December 26, 2024 • 8 mins
Grab a mug of cocoa and hit play already! From Renaissance snow angels to an award-winning trick for never slipping in the snow, Will and Mango have a special wintery mix ready for your snow day.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, mango?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
What's that will?
Speaker 3 (00:02):
I was away earlier in the week, but I hear
you guys had a big snow day here in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Yeah, that's right. We stayed home from the office, my
kids drove me bonkers, and of course it didn't snow
at all.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Yeah, that's that's life in the South.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I hope you get used to it, but you know,
I still feel like we should do this week's nine
Things in honor of snow. So I've got a fact
to kick us off here. Did you know that on
March thirtieth of nineteen ninety two, Syracuse actually tried to
ban snow. There was this record snowfall that season. I
think it was like one hundred and sixty something inches,
and so the city council this was a great idea.
(00:37):
They unanimously approved this resolution to outlaw snowfall in the
city of Syracuse until December twenty fourth of the following year.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I like that. So obviously they're like holding it off
until Christmas Eve, which is great.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
But did it work not at all.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
In fact, Mother Nature wasn't in a listening mood, and
it snowed two days later. But it did give the
citizens something to smile about, you know, during this really
tough winter season. And so that's just the first of
nine facts about snow.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Let's dig in.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesha Ticketer and on the other side of the
soundproof glass sitting with a snowman preparedness kid on his desk.
I was curious what this thing was, so I had
to look at it before we came in the studio.
It's just like a ziploc bag with a carrot and
some pieces of coal and I think like a corn
(01:46):
cob pipe in it.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, Tristan's always prepared.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, just you just you take it and you just
wait to stick it in a snowman. And so that's
from our good pal and our producer, Tristan McNeil to mego,
I know you're disappointed it didn't snow more, but at
least we've got a show full of wintry facts.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
So what do you want to start with?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
So I've got a pretty good one. Have you ever
heard of Yaki Gossen? And I'm sure I'm pronouncing that wrong.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I have not heard of it, but I am certain
you're pronouncing it wrong.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah. So it's a massive Japanese snowball fight that's apparently
similar to Capture the Flag, but it's played in three
minute rounds and it's two teams of seven people. You
actually get ninety pre made snowballs for each team to start,
and then players get eliminated when they get hit by
the snowballs. The other thing that's weird about it is
that the players wear helmets to protect their heads. And
(02:37):
while I am generally wary of playing any game that
requires you to wear a helmet with a face mask,
this one looks really fun, so I'm kind of ready
for it to be an Olympic sport.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
That does sound so fun, But I love that it
must be so rough that they have to wear helmets
with face masks. All right, well, speaking of dangerous snowball fights,
because I've got one here. I learned about this from
the British show QI that you and I have talked
about several times before. But it's actually a snowball fight
that you know, a parent might use as an example
of why you shouldn't participate in a snowball fight.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Uh huh.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
So back in fifteen forty six, a general named Francois
de Bourbon got into this snowball fight and it got
pretty rowdy, and so he ducked under a window to
get a breather from it all, and someone then threw
a linen chest out of their window. It landed on
his head, and he unfortunately died a few days later.
So you know, kids, you gotta be really careful. This
(03:30):
is a pretty good lesson about what can happen in
snowball fight.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I'm not sure that really applies to most snowball fights,
but I don't know. So here's a fact about snowman.
Did you know that Michelangelo used to carve in snow?
So this is from Jake Rosen at Mental Floss. But
early in Michelangelo's career he had a patroon named Piero
de Medici, you know, from the Medici family. But Medici
(03:55):
really didn't know what he wanted the young artist to
do for him, so mostly he kind of used him
as this like personal shopper or interior decorator. He kind
of like picked out works of art for him. And
then one day, when it snowed, he got this great
idea and decided to task Michelangelo with making him a snowman.
And obviously, like mclangelo's skills are so great, but there
(04:17):
are no detailed images of how the snowman looked, except
that it is on the historical record that it looked
quote very beautiful.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
All right, Well, here's a quick one about building a snowman.
Did you realize that building one can actually be a
pretty good workout? And Pop Sugar looked into this and
they found that building a snowman for an hour will
burn about two hundred and eighty five calories. You can
have a snowball fight and that burns about three hundred
and nineteen calories. And then if you spend that full hour,
you know, just an hour making a snow angel, you
(04:49):
can burn two hundred and fourteen calories, which is about
what you'd burn if you walked uphill for an hour.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I mean an hour of making snow angel. Sounds like
total torture.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, you're probably right.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
So you know, I'm a huge fan of Calvin Hobbson.
One of my favorite themes in the strip is when
Calvin builds all these hilarious and horrific snowmen in his
front yard, and it's often to the horror of his parents.
But according to the History of Snowmen, which is this
wonderful book, this was actually a popular activity in the
nineteen hundreds. Apparently snowmen were often used as like a
(05:23):
comic stand in for violence, and illustrations from the early
nineteen hundreds show them being javelin with brooms or run
through with toboggans.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
All right, well, here's a weird snowffact I had no
idea about. Did you know that there was a heavy
snow the day before JFK's inauguration and really heavy winds too,
and all of this was threatening the presidential parade from
actually being able to happen. So in steps the Army
Corps of Engineers. They worked through the night to clear
the path. They moved something like fourteen hundred cars from
(05:56):
the inaugural route, and they got to use, you know,
in addition to sanders and plows and all the usual stuff.
Something that I got excited to read about, they actually
got to use flamethrowers to get rid of the snow.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
How much fun would that be?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
So fun?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
And so in the morning, seventeen hundred boy Scouts pitched
in to help them finish the job, and of course
the roads were clear in time for the inauguration.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
That's really sweet and I never heard that. So here's
a fun tip I never expected to use. In twenty ten,
the Ignobel Prize for physics went to this team from
New Zealand at the University of Otago, and they showed
that quote. On ice footpaths in the wintertime, people slip
and fall less often if they wear socks on the
(06:38):
outside of their shoes.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
What a helpful fact there, Mango, thanks for.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Having Yeah, you can wear your sock as a shoe condom.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Well, speaking of really productive science, you know that old
saying about no two snowflakes looking alike. Apparently it's not
exactly true. The New York Times reports that a scientist
named Kenneth Liebrick at the California Institute of Technology. He
grows twins snowflakes in a lab and according to the article,
it's not so much as snowflakes original structure, but it's
(07:10):
the path that it takes through the atmosphere. You know,
all the twists and turns and volatility, and that's what
makes it unique. But in the lab it's a pretty
different story. So Libric's process takes in between fifteen minutes
to an hour or so to grow a pair of snowflakes,
but he defends his idea of making flakes that look alike.
And as he puts it, we haven't violated any laws
(07:30):
of physics. We just found a loophole.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
That's pretty cool and it's amazing that you can grow
a pair of snowflakes in the lab, but it also
kind of makes me feel less special.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Oh well, man, I don't want you to feel less special.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
So you know what, I think the really useless fact
that you gave about the sock over the shoe, that
maybe that gives you the prize today.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
So I'm going to give you today's fact off trophy.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I like using sympathy as a way to get you
to give me the trophy. Finally, so thank you.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
And thank you guys for listening. We'll be back with
a full length episode tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
M
Guess what, mango?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
What's that will?
Speaker 3 (00:02):
I was away earlier in the week, but I hear
you guys had a big snow day here in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Yeah, that's right. We stayed home from the office, my
kids drove me bonkers, and of course it didn't snow
at all.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Yeah, that's that's life in the South.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I hope you get used to it, but you know,
I still feel like we should do this week's nine
Things in honor of snow. So I've got a fact
to kick us off here. Did you know that on
March thirtieth of nineteen ninety two, Syracuse actually tried to
ban snow. There was this record snowfall that season. I
think it was like one hundred and sixty something inches,
and so the city council this was a great idea.
(00:37):
They unanimously approved this resolution to outlaw snowfall in the
city of Syracuse until December twenty fourth of the following year.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I like that. So obviously they're like holding it off
until Christmas Eve, which is great.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
But did it work not at all.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
In fact, Mother Nature wasn't in a listening mood, and
it snowed two days later. But it did give the
citizens something to smile about, you know, during this really
tough winter season. And so that's just the first of
nine facts about snow.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Let's dig in.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesha Ticketer and on the other side of the
soundproof glass sitting with a snowman preparedness kid on his desk.
I was curious what this thing was, so I had
to look at it before we came in the studio.
It's just like a ziploc bag with a carrot and
some pieces of coal and I think like a corn
(01:46):
cob pipe in it.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, Tristan's always prepared.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, just you just you take it and you just
wait to stick it in a snowman. And so that's
from our good pal and our producer, Tristan McNeil to mego,
I know you're disappointed it didn't snow more, but at
least we've got a show full of wintry facts.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
So what do you want to start with?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
So I've got a pretty good one. Have you ever
heard of Yaki Gossen? And I'm sure I'm pronouncing that wrong.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I have not heard of it, but I am certain
you're pronouncing it wrong.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah. So it's a massive Japanese snowball fight that's apparently
similar to Capture the Flag, but it's played in three
minute rounds and it's two teams of seven people. You
actually get ninety pre made snowballs for each team to start,
and then players get eliminated when they get hit by
the snowballs. The other thing that's weird about it is
that the players wear helmets to protect their heads. And
(02:37):
while I am generally wary of playing any game that
requires you to wear a helmet with a face mask,
this one looks really fun, so I'm kind of ready
for it to be an Olympic sport.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
That does sound so fun, But I love that it
must be so rough that they have to wear helmets
with face masks. All right, well, speaking of dangerous snowball fights,
because I've got one here. I learned about this from
the British show QI that you and I have talked
about several times before. But it's actually a snowball fight
that you know, a parent might use as an example
of why you shouldn't participate in a snowball fight.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Uh huh.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
So back in fifteen forty six, a general named Francois
de Bourbon got into this snowball fight and it got
pretty rowdy, and so he ducked under a window to
get a breather from it all, and someone then threw
a linen chest out of their window. It landed on
his head, and he unfortunately died a few days later.
So you know, kids, you gotta be really careful. This
(03:30):
is a pretty good lesson about what can happen in
snowball fight.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I'm not sure that really applies to most snowball fights,
but I don't know. So here's a fact about snowman.
Did you know that Michelangelo used to carve in snow?
So this is from Jake Rosen at Mental Floss. But
early in Michelangelo's career he had a patroon named Piero
de Medici, you know, from the Medici family. But Medici
(03:55):
really didn't know what he wanted the young artist to
do for him, so mostly he kind of used him
as this like personal shopper or interior decorator. He kind
of like picked out works of art for him. And
then one day, when it snowed, he got this great
idea and decided to task Michelangelo with making him a snowman.
And obviously, like mclangelo's skills are so great, but there
(04:17):
are no detailed images of how the snowman looked, except
that it is on the historical record that it looked
quote very beautiful.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
All right, Well, here's a quick one about building a snowman.
Did you realize that building one can actually be a
pretty good workout? And Pop Sugar looked into this and
they found that building a snowman for an hour will
burn about two hundred and eighty five calories. You can
have a snowball fight and that burns about three hundred
and nineteen calories. And then if you spend that full hour,
you know, just an hour making a snow angel, you
(04:49):
can burn two hundred and fourteen calories, which is about
what you'd burn if you walked uphill for an hour.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I mean an hour of making snow angel. Sounds like
total torture.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, you're probably right.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
So you know, I'm a huge fan of Calvin Hobbson.
One of my favorite themes in the strip is when
Calvin builds all these hilarious and horrific snowmen in his
front yard, and it's often to the horror of his parents.
But according to the History of Snowmen, which is this
wonderful book, this was actually a popular activity in the
nineteen hundreds. Apparently snowmen were often used as like a
(05:23):
comic stand in for violence, and illustrations from the early
nineteen hundreds show them being javelin with brooms or run
through with toboggans.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
All right, well, here's a weird snowffact I had no
idea about. Did you know that there was a heavy
snow the day before JFK's inauguration and really heavy winds too,
and all of this was threatening the presidential parade from
actually being able to happen. So in steps the Army
Corps of Engineers. They worked through the night to clear
the path. They moved something like fourteen hundred cars from
(05:56):
the inaugural route, and they got to use, you know,
in addition to sanders and plows and all the usual stuff.
Something that I got excited to read about, they actually
got to use flamethrowers to get rid of the snow.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
How much fun would that be?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
So fun?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
And so in the morning, seventeen hundred boy Scouts pitched
in to help them finish the job, and of course
the roads were clear in time for the inauguration.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
That's really sweet and I never heard that. So here's
a fun tip I never expected to use. In twenty ten,
the Ignobel Prize for physics went to this team from
New Zealand at the University of Otago, and they showed
that quote. On ice footpaths in the wintertime, people slip
and fall less often if they wear socks on the
(06:38):
outside of their shoes.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
What a helpful fact there, Mango, thanks for.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Having Yeah, you can wear your sock as a shoe condom.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Well, speaking of really productive science, you know that old
saying about no two snowflakes looking alike. Apparently it's not
exactly true. The New York Times reports that a scientist
named Kenneth Liebrick at the California Institute of Technology. He
grows twins snowflakes in a lab and according to the article,
it's not so much as snowflakes original structure, but it's
(07:10):
the path that it takes through the atmosphere. You know,
all the twists and turns and volatility, and that's what
makes it unique. But in the lab it's a pretty
different story. So Libric's process takes in between fifteen minutes
to an hour or so to grow a pair of snowflakes,
but he defends his idea of making flakes that look alike.
And as he puts it, we haven't violated any laws
(07:30):
of physics. We just found a loophole.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
That's pretty cool and it's amazing that you can grow
a pair of snowflakes in the lab, but it also
kind of makes me feel less special.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Oh well, man, I don't want you to feel less special.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
So you know what, I think the really useless fact
that you gave about the sock over the shoe, that
maybe that gives you the prize today.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
So I'm going to give you today's fact off trophy.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I like using sympathy as a way to get you
to give me the trophy. Finally, so thank you.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
And thank you guys for listening. We'll be back with
a full length episode tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
M
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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