Do Go On - 372 - The Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning

Episode Date: December 7, 2022

In 1951, hundreds of residents of the small French town of Pont-Saint-Esprit were struck down by a mystery illness that caused mass hallucinations. People thought they were being chased by tigers, others grabbed weapons and chased each other, one man jumped into a river because he thought his belly was being eaten by snakes. What had caused this mass event? Was it as something as innocent as bad food, or was there something much more sinister afoot?This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 05:28 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report). Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPodLive show tickets: https://dogoonpod.com/live-shows/  Submit a topic idea directly to the hat here Check out our new merch!  Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/ Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader Thomas Do Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present.  REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:BBCMental Floss NCBI GuardianNY Times Smithsonian Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serengy Amarna 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there. Canada, we are visiting you in September this year.

If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. And welcome to another episode of Doog One. My name is Dave Ornicki. And as always, I'm here with Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart. David, hello.

Jess, hello, Dave, hello. How good is it to be alive? It's one of the best things to be alive. I love December. It's the most festive time of year outside of block. It's a real like sort of slow curve out of block. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You need yourself out of block. Yeah. We've got the Christmas season, then the New Year's season. and then, you know, back to... Back to... Nine months of horrible months.

Depression. The beauty of block now being two months long means we're only ever 10 months away from a block. That's right. At the most. Countdown begins January 1st. So soon. But this is the furthest time between blocks right now.

Yes. First week out of block. That's true. But what a great year we've had. What a great year. The top nine this year. year my goodness all bangers and Dave we got you to do this week's episode because we're like we can't have a hard landing we can't crash back down to earth we need to go out of block with a bang and have you

done that before you get into it Jess you want to explain what the show is yeah well if you're just joining us you've joined us at the end of our most blocktacular time of year but there's no time to explain what that means go back to the last nine episodes and you're I'll answer it. That's probably better than this one. No, there's no way. No, no. This is classic.

It's basically the 10th beetle of this day. Well, what this show is is each week, one of the three of us, research is a topic, usually suggested by a listener. We go away, we write up a little report about it. We bring it to the other two who listen respectfully, politely, and never go on inane bullshity riffs. Ever. We never mock each other.

And no fun is had. No. We certainly don't ever be ironic. No, no, no. We say what we mean. And we usually start with a question. Dave, do you have a question? My question is three of my topics this year, 2022, have been based in which European country?

I've had a little obsession with this place. Ooh, can you say it again? Three of my topics this year have been based in which European country. Italy. I'm going to say Italy, but not Italy. Where was Mount Vesuvius again? That was Italy. Okay.

I know you're always. obsessed with Iceland. We haven't mentioned it enough this year, but big shout out. What's you done this year? Yeah, nothing. What have you done? Not just with your year, but with your life. What about en francais?

Wee, signor. Is it Francai? It's France. France. It's France. Why stop there? Let's go for four. Okay, great.

You do love France. God, you love French culture. Been there twice this year, love it. France. It's funny in the East Coast accent, isn't it? I love France. France. I love the way they dance.

South Australia, France. Ah. You know? That's the difference. France. France, that's classier. France. Western Australia say France, I believe.

France. Oh, France. Yeah. Oh, we go to France in the summertime. Whatever. Yes, we might pop over to France. Or a dance. Yeah, have a dance in France.

If we have a chance. Maybe we'll hit up the slopes. You know, just have a good time. Maybe ride a goat. We'll see if there's any goats around We might have a little ride on a guy I think he's lost the roof now When he hit slope

You lost it for me Yeah But I thought maybe he could recover it And he couldn't And that's that's on me thinking he could He got distracted by us I was doing a different riff And you've come in

Doing a rhyming riff I was just doing a posh South Australian riff And posh people ride goats Yes On slopes Slopes Slopes

Joan of Arc, the Concord, and the Le Mans disaster. Right. But I'm going for a fourth topic, and I don't want to give way the topic title just yet, but this one was suggested by one person, that is, a very French person. Okay. Jay, Jay, J. Sweeney from Cardiff in Wales. Thank you so much. J.J.

J.J. Sweeney. Cardiff, the Frenchest part of Wales. The Paris. Yeah, they call Little Paris. I call it Big Paris. And what do you call actual Paris? I call it Little Cardiff. Yeah, that's better.

That makes more sense, actually. This one was voted for about our Patreon supporters. A patron. Patron. And to them we say, Merci Bucou for your input. You aren't very good at French. Not like me.

Bucu. Merci Buccoe. Merci Buccoe. Oh, God. Wee, um, Merci Bucco. French speaking listeners. I'm going to hate this episode, aren't they?

With apologies. But Dave means it with love. What do you mean it with? I hate. Scorn. Fuck them. These French fucks. No, I love them. Good on them.

Got some great French listeners. And to them I say, Bonjourno. Wow. Wow. Thankfully, they all speak many languages, so I'll get that. They get that one. Let me paint a scene.

It's August 1951. Paint it like a famous French artist, Monet. Well done. Oh, did he? Well done, yeah. I was on a music. going to go for this? Is he going to go for this? Oh, that's sick.

I'm done for the day. I was going to say paint me like one of your French girls. What's that got to do with anything? It's August. It's 1951. Over in the US, the first baseball game televised in colour has just been broadcast. People watching glorious full spectrum as the Boston Braves beat Brooklyn Dodgers 8 to 1. In Australian baseball news, New South Wales have just won their six. Claxton Shield.

Also this month, future MLB All-Star John Stearns was born. What can I say? It was a big month for baseball. Stansy, that year. Bloody hell. Also, Darrell Summers was born this month. Wow.

Is this report about baseball? Is it about Darrell Summers? But over in the town of Ponsan Esprit in southern France, they weren't worried about baseball or Mr. Daryl Summers. Well, I mean, that's not a way to live. What a weird red herring that is. On the 16th of August 51, postman Leon Amunier

was doing his normal rounds on his bicycle when suddenly he became overwhelmed first by nausea and then wild hallucinations. He was overwhelmed and fell off his bike in terror. He let her recalled, It was terrible. I had the sensation of shrinking and shrinking

and the fire and the serpents coiling around my arms. Holy moly. He was taken. to hospital in nearby Avignon, by which point he had become so delirious that he was put in a strait jacket. I actually kind of, maybe, I don't know if I'm, if this is a controversial take. I wouldn't mind trying a straight jacket. Okay. I think it would be kind of comforting, a bit like a swaddle for a baby. Oh, what I mean? Like just get me all wrapped up and giving myself a little

cuddle. Do you think maybe that, I think that could be something, you know, we do. Maybe we start a business. A sort of a retreat? Yeah. A straight jacket. Retreat, right? You go out of the retreat. We just straight jacket you up and put you in a dark room and you pay thousands of

dollars for it. You do just. Like pitch black or like dimly lit as in like mood lighting. What's better? I would like some mood lighting. Well, we're trying to cut costs. Yeah, we can't afford lighting. Okay, I don't want to go to this retreat.

All right. No, we'll dim the lights. Yeah, I just want like a calming room. We just want to whatever the lowest thing you'll accept is, we'll do that. Yeah, yeah. There was a thing last month where there was a company that was hit the news because they're offering to bury you alive. Nope. For $90,000.

Absolutely not. No. And the whole point of it was you come out of there being thankful to be alive. Oh, wow. But you know you're coming out of there. Yes. I feel like you could pay someone less than that. That's what I thought to.

That's steep. But if people are willing to pay that, I reckon we could probably charge about nine grand for the straight jacket idea. Yeah. I reckon I could just go to like a day spa and get a massage or something and lie in a dark room. Will you come out of that feeling grateful? Yeah. Oh. Yeah, it's a dimly lit room and there's nice music and it smells nice.

Jess, why have you turned on this? This is your idea. I just said I wouldn't mind a straight jacket. Just wipe yourself off in a blanket or put a dressing gown on backwards. Oh, yes. Get your partner to tie it behind your back. Oh, here we go. Oh, cozy.

Feels nice and cozy. Can I go home? Yeah, yeah. I've got to try something out. I did not bring my... dressing out in. My robe. So this postie, Leon, he's been put in a straight jacket, and he wasn't the only one in the room experiencing hallucinations, for he shared a room with three teenagers who had been chained

to their beds to keep them under control and stop them from hurting each other. Leon recalled, some of my friends tried to get out of the window. They were thrashing wildly, screaming, and the sound of the metal beds and the jumping up and down, the noise was terrible. The strangest thing was, as time went by, this wasn't an isolated incident in the town. What the heck was happening at Ponce and Esprit? Let's find out. Whoa.

Ponsen Esprit? Ponsen Esprit. Yeah. So you said? Pond. Pond. San Esprit. Spelt Pont Saint Esprit.

And what does Pont mean? Bridge. And what does Saint mean? Saint. Saint. And what does spree mean? Esprit. Great brand.

Spirit. Yeah. Espr. I loved it. Had a matching Esprit. back suit as a kid. Really? I was more of a Fierucci.

Okay. What are you talking about? I don't know that one. Do you remember that name? No. I was more of a sweat hog. Sweat hog. Nothing but the best.

Sweathog. There was a second's outlet near where I grew up. Wow. So you didn't even get first sweat hog. Last season's sweat hog. Oh, lardy da. You got non-damaged. Sweathog?

Pre-sweetted sweat hog. Oh, wow. Not second-hand, just the stuff that was, you know, like the, there were printing mistakes and stuff on them. Spelling errors. They said the sweet hog. Sweet-hog. I was getting around as a boy.

Sweet-sooth. People kept telling you, hey, sweetheart-hog. Hey, sweet-og. Oh, thank you. Thank you. This is strange, but thank you so much. Let's rewind a little, and I can paint you a picture this time, I'm not about baseball, but this time about Ponsent Espri itself.

Is there any reason you did those baseball things? I just googled what happened in 1951 and only baseball things came up and Daryl Summers. And I was like, this would be a bit of fun to reference baseball. I couldn't believe there was an Australian baseball league back then. So I looked up, there's a like a list of Australian events and then you click sporting events. I'm like, surely something happened. And the only thing that happened in the month was New South Wales won the Claxton Shield, which I've never heard of.

Claxton is so great. Claxton, I love. I've never even heard of. There you go. So found in southern France, Pont Saint-Espray is situated on the River Rhone. And again, apologies to French people. And is the site of a historical crossing,

hence its name, Pont meaning bridge, a saint crossed this bridge. Ah. The town is about 120 kilometres north of Marseille on the Mediterranean. It's so funny when a name like that sounds so cool and fancy. Ooh, Pont-Aspray or whatever.

Nailed it. But it's like, Saint cross that bridge. It's just like it's so childish. It's just like red tree and stuff like that. Oh, it sounds so fancy. I don't know how to say red tree. Dave, say red tree in French, but I bet you it sounds fancy. Rouge.

Tree. Arbert. Or third to say, I went to visit Rouge Arbert. Oh, that sounds fancy. I wonder what that means. Red tree. Because there was a red tree there once Now the town's named Red Tree

Red Tree's not there anymore No The tree's gone but the town remains Pock de Seir Sweathog Oh my God Pock de Seer Oh I didn't realize you're wearing designer brands

So this is Ponsenna Sprite It's quite a small place And if you're wondering If any celebs have ever lived there I am Well let me tell you According to a French celebrity website I found called Wikipedia.org.

I believe it's pronounced. It means something in French, I assume. Yes, what I'm. Something about feet. Ponsanisbury is famous as the town of origin of Michael Bouvier, a cabinet maker who was the ancestor of John Vernal Bouvier the third, who's the father of Jacqueline Kennedy. Holy moly.

So the first lady's dad was related to a guy who made furniture of it. It's the big time. Holy shit. It. Holy crap. Jesus. I just want you to know that this is a pretty big deal. This goes all the way to the top.

This is a big deal. Yeah. But it's a pretty small place. Only about 4,000 people resided there in the early 1950s. Okay. In 1951, they were put on the map by an incident that the town is still most famously associated with. I think they've tried to rebrand a few times, including by being like, look at this big red trees. Yeah.

Whoa. This cabinet maker lived here. Yeah. I mean, they're named after a saint crossing a bridge. How big of an event could this be to usurp that? Well, on August 15th, 19th. 1951, dozens of townsfolk became ill. Oh yeah, you've already told us what happened.

The postman thing. Yeah, the postman. I've forgotten about him. He's one of many. Whoa. At first, the people complained of nausea and stomach pain, weak blood pressure and faint pulses, cold sweats and low temperatures.

Sort of, you know, maybe it's a gastro, maybe is it flu, what's going on? Sounds like a whole town of sweat hogs here. Well, They reported terrible insomnia And apparently one of the symptoms was they smelled terrible Someone described the odour emanating from them As like that of a dead mouse

Sweatog Very specific Dead mouse So specific What would make you stink Yeah Just sweating a dead mouth Like that's a small thing

If you think Awful things to the smell Would be like a dead cat Or dead dog Minimum size cat Yeah you're right Like just a dead dead mouse, you're like maybe getting faint whiffs of that in the roof?

Yeah. Oh. But maybe that's why they're talking about it because they, if a mouse dies in your walls, it could be there for a long time when you uncover, it's awful maybe. Maybe that had been happening a lot in this town. Yeah. Maybe. I'm extrapolating a little bit.

The offices of the town's two local doctors began to fill and over the hours that passed the symptoms of the sick became worse and worse. The sick grew to the hundreds. And for most of these already horrific elements were the end. of it, but for others it was only just beginning, because then came the most terrifying symptom, the hallucinations. Right. One of the towns, two doctors would name the night, the apocalyptic night, as dozens

of people experienced nightmarish hallucinations, convulsions, and swollen limbs that felt as if they were burning for the people. And I thought the most fascinating one the post he had was, felt like he was shrinking. Trinking, yeah. Isn't that interesting? Were they actually shrinking? No. Okay.

But everything else was growing, so it felt like. The red tree was getting bigger and bigger. Oh, everything's allergic. Relax, you're staying the same size. Everything's okay. Mayor Albert Hubbard described the events to the press. He said, I have seen healthy men and women suddenly become terrorized, ripping their bed sheets, hiding themselves beneath their blankets to escape hallucinations.

Ripping their bedsheets. Why is the mayor in their bedroom? Yeah. Why do you know that? What is he doing them? What a weird combo of things to do. Rip your bed sheets and then hide under the blanket. Yeah.

It's like, well, you just ripped it. Yeah. We rip the sheet, blankets are fine. Yeah, true. It's hard to rip a blanket. It's harder to rip. Otherwise, I bet they would have ripped it and they'd be like, oh, now I can't hide under it. I'm going to hide.

And now I'm suddenly cold. Well, you shouldn't have ripped your blanket. Tell you what. One of the symptoms is being a little irrational, I think. Things went absolutely wild in the town. These are some of the reports of the hallucinations over the days that follow. So for days, people started experiencing these kinds of things.

Wow. A little girl screamed as she was chased by man-eating tigers. That's what she saw. Okay. A woman sobbed about how her children had been ground into sausages. Oh, my God. That one's a bit funny. Okay.

Oh, no, they're sausages. I'm imagining cartoon sausages. I think that's why. The specificity. Oh, yeah. They're still living in the sausages. Yeah, they're like, come-ah, mother. I'm off to school.

I'm a pork and fennel. Yeah. Mom, I'm a pork and fennel. That's the worst. She starts tearing her hair out. A large man fended off terrific beast by smashing his own furniture. Good. A husband and wife ran around chasing each other with kitchen knives.

That one, that's less that, no. I thought it was going to get you with that one. No, because that could end quite badly, couldn't it? Depends on what kind of kitchen knives. A butter knife. Yeah, I've done that. Or just like a table knife. Is that what you call a normal knife?

Yeah, table knife. I love how putting table at front of something makes it just the normal one. Why not just normal? Normal knife, normal spoon. Yeah. Tabelspoon. Is that a phrase? Yeah. There's a tablespoon, teaspoon.

It's fucked me up so much. I don't think there's table knife. What's tablespoon? Tablespoon's just the big spoon. That's a tablespoon. Okay. The one in the middle of like for serving a salad or something. No, that's a salad spoon.

Of course, tablespoon. Oh my God, am I hallucinating? Tablespoon. Teaspoon. You're right That's just a unit of measurement But for some reason I was putting a pause in between

Table Anyway that threw me up This is like the sugar bowl All over again I tried to make a cake or something I can't remember it was Maybe pancakes or something Yeah

And yeah that I'm like Wait what's a tablespoon What's a teaspoon It was obvious Like I had to Google it But it's like Yeah the teaspoon

But I also Because they shorten it to TPS And TBS And that's I'm like Hang on a second I'm really got a single going on here.

Tabelspoon. Table spoon. It just seems stupid. Unless the spoon has legs of pop out and it can form a table, then... Yeah, don't call you some table spoon. What? Yeah, it's like, you know, like a splayed as a combination. Yeah.

I just want to just quickly mention as well that for the many people who are inevitably going to, I'm actually, Matt and Dave here, can you leave me out of that tweet? What's the I'm actually? That there'll be a reason why it's called a... tablespoon and a teaspoon. Oh, wow. Wow, okay. Yeah.

Yeah, it's just because it's on the table. Yeah. And it's on the tea. Perfect. Do you guys call dinner tea? I did growing up. Yeah. Yeah, I also did growing up, but never anymore.

Not anymore, yeah, now it's dinner. Having tea. Yeah. I think I still call it tea. Tea time. Yeah. But wonder why that is. I don't know.

It doesn't matter. Yeah, we do that growing up, but now I just call it dinner. What's for tea? What's for tea? Yeah, what's for tea? We'll be home for tea. Yeah, I'll be home after tea Yeah

Yeah Yeah Yeah Well, I'll see you at like 6 o'clock What was I thinking You did grow up with you Nana and Pop That's right

And then you went and worked at a job For a long time Where you didn't get home Until like 8 o'clock 8 o'clock That's right Now I had dinner at 930 now Still?

Yeah I'll have dinner Sometimes I find myself eating dinner at midnight I'm like well I've stuffed today I've done I've been to get to this

All right, more hallucinations. A worker called Gabrielle Valadere tried to drown himself because his belly was being eaten by snakes. Whoa. He said, I am dead and my head is made of copper and I have snakes on my stomach

and they are burning me. That's how he described the feeling. Whoa. That's full on. He repeatedly screamed before attempting to throw himself in the river. Fortunately, he did not drown. A 60-year-old grandmother

threw herself against the wall and broke three of her own ribs. A man saw his heart escaping through his feet and beseeched a doctor to put it back in place. Someone's put LSD in the water or something. Near the Rhone River, a man convinced that he was a circus tightrope walker attempted to balance his way across the cables of a suspension bridge.

How wild is that? That's crazy. And succeeded? No news on that. No news on that. Let's say he succeeded. Yeah. Well, he didn't die, so.

Yeah, I believe. So he succeeded. Like if he hadn't succeeded, then he'd be dead. So if he's not dead, he succeeded. Yep, ipso facto. The people having these violent hallucinations had to be tied to beds or put in straight jackets for their own protection because they were, you know, hurting themselves, including our poster Leona mentioned earlier. Sadly, the attempts to restrain the people often added to the patient's agitation. Yeah.

Because they're already in a highly panic state and now they can't move and they're like, you know, absolutely hallucinating. That's all pretty awful stuff, but I am pleased to say some started hallucinating in a more positive way. Okay. According to the New York Times, some heard heavenly choruses, saw brilliant colors. The world looked beautiful to them. Oh, that's great. That's nice. Mental floss notes, it was an especially productive experience for the head of the local

farmer's co-op who began writing hundreds upon hundreds of pages of luminous poetry. Wow. It was a real inspo. Hundreds of pages. I wouldn't mind that. Yeah. That kind of reaction. You're happy with that, yeah.

I'd love some productivity. So imagine you write so much poetry, people are like, mate, I'm going to have to stop you there. I'm going to have to chain you to a bit of. Yeah, it's too much. This is dog shit. We could have stopped this. But he said luminous, or mental floss said luminous.

And that seems... Luminous poetry. It seems positive. But not everyone... Or was it luminous because it was so bad you'd light it on fire, creating some light. Lumination. Is that what luminous means?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, big time. But not everyone that were having bad hallucinations could be helped in time, and for most it was pretty horrific. again according to mental floss that has a long list of hallucinations people had one man leapt from a window

broke two legs stood up and then continue running Oh very injured That's what he sounded like as he read Oh Kept running Imagine bones are sticking out Pretty soon right

Whoa Yikes That live commentary live Whoa, yake Somebody stop this guy It was even reported The man believed himself to be an aeroplane

And died by jumping from a second story window Believed himself to be an aeroplane Imagine that That would be your dream Dave Wow, to believe that I'm an airplane Not to be one To be the Concord Yeah

Oh wow You'd have to saw higher than two stories Your arms become wings Your head a cockpit Oh wow My face becomes a droop snoot Yeah The landing?

Drup snoot. My droop snoot. Surely we did that. I don't think we did. We did. Come on. Wow. Finally.

That's why I was like, I'm going to keep doing French topics until one of us nails it. We've done it. Steps Club 7. Steeps Club. Ain't a party like a Steps Club party. So, there's various reports. We'll say there's conflicting numbers, but most people say over the next few days, five people, including an otherwise healthy 25-year-old man died. A lot of a few elderly people died from this incident.

Five in total is usually the number that people say. Right. So it's horrific. Something terrible has happened. People immediately began searching for answers. What had caused the outbreak of sickness and nightmarish hallucinations? Well, many early theories were put forward. The New York Times notes that people at the time were asking, was the fact that the arm of a

statue of the Virgin had been torn off during a storm the previous May? Was that an omen of divine retribution? No. I don't think so. Some people were saying that. So this happened in August and in May several months earlier, a storm had damaged a statue several months earlier. Yeah. And everyone today's the day.

And it got around to it, you know? Yeah. So a storm damaged it. Yeah, not the people. Which is divine. Yeah. So why punish the people? Surely you'd punish yourself.

I hope they're hallucinating upstairs as well. Well, this is... That's probably all they're doing up there, you know what I mean? Sitting around. You've got nothing but time. Yeah. What else would you do? And yet you wait until August.

Yeah. True. Well, they probably did it to themselves first. Yeah, okay. It took a while to recover. I'm going to say it's probably not that one. Well, that's actually my number one theory. Okay, well, you and I are different people, so...

Okay. Well, here's another 20 paragraphs about the Virgin Mary. They're not true. Your favourite, Mary. because you are a virgin. Yes. Yeah, solidarity, sister. Got him.

Two local doctors investigated the epidemiology of the disease, and fairly quickly, the culprit was something the French are still famous for. Wine. Bread. Bread. Bread. Cheese. Yeah, okay, they've got a few things.

Yeah, because you would sort of be going, okay, well, it's affected all of these people. What's something that they could have all come in contact with? So you would be going like something in water. Air. Yeah, is a sort of gas leak. The Virgin Mary obviously lost her hand three months ago. So let's look into that quite rigorously. We've all got hands.

Bread. Something with the yeast? Yes, so, because, you know, there's a town of 4,400 people have gone down with sickness. Yeah. You think there's going to be some sort of yeast infection? Yeah. Jeez. Wow.

On the 19th of August, so this is a few days later, they came to the conclusion that bread was to blame. All patients interrogated had purchased their bread from Rosh Brow. Rian's bakery. Everyone had purchased their bread from Wacky Wheels, hallucinatory bakery, raidery. Come down and try the mystery bread. I found it on a truck. I've had, whoa, have a go.

Have we go. I've had some and I feel a bit weird. I'm going to say, though, haven't had 400 customers. Pretty good. Yeah. That's pretty good, Rush. That's a great deal. I mean, even like, like, you know, let's say it's not 400.

It's, you know, might be people within the same family. That's still, you know, you'd feel pretty good. A hundred customers in a day, that's a great day for a bakery. For a bakery? Yeah. In a town of what, 5,000? 4,000 people. 4,000 people.

Yeah. Like those odds. Yeah, you're doing great. So 10% of the town have been to your bakery. Fantastic. I'll take that. Though, famous for their bread, they love bread. They love bread.

So you've got to get bread somewhere. Maybe there's 10 bakeries. They've got an even split. I don't know. That'd be nice. They love a French stick over there, don't they? They love a French stick. My favorite kind of bread is a French stick.

Yeah, that's all they eat. French sticks. They love a French stick. A little bit of French onion dip. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I love French onion dip. Or as they call it, French onion dip.

They probably don't have that. The summer of 1951 was unusually wet, and that year's rye crop was expected to fall short. Earlier in the month, the baker, Rochbriard, had received a supply of strangely gray flour. It seemed a bit off, but at the time the government had control over the grain supply chain. It seemed a bit off, but oh well.

I don't know enough about flour. But grey sounds like a bad colour for most foods. It's a bit off, isn't it? The system did not allow the bakers to choose which millers they would work with, even if they discovered flaws in the flour. Low quality flour would often be sent from far away regions, and when it arrived, if the baker wanted to complain about the quality of flour, that have to shut up shop for multiple days

until a union chemist could come by and test it. Understandably, when this is the livelihood, people didn't want to do this. So he's like, all right, I guess I use this crappy flour. This is what I've been given. And this is only a few years after World War II. So there's still pretty poor, a lot of austerity going on. So he's like, all right, if I complain about this flower,

you know, I don't get paid this week, so I'm going to bake. The bread was an early theory, and local bakers were briefly shut down as the media stirred up a bit of hysteria. The Paris press wrote at the time, The baker whom we visit every day, the grocer we go to regularly. Are they not, after all, maniacs or potential killers

of whom we must be aware? Are they not after all maniacs? Makes you think. Yeah, that's a very level-headed response to this. A few people have gotten sick from this baker, so is everyone trying to kill you? That feels like a current affair ad or something. Yeah.

It's also like if they were trying to kill you, I reckon they would have used poison. Yeah. Not an hallucinogenic. Not grey flower. So the local baker responsible was declared to be Rochbriard, who had opened the flower and saw it was grey, looked a bit wrong,

but he had no other means of making that morning's baguettes and proceeded to bake and sell his wares as usual. Is that how it's pronounced? baguette but is it does the French because I know you've been to France a lot do the French say baguettes

I do absolutely not I just thought I'm like is another one of those words I say wrong Matt looked at me so concerned he was going crazy because neither

I hadn't said anything either and he looked at me like what what's happening I've been making a fool of myself I thought my perfect French accent was getting everything right That's why I stay safe and call them French sticks.

One French stick, mate. Sorry, I've, I emphasised the first syllable with a little too much. But anyway, he's baked his bread. He's baked as usual. So that's what's happened. What kind of bread? Beiggette. Begegette.

On the 23rd of August, so this is all happening within about a week, a judge of inquiry opened a formal investigation and tasked commissaire George Sago with finding the cause of the mass poisoning event the tainted bread made by Briand was only made with four ingredients flour, yeast, water and salt all of the ingredients but the flour

could be easily discounted as the source of the illness so like it's not the water because everyone's been drinking the water it's not the yeast or the salt they've discounted those the flour it must be the flour that's what they've decided the main theory was that the bread had resulted in ergot poisoning or ergotism in those that ingested it. Oh, they got ergot.

They got the ergot. Emmy. What are the other ones? Oscar trainee, but we've got to get an R in there as well. Razi. Razi. Oh, yeah. Hard to get an Oscar and a Razi in the same year.

I wondered if there's anyone who's got the Razi plus the Ego. Oh, that'd be amazing. I reckon there'd be, yeah, there'd be definitely some have done, got positive and negative ones. I don't think the full leg got Yeah I think when Hallie Berry won So she'd already won an Oscar by the time She won a Razzie I think she turned up at the ceremony with her Oscar statue

That's pretty funny To accept it Very funny Very funny Now while Matt does a bit of Google I'll tell you what ergotism is Please Ergotism is a form of poisoning

From ingesting grains Typically rye that have been infected by And here we go A bit of science talk here I'm going to attempt this The Asser As the Assam my

Fuck it It's a fungus A fungus A fungus called Claviseps Purpouray Okay I can't even pronounce

Baguette How am I gonna fucking say this word? Hey Dav I've got good news Two Egot winners Are also Razzie winners They're Orgot Who are they

Composer Alan Mencken Recently won a Daytime Emmy Award For Best Original Song And a Children's Young Adult or animated program, blah, blah, blah, which officially made him a member of the elite group of people who've scored an egot.

Those, oh, no. However, Mencken joined an even more exclusive club at the same time, individuals with a re-got, those who have won a Golden Raspberry Award, aka a Razzie, as well as the standard egot. Explains what a Razzie is. Oh, my God. So Mencken, how does Mencken win? What do they say worst song?

A Razi for worst song? That seems brutal. Mencken received his Razi for the song High Times, Hard Times, from the musical Newsies in 1993. The same year he won an Oscar for Best Original Song for a Whole New World from Aladdin. Wow, big year. This feat made him the first person in history to score a Razi

and an Oscar in the same year. Liza Manelli was the other one. She got her Razi in 1988 for Arthur II. On the Rocks and Rent a cop. She won her Emmy in 1973. I didn't know they did an Arthur 2. Arthur 2 on the rocks. Oh, that's bad.

Arthur 2 back in the habit would have been way better. Way better. I think On the Rocks is my new sequel thing. On the Rocks. Does that beat Secret of the U's? Yes. No, Secret of the U's is pretty good. I think it beats my standard, which is Judgment Day.

Oh, yeah. Judgment Day is pretty good. Arthur II, Judgment 2 is pretty good. That's perfect. On the rocks. So they've said a regut, but we're going with ergot. Ergot, yes. Yes.

Yes. So you get ergotism from ingesting grains that have been infected by this fungus. According to the Smithsonian, Ergot is a parasitic fungus that thrives on rye under certain climate conditions. Right. Cold winters followed by an especially rainy growing season, which is what they had. And it manifests itself as oversized violet grain. protruding from the head of the plant. Lysergic acid, the active component in the fungus, was used to create LSD.

Oh. So it has a sort of relation to LSD. Which we learn a bit about Dave on a podcast recently. That's right. We were a guest on the Sci Guys podcast, which is a lot of fun. And we're going to talk more about LSD and we talked about on that episode in just a few moments. Epidemics of Ergotism were identified throughout history. Recorded as early as 857, so quite a long time ago,

a great plague of swollen blisters consumed the people by a loathsome rot so that their limbs were loosened and fell off before death. Oh, is that what happened to the statue of Virgin Mary? Baby, yes, eurgatism. Because apparently it gives you this hallucinations, but it can also, if you have a terrible dose of it, cause blood vessels to constrict and you get gangrene in your extremities and then bits of, you know, your body fall off, your legs, your toes, then your foot, that kind of stuff.

Yeah. If you don't treat the gangrene. So it's really awful stuff. Awful. In the Middle Ages, the gangrenous poisoning was known as Holy Fire or St. Anthony's Fire, named after monks of the Order of St. Anthony, who were particularly successful at treating the ailment. So, yeah, Holy Fire or St. Anthony's Fire. It's a badass name.

It also possibly links back to a couple of our previous topics. one being the Salem witch trials. Some historians have even suggested that the erratic behavior in several young Puritan girls was brought on by Urget Poisoning although this is heavily debated. Yeah, right.

Some people say that's a theory, so why they're acting that way? Some people say it's a theory. Bloody hell. Can you believe that? I'm closing the book on it. That's enough for me. The other previous report topic

is the dancing plague of 1518, which some argue, again, was brought on by food poisoning caused by the toxic and psychoactive chemical products. But this wasn't hundreds of years ago. This was 1951 that this happened in. Yeah, the same year that team won the... That's like the Claxton.

The Claxton Cup. Yeah, the same year Darrell Summers was born. Holy shit. The world changed that day. For better or worse, I don't know. Only time will tell. The jury's still out. Several investigations were conducted by law enforcement and medical experts

to trace the source of the poisonous bread, but none of them were conclusive. One of them posited that the sacks of flour had been transported unhygienically in polluted train cars. Another inquiry determined that fuel leaks from nearby factories contaminated the local water supply. But if this was true, people wanted why the poisoning wasn't more widespread. It was just these people at a bakery,

not everyone drinks of water. One of the investigations found that the contamination had been caused by the presence of mercury and pesticides used in the rye fields or caused by Panogen, a cleaning agent used in wheat containers. So there's rival theories, including American-born historian Stephen L. Kaplan, who was a man who literally wrote the book on the subject. His 1100-page book called cursed bread, returning to the forgotten years in France,

1945 to 1958, came out in 2008. 1100 pages. Cursed bread. Curse bread. Nobody thought to workshop that type. a little bit. I love it. So if you've got a problem with it.

Take it up with Kaplan. No, I was on the committee. I'm being a bit defensive here, but I was one of the people who are okayed the title. Cursed bread. Curst bread. The more you're sad, more it's going on now. Are you wanting to be taken seriously though, or is it a bit funny? Is it a funny book?

It's a funny book, Bob. Oh, then that great. It's a real page turn of you. I love it. Curse bread. A hilarious rump through the history of French breadmaking system. a specific 11 year period. Such a strange, was it, yeah, strange amount of time to be talking bread.

I reckon once I was getting up to the 11,000 pages, I'd be like, I might just shrink this down to maybe two or three years. Yeah, yeah, this is a bit much. I'd be like, what am I doing? Kaplan, get an editor. Yeah. So Kaplan does not believe that ergotism was the cause of the hallucinations in the town. According to him, Urget contamination would not have affected only one sack of grain in a

single bakery, but would have been more widespread across the area, across France in general. You know, that you don't just, it's not just one crop becomes one bag, you know, it's multiple bag. That's a good point. I'm with him. What's his name? Kaplan. I'm on board with Kaplan here.

Cause you are. Whatever he says next, I agree with. Of course you are. Yeah. The names of the other bakers disappeared from the list of suspects, but Roch-Briand was arrested and his bakery shut down. What? But by the time the police investigation had named his bakery as a place of interest,

it was too late for any conclusive testing as he had since either used or thrown away his flour. Not going to keep it forever. So no test could be carried out to conclusively say his bread was the source of the outbreak. Did he have any more bread? Test the bread? Had he eaten the bread? Yeah, that day's bread. By the time they'd worked it out, he'd moved on to the next day's bread, the next flower.

So I don't think it's suspicious like him destroying evidence. I think he literally kept running his business. and by the police worked out, it could be him. They're like, oh. The cops rock up and he's flushing begets down the toilet. This is not what it looks like. I'll do this every day. Sadly for Roche, he was forced to close his bakery after the scandal,

and it never reopened. And I've seen photos of where the bakery used to be. It's still abandoned to this day. Wow, really? That's brutal. Yeah. In this economy? I haven't put something else in there?

He was booming. And just because he got some dodgy flour and didn't think to not use it. Oh, yeah, okay. That's maybe fair enough. But that's not the only book and only theory that has been put forward. Multiple books have been written about this. All the great titles?

Yeah, and they better have at least 11,000 pages. Otherwise, are we paying attention to them, really? Have they taken it seriously? In 2009, the year after Cursed Bread came out, American investigative journalist, Hank Elberrelli, published A Terrible Mistake, a book that addresses the mystery surrounding the death of Frank Olson, a bacterial a bacteriologist employed by the American military and the CIA. Whoa, hang on. Hang on a second.

I got your attention? This is sounding a little M.K. Ultra-Listic. Oh, this is M.K. UltraListic. Let me tell you about that. Frank Olson, big time M.K. Ultra. We'll talk about that in just a second. But in the book, Elberelli, who's the writer of a terrible mistake, revealed a CIA. document labeled. This is what it says. Re, Pointe, St. Esprit, and F. Olson files. It says, France Operation File, Inclusive Olson, Intel file. So these are all labels.

Hand carry to Bellin, tell him to see that these are buried. I'll break that down a little bit. So F. Olson there is Frank Olson, a CIA scientist who at the time of the Pont-Sanprey incident led research for the agency into the drug LSD. We'll talk more about F. Olson, Frank Olson in a minute. Ballon, it says hand carry to Ballon, David Bellin was the executive director of the Rockefeller Commission created by the White House in 1975 to investigate abuses carried out worldwide by the CIA.

Okay. So it says, this file's labeled Ponsent Espri, F. Olson F. Olson files, hand carried to Bellin tell him to see that these are buried. Holy shit. They've used this little French town as an experiment? Cover this up. Cover this up. Whoa.

According to the BBC, El Borrelli, who wrote the book, believes the Ponce Espri and F. Olsen Files mentioned in the document would show if they had not been, quote, buried that the CIA... flushed down the toilet. Yeah, with the baguettes. That the CIA was experimenting on the townspeople by dosing them with LSD. Whoa. So he's found the label of the file, but unfortunately the contents of the file no longer exists.

And he's gone, hang on a second. This is a bit crazy. The conclusion drawn at the time was that one of the town's bakeries, the one owned by Rushbriyan, was the source of the poisoning. It's possible, El Breli says in his book, that LSD was put in the bread. So it was the bread, but it wasn't the bad flour. He says that they were purposefully doped. Wow.

And they've just let him take the fall. Possibly. The baker. Because it's well documented that biological warfare scientists around the world were experimenting with LSD in the early 1950s, a time of conflict in Korea and an escalation of Cold War tensions. Why France? An ally of theirs at the time.

That's right. But I guess also it's a small town. You can maybe, if this is true, if you do believe this theory, that it's very easy to deny any responsibility. Yeah, why would we have, you sound like a conspiracy theorist. Why would we be doing that in France? In a tiny little town. Yeah.

So weird. Gaslight them. Yeah. Yeah. This happened in 1951. Only a couple of years before the CIA started the incredibly controversial and illegal project MK Ultra that Matt mentioned. And that we've done a Patreon bonus episode on it many years ago. So we have briefly discussed it.

And we've also talked to. Briefly discussed it, Dave. I did a lot of research in that. And you remember how much? Well, I mean, that doesn't. You just, you know, being a bit snooty there. I think you've been researching French stuff too much. It's not just a little report.

I did a full report on it. Yeah. And I think you should pay it as dues, please. I apologize. But MK. Altrey, it went for 20 years. There's so many things you could have talked about. And I did. Yeah, okay.

I forgot it was an 18-hour banus episode. God, we wanted to leave that day. He would not let it. Shut this guy up. But just to recap, MK. because I'm sure you remember this, Jess, was an illegal human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA, intended to develop procedures and identified drugs

that could be used in interrogations to weaken individuals and force confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture. Ah, that was what I was about. I mean, you said in 18 hours, I said in one fucking paragraph. Bit of editing. It's not that hard. You would write an 1100 page book about bread. I would too.

The bread curse. 1100 pages. Matt said before 11,000 pages. Yeah, yeah. And I honestly, you lost me for a while because I was imagining what that would look like. So I was like, just like, you think about a book, it's like 300 pages. That's fairly thick. It's up to the ceiling.

I know, but it would still have to be like book size, right? Or is it now also like table size? I love those. You know, there are huge books in places sometimes. Yeah. Are they called libraries? You know, like, you sort of like wobble them almost, and they sort of just like, you could knock the cover off one

and it hit the floor and the rest of the book. Yeah. We'd just slowly follow it down. Yeah. Like a slinky. Far out. Imagine that. Imagine that.

Imagine that. Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. Imagine. I don't want to. It's too much. Too much excitement for one day.

Oh. 1,100 pages well. 1100 is still a lot. It's not 11,000, but 11,000, it just doesn't make any sense, Matt. How would you sell that in a bookstore? Well, I mean, no one's buying that book, yes, no matter the size. Cursed bread. Curst bread, you're 11,000.

But if you're going to do it, do it properly. I mean, just make the font bigger. That's what I would have done. Right. Okay, just make the font 10 times bigger. Yeah. Bada bitty-bub. Yeah.

Get some illustrations. Draw the bread. Yeah, imagine how big the bread you could, you know, you just draw it. That's a long French stick bread. So you just do it, you know, PTO. That's just the bread continues. PTO. It's kind of long.

Yeah. Beautiful big baguette. Delicious. Absolutely. So M.K. Ultra. Yes. Kicked off in 1953, only two years after this event. Continued on for two decades and they did heaps of dodgy shit,

experimenting with drugs on unwitting participants, over 7,000 American veterans took part in these experiments non-consensually during the 1950s through 1970s. And in the US, they'd been experimenting on their population even before 1953. In 1951, the US Navy undertook a secret biological warfare experiment in which two types of bacteria were sprayed over the San Francisco Bay area in California in order to determine how vulnerable a single. city like San Francisco may be to a bioweapon attack. People have no idea that's going on. They just release it from a Navy ship.

Just absolutely incredible that a country would do that to itself. Or to anyone. And they claimed that they thought the bacteria was harmless to humans. But 11 residents checked into Stanford Hospital in San Francisco with very, very rare and very serious urine retract infections. Ten recovered, but one person died and many people think it's because of the bacteria. Holy shit. had a reaction to it.

That sucks. I'm actually pretty anti-CIA right now. Are you? After that? Okay. Was that Sierra? That's a bit of a hot take. Oh, that's the Navy.

Okay. I'm anti-Navy right now. Okay. What color would you say you are? Royal Blue. Yeah, the opposite. Beautiful. I'll never accept you.

Outside of the color wheel. Jess, you must hate the Navy as well. That's where submarines are. I just hate submarines. I don't hate the Navy. Yeah. I love Navy, it's a beautiful colour on me. You don't hate the player, you hate the game.

That's right, I just hate submarines. The game of submarines. I don't hate them. I think they're dumb. There's a difference. I don't hate you, Matt. Okay, well, that's... Dave, do go on.

I'm glad you finally clarified that because that's been hanging in the air for years now. The US have, it turns out, when I'm looking into this, experimented so often on their own people, they are literally too many to mention. There is... That French website, that has French celebrities, they also list of times the United States illegally experimented on their own people. There's a page on that website for some reason. And there are dozens of examples. Land of the free. Land of the free. But I just wanted to mention that one because it shows that they

were already experimenting on mass population before 1953, in 1951, same year when people allegedly ate the bread that made them hallucinate in France. According to the BBC, which has a great article in this article in this article in his book, Hank Elberrelli, the journalist that says the CIO, was involved, says he has found a top secret report issued in 1949 by the research director of Edgewood Arsenal, where many US government LSD experiments were carried out, which states that the army should do everything possible to launch, quote, field experiments using the drug. This still from a BBC article. Using Freedom of Information legislation, El Borrelli also got hold of another CIA report from 1954. In it, an agent reported his

conversation with the representative of the Sandos chemical company in Switzerland. Sandos's base, which is just a few hundred kilometres from Ponce-Spris, was the only place where LSD was being produced at that time. The agent reports in his conversation that after several drinks, the Sand-D.' representative abruptly stated, quote, the Pond-San-Espray secret is that it was not the bread at all. It was not grain ergot. What was it then? He didn't elaborate further. Oh, okay, great.

Give us some information, but nothing relevant. He's not saying what it's not. But, you know, is he hinting that's LSD? Yeah, that's what I got out of that. But then what about the grey flower? It was just grey flower? That's it? Yeah, I mean, it possibly was just dodgy flour, yeah.

The grey flower is actually cement. That's why the begets were a little hard bet. But they love a hard bread. They're like, you know. Krusty. They want it to have a, A bit of fight, you know? A bit of...

That's such a funny way to put it. But how do you say, how do you say, fight? I've never heard that before. That's great. Yeah, we don't want to... Oh, yeah, we don't want that to be easy. No. We want the meal to fight back a little bit.

I want a challenge. Yeah, that's right. I like to weaponise my meal. Give it a chance. As for Frank Olson, who was supposedly named in the CIA report as F. Olson, remember? Remember? Remember said his name? Well, we now know he was a part of MK Ultra and was also a part of Operation C spray in San Francisco where they sprayed the bacteria on the people.

So this guy's got, you know, he's got, he's got previous. He's got runs on the board. He also worked on developing a number of lethal aerosols in handy-sized containers. They were disguised as shaving cream and insect repellents and contained deadly things like anthrax. The Guardian writes that further weapons he was working on include, included a cigarette lighter, which gave out an almost instant lethal gas. Ooh. A lipstick that would kill on contact with skin.

Great. And a neat pocket spray for asthma sufferers that induced pneumonia. Whoa. I love how they've described it as a neat pocket spray. They all sound like, you know, Bond. They do sound like Bond. Absolutely. The queue of work has come up with.

More evil probably than what they would normally do. He's a lipstick that'll kill you. Yeah. And they always have fun names, lipsticks. I have one that's called Lady Danger. So that one could just be called Killer. Yeah, Lady Killer. Lady Killer.

Lady Danger is fantastic. It's a beautiful colour. I'm just looking out my report on MK. Ultra. Yeah, Frank Olsen's mentioned quite a lot. Dave, you don't have to go back over all this. Is he actually mentioned quite a lot? Yeah. The experiments continue.

I'll take it from here. Start reading yours again. So he was involved in some pretty top secret shit, and he later joined MK. Ultra before he himself suffered a very mysterious and suspicious death in 1953. You don't say. When he fell from a window, the 13th floor of a Manhattan hotel. The family of Frank Olson decided to have a second autopsy performed in 1994.

Tell me, I've mentioned the name Frank Olson. That induced no memory from you. No, I did not. No, right in the back of my head. But no, not really. When was MK Ultra? When did we do it? Yeah.

Oof. I think it's about four years ago. Was it a bonus or was it a bonus episode? I mean, still. Nothing. Isn't that amazing? No, it's concerning. No, I think we talk about so much stuff.

We talk about so much stuff. And I care about so little that what am I going to retain? That's a good point. Well, I've got a little bit on Frank Olsenit, just because I didn't remember any of that. Sorry, Dave, I'm being a smart ass here. But I think I've covered it. Well, sorry to rehash old shit, but I was like, this is really interesting. Yeah, sorry for everybody who's heard the bonus episode.

but we are going to have to rehash some of it. Yeah, yeah. It's also since become a Netflix show about his life. Really? Like a mini series on Frank Olson. What's it called? It's a great name, Frank Olson, I think. I forgot what it's called, directed by, directed by that great.

I doubt of it. Yeah, it's not, I think it's a great name. It's a great name. It's directed by that great, uh, hang on, um, wormwood. Oh, directed by Errol Morris, the great documentary maker. Wormwood.

I've heard of Wormwood. Well, that was in 2017, so maybe we did it after anyway. We'll check the date on that. So at the time, Frank Olson's family were told he either jumped or fell. Yeah. From the window. But there are questions over that narrative, according to The Guardian, that have a whole article on Frank Olson that I'll link to,

which was published after your report, Matt, so hopefully this is new information to some. Leaving the police officers, the night manager returned to the lobby and on a hunch, asked the telephone operator if any calls had recently been made from Room 1018A where he'd been. Yes, she replied, and she had eavesdropped, not an uncommon practice in an era when hotel phone calls will run through a switchboard. Someone in the room had called a number on Long Island, which was listed as belonging to someone called Dr. Harold Abramson, a distinguished physician, less well known as an LSD expert and one of the CIA's medical collaborators. The caller said, well, he's gone. Abramson replied, well, that's too bad. Holy shit.

Also, if I was a switchboard operator then, 100% I'd be. Oh, he'd be listening to so much. I'd be listening to everything. I was a switchboard operator for a while, but I couldn't stay on the line. That's a huge disappointment. Oh, right, where you were just like, I'll put you through now. Yeah, I'd just put them through. And you'd pull out the cords and put it into a different hole and that sort of stuff.

But I didn't have to. It all works. Right. Yeah. Still is the holes and the chords thing? Yeah. Plug and holes. Definitely not just a button on a phone.

No. Also, that was like 2010. Why did they have switchboard operators in an insurance company? Why couldn't it just be press one for this? It was literally two options. Should have just been press one for this, press two for this. Oh, right. But that was your job. They say, you say either this or this?

Yeah. You're unhappy that they employed you. Interesting. True. And it was mostly weekends because I was doing it while I was at uni. And one time I took my laptop in and just played the Sims. Oh, fantastic. Well, everybody else around me,

I was working really hard, and I just sat there playing the Sims. Yeah, a real team player. You've always had been. Okay, that hurts. There's somebody on my team. Yeah, well, we're here doing a podcast. It should be noted that Jess's laptop is open, and she's playing the Sims right now. Yeah, she's making them spork.

And I'm winning. Or whatever. Spork? What's the word? Woo-hoo. Well, that's way off. Spork? Spork. Spork.

Spork, okay. Spork. Okay. Hodler. Spock. Spock. Can you fill out that thought a little bit. No, just imagining what a sport would feel like.

Any day now. So I've got a little bit more on Frank Olson because I was just like, what the fuck? The CIA later revealed that before Olson died, he had met some CIA colleagues for a retreat in an isolated spot in Maryland, a bit of a week earlier. Nine people were there including Sydney Gottlieb who headed MK Ultra. The Guardian writes that Gottlieb's deputy, Lassbrook, produced a bottle of Quantrow and poured glasses for the company. Several, including Olson, drank heartily. After 20 minutes, Gottlieb'd asked if anyone was feeling odd. Several said they were.

Gottlieb then told them that he'd spiked their drinks with LSD. Bit of party fun. Wow, bit of fun. Everyone was annoyed by this big reveal, but Olson was especially outraged before the hallucinations took over. He returned home a few days later to his family a changed man and blurted out to his wife, I've made a terrible mistake,

which is why that book is called A Terrible. mistake. Right. Nine days later, he fell from the window. At the time, he was reportedly thinking of leaving MK. Ultra, which was super duper top secret in its infancy with only about two dozen people knowing about it at the time. But Olson had seen some horrific stuff and knew many, many secrets and was reportedly

trying to get out. Since his death, people have speculated, was he murdered? Definitely. Or was it suicide because of the LSD he'd been poisoned with, causing him to have a breakdown? No, it was killed. No, he was murdered? And was he involved with poisoning Ponce Espri with LSD? Yeah, definitely.

There is evidence that he was possibly in France at the time. Yeah, because he was doing it. And then he finally got a taste of his own medicine quite literally. It went, oh, that was bad. Actually, that was awful. I don't want to be involved in this. Actually, I hate Quantro. Orange is disgusting flavor.

People say, but it was probably a coincidence he was in France, as he often spent time working in Europe. But other people say, no, he did it. Yeah. Yeah, he did it. He did it. Those people are saying, nah, he did it because he did do it.

Yeah. But not everyone agrees on Al Borrelli's theory about LSD and the CIA's involvement. They're wrong. Yeah. The people who don't agree are in on it. Yeah. Because they do agree, but they're saying they don't. I don't agree.

They're covering their own tracks. Well, Kaplan, the guy who published the massive bread book in 2008. 11,000 pages. Cursed bread. Cursed bread. He published in 2008. He insists that LSD could not have been responsible. Of course, because he's all about the bread.

Yeah, the man loves bread. He loves bread. Well, he also doesn't think that it was ergot poisoning either. He hates bread. What does he think, then? What does he think? Why call it curse bread if you hate bread? Fuck it. I'm mad at this guy.

He rules out LSD on the grounds that the symptoms people suffered, though similar, he says, do not quite fit the drug. He told France 24 News Society in 2010, I have numerous objections to this paltry evidence against the CIA. First of all, it's clinically incoherent. LSD takes effect in just a few hours, whereas the inhabitants showed symptoms only after 36 hours or more. Furthermore, LSD does not cause the digestive elements

or the vegetative states described by the townspeople. Okay. Digested elements? I'm so easily swung. Yeah. No, digestive ailments. Remember, they all had like diarrhea and vomiting and stuff like that? He's like, people with LSD don't usually get that.

And they were all, I mean that. Whatever Dave finishes with, I'll be like, oh, that was the real life. You are easy to sway. But the, I mean, is it possible that they had LSD and something else, like grey bread? And that gave them the diarrhea. Diarrhea from the bread and hallucinations from the LSD. Yeah. Which is also in the bread.

Two things are going to happen at once. Yeah. Elberle also points out that it could not have, that LSD could not have survived the fierce temperatures of the baker's oven. But then Kastin counters that by saying, yeah, they could have just added it to the bread after baking. Yeah. You know, it's like that dusting. Yeah. A little dusting.

Flour dusting could have been. LSD. Is LSD? Is that a dustable substance? Maybe. It's more of a liquid, isn't it? You soak the papers in and stuff. Okay.

Druggy McAdroids down over here? Tell us more. Tell us where's your stash. And say it into the microphone. I just, I'm only going off. Because last month we did a science podcast. You did smell of a day. And they, they,

were talking about it a lot as we were doing LSD and what they were saying. It was very generous podcast. Yeah. We did over Zoom, so I don't know how they did it. So it's like a, it's a digital thing. He told us to lick the screen. Wow. Is that all right, Corey?

I'm doing it. Kaplan also, as I said, rules out ergotism. But as far as I can work out, he doesn't have the answer as to what actually did cause the mouse poison. So he's saying it's not the LSD. It's not ergotism. But he's bringing no new theories. That's right.

He's just ruling out other stuff. God, he must be fun at a dinner party. Captain Negative over there. No. No. Incorrect. How about you rule something in? Yeah.

Well, I'm sorry to reveal that this... I'm not... I know we're playing charades. I'll tell you what, you're not acting out right now. Can't you just guess the movie I'm acting? No. It's certainly not Shinla's list, though. It's not 101 Dalmatians.

Yeah. It's not... So many fucking movies. He's just listing all the ones it is. He's such a piece of shit. It's not Rocky 2. It's not Rocky 3. It's a Rocky 1?

It's not Rocky 4. Is it fucking Rocky 1? It's not Rocky 5. It's not Rocky 1. Oh, okay, good. Shit. That was my guess. But he doesn't know what did it.

And I'm pleased to reveal that it's a mystery episode. Yes. Well, is it? Because I think we know that it's MK Ultra. But do we know that, man? See, he's so easy to sway. Yeah, that's right. Do you know that?

No, I guess I don't. And do you want to say, on the record, do you think it was the CIA? No, I love the CIA on the record. Yes. Love them. Love the Navy. Royal Blue. I was joking about that.

That color can fuck off. Navy all the way. Yeah. Yeah. No, I love it. Honestly, I love everything and everyone. And it's hard. But...

You love Hitler. Got him. Fucking smoked him. Say it. Go on. Say you just lied. I say you love everything and everyone. Okay, I lied.

I don't love Hitler. You got me. Do you love everything else? Yes. So you love Nazis. Nah. That's funny. Is that on the table?

terms. On the side guys podcast, Cori pronounces Nazis, Nazis. I'm like, you've made it so cute. Yeah, it's fun. Sounds like a little cookie or something. Pass the Nazis. Want a Nazi with your cup of milk?

Cup of warm milk and a Nazi? Thanks for popping over. Hey, before you go, have a couple of Nazis. Take some home for the kids. Shortbread, Monte Carlo, Nazi. Stupid. Thatsy. We're out of penguins.

We've got some Nazis. A couple for the road. What a penguins. They're sort of Tim Tammy type of. Oh, yeah, yeah. So to this day, 70 plus years later, some are still calling on the French government to set up an inquiry to get to the bottom of what actually happened. Yeah.

People are not happy with it. Honestly, there's got, have the French government? they not done a big inquiry into this? They've done multiple. Okay. And you've talked about them for the last hour or so? Yes, but they all have different, they're like, maybe it was this, maybe. Nothing's conclusive and they all sort of contradict each other. And then that was between the early 50s to early 70s and since then it's sort of just been swept under the rug. Right. Science has come on a bit since then. But is anyone still living? Any of the key players? Some very young people. I think a few years ago, who's the man that's the mayor of the town about 10 years

ago came out and spoke to the BBC over their article and stuff like that because he was a child in the town at the time at like four or five years old and it really left a big scar on the town because a lot of people recovered but then a few people sort of it ruined their lives. Yeah, the baker for one. I know, I feel bad for him. But also some of the people was so badly poisoned that they couldn't go back to their, you know, their jobs and things like that. Yeah, their regular lives.

They couldn't do it anymore because they'd been so profoundly affected. by the hallucinations and, you know, it triggered something in their brains. Well, I hope the CIA learnt something, you know, not, I'm not talking about this in particular. Sure. So surely they didn't do that. Just generally. That would be wild if the CIA did this.

Yeah. Like that would be, it would be wild. Yeah. It's like, it's like, ethics just don't apply. That's crazy. So can't, that's why I can't. It's hard to believe that that is possible that this was done on purpose. I also was shocked when I read that thing about them just spraying San Francisco with a bacteria.

No, they definitely could have done it, but it is just wild that they... Yeah, because I was reading that going, no, what the fuck? Yeah. And that poor baker just being a scapegoat. Yeah, you've blamed and then just never recovering a business. Being a patsy. He's a patsy. Do you want a couple of patsies before you go?

Patsy or a taxi or... No, I shouldn't. I shouldn't. I just had a Terry's chocolate. orange, you know. A bit full. It's not Terry's. It's mine.

I love your culture. If it was the bread, as to whether it could happen again, thankfully that's very unlikely these days. Ergotism is extremely rare, although it does pop up from time to time in very poverty-stricken places, but not very much anymore. And Liza Minnelli. Yes, that's right. God bless her.

In France, there were now. rules regulating the quality of bread that are taken very seriously. I learned this. Introduce in the early 1990s, the so-called baguette laws state that for any place to have the right to call itself a boulangerie, like a French bakery, they must bake bread on the same premises they're sold, and each baguette must include only four ingredients, flour, water, yeast and salt. So they all have to make their own bread from scratch. It's like the German beer purity laws. Yeah. It totally is. I love it.

There can be no preservatives or additives, and it can't be frozen at any stage. And there are even rules as to how long, wide and high there should be. It should be about 65 centimetres long to be a standard baguette. Wow, that's big. Suddenly, I found myself looking at a bunch of baguette facts. Oh my God. Yum. Just tell me if this is fun or just yum.

Can we get baguettes for lunch? Is there anywhere that sells baguettes? Remember at the old studio, there was a bakery across the road that sold baguettes. Oh, yeah. Was it just a baguette or did it have stuff in it? I think they had stuff in it? Oh my God, yeah.

Yeah, okay. We're turning off the mic. Maybe some frommage. Yes. What does that mean? Cheese. Okay. Yeah, fantastic.

Fantastic. I went, the first I went to France, France. France. France. The first day, we went out, had baguettes with camember and mustard. Yep. And it was so freaking good. Yeah.

So simple, hardly anything, but just so good. So good. My friends and I sat under the Eiffel Tower with baguettes and cheese and probably ham and like just a bunch of things, just eating a little picnic. Heaven. We, we, we. Beautiful day. Great food, great food. Hovent.

Probably. Probably means heaven. Probably. If it does it. I can basically speak French. Le havent. The heaven. You know what it is?

Paradise. Oh, I mean, that's basically the thing I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Paradise. Working off the same. Paradis. I forgot that half the other song. You put an L in there.

Paradie. No. You put a G in there. Pamadie. Oh, no. It's so offensive. Well, here we go. Let's get ready for our main course with some.

Baget facts. Yum. In France, there are 30,000 boulangeries. They all, that's people that are ticking these boxes. Man, I want to go to a boulogerie. Every day in France, more than 30 million baguettes are sold and eaten. 30 million. I thought when I was in France, I thought it was the funniest thing that, you know, the French stereotype as a kid, you know, the cartoon character of a French person.

It's wearing a stripy shirt, a beret, and is, holding a baguette. Or they're on a bicycle with a baguette in the basket. And that is one of the first people I saw when I went into Paris, someone rode past, like a group of French people. Road past the Irish pub you were in. Yeah, yeah. And they looked just like that?

Yeah. Crazy. Oh, but my friend lives in France now in Paris, just outside of Paris. So I was hanging out with him and just like living it up like a local basically. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, I couldn't believe, like, there was. There were no berets, but everyone was getting around with begets. People walking home just holding begets.

Yeah. Couldn't believe it. And I loved it. But they're different over there. I don't know why they're different, but they just taste. Better. Because they've got these, you know, the standard way they make them. Yeah.

Because you hear that bullshit about certain things. Oh, you taste better from the sauce. You know, like to say that about Guinness. And I reckon the Guinness here tastes similar to the Guinness in Ireland. but baguettes a whole other level over there can't explain why even though you just did on average French people spend two hours and 13 minutes a day

eating and drinking baguettes they drink begets they eat baguettes How long do we spend eating and drinking No see over there if you like work at a place Like I'm trying to think of it If you have a job Yeah like they all act have a proper break to eat

and they all have like cafeterias. Yeah. But they go and sit down and you have like, you have a hot meal every day at work. Whereas when I was working in an office, I'm having a sandwich whilst I'm still working over the computer, you know, trying to get it done. But they take a break.

They respect their eating time. Appreciate that. I was thinking about that recently. I ate too quick. Got to take your time to enjoy it. I don't know. I like the French. I don't know.

I've been joking about the French, been a bit snooty, but that's just a stereotype. Although I did do a gig recently. and there were I was asking the crowd I was emceeing so I was asking the crowd hey how you having fun

and asking people in particular you know just warming them up and this I asked this woman she's like I'm okay I'm like okay yeah great we have you up for a good time yeah

like no right no worry just what you want and then in the break I was talking to some of the other acts and they're like how about that role of French people in the middle. I'm like, okay, that makes sense. So then I started the second bracket, I said, hey, I've heard you're French. And she's like, we? I said, that makes sense. I thought you were

just being an asshole. But yeah. Welcome to our country. Welcome to our country. In our culture, the way you're behaving is rude, but I didn't realize you were French. And I love cultural differences. It's a cultural difference. I go over there and they think I'm obnoxious. Yeah. Just over there. Just over there is obnoxious. I've got to tone it down next time ago.

Now that I know, because I don't think I realize the social differences. Yeah, because you walk into cafes going, are you pumped to be here? How are we feeling tonight, Paris? Let me hear you, brother. Can I get a soy flat? Why come in here? How good is it to be alive? Oh, no.

Like, oh. You would be the same, Dave. I was always spoiled when I was going around with my friend who could speak fluent French. And you, when you're over there, you probably normally are with your wife. Oh, I think I just put my wife in front of me and she just speaks and it's fantastic. Did you ever get trapped by herself without her? Not trapped. Yeah, yeah.

Like I'm in line for like, you know, like a gift shop or something. Yeah. And they get up there and they're talking. I'm like, oh, where is she? My translator. I don't understand. And I haven't had to learn. Oh no, she's in the bathroom.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. I'd text her, quick. Help me. I had the say on the last day I was there, he'd gone to work. And I'm like, I'll go to a, what are they called, Bonjerie's. Boulangerie. Bologri. I was saying that wrong, you know.

Bon Jerry. Again, I didn't have to learn. I'll go down to my local Bon Jerry. I'll get myself a bag. I'll say bond to Jerry and then we'll fucking get up. But I'm like, I can, I've, I'd learn what, uh, no meat or something meant. So I just wanted a thing that didn't have meat in it. And I must have said the exact opposite.

Extra meat. So they gave me the soul so full of meat. I'm like, uh, uh, gratsy, mercy. Gratzy. Panicking. Yeah, back away. Thank you. I'm like, oh, no.

Yeah, exactly. Throw it in a bit right out the front. In, like, the middle of Paris, most places would stop. you and go, it's okay, I speak English. You're embarrassing yourself and me. Exactly, I feel so awkward. You'll try, you work at you, you're like, oh, mercy. And they're like, hi, how can I help you?

You're like, thank you so much. I'm so sorry. But in other places where they did speak English, that was where you're like, ugh. Yeah. Fuck. Arnie, please. Yeah, if he's in the bathroom or something,

I'm like, um, a momento. My friend, we'll, we'll sort this out. Final baguette fact, in April, 1944, Le Grand Prix de la Begette was started in France. Okay. It's a competition to determine who makes the best baguettes. The contest winner receives €4,000 and gets to supply daily bread to the French president for a whole year. It's to do a job.

But like are you paid well for that? That's the phrasing that this website used. Apparently, you get a contract to do it, so it is quite prestigious and you get paid a lot of money. It's just for the president or it's for his whole house? I think it's for his whole staff. So that's a lot. That's actually a lot of work. And then are you trying to run your business at the same time?

Yeah. So if you're like a small, small boulogne, you're like, we can't. I can't. I can't keep my shop open and feed the president. I do like, you get to supply daily bread to the French president. Oh, great. You bring it in on your little bicycle. Who's the president at the moment?

Is it Macron still? He got back in. Got back in. Is he good? Do the French people like him? I guess they do. Obviously, if they voted back in back in. Yeah.

Yeah. To get in. I mean, does anybody like politicians? Yeah, no, that's a fateful. Yeah? No. But that's my report on the 1951 Ponsa-Asprey mass poisoning. I'm afraid I don't have all the answers because it's still debated 70 years later,

but there's some theories. But what we do know is it was a wild few days in that town. Yeah, it sounds awful and crazy. And it was the CIA. And now that I've said that, if I go missing, like it's clearly the CIA. If you fall from a wild. window. Yeah, I don't fall from windows. No, you've never fallen from windows. Is that true? You've never fallen from window before this? No, I'm not a clumsy idiot. Wow, I've fallen from several

so. Don't worry if it happens to me. Probably was an accident. He keeps doing it. Yeah, just try and avoid standing near windows. I always do. Because I imagine that's what the CIA does. They're just waiting patiently for someone to be standing in an open window. We record in a studio without windows these days, so. That's on purpose. That's on purpose. No snipers, no falling from windows. Tick, tick. Fantastic report, Dave.

Merci Buku. Well, that brings us to everyone's favorite section of the show where we're yet to thank some of our fantastic supporters who support us on Patreon.com slash dugwompod. These are the people who make this show live. Yeah. And how nice is it to be alive? Bob, what are some things people can do if they get involved at our patron?

Sorry, you stop. a sentence and I wasn't sure if I was going to go on or not you were about to come in there so I just I left it and then some of my thoughts and pauses are unnaturally long

so you know you're you're used to talking to normal people who would be like if they'd stop for that long it would be over but you're like that was in the middle of a sentence things that you can enjoy over on Patreon

include three bonus episodes a month including phrasing the bar, our Brendan Fraser Filmography podcast. You get early access to live shows. You get the Facebook group, which is the friendliest section of the internet. And you also get to submit fact, quote or question if you are on the Sydney-Shineberg deluxe level or above. There's also heaps of bonus mini reports, including what I believe is a fantastic one about MK Ultra. If you want to hear a slightly different take, I assume. I have generally no memory of it at all, really.

I remember we record it at my house, though. Really? Yeah, my old place. That's one thing I do recall. No memory of that. Either I was there. No memory of your old place. On Zoom?

No. No, I'm kidding. How dare you? How do you not remember my old place? Anyway, one of the first things we like to do is, shout out to people on our Sydney-Shaunberg level, and they get to give us a fact-quote or question. And this section actually has a little jingle, go something like this.

Fact quote or question. He always remembers the ding. She always remembers the sing. That's what the Patreon message me saying, you should say sing. Oh, that's good. I wish I remembered who it was. And I could have thanked them then,

but you know who you are. And you know what you've done. Now in this section, if you're on the Sydney-Shaunberg level, we get to give us a fact-quote or question. or brag or suggestion or really whatever you like. Yeah, it can be anything. Someone gave us a recipe at one point.

Yep. And you also get to give yourself a title. This week, the first one comes from Derek Brigham, aka travel agent of the podcast stars. Ooh. And Derek is offering a suggestion. Okay. That's how the French people probably said.

Suggestion. Suggestion. Yep. Writing, I've got a recommendation for a place to go when the North American tour gets back on track. If you find yourself in Portland, Oregon, you should go check out the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, better known as Omzi. There you can get some hands-on fun with the physics and chemistry exhibits. Oh, great sentence.

Or test your lateral thinking with the puzzles they have set up. You can head over to the planetarium and relax under a starry sky or catch the laser light show. That sounds pretty fun. That sounds like science works only better. Yeah. Better? Well, I don't know. Like Questicon.

Different. There is a featured exhibit that rotates subjects. The last time I went, it was on the life of Nelson Mandela. They also have smaller exhibits that rotate out. And on my last trip, they had one on the animation studio Laker. Oh, which I think they did a film that I watched on Prime. My mates. I can't remember. Something in the something, something, somethings. Ah.

Something in the something strings. It was awesome. It looked amazing. I think L-A-A-I-K-U-A-N-A-I-K-A. How do you spell that? L-A-I-K-A. And I got to see the actual dolls used for their films such as Coraline and Paranorman. Now, if I haven't sold you on this experience yet, this last item will absolutely will. Will absolutely will I love that

It's practically tailor-made for Jess Oh pressure's on now You'll see You see Omsey is right on the river And docked right outside For you to tour On the USS Blueback

A decommissioned diesel submarine From the Omsey website Get a glimpse of how a crew of 85 Lived on the Blueback for months Plus peer through a periscope Touch a torpedo climb a bunk and much more touch a torpedo

touch a torpedo so funny what are you doing that torpedo touching it with what definitely sounds like a euphemism don't it stop touching your torpedo jason what's wrong with you too

I want to kick the torpedo no okay you may only touch it you must be very flexible to kick your own torpedo I am I don't think you do have to be very flexible okay

everyone at home stop the podcast and have a go I'm not flexible enough Thank you very much, Derek, for that suggestion. I'd love to get to Portland, Oregon. Go trailblazers. The next one comes from James Edwards, okay, major catastrophe.

Hey. And James is offering a quote writing, After my last fact got an on-air, I'm actually from chess. Really? Do you want me to see if I can find out what it was? I'll probably forget. Let's see. Get ready to, I'm actually all over again.

It was, oh, there are only four words in the English language which end in deuce, D-O-U-U-S. Can you name them? Tremendous, horrendous, stupendous. Yeah, that's right. And then you just started listing off heaps more, didn't you? Yeah. Hazardous. Mostly because I googled it.

Yeah, that is so, that is, I mean, that is a, yeah. So, yeah, can you please, try. try not to I'm actually this one for once in your life. Maybe do a little of your own fact check in then, James. Get it right and we won't have to worry about it. But yeah, go on. Kid us with your best shot. This time, Jay's is offering a quote.

Oh, that's safe, isn't it? Incorrect. You all seem to like George W. Bush's fool me quote. You are correct. Can't get fooled again. That is maybe my favorite quote. Can't get fooled again. He says the full wording, which is,

There's an old saying in Tennessee. I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee, that says, fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me, you can't get fooled again. It's even, the extra bit adds to it. I forgot that he starts out by saying it's an old saying in Tennessee and then saying, well, it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee. That's so great. Incredible. That's all fantastic.

I feel like if anyone, yeah, I must have so many bushisms of my own that I've done on this show, you know, just. Now, watch this drive. A couple, James continues, a couple of my other fave bushisms are they misunderestimated me. Oh, that's good. Also, rarely is the question asked, is our children learning? That is very good. That's so good. And my absolute favorite, I know how hard.

it is to put food on your family. It is hard. They're quick. He says, God bless America. Love you guys. Looking forward to seeing Matt and Dave in London. Oh, James, we will have already been. And we're looking forward to that in reverse, which is remembering.

Remembering it fondly. Yes. So good. Yeah, that, watch this drive is up there as well, David. That's another classic. I've just looked up the full quote is, I call upon all nations to do everything they can, stop these terrorist killers. Thank you.

Now, watch this drive. Oh, my God. Tremendous. That's fantastic. All right. And the next one comes from Kelly Clark, who I hung out with a bit in Perth when I was over there a month or so back. We went, so, after the first show,

she was there with a few other Patreon supporters, hanging out when I came out and had a drink with them. We were chatting. and had a great time. And then just before the bar was closing up, a glass got thrown. And it sort of almost, it wasn't that close to him.

It was like half a meter from my head. And the guy who threw it missed the guy I was aiming out by miles. It was like a fight was almost broken out, but it never really did. Holy shit. And I was like, it's so nice to get some Perth culture. And they all felt, they all felt a bit,

they're like, I'm sorry that they were very apologetic for Perth. I'm like, no, you know, this happens everywhere. Obviously, ideally it doesn't happen all the time, but I'm like, it's not the first time I've seen an attempted glassing, but it's not the first time someone's tried to throw something in your head. But then we went to a jazz club up the road, and I'm like, what a fun, like, difference. What am I trying to say here?

Juxtaposition. Was anything thrown at you at this venue? No, just jazz. Just smooth jazz. Yeah, this jazz combo played for the next, you know, we were there for about an hour. It was great. Great. So much fun.

Anyway, Kelly Clark, aka chief of the plain name clan. Oh yeah, Kelly Clark is pretty plain. It's pretty plain. But it's also Kelly Clark. It's sort of got that hard hitting curse sounds. Kelly Clark. Yeah. Still sort of sounds like a.

It's fun too. Yeah. It's got a bit of a pop star vibe about it. Okay. Is that because it's very close to Clarkson? Probably, yes. Yeah, that's what my brain was probably saying. Anyway, Kelly has a suggestion writing,

Kaya Yama from Wajak Nunga Country, which is, I'm guessing, the Perth, the indigenous name for the Perth area. I'd really love to hear an acknowledgement of country as part of the podcast intro. I don't know if it'd be before the theme music or during it. I love this pod, and the only thing is,

It lacks as this. Bloody hell, we're just one piece of the puzzle short. Yeah, that is, that's the only thing at like, I would have said, substance. Yes, ability to edit bad riffs out. Ability to form words properly. Yeah, speaking, remember just before? And I couldn't think of juxtaposition. Yeah.

I'm sure that that would have been edited nicely down to make me sound pretty quick. Pretty quick. You're just like juxtaposition. Juxtaposition, you know, like a TikTok voice. Yeah, great call, Kelly, and good timing because we've been looking into that and, yeah, kind of considering that for a little while as well. By the time you're hearing this, because we are recording ahead of time, by the time you're hearing this is probably, it would be in the show notes at least, and we're looking into the logistics, the easiest way to slot in an acknowledgement of country. But great call. I don't hear many podcasts doing it just yet, which it would be nice to hear more of.

But yeah, good suggestion. Yeah, like at the comedy festival shows, I'll do it. Yep. Or it's a welcome to country rather than an acknowledgement of country. The late, great Uncle Jack. Yeah. Recent ones. Yeah, I think it's a cool part of it.

Absolutely. Yeah, is it worth explaining to overseas listeners? Oh, yeah, good call. So, I mean, an acknowledgement of country is, you hear it at the start of shows or at meetings and stuff in Australia and it would be where people would say we acknowledge the traditional owners on the land of the land on which we're meeting today.

You know, for us where we record in Brunswick, we're in Wurundri land in Narm, Melbourne. But, you know, there's so many different lands and cultures all around Australia, which is very, very cool. That's right. And if you're not a local indigenous person from that country, you can't do a welcome to country. but you can do an acknowledgement country, as I understand it.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, great. Thanks that suggestion, Kelly. And, yeah, I think I said to Kelly that we've got to go over and do it, do go on over there at some point, Perth, maybe next year. Were you questioning it when the glass came at your head, but then you were back on board when that smooth jazz overtook your buddy. I think maybe that's why they were apologetic.

Don't tell David and Jay. Because honestly, I just still come over. I just cancel my flight. Hello, Jetstar. Is that you? Hello, Tiger. What? You're not in business anymore.

What? What? What? What? The final one this week comes from Stephen Edmonds, aka provider of an alternative to the Devonshire or Cornish method. Okay. This is going to be a psycho.

This is going to be a sloppy mess. Well, it could be, maybe it's half half. I never thought of that. Maybe, or maybe it's it straight up. Plain. Oh my God. No jam, no cream. Stephen, if that's it.

There's also the option of, I saw someone talk about you just make it, you know, a scone sandwich. That way, you know, neither is on top and bottom, you know. Right, okay. Sounds like a coward's way out. Steven's asked a question writing, which book has been in print since 1996 and has likely been used by all three do-go-on members? All right. So, yeah, I like it.

Often the question is, you know, this is more like a trivia question or a riddle. I'm not sure which. It's been in print since 1966. I'm guessing it's the... It's going to be something from school. Or it's the Saints premiership, you know, story. Yep, that would have been used by all of us. It's since 1966, but it's not necessarily starting in 1966.

No. So it could be the Bible. Oh. Yeah. Well... Guinness Book of Records. Oh. Oh, that's true.

Well, year was the Guinness Book of Records. Could have been that. It was way earlier than that, wasn't it? Dave, no Googling, mate. Look at Dave Googling. First give you to the records. I just typed in, what is this guy talking about? What about, 1996 was the first year decimal country, currency came in.

Yep, so what book would we have used? Well, book of stamps. Before you stamps. A checkbook. A checkbook. Oh, which I've never used. All right. Do you want to use a checkbook?

Never written a check? I don't think I've ever written a check, no. Let me answer the question. Cookery, the Australian way. Yeah. Now in its eighth edition and said to be the best and most reliable cookbook ever published for Australian schools. Oh, maybe I have seen it then. Yeah, you've seen it.

That doesn't ring a bell. But I never did cooking class at school. You incredibly underestimate my abilities to cook. Home Eck. Oh, no, I do recognize. Yeah, no, I have seen this book. Now that I'm Googling a picture of. of it. I legit have not.

I'm no chef. The last night, I tried to cook eggplant parmagana. And how did it go? Because you said tried. Yeah, I cut them up too small and ended up making a casserole, but it was quite nice. It was quite nice. Steven says, I still have my copy, fourth edition. And there is a recipe that I refer to which has these ingredients. 300 grams, self-raising flour. Get your pens ready, listeners.

one tablespoon of butter. How was it today we were talking about this? Yeah. It feels like years ago, doesn't it? A quarter teaspoon of salt? Yep. See, there's the two teaspoons. Yeah, that's good.

As in starting with tea. And have they written out teaspoon or is it tea? It is written out teaspoon. Good, that helps me. That's a quarter cup of water. One quarter teaspoon cayenne pepper. Oh, okay. Chian pepper.

Cyan pepper. One quarter teaspoon mustard powder. 80 grams grated tasty cheese rub butter into flour mix into dough roll and cut into shapes bake for 10 to 15 minutes savory cheese scones

savey scones keep the jam and cream away from these not in the book but a fantastic edition is chopped up bacon cooked and let to mostly cool before mixing into the dough Stephen Edmonds you're a gentleman

you're a squire you're a scholar and thank you so much for this beautiful trip down memory lane, which is just in the far reaches of my brain. So yeah, cheers to that. I hope someone cooks that at home. Dave, I reckon that's the kind of thing you could cook. That does sound good. You should make that.

Okay. Thank you so much, Stephen, Kelly, James and Edward. And Derek. James's surname is Edwards. Another thing we like to do, is shout out to some of our other fantastic Patreon supporters. Now, Jess, you normally come up with a bit of a game based on these, the episode topic at hand? Yeah, and we're naming their 11,000 page book.

Oh, brilliant. Based off cursed bread. Okay. 11,000 page books. All of these people have written them. Exactly, 11,000? 11,000. Love that.

Not 11,001. No. And they haven't padded to. get to 11,000. These have only been published because they hit 11,000 perfectly. Fantastic. That's so good. And there's a few people I'm looking at, all three of mine are from the address unknown.

You've got to assume from deep within the fortress of the moles. Also, deep from within the fortress of not getting a Christmas card. And I hope, because I think people don't realize they don't have their addresses in. So I think I want to try and mention this a bit more. If you want your Christmas card for next year, make sure you go into the Patreon and add your address in. You've probably selected, maybe accidentally, maybe on purpose. There's a box tick to say, please don't send anything. But every year we get people saying, hey, I didn't get my Christmas card.

I think a lot of the people who don't get them are because they don't realize they haven't put their address in. Anyway, I'd love to thank firstly from Address Unknown. It is Katie McCracken. Such a great name Such a great name Such a great name What is what is Katie's book on Six bottles of rum and a go cart

That's actually That's fucking sick Dave Thank you I mean cursed bread sucks So I thought they'd be like bad Or kind of lame type of Sorry that's too good That is so good

You read that and you go What is this amazing? I'm at bare minimum In a bookshop Or at the airport bookshop Because that's where I love to browse Yes. I am picking that one up.

I'm turning it around. I'm reading that blur. What's that about? 100%. Six bottles of rum on a go-cart. That is so good. Well... Well, what's it about?

It's about a really horrific go-kart accident. Yeah. I should not have been driving. As a result of six bottles of rum. Thank you very much, Katie McCracken. That beat out my idea of Scottish egg baking tips. We have like so many more. Oh man.

I burn a great 1,100-page book? Well, I was only because of the Mac Cracken. I don't think it would work for anyone else. Okay, because I went Cracken. Yeah, right, I see. We're all going Cracken. That's great cracking. I'd also love to thank, from Address Unknown, John Williams.

As in the composer? Wow. Yes, I always get confused between Williams and Williamson. Which one's the Star Wars guy? Which one is the, hey, true blue. True Blue. He's a true Australian son. Is it?

William's is it mom and dad is it a cockatoo is it standing by your mates when they're in a fight or will she be right true blue oh that's so good so I think that's the title I love it or will she be right all will she be right all will she be right all will she be right Question mark? Or will she be right? I mean, I'm reading that blurb. Maybe just will she be right? Will she be right?

Will she be right? Will she be right? Question mark. Yeah. And John Williams won a lot of awards, many Academy Awards. It's also been nominated for a Razzie. Oh. But hasn't quite got it.

Has he been? So he's a nominated Riga, ergot. Yes, because I'm not sure. I don't think he has all of his. He's won 25 Grammys. Wow. Five Academy Awards, four Golden Globes. He's had 52 Academy Award nominations,

which is second only to Walt Disney. Wow. But I don't know if he's got a Tony. No, he hasn't really gone into the musical theatre space yet. Yeah, give him time. He is only 90 years old. Yeah, he can do it. If anybody can, it's John Williams.

I wonder if John Williams from Address Unknown is not yet sick of people bringing up the composer. Oh, John Williamson. Oh, yeah, that probably is depending on which mold, fortress. It will either be baffled or sick of that as well. And finally, another mole person. It's Olga Prifty. Olga Prifty. Yeah, that's a Hall of Fame name.

That's incredible. Olga's already really good. You could be Olga Johnson and that's fantastic. It's incredible. Olga Smith is so good. But Olga Prifty. Holy shit, that's elevated to upper echelon. Yeah.

And that's the name of the book. Upper Echelon. What's it about? Oh, I mean, it's one of those things I can't, I can't really tell you much about it without giving anything away. It'd be too much of a spoiler. Yeah, just trust me and read it. It's a bit like when somebody first suggested the documentary Catfish to me. Okay.

They said, don't worry about it, just watch it. And I said, wow, that was a film. Yeah, loved it. Now it's a whole series. Upper Echelon's also about catfishing. Matt. Oh no. Sorry.

Fucking oh, Matt. Come on. I don't know what I did. Edit that. Bleep that out in the edit. You will sound so bad if they bleep it. It's also a bad. This is about...

And I was going, no. You can't say that. Yeah, leave it. Don't edit that out. Don't bleep that. Whoa, Matt, you can't say that on a podcast. Holy shit. It's the 21st century, man.

No, no, please don't have to pull you up on that one, mate. Wow, wow, wow. Honestly, I cannot stand idly by. Wow. There's something very funny about bleeping something and making it worse than it is. You know, like that viral video a few years ago of The Count on Sesame Street. But they bleeped out every time he said, counting. So it sounded like you were saying fucking.

That's fun. That's fun. That's good. Can I thank some people as well? Oh, that would please me no end. Oh, my God. You can't say that on a podcast. That would bleep me no end.

Oh, no. Oh, man. I would love to thank again from deep within the fortress of the moles and with no surname so a lot to work with here James what about torpedoes for all torpedoes for all I was going to go don't call me Jimmy

what about two pitis for all in brackets don't call me Jimmy that's good when you've got two grand titles and you can't I've got his surname in the email address but if he hasn't put it down, we've got to assume he doesn't want us to, right? That's what I usually. That's my rule.

It's like James S. Okay. You've said too much. Okay. We also had a title ready. Sorry. Oh, yeah. We've done it.

Yeah, it was great. I loved it. But I was just like, I'm just thinking, it's such a common name that he'd be like, wonder if that was me. Yeah, it's no location. It's just a few, James.

If there are any other clues we can give him. Okay. Your name reminds me. of going to the post office. Oh yeah. Is that vague enough? Yeah, yeah.

James, Jimmy? No, don't call me Jimmy. Maybe the elephant post office. Yeah, yeah. Okay, we can get too close to the bone here. Yeah, that's enough. Shut up now. Thank you, James.

Yes. Mr. S. We'd also love to thank. From Pensacola. Oh, I love the for that. Pensacola. Anthony Brown. Anthony Brown. See, that's the opposite of Olga Prifty.

But it's still a great name. Anthony Brown. A, B. I like it. Anthony Brown. You're a big fan of that. Florida man, Anthony Brown. Sounds like a quarterback. Yeah, he does. There are a few Browns. I think there's a few. There's a whole team. It's crazy. Oh, yeah. Anthony Brown Yeah the big book of brown Yeah It's a coffee table book Yeah

Every page is a different shade A little page copy table book is so good Well that's like in the shade chapter Obviously it's 11000 pages So there's also just brown things Oh yeah yeah There are a few pages where like you can touch brown's fabric No

No Yeah there is yeah yeah You can feel like, you know, you can see brown. It's got a scratch and sniff element to it as well. Yeah, you can smell brown. You can smell brown. I've always wanted to. Yeah. Beautiful.

Do you remember the Martin Malloy album, the Brown album? I remember on the CD booklet or maybe on the back or in the booklet there was a page of all different shades of brown. And then the last one was blue and it was just said not brown or something like that. That's good stuff. That's good stuff. That's comedy. Finally for me, I would love to thank from London. Oh, London.

Love to thank Anya Clarkson. Anya Clarkson. Anya Clarkson. Anya Clarkson, Anya Clarkson, Anya Clarkson, Anya Clarkson, Anya Clarkson, meditative relaxation for dogs. Oh, correct. That's good. And it's meditative, if that's the real.

the right word is. Yep. It's that. Yep, okay. That's good. And dogs need that. Yeah. They need to chill the fuck out.

Calm the hell down. Do what I mean? And they love a long book. They love a long book. They love to rip through it. Dave, would you like to thank some people? Hey, I would love to thank from another location unknown,

Edward Duffy. Edward Duffy. What about six great uses for sticky tape? Oh, that's good. What are they? Just spoil a couple of them for me. it goes for 11,000 pages. Oh, true, but you've only got six.

Yeah, so we're quite detailed. Or Edward is. Okay. So like wrapping presents. Okay, that's the first 600 chapters. Fixing glasses when they break. 88 chapters. You fold it over on itself, making a little loop,

and then you can use it to stick one thing to another thing. That's only one chapter, but it is about 2,000 pages. Okay. What else is going to do you stick your tape for? What about you? You can roll it around your face and it makes your face look a bit funny. Yeah, that's fun. Like Jim Carrey did on Yes Man. I haven't seen it, but I imagine that that's funny.

What about if you make a frame, and I wasn't listening or anything you've said, so you might have said it right, but you just wrap it around and it sort of makeshift glass for a window. Oh, yeah, that's nice. Great. So that's five. We don't want to spoil the last one. Okay. So obviously, pick up the book, Edward's book. It's about fingerprints. Fuck.

Well, still, he goes into great detail, so it's worth it. It's worth the, what are these 11,000 page books cost? There must be a lot. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I mean, books are per page. Yeah, you pay per page. Yeah. So, like, kids' books are so cheap.

Yeah. Piece of piss, seven pages. Whatever. And it takes them ages. Yeah. So dumb. Just read quicker. Kids are pretty stupid.

Read better. Read better. Read faster. Grow up. Grow up. Grow up. You chile. Children.

They can't roll over. Idiot. Can't they? Children can't roll over? When they're small. Okay. You think of babies? Yeah.

What are babies, if not children? So you think of... So what, like toddlers and onwards are adults? Pre-todd toddler, child. No. I'm saying born, child. Yes. As soon as you could roll over,

if I can hold a conversation, then you're a peer. Okay. You're a confidant. And I appreciate you. But before you're able to sit at the table and read the paper. Yeah. Shadow.

Shathe. Suck yes. And take a walk. You can't walk up a short pier. Okay. Take a long roll off a short pier, okay. Thanks, Edward. You've inspired us.

I'd like to think of also from, London, and if this name's real, it's the best one ever. Hannah O oblivion. Oh, Hanna, obelivian. That is so good. Hannah, that's amazing. That can't, but I'm going to need to see a birth certificate. Yeah, that's good stuff.

Go get it. Hand it over. Hand it over. Shal's what you got? Hannah Oblivion. What about Livian in oblivion? Fuck, yes. You're on fire today, Dave.

I'm really struggling with my own game, but you're nailing it. Yeah, yeah. I'm doing my own thing at this end of the table. On a biographer. It might sound like the Mats, Mike's gone out of sync, but he is still talking to us. It's just going solo. I'm not going to my own podcast a bit. What is he?

On a biographer. I think that was the thing on the Brown album, there was one track. He also said, do you guys remember the Martin Malloy album, the Braddard? And I said, no. No. And he just kept. There was one track that you could. pan left or right and you either got a sketch by Tony Martin or a sketch by Mick Malloyd

depending on which side you're... That's very fun. But you could put it in the middle and just hear both at the same time. That would have been difficult. That would be my option. When you're driving in the car and you're like, I can't change the stereo now. I'm just going to keep this rolling. You'd love the second track on the album, Dave.

Mick the clown, bracket, no relation. You love a no relation. That's funny. Not as much as L.C. Trumby, Bertchle though. And his new show, Alison Trump of Perchal in, Alison Trump with virtual. No relation.

Good stuff. Hannah Oblivion. You live in your best life. I can absolutely tell that. Thank you so much. And finally, I would like to thank from Wollazzy. Wallerzy in Great Britain.

It is Eleanor Lacey Sloane. Oh, three good names. ELS. That sounds like a character in a paro book. Eleanor Lacey Sloan. Yeah. Mike Sloan. Sloan, is that the name of Diagnosis Murder?

Yeah, Mark Sloan. Dick Van Dyke, can you work that in somehow? Can you work in Barry Van Dyke? Or our classic game has been turned into a book by Eleanor Lacey Sloan. Fuck Mary Kill. AKA Dick Barry Shane. Dick. Dick Van Dyck's the grandfather.

Barry's his son and Shane is Barry's son. So it's a game, but it's now played over. There's 11,000 pages worth of different scenarios. Who is you, Dick Van Dyck's? And it comes with a pen and you get to fill it all in. Oh, like a Sudoku book. Yeah. Most Sudoku books don't come with a pen.

Wow. That's a little bit of extra added value. Wow. That's yours to do with what you want that pen. Yeah. Thank you so much to Eleanor, Hannah, Edward, Anya, Anthony, James, Olga, John and Katie. And the last thing we need to do is welcome a few people into the Triptitch Club, three inductees this week. Now, if you don't know, people who've been on the shoutout level or above

for three straight years get inducted into this famous club. It's a theatre of the mind thing. I'm standing at the door. I've got a velvet rope. I'm about to lift it as I read out these three names off my clipboard. Jess is inside behind the bar. Don't we got a cocktail going? Yeah.

What's the name of this episode, Dave? I think I'm going to call it the 1951 Ponce and Esprey mass poisoning. Okay. The embarrassing part is, and much like Dave doesn't book these, the bands ahead of time, sometimes these are themed, sometimes it's a coincidence. I've been doing a bread making course because I thought it would be nice for a stool, have some nice crusty bread. Yeah, I'd love that.

So I've made quite a lot of bread, like too much. It's enough for everybody, but then like, and then like, yeah. Something to take home. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but they can't leave. So it's a lot of bread And I am worried that after this episode They're going to be hesitant about the bread Come on, it wasn't the bread

And great fresh bread also It doesn't last well, does it? Well, that's why I need everybody to eat up Yeah You have your feel But I, but you know I was like you're going to have something with the bread So I have put on soup again

But once again it is far too hot Oh no I'm not having a good day It's just not cooling It just won't It just won't cool How long have you been leaving it to cool? Is the lid off?

What? What do you mean? That will speed up the cooling process. No, I've left it on the stove and the boiler go. That could be part of the room. Turn the stove off. No. This is the last time did you leave the stove on as well?

Of course. I thought it was just some sort of a freak soup that couldn't cool down. I don't call my son a freak. soup. Anyway, a bit of fun. Eat up. And Dave, you normally book a band?

Yes, I've actually booked in Real Big Fish. Oh, getting horny. Yeah, getting a little bit horny. They're a Scat band,

I believe. Is that right, Jess? Scat? Yes. Not SCAR. Let's sell out tonight. With me?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. All right, fantastic. What are they going to play? Their full greatest hits? Yeah, absolutely. They've got now,

One, two, three, four. That song about beer? Ten albums, yeah, going to have myself a beer. I'm going to do that aha cover. Take on me. All the best. Yeah. That's great.

Beer goggles, is that one? No, that's lagwagon. Anyway, good stuff, real big fish. Don't be covering Lagwagon's beer goggles as well, I've heard. Yeah. So just three inductees this week. Dave's up on the stage. Now, he's the MC.

He's hyping up the crowd. Everyone who's already been inducted is they're chanting along, ready to welcome these three people in. If you hear your name, run on in and just soak it up. Jess is also there to keep Dave spirits up as well. So here we go. Are you ready? I'm absolutely pumped. First up from Address Unknown, it's Arvent Hill.

Arvent Hill. They said, stop that person. I said, Avant. Come on in. As in, I won't. I won't. Fuck, he's good Yeah

Also from Edgebiston The famous cricket ground In Birmingham in England It's Jess Perrin Jess Perrin Who is just two letters away From Jess Perkins

Come on down My new favourite Jess My new favourite Jess P-E-R That's bullshit And finally I'm supposed to support this Well I don't support that one Finally from

Wabash in Indian. Anna, Indian Anna in the United States it's Kevin Haggody. More like Heaven Caggetty.

I'm in Heaven Caggetty. Welcome in Kevin, Jess and Avant. Make yourselves at home. Grab some soup. Oh no? Well, Jess can. Get rid of that other Jess.

That brings us to the end of the episode, Bob. Is there anything we need to tell people before we go? That they can suggest a topic over on do go onpod.com. There's also a link our show notes.

You can find all of our social media. Do go on across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. I think there's a TikTok, but, you know, we're old and that we love them. That's the other thing. That's for me as well. Dave, better time. Thank you so much for listening.

We'll be back next week with another cracking episode. But until then, I'll thank you. I thank you. I thank you. And goodbye. Bye. Bye. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are

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