333-Stranded in the Kimberley

In 18th-century England, wealthy landowners would sometimes hire people to live as hermits in secluded corners of their estates. In today's show we'll explore this odd custom and review the job requirements for life as a poetic recluse. We'll also meet a German novelist who popularized an American West he had never seen and puzzle over some very generous bank robbers. Sources for our feature on ornamental hermits: Gordon Campbell, The Hermit in the Garden, 2013. Alice Gregory, "Garden Hermit Needed. Apply Within," Boston Globe, May 19, 2013. Robert Conger Pell, Milledulcia: A Thousand Pleasant Things, 1857. Edith Sitwell, The English Eccentrics, 1933. John Timbs, English Eccentrics and Eccentricities, 1875. Allison Meier, "Before the Garden Gnome, The Ornamental Hermit: A Real Person Paid to Dress Like a Druid," Atlas Obscura, March 18, 2014 (accessed June 9, 2015). Graeme Wood's article "The Lost Man," describing the latest efforts to identify the Somerton Man, appeared in the California Sunday Magazine on June 7, 2015. The case concerns an unidentified corpse discovered on a South Australian beach in December 1948; for the full story see our Episode 25. University of Adelaide physicist Derek Abbott's Indiegogo campaign to identify the man runs through June 28. There's also a petition to urge the attorney general of South Australia to exhume the body so that autosomal DNA can be extracted. Sources for Sharon's discussion of German author Karl May's fictional Apache chief Winnetou: Michael Kimmelman, "Fetishizing Native Americans: In Germany, Wild for Winnetou," Spiegel Online, Sept. 13, 2007 (accessed June 11, 2015). Rivka Galchen, "Wild West Germany: Why Do Cowboys and Indians So Captivate the Country?", New Yorker, April 9, 2012 (accessed June 11, 2015). Winnetou is so popular in Germany that the death this month of French actor Pierre Brice, who played him in the movies, was front-page news. (Thanks, Hanno.) This week's lateral thinking puzzle is from Edward J. Harshman's 1996 book Fantastic Lateral Thinking Puzzles. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and all contributions are greatly appreciated. You can change or cancel your pledge at any time, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation via the Donate button in the sidebar of the Futility Closet website. Please take a five-minute survey to help us find advertisers to support the show. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for listening!

14 Juni 201534min

In 1916 an American circus elephant named Mary was hanged before a crowd of 3,000 onlookers. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll review the sad series of events that led Mary to a Tennessee railroad crane. We'll also get an update on a very inventive bank robbery and puzzle over the escalators in London's Tube stations. Our feature on Mary was based chiefly on Charles Edwin Price's 1992 book The Day They Hung the Elephant. Our first lateral thinking puzzle this week was contributed by listener Paul Sophocleous. The second is from Kyle Hendrickson's 1998 book Mental Fitness Puzzles. Here are two links with more information about the bank robbery described in Episode 58's puzzle. (Warning -- spoilers!) Enter coupon code CLOSET at Harry's to get $5 off a special Father's Day razor set. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and all contributions are greatly appreciated. You can change or cancel your pledge at any time, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation via the Donate button in the sidebar of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for listening!

1 Juni 201533min

In 1764 a French engineer on a tiny African island claimed that he could see ships beyond the horizon. In today's show we'll review the strange story of Étienne Bottineau and consider the evidence for his claims to have invented a new art. We'll also ponder a 400-year-old levitation trick and puzzle over why throwing a beer can at someone might merit a promotion. Sources for our feature on nauscopie, the purported art of apprehending ships below the horizon: Rupert T. Gould, Oddities: A Book of Unexplained Facts, 1928. Sir David Brewster, Letters on Natural Magic, 1832. J. Gregory Dill, "The Lost Art of Nauscopie," Ocean Navigator, January/February 2003 (retrieved May 17, 2015). Mike Dash, "Naval Gazing: The Enigma of Étienne Bottineau," Smithsonian Magazine, Oct. 13, 2011 (retrieved May 17, 2015). Chicago Tribune, "The Science of Nauscopie," Nov. 7, 1869. Greg's post on Samuel Pepy's "lifting experiment" appeared on Futility Closet on March 22, 2008. Further sources for that segment: Sir David Brewster, Letters on Natural Magic, 1832. The Diary of Samuel Pepys, July 31, 1665. Robert Conger Pell, Milledulcia: A Thousand Pleasant Things Selected from "Notes and Queries," 1857. Notes & Queries, July 3, 1852 (the original query). Notes & Queries, July 24, 1852 (Brewster offers his impressions). "Non-Wist," "Phenomenon of Levity in the Human Subject," The Zoist, January 1852. Two YouTube videos illustrate the modern technique: one, two The YouTube discussion mentioned in this week's lateral thinking puzzle is here (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and all contributions are greatly appreciated. You can change or cancel your pledge at any time, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation via the Donate button in the sidebar of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for listening!

24 Maj 201533min

In 1855 Pedro Carolino decided to write a Portuguese-English phrasebook despite the fact that he didn't actually speak English. The result is one of the all-time masterpieces of unintentional comedy, a language guide full of phrases like "The ears are too length" and "He has spit in my coat." In this episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll sample Carolino's phrasebook, which Mark Twain called "supreme and unapproachable." We'll also hear Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” rendered in jargon and puzzle over why a man places an ad before robbing a bank. Sources for our feature on Pedro Carolino's disastrous phrasebook: English as She Is Spoke: Or, A Jest in Sober Earnest, 1883. (This edition, like many, incorrectly names José da Fonseca as a coauthor. Fonseca was the author of the Portuguese-French phrasebook that Carolino used for the first half of his task. By all accounts that book is perfectly competent, and Fonseca knew nothing of Carolino's project; Carolino added Fonseca's name to the byline to lend some credibility to his own book.) The Writings of Mark Twain, Volume 6. Carolino's misadventure inspired some "sequels" by other authors: English as She Is Wrote (1883) English as She Is Taught (1887) As long as we're at it, here's Monty Python's "Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook" sketch: Hamlet's "to be or not to be" soliloquy rendered in jargon, from Arthur Quiller-Couch's On the Art of Writing (1916): To be, or the contrary? Whether the former or the latter be preferable would seem to admit of some difference of opinion; the answer in the present case being of an affirmative or of a negative character according as to whether one elects on the one hand to mentally suffer the disfavour of fortune, albeit in an extreme degree, or on the other to boldly envisage adverse conditions in the prospect of eventually bringing them to a conclusion. The condition of sleep is similar to, if not indistinguishable from, that of death; and with the addition of finality the former might be considered identical with the latter: so that in this connection it might be argued with regard to sleep that, could the addition be effected, a termination would be put to the endurance of a multiplicity of inconveniences, not to mention a number of downright evils incidental to our fallen humanity, and thus a consummation achieved of a most gratifying nature. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Lawrence Miller, who sent this corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and all contributions are greatly appreciated. You can change or cancel your pledge at any time, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation via the Donate button in the sidebar of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for listening!

18 Maj 201530min

Eight decades after Jules Verne's death, his great-grandson opened a family safe and discovered an unpublished manuscript. In this episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll review some of Verne's remarkable predictions for the 20th century and consider why he never published the novel. We'll also discuss listeners' ideas about the mysterious deaths of nine Soviet ski hikers in 1959 and puzzle over how a man's breakfast turns deadly. Sources for our feature on Jules Verne's Paris in the Twentieth Century: Arthur B. Evans, "The 'New' Jules Verne," Science-Fiction Studies, March 1995. Brian Taves, "Jules Verne’s Paris in the Twentieth Century," Science-Fiction Studies, March 1997. Jules Verne, Paris in the Twentieth Century, 1863. Sources for listener mail: "'Partially Digested' Human Head, Leg Found Inside Shark Caught by Filipino Fishermen," Fox News Latino, Nov. 12, 2014 (accessed May 8, 2015). Donnie Eichar, Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident, 2013. Jason Zasky, "Return to Dead Mountain," Failure Magazine, Feb. 1, 2014. Greg's article on animal infrasound appeared in the January-February 2004 issue of American Scientist. This week's lateral thinking puzzle comes from Jed's List of Situation Puzzles, suggested to us by listener David Morgan. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and all contributions are greatly appreciated. You can change or cancel your pledge at any time, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation via the Donate button in the sidebar of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. And you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for listening!

11 Maj 201535min

Here are six new lateral thinking puzzles to test your wits! Solve along with us as we explore some strange scenarios using only yes-or-no questions. Many were submitted by listeners, and most are based on real events. A few associated links -- these spoil the puzzles, so don't click until you've listened to the episode: Puzzle #1 Puzzle #3 Puzzle #4 You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and all contributions are greatly appreciated. You can change or cancel your pledge at any time, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation via the Donate button in the sidebar of the Futility Closet website. Futility Closet listeners can get $5 off their first purchase at Harry's -- enter coupon code CLOSET at checkout. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. And you can finally follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for listening!

4 Maj 201538min

On February 1, 1959, something terrifying overtook nine student ski-hikers in the northern Ural Mountains. In this episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll recount what is known about the incident at Dyatlov Pass and try to make sense of the hikers' harrowing final night. We'll also hear how Dwight Eisenhower might have delivered the Gettysburg Address and puzzle over why signing her name might entitle a woman to a lavish new home. Sources for our feature on the Dyatlov Pass incident: Donnie Eichar, Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident, 2013. "Yuri Yudin," Daily Telegraph, April 30, 2013, 25.   Here's the investigators' description of the hikers' tent as it was discovered: "Tent site is located on the Northeastern slope of mountain 1079 (Kholat Syakhl official term) meters at the mouth of river Auspiya. Tent site is located 300 meters from the top of the mountain 1079 with a slope of 30°. Test site consists of a pad, levelled by snow, the bottom of which are contains 8 pairs of skis (for tent support and insulation). Tent is stretched on poles and fixed with ropes. On the bottom of the tent 9 backpacks were discovered with various personal items, jackets, rain coats, 9 pairs of shoes. There were also found men's pants, and three pairs of boots, warm fur coats, socks, hat, ski caps, utensils, buckets, stove, ax, saw, blankets, food: biscuits in two bags, condensed milk, sugar, concentrates, notebooks, itinerary and many other small items and documents, camera and accessories to a camera. The nature and form of all (...) lesions suggest that they were formed by contact with the canvas inside of the tent with the blade of some weapon (presumably a knife)." This is the final exposure in hiker Yuri Krivonishchenko's camera. Possibly the image was exposed on the final night, or possibly weeks afterward, inadvertently, by technicians. Lead investigator Lev Ivanov wrote that the hikers' cameras gave him "abundant information based on negative density, film speed ... and aperture and exposure settings," but that they did not "answer the main question -- what was the reason of escape from the tent." Here's journalist Oliver Jensen's rendering of the Gettysburg Address in "Eisenhowese." Jensen provided his original to Dwight Macdonald for his 1961 collection Parodies: An Anthology. "The version below is the original as given me by Jensen, with two or three variations in which The New Republic's version [of June 17, 1957] seemed to me to have added a turn of the screw": I haven’t checked these figures but 87 years ago, I think it was, a number of individuals organized a governmental set-up here in this country, I believe it covered certain Eastern areas, with this idea they were following up based on a sort of national independence arrangement and the program that every individual is just as good as every other individual. Well, now, of course, we are dealing with this big difference of opinion, civil disturbance you might say, although I don’t like to appear to take sides or name any individuals, and the point is naturally to check up, by actual experience in the field, to see whether any governmental set-up with a basis like the one I was mentioning has any validity and find out whether that dedication by those early individuals will pay off in lasting values and things of that kind. Well, here we are, at the scene where one of these disturbances between different sides got going. We want to pay our tribute to those loved ones, those departed individuals who made the supreme sacrifice here on the basis of their opinions about how this thing ought to be handled. And I would say this. It is absolutely in order to do this. But if you look at the over-all picture of this, we can't pay any tribute -- we can't sanctify this area, you might say -- we can't hallow according to whatever individual creeds or faiths or sort of religious outlooks are involved like I said about this particular area. It was those individuals themselves, including the enlisted men, very brave individuals, who have given this religious character to the area. The way I see it, the rest of the world will not remember any statements issued here but it will never forget how these men put their shoulders to the wheel and carried this idea down the fairway. Now frankly, our job, the living individuals’ job here, is to pick up the burden and sink the putt they made these big efforts here for. It is our job to get on with the assignment -- and from these deceased fine individuals to take extra inspiration, you could call it, for the same theories about the set-up for which they made such a big contribution. We have to make up our minds right here and now, as I see it, that they didn’t put out all that blood, perspiration and -- well -- that they didn’t just make a dry run here, and that all of us here, under God, that is, the God of our choice, shall beef up this idea about freedom and liberty and those kind of arrangements, and that government of all individuals, by all individuals and for the individuals, shall not pass out of the world-picture. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was submitted by listener Tyler St. Clare (conceived by his friend Matt Moore). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and all contributions are greatly appreciated. You can change or cancel your pledge at any time, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation via the Donate button in the sidebar of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. And you can finally follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for listening!

26 Apr 201531min

In 1943 three men came up with an ingenious plan to escape from the seemingly escape-proof Stalag Luft III prison camp in Germany. In this episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll learn about their clever deception, which made them briefly famous around the world. We'll also hear about the chaotic annual tradition of Moving Day in several North American cities and puzzle over how a severely injured hiker beats his wife back to their RV. Sources for our feature on the escape from Stalag Luft III: Eric Williams, The Wooden Horse, 1949. The Wooden Horse, British Lion Film Corporation, 1950. Oliver Philpot, Stolen Journey, 1952. Here's the movie: It became the third most popular film at the British box office in 1950. The book's success led Williams to write The Tunnel, a prequel that described his and Michael Codner's earlier escape from the Oflag XXI-B camp in Poland. Sources for listener mail: Ian Austen, "When a City Is on the Move, With Mattresses and Dishwashers in Tow," New York Times, July 1, 2013. Localwiki, Davis, Calif., "Moving Day" (accessed April 16, 2015). Samara Kalk Derby, "Happy Holiday or Horror Story? Moving Day Hits UW," Wisconsin State Journal, Aug. 15, 2011. City of Madison Streets & Recycling, "August Moving Days" (accessed April 16, 2015). This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener David White and his daughter Katherine. This episode is sponsored by our patrons and by The Great Courses -- go to http://www.thegreatcourses.com/closet to order from eight of their best-selling courses at up to 80 percent off the original price. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and all contributions are greatly appreciated. You can change or cancel your pledge at any time, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation via the Donate button in the sidebar of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. And you can finally follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for listening!

20 Apr 201536min