Lateral with Tom Scott - 139: Unequal cufflinks

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

Rowan Ellis, Dan Peake and Alec Watson face questions about cloud cover, sporting sons and deity displays. 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: Duda, Daniel Peake, Andries D.K., Zach, Arys. 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

Which sportsman has a son called Thunder and a daughter called Olympia Lightning? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is LATTRAL. Hello, and welcome again to another 40 minutes or so of LATTRAL thinking questions based on fascinating facts and amazing stories. Please remember to have your bucket of water, box of candles, and parmesan cheese on standby. To our regular listeners, don't worry, I know that you don't actually need those things, but I really hope that just a moment some new listener was confused.

However, none of our guests today are going to be confused because they are all returning players. First of all, we have professional puzzle editor and writer for the quiz show Only Connect, Dan Peake, welcome back! Hello, thank you for having me again. Did you bring the Parmesan cheese? I brought cheddar. Is that going to be okay? In a sentence that will annoy every cook out there, it's going to be close enough. You can just grate cheddar on everything, it'll be fine.

I like that we're now going into pedantic cookery here. My job is sort of to be surrounded by pedants in terms of quiz questions, and just, I get feedback sometimes, and go, I think you'll find you were slightly incorrect. And I love the feedback that I get. I once asked a question, Hell's Kitchen is a suburb of which city? Yep. The answer being... New York City, as far as I know.

Good. But no, because it's not really a suburb, is it? I meant suburb as a part of the town, and I got an email in saying, I take issue with the word suburb. And do you know what, I actually think they're right. I think they're right. A suburb is more on the outskirts of a town, slightly less dense. Hell's Kitchen is very much in the centre of New York City. It is not a suburb. Now you write for Only Connect, where the biggest prize is a trophy and a lot of kudos. That's obviously a lot more important if there's money on the line for those questions. Oh, absolutely. It's why I try and deal with nothing to do with money.

I try to stay far away from those quizzes. Likewise, we do not guarantee the accuracy of any of these questions. Very best of luck to the pedants out there. Also joining us today, we have, from her own YouTube channel and the Queer Movie Podcast, Rowan Ellis. Hello, thanks for having me back again. Welcome back to the show. How much pedantry do you get in the feedback for your shows and your video essays?

Not as much as I would have thought, to be honest. I feel like a lot of the stuff I talk about is kind of film and TV and movies and interpretation of it. And the author is dead, baby, so I feel like it's a lot less opportunity for pedantry than a quiz question writer would have. Well, very best of luck avoiding the pedants on the show today. We also have on the show someone who honestly must deal with more pedants than any of us, the host of Technology Connections on YouTube, Alec Watson. How are you doing?

Hi, it's great to be here and you are absolutely correct. How many follow ups have you had to do? How many little connection corrections have you had to do? How many little connection corrections have you had to make? Well these days I'm better at just letting that sort of stuff go, but it's great fodder for content. Oh yes, it absolutely is. I've managed to get an entire video out of just things I messed up over the years. It's good stuff, but just a little irritating.

Yeah, yeah, it really is. Thank you very much to all of you for being here. Good luck today, and if you are a new listener, now's the time to light the candle for question one. Jordan is paid to make the numbers one, two, three, and four four times each, the number five twice, and the zero, a total of 18 times. What is his job? I'll say that again.

Jordan is paid to make the numbers one, two, three and four, four times each. The number five, twice. And the number zero, a total of 18 times. What is his job? Is he a terrible Sudoku creator? Ha ha ha ha! Although these days they're very varied, so actually maybe it's a perfectly valid Sudoku, you never know.

I was about to pedant you, ironically, on your Sudoku knowledge there. They're not all one to nine these days, no. Oh, dang, okay. People do get paid for making Sudokus. Someone has to compile those in the first place. That's true. Including, I believe, producer David of this show. He's done quite a bit of Sudoku work in his time.

He knows his numbers from one all the way to nine. It's amazing. Yeah. So, okay, I— Listen, we've all been on this show before. We know how your sick games work, Tom Scott. And what I'm really— And yet I'm getting the blame for that, not David the producer. David's innocent and has never done anything wrong in his life.

So I feel like it's... The way that that question reads, just because of the way that human minds work, we do things in order from beginning to end, so it would be as if someone's writing one3412341234 and then going and then like 18 zeros at the end. But I think that that we need to be thinking more complicated than that in terms of what possible order could someone be writing these in? Is this is this telephone numbers? Is this like there's so many things where those numbers could be in different, in different

orders. Is this prices of stuff? Is this like there's lots of options. And I wanted to break myself out of assuming anything based on this question. The the first thing that came to mind was like someone writing numbers on a scoreboard. Ooh. And... I don't know, I'm pulling on that because now you said 18 zeros, right?

Yeah. You almost seemed guilty the way you said that. I don't know why. There was some kind of... Oh, I feel a little bit guilty for answering with a sports thing here. Well, I mean, yeah, that's just generally my character. But 18 zeros, there's nine innings in baseball, two teams. I know a little bit of maths. What was the list of numbers again? Was it one to four, four times? Yep.

A couple of fives? Yep. And then all zeros? And then 18 zeros, yes. Well. Okay. So one to And then 18 zeros, yes. Well. Okay. So 1 to 4, 4 times, that's 16 numbers.

And a couple of 5s, that's 18 numbers. It is. So are we going to be dealing with 01020304, or are we going to be dealing with 10203040, 4 times and then 50? It's going to be two-digit numbers. Probably the tens, because otherwise why would you bother with the leading zeros? Yep. I don't know where we're going with that, but that's the facts.

Hmm. Yeah. Excellent introduction. Could you read the question one more time, Tom? Jordan is paid to make the numbers one, two, three and four four times each, the number five twice, and the number zero a total of 18 times. What is his job? Did you say paint or make? Make.

Mmm. Make the numbers. So not write them. Make them. Yes. Okay. So he's making it out of a material? Or he's making up those numbers out of something else?

Or he's... up those numbers out of something else, or he's... make... Hmm. What comes in 10, 20, 30, 40, 50? I'm currently thinking road limit sort of signs or things like that, but it doesn't quite work. Why that specific set as well? It's not like, this was his, this was his, his set of roads today. There's going to be a specific reason why it's this set of 18 numbers. Yeah, and the fact that there's nothing 6, 7, 8 and 9 are not mentioned is... Rowan is actually right with paint. It is a type of paint, but we're describing this as make.

It's not like he's just kind of writing these down. Mm-hmm. Okay. They're probably going to be big or... Yes. Yep. Absolutely. And Alec was honestly quite close with scoreboard. Oh! Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I've got it. I thought it was going to be Dan that got this. Knowing what you three know, and what you've talked about in the past,

I thought this was going to be Dan. Bring it home. Well, I'm going to guide Alec, because you're so close. It is sporting. I think the sport, or Rowan might have got it, American football? It is American football, yes. Rowan, what do you think it is? I don't know enough to know exactly, but is it the yard lines? Like the numbers to show where they are? I should have pulled on that, because they don't... 50 is the middle and then they just go back down. Yep, Jordan Ache is the groundskeeper at the LA Chargers Stadium,

and part of his job involves re-spraying the field to mark the yardage numbers. And those numbers are 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 in the centre, and then 40, 30, 20, 10. Those are repeated on each side, so that is 18 numbers. And in total, 1, 2, 3, and 4, 4 times, 5 twice, and the number 0, 18 times. I love that I've tried baseball. How can we describe someone's job in the most awkward way possible? Each of our guests has brought a question along with them. Dan, we're going to start with you. Take it away.

OK, so this question has been written by a Dan Peake. Oh! OK, we have a guest-written question. I have prepared it on a lateral cue card and everything. From the live show! You took one of the cards from the live show! I did. Wonderful. Going the whole hog here. Yep, appreciated.

Right, so good luck. So you're literally against me now. Meteorologists measure cloud cover in octas ranging from zero clear sky to eight fully overcast. So four octas means that half the sky is covered with cloud. However, sometimes a reading of nine octas is recorded. Why? Meteorologists measure cloud cover in octas ranging from zero clear sky to eight fully overcast, so four octas means that half the sky is covered with cloud. However, sometimes a reading of nine octas is recorded. Why? If I remember right, Dan, you studied meteorology.

I did. Yep. Okay. So this has come from that. The most personal question we've ever had that is about nothing in someone's personal life is great. That's true, because I'm no longer a meteorologist. I abandoned it. I studied it for eight years at university, finally got a job in it, and then went, I don't like it. Just had to change.

So okay, so how would a meteorologist measure this? Is there like an instrument that's used? Is it just they look up at the sky and go, it's pretty overcast, that seems pretty overcast to me. So I don't know if it's like at nine, it's so foggy that you can't even see past the fog into the sky to know what the clouds are doing. Well, I was wondering if nine is just fog.

Nine is just so much... I was thinking that nine was like no data. We can't work this out. But that feels like more of a computer science answer. There's better ways of doing it. You'd mark it as like a dash or something like that. So you lot are getting very close to the answer very quickly, which is annoying me greatly.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Why? Would it? Because sometimes clouds layer themselves, so you could have completely obscured vision of clouds above fog. Isn't the tool that is used to measure this, like I feel like I've seen this, it's like there's a, you look at a slice of the sky.

There are modern instruments now that can probably do it for you, but classically it is a meteorologist going up there and having a look. Ah, wonderful. Is it like places where you are above the cloud cover, like mountains or something, if you were to take, so it's like there's something about the type of place where a nine would happen. I feel like that would still be measured, like, in, what was it, octas. Octas, yeah. But you'd just have to put the height...

Like, the cloud base would be defined by a different number. Is this just like a spinal tap, meteorologist? There's just really beautiful clouds up there. You know what, that's a nine. Yeah, we're not judging them on their looks. No, that's not what we're doing with clouds here. So we were close with fog, right? Extremely.

The meteorologist did not bother to go outside because it was really cold. Oh, oh, there have been times when that's happened, I'm sure. Oh, just, just, yeah, it looks like, yeah, put an eight, you know. I'm sure that must have happened. I never filmed this, but a couple of people suggested that I should go and visit the worst weather in the world. Which is, I think, the Mount Washington Observatory, somewhere in the northern US, has the highest wind speeds, the most frequent

blizzards, they're just the worst everything. And the trouble is that if I talk about that, I have to be there in one of those blizzards. And by definition, it's inaccessible. There is just a couple of meteorologists stuck at the top of a mountain. So let's go back to... you were saying... you were really close earlier. I want you to hammer it home really, really close earlier. There's one word that you said that's really important. Is it just like dense fog? Fog is the important word. So why might we record nine octaves? Is it just like they can't see the clouds, so they don't know how overcast it technically is at the cloud level?

If you're in a fog, how do you see the sky? Could not see clouds because clouds. Could not see sky. Could not see sky. Could not see sky. Could not see clouds, because clouds. Could not see sky. Could not see sky! It's not only fog, there are other things that can obscure the sky. Can you think of any? Oh, like a dust cloud or dust storm? Dust, smoke from any wildfires, that sort of thing?

Absolute pitch black night. No! You can measure zero to eight at night. That is not a problem, because actually clouds are quite visible at night. That is not a problem because actually clouds are quite visible at night, depending on the moon and things like that. So actually night time, not a problem. But it's when you can't see the sky, that's when you get the nine. Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments? Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card.

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Wendy's most important deal of the day has a fresh lineup. Pick any two breakfast items for $4. New four-piece French toast sticks, bacon or sausage wrap, biscuit or English muffin sandwiches, small hot coffee, and more. Limited time only at participating Wendy's Taxes Extra. Thank you to Zach for this next question. Romeo and Juliet meet an artist at a craft fair who sells upcycled cufflinks.

When they inquire about the price, the artist says that Romeo's cufflinks will cost $5, whereas Juliet's will cost $25, even though they're made the same way and use the same materials. Why? It's the pink tax. And one more time, Romeo and Juliet meet an artist at a craft fair who sells upcycled cufflinks.

When they inquire about the price, the artist says that Romeo's cufflinks will cost $5, whereas Juliet's will cost $25, even though they're made the same way and use the same materials. Why? Same way, same materials, but there's got to be something functionally different. I mean, the difference is one's for Romeo and one's for Juliet, but it's whether or not it's them, what part of those two figures makes a difference. So is it their name? Is it their gender? Is it their method of murder, suicide? Is it that, you know, does it matter anything about them in the Shakespeare context or is it entirely just like too ratty? Like it could have been like Ben and John or something like that. I think it's interesting that there's it's

upcycled cufflinks. I don't know if there's anything significant because it feels like a random thing to just add in as like a fun like, why not, you know, support local artists. But I wonder what the upcycling is from like Like, what are they making cufflinks from? Or is it like there are cufflinks that already exist and they're upcycling them by putting something like, like stamping something into them or doing something with them that might make a change? Are both Romeo and Juliet getting the same number of cufflinks? They're both getting a pair.

Yes. number of cufflinks? They're both getting a pair, yes. Does Juliet have extremely large wrists and thus has reinforced cufflinks? Because that's the only way you can get them to keep the shirt cuffs closed. I was thinking about if you stamped it and wanted to emboss letters or something into it, but it feels like both of their names are pretty much the same, including surnames, if we're going with the Shakespeare, so it kind of feels like it's not really to do with that. Sometimes it's like pay-by-number of number of letters or number of things done, so not that. You've correctly identified that these are personalised.

It's something to do with the name, yes. Ooh, interesting. We're thinking Romeo and Juliet as a pair. What if it is just two entirely different people? It is just a Romeo and a Juliet, so entirely different, not connected people. Because then you could have a, what was it? Five and twenty-five dollars. It's just five times as many. Is there some obscure tax scheme somewhere that some letters are more expensive than other letters?

It's like Scrabble. All you want to say is that'll be ten. Keep thinking that, Weida. Because you'd think that Zara's cufflinks would be expensive, but that's not the case. They're... Have I accidentally hit it? I think I might have done. Well, you've hit something, yes. The cufflinks are made from genuine Scrabble tiles.

Yeah. You absolutely hit that. Yeah. But why is Romeo cheap and Juliet expensive? And I'll say this, Rowan. Ben and John, same thing. Ben would be five, John would be 25. Oh.

It's not the total of their value in Scrabble. It's not. It's not that. But I will say I want me some of these cufflinks. Yep. And they are monogrammed, so some of these cufflinks. Yep. And they are monogrammed, so it is just that first initial. Oh. Ooh, J and R.

So is it just proportional to the number of tiles in a set of Scrabble? Because yeah, it's like rarity, isn't it? If you want a common letter, then I'll sell that to you really cheaply, but an uncommon letter, you will pay for that, my friend. That is half of it. But Zara's cufflinks would not be expensive. Huh. There is one other connection here that you need to make.

You're right, it is about Scrabble tiles as cufflinks, it is about the rarity of the tiles in part. But there's one other thing. Okay, so would they want the letter to be unobscured by whatever hardware has to be attached to the tile? No, it really is about the names and the letters. Okay. This is just discrimination. Discrimination by first letter of name, it turns out. Not a protected class.

Hmm. You can... If you were cheeky, you could make a Z from an N, could you? Is that rotating 90 degrees, or is that flip the wrong way round? No, the number would be in the wrong place for that. Good point. And also, I think it is flip the wrong way round.

It's not just to do with the rarity of the Scrabble letters. Depending on the country you're in, if you've got a J in a country that has a lot of, like, Juans or something like that, it would probably already be there. Oh, yeah. Johns, Julietts, Jameses. So is this person charging for, like,

every time they have to buy a new Scrabble set? Basically, yes. J is the most difficult letter to do that for, because it begins a lot of common forenames, but there is only one J in a Scrabble set. It's the frequency of the names as well as the tiles. Yep. There are six R's in a Scrabble set. So Romeo, easy, cheap.

Q, X, and Z, yes, there's only one in a Scrabble set, but there aren't that many people whose names start with that letter. J is particularly difficult, because there are a lot of names that start with it and only one in a set. This is actually a personal anecdote from Zach who sent this question in.

He said, I bought some Scrabble tile cufflinks from an Etsy seller once. It was $5 for any tile, but $25 for a J. That's so funny. Rowan, it is over to you for the next question. This question has been sent in by Duda. in by Duda. One November in Brazil, a young woman walks into a room with 30 strangers. Instantly she knows all their names. Why? I'll read it again. One November in Brazil, a young woman walks into a room with 30 strangers. Instantly she knows all their names. Why?

They're wearing name tags. Correct answer, move on. Yeah, here we go, next one. No, they're not. The details. This is all about the details. November, Brazil, Rome. I love these short questions where it's just like, yeah, good luck, there's not much to hang on here. My first thought was 30 days has November.

And this is November and there are 30 people. So maybe this is some kind of weird local tradition for calendar days, they're all lined up or something like that. No, but I'm obsessed with that. I wish, that would have been so smart. No, sadly not. Some equivalent of the advent calendar that we have

where there's like, just for every day in November, where there's an actual person. So you said strangers, right? Yes. Like, this can't be like November is about how long it takes in the school year for a teacher to memorize all their students' names, because they're not strangers. Right.

Exactly. Okay. That got a lot easier for me in university, when Facebook came along. Facebook came along like, a couple of years into my university life and suddenly I was memorizing names so much faster than I used to because every time I went on there little photo little picture. Should have just made note cards or something, but you know. Actually, that's literally what the Facebook was originally meant to be wasn't it? That's literally why US universities used to make Facebooks.

Sorry, I've just realized that may be 15 years too late. Carry on while I just deal with that. Did you say Brazil or was it a city in Brazil? Never been. Want to go. Want to go right now to escape this question. So, interestingly, Alec, you weirdly stumbled not on what you were saying was the correct answer, but kind of the setting of it. Because I can tell you that all of these strangers are in their final year of high school. They are all students.

I don't know when the school year runs in Brazil. I'm going to stab at November is towards the end of it and maybe that they're taking exams and she knows their names because maybe they've got to sit in a particular arrangement or something based on their names so they could take an exam. Yes, keep going. That is your halfway through the answer to this question, Dad. And they're all called Cliff. Is that the other half? They all have the same name. Cliff, Roger, Romeo, Juliet. They're all Juliet. And it's just like a standardized test where they're being given a packet

based on where they sit and so, or something like that. Or people are invited to the test based on their name alphabetically, and this is just a really common name, and we're at that day where there are 30 cliffs. I don't know why we're stuck on cliff, but I like it. This is just a room full of cliffs because there's just 200 cliffs to get through, and today we're in Vigilating Cliffs. Somehow, together, all of you have gotten to the right answer in their own little bits. So yeah, these are students taking a test who have all been sorted by forename. In Brazil

in particular, in November, they take a standardized test when they're applying to college. And test applicants are assigned to classrooms based on their names. So if your name is common, then you might end up in a classroom filled with people with the exact same name as you. And this was the person who submitted this, actually like this is another personal anecdote, said, in my case, I was in a school where two classrooms were filled with girls named Maria Eduardo. For many other common names, Ana Maria Pedro, for example, this happens as well.

That's great. I'm not sure how I'd feel about suddenly being assigned to a room full of Toms. And also, if you needed to attract the attention of one in particular, what were their names again? Cliff. Yeah, Ana, Maria, Pedro, Cliff, all of the classics. Anna, and then everybody looks up. No, no, no, Anna. And then everyone else but one just puts their head down.

Well, I just went on a little creative retreat. And for the first time really ever, I was in a space with someone else called Rowan. And that is a real, I realized Tom and probably Dan as well, what your life is like. And I hate it because I was constantly looking up up and they were simply not talking to me. It's really weird, I've literally never had that happen before. I get to experience both, because my name is so close to Alex, I have to just answer to it. But that's not my name, so I'm in a weird middle ground there. I get around this by just ignoring the people around me.

Good life hack. Thank you to Aris for this question. On the island of Crete, a museum has a display that's labelled Hermes, Aphrodite, Gaia and Aries. Name one of the other labels you'd see on the exhibit and explain why. I'll say that again. On the island of Crete, a museum has a display that is labelled Hermes, Aphrodite, Gaia and A why. I'll say that again. On the island of Crete, a museum has a display that is labelled Hermes, Aphrodite, Gaia and Ares. Name one of the other labels you'd see on that exhibit and explain why. Well I assume it can't be the obvious. What's the obvious, Rowan?

It's, they're Greek gods, right? They're like Aphrodite of love, or Roman, I can't remember which one. And Hermes is the messenger god, I want to say. And the guy is the goddess of earth, and I can't remember the other one you said. Ares. Ares of war. They're Roman, though. I've just realised. Yes, and Dan is nodding,

so I suspect he has indeed worked this one out correctly. Yeah, I think I've got this one, so I'll hang back. Rowan, you are right. These are Greek gods, and you have identified all those four correctly. So I'm wondering if there's some connection between the what they are the gods of, like there's a saying or something,

or there's like song lyrics, or there's something going on with like what they are the other gods of that connect them in some way potentially. Yes, I'm gonna keep my mouth shut because you're doing very well here. I don't really want to throw this out there because it's either... Well, I'll... Would Neptune be correct? Neptune would not be correct because Neptune is a Roman god. Ah, okay.

Poseidon. Are they emojis or something? Is it like a heart for Aphrodite? Or like apps that use the symbols in their logos, or companies with logos or something? The good news is, Rowan, you take the first part of the question here. Poseidon is one of the possible other answers. But I think that Alec has now also worked out why.

Because of the planets. Because of the planets, yes. What is going on here? Is this just what different language— because not every spoken language necessarily uses the same names for the planets. Is that all that it is? So this is like a planetarium? It is a planetarium. This is planet Crete, in Crete, Greece.

Dan, I think you've made the last connection here. So I think these are the Greek gods associated with those planets. Gaia is certainly Earth. Yes. And that doesn't really have a Roman equivalent, I don't think. Right, yep. Earth is not named after a god. So that was the inn for me.

So Rowan, Runners Through the Gods. Hermes is...? The messenger god, I would say. Which translates to? Mercury? Yep, Aphrodite. Is love, which would be Venus, yeah. And then Mars is the...

Is Ares the god of war. Yes. And you correctly got Poseidon, which would be Neptune. Does anyone want to take a guess at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus? Jupiter is... Zeus? Zeus is right, yes. Yes.

Ah, okay. And Poseidon is Neptune. The other two are much more obscure. Saturn would be Cronus, and Uranus would be Uranus. Makes sense. These are the Greek gods for the planets, because this is a planetarium in Greece. Of course. I hadn't made that final connection that it was in Crete. Yes.

When you say that... I should have said there's a south suburb of Chicago called Crete. Is it there? That's why it's so obvious, because I was like, Crete, okay, that's Greece. So then I was like, wait, is that... Then I thought, because I started to gaslight myself that these were the Roman names, because suddenly I was like, oh, is this the thing that's significant that they're Roman but in Crete? And it was like, no, no, it's actually the exact opposite way around. Whether it's a family member, friend or furry companion joining

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Alec, it is your question, take it away. This question has been sent in by AndresDK. One night, thieves broke into the office it is your question. Take it away. Why did they have this reaction? And why weren't they found negligent? One more time. One night thieves broke into the office of Belgo control in Brussels. They stole a heavy secure safe full of legally protected documents. When employees noticed the vault had been pinched, they were happy. Why did they have this reaction? And why weren't they found negligent? happy. Why did they have this reaction and why weren't they found negligent? Is this company like a security company? And this was an experiment using like their competitors security system or something. And the idea was like, yeah, we're going to just

put this safe here and we're going to like set it up and see if people are willing to try and steal from someone who uses our competitors and whether those systems are good enough. And so when it got stolen, they were like, that's exactly what we wanted! We wanted someone to steal it! I am pretty sure that Belgo control, or Belger control, is the Belgian air traffic control systems. I think. And I don't know that.

I just feel like that's the correct vibes for that name. For me, the names feels like a transport company. It definitely feels in the world of transport. Don't know why. Um, I'm not sure the specific thing this company or organization does is that important to the question. All right. But the safe contained legally protected documents. So that's got to be important as well. What was in the safe?

I guess it's like if it's in a safe, we're assuming that this is stuff that was... The logic of the question is right. It's in a safe and the things we know about things that are in safes is that they are precious and we want to keep them safe. Hence the name. Hence the name. And someone's told them that these people are both happy about it that they are precious and we want to keep them safe. Hence the name. Hence the name. And someone's told them that these people are both happy about it and they aren't found negligent, which is the weird stuff because normally it might be like they were devastated and it was a bad thing, but then it was fine because they weren't found negligent because

of some other bit. I feel like every aspect of this question is tearing me in different directions. I thought it might be like a listed building where they can't change it, they can't do anything to it, but it's a massive responsibility for them. And suddenly someone has stolen it. Oh, it's not our problem anymore. We no longer have to deal with this thing. And it's not our fault.

We can't get... Can't get done for it. Can't get done for it. Sorry, am I a school child from the 90s? That's along the right lines as far as why... as far as the reaction. But you're not quite there as to... why specifically they were relieved.

Oh, is it like the documents are to do with, like, employee discipline? Or something like that? Like the records? They were like written records of stuff that the employees were like, and I don't want anyone to find out about this. Get rid of them. The people who are going to be fired next week are... Oh, no one. No one now. It's all gone. Why did you say that in the manner of a reality TV elimination? In no particular order!

Making their way through and staying employed with the company next week? Ah. Should do that on every Friday evening, shouldn't they? Just as you go home for the weekend. Three employees are up for elimination tonight. So, there really wasn't an intrinsic value to these paper documents? Huh. Old historical records, then?

Oh no, you'd be sad if you lost those though, because that's history. I'm going to ask you to think, why wouldn't they have moved these documents somewhere else? Maybe they're difficult to move. Maybe there's a lot of them or something. The gasping wasn't helpful. I'd always seem to gasp and say... Is it that they...

No, this is so stupid. But that sometimes is how you get the correct answer on that. It often is. Is it that they... This safe is... They can't open the safe for some reason. And the thieves are able... Like, they have the tools or the capabilities in their stealing of it or in their going into it to open that, like, safe.

So there is either something else in there that they can now get access to, or, because the actual documents aren't useful to anyone but the company, they can get them back in some way. Like, there's now of access to them. Hear me out, hear me out. How many Fast and Furious movies have you seen? Because there is at least one where there is a bank heist caused by just getting a very powerful car and pulling a safe out of a bank.

Just pull the entire thing out. Did they just move the whole thing and that suddenly gain them access to something? You're really, really close. I think you're going to be infuriated by this question. Always. We already are. Rowan, you said they couldn't get to the things in the safe. So pull on that a little more.

They're responsible for these documents, but they can't get to them. And everybody knows they can't get to them. And everybody knows they can't get to them. That does make the documents extremely safe. It does. Yeah, in a way they were kept safe from everyone. But someone will probably want them. As in someone legitimately wants them, but now can't access them. Maybe they don't.

Maybe the thieves just saw, oh, massive safe, that must have the valuables inside. That— I think you're basically there, but, uh— The thieves think there's valuables inside the safe. There is not. There's just a lot of paperwork that— wait, you said no one had access to it. Correct. But they were legally responsible for protecting it. So did they not know that what they were protecting was nonsense? And they were... And it was like, they were...

The actual valuables were somewhere else, so that there was a sense of, like, they weren't seen as negligent because it didn't matter that this, like, that this had happened. Because actually the valuables were in the toilet system this entire time. Have they lost the combination to the safe? Is that what's gone on here? They've got a safe, they've been protecting documents, but now they've lost the combination for whatever reason. So that's the problem, and then someone nicks the stuff and then… And so they don't care anymore.

They don't have to deal with opening the safe, because the safe has vanished. Correct. The thing about this question is that what's in the safe isn't actually important, but it was filled with… well, it both is and isn't important. The safe was filled with archived documents that were potentially so important that legally they could not be thrown away. However, nobody could remember how to open this vault, so the documents weren't able to be moved somewhere else. And as such, the safe sat in the office as a large, useless metal box.

And so when thieves stole it, thinking it has valuables in there, the employees reported it stolen, and were no longer responsible for them. Amazing. Which means there is just the question I asked at the start of the show. Which sportsman has a son called Thunder and a daughter called Olympia Lightning? Before I give the answer to the audience, anyone want to call it? If there's Thunder and Lightning, is it going to be Bolts? Is it Hussein Bolt? It is indeed Hussein Bolt. He named his kids Thunder and Olympia Lightning.

Thunder also has a twin called Saint Leo, but that's just after Hussein's middle name. Iconic. Congratulations to all three of you for running the gauntlet one more time. Let's find out what's going on in your lives, where can people find you. We will start with Alec. Well, what's going on right now is I'm fussing with a pinball machine because it's not working correctly. But as far as, you know, internet stuff, making videos on YouTube,

channels called Technology Connections, and I'm also hanging out on Blue Sky these days, you can check me out there. Rowan. I mean, what I'm literally doing is working on a video essay about the insanity that is the 2000s makeover shows like Snog, Marry, Avoid and The Biggest Loser. And one from Canada called Bulging Brides, which is truly dystopian.

And that will probably be out by the time this episode goes up. So you can check that out. Other than that, yeah, just do more research into various bits of history and life and culture and things like that for YouTube. And Dan. You can find me online, search for at Quizzy Dan,

you'll find me everywhere. 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. Thank you very much to Dan Peake. Thank you very much. Roman Alice. Thanks. Alec Watson.

Bye. I've been Tom Scott and that's been Lateral.