November 19, 2009 • 26 mins
The world is full of festivals, some of which are really odd. Tune in as Josh and Chuck take a playful look at ten unusual town festivals in this episode of Stuff You Should Know.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as
Charles W. Light as meringue Bryant. I've never heard that
(00:23):
term light is meringue ntil you just said it before
we recorded it. I think I made it up. It's
it is light. Oh yeah, that's but each light is
a feather. That's old. Yeah, kid me um So chunk
do you remember when you started a podcast with punkin Chunking,
punkin chunk and punkin Chunking. I do remember that. We've
been talking about that a lot. And uh, I don't
(00:46):
know exactly when this podcast is coming out, but I
imagine it's going to be right around the time that
the show punkin Chunking and the Road to punkin Chunkin
premiers on UM the Science Channel, which is the a
that was formerly known as Thanksgiving until the Science Channel
took it over with punkin Chunky Right now, it's punkin
Chunking Day, right. Indeed, do you have a clue what
(01:09):
punkin Chunknness and I do. Well, let's talk about it. Well,
let's talk about a lot of unusual town festivals, Josh.
That's fine with me because I got a whole list
of them. Right, let's to a podcast where you don't
hear words like hippothalamus and hypocalamus and hippopotamus. Okay, let's
do a fun one, okay, or Clovis police or Clovis police.
(01:32):
I got in a Clovis argument with the guy the
other day. By the way, did you really did you
decimate him? Yes? Sort of, and he was kind of like,
oh no, but I thought people came over from the
bearing Land Bridge, and I was like, oh, they did,
but not before homeboy came up from South America exactly, idiot,
did you pump his ear with your forefinger? So punkin
chunkin Josh takes place in Sussex County, Delaware, right, am,
(01:55):
I right? Yeah, Okay? Why why were you looking at me? Well,
I don't know. You looked at me like I had
it wrong. No, I just don't out for a second.
And I believe it's a benefit for St. Jude's Children's
Research Hospital there. Yeah, I didn't know that before, and
I was glad to find that out, Sure, me too.
And they've been doing this since yeah, and they've gotten
pretty uh pretty serious about this actually yeah, so and
(02:17):
I was staggered at how far these things go. Well, actually,
the world record for a chunked punkin, right, yeah, is
like eight hundred feet shy of a mile. Yeah, four thousand,
four dred and eighty three ft. Dude, can you imagine
seeing a pumpkin going that far? You wouldn't go out
of your field of vision like halfway there. I don't
think you can see a punkin or a pumpkin go
(02:40):
a mile. Well, if you're out in the the middle of
the desert or something, you probably could. Maybe then there's
some pretty plowed fields around there. Yeah, it depends on
how big your punkin is, right, or what you're using.
And there's actually I think seven different UM categories or
seven different contests in three different categories. There's um centrifuges,
(03:01):
which spin around real fast and then release them. Uh.
There is the catapult tried and true, and then there's
the air cannons. And the air cannons are the ones
that everybody shows up for, those the ones that win.
You want to shoot a punkin a mile, you use
an air cannon. Right. Have you seen these things to
go under the DMC and take it out? I watched
(03:22):
those pretty cool. Yeah, there there were some um that
are um what would that be called? Um vehicle based?
So you drive these things up and they look like
howitzers and they will shoot a punk in a mile. Wow.
It's pretty cool because you think like, okay, well you
know there's they're gonna shoot a punkin out of an
(03:43):
air cannon and it's going to go a mile and
then we'll all break for twenty minutes and go get
a drink while the next guy loads up. Now, this
year at Wheatley Farm they shot two thousand pumpkins, so
there's NonStop action I would imagine. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
And as all kinds of other stuff they do, they're
like pie making contests. Of course, in music, most of
(04:04):
these festivals that we're gonna talk about have music and
food ingestion as part of it. Yes, because what's a
festival without music and food ingestion? I don't know, Um,
we I don't know that we should um spoil who
won because we've got the we've got the results right here. Yeah, sure,
we probably shouldn't know, so let's just not talk about
that anymore. What was it they flung on? Did you
(04:25):
used to watch Northern Exposure? Huh? What did they fling
on that show? Poh, now they flunk? Oh a piano? Yeah,
they used like a catapol or something, right, yeah, something
like that. It was awesome. I forgot all about that.
That one was almost as good as one where Chris
grabbed all the lamps in town. Yeah, strung him up downtown.
He just lit the whole down. It was awesome. He's
(04:46):
a great character. What what happened to that guy? He
was it? Really he really could have gone overboard with it,
but he didn't. Okay, So that's punk and chunk and
it's held in early November every year right in Delaware.
In Delaware, Right, let's go elsewhere, Chuck, where would you
like to ago because we got a bunch of these.
I know that you're gonna uh stone me for going
straight to Neierland, Colorado, But why not talk about the
(05:09):
Frozen Dead Guy Days festival is so weird? Yeah? Yeah,
So this is an actual festival in March in Colorado.
So it's already cold. Started in nineteen ninety four? Is
that right. Oh, No, two thousand two is when the
festival started, but its roots go back to nineteen well,
actually goes back to nine eight nine when Grandpa Bredo
(05:29):
more Stole died and Grandpa Bredo was a member of
a family that was very much proponents of cryogenics. So
they shipped Grandpa off to California where he was um
in tomb cryogenically for four years. Um, and he, I
guess got a little homesick. His family got a little
(05:52):
more confident that they could maintain him, and so they
shipped him back in and he's been in a tough
shed to u f F brand shed since yes, and
now they have built the Frozen Dead Guy Days festival
around him in his frozen body. It's been described as
cryonics Marty gras I frozen body. Yeah. Uh. And what
(06:16):
goes on there, Josh? Besides um, clearly some drinking is
probably happening. There is Grandpa's Blue Ball, which is the
dance right that they have every every year if you will, right.
They have um antique hearst shows. Yeah. They have coffin
races that's kind of fun, which I take to be
like toboggan races. Oh, is that what that is, I
(06:39):
think So, I mean it's frozen, there's lots of snow.
It's Colorado in early March. Sure, sure, so just throw
some blades on a coffin and go at it. Then
they have some um, I guess non death uh events
to like salmon tossing, although if you're a salmon it's
a death event, and frozen beach volleyball too. Yeah. I'd
like to see that. Yeah, it's just an all around
(06:59):
odd Yeah. And they also do a polar plunge, which
is if you're brave enough to jump in the the
lake there, I am not. You don't do that, have you.
I've done that before. I did a frozen lake jump
when I was high school. That's insane. Yeah it was.
And you know, it's one of those deals where you
jump in, you can't breathe, and you run back out
(07:21):
and warm up and tell your friends about it for
the next thirty years or I'm never gonna be one
those polar bear guys. I don't want know. That's I
just I don't get that now, Okay, so chuck, we're
too Next, let's go to Montana. I like Montana. One
of my best friends, Rad Smith, lives in Montana. Well,
hey Brad Smith, Rad what rad is short for Radford? Okay,
(07:44):
hey Radford Smith. I think he listens to rad. Rad
was the o G. He was my best friend when
I was like, and we're back in touch again, which
is nice Facebook. Uh yeah originally, but then we immediately
when we found each other, we're like, let's just email
like normal. Yeah. Yeah, emailing over Facebook. It's weird. I
don't do that. So Chuck, we're in Montana, UM, and
(08:05):
we're at the Rock Creek Lodge and Clinton, Montana. I
think that's how you pronounced is it Clinton? I think
it's just Clinton. Okay, I was doing the kang and
kotos pronouncing President Clinton. Um. And every year in September
they hold the Testicle Festival. Yeah, Rocky Mountain Oysters is.
Most people might know this by our or Montana Tender
(08:28):
Groin that this is one of the punniest festivals I've
ever heard of in my life. It is. Chris Palette
probably goes every year. Um. Everyone knows that the Rocky
Mountain Oyster is a nice way of saying that you
eat bulls testicles, And it's a real thing. It's really
a menu when a lot of restaurants apparently came off
of the trail off of the cattle drive trail where Um,
(08:49):
I guess Cookie would take recently castrated bulls testicles and
toss them in a fire. And I guess they're really
easy to cook because they just pop open when they're read. Wow. Yeah,
I just gotta chill. I have a confession to make.
Let's you've had them, I have not. Okay, you really
want to go? I am definitely go into this next year.
(09:10):
I want to try this. Plus Montana is awesome. Yeah,
it looks like a great What else can you do there, Josh?
I know you can have. Um there's music, of course,
there is a a hairy chest contest, which is I'm
not sure what that has to do with bulls testicles.
I guess they put hair in your chest. I guess
that makes sense, Uh, A wet T shirt contest, which
(09:31):
is always fun at, a bull testicle contest, and a
blue bull chip throwing so I guess like a cow
pie sometimes can flatten out and harden like a frisbee.
I guess it's the same thing. We can only hope. So, um,
it's a it's a big one. There's ten thousand people
that eat about four thousand pounds of bowl testicles. Yeah,
(09:51):
I'll be one of them next September. That's great. Um,
and uh, it's not the only one though. It's not
the only Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival. There's an another one
um in Texas, right. Uh it is, yeah, Throckmorton, rock Mornton, Texas.
And they do that. They the same thing there, Josh,
(10:12):
I know. They also the one in Throckmorton actually has
a if you don't like bulls testicles, So if you're
like of the human population, Uh, there there is a
taste like chicken cook off competition, um, where you can
cook any weird thing you want. Yeah, but if you're
not into bulls testicles, you're probably not gonna You're not
gonna be in Throckmorton in May. Now you're not gonna
(10:34):
be eating out of the taste like chicken line either,
because I guarantee you any chicken. No, no, no, although
that would be uh delightfully ironic if somebody cook chicken
for the taste like chicken competences. It tastes like chicken, yes,
because it is, yeah, exactly what I would say. So
that's the testicle festival in the World Championship Rocky Mountain
Oyster Festival. I want to go overseas now to Spain. Okay,
(10:58):
because this one is something that we podcasted on recently,
The Near Death Experience. Yeah, yeah, there's actually a near
the Festival of Near Death Experience, Yes, which is co crazy, um, Chuck.
This one is held in f Santa Marta de Robarmente.
Nice one, Chuck, thank you, which also translates to as
(11:19):
Chuck said, actually doesn't translate to it, but you can
call it the Festival of Near Death Experiences, um. The
way Chuck said, it would be the Festival of St.
Martha of Rebar Tamy rebar Tamy. Actually I think I
pronounced it wrong, but you got it right. Yeah, Rebar
Tamy so in July July twenty nine. And St. Martha
(11:39):
is actually the Saint of Death, right yeah. And this
festival is actually four people specifically who have had near
death experiences. This one is um. I'm glad we talked
about the Frozen Dead guy days. It's not like that.
Although the people who are I guess the celebrants or
the center of this fest of all the people who've
(12:01):
had near death experiences, are carried into the main church
in the town. Um what is it las nivis uh?
And in coffins. Yeah, they're carried in coffins to a service,
a church service from what I gather, where they get
up and they tell their stories to everyone, right, which
apparently also sound very much alike. There's that light at
(12:23):
the end of the tunnel, all that stuff that we
talked about in the Near Death Experience podcast. Um, but
I guess if you want to go meet a bunch
of people who have died and come back, yeah, this
is this is your chance. I think if I went
to as a impostor, which I'm known to do, I
would be one of the whatever small percentage of the
people were that had the hell fire experience. Just to
(12:46):
spice things up. I think that's a good idea. Was
according to that eighty two gallop pole. Yeah, because everyone's like,
oh yeah, white light, white light. Now, I would get
up there and say, I saw fire. You get up
there and you don't want to die, You're all doomed,
and get me out of this coffin. Right. So that
is the what's it called save it Again? Chuck. The
(13:09):
Fiesta de Santa Manita de robotem nice, thank you? Was
that Italian or Spanish accent? It's they're close. Where do
you want to go next, dude? Uh, well, we can't
not talk about wife carrying. This is a lot like
the Healthcare Um podcast, the last one where we went
all over the world, but this one's far less informative
(13:29):
and educational in nature. Yeah, let's talk about wife carrying.
So that would put us in a squarely in Finland,
specifically sonca arv Finland. Yeah, they have letters that don't
even look like letters. They have letters that don't even exist. Uh.
And it is exactly as it sounds. There's no weird
play on words here. It is. Actually there are races
(13:51):
where a man picks up his wife and carries her
in whatever way you choose, whatever way you think is
the best way to get across the finish line. Yeah,
the quickest and uh, the one that's held in Finland's
the World Championships. But these have popped up elsewhere, including
in the United States. But the one in Finland, dude,
(14:12):
people attend this thing. No, it's like the one like
people who win in the United States or Hong Kong
or Australia go to Finland to compete for the champs
the championships. Um, so you would think the finish are
the best at this. And actually, um, a couple did
win the two thousand nine but I am want to
point out they were not married. As far as I know,
(14:36):
they weren't married. Um, the two thousand nine winners were
I'm about to butcher this Tysto, Mick t Any so sorry,
Tisto and Christina Happening. She's one happening girl, so no
different last names. And it said they're cities, two different cities.
Ob see. There aren't many rules to this, but there
(14:59):
are a couple in. One is that she must be
over seventeen uh over one hundred and eight pounds, meaning
that she qualifies in the weight weight class. And if
she doesn't weigh that much, they actually tie things to
her to make her way that much. To your wife
comes in at a hundred pounds, will put a eight
pound weight around her waist. She's got like a set
(15:19):
of silverware around her or something. And let's talk about
the methods. Actually, as I was saying that you would
think the finish are the best, the Estonians are so
good that they have their own method of carrying after
the Estonian method. Yeah, and I've seen pictures. You've ever
seen pictures of this? It looks like clearly the way
to go, because you can do the piggyback, but everyone
(15:42):
knows that's not the way to go. No, because the
center of gravity is lower, the weight is towards the
your back, the carriers back. Um, the Estonian method is
upside down like that, right, Well, yeah, it's um, your
wife would put her legs around your head upside down,
(16:02):
so her face is kind of around where your lower
back is, and then she'll wrap her arms around your waist, right,
so the bulk of her weight like the trunk, and um,
the bottom are up on your shoulders. It's like a
human backpack. Yes, and that's clearly the way to go,
because I believe wasn't that the method used when they
broke the world record? I believe so. So Estonian is
(16:23):
definitely the style you should if you're intend on winning,
and you should intend on winning because this one actually
has a nice little prize attached it does you get
your wife's weight and beer? I love it. I love
it too, uh huh. I would love to drink that
much beer. And I imagine if she weighs less than
the hundred and eight pounds, they don't give you the
weight of the silver ware that she had around her
(16:45):
waist if she weighed eighty pounds, and probably give you
eighty pounds of beer. But if I were in Finland,
I would beef up my wife to a cool like
to twenty and see if I could win and get
two pounds of beer. I'd ask if I could trade
the beer for an equal amount of vodka instead. They
might do that. Maybe that's a lot of vodka. Chuck.
(17:05):
We are exiting Finland now, goodbye Finland. Let's go back
to Spain. We probably should have just stayed in Spain
while we were there, right, Yeah, but we're wracking up
frequent flyer points here, so we're going to uh Latoma
Tina in Bune y'al, Spain. Yeah. This is a cool
province of Valencia a k a. You probably know it
as the largest tomato fight in the world, and that's
(17:27):
what it is. That's exactly what it is. Um. It
began in nineteen five and not everyone's entirely certain why. Yeah,
there's different theories that, like these two friends got in
a fight and escalated to a food fight, and then
everyone around them said, this is kind of fun, let's
food fight with them, and then that got escalated to
the next town over. But that doesn't sound likely to me.
(17:49):
Is in a fairly Brothers comedy, right exactly? Um, But however,
whatever it's origin, it's been going on every year as
far as I know. Um, and for an hour on
the last Wednesday of August, everybody grabs as many tomatoes
as they can. Apparently a hundred and forty tons or
trucked in these days. Um, and everybody just starts whipping
(18:11):
tomatoes at one another. I want to do this one man.
Oh yeah, I would turn on you like that. Oh
are you kidding me? Before they said go you would
have a tomato in my face? I would not. Or
you would bring in your own rotten tomatoes. I would not, Yeah,
you would, I wouldn't. I would. Oh that's me. I
was thinking that I would do that. And it sounds
(18:31):
like a lot of fun. Well yeah, I mean it's
a huge tomato fight the last an hour. So that
is a lato matina which takes place wind Chuck the
last Wednesday of August, right, uh, yeah, And it's pretty
dang popular. Strong. It's a lot of tomatoes thrown. Yeah. Yeah,
check our last stop. You could call a whistle stop. Yes,
(18:53):
if you were a jerk who liked to make stupid jokes,
you would call it a whistle stop, wouldn't you. Yeah?
Uh it's uh what is it? Laguna Niguel, California. Yeah,
Laguna Niguel. It's in southern California. Well, not all of
us have lived in California. I'm sorry, so Chuck. Ever
since n once a year and I think it's in July, right, Yeah,
(19:13):
I'm surprised I haven't heard of this. Once a year
people line up along the road tracks, along the side,
not actually on the road tracks, that would be hands
across America. Um, and they moon passing Amtrak trains. Yes.
And for those of you who don't know what mooning is,
that is a practice of pulling down your pants and
showing somebody your butt, your bottom. It is a old tradition.
(19:36):
I wonder where mooning started. I have no idea that's
a um. But at one point or another, if you're
growing up in high school, you probably mooned somebody at
some point, pressed Ham, would you like to hear my
mooning story? Not figured you had one. Yeah, yeah, let's
hear it. So in sixth grade, I was a crossing guard,
as most sixth graders were, okay, And I was at
one post board okay, and uh out the other in
(20:00):
at the my flask was dry. At the other end
of the block were a couple of girls, both of
whom I was friends with and liked. And I was
like Kelly, Joel and and they looked over and I
mooned them. And they started screaming and pointing and telling
everyone who would listen that I had just mooned them.
And I'm like, no, shut up, shut up. Yeah, mooning
(20:21):
is private, long story, sure to end up in the
principal's office. And I lose my right to go to
Cedar Point as the sixth grade class trip that you know,
you're kidding me. And I got kicked off the crossing guard,
which is actually my point, because I was tired of
being a crossing guard. You know what, that's a that's
a crappy punishment. The principle is a jerk. You should
(20:42):
have just kicked you off the crossing guard, but to
not let you go to Cedar Point, no, I agree,
it seemed a little much. This is the same principle though,
who was about to paddle me once? And um, as
she was getting the pedal down, I was like, I
think you might want to call my parents first. Yeah,
and she was like what and called my parents and
my mom was like, you do not hit my child
with the paddle. Yeah, you're a little you know. It
(21:02):
was like, I'm ment old capital punishment was kind of
on its way out when you were coming around she
had the paddles. Yeah. Yeah, Well my dad was my principle,
as you know, so I know, I'll bet he peddled
you relentless. He paddled me one time in school as principal. Wow, yeah,
I guess it kind of had to do that just
to you know, say, I'm not above doing this. Crazy
to think about now, though, the principle actually hitting your
(21:25):
child with wood, it seems like something from the eighteenth century.
And they even had like manufactured pedals with like the
air holes drilled in it so that like there was
less drag. That's what he had. Yeah, this is all
taped up to what is wrong with the older generation
and they're about to put a huge strain on our
healthcare system. Thanks a lot for that. So back to
(21:48):
mooning um every year since nineteen eighty. They do that
for some reason, and the police have good humor about it.
They let it go as long as you don't um
take it too far and you don't like expose other
body parts. They say, you can moan the trains, and
they moan every train that goes by. Is that right? Yes, um,
as far as I know, And the cops are there
(22:08):
just to make sure it's peaceful. Well. In two thousand
and eight, no, to make sure people don't show their
genitals well, and make sure it's peaceful in two In
two thousand and eight, the party got broken up because
apparently people were like, it's not enough to bear my bottom,
we just get naked. Yeah, And hey man, it's Niguel
California that's stripping down to nothing but my Teva's Yeah.
(22:31):
When was that two thousand eight that they said enough enough? Yeah?
And I like their website. Um, there's a series of
questions like you know what, what, you know? When? Where?
Why that kind of thing, And there's one that says
who's in charge And the answer is no one, No
one organizes are responsible for this annual event. You just
show up and pull your pants down right. Yeah. Cool. Yeah,
(22:54):
So if you happen to be there in Laguna Niguel,
not to be confused with Gunna Niguel, it's sister city elsewhere.
Um on July, you just ask where the Amtrak mooning
party is. Yes, yeah, so boy, this is a good one,
so feel like it. We're all just a little smarter.
(23:16):
I've got some places I want to go. Uh yeah,
me too, Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival. And do you want
to go? Uh no, I'll just drop me off in
Lookna Niguel and I'll be mooning trains. Okay, I'm good. Um.
So that is unusual town festivals. And actually if you
type in festivals in the search bar at how stuff
(23:36):
works dot com, it will bring up all manners stuff,
some pretty good stuff on there. And we're anticipating a
million emails about your town's festival too, Yes we are,
which you just saved me the ending. Um so, chuck,
let's get just right into listening emails that way. Josh,
I'm just gonna call this uh uh what am I
gonna call this? I'm gonna call this uh boarding school email?
(24:00):
And it made me laugh going wrong, No, going right.
This is from Natalie in Massachusetts, and sometimes you just
give these emails. It's just just kind of cute and
need to think. I'll just READI at back. Uh, guys,
I'm a boarding high school student in Massachusetts. I sent
an email a few months back about listening to podcasts
at camp, and now I listen during silent study at
(24:20):
my school. I have silent study from is this your
Natalie Impression? Yeah? Sure, from seven thirty nine thirty. And
to make things interesting, I listened to your podcast and
it is a highlight of my day, and currently listening
to the podcast that came out today, and I feel
so much cooler than my roommate who was listening to
the Pussycat Dolls. Oh yeah, so, yeah, good for you.
We are definitely cooler than the Pussycat Dolls. I assure you,
(24:42):
you guys are way cooler than them. Yeah, said so.
I really enjoy your podcasts on science, history, and music,
but the economy and politics are not my faith something
that you seem to enjoy, Josh, why do you want
to chew on babies? Sorry for the interjection there. He
clearly doesn't really want to be It's just just that
not like, yeah, that kind of thing or whatever. Now
(25:07):
I supply my English teacher with extra credit questions with
things I learned from the podcast, and I got the
chance to teach the class and taught them about m
k Ultra. Awesome, pretty cool. Could you give me a
shout out on the podcast so I can show the
girls in my dorm how awesome I am. This is
the shout out, Natalie. That would be the highlight of
my life, which is kind of depressing. Other than the
(25:28):
time I saw a ghost. I don't know. Yeah, I'm
gonna tell my ghost story at some other point, but
I did see a ghost once. I'm gonna say that
one for our ghost podcast, all right. The Weekend Activity
a few weeks ago was a ghost hunter who uncovered
a ghost, and the History Wing suggestion ghost hunters. She says, yeah,
we're not gonna do ghost tonters. We'll do ghosts. I
(25:49):
have a ghost story too, And then she just followed
that by saying that was spontaneous. This girl's adorable. I
do not know how that train of thought went. Thank
you for reading my rambling. You have one twink points
Natalie from Massachusetts. Nice Natalie. Natalie clearly has a firm
grasp on her stream of consciousness. She does. Yeah. Well,
if you have a firm grasp on your stream of consciousness,
(26:10):
or you've ever seen the film Drug Store Cowboy, you
can send us an email to stuff podcast at how
stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands
of other topics. Is that how stuff works dot com.
Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on
the how stuff works dot com home page. Brought to
(26:35):
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as
Charles W. Light as meringue Bryant. I've never heard that
(00:23):
term light is meringue ntil you just said it before
we recorded it. I think I made it up. It's
it is light. Oh yeah, that's but each light is
a feather. That's old. Yeah, kid me um So chunk
do you remember when you started a podcast with punkin Chunking,
punkin chunk and punkin Chunking. I do remember that. We've
been talking about that a lot. And uh, I don't
(00:46):
know exactly when this podcast is coming out, but I
imagine it's going to be right around the time that
the show punkin Chunking and the Road to punkin Chunkin
premiers on UM the Science Channel, which is the a
that was formerly known as Thanksgiving until the Science Channel
took it over with punkin Chunky Right now, it's punkin
Chunking Day, right. Indeed, do you have a clue what
(01:09):
punkin Chunknness and I do. Well, let's talk about it. Well,
let's talk about a lot of unusual town festivals, Josh.
That's fine with me because I got a whole list
of them. Right, let's to a podcast where you don't
hear words like hippothalamus and hypocalamus and hippopotamus. Okay, let's
do a fun one, okay, or Clovis police or Clovis police.
(01:32):
I got in a Clovis argument with the guy the
other day. By the way, did you really did you
decimate him? Yes? Sort of, and he was kind of like,
oh no, but I thought people came over from the
bearing Land Bridge, and I was like, oh, they did,
but not before homeboy came up from South America exactly, idiot,
did you pump his ear with your forefinger? So punkin
chunkin Josh takes place in Sussex County, Delaware, right, am,
(01:55):
I right? Yeah, Okay? Why why were you looking at me? Well,
I don't know. You looked at me like I had
it wrong. No, I just don't out for a second.
And I believe it's a benefit for St. Jude's Children's
Research Hospital there. Yeah, I didn't know that before, and
I was glad to find that out, Sure, me too.
And they've been doing this since yeah, and they've gotten
pretty uh pretty serious about this actually yeah, so and
(02:17):
I was staggered at how far these things go. Well, actually,
the world record for a chunked punkin, right, yeah, is
like eight hundred feet shy of a mile. Yeah, four thousand,
four dred and eighty three ft. Dude, can you imagine
seeing a pumpkin going that far? You wouldn't go out
of your field of vision like halfway there. I don't
think you can see a punkin or a pumpkin go
(02:40):
a mile. Well, if you're out in the the middle of
the desert or something, you probably could. Maybe then there's
some pretty plowed fields around there. Yeah, it depends on
how big your punkin is, right, or what you're using.
And there's actually I think seven different UM categories or
seven different contests in three different categories. There's um centrifuges,
(03:01):
which spin around real fast and then release them. Uh.
There is the catapult tried and true, and then there's
the air cannons. And the air cannons are the ones
that everybody shows up for, those the ones that win.
You want to shoot a punkin a mile, you use
an air cannon. Right. Have you seen these things to
go under the DMC and take it out? I watched
(03:22):
those pretty cool. Yeah, there there were some um that
are um what would that be called? Um vehicle based?
So you drive these things up and they look like
howitzers and they will shoot a punk in a mile. Wow.
It's pretty cool because you think like, okay, well you
know there's they're gonna shoot a punkin out of an
(03:43):
air cannon and it's going to go a mile and
then we'll all break for twenty minutes and go get
a drink while the next guy loads up. Now, this
year at Wheatley Farm they shot two thousand pumpkins, so
there's NonStop action I would imagine. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
And as all kinds of other stuff they do, they're
like pie making contests. Of course, in music, most of
(04:04):
these festivals that we're gonna talk about have music and
food ingestion as part of it. Yes, because what's a
festival without music and food ingestion? I don't know, Um,
we I don't know that we should um spoil who
won because we've got the we've got the results right here. Yeah, sure,
we probably shouldn't know, so let's just not talk about
that anymore. What was it they flung on? Did you
(04:25):
used to watch Northern Exposure? Huh? What did they fling
on that show? Poh, now they flunk? Oh a piano? Yeah,
they used like a catapol or something, right, yeah, something
like that. It was awesome. I forgot all about that.
That one was almost as good as one where Chris
grabbed all the lamps in town. Yeah, strung him up downtown.
He just lit the whole down. It was awesome. He's
(04:46):
a great character. What what happened to that guy? He
was it? Really he really could have gone overboard with it,
but he didn't. Okay, So that's punk and chunk and
it's held in early November every year right in Delaware.
In Delaware, Right, let's go elsewhere, Chuck, where would you
like to ago because we got a bunch of these.
I know that you're gonna uh stone me for going
straight to Neierland, Colorado, But why not talk about the
(05:09):
Frozen Dead Guy Days festival is so weird? Yeah? Yeah,
So this is an actual festival in March in Colorado.
So it's already cold. Started in nineteen ninety four? Is
that right. Oh, No, two thousand two is when the
festival started, but its roots go back to nineteen well,
actually goes back to nine eight nine when Grandpa Bredo
(05:29):
more Stole died and Grandpa Bredo was a member of
a family that was very much proponents of cryogenics. So
they shipped Grandpa off to California where he was um
in tomb cryogenically for four years. Um, and he, I
guess got a little homesick. His family got a little
(05:52):
more confident that they could maintain him, and so they
shipped him back in and he's been in a tough
shed to u f F brand shed since yes, and
now they have built the Frozen Dead Guy Days festival
around him in his frozen body. It's been described as
cryonics Marty gras I frozen body. Yeah. Uh. And what
(06:16):
goes on there, Josh? Besides um, clearly some drinking is
probably happening. There is Grandpa's Blue Ball, which is the
dance right that they have every every year if you will, right.
They have um antique hearst shows. Yeah. They have coffin
races that's kind of fun, which I take to be
like toboggan races. Oh, is that what that is, I
(06:39):
think So, I mean it's frozen, there's lots of snow.
It's Colorado in early March. Sure, sure, so just throw
some blades on a coffin and go at it. Then
they have some um, I guess non death uh events
to like salmon tossing, although if you're a salmon it's
a death event, and frozen beach volleyball too. Yeah. I'd
like to see that. Yeah, it's just an all around
(06:59):
odd Yeah. And they also do a polar plunge, which
is if you're brave enough to jump in the the
lake there, I am not. You don't do that, have you.
I've done that before. I did a frozen lake jump
when I was high school. That's insane. Yeah it was.
And you know, it's one of those deals where you
jump in, you can't breathe, and you run back out
(07:21):
and warm up and tell your friends about it for
the next thirty years or I'm never gonna be one
those polar bear guys. I don't want know. That's I
just I don't get that now, Okay, so chuck, we're
too Next, let's go to Montana. I like Montana. One
of my best friends, Rad Smith, lives in Montana. Well,
hey Brad Smith, Rad what rad is short for Radford? Okay,
(07:44):
hey Radford Smith. I think he listens to rad. Rad
was the o G. He was my best friend when
I was like, and we're back in touch again, which
is nice Facebook. Uh yeah originally, but then we immediately
when we found each other, we're like, let's just email
like normal. Yeah. Yeah, emailing over Facebook. It's weird. I
don't do that. So Chuck, we're in Montana, UM, and
(08:05):
we're at the Rock Creek Lodge and Clinton, Montana. I
think that's how you pronounced is it Clinton? I think
it's just Clinton. Okay, I was doing the kang and
kotos pronouncing President Clinton. Um. And every year in September
they hold the Testicle Festival. Yeah, Rocky Mountain Oysters is.
Most people might know this by our or Montana Tender
(08:28):
Groin that this is one of the punniest festivals I've
ever heard of in my life. It is. Chris Palette
probably goes every year. Um. Everyone knows that the Rocky
Mountain Oyster is a nice way of saying that you
eat bulls testicles, And it's a real thing. It's really
a menu when a lot of restaurants apparently came off
of the trail off of the cattle drive trail where Um,
(08:49):
I guess Cookie would take recently castrated bulls testicles and
toss them in a fire. And I guess they're really
easy to cook because they just pop open when they're read. Wow. Yeah,
I just gotta chill. I have a confession to make.
Let's you've had them, I have not. Okay, you really
want to go? I am definitely go into this next year.
(09:10):
I want to try this. Plus Montana is awesome. Yeah,
it looks like a great What else can you do there, Josh?
I know you can have. Um there's music, of course,
there is a a hairy chest contest, which is I'm
not sure what that has to do with bulls testicles.
I guess they put hair in your chest. I guess
that makes sense, Uh, A wet T shirt contest, which
(09:31):
is always fun at, a bull testicle contest, and a
blue bull chip throwing so I guess like a cow
pie sometimes can flatten out and harden like a frisbee.
I guess it's the same thing. We can only hope. So, um,
it's a it's a big one. There's ten thousand people
that eat about four thousand pounds of bowl testicles. Yeah,
(09:51):
I'll be one of them next September. That's great. Um,
and uh, it's not the only one though. It's not
the only Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival. There's an another one
um in Texas, right. Uh it is, yeah, Throckmorton, rock Mornton, Texas.
And they do that. They the same thing there, Josh,
(10:12):
I know. They also the one in Throckmorton actually has
a if you don't like bulls testicles, So if you're
like of the human population, Uh, there there is a
taste like chicken cook off competition, um, where you can
cook any weird thing you want. Yeah, but if you're
not into bulls testicles, you're probably not gonna You're not
gonna be in Throckmorton in May. Now you're not gonna
(10:34):
be eating out of the taste like chicken line either,
because I guarantee you any chicken. No, no, no, although
that would be uh delightfully ironic if somebody cook chicken
for the taste like chicken competences. It tastes like chicken, yes,
because it is, yeah, exactly what I would say. So
that's the testicle festival in the World Championship Rocky Mountain
Oyster Festival. I want to go overseas now to Spain. Okay,
(10:58):
because this one is something that we podcasted on recently,
The Near Death Experience. Yeah, yeah, there's actually a near
the Festival of Near Death Experience, Yes, which is co crazy, um, Chuck.
This one is held in f Santa Marta de Robarmente.
Nice one, Chuck, thank you, which also translates to as
(11:19):
Chuck said, actually doesn't translate to it, but you can
call it the Festival of Near Death Experiences, um. The
way Chuck said, it would be the Festival of St.
Martha of Rebar Tamy rebar Tamy. Actually I think I
pronounced it wrong, but you got it right. Yeah, Rebar
Tamy so in July July twenty nine. And St. Martha
(11:39):
is actually the Saint of Death, right yeah. And this
festival is actually four people specifically who have had near
death experiences. This one is um. I'm glad we talked
about the Frozen Dead guy days. It's not like that.
Although the people who are I guess the celebrants or
the center of this fest of all the people who've
(12:01):
had near death experiences, are carried into the main church
in the town. Um what is it las nivis uh?
And in coffins. Yeah, they're carried in coffins to a service,
a church service from what I gather, where they get
up and they tell their stories to everyone, right, which
apparently also sound very much alike. There's that light at
(12:23):
the end of the tunnel, all that stuff that we
talked about in the Near Death Experience podcast. Um, but
I guess if you want to go meet a bunch
of people who have died and come back, yeah, this
is this is your chance. I think if I went
to as a impostor, which I'm known to do, I
would be one of the whatever small percentage of the
people were that had the hell fire experience. Just to
(12:46):
spice things up. I think that's a good idea. Was
according to that eighty two gallop pole. Yeah, because everyone's like,
oh yeah, white light, white light. Now, I would get
up there and say, I saw fire. You get up
there and you don't want to die, You're all doomed,
and get me out of this coffin. Right. So that
is the what's it called save it Again? Chuck. The
(13:09):
Fiesta de Santa Manita de robotem nice, thank you? Was
that Italian or Spanish accent? It's they're close. Where do
you want to go next, dude? Uh, well, we can't
not talk about wife carrying. This is a lot like
the Healthcare Um podcast, the last one where we went
all over the world, but this one's far less informative
(13:29):
and educational in nature. Yeah, let's talk about wife carrying.
So that would put us in a squarely in Finland,
specifically sonca arv Finland. Yeah, they have letters that don't
even look like letters. They have letters that don't even exist. Uh.
And it is exactly as it sounds. There's no weird
play on words here. It is. Actually there are races
(13:51):
where a man picks up his wife and carries her
in whatever way you choose, whatever way you think is
the best way to get across the finish line. Yeah,
the quickest and uh, the one that's held in Finland's
the World Championships. But these have popped up elsewhere, including
in the United States. But the one in Finland, dude,
(14:12):
people attend this thing. No, it's like the one like
people who win in the United States or Hong Kong
or Australia go to Finland to compete for the champs
the championships. Um, so you would think the finish are
the best at this. And actually, um, a couple did
win the two thousand nine but I am want to
point out they were not married. As far as I know,
(14:36):
they weren't married. Um, the two thousand nine winners were
I'm about to butcher this Tysto, Mick t Any so sorry,
Tisto and Christina Happening. She's one happening girl, so no
different last names. And it said they're cities, two different cities.
Ob see. There aren't many rules to this, but there
(14:59):
are a couple in. One is that she must be
over seventeen uh over one hundred and eight pounds, meaning
that she qualifies in the weight weight class. And if
she doesn't weigh that much, they actually tie things to
her to make her way that much. To your wife
comes in at a hundred pounds, will put a eight
pound weight around her waist. She's got like a set
(15:19):
of silverware around her or something. And let's talk about
the methods. Actually, as I was saying that you would
think the finish are the best, the Estonians are so
good that they have their own method of carrying after
the Estonian method. Yeah, and I've seen pictures. You've ever
seen pictures of this? It looks like clearly the way
to go, because you can do the piggyback, but everyone
(15:42):
knows that's not the way to go. No, because the
center of gravity is lower, the weight is towards the
your back, the carriers back. Um, the Estonian method is
upside down like that, right, Well, yeah, it's um, your
wife would put her legs around your head upside down,
(16:02):
so her face is kind of around where your lower
back is, and then she'll wrap her arms around your waist, right,
so the bulk of her weight like the trunk, and um,
the bottom are up on your shoulders. It's like a
human backpack. Yes, and that's clearly the way to go,
because I believe wasn't that the method used when they
broke the world record? I believe so. So Estonian is
(16:23):
definitely the style you should if you're intend on winning,
and you should intend on winning because this one actually
has a nice little prize attached it does you get
your wife's weight and beer? I love it. I love
it too, uh huh. I would love to drink that
much beer. And I imagine if she weighs less than
the hundred and eight pounds, they don't give you the
weight of the silver ware that she had around her
(16:45):
waist if she weighed eighty pounds, and probably give you
eighty pounds of beer. But if I were in Finland,
I would beef up my wife to a cool like
to twenty and see if I could win and get
two pounds of beer. I'd ask if I could trade
the beer for an equal amount of vodka instead. They
might do that. Maybe that's a lot of vodka. Chuck.
(17:05):
We are exiting Finland now, goodbye Finland. Let's go back
to Spain. We probably should have just stayed in Spain
while we were there, right, Yeah, but we're wracking up
frequent flyer points here, so we're going to uh Latoma
Tina in Bune y'al, Spain. Yeah. This is a cool
province of Valencia a k a. You probably know it
as the largest tomato fight in the world, and that's
(17:27):
what it is. That's exactly what it is. Um. It
began in nineteen five and not everyone's entirely certain why. Yeah,
there's different theories that, like these two friends got in
a fight and escalated to a food fight, and then
everyone around them said, this is kind of fun, let's
food fight with them, and then that got escalated to
the next town over. But that doesn't sound likely to me.
(17:49):
Is in a fairly Brothers comedy, right exactly? Um, But however,
whatever it's origin, it's been going on every year as
far as I know. Um, and for an hour on
the last Wednesday of August, everybody grabs as many tomatoes
as they can. Apparently a hundred and forty tons or
trucked in these days. Um, and everybody just starts whipping
(18:11):
tomatoes at one another. I want to do this one man.
Oh yeah, I would turn on you like that. Oh
are you kidding me? Before they said go you would
have a tomato in my face? I would not. Or
you would bring in your own rotten tomatoes. I would not, Yeah,
you would, I wouldn't. I would. Oh that's me. I
was thinking that I would do that. And it sounds
(18:31):
like a lot of fun. Well yeah, I mean it's
a huge tomato fight the last an hour. So that
is a lato matina which takes place wind Chuck the
last Wednesday of August, right, uh, yeah, And it's pretty
dang popular. Strong. It's a lot of tomatoes thrown. Yeah. Yeah,
check our last stop. You could call a whistle stop. Yes,
(18:53):
if you were a jerk who liked to make stupid jokes,
you would call it a whistle stop, wouldn't you. Yeah?
Uh it's uh what is it? Laguna Niguel, California. Yeah,
Laguna Niguel. It's in southern California. Well, not all of
us have lived in California. I'm sorry, so Chuck. Ever
since n once a year and I think it's in July, right, Yeah,
(19:13):
I'm surprised I haven't heard of this. Once a year
people line up along the road tracks, along the side,
not actually on the road tracks, that would be hands
across America. Um, and they moon passing Amtrak trains. Yes.
And for those of you who don't know what mooning is,
that is a practice of pulling down your pants and
showing somebody your butt, your bottom. It is a old tradition.
(19:36):
I wonder where mooning started. I have no idea that's
a um. But at one point or another, if you're
growing up in high school, you probably mooned somebody at
some point, pressed Ham, would you like to hear my
mooning story? Not figured you had one. Yeah, yeah, let's
hear it. So in sixth grade, I was a crossing guard,
as most sixth graders were, okay, And I was at
one post board okay, and uh out the other in
(20:00):
at the my flask was dry. At the other end
of the block were a couple of girls, both of
whom I was friends with and liked. And I was
like Kelly, Joel and and they looked over and I
mooned them. And they started screaming and pointing and telling
everyone who would listen that I had just mooned them.
And I'm like, no, shut up, shut up. Yeah, mooning
(20:21):
is private, long story, sure to end up in the
principal's office. And I lose my right to go to
Cedar Point as the sixth grade class trip that you know,
you're kidding me. And I got kicked off the crossing guard,
which is actually my point, because I was tired of
being a crossing guard. You know what, that's a that's
a crappy punishment. The principle is a jerk. You should
(20:42):
have just kicked you off the crossing guard, but to
not let you go to Cedar Point, no, I agree,
it seemed a little much. This is the same principle though,
who was about to paddle me once? And um, as
she was getting the pedal down, I was like, I
think you might want to call my parents first. Yeah,
and she was like what and called my parents and
my mom was like, you do not hit my child
with the paddle. Yeah, you're a little you know. It
(21:02):
was like, I'm ment old capital punishment was kind of
on its way out when you were coming around she
had the paddles. Yeah. Yeah, Well my dad was my principle,
as you know, so I know, I'll bet he peddled
you relentless. He paddled me one time in school as principal. Wow, yeah,
I guess it kind of had to do that just
to you know, say, I'm not above doing this. Crazy
to think about now, though, the principle actually hitting your
(21:25):
child with wood, it seems like something from the eighteenth century.
And they even had like manufactured pedals with like the
air holes drilled in it so that like there was
less drag. That's what he had. Yeah, this is all
taped up to what is wrong with the older generation
and they're about to put a huge strain on our
healthcare system. Thanks a lot for that. So back to
(21:48):
mooning um every year since nineteen eighty. They do that
for some reason, and the police have good humor about it.
They let it go as long as you don't um
take it too far and you don't like expose other
body parts. They say, you can moan the trains, and
they moan every train that goes by. Is that right? Yes, um,
as far as I know, And the cops are there
(22:08):
just to make sure it's peaceful. Well. In two thousand
and eight, no, to make sure people don't show their
genitals well, and make sure it's peaceful in two In
two thousand and eight, the party got broken up because
apparently people were like, it's not enough to bear my bottom,
we just get naked. Yeah, And hey man, it's Niguel
California that's stripping down to nothing but my Teva's Yeah.
(22:31):
When was that two thousand eight that they said enough enough? Yeah?
And I like their website. Um, there's a series of
questions like you know what, what, you know? When? Where?
Why that kind of thing, And there's one that says
who's in charge And the answer is no one, No
one organizes are responsible for this annual event. You just
show up and pull your pants down right. Yeah. Cool. Yeah,
(22:54):
So if you happen to be there in Laguna Niguel,
not to be confused with Gunna Niguel, it's sister city elsewhere.
Um on July, you just ask where the Amtrak mooning
party is. Yes, yeah, so boy, this is a good one,
so feel like it. We're all just a little smarter.
(23:16):
I've got some places I want to go. Uh yeah,
me too, Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival. And do you want
to go? Uh no, I'll just drop me off in
Lookna Niguel and I'll be mooning trains. Okay, I'm good. Um.
So that is unusual town festivals. And actually if you
type in festivals in the search bar at how stuff
(23:36):
works dot com, it will bring up all manners stuff,
some pretty good stuff on there. And we're anticipating a
million emails about your town's festival too, Yes we are,
which you just saved me the ending. Um so, chuck,
let's get just right into listening emails that way. Josh,
I'm just gonna call this uh uh what am I
gonna call this? I'm gonna call this uh boarding school email?
(24:00):
And it made me laugh going wrong, No, going right.
This is from Natalie in Massachusetts, and sometimes you just
give these emails. It's just just kind of cute and
need to think. I'll just READI at back. Uh, guys,
I'm a boarding high school student in Massachusetts. I sent
an email a few months back about listening to podcasts
at camp, and now I listen during silent study at
(24:20):
my school. I have silent study from is this your
Natalie Impression? Yeah? Sure, from seven thirty nine thirty. And
to make things interesting, I listened to your podcast and
it is a highlight of my day, and currently listening
to the podcast that came out today, and I feel
so much cooler than my roommate who was listening to
the Pussycat Dolls. Oh yeah, so, yeah, good for you.
We are definitely cooler than the Pussycat Dolls. I assure you,
(24:42):
you guys are way cooler than them. Yeah, said so.
I really enjoy your podcasts on science, history, and music,
but the economy and politics are not my faith something
that you seem to enjoy, Josh, why do you want
to chew on babies? Sorry for the interjection there. He
clearly doesn't really want to be It's just just that
not like, yeah, that kind of thing or whatever. Now
(25:07):
I supply my English teacher with extra credit questions with
things I learned from the podcast, and I got the
chance to teach the class and taught them about m
k Ultra. Awesome, pretty cool. Could you give me a
shout out on the podcast so I can show the
girls in my dorm how awesome I am. This is
the shout out, Natalie. That would be the highlight of
my life, which is kind of depressing. Other than the
(25:28):
time I saw a ghost. I don't know. Yeah, I'm
gonna tell my ghost story at some other point, but
I did see a ghost once. I'm gonna say that
one for our ghost podcast, all right. The Weekend Activity
a few weeks ago was a ghost hunter who uncovered
a ghost, and the History Wing suggestion ghost hunters. She says, yeah,
we're not gonna do ghost tonters. We'll do ghosts. I
(25:49):
have a ghost story too, And then she just followed
that by saying that was spontaneous. This girl's adorable. I
do not know how that train of thought went. Thank
you for reading my rambling. You have one twink points
Natalie from Massachusetts. Nice Natalie. Natalie clearly has a firm
grasp on her stream of consciousness. She does. Yeah. Well,
if you have a firm grasp on your stream of consciousness,
(26:10):
or you've ever seen the film Drug Store Cowboy, you
can send us an email to stuff podcast at how
stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands
of other topics. Is that how stuff works dot com.
Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on
the how stuff works dot com home page. Brought to
(26:35):
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
are you
Stuff You Should Know News
Hosts And Creators
Chuck Bryant
Josh Clark
Show Links
AboutOrder Our BookStoreSYSK ArmyRSSPopular Podcasts
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Decisions, Decisions
Welcome to "Decisions, Decisions," the podcast where boundaries are pushed, and conversations get candid! Join your favorite hosts, Mandii B and WeezyWTF, as they dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often-taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday, Mandii and Weezy invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, they share their personal journeys navigating their 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engaging in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that resonate with your experiences, "Decisions, Decisions" is your go-to source for open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections—tune in and join the conversation!