August 6, 2013 • 30 mins
That laziest of backyard games, horseshoes, is also a very ancient one, developed by people following Greek armies more than 2,000 years ago. Since then, the game of horseshoes hasn't evolved too much, which would indicate that it has reached perfection. Learn about the rules of this game, one of the few things in life where close counts.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark. There's step Chucker's Bryant. Did I say that
last time? My name like that? Yeah? I don't know,
and you might have just said I don't know. I
(00:23):
wonder we'll find out. How's it going. It's going great.
We just learned something neat what guest producer Noel to
our right your Left um Bar podcast todays on horse shoes.
He took that as a college course called backyard games
had a gustus state. Yeah, a real college course. And
(00:44):
he said, Baci right, Uh, horse shoes and badminton? Was
it badminton? I thought we couldn't determine? And then possibly
um long darts? Okay, so hey, college credit, which I
don't know. I guess you'd have to apply to the
FTC maybe to get lawn darts as a college kind
(01:06):
of like how you'd have to apply to the d
A to get some m d m A to carry
out some sort of on campus studies, some sort of
um study. You'd have to Lawn darts are illegal, man, yeah,
big time. Do you remember those things that were like
there's a task force, there's a schedule one backyard game.
(01:26):
I think, I bet you can buy him on eBay
and stuff. Well, you can probably buy him on still Cross.
I was just about to say, you got to go
in the deep web to get I played that when
I was a kid, though I was smart enough to
not kill myself for anybody else with them. It's funny
looking and how dangerous that was. Yeah, And that was
(01:47):
kind of like the end of that wave because you know,
at the time, and like for the a decade or
two before that, probably longer, it was like you could
get electrocuted by your toaster pretty easily. Like your humidifiers,
there was an any percent chances going to catch fire
while you were asleep. Remember the hydrochloric acid slipping slides. Yeah, right,
we're awful. Yeah, And they designed them like that so
(02:07):
that they would be obsolete very quickly, so they acid
would burn them much more quickly, and you too, unfortunately.
Uh so, do you have a great setup for this
thrilling podcast to come? I'm hungry, so this will explain
this this set up. Have you ever heard of a
horseshoe sandwich? No, I haven't. It is a local dallastic
(02:31):
delicacy out of Springfield, Illinois, and it dates back to
the early twentieth century. It's for a full size portion.
It's two pieces of Texas toast, Texas toast nice hamburger,
patty or ham. Love both ham and hamburger. Well, then
you probably like them together on each Texas toast slice,
(02:52):
cover the whole and put them next to each other.
It's open face, cover the whole thing with fries, and
then top it all with cheese aus just like not
your cheese sauce. I'm sure there's people out there who
use cheese was but from what from what I understand
from my research, Uh, it's more like a Welsh rare
bit sauce, so like cheese with like um other stuff
(03:14):
that makes it. Wellshare, But that's a horseshoe sandwich and sip.
In doing research for horseshoes, that was one of the
most interesting things I could come up. Again, I'm hungry,
so it really jumped out at me. Yeah, why do
they call it that? I didn't see because it doesn't
(03:38):
because it's the size of a horseshoe. I don't know.
It looked to be the size of a horse. Maybe
the shoes underneath. Well, maybe calling it the horse sandwich
was untoward, so they just horseshoe. Yeah, I'll bet that's
exactly what it was. Well, anyway, shout out to Springfield, Illinois,
right home of the horseshoe sandwich, um and cardiovascular disease. Okay,
(04:00):
So I know how you feel about horseshoes. I actually
love to play horseshoes. Okay, I know how you feel
about talking about playing horseshoes. Not super exciting. I find it.
I find it's it's an interesting thing, all right, It's fun.
It's you actually do get a bit of exercises, especially
if you play competitively. My friend, you can burn as
(04:22):
much if you're an average show as a hundred and
fifty calories an hour playing horseshoes. You can work off
a hardboiled egg an hour, yeah, or one hundredth of
a horseshoe sandwich. Hey, and if you're playing in the backyard,
maybe you've eaten some deviled eggs at a picnic, because
horseshoes and picnics go together, like ants and picnics. That's
(04:44):
exactly right. I actually love horseshoes. I gotta set um.
A few years ago when my buddy Justin who you know,
had a Fourth of July party and we set it
up in this backyard and played and now he kept
them and I haven't played since. What's the deal. Well,
I mean he just left him at his house, you know,
because you need to go again, and those are yours. Yeah,
(05:04):
but I don't have a Actually I do have an area,
but like no one comes and hangs out in my backyard.
Basically everybody hangs out of Justine's. Yeah, and then I
would play horseshoes together, but it's more fun with a group, sir.
And that's one where you can play individually with two
people or with pears. Yeah. And it says in the
article you can play solo. But if you're playing horses spikers, yeah,
(05:29):
that is a sad day for you. It is, um So, chuck,
let's talk about the h and the origin of the
horseshoe itself. Of the shoe, I got a little info
on it, not the game, the shoe, the shoe. So
if you see a horse in the wild running, it's
probably running for its life. Horses naturally don't like to
(05:51):
run very much, and of course not their feet gets sore.
That's why they don't run very much. So right when
humans said, hey, I'm gonna ride that thing, they figured
out we need to put something on its feet because
little feket store and I don't want to hurt this horse.
I'm trying to get it to run. So probably in
the Asian steps about a thousand years well about two
(06:14):
thousand years ago, they started putting like booties on their horses.
That's cute, like herbs and and something to soften the
blow of the ground. By the turn of that millennium,
the first or second century a d. People were putting booties,
leather booties, which the ancient Romans I believe called hippo sandals.
(06:37):
They basically put sandals on their horses. Finally everybody realized
all this was idiotic, and you need to put metal
on a horse. And by a thousand a d uh,
Like nailing metal horseshoes to the bottom of a horse's
hoof was very common practice. Well does that not hurt? No, because, um,
it's kind of like if you have your fingernailst you're quick. Yeah,
(07:02):
if you nail the nail through that past the quick,
not below the quick, but anything that grows out past
the quick, that doesn't have any nerve endings in it, right,
so you know, it's very similar to that. It's like
a huge thick finger nail for the horse. That's what
a hoof is. So it hurts them to walk on these,
but it doesn't hurt to have people drive nails into them. Yes,
(07:24):
depending on how long the nail is. Now, you could
easily use a nail that's too long and drive it
right into the horses foot, which would be very painful,
But as long as the nail is short enough, you're
just driving it into something that has no nerve endings,
and it prevents that foot that's on the other end,
the inside of the hoof, from becoming sore from walking. Okay,
(07:46):
so you want to use nails that aren't too long,
which is why there's a very specific um trade called
a farrier who knows what they're doing with trimming horses, hoofs,
shoeing horses, that kind of thing. And there's actually a
patron saint of farriers. St. Elegius. He said, yeah, he said,
(08:06):
to have come across a horse that was ailing, remove
the horse's leg, shoot it, and then put the horse's
leg back on, and the horses like falling after that,
it sounds like hocus pocus magic to me. Somewhere along
the way, somebody figured out that a horse shoe makes
for a pretty great stand in for a discus if
(08:27):
you bend it to close it. Yeah, like the ancient
Greeks maybe they were into it. Thanks thanks for sitting
through that intro. I saw a little blood come out
of your ear. Oh no, uh yeah. The Greeks and
Romans apparently played horse shoes and uh it like became
a popular thing in the United States, like after the
(08:47):
Revolutionary War, and I guess it just caught on. Well, hey,
let's throw these things. So the ancient Greeks were in
the discus throwing, but you had to be wealthy or
part of the military to have a discus. If you
were poor, you had access to horse shoes, and if
you bent the horseshoes to close them up and through
like a discuss, you had something called quiats. And then
(09:09):
one of them landed accidentally on a metal steak, and
they went, I bet you can't do that again, right.
I think they just got lazy and grew tired of
bending the horse shoes. They're like, well, it's through the
horseshoes as they are. And the horseshoes is an ancient game.
It's an ancient game, and it's played all over the world.
It's not just for suburban American backyards. Uh, South Africa, Israel,
(09:30):
Italy today, a few Yeah, I bet it's played the
world wide. Uh. And just here in North America, apparently
fifteen million people play. Not necessarily competitive, but you know,
like justin yeah, and steal your horseshoes and play with them. Uh.
And that is according to the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association
or in h p A. And like every sport, there
(09:51):
is an official governing body and they set the rules,
they host tournaments. Um, I imagine they sell t shirts
and hats. They There's also a rock star who his
name is Alan Francis what I thought you meant, a
real rock star. He's like, They're like, what's his deal?
He's just super great. Yeah. There's apparently no sports figure
(10:16):
in any in all of sports who's who dominates more
than he does. I'm not kidding this guy, this kid, Listen,
he's the most dominant sportsman in the world. Yes, he
has won fourteen of the last seventeen men's World Championships
at the nhp A Championship. So what's his name, Alan
(10:38):
Francis from Defiance, Ohio. So when people say like he's
the Michael Jordan's horseshoes, what they should say is Michael
Jordan is the Alan Francis of basketball, right, they really should.
This guy has you know, which we'll get into. But
you throw a horse shoe and what you want to
do is throw a ringer. Yeah, he's got an average
nine times out of ten when he throws these things.
(11:01):
It's a ringer, not cleaner, not in count it's a ringer.
No one walking the earth has a ringer percentage like that.
That is amaze. If you want to learn more about
Alan friends, by the way, read Perfection in the Horseshoe
Pit from near by. Josh Clark, you wrote a book
(11:21):
about him. That's sweet. It's a it's cool. I think
it's cool. If there's a guy out there it's like unbeatable. Yeah,
I'm pretty good at horseshoes. This guy would wipe the
floor with you. Well, of course he would. He's the
best athlete in the history of humanity sport. But all
I'm saying is I'm pretty good at horseshoes, and I
assume it's because I was pitched softball. Oh yeah, yeah,
(11:41):
I think it's probably got something you know, similar motion. Yeah,
there they are. They are similar, And I'm athletic. I'm
not one of those people that gets a horseshoe and
like throws it behind them or over, like on the
picnic table or anything like that. Yeah, that's good. So
that means it's your spectator friendly horseshoe thrower. Alright, so
let's get into this. Um. Pitching is what you call
(12:03):
throwing the shoes about twice the size of a regular horseshoe.
First of all, it's not like a little horseshoe you
pitched to see he goes first, closest to the stake
goes first. And we need to say right off the
bat that there are real rules and there are house rules.
I'm always a house rules guy. Yeah, so you're played
(12:24):
by by Justin's rules. Well, we we co determined the
rules since I bought the kid. Okay, but if you
went to say, um, Jake Jillen Hall's house and he
was playing horse shoes and you would played by his rules,
you wouldn't be like, according to my rules. No, I'd say, Jake,
first of all, what kind of name is Jillen Hall?
(12:46):
And then I'd say, secondly, what are your house rules?
Because I will abide, I respect the house room. But
since we bought the kid together, then we made up
our own rules. Basically, I just want to make sure
that's what you're saying. That's what I figured. And that's
one of the points of a game like horse Shoes
is you can play and make up your own rules.
It's no big deal. But we're gonna tell you how
to play a real game if you're into that as well. Yes,
(13:07):
according to the NHP A right, So you pitch, you
see who goes first. Um, the object if you don't
know this by now, is to throw your horse shoe
uh and have it ring the metal steak that is
driven into the ground. That will tell you about in
a second. If you already raise your hand so we
can send someone to come lay on top of you
(13:27):
until you pass out from unconsciousness. Exactly. Games are made
up of innings. Um, you play in pairs and you
throw two horse shoes, you throw both your horse shoes,
and then the next dude or do debt throws their
horse shoes. You don't alternate one and one unlets. You
want to per house rules. House rules. And now there
are like some details to these rules that like I
(13:49):
wasn't aware of, Like you have to pitch both shoes
in thirty seconds. It's like chess in the park. Yeah,
but if you're taking longer than that, like what are
you doing? Are you measuring that the air? Like you're
just like drinking beer and like talking to people who
are watching, Like, get your head in the game, That's
what That's what i'd say. Al Right, so I guess
(14:10):
we should go over the court and all that stuff
of like regulation. So if you get your horse shoes,
you at least know how to set it up. Well,
hold on, what's the end of the game. And and
oh so if we're playing one another, yeah, yeah, we're
both pitching towards the same steak. Yes, you pitch your
two and thirty seconds. I pitched my two in thirty
seconds and that's an inning. Yes, And there's no set
(14:31):
number of innings. But normally people will play until you
get to forty points. Yeah, I've seen that the common
backyard horseshoes you played one, but um, I think a
regulation tournament you're gonna play the forty And it depends
also saw like Philly rules and stuff like this, like, yeah,
people get local, you get a punch and stomach. Yeah, exactly. Um,
(14:52):
it's called a court where you where you play. And
if you want to play horse shoes in your backyard,
you need to have like a level, wide open area.
You can't like you don't want to play it on
a hill. And there's actually a lot of schematics online
if you want to build your own horseshoe court. All right,
so let's go with the basics of the court though.
It's forty six ft long by six ft wide. Yes,
(15:14):
you've got two pitching platforms, which is where you throw
it from each six ft square, and you've uh, you're
supposed to have protective backboards. I've never seen that. Yeah,
I mean, I'm just like, I guess this is so
it doesn't like, you know, tumble on and hit the
guy at the beer kag, but I usually just dig
a pit, you know, and like the Chuck House rules
once again, so what is it then, Like how do
(15:35):
you lay out like where the end of the boxes
there's really not an end of the box for the
Chuck House rules. You're either ringing it, you're leaning it,
or you're closest to the pin or closest to the steak.
I guess all the schematics I've seen are like, man,
it is a defined yeah, like bochy, like it's a
real deal. Um, So you've got two steaks. Uh. They
(15:56):
are iron rods about thirty six inches long one inch wide,
and they are steaked toward each other at roughly a
twelve degree angle about halfway in. It says about halfway.
I would think that would be like really specific, like
how many inches above ground? Uh? Yeah, I would think
so too, but I didn't find that. Apparently, you're also
supposed to stake it four ft from the back of
(16:17):
the box, but two ft from the front of the box.
All right, that makes sense. Um, chop up the soil
or sand if you really want to go the extra mile, Yeah,
do you should. If you're gonna build yourself a horseshoe pit,
get some stand. You've got foul lines at twenty seven
ft and thirty seven ft from each steak, and that
determines where you're gonna throw from. Um they say adult
(16:40):
men pitched from thirty seven and ladies and old people
and kids pitch from twenty seven or shorter. The sexist
and agists agreed. Um, I say, pitch from wherever you
feel comfortable. House rules and they they say the backyard
games are similar, but like it's usually not like it's
either like sand or asphalt pits or something whatever you
can whatever you can accommodate. It's what I say. If
(17:03):
it's if you don't have that many feet, like make
it shorter, right, you know, but then you have to
handicap your score. Really yeah, okay, my house rules are
very unforgiving. That's why I shoes with you anymore. Yeah,
all right, let's talk about pitching then, Okay, you want
(17:23):
me to how do you pitch a shoe? What's what's
what are the two methods? Let's first, let's talk about
the anatomy of a shoe. Let's not forget that horse
shoes are derived from actual horse shoes which were put
on horses hoofs. So if you're holding a horseshoe, so
the two prongs are at the bottom, what's at the
top then is called the toe. The open space the
(17:44):
opposite the toe, that's the heel, and then the two
um I guess parts at the end that kick in
inward towards the heel. Those are called cocks, right, yeah,
And I would have it's backwards in my head. But
then when you think about how it sits on a
rss foot, it makes sense exactly. But I would think
that hell would be hell would be the part you hold,
but it's not. It's the reverse, because how it sits
(18:06):
on a horse's foot, yeah, exactly. Now, if you want
to throw a we're gonna teach you right now how
to pitch a horse shoe two ways. Yeah, and you
got shanks too. I don't think we mentioned that those
are the arms. Yeah, that's right. So you've got the
toe shanks coming down each side, the heel, the heel,
and then the things that kick in are called the cocks,
the hill cocks, heel cocks right, all right. So, if
(18:29):
you want to carry out what's called a single flip pitch,
this is probably the easiest that this is the easiest,
but Alan Francis does this too, And from what I'm finding,
a lot of pro or really good horse shoe pitchers
use the single flip pitch. So what you do is
you grab the thing using your thumb and your index finger,
(18:52):
or your thumb and your index and middle finger. You
squeeze the toe between that, so you've got them the
horseshoe level with the ground, horizontally level with the ground
above it, and uh, you bring your arm back like
a pendulum. You raise it up again. You swing it
(19:13):
back and forth until you can feel it. And you
got to do it within fifteen seconds because you got
another one to pitch. But right when that thing feels right,
you let it go when it hits eye level with you,
roughly whatever feels comfortable, but eye level is recommended. You
want to send it in an arc about six to
eight feet into the air, and you can. In this
(19:35):
method the thing might turn three and sixty degrees once.
It's why it's called a single flip method. But more
often than not, if you're a pro, your shoe does
not turn at all. It follows the arc, but it
stays flat the whole way. And then right before it
gets to the steak, the heel caulks drop and hit
that steak and ring around it, and everybody goes like
(19:58):
takes a sip of corn waste, and they carry you
off on your shoulders, on your shoulders. That is the
flip pitch single flip pitch, uh, more advanced players, and
they say that this is an easier way to get
ringers if you're if you can master this, you know,
if you spent enough years mastering the quarter turn. I'm sorry,
(20:21):
the one in one quarter turn, not the quarter turn.
And there's others just like three quarter turns one and
three quarter turns. This is the standard other one. Yeah,
for one. In a quarter turn, you hold the horse
shoe by the shank, so the opening is to the
left of your grip if you're right handed, opposite if
your left the obviously you swing your arm back and
forth like a pendulum, just like you were going to
(20:42):
do with the flip pitch. And then, uh, I get that.
You let it go lower, is that right? Yeah, usually
when it hits like your thigh area, Okay, which I
think would give it a higher arc. Is the difference, right,
sharper arc? Yeah, but you want to keep that shoe
level to the ground instead of flipping it. Uh, it's turning,
I guess, turning in a quarter until it meets you know,
(21:05):
the steak. Obviously, your your goal there with the turn
is to meet the steak with the I was about
to call him prongs. After we just went over all
that the cocks facing the steak, and then you've got
yourself a ringer. Everyone drinks corn whiskey and raises their
glass for more corn whiskey to be poured into it.
(21:29):
So if you get close, you get no points, right
because close doesn't count in horse shoes. Close only counts
in horseshoes and hand grenades. Oh is that where that
comes from? It does? I was being koy. Yes, obviously
you get points by being close. That's where the axion
comes from. Yeah, it's it's called an in count. So
let's let's say you and I are just both thrown. Yep,
that's one inning. We're gonna go score our inning. Um,
(21:53):
let's say I threw one wild because I've had a
lot of corn whiskey from all the ringers I threw
previous to this round, this ending before I got there
to witness it. And huh, well, I'm just saying like
you're lying about how many ringers you through. I get there.
You look earlier through twelve ringers. Okay, that's why I'm drunking.
So I throw one and it's out of the out
(22:15):
of the court. That's dead. That's a dead shoe. It
doesn't count. Not a dead ringer. No, but there are
such things. We'll explain that in a second. Um, but
I did throw one and it hit the ring and
it's spun around, and we're doing the all count or
count all scoring, which means that I get three points.
(22:37):
Three points. It's the highest you can score. Okay, you
threw a ringer two and um, you three years on
top of mine. You've got three points for that one.
And then your second ringer it stayed in and I
only did a stay in. It fell and is leaning
now vertically up against the steak. It's not around it,
but it's just up against it. It's called leaner. That's
(22:59):
worth one point. I think that should be two points.
It depends. Some people do score two points. I've seen
videos that that's one. Yeah, I think this is just
my opinion. I think it should be three two and
one not three one and one. It makes sense. And
the one that I think you're under your house rules
counts is one point. No matter what, everybody counts as.
(23:19):
One point is one that lands within six inches of
the steak. Yeah, well, how we play is um, you
just measure with another horseshoe, and if it is within
the length of the two cocks, you know, that's what
we measure. I don't know if that's six inches or not,
but that's what we use. That makes sense. Um So
(23:40):
three two and one or three one and one, depending
on how you're scoring. That's the count all method. Yeah.
I don't get this other method. Okay, I'll explain it
to you. It doesn't make sense to me, it does.
It took me many times and I actually had to
watch a video to get it. It's complex, but it's
not really. It's just sometimes the rules of games are
hard to right down to get across and writing. Um So,
(24:03):
the other method of scoring is called cancelation, right, and
so in cancelation rules, that one that I threw out,
that's out. It doesn't count either way. Remember I threw
that ringer. You threw that ringer on top of mine.
That canceled out my ringer, which made my ringer and
your ringer they cancel one another out. See that's what
(24:24):
I don't get. What's the point. That's the same thing
as both of us getting three both of us getting zero. Okay,
it's true, but does that just keep the score down?
Or something. It does. I think also if you're really good,
you know how to cancel other people's points out in
addition to scoring yourself. But yes, it does. I think
it extends the game to really because cancelation, I mean,
(24:46):
like that keeps the points down and if you're trying
to get to forty points, that's a long game. Um,
but that one that you threw, that's leaning. I didn't
throw one like that, so there's not one for you
to cancel out mine, which means you get your points,
whether two points if you're playing at your house, or
one point if you're playing in a tournament. So cancelation
is just if you do something that's the same as
(25:07):
somebody else, they cancel one another out, and then if
there's something that's like yours as closer than mine, that
you get that one point. I mean it makes sense,
I guess in a way, and then I like to
score points, so I would just give everyone points, right, Yeah,
that's the thing in cancelation points. I'm not gonna win
any points like because yours is if yours is closer,
even if mine is within six inches of the steak
(25:29):
and yours just within six inches, if yours just closer,
you're the one who gets the point. I don't, so
it's all like I'm getting all the points in this ending.
But yeah, that makes for a long game, I would guess,
although if you have people who are just throwing a
ring or ring or ringer, a game would probably go
by like in a in a blink of an eye.
So cancelation rules are probably for people who are really
good at horseshoes. Yeah, and I've also seen where a
(25:50):
lot of times you played a win by two. I
don't know is that the official rule or is that
house I didn't see that anywhere. That's the first first
person to get to forty. Okay, that may be a
house rule or a local thing. Yeah, but I'm always
a win by two. Like it sounds a lot like
what you're describing as volleyball play one win by two.
That's pink punk two. Right maybe? So WHOA, I think
(26:11):
we happened upon a magical rule that permeates almost all
games backyard or otherwise have fun stuff. That's it, man,
Do you got anything else? No, I, as much as
I tried be careful. Yeah, And if you have lawn darts,
turn them into your local government because you're you're not
(26:32):
supposed to have this. Yeah, they're hoarding those for the
the apocalypse. Those are gonna be valuable one day. Message
break not yet, all right. If you want to learn
more about horseshoes, or if you just need a handy
print out of these rules for your own home horseshoe court,
just type horse shoes in the search part how stuff
works dot com and it's all right there for you. Uh.
(26:54):
And since I said horse shoes, now it's time for
message break. Uh. And now it's time for listener mail. Huh. Yeah,
I'm gonna call this burning Man correction because uh, you know,
we've never been We didn't get it, all right. That
was a tough one. We've never been to Cerne either,
(27:16):
but we still talked about a large Hadron collider. Yeah,
but we learned with listener mail that uh, burners take
their burning seriously. Let's hear about it. And I feel
terrible because I don't have her name, and I apologize
about that anonymous burner, but here it is, miss Burner. Hey,
Chuck and Josh and Jerry. I was so excited when
I saw you did a podcast on burning Man. I
(27:37):
couldn't wait to listen. I went to Burning Man five
times from two thousand and two thousand five, so she
knows what she's talking about. I don't know if y'all would. Um,
I didn't know if y'all would get it since you've
never been, But you nailed it. You made me laugh
out loud a number of times. Some people get all
serious about it and pretend that it's not all about
(27:58):
sex and drugs, but just let me tell you, sex
and drugs are a huge part of it. That place
wouldn't exist without hallucinogenics. I have seen police there and
that's the one thing he got wrong. I have a
friend who was actually arrested for drugs there, so there's
definitely a police presence. The man is everywhere, so I
just wanted to add Also, even though it's not a
(28:20):
music festival per se, you can really catch some great
acts there on the downlow. We saw Paul Oakenfold there
in two thousand when he was one of the world's
top DJs. There was no advertising, just word of mouth
that he was there. We rocked up to see him
spend an amazing set to about three people. Uh it's
(28:40):
pretty cool, man, Yeah, very intimate. That's a big name.
Another cool brush was with music legend Perry Farrell. We
saw him dancing at Sunrise and asked him to come
over to our place to eat cheese and crackers with us,
and he did. He's really really nice guy and really
really high and in the burning Man spirit. That no
sense of them being famous people or being anything other
(29:04):
than just part of the city like the rest of us.
All are equal on the player. That's cool. And uh,
maybe it's good I don't have our name. Yeah, she
just disappeared into the play exactly like a mirage. So
we appreciate that correction, and thank you for the kudos. Yeah,
thank you very much. Um, we appreciate that. If you
(29:25):
want to correct us on something we got wrong, we
always love those. Thank you for everyone who who has
ever written in to correct us. You can tweet to
us at s y s K podcast. You can join
us on Facebook dot com, slash Stuff you Should Know.
You can send us a correction via emails. Stuff Podcast
at Discovery dot com, and you can go check out
(29:46):
our website our home on the web, Stuff you Should
Know dot com for more on this and thousands of
other topics. Is it how Stuff Works dot com This
episode of Stuff You Should Know is brought to you
(30:07):
by State Farm
Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark. There's step Chucker's Bryant. Did I say that
last time? My name like that? Yeah? I don't know,
and you might have just said I don't know. I
(00:23):
wonder we'll find out. How's it going. It's going great.
We just learned something neat what guest producer Noel to
our right your Left um Bar podcast todays on horse shoes.
He took that as a college course called backyard games
had a gustus state. Yeah, a real college course. And
(00:44):
he said, Baci right, Uh, horse shoes and badminton? Was
it badminton? I thought we couldn't determine? And then possibly
um long darts? Okay, so hey, college credit, which I
don't know. I guess you'd have to apply to the
FTC maybe to get lawn darts as a college kind
(01:06):
of like how you'd have to apply to the d
A to get some m d m A to carry
out some sort of on campus studies, some sort of
um study. You'd have to Lawn darts are illegal, man, yeah,
big time. Do you remember those things that were like
there's a task force, there's a schedule one backyard game.
(01:26):
I think, I bet you can buy him on eBay
and stuff. Well, you can probably buy him on still Cross.
I was just about to say, you got to go
in the deep web to get I played that when
I was a kid, though I was smart enough to
not kill myself for anybody else with them. It's funny
looking and how dangerous that was. Yeah, And that was
(01:47):
kind of like the end of that wave because you know,
at the time, and like for the a decade or
two before that, probably longer, it was like you could
get electrocuted by your toaster pretty easily. Like your humidifiers,
there was an any percent chances going to catch fire
while you were asleep. Remember the hydrochloric acid slipping slides. Yeah, right,
we're awful. Yeah, And they designed them like that so
(02:07):
that they would be obsolete very quickly, so they acid
would burn them much more quickly, and you too, unfortunately.
Uh so, do you have a great setup for this
thrilling podcast to come? I'm hungry, so this will explain
this this set up. Have you ever heard of a
horseshoe sandwich? No, I haven't. It is a local dallastic
(02:31):
delicacy out of Springfield, Illinois, and it dates back to
the early twentieth century. It's for a full size portion.
It's two pieces of Texas toast, Texas toast nice hamburger,
patty or ham. Love both ham and hamburger. Well, then
you probably like them together on each Texas toast slice,
(02:52):
cover the whole and put them next to each other.
It's open face, cover the whole thing with fries, and
then top it all with cheese aus just like not
your cheese sauce. I'm sure there's people out there who
use cheese was but from what from what I understand
from my research, Uh, it's more like a Welsh rare
bit sauce, so like cheese with like um other stuff
(03:14):
that makes it. Wellshare, But that's a horseshoe sandwich and sip.
In doing research for horseshoes, that was one of the
most interesting things I could come up. Again, I'm hungry,
so it really jumped out at me. Yeah, why do
they call it that? I didn't see because it doesn't
(03:38):
because it's the size of a horseshoe. I don't know.
It looked to be the size of a horse. Maybe
the shoes underneath. Well, maybe calling it the horse sandwich
was untoward, so they just horseshoe. Yeah, I'll bet that's
exactly what it was. Well, anyway, shout out to Springfield, Illinois,
right home of the horseshoe sandwich, um and cardiovascular disease. Okay,
(04:00):
So I know how you feel about horseshoes. I actually
love to play horseshoes. Okay, I know how you feel
about talking about playing horseshoes. Not super exciting. I find it.
I find it's it's an interesting thing, all right, It's fun.
It's you actually do get a bit of exercises, especially
if you play competitively. My friend, you can burn as
(04:22):
much if you're an average show as a hundred and
fifty calories an hour playing horseshoes. You can work off
a hardboiled egg an hour, yeah, or one hundredth of
a horseshoe sandwich. Hey, and if you're playing in the backyard,
maybe you've eaten some deviled eggs at a picnic, because
horseshoes and picnics go together, like ants and picnics. That's
(04:44):
exactly right. I actually love horseshoes. I gotta set um.
A few years ago when my buddy Justin who you know,
had a Fourth of July party and we set it
up in this backyard and played and now he kept
them and I haven't played since. What's the deal. Well,
I mean he just left him at his house, you know,
because you need to go again, and those are yours. Yeah,
(05:04):
but I don't have a Actually I do have an area,
but like no one comes and hangs out in my backyard.
Basically everybody hangs out of Justine's. Yeah, and then I
would play horseshoes together, but it's more fun with a group, sir.
And that's one where you can play individually with two
people or with pears. Yeah. And it says in the
article you can play solo. But if you're playing horses spikers, yeah,
(05:29):
that is a sad day for you. It is, um So, chuck,
let's talk about the h and the origin of the
horseshoe itself. Of the shoe, I got a little info
on it, not the game, the shoe, the shoe. So
if you see a horse in the wild running, it's
probably running for its life. Horses naturally don't like to
(05:51):
run very much, and of course not their feet gets sore.
That's why they don't run very much. So right when
humans said, hey, I'm gonna ride that thing, they figured
out we need to put something on its feet because
little feket store and I don't want to hurt this horse.
I'm trying to get it to run. So probably in
the Asian steps about a thousand years well about two
(06:14):
thousand years ago, they started putting like booties on their horses.
That's cute, like herbs and and something to soften the
blow of the ground. By the turn of that millennium,
the first or second century a d. People were putting booties,
leather booties, which the ancient Romans I believe called hippo sandals.
(06:37):
They basically put sandals on their horses. Finally everybody realized
all this was idiotic, and you need to put metal
on a horse. And by a thousand a d uh,
Like nailing metal horseshoes to the bottom of a horse's
hoof was very common practice. Well does that not hurt? No, because, um,
it's kind of like if you have your fingernailst you're quick. Yeah,
(07:02):
if you nail the nail through that past the quick,
not below the quick, but anything that grows out past
the quick, that doesn't have any nerve endings in it, right,
so you know, it's very similar to that. It's like
a huge thick finger nail for the horse. That's what
a hoof is. So it hurts them to walk on these,
but it doesn't hurt to have people drive nails into them. Yes,
(07:24):
depending on how long the nail is. Now, you could
easily use a nail that's too long and drive it
right into the horses foot, which would be very painful,
But as long as the nail is short enough, you're
just driving it into something that has no nerve endings,
and it prevents that foot that's on the other end,
the inside of the hoof, from becoming sore from walking. Okay,
(07:46):
so you want to use nails that aren't too long,
which is why there's a very specific um trade called
a farrier who knows what they're doing with trimming horses, hoofs,
shoeing horses, that kind of thing. And there's actually a
patron saint of farriers. St. Elegius. He said, yeah, he said,
(08:06):
to have come across a horse that was ailing, remove
the horse's leg, shoot it, and then put the horse's
leg back on, and the horses like falling after that,
it sounds like hocus pocus magic to me. Somewhere along
the way, somebody figured out that a horse shoe makes
for a pretty great stand in for a discus if
(08:27):
you bend it to close it. Yeah, like the ancient
Greeks maybe they were into it. Thanks thanks for sitting
through that intro. I saw a little blood come out
of your ear. Oh no, uh yeah. The Greeks and
Romans apparently played horse shoes and uh it like became
a popular thing in the United States, like after the
(08:47):
Revolutionary War, and I guess it just caught on. Well, hey,
let's throw these things. So the ancient Greeks were in
the discus throwing, but you had to be wealthy or
part of the military to have a discus. If you
were poor, you had access to horse shoes, and if
you bent the horseshoes to close them up and through
like a discuss, you had something called quiats. And then
(09:09):
one of them landed accidentally on a metal steak, and
they went, I bet you can't do that again, right.
I think they just got lazy and grew tired of
bending the horse shoes. They're like, well, it's through the
horseshoes as they are. And the horseshoes is an ancient game.
It's an ancient game, and it's played all over the world.
It's not just for suburban American backyards. Uh, South Africa, Israel,
(09:30):
Italy today, a few Yeah, I bet it's played the
world wide. Uh. And just here in North America, apparently
fifteen million people play. Not necessarily competitive, but you know,
like justin yeah, and steal your horseshoes and play with them. Uh.
And that is according to the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association
or in h p A. And like every sport, there
(09:51):
is an official governing body and they set the rules,
they host tournaments. Um, I imagine they sell t shirts
and hats. They There's also a rock star who his
name is Alan Francis what I thought you meant, a
real rock star. He's like, They're like, what's his deal?
He's just super great. Yeah. There's apparently no sports figure
(10:16):
in any in all of sports who's who dominates more
than he does. I'm not kidding this guy, this kid, Listen,
he's the most dominant sportsman in the world. Yes, he
has won fourteen of the last seventeen men's World Championships
at the nhp A Championship. So what's his name, Alan
(10:38):
Francis from Defiance, Ohio. So when people say like he's
the Michael Jordan's horseshoes, what they should say is Michael
Jordan is the Alan Francis of basketball, right, they really should.
This guy has you know, which we'll get into. But
you throw a horse shoe and what you want to
do is throw a ringer. Yeah, he's got an average
nine times out of ten when he throws these things.
(11:01):
It's a ringer, not cleaner, not in count it's a ringer.
No one walking the earth has a ringer percentage like that.
That is amaze. If you want to learn more about
Alan friends, by the way, read Perfection in the Horseshoe
Pit from near by. Josh Clark, you wrote a book
(11:21):
about him. That's sweet. It's a it's cool. I think
it's cool. If there's a guy out there it's like unbeatable. Yeah,
I'm pretty good at horseshoes. This guy would wipe the
floor with you. Well, of course he would. He's the
best athlete in the history of humanity sport. But all
I'm saying is I'm pretty good at horseshoes, and I
assume it's because I was pitched softball. Oh yeah, yeah,
(11:41):
I think it's probably got something you know, similar motion. Yeah,
there they are. They are similar, And I'm athletic. I'm
not one of those people that gets a horseshoe and
like throws it behind them or over, like on the
picnic table or anything like that. Yeah, that's good. So
that means it's your spectator friendly horseshoe thrower. Alright, so
let's get into this. Um. Pitching is what you call
(12:03):
throwing the shoes about twice the size of a regular horseshoe.
First of all, it's not like a little horseshoe you
pitched to see he goes first, closest to the stake
goes first. And we need to say right off the
bat that there are real rules and there are house rules.
I'm always a house rules guy. Yeah, so you're played
(12:24):
by by Justin's rules. Well, we we co determined the
rules since I bought the kid. Okay, but if you
went to say, um, Jake Jillen Hall's house and he
was playing horse shoes and you would played by his rules,
you wouldn't be like, according to my rules. No, I'd say, Jake,
first of all, what kind of name is Jillen Hall?
(12:46):
And then I'd say, secondly, what are your house rules?
Because I will abide, I respect the house room. But
since we bought the kid together, then we made up
our own rules. Basically, I just want to make sure
that's what you're saying. That's what I figured. And that's
one of the points of a game like horse Shoes
is you can play and make up your own rules.
It's no big deal. But we're gonna tell you how
to play a real game if you're into that as well. Yes,
(13:07):
according to the NHP A right, So you pitch, you
see who goes first. Um, the object if you don't
know this by now, is to throw your horse shoe
uh and have it ring the metal steak that is
driven into the ground. That will tell you about in
a second. If you already raise your hand so we
can send someone to come lay on top of you
(13:27):
until you pass out from unconsciousness. Exactly. Games are made
up of innings. Um, you play in pairs and you
throw two horse shoes, you throw both your horse shoes,
and then the next dude or do debt throws their
horse shoes. You don't alternate one and one unlets. You
want to per house rules. House rules. And now there
are like some details to these rules that like I
(13:49):
wasn't aware of, Like you have to pitch both shoes
in thirty seconds. It's like chess in the park. Yeah,
but if you're taking longer than that, like what are
you doing? Are you measuring that the air? Like you're
just like drinking beer and like talking to people who
are watching, Like, get your head in the game, That's
what That's what i'd say. Al Right, so I guess
(14:10):
we should go over the court and all that stuff
of like regulation. So if you get your horse shoes,
you at least know how to set it up. Well,
hold on, what's the end of the game. And and
oh so if we're playing one another, yeah, yeah, we're
both pitching towards the same steak. Yes, you pitch your
two and thirty seconds. I pitched my two in thirty
seconds and that's an inning. Yes, And there's no set
(14:31):
number of innings. But normally people will play until you
get to forty points. Yeah, I've seen that the common
backyard horseshoes you played one, but um, I think a
regulation tournament you're gonna play the forty And it depends
also saw like Philly rules and stuff like this, like, yeah,
people get local, you get a punch and stomach. Yeah, exactly. Um,
(14:52):
it's called a court where you where you play. And
if you want to play horse shoes in your backyard,
you need to have like a level, wide open area.
You can't like you don't want to play it on
a hill. And there's actually a lot of schematics online
if you want to build your own horseshoe court. All right,
so let's go with the basics of the court though.
It's forty six ft long by six ft wide. Yes,
(15:14):
you've got two pitching platforms, which is where you throw
it from each six ft square, and you've uh, you're
supposed to have protective backboards. I've never seen that. Yeah,
I mean, I'm just like, I guess this is so
it doesn't like, you know, tumble on and hit the
guy at the beer kag, but I usually just dig
a pit, you know, and like the Chuck House rules
once again, so what is it then, Like how do
(15:35):
you lay out like where the end of the boxes
there's really not an end of the box for the
Chuck House rules. You're either ringing it, you're leaning it,
or you're closest to the pin or closest to the steak.
I guess all the schematics I've seen are like, man,
it is a defined yeah, like bochy, like it's a
real deal. Um, So you've got two steaks. Uh. They
(15:56):
are iron rods about thirty six inches long one inch wide,
and they are steaked toward each other at roughly a
twelve degree angle about halfway in. It says about halfway.
I would think that would be like really specific, like
how many inches above ground? Uh? Yeah, I would think
so too, but I didn't find that. Apparently, you're also
supposed to stake it four ft from the back of
(16:17):
the box, but two ft from the front of the box.
All right, that makes sense. Um, chop up the soil
or sand if you really want to go the extra mile, Yeah,
do you should. If you're gonna build yourself a horseshoe pit,
get some stand. You've got foul lines at twenty seven
ft and thirty seven ft from each steak, and that
determines where you're gonna throw from. Um they say adult
(16:40):
men pitched from thirty seven and ladies and old people
and kids pitch from twenty seven or shorter. The sexist
and agists agreed. Um, I say, pitch from wherever you
feel comfortable. House rules and they they say the backyard
games are similar, but like it's usually not like it's
either like sand or asphalt pits or something whatever you
can whatever you can accommodate. It's what I say. If
(17:03):
it's if you don't have that many feet, like make
it shorter, right, you know, but then you have to
handicap your score. Really yeah, okay, my house rules are
very unforgiving. That's why I shoes with you anymore. Yeah,
all right, let's talk about pitching then, Okay, you want
(17:23):
me to how do you pitch a shoe? What's what's
what are the two methods? Let's first, let's talk about
the anatomy of a shoe. Let's not forget that horse
shoes are derived from actual horse shoes which were put
on horses hoofs. So if you're holding a horseshoe, so
the two prongs are at the bottom, what's at the
top then is called the toe. The open space the
(17:44):
opposite the toe, that's the heel, and then the two
um I guess parts at the end that kick in
inward towards the heel. Those are called cocks, right, yeah,
And I would have it's backwards in my head. But
then when you think about how it sits on a
rss foot, it makes sense exactly. But I would think
that hell would be hell would be the part you hold,
but it's not. It's the reverse, because how it sits
(18:06):
on a horse's foot, yeah, exactly. Now, if you want
to throw a we're gonna teach you right now how
to pitch a horse shoe two ways. Yeah, and you
got shanks too. I don't think we mentioned that those
are the arms. Yeah, that's right. So you've got the
toe shanks coming down each side, the heel, the heel,
and then the things that kick in are called the cocks,
the hill cocks, heel cocks right, all right. So, if
(18:29):
you want to carry out what's called a single flip pitch,
this is probably the easiest that this is the easiest,
but Alan Francis does this too, And from what I'm finding,
a lot of pro or really good horse shoe pitchers
use the single flip pitch. So what you do is
you grab the thing using your thumb and your index finger,
(18:52):
or your thumb and your index and middle finger. You
squeeze the toe between that, so you've got them the
horseshoe level with the ground, horizontally level with the ground
above it, and uh, you bring your arm back like
a pendulum. You raise it up again. You swing it
(19:13):
back and forth until you can feel it. And you
got to do it within fifteen seconds because you got
another one to pitch. But right when that thing feels right,
you let it go when it hits eye level with you,
roughly whatever feels comfortable, but eye level is recommended. You
want to send it in an arc about six to
eight feet into the air, and you can. In this
(19:35):
method the thing might turn three and sixty degrees once.
It's why it's called a single flip method. But more
often than not, if you're a pro, your shoe does
not turn at all. It follows the arc, but it
stays flat the whole way. And then right before it
gets to the steak, the heel caulks drop and hit
that steak and ring around it, and everybody goes like
(19:58):
takes a sip of corn waste, and they carry you
off on your shoulders, on your shoulders. That is the
flip pitch single flip pitch, uh, more advanced players, and
they say that this is an easier way to get
ringers if you're if you can master this, you know,
if you spent enough years mastering the quarter turn. I'm sorry,
(20:21):
the one in one quarter turn, not the quarter turn.
And there's others just like three quarter turns one and
three quarter turns. This is the standard other one. Yeah,
for one. In a quarter turn, you hold the horse
shoe by the shank, so the opening is to the
left of your grip if you're right handed, opposite if
your left the obviously you swing your arm back and
forth like a pendulum, just like you were going to
(20:42):
do with the flip pitch. And then, uh, I get that.
You let it go lower, is that right? Yeah, usually
when it hits like your thigh area, Okay, which I
think would give it a higher arc. Is the difference, right,
sharper arc? Yeah, but you want to keep that shoe
level to the ground instead of flipping it. Uh, it's turning,
I guess, turning in a quarter until it meets you know,
(21:05):
the steak. Obviously, your your goal there with the turn
is to meet the steak with the I was about
to call him prongs. After we just went over all
that the cocks facing the steak, and then you've got
yourself a ringer. Everyone drinks corn whiskey and raises their
glass for more corn whiskey to be poured into it.
(21:29):
So if you get close, you get no points, right
because close doesn't count in horse shoes. Close only counts
in horseshoes and hand grenades. Oh is that where that
comes from? It does? I was being koy. Yes, obviously
you get points by being close. That's where the axion
comes from. Yeah, it's it's called an in count. So
let's let's say you and I are just both thrown. Yep,
that's one inning. We're gonna go score our inning. Um,
(21:53):
let's say I threw one wild because I've had a
lot of corn whiskey from all the ringers I threw
previous to this round, this ending before I got there
to witness it. And huh, well, I'm just saying like
you're lying about how many ringers you through. I get there.
You look earlier through twelve ringers. Okay, that's why I'm drunking.
So I throw one and it's out of the out
(22:15):
of the court. That's dead. That's a dead shoe. It
doesn't count. Not a dead ringer. No, but there are
such things. We'll explain that in a second. Um, but
I did throw one and it hit the ring and
it's spun around, and we're doing the all count or
count all scoring, which means that I get three points.
(22:37):
Three points. It's the highest you can score. Okay, you
threw a ringer two and um, you three years on
top of mine. You've got three points for that one.
And then your second ringer it stayed in and I
only did a stay in. It fell and is leaning
now vertically up against the steak. It's not around it,
but it's just up against it. It's called leaner. That's
(22:59):
worth one point. I think that should be two points.
It depends. Some people do score two points. I've seen
videos that that's one. Yeah, I think this is just
my opinion. I think it should be three two and
one not three one and one. It makes sense. And
the one that I think you're under your house rules
counts is one point. No matter what, everybody counts as.
(23:19):
One point is one that lands within six inches of
the steak. Yeah, well, how we play is um, you
just measure with another horseshoe, and if it is within
the length of the two cocks, you know, that's what
we measure. I don't know if that's six inches or not,
but that's what we use. That makes sense. Um So
(23:40):
three two and one or three one and one, depending
on how you're scoring. That's the count all method. Yeah.
I don't get this other method. Okay, I'll explain it
to you. It doesn't make sense to me, it does.
It took me many times and I actually had to
watch a video to get it. It's complex, but it's
not really. It's just sometimes the rules of games are
hard to right down to get across and writing. Um So,
(24:03):
the other method of scoring is called cancelation, right, and
so in cancelation rules, that one that I threw out,
that's out. It doesn't count either way. Remember I threw
that ringer. You threw that ringer on top of mine.
That canceled out my ringer, which made my ringer and
your ringer they cancel one another out. See that's what
(24:24):
I don't get. What's the point. That's the same thing
as both of us getting three both of us getting zero. Okay,
it's true, but does that just keep the score down?
Or something. It does. I think also if you're really good,
you know how to cancel other people's points out in
addition to scoring yourself. But yes, it does. I think
it extends the game to really because cancelation, I mean,
(24:46):
like that keeps the points down and if you're trying
to get to forty points, that's a long game. Um,
but that one that you threw, that's leaning. I didn't
throw one like that, so there's not one for you
to cancel out mine, which means you get your points,
whether two points if you're playing at your house, or
one point if you're playing in a tournament. So cancelation
is just if you do something that's the same as
(25:07):
somebody else, they cancel one another out, and then if
there's something that's like yours as closer than mine, that
you get that one point. I mean it makes sense,
I guess in a way, and then I like to
score points, so I would just give everyone points, right, Yeah,
that's the thing in cancelation points. I'm not gonna win
any points like because yours is if yours is closer,
even if mine is within six inches of the steak
(25:29):
and yours just within six inches, if yours just closer,
you're the one who gets the point. I don't, so
it's all like I'm getting all the points in this ending.
But yeah, that makes for a long game, I would guess,
although if you have people who are just throwing a
ring or ring or ringer, a game would probably go
by like in a in a blink of an eye.
So cancelation rules are probably for people who are really
good at horseshoes. Yeah, and I've also seen where a
(25:50):
lot of times you played a win by two. I
don't know is that the official rule or is that
house I didn't see that anywhere. That's the first first
person to get to forty. Okay, that may be a
house rule or a local thing. Yeah, but I'm always
a win by two. Like it sounds a lot like
what you're describing as volleyball play one win by two.
That's pink punk two. Right maybe? So WHOA, I think
(26:11):
we happened upon a magical rule that permeates almost all
games backyard or otherwise have fun stuff. That's it, man,
Do you got anything else? No, I, as much as
I tried be careful. Yeah, And if you have lawn darts,
turn them into your local government because you're you're not
(26:32):
supposed to have this. Yeah, they're hoarding those for the
the apocalypse. Those are gonna be valuable one day. Message
break not yet, all right. If you want to learn
more about horseshoes, or if you just need a handy
print out of these rules for your own home horseshoe court,
just type horse shoes in the search part how stuff
works dot com and it's all right there for you. Uh.
(26:54):
And since I said horse shoes, now it's time for
message break. Uh. And now it's time for listener mail. Huh. Yeah,
I'm gonna call this burning Man correction because uh, you know,
we've never been We didn't get it, all right. That
was a tough one. We've never been to Cerne either,
(27:16):
but we still talked about a large Hadron collider. Yeah,
but we learned with listener mail that uh, burners take
their burning seriously. Let's hear about it. And I feel
terrible because I don't have her name, and I apologize
about that anonymous burner, but here it is, miss Burner. Hey,
Chuck and Josh and Jerry. I was so excited when
I saw you did a podcast on burning Man. I
(27:37):
couldn't wait to listen. I went to Burning Man five
times from two thousand and two thousand five, so she
knows what she's talking about. I don't know if y'all would. Um,
I didn't know if y'all would get it since you've
never been, But you nailed it. You made me laugh
out loud a number of times. Some people get all
serious about it and pretend that it's not all about
(27:58):
sex and drugs, but just let me tell you, sex
and drugs are a huge part of it. That place
wouldn't exist without hallucinogenics. I have seen police there and
that's the one thing he got wrong. I have a
friend who was actually arrested for drugs there, so there's
definitely a police presence. The man is everywhere, so I
just wanted to add Also, even though it's not a
(28:20):
music festival per se, you can really catch some great
acts there on the downlow. We saw Paul Oakenfold there
in two thousand when he was one of the world's
top DJs. There was no advertising, just word of mouth
that he was there. We rocked up to see him
spend an amazing set to about three people. Uh it's
(28:40):
pretty cool, man, Yeah, very intimate. That's a big name.
Another cool brush was with music legend Perry Farrell. We
saw him dancing at Sunrise and asked him to come
over to our place to eat cheese and crackers with us,
and he did. He's really really nice guy and really
really high and in the burning Man spirit. That no
sense of them being famous people or being anything other
(29:04):
than just part of the city like the rest of us.
All are equal on the player. That's cool. And uh,
maybe it's good I don't have our name. Yeah, she
just disappeared into the play exactly like a mirage. So
we appreciate that correction, and thank you for the kudos. Yeah,
thank you very much. Um, we appreciate that. If you
(29:25):
want to correct us on something we got wrong, we
always love those. Thank you for everyone who who has
ever written in to correct us. You can tweet to
us at s y s K podcast. You can join
us on Facebook dot com, slash Stuff you Should Know.
You can send us a correction via emails. Stuff Podcast
at Discovery dot com, and you can go check out
(29:46):
our website our home on the web, Stuff you Should
Know dot com for more on this and thousands of
other topics. Is it how Stuff Works dot com This
episode of Stuff You Should Know is brought to you
(30:07):
by State Farm
Stuff You Should Know News
Hosts And Creators
Chuck Bryant
Josh Clark
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