Nailing History
Introducing "Nailing History," the podcast where two friends attempt to nail down historical facts like they're trying to assemble IKEA furniture without the manual. Join Matt and Jon (or Jon and Matt) as they stumble through the annals of time, armed with Wikipedia, Chat GPT, and a sense of reckless abandon.
In each episode, Matt and Jon pick a historical event that tickles their curiosity (and occasionally their funny bone) and dissect it like a frog in biology class—except they're the frogs, and they have no idea what they're doing. From ancient civilizations to modern mishaps, they cover it all with the finesse of a bull in a china shop.
But wait, there's more! In between butchering historical names and dates, Matt and Jon take a break to explore the intersection of history and pop culture. Ever wondered if Cleopatra would have been a TikTok sensation? Yeah, neither have they, but that won't stop them from imagining it in excruciating detail.
So grab your popcorn and prepare to laugh, cringe, and possibly learn something (though don't hold your breath). With Matt and Jon leading the charge, "Nailing History" is the only podcast where you're guaranteed to leave scratching your head and questioning everything you thought you knew about the past. After all, who needs a PhD when you've got two clueless buddies and a microphone?
Nailing History
131 Welcome to 2025
Ever wondered how a simple Italian-style egg roll could turn a day into a comedy of errors? Join us as we recount our holiday escapades, from the whirlwind of family chaos to the laughter-filled moments at La Scala's Fire in Philadelphia. The trip for an Italian passport turned into a day of surprises, with a humorous "Italianian" T-shirt thrown in by Matt, proving that it's the unexpected twists that create the best stories. As we attempt to embrace Italian traditions, we find joy in the little mishaps and the warmth of coming home for the holidays, which makes for a podcast episode full of laughter and relatable moments.
A visit from my Australian host family's son provided the perfect excuse to explore Washington, D.C., through fresh eyes. Serving as a tour guide, we ventured through the Smithsonian and the city's iconic landmarks, sparking conversations about the lesser-known stories of D.C.'s memorials. We even ponder if Billy Joel's "Allentown" might have found inspiration at the FDR Memorial. Our nostalgic ramblings take us back to childhood music memories and amusing school talent show performances, blending history with humor in a way that makes it feel like you were there with us.
We then wander through tales of historical intrigue, connecting the dots between unexpected events, like the deaths of Jimmy Carter and Peter Yarrow, and the playful what-ifs of their afterlife encounters. Our historical musings take a whimsical turn as we revisit Andrew Jackson's raucous inauguration and the scandalous Petticoat Affair, all the while wrapping up with a light-hearted take on bathroom luxury and state flags. It's an episode that promises history with a twist, blending humor, nostalgia, and insights into the quirks of the past and present.
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Nailing History Podcast.
Speaker 2:Happy 2025.
Speaker 3:We are so pumped to have you back, is that?
Speaker 1:the new word? Is that the new word? We are new word new word, new me.
Speaker 3:You know how we got to be pumped to be back. Hey, fans, we miss you. That's all we can say. That's all I can say. Matt, how's your 2025 been so far?
Speaker 2:it's been three weeks since we've had an episode at least, so your 2025 has been terrible, which I'm told on in internet. Years is an eternity, so we've gone into the realm of irrelevance on the internet by missing three weeks of it for an episode.
Speaker 3:I didn't know if you knew that, john yeah, well, I know there's other podcasters we've been following that have gone longer than three weeks. So I you know. I think it's normal though, especially at the end of the year I know some podcasts I listen to they'll take two, three weeks off for the holidays. Everyone knows you got time with family, you've got to get your house in order, you've got to meet all those end-of-year obligations, but I think we're fine. The real fans miss us. How was your holiday?
Speaker 2:Holiday was good. The holiday season was good.
Speaker 3:Christmas was very nice. Holiday was good. The holiday season was good, christmas was very nice, it was cool.
Speaker 2:I had two weeks working from home. Did you do the seven fishes Good?
Speaker 3:job. We did not do seven fishes, we did about four, five that's not very Italian of you no, I know, but we spent it with my fiance's sister, this year in particular, virginia.
Speaker 2:I think this year in particular you may have been more interested in following the italian um traditions than most years, so I find it interesting you didn't do the seven fishes.
Speaker 3:A big event, as our fans know. I think we had previously addressed it before I'd acquired my Italian citizenship by descent. Back in June, all that stuff finally went through and then I had to just play the waiting game in order to go and get my first italian passport. I had to wait, however long six months and, yeah, we made a day out. Made a day out in town december 23rd.
Speaker 2:Uh, my fellow podcast co-host decided to join me, along with my mother, sister and fiance, into Philadelphia Well you know, I get invited to so little now that anything I get invited to, I figure I might as well take advantage of it. Otherwise I wouldn't do anything except this podcast.
Speaker 3:Well, you were ready for it. You accepted the offer and the invitation and I was very grateful for that. And I was even more grateful for a very charming and thoughtful uh present that matt decided to get me, uh and in before our travels into the city. Matt, maybe you can explain to our fans our fans what you went ahead and got me.
Speaker 1:Go ahead Okay.
Speaker 3:Well, Matt, to commemorate the event and the festivity of me going for my passport, Matt felt it appropriate to get me a T-shirt which he basically forced me to wear to my passport appointment, which said Italianian, and it had a picture of a flag underneath that from my head to my meatballs even just saying it makes me laugh and don't forget, there was a very there was a very random space between the I and the t in italian too.
Speaker 2:Don't forget that.
Speaker 3:I cannot forget that. The shirt, I own the shirt now. I will not forget it. Have you worn it? Since Matt wanted to get himself a shirt, so I guess we were matching which said surrounded by stunads with the finger gesture the hand gesture the typical Italian hand gesture. Tommy DeVito hand gesture the, the typical italian hand gesture tommy, tommy devito hand gesture. With tommy devito, late, most recently done by baker mayfield after scoring a touchdown, mimicking the crowd, or, um, sticking it to the crowd. It was a good shirt. It was a good shirt. Um, we maybe put a poll out to our fans which shirts nice, funnier, more insulting, uh, just what would you rather have in your wardrobe, you know? But yeah, we had a really fun day out. So I had that appointment in the morning and then we, immediately after that, we just went across street to a place called la scala. Fire had had some pizza and some long hots. Gotta get some long hots in you when you're in Philadelphia, what they?
Speaker 1:are at.
Speaker 3:Huxberg's.
Speaker 2:If I were to give a review of this restaurant, it is that we ordered the Italian egg rolls and we got the cheesesteak egg rolls and me and John, being the polite Catholics that we are, didn't say anything.
Speaker 3:Light cat. Yeah, getting ready. We could have been like. We were really looking forward to it, though. So fans these egg rolls, so they were Italian-style egg rolls. So for any of our fans who've ever been into Philly, you got a place called De Nix. You get an Italian pulled pork sub which has broccoli, rabe, sharp provolone cheese and Italian pulled pork.
Speaker 3:And so these were going to be long hots and they were going to be baked into an egg roll and we saw that we got to get it no questions asked and we ordered it. It was like early lunch hour and then we were one of the first ones there and then it just got. We turned into a madhouse half an hour later and I think we just felt bad, we don't want to send it back fans, can I?
Speaker 2:I just want to bring you into my world right now as we're going through this episode. But right before we were on this episode, right before we started recording, john, I had put an outline together and you know, this is kind of what we've been going off of so far. We're on item one of like 13, but, john, I'm ready to get started, I'm getting excited. And then John just decides to say, um, hey, why don't we put time stamps on all of these items? Because I don't want to be talking about all this stuff for very long. And then, you know, by the time we get into the meat of the episode, I'm spent and I can't. I can't contribute to the episode. Um, so he goes through.
Speaker 2:He spends the episode, I'm spent and I can't. I can't contribute to the episode. So he goes through. He spends 30 minutes that we probably could have just been doing podcasting. He spends this time to put these approximate timestamps of all of these episodes and then, when it comes time to record this episode, john decides to just go off on all these tangents about where we ate lunch, what we ordered, I don't know. Very strange, strange behavior. Strange behavior from a co-host, that's all I gotta say long story short, it was a great day out.
Speaker 3:It was a lot of fun. I got my passport. I only had five fish for the feast of the seven Fishes this year. I had a nice Christmas. How was yours?
Speaker 2:It was fine Good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what else did you do over?
Speaker 1:there.
Speaker 2:I got some nice nailing history swag for Christmas.
Speaker 3:I got coasters.
Speaker 2:I got coasters, I got notepads, I got socks, I got is that it? You got some books and I got some history books that might, may, come in handy in the future. Yep, my family's very supportive of the podcast that's good, that's good.
Speaker 3:My family's just asking me now how can they actually communicate with us of the podcast. That's good, that's good. My family's just asking me now how can they actually communicate with us on the podcast. So that's, that's good. That's good.
Speaker 2:Our AI generated show logo actually kind of came out pretty good on this, uh swag.
Speaker 3:Do we own the rights to that or do you own the rights to?
Speaker 2:that. How does that work?
Speaker 3:I don't know. Does anybody own the rights to anything? Yes, says like 250 years of american, like commerce law.
Speaker 2:I don't know, and I got this really sweet painted painting for christmas that I'm excited about, of aubrey hepburn audrey hepburn a Aubrey Hepburn, aubrey Hepburn.
Speaker 3:yeah, are you a big fan of hers?
Speaker 2:I think she's hot in a 1930s way 30s.
Speaker 3:Are you talking about Catherine Hepburn? No, Breakfast at.
Speaker 1:Tiffany's came out in 1961.
Speaker 2:Oh, in the 60s kind of way, she's hot Fair enough. I like her she's cool.
Speaker 3:You like her. She looks like a sassy kind of gal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she seems like she'd really, you know, insult me in a nice way, probably step on it wrong a couple times.
Speaker 3:if you asked yeah.
Speaker 2:I think so. So, that's all, that's that's a good recap.
Speaker 3:Um, let's get. Uh, let's, how are we doing on our time?
Speaker 2:john, we're cruising here. What was supposed to be at. What was your? What was your master?
Speaker 3:plan supposed to be on 7 but yeah, no, like, I guess I had a nice holiday, but I think the highlight of like call it the holiday season which I guess I would include this in was I actually had a friend of mine. So I, as some of our fans know too that I lived in australia for about six years and my last year there I lived with a family, uh, for a full year and we kind of became really close. They're probably going to hopefully be at my wedding, if you're listening, looking forward to your rsvp, um, but yeah, for, like, one of their uh, one of the, the um, the son, uh that was that I was living with there, he uh had a chance to come to the us for a couple weeks and spent most of that time up in New York City. And, yeah, he just reached out. We were able to connect and got him on a bus. He came down to Baltimore, picked him up and he was only here for less than 36 hours.
Speaker 3:So we had a Saturday that we went to DC and I just kind of took him all around to all the sites and sounds, and that was a couple weeks ago now and uh, yeah, that was, that was really fun, you know, it was really cool to reconnect and and see him and you know, have a young he's I think he's 17 have a young, impressionable mind that I could spit historical knowledge on. That was kind of cool and I think he appreciated it. So he said apparently it was the highlight of his trip. Did you tell him about our podcast? I, I think I mentioned it to him. Certainly mentioned it to his mother I would have. Did you drive there? No, we drove to the metros, the metro, dc metro and then we took the train in and we got right off at the smithsonian institute.
Speaker 3:You had a fun time.
Speaker 2:You had a fun time in dc. You take the train back, you get in the car. You don't think to say like, oh hey, you know why don't we listen to an episode of my history podcast?
Speaker 3:I wasn't sure. I mean he said after the fact that it was his highlight. But we went into the Smithsonian Museum of American History and we were there for a little bit. We did an exhibit on the history of transportation in America, walked around that for a while.
Speaker 2:Was Pete Buttigieg there.
Speaker 3:I wish, I wish there was a cardboard cutout. So we did that for a while and then, like, we wanted to get up to the, so we did that, and then we went up to the star spangled banner so we saw the flag. That was, you know, the inspiration for, for our national anthem, and that was pretty cool. And he was like I want to see that. I'm like, so do I, and so, uh, no pictures were allowed, unfortunately. They thought it would corrode the. They thought a picture from a cell phone with no flash on would corrode the flag, just like Washington's tent.
Speaker 2:Just no pictures allowed, probably because it's not actually the flag, just saying Probably, because it's not actually the flag, just saying sorry, probably, because it's not actually that flag.
Speaker 3:I think it is it is the flag yeah, sorry, keep going it was a box, it was also a square flag, it's not, it's not rectangle like the flag we see now. Um, and that was cool, I think you really appreciated that. And then we were going to go upstairs to the third floor and kind of do like more military history. That had a whole exhibit on military history opened up, opening up with the french and indian war, seven years war. Uh, as our, as our fans now there's no another name and we got going on there talking about fort necessity, general braddock, and how washington like started this whole, like how washington like started the war. So we're getting, we're just, we're just about getting into it, right about to walk up in the boston massacre stuff and right as we're about to, declare independence oh boy, he turns to me and he's like, hey, can we like go get something to eat?
Speaker 3:so I was like, all right, I think I think he got enough history for the day on this. And then we were like, let's just go and we'll just walk around. We'll just go walk around. We got to go, we got plenty to see here and we just ended up just cruising around the National Mall. We just walked around the White House, which was packed and with all the commotion of the inauguration coming up. They were setting up for that. So there was secret service everywhere, couldn't really get to where we could get a good picture of in front of the white house, but we made it work. And so, yeah, we walked around the white house, hit up the national monument, head up the Washington monument, uh, went to the Jefferson monument. I would say, yeah, my favorite part did Lincoln Monument. Obviously, our fans know that that was not my favorite. George Mason Monument was cool, it was subtle, it was very subtle. I liked that one.
Speaker 2:Did you see the Korean War Monument Memorial? We did see the.
Speaker 3:Korean War Memorial. Yeah, that was cool. We literally hit every single memorial, and then when we came back we walked all over.
Speaker 1:Did you see FDR's memorial?
Speaker 3:I didn't know FDR's was as big as it was. I've walked past FDR's before but I obviously missed the meat of it, the meat and potatoes of it. I just remember walking by one time past a a wall that said, like the fdr memorial, like that looks lame. But this time I actually went in and it was literally every four years of his presidency or documented with different like statues and stuff. So you have like the first four years of the great depression and you have these guys standing in line like at like a soup kitchen. Uh a la are they filling?
Speaker 2:were they filling out forms?
Speaker 3:for the most part, for the most part, a la allentown, precursor to allen, the allentown of future. Do you think that's what?
Speaker 2:do you think that maybe that is what um Billy Joel to write that song?
Speaker 3:I think his influence was the jobs leaving Allentown in the 70s, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I thought you sent me a picture of that. You had the old Aussie bloke sitting in line with the rest of them Pretty funny, I guess which may have been fitting if he was as hungry as you said he was. Well, he wasn't that hungry. At that point We'd already eaten. Maybe you should have given him a little. You think you're hungry now?
Speaker 1:Well the Great Depression hit.
Speaker 3:Australia too. I mean, I think it was a world depression.
Speaker 2:You should have taken the opportunity to teach him about the.
Speaker 3:Smoot-Hawley Act Huh.
Speaker 2:You should have taken the opportunity to teach him about the Smoot-Hawley Act.
Speaker 3:Yep, I was talking his ear off a lot. We did a lot of walking.
Speaker 2:I'm hungry, well, you know who was really hungry Americans during the Great Depression, and you know what made that even worse, herbert. You know who was really hungry Americans during the Great Depression, and you know what made that even worse Herbert Hoover and the Smoot-Hawley Act.
Speaker 1:Let me explain to you what happened. Tariffs, he talked, the only way to get out of the Great.
Speaker 2:Depression was to increase the tariffs. And he's like what? No, he was engaged.
Speaker 3:He really liked it. I think I got a picture of him at every memorial and we yeah, we basically did all of lincoln and we walked the length to the nation's capital, we walked to the capital building. That was certainly a highlight of, uh of of my time away, what I've been doing the past three weeks since our last episode, um cool, all right.
Speaker 2:Fan mail, fan mail.
Speaker 2:Fan mail, fan mail. Let's get to our fan mail now. Um, let's just read. We got a couple fan mails. We'll read them in reverse chronological order january 2nd. This is him writing. Excellent year, gentlemen.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed every episode, although some were more entertaining than others. I would like to throw in my hat. No, I would like to throw my hat in the ring for this. All expenses paid field trip contest. Now break, john. Did we say full, all expenses, or do we say 50%? I think it was half off. Yeah, it was 50%. I don't know what you're trying to get at, dick Pepperfield, but we'll look into it.
Speaker 2:Back to the message. This is very generous of the podcast to offer this once-in-a-lifetime experience and I simply cannot turn it down. If possible, I would like to John do the tour in character as Al Pacino, as he is one of my favorite actors and John's impression is one of the best I've heard. I'm sorry I didn't send anything in for my favorite moments of the year for the last episode, but I was visiting Italy trying to learn more about my heritage. I felt this was necessary after John publicly shamed me about my lack of Italian knowledge on our last call. As for future episodes on the pod, I'd like to hear more movie reviews, but I'd like them to be good movies. Finally, I will corroborate John's story about my cover of Bob Seger at our school talent show. I'm simply shocked at his recall here. Somehow he can't remember the DC sniper attacks, yet he can remember a first grade talent show set Stay classy, dick Pepperfield. There's a lot to unpack there, a lot going on, wow, I would say first off. Okay, so first about the the field trip.
Speaker 3:We'll figure that out. It's gonna go to, we're going to norristown. Basically, if we're gonna give, it's gonna be 50 off, we're gonna do a historical field trip to norristown well, I was thinking, why don't we go to the?
Speaker 2:we can take, take Dick to the Chester County History Museum, kind of close to where I believe he Near where he currently resides, and that could be fun.
Speaker 3:We could pick him up, swing by, pick him up. Who good you know VIP, we'll get him in the car.
Speaker 2:50% off entrance to the museum. Then we'll pay for half of his meal at Uno Pizzeria and Grill.
Speaker 3:So sign up. Sign up today, dick Pepperfield, if anyone else wants to join.
Speaker 2:We'll reach out to you separately to go over the details and if anyone else wants to join.
Speaker 3:You know exclusions apply. Obviously, you got to find if you get yourself to Norristown, Westchester, westchester, within the vicinity of anywhere within the vicinity.
Speaker 2:If you can take the Norristown line in and we can pick you up at the Norristown transportation center, that's all you need to get to either get to where we're going or Norristown transportation center is the farthest we will drive. Um, so Either get to where we're going or Nardstown Transportation Center is the farthest we will drive. So, yeah, your. Al Pacino is his favorite Movie reviews. We could, we do, have a couple lined up. We've seen a couple, one in particular, not sure if we're going to be able to get. If we're going to be able to get, uh, if we're going to be able to get um access to it, but there is an italian film about the life of benito mussolini that we're very interested in seeing and we will do a movie review if we can get access to that apparently quite the commotion too, people, oh really yeah, I've got some italian co-workers who were like, yeah, it's a little touchy subject in it right now is it the wee, wee yep, did you?
Speaker 1:ask them. Did you ask?
Speaker 3:them? Why do we see it? Why, what? Why can't everyone see that? No, just like the current political stuff happening in the world, like oh're, like, oh, it's just.
Speaker 2:Hey, what do they say about your past? If you forget it, you're doomed to repeat it. Isn't that what they say? Or something like that? That's what they say.
Speaker 3:But Mark Twain also says history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so we got a couple movies on there. We will keep you guys in in in the loop on that, um. But I do want to say, john, this talent show where, uh, this individual sang pete seger. Uh, good to old time rock and roll, that was in first grade I guess I don't remember the exact time it was in grade school. I was thinking it was were talking like 7th, 8th grade no. Wasn't it the same year that you did Big Pimpin' by Jay-Z, or was it?
Speaker 3:a different talent show. That's when I did that that wasn't at a talent show, that was at a grade school dance. My competition just did all the small things by Blink-182. I think a little bit easier to pull off if you have no rapping skills which I unfortunately don't I could have maybe hooked you up with some costume ideas, using Blackface to get you through that one. I did have the dollar bills. I do remember that much I was fanning some money around for five minutes straight and not saying anything else.
Speaker 3:That much I was fanning some money around for five minutes straight and not saying anything else wasn't I can't believe you can remember that if that was really first grade, I mean we're talking 30 years ago and I remember that and another one was people in my school did, uh, I think uh, that was first, maybe that was first grade. Somebody did tub thumping by chumbawamba.
Speaker 2:That one it was first grade 1998 yeah, that would have been like third grade, so maybe it was third grade yeah did you have that album?
Speaker 3:chumbawamba? No, but I believe our, our fan mark c did. I think that's how I heard it I had it too.
Speaker 2:I had it, and there was a song on there that was as someone who went to Catholic school being like 10 years old. There was a song called Not to get off topic. Hold on, I got it. I'm curious. Yeah, hold on, I've got to find these lyrics. What was that album called tub thumper? Wasn't it that was the song the album was tub thumper.
Speaker 3:The song was called tub thumping. Nah, yeah, it was oh man, you're right.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's okay creative. There was a song called Mary Mary, that's it, and the song starts off with a really crazy, dark, british themed person reciting the Hail Mary prayer, okay, and then it gets, gets into like, uh, no verge. Then, like the, the song comes in and it's kind of like an angry british song.
Speaker 1:Right, it's like no virgin me, for I have sinned. I sold my soul for sex and gin. Go call the priest all meek and mild, and tell them mary is no more a child.
Speaker 2:So like I mean it's it was pretty earth-shattering but I do remember I did like that was my second favorite song on that album. It was a pretty catchy tune.
Speaker 3:Apparently, donald Trump got up. He ticked them off. Apparently, he tried using tub thumping during the 2016 presidential campaign and they were not happy with him.
Speaker 1:They did not have the right to use it. I would have used Mary.
Speaker 3:Mary, A band member, said that quote.
Speaker 2:there have been many, many examples of right-wing populist leaders using ostensibly left-wing music to hoodwink their audiences into some kind of hypnotic self-delusion that they are. Quote of the people, end quote. That's what, when I think of the song top thumping, I think of of the people for sure. All right, let's get. Let's get moving from our good friend to the show and contributor to the show, emily M, asks. These are supposed to be anonymous, but I think she'd be happy for me to say her name. Question for the host. Who would you pardon if you were president? John, I gave you a little bit of time. I didn't want to. I know it's a tough question to get you know, thrown on you in the spur of the moment type thing. So did you have a time to think about it and do you have an answer? Yes, I do.
Speaker 3:You're very excited everyone from cops, anyone who's been arrested on the show cops. It's like we got our benefit. It's entertainment. Yeah, they were committing a crime, but there's only a show of cops. Only have the show because people like seeing other people arrested.
Speaker 2:Good answer, that's a very good answer you've done your time.
Speaker 3:You're now like you're forever. That guy in a trailer park somewhere who was running from the cops yeah, getting tackled and then having to explain yourself on camera, maybe had some drugs up your butt most of them were drug offenses. It seems like a lot of them were like petty gun crimes which it's like illegal and like maybe they should have been arrested. But if you're filming it and someone's making money off of you, it's like already you've done the time. The film's footage isn't going anywhere. I'm still watching it. We'll still my fiancee. She'll just put it on. She just needs to relax. She'll throw on Cops or Love After Lockup or one of these crazy police shows.
Speaker 2:Very good answer. I do want to add one other person to this. How about the guy who stabbed Joey Greco on that episode of Cheaters? Ooh, that's a good one.
Speaker 3:That's a good part. Now, full disclaimer. I'm not saying that that pardoning of these individuals from the show Cops is necessarily what the founding fathers would have intended to use.
Speaker 2:Well, my concern would be I don't think any of these people and to get back to what a pardon actually is, I don't think any of these people on Cops are being arrested by local troopers for federal offenses, right? Yeah, so as president, president, you wouldn't necessarily have the power to pardon them maybe as a governor, as a governor of a state the question was if you were president?
Speaker 2:I don't want, I don't want to get in the weeds, but I'm just saying that's true and I appreciate listening, if Emily M's listening and she's going to probably be saying that like well, wait, Wait a second.
Speaker 3:And obviously I can't wipe the state if the state still has an offense against them. Yeah, that's got to hold. Yeah, no, it's true.
Speaker 2:So I'll just go quick with mine. I have a little bit of a list Wesley Snipes Wesley Snipes and Mike DeS, both tax evasion victims. I don't know who's necessarily the victim in an evasion case. But I think if you pay your taxes back or you at least say you're sorry, you should be able to get pardoned for cheating your taxes. Maybe if they pay your taxes back or you at least say you're sorry, you should be able to get pardoned for cheating your taxes.
Speaker 3:Maybe if they paid their taxes.
Speaker 2:I would pardon Chris Harrison, the creator and host of the Bachelor series. He got into a little bit of hot water back in 2018, 2019 over trying to defend a woman for going to antebellum parties down in the South. I don't know if you remember this, John.
Speaker 3:He got canceled.
Speaker 2:They took his show away from him and he went on a. He got himself into a little bit of a situation that he shouldn't have been in, taking heat for somebody else's actions, which I did ultimately realize Now. I never knew this, but the woman that he was talking about on the show this is even crazier to me the woman that he was talking about on the show who went to antebellum parties. His defense to her was well, what was okay in 2018 may not be okay in 2020 anymore, or whatever. Or what's not okay in 2020 may not be okay in 2020 anymore, or whatever. Or what's not okay in 2020,. You know the woke police. He started telling me all these.
Speaker 3:Really bad, but again, he wasn't charged with a crime, just like the ostracize you would. The ostracization of it.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't come out as president and say, let's leave this guy alone. Okay, if that counts as a part, and if that doesn't count as a part, and sue me, all right, um, so that kind of leads us into um, how are we doing on time, john? We're great. Where are we supposed to be?
Speaker 3:we're catching up, we're catching, we're making up time we're making up.
Speaker 2:We had some serious news, some serious impacting news about friend of the show.
Speaker 2:Would you say not a friend of the show, not a friend, but certainly a soon to be a very big personality overnight sensation, you might say, for the sake of the nailing history podcast nuts nuts I will say that I don't know if any of our fans made it this far into our pardon episode, because when I have mentioned this person in conversation, it gets no attention, and everyone's so here it is december 29th, 2024. President jimmy carter passed away at 100 years old. Now, that's sad. He was not in great shape at all, I mean for a long time two years.
Speaker 2:I mean he was basically a vegetable. I like to think you make it to 100. I mean, really, what else he won out of life? Good for him, he had a long life, happy for him, seemed like an okay guy, habitat for Humanity, whatever. But if a lot of people know a very People remember from our episode very unknown fact about him in the 70s or no, right before Jimmy Carter left office, he pardoned a fellow named Peter Yarrow of the famous for the group Peter Paul Mary for some sexual. What do you want to? How's the most appropriate way to say it?
Speaker 3:sexual crime against a minor. It was sexual How's the most appropriate way to say it? Sexual crime against a minor, it was.
Speaker 2:Can you say that today, anyway, first pardon, I don't know.
Speaker 1:First pardon against a.
Speaker 2:Only pardon for sexual crime. Whatever Blah blah, we won't get into it. If you want to go back to the episode I know it was a little boring Fast forward to the last quarter of the episode. I think is when we get into it. Um, but anyway, funny thing, jimmy carter's dead. We know about this period.
Speaker 2:I think john and I have kind of always been like bringing it up, just like I've done photoshop of me on peter yarrow's face, john on the other guy, like we've done a lot of photoshop. Yarrow's face, john on the other guy We've done a lot of Photoshop. It's been a thing that we joke around about as far as how ridiculous this whole thing is. And so, like I said, my birthday is around the time. My birthday is on January 9th. Jimmy Carter was to be buried on January 9th. I'm celebrating my birthday with my family. My dad says Not a listener of the show, mind you, uh. My dad says, uh, hey, uh, jimmy carter is going to be buried tomorrow, right? I'm like yeah, I think so. I'm like f that dude, though. And he's like what do you mean? I'm like he's wasn't, and my dad's like I always thought he was a pretty nice guy. He, my dad thought of jimmy carter has always been. He was too nice to be a good president that's.
Speaker 3:I think that's kind of an image he projected.
Speaker 2:Yeah which maybe it's true you know people make mistakes or whatever, but I said so I said to him like uh, yeah, you never. You ever hear of um. You ever hear of, uh, how he pardoned peter yarrow for um diddling a 14 year old back in the 60s? I certainly can't say that If you can't see sexual crime against a minor.
Speaker 3:I don't think diddling a 14 year old in the 60s.
Speaker 2:That's what happened. I guess he got diddled by the 14 year old. I believe was the crime. Regardless, forced diddling by a 14 year old I think is the proper terminology. Forced diddling by a 14 year old, I think is the proper terminology forced diddling on a 14 okay, anyway. No forced diddling by a 14 year old wait, yeah anyway right, okay he forced the 14 year old to diddle him there's no way right going on so, anyway, I told my dad that he said didn't he just die?
Speaker 2:I'm like no, you must be, because no one heard about this, right? So turns out, the day before we were talking about this, january 7th 2025, peter yarrow died of some kind of cancer, which is just like I couldn't believe it. I was shocked. John never said anything to me about. I don't think john had heard about it. I sent him the article right away. I'm like I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe this happened.
Speaker 3:There's got to be some relation and matt put on his sleuthing hat and he he has a pretty good inkling as to what might be happening if any of our fans believe in the paranormal, the super the afterlife.
Speaker 2:Well, so I think this is the thing. Well, first of all, no one talked about this. No one talked. When Jimmy Carter died. I found one person on Twitter some random account on Twitter that said he pardoned Peter Yarrow. What a jerk. Basically, when Jimmy Carter died, I found him posted that. I replied to him and said hey, thanks for listening to the podcast. Didn't hear anything back, neither here nor there. We have a blue checkmark. I thought that would have been, I would have Whatever, but they didn't talk about it. Then they didn't talk about it. Then they didn't talk about it after Peter Yarrow died, which there's. How could nobody come up with this connection, not like and I'm just, it's shocking to me that this happened. They happened right next to each other and not one person in the media, not one person out there could have just said how, look what happened like conspiracy theorists.
Speaker 3:Where are the conspiracy? I don't expect the mainstream media to say like, oh, is there a connection between their two deaths, but I would think somewhere on that, even not even to say like a connection, just be like that's crazy that they died within a week of one another yeah, you don't think that's crazy?
Speaker 3:I mean again, if what you think could have happened in the afterworld, which we'll get into, if that, if you think that's a thing, well then, yeah, that could be crazy. But just the fact that they died, if he had, if he was suffering from cancer for a while now, maybe he was only staying alive long enough, maybe he's like I gotta outlive jimmy carter. So jimmy carter keeps his mouth shut, goes through the pearly gates and I could still sneak in after him. I think that was the play.
Speaker 3:I think yara was like somebody told yara who was also he was worried like hey, he was worried about going dying before yeah, okay, I don't know the rules of the engagement with saint peter up at the pearly gates of heaven for any of our catholic listeners out there or non-catholic listeners. First of all, peter yarrow was a jewish man, so I don't think he necessarily would believe in heaven in the same way as according to.
Speaker 2:According to reddit. A quick search would tell you that Jewish people do not go to heaven.
Speaker 3:They meet Mel Brooks instead, apparently. Anyway, we'll leave it to our fans to dig down the internet rabbit hole for that Reddit post.
Speaker 2:There was a Reddit post. We were looking this up and it was like I always like to think that it would be funny if some Jewish person died and then Jesus shows up on their deathbed and says who did you expect to find Mel?
Speaker 1:Brooks Wow, that's cool.
Speaker 2:I think it was weird.
Speaker 1:That's an interesting thought, John. I think that's probably what happened.
Speaker 2:Now my thought was, maybe mine was a little bit more of a, mine was more, uh, vengeful, on the side of saint peter. I had envisioned jimmy carter dies. He gets up to the pearly gates. He says, uh, peter's up to him. He's like all right, let's see what you did, jimmy, president of the united states, let's see what was up. Ah, nothing that bad. It seems okay, let's go, let's get in. Yeah, have that humanity. But then peter, or uh jimmy carter says, yeah, well, something's always kind of been on my mind that I kind of messed up here. Saint peter's like what do you mean? I don't see anything here. He says, well, that pardon for for Peter Yarrow at the end of my presidency, kind of not the best thing. And St Peter's like well, what pardon? Jimmy Carter has to explain it to him. He's like I was paying attention to the Iranian hostage crisis, just like everybody else. I must have missed this. You did what you let him do what I got to get him up here. Boom, gets Peter Yarrow up there to explain stuff to himself.
Speaker 3:My question to you is, so they're hypothetical. So Jimmy Carter dies December 29th. He's basically just waiting on the line. He's just standing outside of the gates like he's in Allentown or something he's waiting in line.
Speaker 2:Well, they call that purgatory, john Purgatory.
Speaker 3:No Well, if he's at the gates, he's not down in purgatory yet. He's not. He hasn't kicked down to purgatory yet. He's on hold with saint peter at the gates. That's what happens. That's what I'm saying is happening. Okay, he's explaining himself. He's not in purgatory, explaining the saint peter's up at the gates. And then the decisions made by saint peter's like are you gotta go wait in purgatory or you're allowed in? That's where they're at. They're in this, like how it works.
Speaker 3:That's what. How I'm saying how it works. I don't okay. Okay, that's. I know I think roman catholics are the only one that believe in purgatory, first of all, but anyway some people think that our lives now are purgatory.
Speaker 3:Anyway, keep going, anyway, yeah so I'm thinking, all right, jimmy carter goes up there, he explains that whole story which you just went through, and then, okay, he's just like waiting, waiting, like you know, checking his clock, checking his watch, like waiting for what's going on. Yarrow dies, yeah, say, peter brings up yarrow. They have this whole back and forth. My question to you is who does he let in? So they're both up there talking to him. Do either of them go into heaven? Do they both go to purgatory? Do they both go to hell? Do they just do rock paper scissors to decide? Does St Peter pull the all guy? I got what I got. Space for one of you. I think I'm disappointed in both of you, and one of you is Jewish.
Speaker 2:And the other one's definitely a Protestant. I'm thinking St Peter makes them share a room together. Bunk beds.
Speaker 3:For the rest of eternity.
Speaker 1:Jimmy Carter has to. Jimmy Carter has.
Speaker 2:Jimmy Carter has to listen to Peter Yarrow sing Puff the Magic Dragon constantly for the rest of his life, and Peter Yarrow has to sing it eternal life.
Speaker 3:Where's Yarrow going during this whole thing? He got parted by a president, but he's sharing a room he's sharing a room with Jimmy Carter I already said that so that's all.
Speaker 2:That's some current events that I thought played a pretty significant uh role in just not a significant role, but uh was very heavily involved in in the nailing history lure lore as you could say. Yeah I.
Speaker 3:It's baffling that nobody said anything one about yarrow's death and two about the pardoning, except that one like.
Speaker 2:I mean, I thought, like when like when, like when Carter died, I'm like, yeah, why would they bring it up?
Speaker 3:But then the fact that Peter Yarrow died seven days later and there is no like that's funny to think about, even just somebody who was doing it to score political brownie points, like some Republican someone somewhere just to throw shade at a Democrat, you know, just for the sake of a 30-second soundbite.
Speaker 3:Do we need to go up with a top 50 list of current event things and then by the end of the year we read it back? Hey, remember when that was the biggest thing on the news and then within days it was like we're only two weeks into the year.
Speaker 2:That could be your contribution to the show. Do what you want, there you go. That could be your job, okay, all right, let's get into it. Uh, that was pretty much. I just wanted the. I mean, the main reason to do an episode was to kind of get through what we just got through. So I'm happy we got through that. But we would be remiss if we did not include some history talk here. So John kind of alluded to it before when he talked about his trip down to DC. But we got a big old event happening. By the time this episode comes out, it will have already been passed. I think January 21st, tuesday, uh, is Donald Trump's, the date of Donald Trump's inauguration. Now, the fact that this is coming out after the fact, I can only assume that everything went off without a hitch.
Speaker 3:It's not the 21st, by the way. What is it? It's Monday, January 20th.
Speaker 2:Oh really, I thought it was tuesday no oh yeah, that's right, it is the 20th. Um, whatever I'm, I only assume that everything went off without a hitch.
Speaker 3:If that's not the case and things went crazy, we'll cover in the next episode well, I already have some news here, apparently, that trump inauguration is going to be moved indoors oh yeah, I already got that cold lame dangerous the cold temperatures.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't want a william henry harrison situation no we don't want that, but just going through. We were kind of talking about, uh, looking at inaugurations in the in history, other inaugurations in history and what to talk about, and you just came across one that I mean I didn't know about it. Um, andrew jackson, back in uh 1829 when he, after he won the election of 1828 against john quincy adams. Um, his inauguration is known as, uh, a raucous one, is that how you say that word? Very rowdy and um, just found it interesting.
Speaker 3:You know the situation there yeah, I know I had heard about it before from like History Channel, but, like years ago, nothing more than just I know it was a big party, it wasn't all this pageantry.
Speaker 2:So, to put it into context, what's going on? John, you can fill in. You might know a little bit more than me, but the election of 1828 was a fairly contentious election. To begin with it was a rematch. Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams went at it the year before, or the election before in 1824, where Jackson won the popular vote and he had the most electoral votes, I believe but didn't have the majority. So it went to the House of Representatives to decide who became president, and what happened was Henry Clay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, john Quincy Adams was second place and Henry Clay worked his magic to get John Quincy Adams to win the House over and get elected president. And Andrew Jackson ever since then always said how Henry Clay was a corrupt. Like corruption. Henry Clay like used all Pulled all these strings to get his buddy in there because they were the tariff boys and they wanted tariffs, literally blamed him for the death of his wife, him and other people that.
Speaker 2:Well, that was leading up to this 1828 election, so that happened. Andrew Jackson was saying that the rich and the elite are taking over the country and that the common man is not being represented. That was kind of what he ran on, but there was and the election was very contentious there was a situation where Jackson's wife People said that Jackson married his wife. Jackson's wife got married before his wife's divorce was finalized and that was very scandalous at the time and it was tabloids of the day and all this stuff that she was just like run through the ringer with the gossip of the day of the day, which, which andrew jackson you know, contributes to her death. I don't know what she died from, but just a general, I think, illness. I don't know. I mean, I know I'm sure there was something yeah, exactly what I'm not sure, but uh yeah she was basically being accused of bigamy, which back then was a big deal.
Speaker 3:You know far more moral society you know.
Speaker 2:So. So that's just the background. So it was. I mean, you think about today and you know, I think a lot of people I think it's just like the more and more I've gone through, we've gone through the time and gone through past things. In america people think that this is the craziest time the world has ever seen or that america's ever seen. But it's just not the case. It's this. This kind of stuff's been going on forever going on.
Speaker 3:I'd say it was even more acute at times and yeah, it just wasn't 24 1828 elections are this election seemed crazy.
Speaker 2:Part of that so all this stuff leading up to it with henry clay, you know, stealing the election from andrew jackson very common phrase that you hear these days is very it was like kind of was the attitude going on and, um, since andrew jackson then won this 1828 election, there was this feeling that Andrew Jackson was the first president to represent the common man. That was contributed also to the fact that several states for this election had relaxed the laws that previously allowed only property owners to vote, so there was much more common man representation in this election. So when he wins, he was a populist president. He was probably the first populist president that you would consider. There's a Jacksonian era that they talk about in America. The people, the common people, the farmers of the country, the common man felt represented for the first time in a long time.
Speaker 3:I would say I'd say Thomaserson had shades of it, but even he was not that. I don't think he played as much as jackson did to the common yeah, I feel like they might have liked him, but he was also a uh, he was in like a natural aristocracy. He yeah, that's what I'm saying he, he was still with us.
Speaker 2:Right, he was an aristocratic person, right. So 30,000. So then this inauguration was happening March 4th 1829. The reason for the change from March 4th to January 20th Do you know this reason, john? Well, the reason why? So? The reason why it was March 4th, it was in March. Why so? The reason why it was march, for it was in march, was be just because of, um, logistics, of getting the president-elect to to the white, like back then, it was hard to get places in the logistics of all that stuff and everything. So, um, it wasn't until the uh, uh, what, what amendment was that? The 20th amendment?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, the 20th amendment passed in in 1933 changed from march to january. The reason to change it one um. You know, with modern advances communication, transportation they were able to obviously get to the white house and get elected quicker. But also the big thing was that what do they call that Lame duck Congress where in between elections, when there's a lot of people in Congress who got voted out or whatever, nothing's going, nothing's happening. And to have that time from November to March is pretty crazy. So they shortened it to January. That happened in 1933. So, thinking this it's March, springtime, getting warm now Everybody's feeling represented in the country. The mood in DC must have been electric at the time and got a lot of people showing up. 30,000 people showed up for this inauguration, which was a lot of the time. I think the current record holder is Obama, at 1.8 million people attended Barack Obama's inauguration.
Speaker 3:I don't know if that's broken.
Speaker 2:1.8 million, yeah 1.8 million, so 30,000 people versus 1.8 million. That's pretty, but a lot of people still. And people were pumped to see Jackson. These people came to see him. They were excited. He gave his speech. He was sworn into office, gave a speech and as soon as he gave a speech the crowd broke through the barriers and ran up the Capitol steps to try to shake his hand. I mean, imagine that happening. They'd be shot on sight.
Speaker 3:Oh man, I think Trump would shake people's hands. That's the thing he would.
Speaker 2:He would probably embrace it a little bit maybe, but it'd be scary. So that happened. Jackson rode his horse back to the White House. He was able to escape this crowd, rode his horse back to the White House. He was able to escape this crowd, rode his horse back to the White House, but the crowd followed him because in the tradition at this time the White House was open to the public on Inauguration Day so you could come in and congratulate the president or whatever, which I guess up until this point wasn't a huge deal because there wasn't this populist feeling of like. I feel like it was a very heightened. Only the high society would attend the inaugurations and only the high society would even probably even think that they were welcome in the white house. But with Jackson, how he ran on the like, uh, uh representing the common man the every man felt as though they were welcome into the white house.
Speaker 2:So they all followed him there and ran in, to the point where they were breaking chairs, breaking china, all this and they actually. There's a painting. I sent it to John and it represents apparently what actually happened. It was so bad that Jackson actually got pinned up against the wall of the dining area wherever they were and, like I mean, he couldn't even move. He ended up having to escape out a window to get to a hotel yeah, I'm missing anything here, chief.
Speaker 3:So justice of the supreme court, joseph story said, quote I never saw such a mixture. The quote the reign of King Mob seemed triumphant. So yeah, they were there before Jackson even showed up on his white horse. He was literally walking down, coming down on his horse from the Capitol. They were already there, they were already in the White House. I wonder if he thought like oh, what did I do? You know, it's like I got elected but now I gotta deal with these guys. I'm trying to go to bed.
Speaker 2:I'm tired, I just yeah, like I didn't actually want to hang. I didn't actually want to hang out with these guys.
Speaker 3:I've been on the road for three weeks. My ass is sore from being in the saddle for that long. I was like I want to go to bed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I don't actually want to hang out with these people Drink whiskey so like, but you know we can get into it. It was just mayhem and I couldn't. Obviously you can't imagine that happening now. But there was a little bit of thought that a lot of the coverage of this event was exaggerated by his political adversaries. So somebody who was like oh, they were out of control, trying to kind of denounce, denounce this, the uh, supportive of the support, like the Henry Clay, probably John Quincy. Adams didn't even show up to his inauguration.
Speaker 3:That's another thing we miss. There's only two former prop. Until this point I don't know. I'm not sure about after, but up until this point I don't know. I'm not sure about after, but up until now the only two presidents who weren't at the inauguration for the next incoming president were john adams and his son john quincy adams.
Speaker 2:Well, you're missing a big one, too good for it. You know who else didn't show up for the elections or the inauguration? Trump didn't show up for, biden's don't forget that oops, I think there was.
Speaker 2:I think there was maybe one other didn't show up for Biden's. Don't forget that. Oops, I think there was maybe one other. But yeah, so I guess you're getting your news from pre-2020 sources, john, that's right. So, yeah, think about if that happened now. It'd be insane. If they let the like trump's like biggest supporters, it would be mayhem the crowd continued to descend into a drunken mob, only dispersed.
Speaker 3:They only left the white house when bowls of liquor and punch were placed on the front lawn of the white house. So the booze moved outside, people moved outside, and the place was trashed. That's how you do it, though that's how you do it. We got a kegger outside.
Speaker 1:Get on the lawn.
Speaker 2:Party's out back, they start flickering the lights.
Speaker 3:I guess, it's like the candles, blow it out, put it back on, blow it out, light it back on party's over, blow it out, light it back on, uh boy apparently still have time for a ball. So like this party was going, I'm trying to like kind of see here, it's like this mob was going on. I guess they got everyone out of the house, but then they still had an official inaugural ball for administration officials and Washington's high society.
Speaker 2:That Jackson didn't attend. He didn't attend, but it actually set the stage for I mean, you also have to think about Jackson's deal with this. His wife had just died in December, so his wife died four months ago and he's dealing with this. He's got to be in December, so his wife died four months ago and he's dealing with this.
Speaker 3:He's got to be miserable. He was blaming on probably half the people that might have been at the party He'd be blaming for her death. He was a very vindictive kind of dude, I think.
Speaker 3:Talk about a bad day at work. But that set up the scandal which some of our fans may have heard of, maybe not, called the Eaton Affair or a little better known as the Petticoat Affair. It's kind of where this all kind of kicked off and that was a scandal that almost broke down his entire administration. It was just crazy and it all involved a lot of people in his cabinet's wives and a lot of women like women's the wives of his cabinet members just not liking this other woman, and the whole thing just almost took down his administration, which I feel like today you don't hear so much from the first ladies, especially the wives of cabinet members, especially the wives of cabinet members. I mean, imagine if Doug Emhoff, the husband of our current Vice President, kamala Harris, just went in there and just started causing all kinds of commotion.
Speaker 2:What happened in the Petticoat affair. John, you didn't do a great job of explaining it there.
Speaker 3:Well, here I can paint a scene for our fans. I got a little write-up here and since some of our fans like my voice, acting, did you, did you write this? I had some help. Would you use a friend from a friend? Do you use chat gpt? What do you think?
Speaker 2:it's funny because do you ever hear that now, if fans remember from our uh review episode, your new year's resolution was to not use chat gpt, and you know how they say and they say, they say that. Um, they say that you most new year's resolutions are broken by the second Friday of the year. I guess you made it to the third Friday Sounds good, good for you. You beat it by a week.
Speaker 3:Well, I got something here Go ahead I have this in the voice of a of a 1930 newspaper man uh, 1930, 1930s, like uh read all about it.
Speaker 2:Kind of new yorker accent here, let's, let's see how this decade too late, but all right, let's go give it a shot a century too late.
Speaker 3:Um ah the petticoat. See, it was a real humdinger. Back in Andrew Jackson's day, 1829 to be exact. Picture this Jackson's White House turns no powder keg over a dame named Peggy Eaton. She's the wife of Jackson's secretary of war John Eaton, and boy does she cause a ruckus. Peggy's a firecracker, married once before, but tongues wag that her first husband kicked the bucket because of her cozying up to Eaton. The society dames in Washington, led by the wife of Jackson's veep, john C Calhoun, give her the cold shoulder, treating her like yesterday's newspaper. They figure she ain't respectable enough for their fancy tea parties.
Speaker 3:Now Jackson he's no fan of this kind of snubbing Reminds him of how his own late wife, rachel, got roasted by the gossips. So he goes all in to defend Peggy. He leans on his cabinet to make nice, but most of them won't play ball. Calhoun and his missus, they're at the center of the storm, and Jackson ain't pleased. This spat spirals out of control. It ain't just about Peggy, it's about loyalty power. And who calls the shots in Jackson's gang? By 1831, the whole cabinet gets the boot, except for one fella, martin Van Buren, who's smart enough to side with Jackson. Van Buren ends up looking like a made man paving his way to the presidency later. So what do we got? A scandal that ain't about booze or bank jobs, but about society's rules and how one dame lit a match under the white house. The petticoat affair, folks. A political drama dressed in lace and scandal ain't that something ain't that something?
Speaker 2:that was pretty good. That was a pretty good summary. That's all you really need to know.
Speaker 2:Basically, this peggy eaton was like a uh, she was a smart woman for her does seem very well learned she's like well learned, paid attention to politics because she grew up in a boarding house that like a lot of politics would come in and out of. So she was very involved in politics and kind of knew a lot more than these other women of that time and they kind of thought that was uncouth of her to be like talk with the guys, talk about that. But the politicians really liked her, all these men really liked her a lot. The women hated her. So it was all this nonsense. She married a guy from the Navy. This Peggy Eaton married a guy from the Navy.
Speaker 3:And then, I think, jackson, sent him to the Mediterranean the Secretary of War John Eaton, who she would end up marrying John Eaton sent her husband to the Mediterranean Sea for like duty and he died there.
Speaker 2:And then shortly after he died, she married. Eaton Jackson really pushed for them to get married because he liked peggy, jackson, liked peggy too, and she married him like nine months later, which, on top of everything else that people didn't like about her, that was way too quick to remarry yeah, and I think that the guy probably killed himself.
Speaker 3:There's like, well, did he commit suicide when he was away?
Speaker 2:like because he knew what was going on.
Speaker 3:But basically it was like they're saying it was Jackson's secretary of war, john Eaton's, way of basically getting him out of the picture so he can move in and they could be closer together, and that's kind of what ended up happening.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then they just snubbed her and then it was just this whole two-sided thing going on, riff in his cabinet and Jackson's, just like I don't need this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, really, I feel like I have a lot of Jackson's administration, just like. No, just knock it off. I'm here for the common man. I want to get some sleep. I don't need to hear this nonsense. I need you to be loyal to me.
Speaker 2:And that's it. And then, on top of everything else like this, this, this high class, higher I mean what do you call it? Aristocracy or whatever? They sided with calhoun and his wife because they wanted tariffs. It all goes back to tariffs. Wait who cited they wanted Calhoun, calhoun wanted tariffs, calhoun and Clay wanted tariffs. No, he didn't.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he did. No, he didn't. He represented the.
Speaker 2:He represented South Carolina because they were able to do that, but he still. Him and Clay were in bed together for tariffs.
Speaker 3:Maybe during the War of 1812. I't think he. No, I don't think he was, I really don't think he was. Anyway, okay, okay, I don't think he was clay 100, 100.
Speaker 3:But basically just remember, like this at this time period, like women, like the place of politics, like while this, just she seemed like a cool chick, just like a cool chick that got on with the boys, but that was not what the 1820s was about.
Speaker 3:Like women took their role in society as, like the ones that held the moral character of society, like they were the, like the flip, the platform for morality in society and politics was seen as kind of an immoral realm of mudslinging.
Speaker 3:And that's why a lot of people said why would we want to give women the right to vote and get down in the mud and grime of politics? We're supposed to be holding the bill higher level, and some women, especially in that that society, took that very seriously. It's like our, it is our job as women to maintain a sorrel, a moral high ground, and when we have this woman come into the white house and kind of, you know, acting like one of the boys, it just created a lot of friction and uh, yeah, people started kind of digging deep but at the end of the day, like jackson wanted his loyal crew and uh, but yeah, there were certainly casualties to it, including john c calhoun and a bunch of other people in his cabinet. But then the story goes that martin van buren was kind of exploiting this whole affair and exploiting all this stuff as a way to kind of move in and and kind of fill that vacuum left by everyone that left Jackson's cabinet.
Speaker 2:And then I just want to get in here. Calhoun began his political career as a nationalist modernizer and proponent of a strong federal government and protective tariffs.
Speaker 3:So very beginning.
Speaker 2:I'm not yeah, right, so okay, just want to say it because you make me feel you were trying to paint me as an idiot. I wasn't trying to.
Speaker 3:You were, I was not doing that, but anyway, yeah, Calhoun sided with his wife. His wife was probably really up him like no, we've got to get this lady out of here. And yeah, just the whole thing felt collapsed.
Speaker 2:And you know, joke was on them. At the end of the day, Van Buren resigned so that Jackson could overhaul his cabinet for his next election.
Speaker 3:You mean Calhoun resigned.
Speaker 2:No, eaton and Van Buren resigned in 1831, and then, when he was re-elected in 1832, van Buren made him his vice president, right, but I think it was like listen, we'll resign, so you don't have to worry about firing us, so we'll resign so you can get everyone else out of here.
Speaker 3:They were like the and he was pissed off, yeah, and that created the rift between him and calhoun, and that's when calhoun resigned. And then, yeah, it was a way, kind of, for van buren to kind of.
Speaker 2:It was a way for them to be like we'll bow out so that you can get rid of everybody, right, because he didn't want to. If he got rid of everyone while they were still in it, it would look they were boys, so they didn't want to. They were them boys. Yeah, three of them Jackson, eaton and Van Buren were boys, were them boys and everyone else hated them, except apparently the only person that didn't get. When, when, when he, when he overhauled his cabinet, the postmaster general kept his job, was the only one kept a low profile.
Speaker 3:Obviously he was like sweating that one out yeah, so then what would happen as a result? So that because man said we, then you get the tariff abomination like four years later. And then, yeah, calhoun, after he he left that vice presidency, he filled an empty senate seat in south carolina and basically became like he lost all possibility of ever becoming president. Like that, going into the election during Texas time, it was thought that John C Calhoun would be like the heir apparent for Andrew Jackson boys, boys, because they both had that in common.
Speaker 3:I mean, the one thing that had come is that Jackson and Calhoun did not like clay, but then obviously this whole Eaton affair really kind of left the sour taste. And yeah, so then Calhoun did not like Clay, but then obviously this whole Eaton affair really kind of left a sour taste. So then Calhoun left and basically would become for the rest of his life kind of a sectional leader. He would be kind of seen as like the face of the South, leading the fight against Tariff and even some of the slavery stuff. That's kind of where he would stay. Henry Clay would continue to try to run for office, run for president, and not win.
Speaker 3:Um, but yeah, it's quite a story of different people. But you wonder, bringing that in today's world, you just imagine, like imagine just today if, like trump brought in, like his cabinet he's got a new cabinet coming in and just one of the wives or husbands of that cabinet just threw such a wrench in it that that's what causes the whole thing to fall apart. It just seems so weird to me Just that time people carried themselves a certain you know, carried themselves a certain way, and if you didn't keep to that standard, oh yeah, okay, I was wrong.
Speaker 3:I was wrong.
Speaker 2:About what Jackson was a proponent of the tariff of abominations.
Speaker 3:Yeah, why.
Speaker 2:Sold his soul, dude Sold his soul for that presidency.
Speaker 3:I don't think he was so much. I think, once it passed, though, he was like now it's law of the land, we're going to enforce it. I'm the executive. My job as the executive is to enforce the law and every state we're in a union, every state has to pay their fair share. You can't have one state in this example, south carolina just picking and choosing what not to follow.
Speaker 3:I get that but, they're saying, but he was more of a state's right guys too, so that's a thing. The introduction was a bit of a flim flammer. He was kind of like he wasn't a kind of common man. I'll play a little bit, so that's kind of why I think he gets some comparisons with Trump, cause it's kind of like loyalty, though, I think, was like one of his biggest things. Like he ushered in the wave of like are you loyal to me? Like the spoil system really started cranking up under Andrew Jackson, where if you help me, I'll help you, and that was usually in the form of a job. So our boy Charles Gatteau, you know, could you know? He was asking for a job from James Garfield, because that's just how it was done for the you know up to that point, 50 years it's crazy how much of a freaking role tariffs played in history.
Speaker 3:I'm telling you, man, they're a big deal. Well, just think it's not just about a tax. It's just like because it's it's a case of the government picking winners and losers. It's just like a tariff. They always say it has to be done equally. That's what the constitution says. You can have a revenue collecting tariff, but it has to be the burden has to be shared equally.
Speaker 2:We've already gotten through this, it's fine, we've gotten it, so that's what we got. Do you think we should be allowed to party in the White House like they did back then?
Speaker 3:How would you? Yeah, I don't see why you can't have people from the general public in the White House to celebrate, but obviously it's going to come down to a ticketing system, unless it was like a lottery you could put in like for, uh, just a lottery system I like that idea.
Speaker 2:You want to hear some a funny tidbit that I learned while doing some research here. Sure, when the uh like it, you know, obviously there's. There's very little security, um, at the white house during this time, and I was just curious when did the security around the White House start? I found it pretty interesting that, even though it was still open to the public, there was very little security at the White House until a drunk man threw rocks at John Tyler. And then John Tyler was the first one to create an auxiliary guard at the White House, and then John Tyler was the first one to create an auxiliary guard at the White House.
Speaker 3:That dude was a born loser, whose house we're going to be seeing soon, possibly, possibly soon. Answer my phone call.
Speaker 2:So I thought that was funny. So, really, even though you think people should join it, it's your boys started the trend of not allowing it. So if you were able to go into the White House at Trump's inauguration, what would you do? What would be the first thing that you would do in the White House if you could go in?
Speaker 3:I'd probably go to the kitchen, the kitchen. I'd be curious. To the kitchen, the kitchen. I'd be curious to see, like, let's see a day in the life of, like, uh, the cooking staff. Like feeling everyone. How many people would I have to? Like feed the cook? Yeah, like what would Trump? Like what is tribe going there? Ask the chef like what do you? What does what does the president make you? Make him like what is a typical day? Look like he likes I know he likes big max trump, that is, or biden. Like what does he eat? It's like oatmeal at 8 30 a 8 30, a little cinnamon and a little honey drizzled over. Like what does he eat? What would you do 8.30? With a little cinnamon and a little honey drizzled over. What does he eat?
Speaker 2:What would you do?
Speaker 3:Check out the bathrooms. Would you try to go to the bathroom in one of?
Speaker 2:them. I would try to sure if I had it in me.
Speaker 3:One or two, two.
Speaker 2:Upper deck or lower deck? That would be epic dude deck that would be epic.
Speaker 3:Dude, that would be epic.
Speaker 2:I mean, you're kind of I would go and look at every bathroom and and rank them. I would rank every single bathroom as far as privacy, comfort amenities. The Lincoln bedroom is where the presidents sleep right.
Speaker 3:No, it's a guest suite. It's a guest suite in the southeast corner of the second floor of the White House. Lincoln's sitting room makes up the other part of the suite. The room is named for President Lincoln who used the rooms for his office.
Speaker 2:Oh, interesting. Well, I would like to see where the bathroom of the you can't say master suite anymore, the primary suite, I guess the primary bathroom I would like to see that. Is it attached to the bedroom? Do they have the shower and everything and then do they have a separate enclosed room for just the toilet? I think that's the true sign that you made it in life. If you have a bathroom where you have the shower and everything and then you have a separate little room that a door shuts for just the toilet, just for that double protection my sister had, I'm very jealous. My sister has had it in their house.
Speaker 3:In their bedroom? You mean the toilet's separated from the rest of the room? Yeah, you mean like in their bedroom.
Speaker 2:You mean the toilets separated from the rest of the room. Yeah, like you go into the, you go into the overall bathroom and it's all in there. But then, like you go into a door and it's just like a you know what is it? Maybe six by six room for just the toilet.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've been in those before. They're big overseas.
Speaker 2:That's the definition of you made not really okay. Well, there's another one that you made it.
Speaker 3:I mean, that would be if I were to build a house, that's what I would have for sure I definitely know for sure in other countries, like, just like middle class homes, you just have the toilet and then you have to walk out of the toilet to like go wash your hands that's what I'm talking about yeah, they have. That's like a middle class thing. It's not necessarily a sign of wealth. It's just that we make our toilet bathrooms here. Do you have it? I don't have it, but I've been in houses.
Speaker 2:I don't have it either.
Speaker 3:I've lived in places that have it Good for you. You're making it sound like it's a meme.
Speaker 1:You're being very naysay.
Speaker 3:It's a mean. I'm sure at least one of the bathrooms has that in the White House For sure.
Speaker 2:They have computer screens and TV screens for entertainers.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:It looks so dated though the White House.
Speaker 3:Obama walking in this Lincoln suite. It's just like Maybe that's what they're going for.
Speaker 2:just being translated. I think they call it gauche, gauche, gauche. I think is the is the term like dude.
Speaker 3:You got like the janitor.
Speaker 2:Janitor, custodial services of the white house like yeah, like, as the toilet's ever been clogged, all of my stuff is based around bathroom talk.
Speaker 3:I feel like that's I which president's poop stunk the most?
Speaker 2:yes, I mean, I'm thinking like to your point. You really do get an idea of how people live by their food and like the chef and everything, but you really get to know how somebody lives by their bathroom habits, I think? I think that's the number one thing that you need to know, to get to know people.
Speaker 3:But what about their habits in the bath? What do you mean? But what about?
Speaker 2:their habits in the bath.
Speaker 3:What do you mean? Do you wash your hands before and after or just before hand?
Speaker 2:washing what you use to clean yourself. Do you lift the seat? Do you put the seat back down?
Speaker 3:These bamboo toilet paper, regular toilet paper? Yeah, I got you. I got you All those questions. Well, they say you know how much a hammer the government, how much does it cost to just for the toilet paper in the White House? You know?
Speaker 2:I'd like to see an itemized bill of like okay, I'm looking at all these things, like, well, how much is that costing a taxpayer? Yeah, I guess that's why they don't let people in. That might be the real reason.
Speaker 3:I mean this is all very fancy, but you're living like an actual king here, we all know. I mean, we all think you're an elected king now, but the reality is you should be living a little more modestly.
Speaker 2:Yes, that inauguration sounds crazy.
Speaker 3:Walk into the White House ghost. There's a White House ghost. It's the ghost of US President Abraham Lincoln. Oh, I'd have, house ghost. There's a white house ghost. It's the ghost of us president abraham lincoln. Oh, I'd have a couple things to say to him yeah, I'm sure apparently it's totally wuss out, dude. He's been haunting the white house since 19 1865 you wouldn't say anything to him you wouldn't have, you wouldn't have the guts.
Speaker 2:You wouldn't have the guts. Could we speak?
Speaker 3:to one another.
Speaker 2:Yes, what would you say to him? There you go, maybe that's what you would want to do.
Speaker 3:The White House's most famous alleged apparition is that of Abe Lincoln. First person reported to have actually seen Lincoln's spirit was First Lady Grace Coolidge, who said she saw the ghost of Lincoln standing at a window in the Yellow Oval Room staring out at the Potomac in 1927. Perhaps the most famous incident was in 1942, when Queen Wilhema of the Netherlands allegedly heard footsteps outside her White House bedroom and answered a knock on the door only to see Lincoln in frock coat and top hat standing in front of her. She promptly fainted yeah, that might have been a dream.
Speaker 3:Winston churchill loved to retire late, take a long hot bath while drinking a scotch and smoke a cigar. There was an account that on this occasion he climbed out of the bath and naked but for his cigar walked into the adjoining bedroom. He was startled to see lincoln standing by the fireplace in the room leaning on the mantle. Churchill, always quick on the uptake, simply took a cigar out of his mouth, tapped the ash off the end of his cigar and said good evening, mr president, you seem to have me at a disadvantage. Lincoln smiled softly as if laughing, and disappeared. So apparently the ghost of Abraham Lincoln seen, saw Winston Churchill's wheelie. That's that's. That's, that's groundbreaking, if you ask me that's groundbreaking.
Speaker 2:So that's what you would want to search out. You wouldn't want to do a ghost hunters episode in the white house.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I want to find that An effort.
Speaker 2:I'll talk to him would have I would, I would pay, I would pay, I would pay every amount of money that I have in my name for to see you just totally wuss out trying to talk to him. You could barely even talk to the people at saratoga about your love for the news. Katuska, you totally wussed out there too. What do you like about it?
Speaker 3:I would call on the ghost of Tadeusz Kaczuszko, to have my back when talking with Abe Lincoln.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, that's it for what we have today. So just sneak peek of things to come. I think we're going to. Hopefully we're cutting around to the anniversary time. We might be running a little late here, but on the OJ Simpson, the trial of OJ Simpson, so we may have a guest appearance with some continuation of the saga of Orenthal James Simpson. I think John makes a good point. Perhaps do some talk of nuclear power Be interesting. Maybe I don't know, the other thing that we've been asked to do, so we have some movie reviews that we're talking about. Might do some state flag coverage. I'm always a big fan of the talk about we could rank the state flags. We've done that before. That would be fun. A little bit hard to do with no visual. How do we do on time?
Speaker 3:A little bit of a blowout, but that's okay. Stay warm while staying curious.
Speaker 2:I think that's lame, that they're moving the inauguration inside there.
Speaker 3:I said it you think it should just be like, even if it's just the president throwing a canada?
Speaker 2:goose jacket. Trump, trump. Can't throw a freaking canada goose jacket on and go out there he can.
Speaker 3:What about everybody else? I'm a biden. You have a biden out there. You have a biden out there. Maybe he can. What about everybody else? Biden? You going to put Biden out there in that weather? Is he going to show up, you think? Has he said he is? I think he will. I don't know. Did he say he's not?
Speaker 2:I don't know. Alright, fans, john, you going to leave him with anything?
Speaker 3:Like I just said, stay warm, but stay curious.
Speaker 1:I got hairy legs. Come on, man, and we say bye-bye.