Futility Closet - 355-The Auckland Islands Castaways

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 Lewis Carroll's logic to a kangaroo's waistcoat. This is episode 355. I'm Greg Ross. And I'm Sharon Ross. In 1864, two ships crews were cast away at the same time on the same remote island in the southern ocean, but the two groups would undergo strikingly different experiences. In today's show, we'll tell the story of the Auckland Islands castaways and reflect on its implications for

Starting point is 00:00:45 the wider world. We'll also consider some fateful illnesses and puzzle over a street fighter's clothing. In November 1863, the schooner Grafton set sail from Sydney with a crew of five. They were bound for Campbell Island, a speck in the Southern Ocean 400 miles south of New Zealand, which they'd heard had a rich mine of silver-bearing tin. This would be only an initial prospecting expedition, expected to last four months at most. Since they'd be venturing through one of the most dangerous seas in the world, they told their partners to send out a search party if they didn't return in that time. They reached Campbell

Starting point is 00:01:30 Island on November 30th and found no sign of a mine. The captain, Thomas Musgrave, resolved to return to Sydney, stopping on the way at the Auckland Islands, another local group, to assess the seal population there. The Aucklands were uninhabited. Their bitter climate and poor soil had driven away the few hunters and farmers who had ever tried to make a living there. The Grafton arrived on December 30th, and the men decided to spend a few days hunting seals. They were anchored in a bay when a storm snapped the anchor chains and the ship was driven onto the rocks. The five men collected what provisions, tools, and possessions they could and took the ship's boat to shore. Their first thoughts

Starting point is 00:02:11 were dismal. They had been cast away 285 miles from the nearest inhabited island. They managed to make a fire but could find no shelter. Musgrave said that it would have been better to drown in the storm than to starve here. His companion, Francois Reynaud, reminded him of the search party they'd arranged, but that would look for them on Campbell Island, not here on the Aucklands, and their provisions would be exhausted long before the four months had elapsed. Still, they were unharmed, and Musgrave pointed out that there were materials on the ship that they could use to build a shelter. They set out to improve their circumstances. They learned to feed themselves by hunting the sea lions on the coast. They set up a flag that would be visible from the sea and tied a bottle to it explaining where they

Starting point is 00:02:53 might be found. And they chose a hillock near the mouth of a brook and set out to build a weatherproof cabin there. It took two months of shared effort, but the cabin was a great success, a building 24 feet by 16, with a door, a board floor, and a chimney of stone. They built a dining room table, erected lofts in the corners of the roof to store large items, and even fitted glass into openings in the upper walls to make rudimentary windows. The hut was divided into two halves, one for the captain and officer and the other for the men, after their practice aboard the ship. The sailors had accepted this convention on the Grafton, but they rather disagreed with following it on land. They felt that a democracy had been growing

Starting point is 00:03:35 up between them during their time ashore. After some discussion, Raynal suggested that they elect a leader who would maintain discipline, adjudicate quarrels, and assign daily tasks. The men agreed with the understanding that if the chosen man proved unworthy, another election could be held. The rules were recorded on a blank page in their Bible, and Raynal nominated Musgrave, who was elected. This egalitarian spirit carried through to their other dealings. They voted on a name for their new home, Epigwiet, which Musgrave said was a Native American word meaning near the great waters. They began to conduct classes in the evenings. Two of the crewmen taught Portuguese and Norwegian in return for lessons in reading and writing.

Starting point is 00:04:16 Raynal taught French and mathematics, and Musgrave expounded the scriptures on Sunday. Thus, Raynal wrote, from that evening we were alternately the masters and pupils of one another. These new relations still further united us. By alternately raising and lowering us one above the other, they really kept us on a level and created a perfect equality amongst us. They devised games as well. Musgrave made a solitaire board and Raynal a chessboard. They whittled dominoes and Raynal made 52 playing cards. And they tamed three parakeets and kept them as pets in the hut. Throughout all this, at Raynal's insistence, they kept up a strict household routine, rising at six to cut wood. A fire was kept burning day

Starting point is 00:04:57 and night, and Raynal made a grindstone to keep their one hatchet sharp. In time, he even managed to make soap, which they used to clean their clothing, the dining table, the cooking table, the floor, and themselves. And with the pelts of sea lions, they made clothing, shoes, and bed coverings. All this activity kept them from brooding and giving way to depression. Raynal said, it left us little leisure to think of our misfortunes. Still, in March, storms arrived, and the sea lions became harder to find. Musgrave, who had run out of ink and was now keeping his journal in seal blood, wrote on April 10th,

Starting point is 00:05:34 The days are getting short and a long, stormy, dreary winter is before us, without the slightest prospect of getting away. They finished thatching the hut just in time to stave off the bad weather. At about this time, by an unlikely coincidence, another group of mariners were cast away on the same island. The Scottish ship Invercald was en route from Australia to Peru in May 1864, when she ran aground in bad weather 20 miles north of the Grafton castaways. 19 men survived the wreck, but unlike the Grafton's crew, they fell almost immediately into a disorganized despair. For five days and nights, they remained on the beach, sleeping under a cramped lean-to and competing by day to find food among the island's meager resources.

Starting point is 00:06:13 Small groups wandered away and returned to report what they'd found, but the captain, George Dalgarno, seemed too shaken by the disaster to make a plan or organize any effort. The men began to die of injury and exposure. By June 2nd, they'd had no substantial food for 23 days. A resourceful seaman named Robert Holding found some limpets among the tidal rocks nearby, but by the time he'd led the men to a new camp, their numbers had shrunk to 10. At length, they discovered a ruined house, all that remained of a failed British colony in 1849. A chimney still stood in a kitchen under a shingled roof. This was a modest improvement in their circumstances,

Starting point is 00:06:50 but soon they'd scoured the local shore of shellfish. It was time to move on, but the men had grown listless again, and Dalgarno still was not leading. Holding eventually found another source of shellfish, but the men were now succumbing so rapidly that he managed to bring only two to the new camp, the captain and the first mate. Even this small group fell to quarreling, and Holding spent his time building a hut and devising better ways to hunt seals. Eventually, Holding suggested that they build a small craft to carry them across the 500-yard channel to Rose Island, which was closer to the sea and might offer a better vantage to watch for passing ships. This they eventually managed to do, and on May 23, 1865, they spotted one. They waved a shirt, lit a smoky fire, and presently heard the report of a gun and saw the ship lower a boat.

Starting point is 00:07:37 She was the Spanish brig Julian, bound from China to Calao. Gratefully, the castaways climbed aboard and sailed with her to South America. No one troubled to search for any other survivors on the island because no one suspected there might be any. Throughout all this, the castaways of the Grafton were still supporting themselves in their camp to the south. The sea lions had grown scarce in the bitter winter and bad weather had kept the men from searching for them, but they had all got safely through the worst of it. As spring approached, they cast about for a way to escape the island. Musgrave proposed fitting up the Grafton somehow to sail them to New Zealand, but they found it was impossible to mend her. There was still some hope of a rescue from Australia. If their partners sent a ship as

Starting point is 00:08:18 they'd promised, it might reach them soon. Musgrave wrote, my eyes are positively weak and bloodshot with anxious looking. But there was no sign of a sail. It appears their partners never sent one. At Christmas, Raynal suggested the ambitious plan of building a ship of their own. Through great ingenuity and ceaseless toil, by January 16th, they'd built a working forge to produce the necessary tools, and Raynal turned out pincers, punches, gouges, and chisels. But in the end, he couldn't make an auger, a large drill that could bore holes in heavy wood. Without that, there was no way to set the pegs that would hold the framework together, so the project was a failure. Facing starvation

Starting point is 00:08:56 now, the men resolved to get to New Zealand in the dinghy. This seemed desperate, but none of them wanted to face another winter on the island. They improved the boat as well as they could, fashioning a mast and bowsprit, adding decking, and planking the sides with boards. The result was too small to accommodate all five men, so they resolved to leave two behind on the island and return for them if they reached New Zealand. Favorable weather came on July 19, 1865, two months after the survivors of the Invercald had departed with their rescuers. The castaways of the Grafton said their goodbyes, and three men set sail. They passed through a line of reefs and steered north-northwest with a favorable wind, but as the first dusk fell, a gale blew up. The boat's plunges left the men sick and dizzy. They could eat nothing and only

Starting point is 00:09:42 swallow a little water. That night, the storm showered them with hail and snow, and the next day was no better. The roast seal they had brought with them went rancid, and they threw it overboard. The storm continued. On the third night, they were beset again by huge waves, and at the dawn of the fourth day, they were wet through, frozen with cold, and faint with hunger. They kept their eyes trained on the north but saw only more gray ocean. But on the fifth morning they saw a bulge on the horizon, Stewart Island, their first site of New Zealand. Musgrave had been on his feet for five days, holding onto a rope with one hand and pumping with the other, and eaten nothing in that time. He collapsed with exhaustion and lay on the deck for half an hour, then collected just enough strength to get them to land. He wrote later, had we been out any longer, I feel convinced that I should never have

Starting point is 00:10:28 put foot on shore again. They landed at Port Adventure, where they all took baths, ate some blessed food, and slept for 24 hours. Their first task now was to return to the island, but due to many frustrating reverses, they didn't reach it until August 24th, more than a month after their departure. Musgrave wrote, the cook, on seeing me, turned as pale as a ghost and staggered up to a post against which he leaned for support, for he was evidently on the point of fainting, while the other, George, seized my hand in both of his and gave my arm a severe shaking, crying, Captain Musgrave, how are ye? How are ye, apparently unable to say anything else.

Starting point is 00:11:09 The two men had been reduced to eating mice and had had such a falling out that they had considered living apart. They returned now together to New Zealand. Another two months would pass before Raynal read in a newspaper that another ship had been wrecked on the island during their time there, and that other castaways had suffered the same ordeal. It's hard not to regard all this as a natural experiment. Two groups were shipwrecked at theaways had suffered the same ordeal. It's hard not to regard all this as a natural experiment. Two groups were shipwrecked at the same time on the same remote island. One built a shelter, agreed on a democracy, shared their resources, educated one another, and spent months working together on a plan to get home. The other never seemed to regard itself as a group at all.

Starting point is 00:11:41 Each man looked out for himself, fighting for existence without much thought for the future or any disciplined plan to escape the island. The first group lived on the island for 20 months, and all five of them escaped safely. The second group remained for only three months, and in that time their numbers dropped from 19 to 3, and they were saved only by a chance encounter with a passing ship. The first group fashioned a seaworthy vessel and sent three of their number 300 miles north to find help and return for the rest. This reflects a pattern seen in other nautical disasters. Yale sociologist Nicholas Christakis made a study of shipwrecks between the years 1500 and 1900 and found that castaways who were cooperative, egalitarian, and caring, who shared food and cared for the sick,

Starting point is 00:12:26 almost always fared better than those in which every man fended for himself. Christakis finds that this is a wider rule in societies throughout history. Two of the key traits in a successful society are altruism and cooperation. To be sure, in the Aucklands, the survivors of the Grafton had some distinct advantages. They all knew one another and enjoyed a comradeship from the start, and their captain was willing to put aside the shipboard hierarchy for a more equitable relation on land. The Invercald castaways were not even sure of each other's names, and the officers expected deference from their subordinates, which was resented.

Starting point is 00:13:00 Absurdly, even when only three men remained, the two officers shunned the lone seaman for his impudence and set up a separate camp, even though he was hunting for all three of them. Beyond leadership, the two groups differed greatly in resources. The Invercald was destroyed completely when it struck the island, leaving its castaways desperate almost from the beginning. The Grafton foundered but remained accessible in her cove, and her crew scavenged her freely throughout their stay on the island. At the start of their ordeal, they had stocks of food, a gun to hunt with, and the dinghy that would eventually save their lives.

Starting point is 00:13:33 But none of these advantages would have brought them to safety without shared sacrifice and solidarity of purpose. Francois Reynaud wrote, Assuredly, we had lived together since our shipwreck in peace and harmony, I may even say in true and honest brotherhood, yet it had sometimes happened that one or the other had yielded to a fit of temper and let drop an unkind word, which naturally provoked a not less disagreeable repartee. But if habits of bitterness and animosity were once established amongst us, the consequences could not but be most disastrous. We stood so much in need of one another. The main story in episode 349 was about how in 1857, a number of guests at Washington,

Starting point is 00:14:28 D.C.'s National Hotel came down with a mysterious illness. One of those afflicted was James Buchanan, who at the time was preparing to assume the presidency of the United States. And we talked a bit about how Buchanan's being unwell during the early part of his presidency might have affected some of the actions he took. Richard Kirk wrote, high utilitarians, when you wondered what effect his illness may have had on President Buchanan's ability to make good decisions, this reminded me of a similar theory that Prime Minister Anthony Eden may have made a mess of the Suez crisis because of a fever he had following complications after a series of abdominal operations. And Richard sent a link to an article in the Quarterly Journal of Medicine

Starting point is 00:15:11 written by David Owen, a British physician and politician, and a quote from Owen's article. Some people say Eden's decisions during the Suez Crisis, and this is the view of his wife, friends, and some of his biographers, were unaffected by his illness. I do not think that this is sustainable in the light of his rigor and fever of 106 degrees Fahrenheit on 5 October, eight days before one of the key decision-making moments in the Suez Crisis. The Suez Crisis was sparked by the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizing the Suez Canal in July 1956, which had been previously controlled primarily by Great Britain and France. Britain, France, and Israel secretly plotted military action to invade Egypt and regain control of the canal for the West, while also deposing Nasser if possible. Israeli forces began attacking on October 29,

Starting point is 00:16:07 1956, and were joined soon after by British and French forces. Strong widespread opposition to the military action led Britain and France to withdraw their forces in December, and the episode was politically disastrous for the two countries, weakening their positions on the United Nations, the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth, and the threat of sanctions from the United States, Sir Anthony Eden was forced into a humiliating retreat. Eden resigned on January 9, 1957. Some people believe that Eden's decision-making during the Suez Crisis was likely affected both by his health problems and the use of drugs, particularly amphetamines, to treat them. The Gov.uk site says that Eden became increasingly ill after a series of abdominal operations in 1953.

Starting point is 00:17:17 David Owen lays out some of Eden's health issues in more detail in two articles in the Quarterly Journal of Medicine, health issues in more detail in two articles in the Quarterly Journal of Medicine, where he says that what should have been a routine surgery to remove Eden's gallbladder in April 1953 apparently went badly wrong. Eden ended up having a total of three surgeries in 1953, with a fourth in 1957. During this time period, Eden suffered from fevers, pain, and fatigue, and was treated with opioids and amphetamines. Owen says of the stimulants that Eden was taking that even moderate doses often produce insomnia, restlessness, anxiety, irritability, overstimulation, and overconfidence. Owen says Eden made no attempt to hide his dependence on stimulants during the Suez crisis in the notes which he had prepared to read out to his colleagues in the cabinet on 9 January 1957, informing them of his resignation.

Starting point is 00:18:13 And he quotes a passage from Eden's resignation which was printed in his official biography. As you know, it is now nearly four years since I had a series of bad abdominal operations which left me with a largely artificial inside. It was not thought that I would lead an active life again. However, with the aid of mild drugs and stimulants, I have been able to do so. During these last five months, since Nassar seized the canal in July, I have been obliged to increase the drugs considerably and also increase the stimulants necessary to counteract the drugs. And I should point out that at this time, amphetamines were in much wider use medically than they are today. Owen says of the plan to invade Egypt that the normally cautious pro-Arab

Starting point is 00:18:59 Eden might have been expected on his past record to have ruled out the plan from the moment he heard of it, and that Anthony Nutting, Eden's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, wrote of the incident, how and why was this mortal decision arrived at, and how and why did the man whose whole political career had been founded on his genius for negotiation act so wildly out of character? Owen's opinion is that the Suez policy was the most damaging British foreign and defense policy fiasco since Gallipoli, and there is little doubt that Eden's intemperate handling of the situation was influenced both by his health and by the amphetamines he was taking.

Starting point is 00:19:39 Until I researched the Buchanan episode, I'd never stopped to think how a single person's health can have such a huge impact on world history. Yeah, and you have to figure, I mean, a given percentage of the population is sick at any given time, right? And with how many world leaders there are and have been through history, a certain percentage of them must have been dealing with health problems. And I imagine a lot of times when this happens, they try to cover it up, perhaps successfully. Yes. And a few people let us know about another world leader's illness possibly having very significant consequences. Alan Ricks wrote, for how illnesses can change the course of history when they strike at pivotal times, I always think of how one man being infected with the Spanish flu at a particular time

Starting point is 00:20:25 probably led to World War II, the Holocaust, etc. President Wilson was in Paris in 1919 for the Paris Peace Accords. Wilson had argued vehemently with the other allies that Germany should not be treated outrageously harshly, as it could lead to trouble in the future, and that a League of Nations organization should be pushed instead to limit future conflicts. But during negotiations, Wilson became violently ill from the flu, and after recovering somewhat, acted dazed and disoriented. He soon gave up his demands, and the Treaty of Versailles was signed that put such heavy reparations on Germany that it went into both an economic and nationalistic spiral that eventually directly led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and all the next cascading events. The flu pandemic of 1918 to 1919

Starting point is 00:21:13 was often called the Spanish flu, as we covered in a puzzle in episode 325, and the CDC reports that it was estimated to have infected about 500 million people worldwide and to have caused at least 50 million deaths. Although Wilson's situation was really downplayed at the time, he became severely ill with the flu beginning the evening of April 3, 1919, while in Paris for the treaty negotiations after World War I, which would shape the new international order, particularly with regard to Germany and the rest of Europe. Before he fell ill, Wilson had been pushing for his 14-point strategy for promoting world peace. His vision included ending secret treaties between nations, disarmament, self-determination for all of the European nations, and the foundation of a General Association of Nations, which was

Starting point is 00:22:02 later called the League of Nations, intended to work to actively prevent future wars. And as Alan noted, Wilson had been arguing forcefully with the British and French prime ministers, who wanted more severe punishments for Germany. Just at the moment that the negotiations were deadlocked, Wilson became so ill that he was confined to his bed for the next five days, and he seemed rather changed afterwards. find to his bed for the next five days, and he seemed rather changed afterwards. The historian John Barry, author of The Great Influenza, The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, is quoted in an article by History.com as stating that even after their acute infections waned, flu victims described post-influenzy manifestations of psychotic and other neurological symptoms.

Starting point is 00:22:45 influenza manifestations of psychotic and other neurological symptoms. Barry said, the most comprehensive study of the 1918 pandemic noted how common neurological disorders were. They were second only to the lung. There are apparently various accounts of Wilson's confusion and disorientation and even possibly paranoia after his bout with the flu. An article on Smithsonian Magazine notes that Wilson biographer A. Scott Berg reported that the usually predictable Wilson started giving unexpected orders, and on two different occasions he created a scene over pieces of furniture that had suddenly disappeared, even though nothing had been moved, and at one point he was convinced that he was surrounded by French spies. Wilson's chief usher, Erwin Hoover, is quoted as having later said,

Starting point is 00:23:28 we could but surmise that something queer was happening in his mind. One thing was certain, he was never the same after this little spell of sickness. In addition to possible neurological complications, his bout of the flu had exhausted Wilson, and even after he was well enough to return to the negotiations, he appeared to no longer have the strength or will to keep pushing for his vision, and he gave up fighting for most of his points. Writing in The New Yorker, Steve Kahl, the dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, said, the Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28,

Starting point is 00:24:00 1919, and which ratified Wilson's concessions, proved to be a settlement so harsh and onerous to Germans that it became a provocative cause of revived German nationalism during the 1920s and 30s, and eventually a rallying cause of Adolf Hitler. And History.com says, historians agree that one of the chief causes of the rise of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party was the humiliation and economic desperation inflicted on the German people by the Treaty of Versailles. Instead of safeguarding the world from future wars, the Treaty of Versailles helped pave the road to World War II. Of course, we can't know what might have happened had Wilson remained healthy during these crucial negotiations. All we can know is that Wilson was seriously weakened

Starting point is 00:24:46 at a critical time, lost his will to fight for aims that he strongly believed in, and that the treaty that was crafted really didn't align with Wilson's original goals that were intended to help promote peace. It makes you wonder how things might have unfolded if he'd been well. Yeah, and I guess we'll never know, but it is provocative to think about. As a postscript to Wilson's story, which some of you may already know, he ended up suffering a severe stroke six months after his bout with the flu, and his wife, Edith Wilson, ended up basically serving as the U.S.'s chief executive until the end of his term in March 1921. But that's another story. Thanks so much to everyone who writes in to us.

Starting point is 00:25:31 If you have any follow-ups or comments for us, please send them to podcast at futilitycloset.com. And if anyone has ever mispronounced your name, please do me a favor and tell me how I should try to say it. It's Greg's turn to try to solve a lateral thinking puzzle. I'm going to give him an interesting-sounding situation, and he has to try to work out what's going on by asking yes-or-no questions. Neil deCarteret and his kitty Nala sent this puzzle to the closet crew. In the video game Street Fighter II from 1991, the character DJ has the word MAXIMUM tastefully embroidered in capital letters down the leg of his pants.

Starting point is 00:26:17 Why did Capcom, the makers of the game, choose this word? Maximum. Maximum. Maximum. Does that refer to the pants? No. Okay. This is 30 years ago. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:26:34 Do I need to know any more about the game? No. Or about that character? No. And his role in the game or personality, anything like that? No. Really?

Starting point is 00:26:43 Really. All right, a character in a video game then wears pants. Yes. Marked with the word maximum. Maximum. Are there words on any of the other characters' clothing? You know what? I don't think so, and I don't know.

Starting point is 00:26:56 But possibly not. I think he's the main guy, but I don't really know video games. Okay. Yeah, but possibly not. Yes, possibly this is the only word you'll see in that game. Was this intended to communicate something to the players? Not that I'm aware of, no. So would you say it's like an inside joke among the game's makers?

Starting point is 00:27:14 No. No? No. I mean, apparently they were going to put some word on his pants, and I'm realizing I don't actually know why, but they were going to put a word on his pants and they were going to go with a different word, but then decided they had to go with maximum for a particular reason.

Starting point is 00:27:30 Okay. And it's not that they were shunning some other word. Correct. I mean, that's not the point of it. Right. Okay. Maximum. Is the meaning of that word important?

Starting point is 00:27:40 No. Okay. They chose it for reasons other than the meaning of the word. It's length? No. Okay. They chose it for reasons other than the meaning of the word. It's length? No. Like I'm thinking it has something to do with scaling the size of the... That wouldn't make any sense. Okay, maximum.

Starting point is 00:27:59 So let's say they chose some other word, this original word you were talking about. Yeah. That they rejected. Right. And for some reason, let's say they went ahead with that. Yeah. Would that have caused technical problems with the game's play somehow? Technical problems with the game's play?

Starting point is 00:28:16 I don't quite know what I mean by that. I think I'm going to answer probably not if I understand the question. I mean, I don't know how it possibly could if it doesn't figure in the, it's not like a clue or something, I guess I already asked that. Right. It doesn't mean something in the game. Right. The meaning of the word is not why this was chosen. Would it, would it, is there some legal answer?

Starting point is 00:28:36 No. Like they couldn't go with this other word? No. And you say its meaning isn't important. Correct. Is it sound? That doesn't make't important. Correct. Is it sound? That doesn't make any sense. No.

Starting point is 00:28:48 And it's obviously an English word. Is that important? No. I will say that an important clue in the puzzle itself was that the word was in capital letters down the leg of his pants. Well, I'm picturing that. Maximum.

Starting point is 00:29:05 So it's written along the leg, so it's sort of vertical. In a vertical column, yeah. Well, the shapes of the letters are all maximum. No, there's a curve in the U. I was going to say they're all drawn with straight lines. I can't imagine that matters. That's on the right track, though. That's on the right track.

Starting point is 00:29:23 The shape of the letters is what's actually important. Can you figure out what? And remember, this is 1991, so this is pretty early in graphics and stuff. Is it that the earlier word that they rejected could have been misinterpreted? No. Maximum. Something about reading it upside down or from a different... Really?

Starting point is 00:29:43 Not upside down. But... Can you picture the letters in capitals? I sort of can. I mean, they would seem to render some of them different letters if viewed as if they were right side up. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:30:00 They're not going to be upside down. A capital M on its side, which it would be if it were written along your leg, would look perhaps like an E, for example? Oh, no, no. The letters are... Okay, stacked. Stacked, yes. In a vertical column, yes. Max, M, M, M.

Starting point is 00:30:18 Well, they're almost all... Oh, interesting. They're all symmetrical left and right. They are. That's exactly it. Neil says because characters in the game can walk left or right, they wanted to be able to flip the character image horizontally when they change direction.

Starting point is 00:30:35 That's clever. Because all the words in maximum and capitals are symmetrical, if you stack them up vertically, you can flip the image and they still all look right. And Neil sent a link to an article titled 10 Things You Didn't Know About Street Fighter 2 that has a photo of the kickboxer character with Maximum on his pants. And the article says that his pants were originally supposed to say mantis.

Starting point is 00:30:54 I'm not sure why, but that didn't look right when he changed directions. So the article also says, think Maximum is cheesy? Other options for his pants could have been yummy, wax mouth, or hi, why am I a mom? So thanks so much to Neil and, of course, Nala for that puzzle. And if you have a puzzle you'd like to have us try, please send that to podcast at futilitycloset.com. Futility Closet really relies on the support of our listeners. Thank you. grazed through Greg's collection of over 11,000 quiddling beguilements. Browse the Futility Closet store, learn about the Futility Closet books, and see the show notes for the episode with the links and references for the topics we've covered. If you have any comments or feedback for

Starting point is 00:31:54 us, please email us at podcast at futilitycloset.com. Our music was written and performed by the Mirandus, Doug Ross. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.

Futility Closet - 355-The Auckland Islands Castaways

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