Futility Closet - 322-Joseph Medicine Crow

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Futility Closet podcast, forgotten stories from the pages of history. Visit us online to sample more than 11,000 quirky curiosities from opposing bullets to the best full house. This is episode 322. I'm Greg Ross. And I'm Sharon Ross. Joseph Medicine Crow was raised on a Montana reservation in the warrior tradition of his Crow forefathers. But during World War II, he found himself applying those lessons in very different circumstances.

Starting point is 00:00:38 In today's show, we'll describe Joseph's exploits in the war and how they helped to shape his future. We'll also consider how to distinguish identical twins and puzzle over a physicist's beer. Joseph Medicine Crow came into the world amid cedar incense and sacred songs. It was 1913 on the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana, and it was a medicine woman who oversaw his birth. From an early age, Joseph's relatives taught him the heritage of his people. They were warriors, he learned. The first maker had wanted to test their courage and so had surrounded them with some of the biggest and most fearsome tribes on the northern plains. In the warrior tradition, Joseph was taught to master fear,

Starting point is 00:01:27 to ride bareback, to track game, and to withstand cold. He wrote later, Warfare was our highest art, but plains Indian warfare was not about killing. It was about intelligence, leadership, and honor. He listened to the stories that the old chiefs told of the days before the reservation, an era that survived now only in their memories. When he rode over the battlefield at Little Bighorn, he could still find pieces of military equipment and the bones of horses. Joseph's great-uncle White Man Runs Him

Starting point is 00:01:56 had been one of six Crow Scouts with the 7th Cavalry when Custer had attacked a village of Sioux and Cheyenne on the Little Bighorn River 50 years earlier. The Scouts had urged Custer had attacked a village of Sioux and Cheyenne on the Little Bighorn River 50 years earlier. The scouts had urged Custer to wait for reinforcements, but he had attacked immediately and been routed. The bravest warrior of all time was Joseph's grandfather, Chief Medicine Crow, a great leader with 22 war deeds to his credit. In the old days, a chief commanded respect because he had proven himself on the battlefield. That was the only path to leadership. It was not enough to be popular or to be descended from an important family. You could become a chief only by performing four different types of war deed, touching the first enemy to fall in a battle, taking away an enemy's weapon, capturing an enemy's horse, and leading a successful war party.

Starting point is 00:02:42 With each of these feats, a warrior risked his life. Afterward, he would be praised and led through the village, and he could tie an eagle feather in his hair or attach wolf tails to his moccasins to reflect his bravery. Joseph's life was not so heroic. On the reservation, he had to live in the white man's world as well as the Indians. At age six, he was sent to a Baptist mission school, where one teacher taught 25 or 30 Crow students in all grades. When he had trouble understanding her English, she shook him roughly. He wrote later, He kept to himself after that.

Starting point is 00:03:20 When he switched to a public grade school at age 10, he didn't know his ABCs or numbers, and the white girl who sat behind him pricked him all day with a safety pin. But he applied himself and caught up. At 16, he went to a Baptist-supported Indian school in Oklahoma that drew students from 30 or 40 tribes across the country. They asked him about his own tribe, and that sparked his interest in collecting Crow stories. As he advanced in school, he came to believe that education was the key to his people's future. He said later, That to me was a personal challenge. I wanted to prove to people, not only to Indian people,

Starting point is 00:03:54 but people in general, that an Indian is capable of becoming a good college student. People said that Indians are just too dumb. They are not capable of getting a college education. I wanted to disprove that. He earned an undergraduate degree in two years and went on to get a master's degree in anthropology in 1939. He was working on a doctorate when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and he suspended his studies to enlist in the army. He had resolved to fight honorably and bravely like a plains Indian warrior, but he began, inauspiciously, as a clerk. He had turned down a commission because he wanted to emulate his grandfather, Medicine Crow, who had worked his way up through the warrior ranks to become a great chief. Joseph wanted to follow in

Starting point is 00:04:35 his footsteps. After two unexciting years, he was reassigned to combat duty when the army needed foot soldiers to invade Germany. He wrote later, Here, finally, was my opportunity to be a warrior, to meet the enemy in combat. But in truth, I knew little about being a warrior, only the stories I had heard growing up. To help him, he called on the traditional sources of spiritual power. Throughout his tour of duty, he carried an eagle feather that had come down to him from a Shoshone Sundance chief in Fort Washakie in Wyoming. Before a battle, he would tuck the feather into the lining of his helmet, recite prayers, and paint his arms with a red lightning streak and a red ring, as his uncle had taught him. The paint was hidden under his

Starting point is 00:05:14 shirt, but, he wrote, when I was under fire, I felt much better because of my special spiritual medicine. To this day, I credit my medicine for saving my life during several close encounters with the Germans. At one point, an artillery shell exploded right in front of him, killing or wounding half a dozen soldiers and knocking Joseph over the side of a cliff. He lost his helmet, knapsack, and rifle, but managed to find them again and climb back up the cliff. He found that he was bruised but not seriously hurt. At length, Joseph's company crossed the Maginot Line and came to the German border, a little creek in a steep-walled valley. They managed to cross the creek and climb

Starting point is 00:05:50 the hill on the farther side, but beyond to the crest lay the concrete bunkers of the German Siegfried Line, and their big guns stopped any further progress. A decision came down to destroy these German pillboxes, and as luck would have it, Joseph was standing next to the commanding officer when he received the order. He told Joseph to take six men and go back across the creek to the French side and retrieve some boxes of dynamite. The French side of the creek was a high hill loaded with landmines. Joseph's closest friends volunteered to go with him, and before they left, the commanding officer ordered Allied guns to throw smoke screen shells onto the hillside. Soon it was covered with a mass of white smoke. Joseph's group crossed the creek and started up the hill through the smoke. The Germans,

Starting point is 00:06:34 realizing that something was happening, started lobbing mortar shells at them. The hill was steep, obscured with smoke, and slippery with wet snow, but at last they reached the top and pressed on to an allied camp. There they managed to rest for half an hour before they were ordered to get moving again. They were given boxes of dynamite with fuses. Each box weighed 50 pounds. That was a clumsy size to handle, too much to bear on their shoulders, and, they found, too awkward to carry in both hands while making their way back down the slippery hill. The Allies had thrown some more smoke shells to cover them on the hillside, but the Germans were still

Starting point is 00:07:08 lobbing mortar shells and now added hand grenades as well. After some thinking, Joseph sat down, put his box across his knees, and slid down the hill to the creek. The others followed suit, and they all managed to reach the bottom. Joseph wrote, if our boxes had gotten hit, or if we had stepped on a mine, we would have been goners. It was a terrifying experience, but somehow we all came back without a scratch and with seven boxes of dynamite. That was an important success. With the explosives, the engineers managed to blow up the German pillboxes in their way. Joseph's unit pressed on and in March 1944 came to a little town. Their assignment was to enter

Starting point is 00:07:45 it from the rear while other units attacked from the front. The Germans had planted landmines all over the area, so to make their approach they had to wade through a mire that rose to their chests. But they managed to get into the town without being noticed while the other units commenced their attack. Joseph had five or six soldiers assigned to him. Their job was to secure a certain back alley, which was fairly quiet. With his men behind him, he began running down the alley carrying his rifle. Along one side was a stone wall ten feet high, and as he ran, he made out a gate in this wall and headed for it, wanting to see what was happening in the main street, which was noisy with gunfire.

Starting point is 00:08:22 Unfortunately, a German soldier was running toward the same gate from the other side. What with the shooting, they couldn't hear each other, and they met at the gate. Both were surprised, but Joseph was the first to react. He hit the other man under the chin with the butt of his rifle, knocking him down and knocking the rifle out of his hands. The German tried to reach for it, but Joseph kicked it away. Then he dropped his own gun, jumped on top of the other man, and started to strangle him. The rest of Joseph's men had run up in the meanwhile. They wanted to shoot the German, but Joseph was still on top of him. Desperate and terrified, the German uttered what might have been his last words, and Joseph said, that opened my ears. He was calling for

Starting point is 00:08:58 his mother. Joseph stood up and let him go. As the war neared its end, Joseph's company began following a group of SS officers who had abandoned their men and were traveling on horseback. Joseph's group followed these officers all night. They were riding on an asphalt road, and Joseph could hear the clop of the horses' hooves. About midnight, the officers left the highway and took a dirt road. In the moonlight, Joseph's company followed, and after three miles, they found themselves at a villa with a barn and a little corral. The commanding officer sat down with his platoon leaders to discuss the situation.

Starting point is 00:09:30 They decided to attack the farmhouse at daybreak, but Joseph couldn't get his mind off the horses in the corral. The next morning, after the CO gave the platoon leaders their orders, Joseph said, Sir, maybe I should get those horses out of the corral before you attack, because some of those SS guys might be able to escape on them. It would only take me about five minutes. The officer was surprised, but said, Okay, you're on. Joseph found one of his friends, and the two of them made their way down toward the corral, watching in case there was a German guard in the barn.

Starting point is 00:09:57 When they reached the corral, nothing was moving. Joseph crept through the fence and approached one of the horses, saying, Whoa, whoa. The horse snorted at first, but then settled down. Joseph took out a rope and tied the horse's lower jaw with a double half hitch, as the old crow warriors used to do. The horse was tall, and Joseph's boots were muddy, so he had a hard time mounting it. He had to stand on a watering trough to get onto its back.

Starting point is 00:10:21 But then he was ready. He whistled, and at that signal, his friend opened the gate at the other end of the paddock. Joseph gave a crow war cry, and the horses ran through the gate and up the road. He rode with them for half a mile, until they reached a stand of trees. By that time, his company had opened fire on the farmhouse. Day was breaking, and Joseph could get a good look at the horses. He counted about fifty, and his own was a handsome sorrel with a blaze. As the horses milled in the dawn light, he sang a crow praise song to celebrate his success. The Germans surrendered quickly, and Joseph rode the sorrel back to the farmhouse. After the prisoners had been sent to the rear, the company set off along a railroad bed,

Starting point is 00:10:58 Joseph still on horseback. He wrote later, It was better to ride than to walk. I felt good. I was a crow warrior. My grandfathers would have been proud of me, I thought. But all too soon, the reality of the war came back. After letting me ride the horse for about a mile or so,

Starting point is 00:11:12 the CO yelled over to me, You better get off. You make too good a target. The war ended soon after this, and in January 1946, Joseph was discharged. Back on the reservation, he was describing his adventures to his people when several elders asked him to recite his war deeds. The request took him aback. He had hoped to be a good soldier, to perform honorably in combat, but he had never thought of his actions on the battlefield as war deeds. The elders saw it differently. They began with his journey to retrieve the dynamite at the Siegfried line. Joseph wrote,

Starting point is 00:11:43 The elders judged it was the same as leading a war party in the old days. I had been assigned to a command job. We had returned safely and victoriously. We hadn't come back with horses or scalps, but we had returned with materials essential to the welfare of our men. That was my first war deed. Next was his struggle with the German soldier at the gate. That counted for two war deeds. The soldier was the first German they had met that day, and Joseph had knocked him down and touched him and also taken away his weapon. The fourth war deed was to capture an enemy's horse. Joseph had taken not one horse, but 50.

Starting point is 00:12:17 He had met the four requirements, so they declared him a full-fledged Crow war chief. He said later, I am probably the only war chief left, joining the ranks of Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Black Hawk, and all the brave warriors of the past, protecting their lands and their way of life. He was 33 years old when that happened. He would live another 69 years and spent much of it as an emissary between the Crow world and the white. In 1948, he became the historian and anthropologist of his tribe, drawing on his own memory and those of the elders to document the great horse culture of the plains from an Indian

Starting point is 00:12:50 perspective. In time, he became the last living link to the history and way of life of the Crow people before the reservation. In 1951, he became a land appraiser with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He wore a jacket and tie during the day, but, he said, after five o'clock I'd turn into an Indian. On the Crow Reservation, he helped to found Little Bighorn College and wrote nearly a dozen books about his people. And beyond the reservation, he became known as an ambassador for American Indians generally, contributing to museum exhibits around the country and speaking

Starting point is 00:13:19 at colleges, conferences, and the United Nations Summit. For his service, he received the Bronze Star, the French Legion of Honor, several honorary doctorates, and, in 2009, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. He said, There is a middle line that joins two worlds together. I walk that line and take the best from each and avoid the worst. I have lived a good, well-balanced way of life. I encourage my grandchildren and young Crow Indians to do the same, and they will be happy. Futility Closet is supported entirely by our wonderful listeners. We just wouldn't be able to keep putting in the amount of time that the show takes to make

Starting point is 00:14:10 if it weren't for the donations and pledges we get. If you'd like to make a one-time donation to help us out, you can find a donate button in the support us section of the website at futilitycloset.com. And thanks so much to everyone who has sent us donations. If you'd like to provide more ongoing support for our show, you can join our Patreon campaign, where you'll also get access to some bonus material, like outtakes, more discussions on some of the stories, extralateral thinking puzzles, and peeks behind the scenes of the show. You can check out our Patreon page at patreon.com slash futilitycloset, or see the link at our website.

Starting point is 00:14:44 And thanks again to everyone who helps support the show. We really couldn't do this without you. The puzzle in episode 313, spoiler alert, asked besides fingerprints, what other physical feature reliably differs between identical twins? The answer was belly buttons, as they are essentially scars and not determined by genetics. And I mentioned that fingerprint differences between twins are due to the fact that fingerprints are determined by both genetics and some environmental factors that impact a developing fetus. A few of our listeners let us know that there are other physical features that reliably differ between identical twins. For example, Nate Butler from Michigan wrote,

Starting point is 00:15:29 Hi podcasters, I thought for sure I had the answer to today's puzzle immediately. The pattern of your iris can be used for security and identification purposes, much like a fingerprint, and twins do not have the same iris pattern. Currently, technology can differentiate twins by both fingerprints and iris patterns. And Rachel Hamilton from Kitchener, Ontario, which I recognized because we have another listener who writes from there, wrote, just listened to the Santa Claus episode and my first answer to the identical twin puzzle was the retina. I was thinking of retinal scans along the same line of fingerprinting. I thought I had it when you told Greg it wasn't readily seen on people. And John summed up both of these with,

Starting point is 00:16:07 You successfully misled me with the identical twin navel thing. I expected it to be eyes. Iris patterns are similar but not identical between identical twins, and iris recognition is increasingly used for biometric verification. Retinal capillary patterns are also unique in this way. And Cheryl Jensen said, Greetings Sharon and Greg. While listening to the lateral thinking puzzle in episode 313 on how to tell identical twins apart,

Starting point is 00:16:32 I felt pretty smug, confident that I knew the answer. I was consequently very surprised when the solution turned out to be that their navels differed from one another, rather than their ears, which is the answer I had anticipated. I immediately had to check the internet to see if ears could also qualify, So it turns out that there are a number of physical features that do reliably differ between even so-called identical twins, which is rather good news for the field of biometric identification. So for example, an article from CNN cites a biometrics expert who says that research in using software to identify people by their ears shows up to 99.6% accuracy, the same level of accuracy

Starting point is 00:17:27 as fingerprints. And as Cheryl noted, it might be easier to try to check out someone's ears as opposed to their belly buttons, though I don't know if the ear differences are always large enough to be easily noticed. Same with the small differences in iris textures, which might be able to be seen by the naked eye, but you'd probably have to be really close to the person. Some of the other physical features that are unique even between twins are the bumps and ridges on tongues and teeth, which end up with individual differences due to usage. As with fingerprints, some physical features are commonly impacted by the small environmental differences that occur to developing fetuses. But there's also another element at play here. mental differences that occur to developing fetuses. But there's also another element at play here. J.C. Lundberg wrote to us on this topic and sent an article from Slate about the effects

Starting point is 00:18:09 basically of random noise on development. Every cellular process is inherently noisy with a certain amount of randomness to it, and this means that even genetically identical cells in the exact same environment will sometimes behave differently. This can have dramatic effects, such as how studies of identical genetically engineered nematode worms all in the same environment show that while some of them will develop normally, others will die. At a less dramatic level, it means that identical twins generally have small but distinguishable differences, and apparently these small differences even extend down to their DNA. It's long been assumed that identical twins, resulting from the splitting of one fertilized egg, would have identical DNA and thus couldn't be distinguished on the basis of DNA testing.

Starting point is 00:18:55 But studies in recent years have shown that newly developed techniques can pick up the random mutations that occur after the egg splits and thus can distinguish between what we apparently should stop calling identical twins. This was actually even used in a case to resolve the question of paternity between what we should now probably call by their more clinical name of monozygotic twins. So if you are a twin and you were counting on that to help you get away with a crime because they wouldn't be able to distinguish you from your sibling, you can now forget about that idea. I guess in law or in law enforcement, the convention of using fingerprints, I suppose, evolved a long time ago when it wouldn't be easy, for instance, to record someone's iris

Starting point is 00:19:35 pattern, for example. Right. So maybe that's why that became the standard. But ears sounds like a really good, easy way to distinguish people. Right. But fingerprints are really easy to record, even with very low tech. And you can look at the differences, even with pretty low tech. Reliably, yeah.

Starting point is 00:19:52 Yeah. So, but it seems, and fingerprints are a good, generally a good way. Although there are things that can change your fingerprints, like scarring, or you can deliberately obscure your fingerprints. But yeah, ears might be pretty good. obscure your fingerprints. But yeah, yours might be pretty good. The main story in episode 124 was about D.B. Cooper, who hijacked an airliner in 1971, demanded $200,000 and four parachutes, and jumped out of the plane over Washington State to never be seen again. Because there are various odd details to the story and no real evidence as to what happened to Cooper, this story has

Starting point is 00:20:24 continued to intrigue people over the decades, and various investigations into it still continue to be made. So for example, in episode 139, I mentioned some of the research from recent years into $6,000 worth of bills from Cooper's ransom request that was found buried in the sand on Tanna Bar along the Columbia River near Portland, Oregon, which was found in 1980 by a boy digging a fire pit. Analyses of these bundles of bills, which included studying the decomposition rates of rubber bands under different conditions, determined that the bills had to have been put in the sand within a year after Cooper's hijacking. Jason Cutler wrote to us, Hi all, as you once covered D.B. Cooper, I am compelled to send you this.

Starting point is 00:21:05 And Jason sent an article from Nature from August of this year about using analysis of diatoms, a type of algae, to try to learn more about the timeline of this money. Some diatom species have a wide variation in seasonal abundance, and their silica shells incorporate trace elements from the water they live in that can also change in proportions throughout the year. Diatoms have been sometimes used forensically, such as to help confirm drowning as a cause of death, or in cases where a particular body of water has a unique composition of diatom species that were found on victims or evidence.

Starting point is 00:21:40 The authors of this article say that their analysis is the first use of diatoms to time constrain a forensic event. The analysis was conducted on one of the recovered Cooper bills, which is still owned by the person who found the money in 1980. When they were found, the bills were badly deteriorated around the edges and the bundles were solid lumps. This study found diatoms on the bill, indicating that the bill had been immersed in water before its burial in the sand. The proportion of types of diatoms and the elemental signatures suggest that the money was submerged in May or June, months after the November hijacking, and the authors say that this finding rules out many of the current theories related to the event.

Starting point is 00:22:22 For example, this would rule out Cooper burying the money shortly after his escape from the plane, or that Cooper landed in the river that night, soaking the money before he then buried some of it on the shore. But as the authors note, with the constraints put on the time of the submersion, many theories are easily discounted. But as many things in the Cooper case, this new information does not bring forth any new theories on how or why the money would find its way into the sand on Tanna Bar during the summer months. Yeah, it's hard to think of a scenario where it could unfold that way. You said this was found in 1980? Yes.

Starting point is 00:22:57 And he did the hijacking in, I can't remember exactly the date, but it was the early 70s. 71. So that's hard to understand. What could have, so they, it wasn't buried or didn't, but it was the early 70s. 71. So that's hard to understand. What could have... So it wasn't buried or didn't find its way into the water until significantly later? Right. The hijacking was in November, and based on at least this study, which the authors say does need to be verified, this is the first time that anyone's attempted to use this type

Starting point is 00:23:21 of analysis in this way. But according to their study, it looks like the money had to have been submerged in water several months after the hijacking, which is kind of hard to understand. Because, I mean, there was a theory that Cooper had bailed out in a different place than where it was thought, and he'd landed in the river,

Starting point is 00:23:40 which would explain the money having been apparently been soaked, because it looked like it had been soaked. That can't be the case. That can't be the case. That can't be the case. So I mean, but there could be lots of explanations, to my mind, that don't have to do with Cooper, like that the money somehow ended up somewhere and somebody found it, but why they buried it in this particular, nobody knows. That just makes the whole thing more intriguing.

Starting point is 00:23:59 Nobody knows anything about the whole Cooper case. And a quick follow up to episode 319 here. I had covered how the word tardigrade was messing up transactions in PayPal and how this story had caused me to learn that there is a rubber chicken museum in Seattle. During the explanation of the tardigrade issue, I quoted a GeekWire article written by Tim Ellis as one of my sources. And it turns out that that particular Tim Ellis is a listener of our show and has written to us a few times. He kindly wrote to us to say he was pleased to hear his article used on the show. And then he even more kindly sent us a photo of his daughter standing next to what is reportedly the world's largest

Starting point is 00:24:40 rubber chicken. So there will definitely be a photo of that in the show notes for anyone who wants to see an unusually large rubber chicken and who won't be able to get to Seattle to see it for themselves. And for anyone who wants to hear an amusing account of the whole backstory of how the tardigrade issue unfolded for Archie McPhee as they attempted to work out why the heck PayPal was objecting to their Christmas ornaments, Tim also sent a link to an Archie McPhee podcast episode on that that he was a guest on. The link will also, of course, be in the show notes. Thanks so much to everyone who writes to us. If you have any follow-ups or comments or photos of rubber chickens, please send them to us at podcast at futilitycloset.com.

Starting point is 00:25:20 TheLateralThinkingQuizZit.com. It's my turn to try to solve a lateral thinking puzzle. Greg is going to give me an interesting-sounding situation, and I'm going to try to work out what's going on, asking yes or no questions. This is from listener Karsten Hammann, and I've adapted it somewhat. Starting in the late 1800s, the Carlsberg Brewery funded an honorary residence on the campus of their largest brewery outside Copenhagen to house, quote, a man or a woman deserving of esteem from the community by reason of services to science, literature, or art, or for other reasons, as chosen by the Royal Danish

Starting point is 00:25:56 Academy of Sciences. The most prominent occupant of the honorary residence was Niels Bohr, who lived there from 1932 after winning the Nobel Prize, until his death in 1962. Along with this residence came free beer piped in from the nearby Carlsberg Brewery. According to a somewhat apocryphal story, in his later life, Bohr's drinking started to interfere with the tranquil research pursuits he was expected to engage in while living in the honorary residence, so the brewery briefly cut him off. How did he get them to reinstate the privilege? Okay. Did he do it by some trickery or deception, would you say? No, I wouldn't say that, but you're not far off. Okay. Well, I was wondering, like, did he get them to do it in such a way that they didn't realize

Starting point is 00:26:45 that they were doing it or understand that he'd be the one drinking the beer or something like that? No. So like there was some major act of deception? No, I wouldn't say that. No. Okay. So the brewery cut him off because the drinking was interfering with his research.

Starting point is 00:26:59 Yes. I'm correct so far? I mean, that's basically it? Yeah. No? Yeah? And he missed the beer. Yes.

Starting point is 00:27:08 So he wanted them to start supplying it again. Yes. And he somehow convinced them, would you say? Yes. Induced them, I guess. Induced them rather than convinced them. Did he make a verbal argument to them? No.

Starting point is 00:27:23 No. Okay. Did he employ other people? No. In this? Does it matter who at the brewery he convinced to do this? No. Okay.

Starting point is 00:27:35 And you're saying it's not like he deceived them as to what was going to happen? He convinced them he was doing research on beer. No. He needed the beer for his research. Did he somehow convince them that he worked better with beer? So when the beer stopped, like he did even worse or something? No. No.

Starting point is 00:28:03 I'm trying to think of a careful hint. Well, I can work on this for a little bit more. Let's see. Would you say that he in some way convinced them that he would be doing better if he had beer again? No. Okay. Did he somehow convince them that the lack of beer was not improving anything? No.

Starting point is 00:28:25 And you said he did this non-verbally. Did they do this, did they reinstate the beer because they thought it was somehow going to be better for their company's bottom line in some way? Like he gave them a sort of a... Not bottom line, but... Their image or their reputation. Yes.

Starting point is 00:28:45 Did they think he was going to somehow promote their beer? No. Oh, that he'd start drinking a competitor's beer. Oh, my gosh. Yes, maybe I'll just give it to you. Oh, am I close? It's something like that. Yeah, I'll just give it to you.

Starting point is 00:29:01 That just came out of nowhere. I'll just give it to you. That just came out of nowhere. Borg's response was to slowly walk each evening through the Carlsberg Brewery on his way home to his on-campus residence carrying a large package of Tuborg beer, Carlsberg's main competitor at the time. Good for him. This upset the Carlsberg Brewery employees so much that after a few weeks, Carlsberg reinstated his unlimited beer and he never drank Tuborg again.

Starting point is 00:29:20 So the story goes. Karsten adds, The honorary residence and free beer are definitely true and well-referenced. The story of getting cut off and responding by carrying Tuborg through the brewery is a story told on tours today at the Carlsberg Brewery. But I couldn't find reliable mention of such a story online anywhere, although it's not necessarily the most flattering story of Niels Bohr. So maybe it's just not told. I just thought it was clever, a clever solution. But you're right.

Starting point is 00:29:41 It's hard to know if that would be apocryphal or not. But it's an amusing solution. So thanks, Karsten. But you're right, it's hard to know if that would be apocryphal or not. But it's an amusing solution. Thanks, Carson. Thank you. And if anybody else has a puzzle that they'd like to send in for us to try, you can send that to podcast at futilitycloset.com. Futility Closet really relies on the support of our listeners. If you'd like to help support our celebration of the quirky and the curious, please check out our Patreon page at patreon.com slash futility closet. Thank you. Check out the Futility Closet store, learn about the Futility Closet books, and see the show notes for the podcast with links and references for the topics we've covered. If you have any questions or comments for us, you can email us at podcast at futilitycloset.com. All our music was written and performed by Greg's incredible brother, Doug Ross. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.

Futility Closet - 322-Joseph Medicine Crow

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