Futility Closet - 328-A Canine Prisoner of War

Episode Date: January 18, 2021

In 1944, British captives of the Japanese in Sumatra drew morale from an unlikely source: a purebred English pointer who cheered the men, challenged the guards, and served as a model of patient forti...tude. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of Judy, the canine POW of World War II. We'll also consider the frequency of different birthdays and puzzle over a little sun. Intro: Sherlock Holmes wrote 20 monographs. In 1863, Charles Dickens' hall clock stopped sounding. Sources for our feature on Judy: Robert Weintraub, No Better Friend: One Man, One Dog, and Their Incredible Story of Courage and Survival in World War II, 2016. S.L. Hoffman, "Judy: The Unforgettable Story of the Dog Who Went to War and Became a True Hero," Military History 32:1 (May 2015), 72-72. Rebecca Frankel, "Dogs at War: Judy, Canine Prisoner of War," National Geographic, May 18, 2014. Robert Weintraub, "The True Story of Judy, the Dog Who Inspired Her Fellow Prisoners of War to Survive," Irish Times, June 2, 2015. Jane Dalton, "Judy, the Life-Saving PoW Who Beat the Japanese," Sunday Telegraph, May 31, 2015. "Heroine Dog's Medal Goes on Display," [Cardiff] Western Mail, Aug. 26, 2006. "Medal Awarded to Dog Prisoner of War Goes on Public Display," Yorkshire Post, Aug. 23, 2006. Amber Turnau, "The Incredible Tale of Frank Williams," Burnaby [B.C.] Now, March 19, 2003. Nicholas Read, "Prison Camp Heroine Judy Was History's Only Bow-Wow PoW," Vancouver Sun, March 12, 2003. "London Salutes Animal Veterans," Charlotte Observer, May 28, 1983. Frank G. Williams, "The Dog That Went to War," Vancouver Sun, April 6, 1974. "Judy, Dog VC, Dies," [Montreal] Gazette, March 23, 1950. "Judy, British War Dog, Dies; to Get Memorial," [Wilmington, Del.] Morning News, March 21, 1950. "The Tale of a V.C. Dog," [Adelaide] Chronicle, Jan. 30, 1947. "Judy to Receive Dogs' V.C.," The Age, May 2, 1946. "Judy: The Dog Who Became a Prisoner of War," gov.uk, July 24, 2015. "Prisoner of War Dog Judy -- PDSA Dickin Medal and Collar to Be Presented to the Imperial War Museum," People's Dispensary for Sick Animals, Aug. 21, 2006. "PDSA Dickin Medal Stories: Judy," PDSA Schools (accessed Jan. 3, 2021). Listener mail: Andrew Gelman et al., "Bayesian Data Analysis (Third Edition)," 1995-2020. "Keynote: Andrew Gelman - Data Science Workflow" (video), Dec. 21, 2017. Becca R. Levy, Pil H. Chung, and Martin D. Slade, "Influence of Valentine's Day and Halloween on Birth Timing," Social Science & Medicine 73:8 (2011), 1246-1248. "Tony Meléndez," Wikipedia (accessed Dec. 24, 2020). "Thalidomide," Wikipedia (accessed Jan. 9, 2020). Neil Vargesson, "Thalidomide-Induced Teratogenesis: History and Mechanisms," Birth Defects Research Part C: Embryo Today: Reviews 105:2 (2015), 140-156. "Biography," tonymelendez.com (accessed Jan. 10, 2021). "Tony Melendez Sings for Pope John Paul II - 1987" (video), Heart of the Nation, Sept. 27, 2016. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Lucie. Here's a corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

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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 Sherlock Holmes' writings to Charles Dickens' clock. This is episode 328. I'm Greg Ross. And I'm Sharon Ross. In 1944, British captives of the Japanese in Sumatra drew morale from an unlikely source, a purebred English pointer who cheered the men, challenged the guards, and served as a model of patient fortitude. In today's show, we'll tell the story of Judy, the canine POW of World War II.
Starting point is 00:00:45 We'll also consider the frequency of different birthdays and puzzle over a little son. In September 1936, two Royal Navy officers presented themselves at a kennel in the British settlement in Shanghai. They were the skipper and bosun of the HMS Nat, a British gunboat patrolling the Yangtze River, and they were looking for a mascot. They soon found one, a purebred, liver-and-white English pointer who leapt into the bosun's arms. The kennel owner's daughter had named her Shudi, which means peaceful. The men adapted that to Judy and took her back to their ship. She was not yet a year old, but she seemed to belong aboard a naval vessel. She received an official ship's book number, which gave her full status as a crew member, and she began to accompany shooting parties ashore, so she knew the smell of gunpowder and the sound of bullets almost from
Starting point is 00:01:39 her puppyhood. She warned the crew against river pirates, who would sometimes approach the ship by night in junks, and remarkably, she was able to sense incoming aircraft well before the crew could, barking ferociously and then pointing, a useful skill in an era when radar was not yet widely available. She served peacefully on the Gnat until the summer of 1939, when war gathered in Europe and the Navy decided to consolidate its presence in Asia. Judy was reassigned to another gunboat, the HMS Grasshopper, which was ordered to Singapore. The storm broke on the day after Pearl Harbor. Japanese bombers appeared in the sky and attacked the city, and Grasshopper was pressed into continuous action, attacking enemy transports and coastal positions and evacuating soldiers. By the end of January, Japan was threatening to invade,
Starting point is 00:02:25 so on February 12th, the grasshopper began to evacuate refugees. Judy personally greeted nearly everyone who came on board, and shortly after midnight on the 14th, they pulled out of the harbor and headed for the Dutch East Indies, making their way through waters patrolled by the Japanese. As day broke, Judy began barking at the sky, and Japanese bombers soon appeared. Over the course of two hours, the grasshopper weathered 15 to 20 attacks. At last, a bomb hit the mess deck, the ship beached itself on a sandbar, and the survivors found themselves marooned on a tiny island without food or water. At first, there was no sign of Judy, but when a petty officer swam out to the ship to look for provisions, he found her trapped between some fallen lockers and a bulkhead. He took her back to the island,
Starting point is 00:03:08 where she proved her worth immediately by discovering a freshwater spring, saving the lives of all the castaways. After five days, they were rescued from the island and heard a tantalizing rumor. On Sumatra, from the western port city of Padang, allied ships would soon be departing to take survivors to safe havens in India, Ceylon, and perhaps Australia. To reach the ships, though, they'd have to get to Sumatra and then make their way to the port on the farther side. They reached the island by junk in two days, but found that no vehicles were available. To reach the rescue ships, they'd have to hike through 170 miles of some of the densest jungle on earth. Here again, Judy proved her mettle.
Starting point is 00:03:45 One of the men said she seemed to feel the group belonged to her. She ranged ahead and around them, sniffing the ground, testing its soundness and listening for dangers in the darkness. The passage took three weeks, and they reached Padang to find they were just too late. The last ship had departed, and a surrender of the island had already been arranged. They took shelter in an elementary school for the night, and Judy's barking told them when the Japanese arrived. The next day, they were officially taken prisoner. They were held for three months at Padang and then moved across Sumatra to an outpost near Maidan on the Malacca Strait. Judy's group
Starting point is 00:04:19 were held in a former lunatic asylum, a grim place where the food was scarce, disease was rampant, and beatings were frequent. There she made a fateful friend, a 23-year-old RAF raider man named Frank Williams. He had spotted her briefly once before, when he'd first reached Sumatra. He said, I did not know who she was or where she came from. Only later was I told she was one of the survivors of the HMS Grasshopper. I remember thinking, what on earth is a beautiful English pointer like that doing over here with no one to care for her? I realized that even though she looked thin and frail, she was a true survivor. She seemed to be a sort of communal possession, always welcome, but not the property of any one man. Now he called her over and shared his bowl
Starting point is 00:04:58 of rice with her. He said, I just had an immediate connection with her. It was as though I could understand her every thought, and more amazingly, she could understand mine. She laid down at his feet and became his dog. He continued to share his rations with her, and she began to share her prey with him, rats and snakes, often still alive. He taught her to sit, stay, and roll over, and to run and hide at his command, a skill that would save her life on many occasions. The grim atmosphere of the camp had aroused Judy's courageous, protective nature. When the guards beat a prisoner, she would confront them with snarls and growls and take blows in his place from their rifle butts. To protect her, Frank began to intervene and take some blows himself, but he
Starting point is 00:05:38 knew that it wouldn't be long before she was shot outright. So, in the early months of 1943, he made an odd, historic request. He waited until the Japanese commander was drunk and then asked to talk to him. He explained that Judy was brave, loving, and important to the men's morale, and pointed out that the guards were a risk to her life. If she could be made an official prisoner of war, she'd be protected under the Geneva Protocols, and that would make the guards at least think twice about shooting her. The commander agreed, and Judy became the only dog in World War II to be registered as a prisoner of war. They survived in the camp for two years, and then the commander announced that all the prisoners would be moved to Singapore. That was good news. Singapore was familiar terrain, and there they could receive Red Cross packages,
Starting point is 00:06:21 letters from home, and news about the war. The commander ordered that Judy was to be left behind when the others boarded the ship, but, one prisoner recalled, we weren't going to have that happen. Judy had been with us all that time. So we had a sack, and we would train her to hop in the sack at a given signal, and then we would put her on our shoulders. Judy was put in the sack, and we carried her on board. Unfortunately, they didn't get far. During their journey, a British submarine fired on the ship, not realizing that it was carrying prisoners. There was bedlam in the hold as the vessel began to sink. With cargo falling in from the deck, Frank realized he could never carry a 50-pound dog that way. So reluctantly, he took Judy to
Starting point is 00:06:59 a porthole, put her through headfirst, and told her to swim. Then he made his own way out of the hold, down the tilting hull of the ship, and into the water. For two and a half hours he swam among the wreckage looking for her. He had no success, though several men told him they'd seen her. At last he let himself be pulled aboard a tanker. Two days later they reached Singapore and were herded onto trucks and taken to the River Valley prison camp. There a surprise was waiting for him. He wrote, as I entered the camp compound I was hit from behind, square between the shoulders, by a leaping mass of scraggy dog. The charge knocked me over. Judy loomed over me, panting happily. She was coated in bunker oil, and her tired old eyes were burned very red,
Starting point is 00:07:38 but she was triumphant. Fate had taken her in hand. We don't have one continuous account of what happened to Judy after she went through the porthole, but she had been seen guiding four different men to Flotsam and to the rescue ships. Prisoner Leonard Williams said, a lot of people owe their lives to Judy. She was pushing pieces of wood towards people who couldn't swim. She allowed herself to be pulled into a boat only when there were no more men nearby. By that time, one witness said, she was more dead than alive. She had totally given herself to the drowning men. From there, she had accompanied the men to the new prison camp. When she couldn't find Frank, she'd lain down inside the gate to watch for him.
Starting point is 00:08:13 River Valley was Frank's third prison camp. He'd been in captivity now for two and a half years. But after his reunion with Judy, another man said, his shoulders seemed to reset. A month later, they were shipped back to Sumatra to begin a hellish 14 months in a series of work camps laying railroad track through 140 miles of dense wilderness in the island's interior. The men were exhausted to begin with and worked 12 to 16 hours a day on a starvation diet. Frank's weight dropped to 76 pounds and Judy became a walking skeleton. The guards disliked her and ordered her
Starting point is 00:08:45 to be shot, but she had become too wily to be caught. Frank said she wasn't that tame, obedient dog anymore. She was a skinny animal that kept herself alive through cunning and instinct. He shared his single handful of maggot-ridden rice with her each day, and she foraged in the jungle for snakes, rats, and lizards. Radarerman Tom Scott, who worked with Frank on a team carrying steel, said, I was always fascinated at the complete understanding which existed between Frank and Judy. They were truly an amazing team. Judy was no longer a dog that anyone in his right mind would recommend as a suitable household pet. Thin, half-starved, always on the prowl, her eyes only softened when Frank touched her or spoke to her, or when she looked up at him.
Starting point is 00:09:24 Whenever she found herself too close to one of the guards, her lip curled back in a snarl, and her eyes seemed to glow with almost a red glare. Sometimes this sort of thing would lead to trouble, and when a guard threatened to retaliate, Frank would click his fingers and Judy would disappear into the nearby jungle. We didn't see her and didn't hear her, yet the moment he gave a low whistle, she'd reappear at his side as if from nowhere. Her very survival raised morale. One man in another camp said, we all knew of her existence even when we didn't actually see her in action. It was a great thing to know someone was taking care of her and that she was, somehow, still alive. Frank said, Judy strengthened me to hold on, regardless of what the future might bring. We had defied so many dangers and looked into the eyes
Starting point is 00:10:04 of death so often that we owed it to ourselves to hold on in the hope that another miracle would present itself. By mid-July, the men were seeing planes overhead fairly regularly. They had no idea what was happening in the rest of the world, but tried to hold on in light of rumors of peace. On August 15, 1945, an RAF parachute regiment arrived with the news they had been waiting for. The war was over. The prisoners were evacuated to Singapore. Judy and Frank spent a month in a hospital compound regaining weight and strength and then took a troop ship to England. When they arrived, Judy spent six months in quarantine, a requirement against rabies. During that time, her story spread and when she emerged in April 1946, she was a national hero. She received
Starting point is 00:10:45 a Medal for Valor from the British Kennel Club, as well as the Dickin Medal, the animal version of the Victoria Cross, the highest honor in the realm. The citation read, For magnificent courage and endurance in Japanese prison camps, thus helping to maintain morale among her fellow prisoners, and for saving many lives by her intelligence and watchfulness. Frank was given the White Cross of St. Giles for his devotion to her. Similar honors followed for several weeks. The press called her Gunboat Judy and the Precious Pointer. The Tail Waggers Club, an animal welfare charity, gave Frank enough money to ensure that Judy would never want for food or shelter again. She joined the Returned British POW Association, becoming its only canine
Starting point is 00:11:24 member, and she and Frank made regular appearances at fundraising drives, dog shows, children's hospitals, and the homes of returned prisoners and the families of those who had not come home. When the two were demobilized in July 1946, he took her home to Portsmouth, the town of his youth, but both of them soon yearned for a more adventurous life, and in 1948 they set off for Tanganyika, where he had joined an effort to offset food shortages by sowing groundnuts. Judy loved the country, roaming with Frank in a Land Rover, chasing ostriches and giraffes, playing with baboons, and trying to determine which end of an elephant was the front. In January 1950, she disappeared and was discovered miles away. It's thought that she may have tangled with a leopard.
Starting point is 00:12:09 But she was now 14 years old and could not last forever. That February, doctors removed a mammary tumor, but then a tetanus infection set in and Frank agreed to end her suffering. She was laid to rest near his hut, wearing her RAF jacket and her citations, the Pacific Star Campaign Medal, the 1939-45 Star, and the Defense medal. He spent weeks fashioning a tombstone of concrete and crushed white marble, suitable, he said, for an exceptionally brave dog who meant so much for so many when they lost courage, and he composed a plaque to recount her stunningly accomplished life. In memory of Judy, DM, K9VC, breed English. Born, Shanghai, February 1936. Died, February 1950. Wounded, 14th February 1942. Bombed and sunk, HMS Grasshopper. Linga Archipelago, February 14th, 1942. Torpedoed, SS Van Warwick, Malacca Strait, June 26th, 1944. Japanese prisoner of war,
Starting point is 00:13:01 March 1942 to August 1945. China, Ceylon, Java, England, Egypt, Burma, Singapore, Malaya, Sumatra, East Africa. They also served. A remarkable canine, a gallant old girl who, with a wagging tail, gave more in companionship than she ever received, and was in her short lifetime an inspiration of courage, hope, and a will to live, to many who would have given up in their time of trial had it not been for her example and fortitude. Frank Williams lived another 53 years. He never owned another dog. We had a very interesting follow-up to the puzzle in Episode 318. Spoilers ahead. Colin Carroll wrote, Hello, Sharon and Greg. I just finished listening to the lateral thinking puzzle in Episode 318
Starting point is 00:14:02 about the lack of births on Christmas Day and knew the answer right away since it is on the cover of a popular statistics textbook. The book is Bayesian Data Analysis by Andrew Gelman, John Carlin, Hal Stern, David Dunson, Aki Vetteri, and Donald Rubin. The cover shows the output of a statistical model built by author and Finnish professor Aki Vetteri for how many children are born by day of week, month of year, and day of year. Christmas, Independence Day, and New Year's are all labeled as outliers. They also point out that very few children are born on weekends. Interestingly, Greg asked about the day before and after Christmas, and there are actually more births
Starting point is 00:14:40 than usual the day before and after Christmas and other holidays. I have a link from a delightful talk Professor Gelman gave about this analysis, and he attributes the uptick in births to the babies needing to be born sometime. He also shows some updated data and notes that the Christmas effect is getting even stronger. Thanks so much for the show and for all you do. It really brightens my week. The textbook cover that Colin sent and that we'll have in the show notes shows some great graphs of some analyses of the patterns in birthday frequencies using a data set of the records of all births in the U.S. that occurred each day during the years 1969 to 1988. So the graphs show the relative number of births for, as Colin said, things like day of the week and day of the year, and I found it really helpful and striking to see the effects depicted graphically like this.
Starting point is 00:15:30 As Colin said, there were considerably fewer births on Saturdays and even a bit more so on Sundays, with the effect getting a little more pronounced over time, moving over those years from about 90% to 80% of the expected number of births for those days, which the authors attribute to the generally increasing rates of scheduled C-sections and induced births. The graphs also show decreases in frequencies of births on almost all holidays or special days, such as Labor Day or Leap Day, with rather strong drops in frequencies on New Year's Day, Independence Day, July 4th, and of course Christmas Day, which had the lowest frequency of any other day of the year, below 80%. I also watched the
Starting point is 00:16:12 relevant part of Gelman's 2017 lecture that Collins sent, during which he showed the same graphs from the textbook and also graphs of the same analyses using data from 2002 to 2012. The graphs of the more recent data showed very similar patterns, but also showed even more of a decrease in births on the weekends, going from about 80% in the earlier results to more like 60% in the more recent ones. Similarly, Christmas and New Year's Day also showed a decrease in birth frequency, with Christmas births dropping to about 50%. July 4th, which still had the sharpest decline after Christmas and New Year's, went from about 85% to about 70%
Starting point is 00:16:51 in the more recent data. Why Independence Day? Of all the other days of the year, I would never have expected that's the one that stands out. Doctors don't want to work on Independence Day? I guess not. Gelman also pointed out that the relative numbers of births on the 13th of each month tends to be noticeably lower than nearby days and showed a graph for the day of the month effect. I noticed that there was an interesting exception to this for September, which shows a drop for Labor Day, the first Monday in September, and September 11th. Despite 13 having a reputation as an unlucky number, perhaps a birthday of
Starting point is 00:17:26 September 13th sounds preferable to 9-11, leading to the relative numbers of births on September 13th being a little above 100%, although the next few days are even higher. That's striking. I wouldn't have thought of that, but it makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't have thought of that either until I saw it. When you see it graphically, like things can really jump out at you. That's kind of poignant. In his talk, Gellman referred to an article published in 2011 in Social Science and Medicine, which I then found, that examined the numbers of births that occurred one week before and after Valentine's Day and Halloween in the U.S. from 1996 to 2006. The authors chose these holidays, one with positive associations of love and the other
Starting point is 00:18:06 with negative associations of the supernatural and death, because these holidays are widely celebrated in the U.S. but don't usually result in doctors taking off from work. The authors noted that the first year of the data used in their study, 1996, coincided with the beginning of a rapid increase in the rate of cesarean sections performed in the U.S., which continued throughout the study years. This study found that overall, there was a statistically significant increase in the number of babies born on Valentine's Day, with a 5% higher chance of a baby being born that day rather than another day in the week before or after, and a statistically significant decrease in the number of births on Halloween, with an 11.3% lower chance of a baby being born that day compared with the other
Starting point is 00:18:50 days near the holiday. What was particularly surprising about their results, I thought, was that these effects weren't all due to cesarean and induced births, but rather also to changes in the numbers of spontaneous births on the holidays in the expected directions. Not too surprisingly, the differences in the number of C-sections was more pronounced than for the spontaneous births, but still the change in the numbers of spontaneous births was statistically significant for both holidays. Halloween also showed a strong effect in the number of induced births, while the effect of Valentine's Day on induced births was not quite statistically significant. The authors state that overall, our findings raise the possibility that pregnant women may be able to control the timing
Starting point is 00:19:30 of spontaneous births, in contrast to the traditional assumption, and that scheduled births are also influenced by the cultural representations of the two holidays. It's hard to think of another explanation for the decrease of births on Halloween and the effect for Halloween was fairly pronounced. But I should note that Gelman points out in his lecture that at least some of the increase in births that was seen on Valentine's Day or February 14th might be due to the typical monthly decrease on the 13th. also seemed a bit skeptical about whether women do have much control over the timing of spontaneous births and noted that there could be selection effects in that the spontaneous births represent those women who don't choose to have a c-section or an induced birth. I inferred from that that those women who, for example, strongly objected to having a baby with a Halloween birthday, if told by their doctors that that was their likely due date, might then try to schedule
Starting point is 00:20:25 the birth for a different day instead. So they're making the choice. It's not spontaneous then. Yeah. I mean, that would be hard to tell from the data, like why women were having a scheduled birth as opposed to a natural birth. You can't really tell that from the data that's collected. That makes sense. forth and who wouldn't want fireworks on their birthday every year? Unfortunately for him, his mother's doctor had no desire to work on the holiday and thus induced labor a day early. I should note that this was in rural Oregon in the late 40s and a small town doctor. This was the same doctor that some years later used a pair of pliers from the office toolbox to remove a staple from my dad's head. Thank you for all of the joyful entertainment. He's right. I'd like to have fireworks on my birthday every year.
Starting point is 00:21:26 I'm wondering if that's primarily a doctor decision to not have babies be born on July 4th and not something that the parents actually want. That'd be cranky, too. And with a possible spoiler to the puzzle in episode 319, Carl Sherman wrote, and I am reading this just as it was written, Carl Sherman, whose name he insists is pronounced Chuck Norris, despite its spelling clearly being a different name entirely, wrote in concerning the puzzle Greg solved in episode 319 about the man who always took the lower value of two coins offered to him. Carl mentions a guitarist who was born with no arms called Tony Melendez, who has a song he could not find about a man named Luther, who was regularly offered a similar choice by the town folk.
Starting point is 00:22:10 In this case, a dollar or a quarter. He always chose the quarter for the same reason as the man in your puzzle. The kicker was the last verse when old Luther has died and the narrator visits his grave and puts a dollar and a quarter on the fresh dirt. A gust of wind carries away the dollar and a quarter on the fresh dirt. A gust of wind carries away the dollar and again, Luther keeps the quarter. Carl also let us know that Tony played with his feet and his band was called the Toe Jam Band, but was unable to include that information naturally in the previous paragraph without the wording coming off weird. Respectfully yours, Chuck Norris. So we've had people write to us from time to time to let us know that some of
Starting point is 00:22:45 the main stories we cover on the show have songs about them. And that's interesting to hear. But I think this might be the first time that we've had a lateral thinking puzzle that has a song that goes with it. I think so. I also was intrigued at the idea that Tony Melendez played guitar with his feet. Melendez was born in 1962 in Nicaragua, and due to his mother having taken the drug thalidomide while pregnant with him, he was born without any arms. And for those who aren't familiar with thalidomide, that drug has a rather unfortunate history, in that its very harmful effects on developing embryos weren't recognized for some time after it became available in the late 1950s, and one of its main uses was for treating morning sickness
Starting point is 00:23:25 and pregnancy. According to his official website, Melendez was brought to Los Angeles as a child and fitted for artificial arms, but stopped using them at age 10. He said, I didn't feel comfortable. I could use my feet so much more. He learned how to play guitar with his feet in high school and began writing his own songs. He began performing in the Los Angeles area in 1985 and sang and played for Pope John Paul II in 1987. There's a video of that event on YouTube and it is rather inspiring. Melendez is quite good and the Pope was moved by the performance to get down from the platform he'd been seated on and make his way with a bit of difficulty to the platform that Melendez was on so that he could kiss him, which clearly was a very emotional moment for Melendez. The pontiff said to Melendez, you are giving hope to all of us. My wish to you is to continue of giving this hope to all,
Starting point is 00:24:15 all the people. As for the song that Carl, aka Chuck, described about Luther and his monetary choices, I thought it sounded great, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to find it either. So if anyone knows any more about that, please let us know. Thank you to everyone who writes to us. We really appreciate your contributions to the show. And if you'd like to send any comments, follow-ups, or feedback, please send those to podcast at futilitycloset.com. please send those to podcast at futilitycloset.com. It's my turn to try to solve a lateral thinking puzzle.
Starting point is 00:24:54 Greg is going to give me a strange-sounding situation, and I have to try to guess what's going on, asking yes or no questions. This is from listener Lucy. In 1773, during James Cook's second voyage, King Ayatollah of Tahiti became interested in one of Cook's possessions. He was first impressed with the sound it made, and later, when he learned its purpose, he called it a little sun. What was it? A little sun.
Starting point is 00:25:17 S-U-N? Yes. Okay, S-O-N, whatever. That's a good first question. Kind of a different meaning. A little sun, and he was interested in the sound that it made. That's the first thing I think of as a mirror, but that wouldn't make a sound. I'm trying to think of what would illuminate in the 1700s and make a sound also.
Starting point is 00:25:42 And James Cook apparently had this on his ship. Yes. James Cook had this on his ship? Yes. James Cook had this on his ship? Yes. Yes. He had brought it with him from England? Yes. Okay.
Starting point is 00:25:56 Is it something that you could hold in your hand fairly readily? Yes. Okay. Is it something that is usually notable for making sounds? Like a musical instrument would be known primarily for making sounds. Meaning that's its purpose? That's its purpose or main use or main thing that it's normally known for. No.
Starting point is 00:26:15 Okay. Is it mainly known for illumination? Being bright or illuminating? No. No. Is it something to do with fire? Is fire involved in any way? No. No. Is it something to do with fire? Is fire involved in any way? No.
Starting point is 00:26:28 No. Was it reflective? Is that why it reminded the king of the sun? No. No. Something about it reminded the king of the sun, though. Yes. Was it its color? No.
Starting point is 00:26:41 That it gave off heat? No. And it's not giving off light or reflection? That's right. Was it its shape? No. Does the word sun have a different meaning in, where is this, Hawaii? Tahiti.
Starting point is 00:26:57 Oh, sorry, Tahiti. Does the word sun have a different meaning in Tahiti? No. Does this have something to do with like a sun god? No. Okay. Would I look at this object and for some reason think of the sun? I don't think you would, no. But the Tahitian king did? Yes, because of its purpose. Because of its purpose. Because of its purpose.
Starting point is 00:27:25 Objects moved around it. Okay, okay. But he was first taken with the sound that it made. Yes. So the sound was incidental to the object's purpose? Yes. Okay. Would you say that this is made primarily out of metal?
Starting point is 00:27:41 Yes. Was it an instrument of some sort, like that you would use aboard a ship? Something you would call an instrument? It's close to that, yeah. I think I'd say yes. Close to an instrument. Was it used in some way for, like, measuring? I'll say yes. What do you use on a ship for
Starting point is 00:28:00 measuring? Would it be used in some, like a compass? It's not a compass, but you're on the right track. Like something that Cook would use while like plotting a course or charting where they're going.
Starting point is 00:28:14 No. No. But he would use it on a ship. He would use it while he's on the ship? He would use it both on and off the ship. He would use it on and off the ship. Like a spyglass? A telescope?
Starting point is 00:28:29 No. I can't think what you call the old-fashioned... Sexton? No, the spyglass thing that you used to look through. Yeah, I know what you mean. No, it's not that. The king called it a little sun because it served the same purpose that his people used the sun for. To tell the time of day. It's a watch.
Starting point is 00:28:47 Yes. His people told time by the sun. Georg Forster's account of the voyage reads, King Ahayatua was playing with Captain Cook's watch. After curiously examining the motion of so many wheels that seemed to move as it were spontaneously, and showing his astonishment at the noise it made, which he could not express otherwise than by saying it spoke, he returned it and asked what it was good for. With a great deal of difficulty, we made him conceive that it measured the day, similar to the sun, by whose altitude in the heavens he and his people are used to divide their time. After this explanation, he called it a little sun to show us that he perfectly understood our meaning.
Starting point is 00:29:26 That is really cute. Thanks, Lucy. Thank you. And we are always on the lookout for more lateral thinking puzzles. So if you have one for us to try, please send that to podcast at futilitycloset.com. Futility Closet is supported entirely by our wonderful listeners. If you'd like to help support our celebration of the quirky and the curious, you can find a donate button in the supporters section of the website at futilitycloset.com. Or you can join our Patreon campaign, where you'll not only help support our show, but also get more information on some of the stories, extralateral thinking
Starting point is 00:29:59 puzzles, outtakes, and peeks behind the scenes. You can find our Patreon page at patreon.com slash futilitycloset, or see our website for the link. At our website, you can graze through Greg's collection of over 11,000 delightful distractions, browse 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 phenomenal brother, Doug Ross.
Starting point is 00:30:33 Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.

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