April 11, 2018 • 38 mins
Who knew our 50th state held so many secrets! From the ice caves hiding under a volcano, to the wonderful reason you should never bring pork to the windward side to why we should be thanking Hawaii for casual Fridays, Will and Mango take a dip into Hawaii's history. PLUS: The most disgusting reason to thank a parrot fish!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, mengo, what's that? Well, so, you, of course
remember back in our Mental Floss days, and actually this
was our very early Mental Floss days, we did this
issue called the Most Important Questions in the History of
the Universe. I mean, how can I forget Like, we
answered some of the biggest, most important, most life changing
questions in the history of the universe, like uh, can
a pregnant women drive in a carpool lane? Or is
(00:22):
there most effective move in Rock paper scissors? It was
really important. Yeah, honestly, I don't know how the world
lived without knowing these answers. But one of the other
reader questions that we answered was why does Hawaii have
interstate highways? Because you know, as cool as it may
sound to be able to drive across the ocean to
one of the Hawaiian islands, that's not possible obviously. As
(00:42):
it turns out, this goes back to the Eisenhower days
and specifically the Dwight D. Eisenhower system of interstate and
National Defense highways, and this is when the funding came
to build Hawaii's interstates H one, H two, and H three,
and they were largely built as a way to move
supplies between military bases more easily, so the interstate designation
was really just a way to recognize that the roads
(01:03):
had been built from federal funding. I mean, Hawaii is
such an interesting history, and I've had so many other questions.
I've really been looking forward to this episode. Yeah, it
definitely is, and it's one of those places we think
we know more about than we actually do. So in
today's episode, we're gonna talk about some of why he's
fascinating history. We'll talk about some of the origins of
several things we associate with Hawaii, and share some facts
(01:26):
about the islands beyond just the beautiful beaches. So let's
dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
(01:53):
I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my
good friend Manes Ticketer and on the other side of
the soundproof blast. It is actually kind of hard to
look at rocking the loudest Hawaiian shirt I think I
have ever seen. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil.
It is truly a stunning amount of parents for a
single shirt, and for everybody listening, I do want to
(02:14):
point out that Will did use air quotes just now
when he said Hawaiian shirt, just so you know, yeah,
trust me, I'm well aware that most people in Hawaii
tend to wear way fewer parrot shirts than Tristan does.
But this actually goes back to something I noticed while
doing research for today's show, and that's how so many
of the things people associate with Hawaii, you know, the
tropical shirts, ukulele music, pineapples. I mean, He's really have
(02:37):
more to do with the foreign influence of the colonialists
and other outsiders than they do with native Hawaiian culture.
And that's what got me thinking it'd be fun to
take a closer look at some of the most iconic
aspects of Hawaiian really try to get a sense of
where they came from. Now, that way we can get
past the touristy conceptions of Hawaii is this dream vacation
spot or real life garden of Eden, and and learn
(03:00):
more about what life on these islands is really like. Definitely, So,
so to start, I think we should give a quick
look on terms for how we'll be talking about the
people who live in Hawaii, because it's actually a little
trickier than it is for other states. Like I'm a
Georgian and you're an Alabamian, and that's just because of
where we live. But in Hawaii, the term Hawaiian is
(03:20):
generally reserved for people of native Hawaiian ancestry. In other words,
it's those people who descended from the indigenous people who
migrated to the islands from Polynesia over a thousand years ago.
And today people in Hawaii who don't share that ancestry
they go by a different name. So even if they
were born and raised in the state, they're known as
Hawaii residents or else simply as locals. And that's something
(03:43):
we'll try to keep in mind today, right And that
just thinks you will actually come in handy for this
next part, because I do want to circle back to
these Hawaiian shirts for for just a minute. You know,
despite Tristan's best effort, there's no denying that colorful Hawaiian
shirts were Aloha shirts as they're sometimes called there, widely
viewed by many as tacky, and I mean, they've even
(04:03):
kind of become this visual shorthand for the stereotype of,
you know, the crass, clueless tourists. But I was looking
into the history of these wearable postcards as one marketer
call them, and it turns out the shirts do have
some connections to the long standing cultural traditions. It's just
not quite Hawaii's. Yeah, I was gonna say it didn't.
Most Polynesian voyagers skip the whole shirt thing entirely, Like
(04:26):
it'd be hard to imagine them wearing long flowing shirts
while hopping from island to island. Yeah. So the real
story is that back in the eight eighties, American plantation
owners had already settled into the still sovereign Kingdom of Hawaii,
and as their grip on the local economy extended, these
plantation owners started recruiting low wage laborers, mostly from Asian countries,
(04:47):
and the majority of this influx was made up of
Japanese immigrants, and the brightly colored kimonos that they brought
with them actually served as the foundation for what would
later become the Hawaiian shirt. But actually, the Japanese culture
isn't the only influence. You've got the Chinese immigrants that
we're bringing these colorful silks. You had the Filipino families
that were adding a more relaxed look to the mix
(05:09):
by introducing to the islands these kind of these long
tunics that are traditionally worn untucked. So do the shirts
actually have any native Hawaiian influence at all? Like, what
about those patterns? So, as the islands became more and
more dominated by sugar and pineapple plantation, native fashion really
had to adapt to life in the fields. So while
most Hawaiians had still worn clothes made from lightweight tappa
(05:31):
cloth prior to the eighteen hundreds, now they needed something
more durable, and so the solution was a new kind
of fabric that had been introduced by the British and
American soldiers. And it was this kind of this blue
and white checker denim that the natives took to calling polaca,
and that's the Hawaiian word for frock. The natives put
their own spin on it as well. I mean they
cut off the shirt tails and gave the polacca a
(05:54):
straight hymn so it could be worn outside the pants. Okay,
So now I guess we have most the characteristics in place, right, Like,
like we've got these loose fitting shirts, they're worn on tucked,
and they're also made out of bright, silky, colorful fabrics.
I guess yeah, that's right. And so the only thing
left to do was shorten the sleeves and liven up
the patterns. And that's exactly what a University of Hawaiian
(06:17):
student named Gordon Young did back in the nineteen twenties,
or at least that's what his mother's dressmaker did. Apparently
she worked with Gordon to develop specially tailored shirts from
out of cotton Yukota cloth, and that's the fabric typically
used to make kimonos. Now. These custom shirts were mostly
white with black or blue patterns depicting bamboo stalks or
geometric patterns. So you know, think of these as the
(06:39):
forerunner of the prototype for the gaudier Hawaiian shirts that
we know today. And so from their Hawaii resident Taylor's
picked up on the new fashion in the thirties and
it really began to popularize these Hawaiian shirts or aloha
sports where and they were using the same kimono material
that Gordon had used. But you're skipping the important parts,
like what about pineapple prints. Well, you know, for those
(07:03):
brighter colors and tropical prints, we have to look to
artists like Elsie Das And in nineteen thirty six, she
was commissioned by a local store to create these fifteen
original Hawaiian prints to be used on a new batch
of Aloha shirts. And then you had other artists that
followed her lead and also started drawing inspiration from the
islands where they lived, and so pretty soon Hawaiian shirts
(07:24):
started to look a lot more tropical. Actually, I found
this great article on the subject by an author named
Dale Hope, and as he explained, Elsie and others started
to create their own designs, substituting what had traditionally been
Japanese style motifs and prints on the imported fabrics. Diamond
head was substituted for Mount Fuji, Japanese pine trees changed
(07:45):
to coconut trees, and thatched huts with ocean scenes and surfers,
fish and flowers replaced bamboo. Well, I mean that description
definitely makes the whole wearable postcards thing ring true, right,
and since tourists are the buying postcards, it does make
sense that the shirts would play best in that crowd.
I am curious, though, what do natives and locals think
(08:07):
about them, because I imagine there's some mixed feelings over
something that, on the one hand, has very little to
do with Hawaiian culture, but on the other still brings
in tons of revenue for the islands. Yeah, it definitely does.
And and for the most part, I think you're right
about those mixed feelings. I mean, the kind of you know,
making lemons into lemonade mindset. It is really something that
pops up throughout Hawaiian history, and part of that's the
(08:29):
nature of colonization in general. But it's also just being
an island civilization. You know, the visitors are constantly coming
and going and kind of shaping and reshaping bits of
culture along the way. So when it comes to the
Hawaiian shirt, there was some pushback eventually. Actually, at one
point the shirts were completely banned for employees of Hawaii City, state,
and federal offices, and even from banks and a lot
(08:52):
of corporate offices. And the thing was that the laid
back shirts would promote sloppiness at work. So I'm guessing
casual fridays on a thing in hawai It's funny that
you mentioned that, because I actually read about this big
push in the sixties from Honolulu's fashion industry, and it
was called Operation Liberation. It was basically a campaign to
overturn the ban and and get office workers in Hawaii
(09:13):
to start wearing lighter, more comfortable clothing, especially when you
think about that humid climate that they have there. And
so part of this centered on the Aloha shirts, and
in fact, some manufacturers even promoted the movement by giving
out two free shirts to every member of the state
Senate and House of Representatives. I like that. How did
this bribe actually work? It kind of did. Yeah, So
(09:35):
by nineteen sixty six, the government had relaxed its stance
and even began encouraging employees to wear the colorful shirts
on the last day of the work week, and these
were dubbed Aloha Fridays. Then, once word of the practice
spread to the rest of the States, it was given
a more continental name and casual Fridays were born. Oh
that's really amazing. So uh, if you don't mind, I
(09:55):
actually want to switch gears now and talk about a
product of the islands whose Hawaiian ru are a lot
more clear cut, and that's surfing. So the sport went
mainstream thanks largely to early twentieth century athletes like Duke
Khano Moku and he was a five time Olympic swimming
medalists who later became a surfing ambassador and that's when
he started giving surfing demonstrations along the Southern coast in
(10:17):
the nineteen tents. But while Duke is widely known as
the father of surfing today, his ancient ancestors in the
Polynesian Islands actually practiced the sport long before him, and
to them it was much more than just a sport.
In the Hawaiian Islands, riding waves came to carry this
social and even religious importance. For example, when Hawaiian's found
a tree that they thought would make for good surfboards,
(10:39):
they would leave offerings that it's based before carving it up,
and surfers also sought the help of special priests called kahunas,
who would help them pray for choice waves and even
give thanks after surviving and especially nasty wipeout. That's pretty interesting,
but it was still a sport then, too, right, definitely,
so ancient wavesliders would compete against each other over stuff
like who could ride the fastest or farthest, or who
(11:02):
could catch the biggest wave, and everybody got in on it,
like all Hawaiians were free to surf, regardless of age, gender,
or even social class. But to be fair that there
was a little classes m when it came to the
kind of board you could ride, so most people wrote
these alia boards, which were pretty thin, they weren't too big,
and somewhat comparable to modern short boards. But then there
(11:22):
were also these ones called olo boards, and they were
these like humongous planks that only chieftains were allowed to use.
And honestly, I have no idea how they wrote these
things because olo boards were about twice as long as
today's long boards, which means, you know, um, they were
like eighteen to twenty feet on average. It's crazy. Oh
my god, just trying to imagine standing on something that's
(11:44):
eighteen feet long in the ocean. It's a I don't know,
I can't imagine doing that. But all right, So did
you get any sense for how old surfing is, because
it sounds like several centuries at least, right, So, nobody
knows for sure when this wave sledding got its start,
but the first written account of it goes back to
the seventeen seventies. Then it was clear even then that
the practice had already been around for a very long time.
(12:06):
In fact, I've read about this discovery a couple of
years back, where archaeologists uncovered a series of petroglyphs that
supposedly depict people's surfing, and the figures were carved into
sandstone along the coast of the island of Oahu, and
experts believe the markings are about four hundred years older,
so which is about two hundred years before Europeans first
made contact with Hawaii. All right, so there's no doubt
(12:28):
about it then. I mean, surfing is a true part
of native Hawaiian culture. And just to bring this full circle,
I actually learned while reading up on these aloha shirts
that they share the same point of origin with board shorts,
which is that polacca cotton stuff I mentioned earlier. And
in the early days of surf culture in the twentieth century,
the serious surfers would go to these specialty Japanese tailor
(12:48):
shops in Hawaii and they'd order these custom fitted shorts
made from polacca cotton. So, just like with the field
workers of old Hawaii, these surfers needed something comfortable yet durable,
and once again, paloca fit the bill. That's pretty cool,
and I know that a native Hawaiian would have their
own thoughts about this, but as an outsider, I do
really love how aspects of these different times in Hawaii's
(13:09):
history tend to overlap and blur in places. It's kind
of a testament to the people of why vote, to
their endurance and to their ability to sort of roll
with the punches in order to preserve what matters to them. Oh. Absolutely,
And I think another interesting example of that overlap is
in the folklore surrounding the islands themselves. Like take Pelee
for instance, as the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes, is the
(13:32):
subject of all sorts of legends. Some of them connect
with native Hawaiian mythology, and some of them are completely
made up just for the tourists. Well, I definitely want
to spend a few minutes dissecting which is wished. But
before we do, let's take a quick break. Welcome back
(14:00):
to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about the colorful,
the complicated history of Hawaii. So well, I, I know
you've got a bizarre modern legend about Pale that you're
itching to talk about, but first I did want to
share some of the real traditional folklore she's connected with.
For instance, did you know Pale can't stand pork products?
I can't say that I knew she had feelings for
(14:21):
them one way or other. But but what's the story here,
why does she not like pork? Well, this comes from
an old myth where Pale had a falling out with
one of her one time boyfriends. This guy come up
Poa and you know Kamapua right like, he's the Hawaiian
demigod who's half man half pig. Oh that kma Pa.
Sure of course I know, Okay, So appairly, when the
(14:41):
pair of split, Pale chased her old bow with a
lava flow until he's cornered on the windward side of Honolulu.
And then as the lava creeps closer, Kamapua lie down
on the ground and began to chant, and this causes
the earth and the trees to rise up and hold
back the lava until suddenly it rains and cools everything own.
So then Paley is like, all right, I guess I
(15:03):
can't kill you, So how about we just agree to
stay on separate sides of the island. And this sounds
great to come up Pua, So he settles into lush,
green windward side and Paley takes the dry, arid leeward
side fair enough. So so you're saying Pale is still
holding a grudge against swine because of this, so to
this day, like visitors are warned not to bring pork
(15:23):
over the Polly highway that connects the leeward side to
the windward side. And since Kamapua was part pig, hauling
pork is a symbolic way of bringing him back to
Paley's turf. And if you try to do that, Pale
will do her best to stop you, Like you might
be called away on some emergency, or your car could
break down along the way, or if an old woman
(15:43):
with a dog should appear during your journey. That's actually
Pale offering you an easy way to dispose of your
forbidden pork. You could just feed it to the hungry
pop and be on your way and then do kind
of like that. With all her fiery wrath, Plee still
can't stand the thought of people wasting pork. I mean, beyond,
she's a pretty considerate raffle deity in a way. Yeah,
it's pretty amazing. So if you're looking to get on
(16:06):
her good side, Pale apparently loves gin or any quality whiskey,
or at least that's what one longtime Hawaii resident said,
because for nearly forty years, this woman named Leatris tried
to keep the Mauna Loa volcano from erupting by routinely
tossing bottles of gin into it while flying in a
small charter plane. So this is what Leetrice told reporter
(16:26):
in the eighties. She said, quote, I've come to respect
Madam Pale. I have a feeling that she wants to drink.
I can't say my blame or given some of the
rumors people have spread about her. And actually, for instance
one of these, have you heard of Paley's curse? It's
this idea that the goddess will inflict bad luck on
any visitor who takes rock, sand, or other natural artifacts
(16:47):
from the Hawaiian islands. But while you're pale pork legend
got it start as a native Hawaiian tall tale. Pale's
curse is actually just this modern myth that was likely
started by a resentful park ranger. So and now that
you explained that, I actually do you remember reading something
about this for our park Ranger episode? Like it was
a warning they gave tourists to try and keep them
from taking home all these volcanic rocks as keepsakes, right, yeah,
(17:09):
that's the theory, although some people maintain it was actually
something that tour guides told visitors so they wouldn't drag
a bunch of rocks and sand onto their busses and
places like that. But regardless, the curse has been propagated
by guide books and travel websites, and this has gone
on for decades now, so so that hundreds of visitors
now send thousands of pounds of rocks back to Hawaii
(17:30):
every single year, just in an attempt to ease their
guilty consciences and reverse their bad fortune. I like that
once again, there's like an easy way to break the curse.
I feel like ple is just a big softie. Maybe so,
But you know, when the legend first started circulating in
the mid nineteen forties, there was no mention of returning
what you stole as a way to change your fortune.
(17:52):
And all that bit of wishful thinking was actually added
later by tourists who were just desperate for a way
to explain and and maybe fix the problems in their lives.
So now all these packages are frantically sent to Hawaiian
post offices and town halls, even directly to the Hawaii volcanoes.
National Park and a lot of the time the bits
of rock or sand. They're accompanied by these heartfelt letters
(18:15):
and they describe the bad luck that the senders hope
to undo. And some of the stuff is really heavy,
like you can find people writing about bounce of cancer
or divorce or jail time. And then you get these
other letters which are just hard not to laugh at,
Like I came across this one that reads, we won
the six hundred thousand dollar lottery. We would have won
the two million dollar lottery if it wasn't for this,
(18:36):
Please take the rocks back before more bad luck. I mean,
it does sound a bit like a double edged swords right, like,
on on one hand, some letters are probably gonna be
pretty entertaining or maybe even inspiring, But on the other hand, like,
how frustrating must it be to have to deal with
this endless dream of stolen rocks and apology letters from
guilty touris just coming your way? Oh totally it. But
(18:58):
you know, I do want to mention that even though
Pale's curses a modern invention it it does have some
roots in real Hawaiian mythology. I read this great piece
in Pacific Standard where they talked to the director of
the University of Hawaii at Manoahs Center for Hawaiian Studies,
and she helps trace some of the connections in this way.
She says, rocks in Hawaii have their own personalities, male
(19:20):
and female. They don't like to be disturbed. Rocks in
the volcano are made by Pele and they are kapu.
That is, they have a kind of sanctity, and it's
definitely bad luck to take them away from the volcano.
I mean, that's interesting. But in this case, if returning
the items doesn't break the curse, does that mean people
are just stuck with their bad luck of missing winning
(19:41):
the lottery by millions forever? But I wanted about that too,
and I actually found some pretty sage advice on the subject.
And this was from a retired historian at the University
of Hawaii, and she says, if you took a stone,
perhaps unknowingly or without meaning disrespect, I would recommend a
ceremony rather than sending the rocks back, just say release
me from this kapu. Just let it go. Well, that's
(20:04):
definitely a better option and a cheaper one than mailing
rocks to park rangers. But you know, given the way
Hawaii became a state in the first place. There is
something sort of ironic about sending back the stolen pieces
of Hawaii back to you know, this island that was
taken away from the people. Yeah, I know what you mean.
And without getting to dour, I do think we should
address the elephant in the room and and talk a
(20:24):
little bit about Hawaii became part of the US to
begin with, because this year actually marks the hundred and
twenty fifth anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Now,
prior to that time, Hawaii was recognized internationally as a
sovereign nation, and it was under the rule of Queen
Lily Okolani, and she had inherited the throne from her
brother just two years earlier. But Hawaii's fertile volcanic soil
(20:47):
and close proximity of the States had long made at
this tempting target for a coup. Still, the Hawaiian Kingdom
might have been able to maintain its sovereignty if not
for interference from Sanford Dole and his fellow American businessmen.
I know this is crazy to think about it because
for anyone wondering, yes, this is Sanford Dol as in
the Dole Food Company, or you might know him as
the world famous pineapple producers. But he and other American
(21:10):
plantation owners were making a killing in Hawaii already, and
that was thanks to their enormous crops of sugar and
coffee and pineapples there. But as a way to exert
even more control of the kingdom, Dole partnered with these
other businessmen and lawyers to form what they called the
Hawaiian League, and in seven the group sent this armed
militia to David Kalakaua, the king of Hawaii at the time,
(21:33):
and this was at gunpoint. The king was actually forced
to sign the Bayonet Constitution, which transferred most of the
monarchy's power to the legislature, which is a ruling body
whose elections were already being rigged to favor non Hawaiians.
And a few years later, when Lilio Kulani took the throne,
she actually refused to honor the Bayonet agreement and instead
tried to build support for a new constitution, one that
(21:56):
we returned power to the monarchy, which you know, of course,
as thing Dole and the other American businessmen were not
happy about. And so that's why in January of eightee,
this so called Committee of Safety. It was led by Dole,
and they gathered and wait near the Queen's palace. Soon
they were joined by three hundred marines from the USS
Boston and they've been called in to protect Dole's committee
(22:18):
by the U S Minister of Hawaii. And it was
a really pivotal move. So the action provided this tacit
approval for the coup from the US government, and it
also left Queen Lily Okolani with no choice but to
surrender in order to avoid outright war. Yeah, and the
part that always gets me is that she never gave
up hope that the US government would come to its
senses and recognize her as Hawaii's constitutional monarch, but of
(22:41):
course that never happened. So the president at the time
was Benjamin Harrison, and he was all for annexing the
Hawaiian Islands after the coup, and although Grover Cleveland objected
to the whole affair, once he took office, he actually
failed to stop this takeover of Hawaii. He did recommend
the queen be restored to her throne, but congres US
ultimately rejected the proposal and instead Sanford dol took control
(23:03):
of the illegal provisional government that he helped install in Hawaii.
He even declared himself the de facto president of what
he started to call the Republic of Hawaii. Yeah, the
whole thing is really bizarre, and especially when you consider
the rest of the world was watching as this unfolded,
and you know, even our own president admitted that the
takeover had been illegal. I mean, listen to these lines
from an account President Cleveland later wrote of this whole ordeal.
(23:26):
He said, the provisional government owes its existence to an
armed invasion by the United States by an act of war.
A substantial wrong has been done. It is wild to
hear that and to know that nothing was ever done
to fix it, and in fact, just the opposite, because
it was the administration right after Cleveland that declared Hawaii
US territory, and of course, about sixty years later it
(23:48):
officially became the fiftieth state. But before we get into
any of that or the amazing ways Hawaii and the
US have influenced each other, let's take a quick break. Okay, Well,
(24:11):
so give us the bad news. Who else is colonized
Hawaii besides of the Americans? All right, Well, it's not
so much who else as it is what else, Because
despite the fact that the islands are over two thousand
miles from the nearest continent, they've actually been colonized over
and over throughout history. It's just that most of the
time it's far flung plants and animals doing the colonizing
and not humans. And so the net result of this
(24:34):
is bio diversity beyond your wildest dreams, but sometimes at
the sad cost of the island's own indigenous species. Yeah.
I remember hearing some stats about how many indangered species
there are in Hawaiian The numbers were pretty insane, Like
when you added up all the plants and animals and
insects on the list, it was something like five d
different endangered species just in Hawaii. Yeah. I was looking
(24:55):
at some of those numbers on Hawaii dot gov, and
according to the state's Forestry on Wildlife Division, the islands
contain roughly forty of our entire countries endangered and threatened
plant species. And that's despite the fact that Hawaii accounts
for less than one percent of the total land mass
in the US. I mean, it really points to just
how frequently foreign species have muscled their way into the
(25:17):
Hawaiian ecosystem, not to mention the domino effect damage that
sometimes causes for other species. It's it's really a pretty
tricky problem, no kidding. Like, did you hear about this
invasive species of tiny frogs called the cookie? Apparently the
little guys are wreaking havoc on Hawaii's Big Island. I
guess their native to Puerto Rico, but scientists think a
few found their way over in the nineteen eighties, probably
(25:39):
by hiding out in some potted plants. Anyway, they've just
exploded ever since because there aren't any natural predators to
help control of the population. And in fact, one study
reported that the cokey population in Hawaii is now three
times greater than the one in Puerto Rico, which means
there are now between ten thousand and fifty thousand frogs
per acre on the Big Island. Good lord, I mean
(26:02):
that's like plague level amount of frogs. All right. So,
just to play Devil's advocate on this, like, let's assume
that I love the idea of having frogs absolutely everywhere,
So is there another downside of this? Well, for one thing,
the thriving frogs and put a serious damp around the
islands once plentiful bug population, including a few of those
endangered species we've been talking about, And some biologists are
(26:25):
even worried that the lack of bugs could cause native
bird species to starve. And of course there's also the
fact that the frogs are driving down property values, which
is always a nuisance for humans. Bit it sounds like
these things are pretty much everywhere. Like are they decreasing
property values all over the island? I mean, because remember
I love frogs everywhere, so condos on the coast are
(26:45):
going for super cheap prices. I actually might need to
look into this well before you sign any das you
should probably know one other thing about cookie frogs, and
that's that, despite the fact that they're only about the
size of a quarter, they constantly emit this high pitched
i that can reach up to ninety decibels, which is
about the volume of a lawnmower or a motorcycle that's
a few yards away. Yeah, and it's actually where the
(27:08):
frogs get their name cookie. Like the annoying sound that
they make sounds a lot like cocyte. So in areas
that are overrun with frogs, the property values are taking
a big hit, and it's because everybody knows that whoever
winds up living there is never going to get a
good night's sleep. Again, you did such a great impression
of their noise. It sounds just like cokeye, except higher pitch.
(27:28):
I think, right, right, that does sound like a nightmare,
Like are the locals doing anything to combat the problem
or if they just kind of thrown the towel in. Yeah,
I mean people used to hunt them back when the
problem first started to kind of try to control it,
and this was around the mid two thousand's, but it
quickly became clear that that was never going to work,
and nowadays most people concentrate on containing the frogs to
(27:51):
certain areas and try to prevent them from expanding deeper
into the rainforest. And apparently there's also a contingent of
folks who try to catch the cokie and ship them
back to Puerto Rico, but again it's kind of a
losing battle. Yeah, you might be right about that, because
you know, the frog troubles actually sound a lot like
another case I read about. This is over on the
island of Kauai. Apparently the whole place is just loaded
(28:13):
with these feral chickens, and scientists say it's probably because
of Hurricane and Nikki. The storm tore through Kauai, and
in the process it also released a ton of chickens
from people's backyard coops, and these domestic birds fled to
the islands dense forest, and they reverted back to this
wild state and began mating with remnants of Kawai's Polynesian
(28:35):
jungle foul population. And again, due to the lack of
natural predators, the chickens thrive to the point that there
were thousands and thousands of them spread all over the island. Well,
I'm delighted by the idea of a chicken island, But
how do their residents feel about this? Well, they were
more than a little bit annoyed at first, and especially
when they realized that the chickens seemed to lack all
(28:57):
sense of time and which just randomly crow at all
hours of the day, though not at the ninety deciples, thankfully.
But you know, just like with the frogs, people eventually
grew to accept them as a fact of life. It's
actually kind of that same lemonade from Lemon's mentality that
we talked about earlier with the Hawaiian shirts and other things,
but like, having chickens all over the place isn't ideal.
(29:18):
I mean, they're loud and they're dirty, but on the
bright side, they keep harmful pest in line and the
tourists are completely charmed by these wildfowl running around, So
you know, the locals will describe the chickens is everything
from beautiful birds to these god awful rats with wings,
and everybody can at least agree that they're great for
moving merchandise. Though, can I just say that, while I
(29:38):
totally get how annoying it would be to have some
island hopping animal running buck your ecosystem, like I do
like the idea that these different islands of different animals
associated with them, Yeah, I mean annoyances aside. I think
it is fun that certain islands are just completely stocked
with their own signature animals, Like the Big Island is
the Frog Kingdom, Kauai is the Chicken Coast, and there's
(29:59):
also Lena, which is this tiny Hawaiian island that boasts
a population of I think it's only about three thousand people,
but it's also home to four or five hundred feral cats.
You know, while being stranded on a tiny island teeming
with feral cats sounds like pretty much the worst thing
imaginable to me. I can still appreciate the fact that
it exists, you know, as long as I'm far far
(30:20):
away from it. So, you know, we we've talked a
lot about colonizing species that have made themselves at home
on the islands, but I do want to shift the
focus back to the native side of things and talk
just a little bit about the Hawaiian parrot fish. You mean,
these are the creepy fish with the beaks, right, So
maybe it's not the best poster boy for the islands,
but uh, you know, those islands wouldn't be the same
(30:42):
without the parrot fish, and more specifically, their prized beaches
would be little more than bare volcanic rock without parrot fish.
So why why is this the case? Okay, so this
probably won't win you over on parrot fish. But you
know those beak like teeth that you find off putting,
Well those are actually used in Norway at algae that
grow on coral, which happens to be the parrot fish's
(31:05):
favorite snack. And the problem is sometimes the fish accidentally
nibble off a piece of coral and wind up ingesting
its calcium carbonate by mistake, and because the parrot fish
can't digest the bulk of the substance, it eventually excretes
it as sand. Wait, so you're saying that's the sand
that winds up on Hawaii's beaches like that? There's no way,
I mean, how much sand could have fish possibly poop out?
(31:27):
So it's somewhere around eight pounds per fish per year
according to this. Yeah, this is according to a marine
biologist named lingong And in an interview for Why And,
she pointed out that quote. In places like Hawaii, where
we have very little terrestrial input of sand, almost all
of our sand is of biological origin. So I like
(31:48):
to tell people that sand you're standing on in Hawaii
has probably gone to the gut of something. It'll have
gone through the gut of a parrot fish, a sea urchin,
or some kind of worm. Well, I mean, strangely enough,
turning fish poop into beautiful sandy beaches. It does seem
like a pretty fitting metaphor for the Hawaiian approach to
all of its problems. Really, because while Native Hawaiians and
residents of Hawaii face their share of injustices and hardships
(32:11):
over the years, they've always managed to foster some of
the most vibrant cultures amidst some of the most stunning
environments in the world. And that alone makes me proud
that Hawaii is part of my country, even if you
know I'm not always thrilled about how it wound up
that way. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And also, don't forget,
Hawaii is the state that gave the world POGs, so
that alone makes it worthy of praise. So I'm not
(32:33):
so sure about your love of stackable cardboard circles, but um,
who knows, Maybe you can win me over with some
facts in the day's fact off. H alright, mango, So
I remember you were a big fan of the TV
show Hawaii five oh, or at least I like to
tell people that you were a fan of Hawaii five oh.
(32:54):
And many of our listeners may know this is where
referring to police as five oh comes from. But actually
didn't realize that the show was called Hawaii five oh
simply because Hawaii was the fiftieth state to join the country.
I don't know how this never occurred to me. I
know me either, So this is my fact. The seventh
largest island in Hawaii is owned by two guys and
(33:14):
they're actually brothers. They inherited it from their grandmother who
had purchased it from the Kingdom of Hawaii. And this
was way back in eighteen sixty four, around ten thousand
dollars in gold. Obviously that's a ton of money. But
these brothers still own it. And speaking of a ton
of money, the US has reportedly tried to buy back
the island from the brothers for about a billion dollars
(33:35):
and they've turned it down. God, that is a ton
of money. I think I would accept a billion dollars
if I owned an island, So I forget. Are you
a fan of Hawaiian pizza? Me too? Well, we've mentioned
this before, but it was invented in Canada by a
couple of Greek guys. But I feel like we need
to add a fact to that, and because you can
really never have enough good facts about Hawaiian pizza, and
(33:57):
that's the fact that it's the most popular style of
pizza in Australia that actually accounts for around of all
their pizza sales. So have you heard about the time
the US government burned two hundred million dollars in Hawaiian cash.
This was way back in the nineties, not long after
the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the US government started
worrying about what happened if Japan invaded Hawaii, and one
(34:20):
of the things they thought about was the money on
the islands. If Japan invade the island and then took
all the cash there, how would the government know where
the cash had come from when they decided to use it.
So to protect against this, the US actually recalled all
paper money in Hawaii and asked everyone to trade their
bills in for others that had the word Hawaii stamped
on it. So then what to do with that two
(34:42):
million dollars they've managed to collect from the people. They
actually decided to burn it, and they did this in
crematoriums and furnaces around the island, And only a tiny
number of the bills are still in circulation. But if
you manage to get your hands on a twenty dollar
Hawaii overprint bill from that time, it's actually worth about
four thousand dollars today. Wow, I've never heard that story before.
(35:05):
All right, so quick one here. Hawaii is the only U.
S state to have two official languages. You've got English
and Hawaii. Interestingly, the language only has thirteen letters and
every word ends with one of five vowels. So despite
consuming the most spam per capita, Hawaii has the longest
life expectancy of the fifty states at eighty one point
three years, and that edges Minnesota, which I guess makes
(35:28):
sense since they also invented spam. Oh wow, Yeah, it's
good connection there. What's amazing to me that the state
known as maybe having the most desirable weather is also
the state where the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation
Program decided to keep a crew in a bubble for
an entire year. Back in two thousand and sixteen, a
group of six crew members walked out of the Mars
(35:50):
simulator mission in Hawaii after a twelve month stay on
the slopes of Mount a Looa, the famous volcano. The
habitat is supposedly pretty martian like, or at least this
martian like as you can find in the States. And
I don't know, though, I feel like after a couple
of weeks there, I'd be like, I don't know, guys,
I'm headed out to the beach too much. Yeah, I
me too. But speaking of Hawaiian volcanoes, one of the
(36:12):
crazy geological features there that most people don't know about
is the icy underworld inside some of the volcanoes. So
these lava tubes can actually be found on Mauna Loa.
Because of their high elevation and the way the air circulates,
the perfect conditions for permanent ice are formed there. It's
just crazy to think about the hundreds of thousands of
people visiting each year to see the world's largest act
(36:33):
of volcano and having zero idea that under all that
rock you'd find ice tunnels. It's pretty cool, you know.
I don't know, Mango, just you using the phrase Earth's
pretty cool, you know. I feel like that. Uh, I
feel like that earns you the fact off. No matter
what you said, even though that is a really cool
facts I'm gonna give you today's fact off trophy. I
knew that would seal the deal. But thank you, well,
(36:55):
thank you guys so much for listening. I'm sure there
are some great facts about Hawaii that we didn't get
to include in today's episode. We'd love to hear those from.
You can always email as part time genius at how
stuff works dot com. You can always call us on
our seven fact hotline one eight four four pt Genius
or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. But thanks
so much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time
(37:29):
Genius is 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 mixy mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the
exact producer thing. Gabeluesier is our lead researcher, with support
from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and
Lucas Adams and Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to
(37:51):
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. Do we do we forget you? Jason who
Guess what, mengo, what's that? Well, so, you, of course
remember back in our Mental Floss days, and actually this
was our very early Mental Floss days, we did this
issue called the Most Important Questions in the History of
the Universe. I mean, how can I forget Like, we
answered some of the biggest, most important, most life changing
questions in the history of the universe, like uh, can
a pregnant women drive in a carpool lane? Or is
(00:22):
there most effective move in Rock paper scissors? It was
really important. Yeah, honestly, I don't know how the world
lived without knowing these answers. But one of the other
reader questions that we answered was why does Hawaii have
interstate highways? Because you know, as cool as it may
sound to be able to drive across the ocean to
one of the Hawaiian islands, that's not possible obviously. As
(00:42):
it turns out, this goes back to the Eisenhower days
and specifically the Dwight D. Eisenhower system of interstate and
National Defense highways, and this is when the funding came
to build Hawaii's interstates H one, H two, and H three,
and they were largely built as a way to move
supplies between military bases more easily, so the interstate designation
was really just a way to recognize that the roads
(01:03):
had been built from federal funding. I mean, Hawaii is
such an interesting history, and I've had so many other questions.
I've really been looking forward to this episode. Yeah, it
definitely is, and it's one of those places we think
we know more about than we actually do. So in
today's episode, we're gonna talk about some of why he's
fascinating history. We'll talk about some of the origins of
several things we associate with Hawaii, and share some facts
(01:26):
about the islands beyond just the beautiful beaches. So let's
dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
(01:53):
I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my
good friend Manes Ticketer and on the other side of
the soundproof blast. It is actually kind of hard to
look at rocking the loudest Hawaiian shirt I think I
have ever seen. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil.
It is truly a stunning amount of parents for a
single shirt, and for everybody listening, I do want to
(02:14):
point out that Will did use air quotes just now
when he said Hawaiian shirt, just so you know, yeah,
trust me, I'm well aware that most people in Hawaii
tend to wear way fewer parrot shirts than Tristan does.
But this actually goes back to something I noticed while
doing research for today's show, and that's how so many
of the things people associate with Hawaii, you know, the
tropical shirts, ukulele music, pineapples. I mean, He's really have
(02:37):
more to do with the foreign influence of the colonialists
and other outsiders than they do with native Hawaiian culture.
And that's what got me thinking it'd be fun to
take a closer look at some of the most iconic
aspects of Hawaiian really try to get a sense of
where they came from. Now, that way we can get
past the touristy conceptions of Hawaii is this dream vacation
spot or real life garden of Eden, and and learn
(03:00):
more about what life on these islands is really like. Definitely, So,
so to start, I think we should give a quick
look on terms for how we'll be talking about the
people who live in Hawaii, because it's actually a little
trickier than it is for other states. Like I'm a
Georgian and you're an Alabamian, and that's just because of
where we live. But in Hawaii, the term Hawaiian is
(03:20):
generally reserved for people of native Hawaiian ancestry. In other words,
it's those people who descended from the indigenous people who
migrated to the islands from Polynesia over a thousand years ago.
And today people in Hawaii who don't share that ancestry
they go by a different name. So even if they
were born and raised in the state, they're known as
Hawaii residents or else simply as locals. And that's something
(03:43):
we'll try to keep in mind today, right And that
just thinks you will actually come in handy for this
next part, because I do want to circle back to
these Hawaiian shirts for for just a minute. You know,
despite Tristan's best effort, there's no denying that colorful Hawaiian
shirts were Aloha shirts as they're sometimes called there, widely
viewed by many as tacky, and I mean, they've even
(04:03):
kind of become this visual shorthand for the stereotype of,
you know, the crass, clueless tourists. But I was looking
into the history of these wearable postcards as one marketer
call them, and it turns out the shirts do have
some connections to the long standing cultural traditions. It's just
not quite Hawaii's. Yeah, I was gonna say it didn't.
Most Polynesian voyagers skip the whole shirt thing entirely, Like
(04:26):
it'd be hard to imagine them wearing long flowing shirts
while hopping from island to island. Yeah. So the real
story is that back in the eight eighties, American plantation
owners had already settled into the still sovereign Kingdom of Hawaii,
and as their grip on the local economy extended, these
plantation owners started recruiting low wage laborers, mostly from Asian countries,
(04:47):
and the majority of this influx was made up of
Japanese immigrants, and the brightly colored kimonos that they brought
with them actually served as the foundation for what would
later become the Hawaiian shirt. But actually, the Japanese culture
isn't the only influence. You've got the Chinese immigrants that
we're bringing these colorful silks. You had the Filipino families
that were adding a more relaxed look to the mix
(05:09):
by introducing to the islands these kind of these long
tunics that are traditionally worn untucked. So do the shirts
actually have any native Hawaiian influence at all? Like, what
about those patterns? So, as the islands became more and
more dominated by sugar and pineapple plantation, native fashion really
had to adapt to life in the fields. So while
most Hawaiians had still worn clothes made from lightweight tappa
(05:31):
cloth prior to the eighteen hundreds, now they needed something
more durable, and so the solution was a new kind
of fabric that had been introduced by the British and
American soldiers. And it was this kind of this blue
and white checker denim that the natives took to calling polaca,
and that's the Hawaiian word for frock. The natives put
their own spin on it as well. I mean they
cut off the shirt tails and gave the polacca a
(05:54):
straight hymn so it could be worn outside the pants. Okay,
So now I guess we have most the characteristics in place, right, Like,
like we've got these loose fitting shirts, they're worn on tucked,
and they're also made out of bright, silky, colorful fabrics.
I guess yeah, that's right. And so the only thing
left to do was shorten the sleeves and liven up
the patterns. And that's exactly what a University of Hawaiian
(06:17):
student named Gordon Young did back in the nineteen twenties,
or at least that's what his mother's dressmaker did. Apparently
she worked with Gordon to develop specially tailored shirts from
out of cotton Yukota cloth, and that's the fabric typically
used to make kimonos. Now. These custom shirts were mostly
white with black or blue patterns depicting bamboo stalks or
geometric patterns. So you know, think of these as the
(06:39):
forerunner of the prototype for the gaudier Hawaiian shirts that
we know today. And so from their Hawaii resident Taylor's
picked up on the new fashion in the thirties and
it really began to popularize these Hawaiian shirts or aloha
sports where and they were using the same kimono material
that Gordon had used. But you're skipping the important parts,
like what about pineapple prints. Well, you know, for those
(07:03):
brighter colors and tropical prints, we have to look to
artists like Elsie Das And in nineteen thirty six, she
was commissioned by a local store to create these fifteen
original Hawaiian prints to be used on a new batch
of Aloha shirts. And then you had other artists that
followed her lead and also started drawing inspiration from the
islands where they lived, and so pretty soon Hawaiian shirts
(07:24):
started to look a lot more tropical. Actually, I found
this great article on the subject by an author named
Dale Hope, and as he explained, Elsie and others started
to create their own designs, substituting what had traditionally been
Japanese style motifs and prints on the imported fabrics. Diamond
head was substituted for Mount Fuji, Japanese pine trees changed
(07:45):
to coconut trees, and thatched huts with ocean scenes and surfers,
fish and flowers replaced bamboo. Well, I mean that description
definitely makes the whole wearable postcards thing ring true, right,
and since tourists are the buying postcards, it does make
sense that the shirts would play best in that crowd.
I am curious, though, what do natives and locals think
(08:07):
about them, because I imagine there's some mixed feelings over
something that, on the one hand, has very little to
do with Hawaiian culture, but on the other still brings
in tons of revenue for the islands. Yeah, it definitely does.
And and for the most part, I think you're right
about those mixed feelings. I mean, the kind of you know,
making lemons into lemonade mindset. It is really something that
pops up throughout Hawaiian history, and part of that's the
(08:29):
nature of colonization in general. But it's also just being
an island civilization. You know, the visitors are constantly coming
and going and kind of shaping and reshaping bits of
culture along the way. So when it comes to the
Hawaiian shirt, there was some pushback eventually. Actually, at one
point the shirts were completely banned for employees of Hawaii City, state,
and federal offices, and even from banks and a lot
(08:52):
of corporate offices. And the thing was that the laid
back shirts would promote sloppiness at work. So I'm guessing
casual fridays on a thing in hawai It's funny that
you mentioned that, because I actually read about this big
push in the sixties from Honolulu's fashion industry, and it
was called Operation Liberation. It was basically a campaign to
overturn the ban and and get office workers in Hawaii
(09:13):
to start wearing lighter, more comfortable clothing, especially when you
think about that humid climate that they have there. And
so part of this centered on the Aloha shirts, and
in fact, some manufacturers even promoted the movement by giving
out two free shirts to every member of the state
Senate and House of Representatives. I like that. How did
this bribe actually work? It kind of did. Yeah, So
(09:35):
by nineteen sixty six, the government had relaxed its stance
and even began encouraging employees to wear the colorful shirts
on the last day of the work week, and these
were dubbed Aloha Fridays. Then, once word of the practice
spread to the rest of the States, it was given
a more continental name and casual Fridays were born. Oh
that's really amazing. So uh, if you don't mind, I
(09:55):
actually want to switch gears now and talk about a
product of the islands whose Hawaiian ru are a lot
more clear cut, and that's surfing. So the sport went
mainstream thanks largely to early twentieth century athletes like Duke
Khano Moku and he was a five time Olympic swimming
medalists who later became a surfing ambassador and that's when
he started giving surfing demonstrations along the Southern coast in
(10:17):
the nineteen tents. But while Duke is widely known as
the father of surfing today, his ancient ancestors in the
Polynesian Islands actually practiced the sport long before him, and
to them it was much more than just a sport.
In the Hawaiian Islands, riding waves came to carry this
social and even religious importance. For example, when Hawaiian's found
a tree that they thought would make for good surfboards,
(10:39):
they would leave offerings that it's based before carving it up,
and surfers also sought the help of special priests called kahunas,
who would help them pray for choice waves and even
give thanks after surviving and especially nasty wipeout. That's pretty interesting,
but it was still a sport then, too, right, definitely,
so ancient wavesliders would compete against each other over stuff
like who could ride the fastest or farthest, or who
(11:02):
could catch the biggest wave, and everybody got in on it,
like all Hawaiians were free to surf, regardless of age, gender,
or even social class. But to be fair that there
was a little classes m when it came to the
kind of board you could ride, so most people wrote
these alia boards, which were pretty thin, they weren't too big,
and somewhat comparable to modern short boards. But then there
(11:22):
were also these ones called olo boards, and they were
these like humongous planks that only chieftains were allowed to use.
And honestly, I have no idea how they wrote these
things because olo boards were about twice as long as
today's long boards, which means, you know, um, they were
like eighteen to twenty feet on average. It's crazy. Oh
my god, just trying to imagine standing on something that's
(11:44):
eighteen feet long in the ocean. It's a I don't know,
I can't imagine doing that. But all right, So did
you get any sense for how old surfing is, because
it sounds like several centuries at least, right, So, nobody
knows for sure when this wave sledding got its start,
but the first written account of it goes back to
the seventeen seventies. Then it was clear even then that
the practice had already been around for a very long time.
(12:06):
In fact, I've read about this discovery a couple of
years back, where archaeologists uncovered a series of petroglyphs that
supposedly depict people's surfing, and the figures were carved into
sandstone along the coast of the island of Oahu, and
experts believe the markings are about four hundred years older,
so which is about two hundred years before Europeans first
made contact with Hawaii. All right, so there's no doubt
(12:28):
about it then. I mean, surfing is a true part
of native Hawaiian culture. And just to bring this full circle,
I actually learned while reading up on these aloha shirts
that they share the same point of origin with board shorts,
which is that polacca cotton stuff I mentioned earlier. And
in the early days of surf culture in the twentieth century,
the serious surfers would go to these specialty Japanese tailor
(12:48):
shops in Hawaii and they'd order these custom fitted shorts
made from polacca cotton. So, just like with the field
workers of old Hawaii, these surfers needed something comfortable yet durable,
and once again, paloca fit the bill. That's pretty cool,
and I know that a native Hawaiian would have their
own thoughts about this, but as an outsider, I do
really love how aspects of these different times in Hawaii's
(13:09):
history tend to overlap and blur in places. It's kind
of a testament to the people of why vote, to
their endurance and to their ability to sort of roll
with the punches in order to preserve what matters to them. Oh. Absolutely,
And I think another interesting example of that overlap is
in the folklore surrounding the islands themselves. Like take Pelee
for instance, as the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes, is the
(13:32):
subject of all sorts of legends. Some of them connect
with native Hawaiian mythology, and some of them are completely
made up just for the tourists. Well, I definitely want
to spend a few minutes dissecting which is wished. But
before we do, let's take a quick break. Welcome back
(14:00):
to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about the colorful,
the complicated history of Hawaii. So well, I, I know
you've got a bizarre modern legend about Pale that you're
itching to talk about, but first I did want to
share some of the real traditional folklore she's connected with.
For instance, did you know Pale can't stand pork products?
I can't say that I knew she had feelings for
(14:21):
them one way or other. But but what's the story here,
why does she not like pork? Well, this comes from
an old myth where Pale had a falling out with
one of her one time boyfriends. This guy come up
Poa and you know Kamapua right like, he's the Hawaiian
demigod who's half man half pig. Oh that kma Pa.
Sure of course I know, Okay, So appairly, when the
(14:41):
pair of split, Pale chased her old bow with a
lava flow until he's cornered on the windward side of Honolulu.
And then as the lava creeps closer, Kamapua lie down
on the ground and began to chant, and this causes
the earth and the trees to rise up and hold
back the lava until suddenly it rains and cools everything own.
So then Paley is like, all right, I guess I
(15:03):
can't kill you, So how about we just agree to
stay on separate sides of the island. And this sounds
great to come up Pua, So he settles into lush,
green windward side and Paley takes the dry, arid leeward
side fair enough. So so you're saying Pale is still
holding a grudge against swine because of this, so to
this day, like visitors are warned not to bring pork
(15:23):
over the Polly highway that connects the leeward side to
the windward side. And since Kamapua was part pig, hauling
pork is a symbolic way of bringing him back to
Paley's turf. And if you try to do that, Pale
will do her best to stop you, Like you might
be called away on some emergency, or your car could
break down along the way, or if an old woman
(15:43):
with a dog should appear during your journey. That's actually
Pale offering you an easy way to dispose of your
forbidden pork. You could just feed it to the hungry
pop and be on your way and then do kind
of like that. With all her fiery wrath, Plee still
can't stand the thought of people wasting pork. I mean, beyond,
she's a pretty considerate raffle deity in a way. Yeah,
it's pretty amazing. So if you're looking to get on
(16:06):
her good side, Pale apparently loves gin or any quality whiskey,
or at least that's what one longtime Hawaii resident said,
because for nearly forty years, this woman named Leatris tried
to keep the Mauna Loa volcano from erupting by routinely
tossing bottles of gin into it while flying in a
small charter plane. So this is what Leetrice told reporter
(16:26):
in the eighties. She said, quote, I've come to respect
Madam Pale. I have a feeling that she wants to drink.
I can't say my blame or given some of the
rumors people have spread about her. And actually, for instance
one of these, have you heard of Paley's curse? It's
this idea that the goddess will inflict bad luck on
any visitor who takes rock, sand, or other natural artifacts
(16:47):
from the Hawaiian islands. But while you're pale pork legend
got it start as a native Hawaiian tall tale. Pale's
curse is actually just this modern myth that was likely
started by a resentful park ranger. So and now that
you explained that, I actually do you remember reading something
about this for our park Ranger episode? Like it was
a warning they gave tourists to try and keep them
from taking home all these volcanic rocks as keepsakes, right, yeah,
(17:09):
that's the theory, although some people maintain it was actually
something that tour guides told visitors so they wouldn't drag
a bunch of rocks and sand onto their busses and
places like that. But regardless, the curse has been propagated
by guide books and travel websites, and this has gone
on for decades now, so so that hundreds of visitors
now send thousands of pounds of rocks back to Hawaii
(17:30):
every single year, just in an attempt to ease their
guilty consciences and reverse their bad fortune. I like that
once again, there's like an easy way to break the curse.
I feel like ple is just a big softie. Maybe so,
But you know, when the legend first started circulating in
the mid nineteen forties, there was no mention of returning
what you stole as a way to change your fortune.
(17:52):
And all that bit of wishful thinking was actually added
later by tourists who were just desperate for a way
to explain and and maybe fix the problems in their lives.
So now all these packages are frantically sent to Hawaiian
post offices and town halls, even directly to the Hawaii volcanoes.
National Park and a lot of the time the bits
of rock or sand. They're accompanied by these heartfelt letters
(18:15):
and they describe the bad luck that the senders hope
to undo. And some of the stuff is really heavy,
like you can find people writing about bounce of cancer
or divorce or jail time. And then you get these
other letters which are just hard not to laugh at,
Like I came across this one that reads, we won
the six hundred thousand dollar lottery. We would have won
the two million dollar lottery if it wasn't for this,
(18:36):
Please take the rocks back before more bad luck. I mean,
it does sound a bit like a double edged swords right, like,
on on one hand, some letters are probably gonna be
pretty entertaining or maybe even inspiring, But on the other hand, like,
how frustrating must it be to have to deal with
this endless dream of stolen rocks and apology letters from
guilty touris just coming your way? Oh totally it. But
(18:58):
you know, I do want to mention that even though
Pale's curses a modern invention it it does have some
roots in real Hawaiian mythology. I read this great piece
in Pacific Standard where they talked to the director of
the University of Hawaii at Manoahs Center for Hawaiian Studies,
and she helps trace some of the connections in this way.
She says, rocks in Hawaii have their own personalities, male
(19:20):
and female. They don't like to be disturbed. Rocks in
the volcano are made by Pele and they are kapu.
That is, they have a kind of sanctity, and it's
definitely bad luck to take them away from the volcano.
I mean, that's interesting. But in this case, if returning
the items doesn't break the curse, does that mean people
are just stuck with their bad luck of missing winning
(19:41):
the lottery by millions forever? But I wanted about that too,
and I actually found some pretty sage advice on the subject.
And this was from a retired historian at the University
of Hawaii, and she says, if you took a stone,
perhaps unknowingly or without meaning disrespect, I would recommend a
ceremony rather than sending the rocks back, just say release
me from this kapu. Just let it go. Well, that's
(20:04):
definitely a better option and a cheaper one than mailing
rocks to park rangers. But you know, given the way
Hawaii became a state in the first place. There is
something sort of ironic about sending back the stolen pieces
of Hawaii back to you know, this island that was
taken away from the people. Yeah, I know what you mean.
And without getting to dour, I do think we should
address the elephant in the room and and talk a
(20:24):
little bit about Hawaii became part of the US to
begin with, because this year actually marks the hundred and
twenty fifth anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Now,
prior to that time, Hawaii was recognized internationally as a
sovereign nation, and it was under the rule of Queen
Lily Okolani, and she had inherited the throne from her
brother just two years earlier. But Hawaii's fertile volcanic soil
(20:47):
and close proximity of the States had long made at
this tempting target for a coup. Still, the Hawaiian Kingdom
might have been able to maintain its sovereignty if not
for interference from Sanford Dole and his fellow American businessmen.
I know this is crazy to think about it because
for anyone wondering, yes, this is Sanford Dol as in
the Dole Food Company, or you might know him as
the world famous pineapple producers. But he and other American
(21:10):
plantation owners were making a killing in Hawaii already, and
that was thanks to their enormous crops of sugar and
coffee and pineapples there. But as a way to exert
even more control of the kingdom, Dole partnered with these
other businessmen and lawyers to form what they called the
Hawaiian League, and in seven the group sent this armed
militia to David Kalakaua, the king of Hawaii at the time,
(21:33):
and this was at gunpoint. The king was actually forced
to sign the Bayonet Constitution, which transferred most of the
monarchy's power to the legislature, which is a ruling body
whose elections were already being rigged to favor non Hawaiians.
And a few years later, when Lilio Kulani took the throne,
she actually refused to honor the Bayonet agreement and instead
tried to build support for a new constitution, one that
(21:56):
we returned power to the monarchy, which you know, of course,
as thing Dole and the other American businessmen were not
happy about. And so that's why in January of eightee,
this so called Committee of Safety. It was led by Dole,
and they gathered and wait near the Queen's palace. Soon
they were joined by three hundred marines from the USS
Boston and they've been called in to protect Dole's committee
(22:18):
by the U S Minister of Hawaii. And it was
a really pivotal move. So the action provided this tacit
approval for the coup from the US government, and it
also left Queen Lily Okolani with no choice but to
surrender in order to avoid outright war. Yeah, and the
part that always gets me is that she never gave
up hope that the US government would come to its
senses and recognize her as Hawaii's constitutional monarch, but of
(22:41):
course that never happened. So the president at the time
was Benjamin Harrison, and he was all for annexing the
Hawaiian Islands after the coup, and although Grover Cleveland objected
to the whole affair, once he took office, he actually
failed to stop this takeover of Hawaii. He did recommend
the queen be restored to her throne, but congres US
ultimately rejected the proposal and instead Sanford dol took control
(23:03):
of the illegal provisional government that he helped install in Hawaii.
He even declared himself the de facto president of what
he started to call the Republic of Hawaii. Yeah, the
whole thing is really bizarre, and especially when you consider
the rest of the world was watching as this unfolded,
and you know, even our own president admitted that the
takeover had been illegal. I mean, listen to these lines
from an account President Cleveland later wrote of this whole ordeal.
(23:26):
He said, the provisional government owes its existence to an
armed invasion by the United States by an act of war.
A substantial wrong has been done. It is wild to
hear that and to know that nothing was ever done
to fix it, and in fact, just the opposite, because
it was the administration right after Cleveland that declared Hawaii
US territory, and of course, about sixty years later it
(23:48):
officially became the fiftieth state. But before we get into
any of that or the amazing ways Hawaii and the
US have influenced each other, let's take a quick break. Okay, Well,
(24:11):
so give us the bad news. Who else is colonized
Hawaii besides of the Americans? All right, Well, it's not
so much who else as it is what else, Because
despite the fact that the islands are over two thousand
miles from the nearest continent, they've actually been colonized over
and over throughout history. It's just that most of the
time it's far flung plants and animals doing the colonizing
and not humans. And so the net result of this
(24:34):
is bio diversity beyond your wildest dreams, but sometimes at
the sad cost of the island's own indigenous species. Yeah.
I remember hearing some stats about how many indangered species
there are in Hawaiian The numbers were pretty insane, Like
when you added up all the plants and animals and
insects on the list, it was something like five d
different endangered species just in Hawaii. Yeah. I was looking
(24:55):
at some of those numbers on Hawaii dot gov, and
according to the state's Forestry on Wildlife Division, the islands
contain roughly forty of our entire countries endangered and threatened
plant species. And that's despite the fact that Hawaii accounts
for less than one percent of the total land mass
in the US. I mean, it really points to just
how frequently foreign species have muscled their way into the
(25:17):
Hawaiian ecosystem, not to mention the domino effect damage that
sometimes causes for other species. It's it's really a pretty
tricky problem, no kidding. Like, did you hear about this
invasive species of tiny frogs called the cookie? Apparently the
little guys are wreaking havoc on Hawaii's Big Island. I
guess their native to Puerto Rico, but scientists think a
few found their way over in the nineteen eighties, probably
(25:39):
by hiding out in some potted plants. Anyway, they've just
exploded ever since because there aren't any natural predators to
help control of the population. And in fact, one study
reported that the cokey population in Hawaii is now three
times greater than the one in Puerto Rico, which means
there are now between ten thousand and fifty thousand frogs
per acre on the Big Island. Good lord, I mean
(26:02):
that's like plague level amount of frogs. All right. So,
just to play Devil's advocate on this, like, let's assume
that I love the idea of having frogs absolutely everywhere,
So is there another downside of this? Well, for one thing,
the thriving frogs and put a serious damp around the
islands once plentiful bug population, including a few of those
endangered species we've been talking about, And some biologists are
(26:25):
even worried that the lack of bugs could cause native
bird species to starve. And of course there's also the
fact that the frogs are driving down property values, which
is always a nuisance for humans. Bit it sounds like
these things are pretty much everywhere. Like are they decreasing
property values all over the island? I mean, because remember
I love frogs everywhere, so condos on the coast are
(26:45):
going for super cheap prices. I actually might need to
look into this well before you sign any das you
should probably know one other thing about cookie frogs, and
that's that, despite the fact that they're only about the
size of a quarter, they constantly emit this high pitched
i that can reach up to ninety decibels, which is
about the volume of a lawnmower or a motorcycle that's
a few yards away. Yeah, and it's actually where the
(27:08):
frogs get their name cookie. Like the annoying sound that
they make sounds a lot like cocyte. So in areas
that are overrun with frogs, the property values are taking
a big hit, and it's because everybody knows that whoever
winds up living there is never going to get a
good night's sleep. Again, you did such a great impression
of their noise. It sounds just like cokeye, except higher pitch.
(27:28):
I think, right, right, that does sound like a nightmare,
Like are the locals doing anything to combat the problem
or if they just kind of thrown the towel in. Yeah,
I mean people used to hunt them back when the
problem first started to kind of try to control it,
and this was around the mid two thousand's, but it
quickly became clear that that was never going to work,
and nowadays most people concentrate on containing the frogs to
(27:51):
certain areas and try to prevent them from expanding deeper
into the rainforest. And apparently there's also a contingent of
folks who try to catch the cokie and ship them
back to Puerto Rico, but again it's kind of a
losing battle. Yeah, you might be right about that, because
you know, the frog troubles actually sound a lot like
another case I read about. This is over on the
island of Kauai. Apparently the whole place is just loaded
(28:13):
with these feral chickens, and scientists say it's probably because
of Hurricane and Nikki. The storm tore through Kauai, and
in the process it also released a ton of chickens
from people's backyard coops, and these domestic birds fled to
the islands dense forest, and they reverted back to this
wild state and began mating with remnants of Kawai's Polynesian
(28:35):
jungle foul population. And again, due to the lack of
natural predators, the chickens thrive to the point that there
were thousands and thousands of them spread all over the island. Well,
I'm delighted by the idea of a chicken island, But
how do their residents feel about this? Well, they were
more than a little bit annoyed at first, and especially
when they realized that the chickens seemed to lack all
(28:57):
sense of time and which just randomly crow at all
hours of the day, though not at the ninety deciples, thankfully.
But you know, just like with the frogs, people eventually
grew to accept them as a fact of life. It's
actually kind of that same lemonade from Lemon's mentality that
we talked about earlier with the Hawaiian shirts and other things,
but like, having chickens all over the place isn't ideal.
(29:18):
I mean, they're loud and they're dirty, but on the
bright side, they keep harmful pest in line and the
tourists are completely charmed by these wildfowl running around, So
you know, the locals will describe the chickens is everything
from beautiful birds to these god awful rats with wings,
and everybody can at least agree that they're great for
moving merchandise. Though, can I just say that, while I
(29:38):
totally get how annoying it would be to have some
island hopping animal running buck your ecosystem, like I do
like the idea that these different islands of different animals
associated with them, Yeah, I mean annoyances aside. I think
it is fun that certain islands are just completely stocked
with their own signature animals, Like the Big Island is
the Frog Kingdom, Kauai is the Chicken Coast, and there's
(29:59):
also Lena, which is this tiny Hawaiian island that boasts
a population of I think it's only about three thousand people,
but it's also home to four or five hundred feral cats.
You know, while being stranded on a tiny island teeming
with feral cats sounds like pretty much the worst thing
imaginable to me. I can still appreciate the fact that
it exists, you know, as long as I'm far far
(30:20):
away from it. So, you know, we we've talked a
lot about colonizing species that have made themselves at home
on the islands, but I do want to shift the
focus back to the native side of things and talk
just a little bit about the Hawaiian parrot fish. You mean,
these are the creepy fish with the beaks, right, So
maybe it's not the best poster boy for the islands,
but uh, you know, those islands wouldn't be the same
(30:42):
without the parrot fish, and more specifically, their prized beaches
would be little more than bare volcanic rock without parrot fish.
So why why is this the case? Okay, so this
probably won't win you over on parrot fish. But you
know those beak like teeth that you find off putting,
Well those are actually used in Norway at algae that
grow on coral, which happens to be the parrot fish's
(31:05):
favorite snack. And the problem is sometimes the fish accidentally
nibble off a piece of coral and wind up ingesting
its calcium carbonate by mistake, and because the parrot fish
can't digest the bulk of the substance, it eventually excretes
it as sand. Wait, so you're saying that's the sand
that winds up on Hawaii's beaches like that? There's no way,
I mean, how much sand could have fish possibly poop out?
(31:27):
So it's somewhere around eight pounds per fish per year
according to this. Yeah, this is according to a marine
biologist named lingong And in an interview for Why And,
she pointed out that quote. In places like Hawaii, where
we have very little terrestrial input of sand, almost all
of our sand is of biological origin. So I like
(31:48):
to tell people that sand you're standing on in Hawaii
has probably gone to the gut of something. It'll have
gone through the gut of a parrot fish, a sea urchin,
or some kind of worm. Well, I mean, strangely enough,
turning fish poop into beautiful sandy beaches. It does seem
like a pretty fitting metaphor for the Hawaiian approach to
all of its problems. Really, because while Native Hawaiians and
residents of Hawaii face their share of injustices and hardships
(32:11):
over the years, they've always managed to foster some of
the most vibrant cultures amidst some of the most stunning
environments in the world. And that alone makes me proud
that Hawaii is part of my country, even if you
know I'm not always thrilled about how it wound up
that way. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And also, don't forget,
Hawaii is the state that gave the world POGs, so
that alone makes it worthy of praise. So I'm not
(32:33):
so sure about your love of stackable cardboard circles, but um,
who knows, Maybe you can win me over with some
facts in the day's fact off. H alright, mango, So
I remember you were a big fan of the TV
show Hawaii five oh, or at least I like to
tell people that you were a fan of Hawaii five oh.
(32:54):
And many of our listeners may know this is where
referring to police as five oh comes from. But actually
didn't realize that the show was called Hawaii five oh
simply because Hawaii was the fiftieth state to join the country.
I don't know how this never occurred to me. I
know me either, So this is my fact. The seventh
largest island in Hawaii is owned by two guys and
(33:14):
they're actually brothers. They inherited it from their grandmother who
had purchased it from the Kingdom of Hawaii. And this
was way back in eighteen sixty four, around ten thousand
dollars in gold. Obviously that's a ton of money. But
these brothers still own it. And speaking of a ton
of money, the US has reportedly tried to buy back
the island from the brothers for about a billion dollars
(33:35):
and they've turned it down. God, that is a ton
of money. I think I would accept a billion dollars
if I owned an island, So I forget. Are you
a fan of Hawaiian pizza? Me too? Well, we've mentioned
this before, but it was invented in Canada by a
couple of Greek guys. But I feel like we need
to add a fact to that, and because you can
really never have enough good facts about Hawaiian pizza, and
(33:57):
that's the fact that it's the most popular style of
pizza in Australia that actually accounts for around of all
their pizza sales. So have you heard about the time
the US government burned two hundred million dollars in Hawaiian cash.
This was way back in the nineties, not long after
the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the US government started
worrying about what happened if Japan invaded Hawaii, and one
(34:20):
of the things they thought about was the money on
the islands. If Japan invade the island and then took
all the cash there, how would the government know where
the cash had come from when they decided to use it.
So to protect against this, the US actually recalled all
paper money in Hawaii and asked everyone to trade their
bills in for others that had the word Hawaii stamped
on it. So then what to do with that two
(34:42):
million dollars they've managed to collect from the people. They
actually decided to burn it, and they did this in
crematoriums and furnaces around the island, And only a tiny
number of the bills are still in circulation. But if
you manage to get your hands on a twenty dollar
Hawaii overprint bill from that time, it's actually worth about
four thousand dollars today. Wow, I've never heard that story before.
(35:05):
All right, so quick one here. Hawaii is the only U.
S state to have two official languages. You've got English
and Hawaii. Interestingly, the language only has thirteen letters and
every word ends with one of five vowels. So despite
consuming the most spam per capita, Hawaii has the longest
life expectancy of the fifty states at eighty one point
three years, and that edges Minnesota, which I guess makes
(35:28):
sense since they also invented spam. Oh wow, Yeah, it's
good connection there. What's amazing to me that the state
known as maybe having the most desirable weather is also
the state where the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation
Program decided to keep a crew in a bubble for
an entire year. Back in two thousand and sixteen, a
group of six crew members walked out of the Mars
(35:50):
simulator mission in Hawaii after a twelve month stay on
the slopes of Mount a Looa, the famous volcano. The
habitat is supposedly pretty martian like, or at least this
martian like as you can find in the States. And
I don't know, though, I feel like after a couple
of weeks there, I'd be like, I don't know, guys,
I'm headed out to the beach too much. Yeah, I
me too. But speaking of Hawaiian volcanoes, one of the
(36:12):
crazy geological features there that most people don't know about
is the icy underworld inside some of the volcanoes. So
these lava tubes can actually be found on Mauna Loa.
Because of their high elevation and the way the air circulates,
the perfect conditions for permanent ice are formed there. It's
just crazy to think about the hundreds of thousands of
people visiting each year to see the world's largest act
(36:33):
of volcano and having zero idea that under all that
rock you'd find ice tunnels. It's pretty cool, you know.
I don't know, Mango, just you using the phrase Earth's
pretty cool, you know. I feel like that. Uh, I
feel like that earns you the fact off. No matter
what you said, even though that is a really cool
facts I'm gonna give you today's fact off trophy. I
knew that would seal the deal. But thank you, well,
(36:55):
thank you guys so much for listening. I'm sure there
are some great facts about Hawaii that we didn't get
to include in today's episode. We'd love to hear those from.
You can always email as part time genius at how
stuff works dot com. You can always call us on
our seven fact hotline one eight four four pt Genius
or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. But thanks
so much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time
(37:29):
Genius is 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 mixy mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the
exact producer thing. Gabeluesier is our lead researcher, with support
from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and
Lucas Adams and Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to
(37:51):
your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like what you heard,
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