Chairman of the Bored

Some things aren't as real as they seem, and others...well, we sort of wish they weren't real at all. We'll explain all during today's tour.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world
is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to

(00:27):
the Cabinet of Curiosities. Everyone knows about the big government
organizations that monitor things like our money, our Internet activity,
and our impact on the environment. From the I R
S and the n s A to the f d

(00:47):
A and the e p A. There seems to be
a department that touches almost every aspect of our lives.
But beneath the FBI and the CIA, there are other organizations,
some clandestine, others that have fallen through the crack due
to obscurity or lack of funding. For example, NASA has
an unknown division known as the Office of Planetary Protection.

(01:08):
It's responsible for preventing cross contamination of the Earth by
space based organisms and vice versa. Even specific foods used
to have their own agency. In eight seven, the Board
of Tea Experts was formed to make sure any tea
imported into the United States met specific guidelines for public consumption.
The members of the organization assembled for two days each

(01:30):
year to sample a variety of tea. Their findings were
then sent to the FDA, which used the tasting notes
as a rubric for which to judge all imported tea.
But perhaps the strangest government agency of all was the
International Board of Hygiene, formed in nineteen six. It was
created by Honorable J. Fortescue, a prominent surgeon from San Diego, California.

(01:53):
The members, all doctors and physicians, almost never met within
the United States itself, choosing to hold their meetings all
over the world, and unlike other government organizations, those who
joined were not assigned to their stations. Anyone could become
a member for life simply by attending a single meeting.
Fortescue sent the League of Nations a formal proposal for membership,

(02:15):
which was accepted several weeks later. As the years went on,
interest in the Board grew among the other agencies, especially
where its elusive founder was concerned. He was invited to
join other groups, including the American Conference on Hospital Service,
and he was added to a government list of child psychologists,
although that wasn't part of his medical background. Over time,

(02:37):
Fortescue worked his way up the ladder of success, winning
prizes and getting published in numerous journals. He traveled the
world as part of work with the Board of Hygiene
and invited anyone he thought would benefit from membership to join.
The organization grew by leaps and bounds thanks to Fortescue's work.
He was revered all over the world until his untimely

(02:59):
death in nineteen sixty three. Except his death wasn't that untimely.
The Honorable J. Fortescue never really died because he never
really lived. Fortescue was the creation of Dr Ross and Piccard,
pathologist who really was from San Diego. He and a
group of fellow doctors like to get together and knock
back a few drinks at a local turf bar during

(03:21):
the Prohibition, and one day Piccard and his buddies came
up with the persona of the Honorable J. Fortescue and
his new agency, the International Board of Hygiene. From there,
the surgeon took on a life of his own. What
started out as a harmless joke eventually became a formally
recognized organization by the League of Nations and its founder

(03:42):
a sudden celebrity throughout the medical profession. Fortescue's name wound
up in a nineteen thirty six edition of Who's Who
in San Diego. His backstory grew to include a lengthy
stay in Paris, as well as author credits on articles
penned by Piccard himself. None of the other founding members
made as big as splash as Fortescue, who remained an

(04:03):
enigma until after Piccard's death in nineteen sixty three. For years,
everyone believed the International Board of Hygiene was a real
agency focused on promoting good health and commenting on everything
from proper vitamin regimen to polio. As a side note,
Fortescue was also the only fake winner of the very
real Fleishman Prize, an essay contest held by the Fleishman

(04:27):
Yeast Company each year, his prize ten thousand dollars. No
matter how outlandish piccards hijinks were, no one ever figured
that the International Board of Hygiene wasn't real. They assumed
it was just one more obscure government agency, which means
we should all probably re examine the real ones, just

(04:48):
to make sure. Many of our favorite foods can be
traced back to unusual origins. For example, in nineteen oh five,
eleven year old Frank Epperson left a cup of powdered

(05:10):
soda and water outside his house one winter night. The
next morning, he woke up to find the solution had
frozen and the mixing stick he left in was now
stuck in the middle. By running the cup under hot water,
he was able to pull the icy treat free. He
called it an epsicle. Over the years, Frank kept freezing
water and powdered sodas for his friends. By the time
he became a father himself, his children suggested renaming them

(05:33):
from epsicles to popsicles, a mixture of the words pops
and sickles. He patented the name in nineteen three, and
two years later popsicles were in grocery stores all over America.
But some things don't have such wholesome, delicious beginnings. In
Dawson City, Yukon, there is a drink unlike any other.

(05:54):
It all started in the nineteen twenties with bootleggers Louis
and Otto Lin. A blizzard had moved in while the
brother as were on their way back from a delivery. Louis,
unable to see where he was going, stepped through a
thin patch of ice and got his foot wet, the
temperature outside dropped considerably, and by the time they made
it home to their cabin, Louie's foot was frozen. One

(06:14):
of his toes had become badly frost bitten and at
risk of turning. Gangrenus Otto, thinking on his feet, so
to speak, pulled out his axe and chopped off the toe.
Then he poured some alcohol into a jar and dropped
the toe inside, a trophy for his heroic actions. Fifty
years later, Captain Dick Stevenson was cleaning the cabin when

(06:35):
he came upon the jar. Rather than throw it out
or donate it to a local university, Stevenson opted to
do something a little more adventurous. He carried it down
to the local bar, the Sour Dough Saloon, and created
the Sour Toe Cocktail Club. Membership could only be obtained
one way, by consuming a drink with the toe in

(06:56):
the glass. As Stevenson put it, you can drink it fast,
you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch
that gnarly toe. He would go around asking to fellow
patrons wanted membership in his club, at which point he
would drop the toe into their drinks. Lichens Severed Toe
made the rounds for almost a decade until in July

(07:17):
of that year. Gary Younger, an eager member of the
Sour Toe Cocktail Club, was going for a record. He
had already consumed twelve glasses of Sour Toe champagne and
was about to finish his thirteen when he leaned back
a little too far in his chair and fell over,
swallowing the toe. It seemed the membership to the club
was done for good, but people are resourceful and morbid.

(07:39):
Over the last forty years, the Sour Dough Saloon has
welcomed the additional seven toes through their doors. Some were
the result of frostbite like lichens, while others came from
botched surgeries and amputations due to diabetes complications. In one case,
a toe was donated with a note that read, don't
wear open toad sandals while mowing the lawn. Two came
for him an older man who just wanted to reward

(08:02):
the nurses taking care of him with a few drinks.
And along with the random toes also came new fines
from the town which were aimed at preventing such a
gross pastime from continuing. In the summer of two thousand,
a tourist from New Orleans ordered a sour toe shot
and swallowed the toe with it. Doing so cost him
five and a lot more. Apparently, his little stunt angered

(08:26):
the locals, who chased him out of town and banned
him from the bar. Since then, the fine has been
increased to that might seem steep to most people, But
somewhere out there is a person looking for one more thrill,
one more way to stand out from the crowd, someone
who will happily foot the bill. I hope you've enjoyed

(08:48):
today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show
by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can

(09:10):
learn all about it over at the World of Lore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,