The Eric Metaxas Show - Fun Facts Friday - Thanksgiving

Episode Date: November 28, 2020

In this Fun Facts Friday encore from Thanksgiving 2016, Eric and Albin explore the history of a number of songs we associate with Christmas that were, surprisingly, written for Thanksgiving. (Encore Presentation)

Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. It's the show everyone's talking about. But they really should be listening to it. This is the Eric Mataxis show. Your host, Eric Mataxis. Oh, hello. I didn't see you come in. Folks, if you listen to this program for a while, you know that every Friday, not every Friday, but almost every Friday on this program.

If Albin is not getting dialysis, we will do a Fun Facts Friday segment. And Albin, here you are. I know. That thing about the dialysis, it's fun facts Friday. And you mentioned that, and people are like, aw. Well, I, you mean you're not, you don't get dialysis? No, no, I'm in pretty good shape. You're in pretty good health?

Yes, I am. So then I lied. No, well. So then that was a non-true fact. Well, you misspoke. You see, I'm trying to get people to pay attention because they don't know, are we telling true facts or non-true facts. Now, folks, if we tell you. tell a non-true fact on Fun Facts Friday, we immediately let you know that it was not true.

We're not playing with your head here, okay? Some sick people might want to do that. We don't do that on this show. We don't play that. Except maybe on April Fools. Okay. But today is Fun Facts Friday. Albin, yes.

Are you ready to have some fun? I am ready to have a lot of fun. I mean, on Fun Facts Friday, if you don't have fun on Fun Facts Friday, when do you have fun? Right. And what other day of the week do you have fun on, but Friday? Yeah. So we are, as you know, in the Thanksgiving season. What? Yeah. Really? Oh, yeah. Now, the thing about Thanksgiving, well, we're going to talk about that, but I do want to say, Fun Facts Friday, anybody who's listened, understands that you're so devoted to this segment that you, Albin Seder, you've written a song, a theme song for this segment. I am glad you reminded me of that because I am so excited about the Thanksgiving facts that I forgot about the theme song. song. I mean, for you to have written a theme song, not only is it unnecessary, but I would go so far as to say it's foolish. And I'd love to know what is this theme song. We've sung it before,

but it's not as memorable as a lot of other songs. So maybe we can play it again. We can. And you know, a while ago I introduced the pill bottle Maracas, which I'm going to let you play this week. I'm handing them over to Eric. You know what, folks, just to show you how cheesy this is. Not only is this bottle of pills, it's not even a brand name. It's made to look like Tylenol, and you look up close at CVS brand. Yeah. This is so pathetic.

It's expired pills, too. And it's expired pills. Well, good. We brought the baby gland, baby gland. Let's put it that way last week or a couple weeks ago. And I'm going to play that, okay? And then we're going to add a brand new instrument because every week I want to add something new to really spice this thing up. Pretty soon we'll have an orchestra.

Yes. And I'm adding this week the clicking fingers. Wow. How do you do that? I know, listen to that. It's amazing. I know. I have it recorded at the time.

Did you take lessons? Because that's an instrument. I can't even imagine what it takes. No, no. I learned it from old blue eyes himself. Frank Sinatra used to do that. Yeah. I know.

Well, that was Frank Sinatra. I don't think the average person could do that. And I have blue eyes, so I'm allowed to... But how do you know how hard to press, you're doing your thumb and your middle finger... If I'm doing this and I'm going, ouch, ouch, ouch, I pull back a little. Right. Oh, I see what you're saying. So if it hurts, you're pressing too hard.

Yes. And then you just put just enough so that it loses the friction and then it snap sideways. Yeah, yeah, that elasticity is so important for these instruments. And it's okay on the skin? Oh, yeah. No, it's worn a little. Like, you know, when you play the guitar and you build up a callus. Right.

Yeah, it's, you know, you build those up after. So you just been snapping. When did you learn how to snap your fingers? About five minutes ago. Eric in the control booth just said, hey, you want to add that, yeah. You are such a quick study. I have met prodigies like you that could just play any instrument. Thank you.

All right. So we have, so the instruments that we have right now for Fun Facts Friday's theme song are the CVS extra strength pain relief caplets. inspired. And a grand piano, which is the smallest grand piano I've ever seen, but good enough. Yep. Here's a note.

See, now that's our tuning note. That was beautiful. Yeah, thank you. And then you're going to add, this is like spinning plates and juggling, you're now going to add the snapping fingers. There we go. Tune those up.

You're such a show-off with that. Thank you. All right. Well, so let's see what we can do here. Okay. Are you ready? Because as soon as I press, as soon as I start playing the piano. I've got me.

Let me get my grip on the CVS Extra Strength Pain Relief Cap. Let's bottle. Hold on. Okay, I'm gripping it correctly. Okay, here we go. Remember the first line. Here we go. Who can forget it.

There we go. Come on and have some fun just for the fun of it. Tune into Eric's show and you'll be in the know. You may learn something new and something untrue to. Fun facts Friday's here. Yes. Wow. That just blew my mind.

Easy with the confetti there, crazy man. Holy cow. That's unbelievable. I feel so festive right now. I'm just crawling out of my skin with festivities. I feel pleased. then proud. I feel plowed. You know that there are people who, they didn't know anything about this program, the

Eric Mataxis show, but rumors of this segment have just, it's become, there's a cult following across America. And there are people who have tuned into this show and they have purpose in their life, spring in their step, all because they were lured in with the fun of Fun Facts Friday. Wow. Yeah, no pressure. We've turned this thing around. I think we've turned the country around. You know what? Sometimes I overstate things, but in this case, I don't think so. not overstate it. I think we, you and I doing these Fun Facts Friday, you know, segments, I believe, I'm going out on a limb, but I'm going to say it, that we have turned the country around. Yay, the world. We're welcome. Yeah. We're welcome. We'll take it. Yeah. We're welcome.

There's people applauding right now all over America. I can hear them. Okay. So now part of Fun Facts Friday is we share Fun Facts. This is the Thanksgiving season, as everyone knows. Beautiful season. And so why don't we share some, some kooky Thanksgiving facts? What do you have for us. This is really great. I'm glad we began with the song because Thanksgiving in a sense began with a song. Really? It was a woman who came up with the song, Mary

had a little lamb. Now wait a second. Yes. I think your great learning has made you mad. No. No, it hasn't. You're not? No, I'm not. You're not blown smoke? I am not smoke blowing here. Sarah Josepha Hale is the woman that's instrumental. Josepha. See, I didn't therefore

was Josepha or Josepha. Because Josepha, isn't that the famous historian? No, that's Josephus. Okay, so I'm going to call it Josepha. Yeah, Josephus was a first century Roman historian. Well, she wrote the lyrics to it. Josepha. And this is all going to tie together.

Is she related to Edward Everett Hale? I don't think. You mean from the what's of F-Troop? Didn't he play an F-Troop? No. No. No, Edward Hale was a man of letters who lived in Boston in the 19th century. Okay, this...

Never mind. Okay, let's... This guy... You're thinking of Larry Storch. In fact, you're always thinking of Larry Storch. I've been mistaken. He played Corporal Aigarn. He did, and then Forrest Tucker played...

Forrest Tucker. Yes. Yeah. Oh, no, you know what? When I said Edward Everett Hale, you were thinking of Alan Hale who played in Gilligan's Island. No, I was thinking of Everett Horton.

Everett Everett Horton. Edward Horton was an actor, great actor, who played in all kinds of things. Character actor, yeah. And I thought he was in F-Trope at some point. for some played some weird. Holy cow, you're right. Oh, that is freaky.

I wonder if my engineer has picked up on this. Eric Hansen, this guy, Albin Seder, is what we call in the business, you know, when you're in show business, we call him a freaking genius. This guy just, listen, what you just said, Edward Everett Hale, in the twilight of his career, and most people don't know this,

but his career only had a twilight. That is true. But in the twilight of his career, he played an Indian on F troop. It was a special episode, and he had the feathered head, like 75 feather headdress, and he came on,

and if there's anybody in the planet who does not look like a Native American, you're looking at Edward Everett Horton. Okay, I mean, he was a pockmarked gentleman. Yeah, he was the chief of the Hakawe. Yeah, where the Hakawe. That's how the Indians got the name. They get to the edge of the cliff.

They didn't know where they were. They said, where the Hacawi. Yeah. Okay. But by the way, I love a new world. I think what people have already learned. I feel like we need to pull back on the learning. Well, here we go. Autodidactic polymath. Do you know what that is?

Yes, I do. Right. That's a person. It's a Greek word. Afto is self. Didacta's teaching. Polymath is. Oh, we're out of time.

Folks, we're going to be right back with more fun facts Friday. Oh my gosh. Buckle your seat belts. That old wheel is going to roll around once more when it does. It will even a bit. the score don't be weak as they so they will reap

turn the other cheek and don't give in that old wheel will roll around again when love is gone when love is gone and the one you thought would stay does you wrong

does you wrong oh boy and you're left alone to pay the prices high but somehow you'll survive don't give in that old wheel will roll around. More film bottle. Folks, you're listening to Fun Facts Friday, the Thanksgiving version.

Not Venison. Venison is a kind of meat. It is. A version. Fun Facts Friday. Yeah. So Albin Sater, you were beginning to share, and then we got off on this stuff, you're beginning to share that Thanksgiving began. You said with a song written by a woman whose last name is,

something Josepha Hale. Sarah. Sarah Joseph Hale. And you said it was Mary, what is it? Mary had a little lamb. She wrote that, that poem that became music. Mary, have a little lamb. She actually wrote that. But I actually thought that that was like a nursery rhyme going back to the 1600s.

She wrote that. She wrote that nursery rhyme back, and this is like the middle 1800s. Okay. And you would think that we would be eating lamb on Thanksgiving instead of turkey because of that little connection. but no, no, no, no, no. Now, this is interesting. She started a letter writing campaign to five different presidents to try to get Thanksgiving as a national holiday in America. And the first president she wrote to was Zachary Taylor, who only lived for about a year, and he died oddly enough of food poisoning.

You know, we eat a lot on Thanksgiving. Was it a turnip-based dish? That I don't know. But, you know, they did dig him up in 1991 to see if he had actually been poisoned. like he had been murdered. They were wondering about that, 1991. Do you remember this? Yeah, I was alive at that time.

I know, and you remember the news about that? When they exhumed him, not when he initially died. They exhumed, right, not when he initially died, but they exhumed him to check that out. And anyway, it went through five presidents. And finally, when she wrote to President Abraham Lincoln... Wait a minute, wait a minute. I don't remember the presidents before Lincoln, we had Buchanan. Buchanan, going backwards, Franklin Pierce was 14.

And then Millard, Millie Fillmore. Who can forget Millard Fillmore? Yeah, Millie called him. The answer is everybody. And before Millard Fillmore... And then, Zachary Taylor. Okay, so she wrote each of these presidents, back when you could write to the presidents. Right.

And she was bugging them to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. But where did she get that idea from? Just because of the Pilgrims? Well, there were other nations that had days of Thanksgiving. but she did tie it all in, part of our history. And this is also very interesting. There were only two national holidays during Abraham Lincoln's time. Now, Lincoln, of course, the country was not even 100 years old yet, but there were two nationally recognized holidays.

And everybody knows the 4th of July. That was nationally recognized. Do you know what the second nationally recognized holiday was back in? I can tell you right now it wasn't Christmas. It was, no, it's not Christmas. Hold on a second. Hold on. Was it Secretary's Day? No, that's close, though, if you think about it when you hear the answer.

But it has to do with the nation, of course, the founding of the nation and a founding father. Well, then I guess it would just have to be the birthday, February 22nd, 1732, George Washington's birthday. That's right. Did I win? Did I win? Did I win? Did you win? You won a pill bottle, Morocco.

Okay. Another happy winner. So now there were three national holidays. Okay, and she was a fascinating woman. Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. So she sends the letter to Lincoln. Is he aware that she sent the letter to four previous presidents? That I don't know.

I didn't read the actual letters. It was like, I've written that four. This is my fifth time. Blah, blah, blah. You just kind of wonder if he was aware of the provenance of this whole idea. Could be. But did she come up with, I mean, I guess I'm trying to puzzle out when you say that, you know, she wrote these presidents. I mean she was like you know the people that have a cause she had that was her

was she famous because she wrote Mary had a little lamb no she would well she was famous as a writer as a as a woman writer of the time in fact she had five children she was the editor of two different magazines oh you know what she had to be related to Edward Everett hail I'm going to look it up right now really okay that's very possible gody's ladies book was one of the places that she was the editor and she used to have to edit famous authors of her day like Nathaniel Hawthorne. Oh, my God. Imagine imagine editing Hawthorne. Right.

He said, excuse me, Mr. Horthorne, could you improve this sentence? Yeah, right. It's not very clear. When you say that Arthur Dimmesdale, you know, what do you mean? Can you clarify that? Okay, so for a second here, tell me her name again. Sarah Josiefa, Hale. Yeah.

Yeah. And other authors of the day, Oliver Wendell Holmes, one of my favorites, Washington Irving, You know, it's bring to take from, you know, she'd do that with these guys, of course. I got you, I got you. Now, she also had a novel called Northwood, Life of the North and South. Now, this is interesting because... It's it better because I have no idea where you're going. Okay, Sarah spoke out against the destructive nature of slavery of her day.

Okay, noting... Now, this is interesting, noting its ruinous dehumanizing effects not only on slaves, but also on masters. Yeah. How slavery affected masters, not just slaves. Of course. It degrades everybody. Exactly. Exactly. And people will sometimes forget these things. Now, here is the interesting coincidence about Mary had a lamb. Okay. Now, if you don't get a chill down your spine, it's just not cold enough, okay? Because here it is. She was 89 when she retired. Coincidentally, the same year she retired, 1877. Yeah. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. And what's the connection? I know. The first words he spoke. Mary had a little lamb.

Oh, wow. So, so, I'm sorry, what? So you're telling me that this woman wrote Mary Had a Little Lim. Like that right there is, that that's like saying I wrote Happy Birthday to You. Right. Or, you know, jingle bells. Like, that's a classic, you know, Mary Had a Little Lim. So she wrote that, number one.

Yeah. Number two. There's also a jingle bell connection. She sort of invented. You're kidding. No, I'm not kidding. I'm getting into some of the music now. You playing with my head, man? I am not playing with anyone's head.

Okay, so you, just to be straight here, just to be perfectly straight. So this woman wrote the president, that is why we have Thanksgiving. I'm just tracking us here, right? Right, right. We may have eventually gotten Thanksgiving, but she was the one that spearheaded it. She's the one that had some clout. She's the one that said, look, we've got to do this day of thanks. And it was thanking God at the time, thanking for all the great benefits upon our nation.

That was the idea. And just to be clear, Mary Had a Little Lamb was published in 1830, so that's how old that is. Yeah, it goes back. It goes back. So she was a writer of note, as they say. Right. Now, what I wanted to get into a little bit more, because this is kind of a musical, it's a musical holiday and, of course, Christmas is as well. It begins with the Thanksgiving holiday.

There's a song, there are a couple songs that are associated with Christmas that were actually written for specifically for the Thanksgiving season. I remember you telling me that before we went on the year and I'd love to hear this because this sounds kooky. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. I'm going to go with it.

Go for it. The first song, and this is kind of obvious, over the river and through the wood. Now, this was written again, Middle 1800s, 1844, Lydia Maria Child wrote over the river and through the wood. And it was specifically for Thanksgiving. But wait, wait, wait, 1844, you're telling me there was no Thanksgiving. Ooh, that's a good one. And you know what?

I have an answer. Yeah. They had local, they had states, certain states. I just saved your bacon, my friend. My bacon is. Because you dared to come in here. I heard the sizzle and you saved. I was just about to say, what do we pay you for?

That's right. No, but seriously. No, that's true. 1844, it wasn't a national holiday, but it was a regional and state holiday. Yes. And so this woman wrote, somebody wrote the song over the river and through the grandmother's house, we go. Right.

The horse knows the way to carry. But, you know, the original title was Over the River and Through the Wood to Grandfather's House. We go. It was originally Grandfather's House. And the last line of the second verse goes like this. Over the River and through the wood to Grandfather's House away, we would not stop for doll or top for Tiss Thanksgiving Day. And some have changed that lyric to Christmas Day. It's pronounced Tiz.

Tis. Tis. Did I mispronounce that? Yes. Tis. Save my baby. making again. There you go.

It's a good thing. This is the dress rehearsal. That's why you have a dress rehearsal album. Thank you. This stuff cannot happen when you're on the air. Okay, so that song, which we associate with Christmas, was written for Thanksgiving. Before it was a national holiday. Yes.

And I'm glad you corrected that because you're right. There were little pockets of Thanksgiving being celebrated. And that explains why she's writing these letters. She's saying this is so great. It's such a great idea. It should be a national holiday. Because that's the same, with Father's Day and Mother's Day and all that, they all started that way, too. Little places said like, hey, let's do Mother's Day.

Let's celebrate fathers. And she said, we need a natural, or different people who brought them to the presidents at the time. Right. We need something national along these lines. Now, when I was growing up, I don't know if you remember this quirky song, but my sister, older sister Karen taught me the Mr. Turkey song. I heard Mr. Turkey say gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble. This could be the out music, couldn't this? Soon will be Thanksgiving Day.

gobble, gobble, gobble, people say it is great fun, but I think that I shall run and hide until that day is done. Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble. You never... I'm sorry, what? I wasn't even listening. What are you doing? Well, that's... Just kidding. We've got to go to a break. I've actually never heard that song, but this is Fun Facts Friday

with Albin Sater. Folks, Fun Facts Friday. We're not kidding, but we are having fun. Investors, seeking steady cash flow, ready to diversify. NRIA has grown to be one of the nation's leading specialists and offers 10% annualized monthly payouts with bonuses targeted at 18 to 21%. That's right, you could receive steady 10% return monthly payments with bonuses. As their slogan says, they specialize in realty investing done right. You can even use your 401k or IRA to invest. NRA's 15-year track record and 1.2 billion in new construction development backs you. Learn how you can invest in this hard asset,

real estate cash flow fund today and receive 10% annualized monthly payouts with bonuses. This is something savvy investors should research and consider. Call now 800, 700, 500, 5483. That's 800, 700, 5483 or visit nria.net. Folks, I got some embarrassing news to share with you, but you know what? This is just the kind of a show where I don't care. I'm willing to lay my heart you know, on the line. Here's the issue. Mike Lindell with My Pillow, you may notice that I have a Bobblehead of him near me.

He's here to remind all of us that when you go to MyPillow.com, you get whopping discounts if you use the code Eric, okay? Now, there are a lot of people who haven't done that, and we have your names here. And Chris Heim's Ann Albin pointed out to me that there's like three pages, of you whose first name is Eric. You, yourself, I mean, that's humiliating for me that even though your name is Eric,

you're still not willing to use the code Eric. I mean, if you don't want to use it because it's my name, use it because it's your name. But the point is that I see who you are, and I just feel humiliated by this. Please go to go to mypillar.com. It's okay, Mike. It's going to be okay. Go to mypillar.com. Use the code Eric.

You're going to get whopping savings and really, high quality products. Did I, did I mention that? Thank you. Oh, please. That's nightmares to me. I know. It's a nightmare for you because Alvin and the chipmunks, your name is Al Ben. But they didn't get the memo. They didn't get the memo. It's not about Thanksgiving. It's not about Thanksgiving. You know, they're so cute. But I've always hated those chipmunks. I don't know why, but I always hate it. Don't hate them. Oh, love, love. Man, they make me mad. I'm hot right now. Ooh, I'm so hot. I'm angry. Okay, so we're talking about Thanksgiving.

It's Fun Facts Friday. And what do you got? What other information do you have there? The great Irving Berlin wrote all those patriotic songs. Not to be confused with Irving Berlin the lesser. Yes. This is Irving Berlin the greater wrote. And, you know, they've revived Holiday Inn.

It's on Broadway now here in New York City. Oh, that's right. And one of the holiday songs was a Thanksgiving song called I've got plenty to be thankful for. It's in the movie and in the play. Who sings it, Rosemary Clooney? No, no. Bing Crosby sings it. He sings it sarcastically because at that point in the show,

his best friend has stolen his girlfriend and gone to Hollywood. Well, there's nothing like sarcastic Bing. Right. So he said, I've got plenty to be thankful for, you know. So it's a Thanksgiving song written by Irving Berlin. I almost said Washington Irving because that guy's always on my mind. I know. You are always on my mind.

But there's a song that's come to be associated, another song. with Christmas that was originally written in the 1800s, again, for Thanksgiving. And it was a young composer for a church. He was for a church choir in Medford, Massachusetts. His name was James Pierpont, okay? And he was given the task of coming up with some music for their Thanksgiving program. What year was this again? This was in the mid-1800s.

So again, before it was a national holiday. Right. And he was sitting by the window at his parents' house. So, again, kids lived at home back in those days, too. And he was watching a kid. kids outside playing and he said, forget this. I'm going to go out and go sledding with these kids. So then when he came back in, he was warming himself by the fire. He picked up his pen and he started writing the words and the music to capture the playful spirit that he just came in

from the cold about. And he titled that, One Horse Open Slay, also known as Jingle Bells. Where's the Bells? We don't have any bells. Wait a minute. Next week, let's bring in Bells. This happened. He was specifically writing this for Thanksgiving. So you're a lot of it. actually giving us this fun fact. Yeah. That jingle bells was written for Thanksgiving. No kidding. Yeah, no kidding. People are going to be sharing this all over America. I hope so. I hope so. It's supposed to be sung at Thanksgiving. Jingle bells, jingle bells. Jingle all the way. Well, you weigh yourself after eating all that turkey. No, you know what's weird about jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells in our

minds we associate ching ching ching ching with sanity clause right yeah well this what's interesting again is a lot of this stuff was done in the north where we are right now and we will have snow before thanksgiving sometimes sometimes that's right they sled and they're the jingle bells of the horses drawing the sleighs and of course it begins uh uh because it's one horse open sleigh and he's really singing about taking a ride and the one horse open sleigh so it really doesn't have anything Or the fields we go, laughing all the way. Ha, ha, ha. They're on their way to grandmother's house, we go, or grandfather's house.

The correct. Bells on Bob Tales ring, making spirits bright. Right. Okay. What fun it is to ride. In a slaying song. I don't know what that was. So it was something I ate. But seriously, that's, I can't believe it, jingle bells.

Of all the songs, you could have picked. to be a Thanksgiving song. Who would even believe you? I know. And I was a little flabbergasted myself. James Pierpont. And you can... I mean, when you say that,

do you feel like you're living a lie somehow? No, that's the thing. I think I'm living in the truth. I'm facing it, you know? You're facing the truth. I'm facing the fact that I sang all these wonderful Christmas songs when I should have been singing them a month or so earlier. Right.

You see what I'm saying now? I'm starting to come face to face with myself in reality. Incredible. It's incredible. And you know what? You have a bounce in your step that you didn't have before this kind of stuff of, you know, came into your life. You've faced the darker side of Albin. And I'm starting to snap my fingers a little bit more. You know, the fact you're such a show off with the finger snapping because nobody else can do that.

But did you take lessons? You didn't take lessons. You just learned how to do that? I just learned it. I just walked in the studio and Eric said, how about this? And he just did one of them. And I was like, wait a minute, do you mean? It's almost like it was meant to be because most people, I want to stick on this because people are just, they, they love these facts. What else do we have? Okay. I actually thought I would get to stuffing. You know, once you get overstuffed and what's, what's that stuff in the turkey that makes you sleepy? That they call, oh, tryptophan. Triptofan. Triptofan, I take pills of tryptophan. They're shaped like teeny weenies. They're little, they're little, you know,

gelatinous pills. Yeah. And they help you sleep. They do. Yeah. Okay. Well, a lot of people start get sleepy. And of course, when you get sleepy and you start to undo your belt and you start to fall asleep in front of the great football games that are part of the national tradition now, right? It's the next day that you wake up and say, oh, my goodness, what did I do? How much did I eat? Right. How am I going to lose this weight? Right. And we'll talk about weight losing projects that you might get yourself into. Some diets. Now they're called weight loss projects. Yeah, or diets, is it? Or diets. Is it?

Or diets. D-I-E-T-S. That's right. I'm writing about the diet of worms right now. That's my Luther book. Isn't that a good... It's wonderful. People are going to be excited to order that book when they think of Thanksgiving turkey.

Now, seriously, Albin, when we come back, I want you to look me in the eyes and say, Eric, I'm not kidding. Jingle Bells is a thing. Don't say it yet. Jingle Bells is a Thanksgiving song. I want you to think about it through the commercial break and when we come back, because I need to No, if you're joking. You can't be, you can't play with our heads this way. We'll be right back. I've got plenty to be thankful for. I haven't got a great big yacht to sail from shore to shore.

Still, I've got plenty to be thankful for. I've got plenty to be thankful for. No private jar, no caviar, no caviar, no bar. carpet on my floor till I've got plenty to be thankful for Hey What do you think

That's Derbingle Derbingle I just thank you Eric Hanson That's our engineer That's terrific Do you know what Salem Media, Salem Radio

pays Eric Hanson Not enough No Not enough I'm glad Phil Boyce never listens to the show I saw him out there with a sign $15 an hour minimum. Because Phil Boyce, you need to make this right. Okay. You need to make this right. That kind of talent ought not to come so cheap. And I'm, you know what I'm doing right now.

And it's supposedly like a Christian organization. Oh, I would never say that on the air because they, you know, they don't want anybody to know. I saw the quote marks. Yeah. I saw that. But seriously, we're talking, when we went to the break, you said, this is fun facts Friday. So we got to tell the truth. I'm looking you in the eye. You're telling me jingle bells. Jingle bells was written for Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving. Jingle bells. Thanksgiving. True or false? True.

Okay. I'm sorry. I yell at you. Was that me? Okay. So now, so yeah, so big part of Thanksgiving, since this is a special Fun Facts Friday Thanksgiving version, is eating. It's about eating.

And you get sleepy and eat too much and all that kind of stuff. And then, you know, you wake up under a tree someplace and you say, well, what's become of me? Yeah. So you, you want to talk about diets. Yeah. Yeah. When you wake up under a tree, it's probably.

doubly at Christmas tree. I know. But you eat so much that you go into hibernation. But tell me, what do you want to talk about in terms of diets? I want to talk about a diet, but I want to talk about one more thing before we get to that diet. There's one more big thing that people like to eat around Thanksgiving. That's a football tradition now, the turduckin.

You've heard this. Oh, yeah. It's a turkey stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken. Okay, a turduckin. It's disgusting. It is disgusting. It's as bad as Tofurky. Toferky.

Now that one... Tofurky is a turkey made of tofu. Oh, gosh, please. Please, no. And flavored with turkey flavoring. Okay. Fake turkey flavoring. Well, there's, there are plenty of ways to lose weight.

You know, there are so many diets. A lot of them come along as fads. They come and they go. Yeah. And I have found people in my family have actually lost weight by just giving up, like, wheat, potatoes, muffins, donuts. Just cut down on the wheat, you know, the whole gluten-free thing. The starch stuff.

Yeah, the starchy stuff. Because there's no wheat in potatoes that I'm aware of. No, unless it's like a turduckin. It's a wheat tato. You never had a wheat tato before now. Very tasty, actually, yeah. Yeah. But there's a diet called the dash diet, D-A-S-H, which, and this is interesting because

some of these diets came about when they were trying to cure certain diseases. And they said to folks, you've got to give up this, got to give up that. And one of the byproducts would be losing weight. so people actually use them to lose weight. The dash diet, this is serious, stands for dietary approaches to stop hypertension. And basically... High blood pressure. Yeah, there you go.

And you can eat a variety of grains and fruits and, you know, vegetables, even meats, okay, but you have to stay away from the traditional bad guys like sugar, salt, and fat. Okay, kind of makes sense, right? It's what people have kind of known for years, in years. Sugar, salt, and fat. that. Dada. Okay.

Now, there's a diet called, again, along the lines of getting healthy, okay, just being a healthier person. The therapeutic lifestyle change, TLC for short, isn't that cute? Okay. Yeah. And that's because of your heart. This was designed for keeping you your heart, like clockwork. And you're not permitted, okay, to eat a chunk of salami wrapped in bacon with a big smear of

butter. That's out on that one. Okay. There goes Thursdays in the Metaxus house. Okay. There's one called the Flexitarian Diet, okay? And this is protein. Sounds yummy.

You get meats like eggs and beans and nuts and peas and tofu. That replaces your meat intake. It's called Flexitarian. So you kind of flex between having some eggs, having some beans, having some nuts, peas, and your tofu. Okay. Wait, why do they think cutting out meat? Is that just because it's... It's that red meat thing.

that starts to clog the arteries, right? Oh, right. Actually, and this is serious since meeting my wife, Ann, I went from pretty much eating hamburgers or red meat almost every day to, you know, chicken most of the times. I have a hamburger, you know, maybe once or twice. And you're, and you had like 40% fewer heart attacks. I've, yeah, in fact, 40% of nothing is, well, I'm going to figure that.

It's nothing. It's nothing, yeah. Now, you know, there's a diet called the paleo diet. Yeah, my daughter's been on the paleo diet. The caveman diet. And I did it with her for a while. Yeah. Yeah.

And the idea here, you're supposed to eat like you're distant or our distant. You have to eat. This is the grossest part. We had to eat the raw haunch of a saber-toothed tiger. It was disgusting. Yeah. Because we didn't invent fire yet. No.

Oh, see, you're not supposed to. But the raw haunch. Raw is not as bad as the rib cage. Okay. I can see that. Oh, it's disgusting. But our Alaskan ancestors did this. Well, they were into grains and dairy products, okay, and they had fish.

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Who? The, our Alaskan answer. So we're past the paleo. We're past the paleo. Yeah. This is the Aleutian diet. Well, I have this also under the case.

Because you'll be illusion weight like crazy. There you go. See, the problem with some of these diets, and this is probably the number one thing. And again, this is kind of common sense. People can't stick to them because they start trying it. And at first, you know how you do it. Just like, oh, I could do this. and then suddenly like, I can't do this anymore.

Well, I mean, for example, I fast every single day between meals. I do that every day of my life. It's working, too. But then eventually, it just, you say, nah, I got to have lunch. Now, my friend Steve and his wife, Jan, they have a great diet. Actually, it's a diet for Steve. You know, we've heard of Weight Watchers. It's called Wife Watchers.

Right. His wife watches him and says, Steve, you can't eat that. Right. Nope, no, Steve, I'm sorry. Stop eating. Okay, you've had enough. And that's the Wife Watchers diet? wife watch your diet. That is brilliant. Because most husbands have wives, they can do that.

They can do it. Or get your... You don't need to spend any extra money. Get your diet buddy and get there and start losing some weight now, folks. You know, people walk around with those big buttons. Lose 10 pounds. Ask me how? I asked the guy one day and he said, yeah, cut off your head. Oh, hello. No, no, the line is to be, you want to lose 10 pounds of ugly fat. And then you say, yeah, how do I do that? Cut off your head. All right. Again, this is the dress rehearsal. next time we're going to get all this stuff right. Get rid of that. Keep this. So this is fun.

Folks, this is Fun Facts Friday. I know you're learning some facts. You've got to be having some fun, and I can vouch for the fact that it's Friday. Okay, yeah, that's full disclosure. Whether it is or it is, and I can vouch for it. We'll be right back. She can't. has almost made me tame.

I can't pronounce a name. The Eggplant. Hey. It's the Irkman Taxi show. That's a song about eating eggplant. I just thought we'd get that in. Nummy. Thanksgiving.

I'm thankful I did not eat egg plant. I don't plan to. You know, I just want to know what's the Aramaic word for Nummy. Okay, so we've just got a couple of minutes. It's fun facts Friday. It's the Thanksgiving. version, yeah, version, whatever you want to call it.

I've got to share at least one untrue fact. It's kind of tradition around here. We've shared a lot of true facts. It's only fair. It's only fair that we share some untrue facts. Lawrence Cotter, the soaking wet man who first uttered the phrase, don't cross the bridge before you come to it,

now never leaves home without a towel. Wow. Yep. Untrue. Don't cross that bridge before you come to it. It was invented by the road. This guy, Mr. Carter. Lawrence Carter.

Yep. Gee whiz. I'm so glad that's not true. No, we do have people sending in their fun facts. People, and we, if somebody wants to send in a fun fact, true or untrue, where do they send it? Well, send it to SADAR, SADA-R at Slycraft.com. SADAR, S-D-A-R at Slycraft.com. Yeah, my website is Slycraft.com, but come to or send it to SADAR at slycraft.com.

Okay. Here's a, now this, sometimes you don't know if these are true or untrue. But people send them in and you want to be nice to them, right? And share them. Let's see. There are three things the human brain cannot resist noticing, okay? Three things you can't resist noticing. Food, attractive people, and danger.

Okay? And I do think that's true when you really think about it, right? Let's go. Do I have to think about it? Yeah, well, let's think about danger, for example. You know how many people will rubber neck? Whenever there's an accident on the side of the road, it's always like, oh, what's That's got nothing to do with danger.

That has to do with prurient interests. Okay. That's one of the fun facts it was sent in. P-R-U-R-I-E-N-T, prurient. Go ahead. This one, I hope to never find out if this is true or not. You can survive without eating for weeks, but you will only live 11 days without sleeping. Yes, without sleeping.

11 days. That's horrific. Yeah. Keith Richards set that record. Yeah. You know, and I believe that means, you know, not like when they recorded exile on Main Street, he was on so much drugs that it was like 11 days, I think. Go ahead. Now, this is, this is, we talked about the human brain and it has like uses 10 watts of power.

Right. Well, a human brain has a capacity to store five times as much information as Wikipedia. Oh, come on. Isn't that something? No, that doesn't seem possible. Well, you know, that's because you don't remember everything. Where did you look at it? Where did you find that on Wikipedia?

I told you. It was sent in. No, I think that's from WikiLeaks. No, but seriously, that was just sent in to you? Yeah, yeah. I don't want to use names when, uh, when it's, it's really disturbing when we don't know whether it's true or false. I'm going to call that. Okay, you're going to call that.

False. Okay. Now, this one is perfect for Fun Facts Fridays. People who laugh a lot are healthier than those. who don't. And we know that's true. What a perfect, it's a perfect note to end on

this wonderful special Thanksgiving version of Fun Facts Friday. Folks, that's the show. If you like it, send it to your friends. If you didn't like it, don't tell us. Yeah, don't tell anybody.