with Hi, think everything you say. I also really enjoyed the color coding of of how the shields, the energy shields were We're working because yeah, you could see even from a distance, when somebody had managed to to move the knife through the shields slow enough that it wasn't deflected because everything would turn red suddenly. Yeah, finally, she says, deeply appreciate your show. I can't stop sharing anecdotes I learned with my friends, and listening has become

a big part of my daily routine. Thanks for making new episodes and picking great Vault episodes. To share best Renata. Well, thank you for writing in. Yeah, yeah, these are some excellent thoughts. Uh yeah, I'm enjoying continuing to hear from folks about the latest the latest Dune adaptation. Um, since everyone enjoys fan casting so much, we should really get in on this. This window we have right now before they officially cast Um the Emperor and uh fade Ratha.

Who do you think would be ideal to play these roles? And I'm I'm excited to see who they pick. Fade Rapha Sting again, Yeah, I mean stink Sting could totally do it. That would be that would be interesting. He has not actually aged a single day since the last movie. For fade Ratha, I don't know, it's tempting to to to want to go with one of the scars Guard children. Since we have Papa scars Guard doing such a great job as the Baron. Maybe get Bill scars Guard in there.

I'm not endorsing this choice, but some people on the internet apparently suggesting the guy who plays Joffrey in Game of Thrones. I mean, I don't know, I haven't seen what he looks like these days. Um, he's still basically a child actor. At the time, so maybe he's maybe he's perfect for it. Now, I don't know. I don't know.

I would if I were him, I would if they reached out, I would be hesitant because even as great of a role as this would be, you don't want to be typecast for the rest of your career as a little fancy tyrant. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I'm looking at a present, you know, current picture of him, and uh, I don't know. Maybe he could do it, maybe maybe, maybe he is perfect for it. I don't know. I'm still going with with my gut and saying Bill scars guard. But but but again,

I'm excited to see what actually happens. And hey, I'm excited to see what sort of suggestions are listeners make. Vin Diesel al Right, here's another bit of listener mail. Listen comes from Jim in New Jersey, and it's in a response to the episode on luck Robert and Joe. When it comes to luck, here are my two favorite quotes. The harder I work, the luckier I get. This is attributed to too many to find its original author, and then luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Uh. And this

is from Roman philosopher Seneca. I don't believe in luck, but I consider myself a lucky person. I'm not sure how to resolve those inconsistencies. I never believed in lucky items, but I had a few habits while taking tests in college. Some may consider them superstitious based upon luck, but I thought of them as rituals and traditions. They included wearing a wearing dark blue on the day of the test.

This was easy since it was a school color. Uh. Taking four number two pencils wrapped in a rubber band and a handheld eraser, and never taking any books or notes unless it was an open book test or one that allowed notes during the exam. These rituals got me into a test taking mental state on the test day. Taking books or notes not allowed during the test would only encourage me to cram in the hallway immediately before the test. I felt that was a crutch and I

wanted to enter the testing room with confidence. I wasn't sure if I felt pity or disdain for those cramming in the halls. I did pretty well in tests, so I guess it worked for me. Jim in New Jersey. Wow, Jim coming in with like nerd swagger. Yeah, I mean this is just a yeah, you can get into the topic of luck, though it gets so it's all over the place. So is the different ways we think about it, and uh, you know, I don't even certainly I don't

think we got into this conversation. But then there's this whole like area two of like luck as how it can be utilized as kind of like a toxic positivity, you know, like like overly reminding somebody of how lucky they are. Oh, you're lucky for this. You're like, you're lucky to have this or that or the other. Um. So, I mean there's just so many, so many dimensions to the human concept of luck that you could you could

just discuss it almost endlessly. All right, Well, maybe we should round things out with one last message on Weird House Cinema And this, this one is a real treat because this is a bit of listener mail from our own producer Seth. It came into the mailbox and I was like, what, Seth, is this from you? And he confirmed it was. So I feel truly honored that that Seth was inspired to chime in and take you to task.

That's right, because so recently people were asking about the Friday thirteen franchise, and I think a listener wrote in to say, hey, I'm not sure you were right that that Jason Vorhees becomes a revenant in the sixth movie. I think he's a revenant since the beginning because they say that he drowned many years ago. That's sort of the backstory, and my feeling on that as well, I

think it's just a sloppy red con. You know, they say that at the beginning, and then they wanted to make a second movie and they're like, well, you know he's alive now, okay. But but Seth has an alternative vision, so he says, in response to last week's Listener Maile episode, where the concept of Jason Vorhees supernatural nature was discussed, I feel the need to deliver what I believe is

the definitive answer to this question. Jason Vorhees is a dead EyeT, if anyone is unaware, A dead EyeT is a parasitic demon that feasts on the souls of living creatures, found primarily in the Evil Dead franchise. And then he's even got a whole timeline laid out, so he says the truncated timeline would go like this. Pamela Vorhees was the cook at Camp Crystal Lake. Her son Jason, drowned while swimming in the lake because of a lack of

supervision from the counselors. Distraught, Pamela turns to dark magic to revive her dead son. She uses the necronomicon Ex Mortis to cast a resurrection spell of some sort, but a human sacrifice is required. This is why she begins her killing spree. By the end of the first film, she has very nearly obtained the number of deaths required, but while attempting to obtain her last soul, Alice, the main character of the first Friday thirteenth movie, Pamela herself

is beheaded, thus becoming the final sacrificed soul. Very soon after, we see a fully revived but quite ghoule ish Jason erupt from the lake in the film's final jump scare. There are fan theories of plenty on this topic, but there is official corroboration as well. The director of Friday the Thirteen Part nine Jason goes to Hell, which, to add my side on this is an absolutely miserable atrocity of a movie. Um even even like like a lot of the other ones are bad but very fun. I

feel like Jason goes to Hell. I just dare you to try to finish watching it, because I think you've mentioned before he does not actually go to Hell in this right, This is not like Dante's Inferno sort of uh plot line. Not only does he not go to Hell, most of the time, he doesn't even appear on screen. He just like Jason, possesses people. So it's just actors walking around with like his soul in them. Man, that's

just false advertising. Yeah, But anyway, to continue with seth thoughts here, Seth says, the director of this movie, Jason goes to Hell, Adam Marcus, went out of his way to make sure that Jason's dead eye status is an official part of the Friday the Thirteenth canon by having the Necronomicon ex mortis and the Candarian dagger. This is a magic dagger. It appears in the ninth movie that is, for some reason, the only thing that can kill Jason. Um uh. To have these items be discovered in the

Vorhees home. Seth finishes up by saying, there there are other bits of proof to be found throughout the series, and it definitely adds an interesting layer of complexity the whole franchise. Keep up the great work, Seth um Well, Seth, I, I couldn't be more appreciative of you your sharing your thoughts on the subject. But I'm gonna say I think this is also obviously a late redcon. Surely Steve Minor when he made the second Friday Thirteenth movie, did not

have any of this in his head. But but that's okay,

that's okay. I I accept the you know, the sort of franchise crossing Red Coons, that that that that works for me well, and and then I think the other part of this is that we at least we're going to get At some point, they were talking about doing Ash from Evil Dad versus Freddie versus Jason type of a film, and I think we ended up getting a comic book instead, because you know, the forces didn't properly align there, so the franchises were going to further converge,

like like star systems crashing into each other. I may have mentioned this thought on the show before, but coming back to the episode that Seth and I did in October about a horror movie music. I would hold up Jason Goes to Hell as probably the worst example of film scoring I have ever heard it. The music in that movie is so bad. The music is actually funny. Yeah, I haven't seen it, but you've mentioned this before, and I remember looking it up thinking, well, it couldn't be

that bad, surely, but it's it is that bad. It's that I remember it being wretched, especially since I mean the Friday Thirteenth movies. Of the things they're known for. One of the great things is that that little sound effect that that that part of the I guess you would consider that part of the score, part of the h the audio realm that Jason lives in, like that's so effective. Oh yeah, yeah, the classic Harry man Fordini theme. Um, and I think they still use that in in Jason

goes to Hell, but it I don't know. Allegedly the music in in Jason Goes to Hell is by the same composer as as the original one, Harry man Fordini, but I don't know. Something is wrong with it. It's the dynamics of it are just so It's just full of constant stings that are not associated with anything happening on the screen. So you just get like, like minutes at a time of just done, dudda done, dudda done. It just stings and stings and stings, and it doesn't

add up to anything. It's bizarre. Now, this is not to be confused with the disco hit that that sprang out of the Friday the thirteenth franchise. Right if we've talked about that. I think we've talked about that on the show before, right, disco hit. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, there was some bit of the there was some musical bit from one of the Friday the third teen films that became this big like disco hit during the at that time. Okay, once again Seth

has the answers on this. He just cut in to let us know. This is the theme song from Friday Part three, another one of the worst entries in the franchise. I think, oh yeah, yeah, but the music is solid. This is great. Okay, Well, maybe I gotta go listen to that right now. Well, I have a cute up as well, so I'm gonna I'm gonna listen listen to it right after we wrap here. So speaking of which

let's go ahead and close out this mail bag. But hey, it's gonna be it's gonna be two weeks for us before we record another listener mail, so that's ample time for folks to get in there with their thoughts on recent episodes, some of our Crab episodes, perhaps uh, some of the Vault episodes that are coming out, the more recent Weird House Cinemas. All of it is fair game,

right in let us know what you're thinking. In the meantime, if you want to check out other listener mail episodes, they are every Monday, and the Stuff to Blow your Mind podcast feed core episodes on Tuesday, using Thursday's artifact on Wednesday, Weird House Cinema on Friday. That's just our time to focus in on a strange movie and put most serious matters aside. Huge thanks as always to our

excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest topic for the future, or just to say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.