August 28, 2026 • 38 mins
From Mark Twain's bizarre hatred of Jane Austen, to the heated argument that launched two great grocery stores, to the strange prank that ended a legendary comedy partnership, Mango and producer Mary go looking for historical beef and find plenty of sizzle!
This episode originally aired on January 10, 2025.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Part-Time Genius, a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
Guess what, Mary? What's up, Mango? Did you know that
Mark Twain absolutely hated Jane Austen?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Huh, let me guess. He thought Elizabeth Bennet should have
ditched Mr. Darcy and gone rafting down the Thames. Would
have been an amazing book. But no, he just thought
Austen was a terrible writer. He once told a friend, quote,
every time I read Pride and Prejudice, I want to
dig her up and beat her over the skull with
her own shinbone.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Oh, my God. I know, right? Yikes. But wait a minute,
wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
He read it multiple times, this book that he hated
so much?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I guess Mark Twain invented hate reading. I mean, it's
one of his lesser known accomplishments, but it got me
thinking about other crazy feuds. And then I realized, Twain
versus Austen isn't actually a feud at all. What do
you mean? So, according to the dictionary, a feud is, quote,
a mutual enmity or quarrel that is often prolonged. And
(01:06):
Jane Austen died years before Mark Twain was born, so
there was nothing mutual about it. He was just being
snarky after her death. Huh. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
So rule number one of feuding, make sure your opponent
is still alive.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I mean, it is a good rule, but we've got
some actual feuds to talk about on today's episode, and
some of them are pretty wild. So let's get started. Hmm.
(01:47):
Hey there, podcast listeners. Welcome to Part-Time Genius. I'm Manga Shatigular,
and today I'm joined by my producer extraordinaire, Mary Phillips Sandy.
And over there behind that soundproof glass, sticking pins through
photos of his enemies, and he sure has a lot
of enemies, that's our producer, Dylan Fagan. I got to say,
I did not expect Dylan to have beef with the
(02:08):
great character actor Judy Greer.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, or Olympic figure skater Brian Boitano.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
What is happening? Oh, he's holding up a sign now.
It says, Brian and Judy know what they did. Good.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Ah, okay. Well, it sort of makes sense now, I guess.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
But I am curious, you know, today's episode is all
about feuds. Have you ever had a feud of any sort?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I had a feud in first grade, and it was
very serious. And should we bleep his name? His name
was * * * * and he lives in * * * *.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Still. We can bleep that. We can bleep that. Yeah,
we will.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
There was a competition to read books, and there were
paper ice cream cones put on the walls of the classroom.
And every time you read a book, you had a scoop.
Whoever had the highest scoop at the end of the
year was going to get a prize. Kevin was reading
little kid books. I'm talking bored books. And he was
racking up scoops. I was reading chapter books in first grade.
(03:02):
I was reading Little House on the Prairie. It's longer.
It takes more time. And I went to my first
grade teacher, Mrs. Davis, if you're listening, and I said,
this isn't fair. And she said, a book is a book.
And sat there and laughed.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
You know what I noticed? Yeah. We didn't have to
beep Mrs. Davis's name out.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
She's dead.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Well, RIP Mrs. Davis.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I carry a grudge about that to this day. I
learned an important lesson at age seven in first grade,
and that's that life is very unfair.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah, that's pretty amazing. How about you? How about you?
I mean, you know that scene, I don't know if
you've seen it, but in the Bulls documentary where Michael
Jordan makes up that feud with someone and he's like,
And I took that personally. Like, it's an event that
never takes place. He makes it up in his mind
so he plays better. I feel like I have a
(03:58):
lot of feuds with people that don't know they're in
feuds with me. Huh. Okay. Not a lot. But, like,
when we started Mental Floss, there was another magazine that
was so much shinier and so much prettier and so
much better. made and we had this like rivalry with them,
but it was so one-sided and they never knew about us.
(04:18):
And so like, I feel like that type of thing
happened a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Well, maybe they're kicking themselves now looking back on it.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
You know?
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Maybe. Anyway, let's talk about some real feuds.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Let's talk about some real feuds that don't involve magazines or,
you know, cheating seven-year-olds. Okay, well, here's a 94-year-old literary
feud that is still being debated today, and it involves
the authors Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. So they
met in New York during the Harlem Renaissance, and they
became close friends and really great supporters of each other's work.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Which I think is probably the opposite of a feud, right? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
That was actually a beautiful friendship is the technical definition
of what that was. But it all began to fall
apart in 1930 when they tried to write a play together.
So it was a comedy, ostensibly, based on one of
Hurston's unpublished short stories called The Bone of Contention, foreshadowing,
which in turn was based on a folktale that she
(05:17):
had heard in her Florida hometown. And then here's where
things get murky. Hughes thought they would finish the play together.
But while she was away on a trip, Hurston rewrote
the script herself. She titled it Mule Bone and submitted
it for copyright registration in her name only. She also
sent her draft to the author Carl Van Vechten, who
turned around and sent it to the Theatre Guild, which
(05:38):
was an organization that produced plays on Broadway, including many
by well-known authors at the time.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And so did Hurston know he was going to do this,
like submit it to this group? No, no.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
She had no idea he was going to share it
with anyone. But now all of a sudden it's out
there and people are talking about this play. And Langston
Hughes is like, wait, what? I mean, I'm sure he
said it more eloquently than that because he's Langston Hughes.
But that was the gist of it, right? And at
first he said he was just disappointed that the collaboration
didn't continue. But apparently he had stronger feelings than that
because next thing you know, He has combined Hurston's second
(06:11):
act of the play with his versions of the first
and the third acts. And then he sent that whole
thing off to the copyright office again, this time with
both of their names on the cover.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Hmm. So there are two versions of the same play now,
like both copyrighted? Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
And then he hired a lawyer and started demanding credit
and royalties.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
And Hurston pointed out that the story was her idea
in the first place, and Hughes hadn't participated in the
rewrite that she had done herself. She also added that
he'd borrowed some of her ideas for his novel, Not
Without Laughter, and she hadn't been going around demanding credit. And,
you know, looking back on it, some people today read
this as Hurston being selfish or petty. But if you
look at the context and you look at it another way—
(06:53):
What she was doing was fighting for control of her work,
and that was a struggle she knew all too well.
During her career, she had this wealthy white patron named
Charlotte Osgood Mason who gave her a lot of money,
but it came with a lot of strings attached. She
owned a lot of the work that she did. And
this guy, Carl Van Vechten, he gave her play draft
to producers without even asking if it was okay to
(07:13):
do that. So maybe this question of authorship was just
kind of the final straw.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, that makes sense. But did the two of them
ever work it out? Like, did they become friends?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
No, that was the end of it. The whole debacle
ended their friendship. And many years later, in the 80s,
Henry Louis Gates dug out the different versions of Mulebone
and combined them into a production script. And the play
made its debut in New York in 1991.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Huh. I feel like I've never heard of this. Was
it any good? Not really. It got mixed reviews.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
And basically, critics felt that this frankenscript didn't accurately reflect
either Hurston or Hughes's real talent.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
That is a shame.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
A camel is a horse made by committee or something? Yeah.
I feel like maybe this was the camel of their play. Yeah,
something like that.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
But, you know, the way I see it, the story
behind the play is the most compelling drama of all.
So I am hoping that someday someone will turn that
into a play and we can see it on Broadway. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Someday. I am into it. Well, I've got another story
of a friendship gone wrong. This one takes us all
the way back to 18th century Europe and involves Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
who is a philosopher from Geneva and wrote several popular novels.
But his radical views actually got him in trouble. For
one thing, he believed that all religions are equal. And
(08:30):
the church obviously considered this heresy at the time. So
He was condemned by Genevan authorities and by many people
he'd consider friends. In fact, he actually had to skip
town to avoid being arrested.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
So it was like the Enlightenment version of getting canceled.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yeah. I mean, cancel culture was so much worse back then. Meanwhile,
the Scottish philosopher David Hume heard about Rousseau's struggles, and
he could actually relate. Hume was a religious skeptic, and
the Catholic Church had banned his books. But Unlike Rousseau,
he wasn't ostracized by his establishment friends, so Hume decided
to use his connections to help Rousseau relocate to England.
(09:08):
He actually convinced King George III to provide a pension
for him. He arranged lodgings and even met him in
Paris to travel to the UK. And at first, Rousseau
was pretty grateful. I mean, he settled in a house
in Staffordshire. He seemed, you know, pretty happy. And that
could have been the end of it, except two things happen.
So one, Rousseau has a notoriously bad temper. And two,
(09:33):
there's an ill-advised prank letter that gets into play. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Prank letter. I did not see that coming.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
What happened? So this letter began circulating in the British press.
It was ostensibly a message from Frederick the Great, the
king of Prussia, and it offered Rousseau safe haven. But
the whole thing was just poking fun at the controversies.
One of the lines went, quote, It is high time
to grow prudent and happy. You've made yourself sufficiently talked
of for singularities little becoming a truly great man. The
(10:02):
King of Prussia wrote that. No, it was the English
writer Horace Walpole. And he was trying to be funny.
Rousseau was furious by this, but he also knew that
Walpole and Hume were friends. So he started with the accusations, right? Now,
Hume denied knowing anything about this. but Rousseau was convinced
he was involved. And he got so mad, he even
(10:25):
refused to accept the royal pension that Hume had arranged
for him. which, you know, feels insane to me. But
I guess he was a man of principle. Anyway, after
exchanging these scathing letters, Rousseau accused Hume of plotting to
destroy him. That sounds a bit paranoid. Yeah, but remember,
he'd spent all those years being persecuted. So I guess
(10:46):
it had become kind of had it by this point
to be that paranoid. But eventually, Rousseau writes a letter
that's so angry that Hume starts to think he's really
gone over the edge. His friends advise him to let
it go, but he ignores them. And in October 1776,
less than a year after their friendship had begun, Hume
publishes his account of the conflict, including the letters. And
(11:07):
it becomes this giant he said, he said scandal with
rumors flying about who knew what and who said what.
And in the end, Rousseau actually leaves England and he
and Hume never speak again.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
You know, when I think of 18th century philosophers, juicy
drama is not the first thing that comes to mind.
But I guess I've been wrong this whole time. Well,
from drama to comedy, although this comedy also involves drama,
did you know that Abbott and Costello had an offstage feud?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So the main thing I knew about Avid and Costello,
other than the who's on first routine, is that Lou
Costello was a kleptomaniac. Really? And I remember this from
an old Mental Floss article that he used to steal
so much furniture and so many props from sets that
people used to claim his house was furnished in early Universal,
as in Universal Studios. Yeah. But I knew, like, they
(12:00):
weren't exactly the best of friends, but tell me about
this feud.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Okay, so during their heyday in the 1940s, Abbott and Costello,
they were the most popular comedians in the country and
the highest paid, too. But their act began as an accident.
Lou Costello had another partner who didn't show up for
a performance one night, so Bud Abbott stepped in to
play the straight man for him, and that's it.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
The rest is history. Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Abbott was actually considered one of the best straight men
of all time. And so for a while, he took 60%
of the duo's earnings. Eventually, Costello demanded more. And there's
even a rumor that he tried to get the order
of their names reversed in the credits of movies.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
That's amazing. First of all, it's amazing that like a
straight man could demand more money. You know, you don't
expect that. But also, Costello and Abbott just sounds wrong.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, that's why no one changed it.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I think if it had sounded right, we'd have heard
about it. But as their fame grew, their differences just
became more and more apparent. Abbott was kind of easygoing.
He enjoyed the finer things in life. Costello was more
uptight and anxious. He sometimes worried that Abbott hadn't done
enough to prepare when they were rehearsing new material. And
it all came to a head in 1945, but not
(13:06):
because of anything showbiz related. Apparently, Costello fired his maid
and Abbott hired her.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah. I'm waiting for a punchline here. No.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
No, there isn't one. That's all it was. I mean,
believe me, I tried to find out if there was
anything else, but I think that's all it is. They
just had an argument about a maid, and for some
reason they couldn't get past it. And they were about
to start a run at the Roxy here in New York,
so Costello tried to rebook himself as a solo act.
Abbott gets wind of this and shows up at the theater,
so the shows go on as planned, but they only
(13:38):
speak to each other when they're on stage. The tension
continued into the 50s as their popularity declined, and in 1957,
they split up for real. Costello said later that they
had just gotten tired of the act, doing the same thing,
but there may have been more to it. Legendary film
star Errol Flynn wrote in his memoir that he had
invited Abbott, Costello, and their families to his house for dinner.
(14:01):
Very nice. Afterwards, he offered to show them a home movie,
but instead of vacation scenes, the reel ended up being
a blue film like pornography.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
What? Yes.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Just imagine Abbott, Costello, their families, and legendary film star
Errol Flynn. With surprise pornography. So everyone is horrified. Everyone
is like, what is going on? Errol Flynn pretended he
didn't know what happened. How did that get there? And
so Abbott and Costello ended up blaming each other for
the prank.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
The first the maid thing and then the porn. Yeah.
It was the old one-two maid pornography. Such a weird
way to end a business partnership.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah, and it's not even a very creative prank if
you think about it.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Well, speaking of creativity, you know what is creative is
painting your rival's face into a famous fresco.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
That actually sounds more like a compliment to me.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, I mean, I guess it could be, but not
when it came to Michelangelo and Raphael. And obligatory note
here for our listeners, I am not referring to the
Ninja Turtles. Okay, okay, I was going to ask that. Okay.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
So the actual not teenage Renaissance artists. Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
So yeah, no martial arts here. Now, Michelangelo was a
legend in his own time, but he was not an
easygoing guy. He actually had these intense rivalries with many
other artists, including Leonardo da Vinci. And he was known
for being difficult and ill-tempered. But Raphael, who's nearly a
decade younger, really, really got under his skin. So In 1508,
(15:36):
Pope Julius II chose Raphael to paint a fresco in
his private library. And not only was Michelangelo offended that
he didn't get the gig, he then had to hear
everyone praising Raphael's work. And there were some people who
said Raphael was the better artist, even though they knew
Michelangelo was one of his biggest influences. So according to
one biographer, Michelangelo lashed out, making the younger man, quote,
(16:00):
bear the brunt of his unrelenting envy, contempt, and anger.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So how did Raphael take this?
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Not lying down. So in one of his frescoes for
Pope Julius, Raphael painted Michelangelo's face onto the body of Heraclitus,
an ancient Greek philosopher who he depicted in a gathering
with Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
That still sounds like a compliment, though.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Except Heraclitus was widely known as a bitter and arrogant misanthrope. Ah.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I get it now.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
But it turns out this was a real two-way feud.
So Raphael snuck into the Sistine Chapel before Michelangelo finished
the famous ceiling so he could see what his rival
was up to. And it's said that the muscular figures
of God and Adam inspired Raphael to actually beef up
his own subjects. And the conflict grew as Raphael won
more and more commissions. And Unlike Michelangelo, he was just
(16:53):
well-liked and social. He was really good at old-timey schmoozing
with patrons and important people in the clergy. And in 1515,
just a few years after Michelangelo finished the Sistine Frescoes,
Raphael was actually asked to design elaborate tapestries for the
chapel's walls. Now, some of them have since been damaged
or lost, but back then, the complete tapestries, which were
(17:16):
woven with real gold and silver thread... were probably the
most eye-catching art in the Sistine Chapel, not the ceiling.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Which is actually hard to imagine, right? But it is true. Anyway,
it's safe to assume the feud would have continued if
Raphael hadn't died suddenly in 1520. Of course, Michelangelo was
not one to let things go, and he summed up
Raphael's life by writing, quote, what he had of art,
he had for me. Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Way to get the last word in. Well, that's actually
the perfect lead-in to our next feud between the famous
author Edgar Allan Poe and the much less famous editor
Rufus Griswold. Which one of them have you heard of?
Speaker 1 (17:54):
The first. Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
So they met in 1841, and apparently they never really
liked each other very much. Griswold, who came from a
religious New England family, looked down on Poe as an
immoral social climber whose talent didn't match his reputation. And
although he occasionally complimented his work, Poe thought Griswold was
just way too full of himself, which he kind of was.
But they kept up a polite appearance. They moved in
the same circles. They could be nice if they had to.
(18:18):
And Griswold even included some of Poe's work in an
anthology he published called The Poets and Poetry of America.
So Griswold was really into this idea of defining a
national literature. And, of course, he felt he was the
best person to do that. But Poe was unimpressed, asking
a friend, quote, Have you seen Griswold's book of poetry?
It is a most outrageous humbug.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
So... There's only one problem here, right? Like, this is
the anthology that Poe himself is in.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah, but he just disagreed with Griswold's other editorial choices.
And weirdly, despite knowing this, Griswold paid Poe to write
a review of the anthology. And then perhaps because there
was money involved, Poe's review was a lot less harsh
than his private comments about the book. But a few
months later, another review of the anthology appeared in a
Philadelphia magazine. This one was anonymous. And in addition to
(19:06):
calling Griswold's book, quote, nonsense— It called Griswold himself a
toady who was destined to sink into oblivion.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I love all these old-time insults, right? Like a humbug, toady,
sink into oblivion. And so let me guess, was this
Poe as well? Not exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
That vicious review turned out to have been written by
a guy named Henry B. Hurst, who was one of
Poe's friends. Griswold definitely thought Poe was behind it, and
in a way might have been right. Hurst was probably
repeating a lot of things that Poe had told him.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
So does Poe try to patch things up here? No,
he did the opposite.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
No, he went on to criticize Griswold and his anthology
at every possible opportunity. Like anytime he was giving a lecture, anything,
he was sure to get in how bad Griswold and
his taste.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Was.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
But there may have been a romantic rivalry at play here, too.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Let me guess. It was out in Costello's Maid? No, no.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Oh, God, that would have been perfect. But no, both
men had relationships with a poet named Frances Sargent Osgood,
who was separated from her husband. And I know we
said earlier that a feud involves two living parties, but
this one continued long after Poe's death in 1849. So
tell me about it. So days after Poe died, an
obituary appeared in the New York Tribune. It was attributed
(20:18):
to someone named Ludwig. But it did not read like
a normal, respectful obituary. What it said was, quote, Edgar
Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day
before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will
be grieved by it.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Oh, Griswold. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
The pseudonym did not fool anyone. And from that point on,
Griswold leaned into his role of the world's number one
Edgar Allan Poe hater. And through some backhanded deals with
Poe's mother-in-law, Griswold actually managed to get the rights to
some of his work. And he published a posthumous collection
in three volumes. He claimed that sales of the books
would benefit Poe's family, but he kept the proceeds for himself.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah. No, no, it gets worse.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Griswold included in this collection a wildly inaccurate biography of
Poe titled Memoir of the Author, and in it he
depicted Poe as a raving lunatic who was hopelessly addicted
to drugs and alcohol. Weirdest of all, he included a
bunch of forged letters, allegedly from Poe, to support his
own lies.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
That is so crazy.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I know. Others who knew Poe tried to defend him
in the press, but Griswold's smear campaign was just incredibly
effective and wide-reaching— His facts, air quote, about Poe influenced
the way people saw him for years, and it wasn't
until decades later that other biographers came along and started
to correct the record.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
That is so funny. You know, I had always heard
that Poe was an alcoholic. And there's this weird story
about him that I've seen written in a lot of books, actually,
about him as a West Point cadet. Have you heard this?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I mean, listen, he did drink. But no, I don't
think so. Tell me about West Point.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
So apparently he was really unhappy there. So when the
cadets were ordered to show up to a parade in
some fancy belts— He showed up in nothing but the
belt and probably got himself kicked out. But, you know,
now I'm wondering if Griswold actually might have been behind
that story as well. Anyway, we are going to transfer
from the world of American letters to the world of
(22:13):
German grocery stores now because... Our next feud begins in Essen, Germany.
In the 1920s, this is where a working class family
called the Albrechts ran a small grocery store. They had
two sons, Karl and Theodor, and they stood out from
other local shops by keeping prices as low as possible. Now,
Karl and Theo were conscripted during World War II. They
(22:35):
were captured early on and survived as prisoners in Allied
POW camps. But when they got home, they'd take over
the family business. They had no money, and in a
post-war Germany, there were constant food shortages.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Sounds like this was not the best time to go
into the grocery business then.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah, except it kind of was. So the Albrechts had
no choice but to stock basics like noodles and soap,
and they developed a focus on cutting costs. So one
of the first things they did was to get rid
of counter clerks. Back then, you'd go up to a counter,
you'd tell a clerk what you wanted, they'd go back
on the shelves and bring it out to you. But
the Albrechts adopted the American self-service approach to shopping. And
(23:14):
fewer employees meant a lower cost of business and, I guess,
higher unemployment in the counterclerk demographic. But I guess that
wasn't really their concern.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
You know, if those self-checkout machines had existed back then,
I guarantee the Albrecht brothers would have been All over it.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Definitely. And thanks to their capitalist savvy, the Albrecht's business
takes off, right? By the 1950s, they owned over a
dozen stores. The enterprise continues to grow, even though they
refuse to spend money on advertising. And by 1960, they
had hundreds of stores throughout Germany, and they changed the
name to Aldi, which is an abbreviation of Albrecht Discount
(23:50):
or Albrecht Discount. But in 1961... This grocery empire nearly
collapses when the two brothers have a falling out over cigarettes. Apparently,
Theo thought they should carry them, and Carl said absolutely nine. Wow.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
So was Carl just like way ahead of his time
in terms of knowing about the dangers of smoking?
Speaker 1 (24:11):
No, he thought that cigarettes would actually attract shoplifters. This
debate actually splits the brothers and the company they had
built split apart. But in true Albrecht spirit, let's focus
on our own business for a minute and throw to
an ad break. And I'll tell you the rest of
the story right after.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Welcome back to Part-Time Genius, where we're talking about a
few of history's most fascinating feuds.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Okay, and before the break, you were telling me about
the Albrecht brothers and their disagreement about selling cigarettes in
their grocery stores.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
So, okay, what happens? Well, Karl and Theo never come
to an agreement, so they split the business in half, literally. Like,
they took a map and drew a line through Germany,
using their hometown of Essen as the boundary. And Theo
took all the stores north of the line, calling them
Aldi Nord, And Carl takes the one south of the line,
Aldi Sud. From then on, they operate completely separately. The
(25:18):
brothers develop different logos, carry different products, both under the
name Aldi. But many believe the cigarettes weren't the only
reason for the split. Apparently, Theo was a real micromanager
and Carl, on the other hand, was more laid back.
He liked to delegate and he enjoyed spending time with
his own family.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, I could see how that would cause friction. But still,
I mean, they're brothers, right? Like, so did they ever
repair the rift?
Speaker 1 (25:40):
I mean, they don't end up working together, but they
are on friendly terms. There was even a crazy situation
in 1971 where Theo got kidnapped and held for ransom.
And Carl, yeah, I mean, Carl pays millions of Deutschmarks
to secure his release. But to this day, Aldi is
two separate businesses. Both halves operate in Germany, but elsewhere
(26:02):
it's divided by country. So if you live in Italy
or the UK, you shop Aldi Sud. In France and Spain,
that's Aldi Nord.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Well, not to make everything about America, but what about America?
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Well, if you're shopping in an Aldi in the States,
Aldi Sood expanded into the U.S. in 1976. But not
to be outdone, Aldi Nord actually purchased the Trader Joe's
chain in 1979 to gain its own foothold here. What? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I had no idea a German supermarket chain owned Trader Joe's.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, and it's all because a guy named Carl was
worried about shoplifters. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
He should have been worried about someone kidnapping his brother
is what he should have been worried about. Well, anyway,
that is incredible. Okay, so I want to tell you
about a diss track that made history by setting off
hip-hop's first recorded feud. And it all began in Queens
in the early 80s, where a young girl named Shante
Gooden heard people rhyming and holding impromptu rap battles. So
(26:59):
she started freestyling, too. And it turned out she was
a natural talent. Even as a middle schooler, she was
going out and winning battles at local clubs, beating men
twice her age.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah. That's amazing. And I can see how that might
start some feuding.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Well, actually, this feud that I'm talking about began in
1984 when a Brooklyn hip-hop group called UTFO released a
single called Hanging Out, which flopped. But the B-side was
a song called Roxanne, Roxanne, and it started getting a
lot of radio play. In that song, a woman named
Roxanne gives the rappers her number only to stand them
up at the end. So it was kind of a twist.
(27:33):
You know, they're not bragging about getting the girl. They're
explaining how they didn't. But with their popularity growing, UTFO,
hottest ticket in town, they agreed to perform at a
concert promoted by Mr. Magic, who's a famous New York
DJ with a radio show called Rap Attack. And coincidentally,
Shante Gooden's neighbor, Marlon Williams, also worked on Rap Attack.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
And he and Mr.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Magic were counting on this concert to bring in some money.
But then, at the last minute, UTFO canceled.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Oh, no.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Shante happened to hear Williams bemoaning the situation and just
offered to retaliate with a diss track.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
They recorded a song together? Well, at first, Williams was.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Like, what are you talking about, kid?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Who are you? It sounds so strange. He's like, let
me record a diss track to make up for the situation.
This kid comes by. But he changed his mind. He said,
you know what?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
All right, kid, come up to my apartment. We'll record
a song. And he played the beat from Roxanne, Roxanne,
and Shante freestyled over it, absolutely destroying the three members
of UTFO. And she did it from the perspective of Roxanne, right?
The woman in their song. And Williams, who went by
the name Marley Marle, called the song Roxanne's Revenge. And
he played the tape on Rap Attack. It was an
(28:41):
overnight sensation.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
First of all, that sounds so literary. It's like, I'm
going to do it from the perspective of Roxanne and
also dis all three of these guys.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
It's amazing that she just went up there and freestyled it. Well,
she came from the world of rap battles, right? And
so she said later, quote, in battles, I was rhyming
for 30 to 40 minutes. So four minutes was nothing
for me. And this DIY track sent shockwaves through the
hip hop community. As Williams put it later, nobody had
ever heard a girl rap like that before.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
So does UTFO answer back? Oh, of course, of course.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
What are you going to do, not respond? So one
of the members, the rapper Kangol Kid, told Billboard magazine
years later that their first reaction to Roxanne's revenge was,
you're not even the girl we were talking about. She
doesn't even exist. They just made up this character, right?
The problem was that Shantae attacked the UTFO members by name,
and she does. She calls them out by name one
(29:33):
by one. And as Kangol Kid put it, we do exist,
so we took that personally. So they went out and
found another female emcee, to record a response called The
Real Roxanne. And people just couldn't get enough of this feud.
All the songs are climbing the charts and responses start
to pour in. It's like every rapper wants to have
a say in the Roxanne wars. So there are songs
like Roxy, parenthesis Roxanne's sister, and The parents of Roxanne
(29:56):
and my personal favorite, the final word, no more Roxanne, please.
Which includes this great line, quote, don't you know all
the DJs are going insane because they're tired of hearing
that same old name.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
I love that people have a feud with this feud.
So what actually happens to Shantae? Well, she blew up.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
I mean, she became famous and she started performing under
the stage name Roxanne Shantae.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
She even went on tour. Of course she does. Of course. Listen,
you got to ride it, right?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
You can't let an opportunity like that go. So she
even started touring and sharing a bill with UTFO because
promoters knew the feud would sell tickets. She and UTFO
never spoke backstage. And according to Kangol Kid, there were, quote,
lots of glares and snarls. She went on to release
a couple albums in the early 90s, but then her
career faded. She went through some really tough times. She
(30:46):
survived in abusive relationships. And there were financial problems caused
by managers who she had trusted. I mean, remember, she
was so young. But in recent years, she's been back
in the spotlight. She released a few new singles, and
she's hosting a SiriusXM show called Have a Nice Day.
And in just a few weeks, she'll receive the Lifetime
Achievement Award at the 2025 Grammys alongside Prince and The Clash.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
That is amazing and not bad company. Well-deserved. Well-deserved. So
for our final feud, I want to make sure we
get a sports rivalry in here. And there are so
many sports feuds, it is hard to choose just one.
But I decided to go with a feud between Andre
Agassi and Pete Sampras. So I'm sure anyone who's our
age certainly knows they dominated the men's tennis circuit in
(31:30):
the 1990s and they couldn't have been more different, right?
Agassi was flashy and aggressive, both in his playing style
and his wardrobe. He pushed the boundaries by wearing neon
and acid wash denim shorts on the court. He also
kept his hair in a shaggy mullet that he held
back with his bandana. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no.
I know.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
We all made fashion mistakes in the 90s.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
But people obviously loved it. And Pete Sampras, meanwhile, had
this clean-cut image. He stuck to traditional tennis whites and
played with incredible precision. And while Agassi liked to win
by hitting powerful returns from the baseline... Sampras was known
for his punishing serve, which earned him the nickname Pistol Pete. Anyway,
they played each other for the first time in 1990
(32:14):
and went on to compete 34 times until they retired
in the early 2000s. But while they were active, sports
writers described their relationship as a friendly feud based on competition,
not on personal grudges. In 1995, Sampras told a journalist
that it's just how Americans perceive sports. He said, quote,
I think people like to see contrast like Magic Johnson
(32:36):
and Larry Bird.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
That's a very astute comment, but this also doesn't sound
like a very exciting feud. It's just sports competition, right?
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah, I mean, you're right, right. Like when they play
each other, it's something to watch, but it wasn't much
to it off the courts. That is until 2009 when
Agassi publishes his memoir, Open, which is one of my
favorite books. And in it, he had harsh words for Sampras,
calling him, quote, more robotic than a parrot. I actually
have to read you this other quote because it is
(33:03):
so incredible. Quote, I envy Pete's dullness. I wish I
could emulate his spectacular lack of inspiration and his peculiar
lack of need for inspiration. Jeez.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Tell me what you really think, you know?
Speaker 1 (33:19):
So Agassi also called Sampras stingy, relating a story about
him tipping a valet a single dollar. And when reporters
asked Sampras about it, he said he wanted to meet
with Agassi, quote, man-to-man. Now, this doesn't actually happen. And
in 2010, the feud really blows up. Sampras and Agassi
meet for a charity match in California. It's this doubles game.
(33:41):
Sampras is paired with Roger Federer, Agassi with Rafael Nadal.
And the players wear microphone headsets so the crowd can
hear their banter. And even though it's just a charity match,
Sampras starts bashing his serves. So Agassi starts teasing him, saying, quote,
you always have to get serious, huh? And Sampras yells back, quote,
(34:02):
I'll joke around a little bit. I'll imitate you.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Wow. Whoever decided to put mics on these guys was
either panicking or cheering in that moment. Like, they were
either super excited or super terrified.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
So if you watch the tape, the audience is laughing. Like,
they think this is all in great fun. But Sampras
starts doing this exaggerated pigeon-toe walk. Like, have you ever
seen Ike see walk? Oh, yeah. His feet are turned in,
and he sort of walks that way. And so... Agsy
retaliates by pulling out the empty pockets of his pants
and whining, I don't have any money. Oh, no, wait,
(34:33):
I've got a dollar. Was this a roast or a
tennis match? Both, apparently. So Federer and Nadal are just
standing there awkwardly waiting for Sampras to serve. He's kind
of chuckling, but you can tell he's mad. And Agassi
taunts him. So Sampras unleashes his serve, but not to Nadal,
who's on the receiving side, but directly at Agassi, who
(34:55):
jumps out of the way just in time.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Oh, my God. I know.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
And he's got a real bullet of a serve, right?
So this is incredible. Agassi just keeps going. He makes
another crack about Sampras and the valet before everyone calms
down and finishes the game, which Sampras and Federer end
up winning. But luckily, this feud has a happy ending.
So the next day, Agassi tells ESPN that his jokes were, quote,
(35:19):
out of line. And he adds that he had texted
Sampras and asked to apologize in person. It's not clear
if that happened, but a year later, they meet again
for an exhibition match at Madison Square Garden. Everyone was
waiting for another outburst, but they were cordial. They were
even joking around together, like actually joking around this time
and super friendly.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
And no one got hit with a serve.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Yeah, that's right. Okay.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Getting hit with a Sampraserve would have been, God, terrifying.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Well, that's great. You know what? I like that story
so much.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I would be willing to give you today's trophy, except
you're the one who started this whole episode about feuds
by telling me about a thing that actually wasn't really
a feud.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Well, I had a feeling you might say that. So
I came with a backup fact. This one comes from 1986.
It's about the author Alice Hoffman, who reviewed Richard Ford's novel,
The Sports Writer for The New York Times. And long
story short, she didn't think it was all that great.
In response, Ford takes a copy of one of Hoffman's
novels into his backyard and shoots a hole in it
(36:22):
and then mails it to her. It became the stuff
of literary legend. But Ford shrugged it off, telling The Guardian, well,
it's not like I shot her. Oh, my God. OK. OK. OK.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
That is a trophy-worthy feud for sure. So congratulations.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
It is all yours. Well, I feel like we should
end this on the best of terms and share this
week's trophy instead of arguing about it. But that is
it for today's episode. Remember, you can follow us on
Instagram at the handle parttimegenius. And you can still write
Will's mom and my mom at ptgeniusmoms at gmail.com. Seriously,
(36:57):
it is a brand new year and they are waiting
for your mail. But from Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary, and myself,
thank you so much for listening. Part-time genius is a
(37:19):
production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by
Will Pearson and me, Mange Shatikler, and researched by our
good pal, Mary Phillips Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and
produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang.
The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell
(37:39):
and Allie Perry. with social media support from Sasha Gay Trustee,
Dara Potts, and Vaini Shori. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
You're listening to Part-Time Genius, a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
Guess what, Mary? What's up, Mango? Did you know that
Mark Twain absolutely hated Jane Austen?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Huh, let me guess. He thought Elizabeth Bennet should have
ditched Mr. Darcy and gone rafting down the Thames. Would
have been an amazing book. But no, he just thought
Austen was a terrible writer. He once told a friend, quote,
every time I read Pride and Prejudice, I want to
dig her up and beat her over the skull with
her own shinbone.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Oh, my God. I know, right? Yikes. But wait a minute,
wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
He read it multiple times, this book that he hated
so much?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I guess Mark Twain invented hate reading. I mean, it's
one of his lesser known accomplishments, but it got me
thinking about other crazy feuds. And then I realized, Twain
versus Austen isn't actually a feud at all. What do
you mean? So, according to the dictionary, a feud is, quote,
a mutual enmity or quarrel that is often prolonged. And
(01:06):
Jane Austen died years before Mark Twain was born, so
there was nothing mutual about it. He was just being
snarky after her death. Huh. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
So rule number one of feuding, make sure your opponent
is still alive.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I mean, it is a good rule, but we've got
some actual feuds to talk about on today's episode, and
some of them are pretty wild. So let's get started. Hmm.
(01:47):
Hey there, podcast listeners. Welcome to Part-Time Genius. I'm Manga Shatigular,
and today I'm joined by my producer extraordinaire, Mary Phillips Sandy.
And over there behind that soundproof glass, sticking pins through
photos of his enemies, and he sure has a lot
of enemies, that's our producer, Dylan Fagan. I got to say,
I did not expect Dylan to have beef with the
(02:08):
great character actor Judy Greer.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, or Olympic figure skater Brian Boitano.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
What is happening? Oh, he's holding up a sign now.
It says, Brian and Judy know what they did. Good.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Ah, okay. Well, it sort of makes sense now, I guess.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
But I am curious, you know, today's episode is all
about feuds. Have you ever had a feud of any sort?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I had a feud in first grade, and it was
very serious. And should we bleep his name? His name
was * * * * and he lives in * * * *.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Still. We can bleep that. We can bleep that. Yeah,
we will.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
There was a competition to read books, and there were
paper ice cream cones put on the walls of the classroom.
And every time you read a book, you had a scoop.
Whoever had the highest scoop at the end of the
year was going to get a prize. Kevin was reading
little kid books. I'm talking bored books. And he was
racking up scoops. I was reading chapter books in first grade.
(03:02):
I was reading Little House on the Prairie. It's longer.
It takes more time. And I went to my first
grade teacher, Mrs. Davis, if you're listening, and I said,
this isn't fair. And she said, a book is a book.
And sat there and laughed.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
You know what I noticed? Yeah. We didn't have to
beep Mrs. Davis's name out.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
She's dead.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Well, RIP Mrs. Davis.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I carry a grudge about that to this day. I
learned an important lesson at age seven in first grade,
and that's that life is very unfair.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah, that's pretty amazing. How about you? How about you?
I mean, you know that scene, I don't know if
you've seen it, but in the Bulls documentary where Michael
Jordan makes up that feud with someone and he's like,
And I took that personally. Like, it's an event that
never takes place. He makes it up in his mind
so he plays better. I feel like I have a
(03:58):
lot of feuds with people that don't know they're in
feuds with me. Huh. Okay. Not a lot. But, like,
when we started Mental Floss, there was another magazine that
was so much shinier and so much prettier and so
much better. made and we had this like rivalry with them,
but it was so one-sided and they never knew about us.
(04:18):
And so like, I feel like that type of thing
happened a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Well, maybe they're kicking themselves now looking back on it.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
You know?
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Maybe. Anyway, let's talk about some real feuds.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Let's talk about some real feuds that don't involve magazines or,
you know, cheating seven-year-olds. Okay, well, here's a 94-year-old literary
feud that is still being debated today, and it involves
the authors Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. So they
met in New York during the Harlem Renaissance, and they
became close friends and really great supporters of each other's work.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Which I think is probably the opposite of a feud, right? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
That was actually a beautiful friendship is the technical definition
of what that was. But it all began to fall
apart in 1930 when they tried to write a play together.
So it was a comedy, ostensibly, based on one of
Hurston's unpublished short stories called The Bone of Contention, foreshadowing,
which in turn was based on a folktale that she
(05:17):
had heard in her Florida hometown. And then here's where
things get murky. Hughes thought they would finish the play together.
But while she was away on a trip, Hurston rewrote
the script herself. She titled it Mule Bone and submitted
it for copyright registration in her name only. She also
sent her draft to the author Carl Van Vechten, who
turned around and sent it to the Theatre Guild, which
(05:38):
was an organization that produced plays on Broadway, including many
by well-known authors at the time.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And so did Hurston know he was going to do this,
like submit it to this group? No, no.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
She had no idea he was going to share it
with anyone. But now all of a sudden it's out
there and people are talking about this play. And Langston
Hughes is like, wait, what? I mean, I'm sure he
said it more eloquently than that because he's Langston Hughes.
But that was the gist of it, right? And at
first he said he was just disappointed that the collaboration
didn't continue. But apparently he had stronger feelings than that
because next thing you know, He has combined Hurston's second
(06:11):
act of the play with his versions of the first
and the third acts. And then he sent that whole
thing off to the copyright office again, this time with
both of their names on the cover.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Hmm. So there are two versions of the same play now,
like both copyrighted? Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
And then he hired a lawyer and started demanding credit
and royalties.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
And Hurston pointed out that the story was her idea
in the first place, and Hughes hadn't participated in the
rewrite that she had done herself. She also added that
he'd borrowed some of her ideas for his novel, Not
Without Laughter, and she hadn't been going around demanding credit. And,
you know, looking back on it, some people today read
this as Hurston being selfish or petty. But if you
look at the context and you look at it another way—
(06:53):
What she was doing was fighting for control of her work,
and that was a struggle she knew all too well.
During her career, she had this wealthy white patron named
Charlotte Osgood Mason who gave her a lot of money,
but it came with a lot of strings attached. She
owned a lot of the work that she did. And
this guy, Carl Van Vechten, he gave her play draft
to producers without even asking if it was okay to
(07:13):
do that. So maybe this question of authorship was just
kind of the final straw.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, that makes sense. But did the two of them
ever work it out? Like, did they become friends?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
No, that was the end of it. The whole debacle
ended their friendship. And many years later, in the 80s,
Henry Louis Gates dug out the different versions of Mulebone
and combined them into a production script. And the play
made its debut in New York in 1991.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Huh. I feel like I've never heard of this. Was
it any good? Not really. It got mixed reviews.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
And basically, critics felt that this frankenscript didn't accurately reflect
either Hurston or Hughes's real talent.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
That is a shame.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
A camel is a horse made by committee or something? Yeah.
I feel like maybe this was the camel of their play. Yeah,
something like that.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
But, you know, the way I see it, the story
behind the play is the most compelling drama of all.
So I am hoping that someday someone will turn that
into a play and we can see it on Broadway. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Someday. I am into it. Well, I've got another story
of a friendship gone wrong. This one takes us all
the way back to 18th century Europe and involves Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
who is a philosopher from Geneva and wrote several popular novels.
But his radical views actually got him in trouble. For
one thing, he believed that all religions are equal. And
(08:30):
the church obviously considered this heresy at the time. So
He was condemned by Genevan authorities and by many people
he'd consider friends. In fact, he actually had to skip
town to avoid being arrested.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
So it was like the Enlightenment version of getting canceled.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yeah. I mean, cancel culture was so much worse back then. Meanwhile,
the Scottish philosopher David Hume heard about Rousseau's struggles, and
he could actually relate. Hume was a religious skeptic, and
the Catholic Church had banned his books. But Unlike Rousseau,
he wasn't ostracized by his establishment friends, so Hume decided
to use his connections to help Rousseau relocate to England.
(09:08):
He actually convinced King George III to provide a pension
for him. He arranged lodgings and even met him in
Paris to travel to the UK. And at first, Rousseau
was pretty grateful. I mean, he settled in a house
in Staffordshire. He seemed, you know, pretty happy. And that
could have been the end of it, except two things happen.
So one, Rousseau has a notoriously bad temper. And two,
(09:33):
there's an ill-advised prank letter that gets into play. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Prank letter. I did not see that coming.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
What happened? So this letter began circulating in the British press.
It was ostensibly a message from Frederick the Great, the
king of Prussia, and it offered Rousseau safe haven. But
the whole thing was just poking fun at the controversies.
One of the lines went, quote, It is high time
to grow prudent and happy. You've made yourself sufficiently talked
of for singularities little becoming a truly great man. The
(10:02):
King of Prussia wrote that. No, it was the English
writer Horace Walpole. And he was trying to be funny.
Rousseau was furious by this, but he also knew that
Walpole and Hume were friends. So he started with the accusations, right? Now,
Hume denied knowing anything about this. but Rousseau was convinced
he was involved. And he got so mad, he even
(10:25):
refused to accept the royal pension that Hume had arranged
for him. which, you know, feels insane to me. But
I guess he was a man of principle. Anyway, after
exchanging these scathing letters, Rousseau accused Hume of plotting to
destroy him. That sounds a bit paranoid. Yeah, but remember,
he'd spent all those years being persecuted. So I guess
(10:46):
it had become kind of had it by this point
to be that paranoid. But eventually, Rousseau writes a letter
that's so angry that Hume starts to think he's really
gone over the edge. His friends advise him to let
it go, but he ignores them. And in October 1776,
less than a year after their friendship had begun, Hume
publishes his account of the conflict, including the letters. And
(11:07):
it becomes this giant he said, he said scandal with
rumors flying about who knew what and who said what.
And in the end, Rousseau actually leaves England and he
and Hume never speak again.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
You know, when I think of 18th century philosophers, juicy
drama is not the first thing that comes to mind.
But I guess I've been wrong this whole time. Well,
from drama to comedy, although this comedy also involves drama,
did you know that Abbott and Costello had an offstage feud?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So the main thing I knew about Avid and Costello,
other than the who's on first routine, is that Lou
Costello was a kleptomaniac. Really? And I remember this from
an old Mental Floss article that he used to steal
so much furniture and so many props from sets that
people used to claim his house was furnished in early Universal,
as in Universal Studios. Yeah. But I knew, like, they
(12:00):
weren't exactly the best of friends, but tell me about
this feud.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Okay, so during their heyday in the 1940s, Abbott and Costello,
they were the most popular comedians in the country and
the highest paid, too. But their act began as an accident.
Lou Costello had another partner who didn't show up for
a performance one night, so Bud Abbott stepped in to
play the straight man for him, and that's it.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
The rest is history. Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Abbott was actually considered one of the best straight men
of all time. And so for a while, he took 60%
of the duo's earnings. Eventually, Costello demanded more. And there's
even a rumor that he tried to get the order
of their names reversed in the credits of movies.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
That's amazing. First of all, it's amazing that like a
straight man could demand more money. You know, you don't
expect that. But also, Costello and Abbott just sounds wrong.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, that's why no one changed it.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I think if it had sounded right, we'd have heard
about it. But as their fame grew, their differences just
became more and more apparent. Abbott was kind of easygoing.
He enjoyed the finer things in life. Costello was more
uptight and anxious. He sometimes worried that Abbott hadn't done
enough to prepare when they were rehearsing new material. And
it all came to a head in 1945, but not
(13:06):
because of anything showbiz related. Apparently, Costello fired his maid
and Abbott hired her.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah. I'm waiting for a punchline here. No.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
No, there isn't one. That's all it was. I mean,
believe me, I tried to find out if there was
anything else, but I think that's all it is. They
just had an argument about a maid, and for some
reason they couldn't get past it. And they were about
to start a run at the Roxy here in New York,
so Costello tried to rebook himself as a solo act.
Abbott gets wind of this and shows up at the theater,
so the shows go on as planned, but they only
(13:38):
speak to each other when they're on stage. The tension
continued into the 50s as their popularity declined, and in 1957,
they split up for real. Costello said later that they
had just gotten tired of the act, doing the same thing,
but there may have been more to it. Legendary film
star Errol Flynn wrote in his memoir that he had
invited Abbott, Costello, and their families to his house for dinner.
(14:01):
Very nice. Afterwards, he offered to show them a home movie,
but instead of vacation scenes, the reel ended up being
a blue film like pornography.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
What? Yes.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Just imagine Abbott, Costello, their families, and legendary film star
Errol Flynn. With surprise pornography. So everyone is horrified. Everyone
is like, what is going on? Errol Flynn pretended he
didn't know what happened. How did that get there? And
so Abbott and Costello ended up blaming each other for
the prank.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
The first the maid thing and then the porn. Yeah.
It was the old one-two maid pornography. Such a weird
way to end a business partnership.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah, and it's not even a very creative prank if
you think about it.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Well, speaking of creativity, you know what is creative is
painting your rival's face into a famous fresco.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
That actually sounds more like a compliment to me.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, I mean, I guess it could be, but not
when it came to Michelangelo and Raphael. And obligatory note
here for our listeners, I am not referring to the
Ninja Turtles. Okay, okay, I was going to ask that. Okay.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
So the actual not teenage Renaissance artists. Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
So yeah, no martial arts here. Now, Michelangelo was a
legend in his own time, but he was not an
easygoing guy. He actually had these intense rivalries with many
other artists, including Leonardo da Vinci. And he was known
for being difficult and ill-tempered. But Raphael, who's nearly a
decade younger, really, really got under his skin. So In 1508,
(15:36):
Pope Julius II chose Raphael to paint a fresco in
his private library. And not only was Michelangelo offended that
he didn't get the gig, he then had to hear
everyone praising Raphael's work. And there were some people who
said Raphael was the better artist, even though they knew
Michelangelo was one of his biggest influences. So according to
one biographer, Michelangelo lashed out, making the younger man, quote,
(16:00):
bear the brunt of his unrelenting envy, contempt, and anger.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So how did Raphael take this?
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Not lying down. So in one of his frescoes for
Pope Julius, Raphael painted Michelangelo's face onto the body of Heraclitus,
an ancient Greek philosopher who he depicted in a gathering
with Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
That still sounds like a compliment, though.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Except Heraclitus was widely known as a bitter and arrogant misanthrope. Ah.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I get it now.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
But it turns out this was a real two-way feud.
So Raphael snuck into the Sistine Chapel before Michelangelo finished
the famous ceiling so he could see what his rival
was up to. And it's said that the muscular figures
of God and Adam inspired Raphael to actually beef up
his own subjects. And the conflict grew as Raphael won
more and more commissions. And Unlike Michelangelo, he was just
(16:53):
well-liked and social. He was really good at old-timey schmoozing
with patrons and important people in the clergy. And in 1515,
just a few years after Michelangelo finished the Sistine Frescoes,
Raphael was actually asked to design elaborate tapestries for the
chapel's walls. Now, some of them have since been damaged
or lost, but back then, the complete tapestries, which were
(17:16):
woven with real gold and silver thread... were probably the
most eye-catching art in the Sistine Chapel, not the ceiling.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Which is actually hard to imagine, right? But it is true. Anyway,
it's safe to assume the feud would have continued if
Raphael hadn't died suddenly in 1520. Of course, Michelangelo was
not one to let things go, and he summed up
Raphael's life by writing, quote, what he had of art,
he had for me. Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Way to get the last word in. Well, that's actually
the perfect lead-in to our next feud between the famous
author Edgar Allan Poe and the much less famous editor
Rufus Griswold. Which one of them have you heard of?
Speaker 1 (17:54):
The first. Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
So they met in 1841, and apparently they never really
liked each other very much. Griswold, who came from a
religious New England family, looked down on Poe as an
immoral social climber whose talent didn't match his reputation. And
although he occasionally complimented his work, Poe thought Griswold was
just way too full of himself, which he kind of was.
But they kept up a polite appearance. They moved in
the same circles. They could be nice if they had to.
(18:18):
And Griswold even included some of Poe's work in an
anthology he published called The Poets and Poetry of America.
So Griswold was really into this idea of defining a
national literature. And, of course, he felt he was the
best person to do that. But Poe was unimpressed, asking
a friend, quote, Have you seen Griswold's book of poetry?
It is a most outrageous humbug.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
So... There's only one problem here, right? Like, this is
the anthology that Poe himself is in.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah, but he just disagreed with Griswold's other editorial choices.
And weirdly, despite knowing this, Griswold paid Poe to write
a review of the anthology. And then perhaps because there
was money involved, Poe's review was a lot less harsh
than his private comments about the book. But a few
months later, another review of the anthology appeared in a
Philadelphia magazine. This one was anonymous. And in addition to
(19:06):
calling Griswold's book, quote, nonsense— It called Griswold himself a
toady who was destined to sink into oblivion.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I love all these old-time insults, right? Like a humbug, toady,
sink into oblivion. And so let me guess, was this
Poe as well? Not exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
That vicious review turned out to have been written by
a guy named Henry B. Hurst, who was one of
Poe's friends. Griswold definitely thought Poe was behind it, and
in a way might have been right. Hurst was probably
repeating a lot of things that Poe had told him.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
So does Poe try to patch things up here? No,
he did the opposite.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
No, he went on to criticize Griswold and his anthology
at every possible opportunity. Like anytime he was giving a lecture, anything,
he was sure to get in how bad Griswold and
his taste.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Was.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
But there may have been a romantic rivalry at play here, too.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Let me guess. It was out in Costello's Maid? No, no.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Oh, God, that would have been perfect. But no, both
men had relationships with a poet named Frances Sargent Osgood,
who was separated from her husband. And I know we
said earlier that a feud involves two living parties, but
this one continued long after Poe's death in 1849. So
tell me about it. So days after Poe died, an
obituary appeared in the New York Tribune. It was attributed
(20:18):
to someone named Ludwig. But it did not read like
a normal, respectful obituary. What it said was, quote, Edgar
Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day
before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will
be grieved by it.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Oh, Griswold. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
The pseudonym did not fool anyone. And from that point on,
Griswold leaned into his role of the world's number one
Edgar Allan Poe hater. And through some backhanded deals with
Poe's mother-in-law, Griswold actually managed to get the rights to
some of his work. And he published a posthumous collection
in three volumes. He claimed that sales of the books
would benefit Poe's family, but he kept the proceeds for himself.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah. No, no, it gets worse.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Griswold included in this collection a wildly inaccurate biography of
Poe titled Memoir of the Author, and in it he
depicted Poe as a raving lunatic who was hopelessly addicted
to drugs and alcohol. Weirdest of all, he included a
bunch of forged letters, allegedly from Poe, to support his
own lies.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
That is so crazy.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I know. Others who knew Poe tried to defend him
in the press, but Griswold's smear campaign was just incredibly
effective and wide-reaching— His facts, air quote, about Poe influenced
the way people saw him for years, and it wasn't
until decades later that other biographers came along and started
to correct the record.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
That is so funny. You know, I had always heard
that Poe was an alcoholic. And there's this weird story
about him that I've seen written in a lot of books, actually,
about him as a West Point cadet. Have you heard this?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I mean, listen, he did drink. But no, I don't
think so. Tell me about West Point.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
So apparently he was really unhappy there. So when the
cadets were ordered to show up to a parade in
some fancy belts— He showed up in nothing but the
belt and probably got himself kicked out. But, you know,
now I'm wondering if Griswold actually might have been behind
that story as well. Anyway, we are going to transfer
from the world of American letters to the world of
(22:13):
German grocery stores now because... Our next feud begins in Essen, Germany.
In the 1920s, this is where a working class family
called the Albrechts ran a small grocery store. They had
two sons, Karl and Theodor, and they stood out from
other local shops by keeping prices as low as possible. Now,
Karl and Theo were conscripted during World War II. They
(22:35):
were captured early on and survived as prisoners in Allied
POW camps. But when they got home, they'd take over
the family business. They had no money, and in a
post-war Germany, there were constant food shortages.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Sounds like this was not the best time to go
into the grocery business then.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah, except it kind of was. So the Albrechts had
no choice but to stock basics like noodles and soap,
and they developed a focus on cutting costs. So one
of the first things they did was to get rid
of counter clerks. Back then, you'd go up to a counter,
you'd tell a clerk what you wanted, they'd go back
on the shelves and bring it out to you. But
the Albrechts adopted the American self-service approach to shopping. And
(23:14):
fewer employees meant a lower cost of business and, I guess,
higher unemployment in the counterclerk demographic. But I guess that
wasn't really their concern.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
You know, if those self-checkout machines had existed back then,
I guarantee the Albrecht brothers would have been All over it.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Definitely. And thanks to their capitalist savvy, the Albrecht's business
takes off, right? By the 1950s, they owned over a
dozen stores. The enterprise continues to grow, even though they
refuse to spend money on advertising. And by 1960, they
had hundreds of stores throughout Germany, and they changed the
name to Aldi, which is an abbreviation of Albrecht Discount
(23:50):
or Albrecht Discount. But in 1961... This grocery empire nearly
collapses when the two brothers have a falling out over cigarettes. Apparently,
Theo thought they should carry them, and Carl said absolutely nine. Wow.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
So was Carl just like way ahead of his time
in terms of knowing about the dangers of smoking?
Speaker 1 (24:11):
No, he thought that cigarettes would actually attract shoplifters. This
debate actually splits the brothers and the company they had
built split apart. But in true Albrecht spirit, let's focus
on our own business for a minute and throw to
an ad break. And I'll tell you the rest of
the story right after.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Welcome back to Part-Time Genius, where we're talking about a
few of history's most fascinating feuds.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Okay, and before the break, you were telling me about
the Albrecht brothers and their disagreement about selling cigarettes in
their grocery stores.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
So, okay, what happens? Well, Karl and Theo never come
to an agreement, so they split the business in half, literally. Like,
they took a map and drew a line through Germany,
using their hometown of Essen as the boundary. And Theo
took all the stores north of the line, calling them
Aldi Nord, And Carl takes the one south of the line,
Aldi Sud. From then on, they operate completely separately. The
(25:18):
brothers develop different logos, carry different products, both under the
name Aldi. But many believe the cigarettes weren't the only
reason for the split. Apparently, Theo was a real micromanager
and Carl, on the other hand, was more laid back.
He liked to delegate and he enjoyed spending time with
his own family.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, I could see how that would cause friction. But still,
I mean, they're brothers, right? Like, so did they ever
repair the rift?
Speaker 1 (25:40):
I mean, they don't end up working together, but they
are on friendly terms. There was even a crazy situation
in 1971 where Theo got kidnapped and held for ransom.
And Carl, yeah, I mean, Carl pays millions of Deutschmarks
to secure his release. But to this day, Aldi is
two separate businesses. Both halves operate in Germany, but elsewhere
(26:02):
it's divided by country. So if you live in Italy
or the UK, you shop Aldi Sud. In France and Spain,
that's Aldi Nord.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Well, not to make everything about America, but what about America?
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Well, if you're shopping in an Aldi in the States,
Aldi Sood expanded into the U.S. in 1976. But not
to be outdone, Aldi Nord actually purchased the Trader Joe's
chain in 1979 to gain its own foothold here. What? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I had no idea a German supermarket chain owned Trader Joe's.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, and it's all because a guy named Carl was
worried about shoplifters. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
He should have been worried about someone kidnapping his brother
is what he should have been worried about. Well, anyway,
that is incredible. Okay, so I want to tell you
about a diss track that made history by setting off
hip-hop's first recorded feud. And it all began in Queens
in the early 80s, where a young girl named Shante
Gooden heard people rhyming and holding impromptu rap battles. So
(26:59):
she started freestyling, too. And it turned out she was
a natural talent. Even as a middle schooler, she was
going out and winning battles at local clubs, beating men
twice her age.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah. That's amazing. And I can see how that might
start some feuding.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Well, actually, this feud that I'm talking about began in
1984 when a Brooklyn hip-hop group called UTFO released a
single called Hanging Out, which flopped. But the B-side was
a song called Roxanne, Roxanne, and it started getting a
lot of radio play. In that song, a woman named
Roxanne gives the rappers her number only to stand them
up at the end. So it was kind of a twist.
(27:33):
You know, they're not bragging about getting the girl. They're
explaining how they didn't. But with their popularity growing, UTFO,
hottest ticket in town, they agreed to perform at a
concert promoted by Mr. Magic, who's a famous New York
DJ with a radio show called Rap Attack. And coincidentally,
Shante Gooden's neighbor, Marlon Williams, also worked on Rap Attack.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
And he and Mr.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Magic were counting on this concert to bring in some money.
But then, at the last minute, UTFO canceled.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Oh, no.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Shante happened to hear Williams bemoaning the situation and just
offered to retaliate with a diss track.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
They recorded a song together? Well, at first, Williams was.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Like, what are you talking about, kid?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Who are you? It sounds so strange. He's like, let
me record a diss track to make up for the situation.
This kid comes by. But he changed his mind. He said,
you know what?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
All right, kid, come up to my apartment. We'll record
a song. And he played the beat from Roxanne, Roxanne,
and Shante freestyled over it, absolutely destroying the three members
of UTFO. And she did it from the perspective of Roxanne, right?
The woman in their song. And Williams, who went by
the name Marley Marle, called the song Roxanne's Revenge. And
he played the tape on Rap Attack. It was an
(28:41):
overnight sensation.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
First of all, that sounds so literary. It's like, I'm
going to do it from the perspective of Roxanne and
also dis all three of these guys.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
It's amazing that she just went up there and freestyled it. Well,
she came from the world of rap battles, right? And
so she said later, quote, in battles, I was rhyming
for 30 to 40 minutes. So four minutes was nothing
for me. And this DIY track sent shockwaves through the
hip hop community. As Williams put it later, nobody had
ever heard a girl rap like that before.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
So does UTFO answer back? Oh, of course, of course.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
What are you going to do, not respond? So one
of the members, the rapper Kangol Kid, told Billboard magazine
years later that their first reaction to Roxanne's revenge was,
you're not even the girl we were talking about. She
doesn't even exist. They just made up this character, right?
The problem was that Shantae attacked the UTFO members by name,
and she does. She calls them out by name one
(29:33):
by one. And as Kangol Kid put it, we do exist,
so we took that personally. So they went out and
found another female emcee, to record a response called The
Real Roxanne. And people just couldn't get enough of this feud.
All the songs are climbing the charts and responses start
to pour in. It's like every rapper wants to have
a say in the Roxanne wars. So there are songs
like Roxy, parenthesis Roxanne's sister, and The parents of Roxanne
(29:56):
and my personal favorite, the final word, no more Roxanne, please.
Which includes this great line, quote, don't you know all
the DJs are going insane because they're tired of hearing
that same old name.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
I love that people have a feud with this feud.
So what actually happens to Shantae? Well, she blew up.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
I mean, she became famous and she started performing under
the stage name Roxanne Shantae.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
She even went on tour. Of course she does. Of course. Listen,
you got to ride it, right?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
You can't let an opportunity like that go. So she
even started touring and sharing a bill with UTFO because
promoters knew the feud would sell tickets. She and UTFO
never spoke backstage. And according to Kangol Kid, there were, quote,
lots of glares and snarls. She went on to release
a couple albums in the early 90s, but then her
career faded. She went through some really tough times. She
(30:46):
survived in abusive relationships. And there were financial problems caused
by managers who she had trusted. I mean, remember, she
was so young. But in recent years, she's been back
in the spotlight. She released a few new singles, and
she's hosting a SiriusXM show called Have a Nice Day.
And in just a few weeks, she'll receive the Lifetime
Achievement Award at the 2025 Grammys alongside Prince and The Clash.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
That is amazing and not bad company. Well-deserved. Well-deserved. So
for our final feud, I want to make sure we
get a sports rivalry in here. And there are so
many sports feuds, it is hard to choose just one.
But I decided to go with a feud between Andre
Agassi and Pete Sampras. So I'm sure anyone who's our
age certainly knows they dominated the men's tennis circuit in
(31:30):
the 1990s and they couldn't have been more different, right?
Agassi was flashy and aggressive, both in his playing style
and his wardrobe. He pushed the boundaries by wearing neon
and acid wash denim shorts on the court. He also
kept his hair in a shaggy mullet that he held
back with his bandana. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no.
I know.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
We all made fashion mistakes in the 90s.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
But people obviously loved it. And Pete Sampras, meanwhile, had
this clean-cut image. He stuck to traditional tennis whites and
played with incredible precision. And while Agassi liked to win
by hitting powerful returns from the baseline... Sampras was known
for his punishing serve, which earned him the nickname Pistol Pete. Anyway,
they played each other for the first time in 1990
(32:14):
and went on to compete 34 times until they retired
in the early 2000s. But while they were active, sports
writers described their relationship as a friendly feud based on competition,
not on personal grudges. In 1995, Sampras told a journalist
that it's just how Americans perceive sports. He said, quote,
I think people like to see contrast like Magic Johnson
(32:36):
and Larry Bird.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
That's a very astute comment, but this also doesn't sound
like a very exciting feud. It's just sports competition, right?
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah, I mean, you're right, right. Like when they play
each other, it's something to watch, but it wasn't much
to it off the courts. That is until 2009 when
Agassi publishes his memoir, Open, which is one of my
favorite books. And in it, he had harsh words for Sampras,
calling him, quote, more robotic than a parrot. I actually
have to read you this other quote because it is
(33:03):
so incredible. Quote, I envy Pete's dullness. I wish I
could emulate his spectacular lack of inspiration and his peculiar
lack of need for inspiration. Jeez.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Tell me what you really think, you know?
Speaker 1 (33:19):
So Agassi also called Sampras stingy, relating a story about
him tipping a valet a single dollar. And when reporters
asked Sampras about it, he said he wanted to meet
with Agassi, quote, man-to-man. Now, this doesn't actually happen. And
in 2010, the feud really blows up. Sampras and Agassi
meet for a charity match in California. It's this doubles game.
(33:41):
Sampras is paired with Roger Federer, Agassi with Rafael Nadal.
And the players wear microphone headsets so the crowd can
hear their banter. And even though it's just a charity match,
Sampras starts bashing his serves. So Agassi starts teasing him, saying, quote,
you always have to get serious, huh? And Sampras yells back, quote,
(34:02):
I'll joke around a little bit. I'll imitate you.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Wow. Whoever decided to put mics on these guys was
either panicking or cheering in that moment. Like, they were
either super excited or super terrified.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
So if you watch the tape, the audience is laughing. Like,
they think this is all in great fun. But Sampras
starts doing this exaggerated pigeon-toe walk. Like, have you ever
seen Ike see walk? Oh, yeah. His feet are turned in,
and he sort of walks that way. And so... Agsy
retaliates by pulling out the empty pockets of his pants
and whining, I don't have any money. Oh, no, wait,
(34:33):
I've got a dollar. Was this a roast or a
tennis match? Both, apparently. So Federer and Nadal are just
standing there awkwardly waiting for Sampras to serve. He's kind
of chuckling, but you can tell he's mad. And Agassi
taunts him. So Sampras unleashes his serve, but not to Nadal,
who's on the receiving side, but directly at Agassi, who
(34:55):
jumps out of the way just in time.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Oh, my God. I know.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
And he's got a real bullet of a serve, right?
So this is incredible. Agassi just keeps going. He makes
another crack about Sampras and the valet before everyone calms
down and finishes the game, which Sampras and Federer end
up winning. But luckily, this feud has a happy ending.
So the next day, Agassi tells ESPN that his jokes were, quote,
(35:19):
out of line. And he adds that he had texted
Sampras and asked to apologize in person. It's not clear
if that happened, but a year later, they meet again
for an exhibition match at Madison Square Garden. Everyone was
waiting for another outburst, but they were cordial. They were
even joking around together, like actually joking around this time
and super friendly.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
And no one got hit with a serve.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Yeah, that's right. Okay.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Getting hit with a Sampraserve would have been, God, terrifying.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Well, that's great. You know what? I like that story
so much.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I would be willing to give you today's trophy, except
you're the one who started this whole episode about feuds
by telling me about a thing that actually wasn't really
a feud.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Well, I had a feeling you might say that. So
I came with a backup fact. This one comes from 1986.
It's about the author Alice Hoffman, who reviewed Richard Ford's novel,
The Sports Writer for The New York Times. And long
story short, she didn't think it was all that great.
In response, Ford takes a copy of one of Hoffman's
novels into his backyard and shoots a hole in it
(36:22):
and then mails it to her. It became the stuff
of literary legend. But Ford shrugged it off, telling The Guardian, well,
it's not like I shot her. Oh, my God. OK. OK. OK.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
That is a trophy-worthy feud for sure. So congratulations.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
It is all yours. Well, I feel like we should
end this on the best of terms and share this
week's trophy instead of arguing about it. But that is
it for today's episode. Remember, you can follow us on
Instagram at the handle parttimegenius. And you can still write
Will's mom and my mom at ptgeniusmoms at gmail.com. Seriously,
(36:57):
it is a brand new year and they are waiting
for your mail. But from Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary, and myself,
thank you so much for listening. Part-time genius is a
(37:19):
production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by
Will Pearson and me, Mange Shatikler, and researched by our
good pal, Mary Phillips Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and
produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang.
The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell
(37:39):
and Allie Perry. with social media support from Sasha Gay Trustee,
Dara Potts, and Vaini Shori. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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