Pod Insights No Such Thing As A Fish Little Fish: Chromosomes are coming home About this episode Dan, James and Andy discuss YOUR facts including Curaçao, chips and chess. Dan and Andy compete to see who has the best cardboard box anecdote. And we name eight more Friend of the Podcast custodians.
Visit nosuchthingasafish.com https://nosuchthingasafish.com for news about live shows, merchandise and more episodes.
Edited by James Harkin
Produced by Leying Lee
Team includes Tara Dorrell, Joe Mayo and Ethan Ruparelia
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Stop the podcast.
0:01 Speaker 01 Stop the podcast.
0:02 Speaker 00 Hi, everybody. We are sponsored this week by Progressive.
0:05 Speaker 01 That's right. So, everyone talks about how challenging it is to raise kids, but what about protecting them? I'm talking outlet covers, kitchen cabinet locks, baby gates. Where do you even start?
0:15 Speaker 00 Yes, it is a nightmare. Well, protecting your home and your auto is a great place to start.
0:22 Speaker 01 Progressive offers customized coverage options, so you can be sure you have the right coverage for you and your loved ones.
0:27 Speaker 00 They're basically the outlet covers, kitchen cabinet locks, and baby gates of insurance.
0:32 Speaker 01 Don't wait. Get your quote today at progressive.com.
0:35 Speaker 00 Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers, not available in all states. On with the show.
0:41 Speaker 02 ChatGPT for Teens is designed to help teens learn, think critically, and grow their skills. ChatGPT for Teens supports active learning by breaking concepts down, rather than giving teens the answer. Study mode helps teens work through problems, and interactive quizzes test their knowledge and provide immediate feedback. Safety protections are on by default, and parental controls offer families additional options, like setting study hours and quiet hours. Visit chatgpt.comPARENTS to learn more.
1:22 Speaker 01 Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Little Fish. My name's Andrew Hunter Murray, and joining me at the fact table to dish out some of your brilliant facts that you've been sending in are James Harkin and Dan Schreiber.
1:35 Speaker 03 Hi, Andy.
1:35 Speaker 04 Hello, Andy.
1:37 Speaker 01 You've come for, I'm just painting a picture for those who are listening and not watching, you've come sort of dressed as each other today.
1:43 Speaker 03 We've got black t-shirt. Oh, I've got a black shirt on. You've got a black polo.
1:46 Speaker 04 Yep.
1:47 Speaker 03 And have you got shorts on?
1:48 Speaker 04 I've got blue trousers on and James has beige shorts.
1:51 Speaker 03 But in fairness, Andy is just imagining what's happening on the table.
1:54 Speaker 01 I certainly am.
1:56 Speaker 04 Donald Duck under there.
1:57 Speaker 01 Stop it at once. We've got a show to record. Right. Has anyone got a fact?
2:01 Speaker 04 Uh, this comes in from Eric Nosborne. Eric Nosborne says, hi, since you're going to my hometown of Lund.
2:09 Speaker 04 I thought I'd send in one of my favourite Lund facts. We are going to Lund very soon.
2:13 Speaker 03 We're in Sweden.
2:14 Speaker 04 It's in Sweden. We are playing the festival there and we're going to be doing a live podcast recording. So come along if you're in the area. This is the fact that Eric has sent.
2:24 Speaker 03 I think it's sold out.
2:25 Speaker 04 Well, come stand outside the doors.
2:27 Speaker 01 Kind of cool viral marketing, but with no purpose. Now it's sold out. Cleverly done, but no point.
2:32 Speaker 04 To no point. They might move us into a bigger room.
2:35 Speaker 03 That'd be good.
2:36 Speaker 01 That'd be great.
2:36 Speaker 04 So write in for a bigger room. Here we go. Can I get to the email? This is from Eric. He says, "The discovery that humans have 46 chromosomes was made at Lund University. Before that, for over three decades, we thought humans had 48 chromosomes, and I guess no one bothered to double check." They add in brackets, "It's a bit more complicated than 'no one bothered to double check', but that sounds funnier." So...
3:03 Speaker 03 So we knew that chromosomes existed.
3:05 Speaker 04 Yep.
3:06 Speaker 03 They counted them, and then it turned out the two of them didn't count?
3:09 Speaker 04 Exactly. And the point of the email from Eric is that additionally Lund has the area phone code of 46, and Sweden has a national phone code of 46. So if humans had actually had 48 chromosomes after all, the discovery would have been made in Poland instead.
3:25 Speaker 03 Is that how that works?
3:26 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's brilliant. Okay.
3:29 Speaker 04 Wonderful.
3:30 Speaker 03 If we lose two more, it'll be in the UK.
3:32 Speaker 04 Yes.
3:33 Speaker 01 Oh, yeah. Yeah.
3:34 Speaker 04 Lose two more. It's coming. It's coming. Chromosomes are coming. Yeah, I love those area code facts, and I did try to find a few. I was reminded of one that we actually did as a headline many years ago, which is that the telephone code for Cape Canaveral, where they launch all the rocket ships, is 321. Beautiful.
3:58 Speaker 03 I've got a fact here.
3:59 Speaker 04 Yeah.
4:00 Speaker 03 This is from Rachel Cunningham, and Rachel Cunningham has fact number one, and she entitles it "Two liqueurs and a cocktail." And this is about the current World Cup, which I think is still ongoing when this goes out. Certainly, England probably still have it. We've just beaten the Democratic Republic of Congo the day before we recorded this. But this is about someone who's already gone out, Curacao. Curacao, who are the smallest country to ever qualify for the World Cup. They are currently managed by Dick Avocat and they have a player called Gel Margarita. One team, three drinks.
4:41 Speaker 01 Lovely.
4:42 Speaker 03 Curacao, Avocat and Margarita.
4:44 Speaker 01 And all very much from the fun end of the cocktail spectrum, I'd say.
4:48 Speaker 03 Do you think Avocat is really fun?
4:51 Speaker 01 What was the flavour of Avocat?
4:53 Speaker 03 Is it?
4:54 Speaker 01 It's not avocado.
4:55 Speaker 03 It's not avocado. It's lawyers.
5:00 Speaker 03 I'm gonna Google it. It's made from egg yolks, sugar, brandy and vanilla.
5:05 Speaker 01 That's quite fun.
5:06 Speaker 04 That's fun.
5:07 Speaker 03 I suppose so. You make snowballs out of it, don't you?
5:09 Speaker 01 Yeah. It's not like boring old sherry.
5:12 Speaker 03 No.
5:13 Speaker 01 They don't have a player called Newcastle Brown Ale or anything.
5:17 Speaker 01 I think that's a good, that's a brilliant fact.
5:19 Speaker 04 Lovely.
5:19 Speaker 03 Yeah, Rachel says, I'm sure James already knew them. I did know about the Curacao and Avocat thing, but I didn't know about Gel Margarita. I'd never heard of them until the World Cup started, so that's really good.
5:30 Speaker 01 Brilliant.
5:31 Speaker 03 Have you ever had Curacao? It's like blue.
5:34 Speaker 01 I've had blue Curacao. Yeah, yeah.
5:35 Speaker 03 Blue Balls. Blue Balls, named after a guy called Balls.
5:39 Speaker 01 Really?
5:39 Speaker 03 Yeah, you probably wouldn't think it was named after the medical condition of having very big testicles.
5:46 Speaker 01 I don't know what, is this a drink, a blue ball?
5:48 Speaker 03 Blue Balls is, it's the, it's the brand name of Curacao.
5:52 Speaker 01 Oh, I didn't know that.
5:53 Speaker 04 I've not had it.
5:53 Speaker 03 Yeah.
5:54 Speaker 01 Okay.
5:54 Speaker 03 Or Balls Blue, maybe. You call it Balls Blue. But yeah, Curacao, do you know where it was invented?
6:03 Speaker 01 The Netherlands.
6:04 Speaker 03 Yeah, in Flanders.
6:06 Speaker 01 Ah, okay.
6:07 Speaker 03 Maybe on Belgium, just about. But yeah, because, so in Belgium, as opposed to the Netherlands. But because Curacao is a Dutch colony, they could get the oranges from Curacao. They're really bitter and you don't really want to eat them, but the orange skin is really nice if you boil it down with alcohol. And that's what they make it out of.
6:30 Speaker 01 That's great.
6:31 Speaker 04 That is good.
6:32 Speaker 01 That's really good. Oh, that's a lovely fact. I have a World Cup fact.
6:36 Speaker 03 Oh, cool.
6:37 Speaker 01 This comes in from Adam Rodriguez. His fact is, the soccer balls currently in use for the World Cup must be charged before each match.
6:47 Speaker 03 Yeah.
6:48 Speaker 01 Charged. Got to charge them.
6:50 Speaker 03 They have a chip in them. So you can tell if the ball's gone over the line.
6:54 Speaker 01 To help with the various technical mumbo jumbo that you have to do these days.
6:59 Speaker 04 It's very interesting. Can I just quickly add to that point? Because there was a match on that just went with England, DR Congo. And the commentators on the BBC kept sort of bringing up this thing that almost sounded like a conspiracy theory. They're saying they keep swapping the balls. Why do they keep swapping the balls?
7:15 Speaker 01 Yeah.
7:15 Speaker 04 And they were reminded of Deflategate in America, in the NFL.
7:20 Speaker 03 So Deflategate was where Tom Brady was using balls that were slightly flatter. Because it made them easier to throw and catch.
7:30 Speaker 01 Why did they call that Deflategate and not the Brady Crunch?
7:34 Speaker 03 Yeah.
7:35 Speaker 04 Because they didn't have you.
7:36 Speaker 03 Yeah.
7:37 Speaker 01 But there is a thing, there is a thing about these balls which is controversial.
7:40 Speaker 03 Yeah, they fly in a weird way.
7:42 Speaker 01 They've used a new design. I think it's four panels on the ball. Basically, at a certain speed, it undergoes drag crisis and it moves faster. It speeds up and it's because the air around it goes into a turbulent state and that disrupts the drag on the ball. So suddenly, if you kick it fast enough, it then speeds up. A lot of the goalies are saying, that was a lot faster than I thought it was going to be. How mad is that?
8:08 Speaker 03 That's wild. And you know what? Time of recording, we're about to play Mexico next. And because of the altitude difference there, and the air's a lot thinner, apparently it's even worse when you go and play in altitude.
8:19 Speaker 01 Really?
8:20 Speaker 03 Yeah.
8:21 Speaker 01 I think that's a good conspiracy theory that, you know, the ball, because it's got a chip in it. People are going to say, oh, it's actually a drone.
8:28 Speaker 04 Yes.
8:28 Speaker 01 And the whole thing's been controlled by big football too.
8:30 Speaker 04 It's a spy.
8:31 Speaker 01 It's a spy.
8:34 Speaker 03 I like it. I do like.
8:36 Speaker 01 The outcome's been fixed.
8:37 Speaker 03 I feel like it would be obvious if someone kicked the ball and suddenly it started flying and then turned left and then turned right. And then got shot down by a Ukrainian soldier. I feel like.
8:48 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah. But there's, well, it's not that thing.
8:50 Speaker 04 I had, can I, because it will just never become a fact unless I say it. A fact that was not picked for an upcoming fish episode.
8:58 Speaker 01 Yeah.
8:58 Speaker 04 But I just really like it, which is that Cristiano Ronaldo is one of three players ever to score a goal in every minute of a football game.
9:07 Speaker 01 That was a good game, wasn't it?
9:12 Speaker 01 Wow. What about during half time? You ever scored a goal during half time? No.
9:18 Speaker 04 He's not that good, is he?
9:21 Speaker 01 Great. Well, that's a really good fact. Let's have another.
9:24 Speaker 04 Yeah, let's have another. Here is one from Walid Malik, who says, I'm writing to share a couple of Canadian lake names I discovered recently. I know you discussed Canadian lakes on the podcast before, but I don't think these came up. There is a lake in British Columbia called Another Lake.
9:40 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah.
9:41 Speaker 04 Just called Another Lake.
9:42 Speaker 01 Brilliant.
9:42 Speaker 04 What was really nice is right next to Another Lake, there is a second lake that is called And Another Lake.
9:49 Speaker 03 I can say that was in my notes for that episode.
9:51 Speaker 01 It was.
9:52 Speaker 03 I never got around to saying it. Yeah. And I checked on Google Maps to make sure they definitely existed and they do.
9:57 Speaker 01 Fantastic.
9:57 Speaker 04 Yeah. It was originally proposed, but the notes on it, this is in 1968, say, this is not a satisfactory name and it won't be used on BC topo maps. So it's the official maps. However, because a longstanding usage just happened, it just buckled, but it did get a rejection and it overridden it.
10:19 Speaker 01 It's confusing though, if you're ringing the emergency services and you're saying, help, I've fallen into another lake. That is confusing.
10:26 Speaker 04 Yeah.
10:27 Speaker 03 Another lake.
10:32 Speaker 01 Oh, that's good. That's very good.
10:34 Speaker 03 Very nice.
10:34 Speaker 04 Very nice.
10:35 Speaker 03 Here is a fact from Lynn Juliana Soviknis. You tell us about jigsaws and that it is impossible to make a square puzzle with exactly 1,000 pieces. So all of them have more than 1,000 pieces. Now, first of all, we're talking rectangles, not squares.
10:55 Speaker 01 Sure.
10:56 Speaker 03 Okay. So the idea is your jigsaw, the image of it has to be on the box.
11:02 Speaker 01 Yeah.
11:03 Speaker 03 Okay. And so that has to be roughly the same shape as an A4 piece of paper.
11:07 Speaker 04 Yes.
11:07 Speaker 03 Cause that's how big they make the boxes. You can make different sized boxes. You'd have to go to a specialist box making place to do that. If you want a run of the mill games box from off the shelf, you're going to get an A4 size.
11:19 Speaker 01 So the problem is actually with big box as opposed to with big jigsaw. Right?
11:25 Speaker 03 Yeah, and big maths, because if you want an exact A4 sized jigsaw, the side of a A4 piece of paper divided by the width is the square root of two. So you need to come up with two numbers that approximately, when you get one of them and you divide it by the square root of two, you get the other one. That's impossible because it's an irrational number, but the closest they can get usually is 38 by 27, which is 1,026 pieces. Okay, so most 1,000 piece jigsaws have 1,026 pieces.
12:02 Speaker 01 That's so annoying.
12:04 Speaker 03 Now, we were going to do this on QI last year because I read this fact as well. And I was going to give Alan Davis a big box with a 1,000 piece jigsaw and say, how many pieces are in that jigsaw? And hilarity was going to ensue. But then Mike Turner, who's one of the researchers who does puzzles, had a look at the jigsaw he was making at the time and found out that it did have a thousand pieces.
12:27 Speaker 01 Oh, no.
12:28 Speaker 03 So I do believe that what Lynn said is true for many jigsaws. If you look at the internet, they definitely agree, like people have checked. But there are definitely some, the one that Mike was doing was made by a company called Gibson's, who are a proper jigsaw company. And so there are some that have exactly a thousand pieces now.
12:45 Speaker 01 Well, 20 by 50 is a thousand. So if you just had a slightly longer thing.
12:50 Speaker 03 They need to have to buy a slightly longer box.
12:52 Speaker 01 No, I know, I know. I'm so, I'm going to talk to the box people later. Do the maths.
12:56 Speaker 03 No, like it is possible to multiply two numbers together to get a thousand. But then the standard box sizes means that the image on the box wouldn't look like the thing you were making.
13:07 Speaker 01 That's why my innovation of a fold out poster of the thing, you don't get a picture on the box.
13:11 Speaker 03 Well, you do get those in kids ones.
13:13 Speaker 01 Yeah. Also, here's a great idea.
13:16 Speaker 03 I'm sure it will be.
13:18 Speaker 01 A 1,000 by one jigsaw.
13:21 Speaker 03 Yeah.
13:21 Speaker 01 That sounds hard. That's a real challenge.
13:24 Speaker 03 It depends. If they each have a number on them, it's quite easy.
13:28 Speaker 03 But if it's just an image of a snake, it might be quite tricky.
13:32 Speaker 01 It's a snake.
13:35 Speaker 03 Well, I've got the anus piece, so I know where that goes. And I've got the head, so I know where that goes. That's how you start, wouldn't you?
13:41 Speaker 01 Great news. This one has two edges. That'll be useful.
13:45 Speaker 04 So are we saying that no matter how lucrative and the amount of money a Jigsaw company is making, they're held back from innovation by the box companies?
13:55 Speaker 03 Seems like it. It does seem like Big Box has got them by the nuts.
13:59 Speaker 01 Wow. I used to know someone who ran a cardboard box factory.
14:02 Speaker 03 You do surprise me, Andy. He doesn't invite you around anymore because you're a bit boring.
14:11 Speaker 04 What, um, what, what can you tell us?
14:14 Speaker 01 It doesn't go any further than that. That's it.
14:18 Speaker 04 My friend's dad used to make the boxes for Stanley Kubrick.
14:23 Speaker 03 You see, this is an anecdote, Andy.
14:26 Speaker 04 He was upset with box sizes and so Kubrick designed his own boxes. Jon Ronson did a whole thing about this. Yeah, he went and saw the archive. Jon Ronson was looking through all the boxes of Stanley Kubrick's archives, but then was going, these boxes look very different. And it's because he designed these boxes and my friend's dad.
14:46 Speaker 03 Your mate doesn't have any stories like that?
14:48 Speaker 01 None that he's told me. That's, it really throws into relief how bad my one was when Dan comes up with a Stanley Kubrick cardboard box personal anecdote.
15:02 Speaker 01 Oh my God.
15:05 Speaker 03 I can imagine you, Andy, were about to go, I'm going to tell this story. No one's going to top this.
15:14 Speaker 00 Stop the podcast.
15:15 Speaker 01 Stop the podcast.
15:16 Speaker 00 Hi, everybody. We are sponsored this week by Progressive.
15:19 Speaker 01 That's right. So everyone talks about how challenging it is to raise kids, but what about protecting them? I'm talking outlet covers, kitchen cabinet locks, baby gates. Where do you even start?
15:29 Speaker 00 Yes, it is a nightmare. Well, protecting your home and your auto is a great place to start.
15:36 Speaker 01 Progressive offers customized coverage options so you can be sure you have the right coverage for you and your loved ones.
15:41 Speaker 00 They're basically the outlet covers, kitchen cabinet locks and baby gates of insurance.
15:46 Speaker 01 Don't wait. Get your quote today at progressive.com.
15:49 Speaker 00 Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers, not available in all states. On with the show.
15:56 Speaker 05 Hi, I'm Jenna Oshkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At the Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel.
16:10 Speaker 06 People would always think I was lactose intolerant, so I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic in a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.
16:21 Speaker 05 And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone. One of the best guys that I dated, he made a point to memorize all my food allergies. So join us and hear their stories and more, because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat. It's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At the Table, the food allergy podcast, on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At the Table and start listening on the free iHeart Radio app today.
16:54 Speaker 01 Can I do another fact?
16:55 Speaker 04 Yeah, you go.
16:56 Speaker 01 Okay. This is a fact from Shane Carroll, and it's about a chess move called the Greek gift. Okay. And that's where you lay a trap for your opponent. You sacrifice a bishop.
17:10 Speaker 04 It feels like you should sacrifice the horse.
17:12 Speaker 01 What a good point. What a good point. But basically, you sacrifice a bishop and you lure your opponent's king into a dangerous position, and then you can clobber the king and you'll get checkmate that way. So Greek gift, horse, that's why it's named that, right?
17:29 Speaker 04 Maybe.
17:30 Speaker 01 Maybe.
17:30 Speaker 03 Oh, no. Oh, damn it.
17:33 Speaker 01 But according to the Oxford Companion of Chess, it's named after Gioacchino Greco, a 17th century player who frequently used it.
17:43 Speaker 03 Now, where did he get his name? Because El Greco, the painter, was, had Greek heritage, I'm sure.
17:51 Speaker 01 Interesting, interesting. Well, Greco was from Italy. That's correct.
17:58 Speaker 01 So it could be this. It could also be that it's a Greek gift named after the, as in, when you get that far back, the etymology is a bit hairy. But Shane, I just want to say thank you for keeping it alive.
18:07 Speaker 04 Very nice. Do you think there might be more squares on a chessboard if the boxes were allowed to be a bit bigger?
18:15 Speaker 03 Very nice. So here's something from Lyn Lim, who has a PhD in immunology and is writing from Switzerland. And this is about a way of administering vaccines intranasally where the mucus inside your nose then is able to attack the pathogens, whatever you've got. But the amazing thing is that the mucus in the rest of your body then can also attack the pathogens. And what that means is that you can give someone a vaccine up the nose and protect them from infections in the vagina.
18:52 Speaker 04 Brilliant. Wow.
18:53 Speaker 01 And vice versa?
18:54 Speaker 03 Well, they're currently working on that.
18:56 Speaker 01 Okay.
18:57 Speaker 03 This is called common mucosal immunity. It's quite, I've looked at a couple of papers. It's quite trendy at the moment in immunology. But yeah, they're working out whether you'll be able to do it the other way, do a pessary up there, and then it will stop you from getting a cold.
19:11 Speaker 04 Wow.
19:12 Speaker 01 Wow.
19:13 Speaker 03 Isn't that amazing?
19:13 Speaker 04 That is incredible.
19:14 Speaker 01 That's really cool.
19:15 Speaker 03 And one reason it's quite good is because using the suppository or the pessary sometimes can help the medicine get a bit slower into your body. If you're doing nose spray, it just goes straight up there.
19:26 Speaker 01 Right.
19:26 Speaker 03 Whereas the other ones kind of dissolve a little bit. So if you need to release the active ingredient a bit slower, then putting it up your nunny might help.
19:35 Speaker 01 They're both going straight up there, I suppose.
19:37 Speaker 03 Yeah, I suppose.
19:39 Speaker 04 Your nanny.
19:40 Speaker 03 Your nanny.
19:41 Speaker 01 Your nanny.
19:41 Speaker 04 Your nanny.
19:42 Speaker 01 Your nanny, yeah. That's a...
19:44 Speaker 03 It's a Sarah Millican thing.
19:45 Speaker 01 Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah.
19:47 Speaker 03 I mean, all women have them.
19:51 Speaker 01 She's not copyrighted.
19:54 Speaker 03 Sorry, Sarah.
19:56 Speaker 04 Oh, dear.
19:57 Speaker 01 Wow. And that correspondent was Lyn Lim.
20:00 Speaker 03 Lyn Lim.
20:00 Speaker 01 Brilliant name as well.
20:01 Speaker 03 Yeah.
20:02 Speaker 01 Right. That's enough of your facts. Now it's time for some of our facts. Because if you join Club Fish, our private members' club, by going to patreon.com/clubfish, if you join at the friend of the podcast tier, then you will get a certificate and custodianship of one of our headline facts from the last 12... Glorious years of podcasting. So let's dish out a few of those now. Who would like to dish one out?
20:29 Speaker 03 I'll go first. This one now goes out to Owain Wilson. And Owain, your fact is that every time Alfred Hitchcock had a cup of tea, he always smashed the teacup.
20:42 Speaker 04 He was so focused on his stuff. He probably didn't even notice that he was smashing the teacup, you know?
20:48 Speaker 01 Oh, I thought he was doing it to make a point.
20:50 Speaker 04 I just feel like that feels more Hitchcockian to me, that he would, he would just be like, get that out of here. I'm ready to go for my next bit.
20:58 Speaker 03 Psycho?
20:59 Speaker 04 He was a bitter one, yeah.
21:01 Speaker 01 Lovely, lovely. Well, at the time, I think we said it was to remind himself of the fragility of human life, which feels like an actual psycho thing to say.
21:09 Speaker 03 Sorry, I pushed you in the face to remind myself of the fragility of human life.
21:13 Speaker 01 Also, how many cups of tea? Because I have six or seven cups of tea a day, right? So I would, I would before long have a room full of shards.
21:21 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:21 Speaker 01 As in, there must be a Hitchcock pyramid somewhere, which is just full of all of his old crockery.
21:26 Speaker 04 Yeah, it's surprising that they weren't collected and sold off as little bits of.
21:30 Speaker 01 Because remember, I mean, who wouldn't want to buy that?
21:33 Speaker 04 I absolutely would buy that.
21:34 Speaker 01 I know you would.
21:35 Speaker 04 The dentist who was associated with Winston Churchill, remember he used to throw his teeth at the wall? And I believe it was him who used to collect all the cigar butts that were dropped on the floor. And he would give them as presents and sell them off and so on. These little things are great.
21:53 Speaker 01 No, absolutely, yeah.
21:53 Speaker 04 Mylene Class used to give away the Pope's toilet paper. Do you remember that?
21:58 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:58 Speaker 04 I'm just saying, there's a, there's an industry.
22:00 Speaker 03 Yeah.
22:00 Speaker 01 Hitchcock, Alfred Hitchcock.
22:03 Speaker 03 Very good. I mean, it doesn't have anything to do with what Dad's just been saying, his really nice monologue.
22:08 Speaker 01 I think you just cut from the fact to that, can't you?
22:12 Speaker 04 I was just padding so you could think of a joke. I was just helping.
22:17 Speaker 03 Well, it worked.
22:18 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah, right. Let's have another one, Dan.
22:20 Speaker 04 Okay, this goes to John Riley. And the fact is, Lord Byron's nickname for William Wordsworth was William Turdsworth.
22:28 Speaker 01 Great fact.
22:29 Speaker 04 I love that fact.
22:30 Speaker 03 You're a big fan of Byron.
22:31 Speaker 01 I am. He's funny. Yeah, he's a funny writer. Naughty boy, but a funny poet.
22:38 Speaker 03 Yeah.
22:39 Speaker 01 And there aren't many of those around. God knows.
22:41 Speaker 03 I like to think that you are the Lord Byron of the Fish Podcast and I'm the William Wordsworth, because I, you know, lived in the Lake District and.
22:50 Speaker 01 Because I have an insulting nickname for you.
22:55 Speaker 04 You're a shag machine, Andy.
22:56 Speaker 03 Yeah.
22:57 Speaker 04 You're gonna die young.
22:59 Speaker 03 I spend a little bit too much time with my sister.
23:04 Speaker 01 Oh dear. So there we go. That's a great fact. I'll dish one out.
23:09 Speaker 03 Yeah.
23:09 Speaker 01 To Douglas Ingram and your fact, lucky you Douglas, is that replacement eyelids can be made from foreskins. So if you've, you know, had an accident and you need a, you know, an eyelid substitution, that sounds very, very fragile skin there, you can make it out of a foreskin.
23:25 Speaker 03 Yeah.
23:26 Speaker 01 Probably get a few eyelids out of one foreskin, I would have thought.
23:29 Speaker 03 Or it would be one very floppy eyelid.
23:31 Speaker 01 Get a huge eyelid. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:33 Speaker 04 Can you do it the other way around? If you regret your circumcision, can you get your eyelids put on your foreskin?
23:37 Speaker 03 You'd look very surprised all the time with you.
23:40 Speaker 01 Well, you'd be feeling it. Yeah, yeah, I imagine. Oh dear. So yeah, but there you go. Thin skin. Very useful.
23:48 Speaker 03 Okay, here is a fact now, under the custodianship of Karoi Laurenti. And Karoi, your fact is that the first item to be sent by a New York's pneumatic tube postal system was an artificial peach and the second was a live cat.
24:08 Speaker 01 I didn't think at the time, what use is that for an artificial peach?
24:12 Speaker 03 I suppose it's not gonna bruise.
24:14 Speaker 01 Good point. But then it's not a good test, is it? I mean, the cat will bruise. You need to know.
24:21 Speaker 03 The person who managed to persuade, let's say, the cat to go into that tube.
24:26 Speaker 01 Cats like going into small spaces sometimes though, don't they?
24:29 Speaker 03 Yes, but they will do it under their own rules.
24:32 Speaker 01 Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah.
24:33 Speaker 03 Like if you try and put them into a small space, they will have absolutely none of it. Like if we wanna put our cat into her little box to take her to the vets or something.
24:42 Speaker 01 Yeah. Yeah, I love a pneumatic tube.
24:44 Speaker 03 I knew you would.
24:47 Speaker 04 Your favorite pneumatic tube?
24:49 Speaker 01 Oh, don't, don't, because we'll be here hours.
24:53 Speaker 04 All right, shall I?
24:54 Speaker 01 Yeah.
24:54 Speaker 04 Bung another one in here. This is for Georgina Pereira. And your fact is scientists have invented algae that tastes like bacon.
25:02 Speaker 01 Brilliant.
25:03 Speaker 03 Faken.
25:04 Speaker 01 Faken.
25:05 Speaker 03 I mean, it exists, right?
25:07 Speaker 01 Yeah.
25:07 Speaker 03 What do they make that stuff out of?
25:09 Speaker 01 I have had quite a bit of artificial bacon in my time.
25:12 Speaker 03 Yeah.
25:12 Speaker 01 Sorry, Dan probably knows now about how Charlie Chaplin's grandson of who he knows is made of fake bacon, whatever, I don't care. But I would say one of the problems with a lot of the fake bacon is that fake bacon is quite hard to do really well. And some of the stuff I've had has tasted like fish.
25:29 Speaker 03 Really?
25:30 Speaker 01 Yeah, you get it. And it's just got that little tang of fishiness. So maybe, maybe I've had algae based stuff. I don't know.
25:36 Speaker 03 Oh, I see.
25:37 Speaker 01 It's possible.
25:38 Speaker 03 Yeah.
25:38 Speaker 04 That's very cool. Quan, can you get Quan bacon?
25:42 Speaker 01 Quan.
25:43 Speaker 04 Quan.
25:43 Speaker 01 Well, we're in New Jersey, so yeah, why not? Yeah.
25:46 Speaker 03 You can, you can add bacon taste to Quan.
25:49 Speaker 04 Hmm.
25:49 Speaker 03 Just like you can add any taste to Quan. Quan is named after a hunt.
25:53 Speaker 04 Is it?
25:54 Speaker 01 Yeah, the Quan is a famous hunt in the countryside.
25:56 Speaker 03 And then there was like a big mansion or something, I'm gonna say, that has the same name as this Quan. And then they named it after that area.
26:05 Speaker 01 Yeah.
26:05 Speaker 03 I think.
26:06 Speaker 01 Because you'd think it would be because it's got, it's related to corn. It's absolutely not. It's bizarre.
26:11 Speaker 04 Very cool.
26:11 Speaker 03 It won't be on the front page of your new book.
26:13 Speaker 01 What? Oh.
26:14 Speaker 03 Things that are named for a slightly different reason.
26:17 Speaker 01 No, well, because it's not named after a Mr. Tony Quan.
26:21 Speaker 01 It's the problem. It'll be in an appendix. Let's have another one. This one is going out to Brian Wood. Brian, your fact is that telescopes have a new telescope smell that can break them.
26:35 Speaker 03 Wow.
26:36 Speaker 01 And this is about off gassing. It's like when you have a new car, there's a new car smell and it's because all the chemicals are kind of settling down. And it turns out telescopes are exactly the same.
26:46 Speaker 03 And then didn't cars like add it artificially once they stopped having these sort of weird chemicals that came off things? People kind of liked it, so they started putting sprays of fake car smell in there.
26:57 Speaker 01 Yes, I love the smell.
26:59 Speaker 03 Do you? That's why you get a new car every week, isn't it?
27:01 Speaker 01 That's right.
27:06 Speaker 01 So there you go. That's, uh, that's your fact, Brian. I hope you like it.
27:09 Speaker 03 Very nice. Have we got time for one or two more?
27:10 Speaker 01 Go on, let's have one.
27:11 Speaker 03 Okay, this one now is under the custodianship of Zrax, Z R A A X. You don't need me to tell you how to spell your name, Zrax. I'm sure you've had to do it to people who run hotels almost every year of your life. Uh, but your fact is now that there is a museum in North Korea that has a scaled down replica of the world's largest table.
27:36 Speaker 04 I would have bet all my money that that was an Andy fact and I could see it was mine.
27:42 Speaker 03 Ah, how interesting. Um, I think the world's largest table was used in some kind of diplomatic thing.
27:50 Speaker 01 Oh, really?
27:51 Speaker 03 I believe. And the, um, replica was because they, uh, it's a replica of that incident. Uh, but still, it just looks like a normal sized table.
28:00 Speaker 04 That's such a good thing.
28:01 Speaker 01 It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. Yes, James, you're so right. It was a present given to North Korea by another country for their national friendship exhibition.
28:11 Speaker 04 Oh, I hope they sell it in the gift shop as well. Just a little key ring size, world's biggest table.
28:17 Speaker 01 Yeah.
28:17 Speaker 04 Yeah. It's great merch.
28:18 Speaker 03 It's great merch. I mean, when they sent it over, I wonder who made the box.
28:23 Speaker 04 All right. Why don't we give one more, one last fact? And this is for Keith Lovett. As part of the preparation for the D-Day landings, the Allies used condoms to collect soil and sand from the Normandy beaches.
28:36 Speaker 03 Very nice.
28:37 Speaker 01 Hmm.
28:38 Speaker 03 Uh, presumably so that you can know what constitutes the sand and it's not going to be too sandy or too hard or whatever, is it?
28:47 Speaker 01 Yeah, basically, yeah. I could have, again, with a gun to my head, I would have said this was one of my facts, but it was Anna's and, uh,
28:53 Speaker 04 It was incredibly dangerous, wasn't it? As in, they had to go and get close up to an occupied enemy beach, get some sand and then go back. And they were in midget submarines, I think.
29:03 Speaker 03 And do you think if they got caught, they would just show the condom and say, no, I'm a pervert?
29:10 Speaker 03 Ah, yes, that's fine. Please go back, go back.
29:13 Speaker 01 Almost certainly, yeah.
29:15 Speaker 04 Great.
29:15 Speaker 01 Well, there you go, Keith. That's your fact.
29:17 Speaker 04 What a, what a mission to be given. We'd like you to go and see how dangerous the place that we're gonna go is.
29:23 Speaker 01 Yeah.
29:23 Speaker 04 You will go largely on your own. That's amazing.
29:26 Speaker 03 It's all, we're gonna send you to Germany for a top secret mission. Oh, wow. We're gonna send you with 500 condoms. Wow, this sounds amazing.
29:37 Speaker 04 I thought when you said I'd have protection, you meant guns. What's this?
29:41 Speaker 01 Oh, well, there you go, Keith. That's your fact. Congratulations to all of our new custodians. That is, of course, Keith, Zraks, Brian, Georgina, Keroy, Douglas, John and Owen. Hope you love them. If you would like your own fact, please just go to patreon.com/clubfish and join Clubfish and, and we'll do the rest. But until then, we'll be back with another episode of Little Fish in a Week, another episode of Big Fish in Four Days, another episode of Doppers of Lion, potentially in either two days or nine days, depending on your membership status and, and your availability. You don't have to listen on the day of release.
30:17 Speaker 03 Keep going, Andy. You can do that. Just look, look in the distance. You can see it. The word goodbye. You can see it there. Just walk towards it.
30:31 Speaker 03 Come on, Andy.
30:33 Speaker 04 Any final thoughts, Dan and James?
30:35 Speaker 01 Send it. Goodbye.
30:49 Speaker 05 She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens. Zolir 150mg is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people one year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions. Due to accidental exposure to one or more foods. While taking Zolair, you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic. Don't use if you are allergic to Zolair. Zolair may cause a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Tell your doctor if you ever had anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Zolair should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Zolair is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, while avoiding food allergens.
31:34 Speaker 05 Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection, or heart and circulation problems have been reported. Please see zolair.com for full prescribing information. Ask an allergist about Zolair. This is an advertisement for Zolair paid for by Genentech and Novartis.
31:49 Speaker 02 ChatGPT for Teens is designed to help teens learn, think critically, and grow their skills. ChatGPT for Teens supports active learning by breaking concepts down. Rather than giving teens the answer, study mode helps teens work through problems, and interactive quizzes test their knowledge and provide immediate feedback. Safety protections are on by default, and parental controls offer families additional options, like setting study hours and quiet hours. Visit chatgpt.com/parents to learn more. Hello, I'm Chris Richards, general manager at Safran Volkswagen Richmond. I'm here to announce an exciting new program that I want you to listen to. Here's my friend Happy.
32:26 Speaker 06 Hi, I'm Happy Harry Turner, special finance manager at saffordcredit.com. If you're in an open Chapter 13 bankruptcy, recently filed a Chapter 7, or you've been turned down because of credit challenges, don't give up. For nearly 30 years, I've helped people get reliable transportation when others said no. Visit saffordcredit.com. Remember, I'm not happy unless you are.
Previous No Such Thing As No Such Thing As A Crab Next No Such Thing As Sunscreen for Flies Page updated October 30, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated