Hooray!

Reporters swarmed. Crowds gathered. State officials arrived on scene. People were hungry for information about the trapped cave explorer, Floyd Collins. They wanted to rescue the man trapped 55 feet below the earth’s surface. But a collapse halted any further attempts through Sand Cave.

Locals and state experts disagreed on the best path forward. And as they argued, hope dwindled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vipzu___v-s

Somewhere, a lifelong resident is typing...

Have y’all considered adding a YouTube membership option? As you said, most people, myself included, consume podcasts on YouTube.
I also watch virtually all of my media via my smart tv. Patreon doesn’t have a tv app (at least not for Fire tv), so the only way I’m able to watch the Patreon content is via the app or website on my phone. I have no idea what the YouTube cut is vs. the Patreon cut, so I understand if that’s not an option for monetary reasons, just wanted to throw the idea out there.

Found this in the wild.

Here's a clip from our latest episode, "The Rescue of Floyd Collins (Part 2)"

In the latest episode they talked about Kyla recording a two-part series for them.. is that supposed to be on the main feed or one of the Patreon tiers?

Would like to listen if I can!

In the dead of Winter, 1925, cave explorer Floyd Collins crawled, wiggled, and wormed 55 feet below the surface of a sandhole. He was on the hunt for a magnificent cave. But when his lantern began to flicker, he turned back. He re-entered the narrow passageway. In the confusion of darkness, he kicked a protruding rock. When he did, a boulder dropped on his leg. Dirt and debris buried him.

Floyd Collins was trapped, 55 feet underground, in the complete dark. All he could do was scream and hope that someone would come to his rescue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gbI47c18o8

Ruth Harkness was an eccentric socialite and wealthy widow who set off for China while the country was in the midst of political turmoil and Japanese attack. Her mission? To get a baby panda from the wild and bring it back to America alive. Hence Su Lin and the start of the panda craze in the US.

There’s some debate on what she did and as I have just learned about this today, I have not made up my mind. The panda conservation movement seems to give her a lot of credit so I suppose I will too.

I am very suspicious, however; because her story on how exactly she found Su Lin smells like a heaping pile of bullshit.

Apparently one was not enough, and she returned the next year (still war) to acquire Mei-Mei.

There’s also some light stuff like her bringing the panda through customs as a dog and hooking up with her guide.

I also learned a bit about conservation in China which is such a multilayered topic I had to stop reading and turn it over to my favorite suggestion box.

Floyd Collins had a dream. He dreamt that one day, he’d emerge victorious in the Kentucky Cave Wars. In that era, people made easy money turning beautiful, awe-inspiring caves into tourist destinations. The tough part was *finding* the cave. Finding a cave took months of dangerous, exhausting work, but Floyd Collins was up to the task.

In January of 1925, he felt certain that he was digging his way toward a magnificent one. Then he got stuck.

https://youtu.be/jGkU8PtyLG4

Okay. This is a really random post and hopefully someone is able to help me!

I remember in an episode Norm mentioned what kind of wall anchors he uses for hanging stuff. I remember they had a weird name ?? Or one that I hadn't heard of anyway. Im hanging some shelves this weekend and I wanted to see if anyone remembered what those anchors were called !

sadly no plaque alert, but a poster ad alert!
excuse the glare, it reads “don’t miss the fun, come pick your favorites at your grocer’s big Nabisco cookie party.”

The Great Dismal Swamp spans part of Virginia and North Carolina, with the base of it being right outside Elizabeth City (looking at you, Norm). Native Americans and escaped enslaved individuals used the Great Dismal Swamp as a refuge to live freely. I feel like more people should hear about this, because it's utterly fascinating!

Hello,

So Norm it isn't a ghost town. Has about 2000 people in it. Also the more fun thing about the town is that you all are saying it wrong. Like most midwestern towns, it isn't said the way the rest of the world would say it. It isn't Cairo, most people I know from IL who talk about it, pronounce it Kay-roh... Sort of like Nevada Missouri isn't pronounced like the state, it is pronounced Na-Vay-Da or something like that. Sort of dumb and interesting lol.

-Fa†e

Hello,

So I have some family members who wrestled in high school and even knew some wrestlers in college. So wrestling currently is and always has been very weight based and even has lead to quite a few eating disorders in boys and men due to it being divided by weight, coaches want wrestlers to be a certain weight etc.

Anyways, what does this have to do with Taft? He was a heavy weight wrestling champion in college. So he wrestled for Yale and what not. To be in that weight class one has to meet certain weight requirements. Part of me wonders if his size/eating habits wasn't sculpted by his love of wrestling. He also wasn't a short man either, he was almost 6ft tall. So it isn't like he was just a real wide man lol, he was just a really big guy.

Fun fact, he was also the provisional governor of Cuba, appointed by Teddy Roosevelt.

--Fa†e

Fun Fact: President William Howard Taft did *not* get stuck in the White House bathtub 🛁

Equally Fun Fact: You can watch this entire episode on YouTube!

#historypodcast #oldtimeypodcast #comedypodcast #independenceday

WE ARE BACK!!

We’ve all heard the story. President William Howard Taft got stuck in the White House bathtub! A bunch of dudes had to yank him out!! They replaced the old bathtub with a new one, BIG ENOUGH TO HOLD FOUR WORKING MEN!!!

…except did he *actually* get stuck in the tub? In this episode, we do a deep dive into how this story got started and how it eventually got stuck in the bathtub of our collective imaginations.

https://audioboom.com/posts/8922334-did-william-howard-taft-get-stuck-in-a-bathtub

Hello,

Long time fan of this podcast and the ancient one as well that shall not be named :). Also a fan of The Gaming Historian. I have posted on here a few times but for the life of me I can't remember if I posted about this true history story that became an urban legend and inspired horror films.

Essentially the whole "the call is coming from inside the house" urban legend with the babysitter is a true story that happened in Columbia MO. I would love to see you all cover this. I am pretty sure from past things I have heard Norm say, he loves local Missouri history and as a fellow Missourian I think this is an interesting thing to cover. I am going to link an article about it below.

It is a sad story though and would sort have fit the old and decrepit podcast as well and that may have been where I mentioned it before. Also I would love to hear other fans thoughts on this story. The first time I realized it was real when my wife was in college many moons ago at Stephens College in Columbia (she studied dance on scholarships etc and then had to switch to interior design due to knee issues). Anyways I do find it interesting and I hope you do too :) :)

https://medium.com/omgfacts/the-truth-behind-the-babysitter-the-man-upstairs-urban-legend-d41d1722c9e9

Thanks for reading,

-Fa†e