Futility Closet - 147-The Call of Mount Kenya

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Starting point is 00:00:32 And thanks so much for your help. Welcome to the Futility Closet podcast, forgotten stories from the pages of history. Visit us online to sample more than 9,000 quirky curiosities, from a royal fish to a cotillion on a tree stump. This is episode 147. I'm Greg Ross. And I'm Sharon Ross. Stuck in an East African prison camp in 1943, Italian POW Felice Bonuzzi needed a challenge to regain his sense of purpose. He made a plan that seemed crazy. Break out of the camp, climb Mount Kenya, and break back in. In today's show, we'll follow Bonuzzi and two companions as they try to climb the second highest mountain in Africa with few provisions and homemade equipment.

Starting point is 00:01:22 We'll also consider whether mirages may have doomed the Titanic and puzzle over an ineffective oath. Thanks to listener Dave King for suggesting this one. Felice Benuzzi was an Italian consul who was stationed in Ethiopia when World War II began. In 1941, British forces took over the region, and they captured 10,000 Italian soldiers and colonial personnel. Benuzzi spent five years in British internment camps in East Africa, and finally he was sent to POW Camp 354 at the end of the railway line in Nanyuki, Kenya, exactly on the equator. Life in the camp was not hard,

Starting point is 00:02:02 but Benuzzi found it unbearably monotonous. The camp was guarded loosely so it might have been possible to escape, but then there was nowhere to go. To reach the nearest neutral territory, Portuguese East Africa, he'd have to cross a thousand miles of hostile country with no money and no knowledge of the local languages. With no hope of escape and no project to occupy him, he found life in the camp unbearably stultifying. That is, until the rainy season ended. Benutzi was standing in the yard unbearably stultifying. That is, until the rainy season ended. Benuti was standing in the yard one day when the clouds parted and revealed Mount Kenya, the second highest peak in Africa, only a few miles away. He described seeing it for the first

Starting point is 00:02:34 time. An ethereal mountain emerged from a tossing sea of clouds framed between two dark barracks. A massive blue-black tooth of sheer rock inlaid with azure glaciers, austere yet floating fairy-like on the near horizon. It was the first 17,000-foot peak I had ever seen. Benuzzi had grown up in the Italian Alps and was a skilled climber. The mountain immediately captivated him. Just a few miles from the prison camp was a summit that only a few mountaineers had ever reached and that might be within his capabilities. He wrote, I had definitely fallen in love. The psychology is interesting here. In his book, No Picnic on Mount Kenya, which has become a classic among mountain climbers, he tells of overhearing a man hammering something at night in the camp and finding that he envied him. He says, that prisoner

Starting point is 00:03:19 had set himself a task, whatever it was. For him, the future existed because presumably he meant to finish the job. For the moment, he had found a remedy against captivity. In For him, the future existed because presumably he meant to finish the job. For the moment, he had found a remedy against captivity. In other words, the reason that life in the camp was hard was that the prisoners were perpetually living in the present moment. There was nothing in the future to hope for or to work toward. He wrote, in order to break the monotony of life, one had only to start taking risks again. He resolved that if there was no way to escape the camp permanently, he would get out, climb Mount Kenya, and return. He decided he would need two companions in order to do this. Only one of them needed to have mountaineering experience, as the other could stay at the base camp to keep watch on the forest as the others climbed. Bringing more than three men would

Starting point is 00:03:58 require too many provisions and equipment. One of his fellow prisoners acquired a book with a few scraps of information about the mountain. Benuzzi noticed that one of his barrack mates, a doctor named Guillaume Baletto, seemed very interested in the book and particularly in its photographs of Mount Kenya. They talked, Benuzzi explained his plan, and the doctor agreed to come. Eventually, they found a third man, Enzo Barsotti, who was not a skilled climber but agreed to serve in the base camp. They set about gathering equipment. Bonuzzi wrote to his family asking them to send him boots and woolen clothing, but most of their climbing gear would have to be fashioned from scratch. They stole two hammers from a maintenance

Starting point is 00:04:34 man and gave them to a blacksmith among the prisoners who shaped them into ice axes. They stitched together their own backpacks and made crampons out of barbed wire. What they couldn't steal or make, they bartered for. They went into training, exercising and eating as well as they could, but Nuzzi wrote, life took on another rhythm because it had a purpose. Meanwhile, they were learning what they could about the mountain. It was a hundred miles in circumference, one of a handful of places on earth where the major climate zones appear, from tropical to alpine, stacked one above another like a wedding cake. On the lower slopes lived 2,000 elephants, as well as buffalo, zebras, leopards, lions, and hyenas. Higher up they would

Starting point is 00:05:10 face glaciers, ice, and rock, and at the top, three peaks, Batean, Nilian, and Point Linana. At this time, only a half-dozen parties had reached the top of Batean, the highest peak, and Bonuzzi had not read their accounts. In fact, as mountaineers, they had almost no guidance as to how to attack the mountain. They could study it from the camp yard, but only from one side, the west. A photo from their book showed them the eastern side, which looked still worse. And eventually they acquired a tin of preserved meat, whose label showed them a drawing of Mount Kenya seen from the south. The peak looked just as formidable from this viewpoint, with even more glaciers. That just seems like a funny way to try to prepare for a mountain climb. You're like looking on a tin

Starting point is 00:05:48 of canned meat like, oh, what does it look like? And to go ahead with it with that little information. During a trip to the dentist in a neighboring prison camp, Benutzi studied the area near the mountain and worked out a route by which they could approach it without being spotted. A white man walking with a rucksack would easily be identified as an escaped prisoner, as the total European population of East Africa was only about 20,000 at that time. If they could reach the Nanyuki River, it would lead them up the mountainside to the glaciers. But the prisoners at the dentist's camp told him of dangerous encounters with rhinos, buffalo, and elephants on the lower slopes, and the climbing trio would be unarmed. During these months, they continued to work on gathering food and equipment. A friend had a small room of his own in which they could quietly hammer

Starting point is 00:06:28 their crampons. They acquired steel from the mudguards and running board of a scrapped car. They had a hammer and chisel and could borrow files and drills. They also acquired some iron-pointed staves that they planned to use as tent poles and, hopefully, for the flag that they would plant at the top of the mountain. As the day of their departure neared, they planned how to get out of the camp. The Guillaume had been given a garden plot outside the grounds, and they began to hide their equipment in the tomato beds there, concealing their ice axes, tent, and flag poles in the bundles of bamboo used for fencing the garden. On the day of the escape, they planned to pass through the gate while the British staff were at lunch. They had secretly copied a key and

Starting point is 00:07:03 could pretend they'd been given permission to visit the garden. Finally, the day arrived. On January 24, 1942, they left a polite letter for the liaison officer of the Italian compound. It said, Sir, we have not previously informed you of our intentions, sure that you would try to dissuade us. We are leaving the camp and reckon to be back within 14 days. Then you will know and certainly approve of our action. We assure you formally that in escaping we have not misused the passes given to us by the British command. In order to avoid any such suspicion, we hand over to you herewith the above-mentioned passes bearing our names. We regret causing you this bother. Their goal in writing this was to dissuade the prison officials from punishing the remaining prisoners by confiscating their own

Starting point is 00:07:44 passes, which permitted them to walk a mile from the camp and work in the vegetable gardens. They learned later that these passes had been withdrawn anyway, and Bonuzzi wrote, we felt really sorry and culpable. They pretended to work in the gardens until 1 p.m. when the sentries were changed. Then they lay down inside the shed and waited for evening. They realized only then that Enzo had a fever, but he insisted he was feeling well enough for the adventure. At nightfall, they set out for the forest. Thanks to Benuzzi's reconnaissance, they passed safely through the danger zone of roads, railroad tracks, and farm houses that lay beyond the camp, which were full of local canyons who would happily have turned them in for a 10-shilling reward. As they approached the mountain, they reached the

Starting point is 00:08:20 Nanyuki River and followed it into the forest, which they knew was full of big game. A leopard menaced their campsite one night, and they encountered rhinos and elephants on the higher slopes, but none attacked them. They continued upward, still following the river toward its source, the glaciers overhead. From the prison camp, gazing through borrowed binoculars, they had glimpsed a gully that they judged was about halfway up the mountain. After six days, they hadn't yet reached this gully, which meant that they wouldn't accomplish the trip in the 10 days they'd provisioned for, or perhaps even in the 14 they had promised in their note. Benuzzi worried that they were out of shape after two years in the camps, and almost eight without practice in rock climbing. But they reached the gully the next day, and on the following day they emerged into open Alps and Heather. After a

Starting point is 00:09:01 drenching rainstorm, the sky cleared and they could see the prison camp away across the plain. They lit a huge fire that evening, hoping that their friends could see them. Judging from the plant life, which they'd studied in advance, they estimated they'd reached 13,000 feet, and the next day they caught their first glimpse of Batián, the highest peak. Bonuzzi wrote, I had not expected it to be so near, so beautiful, so tantalizing. They were now following a tributary of the Nanyuki that they hoped would take them more directly toward the summit of the mountain. Things were looking promising, but Enzo, who was still ill, now collapsed while chasing a bird. They revived him, but the doctor said he must not be allowed to climb higher. This was hard news,

Starting point is 00:09:37 as it meant that they wouldn't be able to establish a base camp at a reasonable height, and this would reduce their chance of reaching the summit. They resolved to make their base camp in the tent's present location. This was rather too low to give them a good start for an ascent of Batián, but it was the best they would be able to do. When Enzo was securely set up in the camp, Guillaume and Benuzzi set out to reconnoiter. They considered both peaks. They knew that Batián, the higher of the two, had been climbed, but they did not know from which side. They had no way to know whether there was a standard route to the summit, and if so, where it was. They would have to rely on educated guesswork. They had no time to circle the whole peak to examine it, and in any case, they couldn't move the base camp given Enzo's condition. They found out later that there was a hut on the farther side

Starting point is 00:10:18 of Batean, a thousand feet higher than their base camp, and marking the start of a standard route to the peak. Instead, they chose an ascent from the north. As it happened, the ridge they chose to follow had been climbed only once before under summer conditions by the world-famous British climbers Eric Shipton and Bill Tillman, and they chose to approach this ridge from the north, which Shipton and Tillman had decided was hopeless and in winter conditions, but they didn't know any of this. Not knowing this, they returned to camp and devoted the next day, February 3rd, to rest and preparation. Enzo had assembled their flag for them. To prevent it being discovered, they had prepared it in three pieces, and each of them had sewn a single stripe of the tricolor flag into his clothing. Enzo had used the red stripe as a bag for their biscuits,

Starting point is 00:10:59 Guillaume had sewn the green section into the lining of his cap as a protection against ultraviolet rays, and Felicia had concealed the white section inside his shirt. The next day they arose at 3 a.m. and started a laborious climb toward the peak. The air was thin and they were under-equipped and low on provisions, so they would be able to make only one attempt. The climb was agonizing and dangerous. The rope they were using had been designed to fasten bedding nets to bunks. As they went, Felice left a trail of red paper arrows that he had painted laboriously back in camp to show the way down if they were surprised by mists and lost their way. As they made their way up the rock, he wondered at one point whether they would reach

Starting point is 00:11:34 16,000 feet. That would have been an achievement in itself for him, as it's higher than Mont Blanc, the highest peak of the Alps in which he had learned to climb. In fact, they reached 16,400 feet, maybe 650 feet below the summit, when disaster struck. An unexpected ice storm blew in, and the temperature began to drop. After debating, they decided to retreat, but it was unclear whether even this would be possible. They were freezing, hungry, and exhausted, and the blowing ice was disoriented. They were saved by Benuzzi's red arrows, which were just visible through the blowing snow. Benuzzi later wrote, I cannot remember how many times I concluded that we were irretrievably lost on that hostile snow-covered face. Even now

Starting point is 00:12:09 as I am writing this, I can scarcely believe that all these things happened to me. Sometimes I am inclined to think that I only dreamt it. It was nearly 9 p.m. when they finally made their way back down to the base camp, exhausted after climbing for almost 18 hours. Nearly out of food now, they couldn't hope to try again for the highest summit. Attempting a lower summit would require a day of rest first, and they were nearly out of food, but they decided that they had come too far to depart without some victory. Two days later, on February 6th, they rose at 1 a.m. and set out for Lanana, the mountain's third highest peak, at 16,355 feet. After 10 hours of exhausted climbing, they reached the top at 10.05 a.m. and planted their

Starting point is 00:12:45 homemade Italian flag. Benuzzi wrote, this was the climax of eight months preparation and of two weeks of toil. It was worth both. If anyone wonders what it meant to us to see the flag of our country flying free in the sky after not having seen it so long for two years, I can only say that it was the grand sight indeed. Beneath the flag, they left a sealed brandy bottle containing their names. Then they made their way back down the peak to return to the base camp and prepare for the journey home. It had taken them nine days to travel from the prison camp to the base camp. They hoped to get back in three days. It might seem strange to break into a prison camp, but they had nowhere else to go and were now desperately low on provisions. Bonuzzi said that far from being forbidding, the camp now looked positively attractive because they knew they'd find food there. As they made their way

Starting point is 00:13:28 down the mountain, Benuzzi took note again of the beautiful sights they'd seen on the way up. He called this an inexhaustible store of beauty on which they could draw during the years behind the barbed wire. They followed the river carefully down to the plain and made their way hungrily back to the camp. They sneaked back into camp 18 days after their departure, only four days later than they had promised in their note. They didn't reveal themselves immediately to the authorities. The other prisoners said they were surprised to see them. They had thought the story of climbing Mount Kenya was just a tale to mislead the prison officers while they escaped to Mogadishu. Some of their friends received them coldly as the authorities had placed restrictions on them after the escape had been discovered, and many refused

Starting point is 00:14:04 to believe that they'd climbed the mountain at all. But the three of them were home and safe. They had a hot meal, got their hair cut, and slept blissfully in their bunks that night. The next morning, they presented themselves to the British compound officer and said, good morning. They were sentenced to 28 days in the cells, but actually spent only seven as the camp commandant said he appreciated their sporting effort. In fact, the British authorities seemed willing to overlook the escapade until their flag and names were discovered on the mountain and started making headlines. Kenya was, after all, British territory and the nations were at war. So they were kept for a time in cells as punishment. But even here, their friends smuggled in books, food, and cigarettes for them, so life was bearable,

Starting point is 00:14:42 and Bonuzzi now felt the satisfaction he had dreamed of during their long months of preparation. One night he awoke confusedly from a dream and felt the cool wind of the glaciers through the bars of his cell. He went to the window and looked out at the mountain. He thought, is it true? Have we really been there? Has not everything been a dream, a wonderful dream? And he imagined the mountain said to him, it is as you think. I have given you riches which can never be confiscated even by the most exacting searchers, self-reliance and a sense of proportion. The dream you dream shall live in your memory, a delight that will never stale. It will be your inspiration in the bitter years to come.

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Starting point is 00:16:14 Look better, feel better, and most importantly, stay immersed in the world around you, not just your lenses. Go to Crizal.com to learn more. That's C-R-I-Z-A-L.com and start living life in the clear. Sherry Martin wrote to us, Hello, Sharon and Greg. I was listening to your most recent podcast, episode 142, in which Sharon discusses some oceanic mirages. I was a little surprised the Titanic didn't come up. There's some speculation due to eyewitness accounts, the ship's geographic location, and the peculiar weather conditions that night

Starting point is 00:16:52 that the reason the iceberg the Titanic grazed went unnoticed until it was too late wasn't because of negligence, but because the current the ship had passed into and a corresponding collision of warm and cold fronts hid the icebergs in a mirage. It's also speculated that the same mirages may have hindered the rescue efforts, as the Titanic would have looked like a much smaller ship than it was to vessels searching for a giant ocean liner, which could explain accounts from survivors that ships had passed them by, while ships in the area who received the distress call claimed never to see the Titanic. If this is the case, I'd wager it's the deadliest a trick of the light has ever been. Love the show, and as always, I'm eager to hear what next week will bring.

Starting point is 00:17:35 And this is a really interesting theory that Sherry has brought to our attention. Several sources seem to find this theory at least plausible. For example, I found an article in a March 2012 issue of the Smithsonian Magazine titled, Did the Titanic Sink Because of an Optical Illusion? British historian Tim Moulton spent six years researching this possibility, including scouring weather records and ship's logs. He's written a book on the subject called Titanic, A Very Deceiving Night, which was turned into documentaries by the Smithsonian Channel and by National Geographic. Malton says that unusual atmospheric conditions the night the Titanic sank, with layers of freezing cold air underneath layers of significantly warmer air,

Starting point is 00:18:16 produced super refraction, or an extraordinary bending of light. This would have caused superior mirages and a layer of haze. As I mentioned in episode 142, in superior mirages, objects appear to be higher than they actually are. This can cause an elevated false horizon, and the area between the false horizon and the real one can be filled with haze. Maltin says that several ships in the area where the Titanic sank noted mirages and light refraction in their logbooks during that same time period. Malton said, for years, Titanic's lookouts were not believed when they said the iceberg came out of a haze on that clear night. But now we know that they were telling the truth. My research reconciles much previously unreconciled testimony and reveals that Titanic sank at the center of a perfect storm of atmospheric conditions. Malton says that this thermal inversion of warm air over

Starting point is 00:19:12 cold air was observed from the passengers in the Titanic's lifeboats, who reported seeing the warm smoke from the sinking ship rise up in a column, but then flatten out at the top of the column when it hit the capping inversion, as then the smoke would be cooler than the much warmer air above, and so would have immediately stopped rising. For example, Philip Edmund Mock, who was in lifeboat number 11, reported, We were probably a mile away when the Titanic's lights went out. I last saw the ship with her stern high in the air going down. After the noise, I saw a huge column of black smoke slightly lighter

Starting point is 00:19:45 than the sky, rising high into the sky and then flattening out at the top like a mushroom. Malton surmises that the unusual optical effects of that night not only caused the iceberg to be hidden until too late, but they also disrupted rescue operations and attempts at communication. The captain of the Californian, another ship in the area that night, had always maintained that they had tried more than once to signal the ship that turned out to be the Titanic using a Morse lamp, but that the other ship had made no response. After the collision, the Titanic had tried to use its Morse lamp to signal the Californian, also to no avail. Malton's understanding is that the super refraction distorted and obscured these signals. Also, the Californian didn't understand that the ship that they saw was actually the Titanic,

Starting point is 00:20:29 as it appeared to be both too small and too near to them to be the Titanic. Similarly, the distress rockets fired by the Titanic, although seen by the Californian, appeared to be too low in the air, and the Californian's crew didn't understand what they were. Malton seems to feel that his research has exonerated the crew of the Titanic and that it's comforting to think that such a terrible tragedy didn't happen solely as a result of avoidable human error, but rather from being caught in a set of such unusual circumstances that just weren't properly understood.

Starting point is 00:21:00 I wonder how commonly that happens in the North Atlantic. I mean, you'd think if it happened then, it would have happened earlier or later then, and it would be sort of a recognized phenomenon, you know? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. It's a good point. I didn't actually think to look into that. I don't think it's like never happens, but I think it happened to an extreme extent that night, and it sounds like it wasn't well understood, at least at the time.

Starting point is 00:21:25 Which is why it confused people. Which is why it confused people, and why they didn't believe the Titanic's lookouts when they were saying the icebergs came out of a haze, and they're like, well, it was a clear night. There shouldn't have been a haze. So obviously they wouldn't have understood it, although other ships were reporting seeing odd optical things.

Starting point is 00:21:42 I don't know how well they understood the whole phenomenon. At the time. Yeah. In episode 92, we covered the story of how in 1982, college sophomore Gregory Watson wrote a term paper in which he argued that a 200-year-old proposed constitutional amendment could still be ratified. Watson's professor wasn't all that impressed with the argument and gave him a C on the paper. That poor grade spurred Watson to start a 10-year mission to prove his professor wrong and get the amendment added to the Constitution, which it was in 1992. Daniel Sturman wrote in to let us know that there's recently been a new development in this story.

Starting point is 00:22:20 Watson's professor for that class, Sharon Waite, just this month has signed some paperwork to officially change Watson's grade on the paper from a C to an A+. Waite said, Goodness, he certainly proved he knew how to work the Constitution and what it meant and how to be politically active. So yes, I think he deserves an A after that effort. A+. Watson had celebrated his success in 1992 and over the years has followed it up with other projects of his, such as getting Mississippi in 1995 to finally ratify the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, or more recently pestering the city of Austin, Texas, where he's a city council aide to put up street signs on intersections that don't have them. Waite, however, wasn't as successful in her career and had been feeling sorry that she'd spent so many years studying and pursuing her degrees, wondering what it had all been for, until recently learning about Watson's achievement. She said, Many people have said you never know what kind of effect you're going to have on other people and on this world. And now I'm in my 70s, I've come to believe that's very, very true. That's a good story.

Starting point is 00:23:36 If that doesn't get you an A in a government class, I don't know what would. And Catherine Hsiao wrote in to us, and Catherine Xiao wrote in to us, Hi, Greg, Sharon, and the silent Sasha. I was introduced to your podcast by my friend Stephen C when he posted his top 10 favorite podcasts on his blog. Yours was his number one pick. I started listening in January 2016, beginning at episode one, when you hadn't even started the amazing lateral thinking puzzles.

Starting point is 00:24:02 I travel for work, so your podcast made my commute much more enjoyable. My second son was born at the end of last year, so he heard a lot of your voices while in the womb. Maybe my phone speakers are not very good because I have yet to actually hear Sasha. I take your word that she exists. What episode can you hear her best in? I finally caught up and am taking this celebratory moment to write to you and mention something

Starting point is 00:24:27 I have been noticing for a while. When Sharon talks about supporting the podcast, she pronounces the word Patreon in Patreon campaign and Patreon.com differently. Is this on purpose? You have had several episodes about language and Sharon's pronunciation has always intrigued me. Love your podcast, especially when you struggle with puzzles that I know the answer to. several episodes about language and Saren's pronunciation has always intrigued me. Love your podcast,

Starting point is 00:24:48 especially when you struggle with puzzles that I know the answer to. You're welcome. Sad I don't have a backlog of episodes that I can binge on and have to wait week by week for the next. Keep up the fantastic work of this entertaining and educational podcast. And thanks, Catherine, for writing, and thanks

Starting point is 00:25:03 to Stephen for including us on his blog. It's always a big help to us when people let others know about our show. That's something that we haven't always been the best about doing ourselves. So thanks for everybody who helps with that. And we are pretty sure that we do have a cat and believe that she is definitely not silent, especially when she decides that she's being neglected, as she tends to do on a daily basis. She probably would have been easier to hear in one of our earlier episodes before

Starting point is 00:25:30 we changed our mic setup. We know she's made an appearance in several episodes to one extent or another, but we don't happen to remember which episodes you can hear her the most clearly in. As for how I pronounce Patreon, I hadn't realized that until Catherine wrote in about it,

Starting point is 00:25:45 but she's right. I am pronouncing it differently at different times. I think I have a tendency to say Patreon, Patreon, Patreon, I think is what I say. But when I'm trying to give it as a website, that's when I'm going more with Patreon. I hadn't noticed that. So yeah, I am saying it a little bit differently. Um, I'm saying it is patreon.com. That's to help people spell it correctly if they're trying to type it into a browser so I guess that is kind of inconsistent of me but I'm afraid it's become such a habit now that I'm not sure I'll be able to change it

Starting point is 00:26:12 but at least now everyone will know why I'm doing it that way so thank you so much to everyone who writes into us if you have any questions or comments for us or if you happen to remember a particular episode where you can hear Sasha and we can pass that along to Catherine, please send us an email at podcast at futilitycloset.com. It's my turn to try to solve a lateral thinking puzzle. Greg is going to present me with a strange-sounding situation, and I have to try to work out what's actually going on, asking only yes or no questions. This is from listener David White. Oh, okay. On Inauguration

Starting point is 00:26:49 Day, March 4th, 1925, in front of huge crowds at the Capitol building, William Howard Taft stood and spoke the words of the presidential oath of office as laid out in Article II of the Constitution. At the conclusion of his oath, however, he was not recognized as the President of the United States. In fact, he was still not recognized as the President even by the end of the entire inaugural ceremony. Why not? Oh, my. Okay, I'm not familiar with Article 2 of the Constitution. Do I need to be?

Starting point is 00:27:17 No. Okay. I mean, is there some kind of funny thing here? Like, he was taking over for the President. Like, I don't remember much about Taft in his history. He was, he was taking over for the president. Like, I don't remember much about Taft in his history. He was like taking over for an actual acting president. So he was just going to be,

Starting point is 00:27:30 no, he wasn't. He was like just acting president for the day or something. Okay. So he was actually being inaugurated as the president. He'd won an election. He'd won a presidential election. No,

Starting point is 00:27:42 no. Oh, oh, oh, Taft was a judge, right? So he was the one, he was inaugurating another president, acting as the judge. Yes? I wondered if you were just going to knock this right out of the park. Yes, that's it.

Starting point is 00:27:57 David writes, in 1925, William Howard Taft was not speaking the words as president-elect, but as the chief justice of the Supreme Court, making him the only person in U.S. history to both give and receive the presidential oath of office. While the oath of office that he administered in 1925 to Calvin Coolidge was his first time doing so, it was not the most memorable time he did it. That would come four years later in 1929 during the swearing-in of Herbert Hoover, when Chief Justice Taft unfortunately became the first person to bungle the words of the oath of office while administering it. And perhaps no one would have even noticed that unless a 13-year-old girl listening to him on the radio hadn't written to him letting him know that he had given the oath incorrectly. The mangling of the oath of office would not happen again until 2009, when Chief Justice John Roberts, relying on his memory rather than reading from a card, recited the oath incorrectly to President-elect Obama. Obama repeated the incorrect oath given to him by Roberts, and even though constitutional scholars said that the misspoken

Starting point is 00:28:49 oath did not change Obama's status as president, the Chief Justice re-administered the oath to President Obama at a private ceremony the next day out of an abundance of caution. So thanks, David, for sending that. Thank you, David. And if anybody else has a puzzle they'd like to send in for us to try, you can send it to us at podcast at futilitycloset.com. That's our show for today. As a reminder, it would help us out if you would take a quick anonymous survey at podsurvey.com slash futility. If you're looking for more quirky curiosities, check out the Futility Closet books on Amazon or visit the website at futilitycloset.com, where you can sample more than 9,000

Starting point is 00:29:29 recipient distractions. At the website, you can also see the show notes for the podcast with links and references for the topics in today's show. If you have any questions or comments about the show, you can reach us by email at podcast at futilitycloset.com. Our music was written and performed by the phenomenal Doug Ross. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.

Futility Closet - 147-The Call of Mount Kenya

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