The Unmade Podcast - 160: Duck Cake

Episode Date: April 27, 2025

Tim and Brady discuss conclave, garage sales, colour names, Vegemite in Canada, birthday cakes, Tim’s 49th birthday, and a few other things.Support us on Patreon and access the Request Room (among other extras) - https://www.patreon.com/unmadeFMToday’s Request Room - https://www.patreon.com/posts/127497711Join the discussion of this episode on our subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/Unmade_Podcast/Catch the podcast on YouTube where we often include accompanying videos and pictures - https://www.youtube.com/@unmadepodcastUSEFUL LINKSPictures to accompany this episode - https://www.unmade.fm/episode-160-picturesPope Francis - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_FrancisConclave (book by Robert Harris) - https://amzn.to/4cLMIBcConclave (the movie) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conclave_(film)Brady meets the Pope’s astronomer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0DAKaR16cYColor Names - https://colornames.org/

Brady’s colour - https://colornames.org/color/a46925Tim’s colour - https://colornames.org/color/445061Unmade Podcast color - https://colornames.org/color/082217Vegemite controversy - https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/article/makes-absolutely-no-sense-australian-cafe-owner-in-toronto-removes-8k-of-vegemite-after-cfia-deems-product-non-compliant/The Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book - https://www.womensweeklyfood.com.au/baking/australian-womens-weekly-childrens-birthday-cakes-29679/People who died aged 49 - https://www.famousbirthdays.com/deceased/age/49.htmlThomas Aquinas - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_AquinasRichard Marquand - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_MarquandAlexander Hamilton - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_HamiltonThe Fireman - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fireman_(band)Catch the bonus Request Room episode - https://www.patreon.com/posts/127497711

Alright. I have done this 159 times before. You have, not flawlessly, but pretty good. We're populous at the moment. Do you feel an absence in your life? No, but I am really fascinated by Conclave. I'm really excited about it. I watched the- we used it as an excuse to watch the movie the other day, the recent movie Conclave.

Oh, yeah. I had read the book already by Robert Harris, but we watched the movie the other night. Have you seen it? Yes. In fact, I just saw it last week as well, just before he died. So, right. It's almost like God knew I needed to be prepared. What did you think of the film? Look, I've seen a few films and I'm pretty familiar with this.

So I kind of I do like, like you you that setting and the mystique of it all. So I went in maybe with too high expectations and it didn't totally pay off for me I'd have to say. I did it didn't but but I think 10 years ago maybe before I'd seen angels and demons or had seen a couple of conclaves. I think back when we were young there was only ever ever been one pope, a bit like the queen, there's only ever been one. And then he died and then it was like, oh my goodness, this is so exciting. And then it happened again and now it's happening a third time. So it's in our lifetime.

So I do feel like I'm reasonably familiar. I'm not saying I'm intimately involved in any of the negotiations. But I was, I was having a coffee the other day with a mate of mine who's a Catholic priest and I was getting what I thought was at least he's a significantly closer to the situation that I am even though he'd laughed and said he's a million miles away from knowing anything. So I was a little bit let down by the film. It wasn't quite that great. I'd also been told there was a big twist and so when you know there's a big twist the big twist always is not quite as good and now I've ruined it for everyone listening as well but.

What did you think? I think now you've ruined it, it kind of and I'm not going to ruin it more than Tim has ruined it but other than to say yes there is a twist. The twist in the book felt more dramatic and excellent than in the movie. I will say is it the same twist yes I watched the film over two nights because that's how we watch films these days in their house cause I'm so exhausted and I really enjoyed the first half and I was really let down by the second half and I don't know if it's because I watched it in two halves and I was in a different mood on the second night or something but the first half I really enjoyed and felt like it was building to something and I felt very let down by the second half of the film. Yeah it peters out a little bit yes I think that's true no pun intended no pun intended it peters out very good. It does. Yeah it is. And are you planning a trip to Rome man?

Are you a sort of a Pope tourist who goes along to these things? I have been to the Vatican a few times and also I have been in there now because I did my filming at the Vatican Observatory with the Vatican astronomy people so I'm quite in with the Pope's astronomer, who's a really great guy. I've done a bunch of videos there. So, and he was, he's Jesuit as well. So he, as was the Pope that just died. So he had a soft spot for that, for the Pope who passed recently, Pope Francis.

So I must get in touch with him at some stage and see if he can give me any goss. But yeah, I, I, I am very interested in it and I would like to go back to that part of the Vatican so we'll see. I have to say the Catholic Church does this I think it likes that everyone loves this mystique you know what I mean like this is it's big card to play it's a lot of bad news but then it's got this thing that's secret mysterious and everyone thinks is pretty cool. Yeah. And and is watching carefully and yeah, plays it for all it's worth. Yeah, it does. Like they released that video of them sealing

the people apartments and all that sort of stuff like it. Yeah, it does lean into it. There's so many films about it now. I wonder if some of the people like the Cardinals close to it have been like watching the films just to sort of bone up on what they're supposed to do next. Like, no, no, no, don't do that with that with the ring remember remember they did it the other way. Yeah the scene in the film the recent film conclave where they seal his apartment with like you know the ribbons and the wax seal and that was so strikingly similar to the video that was released.

When Pope Francis died of them doing the same thing. I mean, I know the film was basing it on what they do. So, but it was amazing to me how similar the two were. And I wondered if when they filmed it this time around, when Pope Francis died, whether they used the Conclave film as inspiration for their like camera angles and stuff like that. So it's like, no turn to the left and then walk down that way. It's like, that's how he does it. Yeah, that's funny. Art imitating life, imitating art, imitating life. Yeah.

Look, speaking of churches, I heard you've got something going on at your place. You've done like some kind of, have you got like a garage sale or something going on? Or are you selling off church property? Yes, no, there's in the ancient traditions of the church continue here at Malvern, where for several years now We've had an annual garage sale or yard sale I know as Americans call them where basically you get all your crap you put it out the front or a car boot sale English people might call it. Oh

All right, because it's usually done from car boots in in England, but yeah same thing selling all your crap Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah, which which is both enjoyable to do England but yeah same thing selling all and dad used to put on all sorts of garage sales and dad would buy things at other garage sales just to sell them a slightly more expensive at our garage sales. Right. So he, we always had sort of some stuff laying around. It wasn't, it wasn't like a hoarder. It was just like a few key things.

And then when we'd have a garage sale, I don't know where this stuff came from, but dad would just be walking out of the shed with more and more and more stuff that was all for sale. Oh yeah. I loved it. Really, really loved it. So, so, so Melvin does this now and we've been doing it this year it's a bit different. Normally it's like a fundraiser right and but this year we've done it as a big decluttering process because we're selling off some land. And there's a big shed on that land and so that has to be cleared out and then it's just a good opportunity to go through all the different rooms, you know, cupboards after cupboards of games and, you know, crosses and candelabras.

But just, you know, Tupperware and there's so many things because the church has been here 120 years. And we found some really gorgeous stuff like little records of people's Sunday school attendance in 1906 and stuff like that. That's really awesome. And we'll archive that stuff. I've got like a nice, nice place to put all that kind of stuff, but also other junk. Oh, so you're not selling that stuff?

No, no, no, no, no, no. And there's no like relics like the thigh bone of St. Peter or anything like that. Oh, that went last year actually. Yeah. No, we got the bones pretty quickly. They, they sell pretty quickly. That's right that's right that was a real.

Do you are any of the things like religious in nature like will there be like crosses or paintings of Jesus and things like that or is it all like more like. Secular stuff. secular stuff yeah yeah look we're not a very you know high sacramental style church so it's all sort of you know there are a bunch of crosses but there's stuff that's just been used in like a nativity or not and wouldn't be a nativity play with it. But like an Easter plate production or something and it's all that kind of stuff there's a there's a little bit of crosses and things but there's also loads of tools and you know go-karts and kids games and all that kind of stuff. Nice and do you do it in like the main church hall like the main like main body of the church? Yeah normally we do but this one's out on the tennis courts out the back because there's just so much crap and that's where the shed is so we've just dragged all out and it's like it's all going and what isn't going is going on hard rubbish or in a big skip because we really need to clear it all proper. I think it's best you don't do it in the church because you don't want Jesus coming in and flipping over tables and getting all upset about you.

Better selling the stuff that's right yes yes that's the primary purpose we we have church here is to have an annual garage sale, to make money, that's right. Well good luck with the garage sale. Are you thinking of buying anything in it? No, no. I, how would you, I mean people do come and, today was the decluttering day, grabbing stuff from everywhere. Also heaps of tech stuff as well, you know, old computers and laptops and all that kind of stuff. Who decides the price on stuff like that like who's got the

expertise to look at it and like how do you make sure you don't get ripped off and sell like you know a Rembrandt accidentally for 20 bucks? Oh because because there's nothing that's really I mean you can look at a you know like the you know a computer monitor from four years ago and you know well we're not going to get ripped off if this goes for three dollars are we like will be very grateful it's all that kind of there are no paintings there's already paintings or anything that could be valuable that you don't know about like. No there are no painting there's a few pictures but I know that they're not valuable they're sort of prints I did also find some really cool stuff like like I'll hold this up to you. It's it's like a big I don't know what you might know the name for this like a draft. Me Tim's grabbing it. What is it? What do we got here? Oh, yeah, it's like some kind of blueprint schematic type thing.

Yeah, it's really great. It's it's like blueprints, but they're stuck to a big piece of board, which is more than a meter by, you know, a meter and a half by a meter. Huge. Is it for the church? Yeah, it's of the church being built but the inside so when they did the all new pulpit and stuff that was built around the organ which would have been about 70 years ago. That's cool. And so I'm gonna put this on the wall I just think it looks really cool and I know you love this kind of stuff yeah. Yeah I love I do love that it looks awesome. What's the most expensive item

that's going to be on sale? Like what ticket price? What's, what's the highest value item? Whoa, that's a good question. Look, there are a couple of pews that are out there and so they can go for a few hundred dollars each. Um, there's a little bit of PA system sort of stuff, speakers and things that are not needed. I don't think they're worth much but they're worth a bit and there's a few tools like big saw, bandsaw and that kind of stuff and I think that'll go for a couple hundred bucks too so. Any Bibles? No we don't sell we don't sell Bibles we give them away but we have decluttered a lot of them yeah that's true they were just in the way.

That's right we've got people could be reading my book and there's Bibles lying around everywhere. It's unbelievable. Crazy. Good one. Good luck with it. And when is it? It's going to be held before people listening to this podcast. It will already be in the past. So you can't go. That's right. It's tomorrow. On the day we're recording, it's tomorrow. So we're recording before tomorrow, but this will be released after tomorrow. So you've missed out. We're recording before tomorrow, but this will be released after tomorrow. So you've missed out. Really cool email here, Tim. I'm going to read it to you.

It comes from Joshua. And I believe reading into this, I believe it's Joshua's young daughter, Abigail. Right. It says in episode 159, you discussed having a short colour vocabulary. We talked about how we're not very good at naming colors To help little miss Joshua jr. Abigail Wanted to share the website color names org where you can submit names for every color in the RGB space This is you know where they have numbers for all the colors this RGB system

No, in honor of Brady and his asteroid she submitted a name for the color A46925 as Brady Haran of course starting with A for asteroid followed by the designation of your asteroid. That was the number my asteroid has along with my name. Not. Not to leave out Tim, she also submitted the name Tim Hine for colour 445061 based on the address of Malvern Uniting Church, street number followed by postcode. Finally, she also submitted a name for colour 082217 as the Unmade Podcast. It is the date of the first podcast episode being released. Enjoy your new color vocabulary.

So Tim this website color names.org my reading of it is it's fun it's not like official there's no like there's no like official organization overseeing this it has no as far as I can tell it has no like official credibility but it's still a cool fun thing and there are millions and millions of colours every shade of every colour can be named and people submit names and if more than two names are submitted for a colour. There's like a vote but there are so many colours I imagine that doesn't happen so often. Goes to their colour Pope or something to determine. Mm-hmm. Yes, that's not just conclave, colorclave. Colorclave. So anyway, we've got these three colors, one for me, one for you, and one for the Unmade podcast and they were chosen using numbers. I don't think the thinking was what color

suits the person. And I think really the idea of this is the colors are supposed to be named to describe the color in some way like you know sunset mist or you know uh early morning blue or something i don't know yeah you know how paints but but obviously uh Joshua and Abigail have just gone with our names uh but i thought it would be interesting to have a look at the colors and see what you think of the colors that were chosen for each of us i've sent you a little email oh yes if you click on the first link there, you'll see my colour, Colour Brady Haran. So let's start with that one. All right, here we go.

Got to say. Yeah. I'm absolutely gutted. It's kind of like a baby poo brown. It's kind of a light to yellowy tinged brown. Yeah, yeah. Looks like something you'd find in a young nappy. It is, yeah, yeah, it is.

I'm gutted. I'm gutted. And you'll find out why when you see the other colours, because I think you've got cool colours. But I've got the worst one. It's not a million miles away from the side of that desk behind you, I have to say. So it does look- Yeah, but that's nice, because that's wood, like, you know, I don't think this looks, I don't know. I'm a bit disappointed.

I've got a pooey brown, but there you go. Brown. It was chosen with love in the name of my asteroid. Let's have a look at the Tim Hine colour. Okay. 445061. Let's go. Cool.

Nice. You've got a cool colour. Yeah, yeah. It's like a gray blue, metallic. Gunmetal gray sort of thing. Gunmetal gray. Yeah, like you've got a brilliant color. Oh, totally.

I can't believe it. In fact, I think I've got a jumper that's almost exactly this color. I know, your color is cool. Well done. Thank you, yes. A lot of jealousy here. Now let's have a look at Unmade Podcast, the color. Oh, nice. Cool. Well done. Thank you. Yes. A lot of jealousy here.

Now, let's have a look at Unmade Podcast, the colour. Oh, nice. In fact, I'm a bit envious I didn't get this one. Close to British Racing Green, but it's much deeper green. It does look a little bit darker than British Racing Green in my opinion, but very close. It's a dark, rich green. Depending on your computer screen, it can almost look a bit blackish but if your computer screen is bright enough, you can see the green coming out.

I like this colour a lot. This is great. In fact, I like this colour and my colour enormously. My colour? Not so much? Well, yeah. No, yours is, I would say yours is more the undercoat I'd use before I then painted one of the other two over the top that's. Mine is a real disappointment but there are still millions of colours available to be named so I might go and have a little play later on and name a few colours myself.

No you can't no that's not how the colour clave works you can't have another one. how the colour clave works you can't have another one. No no no you're right I'm not changing my colour I'm I'm accepting my fate but there's a few other people I'd like to name a few colours after and come up I love the idea of naming colours and paints there's a brand of paint called Farrow and Bowl and they're really good at naming their paint colours and I'm always really jealous of the names they come up with so this is a chance to name some colours I think my wife will really enjoy this as well so I think we might have a little color naming session tonight on the laptop before bedtime. Wow you guys look no that's I think this is great this is my color Tim Hine people can choose it they want to if they if

they need to repaint their tank they'd go for this gun medals of color. Your rifle? My rifle. That's right. In fact, that or the green, you've pretty much got a lot of your weapons and army gear sorted on water. Unless you were fighting a battle in the Sahara, in which case yours might be more. Yeah. Yeah. Or sewage works.

Sewage works. That's right. All the hot springs of Rotorua. Yeah. So anyway. So related, to give people a bit of an idea, down the bottom there it's got related colours and that's got something a bit more descriptive. Your a related colour to yours is cinnamon orange brown.

Now cinnamon orange sounds nice. That does redeem a little bit. That's not your colour nice. That does redeem a little bit. That's not your color though. That's related to your color. Yeah. That's, that's a shade similar to mine. It's been named by someone else. The ones that are related to yours.

We've got bottomless cavern and light roast and ones that are related to unmade podcast, we have bright breath and the fair unlit unknown. Nice work well man well I will what was the name of the young lass that sent this to us. Oh let me have a look already forgotten hang on I've got it here it was Abigail wasn't it. Yes Abigail little miss Joshua jr. Thanks Abigail. Well thank you Abigail little Little Miss Joshua Junior. You've done a great service to Tim and the Unmade Podcast and you've let me down slightly.

Yeah, yeah, nice. Colour Clave has chosen well. Do you fancy a bit of colour naming later? I, if I can't think of anything else to do I might. I do think this is something my daughters would really get into. One of them in particular loves this sort of, you know, abstract naming of colours. I think I mentioned that last time. She's forever correcting me when I'm just calling things in the primary colour names,

which is as far as my palette, verbal palette goes. Well, get on there. Colournames.org. Colour spelt without the U. Oh indeed, yes. So it's the American name. American spelling. I'll just mention this news story that was sent in by Leo from Canada. Apparently there's this, I don't know if this is made that cross your radar, Tim.

It's been making news in Australia, apparently, and Canada, but there was some Australian expat living in Toronto running a cafe and he was selling Vegemite and Vegemite related products and the Canadian Health Authorities came along and banned him because apparently Vegemite didn't meet their health standards because of the amount of Vitamin B or folic acid or something that was added to it. Oh no. So the Vegemite was banned and it became sort of an international incident and the Australian Prime Minister commented on it and all sorts and now it's kind of, I think it's been resolved since and now he's allowed to sell it again.

They kind of decided, okay, this stuff's safe. So it's been resolved, but it was, I'll put some links in the notes if I remember and Leo said, luckily the international crisis has been avoided. I hope you can forgive Canada for this massive misstep. Thank you for indulging my email. Well, you know what's happened here is the classic North American mistake. He's gone along. He's found this.

He's gone, well, hang on, let's give this a test. He's pulled out a teaspoon, taken a teaspoon of it and put in his mouth and then just freaked out. Big mistake. Big mistake. Even even the mighty Tom Hanks made this mistake during COVID. You need to take a little bit and spread it very lightly mixed in with butter on your toast. That's what you do. Yeah. Yeah. That's the way to do it. Yeah. It's like caviar. You just use it very sparingly. Vegamite and caviar are very similar, very similar products. But obviously we have a, you know, we have a deep tradition of support from Canada.

And I think Leo was worried that this would destabilise the relationship in some way. But you know, we're not blaming Canadians themselves. It was a, it was, it's been a difficult time for Canada lately. And I think maybe, you know, they're just not quite thinking straight. It's been a difficult time for Canada lately and I think maybe you know they're just not quite thinking straight. That's right they've got a very confused neighbour who's causing a bit of ruckus here so that's fair enough. Ideas for a podcast. Well I've got one.

Have you? You're gonna go first again? I'm gonna go first again. You're gonna do it? You're gonna take it for yourself? It's what the fans want. Is it? Yes. You're gonna do it. You're gonna take it for yourself. It's what the fans want. Is it? Yes. My...

Well, do you... Well... Fans, do you prefer Tim to go first or me with the idea? Call out. Call out everybody. I'm gonna set up a poll. I would like... that would be... that would actually be helpful, wouldn't it? So we wouldn't have this little awkward moment where we go, no, you go. No, you go. Every time. I would like to know who's gone first most and I would like to know what people would prefer to happen.

Okay. That that that would be helpful data. But you're going to go first now. The Australian woman's weekly children's birthday cake recipe book. Does that mean anything to you? No. I can sort of figure out what it is by sort of, you know, reconstructing the term. But well, you've got it. You've got a young boy who watches a little bit of television. So let me ask, do the words duck cake mean anything to you?

Duck cake? No. Duck cake from Bluey. We haven't really entered the world of Bluey yet. I've only seen a limited number of episodes myself and he is not yet a Bluey man. All right. OK. All right okay all right all right. So this is a fantastic book a very sort of classic 80s Australian recipe book that sort of mums the modern mums in the 80s like our mums used to design novelty birthday cakes for their little boys right and girls of course. And it was released by woman's weekly magazine woman's weekly magazine which is very sort of popular weekly. I think it's now monthly Australian publication so it's sort of classic suburban month it

was monthly then even back then it was woman's weekly was a monthly magazine and woman's day was the weekly one. Right right and one can imagine why the name wasn't changed. But they produced special edition cake books and looking at the cover of this, if you look it up, it just, it jumps out at me. My mum had one of these and we had so many of these birthday after birthday after birthday. And what they are is novelty birthday cakes of all sorts of description. And they, but they're easy to make at home. They're the sorts of things with a few decorations you can make.

Yep. And it's just come back massively into vogue again because one of the recipes, the duck cake was used on Bluey. And so. And this is a cake shaped like a duck, not a cake made of duck. Thank you for clarifying that. Like a little rubber ducky like Ernie had on the muppets, not a cake made of duck. Thank you for clarifying that. Like a little rubber ducky like Ernie had on the Muppets, you know, on Sesame Street.

A rubber ducky birthday cake. I'm with you. So this is a book full of cakes, full of birthday cake designs that you can make for your kids and it's been repopularized by Bluey, the cartoon show. So what's your podcast idea? Like making every one of them or something? That's right. Making them, discussing them, working your way through the cookbook and talking about the legendary sort of racetrack, the robot, the lion, the witch, Miss Muffet, the cricket bat, Humpty Dumpty

lover, all sorts of stuff and, and talking through and having fun. This train one is on the cover looks there's a, there's most of my Google image search results have an edition that has a train shaped cake. So that looks like that would be a classic to make. Yeah. This is not part of my life. I have to admit my mother and dad for that matter, but I guess my mom brought us up more was not, uh, she has a woman of many talents, but baking and cooking was not one

of them. So she was not the sort of woman who would have had the woman's weekly weekly children's birthday cake book on the shelf this is completely new to me. Oh really and what about the mum next door or something like that was there sort of a mum nearby who well yes the woman who live next door who was kind of you know. Mum 2.0 was a fantastic cook and Baker but she was like more of the kind of family tradition recipes she wouldn't she wouldn't have used a cookbook she would have used recipes handed down through generations and stuff so. Right yeah. occasion you know making novelty cake sort of thing in fact on one of my daughter's birthdays even though she was turning 18 a good friend of ours actually that her and and son like made the duck cake for her as a special gift which was really awesome as a great surprise no it was much we all loved it and all I sat around eating it together and enjoying it and apparently it was quite hard to do, quite hard to do, but it's become quite legendary.

We have gotten into this world now. We've got a birthday coming up actually for Edward and we, we commissioned his birthday cakes to like professional bakers because my wife likes them to be really impressive. So the last couple of years, I think we've had them done by like, you know, professional bakers to our specifications and design. Oh, right. Okay. But we, and we had this year's all prepared and then the woman who was going to bake has

had sort of bit of a family crisis and has had to withdraw at the last moment. So we're sort of scrambling, but luckily my wife's sister is an excellent baker and she's taken on the mantle and she's going to bake this year's birthday cake. So yeah. Well, uh, yeah. Well, you need to get a copy of this. If you can, if you can find a copy, I imagine it's actually become such cool thing, like that heaps of moms are doing and dads too. Um, that I think that's getting quite hard to, um, to get copies of it.

I imagine or original copies anyway, but I think it's, it's sort of back in. She, if I go on a look here, oh yeah, no, hang on. There's like a vintage edition that's come out again. Yeah. Um, and you can buy them online. It's cool. Yeah. Just to come to the actual, you know, I know it's, I know it's something we don't

often do, but to come to it, the actual idea as a podcast, I think this would be a great YouTube channel because I feel like you really want to see the cakes being baked and made in the finished result, which the podcast doesn't give you. I think it's a good podcast idea. I think it would be a great video series watching, watching these cakes. I wonder how many are in the book. Would there be like 20 or 50 or something? Or.

Well, there's a couple of books, right? There's a few different editions. So they build up. I can't, I can picture this probably about 20 or 30 in the original one I can't remember okay but but there's then there's another edition that comes out right with more of them yeah so you must be a compilation of all of them too and stuff yeah oh no look at this there are 108 themed cakes appearing in the original edition oh wow, wow. Good series.

Yeah. A lot of content there. I also think there's maybe a bit of a story in, in things going wrong. Maybe it's a more broader children's birthday parties, stories, you know what I mean, of classic meltdown sort of moments that could, there's something of a podcast idea in that as well. Birthday cakes for birthdays are like a thing. You're right.

There is something here and everyone's got stories about their favourite birthday cake. They remember my childhood story about a birthday cake that I best remember was, I can't remember how old I was, but I was a little boy and had all my friends over and mum had made or obtained some kind of birthday cake that we were all looking forward to eating. And my little cousin, who I will name and shame on the podcast, my little cousin Ben, when he was a really, really little boy, was at my birthday. And I remember all of us, all us boys were playing out the back together. And then we just said, oh, let's go into the main room now and get the cake.

And we all came around the corner to go to where the birthday cake was. And little Ben, who was only like a toddler, had crawled up on the table and we all came around the corner to go to where the birthday cake was and little Ben who was only like a toddler had crawled up on the table and was like destroying the cake on his own with his hands like he'd gotten to the cake as a little boy and like gotten access to it and we were all horrified as we came around the corner the birthday cake was being tucked into by Ben so, shame on you Ben. Shame Ben. Who's now a grown man. I used to have, well, I was very lucky, actually, to have next door a lady called Nolene, and she was actually a bit of a cake decorator. And so she used to make like the first few, like she made a Superman cake for me and

stuff. But other years mum took the mantle because I think she was like, well, hello. This is something she wants to do. And then, of course, you get to an age as a kid where you want to help make it as well so you sort of you're involved in the making of it let's do this one and so you do that one and that's pretty cool. But as I got a little bit older like cake in a Dutch household cake is quite a big thing right the Dutch you know food palette is pretty simple but they're big on cakes. You know food palette is pretty simple but they're big on cakes and on your birthday traditionally what happens is that you you have cake you have lots of cake at your house and people come around for coffee and cake. To your house on your birthday and I just pop in all day long right and except dinner time you don't they don't come at dinner or lunch time they leave you alone to just eat a quick meal and then you eat cake cake all day. day and we used to have from this little Dutch shop in Tarelgon a Dutch mocha cake. So sort of chocolate and coffee together mocha and that was that's the greatest thing you'll ever taste in your life. And so mom and dad used to get one of those every year and because I love them so much I got to an age where I started like ordering them for my birthday as well. So

sort of not making them sort of ended but I had them when we got to our wedding. My wife and I decided to have a massive slab Dutch mocha cake for everyone to enjoy instead of a traditional wedding cake, which was nice. Yeah. So your dad, he was Dutch, was he? Have I not mentioned that? No, you're so secretive about your Dutch heritage. I can't believe you let that mocha cake thing slip. But if you're happy to keep that in the episode, I'll keep it. But out of the bag, it's out of the bag.

What can I say? What can I say? Good idea for a podcast. Let me quickly do some prizes for Patreon supporters. Just doing a quick one today because it's only a quick episode. Just going to send some cards out. I'm going to send one of my Asteroid postcards out too. Actually Tim, all three of these winners today are from the United States. I'm going to tell you the

initials of their state because that's what I get on my spreadsheet and then I have to figure out what the state is. I've got one hard one and two easy for you. Alright. too easy for you. All right. The asteroid postcard is going to Johann Johann from MD. What state is MD? MD. It's not Montana, Massachusetts, Milwaukee. Milwaukee is not a state, is it? Oh, right.

Yeah, sure. Sure. Um, uh, M M M M M M M mm mm. This is the hard one by the way. Golly gosh, it is a hard one. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Very close to Washington DC. Maryland? Yes. There we go. And I'm gonna be sending spoon of the week collector cards to And I'm going to be sending Spoon of the Week collector cards to Alejandra in NY, do you know what state that is? NY. NY, New York?

Yes. And also Spoon of the Week postcards going to Dylan P in FL. FL I imagine is the state of Florida. Correct. There we go. So continuing the birthday theme, because I've got a birthday themed podcast as well, because if I get my act together and I work quickly enough, we're gonna release this podcast on the day of Tim's birthday. Happy birthday Tim.

Thank you. Happy birthday. Yeah. Yes. It's come around again. So my plan is to release this on Tim's birthday or the day after if things go wrong. But hopefully you're listening to this on Tim's birthday there or thereabouts. Tim is turning 49, I believe.

Correct. Yes. So my idea for a podcast is called Dead at 49. Right. And essentially the idea of this podcast is you have a guest on, preferably on their birthday, that would be nice, and you talk about people who died at that age. Right. Thank you.

And you'll see, I'll try and turn it later on but let's let's start with the death. I'm going to tell you about some people who died at the age of 49 Tim. 49 is older than you think when you start looking back at people like it always feels like it's like you always feel I feel quite young and then you suddenly realize well you know JFK became president at like 42 or something like that. So you suddenly realize 49 my goodness, it's getting on there. Hmm. Who have you got? I'll give you some people who died at the age of 49. I'll try and gamify it a little bit where I can. Yeah.

Like I may, maybe, maybe it will see if I'll either give you a clue as to the person or if I don't think you'll know the name, I'll tell you the name and you'll see if you know who they are. Yep. Verne Troyer died at the age of 49. Did he? Wow Hmm. Do you know who Vern Troyer is? No he is the Diminutive actor who played mini me in the Austin Powers movies. Oh, right. Okay Yes, I can picture him now. Mm him now. He died at 49, right?

Okay. I didn't know he had died at all. Uh, do you know who Dale Earnhardt is? Dale Earnhardt? No, he sounds like a baseballer, but- You're in the right field. He is an American race car driver. He was a famous NASCAR driver.

Uh, he, he actually, he died at the age of 49. I bel- he died in a crash. Oh, right. He was still famous NASCAR driver he actually he died at the age of 49 he died in a crash. Oh right. He was still driving. Yes. So 49. Davy Crockett, frontiersman and war hero, big part of American history died at 49. There was a US president who died at the age of 49.

And I'll give you a clue. He was assassinated. Yes. Hmm. Well, now hang on. So I suddenly I suddenly thought well of course that's Abraham Lincoln. It could be JFK no it's not JFK he's too too he died younger than that so it must be Abraham Lincoln. Yeah. No it wasn't James A Garfield was also assassinated. I didn't know.

Yeah. I think haven't was also assassinated. I didn't know there was another assassin. Haven't four been assassinated? James Garfield was, after Abraham Lincoln was shot, he was still very cavalier about safety and thought that was just a freak occurrence and didn't believe he needed a lot of protection. And he was assassinated at a train station and died a number of days later when he was just heading home, quite unprotected. Does the name Garinha mean anything to you? Gurinsha?

Gurinsha? No. Hmm. He's quite from the past but he was a Brazilian footballer who was quite famous. He was a Brazilian striker, one of the greats of Brazilian football, a country that has many great footballers. Here's someone who died at 49 and I'll give you a clue. They say Angelica and Eliza were both at his side when he died. Is this Hamilton? Death does not discriminate between the sinners and the saints.

It takes and it takes and it takes Alexander Hamilton. I know that because of the name Eliza. Because I don't know that very well the name Eliza because I Angelica yeah Angelica Eliza those two together. That's what prompts me, but I I don't know it anywhere as well as you He threw away his shot at the age of 49. Does he die in the play? Yeah, that's a huge part of it. Yeah, right. Yeah, okay. Mm-hmm They had they had they show the jewel. Right. I don't remember.

I have watched it all the way through, but it was with a bunch of guys sitting around chatting and we weren't really paying attention. They all loved it and I was only indifferent to it. And so I didn't follow it all the way through. Okay, Hamilton dies. Can I just apologize for a moment? If you hear any construction work in the background,

which you may at the moment, it's because some construction work's been done on my house and I want it done so badly, I'm not willing to go and stop them. It's very unprofessional of me, but there may be a bit of soaring in the background, I apologise. Another person who died at the age of 49, Joey Ramone. Oh, wow. See, I remember Joey Ramone dying and I thought he was an older man than that. Oh That's a real shame King John of England famous old king from a long long time ago. Here's one famous old tennis player vintage tennis player before our time

but famous initials AA Arthur Ashe Correct. Well done Bob Crane died at the age of 49. Oh right, okay. Who was he? That's the guy from Full House.

No, that's the guy from, hang on, hang on, hang on, it'll come to me. What's it called? The um, World War II. Yep. Camp. Show. Yep. Camp. Show. I knew nothing. Shorts.

Shorts. I knew nothing. Bob Crane was the title character of this TV show. I can't think of it. I used to watch it after school so many times. I know. I know. It's a great show.

No, it's gone. Do you want a clue? Yes. Do you want a clue to the name? Yes. It's again, we've got HH. Hogan's Heroes. Hogan's Heroes. Bob Crane, the title was Hogan in Hogan's Heroes. Douglas Adams was 49.

Oh right, not 42. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Phil Hartman, the actor. Oh yeah. He's one of those guys that's sort of known by every American, but I know but I know his name but I don't know what he did but you know. Here's a couple of nerdy ones just for people who like Brady's content George ball the mathematician. And Christian Doppler after whom the Doppler effect is named. Both died at 49 on behalf of the rest of us what's the Doppler effect the Doppler effect is to do with waves compressing when they're traveling towards you and kind of expanding when they're moving away from you so the reason an ambulance goes.

And then it sounds the pitch changes when it goes past you or a motor car for that reason. No, that's called the Doppler effect because as it's coming towards you, the sound waves, it's giving off it's then chasing and catching up with and emitting another one and emitting another one. So they're all compressing and getting closer to each other, which makes a high pitch sound. Oh, right. And then when it moves away from you, they're all spreading out cause it's releasing a sound wave from the back of the car and then driving further away before it releases another one.

So you get like a stretching. So that's why things moving towards you sound high pitched and when they move away from you they sound lower pitched. You know that makes sense. I'm going to believe you. I'll take that on board. Yes, accepted, validated. Well done.

Do you know who Jeff Hanneman is? No. No? That's okay. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated.

Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated.

Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Validated. Thomas Aquinas died at 49. Oh wow. Who was Thomas Aquinas? Oh Thomas Aquinas is a theologian from a long time ago and very very significant for Catholics in particular they hold to him but he wrote something called the Summer Theologia. So he wrote like really good explanations of you know why there were a god early on. Why there was a god, why there is a God early on.

Cool Christian Brando the son of Marlon Brando died at 49 and here's the last one for you. Do you know who Richard Mark Wanda's Richard Mark one isn't he the guy that directed return of the Jedi. Correct yes died at, died quite young. Oh wow, yeah. So turning 49, it doesn't, it feels in some ways a little bit more significant than turning 50. Like it sort of makes you go, here we go, this is interesting. Last chance. Last chance. Yeah. To be a man in your 40s, which is, which, which is what we now cling to as being young. Yeah, that's right. Before I'm suddenly, you know, I have to grow up next year.

I'll become an adult. So what should I do this year? What do I need to do? Good question. That leads beautifully to my next list because I thought this was obviously quite macabre and it appeals to my like macabre nature. Yeah. And that's what I find most interesting.

But I also did a bit of research and I'm going to admit here, I asked chat GPT this question and I find it to be a little bit unreliable with anything involving names and numbers and things. So that last list I read wasn't chat GPT. This one is. So some of this stuff may be wrong. Right, right, right. But I asked it to tell me what people accomplished or did great things at the age of 49. What great things have been done by a 49 year old? Because maybe you can join this list, Tim.

Well, I will no doubt join this list. But let's have a listen to the list first. Okay Julia Child published Mastering the Art of French Cooking which I don't know much about but apparently she's a big deal and that book is quite a big deal in kind of American culinary culture. Oh yeah I know that book yeah and have you seen the film Julie and Julia? No. Oh you must look that up oh you guys would love that that is a really really good that's Meryl Streep playing her and a really fascinating story. Yeah. Lots of fun. Yeah. Well, you know, you know more about this than me. Oh, yeah. 49 apparently. Samuel L. Jackson starred in Jackie Brown, but he was already a big deal

and did other good things after that. But, you know, he was big. Yeah. Well, that's right. Jackie Brown. He'd already done pulp fiction. And that's what sort of put him over the top so yeah. Charles Darwin published Origin of Species that was around 4950 I think he may have been 50 when it was published but it was kind of finalised at 49 so. Right okay yep. So that's a good one. That is that's a very influential one. Ray Crock took his first steps to starting McDonald's.

Oh right. At the age of 49. Or buying it off the McDonald's brothers and yeah. Yeah, like he sort of just, so that was around that. Alfred Hitchcock directed his first colour film. Apparently it was a pioneering film for him because it used a lot of longer take shots and things. Do you know what the film was? I would not have got this.

Oh, look, his first one in colour. I wouldn't know all Alfred Hitchcock's. I'll say rear window, but I think that probably comes later. It was called Rope. I don't even know it. Oh, OK. Ariana Huffington launched The Huffington Post. Oh, yeah.

Laura Ingalls Wilder started writing Little House on the Prairie. All right, yeah. Did you watch Little House on the Prairie. Oh right, yeah. Did you watch Little House on the Prairie? Oh, I loved it. The girl who played Laura Ingalls Wilder in that TV show I think was my first childhood crush. Yeah, yeah, so pretty. Leonard Cohen released various positions which included one of the most famous of his songs.

Do you know what it was? Well, I imagine that's Hallelujahelujah, but it's correct. It wasn't a hit at the time. But I prefer, I prefer obscurity, obscuresome that no one's ever heard of, but I think has been a use of notes and melodies. I was only going to say it lay there in obscurity for years and years and years and years. And it's one of those songs that's grown over time through it being covered and much, much later. But yeah.

I don't think I knew it until Jeff Buckley popularised it. No, no. But even that was 1995 and then it appeared in Shrek about five years later. And then it started to take off really after then. Yes. That's it's really only been the last 20 years. To be honest, that's probably when I first heard of it. And lastly, on this list, this one's big.

Paul McCartney formed the Firemen, an experimental electric duo with Producer Youth. Oh, wow. I know the Producer Youth and the fact that I've never heard of the Firemen is telling. So what do you think? A podcast where someone comes in on their birthday, whatever that number is, and you hit them with a whole bunch of this stuff and just talk about it. Look I think talking to people about turning 49 and what it means, it's a strange age. It doesn't have to be 49 by the way, each episode would be a different age. Oh okay sure yeah yeah. Oh well I like it, I like the idea of aiming at 49 but maybe that's because I'm 49. Because I think there's something, it is a like I like the idea of aiming at 49, but maybe that's because I'm 40 49. Yeah.

Because I think there's something there it is a something like there is a bit of a pivot point to it. Let's you're not going to maybe live to 100. You're doing well if you live to 100. But certainly you start it's real. It's kicking in. Well, it's more than halfway. Right. So you can sort of see see the totality of life. It's it's important to know that facing mortality, like Dostoevsky points out, facing mortality you think isn't morbid, it actually makes you more alive, it actually allows you to live. So that's a good thing to do. So that's interesting, but it's still a long way off too.

So you've got lots of energy and some ways you feel like I'm in the, I love getting older and I feel like I'm in the prime of my life. So, but that have also been around a little while too. So that's, that's a marvelous time. So 49 is an interesting age, but I, but I'm sure there's a way to do this at all sorts of other ages too, maybe all the nines at 39, 29, because there's a sense of anticipation about pivoting into the next stage that would work well. Why not just choose the age of your guest? Today we've got, you know,

got so and so, famous person, guest, they happen to be 53. So we're going to talk today, today we're going to talk about the age of 53. Who died at 53? Who did great things at 53? What are some interesting things about being 53 years old? And then that way each episode is different. Yeah, okay, you can do that. The thing that makes the episode interesting

isn't really the number or the age, it's what's on the list, isn't it? It's the people, like, you know, oh, Richard Marquand, let's talk about Richard Marquand for a while. Oh, let's talk about Bob Crane and Arthur Ashe and let's talk about, that's where the interest comes from. And that doesn't necessarily map onto the numbers quite so much. I guess there is a problem that when you're doing all the young ages all the people die tragically and when you start doing old ages the people are dying in a more normal ways but that's why I would just. Make it a hotch potch like I you know twenty three last week and this week it's sixty eight. Yeah make sure there's a bit of variety in it yeah yeah I like the idea of talking to someone young and then someone old then someone in the middle and then you know that kind of that that is good. I think that works well. Happy birthday.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Are you what are you doing cake wise? Are you having a you're gonna get one from the the woman's weekly children's birthday cake book? I don't know. But I may do that. Maybe over the weekend, maybe Sunday I might. Does anyone in your house have the skills to do it? Do you have the skills to do it? I would be the one with the least skills, the fewest. Yes, the others are great bakers and they love this sort of thing. So hopefully they might pull something out.

Ask for one from the book. Maybe I will. Maybe I'll look through. I'll peruse and find something. Yeah for nostalgic reasons and they can bake it for me. Nice. All right Tim shall we go and retire to the request room and answer some questions from Patreon supporters and see what hijinks happen there? Absolutely. See you there. All right so Patreon supporters patreon.com slash unmadefm if you aren't one already. Come and hang out with us and hear some more chatter. Who knows what we might be asked, and who knows what the answers might be.