We're Talking Wicker

[00:00] Mr. Coalson, it's time for an under Google we do under Google rules. That was the play of super excited. I told us we had to
[00:22] We signed up for it in the end, it's gonna be better and more true than Google can give you
[00:31] fantastic
[00:33] This is the everybody's favorite podcast lighting the internet on fire
[00:39] The under Google bulls which you can subscribe to separately. I
[00:43] Recommend you do that. We we cut it out from this feed
[00:47] So you don't have to put up with all the basketball nonsense and you can just listen to us
[00:53] Talk about other not just here for the nonsense. Yeah, exactly
[00:57] So that's a we're nearing our hundredth episode that that's been going on for like two or three years. Oh, yeah
[01:06] No, yeah, because it's come out every week. So yeah, we're nearing two years of that coming out. So
[01:11] cool
[01:12] Shout out to the under Google bulls, but we need to start beat. Yeah, we need to beef up our
[01:21] Back log
[01:23] So we need to keep these up even though it's a two-man. All right. I think we can still figure stuff out
[01:29] We're pretty smart guys. Mmm
[01:32] You are
[01:37] We'll see that's why I mean the reason I usually ask these questions is because I can't figure them out without anybody else
[01:41] So, yeah
[01:43] All right, here's one I've got and I've always wondered what it meant a
[01:49] Basket case mmm
[01:52] What's a basket case is it a case that holds a basket is it a
[01:58] Jury trial is it a is it a
[02:01] What kind of case is it? Yeah. Yeah, I feel like early on we had lots of lots of guillotine references in our under Google Bulls
[02:09] Is it a guillotine reference? Okay, sure. So it's gonna be the the basket that catches the head
[02:14] Yeah, I mean, maybe that's just what they did with crazy people back then was just cut their heads off and move along
[02:20] Okay, and so this is well, this is just a basket case
[02:23] We're just we're gonna have to just gonna have to cut the head off and put the basket there probably possessed by the devil
[02:29] So let's separate the head from the body. So it's a situation in which we need to pull the basket out and catch the head
[02:36] It's not bad. It's not bad boy. It's not good
[02:41] well, so this is so what is how would you describe a basket case is it is just somebody sort of
[02:51] Not exactly fulfilling social norms, yes, I would say beyond
[03:00] General social protocols in a sort of irretrievable way, right like a proven
[03:06] Sort of recidivist breaker of social mores, right?
[03:10] Yeah, and so we just got it. We have to do something with this basket case
[03:14] Sure, and the implication I would say at least in modern dialect
[03:20] You know would be that somebody's a little bit crazy, right? Mm-hmm
[03:26] right and
[03:28] so if that's
[03:30] So you so if your theory is correct, we're talking about
[03:34] What medieval times and we just we don't know how to deal with crazy people. We don't have a
[03:39] Sanitary thing, you know, yeah, just just cut their head off. Yeah
[03:45] Because the other thing I was the other thing I was thinking is like like a trial, you know, like you're you're trying a case
[03:55] But I can't figure out what the the basket is a real big basket of documents
[04:01] Yeah, something like that
[04:03] In a big old way and I always think of like a wicker basket. I of course what other kind of baskets are there?
[04:12] There's laundry plastic laundry baskets, I mean there's tote bags looking PR
[04:20] We're talking baskets we're talking wicker, okay wicker basket big wicker basket full of all the
[04:27] The information about the crazy person. Yeah, we're gonna try to get them off on
[04:33] Insanity the insanity plea. Yeah. Well, I mean that's a pretty distinctly American
[04:39] Legal judgment, isn't it? I don't know that
[04:42] that existed prior to
[04:45] We didn't we have like sort of in like British Parliament. We were doing sort of things like this and I
[04:52] I mean, I suspect that you would be hard-pressed to make an argument for insanity any time prior to Freud
[05:00] Okay. Okay, don't you think?
[05:05] Yeah, it makes you sort of do think that it's
[05:13] More of a modern-day thing even like I'm wondering if if that's you know
[05:21] if we don't even go maybe it's even the 60s, you know, like I feel like
[05:29] How many people were being able to plead sanity before the turn of the century pleaded sanity, you know, I
[05:36] Mean up until World War one we were like castrating people and stuff that we thought were crazy like we didn't
[05:42] Yeah, you know, I mean there's some send them send them to a sanatorium thing
[05:47] But I don't know that that's the same as like finding them innocent. It's just locking them up in a different sort of institution
[05:53] I guess but I don't know that that was ever called
[05:58] You know an insanity plea per se
[06:01] Yeah
[06:03] Yeah, when are you? Yeah, when are you not putting crazy people in a sanitarium and you're just allowing people to walk free based on
[06:11] claiming insanity
[06:14] Well, okay, and what about a sanitarium like if is is there a moratorium sanatorium not sanitarium sanatorium sanatorium sanatorium
[06:22] What about?
[06:24] Is there is there some old timey?
[06:32] You know situation in which we're putting people in
[06:37] mental institutions
[06:41] And that I'm trying to connect basket. Yeah, you're like giving them
[06:45] They're like you put your clothes in a basket or something or yeah, yeah, things when you go in
[06:50] I don't know. There's something there's potentially something there. Yeah, it's like oh, well, this is a basket case. Yeah, like this is a
[06:59] We got to get them into the place where they have baskets
[07:04] I don't know man. This is a tough one. This is this is a good one
[07:10] What so what's it let's give a timeline and then and then you know our best guess is I like I like the
[07:17] The chopping the head off of somebody like the French Revolution. It's pretty solid
[07:23] Basket is feels like a French word
[07:26] Mm-hmm
[07:27] so
[07:29] 1700s. Okay. Okay France and then our other one is a
[07:36] More legal founded term in like the late 1800s early 1900s early 1900s, I think okay legal term
[07:45] Okay, I like that second one pretty well, okay, so we got it first world war
[07:58] originally us slang
[08:00] Denoting a soldier who had lost all four limbs and was thus unable to move independently
[08:06] Well, thank you Coalson. That's bringing us our most depressing
[08:11] Undegoable of all time super easy to look up. Oh
[08:20] No, so if you if you just got if you were just completely blown apart, so let's see according to grammar phobia
[08:32] This may be a misattribution, let's see what else we got here
[08:40] Okay, the the first found usage at least according to today I found it is
[08:48] From the US state Surgeon General in March of 1919
[08:54] Surgeon General of the Army denies that there is any foundation for the stories that have been circulated of the existence of basket cases in our hospital
[09:02] It it appears that there were very few cases where anyone could survive that mean
[09:08] Can you imagine the the state of medicine in the first world war surviving that kind of injury very very slim chances?
[09:17] Yeah
[09:18] I saw one in January of 1919, but it certainly seems to be early night early early 1900s
[09:24] So we kind of nailed that
[09:27] Okay, but why is it crazy then so that's the next thing so super interesting
[09:34] So essentially this came out of the idea of carrying around soldiers who had no limbs and baskets
[09:39] Which is a thing that never happens
[09:41] As near as we can tell right and so then we take this phrase that appears to come more or less out of nowhere
[09:49] With no real grounding in anything and then we just it falls out of favor after World War two
[09:57] In the mid 40s basket cases used to refer to an ineffective or powerless person from there
[10:04] It comes to refer to a country organization that's having severe economic difficulties
[10:09] Starting in the 1950s a basket case could be a vehicle that has missing parts or is in disrepair
[10:18] Around that same time we start to see
[10:20] The use that most people are probably familiar with today, which is a person who's unable to cope for emotional reasons
[10:27] This is according to Michigan radios NPR affiliate. So that's probably like salad. Yeah
[10:35] Well, that's that that takes quite a leap it does it comes
[10:42] Yeah, that's very weird and real dark real dark
[10:49] Be right. It had so many different meanings in between
[10:53] Yeah, and like it was all based out of like a weird war room or stuff very strange
[11:00] Okay, well we didn't know we nailed the time period
[11:06] Indeed we did and you know
[11:09] Thankfully we didn't nail
[11:11] From I would have been very disturbed if we'd got that if we'd nailed that yeah
[11:16] You know what? I think it means it means carrying around somebody with oh no arms and no legs
[11:25] Although I did go straight to guillotining people so it turned out to be much closer than I would have wanted