Cool Weird Awesome With Brady Carlson

Today in 2006, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens famously told his colleagues that the Internet was not a dumptruck, it was a series of tubes, figuratively speaking. But here’s a story about some literal tubes that New York City once used to deliver mail. Plus: today in 2021, a woman who had asked the New York Yankees to be a batgirl 60 years earlier (and been rejected) finally got to live out her dream.  THE PNEUMATIC TUBE MAIL SYSTEM IN NEW YORK CITY (Untapped New York) In 1961, the Yankees told her she couldn’t be a batgirl. Sixty years later, it happened. (Washington Post) Help get our show through the tubes of the internet as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

Today in 1880, the birthday of Helen Keller, the activist, author, speaker, and, on one occasion, a pilot. Never mind what randos on social media have claimed, here's the real story. Plus: Wimbledon is getting underway, and players who want to swear beware: the umpires have studied curses in multiple languages.  Did Helen Keller Fly a Plane? (Snopes) Do Wimbledon Umpires Learn Curse Words in Multiple Languages? (Snopes) Today's links come from Snopes, but everything else is made possible by our Patreon backers --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

This week in 1951, Life Magazine had a feature story about a guy with an unusual hobby: he rehearsed his own funeral. Plus: this weekend in Littleton, Colorado, it’s the Unicorn Festival! Jim Gernhart, the living corpse (Weird Universe) Unicorn Festival  Long live our Patreon backers --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

For National Typewriter Day, some of the stories that helped bring this device to life, including a guy in Italy who was trying to help a blind countess write letters. Plus: a giant typewriter in San Francisco about a century ago? It happened.  Typewriters Were Originally Created To Help The Blind (Dictionary.com) a curious story of the 14 ton Underwood Master Typewriter… (Red Letter Day zine) Every letter we type is made possible by our Patreon backers --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

A family in rural Kentucky with a rare blood disorder had blue complexions for decades - until a doctor found a way to treat it. Plus: June is Great Outdoors Month, and in Norway, there’s a great spot outdoors that might exhilarate you - or might make you turn green.  The True Story of the Blue People of Kentucky (How Stuff Works) Kjeragbolten (Futility Closet) Join our Patreon backers and make this show colorful --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

Summer is here in the Northern Hemisphere, and a lot of people are looking to keep themselves and some of their foods and drinks cool. That's what the storage building known as the yakhchāl did thousands of years ago. Plus: a guy in Munfordville, Kentucky built his own Stonehenge. Yakhchāls, Āb Anbārs, & Wind Catchers — Passive Cooling & Refrigeration Technologies Of Greater Iran (Persia) (Cleantechnica) Kentucky’s Stonehenge is one man’s rocky wonderland (FOX Lexington) Our Patreon backers are the coolest of the cool --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

Today in 1863, West Virginia became a state - though back in the 18th Century, there were several efforts to meld this land with parts of Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Maryland and create an entirely different entity called Vandalia or Westsylvania. Plus: if visiting Stonehenge for the solstice is too much of a trek, why not head to western Nebraska and see Carhenge?  Westsylvania: The Fourteenth Colony (Battleground) ‘Blood, sweat, and beers’: Nebraska’s Carhenge may be less mysterious than its English counterpart, but it’s just as bizarre (Roadtrippers) If our Patreon backers formed their own state, it would be a pretty amazing state --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about music that sounds a little different. In this episode from April 2020, music scholars at Cambridge University studied musical manuscripts without modern notation and reconstructed what they would have sounded like. Plus: in 1982 Key West,  Florida declared independence from – and war on – the United States. For not very long. First performance in 1,000 years: ‘lost’ songs from the Middle Ages are brought back to life (Cambridge University) That Time the Florida Keys Tried to Secede from the US by Dropping Conch Fritter Bombs (Vice) On this day in 2020 Patreon backers made another great episode of Cool Weird Awesome happen. Join them!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about music that sounds a little different. In this episode from April 2020, it's the story of the American Beetles - a knockoff band that toured South  America, without quite telling everyone they weren't the genuine article. Plus: Spanish artist Bichopalo is not only making beautiful music, he's making beautiful musical instruments, too. How the fake Beatles conned South America (BBC) Beautiful Musical Machines Perform Otherworldly Tunes (Geeks Are Sexy) Please back us on Patreon, oh yeah, like we back you, oh yeah  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about music that sounds a little different. In this episode from September 2020, we look at an organ in Germany that is, for more than 600 years, trying to play a John Cage score the way he wanted it to be played: "As Slow As Possible." Plus: a YouTuber trains his cat to put out fires, sort  of. John Cage musical work changes chord for first time in seven years (BBC) I Trained My Cat To Put Out Fires (William Osman on YouTube) Joining our community of backers on Patreon is quick and easy and won't take 639 years --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about music that sounds a little different. In this episode from August 2020 we look at the Oomphalapompatronium, a creation of Boston-area musician,  composer and inventor Len Solomon. And it definitely fits the name.  Speaking of words that fit with what they describe, did you know about  the word "aptronym"? Meet the Guy Who Invented the Oomphalapompatronium (Wired) Aptronym (Raven the Science Maven on Twitter) Our favorite names are the names of our backers on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about music that sounds a little different. In this episode from April 2019, we visit Organ Piper Pizza in Greenfield, Wisconsin. As you eat, an organist plays an enormous  Wurlitzer organ, which also controls stage lights, disco balls, a mechanical gymnast and a family of singing ducks. Plus - a story that's, amazingly, not an April Fool's Day prank, in which police in Madrid  respond to a guy on a bus sharpening a big carving knife (!) The Carlson Kids Visit Organ Piper Pizza (YouTube) Remembering the Dining Fad of 'Pizza and Pipes' (CityLab) False alarm: Knife-wielding man on Metro revealed to be expert ham cutter (El Pais) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

It’s Portugal Day, and no doubt there will be celebrations across the country, including the capital city, Lisbon. Though there was a time in the 19th century when the capital of Portugal was not only outside Lisbon, it was outside Portugal. Plus: Today in 1972, the number one song on the Billboard pop chart was “The Candy Man” by Sammy Davis Jr. He recorded it in just two takes, convinced the song would wreck his career.  Due to the Napoleonic Wars, the capital of Portugal was moved from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro for thirteen years. (The Vintage News) The Number Ones: Sammy Davis Jr.’s “The Candy Man” (Stereogum) Wherever our Patreon backers go, we'll go with them --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

This past Monday was National Day in Sweden, but it's Thursday that the real fun gets underway, because that’s when people eat pea soup and pancakes. Together. Plus: graduating seniors at Basha High School in Chandler, Arizona celebrate the end of the school year with the Paper Toss.  PEA SOUP AND PANCAKES – SWEDEN’S THURSDAY FAVOURITE (Routes North) Basha High School end of year paper toss video goes viral (ABC 15) We're celebrating our Patreon backers, who make this show possible --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

Today in 1867, Frank Lloyd Wright was born. He would go on to design some of the most striking buildings ever built, from houses, to museums, to office buildings to... gas stations. Plus: some of Wright's many other designs were never built, though now they’re being brought to life in virtual reality thanks to 3D rendering.  Lindholm Oil Company Service Station (FrankLloydWright.org) Three unbuilt Frank Lloyd Wright houses are brought to life as digital reconstructions (designboom) Our Patreon backers are works of art --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

Firefighting is dangerous work, in part because of the exposure to dangerous chemicals. Researchers are learning more about those exposures thanks to a simple silicone wristband. Iceland’s new tourism program sets the country’s horses to work on giant keyboards, sending out-of-office emails to your bosses and colleagues so you don’t have to. How a $1 wristband could help track firefighters exposure to cancer-causing chemicals (CBS 17) Iceland Has Horses That Will Respond To Work Emails on a Giant Keyboard While You’re on Vacation (My Modern Met) Our Patreon backers make all of our episodes possible with just $1 a month --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

Today in 1933, Camden, New Jersey became the site of the very first drive-in movie theater. Here's the story of Richard Hollingshead, who brought movies outside so people could drive right up to the picture. Plus: a new watercraft that sure sounds like it’s out of a movie.  June 6, 1933: The Era of Drive-In Movies Begins (Newspapers.com) All Aboard the Party Submarine (UrbanDaddy) We want to throw an underwater party for our Patreon backers! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

Fried dough cakes have been around seemingly forever, but for National Doughnut Day, we have the story of an innovation that helped make this treat the icon that it is today: the invention of the doughnut hole. Plus: this weekend in Chittenango, New York, east of Syracuse, it’s Oz-stravaganza, a celebration of the Wizard of Oz in the town where author L. Frank Baum was born.  The Maine Ship Captain Who Invented the Modern Donut (New England Historical Society) Oz-stravaganza We're off to see our backers, our wonderful backers on Patreon  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

The Paper House of Rockport, Massachusetts has a wood frame, but otherwise owner Elis Stenman made the place almost entirely out of old newspapers. And you can still read the stories in the walls today. Plus: this weekend in northern Indiana, it’s the Mentone Egg Festival, celebrating an area that’s been called the “Egg Basket of the Midwest.” The Paper House—made of 100,000 newspapers—has a working fireplace, electricity, and running water (Roadtrippers) Mentone Egg Festival (Visit Indiana) Our Patreon backers always come first --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support

Today in 2012, the birthday of Amy Jones-Elliott of Glenmore, County Kilkenny, Ireland. But it wasn't the birthday of her twin sister, Katie. The two hold the world record for twins with the largest amount of time between their births: 87 days. Plus: ExitReviews can tell you not just whether a product works well, but how long it'll last and what parts might break on it first.  First day at school for the record-breaking miracle twin sisters born 87 days apart (Irish Mirror) ExitReviews (The Awesomer) We give our Patreon backers a great review every day --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support