October 3, 2025 • 39 mins
We all know which day Garfield hates. But what’s the best day to avoid a bank robbery? And when can you get the freshest sushi? And why are there seven days in a week, anyway? Will and Mango dive into your calendars, and emerge with some pretty surprising answers. Featuring author Melissa Heckscher.
This episode originally aired on August 25, 2017.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, Mango?
Speaker 2 (00:00):
What's that will?
Speaker 3 (00:01):
So?
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I know I've told you about this before, but when
I was six or seven, I used to sneak into
my sister's room and listen to her latest albums on
her fancy double cassette playing Boom bofe. I have told
you about this, definitely, and she was in high school
at the time, so I was introduced to all the
important stuff this way. It was Michael Jackson's Thriller. I
think that was my favorite, though it did come out
a few years earlier. We were talking nineteen eighty six,
(00:24):
and some of the biggest hits there was Madonna's Papa
Don't Preach, Janet Jackson's what have You Done for Me Lately?
Bon Jovies, You give love a bad name, Cindy Lauper's
True Colors. I mean, the list goes on.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
And on, and you're playing to name them all. I'm
guessing I could.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I could. And we're not talking about any of that
Lionel Richie stuff that I had to listen to in
my mom's Toyota Cressida. This was the good stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
That's so much revolutionary music at such a young age.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I know, I know, well, one of them that I
haven't mentioned yet is the Bengals manic Monday, And if
you remember, Susannah Haas was clearly frustrated because she was
having this dream about Kiss Valentino and then her stupid
alarm goes off and of course is just another man Monday.
I mean she she wished it was Sunday because as
you know, that that's her fun day. But no, it
(01:11):
was it was Monday. It was Monday. Tragic. Yeah, I mean,
I learned so much from my sister's music collection. We
might even have to do an episode on this at
some point, but the lesson was clear. She did not
like Monday. She wasn't alone. I mean, there are obviously
days that we learned to like and dislike pretty much universally.
And when one of our brilliant researchers, Autumn white Field Madrano,
(01:33):
asked the question a few weeks ago, what are the
best and worst days of the week, I thought, well,
I know what the Bengals would say, but what does
science say and how did the whole seven day week
come to be in the first place. So these are
just a couple of the things we're going to talk
about today. Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
(02:08):
I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my
good friend mangesh Hu Tiketing, and on the other side
of that soundproof glass is our friend and producer Tristan McNeil.
Now today we're asking the question what's the best day
of the week, you know, according to science? And maybe
we'll throw in a few opinions here and there as well.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, this one could turn into a heated debate.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Well, we'll see. But before we get started, I wanted
to recognize a few winners from our Weirdest College Courses episode,
you know, where we asked listeners to tell us the
weirdest college classes they'd taken.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You remember this, Yeah, definitely?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
All right. Here are the top three, all of whom
will be getting Part Time Genius t shirts. The first
one comes from Alicio Martinez. The class was called Math
in Square Dancing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I thought this is awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I was taught at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois,
and I don't know how anyone hadn't really thought about
how to combine two universally love things, you know, math
and square dancing. It's pretty great, all right, I like
that so you'll be getting one Alicio Now, Yvonne Jones
a class called Goldberg's Cannon Making Whoopee at Baits College.
This is great. It's about all about the lifetime work
(03:10):
of Whoopy Goldberg. That's such a good class, all right.
And then the third one from Rachel Shine, a class
called snow Skiing at Texas A and M. Now, it
doesn't seem that weird of a class, right, but as
she explained, there was no snow and there were no
mountains or hills. It was taught on AstroTurf and it
was usually hot, so they wore shirts and t shirts
(03:31):
and shorts. That great, all right. So those are our
top three. It's so much fun to hear from you guys.
Congrats to our winners. Remember to keep the interesting facts
coming to part time Genius at HowStuffWorks dot com or
find us on Facebook or Twitter. You can also call
our twenty four to seven fact hotline one eight four
four pt genius. All right, let's dive in. But you know,
(03:52):
I think we need to start by acknowledging what a
strange thing a week is.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
So what do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I mean, well, it's one of those things that Honestly,
I hadn't thought that much about before one of our
terrific researchers, Autumn, pointed it out. And that's the fact
that a week is this imperfect human created unit of
time that falls in between two units of time that
nature dictates. So you have the day dictated by Earth's
rotation on the shorter side, and then you've got the
month that's roughly dictated by the lunar cycle on the
(04:19):
longer end.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, it's definitely weird and doesn't pretty much the whole
world uses seven day week now.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, even in places that don't use the Gregorian calendar,
you find that they're using this too, And it's something
we'll talk about in a bit. And that's how contemporary
weeks are built around pivotal days. And even though you
might find the pivotal days being different from one society
to another, there's still some peak that's constant and the
rest of the week is built around that.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Well, we should definitely talk about why the world settled
on a seven day week, but first can we look
at why creating a unit of time that functions between
a day and a month is so problematic. I mean,
the fact is there's no way to divide up that
time evenly in a way that it occurs regularly. A
lunar cycle is twenty nine points five days long, meaning
that if we made all months thirty days leading to
(05:04):
you know, ten day weeks, we'd still be off. It's
just such a strange thing. No matter what you propose
as a replacement for the seven day week, there's gonna
be some irregularity.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, and the ten day week thing has definitely been
tried plenty of times. Yeah, it was interesting to get
a refresh on this during our research and to see
how earlier societies tried to address the irregularities. In some
they just solve the issue kind of how we do
with leap ears, Like the ancient Greeks had these ten
day periods and occasionally they just be nine days long
to make the adjustments. Yeah, and at first glance, you'd
think that using a ten day or a five day
(05:36):
week could more closely pull off an even division of
the lunar month, you know, more so than our seven
day weeks. And that's true, but then you have another problem.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Oh yeah, this is fascinating. You're talking about temporal regularity.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yeah, exactly, so eviantar Zera Babbel. He's the author of
a book called The Seven Day Circle, and he talks
about how temporal regularity is such an important part of
the development of human race. And as he puts it, quote, imagine,
for example, having to cancel regular Sunday family gatherings or
Tuesday classes every month or so due to the lack
of a Sunday or a Tuesday on that particular week.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I guess it's kind of similar to what leaplings have
to deal with, you know, those people who were born
on February twenty ninth, except it would happen far more regularly,
and it also be so much more inconvenient.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Oh definitely. I mean, imagine how difficult it would be
to coordinate activities that should happen more than monthly, but
less than daily. I mean, right now, it's just so
easy to remember something like, you know, I've got soccer
practice on Tuesdays or something like that.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I mean, there'd be some clear adjusting there. But as
Zara Bavo points out, it's one thing to think about
the weekday's tethered to sport or hobby, but it gets
even more important when you're thinking about it. For basic survival. Like,
let's say you had to ride to town a couple
of times a month just to get provisions from the
farmer's market. If it takes you two hours to get
to town, you definitely want to be sure that when
you get there the market's open. So knowing that the
(06:54):
markets on Wednesdays takes care of that and allows you
to make plans.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah, I mean it makes a lot of sense, and
it's weird that we don't often stop to think about it.
I mean, the week is the longest unit of time
that's not it all dependent on nature. So it's pretty
significant as far as a philosophical shift in our development.
And in a way, it's like our way of saying
that we're ready to stop solely depending on nature and
instead begin to establish our temporal rhythms around a unit
(07:19):
that we created. And it is worth noting that there's
no compelling evidence of any major seven day biological processes
in nature. I mean, there does appear to be a
form of algae that's used to study circadian rhythm because
it has exhibited signs of some seven day biological rhythms,
but it's a bit of a stretch to think that
it's played into how we think about time in any
real way.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, that definitely sounds like a stretch.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
All right, well, let's talk about the creation of the
seven day week. I know you did some digging into
this with a ton of great help from our researcher Autumn,
So tell us what you know.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Sure, well, this can actually be its own episode because
it's an interesting history. But to boil it down, it
was really the result of early Jewish cultures and Babylonian
astronomy thinking up. So, as you know, Judaism was focused
on a seven day cycle as depicted in the Torah,
you know, seventh day of rest and all that, and
the other six days were really just days leading up
(08:10):
to the Sabbath. Then you have the Babylonians who'd come
up with the idea that the seven celestial bodies that
moved across the sky, that they had certain effects on
everything humans did. Five of these were planets as we
know them now, and the other two were the Sun
and the moon, but still seven.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
So the Babylonians they also had a seven day cycle.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
No, I mean, at least there's no evidence of that.
But here's how they came together. In the second century BCE,
the Alexandrians brought together three beliefs that were pretty firm
at that point. The first was, you've got these seven
planets which came into particular order, and then you had
the twenty four hour day. And third there's this idea
that the planet that ruled the first hour of each
day ruled the entire day. It didn't take too long
(08:49):
for the set of beliefs to run smack dab into Judaism,
and the two sets of beliefs sanked up. By the
end of the first century CE, the Sabbath again the
only day that really mattered to the Jewish cycle, and
the day of Saturn, just one of those seven planets
in Babylonian astrology were one and the same. And by
the third century see the week was pretty widespread.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, and the seven day cycles stuck and was gradually
adopted by pretty much everyone. Though this isn't to say
that there weren't a couple of pretty big attempts to
implement different systems. I was actually curious to see who
had tried to come up with better systems over time,
and found a couple of good stories that, to be honest,
I'd actually forgotten about from history class. Oh yeah, like what,
all right, well, let's start. Let's start with the French
(09:30):
Republicans after the French Revolution. During the revolution, assembly members
decided to come up with a new calendar, still with
twelve months, but they wanted to make the other time
units as close to metric as they could. So each
month had three ten day weeks. Each day would have
ten hours divided into one hundred minutes each, and each
minute would have one hundred seconds. I mean, it's actually
(09:52):
so confusing to think about this. Then there would be
five or six days left at the end of the
year that would be reserved for a celebration. It is
interesting to note that this system is very similar to
what the Egyptians had created when they became the first
civilization to create weeks.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Which is all super interesting and I so want to
get into a time machine and witness those celebrations. It
sounds really fun. But you can see how that structure
could make sense if it's what people had been used to.
But given that they were used to a seven day
calendar with twenty four hours per day, it was probably
pretty confusing. Why they even attempt this.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Well, there were a couple of reasons I mean that
the Biggie beyond just being a more rational system as
they saw it, it was that they wanted this very
real new beginning, you know, kind of a break from
the past.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And obviously that didn't last forever. So how long did
it last around?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I honestly find it surprising that it lasted as long
as it did. It was around twelve years, and it
was just too confusing for everyone, especially because so many
refused to stop keeping track of the old calendar. Even
find reports that when newspapers were required by a law
equip publishing the old date alongside the new one, people
were still using the old calendar to keep track of
certain important dates, and of course, to observe their holy days.
(11:00):
Many of them would take that day of rest along
with the scheduled day of rest, and ultimately there were
just too many days with little significance in between these
anchor days, and so finally it was scrapped.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I still confuse that it lasted over a decade, and
it makes me think about the attempts over the years
to get Americans to convert to the metric system, like
a system that actually makes a lot of sense, but
it's just way too hard to get people to move
from something they're used to, especially if they don't see
it as broken. And obviously that change was like politically loaded.
But you were talking about the French, but you said
there was another attempt.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yeah, that's right. So there were also the Soviets, and
they tried to change things up in nineteen twenty nine.
This was really more of an effort to increase production
from the workforce. I don't know if you know this,
but the Soviets were kind of big on this idea
of getting more out of the workfloor.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
I heard that.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
And as they saw it, the regular seven day week
left machines and workers idle for two out of every
seven days. And that's just not efficient as they saw it.
I'll warn you it is pretty crazy what they tried
to do. I'm ready for all right. So they created
these five day weeks and sets of six to get
these thirty day months, and months that had thirty one days. Well,
(12:07):
they just made that another work day, which is so
Soviet of them, and that part so far you can follow.
But the workers would have one out of every five
days off. And here's where it gets a little crazy,
all right. So instead of having some big anchor day
like the sabbath or a weekend. They just assigned one
of the five days to each person as their personal
day off. Each day was then assigned a color, and
(12:30):
then people were assigned a color and a number, and
the corresponding color was your day off.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
That sounds so confusing. I told you it was.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So did families or groups of friends, like, did they
all get the same day off?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:43):
And that was a big problem. I mean, if you
looked at people's address books, you'd see people having to
keep up with when their loved ones days off were,
and they'd have to write their colors next to each
of their names. It was just so, so so confusing.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Yeah, I'm not that organized, and it's not surprising. Why
why this wouldn't have lasted. I mean people couldn't have
their worship days together, which I guess matters less to
the Soviets, but also, you know what about just getting
your family together and playing sports.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, you're right. It was a big problem. So even
though a year after it launched, the state was claiming
that nearly three fourths of the workers were on this
continual production week, it still didn't sit well with people
because their families and social circles. They were being broken up.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
But did it meet their goal, like, did it increase production?
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Well, that was one of the nails in the coffin too.
It actually didn't really increase production, or at least not
by much. Machines were wearing out and they couldn't be
fixed because they didn't have off days, and it was
tough on workers. So Stalin then decided to put the
plan on hold until all the issues could be worked out.
And you know, you think they would just go back
to the seven day week, but nope, not the Soviets.
(13:46):
They couldn't accept the idea of going back to that,
so they decided on a six day week instead, and
everyone had the same day off at least, But it
was still nearly impossible to get everyone in rural areas
to follow this new calendar. So by around nineteen forty
or so, the Soviets were back to the seven day.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Week, which sounds exhausting.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
I try explaining it. I actually think I need a
break for a quiz. Well, we decided to do this
episode on the best day of the week. We were
both reminded of this terrific book by Melissa hecksher. It
was called Be Safe, Simple Strategies for Death Free Living,
and we were fortunate enough to get Melissa on the
line to answer a few questions about our favorite parts
(14:27):
of her book. Melissa, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Hi, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
So, Melissa, before we dive into specifics, I was curious,
how did the book idea come to you? Were you
always just worried about the possible ways you could die?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Actually kind of, I'm sort of one of those people
that worries about everything, so, you know, when it came
to me. I was living in New York City at
the time and doing a lot of driving and traveling
by train and subway, and I just was always wondering
every time I got on the subway what car I
should get onto. Should I be in the back of
the subway or middle of the subway, you know? Or
(15:01):
when I was driving to and from Philadelphia, where my
parents live, I always wondered whether I should be in
the middle lane or the right lane, or these small
choices that we make every day stay safe. And I
was always thinking about it. So I wanted to do
a little more research to find out the answers to
those questions.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
And wasn't it Salvador Dali that used to like to
ride in the front car that car so that he
would get there earlier, get there first.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
That's funny, that's pretty great.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Well, the front car actually is the safest because it's
where usually the conductor is.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
All right, Well, you know this episode is on the
best day of the week, or asking the question what
is the best day of the week. And of course
we thought about you because several of your your entries
in this great book have to do, you know, with
the best day of doing certain things, so we thought
we'd ask you about a few of those. So I
know you mentioned in the book the safest time to
go to the bank, So tell us when that is.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
The safest time to go to the bank.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Is really between Tuesday and Thursday in the afternoon, because
historically bank robberies seem to happen on Fridays, and people
think that's because that's payday. So I guess the bank
rubbers assume the bank is going to have so much
more money on Friday. That's just when most bank robberies happen.
So if you want to avoid them, to stay away
(16:15):
from the bank on Friday morning because they also usually
happen in the morning.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Ah yeah, how about the best day to order sushi?
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I love sushi, so this one was important to meet today,
especially because I around when I was writing the book
is when I got pregnant, so I was extra careful
with things like sushi. So the best time to get
sushi is on Friday. And that's because most fish markets
are closed on Sundays, So you definitely don't want to
get sushi on a Monday because the chances are that
(16:45):
it hasn't it's not a fresh delivery, so you're not
getting the freshest fish that way, which means that you
have a greater chance of possibly getting sick from that fish.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Oh that's interesting. That makes a lot of sense though
when you say that, Well, here's one that wasn't on
a specific day, but you addressed and book The safest
month to get elective surgery, And I thought this one
was super interesting.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
It is interesting the safest most residents graduate in June,
and so they start at their new positions at a
hospital in July. So the safest month is actually June
because the older residents that have been there all year
and they know the system, they know their routine, they
know their peers, they've been there all year, whereas in
(17:26):
July they're new and so not to say that they
can't do their jobs, but they maybe don't know. They're
not used to working together. There might be a few
more mistakes or errors that happen in July than happen
in June. So if you can help it, schedule your
surgery closer to you, maybe May or June and not
July or August.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
There are a few parts of the book that weren't
related to specific days, but we're just so fun that
we want to ask you about them. So can you
tell us what's the safest room in a hotel?
Speaker 3 (17:55):
This one was a personal one for me too, because
I did a lot of traveling by myself, so I
always was a little bit worried. Is to the safest
place to stay, especially as a woman alone, And the
answer to that question is between the fourth and seventh
floors if you have a choice, if it's a high
rise hotel, and no matter what kind of a hotel
near the elevator, and that's just because there's more foot
traffic and so you're safer being around a lot of
(18:18):
people because of someone who's going to break into your
hotel room or approach you as you're entering your room.
It's less likely to happen where there's a lot of traffic.
And then as far as the floors, most fire ladders
don't reach above seven floors, so if you had to
be evacuated in the case of emergency, if you're on
a really high floor. First, it's obviously it's going to
(18:38):
take you longer to get down if you're doing stairs,
But if you had to be evacuated by a fire ladder,
would be harder because the ladders don't always go that high.
So fourth and seven floors near the elevator, and that's
pretty much the safest place you can be.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I think I need to change my strategy. Actually, when
I get to a hotel, I often request a room
away from the elevator just because it's noisy there. But
I didn't realize how unsafe it was.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Well, you know, it's a trade off. You want a
quiet room and you might not be as safe, but yeah,
you can sleep better.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Yeah, all right. Well, there was one other that I
that I saw here that I thought was just really interesting,
And so what is the safest stall in a public restroom.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
What's interesting about this question is that there's a lot
of studies that have looked at this question. There are
scientists that have actually collected samples from bathrooms just to
figure out which stall is the dirtiest and the safest
stall has been determined to be the first one or
the one closest to the door, and that's because most
people like a little bit of privacy when they go
(19:37):
to the bathroom, so they go a little further from
the door. The dirtiest one turned out to be the
middle stall, which you think it would be the furthest
from the door, but it's actually the middle and the
safest least jerney room stall is the one closest to
the door, and it's usually also the one with the
most toilet paper.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
So it's not surprising that there would have been several
studies on this because I think it is something that
everyone who's walked into a restroom has thought this before
and wants to know, right, right, besides that jerk that
walks out without washing his hands.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Right, Well, this is terrific.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
You know, this has always been a book that we've
we've enjoyed flipping through and reading, even though it's been
out for some time now, so I hope all our
listeners will check out Be Safe Simple Strategies for Death
Free Living. Melissa, thanks so much for joining us on
Part Time Genius.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius. Before the break, we
were talking about the attempts by the French and Soviets
and others in history to move away from the seven
day week to other systems that we're seen as maybe
more logical.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
It's really interesting to see how they all failed. I mean,
what would you say is the baseline reason none of
them panned out?
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Well, there was obviously a big problem with the reason
and these new systems were put in place to begin with.
I think they all underestimated just how disorienting the new
structures would be. I mean, think about it. When you
change up the length of a week, you throw off
someone's social rhythm. I mean, what day of the week
do I go to the market. You throw off their
personal rhythm. So you know, they were working six days
(21:18):
in a row and then got a day of rest,
and now they have to work nine before they get
a day of rest. And then maybe most importantly, you
throw off their religious rhythm. You know, people were used
to worshiping on Sundays and now suddenly Sundays don't even
really exist anymore. So it's just way too confusing and
frustrating and frankly upsetting for these people.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Well, and when you consider the Soviets, it feels like
there was something even bigger going on. By dividing time
into five different calendars, they were really creating five different societies,
all randomly assigned.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, and all of this really threw off that temporal
harmony that Zaarababbel talks about. And we can't underestimate the
role of religion here. Think about how important a designated
weekly holy day is for each of the major religions.
You know, the Jews set themselves apart by establishing the
Sabbath early on. Christians were actually observing both as they
were Jews and Christians, and they were observing the Sabbath
(22:06):
on Saturdays and then their own day, which became Sunday,
and eventually they just focused on Sunday in order to
differentiate themselves.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, and we see this with Muslims as well, with
Mohammed choosing Fridays as the Muslim Holy Day exactly.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
And with all that set so firmly and stone, it's
hard to see ever moving away from the seven day
week at this point. All right, well that is some
fascinating stuff, but I think it's time that we fast
forward several centuries and get to the big question of
the day, and that is, you know, what are the
best and worst days of the week?
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Well, why don't we start with the worst? And it
didn't take Garfield telling us to guess what day most
people think was the worst day of the week.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yeah, Mondays? But why Mondays? And what does science have
to say about this? You were reminding me earlier about
that great Kathy Benjamin piece over at mental Flaws, and
I think it was called something like six scientific reasons
why Mondays are the worst? So why don't we start
with that? Why don't we talk about that one for
a minute?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Sure? Well, one big that shouldn't shock us is if
we think back to our sleep episode, weekends really throw
off our sleep patterns. I mean, it's funny because every
time we go through a daylight savings time change, everyone
complains about our body clocks being thrown off, but most
of us are doing this to ourselves every single weekend.
Like we think we're doing ourselves a favor when we
catch up on sleep, but in fact, we're just making
(23:19):
it that much harder to wake up on Monday morning.
Our body clocks are much more sensitive than we realize,
and staying up a couple hours later and sleeping a
couple hours later like that all throws us off a little.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Once again, sleep is so annoying? All right, Well, what
else did Benjamin say? Well?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
She also talks about the fact that because we often
eat and drink and generally indulge more over the weekends,
people tend to feel worse about themselves on Monday. There
have even been studies of women to confirm that they
feel less attractive on Mondays because of the weekend indulging,
and it's part of why people are more likely to
start dieting on Mondays than any.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Other day, which does make sense.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
And what's also interesting is that people actually are less
healthy on Mondays. As Benjamin writes, scientists have found that
even people who generally maintain their weight weigh the most
at the beginning of the week. Mondays are also the
most common day for people to suffer heart attacks and strokes.
Even if you don't end up in the hospital, your
blood pressure is higher on Monday, as is your chance
of getting sick in general.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Wow, and doesn't she talk about people just not liking
their jobs as well.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Yeah, there have been a lot of polls showing that
the strong majority of people are not big fans of
their jobs, or at least not that inspired by them.
This is why you often see people experiencing feelings of
depression or anxiety on Sunday evenings. They just don't want
to go back to work.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Oh, so the evidence really is stacking up against Mondays,
and I guess we shouldn't be shocked by this.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Well, that may be true, but there's another part to
it that may be the most interesting, and that's the
fact that if you actually study people's moods throughout the
work week, you don't necessarily find that they were feeling
that much worse on Mondays than you know, Tuesday, Wednesday,
or Thursday. But then if you ask them to recall
their moods and their stress levels, they'll almost always report
Mondays as being consistently worse. So a big part of
(24:58):
it is that we're telling ourselves Mondays are the worst.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
That is interesting, and I've actually been reading a little
about this too. And that's where because we believe that
Mondays are harder and more stressful and generally bluer than
other days, we then retrofit our memories of Mondays to
fit that expectation. So we mentally exaggerate some of the
worst things we remember about Mondays to represent the entirety
of Mondays. Our brains are pretty tricky, and as our
(25:22):
research or Autumn said in one of our conversations, the
Monday blues are a form of social organization.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, And just to be clear, it's not as though
there aren't bad things about Monday. We talked about some
of those. It's just that there's definitely a bit of
a placebo effect going on here, and we exaggerate and
we generalize certain memories and expectations about Mondays.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
All right, Well, then if we tend to view Mondays
as worse even though we don't necessarily actually always feel
worse on Mondays, would you say there's a day that
could rival Monday for the worst.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Oh, definitely. There have been a couple studies to show
that our moods may actually reach their lower points on Wednesdays.
Part of This might be because we're feeling pretty overwhelmed
at work, and it's when we're the first is the
way from a weekend on both side, you know, before
or after?
Speaker 1 (26:02):
All? Right, well, I feel like that's enough of the
sad talk, so let's get to the best day of
the weekend before we get to the science of it.
I'm curious, what's your favorite day of the week?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Mango Mon's Tuesday?
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Tuesday? And why Tuesday?
Speaker 2 (26:13):
It's because I was We're not a Tuesday, so I
started paying attention to them. But then I don't know,
like all the anxiety of Sunday and Monday is over
and they're low expectations, and I don't know, there's a
full week ahead.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
It feels like, oh, that's nice. How about you? I
think I'd probably say Fridays, because you know, I have
a busy week. We have all our recording do on
Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I love doing that. But Fridays
is kind of a day where we get to plan
for the weeks ahead, think about future episodes, and then
of course the weekend is ahead, you know, So it's nice.
I think those are my favorites, But but what do
the studies say.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Well, several studies shows Saturday is the winner. It's a
day where people feel they're free to do, you know,
what they want with their time, at least more than
other days, and they know they've got a whole other
day of weekend ahead of them. Except for the most part,
people tend to experience outdays is better, both in terms
of their actual moods and how they remember their moods.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Well, I mean that said, don't you think there's still
a little bit of the reverse Monday effect going on
with Saturdays?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Definitely. So while we do tend to actually feel better
on Saturdays, we also tend to look back at our
weekends with rosier glasses than we do our working time,
and we tend to underestimate how rewarded we are by
our work if we enjoy what we do. So, yeah,
there's a bit of cultural bias going on there.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
All right, Well what about Fridays?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, this is probably why Fridays bring the highest mood
of the work week. We're excited about the weekend, which
we believe will be better than the work week. I mean,
there's an entire restaurant chain named after the concept. Tji
Fridays oh my god, with some of those chicken fingers. Well,
before you go running off for some honey mustard covered chicken,
we should probably play a quick quiz, and then I
want to hear about the facts you found about the
days we haven't said much about.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
All right, I think I can wait for that. And
so who do we have on the line today, Mango, Today.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
We've got a very special guest, the owner of a
one comic book store in Baltimore, Gorilla King Comics, Ian Sayer.
Welcome to Part time Genius.
Speaker 5 (28:06):
Hey, thank you.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Well, just before we get started, we wanted to say
we love the intro to your store on your site,
and I'm just going to read it here for our listeners.
It says here at Gorilla King Comics, we believe that
sequential art is the highest form of storytelling. We believe
that gaily clad musclemen should pummel each other in the
streets with lamp posts and other large objects. It's their
(28:27):
right and it's their privilege. We believe that if comics
are religion, then your friendly local comic book shop should
be like a church. We want to be your weird
comics church. It's just such a warm and welcoming intro.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
Well' that's how I feel about comics. It's as simple
as that, you know. I mean, comics are they're kind
of a religious experience for me, and like Wednesdays might
have it, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
So today's show is about days of the weekend. Comic
book stores have Wednesdays of super special day. Can you
tell us what happens on that day?
Speaker 5 (28:59):
Yeah? I mean Wednesday is New Comic book Day. If
you love comics and look forward to reading the next
one after you just read the last one, Wednesday is
your day. Imagine if you can only watch TV like
one day week, you know what I mean, Like it
would be like you're awesome TV day. Like it's that
way for comics.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
So is there anything unusual or super fun about the
rhythm of the day.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
There's a lot, I mean, you know, it's it's it's
the busiest day. There's a lot of prip forward on Tuesday.
Most people that are regulars, they keep they keep a
pull list with us, meaning we take all their books
every week and set them aside and baging board them
for them and they can just come in and they
won't sell out. I see the same people every week
and that I love these people, Like we have this
(29:43):
one guy. Have you ever seen that whole Chris Parley
routine where he's interviewing people and he asked them like
a simple yes or no question, Like he's interviewing Paul
McCartney's like, Rember that part of the song where you
said the love sake is people to the love you made.
Mcty's like yeah, I mean's like, oh that was great.
All of his like answers are like yeah, it was great.
Like we have this one guy who'll come in and
(30:05):
just be like, do you remember that time that I
mean they thought he was sending the stewards and he
came out of the stewards and they killed everybody outside
of the stewards and disclosed were all ripped up. It's
like nobody's best schoolvery And they're like yeah, I remember that,
and he's like yeah, that was awesome, and like and like,
I don't know, it is awesome, Like I missed these
guys over the course of the week, and when they
come in and it's like, oh, I'm saying so fantastic.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
And I have to know do you sneak a peek
at comics that come in on Tuesdays, or do you
wait it out to enjoy it with your customers.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
No way, I read them as soon as I go
home and have an uninterrupted hour. It doesn't really even
feel like sneaking a peek. The way that our orders
are set up, you kind of have to. If you're
going to reorder comics that's really good, you can only
do it before a certain time on Wednesdays, So you
have to like immediately read them, like you know, if
like they you know, Storm is having a baby and
(30:54):
you didn't know about it, and everybody's gonna want to
reorder that book, you got to reorder it immediately. So yeah,
so you kind of have to like read the books
as soon as they're out.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
All right. So what's the game called today, Mango?
Speaker 2 (31:04):
It's called Name that Day, that's right.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
So we'll be providing you with a word bank of
several days of the week. Now. These include Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday. We have intentionally left off Tuesday, so please
don't guess Tuesday. Now, we're going to ask you a
few questions and see how many you can answer, and
just so you know, some of the answers repeat all right,
are you ready to get started? Sure? Okay? Question number one.
(31:29):
The nickname hump Day was allegedly given to this day
in nineteen sixty five, when Roy Man coined the phrase
at a DuPont water cooler. What day are we talking about?
Speaker 5 (31:39):
Think Wednesday?
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yay?
Speaker 2 (31:40):
One for one?
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Question number two. Nachos went mainstream after Howard Cosell commented
on a tasty news snack he was eating during this
night football. What night are we talking about?
Speaker 5 (31:52):
Would Monday?
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Mm hmmm?
Speaker 2 (31:54):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Number three. This day was the day of the Last Supper.
It's also Thursday. And just in case you're trying to
picture him, Thor is the one who's chariot is driven
by goats?
Speaker 5 (32:05):
Thursday?
Speaker 2 (32:06):
That albem was kind of beginning, But that's right. Three
for three.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Number four. This Adam's family daughter is called Little Wanda
in Brazil. What day of the week are we talking about?
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Wednesday?
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Whoa so ian's already four for four. Let's see if
you can get a perfect score here.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Number five. This day gets the dubious honor of both
having an ice Cube movie and a Rebecca Black song
named for it. What day of the week are we
talking about?
Speaker 5 (32:33):
Definitely Friday five for five and.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
The last question number six and because you like comic art.
The Bengals weren't the only chart topping band to sing
about this manic day of the week. The chip Pets
Alvin and the Chipmunks Lady Friends also covered the song
what Day did They sing About?
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Monday? Classic?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
All right, So, fun want to tell him how.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
He did Mango? So ians Gordon astounding six for six,
He ran the tables and he'll be going home with
our very top prize, a hand written note singing our
praises to his mom or boss. Congratulations ian O pick
what welcome back to part time genius? All right, So
(33:22):
we've talked a lot about Mondays and Saturdays, and a
little about Wednesdays and Fridays, but I think we need
to show some love to the other days as well.
Why don't you tell us a few facts that you
found about each one?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
All right, let's do it. And I know we need
to talk about the others, but I've got a couple
more Monday facts here that I wanted to share. All right,
So Monday is the safest day of the week to
have surgery. Hopefully you'll remember to show up because it's
also the day with the most missed medical appointments. It's
also the best day to apply for a job, meaning
that a higher percentage of people who submit applications on
(33:53):
Mondays tend to advance to the next stage than any
other day.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
So Mondays are redeemed a bit. What about Tuesdays, Well,
Tuesday is.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
The day for getting stuff done in more ways than one.
It's the most productive day at work, according to multiple studies.
And this is in spite of, or maybe because of,
the fact that it's also the day with the highest
email volume. It's the most popular day for exercise, and
it's apparently the best day to day trade. I know
you've been talking about getting into day trading, Mango, right,
so maybe you can stop making Tuesday one of our
(34:22):
recording days. You can just focus on your day trade.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Okay, good call, All right, Oh.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
But wait, actually, here's another study that showed Wednesdays have
the highest returns and lowest volatility on the stock market.
So maybe we'll let you focus on your stocks that day. Tube.
And you know, all this despite the fact that, as
we discussed, it tends to be the worst day mood wise,
according to some studies.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
And what about Thursdays.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Well, contrary to what most people think, it's Thursdays, not Tuesdays,
that are best for buying airline tickets. And that's a
big eat. So let's just focus on that for Thursdays.
Friday is the worst day to have surgery and the
likeliest day to get fired. But you know, hey, we're
excited about the weekend, so who cares. Saturday is the
day you're likeliest to die in a car crash. But
the good news is that you should just fly because
(35:07):
Saturday sees the fewest flight delays. It's also the likeliest
to inspire songwriting. That is, if you take the Christian
hymns out of the equation, it has the greatest number
of day of the week songs in the Amazon database.
And finally, Sundays are the best day to get out
on one of those long day trip car rides because
it's the day with the fewest road passengers.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
All Right, So there's some really good facts in there,
and it's a shame use so many of them up
because you know what's next.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Oh don't worry, I've got some good ones. Part time
genius fact off.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Okay, well, why don't you kick us off them all right.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Well, when I started the show about a story on
manic Monday, I decided to hold off on sharing one bit.
Do I need to read the lyrics again? Well? Did
you know that Prince actually wrote that song? It hit
number two on the charts and the only reason that
didn't hit number one another Prince written song, one he
wrote for himself. Kiss.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
So for the first twenty six years of her existence,
Wednesday Adams and the rest of her family didn't have names.
The Adams Family creator finally gave the family members names
for the nineteen sixties TV show, and her name reportedly
came from the nursery rhyme Wednesday's child is full of woe?
Speaker 1 (36:24):
All right? Well, back to the topic of Monday's being
a bummer. We can't have a fact off without a
Garfield fact. So did you not that the syndicated strip
is the Guinness World Record holder for being the world's
most widely syndicated strip. Oh, it's in more than twenty
five hundred newspapers and other places around the world.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
I've got a great Garfield fact too. Did you ever
notice as a kid that the voice of Garfield and
all the TV specials in the eighties, was the same
voice as Peter Venkman from the animated show The Real Ghostbusters.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
I did no. I actually I knew it was the
same person because I could hear it. I didn't know
who it was.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Yeah, yeah, it's a guy named Lorenzo Music. But that's
not really my fact. Turns out he's I'm not the
only one to have voiced both characters. The other one
is a little more famous. Bill Murray, of course, was
the original Peter Venkman, but he was also the voice
of Garfield in Garfield the Movie back in two thousand
and four.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Oh nice, all right. One of my favorite Rolling Stone songs,
Ruby Tuesday, was written by Keith Richards about his girlfriend
Linda Keith. Apparently Linda had ditched Richards for Jimmy Hendrix
and got into some drugs, and he tried to win
her back and even got her parents involved, telling them
that she was not doing well. I think, you know,
when Keith Richards is trying to intervene, it may be
(37:31):
time to cut out back. But it didn't go well
and they didn't speak again for many years. And I'd
love to do an interview with her, not about Keith Richards,
because I just want to know how she feels about
the fact that, by the transitive property, there's also a
giant restaurant chain with a big old salad bar named
after her.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
So, speaking of family restaurant chains, did you know that
TGI Fridays may seem like a family establishment made for
Middle America? But it actually started out as a singles
bar in Manhattan's Upper East Side in the mid sixties.
Fume salesman named Alan Stillman felt like there wasn't a
good bar in the area that both men and women
felt comfortable at, so he bought a bar on sixty
third and First and renamed it TJA Fridays, and the
(38:10):
rest is history. We've got to hear this quote. Stillman
told Edible Geography. My timing was exquisite because I opened
TJA Fridays the exact year the pill was invented. I
happened to hit the sexual revolution on the head, and
the result was that, without really intending it, I became
the founder of the first singles bar.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Oh wow, is that great? I can't hit that one manga.
The trophy is yours. Congratulations, Thank you, thank you, and
thank you out there for listening. Listen to you next time.
(38:48):
Thanks again for listening. Part Time 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.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Christan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Noel Brown made theme so and does the mixy mixy
sound thing.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
And Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears.
Good job, Eves.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
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
forget Jason Jason who
Guess what, Mango?
Speaker 2 (00:00):
What's that will?
Speaker 3 (00:01):
So?
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I know I've told you about this before, but when
I was six or seven, I used to sneak into
my sister's room and listen to her latest albums on
her fancy double cassette playing Boom bofe. I have told
you about this, definitely, and she was in high school
at the time, so I was introduced to all the
important stuff this way. It was Michael Jackson's Thriller. I
think that was my favorite, though it did come out
a few years earlier. We were talking nineteen eighty six,
(00:24):
and some of the biggest hits there was Madonna's Papa
Don't Preach, Janet Jackson's what have You Done for Me Lately?
Bon Jovies, You give love a bad name, Cindy Lauper's
True Colors. I mean, the list goes on.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
And on, and you're playing to name them all. I'm
guessing I could.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I could. And we're not talking about any of that
Lionel Richie stuff that I had to listen to in
my mom's Toyota Cressida. This was the good stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
That's so much revolutionary music at such a young age.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I know, I know, well, one of them that I
haven't mentioned yet is the Bengals manic Monday, And if
you remember, Susannah Haas was clearly frustrated because she was
having this dream about Kiss Valentino and then her stupid
alarm goes off and of course is just another man Monday.
I mean she she wished it was Sunday because as
you know, that that's her fun day. But no, it
(01:11):
was it was Monday. It was Monday. Tragic. Yeah, I mean,
I learned so much from my sister's music collection. We
might even have to do an episode on this at
some point, but the lesson was clear. She did not
like Monday. She wasn't alone. I mean, there are obviously
days that we learned to like and dislike pretty much universally.
And when one of our brilliant researchers, Autumn white Field Madrano,
(01:33):
asked the question a few weeks ago, what are the
best and worst days of the week, I thought, well,
I know what the Bengals would say, but what does
science say and how did the whole seven day week
come to be in the first place. So these are
just a couple of the things we're going to talk
about today. Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
(02:08):
I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my
good friend mangesh Hu Tiketing, and on the other side
of that soundproof glass is our friend and producer Tristan McNeil.
Now today we're asking the question what's the best day
of the week, you know, according to science? And maybe
we'll throw in a few opinions here and there as well.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, this one could turn into a heated debate.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Well, we'll see. But before we get started, I wanted
to recognize a few winners from our Weirdest College Courses episode,
you know, where we asked listeners to tell us the
weirdest college classes they'd taken.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You remember this, Yeah, definitely?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
All right. Here are the top three, all of whom
will be getting Part Time Genius t shirts. The first
one comes from Alicio Martinez. The class was called Math
in Square Dancing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I thought this is awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I was taught at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois,
and I don't know how anyone hadn't really thought about
how to combine two universally love things, you know, math
and square dancing. It's pretty great, all right, I like
that so you'll be getting one Alicio Now, Yvonne Jones
a class called Goldberg's Cannon Making Whoopee at Baits College.
This is great. It's about all about the lifetime work
(03:10):
of Whoopy Goldberg. That's such a good class, all right.
And then the third one from Rachel Shine, a class
called snow Skiing at Texas A and M. Now, it
doesn't seem that weird of a class, right, but as
she explained, there was no snow and there were no
mountains or hills. It was taught on AstroTurf and it
was usually hot, so they wore shirts and t shirts
(03:31):
and shorts. That great, all right. So those are our
top three. It's so much fun to hear from you guys.
Congrats to our winners. Remember to keep the interesting facts
coming to part time Genius at HowStuffWorks dot com or
find us on Facebook or Twitter. You can also call
our twenty four to seven fact hotline one eight four
four pt genius. All right, let's dive in. But you know,
(03:52):
I think we need to start by acknowledging what a
strange thing a week is.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
So what do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I mean, well, it's one of those things that Honestly,
I hadn't thought that much about before one of our
terrific researchers, Autumn, pointed it out. And that's the fact
that a week is this imperfect human created unit of
time that falls in between two units of time that
nature dictates. So you have the day dictated by Earth's
rotation on the shorter side, and then you've got the
month that's roughly dictated by the lunar cycle on the
(04:19):
longer end.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, it's definitely weird and doesn't pretty much the whole
world uses seven day week now.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, even in places that don't use the Gregorian calendar,
you find that they're using this too, And it's something
we'll talk about in a bit. And that's how contemporary
weeks are built around pivotal days. And even though you
might find the pivotal days being different from one society
to another, there's still some peak that's constant and the
rest of the week is built around that.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Well, we should definitely talk about why the world settled
on a seven day week, but first can we look
at why creating a unit of time that functions between
a day and a month is so problematic. I mean,
the fact is there's no way to divide up that
time evenly in a way that it occurs regularly. A
lunar cycle is twenty nine points five days long, meaning
that if we made all months thirty days leading to
(05:04):
you know, ten day weeks, we'd still be off. It's
just such a strange thing. No matter what you propose
as a replacement for the seven day week, there's gonna
be some irregularity.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, and the ten day week thing has definitely been
tried plenty of times. Yeah, it was interesting to get
a refresh on this during our research and to see
how earlier societies tried to address the irregularities. In some
they just solve the issue kind of how we do
with leap ears, Like the ancient Greeks had these ten
day periods and occasionally they just be nine days long
to make the adjustments. Yeah, and at first glance, you'd
think that using a ten day or a five day
(05:36):
week could more closely pull off an even division of
the lunar month, you know, more so than our seven
day weeks. And that's true, but then you have another problem.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Oh yeah, this is fascinating. You're talking about temporal regularity.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yeah, exactly, so eviantar Zera Babbel. He's the author of
a book called The Seven Day Circle, and he talks
about how temporal regularity is such an important part of
the development of human race. And as he puts it, quote, imagine,
for example, having to cancel regular Sunday family gatherings or
Tuesday classes every month or so due to the lack
of a Sunday or a Tuesday on that particular week.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I guess it's kind of similar to what leaplings have
to deal with, you know, those people who were born
on February twenty ninth, except it would happen far more regularly,
and it also be so much more inconvenient.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Oh definitely. I mean, imagine how difficult it would be
to coordinate activities that should happen more than monthly, but
less than daily. I mean, right now, it's just so
easy to remember something like, you know, I've got soccer
practice on Tuesdays or something like that.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I mean, there'd be some clear adjusting there. But as
Zara Bavo points out, it's one thing to think about
the weekday's tethered to sport or hobby, but it gets
even more important when you're thinking about it. For basic survival. Like,
let's say you had to ride to town a couple
of times a month just to get provisions from the
farmer's market. If it takes you two hours to get
to town, you definitely want to be sure that when
you get there the market's open. So knowing that the
(06:54):
markets on Wednesdays takes care of that and allows you
to make plans.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah, I mean it makes a lot of sense, and
it's weird that we don't often stop to think about it.
I mean, the week is the longest unit of time
that's not it all dependent on nature. So it's pretty
significant as far as a philosophical shift in our development.
And in a way, it's like our way of saying
that we're ready to stop solely depending on nature and
instead begin to establish our temporal rhythms around a unit
(07:19):
that we created. And it is worth noting that there's
no compelling evidence of any major seven day biological processes
in nature. I mean, there does appear to be a
form of algae that's used to study circadian rhythm because
it has exhibited signs of some seven day biological rhythms,
but it's a bit of a stretch to think that
it's played into how we think about time in any
real way.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, that definitely sounds like a stretch.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
All right, well, let's talk about the creation of the
seven day week. I know you did some digging into
this with a ton of great help from our researcher Autumn,
So tell us what you know.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Sure, well, this can actually be its own episode because
it's an interesting history. But to boil it down, it
was really the result of early Jewish cultures and Babylonian
astronomy thinking up. So, as you know, Judaism was focused
on a seven day cycle as depicted in the Torah,
you know, seventh day of rest and all that, and
the other six days were really just days leading up
(08:10):
to the Sabbath. Then you have the Babylonians who'd come
up with the idea that the seven celestial bodies that
moved across the sky, that they had certain effects on
everything humans did. Five of these were planets as we
know them now, and the other two were the Sun
and the moon, but still seven.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
So the Babylonians they also had a seven day cycle.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
No, I mean, at least there's no evidence of that.
But here's how they came together. In the second century BCE,
the Alexandrians brought together three beliefs that were pretty firm
at that point. The first was, you've got these seven
planets which came into particular order, and then you had
the twenty four hour day. And third there's this idea
that the planet that ruled the first hour of each
day ruled the entire day. It didn't take too long
(08:49):
for the set of beliefs to run smack dab into Judaism,
and the two sets of beliefs sanked up. By the
end of the first century CE, the Sabbath again the
only day that really mattered to the Jewish cycle, and
the day of Saturn, just one of those seven planets
in Babylonian astrology were one and the same. And by
the third century see the week was pretty widespread.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, and the seven day cycles stuck and was gradually
adopted by pretty much everyone. Though this isn't to say
that there weren't a couple of pretty big attempts to
implement different systems. I was actually curious to see who
had tried to come up with better systems over time,
and found a couple of good stories that, to be honest,
I'd actually forgotten about from history class. Oh yeah, like what,
all right, well, let's start. Let's start with the French
(09:30):
Republicans after the French Revolution. During the revolution, assembly members
decided to come up with a new calendar, still with
twelve months, but they wanted to make the other time
units as close to metric as they could. So each
month had three ten day weeks. Each day would have
ten hours divided into one hundred minutes each, and each
minute would have one hundred seconds. I mean, it's actually
(09:52):
so confusing to think about this. Then there would be
five or six days left at the end of the
year that would be reserved for a celebration. It is
interesting to note that this system is very similar to
what the Egyptians had created when they became the first
civilization to create weeks.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Which is all super interesting and I so want to
get into a time machine and witness those celebrations. It
sounds really fun. But you can see how that structure
could make sense if it's what people had been used to.
But given that they were used to a seven day
calendar with twenty four hours per day, it was probably
pretty confusing. Why they even attempt this.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Well, there were a couple of reasons I mean that
the Biggie beyond just being a more rational system as
they saw it, it was that they wanted this very
real new beginning, you know, kind of a break from
the past.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And obviously that didn't last forever. So how long did
it last around?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I honestly find it surprising that it lasted as long
as it did. It was around twelve years, and it
was just too confusing for everyone, especially because so many
refused to stop keeping track of the old calendar. Even
find reports that when newspapers were required by a law
equip publishing the old date alongside the new one, people
were still using the old calendar to keep track of
certain important dates, and of course, to observe their holy days.
(11:00):
Many of them would take that day of rest along
with the scheduled day of rest, and ultimately there were
just too many days with little significance in between these
anchor days, and so finally it was scrapped.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I still confuse that it lasted over a decade, and
it makes me think about the attempts over the years
to get Americans to convert to the metric system, like
a system that actually makes a lot of sense, but
it's just way too hard to get people to move
from something they're used to, especially if they don't see
it as broken. And obviously that change was like politically loaded.
But you were talking about the French, but you said
there was another attempt.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yeah, that's right. So there were also the Soviets, and
they tried to change things up in nineteen twenty nine.
This was really more of an effort to increase production
from the workforce. I don't know if you know this,
but the Soviets were kind of big on this idea
of getting more out of the workfloor.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
I heard that.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
And as they saw it, the regular seven day week
left machines and workers idle for two out of every
seven days. And that's just not efficient as they saw it.
I'll warn you it is pretty crazy what they tried
to do. I'm ready for all right. So they created
these five day weeks and sets of six to get
these thirty day months, and months that had thirty one days. Well,
(12:07):
they just made that another work day, which is so
Soviet of them, and that part so far you can follow.
But the workers would have one out of every five
days off. And here's where it gets a little crazy,
all right. So instead of having some big anchor day
like the sabbath or a weekend. They just assigned one
of the five days to each person as their personal
day off. Each day was then assigned a color, and
(12:30):
then people were assigned a color and a number, and
the corresponding color was your day off.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
That sounds so confusing. I told you it was.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So did families or groups of friends, like, did they
all get the same day off?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:43):
And that was a big problem. I mean, if you
looked at people's address books, you'd see people having to
keep up with when their loved ones days off were,
and they'd have to write their colors next to each
of their names. It was just so, so so confusing.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Yeah, I'm not that organized, and it's not surprising. Why
why this wouldn't have lasted. I mean people couldn't have
their worship days together, which I guess matters less to
the Soviets, but also, you know what about just getting
your family together and playing sports.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, you're right. It was a big problem. So even
though a year after it launched, the state was claiming
that nearly three fourths of the workers were on this
continual production week, it still didn't sit well with people
because their families and social circles. They were being broken up.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
But did it meet their goal, like, did it increase production?
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Well, that was one of the nails in the coffin too.
It actually didn't really increase production, or at least not
by much. Machines were wearing out and they couldn't be
fixed because they didn't have off days, and it was
tough on workers. So Stalin then decided to put the
plan on hold until all the issues could be worked out.
And you know, you think they would just go back
to the seven day week, but nope, not the Soviets.
(13:46):
They couldn't accept the idea of going back to that,
so they decided on a six day week instead, and
everyone had the same day off at least, But it
was still nearly impossible to get everyone in rural areas
to follow this new calendar. So by around nineteen forty
or so, the Soviets were back to the seven day.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Week, which sounds exhausting.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
I try explaining it. I actually think I need a
break for a quiz. Well, we decided to do this
episode on the best day of the week. We were
both reminded of this terrific book by Melissa hecksher. It
was called Be Safe, Simple Strategies for Death Free Living,
and we were fortunate enough to get Melissa on the
line to answer a few questions about our favorite parts
(14:27):
of her book. Melissa, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Hi, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
So, Melissa, before we dive into specifics, I was curious,
how did the book idea come to you? Were you
always just worried about the possible ways you could die?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Actually kind of, I'm sort of one of those people
that worries about everything, so, you know, when it came
to me. I was living in New York City at
the time and doing a lot of driving and traveling
by train and subway, and I just was always wondering
every time I got on the subway what car I
should get onto. Should I be in the back of
the subway or middle of the subway, you know? Or
(15:01):
when I was driving to and from Philadelphia, where my
parents live, I always wondered whether I should be in
the middle lane or the right lane, or these small
choices that we make every day stay safe. And I
was always thinking about it. So I wanted to do
a little more research to find out the answers to
those questions.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
And wasn't it Salvador Dali that used to like to
ride in the front car that car so that he
would get there earlier, get there first.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
That's funny, that's pretty great.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Well, the front car actually is the safest because it's
where usually the conductor is.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
All right, Well, you know this episode is on the
best day of the week, or asking the question what
is the best day of the week. And of course
we thought about you because several of your your entries
in this great book have to do, you know, with
the best day of doing certain things, so we thought
we'd ask you about a few of those. So I
know you mentioned in the book the safest time to
go to the bank, So tell us when that is.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
The safest time to go to the bank.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Is really between Tuesday and Thursday in the afternoon, because
historically bank robberies seem to happen on Fridays, and people
think that's because that's payday. So I guess the bank
rubbers assume the bank is going to have so much
more money on Friday. That's just when most bank robberies happen.
So if you want to avoid them, to stay away
(16:15):
from the bank on Friday morning because they also usually
happen in the morning.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Ah yeah, how about the best day to order sushi?
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I love sushi, so this one was important to meet today,
especially because I around when I was writing the book
is when I got pregnant, so I was extra careful
with things like sushi. So the best time to get
sushi is on Friday. And that's because most fish markets
are closed on Sundays, So you definitely don't want to
get sushi on a Monday because the chances are that
(16:45):
it hasn't it's not a fresh delivery, so you're not
getting the freshest fish that way, which means that you
have a greater chance of possibly getting sick from that fish.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Oh that's interesting. That makes a lot of sense though
when you say that, Well, here's one that wasn't on
a specific day, but you addressed and book The safest
month to get elective surgery, And I thought this one
was super interesting.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
It is interesting the safest most residents graduate in June,
and so they start at their new positions at a
hospital in July. So the safest month is actually June
because the older residents that have been there all year
and they know the system, they know their routine, they
know their peers, they've been there all year, whereas in
(17:26):
July they're new and so not to say that they
can't do their jobs, but they maybe don't know. They're
not used to working together. There might be a few
more mistakes or errors that happen in July than happen
in June. So if you can help it, schedule your
surgery closer to you, maybe May or June and not
July or August.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
There are a few parts of the book that weren't
related to specific days, but we're just so fun that
we want to ask you about them. So can you
tell us what's the safest room in a hotel?
Speaker 3 (17:55):
This one was a personal one for me too, because
I did a lot of traveling by myself, so I
always was a little bit worried. Is to the safest
place to stay, especially as a woman alone, And the
answer to that question is between the fourth and seventh
floors if you have a choice, if it's a high
rise hotel, and no matter what kind of a hotel
near the elevator, and that's just because there's more foot
traffic and so you're safer being around a lot of
(18:18):
people because of someone who's going to break into your
hotel room or approach you as you're entering your room.
It's less likely to happen where there's a lot of traffic.
And then as far as the floors, most fire ladders
don't reach above seven floors, so if you had to
be evacuated in the case of emergency, if you're on
a really high floor. First, it's obviously it's going to
(18:38):
take you longer to get down if you're doing stairs,
But if you had to be evacuated by a fire ladder,
would be harder because the ladders don't always go that high.
So fourth and seven floors near the elevator, and that's
pretty much the safest place you can be.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I think I need to change my strategy. Actually, when
I get to a hotel, I often request a room
away from the elevator just because it's noisy there. But
I didn't realize how unsafe it was.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Well, you know, it's a trade off. You want a
quiet room and you might not be as safe, but yeah,
you can sleep better.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Yeah, all right. Well, there was one other that I
that I saw here that I thought was just really interesting,
And so what is the safest stall in a public restroom.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
What's interesting about this question is that there's a lot
of studies that have looked at this question. There are
scientists that have actually collected samples from bathrooms just to
figure out which stall is the dirtiest and the safest
stall has been determined to be the first one or
the one closest to the door, and that's because most
people like a little bit of privacy when they go
(19:37):
to the bathroom, so they go a little further from
the door. The dirtiest one turned out to be the
middle stall, which you think it would be the furthest
from the door, but it's actually the middle and the
safest least jerney room stall is the one closest to
the door, and it's usually also the one with the
most toilet paper.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
So it's not surprising that there would have been several
studies on this because I think it is something that
everyone who's walked into a restroom has thought this before
and wants to know, right, right, besides that jerk that
walks out without washing his hands.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Right, Well, this is terrific.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
You know, this has always been a book that we've
we've enjoyed flipping through and reading, even though it's been
out for some time now, so I hope all our
listeners will check out Be Safe Simple Strategies for Death
Free Living. Melissa, thanks so much for joining us on
Part Time Genius.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius. Before the break, we
were talking about the attempts by the French and Soviets
and others in history to move away from the seven
day week to other systems that we're seen as maybe
more logical.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
It's really interesting to see how they all failed. I mean,
what would you say is the baseline reason none of
them panned out?
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Well, there was obviously a big problem with the reason
and these new systems were put in place to begin with.
I think they all underestimated just how disorienting the new
structures would be. I mean, think about it. When you
change up the length of a week, you throw off
someone's social rhythm. I mean, what day of the week
do I go to the market. You throw off their
personal rhythm. So you know, they were working six days
(21:18):
in a row and then got a day of rest,
and now they have to work nine before they get
a day of rest. And then maybe most importantly, you
throw off their religious rhythm. You know, people were used
to worshiping on Sundays and now suddenly Sundays don't even
really exist anymore. So it's just way too confusing and
frustrating and frankly upsetting for these people.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Well, and when you consider the Soviets, it feels like
there was something even bigger going on. By dividing time
into five different calendars, they were really creating five different societies,
all randomly assigned.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, and all of this really threw off that temporal
harmony that Zaarababbel talks about. And we can't underestimate the
role of religion here. Think about how important a designated
weekly holy day is for each of the major religions.
You know, the Jews set themselves apart by establishing the
Sabbath early on. Christians were actually observing both as they
were Jews and Christians, and they were observing the Sabbath
(22:06):
on Saturdays and then their own day, which became Sunday,
and eventually they just focused on Sunday in order to
differentiate themselves.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, and we see this with Muslims as well, with
Mohammed choosing Fridays as the Muslim Holy Day exactly.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
And with all that set so firmly and stone, it's
hard to see ever moving away from the seven day
week at this point. All right, well that is some
fascinating stuff, but I think it's time that we fast
forward several centuries and get to the big question of
the day, and that is, you know, what are the
best and worst days of the week?
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Well, why don't we start with the worst? And it
didn't take Garfield telling us to guess what day most
people think was the worst day of the week.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yeah, Mondays? But why Mondays? And what does science have
to say about this? You were reminding me earlier about
that great Kathy Benjamin piece over at mental Flaws, and
I think it was called something like six scientific reasons
why Mondays are the worst? So why don't we start
with that? Why don't we talk about that one for
a minute?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Sure? Well, one big that shouldn't shock us is if
we think back to our sleep episode, weekends really throw
off our sleep patterns. I mean, it's funny because every
time we go through a daylight savings time change, everyone
complains about our body clocks being thrown off, but most
of us are doing this to ourselves every single weekend.
Like we think we're doing ourselves a favor when we
catch up on sleep, but in fact, we're just making
(23:19):
it that much harder to wake up on Monday morning.
Our body clocks are much more sensitive than we realize,
and staying up a couple hours later and sleeping a
couple hours later like that all throws us off a little.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Once again, sleep is so annoying? All right, Well, what
else did Benjamin say? Well?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
She also talks about the fact that because we often
eat and drink and generally indulge more over the weekends,
people tend to feel worse about themselves on Monday. There
have even been studies of women to confirm that they
feel less attractive on Mondays because of the weekend indulging,
and it's part of why people are more likely to
start dieting on Mondays than any.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Other day, which does make sense.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
And what's also interesting is that people actually are less
healthy on Mondays. As Benjamin writes, scientists have found that
even people who generally maintain their weight weigh the most
at the beginning of the week. Mondays are also the
most common day for people to suffer heart attacks and strokes.
Even if you don't end up in the hospital, your
blood pressure is higher on Monday, as is your chance
of getting sick in general.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Wow, and doesn't she talk about people just not liking
their jobs as well.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Yeah, there have been a lot of polls showing that
the strong majority of people are not big fans of
their jobs, or at least not that inspired by them.
This is why you often see people experiencing feelings of
depression or anxiety on Sunday evenings. They just don't want
to go back to work.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Oh, so the evidence really is stacking up against Mondays,
and I guess we shouldn't be shocked by this.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Well, that may be true, but there's another part to
it that may be the most interesting, and that's the
fact that if you actually study people's moods throughout the
work week, you don't necessarily find that they were feeling
that much worse on Mondays than you know, Tuesday, Wednesday,
or Thursday. But then if you ask them to recall
their moods and their stress levels, they'll almost always report
Mondays as being consistently worse. So a big part of
(24:58):
it is that we're telling ourselves Mondays are the worst.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
That is interesting, and I've actually been reading a little
about this too. And that's where because we believe that
Mondays are harder and more stressful and generally bluer than
other days, we then retrofit our memories of Mondays to
fit that expectation. So we mentally exaggerate some of the
worst things we remember about Mondays to represent the entirety
of Mondays. Our brains are pretty tricky, and as our
(25:22):
research or Autumn said in one of our conversations, the
Monday blues are a form of social organization.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, And just to be clear, it's not as though
there aren't bad things about Monday. We talked about some
of those. It's just that there's definitely a bit of
a placebo effect going on here, and we exaggerate and
we generalize certain memories and expectations about Mondays.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
All right, Well, then if we tend to view Mondays
as worse even though we don't necessarily actually always feel
worse on Mondays, would you say there's a day that
could rival Monday for the worst.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Oh, definitely. There have been a couple studies to show
that our moods may actually reach their lower points on Wednesdays.
Part of This might be because we're feeling pretty overwhelmed
at work, and it's when we're the first is the
way from a weekend on both side, you know, before
or after?
Speaker 1 (26:02):
All? Right, well, I feel like that's enough of the
sad talk, so let's get to the best day of
the weekend before we get to the science of it.
I'm curious, what's your favorite day of the week?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Mango Mon's Tuesday?
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Tuesday? And why Tuesday?
Speaker 2 (26:13):
It's because I was We're not a Tuesday, so I
started paying attention to them. But then I don't know,
like all the anxiety of Sunday and Monday is over
and they're low expectations, and I don't know, there's a
full week ahead.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
It feels like, oh, that's nice. How about you? I
think I'd probably say Fridays, because you know, I have
a busy week. We have all our recording do on
Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I love doing that. But Fridays
is kind of a day where we get to plan
for the weeks ahead, think about future episodes, and then
of course the weekend is ahead, you know, So it's nice.
I think those are my favorites, But but what do
the studies say.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Well, several studies shows Saturday is the winner. It's a
day where people feel they're free to do, you know,
what they want with their time, at least more than
other days, and they know they've got a whole other
day of weekend ahead of them. Except for the most part,
people tend to experience outdays is better, both in terms
of their actual moods and how they remember their moods.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Well, I mean that said, don't you think there's still
a little bit of the reverse Monday effect going on
with Saturdays?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Definitely. So while we do tend to actually feel better
on Saturdays, we also tend to look back at our
weekends with rosier glasses than we do our working time,
and we tend to underestimate how rewarded we are by
our work if we enjoy what we do. So, yeah,
there's a bit of cultural bias going on there.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
All right, Well what about Fridays?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, this is probably why Fridays bring the highest mood
of the work week. We're excited about the weekend, which
we believe will be better than the work week. I mean,
there's an entire restaurant chain named after the concept. Tji
Fridays oh my god, with some of those chicken fingers. Well,
before you go running off for some honey mustard covered chicken,
we should probably play a quick quiz, and then I
want to hear about the facts you found about the
days we haven't said much about.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
All right, I think I can wait for that. And
so who do we have on the line today, Mango, Today.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
We've got a very special guest, the owner of a
one comic book store in Baltimore, Gorilla King Comics, Ian Sayer.
Welcome to Part time Genius.
Speaker 5 (28:06):
Hey, thank you.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Well, just before we get started, we wanted to say
we love the intro to your store on your site,
and I'm just going to read it here for our listeners.
It says here at Gorilla King Comics, we believe that
sequential art is the highest form of storytelling. We believe
that gaily clad musclemen should pummel each other in the
streets with lamp posts and other large objects. It's their
(28:27):
right and it's their privilege. We believe that if comics
are religion, then your friendly local comic book shop should
be like a church. We want to be your weird
comics church. It's just such a warm and welcoming intro.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
Well' that's how I feel about comics. It's as simple
as that, you know. I mean, comics are they're kind
of a religious experience for me, and like Wednesdays might
have it, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
So today's show is about days of the weekend. Comic
book stores have Wednesdays of super special day. Can you
tell us what happens on that day?
Speaker 5 (28:59):
Yeah? I mean Wednesday is New Comic book Day. If
you love comics and look forward to reading the next
one after you just read the last one, Wednesday is
your day. Imagine if you can only watch TV like
one day week, you know what I mean, Like it
would be like you're awesome TV day. Like it's that
way for comics.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
So is there anything unusual or super fun about the
rhythm of the day.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
There's a lot, I mean, you know, it's it's it's
the busiest day. There's a lot of prip forward on Tuesday.
Most people that are regulars, they keep they keep a
pull list with us, meaning we take all their books
every week and set them aside and baging board them
for them and they can just come in and they
won't sell out. I see the same people every week
and that I love these people, Like we have this
(29:43):
one guy. Have you ever seen that whole Chris Parley
routine where he's interviewing people and he asked them like
a simple yes or no question, Like he's interviewing Paul
McCartney's like, Rember that part of the song where you
said the love sake is people to the love you made.
Mcty's like yeah, I mean's like, oh that was great.
All of his like answers are like yeah, it was great.
Like we have this one guy who'll come in and
(30:05):
just be like, do you remember that time that I
mean they thought he was sending the stewards and he
came out of the stewards and they killed everybody outside
of the stewards and disclosed were all ripped up. It's
like nobody's best schoolvery And they're like yeah, I remember that,
and he's like yeah, that was awesome, and like and like,
I don't know, it is awesome, Like I missed these
guys over the course of the week, and when they
come in and it's like, oh, I'm saying so fantastic.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
And I have to know do you sneak a peek
at comics that come in on Tuesdays, or do you
wait it out to enjoy it with your customers.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
No way, I read them as soon as I go
home and have an uninterrupted hour. It doesn't really even
feel like sneaking a peek. The way that our orders
are set up, you kind of have to. If you're
going to reorder comics that's really good, you can only
do it before a certain time on Wednesdays, So you
have to like immediately read them, like you know, if
like they you know, Storm is having a baby and
(30:54):
you didn't know about it, and everybody's gonna want to
reorder that book, you got to reorder it immediately. So yeah,
so you kind of have to like read the books
as soon as they're out.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
All right. So what's the game called today, Mango?
Speaker 2 (31:04):
It's called Name that Day, that's right.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
So we'll be providing you with a word bank of
several days of the week. Now. These include Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday. We have intentionally left off Tuesday, so please
don't guess Tuesday. Now, we're going to ask you a
few questions and see how many you can answer, and
just so you know, some of the answers repeat all right,
are you ready to get started? Sure? Okay? Question number one.
(31:29):
The nickname hump Day was allegedly given to this day
in nineteen sixty five, when Roy Man coined the phrase
at a DuPont water cooler. What day are we talking about?
Speaker 5 (31:39):
Think Wednesday?
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yay?
Speaker 2 (31:40):
One for one?
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Question number two. Nachos went mainstream after Howard Cosell commented
on a tasty news snack he was eating during this
night football. What night are we talking about?
Speaker 5 (31:52):
Would Monday?
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Mm hmmm?
Speaker 2 (31:54):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Number three. This day was the day of the Last Supper.
It's also Thursday. And just in case you're trying to
picture him, Thor is the one who's chariot is driven
by goats?
Speaker 5 (32:05):
Thursday?
Speaker 2 (32:06):
That albem was kind of beginning, But that's right. Three
for three.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Number four. This Adam's family daughter is called Little Wanda
in Brazil. What day of the week are we talking about?
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Wednesday?
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Whoa so ian's already four for four. Let's see if
you can get a perfect score here.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Number five. This day gets the dubious honor of both
having an ice Cube movie and a Rebecca Black song
named for it. What day of the week are we
talking about?
Speaker 5 (32:33):
Definitely Friday five for five and.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
The last question number six and because you like comic art.
The Bengals weren't the only chart topping band to sing
about this manic day of the week. The chip Pets
Alvin and the Chipmunks Lady Friends also covered the song
what Day did They sing About?
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Monday? Classic?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
All right, So, fun want to tell him how.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
He did Mango? So ians Gordon astounding six for six,
He ran the tables and he'll be going home with
our very top prize, a hand written note singing our
praises to his mom or boss. Congratulations ian O pick
what welcome back to part time genius? All right, So
(33:22):
we've talked a lot about Mondays and Saturdays, and a
little about Wednesdays and Fridays, but I think we need
to show some love to the other days as well.
Why don't you tell us a few facts that you
found about each one?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
All right, let's do it. And I know we need
to talk about the others, but I've got a couple
more Monday facts here that I wanted to share. All right,
So Monday is the safest day of the week to
have surgery. Hopefully you'll remember to show up because it's
also the day with the most missed medical appointments. It's
also the best day to apply for a job, meaning
that a higher percentage of people who submit applications on
(33:53):
Mondays tend to advance to the next stage than any
other day.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
So Mondays are redeemed a bit. What about Tuesdays, Well,
Tuesday is.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
The day for getting stuff done in more ways than one.
It's the most productive day at work, according to multiple studies.
And this is in spite of, or maybe because of,
the fact that it's also the day with the highest
email volume. It's the most popular day for exercise, and
it's apparently the best day to day trade. I know
you've been talking about getting into day trading, Mango, right,
so maybe you can stop making Tuesday one of our
(34:22):
recording days. You can just focus on your day trade.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Okay, good call, All right, Oh.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
But wait, actually, here's another study that showed Wednesdays have
the highest returns and lowest volatility on the stock market.
So maybe we'll let you focus on your stocks that day. Tube.
And you know, all this despite the fact that, as
we discussed, it tends to be the worst day mood wise,
according to some studies.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
And what about Thursdays.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Well, contrary to what most people think, it's Thursdays, not Tuesdays,
that are best for buying airline tickets. And that's a
big eat. So let's just focus on that for Thursdays.
Friday is the worst day to have surgery and the
likeliest day to get fired. But you know, hey, we're
excited about the weekend, so who cares. Saturday is the
day you're likeliest to die in a car crash. But
the good news is that you should just fly because
(35:07):
Saturday sees the fewest flight delays. It's also the likeliest
to inspire songwriting. That is, if you take the Christian
hymns out of the equation, it has the greatest number
of day of the week songs in the Amazon database.
And finally, Sundays are the best day to get out
on one of those long day trip car rides because
it's the day with the fewest road passengers.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
All Right, So there's some really good facts in there,
and it's a shame use so many of them up
because you know what's next.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Oh don't worry, I've got some good ones. Part time
genius fact off.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Okay, well, why don't you kick us off them all right.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Well, when I started the show about a story on
manic Monday, I decided to hold off on sharing one bit.
Do I need to read the lyrics again? Well? Did
you know that Prince actually wrote that song? It hit
number two on the charts and the only reason that
didn't hit number one another Prince written song, one he
wrote for himself. Kiss.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
So for the first twenty six years of her existence,
Wednesday Adams and the rest of her family didn't have names.
The Adams Family creator finally gave the family members names
for the nineteen sixties TV show, and her name reportedly
came from the nursery rhyme Wednesday's child is full of woe?
Speaker 1 (36:24):
All right? Well, back to the topic of Monday's being
a bummer. We can't have a fact off without a
Garfield fact. So did you not that the syndicated strip
is the Guinness World Record holder for being the world's
most widely syndicated strip. Oh, it's in more than twenty
five hundred newspapers and other places around the world.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
I've got a great Garfield fact too. Did you ever
notice as a kid that the voice of Garfield and
all the TV specials in the eighties, was the same
voice as Peter Venkman from the animated show The Real Ghostbusters.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
I did no. I actually I knew it was the
same person because I could hear it. I didn't know
who it was.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Yeah, yeah, it's a guy named Lorenzo Music. But that's
not really my fact. Turns out he's I'm not the
only one to have voiced both characters. The other one
is a little more famous. Bill Murray, of course, was
the original Peter Venkman, but he was also the voice
of Garfield in Garfield the Movie back in two thousand
and four.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Oh nice, all right. One of my favorite Rolling Stone songs,
Ruby Tuesday, was written by Keith Richards about his girlfriend
Linda Keith. Apparently Linda had ditched Richards for Jimmy Hendrix
and got into some drugs, and he tried to win
her back and even got her parents involved, telling them
that she was not doing well. I think, you know,
when Keith Richards is trying to intervene, it may be
(37:31):
time to cut out back. But it didn't go well
and they didn't speak again for many years. And I'd
love to do an interview with her, not about Keith Richards,
because I just want to know how she feels about
the fact that, by the transitive property, there's also a
giant restaurant chain with a big old salad bar named
after her.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
So, speaking of family restaurant chains, did you know that
TGI Fridays may seem like a family establishment made for
Middle America? But it actually started out as a singles
bar in Manhattan's Upper East Side in the mid sixties.
Fume salesman named Alan Stillman felt like there wasn't a
good bar in the area that both men and women
felt comfortable at, so he bought a bar on sixty
third and First and renamed it TJA Fridays, and the
(38:10):
rest is history. We've got to hear this quote. Stillman
told Edible Geography. My timing was exquisite because I opened
TJA Fridays the exact year the pill was invented. I
happened to hit the sexual revolution on the head, and
the result was that, without really intending it, I became
the founder of the first singles bar.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Oh wow, is that great? I can't hit that one manga.
The trophy is yours. Congratulations, Thank you, thank you, and
thank you out there for listening. Listen to you next time.
(38:48):
Thanks again for listening. Part Time 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.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Christan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Noel Brown made theme so and does the mixy mixy
sound thing.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
And Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears.
Good job, Eves.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
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
forget Jason Jason who
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
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Mangesh Hattikudur
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