Two For the Price of Three

[00:06] Oh, we do under Google rules. That was the play of super excited told us we had to
[00:19] We signed up for it in the end, it's gonna be better and more true than Google can give you I
[00:28] Have a I have a interesting one. So, okay, so we were in
[00:33] Cape Cod for over the 4th of July hanging out with the fan and
[00:38] We we took the ferry over to Martha's Vineyard and on Martha's Vineyard
[00:43] They have one of the oldest and I think it's the oldest carousel that operates
[00:51] in
[00:53] North America, maybe maybe the world. I have no idea
[00:56] it was originally on Coney Island like in the 1880s and then it was it was there for like five years and then
[01:02] Somebody on Martha's Vineyard bought it moved it to Martha's Vineyard
[01:06] Anyway, so you can go and and ride this thing which is super fun
[01:10] and one of the the things that they do is so they have
[01:15] So it's a circle you guys know how a carousel works, right?
[01:17] There's an inside lane and an outside lane and both ones
[01:20] They have this little arm that comes down and there's these little rings that hang out at the end of the arm
[01:26] And what you do is you go by as it as it's as the carousels going around and try to grab the the rings
[01:32] And then there's a little post you can collect them or whatever
[01:36] Most of them are little rings that are just some
[01:40] Generic metal like steel probably or something
[01:44] But if you happen to grab the brass ring then you get a free ride on the carousel and so actually
[01:53] Ethan well, I I mean I was grabbing the rings, but
[01:57] Grab them and I can eat so Ethan got the brass ring and got to go for a free ride or whatever nice
[02:03] Which was which was super fun
[02:06] but it got me thinking like this concept of like grabbing the brass ring, which I
[02:12] Always thought was like, you know being very successful in business kind of or something like that
[02:17] You guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but I wondered what the origin of that phrase was and if it
[02:24] If there's any way in the world that comes back to carousels and people grabbing the brass ring at a carousel to get
[02:30] The free ride. Are you guys familiar with this phrase? Or did I make this up in my head?
[02:36] I haven't heard of it, but that's okay
[02:40] So we're we're we're grabbing the brass ring and that's that's leading to success in business
[02:47] That's the way I feel like I remember hearing it or whatever. Okay, but you haven't heard a video
[02:54] No, no, no, no, no, it does. It does. I
[02:58] Mean I vaguely recall this phrase because I and I feel like I've heard of it in
[03:05] Yeah, not you're right not like quite in sports specifically but an achievement of things right? Yeah
[03:13] He's like getting that brass ring. Yeah, like that is really like you have solidified yourself and reach the pinnacle of a thing
[03:21] Right something like that. Yeah
[03:23] I guess I always envisioned it as I always envisioned it as maybe a trophy in sports that no longer exists or that
[03:30] that I don't I'm not aware of like
[03:32] like
[03:33] grabbing the
[03:35] Belt or whatever like you would in
[03:38] What is that boxing?
[03:41] Yep, you know wrestling or wrestling. Yeah, so I always say there's
[03:46] a real thing
[03:48] I think I always envision the brass ring is something that you would you would win like the
[03:53] You know the stanley cup or something
[03:56] If I okay, but again, it's it's a real vague
[04:00] Uh kind of image in my head from not really using that phrase very much
[04:04] sure
[04:06] The other ideas I had was you know, like when people retire they get a gold watch
[04:10] I didn't know if like the brass ring was like
[04:13] literally a ring that you get that's like, you know, some company gives you for
[04:18] X number of years of achievement or something like that
[04:21] So brass is a um
[04:24] a very malleable metal
[04:27] I think so
[04:28] Okay. Yeah, it's an alloy. I know that okay
[04:32] and and on the list of expensive
[04:35] Metals where are we at on a brass ring?
[04:39] I mean not super duper high. I mean
[04:43] You'll see it on uh
[04:45] Like a high end boat would have like brass furnishings or something
[04:48] Sure. Yeah. Yeah, like a and brass taps at an old bar old timey bar or something
[04:55] Yeah
[04:57] and
[04:58] You know, I suppose the the brass section
[05:02] Of an orchestra. Sure. Yep
[05:05] All right, that's all I know about brass apparently
[05:09] You can clean brass with brass. Oh, yeah
[05:12] It's a nice cleaner
[05:16] That's solid otherwise it oxidizes right and gets dirty
[05:22] Is that is that the oxidation that makes it
[05:26] I believe so. Yeah turn green like copper. Yeah, it does. Yeah, it does. They are or brown like black. Yeah
[05:34] Yeah, I think copper is one of the
[05:36] elements of the alloy
[05:39] Uh, well the reason I brought up we had nothing on this one. Sorry
[05:44] I thought this was a more popular phrase than I one of the reason I bring up the the uh
[05:49] whether whether brass would be expensive or not is because you know
[05:53] if brass is
[05:55] fairly
[05:56] easy to get
[05:58] Um, then then a brass ring wouldn't be that big a deal except in the scenario you just mentioned right where it's like
[06:04] It's it's just a different color so that we can celebrate it not because it's an expensive
[06:10] you know
[06:11] Purely symbolic. Yeah
[06:14] Yeah, I really under that so I hadn't put much thought into it
[06:18] Yeah, I mean feels like a very sporting thing a trophy like
[06:24] Sort of thing either that or it's mafia, right? Mm-hmm. You gotta kiss the brass ring
[06:32] You gotta kiss the brass pinky ring
[06:34] That's right, well, you know, I I also but I but I do love the idea Jason that your real life experience has taught you the actual
[06:43] Story behind this phrase. So i'm gonna say that it's from this carousel. It's from the oldest carousel
[06:50] 18
[06:53] I also want to know how they moved the carousel
[06:56] uh
[06:57] That's a good question. They had a bunch of like
[07:00] horses
[07:01] Gears and all that jazz. Yeah, I mean now it's run on electricity. So I couldn't tell you what they did back in the day
[07:07] but well, no, but like I mean
[07:09] They didn't have like a helicarrier to move the oh you mean physically
[07:14] From coney island. I think they took it apart. I was also considering horses. I thought you made how it how the carousel
[07:21] Which is probably also the answer to the other question as well
[07:27] Yeah, no, I think they took it apart
[07:29] Piece by piece and then yeah, and then put it back together
[07:32] I think that was actually on the side of the building if they if they'd have left us some charge
[07:36] There would have been a lot of screws left over after that thing came back
[07:40] No, I would have gone with the horse idea. I just dragged it across
[07:48] All right, let's see grab that brass ring that's the phrase
[07:55] Yeah, um
[07:58] It does look like it comes from the carousel nice, this is wild although this
[08:12] Yeah, so
[08:16] uh
[08:17] Miriam webster
[08:18] Defines it as a very desirable prize goal or opportunity
[08:25] And it seems like maybe it comes from the carousel, right? Yeah, that's what i'm seeing
[08:32] Not clear when the phrase came into wide use but has been found in dictionaries as far back as the late
[08:38] 19th century including catcher in the rye
[08:41] Yeah, it seems it's especially
[08:44] Uh championship ring in sports is where it's most used these days. Yeah
[08:51] But there's no sport that actually awards you a brass ring
[08:54] No
[08:56] I mean not anymore at least
[08:58] Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc
[09:02] So you're right on that varied
[09:06] Nice brass is similar to bronze
[09:09] It uses but bronze uses tin instead of zinc. Oh, I didn't even
[09:17] Think about that that the they're
[09:20] Closely related that way see now i'm learning about metal alloys
[09:31] Yeah
[09:32] Yeah, okay. So the
[09:34] The carousel that I rode was
[09:36] Called flying horses. It was built in 1876
[09:41] There's one from 1884 in watch hill road island
[09:46] Another foreign horse
[09:48] Interesting. Yeah, it seems like road island has a real lock down on brass ring carousels
[09:53] Yeah
[09:57] They do there's one in logan sport indiana
[10:00] You guys could go do it
[10:02] Listeners
[10:04] That is
[10:06] Wait, you're saying you didn't do that when you were in indiana recently? Yeah
[10:10] Somehow I did not there was what there's one in santa cruz too. I never rode the carousel and apparently one in angola indiana
[10:17] Another favorite hot spot of ours
[10:22] cool
[10:24] Uh, i've also got the uh
[10:27] According to cora. I have the origin of brass tacks. Let's get down to brass tacks
[10:32] Hmm
[10:34] Let's knock that one out while we're here. What's the story? Uh, at least uh, at least according to this
[10:41] They sold yard
[10:43] Fabrics from a bolt of material which is stretched out and measured against a wooden yardstick was that was screwed down
[10:49] into the counter
[10:52] There were brass tacks driven into the counter 36 inches apart at the end of the wooden yard stick
[10:59] After years of using the ends of the wooden yard stick would get rounded over and somewhat worn away
[11:04] And the ladies wanted to ensure that they would get the full measure of their pad fabric
[11:08] Would insist on getting down to the brass tacks to ensure that they were not being cheated
[11:13] Hmm
[11:15] For their fabrics, I don't know if that's true or not, but that's it that makes sense to me
[11:24] That is pretty cool
[11:29] Well, we solved another one, but that's two for one
[11:32] listeners
[11:35] You didn't you have to pay extra. That's all
[11:38] It's uh two for the price of three. I think is what that was
[11:44] It just old themselves a brass rank got a free ride
[11:48] That's right