The Eric Metaxas Show - Fun Facts Friday - Valentine's Edition (Encore)

Episode Date: February 13, 2021

Cupid has his arrows at the ready! It's an encore presentation of Fun Facts Friday where you and your main squeeze can learn a chocolate-covered ton of lovey-dovey essentials that are sure to enlighten any romantic evening! (Encore Presentation)

is Friday. And Friday on the Eric Matackson show can only mean three things that yesterday was Thursday, that tomorrow technically is Saturday, and today is Fun Facts Friday with Albin Sater. Fun Facts Friday. That's why I'm here. I woke up. I said, whoa, what am I doing here? And here I am. And here you are. Yeah. I know. I was wondering, why were you sleeping in the corner? I guess you were hibernating for such a time as this. That's why you have that sharp stuff. stick here in the office. Yeah. Well, you have to poke sleeping people because, you know, it's a, you see those people sleeping over there? Yeah. That's Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Yep. You know what? They sleep here and, uh, they save on rent. Chris Himes is also here.

Yeah. Chris, did you know that it's fun fact Friday? I did. I did. Because you saw Albin. Yeah. That's right. Can I know, and sometimes when I, uh, when I screw up scheduling and I forget about Friday in Almond, well, you know why. He just appears. By the way, I really enjoyed the premiere of wacky Wednesdays with my twin brother. You got rid of, you jettisoned the old listener calls. Yeah, we didn't, we didn't air wacky Wednesday. Oh, you didn't? No. What was I listening to? I don't know how well you know your twin

brother, but he has Tourette's. And we, it's a family program and we will just not be able to air that. Half the time I don't see or no, I know why. Oh, since we're doing shoutouts. Wait, but how many twin brothers do you have? I just have that one. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think. How long have you guys been twins? Five minutes after I was born. I was like, whoa, what's going on here?

Really? Yeah, that was my twin brother was right behind me there. Did you resent him immediately? No, I kind of liked him. Does he resent you? Yeah, I looked at him and said, what a handsome guy. Do you think liking him is narcissism? Ooh, now see, that's a little too deep for fun facts, right?

Okay. All right, so we're going to try to keep a shallow. It's February 10th today, which means that in a few days it's Valentine's Day. Yes, exactly. So I think maybe we should talk about fun Valentine facts. I got quite a few. But can I just start with one shout-out? One shout-out to my father-in-law, Jack.

He's a big, big fan of Fun Facts Friday. Really? Yeah, yeah. He told me this. He really likes that Eric Metaxus. And then, of course, I said to him, you know, and I wasn't really fishing for a compliment, but I said, well, what do you think about me on the show? And he said, you're on that show?

Really. Wow. That's just the kind of father-in-law. That's a Zane. That really builds you up. I love my father-in-law, Jack, my mother-in-law, Nancy. A big shout-out to them. And Valentine's Day, of course, to my wife, my beautiful Anne up there in that, Terry Town.

Does your wife know about Ann? Be careful, because a lot of people listen to this program. I know. Well, my wife is Ann with an E. It's Valentine's Day in a few days. And so we're going to talk about some Valentine's facts. Yeah, sandwich between two weekends, which really makes it kind of like a 10-day, you know, whole. You know, almost every single work week, I think literally every one,

one is sandwiched between two weekends. They, but, but Valentine's, you don't even need to say two weekends. Sandwich between implies two. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Don't leave off the mayonnaise. And now, you know, of course, St. Valentine's Day, just like St. Patrick's Day and St. Nicholas is, is for Christmas or, you know, St. Nicholas Day, December 6th. We've got Valentine, a real saint. He was a real saint. And the interesting part about this, he had, he was arrested and thrown into prison. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah.

St. Valentine was arrested and thrown into prison? Yeah. When did St. Valentine live? Around 270 AD. Oh, this is a long time ago. Oh, yeah. Well, that's where this whole tradition.

So he's probably dead by now. Well, right. But not in our hearts. No, no. Because it's Valentine's state. So he lived 270 AD. Where did he live? He lived in, in their area of Rome.

He was a bishop in the area of Rome. So he was St. Valentinus. Well, something along those lines. Now, he was supposed to deny his faith in Christ in front of Emperor Claudius at the time. And when he didn't, of course, he was thrown into prison. Now, when he was in prison, he performed a miracle. You know how the church has. You have to have two bona fide miracles.

And one was that he miraculously cured one of the guards' daughters of, she couldn't see, couldn't hear. and he gave miraculous healing. And soon after that miracle, and this I find very interesting, he was executed. And the day that he was executed was February 14th. So it's not his birth. Coincidence? I think not. But the idea is it's not his birthday, like Washington's birthday, A. Blinken birthday.

It was the day he was marty. Because he wasn't just executed. He was martyred for his faith. He was martyed for his faith. But that's his death date and not. There are a couple other saints that we celebrate that are like that. I can't remember if it's St. Patrick, but one of those famous saints. But now, do you know why we do this on our cards?

You may have done this. The X's and O's where they come from. Now, the X is easy, right? See, this is Fun Facts Friday. Truly. Truly. You learn stuff because I don't know where did the X's and O's come from. Chris, did you know?

I did not, actually. I have no idea. Well, the first one's going to be easy because we all know that X. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Chris is texting someone. Chris, No, what's happening?

He's trying to get the answers. Here's the thing. You mentioned two miracles and you left me hanging. Like, are you coming back to, because I want to know what number two is. I did not. I do not know what the second miracle is.

That's what I'm looking at. He lives on his phone. He's younger than we are. No, they might have given him a molligan on one of them. I don't know. Okay. So tell us where do the X's and O's come from?

The X, of course, was the old, you'd sign with an X, was a Christian form, and it meant Christ, okay, X for Christ. and the X in the Greek Christos, right?

But in the old days, they used to do, if you did a document and you couldn't have a signature, you did an X. Right. But here, to seal it, when you sealed the deal, you actually kissed your signature and you kissed the X. I didn't know that we just learned something in Fun Facts Friday. That's why we're here. I love this. I love this.

Okay. Now, why the O? The O is also a simple one once you hear it. The O originated in this country to represent some. someone wrapping their arms. You know what? That's what I thought it was. I'm not kidding.

When I saw the X's and the O's, it feels like. Yeah. Give me a great big hug. Now, I found this kind of interesting, too. There are Valentine traditions that go back to the Middle Ages. And one of them were guys and gals would get around. They'd pull names out of like a hat or a bowl or something like that. And if you pulled somebody's name out, you had to wear it on your sleeve for like a week during the Valentine's season.

Chris, did you know this? I did not. To wear your heart on your sleeve is that because you're not. Are you kidding? That's where the romance part of it. Where your heart on your sleeve. We just learned something. So wait, say this again.

In the middle ages. In the middle ages, they had different like Valentine Day games. And this one I found really fascinating where their names of everybody in the party would be put into a bowl. Right. And, you know, the guys would pick the girls out of the one ball. Yeah. The girls, the guys have another. And if you pick the girl's name, you had to pin it to your sleeve.

wear her name, and I guess think about her for a week. So you'd wear your heart on your sleeve. So you're wearing your heart on your sleeve. That is so sweet. And here are some superstitions you could enjoy on Valentine's Day. Quarky customs and superstitions, I put it that way. Quirky customs. That's a great category. Now, this one, you're going to see where I live in Westchester County a lot and probably in the parks here in Manhattan. Right. If you see a squirrel on Valentine's Day, look away, look away. It's bad. It's a bad omen. It means that the person, that you will marry if you're not married. Is it going to have fat cheeks?

No, well, it's going to be a cheap skate. And that makes sense because, you know, the squirrels and they, like you said, with the fat cheeks, they squirrel them up. So if you are a single person and on Valentine's Day you see a squirrel, you will be cursed by having a stingy wife, probably a Scottish woman. Well, see, now that's a place I'm not going to go because this is a day of love. And it's actually better to do birdwatching because I, If you spot a goldfinch, okay, that means you're going to marry a millionaire.

A millionaire. Not a squirrel. Man, I wish I was single with a pair of binoculars right now. How about that? Okay, Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. This I also, I love, this is kind of cute. The post office in Verona, Italy. Okay, that's the setting of the play, Romeo and Juliet.

They get about a thousand letters every February 14th addressed to Juliet. Really? Yeah. And what do they do with them? Burn them? Well, it's like the Santa Claus letters. What do they do with them? They probably take them to Juliet's grave.

I have a poem about Romeo and Juliet real quick. Here it is. Twas in a restaurant they met, Romeo and Juliet. He had no cash to pay the debt. So Romi owed what Julieette. Thank you very much. That was nice. That was nice.

And Jesus came. like a stranger in the night. Let there be no doubt, Big Tech and the far left have joined forces to purge America of conservative views. But even if you keep your accounts, you don't have to give big tech websites access to your data. That's why I choose to protect my online activity

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An offer to buy or sell any security is only made by our private placement memorandum. Read it first. See us at nria.net. Fun Facts Friday edition with Al Bin Seder. And Chris, I'm sitting here in the studio. And we are learning fun facts, important and unimportant facts, but all true facts. We haven't learned any untrue facts in a while, and that's fine. Yeah. And by the way, most of them are centered around Valentine's Day.

I'm going to try to keep this all Valentine's Day. Later, I want to read a little something that's a beautiful little piece for my wife dedicated to wives. Really? Yeah. Yeah. You're going to do a shout out to beautiful Anne in Westchester? There you go. No jokes about, okay.

Here's something that, okay, let's get back. She's off limits, Eric. I know, Eric. She is off limits. I don't know. It's like, I'm looking at Eric waiting for something to come out of his mouth. I like Anne. I like Anne.

We all like Anne. I've liked all your wives. It's not my issue. Okay. How much Sandra Graham Bell? February 14th is the day, okay, on that date back in 1876, Bell took out the patent for the telephone. So what is the significance?

Every time you pick up the phone and call your loved one and say, I love you, think of Alexander Graham Bell. February 14th, 1876, the patent for the phone. It's so funny because I'll never remember that. And you know why I won't remember it? Because I couldn't care less. Let's move on. February 14th. A lot of people propose that get proposed or, you know.

Engaged. Yeah. A lot of people getting engaged. You get engaged. On February 14th, Valentine's Day, of course. What a wonderful time to get engaged. Now, the way it works in reverse, and we went through this last year on February 29th was, of course, the day. See, now, hold on.

He's halfway through that sentence. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's pivoted. It's pirouetted twice. Yeah. So I'm already lost. Yeah. So say that again what you just said, because I've no idea.

A lot of people put out that marriage proposal on February 14th, Valentine's Day. Right, right. Right. Right. Right. Correct. But the proposal where it's turned around, like a guy usually, and almost always does the asking, that's tradition.

But on February 29th, which of course is leap year, and there's that one day every four years, that is when a woman is allowed to turn it around and say, hey. Is that called Sadie Hawkins Day? No, actually, Sandy Hawkins Day is a different day. Okay, but anyway, so women, if you can wait four years, you can, you will have Albin's permission to ask a man to marry you. St. Patrick and St. Bridget actually came up with that in real life. They came up with that idea to turn it around because women couldn't wait for guys.

Because, you know, back then, you didn't have a man, you didn't have a marriage. You didn't have a house. Yeah, there you go. You could be out in the street. But if a man, and this is interesting again to me and maybe just to me, but if a man turns down a woman's marriage proposal, there's a steep penalty. It's six more weeks of winter. She tells him to take a leaf.

No, he has to buy her a pair of gloves. Thank you very much, folks. I'm here all. A pair of gloves. Where do you get this information? I get it on the Internet. I get it in my dreams. There's a network of people that leave tips in bathroom stores.

But wait a minute. This makes sense. The reason why she has to buy her a pair of gloves is because she wants to cover up her hands to show that she doesn't have an engagement ring because he turned her down. See, it all makes sense. So these are, but these are ancient. These are ancient traditions. Traditions and sex.

And we're no longer living in ancient times. Now, you wanted something that might be a little bit untrue. And this is supposition big time, but this is a fun fact about Cupid. Okay. Okay. When Cupid first started shooting people with arrows to get them to fall in love, okay? Yeah. They complained about the pain.

So he switched to handing them flowers and chocolate. But when they started to fall in love with him, him, he went back to shooting them with arrows. Right. I think that was in ancient times, that would have been some kind of joke. But fortunately, in modern times, it's just an unsequitur. So, but anyway, Alvin, listen, it's been great having you. Just leave your resume with the secretary.

And, you know, we'll get back to you. Okay. I have. Yes, no. I was just going to say bow and arrow. I guess that is attached in some way to Cupid, the good. God of, right. But where does Cupid come from?

Well, I don't know. Who's Cupid? Was he the son of Dionysus or something? He was the god of, I don't look at me like that. He was a little cherub guy with a bow and arrow. I believe he was a god of diapers. By the way, by the way, never mind. Let's move on.

Okay. I want to move on very quickly. I was going to mention one thing when I was on my phone trying to find out if Valentine had done a second miracle. They talk about how the legend of the Valentine's... You know, we can hear you drinking your diet beverage and showing the because it's radio. That's the crazy thing.

It's radio. People all across the world, there are people listening on podcast in Uzbekistan, whatever. They thought that was the pill bottle Morocco. Yeah, that's right. Anyway, I was going to say he mentioned the first miracle, which was healing the jailer's blind and possibly mute daughter. Well, the other legend where the card, Valentine's card comes from,

is that the day of his execution, he left a, Can you mind Alvin is blowing his nose, and I want our listeners to see if they can get that. He is, yeah, he's huddled over trying to hide the note, but it's not working. I'm glad we're not on television. Let's put it that way. Yeah. I wish we weren't on radio either. Okay, so go ahead.

Okay. The legend of the Valentine card. Okay. It comes from the fact that they say Valentine left a card for the jailer's daughter whom he had healed and signed it your Valentine. Really? Yeah. Your Valentine. I get it.

Oh, I thought it said no starch in the shirts next time. Oh, man. Okay. Yeah. So that's where that comes from. All right, Albin. I love that. See, now that's...

Albin, I would like to give you a chance... Somebody's doing his job around here. I'd like to give you a chance to raise your F to a D, so please go ahead. Okay. Oh, boy. Now, this I dug and dug and looked and looked, and maybe our viewers and our viewers, here we go. Our listeners might be able to help me out with this. Everybody, a lot of people talk about a lover's moon, right?

A lover's moon. Listen, kids listen to this show, all right? We don't need them talking about that. Okay. Now, in the song, Marine Maldare sings, midnight at the oasis, you know, send your camels to bed. She says... Hold on. Hold on.

Do you believe this guy? He's like galloping along. He's taking it for granted that we know that. I've never heard of it in my life. No, well, you have, but that's, I was just going to interrupt because I was going to like, if you're my age, you might remember Midnight at the Oasis from the 70s. Yeah, maybe. But anybody, you know, younger than like 45 will definitely not know the song.

So. Well, I'm trying to get to what I'm talking about here. But first you talk about a lover's moon. That's right. But I'm talking about the definition of a lover's moon is found in the song where she says, Heaven's holding a half moon shining just for us. Okay, so heaven's holding a half moon. Shining just for us.

Yeah. Okay. So that comes from... Midnight at the oasis. Right, but that's from the 70s. What does this have to do with a lover's moon? Well, because then I look up lover's moon. And a half moon, of course, is half of a moon.

Oh, really? And I... Yes. And I start finding that the full moon in different phases and different colors has been referred to as a lover's moon at certain points. But there's no official lover's moon. If you go to Farmer's Almanac, okay, here's another source. I'm revealing it.

None of the moons from January through December, every month has like two or three moons in it. None of them is called a lover's moon. The closest we get is June, and it's because June is the month of weddings, right? The most 16% of all weddings are in June. It's fascinating. It's my show. I'm listening as carefully as I can, and I have no idea what he's talking about. But that's okay.

That's probably just me. It could be the antibiotics. He's going to bring it home. So what I'm talking about is the lover's moon. So what is it? So that's it. But that's my question. What is a lover's moon in particular, like exactly pinpointed?

I tried Googling it. I tried, you know, dreaming about it. I couldn't come up with the, yeah. But in June, so this is the closest I can come. In June, where most weddings take place, they have what's called a mead moon, a strawberry moon, and a rose moon. Now, that's the closest you can come, but it's not called a lover's moon in particular because I imagine if English weren't his first language. Like, I'm straining. Actually, American is my first language.

But hang on a second. What are you talking about? What is a strawberry moon? What is like what? There are people all over the world listening and saying, I speak English fairly well and I have no idea what he's saying. Because people are like I proposed under a lover's moon or, you know, let's go and embrace under a lover's moon. But what kind of moon are you talking about? Is it half?

I don't know. That's why we bring you here to tell us. But that's why I couldn't. I looked. I couldn't find it. What is a strawberry moon? A strawberry moon is. It's like when you have a rash?

No, it's when you pick the strawberries. You're supposed to win the full moon in June comes out. That's when you pick your strawberries. That's why it's called a strawberry moon. Let's listen to this song. Maria Moldauer. Let there be no doubt, big tech and the far left have joined forces to purge America of conservative views. But even if you keep your accounts, you don't have to give big tech websites access to your data.

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Take back your online privacy with the VPN I trust at ExpressVPN. com slash metaxis. By visiting my link, you'll get an extra three months of ExpressVPN service for free on a one-year package. Again, that's ExpressVPN.com slash metaxus, E-X-P-R-E-S-V-P-N dot com slash metaxus, express. com slash metaxus to protect your data today. Hey, folks, I've got to tell you a secret about relief factor that the father, son, owners Pete and Seth Talbot, have never made a big deal about, but I think it is a big deal.

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People don't keep ordering relief factor month after month if it doesn't work. So, yes, Pete and Seth are literally on a mission to help as many people as possible. deal with their pain. They really do put their money where their mouths are. So if you're in pain from exercise or even just getting older, or to the three-week quick start for 1995, let's see if we can get you at a pain too. Go to relieffactor.com. Relieffactor.com or call 800-500-384-800-50-3-8-4. Relieffactor. I use it. It works. Investors seeking steady cash flow, ready to diversify. NRAIA 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,

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Read it first. See us at nria.com. Hey, folks. It's here from Taxes Show. We're talking to Albin State Arts. Fun Facts Friday. Chris Himes, don't leave the room. Because we are outriggers on the canoe that is Albans Stadar.

This is like a whitewater rapid, you know. He's a tippy canoe. There's piranhas in the water. Don't leave the room. Look, I have a friend in the control room. Eric in the control room, Marine Moldair. I was vindicated. Moldauer.

Yeah. Well, there you go. There are cannibals on the riverbank. Ionis. What? Okay. This really is a family show. Okay.

Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Go ahead. Birds and the Bees, that's, you know, part of romance and part of life and part of love and all that good stuff. From there, I want you to follow my logic on this. One of the things that is totally fascinating me, and I've heard this for years and I think you guys have to have two. The bumblebee, the big, fat flying construction crane of a insect.

That is not supposedly, scientifically, it's supposed to not be able to fly. Like it doesn't fly, but the reason why it flies because it thinks it can fly. That's the only reason why people explain, okay? Which is nonsense, but go ahead. It is nonsense. So I looked into all of this because, again, it has these tiny little wings and it's this big, fluffy, big bumblebee. Right.

And first of all, nobody ever questioned whether a bumblebee could fly or not until about the 1930s. And that was about 30 years after the Wright brothers, of course, took off. And they're not supposed to be flying machine. Right. All right. And there was a French entomologist. named August Magnum, who examined the plump bee in its air dynamics and said that there's no way.

There's no way that this bumblebee can fly. He examined the plump bee, this entomologist, not etymologist, entomologist, right? Go ahead. And so he threw out that false fact basically saying like, this can't happen. So now recently or recently since then, let's put it that way, they have done studies on, okay, why does the bumblebee, that big fat bee fly? And here is the test that have come out recently. This is what they say.

The wings don't move in tandem, like wings of other insects. And they move in a figure eight configuration. Okay, they flap independently, so they're not going at the same time. They rotate faster than other flying insects, and they rotate and flap with more intensity. Now, one of the scientists, it's a less effective flying stone. And he said it's kind of like a van, like a van trying to fly through the air. Which almost never works. And now this I found really interesting.

He said it's almost as if the bumblebee flies from sheer will. Like he wants to fly. He wants to fly so much that he does as much as he can. And I thought to me that's really kind of fascinating because there's almost a little truth then in the myth that it really shouldn't fly scientifically. But there's something in its little brain, and it's getting the nectar, and it's got to bring it back to the hive. And this is a really important job. And so it flies out of almost out of sheer will with wings that are too small the flies, so to speak. Okay?

Yeah. So isn't it? I think it's really fascinating. A lot of people, we use that aerodynamically the bumblebee can't fly. This is Mary Kay Ash of Mary Kay Cosmetics, and she gives out these little bumblebee pains because it's like you think you can't do this. you can't make that sales pitch. Consider the bumblebee, if you will. Consider the little bumblebee.

And do you know who wrote the flight of the bumblebee since we're wrapping this little bumblebee thing up? Berzelius? No, it was. Korsakov. Rimsky Korsakov are Russian? Same difference. Yeah.

Yeah, the flight of the bumblebee by Rimsky Korsakov. Wrote it for the... Little Rimsky. He had it in him all along. The flight of the bumblebee. Yeah. And that is, that's my fact on that that I'm, I'm going to... have stand by that. Wow. Yeah. Why doth the bumblebee fly? Why doth a thief? They ask.

Why doth a thee? And yeah, because he wants to. That's, that's, you know, I would say that's on the verge of fascinating. Yeah, that's what I'm taking this. I'm taking this to the verge. And I figure a lot of people will carry the water the rest of the way and over the line. But it's important to know. I still don't know what it is that I just learned. But the reason why, Because haven't you ever wondered why that big fat bee is flying through the air and bothering you on your picnic? Look, that's like saying the only reason a cheetah can achieve speeds of 70 miles an hour is because he really wants to. Well, obviously, you know, but that has nothing to do with his musculature. But I think it does have something to do with his musculature.

But if you ask that same cheetah to fly, he'll say, consider the bumblebee. Right. Consider the bumblebee, if you will. Consider the ant thou sluggard. So it's Valentine's Day. Yes. We were talking about the birds and the bees. We're talking about St. Valentine, who was martyred on February 14th. Right.

It's like a year 2000 or 270. 270. 270. Right. Now, the Catholics, I was reading to this, you know, kind of unusual thing with relics and things like that of the saints. Yes. And there's a cathedral, according to Wikipedia, that has a fragment of St. Valentine's skull there. And there's also a, I think, that's a.

That might be in Italy. I know there's another one in Dublin, I think, that's devoted to St. Valentine. Well, it's interesting. In writing my Luther book, I did a lot of research on relics. It is fascinating. Three different places claim to have the thumb of St. Anne. Really? Which is not possible.

Well, how many pans did she have? That's the question. That's the question. I'm so glad we're able to clear a lot of this stuff up. And when we come back, we're going to clear up yet more confusion. Something very beautiful when we get back. Something beautiful. Beautiful, baby.

Something beautiful. Folks, we need a little Ringo star. We'll be right back. It's fun facts Friday. Hey, Albin, how much pain is too much pain? I don't know. Exactly. Neither do I.

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He'd have to hurry out to the bus. Cheers, Daddy. Is this a yellow? Yes, it is. This is the Airquistaxis show, and I did not authorize that song to be used. So I know that you, you, Albin, Seder, and my engineer, Eric Hansen, must have colluded. Well, because it goes through the six or the seven days of the week, and the guy gets married at the end of the week.

And so it's kind of a Valentine's state. It's called The Diary of Horace Wimp. Wow, the Diary of Horace Mimba. I actually don't know that E.O. song. I'm a top 40 guy. We'll go ahead. Okay, okay. I want to get into one of my favorite authors.

I bring them up so many times. But what I like about this story I want to share is it's one of those short stories you never heard of. You wouldn't have read it unless you actually read the compilation that it came from, the sketchbook of Jeffrey Crayon Gentleman. Okay. It's called The Wife. And when I started reading... Hold on. We're talking about Washington Irving.

Washington Irving. Did you mention that? I did not. No, it's very helpful to mention that because people wouldn't know. So you're talking about the famous American, early American author, Washington Irving. who lived in Terrytown near where you now live. Two miles from there. Okay.

Okay. And so he wrote something called the diary of what? He wrote, no, the diary of Horace Wim. He wrote? No, he wrote a short story called The Wife. Oh, I'm sorry. Now, if you know anything about Irving, he did a lot of, you know, he called New York City, Gotham and all that.

He did a lot of satirical pieces. And when I started reading the wife, I thought, okay, there's going to be a satirical ending to this. because it starts out so beautifully, and I'm like, of course, he can't be talking about something this beautiful, but he does. And the basic story, and I just want to share this, because I think there's a wonderful, and get serious here, a wonderful story for husbands, especially on Valentine's Day during this little season we're in by now. A lot of husbands have wives. Yes, and even single guys are looking forward to that, right? The basic story is this.

A guy, he's a really well-off businessman, but through no fault of his own, he loses his fore. But before he loses his fortune, he takes a wife and she's used to the good life just like he is. So he gets married. Things are going along for a couple years. Everything's great. And then he loses his fortune, but he doesn't tell her, you know, she doesn't know yet. And he's basically got like a month to clear out of his mansion and move into this little cottage. And he's afraid, how is my wife going to take this?

You know, and he's devastated. So he goes to the guy he's telling a story to who is Jeffrey Cray on or Washington Irving, if you will. So this is taking place around like 1800? 1820, around then. Okay. Okay. So when I read some, just a couple little paragraphs, you'll get the feel of the 1820s. You might say, oh, that's chauvinistic or whatever.

But it's the era that he's living in. Okay. Okay. So I'm going to share these paragraphs because it's, he's basically saying. I have one question. When are you going to share them? Well, I'm just one more. See, I don't set things up well enough, so I'm trying to set this thing up.

Oh, okay. Okay. It's better to have a wife than not is basically what Washington Irving is saying in this story. Okay. And so he starts off like this after several paragraphs. Indeed, I have observed, and this is Washington Irving saying this, that a married man falling into misfortune is more apt to retrieve his situation in the world than a single one, chiefly because his spirits are soothed and relieved by domestic endearments,

and his self-respect kept alive by finding that though all abroad is darkness and humiliation, yet there is still a little world of love at home of which he is the monarch. Isn't that beautiful? That's so beautiful. Unless, now there's a footnote to that, unless your wife is a harpy, herodan, or Xanthipi type, a nagging monster. But none of us know that in this room, right? Well, the three of us in this room. We're sleeping for 20 years.

The three of us in this room, and for the purposes of this program, I'd like to call us wink and blinkin' and nod. The three of us have like to think snap crackle have been blessed. You know, you look a lot like crackle. Larry Curley and Moe, I think is probably close. But you do. You're the spitting image of Crackle. Erica Shemp, I guess. Yeah, yeah, Shemp.

No, he's Curly Joe, Derrita. No, no. Curly Joe Dorita. Okay. Okay, so, but I was going to say the three of us are blessed with wonderful wives. And it is a fact that when you're blessed with a good woman in your life, there is no question that it makes you a far, far better man. And here's how

this story toward the end. I'm not going to give you the ending. The ending is really beautiful. I'm not kidding. I had tears in my eyes because I was thinking of my own wife. Okay, so here it is. Irving goes on. There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire which lies dormant in the broad daylight of

prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity. No man knows what the wife of his bosom is. is no man knows what a ministering angel she is until he has gone with her through the fiery trials of this world wow wow you know what yeah that is moving it is that is seriously that is amazing because every one of us even eric hanson now his wife everybody says she's a big nag i know that's not

true look look at him look he's got this look on his face like hey easy easy no but i'm actually serious that when you have a good woman, it is, it will bring tears to your eyes because that is true. Like you feel like you're alone, you're down, and she comes alongside and encourages you. A zillion dollars could not buy that. That is the most powerful thing in life. And I have been through that with Suzanne. And I know you guys have been through that with your current, with your current wives. Yeah. It could be the highs and the lows. It's like, to me, it's like the good times there's twice as good because you have a good woman in your life. Right, right.

The bad times are half as bad. Right. Because, again, you have someone, you know. Which, all of which brings me to the honeymooners, you know, they're on TV now again, and I've been watching the reruns. Yeah. And the love that Ralph and Alice, it's so beautiful. It's just funny because they fight and whatever, but they clearly love each other.

Did you see the one, I saw the one the other day where Norton is sleepwalking? Have you guys seen that one? I saw that the other day, too. Where Norton is sleepwalking, and it's because. Yeah. He misses his dog from childhood named Lulu. And he's in the middle of the night and he's sleep. He's under, he's hypnotized and he says, Lulu, Lulu.

You know, the honeymooners are so great. But they portray that kind of, it's so sweet because they fight. But then you know they really love each other and that Ralph would do anything for Alice. It's kind of, it's moving. It's very beautiful. And what I want to do when we come back, because I presume there's a commercial break coming up here shortly. Any second. Any second now.

But I want to have, there's a little, there's a little ballad. It's a very short little ballad. I would like to sing when we come back. Is it the ballad of reading jail? No, it's a beautiful ballad. I would like to when we come back, a little ballot dedicated to my wife. And if you want to jump on board on this. And we can sing to your wife also?

You can sing to your wives. Oh. Oh. I'm going to send this out to Suzanne. Okay. Okay. We'll be right back. It's Fun Facts Friday.

Valentine's Day edition. Beautiful. Oh, and love. There's no time for the ball. I just got it. It's love. Hey there, folks. It's here.

But that's just so fun. Facts Friday edition, Albin, you're going to sing something, Alvin, because it's about Valentine's Day. We're excited. It is. It is. So go ahead and tell us, what are you going to sing, man?

Well, it's a beautiful ballad. It's like, I guess at this point, it's really a goal. Aren't all ballads beautiful? But now, some of them are. It depends on the lyrics. Eric's, but I want to dedicate this. But I've just never heard of an ugly ballad. To, you know, to my wife.

And if anybody wants to say like, hey, I love that so much. You want to sing to our wives? I'm going to sing and you can do whatever you want. Are you ready for this beautiful ballad? Let's sing. Come on and have some fun just for the fun of it. To live to Eric's show and you'll be in the know. You may learn something new and something untrue too.

Fun Facts Fridays Here I love you, Ann. Wow. I love you too, Ann. No, no. That is not. What?

That's not the right. You know, I don't think this is a ballad, Albin. It's the ballad of Fun Facts Friday. I hate to tell you, but that's not a ballad. It's more of a jingle. If you look up what a ballad is, that's not a ballad. Sorry. And if you look up what a beautiful.

song is let's not go there girlfriend okay all right but you know it doesn't it doesn't matter you know what it matters what's in your

heart it's in your heart it matters what's in your heart that's Valentine's day isn't it right yeah what are you guys doing for your wife

as Woody Allen who I saw just the other day as he famously said as he famously said the heart wants what it wants you know what I'm saying so so if I see

you know pretty gal on the subway and my heart wants that gal, you know, obviously you need to go with that. You obviously realize at that point you're not married to your soulmate because you just were attracted to somebody on the subway, right? But you want to end Valentine's Day special with that? Yes. No, isn't it? But isn't that sad that people think it's all about feelings? It's not all about feelings.

Love is this deep commitment, which is so, I mean, it sort of encompasses feelings, but it's not only about feelings because feelings are fickle. Yes. Well, no. And again, Washington Irving mailed it. and nailed it in, nailed it in the wife. Honestly, I had no idea that Washington Irving, I think of him as a puckish character.

I had no idea that he was capable of that kind of beautiful, deep writing. It's six or seven pages long. If you get a chance to pick it out. And it's called the wife. It's called the wife. Part of the Jeffrey Crayon collection. There was nothing chauvinistic in that. That was just beautiful.

It was a P.N. to marriage and to wives. It was. It was. It still is. when you read about it, about the man does this and the woman does this. And today we say, like, no, the woman doesn't stay at home and fix the curtains and the wheels and stuff. I mean, there's some of that. But you lay that aside.

You say this is what was going on in the 1800s, mid-1800s. Yeah. And so the story, you know, he takes Washington Irving with him to walk home to see his wife because he doesn't know how her reaction is going to be. Right. Now she's living in this little cottage. He just finished his first day of work like on his menial job. Right. And he has to go face his wife.

after all this. And the ending, I don't want to say it. I don't want to spoil. But it's so beautiful. I mean, really, it brought tears to my eye. The wife by Washington Irving. We can recommend that. I'm sure you can find the whole text of it online.

Oh, yeah. You can just Google it. The wife by Washington Irving. So Fun Facts Friday, listeners, you can check it out. The Wife by Washington Irving. Albin Sater, thank you for delivering a number of important, fascinating facts. And Chris, thanks for being with us. You're welcome.

Hi, Chris. Thanks for listening, folks. Fun Facts Friday. That's the show. Yay. Until next time.