Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Questions & Answers: Volume 8

Starting point is 00:00:00 3,110,400 seconds ago, you, the listeners of this podcast, asked me questions, and I in turn provided you with answers. Now, 3,110,400 seconds later, we find ourselves again in a similar place. You have questions, and I too have answers. And once again, the endless stance of questions and answers continues. Stay tuned for Questions and Answers Volume 8 on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Let's jump right in with the very first question. The first question comes from Bob Green, who asks, Which meaning of Grand Slam came first, baseball or winning a series of tournaments? Clearly not the breakfast at Denny's.

Starting point is 00:00:55 Bob, this is a great question. And before diving in to find the answer, my instinct said that the baseball reference must have come first. However, I was wrong. It took me a good two hours to get an answer to my satisfaction. The origin of Grand Slam actually comes from card games. In the early 19th century, the first use of Grand Slam was used in conjunction with the game of Wist in July of 1800. A Grand Slam was if someone were to take every trick in a single hand. The game of Bridge then adopted the use of Grand Slam in the late 19th century for a similar use.

Starting point is 00:01:30 The definition at this point was simply to convey that something was a complete success. The first use outside the world of card games was in 1930, when golfer Bobby Jones won the American amateur, the British amateur, the U.S. Open and the British Open in a single year. At the time, those four were considered to be the major tournaments. His complete success in winning every major tournament was dubbed a Grand Slam. Jones' accomplishment was all over the news, and it brought the term Grand Slam into widespread use. In 1933, the first use of Grand Slam with respect to the four major tournaments and tennis was used when Australian Jack Crawford won the Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon in a single year. He was runner-up at the U.S. Open that year, losing in the finals by a single set.

Starting point is 00:02:15 The first use of the term to describe a home run with the bases loaded only occurred in 1935. As early as 1920, there were interviews with Babe Ruth where he used the term Grand Slam to describe average home runs. Both the Gulf, tennis, and baseball Grand Slams involved the number four, and the definition of a Grand Slam changed slightly from a complete success to winning four of something. For those of you outside of the United States, Denny's is a national diner chain that's famous for its breakfast. In 1977, Denny's in Atlanta, Georgia, offered up a meal deal called the Grand Slam, in honor of the great Hank Aaron who played for the Atlanta Braves. The original Denny's Grand Slam consisted of two buttermilk pancakes, two eggs, two bacon strips, and two sausage links. There are now Grand Slams in many different sports and activities, usually revolving around winning four of something.

Starting point is 00:03:06 Of course, I have to mention Operation Grand Slam, which was the plot hatched by Aurick Goldfinger in the James Bond movie of the same name. Sylvian Charbonneau asks, Hey, Gary, is there a subject you know you will never talk about in the show? Well, there are a whole bunch of subjects that I have no desire to talk about. I don't really want to get into current events, and I don't want to do shows on divisive topics. If there's one show from history, I'm probably not going to do an episode on.

Starting point is 00:03:32 It would be the Kennedy assassination. I've actually read quite a bit about the Kavanaugh. Kennedy assassination, probably close to a dozen books in my life. I've been to Daly Plaza and I've been up in the Texas school book depository. The reason I wouldn't want to do an episode on it is that no matter what I say, people would come out of the woodwork who have never listened to the show before to criticize it. It is a literal no-in situation. To use a Star Trek reference, it's the Kobayashi Maru of episodes. Even though it took place 60 years ago, there are still people who are very passionate about it. Bertram at Leo asks, have you ever been to Port El Burney, British Columbia on Vancouver Island?

Starting point is 00:04:10 No, Bertram, I have not. Ah, but then Bertram has a follow-up question. If the answer is no, have you been to Tafino or Euclut on the west coast of Vancouver Island? Yes, Bertram, I've been to Tafino. I drove there while visiting Pacific Rim National Park. Ah, and then he has a follow-up to the follow-up. If yes, then you have been through Port Al-Berni, as it is on the only highway to Tafino and Euclut. Uh, very well then, I would like to amend my original answer and say, yes, I have been through Port Elberney. Kelvin Cook asks, I'm curious as to the number of episodes you decided were necessary, or how many did you have in the can before your first release? That is a very easy question to answer, Kelvin. I had one show. I recorded it and released it and began working on the next show after that. Fast forward three years later, and that is still pretty much my system. Most people I meet, especially other podcasters, assume that I have a buffer of show.

Starting point is 00:05:03 show is ready to go. That is not the case. If I were doing an interview show, I could probably do that because interviews are relatively easy. The time-consuming part of doing the show is the writing and research. Doing more than one a day is difficult if I want to do anything else with my time. Trina Wellington DeAnda asks, now that you found your passport, where are you going first? Just a bit of background to the question. I moved back in September 2020, and when I moved, it was all in a bit of a rush. I literally packed up everything I. I had in a single day. In the process of moving, I thought that I had packed my passport in a box, and I even wrote passport on the box so I would know where it was. When I later checked the box

Starting point is 00:05:43 marked passport, I couldn't find it. I couldn't find it in any of my boxes, almost all of which remained packed up. It wasn't until April this year when I moved again that I went through the process of unpacking everything I had originally packed back in 2020 and most of the stuff that I had put back in storage in 2007. I did eventually find my passport. It was in a plastic bag with my other old expired passports. So with that, where will I go first? As of right now, I have no set plans to go anywhere other than Puerto Rico in September, and I don't actually need a passport to travel there. If I go anywhere, it will probably be to one of the few countries in the region that I haven't been to yet. Jamaica, Colombia, Cuba, or Nicaragua. Jamaica or Columbia would be the

Starting point is 00:06:25 easiest to get to by far, and would both be a nice break in the winter. The next question is from Dan last. He asks, you have unlimited time and an unlimited budget. Where would you go and why? Well, if money were no object, I would do a couple of things. One would be visiting the South Pole. It's doable, but very expensive. The same is true with the North Pole, although it doesn't cost quite as much money. What I would really want to do is hire a ship and sail around the South Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic Ocean and visit many of the islands that basically get zero visitors. This would include Heardin McDonald Islands, Bouvay Island, the Kyrgylund Islands, and Tristan Akuna. Maybe even sail up and visit one of the islands in the British Indian Ocean Territ.

Starting point is 00:07:08 Sam McGarrett asks, if you could only travel to one country per continent, which countries would you choose? Well, that's easy. I'd choose places on each continent that I haven't been to before. North America would probably be Nicaragua, South America would be Peru, Europe would be Moldova, Africa would be Kenya, Asia would be Bhutan, and in Australia I'd go to Christmas Island. Loris Tyler Sturrie asks, Do you have a favorite photo you've taken on a trip? I don't know how many photos I've taken, but just counting every time I click the shutter, it has to be a couple hundred thousand.

Starting point is 00:07:42 Of those, there are a few tens of thousands that I've uploaded and are publicly available. And of those, there are probably a few hundred that I think are actually of high quality. It's hard to pick just one, but it might be a photo I took on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean. It was of a woman, and I don't know who she is, standing up with her arms outstretched with her back turned to the camera

Starting point is 00:08:03 in front of a waterfall. She couldn't have posed better if I had planned it. Kyle Dunham asks, are there any updates on the Everything Everywhere cruises or tour in the future? Sadly, no. I've reached out to several river cruise companies, and I haven't even gotten so much as a reply back from anyone. I'm still interested in doing it. I think the next step might just be to get a list of people who would be tentatively interested in attending and everything everywhere river crews. My guess is that it's probably in the high dozens or maybe even low hundreds of people who at least have an interest.

Starting point is 00:08:36 If there are enough people interested, then economics might just compel getting an answer from someone at last. Andrew Rek asks, if you were to quit doing everything everywhere daily and start a new podcast, what type of program would you do? I would most probably do some sort of deep dive history podcast, probably something that combined a linear narrative story with some expert interviews. I've also thought about doing a limited series, which is something I could possibly do while still doing this show. The problem is that limited series, from a business standpoint, are very difficult to do,

Starting point is 00:09:07 because by the time you build up interest in the show, it's over. I've been interested in doing a re-watching podcast of the 1976 BBC series I Claudius. It's a 12-episode series based on the 1934 novel of the same name, and it tells the story of the Roman emperors from Augustus through Claudius through the eyes of Claudius. In addition to commentary in the episodes, I think it would be possible to interview some of the cast who are still around, and it would be a lot of fun. Fabio Fidanza asks, what's the most welcoming place you've ever visited? That's difficult to say because people can be welcoming in different ways. I found places like Samoa and Fiji to be very warm and welcoming. In Arab countries, people maybe aren't as outwardly warm, but they can be extremely hospitable.

Starting point is 00:09:52 They will take you into their homes in Fiji. I had a stranger in Oman. Give me a ride of over 100 kilometers in his car and refused any payment. If you go to a pub in England or Ireland and people hear my American accent, I can always be guaranteed to have an interesting conversation. In your opinion, what is the busiest tourist spot that you've been to? And while there, what did you avoid due to the amount of people that were there that you would have otherwise liked to have seen? Because I usually travel solo, I tend to avoid busy places during peak tourist season.

Starting point is 00:10:20 If a place is really busy, it usually means high hotel prices, and I'd just go somewhere else. There have been a very small number of times where I've been on a cruise ship, and I'm not talking about expedition ships that go to remote areas with a relatively small number of people or river cruises, but the really big cruise ships that have thousands of people. I've never actually paid to do such a cruise, but I was invited to attend by several cruise lines. For the most part, I really didn't mind the cruise experience itself, and being on the ship was better than I thought it would be. However, on one of the cruises, we made a stop in Sicily, and I went on an excursion to the town of Taramina.

Starting point is 00:10:57 It turned out that there were five cruise ships all in port in the same day, and the small town of Taramina was just crushed with tourists. There was a flood of people who all hit the same place at the same time. It was far more people than a town like that could reasonably expect to host. And the thing was, it was all soon over after it began. By 5 p.m., the town was probably empty because everyone had to be back on the ship. The problem with overtourism isn't too many tourists per se. The problem is too many tourists at the same place at the same time.

Starting point is 00:11:30 There are lots of great places that many people just don't know about. Most overtouristed places are so because they have an international airport and or a terminal for cruise ships. People go there because it's easy to get there. That concludes this month's question and answers. If I didn't get to your question, I'd be happy to answer it on the Facebook group or over on the Discord server. There are links to both of them in the show notes. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett.

Starting point is 00:12:02 Today's review comes from listener Moes staff from Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, Great Travel Podcast. Running down the road with Everything Everywhere Daily makes the miles pass on by. So many things to learn and enjoy. My wife and I listened all the way from Wausau, Wisconsin to St. Louis, Missouri, eight hours there and back. This podcast never fails to hook me.

Starting point is 00:12:22 me in. I will check back in when I joined the Completionist Club. Thanks from the North Woods of Wisconsin. Well, thank you, Moe's staff. I've been to Wausau many, many times, and my brother lives not too far away in Antigone. Always nice to hear from listeners in the state. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you two can have it run in the show. And a note to everyone listening on podcasting 2.0 apps, I'm still working on getting my umbral server back up and running.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Questions & Answers: Volume 8

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