Stuff You Should Know - How Ouija Boards Work

Episode Date: October 29, 2013

Although most people who've used Ouija boards don't think they're communicating with the beyond, there is something mysterious about how it works. Learn the ins and outs of the popular parlor game that sprang directly from the 19th-century spiritualism movement in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Jerry's kind of here, and this is Stuff You Should Know. Yeah, this is the last podcast, these two today, that we're recording in the infamous murder room. Oh, yeah, it's right. Yeah.

Well, it's a long murder room. Yeah, we're moving offices in what better thing to do than to have a seance, which we're going to conduct after this episode records. You didn't talk to me about this first. Yeah, we're having a seance, buddy. I don't know about that. We're going to get down to brass tacks

and answer all the unknown questions. Well, you know what, I'll tell you what. I will have a seance with you using a Ouija board, because now I know how they work. And I'm not quite as scared of them as I used to be, say after I saw the Exorcist. Yeah, do you say Ouija? Or Ouija.

I say Ouija. Yeah, I kind of do too, although I think it's probably Ouija. Right, not to be confused with a crime scene photographer, Ouija. We're talking about the Ouija board. Although, yeah, I think some people say Ouija. Yeah, I just think it's interesting. I said Ouija since I was a kid. Yeah, me too.

But I also say Reese's Cup instead of Reese's Cup. Yumi does too. Yumi and Reese's Cup. Yeah, and I'm like, no, it's Reese's. They're like, no, it's Reese's. Yeah, well, I don't even say Reese's. I just say a Reese's Cup. I think they do too.

People in their quirks. Yeah, foibles. I say foibles. Yeah, you should hear him sing that Potato Potato song, everybody. Yeah, which apparently I got snookered on that, by the way. That's an old bit. So I was snookered by an urban legend.

What? The whole Potato Potato song, where I said, yeah, a friend of mine's friend auditioned with this piece and sang it wrong. You thought it was for real? Well, yeah, of course I did. I'd never heard that before. That's very funny.

Yeah. Had you heard that? No, because you would have stopped me. No, I have heard it before. But it wasn't too long ago. Was it for my mouth? Maybe. But I didn't think that it actually happened, I think.

OK. Anyway, Ouija board. Suckers born every day. Ouija board. Yes. And I mentioned exorcists already. You saw that, right? Oh, of course.

Bunch of times. Enough. Here's a trivia question for you. What is the name of the spirit Reagan communicates with? I didn't even have to look this up through her Ouija board. Jeez, I don't remember. Captain Howdy. Shut up.

No, do you remember now? No. Captain Howdy was who she's talking with, who is the devil. I guess that was one of his aliases. I wonder if he has a devil passport that says Captain Howdy on it. Devil, Satan, Lucifer, Captain Howdy. I didn't know that. Yeah, it's true.

That makes it a little less frightening. So what was that? The early 70s, the exorcist came out, right? I think so. OK. And the Ouija board, the one she was playing with, I believe, was a Parker Brothers Ouija board. Was it?

Now Hasbro. Yeah. And that was this mass-manufactured, mass-marketed toy game. But it was actually based on a real phenomenon that we've talked about here on this show before. The spiritual is a movement of the 19th century. The Ouija board first made its appearance around then. Supposedly, they claim provenance for this way further back

than that. But there's no real evidence that the Ouija board itself is any older than the mid-19th century, in that it's American in origin. Yeah. The actual Ouija brand board is what you're talking about, right? Right. Or talking boards in general, which

is another name for like a Ouija board as a talking board, but not all talking boards are Ouija boards. That's right. So you're saying there's no evidence that they existed before, like in the 1800s before that? Before that? No, people did use divination. There is a pretty good source, a fourth century BC Greek scholar

who wrote a history, who talks about a pair of men who were killed for using divination. But they used a pendulum. And a disc with the alphabet around it to spell out a message. So there were divinations. People did use like an alphabet dial. Yeah. I don't know if they use a planchette.

But the Ouija board itself, despite being marketed for many years as something from Egyptian antiquity, is probably something that was created no earlier in the mid-19th century in the States. All right. Well, 1891 is an attorney named Elijah Bonn patented what was called the Ouija Egyptian luck board. And it's important to point out when these things are marketed,

when you read the fine print, they never claim to be able to talk with the spirits. It's like just sort of, it's a game. Right. It's a game now. And it was once it became mass marketed. Yeah. They started to claim anything like that.

Yeah. But in 1891, it was part of this larger offshoot of spiritualism. Yeah. And we talked a bit about Egyptology. And it sort of all ties in. Seances were big. You remember they cracked the hieroglyphic code

from the Rosetta Stone just a couple decades before. So Egypt was like this weird place with all sorts of strange cults and rituals. Yeah. And it's just, it's strange to me that something like the occult, even on a minor level, sort of took hold in the United States at one point. And I don't know if it was accepted by the masses.

But like regular people and noteworthy people would hold seances and try to communicate with their dead relatives, usually through a medium who was usually female. You're right. There weren't a lot of dudes doing it. No. There were a lot of dudes who were involved in it,

but the mediums were typically female. And a lot of them used things that were like the Ouija board, talking boards. Yeah, like they, you mentioned the dial plate, which was a spinning wheel with letters and numbers, and the alphabet board, which was sort of like a Ouija board. But you just pointed to different letters and waited for a response from the great beyond.

Some had a little pencil that would like actually write things out. Right, that used a planchette, which is French for a little plank, which is a little board or something, maybe like a circular disc on three legs. And then one of the legs for a writing planchette was basically a hole with a pencil going through it, so that when the planchette moved using the medium's hands,

but the spirit was really in control, the pencil would write something, hopefully. So back to the Ouija board, the official game version. Over about 70 years, it changed ownership a few times, eventually landing at Parker Brothers, which is now Hasbro, like you pointed out. Right, Elijah Bond, the guy who he didn't come up with the first Ouija board, but he was the first one

to make an improvement on an existing patent. And the Ouija board, as we understand it, that was his, how we see it now. And he actually went off after he sold the rights to it to a guy named Charles Canard. Elijah Bond went off and created a rival version that had a huge swastika on it. Didn't perform so well.

No, it did at first, because we're talking 1907s. I didn't have that association, it was still like a mystical symbol. But it was made by the swastika novelty company in West Virginia that he founded to produce this rival board. And it's considered his other Ouija board. That's pretty funny. Isn't that weird?

Yeah, my friend Jesse Char, the other day, tweeted something funny about design. I think it was something like 15% of design is trying to make something not look like a swastika or a penis, although that was pretty good. Did she make that up or have you heard that? I've not heard of that. So I'm giving credit to Jesse Char.

So check, the point is the Ouija board took this thing that was being used by mediums as part of a very serious spiritualism movement and said, hey, you don't need this crazy old lady to contact your dead uncle. Now you can buy one and do it in your own home. Over cocktails. Exactly.

And a lot of people took it like that from the get go. I think some people probably purchased Ouija boards seriously. But I think from the outset, it was a part of a party. It was a conversation starter. Something that you just did socially too for fun. I think that there was always a large segment of the Ouija board buying population that just took it as entertainment. Yeah, exactly, which is probably how you should take it.

From Canard, he had an employee named William Fold, FULD, who basically took it over to the point where he even stamped his name inventor on the back of it, even though he wasn't. And he's credited as being sort of the father of the Ouija board because he's the one that really ran with it in a marketing sense and brought it to the masses and would do all the press for it.

He claimed that the French and German words for yes, we and ya, is where the name comes from, even though that's not true. Well, even before that, Charles Canard said that he came up with the name by asking the board itself what it was called. And it spelled out O-U-I-J-A. And he asked it what it meant. And the board told him it was Egyptian for good luck.

So that was the story. And then, yeah, I guess, Fold was like, it means yes and yes. Yes and yes. Pretty much in French and German. It's pretty good. So like we said, Fold sold it to Parker Brothers who turned into Hasbro. And now when you buy a Ouija brand Ouija board,

it's from Hasbro. Yeah, and the article here makes a point to call out the Catholics for basically saying that it could be an evil thing and not to use it. But as a little Baptist boy, we were very much told not to use a Ouija board. I remember specifically my uncle burning his Ouija board. Did he go out and buy it just so he could burn it?

No. He's like, hey, it's Friday. We've got a party going in my house. Yeah, it's pretty funny to look back when I was a kid. I was like, yes, get rid of that evil thing. Were you there when he burned it? No, I wasn't there. But I heard about it.

And now it's just good for him. That's cool. Throw in Candyland while you're at it because that game stinks. What was it? Shoots and ladders? I never played that. I was big into Sorry, remember that one? Yeah, that one made you like hate the other people

you played with though, right? Couldn't you like get ahead by screwing over your fellow players? I think that's why it was called Sorry. Yeah, I think like if you landed on someone, you sent him back to the beginning. And had to go, sorry. Yeah, yeah.

Maybe I'd just play with Jerk, soon as. Maybe so. 2023 is already well underway, everybody. So don't wait any longer to level up your small business. And the way you can do that is by joining up with Stamps.com. That's right, because with Stamps.com, you're going to be able to print your own postage and shipping labels right there from your home or office

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No long term commitments or contracts. Just go to Stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the page and enter our code STUFF. You're ready to travel in 2023. And since 1981, Gate One Travel has been providing more of the world for less. Let Gate One handle the planning for you with affordable escorted tours and European Riffer Cruises.

And right now, through January 30, use promo code HEART20 to receive 20% off your tour. That's promo code HEART20 through January 30. Visit GateOneTravel.com for more information or to book your tour. That's GateTheNumberOneTravel.com. Once again, use promo code HEART20 through January 30 to receive 20% off your 2023 trip. So Chuck, the Ouija board from the original bond creation

to the one you get today from Parker Brothers, the design of it has changed very little. Yeah, I guess we should describe it. I mean, I assume most people have seen one. Although, you know, I've never used one. Have you? Oh, yeah, when I was younger, we had them, yeah. I'd totally be into trying it out.

It's neat for fun, you know. It's very neat because, I mean, the thing is just moving around the board by itself. All right, so we will describe the board if you have not seen it. It has the alphabet and two different arcs. It has numbers below the alphabets. It has a yes in one corner with, I think, a moon and a no

in one corner with a sun. And therein lie the answers, my friend. Oh, don't forget the most important part, basically, what amounts to the off button. It's goodbye written at the bottom below the numbers. Yeah, it's sort of like a satanic magic eight ball. Kind of, except this really works. And it's not satanic.

Right. So the way that you use this talking board, which, again, if you're interested in this and you want to see some pretty cool old Ouija boards and the swastika board as well, and another one called the Sphinx board, which I think is the coolest one. It's from, like, the 40s. Oh, yeah.

There's this awesome online museum called the Museum of Talking Boards. And they have histories of all of this, the history of the Ouija board, the history of talking boards, just some really great articles and images on there. So go check that out because it's a pretty cool website. But when you're using this. Well, the instructions have stayed the same, too.

Not only the design, but the gameplay itself is just about the same as it was way back in the 19th century. Right. And when you use this, they say you want to have two or more people with their fingers lightly resting, just your fingertips lightly resting, on the planchette. And we should say the planchette, like the other planchette that used the pencil to write, it's just a little plastic

heart shape board, I guess, with three small legs and then a circular plastic covered disc in the middle, clear plastic disc that you look through. And the disc shows you the letter, number, or word that the spirit is communicating. That's right. When you look down through the planchette, that's the letter, word, and question.

That's right. So you sit there, you ask a question, allowed. Everyone concentrates. No joking around going on. No. Even Ford himself said you want to make sure that the people who are at the table are taking this seriously or else it's not going to work.

Right. Well, even though it was advertised for mirth making, you got to cut the mirth down when you're actually operating the board. Yeah. The guy who has the lampshade on his head, he's got to get out of that room. So then you ask the question, and then everyone watches.

And the planchette, as if by magic or Satan's dark powers, moves along and either answers yes or no questions or spells things out. You want somebody to jot down the letters or numbers as they are read out. And in the article, it says, ideally, they spell out words or sentences the players can understand. Right.

If it spelled out a nonsense word like Ouija, you would probably just say it's malfunctioning. Or you would say, what does that mean? And then it would spell out it's Egyptian for good luck. Yeah. Or German and French for yes. I wonder if Ouija boards always answer the same when you ask them what Ouija means.

I don't know. Test it out. I started saying it differently all of a sudden. Now instead of Ouija? I've just said Ouija a couple of times. Interesting. How do you pronounce the thing that you claim your windshield with?

Is that a squeeja or a squeegee? Yeah, but that's S-Q-U-E-G-E-E. There's three E's? No, I'm just kidding. And evidently, it can take up to five minutes for the planchette to start moving, which I don't know if I would have the patience for that. I know.

I might start moving it on my own. Oh, yeah. You know? Well, then you would be the life of the party, especially if you said like, I'm being contacted by the spirits. Right. If after five minutes you don't get any movement

from the planchette, you want to either ask the question again or ask another question. Sure. And there's some tips for using your Ouija board to maximum capacity. One of them is concentration. Again, the dude with the lampshade needs to go sit in the living room,

watch TV or something while everybody else is doing this. You want to turn down the lights, maybe burn some candles, burn some incense. Yeah, turn off that smartphone and the TV maybe. Yeah. And you really want to concentrate. And when you ask questions, you want to ask them slowly, clearly, simple questions.

Yeah. And you want to ask them one at a time and wait for the answer, the response, before you ask the next question. Yeah, and they also recommend that you avoid scary questions because that could lead you down a dark path, my friend, and always above all else in the game by saying goodbye. Because if you leave that portal open to the great beyond,

the bad people might come in through that portal and find you and kill you. Ask Reagan from the exorcist. That's right. Things can go pretty badly. So you want to end each session with the planchette over, goodbye. Yeah, and then breathe a sigh of relief.

Exactly. And apparently, if this doesn't work the first time you do it, you shouldn't be frustrated. In fact, the Museum of Talking Boards has a regimen that they prescribe. 30 minutes of practice every day for two weeks. And apparently, you'll open your chakras or something. Really?

And all of a sudden, you will be speaking through the Ouija board, or the spirits will be speaking through you through the Ouija board. Is that before or after the opium regimen that they advise? I think the Museum of Talking Boards is more historical. They're more interested in the history and background of the whole thing. So let's talk about this for a minute.

People sit down, they put their fingertips on this thing. The planchette moves. I mean, it moves. We're not making this up. If you've never messed with the Ouija board before, like, give it a shot with another friend. And the chances are, the thing's going to just start moving by itself.

It's eerie, especially when you're younger. Now, see, I've never done it. Explain this to me. What do you mean this by itself? I will show you. So I get it. But the thing, this planchette is very light plastic. Yeah.

The feet might even have felt on them or something like that. It's designed to move very easily. Not tiny little casters or anything. No, I think original planchette has had casters. But you're just, basically, you're being pulled around the table. So you actually want to be in a comfortable position. Because your fingertips are just sitting on this thing.

And then when you ask a question after a while, it'll move. I've never seen one move fast. But it just moves kind of slow. But I mean, there's no question about you're not thinking, is it moving? Like, it's moving over to a letter. And then it's moving over to another letter. And then it's spelling something out.

Yeah, but you are moving it. No, you're not. In your head, here's the thing. Like, let's get to the science of this. You are, in fact, moving it. But you are not conscious of moving it, which is the awesome part of it. It's this thing called ideomotion.

Yeah. I heard someone pronounce it ideo. And I didn't know if they were just being fancy or not. It can go either way. Ideo, ideomotion. But it is an actual involuntary motion. It's one of the types of involuntary motion of which human beings are capable,

thanks to our muscles and neurons. Yeah, it was coined by a dude named William Carpenter in 1882 to explain dousing rods, which is the same kind of thing, basically. Yeah, dousing rods, pendulums. Ideomotion is where thought precedes movement. And the other part of it is that we're unaware of that movement.

Yeah, it's movement without owning that, basically. So when you apply that to Ouija boards, you have what's called the ideomotor effect, where your thought is placed in the form of a question to the Ouija board. And then the movement, the unconscious movement, you're not aware that you're moving, moves to answer that question.

So if you're thinking, yes, am I speaking with great uncle Charlie? Yes. And you really want to. And you're thinking, yeah, man, I hope he's there. So you're unconscious or subconscious, which is it? I would guess unconscious. I think it's unfashionable to use subconscious.

It's very Freudian. It would move it to the yes. But you wouldn't realize you would think it was just moving. And that's where the Ouija board fun comes from, Chuck. Like, you don't realize you're moving it. Like, you have no sensation of movement. And like you said, this ideomotion is a,

we've understood it for a while. Since the early 1800s, and even Ford himself, in one of his patents said, and I think 1920, explained that it was moved by unconscious muscular movement of the players. And back in the 1800s, this guy named Anton Chevrelle. Chevrelle, Chevrelle. He basically proved this using a pendulum on a string.

Yeah, and you've probably long heard about the old wives tale if you want to find out what your baby's gender. You hold like a ring on a string over the belly and wait for it to move. And if it moves back and forth, it's a boy. It's circular. It's a girl. And it's the same basic thing as the Chevrelle pendulum.

Basically, it's just ideomotion in effect. You are unconsciously swinging the string, whichever way you probably desire. Exactly. That's what makes it so fascinating, is what you're really seeing is the unconscious telegraphing, supposedly, of the mother's wishes of what gender she would like.

Because she's, in fact, controlling it, but her muscles are moving so minutely that she's not aware of the movement. But since the pendulum is on the string, it really telegraphs these very, very tiny movements. And then inertia takes over and it really starts going. So it just seems amazing because the hand's not moving. But the ring is going crazy.

It's going crazy. This is the same if you ever heard of facilitated communication. It's pretty controversial. You've probably seen on the news it's when basically a caregiver will guide the fingers of someone who's severely disabled over a typewriter, a typing machine, over a keyboard to a computer to supposedly get answers or communicate. And it's very controversial.

It started out in 1977 in Australia. This lady named Rosemary Crossley. But the American Psychology Association basically says it's not scientifically valid. These are people that are just. What, facilitated communication? Yeah, the caregiver is really guiding this conversation. And it's really not coming from the person that's disabled.

Right. The thing is, is what makes this so tragic and sad is that the caregiver isn't aware that they're actually making these movements. Again, all of this is unconscious. You can't tell you're making this movement. And so since the profoundly handicapped person is moving their hand, the caregiver thinks that it's them.

It's the handicapped person. It's not like they're trying to snow somebody. Exactly. And they may even really, really want this person to communicate and say these things. Yeah, they're still studying it. Syracuse University actually has, since 1992, it was the FC Institute.

Now it's the Institute on Communication and Inclusion. Are still studying it and the controversy, as usual, between the skeptics and the believers. Yeah. Oh, well, that's the thing. If you want to see who believes in the idea motor effect, to type that into Google, it's all like skeptics, dictionary, skeptics, skeptic, like every entry is skeptic.

But if you type in idea motion, you get peer reviewed scientific literature on that. It's just the idea motor effect is basically taking the proven idea motion and applying it to debunk things like Ouija boards. Right. They did a study at the University of British Columbia just last year in 2012.

And basically, they said it's strongest when there are multiple people on the plan shed. And they tested this by blindfolding people, saying you got someone else on the board with you. And when, in fact, there was no one else on the board, the person would still say it was the other person moving it. And they would say, there was no other person. Right.

And then they'd say, well, then it was the spirits moving it, I guess. Right. That's funny that no one says it's the spirits moving it. It's always the other person who's moving it. Right. That's a pretty common trait of any Ouija board game that you're sitting there going like, you're moving it.

No, you're moving it. No, I'm really not moving it. That's how it goes. And then with two people working in tandem, you have two sets of muscles moving unconsciously, but making a movement. You have one person relinquishing responsibility because they think it's the other person, which they think

frees the muscles to move even more strongly because you're saying it's not me, it's the other person. And if they both have a common goal, then the planchette will move even more briskly, I guess. So if both girls are like, it's going to move to B-R-A-D, then that planchette's going to move to those letters in that order. But they're both going to be like, I'm not moving it.

Well, hold on. Before we get into any real life stories, you want to do a message break? Yes. OK. Stuff is shouldn't grow. 2023 is already well underway, everybody. So don't wait any longer to level up your small business.

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They have rates you literally can't find anywhere else, which comes in handy because postage rates just increased again, like up to 84% off of USPS and UPS. Plus, Stamps.com automatically tells you your cheapest and fastest shipping options. So use Stamps.com to print postage wherever you do business. All you need is that computer and printer. Set your business up for success.

When you get started with Stamps.com today, just use our promo code STUFF for a special offer that's going to include a four week trial plus free postage and that free digital scale, no long term commitments or contracts. Just go to Stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the page, and enter our code STUFF. You're ready to travel in 2023.

And since 1981, Gate One Travel has been providing more of the world for less. Let Gate One handle the planning for you with affordable escorted tours and European River Cruises. And right now, through January 30, use promo code HEART20 to receive 20% off your tour. That's promo code HEART20 through January 30. Visit GateOneTravel.com for more information

or to book your tour. That's GateTheNumberOneTravel.com. Once again, use promo code HEART20 through January 30 to receive 20% off your 2023 trip. And we're back. So should we talk about a couple of these stories? Ouija, are they real? Are they not stories?

Sure. The Herds of Kansas City, 1935. This is pretty crazy. Herbert Herd killed his wife, Nellie, shot her in the back four times. And you would think, what a jerk. But what happened was, they were elderly. They were in their 70s.

They played with the Ouija board one night. And Nellie claimed that she received a message saying her husband was stepping out on her. Aaron gave $1,500 to the other lady. $15,000, even. Wow. 1935. That's probably like their life savings.

And so what happened was, Nellie tortured him, tied him to a bed post, whipped him with a knotted rope, burned him with a red hot poker, stabbed a knife into his shins, and forced a confession by holding a gun to his head. And eventually, she left the gun on the bedside table there. Herbert got a hold of it. He got a copy and killed her.

Can't really blame Herbert. And apparently, the courts did not. What else you got, any other ones? Yeah, there's a, it was called an Italian enclave in El Cerrito, California. The Italian community there apparently experienced a wave of mass hysteria that landed several people in an asylum because of Ouija board

use. The town went Ouija crazy? Yeah, one policeman tore off his clothes and ran into a bank. And there was just a lot of craziness that happened. It was just mass hysteria, I guess. And the town was like, you know what? No more Ouija boards.

And finally, in 1913, a British author, Sax Romer, supposedly came up with his villain, Dr. Fu Manchu, when his Ouija board spelled out Chinaman. So his Ouija board was racist. Yeah. And, you know, he says that's where it came from. So here's the thing. If you ever want to test whether Ouija boards are

the result of idea motion and the player is actually moving it or not. Go to Goodwill and buy one for $3. Right, and then do this very, very simple test. You blindfold the players. You turn the board 90 degrees so that anybody who's memorized the layout of a Ouija board can't cheat it. And then ask them some questions.

And you're not going to get any kind of sensible answer. And if you do, then you need to trade carefully because you've just unlocked the gate to the spirit world. Don't forget to tell it goodbye to seal off that gate. Always remember, put it on goodbye, folks. So you got anything else? I got nothing else. I feel like here in my 40s, after knowing now

that they're not evil tools of Satan, then I would like to try it out sometime on a Friday night with good friends. Yeah. We'll play little cards against humanity. We'll play some Ouija. And then risk. And risk to wind it all out with a big bang.

Yeah. Invite me over. So if you want to learn more about Ouija, Ouija, that kind of thing, you can, again, go check out the Museum of Talking Boards. It's pretty sweet. And also, you should read this article on howstuffworks.com type O-U-I-J-A into the handy search

bar. And it will bring up this article. And since I said search bar in there somewhere, I think it's time for listener mail. I'm going to call this Crack Baby. Jeez. We got some good response on the old Crack episode, which is a good one.

Yeah, I thought so, too. We've been killing it lately. Hey, guys. Just finished listening to the story on Crack Cocaine. It reminded me of a story of a Crack Baby from many years ago. It's around 2001. I was doing volunteer work at the local children's hospital

in the neonatal ICU holding babies. I came in one day, and one of the nurses told me to go hold this one particular baby, which told me it was a Crack Baby that had been crying nonstop for three days and hadn't slept. So I washed up, went to go hold this baby, held the baby in my arms, and just looked at the baby, and the baby was crying.

Eyes closed, nonstop, just crying, crying, crying, crying. After several minutes, the baby's eyes opened a little bit, and then closed again. Would keep crying, tears are flowing the whole time. After several minutes of that, her eyes would remain open longer and longer, but the baby was still crying, and the tears were still flowing.

After several more minutes, the baby's eyes stayed open, looking at me, crying a little bit less. The baby started crying less and less and less. Then after several minutes was smiling, giggling, and cooing, and making all those nice, happy baby noises. After several more minutes of that, the baby's eyes started to close, and soon she was asleep, sleeping for the first time

in three days. It was a wonderful experience that I will remember forever. Jim from Austin, Texas. That's pretty neat. Pretty cool, yeah. He cooed the crack baby to sleep. Soothed. He's a soothed sayer.

He's a soothed cooer. Where'd he go, Jim? Yeah. And now he brings it Christmas presents every year. That would be a great story. Do it, Jim. If you have something to tell us that you've done based on something we talked about,

I would say that Jim's story falls under that umbrella, wouldn't you? Yeah. We want to hear about it. Basically, just let us have it. On Twitter, at SYSK Podcast, on facebook.com slash stuff you should know via email at stuffpodcast at discovery.com.

And like we said at the beginning, hang out with us at our home on the web. Bring a smoking jacket and some slippers, and we'll chill out at stuffyoushouldknow.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Brought to you by the all new 2014 Toyota Corolla. You're ready to travel in 2023. And since 1981, Gait One Travel has been providing more of the world for less.

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