Good Job, Brain! - 1: Candy is Dandy but Liquor is Quicker

Episode Date: March 5, 2012

Kanpai! Slainte! Cheers! Douse yourself in eccentric facts about liquor, spirits, and libations. Seagull wine, beer laws, cocktail origins, "alternative" imbibation methods, and more. Also: pop quiz, music round, and how to memorize the provinces of Canada. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. No frills, delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders. Shop now at nofrills.ca. History never says goodbye. It just says, see you later. Edward Galliano was right when he said that. Events keep happening over and over again, in some form.

And that's the reason I produced the podcast, My History Can Beat Up Your Politics. What is it? We take stories of history and apply them to the events of today to help you, perhaps, understand them better. We are also part of Airwave Media Network. I've been doing the program since 2006. That's a long time, and the show has a long name. My history can beat up your politics. Find me wherever you get podcasts. Hello, and welcome to the premiere of Good Job Brain, your weekly quiz show and Offbeat Trivia podcast.

And it's our first episode. We're so excited to finally debut the show. I am your Quizmaster and host Karen. And along with me are our incredibly inquisitive and intelligent co-host contestants. Here we have. I'm Colin. I'm Chris. I'm Dana.

Okay. What was something interesting you guys learned recently? Well, so just in this past week was the 50th anniversary of, Wilk Chamberlain scoring 100 points. Sports is boring. This is like, you know, this is an achievement. This is one of the milestone sports records of all times. So what was interesting about this, so it was 100 points, like right on the nose. I love just the nice, even round number. So, but it was really more interesting to me, so this was 1962, March 2nd. There's no TV footage of the game at all. There's

no video footage of the game. And so there's the one iconic photo of Wilt holding up the sign with a hundred scribbled on it. And just reading about some of these people who have false memories of yeah I remember seeing it on TV and no no you didn't because it wasn't on TV just recently I learned that in certain primitive societies alligator dung was used as a natural concept yeah yeah wait how does that work you put it anywhere and you just stay away yeah they put it on their faces is that what I think you I think it that doesn't even matter where you put it you're not going to get pregnant I're not going to sex no no apparently I don't know a spermicide I'm not sure

I'm not sure. Cement up the lady. I don't know. Well, it's naturally acidic. I didn't say I learned everything about it. This week I learned that. Nothing. You learned nothing.

I learned nothing. I learned things every day all the time. But I can't repeat them. I'll give you a pass. Alligator. Alligator dung, way to start the show. First of all, we want to thank all of our initial supporters and backers. The show started off as a Kickstarter initiative, and we had 100 people from all over the world help make this possible.

Thanks, guys. Thank you, 100 people. Amazing. We're not a big kind of idea or big company, and it's just kind of amazing looking through all these people from, like, Hong Kong to Norway. We have a dude from Norway who helped support our show. So thank you all. And we'll be featuring some of these backers in this episode and subsequent episode shows. as well.

Awesome, awesome. All right, let's get the show on the road, starting off with our first segment, which is pop quiz, hot shot. Woo! All right. I'm operating on no sleep. I don't know why I agree to this.

Excuse is excuses. I lost it in the sun. Okay, so I'm picking, the name of the game is I'm choosing a random trivial pursuit card and see if y'all and our listeners can show off your braininess. This is Genus Edition?

This is the trivial pursuit. I guess it's just the standard. Edition. Regular? Star Wars edition. Oh, God. Then that's not fair because you would win a column. All right. Geography, which is blue, right? Yep. Karen's topic. That is my topic.

In what country was President Barack Obama's father born? Kenya. You are correct. We need some buzzers in here. I know. Ding, ding, ding. Okay. Pink Wedge is culture. Who was the original host of the Daily

Show? No, no, no. Craig Kilbourne. Craig Kilbourne. I was about to say Carson Daly, because his last name is Daly. But then, yeah, that's how my brain works. You'll find that out. And he's also used to being in other people's shadows, so, yeah. Oh, yeah, true.

I almost like Craig Ferguson. I knew it was Craig somebody, and then it was like, Craig for Kilbourne. Quite a different show. Yeah, amazing. Really? I've actually never watched the. It really, it played it a lot more, it played it a lot more straight. Yeah.

Like straight news? No, no, no, it was fake news. but he didn't break. He didn't break the way that John Stewart was fakeier news, too. I feel like you can actually learn stuff from the daily show. Yeah, a little more in the spirit of light, yeah, SNL. Okay, oh, God, this is a dumb question. Yellow Wedge, in what city did the first Starbucks open?

Oh, Seattle? Yeah, Seattle. What happened to trivial pursuit? I know. I'm a casual version. What type of beverage does Starbucks serve? A fire truck is what color? A cheeseburger is a hamburger with what...

All right, we got Purple Wedge. What annual publishing phenomenon began humbly in 1964 as a feature on skin diving? Annual publishing. Oh, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue? Correct. Oh, you are on a roll. I was thinking literary and not pictorial. No, I'm sorry.

There is no annual publishing phenomenon that's actually literature. It's half-naked. It's all boobs. It's like nano-ramp lobe. But that's not like it too, but in-diving. It's much better than the Newsweek swimsuit issue, but just for the record. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I cannot even imagine.

Or New Yorker. Ariana Huffington on the cover was not something that will ever leave my head. Okay, green, which is, I guess, science. Which is stronger, a category one or a category five? five hurricane oh five like i want to i want to say i know i want to say five and at the same time it's like but what if i'm wrong like first degree burns first degree yeah there's the burns there's the tornadoes there's the hurricane stales i never remember we live in california this is irrelevant it's like what's worse homeland security orange or homeland security dope i'm gonna say

five is the worst i'm gonna say i'm like you'll have more of the lower levels i'm gonna say five is the strongest. Dana? I'm going to be different. I'm a maverick. I'm going to say one. Then you're a wrong maverick because it is category five.

You're a least canon. I forget nothing. You're not a long. Some of us we're going to be right. Some would be wrong. It's true. Yep. All right. Whoa.

Take one for the team. This is hard. Orange Wedge. Last question. Name six of the eight vegetables in the original V8. my goodness. Oh, that's what it stands for.

V8 is vegetable eight. Today, Karen, learn what V8 stands for. Celery. Tomato. Got to be tomato. Is that a vegetable or fruit? Celery tomato, yes. No, no, no.

Yeah, tomato is in that. Carrot? Yes. Tomatoes a fruit. Yes. Beat? I'm going to say beet. Correct.

Yeah. Celery, tomato, carrot, beet. Peppers, like green peppers? No. Sugar. High fructance, corso. That's a new swear word. Oh, ketchup?

ketchup and water. Onions? Grossness? No. Onions? No. Carrot. What are we at so far?

Cale. Spinage? Spinach. Spinach, spinach? Spinach, okay. Spinach, tomatoes. Three more. They're green.

They're all green. The three left that you guys have not gotten. Broccoli? Are green. No. Cabbage. Close. Brescel sprouts.

Lama beans. Oh, um. I'm just going to list green vegetables. Peas. Now, what was close? Brussels sprouts? Cabbage was close or cabbage was close. Oh, it's some sort of like collared greens or, you know, something to that effect or Swiss shard.

Okay, I'm going to list all eight. Beats, carrots, celery, lettuce, parsley, parsley, spinach, tomatoes, and water cress. I was going to say parsley, but I censored myself. I'm like, that's not a vegetable. Yeah, it's a garnish. That's an herb. A herb.

So you would actually have. had to guess six of the eight vegetables in order to get that slice. I think you have to name, oh, six of the eight, yep. That's a, that seems way harder than we're Starbucks. Yeah, that seems markedly out of proportion. Anyways. Yeah. Okay, so good job.

Everybody seems like Chris, you're the clear winner of this round. What's my prize? Pride. And we also have two backer pop quiz questions, and the first one is from our Kickstarter backers. Yes. And we're going to feature some of their questions. First one is... You help us make the show.

Yep. Jennifer Chu from Falls Church, Virginia. Her question is, and I'm reading this just the way they wrote it, who is the first African to win an acting Oscar? First African. African. Oh, I know. I'm going to guess Charlize Theron.

You are correct. She is South Africa. That's right. South African. I just went with the only one I could think of for sure. So Jennifer Chu, she asked that question because she loves the Oscars. And she says that she's not very interesting because I asked them to, you know, reveal something interesting about themselves. But actually, she is interesting because she is my sister.

And if you're a super slew... That makes you interesting. You would find out that we show the same last name because, for she is my older sister. It's nepotistic. Nepotism. And our second question is from Ms. Kathleen Sanders from Bellevue, Washington. Internet detectives may now begin researching the connection between Karen Shea and Captain Sanders. You can. There is a connection.

Her question is, in Blade Runner, Gaff presents Deckard with three pieces of origami. Name the three. Oh, my goodness. Well, there's the crane, right, or the swan. The frog that you press on its butt and it jumps. And there's the unicorn. The unicorn's the big reveal, right? And one more.

You said crane swan unicorn I didn't know if it was a crane or swan I haven't seen the movie but I'm going to guess the cootie catcher It's the little fortune teller The answers that she wrote A replicant would like Jason This is embarrassing actually

I am a robot You can tell if they're a replicant If they take it and they go One two three I am a robot I am who will you marry They fall for it every time. If you ask cool, you marry, and they say, the toaster.

Her answer is, as she wrote, is a chicken, a dude with a boner, and a unicorn. Are those the answers? I need to watch this movie. That sounds good. I don't even was a crane and a dude, but with a boner. With a boner. It might look like origami. I want to see the directions in the script for that.

And Kathleen asked that question Because she loves Blade Runner and Unicorns and Paper Dues with Boners Yay, great Fantastic And she is also the self-proclaimed world's foremost authority on unicorns in unicornery I believe it's Unicornalia Are you challenging her? Oh snap

Unicorn off Let's get down to business, our topic of the week Some Booze business And our topic of the week is all about alcohol, spirits, in libations. Which is a good topic because we often do trivia in pubs. That's true. And they often ask questions about alcohol. Also, we like to drink.

Also, we drink a lot. We also consume it, yes. What a fortunate coincidence. I know alcohol. So I want to start off by asking you guys what your favorite alcohol is. And is there like a particular reason or something interesting about it? So, I mean, in terms of what I drink the most is probably beer, but that's kind of a boring answer. So my favorite liquor is gin.

Oh. And I know it's kind of an old man drink. I think that's one of the reasons I started drinking it. But to be quite honest, one of the reasons to become an old man or because you are in a little bit. I liked sort of the crusty old man attitude that it presented. But to be really honest, I started drinking it in college because I liked Gibson's because you get the little onions on there. And it was like, oh, getting a little snack in your drink. I was so cheap.

I was so cheap. It's the drink that comes with its own appetizer. That is very clever. Chris? You know, I thought about this because I appreciate everything from a fine French wine. Kool-Aid mix with rubbing alcohol. You know, in the end, I really. I do like the idea of being somewhat of a beer snob.

I really do enjoy craft brews and microbrews and things like that. And I really fall on the stout and porter end. I like a nice, dark, malty rather than hoppy type. And Dana? I would say my cocktail of choice is a whiskey ginger. I like it because it's a, I feel like it's a little more grown up than a vodka cranberry. I think all my alcohol has to taste like soda, which is like. So your primary requirement just goes down easy.

It needs to be sweet. It takes me to where I'm trying to go. My favorite drink of choice definitely is just whiskey and some ice cubes. Awesome. I'm very easy to please. And a shotgun. No, I did find out something interesting. Because I know whiskey has itself, the whole family is kind of a large family.

You have your rye and you have your single. double, you know, Irish, a lot of classifications. But I did learn that the body or the lightness or the heaviness of whiskey is determined by the size of the grain, which appeals to my math nerd in me because a smaller, the grain surface to volume ratio was higher. And therefore, I appreciate that. Do you think about it while you're drinking it? I do.

I do now. Yeah. Well, it's like, it's like soccer, too. Third and fourth that they're after. I don't care. But lately I've also been playing this video game, Skyrim, Elder Scroll Skyrim. And it has a medieval fantasy setting, and it's set in like kind of a Nordic-inspired area. And each town has their own meatery.

They make their own mead for that town. And because of that, I don't know, it just kind of flipped a switch for me. And I jump into Homer. I read about all the stuff about making mean, making home wines and stuff. And I have three jars of mystery fermented things like in my kitchen. I haven't opened it. It's been months. I'm kind of scared.

Oh, no, yeah. But while I was doing all my research, I realized that in history of the human race, if something can be fermented into alcohol, they've tried it. Oh, my goodness, yeah. everything and it's kind of insane like gummy bears like people try to make it gummy bear wine it sounds good I'm gonna be honest if you know I'm curious to try it well I would try that or you know they made started making Skiddlebrow after the Simpsons episode which is Skittles mixed in beer the Homer came up with it and

someone actually produced that I would try that as even though it sounds terrible yeah it does sound pretty awful it's it's insane we have your our normal grains and fruit and people kind of a step further in different cultures and one of examples I found was um it's in Mongolia and it's called an Arag or a kumis and it's fermented mares milk there's you were gonna say fermented mares urine we were bracing ourselves for something much worse than milk there's just not enough sugar in there I'm sure someone tried it I'm sure someone has tried it and the other thing

I'm glad it's a marina, not a staglia. So, wait, is it, is it fizzy? The fermented mill? That's, that's weird. That's just strange. I mean, although I guess it's like a phosphate, right? Or something like that. It's kind of milky and fizzy, maybe.

It's described as a, it sparkles softly on the tongue, which is very romantic. But I'm sure when you're drinking, you're like, oh, my God. Desperate times, dude. Sometimes you want to get effed up and all you have is a horse. Speaking of which, especially in these, like, the colder areas, the Arctic Circle, So the Inuits make their own brand of alcohol from seagulls, from dead seagulls. Oh. Like the whole body?

The whole body. So, well, I mean, they're limited to their kind of very cold environment, and they don't really have that much work of it. I mean, they eat blubber for God's there. They don't grow grapes out there. Yeah, exactly. There's nothing growing. Well, I think it's a lot more effort to harvest blubber than a dead seagull.

True. So, I mean, the recipe is easel. Sorry, very simple. Easel. It's very eagle. Evil. It's very eagle. Easy seagal.

you you basically stuff a dead seagull in a bottle with water or melted snow it would look nice in my living room and you just leave it out in the sun for a while and let it do its work wow some scientific jazz in a bottle and then when the mountains turn blue on the outside you know it's ready right so there has been reports of people actually trying trying a seagull wine seagull wine makes it Segal wine Yeah it really classes it up It takes flight on the tongue

Seagulling I don't know if the difference Some people Firmit the seagull Catch the seagull when they're alive or dead I don't know what the taste differential Is between the two So yeah you're right Chris

Sometimes people just need to be effed up Well I mean as you say I was doing a little bit of Research on gin this week and it came across story about torpedo juice. Have you guys heard of torpedo juice? What? And that sounds not good at all. No, it doesn't.

So torpedo juice is unfortunately, almost literally what it sounds like, which is, you know, I guess in World War II, you'd be stationed. Airmen would be stair, airmen, sailors, I suppose, were working with torpedoes. Yeah, they don't give the torpedoes to the guys in the planes. They don't work quite as well from the air. But no, they're powered by 180-proof grain alcohol.

And in a pinch, you can make a drink based off of that. And, you know, not, again, you talked about... That must be a very desperate pinch. Oh, my goodness. I think the bigger problem was that apparently it would leave sometimes things underpowered, so they would find torpedoes with no. I mean, it's... You know, I've had 180 for alcohol.

I've got a little underpowered. But I did find some recipes. Apparently, the most common recipe is two parts grain alcohol or torpedo fuel, and three parts pineapple juice. Which makes sense. It'd be nice and tropical. You'd probably be in a tropical. It makes a go down easy.

Probably coconut milk might also be a popular chicken. Yeah, sure, sure, yeah. Absolutely, yeah, yeah. A little umbrella. Tarpido, Pina collada. Torpina collada. Torpinoa collada. You're good.

I'm going to register torpina collater.com right now. Go fast. Wait, so, Colin, you did say gin is your favorite drink. You don't just drink straight gin. Not, you know, there are some of these fancy, you know, botanical infused gins now. I'm not going to do a plug for any. of them but they're quite tasty on their own but no I do gin and tonic you know or as I say just a Gibson because again get the little onions in there do

you actually know where how gin and tonic came to be I love it yeah I mean with the tonic from the quinine right I mean it goes back to the to the British service working in the you know the malaria oh really the malaria infused parts of the world right because tonic water tonic water has a quinine yes and quinine is a prophylactic for for malaria right which is very very British. We're like, well, we have to drink tonic or quinine, and it tastes gross. Let's put some booze in it. Enjoy the tropical sun.

It's very British. It's just a quintessentially British liquor, too. Yeah. And, of course, all the stories about the queen mom and her love of gin that I came across to. I don't mean to slander her here, but quite fond of the gin, the queen mom. Loved it. What often be found rolling down the street. And the du bonnet.

And quinine. laid back my mind on my on her crown and malaria on my mind I also want to ask Dana I know I've been I've gone out with Dana and I know you really like lambics and I still don't know

what it is like I know it's it's like a fruity beer or it's a Belgian it's like from Belgians so the one I like is fruity and I found out Today, actually, that it's the cheap fake lambic, even though it comes in. You know what? I was disappointed, but then I'm like, you know what? I love it.

It's delicious. It comes in a pretty bottle with a gold-boil bread on top. It's new beer for girls. Now, girls can drink beer. Beer tastes like girls now. I know. It tastes like delicious soda. Gives you a little bit of a hangover.

But then what is what is legit real? Yeah, what separates yours? So I think mine was actually made in a factory with corn syrup. And then the real lambic, though, was fermented in open tubs in a certain region, a very specific place in Belgium. You know, it makes sense for the price point, actually. Right, right. But it's not the fancy one. And the monks don't say a prayer over the one that you had, right?

You know, this drink, I was comfortable with the idea that it was the Belgian one. like the reason why they leave it open is so that like ambient bacteria and crap can go in it and it's like spontaneously fernment is how they yeah yeah yeah and I was like whoa but it tastes good with all the like the funkiness the skin cells from the factory workers but I get I found out though that it's probably like the one that I like is called lambic but it might actually be made with own ale and corn syrup. It tastes good. Your first tip-off should have been the straw, stuck to the side of the bottle.

It's the sex in the city beer. Well, I also am very partial to fruity alcohol and fruit-fruity beers, and there's a cider. And, well, I guess the pear version is Perry. Oh. Perry? Perry. Okay. Is the pear wine or pear alcohol and cider, or sizer, is the apple.

So pear cider is a misnomer? Yeah, I guess so. I thought Perry was made by certain breweries. Like that was their cute name for it? No. That's the old-time British pair. One thing about cider, and this is kind of a common fact or non-fact, which is Johnny Appleseed. He, of the American full-tail, I guess.

He's not real, is he? No, yeah, yeah. He was real? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, or, you know, it's more of a legend. It's more of a legend where there is a real guy, but I think his exploits have been... Greatly exaggerated.

But no, he was a real guy and really did all that stuff. Yeah. The guy with the huge ox was real, too. What? Paul Bunyan is fake. Blowing my mind. Paul Bunyan, fake. Johnny Appleseed, real.

So Johnny Appleseed, the apple seed namesake isn't actually to grow apples to eat. Right. They're actually to grow apples. Nobody ate apples back in the day. Really? Yeah. They were so, well, the variants of them, right?

I mean, it's like, when you plant a seed, any kind of apple can come out of it, is my understanding. And so most of the types are inedible, and so they would just convert them to alcohol. Yeah. Is, you know, and so I believe that, yeah, you grow apples from grafting them now, right? That's what you're getting at, right? Yeah. Yeah, he was planning a bit precise.

Exactly. Because, you know, growing up, you see little cartoons or hear songs, and it's like, oh, people are enjoying all these apples. Like, no, he's growing them for booze. It was, you know. It was a hard life, Karen. It was. Man. We think we have a tough now, and we get drunk, like, constantly.

Yeah, now we, instead of seagulls, now we have skittles and gummy beers. There's a word for stealing apples from somebody's trees. I think it's called scrumping. Are you tricking us? Is this going to be something dirty if we look at it up? Scrumping. Like a British, is that a British term? I don't know, but I remember finding this word because I enjoy that word.

You enjoy that word. Oh, wait, no, no, no. I wanted to mean something, and then it meant stealing apples. There's a line in a who song, right? Apple scrumping, isn't there? Look at a... It means... No, I swear to God, I swear to God.

It is a real word, and it means to steal fruit, especially apples from a garden. Yes. I'm going to look this up later. I think it's in Husson. 515. I wonder what fell out of my brain to make room for that. Good job, brain. Yeah, good job.

Good job, Dana's brain. All right. I think we're going to take a little break here for. all the booze talk and let's talk about something educational gross well if you want to cram more information into your brain sometimes you need shortcuts and we're gonna hear we here we'll show you some of the ways our favorite ways and tips and tricks to memorize things and a lot of them are called pneumonic devices which are little either anagrams or abbreviations that help you remember stuff and i know that chris actually has a really really good one that has saved our

pub trivia team got out a couple of jams yeah more than one occasion yes yes and it is so okay our my like fifth grade teacher you know our fifth grade teacher for i guess it was history or something for that faith it was history she was she was a real she was a real B you know what I'm saying keeping it keeping it classy um but um it's classic the facial expression was the class she just I mean She beat us out one day because she was like, how do you not know the names of the 10 Canadian provinces? Because children in Canada know the names of all 50 states. And how do you not know the names of just 10 provinces? And, I mean, thinking back, it was like, lady, first of all, I mean, I'm going to take issue with the premise of your statement.

Random 11-year-old from Canada can just rattle off the names of all 50 states with no prompting whatsoever. Address your emails to Chris Cole. Children of Canada. No cheating. Send me the list. Then after, even after she gave us all the business for it, you know, I still never learned the names of the 10 Canadian provinces. And this question kept coming up that we just, in trivia,

we just got a map of Canada and be like, name this province. And so one day, I think it was before trivia finals, it was like, oh, I'm going to set myself to learn this. There was a mnemonic device they found. It was very easy to remember, which was, Billy and Sally made our queen nervous playing near needles. Well, that would make me nervous. Exactly.

And you just see the queen and you're like, oh, goodness, children, good needles. And are these just, it's not alphabet order. It's in actually geographical order. It's in left to right order geographically. Now, where it all breaks down is that you still have to memorize the locations of those three ends at the end. British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and then I think after Quebec, it's New Brunswick, and then Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. But of course, when we get to those ends all at the end, and they're on islands and stuff, it's hard to know where exactly they are. So you have a little bit more work to do after that, but Billy and Sally made our Queen nervous playing near needles.

will get you a good 90% of the way there. Awesome. That's fantastic. Right. So hopefully Billy and Sally made our queen nervous playing near needles. Can save you a couple of a close emergency trivia needs. I think it's also good to see the queen so vested in the safety of every individual child. Especially Billy and Sally.

Oh, it's just the two of them. Only Billy and cell. Yeah. Well, they've got her gin. And also, what place are they playing at where there's like a, a bunch of needles just laying around. Wait, just sitting there. Just sitting there, not stopping.

Oh, my goodness. Well, Canada known for their fine, fine needle production. Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast. I want to invite you to join me on the voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world. These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Magellan, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark, and so many other famous and not so famous adventures from throughout history. Go to Explorespodcast.com or just look us up on your podcast app. That's the Explorers Podcast.