The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week - Spooky Rivers, Eyes Wide Shut, Pet Crocodiles

Episode Date: September 15, 2021

Producer Jess Boddy joins Rachel for a listener voicemail Q&A episode! The weirdest things we learned this week range from a killer creek to naked mole rat facts at breakfast.  The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week is a podcast by Popular Science. Share your weirdest facts and stories with us in our Facebook group or tweet at us! Buy your Weirdest Thing virtual live show tickets here: https://www.caveat.nyc/event/the-weirdest-thing-i-learned-this-week-livestream-9-21-2021 Click here to learn more about all of our stories!  Click here to follow our sibling podcast, Ask Us Anything!  -- Follow our team on Twitter! Rachel Feltman: www.twitter.com/RachelFeltman Produced by Jess Boddy: www.twitter.com/JessicaBoddy Theme music by Billy Cadden: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6LqT4DCuAXlBzX8XlNy4Wq?si=5VF2r2XiQoGepRsMTBsDAQ Popular Science: www.twitter.com/PopSci --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/popular-science/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/popular-science/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Rachel here, along with Jess. Hello. And we're in your feed. Just because no ulterior motive, we just couldn't stay away even though we're on break. I want to give you a heads up, speaking of which, that next Tuesday, not a Wednesday, But Tuesday, September 21st, we are going to have yet another bonus episode drop in your feed.

Why, again, absolutely no ulterior motive. We just love to talk to you. And coincidentally, we would love to take this opportunity to remind you to buy tickets to our upcoming live show. So for listeners who don't yet know, we are hosting a totally virtual live event, but we're hosting it from our favorite venue, caveat in New York City. which means you'll get all of the production value of caveat magnificent camera work. You'll get all of the magic of us sitting together on stage, sharing our weird stories, playing games, answering your questions live, sending out prizes, all of that,

all that good stuff you love about our live shows instead of us sitting in front of our computers trying not to be sad. Like I said, the show is on September 21st. It's airing at 7 p.m. Eastern, but anyone who buys a ticket will be able to watch a recorded version at their leisure. So even if you're in a time zone where 7 p.m. Eastern is completely cuckoo bananas for you. Don't worry. You can still join in. We also have a few VIP tickets available. It's just $20 extra and it gets you access to an exclusive, cozy, intimate, lovely virtual happy hour with the cast and crew of the weirdest

thing I learned this week. It's a great opportunity for you to get to know us. Tell us all about yourselves. Ask us any questions you have about the show, ourselves, whatever. It's just a really fun way for us to spend a couple of hours and we really hope you'll join. So if you want a ticket to the live show on September 21st or to that added VIP experience, you can find the link in the show notes of this episode. Don't worry, we will also remind you on Tuesday when again, yes, we will be back in your feed with a full episode. Just because we're really excited. Oh, and one more thing before I forget about the live show, we will have some raffle

prizes that you're only eligible for if you're one of our first ticket buyers. So the window is closing very quickly for you to be in that group. So I highly recommend you get your tickets right now. Our VIP tickets are also extremely limited. So again, don't hesitate. Don't wait. Clicky, clicky. the button, do the thing. So Jess and I thought it would be fun to dive into some of our

listener voice messages. For those of you who don't know, you can send us voice messages using the Anchor app or on the Anchor website. Anchor is the platform we use to distribute the weirdest thing I learned this week. And it is one of several ways that you can get in touch with us and, most importantly, share weird facts of your own. So I will just pull up some of those messages. now. And Jess, as usual, I will play a few of my favorites with, you know, some added context on listener facts. Let's do it. I'm excited. Okay, let's see. Where to begin? Okay, we're going to start with Aaron. Hey, my name is Aaron from North Carolina. I love y'all's show. I first heard about it from my cousin when we were up visiting her in Ohio.

She just started rattling off naked mole rat facks at breakfast. So love the show. Love y'all. Just want to leave a voicemail because my sister showed me this video from TikTok song about Cheeto. It's like Cheeto, right? I think he's named like Cheeto the Fisherman and Poncho the Crocodile from Puerto Rico. basically this fisherman found a crocodile on the side of a riverbank who had been shot by a farmer

like a 15-foot crocodile and decided to nurse it back to health and tried to let him go and then he wouldn't go so then they were friends until he died so that's really fun and nice so yeah bye that is really fun and nice yes thank you for calling in erin and yeah i had to look into this more i I am such a sucker for those videos being like, and then they were best friends forever. So yes, this is Cheeto the fisherman and Pocho the crocodile from Costa Rica. And what happened, according to Cheeto, is that in 1989, he came across Pocho, this full-grown crocodile, who had been shot through one of his eyes. Chido said he asked around and the crocodile had been preying on cattle. so the farmer had shot him.

And so Cheetah felt really bad for this crocodile and he fed it, chicken and fish for six months. And says he was very affectionate the whole time. He said that he felt that the animal needed more than food to recover, that he also needed his love. Also, one source I read said that the person that Cheetah was married to at the time left him for paying too much attention to the crocodile. Oh my goodness. This is a Pixar movie. Yeah, I have not, that part I have not confirmed. but I just had to include it even if it's just color added by some journalist at some point.

But he did remarried as someone who was more appreciative of the crocodile. So in 2000, so more than a decade after they first met, they started performing for tourists. And this became Chido's main source of income until the crocodile died in 2011. I found a few articles claiming that Chido was trying to train upon. Hocho the second. Oh. But it doesn't seem like that worked out. I don't think it ended in tragedy, but it seems like these were very particular circumstances.

He was one of a kind. Yes. And in fact, a documentary about the two of them, the documentarian actually speculated that maybe Pocho had experienced some kind of brain damage from the gunshot wound. And that maybe that's why he didn't attack people. Right. I have to say for everyone listening that first of all, like, you should not try to own a wild animal. There are a lot of reasons why you shouldn't do that. And there are a lot of reasons why it is

rightfully illegal in most circumstances and in most places. If it's illegal to have a certain kind of pet in your state, that should make you like stop and ask why it might be illegal before you say, you know, to heck with the law and try to make it happen. And this is particularly true for wild animals that are predators because, There are so many news stories I could cite. I'm not going to because I don't want to be a huge bummer, but you can have what seems like a beautiful relationship with a carnivorous predator that turns out to have either been just kind of circumstantial or totally one-sided and kind

of imagined by the human because these animals have instincts. And sometimes if they get tired of. the circumstances you're keeping them in or they have a bad day or they don't feel well, they may attack you. And so, yeah, the whole time that Chito was keeping Poto, there were neighbors and tourists who were like, this, this crocodile is going to snap any day. Like, yes, the affection seems genuine, but like, this is a ticking time bomb. And, you know, because Pojo died without there ever being any negative incident, we'll never know whether that was just luck or whether there was really something different about Pocho that made him genuinely

not a threat to people or at least to Cheeto. But yes, just like in case it needs to be said, do not try to keep a wild crocodile as a pet or really anything with teeth that lives in the wild. Right. Yeah, that's a good disclaimer. Yeah, sorry, go ahead. Well, I just want to go back to Aaron's original message because I love the phrase naked mole rat facts at breakfast because that sounds like a great band name but anyway continue oh gosh I'm really glad you know I really the naked mole rat fact run was really honestly me being um like not having enough time to prepare a second robust fact for a life show I mean they're they have but it turned out really well facts yeah a treasure trove. Yeah, I was just like, I don't have time to craft a story, but I can,

I can talk about how amazing naked mole rats are. So I'm really glad that the people enjoyed that. Oh, yeah. How could you not? All right. Now we have one from Leilani. Hi, gang. I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your podcast. I've been listening to it for a while now. and it always makes me laugh hysterically, and I'm fascinated by the facts that you guys come up with. So my question is, what is the thing about people sleeping with their eyes open? I don't think I've heard this on a previous episode,

so just checking in with that question. My Uncle Norman used to sleep with his eyes open, and before we realized that he was asleep, blue would be talking to him and stuff like that. And then when we needed to answer, we were like, oh, he's sleeping. And then we were like, oh, that's really creepy. So anyway, keep up the great work. Love you guys. Thank you. Yay. Thank you. We love you too. I did a lot of research on this because I really did not want to let them down. Yeah. So, Jess, have you ever known anyone who sleeps with their eyes open? No, just my little dog will do it and I have to check that she's alive.

Oh, yeah. But she's fine. It's creepy, though. She's right. Yeah, yeah. So according to the National Sleep Foundation, this affects anywhere from 5 to 50% of people, though I'm going to assume that that higher estimate includes people who like just barely don't shut their eyes sometimes. Because otherwise that seems ludicrously high. But anyway, the point is that, it's not that uncommon. And if you wake up with dry, gritty, irritated eyeballs on a regular basis, it might be because your eyelids aren't shutting all the way when you sleep and you just don't know. The official name for this is nocturnal legapthamos. Sorry. I looked up how to say that I scared myself. Legapthamos. Lagaphthalmos. That's it. Sorry. There's an emphasis that

makes it easier to say. Yes. Sorry. So the official name for this, or we can just keep in me not knowing how to pronounce it. Let's keep it. Okay. Get the people what they want. So according to the Cleveland Clinic, it's pretty rare for nocturnal legathalmos to just spring up

out of nowhere. Some of the most common causes are nerve damage in your face due to a stroke or Bell's palsy or muscular issues due to disease. or head or facial trauma or, you know, anything that diminishes kind of the available skin for your eyelids. So severe scarring can do this as well. Cosmetic eyelid surgery and Botox injections can also have the side effect of keeping your eyelids from fully shutting. And so can the use of alcohol and or sleeping pills. Certain forms of hyperthyroidism can also cause your eyeballs to bulge, which makes it more difficult for your lids to shut over them. So lots of potential causes.

Now, in addition to potentially creeping out your nieces and nephews, this isn't awesome because in addition to leaving your eyeballs exposed to the drying air and anything that might whack into them while you're sleeping, it also affects sleep quality by failing to block out ambient light because total darkness is what signals to our brain that like it's sleep at time. Right. So you should definitely talk to a doctor if you suspect that you're not quite shutting your peepers when you're trying to get some shut eye. But just to give you an idea of typical treatments, like many sleep-related disorders, you'll often

start by making sure there aren't any obvious lifestyle changes to be made. Like I said, alcohol in certain medications can make this more common. And also in people who are prone to doing this, it seems like it's worse when the quality of your sleep is worse, which is, you know, it can make your sleep quality worse, but it can also be worse because your sleep quality is worth, which is a little frustrating. An endless cycle. Exactly. But so if you seem prone to this and it also seems like you're very stressed or you know, you're like eating your exercise routine might be affecting your sleep or again you're drinking a lot of

alcohol before bedtime or taking sleep aids, a doctor will probably advise you to try to go on, you know, sort of a sleep hygiene detox to see if that helps fix the problem. Now, depending on the underlying cause, you might just need to treat your dried out eyeballs withdraw. first thing every morning and keep your bedroom nice and dark and humid so that your cracked open eyelids don't affect your sleep quality or eyeball health. Doctors can also prescribe a thicker gel-like drop that works to keep eyeballs moist overnight in the first place. Or they might use a physical intervention to help keep the eyelids shut. So specialized eyelid tape is pretty common as are tiny weights that patients can tape to the outside of their eyelids to hold them down. What? Oh my gosh.

No way. And there are, yeah, there are a lot of masks out there now that work to keep eyelids closed either because they're weighted or the way they're shaped. Yes, I have a weighted eye mask and it is so, oh my God, they're the best. I find it very calming. It never occurred to me that it might also help keep my eyelids shut. Totally. Added benefit. In extreme cases, you might need surgery to either add a skin graft to lengthen your eyelid or even implant a tiny weight to help it stay shut, which might sound really extreme, but apparently this surgery yields really good results for people who just cannot get good sleep because their eyelids don't shut. Wow, I've like never considered any of this, but it makes a ton of sense.

Well, I am happy to help you consider it. Thank you. Okay, let's take a quick commercial break and then we'll be back with some more voice memos. Did you know that there's an online cannabis company that ships federally legal THC right to your door. I'm talking about mood.com. They have an incredible line of cannabis gummies and a lot more. And you can get 20% off your first order at mood.com with promo code weirdest. I'm not a smoker myself, but I do love the occasional weed gummy to, you know, help me go off to Dreamland. And I can't have one right now because I have a new kit. And, you know, I definitely miss it a little

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in a discreet box. Best of all, everything's backed by Mood's 100-day satisfaction guarantee, and like I said, you can get 20% off with code weirdest. I'm eyeing mood.com's Delta 9-THC buttercream caramels because in addition to not being able to have THC, I also can't have dairy right now. So the idea of having a caramel that also me me out and sends you to Dreamland sounds very nice. And speaking of fun edibles, mood.com has delta 9 THC freezer pops. So if you're looking to try some new cannabis products, head on over to mood.com. Get 20% off your first order now with code weirdest. That's code weirdest for 20% off. Okay, we're back. And this next fact, just I love so much. You'll see Jess. Hi, my name is Lorea. And the weirdest thing I learned this week was that a tracheotomy was performed

on a child to remove a goose larynx. I want to give a special shout out. to Dan Scott, who showed me this article. And in the year 1850, I believe it was Germany, children used to run around with the larynx of a recently killed goose, and they would blow through the larynx in order to imitate the sound of a goose. And one day, a 12-year-old boy who was extremely engaged and playing with the instrument had a coughing fit and accidentally swallowed the larynx and was incredibly uncomfortable for him,

he every time breathed sounded like a goose and so a tracheotomy had to be performed in order to remove the larynx and it was successful the boy lives and the larynx was removed and that's the weirdest thing I'm this week I wish you could see my face right now this is so much I also recently saw I recently saw a TikTok of like a I saw the same TikTok of the kid that swallowed like the skylop Queaker. Is that what you're thinking? Yeah. In a dog toy, yeah. Luckily, the kid was fine. Like, you know, we laughed because the kid is smiling and sitting up and being roasted for. Yes. And he, like, clearly sees the humor in it. Yeah. But this is just the 1800s version of that, I guess. It is. It is. It's the same. So, yeah, I look this up and I read more about it on the blog of Thomas Morris, who's the author of one of our favorite books over here at Weirdest Thing, The Mystery. of the exploding teeth. Yes.

Listeners may remember it as the source of our penis stuck in a glass bottle episode way back in the day. A classic. Which remains one of our most popular. I highly recommend picking that up if you love weird medical history, which if you're listening to this show, I sure as heck hope you do. If not, I don't know what you're doing here. I apologize for all the weird medical history.

So luckily, when this 12-year-old boy inhaled a goose larynx in 1848, while it did impede his breathing and make him very red and blue in the face, he managed to hold on for 18 hours before a Dr. Burrow saw him. So it sounds like he may have, his life may have been in danger eventually, but it was not like an acute choking situation. And so Dr. Burrow observed that the boys wheezes did indeed sound an awful lot like a goose call. Oh, boy.

According to Dr. Burroughs notes, the similarities between the inhaled object and the structure around it made its extraction really difficult. So basically, it had like neatly nested into the boy's own windpipe. Hence, the need for a quick tracheonomy, which is, you know, basically just making an incision through the throat down into the trachea to help the boy breathe while Dr. Burrow figured out what to do next. It took some trial and error, but eventually he figured out a technique for fishing the trachea out of there. And the boy was reportedly just fine, which is of particular relief at the time because tracheotomy is often led to deadly infections, as most surgeries did. Sure, sure. People didn't know heck all about germ theory.

So one thing that really blew my mind about this is that I'm familiar with the concept of like a duck call, a goose call, you know, the callers. Yeah. It never occurred to me that we got those by like mimicking the shape of a larynx. I just, I don't know. I never realized that either. I just imagine some dude like playing with a whistle until he made it down like a goose. But this makes way more sense. Well, and I wonder like if it was like on accident that that shape is this is similar or if it's like purposeful.

you know like if it yeah well maybe that's maybe that's a whole episode uh i really don't want to start watching that show again yeah but um maybe i'll maybe i'll have to for research purposes all right on to the next one hi weirdest thing this is debor i was listening to the episode about hot tubs and this is kind gross but one of the things that hot baths can help with is people who have sickly vomiting syndrome will often take a hot bath and it can sometimes head off an episode. I know this because I'm in a Facebook group with other people who have it and they often talk about taking hot baths. I don't have a diagnosis but because it has I've gotten better but I had it when I was a kid and I realized once I saw people talking about it

that I also do this when I'm feeling sick, I will take a hot bath. And I never really knew I was doing it. So anyway, I thought that was interesting. And I thought I would let you know. Bye. Hmm. Yeah. So for listeners who don't know, a cyclic vomiting syndrome is an uncommon and poorly

understood disorder where patients go through regular bouts of severe nausea and uncontrollable vomiting. Deborah, I'm so happy to hear that it seems like you outgrew the condition. And my heart goes out to any listeners who have. this because I personally do not cope very well with nausea. It is kind of like the one symptom that really just makes me, I can't, I'm a real baby about it. No, that's totally fair. It is extremely unpleasant. Yeah. And Deborah, like you, my instinct is often to get into a warm bath when I'm feeling nauseous. So I find this really fascinating. That's so interesting. I feel like I have the opposite

reaction. Like I feel like I just get sweaty when I'm nauseous. So I feel like I need to like strip down and get airflow and I always chew gum like minty gum and that always helps me but yeah well like ginger chews are classic oh yeah but maybe this is like a different mechanism for the specific thing I'm not really sure totally yeah well and I think it's you know like anything else different like to probably work for different people but yeah it does seem to be pretty common for this particular condition and it actually reminded me of a study we covered at pops eye in 2018 which explored a condition that's pretty similar to cyclic vomiting syndrome that's sometimes seen in heavy cannabis users, meaning people who use cannabis almost every day. So several studies have found that cannabis

users who experienced this cyclical nausea and abdominal pain almost universally have an impulse to take a hot shower to alleviate the symptoms, at least in the groups that have, you know, been surveyed, which to be fair, I'm sure is not everyone who has ever felt nauseous when smoking a lot of weed. But it does seem really common for people who have this cannabis-related nausea, which again isn't just like you smoke and you get nauseous. It's like you use a lot of cannabis and you frequently have bouts of nausea. Yeah, hot showers seem to really alleviate the symptoms and also just be a really common impulse. There are some theories as to why. Often they suggest some similar mechanism to the way pain relief creams with capsaicin, confused pain receptors,

but no one is really sure why this works yet. And so, yeah, it could be a totally different mechanism than the people with cyclic vomiting syndrome or it could be a similar one. We don't know. But consider a warm bath. Maybe it'll help. Yeah, for sure. So wait, the capsaic cream is it like icy hot?

So yeah, icy hot usually is like mentholated. Oh, it's menthol. That's what it is. I was like, wait a second. That's like a really cooling feeling that confuses your pain receptors. and then capsaicin is just literally the stuff that makes peppers hot in cream form. And I have used it before and it is I'm also like a little bit allergic to capsaic not enough to keep me from eating peppers but I get like very it causes some like weird stuff

to happen to me that I just deal with because I love peppers. But anyway, so using capsaic cream I'm like I think this is working more than it's supposed to. Right. Like, I am in quite a lot of pain from this capsaic cream. But in the right circumstances, like when your muscles are really sore, I'm like, this is good. Yeah, absolutely. A nice, distracting, harmless burn.

But I do definitely think that I am like super, super sensitive to it. I actually, when I went on a many hundred mile bike tour once and I used a lot of kipsayson cream, there was a sports bra from that trip that after like five walks, washes still when I put it on, my back would start to tingle. No way. True story. It finally wore off. It was always a weird little surprise as I got ready for my day.

That would be alarming. Why does my back kind of burn? And then I was like, ah, this is the pepper bra. The pepper bra? All right. Let's take a quick commercial break and then I'll be back with a couple more voice memos. Your summer starts now with Memorial Day deals at the home. Depot. It's time to fire up summer cookouts with the next grill four-burner gas grill on special

buy for only $199 and entertain all season with the Hampton Bay West Grove seven-piece outdoor dining set for only $49. This Memorial Day get low prices guaranteed at the Home Depot. While supplies, price in value May 14th or May 27th, U.S. only exclusions apply. See homedepo.com slash price match for details. Okay, we're back and we have a frequent caller here with a very spooky fact. Hello, it's Jase. First of all, thank you for sharing my last fact on the Edmond Fitzgerald. And second of all, I'm here with another fact about another deadly body of water.

Oddly enough, it's called the Bolton Stred. It's in England. If you haven't seen it, look a picture because it literally looks like a place where there would be a fairy tale taking place. It's a little stream among some mossy rocks in a forest. And it's gorgeous. but it also is claimed to have a 100% mortality rate. Basically, upstream is the River Wharf.

It's about 30 feet across. And when it gets to the strid, it's basically forced into this little crevice flipped on its side. And the water gets really fast and very deep. It undercuts the banks. There's all sorts of cave systems and sharp rocks. So basically, you know, you could try to jump across, but if you slip in fall, they might not find your body.

And Jay sent this in with the title, The Bolton Strid, parentheses. I promise I know things unrelated to bodies of water that can kill you. And I just want to say, Jay, because I love this beat for you. I think spooky and dangerous bodies of water are such a vibe. Yeah, they're just not their own podcast. Yeah, I personally believe. It's true. Oh, my gosh.

That would be a great show. Like, you could call it the Merck. Yeah, there's real potential there. Yeah, I would listen to it. I would be a guest on it. I need to remind myself, I don't have time to make a podcast. We can't have a spooky water podcast for Popside. But if someone else wants to do it, like Jace, I would support it wholeheartedly.

So honestly, Jace gave a really great rundown of this. But I saw a video about the Bolton Strait a few months back and it really freaked me out. And I've been thinking about it periodically ever since. so I'm so happy that you sent this in. So the 100% fatality rate thing just is a thing that locals frequently say. So it may be a bit of an exaggeration. But this stretch of water is definitely very deadly. And no one should ever go into it on purpose or like go near it, frankly.

So it's basically just a design quirk of the strid that makes it so dangerous. Like Jay said, a few feet upstream, the river wharf is about 30 feet wide. it's very shallow, very chill. And then there's this super narrow gap that squeezes the waterway so suddenly that it makes it drop way deeper and pick up a ton of speed. Basically hundreds of gallons of water go from having plenty of room to being squished into like six feet across. It also looks really narrow and harmless. So like it might not be like objectively more dangerous as a body of water than your standard rapids full of sharp rocks. but the tricky thing is that it looks safe to like hop over or for people to like step on rocks to

cross it because it's so narrow. And so the danger is that you start to do that and you slip on the rocks. And once you're in there, you're either going to get pulled down into these surprising depths because like Jay said, it kind of undercuts the bank. So it goes deeper and further than it appears. There are these crevices that you can get sucked. into and all of these caverns where the water goes. Because again, like the water has to go somewhere and the top part gets so narrow.

So it goes down. And so then, yeah, even if you're not pulled down, you have these crazy currents and it's pretty narrow and there's lots of sharp rocks and crevices. So even if you don't get sucked under, there's a really high likelihood of you getting knocked unconscious and hurt very badly to the extent that you're not going to be able to get out of there. So yeah, it's a spooky place. Terrifying. It doesn't sound like real. Like it sounds like it should be like in some like folklore or, you know, I don't know. It's like I'm amazed about this. And also afraid. People, people do die there. I mean, the 100% fatality rate, like I have no

way to confirm. But people do die there with some frequency. And in 1896, American author Gertrude Atherton wrote about the site in a short story called The Striding Place. And she said, there was no lonelier spot in England nor one which had the right to claim so many ghosts if ghosts there were. Which just, I love Gothic lit. Yes, a shiver down my spine in the best way. Indeed. So, yeah, I mean, if you find yourself by the Bolton Strid, admire it from a safe distance, please. And now we have one more message.

Hi you guys, my name's Lily. I live in Portland, Oregon. I am 17 and I love your show. I just finished listening to the second egg fact episode and I just literally took a break at work to tell you my most favorite and my most weird and disgusting chicken egg mishap because I have chickens. So one of my chickens is named Peony and I love her, but she has had some very weird egg issues. So I think she has a calcium. deficiency because on two separate occasions, she has laid soft eggs. Now, I know that doesn't sound super weird, but they're like squishy, like very, very squishy and have like an umbilical cord or like a tail attached to them. Not that they're pointy, they have like a tail. So I don't really know what happened there, but she's had issues in the past. Um, I love your show. Thank you guys so much for doing what you do, and I hope you enjoyed my weird egg fact. My favorite genre of listener message is hiding in the bathroom at work. Yes, I know.

You can like tell by their voice. They're like just calling in real quick. Also, I really feel for peony. I hope she's doing better. I don't have anything to add to this. I mean, I will say I looked up soft eggs due to calcium deficiency and I was horrified. Yes. I don't.

Really horrified. I don't think I will be looking it up because a soft egg with a tail. You know, I'm good not knowing what that looks like. Almost as hard if I know is the Bolton Strid, honestly. Right. But a later note to end on. Yeah. So, Lily, thank you so much for sharing your egg facts.

And again, I hope that P&E is doing better. I definitely, I read a couple of sources saying that I looked at like cluckin.com. A few similar sites. And they did definitely suggest that this is more common in the summer because when chickens are hot and stressed, they like eat. less and drink more, which can lead to a calcium deficiency. So I hope that if P&E is not better yet, that the autumn wins will perk her up and make her stop creating Eldridge Nightmare eggs.

All right. So that's it for today. Of course, as always, please send in voice memos of your own so that we can feature them on a future voice memo episode. You can do that through the Anchor app or on the Anchor website by searching for weirdest thing I learned this week. And of course, do not forget to keep an eye out, keep an ear out, whatever, keep all your feelers out for another bonus episode coming on Tuesday, September 21st, which, perhaps not totally coincidentally, is also the day of our virtual live show, which you should

get your tickets for ASAP. You can find the link in the show notes for this episode. We would really love to have you there with us for that night, even if you're not, you know, really there because we want things to be super safe. But we'll get to chat. We'll get to hang out. We'll get to drink if that's a thing you're into. We'll get to learn weird things. And we will get to support a wonderful venue, caveat that is doing everything in its

power to keep nerdy nightlife alive and safe in the age of COVID. And that is a great reason to celebrate. So we'll see you there, I'm sure. Thanks for listening, weirdos. The weirdest thing I learned this week is a popular science podcast. We're available on all major podcast platforms, so subscribe wherever you're listening now. And if you like what you hear, please read and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps other weirders find the show.

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