August 23, 2025 • 35 mins
On March 3rd, 1876, residents of Bath County, Kentucky were startled to see what appeared to be chunks and flakes of meat falling from the clear, cloudless sky. The rain, which only lasted a few minutes, captured national attention. People across the country proposed various theories explaining the deluge. In today's Classic episode, the guys believe they've finally solved the mystery.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fellow Ridiculous Historians, We would love to share a classic
episode wherein we discovered what we suspect is a powerful
euphemism and it sounds so dirty, null Kentucky meat shower.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
You talking about the Kentucky meats shower. It'sull like a
Cleveland steamer. Yeah, no, I don't look that up. Yeah,
it does sound euphemistic.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Af On March third, eighteen seventy six, residents of Bath County, Kentucky,
were startled to find what appears to be chunky, flaky
bits of meat falling from the clear blue sky.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Literally.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yes, this is a true story. This is something that
absolutely arrested national attention, and people had all sorts of
theories about this. In this episode, we attempt to solve
the mystery.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Let's roll that meaty tape.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Let's start today's
(01:30):
episode with a quotation from the New York Times on
March tenth, eighteen seventy six. We'll just give you the
headline here, flesh descending in a shower, an astounding phenomenon
in Kentucky. Fresh meat like mutton or venison falling from
a clear sky.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yum.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yes, they said, like mutton or like venison. But what
was it?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Hi? I'm Ben, Hey, I'm no, and it's rain and meat.
I think of this rain and meat. You were not, yeah,
singing when I walked in. Why you gotta one on me? Ben?
Now you didn't even right. It's rating men, No, it's true.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Oh but we are also joined by our super producer,
Casey Pegram And this is the first time the three
of us have been back on the show together in
a little in a little while, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, I guess it has been a minute, probably like
a like a month or something. Oh yeah, that voice
from the sky like like like showers of meat in
our ears. Super producer Casey Pegram, Man, I've missed you, guys,
missed you.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
I know.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
It's weird. Casey was in France for a while, and
then we were away, and then I was away last
week and here we are.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Here we are, and we decided, now that the three
of us have reunited after far too long, that we
were going to pick up our continuing mission to do
an episode for every state in the United States. Uh,
and we're going to hopefully succeed. Where Soufion paused for
a second.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
He just I think it was a troll. Honestly, I
don't think he had any intention of doing it. He
only made two.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Maybe he's got a back catalog in years. Maybe he's
just really stuck on Rhode Island. You mean, like a vault.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, maybe unreleased state records that no one's gonna ever hear.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Sort of like JD. Salinger had all those stories that
no one saw in Laughters Done. I didn't know about that, yeah,
but hopefully a little bit different. Well, speaking of stories,
Speaking of stories, nol we got one today, we do.
We do so this episode will count for our Kentucky episode, right,
and from this headline you can tell that we're describing
(03:38):
something pretty bizarre. You see, back in March ninth of
what do we say? Eighteen seventy six? Yeah, back in
March ninth in Bath County, Kentucky, there was someone named
Alan Crouch. This guy lived about two or three miles
from a place we've seen alternately called Olympian Spring in
(04:00):
the original New York Times piece, but then later called
what was that Olymps Springs?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
So who knows? Who knows?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Probably the people that lived there, right, and missus Crouch
was out in the yard at the time. She was
making soap, and then she looked around. She heard the
pitter pattern of what she thought was, you know, maybe
the beginning of rain on a clear day without a
cloud in the sky. And she looked around, and what
(04:28):
was falling in her yard was not rain, not precipitation.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
It was meat. Yeah, in an event that would go
down in history as the Great Kentucky Meat Shower, which
is not some kind of crazy mullet right right, or
weird euphemism.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Also, I love the fact that they added great to
the name because it implies that there were some other,
relatively mediocre.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Ye there showers. There had to have been some lesser
meat showers. But what what happened? Why why was meat
raining from the And it wasn't. It wasn't just like
little pieces of meat. It was like all kinds of
different sized pieces of meat.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yes, yeah, the ones that missus Crouch saw were three
to four inches square, so pretty substantial, you know. And
other people saw this too, it wasn't just Missus Crouch,
and people tried to immediately figure out what this could be.
And we have to remember that the people in this
(05:27):
area at this time were well aware of other anecdotal
stories of strange things falling from the sky, rains of fish,
for instance, you know, or a rain of stones, but
these were often considered to be stories of old you know,
things you would read about in ancient text.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Is there anything in the Bible about a plague of
meat rain? Surely there's some sort of supernaturaliesque rain. But
I don't think it's just straight up meat. Was there? Frogs? Yeah? Yeah,
frogs y's yeah, they will eventually become meat. I mean,
if you're ambitious. Yeah. And here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Not only did other people see it, but two people
in the area got their gumption up and they said,
there's one easy way to figure out what kind of
meat this is.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Let's taste it. H Yeah. There was a guy named
Harrison Gill who was nearby. And here the New York
Times article refers to as having unquestionable veracity. So he
spoke the truth. And he was seeing these pieces of
meat like sticking to fences and all scattered every which way.
(06:33):
And yeah, he was one of the ones that decided
let's give it a taste. And it was kind of
argued between some of the tasters. The intrepid sky meat tasters,
whether it was bear or possibly venison, or A popular
one was mutton.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Right because they described a slightly gamey taste to it,
and mutton and venison especially can be gamy.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I've never eaten bear, no, I mean, but I would
assume it's super dark meat, very very gamey. Although mutton,
to me, it would be the dead giveaway because you know,
lamb and then he kind of meat like mutton, has
a very very distinct taste.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
It doesn't tastes like anything else. Distinct is the is
the correct word I think there. And I don't even
know if it's legal to eat a bear. That just
I'm not living the kind of life where that's come
up yet.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
What about you, Well, this is in the eighteen hundred,
so that is probably the wild West as far as
bear meats. That's a good point. That's a really good point.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
The first explanation from a man of science at the
time comes from a guy named Leopold Brandice about what
three months after the incident, he is able to get
a hold of some of the specimens, or it looks
like a specimen, but he gets some of it in
a jar preserved or a bottle preserved in glycerin, and
(07:55):
he starts poking around at it, and then he makes
the declaration that while this may appear to be meat,
it is not actually meat at all. Wait what Yeah,
that's what he said. He said it was not in
fact meat. He believed it was something called nostock no stock.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Oh that's right. This is like a like a plant
based organism. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, it's a cinobacteria that comes actually from the soil,
from the ground. You can find it on moist rocks,
bottoms of lakes and springs. It used to be called
troll butter or which jelly back in Europe. You're joking, No,
that's true. Those are amazing names for food products.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I know, I know troll jelly or witch butter, troll butter,
which jelly, But I think either one, you know, they're
both evocative. This is great. I'm going to use those, yeah,
just for I don't know, I don't know why yet,
but I love those. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I've been thinking the same thing. And when this stuff
is dry, it's pretty easy to miss. But when when
it's wet, it does have this jelly like I guess
you could say maybe meat esque, meat esque appearance. But
Brandy said that it's pretty easy to identify the subject was.
(09:07):
He was, also, by the way, convinced this was true.
The Kentucky Wonder is no more or less than nostoc,
And people have known about the nostoc since the sixteen hundreds.
I mean, that's how you get nicknames like which jelly?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
But how did it? Where did it come from? Well?
What was his what was his idea about how this
stuff made it up into the atmosphere and then showered
down upon this relatively small area.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
It goes back to when it is dry versus when
it is wet. So when this stuff is dried so inconspicuous,
people thought that it would float on the breeze until
it rained, and then when it was raining, the nostoc
would absorb the moisture and then it would fall from
this guy as a jelly.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Interesting, but that's not the only theory.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
That's not the only theory. That's not the only theory. Oh,
we shall also mention those other nicknames, star slubber, I
don't know, I want to care that one feels somehow dirty,
and then star jelly, which is still I don't know,
which is butter, which is jelly? Those are my picks,
so he believed Brandy's of course, believed that this was
(10:15):
the one absolute answer. But the problem is that for
his theory to be correct, it would have had to
have rained at some point, or there would have had
to be at least some rain bearing clouds in the sky,
you know what I mean, because the the nostuc would
have to absorb this moisture. And there wasn't a cloud
(10:36):
in the sky. It's perfectly clear day. And this meant
that there were going to be other theories. Like you said, no,
what was what was one of the other theories that
came up?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, this is a pretty gross one. It was this
notion from a guy named doctor A Mead Edwards, who
believed that this meat stuff was actually lung from a
horse or possibly an infant, yes, a human shallow. Now,
what's the deal with that? There was a lot of
That is a lot of lung meat. You don't have
(11:07):
to have a lot of babies to make that much
lung meat. I mean we're talking like, you know, sticking
to the fences, ben they scattered across the ground every which.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, yeah, that's the problem, right, that explanation. It's even
tougher to believe, but there is truth to it.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
They examined seven samples of this meat shower, and they confirmed,
I believe two of them to be lung tissue, and
three were muscle tissue, and two were made of cartilage.
So there was lung tissue in there. But how would
it come from human infant specifically or a horse? And
(11:42):
also how similar are the lungs of a horse and
the lungs of a human infant apparently quite apparently distressingly similar,
So what gives People couldn't really answer that question, could they?
They said, they just said, because it's lung tissue, we
believe that it came from a human infant or a horse.
They didn't really explain how it could have gotten there
(12:03):
into the sky than onto the ground in Bath County.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
That's the thing that no one seems to be looking
for that particular solution. They're more like, what's the meat?
Is the mystery of the meat, not about how in
the hell it ended up coming down from the sky. Right,
that seemed like the least of people's concerns, which is
strange because it makes you think about priorities, you know.
(12:29):
But again, there were more theories, right, some more plausible
than others. So one of my favorite theories that actually
does try to take a look at how this material
could have managed to make it up into the sky
and rain down upon these hapless people of Olympia blames
this occurrence on a meteor shower. Do tell super medi
(12:53):
meteor shower. So here's a quote from the New York
Times from William Livingston Alden. He wrote, according to the
present theory of astronomers, an enormous belt of meteoric stones
constantly revolves around the Sun, and when the Earth comes
in contact with this belt, she is soundly pelted. Okay.
He goes on to say, similarly, we may suppose that
(13:14):
there revolves around the Sun a belt a venison, mutton,
and other meats divided into small fragments which are precipitated
upon the Earth whenever the latter crosses their path. Help
me unpack that, Ben, I mean, it sounds like what
it says on the tent. Mm hmmm. So how likely
do you think that?
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Is?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Not very I actually saw another version of this theory
that said that this was like potentially like alien meat.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
So this is space venus space meat. Its space venis
all right, space mutton. So that idea is fascinating. I
don't know if it's true. I'm just gonna say it.
I don't want to be a pessimist, you know, I
don't want to shut the guy down.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
What do you think? Oh, I mean it's bonkers. You know,
you don't want to live in a world with space venison?
I don't know, man, I mean, it's not that I
don't want to live in that world. It's just that
I don't know that that world exists. How do they
get up there? I don't know. It was a real
jump in this guy. He's like, so here, there's this
thing called asteroid's an asteroid belt. So if there's an
(14:16):
asteroid belt, why couldn't there also be a similar belt
of meat. Maybe the guy was just very pro belt.
I think it was high. So, speaking of high, there
may be another explanation. And it's an explanation that involves animals, birds,
(14:36):
your favorite your favorites.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
But and this explanation originally came from an old farmer
in Ohio, who, upon learning of the meat shower, said,
I have an explanation. It's not space venison. It's not
it's not human lung tissue. It's nothing that you guys
have said before. It is, in fact something that I've
(15:03):
seen vultures do in the past. He said that this
deluge of meat was actually a disgorgement of meat from
vultures who were flying too high to be visible from
the ground. And some vultures can fly as high as
like a little less than forty thousand feet or twelve
thousand meters geez, so it'd be tough to see them.
(15:25):
And he said that this was vulture vomit. And then
a little bit later, a guy named doctor L. D. Castmbine,
writing in the Louisville Medical News, said, yeah, I think
the farmer's right. I think this is vulture vomit. And
he obtained his own sample and he lit it on fire,
(15:46):
and he's like, ah, this is not just mutton, it's
rancid mutton. And this made him believe that the culprits
were vultures. They ate a dead sheep and they flew off,
but due to the weight of the meat they were
carrying and their bodies, they were having a hard time flying,
so they vomited in the sky to make it easier
for them to fly.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
What was the thing that vultures do kind of on
the rag. They'll unburden themselves of a heavy load of
meat because you know, they eat this stuff raw. They
also have really acidic stomachs I've read to aid in
this digestion, and so sometimes they're so loaded down from
gorging themselves on you know, Lincoln dead sheep, like you
said that, they have to puke it up just so
(16:29):
they can fly properly.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
And some vultures even vomit on their feet to regulate
their temperature.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
That's disgusting. The vultures are filthy, disgusting creatures. They're very different,
they're very different things. Have you ever seen them up close,
just to the side of the road. Yeah, you know,
I don't go for the stop. I don't go check
out those vulture times. No, dude. Do you know what
a group of vultures is called? It's cool, there's there's
a different name for them depending on what they're doing.
Oh yeah, yeah, later on, So a group of vultures
(16:58):
is a committee, a venue, or a vault, Which which
do you prefer?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I guess it depends on what they're doing. A vault, well,
so then if they're in flight, they're a kettle. I
think I've heard that one.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, And if they're feeding in a group, it's because
the best one. It's called a wake, yes, yeah, yeah,
But what's a vault. It's just like I said, they're interchangeable.
A group of vultures can be either a committee, a venue,
or a vault. Do you know what a group of
ravens is called? It's an unkindness or yes, an unkindness
of ravens.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
So this vulture vomit explanation may not be particularly enjoyable
or I don't know, it's it can be pretty disgusting,
especially when you consider those two guys ate it. But
it does give us the ability to conjecture a little
bit about how the vultures came to vomit over Bath County.
(17:55):
First off, vultures don't tend to fly of their own
free will after they because they are digesting. So this
means that something must have startled the vultures. We don't
know what it was. Was it a sheep on a
mission of revenge? Was it a farmer discovering the sheep
and shooting at the vultures?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah, and this is coming from a great article from
Motherboard called the Mystery of the Kentucky Meat Shower by
Kaylee Rogers, and she actually speaks to the vice president
for field Programs at the Wildlife Conservation Society, who says
his name is Joe Walston. He says, if you want
to take off quickly with a huge amount of weight,
the first thing you're going to do is vomit, which
(18:38):
I think applies to everyone, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
So I also pulled some vulture facts from this excellent
book I want to recommend if you're ready for a
deep dive into human vulture relationships called Carrion Dreams. It's
written by a guy named Benjamin Joel Wilkinson, and as
far as I can tell, man he is just super
into the history of vultures, and he describes vultures in
(19:05):
folklore and mythology as well, you know, if you go
back to the ancient days of history. And one of
the interesting things is that when and where a vulture
vomits is also considered significant in certain cultures or folklore events.
It's a sign which is neat. You know. For instance,
here in Georgia, it used to be a common, you know,
(19:28):
folk tale belief that if you deeply desire something, all
you have to do is wish for it as you
throw a kiss at a vulture, and your wish will
come true. But you had to be careful not to
speak to a vulture while it was flying overhead, because
if you did and it hurt, you punish you by
vomiting on you.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
No, so maybe is that really? Is that really in there?
Speaker 1 (19:48):
That's really a thing? Yeah, I'm telling you. Carry and
Dreams is a great book. It's also a very weird book.
But so if that's true, perhaps somebody spoke to a
vulture while it was flying over it can te Well.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Here's the thing too, It's like this would have had
to be a multiple a group puke session, like a kettle,
whole kettle. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the whole the whole kettle puking,
you know, en mass And in this Motherboard article they
also speak to a named Kurt Goad, who's an art
professor at Transylvania University in Lexington and a self professed
(20:23):
expert in meat showers. He proposes that this is definitely
the most likely scenario that would have happened because all
of the meat was different sizes it came so, which
would have made sense if it had come from different
animals that were you know, chewing and feeding on different
(20:43):
carcasses or whatever, and then ended up together. Uh. And
they couldn't exactly ever figure out what types of animal
that came from, but it would have been from all
different kinds, and that there was some you know, cartilage
and lung material in there as well. So it certainly
was a mixed bag of meat. And here's the thing,
(21:03):
we don't know exactly how much meat actually fell. We
don't have a measure of you know, x amount of
tons or this many pounds. Instead we have what's the
phrase they use in most of the news at the time.
They say it was enough to fill a horse wagon full.
And for most people these days, that's it's not a
(21:25):
very easy rule of thumb kind of measurement, right totally.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
So there's a defense that Kirk comes up with in
this Doctor Goad. He says that in eighteen seventy six,
if you said, oh, it was a horse wagon full
of meat, that was the equivalent now of saying it's
like a big gulp from McDonald's. So his argument is
that horse wagons were ubiquitous enough at the time that
(21:50):
most people would have a rough idea of what that
size meant.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I'm trying to picture it. I'm sorry, I'm picturing this
wagon full of meat. That's the thing is a lot.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Is it a wagon to horses or is it a
wagon that horses carry behind them?
Speaker 2 (22:03):
That makes a difference. Oh, that's true, and I guess
I'm just picturing one of those standard UH wagons with
the little slats on the side that would be pulled
behind a horse. Yeah, where somebody sits up in. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
So either way, that's a distressing amount of meat to
fall from the sky. What do you think is the
mystery solved?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Well, I mean, with the most logical explanation being vulture
of Voman, I wonder how those towns people felt about having,
you know, snacked on some of that stuff out of curiosity.
I think at the time eating raw meat wasn't quite
as you know, frowned upon, or they weren't really worried
about food borne illnesses so much.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
I think, yeah, And I believe the idea was that
one wouldn't get sick if you just tasted it, rather
than you know, consuming a large amount of it or
the amount that would be equivalent to a meal.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
This certainly wouldn't have been like, oh, free food. I
don't know, man from heaven. Yeah, Manna is not a
meaty man situation.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
There is a question here that we have for you
ridiculous historians. Which explanation do you think is the most
plausible or which do you wish was the true story.
So we've got let's see, we've got human flesh, we've
got nostoc, we've got space venison, space meat, we've got
(23:28):
a curse from a vulture, and then of course we
just have a panic vulture, a panics kettle of vultures
attempting to fly. I'll tell you, man, my favorite My
favorites personally are either the space venison or the vulture curse.
You are all about this space venison. M h yeah,
that's what people say about me. I guess we should
add there are a couple more details that we can
(23:51):
add to these theories. One in terms of vulture behavior
is that have you ever seen those episodes of South
Park or Family Guy. It's on so many comedy shows,
this trope of one person throwing up and then everyone
seeing them throw up, and then they throw up as
well in reaction.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Oh god, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
So vultures really do that. That's the thing when they
are flying in a group. If one goes, they all go.
See this has got to be the answer, right. This
doesn't invalidate a vulture curse. It may mean that the
vultures vomit swarmed on them, cursing everyone in the town.
So I guess the moral of the story, if that
theory is true, is don't talk to vultures while they're busy.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
I wouldn't go anywhere near the ugly bastards.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
We had some more details tho on is it a
whole new theory or is it something to add to well.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I was trying to find a little more information about
this supposed meat media shower, but there's really not a
whole lot out there. It all kind of comes down
to that quote about how there may be a belt
of venison, mutton, and other meats divided into small fragments
that are revolving around the sun, which is bizarre. But
there's another one woman, I believe her name was Mary Crouch,
(25:02):
who was making soap. She apparently initially was scared that
her husband and son I believe, had been sucked up
into the sky and shredded and eviscerated by an angry
god and then rained down upon her in retribution for
what soap? Who knows? Who knows? Just being a sinner.
(25:26):
It's an angry god up there, Ben, Yeah, yeah, did you.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Ever read that original sermon? Yeah, sinners in the hand
of an angry God.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
It's a wild one. We should do an episode on that.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
We should, We should. Actually I have a lot of that.
I have a lot of the work from that time.
But for now, we believe that we have solved to
a great degree the mystery of the Kentucky meat shower.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
No, we didn't do it. I say we as the
human species. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Whatever people say we, they usually mean in a global event,
like the human species.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Right, I agree? I agree. And if I thought of
a better music theme for this episode, actually better than
it's raining meat. What is it? Red rain is coming down,
red rain has fallen in, which is a totally useless
Peter Gabriel song to me, but completely useful in this context.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Well, you're welcome, Peter, And what better note to end
our show on today? Thank you so much for listening.
Let us know it, especially if you happen to live
in this area of Kentucky. Let us know if people
still talk about this strange event in eighteen seventy six,
and if so, what do they say about it?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
And have you heard of any of the lesser meat
showers of other locales. I'm very interested to hear that.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, Or have you heard of any other extraordinary stories
of things falling from the sky in your neck of
the Global woods? If so, let us know. You can
find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, especially on our one
of our favorite places on the internet, our Facebook community page,
Ridiculous Historians, where you know we see some cool stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Stuff happens there. It's a place in our hearts and
also on the Internet. That's a great way to describe it.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Additionally, we'd like to think, as always super producer Casey Pegram,
I would I think Alex.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Williams, who composed our theme, our research pals Christopher Hasiotis
and Eve's Jeff Coo, and I believe Ben we have
a new member to the Ridiculous History research team as
Christopher and Eves kind of move on to start working
on some stuff of their own.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yes, thank you to Gabrielle Luzier, who a funny story
used to also work with Mental.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Floss that's awesome. I love that. Man. We're happy to
have you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
So that's it for today, but stay tuned for next
time when we reveal Wait.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Wait, did you hear that? You know I heard it, Ben,
I was gonna just keep going. It's time, gentlemen A
Stricklyn the Quist. He really leaned into that with you.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Well, it's been a long time. I have to it
has to make up for lost time.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
It has been a long time.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And although we are sworn nemeses, I just want to
check in real quick, how you've been doing it?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Pretty good?
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Good?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Kids are great, you know, just like kids in general,
just in general.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Yeah. I don't have any children of myself, but you know,
they seem to be going to school, and I understand
that's a good thing. Yeah. Things are you know, things
are fine.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Did they learn about the Great Kentucky Meat Shower in
school or any of the other showers that are implied
by that title.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
Well, in fact, we're going to be exploring a shower
of our own. My friends, get in the shower with me,
my buddies, no, come.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
On in, okay, a shower of the mind.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
The weird animals are just fine. Now listen, we know
that I am part of the most cringe worthy segment
in all the podcasting, in which I the quizitors show
up and I pose a scenario to the two of you,
and you determine whether or not it is actually representative
(28:51):
of a real thing, what happened in history, or I'd
done made it all up? Seas right, you get three minutes.
You can discuss amongst yourselves for three minutes.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
A friend, can we can we rope Casey into this?
Speaker 4 (29:05):
No? If you had friends, you could in fact phone them,
But I know for a fact that that's hurtful.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
We're not friends, are you kidding? Oh right? Confuse this?
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Okay, Okay, But in addition to that, you also add
one arbitrary rule, right.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
So that if you wish to ask any question to me,
you must first obey a rule of arbitray nature that
I make up typically two minutes before I come in here, okay,
and you have to do that in order to ask
a question. I will tell you what that rule is
after I have given you your scenario.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
All right, you know what I'm feeling good, I'm feeling
all right. No, Casey, I think we got this.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
I will I'll give you the scenario. Okay, I will
give you your arbitrary rule, and then time will begin.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
At which point I will vault over to that gigantic
grandfather clock.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
You'll pull the pull.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Cord which diesel engine going. Yeah, all right, all right,
it gets really few meon here, all right, here's your scenario.
In fourteen hundred and two, in Shropshire, England, locals were
perplexed by what they described as a rain of worms
falling upon the village in what amounted to thousands of worms,
(30:16):
covering the entire area, including the rooftops of several buildings.
The odd weather was met not with superstition and fear,
as we'd usually guess, but with a sort of bewildered amusement. However,
this historical event would later be immortalized by none other
than William Shakespeare, who fudged the date so that it
(30:38):
happened more than a year later, on the eve of
the Battle of Shrewsbury, which features in Henry the Fourth
Part one in act for scene one, Harry hotspur Percy,
the leader of a rebellion against Henry the Fourth, says,
yester een, they do say that worms fell as though rain.
Fortune is so disposed to us, that nature herself to
(31:00):
against this pretender king. In the mid nineteenth century, when
Shakespeare's plays became more popular, Shropshire began what would become
an annual tradition, a festival day celebrating the Rain of Worms.
It happens every year on the second Saturday of April.
And your arbitrary rule is you must quote Shakespeare, any
(31:22):
Shakespeare before asking me a question.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Begin the time. I'm taking a run for it and
we are okay, we're god. You've made worms meat of me.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
You have a question?
Speaker 2 (31:36):
No I do? I do? I don't know. I just
wanted to quote some Shakespeare. Don't really have any question.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
That's a that's a good quote.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Very well. I bite my thumb at you.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Romeo and Juliette reference Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Okay, So this festival, what's the name of it again?
Speaker 4 (31:53):
It is known as the Rain of Worms Festival, and
it is second Saturday of every April.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
In your story, it's on going.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
It is ongoing in your story. It is ongoing, Casey,
what do you think?
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Oh just for so wait, wait, we're letting Casey come
into this earlier and you ignored me and said I
had no friends for everything.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Sure, everybody listening, what happened when you heard that dead
air and those pauses between the quister and myself? I
was staring at him to read body language somewhat unsuccessfully.
All right, Casey, what's what's your take?
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Man?
Speaker 5 (32:29):
Oh boy? See, I hate this because whenever you and
knowl are not in agreement on something, I'm gonna be
the tiebreaker, and I'm probably gonna get it wrong with this.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
We usually tend to be on the same page pretty quickly.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
You do rock paper scissors every time.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
So we've got to We've got to stick. That works, man.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
But that means that you're at opposition with one another.
If you were an agreement, you wouldn't have to do
rock paper scissors.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
That's what you can only really do rock paper scissors
with friends. I don't know if you have a lot
of friends, Jonathan, but if you have friends and you
play rock paper scissors, Okay, Look, we're at a minute twenty.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
I kind of think this is true, but I could
be completely wrong, or it could be from a different Shakespeare.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
I'm just that's kind of how this works, you know.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I'm just skeptical that they're of the Initially, I'm skeptical
of a festival built on worms because people in general
aren't wild about worms. Oh wow, okay, this is this
one's taken the longest because usually we've nailed something down
by now we're at fifty seconds. I'm gonna say, peel,
(33:37):
you know what. I'm tempted to say the same thing,
just because it was so detailed. Do you want to
lock it in? Let's lock it in and you'll come
back if we're okay, all right? Three two one false
false false, Sorry, you'll correct.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Yeah, there was no rain of words in Shropshire English,
and I made up the line from Henry the fourth
part one. There's there is a line that does say
that that fortune is disposed to us, but Hotspur says
it in a completely different context. There's no festival of
(34:14):
the Rain of Worms.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
It's I would think I would have heard of this.
It's a little love crafty from the band or England.
You probably wouldn't have heard that.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
I had I had prepared an explanation or description of
the festival, but you you, you had susted out so
early that I didn't have a chance to.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Where is this further? Where is the count Now where
does this put us? Oh, you're getting a little closer.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
I want to say that maybe I'm one or two ahead. Honestly,
it's been so long that I just declared myself supreme
winner of all things for old Hey.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
I've got an idea you should you should come back.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
So you want to have yet another matching of wits.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Oh that's that's a strong word. I just I thought
I would give you another chance to do a little better.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Next time.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
I'll go and count them up if you want me to.
I'm I'm pretty sure I've at least one or two ahead.
But it is on like the Donkey Kong, mister Bowlin.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Fantastic, fantastic. Well, no, we got a win. We did
get away. Sometimes you just need a win. And thanks, Casey,
Thanks thanks for intervening in there too. That was really cool.
I appreciate that you believe in me, Casey.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
So this concludes our episode, but not our show. Stay
tuned next time when we explore the strange, hilarious, somewhat disgusting,
definitely ridiculous method that scientists use to trace the path
of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
It's the smell test. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Fellow Ridiculous Historians, We would love to share a classic
episode wherein we discovered what we suspect is a powerful
euphemism and it sounds so dirty, null Kentucky meat shower.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
You talking about the Kentucky meats shower. It'sull like a
Cleveland steamer. Yeah, no, I don't look that up. Yeah,
it does sound euphemistic.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Af On March third, eighteen seventy six, residents of Bath County, Kentucky,
were startled to find what appears to be chunky, flaky
bits of meat falling from the clear blue sky.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Literally.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yes, this is a true story. This is something that
absolutely arrested national attention, and people had all sorts of
theories about this. In this episode, we attempt to solve
the mystery.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Let's roll that meaty tape.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Let's start today's
(01:30):
episode with a quotation from the New York Times on
March tenth, eighteen seventy six. We'll just give you the
headline here, flesh descending in a shower, an astounding phenomenon
in Kentucky. Fresh meat like mutton or venison falling from
a clear sky.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yum.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yes, they said, like mutton or like venison. But what
was it?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Hi? I'm Ben, Hey, I'm no, and it's rain and meat.
I think of this rain and meat. You were not, yeah,
singing when I walked in. Why you gotta one on me? Ben?
Now you didn't even right. It's rating men, No, it's true.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Oh but we are also joined by our super producer,
Casey Pegram And this is the first time the three
of us have been back on the show together in
a little in a little while, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, I guess it has been a minute, probably like
a like a month or something. Oh yeah, that voice
from the sky like like like showers of meat in
our ears. Super producer Casey Pegram, Man, I've missed you, guys,
missed you.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
I know.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
It's weird. Casey was in France for a while, and
then we were away, and then I was away last
week and here we are.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Here we are, and we decided, now that the three
of us have reunited after far too long, that we
were going to pick up our continuing mission to do
an episode for every state in the United States. Uh,
and we're going to hopefully succeed. Where Soufion paused for
a second.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
He just I think it was a troll. Honestly, I
don't think he had any intention of doing it. He
only made two.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Maybe he's got a back catalog in years. Maybe he's
just really stuck on Rhode Island. You mean, like a vault.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, maybe unreleased state records that no one's gonna ever hear.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Sort of like JD. Salinger had all those stories that
no one saw in Laughters Done. I didn't know about that, yeah,
but hopefully a little bit different. Well, speaking of stories,
Speaking of stories, nol we got one today, we do.
We do so this episode will count for our Kentucky episode, right,
and from this headline you can tell that we're describing
(03:38):
something pretty bizarre. You see, back in March ninth of
what do we say? Eighteen seventy six? Yeah, back in
March ninth in Bath County, Kentucky, there was someone named
Alan Crouch. This guy lived about two or three miles
from a place we've seen alternately called Olympian Spring in
(04:00):
the original New York Times piece, but then later called
what was that Olymps Springs?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
So who knows? Who knows?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Probably the people that lived there, right, and missus Crouch
was out in the yard at the time. She was
making soap, and then she looked around. She heard the
pitter pattern of what she thought was, you know, maybe
the beginning of rain on a clear day without a
cloud in the sky. And she looked around, and what
(04:28):
was falling in her yard was not rain, not precipitation.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
It was meat. Yeah, in an event that would go
down in history as the Great Kentucky Meat Shower, which
is not some kind of crazy mullet right right, or
weird euphemism.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Also, I love the fact that they added great to
the name because it implies that there were some other,
relatively mediocre.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Ye there showers. There had to have been some lesser
meat showers. But what what happened? Why why was meat
raining from the And it wasn't. It wasn't just like
little pieces of meat. It was like all kinds of
different sized pieces of meat.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yes, yeah, the ones that missus Crouch saw were three
to four inches square, so pretty substantial, you know. And
other people saw this too, it wasn't just Missus Crouch,
and people tried to immediately figure out what this could be.
And we have to remember that the people in this
(05:27):
area at this time were well aware of other anecdotal
stories of strange things falling from the sky, rains of fish,
for instance, you know, or a rain of stones, but
these were often considered to be stories of old you know,
things you would read about in ancient text.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Is there anything in the Bible about a plague of
meat rain? Surely there's some sort of supernaturaliesque rain. But
I don't think it's just straight up meat. Was there? Frogs? Yeah? Yeah,
frogs y's yeah, they will eventually become meat. I mean,
if you're ambitious. Yeah. And here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Not only did other people see it, but two people
in the area got their gumption up and they said,
there's one easy way to figure out what kind of
meat this is.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Let's taste it. H Yeah. There was a guy named
Harrison Gill who was nearby. And here the New York
Times article refers to as having unquestionable veracity. So he
spoke the truth. And he was seeing these pieces of
meat like sticking to fences and all scattered every which way.
(06:33):
And yeah, he was one of the ones that decided
let's give it a taste. And it was kind of
argued between some of the tasters. The intrepid sky meat tasters,
whether it was bear or possibly venison, or A popular
one was mutton.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Right because they described a slightly gamey taste to it,
and mutton and venison especially can be gamy.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I've never eaten bear, no, I mean, but I would
assume it's super dark meat, very very gamey. Although mutton,
to me, it would be the dead giveaway because you know,
lamb and then he kind of meat like mutton, has
a very very distinct taste.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
It doesn't tastes like anything else. Distinct is the is
the correct word I think there. And I don't even
know if it's legal to eat a bear. That just
I'm not living the kind of life where that's come
up yet.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
What about you, Well, this is in the eighteen hundred,
so that is probably the wild West as far as
bear meats. That's a good point. That's a really good point.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
The first explanation from a man of science at the
time comes from a guy named Leopold Brandice about what
three months after the incident, he is able to get
a hold of some of the specimens, or it looks
like a specimen, but he gets some of it in
a jar preserved or a bottle preserved in glycerin, and
(07:55):
he starts poking around at it, and then he makes
the declaration that while this may appear to be meat,
it is not actually meat at all. Wait what Yeah,
that's what he said. He said it was not in
fact meat. He believed it was something called nostock no stock.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Oh that's right. This is like a like a plant
based organism. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, it's a cinobacteria that comes actually from the soil,
from the ground. You can find it on moist rocks,
bottoms of lakes and springs. It used to be called
troll butter or which jelly back in Europe. You're joking, No,
that's true. Those are amazing names for food products.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I know, I know troll jelly or witch butter, troll butter,
which jelly, But I think either one, you know, they're
both evocative. This is great. I'm going to use those, yeah,
just for I don't know, I don't know why yet,
but I love those. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I've been thinking the same thing. And when this stuff
is dry, it's pretty easy to miss. But when when
it's wet, it does have this jelly like I guess
you could say maybe meat esque, meat esque appearance. But
Brandy said that it's pretty easy to identify the subject was.
(09:07):
He was, also, by the way, convinced this was true.
The Kentucky Wonder is no more or less than nostoc,
And people have known about the nostoc since the sixteen hundreds.
I mean, that's how you get nicknames like which jelly?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
But how did it? Where did it come from? Well?
What was his what was his idea about how this
stuff made it up into the atmosphere and then showered
down upon this relatively small area.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
It goes back to when it is dry versus when
it is wet. So when this stuff is dried so inconspicuous,
people thought that it would float on the breeze until
it rained, and then when it was raining, the nostoc
would absorb the moisture and then it would fall from
this guy as a jelly.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Interesting, but that's not the only theory.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
That's not the only theory. That's not the only theory. Oh,
we shall also mention those other nicknames, star slubber, I
don't know, I want to care that one feels somehow dirty,
and then star jelly, which is still I don't know,
which is butter, which is jelly? Those are my picks,
so he believed Brandy's of course, believed that this was
(10:15):
the one absolute answer. But the problem is that for
his theory to be correct, it would have had to
have rained at some point, or there would have had
to be at least some rain bearing clouds in the sky,
you know what I mean, because the the nostuc would
have to absorb this moisture. And there wasn't a cloud
(10:36):
in the sky. It's perfectly clear day. And this meant
that there were going to be other theories. Like you said, no,
what was what was one of the other theories that
came up?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, this is a pretty gross one. It was this
notion from a guy named doctor A Mead Edwards, who
believed that this meat stuff was actually lung from a
horse or possibly an infant, yes, a human shallow. Now,
what's the deal with that? There was a lot of
That is a lot of lung meat. You don't have
(11:07):
to have a lot of babies to make that much
lung meat. I mean we're talking like, you know, sticking
to the fences, ben they scattered across the ground every which.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, yeah, that's the problem, right, that explanation. It's even
tougher to believe, but there is truth to it.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
They examined seven samples of this meat shower, and they confirmed,
I believe two of them to be lung tissue, and
three were muscle tissue, and two were made of cartilage.
So there was lung tissue in there. But how would
it come from human infant specifically or a horse? And
(11:42):
also how similar are the lungs of a horse and
the lungs of a human infant apparently quite apparently distressingly similar,
So what gives People couldn't really answer that question, could they?
They said, they just said, because it's lung tissue, we
believe that it came from a human infant or a horse.
They didn't really explain how it could have gotten there
(12:03):
into the sky than onto the ground in Bath County.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
That's the thing that no one seems to be looking
for that particular solution. They're more like, what's the meat?
Is the mystery of the meat, not about how in
the hell it ended up coming down from the sky. Right,
that seemed like the least of people's concerns, which is
strange because it makes you think about priorities, you know.
(12:29):
But again, there were more theories, right, some more plausible
than others. So one of my favorite theories that actually
does try to take a look at how this material
could have managed to make it up into the sky
and rain down upon these hapless people of Olympia blames
this occurrence on a meteor shower. Do tell super medi
(12:53):
meteor shower. So here's a quote from the New York
Times from William Livingston Alden. He wrote, according to the
present theory of astronomers, an enormous belt of meteoric stones
constantly revolves around the Sun, and when the Earth comes
in contact with this belt, she is soundly pelted. Okay.
He goes on to say, similarly, we may suppose that
(13:14):
there revolves around the Sun a belt a venison, mutton,
and other meats divided into small fragments which are precipitated
upon the Earth whenever the latter crosses their path. Help
me unpack that, Ben, I mean, it sounds like what
it says on the tent. Mm hmmm. So how likely
do you think that?
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Is?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Not very I actually saw another version of this theory
that said that this was like potentially like alien meat.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
So this is space venus space meat. Its space venis
all right, space mutton. So that idea is fascinating. I
don't know if it's true. I'm just gonna say it.
I don't want to be a pessimist, you know, I
don't want to shut the guy down.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
What do you think? Oh, I mean it's bonkers. You know,
you don't want to live in a world with space venison?
I don't know, man, I mean, it's not that I
don't want to live in that world. It's just that
I don't know that that world exists. How do they
get up there? I don't know. It was a real
jump in this guy. He's like, so here, there's this
thing called asteroid's an asteroid belt. So if there's an
(14:16):
asteroid belt, why couldn't there also be a similar belt
of meat. Maybe the guy was just very pro belt.
I think it was high. So, speaking of high, there
may be another explanation. And it's an explanation that involves animals, birds,
(14:36):
your favorite your favorites.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
But and this explanation originally came from an old farmer
in Ohio, who, upon learning of the meat shower, said,
I have an explanation. It's not space venison. It's not
it's not human lung tissue. It's nothing that you guys
have said before. It is, in fact something that I've
(15:03):
seen vultures do in the past. He said that this
deluge of meat was actually a disgorgement of meat from
vultures who were flying too high to be visible from
the ground. And some vultures can fly as high as
like a little less than forty thousand feet or twelve
thousand meters geez, so it'd be tough to see them.
(15:25):
And he said that this was vulture vomit. And then
a little bit later, a guy named doctor L. D. Castmbine,
writing in the Louisville Medical News, said, yeah, I think
the farmer's right. I think this is vulture vomit. And
he obtained his own sample and he lit it on fire,
(15:46):
and he's like, ah, this is not just mutton, it's
rancid mutton. And this made him believe that the culprits
were vultures. They ate a dead sheep and they flew off,
but due to the weight of the meat they were
carrying and their bodies, they were having a hard time flying,
so they vomited in the sky to make it easier
for them to fly.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
What was the thing that vultures do kind of on
the rag. They'll unburden themselves of a heavy load of
meat because you know, they eat this stuff raw. They
also have really acidic stomachs I've read to aid in
this digestion, and so sometimes they're so loaded down from
gorging themselves on you know, Lincoln dead sheep, like you
said that, they have to puke it up just so
(16:29):
they can fly properly.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
And some vultures even vomit on their feet to regulate
their temperature.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
That's disgusting. The vultures are filthy, disgusting creatures. They're very different,
they're very different things. Have you ever seen them up close,
just to the side of the road. Yeah, you know,
I don't go for the stop. I don't go check
out those vulture times. No, dude. Do you know what
a group of vultures is called? It's cool, there's there's
a different name for them depending on what they're doing.
Oh yeah, yeah, later on, So a group of vultures
(16:58):
is a committee, a venue, or a vault, Which which
do you prefer?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I guess it depends on what they're doing. A vault, well,
so then if they're in flight, they're a kettle. I
think I've heard that one.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, And if they're feeding in a group, it's because
the best one. It's called a wake, yes, yeah, yeah,
But what's a vault. It's just like I said, they're interchangeable.
A group of vultures can be either a committee, a venue,
or a vault. Do you know what a group of
ravens is called? It's an unkindness or yes, an unkindness
of ravens.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
So this vulture vomit explanation may not be particularly enjoyable
or I don't know, it's it can be pretty disgusting,
especially when you consider those two guys ate it. But
it does give us the ability to conjecture a little
bit about how the vultures came to vomit over Bath County.
(17:55):
First off, vultures don't tend to fly of their own
free will after they because they are digesting. So this
means that something must have startled the vultures. We don't
know what it was. Was it a sheep on a
mission of revenge? Was it a farmer discovering the sheep
and shooting at the vultures?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah, and this is coming from a great article from
Motherboard called the Mystery of the Kentucky Meat Shower by
Kaylee Rogers, and she actually speaks to the vice president
for field Programs at the Wildlife Conservation Society, who says
his name is Joe Walston. He says, if you want
to take off quickly with a huge amount of weight,
the first thing you're going to do is vomit, which
(18:38):
I think applies to everyone, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
So I also pulled some vulture facts from this excellent
book I want to recommend if you're ready for a
deep dive into human vulture relationships called Carrion Dreams. It's
written by a guy named Benjamin Joel Wilkinson, and as
far as I can tell, man he is just super
into the history of vultures, and he describes vultures in
(19:05):
folklore and mythology as well, you know, if you go
back to the ancient days of history. And one of
the interesting things is that when and where a vulture
vomits is also considered significant in certain cultures or folklore events.
It's a sign which is neat. You know. For instance,
here in Georgia, it used to be a common, you know,
(19:28):
folk tale belief that if you deeply desire something, all
you have to do is wish for it as you
throw a kiss at a vulture, and your wish will
come true. But you had to be careful not to
speak to a vulture while it was flying overhead, because
if you did and it hurt, you punish you by
vomiting on you.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
No, so maybe is that really? Is that really in there?
Speaker 1 (19:48):
That's really a thing? Yeah, I'm telling you. Carry and
Dreams is a great book. It's also a very weird book.
But so if that's true, perhaps somebody spoke to a
vulture while it was flying over it can te Well.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Here's the thing too, It's like this would have had
to be a multiple a group puke session, like a kettle,
whole kettle. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the whole the whole kettle puking,
you know, en mass And in this Motherboard article they
also speak to a named Kurt Goad, who's an art
professor at Transylvania University in Lexington and a self professed
(20:23):
expert in meat showers. He proposes that this is definitely
the most likely scenario that would have happened because all
of the meat was different sizes it came so, which
would have made sense if it had come from different
animals that were you know, chewing and feeding on different
(20:43):
carcasses or whatever, and then ended up together. Uh. And
they couldn't exactly ever figure out what types of animal
that came from, but it would have been from all
different kinds, and that there was some you know, cartilage
and lung material in there as well. So it certainly
was a mixed bag of meat. And here's the thing,
(21:03):
we don't know exactly how much meat actually fell. We
don't have a measure of you know, x amount of
tons or this many pounds. Instead we have what's the
phrase they use in most of the news at the time.
They say it was enough to fill a horse wagon full.
And for most people these days, that's it's not a
(21:25):
very easy rule of thumb kind of measurement, right totally.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
So there's a defense that Kirk comes up with in
this Doctor Goad. He says that in eighteen seventy six,
if you said, oh, it was a horse wagon full
of meat, that was the equivalent now of saying it's
like a big gulp from McDonald's. So his argument is
that horse wagons were ubiquitous enough at the time that
(21:50):
most people would have a rough idea of what that
size meant.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I'm trying to picture it. I'm sorry, I'm picturing this
wagon full of meat. That's the thing is a lot.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Is it a wagon to horses or is it a
wagon that horses carry behind them?
Speaker 2 (22:03):
That makes a difference. Oh, that's true, and I guess
I'm just picturing one of those standard UH wagons with
the little slats on the side that would be pulled
behind a horse. Yeah, where somebody sits up in. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
So either way, that's a distressing amount of meat to
fall from the sky. What do you think is the
mystery solved?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Well, I mean, with the most logical explanation being vulture
of Voman, I wonder how those towns people felt about having,
you know, snacked on some of that stuff out of curiosity.
I think at the time eating raw meat wasn't quite
as you know, frowned upon, or they weren't really worried
about food borne illnesses so much.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
I think, yeah, And I believe the idea was that
one wouldn't get sick if you just tasted it, rather
than you know, consuming a large amount of it or
the amount that would be equivalent to a meal.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
This certainly wouldn't have been like, oh, free food. I
don't know, man from heaven. Yeah, Manna is not a
meaty man situation.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
There is a question here that we have for you
ridiculous historians. Which explanation do you think is the most
plausible or which do you wish was the true story.
So we've got let's see, we've got human flesh, we've
got nostoc, we've got space venison, space meat, we've got
(23:28):
a curse from a vulture, and then of course we
just have a panic vulture, a panics kettle of vultures
attempting to fly. I'll tell you, man, my favorite My
favorites personally are either the space venison or the vulture curse.
You are all about this space venison. M h yeah,
that's what people say about me. I guess we should
add there are a couple more details that we can
(23:51):
add to these theories. One in terms of vulture behavior
is that have you ever seen those episodes of South
Park or Family Guy. It's on so many comedy shows,
this trope of one person throwing up and then everyone
seeing them throw up, and then they throw up as
well in reaction.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Oh god, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
So vultures really do that. That's the thing when they
are flying in a group. If one goes, they all go.
See this has got to be the answer, right. This
doesn't invalidate a vulture curse. It may mean that the
vultures vomit swarmed on them, cursing everyone in the town.
So I guess the moral of the story, if that
theory is true, is don't talk to vultures while they're busy.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
I wouldn't go anywhere near the ugly bastards.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
We had some more details tho on is it a
whole new theory or is it something to add to well.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I was trying to find a little more information about
this supposed meat media shower, but there's really not a
whole lot out there. It all kind of comes down
to that quote about how there may be a belt
of venison, mutton, and other meats divided into small fragments
that are revolving around the sun, which is bizarre. But
there's another one woman, I believe her name was Mary Crouch,
(25:02):
who was making soap. She apparently initially was scared that
her husband and son I believe, had been sucked up
into the sky and shredded and eviscerated by an angry
god and then rained down upon her in retribution for
what soap? Who knows? Who knows? Just being a sinner.
(25:26):
It's an angry god up there, Ben, Yeah, yeah, did you.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Ever read that original sermon? Yeah, sinners in the hand
of an angry God.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
It's a wild one. We should do an episode on that.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
We should, We should. Actually I have a lot of that.
I have a lot of the work from that time.
But for now, we believe that we have solved to
a great degree the mystery of the Kentucky meat shower.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
No, we didn't do it. I say we as the
human species. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Whatever people say we, they usually mean in a global event,
like the human species.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Right, I agree? I agree. And if I thought of
a better music theme for this episode, actually better than
it's raining meat. What is it? Red rain is coming down,
red rain has fallen in, which is a totally useless
Peter Gabriel song to me, but completely useful in this context.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Well, you're welcome, Peter, And what better note to end
our show on today? Thank you so much for listening.
Let us know it, especially if you happen to live
in this area of Kentucky. Let us know if people
still talk about this strange event in eighteen seventy six,
and if so, what do they say about it?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
And have you heard of any of the lesser meat
showers of other locales. I'm very interested to hear that.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, Or have you heard of any other extraordinary stories
of things falling from the sky in your neck of
the Global woods? If so, let us know. You can
find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, especially on our one
of our favorite places on the internet, our Facebook community page,
Ridiculous Historians, where you know we see some cool stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Stuff happens there. It's a place in our hearts and
also on the Internet. That's a great way to describe it.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Additionally, we'd like to think, as always super producer Casey Pegram,
I would I think Alex.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Williams, who composed our theme, our research pals Christopher Hasiotis
and Eve's Jeff Coo, and I believe Ben we have
a new member to the Ridiculous History research team as
Christopher and Eves kind of move on to start working
on some stuff of their own.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yes, thank you to Gabrielle Luzier, who a funny story
used to also work with Mental.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Floss that's awesome. I love that. Man. We're happy to
have you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
So that's it for today, but stay tuned for next
time when we reveal Wait.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Wait, did you hear that? You know I heard it, Ben,
I was gonna just keep going. It's time, gentlemen A
Stricklyn the Quist. He really leaned into that with you.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Well, it's been a long time. I have to it
has to make up for lost time.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
It has been a long time.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And although we are sworn nemeses, I just want to
check in real quick, how you've been doing it?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Pretty good?
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Good?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Kids are great, you know, just like kids in general,
just in general.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Yeah. I don't have any children of myself, but you know,
they seem to be going to school, and I understand
that's a good thing. Yeah. Things are you know, things
are fine.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Did they learn about the Great Kentucky Meat Shower in
school or any of the other showers that are implied
by that title.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
Well, in fact, we're going to be exploring a shower
of our own. My friends, get in the shower with me,
my buddies, no, come.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
On in, okay, a shower of the mind.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
The weird animals are just fine. Now listen, we know
that I am part of the most cringe worthy segment
in all the podcasting, in which I the quizitors show
up and I pose a scenario to the two of you,
and you determine whether or not it is actually representative
(28:51):
of a real thing, what happened in history, or I'd
done made it all up? Seas right, you get three minutes.
You can discuss amongst yourselves for three minutes.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
A friend, can we can we rope Casey into this?
Speaker 4 (29:05):
No? If you had friends, you could in fact phone them,
But I know for a fact that that's hurtful.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
We're not friends, are you kidding? Oh right? Confuse this?
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Okay, Okay, But in addition to that, you also add
one arbitrary rule, right.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
So that if you wish to ask any question to me,
you must first obey a rule of arbitray nature that
I make up typically two minutes before I come in here, okay,
and you have to do that in order to ask
a question. I will tell you what that rule is
after I have given you your scenario.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
All right, you know what I'm feeling good, I'm feeling
all right. No, Casey, I think we got this.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
I will I'll give you the scenario. Okay, I will
give you your arbitrary rule, and then time will begin.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
At which point I will vault over to that gigantic
grandfather clock.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
You'll pull the pull.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Cord which diesel engine going. Yeah, all right, all right,
it gets really few meon here, all right, here's your scenario.
In fourteen hundred and two, in Shropshire, England, locals were
perplexed by what they described as a rain of worms
falling upon the village in what amounted to thousands of worms,
(30:16):
covering the entire area, including the rooftops of several buildings.
The odd weather was met not with superstition and fear,
as we'd usually guess, but with a sort of bewildered amusement. However,
this historical event would later be immortalized by none other
than William Shakespeare, who fudged the date so that it
(30:38):
happened more than a year later, on the eve of
the Battle of Shrewsbury, which features in Henry the Fourth
Part one in act for scene one, Harry hotspur Percy,
the leader of a rebellion against Henry the Fourth, says,
yester een, they do say that worms fell as though rain.
Fortune is so disposed to us, that nature herself to
(31:00):
against this pretender king. In the mid nineteenth century, when
Shakespeare's plays became more popular, Shropshire began what would become
an annual tradition, a festival day celebrating the Rain of Worms.
It happens every year on the second Saturday of April.
And your arbitrary rule is you must quote Shakespeare, any
(31:22):
Shakespeare before asking me a question.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Begin the time. I'm taking a run for it and
we are okay, we're god. You've made worms meat of me.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
You have a question?
Speaker 2 (31:36):
No I do? I do? I don't know. I just
wanted to quote some Shakespeare. Don't really have any question.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
That's a that's a good quote.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Very well. I bite my thumb at you.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Romeo and Juliette reference Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Okay, So this festival, what's the name of it again?
Speaker 4 (31:53):
It is known as the Rain of Worms Festival, and
it is second Saturday of every April.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
In your story, it's on going.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
It is ongoing in your story. It is ongoing, Casey,
what do you think?
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Oh just for so wait, wait, we're letting Casey come
into this earlier and you ignored me and said I
had no friends for everything.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Sure, everybody listening, what happened when you heard that dead
air and those pauses between the quister and myself? I
was staring at him to read body language somewhat unsuccessfully.
All right, Casey, what's what's your take?
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Man?
Speaker 5 (32:29):
Oh boy? See, I hate this because whenever you and
knowl are not in agreement on something, I'm gonna be
the tiebreaker, and I'm probably gonna get it wrong with this.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
We usually tend to be on the same page pretty quickly.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
You do rock paper scissors every time.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
So we've got to We've got to stick. That works, man.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
But that means that you're at opposition with one another.
If you were an agreement, you wouldn't have to do
rock paper scissors.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
That's what you can only really do rock paper scissors
with friends. I don't know if you have a lot
of friends, Jonathan, but if you have friends and you
play rock paper scissors, Okay, Look, we're at a minute twenty.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
I kind of think this is true, but I could
be completely wrong, or it could be from a different Shakespeare.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
I'm just that's kind of how this works, you know.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I'm just skeptical that they're of the Initially, I'm skeptical
of a festival built on worms because people in general
aren't wild about worms. Oh wow, okay, this is this
one's taken the longest because usually we've nailed something down
by now we're at fifty seconds. I'm gonna say, peel,
(33:37):
you know what. I'm tempted to say the same thing,
just because it was so detailed. Do you want to
lock it in? Let's lock it in and you'll come
back if we're okay, all right? Three two one false
false false, Sorry, you'll correct.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Yeah, there was no rain of words in Shropshire English,
and I made up the line from Henry the fourth
part one. There's there is a line that does say
that that fortune is disposed to us, but Hotspur says
it in a completely different context. There's no festival of
(34:14):
the Rain of Worms.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
It's I would think I would have heard of this.
It's a little love crafty from the band or England.
You probably wouldn't have heard that.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
I had I had prepared an explanation or description of
the festival, but you you, you had susted out so
early that I didn't have a chance to.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Where is this further? Where is the count Now where
does this put us? Oh, you're getting a little closer.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
I want to say that maybe I'm one or two ahead. Honestly,
it's been so long that I just declared myself supreme
winner of all things for old Hey.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
I've got an idea you should you should come back.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
So you want to have yet another matching of wits.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Oh that's that's a strong word. I just I thought
I would give you another chance to do a little better.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Next time.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
I'll go and count them up if you want me to.
I'm I'm pretty sure I've at least one or two ahead.
But it is on like the Donkey Kong, mister Bowlin.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Fantastic, fantastic. Well, no, we got a win. We did
get away. Sometimes you just need a win. And thanks, Casey,
Thanks thanks for intervening in there too. That was really cool.
I appreciate that you believe in me, Casey.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
So this concludes our episode, but not our show. Stay
tuned next time when we explore the strange, hilarious, somewhat disgusting,
definitely ridiculous method that scientists use to trace the path
of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
It's the smell test. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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