Here we go.
Dee dee da dee do do, dee da dee do.
That is from my favorite Disney movie.
Is it? Yes! That's from that hamster card though, that's what you're singing, right? Here we go, here.
Any time someone says here we go, I think of dee da dee do do.
So, if you slow that down several beats per minute, that is from the Robin Hood cartoon, not.
Kevin Costner.
Oh, yeah, the one with the foxes? Yes.
That's my favorite Disney cartoon.
Really? Yeah.
Welcome to episode 40 of Delete This History, a podcast by two besties of a certain age searching for answers.
We're your hosts, Cara Burch.
And Brea Brown.
Hi.
How are you doing? I'm alive.
Yeah.
You're on the right side of the grass.
Yep.
And, you know, Monday, I wasn't sure that I would be by this time.
So, you've had a rough week.
It has been a rough week.
I got, I got a little touch of food poisoning.
I think maybe I'm allergic to lettuce.
I don't think that's true.
Probably not.
It'd be good excuse not to ever eat it again.
Well, I'm glad you're better.
Thanks.
Oh, I overslept that day too.
Oh, that's right.
It was just, it was a no good horrible day.
It started like the tenor of the week.
Yes.
Started with oversleeping.
Yes, I woke up at 8:15.
And do you know why? Did your alarm just not go off? Did you just say, hey? I was just having that really weird dream that I told you about.
Yeah, but don't you have an alarm? No, I never get up to an alarm.
A what? Because I wake up at.
four or five o'clock in the morning every day.
I don't need an alarm.
Oh my gosh.
If I have to get up before six or at six or something like that.
But anytime after six, I don't need an alarm for that.
Oh my gosh.
I would sleep until the world ended if I didn't have an alarm clock.
Don't need it.
So, I was just sleeping and sleeping and having that dream.
I didn't wanna exit the dream until I exited whatever hellscape I was in.
where I was traveling through that underground thing.
A dream sounded like, it sounded terrible.
I talk a little bit about it today.
Oh, good, I'm glad.
Yeah, but anyway, I didn't want, it's like my brain didn't want me to wake up until I got to some resolution to know if I got out of there.
And then I had the brain zaps that day.
Right.
Yeah.
Oh, that's right.
And then at lunch, I ate something that made me very, very ill later that day.
And then.
I was like.
This day is awesome.
And then the rest of your week just wasn't, it was kind of like.
It was just a week.
Do you have bookmarks? I do have, I have two bookmarks this week.
Do it.
And they're both television related shockingly.
I'm gonna echo your bookmark from a few weeks ago about the Netflix series, The Gentleman.
Sean and I watched it.
Oh yes.
It is very Guy Ritchie, like you said.
But we enjoyed it.
We laughed quite a bit.
And I feel like, you tell me what you think.
Okay.
There were several nods to other shows and movies that we thought were really funny.
So, Breaking Bad, but you haven't seen Breaking Bad.
Yeah, but I think I did get that reference.
That the guy was the meth dealer.
Yeah.
And then Kill Bill, like there was like some Kill Bill.
Yes.
in there, the Sopranos obviously, definitely the Peaky Blinders.
Oh, definitely.
And a little bit of pulp fiction every now and then too.
There was a lot of, oh, just, it was just so, it's just so ridiculous.
Yes.
But also manic.
Yes.
Very manic.
Yes.
Like.
I find it interesting that you enjoy shows like that, but then you don't enjoy post-apocalyptic shows.
Hell no.
Why is that? Because this was a stressful show to watch.
It's not the stress that's the problem.
It's the type of stress.
I don't like, like that's, that world, that post-apocalyptic world is so depressing to me and hopeless.
Oh.
Well, did you know that Guy Ritchie also directed a movie called The Gentleman? in 2019.
No.
And he wrote it along with Ivan Atkinson and Marne Davies.
I don't know who they are.
But it stars Matthew McConaughey, Michelle Dockery, Henry Golding, who I love, crazy rich Asians.
Oh, yes.
He was the love interest.
Hugh Grant, Colin Farrell and Eddie Marsden.
He's amazing.
I love him.
Corey's in town this weekend.
So, I think I'm going to ask him if they want to watch that tonight.
Cause it's along the same lines.
Like the whole thing.
I watched a trailer and I was like, this is going to be good.
My second bookmark and I'll stop talking is young Sheldon.
If any of you are fans of the TV series, the big bang theory and you have not watched young Sheldon yet.
stop everything and do it now.
And this is a good time to do it because the series has ended.
And Sean and I watched the last season, like we had maybe, I don't know, seven episodes left in this last season that wrapped up.
It's so, so good.
He and I were both crying.
Sean never cries, ever.
And he cried during the last two episodes.
So, if Sean is crying, you know what I was doing.
Oh crap.
Like I couldn't breathe.
I was so stopped up.
I was just sobbing.
Like at one point I went, ooh.
I just couldn't, cause I try to silent cry.
So, Sean doesn't know I'm crying, even though he knows I'm crying.
It's just like this thing we do.
He pretends I'm not crying.
I pretend he doesn't know I'm crying, but I couldn't hold it in anymore.
And when I made that like.
sob.
I was like, well, it's all over.
So, then Yeah, the family stone sob.
That one.
That's what I call that.
But it is so good.
And if you've if you've been holding out thinking it's not going to be any good, because the Big Bang Theory was so good.
You just need to watch it.
What if you didn't like the Big Bang Theory? Then this isn't going to be any fun to you.
I don't think because what's fun about this is you learn about Sheldon, where his quirks came from, and how they developed, and then just how he interacted with his family members, which he talks about on The Big Bang Theory.
So, you get to know these people through his stories, but then you get to see them before, and it's just so good.
Actually, see it.
It's so good.
And all of the actors are so good.
There's no crappy acting.
I love it.
All right.
That's it, that's my bookmarks.
Do you have any skippets? No.
Okay, I have two bookmarks and a skip it.
Oh, okay.
Quickly.
Zataran's frozen meal, chicken Alfredo.
Yeah, it's like a pasta like a ziti.
Little chicken chunks, which weren't my favorite, but I never really do like chicken anyway.
And then it's in an Alfredo sauce is so delicious.
My whole family loved it.
Okay, and it's not too terrible for you.
Nice.
Oh, it was blackened chicken Alfredo.
So, it was a little bit spicy.
Had a bit of a kick.
Cause you know, it's Zatarins.
It's a New Orleans style food.
Anyway, number two documentary I told you about.
The Blow-Ins.
Oh yeah.
It's a small area in Ireland called the Dingle Peninsula, which made me laugh super hard because that's what we always called a penis to our children as they were growing up.
It was their dingle.
Their dingle.
So,, the Dingle Peninsula.
Ah! plus a peninsula kind of looks like.
Anyway, I'm getting all tickled all over again.
Anyway, very heartwarming.
Makes me wanna go to Ireland big time.
But it's like a fishing village, it's like on the coast because it's a peninsula.
And there's this sweet dolphin featured in it.
Oh.
Named Fungi.
And anyway, it's amazing.
You'll love it.
What platform did you watch this on? I watched it on Amazon, I think.
Okay.
I think, maybe.
But basically the point is blow-ins refers to people who are not from that area.
Okay.
So, for some reason it attracts a lot of people from other parts of the world who come there like to visit and then just never leave.
They just wanna stay there forever.
Oh.
and you're called a Blow-in your whole life.
It doesn't matter how long you've been there.
If you weren't born there, you're a Blow-in.
If you come just like from Cork, which is not that far away from there, you're still a Blow-in.
Like you have to be born on that peninsula or else you're a Blow-in.
But they're very accepting of all the people who come in and it's a very eclectic kind of artistic town.
Is it small? Is it a small town? Oh yes.
Okay.
Super small.
Like there's a pub or two maybe.
Okay.
And a restaurant or two maybe.
And then a lot of shops that people have, because people come in from other places and then they're like, how can I live here forever? And so they're like, I know, I'll open a shop and sell these dulcimers that I make.
Ah! Or I'll open a shop and sell art.
So, what is your plan? How are you gonna make money when you move there? prostitution.
Okay.
Sex work, I think.
They probably don't have that there yet, so...
Maybe not.
Blow the market wide open.
A blow-in.
I'd be doing lots of blow-in.
Anyway.
Okay.
It was good.
Nice.
Now my skip it is, this is old, so people are going to be like, where the hell have you been? This is 19 years old.
But I watched it  because we got Max back for...
Oh!
Temporarily so that we can watch House of the Dragon, season two started.
And I was like, oh, I'm gonna get caught up on all these things that I haven't been able to watch on Max that my sister’s told me about and other stuff.
And I was just browsing through there and I saw The New World.
And it stars Colin Farrell and Christian Bale.
And it's about Pocahontas and...
In 2005, I mean, I know that seems like a long time ago to us.
Well, it doesn't seem like a long time ago to me because I'm old, but that's too recent.
For this fake John Smith Pocahontas romance shit.
It pissed me off.
Oh, gotcha.
It pissed me off.
I'm like, first of all, who is this Disney? Second of all, why? Why? I don't understand why we are so obsessed with John Smith and Pocahontas getting it on.
They never did.
I hope they didn't because she was like 9 or 10 when she met him.
Yikes.
And he was 27.
So, they better not have.
And there is absolutely no documentation claiming anything like that.
I wonder where that story came from.
I don't know but it drives me insane.
Oh my gosh.
Plus it was so much internal monologue.
like journal reading, it was like Colin Farrell as John Smith just reading about how much he loves Pocahontas.
Oh.
How beautiful she is, and she was beautiful.
But I mean, come on.
And then Christian Bale plays John Rolfe, who she really did marry.
And there were other people in there that were like, oh my gosh, that person, I mean, it was a star-studded cast.
Interesting.
But I was just like, MFers, stop trying.
to ship John Smith and Pocahontas.
It's annoying and historically inaccurate and I don't like it.
Psh.
Ha ha ha.
Anyway.
Well, I'm glad you told me because that actually has been on my list to watch.
I'd forgotten all about it until you just said that actually.
It was so boring.
Okay.
Oh, okay.
And annoying.
The only thing that kept me awake was my anger.
Oh.
So,.
Otherwise, it was like, oh, when is this movie gonna be over? How long was it? It was only like an hour and a half, but it was.
Oh, well thank you for taking one for the team.
You're welcome.
And letting us know we can skip it.
19 years later.
No bookmarks.
I'm on it.
Well, now that we've told everybody our recommendations and our skip-ems, would you like to move along to The Reading of the Lists? I sure would.
It's even Steven Week, so I'm going to go first.
And we're going to tell you our top three most interesting, funniest, most successful internet searches of the week in list form.
Here we go.
Number one, this may sound like deja vu to you, but there's a reason for it.
Cosmic Crisp apples.
Oh yeah.
Number two, possums.
Number three, year with the most births.
Year with the most births.
Okay, your turn.
Number one, Duchess cut diamond.
Ooh.
Number two, why a tunnel and not a bridge?
Number three. Pocahontas and John Rolfe's child.
You guys are gonna get to hear me.
She's so mad.
You're gonna get to hear me vent even more about Pocahontas.
All right, now it's time to play a little game that we would like to call Search Me! Where we each pose one question to each other and see if she can answer based only on the Reading of the Lists.
Brea, today we are recording our 40th episode.
Yes.
That means this is our Ruby episodeversary.
Oh, okay.
Okay, okay.
So, today you're playing for this beautiful, hang on.
Ruby red bowl that matches your kitchen.
Oh my gosh.
And represents our 40th recording together.
Oh my gosh, it's so beautiful.
You could use this for fruit or chips during football season.
Or if you're really hungry, maybe this could be a cereal bowl.
No.
Too big.
I can't eat cereal anymore.
Oh, okay.
Well, something delicious.
But isn't this pretty? It's very pretty.
It's a Vosher Bach.
From Germany, nice.
This is part of the Roy and Beverly Burch collection.
So, they had a whole set of plates, dishes, dessert bowls, soup bowls, pie plates that were this color.
And so they had two of these bowls and then one that's like.
Oh my gosh, humongous, like a salad bowl.
We kept the Gigando one because it's really pretty.
And then we left one of these with the set.
And then I was like, I'm taking this other one to Brea.
Because she has a red kitchen.
I do.
As a matter of fact, my kids say, mom, we know you like red, but this is too much.
Oh, well, you're about to add to it, I think.
Because today's question is a bit of a softball.
Oh, good.
Which of my searches popped into my brain while in the waiting room at the gynecologist's office? Oh.
Hint, it was not possums.
Does it have to do with gynecology? Yes.
OK.
Year with the most births.
That's the one.
Did you know there was another baby boom almost 20 years ago? Oh, really? More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than any other in the nation's history.
Oh, wow.
There were 4,317,119 births.
topping the record set in 1957 at the height of the baby boom.
Oh.
And that is 62,335 fewer births in 1957 than in 2007.
Wow.
So, it beat it by a lot.
Yeah.
Almost 63,000.
Those babies that were born during the 2007 boom are now 17 years old.
What was happening? I don't know.
And if you want to let your brain think about this, if there's anything significant to this, those dates are 50 years apart.
Oh, that is kind of creepy.
I want that to be significant in some way, but I couldn't figure anything out.
I don't know.
So, in 2007, the birth rate rose slightly for women of all ages.
The births to unwed parents reached an all-time high of about 40%.
Oh.
2007 also saw women planning pregnancies in their 30s and 40s without a partner purposefully.
Mm-hmm.
Fast fact.
In the U.S., people need to average 2.1 babies in their lifetime for the population to replace itself.
Oh.
In 2023, last year, there was an average of 1.94 children under the age of 18 per family in the U.S.
Yes.
I read about this, heard about this, saw something about this, about how we ain't keeping up.
We're not.
The lowest birth rates recorded in the United States occurred during the Great Depression, and that was even before modern contraception was available.
That's kind of mind boggling, actually.
Well, I mean, who wants to have sex? Well, that's true.
That was a bad time.
When you can't even, I mean, you aren't even getting enough calories to like...
Motor through your day.
Yes much less like it's like no, I got a headache plus I bet with poor nutrition, that they didn't even need contraceptive.
Maybe not like you just couldn't even get pregnant.
Correct.
Yes during the 2007 baby boom Utah had the highest birth rate and Vermont had the lowest Despite the record number of births in 2007, this boom is different from the one that occurred in the 1950s when a much smaller population of women were having nearly four children each on average.
That baby boom transformed society, as we all know, affecting everything from school construction to consumer culture.
So, in other words, we started out with a higher population.
before these people had these babies in 2007.
So, they didn't have to have four babies per woman because there were more women.
That's right.
Yeah.
Our population was larger than it was back in 1957, which makes sense.
Yeah, absolutely.
But it's not probably gonna be larger 50 years from now.
I wouldn't think so.
I mean, people just aren't having babies, and I don't blame you.
You are smart.
Oh, thank you.
Girl, this week, I hope that with my texts, you were thinking that you were the best decision maker in the whole wide world.
Every text you got from me, I hope you were like, this is validating, very validating.
I'm pretty much validated about every day of my life, making that decision.
It is just real hard.
I'm just really glad that I had that foresight whatever it was to say, you know what, I don't think this is for me.
Oh, my sources for that were the National Institutes of Health, the Center for Disease Control, ABC News and USA Today.
I get a bowl.
Yes, this is your bowl.
I'm so excited.
I knew you would be so pretty.
I knew you would like that one.
It's even prettier in person.
I mean, up close, I mean, you know what I mean, Cara, Brea.
I'm a very big hypocrite today.
Oh, why's that? Because what you're playing for.
Oh no! Why are you a hypocrite? It's this five pack of mini snack size Hershey's cookies and cream bars.
I love those things.
I know.
They are so good.
And I've had them for a while in my prize stash.
Yeah.
But I've been like, oh, it's not fair that I give her food if I say you can't give me food.
Are you insane? You can always give me food.
You can give me food.
You can give me dates.
I love dates.
Oh, okay.
You can give me anything like that that's low in added sugar.
Okay, you got it.
I like dates too.
Oh, they're so good.
And they're so sweet.
Is it dates that we used many Christmases ago? What is that called? Devils on horseback.
Devils on horseback.
First of all, that name is- Bacon wrapped dates.
It's so good.
Oh.
Gosh, just thinking about it.
Oh, why are they called devils on horseback? I thought we looked that up at some point.
Oh, maybe we did.
Anyway, are you ready for your question? So, ready.
What search was prompted by a bad dream I had about overly complicated travel? Oh, I'm going to go with why a tunnel and not a bridge.
You're correct.
Yay.
That'd be one long ass bridge.
You're correct.
I'm going to talk more about that right now.
Okay.
Now we've talked more than once on this show about the tunnel.
Yes.
It seems like we might be obsessed.
It's fascinating.
It really is.
And if you covered this in your other searches about the channel, because we talked about that show, the tunnel, and we talked about the tunnel and all the things.
But you talked more about the transportation available on the channel.
Yes.
And like the logistics of going through the channel and blah, blah.
This is more about why they decided to build a tunnel rather than a bridge.
Okay.
Peyton wanted to know about the bad dream I had about the traveling.
And in a nutshell, it was I got lost in an underground traveling system and I told him about it as succinctly as possible.
And in the dream, it took me two and a half hours to cross a river, to go across a river, when I could have just driven across it on a bridge.
But it was like an airport, an underground, it was very much like an airport, but I couldn't see, because my eyes were half closed.
Of course.
I don't know what was going on there.
And I kept leaving my luggage places, and then I couldn't find my car.
on the thing that was transporting the vehicles, it was a mess.
I don't know, I wonder why I woke up feeling so crappy.
So, anyway, after I told him about it, he and I started to wonder why they decided to build a tunnel or dig a tunnel rather than a bridge because especially, well, I guess at the time they did it, it wasn't that long ago, but technologically, we know how to build bridges.
And the UK is real good at building bridges at this point.
So, we wondered, like, why did they decide to take that challenge, like to build such a long tunnel? Here's why.
The geology of the area is almost the number one reason.
The chalk marl on the channel's seabed was or is an excellent tunneling medium.
It's like the best tunneling medium, some might say.
So, they had that going for it.
Shipping, they were worried that with the English Channel being the world's busiest seaway with more than 600 ships passing through each day, that the bridge would most definitely be hit at some point.
Okay.
Which would be catastrophic.
Yes.
Plus, it would impede that traffic.
So, they didn't want to do that.
Structural supremacy.
Tunnels can withstand tides, currents, and storms better than bridges.
And they can go through longer distances.
Also, they have a nearly unlimited weight-bearing capacity.
Oh.
You don't have to worry about weight.
Yeah.
But with a bridge, you do.
Yes.
And cost.
Oh, right.
This is what I was like.
Wow, I can't believe this, but it makes sense.
The longer a bridge is, the more expensive it is because you're adding material.
But the longer a tunnel is, the more cost effective it is.
Why four? Because once you're tunneling, Yeah.
And doing that, then it's actually costing less per meter and foot of material and labor and blah, the further you go.
Huh.
Isn't that interesting? It is.
Now, at a whopping 31 miles, a bridge over the English Channel would have been prohibitively expensive.
Then Peyton informed me just like he just volunteered this information because he has shit in his head that I don't understand how I just it amazes me every day.
He said that the longest bridge over water like continuous water in the world is the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which he could not pronounce he couldn't say it.
It's like my mom with Massachusetts he could not say Pontchartrain.
And it was making him so mad.
Anyway, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which is actually two parallel bridges of roughly the same length, they're about 0.1 miles different in length, in Louisiana is 24 miles long.
Oh my goodness.
And then there's some bridges in China that are like 50 some miles long.
Oh my gosh.
But they're over a mixture of water and land.
Okay.
It's not just water.
My sources were Google AI search results, which when did that become a thing? I don't know.
Recently.
I mean, it's recent.
It's pretty amazing.
I like it.
Yeah, I do too.
But then I'm kind of like, this is so lazy.
I better maybe click a few other things.
I would encourage you to do so because I searched something one day and the answer was 100% wrong.
Oh, because and I even knew it to be wrong.
I was like Google AI What are you even talking about? It just made some shit up.
Oh.
And so I had to go do some other searching.
So, just be careful.
Okay, okay how stuff works was another one of my sources, and the Japan Railway and Transport Review.
Oh.
They were really crushing on the Chunnel, as they should be and thetravel.com.
Love it.
That's it.
That was super interesting.
I love the Chunnel.
I really wanna go in it someday.
Me too.
I think it'll be fun.
All right.
We share a history of crazy dreams.
Oh, we do.
Both of us.
Yes.
But now it's time for a different kind of shared history.
Yes.
Where we tell our DTH besties what we searched this week, why we searched it, and what we learned.
Yes! My first search is cosmic crisp apples.
I ate one before we came here.
So, you were so impressed with these apples.
I was like, I'm going to get one of these apples.
It's excellent.
It changed my life.
But I didn't understand.
I was like, where did this apple come from out of nowhere? Because I look at apples and I've never seen a cosmic crisp before you said something about it.
I hadn't either.
I knew about honey crisp.
I knew about but they come up with new shit all the time.
And that's why I searched this.
Okay.
So, here's the answer to where these came from.
Everybody bookmark Cosmic Crisp Apples.
They're so good.
Oh man, I ate some with peanut butter.
Oh my gosh.
It was mind blowing.
It's, you don't need candy.
No, they're so good.
The Cosmic Crisp Apple is hard to say for Cara Burch.
It is the result of 20 years of study and research by Washington State University's world-class tree fruit breeding program.
Classically bred and grown in Washington State, the Cosmic Crisp Apple is a cross between the Enterprise Apple and, Brea's favorite, the Honeycrisp Apple.
My former favorite.
Former favorite.
Yeah.
The red apple has a perfectly balanced flavor and a firm texture making it ideal for snacking, cooking, baking, and entertaining.
Entertaining? Like the California Raisins?
I guess.
The cosmic crisp apples.
In the early 1990s, Dr. Bruce Barrett, a horticulturist at Washington State University, started thinking about how to create the ideal apple with amazing texture, His team fertilized an enterprise apple known for its bold red color and easy growing characteristics with pollen from a honey crisp apple, a crunchy, juicy variety.
10,000 trees and 20 years later, the team's research, testing, and tasting resulted in the Cosmic Crisp Apple.
These were first found in stores in 2019, and the New York Times declared it, the most promising and important apple of the future.
It gets its name from its distinct cosmic pattern and was named by the consumers who were trying it.
Cosmic pattern?
Yeah, it's got like white dots on it.
Oh yeah, I guess it does kind of.
Well.
I just eat it.
I don't.
Well, really examine your apple next time.
I will next time.
They are slow to brown after they're cut.
Have you noticed that? Mm-hmm.
and they maintain their texture and flavor in storage for more than a year.
Oh, wow! That's impressive.
The apple is available year-round and there are now 15 million Cosmic Crisp Apple Trees planted in Washington State.
Also, this apple is the winner of the 2024 Good Housekeeping Snack Award.
And finally, you can follow Cosmic Crisp Apples on Instagram at the Cosmic Crisps, that's their handle, and hashtag Apple of Big Dreams.
It is an Apple of Big Dreams.
Fast fact, for like 10 years, I think it's 10 years following 2019 when it was put out to the public, I think this is right, don't quote me on this, Washington State farmers have exclusive rights to those apples, so you can't grow them outside of Washington State for 10 years or whatever.
Okay, so until 2029.
I guess, I'm not really sure when that 10 years began.
I would assume it started in 2019 when they were released to the public for consumption.
Yeah.
Anyway, my source was Good Housekeeping and Washington State University.
And Cosmic Crisp has its own website.
So, I got a little information there as well.
What's your first search? My first search is Pocahontas and John Rolfe Child.
Let's just get this out of the way.
Earlier I trashed that movie.
Real hard, The New World.
But it did get some things right.
For example, did you know that Pocahontas and John Rolfe had a child? I did not.
I did not either.
In fact, when they had one in the movie, I doubted it because I was like, this is just another fabrication by Hollywood, and it's gonna piss me off.
So, I was totally prepared to be pissed off at this addition to the story, but it's actually true.
Which then makes me wonder why fabricate some details? I mean, wasn't her life interesting enough? Like why fabricate some details like that she had an affair with John Smith and then be true to history on other things? Weird, I don't get it.
That's what makes it so confusing because it's like oh well that was right and that was right and so people who don't know any better or who aren't Intellectually curious about things like that Then they'll just be like oh that movie was based on a true story Yeah, except for the whole first half of it his name was Thomas Rolfe, okay And his birth was recorded as the first time a child was born to a Native American woman and a European man.
Which I highly doubt.
Right? All right.
But what do I know? I'm pretty sure that there were lots of children born to European men and Native American women.
Might not have been consensual children.
Right.
But I don't think Thomas Rolfe was the first one.
Anyway, when he was just two years old, his mother Pocahontas got sick and died.
Oh, dang.
Just as they were preparing to depart for Virginia after their tour of England.
Thomas was also very sick.
And John Rolfe worried that he wouldn't survive the voyage back to Virginia.
So, like any good dad would do, he left him behind in England.
Oh.
With a guardian.
Oh my gosh.
And father and son never saw each other again.
Good grief.
Never saw each other again because John Rolfe died just five years later.
Oh my word.
But not before marrying again.
He's one of those guys who just cannot be without a woman.
You know who we're talking about.
And this was his third wife and he had a daughter with her.
So, Thomas had a half sister, Jane.
Now, when Thomas was about 20 years old, he sailed back to Virginia at the expense of his half-sister’s grandfather.
And then in Virginia, as he became older, he was a landowner, a plantation owner, boo, and he commanded Fort James against the native people.
Against some people, like what? His death date is unknown.
but there's evidence that he passed away in 1680 in James City County, which had a bit of an identity crisis, maybe.
I'm just kidding.
James City County, Virginia.
The county's records were destroyed in a fire in 1685.
Oh.
So, it's hard to know.
The last reference to him in documents is in a land deed from 1698.
He was mentioned.
in that deed as already deceased.
So, if he did die in 1680, he would have been around 65 years old.
Oh, okay.
So, that's a ripe old age for that time.
That's pretty good.
Now, are you ready for a fun fact? Yeah.
A famous actor is the 11th great grandson of Thomas Rolfe.
Do you want to guess who it is? Are they...
Can I ask for some hints? Are they American? Yes.
Do you think I'd be familiar with this person? Oh yes.
Oh my gosh! Oh, I've got a good hint for you.
Okay.
The first rule about being Thomas Rolfe's 11th great grandson is, we don't talk about…
Brad Pitt.
Nope.
Oh, oh, oh.
Edward Norton.
Yep.
Edward Norton? Edward Norton is the 11th great grandson of Thomas Rolfe.
The 11th great, the 11th great grandson.
Oh, I'm having, that's like, that needs to sink in.
Yeah.
That is many, many generations.
Wow, that's kind of interesting.
12 to be exact.
Yes.
There you go.
Right.
You're right.
I got that math.
Or maybe it's even 13.
Cause, the son would be one.
Son would be one, you're right.
And grandson, then great-grandson.
And then you've got 11th great-grandson.
So, I think it would be 11 plus three.
Do you include Thomas? Is he a generation? So, it's around 12 or 14.
Something like that.
It's a lot.
Mucho.
It's about a dozen generations.
Yes.
Ish.
Okay.
Wow, that's interesting.
Yep.
My sources were Wikipedia and the National Park Service.
That's a good search, I like that one.
It was interesting and it almost redeemed that movie.
You are gonna die from the serendipity and it has to do with possums.
I'm not even kidding.
I've been sitting here like trying not to wiggle in my seat cause I've been trying to tell you.
So, first of all, I had to look up possums because somebody I work with, they went to Day of Caring this week and they were doing yard work and they found a batch of baby possums that were alive.
Opossums, Cara.
So, let me just get that out of the way to begin with.
I was raised saying possums, which is correct.
It is correct.
Opossum is also correct.
Correct.
But it turns out we Southerners tend to just say a possum.
A possum.
Because we don't have time to say the oh.
Virginia possums are members of the marsupial order Didelphi morphia.
It is the only species found in the United States and Canada.
It is often simply referred to as an opossum, not Virginia opossum, or simply possum, which is, like I said, how I grew up.
And it's how I'll be saying it throughout this explanation.
Please.
So, just get used to it.
Possums tend to be semi-arboreal, which means they live in trees.
They typically have about 50 teeth, which apparently is a lot for that size of a mammal.
50, that's more than we have.
That's nasty.
Possums' hind feet have an opposable digit that does not have a claw.
Well, oh, they've got a thumb.
Yes, they also have prehensile tails that they use as a brace and a fifth limb when climbing.
The tail is occasionally used to carry bunches of leaves for bedding.
Dangling by the tail is sometimes, oh, is something that young possums typically do, but the adults don't typically do that.
Cartoons, they lie to us all the time.
Liars.
As marsupials, female possums have a reproductive system that includes a bifurcated vagina, a divided uterus, and a marsupium, which is the pouch.
Oh no.
Fast fact.
Because of the forked penis, colonial Americans were convinced that the male possums bred with the females through the females’ nostrils and then the female then sneezed her young directly into her patch.
Listen, there are things that we are going to be laughed at someday because we are getting it so wrong.
This was eventually found to be untrue.
Oh really? Yes, it is.
It's not true.
That is not how...
Achoo! Oh look! Babies! Ugh! The babies are called joeys.
Oh! Uh huh.
They're born after a very short gestation period of 12 to 14 days.
Litters can have as many as 20 joeys, but they won't survive if they don't find their way into the pouch and attach to one of the 13 teats to nurse.
Oh my gosh, it's a race.
Some teats might not be functional.
Oh shoot.
So, 13 joeys can attach, but the average number of surviving joeys is 7 to 8.
Joeys are about the size of a dime when they're born, and they stay attached to the teats anywhere between 70 to 125 days, at which time they are weaned and leave the pouch.
Okay.
A possum's lifespan is usually very short because their biological aging rate is very rapid.
They only live about one or two years in the wild and approximately four to five years in captivity.
Isn't that crazy? Well, as many as I see squashed on the road, I believe it.
Yeah, and if you're having, you know, eight babies within two weeks, oh, I mean, you got to work through these.
Yeah, yeah.
When threatened or harmed.
They will play possum, mimicking the appearance and smell of a sick or dead animal.
This physiological response is involuntary.
I didn't know this.
I thought they did it on purpose.
Me too.
It's.
involuntary rather than a conscious act like the fainting goats.
I was just gonna say it's kind of like the fainting goats who just kind of like their systems just shut down.
Like their blood pressure just drops.
The joeys, however, don't always have that same physiological response and often fail to play dead when threatened and simply just hiss in response.
But little tiny hisses.
When a possum is playing dead, the animal's lips are drawn back.
the teether beard, saliva foams around the mouth, the eyes are typically closed, it defecates, and a foul-smelling fluid is secreted from the anal glands.
This is just a Friday night.
It's like when I drink too much.
Exactly.
So, they have a vasovagal response.
That's exactly right.
And it's on purpose for them to smell like they're sick or dead so that other animals will be like, I ain't touching that.
Oh, for sure.
This is just so exciting to me though to connect two of your topics.
Vasovagal response and to remember it.
Yes.
How the hell? I'm impressed.
It's the apples.
It's all the apples.
It's all the apples I've been eating.
It's gotta be it.
While playing possum, the stiff, curled body can be prodded, turned over, or even carried away without reaction.
The animal can remain unconscious for up to a few hours.
Good lord.
Fast fact.
Adults possums are called jacks and jills.
Oh, isn't that cute? That is kind of cute.
When separated or distressed, baby possums will make a sneezing noise to signal their mother.
The mothers make a clicking sound in return and wait for the baby to find her.
Choo! The mother will sometimes carry her young upon her back, where they will cling tightly to her even if she is climbing or running.
Possums eat insects, rodents, birds, eggs, frogs, plants, fish, and grain.
In captivity, they'll eat dog food, cat food, and discarded human food.
Possums have been found to be immune to the sting of honeybees, scorpions, and toxins such as botulism and even the venom of rattlesnakes.
Possums even eat rattlesnakes, which may explain why they developed the ability to survive snake bites.
Oh, okay.
Researchers are studying the toxin-neutralizing factor in possum blood in hopes that it can be adapted as an antivenom for humans.
Additionally, possums almost never contract rabies.
The Virginia possum was once widely hunted and consumed in the United States.
There were even U.S. possum farms operated in the past.
Gross.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
In 1909, a...
This is gonna be good.
In 1909, a possum and taters banquet was held in Atlanta to honor President-Elect William Howard Taft.
Wow.
If there was a President who would eat possum, it would be him.
And taters.
President Jimmy Carter hunted possums in addition to other small game.
And possums were also among the fare Mark Twain recorded as part of American cookery.
Also, their pelts have long been a part of the fur trade.
Scientists have learned that possums act like a vacuum cleaner when it comes to ticks, including those that can spread Lyme disease.
Based on their studies, a single possum might kill 4,000 ticks in one week.
Oh my gosh.
It is time for etymology.
Oh, yes.
And this is where Jamestown and John Smith come into play.
The word possum is derived from the Powhatan language and was first recorded in 1607 by John Smith and 1611 by William Stratchey, and they had different spellings.
So, John Smith spelled it O-P-A-S-S-O-M, and William Stratchey, spelled it A-P-O-S-O-U-M.
A possum.
The spelling that we know today was first recorded in 1613.
Both Smith and Stratchey encountered the Powhatian language at Jamestown, Virginia.
Stratchey's notes describe the possum as, quote, a beast of bigness of a pig and in taste alike.
John Smith recorded, quote, it hath a head like a swine, tail like a rat, and the bigness of a cat.
Yes, that's more accurate, I would say.
The Powhatan word ultimately derives from a Proto-Algonquian word meaning white dog or beast-like dog or white beast.
There were several more interesting facts that I did not even cover about possums because this search was already too long.
I'll give you another fact.
Okay.
The reason why some people are so adamant about opossum being the American possum is because in Australia they have a completely different species.
Yes, that was one of the facts that I skipped over.
A possum.
Yeah.
And it's totally different from the opossum.
Yes, that's right.
But it was just getting too long, so I cut it.
But now I've said it.
I've added to it.
Well, I hate possums.
I think they're disgusting.
They are so gross.
But...
I will say after all of this, I have a little more respect for them now, especially with the ticks.
Yeah, yeah.
So, maybe I'll get a possum for the backyard.
Like, hey, eat the ticks out there.
The thing you said about possums rarely having rabies, I find that so interesting because that's what people say all the time about don't approach a possum or don't touch a possum or don't whatever, because you might get rabies.
Yeah. Falsehood.
More lies! I am so sick of all the lies. I Bet that was perpetrated by Hollywood.
Probably it's probably in that book by Al Franken, “Lies and the Lying Liars.”
I bet it is.
My sources for that long search possum dot org yeah National Wildlife Federation the possum Society of the United States.
There are people very passionate about possums.
I bet! Good on them.
Here’s my last search. I was listening to Small Town Murder, and one of the key facts in a case had to do with a duchess cut diamond engagement ring that the defendant who was accused of killing this woman allegedly stole from his victim and later gave to his fiancée.
Ugh.
Which would just be a really dumb move.
That is so- In addition to being creepy.
Creepy.
Right.
Now, the ring was proven to be different from the victim's ring.
Oh.
But the guy was still convicted of the murder.
Oh, murder.
That's a little bit of a spoiler alert, but if you're interested in the whole story, check out episode 220 of Small Town Murder, “If the Ring Doesn't Fit… Elizabethtown, Kentucky.”
Now, what does a duchess cut look like?
Now I'm going to tell you all about it.
Oh good, because I've never heard of that before.
That's what I was more interested in.
Me too.
When they said Dutchess cut, I was like, huh? Not that I'm really all that knowledgeable about diamond cuts, I'm really not.
I'm not a jewelry person, I'm not really into it.
I mean, if I had the money I probably would be, but I've never had the money.
So, what's the point of even like caring if you can't get a nice one? forget it.
So, how knowledgeable are you? A bit.
Are you? Not as much as Sean because he did a craptop of research when he was looking for my engagement ring.
Did he? And of course, Sean, anything he reads he retains.
Like Peyton.
And it's just infuriating.
Yes.
Well, I'm going to name some cuts.
Okay.
And I want you to try to describe the shape.
Round cut.
It's round.
Yep.
Okay.
That was the softball one, just to get you warmed up.
Trick question.
Okay.
Princess cut.
Oh, that's square.
You're right.
Cushion cut.
Is that like oval? It's kind of like an oval shape.
Oh.
Not really.
Okay.
It's a square with rounded corners.
Oh.
Like beveled corners.
Okay.
Emerald cut.
Oh, that's like a rectangle.
with rounded corners usually.
Yes, yes, yes.
Yeah.
Oval.
Oval
Markquise, Mark-marquise, mark-quiss.
I wanna, I don't know.
This is hard.
I don't know that one.
This is an elongated oval with pointed ends.
Oh, point, oh.
Keep that in your brain.
I got it.
Okay, pear.
Pear.
Oh, it's a rounded elongation with a pointy end.
It's an upside down teardrop.
Yeah, that's what you said.
Radiant.
Oh, I don't know that one.
Rectangular shape with cropped corners.
Oh.
Aasher.
Oh, I've never heard of that.
Octagonal.
Oh.
And heart cut.
a triangle? Kind of, actually.
I was waiting for you to say trillion.
Oh, that is a triangle.
I think that's a triangle.
Okay, these were just the ones that were on a little diagram I saw on Helzberg Diamond's website.
Okay, that was fun.
So, Duchess cut is a modified Marquise cut diamond that can be oval or hexagon shaped.
Okay.
It's mostly.
So, it's kind of the teardrop.
It's kind of like the Marquis, which is elongated oval with pointy ends, but it's a little bit, it has more facets, which is also another part of a diamond cut is the number of facets on it.
So, it really like shines light off of it.
And they said, in a lot of the articles I read, or the graphics or whatever, that it was kind of a rare cut.
But in the Small Town Murder story, they said that it was available at JCPenney.
So, I hardly think that that's a rare cut.
If you can find it at JCPenney or Service Merchandise.
I think they even mentioned Service Merchandise, because it was kind of, it was an old case.
Anyway.
That's it.
Okay.
My sources were Helzberg Diamonds, Small Town Murder, and Google AI Generated Answer.
Ah-ha.
Just to get me started.
Excellent.
But Brea, what about this one? Oh, what about this one? All right, this is a quick listing of our other searches from the past week that we didn't have time to discuss were too boring to share.
Real boring.
Yeah, boring.
Yep.
Mine were kind of boring, actually.
Here we go.
Dates the A-bomb dropped on Japan.
Oh, that's boring.
That's not boring at all.
You know why I searched that because we watched Oppenheimer again.
Oh gosh, it's okay.
I couldn't remember the dates.
Best wallpaper remover.
I got that in my future.
Juneteenth celebrations in Springfield.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
Princeton Industrial Corporation.
F-I-E-R followers.
IZOD men's jeans.
Flower beauty products? Removing a popcorn ceiling.
Is it worth the effort to increase the value of a home? My opinion, no.
Sean's opinion, yes.
US Navy Blue Angels air show schedule.
White Grenache wine.
Wine similar to white Grenache wine.
Washington DC weather in October.
Kansas City Chief Super Bowl ring.
The Killing Hour podcast.
Can too much soy sauce cause diarrhea? I forgot.
Oh my gosh, I forgot I had added that one.
That was a work search, if you can believe it.
Someone's like, man, I think every time I eat soy sauce, it just upsets my system.
And I was like, well, have you ever looked it up? And they're like, no.
So, I looked it up and it turns out if you eat too much soy sauce, it can mess you up.
Well, yeah, there's so much sodium in it.
So, much sodium.
And not just that, but it's a soy byproduct and soy, yeah.
Have you ever looked up something? Like, I look up everything that's wrong with me.
There's a lot.
That might be the other end of the spectrum.
Now I'm looking up what's wrong with other people.
I've looked up all my stuff.
Boss Hogg's barbecue food truck.
Oh.
Kansas City weekend trip ideas.
Chapel Rowan
And repetitive doodle patterns.
Oh, okay.
Interesting.
That's the end of my list.
Okay.
I was trying to decorate someone's envelope and I was wanting a repetitive doodle pattern.
That's so smart to actually look it up instead of just be sitting there thinking, what else can I do? Okay, here we go.
Here's my list.
Let's hear it
Springfield Cashew Chickens, Al Weaver, Scott Bonn, the Killing Hour podcast, Possessive apostrophe usage in UK English.
Oh.
Bears Springfield.
Exactly, right shop, lettuce food poisoning symptoms.
Ugh.
Waterproof Pink slash Maroon slash Magenta Mascara.
John Smith and Pocahontas True Story.
We both looked up makeup.
Uh-huh.
This was a weirdly, we had some really weird crossovers.
And the Killing Hour podcast.
Well, that's because I asked you about it.
Ha ha ha.
Have shout outs? I have zero shout outs this week.
Good, because I've got a big long one.
Lordy, okay.
From Alex J.
Okay.
Or for Alex J.
Her little updates are sometimes the highlight of my workday.
Because she'll listen while she's working.
She'll listen to our podcast and then she'll like say, oh, and she'll chime in and say, you know, I have something about that topic.
And it's kind of our long-distance version of water cooler talk.
Excellent.
Because we don't see each other every day.
If we did, neither one of us would ever get any work done.
So, it's probably a good idea we do not work in the same location.
Here's what she messaged me.
I'm weeks behind, but my neighbors had a Havapoo.
Shut the front door.
And she was the best.
And my mom was obsessed and wanted our own so badly.
She is still alive and very cute, even as an elderly doggo.
Also, just yesterday I learned that one in 100 people in the US have epilepsy.
Did you know that? And I didn't know you did or had forgotten.
I do.
I'm a one in 100 person.
It's very special.
I'm so special.
And then she says, “more shit you didn't ask for…”
She said, my mom is Martha Stewart, S-T-U-A-R-T.
Oh my gosh.
Her maiden name was Stewart.
And in 2005, she went to the Martha Stewart show in New York to break the Guinness Book of World Records for the most number of people with the same name in the same room, and they all attended the show.
My Grammy went with her, 164 women.
But apparently that was broken in Tokyo in 2022.
Who knew? That is hilarious and I love it.
I love it too.
That's fun.
Yes it is.
You know the Martha Stewart show was like, call outs if your name is Martha Stewart in any form or ever has been, come here, we're gonna break the record.
That's amazing.
That would be fun.
I don't get to do anything like that.
There are gonna be very few people named Brea Brown or Brea.
Yeah.
Oh.
Your last name.
McCormick.
But you know what? I was trying to say McCutchen.
That's not right.
McCutchen.
Like Martina.
Oh boy.
Anyway, there are a lot more people I'm finding though named Breann, Brianna or Brie.
I'm running across a lot of Brie's.
Siri calls you Bray-uh.
Oh, Siri.
It's so, every time she says it, it goes under my skin.
And so I'm thinking of changing your name in my context to be Bree-uh.
Yeah.
so that she will say, Brea, Brea Brown.
Yes, she wants me to be way classier than I am or like a tar pit.
Alex J.had a rough week, too, because her little guy yesterday fell while playing at daycare and he His whole like chin and lip thingy like got sliced open by Oh my god, she had to go to the ER and have them all stitched up Buddy I know Oh my gosh, can you imagine? No, I cannot imagine.
It's making my lip tingle to think about that.
Oh, it's so...
Oh, he had to have hit so hard.
Yeah, and his chin...
She sent me a picture and his chin had this huge bruise.
He's gonna be hurtin'.
And he's got his birthday party this weekend.
Oh, of course he does.
Oh no, those pictures.
Core memory.
Cara.
What should people do if they want to tell us all their random things? Okay, so all of your random things can go into our email.
Email.
We like email.
Delete this history podcast at gmail.com.
Yes.
Slide into our DMs at DTHgals on Instagram and threads.
Yes.
Or Delete This History on Facebook.
Hell yeah.
That's it.
Okay.
We're done.
This is the end.
I don't even know what's happening.
We gotta figure out how to wrap this up.
What are you gonna do next? Well, I'm gonna go delete my history.
I'm probably gonna eat one of those cookies and cream snack size delicious bars.
Yeah.
And then I'm gonna delete my history.
You already said that.
I'm probably gonna go delete my history, eat one of those, and then go delete my history.
I think I'll...
Well, I do search on multiple computers, so I'm gonna have to like delete it on my phone, delete it on my computer, delete it on my work computer, delete it on my Kindle.
Oh my gosh.
So, I'm gonna have to go to like four different find places.
So, then I'll eat another one of those, and then I'll delete more history.
I think you should eat one between each deletion.
Yes, exactly.
Because you've got five here.
I've got five in that, yeah.
That's what I'll do.
I think I'm going to delete my history too.
Okay, that sounds really good.
After I eat a cosmic crisp apple.
Delicious.
Stay fresh, you cheese bags.
Bye.
Delete This History is created, written, hosted, produced, and edited by Brea Brown and Cara Burch.
Theme music is so good by Orkas.
Email us at Delete This History podcast at gmail.com.
Find us on Instagram and Threads at DTHGals and Facebook at Delete This History.
Copyright 2024, all rights reserved.
Excess car mileage brought to you by superfluous out of town doctor's visits and estate sale prep.