Beantown Podcast - The Legend of Togo (10162022 Beantown Podcast)

Episode Date: October 16, 2022

Quinn comes to you LIVE and sick to tell the story of Togo and teach you some badass facts

Hey, what's going on? It's Kundia Fernis. Welcome to my show, Kundia Fernis presents the Bean Town podcast for Sunday, October 16, 2022. What's going on, Horia? What's happening? My name is Kvin and we are coming to you live from back in Chicago. I was hoping to do a little show live from the Big Apple, where we've come to you live from there a couple times before I believe at least once. But of course, as it just had to happen, get into a hair at Thursday night after teaching a class. I've already had some, so I guess backup for a second.

Had some dental work done, we can have a go. Right after I got back from Minneapolis, and I had just had the worst headaches from that, and it's very predictable. Like I'll take some of Cedith Midifin and it gets better for X number of hours than it wears off and it go back, takes more. So it's been a balance of trying to,

I've say not take too many pills in 24 hours for the past about 10 days now, which is not fun. I'm not a guy who likes taking pills. I'm not used to taking pills. So that's just been, it's been tough, you know. Anyway, so I've had the headaches and feel the sickness coming on Thursday

and just get to New York very late Thursday night actually early Friday morning and the full cold symptoms just swoop in. So not fun. Stuffy nose, bad sign is pressure, sort of, all the good stuff, which is why I wasn't able to broadcast live in New York just because I already talking it for work and not that much fun to talk more and more and more. Anyways we're back in Chicago today, I hope you're doing well, my name is Quinn, I am the best boy, showrunner and

second unit assistant producer of this show. Hello to my friends in Packie Stan. I don't know how many of you saw my Instagram store, but we were walking by Fox News Studios yesterday or the day before and they had the little ticker running along the outside of the building. And all I saw was Pakistanangry.dot.dot. And I had to put that on my Instagram

because it was like are they upset because I don't know I've never missed an episode this would have been a good week for a guest host but you know what we don't do that here be cross-beentown networks I think this is episode 248 249 work, we're very close to 250

I'm gonna check, I know this one's not 250, but I'm gonna go check that for you. And this will also be a very brief episode because I'm just not in the mood if I'm being honest. And I'm multitasking. The Minnesota Vikings just wanted to go to 5 and 1, going into their break, which is exciting. It's a big, big road win that I think a lot of, not a lot of people thought they were gonna win this one, even though the dolphins had quarterback issues. But they, they pulled it off. They won 24 to 16. It wasn't pretty, but they pulled it off. And I have, the one time a week when I actually use my DePaul branded off brand air pod and listening to the post game show. Oh, the Vikings podcast post game show.

So, recording a podcast, we'll listening to another podcast in my ear. That's gotta be some sort of world record, but hello to Hyderabad, Kyberpass, Karachi, all that good stuff. Hope you're doing well. I think Hyderabad, that's in India, but Islamabad. That's in That's in Pakistan. I think I should get that figured out or else. We're not gonna be the

112th or in comedy podcast for much longer. Listen to discretion is also advised when you're listening to the Bean Tom podcast number one. We'll occasionally use some language number two's podcast is objectively terrible. We got a little history lesson Come in for you on this show It's gonna be think of it as like a quick history minute, if you will. Because we were walking in Central Park on Friday morning, and I noticed that we were pretty close to the Balto statue. And that got me thinking.

And I wanted to talk about the Noem serum run a little bit today. So for you, for your sled heads out there, or you, uh, or a bear borealis freaks, or snow dogs, a fish, and auto, this one is going to be for you. If not, it's okay. It's going to be a short episode. I promise you. I also want to think our sponsors at Home Pride Oregon, when you need, you need your home inspector in Central Oregon, you got to trust someone who's safe, certified, and doubly insured. That's my dad, Steve. Call him at 541-031-6,

or visit HomePrideOrgan.com. Also, good friends. The cuts by Q. Barbershop serving Northwest Indiana, Chicago land, North Shore, West Shore, West Bank, Giza Strip, Gaza Strip, Ibiza. When you need to fresh do something snappy, you can call the experts that cuts by Q. And then of course, the Samson Q2U series,

speaking of hair, I'm doing this podcast in our guest bed, which has a mirror, and I'm looking at myself while I podcast, that's not common. I guess when I do my YouTube streams, that happens, but got the cough too going. Got it all. From Genesis to Exodus, Leviticus numbers, Geronomy, when God speaks, He uses the same thing. I was really proud of myself, frankly.

Excuse me, before we dig into the gnome serum run on the plane this morning I went into total Zen mode because I had just been blowing and blowing and blowing my nose every two minutes before that and just developed the cough like yesterday and so I went into total Zen mode didn't blow my nose once only cough like twice and I was I was I was fighting too I was fighting too. I was in the middle seat and the person Rachel was to my right, the person to my left was just all over that arm rest. But not just like, I'm going to take this arm rest, but like, I'm going to put my wrist on the arm rest and my elbow is going to go all the way to your side. And the worst thing is, and I don't care about this, I was resting. It was 6 a.m. this morning.

But they have a direct TV on the plane, and your remote is your armrest. But of course, my remote was the one that was being occupied by this person. So she was not only doing the double armrest, but she had double TV control. She could have had surround surround sound for vision, if she wanted, if she turned on the same channel on my television and on her, she could have, you know, it's like surround sound but for your eyes, would have been pretty cool.

She did not do that, but I hope she finds happiness. So saw the Balto statue, or did not see the Balto statue rather, it was a little bit further up. It's a little bit further north into the park, just north of the zoo there and I had to get back for work. I've seen the other Balto statue which is in Anchorage, Alaska. And this isn't a new thing for me. I'm very aware of this story, but I feel like a lot of people out there are not. So, Balto, who most people know, I think, largely because of the Disney movie,

which was obviously a, took a lot of creative liberties with the story and that sort of thing. But essentially, what we're talking about is the Noam serum run. And I'll just give you a brief background of that. And then I want to spend the rest of the show talking about the real MVP of that run. So 1925, and I'm not purporting to be a history expert here on the show. We're going straight off a Wikipedia. So the 1925 serum run to gnome,

also known as the great race of mercy in the serum run, was a transport of diphtheria antitaxan by dogs led relay across the US territory of Alaska by 20 muskers and about 150 sled dogs across 674 miles and 5 and a half days, saving the small town of Nome and surrounding communities from a developing epidemic of diphtheria. If you don't know diphtheria is an infection, a bacterial infection, There is an infection, a bacterial infection, 10% death rate, probably worse back in 1925. Seems like it really takes out your lymphatic gnomes, sore throat, fever, not good stuff.

And if you don't know gnom is a city in the unorganized borough of Alaska, that's a place, that's like one of their counties, basically the unorganized borough, Alaska. That's a place, it's like one of their counties, basically the unorganized borough, it's a pretty bad ass knee. That would be a good name for like a craft beer unorganized borough. Let's see, the city is located on the southern sewer peninsula coast of the Bering Sea. Basically, if you look at Alaska,

and you go to the middle of the state where Denali is, you go straight west, that's where it known is. So we're talking like basically across the the straight from Russia, very, very remote. One of those places you can only get you by plane. Unless you have some sled dogs. So a lot of us know BALTO because of the Disney movie. And we know that BALTO has the statue in Central Park and just one of the most famous dogs of all time up there with Lassie and Old Yeller

and Marley and Riggly and Bailey. But you know, Balto is probably even more widely known than those. So to finish up kind of the main section of this Wikipedia page here, this will get us to, this will get us into the sort of behind the scenes story that I want to tell you about. Both the muckers and their dogs were portrayed as heroes in the newly popular medium of radio back to 1925 here and received headline coverage and newspapers across the United States.

Balto, the lead sled dog on the final stretch in and known became the most famous canine celebrity of the era after Rintintin in his statues of popular tourist attraction both New York City Central Park and Dowdhunt Anchorage. Here we go. So put a pin in that for now because we've established that Balthow's got the statues. He's got the celebrity number Number two after Rin Tin Tin. Number three after Rikki Tiki Tavi, which is not a dog, but a mongoose or a weasel or a muskrat of some sort, a mink even, I'm not sure.

Where did you keep going? There's a crazy guy, man. Got some interesting opinions. But so we've established that Balto's the celebrity, but we jumped back into Wikipedia here. And here we go, but it was Togo's team, Togo the Dog, which is the topic of today's brief chapter, which covered much of the most dangerous parts

of the route and ran the farthest. Togo's team covered 260 miles, while BALTO's team ran 55 miles. 260 to 55, interesting. The publicity also helped spur an inoculation campaign in the US which dramatically reduced the threat of the disease. Okay, so we know about BALTO, we know BALTO finished,

we know he did 55 miles and he's got some statues. Nice, no one at bean town networks is taking anything away from Balto. But we have to talk about Togo. And I've known for a while that Togo was a badass, but I learned even something new the other day as I was researching that just took Togo into new heights of not only celebrity status,

but importance in modern day culture. So here we go. And again if you're thinking why do I need to listen to Beantown podcast or Quinn just reads a Wikipedia article and I could just read it myself. Well you're missing out on the charm, the narration, the flowing locks. Oh we don't have a video stream going today. So that's why. So I'll let you decide for yourself. So Togo, the dog lived from 1913 to 1929, 16 years. That's another bad-ass thing. You know, we talk about like horses or chimpanzees and sometimes they have, you know, they live for a long time and you're like, Oh, wow, that's longer than I thought they would live. But we all know how long dogs live. Like, there's no hidden secret. Togo lived for 16 years. That's pretty amazing. Togo was a lead sled dog

of Mousher Leonard Sipala and his dogs left him in the 1925 serum run to know him across central and northern Alaska. Despite covering a far greater distance than any other lead dogs on the run over some of the most dangerous parts of the trail His role was left out of contemporary news of the event at the time in favor of the lead sled dog for the last leg of the relay Balthow whom Saipala also owned and bred Okay, Togo's a male Togo was born Somewhere we don't know what your PD doesn't say died in Poland spring Maine. Pull in spring. That's the water company, right? I think so. I think I just saw a glass of Poland spring or a bottle of Poland spring earlier. So where is his final resting place?

Interesting question. There's actually two final resting places. He stuffed and mounted question. There's actually two final resting places. He stuffed and mounted, displayed at the Idyderod Trail Headquarters Museum in Wassilo, Alaska, but his skeleton is mounted separately and is in possession of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, which is somewhere probably Washington, D.C., but I'm not sure. His offspring include Togo the second, aka TJ, Kingique, Paddy, Bilca, and others. His appearance dark gray, black and brown coat of medium length and light underside patches. Gritted 48 pounds in adulthood, large front paws wide muskle and damaged right ear, which can be used to identify him easily in many pictures.

What a badass. And if you didn't know, he was named after Togo, Hihachiro, who was an admiral of the fleet and the imperial Japanese Navy in World War I. So pretty badass. Actually more like the Russia of Saini's war. I don't think he's a world or one guy. Anyways, here back to Togo, oh, his awards. Oh, we got it.

We got to look at the awards. Most travel dog in Alaska, champion trophy winner, known record of longest and fastest run in serum drive and the most. Oh, you're gonna want. You're gonna like this award. The most heroic animal of all time. I don't know what organization grant bestowed that ribbon upon him, but it's pretty badass. Dean DeFurce and Mirror Troublemaker, before being identified as a natural leader, reminds you of anyone, something to think about. And puppy prodigy, just like Bailey, by Sipala, Togo had already shown extreme feats of dedication and endurance as a puppy and as an adult, continued to show unusual feats of intelligence.

I feel like I'm reading my own Wikipedia article here. Saving the lives of his team and mushroom on more than one occasion. Sled dogs bred from his line have contributed to the Sipala Siberian Sled Dog line, as well as the mainstream Siberian Husky gene pool, which was what the new thing I discovered the other day. Togo is the father of mainstream Siberian Huskies and we all of our Huskies. You've got, you know, University of Washington You've got Northern Illinois University. You've got all sorts of people who own Siberian Huskies as pets my boss in In Baltimore when I worked there. I had a Siberian Husky named Freya. We had family friends who had a Siberian Husky growing up

all thanks to Togo What a guy a Togo. Let's see. I should have looked at the Wikipedia article before going in to see how much I actually wanted to read It's a pretty it's a pretty lengthy article He's got a he's got a great backstory There's a lot going on here. He was 12 years old already at the time of the gnome ceremony. That's a crazy thing. He wasn't a young puppy. He wasn't in his prime.

He was 12 years old, which is very old for a big dog. Okay. Early category records inconsistent his birth year. So he was kind of a mutt. No one really knew anything about him. He was really the dark horse. Initially, he did not look like he had a potential as a sled dog.

He only grew to 48 pounds, very undersized. His black, brown and gray coat made him appear perpetually dirty. This guy's the pig pen over here. Togo was ill as a young puppy. He was sickly like FDR, required intensive nursing from his Apollo's wife. You think like from the actual breasts or just, there's no, they don't expand upon that in the Wikipedia article, but I would be interested in learning more.

Let's see. Apollo gave him a way to be a pet dog at six months of age, but he came back after only a few weeks as a house pet togo jumped through the glass of a closed window and read seven miles back to his original master's kennel What a badass dude togo just gets better and better to go crazy man One day he attacked him a much stockier malnut leader on his mall and severely injured. He's scrappy When he recovered togo stopped attacking other teams lead dog So he learned his lesson, but he's a fighter. Let's see. So that kind of takes us up to, uh, oh, he used to charge reindeer. That's pretty badass. Togo locked 75 miles in his first day in harness, which was unheard of for an inexperienced young sled dog, especially a puppy. Saipala called him an infant prodigy. And later at it, I had found an actual born leader

or something I tried for years to breed. All right, let's see. Do-do-do. Oh, okay. So, pre-nome serum run. One such occasion was during a crossing of the Norton Sound in a deadly Northeast gale. Saipala had ordered Togo to turn in order to avoid a crack forming in the ice and immediately after doing so, Togo abruptly stopped and some resulted

backwards in the rest of the team without being commanded to stop moving. Wow, Togo's got a mind of his own. When Saipala arrived at the front of the team to school the dog he discovered Togo had bailed not on the trail but to avoid an open growing water channel less than six feet from the team, which was not visible from the sled, having saved all of them from nearly drowning in the freezing water. Wow. Wise, wise beyond his ears.

Another impressive feat was during the same trip across the sound when Arami at the ice shore, the bearing sea, the ice flow, the team was on top, it was too far from land for them to cross, or Sepala did jump over. He hitched Hogo and in single lead with an anchor in the ice and tossed him across to pull the ice closer to the shore. Dude, Hogo got tossed across the water. That's wild. Hogo understood and dug in. However, the line snapped suddenly leaving Sepala and the team stranded. The guidance were prompting Togo leapt into the water, took the broken line in his mouth, spun around and wrapped around his shoulders twice,

fashioning a makeshift harness, pulled the ice flow to shore his team with it. Togo is a badass. So that gets us up to the gnome serum run. So they were doing 300,000, 300,000, 200,000, 240 units of serum delivered by train from Anchorage, Shenanana, Alaska, where was picked up by the first of 20 muskars and more than 100 dogs.

Togo and Saipala ran 170 miles east from Nome to just outside Shatulik, where they met the serum relay coming the other way. So they started in Nome, they got to run halfway just to get there, just to pick up the baton, the serum, and then run back. After they hand off, they returned another 91 miles where they passed the serum to Charlie Olson's team, having run over 261 miles across some of the most dangerous

and treacherous parts of the run in total. The team traveled 260 miles from Noam in three days. The temperature is estimated at negative 30 degrees Fahrenheit. And the Gail Force winds causing windshield negative 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The return trip across the exposed open ice of the Norton Sound, the night in a ground blizzard, preventing Sepala from being able to see the path,

but Togo navigated to the roadhouse at Isaacs Point on the shore by 8 p.m. preventing certain death to his team. After traveling 84 miles in one day, the team slept for six hours before continuing at 2 a.m. Holy moly. Before the night, the temperature dropped to negative 40 degrees, and the wind increased to 65 miles per hour. The team ran across the ice, which was breaking up while following the shoreline. They returned to shore to cross little McKinley mountain, climbing 5,000 feet. That's a lot. After descending to the next roadhouse in Galveston, Saipala passed the seerom to Charlie Olson, who in turn passed it to Gunner-Cassen in Ballton.

Pretty badass. After the run, Togo went on tour from Seattle to California, they drew crowds at stadiums and department stores. New York City, Sepology was team from the steps of City Hall along Fifth Avenue, where we just were made a pastor's Central Park. The team appeared multiple times at Madison Square Garden. That's crazy. New England, they competed in several dogs, led races across local shinnooks of Arthur Walden and one by huge margins. Good stuff.

Togo was left to live at the Ricker Kennel in Poland, spring to enjoy a life of luxury in his retirement from sled work and was bred over the next several years. What a time to be alive. Langedown the foundation for modern Siberian sled dogs known as the Sapahala Siberian sled dog and the Siberian Husky. Wow. He was euthanized in 1929 at 16 years because of joint pain and partial blindness.

What a dog. What a dog. Let's see if there's anything else here. But Togo, Togo is really I don't know why why we're all obsessed with ball toe, but Togo is absolutely the bad ass. Oh this is interesting. A film adaptation about Togo's efforts was produced by Walt Disney and released on December 20th 2019 on Disney Plus. Willem Dafoe stars as Leonard Saipala.

Well, who plays Togo? Probably Chris Pratt. Oh, Togo was portrayed by dog actor Diesel. Who is the direct descendant of Togo, 14 generations back. That is amazing. Well, go to Disney Plus tonight, if you'd like. Go check out, it's called Togo,

and stars Willem de Faux, along with no one else I've ever heard of, but still pretty badass. Anyways, now you know a little bit more about Togo, now you're not just a Balto head, and now you know there's, there are other hero dogs out there, not just the ones who steal the headlines, but we went to New York, we learned about Balthal, we learned about Togo, and who knows, maybe next week we'll do an in depth dive into the country of Togo. So I apologize for most of this episode being a Wikipedia article, but feeling very under the weather and wasn't gonna let wasn't gonna let a cold Stop me from getting you another episode because we've never missed a show here And just about we're about through five full years now pretty good stuff

But that's what I add for you. I'm gonna go rest up. I'm gonna get hydrated and Yeah, that's got some other stuff. I to take care of, but back to work tomorrow, one day off and we're back at it. So, 25 minutes with the outro music, that sounds about right. That's a good spot. That's what I wanted to share with you. Hopefully you learned something. And if you want to learn more, go read about Togo yourself or go watch the Willem DeFone movie on Disney Plus now streaming. That's what I have for you. Good job Vikings, five and one. And oh, we're going to do, we're going to take into this next week our promise real house

hose assault like city is back. And we always do the recaps and we just haven't gotten to it yet. This year we're three episodes in two or three episodes in. So we're going to get back into those recap. So I'll catch you up on where we're at, starting next weekend, and then we'll go one week at a time from there. Bravo Con was a weekend in New York City. A lot of crazy stuff going on. We were there at the same time as all those celebs. Lots more to unpack next week. Hopefully, it'll be feeling better. That's what I have for everyone. I hope that you stay safe, stay sane, and I'll check in on you next time. Bye. I'm just going to sit here. nd ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________