A Heart in a Drawer Is Not Great

Welcome to Tell Me Something You Don't Know, where we explore curiosities without credentials. We're your factually adjacent hosts, Maddie and Sarah. Every week we exchange random topics with just enough research to keep things interesting and slightly accurate. So lower your bars and let's learn something you never knew you wanted to know. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

He figured out how to stick a balloon to the ceiling? Wow, good job. Are you a magician? It was high up. You look very concerned about it. Is it okay now? Did it scare you when it stuck to the ceiling? Oh, it's okay. You're failing. I don't think it is okay, Lady. I also have 14%, which makes me nervous. Do you think that's something to be nervous about? Does your phone die relatively quickly? Because I mean and now my new problem is that my laptop is dead. So we're off to a good start. Okay, I gotta go. Oh, I don't want to go back downstairs. There's so many children down there. You know? Welcome to Tell Me Something You Don't Know, where we explore curiosities without credentials. We're your factually adjacent hosts, Maddie and Sarah. Every week we exchange random topics with just enough research to keep things interesting and slightly accurate. So lower your bars and let's learn something you never knew you wanted to know. How are you? Oh yeah. I was gonna jump right in. Oh yeah that. Oh yeah that. Oh yeah that. Um, I'm doing pretty good. Work is working, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like that's boring. I'm also am interested to know how your trip in the great down under immediately regretful went. Stay right. Right. That's crazy that that has already like been what has it been? Like a week. It was really good. Wow. I don't know if you remember anything about Australia. Sarah and I lived there for those listening. We lived there for like a year-ish. Um, when we were very little. I was like very young, so I don't remember anything about it. Uh yeah. I I mean, I I think I remember the things that only kids would remember, which is none of the things that probably made your trip the experience that it did, because for me it was like tiny, it was like small things because I was unaware that it was Australian. That was like a big deal. It was more like I remember we played a puppy game, and mom would be like, make sure you play the puppy game because it would get you to just nap, like you would pretend you were a puppy, and it would be the way that you would go down for a nap. So mom would be like, make sure you play that puppy game, which I totally get now as a mom. And then I remember tiny lizards, teeny tiny lizards, and really large bats. And being really impressed with like the birds at the zoo, but not in the zoo, just walking around the zoo. Okay, yes, yes, yes. Those are all things I experienced apart from the puppy game. Yes, Australia was amazing. I absolutely loved it. There pretty much wasn't a day that went by where I wasn't like, hmm, maybe I'm going to move here now. Oh, that's so fun. It is obviously very far away, but like there wasn't far, okay? Because this is the other thing. I feel like mom and dad were always like, it takes 30 hours to get there. So in my brain, it's very far away. But like, how did the travel to get there feel? Was it substantial? Uh I mean, it is long. It's definitely the longest, like as an adult, despite having traveled quite a bit, it's definitely the longest amount of travel time. What I will say is yeah, I mean, it's not the I feel like the travel time wasn't like, oh god, I could never do that again. Also, if you're coming from the east coast of North America, then you have to go to the west coast of North America first, and then you travel the ocean. Which I thought it was the other direction completely. So that's good to know. I mean, fair you're it's pretty much on the other side of the world, so I I don't even really could go either way, maybe. You probably could. Yeah, I mean, it's not an like an awesome experience to be in the air. I would say the second leg because it's like 13 hours is oh my on the plane, yeah, yeah. For 13 hours, yeah. Nope. That's disgusting. Oh my god. You're in one seat for 13 hours. Yeah. I can you is there can you adventure around? I mean, yeah, and people do. I think you you kind of have to. Uh but you're just basically like going from one area that looks the same to another area with just different human beings in different tiny seats. Like it's not like you're like, oh, I'm gonna go like check out the why okay. Now now I have a completely different appreciation as to why our parents talk about how long of a flight it was while we were so little. Because like there is no amount of money I don't think you could pay me to take my children on a 13-hour flight. Well, yeah, I mean you have three and they're very young. I well, I mean, I guess they had two. You're pretty much you were self-sufficient, but I that's why dad always says like I walked to Australia because I wouldn't sit still. We should be nicer to him. Like that's oh my goodness. Yeah, it it is long as an adult when you're doing it, and if you don't have children, it's a bit more, it's a little easier to do just because uh you have I I watched two full seasons of two different uh like TV shows. What season what TV shows? Severance okay, and shrinking. I was really hoping they were gonna be more embarrassing, but those are reasonable TV shows to watch. Yeah, no, they were so good, and that helped a lot. I mean, really, you're just like given an opportunity to binge, and you no one can judge you because what else are you gonna do? Yeah, I mean, so like not, and then you get those like free, they have to feed you two different meals because obviously, like that's half of a day. Because you I feel like two is almost not enough. Like, I also feel like I would turn into a toddler and be asking for snacks all the time. And yeah, like you need breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's like a full that's more Kate, that's a full workday plus overtime of just sitting in the same spot. Yeah, it's true. It's true. And talk to other people. I did you it's up to you. Well, the other thing too is when you're flying through this, so like again, it depends on what what part of the world you're traveling to Australia from. But for us, you you're gonna leave at night for the Brisbane stretch. So, like Okay, okay, that's nice. So it's nighttime. So if you can sleep on a plane, like you have an opportunity to just sleep for a good chunk of that. Um then if you can't sleep and you are next to somebody who's like, you know, you want to maybe talk to, then like great. But generally, yeah, generally, I don't know that that's everybody's experience. So I would think that it is everyone's experience, but for some reason it seems to be like anytime I sit next to somebody, I'm just sort of like, okay, I guess actually, I try and set the tone very easily by having my headphones on at all times. And like being busy and diving in. Like you need to you need to establish boundaries right away. Like if you even crack an inch, I feel like you know what I mean? Like, yeah, if you have a chatty Kathy beside you, they're like, All right, you're a talker too, that's great. And you should never lead someone to believe you are when you're not. No, I I I I agree. I absolutely I feel like 20 years ago there was more like that, but I would actually say now it's more like you in that sense, especially. Well, that's because we're so disconnected as human beings. Exactly. Now, anyways, like 20 years ago, if like you would you wouldn't have anything to do except for look at the newspaper. So you would be like, Well, I actually do I that's so sad. You actually probably would be like, I would like to connect with you and like, oh, where are you off to? Now we're just like yeah, now totally the difference now it not being social is what's normal now. Yes, yes, oh gosh, that's tragic. We just unpacked so much, yes, we did, but anyway, the the other thing I would add for anybody thinking of going is the time experiencing jet leg when you get there is actually not bad at all. Uh, I was able to turn that around within like a day. Coming back, however, is god awful. So don't like give yourself some days before you have to get back to like life and work um to just climatize because it's it's it sucks. But other than that, I mean honestly, the trip was absolutely amazing. Uh, it's beautiful there, like yeah, huge bats. There are large birds walking everywhere, they don't have squirrels. Yeah, they're tall, like tall bats. They've got that walk around and other weird tall long-nosed birds, the long-nosed ones, long nose with hooks. Yes, yes, which is I mean, yikes, really, but also very cool. Like, we have pigeons. Yes, that is true. I was taking pictures of it on day one, and my friend Letitia, who's like like from Australia, she's like, Oh, so you like, so you think that's like cute? I was like, Well, it's I'm like, it's so different from anything we have. She's like, Yeah, I mean, it's kind of the equivalent to like a bitch, like a rat or a raccoon, like a dirty animal that hangs out around garbage. Like, that's like people aren't excited about these per se. Um, so you were a dad giveaway. You're like, okay, I will uh totally not be excited about those animals anymore. So sorry. Yeah, pretty much, but uh yeah, it's great. Everybody there is generally in a good mood because they get vitamin D all year long. And yeah, it's just beautiful. I feel like people have great routines there. Generally, everybody is like a morning person, and then by 2 p.m. they're just surfing or just like leisure hobbies, they just have a good thing going. So I there aren't there like they're just notoriously like laid back as well. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Totally. So that's fun. Yes, I do recommend it. It's great. I did actually learn some pretty fun facts while at the Australia Zoo. Um but I might save those for like another time because they're uh I don't know, they're good. Plus, I did just take an hour before this call. Not an hour, that's not true at all. I'm gonna say, wait, is this like giving everybody a peek behind the curtain? Oh well. Oh my gosh. I don't think anyone thinks that we're like spent hours and hours of time laser. Yeah, I think 35 minutes for the topic today. So we're gonna say I think that not a single person would be like, oh wow, that's shocking. You sound like you know what you're talking about so intensely, but I would assume it's more time. You're right. You're so right. Oh goodness. How are you doing before I we jump in? Oh, yeah, no, I'm good. There's nothing honestly, I was mostly excited to just hear about your trip and all of those things. Otherwise, our mom is coming tomorrow, I think. Yeah. So we're headed into headed into pool season. Matt is exciting. Which is my uh partner Matt's job. It's company, I guess. So that's important information, I suppose. So yeah, I'm excited for her to get here because it means a little bit of like a break, um, which is really nice. Um, yeah, but honestly, everything is very boring in my life. So I'm excited to hear about some fun facts. Do you remember who went first last time? Yeah, I mean, so like last time was an older episode. Right. And you did. So Okay, so you have to go for also. I just want to point out how insufferable it is that we pointed out things that we're like, oh, you know what we're terrible at is saying wild, literally. And there was another thing. So watching the old episodes where we didn't establish um what we strongly disliked about ourselves was hard to listen to because I'm like, oh gosh. Then we just called it out, and now we have episodes that it's just sprinkled throughout. That is very true. So hopefully we can from forthwith, we will uh not be using that terminology anymore because we are far more advanced and uh serious since I agree. I actually do feel that way. It is like for some context for the I think we've mentioned it before, but we uh people wouldn't know exactly which ones. We Sarah and I like strategically had recorded quite a few like a hand like eight or ten before we even launched it, just because you know she's a mama three, and like we're you're going to Australia and stuff. Life gets busy, so it's nice to have an archive because if we're gonna do this weekly, like that can be tough to keep up with. So um so we're already out, we're already out of our backup. So now we are real time, and uh, we gotta get some more in the can, but still, um, we are real time now. Yes. Okay, so let on that note, let me just dive right in. I'm so excited. Mine's kind of like sad but funny. So okay. Let me temper my emotions. Today I'm gonna talk to you about heartache. Oh no. And losing loved ones. Madison, don't know how this could possibly did you say that it was funny? Well, like, yeah. We're gonna uh okay. We're gonna heartbreak and losing loved ones, but a funny twist. Very interested to see how this goes. Okay, see, I like I like dropping like a little bit of a hint as to what it's gonna be. Yeah, exactly. A crumb, if you will. I was gonna say a carrot. So glad that you took the lead on that. And gosh. Uh, but but as I unpack this, I think it'll make a bit more sense. So I'm just gonna dive right in. Excited. We are there's like a historical lens once again, but I just find it, I mean, obviously, I guess everything to an extent, if it's a fact, has some historical element because we had to find out about it at some moment in time, which is not right. We're not doing live, you know, science.

unknown 14:36

Oh god.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

You and I being just like, you know what would be great is if this took off so well that like one day you and I are just invited to be a part of something like that for like comedics. Yeah, they're like, we need some lightness because you splitting atoms is really boring. So let's invite these two Yahoos and to to walk through it. Actually, when I'm thinking about it, that's how I would have liked to learn in high school like and grade school. Like, if you had somebody come in and ask really dumb questions while you're learning, you'd be like, Oh my gosh, that's funny. Also, I was too nervous to ask that dumb of a question. Yes, that's actually a very good point. So you're welcome, everybody. We're asking the dumb questions, so everyone else can be along for the ride. You're welcome, and we're open to sponsorship.

unknown 15:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

So I basically have five stories that are but they're short, like five kind of glimpses that are factual. And that's gonna kind of bring together my theme here. So following the sudden death of her husband, Philip the Handsome, in 1506. Oh damn, that is so long ago. Also, Philip the Handsome Right? I've so good. Queen Joanna of Castile, I'm gonna say that's how you pronounce that, had a really hard time with his passing to the point in which she traveled across Spain with his embalmed body whoa in a coffin, obsessively opening the casket to touch and gaze at him. Nope, absolutely not. Ma'am, ma'am. Therapy probably wasn't invented yet, but I love that embalming was though, and traveling with a dead body was a thing, but like emotional support and checking in on someone to yes, how are you doing? Not a thing. She even went as so far as to like she would not let other women come near the coffin. Okay. For the fear of what him being attracted to them. Maybe they would fall in love with his dead body and request to have touch him at random times as well. Yeah, not sure. Not sure. And she did spend three years sleeping next to his remains. Oh my I am so uncomfortable by dead bodies. I've only been around maybe two, and they were grandparents, which is like, and even that was just I conceptually am just like, I don't love that there's nothing in there. Like that is a shell of someone I once knew a literal shell. Yes. Like, where did the spirit go? We just don't know so much that they I would I don't think I could touch, I don't think I could touch a dead b a dead body, like on purpose. By accident, maybe like whoops, but not on purpose to be like embracing okay, okay, okay. I see the morbidly uh funny twist now. Yes, okay, perfect. I'm glad it happened a little quick, real quick, real fast. Yeah. The next one is one of the most okay, and this word I need to, I'm gonna butcher it, but I think you'll know it and then it'll be funny. But now, see, I'm prefacing it so that I'm not totally embarrassed. There's like some awareness. You've got to protect yourself, yes, absolutely. Okay, so macabre. Okay, yes. Okay, yeah, that's right. I think that is, yeah. Okay, or macabre, it's either like macabre, but if it does have an R-E at the end. Yeah, like can two letters be silent? Yeah, G H can. That's true. Oh god. But like I think it is pronounced macabre. But I don't based on nothing. Why would we know that's what I'm saying? I'm calling in a I'm calling in a friend. Mom. Yeah, ask her. Michelle? Michelle Shears, also love that you refer to her as a friend. Right? She's not answering me. I'm pretty sure she's like your own macabre witch. Okay, well, so one of the most that word tales of royal grief took place in the 14th century, um, in Portugal. So a prince named Pedro was deeply in love with Inez. Shout out to our nana. That's right. Yeah, De Castro, who was secretly assassinated. Oh when, yeah, sad. When he uh eventually did take the throne, he exhumed her body, dressed her corpse in royal robes and jewels. Yeah. Worse than the first one, yeah, somehow. And placed her on the throne. Oh, he then Yeah. Also, would you not okay, so let's pretend that you're that that woman. Yeah. Would you not be so pissed that like you're up there not looking good? Like you're up there, your skin is falling off of your bones, and you're just like, dude, like now I'm up here in the throne in this dress looking crazy. And that's how I that that now is how I'm going to be remembered is the crazy corpse queen. And yeah, you said you could have let me go into that sweet night, and the memory would just be, oh yeah, remember, remember Inez? She was what a what a great what a great queen she could have been. And now it's like, hey, remember the time that she was dead and on the throne? Oh, I'd be so mad. I would want him so severely. I I agree. And I do think that maybe learning these facts is going to have to instruct us on potential conversations you need to have with your loved ones before you're dead. Good point. Good point. What if we did this with mom? She might be like, she'd probably be actually, she'd probably want it. She'd be like, Yes, I want that exact embalm me and take me everywhere you go for at least two years. Or she'd probably be fine with being exhumed as well and dressed up and brought around. Please, but only the finest jewels. Just kidding, mom. She is gone. So I'm talking about from this world, from the room. Oh my god, true. Jesus. Oh god. Okay. Okay, so then he forced his courtiers to hopefully I said that right, to kneel and kiss the hand of his deceased queen. Oh my HR problems. That is, you can't be instructing your staff to camp dead bodies. No, it is a no-no. Absolutely not. Both from a workplace safety and just human being perspective. Yes, agreed. Agreed. So then people get real weird, hey? And right in a seed of power. That just I mean, but no one was like, uh, if he's doing this, can we trust him to be running our country? You know, they seem like a bit of a Red flag. Uh a bit, a bit. But I think probably people in power are like, I am in power. I am power. Oh, what this is not what we every world leader has a dead, exhumed bride in some metaphorical fashion. You know, that's everyone's got their red flags. It's very true. Maybe that is where skeleton in the closet comes from, a literal story. We've just discovered the historical origins of the saying. We're tying it directly to this. This is exactly it. Okay. Next one is, and I've mentioned her on another episode. She is, I do have a weird obsession with her because I studied Gothic literature in university and I just it was so good. Anyways, Mary Shelley. So the author of Riegenstein. Yes. I know that now. Yes. I learned it from you in this podcast. Okay, look at that. She uh kept a memento after her husband, who was a poet. His name was Percy Shelley, and he passed away in 1822. So he sadly lost his life in a sailing accident. And when his body was cremated, his heart did not fully burn. I have questions about that, but you know, I don't, but but don't any of you have questions? Because I don't have to. No, no, we don't have answers. We have lots of questions and no answers. Yeah. That is the well, one thing, but again, we don't we who can know for sure. So it that is possibly due to the calcification from an earlier illness. Oh. So but still. Yes. But she took the this as an opportunity to preserve his heart, and she wrapped it in his own poetry and stored it in her writing desk for the rest of her life. Okay. I liked it up until this the desk part. Like I'm like, that's actually quite beautiful. But like bury the heart. Put it in the ground and grocery on it.

unknown 24:00

You know.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

For the love of God. For the love of God. Don't put that. I mean, I feel like that age was a smelly age as it was without. I was gonna say without indoor plumbing, but is it that long ago? Am I being like Frankenstein is incredibly old, right? We don't have to. Stop asking questions, it's gonna make us look dumb, Sarah. Yes, it is old. Either way, my heart in a drawer is not great. Not not great. If it was put through an incinerator and somehow smell, like maybe it made it into like a heart, like a yeah, maybe it made it into sort of like a a fossil of sorts, then you know what? You live wrong, Mary Shelley. You be you. Yeah, that's right. It was eventually buried alongside her son, and he passed in 1851. But yeah, I kind of like like that one a little bit, or I'm like, I'm like, I don't think that one's that crazy. I mean, yes, I don't think that that that one's crazy because she's also like an artist and creative, and I can totally see if it's something that is like has turned into almost like a fossil, yeah, keeping that in your desk where you create your art, and I and he was a poet, like keeping I think that that's actually quite romantic. I agree. Okay, I also just had a thought, but I'm gonna share it for the end because it's kind of it's fun in relation to this. Next one is the holy Roman Emperor, Rudolph II, uh after his gonna be bad. Once his wife passed, he started retreating from the public eye. Normal, normal. Yeah, yeah. Weak, we grieving. Yeah, yeah. His grief manifested a severe depression mixed with deep paranoia and bizarre eccentricities. And he became a recluse in Prague. He did like abandoned state affairs to be like as isolated as possible, and eventually built a palace full of quote-unquote weird things he collected to distract himself. I hope to God that you have a list of the weird things. Okay, it's not as fun as I thought, but it does include an alchemical, alchemical, which I think is like alchemy, alchemy, yeah. Yeah, alchemical laboratory, wild animals, and one of history's most massive curiosity cabinets. I love all of that. Yes, right? Yes, seems completely reasonable. I mean, I think you have like you're married to the love of your life, they die, and you still have to run a country or like an empire, not even a country, an empire. Yes, and you're just like, you know what? No, I'm going to I'm going to just be incredibly wealthy and bad at my job instead, and only do things that I want to do. Yes, agreed. Also, cabinet, cabinets of curiosities are like fascinating in themselves, obviously. I don't even know what that is, but I know that I want to know about it. Yeah, it's cool. There, the only thing I can even think of visually speaking is like lots of little drawers.

unknown 27:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

It is a theme used in horror films for like Annabelle the doll, like the like haunted doll and stuff that in those storylines. And they are they are kind of all part of one franchise. There's like a cabinet of curiosities with all these like haunted items, yeah, which is already like cool and interesting, but like obviously like a real life one that wasn't just for a movie. That's oh my god. I need okay. I feel like a whole episode could be done on just the weird things that he collected and the world's largest cabinet of curiosities. Can you see it somewhere? Is it is it in a museum? So I don't know if you can see, like just walk in and see the full cabinet, but a lot of the the items have been like consumed by other museums across the world. But but this is consumed the right word. Well, yeah, absorbed, consumed. Okay, okay, okay, okay. It might be like the 11th word on the synonym list for thesaurus.com. She would be there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But on the note of there being a full pod like a full episode, there is a podcast uh called Noble Blood. I don't know anything about it. I just found it. It sounds like something I would love.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

I found it in my search, and there is an episode called The World Inside of Rudolph II's Cabinet of Curiosities. Okay, well, I'm watching, I'm gonna listen to that as soon as we get off of this. As soon as we're done with our silly little podcast, I'm gonna go and listen to that one. Yeah. Right? I know. Same. Okay, the next one, the next and final one is following the tragic overdose of ex-wife Marilyn Monroe. Oh, I'm excited. Yes, the baseball legend, which why don't I have his name? His name would be Joe DiMaggio. DiMaggio. Yeah, Joe DiMaggio. How do we do that? Yeah, because he's in a song. He's in one of um Elton John's songs. That's correct. Yeah, yes, yes, Gandal in the Wind, the one that he repurposed for both Princess Diana and Marilyn Monroe, which seems a little lazy if we're being honest, but like, you know, that's fine. That's fine. But that's interesting. Okay. So yes, he was obviously heartbroken, and for 20 years he had this one's sweet, it's not disturbing. For 20 years, he had fresh red roses delivered directly to her crypt three times a week, ensuring he was the one how long? How long? For 20 years. Stop. Yeah. Three times a week for 20 years. Yep, and ensuring that he was the one who personally arranged them and for over a thousand weeks. What? So he wait, what? So he also touched them, like touched he, it wasn't just like an order service. Okay, first of all, even if you were to do like an order service of getting someone to deliver them, that in and of itself is lovely and like wildly romantic and just beautiful. But he himself arranged them. Correct. Wait, do you mean like arranged the delivery? No, he touched the flowers. Oh, like I I read it as like arranged them because it is, and it is, because that's the better option. Yeah, I agree. I agree. That's what it is. That's what it is. We're rewriting history or we're amplifying it. So either way. Either way. That is so intensely.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

It's so romantic. My goodness. I don't even, I'm alive and I don't even get th roses three times a week. I know. I know. I do get Costco roses though, frequently. They're actually my favorite because they last forever. And Matt looked into it, and it's because I don't know why I went into that thinking I knew what I was gonna say, because I don't, but there is a reason specifically that the Costco ones last longer than any other flowers. I think it might be the frequency of which they are able to purchase them. Interesting. That's very good to know. Anyway, so basically I'm Marilyn Monroe. And uh yeah, so those are the main stories, and then I had to just complete it with I would then I was curious because I'm like apart from the first one, the Queen, Queen Joanna, well, and Mary Shelley, I guess, but it's felt there are more stories like this in case anybody's interested, and it did predominantly feel like men that were having these losing their minds, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I'm like, I bet you there's a study about like who handles like the loss of a loved one, like you know, potentially or like how how how severe it affects like their their life after their loved one passes. So studies do show that men tend to repartner, date, or remarry faster than women after the death of a spouse. Yep. Yes. Data suggests not only will I do that, but I will also shave 20 years off of what I had previously. God, that is true. Um, data suggests that within 25 months, roughly 61% of men are in a new relationship compared to 19% of women. Uh, this, and then it's the study says this faster pace is often driven by a need for social support and companionship rather than a lack of love for the deceased. Which I'm like totally that's because you especially because it's like if you were in a really great relationship, I think that's just a testament to the relationship you were in. Like if you were in an excellent relationship, so much so that when that person passed away, you're like, I need I want to feel that again. It's like, yeah. Yeah, I agree. I was gonna go with something a lot more cynical. But yeah, I do think that that's that's a sweet thing to say. I was gonna be like, well, I'm sorry, but just like women, like we handle a lot. I think I think possibly when a man loses having that amount of like productivity and and also just like emotional support, just like somebody who's vulnerable that you share your life with is just gonna be better at like handling some things. Totally. And there's probably some societal stuff as well that's like if you are a woman and your husband passes away in comparison, like say the same age, and then your husband, well, no, maybe not actually. It was gonna be like it's probably more socially acceptable and like for for a man to move on than maybe a woman, but like why would I why would that be the case? I just I think automatically assume there's sexism in every single sentence. It's hard not to, all right. It's hard not to.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

Oh gosh. No, I feel like that again, I feel like in either case it's uh just a testament to being like because if you were in a bad relationship or you were even in one that wasn't like filling your cup fully and that happened, of course you would be sad. That's not what I'm trying to insinuate. But you would, you know, part part of maybe moving on would be feeling like you know, leaning into your independence, whereas if you that was an integral part of your life that you absolutely loved and adored, wanting to have that be part of your life again sooner rather than later makes sense. Yep, I agree. And then that's pretty much it for mine. But I did have one little like side story that I that I would thought of with specifically what is it, keeping keeping an exhumed body like around. But have you ever heard of I'm curious to know your answer because this is tied to our family? Have you ever heard of the movie Margaret's museum? No, okay. So is a movie, it's I think 19, yeah, 1995. And the main character is Helena Bonham Carter. Okay, yep, yep, yep. So already getting the vibes of what it would likely be like. Yes, exactly. It's set in the 1940s in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Oh, yes, and it is ultimately, I won't like well, no, don't no, yes. Sorry, I don't know why. Spoiler, spoiler alert. So just fast forward if you're interested in seeing it, but I am gonna spoil it for you. But it's still worth seeing, even if you know. And I'm pretty sure, honestly, if you read the synopsis, it would somewhat say this. Anyways, she loses her husband to like a disaster that happens in a mine, and she it drives her to have like a mental breakdown. She creates a special museum to, and this is based on a true story, and she and it's dedicated to those who have like past in the mine, so like it includes body parts and like and like things that that showcase what the conditions were like to like work down there and stuff, but it is like it's like a grotesque thing, and like the movie is for 1995 pretty graphic. But the reason it's tied to our family for a moment, I thought you were talking about like the price of renting it. I'm like not the time, like you're like for that much money, it is pretty graphic. I'm such an idiot. What's like what's fantastic? Why would almost $20 be like okay or like not okay for it to be so gruesome? My goodness, so sorry. Keep going. Oh, that's okay. I love that you shared the thought process with us. Vulnerability and stupidity, you know. Yeah, uh, anyways, the reason it's tied to our family is there's a lot of bagpiping music, and guess who was on set playing bagpipes constantly? Uncle Barry? Yeah, really, yeah, yeah. I can't believe you didn't know that. No, I didn't know that. Yeah, he's like he met her and like was on set, and his music, his piping is in the movie. Why is that not something that I would have known? I I I'm shocked that I did not know that. I feel like that would be a fact that any member of our family would like repeat many times. Many times, yeah. The same way that I share that I went to the same acting school as Kate Winslet. And the same would be and the same way that I share with everybody that I went to the same acting school as Elliot Page. So oh yes, yes. Yeah, basically the same level of success. Basically, we're actors. All of us, the Shears family, are actors. Oh myways, that concludes my topic. That was longer than that. I loved that. Yeah, no, that was great. We talk a lot, so it's true. Um I loved that. That was really good. I like the little tidbit stories, are a nice little in the same theme, are fun. Yes, thank you. I also, how on earth did you pick what made you pick that? So my mech, my method for figuring this out in a last minute approach is like I basically open up like 10 different tabs with lists of interesting facts, and then I found one of them. I think it was the Mary Shelley story, and I was like, you know what? There's probably a lot of versions of the city. Other people who got real weird after. So I'm like, all right, let me research that, and there you have it. I love it. Okay, well, that was really good. All right. So this is sort of in the so this is one that I was aware of, at like not because of this podcast. So like trying to find similarly cool topics that are just interesting. This one came across my desk and um I just hadn't like put it into play yet. But the reason that I'm putting it into play now is because it has to do with Australia. And I figured I wanted to be part of your experience. That's so sweet. I'm excited. Oh goodness. So, yeah, so this is something that happened in Australian history, and I'm going to set the stage for you now. So we are in Western Australia, and it is the early 1930s, which we all by now have learned is post-World War One. If there's anything I feel like I have now learned, it's that World War One happened in and around 1920s, right? Yes. Shoot. So the country itself is really struggling after World War One, which I'm like, you don't really hear about Australia in World War One. Like probably just because we are in Canada, but like in my mind, I'm thinking America, England, Canada. I'm not, I've never been like, oh, the soldier from Australia in World War II. No, it's so true. It's very true. So yes, they're really struggling after World War One. And many of the soldiers had returned home, and part of kind of their like thanks for going out there and doing the Lord's work was their government provided them with like plots of farmland for a sort of a fresh start to be like, here, welcome back. You can be a farmer now. Okay. So really lovely in thought, generally, as any lots of government programs go, follow through, fell apart a little bit. So they did um provide isolated farmland that was really rough conditions, like very dry. And you know, veterans are trying to rebuild their lives in these conditions, they're like trying to get crop on the go, and it's just like isolated and rough and not great. So it's already difficult. And then, and all of a sudden, there's just seems to be like movement in the crops, and it starts off as like, no, it starts off as like, oh, what's that over there? And then they're like, Oh, it's an emu. That's interesting, and then another one, and then another one, and then another one. So I'm gonna tell you about the war that broke out between human and emu in 1930. Wow, I'm so excited. Did not there were so many moments where I thought you were going somewhere and you went completely different. So we took a hard left turn. We took a hard left turn. Did you think if you thought aliens, nope, we're just talking about emus. I'm like, okay, crop circles for sure. Yep, yep. And listen, these birds, my goodness. So, just to put into perspective how aggressive this sort of problem got, eventually, there were nearly 30,000 emus moving through the farmlands. 30,000. That's okay. Can you tell me how many? Maybe not, which is fine. But can you tell me how many acres of farmland this was happening on? I absolutely cannot do that. Okay, that's absolutely okay. We're either way. I do not get to know, but I can tell you about emus. I can tell you that they are the second largest birds in the world over ostriches. Okay, yeah, and they can grow to over six feet tall. What? Yeah, that's terrifying. Isn't it though? Six foot tall bird, and they can run around 50 kilometers an hour. Okay, well, that's crazy. I have a 50. That's that's that's insane. And instantly, like, do so. You know how T-Rexes are have like evolved from so why in the world would T-Rexes have evolved from chickens when we got ostriches and ostriches running around, running around at 50 kilometers an hour that are like six feet. We're getting closer inside. That doesn't make any sense to me. It doesn't. Evolution seems a little strange when you think about it that way. A doesn't it? That's crazy. That's yes, that's wild. So they it's not wild. Sorry. No in this case, it again, in this case, it actually is wild. They are wild animals. Okay, we'll accept throw you a bone. Okay. Um, so they also migrate in massive groups, so they like stick together, and they also aren't considered especially intelligent birds. They're a little dumb. For some reason that makes sense to me with the little I know. So they're basically like a like if a tinos a dinosaur and a turkey had a terrifying athletic child, you know? Like they're just really that's terri. I just I think about their feet and the claws, and they just scare me, to be honest. And they scare these farmers as well. So basically. Basically, they started completely destroying everything. So crops would be flattened, fences would get totally destroyed. Rabbits at the time were already a massive problem for uh farmers. So they were knocking down fences and things that they had in place, like boundaries they had in place to try and keep the rabbits away from their crops. So not only are they dealing with these crazy dumb emus, I feel bad calling them dumb. They don't, well, they're not listening to this. Um, but they are also creating kind of more of a problem with the rabbits as well. It's not good. So they they basically they reach out, these farbers are like, listen, we're veterans, we're trying to get a fresh start, like we're really just trying our best. We really need support here. Are you able to come in and help? And the vet the the government's like, you know what? This will be an easy little, yeah, we can come help you veterans out. Like you just fought in the world war. Let's come in and support you. Like these men are men who have fought and survived World War One. And they're like, Can we get help with these emus though? Like, you basically survive war to have to battle massive birds, just ruining your life. So they're like, Yeah, okay, we will come and help you. Like, of course, this is gonna be super simple. The government agrees, and Australia deploys soldiers with straight-up machine guns. They're like, All right, send in the big guns. We're getting rid of these emus, we're we're fixing this emu problem in a in a right hurry. It just seems a little bit like a like a somebody's a little disadvantaged in this. Well, you would think. You would think. So they come in, and I'm sure part of them also, I'm just like thinking about like, you know, imagine you're uh you're part of like a a group of soldiers, or like you're in the military, in the artillery unit, and you get this word to basically be like, hey, take take the machine guns, go out to this like farmland, and sh you can just basically you have like a free pass to just go shoot a bunch of birds. Like I'm sure a part of them are like, this is gonna be easy, and like it needs to happen anyways. So, like, all right, let's go. Like, yeah, sounds like a sounds like a walk in the park, to be honest. Yeah, let's go. It'll be, dare I say, fun. Not saying they should think that. I'm just saying if you're used to having to use machine guns on human beings, probably birds is a nice change of pace, you know? Yes, yeah. So they off they go. And the soldiers, they go, they bring Lewis machine guns, which seems like an oddly specific fact. Um but yeah, so so they go and they set up, they're all grouped together. So again, they're like, all right, it's gonna be super easy. Like, let's let's do this. They're perfect targets. They are gathered in a huge group, they open fire, and the emus explode in every direction, they are zigzagging, dust clouds are flying, feathers are flying, birds scatter instantly, and they are impossible to aim and shoot, even with a machine gun. So they've they've fired thousands of rounds with surprisingly low confirmed kills. Like they're not even really picking off any of these emus. I love this story so deeply. Oh my gosh. So they've scattered so fast that they they couldn't properly track them. And they're like, are they dumb or are they tactical? Like they from what we know, they're not super smart. But it's like, are they so not smart that they're just like running around all crazy like because that's just what they know how to do? Or are they like, all right, crew, like they're coming in with machine guns. We gotta zigzag. We know that that's how you evade gunshots. Like, let's let's go, you know? Yeah. So they start noticing that they are very difficult to predict, they move erratically, they split into off into smaller groups, and they're kind of like, okay, they're using their one of the military reports describes the birds as using gorilla tactics. So, like they're like, this is going terribly, and it feels like it's on purpose. That's hilarious. I'm I'm cheering on the emus at this point. I gotta tell you. I know. So the military, they come up with another plan. They're like, okay, and just for to put it in perspective, this whole ordeal was like about a month, I think, maybe two. It wasn't actually, you know what? That's quite a long time. If you thought you were going in to just like eradicate large population of emus, and you're there for a night, you're like calling up your superior, you're like, listen, the emus got the best of us, they got the drop on us. Like, we we tried to, and we've got like a couple kills, but we've shot off thousands of rounds. Like, it's not good. We gotta, we we're coming up with phase two. And so that's what they did. So they're like, listen, we're gonna mount the machine gun on a truck. Like, we can't, we can't, we can't get them. So, like, let's we need to we have a machine gun and we still have to try and like even the playing field a little bit. Let's mount it on a truck. So they start to chase the birds on this truck that has a machine gun on it, but there's rough terrain, the trucks bouncing violently, they cannot aim very well, the emus are outrunning the vehicles, so they're just rolling around trying to kill these emus that are much faster and just zigzagging all over the place. So that turned into a complete disaster as well.

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Wow.

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So, yeah, it truly sounds like a cartoon. It sounds like some sort of Scooby-Doo military strategy. So at one point, the soldiers reportedly started respecting the emus, and they one comparison basically described them like a military force. They were called, they were called again in these sort of like reports because it's an actual project that they had to report on. Yeah. Uh, famous comparison described the birds similarly to Zulu warriors. Um they're just like, we can't actually defeat them, like we cannot get control of it. So you might be asking how how did this end? And it did end with the military pulling out of the operation and admitting defeat on the war of the emus. Oh my god. So that's my story. I think it's interesting because I think it's a classic human like error, you know. Well, you just go in and you're sort of like, we have total control over nature, like we have machine guns for goodness' sakes. Like, of course, we can take out these big dumb birds, and then you go in, and as human beings, arrogance usually does, you're like, Oh, wildlife had different plans, mother nature had different plans, and we look real stupid. Honestly, I that's why I love it. That's an incredible. So then, so the poor farmers just were like, Okay, well, you handed us this land and you can't even help us fix it. So no, you're like, thanks so much for the headache after World War I and serving our country. Um, I guess we will have this barren land full of big dumb birds that that can't even that are so good at being irritating that they can't even be eradicated or even slightly impacted by military forces. Oh my gosh, that's awesome. I'm so yeah, very pleased with the situation. Like, I'm just really I feel bad for the farmers, but I'm thrilled at the same time. I know it makes you wonder if they knew about the the government being they knew about the inos before they handed off this land and were like, uh, I think it's something that did grow over time. Like I think they sort of similar to the bunnies, like started off a little bit, or maybe they were there and they just got closer and closer to the crops, or like, what's this all about? Send in a couple, send in a couple troops, figure out what's going over there with farmer John. What's he got going on? And then they report back and they're like, Yeah, he has tons of carrots, and we love those. So then they're like, Let's move in. They probably are so smart, yeah. I I would that sounds like it. That's incredible. I would even I bet you, like, well, it was already said in her report that it was similar to people like human behavior in in the battlefield. But like, I'm like, I that that strategy was probably used in the future, like like the emu do. You zigzag. If you if open fire happens, you zigzag and you zigzag fast. Oh my gosh, that's as the emu do. Well, so there you go. There you have it. There's my little PS of Australia. Fun fact for you. I also am very aware of ensuring that there's a satisfying end after the Dilatov passed. Oh my god. If there's something that lives rent-free in my head, it is that story. I'm like, was it I gave nobody what they wanted or needed at the end. I was pretty sad, but uh it was still very interesting. That is the end of our podcast for this week. And this one will be edited in real time, so it will actually be put out tomorrow on Tuesday. And we will have to get some more in the can, as they say in the biz that we're part of. God, that we're part of. Yeah, you and I have to like get on like a few different calls to like catch up. Um, but that's all good. It's fun, it's fun. Um, it's fun, it's fun. We'll see you next week. Okay, bye. Bye.