Lateral with Tom Scott - 126: A less-safe safe

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

Inés Dawson, Jenny Draper and Wren Weichman face questions about smallholder snags, spurned suitors and shop security. LATERAL is a comedy panel game podcast about weird questions with wonderful answers, hosted by Tom Scott. For business enquiries, contestant appearances or question submissions, visit https://lateralcast.com. HOST: Tom Scott. QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe. EDITED BY: Julie Hassett at The Podcast Studios, Dublin. MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com). ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS: Adam Tillowitz, Courtney, Jacob W., Nate, Dillon Rodriguez-Currie, B. King, Rob Dahl. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sick of dreaming smaller? Sick of investing but not seeing your money grow? Sick of feeling like you're leaving money on the table, paying high fees, and not knowing if you're even making the right investments? With Questrade, you get the right tools, stock insights, and proper guidance so you can become a better investor. It's time to get the financial future you deserve. Get yours, Questrade. In what game might you be frustrated if you draw an old McDonald? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott and this is Lattral.

Hello and a special welcome to any new listeners. If you're not familiar with the format of L Lateral, let me sum it up like this. It's like a quiz where the most obvious answer is usually hiding between three slightly less obvious answers, all of which are wrong. Let's meet our guests, who are here to provide wrong answers in interesting ways. First, we have London tour guide with a YouTube channel, Jay Draper. Welcome back to the show. Hello, it's great to be back.

It is lovely to have you back. The last thing I saw from you online was a surprisingly bloody video about executions that managed to make it past all of YouTube's filter guidelines. Like, well done. Thank you very much. I only used a small amount of real blood.

It was mostly fake blood. And a lot of red yarn, as I remember. A lot of red yarn, beads, yeah. I do disembowel myself on camera. Thank you for coming back on the show. It is, I think, low season for tour guides at the moment as we record this. Yes, that's right. We're at the beginning of the year, so January, February is very, very quiet for tourists

in London. But you are still getting the occasional gig, like, just ge we're at the beginning of the year, so January, February is very, very quiet for tourists in London. But you are still getting the occasional gig, like, just gearing up for the new year? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then once it gets to March, it'll be back on, especially like, Easter, all the Americans will come back. Well, speaking of the Americans, good luck to you, Jenny, tonight, because we have with us visual effects artist, engineer, and part of the Corridor crew, Bren Weichman. Welcome back. What's up? Thanks for having me back. We do have to acknowledge right now that you are in Los Angeles and at time of recording,

there's a bit of fire going on. Are you okay? How are things going? We lost a little bit of power on the first night of the windstorm, but apart from that, at least me and all my coworkers and friends have been safe. We're far away from the fire so it's not that big of a deal. Los Angeles is a very large place, and even though the fires are big, most of LA is not on fire. Well, I'm glad you're not on fire. How are you feeling about being back after a while? Oh, I'm feeling great. I'm ready to go. I'm trying to think sideways and upways, lateral ways. All right, well, very best of luck making up the last one of our trio today, with a PhD

in biomechanics, streaming science on YouTube and now Twitch, in nice Laura Dawson from Draw Curiosity. Welcome back! It's so good to be back! And very similar to Ren, I am also running away from LA-based fires, so it's great to be here. Yes, you normally have a professional streaming setup and microphone. We are, I think, running on slightly more of an improvised setup at the minute,

but it is good to know you're safe. What are you working on at the minute? So right now I have returned to YouTube, I stream Science Three Times a Week on Twitch, and I am currently working on a video about setting up a wasp picnic. Which is as horrifying as it sounds. Deliberately attracting wasps? Oh, I was expecting like a tiny little wasp-sized blanket. Oh, it is.

It does have a little tiny blanket, and little shop glasses, and a tiny little lamb rib for them. And way more wasps showed up than I was expecting them to, but it still proved the point. It was very effective. For the video, that is better than the alternative. Yes.

Well, good luck to all three of you on the show today, and remember the correct answer is in there somewhere. Just not where you're looking, or there. Not there, either. Let's do question one. This has been sent in by Dylan Rodriguez-Curry. In 2024, Clark bought a brand new EcoQuar Plus notebook from a stationery shop. In the back was a list of names, including Ludwig van Beethoven, Francis Bacon, and Michelangelo. Why?

I'll give you that one more time. In 2024, Clark bought a new Icoqua Plus notebook from a stationery shop. In the back was a list of names, including Ludwig van Beethoven, Francis Bacon, and Michelangelo. Why? So these are all people with B as their last names.

Ooh. Michelangelo Buonarrotti. Excellent fact knowledge. I just, Beethoven and Francis Bacon, did you say the second one was? Francis Bacon was the other one, yes. But since you didn't know, I'm guessing that's not actually important. It is unfortunately not actually important. Beethoven, obviously the composer, Michelangelo the sculptor and painter.

Francis Bacon? A scientist. Well, it depends on which Francis Bacon it is. There's an artist from the 20th century and there's a scientist from the 16th. I was thinking like, bacon numbers? Like is he trying to reduce the bacon number from him to all of the others? But I don't think it's that. That's Kevin Bacon, not Francis Bacon.

I was going to say, I'm pretty sure it was Kevin Bacon. Okay, so what year is, okay, Beethoven I don't think is quite 16th century. Beethoven is... Beethoven. 18th, no, early 19th, I think. Early 19th. I feel like I don't know any of these right now. I know the names of two out of the three. That's about it.

What kind of notebook is this? Is it trying to imply that this is the kind of notebook that you could write music like Beethoven, that you could write scientific notes like the scientist? I think they're certainly trying to imply that, yes. Eco-quo. Is that like eco-friendly-quo? Or is that eco-quo, a single word brand name type thing? Yeah, is it a brand name or does it stand for something? I wouldn't worry too much about that right now. Okay.

My morbid mind thinks of Death Note and like, none of these people are alive. Just trying to imply it's also effective in that way. Don't quote me on that though. I never said that. Buy this normal product from W. from WH Smith and kill your enemies. I actually don't know what happens in Death Note. I think that is basically how it works, yes. I just don't think you buy it in WH Smith.

That is the version of Death Note were British. Oh yeah, Death Note were British. It just arrives on a grubby Wetherspoons carpet. There's like a Greg's sausage like a Greg sausage roll there. Oh yeah, the death roll. That's the... The death roll. So these three people listed in this notebook, are they, what are their nationalities? Michelangelo's probably Italian, right? Or am I wrong on that?

He's Italian, yeah. Beethoven is German, I think? Yeah, I think so. And Francis Bacon is English. Okay. Depending on the Francis Bacon, you did name two of them. Depending on which one it is. And you didn't clarify which is which.

And you didn't clarify which you were going to, weren't you? And then you stopped yourself. There are some other names printed there as well. I wouldn't try and draw a link specifically between those three. Those are some of the names that are included. So is it just famous people? Is this like, nine out of ten famous people would use this notebook to write their notes in, and those are the names that they chose to include? You're along the right lines with that in Ace Black. Oddly, not confident enough there

for the advertising. Is this to do with, like, what kind of print does this notebook have? Because you mentioned lines. I mean, is it the lines where they put the things on? Is it a blank notebook? What kind of patterning? This is actually a little leaflet tucked in the back. You're nearly there, Ines. They've not, like, got Michelangelo plugging their notebook, have they?

Like, Michelangelo says, buy this notebook. Not! That wouldn't make sense. Why wouldn't that make sense? Because he's dead and didn't buy notebooks. Didn't he? Leonardo da Vinci did. He's famous for his notebooks.

Is that what we're talking about? How do you know he didn't buy notebooks? Mmm... I guess he did, right? Or made them. He acquired paper somehow at some point. He did, yes. Ha! Got you! Well, no, Ren, keep thinking about that.

Okay. Where did he get the paper from? Eko-Kwa. Is this ecologically sourced paper that is recycled and may have somehow been recycled from sources or cities where they were from? We use the notes of Da Vinci and Michelangelo. We trash their art. We've pumped them up real good.

Icoquois is just the name of the notebook. The actual company behind it is called Fabriano. Fabriano! Okay, that's Italian. Yeah. Yeah, that's Italian. Is this all Italian paper and all of them used paper from those sources in the past? So they're like, we're the modern version of the business and they would use our notebooks

because they use the paper from the same spot. You can have even more confident marketing than that. It's the same company. It's the same company. Yes. It is the same company. These guys used our notebooks. Exactly right. Yes. Fabriano has been making paper since 1264. Oh my god. So their website and their products include a list of, I mean, they call them testimonials,

but it's just, here is a list of famous people through history who at some point bought paper from Fabriano. What? See, I'm in America now and nothing's old here. So do you know which bacon it was? It was, and well done on getting this one, Jenny. It was the 20th century Irish-British painter. It was not the English philosopher.

And also not Kevin Bacon. But one second, I'm going to place an order for one of these notebooks, and if I ever become of enough from now— That's how they get you. You buy a notebook from them and they proudly claim that they are the people who sold paper to Beethoven and Michelangelo, to George O'Keeffe, to Federico Fellini, to Giuseppe Garibaldi. To Tom Scott? Not yet.

But in a few centuries, perhaps our names will be on there too. Once they've heard this plug from Latchwell of Tom Scott. Ren, the next question is yours. This question comes from Jacob W. And he asks, owners of a Swedish mobile phone shop were distressed to see that the front of the store had been vandalized during a failed break-in. But instead of fixing the damage, they found a creative way of turning this to their advantage. But how?

Owners of a Swedish mobile phone shop were distressed to see that the front of the store had been vandalized during a failed break-in. Instead of fixing the damage though, they found a creative way of turning this to their advantage. How? I have an idea. Okay, you're excited about this idea? Did they try and break the glass of the shop and therefore they said, our screens are as undestructible as the front of our shop.

I refuse to believe it's anything other than that. Yeah, that's got to be it. I mean, I think you're on the right track. Okay. But not close enough, apparently. I mean, I was just thinking that someone threw a Nokia 33 tenative and somehow it didn't go through. Bounced off and put him in a vase.

Did they change what the graffiti said to make it into an advert? Like, this store sucks, and they were like, this store sucks, amazing. Yeah, they did see it as a marketing opportunity. What kind of vandalisation was it? Because I guess... Oh yeah, because in my head it was like graffiti and spray paint and things like that. I was thinking smashing in. Other people were thinking graffiti.

Tom was thinking chucking a brick phone. I mean, my brain went chuck a brick at it and it's a mobile phone shop. So you throw an old Nokia. I mean, think about what part of the shop could have been damaged first. You would usually enter through the window if not through the door. So is there like a display in the, in the window? Is this something where there's some sort of creative? Cause I know, and pardon the words, but I know that Swedish,

it was in Sweden, right? Yes.. For example there are words like slut which means exit or close or something like that or fart for speed. Are they using a word that has some sort of double entendre and they've made it sound good for the phone? Not quite a play on words, it's much more literal in the sense of like, you know, damage was done and they saw marketing opportunity. When they broke the glass and the window, did it make like a big circle and they turned it into like a halo around the phone? Not a halo, but you're very close. You're honestly the first thing you said was very close.

Was it graffiti? Was it like a spray paint message? No, it wasn't graffiti. It was damage. It sounds like it smashed glass. Yeah, the shop window had been broken. A shop so good, everyone wants to break in. Our prices are criminal. Wait, you said mobile phone shop or cellphone shop. Are they selling new phones, or is this like one of those repair shops that stitches things

up afterwards? I was thinking the repair type. They also do repairs. And I think I figured this, but I'm gonna let someone else get the save on this one. Oh, no, I think you've got it, man. Go for it. Did they just make it look like it was a mobile phone screen? Or the cover of a mo— They just took the smashed glass, and were like, does your phone look like this?

We can fix it. That's exactly what they did! That is exactly what they did! They put up a sign next to the giant crack in the window and said, does your phone screen look like this? We can help. Does your phone screen look like this? We can help. Okay.

So, but like I thought quite, so when I was thinking this. Yeah, it was like, it was so close. And it was like the first thing he said, so I was like, but that was kind of basically it. But I'm gonna say one thing, which is, if I see that they have that there and they haven't fixed it.

That's true. Can they actually deliver on the promise? Come and buy the new screen protector. Yeah, can you make a whole window out of mobile phone glass? They put a screen protector on top, try breaking in now. If you like quizzes and trivia, then today's ad is for you. It's an invitation to join the many lateral listeners who are already part of BP Trivia's Quizleagues.

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And if you're good enough, you'll be up against literal Jeopardy! Champions, and you could take their place at the top of the leaderboard. If you sign up via bp trivia.com slash lateral, you'll get a free month of BP+, which includes entry into the Championship Series, their flagship daily trivia league. That's bp trivia.com slash lateral. Back to the show. Thank you to B King for this next question. Around the year 1900, an Argentinian man asked a woman he hardly knew to marry him.

But she refused. This was a great relief to the man, but not a surprise. Why did the woman willingly go to the local authorities to help the man? I'll say that again. Around the year 1900, an Argentinian man asked a woman he hardly knew to marry him, but she refused. This was a great relief to the man, but not a surprise. Why did the woman willingly go to the local authorities to help the man? My first gut reaction is that, like,

is that, like, he's trying to get like citizenship or something like that, and he just found a random person in this new country he's in, he's like, hey, will you marry me? She's like, no. He's like, okay, thank God, because I don't want to marry you either, but I need help here. Can someone help me like not? I don't know. Like he needs something from her, right? Like, because she's like, I'm not going to marry you, but I will go to the authorities, whatever that means. What country are they in? Argentina. She's like, I'm not going to marry you, but I will go to the authorities, whatever that means. What country are they in? Argentina.

She's in Argentina. Well, no, because he's Argentinian. But it didn't say that they were in Argentina. Oh, you've got how this game works. But in this case, yes, they are both in Argentina. Is this some sort of arranged marriage, but it's actually secretly a romantic story and they're both in love with other people. So them saying no means that they actually get to choose someone for love as opposed to an arranged Argentinian marriage. And they went to the authorities, which I initially interpreted as the police, but that's not necessarily true.

No. Who are the authorities and did they go to the church? Does he want to marry her? Why would he want to marry her? To get out of, hmm, to get out of national service or something? So you're starting to get along the right lines there, but it was not to do with conscription or anything war-related. Inheritance taxes?

Yeah, some countries do have weird inheritance things where you have to get married or else you don't get it. Now, it's not exactly that, but I'm going to keep my mouth shut here because you're getting very close. What else might you want out of a marriage that you could change the law for instead? Health insurance? The most American answer. Yeah.

Green card. Health insurance. Is this something along the lines of, in order to be in the country, he needed to have a wedding date set, so someone has to show up to the wedding. This is some fanfic you've got going right here. We've got to get married or else the law is going to get me. I'm going to take you back to when you were talking about taxes, inheritance taxes, things

like that. It's not inheritance, but you were very close there. Income tax, they could save a lot of money if they got married, but why would she want to help? Why would she need to then help him by going to the authorities? And remember, they're not getting married. And yeah, yeah, they're not getting married.

Is it so that the state won't take his money when he dies, so he needs to at least have someone that it could go to? Does he have to offer to marry her for some reason? And is he trying to buy a house from her? Is she trying to buy a house from him? No, although he did pay her. Pay her for what?

Is he already married and might potentially go through a divorce, but because she says no, he doesn't have to get divorced, or he doesn't have to pay alimony or something like that. Oh, you are getting so close to the answer through all of this. You've basically said all the parts of it separately. Ah! Which parts out right from each of our answers and put them together in a big slurry. Is he trying to re-marry his ex-wife so that he does...

Nope. Okay. Nope. In fact, he's never been married. Okay. That's kind of important here. Annie hardly knew this woman. Yep.

She's turned him down and he's paid her. What was he paying her for? Turning him down. Because he would get money if she turned him down. He's going to get some money and he's giving her a cut. Kind of, yeah. Oh. It's not so much that he's going to get money.

He's not going to get taxed. Why might that be? Oh, is this like some sort of gift when you give a monetary gift to a family member, if you don't have to pay income tax on it, if you're married in some way, but maybe it benefits her more to not be married. It's the exact opposite of that, Inés. You're kind of looking at it the wrong way round. What might Argentina be taxing? Taxing the marriage certificate?

No. Taxing being single? Yes. What? Wait. Keep talking. What's going on here? He's got a bachelor tax to pay? Yes. Around 1900, bachelors were taxed in Argentina.

So talk me through the situation. What's happened here? So he's got to marriageable age, which he's going to have to start paying bachelor tax. This is some fanfic. This is... He's like, how do I get out of this? Hey, you there, come here, marry me. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. There's only one bed. And for tax reasons, we have to get married. No, no, no, hold on. She turned him down.

Right, she turned him down. That was not a surprise. So what's happening there? But then why would she go on to then help him? How could she help him? If you ask someone and they turn you down, you don't have to pay it. If you try and get married, you don't have to pay it. That's it!

Oh! Oh! A heartbreak tax relief! You just have to prove that you attempted, and that's what she was doing. She's like, hey authorities, yes, he did ask me to get married, but... Oh my god, why haven't the fanfic writers come up with this one? Yep, around 1900 bachelors were taxed in Argentina, however, they could be declared exempt if

it could be shown that they had been spurned by a potential fiancée. Spurned? What? So, for a brief period, there were ladies set up as professional rejectors. Oh, I have heard about this. For a fee, they would turn down offers of marriage and then go to the authorities and confirm that they had turned down a marriage offer

and the man would be exempt from bachelor tax. That's nuts. To be a heartbreaker for a living. Jenny, your question next, please. This question has been sent in by Courtney from North Carolina. In 2021, the state of Ohio issued a new vehicle license plate. The illustration at the top featured a plane and a banner reading Ohio, birthplace of aviation.

Why were the license plates recalled? Say it again. In 2021, the state of Ohio issued a new vehicle license plate. The illustration at the top featured a plane and a banner reading Ohio, birthplace of aviation. Why were the license plates recalled? I think I know the answer. I know the answer.

Wren, you sit out of this one then. It's on to me in Ace. And I have been to Dayton, Ohio. I have seen the field that the Wright brothers did their early experiments on. And I can't figure out what... My guess is along the lines of, is the placement of the word Ohio, like specifically the H, going to look like a certain two towers that got hit by a plane, and therefore it looks very inappropriate. No.

No! What? Okay. Sorry. The way you were reacting, Jenny, I thought they nailed it. Were you both thinking that it was a 9-11 reference accidentally? I thought it was an unfortunate 9-11 reference, yes. No! That would be awful! Has that happened?

I thought you were reacting as in, like, that was the answer, and I was like, oh, I... No, I react this way to everything. No, I was reacting because I was surprised to hear it. If I knew what she was going to say, I wouldn't have been so surprised. But that took me... Was that what you had in your head as well? Absolutely not. Okay.

See, I thought the birthplace of aviation was not in Ohio. Where did you think it was? Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Why would it be there? That was the first Wright Brothers flight, wasn't it? What was it? December 3rd, 1903 was the first flight of an airplane, and that was in Kitty Hawk, and I think that's in North Carolina?

Dayton likes to call itself the birthplace of flight, Dayton, Ohio, and Ohio in general. And the Wright Brothers started out there. There were certainly early experiments there. The modern-day copy of the Wright B- Flyer, like the first commercially produced aircraft, lives in an airport just there in Ohio. So they really do like claiming aviation heritage, even if the actual first flight is up for debate. Yeah, because the first flight was... It's the big, famous first flight

where they flew for like 13 seconds or whatever it was, and that was at Kitty Hawk. And so it depends on the definition of where flight was born Was it there or was it all the work that went into the plane beforehand, which I guess was Ohio Ohio the pregnancy of flight The gestation I The gestation. I think it is significant that the person who sent in this question is from North Carolina. However, it's not to do with the answer. Interesting. Okay.

I think you've guessed why a North Carolina sent this in. Does someone in North Carolina complain about that statement? I'm sure they did. What's Ohio going to do about it? I was going to say the state of North Carolina could complain about that, but there's not much they can really do. It has to be some sort of mistake with the plate itself. Okay, so describe the plate again. A plane and a banner reading Ohio birthplace of aviation. Surely this has to be something to do with a typo, a design mistake, something like that.

You are quite right to guess that it was the Wright Flyer, the Wright Brothers plane. Okay. On the license plate. Okay, I have to just drop a travel story in here. I once filmed in the replica of the Wright B-Flyer. There is a working replica, a couple of them actually, there's one in Dayton, Ohio, and they've modernized it to kind of be within modern experimental standards,

but you're still just kind of on the front of it. There's not a cockpit, there's just a couple of seats attached to the front and you're strapped in. There's nothing between you and the world other than your goggles. Like, if you hit a fly at that speed, it's just going in your face. Oh, rancid. It's an experience, but they also had to update it a little to make it work. So the early right flyer did not have ailerons or any way to steer it in the air, other than

flexing the wings. You had to literally slightly collapse one of the wings in order to turn it. So this is like that. Yeah, the whole thing would flex and twist, right? Yeah. This sounds like an insect flying, I have to say. I mean, that's what they were basing it on. Like, what's nature doing?

Well, we can't flap. Let's try this instead. Is it something like the automobile industry was upset that another vehicle was being celebrated on the license plates and they were worried it was going to affect the sale of registration plates? Those darn aircrafts. Take it all out prestige. I feel like it's something surrounding the context of the plane

and the banner and the quote, the placement of it. And it's a design problem. Yeah. Some sort of thing, whereas like this dude from North Carolina or maybe the maybe he brought the question, but maybe not the the original recalling of the plate. But the plate was recalled, so there's some sort of legal reason for the plate to be disqualified from production, I guess. Maybe not legal, maybe it's just really embarrassing.

If you're going to birthplace a flight, and your designer doesn't really know how planes work and has decided to... And your designer doesn't really know how planes work and has decided to... It's not this because the Wright flyer just has a prop at the front, but they put the banner on at the front of the plane and it would have torn through the props and been destroyed or something like that.

Oh, they put the plane backwards! I was gonna say, is it... No! They put the plane backwards! They put the plane backwards. Because the Wright Brothers plane They put the plane backwards. Because the Wright Brothers plane is a weird-looking plane. It has, like, the back at the front, and that's how it flies.

And then later, years later, that's when they figured, oh, that should go in the back of the plane. And the guy didn't know any better how this plane works, so he had it the wrong way. If I may say, that was going to be my guess, that the plane was backwards. I could tell both your faces lit up on the video call at the same time, and Ren happened to get the words out first. Because I was thinking it for a while, but I was like, before I say something else, don't.

Oh no! That's not how this show works. You don't want to get it. That's not funny. You don't want to get it right. No, you're exactly right. I'm so glad you guys were answering this question, not me, because I had no idea what the Wright Brothers plane looked like. So yes, you are quite right, Ren. The banner was on the wrong side of the Wright Flyer. And there is a thing on top of the front of the plane that kind of looks like a tail. And so the illustrator had drawn it, dragging the banner, pushing the banner in front of it. Extremely embarrassing.

It says down here, North Carolina and Ohio have a long running dispute about who can claim to be the birthplace of aviation. The Wright brothers were from Ohio, but the first flight took place in North Carolina. As such, North Carolinians found the error particularly funny. Thank you to Rob Dahl for this question. A company manufactures a type of security safe. In an advert, they stated that the four-digit dial provides 6,561 different password combinations. Why? And one more time, a company manufactures a type of security safe. In an advert, they stated that the four-digit dial provides 6,561 different password combinations.

Why? Does the number just go up to 5,6, 4, 1 on each of the numbers? 6, 5, 6, 1. I'm not a math-talking guy, but that doesn't sound right. That doesn't sound like a number that would come out from you multiplying lots of numbers. I forget how to calculate the number of combinations. Is it factorial? Would that be four factorial now? How many options are on each dial?

That's worth considering. Have a think about what dials you normally get on safes. What are you picturing in your head here? So either, like, one of those padlocks where you rotate the numbers, or one of those where it's like, in American high school lockersers they have them? 46, 39, 46. Yeah, as Ren put it, the pfff versus the click click click click click click. Yeah. But this isn't that because... I mean, you're not wrong. That wasn't meant as an insult. That's a really good descriptor. Okay. So, okay, can you say this again? Describe the safe again. Was it four separate dials?

Yeah, so it is one of those combination locks with four dials on it. So is there a reason... Okay, I'm trying to think. If one goes up to five, one goes up to six. Sorry, was it six five four one or five six four? Six five six one. Six five six one. 6561. 6561. Does that spell something? Is that a funny... was it a joke? Like, is it, oh, this is like a SpongeBob branded safe and in SpongeBob he loves the number 6561. That's a relatively common designer safe. I mean, you wouldn't want to steal from Patrick's star, would you?

We've all got a SpongeBob safe. Well, more than that, it's a normal combination lock. You could find this on a padlock, on anything, it's the thing where you spin the dials. Is it some sort of smart lock that doesn't let you repeat a number twice in the combination and therefore it would rule out all of the possibilities with repeat numbers. And I don't know off the top of my head if that happens to add up to that specific number. It doesn't, unfortunately, because...

Does anything add up to 6651? Yes. Have a think about that. What would you expect? We don't have to do maths for this, do we? I don't think so, no. If it includes zero, it's like zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. That's ten digits on each one, so that would be ten times ten times ten times ten. That's ten thousand. But that's too many. That is too many. But what if it were like ten times nine times eight times seven?

That would still end in a zero. And I was thinking, that would still end in a zero. What if it has fewer numbers? Who said it's in base 10? This can't just be a countdown round. But it's probably the same number, same amount of numbers on each dial. Yes. So it could, the number could be 9999 or 1111.

I'm gonna just reread the question here. In an advert, they stated that the dial has 6561 combinations. Was he holding it upside down? You're right though, Ren. Four dials, ten numbers on each dial, that is 10,000 combinations. Oh my god, I just plugged a number into my calculator. Yep. What did you plug in, Rob? Are we allowed to use calculators? Because I just used one.

I think for this one you can, yeah. Okay, I multiplied four numbers together, I multiplied 9 times 9 times 9 times 9, and got an answer equal to 6,561. Correct, yes. So So that means that. So there's no zero or they forgot they have 10 numbers. That's that's what it is. That's what it is. You're right. They must have just forgotten because unless this dial doesn't have a zero,

which would be weird, they just didn't think about this. This is the plane being backwards again. This is they just didn't think about it. This is the plane being backwards again. They just didn't know any better. Yeah. Either the manufacturer or the copywriter for the advert had just looked at the dials and got, oh, that's one through nine. So did exactly the maths that you just did and failed to notice that actually that's not enough combinations despite the fact it's actually kind of easy to work out in your head. Oh, nice one, Ren. And if you are thinking that's a bit of a technical question,

Rob, who sent this in, found it in the Facebook Dull Men's Club. Oh, yeah. Classic. Classic last— Oh, you should mine that place for national questions, honestly. Dull Men's Club. We try not to mine one place for lateral questions, honestly. Doll Men's Club. We try not to mine one place too much, you know? There's only so many questions you can get for the Doll Men's Club. Tom desperately trying to pretend he's not a doll man. It is surprising, though, that just missing off one digit

actually drops the combinations by more than a third. Like you go from 10,000 to 6,500 just by having nine digits on a dial instead of ten. Yeah, I guess so. But we did not fall for that red herring because, Ren, you correctly typed 9 times 9 times 9 times 9 into a calculator. Hahaha! When you get into an Escape Plug-in Hybrid, you get the perfect mix. You can chill in electric mode, turn it up in gas mode,

or get the best of both in hybrid mode. Choose how you move in the all-in-one Escape. And right now get a $3,000 rebate on the Escape plug-in hybrid and all 2025 Escape models. For details visit your Toronto area Ford store or ford.ca. The next guest question comes from Ines, whenever you're ready. All right, well, this question has been sent in by Adam Tillewitt. Once a year, Tony has to have a shave, put a small yellow sack over his head, and bob up and down while reciting some poetry. Why? Now I'll read that again. Once a year, Tony has to have a shave, put a small yellow sack over his head, and bob up and down while reciting some poetry.

Why? Were you worried about the mathematical questions? Was that a bit much? Because we're going full the other way now. A yellow sack? This sounds like it's more in my wheelhouse. Did you know? I can't remember which king it was. One of the early Henrys, Henry I or Henry II, had an official court farter whose job

was to once... Roland the farter. Roland the farter, whose job was to once a year perform a jump, whistle and a fart. I choose to believe that this guy is... he's got the same job, but instead he has to jump up and down singing the Biscuit song with a yellow bag on his head. Or maybe the modern equivalent is just the Olympic synchronised poetry reading, swimming, bobbing thing. In my head he's bobbing in a swimming pool. The word bob implies to me...

A classic event that we all enjoy every four years. Yeah, they brought it back. It used to be in the ancient Olympics, they brought it back. Yep. Traditional Greek sport. But first he shaved? Yes. Because you said he had a shave.

And is that just like a Britishism? Like, for shaving? I'm going to he had a shave. And is that just like a Britishism? Like for shaving? I'm going to go have a shave. Do you not say that? I didn't realise that was invalid American dialect. You're right, you can actually go have a shave. There's other things you can go to have a, but shave is what we're going with here. Yes.

Okay, so he did that. Are these things like in order? So he had a shave, then he put on a yellow sack, then he bobbed up and down while reciting poetry? Correct. I'm just assuming this is a weird English village tradition. I mean, they used to do that in our pub for Micklemas every year. For a moment, I believed you.

Thanks. I could believe it, but this is something that everyone at Tony's workplace does annually in our present year of 2025 and all years prior. Everyone does. Does it matter what poem it is? I don't think the poem matters, no. Just a poem? It's just the poem being recited. It's one of the weird rituals from Cabin in the Woods,

and it stops the evil coming into the world for another year. That's the British one. I don't know if you've seen Cabin in the Woods, like, horror movie. The Japanese ritual involves, like, schoolgirls chasing away an evil demon, and the American one is a slashing movie. They never said what the British ritual was, but I can absolutely believe it's a man in a yellow cap bobbing up and down reciting poetry while clean-shaven. If you want to replace every part of the answer with a metaphor, that would be correct.

Go ahead. If you want to say something that's wrong in every part... Yeah, no, don't. I know what Yeah, no, I know what I'm wrong. But I would love for that to be the answer. So it's a you said, is it a yellow hat or a yellow sack? It is a sack. Like a bag. Is he dressed up as a character? So, okay, I'll give a couple clues.

First of all, the colour of the sack is not relevant. It just happens to be yellow. Okay. The second clue. The sack has a clear window in it. I don't know of any sacks that have clear windows. Alright. So this has to be to see out of.

Which, in my head head is one of... I've got the Simpsons intro with that thing that Homer Simpson wears to keep the nuclear stuff off him. Yeah, yeah. It's that kind of protective bag thing for your head. But in order to not blow up the nuclear power plant we must appease the radiation gods. Yeah. That is kind of on the right track.

Oh my god. Yeah. That is kind of on the right track. Oh my God. Okay. I mean, every lab, every science lab has a shrine. Like, is this, is this just a weird ritual to appease the science gods? It is not a ritual, but I'm hearing the right sort of words that would compose the answer. If, okay, but like, why would he need to shave? So I was assuming just shaving his face, but maybe he has to get rid of like all body hair or something for the situation where he has to... maybe it's not just a sack over his head, it's a full, it's a whole get-up and

he's going into a clean room. That's why I was thinking synchronised swimming. That's, yeah, that syncs up with being in the water. I understand it as facial hair grooming. Alright. So, what, like, he shaves so that he gets like a tight seal, right? Jenny's on the right track. And is he reciting poetry at a certain rhythm, like how you say, when you're doing CPR, it's

like at the beat of, I forget the name of the song, Staying Alive? Or Another One Bites the Dust, depending on how optimistic you're doing CPR, it's like at the beat of, I forget the name of the song, Stayin' Alive. Or Another One Bites the Dust, depending on how optimistic you feel. So all it says here is he reads the poem and he says it out loud. I wondered lonely as a clown. Is it to help him time something? Like the way you'd, you know you know, when we, you know, like during the height of COVID, we all had to sing Happy Birthday to time how long we

had to wash our hands. Is it like that? Like, you've got to sing two Hail Marys. Not quite, but I would say that Tom and Jenny, like together, you've got a very close to the answer. Alright, an unpleasant liquid is used during this procedure. So that's, the sack is to keep the liquid out of his eyes, I guess. But he has to shave as well. Why would he be shaving? Why would he be saying poetry? Is he breathing in this liquid? But then he wouldn't be able to talk.

Nevermind. Well, except if he's got like a big gasmasky thing on and dunks his head in the ooze, the mystery ooze. Oh, is he testing the seal of the bag? Yes. Oh, okay. So I would say that is what it says in the answer. But how does this work? He said he was bobbing up and down. He must be trying.

So he got it. He shaved his face to get a clean seal. He's got this, it's a sack, yellow sack, or it's a sack of some sort with a window on it. So some sort of headpiece that's supposed to like seal against his skin. And he's testing it by moving around and talking and breathing through it to test the seal, so that he doesn't... Wait, is he reciting poetry because he's a diver or something like that,

and you just need to make sure the communication link's still open? Like, if he stops talking, you have to pull him out really quickly, because there's danger? I would give the answer to Ren. I feel the only thing we need to figure out maybe is how does this unpleasant liquid play a role. What is this liquid? This is...

So that he doesn't, like, smell it or anything like that? Or breathe it in? Exactly. So what every year hospital workers are required to undergo fit testing for respirators, face masks and hoods, a sensitivity solution, which is a liquid with a foul taste is sprayed while the worker wears a mask. They have to do several exercises, such as breathing deeply, moving the head around,

bending at the waist, and another one involves reading out loud, and if they can taste the liquid at any point, the mask is deemed to not fit, and then... Someone I know had to do this. How did they not get this? So, my wife is a nurse, and at the beginning of every year,

she has to do a mask fit test, where they put the mask on her face, and they get it fit, and then they spray this really, really terrible smelling stuff around her, and she has to move through this stuff to make sure she can't smell it. But that's just like a regular N95 type mask, not like a full sack over a head. So that's why I didn't make that connection.

I have a slight relevant story. Oh yeah, we're in wildfire times in LA, aren't we? It is wildfire times, and this is not my house. I've been staying with a friend for a couple weeks. But I remember I went back to my place, I bought one of these. Like a false face respirator? Mm-hmm. This is a full face P100 respirator. And I went back and I had this on. And it took me a while to realize that actually the place was super smoky because it worked so well. And I had fit tested properly. And I realized, you know, before committing to staying there for the night,

I should probably check and it indeed smelled like musty campfire, and I scarf it off again. I know someone who's had to shave for that fit test, and I just did not make the connection. Which brings us to the question that I asked at the very start of the show. Thank you to Nate for sending this in. In what game might you be frustrated if you draw an old McDonald? Any guesses from the panel before I give the audience the answer?

Old McDonald. Um, he is... he did have a farm. He did, yes. Is this like a farm card game and it's either the least valuable card or the one that ends the game as you draw it? It's not a card game. Is it actually called an Old MacDonald or is that a nickname? That's a nickname, that's a nickname.

So it's like a, it's a nickname for like a go to jail card or something? For something like that, yes. Something like that. I'm thinking like Hangman where when you finish drawing the Hangman, the game's over. But that's not Old MacDonald. You don't want to hang Old MacDonald, that's mean. What would be nicknamed an Old MacDonald? A farmer?

An E? Something that's got vowels in it? Something... You're not thinking about the right part of that song. E-I-I-I... Don't make me say it, man. That're not thinking about the right part of that song. E-I... Don't make me say it, man. That's embarrassing.

E-I-E-I-O? Keep going. E-I-E-I-O-A-A-O? These are... OK, these vowels... They are all vowels. Is this a Scrabble game? And you get...

Yes! Oh! Why might you be frustrated? You can't make a word. You really can't make a word. It means that five out of the seven tiles in front of you are vowels. And it is all low value, it is all difficult to play, and Scrabble players have the nickname an Old MacDonald

if you have pulled E-I-E-I-O. Oh my god. And you're frustrated because there really aren't many points in that. There's nothing you can do either! Nope. Thank you very much to all our players. Let's find out where can people find you, what's going on in your lives. We will start with Ines. Well, you can find me over on Jaw Curiosity, over on YouTube and on Twitch.

Jenny. You can find me at JDraper London on YouTube and TikTok, or you can read my book Mavericks coming out on February. Oh, I should have plugged that earlier. I have read that. It's a very good book. Thank you very much. And Ren! You can find me on YouTube at Corridor Crew. We do all kinds of visual effects videos and science communication type stuff. It's fun.

And if you want to know more about this show, you can do that at lateralcast.com, where you can also send in your own ideas for questions. We are at Lateralcast basically everywhere, and there are regular video highlights at youtube.com slash lateralcast.com where you can also send in your own ideas for questions. We are at Lateralcast, basically everywhere, and there are regular video highlights at youtube.com slash lateralcast. Thank you very much to Ren Whiteman. Thank you. Jay Draper. Thank you very much. Inés Laura-Dawson.

It's great to be back. I've been Tom Scott and that's been Lateral.