April 7, 2026 • 35 mins
Here's one for the cat lovers: Does your feline friend absolutely love catnip? If you have a cat with the right sensitivities, this stuff completely rocks their world. They'll go nuts for it, rolling around in the stuff, chewing it, drooling in a stupor and so on. In today's episode -- inspired by a listener suggestion -- Ben, Noel and Max dive into the ridiculous story of a get-rich-quick catnip scheme, when a New York peddler down on his luck tried to sell catnip door to door... and caused a full-on cat riot in the process.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the man,
the myth, the legend, Max the cat Slave, williams.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Oh Kiddy got Claws, and.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
There is none other than mister Noel Brown of Fellow
Lover of Feline's. Noel, how are you feeling today?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I'm pretty good, Ben. We had a s we had
a mind meld off mic uh, And I'm just gonna
kind of tease it a little bit. I was walking today,
doing my little morning walk around this pond that is
also occupied by geese, and there is poop everywhere, and
every time I go, I think goose poop riot.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Ut talking about it.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
There you go. I'm not talking about goose poop riots. Today,
We're talking about cat net riot.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
My name is Ben Bollen, and we are talking about
something that is a riot. Today's episode is a riot.
It's not in the way you might assume, Fellow Ridiculous Historians.
We're excited for this one, and I love the way
you teas and we are excited because this comes to
us via a listener suggestion from a fellow ridiculous historian,
(01:44):
Stacey r. Over on our Facebook group page Ridiculous Historians.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
A shout out to all the ridiculous historians the world
over and Ben, if we do our job right or
even a little right, today's episode may well also be
a laugh riot.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Hey, you know what, We're not going to force it,
but I think we'll crack each other up a couple
of times.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
That's all. That's all we can ask for.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
It's all we could ask for, Nola, and we hope
it gives you a chuckle as well. Let us know
this episode is also for fellow fans of our third
feline friends. That's a little bit too much alliteration, but
never if you ask me, there, you go there. So
we established this in previous episodes. Nol and Max housecats
(02:32):
are somewhat unique in the world of domestication, and there's
this pretty convincing argument that they are barely domesticated or
self domesticated at all.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I can attest to that as the as a as
A as a cat dad, there's still some fairal action
going on in there in those kitty brains.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Oh yeah, you may have a cat that absolutely loves you,
and then just wanders off for a few weeks and
then comes back three weeks later, like, what's your big deal?
What's your malfunction?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, and discovers your rotting corpse and then proceeds to
eat your eyeballs.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Which dogs will do as well.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Oh fair enough, Ben, I'm sorry to malign cats in
this way. It's something that I always say. But Ben,
I would argue that the cats would do.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
It quicker time to experiment, Max Dark.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I think the cats would have a lot more fun
doing it too.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
They'd play with you. They would bat you around like
a cat toy.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
As a cat dad of a very precious, adorable feral
cat who is ten years soon to be eleven years old, Yeah,
you know, I look at her. I'm like, yeah, if
you were gonna get not feral, it would have already happened, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Old cat owners or cat friends have witnessed some anecdotal
evidence about this lack of domestication at one point where
another maybe your cat has Like our friend Lauren Vogelbaum,
one of her cats decided that she was a crappy hunter,
and so it started kill small animals and bringing them
(04:02):
to the list of these events goes on and on.
Share yours on our Facebook page. Cats are famously motivated
by their own self interest. You know, you can train
house cats to some degree, but they're not going to
be like dogs capable of repressing instincts due to training.
If a cat doesn't like what you're pitching, the cat's
(04:24):
gonna throw all that crap out the.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Window literally sometimes, or the very least push it off
the ledge aggressively while maintaining eye contact.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, they'll throw it all out the window. All that
training is bupkus. If they decide they want to do
something else, and back in nineteen oh nine New York,
a bunch of cats banded together to do just that.
This is the ridiculous history of the nineteen oh nine
cat Nip Riot. And spoiler, this is also one for
fans of our earlier Napoleon episode nol. I think folks
(04:57):
will see what we mean in a bit, and you're.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Talking about the the Bunny Mob.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
We're talking a bit about a bunny mob.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Not to be confused with the Goodie Mob and the
Dungeon family.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Let's get into it. So a brief bit of foreshadowing,
a brief bit of background and context.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Here.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
You've heard the phrase gig economy.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
We all have, right, Yeah, it's become a bit of
a buzz phrase in this our modern era, specifically referring
to folks who maybe are no longer able to maintain,
you know, the old school type of employment, a salaried,
full time job, and instead perhaps has to do multiple
(05:46):
gig based things like driving Uber or delivering groceries for Instacart,
or being a task rabbit some I know, all the
ones that I'm listening are Internet based, but that is
kind of what it's become. And I think usually how
it's used.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, taken on other temp work. And it's weird because,
at least here in North America, so in Canada, Mexico,
and the United States, people are still divided on whether
this is a good, neutral or a very bad thing.
A lot of folks in power recently have tried to
sell this gig economy thing as an overall benefit to
(06:24):
public society. And they've said, hey, you know Ted talks
around the world or at symposiums, they've said, hey, a
lot of folks in this gig economy guys, they like it.
They want it that way. It gives them more flexibility
with their families or going to school, or pursuing hobbies.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
And there's some truth to that. It absolutely can be
a flexible way of seeking employment, and I'm certain that
there are folks that do it and are able to,
you know, look at it in that exact way. But
sadly the nature of our economy is moving further and
further away from traditional type employments, especially as things like
AI come into the picture and all of that good stuff,
(07:03):
bad stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Really yeah, yeah, agreed, well put because a lot of
other people are going to argue that these claims about
this shiny penny of a gig economy, those claims are
window dressing, smoke and mirrors. Pretty much everybody, the critics say,
would prefer a reliable, well paid, single job with a
(07:25):
clear growth path with stuff like benefits, equity, etc. Wherever
you fall on that debate, it's a bag of badgers
for another day. You might ask, why, oh, pray tell,
are you bringing this up in the first place? Guys?
That is because the gig economy is not a new thing,
you know. No, I was thinking about this earlier when
(07:46):
we're researching some various other episodes. At numerous points throughout history,
the gig economy was normalized a ton of people, especially
with the rise of merchant class. They were laboring under
gig economies, just like the Lazarroti in Naples.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Oh, much like the previously mentioned I think on stuff
that I want you to know, folks that we see
around here in Atlanta doing little pop up fruit stands
or selling Easter baskets, or around the Easter holiday season,
or to your point, pivoting to whatever holiday it might be,
like Valentine's Day.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Lazaroni from our Supreme Pizza episode
were not homeless, but they were living hand to mouth.
They were searching for whatever daily work they could find,
or a hustle we would call it in the modern day,
just like the folks you were mentioning, you know, in
gas stations across the United States, especially in city cidified areas,
(08:43):
especially in our fair metropolis of Atlanta. Then we also
historically see cases of nomadic seasonal labor fairly common in
US history. You've got itinerant job seekers who would travel
sometimes across the country, picking up one farm gig before
moving on to another, and in some cases these folks
(09:04):
would crisscross the nation multiple times, chasing whatever crop was
in season. So the gig economy is very much not new.
People often had a lot of different side hustles, and
our hapless hero of today's story, ge Herman Gottlieb, He
is no different. He is an early twentieth century businessman
(09:29):
in New York City.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Not quite a tycoon, but a bit of a hustler,
bit of a self starter, you know, a bit of
an early kind of startup type dude. And he came
up with a pretty sweet hustle. We don't know a
ton about him, as you said. What we do know
is that he wasn't of that higher echelon class as
(09:51):
you already said. Man. And so in the newspapers of
the day, the term businessman was often used a bit
more generally and diplomatically. Whereas you know today we might
call someone like him a scrappy hustler. That would have
been considered rude or at the.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Very least somewhat demeaning. Right. You would usually only see
papers calling a merchant of some sort a broke hustler
or a tinker or a peddler if they had gained
notoriety for doing something unseemly, you know, selling bad meat,
(10:30):
or swindling people, or hawking illegal goods. So our guy Gottlieb,
the best way to think of him is, like so
many peers of his in New York during this time,
Herman is a merchant at large. Think of like your
modern day street vendor. We both spend a lot of
time in New York City and other very highly developed areas,
(10:54):
and what I think we have all noticed is that
there are tons of street vendors actually in tourists, in
the tourist streets and the tourist districts, and they're selling
any number of things, and their wares may change day
to day, and Gottlieb is kind of in this situation.
It's unreliable income. Fast forward, we're in, you know, August
(11:18):
of nineteen oh nine, and our buddy, Herman Gottlieb is
hard up for cash.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yeah, it's a good point that you make, too, ben
about the variety of wares because, as we know, in
this day and age, short of skirting the law, which
certainly can't happen, there's a lot more regulations around the
types of things that one could, you know, get away
with selling, especially in terms of you know ingestibles.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Let's just there we go diplomatic as ever, No is
this guy Gottlieb. I'm laughing because I was excellent. This
guy Gottlieb. His usual means of income, whatever they may
have been, had either dissipated or they were on pause.
But as we know, bill collectors are not famous for
caring about that stuff. It's not as if your expenses
(12:07):
take a vacation when your income peters out. So set
the scene. One August day, our buddy Gottlieb leaves his home.
It's at one eighty eight East ninety ninth Street, and
he is armed with the clothing on his back, a
little money for the subway to big empty baskets, and
(12:27):
a crazy dream. He knew all the other street vendors
in the area, He was aware of the industries through
the city. He wanted to sell something other people weren't chilling,
so we headed to this area off Dykman Street. Dyck
Man Street, which at the time was woody, was forested.
(12:51):
This is in the Inwood section of Manhattan, and there
no Max Fellow ridiculous historians. He located a specific plant
he identified earlier. It is h it is constitutionals. In
his walks around town constitutional right. He thought this special
(13:12):
herb could turn his fortunes around. It is Nepotita kataria,
commonly known as.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Catnet cat nep It's true weed for cats.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Basically what is catnip anyway?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Well, it's a kind of mint, as it turns out,
also referred to sometimes there's a different varietal of it, nepita, moussini,
double ass, double I, triple I actually but two eyes
right together there at the end. Cat mint. They're the
most readily available types, with common cat net being the
ones that cats seem to dig the most. You'll often
(13:54):
hear cat owners describing there and I gotta read I
gotta read this as written then their nip living feelines,
because that sounds like something else. It sounds like they
just can't put down the teat. But as it is
seeming to be a bit, you know, a bit loopy
on the stuff, rolling on the ground looking all blissed
(14:15):
out and goofy. You know, there's of course that video
that you also reference here of David Hasselhoff lounging around
and a drunken stupor with cheeseburgers.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah, he looks like he looks like a human version
of a cat in that video.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yes, and I don't know this video, Ben, but I'm
going to get me to a YouTube platform and check
it out. Of meeting. It's okay, fair enough, but you know,
you love to see it. David always seems like he's
got his stuff together so much. It's nice to get
a little glimpse into the real David Hasselhoff. So what's
happening here is, you know, is chemical stuff going on,
(14:48):
and it's actually quite interesting. So if your cat's getting
high off the nip, it is actually just really getting
high on smells.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, exactly, Yeah, it's it's just super vibing with these
aromatic oils that are contained in various species of what
we call catnip. The active organic compound that is fusing
with your cat and making it go hassle off is
something called nepata alasitone. It's correct because it's kind of
(15:22):
like huffy in human.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
It's a little bit like, uh, the ether scene in
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where they're yeah, yeah,
sniffing the ether and.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Charlie Day huffing painter.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Anybody does whipps, that's true, whip whipp its, that's correct. Man,
it is very, very similar to that type of bad
behavior in humans. Cats inhale the aromatic oils of the
nip because I'm never gonna stop calling it that, where
they then come into contact with receptors in the cat's noses.
(15:57):
These receptors are linked directly to the brain and affect
the cat's behavior and often silly willy ways.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
In such silly willy ways, and I love I love
that phrase. So this is why your cat will tend
to sniff, rub lick to the stuff. It's usually going
to be sold in a powdered or a dried variety, right,
(16:25):
and so you sprinkle it around and then the cat
goes crazy, the crowd goes wild. But you can also
get you can also get fresh versions of these herbs.
The reason they're doing this is because doing so, agitating
the plant substance releases more of that volatile oil and
that mood modifying compound. Thanks to our friends at places
(16:49):
like vet West, we know the effects can be significant.
One of the big myths not every cat is affected
by catnip. Young cats seen cats, they don't dig it.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
No jump in here, Yeah it's one of them, Oh no,
or oh yeah, I don't know. I guess yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
I mean, but the cats to your point, there, no,
the cats that are affected may seem intoxicated, well in ecstasy, drooling,
rolling around on the floor, making that weird face when
they're exposing their smell receptors.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
And licking, sniffing, and chewing.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah, it is believed that this is a similar reaction
cats have when they are exposed to feel good pheromones,
the kind of things that get released during courtship or
sexual activity.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I do think it's kind of funny that there doesn't
seem to be a negative stigma against the stuff, because
it does kind of seem like you're getting your cat high.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
You were very much getting your cat high. You're putting
it in an altered state of mind. Some will become
super super active, a lot of excessive vocalization. That happens
with some of my cats. They might chase and hunt,
and their predatory behavior might go wild. They might just
get the zuomies, you know, And it's a short term high.
(18:11):
The effects for nip sensitive cats we're talking about five
to ten minutes before wearing off, which again Noel reminds
me of humans huffing. I don't know how long whippets or.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Either lasts or short lived. Most things that you insulfate
or you know inhale in that way are typically quite
short lived. They're quite intense and quite short lived.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Okay, And for the I read so, I read so
we learned from the DARE program, which all totally worked
for us. So the thing with the cat nip exposure
to felines is that the effects are not repeatable for
around one to two hours, similar to how we have red.
(19:01):
Certain hallucinogens are not effective if you keep taking them
over and over.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Right, right, there's diminishing returns. You got to have a
little cool down period. That's what it is. The cool
down period is what we need. But the cats in
question don't know that. They tend to recognize the smell
from earlier and chase that dragon, chase that high of catnip.
And people are already aware of this by nineteen oh nine.
(19:27):
Our buddy, Herman G is no exception, and he knows
exactly where the nip grows wild. He knows also wild nip. Yeah,
wild nip, baby, I'm a wild nip. He knows.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
New York has a lot of wealthy cat owners. This
seems like a win win, And so, as we said,
he's out there in Manhattan. He's gathering up these two
enormous baskets a cat nip. It takes most of his day.
And he's not going to sell it there. No, he's
not going to sell it in the Broke neighborhood where
he lives.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Oh no, this is like a luxury for the Swells.
And they're feline friends, they're feline familiars.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
And so Gottley takes the subway to Lenox Avenue at
one hundred and tenth Street.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Ah, yes, the Upper west Side.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Just so, he starts going house to house on Fifth Avenue,
super posh area, trying to sell catnip to well to
do families with spoiled pet cats. That's right, folks, a
door to door cat treat salesman.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Really quickly, lest any New Yorker's out there ding me
for this. I don't think we're quite in Upper west
Side territory yet, but we are uptown so and you know,
we know, we know the old Uptown girls, uh trope.
That's where the that's where the wealthier folks live uptown.
Fifth Avenue, of course, the the shopping district with all
kinds of boutiques and fancy shops. So this is indeed
(20:52):
what's happening he is trying to It's like going trick
or treating in the in the rich neighborhoods. It is
exactly like that.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
That's well done yet, but it's a grand scheme. Unfortunately,
in Herban's case, this does not go as planned, because
he was correct in recognizing that New York City has
and had a lot of cats. But one thing he
missed is that, just like the human residents of the
(21:18):
Big Apple then and today, New York's feline population also
has a stark social divide. There are a lot of
There are loads of indoor cats living lives of luxury
in the city's finest brownstones, but there's so many other
cats living rough on the streets.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Strays and company.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Sure, or like in that cursed adaptation of T. S.
Eliot's Cats. Oh good lord, I forgot about it. I
watched the clip of this clip of it for this.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
And apparently there's a secret cut of it where they
have buttholes. Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's an urban legend.
I do know the id.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Sure, there's a story about somebody having to go back
and like a rat shop out all of them.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Yeah, you know, That's what I'm saying. So therefore there
must be some at least version of the SFX shots
that maybe one day we'll see the light of day.
I don't need to see that it was already cut.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
We need to see it. I yeah, I know real
life animals that already have buds.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
So that is not a good movie.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Guys, I didn't love it. Take you love the I
do love the original poetry.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
The poetry is great. I wasn't even I'm a big
musical guy, but I just I didn't even get the musical.
It was such a cocaine coked out fever dream like.
It was clearly someone was quite high on their own
supply of human catnap. I think, yeah, it teaches us
by someone, I mean Andrew Floyd Webber.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
It teaches us something that a lot of nineteen eighties
pop music taught us, which is sometimes drugs make you
want a yes and too much.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
A little too much. And also both nostalgia and cocaine
are hell of drugs, right, And so here's what happens.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
We've got this massive population of strays that got Leeb's
not really thinking about and I'm this is going on,
I'm scared in some way to exercise empathy or in
some way we could say these strays are very similar
to Herman Gottlieb because they're working their own day to
day gig economy of survival. They're out to get whatever
(23:27):
they could get, you know, pick up the scraps, you know, right,
and a few perfect, a few scraps, A few leaves
of catnet fell from Gottlieb's baskets, and stray felines in
the area honed in on this. They began rolling and
chewing and nipping their little hearts away, and soon after
their other friends joined them, drawn by the spell. At first,
(23:50):
Gottlieb is like shoe shoe or whatever music away with you,
Away with you, shoe thou. And it didn't work. He
couldn't shoe the cats away because he was walking. He
was like a walking ice cream machine.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Or here was a bit of a pied piper of cats.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
That is what. That's what. Hatching cat nyc, a great
source for this story, tells us even though he was
pushing these cats away, he was probably just to be honest,
because of the time, he was probably lightly kicking some
of them, you know, or just pushing them with his
calves and his ankles, but they were still rubbing against
(24:34):
his legs. They were.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
And then under the most sober of circumstances, you know
what happens when you push a cat away when it's
got a mind to be rubbing up on you.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah. Now, now you've put it in a situation where
it's like the human doth protest too much.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Right, I mean, like god forbid, you're trying to play
a video game or something or watch a movie. They
have no that makes no never mind to them. They
will climb right up on my chest when I'm on
a bean bag and obstruct my view of my borderlands.
And no matter how many times I pushed him away,
he comes right on back.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
I've got a cat doing that right now, shout out
to doctor Rankman. So in no time at all, at
least forty cats were following this guy. That's why people
start calling Gottlieb the pie Piper of catnip after this.
(25:30):
If you also, if you go to contemporary reports from
newspaper dot com or so on, you'll see things like
the New York Herald and the Washington Times from August
nineteenth nineteen oh nine, and they're having a lot of
fun with how they good writing?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, classic early turn of the century newspaper writing, all right,
do a voice, please, I'm gonna add think I'm gonna
just do it straight because the words are enough to
push you in. You know what I'm talking about. Of
course I'm gonna do voice. Uh. Shamefaced felines whose permanent
addresses were alleys and backyards came stealthily forth, all of
them rich and poor aristocrats from the sofa cushions near
(26:10):
the front windows, and then plebeians from the area ways
struggled mightily to get into the two baskets of nip.
I had to say it that way. It was actually
written cat nap, but two baskets of nip.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Come on, I've been having too much fun with usually
the word nip here. But yes, yes, and perfect voice.
Could we get applause Q from old maxequ thank you?
I'm so.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
All right.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
It continues, so the paper says, when mister Gottlieb saw
police Sergeant John F. Higgins on one hundred and fourteenth Street,
he cried out with joy. At last he thought someone
could help him disperse this band of felines. Sergeant Higgins
wasn't so kind, though, and he immediately arrested this cat
(26:54):
re pedler for causing a crowd to collect, which was
against the law.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
It was against the law exactly. It goes on though,
with Gottlieb making a bit of an absurd statement. I'm
gonna say, right up right here, why don't you arrest
the cat nip that is collecting the crowd, not me? Bro.
I think you're missing the point here.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. But to be clear,
Herman's big hustle is not going the way he wanted
it to go. Like he hasn't sold all the cat up.
The strays are after him, and now the police are
on his case, and he's like, ah, god, why am
I in a what's that? What's that Adam Sandler film
(27:39):
about jewelry?
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Oh, uncut gems? Yeah, he's in like an uncut gem situation.
He's going, why is this getting worse? Sergeant Higgins again
per the papers, replied, come on before the cats from
the Bronx and Jersey get here, and they He takes
Gottlieb to the police house on East one hundred and
four Street. Cats are still following these guys aggressively, and
(28:05):
they follow them inside the station house and Sergeant Higgins says, Okay,
I've got to go to my superior, a guy named
Lieutenant Laski. He reports the arrest. He's like, you know,
Lieutenant or Moss, you're not gonna believe this one. You
can look around the police station. You see how they're
like more cats than usual. It's this dude's fault. And
(28:30):
then Lieutenant Laski says, you know, we can't hold this man.
The law says a man must not cause a crowd
of people to collect. The law doesn't say anything about cats,
and Higgins is also having a bad day at this point.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
He's kind of pissed.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
He says, the law doesn't say anything about people, Sir.
It says a crowd. A crowd of cats is certainly
a crowd. So they start arguing over how to interpret
the laws, and more and more cats are coming into
the station because they're following the scent of those cat
nip baskets. The police do have two feline officers of
(29:12):
their own. One is asleep at the wheel and the other,
one named Pete, starts fighting off the intruding kit.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Wait police. Cat's ben that's absurd.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Police cats, Well, a lot of things are absurd.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
That's true, man, that's true. The human police did join
Pete and eventually driving out the mob of nip crazed kitties.
Authorities put Godleb and his baskets into a paddy wagon.
Then they escorted him back to his home at one
eighty eight eighth ninety ninth Street. I think it's okay,
we're not doing him because he's not alive anymore. And
then of course the cats hotly pursued. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
They were no match for the speed of the wagon,
most of them.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
This is very Napoleon Carriage, Jurassic Park bunny mob coated,
is it not.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Cat nip Bryan. So the thing we have to remember
to just logistically, is that as the wagon is moving
through town, it's encountering other stray cats who catch the
smell of the nip. Right they want to chase that
herbal dragon. So Gottlieb finally gets back to his place.
As far as we can tell, he did not himself
(30:20):
own a cat. There was one single old Tom from
across town, still in dogged pursuit. According to the story,
catted pursuit cated pursuit even better. According to the story,
herman g is running to his front door, or is
running to the door of his place, and he turns
(30:41):
around because he sees this one last cat after him,
and he's mid run. He throws a handful of cat
nip leaves Sandea exactly, and he yells, he apparently yells,
don't tell your relatives or your friends, and then he
slams the door shut. This is the ridiculous history of
the nineteen o nine cat nip riot. I mean, is
(31:05):
that not similar to the Napoleon Rabbit?
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Hugely so? And if anyone needs reminding you, you should
go back and check out the episode, if only to
see what we were like in the earliest days. I
actually stand behind that one. I think it was pretty
damn good. But yeah, it was about Napoleon, of course,
in his opulence, basically demanding a sort of staged rabbit hunt,
and of course nobody knew about domestications, so they just
(31:31):
like had all of these kind of wild rabbits who
did not behave as expected, and they ultimately created like
that movie Critters, you know, where they become a giant
ball of critters. It was very similar to that, Ben,
I want to try something out on you in Maxwell quick.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Sure, let's go for it.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
The idea of being surprised by someone while in the bathroom,
calling or doing that, you either are Jurassic parked or
you Jurassic park somebody, like that scene when the lawyer
you know is in the toilet and gets a t rext.
Can we make this happen? Man? Can we make can
we make Jurassic parks happen?
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yeah? Yeah, I got your six.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Okay, thanks, buddy, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
That so to be clear for all of us listening,
all right, if you are surprised while you're in the restroom,
you got Jurassic parked. If you surprise someone AFO, then
you are Jurassic parking them. Awesome, Yeah, got it. Let's
mint it. That's up there with straight seahorse teeth. Let's
(32:28):
let's get that now.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Ideally, either of these actions would be completely by mistake.
You don't want to do this to somebody on purpose.
That would be I have problematic problem.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
I've had to do it before in emergency situations, and
I didn't really like it. I've been on both sides
of the stall or the latrine there, but it is
a super awkward moment when you know somebody is pooping,
which is a very vulnerable position, and because of an emergency,
you have to be like, sorry, man, bad time, but
(33:02):
the building's on fire. So not saying now, but finish
up when you can. Just get off Reddit.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Please, we want.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
You to live. We want you to live. We're gonna
keep this one short. This war is self contained, one
part with big, big thanks to again our listener who
inspired this, Stacey r Over on our Facebook page, Ridiculous Historians.
Now before we do our autros, Max, I see you
pop back in the chat. What's up man?
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Oh, just confirming that I am down with the term
Jurassic parking and also facusar facusar.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Is another one we're trying to get going. What's that
remind me?
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Falcasar falcasar, falconsar like falcon falcon and okay, maybe what
does the aportmanteau help me out? I want to wait
a part of this no one knows, no one knows
you you also, you know, I know where we're wrapping
it up, and I'm totally down with that. But you
did find a handful of really, really fun other kind
(34:04):
of unusual riots from a piece over a mental flaws.
I do propose perhaps that maybe we save those for
one of our kind of leftovers episodes.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, agreed fully, Let's let's keep those other historically weird
riots or ridiculous riots for a story in the future.
But Folks, as Nol was saying, spoiler, it turns out
that history is chock full of ridiculous riots. This one
(34:35):
was with kats, the other one was with bunnies. There
are so many others out there. Thank you so much
for tuning in, Folks.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Don't forget about the zootsuit riot.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Don't forget never never forget about the suit suit riot?
Why does that sound somewhat offensive? Big thanks to our
super producer mister Max Williams. Big thanks to Alex Williams'
biological brother who composed.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
This Yes, and our brother in arms and in song.
Huge thanks to Chris Frosciotis and Eves Jeff cos Here
in Spirit, Jonathan Strickland, the quiz Stir and A. Jbahama
Jacobs the Puzzler.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Doctor Rachel Big Spinach, Lance the Rude Dudes a ridiculous crime.
If you dig us, you'll love them I've been our
research associate for this episode, and big, big thanks Nol,
not just to you, you know, you're like one of
my main guys, but also big thanks to all the
cats in our lives who have yet to eat our eyes.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Oh Ben, that's really great rhyme and a really lovely sentiment.
Let's see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the man,
the myth, the legend, Max the cat Slave, williams.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Oh Kiddy got Claws, and.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
There is none other than mister Noel Brown of Fellow
Lover of Feline's. Noel, how are you feeling today?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I'm pretty good, Ben. We had a s we had
a mind meld off mic uh, And I'm just gonna
kind of tease it a little bit. I was walking today,
doing my little morning walk around this pond that is
also occupied by geese, and there is poop everywhere, and
every time I go, I think goose poop riot.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Ut talking about it.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
There you go. I'm not talking about goose poop riots. Today,
We're talking about cat net riot.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
My name is Ben Bollen, and we are talking about
something that is a riot. Today's episode is a riot.
It's not in the way you might assume, Fellow Ridiculous Historians.
We're excited for this one, and I love the way
you teas and we are excited because this comes to
us via a listener suggestion from a fellow ridiculous historian,
(01:44):
Stacey r. Over on our Facebook group page Ridiculous Historians.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
A shout out to all the ridiculous historians the world
over and Ben, if we do our job right or
even a little right, today's episode may well also be
a laugh riot.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Hey, you know what, We're not going to force it,
but I think we'll crack each other up a couple
of times.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
That's all. That's all we can ask for.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
It's all we could ask for, Nola, and we hope
it gives you a chuckle as well. Let us know
this episode is also for fellow fans of our third
feline friends. That's a little bit too much alliteration, but
never if you ask me, there, you go there. So
we established this in previous episodes. Nol and Max housecats
(02:32):
are somewhat unique in the world of domestication, and there's
this pretty convincing argument that they are barely domesticated or
self domesticated at all.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I can attest to that as the as a as
A as a cat dad, there's still some fairal action
going on in there in those kitty brains.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Oh yeah, you may have a cat that absolutely loves you,
and then just wanders off for a few weeks and
then comes back three weeks later, like, what's your big deal?
What's your malfunction?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, and discovers your rotting corpse and then proceeds to
eat your eyeballs.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Which dogs will do as well.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Oh fair enough, Ben, I'm sorry to malign cats in
this way. It's something that I always say. But Ben,
I would argue that the cats would do.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
It quicker time to experiment, Max Dark.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I think the cats would have a lot more fun
doing it too.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
They'd play with you. They would bat you around like
a cat toy.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
As a cat dad of a very precious, adorable feral
cat who is ten years soon to be eleven years old, Yeah,
you know, I look at her. I'm like, yeah, if
you were gonna get not feral, it would have already happened, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Old cat owners or cat friends have witnessed some anecdotal
evidence about this lack of domestication at one point where
another maybe your cat has Like our friend Lauren Vogelbaum,
one of her cats decided that she was a crappy hunter,
and so it started kill small animals and bringing them
(04:02):
to the list of these events goes on and on.
Share yours on our Facebook page. Cats are famously motivated
by their own self interest. You know, you can train
house cats to some degree, but they're not going to
be like dogs capable of repressing instincts due to training.
If a cat doesn't like what you're pitching, the cat's
(04:24):
gonna throw all that crap out the.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Window literally sometimes, or the very least push it off
the ledge aggressively while maintaining eye contact.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, they'll throw it all out the window. All that
training is bupkus. If they decide they want to do
something else, and back in nineteen oh nine New York,
a bunch of cats banded together to do just that.
This is the ridiculous history of the nineteen oh nine
cat Nip Riot. And spoiler, this is also one for
fans of our earlier Napoleon episode nol. I think folks
(04:57):
will see what we mean in a bit, and you're.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Talking about the the Bunny Mob.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
We're talking a bit about a bunny mob.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Not to be confused with the Goodie Mob and the
Dungeon family.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Let's get into it. So a brief bit of foreshadowing,
a brief bit of background and context.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Here.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
You've heard the phrase gig economy.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
We all have, right, Yeah, it's become a bit of
a buzz phrase in this our modern era, specifically referring
to folks who maybe are no longer able to maintain,
you know, the old school type of employment, a salaried,
full time job, and instead perhaps has to do multiple
(05:46):
gig based things like driving Uber or delivering groceries for Instacart,
or being a task rabbit some I know, all the
ones that I'm listening are Internet based, but that is
kind of what it's become. And I think usually how
it's used.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, taken on other temp work. And it's weird because,
at least here in North America, so in Canada, Mexico,
and the United States, people are still divided on whether
this is a good, neutral or a very bad thing.
A lot of folks in power recently have tried to
sell this gig economy thing as an overall benefit to
(06:24):
public society. And they've said, hey, you know Ted talks
around the world or at symposiums, they've said, hey, a
lot of folks in this gig economy guys, they like it.
They want it that way. It gives them more flexibility
with their families or going to school, or pursuing hobbies.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
And there's some truth to that. It absolutely can be
a flexible way of seeking employment, and I'm certain that
there are folks that do it and are able to,
you know, look at it in that exact way. But
sadly the nature of our economy is moving further and
further away from traditional type employments, especially as things like
AI come into the picture and all of that good stuff,
(07:03):
bad stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Really yeah, yeah, agreed, well put because a lot of
other people are going to argue that these claims about
this shiny penny of a gig economy, those claims are
window dressing, smoke and mirrors. Pretty much everybody, the critics say,
would prefer a reliable, well paid, single job with a
(07:25):
clear growth path with stuff like benefits, equity, etc. Wherever
you fall on that debate, it's a bag of badgers
for another day. You might ask, why, oh, pray tell,
are you bringing this up in the first place? Guys?
That is because the gig economy is not a new thing,
you know. No, I was thinking about this earlier when
(07:46):
we're researching some various other episodes. At numerous points throughout history,
the gig economy was normalized a ton of people, especially
with the rise of merchant class. They were laboring under
gig economies, just like the Lazarroti in Naples.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Oh, much like the previously mentioned I think on stuff
that I want you to know, folks that we see
around here in Atlanta doing little pop up fruit stands
or selling Easter baskets, or around the Easter holiday season,
or to your point, pivoting to whatever holiday it might be,
like Valentine's Day.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Lazaroni from our Supreme Pizza episode
were not homeless, but they were living hand to mouth.
They were searching for whatever daily work they could find,
or a hustle we would call it in the modern day,
just like the folks you were mentioning, you know, in
gas stations across the United States, especially in city cidified areas,
(08:43):
especially in our fair metropolis of Atlanta. Then we also
historically see cases of nomadic seasonal labor fairly common in
US history. You've got itinerant job seekers who would travel
sometimes across the country, picking up one farm gig before
moving on to another, and in some cases these folks
(09:04):
would crisscross the nation multiple times, chasing whatever crop was
in season. So the gig economy is very much not new.
People often had a lot of different side hustles, and
our hapless hero of today's story, ge Herman Gottlieb, He
is no different. He is an early twentieth century businessman
(09:29):
in New York City.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Not quite a tycoon, but a bit of a hustler,
bit of a self starter, you know, a bit of
an early kind of startup type dude. And he came
up with a pretty sweet hustle. We don't know a
ton about him, as you said. What we do know
is that he wasn't of that higher echelon class as
(09:51):
you already said. Man. And so in the newspapers of
the day, the term businessman was often used a bit
more generally and diplomatically. Whereas you know today we might
call someone like him a scrappy hustler. That would have
been considered rude or at the.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Very least somewhat demeaning. Right. You would usually only see
papers calling a merchant of some sort a broke hustler
or a tinker or a peddler if they had gained
notoriety for doing something unseemly, you know, selling bad meat,
(10:30):
or swindling people, or hawking illegal goods. So our guy Gottlieb,
the best way to think of him is, like so
many peers of his in New York during this time,
Herman is a merchant at large. Think of like your
modern day street vendor. We both spend a lot of
time in New York City and other very highly developed areas,
(10:54):
and what I think we have all noticed is that
there are tons of street vendors actually in tourists, in
the tourist streets and the tourist districts, and they're selling
any number of things, and their wares may change day
to day, and Gottlieb is kind of in this situation.
It's unreliable income. Fast forward, we're in, you know, August
(11:18):
of nineteen oh nine, and our buddy, Herman Gottlieb is
hard up for cash.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yeah, it's a good point that you make, too, ben
about the variety of wares because, as we know, in
this day and age, short of skirting the law, which
certainly can't happen, there's a lot more regulations around the
types of things that one could, you know, get away
with selling, especially in terms of you know ingestibles.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Let's just there we go diplomatic as ever, No is
this guy Gottlieb. I'm laughing because I was excellent. This
guy Gottlieb. His usual means of income, whatever they may
have been, had either dissipated or they were on pause.
But as we know, bill collectors are not famous for
caring about that stuff. It's not as if your expenses
(12:07):
take a vacation when your income peters out. So set
the scene. One August day, our buddy Gottlieb leaves his home.
It's at one eighty eight East ninety ninth Street, and
he is armed with the clothing on his back, a
little money for the subway to big empty baskets, and
(12:27):
a crazy dream. He knew all the other street vendors
in the area, He was aware of the industries through
the city. He wanted to sell something other people weren't chilling,
so we headed to this area off Dykman Street. Dyck
Man Street, which at the time was woody, was forested.
(12:51):
This is in the Inwood section of Manhattan, and there
no Max Fellow ridiculous historians. He located a specific plant
he identified earlier. It is h it is constitutionals. In
his walks around town constitutional right. He thought this special
(13:12):
herb could turn his fortunes around. It is Nepotita kataria,
commonly known as.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Catnet cat nep It's true weed for cats.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Basically what is catnip anyway?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Well, it's a kind of mint, as it turns out,
also referred to sometimes there's a different varietal of it, nepita, moussini,
double ass, double I, triple I actually but two eyes
right together there at the end. Cat mint. They're the
most readily available types, with common cat net being the
ones that cats seem to dig the most. You'll often
(13:54):
hear cat owners describing there and I gotta read I
gotta read this as written then their nip living feelines,
because that sounds like something else. It sounds like they
just can't put down the teat. But as it is
seeming to be a bit, you know, a bit loopy
on the stuff, rolling on the ground looking all blissed
(14:15):
out and goofy. You know, there's of course that video
that you also reference here of David Hasselhoff lounging around
and a drunken stupor with cheeseburgers.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah, he looks like he looks like a human version
of a cat in that video.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yes, and I don't know this video, Ben, but I'm
going to get me to a YouTube platform and check
it out. Of meeting. It's okay, fair enough, but you know,
you love to see it. David always seems like he's
got his stuff together so much. It's nice to get
a little glimpse into the real David Hasselhoff. So what's
happening here is, you know, is chemical stuff going on,
(14:48):
and it's actually quite interesting. So if your cat's getting
high off the nip, it is actually just really getting
high on smells.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, exactly, Yeah, it's it's just super vibing with these
aromatic oils that are contained in various species of what
we call catnip. The active organic compound that is fusing
with your cat and making it go hassle off is
something called nepata alasitone. It's correct because it's kind of
(15:22):
like huffy in human.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
It's a little bit like, uh, the ether scene in
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where they're yeah, yeah,
sniffing the ether and.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Charlie Day huffing painter.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Anybody does whipps, that's true, whip whipp its, that's correct. Man,
it is very, very similar to that type of bad
behavior in humans. Cats inhale the aromatic oils of the
nip because I'm never gonna stop calling it that, where
they then come into contact with receptors in the cat's noses.
(15:57):
These receptors are linked directly to the brain and affect
the cat's behavior and often silly willy ways.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
In such silly willy ways, and I love I love
that phrase. So this is why your cat will tend
to sniff, rub lick to the stuff. It's usually going
to be sold in a powdered or a dried variety, right,
(16:25):
and so you sprinkle it around and then the cat
goes crazy, the crowd goes wild. But you can also
get you can also get fresh versions of these herbs.
The reason they're doing this is because doing so, agitating
the plant substance releases more of that volatile oil and
that mood modifying compound. Thanks to our friends at places
(16:49):
like vet West, we know the effects can be significant.
One of the big myths not every cat is affected
by catnip. Young cats seen cats, they don't dig it.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
No jump in here, Yeah it's one of them, Oh no,
or oh yeah, I don't know. I guess yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
I mean, but the cats to your point, there, no,
the cats that are affected may seem intoxicated, well in ecstasy, drooling,
rolling around on the floor, making that weird face when
they're exposing their smell receptors.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
And licking, sniffing, and chewing.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah, it is believed that this is a similar reaction
cats have when they are exposed to feel good pheromones,
the kind of things that get released during courtship or
sexual activity.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I do think it's kind of funny that there doesn't
seem to be a negative stigma against the stuff, because
it does kind of seem like you're getting your cat high.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
You were very much getting your cat high. You're putting
it in an altered state of mind. Some will become
super super active, a lot of excessive vocalization. That happens
with some of my cats. They might chase and hunt,
and their predatory behavior might go wild. They might just
get the zuomies, you know, And it's a short term high.
(18:11):
The effects for nip sensitive cats we're talking about five
to ten minutes before wearing off, which again Noel reminds
me of humans huffing. I don't know how long whippets or.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Either lasts or short lived. Most things that you insulfate
or you know inhale in that way are typically quite
short lived. They're quite intense and quite short lived.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Okay, And for the I read so, I read so
we learned from the DARE program, which all totally worked
for us. So the thing with the cat nip exposure
to felines is that the effects are not repeatable for
around one to two hours, similar to how we have red.
(19:01):
Certain hallucinogens are not effective if you keep taking them
over and over.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Right, right, there's diminishing returns. You got to have a
little cool down period. That's what it is. The cool
down period is what we need. But the cats in
question don't know that. They tend to recognize the smell
from earlier and chase that dragon, chase that high of catnip.
And people are already aware of this by nineteen oh nine.
(19:27):
Our buddy, Herman G is no exception, and he knows
exactly where the nip grows wild. He knows also wild nip. Yeah,
wild nip, baby, I'm a wild nip. He knows.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
New York has a lot of wealthy cat owners. This
seems like a win win, And so, as we said,
he's out there in Manhattan. He's gathering up these two
enormous baskets a cat nip. It takes most of his day.
And he's not going to sell it there. No, he's
not going to sell it in the Broke neighborhood where
he lives.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Oh no, this is like a luxury for the Swells.
And they're feline friends, they're feline familiars.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
And so Gottley takes the subway to Lenox Avenue at
one hundred and tenth Street.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Ah, yes, the Upper west Side.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Just so, he starts going house to house on Fifth Avenue,
super posh area, trying to sell catnip to well to
do families with spoiled pet cats. That's right, folks, a
door to door cat treat salesman.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Really quickly, lest any New Yorker's out there ding me
for this. I don't think we're quite in Upper west
Side territory yet, but we are uptown so and you know,
we know, we know the old Uptown girls, uh trope.
That's where the that's where the wealthier folks live uptown.
Fifth Avenue, of course, the the shopping district with all
kinds of boutiques and fancy shops. So this is indeed
(20:52):
what's happening he is trying to It's like going trick
or treating in the in the rich neighborhoods. It is
exactly like that.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
That's well done yet, but it's a grand scheme. Unfortunately,
in Herban's case, this does not go as planned, because
he was correct in recognizing that New York City has
and had a lot of cats. But one thing he
missed is that, just like the human residents of the
(21:18):
Big Apple then and today, New York's feline population also
has a stark social divide. There are a lot of
There are loads of indoor cats living lives of luxury
in the city's finest brownstones, but there's so many other
cats living rough on the streets.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Strays and company.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Sure, or like in that cursed adaptation of T. S.
Eliot's Cats. Oh good lord, I forgot about it. I
watched the clip of this clip of it for this.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
And apparently there's a secret cut of it where they
have buttholes. Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's an urban legend.
I do know the id.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Sure, there's a story about somebody having to go back
and like a rat shop out all of them.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Yeah, you know, That's what I'm saying. So therefore there
must be some at least version of the SFX shots
that maybe one day we'll see the light of day.
I don't need to see that it was already cut.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
We need to see it. I yeah, I know real
life animals that already have buds.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
So that is not a good movie.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Guys, I didn't love it. Take you love the I
do love the original poetry.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
The poetry is great. I wasn't even I'm a big
musical guy, but I just I didn't even get the musical.
It was such a cocaine coked out fever dream like.
It was clearly someone was quite high on their own
supply of human catnap. I think, yeah, it teaches us
by someone, I mean Andrew Floyd Webber.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
It teaches us something that a lot of nineteen eighties
pop music taught us, which is sometimes drugs make you
want a yes and too much.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
A little too much. And also both nostalgia and cocaine
are hell of drugs, right, And so here's what happens.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
We've got this massive population of strays that got Leeb's
not really thinking about and I'm this is going on,
I'm scared in some way to exercise empathy or in
some way we could say these strays are very similar
to Herman Gottlieb because they're working their own day to
day gig economy of survival. They're out to get whatever
(23:27):
they could get, you know, pick up the scraps, you know, right,
and a few perfect, a few scraps, A few leaves
of catnet fell from Gottlieb's baskets, and stray felines in
the area honed in on this. They began rolling and
chewing and nipping their little hearts away, and soon after
their other friends joined them, drawn by the spell. At first,
(23:50):
Gottlieb is like shoe shoe or whatever music away with you,
Away with you, shoe thou. And it didn't work. He
couldn't shoe the cats away because he was walking. He
was like a walking ice cream machine.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Or here was a bit of a pied piper of cats.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
That is what. That's what. Hatching cat nyc, a great
source for this story, tells us even though he was
pushing these cats away, he was probably just to be honest,
because of the time, he was probably lightly kicking some
of them, you know, or just pushing them with his
calves and his ankles, but they were still rubbing against
(24:34):
his legs. They were.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
And then under the most sober of circumstances, you know
what happens when you push a cat away when it's
got a mind to be rubbing up on you.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah. Now, now you've put it in a situation where
it's like the human doth protest too much.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Right, I mean, like god forbid, you're trying to play
a video game or something or watch a movie. They
have no that makes no never mind to them. They
will climb right up on my chest when I'm on
a bean bag and obstruct my view of my borderlands.
And no matter how many times I pushed him away,
he comes right on back.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
I've got a cat doing that right now, shout out
to doctor Rankman. So in no time at all, at
least forty cats were following this guy. That's why people
start calling Gottlieb the pie Piper of catnip after this.
(25:30):
If you also, if you go to contemporary reports from
newspaper dot com or so on, you'll see things like
the New York Herald and the Washington Times from August
nineteenth nineteen oh nine, and they're having a lot of
fun with how they good writing?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, classic early turn of the century newspaper writing, all right,
do a voice, please, I'm gonna add think I'm gonna
just do it straight because the words are enough to
push you in. You know what I'm talking about. Of
course I'm gonna do voice. Uh. Shamefaced felines whose permanent
addresses were alleys and backyards came stealthily forth, all of
them rich and poor aristocrats from the sofa cushions near
(26:10):
the front windows, and then plebeians from the area ways
struggled mightily to get into the two baskets of nip.
I had to say it that way. It was actually
written cat nap, but two baskets of nip.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Come on, I've been having too much fun with usually
the word nip here. But yes, yes, and perfect voice.
Could we get applause Q from old maxequ thank you?
I'm so.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
All right.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
It continues, so the paper says, when mister Gottlieb saw
police Sergeant John F. Higgins on one hundred and fourteenth Street,
he cried out with joy. At last he thought someone
could help him disperse this band of felines. Sergeant Higgins
wasn't so kind, though, and he immediately arrested this cat
(26:54):
re pedler for causing a crowd to collect, which was
against the law.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
It was against the law exactly. It goes on though,
with Gottlieb making a bit of an absurd statement. I'm
gonna say, right up right here, why don't you arrest
the cat nip that is collecting the crowd, not me? Bro.
I think you're missing the point here.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. But to be clear,
Herman's big hustle is not going the way he wanted
it to go. Like he hasn't sold all the cat up.
The strays are after him, and now the police are
on his case, and he's like, ah, god, why am
I in a what's that? What's that Adam Sandler film
(27:39):
about jewelry?
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Oh, uncut gems? Yeah, he's in like an uncut gem situation.
He's going, why is this getting worse? Sergeant Higgins again
per the papers, replied, come on before the cats from
the Bronx and Jersey get here, and they He takes
Gottlieb to the police house on East one hundred and
four Street. Cats are still following these guys aggressively, and
(28:05):
they follow them inside the station house and Sergeant Higgins says, Okay,
I've got to go to my superior, a guy named
Lieutenant Laski. He reports the arrest. He's like, you know,
Lieutenant or Moss, you're not gonna believe this one. You
can look around the police station. You see how they're
like more cats than usual. It's this dude's fault. And
(28:30):
then Lieutenant Laski says, you know, we can't hold this man.
The law says a man must not cause a crowd
of people to collect. The law doesn't say anything about cats,
and Higgins is also having a bad day at this point.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
He's kind of pissed.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
He says, the law doesn't say anything about people, Sir.
It says a crowd. A crowd of cats is certainly
a crowd. So they start arguing over how to interpret
the laws, and more and more cats are coming into
the station because they're following the scent of those cat
nip baskets. The police do have two feline officers of
(29:12):
their own. One is asleep at the wheel and the other,
one named Pete, starts fighting off the intruding kit.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Wait police. Cat's ben that's absurd.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Police cats, Well, a lot of things are absurd.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
That's true, man, that's true. The human police did join
Pete and eventually driving out the mob of nip crazed kitties.
Authorities put Godleb and his baskets into a paddy wagon.
Then they escorted him back to his home at one
eighty eight eighth ninety ninth Street. I think it's okay,
we're not doing him because he's not alive anymore. And
then of course the cats hotly pursued. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
They were no match for the speed of the wagon,
most of them.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
This is very Napoleon Carriage, Jurassic Park bunny mob coated,
is it not.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Cat nip Bryan. So the thing we have to remember
to just logistically, is that as the wagon is moving
through town, it's encountering other stray cats who catch the
smell of the nip. Right they want to chase that
herbal dragon. So Gottlieb finally gets back to his place.
As far as we can tell, he did not himself
(30:20):
own a cat. There was one single old Tom from
across town, still in dogged pursuit. According to the story,
catted pursuit cated pursuit even better. According to the story,
herman g is running to his front door, or is
running to the door of his place, and he turns
(30:41):
around because he sees this one last cat after him,
and he's mid run. He throws a handful of cat
nip leaves Sandea exactly, and he yells, he apparently yells,
don't tell your relatives or your friends, and then he
slams the door shut. This is the ridiculous history of
the nineteen o nine cat nip riot. I mean, is
(31:05):
that not similar to the Napoleon Rabbit?
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Hugely so? And if anyone needs reminding you, you should
go back and check out the episode, if only to
see what we were like in the earliest days. I
actually stand behind that one. I think it was pretty
damn good. But yeah, it was about Napoleon, of course,
in his opulence, basically demanding a sort of staged rabbit hunt,
and of course nobody knew about domestications, so they just
(31:31):
like had all of these kind of wild rabbits who
did not behave as expected, and they ultimately created like
that movie Critters, you know, where they become a giant
ball of critters. It was very similar to that, Ben,
I want to try something out on you in Maxwell quick.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Sure, let's go for it.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
The idea of being surprised by someone while in the bathroom,
calling or doing that, you either are Jurassic parked or
you Jurassic park somebody, like that scene when the lawyer
you know is in the toilet and gets a t rext.
Can we make this happen? Man? Can we make can
we make Jurassic parks happen?
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yeah? Yeah, I got your six.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Okay, thanks, buddy, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
That so to be clear for all of us listening,
all right, if you are surprised while you're in the restroom,
you got Jurassic parked. If you surprise someone AFO, then
you are Jurassic parking them. Awesome, Yeah, got it. Let's
mint it. That's up there with straight seahorse teeth. Let's
(32:28):
let's get that now.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Ideally, either of these actions would be completely by mistake.
You don't want to do this to somebody on purpose.
That would be I have problematic problem.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
I've had to do it before in emergency situations, and
I didn't really like it. I've been on both sides
of the stall or the latrine there, but it is
a super awkward moment when you know somebody is pooping,
which is a very vulnerable position, and because of an emergency,
you have to be like, sorry, man, bad time, but
(33:02):
the building's on fire. So not saying now, but finish
up when you can. Just get off Reddit.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Please, we want.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
You to live. We want you to live. We're gonna
keep this one short. This war is self contained, one
part with big, big thanks to again our listener who
inspired this, Stacey r Over on our Facebook page, Ridiculous Historians.
Now before we do our autros, Max, I see you
pop back in the chat. What's up man?
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Oh, just confirming that I am down with the term
Jurassic parking and also facusar facusar.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Is another one we're trying to get going. What's that
remind me?
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Falcasar falcasar, falconsar like falcon falcon and okay, maybe what
does the aportmanteau help me out? I want to wait
a part of this no one knows, no one knows
you you also, you know, I know where we're wrapping
it up, and I'm totally down with that. But you
did find a handful of really, really fun other kind
(34:04):
of unusual riots from a piece over a mental flaws.
I do propose perhaps that maybe we save those for
one of our kind of leftovers episodes.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, agreed fully, Let's let's keep those other historically weird
riots or ridiculous riots for a story in the future.
But Folks, as Nol was saying, spoiler, it turns out
that history is chock full of ridiculous riots. This one
(34:35):
was with kats, the other one was with bunnies. There
are so many others out there. Thank you so much
for tuning in, Folks.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Don't forget about the zootsuit riot.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Don't forget never never forget about the suit suit riot?
Why does that sound somewhat offensive? Big thanks to our
super producer mister Max Williams. Big thanks to Alex Williams'
biological brother who composed.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
This Yes, and our brother in arms and in song.
Huge thanks to Chris Frosciotis and Eves Jeff cos Here
in Spirit, Jonathan Strickland, the quiz Stir and A. Jbahama
Jacobs the Puzzler.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Doctor Rachel Big Spinach, Lance the Rude Dudes a ridiculous crime.
If you dig us, you'll love them I've been our
research associate for this episode, and big, big thanks Nol,
not just to you, you know, you're like one of
my main guys, but also big thanks to all the
cats in our lives who have yet to eat our eyes.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Oh Ben, that's really great rhyme and a really lovely sentiment.
Let's see you next time, folks. 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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