January 26, 2018 • 41 mins
Remember when Pliny the Elder thought women were cursed and unicorns had elephant feet, so he wrote long encyclopedia entries on both of them? Neither did we. From Roget to Britannica, Webster's to Wikipedia, we're exploring the history of the most important reference books on the shelves... while digging for some truly weird entries.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, mango, what's that? Will? I need to give
you a heads up because I think I'm going to
start using the word snollygastar a lot more of what snollygoster?
You know, the term for an unprincipled but shrewd person.
So I have no idea where you're talking about. Well,
let's go back to two thousand three. Snolly gostar got
kicked out of the dictionary, which is just ridiculous. So
there was this huge campaign to bring it back. And
(00:22):
the thing is, if enough people keep using it, the
editor of the Webster's Dictionary said he'd consider adding it
back in. In fact, the word chad was on the
shortlist to get kicked out too, and then infamous Florida
election debaccle occurred and suddenly the word was back. So
what you're saying is we just have to interfere with
an election or something similarly big to get the words
snollygoster back into play. Yeah, I mean, you know, look,
(00:44):
there there are no bad ideas and brainstorming, but getting
a sneak peek at how the dictionary works is just
part of today's show. Today we're diving into the weird
world of reference from almanacs to encyclopedias, all to get
a better look at the human fascination for cataloging knowledge
in the delightfully skimmable way. So let's dig in, ye
(01:24):
he their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend man guest Shot Ticketer. And on the other side
of the soundproof glass the only person I know who's
reading the Dictionary cover to cover, and actually he's already
reviewed it on good Reads. That's our friend and producer
Tristan McNeil. Yeah, and he actually gave it a scathing review.
He found the whole thing disjointed, and uh, he didn't
(01:46):
like how the art vark at the beginning of the
book didn't show up later in the story. I get it,
I get it. He's he's a pretty tough judge. Well,
speaking of dictionaries, today's show is all about the weird
world of reference books. You know, from a young age
most of us are trained to turn to diction areas
or the sauruses and all these other reference books for
our linguistic and grammatical needs. But how did these exhaustive
(02:07):
reference books come to be? Why are there so many
competing versions? And just how relevant are they in today's
increasingly digital world. So these are the kinds of questions
we're gonna be tackling today, right, And the start things off,
I thought we could look at the granddaddy of all
reference books, the encyclopedia. So it's encyclopedia the oldest. Like people,
it seems like people would have started with dictionaries though, right, yeah,
(02:28):
that's what I would have guessed too. I mean, like
the idea of cataloging all of the current words seems
to be way easier than I don't know, like trying
to record every single thing ever known. But that's not
where humans chose to begin. So the first encyclopedias can
be traced back to ancient Syria in twelve seventy b c.
It wasn't called an encyclopedia in those days. In fact,
(02:48):
the word encyclopedia didn't come in to use until the
fifteen hundreds, and that word is a Latinized take on
this ancient Greek phrase for general education. But the more
interesting definition is literal one, which is training in a circle.
So why a circle? I mean, were these encyclopedias around
or something? No, so the circle was this common symbol
for the liberal arts, like the seven areas of arts
(03:11):
and sciences that were deemed necessary for making a well
rounded person. All right, well, that's a good title, But
it is funny to think of an encyclopedia as everything
you need to know, especially when you consider some of
the weird stuff that wound up in the really early ones.
So what are you talking about. One of the most
famous early encyclopedias is the one as symboled in the
first century a d by the Roman naturalists Pliny the Elder,
(03:32):
and it's full of information that's hilarious but maybe not
so reputable. So despite calling his epic thirty seven book
Encyclopedia the Historia Naturalists or natural history, Pliny had some
questionable ideas about the inner workings of the human body,
and one of the funniest examples is his woeful misunderstanding
of women's bodies and specifically periods. So I'm going to
(03:54):
read how he describes it. He says, on the approach
of a woman in this state, seeds which you're touched
by her comes sterile garden plants are parched up, and
the fruit will fall from the tree beneath which she said,
her very look will dim the brightness of mir hers,
blunt the edge of steel, and take away the polish
from ivory. A swarm of bees, if looked upon by her,
(04:14):
will die immediately. Brass and iron will instantly become rusty
and admit an offensive odor, while dogs, which may have
tasted of the matter so discharged, are seized with madness,
and their bite is venomous and incurable. Well, I don't
know about you, but it sounds like Pliny was a
real feminist. Had he even met a woman like it
feels like it would be so easy to disprove all
(04:36):
of the stuff I know. But that wasn't the only
inaccuracy in Pliny's books, you know. For example, he provided
one of the earliest descriptions of unicorns. So Pliny wrote,
the unicorn is the fiercest animal, and it has said
that it is impossible to capture one alive. It has
the body of a horse, the head of a stag,
the feet of an elephant, the tail of a boar,
and a single black horn three ft long in the
(04:57):
middle of its forehead. I'm glad you gave everyone like
a definitive account of what a unicorn. Looks like the
only party got right with the horn part right nailed
it on that though, But really, I mean, I don't
think we should pick on the Romans too much, because
when Encyclopedia has finally made their leave to England in
seventeen sixty eight, they were still cramed full of like
(05:17):
terrible fictional entries. So seventeen sixty eight is actually the
year the Encyclopedia Britannica was first made. It was assembled
by three Scottish men and it consisted of just three
volumes at the time. So nowadays the first edition is
mostly interesting as kind of a record of people's priorities
in the eighteenth century and just how little does line
up with our own? So what do you mean by that?
(05:39):
So the encyclopedia includes forty pages about horse disease, there
is no information about children, and only four words on
on the entry for women. Well, I mean, after that
Pliny description, I'm almost afraid to ask, but what were
those four words? It's it's super definitive the female of man.
(06:00):
I mean, I guess I see what you mean about
skewed priorities on this. I mean, it's ridiculous. They took
the time to calculate the exact number of animal species
that were on Noah's Ark, but they couldn't spend more
than four words on half the human population. But did
they really record how many animals were on Noah's Ark? Yeah,
apparently there were a hundred seventy seven, which also doesn't
seem right right. But there's some entries where, you know,
(06:22):
you kind of have to give it to the Scots
for creativity. So there's one for the cure of flatulence
that they say consists of drinking cammill t and then uh,
blowing pipe smoke up your bomb. Or the entry on
Vermicelli noodles is amazing is described as a food and
great vogue with the Italians due to its use as
an aphrodisiac. Uh. You know, I was actually looking at
(06:43):
this edition as well, and one of the entries I
love from that first Encyclopedia Britannica is the one on California. Now,
just for the record, the region wouldn't become a state
for close to a hundred years after this publication, so
really not much was known about it. But they didn't
even bother to spell check the thing. So California is
mistakenly spelled with two els. Also, it's referred to as
(07:04):
quote a large country of the West Indies unknown whether
it's an island or a peninsula or neither maybe, But
I mean you kind of have to love their confidence,
right And also as funny as accidental inaccuracies can be,
I actually still prefer the intentional ones. And I know
you and I have talked about this before, but editors
of reference books sometimes include fake entries as a means
(07:26):
of preventing plagiarism from their competitors. And the ideas if
you use a made up word and then that subject
appears in arrivals reference book, the originator can accuse the
other of poaching the entries, you know, which qualifies as
copyright infringement. Yeah, it's pretty crazy, and it is fascinating
to follow these things that you know, I know, in
an atlas they're called paper towns, you know, like the
places that are made up on maps. But so how
(07:47):
long has this been going on? So for at least
a century. In dictionaries and encyclopedias that are called Mount Weasels,
which comes from a phony entry in the nine edition
of the New Columbia Encyclopedia. According to the original entry
on her, Lillian Virginia mount Weasel was an American photographer
who received a government grant to take pictures of rural mailboxes. Sadly,
(08:09):
Lillian died in a freak explosion while an assignment, where
the equally fictitious Combustibles magazine man This one's kind of
a shame though, that this one shouldn't be made up.
I would totally read Combustibles Magazine. I know me too.
But Lillian's story does have a happy ending of sorts.
Like her imaginary life has since been commemorated in the
form of real Dictionary entries for the word mount weasel.
(08:30):
That's pretty great, actually, I just pulled up a list
of mount weasels here, and there's some really good ones
out there. So we've got a Papula do balia, which
was this made up Greco Roman sports similar to modern soccer.
And this one actually maybe is my favorite. Esquavalience, which
is defined as a purposeful error made to easily spot plagiarizers.
(08:51):
I love that. I feel like I missed a calling
just making up definitions for fake words, all right, So
there's obviously a ton more we could say about encyclopedias.
But since we're talking definitions, let's let's put the encyclopedia
back on the shelf and spend some time with what's
probably the most popular type of reference book, and that's,
of course, dictionaries. Just like with the idea of assembling
a compendium of knowledge, the concept of listing out all
(09:13):
the words in a given language is one that dates
back thousands of years. But for our purposes, let's stick
with the modern period of dictionaries. You know, when the
English version began cropping up around you know, say the
seventeenth century or so. And why is that. Well, the
number of words in the English language actually doubled between
fifteen hundred and sixteen fifty, and this was largely due
to the Renaissance, which brought a wealth of words derived
(09:35):
from Latin and Greek to British lips for the very
first time. But it was also a time when travelers
and traders from foreign countries were mingling new words into
Europe's vocabulary. So all these unfamiliar new words coupled with
the rise of printed books, it really set the stage
for the world's first English dictionary, and that came along
in sixteen oh, four complements of a schoolmaster named Robert Caudrey.
(09:57):
It's so funny. They are all these names, I know,
like Webster and Roget, but I've never heard of Caudrey. Yeah. Well,
you know Caudrey's table alphabetical, as he called it. It
wasn't exactly a general language dictionary. It's it's what's called
a hard word dictionary, and it basically provided easy to
understand definitions for all these new and difficult foreign words
which had kind of made their way into the English
(10:19):
language during the previous decades. That's really interesting. So when
did the first more general dictionary come about? The well,
the idea of a general dictionary for everyday words, it
kind of didn't catch on until maybe seventy or so
years later. And it was a man named Elisha Coles
who who published this dictionary that added regional terms. He
also added slang and just some other common words to
(10:40):
the existing slate of hard words from the previous books. Well,
I'm kind of glad you mentioned the inclusion of slang
because there's one slang dictionary in particular that I really
want to talk about. But before we get to that,
let's take a quick break you're listening to part time genius,
(11:06):
and we're talking about the surprisingly strange world of reference books. Now,
most people are familiar by this point with the dictionary
makers like Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster, and you know,
for good reason. It was in seventeen fifty five that
Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language was introduced as the
most comprehensive one to date. It was the very first
to use quotations to help illustrate how words could actually
(11:28):
be used. And then came Webster's Dictionary that was published
in eighteen twenty eight, and it was one of the
first lexicons to include definitions of more than ten thousand americanisms.
These had never been included in the British dictionaries, you know,
where it's like skunk and squash and chowder. And the
book was a product of more than two decades of
work and was crucial in helping standardize English spelling, things
(11:50):
like dropping the U and color for instance. But you know,
as important as these contributions where there there's a different
story that you were saying you wanted to tell today, right,
And I go, yeah, so those guys are great, and
it isn't an exaggeration to say our language wouldn't be
the same without them. But they're not the only one
that's true of And that's why I want to make
sure we talked about the Hepster Dictionary, which is a
(12:10):
compendium of Harlem slang that's believed to be the first
dictionary written by an African American. Oh wow, I've actually
never heard of this. So who's the author? So that's
one of the really cool things about it. It was
written by Cat Callaway, who's you know, the legendary jazz
musicians and band leader you could also do the moonwalk.
And by the way, he retired in Delaware because you know,
it was a short train ride from Baltimore and New
(12:31):
York City. Glad you were able to work in your
Delaware factory. Yeah, But in the ninety twenties and thirties,
Cab Callaway was this mainstay in the Harlem music scene,
and the neighborhood had become a center of African American culture,
you know, with the Harlem Renaissance and all that. And
as Aaron Blakemore put it in her article on history
dot Com, quote Harlem was full of slang. Jazz musicians
(12:52):
like Callaway talk jive a kind of shorthand that turned
ordinary conversation into an extended, jazzy riff. It was also
a matter of survive. Though it was spoken in public,
it was a way for African Americans to communicate privately,
a kind of linguistic rebellion that was as serious as
it was humorous. That's pretty awesome and so obviously Callaway
was familiar with jive, But how did he come to
(13:13):
write the Dictionary on it? Well, his songs were full
of words and phrases that eventually wound up in the
dictionary and gave actually jotted down a few of these
for me, like cool Groovy, Chick, moocher, Boogie Woogie, jitterbug,
and come again. There's all you know, we're used by him.
But but the idea to compile all of them in
print came in the late thirties when Cab Callaway noticed
(13:33):
that black musicians were being pushed aside by white swing
musicians and they kind of co opted the sound. So
to keep himself in the culture, he helped pioneer relevant.
Cab and his manager worked together on this slender pamphlet
that defined jib for audiences who had never heard the
streets Lang before it was published in eight I believe,
and and it became a hit with both black and
white readers, And in fact, he did seven volumes of
(13:56):
the thing, and it even became the official reference book
of Jive and the New York Public Library, which was
something Cab was immensely proud of. Yeah, and I love that,
you know, even though it seems to have indirectly saddled
us with the the you know, the hipsters of today,
It's it's so great that Callaway chronicled that moment in
black culture, and the Harlem Renaissance was soon eclipsed by
the Great Depression. So you know, we're pretty lucky to
(14:18):
have all that culture and not have it lost to
history exactly. And I actually heard this BBC interview with
a British poet about cabs dictionary, and he had this
really great insight about it. As he put it, quote,
Cab Callaway was taking ownership of language for people who
just a few generations before had their own languages taken away.
Oh yeah, I mean I haven't thought of that. But
(14:39):
you know, since since we're talking about how dictionaries come together,
I do want to talk a little bit about what
it takes to get a new word added to the dictionary,
because there is a process to it, and it's one
that we don't hear about often. I mean, sure, we
hear about the list of the new words that Miriam
Webster adds with each new addition, or at least more
decidedly modern additions, you know, things like crowdsourcing and man
spread or even o MG which was added, But you know,
(15:02):
you don't hear much about how these new words are
actually chosen to be included. Yeah, that's a good point.
So first of all, who does decide what gets added? Well,
that's left up to the lexicographers and and for anyone
who doesn't have their own reference book handy. Those are
the people whose job it is to compile dictionaries. They
pay attention to whenever a new word or phrase becomes popular,
(15:23):
and then they start collecting citations of the word, including
its contextual meaning. They comb through this database to find
evidence that the word has cropped up over time among
this diverse group of people, and when that big case
file is assembled, the last step is for the dictionary
editors to review the evidence and decide whether or not
to include the new word and the next edition of
their company's dictionary. So it basically boils down to like
(15:46):
popularity and usage, which makes sense. But what about the
words we removed from the dictionary? Is it really just
a matter of determining how many people are still using
a certain word? Well, that's where things get a little
bit more complicated. You know. The way it works is
that the editors try to determine and which words are
most relevant today, and then then they go back and
weed out the ones that are most definitely not being
used as much today. So editors might assemble a list
(16:08):
of potential cuts. You've got obscure words like crunch or
pro land or octandrias that have all then cut from
the dictionary. Crunch like crunchy, wrench dressing. Oh that's cross.
I think it's a loud noise or actually I found
a Scottish reference book that said it's an alternative for crunch,
which is to crunch with your mouth. Apparently, I don't
(16:30):
know why we need another word for that, but it's
no longer in the dictionary, so you really don't have
to worry about it at this point. I like that
there's crunch, cringe, and crunch. Yeah, you just need to crunch.
But I interrupted. You were talking about how words get
tossed from the dictionary, right, So, so the editors have
a list of words that aren't used that often, and
then they search through sources like Google books or other
(16:52):
dictionaries and of course the Internet, and they try to
see how frequently these words turn up. And they're always
exceptions to you know, for example, the and thou don't
really pop up much in everyday conversation anymore. But since
they're so prevalent in all these widely read books, they're
pretty safe from the chopping blot. Okay, that makes sense.
And I actually remember reading this book word Freak by
(17:14):
Steven fatsis about the world of competitive scrabble, and one
of the things I remember best from it was these
people who would petition to have words put back into
the dictionary. They were just these word lovers who would
spend their free time, I mean, when they weren't dominating
at scrabble, just fighting to have words reintegrated into the
English language. But here's my question, like, why target words
for removal at all? Is it just to save on
(17:35):
printing costs? And I think the bigger concern is that
the dictionary will become too massive and unwilldy to use
if nothing is ever omitted from it. But practicality isn't
even the only reason that words get cut. I mean,
if you think about it, there are plenty of online
dictionaries that don't have to worry about the space that
they take up, But they don't include every single word
from English language either, and that's largely because most dictionaries
(17:58):
are trying to present the current state of semantics, you know,
the words that most typify our language and kind of
in the here and now if you think about it. So,
you know, the only exception I could think of is
the Oxford English Dictionary, like the o e D, which
is more concerned with chronicling and preserving English and its entirety.
And to that end, the o e D doesn't remove
words or definitions. Instead, they just know when a particular
(18:20):
word or meeting is outdated. Yeah, yeah, that that is
an interesting exception to this. Well, you know, as long
as we're talking about the intentions behind reference books, I
feel like we should go ahead and cover the other
two biggies of the reference world, and those would be
the stars and almanacs. Yeah, but before we do that.
Let's take a quick break. Okay, Mango, it's quiz time.
(18:46):
I know we're talking reference books today, so we thought
it would be appropriate to bring in one of our
favorite podcasters here at How Stuff Works and someone known
for doing an intense amount of research before any of
his episodes. Scott Benjamin. Welcome to Part Time Genius. Thank
you for men. I appreciate it. You guys may know
Scott from Car Stuff, and that's what I have to admit.
You sit right across from us in the office, and
(19:07):
when we look over and see these stacks of research,
it kind of makes us feel like maybe we're not
doing enough. I feel like I I read at least
two books, give a bunch of books for for every episode,
and then I see this, like like half a meter
high stack of papers that they're just giving through dreams
of paper. I do it the old school way, I guess.
(19:28):
I'm I'm I'm an analog guy, right, so, um, I
don't bring a laptop in with me to podcasts, which
I think almost everybody does. Yeah, everything is on paper.
I've got color coded tabs, I've got notes everywhere. It's
a it's kind of a mess, but it's a mess
that I know how to work with. Wow, I thought
maybe it was an intimidation tactic. Do I remember this
story correctly? That there was a legend about Karl Rove,
(19:49):
like when he was on the debate team in high
school and he would wheel in this huge cart with
all of these containers full of where they were supposed
to be full of index cards, right that notes. It
was just an intimidation tactic. And it turns out that
most of them were just blank, but they were just
there to make it seem like he had prepped more
than anyone. I'll show you my stack of notes. I'll share,
(20:10):
but there's there's notes everywhere in there. It's it's quite
a mess, and no one else would be able to
put it together with the information that I compile, I
just know where everything is. Yeah, it's a system that's unbelievable.
How many episodes of car Stuff did you did you host?
I'm gonna say it's it was approaching nine hundred. I
don't know an exact number, but a hundred. We were.
We were on air for nine years and one month.
(20:32):
It was a long time. Wow, Wow, very cool. It's
an unbelievable archive there that it's really fun to dig into.
And also I so want to tell the listeners like
about your new show, but I know we've got to
kep under wraps. I'm so excited for it though. Yeah,
we've got something in the works that hopefully everybody will
also be on board with. But it's it's exciting. Yeah,
we're gonna have you on again to debut that when
(20:52):
when when it comes out? Very cool. We're talking reference
books today and playing a game with Scott. What's it called? Mego?
It's called real nonfiction title or something we made up.
So every year the Diagram Book Group gives a prize
at the Frankfurt Book Fair for the year's oddest title.
So every one of these titles is either going to
be one of those strange books or something we made up.
Wait are you saying real nonfiction? That's it? Yes, this
(21:15):
is a real nonfiction title or something we made up
in terms of a title. Okay, I'll do my bus
all right, you ready to play? Here we go number one.
The first title is Managing a Dental Practice the Genghis
Khan way real or something we made up? Oh my gosh,
I'm going to say that's made up? Oh what is it? Mango?
It's actually real. It's real. Yeah. It won the Diagram
(21:37):
Prize in two thousand ten. Okay, here we go, you start,
have plenty of time to come back, all right. Number two,
A Field Guide to mid Century Water Slides of North Dakota.
A Field Guide to the mid century water Slides of
North Dakota. I'm gonna say that it's not real. I
don't know how you tell the difference between the mid
century and the most of mid century. That one had
(21:58):
mango written? All okay. Number three, The Commuter Pig Keeper,
A comprehensive guy to keeping pigs when time is your
most precious commodity. Okay, um, I'm gonna say that one's real.
Is that one real? Mango? Yeah, it's absolutely real. The
Commuter Pig Keeper, a comprehensive guy to keeping pigs when
(22:20):
time is your most precious keeper. I needed three breaths
to say that as a Commuter pig Keeper. We're gonna
have to get ahold of this book. I feel like
you're gonna need it for research for probably for your
next project. Guess so, alright, you're two out of three.
The next one the Circus Performers Index for high Performance
stilt Makers. Sorry, I'm trying to keep the Circus Performers
(22:43):
Index for High Performance stilt Makers real or something we
made up. This one is going to be made up, Yes,
high performance stilts. I think you have more fun making
this stuff up than you do with anything you work
on it. I guess you could call them high performance
pogo sticks if you see those, but never still, that's
where otherwise it's been the Circus Performance Index for high
(23:06):
performance What poco sticks piece of would have been? All
over piece of wood. Okay, here we go. Number five
Goblin Proofing One's Chicken Coop. Stop it mango. Goblin Proofing
One's Chicken Coop real nonfiction or something we made up.
That one feels like it's real. You know. It came
(23:28):
out in two thousand twelve and it's a guide to
banishing ferries from both your home and your chickens. Gobbling
Proofing Chicken Coop. He is on a roll. The last
one for the big prize. The title is crazy Cool
Ideas for Bedazzling your thrift store straight Jackets. Crazy Cool
Ideas for bedazzling your thrift store straight jack straight if
(23:48):
you hadn't thrown straight jackets in I would say that
was real any other garment, but straight jackets now, is
that right? Mango? Yeah, that was pretty impressive. Have you
ever found a straight jacket at a thrift store? I
can't say that I have. Have you? I I thought
were about to get something there, saw some concern on
your face. But what an unusual findal especially be dazzled one? Right?
(24:13):
That's why I love that title. It's like, oh, yeah,
there's a whole community of people who find their their
straight jackets at the store. Right where do you get them?
You love that title that you made up. So Mango, Um,
how did Scott do today? Scott win amazing five for
six and that entitles them to our prize this week,
which is a real book called The Stray Shopping Carts
(24:34):
of Eastern North America, a guide to field identification that
one I would have guessed is false as a real one.
H Well, Scott, thanks so much for joining us today. Well,
thank you for allowing me to play. I appreciate it. Okay, Well,
(25:01):
so answer the question on everyone's mind? Is it really
the sources and not the sore? I is that on
everybody's I think you might be overstating the demand for
that answer, but I'll admit it, I was curious about
this as well, so I decided to look it up,
and it turns out both are perfectly acceptable to say,
although if you want to get technical, Grammar's points out
that the correct way to pluralize the Latin word the
(25:24):
saurs would be to add the suffix i, which means
the sorry is technically the proper pluralization. I feel like
I've got to carry around too the sources just to
be able to bring that up in the exactly. But
as long as we're on the words etymology, I'll go
ahead and mention that, unlike Encyclopedia, the sores actually has
this really straightforward meeting. It's derived from a Greek word
(25:45):
meaning storehouse of precious items are more simply put, treasure.
That is pretty great, and you know, plenty of writers
would agree with that, including the man who supposedly wrote
the very first the Saurs. His name was Philo of Biblos,
and he was an ancient Greek scholar who wrote a
book of synonyms titled on Synonyms. I mean, it feels
like Pilo missed a great opportunity to drop in a
(26:07):
bunch of subheads like on synonyms, also a bunch of
word alternate substitutes and equivalence I found for you. But
was Filo really the first to find this? Well, Filo
was first, I mean his book came out in the
first and second century CE. But for my money, the
most interesting early thesaurus was actually written a couple of
centuries later. It was in the fourth century CE by
(26:28):
an Indian poet name A. Mara Senna, and his book
of Sanskrit words. Wasn't your typical stuffy thesaurus. Senna divided
the included words into three sections. There were those relating
to the divine, the earth, and everyday life, and each
section contained poetic verses and integrated the words so that
readers could have an easier time remembering them. It's actually
(26:49):
kind of an extraordinary accomplishment. And you know, while we
know of philos thesaurus only through mentions in other people's writings,
copies of A. Mara Senna's books still survive today and
that makes it the oldest the stars in existence. That's
so crazy that I've never heard of him. I mean,
I also don't speak sanscrit and it feels like it
would have come off. But let's go ahead to the
(27:09):
man whose name has become synonymous with the Sources or
the Sore, and that's Peter Mark Roge. So Roj was
the British doctor behind the world's most well known the Sris.
But he actually got a start in reference books by
working as a contributor on medical topics for the Encyclopedia Britannica.
So he was deep into reference But in eighteen o
five Roj undertook a particular pastime. He started compiling words
(27:32):
and arranging them by meaning and grouping them into these
overarching themes. And even though he was still working as
a physician, Roger kept up this word listing habit for
forty seven years. Wow, I didn't realize it was that long.
That is insane. So so what happened after that? Well,
by eighteen fifty two, Roger was ready to retire from medicine,
and in his newfound free time, he decided to you know,
(27:53):
finally share his long in the works The Source with
the public, which has an amazing title. You know what,
one that follow of Wiss could have replicated Roger's The
Source of English Words and Phrases, classified and arranged so
as to facilitate the expression of ideas and assist in
literary composition, rolls off the tongue, right, not at all?
That is crazy, and so so did this take off? Yeah,
(28:15):
inspite of the title, And I mean the book was
this culmination of half a century of work, so it
had to be the most comprehensive the source on the market.
It also differed from other reference books by sticking to
Roget's thematic arrangement rather than just listening to the words alphabetically.
But whatever the reason, the public quickly caught on and
by the time roj passed away in eighteen sixty nine
is the source had been reprinted twenty five times wow,
(28:38):
and then countless times since then too. You know. In fact,
Roget's The Stars has become so successful and widely used
that January eighteenth, which is the day of his birth,
that's now recognized around the world as the Stars Day.
You know. Since we're on the subject of reference books
that have had surprising appeal and longevity even we should
definitely talk about Almanacs. So I know, and Franklin's name
(29:00):
always gets tossed around when you mentioned Almanacs, But I
think the only reason I know about modern Almanax is
from Carmen San Diego, Like, do you remember that. Of
course played lots of Carmen San Diego. Yeah, you needed
the book to look up flags of countries and see
where that these were running off too. Well, it's actually
kind of genius that a computer game came boxed with
a printed almanac, and I loved it, just like having
(29:20):
that fresh copy. It was pretty cool. But you know,
we're a little off track here, and so reference books
definitely have this long history, and basically almanacs had their
heyday in the seventeenth and eighteen centuries. That's when people
were eager for this reliable way to receive information that
was pertinent to their daily lives. So weather predictions and
charts detailing times of sunrises and sunsets, these were really
(29:42):
part of the main offerings. But almanacs expanded over the
years to include everything from health advice to recipes, things
like household tips. He actually even jokes and puzzles in there.
I had no idea they had jokes and recipes, but
they were super popular, right yeah, I mean, just to
give you some idea of just how popular almanacs became.
By the seventeenth century, only one publication outsold almanacs in England,
(30:05):
and that's the art of the deal. Not quiet I'm
talking about the Bible. But it wasn't just the British
going crazy for almanacs. You know, of course, your boy
been Franklin's publication Poor Richard's Almanac that that also came
out around this same time. So here's where I get confused,
Like there's Poor Richards, there's the Farmer's Almanac. I think
there's even an Old Farmer's Almanac. Like are they all
(30:26):
the same? Not exactly, I mean, they all cover pretty
similar grounds, so there is some cross over there, but
all three of those are actually different publications. The Old
Farmers Almanac was founded in seventeen nine two, but the
modifier old was just added retroactively once The Farmers Almanac
debuted in eighteen eighteen. And are either of them still around?
(30:47):
They are, actually both of these are still being published today.
The Old Farmers Almanac even boast of being the oldest
continually published periodical in the US. And there's reason to
believe them too. I mean, when the first issue was
released in seventeen ninety two, George Washington was just beginning
his second term as president. Wow, so our weather prediction
is still a big part of them. Well, it's definitely included.
(31:08):
I mean, the Farmer's Almanac makes weather predictions two years
in advance, and both almanacs claim to have about an
eight percent accuracy for hate. I mean, you know, skeptical
researchers estimate that the almanacs real accuracy is somewhere closer,
like twenty five or thirty, which kind of just seems
like a good guess. But you know, the really interesting
thing to me is the secrecy surrounding the formula behind
(31:31):
the Farmer's Almanac and how they make their predictions. It
includes esoteric factors like the position of the planets and
sunspot activity and title forces and you know, I mean
they use astronomy and math. How sophisticated is that. But
you know, the actual formula is top secret, and in fact,
there's only one soul on the planet who knows it.
And his name is Caleb weather Be. Isn't that the
(31:53):
principle from the Archie Coon. I don't think that's a
real person. Well, you're right that the name is fake,
but the almanac swears there is a real person behind it. Apparently,
the current Caleb Weatherby is the seventh person to take
up the mantel and the publication's two hundred year history.
He's been on the job for almost thirty years now,
and since it's a lifetime gig, I mean, he'll probably
(32:15):
remain Caleb Weatherby until the day he dies. That's amazing. Well,
one thing I've read that I find sort of fascinating
about The Farmer's Almanac is the way it kind of
offered a sneak peak of the information age to come.
And this is something that Adrian le Franz talks about
in the Atlantic and the idea is that the wide
ranging information and ease of access offered by almanacs was
(32:37):
kind of what, you know, a smartphone was going to
be in the future, and, as she put it, a handheld,
portable device that contained information about all manner of things. Well,
it definitely seems true that digital sources like Wikipedia and
even smart devices like the Amazon Echo or Siri, I mean,
they have some roots in those traditional print reference books.
And I guess the biggest question right now is is
(32:58):
there room enough for both both of these? I mean,
I kind of want to believe there is, for you know,
I was looking at the numbers and sales of Miriam
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary have definitely fallen in recent years, but
visits to their online dictionary have gone way up, and
even on the print side, their dictionary remains one of
the top sellers, just behind the Bible. But to quote
Peter Sokolowski, who's an editor for Miriam Webster, the dictionary
(33:22):
in the most generic scope is being used more than ever.
You can have it as an app, it's online while
you're at work, you have it as a print book.
Book sales are down, but we're seeing an overall increase
in use. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's encouraging, But
you know, you've got go to like Rog's and Miriam
Webster and they may still have a place on the bookshelf.
But I feel like encyclopedias are a different story. I mean,
(33:44):
even seemingly immortal Encyclopedia Britannica cease to produce print editions
back in two thousand twelve, and they decided to go
online exclusive instead, And really I'm not sure who was
still buying at that point, given that the final edition
costs you a cool fourteen hundred dollars, which just seems
so crazy now, But as far as I can tell,
the World Book Encyclopedia is the only encyclopedia left with
(34:07):
actual paper in the game. Yeah, and a lot of
people see the demise of print encyclopedias is a good
thing because, you know, while there's a certain nostalgia tied
up in this idea of a door to door encyclopedia
salesman or those commercials that offered beautiful, hardbound knowledge for
a low monthly payment, the reality is that these twenty
plus volumes weren't often worth the price, or at least
not for very long. Like the rapid advancements in science
(34:30):
or politics, they all ensured that most encyclopedias were outdated
by the time they were printed. Yeah, though they were
such wondrous things to explore, like thumbing through the pages
and that serendipity of learning about weird topics. I mean,
you can definitely go down these Wikipedia rabbit holes, but
the experience it just feels kind of different, you know. Yeah,
But the fact that you can have endless pages and
(34:52):
that they can be updated immediately really is amazing about
the net. Plus, Like, one of the arguments against print
is that it looks so definitive or authoritative that it
often encourages kids to, you know, be a little too
trusting about what they read. But would you really rather
kids trust the community driven source like Wikipedia instead, Well,
not definitively, but you know, questioning online sources and seeking
(35:16):
out verification for what you read, Like that's really important
and a really important habit for kids to pick up today,
you know. Uh Slate had a comment about this, and
and a writer wrote, if you want to learn to
suss out the liars, there's no better training than Wikipedia.
I can't argue with that. I mean, I do want
to mention one last thing that's unique to print encyclopedias,
(35:36):
and this came from a really interesting essay by David A.
Bell that appeared in The New Republic back when Encyclopedia
Britannica first announced the demise if its print component. And
this is kind of a long one, but bear with
me on this. So he says, with the disappearance of
paper encyclopedias, a part of the Western intellectual tradition is
disappearing as well. The great paper encyclopedias of the past
(35:57):
had other grander ambitions. They aspired to provide an overview
of all human knowledge, and still more boldly, to put
that knowledge into a coherent logical order. Even if they
mostly organized their articles alphabetically, they also sought to link
the material together thematically, all of it. In nineteen four,
for instance, the editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica added to
(36:19):
the work a one volume propedia which sought to provide
a detailed outline of human knowledge while referencing the appropriate
articles of the encyclopedia itself. Large headings such as life, society,
and religion were subdivided into these forty odd divisions, and
then further into hundreds of individual sections. That kind of
(36:39):
ambition mattered. It mattered that one could look at a
stack of volumes and say, here are vast libraries distilled
down into an essence of human knowledge and organized in
a logical order. The books testified to the hope that
ultimately human beings had at least a measure of control
over the overpowering torrents and facts and ideas that they
collectively produce. Wow, well, rest in peace, print encyclopedias. Why
(37:04):
why don't we dedicate this backed off in their honor. Yeah,
In the very first encyclopedia Britannica. Homo sapiens were subdivided
into five categories American, European, Asiatic, African, and monsters. So
(37:26):
plenty of people are familiar with the Urban Dictionary. Wish
defined slang for you, But where do you go when
you need new slang for your slang? The Urban Thesaurus,
of course. And while the site isn't exactly safe for work,
here just a few of the terms Urban Thesaurus used
as alternatives for love, lust, crush, boo I, law, you raw,
and Kurt Cobaine's killer. It's quite the list there, Mango. Well,
(37:50):
I'm sure you know that J. R. Tolkien was obsessed
with etymologies and language, but did you know that he
actually worked as an assistant editor at the O. E. D.
He worked on the Double US and wrote multiple drafts
for the definitions of walnut, walrus, and waistcoat, among other things. Somehow,
it didn't even occur to me that, like, you'd write
lots of drafts for each entry. It's amazing. So here's
(38:12):
something I thought was clever. The senses to explain words
and dictionaries are often meant to be simple and clear,
but also kind of boring. But this artist Jazz Burrows
has been stringing them together to make really weird short stories.
He has a whole video series of dictionary stories. But
my favorite is when he called the real dictionary phrases
for the twelve days of Christmas. It's like the seventh
day Baptist, six months of unclouded memories, five venturous young men,
(38:36):
four slices of bread, like these are all phrases in
the Dictionary, and it's so dumb, But you know, he
has a whole chorus singing, and it's pretty funny. All right. Well,
I found a great list of words that were first
introduced to the public by presidents on history dot com.
So it's things like first Lady, which Zachary Taylor actually introduced,
and apparently before he referred to Dolly Madison as the
(38:56):
first Lady, people just referred to them as the president interests. Also,
to make English less English, Thomas Jefferson brought French words
to the US, including the word pedicure. I mean, that
can't be real, Like Thomas Jefferson introduced petticures to America
to quote describe the care of feet, toes, and toenails.
He did it. Okay, Well, I've got one for you
(39:18):
that I I know you can't feet. Do you know
that encyclopedias used to give away tiny plots of land
when you bought a set? You know, I'd heard about
these sorts of marketing employees before. I think we even
talked about in a similar scheme, and that the Yukon
with cereal boxes. Yeah, that's right. But here's what's interesting.
So between nineteen fourteen and nineteen nineteen, you can get
a slice of Huntington's Beach in California with the purchase
(39:38):
of an encyclopedia. And supposedly the encyclopedia lots were just
a hundred feet by twenty five ft and they were
almost stacked up like a set of encyclopedias on a shelf.
It was this like worthless gimmick that no one could
really cash out on until nineteen twenty when oil was
found under all that les, So suddenly anyone who invested
in knowledge got rich. Uh. Well, you know it's nice
(40:01):
to know that knowledge pays off. So I agree, I
cannot beat that facts, So I'm gonna let you keep
the trophy this week, Mango, Thanks so much. So that's
it for today's episode. If we forgot any great facts
about reference books, and I'm sure that we did. We
would love to hear from. You can email us part
Time Genius at how stuff Works dot com. You can
also call us on our seven fact hotline one eight
(40:22):
four four pt Genius. We've loved hearing a lot of
the great calls that have come in recently. You can
also find us on Facebook or Twitter. Thanks so much
for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is
(40:47):
a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible
without several brilliant people who do the important things we
couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the MIXI
mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland is the exact producer thing gave.
Loesier is our lead researcher, with support from the Research
Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and
(41:07):
Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good review for us. Did you
did you forget ja Jason who
Guess what, mango, what's that? Will? I need to give
you a heads up because I think I'm going to
start using the word snollygastar a lot more of what snollygoster?
You know, the term for an unprincipled but shrewd person.
So I have no idea where you're talking about. Well,
let's go back to two thousand three. Snolly gostar got
kicked out of the dictionary, which is just ridiculous. So
there was this huge campaign to bring it back. And
(00:22):
the thing is, if enough people keep using it, the
editor of the Webster's Dictionary said he'd consider adding it
back in. In fact, the word chad was on the
shortlist to get kicked out too, and then infamous Florida
election debaccle occurred and suddenly the word was back. So
what you're saying is we just have to interfere with
an election or something similarly big to get the words
snollygoster back into play. Yeah, I mean, you know, look,
(00:44):
there there are no bad ideas and brainstorming, but getting
a sneak peek at how the dictionary works is just
part of today's show. Today we're diving into the weird
world of reference from almanacs to encyclopedias, all to get
a better look at the human fascination for cataloging knowledge
in the delightfully skimmable way. So let's dig in, ye
(01:24):
he their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend man guest Shot Ticketer. And on the other side
of the soundproof glass the only person I know who's
reading the Dictionary cover to cover, and actually he's already
reviewed it on good Reads. That's our friend and producer
Tristan McNeil. Yeah, and he actually gave it a scathing review.
He found the whole thing disjointed, and uh, he didn't
(01:46):
like how the art vark at the beginning of the
book didn't show up later in the story. I get it,
I get it. He's he's a pretty tough judge. Well,
speaking of dictionaries, today's show is all about the weird
world of reference books. You know, from a young age
most of us are trained to turn to diction areas
or the sauruses and all these other reference books for
our linguistic and grammatical needs. But how did these exhaustive
(02:07):
reference books come to be? Why are there so many
competing versions? And just how relevant are they in today's
increasingly digital world. So these are the kinds of questions
we're gonna be tackling today, right, And the start things off,
I thought we could look at the granddaddy of all
reference books, the encyclopedia. So it's encyclopedia the oldest. Like people,
it seems like people would have started with dictionaries though, right, yeah,
(02:28):
that's what I would have guessed too. I mean, like
the idea of cataloging all of the current words seems
to be way easier than I don't know, like trying
to record every single thing ever known. But that's not
where humans chose to begin. So the first encyclopedias can
be traced back to ancient Syria in twelve seventy b c.
It wasn't called an encyclopedia in those days. In fact,
(02:48):
the word encyclopedia didn't come in to use until the
fifteen hundreds, and that word is a Latinized take on
this ancient Greek phrase for general education. But the more
interesting definition is literal one, which is training in a circle.
So why a circle? I mean, were these encyclopedias around
or something? No, so the circle was this common symbol
for the liberal arts, like the seven areas of arts
(03:11):
and sciences that were deemed necessary for making a well
rounded person. All right, well, that's a good title, But
it is funny to think of an encyclopedia as everything
you need to know, especially when you consider some of
the weird stuff that wound up in the really early ones.
So what are you talking about. One of the most
famous early encyclopedias is the one as symboled in the
first century a d by the Roman naturalists Pliny the Elder,
(03:32):
and it's full of information that's hilarious but maybe not
so reputable. So despite calling his epic thirty seven book
Encyclopedia the Historia Naturalists or natural history, Pliny had some
questionable ideas about the inner workings of the human body,
and one of the funniest examples is his woeful misunderstanding
of women's bodies and specifically periods. So I'm going to
(03:54):
read how he describes it. He says, on the approach
of a woman in this state, seeds which you're touched
by her comes sterile garden plants are parched up, and
the fruit will fall from the tree beneath which she said,
her very look will dim the brightness of mir hers,
blunt the edge of steel, and take away the polish
from ivory. A swarm of bees, if looked upon by her,
(04:14):
will die immediately. Brass and iron will instantly become rusty
and admit an offensive odor, while dogs, which may have
tasted of the matter so discharged, are seized with madness,
and their bite is venomous and incurable. Well, I don't
know about you, but it sounds like Pliny was a
real feminist. Had he even met a woman like it
feels like it would be so easy to disprove all
(04:36):
of the stuff I know. But that wasn't the only
inaccuracy in Pliny's books, you know. For example, he provided
one of the earliest descriptions of unicorns. So Pliny wrote,
the unicorn is the fiercest animal, and it has said
that it is impossible to capture one alive. It has
the body of a horse, the head of a stag,
the feet of an elephant, the tail of a boar,
and a single black horn three ft long in the
(04:57):
middle of its forehead. I'm glad you gave everyone like
a definitive account of what a unicorn. Looks like the
only party got right with the horn part right nailed
it on that though, But really, I mean, I don't
think we should pick on the Romans too much, because
when Encyclopedia has finally made their leave to England in
seventeen sixty eight, they were still cramed full of like
(05:17):
terrible fictional entries. So seventeen sixty eight is actually the
year the Encyclopedia Britannica was first made. It was assembled
by three Scottish men and it consisted of just three
volumes at the time. So nowadays the first edition is
mostly interesting as kind of a record of people's priorities
in the eighteenth century and just how little does line
up with our own? So what do you mean by that?
(05:39):
So the encyclopedia includes forty pages about horse disease, there
is no information about children, and only four words on
on the entry for women. Well, I mean, after that
Pliny description, I'm almost afraid to ask, but what were
those four words? It's it's super definitive the female of man.
(06:00):
I mean, I guess I see what you mean about
skewed priorities on this. I mean, it's ridiculous. They took
the time to calculate the exact number of animal species
that were on Noah's Ark, but they couldn't spend more
than four words on half the human population. But did
they really record how many animals were on Noah's Ark? Yeah,
apparently there were a hundred seventy seven, which also doesn't
seem right right. But there's some entries where, you know,
(06:22):
you kind of have to give it to the Scots
for creativity. So there's one for the cure of flatulence
that they say consists of drinking cammill t and then uh,
blowing pipe smoke up your bomb. Or the entry on
Vermicelli noodles is amazing is described as a food and
great vogue with the Italians due to its use as
an aphrodisiac. Uh. You know, I was actually looking at
(06:43):
this edition as well, and one of the entries I
love from that first Encyclopedia Britannica is the one on California. Now,
just for the record, the region wouldn't become a state
for close to a hundred years after this publication, so
really not much was known about it. But they didn't
even bother to spell check the thing. So California is
mistakenly spelled with two els. Also, it's referred to as
(07:04):
quote a large country of the West Indies unknown whether
it's an island or a peninsula or neither maybe, But
I mean you kind of have to love their confidence,
right And also as funny as accidental inaccuracies can be,
I actually still prefer the intentional ones. And I know
you and I have talked about this before, but editors
of reference books sometimes include fake entries as a means
(07:26):
of preventing plagiarism from their competitors. And the ideas if
you use a made up word and then that subject
appears in arrivals reference book, the originator can accuse the
other of poaching the entries, you know, which qualifies as
copyright infringement. Yeah, it's pretty crazy, and it is fascinating
to follow these things that you know, I know, in
an atlas they're called paper towns, you know, like the
places that are made up on maps. But so how
(07:47):
long has this been going on? So for at least
a century. In dictionaries and encyclopedias that are called Mount Weasels,
which comes from a phony entry in the nine edition
of the New Columbia Encyclopedia. According to the original entry
on her, Lillian Virginia mount Weasel was an American photographer
who received a government grant to take pictures of rural mailboxes. Sadly,
(08:09):
Lillian died in a freak explosion while an assignment, where
the equally fictitious Combustibles magazine man This one's kind of
a shame though, that this one shouldn't be made up.
I would totally read Combustibles Magazine. I know me too.
But Lillian's story does have a happy ending of sorts.
Like her imaginary life has since been commemorated in the
form of real Dictionary entries for the word mount weasel.
(08:30):
That's pretty great, actually, I just pulled up a list
of mount weasels here, and there's some really good ones
out there. So we've got a Papula do balia, which
was this made up Greco Roman sports similar to modern soccer.
And this one actually maybe is my favorite. Esquavalience, which
is defined as a purposeful error made to easily spot plagiarizers.
(08:51):
I love that. I feel like I missed a calling
just making up definitions for fake words, all right, So
there's obviously a ton more we could say about encyclopedias.
But since we're talking definitions, let's let's put the encyclopedia
back on the shelf and spend some time with what's
probably the most popular type of reference book, and that's,
of course, dictionaries. Just like with the idea of assembling
a compendium of knowledge, the concept of listing out all
(09:13):
the words in a given language is one that dates
back thousands of years. But for our purposes, let's stick
with the modern period of dictionaries. You know, when the
English version began cropping up around you know, say the
seventeenth century or so. And why is that. Well, the
number of words in the English language actually doubled between
fifteen hundred and sixteen fifty, and this was largely due
to the Renaissance, which brought a wealth of words derived
(09:35):
from Latin and Greek to British lips for the very
first time. But it was also a time when travelers
and traders from foreign countries were mingling new words into
Europe's vocabulary. So all these unfamiliar new words coupled with
the rise of printed books, it really set the stage
for the world's first English dictionary, and that came along
in sixteen oh, four complements of a schoolmaster named Robert Caudrey.
(09:57):
It's so funny. They are all these names, I know,
like Webster and Roget, but I've never heard of Caudrey. Yeah. Well,
you know Caudrey's table alphabetical, as he called it. It
wasn't exactly a general language dictionary. It's it's what's called
a hard word dictionary, and it basically provided easy to
understand definitions for all these new and difficult foreign words
which had kind of made their way into the English
(10:19):
language during the previous decades. That's really interesting. So when
did the first more general dictionary come about? The well,
the idea of a general dictionary for everyday words, it
kind of didn't catch on until maybe seventy or so
years later. And it was a man named Elisha Coles
who who published this dictionary that added regional terms. He
also added slang and just some other common words to
(10:40):
the existing slate of hard words from the previous books. Well,
I'm kind of glad you mentioned the inclusion of slang
because there's one slang dictionary in particular that I really
want to talk about. But before we get to that,
let's take a quick break you're listening to part time genius,
(11:06):
and we're talking about the surprisingly strange world of reference books. Now,
most people are familiar by this point with the dictionary
makers like Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster, and you know,
for good reason. It was in seventeen fifty five that
Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language was introduced as the
most comprehensive one to date. It was the very first
to use quotations to help illustrate how words could actually
(11:28):
be used. And then came Webster's Dictionary that was published
in eighteen twenty eight, and it was one of the
first lexicons to include definitions of more than ten thousand americanisms.
These had never been included in the British dictionaries, you know,
where it's like skunk and squash and chowder. And the
book was a product of more than two decades of
work and was crucial in helping standardize English spelling, things
(11:50):
like dropping the U and color for instance. But you know,
as important as these contributions where there there's a different
story that you were saying you wanted to tell today, right,
And I go, yeah, so those guys are great, and
it isn't an exaggeration to say our language wouldn't be
the same without them. But they're not the only one
that's true of And that's why I want to make
sure we talked about the Hepster Dictionary, which is a
(12:10):
compendium of Harlem slang that's believed to be the first
dictionary written by an African American. Oh wow, I've actually
never heard of this. So who's the author? So that's
one of the really cool things about it. It was
written by Cat Callaway, who's you know, the legendary jazz
musicians and band leader you could also do the moonwalk.
And by the way, he retired in Delaware because you know,
it was a short train ride from Baltimore and New
(12:31):
York City. Glad you were able to work in your
Delaware factory. Yeah, But in the ninety twenties and thirties,
Cab Callaway was this mainstay in the Harlem music scene,
and the neighborhood had become a center of African American culture,
you know, with the Harlem Renaissance and all that. And
as Aaron Blakemore put it in her article on history
dot Com, quote Harlem was full of slang. Jazz musicians
(12:52):
like Callaway talk jive a kind of shorthand that turned
ordinary conversation into an extended, jazzy riff. It was also
a matter of survive. Though it was spoken in public,
it was a way for African Americans to communicate privately,
a kind of linguistic rebellion that was as serious as
it was humorous. That's pretty awesome and so obviously Callaway
was familiar with jive, But how did he come to
(13:13):
write the Dictionary on it? Well, his songs were full
of words and phrases that eventually wound up in the
dictionary and gave actually jotted down a few of these
for me, like cool Groovy, Chick, moocher, Boogie Woogie, jitterbug,
and come again. There's all you know, we're used by him.
But but the idea to compile all of them in
print came in the late thirties when Cab Callaway noticed
(13:33):
that black musicians were being pushed aside by white swing
musicians and they kind of co opted the sound. So
to keep himself in the culture, he helped pioneer relevant.
Cab and his manager worked together on this slender pamphlet
that defined jib for audiences who had never heard the
streets Lang before it was published in eight I believe,
and and it became a hit with both black and
white readers, And in fact, he did seven volumes of
(13:56):
the thing, and it even became the official reference book
of Jive and the New York Public Library, which was
something Cab was immensely proud of. Yeah, and I love that,
you know, even though it seems to have indirectly saddled
us with the the you know, the hipsters of today,
It's it's so great that Callaway chronicled that moment in
black culture, and the Harlem Renaissance was soon eclipsed by
the Great Depression. So you know, we're pretty lucky to
(14:18):
have all that culture and not have it lost to
history exactly. And I actually heard this BBC interview with
a British poet about cabs dictionary, and he had this
really great insight about it. As he put it, quote,
Cab Callaway was taking ownership of language for people who
just a few generations before had their own languages taken away.
Oh yeah, I mean I haven't thought of that. But
(14:39):
you know, since since we're talking about how dictionaries come together,
I do want to talk a little bit about what
it takes to get a new word added to the dictionary,
because there is a process to it, and it's one
that we don't hear about often. I mean, sure, we
hear about the list of the new words that Miriam
Webster adds with each new addition, or at least more
decidedly modern additions, you know, things like crowdsourcing and man
spread or even o MG which was added, But you know,
(15:02):
you don't hear much about how these new words are
actually chosen to be included. Yeah, that's a good point.
So first of all, who does decide what gets added? Well,
that's left up to the lexicographers and and for anyone
who doesn't have their own reference book handy. Those are
the people whose job it is to compile dictionaries. They
pay attention to whenever a new word or phrase becomes popular,
(15:23):
and then they start collecting citations of the word, including
its contextual meaning. They comb through this database to find
evidence that the word has cropped up over time among
this diverse group of people, and when that big case
file is assembled, the last step is for the dictionary
editors to review the evidence and decide whether or not
to include the new word and the next edition of
their company's dictionary. So it basically boils down to like
(15:46):
popularity and usage, which makes sense. But what about the
words we removed from the dictionary? Is it really just
a matter of determining how many people are still using
a certain word? Well, that's where things get a little
bit more complicated. You know. The way it works is
that the editors try to determine and which words are
most relevant today, and then then they go back and
weed out the ones that are most definitely not being
used as much today. So editors might assemble a list
(16:08):
of potential cuts. You've got obscure words like crunch or
pro land or octandrias that have all then cut from
the dictionary. Crunch like crunchy, wrench dressing. Oh that's cross.
I think it's a loud noise or actually I found
a Scottish reference book that said it's an alternative for crunch,
which is to crunch with your mouth. Apparently, I don't
(16:30):
know why we need another word for that, but it's
no longer in the dictionary, so you really don't have
to worry about it at this point. I like that
there's crunch, cringe, and crunch. Yeah, you just need to crunch.
But I interrupted. You were talking about how words get
tossed from the dictionary, right, So, so the editors have
a list of words that aren't used that often, and
then they search through sources like Google books or other
(16:52):
dictionaries and of course the Internet, and they try to
see how frequently these words turn up. And they're always
exceptions to you know, for example, the and thou don't
really pop up much in everyday conversation anymore. But since
they're so prevalent in all these widely read books, they're
pretty safe from the chopping blot. Okay, that makes sense.
And I actually remember reading this book word Freak by
(17:14):
Steven fatsis about the world of competitive scrabble, and one
of the things I remember best from it was these
people who would petition to have words put back into
the dictionary. They were just these word lovers who would
spend their free time, I mean, when they weren't dominating
at scrabble, just fighting to have words reintegrated into the
English language. But here's my question, like, why target words
for removal at all? Is it just to save on
(17:35):
printing costs? And I think the bigger concern is that
the dictionary will become too massive and unwilldy to use
if nothing is ever omitted from it. But practicality isn't
even the only reason that words get cut. I mean,
if you think about it, there are plenty of online
dictionaries that don't have to worry about the space that
they take up, But they don't include every single word
from English language either, and that's largely because most dictionaries
(17:58):
are trying to present the current state of semantics, you know,
the words that most typify our language and kind of
in the here and now if you think about it. So,
you know, the only exception I could think of is
the Oxford English Dictionary, like the o e D, which
is more concerned with chronicling and preserving English and its entirety.
And to that end, the o e D doesn't remove
words or definitions. Instead, they just know when a particular
(18:20):
word or meeting is outdated. Yeah, yeah, that that is
an interesting exception to this. Well, you know, as long
as we're talking about the intentions behind reference books, I
feel like we should go ahead and cover the other
two biggies of the reference world, and those would be
the stars and almanacs. Yeah, but before we do that.
Let's take a quick break. Okay, Mango, it's quiz time.
(18:46):
I know we're talking reference books today, so we thought
it would be appropriate to bring in one of our
favorite podcasters here at How Stuff Works and someone known
for doing an intense amount of research before any of
his episodes. Scott Benjamin. Welcome to Part Time Genius. Thank
you for men. I appreciate it. You guys may know
Scott from Car Stuff, and that's what I have to admit.
You sit right across from us in the office, and
(19:07):
when we look over and see these stacks of research,
it kind of makes us feel like maybe we're not
doing enough. I feel like I I read at least
two books, give a bunch of books for for every episode,
and then I see this, like like half a meter
high stack of papers that they're just giving through dreams
of paper. I do it the old school way, I guess.
(19:28):
I'm I'm I'm an analog guy, right, so, um, I
don't bring a laptop in with me to podcasts, which
I think almost everybody does. Yeah, everything is on paper.
I've got color coded tabs, I've got notes everywhere. It's
a it's kind of a mess, but it's a mess
that I know how to work with. Wow, I thought
maybe it was an intimidation tactic. Do I remember this
story correctly? That there was a legend about Karl Rove,
(19:49):
like when he was on the debate team in high
school and he would wheel in this huge cart with
all of these containers full of where they were supposed
to be full of index cards, right that notes. It
was just an intimidation tactic. And it turns out that
most of them were just blank, but they were just
there to make it seem like he had prepped more
than anyone. I'll show you my stack of notes. I'll share,
(20:10):
but there's there's notes everywhere in there. It's it's quite
a mess, and no one else would be able to
put it together with the information that I compile, I
just know where everything is. Yeah, it's a system that's unbelievable.
How many episodes of car Stuff did you did you host?
I'm gonna say it's it was approaching nine hundred. I
don't know an exact number, but a hundred. We were.
We were on air for nine years and one month.
(20:32):
It was a long time. Wow, Wow, very cool. It's
an unbelievable archive there that it's really fun to dig into.
And also I so want to tell the listeners like
about your new show, but I know we've got to
kep under wraps. I'm so excited for it though. Yeah,
we've got something in the works that hopefully everybody will
also be on board with. But it's it's exciting. Yeah,
we're gonna have you on again to debut that when
(20:52):
when when it comes out? Very cool. We're talking reference
books today and playing a game with Scott. What's it called? Mego?
It's called real nonfiction title or something we made up.
So every year the Diagram Book Group gives a prize
at the Frankfurt Book Fair for the year's oddest title.
So every one of these titles is either going to
be one of those strange books or something we made up.
Wait are you saying real nonfiction? That's it? Yes, this
(21:15):
is a real nonfiction title or something we made up
in terms of a title. Okay, I'll do my bus
all right, you ready to play? Here we go number one.
The first title is Managing a Dental Practice the Genghis
Khan way real or something we made up? Oh my gosh,
I'm going to say that's made up? Oh what is it? Mango?
It's actually real. It's real. Yeah. It won the Diagram
(21:37):
Prize in two thousand ten. Okay, here we go, you start,
have plenty of time to come back, all right. Number two,
A Field Guide to mid Century Water Slides of North Dakota.
A Field Guide to the mid century water Slides of
North Dakota. I'm gonna say that it's not real. I
don't know how you tell the difference between the mid
century and the most of mid century. That one had
(21:58):
mango written? All okay. Number three, The Commuter Pig Keeper,
A comprehensive guy to keeping pigs when time is your
most precious commodity. Okay, um, I'm gonna say that one's real.
Is that one real? Mango? Yeah, it's absolutely real. The
Commuter Pig Keeper, a comprehensive guy to keeping pigs when
(22:20):
time is your most precious keeper. I needed three breaths
to say that as a Commuter pig Keeper. We're gonna
have to get ahold of this book. I feel like
you're gonna need it for research for probably for your
next project. Guess so, alright, you're two out of three.
The next one the Circus Performers Index for high Performance
stilt Makers. Sorry, I'm trying to keep the Circus Performers
(22:43):
Index for High Performance stilt Makers real or something we
made up. This one is going to be made up, Yes,
high performance stilts. I think you have more fun making
this stuff up than you do with anything you work
on it. I guess you could call them high performance
pogo sticks if you see those, but never still, that's
where otherwise it's been the Circus Performance Index for high
(23:06):
performance What poco sticks piece of would have been? All
over piece of wood. Okay, here we go. Number five
Goblin Proofing One's Chicken Coop. Stop it mango. Goblin Proofing
One's Chicken Coop real nonfiction or something we made up.
That one feels like it's real. You know. It came
(23:28):
out in two thousand twelve and it's a guide to
banishing ferries from both your home and your chickens. Gobbling
Proofing Chicken Coop. He is on a roll. The last
one for the big prize. The title is crazy Cool
Ideas for Bedazzling your thrift store straight Jackets. Crazy Cool
Ideas for bedazzling your thrift store straight jack straight if
(23:48):
you hadn't thrown straight jackets in I would say that
was real any other garment, but straight jackets now, is
that right? Mango? Yeah, that was pretty impressive. Have you
ever found a straight jacket at a thrift store? I
can't say that I have. Have you? I I thought
were about to get something there, saw some concern on
your face. But what an unusual findal especially be dazzled one? Right?
(24:13):
That's why I love that title. It's like, oh, yeah,
there's a whole community of people who find their their
straight jackets at the store. Right where do you get them?
You love that title that you made up. So Mango, Um,
how did Scott do today? Scott win amazing five for
six and that entitles them to our prize this week,
which is a real book called The Stray Shopping Carts
(24:34):
of Eastern North America, a guide to field identification that
one I would have guessed is false as a real one.
H Well, Scott, thanks so much for joining us today. Well,
thank you for allowing me to play. I appreciate it. Okay, Well,
(25:01):
so answer the question on everyone's mind? Is it really
the sources and not the sore? I is that on
everybody's I think you might be overstating the demand for
that answer, but I'll admit it, I was curious about
this as well, so I decided to look it up,
and it turns out both are perfectly acceptable to say,
although if you want to get technical, Grammar's points out
that the correct way to pluralize the Latin word the
(25:24):
saurs would be to add the suffix i, which means
the sorry is technically the proper pluralization. I feel like
I've got to carry around too the sources just to
be able to bring that up in the exactly. But
as long as we're on the words etymology, I'll go
ahead and mention that, unlike Encyclopedia, the sores actually has
this really straightforward meeting. It's derived from a Greek word
(25:45):
meaning storehouse of precious items are more simply put, treasure.
That is pretty great, and you know, plenty of writers
would agree with that, including the man who supposedly wrote
the very first the Saurs. His name was Philo of Biblos,
and he was an ancient Greek scholar who wrote a
book of synonyms titled on Synonyms. I mean, it feels
like Pilo missed a great opportunity to drop in a
(26:07):
bunch of subheads like on synonyms, also a bunch of
word alternate substitutes and equivalence I found for you. But
was Filo really the first to find this? Well, Filo
was first, I mean his book came out in the
first and second century CE. But for my money, the
most interesting early thesaurus was actually written a couple of
centuries later. It was in the fourth century CE by
(26:28):
an Indian poet name A. Mara Senna, and his book
of Sanskrit words. Wasn't your typical stuffy thesaurus. Senna divided
the included words into three sections. There were those relating
to the divine, the earth, and everyday life, and each
section contained poetic verses and integrated the words so that
readers could have an easier time remembering them. It's actually
(26:49):
kind of an extraordinary accomplishment. And you know, while we
know of philos thesaurus only through mentions in other people's writings,
copies of A. Mara Senna's books still survive today and
that makes it the oldest the stars in existence. That's
so crazy that I've never heard of him. I mean,
I also don't speak sanscrit and it feels like it
would have come off. But let's go ahead to the
(27:09):
man whose name has become synonymous with the Sources or
the Sore, and that's Peter Mark Roge. So Roj was
the British doctor behind the world's most well known the Sris.
But he actually got a start in reference books by
working as a contributor on medical topics for the Encyclopedia Britannica.
So he was deep into reference But in eighteen o
five Roj undertook a particular pastime. He started compiling words
(27:32):
and arranging them by meaning and grouping them into these
overarching themes. And even though he was still working as
a physician, Roger kept up this word listing habit for
forty seven years. Wow, I didn't realize it was that long.
That is insane. So so what happened after that? Well,
by eighteen fifty two, Roger was ready to retire from medicine,
and in his newfound free time, he decided to you know,
(27:53):
finally share his long in the works The Source with
the public, which has an amazing title. You know what,
one that follow of Wiss could have replicated Roger's The
Source of English Words and Phrases, classified and arranged so
as to facilitate the expression of ideas and assist in
literary composition, rolls off the tongue, right, not at all?
That is crazy, and so so did this take off? Yeah,
(28:15):
inspite of the title, And I mean the book was
this culmination of half a century of work, so it
had to be the most comprehensive the source on the market.
It also differed from other reference books by sticking to
Roget's thematic arrangement rather than just listening to the words alphabetically.
But whatever the reason, the public quickly caught on and
by the time roj passed away in eighteen sixty nine
is the source had been reprinted twenty five times wow,
(28:38):
and then countless times since then too. You know. In fact,
Roget's The Stars has become so successful and widely used
that January eighteenth, which is the day of his birth,
that's now recognized around the world as the Stars Day.
You know. Since we're on the subject of reference books
that have had surprising appeal and longevity even we should
definitely talk about Almanacs. So I know, and Franklin's name
(29:00):
always gets tossed around when you mentioned Almanacs, But I
think the only reason I know about modern Almanax is
from Carmen San Diego, Like, do you remember that. Of
course played lots of Carmen San Diego. Yeah, you needed
the book to look up flags of countries and see
where that these were running off too. Well, it's actually
kind of genius that a computer game came boxed with
a printed almanac, and I loved it, just like having
(29:20):
that fresh copy. It was pretty cool. But you know,
we're a little off track here, and so reference books
definitely have this long history, and basically almanacs had their
heyday in the seventeenth and eighteen centuries. That's when people
were eager for this reliable way to receive information that
was pertinent to their daily lives. So weather predictions and
charts detailing times of sunrises and sunsets, these were really
(29:42):
part of the main offerings. But almanacs expanded over the
years to include everything from health advice to recipes, things
like household tips. He actually even jokes and puzzles in there.
I had no idea they had jokes and recipes, but
they were super popular, right yeah, I mean, just to
give you some idea of just how popular almanacs became.
By the seventeenth century, only one publication outsold almanacs in England,
(30:05):
and that's the art of the deal. Not quiet I'm
talking about the Bible. But it wasn't just the British
going crazy for almanacs. You know, of course, your boy
been Franklin's publication Poor Richard's Almanac that that also came
out around this same time. So here's where I get confused,
Like there's Poor Richards, there's the Farmer's Almanac. I think
there's even an Old Farmer's Almanac. Like are they all
(30:26):
the same? Not exactly, I mean, they all cover pretty
similar grounds, so there is some cross over there, but
all three of those are actually different publications. The Old
Farmers Almanac was founded in seventeen nine two, but the
modifier old was just added retroactively once The Farmers Almanac
debuted in eighteen eighteen. And are either of them still around?
(30:47):
They are, actually both of these are still being published today.
The Old Farmers Almanac even boast of being the oldest
continually published periodical in the US. And there's reason to
believe them too. I mean, when the first issue was
released in seventeen ninety two, George Washington was just beginning
his second term as president. Wow, so our weather prediction
is still a big part of them. Well, it's definitely included.
(31:08):
I mean, the Farmer's Almanac makes weather predictions two years
in advance, and both almanacs claim to have about an
eight percent accuracy for hate. I mean, you know, skeptical
researchers estimate that the almanacs real accuracy is somewhere closer,
like twenty five or thirty, which kind of just seems
like a good guess. But you know, the really interesting
thing to me is the secrecy surrounding the formula behind
(31:31):
the Farmer's Almanac and how they make their predictions. It
includes esoteric factors like the position of the planets and
sunspot activity and title forces and you know, I mean
they use astronomy and math. How sophisticated is that. But
you know, the actual formula is top secret, and in fact,
there's only one soul on the planet who knows it.
And his name is Caleb weather Be. Isn't that the
(31:53):
principle from the Archie Coon. I don't think that's a
real person. Well, you're right that the name is fake,
but the almanac swears there is a real person behind it. Apparently,
the current Caleb Weatherby is the seventh person to take
up the mantel and the publication's two hundred year history.
He's been on the job for almost thirty years now,
and since it's a lifetime gig, I mean, he'll probably
(32:15):
remain Caleb Weatherby until the day he dies. That's amazing. Well,
one thing I've read that I find sort of fascinating
about The Farmer's Almanac is the way it kind of
offered a sneak peak of the information age to come.
And this is something that Adrian le Franz talks about
in the Atlantic and the idea is that the wide
ranging information and ease of access offered by almanacs was
(32:37):
kind of what, you know, a smartphone was going to
be in the future, and, as she put it, a handheld,
portable device that contained information about all manner of things. Well,
it definitely seems true that digital sources like Wikipedia and
even smart devices like the Amazon Echo or Siri, I mean,
they have some roots in those traditional print reference books.
And I guess the biggest question right now is is
(32:58):
there room enough for both both of these? I mean,
I kind of want to believe there is, for you know,
I was looking at the numbers and sales of Miriam
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary have definitely fallen in recent years, but
visits to their online dictionary have gone way up, and
even on the print side, their dictionary remains one of
the top sellers, just behind the Bible. But to quote
Peter Sokolowski, who's an editor for Miriam Webster, the dictionary
(33:22):
in the most generic scope is being used more than ever.
You can have it as an app, it's online while
you're at work, you have it as a print book.
Book sales are down, but we're seeing an overall increase
in use. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's encouraging, But
you know, you've got go to like Rog's and Miriam
Webster and they may still have a place on the bookshelf.
But I feel like encyclopedias are a different story. I mean,
(33:44):
even seemingly immortal Encyclopedia Britannica cease to produce print editions
back in two thousand twelve, and they decided to go
online exclusive instead, And really I'm not sure who was
still buying at that point, given that the final edition
costs you a cool fourteen hundred dollars, which just seems
so crazy now, But as far as I can tell,
the World Book Encyclopedia is the only encyclopedia left with
(34:07):
actual paper in the game. Yeah, and a lot of
people see the demise of print encyclopedias is a good
thing because, you know, while there's a certain nostalgia tied
up in this idea of a door to door encyclopedia
salesman or those commercials that offered beautiful, hardbound knowledge for
a low monthly payment, the reality is that these twenty
plus volumes weren't often worth the price, or at least
not for very long. Like the rapid advancements in science
(34:30):
or politics, they all ensured that most encyclopedias were outdated
by the time they were printed. Yeah, though they were
such wondrous things to explore, like thumbing through the pages
and that serendipity of learning about weird topics. I mean,
you can definitely go down these Wikipedia rabbit holes, but
the experience it just feels kind of different, you know. Yeah,
But the fact that you can have endless pages and
(34:52):
that they can be updated immediately really is amazing about
the net. Plus, Like, one of the arguments against print
is that it looks so definitive or authoritative that it
often encourages kids to, you know, be a little too
trusting about what they read. But would you really rather
kids trust the community driven source like Wikipedia instead, Well,
not definitively, but you know, questioning online sources and seeking
(35:16):
out verification for what you read, Like that's really important
and a really important habit for kids to pick up today,
you know. Uh Slate had a comment about this, and
and a writer wrote, if you want to learn to
suss out the liars, there's no better training than Wikipedia.
I can't argue with that. I mean, I do want
to mention one last thing that's unique to print encyclopedias,
(35:36):
and this came from a really interesting essay by David A.
Bell that appeared in The New Republic back when Encyclopedia
Britannica first announced the demise if its print component. And
this is kind of a long one, but bear with
me on this. So he says, with the disappearance of
paper encyclopedias, a part of the Western intellectual tradition is
disappearing as well. The great paper encyclopedias of the past
(35:57):
had other grander ambitions. They aspired to provide an overview
of all human knowledge, and still more boldly, to put
that knowledge into a coherent logical order. Even if they
mostly organized their articles alphabetically, they also sought to link
the material together thematically, all of it. In nineteen four,
for instance, the editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica added to
(36:19):
the work a one volume propedia which sought to provide
a detailed outline of human knowledge while referencing the appropriate
articles of the encyclopedia itself. Large headings such as life, society,
and religion were subdivided into these forty odd divisions, and
then further into hundreds of individual sections. That kind of
(36:39):
ambition mattered. It mattered that one could look at a
stack of volumes and say, here are vast libraries distilled
down into an essence of human knowledge and organized in
a logical order. The books testified to the hope that
ultimately human beings had at least a measure of control
over the overpowering torrents and facts and ideas that they
collectively produce. Wow, well, rest in peace, print encyclopedias. Why
(37:04):
why don't we dedicate this backed off in their honor. Yeah,
In the very first encyclopedia Britannica. Homo sapiens were subdivided
into five categories American, European, Asiatic, African, and monsters. So
(37:26):
plenty of people are familiar with the Urban Dictionary. Wish
defined slang for you, But where do you go when
you need new slang for your slang? The Urban Thesaurus,
of course. And while the site isn't exactly safe for work,
here just a few of the terms Urban Thesaurus used
as alternatives for love, lust, crush, boo I, law, you raw,
and Kurt Cobaine's killer. It's quite the list there, Mango. Well,
(37:50):
I'm sure you know that J. R. Tolkien was obsessed
with etymologies and language, but did you know that he
actually worked as an assistant editor at the O. E. D.
He worked on the Double US and wrote multiple drafts
for the definitions of walnut, walrus, and waistcoat, among other things. Somehow,
it didn't even occur to me that, like, you'd write
lots of drafts for each entry. It's amazing. So here's
(38:12):
something I thought was clever. The senses to explain words
and dictionaries are often meant to be simple and clear,
but also kind of boring. But this artist Jazz Burrows
has been stringing them together to make really weird short stories.
He has a whole video series of dictionary stories. But
my favorite is when he called the real dictionary phrases
for the twelve days of Christmas. It's like the seventh
day Baptist, six months of unclouded memories, five venturous young men,
(38:36):
four slices of bread, like these are all phrases in
the Dictionary, and it's so dumb, But you know, he
has a whole chorus singing, and it's pretty funny. All right. Well,
I found a great list of words that were first
introduced to the public by presidents on history dot com.
So it's things like first Lady, which Zachary Taylor actually introduced,
and apparently before he referred to Dolly Madison as the
(38:56):
first Lady, people just referred to them as the president interests. Also,
to make English less English, Thomas Jefferson brought French words
to the US, including the word pedicure. I mean, that
can't be real, Like Thomas Jefferson introduced petticures to America
to quote describe the care of feet, toes, and toenails.
He did it. Okay, Well, I've got one for you
(39:18):
that I I know you can't feet. Do you know
that encyclopedias used to give away tiny plots of land
when you bought a set? You know, I'd heard about
these sorts of marketing employees before. I think we even
talked about in a similar scheme, and that the Yukon
with cereal boxes. Yeah, that's right. But here's what's interesting.
So between nineteen fourteen and nineteen nineteen, you can get
a slice of Huntington's Beach in California with the purchase
(39:38):
of an encyclopedia. And supposedly the encyclopedia lots were just
a hundred feet by twenty five ft and they were
almost stacked up like a set of encyclopedias on a shelf.
It was this like worthless gimmick that no one could
really cash out on until nineteen twenty when oil was
found under all that les, So suddenly anyone who invested
in knowledge got rich. Uh. Well, you know it's nice
(40:01):
to know that knowledge pays off. So I agree, I
cannot beat that facts, So I'm gonna let you keep
the trophy this week, Mango, Thanks so much. So that's
it for today's episode. If we forgot any great facts
about reference books, and I'm sure that we did. We
would love to hear from. You can email us part
Time Genius at how stuff Works dot com. You can
also call us on our seven fact hotline one eight
(40:22):
four four pt Genius. We've loved hearing a lot of
the great calls that have come in recently. You can
also find us on Facebook or Twitter. Thanks so much
for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is
(40:47):
a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible
without several brilliant people who do the important things we
couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the MIXI
mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland is the exact producer thing gave.
Loesier is our lead researcher, with support from the Research
Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and
(41:07):
Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
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did you forget ja Jason who
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