Lateral with Tom Scott - 27: Extra-green cat trees

Episode Date: April 14, 2023

Bill Sunderland and Dani Siller (from 'Escape This Podcast') and Amelie Brodeur face questions about troublesome tower blocks, bonkers bookings and factually-incorrect films. 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://www.lateralcast.com. HOST: Tom Scott. QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe. RECORDED AT: Podcasts NZ Studios. EDITED BY: Julie Hassett at The Podcast Studios, Dublin. MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com). ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS: Ryan, Peter Ellis. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Which person has the Guinness World Record for most claps in a lifetime? The answer at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. I'm joined by three players today for this game. Two are old hands, and one is brand new. So we start with returning for several times before and back to the podcast. We're going to start today with Dani from Escape This Podcast and a lot of other things besides. How are you doing? You can't get rid of us. We'll be here every episode. I didn't even bother introducing you by your last name there. You're just, yeah, mate, Danny, she's back. It's fine. How are you doing? How's the show going? Oh, everything is going fantastically. I do

worry about how every time I'm returning, I'm feeling that little bit less smart. So we'll see how it goes, but. Well, also joining us, I'm also a regular on the show now. We have been going long enough that we have regulars. We have, you know what? You're not getting the last name either. It's Bill from Escape This Podcast. Yeah, hello, it's me. I feel smarter and smarter every time I'm here. Thank you both for coming back on the show

and subjecting yourself to this again. Joining you is a first-time player, Amelie Brodeur, flautist, flautist? I don't know which I should use, but professional YouTuber and flute player. Thank you for coming on the show. Nice to be here. I need to ask which word I should have used there. Is it flutist or flautist? Which do you prefer? I say flutist, but some people say it's flautist, but I don't really mind.

Some people say it's flautist, but I don't really mind. Anyways, but it's more British to say flautist. And you are definitely not British. So I will take your lead and go with flutist. Good luck to all three of you. Our questions today are going to be about turning assumptions on their head and seeing what shakes loose. Then hoping the rattling noise isn't going to be expensive to fix. You may laugh, but we're still fixing the previous episode. Hey, you said she may laugh. Look, that's how I laugh. That's how you Tom. What? We are on,

I've lost count of how many shows this is. We're on 20 something and I appreciate the enthusiasm, but these are only going to get worse from here. We're going to start with question one. This is a listener question that was sent in by Peter Ellis. So thank you, Peter. In March 2018, soccer player Sanchez Watt was given a booking, that is, shown the yellow card by the referee. The referee didn't know the player, so a disagreement happened,

and the player was subsequently sent off. However, the referee relented and allowed Sanchez to stay. What happened? So I'll say that one more time. In March 2018, soccer player Sanchez Watt was given a booking, that is shown the yellow card by the referee. The referee didn't know the player, so a disagreement happened and the player was subsequently sent off. However, the referee relented and allowed sanchez to stay what happened well i know where i'm going with this i know where my head is immediately and i and i feel like it's exactly why we're on this episode because all i have is like oh there's a yellow card what's it for yes it is for what no what what is? What is it for? No, it's for what?

But what? Yes, what? I don't understand. What am I giving this yellow card for? It's for what? I know. But why? Well, why? Well, he plays for the Argentinian team. That's all I've got. Okay, okay. Before you do the entirety of the Abacus Costello, who's in first routine, you have unfortunately got it immediately. What? No, no, that's not unfortunate. This is great because it means

that we've got extra time in the episode to keep going. So my question to everybody else. I even pronounced, I even deliberately set up how I read that question to really de-emphasize the name. I really kind of just glossed over

the name Sanchez Watt as quickly as I could there. I didn't even write it down. And yet somehow, the master of puns. But what is wild about this is, because clearly, right, everyone who's ever listened to Who's On First, you can be like, okay, yeah, but it's a bit.

Because if someone, like if I was there, if I was in this conversation, I'd just be like, no, no, I apologise. You don't understand. You see, you know, like the bit in The Simpsons? To be clear, the who's on first routine, which a lot of folks won't know, is an old Abbott and Costello bit about baseball

where the players are called who, what. I can't remember what the others are. There's a what's his name. Because in my head, I can only remember the version that someone did where all the names are swearing and that's the parody version of it that's stuck in my head which I can quote none of right now

but yeah so what you're saying Bill is that everyone who hears that routine thinks well no one would ever actually have that be a problem everyone has the words and the vocabulary to clarify such a silly misunderstanding yeah and yet so the story goes the the actual conversation if we take it away from from the comedy bit uh was the referee gives him the yellow card walks up asks for his name the player says what and he, what's your name? What? And then he's sent off for dissent.

And it was resolved. Yes, they did the adult communication thing of someone going, no, my name is what, and they figured it out. So the booking was rescinded. I wonder if it ever happened as well with the police officer or in other situations. Yeah, it's a very angry name. I know there's people out there with the last name Null who have all sorts of problems with computers and databases, because

if you don't program it correctly, you can put in a query that says, if is Null, and that will give you all the empty ones. So there was someone who had, I think that name, and just kept getting parking tickets because anytime someone put in a parking ticket but couldn't work out the car or traffic violation or something like that, they would get sent the letter. It's like there's a place in America that has something like that, that keeps getting tickets or something sent to it

because it's the geographic center of a certain place. So it's a default location. Yes, it is a farm somewhere in, huh, I should know this. I think it's Kansas, but I'm not sure. It's one of the big plain states. It happens to be near the location that some big company at some point decided that's just where the label United States is on a map. When someone types in United States, that's where it's going to go. So if you are tracking someone on the internet and trying to track down where their computer's located,

and the response that comes back is United States, some computer programs will just go, that farmhouse right there. So they had angry people turning up. They had all sorts turning up. But it's no Sanchez watch. But yes, in this case, a question that was sold very quickly by the first person coming in on what he thought was a joke

is that the player was called what, and the referee took that as insubordination. Good job, Bill. What? So after that, Bill, I'm going to ask for the first guest question to come from you, because it's going to give the rest of us a chance. So, Bill, whenever you're ready, take it away. On a baseball team, there was a batsman, but his name was who?

Oh, don't you dare. Don't you dare. For the first section, I was like, man, they've put two sport questions together. That's funny. Here we are. An everyday item has four tiny numbers, eight, six, four, and two embossed on it. Each number is more recessed than the previous one. What's the object?

I'll say that again for anybody who didn't catch it the first time. An everyday item has four tiny numbers, eight, six, four, and two embossed on it. Each number is more recessed than the previous one. What is the object? Anyone else just looking around their location right now? Well, I would, but I can see that Amelie's location is a beautifully appointed soundproofed music studio.

And I feel like there aren't quite as many everyday objects as I have in my studio here. Yeah, no. Hmm. You said 8642? Mm-hmm. 8642. When you say recessed, you mean like smaller or less?

They're like further in. So if they were layered, it's like there's an eight and the six is slightly deeper in or it's more recessed. It's further into the object. The four is further in. The two is furthest. So I guess the question, one of the questions coming to my mind is, is this recessing on purpose?

Is that part of the design? Or is it just from use? People are pressing certain numbers more than others. And so it's deepening them. Oh, I actually got to do the thing a while back where I just walked up to a friend's, like, they live in a big block of flats. The entry code, there were four numbers on that keypad.

Oh no. That were just completely worn away. And I'm like, I mean, it's going to be a year. It's four digits and two of them are one and nine. So I've got like a 50-50 shot on just walking up and guessing their code while they're with me. I'm like, I'm going to get to be this smug once in my lifetime this is and i picked the wrong of the wrong one of the two options it was it was i can't remember what the numbers were but it was either something like 1975 or

1957 and i guessed the wrong one and i looked like a complete jackass so everybody who was watching no just to my friend who was like why did you do that why i was trying to be is that is that tom scott across the road putting in the wrong code for an apartment door don't even because yeah that was definitely my first sort of thought but then there would be more numbers that aren't being mentioned i i don't know and you say it's an like everyone would have that object yeah yeah everyone would would have well not not everyone but it's a very common object and it's just like one model of this has the 864 like not everyone's going to have a version with that on it. I will say, not everybody will have the 8-6-4-2 version.

There are other implementations of the same idea on similar objects. Is that vague enough for you, clue-wanters? For some reason,

my head went like an egg timer, but I don't know why you would do 8-6-4-2 for that. That's not a... A soft-boiled egg, a really soft-boiled egg,

a not-boiled egg, and a raw egg. Yeah, that's... I'm just looking at my calculator now going, oh, no, well, you know, 8, 0, 0, 8, 5, but that's about it. Would it be more of a kitchen thing? You would not have this in your kitchen ever. This would have never entered your kitchen. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Never. Well, now I'm thinking cars. Yeah, that's where I went. If something's never entered the kitchen, what is there going to be in a car that has

numbers like that? There's something tickling the back of my head here and I cannot work out what it is. Is this how rotary phones worked? Is it in a car? It is not in a car. That's suspicious. It's on a car or around a car. Actually, it is also in a car. Oh, come on. Oh, come on.

You can't do this to us. It would be bad practice, and I believe illegal, not to have one in your car. Ooh. Oh. Okay, this isn't France where you need like a warning triangle and a load of stuff in the back of your car for safety. So what seatbelts are...

I know one thing that I believe we require to have one of in your car, and that's the spare tire. Yeah, but not everyone interacts with that all the time, surely. Well, do they say that they have to interact with it or just that they have to have it? Oh, yeah. In which case, I don't know enough about cars to know what numbers would mean. Is it like telling you how long you have to wait until a tire gets replaced or something? Is it a lifespan of tyre?

Oh, because the tread on the tyre will have a millimetre depth gauge or something like that. Is it something that gets eroded away? Look, it does get eroded away, and I will say, in terms of what the numbers represent, Danny, and probably Tom, I would say, definitely, you will have never seen 8642. That is not an indication marker that we would have ever seen because, I mean, yeah, you've pretty much hit the nail on the head.

So does that mean it's an America system? Yes, that is an American system for tyre depth. You cracked it straight away. What are they measuring? What units are these are uh eight six four and two 30 tooths of an inch oh my god so don't don't even get me started like oh how many 30 tooths of an inch do we need i don't know um you can reduce those fractions your final one is two why don't go one sixteenth no no no it's two thirty the first one is a quarter yeah but yes yes so so it is the depth of tyre tread, because tread has a minimum depth,

and it starts at 830 seconds of an inch, and as it wears away, you wear down to the six, you wear down to the four, you wear down to the two, and then it's like, okay, you've got to change them. You've got to change the tyres. You're at the two level. Obviously, we wouldn't have that in Australia. We don't measure things like that.

We don't actually have millimeter gauges in Australia usually. Does anyone know another system that people use, a very common thing for tire tread checking? I thought you were supposed to just look at the swirly pattern on it and figure out whether it's flat enough yet. Amelie, do you know how to check the tread of your tires? I don't interact with my tires myself. Someone else takes care of that for me. Not even when they're in your kitchen, just sitting on the couch.

The other common thing you often see is they just have a single ridge, unlabeled, but it's just a ridge of rubber that goes across the the width of the tire if your tread is level with that ridge then you need to change the tire the fun one i found out is that in australia uh the official guidelines are also they also are built around our currency that they say if you take a 20 cent coin and the and the bill of the platypus this is so australian if you take a 20 cent coin and the bill of the platypus is level with the when you say the bill of the platypus, this is so Australian. If you take a 20 cent coin and the bill of the platypus is level with the... When you say the bill of the platypus, I want to make it clear to Americans that this is not like a bill of money. It's not like a $5 bill with a platypus on it.

No, the duck bill of the duck-billed platypus. And you're also not getting an actual platypus, a thing which has a bill, and sticking it into the tyre. actual platypus, a thing which has a bill and sticking it into the tire. The 20 cent coin, which is itself embossed with a platypus, the bill of the platypus, if that lines up with the top of your tire tread, when you stick the coin in, then you've got a three millimeter tread and you're fine. But if you can't see the outside ridge of a 10 cent piece, well, then you've got to replace your tires. That's official guidelines. I feel like we're doing one of those things where they refuse to use proper measurements. So there is a meteorite.

It's just landed on Earth and it is two and a half camels wide. Exactly. I did burst a tire going through rural Australia, which was not fun. Oh, excellent. By sheer luck, it happened about two kilometers away

from where I was staying for the night. So I just, rather than try and actually change a tyre in the middle of the bush, I just limped very slowly the last two kilometres on a dirt track and just cheated and called roadside assistance because I did not want to risk driving on my own, frankly, shoddy changing a tyre work. However long I had to go. What sort of temperatures were you dealing with? Yes.

It was like either I get sunburned or I limp two kilometres to shade. And that's the priority right now. Plus it's a rental car. So yes, these are numbers that indicate the amount of tread left on a tyre. The numbers represent 30 seconds, 30 tooth. it's so hard to say, of an inch. In the USA, the legal minimum tread depth is, I'm going to change it to 1 16th of an inch. Hence the message, replace by two below the numbers. Next one's from me. Good luck, folks.

For the 15th anniversary of the film Titanic, James Cameron changed something due to a complaint from Neil deGrasse Tyson. What was it? I think I know this. Oh, okay. You sit down for this one then, Danny. I'll give the others the question one more time. For the 15th anniversary of the film Titanic, James Cameron changed something due to a complaint from Neil de degrasse tyson what was it the first question i have for you both is do you know who neil degrasse tyson is yeah yes okay someone at my university emailed him asking a science question and he replied he replied he sent an email back that said do not email me again amelie what do you know about the movie Titanic I've seen it a long time ago once but

um did you ever see it I saw it once a long time ago okay so um I guess it's something to do with I don't know a full moon that couldn't have been on that day or I don't know. Oh, that's because obviously for people at home who don't know, Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist. Is this his best? Professional pedant at this point, I think. That's also true. He loves to like tweet about. Says the person who's running a show about trivia.

Never mind. That's glass houses. But no, that also true. He loves to tweet about- Says the person who's running a show about trivia. Never mind. That's glasshouses. But no, that is true. He does have a reputation for engaging with pop culture and being like, well, actually, if you were ever that close to that type of celestial body, you'd be ripped up and fall into orbit and kind of poking holes in the scientific problems with movies. and kind of poking holes in the scientific problems with movies. Emily, you are along the right lines there. Like the full moon would be a big thing to change on a movie like that. Okay, okay. Something simpler to change.

And do we think it's necessarily 100% astronomical? Because a lot of people will also, he might be like, well, actually an iceberg of that size would have this sort of crenellation shape on top caused by natural compression forces. Add some, put some crenellations on there, James. It's the interesting balance of something that is finicky enough, Neil deGrasse Tyson picked up on it, but James Cameron cared enough to change it. That's the interesting balance point. And given that Titanic was what, 1996 at a guess, it's around then. So 15 years later, we've got decent CGI, but I will say this is not something you would need a huge,

huge budget to replace. Leonardo DiCaprio. Emily, you are along the right lines here. to replace uh leonardo dicaprio amelie you are along the right lines here okay so if you want to keep keep thinking of that so is is it something astronomical yes okay but when we're thinking not the full moon that was along the right lines but not the right thing like a sunset not on the right side or that'd be a bit wild just i don't know no no it's fair but i wouldn't pick up on it but i don't know that's true if they were sailing west which i guess they were now i think about it that's that's where the titanic was going and yeah yeah yeah yeah it would be obvious a lot of people would have picked up on that okay and the sun sets behind them yeah i you don't need to be neil degrasse tyson to be outraged at. I would be furious. I would not have noticed that.

I would have completely gone, but the Titanic is sailing west. I wouldn't have spotted it. I don't notice a lot of things. You're nearly there. It's not the moon. It's not the sun. And thus it is the stars.

The stars. Absolutely right. Was it like a sort of, because I know that the stars either, surely it's either like, oh, at that time Venus should have been visible or this should have been visible, or is it like things move? The constellations are not in the right places that they were a hundred years ago. I assumed, I haven't read into this,

I've just heard the fact, I assumed that it was, they just used a standard green screen sky, but it was of the wrong part of the world. Oh. Oh, okay. Yeah, it was only half a sky. It was badly reflected on the other side

and it was completely wrong for the time and location that the Titanic sank. And so Neil deGrasse Tyson being Neil deGrasse Tyson went, I think you'll find that's wrong. And James Cameron went, oh no, you're right. How could I have done this? Apparently. I suspect more of a publicity thing,

but it is the sort of thing where you can change it and it does not really affect the integrity of the author's vision. Because everyone always had one complaint about the end which was i'm pretty sure jack could fit on the door and so i i do like the idea of james cameron being like hey for everybody who's always been complaining about that final scene i finally changed it welcome 15 years later the stars are fixed oh j, you got us. So, yes, for the 15th anniversary of Titanic, after a complaint from Neil deGrasse Tyson,

James Cameron made sure that the stars were right. Amelie, we go to you for the next question whenever you're ready. Okay. In 1966, Yoko Ono devised a chess set called Play It By Trust. It uses 32 standard chess pieces and an 8x8 square board. What was unusual about it? In 1966, Yoko Ono devised a chess set called Play It By Trust. It uses 32 standard chess pieces and an 8x8 square board what was unusual about it there are so many chess variants there are but it's yoko ono's version yeah like it feels like

it's yoko ono it feels like that like the point is is the point that it's like a an art display effectively like this is a a form of modern art of performance art in the form of chess Like the point is, is the point that it's like an art display effectively? Like this is a form of modern art, of performance art in the form of chess? Having it called like play it by trust. Yeah, you're quick. I feel like Yoko Ono would not be designing a commercially copyrighted version of chess here. She's not pitching it to Hasbro. Oh no, I like that though.

Hasbro just has a board with Yoko Ono's face on it and a big production site. It's just a regular chess set, but it's Yoko Ono's chess set. Yeah, yeah. It's the stepping stone to Parker Brothers doing Yoko Onopoly. I heard the brief pause before that

as you tried to work out which o's were getting where do the o's go yo your couple no your conopoli no maybe well if you've got to play it by trust to me my first instinct is for whatever reason you can't see everything and you just gotta like trust that the other person is being honest about what's going on. You're playing chess battleship of some sort is how I'm picturing it. I saw it like the old, you remember Command and Conquer, the video game, kind of real time strategy game where you didn't see the opponent section of the board until you had a sight line there. You're in the right direction. Oh, really? You're in the right direction. Oh, really?

But you're not there yet. Okay. Was the board, we said that it was a normal eight by eight board. Was it definitely, was it in one piece, this board? Yeah, it's a normal board with all the pieces are standard.

Did you see the chat GPT playing chess thing? No. Well, no. Is it terrible or amazing? So this is going to date very badly because in six months it'll probably be able to do this. But all it's doing is predicting what the next word is. So it sort of knows how chess games work

and sort of knows where the pieces might be, but it doesn't understand the rules. So it just cheats all the time. Because all it's doing is going, that looks like a move someone would write there. I'll try that. What have you done? You've taken your own bishop.

Well, I guess that's a thing you can do now. But he's mine now. I've kept him safe. Okay, so it's something trust-based. It's got to be about knowledge or something hidden, but... Ooh, I've got a cool idea. Okay, so it's something trust-based. It's got to be about knowledge or something hidden. I've got a cool idea. I have no idea if this is in any way related,

but now I want to play it. What if your king is in disguise as another piece? I mean, I know you said that it's all of the normal pieces, but what if your king might not be your king? Oh, that's nice. Wouldn't that be a great game? You just have to declare at some point oh yeah no that that's not actually my king it's actually that wasn't my king yeah did you gotta just trust the truth my my question was is it a two-player game or are there three four more people playing it's

a two-player game if i was coming up with a thing that was about trust i would say that one person no that doesn't make I would say that one person... No, that doesn't make sense. I was like, one person is just making the moves in their head, but that doesn't make any sense. Plus, like, that's a game for some chess grandmasters is just to entirely keep the board in their head and bounce things back and forth.

You're in the right line. Okay. With the head, you know? You have to memorize a little bit yeah are the other pieces you said they were standard pieces are they actually on the board moving around yes they are okay okay interesting are they this this sounds like the sort of very late 1960s extremely ham fisted metaphor for what's going on in the world. Are the pieces all the same colour so they're not black and white?

Yes. You're so good. I'm impressed. Yeah, they're all white. That feels like exactly the sort of things. Oh, they went with all white. I would have gone with shades of grey, personally. It's 1966.

So I guess, because it's to show the futility of war. Oh yeah. And you have to, you have that because after a couple of, of plays, you don't remember which are yours and which are the opponents. So you have to trust the other.

So yeah. But if you, if you did it now and you did make them all white oh twitter would be on to you straight away the answer was making a statement against war whereas my first instinct was oh let's combine chess with battleship let's double the war we're gonna fight this war on multiple fronts your your king has been checked by an aircraft carrier. Okay, that's a thing. Yeah, so both players start with a full complement of 16 white chess pieces.

While it's possible to start a game in the usual manner, it becomes harder to remember which piece belongs to which player. The artwork created in 1966 is symbolic of the futility of war. Next question then, folks. Here we go. Many skyscrapers miss out unlucky floor numbers, such as 13 in the West or 4 in China. However, when someone wants to visit the 70th floor of Trump World Tower, they have to press the elevator button marked 90. Why?

One more time. Many skyscrapers miss out unlucky floor numbers such as 13 in the West or 4 in China. However, when someone wants to visit the 70th floor of Trump World Tower, they have to press the elevator button marked 90. Why? Okay, so 70 is replaced by 90? Yes. Is there actually also a 90th floor leading to all sorts of shenanigans? There may well be, I think. I don't actually have the floor count on here, but it is a big tower.

Is it a thing with... Because I think... Is it a thing with he wants it to sound, to look like it's taller than it actually is? Yeah, because this was my thought as well. I love the idea of him being like, I'm'm not gonna do a trump um my tower is isn't so you you're not gonna do a trump accent you're doing a trump i don't know what that is i'm not gonna do i'm not

gonna do a trump accent uh and because i because danny hates my trump impression um but yeah someone's like oh the liberal media is telling you that my tower is only 100 stories tall but it's actually 150 and here's the proof look and all the and he just keeps exaggerating the floor numbers and so by the time you get to floor 100 it's actually you're only on floor 50 don't worry about it just keep going i love that image Trump. You are entirely right. Emily, you're spot on. Good work, Emily. There are just floor numbers missed out all the way up. It's not specifically about 70 and 90. It's just that if you count up on the outside, there's 70 floors, but on the inside, you push number 90 to get there. That is so insane. It's not surprising.

so insane. It's not surprising. No. That's the problem. I went immediately to, okay, how much is this going to be due to an odd Trump neurosis? And I was going, no, you know what, maybe it's somehow something perfectly reasonable. Let's try giving it the benefit

of the doubt. There was no point doing that. Yep. One of the justifications is that his buildings often have uh commercial units on the lower floors with very high ceilings so those count double oh sure yeah maybe a yoko could take a picture of the the board and make it an art uh art piece called like ego inflation or something i don't know That's a good name. That's a really good name.

The buyers actually signed paperwork that includes the disclaimer that their floor number is not the actual floor. Ah. Wonderful. At least they're not being tricked. Yeah, at least they know. Yes, if you push the 90 elevator button in Trump World Tower,

you will actually get taken to the 70th floor because some of the numbers are skipped. Our last guest question comes from Dani. Take it away. All right. You're not going to get this one right away. Not this time. Faeandra are a manufacturer of cat trees, the play tower for domestic cats. Once the purchaser has self-assembled the cat tree, the manufacturer provides two pages of extra instructions for a realistic reason. Why? And one more time.

Feandria are a manufacturer of cat trees, a play tower for domestic cats. Once the purchaser has self-assembled the cat tree, the manufacturer provides two pages of extra instructions for a realistic reason. Why? Anyone here a cat person? No.

No, apparently just silence from everyone here. No cat people here. Not only are you not cat people, you're apparently terrified of them. No, I like cats, but I don't have a cat at the moment. I've got nothing against cats. Yeah, I like them. I'm not a cat person, but I am very jellicle. Oh, my word.

No, you have to keep that one. We're on Andrew Lloyd Webber references now. My word. My immediate thought was that there is an instruction that says to leave the boxes out for the cat to just curl up in instead. But that's not two pages of instructions needed. It would be pretty wild to take two pages to say, do not discard this box. Yeah, the cat is going to sit in the box and ignore the cat tree for a long while. But what if it's, what if that's it?

What if it's a two page instruction of, look, I know you bought a cat tree. I know you're disappointed because the cat's just playing with the box. Here's how to extricate a cat from a box and get it to play with the tree instead to justify your purpose. Troubleshooting your cat. Exactly. It's like a tree. Suppose, how would you describe these? They are sort of tree like, but just sort of like a play center for cats so he can do his uh nails on it like his it's got those it's got places for

them to sit maybe a little uh sheltery looking one that they can climb inside i would describe as looking like a tree house almost without the tree they call them cat trees you've just got like a scratching post with like boxes on the side that they can jump on and in and around. Is it to tell people not to sit on it, that they are for cats, that an adult should? Is it stuff like that? Because sometimes, you know, people are surprised. Do not let your child play in the cat tree. I have definitely seen those ones around. We have a tiny staircase for our dog.

It's a little staircase to help an old dog get up to certain levels. And you'd think, you'd understand, this is a staircase for a dog. But my younger brother, still in his mid-20s, went, that's a staircase for a human, and put a huge hole straight through it. So maybe we could have done with the extra instructions. I've definitely seen instructions like that. It is not not uh in that case it is not a safety thing i'm trying to think of stereotypes about cats now i mean i i think you've already arranged yourself around the perfect stereotype of cats right from the start is it like uh something to do with like to give you um instructions on how to make your cat play with it it is not i have an idea i think

i know what this is now and i'm gonna i'm gonna put it out here but let's i'm not gonna ask danny because i don't want her to confirm until we've all decided together about whether this is true because we were we were on it early on with the like, oh, cats just play with the box. I wonder if the other thing cats love to do, because has anyone ever tried to read a book when there's a cat in a house? If you try and read a book when there's a cat, it comes over and it's like, oh, what's going on here? And it pushes the book out of your hands and it sits on you and it's like,

hey, here I am. And it plays with it and it just wants to ruin that. I wonder if that's a problem with uh instructions as well and the extra instructions are like give this to your cat while you're reading the real instructions they're going to be playing with this paper and ignore you completely and not try and steal the paper out of your hands are they instructions for the cat to play with i don't think that you can extrapolate our cat like dogs behavior onto all cats that exist there's just a set of instructions that just say meow meow meow meow and it's just just written in cat it's for the cat that's a very practical reason

uh no you are definitely towards the start you are definitely very much in the right zone what with the cat curling up in the box that sort of thing or definitely not too far away for box setup are they like here's how to prepare the box for a cat to play with essentially yes it was you can turn this cardboard box you can just manipulate it do some folds maybe some tapings and you can just manipulate it, do some folds, maybe some tapings, and you can make another little cat house. Oh, that's so cool. The two pages of extra instructions were for how to turn the cardboard box itself into a little house for the cat. Finally, then, at the start of the show, I asked the audience who has the Guinness World Record for most claps in a lifetime. Now, I don't think this panel of two Australians and one Canadian are going to know the answer to this because it's a very American

question, but I will throw it out there. Thank you to Ryan for sending this in. Does anyone want to take a guess? Quickly. Oh, who's an American who loves to clap? I was going to assume that it could not possibly be a human because humans can't hold physical records compared to animals but now that you've said it's american is it one of those really old-fashioned people who'd slap their knees a lot it's a ham boner that's the one i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry a what a ham boner they ham bone they go it's an ancient art tom an ancient art emily do any of you do orchestras that you play in uh do you do any hand boners no that would be more in yoko on those orchestras like yeah

uh this might be shown in canada this is somewhere on television uh but i suspect that it's not going to be in the sphere of knowledge. I'll give you one last shot. So the person who clapped the most? Yes. It is the hostess from Wheel of Fortune, Vanna White. Vanna White. She's wheeling, clapping.

That's all she does. She claps and turns. She doesn't even turn anymore. She now pushes buttons underneath the monitors that they use instead of the spinny things. And anytime someone guesses a letter, she gets a small round of applause. And thus, she is almost certainly the person who has clapped most in their lifetime. So thank you very much to all our players. Let's hear what's going on in your lives.

Where can people find you? We will start with Amelie. So you can find me on my YouTube channel, The Flute Channel, where you can listen to some flute or even learn the flute, where I give a lot of tips on how to play the flute with more ease.

But I also play a lot of pieces. And so normally, Bill and Dani, when you're on, I hand it to one of you to do one of your podcasts and one of you to do the other we're gonna start with danny today what's going on with your life so if you want to find some of our audio versions of escape rooms you can find that at escape this podcast.com and bill uh yeah and our other big show is solve this murder uh we would have recently wrapped up uh a big agatha christie murder

mystery that you can check out and hear me try and solve so that is our show for today if you want to find out more about what we do or send in a question yourself you can do that at lateralcast.com there are video highlights on youtube at youtube.com slash lateralcast and we are at lateralcast pretty much everywhere thank you very much it is goodbye from danny silla see you next time there will be a next time to bill sunderland see you next time that sounded threatening and amelie brodeur thanks for having me i'm tom scott this has been lateral