June 12, 2025 • 36 mins
In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max discover stunning commonalities between Father's Day celebrations across culture, community, and time. We wrote that first sentence knowing our Dads will not read the rest, and we genuinely believe we have some good jokes with this one.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Let's hear it for one of
our favorite cat dads, our super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh, yeah, you know what I like.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
I like boots and cats, boots and cats and boots.
And that's how you approximate a techno beat.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
With words, Can you do it?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
That's Nold Brown and your Bembola and you go boots
and cats and boots and cats. And you know, I
think it's actually I got that that. I learned that
from Siria. I want to say, I can't remember I
came up somehow, but yeah, yeah, for sure, Cat dads, dad,
dad's daddies, zaddies and daddies.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
We're here for all of you.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, and I am I am called Ben Bollen in
this part of the country dealing with dealing with some
dad issues ourselves at this moment, we wanted to take
a special excursion here on Ridiculous History in celebration of
Father's Day. Noel, Max, We've all talked in the past
(01:34):
about the importance of Father's Day. Always relationships with one's
parents can be complicated. Right, the course of true love
never did run smooth.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I don't know what you're.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Talking about, right, right, right, right right, And we want
to first off, thank everybody who has a father or
is a father themselves in the crowd.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
And I'd like to take a moment, Noel, not to
put you on the spot too hard, to let you
know that you're you're doing a kick ass job as
a dad man.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Aw, thanks buddy, I appreciate that, and you know, all
my career, Hey, thanks pal. And while my father has
has moved on beyond this mortal coil, I do like
to think of him as a Mufasa in the cloud
situation sometimes and do try to still honor him on
Father's Day, which is of course a highly commercial holiday.
(02:34):
Let's not get it twisted, but I think it's kind
of neat. And today we're gonna talk about we've done
the history of Father's Day before, but today we're gonna
do a bit of a Father's Day grab bag full
of socks and neckties and wrist watches and all the
fun stuff. We're gonna have some suggestions for Father's Day.
Guess we're gonna talk about some Father's Day traditions the
(02:54):
world over and maybe some famous zaddies, some famous dads.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I think you got some in your back pocket, Ben, But.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, this is this is what we're gonna do on
today's episode of Ridiculous Father's Day History, right.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Right, Father's Day History.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Please do check out our earlier episode. We're gonna republish
this as a classic uh this weekend. You can find
it as the origins of and backlash against Father's Day,
wherein we dive deep into the history of this relatively
whole marketing celebration.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
It's all Markeian for sure, but you know it's like,
I mean, we're gonna get into it, but in Germany
it's just called Man's Day.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yeah, yeah, let's do it right now.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Sounds like it should just be a day of the week.
Why not.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
There's a really cool article on the Rosetta Stone Blogs.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
You'll Remembermber Rosetta Stone.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
I do.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I was actually an intense subscriber and also side note, folks,
I did walk away from Duo Lingo with the not
good quote AI stuff, but was like Pimslers back in
the day.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Rosetta Stone was also I just remember the big yellow boxes.
And also it like I don't know, it had like
it was giving Mayvis Beacon kind of vibes.
Speaker 6 (04:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
It was like a golden age for tutorial software, right, yeah, yeah, yeah,
but big backlash against duo lingo.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
You're right.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
My kid actually told me about that, and I'm a
little on the fence about it because it is sort
of like a procedural thing that I could see parts
of it being a reasonable use of AI.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
But anything anything.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
That removes the human element entirely from a thing that
was founded on the human element, I do.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
It is a sticky It's a sticky situation, and the
jimmy's a little little bit a little bit of a
little bit of the jimmy. So it's a So look,
if you want to buy your father or the fathers
in your life some kind of gift or recognition, our
primary thesis here is that one doesn't need to wait
(05:16):
for Father's Day. It is not a international agreed holiday.
It's something that happens in different days, right, different parts
of the calendar, in different parts of the world. As
you were mentioning Noel, the German version monor dog.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Is for actually be men are now if it's an o.
It's an a umlaut. That would be men are men
are talk literally like men?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Or day do it?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Do it one more time?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Men are talk? There we go aka ascension day.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Forty days after Easter?
Speaker 1 (05:52):
What is that?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
That's when then the Lord God ascended into heaven. Look,
we're not calendar doctors called the sension day.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
So look the point is that's what happened. Okay, cool,
thank you back for the facts.
Speaker 6 (06:07):
Yep, that seeking in the phone gets back and he's
falling knowledge just for you right now here. Well, you're
MAX with the facts.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Forty days after Easter. It's indeed, Young Thorn Jesus, a
young JC.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Rolled a side stone in the I'm fairly stern on
that one.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Was it that way?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I'm not an expert on the tape. You don't have
to be. In fact. The second time, Oh, that's seeking.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
The phone gets back and he's falling knowledge just for
your right now here, talking with the facts.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
It's still MAX with the facts. I think the factoids.
Did I use factoids right?
Speaker 7 (06:48):
One time?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
The fact is that a third MAX with the facts
right here.
Speaker 6 (06:52):
Oh that's the phone gets back and he's falling knowledge
just for your right now here.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Talking back with the facts.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
No, no, no, this.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
The troll if anything.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
So, a factoid is something that appears.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Be accurate and is not, and is often misused as
like a micro fact because it sounds like it would
be that, and I'm a little resentful And it's not
because I do think a factoid sounds like a cute,
little bite sized fact.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
It is not.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
I'm still learning English like Peru's non Peru right.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Perus means both to scrutinize and to skim uh. It
is a counter factual. It's a paradoxical word.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Anyway, wouldn't it be fun to try to learn English
on an app like just see how they teach it
to others?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I would. I think that could be educational. I think
it could be educational.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, I've got to give you next time we all
hang out, I've got to give you, guys, my collection
of foreign publications as travel guides to the United States.
They are amazing, and they're pretty snarky. The German one
is one of my favorites anyway. Germany, the way they
(08:10):
do Men's Day forty days after Easter. It's not really
about your family hanging out with you as a father.
What it is more so is a bunch of dads
get together and they go on a hike.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
They have bro.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Hangs and they fun. Well, you know, they're Germans. There's
a lot of beer on it. But apparently it goes
back to the Middle Ages in Central and Western Europe,
when guys were pulled via carts, which were you know,
like a big deal at the time. Wagon situation right
(08:48):
to the center of the village. It's like a little
parade and everybody is celebrating them.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
And isn't there beer in the wagons as well? In
the traditional version of.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah then and now And if you are the guy
in the village with the most children, most legitimate children
by the way, uh, then respreader, Yeah you get a prize. Okay, cool,
it is a small child.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
You get another child?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, it's beer, is what it is? Now? I could,
I don't know what it is. It's a ham. Oh
you get a ham.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
That's kind of like a small child. A small child
and a ham way about the same.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
These are Noel Brown facts.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Facts dare say.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Uh. And apparently the amount of alcohol consumption uh is
up there with the Big Binge drinking festival over there Octoberfest.
But I will say, as a bit of a as
one who was once a small Drummond boy and a
bit of a Germanophile, been spending some time in Berlin
these last few years.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Drinking culture there is not unhinged at all.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Like they let young people drink uh and and you
can there's really no age restrictions for going into bars
or places that serve exclude of the alcohol because there's
a certain measured approach to drinking that I've seen, and
everywhere I go, whatever the event is, it doesn't seem
like it's an unhinged, boozy kind of country.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
No, no, it's not. It's not Bourbon Street by any means. Right,
you will see people from old demographics sipping like a
pilsner or a logger at lunch, and it's just like
the way you might have a soda, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
They're like they used to drink it back in the
Middle Ages as it because everything else would have been feted.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah that's the right word, bad water, right, yeah, yeah, unclean.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
We we know.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Also, we're we're all big fans of Germany as a country.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Currently they're also currently apparently in mega doomsday prep mode.
We talked about that on our recent Strange News episode
of Stuff they Don't Want You to know, And I
believe I made the observation that the Germans are nothing
if not uh fastidious and prepared.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yes, they are the atlas upon which NATO must stand.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
We also know that there are other Father's Day celebrations
throughout the world.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Japan.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Oh, oh, Japan, you want to do Japan?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I don't know, man, that is if i'm if I'm
a Germanophile. I think you're a Japanophile.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Do you mean a wiya boo?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yes, I am a consummate tourist. Perhaps that's what we
tell customs and Passport Control.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Yeah, Japan with.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
A Costco card, thought it right.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
They won't even let my tote and chip slide. Uh.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
That's a joke for the few boy scouts in the crowd,
all right. Japan has a thing on the third Sunday
in June, so much more predictable than that weird ascension day,
and still in June, and still in June.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Great point. It is called Chee chee no height.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Uh. This is where you will give a father in
your life some flowers, some fancy food, some sweet desserts.
Maybe some sake. And of course still they get clothing, ties, socks,
they might get some sports items, calf cologne, perhaps cologne, yes, yes,
(12:21):
what did you say, Ben? Cologne is meant to be discovered,
not an ounce, not announced. I love that I've become
a bit of a cologne guy myself lately.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
And Ben, I do love here the non gender treatment
of flowers. It just seems like we think of it
over here in the West. It's like something you give
a lady or like to your date or to your mother.
And I think flowers are for everybody. As someone who
absolutely loves fresh cut.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Flowers, that's interesting observation. Yeah, I feel like it's a
decent housewarming present, right, because it's not you know, housewarmings
in the US version are so fundamentally strange. It's like, Hey,
you just moved to a new place. You had to
move all your other possessions. Let me give you some stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Do you realize how much stuff you have?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
So let me give you another thing? Right, So, flowers
being ephemeral are pretty cool. I gotta say, you know,
there's this there's this drive I think in the in
the human nature to acknowledge those folks who made your
life possible, and that's why we see it. We see
(13:35):
celebrations like Father's Day in Italy and the Philippines and
India and France. Do you want to stick with Europe first?
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Gotta gotta do the Italy one, just because it's so
fun to say. It is, which is celebrated on a
religious holiday, Saint Joseph's Feast day, and this is not
in June. This is March, March to nineteenth. So in
this tradition we have young school children who actually write
(14:05):
poems about their father, and it really hits home and
emphasizes the idea of creating things like crafts and cards
and drawings, which to me, I think are the ultimate gift.
I don't know if there's people out there that you
want stuff, but I will take a homemade card or
a beaded bracelet any day of the week.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
I appreciate.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
I think homemade gifts are much better because really they
are an exhibition of time and affection, and time and
affection are the only true currencies of the world. We
also got to shout out Saint Joseph, by the way.
The reason it's all in Saint Joseph's Day in Italy
(14:49):
is because Saint Joseph is, yes, the husband of the
Virgin Mary and the legal, if not biological father of
Jesus Christ. So he's he's like the main earth dad,
you know. And so that's that's great. And also again
as we're going to see throughout this episode, uh, there's
(15:10):
a lot of emphasis on getting together for a big
family meal family.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
But Beto, now sorry, I think those close family style
Italian dining is the best. And there's some really great spots.
There's a whole little Italian kind of compound here in
Atlanta near Georgia Tech where they have Anticho Pizza and
which is really good Neapolitan style pizza.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And then they also in that same you know compound
thing have.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
A really good uh gelato place and an excellent family
style byo b Roasted chicken place forgetting the name.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Of now, but boy is it good.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
You can get like a like a spicy kind of
blood orange infused roasted chicken.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
So I love that stuff. Let's also, you know what,
while we're talking about Italy, the you know, the foundational
place of Catholicism. Currently, let's stay Catholic. No, let's go
to the Philippines.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
But really quickly, Ben, I just do want to point
out that this family style meal might not be a
roasted chicken or a giant a pile of meatballs seafood
because they would well yeah, yeah for sure, or potentially
meatless because they it happens during length during the Italian season,
happens during length, so potentially.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Doesn't count as meat though, that is true.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah, pescatarian, but you're right, that doesn't count.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Them's the rules. So yeah, sorry, Ben, Let's go to
the Philippines, like you.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Were saying, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
The Philippines strong Catholic culture. Father's Day is a big
deal holiday there. It was introduced not through the Spanish occupation,
but through American culture, US culture, and it is celebrated
on the third Sunday of June. It's very food based,
(17:11):
and I got to tell you, if you've ever had
the chance, or if you ever have the chance to
meet a lola in someone who can cook Filipino food,
you need to do your best to get on their
good side and get invited to that cookout. You'll get
the latron, you'll get the adobo. It's amazing. They're like
(17:32):
the lumpia by the way, have you ever had things right,
very very good little cigars?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Now they're so good, they're a little tighter wrapped. In
my hometown, Augusta, Georgia, they have like a big arts
festival every year and they have like the different nationality
food stands in the Filipino booth always a hot ticket
because they make some excellent food. I believe the cari kari,
which is like a peanut based stew. Any of those
(18:00):
little glass noodle kind of situations are really great. And
Lashan you mentioned being like a barbecue pork that would
be roasted on a spit, super super wonderful food. We
got some good Filipino food options here in Atlanta's well,
why don't we take it to Sweden pen for fars dog.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Dog exactly second Sunday in November.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Right, this is uh.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Oh, we're moving farther and farther away from June.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
You know what people are gonna people.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
This is again a situation where you see the father's
being celebrated. Starts around the turn of the twentieth century,
so early nineteen hundred's fathers get cakes and they get
they get books that they may or may not read.
No shade and they get ties. And the thing is,
(18:57):
Sweden culturally leans into the idea of getting the same
gift over and over.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
So if it's a humor of the Swedes.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah yeah, yeah, very dry sense of humor. You could
tell by their cuisine. I said, it don't cut it.
So the idea is that as you grow as a
patter familius, you get ties every year, and you get
more and more ties as you age.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Yeah, so many ties.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
That necessitates an entire rack, you know, and perhaps an
electric ty rack, you know, where you can kind of
like the library of ties.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
You know, remember the electric tyracts? People still have those?
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Is that a real thing? Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
That would have been a hugely popular Father's Day gift
back in the day. It's like a Sharper image type thing. Okay,
see electric tie rack. It's sort of like a conveyor
belt of ties and they hang down and go around
in a sort of a ellipse, an elliptical orbit, the
electric diract. It reminds me of an episode of Mister
(20:00):
Show about megaphone crooning. It's like a documentary about the
golden age of megaphone crooning, and the two crooners featured
have to keep coming up with new inventions to croon about, and.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
One of them was electric tyrack. It's so nice move
that ties from side to side.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I like the best parton that goes electric tyract baby
it loves it, or racking up electric ties, which doesn't
make any sense because the ties a lot electric.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
I heard it. There's some bars there. We also know
that the third Sunday of June is when Costa Rica
celebrates Father's Day, and they did so by adopting the
US custom in there again to the importance and I
think we're all agreed here. Handmade gifts are better than
(20:44):
stuff you buy, so children in Costa Rica will make
gifts for their dads. And again you gotta have the
big family meal, so you get your gayo pento, you
get your casado. Uh, this is one of my favorite parts. Actually, no,
because I've seen this.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
The kids will do like a song, dance or a
Quick Conner show.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Is there a theme around it is just something related
to the honoring of the final man.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Have you ever been to like children's theatrical performance?
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Depending well, as you've been interview, I know that for sure.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
But in Germany.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
I do remember puppets were huge puppet theater for kids,
and marionettes.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
And stuff were really really big, So I do remember that.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
And of course I've participated in like, you know, church
camp kind of things.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
So a brief tangent about my own patter familias many
years ago. Colonel, you know, the colonel they call him
not Kurt's hashtag, no Kurtz, I hope, but I don't
know too much about him. Uh he uh. He decided
to uh do ride share stuff for a few years,
(22:00):
and he was absolutely terrible at it because he wasn't
in a hurry and he.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Ordered to chat.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Yeah, he just wanted to hang out.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
And so I've had I've gotten a few of those
as the uber driver from time to time.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
It's definitely a type, right, Yeah, it's doing it for
different reasons that doing it for the gig economy.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
So here's the story.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, he clearly didn't need the money or the mission,
but he met someone who was in a hurry to
see her grand nieces recital like a child, right, and
they were doing skits and they were doing a little
dancing or whatever, and this absolute legend says, yeah, okay,
(22:43):
I'll go with you because the lady is worried you
shall have to go alone. So he just shows up
and uh, without getting any too many specifics here or
giving too many specifics. He is not the demographic and
now he's friends with everybody in that auditorium.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Of course he is. He is an abooliant fellow. I
love that story.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Ben.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
I did recently go to like an elementary school pageant
type play where all of the kids were different barnyard animals.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
And boy was it cute, and boy was the sound horrible.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
What was your favorite animal?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Well, of course my other child, uh, not really directly,
but my kid's baby Sis, who was basically frontons and purposes.
My other kid was a was a pig. And the
joke in the song was that the pigs were really
neat and tidy. They were really tidy, fastidious pigs, fastidious brilliance.
You're killing it today.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Like the Germans.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Your welcome bucker root.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
If you are familiar with the diaspora of South Asia
and the Indian subcontinent, then you will probably recognize this.
The third Sunday in June is Father's Day in many
major cities of India. Now India is huge. India's culture
(24:05):
is ancient. This is again an adaptation of the concept
of Father's Day as originating in the United States. Again,
if you're the dad in an Indian family, you'll get
some books. You'll get flowers, which I think we both
agree is very cool, handmade car shirts, you get a cake.
(24:30):
People bake a cake. There will be some special prayers
said on your behalf, which I think is cool. I
suspect strongly correct us here if we're off base. I
suspect there were a lot of prayers given to fathers
in Italy and Japan as well.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Oh especially yeah, of course during war time, no question
about it. And can I just say that the chuckle
that you heard from Ben was my actual child walking
past behind me and then me giving them the finger,
because that's just how we roll. It was a good
natured finger.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
I saw you both smiling.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
There was definitely smiling for sure. Nah, love that kid,
and I expect an epic gift.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Speaking of which Ben, in this Rosetta Stone blog piece
that we are not shilling for Rosetta Stone, it ends
with a way of saying Happy Father's Day and tons
of different different languages which we are totally not going
to do, lest we humiliate ourselves and butcher the language
at hand. But I was just wondering, Ben, I had
a couple of things that I wanted to throw in,
(25:31):
maybe as some action items for folks waiting till the
last minute for getting their father Father's Day gift recom
I know that you had a couple things in your.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Back pocket too, So which orders shall we take it in?
Speaker 4 (25:42):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (25:42):
No hop in the driver's seat for this one. I'm
very interested in hearing your ideas because I'd also love
a little bit of your council.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Well, it's not my counsel, Ben, I'm referring to a
BuzzFeed list to call it.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
All right, thank you, Nola.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
I will say, though there's something on here this is
particular to our topic at hand or the genre of
the show.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
It's fourteen Father's Day Gifts every history bus.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Dad secretly once and it just gave me some ideas
because I do remember, you know, my dad really did
love like history. So you might consider this book eighteen
sixty one, The Lost Piece by Jay Winnick about the
Civil War. It is apparently a delights and a very
well written book and a New York Times bestseller, as
(26:30):
it turns out, one that I love from this list
though that I have thought about before, that kind of
falls squarely in that dad gift kind of thing, but
it's a little more creative. Is a fancy fountain pen.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Ah, Yes, the fancy fountain.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Pen, one that you can get little nubbins for like
it just you know, you don't. It's not disposable. It's
like one that you would It's like a nice thing
that you would cherish and remember who gave it to you.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
A rolex of pens, rightly, perhaps.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
You definitely could go that route. And I don't know
if you're in on the world of luxury pens, but
it is a pretty broad spectrum of like how much
you want to pay. You could get one super nice
that they've recommended hereby Scrivnier, a London company, for about
forty five bucks.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Scrivener's on the low end, by the way, That's exactly
it would seem so.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
But it does look very nice. And I have a
fountain pen that takes these little cartridges that I quite enjoyed,
and as well, how do you feel about custom mugs?
Ben Custom Mugs True.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Story one of my absolute legendary cousins told my one
of my many shady uncles, told him that he was
going to be a grandfather. On Father's Day, she got
him a mug that said best granddad ever. And then
(28:04):
she said, we are not taking questions because my family
is very strange.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Everybody all got him.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Then we've all got the odd balls, and then everybody's
doing strange. Excuse me, Well, we'll keep that back. Everybody's
doing well, including uncle Fireworks. I still don't know what
that guy does.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Who are we talking about?
Speaker 1 (28:26):
My uncle, my shady uncle who found out that he
was a grandfather.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
That is his nickname. Yeah, fireworks.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
See a bit of a pyromaniac as he likes to
do fireworks.
Speaker 7 (28:38):
I mean that'd be a simple guest right there.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Well, he told me that he is involved with fireworks
in China.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
I had an uncle, but he was more into firewater.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Fire water, I see.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
And then I had one more just to honor our pal,
aj Bahamas Jacobs, the puzzler and something that we talk
about both on this show and our sister podcast. Stuff
they don't want you to know. It's a real catch
all for all of these things. There is a five
hundred piece puzzle of banned books.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Oh that's beautiful. Yeah, shout out to our buddy Roy
Wood Junior. By the way, guy loves puzzles. That's the
only thing I talked with him about. You do you
like getting a puzzle as a gift.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
It feels a bit like getting a homework assignment. It's
not my favorite, but I do think there are people
out there that love it. And this one features sixty
five different books that have at one point or another
been banned, including a lot of, as the BuzzFeed listical
points out, historically underrepresented authors. How many pieces in the
(29:49):
puzzle five hundred? Oh, so that's actually a pretty respectable number.
Some of the books here are like more modern ones,
like The Hate You Get, which was pretty controversial, the
sixteen nineteen project. This book is gay ghost Boys, Catcher
in the Rye. You know, the obvious hits, things like
(30:11):
that to Kill a Mockingbird. But someone's here that I'm
not super familiar with, and it's actually The Kite Runner.
Didn't you know that was controversial?
Speaker 4 (30:19):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Got it? Interesting?
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Well, I think this is a little something for all
the history buff and puzzlers.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Nice, nice, well, Noel brought it back now before we uh,
before we wrap up and go to our various celebrations.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Max, you had something to add.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
Here, of course, because you know, while ridiculous royal deaths
might be over, we can still talk about them some.
And I was just kind of digging around because when
we're doing this topic, for some reason, my brain went
instantly to John the baby.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Maker and Yoko.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Forget John classic, who else.
Speaker 7 (30:55):
Has had a lot of children? And this one I
think is pretty hilarious. But Henry One had twenty seven children.
So who Henry One was is? He was King of
England eleven hundred to eleven thirty five.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
He was one.
Speaker 7 (31:08):
I think he was the third son of William the Conqueror,
And if you remember, William Conqueror's eldest son was at
constant war with him, like literally they were trying to
kill each other across the first Channel. The second son
went out hunting and got shot with an arrow and then.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
Huh in the knee, not the knee.
Speaker 7 (31:24):
But also you know that's actually just reality. This Tyan
references say getting married exactly, it's like a shot on
the knee, That's what that's what it actually means, Like yeah, yeah,
I found that one out like not that long. I'm like, oh, okay,
that makes sense. But uh now the William Rufus, the
first one he became king, he got shot with an
arrow and his brother was like already halfway there back
(31:46):
to the castle by the time he got shot with
an arrow. And this guy, Henry One his son, is
the one who got like super drunk and basically when
I enjoy ride in a boat and crashed it and died.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (31:57):
This guy, by the way, he had twenty seven children.
Twenty seven children, almost all them illegitimate, and he's the
one who died from eating lampreys.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
All right, so get that man a Ham.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Celebrate the village right, Once you've had a lampreys, you
can't go back to Ham. Sorry, Ham doesn't wriggle around
in your gutties.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Hilarious.
Speaker 7 (32:17):
It's like from all the stories, like it was so
obvious that he was a lurser to them, and everyone's
also like they're also really disgusting. This guy just loves
them in your opinion, right, no, no, in their opinion.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Might I've never had a lamprey?
Speaker 1 (32:29):
And folks with that, please please please remember that everyone
is imperfect right and the Again, as we said at
the top, the course of true love never does run smooth.
If you are lucky enough to be able to contact
your father or your mother for that matter, then please
(32:50):
do so. You don't have to wait for a specific day.
It happens all the time all around the world.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
And can I just make a quick Morrissey ref friends
Steven though that guy's dead to us. The Smiths are
not Johnny mar Rules. They have a song called please
Please Please let me get what I want, and I
would add for Father's.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Day and again yes, well said, and again you know.
The thing I want to hit here is that you
don't need a specific day. The fact that Hollmark has
commercialized specific times to celebrate a thing does not make
that celebration itself inherently invalid. We are so glad that
(33:30):
you hung out with us here. We hope that you
will tell your dad or tell your kids to tune
into the show, because every little rating helps us just
a tad our corporate daddies will occasionally write a good
letter to us and tell us we won't get fired,
(33:51):
So please please please help us out. Shout out to
the Smiths with the caveats that Noel described. Shout out
as well to our super producer mister Max Williams. Shout
out to our friends at well Balanced dot com, at
BuzzFeed and of course at Rosetta Stone and.
Speaker 4 (34:09):
Oh Man aj Bahamas Jacobs.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
That guy.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
He's a great dad.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
By the way, He's just such a minch, you know.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
I apparently we're going to be seeing a little more
of him since his son just got into Emory, as
he mentioned last on this show.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
And I think there I saw Instagram post. I think
the cowboy hats.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Of course, I pitched him an idea, uh for you
can find Aj on Instagram.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
You can find uh most of us there.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
I pitched an idea for his next book, The Year
of Living Cowboy. We'll see if it uh, we'll see
where he goes with it. Also again uh, requisite contractually
obligated shout out to Jonathan Strickland aka the Quist.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yeah, he's a he's a dog dad tibble. He's got
a little Doug of course, named after a Shakespearean of course.
Of course, we also mentioned the Jonathan Strickland's father wrote
the Wishbone series for kids. I think that's great and
also it was a pretty well regarded fantasy and science
fiction writer. So happy Father's Day to Brad Strickland, right right,
(35:17):
not Jonathan Jonathan. If you're hearing this, we're shouting out
your father, not Jonathan's.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
No one's father.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
Jesus right God.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
I hope it's very clear that we really like Jonathan's.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
We actually is the best.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Yeah, we we text each other pretty often. Actually, A
big shout out, of course to the rude dudes of
Ridiculous Crime, to Alex Williams who composed this slap and bop,
big big shout out to you know, not just the fathers,
but all the kids in the audience.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
And big shout out to the colonel and to you Ben.
We'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Let's hear it for one of
our favorite cat dads, our super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh, yeah, you know what I like.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
I like boots and cats, boots and cats and boots.
And that's how you approximate a techno beat.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
With words, Can you do it?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
That's Nold Brown and your Bembola and you go boots
and cats and boots and cats. And you know, I
think it's actually I got that that. I learned that
from Siria. I want to say, I can't remember I
came up somehow, but yeah, yeah, for sure, Cat dads, dad,
dad's daddies, zaddies and daddies.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
We're here for all of you.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, and I am I am called Ben Bollen in
this part of the country dealing with dealing with some
dad issues ourselves at this moment, we wanted to take
a special excursion here on Ridiculous History in celebration of
Father's Day. Noel, Max, We've all talked in the past
(01:34):
about the importance of Father's Day. Always relationships with one's
parents can be complicated. Right, the course of true love
never did run smooth.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I don't know what you're.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Talking about, right, right, right, right right, And we want
to first off, thank everybody who has a father or
is a father themselves in the crowd.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
And I'd like to take a moment, Noel, not to
put you on the spot too hard, to let you
know that you're you're doing a kick ass job as
a dad man.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Aw, thanks buddy, I appreciate that, and you know, all
my career, Hey, thanks pal. And while my father has
has moved on beyond this mortal coil, I do like
to think of him as a Mufasa in the cloud
situation sometimes and do try to still honor him on
Father's Day, which is of course a highly commercial holiday.
(02:34):
Let's not get it twisted, but I think it's kind
of neat. And today we're gonna talk about we've done
the history of Father's Day before, but today we're gonna
do a bit of a Father's Day grab bag full
of socks and neckties and wrist watches and all the
fun stuff. We're gonna have some suggestions for Father's Day.
Guess we're gonna talk about some Father's Day traditions the
(02:54):
world over and maybe some famous zaddies, some famous dads.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I think you got some in your back pocket, Ben, But.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, this is this is what we're gonna do on
today's episode of Ridiculous Father's Day History, right.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Right, Father's Day History.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Please do check out our earlier episode. We're gonna republish
this as a classic uh this weekend. You can find
it as the origins of and backlash against Father's Day,
wherein we dive deep into the history of this relatively
whole marketing celebration.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
It's all Markeian for sure, but you know it's like,
I mean, we're gonna get into it, but in Germany
it's just called Man's Day.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yeah, yeah, let's do it right now.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Sounds like it should just be a day of the week.
Why not.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
There's a really cool article on the Rosetta Stone Blogs.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
You'll Remembermber Rosetta Stone.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
I do.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I was actually an intense subscriber and also side note, folks,
I did walk away from Duo Lingo with the not
good quote AI stuff, but was like Pimslers back in
the day.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Rosetta Stone was also I just remember the big yellow boxes.
And also it like I don't know, it had like
it was giving Mayvis Beacon kind of vibes.
Speaker 6 (04:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
It was like a golden age for tutorial software, right, yeah, yeah, yeah,
but big backlash against duo lingo.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
You're right.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
My kid actually told me about that, and I'm a
little on the fence about it because it is sort
of like a procedural thing that I could see parts
of it being a reasonable use of AI.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
But anything anything.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
That removes the human element entirely from a thing that
was founded on the human element, I do.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
It is a sticky It's a sticky situation, and the
jimmy's a little little bit a little bit of a
little bit of the jimmy. So it's a So look,
if you want to buy your father or the fathers
in your life some kind of gift or recognition, our
primary thesis here is that one doesn't need to wait
(05:16):
for Father's Day. It is not a international agreed holiday.
It's something that happens in different days, right, different parts
of the calendar, in different parts of the world. As
you were mentioning Noel, the German version monor dog.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Is for actually be men are now if it's an o.
It's an a umlaut. That would be men are men
are talk literally like men?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Or day do it?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Do it one more time?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Men are talk? There we go aka ascension day.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Forty days after Easter?
Speaker 1 (05:52):
What is that?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
That's when then the Lord God ascended into heaven. Look,
we're not calendar doctors called the sension day.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
So look the point is that's what happened. Okay, cool,
thank you back for the facts.
Speaker 6 (06:07):
Yep, that seeking in the phone gets back and he's
falling knowledge just for you right now here. Well, you're
MAX with the facts.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Forty days after Easter. It's indeed, Young Thorn Jesus, a
young JC.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Rolled a side stone in the I'm fairly stern on
that one.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Was it that way?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I'm not an expert on the tape. You don't have
to be. In fact. The second time, Oh, that's seeking.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
The phone gets back and he's falling knowledge just for
your right now here, talking with the facts.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
It's still MAX with the facts. I think the factoids.
Did I use factoids right?
Speaker 7 (06:48):
One time?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
The fact is that a third MAX with the facts
right here.
Speaker 6 (06:52):
Oh that's the phone gets back and he's falling knowledge
just for your right now here.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Talking back with the facts.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
No, no, no, this.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
The troll if anything.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
So, a factoid is something that appears.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Be accurate and is not, and is often misused as
like a micro fact because it sounds like it would
be that, and I'm a little resentful And it's not
because I do think a factoid sounds like a cute,
little bite sized fact.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
It is not.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
I'm still learning English like Peru's non Peru right.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Perus means both to scrutinize and to skim uh. It
is a counter factual. It's a paradoxical word.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Anyway, wouldn't it be fun to try to learn English
on an app like just see how they teach it
to others?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I would. I think that could be educational. I think
it could be educational.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, I've got to give you next time we all
hang out, I've got to give you, guys, my collection
of foreign publications as travel guides to the United States.
They are amazing, and they're pretty snarky. The German one
is one of my favorites anyway. Germany, the way they
(08:10):
do Men's Day forty days after Easter. It's not really
about your family hanging out with you as a father.
What it is more so is a bunch of dads
get together and they go on a hike.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
They have bro.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Hangs and they fun. Well, you know, they're Germans. There's
a lot of beer on it. But apparently it goes
back to the Middle Ages in Central and Western Europe,
when guys were pulled via carts, which were you know,
like a big deal at the time. Wagon situation right
(08:48):
to the center of the village. It's like a little
parade and everybody is celebrating them.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
And isn't there beer in the wagons as well? In
the traditional version of.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah then and now And if you are the guy
in the village with the most children, most legitimate children
by the way, uh, then respreader, Yeah you get a prize. Okay, cool,
it is a small child.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
You get another child?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, it's beer, is what it is? Now? I could,
I don't know what it is. It's a ham. Oh
you get a ham.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
That's kind of like a small child. A small child
and a ham way about the same.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
These are Noel Brown facts.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Facts dare say.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Uh. And apparently the amount of alcohol consumption uh is
up there with the Big Binge drinking festival over there Octoberfest.
But I will say, as a bit of a as
one who was once a small Drummond boy and a
bit of a Germanophile, been spending some time in Berlin
these last few years.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Drinking culture there is not unhinged at all.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Like they let young people drink uh and and you
can there's really no age restrictions for going into bars
or places that serve exclude of the alcohol because there's
a certain measured approach to drinking that I've seen, and
everywhere I go, whatever the event is, it doesn't seem
like it's an unhinged, boozy kind of country.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
No, no, it's not. It's not Bourbon Street by any means. Right,
you will see people from old demographics sipping like a
pilsner or a logger at lunch, and it's just like
the way you might have a soda, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
They're like they used to drink it back in the
Middle Ages as it because everything else would have been feted.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah that's the right word, bad water, right, yeah, yeah, unclean.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
We we know.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Also, we're we're all big fans of Germany as a country.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Currently they're also currently apparently in mega doomsday prep mode.
We talked about that on our recent Strange News episode
of Stuff they Don't Want You to know, And I
believe I made the observation that the Germans are nothing
if not uh fastidious and prepared.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yes, they are the atlas upon which NATO must stand.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
We also know that there are other Father's Day celebrations
throughout the world.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Japan.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Oh, oh, Japan, you want to do Japan?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I don't know, man, that is if i'm if I'm
a Germanophile. I think you're a Japanophile.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Do you mean a wiya boo?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yes, I am a consummate tourist. Perhaps that's what we
tell customs and Passport Control.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Yeah, Japan with.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
A Costco card, thought it right.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
They won't even let my tote and chip slide. Uh.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
That's a joke for the few boy scouts in the crowd,
all right. Japan has a thing on the third Sunday
in June, so much more predictable than that weird ascension day,
and still in June, and still in June.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Great point. It is called Chee chee no height.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Uh. This is where you will give a father in
your life some flowers, some fancy food, some sweet desserts.
Maybe some sake. And of course still they get clothing, ties, socks,
they might get some sports items, calf cologne, perhaps cologne, yes, yes,
(12:21):
what did you say, Ben? Cologne is meant to be discovered,
not an ounce, not announced. I love that I've become
a bit of a cologne guy myself lately.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
And Ben, I do love here the non gender treatment
of flowers. It just seems like we think of it
over here in the West. It's like something you give
a lady or like to your date or to your mother.
And I think flowers are for everybody. As someone who
absolutely loves fresh cut.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Flowers, that's interesting observation. Yeah, I feel like it's a
decent housewarming present, right, because it's not you know, housewarmings
in the US version are so fundamentally strange. It's like, Hey,
you just moved to a new place. You had to
move all your other possessions. Let me give you some stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Do you realize how much stuff you have?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
So let me give you another thing? Right, So, flowers
being ephemeral are pretty cool. I gotta say, you know,
there's this there's this drive I think in the in
the human nature to acknowledge those folks who made your
life possible, and that's why we see it. We see
(13:35):
celebrations like Father's Day in Italy and the Philippines and
India and France. Do you want to stick with Europe first?
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Gotta gotta do the Italy one, just because it's so
fun to say. It is, which is celebrated on a
religious holiday, Saint Joseph's Feast day, and this is not
in June. This is March, March to nineteenth. So in
this tradition we have young school children who actually write
(14:05):
poems about their father, and it really hits home and
emphasizes the idea of creating things like crafts and cards
and drawings, which to me, I think are the ultimate gift.
I don't know if there's people out there that you
want stuff, but I will take a homemade card or
a beaded bracelet any day of the week.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
I appreciate.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
I think homemade gifts are much better because really they
are an exhibition of time and affection, and time and
affection are the only true currencies of the world. We
also got to shout out Saint Joseph, by the way.
The reason it's all in Saint Joseph's Day in Italy
(14:49):
is because Saint Joseph is, yes, the husband of the
Virgin Mary and the legal, if not biological father of
Jesus Christ. So he's he's like the main earth dad,
you know. And so that's that's great. And also again
as we're going to see throughout this episode, uh, there's
(15:10):
a lot of emphasis on getting together for a big
family meal family.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
But Beto, now sorry, I think those close family style
Italian dining is the best. And there's some really great spots.
There's a whole little Italian kind of compound here in
Atlanta near Georgia Tech where they have Anticho Pizza and
which is really good Neapolitan style pizza.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And then they also in that same you know compound
thing have.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
A really good uh gelato place and an excellent family
style byo b Roasted chicken place forgetting the name.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Of now, but boy is it good.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
You can get like a like a spicy kind of
blood orange infused roasted chicken.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
So I love that stuff. Let's also, you know what,
while we're talking about Italy, the you know, the foundational
place of Catholicism. Currently, let's stay Catholic. No, let's go
to the Philippines.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
But really quickly, Ben, I just do want to point
out that this family style meal might not be a
roasted chicken or a giant a pile of meatballs seafood
because they would well yeah, yeah for sure, or potentially
meatless because they it happens during length during the Italian season,
happens during length, so potentially.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Doesn't count as meat though, that is true.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah, pescatarian, but you're right, that doesn't count.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Them's the rules. So yeah, sorry, Ben, Let's go to
the Philippines, like you.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Were saying, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
The Philippines strong Catholic culture. Father's Day is a big
deal holiday there. It was introduced not through the Spanish occupation,
but through American culture, US culture, and it is celebrated
on the third Sunday of June. It's very food based,
(17:11):
and I got to tell you, if you've ever had
the chance, or if you ever have the chance to
meet a lola in someone who can cook Filipino food,
you need to do your best to get on their
good side and get invited to that cookout. You'll get
the latron, you'll get the adobo. It's amazing. They're like
(17:32):
the lumpia by the way, have you ever had things right,
very very good little cigars?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Now they're so good, they're a little tighter wrapped. In
my hometown, Augusta, Georgia, they have like a big arts
festival every year and they have like the different nationality
food stands in the Filipino booth always a hot ticket
because they make some excellent food. I believe the cari kari,
which is like a peanut based stew. Any of those
(18:00):
little glass noodle kind of situations are really great. And
Lashan you mentioned being like a barbecue pork that would
be roasted on a spit, super super wonderful food. We
got some good Filipino food options here in Atlanta's well,
why don't we take it to Sweden pen for fars dog.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Dog exactly second Sunday in November.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Right, this is uh.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Oh, we're moving farther and farther away from June.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
You know what people are gonna people.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
This is again a situation where you see the father's
being celebrated. Starts around the turn of the twentieth century,
so early nineteen hundred's fathers get cakes and they get
they get books that they may or may not read.
No shade and they get ties. And the thing is,
(18:57):
Sweden culturally leans into the idea of getting the same
gift over and over.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
So if it's a humor of the Swedes.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah yeah, yeah, very dry sense of humor. You could
tell by their cuisine. I said, it don't cut it.
So the idea is that as you grow as a
patter familius, you get ties every year, and you get
more and more ties as you age.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Yeah, so many ties.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
That necessitates an entire rack, you know, and perhaps an
electric ty rack, you know, where you can kind of
like the library of ties.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
You know, remember the electric tyracts? People still have those?
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Is that a real thing? Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
That would have been a hugely popular Father's Day gift
back in the day. It's like a Sharper image type thing. Okay,
see electric tie rack. It's sort of like a conveyor
belt of ties and they hang down and go around
in a sort of a ellipse, an elliptical orbit, the
electric diract. It reminds me of an episode of Mister
(20:00):
Show about megaphone crooning. It's like a documentary about the
golden age of megaphone crooning, and the two crooners featured
have to keep coming up with new inventions to croon about, and.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
One of them was electric tyrack. It's so nice move
that ties from side to side.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I like the best parton that goes electric tyract baby
it loves it, or racking up electric ties, which doesn't
make any sense because the ties a lot electric.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
I heard it. There's some bars there. We also know
that the third Sunday of June is when Costa Rica
celebrates Father's Day, and they did so by adopting the
US custom in there again to the importance and I
think we're all agreed here. Handmade gifts are better than
(20:44):
stuff you buy, so children in Costa Rica will make
gifts for their dads. And again you gotta have the
big family meal, so you get your gayo pento, you
get your casado. Uh, this is one of my favorite parts. Actually, no,
because I've seen this.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
The kids will do like a song, dance or a
Quick Conner show.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Is there a theme around it is just something related
to the honoring of the final man.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Have you ever been to like children's theatrical performance?
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Depending well, as you've been interview, I know that for sure.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
But in Germany.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
I do remember puppets were huge puppet theater for kids,
and marionettes.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
And stuff were really really big, So I do remember that.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
And of course I've participated in like, you know, church
camp kind of things.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
So a brief tangent about my own patter familias many
years ago. Colonel, you know, the colonel they call him
not Kurt's hashtag, no Kurtz, I hope, but I don't
know too much about him. Uh he uh. He decided
to uh do ride share stuff for a few years,
(22:00):
and he was absolutely terrible at it because he wasn't
in a hurry and he.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Ordered to chat.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Yeah, he just wanted to hang out.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
And so I've had I've gotten a few of those
as the uber driver from time to time.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
It's definitely a type, right, Yeah, it's doing it for
different reasons that doing it for the gig economy.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
So here's the story.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, he clearly didn't need the money or the mission,
but he met someone who was in a hurry to
see her grand nieces recital like a child, right, and
they were doing skits and they were doing a little
dancing or whatever, and this absolute legend says, yeah, okay,
(22:43):
I'll go with you because the lady is worried you
shall have to go alone. So he just shows up
and uh, without getting any too many specifics here or
giving too many specifics. He is not the demographic and
now he's friends with everybody in that auditorium.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Of course he is. He is an abooliant fellow. I
love that story.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Ben.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
I did recently go to like an elementary school pageant
type play where all of the kids were different barnyard animals.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
And boy was it cute, and boy was the sound horrible.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
What was your favorite animal?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Well, of course my other child, uh, not really directly,
but my kid's baby Sis, who was basically frontons and purposes.
My other kid was a was a pig. And the
joke in the song was that the pigs were really
neat and tidy. They were really tidy, fastidious pigs, fastidious brilliance.
You're killing it today.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Like the Germans.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Your welcome bucker root.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
If you are familiar with the diaspora of South Asia
and the Indian subcontinent, then you will probably recognize this.
The third Sunday in June is Father's Day in many
major cities of India. Now India is huge. India's culture
(24:05):
is ancient. This is again an adaptation of the concept
of Father's Day as originating in the United States. Again,
if you're the dad in an Indian family, you'll get
some books. You'll get flowers, which I think we both
agree is very cool, handmade car shirts, you get a cake.
(24:30):
People bake a cake. There will be some special prayers
said on your behalf, which I think is cool. I
suspect strongly correct us here if we're off base. I
suspect there were a lot of prayers given to fathers
in Italy and Japan as well.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Oh especially yeah, of course during war time, no question
about it. And can I just say that the chuckle
that you heard from Ben was my actual child walking
past behind me and then me giving them the finger,
because that's just how we roll. It was a good
natured finger.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
I saw you both smiling.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
There was definitely smiling for sure. Nah, love that kid,
and I expect an epic gift.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Speaking of which Ben, in this Rosetta Stone blog piece
that we are not shilling for Rosetta Stone, it ends
with a way of saying Happy Father's Day and tons
of different different languages which we are totally not going
to do, lest we humiliate ourselves and butcher the language
at hand. But I was just wondering, Ben, I had
a couple of things that I wanted to throw in,
(25:31):
maybe as some action items for folks waiting till the
last minute for getting their father Father's Day gift recom
I know that you had a couple things in your.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Back pocket too, So which orders shall we take it in?
Speaker 4 (25:42):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (25:42):
No hop in the driver's seat for this one. I'm
very interested in hearing your ideas because I'd also love
a little bit of your council.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Well, it's not my counsel, Ben, I'm referring to a
BuzzFeed list to call it.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
All right, thank you, Nola.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
I will say, though there's something on here this is
particular to our topic at hand or the genre of
the show.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
It's fourteen Father's Day Gifts every history bus.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Dad secretly once and it just gave me some ideas
because I do remember, you know, my dad really did
love like history. So you might consider this book eighteen
sixty one, The Lost Piece by Jay Winnick about the
Civil War. It is apparently a delights and a very
well written book and a New York Times bestseller, as
(26:30):
it turns out, one that I love from this list
though that I have thought about before, that kind of
falls squarely in that dad gift kind of thing, but
it's a little more creative. Is a fancy fountain pen.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Ah, Yes, the fancy fountain.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Pen, one that you can get little nubbins for like
it just you know, you don't. It's not disposable. It's
like one that you would It's like a nice thing
that you would cherish and remember who gave it to you.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
A rolex of pens, rightly, perhaps.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
You definitely could go that route. And I don't know
if you're in on the world of luxury pens, but
it is a pretty broad spectrum of like how much
you want to pay. You could get one super nice
that they've recommended hereby Scrivnier, a London company, for about
forty five bucks.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Scrivener's on the low end, by the way, That's exactly
it would seem so.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
But it does look very nice. And I have a
fountain pen that takes these little cartridges that I quite enjoyed,
and as well, how do you feel about custom mugs?
Ben Custom Mugs True.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Story one of my absolute legendary cousins told my one
of my many shady uncles, told him that he was
going to be a grandfather. On Father's Day, she got
him a mug that said best granddad ever. And then
(28:04):
she said, we are not taking questions because my family
is very strange.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Everybody all got him.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Then we've all got the odd balls, and then everybody's
doing strange. Excuse me, Well, we'll keep that back. Everybody's
doing well, including uncle Fireworks. I still don't know what
that guy does.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Who are we talking about?
Speaker 1 (28:26):
My uncle, my shady uncle who found out that he
was a grandfather.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
That is his nickname. Yeah, fireworks.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
See a bit of a pyromaniac as he likes to
do fireworks.
Speaker 7 (28:38):
I mean that'd be a simple guest right there.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Well, he told me that he is involved with fireworks
in China.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
I had an uncle, but he was more into firewater.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Fire water, I see.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
And then I had one more just to honor our pal,
aj Bahamas Jacobs, the puzzler and something that we talk
about both on this show and our sister podcast. Stuff
they don't want you to know. It's a real catch
all for all of these things. There is a five
hundred piece puzzle of banned books.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Oh that's beautiful. Yeah, shout out to our buddy Roy
Wood Junior. By the way, guy loves puzzles. That's the
only thing I talked with him about. You do you
like getting a puzzle as a gift.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
It feels a bit like getting a homework assignment. It's
not my favorite, but I do think there are people
out there that love it. And this one features sixty
five different books that have at one point or another
been banned, including a lot of, as the BuzzFeed listical
points out, historically underrepresented authors. How many pieces in the
(29:49):
puzzle five hundred? Oh, so that's actually a pretty respectable number.
Some of the books here are like more modern ones,
like The Hate You Get, which was pretty controversial, the
sixteen nineteen project. This book is gay ghost Boys, Catcher
in the Rye. You know, the obvious hits, things like
(30:11):
that to Kill a Mockingbird. But someone's here that I'm
not super familiar with, and it's actually The Kite Runner.
Didn't you know that was controversial?
Speaker 4 (30:19):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Got it? Interesting?
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Well, I think this is a little something for all
the history buff and puzzlers.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Nice, nice, well, Noel brought it back now before we uh,
before we wrap up and go to our various celebrations.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Max, you had something to add.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
Here, of course, because you know, while ridiculous royal deaths
might be over, we can still talk about them some.
And I was just kind of digging around because when
we're doing this topic, for some reason, my brain went
instantly to John the baby.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Maker and Yoko.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Forget John classic, who else.
Speaker 7 (30:55):
Has had a lot of children? And this one I
think is pretty hilarious. But Henry One had twenty seven children.
So who Henry One was is? He was King of
England eleven hundred to eleven thirty five.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
He was one.
Speaker 7 (31:08):
I think he was the third son of William the Conqueror,
And if you remember, William Conqueror's eldest son was at
constant war with him, like literally they were trying to
kill each other across the first Channel. The second son
went out hunting and got shot with an arrow and then.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
Huh in the knee, not the knee.
Speaker 7 (31:24):
But also you know that's actually just reality. This Tyan
references say getting married exactly, it's like a shot on
the knee, That's what that's what it actually means, Like yeah, yeah,
I found that one out like not that long. I'm like, oh, okay,
that makes sense. But uh now the William Rufus, the
first one he became king, he got shot with an
arrow and his brother was like already halfway there back
(31:46):
to the castle by the time he got shot with
an arrow. And this guy, Henry One his son, is
the one who got like super drunk and basically when
I enjoy ride in a boat and crashed it and died.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (31:57):
This guy, by the way, he had twenty seven children.
Twenty seven children, almost all them illegitimate, and he's the
one who died from eating lampreys.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
All right, so get that man a Ham.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Celebrate the village right, Once you've had a lampreys, you
can't go back to Ham. Sorry, Ham doesn't wriggle around
in your gutties.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Hilarious.
Speaker 7 (32:17):
It's like from all the stories, like it was so
obvious that he was a lurser to them, and everyone's
also like they're also really disgusting. This guy just loves
them in your opinion, right, no, no, in their opinion.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Might I've never had a lamprey?
Speaker 1 (32:29):
And folks with that, please please please remember that everyone
is imperfect right and the Again, as we said at
the top, the course of true love never does run smooth.
If you are lucky enough to be able to contact
your father or your mother for that matter, then please
(32:50):
do so. You don't have to wait for a specific day.
It happens all the time all around the world.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
And can I just make a quick Morrissey ref friends
Steven though that guy's dead to us. The Smiths are
not Johnny mar Rules. They have a song called please
Please Please let me get what I want, and I
would add for Father's.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Day and again yes, well said, and again you know.
The thing I want to hit here is that you
don't need a specific day. The fact that Hollmark has
commercialized specific times to celebrate a thing does not make
that celebration itself inherently invalid. We are so glad that
(33:30):
you hung out with us here. We hope that you
will tell your dad or tell your kids to tune
into the show, because every little rating helps us just
a tad our corporate daddies will occasionally write a good
letter to us and tell us we won't get fired,
(33:51):
So please please please help us out. Shout out to
the Smiths with the caveats that Noel described. Shout out
as well to our super producer mister Max Williams. Shout
out to our friends at well Balanced dot com, at
BuzzFeed and of course at Rosetta Stone and.
Speaker 4 (34:09):
Oh Man aj Bahamas Jacobs.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
That guy.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
He's a great dad.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
By the way, He's just such a minch, you know.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
I apparently we're going to be seeing a little more
of him since his son just got into Emory, as
he mentioned last on this show.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
And I think there I saw Instagram post. I think
the cowboy hats.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Of course, I pitched him an idea, uh for you
can find Aj on Instagram.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
You can find uh most of us there.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
I pitched an idea for his next book, The Year
of Living Cowboy. We'll see if it uh, we'll see
where he goes with it. Also again uh, requisite contractually
obligated shout out to Jonathan Strickland aka the Quist.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yeah, he's a he's a dog dad tibble. He's got
a little Doug of course, named after a Shakespearean of course.
Of course, we also mentioned the Jonathan Strickland's father wrote
the Wishbone series for kids. I think that's great and
also it was a pretty well regarded fantasy and science
fiction writer. So happy Father's Day to Brad Strickland, right right,
(35:17):
not Jonathan Jonathan. If you're hearing this, we're shouting out
your father, not Jonathan's.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
No one's father.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
Jesus right God.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
I hope it's very clear that we really like Jonathan's.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
We actually is the best.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Yeah, we we text each other pretty often. Actually, A
big shout out, of course to the rude dudes of
Ridiculous Crime, to Alex Williams who composed this slap and bop,
big big shout out to you know, not just the fathers,
but all the kids in the audience.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
And big shout out to the colonel and to you Ben.
We'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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