October 17, 2022 • 34 mins
Debra, Diana, and Jesi talk about a family who found folk magic items in their walls, the amazing tale of the Titanic's chief baker, and why human feet keep washing up on the beach... and the dangers of nitrogen.
Tell us what sparks your interest on twitter (@interest_spark), facebook, instagram, and TikTok! (@sparkmyinterestpodcast) Send a crazy story or interesting article to sparkmyinterestpodcast@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail through our website sparkmyinterestpodcast.com and we might just share it on the show!
Articles and other sources:
https://youtube.com/shorts/nleE-VEb_dU?feature=share
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a39179/five-real-life-horror-stories/
https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/schuylkill-county/horror-behind-the-walls/523-b4bee9da-08ad-4d17-a8fb-42b19c7f31a7
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/titanic/stories/charles-joughin.htm
https://historydaily.org/story-of-charles-joughin-titanic-baker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Joughin
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2011/09/09/140335393/why-are-feet-washing-ashore-in-washington
https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/569067-doctor-explains-why-21-human-feet-in-sneakers-may-have-washed-on/
Tell us what sparks your interest on twitter (@interest_spark), facebook, instagram, and TikTok! (@sparkmyinterestpodcast) Send a crazy story or interesting article to sparkmyinterestpodcast@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail through our website sparkmyinterestpodcast.com and we might just share it on the show!
Articles and other sources:
https://youtube.com/shorts/nleE-VEb_dU?feature=share
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a39179/five-real-life-horror-stories/
https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/schuylkill-county/horror-behind-the-walls/523-b4bee9da-08ad-4d17-a8fb-42b19c7f31a7
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/titanic/stories/charles-joughin.htm
https://historydaily.org/story-of-charles-joughin-titanic-baker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Joughin
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2011/09/09/140335393/why-are-feet-washing-ashore-in-washington
https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/569067-doctor-explains-why-21-human-feet-in-sneakers-may-have-washed-on/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We are the ladies who sparked myinterest. It's so much fun because there's
this anonymity. You are a twinkie. I'm want to see Jesse use a
twinkie. Yeah. I have ahard time thinking about putting my lips to
that. Yeah, all right,Diana take it away. I thought water
could turn to wine but metal.Midway through the month of October, you
(00:21):
guys, and I cannot tell youhow many horror movies I've already watched.
Jeff and I try and watch one. Will you watch at least three or
four a week? And we startedout strong on October first, we watched
What Lies Beneath. Oh, yeah, that's a good way. I love
that movie. That is such agood movie. Have you guys seen the
(00:42):
new Hocus Focus? Not yet.I know I'm hearing mixed reviews. I
mean it's it's oh did you seeit? Uh huh, It's nostalgic.
It's trying to make the characters moresympathetic, so it's kind of I mean,
it's Disney. The preview looks exactlywhat I would expect. Yeah,
the preview looks fun, but no, I haven't. It's on our list.
(01:03):
So by the end of the month, I will be able to answer
that question me. Yes, Ithink what it is for me personally is
I like my Halloween movies to bescary, right, and so something like
hocus Pocus, even the original one. Yes, I saw it. I
liked it for what it was,but it's not on my list of like
favorites. So to see like asequel, I'm like, oh, okay,
(01:25):
I'll get around to it, butI'm not like, oh God,
I gotta watch it this season.Yeah, I think it's the age group
like my kids were actually like,oh, it's kind of spooky. Yeah,
you know, yeah, I understand. So I would say, you
know, six and under, it'sit's scary perfect. You know what I
just watched recently that I usually amlike, it's okay, pult guys one.
That is a fucking standout movie andI needed to rewatch it to appreciate
(01:51):
it again. I mean, I'veseen it multiple times, but I don't
know this this month, I waslike, yeah, that's it's a fucking
great concept, great movie. Likeit's a well acted, solid it really
is. David and I watched thatas well this year, and we're not
going to watch the others because theyare terrible, but they do not hold
up like that first one. Thatone was just And if you guys roll
(02:13):
back through our social media on Instagram, you'll see a little gift of Deborah
A dressed us the little girl fromPoltergeist, Caroline. I was a good
Caroline, and man, that isa comfortable costume pajamas with a blonde wig
done. But no, make nothing. You were definitely the most comfortable of
all of us that Halloween, that'sfor sure. Well, as much as
(02:37):
I love to rimen is, weneed to move forward with the show.
We are the Ladies of spark MyInterest podcast. My name is Diana,
I'm Deborah, I'm Jesse, Andevery week we get together. We gather
articles that we found online or inbooks or in magazines, and we share
them with one another, and atthe end of every episode, we vote
to see who had the most sparkfor the article. Prize means TBD.
(02:57):
At this point, we do notcare of our just for the glory of
that wind and I think we allwere at it today. I sure did.
Now before we get to the stories, though, I believe Jesse,
you're going to spark us up.I am okay. This was just a
fun fact I learned from a YouTuberand his channel is Hank's channel, Good
(03:19):
Old Hank. Yeah he's done otherschannels too about science and just kind of
cool stuff about how the world works. But what he said just blew my
mind and I never really thought aboutthis. So the reason you feel like
you are asphyxiating or suffocating is becauseyou are getting a build up of carbonic
acid in your blood that comes frombreathing in too much CO two. Your
(03:39):
body cannot tell how much oxygen it'sgetting. It just knows you're getting too
much CO two. So if youbreathe in pure nitrogen, which is already
seventy eight percent of air and odorless, you are still able to breathe out
CO two. So your body isgetting rid of the carbonic acid, but
it's just not getting any oxygen andyou you can't detect it and you just
(04:00):
pass out. And if you staywithout oxygen long enough, you die.
So you could be taking a deepbreath of nitrogen and thinking you're okay,
Yeah, you wouldn't know that youwere as fixingning Oh that gives me the
creeps, and you would just blockout. You know, it's weird that
you mentioned that because I read somewhereor let's be honest, maybe I saw
a TikTok. I don't know.I don't know, could be, could
(04:20):
be, But that's this is somethingthat's being looked at with regards to like
how people when they're on death row, how we go about that process.
Yeah, to each their own.Everyone has their own opinion on that.
But it weirds me out, likeas an alternative to lethal injection, I
(04:41):
would assume, Okay, yeah,yeah, wow, um Jesse, I
think you put like a real downeron the top of the show. But
it is interesting in for it iscreepy to think about. And it's October,
guys, so we're bringing on thecreepy, right, Yeah, we're
gonna go on. So if you'reever in a situation where you have to
mix your own gases together, Iguess, you know, like an oxygen
(05:01):
tank or something, watch out forthat nitrogen concentration. I don't know,
because that happens a lot. Iknow in my everyday life, I'm always
looking those gasses. It is interesting, for sure. So I'm totally sparked
up and I can bring us straightinto our sparkler spot. Our Sparkler spot
(05:26):
of the week is Ray. Sheis from Cairo, Egypt, and she
has written in before it's been y. Yeah. We've met her through Twitter,
Yes we did, and she alwayscommunicates with us through Yeah. She's
great. So she wrote to us. She said, Hey, guys,
hope you're all doing great. First, I want to say that every time
(05:46):
I read some fun and weird slashattention grabbing headline, I immediately think of
you all, and I always wantto send you some stuff I find,
but often think they probably already haveseen this. However, I know one
you gotta send it. I know, and let that be for everybody out
there listening. We don't see everything, and even if we did, we
(06:08):
would still prefer to hear it fromyou. She says. However, I
just saw this one comment someone madeabout a man named Michael Collins, who
is also known as the Loneliest Manin the Universe, and I felt so
intrigued and touched by that title anddecided to do some research. And I
found it a bit sad he didn'tget any public recognition he deserved. I'm
(06:30):
guessing you have most likely already heardof him, maybe even talked about him
on an episode I wouldn't remember,but I thought I would share anyway.
I had never heard of this person. I don't know it. No,
yeah, I don't know this oneeither. Yeah, I mean, so
we talked about fastronaut who is stuckup in space, but that was like
a Russian dude. Yeah, interestingthat you say space. Not the same
(06:54):
guy, however, just looking atthe article that she sent to us,
this is a man, Michael Collins, who was an astronaut on Apollo eleven.
And it was the one astronaut thathad to stay back while everyone else
walked on the moon. So weknow these other names, I mean,
the other the other two guys.Yeah, but he was the one that
(07:15):
had to stay back and no onecared. No one cared. You think
they'd be like, oh I gotto do it, Okay, now I'll
stay behind and you go on there. Yeah. And he's famous for also
taking a picture of like you couldsee Earth behind like where they are in
the moon, and it's like theonly person who has ever lived or died
is in this picture except for MichaelCollins, which this man in the universe.
(07:41):
Yeah, he died April twenty firstof twenty twenty one, oh wow,
so kind of a bummer. Anyway, I loved it. Thank you
so much Ray for sending that overto us. We really do appreciate it.
And let's make him a household name, Michael Collins. Yeah, Michael
Collins, love it And what waswhat's raised handel? So if you're interested
in following Ray, she does.She is on Twitter at the Ray Journey
(08:07):
and she is an engineer and sheis a writer and she sketches and she
rambles is what she says on here. So yeah, she's pretty cool and
we really do appreciate her sending usin that article. Yeah, we really
do, thank you Ray. Sowith that we have been properly sparked up
and we've heard from a listener,so that can only mean it is storytime.
(08:43):
This one comes to us from acouple different articles. One is from
Esquire dot com and was written byMatt Miller and Lauren Crank, published September
twenty six, twenty twenty two,as well as WNP dot com and that
was by Jackie de Tori, publishedFebruary tenth, twenty fifteen. So there
(09:03):
was this family in Pennsylvania called theBretsias family, and they had purchased a
home from the nineteen thirties and theywere doing some renovations to add some insulation
to the walls again. But theycame across something in the walls that I
don't know what kind of freaked meout. You tell me, Oh God,
coming across anything in your walls iscreepy, you know what I mean?
(09:24):
Any decides what should be in thewalls exactly? How about some dead
animals with some spices? No,I don't like some spices. Yeah,
what are you winning? Like,oh, grab the garlic powder? Yeah,
like halfew spices and dead animal carcasses, like dozens of them, and
they're wrapped in newspapers in the wall. What the hell? And so they
(09:46):
sent them off to somebody who is, I guess an expert. I don't
know how they would come across thisperson, but they said they sent hundreds
of artifacts and carcasses to an expertin Kotstown and the expert hundreds Yeah,
dreds. How old were they likeyou would think the walls would stink in
this house? Or were they justlike skeletal like, well, it's amazing
(10:07):
what dry wall can do. Neverthey said that the mold that it accumulated
on these carcasses had actually caused somehealth issues in the family, and it
smelled really bad. So once theyopened the wall, so it did smell.
It did smell. I think,I don't know if they'll smell before
they opened the wall or just after, but it was. They haven't been
able to get rid of the smellsince, and so they're having to do
this whole like bigger renovation than theyexpected because they have to go now have
(10:31):
to go looking through the other partsof the walls and say, are these
things anywhere else. It's someone whoremodeled of bathroom from the nineteen fifties and
they found mold that is no laughingmatter, and it does add At least
for us, it was like anotherfive grand to haven't removed. And it
sucks because you're like, well,we weren't anticipating at but once the wall
(10:52):
or there in our case it wasthe floor was opened, it was like,
well, now you have to dealwith it, and you have to
run this like machine. I don'tremember what it was called, but it
like dries out all the molds,make sure everything's dry, and then you
had to remove it a week.It was a couple of days or a
few days, and we had tolike unzip the because it was in the
hallway. So in order to leaveour bedroom, we had to unzip an
(11:16):
entrance into where the bathroom was beingdried and then zip our way back out,
like you had to go through twozippers zipper curtains. I guess,
yeah, you can spreading. Yeah, when I think about the fact that
you had had a party with peoplecoming in and out of that bathroom just
weeks prior to you doing that project, and then they were like, honestly,
(11:39):
it would have only just taken wedon't know how long, but it
was like somebody could have fallen throughyour floor. I just can't believe it.
Could you mention being in a partywhere somebody fell through the bathroom floor
though I'm an awful Oh my gosh, oh molds, no joke. Well
that's all fakes now though, right, Yeah, it's a beautiful bathroom.
Now, this was years ago.This was like in oh, it's that
(12:01):
front bathroom, I know, whichwhen you're talking about this would have been
like twenty fifteen. Okay, Well, so they sent them off to this
expert in Cootstown and they the expertattributed the running animals in their walls to
pow wow or Pennsylvania Dutch magic.Oh okay, I had never heard of
that. Yeah, so apparently thatthe Germans, they call them the Pennsylvania
(12:24):
Dutch, but they're actually the PennsylvaniaDeutsch who settled in the area would do
stuff with these carcasses to treat ailmentsand gain physical and spiritual protection. And
they essentially were a group of Germanspeaking settlers who settled in Pennsylvania in the
sixteen hundred and seventeen hundreds, andthey're often Lutheran, Mennonite, or Amish.
And most of the spells deal withcaring for livestock, finding water,
(12:48):
or the treatment of minor ailments.But Powell has within it a tradition of
darker spells and even things like conjuringdemons. And they actually have this one
notable hex to create loyal tea ina dog where you have the dog eat
slash, drink the owner's blood intheir food that would make them loyal or
(13:09):
something like to you. And youknow what it does, like it doesn't
work. Yeah, so don't eventhink about doing it. So this is
like German witchcraft. Yeah, Ithink it was German kind of folk medicine
slash magic that has been done forhundreds of years. And this house was
from the nineteen thirties, so Idon't know if it would have just carried
through or parts of the house wereeven older than that. They're not quite
(13:31):
clear on that. But how manyanimal car becauses are we talking? Well,
I said dozens, Okay, well, hundreds of artifacts were sent in
in the part they were renovating.It was just one room. Oh,
I'd be like, we're digging outevery wall. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah.
Well, I mean they're they're upto like twenty grand and expenses already,
so they're gonna probably have to kindof do it over time. So
(13:52):
they're pretty devastated with what they're goingto have to do. But oh,
I think I would fix that andthen be like we're moving, because every
wall i'd walk by, I'd belike woods under there. Yeah, But
I couldn't honestly sell the fucking placewithout being like, oh, by the
way, there might be some animalsand spices in the walls. And they
said it was inspected and inspector didn'tcatch it, so clearly wasn't a strong
enough smell in the wall. Youknow, I'd be using that too.
Of my advent. I'd be like, no inspector failed, so I don't
(14:15):
have to pay for this. Yeah, I mean I feel like there's a
case there. I've never heard ofthis, like Amish slash you know,
Lutheran slash Mennonite magic called pow Wow'sgod. And if it's in that house,
what does the other neighbors think youwould be like? Exactly in my
house. We've tore open just aboutevery wall in my house, so I'm
(14:35):
pretty secure in my belief that wedo not have dead animals and pow wow
going on in there. Well thatwas a good one. Yeah, that
was weird, but but but interestingfor sure. Yeah, for sure,
for sure I can go next,all right, Diana. I used a
couple articles the Natural Archives dot govdot UK no author listed history day ay
(15:00):
dot org by Penn Cooper, andI also used Wikipedia. I know we've
all seen the movie Titanic. Deborah'sdefinitely expressed her there was room for two.
It's the statement there is one hundredpercent I will never watch that movie
again. Yea, So Deborah's expressedher disdain for it. Yeah, and
we're not We're what would you saywe're neutral, I'm not. I don't
(15:24):
love it. I'm Movinga's like,absolutely not. Now I stand by,
Did you really, Jesse? Yeah, I like it? Oh wow.
I mean it was sad at theend, but I was just like I
enjoyed the historic, you know,drama of it. Well, speaking of
the history, there was a personon that boat that I want to talk
about, okay, and his nameis Charles John Joffin. So he was
(15:48):
actually they call him the chief bakeron the Titanic, and interestingly enough,
he would act. He was actuallythe chief baker on the Olympic, which
was the sister boat to the Titanicas well. Oh yeah, okay,
So he is depicted in the movie. It's very brief, but when Kate
Winslet is saved on this boat,she looks over and she sees a man
(16:14):
holding on to one of the railson the boat and he's drunk as as
it's sinking. So he is alsoknown as the very last person to get
off of the Titanic. So whatI found so interesting about him is as
chief baker, he had a staffof thirteen he was in charge of and
as we all know, the Titanicon April fourteenth, hits an iceberg around
(16:38):
eleven forty at night, and immediatelypeople go into action. Roughly the passengers
were two thousand, two hundred andtwenty four people, and they said approximately
fifteen hundred or more than fifteen hundredpeople died. They only had lifeboats which
were ten, which would have seatedone one hundred and seventy eight people.
(17:00):
Clearly, there weren't enough lifeboats forall the people on board, but there
was enough to breathe, you knowwhat I mean, that's what's so annoying.
You just don't know. I'll neverget over it, Like there was
stuff and you just don't know howmany people could have lived, just as
Rose will never let go, Deborahwill never get over it yet. But
that is not the point of thestory. The point of this story is
this baker, mister Charles John Joffin. He was assigned a boat as chief
(17:25):
baker. He actually made I believeit was twelve pounds a month, so
he was like one of the highestpaid people on the boat, very respected
man. So as soon as theboat is like everyone's told, oh,
by the way, we've just hitit's not looking good. He starts drinking
whiskey and oh my god. Thenhe was like, Okay, my team
and I we all have to goback to the lifeboats and hand out like
(17:47):
loaves of bread, water like stufffor people to survive on in the middle
of the fucking Atlantic on these lifeboats. So they start doing that. He's
also assisting them, especially all thewomen and children, on to these lifeboats.
Interestingly enough, I did not knowthis. At one point, a
lot of the women were like,no, I'm staying on the boat.
It's safer to stay on the boatthen get on a lifeboat. And so
(18:11):
he kind of like rough house peoplea little bit, like like picking them
up and throwing them onto lifeboats,being like guess what I know better,
like you're going to live. Iwonder why that was something that people were
believing. It just hadn't gone down. So I think people were just like,
rather than fighting the waves and Godonly knows what's in the water,
then I'm going to just stick itout on this boat and We're going to
(18:32):
survive it. And so he wasI think a lot of women couldn't swim
too, Like the upperclass women werelike, I'm fright. Yeah, So
he was assisting in a rough mannerto get people onto these boats even though
they were thinking that they shouldn't.So there were still boats going down,
and he went back to his quartersand he drank more whiskey, so he's
like slashed at this point. Andhe comes back and he's like, Oh,
(18:55):
all the fucking boats are gone,so I don't have anything. So
then he goes onto one of thedecks and he starts throwing chairs out into
the ocean. There's like fifty chairsthat he threw out there because he was
like, well, not everybody can'tyou can get on here. Yeah,
there's not enough life boats, soI'm gonna throw some ship so people can
at least you have something to floatand hang on to when they're out in
(19:18):
the water. Yeah. So asthe boat's going down, the bow went
down first, and then it likesplit in half. The boat did,
and so the back half of theboat was at one point and as we
all saw in the movie, likecompletely vertical. Yeah, and people are
like hanging on for dare life.He was on what they call the poop
deck, which I mean, there'sprobably a lot of people out there that
(19:41):
know what the poop deck is.I didn't. It is the aftermost and
highest deck of the ship, especiallyin a sailing ship, where it typically
forms the roof of the cabin inthe stern. So he's in the stern.
Yeah, he's in the stern,on the poop deck. And so
this boat just continues to go down, go down, go down. And
it says that he basically took downthe boat like an elevator. So he's
(20:04):
just slowly going down, watching itsink, watching it sync. And then
he just said like he stepped offand there was no suction, which is
shocking to me, Like, Ididn't even know how that happens. I
guess it might have been like hittingpart of the boat below. So it
wasn't like going down to his headdidn't even go below water. His hair
never got wet, and so heswam basically or floated until daylight. Now
(20:30):
remind you the boat went underwater completelyaround two forty in the morning. Oh
my god. So until about sixam he had nothing that he was holding
onto. Then he found an overturnedlifeboat and he held on to that returned
one. Yeah, and all thosepeoples, I don't know, there were
(20:52):
other people holding onto it. Sohe held on to that, and people
are like, he was a negativetwo degree lantic ocean water before he was
rescued, you know, for hoursand whiskey. Most people would have died,
but the whiskey had warmed his bodyso much that he was like a
(21:12):
didn't die of a heart attack likemost people would when they saw the boat
going down and knowing that there wasno way out except going down, because
he was so like calmed. Butit doesn't warm you. It just probably
prevented him from going into shock.Yeah, he didn't go into shock.
Well, it said it, itdid. It said there was so much
(21:32):
whiskey coursing through it that the alcoholactually fought off the cold and kept him
alive. That's amazing. Yeah,it is right, like it literally has
like a lower freezing point or something. Yeah, that's wow. And he
was just so calm about it too. Was he heavy set? I wonder
if he was heavy set, becausethat probably I mean pictures of him,
he doesn't look like he's that vague, okay, And he was about roughly
(21:56):
thirty two thirty three years old whenthe boat went down. Another interesting fact
about him though its Titanic sunk innineteen twelve, but in eighteen eighty six,
the ss Organ, which had eighthundred and fifty two people aboard.
He was eight years old or roughlyeight years old on that boat when it
sank. It actually hit an unidentifiedschooner, which they think is likely called
(22:18):
it was a schooner called the CharlesH. Morse. They can't be for
certain, but that boat went missingat the same time this boat sank,
so they think that that's the reason. But they like, just cross paths
and they hit and that boat sank. I've read one person died, and
I've read that nobody died on that. But he was eight years old when
that one went down too, Sohe's been on two sinking ships. He
(22:41):
was hoping he never got on aboat again. I mean, that's tempting
fates. I mean, I don'tthink so, because after Titanic he went
back to England and then permanently cameback and moved to New Jersey. So
I think he was just like whatever, I mean, this is the means
of travel, and I got todo it. So he was on other
boats, and he certainly went onthe rescue boat, the Carpathia. That's
(23:04):
the rescue boat that came in onApril sixteenth and saved everybody that was kind
of stranded out there. Wow.Yeah. Oh. In nineteen fifty five,
Walter Lord wrote the book A Nightto Remember and he has a recount
of Joffan's experience. And then alsohe was that a little bit part in
(23:25):
the movie. He was played bythe actor Liam Tuee and he's just the
drunk guy hanging on and he's thelast person to get off of the Titanic
and survive. What a nightmare.And then later on it just says so
he's born August third, eighteen seventyeight in Birkenhead, Chesshire, England,
and he died December ninth, nineteenfifty six, in Patterson, New Jersey.
(23:48):
He died of pneumonia and he wasseventy eight years old. Anyway,
that is the story of the chiefBaker, Charles John Joffin from the Titanic.
And they do call him a hero. I mean, who knows how
many lives he sayd by throwing peopleon the life boats that didn't want on
and then throwing all these yeah yeah, oh man, It's just that whole
(24:11):
story is the awful And I couldn'tthink of anything worse than being like,
uh, going down with a boatlike that is. I don't know how
anyone gets on a boat. AndI'm even toying with the idea of doing
it, and I'm like, oh, I hear stories like this like never
mind, never I never made butyeah, that's incredible. And if there
was ever a psa of the benefitsof alcohol, there you have it.
(24:33):
There it is. Yeah, yougot my mind racing, Like who would
I have done? Like, yeah, finding anything that floats. Basically,
if you know your third class andsteerage, you still make a shot.
You know, you try to dowhat he did. You know, stay
on the boat as long as possible. If you have some kids, put
your kids on some like suitcases orsomething, you know, and for the
best. Yeah, well that wasthat was a good one. Thank you
(24:57):
for bringing that. I'll go aheadand take us home. Okay. My
articles are MPR dot org published Septemberninth, twenty eleven by Mark Memots and
The Hill dot Com August twenty third, twenty twenty one by Joseph Gooseman.
(25:17):
Okay, so there's a reason thatpeople always defer to that like generic I
like long walks on the beach phrasebecause it's it's relatable, and you know
we wouldn't like that. It's relaxingpictures and simple exactly, it's enjoyable.
So picture yourself walking along the coastof you know, Washington State or British
(25:41):
Columbia Vancouver area. You see thelittle sea crabs popping up out of the
sand. You spy seagulls floating aroundin the sky with ease, the shore
just covered, and seashells scattered alongthe smooth tide touched sand. So is
great, right, yeah, yesit does. But it's like there's a
(26:03):
catch. I know. Oh yeah, I'm the dead body. Imagine yourself
walking there and you see something thatis misplaced. It's a misplaced it's a
shoe, the shoe on the shore. Is there a foot in your shoe?
You walk past the shoe and younotice that something is in it.
(26:25):
Perhaps it's a confused little crab thathas taken the discarded item and made it
its new home. Right, soyou've been down to get a closer look
into your horror, you see theshoe is filled with none other than a
human foot. Banna called it.I think I know where, I think
I know where you're going with this. So starting in two thousand and seven,
(26:47):
this reality started popping up, notjust a couple of times. Between
two thousand and seven and two thousandand eleven, eleven feet filled shoes were
found washed up on the coast.Yeah, that's so disgusting. That's a
lot in a short period of time. Definitely needs a reason. Yeah,
(27:07):
speculation across the US and the Canadianborder spread about maybe there was just some
serial color that was obsessed with feetor whatever was on the loose, obviously
killing people, cutting off their feetand discarding them into the water. So
most residents feared these findings. Youknow, they were like, I'm gonna
be walking around, I'm gonna findI'm gonna find this be disgusting. So
(27:29):
I was just picturing a shark andthen like he's like, I don't want
to eat the shoe. Yeah,you're right, but I mean they eat
everything else, so whine out theshoe. There were some pranks that came
about, you know, obviously everybody'sgot a jokester inside them, and there
were times the missing feet on thebeach. I mean it's horrifying, but
people were actually buying like raw chickenand then filling shoes with them and then
(27:55):
leaving them. I know, Iknow, I hate that because it's such
a waste of a dead animal too. I mean, they died eat instead,
you're putting in a fucking shoe fora prank. I hate that.
Ship people think they're funny, that'sfor sure. It's not fy, guys,
it's not so. In two thousandand eleven, no individuals had been
linked to the feet, but bytwenty twenty one there have been twenty one
(28:19):
feet washed up since two thousand andseven twenty one did any of them make
a pair? No? Twenty onedifferent feet. The worst part so with
advancements in DNA findings between no,Diana always loves I do. Many of
the surface feet in twenty twenty oneat this point have now been linked back
to individuals who had been involved ineither accidents or suicides off bridges or boating
(28:45):
accidents in the area. So whyjust the feet? So? A surgeon
with the National Health Services in theUK, actually his name is Karan Raj
explains that seek creatures scavengers tend tobreak down bodies pretty quickly and with that
these scavengers like an easy meal.Feet are not easy. Well, especially
(29:11):
if they're in a shoe. Yeah, so a lot of them would just
be separated very quickly from the restof the body. And because footwear,
the footwear industry as a whole startedto make a lot of changes to sneakers.
And that's one thing to really notehere. Every single one of those
twenty one feet that have been foundis in a sneaker. There's no other
footwear. It's always in a sneaker, which a kind of like a loafer
(29:33):
or a heel or something is goingto slop off pretty quickly regardless. It's
something to note here. The footwearindustry started to make a lot of sneaker
designs starting in two thousand and seven. So these shoes are more buoyant than
they've ever been before. So whenthese feet are disconnected from the rest of
the body, the shoe allows forthe foot to still rise to the hop
(30:00):
and get washed ashore. It's notnot insane. So yeah, this is
just it's repulsive, assassinating as well. Oh yeah, it's definitely sad.
Wow. Well, at least theyhad something to basically say, you know,
the person, Yeah, this personwas found and they're gone now for
(30:22):
sure. Closure definitely. It's neatto read the two eleven article versus the
twenty twenty one article because the twoeleven it's just kind of like, oh,
we're not sure what's going on.We know that the shoe is buoyant
and that's why it's happening, butwhy are why is it just the feat
Yeah, they thought it was likea serial killer perhaps or something. They
didn't know what it was, butyeah, it's it's pretty fascinating that just
(30:45):
in the span of a decade,it's like, oh, no, this
is what it is. And wewere able to figure out a lot of
these people, not everyone, buta lot of them creepy, sad,
but it did spark my interest.So we've got three good stories. Yeah,
we have pow Wow Pennsylvania, DutchMagic Dead Animal Park says and found
(31:06):
in the wall by a couple tryingto renovate. Yeah, We've got my
uh chief Baker on the Titanic,last man off the boat, and we
have my little buoyant sneaker feet washingup on the coast. I feel like
these are all very equally placed,you know, I'm equally sparked by every
(31:26):
single one of them. We're allreally thinking doing right, we're gonna have
to do I think we're gonna haveto do a blind boat. All right,
let's do it. Okay, that'sright, he's down. I'm not
even set yet. I don't evenknow. I know I wrote mine down.
Yeah, all right, let's seeall right ready, one, two,
(31:48):
three, I can't see your's JesseTitanic chef. I put Titanic baker.
Oh I did pow wow owow Okay, I was. I was a
toss up for me. Reason Ilike Titanic never heard the story one and
number two. The idea that hejust stayed on the boat as long as
he could. I mean, it'samazing, took it down like an elevator.
(32:10):
Yeah, that's that is amazing.But mine was a toss between the
two. But I had to gopow wow because I've never heard of Pennsylvania
Dutch witchcraft, you know. So, so I voted pow wow, but
you both voted okay. Yeah.I had to vote for it because he
was an unsung hero and all thechair yes, getting people on the boat.
(32:34):
He had the will to survive andalso help others help. Yeah,
so that's where I think he reallyfelt like, well, I'm gonna go
down, but I'm going to godown with the ship, but other people
don't have to. And then exactlydidn't. H Well, that was a
success. That was a great episode. You guys, I think so too.
Uh. No streaks at this time, but if you think you have
(32:55):
something that can help us get astreak, we would love to hear from
you. You can reach us atour gmail that is Sparked my Interest Podcast
at gmail dot com. You canalso reach us at our TikTok, our
Facebook and our Instagram at Spark myInterest Podcast, or at our Twitter at
Interest Underscore spark Jesse. How dothey rate and review us? Just go
(33:16):
to your app if you're listening onright now and either like, follow,
subscribe, rate it all helps thepodcast, and don't forget. You can
also leave us a voicemail if youwant to share a story on our website
Spark my Interest Podcast dot com.Awesome. We always love hearing from you.
Thank you so much everybody for listening. We appreciate you beyond words,
(33:37):
and until next week, we hopeyou all gets sparked. He died April
twenty first of twenty twenty one.I gotta blow my nose you guys.
Sorry, there's her nose blow.She always sounds like a trumpet. I
(34:06):
have to keep that in. That'sLarry, just like after that. I'm
so used to it. That's howI grew up. Like and I blow
my nose already loud, but nothinglike Diana. If it doesn't make a
noise, you didn't get enough outAnd now I'm gross. Just like honk
that thing. Yeah, if you'renot getting a honk, you're not doing it right
We are the ladies who sparked myinterest. It's so much fun because there's
this anonymity. You are a twinkie. I'm want to see Jesse use a
twinkie. Yeah. I have ahard time thinking about putting my lips to
that. Yeah, all right,Diana take it away. I thought water
could turn to wine but metal.Midway through the month of October, you
(00:21):
guys, and I cannot tell youhow many horror movies I've already watched.
Jeff and I try and watch one. Will you watch at least three or
four a week? And we startedout strong on October first, we watched
What Lies Beneath. Oh, yeah, that's a good way. I love
that movie. That is such agood movie. Have you guys seen the
(00:42):
new Hocus Focus? Not yet.I know I'm hearing mixed reviews. I
mean it's it's oh did you seeit? Uh huh, It's nostalgic.
It's trying to make the characters moresympathetic, so it's kind of I mean,
it's Disney. The preview looks exactlywhat I would expect. Yeah,
the preview looks fun, but no, I haven't. It's on our list.
(01:03):
So by the end of the month, I will be able to answer
that question me. Yes, Ithink what it is for me personally is
I like my Halloween movies to bescary, right, and so something like
hocus Pocus, even the original one. Yes, I saw it. I
liked it for what it was,but it's not on my list of like
favorites. So to see like asequel, I'm like, oh, okay,
(01:25):
I'll get around to it, butI'm not like, oh God,
I gotta watch it this season.Yeah, I think it's the age group
like my kids were actually like,oh, it's kind of spooky. Yeah,
you know, yeah, I understand. So I would say, you
know, six and under, it'sit's scary perfect. You know what I
just watched recently that I usually amlike, it's okay, pult guys one.
That is a fucking standout movie andI needed to rewatch it to appreciate
(01:51):
it again. I mean, I'veseen it multiple times, but I don't
know this this month, I waslike, yeah, that's it's a fucking
great concept, great movie. Likeit's a well acted, solid it really
is. David and I watched thatas well this year, and we're not
going to watch the others because theyare terrible, but they do not hold
up like that first one. Thatone was just And if you guys roll
(02:13):
back through our social media on Instagram, you'll see a little gift of Deborah
A dressed us the little girl fromPoltergeist, Caroline. I was a good
Caroline, and man, that isa comfortable costume pajamas with a blonde wig
done. But no, make nothing. You were definitely the most comfortable of
all of us that Halloween, that'sfor sure. Well, as much as
(02:37):
I love to rimen is, weneed to move forward with the show.
We are the Ladies of spark MyInterest podcast. My name is Diana,
I'm Deborah, I'm Jesse, Andevery week we get together. We gather
articles that we found online or inbooks or in magazines, and we share
them with one another, and atthe end of every episode, we vote
to see who had the most sparkfor the article. Prize means TBD.
(02:57):
At this point, we do notcare of our just for the glory of
that wind and I think we allwere at it today. I sure did.
Now before we get to the stories, though, I believe Jesse,
you're going to spark us up.I am okay. This was just a
fun fact I learned from a YouTuberand his channel is Hank's channel, Good
(03:19):
Old Hank. Yeah he's done otherschannels too about science and just kind of
cool stuff about how the world works. But what he said just blew my
mind and I never really thought aboutthis. So the reason you feel like
you are asphyxiating or suffocating is becauseyou are getting a build up of carbonic
acid in your blood that comes frombreathing in too much CO two. Your
(03:39):
body cannot tell how much oxygen it'sgetting. It just knows you're getting too
much CO two. So if youbreathe in pure nitrogen, which is already
seventy eight percent of air and odorless, you are still able to breathe out
CO two. So your body isgetting rid of the carbonic acid, but
it's just not getting any oxygen andyou you can't detect it and you just
(04:00):
pass out. And if you staywithout oxygen long enough, you die.
So you could be taking a deepbreath of nitrogen and thinking you're okay,
Yeah, you wouldn't know that youwere as fixingning Oh that gives me the
creeps, and you would just blockout. You know, it's weird that
you mentioned that because I read somewhereor let's be honest, maybe I saw
a TikTok. I don't know.I don't know, could be, could
(04:20):
be, But that's this is somethingthat's being looked at with regards to like
how people when they're on death row, how we go about that process.
Yeah, to each their own.Everyone has their own opinion on that.
But it weirds me out, likeas an alternative to lethal injection, I
(04:41):
would assume, Okay, yeah,yeah, wow, um Jesse, I
think you put like a real downeron the top of the show. But
it is interesting in for it iscreepy to think about. And it's October,
guys, so we're bringing on thecreepy, right, Yeah, we're
gonna go on. So if you'reever in a situation where you have to
mix your own gases together, Iguess, you know, like an oxygen
(05:01):
tank or something, watch out forthat nitrogen concentration. I don't know,
because that happens a lot. Iknow in my everyday life, I'm always
looking those gasses. It is interesting, for sure. So I'm totally sparked
up and I can bring us straightinto our sparkler spot. Our Sparkler spot
(05:26):
of the week is Ray. Sheis from Cairo, Egypt, and she
has written in before it's been y. Yeah. We've met her through Twitter,
Yes we did, and she alwayscommunicates with us through Yeah. She's
great. So she wrote to us. She said, Hey, guys,
hope you're all doing great. First, I want to say that every time
(05:46):
I read some fun and weird slashattention grabbing headline, I immediately think of
you all, and I always wantto send you some stuff I find,
but often think they probably already haveseen this. However, I know one
you gotta send it. I know, and let that be for everybody out
there listening. We don't see everything, and even if we did, we
(06:08):
would still prefer to hear it fromyou. She says. However, I
just saw this one comment someone madeabout a man named Michael Collins, who
is also known as the Loneliest Manin the Universe, and I felt so
intrigued and touched by that title anddecided to do some research. And I
found it a bit sad he didn'tget any public recognition he deserved. I'm
(06:30):
guessing you have most likely already heardof him, maybe even talked about him
on an episode I wouldn't remember,but I thought I would share anyway.
I had never heard of this person. I don't know it. No,
yeah, I don't know this oneeither. Yeah, I mean, so
we talked about fastronaut who is stuckup in space, but that was like
a Russian dude. Yeah, interestingthat you say space. Not the same
(06:54):
guy, however, just looking atthe article that she sent to us,
this is a man, Michael Collins, who was an astronaut on Apollo eleven.
And it was the one astronaut thathad to stay back while everyone else
walked on the moon. So weknow these other names, I mean,
the other the other two guys.Yeah, but he was the one that
(07:15):
had to stay back and no onecared. No one cared. You think
they'd be like, oh I gotto do it, Okay, now I'll
stay behind and you go on there. Yeah. And he's famous for also
taking a picture of like you couldsee Earth behind like where they are in
the moon, and it's like theonly person who has ever lived or died
is in this picture except for MichaelCollins, which this man in the universe.
(07:41):
Yeah, he died April twenty firstof twenty twenty one, oh wow,
so kind of a bummer. Anyway, I loved it. Thank you
so much Ray for sending that overto us. We really do appreciate it.
And let's make him a household name, Michael Collins. Yeah, Michael
Collins, love it And what waswhat's raised handel? So if you're interested
in following Ray, she does.She is on Twitter at the Ray Journey
(08:07):
and she is an engineer and sheis a writer and she sketches and she
rambles is what she says on here. So yeah, she's pretty cool and
we really do appreciate her sending usin that article. Yeah, we really
do, thank you Ray. Sowith that we have been properly sparked up
and we've heard from a listener,so that can only mean it is storytime.
(08:43):
This one comes to us from acouple different articles. One is from
Esquire dot com and was written byMatt Miller and Lauren Crank, published September
twenty six, twenty twenty two,as well as WNP dot com and that
was by Jackie de Tori, publishedFebruary tenth, twenty fifteen. So there
(09:03):
was this family in Pennsylvania called theBretsias family, and they had purchased a
home from the nineteen thirties and theywere doing some renovations to add some insulation
to the walls again. But theycame across something in the walls that I
don't know what kind of freaked meout. You tell me, Oh God,
coming across anything in your walls iscreepy, you know what I mean?
(09:24):
Any decides what should be in thewalls exactly? How about some dead
animals with some spices? No,I don't like some spices. Yeah,
what are you winning? Like,oh, grab the garlic powder? Yeah,
like halfew spices and dead animal carcasses, like dozens of them, and
they're wrapped in newspapers in the wall. What the hell? And so they
(09:46):
sent them off to somebody who is, I guess an expert. I don't
know how they would come across thisperson, but they said they sent hundreds
of artifacts and carcasses to an expertin Kotstown and the expert hundreds Yeah,
dreds. How old were they likeyou would think the walls would stink in
this house? Or were they justlike skeletal like, well, it's amazing
(10:07):
what dry wall can do. Neverthey said that the mold that it accumulated
on these carcasses had actually caused somehealth issues in the family, and it
smelled really bad. So once theyopened the wall, so it did smell.
It did smell. I think,I don't know if they'll smell before
they opened the wall or just after, but it was. They haven't been
able to get rid of the smellsince, and so they're having to do
this whole like bigger renovation than theyexpected because they have to go now have
(10:31):
to go looking through the other partsof the walls and say, are these
things anywhere else. It's someone whoremodeled of bathroom from the nineteen fifties and
they found mold that is no laughingmatter, and it does add At least
for us, it was like anotherfive grand to haven't removed. And it
sucks because you're like, well,we weren't anticipating at but once the wall
(10:52):
or there in our case it wasthe floor was opened, it was like,
well, now you have to dealwith it, and you have to
run this like machine. I don'tremember what it was called, but it
like dries out all the molds,make sure everything's dry, and then you
had to remove it a week.It was a couple of days or a
few days, and we had tolike unzip the because it was in the
hallway. So in order to leaveour bedroom, we had to unzip an
(11:16):
entrance into where the bathroom was beingdried and then zip our way back out,
like you had to go through twozippers zipper curtains. I guess,
yeah, you can spreading. Yeah, when I think about the fact that
you had had a party with peoplecoming in and out of that bathroom just
weeks prior to you doing that project, and then they were like, honestly,
(11:39):
it would have only just taken wedon't know how long, but it
was like somebody could have fallen throughyour floor. I just can't believe it.
Could you mention being in a partywhere somebody fell through the bathroom floor
though I'm an awful Oh my gosh, oh molds, no joke. Well
that's all fakes now though, right, Yeah, it's a beautiful bathroom.
Now, this was years ago.This was like in oh, it's that
(12:01):
front bathroom, I know, whichwhen you're talking about this would have been
like twenty fifteen. Okay, Well, so they sent them off to this
expert in Cootstown and they the expertattributed the running animals in their walls to
pow wow or Pennsylvania Dutch magic.Oh okay, I had never heard of
that. Yeah, so apparently thatthe Germans, they call them the Pennsylvania
(12:24):
Dutch, but they're actually the PennsylvaniaDeutsch who settled in the area would do
stuff with these carcasses to treat ailmentsand gain physical and spiritual protection. And
they essentially were a group of Germanspeaking settlers who settled in Pennsylvania in the
sixteen hundred and seventeen hundreds, andthey're often Lutheran, Mennonite, or Amish.
And most of the spells deal withcaring for livestock, finding water,
(12:48):
or the treatment of minor ailments.But Powell has within it a tradition of
darker spells and even things like conjuringdemons. And they actually have this one
notable hex to create loyal tea ina dog where you have the dog eat
slash, drink the owner's blood intheir food that would make them loyal or
(13:09):
something like to you. And youknow what it does, like it doesn't
work. Yeah, so don't eventhink about doing it. So this is
like German witchcraft. Yeah, Ithink it was German kind of folk medicine
slash magic that has been done forhundreds of years. And this house was
from the nineteen thirties, so Idon't know if it would have just carried
through or parts of the house wereeven older than that. They're not quite
(13:31):
clear on that. But how manyanimal car becauses are we talking? Well,
I said dozens, Okay, well, hundreds of artifacts were sent in
in the part they were renovating.It was just one room. Oh,
I'd be like, we're digging outevery wall. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah.
Well, I mean they're they're upto like twenty grand and expenses already,
so they're gonna probably have to kindof do it over time. So
(13:52):
they're pretty devastated with what they're goingto have to do. But oh,
I think I would fix that andthen be like we're moving, because every
wall i'd walk by, I'd belike woods under there. Yeah, But
I couldn't honestly sell the fucking placewithout being like, oh, by the
way, there might be some animalsand spices in the walls. And they
said it was inspected and inspector didn'tcatch it, so clearly wasn't a strong
enough smell in the wall. Youknow, I'd be using that too.
Of my advent. I'd be like, no inspector failed, so I don't
(14:15):
have to pay for this. Yeah, I mean I feel like there's a
case there. I've never heard ofthis, like Amish slash you know,
Lutheran slash Mennonite magic called pow Wow'sgod. And if it's in that house,
what does the other neighbors think youwould be like? Exactly in my
house. We've tore open just aboutevery wall in my house, so I'm
(14:35):
pretty secure in my belief that wedo not have dead animals and pow wow
going on in there. Well thatwas a good one. Yeah, that
was weird, but but but interestingfor sure. Yeah, for sure,
for sure I can go next,all right, Diana. I used a
couple articles the Natural Archives dot govdot UK no author listed history day ay
(15:00):
dot org by Penn Cooper, andI also used Wikipedia. I know we've
all seen the movie Titanic. Deborah'sdefinitely expressed her there was room for two.
It's the statement there is one hundredpercent I will never watch that movie
again. Yea, So Deborah's expressedher disdain for it. Yeah, and
we're not We're what would you saywe're neutral, I'm not. I don't
(15:24):
love it. I'm Movinga's like,absolutely not. Now I stand by,
Did you really, Jesse? Yeah, I like it? Oh wow.
I mean it was sad at theend, but I was just like I
enjoyed the historic, you know,drama of it. Well, speaking of
the history, there was a personon that boat that I want to talk
about, okay, and his nameis Charles John Joffin. So he was
(15:48):
actually they call him the chief bakeron the Titanic, and interestingly enough,
he would act. He was actuallythe chief baker on the Olympic, which
was the sister boat to the Titanicas well. Oh yeah, okay,
So he is depicted in the movie. It's very brief, but when Kate
Winslet is saved on this boat,she looks over and she sees a man
(16:14):
holding on to one of the railson the boat and he's drunk as as
it's sinking. So he is alsoknown as the very last person to get
off of the Titanic. So whatI found so interesting about him is as
chief baker, he had a staffof thirteen he was in charge of and
as we all know, the Titanicon April fourteenth, hits an iceberg around
(16:38):
eleven forty at night, and immediatelypeople go into action. Roughly the passengers
were two thousand, two hundred andtwenty four people, and they said approximately
fifteen hundred or more than fifteen hundredpeople died. They only had lifeboats which
were ten, which would have seatedone one hundred and seventy eight people.
(17:00):
Clearly, there weren't enough lifeboats forall the people on board, but there
was enough to breathe, you knowwhat I mean, that's what's so annoying.
You just don't know. I'll neverget over it, Like there was
stuff and you just don't know howmany people could have lived, just as
Rose will never let go, Deborahwill never get over it yet. But
that is not the point of thestory. The point of this story is
this baker, mister Charles John Joffin. He was assigned a boat as chief
(17:25):
baker. He actually made I believeit was twelve pounds a month, so
he was like one of the highestpaid people on the boat, very respected
man. So as soon as theboat is like everyone's told, oh,
by the way, we've just hitit's not looking good. He starts drinking
whiskey and oh my god. Thenhe was like, Okay, my team
and I we all have to goback to the lifeboats and hand out like
(17:47):
loaves of bread, water like stufffor people to survive on in the middle
of the fucking Atlantic on these lifeboats. So they start doing that. He's
also assisting them, especially all thewomen and children, on to these lifeboats.
Interestingly enough, I did not knowthis. At one point, a
lot of the women were like,no, I'm staying on the boat.
It's safer to stay on the boatthen get on a lifeboat. And so
(18:11):
he kind of like rough house peoplea little bit, like like picking them
up and throwing them onto lifeboats,being like guess what I know better,
like you're going to live. Iwonder why that was something that people were
believing. It just hadn't gone down. So I think people were just like,
rather than fighting the waves and Godonly knows what's in the water,
then I'm going to just stick itout on this boat and We're going to
(18:32):
survive it. And so he wasI think a lot of women couldn't swim
too, Like the upperclass women werelike, I'm fright. Yeah, So
he was assisting in a rough mannerto get people onto these boats even though
they were thinking that they shouldn't.So there were still boats going down,
and he went back to his quartersand he drank more whiskey, so he's
like slashed at this point. Andhe comes back and he's like, Oh,
(18:55):
all the fucking boats are gone,so I don't have anything. So
then he goes onto one of thedecks and he starts throwing chairs out into
the ocean. There's like fifty chairsthat he threw out there because he was
like, well, not everybody can'tyou can get on here. Yeah,
there's not enough life boats, soI'm gonna throw some ship so people can
at least you have something to floatand hang on to when they're out in
(19:18):
the water. Yeah. So asthe boat's going down, the bow went
down first, and then it likesplit in half. The boat did,
and so the back half of theboat was at one point and as we
all saw in the movie, likecompletely vertical. Yeah, and people are
like hanging on for dare life.He was on what they call the poop
deck, which I mean, there'sprobably a lot of people out there that
(19:41):
know what the poop deck is.I didn't. It is the aftermost and
highest deck of the ship, especiallyin a sailing ship, where it typically
forms the roof of the cabin inthe stern. So he's in the stern.
Yeah, he's in the stern,on the poop deck. And so
this boat just continues to go down, go down, go down. And
it says that he basically took downthe boat like an elevator. So he's
(20:04):
just slowly going down, watching itsink, watching it sync. And then
he just said like he stepped offand there was no suction, which is
shocking to me, Like, Ididn't even know how that happens. I
guess it might have been like hittingpart of the boat below. So it
wasn't like going down to his headdidn't even go below water. His hair
never got wet, and so heswam basically or floated until daylight. Now
(20:30):
remind you the boat went underwater completelyaround two forty in the morning. Oh
my god. So until about sixam he had nothing that he was holding
onto. Then he found an overturnedlifeboat and he held on to that returned
one. Yeah, and all thosepeoples, I don't know, there were
(20:52):
other people holding onto it. Sohe held on to that, and people
are like, he was a negativetwo degree lantic ocean water before he was
rescued, you know, for hoursand whiskey. Most people would have died,
but the whiskey had warmed his bodyso much that he was like a
(21:12):
didn't die of a heart attack likemost people would when they saw the boat
going down and knowing that there wasno way out except going down, because
he was so like calmed. Butit doesn't warm you. It just probably
prevented him from going into shock.Yeah, he didn't go into shock.
Well, it said it, itdid. It said there was so much
(21:32):
whiskey coursing through it that the alcoholactually fought off the cold and kept him
alive. That's amazing. Yeah,it is right, like it literally has
like a lower freezing point or something. Yeah, that's wow. And he
was just so calm about it too. Was he heavy set? I wonder
if he was heavy set, becausethat probably I mean pictures of him,
he doesn't look like he's that vague, okay, And he was about roughly
(21:56):
thirty two thirty three years old whenthe boat went down. Another interesting fact
about him though its Titanic sunk innineteen twelve, but in eighteen eighty six,
the ss Organ, which had eighthundred and fifty two people aboard.
He was eight years old or roughlyeight years old on that boat when it
sank. It actually hit an unidentifiedschooner, which they think is likely called
(22:18):
it was a schooner called the CharlesH. Morse. They can't be for
certain, but that boat went missingat the same time this boat sank,
so they think that that's the reason. But they like, just cross paths
and they hit and that boat sank. I've read one person died, and
I've read that nobody died on that. But he was eight years old when
that one went down too, Sohe's been on two sinking ships. He
(22:41):
was hoping he never got on aboat again. I mean, that's tempting
fates. I mean, I don'tthink so, because after Titanic he went
back to England and then permanently cameback and moved to New Jersey. So
I think he was just like whatever, I mean, this is the means
of travel, and I got todo it. So he was on other
boats, and he certainly went onthe rescue boat, the Carpathia. That's
(23:04):
the rescue boat that came in onApril sixteenth and saved everybody that was kind
of stranded out there. Wow.Yeah. Oh. In nineteen fifty five,
Walter Lord wrote the book A Nightto Remember and he has a recount
of Joffan's experience. And then alsohe was that a little bit part in
(23:25):
the movie. He was played bythe actor Liam Tuee and he's just the
drunk guy hanging on and he's thelast person to get off of the Titanic
and survive. What a nightmare.And then later on it just says so
he's born August third, eighteen seventyeight in Birkenhead, Chesshire, England,
and he died December ninth, nineteenfifty six, in Patterson, New Jersey.
(23:48):
He died of pneumonia and he wasseventy eight years old. Anyway,
that is the story of the chiefBaker, Charles John Joffin from the Titanic.
And they do call him a hero. I mean, who knows how
many lives he sayd by throwing peopleon the life boats that didn't want on
and then throwing all these yeah yeah, oh man, It's just that whole
(24:11):
story is the awful And I couldn'tthink of anything worse than being like,
uh, going down with a boatlike that is. I don't know how
anyone gets on a boat. AndI'm even toying with the idea of doing
it, and I'm like, oh, I hear stories like this like never
mind, never I never made butyeah, that's incredible. And if there
was ever a psa of the benefitsof alcohol, there you have it.
(24:33):
There it is. Yeah, yougot my mind racing, Like who would
I have done? Like, yeah, finding anything that floats. Basically,
if you know your third class andsteerage, you still make a shot.
You know, you try to dowhat he did. You know, stay
on the boat as long as possible. If you have some kids, put
your kids on some like suitcases orsomething, you know, and for the
best. Yeah, well that wasthat was a good one. Thank you
(24:57):
for bringing that. I'll go aheadand take us home. Okay. My
articles are MPR dot org published Septemberninth, twenty eleven by Mark Memots and
The Hill dot Com August twenty third, twenty twenty one by Joseph Gooseman.
(25:17):
Okay, so there's a reason thatpeople always defer to that like generic I
like long walks on the beach phrasebecause it's it's relatable, and you know
we wouldn't like that. It's relaxingpictures and simple exactly, it's enjoyable.
So picture yourself walking along the coastof you know, Washington State or British
(25:41):
Columbia Vancouver area. You see thelittle sea crabs popping up out of the
sand. You spy seagulls floating aroundin the sky with ease, the shore
just covered, and seashells scattered alongthe smooth tide touched sand. So is
great, right, yeah, yesit does. But it's like there's a
(26:03):
catch. I know. Oh yeah, I'm the dead body. Imagine yourself
walking there and you see something thatis misplaced. It's a misplaced it's a
shoe, the shoe on the shore. Is there a foot in your shoe?
You walk past the shoe and younotice that something is in it.
(26:25):
Perhaps it's a confused little crab thathas taken the discarded item and made it
its new home. Right, soyou've been down to get a closer look
into your horror, you see theshoe is filled with none other than a
human foot. Banna called it.I think I know where, I think
I know where you're going with this. So starting in two thousand and seven,
(26:47):
this reality started popping up, notjust a couple of times. Between
two thousand and seven and two thousandand eleven, eleven feet filled shoes were
found washed up on the coast.Yeah, that's so disgusting. That's a
lot in a short period of time. Definitely needs a reason. Yeah,
(27:07):
speculation across the US and the Canadianborder spread about maybe there was just some
serial color that was obsessed with feetor whatever was on the loose, obviously
killing people, cutting off their feetand discarding them into the water. So
most residents feared these findings. Youknow, they were like, I'm gonna
be walking around, I'm gonna findI'm gonna find this be disgusting. So
(27:29):
I was just picturing a shark andthen like he's like, I don't want
to eat the shoe. Yeah,you're right, but I mean they eat
everything else, so whine out theshoe. There were some pranks that came
about, you know, obviously everybody'sgot a jokester inside them, and there
were times the missing feet on thebeach. I mean it's horrifying, but
people were actually buying like raw chickenand then filling shoes with them and then
(27:55):
leaving them. I know, Iknow, I hate that because it's such
a waste of a dead animal too. I mean, they died eat instead,
you're putting in a fucking shoe fora prank. I hate that.
Ship people think they're funny, that'sfor sure. It's not fy, guys,
it's not so. In two thousandand eleven, no individuals had been
linked to the feet, but bytwenty twenty one there have been twenty one
(28:19):
feet washed up since two thousand andseven twenty one did any of them make
a pair? No? Twenty onedifferent feet. The worst part so with
advancements in DNA findings between no,Diana always loves I do. Many of
the surface feet in twenty twenty oneat this point have now been linked back
to individuals who had been involved ineither accidents or suicides off bridges or boating
(28:45):
accidents in the area. So whyjust the feet? So? A surgeon
with the National Health Services in theUK, actually his name is Karan Raj
explains that seek creatures scavengers tend tobreak down bodies pretty quickly and with that
these scavengers like an easy meal.Feet are not easy. Well, especially
(29:11):
if they're in a shoe. Yeah, so a lot of them would just
be separated very quickly from the restof the body. And because footwear,
the footwear industry as a whole startedto make a lot of changes to sneakers.
And that's one thing to really notehere. Every single one of those
twenty one feet that have been foundis in a sneaker. There's no other
footwear. It's always in a sneaker, which a kind of like a loafer
(29:33):
or a heel or something is goingto slop off pretty quickly regardless. It's
something to note here. The footwearindustry started to make a lot of sneaker
designs starting in two thousand and seven. So these shoes are more buoyant than
they've ever been before. So whenthese feet are disconnected from the rest of
the body, the shoe allows forthe foot to still rise to the hop
(30:00):
and get washed ashore. It's notnot insane. So yeah, this is
just it's repulsive, assassinating as well. Oh yeah, it's definitely sad.
Wow. Well, at least theyhad something to basically say, you know,
the person, Yeah, this personwas found and they're gone now for
(30:22):
sure. Closure definitely. It's neatto read the two eleven article versus the
twenty twenty one article because the twoeleven it's just kind of like, oh,
we're not sure what's going on.We know that the shoe is buoyant
and that's why it's happening, butwhy are why is it just the feat
Yeah, they thought it was likea serial killer perhaps or something. They
didn't know what it was, butyeah, it's it's pretty fascinating that just
(30:45):
in the span of a decade,it's like, oh, no, this
is what it is. And wewere able to figure out a lot of
these people, not everyone, buta lot of them creepy, sad,
but it did spark my interest.So we've got three good stories. Yeah,
we have pow Wow Pennsylvania, DutchMagic Dead Animal Park says and found
(31:06):
in the wall by a couple tryingto renovate. Yeah, We've got my
uh chief Baker on the Titanic,last man off the boat, and we
have my little buoyant sneaker feet washingup on the coast. I feel like
these are all very equally placed,you know, I'm equally sparked by every
(31:26):
single one of them. We're allreally thinking doing right, we're gonna have
to do I think we're gonna haveto do a blind boat. All right,
let's do it. Okay, that'sright, he's down. I'm not
even set yet. I don't evenknow. I know I wrote mine down.
Yeah, all right, let's seeall right ready, one, two,
(31:48):
three, I can't see your's JesseTitanic chef. I put Titanic baker.
Oh I did pow wow owow Okay, I was. I was a
toss up for me. Reason Ilike Titanic never heard the story one and
number two. The idea that hejust stayed on the boat as long as
he could. I mean, it'samazing, took it down like an elevator.
(32:10):
Yeah, that's that is amazing.But mine was a toss between the
two. But I had to gopow wow because I've never heard of Pennsylvania
Dutch witchcraft, you know. So, so I voted pow wow, but
you both voted okay. Yeah.I had to vote for it because he
was an unsung hero and all thechair yes, getting people on the boat.
(32:34):
He had the will to survive andalso help others help. Yeah,
so that's where I think he reallyfelt like, well, I'm gonna go
down, but I'm going to godown with the ship, but other people
don't have to. And then exactlydidn't. H Well, that was a
success. That was a great episode. You guys, I think so too.
Uh. No streaks at this time, but if you think you have
(32:55):
something that can help us get astreak, we would love to hear from
you. You can reach us atour gmail that is Sparked my Interest Podcast
at gmail dot com. You canalso reach us at our TikTok, our
Facebook and our Instagram at Spark myInterest Podcast, or at our Twitter at
Interest Underscore spark Jesse. How dothey rate and review us? Just go
(33:16):
to your app if you're listening onright now and either like, follow,
subscribe, rate it all helps thepodcast, and don't forget. You can
also leave us a voicemail if youwant to share a story on our website
Spark my Interest Podcast dot com.Awesome. We always love hearing from you.
Thank you so much everybody for listening. We appreciate you beyond words,
(33:37):
and until next week, we hopeyou all gets sparked. He died April
twenty first of twenty twenty one.I gotta blow my nose you guys.
Sorry, there's her nose blow.She always sounds like a trumpet. I
(34:06):
have to keep that in. That'sLarry, just like after that. I'm
so used to it. That's howI grew up. Like and I blow
my nose already loud, but nothinglike Diana. If it doesn't make a
noise, you didn't get enough outAnd now I'm gross. Just like honk
that thing. Yeah, if you'renot getting a honk, you're not doing it right
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