Good Job, Brain! - 266: Cheaper By the Dozen

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

New season, new anniversary, and we're tweedledees tweezing facts about twelve! Karen's got a 12-question pub trivia challenge, and it's showtime at the Apollo and Colin has a movie twist quiz on the 12 Olympian Greek gods. Sure, every hardcore trivia fan can list out the bird-forward presents in the holiday carol, Twelve Days of Christmas but Chris finally finds out the true purpose of that dang confusing song. Why are the names of the months so... irregular? And we get flogged by some fascinating fascia-free facts about February. ALSO: Eggcorn Watch For advertising inquiries, please contact [e-mail]! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Hello, candidates in cantonas, cannonballing into candy floss by the candlelight. Welcome to Good Job Brain, your weekly quiz show and offbeat trivia podcast. This episode is 266. And of course, I'm your humble host, Karen, and we are your Tweedledums tweezing for Tweed tweets in Tweed. I'm Colin. And I'm Chris. Yay.

We made it back. It's our 2024 spring season premiere. Thrill to be here with you guys, Colin and Chris, two of my top 17 favorite people. Hey, all right. And that includes, that includes celebrities. that you don't know, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah.

You know, I thought about it. It doesn't. Yeah. It doesn't include, like, the orange whipbird is not like ahead of me, right? I'm sorry, the orange whipbird. Yeah. The orange whipbird.

If you're a new or returning listener, welcome, good job, brain is a trivia podcast with a pub trivia vibe. We love weird facts, quizzes, and things that are called acorn. Chris? Yes. Yeah, well, I haven't said, so when we're on these, when we're on our little breaks, you know, every now and again, I'll hear of new eggorns and I'll write them down and say, okay, well, when we come back, I'm going to update everybody for egg corn watch.

Now, what is an egg corn? It's a type of somebody saying the wrong word or the wrong phrase for something. You know, generally, those are called malapropisms when they just get the word wrong or the phrase wrong. You know, what's an example of that? Like, oh, I'm going to die of beaties, you know? Right. Cross-eyed bear. The cross-eyed bear. Gladly, the cross-eyed bear. Yes, olive, the other reindeer. Yes. Stuff like that. And then, of course, if it's a song lyric, it can be a mandigreen. But here's the thing. An egg corn specifically is when it's a malapropism, when it's the wrong word or the wrong phrase, but it makes a twisted kind of sense. And sometimes it can be even better than the real phrase.

Yes. And it comes from a lady who saw acorn. on the ground, and she kept hearing acorns, but she thought it was egg corns, because like half of it kind of looks like a kernel of corn. The other half is like smooth, like an egg, you know? It makes sense. And so that's where that comes from. And so we like them when they make a little bit of sense like that. And so I saw one, and I thought of you guys, uh, flame mignon. What do you, what's good on the menu here? Well, I don't, I don't mean to both. but our flame mignon is among the best and then yeah because you you know you take it and just pop it over the flame for a while you know you heat it up real quick somehow the person

who wrote this uh knows that it's mignon like they got yeah yeah they got the tougher word right yes the flame mignon i also saw this one and this is what to put to the group here egg corn or not egg corn it's borderline but i thought it was very i thought it was very interesting And it was a seasoned as in like seasoned like, you know, salt and pepper on it or seasoned as in like... Weathered, experienced. Yes, exactly. The experience is a seasoned assist. A sea.

Oh, like a seasoned assist order. Their lawyers sent me a seasoned assist. The lawyer came in. The lawyer is very seasoned and he assisted me. You get your neighbor to do it. That's a regular assist. You get a lawyer to do it. It's a seasoned assist.

Yeah, they sent me a seasoned assist, yeah. That's really good. Both right, yes. Yeah, that's really good. I think I've convinced myself that that's an encore. It's borderline, but it's, yeah. It got the vignon right. Yeah.

I've only got time to look up one of these two words. So I'm going to look up vinyon first. Yeah. And then, all right, got to go. I'm going to have to go with my gut on the other one, yes. Well, awesome. Let's start our spring season with our first general trivia segment, Pop Quiz, Hot Shot. Here I have a random trivial pursuit card from a 80-pound box, random, and you two have your barnyard buzzers. Chris is the rooster. Now with batteries. And then Colin is the horse.

All right, let's answer some questions. This is 1993 trivial pursuit. Oh, the whole card. Okay. Yes. Let's do it. That was 31 years ago. That can't possibly be right, Karen.

All right. Pink Wedge. What, quote, be young, have fun, end quote. Company stopped sponsoring Michael Jackson after child abuse charges surfaced. Yikes. Yikes. Yeah, wow. That was, uh, be young, have fun, drink Pepsi.

Yeah. Yes, the Pepsi Cola Company. Mm-hmm. Yellow Edge, what term from a Monty Python sketch was first used by netizen, Joel Fur, to describe mass emails? Colin That is a chorus Spam Spam

Spam Slam Lovily spam spam Spam Casing this 90s card So far Purple Wedge What Philadelphia

Co-star Philadelphia The film What Philadelphia co-star Did Tom Hanks Jest Was the only

person He'd leave his wife for Chris Is that Denzel Washington Incorrect Okay

Oh man What did Okay Oh, it's got to be the guy who played his partner, right? Yes. Who was? It's been so long since I've seen this movie. It's on the tip of my brain here.

Is it Antonio Banderas? Yes. Yes. Who. Antonio Banderas. Okay. Pussing boots himself. All right.

What Jamaican beer saw sales sore. by over 50% after Tom Cruise guzzled one in The Firm. Wow. Chris. What is a Jamaican beer? Red stripe. Right.

Red stripe. Jamaican for beer. Man, I have not thought about that in 31 years. I didn't realize that this card is not like copyright 1993. This is trivial pursuit. Stuff that happened in

1993. 93, specifically. Okay, cool. The firm. The firm. Wow. Guzzling Red Stripe. That's what they should have called it. By John Christian. Yes. I mean, look, I'm not saying the man is not a good actor, but I mean, just imagine like what that does to your ego, just knowing that if you drink a beer on screen, you send their sales, you know, spiking. Hey, man, over our little break, I was working through all the Mission Impossibles. That dude is quite the action star He drove a motorcycle off a cliff Yes, multiple times Yeah, yeah, yeah

I mean, like I'm sure there was CG in terms of like Painting over some trees and stuff Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but it was him It was him, it was really him, real cliff I know, they landed and it's like, wow, we did it Okay, let's go do it like five more time Make sure we got it perfect All right, Green Wedge

Another beer question, what brewery shut down its tap? to fill six packs with fresh water for St. Joseph's flood victims. Oh, interesting. I don't remember that St. Joseph flood. Colin. This is just a guess. Is it Budweiser? Brewery, brewery, please.

Oh, is it Anheuser-Busch? It is Anheuser-Busch. Okay, okay. All right, last question, 1993, Blue Wedge. Whose tomb was meticulously recreated within the pyramid-shaped Luxor Casino in Las Vegas. Ulysses S. Grant. Trick question.

Trick question. Nobody is buried in Luxor Casino in Las Vegas. Oh, oh, yes, yes. Is it King Tutank common? Yes, yes. Okay, all right, okay. This is so peak 1993 Luxor.

Oh, yeah. Michael Jackson. Did you guys see what they did with the Luxor promo for the Super Bowl, which just transpired, a giant Dorito. I can't honestly, I can't believe it took them this long to think of it. Like one whole side of it just like a giant Dorito. Yeah, Dorito rap, oh, if you will. Yeah. Imagine being on the inside of the room when that's going up. Yeah. I was actually just in Vegas and it's like that to me seems like the jump the shark moment for the Luxor pyramid because it's almost like,

Like the hotels in Vegas, you watch them go through those phases of like the new hot, exciting hotel to it's always been there to this is extremely just chintzy, you know? And it starts to fall apart, but it's also just like kind of like an embarrassment. Like, oh my God, can you believe there was a hotel base that was like a pyramid? Of course, now the sphere is there. People are like, they need the, they need a giant cube. You know what I mean? Get all the shapes You get all the platonic solids in there

Right, yeah, what else do we need? We got a code and a cylinder Exactly It just feels like a role-playing game Where like somebody's going to activate all three of them And then the energy beams are going to flow Between the cube, the pyramid, and the sphere You know, and meet in one point

Like that's where the end boss is You know And it's Donnie Osmond That's gonna be carrot top Oh, well, speaking of which, they're tearing down our, we have great memories at the Tropicana. That's what I'm saying. I am legitimately sad about that. Tare it down, yeah.

Are you? All right. Well, speaking of memories, folks, this episode marks our 12-year anniversary. Get out. Wow. Not that we've been doing it every day for 12 years, but we've been, you know, seeing each other. for 12 years. Quick question. Just off the top of your head, what are some of the ways that good job brain has affected you? Oh my gosh. It is in many ways, outside of having a child,

it's been the most rewarding thing that I've done in terms of getting feedback from people, like, you know, strangers, you know, listeners, like all over the world, like, you know, giving me their opinion. And usually it's good. I hope it's good. Sometimes it's not. It's quite a feeling that I honestly never imagined, I would know what that's like, even on a very small podcast level scale. I think that it's been, it's been great to have a reason to continue learning all kinds of crazy stuff about the world. Because often I will, you know, I'll find myself in a conversation with somebody and something will come up, you know, that we talked about on good job, Bray. And I'm like, I know some really interesting stuff about that. Maybe, maybe that person thinks that I am

insufferable. I'm not really sure, you know, but either way, I mean, I think, exactly, I think I'm very witty and charming. And also, and also the inverse of that, too, if I'm talking to somebody and I learn something really new, I'm like, I got to share this with the good job brain folks and I'll write it down on a list on my phone and it's maybe more attuned. Actually, I heard something Colin the other day about a bit of sports history, but I'm sitting on it until I can find a show with a topic that lets me jam it in. So I'm going to do it. I'll do it this.

I'll figure it out somehow this season. But somebody mentioned this. And it is the good job brain effect of like somebody mentions something. I'm like, wait, what? I'm sorry. Tell me about this. And it's like, oh, gosh, this is good. Well, at some point this season, I'll tell you this sports story that I heard.

Very obvious. Our theme for this week's episode is 12. The number 12, the word 12, things that come in 12. Who knows? So this week, good job, Brain, gets cheaper by the dozen. I set out to make a short, short little quiz here to start us off, looking 12 years back, with some events from the year 2012. So we're going to test, test your guys' memory here.

Oh, my God. I don't know. How old are that? Not going to be too hard on you here. Not going to be too hard on you. Get out, get out something to write down here. They're doing the rooster voice. It's your hecklers.

Okay. Hello. Hi, Kit. I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little peanut gallery. We will have several opportunities for points here. Three questions.

Three questions. Two points each. We're going to write them down. Here we go. Set your brain. back 12 years. The two top grossing films of 2012 at the U.S. box office were both superhero movies. Maybe no surprise.

For one point each, name either or both of those movies. I encourage you to write down too. One point each, 2012 top two grossing films in the U.S. I'm going to go was 2012. Hold on. Outg outrageous amounts of money, these films. It was 12 years ago. 12 years ago.

Yeah, well, you're trying to picture like, where were we as a nation in the superhero? The first Iron Man that kicked off, that's like 2,000 and six, seven, five movies in. I'm just saying, are they both Marvel Cinematic Universe? Oh, maybe not. Is, yeah, is one of them not, but like at the time, I mean, nothing else was really... Are the Nolan Batman's before or after? I have like, no. Yeah.

All right, two films and I'll be, I'll see how generous I am, giving you exact titles or not here. But let's see. All right. Chris has written down Captain America, Winter Soldier and Spider-Man 3. Karen has written down Amazing Spider-Man. and Avengers Two. You guys,

you guys are, you're dancing around it. You're both, you're both off. Yep. Unfortunately, no points awarded here. The number one,

highest grossing film, 2012, was the Avengers. Just the Avengers. Oh, it was just the Avengers. The first one, Josh Whedon directed,

right, the whole ensemble cast. I don't need to list everybody in it. You know who they are. The number two, grossing film in 2012, The Dark Night Rises.

Yes. by Christopher Nolan, of course, with Christian Bale and Michael Kane and Hathaway and all the rest. The Bain, Tom Hardy. Right, right. Yeah, it's hard. I know. I was looking at that list.

I was like, oh, this, man, that seems, it seems both so long ago. And so, yeah, there have been so many. Give you guys a smaller pool to work with, maybe on this one. Second question here. The number one selling album of 2012 in the United States was, by a female singer. I'm going to give you this by a female singer. For one point each, give me the singer

and the title of her album. 2012, going back. This album, this album was the number one selling album two years in a row. This was the second album by this singer. Okay. All right, okay, okay, okay, okay. Maybe they're still selling a lot of albums today.

Maybe not. Maybe they faded into obscurity. Unlikely. Answers up. Okay. Hey. All right. You have both written the correct answer. It is Adele and it is 21. Yes, Adele, 21. I was like, oh, can be Taylor Swift, but it's like, no, she released like a lot of albums, like before she really gradually. But then Adele was definitely, yeah, like that was her second album. Yeah, okay. As a matter of fact, guys, the second highest selling album that year was, in fact, Taylor Swift's Red. Oh, wow. Red. Yeah. So yes look I wrote that and then I crossed it all out really good instincts. Okay well all tied up here zero does zero's all around the first question two is all around last question here we go in 2012 there were two series of books that accounted for the top six best selling novels in the US all right one two three four five six all of those books were from one of two. series. For one point each, name the two book series. I will not torture you into naming

all six of these books. You might know them. Two series. Yeah, no, I think I got this. I think I got this. Okay. All right. All right. Yeah. Here we go. All right. All right. Yeah. Here we go. All right. Two series were selling a lot of books. Karen has written Hunger Games and Song of Ice and Fire. Excellent guesses. Chris has written twice. Light and 50 Shades of Gray. Also, excellent guesses. You have each scored one point here.

Yes. Okay. All right. In order, I will read them to you, in order one to six. These are the top six selling novels of 2012. 50 Shades of Grey by El James, of course. Is! The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, number two.

And then from there, we have 50 shades darker, 50 shades freed, catching fire. And Mockingjay. Yeah. Just, I mean. People like sexy books. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Good four solid guesses there, one point each. All right. Well, all tied up. So I would say you guys have an equally good or bad memory of 2012. Yeah, it is a black hole. It's not even like memory of the year.

It's like kind of orienting yourself in that year. And like what was like, what can I anchor myself to as far as like what was happening? Okay. Well, I got married in 2013. So was this like prize? to me getting married or like after you know like when did I that that sort of thing trying to figure out that thing that I absolutely know happened at this point I think I go by job judging from there you go by marriage sure by job uh-huh yeah it's like oh this is I remember working with so-and-so

and I remember I was in this office when we had this conversation fun fact I don't know if good job brain listeners know this but not only did Colin and I work together before in the same for the same company Colin was my boss yeah Colin was my manager. Yes. And look at us now. Now you're his manager. To everyone who said, we couldn't do it.

Well, folks, it also has been one year since I moved to Seattle. I finally attended my first pub trivia in person here in Seattle with some good job brain fans. Johnny and Mel invited me to join their friends. felt like the old times there are some things where I'm like an old crumudgeon person about I know using phones is like the now kind of the standard for a lot of pub quiz like you have to input your answer on like a special website like a game mode you know that's kind of just how things are it's easier for people to grade I get it but I just kind of miss the old writing down on a piece of paper good job brain is rooted in pub trivia so I have here 12 like our theme 12 solid solid PubTrivia-esque questions. All right. They are ordered from most difficult to least difficult.

The first and hardest question will be worth 12 points, then 11 points, then 10 points. And it kind of goes down. The last question, which is the easiest, will be one point. So this will be a write-down quiz. Now, here's the fun part. You each have one chance to block a question for your. opponent. If you use your block and your opponent gets the answer correct, they will not get the points. You may use your block only after I read the question, but before you reveal the answers.

So there's a little bit of strategy here because if you use your block, if you use your block too early on the hard questions, chances are the other person probably will miss it. And you kind of wasted your block. If you use it toward the end with easier questions, they're worth fewer points. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. All right. For 12 points, gladiolis spelled G-L-A-D-I-O-L-U-S, is a flower from the Iris family. Gladiolis also has the distinction to be the first winning what back in 1925. Let me say it again. Gladiolis spelled G-L-A-D-I-O-L-U-S is a flower from the IRIS family. Gladiolus also has the distinction to be the first winning what back in 1925. Okay. All right. It answers up. Are we ready? Here we go. Chris put.

Tucky Derby horse. And Colin put flower of the year. Oh, Chris, such a good guess. Gladiolis is the first winning final word in the Scripps Spelling Bee competition, which is why I spelled it. Aha. Nice, I like it. Good, that's good. 1925.

Just in case you're wondering, the winning word. word from 2023 samophile P-S-A-M-M-O P-H-I-L-E Sam-O-F-O-E. Sam-O-File meaning like

a, you know, file-liking or loving, it's a animal or some sort of organism that dwells in the sand. Ah. Samo-File. All right, for 11 points, what Central American

Nation has the record of having the most colors in a national flag? What Central American Nation has the record of having the most colors in a national flag. If you know your Central American Nations, we have a mnemonic here, good job brain, baby Godzilla, eat hot dogs, not Coca-puffs. Not Coca-puffs. Man, this is a good question.

This is like, Karen's great at asking the questions that she would nail in trivia. And I'm trying to think about, yeah, very good. I'm trying to think about the flags. I know a couple of the Central American flags. I will admit, I do not know all of them. Ecuador, South America. Oh, no, sorry, yes, it's El Salvador. El Salvador.

I was going to block Chris until he said Ecuador. Right, right, right. So no blocks. I always say Ecuador. And then I remember that it's not it because Ecuador is on the equator. I don't feel too great about my answer. Or do I? Or do you?

Wow, the mind games. All right, answers up. Here we go. You're freaking me out. Chris put El Salvador and Colin put 7 a.m. Bilees. Oh, what's 7 a.m? I think that's just a note like Central American C.M.

Yeah, it looks like I'm. Got it. Colin put Belize. The correct answer is Belize. No way. Did you guess it or were you playing? I really, I ruled, I knew that a couple of the flags were like one or two colors, and I just ruled out the ones that I knew.

So I just went the other direction like, well, what's a country? I have no idea what their flag looks like and just gamble that I might be right. Okay, for 10 points, what chemical element has the highest atomic number? Oh, geez. Therefore, an atomic mass. This is good to know. I mean, we all know, like, hydrogen, you know, what it starts with in the first 10. Weird ones, yeah.

But just, I think just knowing the last one, not last one, but the highest one is something good to know. And I'll tell you what number it is. It's 118. So goes up to 118. All right. Here we go. No blocks? No block.

No. Okay. Chris put Einsteinium and Colin you put unilexium, unilhexium. It is organison. Oh, Gannison. Wow. Named after a scientist, Oganeson. And it's O.G.

Pretty easy remember. I mean, if you, yeah, remember OG, the highest atomic number. Here we go for nine points. Super Bowl just happened. And the winners of the National Football League get awarded with the Lombardi Trophy. Correct. What is the name of the trophy awarded to the winners of the Canadian Football? League Championship.

Block. Oh. I block. I block it. It is blocked. I'm going to put a big X. Okay. Okay.

You can still answer it. Oh, I'll still answer. Yeah. Now do I hope I get it right or do I hope I get it wrong? Right. Yeah. Which is more.

Right, right. Canadian. Okay. So, I mean, like major figure in football who came from Canada, maybe, or played in the Canadian football leagues. I have no idea. The Rock played for Canadian football, right? Oh, yeah. Okay, great. The Rock Trophy. Okay. The people's trophy.

Can you smell trophy? Yeah. Okay. All right. Chris put Alanis Morissette Trophy and Colin has the correct answer but is blocked the gray cup. I knew it. I knew it. Great cup. Good call. Good use. Woo! And on a high point, he already has, he's already up 11 points over me. That's true. Yes. Nice, nice. Okay. For eight points, it has been about a year since ChatGPT launched. What does GPT stand for? People use it for everything, for recommending recipes, for writing newsletters, bunch of stuff.

I'm going to block. I'm going to block Chris. I'm going to block Chris on this one because he's, he's a proper. Oh, okay. Okay. Bad move. Big old waste of a block. All right. Chat GPT. Hmm. We say it almost every day. Yeah. All right. All right. Oh, that's good answer. Chris put generative participation trophy. Waste of a block. General purpose translator. Ooh, it is generative. Okay.

Can we say generative AI? Yep. Pre-trained, because you have to train a model, pre-trained transformer. Generative, pre-trained transformer. I figured, I thought generative, and then I just had no idea. Yeah. Well, it's worth eight points.

Yeah, it's hard. All right. Blocks are off the table. Both blocks are off table. Short trivia action, man versus man, here we go. Jane Austen novels and the Netflix series Bridgerton are set in the Regency era. It's called Regency because it's named after the British crown Prince Regent, who had to take over ruling duties for what monarch?

Ooh. Um, okay. Say it again, Jane Austen novels and the steamy Netflix hit Bridgerton are set in the Regency era, named after for the British crown Prince Regent, who had to take over ruling duties for what monarch? First name, okay. Okay. Just the first name? Just the first name.

Okay. All right. Here we go. Chris put George and Colin put Victoria. The madness of King George. Chris, we have it. Yes. King George was sick for a long time.

Of course, he had a prince regent to call the shop for him. What's funny is a very pub trivia thing because by pure coincidence, during the research that I was doing for the segment that I have coming up, I actually learned that the regency era took place right before the Victorian era. So I would not have put Victorian, and I knew about when the Regency era was, and I'm like, well, that's not long after American Revolution, therefore. We talk a lot about fashion and design, you know, interior design, regency stuff.

And I just thought I was like, oh, it's like, oh, it's like, you know, you boz arts or something. Like, it just seems like a nice word. I didn't know it was named after a prince regent, like a government, government official. Good job. Seven points. For six points. What Taco Bell menu item turns 20 this year?

Oh, let's see. Huh What Taco Bell menu item Turns 20 this year Fun fact Taco Bell actually held a Apple like keynote press conference

a fake kind of Steve Jobs press conference for their menu items Like they had the big screen And then the dramatic pauses It's hilarious Very funny Answers up

Chris put Doritos Locos Tacos And then Colin put, Chalupa. It is, of course, Mountain Dew, Baja Blast. Oh, okay. Baja Blast. In case if you didn't know, it was Mountain Dew, they had, they developed a special product just for Taco Bell. Wow.

And in the press conference, they had air horns. It's like, do, do, do. He's like, we have a birthday in the house. Oh, okay. Like, you know, splashes like Baja Blas. Spraying in the crowd, Baja Blas. For five points, who was the first U.S. president who had a divorce? Oh.

Huh. Huh. Well, now that the blocks are off the table. Oh, oh, oh, I know. I know who this is. Oh, I really was the, huh. I know one who was divorced. I mean.

Yeah. So we'll go with this. I'm going to go with that one. Yeah. All right. Okay. Let's answer that. What I got.

You both are correct. It is. Ronald Reagan. Yes. He was married to Jane Wyman. Wow. Yes, it sounds right. There's no way to know.

For four points, now we're getting towards the easier questions. In the Peanuts comic with Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Pigpen is the kid who's always got the dust cloud around him. What is his father's name? Oh, my goodness. This is an easy question. This is an easy question. I feel like there's going to be some.

obvious joke or pun here that I'm missing. Right, right, right. Yes. It's, there is, there is something. I mean, it's, it's on the easier end of the quiz, so, okay. So, it must be, you meta, you kind of play the meta game. It must be getable. Yeah, right, right, right, all right, I don't know.

Answer is up. Chris put pig sty and Colin put ink. Like ink pen, I don't know. It is pig pen senior. Oh, my goodness. Classic overthinking And senior

All right For three points What fashion brand Is making a comeback For its Y2K Valor Sweatsuits Uh Y2K

Valour I mean Y2K as in like the aesthetic The air Oh man What fashion brands do I know That would like do a Valor

I really have nothing. I'll write something down. Hold on. Pretty sure this is it. Dolce and Gabana, Chris writes, and Colin is correct with juicy couture. Oh, right. You're juicy on the butts of the sweatpants. Yes. Yep.

All right. For two points. What is the national bird of New Zealand? What is the national bird of New Zealand? Block. I block. No way. You are both correct. It is. is the Kiwi, the Kiwi bird. Block. Yeah, you know what, Chris, you can have these two points here. You can just go ahead and take it. Collins winning, but let's finish the quiz with our one pointer.

What is the title of the first episode of Good Job Brain? Whoa, whoa. What did we talk about? Yeah, what did we talk about? I actually know that. I should have made just like a hundred points, yeah. Right, exactly. Yeah.

Oh, man, okay. No, I remember what it was about. I remember it was about alcohol, right? Oh, man. Okay, so it's going to be a pun. Geez, all right. I've got to guess on top of a guess here. All right.

Okay, okay. Call and watch you read out. I'm going with liquor is quicker. That's funny because I put candy as dandy. well with their powers combined you are correct together oh it was the whole phrase it's the whole phrase oh candy is dandy but liquor is quicker audynneesh uh made famous by of course you know wilder and willie wonka and the chocolate factory good job everybody awesome club quizy things pig pen senior everybody remember that

to pick up. You're going to be like, you want to bet all your points on your peanuts knowledge. Yeah. Final Jeopardy. All right. Let's take a quick break. And we'll be right back. When you're a forward thinker, you don't just bring your A game. You bring your AI game. Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage your people, money, and agents. So you can transform tomorrow. Workday. business forever forward. Long-bendy Twizzlers candy keeps the fun going.

Keep the fun going. Brain. Smooth puzzles. Smart trivia. Good Job Brain. Hey, you're listening to Good Job Brain and this week for our 12th anniversary we're talking about things that are 12. That's our topic. So speaking of, you know, the fact that Good Job Brain is old. So I want to mention something that happened way back 10 years ago. January 2014, where for reasons that I think are lost the time, we ended up doing like a minisode in that month right after Christmas. And it was right, it was during, it was during the 12 days of Christmas. It was during Christmas tide, the days following Christmas holiday. And I sat on this mini so, hey, what, you know, what are the 12 days of Christmas? What is the 12th day of Christmas?

And essentially it's, you know, Christmas starts December 25th. And then it's the, it's the, it's the, period of roughly 12 days after that. Some people end it on January 6th, which is the holiday known as Epiphany. That's the day that the baby Jesus was visited by the three wise men. But if you start counting from December 25th, you get to January 5th, 12 days. Either way, the night of January 5th is usually known as 12th night, hence the title of the Shakespeare play. And on those 12 days, those 12 days are a bunch of different feasts. celebrating different Christmas-related happenings. Fun fact, actual fact, not making this up.

The eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, is the day that Jesus was circumcised. And there is a feast on the day. And that's actually true story. And that's January 1st. So maybe we'll do a different kind of New Year's party next year. I don't know. We'll change up the decorations a little bit.

So anyway, as I said, we... What would it be? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Use your imagination. So we said about, we talked about this 10 years ago, but, but this year, I didn't want to dig in so much to the actual sort of like the celebrations of the 12 days of Christmas, but I wanted to get more into the song, the 12 days of Christmas, because that's why, because we have the song on the 12 days of Christmas. And then the usual trivia question is, well, what are those? You know, it's a very unique entry in that, in that Christmas Carol sort of repertoire that we have because we sing about all the presents that somebody got on all these these 12 days of feasting following Christmas and but it's cumulative right so at the end they end up with 12 partridges and 12 pear trees 22 turtle doves 30 French hens more math I don't want to do but like so like what's the deal with this song like that's what I kind of wanted to ask the question of like it turns out that it dates back at least to the year 1780 I

And that's when the 12 days of Christmas, like as a poem, was first published in a book. And this book was called Mirth Without Mischief. Okay. So remember that. We'll get back to that. But the version of it that was published in this book in 1780 actually pretty similar to what we sing now. Like actually very close. The major difference is that the last four items, the last four gifts are not in the order.

that we use today. Because today, we say, just as a refresher, the last four are 12 drummers drumming, 11 pipers piping, 10 lords a leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids, milking, da, da, da, da, da.

In the 1780 version, as it's printed in this book, it's 12 lords, 11 ladies, 10 pipers, nine drummers. Oh, they switch it up. They switch it up. And as I'm reading all this, I start getting confused.

It is confusing. Like, I always get a little confused of, how many, how many lords is it? How many drummers is it? You know, no matter how many times you hear it, it's like, wait, how does it go? So here's the thing that I found out by reading the internet is that it is very likely. The song is supposed to be confusing.

It's supposed to confuse you. You're supposed to not remember the song. Okay. So if you look back at the book that it's a really, originally printed in the context of this the book is called mirth without mischief it is a short book of party games from the regency era it is like it's like jackbox party pack for 1780 it's all various party games you can play and the other games in the book are kind of explicitly what they they're called forfeit games and they still say this in the UK they do they do forfeits at

Christmas and what that means like it's like dares it's like you play a game And if you lose, you have to do something embarrassing, right? So one person says the first line of this really lengthy verse. And then the next person has to say the second line and the first one and so on and so forth until somebody messes it up. And they're called forfeits. It's interesting because before you start the game, everybody takes something that they have in their purse or their pocket or whatever and they put it in a bag. That's what they're forfeiting. and then when you mess up to get it back,

that's when you have to do the embarrassing thing. Basically kind of an excuse in like 18th century England to like do silly things in front of other people but have it be societally acceptable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Silly dances are like having to dance blindfolded or having to like... Right, yeah, no, or like kissing somebody, you know.

Or so like doing a lady in the tramp, you know, with a piece of spaghetti, well, you know, probably a piece of string or something like that. I don't think they have the spaghetti, but, you know, so that is, that's what 12 days of Christmas is. It is a party game. It's a party game. And that's why it's all about birds, because you're eating birds at the Christmas feast, and it's people dancing and singing and drummers are drumming because that's what you're doing at the feast. And so like that's, you'd play it on like 12th night on like the feast of the 12th night. And that would be a game that you would play. And so the last, yeah, exactly, and the last cool thing that I found out about this, I'll end with this, what are the lords a leaping? Because a lot of the other things, it's like, okay, yeah, ladies are dancing, maids are milking the cows, I get it, I get it. In this 1780 book, Murth Without Mischief, which there are very, very few copies of this left in the world.

One sold at heritage auctions in 2020 for about $10,000. And they were like, we only know of one more of these, like, in America and like three in the UK. It's very rare, right? They illustrated all the things. I mean, it's really important that we have this because we have it all kind of written down. And then not only do we have the words, we have an illustration of the words. So it's like, people are like, oh, the gold rings. Like, what did that mean?

No, it's just literally five like gold rings illustrated next to it. So the Lord's Leaping. Look this up. It's great. It is literally a picture of 12. dies in, you know, fancy suits, uh, jumping over hurdles. Literally, it is hurdles. It is, it is.

But it's like, but it's just people being, it's just people being festive, you know, for the last night of Christmas before they go back to their regular boring life. But it is just dudes jumping. That, that is literally just what it is. Just dudes jumping. Just dudes jumping. Wow, it's a party game. A party game. That makes so much sense.

right right that really does right and i've played those kind of games before too you know drinking games where you invent like a movement you have to keep copying like a simon says or like they're like ice breaker style games too yeah oh my god that make that does that makes a lot of sense guys i am not a native english speaker and so imagine you're not a native speaker of english or a native speaker of any major Western or romance languages. And you have to learn the names of the months. And it's kind of a trip because for a lot of Asian languages, the months are month one, month two, month three, month four. Imagine you're learning the months. Okay, you're like, January, okay, February. You're like, great. Okay, there's a pattern. It ends with airy.

and let's go, Jerry, February, March. Oh, whoa, oh, that's weird. April, May, June. You're like, okay, okay, short words, short names of months, you know, July, August. Okay, that's not really short anymore. And then September, like, okay, September, October. Oh, we're back to a pattern. Wait a minute.

Doesn't Oct mean eight, and it's the 10th month? November, December. It is so good. Confusing. Yes. So names of month, kind of a trip. And the reason why for any calendar confusion, as we know, trivia nerds, there have been many changes and shifts. You know, we had the Roman calendar to the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar, oh, we're going to add a day here. Calendar has been a complicated matter. Back in the Roman calendar, there were 12 months, but there were only 10 named months. Because broadly, they didn't count January and February. That was considered to be like dead wintertime, right? The military wasn't active, the government wasn't active, the farmers weren't active. You're just trying to survive.

You're just trying to survive the cold and deadness around you, waiting for the conditions outside to be tolerable again. So the Roman calendar started with March as their first month. And then that actually makes sense that September. October, November, December, 7, 8, 9, 10. Yep, they, they shifted. All right. So let's, let's just, a quick discussion. Let's just go through the origin of the month names.

Let's do it. All right. So let's start the first month. Guess what? It's January. January is named after. Do you know? Janus.

Janus. Janus. From, from friends. Out. Matt. Janus. Roman god with two faces on one head, one facing forward and one face facing back. God of doors, transitions, beginnings, okay, makes sense.

February, February, February, do we know the origin? It's just, I mean, I know it's like the root is associated with winter, but I mean, is it, yeah, beyond that, I don't know if it's a specific God or time or something like that. I'll tell you, named after the Roman cleansing festival called Februadus. And Feboretus is named after the purification instruments they called Februa. February clean, purify, welcome the upcoming spring, sounds wholesome, purification instruments. Yeah, sure, you're thinking like maybe water and bath time. Okay, so here's the actual cleansing festival. Let's get into that.

When I research this, they're like, oh, yeah, cleansing purification festival. And they kind of stopped there. But I was like, okay, but what do they do? Here's what they did. They sacrifice a goat, maybe several goats and a dog. Like they kill them. And two people are called to the altar. And I'm quoting Wikipedia here.

Their foreheads were anointed with the blood from the sacrificial knife, then wiped clean. with wool soaked in milk after which they were expected to laugh so these two people getting covered with blood and then they have to be like ha ha ha ha ha ha ha that was really funny

and so I mentioned the festivals named after February which are quote cleansing instruments what are these cleansing instruments well they sacrifice the goat and the dog it's pieces of the flayed skin of the animal and people used it, you know, use these flaps of, of hide as like jaunty whips,

jaunty playful flogs that they would, they, they would run around town naked or partially clothed with these februas, like pieces of skin hide, and playfully, you know, try to, like, bat at people. And if you get hit. Like playing tag. I got you. Tag. And people would go out of the way to try to get him.

hit, then that means like, oh, you're cleansed or you're ready to be pregnant in some sense. But yes, that is, that is the actual ritual, very cleansing, very purifying. All right. Wow. Yes. Now you know. Like sales and lambs kind of stuff going on here. Yes.

I don't think I wanted to know this. Yeah, right. Okay. March, named after. Right. Mars. Yes, Roman god of war, because this was the month when military campaigns would resume. right after winter.

April is Latin for aperio, which means to open because the flowers and the leaves are opening. April, Apirio. May is named after, do we know? The Greek goddess Maya, Maya. The goddess of fertility and also a mother of Hermes, voiced by Paul Schaefer from the movie Hercules. June is named. Armei, Karen. A lot of people, yeah, a lot of people make this mistake.

It's, it's okay, don't be embarrassed, yeah. Hermes. Irmes. Irms. June, named after, as we know, Roman goddess, Juneau, goddess of marriage. We're kind of the height of, height of summer. And July. This is when the Caesars start inserting themselves, right?

Yes. Julius Caesar, Julius Caesar, original name for July is Quintillus. because it was the fifth month in the old system. Oh, okay. August, if July was Julius Caesar, August is in honor of Emperor Augustus. Original name of this month is Sextilis because it was the sixth month. And then we get to September, October, November, December,

seventh month, eighth month. But then we all kind of kept the names, even though the months got shifted. Very confusing, but we made it through so many, so many languages use that this route, the Jan-Fed-MAR kind of route. I don't think I have ever learned the route of February in such a vivid way. I have a feeling there's like many like middle school teacher that was like, I'm going to teach the kids what the months are.

So it's like they're like, they're like, they got a big piece of poster board and they're like, you know, January, Janus. They're like, February. And they're like, then they just rip up the poster board. I thought I'd get a little further into that before hitting a roadblock, but, yeah. Join us aboard CN's new podcast, The Inside Track, your front row seat to the railroads and supply chains powering North America. Hear real stories, expert insights, and bold innovations. Episode one dives into transloading with CN's Benoit La Chants.

Learn how it works, why it matters, and how to get involved. Listen now to the inside track. And we're nearing the end of our episode, celebrating our 12 year anniversary on the topic of 12. Colin, I will take us over the line here at the end of the 12 show. I was looking online, brainstorming, writing stuff down when I was thinking, all right, 12. What things, what come in 12, right? And then I remember like, oh, the 12 Olympians. You know, it's like, I've heard this phrase so many times, like the 12 Olympians, it comes up.

And it was like, oh, maybe I can, you know, this would be. good one to like memorize them you know i don't know if it needs a mnemonic but like you just be good to know like what are the 12 olympians i'm like so so i started doing a little research i found out that in fact there's there's no single authoritative list of the 12 olympians now let me back up a minute who are the 12 olympians by that i mean the 12 biggest of the big cheese greek gods and goddesses who in Greek mythology lived on Mount Olympus, right? I mean, this is like the upper echelon. What I found is there are a pool of 13 or 14 names out of which the quote, official 12 end up being pulled, depending on who's putting the list together. This is bad for

trivia because it means like I can't just memorize these are the 12 incontrovertible because someone will always have an um actually no it's this person for this reason but it's great for me making a quiz because it gave me more options to pull from here in basing a quiz around but i decided to put a little cinematic twist on it so the answer to every question i will ask you is the name of a movie that includes the name of one of the 12 olympians you could you did and it was possible it was well i did not do all 12 no I so that was my original goal was could I do all 12 the answer is no I've got I've got five here for you I've got five good ones okay okay and to give myself even more leeway here I will be referencing in some of these questions the Roman names of some of these gods and I'll call it out here we go I'm gonna just for just for the fun of it I'm gonna read each question as if I am the god or goddess themselves oh phrasing the question to you we'll see we'll see we'll see where I trip myself up here all right buzz in question one I'm a pretty big deal on Mount Olympus, but this

1972 movie that featured upside down sets impressed even me. Karen. The Poseidon Adventure? Yeah, Karen. Oh, it is Adventure? You got it, the Poseidon Adventures. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pulled it out.

Excellent. And in case you have not seen the Poseidon Adventure, I believe they also remade it as just Poseidon. It's about a big ocean liner that gets hit by a rogue wave and fully inverted. And much of the movie takes place with the ship upside down. And it's great. They did, in fact, actually build elaborate sets that could tip to different angles, including all the way upside down.

They based it on the famous ship, the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. And in fact, I learned while putting this quiz together, that they filmed sort of the pre-disaster, a lot of the pre-disaster scenes on the actual, on the actual Queen Mary. That makes sense. And then that meant that they had to build their upside-down sets to kind of match the Queen Mary decor and styling.

So, yeah. The Roman name is Neptune. I was going to ask for the bonus points. So good job, Karen. That's right, Poseidon with Poseidon's Roman equivalent Neptune. You got it. Mira Sorvino won an Academy Award for her performance in this 1994. film featuring my name.

It was loosely based on the Pygmalion storyline, however. Karen again. Mighty Aphrodite. That's right. Mighty Aphrodite. And do you know Aphrodite's Roman equivalent? Venus. It is Venus.

I'm the only one of the Twelve Olympians whose Roman name is the same as my Greek name. Oh. Also, my name was featured in the second highest grossing movie of 1995. Gee, I used to know this. This is a good one to file away. When I was a kid, I was all into the, you know, Yeah, me too. A very, very famous catchphrase was popularized out of this movie.

Oh, really? referencing a city, a city in Texas in the catchphrase. Karen, Juno. Oh, I'm sorry. That is incorrect. Oh, Herra. Juno, Hera, okay. Very famous catchphrase, referencing a city in Texas.

Awesome. You guys are going to pick yourselves. You're going to be so mad. Awesome. Some other cities. Dallas, Dallas. San Antonio. We're going to figure this.

Let us. Let us work through this. Austin, Dallas, and there's got to be at least one other city in Texas. No, no, no, no. At least one. Houston, we have a problem. Apollo 13. Good job, brave.

Wow. You got it. They're like, what are the idiots doing? They're never going to get it. Apollo, right. Yay, we got there. Yeah. You did.

You guys got it. But yeah, Apollo, it's a good one. The only one of the Big 12. Same name in the Greek and the Roman system there. Odessa, San Antonio. Corpus Christi. I'm going to toss this one up here for you, Karen. I'm Zeus's wife, but my Roman name was the title of a smash hit, teen-centered comedy in 2007.

Home skillet? It is Juno. Yes, you got it. That's right. My Greek name, of course, Hera, Hera and Zeus, Juno, and Jupiter, yes. All right, last one, last one. One of the biggest bombs in Hollywood history, this 2002 science fiction action comedy, features my Roman name.

Does this start Milakunis and Channing Tatum? Is this Jupiter's moon? Jupiter's... I know what you're thinking of. You're thinking of... Oh, it's not that one. You're thinking of Jupiter ascending. Yes.

Yes. No, you're about... You're about 13 years too late, I think. Oh, okay. 2002. Yeah, 2002. One of the biggest box office bombs of 2002. Okay, well, maybe we should...

Maybe we should work backwards. Like, what are some Greek gods? And it's the Roman name of this Greek god. So, I mean, it could be... What have we? not done. Volcan. Mars. Mars versus Aries. So Aries would be Greek. Mars could be Mars. Mars attack? Well, but that's like a... No. Too late. Too late. Maybe it's too late. That was a... That was a... And that movie was a pretty bona fide hit. Yeah. This was an Eddie Murphy

vehicle. Oh, yes. No, it was something... Oh, Pluto. It's Pluto Nash. Pluto Nash. You got it. Is it 2002? Yeah. It was 2002, yes. The adventures of Pluto Nash. Who is Pluto's Greek counterpart?

Who is Pluto's Greek name? Good question. That is Hades. Hades. Yes, God of the underworld and other things. Hades has a bit of an asterisk here. So Hades is one of these sort of outlier names who will appear sometimes on the list of 12 Olympians.

He lives in the underworld. He doesn't live in the temple. Yes, exactly. That's right. So most lists do not include Hades because he was off doing his own thing down in the underworld. She doesn't even go here. Yeah, she doesn't even go here. Here is the list, by the way, if you would like.

I'll give you Greek name first, Roman name second. Okay. Let's start at the top with the big guy. We got Zeus slash Jupiter. We have Hera and Juno. We got Poseidon and Neptune. Hermes and Mercury Dionysus and Bacchus

Again, now we're getting into some of the names You know, we're getting some of the names that maybe fluctuate a little bit Yeah, Demeter and Ceres Yes, from where the name's serial comes from Hescia and Vesta Kind of the, you know, the hearth and home territory here. Apollo, Apollo, Aries and Mars, God of War, Hephaestus,

which is one of the lesser-known Greek names, but most people know for sure Vulcan, right, the blacksmith and the forge, yep. Artemis and Diana, goddess of the hunt, I believe, and other things. Athena and Minerva. Minerva and Minerva. They're going to appear on every list.

Yeah, Minerva, Roman name for Athena. Minerva Maganagal, yes. Aphrodite, Venus, and then Hades with the big asterisk, way down below slash Pluto. Take your favorite 12 out of that. list. And dear listener, that is your personal 12 Olympians that you can study. It's our Olympian draft. Yeah. And that's our show. Thank you all for joining me and thank you listeners for listening in. Hope you learned stuff today about the 12 Olympians, the party purpose behind 12 days

of Christmas, and the real origin of month names. You can find us on all major podcast apps and on our website, good job brain.com. This podcast is part of Airwave Media Podcast Network. Visit airwavemedia.com to listen and subscribe to other shows like Box of Audities, Calm History, and Triviality. We'll see you next week. Bye. Bye. 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 Vigelin, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark, and so many other famous and not so famous adventures from throughout history.

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