May 20, 2025 • 32 mins
You are cordially invited to this very festive episode about parties! Will and Mango unpack Italy’s history of painful confetti, the surprisingly violent origin of surprise parties, and the accidental invention of glitter. (Hint, it involved schnibbles in New Jersey.) Plus: Will makes a convincing case for having MORE clowns at parties.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What's that Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
So I just found out that the first surprise parties
had nothing to do with birthdays or parties.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I don't really understand what any of this means, but
go ahead and explain, please.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
So apparently the earliest use of the term surprise party
was in an eighteen forty novel by Irish writer Charles
lever And a surprise party was a squad of soldiers
lying in wait and engaged in a sneak attack. But
what's interesting is that, as weird as it might seem
for surprise parties to have this, you know, military origin,
(00:56):
it actually kind of makes sense. The word surprise is
direc from this old French verb suprendre, which means to
seize or to invade. So from the very beginning the
word surprise had this military context, and that actually carried
over to English in the fourteenth century.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well I'm curious, so when does the meaning change to
more of what we think of as a surprise, like
something more more pleasant.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
So that doesn't emerge until about one hundred years later.
Before that, the word was used almost exclusively to refer
to an unexpected attack on troops. In fact, it would
have been redundant to call something a surprise attack, because
back then every surprise was an attack.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I'll be honest, though, that's kind of how I feel
about surprise parties today.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I mean, I know you're joking, but there are definitely
people who hate surprise parties, and there's actually a scientific
reason for that. The momentary shock from a surprise triggers
the release of a stress response hormone. It's called nora adrenaline,
and this is part of the body's fight or flight response.
So your heart ray and blood pressure go up whether
brain focuses on assessing the threat. So when someone comes
(02:02):
at you in a dark room with a dozen flaming sticks,
your brain and your body can't help but go on
the defensive. But thinking about surprise parties made me wonder
about all the other things associated with parties, like why
do we blow out birthday candles? Whose idea was it
to throw confetti everywhere? And why do people like glitter?
So those are just a few of the questions we're
(02:23):
tackling today. Strap on your party hat because we're about
to dive in.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Hey their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesh how Ticketer and on the other side of
that soundproof glass slicing off a nice fat piece of
cake for himself. I'm glad he's rewarding himself today. That
is our friend producer for real. That's Dylan Fagan. Now
he very kindly brought this in for today's show. But
(03:07):
I do want to clarify something up front. Even though
it looks like a birthday cake with a lot of candles,
today isn't one of our birthdays.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I know who's supposed to blow those things out. I mean,
I guess Dylan, because he's only one back there in
the booth. But I do want to point out how
thoughtful Dylan is. He set out slices for each of
us before digging in for himself, because that's the kind
of guy he is. But I am curious, why are
there candles on this thing?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I thought maybe it was just because he's a huge
fan of surprise parties. You were talking about surprises at
the top of the show. I think we forgot to
mention by the way one of the greatest sketches or
recurring sketches of all time on SNL, where Christen Wig
plays the ant that just can't handle the excitement of
all these surprises. It's pretty great, but oh yeah, it's
(03:54):
pretty yeah. It's just such a such a such a
such a good good care there. But you know, typically
the easiest way to tell cake cake from birthday cake
is to check if the cake is on fire or not.
And in Dylan's defense, adorning a cake with candles on
it isn't just a birthday thing. In fact, the tradition
is thought to have started back in ancient Greece. It
(04:15):
was a tribute to Artemis, who was the goddess of
fertility and hunting. Now she was closely associated with the
moon as well, so her followers would bait round cakes
in her honor, and then they would decorate them with
lit candles, sort of to mimic the glow of the
full moon. I'd never thought about that before, but it
makes sense. So while the first candles on a cake
were still celebratory and still a present, they weren't really
(04:37):
connected to birthdays like they are today.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
And so what do the Greeks do in that non
birthday scenario, like, did they blow off the candles or
did they just let them burn down like we're doing here.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, nobody knows for certain. They may have just handled
it on a cake by cake basis. But it's worth
noting that many ancient cultures believe that smoke could carry
their prayers to the gods, which is kind of a
nice idea. That was the whole idea behind burnt offerings
in Some historians think that the modern tradition of making
a wish when you blow out the birthday candles may
have developed from that same belief. You think about blowing
(05:11):
out the candles the smoke rising up to the gods, like,
it's an interesting idea, that's really fascinating.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And I know this is a ridiculous question and we
probably don't have an answer to it, but do we
have to know who the first person was to put
candles on a cake specifically for a birthday?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Well, I don't know about the very first person, but
one of the earliest and the most well known was
the German nobleman, Count Ludwig Vaughan Zisendorf, which is such
a great name now thanks to the contemporary account of
author Andreas Frye. We know that the Count pulled out
all the stops for his birthday back in seventeen forty six.
He bought in wagonloads of decorations and set up special
(05:48):
lighting all throughout his hull. But the most impressive part
of the celebration had to be the dessert, because according
to fry I quote, there was a cake as large
as any oven could be found to bake it, and
holes made in the cake according to the years of
the person's age, everyone having a candle stuck into it
and won in the middle. So it was a big cake. Now,
(06:10):
I was considerate enough not to mention the count's age,
but a little quick math does tell us he would
have turned forty six that year, so that means, counting
the one in the middle, there were forty seven candles
on his birthday cake, which explains why they would have
had to make it so massive.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah, I guess they hadn't invented number shaped candles yet,
right right right.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
That took a lot of technology to get this.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
But I am curious, like what was the deal with
the candle in the middle, Like was that just so
one to grow on? Kind of thing?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I haven't heard that term one to grow on. So
that's why I mean, I guess pretty much most sources
I found say that the center candle symbolize the light
of life and the hope for another good year and
a year of good health. Now, of course, Count Zinzendorff
didn't come up with the candle tradition himself. Well, the
account of his party maybe the earliest known. There was
(07:00):
written record of birthday cake candles, and plenty of German
families who were also known to celebrate the candles during Kinderfest,
which was a child's birthday celebration. And those cases, though,
the candle practice worked a little bit differently than what
we are used to today. So rather than blowing out
the candles right away, German families lit them in the
morning and they kept them burning all the way down
(07:20):
until dinnertime, and if any of the candles happened to
burn out before it was time to cut the cake,
a vigilant family member would swoop in to replace it
with a fresh one.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
That is incredible, but also like why I mean, if
they were burning through a whole day's worth of candles,
then the cag had to be covered in wax by
the time they finally went to eat it, right.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, and I'm pretty sure it would taste pretty disgusting
since most candles were made from rendered animal fat at
the time. But you know, many Germans at the time
believed that children were especially vulnerable to spiritual attacks on
their birthdays, and so making sure the candles on the
kid's cakes stayed lit was was really this sort of
symbolic way to protect them from an evil influence, and
(08:01):
for most parents, the peace of mind was more important
than coating your cake and wax.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
It's pretty wild to see just how many of our
birthday traditions have grown out of like these old religious
customs and decisions. I mean, it's a similar story with
those plastic noise makers that people had out at parties.
They actually have their roots in pre Christian Europe, when
people believe that evil spirits targeted you on your birthday,
so all your friends and relatives were supposed to make
(08:27):
a bunch of noise to scare them off and protect you.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I mean, it's funny that you can walk around places
like party City and just see a whole bunch of
things that have roots and ancient rituals. You know.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, I mean, it's pretty interesting, but now that you
measure it, there's at least one party staple with a
much more modern origin story involves a New Jersey cattle rancher,
a precision cutting machine, and a whole boatload of schnibbles.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
I love it when you have a tease like that
where I have no idea what you're talking about, but
you know what, let's take a quick break. I'm going
to try to figure it out, and then when we
come back, you can bring me up to speed.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
You're listening to part Time Genius and we're celebrating the
strange science and hidden histories behind the world's favorite party supply.
So will what's the worst party you've been to? Or
like something you hate to see at parties? Clowns, magicians.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I'm gonna be honest with you, Mango, I love it
when clowns and magicians are at parties because they make
people sort of uncomfortable to anybody that's bold enough to
like dress up as a clown or do the magician thing,
just given all how they are always the punchline of
jokes like I love that bravery, that boldness, just the
weirdness of it all. So I'm going in a different direction.
(09:51):
I'm actually saying I really like it at parties when
people have the things that people tend to hate the most.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Anyway, what about you, Well, we went to something that
was teased to me as a party, and then it
was the startup thing and we showed up and then
they put us all on computers and we had to
do all these reviews of things that we had not
intended to do, and I was so angry, Like I
didn't want to sit there and review restaurants and cafes
(10:17):
just to get into the small apartment where I could
get a drink. That's ridiculous, annoying. But another thing I
really hate about parties is glitter, and whether it's on
decorations or banners or party hats, I hate how it's
impossible to find and clean off, mostly because of static cling.
(10:38):
And is that why glitter sticks to everything? Because that actually,
you know what, Mango, I'm going to go back to
your previous question.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Parties with lots of glitter. That is one of the
things I'm not a fan of. I know the kids
love it, but it sticks to everything. But anyway, I
thought it might have a little light adhesive on it.
But what is the reason here?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, so most glitter is actually made of bits of
plastic covered and a layer of aluminum, and because that
metal coating is negatively charged, it forms a powerful bond
when it comes into contact with anything that's positively charged.
So that could be something like human skin. But that's
not to say that static electricity is the only reason
why glitter is so sticky. It could be things like
(11:17):
air viscosity. Also like surface tension if you're thinking about
like trying to remove glitter from a flat surface or
a wet surface, like that's part of the reason.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah, that is pretty interesting. But I sometimes wonder why
glitter is still a thing because other than my daughter
who just loves it and wants it to be involved
in every dinner much less party, I feel like it's
a thing we should be over by. Now what do
you think?
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, I mean it is sparkly, and if history as
taught as anything, it's that humans are big fans of bright,
shiny objects, and this actually that might not be such
a bad thing. I remember this study from a while back.
There were these researchers who rowed up a big group
of toddlers and infants and then monitored their enthusiasm for
(11:59):
licking different kinds of plates, and apparently the babies were
far more attracted to plates with glossy surfaces than they
were the ones with matt finishes.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I mean, I'm sort of in the same camp. If
something super shiny like that, I sort of get the impulse.
But what did that prove? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah, you gotta lick it because late licking parties can
be fun, is what it proved.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Okay, Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and put that also
on the list of things I don't want to happen
at parties.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
It also suggests that humans are innately drawn to shiny,
glistening objects, and it's not because we think they're pretty,
but because they mimic the reflective sheen of fresh water. So,
millions of years ago, the drive to seek out clean
water helped keep our ancestors alive, and thanks to evolution,
that same instinct is alive and well in this plate
(12:47):
licking baby experiment today.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Okay, so I see, So being dazzled by glitter just
sort of means maybe you're thirsty.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Mm hmm, yeah, thirsty for sparkle. But what's kind of
fascinating is that glitter wasn't invented until the nineteen thirties,
and even then it was only by accident.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Okay, yeah, you were hitting about this earlier, something about
New Jersey and New Jersey farmer, I guess, and a
bunch of snubbles.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
What was the word you said, snibbles? It's actually an
industry term for the leftover bits of paper, plastic, or
fabric that result from manufacturing. And as for the Jersey farmer,
he was a cattle rancher who had turned into an inventor.
His name was Henry Ruschmann. In the nineteen thirties, he
created a precision cutting machine to neatly trim developed glossy photos,
(13:34):
but sometimes it malfunctioned and it cut the prints into tiny,
useless pieces. Now, Rischmand threw out the schnibbles at first,
but after noticing how pretty they were when they caught light,
he built a new machine to purposely produce them from
plastic scrap, and in their early forties he began marketing
glitter for use in craft projects and holiday decorations. And
while it was only supposed to be a side business
(13:56):
at first, like a little extra income to help support
his day operation slinging. All this glitter turned out to
be way more lucrative than his other work, and that
was due in part to the material shortages during World
War Two. At Christmas time in nineteen forty two, Americans
were encouraged to spare their candles, and it was encouraged
that people use glitter to brighten their homes for the holidays.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
It's so funny to think it's something as unnecessary as glitter,
you know, starting out is really like a wartime need.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Yeah, and it was such a strangely specific idea that
Riuschman's company, they're called Meadowbrook Inventions, it pretty much had
a monopoly on glitter for decades. In fact, all these
years later, Meadowbrook is still one of only two glitter
manufacturers in the world, and the other one is called
glitter X, and weirdly, it is also based in New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I'm honestly god a shock that the market for glitter
is big enough to sustain two separate companies. I mean,
these are microplastics, after all. You would think a single
factory could just crank out all the need that's out there.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I mean, glitter isn't just used for crafting and party supplies.
It gets mixed into all kinds of consumer products that
we don't think about, so it's everything from like nail
polish to NFL helmets. There are even a few scientific
applications too. For instance, this is amazing. Zookeepers and animal
researchers will sometimes add glitter to animal feed so that
(15:18):
they can tell one animal's fecal sample from another, which
is just not fu real. So another thing to keep
in mind is that we actually don't know what the
industry's biggest client is doing with all their glitter and
what does that mean. So you remember our pal Katie Weaver.
She wrote this amazing piece for The New York Times
a few years ago where she interviewed someone like glitter
(15:40):
X about how glitter is made, and at one point
she asks what the company's biggest market is, but the
spokeswoman refuses to answer. She just laughs and says, you
would never guess it. Just leave it at that, because
they don't want anyone to know that it's glitter.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Is such a cryptic response, like shouldn't she have just
said like party hats or something. There's surely somebody who's
figured out what the reason is right.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
So apparently there's a ton of online debate about this.
So far, no one's come off with any solid evidence.
But for this glitter conspiracy, some people think it's used
in toothpaste. Others say it's mixed into sand on luxury beaches,
both of which would of course be horrible news for
our bodies in the world's oceans. But those are really
just guesses because big glitter is not tellent.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Big glitter, well, whatever it is, it's going to be
with us for a good long while because I read
it takes one thousand years for glitter to degrade. A
thousand years.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah, which is why I wear team candles.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Here at Partime View, we most definitely are. Now that said,
if you're interested in engineering a festive atmosphere by throwing
colorful little bits around, there's a much more environmentally friendly
way to do it, and we're going to discuss that
right after this break. Welcome back to part Time Genius.
(17:09):
All right, Mango, So we talked a little bit about
some party traditions that have their roots in antiquity, and
it turns out we can add confetti to that list
as well. Now, humans have a long colorful history of
tossing around small objects at celebrations, and while shredded paper
is the material of choice today, the ancient Greeks went
for a much greener option. Actually, on special occasions like
(17:29):
a soldier returning from war, an athlete winning a match,
or a couple getting married, the public would celebrate by
tossing around branches and leaves and garlands and just various
other bits of plant matter.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
So they were just throwing plant matter in the air
or were they throwing it at the people who are
being honored?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Honestly, it's kind of a free for all, like some
people threw clippings over or onto the people being honored,
and others through the greenery in front of them to
be walked on. And historians aren't sure how the practice
got started, but the best guess is that it evolved
from gift get traditions, like you know, placing a laurel
crown on the winner of a race or things like that,
And you know, because an athlete might not want to
(18:06):
stand around to be crowned by one hundred different people,
so instead the crowd settled for throwing a gift and
the winner's general direction.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Okay, I got it, but these gifts were basically worthless,
Like they weren't tossing flowers of fruit or anything useful.
They were just throwing like branch clippings.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Right, Yeah, that's true. I mean none of the greenery
was ever collected or saved. It just all got trampled.
But that's kind of why the practice can be thought
of as a forerunner to throwing confetti, And both of
these cases, it doesn't matter so much what's being thrown.
It's the sheer volume of what you're throwing and the
act of throwing, and that kind of makes the whole
thing feel like a big party.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Well obviously, like throwing bits of colorful paper are more
like a fluria of flower pedals or something like that,
But that feels so much better than geting smacked in
the face with pine needles or tree branches like that
doesn't seem like much of a party for those.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I've been with you over that. I think anybody that
thinks that is a party would be at that a
little strange. But we are lucky though, that somebody finally
thought to cut the plants into small throwable strips.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
And so when does that happen? Exactly? Like how old
is modern confetti.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Well, paper confetti only came about in the late nineteenth century,
and prior to that many cultures had made the switch
from throwing greenery at celebrations to throwing food stuffs. So
the practice was especially popular at weddings, where guests would
shower the newly weeds with handfuls of rice and raisins,
nuts or even shortbread. And you think about more modern weddings,
a lot of times you see things like rice being
(19:33):
thrown as well as you know, couples exiting the wedding
or things like that. But some cultures eventually applied the
custom to other kinds of celebrations. You think about milestone birthdays, anniversaries,
and in many cases the foods that were thrown were
tasty enough for the guests to collect and eat them afterward.
And in eighteenth century Italy they even adopted a special
(19:53):
word for these small throwable treats, confetti, or translated little sweets.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Oh that's interesting. I never had any idea that the
word meant something. And you know, it kind of feels
like a tease now that you're just getting paper instead
of sweets.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, it's weird to think about, but confetti sprinkles are
actually more in line with the original confetti. Yeah, like funfetti,
Love some funfetti. It's probably one of my top ten cakes.
You know, to make a good fun fetti cake. But
Italy's take was a little more nuanced than that. So
in the nineteenth century, Italian confetti consisted mostly of sugar
glazed nuts or dried fruit seeds sugared almonds, and this
(20:31):
was especially popular at the country's carnival.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Parties, which sounds better in theory, but I also don't
want to be pelted by like a bunch of sticky almonds.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
You're so picky about the things you want to be
pelted with. But actually all joking aside, You're not alone
because plenty of partygoers also complained that the candied nuts
were too dangerous, and not only because it hurt to
get hit with them, because kids would often crawl around
in the busy streets to collect them and to make
matters where some bad actors started making fake confetti and
it looked like sugared almonds but in reality was just
(21:01):
globs of hardened plastic. So carnival, I know, it's terrible.
So carnival party goers were eventually fed up with being
bruised by fake almonds, and so in the late eighteen hundreds,
Italy retired edible confetti and brought in paper confetti to
replace it. Now, aside from being far less bruising, paper
confetti proved cheaper, easier to clean up, and better still,
(21:22):
it wasn't something that children would run into the streets
to pick up.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
And it's like a better visual spectacle, right, Like the
paper hangs, it flutters and the air instead of just
like thudding to the ground.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's funny that you mentioned that,
because confetti actually dazzled people and helped New York police
keep the peace. Back in the early nineties, New Year's
in Times Square was more like a drunken brawl than
a party. But in nineteen ninety two the city tried
to lighten things up by dumping a few thousand pounds
of confetti on the ground.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Thousand pounds and that works.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And one spot they dropped it on one guy and
it was just air, you know the scene you pictured,
it flying everywhere, and the whole mood of the party
actually shifted that night. And so every New Year since,
most people in Times Square have been too dazzled to
fight with each other. And it's interesting to imagine that scenario,
but it kind of makes sense. But while we're talking
about New York, we should probably talk about the city's
(22:17):
own homegrown version of confetti, which is the ticker tape.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
You know, for some reason, I just assumed tickertape came
from London. I didn't realize it was a New York convention.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Yeah. Ticker tape made its debut in the eighteen sixties
when the world's first stock ticker was unveiled at the
New York Stock Exchange. The device could receive up to
the minute stock prices over telegraph wires and then print
them out almost in real time on these long, thin
ribbons of paper tape. Both the machine and the paper
were named for the distinctive tick tick tick sound that
the type wheel made while printing.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
So tickertape kind of starts out as the opposite of confetti. Right.
It wasn't party paper, it was business.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Paper, that's exactly right. But that all changed a couple
decades later. During the official opening of the Statue of
Liberty in eighteen eighty six, there was this big celebration
in Lower Manhattan with a parade starting at City Hall
and ending at Battery Park with a clear view of
the statue. Now, the use of ticker tape wasn't a
plan part of the festivities, and the city's fledgling financial
(23:13):
district wasn't even part of the route. But office workers
didn't let that stop them from joining in the party.
So when they heard the parade was passing a few
streets over, some workers open their windows flung out the
ribbons of used ticker tape that had been lying around
the office, And when people and other buildings saw this,
they started doing the same thing. It sort of sets
off this chain reaction around the city. The flurry of
(23:35):
ticker tape added such a festive touch to the proceedings
that it soon became a fixture of New York parades.
Although they're far less common today, the city has hosted
more than two hundred ticker tape parades over the last
century and a half. And although a few people realize that,
there's even a monument in New York called the Canyon
of Heroes that memorializes each ticker tape parade along with
(23:56):
the people and the events that it was meant to celebrate.
I never heard of That funniest part is that the
ticker tape actually outlasted the stock ticker itself. The last
mechanical models were released back in the early nineteen sixties,
but ticker tape is still being tossed around all these
years later.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
That is amazing. And speaking of things that are amazing,
we should probably cap this party off. Get a little
fact off. Here's another one of the lesser known uses
of glitter solving a murder case. So back in the
early two thousands, California forensic scientist Ed Jones helped solve
the murder by matching the same red glitter found in
(24:35):
a victim's hair to samples recovered from the suspect's vehicle.
Apparently the killer had tried to clean his truck after
the crime, but true to form, a few telltale pieces
of glitter managed to sneak by him.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
You know, the one time when glitters stickiness actually comes
in handy, Okay, I'll acknowledge that. All right, Well, here's
a weird one I found out about confetti. Have you
ever noticed that when confetti rains down after the World
Series or some big event like that, the image quality
on your TV takes a huge dip, it starts to
look called choppy and the image kind of shutters. That's
because the raw video has to be compressed for broadcast.
(25:09):
But instead of reproducing every pixel that appears in a frame,
compress files reuse some of the same information based on
visual patterns, and that helps save space. So, for example,
in a wide shot of a baseball field, the background
information might be reused for multiple frames at a time,
sort of frees up more data to focus on the
players that are moving on the screen. Now, this reuse
(25:32):
of pixels is subtle enough miss this in most cases,
but confetti throws a wrench in things. It becomes much
harder to predict the next frame when you suddenly have
hundreds of tiny paper slips moving randomly through the shot,
all at once. Now, in cases like that, the video
has to consume more bits per second to keep up
with the action, and the picture quality inevitably takes a
big hit. So, even in the age of high speed
(25:54):
streaming and ultra HDTVs, we still can't quite capture the
full visual majesty of this low tech confetti storm. It's
kind of wild.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I've never even thought about that. So, speaking of technical things,
have you ever wondered how crick candles work. I have. Yeah,
So with regular candles, the force of your breath actually
pushes the flame away from its fuel source, right, and
it causes it to go out. But trick candles are
manufactured with a small amount of magnesium inside their wicks. Now,
the magnesium won't ignite when the candle is burning because
(26:25):
the flame prevents oxygen from reaching it, and magnesium can't
burn without oxygen. However, once the candle is blown out,
oxygen immediately comes in contact with the magnesium and with
a smoldering ember at the tip of the wick, and
this causes the magnesium dust particles to ignite, creating tiny
sparks that are hot enough to relight the candle. The
(26:45):
chemical reaction can be repeated over and over until the
magnesium supply is exhausted or until the birthday kit loses
their patients, whichever happens first.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
All right, Well, speaking of birthday candles, I've always wondered
if we really spread germs and bacteria when we low
them out, So I decided to look into this, and
it turns out that scientists from the Canadian Center of
Science and Education have conducted some pretty extensive studies on this,
and I'm sorry to say the results are not pretty.
After multiple trials, the team found that cakes with candles
(27:15):
that were blown out contain nearly fifteen thousand percent more
bacteria than cakes that did not have candles blown out.
That's obviously bad news for germophobes, but there is a
silver lining here. So the research shows that most bacteria
can't survive thisliva in our mouth or the acid in
our stomach. We have a much greater chance of getting
sick from bacteria that makes it into our noses and
(27:37):
our eyes. So as long as you don't shove cake
up there, you can still chill down in relative safety.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
It's good to know. Here's the story from a party
that went completely wrong. So back in nineteen twelve, sixteen
women were fired from their jobs at the Ladies Home
Journal for dancing the Turkey trot on their lunch break.
Although the trendy dance this stuff had been named and
modeled after the movements of a turkey, including elbow lifts
(28:04):
to mimic the bird's flapping wings, it still managed to
spark this outrage from the era's moral police. Some venues
posted signs that said no turkey trotting allowed, and others
went so far as stationing a uniformed employee in the
center of the dance floor to watch out for illicit trotter's.
The dance prohibitions hit peak absurdi though, when sixteen Philadelphia
(28:25):
women were fired from a magazine for dancing the trot
on company grounds. The staff had gathered in the ladies
wreck room. This was during their lunch hour, and they
were gearing up for the coming weekend by teaching each
other these dance steps. Unfortunately, the magazine's chief editor, Edward Bach,
happened to pass by just as the women were demonstrating
the trot, and needless to say, he did not like
(28:46):
what he saw. The mass firing was reported nationwide and
most papers ran the same headline. Girls danced the turkey
trot and editor Boch saw them and was fearfully shocked.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
So weird. That's great fact though. I actually have another
cautionary tale for you, and it's about a French nobleman
who threw an epic party in the seventeenth century and
wound up paying for it for the rest of his life.
His name was Nicolay Fouquet, and his party was supposedly
meant to honor the most famous guest, twenty two year
old King Louis the fourteenth. In reality, though, the event
(29:20):
was just a way for Fouquet to show off his
fancy new estate and maybe get himself promoted to Prime Minister.
So Fouquet pulled out all the stops to achieve this.
He invited somewhere between three thousand and six thousand people,
and he gave every single one of them a costly gift.
These diamond brooches for the ladies and thoroughbred horses for them.
(29:41):
Then these gifts are wild now. He also called in
a favor from the famous playwright Molier and had him
write a new comedic play to be performed for the
first time after dinner. The performance was held in these
lavish gardens, and when it concluded, guests were treated to
a spectacular firework show above the estate. There was even
a big mechanical whale that quote swam through a canal
(30:03):
and shot off even more fireworks. The party was a
huge success by every measure except one. King Louis didn't
feel honored by the event. In fact, the young king
felt threatened by Fouquet's flagrant display of wealth, especially since
it seemed to support earlier accusations that Fouquet had been
stealing money from the Royal Treasury. But whether the rumors
(30:23):
were true or not, Fouque's fate was sealed by the
end of the party. He was arrested on trumped up
charges just a few weeks later and spent the rest
of his life in prison, all because he threw a
party that was a little too good.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
I feel like, aside from glitter, wounding, a king's ego
is probably the ultimate party foul. So I do think
between the thurdbred horses and the approaches and all that,
I think you get the trophy for this one.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
I mean, that's a lot of horses. Actually, I think
Fouquet deserves the trophy for that. That is just wild.
All right, Well, that's going to do it for today's
Part Time Genius from Mary Gabe, Dylan Mango and me.
Thank you so so much for listening now. If you
enjoyed the show, come find us on Instagram at part
Time Genius and be sure to tune in next week
for another brand new episode.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
This show is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongashtikler
and research by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's
episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan
with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive produced
for iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with social
(31:43):
media support from Sasha Gay, trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shorey.
For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What's that Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
So I just found out that the first surprise parties
had nothing to do with birthdays or parties.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I don't really understand what any of this means, but
go ahead and explain, please.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
So apparently the earliest use of the term surprise party
was in an eighteen forty novel by Irish writer Charles
lever And a surprise party was a squad of soldiers
lying in wait and engaged in a sneak attack. But
what's interesting is that, as weird as it might seem
for surprise parties to have this, you know, military origin,
(00:56):
it actually kind of makes sense. The word surprise is
direc from this old French verb suprendre, which means to
seize or to invade. So from the very beginning the
word surprise had this military context, and that actually carried
over to English in the fourteenth century.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well I'm curious, so when does the meaning change to
more of what we think of as a surprise, like
something more more pleasant.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
So that doesn't emerge until about one hundred years later.
Before that, the word was used almost exclusively to refer
to an unexpected attack on troops. In fact, it would
have been redundant to call something a surprise attack, because
back then every surprise was an attack.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I'll be honest, though, that's kind of how I feel
about surprise parties today.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I mean, I know you're joking, but there are definitely
people who hate surprise parties, and there's actually a scientific
reason for that. The momentary shock from a surprise triggers
the release of a stress response hormone. It's called nora adrenaline,
and this is part of the body's fight or flight response.
So your heart ray and blood pressure go up whether
brain focuses on assessing the threat. So when someone comes
(02:02):
at you in a dark room with a dozen flaming sticks,
your brain and your body can't help but go on
the defensive. But thinking about surprise parties made me wonder
about all the other things associated with parties, like why
do we blow out birthday candles? Whose idea was it
to throw confetti everywhere? And why do people like glitter?
So those are just a few of the questions we're
(02:23):
tackling today. Strap on your party hat because we're about
to dive in.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Hey their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesh how Ticketer and on the other side of
that soundproof glass slicing off a nice fat piece of
cake for himself. I'm glad he's rewarding himself today. That
is our friend producer for real. That's Dylan Fagan. Now
he very kindly brought this in for today's show. But
(03:07):
I do want to clarify something up front. Even though
it looks like a birthday cake with a lot of candles,
today isn't one of our birthdays.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I know who's supposed to blow those things out. I mean,
I guess Dylan, because he's only one back there in
the booth. But I do want to point out how
thoughtful Dylan is. He set out slices for each of
us before digging in for himself, because that's the kind
of guy he is. But I am curious, why are
there candles on this thing?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I thought maybe it was just because he's a huge
fan of surprise parties. You were talking about surprises at
the top of the show. I think we forgot to
mention by the way one of the greatest sketches or
recurring sketches of all time on SNL, where Christen Wig
plays the ant that just can't handle the excitement of
all these surprises. It's pretty great, but oh yeah, it's
(03:54):
pretty yeah. It's just such a such a such a
such a good good care there. But you know, typically
the easiest way to tell cake cake from birthday cake
is to check if the cake is on fire or not.
And in Dylan's defense, adorning a cake with candles on
it isn't just a birthday thing. In fact, the tradition
is thought to have started back in ancient Greece. It
(04:15):
was a tribute to Artemis, who was the goddess of
fertility and hunting. Now she was closely associated with the
moon as well, so her followers would bait round cakes
in her honor, and then they would decorate them with
lit candles, sort of to mimic the glow of the
full moon. I'd never thought about that before, but it
makes sense. So while the first candles on a cake
were still celebratory and still a present, they weren't really
(04:37):
connected to birthdays like they are today.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
And so what do the Greeks do in that non
birthday scenario, like, did they blow off the candles or
did they just let them burn down like we're doing here.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, nobody knows for certain. They may have just handled
it on a cake by cake basis. But it's worth
noting that many ancient cultures believe that smoke could carry
their prayers to the gods, which is kind of a
nice idea. That was the whole idea behind burnt offerings
in Some historians think that the modern tradition of making
a wish when you blow out the birthday candles may
have developed from that same belief. You think about blowing
(05:11):
out the candles the smoke rising up to the gods, like,
it's an interesting idea, that's really fascinating.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And I know this is a ridiculous question and we
probably don't have an answer to it, but do we
have to know who the first person was to put
candles on a cake specifically for a birthday?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Well, I don't know about the very first person, but
one of the earliest and the most well known was
the German nobleman, Count Ludwig Vaughan Zisendorf, which is such
a great name now thanks to the contemporary account of
author Andreas Frye. We know that the Count pulled out
all the stops for his birthday back in seventeen forty six.
He bought in wagonloads of decorations and set up special
(05:48):
lighting all throughout his hull. But the most impressive part
of the celebration had to be the dessert, because according
to fry I quote, there was a cake as large
as any oven could be found to bake it, and
holes made in the cake according to the years of
the person's age, everyone having a candle stuck into it
and won in the middle. So it was a big cake. Now,
(06:10):
I was considerate enough not to mention the count's age,
but a little quick math does tell us he would
have turned forty six that year, so that means, counting
the one in the middle, there were forty seven candles
on his birthday cake, which explains why they would have
had to make it so massive.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah, I guess they hadn't invented number shaped candles yet,
right right right.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
That took a lot of technology to get this.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
But I am curious, like what was the deal with
the candle in the middle, Like was that just so
one to grow on? Kind of thing?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I haven't heard that term one to grow on. So
that's why I mean, I guess pretty much most sources
I found say that the center candle symbolize the light
of life and the hope for another good year and
a year of good health. Now, of course, Count Zinzendorff
didn't come up with the candle tradition himself. Well, the
account of his party maybe the earliest known. There was
(07:00):
written record of birthday cake candles, and plenty of German
families who were also known to celebrate the candles during Kinderfest,
which was a child's birthday celebration. And those cases, though,
the candle practice worked a little bit differently than what
we are used to today. So rather than blowing out
the candles right away, German families lit them in the
morning and they kept them burning all the way down
(07:20):
until dinnertime, and if any of the candles happened to
burn out before it was time to cut the cake,
a vigilant family member would swoop in to replace it
with a fresh one.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
That is incredible, but also like why I mean, if
they were burning through a whole day's worth of candles,
then the cag had to be covered in wax by
the time they finally went to eat it, right.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, and I'm pretty sure it would taste pretty disgusting
since most candles were made from rendered animal fat at
the time. But you know, many Germans at the time
believed that children were especially vulnerable to spiritual attacks on
their birthdays, and so making sure the candles on the
kid's cakes stayed lit was was really this sort of
symbolic way to protect them from an evil influence, and
(08:01):
for most parents, the peace of mind was more important
than coating your cake and wax.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
It's pretty wild to see just how many of our
birthday traditions have grown out of like these old religious
customs and decisions. I mean, it's a similar story with
those plastic noise makers that people had out at parties.
They actually have their roots in pre Christian Europe, when
people believe that evil spirits targeted you on your birthday,
so all your friends and relatives were supposed to make
(08:27):
a bunch of noise to scare them off and protect you.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I mean, it's funny that you can walk around places
like party City and just see a whole bunch of
things that have roots and ancient rituals. You know.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, I mean, it's pretty interesting, but now that you
measure it, there's at least one party staple with a
much more modern origin story involves a New Jersey cattle rancher,
a precision cutting machine, and a whole boatload of schnibbles.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
I love it when you have a tease like that
where I have no idea what you're talking about, but
you know what, let's take a quick break. I'm going
to try to figure it out, and then when we
come back, you can bring me up to speed.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
You're listening to part Time Genius and we're celebrating the
strange science and hidden histories behind the world's favorite party supply.
So will what's the worst party you've been to? Or
like something you hate to see at parties? Clowns, magicians.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I'm gonna be honest with you, Mango, I love it
when clowns and magicians are at parties because they make
people sort of uncomfortable to anybody that's bold enough to
like dress up as a clown or do the magician thing,
just given all how they are always the punchline of
jokes like I love that bravery, that boldness, just the
weirdness of it all. So I'm going in a different direction.
(09:51):
I'm actually saying I really like it at parties when
people have the things that people tend to hate the most.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Anyway, what about you, Well, we went to something that
was teased to me as a party, and then it
was the startup thing and we showed up and then
they put us all on computers and we had to
do all these reviews of things that we had not
intended to do, and I was so angry, Like I
didn't want to sit there and review restaurants and cafes
(10:17):
just to get into the small apartment where I could
get a drink. That's ridiculous, annoying. But another thing I
really hate about parties is glitter, and whether it's on
decorations or banners or party hats, I hate how it's
impossible to find and clean off, mostly because of static cling.
(10:38):
And is that why glitter sticks to everything? Because that actually,
you know what, Mango, I'm going to go back to
your previous question.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Parties with lots of glitter. That is one of the
things I'm not a fan of. I know the kids
love it, but it sticks to everything. But anyway, I
thought it might have a little light adhesive on it.
But what is the reason here?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, so most glitter is actually made of bits of
plastic covered and a layer of aluminum, and because that
metal coating is negatively charged, it forms a powerful bond
when it comes into contact with anything that's positively charged.
So that could be something like human skin. But that's
not to say that static electricity is the only reason
why glitter is so sticky. It could be things like
(11:17):
air viscosity. Also like surface tension if you're thinking about
like trying to remove glitter from a flat surface or
a wet surface, like that's part of the reason.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah, that is pretty interesting. But I sometimes wonder why
glitter is still a thing because other than my daughter
who just loves it and wants it to be involved
in every dinner much less party, I feel like it's
a thing we should be over by. Now what do
you think?
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, I mean it is sparkly, and if history as
taught as anything, it's that humans are big fans of bright,
shiny objects, and this actually that might not be such
a bad thing. I remember this study from a while back.
There were these researchers who rowed up a big group
of toddlers and infants and then monitored their enthusiasm for
(11:59):
licking different kinds of plates, and apparently the babies were
far more attracted to plates with glossy surfaces than they
were the ones with matt finishes.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I mean, I'm sort of in the same camp. If
something super shiny like that, I sort of get the impulse.
But what did that prove? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah, you gotta lick it because late licking parties can
be fun, is what it proved.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Okay, Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and put that also
on the list of things I don't want to happen
at parties.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
It also suggests that humans are innately drawn to shiny,
glistening objects, and it's not because we think they're pretty,
but because they mimic the reflective sheen of fresh water. So,
millions of years ago, the drive to seek out clean
water helped keep our ancestors alive, and thanks to evolution,
that same instinct is alive and well in this plate
(12:47):
licking baby experiment today.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Okay, so I see, So being dazzled by glitter just
sort of means maybe you're thirsty.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Mm hmm, yeah, thirsty for sparkle. But what's kind of
fascinating is that glitter wasn't invented until the nineteen thirties,
and even then it was only by accident.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Okay, yeah, you were hitting about this earlier, something about
New Jersey and New Jersey farmer, I guess, and a
bunch of snubbles.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
What was the word you said, snibbles? It's actually an
industry term for the leftover bits of paper, plastic, or
fabric that result from manufacturing. And as for the Jersey farmer,
he was a cattle rancher who had turned into an inventor.
His name was Henry Ruschmann. In the nineteen thirties, he
created a precision cutting machine to neatly trim developed glossy photos,
(13:34):
but sometimes it malfunctioned and it cut the prints into tiny,
useless pieces. Now, Rischmand threw out the schnibbles at first,
but after noticing how pretty they were when they caught light,
he built a new machine to purposely produce them from
plastic scrap, and in their early forties he began marketing
glitter for use in craft projects and holiday decorations. And
while it was only supposed to be a side business
(13:56):
at first, like a little extra income to help support
his day operation slinging. All this glitter turned out to
be way more lucrative than his other work, and that
was due in part to the material shortages during World
War Two. At Christmas time in nineteen forty two, Americans
were encouraged to spare their candles, and it was encouraged
that people use glitter to brighten their homes for the holidays.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
It's so funny to think it's something as unnecessary as glitter,
you know, starting out is really like a wartime need.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Yeah, and it was such a strangely specific idea that
Riuschman's company, they're called Meadowbrook Inventions, it pretty much had
a monopoly on glitter for decades. In fact, all these
years later, Meadowbrook is still one of only two glitter
manufacturers in the world, and the other one is called
glitter X, and weirdly, it is also based in New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I'm honestly god a shock that the market for glitter
is big enough to sustain two separate companies. I mean,
these are microplastics, after all. You would think a single
factory could just crank out all the need that's out there.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I mean, glitter isn't just used for crafting and party supplies.
It gets mixed into all kinds of consumer products that
we don't think about, so it's everything from like nail
polish to NFL helmets. There are even a few scientific
applications too. For instance, this is amazing. Zookeepers and animal
researchers will sometimes add glitter to animal feed so that
(15:18):
they can tell one animal's fecal sample from another, which
is just not fu real. So another thing to keep
in mind is that we actually don't know what the
industry's biggest client is doing with all their glitter and
what does that mean. So you remember our pal Katie Weaver.
She wrote this amazing piece for The New York Times
a few years ago where she interviewed someone like glitter
(15:40):
X about how glitter is made, and at one point
she asks what the company's biggest market is, but the
spokeswoman refuses to answer. She just laughs and says, you
would never guess it. Just leave it at that, because
they don't want anyone to know that it's glitter.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Is such a cryptic response, like shouldn't she have just
said like party hats or something. There's surely somebody who's
figured out what the reason is right.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
So apparently there's a ton of online debate about this.
So far, no one's come off with any solid evidence.
But for this glitter conspiracy, some people think it's used
in toothpaste. Others say it's mixed into sand on luxury beaches,
both of which would of course be horrible news for
our bodies in the world's oceans. But those are really
just guesses because big glitter is not tellent.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Big glitter, well, whatever it is, it's going to be
with us for a good long while because I read
it takes one thousand years for glitter to degrade. A
thousand years.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah, which is why I wear team candles.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Here at Partime View, we most definitely are. Now that said,
if you're interested in engineering a festive atmosphere by throwing
colorful little bits around, there's a much more environmentally friendly
way to do it, and we're going to discuss that
right after this break. Welcome back to part Time Genius.
(17:09):
All right, Mango, So we talked a little bit about
some party traditions that have their roots in antiquity, and
it turns out we can add confetti to that list
as well. Now, humans have a long colorful history of
tossing around small objects at celebrations, and while shredded paper
is the material of choice today, the ancient Greeks went
for a much greener option. Actually, on special occasions like
(17:29):
a soldier returning from war, an athlete winning a match,
or a couple getting married, the public would celebrate by
tossing around branches and leaves and garlands and just various
other bits of plant matter.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
So they were just throwing plant matter in the air
or were they throwing it at the people who are
being honored?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Honestly, it's kind of a free for all, like some
people threw clippings over or onto the people being honored,
and others through the greenery in front of them to
be walked on. And historians aren't sure how the practice
got started, but the best guess is that it evolved
from gift get traditions, like you know, placing a laurel
crown on the winner of a race or things like that,
And you know, because an athlete might not want to
(18:06):
stand around to be crowned by one hundred different people,
so instead the crowd settled for throwing a gift and
the winner's general direction.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Okay, I got it, but these gifts were basically worthless,
Like they weren't tossing flowers of fruit or anything useful.
They were just throwing like branch clippings.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Right, Yeah, that's true. I mean none of the greenery
was ever collected or saved. It just all got trampled.
But that's kind of why the practice can be thought
of as a forerunner to throwing confetti, And both of
these cases, it doesn't matter so much what's being thrown.
It's the sheer volume of what you're throwing and the
act of throwing, and that kind of makes the whole
thing feel like a big party.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Well obviously, like throwing bits of colorful paper are more
like a fluria of flower pedals or something like that,
But that feels so much better than geting smacked in
the face with pine needles or tree branches like that
doesn't seem like much of a party for those.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I've been with you over that. I think anybody that
thinks that is a party would be at that a
little strange. But we are lucky though, that somebody finally
thought to cut the plants into small throwable strips.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
And so when does that happen? Exactly? Like how old
is modern confetti.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Well, paper confetti only came about in the late nineteenth century,
and prior to that many cultures had made the switch
from throwing greenery at celebrations to throwing food stuffs. So
the practice was especially popular at weddings, where guests would
shower the newly weeds with handfuls of rice and raisins,
nuts or even shortbread. And you think about more modern weddings,
a lot of times you see things like rice being
(19:33):
thrown as well as you know, couples exiting the wedding
or things like that. But some cultures eventually applied the
custom to other kinds of celebrations. You think about milestone birthdays, anniversaries,
and in many cases the foods that were thrown were
tasty enough for the guests to collect and eat them afterward.
And in eighteenth century Italy they even adopted a special
(19:53):
word for these small throwable treats, confetti, or translated little sweets.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Oh that's interesting. I never had any idea that the
word meant something. And you know, it kind of feels
like a tease now that you're just getting paper instead
of sweets.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, it's weird to think about, but confetti sprinkles are
actually more in line with the original confetti. Yeah, like funfetti,
Love some funfetti. It's probably one of my top ten cakes.
You know, to make a good fun fetti cake. But
Italy's take was a little more nuanced than that. So
in the nineteenth century, Italian confetti consisted mostly of sugar
glazed nuts or dried fruit seeds sugared almonds, and this
(20:31):
was especially popular at the country's carnival.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Parties, which sounds better in theory, but I also don't
want to be pelted by like a bunch of sticky almonds.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
You're so picky about the things you want to be
pelted with. But actually all joking aside, You're not alone
because plenty of partygoers also complained that the candied nuts
were too dangerous, and not only because it hurt to
get hit with them, because kids would often crawl around
in the busy streets to collect them and to make
matters where some bad actors started making fake confetti and
it looked like sugared almonds but in reality was just
(21:01):
globs of hardened plastic. So carnival, I know, it's terrible.
So carnival party goers were eventually fed up with being
bruised by fake almonds, and so in the late eighteen hundreds,
Italy retired edible confetti and brought in paper confetti to
replace it. Now, aside from being far less bruising, paper
confetti proved cheaper, easier to clean up, and better still,
(21:22):
it wasn't something that children would run into the streets
to pick up.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
And it's like a better visual spectacle, right, Like the
paper hangs, it flutters and the air instead of just
like thudding to the ground.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's funny that you mentioned that,
because confetti actually dazzled people and helped New York police
keep the peace. Back in the early nineties, New Year's
in Times Square was more like a drunken brawl than
a party. But in nineteen ninety two the city tried
to lighten things up by dumping a few thousand pounds
of confetti on the ground.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Thousand pounds and that works.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And one spot they dropped it on one guy and
it was just air, you know the scene you pictured,
it flying everywhere, and the whole mood of the party
actually shifted that night. And so every New Year since,
most people in Times Square have been too dazzled to
fight with each other. And it's interesting to imagine that scenario,
but it kind of makes sense. But while we're talking
about New York, we should probably talk about the city's
(22:17):
own homegrown version of confetti, which is the ticker tape.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
You know, for some reason, I just assumed tickertape came
from London. I didn't realize it was a New York convention.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Yeah. Ticker tape made its debut in the eighteen sixties
when the world's first stock ticker was unveiled at the
New York Stock Exchange. The device could receive up to
the minute stock prices over telegraph wires and then print
them out almost in real time on these long, thin
ribbons of paper tape. Both the machine and the paper
were named for the distinctive tick tick tick sound that
the type wheel made while printing.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
So tickertape kind of starts out as the opposite of confetti. Right.
It wasn't party paper, it was business.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Paper, that's exactly right. But that all changed a couple
decades later. During the official opening of the Statue of
Liberty in eighteen eighty six, there was this big celebration
in Lower Manhattan with a parade starting at City Hall
and ending at Battery Park with a clear view of
the statue. Now, the use of ticker tape wasn't a
plan part of the festivities, and the city's fledgling financial
(23:13):
district wasn't even part of the route. But office workers
didn't let that stop them from joining in the party.
So when they heard the parade was passing a few
streets over, some workers open their windows flung out the
ribbons of used ticker tape that had been lying around
the office, And when people and other buildings saw this,
they started doing the same thing. It sort of sets
off this chain reaction around the city. The flurry of
(23:35):
ticker tape added such a festive touch to the proceedings
that it soon became a fixture of New York parades.
Although they're far less common today, the city has hosted
more than two hundred ticker tape parades over the last
century and a half. And although a few people realize that,
there's even a monument in New York called the Canyon
of Heroes that memorializes each ticker tape parade along with
(23:56):
the people and the events that it was meant to celebrate.
I never heard of That funniest part is that the
ticker tape actually outlasted the stock ticker itself. The last
mechanical models were released back in the early nineteen sixties,
but ticker tape is still being tossed around all these
years later.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
That is amazing. And speaking of things that are amazing,
we should probably cap this party off. Get a little
fact off. Here's another one of the lesser known uses
of glitter solving a murder case. So back in the
early two thousands, California forensic scientist Ed Jones helped solve
the murder by matching the same red glitter found in
(24:35):
a victim's hair to samples recovered from the suspect's vehicle.
Apparently the killer had tried to clean his truck after
the crime, but true to form, a few telltale pieces
of glitter managed to sneak by him.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
You know, the one time when glitters stickiness actually comes
in handy, Okay, I'll acknowledge that. All right, Well, here's
a weird one I found out about confetti. Have you
ever noticed that when confetti rains down after the World
Series or some big event like that, the image quality
on your TV takes a huge dip, it starts to
look called choppy and the image kind of shutters. That's
because the raw video has to be compressed for broadcast.
(25:09):
But instead of reproducing every pixel that appears in a frame,
compress files reuse some of the same information based on
visual patterns, and that helps save space. So, for example,
in a wide shot of a baseball field, the background
information might be reused for multiple frames at a time,
sort of frees up more data to focus on the
players that are moving on the screen. Now, this reuse
(25:32):
of pixels is subtle enough miss this in most cases,
but confetti throws a wrench in things. It becomes much
harder to predict the next frame when you suddenly have
hundreds of tiny paper slips moving randomly through the shot,
all at once. Now, in cases like that, the video
has to consume more bits per second to keep up
with the action, and the picture quality inevitably takes a
big hit. So, even in the age of high speed
(25:54):
streaming and ultra HDTVs, we still can't quite capture the
full visual majesty of this low tech confetti storm. It's
kind of wild.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I've never even thought about that. So, speaking of technical things,
have you ever wondered how crick candles work. I have. Yeah,
So with regular candles, the force of your breath actually
pushes the flame away from its fuel source, right, and
it causes it to go out. But trick candles are
manufactured with a small amount of magnesium inside their wicks. Now,
the magnesium won't ignite when the candle is burning because
(26:25):
the flame prevents oxygen from reaching it, and magnesium can't
burn without oxygen. However, once the candle is blown out,
oxygen immediately comes in contact with the magnesium and with
a smoldering ember at the tip of the wick, and
this causes the magnesium dust particles to ignite, creating tiny
sparks that are hot enough to relight the candle. The
(26:45):
chemical reaction can be repeated over and over until the
magnesium supply is exhausted or until the birthday kit loses
their patients, whichever happens first.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
All right, Well, speaking of birthday candles, I've always wondered
if we really spread germs and bacteria when we low
them out, So I decided to look into this, and
it turns out that scientists from the Canadian Center of
Science and Education have conducted some pretty extensive studies on this,
and I'm sorry to say the results are not pretty.
After multiple trials, the team found that cakes with candles
(27:15):
that were blown out contain nearly fifteen thousand percent more
bacteria than cakes that did not have candles blown out.
That's obviously bad news for germophobes, but there is a
silver lining here. So the research shows that most bacteria
can't survive thisliva in our mouth or the acid in
our stomach. We have a much greater chance of getting
sick from bacteria that makes it into our noses and
(27:37):
our eyes. So as long as you don't shove cake
up there, you can still chill down in relative safety.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
It's good to know. Here's the story from a party
that went completely wrong. So back in nineteen twelve, sixteen
women were fired from their jobs at the Ladies Home
Journal for dancing the Turkey trot on their lunch break.
Although the trendy dance this stuff had been named and
modeled after the movements of a turkey, including elbow lifts
(28:04):
to mimic the bird's flapping wings, it still managed to
spark this outrage from the era's moral police. Some venues
posted signs that said no turkey trotting allowed, and others
went so far as stationing a uniformed employee in the
center of the dance floor to watch out for illicit trotter's.
The dance prohibitions hit peak absurdi though, when sixteen Philadelphia
(28:25):
women were fired from a magazine for dancing the trot
on company grounds. The staff had gathered in the ladies
wreck room. This was during their lunch hour, and they
were gearing up for the coming weekend by teaching each
other these dance steps. Unfortunately, the magazine's chief editor, Edward Bach,
happened to pass by just as the women were demonstrating
the trot, and needless to say, he did not like
(28:46):
what he saw. The mass firing was reported nationwide and
most papers ran the same headline. Girls danced the turkey
trot and editor Boch saw them and was fearfully shocked.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
So weird. That's great fact though. I actually have another
cautionary tale for you, and it's about a French nobleman
who threw an epic party in the seventeenth century and
wound up paying for it for the rest of his life.
His name was Nicolay Fouquet, and his party was supposedly
meant to honor the most famous guest, twenty two year
old King Louis the fourteenth. In reality, though, the event
(29:20):
was just a way for Fouquet to show off his
fancy new estate and maybe get himself promoted to Prime Minister.
So Fouquet pulled out all the stops to achieve this.
He invited somewhere between three thousand and six thousand people,
and he gave every single one of them a costly gift.
These diamond brooches for the ladies and thoroughbred horses for them.
(29:41):
Then these gifts are wild now. He also called in
a favor from the famous playwright Molier and had him
write a new comedic play to be performed for the
first time after dinner. The performance was held in these
lavish gardens, and when it concluded, guests were treated to
a spectacular firework show above the estate. There was even
a big mechanical whale that quote swam through a canal
(30:03):
and shot off even more fireworks. The party was a
huge success by every measure except one. King Louis didn't
feel honored by the event. In fact, the young king
felt threatened by Fouquet's flagrant display of wealth, especially since
it seemed to support earlier accusations that Fouquet had been
stealing money from the Royal Treasury. But whether the rumors
(30:23):
were true or not, Fouque's fate was sealed by the
end of the party. He was arrested on trumped up
charges just a few weeks later and spent the rest
of his life in prison, all because he threw a
party that was a little too good.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
I feel like, aside from glitter, wounding, a king's ego
is probably the ultimate party foul. So I do think
between the thurdbred horses and the approaches and all that,
I think you get the trophy for this one.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
I mean, that's a lot of horses. Actually, I think
Fouquet deserves the trophy for that. That is just wild.
All right, Well, that's going to do it for today's
Part Time Genius from Mary Gabe, Dylan Mango and me.
Thank you so so much for listening now. If you
enjoyed the show, come find us on Instagram at part
Time Genius and be sure to tune in next week
for another brand new episode.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
This show is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongashtikler
and research by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's
episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan
with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive produced
for iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with social
(31:43):
media support from Sasha Gay, trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shorey.
For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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