Lateral with Tom Scott - 150: Here's a xylophone

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

Macy Gilliam, Toby Howell and Neal Freyman face questions about dangerous deliveries, cranky clocks and genius gravestones. 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: Ben Wiles, Alan Wu, Amaury, Brady Joyce, Dylan Bell, Addy, Peter Scandrett. 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

On Roblox, why are there a surprisingly large number of games with sea creatures in the title? The answer to that? At the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Today, on Lateral, we have a triple shot of folks from Morning Brew, who I must add, did not sponsor this podcast. We just invited them on anyway. They take steaming hot news from the world of business, grind it up into small sips, and I had a load of oat milk and caramel syrup to make it digestible, though I'm not a huge fan of coffee myself, if I may. Espresso and opinion. First to spill the beans, we have Macy Gilliam.

Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. I mean, you were, I think the person who wrote in and asked, can we be on lateral? I'm a huge fan of the show, so I'm just literally so happy to be here. It doesn't even matter if I get any questions right. How does it feel now staring down the barrel of a webcam and realizing that this time the answers have to come from you? It is scary.

I hope that I'm good at it. I feel like some episodes, I know all the answers and some episodes. I'm like, I would not get those at all. So we'll see. Well, very best of luck to you. You are joined by two other people from Morning Brew, who are... Toby, you are one half, I think, of the sort of breakfast news podcast of Morning Brew.

So your job is to analyze and distill and pull out just the facts. How are you feeling right now? I'm feeling good because I have my other half of the podcast with me. Neil, we co-host Morning Brew Daily, which is just a 25-minute business news podcast that makes you insufferable in your office because you have all the fun facts from the news cycle. You can just drop by the water cooler. So, very excited for this. Macy turned us on to it. And I am also a little bit nervous staring down the barrel of a webcam. The last person dragged by Macy into the show. It may not be true, but that's the narrative we're going with. Neil Frayman, welcome to the show. Thank you. I'm super excited. I feel much better than those two. I'm ready to go. I'm just going to let them cook because I'm going to know the answers off of that every single time. Oh, you know, you've got to be careful with that. There is a chance you set yourself up as the villain of the show there. I think that's what we're going with.

Well, good luck to all three of you. Let us percolate your thoughts about question one. Thank you to Brady Joyce for this question. The Parks and Recreation Department of Mobily, Missouri. saying, xylophone, you're welcome. Why? I'll say that again. The Parks and Recreation Department of Mowgli, Missouri, put up a sign saying, xylophone, you're welcome. Why? I feel like this has to do with, like, the letter X, and, like, xylophone and the letter X never get any love. I don't know how Mowgli is spelled. There could be a sneaky X somewhere at the end of that. Was it Mowbilly, Missouri or Mowbilly, Alabama? Missouri, would that make a difference?

Well, I don't know, like Mobile Alabama, like Mobile Alabama. Oh, I could have just been mispronouncing an American place now. I don't know. I don't know, yeah. Can we get a spelling of the city, or is that going to give something away? M-O-B-E-R-L-Y, Mobily Missouri. It might be mobily. If this was Britain, it could just be M-L-L-U-L-L-I-I-B-I-L-U. That's a good language, Joe.

Is it a response to something? or someone? Like, what is accompanying the xylophone? It's a physical xylophone itself. Is it someone asking a question of the Parks and Recs Department? Is it like a physical thing that they're putting out there? What are your best ideas? Okay, so there's two parts of zylofo.

Zylophone is either X because it's obviously like the number one X word that you talk about. Or it's just a sound. And so like pre-answering a question by saying it's a xylophone, guys. I'm thinking, like, maybe some sound is emanating from somewhere and they're going, oh, it's a xylophone. Like, before you ask, those noises you're hearing, that's a xylophone. I wonder if it's, you know, those, like, roadside games at night that try to, like, keep you awake by asking you, like, trivia questions like you might see on this podcast. So it's, like, the answer at the end, they're like, it was xylophone, you're welcome. I feel like you just got it, Macy.

Well, I don't know. I'm trying to read Tom's space here, too. I'm trying to read what Thomas doing. You know, like the answer. alphabet game on road trips where you have to get. And so you're like, here's a sign for X and X's X is Xilophone. You are absolutely right. For those who don't know the alphabet game, Toby, what is it? It's just when you're on a long road trip, you try to find words that start with every letter of the alphabet A through Z. And obviously X is the hardest one. So thank you, Parks and Rec Department

in Missouri. Good job. Toby. Yes, the full sign says playing the alphabet came, xylophone. You're welcome. mobility parks and recreation. That feels cheap, though. I wouldn't let my siblings get away with that in the alphabet game. In America, honestly, a big billboard, you know, advertiser in middle America are like some X-rated turnoff shops or something like that. So usually that's the only way to get is if you see like a triple X, like on the next right turn. And that's an awkward thing if you're a family playing this with kids.

Right. That you go, hey, look at that billboard. Yeah, triple X. Or you're driving on the road to Vegas from L.A. And you're passing Zizik's Road. Like, there aren't that many just... That's a deep cut. Oh, sorry, I'm dealing with three East Coasters here, aren't I?

Yeah. Okay, I'm like, I'm Middle America. I'm East Coast now. Isn't the number one thing you see on the road, the word exit? No, it's the first letter, you know? Oh, but it has to start. Oh, okay, sorry. I play a different version.

I play the beginner version. Yes, this is a sign for people playing the alphabet game with road signs. Each of our guests has broad a question along with them. We will start today with Toby. All right. First question. This question has been sent in by Ben Wiles. When U.S. President James A. Garfield was shot in 1881.

Doctors struggled to find the bullet so that it could be removed. Alexander Graham Bell brought in a prototype metal detector. The device was working perfectly, but the bullet wasn't found until after Garfield's death. Why? I know that was a long one, so I'll do it one more time. When U.S. President James A. Garfield was shot in 1881, doctors struggled to find the bullet so that it could be removed. Alexander Graham Bell brought in a prototype metal detector.

The device was working perfectly, but the bullet wasn't found until after Garfield's death. Why? Does it have to do with, like, the magnetism in his blood that was obscuring the metal of the bullet? Is that a thing? Totally made, I'm no doctor. Sorry, sorry, not to show you down. No, but like, magnetism in blood, to be fair, is that pseudoscience stuff you found being sold

with like the bracelets in shopping mouths? By magnetism in blood, I meant like electrical pulses that may have, I mean, something has to have been different from when he was alive or dead. I'm going to take the obvious Route 1 solution here and just say the bullet wasn't in him. like there was just an exit wound and no one has spotted

and after he died someone went oh there's the bullet it's actually on the floor over there the bullet is was still inside okay okay okay I wonder if there was like a previous surgery or something he had

where he had like a metal plate or something and the bullet was like behind that or is it because it's like an early metal detector it just wasn't working well I said it was working I wonder how good surgery was back in the 1880s

if they could insert a plate into you. I feel like inserting a plate is, like, I feel like 1880 surgery would have been quite good at removing stuff. I'm probably not all that good at putting stuff in. There was no other metal inside Garfield's body, so he didn't, you know, have a broken collarbone and a plate on that or anything like that. Okay.

I didn't know Alexander Graham Bell had a metal detector prototype. It makes sense given what he was working with, but... Yeah, apparently it was good. too it worked this thing functioned did the metal detector find the bullet after or are those two things separate uh the metal detector did not find the bullet was it a silver bullet would silver not set off a metal detector or something if the bullet was made out of something was garfield a werewolf garfield was not a werewolf to my knowledge i mean you never know and macy a silver bullet would set off a metal detector but the bullet itself was laid

So it was not a, like a wooden bullet or something like that. So a metal detector works by, you move a coil of wire with, yeah, you move a coil of wire past metal, that induces an electric current, that current gets amplified, it sets off a dial or screams in your ears or something like that. So how would that not go off if you're waving it over the guy who's got a bullet in it? The hint I will give is it did, it did go off. Okay. The metal detector maybe showed it was in his leg and then they looked around in his leg and they didn't see it. Like is that? His leg was no longer attached. Sorry, I've got all the gruesome answers today. You want to put stuff in, Garfield. You want to cut his legs off. Yeah. From the wording of the question, it wasn't that they didn't find it. It wasn't that they couldn't access it. It was that they just didn't even locate it until after he was dead.

So the timeline of his death wasn't that they were looking at. looking for the bullet and he bled out right there on the spot it was they were looking for the bullet but he ended up dying weeks or months later so it wasn't like a cause and effect sort of situation um so it would have been autopsy or i guess we want to be really gruesome cremation when they found the bullet yeah they did they did eventually find it after he had passed yeah but you said that the metal detector did go off yes so what's it detecting this is narly something else in the room was causing part of the issue, was causing an issue. So it's not, it's not detecting the bullet, but something else is setting it off. I'm not that well-versed in my metal detector

uses. The Oval Office desk. If he's president, is there extra security around him or or extra procedures that are setting off a metal detector? Maybe just think about where a procedure would take place. In a hospital bed. Is he on a metal bed? He's on a bed with metal springs in it. And so whenever they were trying to find out where the bullet was, they kept getting because the entire bed was setting off the metal detector.

And it is 1881 and no one has quite figured out how to calibrate that or that perhaps you might want to move him to a different place. that felt like a logical you're like wait we're getting a lot of detection here either he was shot a bunch of times or maybe she's riddled with bullets yeah and they were actually looking on the wrong side of his chest too the bullet was found on the left side of his chest the opposite side to where the doctor had been looking so that was part of the issue as well wow if you wanted to know what happened to the would-be assassin too sentenced to death by hanging the following year tom i know you've been trying to get morbid so there's your there's your morbid tidbit Thank you to Dylan Bell for this next question. Philip delivers a large, dangerous load to a station. Once this has been completed, his vehicle is now even more dangerous than when it had a full load. How? I'll say that again.

Philip delivers a large, dangerous load to a station. Once this has been completed, his vehicle is now even more dangerous than when it had a full load. How? First question is, what kind of vehicle could it be? Train, plane, automobile. Station also, like, that language feels very precise. You think of train station, but then I thought Space Station, too. Like, why is station being used?

Yeah, but are there astronauts named Dylan? That name feels too young. Wow. It's a crazy angle to go, but I feel like the name Dylan rules you out from being old enough to be an astronaut yet. To be clear, the question writer was Dylan Bell. The name in the question is Philip.

Okay. But I am now going to ask David the producer to check if there have been any astronauts called Dylan because I feel like we need to just pull that back slightly. Yeah. Poor Dylan. Was it someone delivering prisoners, you know, criminals? I guess that's where my first thought went,

but I don't know why an empty bus going back to the prison would be... Maybe because prisoners could escape in the bus. They could be hiding in the bus. My mind went to like delivering something volatile and then... But sometimes those like empty trucks can be like dangerous, if it's like a truck, can be like more dangerous to drive because the weight is distributed weird or something. What if it's like a mom delivering a bunch of angry teenagers somewhere and she's just so mad

because they were so annoying in the car driving back that she's developed road rage. So was it the vehicle itself is more dangerous, not like the payload is not more dangerous after it's been delivered. It's like the actual, I forget, was the word vehicle? I think it would apply to both.

Oh, so both are more dangerous once it's outside containment in a way. Macy, you were starting to think along the right lines there. Okay. What were you saying, Macy? she hates dylan yeah that's what i was that was my main point i think um no dylan's great my point was i was thinking of something that you would deliver that would be volatile and then like if it was like a semi-truck sometimes those can be like more dangerous to drive empty if like the wind hits it

and it doesn't have enough weight or something i don't know i'm also now thinking maybe we're taking the word vehicle to literally and like uh it could be like a microscopic like cell robotic something can be like a vehicle for something else. It could be like nuclear stuff that's really small. I think you're getting further away there. You were getting quite close. He's like, you're on the right track and then you're like, we're going microscopic. You're right that it is kind of a specialist vehicle.

You haven't identified the station correctly yet, though. Okay. Well, there's like naval stations. That's kind of a weird way of saying it. Train stations, bus stations. Station is kind of a military word, though, right? Is there military involved in any way, or is that further away? I mean, this would also apply in the military, but not in this case.

There is a very obvious type of station that you're missing, but if you get it, the entire question basically unveils itself. So I'm not going to give you that right now. A subway station? I guess did we say that one? I wonder if we're to America-pilled. I feel like you guys have better stuff than us. Oh, you're really not.

You are really not. This is a... Gas station. There we go. Gas station. Oh, is it like an oil truck? What are those called? Oh, wait, I know what happens, I think.

When you deliver gas to a gas station, the remaining fumes that are left inside, like, the fuel tanker are more dangerous than, like, the stable petrol. Yes. There you go, Tom. Yes. It's self. You are absolutely right. Even more than that, at gas station. the gasoline is stored in an underground tank, usually.

As it empties, it fills up with vapor. Some tankers will deliver fuel and take away the vapor. Because that can be... I mean, the word is not concentrated, but it can be refined back down into gasoline. So it's useful. But you are right, Toby. A truck filled with gasoline vapor

will go up a lot easier than a truck filled with gasoline. That makes me... The biggest fear driving on the... Again, we're back to road trips, but like when you try to pass a semi or a semi, like, corners you on the side. And if it's like a gas truck, now I'm going to be even more afraid because I know it could be filled with, you know, flammable vapor. But half the time, it's probably filled with gasoline, so you're fine. There you're going. The glass half full, glass half empty approach.

Tanker half full. Take her half empty. Now, I also have an update on Dylan astronauts. There has been one astronaut called Dylan. His name is Dylan Taylor. He is a commercial astronaut. He paid to go up on New Shepard. I assume he paid, but he went up on one of the New Shepard flights.

So there has technically been someone on a suborbital space flight called Dillon. Okay. This is your chance to apologize, Macy, if you want, to all Dillans. I know. I'm sorry to all Dillans out there. I'm sorry that I ever doubted you Dillans. I think that you all will save the world. Morning Brew's Daily Newsletter breaks down the biggest news in business for millions of people every day.

And now we're moving from your inbox to your headphones. Each day we'll cover everything from the latest Apple event to why nobody can afford a house right now. And some people are saying it's the best part of their morning. Because we know something you don't. Business news doesn't have to be boring. So check out Morning Brew Daily wherever you get your podcasts. And on YouTube. Macy, it is over to you for your question.

All right. this question has been sent in by Alan Wu. Poppy was preparing to fly on holiday aboard an Airbus A321. She noticed a large yellow lever with the letters RME on the handle. Some minutes later, she realized what this meant. What was it?

One more time. Poppy was preparing to fly on holiday aboard an Airbus A321. She noticed a large yellow lever with the letters RME on the handle. Some minutes later, she realized what this meant. What was? Was it?

Neil's my airplane guy. He's pretty good with airplane, so I'm going to let Neil take the lead here. And it's not a Boeing, so we can't make the obvious jokes right now. No jokes. I don't know. It's a, I mean, I think the key is figuring out what RME stands for. Is there anything special about the A321 if you know your planes, Neil? It's literally like a single aisle jet like a Boeing 737, just kind of like a workhorse,

regular plane that would fly like a domestic route. maybe, yeah, not so many international flights. It can go like six hours or something, but it's just kind of one of those workhorses. Does that get us any closer? Totally. It doesn't get, it's, no, that's not getting you moved through, sorry. It's just me, yeah.

There you know something about an A321. Levers on planes tend to like open things, open doors, right? And so like they wrench it close, an R-M-E, really mean... Remove me for... No. So I've seen those remove before flight tags

that weirdly, aviation enthusiasts seem to put on their bags or on their bag to all things like... Like, I've seen removed before flight tags uses accessories, and that seems like a stupid thing to put on the bag that you want to fly with you. Yeah, remove.

Wait, it was on a... Is this... The lever was on a... a door, right? The lever is on a door. Toby, Toby, you were on the right track. Yellow lever door. I also, like, would it signify she's on the wrong flight, too? Like, would she look at this and go, like, oh, no, I'm on like a Royal Marine RME flight? I wish there was like something that she did after besides that she realized what it meant. Was it like, she realized what it meant. So she deplaneed or she walked away as fast as possible. If she's flying off on holidays, like a

321 is not a military jet. There's not going to be the back opening and a parachute squadron leaping out. Something to do with the bathroom? No, not the bathroom. Is it something to do with the... Yeah, door. It is, yes.

So this lever is on the door. And is it, does it stand for something, R-M-E? It's got to, sure. Are we trying to find the abbreviation? Interestingly, R-M-E is not an acronym, but wordplay is involved. It's to do with the army. No.

Army? Wait. There we go. Not the Army, but... Hang on. One thing I have heard on flights, like one of the things the cabin crew have to do before departing is arm the slides. I'm wondering if RME, if that's the pun or something like that? You are very, very, very close with that. That's very much the right track.

Flight attendants disarmed door for crosscheck. That's what I was here. Yeah, that's what you hear on landing, isn't? it. Wait, but arm. If it's not an acronym and it is wordplay, army, arm, arm, arm. And now some people pronouncing words over and over again. Arm, arm, arm.

But would you say the word army when you're talking about arming a door? No. So what words would go more with that? With arming a door? Yeah. Locked. It's locked. Don't come in.

Wait, is it just from the point of view of the door? Is it just saying, arm me? No, I like that a lot. Oh, I wish that was it. That would be so fun. The door is a personality. No, that's not it. She's close to take off at this point.

Like, this is, she's leaving on holiday. It's a few minutes later that she realizes what it's for. Maybe she realizes what it's for because it's being used at that point. I know the K-pop band BTS their fans are called Army That seems further away So that's not, yeah

That's way far away Army Oh Are we like trying to pronounce this In a funny way Like should we go like Are me I mean that just sounds like a pirate

Having a breakdown Army I am having some sort of breakdown it's not yeah no it's not there let me see let me give you another clue you guys are really close though but um there are some other letters on the door as well um and the lever can be moved the lever with this r m e on it can be moved there's other letters on the door or or levers on the door letters on the door letters are m e how many doors are there on a plane Cockpit. Cockpit, the cabin doors.

And the bathroom. Yeah. Oh, is it, did they like label the wrong door, the wrong thing? Like, is it a mislabeled situation? Well, it's on a lever too. That the letters RME are on the lever. And then there are more letters on the door that are not on the lever. Oh, hold on.

Are these letters being lined up? Yes. So when you move the, lever. I'm going to call it a lever. I'm British. When you move the thing, R, M, and E are being lined up with some other letters to show something. Correct. You are right there. Okay. It completes a word. It completes a word. Yes. They're lowered into place and it completes this word. And you guys were right. It's arm and me. It's like, no, it's just armed. It's just armed. It's just the word armed.

There's an A and a D, and you know the door is armed because you've moved the letters into place to say it. Oh! You guys were so close for so long. I was like, surely they're right there. Tom got the breakthrough. Tom nailed that. Surely, surely a better way to do that would be to have like dis on the lever, the lever,

and then move that out. Anyway, yeah, okay, fine. Yeah, because I'm looking at the picture of it, and the word disarmed is just like a, a butt. above it that signaled a completely different way. It looks like there's like a color change. So that seems like a crazy way to signal them. I got way down the pirate route of R&E, which is just not how you talk.

Unless you sail the high seas. Our next question has been sent in by Addie. On 18th of May, 1980, it reached 66 degrees Fahrenheit in the state of Washington. Why did the road maintenance crew have to put the snow plow attachment on their trucks? On 18th May, 1980, it reached 66 degrees Fahrenheit in the state of Washington. Why did the road maintenance crew have to put the snowplow attachment on their trucks? So it's not a snowplow, it's the snowplow attachment. Well, I think it's not a snowplow in that it's not being used for snow.

But it's the snowplow. Because they're regular trucks, you just put that on the front. I have a relatively good idea about it. And I don't know if this is, well, I don't know. I'm just going to start saying what I'm thinking, because I might be off. But I think 66 degrees, first of all, thank you for making it Fahrenheit, not Celsius for us. It's an American question. You know, it's a light spring day, let's say.

It feels like that is like warm enough that it would cause some sort of like bloom to happen prematurely or some sort of cicada or bug to be, you know, come out earlier than expected. and it just covers the roads to such an extent that you have to like snowplow, either like the dead bugs or the dead flowers or whatever it caused to happen prematurely off the roads. What month did you say it was? May. May. So then I don't think that May would be super unseasonable. My mind went to when kids will do that prank where they put like dish soap in a fountain

and then it's like foam everywhere. that you would have to like clear that out somewhere on the internet there was footage of someone doing that to a log flume ride at the theme park yeah sorry it's not awesome we shouldn't destroy logs and rides that's not my my initial thought was they are not even using the snowplow they have to for some reason get it off the floor of their shop and make it like elevate it somehow to get it off the to get it off the floor of the shop because the metal could not be against the hotter pavement. I don't know.

That's my... That's wrong. That's very lateral thinking right there. What podcast are we on? It feels like the wrong track. It feels like the wrong track, but yeah. Toby, I think of everyone here, your closest, you're right it was something like that,

but Bloom is definitely not the right word for this. Is it, what's the opposite of Bloom? Death. Like a lot of things. died. Animals. So cicadas feels, yeah, bugs or animals, maybe like, oh, there are some parts of this country where there are, like, lizard or salamanders that all, like, come out at once. You are right that the geography matters. This is Washington, 18th of May 1980. Oh, well, why is the temperature, though? I know, like, in Washington, salmon, like, cross

roads sometimes when they're swimming upstream. Was it was it the explosion of the volcano? Oh, my God. Yes, it was, Neil. Mount St. Helens. Absolutely right. And that's why I mentioned the date a couple times. And also I've said that bloom, while technically correct, was not really the word I was looking for.

A plume would be a better word. A plume of ass. Neil, talk me through your thinking. You said the state mattered, and there's clearly debris on the ground from something, and I just remember there was a volcano there. So that's where, that's where I went. But I give 80% of the share to Toby on this one. Yes, when Mount St. Helens erupted up to five inches of ash was deposited in the area. A thousand miles of state highways were closed. 5,000 motorists were stranded. And so the Washington State Department of Transportation used their snowplow equipment to clear the roads. They just wanted to get it off the ground of that

shop. It's way too hot on that ground. Get it off. All right. I redeem myself by the end. But that was, yeah, that was way too lateral and not enough depth. That's all right. Let's just say that. Neil, over to you. Okay, cool.

This was sent in by Amari. Ali is lying on a bed, patiently waiting for his turn. He notices that the clock on the wall behaves in an unexpected way. The second hand counts in 12 bursts of. five seconds instead of 60 ticks every minute. Where are you and why does the clock behave like this? Ali is lying on a bed patiently waiting for his turn. He notices that the clock on the wall behaves in an unexpected way.

The second hand counts in 12 bursts of five seconds instead of 60 ticks every minute. Where is he and why does the clock behave like that? Laying on a bed feels hospital. Does the bed have metal springs? Is Alexander Graham Bell there with a metal detector? It's a party. Here is how poisoned my brain has become with hosting so many episodes of Lateral.

You said waiting for his turn and one of the little notes I wrote down was Sea Bird? Like, no, it's not T-E-R-N, Tom. He's not waiting for a sea bird to arrive. He's just waiting for his turn at something. T-U and then you pull the lever down. Yeah, the R-N-N coming in. Yeah.

The bed is throwing me for a... loop because my first thought was like in athletics like swimming or something you look at the clock and like you go and do like your set um well that could be it there could be a bed in that sense maybe it's like a like a physical therapy area and then he's up again yeah who is who is super precise with time but in a way that's like it's probably it matters the time that you start something not the time that you finish since the finishing time won't be as precise but you could start exactly on the five second mark the clock is precise i see what you're saying now may see just not down to the second over over the course of a minute it is precise it's just yeah yeah yeah

it's still right yes so it's someone who's precise with time but not like super precise with time yeah because it's five second intervals five well counting that five 10 right like no one logs like time of birth or anything like that to the second. Why fives? Base 10, is it something to do with bases? That seems too. It's in base 12. That was the one math subject I never quite got is how you count like base 8 or base something. And luckily for you, it doesn't have anything to do with this question. Thank goodness. Oh, there's a whole proposal for like duodecimal time and counting. It makes a lot of sense. It just doesn't work quite as well with your 10. fingers? To me, I immediately went hospital or military, but I might be confining myself there.

One of the advantages of duodecimal, of counting in blocks of 12, which is what this is, right, is that you can divide it by two or three or four or six. Like, you can split it a lot easier. The maths is so much more simple. It just doesn't work in fives. So are they tracking something that happens over a course of time that needs to be divided that way? They are tracking something that is usually multiplied by two. That's something, yeah, it's typically multiplied to get a broader picture of something. What's interesting is this type of, try to figure out what this type of thing that are trying to measure, why it might interfere with seconds.

It feels like could it be like your heart rate that maybe they, like, hold your pulse for like 30 seconds and then they multiply it by two to get it per minute. Okay. Neil is nodding. That doesn't work in audio, but Neil is nodding. I am nodding. Okay. I'm asking you to flesh out the answer here.

Okay. When you're taking someone's pulse, you want to take it for a certain number of seconds and then multiply it so you get beats per minute. But why would a clock go in five second blocks instead of just seconds? If you figure out the pulses in five seconds, you can just multiply it by 12 and you get like your pulse rate per minute, like beats per minute. Toby, what's your resting heart rate? 44. Right now, 90. You're just giving him a chance to show that off right now.

Wow. Okay. 90. It's a big topic of conversation. It is a big topic of conversation. So is it heart rate? Like, are we on the right? It is heart rate.

Okay. But then I guess we need to answer the question. which was, where are you? Yes, where are it? Where is he? And it's more specific than like the hospital. Is it like a blood donation center? It's a hospital.

Okay. He's in the bed waiting his turn and, uh, waiting his turn, uh, URN. And so, so let's just figure out why the clock is behaving like, like in five second increments. Because it's easier if you're taking a pulse to not have to track exactly 30 seconds. Well, was it, you told me you said, like, you take your pulse in 30 seconds and double it, right? That's one way, but if you did it in five seconds, you could just multiply it by 12. Right. If it beats twice, yeah.

But if you are taking 30 seconds, it's so much easier to just look up, wait up to five seconds for the clock to tick, and then just wait until it does a big tick exactly opposite. Like, this is just a triage room or something like that. They're just taking a load of pulse. rates and that's easier for the for the doctors so you're you're 80% of the way there but we're still not quite exactly answering the question of why does the clock behave this way well maybe it is like most people's heart rates are in the well I don't actually know they're not 44 if you're in hospital waiting for like if there's something wrong is it's going to be going higher than that

as speaking as a normal heart rate haver which I think my average resting is like 75. I think that it's just like too difficult to count. It's like a lot of margin for error if you're just like trying to count to 75 and keep track rather than counting by a different increment and then multiplying up to get 60 seconds. And it probably means you don't have to keep two numbers in your head at the same time. That can be true, yeah. So you're super close.

I think we can get to the. exact precise answer given here, which is that a resting heart rate is typically between 60 to 100 beats per minute. And if it's 60, that lines up almost perfectly with the seconds in a clock. And oftentimes it's hard to measure both when you're hearing the ticking of a clock for a single second. And that lines up maybe somewhat irregularly, like just a little offbeat with someone's pulse or their heart beating. And that's why some hospitals have these irregular clocks that, you know, count that only move the hand of the clock every five seconds. It is.

Sometimes I get bored on runs and I try to manually count my heart rate and it's hard. Like, you're running. I'm trying to count. I'm also trying to like look at my watch. So that would make it easier. I don't know if anyone else in the world tries to self-feverager their own pulse. That's insane. While you're running, while I'm running, I'm just thinking about when I can stop running.

And I'm listening to Lateral with Tom Scott. And you should too. We do have time for a shiny bonus question. Thank you to Peter Scandret for sending this one in. Which two-letter word appears under Jack Lemmon's name on his headstone? I'll say that again. Which two-letter word appears under Jack Lemmon's name on his headstone? Jack Lemon.

I am worried that I'm asking this to three people younger than I am, and Jack Lemon is perhaps an old reference for me. Neil, do you know who Jack Lemon is? I don't know who Jack Lemon is. All right. Well, I can give you the first clue, which is that Jack Lemon is a very famous actor. Ooh.

Well, his last name is Lemon. Good deduction. So I'm wondering if it's like a funny joke, like J.L. It is a joke, yes. Okay. Oh, so if life, it's like if life gives you lemons. But it's a two-letter word, though. Well, it'll be hard.

It's hard if it's a reference to one of his specific movies or something, if it was like a joke from something he's famous for, that we don't really know. That doesn't feel laterally, though. Like, we can get there without knowing who Jack Laman is. Well, you need to know he's an actor for this. Okay. So we have that. I'm going through Scrabble Dictionary right now, all the two-letter words.

It's a real word. It's not. It's a real word. I wouldn't even call this like a Scrabble obscure word. You know this word. What are things associated with actors? I mean, I'm thinking Oscars, the Hollywood sign, uh... Well, or he could be like a theater actor.

Mm-hmm. He was in Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe, among many other films. So that's the kind of era we're talking about here. Jack? So then I'm a fan. You said the word, just now. Something like that, yeah. Jack Lemon is?

Jack Lemon. What did I say? Jack Lemon. He is no. Jack Lemon, no. It's, remember, it's on his gravestone. So, like, picture what you're seeing here. Does it play off his name in any way?

Nope, it plays off the situation, though. In which he is not alive, that's the situation. What I love is how many times you are just literally saying the... In! There we go. In! In! Yes. Jack Lemon, in the grave you see below.

Oh, that's fun because he's in... That is... Yes, it is a title screen from a movie, like from old Hollywood, where you would just see Jack Lemon in... Got it, got it, got it. And then underneath is the grave of Jack Lemon. That's very clever. How many times, that must be a louder record for most amount of times,

saying the answer without having any idea what we were saying. Which brings me to the question from the very start of the show. Thank you to Anonymous for sending this in. On Roblox, why are there a surprisingly large number of games with sea creatures in the title? Anyone want to take a quick shot at that before I tell the audience? The only thing I know about Rooblox is it's box and cubes, and C creatures are the letter C creature after it, not C creatures, because they're made out of cubes. Good lateral thinking. In this case, it's things like shrimp or fish or shark.

Because there is a Finding Nemo sponsorship. It goes right to capitalism. Who's making the games on Roblox? Children. Children are making games. Yeah. And they love, they got really into Finding Nemo. They got really into something.

They got really into the ocean. A couple years ago, there was a media property that really wasn't aimed at them. Baby Shark? Oh, Shark Nato. No. Wait, Baby Shark was a good guess, though. It was a great guess, but I think that's too young. No, this was something that really they shouldn't have been watching.

What was an adult thing about the ocean? Uh, Titanic? Uh, jaws. A movie or show that came out that has a lot of sea creatures in it? No, no, just one particular sea creature is missing from this list. There's a lot of shrimps, a lot of fishes, a lot of sharks. The Lochness Monster. Kids didn't get obsessed with that, though.

An octopus? My octopus teacher. My octopus teacher? Um, or a SpongeBob. Macy, you are closer. It's not the right property. but it's pretty close to them. Squid games? Keep going, yes.

Okay. So why are there a surprising large number of games with other sea creatures in the title? Because it's like squid games, it's like lobster games, it's like, do they just do puns on squid games

with different animals? What are the kids trying to do? Get around copyright of squid games. That's it, Macy. They're trying to avoid copyright and trademark. The developers, the children here,

are trying to copy squid game but don't want to get in legal trouble And so there are many games on Roblox that are shrimp game, fish game, shark game, among many others. Congratulations on getting through your first lateral episode. Where can people find you? What are you putting out? We will start with Neil. Yeah, so Toby and I host a podcast every single weekday morning called Morning Brew Daily,

which you can find on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube, or anywhere else you get your podcast. If you want to hear that sharp problem-solving duo, you can find. can every morning. It comes out around 7 a.m. Eastern standard time. Toby, tell me about the newsletter. Oh, the newsletter is great. It's kind of like a companion to the podcast. It comes out every single morning in your inbox at 5am. Biggest business news stories you need to know with some fun trivia at the end as well. And that's edited by Neil. And Macy, tell me about the YouTube stuff. I make YouTube videos at Morning Brew where I try different jobs to talk about the industry around those jobs. Most recently, I became a plumber. Right now, I am

learning magic for a magic show I have in a few days. And it's, it's high stakes. So it's really fun stuff. 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. The episodes are in video every week on Spotify, and we are at Lateralcast basically everywhere. Thank you very much to Macy Gilliam. Thank you. Toby Howell. Thank you. We nailed it. And Neil Frayman. Thank you. My brain hurts. And I've been Tom Scott, and that's been Lateral. Thank you.