Lateral with Tom Scott - 178: The woodland mirror

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

Charlotte Yeung, Annie Rauwerda and Alexis Dahl face questions about serial sequences, picture purchases and washed-out words. 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: Kristen Asplin, Tim Kelby, Emily, Sammy, Nick Tozer, William Jefferies, Bob Weisz. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In what way is 100 the first and 38 the last? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Lateral is the podcast that fits perfectly into your daily routine, whether you're commuting, cooking, or in the case of one of our long-term listeners, working out. She told us she times her exercise sessions to the exact length of the show. So today, in her honour, we've prepared a two-hour special.

Good luck out there, Katie. Your quads won't thank you, but our listening, stats will. Meanwhile, our guests today are under no such physical pressure. They are, firstly, from ITV's The Genius Game, PhD student and current Miss London, Charlotte Young, welcome back to the show. Hello, thank you very much for having me again. I say current Miss London, how long does that last for? It's a one-year rain, and I'm still hoping to keep my crown. What kind of things do you get to do as Miss London? Oh, I have done a couple of photoshoots with some celebrity photographers. Um, I've gone and done some pictures for a dental clinic as well.

Um, uh, we're also hoping to do some, um, intercity crowned queens kind of things, uh, with Birmingham, Manchester, all of those things. So, yeah, uh, it's been, it's been fun. It's pretty good. How do you balance that and a PhD? That feels like too much going on for one person there. Yes, I've actually recently passed my upgrade, so that's been a huge sigh of relief from my side. I don't know what that is. When you start your PhD, you're technically on an M-fill course, and then one to one and a half years in, you have to do some sort of a viver, whereas you defending what you've done against two professors, and they basically either say you failed badly enough that you won't even get an M-FIL, you failed, but you're good enough for an M-FIL, or you can upgrade into your PhD. So I have recently upgraded into my PhD. Congratulations.

Thank you. Yay. Well, thank you for taking the time to come and play lateral again. It is wonderfully you're able to carve something out of the schedule. You are joined today by two other returning players. Alexis Dahl from Michigan and your channel about the history and the science up there. Welcome back to the show. Thanks. Joy to be here.

This is your second episode. How did the first one go for you? It was precisely as confusing as I was expecting. it to be, and just as much of a good time. We talked last time about the things you're working on, and then about a ski jump that randomly I have also visited in the UP. Yeah. You handle both bits of Michigan.

It is this slightly disconnected state. Like, does the UP feel like it's part of Michigan? Like, this is the upper peninsula, the other bit. Yeah. In some ways it does, and in other ways it feels more culturally similar to Wisconsin. The best tidbit I can give to illustrate that is so the Detroit Lions are the American football team of Michigan. The entire lower peninsula generally will root for the lions. Some of the Upper Peninsula will.

The Western Upper Peninsula routes for the Green Bay Packers in Wisconsin. Yep, the guy I knew up there had a giant foam block of cheese to wear on game days. That sounds about right. Well, thank you for taking the time out to come and play. Our third player today, I always introduce you as from the depths of Wikipedia, because it's just such a wonderful phrase. You can, I like it. It makes me feel like I'm just crawling up from the depths.

The first sunlight I've ever seen. I asked Charlotte at some point, like what being Miss London and being a finalist for Miss England gets you access to and things like that. Like, do you get connections from being the, the worst? Wikipedia person there? That's a good question. People call me misdepth sometimes, which always is fun to me.

Oh, okay, so the first time, when someone wrote a draft of a Wikipedia article about me, it was not somebody that I know well, because if you have a conflict of interest, you're not supposed to write it, but it was somebody that I at least shared Discord servers with. And so they messaged me and they said, can you upload some photos?

I'm writing a draft of an article about you. And I said, yes. And a lot of people don't have that courtesy and then get stuck with some random public domain blurry shot from years ago. So that was a nice heads up that I got. I should have just uploaded them myself. So maybe that's like a thing.

I will admit to being a little bit grumpy that my Wikipedia article describes me as YouTuber. Because like this is not a YouTube, this is a podcast. This is not the correct definition. And yet I would have a conflict of interest were I to wade in with that? Well, okay, so you can go on the Talk to page, but also Tom, Scott, like your audience and Wikipedia editors, that's a circle. So, I think that something will happen.

Well, good luck to you and all three of our players today. Let's begin today's marathon, sorry, episode with question one. This question was sent in by Nick Tozer. Thank you, Nick. A sporting trophy that is awarded every year was won by Australia in 2014. However, Australia will almost certainly never win it again. Why? And one more time, a sporting trophy that's awarded every year was won by Australia in 2014.

However, Australia will almost certainly never win it again. Why? Okay, so my first thought was how Australia is in Eurovision, despite not being in Europe, and so I thought, oh, maybe they tightened the rules about that. But this is sports. And I do think that Eurovision kind of is a sport. It's a sport to me.

but it's probably not it. Australia's in a surprising amount of things that you would feel would not be geographically in their area, but they turn up. They show willing. Good for them. Still haven't won your revision, but, you know, one year.

My first thought was maybe it's some sort of dangerous sport that post-2014, after winning, they were like, we can't do this anymore, let's put a ban on this kind of sport. And that would stop all young talent from ever winning again. Tom looks at me with a blankster, so it's not back. I have learned to let everyone just have a chat round it first. I was trying to figure out if it's the sport was cancelled or something happened in Australia.

And my little Upper Peninsula brain was like, ah, it's hunting related. Happy deer season, everyone. And there are no more of this animal in Australia. I'm sure that's incorrect. I mean, it's not right. It's not even close to right But as ever, saying the crazy thing Has sort of vaguely

Pulled you a little bit closer Okay, best case scenario So they're never going to win again And I... Australia will almost certainly never win again Which I just tend to hold out hope in general So never is a big word there Almost certainly

Oh, okay, may they might You keep saying they I'm thinking Australians in Australian. It's not won by a team. It's won by Australia. It's won by Australia, the country. So it's not a single person that won it?

It's definitely not a single person that won it. Is there something like, I don't know, that's not, oh, no, but it's a sport. What were you going to say? I was going to say, like, GDP, they have the highest GDP. They're not winning again. Not won by a team.

And I'm being so careful with how I phrased this. Okay. So the entirety of Australia won a sport? Nope. That's not what I said. I said it was won by Australia. Like the landmass? Nope.

Okay. Is there a person whose name is also Australia? Now you're getting closer. Okay. Has Australia died? I'm not sure how Australia is doing right now. Well, sorry Australia if you're living. listening and you're alive.

In the same race, the second place was Kingston Hill. And it is a race we're talking about here. Oh, I was imagining a person named Australia. And I guess you could have a person named Kingston Hill, but now it's starting to seem more unlikely. Oh, thank you, producer, David. Australia is still alive. Hi, Australia.

Australia wouldn't really understand that. Is Australia an animal? Well, humans are animals, but is Australia... A little creature. Yes, that's why I said Alexis was a bit closer than you might think with mentioning hunting and deer. It's not a deer, though. And a sport where animals compete? Is it a horse?

It's a horse. Australia is a horse. Okay, that's fun. You are absolutely right. So, why is it unlikely that Australia will ever get the trophy again? Well, 10 years is a long time in horse racing. Ten years is a long time, and not only that, you cannot know. name a horse, the same name as a famous horse.

Oh. Oh, that makes total sense. But I haven't thought about it. This is the Epsom Derby in 2014. It's one of the world's most prestigious horse races. It was won by a cult named Australia, trained by Aidan O'Brien, which led to the headline, Australia wins the Derby. Once a horse wins a group one race, like the Epsom Derby, its name is protected for up to

25 years to prevent confusion, and the names of famous horses are off limits forever. which means that it is very, very unlikely that any future Derby contender will have the name Australia. Oh no, I'm going to have to change the name of my horse sea biscuit. Charlotte, we will head over to you for the next question, please. This question has been sent in by Kristen Asplen. Kristen took her extended family to a fancy steakhouse. People sitting around one of the three tables received the wrong meals. When asked why, the server responded, you touched the pig.

What happened? One more time, Kristen took her extended family to a fancy steakhouse. People sitting around one of the three tables received the wrong meals. When asked why, the server responded, you touched the pig. What happened? I love it when the name in the question is the same as the person who sent the question in. This is someone who had this thing happen and went, That's a lateral question.

Like, thank you. Thank you, Kristen. I'm just thinking about finding Nemo, and it's like, you touched the butt. But you touched the pig. It's probably not anything like that. I just figured I'd get the ball rolling. I was wondering if it's a positive change.

Like, by the wrong meal, they received somehow a better meal because of something with the pig. Yeah, did they say they complained or they just were like, where they just, reacting to it? I would class this as complaining.

Okay. Is it a prohibition thing where it's like you're not allowed to actually order alcohol, but if you order something and you're touching the pig, we'll do you a martini. I guess if Kristen's writing in the question, Kristen's probably not still alive if she were ordering drinks in the 1920s. Yeah, yeah, that's fair. I can't just be a gimmick that the steakhouse does

that we treat people badly if they happen to do this thing. That feels like, I don't want my meal to be an escape room. Although I'm pretty sure that some people do, and that's actually a business idea that I should probably patent. Oh, yeah. Fancy Steakhouse escape room. It's going places. A steak room. A steak. Copyright that now. Tom, can you make one and we'll go do it.

They're complaining about this. So one thought is like people that work at restaurants always try to know who's the reviewer. Like if there's a big name reviewer. And sometimes reviewers will be anonymous for their whole career. But like there are tells. Like maybe this reviewer. I don't know. Always touches a pig.

But if they're complaining about this, because I would think that you would want to make the best food for the reviewer. And so if they're complaining that it's incorrect or something, that doesn't really fit. Is it like a health inspector that is always touching pigs? Not quite. I will say the pig wasn't part of any kind of food dish. It's a metaphorical pig or something like that or...

Pig is like... It's not like there's a toy pig in the corner and that's the... That's actually closer. It's more like there's a toy pig in the corner, but it's not in the corner. Is it properly a toy pig or is it like a piggy bank situation? I would say a decorative. Oh. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Fancy steakhouses do not mess around with their diners. Like there are restaurants which do like the comedy thing of, yeah, we'll treat you badly, deliberately, that's the schick here. You know, there's tourist attraction restaurants like that. But fancy steakhouse does not overlap with that. And yet they have this gimmicky code language

where if you're touching a pig, it's opposite day or something. Another thing that pigs bring to mind is like kosher and, and dietary restrictions. Mm-hmm. But again, like, you wouldn't mess about with that. Right. The secret code for having a dietary restriction is you must know to do this.

That feels... So the table that received the wrong meals was the table that had younger family members sitting at it. Oh, okay. Okay. Is this suggesting, like, a kids' menu situation? So if we go from what we know,

we know that there is a literal pig, a decorative pig. We know that the table that had the wrong meals were the ones with children. So they'll run up and play around and touch the pig. That's correct, they will. They will cause a disruption in the restaurant. But why we're touching the big cause the wrong meals to be received? You cannot control yourself. You get the kids menu now. Right.

You're punished. Did the pig, so this decorative pig, maybe it held, like, ordered, I don't, when you're, like, stacking all the orders for the kitchen people, was the pig involved in that? And maybe the kids messed it up? The pig was involved with that. It has got to do with ordering. What type of fancy, I need to know what steakhouse this is, because, like, what fancy steakhouse has a pig involved in the, the weight staff is using a decorative pig? I'm just, I'm very confused, but intrigued. Yeah.

Is the, is the pig, like, holding menus in some way or, like, holding an item? The pig, the, the, the pig is holding something, but it doesn't, that's not, I would say it's not related to the question. Okay. Yeah. It's just decorative. I think that's the key. Cool, cool. Yeah.

I feel like, Annie, you were getting, you were getting, you were. getting really hot with an order kind of thing. So if I was to say that the pig was placed in the middle of the table, and it helped. Do you turn, oh, is it like one of those things where you, I forgot the name of this? Is that a lazy Susan? Yeah, lazy Susan. Okay, but if that happens, then maybe the way that the serving staff note which diner requested which dish, is based on the direction of the pig.

Because some restaurants take notes of, like, diner wearing this or seat number two. But if it's like, if they're going with, like, number one is just to the right of the pig's head and they go right, or something like that, the kids have played with the pig, they've put it in the wrong thing, they're getting the wrong dishes.

Ding, ding, ding. What? Wow. Thank you for the tea up there, Annie. That was on you. Well, you know, it's all, we have to bump set, and spike, so it was teamwork.

That's wild. I'm just imagining the waitstaff being like, oh yes, and to the east of the pig, we have this thing. So the nose of the pig is pointed to seat number one of the table. And the pig here is a decorative candle holder in the center of the table. The servers use the nose of the pig to say which seat is number one when they take their orders. However, the children at the table had been playing with the pig and the nose was turned to face the wrong seat. This confused the next server when putting down the food.

The question writer Kristen says, we have an inside joke of don't touch the pig to say don't mess with things. See, this is actually a happy ending because they can just rearrange and get what they ordered. That's true. That's true. Thank you to William Jeffries for this question. Jim, Jerry and David bought the rights to the mediocre

1957 disaster movie Zero Hour for $2,000 even though they had no intention of re-reward. releasing it. Why? I'll say that again. Jim, Jerry, and David bought the rights to the mediocre 1957 disaster movie Zero Hour for $2,500, even though they had no intention of re-releasing it. Why? So I'm just going to tell you the first thing that came into my head. They wanted to make a Muppets version of this movie. Yes, please be correct, please be correct. It's not quite there, But that is a very big step forward, Alexis. Were you thinking Jim Henson there?

I was. It's not Jim Henson, but it is someone that film buffs will recognize. Okay, okay. So they're making a version of it. They're adapting it. Yeah, that's safe to say. And it's somebody that film buffs would recognize? Yeah, I think so.

Most people, I think, wouldn't get the reference. But, yeah, like, if you're well into your film directors, you'd know Jim, Jerry and David. The only Jerry I know is Tom and Jerry. So you're right. They're not planning to make a profit directly off the old movie, but honestly, Muppet's version is surprisingly close. Okay. So this is a 1957 disaster movie called Zero Hour. Is it like a parody, like a Shark Nado situation?

Um, or something? Yeah. Yeah, we're getting closer. Okay, okay. Okay, Shark Neda. But arguably, if you're doing a parody, you don't need to buy the rights. Like the folks who made the scary movie series

didn't necessarily need to buy the rights to every movie they were parodying. And dumb Starbucks didn't need permission from Starbucks. Well, that's also very arguable, but yes. Is this like a sequel situation? Hmm. Not quite. Okay. Honestly, you're just so close with Muppets version.

This happened in the late 1970s. I think it's a, we're looking at the timeline there. So $2,500 is a lot more. Yes, but that film hadn't really done well. So some sort of, what are adaptions that were happening in the late 70s? I thought I was wondering. Are there any 70s fads? Sort of.

But I think it would be too much to ask you specifically what the fad for movies in the 70s was, particularly disaster movies. If I tell you, Zero Hour has an exclamation mark in the title, that could technically also help. Interesting, okay. Well, I love anything with an exclamation point in the title, like Jeopardy, Oklahoma, but I don't know Zero Hour. I'm going to have to watch it now.

I honestly thought you might stumble across it with that. because you're right, we're looking for something with an exclamation mark in the title. I don't love exclamation points and titles that much that I'm an expert in all of them. Maybe someday, though. Maybe next time if I'm on the show again, maybe I can learn all of them. You're going to Wikipedia all of the exclamation marks. And if there are any copyrighted exclamation parts that aren't there, I will write all of the articles. It wasn't a Muppets version.

But it was certainly heavily based on that original. script. Okay. Was it a film that they were making? It was, yes. Okay. And it was about an air disaster. Did airplane come out in the 70s? Airplane did come out in the 70s, Alexis. Oh! For those that don't know, what is airplane? I've seen it once. It's a stupid, wonderful comedy movie about a crashing airplane. Yes, it is one of the first Abraham's Zucker Zucker movies. Jim Abraham's Jerry Zucker, David Zucker, who were working on a spoof disaster movie. And if you know Airplane, which is, if you're a comedy buff, you know that movie.

That movie is zero hour with jokes added. Oh. If you've seen the joke of, I just want to tell you good luck, we're all counting on you, of Leslie Nielsen coming in and doing that line five times, that line is in zero hour. Loads of the jokes are just zero-hour script with a punchline added on. That's wonderful. I now want to go watch that movie and also airplane. It's a really bad movie.

Perfect. Alexis, whenever you're ready, your question, please. All right. So this question has been sent in by Emily. Goldie walks into a woodland and holds a small concave mirror. She is careful to ensure that her face doesn't appear in the reflection. What is she doing? And again, Goldie walks into a woodland and holds

a small concave mirror. She is careful to ensure that her face does not appear in the reflection. What is she doing? Until you said she, in my head, this was Goldie, the English producer and, uh, I don't, I don't know if he's a rapper or a producer. I don't know enough about him other than recognizing the face of Goldie in my head and going, is it good? No, she, never mind.

This is a very different story. Well, I heard Goldie Walks and I thought No, it's supposed to be Goldilocks. Yeah, and then she said Woodlands and I was like, this is Goldilocks. And clearly, if you want to avoid being trapped by the Faye, then you go in with a concave mirror so they can't see you directly and your face isn't in it.

Perfect, that's exactly it. Was she using the mirror to reflect light in some way, if not as a reflection of her face? Oh, to burn things with the sun's rays. Is that you want to make sure your face isn't in that? She's an arson. I'm going to say no. Okay, so concave is when it goes in like a cave.

And usually when people have those security mirrors, those are convex, I think, but I could be wrong. I don't have one of those. No, you're right there. Convex is the ones that you, so you've got a wider field of view for, like, getting around tight corners. Concave is going to give you really odd reflections. Concave is what you use to, like, focus the sun's rays or something.

like that. Mm-hmm. You can also use concave, I mean, mirrors a questionable word here, but you can use concave surfaces to focus sound if you're listening for bird calls or something like that. Goldie, what are you doing? I will say sound is not involved, as cool as that would be. Okay.

Oh, that'd be cool. Is Goldie playing very competitive paintballing and doesn't want to get caught by anyone else, but she wants to see everybody. Alas, no, she is doing something work-related. She's confusing insects. You just put the concave mirror down over the ant hill and they don't know what's going. And that's my job, nine to five. Just mess them up.

Not quite the right direction, alas. Oh, then up, she's confusing birds. No birds, but she is looking up. She's looking up while she's doing this. Or she is using the mirror to look up, rather. Oh, she places the mirror on the ground so she can get a bed of, no, I don't know, you could just look up to do that. Yeah, that'd hurt your neck, though. Maybe it's a viewing thing so she doesn't have to constantly crane her neck up once.

Is she a birder? She's not a birder. Does likely work in a related field. And I will say there is also something on the mirror. There are some lines. there's a grid etched into the mirror. Okay, is she an arborist? Is she sitting trees?

Or is she setting the sky? Or the intersection of trees with the sky? How much canopy is there? Oh, that, yep. That's it, Tom. You just hit the nail on the head. Oh! You said in such a brainstormy way that I was like,

Oh, yeah, I didn't think it was that. Oh, okay. That's how you count how much tree cover there is. Yeah, so this thing is called a densiometer, and it's a curved mirror, and it has a grid of lines etched into it. And it's used by foresters who are trying to estimate the canopy cover in a wooded area. So the grid has 24 squares on it, and then you sort of visually divide each of those squares into quarters. And then you hold it up and you look at the canopy in this mirror, and you count the number of quarter squares that are not covered by trees. So if you take that number, if you multiply it by 1.04, that gives you a percentage of how much of the sky is visible.

And then if you subtract that from 100, you get the actual amount of tree cover. They must take these calculations constantly. This must be changing all the time. Yeah, I'm curious what number of things you can learn from studying the tree canopy, because I'm sure it's extensive. Maybe I will be buying a densiometer myself. Maybe I'll be just like Goldie. Perfect. I would love to do that as a job.

Like imagine you're just walking around the forest and all you're doing is counting squares. Right. And then you get to. And how pretty would it be? You get to see the sky as well from your hands. Yeah. A couple of years ago, I got to shadow a group of undergrads at the forestry school at one of the universities up here. And it was, so they take an entire semester and they go away to this camp in the woods.

And I went and I followed them around for a day to learn what they were. we're learning. And it was this delightful experience of just like hiking and occasionally having this like 19 year old point at a plant and say, oh, that one tastes like peppermint. You should eat that one. It was really charming. It seems just fun and complicated and interesting to be a forester. Thank you to Bob Wise for this question. The Tale of Genji, a thousand-year-old Japanese novel has been reprinted in dozens of languages. Yet Chapter 42, Maboroshi has never been translated. Why? I'll say that again. The Tale of Genji, a 1,000-year-old Japanese novel, has been reprinted in dozens of languages. Yet Chapter 42, Maboroshi has never been translated. Why?

What's the first line of the chapter to say, please do not translate this into another language? Is it to do with the chapter 42? Like, for example, numbers have meanings, like, four is an unlucky number in Chinese culture because of the sound of death. So would 42 be related? Surely it's not a, this page is left intentionally blank situation. I mean, what do you mean by that? I mostly meant it as a joke initially in the way that some research,

Papers or books are just like, eh, this page is intentionally left blank for printer reasons or something. Is this like something happened in the story that there was just nothing to say? Yes, basically. I mean, you've made it slightly more complicated than it needs to be. Checks out. Okay. This page intentionally left blank would still be something you can translate. Oh, sure. So it was just empty? There's just nothing on the page? There's just nothing on the page? the page, you're absolutely right. You even hit one of the more subtle points there. It is unknown

if that chapter was removed at some point in history. Some scholars believe the author left it blank on purpose to imply the death of the main character. So you even got that while brainstorming. Congratulations. Weird, cool. It was written in the early 11th century by Lady Marasaki Shikibu. I am so mispronouncing that. I'm sorry. It is thought to be the world's oldest full novel. Really? And so it is not known if there was originally a chapter 42, and at some point it was lost. It may just be there deliberately to imply we don't know, but it has never been translated because it is empty. Well, 42 is conveniently the meaning of life, the universe and everything, or whatever it is. Was that the last chapter?

There are plenty more chapters. It goes up to chapter 55. but the previous chapters are about him aging and the rest of the book takes place after his death. Oh. Clever. It could be a literary device. It could also be that at some point in history, someone lost chapter 42.

Or they censored it. Or censored it. Yeah, I like to imagine she wrote it out of order and was like, oh, I'll come back to that scene and was like, you can't do it. Where are my gloves? Come on, heat. Winter is hard, but your groceries don't have to be.

This winter, stay warm. Tap the banner to order your groceries online at voila.ca. Enjoy in-store prices without leaving your home. You'll find the same regular prices online as in-store. Many promotions are available both in-store and online, though some may vary. Annie, we will go to you for the next question. Okay. This question has been sent in by Tim Kelby.

Steve has a terrible memory and couldn't remember if it was the moon, the Cadillac, or the can of paint. After a little thinking, he confidently pressed the submarine button. Where is Steve? And what jogged his memory? We're all writing this down, right? You should. You, you, these, yeah. Steve has a terrible memory and couldn't remember if it was the moon, the Cadillac.

or the can of paint. After a little thinking, he confidently pressed the submarine button. Where is Steve and what jogged his memory? Good luck. This is giving escape room vibes. It is. So this is not, it's practical. Not that that's not practical, but it's kind of, I mean, yeah, I don't know.

You sign up for a puzzle. This is, this is just life. I'm just thinking where in life can you confuse these three items? I mean, in Cadillac and Can of Paint, you know, they're physically different for you. So it's just Moon is very off-putting. Candelac is such a specific word as well. Yeah. It's not Moon and Carr and Can of Paint.

It's Moon and... It's specifically a Cadillac. Is this like in a song, like in like a romance song, these are like lyrics. Can you sing the entire song of what you're imagining? So I like what you're thinking. It's not like, I don't know of a single song that contains these elements, but... Moonlight on the Cadillac, paint on the submarine. It doesn't really work with anything but a really obscure country song.

But keep thinking. I like, I love what you were doing. Okay, so maybe this is... This is some other language. Like this is an East Asian language that uses glyphs rather than letters. And he doesn't speak the language, but he knows that this one looks vaguely like the moon. This one looks vaguely like the can of paint.

Oh, interesting. But I don't know a language that looks vaguely like a can of paint. And Cadillac. Yeah, right. Like, it's not only Cadillac. Think about Charlotte's idea of a love song that is like, you know, incorporating all these elements. That was really not so far off. This is why you say the silly thing, always.

Uh-huh, uh-huh. But it wasn't correct, but it wasn't crazy. Okay. The only thing I know about submarines and music is yellow submarine by the Beatles. And I've told you that, boom, you got a step closer. I told you everything I know. We all live in one. Oh, thank you.

No, hold on. There's a song called Blue Moon. Mm-hmm. There's a song, I don't know what color it is. I think there's a, is it red Cadillac, pink Cadillac, something like that? Yes, ding, ding, ding. Okay. Okay.

I don't know what color the can of paint would be. Black, the Rolling Stones, paint it black. Oh. Tom, this is why you're Tom Scott. Okay. So, yes, all of these things correspond to a famous song. Okay. Was he, is there like a juke box involved somehow?

No, but I like, I liked the idea. Okay. I like how we've pieced this together. We've had Charlotte's song, an Alexis yellow submarine and my colours. Like, what are we missing? He had to find a link between these words and the submarine. And then he was like, oh, they're all colours. He pushed the button labeled submarine.

Is he in an escape room? This feels escape room. No, he's not in an escape room. Well, he's not in an escape room. But he is in a place that can feel like an escape room sometimes. Like so many places in my life feel like escape rooms. The grocery store. And why would you not just write down the colors?

Like, is Steve completely colorblind and needs some other thing to tell him which button to push? I have no idea if Steve is colorblind or not, but Steve was trying to recall something from a few hours before. He was trying to recall something from a few hours before. And he knows the words, moon, Cadillac, and Can of Paint. And then he ends up pushing the submarine button. For yellow. Meaning yellow. For yellow.

Is it one of those mnemonic devices where, like, you try and remember stuff by thinking of something else? Yes. But then why would you not just remember the colours? And why would you have a button with submarine on it? Well, the colours are helpful. But this is maybe the colours. This is a mnemonic for many, many people.

And so some people that will be using this might be colorblind. Who knows? Some people that might be using this might be blind. You want as many ways to remember as possible. Parking. Say more. Say more. Okay. The parking garages at Universal Studios are named after movies.

Oh. The ones in Disney. are named after like characters, but they also all have numbers next to them and they also all have colours. Because some people remember numbers and some people remember colours and some people remember characters.

So is this the parking garage at... Just stop there. No, no, no, like, I'm trying to figure out where it is because it's like, is this at a record store or like capital records or something like that? It is a parking garage. It's not. Not. Okay. What I'm, I'm just going to tell you because there's, I don't think that you could ever guess which one this is, but it's the multi-story, Erie Ontario parking garage in Chicago.

Sure. Sure. Oh, yeah, that one. I tried to lateral too hard. Yes. So Steve had left his car at the multi-story, Erie Ontario parking garage in Chicago. Maybe you've been there. Maybe not. In the elevator lobby on each floor, while you're waiting for the elevator, a short burst of a famous song plays on loop, which my thought is I would hate to work there and just have to hear yellow submarine a million times. Each level has a different song.

To further reinforce the mnemonic device, each song title has a color in it, blue moon, pink Cadillac, paint it black, or in Steve's case, yellow submarine. There's also, in case you're curious, orange-colored sky, brown-eyed girl, bond. of gold, purple people eater. This is very fun. I would have so much fun designing this. When you return to the garage, the elevator has the song titles and their colored symbols next to each button. Which leaves us with the question from the start of the show. Thank you to Sammy from New Zealand for sending this in. In what way is 100 the first and 38 the last? Anyone want to take a shot of that with the knowledge that this is one of those kind of quiz questions that will probably make you hate the author.

Like, Sammy has been very clever here. This is one of those things where you're like, that is a quiz question. So it goes from 100 to 138? Nope, 100 to 38. Is it alphabetical? No, never mind. Keep talking. I was just thinking, like, if you alphabetize numbers,

sometimes it's really weird, what happens? It is. You're right. Is A-100-0? And then it's only... up to threes and then maybe B is 010. And then Z would be 03. Not quite. That's not quite the mapping of letters to numbers. But you're right, Annie, it's alphabetical order.

Oh, really? Are you serious? Yeah. T-38 is the last one? No, not quite. 38 is the last. Is that not what I said? Yes, but like 39 would come after 38, if you were just like doing these in English.

Oh, you're right, okay. And 100 wouldn't be the first. So are they being alphabetized in a different language? They are. No, oh, you're so close. You're so close. Is it Roman numeral really? It's Roman numerals.

Yes, you're absolutely right, Annie. The first Roman numeral alphabetically is C for 100. And the last one, alphabetically, is X, X, X, X, V, I, I, I. All the other Roman numerals, no matter their size, are earlier in the alphabet than 38. When you alphabetize numbers and you write them on English, 8 is first, which feels so random. There's none that start with ABCD. I don't like that for some reason. I don't like it at all.

Makes me very uncomfortable. Congratulations to our players for running the gauntlet. Thank you very much. Where can people find you? What's going on your lives? We will start with Alexis. Yeah. You can find me on YouTube at YouTube.

com slash Alexis doll, D-A-H-L, and come learn some fun stuff about my corner of the world. Annie? I am on most social media, TikTok, Instagram, Blue Sky, and I'm in your house. And Charlotte. You can find me on Instagram at Miki-Cha, M-I-K-H-A-R. And if you want to know more about this show, you can do that at lateralcast.com. We are at lateralcast, basically everywhere, and there are weekly full video episodes on Spotify. Thank you very much to Charlotte Young.

Thank you. Annie Roedah. Thanks. Alexis Dahl. Thanks. I've been Tom Scott and that's been lateral.