FACTORALY - CHRISTMAS: DAY 1 - REINDEER

Episode Date: December 25, 2024

!2 days of Christmas - 12 mini Factoralys. Today, Reindeer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Merry Christmas, Simon. Merry Christmas, Bruce. Welcome to Factorial, everyone. Yes, hello, everyone. This is a special because we are going to be giving you 12 in 12 days, because there are 12 days of Christmas. Indeed, instead of the usual one a week, you get one every single day for the whole 12 days of Christmas. But because it's one a day, they're obviously not as long as they normally are. Indeed. So these are going to be relatively short, relatively punchy, quick little snippets of festive, Christmassy, informative fun.

Yeah, of course we're going to take a subject every day. Yes. But the subjects will be Christmas relevant. Indeed. So that's the plot. Let's get on with it. Off we go. So what's the first subject we're going to tackle today, Simon? Subject number one, according to my notes, is reindeer. Reindeer. Can you name them?

I can. Now, I mean, obviously, I'm reading notes here, so of course I can. I actually pride myself on being able to name them anyway, just from memory. Okay. The reindeer that we know that are very common are called Dasher, Danancer vixen comet cupid donna and blitzen very good and then rudolph gets added later on and rudolph yeah the others wouldn't play with no they wouldn't no shiny red nose that's just it's it's um discriminatory isn't it it is well the thing is that most reindeer have red noses or they can have red noses can they because yeah because they have um a very large number of blood vessels in their nostrils which allows them to regulate their

temperature so basically as they breathe in they can bring the blood closer to the surface to like cool them off if they're overheating brilliant and it does it does make them pink have pink noses right okay i wonder if the person who invented rudolph's red nose knew that or whether that's just a coincidence yeah i mean the other thing is that rudolph is probably the wrong name for that for that reindeer how so well technically because all the all the reindeer that i've seen have antlers. Sure. And the only reindeer that have antlers at Christmas are females.

OK. The males lose their antlers in the autumn. Oh, I see. So they would have to be female. How interesting. That's the point of the podcast so um i i had um i only fairly recently learned that reindeer and caribou are the same thing ah i i thought they were different species but um caribou is um i believe an inuit name um reindeer traditionally come from chilly places. They live in the Arctic tundra.

They come from Greenland, Scandinavia, Russia, Alaska, Canada, those kind of places. Yes. So they're very well adapted to live in cold, snowy environments, which is one of the things that sort of first gets them associated with Christmas because they're used to the cold and the snow and so on. Had they been other creatures? Well, they were originally other creatures. At some point or other, Santa's sleigh has been pulled by various different animals,

including horses, before the reindeer actually came along. Yes, well, in Australia, it's pulled by uh kangaroos it is six white boomers yes to be precise but santa's reindeer are incredibly quick they are aren't they they have to be yes i mean it's there's been worked out that to get to every single household in the world, they would have to be going about 2.3 million miles an hour. Really? Yeah. Crikey.

That's quite fast, isn't it? That is quite fast. Unless you sort of bring in the whole time vortex, universe warping, spacey-wasey, timey-wimey theories that are floating around these days to account for it all. Yes. I mean, that's what I would use. Yeah, that's what I'd go for. But reindeer themselves, they have those big feet. Yes. And they're sort of like double-jointed hooves.

Yes, they do, don't they? And the reason for that is that they eat a thing called, believe it or not, reindeer moss. Oh. And reindeer moss in the winter is buried by snow. So they have to have shovels on their feet to basically shovel away the snow. Oh, I see. So they can get down to the moss. Oh, OK.

And they can smell the moss through the snow. Brilliant. I'm assuming that reindeer moss is so-called because it's eaten by reindeer not the other way around yes the other thing they eat is um they they eat fly agaric mushrooms the sort of hallucinogenic mushrooms really if you see a reindeer sort of looking as though it's like treading on eggshells and kind of like lifting its feet up very high. It's just had a few shrooms.

But if you're in a newet, then once your reindeer has eaten the mushrooms, should you wish to, the urine of a reindeer contains traces of the mushrooms. Oh, really? So if you drink the urine of a reindeer that's been on mushrooms, you get a similar effect. I suppose that makes sense. Yes, I can understand that. How interesting. All of those movies in which you sort of see a reindeer being sprinkled by magic dust or whatever in order to make them fly high.

Yes. It was just mushrooms. They're flying anyway wonderful so in in christmas terms other than the fact you know reindeer are obviously real creatures and interesting they are very very much associated with with christmas and pulling santa's sleigh um those eight reindeer that were previously named, they are entirely due to one particular poem named A Visit from St. Nicholas, better known as Twas the Night Before Christmas,

written by Clemency Moore in 1823. He's the first one to give those eight names to the reindeer. But there was another publication that came out in the early 1900s entirely different in which um a fellow called frank l frank baum who wrote the life and adventures of santa claus in 1902 his list of reindeer apparently they were named flossy and glossy racer and pacer reckless and speckless fearless and peerless and ready and steady so pick whichever one you prefer i prefer the yeah was rudolph in his as well no so rudolph came along later rudolph was entirely the product of montgomery ward department stores in america in 1939 their sales were flagging a little bit and

they put out they got a chap called robert may to write a children's story to entice families into the store to buy stuff. And they were giving away a free copy of this story about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He did not exist until 1939. Wow. Yeah. That's impressive. I just thought he was as old as the hills. Yes, yes.

But no, relatively recent addition to the team. I believe you mentioned Donner and Blixen. I think that that name was actually changed, wasn't it? Because they were originally a Dutch version, Dunder and Blixen. That's right, Dunder and Blixen, meaning thunder and lightning. Yes. And then they, over the years, got changed to Donner and Blitzen, yeah. Baxter's kennel name is Snowball Blitzen. Is that right?

Yes. It sounds like a military code name. So thank you very much for coming and listening to us. Indeed. Thank you very much for coming along. We hope you'll join us again next time for another fun-filled episode of Factorily. Bye-bye. Au revoir.