The Eric Metaxas Show - Thanksgiving Fun Facts

Episode Date: November 27, 2023

An encore presentation of Thanksgiving Fun Facts Friday 

Folks, welcome to the Eric Metaxus show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m. Investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Metaxis show. Would you consider yourself smart, insightful, precocious, astute, clever, wise beyond your years, and good at checking a thesaurus for synonyms? Well, then you've come to the right place. Here now is the handsome, attractive, striking, gorgeous and quite frankly breathtaking Eric Mat, Texas. If you're listening, folks, listen carefully, because this is huge. In 1608, before any ships, before any people settled in, you know, what's now Massachusetts,

I never knew this because we all know that the Mayflower, landed there in 1620, right? Chris, you knew that. I did at one point in my life. Right. So 1620 is when the Pilgrims land in Plymouth, sorry, right? Plymouth Rock, yeah. Plymouth Rock. So, but I always assumed growing up that that's the first time that anybody came to like what's Massachusetts. But I found out, no, that's not the case. And the story of Squanto, which I'm going to tell right now, which, just wait, wait until you hear this, it's, it's, starts in 1608, and it turns out that English trading ships would travel, you know, from Europe, from England to Iceland, Greenland, make their way down, Nova Scotia, all the way down,

and they would trade with the natives. Now, I never knew that. So the natives were familiar with English sailors coming and trading and giving them, you know, knives and pots and pans, and they would, you know, give them pelts and whatever, and they would trade. I never knew this. Well, Well, in 1608, a group, a group, a ship led by a captain hunt, lands or, you know, drops anchor off of what is today, Plymouth, Massachusetts. And the Patuxet Braves come down to the shore to trade with them as they've done before. Well, just so happens that this Captain Hunt was a bad man. And instead of trading with the Braves, they whack them over the head, put them in the long boat, take them out to the ship, throw them in the hold. sail to Malaga, Spain, and sell them into slavery.

This is 1608. One of the Braves was a 12-year-old boy named Tisquantam. Now, this is true story. This is all documented. I've done the research. Others have done the research. It's true. So he is bought by some kindly friars who seem to treat him well, teach him the Christian religion.

and this is the part that we'll never know how this happened, but they arrange for him to be freed and to travel to London. Now, imagine from Malaga, Spain to London. So this is an Indian from what is today, Massachusetts, a Native American, a Patuxet, makes its way to London with the idea, and this is where it's crazy, of getting back across the Atlantic to go back home.

I know. It's like being on the moon and saying, so when's the next ship going back? There's no next ship going back. about. But I guess the idea was not insane. He worked in London from, what is it, around 1612, 1613 for four or five years with a family called Slaney. This is all documented, this Indian named Squanto to Squantum, learns the English language. He's there when, he's there when Queen Elizabeth is on the throne. We're talking. Shakespeare is writing his play. So he's in London, this Massachusetts

it's Indian. And this is years before the pilgrims ever get to Plymouth Rock. Crazy, right? In 1618, I believe, 1619, a ship is found for him to go back to his home. And he's going to translate, obviously, because he knows these languages. He's going to be on the ship working with these English as they're stopping, you know, and he's going to be doing the translating and so on and so forth. So somehow he gets passage. on a ship. The ship ends up having to spend the winter in, I can't remember if it was Iceland or Greenland. It's in my book. What does it say? No, hold on a second. Anyway, the point is that it took them quite a while to get there, right? So they basically, no, it was Newfoundland.

Sorry. They spend the winter in Newfoundland. And then the next spring, this is like 1619, they bring him to what's now the coast of Massachusetts. Drop him off. Thank you very much. Goodbye. This sounds crazy, right? This is document.

This is a true story. So a year plus before the Pilgrim's Land, this Indian has made the journey from Plymouth to Spain to London, spends five years in London, learns the English language, learns the ways the English, and then ends up. back where he started. He finds his way on foot to the village, which is right where Plymouth is today, right? The Patuxet Village, where his Indian, where his family is. So he comes home. Just imagine that you're sold into slavery and somehow 10 years later you make your way home. So now he's 21 years old, whatever, 22 years old. He's looking for his family. There's nobody there. They've all died. They've been wiped out by smallpox. One of these diseases brought by the white man, obviously, unintentionally. So he goes to a neighboring tribe and lives with them. But the

neighboring tribe, it's not like they're like, hey, hey, we're all Native Americans. We're cool. No, this is like strangers. He might as well be in England. He'd probably prefer to be in England. In fact, he ends up living alone in the woods because he's heartbroken. It's just one of these crazy stories. Meanwhile, what happens? Meanwhile, a group of English people who are escaping the persecutions of James I, the King, travel to Holland. They're there for a number of years. Their kids start to lose, you know, the English, whatever, culture and stuff. And they say, we've got to go to the new world.

So they get on a ship called the Mayflower. We've heard this story. And they travel to what ends up as Plymouth, Massachusetts. They land the ship there, a hundred people, very devoted to God, very. serious about God. They're praying that God would lead them. They get there and they begin dying like flies. 50 of the hundred people die the first winter. Now, we can't even imagine this. I mean, you've got six kids. Can we even imagine what it would be like to lose, have to lose your wife, to lose your kids too? I mean, they were all dying, burying their brothers, their sisters,

their spouses, their kids, their parents. It's a nightmare. So spring comes, and they are, of course, wondering, do we go home? Because this is not working for them. And they really were wondering, what do we do? And out of the woods walks an Indian called Squanto. They happened to have settled on the very place where he grew up, Patuxet Village, the place where he grew up. He walks out of the woods speaking perfect English. Think about that for a second. An Indian walks out of the woods speaking perfect English. He was in London for five years more recently than they were. And he basically says, I have nothing to do with my life. My whole tribe, my family has been wiped out. You have settled on my home. Here I am. How can I help you? The pilgrims recognize this as an outrageous answer to their prayers,

because they have been weeping and praying to God. Why have you let us hear? What, you know, this is, Squanto just happens not only to know English perfectly, he just happens to know everything about that area because he grew up there. So he shows them how to get where to get lobsters, where to get eels out of the mud, where to fish, where to fish. He shows them how to plant corn and how to plant squash so that the squash grow up, the vines grow up around the cornstalk. He shows them to put how to put a dead fish in when you plant the corn as fertilizer. He shows them everything and allows them to survive. There's no doubt. This is history, okay?

And in fact, the Pilgrim fathers, William Bradford, who is the governor, wrote in his journal, that Squanto was a special instrument sent of God. He had no doubt. It's just one of those things that it was to them a miracle, that he shows up out of nowhere. He has nothing to do except to say, this is. my home, I'm here to help you. He not only that, but he brokers a deal with the surrounding tribes so that these people, so that these pilgrims have peace with the surrounding tribes. So these Englishmen that have come, the pilgrims, the Puritans, had a peace that lasted 50 years, an incredible, an incredible accomplishment. And Squanto basically helped them

to do this. Mataxis show our website. Go to Metaxus talk.com.com. You can download the recording of the Squanto story. I'm just so happy to share it every year, and we'll be right back. There's nothing worse than hearing about people living in pain. That's why I want to tell you about Keith from Washington and his relief factor story. After years of activity from college football to running a martial art studio at age 51, Keith's body felt like it was wearing out. So he gave relief factor a try.

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folks you look 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, 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 Hale, something Joseph 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. No, she wrote that. She wrote that nursery rhyme back, and this is like the middle 1800s. Okay. 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. remember the news about that. When they excused 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. Franklin Pierce was 14. And then Millard, Millie Fillmore. Who can forget Millard Fillmore? Yeah, everybody.

The answer is everybody. 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 a hundred, hundred 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 the- 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, it was.

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. George Washington's birthday. Did I win?

Did I win? Did you win? You won. You won a pill bottle, Morocco. Okay. Okay. Another happy winner. So now there were three national holidays.

Okay. And she was a fascinating woman. But 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. I've written that for 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, you know, the people that have a cause. She had, that was her cause. Was she famous because she wrote Mary had a little lamb? No.

Well, she was famous as a writer, as a woman writer of the time. In fact, she had five children. and she was the editor of two different magazines. Oh, you know what? She had to be related to Edward Everett Hale. I'm going to look it up right now. Really? Okay.

That's very possible. Goody's Lady's 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 editing Hawthorne. Right. He said, excuse me, Mr. Horthorn, 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? 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.

Right. 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 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 it's ruinous dehumanizing effects

not only on slaves, but also on masters. Yeah. How slavery affected masters, not just slaves. 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. Okay. 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. Bingo. Wow. So, so, I'm sorry, what? So you're telling me that this woman wrote Mary had a little lamb. Like that right there is,

that's like saying I wrote Happy Birthday, to you or, you know, jingle bells. Like that's a classic, you know, Mary had a little lamb. 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 for it. 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. 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. Right. 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. Oh, I 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, 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 save. 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 Woods.

To Grandma's House, We Go. Right. The horse knows the way to carry this. But, you know, the original title was, over the river and through the wood, to Grandfather's House, we go. Right. 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. Tiz. Tiz. Did I mispronounce that? Yes. Tiz.

Save my bacon again. There you go. It's a good thing. This is the dress rehearsal. That's why you have a dress rehearsal album. Because you can't, this stuff cannot happen when you're on the air. Okay. So, 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. She brought it all together. 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 thing. 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. 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, do you join in? I wasn't even listening. What are you doing? Well, that's... Just kidding. We've got to go to a break.

We do. I've actually never heard that song, but this is Fun Facts Friday with Albin's Later, folks, fun, facts. Friday. We're not kidding, but we are having fun. With the overturn of Roe v. Wade, lots of companies are coming out saying they'll pay for employee abortion travel and expenses. Most of you've heard about some of these companies.

You've decided to stop shopping or doing business there, but did you know that you most likely own stock in those companies through your 401Ks, IRAs, and other investment accounts? Folks, this is a huge problem, and we need to do something about this to send a message to Wall Street through our investments. You need to go to inspireadvisors.com slash Eric and get a free Inspire Impact Report. This biblical investment analysis will educate you on what's really in your investment accounts, like companies paying for abortion travel. You need to go to inspireadvisors.com slash Eric to connect with an InspireAdvisors financial professional

who can run your report and help remove companies paying for abortion travel today. Go to inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. That's inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. Advisory services are offered through Inspire Advisors LLC, a registered investment advisor with the SEC. Hey folks, Eric here. Mike Lindell is always looking for ways to solve everyday problems. So have you ever picked up a towel set because it felt really soft in the store? But then when you go to use it, it's not very absorbent and doesn't actually dry you. Well, that's why My Pillow has developed the My Pillow towels.

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That's MyPillow.com promo code Eric. MyPillow.com promo code Eric or call 800. 978-3057. I use these towels. They work. I promise you. Oh, please. That's nightmares to me.

I know. It's nightmare for you because Alvin and the chipmunks. Your name is Albin. And people when I was a kid. But they didn't get the memo. They didn't get the memo. It's not about Thanksgiving. It's not about Christmas.

I know. It's about Thanksgiving. You know, they're so cute. But I've always hated those chip monks. I don't know why. Don't hate it. Don't hate them. Don't you. Love, 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. The great, yeah. 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 thanks. 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. Ben Crosby sings it. And he sings it sarcastically because at that point in the show, his best friend has stolen his girlfriend and gone to Hollywood. 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 the 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 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 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 slays and of course it begins uh because it's one horse open sleigh and he's really singing about taking a ride and the one horse open sleighs 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. Okay. What fun it is. I heard the band start it turned up.

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'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. 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. 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 that stuff in the turkey that makes you sleepy?

That they call. Oh, tryptophan. Triptophan. I take pills of tryptophan. They're shaped like teeny ween turkeys. They're little, you know, gelatinous pills. Yes. And they help you sleep.

They do. Yeah. Okay. Well, a lot of people start to get sleep. 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? Yeah, yeah. 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. We know now, now they're called weight loss projects. Yeah, or diets, is it? Or diets.

C-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 know if you're joking. 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 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 car, no caviar, no caviar. No car put on my floor Still I've got Plenty to be thankful for Hey What do you think

That's Derbingle Derbingle I just Thank you Eric Hansen 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. 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. Yeah. And you get sleepy and eat too much and all that kind of stuff. And then, you know, you wake up under tree someplace and you say, what's become of me? Yeah. So you want to talk about diets.

Yeah. Yeah. When you wake up. under a tree, it's probably a 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 turducken. 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. Tofurky. 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, 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 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 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. And fat.

Right. 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. bacon with a big smear of butter. That's out on that one. Okay. You got, well... There goes Thursdays in the Metaxus house. Okay. Okay.

There's one called the flexitarian diet, okay? And this is protein that you get from... 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? Well, 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. I 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 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. 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-tooth tiger. Mm-hmm. It was disgusting. Yeah. Because we didn't invent fire yet.

No. Oh, see, you're not supposed. But the raw haunch. Raw-R-a-old 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 illusion 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 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, man, 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 Watchers diet. That is brilliant. It is brilliant.

Because most husbands have wives. They can do that. They can do it. 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. Oh, it's all. 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. Okay, keep that. 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. Facts for the land of yin. I always take one on the chin.

Now this lioness has almost made me tame. I can't pronounce a name. The Eggplant. Hey. It's the Eirchman-Taxis show. That's a song about eating eggplant. I just thought we'd get that in. Numbie.

Thanksgiving. I'm thankful I didn't, 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. The Thanksgiving version. Yeah, version, whatever you want to call it.

I 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. come to it was invented by this guy, Mr. Cotter. Lawrence Cotter, yep. She whiz. I'm so glad that's not true.

Now, 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, SADAR at Slycraft.com. Yeah, my website is Slycraft.com, but come to or send it to SADAR at SlyCraft.com. Okay. Okay. 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, now? Whenever there's an accident on the side of the road, it's always like, oh, what's that? Oh, hey, woo, ha. That's got nothing to do with danger. That has to do with prurient interests. Okay.

That's one of the fun facts that 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.

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 wicketts.

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? Don't ever trust Wikipedia. Well, yeah, it was sent in. No, I think that's from WikiLeaks.

No, but seriously, that was just sent into you? Yeah, yeah. I don't want to use names when, uh, but 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.

Yeah. Now, this one is perfect for funding. Facts Fridays, people who laugh a lot are healthier than those who don't. And we know that's true. We know that's true. It's a perfect note to end on this wonderful special Thanksgiving

version of Fun Facts Fridays. 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.