We're Huge in Liberia

[00:01] We've got another segment, we do this one often, but actually before we get into that,
[00:06] I want to hear, Jason, you've got some beef with, or some commentary, some follow-ups
[00:12] on the Middle Finger episode.
[00:14] Oh, are we moving on to Google?
[00:16] It's Undo-Google-able time.
[00:17] I want to clear the air before we move to new stuff.
[00:21] Okay, so last week, Undo-Google-able was, what's the origin of the Middle Finger?
[00:26] Yeah.
[00:28] I was listening to it, so I was working in a lab and I was like,
[00:31] oh, weird, I know this one, great.
[00:34] And then the answer that you gave was completely different than what I thought to be the answer.
[00:39] So I was always told, or my dad, I guess, always told me that the Middle Finger originated
[00:46] from the Franco-English war.
[00:50] So France and England were like basically always at war in the Middle Ages, right?
[00:54] I think it originated with the French, because when French bowmen would be taken captive
[01:04] by the English, they would cut off their Middle Finger so that they couldn't pull a bow string
[01:10] and release, right?
[01:12] And so the French would wag their Middle Finger to basically say, look, I still have
[01:16] it and I'm going to shoot you.
[01:19] That's how I learned that the thing came about.
[01:23] The sides could be switched.
[01:24] It could be the English did that to the French.
[01:27] So we did read that story, and it sounds like that was probably true, but that there was
[01:35] already a history to the Middle Finger.
[01:37] Before that.
[01:38] Right, before that.
[01:39] So it was already, what was it, Greek?
[01:41] Did we decide it was Greek?
[01:43] Pliny the Elder.
[01:46] Yeah, well, you guys said that that's why I was like, okay with it, because, okay,
[01:53] the Greeks, I guess, had it and it was a phallic thing and all of that makes total sense.
[01:59] So when we in our research, we found that I think I edited it out because we basically
[02:03] said, well, it may be true, but it's yeah, it's entirely possible to that they just they
[02:08] just made up the same thing again, because it was the Dark Ages.
[02:11] I mean, we did kind of so it got lost to history.
[02:15] Sure.
[02:16] And what do we call that?
[02:18] That's a parallel evolution.
[02:20] Yes, exactly.
[02:22] The Middle Finger is an inevitable result of.
[02:24] Yeah, exactly.
[02:25] Yeah.
[02:26] Well, today we can spread fake news at the speed of light, which is fantastic.
[02:31] That's right.
[02:32] That's right.
[02:33] But I think we've just we've honed in on something here, which is two things can be
[02:36] true at the same time.
[02:39] But I will edit out the one you don't agree with.
[02:46] That's right.
[02:47] I will get rid of some of the truth.
[02:49] So you're like all of humanity.
[02:51] Right.
[02:52] Exactly.
[02:53] We do under Google rules.
[03:00] That was the play of super excited.
[03:01] I told us we had to.
[03:02] So we said we signed up for it.
[03:03] In the end, it's going to be better and more true than Google can give you.
[03:14] Google is this week.
[03:18] Well, okay.
[03:19] So I was, I don't know, I'm a Marvel geek.
[03:24] Right.
[03:25] I'm super, super dupe excited about the new Marvel movie coming out next February called
[03:32] Black Panther.
[03:33] There's another one.
[03:34] There's always.
[03:35] Yeah.
[03:36] They come out like every three months.
[03:37] Yeah.
[03:38] How was the Justice League?
[03:39] Oh, yeah.
[03:40] That was the Justice League.
[03:42] That's not Marvel.
[03:43] That's DC.
[03:44] Oh, okay.
[03:45] Yeah.
[03:46] No.
[03:47] Keep up.
[03:48] It just goes to show how much I'm going to do awesome at this under Google so you
[03:49] can tell.
[03:50] Yeah.
[03:51] Exactly.
[03:52] Well, no, I think you might because.
[03:53] Just wait in line for Thor.
[03:57] That's a Marvel.
[03:58] Yeah.
[03:59] But then three months from now, we're going to have, we're going to have a Black Panther
[04:02] and then three months after that, we'll have Avengers 3.
[04:05] How was Thor?
[04:06] Was it good?
[04:07] It was very, it was very enjoyable.
[04:08] I enjoyed it.
[04:09] Okay.
[04:10] Yeah.
[04:11] So we're losing, we're losing the thread here.
[04:12] Black Panther.
[04:13] Yeah.
[04:14] And I'm always, and I, and I was thinking to myself, I always get this screwed up and
[04:18] I can't ever remember it.
[04:21] The Panther and the Jaguar and the Cougar and the Mountain Lion, and I think they're
[04:28] all one thing.
[04:29] Right?
[04:30] Isn't that the thing?
[04:31] They're all one animal?
[04:32] No.
[04:33] Or are they not?
[04:34] No.
[04:35] No, no, no.
[04:36] I don't think they're all one animal.
[04:37] Okay.
[04:38] Well then, what's the, what's the difference?
[04:39] Well, the Cougar, you're going to find it, Eiken Jones.
[04:44] Fair enough.
[04:50] That is their natural habitat.
[04:55] With a shot of fireball.
[04:57] Exactly.
[04:58] They are carnivores.
[05:02] So okay.
[05:03] So the big distinction is you got, you got black cats and you got brown cats.
[05:09] Okay.
[05:10] Right?
[05:11] Okay.
[05:12] So, so Black Panthers and Jaguars are black.
[05:14] Okay.
[05:15] Your Mountain Lion, your Cougar, and what was the other one you said?
[05:20] Jaguar.
[05:21] Uh, jaguar.
[05:22] No, jaguar's all right.
[05:23] Oh wait.
[05:24] Oh no, no, no, no.
[05:25] Is there a Puma?
[05:26] Is there a Puma involved?
[05:27] There's a Puma.
[05:28] Oh, a Puma.
[05:29] Yeah.
[05:30] The Puma.
[05:31] Puma.
[05:32] Puma.
[05:33] So those, so the Pumas and the Mountain Lions and the Cougars, I get confused as well.
[05:40] That's what I'm saying.
[05:41] They're all brown cats, but then the Black Panther and the Jaguar are...
[05:45] So those, so I shouldn't be confusing those.
[05:47] You're saying so, Panther...
[05:49] Well, so, so, okay.
[05:50] So a Black Panther is black, actually, and I'm glad you said this, a jaguar, jaguar...
[05:56] Isn't it spotted?
[05:57] Is spotted.
[05:58] Right.
[05:59] Like a leopard.
[06:00] Okay.
[06:01] Right.
[06:02] But the leopard and the jaguar are different animals.
[06:04] Okay.
[06:05] Different species.
[06:06] Black Panther.
[06:08] There's another name for a Black Panther, but I can't remember what it is right now.
[06:12] It's not a Puma.
[06:14] It's not a Puma.
[06:15] It's not a Puma.
[06:16] Puma.
[06:17] Puma.
[06:18] A Puma, I think, is a Mountain Lion.
[06:21] A Cougar is different, I think.
[06:23] Okay.
[06:24] That's my guess, but I don't know.
[06:27] So the Heartbird, you got a guess on this?
[06:30] Because that's basically how I think about things, what Jason just said.
[06:33] Like, I think it's that thing, but I guess I didn't know that the Panther was different
[06:37] than the Puma.
[06:38] Yes.
[06:39] Okay.
[06:40] That's good.
[06:42] And everybody gets my Simpsons, right?
[06:44] Right.
[06:45] The what?
[06:46] The Principal Skinner always, he liked the mighty Puma, even like Cheyenne, Cheyenne the
[06:54] Statue.
[06:55] Out in front of the school, at the school.
[06:58] So with big cats, so there's big cats and then there's smaller cats, right?
[07:03] Sure.
[07:04] One of the distinctions is always climbing, isn't it?
[07:10] So do big cats run and small cats climb?
[07:14] Because I'm thinking like lions, I guess lions climb.
[07:17] They can climb, but they don't live in trees.
[07:19] They don't love climbing.
[07:21] Right.
[07:22] But like a jaguar loves the trees.
[07:25] A Black Panther, I think, loves the trees.
[07:28] But leopards run.
[07:30] Mountain lions, trees.
[07:33] Yeah.
[07:34] I'm thinking mountains.
[07:36] That's just my theory.
[07:37] No.
[07:39] I know that they like trees because it was like a weird incident.
[07:45] So in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where I used to go jogging, basically, there were mountain
[07:52] lions everywhere.
[07:53] It sounds dangerous.
[07:54] It was horrifying.
[07:55] It was, yeah.
[07:59] Never saw one.
[08:00] But...
[08:01] You constantly were in fear, though.
[08:02] Totally.
[08:03] There was like a big incident.
[08:05] My advisor at the time was like on the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
[08:11] And there were people that studied the mountain lions, and then there was like some incident
[08:14] with mountain lions that he had to like deal with.
[08:17] But they definitely take their prey and drag it up into a tree.
[08:23] Okay.
[08:25] That's hardcore.
[08:26] Yeah.
[08:27] Joey, do you know anything about big cats versus small cats?
[08:31] Do you know their phylum and their species?
[08:34] Oh, their genus?
[08:36] Their genus.
[08:37] So where are we at on the thing?
[08:39] We got...
[08:40] Could you be less descriptive?
[08:42] Yeah.
[08:43] Feline.
[08:44] Okay.
[08:45] For feline, sure.
[08:46] We're all feline.
[08:47] And then there's big cats and small cats.
[08:49] I don't think those are...
[08:51] That doesn't seem like a scientific name.
[08:55] That's why you're the one that has the undergiggables.
[08:57] Exactly.
[08:58] That's why you come to us.
[09:00] I think they're all different except for, I want to say the mountain lion, and there's
[09:06] a lynx.
[09:07] Is it a lynx?
[09:08] Okay.
[09:09] That's different.
[09:10] What about bobcat?
[09:11] They're much smaller.
[09:12] Yeah.
[09:13] Yeah.
[09:14] Yeah.
[09:15] I was thinking about renting a bobcat to dig up the backyard.
[09:17] You think so?
[09:18] No.
[09:19] I mean, definitely...
[09:22] I think the mountain lion was the only one I could think of that I thought had another
[09:25] name.
[09:27] But I feel like they're all different besides that.
[09:30] Okay.
[09:31] So they're just different animals.
[09:32] Yeah.
[09:33] I just...
[09:34] I feel like somebody told me that they're all the same at some point, and I believe
[09:36] in them.
[09:37] So there are four species of big cats in the Felidae family, and panthera genus.
[09:42] Lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars.
[09:47] So a leopard or a panther is not actually a cat, it's a genus of cat?
[09:55] Panthera is the name of the genus.
[09:57] And then there are subspecies.
[10:00] So a lion is technically a panther?
[10:04] Bear with me here, buddy.
[10:05] Leopards and jaguars...
[10:06] Okay, I got excited.
[10:08] Leopards and jaguars are two distinct species, but they are similar.
[10:11] The leopard has relatively short legs and a long body with a large skull.
[10:16] Similar in appearance to a jaguar, but smaller and more slightly built.
[10:22] Leopards are found in Asia and Africa, while jaguars are found in South America.
[10:26] Cheetahs are also in the Felidae family, and the only member of the acynonyx genus?
[10:37] Hmm.
[10:38] Interesting.
[10:39] Is it because they have a different skeletal structure for running?
[10:45] Apparently.
[10:46] Cougars are also members of the Felidae family, and they are also a distinct species.
[10:50] They belong to the Puma genus.
[10:51] Oh, it's the genus, the Puma.
[10:54] Alternative terms for cougar include Puma, mountain lion, mountain cat, catamount.
[11:01] What about bobcats?
[11:04] I don't know.
[11:09] Panther is a versatile word that can refer to different leopards, jaguars, or mountain
[11:14] lions.
[11:15] It can refer to a melanistic or black cat.
[11:19] But see, this is what I'm saying.
[11:20] This is why it's confusing.
[11:22] You just told me that the mountain lion is a Puma, but a panther can refer to a Puma?
[11:29] Yeah.
[11:30] Dude, humans are not smart.
[11:32] They just name shit whatever they...
[11:35] They see it, and they're like, yeah, that's a panther.
[11:39] Okay.
[11:40] So that's why we call everything the same thing.
[11:43] Because we're lazy.
[11:44] We're like, that's a big cat.
[11:45] It must be a panther.
[11:47] Yeah, exactly.
[11:48] Well, and then you could understand culturally, if you're trying to be like, we have a mountain
[11:55] lion up there, and you point to it, and somebody else is like, oh, a panther.
[12:00] Oh, you call a panther?
[12:01] Okay, cool.
[12:03] And getting to your bobcat, John, the lynx refers to four species, the Eurasian lynx,
[12:11] the Canada lynx, the Iberian lynx, and the bobcat.
[12:15] The lynx are much smaller than the mountain lions and leopards, and have smaller tails.
[12:21] What about the Minnesota lynx?
[12:25] I know some former Minnesota lynx are now cougars, but I don't know where the crossover
[12:34] happens.
[12:38] I don't know, but you know it when you see it.
[12:42] All right, I think I'm going to clear that one up.
[12:50] They're all the same, but different.
[12:53] The big cats.
[12:54] So you got another under Googles for us?
[12:56] I don't know, that one went pretty well.
[12:58] I think we're good.
[12:59] Okay.
[13:00] I mean, unless you want to talk about Thanksgiving.
[13:06] It seems like the day it is.
[13:07] Yeah, it is Thanksgiving, right?
[13:08] And so I was wondering if, what'd you know about Thanksgiving?
[13:14] Like what is Thanksgiving?
[13:15] I mean, you know, I think we know that we did a play together as kids in elementary school
[13:24] in which I was an Indian with a little racist feather in my head.
[13:30] Was the feather racist?
[13:32] What was the feather doing?
[13:33] No, I just had like the single, I went and I went and found a duck feather and I painted
[13:41] it red and I made a little headband and I was the Indian.
[13:48] And we taught the pilgrims to popcorn, I think, in that.
[13:52] And so that was the first Thanksgiving.
[13:56] Isn't that how it goes?
[14:00] And that's where they invented pumpkin pie.
[14:03] We learned a couple of things.
[14:05] We learned everything from under Googles.
[14:10] Does anybody have anything?
[14:11] I mean, basically the pilgrims were sick and starving and the Indians came and were very
[14:18] nice to them and brought them bountiful food and they had a big meal and very thankful.
[14:24] Is that pretty much it?
[14:25] So here's my real question.
[14:27] So we're not the only ones with a Thanksgiving.
[14:29] Right.
[14:30] Agreed.
[14:31] Did we originate Thanksgiving or did we steal Thanksgiving?
[14:37] I mean, I know we stole Thanksgiving.
[14:38] Canada stole it from us, for sure.
[14:41] You think?
[14:42] Really?
[14:43] Is there other thanksgivings besides the US and Canada?
[14:46] I'll bet you, Australia has a thanksgiving.
[14:48] Well here's the thing, I don't know that the rest of the world has anything to be thankful
[14:52] for.
[14:53] North America is pretty great.
[14:58] Almost got a spit take from Coalson.
[15:02] Does Mexico have a thanksgiving?
[15:04] Yeah.
[15:06] We'll never know.
[15:09] The top two thirds of North America.
[15:15] Just dismissing Central America.
[15:19] There's no talk about putting a wall between the US and Canada.
[15:21] Let me just put it that way.
[15:22] Sure.
[15:23] You haven't been hanging out in circles.
[15:24] I always thought that it was a harvest festival that we just piggybacked on.
[15:31] Yeah.
[15:32] Or not we.
[15:33] I mean, I guess we, I'm a European descendant, but I wasn't part of, I wasn't descendants
[15:37] of the original Puritans.
[15:39] You weren't on the committee that decided to speak.
[15:41] No, not at all.
[15:43] But yeah, I always imagined it was the American Indians were like, yeah, this is the time
[15:51] of year where we're like, we have a bunch of stuff, we just harvested everything, so
[15:55] we eat it.
[15:56] What's happening?
[15:57] You guys are here, you're clearly not going to make it through the winter.
[16:02] Eat some of our stuff, like it's cool.
[16:04] It's going to rot if we don't eat it.
[16:06] You don't look good.
[16:12] I actually could trace my family back to the Mayflower.
[16:15] Really?
[16:16] Yes, I can.
[16:17] Very exciting.
[16:18] Wow.
[16:19] They came over on the boat?
[16:20] They came over on the boat.
[16:22] Wow.
[16:23] They did not, as far as I can tell, send me or leave me a letter about the first Thanksgiving.
[16:29] Okay.
[16:30] I don't know.
[16:31] I don't have inside information on this.
[16:33] Were they recipients of the first Thanksgiving?
[16:35] I don't know.
[16:36] I'm zeroed, yeah.
[16:37] I just know that we've got the boat log.
[16:42] The manifest.
[16:43] That's why we keep the smart people around where it's like manifest.
[16:50] So the story we got as a child was a harmonious event between the Native Americans.
[16:57] Actually no, the story I got at school was of the Indians, and they shared their bounty
[17:04] with the pilgrims, and it was harmonious, and it strengthened the Europeans so they were
[17:13] able to overtake their host very shortly afterwards.
[17:20] The lesson is never be kind to strangers.
[17:22] Yes, exactly.
[17:23] They will take your house.
[17:25] Right.
[17:26] Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebration in Canada, the United States, and some of the
[17:31] Caribbean islands and Liberia.
[17:34] Oh, sure.
[17:36] Harvesting, blah, blah, blah, similarly named festivals occur in Germany and Japan.
[17:42] Let's see.
[17:44] It's the second Monday of October in Canada.
[17:47] That's ridiculous.
[17:48] Because it seems too early for you.
[17:50] Yes.
[17:51] It's like Columbus Day days.
[17:52] Oh my God.
[17:57] According to some historians, the first celebration of Thanksgiving in North America occurred during
[18:00] the 1578 voyage of Martin Frobichier from England in search of the Northwest Passage.
[18:07] Failed.
[18:09] Sad.
[18:12] So, Australia, mostly not celebrated, but in the external territory of Norfolk Island,
[18:26] it's celebrated the last Wednesday of November, similar to the pre-World War II American observance
[18:31] on the last Thursday of the month.
[18:34] The Norfolk Island observance is the day before or six days after the U.S. observance.
[18:40] It was brought to them by the U.S. whaling ships.
[18:44] Norfolk and Way, man.
[18:47] And Liberia was actually brought there by the freed slaves.
[18:52] Freed slaves, right?
[18:54] Man has labored Thanksgiving Day on November 23rd.
[18:59] The law establishing the holiday, which was adopted during the American occupation after
[19:03] World War II, cites it as an occasion to...
[19:05] So we brought everybody Thanksgiving pretty much.
[19:08] Pretty much.
[19:09] Whether they wanted it or not.
[19:13] You guys don't do Thanksgiving?
[19:17] You do now.
[19:18] We'll fix that.
[19:19] All right.
[19:20] Well, there you go.
[19:24] So basically, our ideas were correct.
[19:28] We knew about Thanksgiving.
[19:29] Yeah.
[19:30] I still don't know why in the world somebody chose the fourth Thursday of November.
[19:34] That's always weird to me, but...
[19:37] I assume that it was...
[19:40] They wanted to put something smack dab in the middle between All Saints Day and Christmas,
[19:47] which they'd already had in there.
[19:50] Well, but it's a floating holiday, though, right?
[19:52] It's never on the same day.
[19:53] Well, no.
[19:54] What I'm saying is they sort of, like, you know, gives you at the end of the month of
[19:58] November.
[19:59] Well, you could just make it at the end of the month.
[20:02] I see.
[20:03] I see.
[20:04] But they wanted a four-day weekend.
[20:06] Right.
[20:07] The Pilgrims wanted a four-day weekend.
[20:09] Well, that shit did not work.
[20:11] I'm working on Friday, so this is garbage.
[20:14] Wow.
[20:15] That is garbage.
[20:16] Yeah.
[20:17] Thanks, Pilgrims.
[20:18] I feel like we learned something.
[20:20] I feel like we always learned something on this show.
[20:23] I usually forget it.
[20:25] You can just re-listen to it.
[20:27] That's part of why we record this stuff.
[20:29] It's now part of an indelible part of human history.
[20:32] Well, you're welcome, America.
[20:37] And Canada and Liberia.
[20:38] And future alien over the world.
[20:40] The whole world.
[20:41] Really.
[20:42] That's right.
[20:43] We're huge in Liberia, I hear.
[20:44] Well, that sounds like it's time to get it going.
[20:50] I'm happy.
[20:51] We'll see you next week.
[20:52] Bye, everyone.
[20:53] Bye.
[20:54] Bye.
[20:55] Bye.
[20:56] Bye.