October 3, 2022 • 49 mins
Throughout our history, there have been terrible weather events that have impacted history, and solar eclipses have had a special place as well, as frightening and unexpected events. In this episode, we'll discuss a few of these events.
Twitter & Facebook: @macabrepedia
Instagram: @macabrepediapod
Email us at: @Macabrepediapod@gmail.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Matthew (00:00):
Macabrepedia makes light of dark subject matters
(00:03):
and may not be suitable for allaudiences. Listener discretion
is advised.
Marissa (00:19):
If you'll recall, there was a 2017 full solar eclipse, I
was seeing for most portions ofNorth America. And it was pretty
awesome. It's certainly not thefirst one that this planet has
seen. And it's not likely to bethe last. The next full solar
eclipse is scheduled for Aprilof 2024. So we have to make sure
(00:40):
that we actually have thoseEclipse sunglasses, this time
that we're the hot commodity ofthe season. But before we knew
the reasons for them, thescience behind it, a solar or
even lunar eclipse could be ascary and unexpected thing,
sometimes seen as ominous. Joinus to be at another entry into
this hour Macabrepedia.
Matthew (01:07):
Hello, and welcome to Macabrepedia a marriage of true
crime and the truly bizarre weare your host, Matthew and
Marissa. And today's entry isbrought in the lead by Marisa
yay, the return of our great andwonders storyteller. And we're
(01:30):
talking about eclipses.
Marissa (01:32):
We're talking about different weather events that
were important through history.
And it was a little bit ofinspired by the hurricane that
just hit Florida. Eclipsesaren't weather. No, I know that.
But I decided to roll that intothis because it made me think
about the 2017 solar eclipse andjust saw a show that was that
had an eclipse as a major plotpoint that took place during the
(01:53):
Tudor era. So it's like one.
Matthew (01:57):
Yeah, the the Eclipse was from our vantage point in
South Carolina, or I was inNorth Carolina at the time, but
it's pretty, pretty cool to see.
I mean, I had a really I was Iwas out on a run at that time.
So I had a pretty cool vantagepoint of that. But it was really
cool
Marissa (02:14):
hat or whatever that is in North Carolina or South
Carolina,
Matthew (02:17):
North Carolina. But it was how it reacted to the like
how it made the shadows likecrescents all, through the trees
and stuff. It was really cool tosee that because I was like why
why is that? But it was it wasit was an interesting thing. And
they were handing out thoseglasses at the Welcome Center at
that was that
Marissa (02:38):
they were very hard to get right in the few days
before. Like you couldn't orderon Amazon unless you wanted to
pay hundreds of dollars for apair of these classes. Oh, it
was it was pretty well, yeah.
But I was at work. Luckily,somebody I worked with did have
one. So we just kind of passedit back and forth. So we were
all able to look at it duringthe time that you know, it's
happening, which was cool.
Matthew (02:57):
Yeah, it was wild. And there was people who were like,
taken, like plane rides to beable to watch it from like the
perfect vantage point. Soboathouse cool, wild times, but
the I mean, the if you thinkabout what that would look like,
in the, in the the age, agesgone by where suddenly all the
(03:18):
shadows change shape. And thesky becomes dark in the middle
of the day.
Marissa (03:23):
Yes. You can certainly see how that would make you
think something bad's gonnahappen.
Matthew (03:28):
Yeah. If you're a negative Nancy could see that as
something really cool. I preferthe dark most of the time.
Marissa (03:37):
Yeah. Well, the dark during the day, though. Yeah. I
mean, it's still a thing to you.
I mean, as recently as 2010.
During the basically a partialeclipse, out of fear people
would stay home, or people onthe streets, many restaurants
and hotels saw a dip in theirbusiness because this many
(03:58):
customers prefer not to eatduring the eclipse for whatever
reason, and most schools noreason whatsoever. Yeah. And a
lot of schools closed when thestudents didn't show up for it.
Matthew (04:10):
Really? Yeah, in 2010 10.
Marissa (04:13):
I mean, it still happens. We know the science
behind it. But you know, still,
Matthew (04:18):
I mean, in the US, called schools are closing,
Marissa (04:21):
and nice 95 and Cambodia instead of like
screaming and just instead oflike, things that you might
think people would do, soldiersactually shot into the air to
scare the mythic dragon from thesky. Interest, not sure how
serious they were. This is 95.
But yeah, it was reported thatthe only scattered casualties
were from the bullets.
Matthew (04:44):
Yeah, like the bullets were hitting people looking back
Marissa (04:47):
down. Smart. For you, and night Did anyone in
California astronomers were kindof surprised by the weeping and
wailing of the hotel staff whowere surprised by the just
sudden onset of darkness. Imean, this is not something that
is so far back in the past.
Yeah, we don't have you know?
Matthew (05:06):
Well, I mean, they don't it doesn't happen very
frequently. So I mean, I guessif you're not in the know, and
you don't know that it's aboutto happen, particularly if
you're, yeah, if you'reparticularly leaning towards a
superstitious tradition orreligion, you know, all of a
sudden is like, oh, shit, it'sthe apocalypse. I knew it. I
(05:27):
knew it.
Marissa (05:30):
I mean, pregnant women are still sometimes worn to stay
inside during an eclipse. What?
Not eat not carry sharp objectsand not eat cooked food from
prior to the Eclipse happening.
Matthew (05:41):
Don't eat pre Eclipse food. Okay, strange. I'll keep
that in mind.
Marissa (05:49):
They actually, the the baby superstitions assemblies.
This actually dates back to theAztecs. So the baby
superstitions. Yeah, if you'repregnant lady.
Matthew (05:59):
What the effect would be on your babies. Those babies
with their superstition?
Marissa (06:06):
Yeah. Well, the Aztecs believed that a celestial Beast
was biting the sun. And theythought that the same thing
could possibly happen to thebaby. If the pregnant mother
watch the eclipse
Matthew (06:15):
that a celestial creature might eat its beat the
baby?
Marissa (06:19):
Well, yeah, bite it.
These things do happen. Thatdoesn't happen. But you know,
people, people are scared of it.
So or happened traditionally, inthe past. I mean, there'd been a
lot of eclipses that havereally, you know, impacted
history in various ways. If yougo back to 413 BC, there was an
eclipse during the Second Battleof Syracuse. This is the
(06:41):
Athenians, they were trying tosell home. And during that time,
there was a lunar eclipse, andnice theists, who was a
particularly superstitious manon their side, asked the priests
what you should do. And theysuggested that the Athenians
wait for another 27 days, andnice as agreed, because he's
(07:01):
like, sure, you know, thiseclipse happened. Absolutely. I
believe you completely. Thisyear acusense took advantage of
this and 76 of their shipsattacked 86 Athenian ships that
were actually in the harbor foragain, this 27 to 27 more days,
they probably wouldn't have beenthere. If they hadn't stayed.
The Athenians were defeated. AndAthenian leader urine urine
(07:23):
madonn was killed.
Matthew (07:25):
All because because of this eclipse. Well, yeah, that
again, that's a you know, it'sanother one of those errors, air
eras where, you know, youbelieve that everything that
happens has a sign from thegods.
Marissa (07:41):
Absolutely. And another one was, so we've talked about
William the Conqueror just alittle bit. His son was Henry,
the first of England when hisson died on 1133 ad. Some
sources say it was the same daybut most of them actually say
the same year for sure. Therewas a solar eclipse that lasted
(08:03):
for four minutes and 38 seconds.
Not sure how they got thatexact, but that's that's what
they say. This midday blockingout the sun caused a quote,
hideous darkness to slip up onthe fears of men. This was
Matthew (08:17):
a guy who died from the lamprey
Marissa (08:19):
was this guy.
Unknown (08:21):
Okay, for sure.
Marissa (08:23):
People wondered what sort of ill omen this was. And
they suggested that somethinghuge was going to happen. And
then of course, they were right.
The king died
Matthew (08:30):
from from be from eating bad land
Marissa (08:32):
prey. Clubs, right,
Matthew (08:35):
though Yeah, that's one of the there was lamp arrays
that were cooked the pre for theEclipse and then it all the
pieces just fall right intoplace. It writes itself.
Marissa (08:45):
A few centuries later, another solar eclipse happened
on March 16 1485. Okay, this oneis actually the one that I was
watching wasn't a major plotpoint, which is what I said
earlier, but there was a plotpoint in the show I was watching
which was the white princess.
And okay, so what happened wasspoilers, whatever is history.
(09:07):
So in Neville, she died. She wasthe wife of Richard the Third,
who was the last your king andhe was also the last of the
plantagenets. So again, the Warof the Roses and all this
happened and Edward was the kingand and ever died. And then
basically Richard took over putthe princess in the tower,
(09:27):
Richard became king.
Matthew (09:31):
The princess in the tower is also a burden. McCobb
story,
Marissa (09:33):
very McCobb story. But anyway, Richard became king,
actually, Richard the Third. Ibelieve he's the one whose bones
were found in a parking lot.
Yeah, a few years like 2011 orsomething. Don't quote me on
that. But they found his bonesin a parking lot. They kind of
knew where it would be becausethey had text the Senate where
they were, they knew what usedto be on that spot. So actually,
they found that pretty quicklywhen they went into to start
(09:53):
looking. But I thought thatanyway, I'm sidetracked. But
anyway,
Matthew (10:00):
That's fine. It's my God. Yeah McCobb second,
Marissa (10:02):
that's pretty cool. So, anyway, when the Eclipse
happened This is right afterRichard the third's wife died.
And this encouraged encouragedHenry tutor his supporters, who
saw this as a bad omen for theyour guests. And this pushed
them to move forward with theirinvasion plans. And then of
course, Henry Tudor ended upkilling Richard the Third. And
(10:25):
Henry became the first tutorKing. So he was Henry the Fifth,
his son would or Henry theseventh and then his son would
be Henry the eighth.
Matthew (10:33):
Okay, yeah, can't get an episode without being brought
in.
Marissa (10:38):
Go way back. In 1302 BC, Chinese historians
documented a totally eclipsedthat blocked out the son of the
heart. Oh, man, I should havestopped there, you should have
put that in there at thatmoment.
Matthew (10:51):
Comedy is all about timing. And I'm not going to
edit that to make it funny.
Marissa (10:54):
So for six minutes and 25 seconds, this eclipse
happened because the sun was asymbol of the Emperor. and
Eclipse was seen as a warning tothe leader. And after the
eclipse, the emperor would eatvegetarian meals only and
perform rituals to rescue thesun. There's just a lot of
superstition around it. This oneis and then not
Matthew (11:14):
to stop it not to interrupt too much. But it
sounds like there's a planethat's about to crash. I don't
know if if the microphones arepicking it up. But it sounds
like there's a plane just likewhistling towards the ground or
in. But anyways, go ahead.
Sorry.
Marissa (11:30):
So this one is less superstition, but still kind of
cool. In 1919, there was aneclipse and the sun was vanished
for six minutes and 51 seconds.
scientists measured the bendingof the light from the stars as
they passed near the sun. Andthis actually helps confirm
Einstein's theory of generalrelativity. Yes, it describes
gravity as a warping of spacetime. That's all I've got on
(11:52):
that. I can't get deeper intothat.
Matthew (11:56):
Not a Science Podcast.
But I thought that was prettycool. It's hardly a History
podcast. I know. It's mostlymostly a cannibalism podcast
Marissa (12:05):
turned into asthma.
Probably not going to touchJeffrey Dahmer though. New shows
cool though anyway. But anyway,it this this did get inspired by
this hurricane that just hit inyou know in Florida and then it
bounced down into the ocean andbackup to the South Carolina
coast.
Matthew (12:24):
You know whether what would be what kind of a podcast
we could do is we could just doreviews of of other True Crime
TV shows. Just our opinions
Marissa (12:37):
on it. That probably exists.
Matthew (12:38):
I'm sure it exists.
There's nothing that hasn't beendone. Anyway, sorry. Ian smashed
into Florida and and put mygrandmother well crushed her
carport and did some damage.
They
Marissa (12:52):
did a heck a lot of damage. I'm not sure if this has
been confirmed. But it did saysomething about this the worst
natural disaster in Florida'shistory. I think a lot of it's
because of just being Florida.
Yeah. Well, a lot of the peoplein the path of the destruction I
think didn't have hurricaneinsurance. So I think that's
gonna end up being a bigproblem. But
Matthew (13:13):
anyway, which is nuts.
Why would you live in Floridaand not have well, I'm
Marissa (13:17):
it doesn't normally hit there.
Matthew (13:18):
It's still I mean, so come through the Gulf on
occasion. I mean, that was thewhole thing that flooded New
Orleans. Anyways, sorry. Anyway,good.
Marissa (13:27):
Because of this. I went down the weather and Eclipse.
Sorry, rabbit hole. And so thedeadliest hurricane in US
history was in fact, Galveston,Texas. This was a 1900s. So
September 8 1900. The it stillstands as the deadliest natural
disaster of any type in UShistory. Oh, wow. Yeah. It
(13:50):
struck with little warning. TheWeather Bureau not only
incorrectly predicted thestorm's path, but also didn't
tell the people who live therethat it was coming. This is 1900
it was it was obviously a longtime ago. That might who knows
what they knew even
Matthew (14:06):
it is looking out looking out with their lights
come in hand hand over theireyes kind of squinting into the
distance go get the FarmersAlmanac this this all this shit
looks like it's gonna be bad.
Also, my voice is cracking andstuff. It's cuz I was screaming
quite a bit at that the jazztoday that was not me. First day
of the Renaissance fun of ofTexas accents. That's just my
(14:29):
voice cracking
Marissa (14:32):
Yes, he's he's quite loud at the joust.
Matthew (14:36):
Also not a podcast about the renaissance fair.
Yeah,
Marissa (14:38):
well, you know what?
It's a it's a podcast about us.
Dammit. Not really, but it wasfun. Anyway. You want to know
more about it reach out to us.
All right, the GalvestonHurricane. The wind speeds
actually are estimated to havebeen about 145 miles per hour.
But it was the storm surge whichclimb To 15 feet. Wow, that
(14:59):
caused the most devastation.
Yeah, that's pretty high.
Matthew (15:04):
What is 145 miles per hour? So category three.
Marissa (15:08):
You know what I just saw this like last week when
Andy was coming in it was 157
Matthew (15:13):
kicked it to a category five. Right so it was category.
Marissa (15:18):
Yeah. Even was like two miles per hour below what was
supposed to be wanted thesevens? Yeah, so 140 fives
probably so for me. Anyway,we're
Matthew (15:28):
category three for whatever. But anyway, again,
Marissa (15:31):
big hurricane. It caused a lot of devastation. At
least 8000 people lost theirlives in this hurricane. And the
town was completely destroyed.
Yeah.
Matthew (15:39):
15 foot surge is is massive.
Marissa (15:45):
Can you imagine that?
Just like coming through the
Matthew (15:48):
back can only imagine.
Marissa (15:50):
Generally.
Matthew (15:52):
Yep, that was the joke.
No, wait time song joke.
Marissa (15:56):
For man. That's that's more than twice as tall as you
coming through the streets.
That'd be so bad. Anyway, deskdamage estimates that the
monetary damage was about $30million, which would actually be
about $700 million today. Wow.
Matthew (16:15):
That was even before.
Okay, well,
Marissa (16:17):
yeah, no. Crazy.
Matthew (16:20):
That's a lot. That's a lot. That's a lot of buildings
going getting crushed. Do wehave a body count on that
instead of?
Marissa (16:29):
Wow, I know. I believe Galveston is an island off of
Texas. So it's very look it up.
Matthew (16:37):
I'm done. You can continue I will jump in as
necessary as I find thisinformation. Yeah, it's
Galveston Island. And yeah, itlooks like it's, it's it's one
of those like, islands that kindof is like a barrier wall kind
of island and it to a bay behindit. So it's got it you know,
(17:00):
it's kind of like the OuterBanks of North Carolina and
guess
Marissa (17:03):
what was that city behind it?
Matthew (17:04):
The city behind it?
Yeah, there's the city. SantaFe, Texas, Santa Fe.
Marissa (17:10):
Okay. But um, yeah, that. That's gotta be just
awful. Yeah. But we're gonnamove away from hurricanes.
Because this podcast today is abit all over the place,
truthfully. But it is allweather and clips this so this
(17:31):
one will be about a drought. Oh,yeah, the great tutor drought.
Because we always got to touchon the tutors once or twice
Mercury times 1550 Britain andEurope's climate cooled
significantly. This was this wasa it's more obvious when you
(17:53):
look at the fact that theirglaciers actually grew a lot
during this time. Up until the19th century. So this is how
much it cooled down to like thethe ice kept crate being
created. Immediately prior tothis however, Britain and most
of Europe actually had a reallybad two year drought. And so
1540 to 4041 rainfall prettymuch just completely stopped in
(18:16):
February of 1540. March verywarm April and May hot and dry.
The spring saw pretty much allthe water the all the rivers and
lakes and all that dry up. Andbetween February and September.
They only had six rainfalls inLondon in London,
Matthew (18:35):
which is known to be a yes stay a contempt. I don't
know stereotypically but it'soften thought of as like a very
rainy area. Yeah.
Marissa (18:46):
But then we had six rains. And that time. The terms
shrank to such a massive extentthat sea water flowed on the
tide past London Bridgepolluting the freshwater supply.
No. Because of this, dysenteryand cholera ran rampant and
(19:08):
killed 1000s of people on thecontinent, Switzerland and
France saw grapes winter by Julyharvests were lost all you know
fruit and vegetables. They justrotted where they grew. Because
they didn't get enough water sothey just shriveled up
Matthew (19:27):
through. And that's where we get raisins.
Marissa (19:31):
As I how we get raises No. But water just vanished
everywhere. Right? That's what'shappening. Everything's drying
up. One man actually said it waspossible quote for a man dangle
his legs and the great fissuresthat formed on empty beds. So
that's how bad it was in Rome.
Not a drop of rain fell for ninemonths. Wow. Yeah. The rain
(19:53):
dried up and places the sun inParis or ran dry.
Matthew (20:00):
Is this part of the the worst year in history? In terms
of the timeframe for that? No,it was not was not 536
Apparently from a quick Googlesearch.
Marissa (20:12):
But yeah, I mean, a lot of times in the past rain would
would would this would happen inprevious droughts, but then
usually default come August orSeptember rain would come, but
this time it did not. So, notgreat. This also meant that, you
know, water that people woulddrink, drip, you know, dried up
(20:32):
and the crisis got really bad.
Winter became still becamereally warm and didn't get
cooler that winter. In Bavaria,people were people were swimming
in Mountain Lakes to keep cool.
So I mean, at least there's thatwater. But you know, in Mountain
Lakes, which normally arefrigid. A second hot, dry spring
(20:54):
turned into a blistering summeragain in 1541. It was so hot. In
Britain, that forests began todie from drought. Yeah. parts of
Europe suffered. That becamealmost deserts by 1541. And
disease and hunger, you know,just ran rampant. parishes
(21:16):
across the country prayed forrain, it did not come livestock
died in the 1000s. And even thedeepest wells became dry for
months. I mean, hey, anythingyou were going to feed the
animals was also becomeimpossible to find. It was also
hard to find stuff for your selfeven I mean, people died from
starvation in some places, also,I mean, basically, but the next
(21:39):
year and 1542 Guess what? Itrained? widespread flooding. So
you know, made up for lost time?
Matthew (21:47):
Well, yeah, I mean, it well, it's like in like, in the
desert and stuff like that whenthe rain comes through it floods
because the ground is just notready to
Marissa (21:56):
run. The vegetation dries out. So I can't Yeah,
Matthew (21:59):
yeah. Slides all around.
Marissa (22:02):
A few centuries later.
We get we go over to the US. Andfor people who don't know, you,
the US has five great lakes.
Hmm, yeah, sure. It's fiveanyway, the Great Lakes. They're
in kind of the upper middle partof the country. Yeah. And
they're very large.
Matthew (22:23):
Yeah, they're, some would say great.
Marissa (22:25):
They are great. They're so big, though. You can't see
their side of it when you're onit, or most places. So these,
they're sometimes called, quoteinland seas, because of how big
they are. They are prone to verysevere storms sometimes because
you know, the weather just getscrazy.
Matthew (22:44):
We've touched on the Edmund Fitzgerald, which is Lake
Superior.
Marissa (22:51):
In 1868, and 1869, storms on these great lakes,
sank or ran aground more than3000 ships and killed more than
500 people,
Matthew (23:02):
which is crazy when you think about it being a lake.
Yeah, it's like, yeah, that'sit.
Marissa (23:06):
That's why I wanted to point out that this, these are
huge. These are not your typicallakes. But yeah, they killed it.
They killed a bunch people thishappens pretty frequently that
it gets storms. It's just thatthis these two years was just
really particularly bad
Matthew (23:22):
storms, a lot of storms. They they form real
strong over over large bodies ofwater. And these are a bunch of
large bodies of water that allkind of connected. Just like
Ian, just like en except nowherenear Lake. Yeah,
Marissa (23:37):
and different destruction. But after one of
the worst of the storms, whichwas a four day storm in 1869.
Americans realized that theyneeded to notify merchants about
like future weather events thatmight happen. In those few days.
97 vessels suffered damage,okay, this is four days again,
(24:00):
four days 97 ships suffereddamage 35 or total losses that
by some accounts exceeded504 $120,000. At a time, I don't
know what it'd be now.
newspapers reported heavy snow,high winds broke telephone poles
in Chicago, and made you know,rescue missions really
difficult. On November 20, sixmen drown near Chicago trying to
(24:24):
reach a schooner. The economicimpact and loss of life during
these two years actually madethe president of the time which
was Grant President Grant sign alaw for storm signal service,
which was actually thebeginnings of the US Weather
Service.
Matthew (24:43):
Oh, that's cool. Yeah, I thought they were gonna say it
made it illegal for storms tosink ships. Alright, start.
We're done with this. This isbullshit.
Marissa (24:53):
And so from then on the army, the army would record the
weather at particular sitesaround the country. And then
worn through telegraphing, whensurface air pressure began to
drop, which is a sign thatstorms gonna happen. So that's
kind of cool. You know, not thatpeople died, but that they that
that came from it in 1836 therewas the Lewis avalanche.
Matthew (25:21):
A bunch of Lewis's
Marissa (25:23):
avalanching down a mountain. Next one no. Okay, so,
a severe cold spell basicallyhappened in 1836 On Christmas
Eve, a gale, which is obviouslyvery windy. Lewis basically
brought in one of the biggestsnowstorms of the 19th century.
(25:43):
With where are we snow drifts 10to 40 feet deep in places the
it's England. The London globereported that not in the
greatest memory of the oldestcitizens Has there ever been
such a stopping up of the mallsof the males for so many days in
London, which is now of thegravest concern in the minds of
(26:05):
all commercial men?
Matthew (26:06):
40 foot snowdrifts in London 10 to 40 up some deep
snow
Marissa (26:12):
that's a lot in Sussex in Sussex town of Lewis that's
where we're at. drifts piled upalong the chalk cliffs about the
town the strong winds you know,kind of push it against there
and make drifts always see thestrong wind sculpted these just
(26:33):
massive piles of snow like theyare very heavy, huge piles of
snow cannot say that enoughafter the blizzard they were
still still there that blizzardsover but snow still there. And
in Britain snowfall usuallymelts in heavy rain or bright
sunshine
Matthew (26:50):
as pretty much works that way just in Britain
Marissa (26:54):
however this stuff was too heavy to melt away that
quickly because you know if youpile snow in a big pile it makes
it way harder for it to mature
Matthew (27:03):
when it's like when after a snow and you see it
plowed up on the
Marissa (27:09):
parking lot Yeah. And so December 27 December sorry
Matthew (27:19):
that's that's the McCobb this comment dicembre
Marissa (27:24):
we're gonna refer to every 12 month as dicembre dice
walkers on these on snowactually noticed cracks
appearing
Matthew (27:33):
Yeah, this already sounds like it's pretty dumb
idea to go. Hey, let's go walkon top of this. These huge piles
of snow on top of these cliffs.
Yeah, that'd be sweet.
Marissa (27:45):
And you know as it warmed up, these cracks widened.
One young man ran along the yardout alongside the houses below,
trying to get people to evacuatebecause he saw something about
to happen. All these people weremothers and young children who
were reluctant to leave becausethey had nowhere else to go. And
(28:05):
it's cold as December. Just gotpast Christmas. I don't want to
go. Fearing the worst, thisyoung man actually did flee on
his own. And no sooner than heleft. Guess what happened?
Matthew (28:20):
The snow the snow fell down.
Marissa (28:22):
Yes, a major avalanche occurred. Snow came down,
bursting underneath the housestossing the houses up. And
before for more snow pushedthem. Like from above, and like
push the houses. It crushedevery building and bury their
occupants. And what I witnessedis described as a mound of pure
(28:45):
white.
Matthew (28:46):
Yeah, because it's no it's no
Marissa (28:49):
rescuers tried to like free these women and children.
There were 15 buried. But sadlyeight of them were dead
including one woman and all fourof her children. This is the
only avalanche that we actuallyknow took place in lowland
Britain. Oh, yeah. I mean, youknow in Britain history and all
(29:10):
that there could have beensomething wrong with me. But
that is kind of cool. McCobb way1816 was the year without a
summer. So we had the very muchdrought heavy crazy summer to
march summer. Yeah. And then1816 year without a summer. So
(29:30):
an 18 entire
Matthew (29:31):
year or like for the entire world.
Marissa (29:36):
In 1815, Mount Tambora erupt in Indonesia spewing a
crap ton of volcanic dust intothe ear.
Matthew (29:45):
That is a very that's a very scientific.
Marissa (29:48):
Correct, it is legit.
It floated around the atmospherecausing a huge climate shift as
these massive volcanic eruptionstech can do it crops failed. As
for all struck even during thesummer, in New England, Delaware
farmers complained about theprice of corn for their hogs so
(30:08):
they couldn't get it. Lots ofpeople left the Northeast
because they were trying to findbetter prospects in the Midwest,
which wasn't even that muchbetter. American religious
revivalists held meetings andformed new like churches
basically they, they sectoredoff they made new sects.
Sporadic Sunday worshipersrenewed their faith. And in
(30:30):
November voters replaced 70% ofthe House of Representatives
basically this caused people tojust
Matthew (30:43):
know you're gonna vote vote the drought away or devote
the the weather away vote the
Marissa (30:49):
volcano away. Yeah, no, but I mean, think about it. It
does kind of make peopledepressed really, if they don't
get a summer I mean, if youdon't see the sun and it's just
a really so I hear Shut up it'slike a really cold time. I mean,
that's what happens when peoplewho are in like the Arctic
Circle and they don't see sunfor months at a time they
Unknown (31:07):
can replace or house of representatives know in the
hopes of getting whatever
Marissa (31:14):
No, but you know, I can imagine some of this was the you
know, the religious part.
Matthew (31:20):
But also people want to blame somebody for sure could
have done more in this time ofneed, you know,
Marissa (31:27):
and typhoid broke out in Ireland, starving families
fled to America, making 18 1617deleting, like years for famine
related to migrations. Thisactually had a huge impact.
Sure, poor nutrition contributedto the first worldwide cholera
epidemic also. Then there wasthe great tempest. So 1702 is
(31:54):
when this is happening, at theheight of what became known as
the War of the SpanishSuccession succession, and so
Britain's Navy was decimated bysomething kind of unexpected. Is
you know, weather is oftenunexpected.
Matthew (32:10):
I thought you're gonna say, Wales with swords? No, that
Marissa (32:14):
would have been so much cooler though. No, so the
greatest storm ever to strikethe British Isles struck in 1703
November 26. To be 26. To beprecise, my time does not want
to work today.
Matthew (32:30):
being precise with your numbers, but not with your
words. Yeah.
Marissa (32:34):
Geez. So winds were so powerful that approaching gusts
sounded like deep boomingthunder striking terror into the
hearts of all who heard them.
The wind was so powerful that itactually smashed up buildings,
Chimneys, roofs, walls all blowndown. It killed an injured
householders throughout southernBritain. 1000s of buildings
(32:54):
meanwhile, crumbled andcollapse. Millions of trees came
down. Lightning, rain,tornadoes, anything you can
think of. It hit Britain, thesouthern portion of Britain.
This is
Matthew (33:07):
this is before you could call it a hurricane 1702
Hmm. That's why it's the greattempest.
Marissa (33:15):
So a great storm surge swept up the what's called the
Severn Estuary, with water, youknow, pushing inland. This
resulted in huge loss ofproperty, livestock and human
life also just killed. Thebishop of Bath and wells and his
(33:35):
wife were both killed in theirbeds by falling chimney. And
then meanwhile, let's see, thedowns area of the Kent coastline
actually usually had a bunch ofnaval and commercial ships that
were there. But as these windscame in, a vast swell, drove
everything in its path onto theshore. And up to 1200 officers
(33:59):
and crew lost their lives theirone vessel was dragged hundreds
of miles out into the North Sea,all the way to go. Thunberg
Matthew (34:07):
You say that like, you know, Gotham Burg? That's where
you know that is.
Marissa (34:13):
Got the burgers in Sweden. Oh, it's pushed all the
way to Sweden.
Matthew (34:18):
That's crazy. Yeah, it is. I just I'm just surprised
that you thought that I wouldjust or let's put it out there
to the audience. Just knowingthat Goldenberg is in Sweden. I
don't even know how to how toactually say the word or the
whatever. You probably didn'tthat's kind of what we do here.
We just assume that we're gonnawe just English we just make
(34:39):
everything. American EnglishAmerican English.
Marissa (34:43):
Now we do often try but today. I don't know. I didn't
look that one up. So yeah, itwas just it was it was very bad.
And basically, is the wholestory. Yeah, yeah.
Matthew (34:54):
I mean, German. That was the theme of most of the
things you've brought up.
Marissa (34:58):
A journalist at the time said no pin could Describe
it nor Tong express it northought can see that unless by
one and the extremity of it. Youcan't you don't understand
unless you were there.
Matthew (35:09):
No Yeah, that was I mean like just watching like the
footage of the reporters out inin the winds in Florida when the
hit this time it was just likesliding around like holding on
to stuff and it's like yeah,that would be unbelievable. We
(35:30):
weren't we were in a couple oftornadoes I had touchdown
Marissa (35:33):
we were but we we didn't get that. Like the force
of the wind. We were bothinside. Yeah,
Matthew (35:39):
we weren't standing outside the destruction that
happened in the area we're I wasbecause we were separate
separate at the time. You weredown the street in the basement
of some. I was at a thrift shop.
Yeah. And like I was I was inthe house that we were staying
at but it was we had you know,trees falling all over the
place. Up rooted huge trees thatstill had like the mailboxes
(36:02):
that were attached to the like,you know, just on a post in the
dirt. But the tree and themailbox both fell.
Marissa (36:12):
Yes, I have to make sure that you are fine and
posted. It was pretty it
Matthew (36:15):
was pretty it was crazy to to walk through that. So
yeah. When when is no joke?
Marissa (36:19):
No, it's definitely not. I mean, it was really cool.
I was like I saw you said I wasin the basement of this. What
was the basement of a church,the thrift shop was and so that
when I looked outside andeverything sort of going
sideways with the wind,obviously and I was like, oh,
okay, something we need to go.
And the ladies who worked there,like took us all back to this,
like boiler room. And while thetornado was passing by, it was
(36:42):
so loud because the wind keptripping through the rafters. And
so yeah, it was it was quiteintense.
Matthew (36:49):
That was in Massachusetts. And it was like,
the first time and ridiculousamount of years since the
tornado ever touched. There'slike three or five or something
that touched down and like thethree days or something that was
that two or three. But yeah, itwas like three I think it was
three and like in like threedays, but it was crazy. I was I
was from my perspective, I wasstanding at the sink in the
(37:11):
kitchen. And I was looking outthe window in the back as the
storm rolled through. And thenall of a sudden just tree
started just falling. And I waslike, hey, hey everyone. She's
getting bad out there and thenall of a sudden the trees are
falling on the house and stuffand people were freaking out.
And of course I'm an idiot soI'm just like face pressed to
the glass like wow, look
Unknown (37:33):
at all this. It was a good week for the windows.
Matthew (37:36):
It'll be okay. Don't do that at home kids. No darkened
cover and I don't know get inthe bathtub or in a door jamb or
yeah, whatever. Well, that'sthat's for earthquakes, but it
probably still works fortornadoes,
Marissa (37:51):
interior Windows
Matthew (37:53):
when you really get out because when earthquakes and you
didn't touch on a singleearthquake. No, I didn't. But
when earthquakes and tornadoesand stuff happens, you know,
whenever you see the footage,it's just a whole bunch of
bathtubs and door door jams. No,it's not it pretty. That's
pretty useless information withI'm pretty sure you're still
just gonna get ripped right outof your house.
Marissa (38:14):
Yeah, I mean, I'm just I'm just touching on a kind of a
random assortment of theseevents that have impacted our
history. But there are obviouslyso many more.
Matthew (38:22):
Oh, yeah. So there's the big ones, you know, Vesuvius
and shit like dinosaurs.
Marissa (38:31):
And the Vesuvius one is super cool, but I figured out
like, that's pretty well known.
Yeah, people probably know moreabout that one. Yeah. But, ya
know, it's pretty cool. Andanyway, so those are a few of
the major weather events and ofcourse eclipses because I think
they're cool. That have justbeen important to our history.
Matthew (38:53):
I have a McCobb minute.
Do you now I do. The JustinSchmidt sting pain index pain
scale. This basically takes abunch of a bunch of stinging
insects. And this guy, JustinSchmidt, had them all sting him.
And then he tried to describe itlike someone would be trying to
(39:16):
describe like wine, and thengiving them a rating between
zero and four. And so this guythroughout like the 80s, and
then beyond, would just be stungby all these different types of
insects. They're all likeHornets wasps, and like ants,
and that kind of that family ofcreatures, but the pain level
(39:42):
some of the examples like a painlevel one would be the southern
fire and the Western paper wasp,the urban digger bee, and most
most bees fall into like thepain skin. Little ones have you
ever been stung by a bee?
(40:03):
Congratulations. It's a one onthe scale. Then two is the
Western honey bee, wasp. Otherlike yellow jackets and stuff.
These are these are like painscale too. But what what what
what we need to get to thatactually started me on this
(40:23):
anyways was I started watching abunch of YouTube videos on a
Amazonian kind of, you know,coming of age kind of proving
your manhood ritual is with thewith the bullet ant. And what
they do for with these answers,they take these ants and these
(40:45):
answer big, they're like thesize of a thumb. Yeah,
Marissa (40:49):
they're a lot bigger than normal. Yeah, they're,
they're
Matthew (40:51):
very big ants. And then they weave them through like a
bamboo or some kind of like Reedstructure like latticework and
they push all their all of theirstinger bits through there. And
then the the person goingthrough the ritual, takes their
hands and sticks them up intothese gloves. And then they
agitate the ants and the antsbegin to sting the person. And
(41:17):
they also while stinging, theyalso secrete a pheromone or
whatever, that makes it so thatall neighboring ants also go
into this panic staying mode. Sothey just stink. Thanks. Thanks.
Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks.
So there's like hundreds ofthese ants in these in these
gloves that you wear. It waswearing for a few minutes, I was
like 10 minutes or somethinglike that, to continue to
ritual. And it's supposed to belike the most painful sting that
(41:40):
you can get from an insect.
There are there. There arevideos out there where people
say that the tarantula Wasp hasa stronger sting, but those two
are the only ones that are thatare on the number four level.
And I want to get stung by himso bad. Like so bad. I want to
(42:02):
get stung by that. I just wantto see what it's I want to put
my hands and gloves.
Marissa (42:09):
Why would you want
Matthew (42:10):
because you because it's the most painful and sting
that you could possibly havegood. As long as it doesn't itch
afterwards. It's the itchy bitsthat bothered pet sodomy. I
don't mind the pain, like that'sfine. And also when to Okay, I
am fine with pain that doesn'talso come packaged with
(42:34):
debilitating After Effects. LikeI don't mind the pain of having
like something be like pinchedreally, really, really hard.
Right? You get some bruising orwhatever. But breaking a bone
causes structural damage beyondjust like, Oh, that hurts. It's
like, oh, this doesn't functionproperly. I don't like that. I
(42:56):
don't I don't like dealing withthat kind of stuff. But if it's
like non if I know that the painis not lethal, and it's
temporary and not actuallycausing long term damage. Give
it to me all day. I want to needcan pepper spray me? You can put
bullet ants on me. I don't care.
I'm all about that stuff was themost painful thing. Because
(43:17):
Russia Patreon part. But what'swhat's the most painful
experience physical experiencethat you've that you've had?
Marissa (43:27):
I was gonna say I have no idea. But actually when I had
an IUD. Oh, really? Yeah, I hada Paragard. And as a copper IUD,
it's not hormonal. And so afterI had that inserted for at least
a couple of weeks, it was I hadthe worst cramps I ever had in
my life. Like they were so bad.
I couldn't move. So yeah,absolutely. That was that was
(43:48):
the worst pain I've ever felt. Ifeel like that's probably what
it feels like to give birth insome ways because I was like, I
couldn't move it was so painful.
Because it never given birth soI can't say but
Matthew (43:59):
was was it barbed or something? No, it was just
causing the cramping
Marissa (44:03):
it was causing my uterus I guess to just Yeah, it
was
Matthew (44:07):
really bad to black.
Marissa (44:10):
Now Yeah, I was gonna say I don't know but that was
definitely
Matthew (44:14):
I think my most painful experience was one time I was
sledding down a hill and Iturned to avoid be to slamming
my face because I was laying onmy stomach going headfirst down
down you know, as you do down asteep embankment. And it was all
(44:37):
ice on the top so you couldn'treally turn or dig in or
anything like that to get anypurchase. So I was heading
towards this tree and I turnedand what it did was it slung my
body sideways to hit it. Like Iwas going to take it like right
in the ribs kind of a thing. Sothis dumb going towards this
tree and I kind of like tried todo like the worm to like throw
(44:58):
myself up so that I can Toeffectively will cartwheel
around it, but I was a big fatkid. So instead, I just kind of
kept my legs up a little bit.
And then I took it right on thethigh. And it blasted it so hard
and the whole thing cramped,unbelievably, and it was all
swollen. And I thought for sureI broke my femur. That was one.
And then the other one was thefirst time that I ever tried to
(45:22):
run a really long distance inAugust. And I took a bunch of
advice. So I, you got to makesure you tape your feet so that
you know it doesn't you don'tchafe when you run. But I didn't
know how to you tell me to tapemy feet. I just was winging it
at that point. So I put a bunchof this medical tape all over my
feet. And I was like, oh yeah,this is how this is what I'm
(45:43):
gonna do. And then I ran. I wasabout 30 miles in at this point.
And the pain of my feet was soexcruciating, so that I sat
down, and I was like, I have totry to take this tape off. So I
sit on this curb on this road.
And this was just me this wasn'tin a race. This was just me by
myself running down the streetin August in North Carolina. And
(46:08):
I sit down I take off my shoesand socks. And I grabbed the
side of the of the tape and Ihad it taped like almost like
like a tape sock on my foot. AndI pull the tape off. And with it
comes all of the skin and all ofmy toenails off of my foot. And
then I then and it was justblinding pain. So I went to the
(46:28):
other foot and did it again. Ripthat went off to just as
unceremoniously because at thispoint, I was way out of shape. I
didn't This was before I wasactually an ultra runner. So I
tear that off. And then I rananother 20 miles on the on like
my skinless toenail this feet.
And it literally felt like I wasjust running with shoes made of
fryer grease. Like it was justso funny. I couldn't do anything
(46:49):
except for cry and laugh while Iwas running because it was just
the stupidest fucking thing. Andit hurts so bad that I was just
like, what? Why? Why is it whyam I doing this? Why am I still
running in the wrong direction?
I should be running to ahospital and I just continued on
anyways. That was like the twomost painful days. I've never
(47:09):
had an IUD shoved into my wieneror anything like that to
compare.
Marissa (47:12):
Well, my Yeah, no, I had that thing removed pretty
quickly because it was that bad.
But yeah, yeah, that wasterrible. Also, I did crush my
toe at one point, but that wasnowhere near
Matthew (47:22):
Yeah. There's a there's I know that one of our future
patrons had been hit by a carwhere he took a this is yes, I'm
deliberately calling you outfuture patron that he got hit in
the face with the sideviewmirror of a car passing it like
35 miles and I was like, Man,that must have been frickin That
(47:45):
must have hurt so bad. Yeah,anyways, oh, by him tell the
story at some point. It's not mystory to tell. But I always
thought like I was like, thatwas the stone. But anyways, but
he got busted in the face bythat anyway. That was the McCobb
minute the Justin Schmidt painscale get bit by bugs. Describe
(48:07):
it like an exquisite wine. Andkind of like that. Yeah, it he
puts in things like a searingpain similar to being a searing
shocking pain that that tremblesthe the skin or something like
that. It's It's It's It's funnythe way that he notes of just
(48:29):
Yeah, with a touch of wheat. Ilove it. But that'll do it for
us today. Thank you as alwaysfor listening. You can reach out
to us on Twitter and Facebook atMacabrepedia
Marissa (48:43):
and on Instagram at Macabrepediapod. And of course
you can always email us asmacabrepediapod@gmail.com
Matthew (48:51):
Thank you. As always, we appreciate all of you,
listeners for tuning in. Andnext week we will be going back
to murder. Most likely now wewill we will definitely do.
Murder. Yeah, I
Marissa (49:06):
mean there's a couple that I've got. We're gonna
Matthew (49:09):
people will die and we'll tell you the gory details
next week. So join us as we addanother entry into this our
Macabrepedia
Macabrepedia makes light of dark subject matters
(00:03):
and may not be suitable for allaudiences. Listener discretion
is advised.
Marissa (00:19):
If you'll recall, there was a 2017 full solar eclipse, I
was seeing for most portions ofNorth America. And it was pretty
awesome. It's certainly not thefirst one that this planet has
seen. And it's not likely to bethe last. The next full solar
eclipse is scheduled for Aprilof 2024. So we have to make sure
(00:40):
that we actually have thoseEclipse sunglasses, this time
that we're the hot commodity ofthe season. But before we knew
the reasons for them, thescience behind it, a solar or
even lunar eclipse could be ascary and unexpected thing,
sometimes seen as ominous. Joinus to be at another entry into
this hour Macabrepedia.
Matthew (01:07):
Hello, and welcome to Macabrepedia a marriage of true
crime and the truly bizarre weare your host, Matthew and
Marissa. And today's entry isbrought in the lead by Marisa
yay, the return of our great andwonders storyteller. And we're
(01:30):
talking about eclipses.
Marissa (01:32):
We're talking about different weather events that
were important through history.
And it was a little bit ofinspired by the hurricane that
just hit Florida. Eclipsesaren't weather. No, I know that.
But I decided to roll that intothis because it made me think
about the 2017 solar eclipse andjust saw a show that was that
had an eclipse as a major plotpoint that took place during the
(01:53):
Tudor era. So it's like one.
Matthew (01:57):
Yeah, the the Eclipse was from our vantage point in
South Carolina, or I was inNorth Carolina at the time, but
it's pretty, pretty cool to see.
I mean, I had a really I was Iwas out on a run at that time.
So I had a pretty cool vantagepoint of that. But it was really
cool
Marissa (02:14):
hat or whatever that is in North Carolina or South
Carolina,
Matthew (02:17):
North Carolina. But it was how it reacted to the like
how it made the shadows likecrescents all, through the trees
and stuff. It was really cool tosee that because I was like why
why is that? But it was it wasit was an interesting thing. And
they were handing out thoseglasses at the Welcome Center at
that was that
Marissa (02:38):
they were very hard to get right in the few days
before. Like you couldn't orderon Amazon unless you wanted to
pay hundreds of dollars for apair of these classes. Oh, it
was it was pretty well, yeah.
But I was at work. Luckily,somebody I worked with did have
one. So we just kind of passedit back and forth. So we were
all able to look at it duringthe time that you know, it's
happening, which was cool.
Matthew (02:57):
Yeah, it was wild. And there was people who were like,
taken, like plane rides to beable to watch it from like the
perfect vantage point. Soboathouse cool, wild times, but
the I mean, the if you thinkabout what that would look like,
in the, in the the age, agesgone by where suddenly all the
(03:18):
shadows change shape. And thesky becomes dark in the middle
of the day.
Marissa (03:23):
Yes. You can certainly see how that would make you
think something bad's gonnahappen.
Matthew (03:28):
Yeah. If you're a negative Nancy could see that as
something really cool. I preferthe dark most of the time.
Marissa (03:37):
Yeah. Well, the dark during the day, though. Yeah. I
mean, it's still a thing to you.
I mean, as recently as 2010.
During the basically a partialeclipse, out of fear people
would stay home, or people onthe streets, many restaurants
and hotels saw a dip in theirbusiness because this many
(03:58):
customers prefer not to eatduring the eclipse for whatever
reason, and most schools noreason whatsoever. Yeah. And a
lot of schools closed when thestudents didn't show up for it.
Matthew (04:10):
Really? Yeah, in 2010 10.
Marissa (04:13):
I mean, it still happens. We know the science
behind it. But you know, still,
Matthew (04:18):
I mean, in the US, called schools are closing,
Marissa (04:21):
and nice 95 and Cambodia instead of like
screaming and just instead oflike, things that you might
think people would do, soldiersactually shot into the air to
scare the mythic dragon from thesky. Interest, not sure how
serious they were. This is 95.
But yeah, it was reported thatthe only scattered casualties
were from the bullets.
Matthew (04:44):
Yeah, like the bullets were hitting people looking back
Marissa (04:47):
down. Smart. For you, and night Did anyone in
California astronomers were kindof surprised by the weeping and
wailing of the hotel staff whowere surprised by the just
sudden onset of darkness. Imean, this is not something that
is so far back in the past.
Yeah, we don't have you know?
Matthew (05:06):
Well, I mean, they don't it doesn't happen very
frequently. So I mean, I guessif you're not in the know, and
you don't know that it's aboutto happen, particularly if
you're, yeah, if you'reparticularly leaning towards a
superstitious tradition orreligion, you know, all of a
sudden is like, oh, shit, it'sthe apocalypse. I knew it. I
(05:27):
knew it.
Marissa (05:30):
I mean, pregnant women are still sometimes worn to stay
inside during an eclipse. What?
Not eat not carry sharp objectsand not eat cooked food from
prior to the Eclipse happening.
Matthew (05:41):
Don't eat pre Eclipse food. Okay, strange. I'll keep
that in mind.
Marissa (05:49):
They actually, the the baby superstitions assemblies.
This actually dates back to theAztecs. So the baby
superstitions. Yeah, if you'repregnant lady.
Matthew (05:59):
What the effect would be on your babies. Those babies
with their superstition?
Marissa (06:06):
Yeah. Well, the Aztecs believed that a celestial Beast
was biting the sun. And theythought that the same thing
could possibly happen to thebaby. If the pregnant mother
watch the eclipse
Matthew (06:15):
that a celestial creature might eat its beat the
baby?
Marissa (06:19):
Well, yeah, bite it.
These things do happen. Thatdoesn't happen. But you know,
people, people are scared of it.
So or happened traditionally, inthe past. I mean, there'd been a
lot of eclipses that havereally, you know, impacted
history in various ways. If yougo back to 413 BC, there was an
eclipse during the Second Battleof Syracuse. This is the
(06:41):
Athenians, they were trying tosell home. And during that time,
there was a lunar eclipse, andnice theists, who was a
particularly superstitious manon their side, asked the priests
what you should do. And theysuggested that the Athenians
wait for another 27 days, andnice as agreed, because he's
(07:01):
like, sure, you know, thiseclipse happened. Absolutely. I
believe you completely. Thisyear acusense took advantage of
this and 76 of their shipsattacked 86 Athenian ships that
were actually in the harbor foragain, this 27 to 27 more days,
they probably wouldn't have beenthere. If they hadn't stayed.
The Athenians were defeated. AndAthenian leader urine urine
(07:23):
madonn was killed.
Matthew (07:25):
All because because of this eclipse. Well, yeah, that
again, that's a you know, it'sanother one of those errors, air
eras where, you know, youbelieve that everything that
happens has a sign from thegods.
Marissa (07:41):
Absolutely. And another one was, so we've talked about
William the Conqueror just alittle bit. His son was Henry,
the first of England when hisson died on 1133 ad. Some
sources say it was the same daybut most of them actually say
the same year for sure. Therewas a solar eclipse that lasted
(08:03):
for four minutes and 38 seconds.
Not sure how they got thatexact, but that's that's what
they say. This midday blockingout the sun caused a quote,
hideous darkness to slip up onthe fears of men. This was
Matthew (08:17):
a guy who died from the lamprey
Marissa (08:19):
was this guy.
Unknown (08:21):
Okay, for sure.
Marissa (08:23):
People wondered what sort of ill omen this was. And
they suggested that somethinghuge was going to happen. And
then of course, they were right.
The king died
Matthew (08:30):
from from be from eating bad land
Marissa (08:32):
prey. Clubs, right,
Matthew (08:35):
though Yeah, that's one of the there was lamp arrays
that were cooked the pre for theEclipse and then it all the
pieces just fall right intoplace. It writes itself.
Marissa (08:45):
A few centuries later, another solar eclipse happened
on March 16 1485. Okay, this oneis actually the one that I was
watching wasn't a major plotpoint, which is what I said
earlier, but there was a plotpoint in the show I was watching
which was the white princess.
And okay, so what happened wasspoilers, whatever is history.
(09:07):
So in Neville, she died. She wasthe wife of Richard the Third,
who was the last your king andhe was also the last of the
plantagenets. So again, the Warof the Roses and all this
happened and Edward was the kingand and ever died. And then
basically Richard took over putthe princess in the tower,
(09:27):
Richard became king.
Matthew (09:31):
The princess in the tower is also a burden. McCobb
story,
Marissa (09:33):
very McCobb story. But anyway, Richard became king,
actually, Richard the Third. Ibelieve he's the one whose bones
were found in a parking lot.
Yeah, a few years like 2011 orsomething. Don't quote me on
that. But they found his bonesin a parking lot. They kind of
knew where it would be becausethey had text the Senate where
they were, they knew what usedto be on that spot. So actually,
they found that pretty quicklywhen they went into to start
(09:53):
looking. But I thought thatanyway, I'm sidetracked. But
anyway,
Matthew (10:00):
That's fine. It's my God. Yeah McCobb second,
Marissa (10:02):
that's pretty cool. So, anyway, when the Eclipse
happened This is right afterRichard the third's wife died.
And this encouraged encouragedHenry tutor his supporters, who
saw this as a bad omen for theyour guests. And this pushed
them to move forward with theirinvasion plans. And then of
course, Henry Tudor ended upkilling Richard the Third. And
(10:25):
Henry became the first tutorKing. So he was Henry the Fifth,
his son would or Henry theseventh and then his son would
be Henry the eighth.
Matthew (10:33):
Okay, yeah, can't get an episode without being brought
in.
Marissa (10:38):
Go way back. In 1302 BC, Chinese historians
documented a totally eclipsedthat blocked out the son of the
heart. Oh, man, I should havestopped there, you should have
put that in there at thatmoment.
Matthew (10:51):
Comedy is all about timing. And I'm not going to
edit that to make it funny.
Marissa (10:54):
So for six minutes and 25 seconds, this eclipse
happened because the sun was asymbol of the Emperor. and
Eclipse was seen as a warning tothe leader. And after the
eclipse, the emperor would eatvegetarian meals only and
perform rituals to rescue thesun. There's just a lot of
superstition around it. This oneis and then not
Matthew (11:14):
to stop it not to interrupt too much. But it
sounds like there's a planethat's about to crash. I don't
know if if the microphones arepicking it up. But it sounds
like there's a plane just likewhistling towards the ground or
in. But anyways, go ahead.
Sorry.
Marissa (11:30):
So this one is less superstition, but still kind of
cool. In 1919, there was aneclipse and the sun was vanished
for six minutes and 51 seconds.
scientists measured the bendingof the light from the stars as
they passed near the sun. Andthis actually helps confirm
Einstein's theory of generalrelativity. Yes, it describes
gravity as a warping of spacetime. That's all I've got on
(11:52):
that. I can't get deeper intothat.
Matthew (11:56):
Not a Science Podcast.
But I thought that was prettycool. It's hardly a History
podcast. I know. It's mostlymostly a cannibalism podcast
Marissa (12:05):
turned into asthma.
Probably not going to touchJeffrey Dahmer though. New shows
cool though anyway. But anyway,it this this did get inspired by
this hurricane that just hit inyou know in Florida and then it
bounced down into the ocean andbackup to the South Carolina
coast.
Matthew (12:24):
You know whether what would be what kind of a podcast
we could do is we could just doreviews of of other True Crime
TV shows. Just our opinions
Marissa (12:37):
on it. That probably exists.
Matthew (12:38):
I'm sure it exists.
There's nothing that hasn't beendone. Anyway, sorry. Ian smashed
into Florida and and put mygrandmother well crushed her
carport and did some damage.
They
Marissa (12:52):
did a heck a lot of damage. I'm not sure if this has
been confirmed. But it did saysomething about this the worst
natural disaster in Florida'shistory. I think a lot of it's
because of just being Florida.
Yeah. Well, a lot of the peoplein the path of the destruction I
think didn't have hurricaneinsurance. So I think that's
gonna end up being a bigproblem. But
Matthew (13:13):
anyway, which is nuts.
Why would you live in Floridaand not have well, I'm
Marissa (13:17):
it doesn't normally hit there.
Matthew (13:18):
It's still I mean, so come through the Gulf on
occasion. I mean, that was thewhole thing that flooded New
Orleans. Anyways, sorry. Anyway,good.
Marissa (13:27):
Because of this. I went down the weather and Eclipse.
Sorry, rabbit hole. And so thedeadliest hurricane in US
history was in fact, Galveston,Texas. This was a 1900s. So
September 8 1900. The it stillstands as the deadliest natural
disaster of any type in UShistory. Oh, wow. Yeah. It
(13:50):
struck with little warning. TheWeather Bureau not only
incorrectly predicted thestorm's path, but also didn't
tell the people who live therethat it was coming. This is 1900
it was it was obviously a longtime ago. That might who knows
what they knew even
Matthew (14:06):
it is looking out looking out with their lights
come in hand hand over theireyes kind of squinting into the
distance go get the FarmersAlmanac this this all this shit
looks like it's gonna be bad.
Also, my voice is cracking andstuff. It's cuz I was screaming
quite a bit at that the jazztoday that was not me. First day
of the Renaissance fun of ofTexas accents. That's just my
(14:29):
voice cracking
Marissa (14:32):
Yes, he's he's quite loud at the joust.
Matthew (14:36):
Also not a podcast about the renaissance fair.
Yeah,
Marissa (14:38):
well, you know what?
It's a it's a podcast about us.
Dammit. Not really, but it wasfun. Anyway. You want to know
more about it reach out to us.
All right, the GalvestonHurricane. The wind speeds
actually are estimated to havebeen about 145 miles per hour.
But it was the storm surge whichclimb To 15 feet. Wow, that
(14:59):
caused the most devastation.
Yeah, that's pretty high.
Matthew (15:04):
What is 145 miles per hour? So category three.
Marissa (15:08):
You know what I just saw this like last week when
Andy was coming in it was 157
Matthew (15:13):
kicked it to a category five. Right so it was category.
Marissa (15:18):
Yeah. Even was like two miles per hour below what was
supposed to be wanted thesevens? Yeah, so 140 fives
probably so for me. Anyway,we're
Matthew (15:28):
category three for whatever. But anyway, again,
Marissa (15:31):
big hurricane. It caused a lot of devastation. At
least 8000 people lost theirlives in this hurricane. And the
town was completely destroyed.
Yeah.
Matthew (15:39):
15 foot surge is is massive.
Marissa (15:45):
Can you imagine that?
Just like coming through the
Matthew (15:48):
back can only imagine.
Marissa (15:50):
Generally.
Matthew (15:52):
Yep, that was the joke.
No, wait time song joke.
Marissa (15:56):
For man. That's that's more than twice as tall as you
coming through the streets.
That'd be so bad. Anyway, deskdamage estimates that the
monetary damage was about $30million, which would actually be
about $700 million today. Wow.
Matthew (16:15):
That was even before.
Okay, well,
Marissa (16:17):
yeah, no. Crazy.
Matthew (16:20):
That's a lot. That's a lot. That's a lot of buildings
going getting crushed. Do wehave a body count on that
instead of?
Marissa (16:29):
Wow, I know. I believe Galveston is an island off of
Texas. So it's very look it up.
Matthew (16:37):
I'm done. You can continue I will jump in as
necessary as I find thisinformation. Yeah, it's
Galveston Island. And yeah, itlooks like it's, it's it's one
of those like, islands that kindof is like a barrier wall kind
of island and it to a bay behindit. So it's got it you know,
(17:00):
it's kind of like the OuterBanks of North Carolina and
guess
Marissa (17:03):
what was that city behind it?
Matthew (17:04):
The city behind it?
Yeah, there's the city. SantaFe, Texas, Santa Fe.
Marissa (17:10):
Okay. But um, yeah, that. That's gotta be just
awful. Yeah. But we're gonnamove away from hurricanes.
Because this podcast today is abit all over the place,
truthfully. But it is allweather and clips this so this
(17:31):
one will be about a drought. Oh,yeah, the great tutor drought.
Because we always got to touchon the tutors once or twice
Mercury times 1550 Britain andEurope's climate cooled
significantly. This was this wasa it's more obvious when you
(17:53):
look at the fact that theirglaciers actually grew a lot
during this time. Up until the19th century. So this is how
much it cooled down to like thethe ice kept crate being
created. Immediately prior tothis however, Britain and most
of Europe actually had a reallybad two year drought. And so
1540 to 4041 rainfall prettymuch just completely stopped in
(18:16):
February of 1540. March verywarm April and May hot and dry.
The spring saw pretty much allthe water the all the rivers and
lakes and all that dry up. Andbetween February and September.
They only had six rainfalls inLondon in London,
Matthew (18:35):
which is known to be a yes stay a contempt. I don't
know stereotypically but it'soften thought of as like a very
rainy area. Yeah.
Marissa (18:46):
But then we had six rains. And that time. The terms
shrank to such a massive extentthat sea water flowed on the
tide past London Bridgepolluting the freshwater supply.
No. Because of this, dysenteryand cholera ran rampant and
(19:08):
killed 1000s of people on thecontinent, Switzerland and
France saw grapes winter by Julyharvests were lost all you know
fruit and vegetables. They justrotted where they grew. Because
they didn't get enough water sothey just shriveled up
Matthew (19:27):
through. And that's where we get raisins.
Marissa (19:31):
As I how we get raises No. But water just vanished
everywhere. Right? That's what'shappening. Everything's drying
up. One man actually said it waspossible quote for a man dangle
his legs and the great fissuresthat formed on empty beds. So
that's how bad it was in Rome.
Not a drop of rain fell for ninemonths. Wow. Yeah. The rain
(19:53):
dried up and places the sun inParis or ran dry.
Matthew (20:00):
Is this part of the the worst year in history? In terms
of the timeframe for that? No,it was not was not 536
Apparently from a quick Googlesearch.
Marissa (20:12):
But yeah, I mean, a lot of times in the past rain would
would would this would happen inprevious droughts, but then
usually default come August orSeptember rain would come, but
this time it did not. So, notgreat. This also meant that, you
know, water that people woulddrink, drip, you know, dried up
(20:32):
and the crisis got really bad.
Winter became still becamereally warm and didn't get
cooler that winter. In Bavaria,people were people were swimming
in Mountain Lakes to keep cool.
So I mean, at least there's thatwater. But you know, in Mountain
Lakes, which normally arefrigid. A second hot, dry spring
(20:54):
turned into a blistering summeragain in 1541. It was so hot. In
Britain, that forests began todie from drought. Yeah. parts of
Europe suffered. That becamealmost deserts by 1541. And
disease and hunger, you know,just ran rampant. parishes
(21:16):
across the country prayed forrain, it did not come livestock
died in the 1000s. And even thedeepest wells became dry for
months. I mean, hey, anythingyou were going to feed the
animals was also becomeimpossible to find. It was also
hard to find stuff for your selfeven I mean, people died from
starvation in some places, also,I mean, basically, but the next
(21:39):
year and 1542 Guess what? Itrained? widespread flooding. So
you know, made up for lost time?
Matthew (21:47):
Well, yeah, I mean, it well, it's like in like, in the
desert and stuff like that whenthe rain comes through it floods
because the ground is just notready to
Marissa (21:56):
run. The vegetation dries out. So I can't Yeah,
Matthew (21:59):
yeah. Slides all around.
Marissa (22:02):
A few centuries later.
We get we go over to the US. Andfor people who don't know, you,
the US has five great lakes.
Hmm, yeah, sure. It's fiveanyway, the Great Lakes. They're
in kind of the upper middle partof the country. Yeah. And
they're very large.
Matthew (22:23):
Yeah, they're, some would say great.
Marissa (22:25):
They are great. They're so big, though. You can't see
their side of it when you're onit, or most places. So these,
they're sometimes called, quoteinland seas, because of how big
they are. They are prone to verysevere storms sometimes because
you know, the weather just getscrazy.
Matthew (22:44):
We've touched on the Edmund Fitzgerald, which is Lake
Superior.
Marissa (22:51):
In 1868, and 1869, storms on these great lakes,
sank or ran aground more than3000 ships and killed more than
500 people,
Matthew (23:02):
which is crazy when you think about it being a lake.
Yeah, it's like, yeah, that'sit.
Marissa (23:06):
That's why I wanted to point out that this, these are
huge. These are not your typicallakes. But yeah, they killed it.
They killed a bunch people thishappens pretty frequently that
it gets storms. It's just thatthis these two years was just
really particularly bad
Matthew (23:22):
storms, a lot of storms. They they form real
strong over over large bodies ofwater. And these are a bunch of
large bodies of water that allkind of connected. Just like
Ian, just like en except nowherenear Lake. Yeah,
Marissa (23:37):
and different destruction. But after one of
the worst of the storms, whichwas a four day storm in 1869.
Americans realized that theyneeded to notify merchants about
like future weather events thatmight happen. In those few days.
97 vessels suffered damage,okay, this is four days again,
(24:00):
four days 97 ships suffereddamage 35 or total losses that
by some accounts exceeded504 $120,000. At a time, I don't
know what it'd be now.
newspapers reported heavy snow,high winds broke telephone poles
in Chicago, and made you know,rescue missions really
difficult. On November 20, sixmen drown near Chicago trying to
(24:24):
reach a schooner. The economicimpact and loss of life during
these two years actually madethe president of the time which
was Grant President Grant sign alaw for storm signal service,
which was actually thebeginnings of the US Weather
Service.
Matthew (24:43):
Oh, that's cool. Yeah, I thought they were gonna say it
made it illegal for storms tosink ships. Alright, start.
We're done with this. This isbullshit.
Marissa (24:53):
And so from then on the army, the army would record the
weather at particular sitesaround the country. And then
worn through telegraphing, whensurface air pressure began to
drop, which is a sign thatstorms gonna happen. So that's
kind of cool. You know, not thatpeople died, but that they that
that came from it in 1836 therewas the Lewis avalanche.
Matthew (25:21):
A bunch of Lewis's
Marissa (25:23):
avalanching down a mountain. Next one no. Okay, so,
a severe cold spell basicallyhappened in 1836 On Christmas
Eve, a gale, which is obviouslyvery windy. Lewis basically
brought in one of the biggestsnowstorms of the 19th century.
(25:43):
With where are we snow drifts 10to 40 feet deep in places the
it's England. The London globereported that not in the
greatest memory of the oldestcitizens Has there ever been
such a stopping up of the mallsof the males for so many days in
London, which is now of thegravest concern in the minds of
(26:05):
all commercial men?
Matthew (26:06):
40 foot snowdrifts in London 10 to 40 up some deep
snow
Marissa (26:12):
that's a lot in Sussex in Sussex town of Lewis that's
where we're at. drifts piled upalong the chalk cliffs about the
town the strong winds you know,kind of push it against there
and make drifts always see thestrong wind sculpted these just
(26:33):
massive piles of snow like theyare very heavy, huge piles of
snow cannot say that enoughafter the blizzard they were
still still there that blizzardsover but snow still there. And
in Britain snowfall usuallymelts in heavy rain or bright
sunshine
Matthew (26:50):
as pretty much works that way just in Britain
Marissa (26:54):
however this stuff was too heavy to melt away that
quickly because you know if youpile snow in a big pile it makes
it way harder for it to mature
Matthew (27:03):
when it's like when after a snow and you see it
plowed up on the
Marissa (27:09):
parking lot Yeah. And so December 27 December sorry
Matthew (27:19):
that's that's the McCobb this comment dicembre
Marissa (27:24):
we're gonna refer to every 12 month as dicembre dice
walkers on these on snowactually noticed cracks
appearing
Matthew (27:33):
Yeah, this already sounds like it's pretty dumb
idea to go. Hey, let's go walkon top of this. These huge piles
of snow on top of these cliffs.
Yeah, that'd be sweet.
Marissa (27:45):
And you know as it warmed up, these cracks widened.
One young man ran along the yardout alongside the houses below,
trying to get people to evacuatebecause he saw something about
to happen. All these people weremothers and young children who
were reluctant to leave becausethey had nowhere else to go. And
(28:05):
it's cold as December. Just gotpast Christmas. I don't want to
go. Fearing the worst, thisyoung man actually did flee on
his own. And no sooner than heleft. Guess what happened?
Matthew (28:20):
The snow the snow fell down.
Marissa (28:22):
Yes, a major avalanche occurred. Snow came down,
bursting underneath the housestossing the houses up. And
before for more snow pushedthem. Like from above, and like
push the houses. It crushedevery building and bury their
occupants. And what I witnessedis described as a mound of pure
(28:45):
white.
Matthew (28:46):
Yeah, because it's no it's no
Marissa (28:49):
rescuers tried to like free these women and children.
There were 15 buried. But sadlyeight of them were dead
including one woman and all fourof her children. This is the
only avalanche that we actuallyknow took place in lowland
Britain. Oh, yeah. I mean, youknow in Britain history and all
(29:10):
that there could have beensomething wrong with me. But
that is kind of cool. McCobb way1816 was the year without a
summer. So we had the very muchdrought heavy crazy summer to
march summer. Yeah. And then1816 year without a summer. So
(29:30):
an 18 entire
Matthew (29:31):
year or like for the entire world.
Marissa (29:36):
In 1815, Mount Tambora erupt in Indonesia spewing a
crap ton of volcanic dust intothe ear.
Matthew (29:45):
That is a very that's a very scientific.
Marissa (29:48):
Correct, it is legit.
It floated around the atmospherecausing a huge climate shift as
these massive volcanic eruptionstech can do it crops failed. As
for all struck even during thesummer, in New England, Delaware
farmers complained about theprice of corn for their hogs so
(30:08):
they couldn't get it. Lots ofpeople left the Northeast
because they were trying to findbetter prospects in the Midwest,
which wasn't even that muchbetter. American religious
revivalists held meetings andformed new like churches
basically they, they sectoredoff they made new sects.
Sporadic Sunday worshipersrenewed their faith. And in
(30:30):
November voters replaced 70% ofthe House of Representatives
basically this caused people tojust
Matthew (30:43):
know you're gonna vote vote the drought away or devote
the the weather away vote the
Marissa (30:49):
volcano away. Yeah, no, but I mean, think about it. It
does kind of make peopledepressed really, if they don't
get a summer I mean, if youdon't see the sun and it's just
a really so I hear Shut up it'slike a really cold time. I mean,
that's what happens when peoplewho are in like the Arctic
Circle and they don't see sunfor months at a time they
Unknown (31:07):
can replace or house of representatives know in the
hopes of getting whatever
Marissa (31:14):
No, but you know, I can imagine some of this was the you
know, the religious part.
Matthew (31:20):
But also people want to blame somebody for sure could
have done more in this time ofneed, you know,
Marissa (31:27):
and typhoid broke out in Ireland, starving families
fled to America, making 18 1617deleting, like years for famine
related to migrations. Thisactually had a huge impact.
Sure, poor nutrition contributedto the first worldwide cholera
epidemic also. Then there wasthe great tempest. So 1702 is
(31:54):
when this is happening, at theheight of what became known as
the War of the SpanishSuccession succession, and so
Britain's Navy was decimated bysomething kind of unexpected. Is
you know, weather is oftenunexpected.
Matthew (32:10):
I thought you're gonna say, Wales with swords? No, that
Marissa (32:14):
would have been so much cooler though. No, so the
greatest storm ever to strikethe British Isles struck in 1703
November 26. To be 26. To beprecise, my time does not want
to work today.
Matthew (32:30):
being precise with your numbers, but not with your
words. Yeah.
Marissa (32:34):
Geez. So winds were so powerful that approaching gusts
sounded like deep boomingthunder striking terror into the
hearts of all who heard them.
The wind was so powerful that itactually smashed up buildings,
Chimneys, roofs, walls all blowndown. It killed an injured
householders throughout southernBritain. 1000s of buildings
(32:54):
meanwhile, crumbled andcollapse. Millions of trees came
down. Lightning, rain,tornadoes, anything you can
think of. It hit Britain, thesouthern portion of Britain.
This is
Matthew (33:07):
this is before you could call it a hurricane 1702
Hmm. That's why it's the greattempest.
Marissa (33:15):
So a great storm surge swept up the what's called the
Severn Estuary, with water, youknow, pushing inland. This
resulted in huge loss ofproperty, livestock and human
life also just killed. Thebishop of Bath and wells and his
(33:35):
wife were both killed in theirbeds by falling chimney. And
then meanwhile, let's see, thedowns area of the Kent coastline
actually usually had a bunch ofnaval and commercial ships that
were there. But as these windscame in, a vast swell, drove
everything in its path onto theshore. And up to 1200 officers
(33:59):
and crew lost their lives theirone vessel was dragged hundreds
of miles out into the North Sea,all the way to go. Thunberg
Matthew (34:07):
You say that like, you know, Gotham Burg? That's where
you know that is.
Marissa (34:13):
Got the burgers in Sweden. Oh, it's pushed all the
way to Sweden.
Matthew (34:18):
That's crazy. Yeah, it is. I just I'm just surprised
that you thought that I wouldjust or let's put it out there
to the audience. Just knowingthat Goldenberg is in Sweden. I
don't even know how to how toactually say the word or the
whatever. You probably didn'tthat's kind of what we do here.
We just assume that we're gonnawe just English we just make
(34:39):
everything. American EnglishAmerican English.
Marissa (34:43):
Now we do often try but today. I don't know. I didn't
look that one up. So yeah, itwas just it was it was very bad.
And basically, is the wholestory. Yeah, yeah.
Matthew (34:54):
I mean, German. That was the theme of most of the
things you've brought up.
Marissa (34:58):
A journalist at the time said no pin could Describe
it nor Tong express it northought can see that unless by
one and the extremity of it. Youcan't you don't understand
unless you were there.
Matthew (35:09):
No Yeah, that was I mean like just watching like the
footage of the reporters out inin the winds in Florida when the
hit this time it was just likesliding around like holding on
to stuff and it's like yeah,that would be unbelievable. We
(35:30):
weren't we were in a couple oftornadoes I had touchdown
Marissa (35:33):
we were but we we didn't get that. Like the force
of the wind. We were bothinside. Yeah,
Matthew (35:39):
we weren't standing outside the destruction that
happened in the area we're I wasbecause we were separate
separate at the time. You weredown the street in the basement
of some. I was at a thrift shop.
Yeah. And like I was I was inthe house that we were staying
at but it was we had you know,trees falling all over the
place. Up rooted huge trees thatstill had like the mailboxes
(36:02):
that were attached to the like,you know, just on a post in the
dirt. But the tree and themailbox both fell.
Marissa (36:12):
Yes, I have to make sure that you are fine and
posted. It was pretty it
Matthew (36:15):
was pretty it was crazy to to walk through that. So
yeah. When when is no joke?
Marissa (36:19):
No, it's definitely not. I mean, it was really cool.
I was like I saw you said I wasin the basement of this. What
was the basement of a church,the thrift shop was and so that
when I looked outside andeverything sort of going
sideways with the wind,obviously and I was like, oh,
okay, something we need to go.
And the ladies who worked there,like took us all back to this,
like boiler room. And while thetornado was passing by, it was
(36:42):
so loud because the wind keptripping through the rafters. And
so yeah, it was it was quiteintense.
Matthew (36:49):
That was in Massachusetts. And it was like,
the first time and ridiculousamount of years since the
tornado ever touched. There'slike three or five or something
that touched down and like thethree days or something that was
that two or three. But yeah, itwas like three I think it was
three and like in like threedays, but it was crazy. I was I
was from my perspective, I wasstanding at the sink in the
(37:11):
kitchen. And I was looking outthe window in the back as the
storm rolled through. And thenall of a sudden just tree
started just falling. And I waslike, hey, hey everyone. She's
getting bad out there and thenall of a sudden the trees are
falling on the house and stuffand people were freaking out.
And of course I'm an idiot soI'm just like face pressed to
the glass like wow, look
Unknown (37:33):
at all this. It was a good week for the windows.
Matthew (37:36):
It'll be okay. Don't do that at home kids. No darkened
cover and I don't know get inthe bathtub or in a door jamb or
yeah, whatever. Well, that'sthat's for earthquakes, but it
probably still works fortornadoes,
Marissa (37:51):
interior Windows
Matthew (37:53):
when you really get out because when earthquakes and you
didn't touch on a singleearthquake. No, I didn't. But
when earthquakes and tornadoesand stuff happens, you know,
whenever you see the footage,it's just a whole bunch of
bathtubs and door door jams. No,it's not it pretty. That's
pretty useless information withI'm pretty sure you're still
just gonna get ripped right outof your house.
Marissa (38:14):
Yeah, I mean, I'm just I'm just touching on a kind of a
random assortment of theseevents that have impacted our
history. But there are obviouslyso many more.
Matthew (38:22):
Oh, yeah. So there's the big ones, you know, Vesuvius
and shit like dinosaurs.
Marissa (38:31):
And the Vesuvius one is super cool, but I figured out
like, that's pretty well known.
Yeah, people probably know moreabout that one. Yeah. But, ya
know, it's pretty cool. Andanyway, so those are a few of
the major weather events and ofcourse eclipses because I think
they're cool. That have justbeen important to our history.
Matthew (38:53):
I have a McCobb minute.
Do you now I do. The JustinSchmidt sting pain index pain
scale. This basically takes abunch of a bunch of stinging
insects. And this guy, JustinSchmidt, had them all sting him.
And then he tried to describe itlike someone would be trying to
(39:16):
describe like wine, and thengiving them a rating between
zero and four. And so this guythroughout like the 80s, and
then beyond, would just be stungby all these different types of
insects. They're all likeHornets wasps, and like ants,
and that kind of that family ofcreatures, but the pain level
(39:42):
some of the examples like a painlevel one would be the southern
fire and the Western paper wasp,the urban digger bee, and most
most bees fall into like thepain skin. Little ones have you
ever been stung by a bee?
(40:03):
Congratulations. It's a one onthe scale. Then two is the
Western honey bee, wasp. Otherlike yellow jackets and stuff.
These are these are like painscale too. But what what what
what we need to get to thatactually started me on this
(40:23):
anyways was I started watching abunch of YouTube videos on a
Amazonian kind of, you know,coming of age kind of proving
your manhood ritual is with thewith the bullet ant. And what
they do for with these answers,they take these ants and these
(40:45):
answer big, they're like thesize of a thumb. Yeah,
Marissa (40:49):
they're a lot bigger than normal. Yeah, they're,
they're
Matthew (40:51):
very big ants. And then they weave them through like a
bamboo or some kind of like Reedstructure like latticework and
they push all their all of theirstinger bits through there. And
then the the person goingthrough the ritual, takes their
hands and sticks them up intothese gloves. And then they
agitate the ants and the antsbegin to sting the person. And
(41:17):
they also while stinging, theyalso secrete a pheromone or
whatever, that makes it so thatall neighboring ants also go
into this panic staying mode. Sothey just stink. Thanks. Thanks.
Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks.
So there's like hundreds ofthese ants in these in these
gloves that you wear. It waswearing for a few minutes, I was
like 10 minutes or somethinglike that, to continue to
ritual. And it's supposed to belike the most painful sting that
(41:40):
you can get from an insect.
There are there. There arevideos out there where people
say that the tarantula Wasp hasa stronger sting, but those two
are the only ones that are thatare on the number four level.
And I want to get stung by himso bad. Like so bad. I want to
(42:02):
get stung by that. I just wantto see what it's I want to put
my hands and gloves.
Marissa (42:09):
Why would you want
Matthew (42:10):
because you because it's the most painful and sting
that you could possibly havegood. As long as it doesn't itch
afterwards. It's the itchy bitsthat bothered pet sodomy. I
don't mind the pain, like that'sfine. And also when to Okay, I
am fine with pain that doesn'talso come packaged with
(42:34):
debilitating After Effects. LikeI don't mind the pain of having
like something be like pinchedreally, really, really hard.
Right? You get some bruising orwhatever. But breaking a bone
causes structural damage beyondjust like, Oh, that hurts. It's
like, oh, this doesn't functionproperly. I don't like that. I
(42:56):
don't I don't like dealing withthat kind of stuff. But if it's
like non if I know that the painis not lethal, and it's
temporary and not actuallycausing long term damage. Give
it to me all day. I want to needcan pepper spray me? You can put
bullet ants on me. I don't care.
I'm all about that stuff was themost painful thing. Because
(43:17):
Russia Patreon part. But what'swhat's the most painful
experience physical experiencethat you've that you've had?
Marissa (43:27):
I was gonna say I have no idea. But actually when I had
an IUD. Oh, really? Yeah, I hada Paragard. And as a copper IUD,
it's not hormonal. And so afterI had that inserted for at least
a couple of weeks, it was I hadthe worst cramps I ever had in
my life. Like they were so bad.
I couldn't move. So yeah,absolutely. That was that was
(43:48):
the worst pain I've ever felt. Ifeel like that's probably what
it feels like to give birth insome ways because I was like, I
couldn't move it was so painful.
Because it never given birth soI can't say but
Matthew (43:59):
was was it barbed or something? No, it was just
causing the cramping
Marissa (44:03):
it was causing my uterus I guess to just Yeah, it
was
Matthew (44:07):
really bad to black.
Marissa (44:10):
Now Yeah, I was gonna say I don't know but that was
definitely
Matthew (44:14):
I think my most painful experience was one time I was
sledding down a hill and Iturned to avoid be to slamming
my face because I was laying onmy stomach going headfirst down
down you know, as you do down asteep embankment. And it was all
(44:37):
ice on the top so you couldn'treally turn or dig in or
anything like that to get anypurchase. So I was heading
towards this tree and I turnedand what it did was it slung my
body sideways to hit it. Like Iwas going to take it like right
in the ribs kind of a thing. Sothis dumb going towards this
tree and I kind of like tried todo like the worm to like throw
(44:58):
myself up so that I can Toeffectively will cartwheel
around it, but I was a big fatkid. So instead, I just kind of
kept my legs up a little bit.
And then I took it right on thethigh. And it blasted it so hard
and the whole thing cramped,unbelievably, and it was all
swollen. And I thought for sureI broke my femur. That was one.
And then the other one was thefirst time that I ever tried to
(45:22):
run a really long distance inAugust. And I took a bunch of
advice. So I, you got to makesure you tape your feet so that
you know it doesn't you don'tchafe when you run. But I didn't
know how to you tell me to tapemy feet. I just was winging it
at that point. So I put a bunchof this medical tape all over my
feet. And I was like, oh yeah,this is how this is what I'm
(45:43):
gonna do. And then I ran. I wasabout 30 miles in at this point.
And the pain of my feet was soexcruciating, so that I sat
down, and I was like, I have totry to take this tape off. So I
sit on this curb on this road.
And this was just me this wasn'tin a race. This was just me by
myself running down the streetin August in North Carolina. And
(46:08):
I sit down I take off my shoesand socks. And I grabbed the
side of the of the tape and Ihad it taped like almost like
like a tape sock on my foot. AndI pull the tape off. And with it
comes all of the skin and all ofmy toenails off of my foot. And
then I then and it was justblinding pain. So I went to the
(46:28):
other foot and did it again. Ripthat went off to just as
unceremoniously because at thispoint, I was way out of shape. I
didn't This was before I wasactually an ultra runner. So I
tear that off. And then I rananother 20 miles on the on like
my skinless toenail this feet.
And it literally felt like I wasjust running with shoes made of
fryer grease. Like it was justso funny. I couldn't do anything
(46:49):
except for cry and laugh while Iwas running because it was just
the stupidest fucking thing. Andit hurts so bad that I was just
like, what? Why? Why is it whyam I doing this? Why am I still
running in the wrong direction?
I should be running to ahospital and I just continued on
anyways. That was like the twomost painful days. I've never
(47:09):
had an IUD shoved into my wieneror anything like that to
compare.
Marissa (47:12):
Well, my Yeah, no, I had that thing removed pretty
quickly because it was that bad.
But yeah, yeah, that wasterrible. Also, I did crush my
toe at one point, but that wasnowhere near
Matthew (47:22):
Yeah. There's a there's I know that one of our future
patrons had been hit by a carwhere he took a this is yes, I'm
deliberately calling you outfuture patron that he got hit in
the face with the sideviewmirror of a car passing it like
35 miles and I was like, Man,that must have been frickin That
(47:45):
must have hurt so bad. Yeah,anyways, oh, by him tell the
story at some point. It's not mystory to tell. But I always
thought like I was like, thatwas the stone. But anyways, but
he got busted in the face bythat anyway. That was the McCobb
minute the Justin Schmidt painscale get bit by bugs. Describe
(48:07):
it like an exquisite wine. Andkind of like that. Yeah, it he
puts in things like a searingpain similar to being a searing
shocking pain that that tremblesthe the skin or something like
that. It's It's It's It's funnythe way that he notes of just
(48:29):
Yeah, with a touch of wheat. Ilove it. But that'll do it for
us today. Thank you as alwaysfor listening. You can reach out
to us on Twitter and Facebook atMacabrepedia
Marissa (48:43):
and on Instagram at Macabrepediapod. And of course
you can always email us asmacabrepediapod@gmail.com
Matthew (48:51):
Thank you. As always, we appreciate all of you,
listeners for tuning in. Andnext week we will be going back
to murder. Most likely now wewill we will definitely do.
Murder. Yeah, I
Marissa (49:06):
mean there's a couple that I've got. We're gonna
Matthew (49:09):
people will die and we'll tell you the gory details
next week. So join us as we addanother entry into this our
Macabrepedia
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com