103: Polo pitch invaders

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In 1949, what did the residents of Mole Hill, West Virginia, change the community's name to?

The answer to that at the end of the show.

My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral.

Nigel Nittlebottom was a perfectly, perfectly, perfectly normal boy, completely regular and bog standard in every way, from his mud-brown hair to his papery toes.

But then one mighty, glawping morning, Nigel awoke to find his dad, pet Gerbil, and even dull grandma Ethel had all gone stark raving bonkers, barking, babbling, and burbling utter nonsense.

Nigel sprinked over to the kitchen drawer and snaffled a small notepad and a purple crayon.

He scribbled and scrawled as much as his nine-year-old brain could comprehend.

And if you ever wanted to know where we get our questions from, now you do.

First, to tackle our tall tales today, we are joined by Creator Consultant, and honestly, I do not know how to describe you these days.

Hannah Witten, welcome back to the show.

Thanks.

Yeah, me neither.

Me, Neva.

I'm figuring it out and I'm enjoying the process of figuring out.

You are kind of slightly ahead of me in this position in that I've taken the break and I don't know how I'm coming back yet.

And

how are you feeling now you've got this

new project going and you're just kind of concentrating on second channel stuff and consultancy?

Oh my God, I feel so much lighter.

So much more chill.

Like a weight has been lifted.

And like you might be feeling this too, like on sabbatical.

Yeah.

yeah yeah yeah oh my god best decision ever and

having a good time and i'm feeling challenged in new ways it's great well thank you for taking the time away from both that and from family life to come play on the podcast it's uh it's great to have you back my pleasure also joining us we have uh someone whose content is difficult to sum up because you cover so many different things evan ettinger what are you working on at the minute uh wow you know i can never tell gotten open up the notion

It depends on what day of the week.

It looks like, according to this, I'm working on some video about public transit in Berlin versus London and what the average Brit is like by looking at the median person.

It's based on a John Green video.

If you've seen his app, John Green made an excellent video a couple months ago about the average American, where he looks at the what a median American would be, which would be a woman named Jessica, because there's more women than men in America.

So I'm going to do that with the average Brit.

That's what I'm working on at the moment.

How close are you to the average Brit?

yes that's the title

okay right

sorry

brain just immediately geared to change title now spoilers yeah spoilers yeah also joining us the third member of our panel today we have nordic youtuber oliver vorge who also has sent in and had accepted multiple questions on lateral like congratulations how does it feel to be on the other end of this oh it's way more fun writing the questions is really tricky so really oh yeah because he kind of phrased them correctly and give the hints and then set up the basically set them up for

success.

So it's actually pretty tricky.

That's true.

I was thinking from the perspective of asking the questions, which is a lot easier.

Writing them, I am just in awe of what our question teams can put together.

So yeah, thank you very much.

I think I've closed that form more often than I've submitted it.

Because I'm like, oh, this might be a good one.

It's not a good idea.

There is just a list of questions on that form that we have had sent in so many times now.

And I just, I apologize to anyone who's been disappointed.

I've got a great question for Lateral, has opened up that form and gone, yeah, no, they've had that one.

A lot of people know about the Polish driver's license.

Oh, yeah, they don't have them there because they don't know how to drive.

Close.

Starting off strong.

My script here,

my script for the segue into question one, just says, ah,

which means that either my producer has left the placeholder in or he's having a complete mental breakdown and I know which one the money's on.

So if I can ask the panel to just join me in a scream just in sympathy with our question editor.

Thank you very much, folks.

Let's get on with question one.

It's possible to buy Y-shaped pieces of articulation paper.

Putting pressure on the paper causes coloured pigment to appear.

Who buys it?

I'll say that again.

It's possible to buy Y-shaped pieces of articulation paper.

Putting pressure on the paper causes coloured pigment to appear.

Who buys it?

Am I allowed to Google what articulation paper is?

No, that is cheating.

It's paper that articulates.

Come on.

But I'll tell you, it's Y-shaped, and if you put pressure on it, coloured pigment appears.

So it's not enunciation paper.

Articulation, funny.

Thank you.

I wonder if it has anything to do with...

Sorry, I was actually laughing.

I know.

I know.

I'm wondering if it has anything to to do with the printing, photography type printing business stuff, as pigments used in that.

But I've no idea what a Y shape means for a piece of paper.

I'm like, the letter Y is what comes to my head, but now that you say that, I'm like, oh, wait, is it

something different?

Yeah, well,

it's just the question word, W-H-Y.

It's just why-shaped paper.

It's shaped like the concept of a question.

It's not.

It's shaped like the letter Y.

Like the letter Y.

We talk in lowercase or uppercase.

What fun?

This is the real question, Sir.

Real question.

Two-dimensional or three-dimensional?

Like, is the Y,

that's what I'm I want to know.

It's an uppercase Y.

And you touch it and it changes colour?

It causes coloured pigment to appear.

On the paper or on your hands?

On something.

That's a really good question, Hannah.

Ooh.

On whatever's underneath it?

Oh, does it...

Oh, oh.

No, I was.

No.

I was thinking of those magnet papers.

But I enjoyed the journey that you clearly went on in those few seconds.

Who buys fancy paper?

Like architects, landscapers, children?

Because I'm wondering if it's the, if it's more the pigment or if it's more the shape.

Because if it's the pigment,

like something about the pigment, like you don't care about the shape, it just happens to be why.

It wouldn't work if it was any other shape.

Because you have two branching different bits, you can see it with the control and the non-control set.

I have no idea.

Oh my god, it's like a pregnancy test.

Now, no, but

getting closer.

What was the very first thing you said, Hannah?

Whether the colour pigmentation changes on the

hands or on the paper.

Is it like a UTI test and you dip it in

the Wii?

I'm just thinking, like,

you did it in the Wii, you check if you've got all the right stuff in your we.

That's not a Y, that's a rectangle.

Because

you're saying that another letter wouldn't work, which means that U wouldn't work.

So it's not about the two prongs.

In theory, you would work, but it'd be a lot more difficult to handle.

But

you want the handle at the end.

Yeah, you want the handle on the end.

So one gets touched in a certain way.

Yeah, or depending on what's touching it, like, it changes colour on one bit of the Y or a different colour on the other bit of the Y and then it tells you what like your colour seasonal analysis is.

Like you're autumn!

Absolutely.

We have already assumption that it leaves pigment behind.

It leaves pigment behind.

Because then it's not about because if it leaves pigment behind, it's not about putting pigment on it.

Because you would dip it into two different things that would join on the Y, you hold that at the end.

So it's the other way around.

Do you dip it in something?

Is it touched by hands or something else?

Definitely something else.

We haven't really talked about articulation here.

Yeah.

No, we gave up on that one.

That was a word.

That's a $10 word.

That's not for us.

There are parts of the body that articulate.

Is it a bone?

My fingers articulate.

My only reference point for the word articulation is the game articulate, which is about talking.

Yeah, it is.

The mouth, the jaw, the face,

spit.

I like that he went one direction, and they're like, oh, let's take a U-turn the other way.

It's a Y-turn.

Yeah, we'll take it a Y-turn.

Oh, wait, wait.

Ah, Uber under tongue.

Did you need to demonstrate that while saying it?

Absolutely not, but I'm really glad you did.

I've been in hospital so many times.

I'm like, what tests have been done in both nostrils?

Wait, you don't articulate your nostrils.

You're all very close.

That articulate game reference about talking was actually, yeah.

Are we going really?

This is how the English language works, baby.

Like, it all makes sense.

How, okay, what's the question, baby?

How big is this?

Like, is this, like, in my head, it's like this, but it might be, like,

pretty long.

When Tom first said the question, I pictured it like the Y was the same size as like an A4 piece of paper.

And now I'm picturing it, like, the same size as a thermometer.

Because I'm thinking like a post-stamp, post-stamp size.

Hannah is very close here.

With the thermometer?

You kind of put your hands up to the sides of your face, Hannah, and that is pretty much spot on.

Oh, is it dentists?

Yes, it is.

Spot on.

That's the answer.

That's who buys it.

It's dentists.

So connect the dots.

What is it?

It's the no, yeah.

You use it to, once you've gotten a filling,

you do it to bite down on the paper to see if it's even or all around.

yeah they check your your bite yeah wow yep articulation paper is pigment coated paper and when you bite down on it it leaves pigment behind on the teeth so a dentist can check that your bite is working properly literally did that like a few months ago didn't know it was called articulation paper

and the name comes from you're checking the articulation of the jaw and the bite which is the same route as the game articulate because articulate is is about speaking clearly, and it's all linguistically connected.

And when you bite the paper, you dent it.

Oh,

can we kick someone off the podcast?

How does this work?

No, no, because my brain's now going, wait, are those words connected?

Does dental and dent have the same root?

Probably.

Same root, canal.

And yes, thank you.

Thank you to producer David.

Dent is the root for tooth.

So yes, dent and dental and dental, they all come from the same thing,

Oliver.

It's over to you for the next question.

Brace yourself.

Did you just say brace yourself, Evan?

Was that a pun?

Was that a dentist pun?

Yes, I am.

Sorry, I just kind of slipped that in, hoping it would be unnoticed.

It's a good job we all said ah at the beginning of this podcast.

So, this is for everybody except Evan.

No, I'm kidding.

In 2008, a team from England won the WEPA's Polo World Championship in Nepal.

For the event to run smoothly, assistants had to run onto the pitch from time to time, even though they were not playing or officiating.

Why?

So I'll say it again.

In 2008, a team from England won the WEPA's Polo World Championship in Nepal.

For the event to run smoothly, assistants had to run onto the pitch from time to time, even though they were not playing or officiating.

Why?

I'm wondering if they were providing oxygen.

Yeah, a whole scenario just appeared in my head of like high-altitude horse support.

That's what I was thinking of.

There's just teams rushing on to give the horses oxygen masks, and that's a big oxygen mask.

So there's a big

mouth on a horse there, and just for high-altitude horse support, which is also the name of a prog band.

Yeah, I was like, what's the equivalent of like the ball boys and girls in tennis in Polo?

Horse girls.

Name.

Which is the name of another band.

So this is 2008 specifically.

Does it happen other years or just is the year significant?

Probably wasn't in Nepal the other years.

Yeah, it was in Nepal this year.

It doesn't say...

It probably runs.

Like it has an acronymy name, so it's probably a common.

Weapon.

We ba.

WEPA.

Which I assume is the World Equestrian Polo Association or something like that.

So are we thinking that these what did you call them assistants these assistants

Aren't a normal fit like feature of polo, but they are for the 2008 in

the I don't know that much about polo like you ride a horse

you hold a big

what's basically a long croquet mallet It's a big big mallet and you whack a ball towards a goal and that is basically all I know about polo other than the the royal family like it.

Is there something to do with then the ground?

Are there sticks that need to be stuck in the ground?

And they kept falling out.

And you just stick sticks in the ground.

I feel like a professional polo match is going to be a bit better than sort of jumpers for goalposts soccer.

So here's the thing.

It is like a normal polo match, like we all watch, you know, classic Sunday polo match, right?

But there's one key difference.

Which is that it's in Nepal.

In Nepal.

And that's the answer.

There you go, right there.

Okay.

We all got stuck on altitude, because that's the thing we know about Tibet.

But

I don't know what support that would require.

Is it to do with care for the horses?

Or is it to do with...

Are they cheerleaders?

Like.

Wait, horse cheerleaders or human cheerleaders?

Either.

I love the idea that meanwhile there's a dressage competition going on and they have just learned to do cheerleading for that.

Yeah, so I'm thinking maybe they have to hot swap out the horses because the horses are like,

you know, they're getting tired.

There's not enough oxygen.

So they have to swap out the horses with people, right?

So there's one thing I'm going to give you.

It is a type of polo that is well known in Southeast Asia.

Water polo.

Is it water polo?

It's a type of polo.

It's a variety of polo that is well known in Southeast Asia.

Are they not riding horses?

Are they riding a different animal?

Elephants.

Heaven.

They're riding elephants.

So

you gotta swap out them elephants.

Well, no.

Elephant polo?

It's elephant polo.

Oh, it's not.

Elephant polo.

You know how I looked at that acronym?

I looked at that acronym and was like, oh, it's going to be the World Equestrian Polo.

No, it's the World Elephant Polo.

There was a clue, and I went straight past it as if it wasn't there.

I had to keep my cool in my face.

That's the Equestrian one.

So is it watering the elephants?

No.

Picking up elephant poo.

There we go.

Oh!

Elephant poop.

There we go.

Wait, do elephants produce more than horses, which kind of makes sense, but also apparently more regularly.

Yeah, so is the poo not a problem in regular polo then?

Probably not as.

Or is it just the elephant poo is that big that it's like, we gotta

get it out of here?

Yeah.

They gotta like take it to someone's trunk.

It's a bit different to the ball boys and ball girls, isn't it?

It's not quite as glamorous a job, really, as doing that at Wimbledon.

Although, weirdly, they did have to do that for Boris Becker once.

Sorry, unnecessary slander on Boris Becker's consonants there.

Don't know why I did that.

So, elephant polo is played on a three-quarter-size pitch with four elephants on each team.

Two people ride each one.

A Mahut, a driver, steers the elephant while the player tries to hit the ball with a long mallet.

To ensure that the ball can roll properly, assistants run onto the pits to collect any dung produced by the elephants during the game.

Right, because a polo ball will

go over a small rut in the ground, it'll probably go over horsepoo.

But it'll just get stuck if there's elephant dung on there.

It's also note here that the WPA lays out strict guidelines for the welfare of the elephants.

They are supplied with high-protein food, vitamins, supplements, and swimming lessons.

Thank you to Adam Aronson for this next question.

Nonagon Infinity is a 26 album by the Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

What unusual feature can the CD album demonstrate that is much harder to appreciate with the LP version?

I'll say that one more time.

Nonagon Infinity is a 2016 album by the Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

What unusual feature can the CD album demonstrate that is much harder to appreciate with the LP version?

LP is like a record, isn't it?

Like the big, big one?

It's a long record, yes.

It's a long play.

Has it got anything to do with the fact that like you with a CD, you can play the whole thing through all in one go, but with an LP, you have to flip it?

Not necessarily.

Well, it depends how many songs are on it.

So how many sides there are.

No?

I don't have a record player.

I think that's for records.

This isn't a record, is it?

What's an LP then?

LP is a long play.

It's just a CD, an album.

You could have a new album from Billie Eilish is called an LP.

In this case, LP does mean vinyl record.

LP.

Okay, okay.

Okay.

So yeah, we're talking about a CD, a CD-ROM,

and a vinyl record.

And a vinyl record.

Okay.

Well, there's one thing that CDs can do that I know that it's kind of harder to do on vinyl.

It's the secret songs at the end.

That, like, because if the vinyl, like the needle is stopped, like, oh, the last song is here, but I'm looking at the vinyl.

There's more to go, right?

Then there's, there are more grooves.

But on the CD, you can trick the whole thing to say, like, ah, let's stop displaying everything.

And then, if you keep going, there's a song at the end.

We've talked on lateral before about some of the weird groove tricks that records can use.

You can have multiple grooves, you can have hidden grooves, all sorts of things.

It's not quite that.

But remember that the question is: the unusual feature can be demonstrated by the CD, but not by the LP.

Like, oh, well, if you rewind it and it gives you a secret lizard message.

There have been CDs like that as well.

You can have what's called a track zero, or you can have track one and then have a negative timecode on it.

Something like that that CDs can do.

That is not as unusual as this.

Oh, okay.

Right.

There's lots of secret tracks out there.

What's the name of the band again, Tom?

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

Yes, and I have a direct quote here from the lead singer, Stu McKenzie, who says, he admits that the band's name is silly and says, quote, there's nothing wrong with being silly.

Oh, bless him.

My girlfriend loves that band.

Has it got anything to do with the name of the band?

Like, is that relevant?

No.

Okay, cool, cool, cool.

Well, it's something that the CT can do that the LP can't, and it's not like secret songs and like these tricks.

I'm wondering if it's like the actual CD, like the thing itself can do.

Because they have like this reflective coding on the other side.

So can it like, if you look at it on the other side, can you see like a little image or something?

It's a mirror.

Ah.

you see a wonderful person if you look around

i'm like trying to remember the last time i had a cd well this would also work on streaming services like secret songs also work on streaming services yeah oh do they though there's there's quite a few reliant k albums i listen to that still have the secret songs it's like one of them is a seven-minute song and then after it ends you forget that you're listening to music you continue doing things and then it shouts pepperoni really loudly in your ears about three minutes later uh but it'll still show on the like the length count of of the track, right?

It's not like I can hide it away.

Oh, you're right, you're right.

You can't rewind Spotify past time zero and have some extra stuff in there.

And it only works with the LP vinyl, but no, it works on the CD, but not the vinyl.

Yeah, it works on the CD.

It would work on streaming services,

but it doesn't work on vinyl.

Yeah, it's digital.

Does it have to do with visual?

Honestly, you were quite close with talking about where the needle might be or go.

If it came out on cassette, what would be where in what which category would the cassette be?

the cassette would not be able to do this because you have to flip a cassette

you're you're dancing around there what were you thinking about cassettes i was thinking about cassettes because like okay we talked about the vinyl that's one way of doing it we talked about the cds and the streaming then the cassette is one of them because the cassette has the same property of you can't skip like oh i want to listen to song two or three right now so you have to like wind forwards or do So what happens when you've listened to it in full?

The whole thing is that you have to go back around, you have to flip it over again, or you have to move the needle all the way to the beginning.

Does the CD just start over...

It's the CD twice.

Is the album twice over?

Is it just an album back to back?

What do you mean by that, Hannah?

So you listen to the whole thing and then it just starts again, the whole thing.

It's like.

Yeah.

The album is called Nonagun Infinity.

So it comes to the end of the last song.

on the LP or the CD.

What happens?

Well, the whole album plays again on the CD, but it can't do that on the LP because you'd have to physically move the needle.

But on the CD, it just keeps going.

And on Spotify, on streaming services.

Because on Spotify, you can do the loop thing.

You can click the button and do an infinite loop on the album.

I see, I see, yes.

Yes.

On the CD player and on streaming, you can hit loop mode.

And in this case, what does Nonagon Infinity do?

It loops.

Seamlessly and perfectly.

One track going into the next in a continuous.

That is the gimmick.

It's a TikTok album because the last song loops with the first one.

Yep, absolutely right.

So it's not that the album just they actually like have, if the album has 12 songs, they've actually put 24 on.

It's the fact that the last song perfectly

moves into the first song.

So you can just leave it running without a break that just loops round and round and round.

Evan, over to you for the next question.

So this question has been sent in by Michael Crowley.

In October 2023, why did political activists add a piece of black tape to road signs on the Flinders Highway?

To repeat, in October 2023, why did political activists add a piece of black tape to road signs on the Flinders Highway?

Flinders, that's Netherlands or Belgium?

I thought it was Flinders, which in my head feels Australian, and I don't know why.

Flinders?

Sounds like Australian now.

That was great.

Not offensive at all.

Yeah, I have no idea where that would be.

I'd say that the

place is relevant, and someone did actually guess that.

The first thought that came to my head is that the black tape, like, because it is black tape, and maybe the road sign is also black.

Like, the black tape either, like, eliminates a letter or turns a letter into another letter so it says something different.

That's, but that's where my brain brain has gone.

I forgot you said road sign and I was thinking like it was defacing like a political campaign with a moustache or something like that.

But no, it's a road sign.

So they've got to make some adjustment.

Just on one road sign or like multiple road signs along the high.

Multiple road signs.

And my guess is the same type of road sign, all of them.

Yeah, so it might not be on road signs that say Flinders on it.

But it's that's it might be a speed limit.

They're angry that the speed limit has not been decreased, so they're changing a number, but I don't see how you can do that with one bit of tape.

Unless you change it from like 20 to 120.

That's one bit of black tape.

Oh, yeah.

That would work.

Just add a one.

So, Tom.

Yes, speed limit is definitely on the right path.

Oh, okay.

Also,

we'll give an extra.

You also correctly guessed that Australia is related in this.

Okay.

And I will say, Hannah was going in the right.

Her questions have been really going the right path for what this is as well.

Your initial guesses.

Like changing the word.

Hmm.

Hmm.

What if they're changing the numbers?

So.

I will give a slight hint.

They are on the Flinders Highway.

Oh, so the number's going to be like 70 or 60 or 80 or something like that.

It's also, it's a highway, so not only the speed, it's like who can do what, where, in what lane.

So you'd have like in this lane you can do this, in this lane, you can't.

This is an overtaking lane.

They were Star Trek fans, and they're putting.

No, that's two pieces of black tape.

That joke really worked in my head to change 70 to 1701, which is the registry number of the Enterprise.

But that doesn't work in, that doesn't work for many ways.

It just shows me up as a massive nerd.

So,

I was just thinking, like, I don't know if Australia roads are in like miles or kilometers.

And, like,

a single, if it was in miles and you wanted to change it to kilometers, you need three pieces of tape to make a K.

I will say say Hannah's on the right track a little bit.

Okay.

With that questioning.

Bring it home, Hannah.

Bring it home.

Really?

Well, it's an important distinction what you've just made for this.

Miles versus kilometers.

Because they are miles.

You would assume they were miles because of the.

Australia is kilometres.

Okay, they were like, never mind.

So that means the speed limit is somewhere around 120 or 130, something like that.

Are they just putting the tape over the K so so it says M for the miles?

So it's like something, something miles instead of K M?

Are they adding a line after the M so it says milliliters?

Come up.

Banter.

Good old banter.

Is it numbers?

We're definitely playing with numbers here, right?

I would say yes, keep going towards numbers.

Is it people who believe that you should put a...

put a line through the stem of a seven they're like

come on wait

that's yeah, strong political point there.

Or it's people who insist that a one should have a little stem off the top of it, just as a little

there.

Or is it people who believe that with the four, you have to connect the top and the bottom?

Like,

uh, it was a referendum, just want to throw that out there.

So, October 2023, there was a referendum.

My God,

the speed limit is 110.

They are connecting the top of the first one and the bottom of the second one, and it makes no.

Wow, that was great.

I have written down 100, 120, 130, 140.

I've drawn lines on it.

I did not write down 110 at which point it becomes really obvious where you put the line.

So the referendum was

held in October 2023.

However, the no camp won by 60% to 40%.

Wow.

This was the voice referendum, which was very, very controversial in Australia.

The polling changed significantly between the announcement and the result.

And yeah, that was.

I have some Australian friends.

That was a vicious referendum.

And the Flinders Highway is very famous in Queensland.

I believe it's known as the Highway of Death because there's been a lot of

mysterious crashes and deaths on the highway that have been unsolved.

So that's where the road signs were changed.

So my idea of turning a 100 into an infinity symbol wouldn't be great.

Thank you to Bradley Momberger for this question.

On a normal week, around 2,000 people would win $150 for matching four numbers on the US Mega Millions lottery.

On the 4th of January 2011, there were 40,000 such winners.

This couldn't have happened before September 2004.

Why?

I'll say that again.

On a normal week, around 2,000 people would win $150 for matching four numbers on the US Mega Millions lottery.

On the the 4th of January 2011, there were 40,000 such winners.

This couldn't have happened before September 2004.

Why?

Because it's four numbers, so it feels like dates.

Like you'd have a like a day, month, first part of year, second part of year.

And 2004 was when something has happened that changed this in the US.

So September 2004,

she'd have like 92004.

But that doesn't seem very significant.

What is the significance?

There was an election, but that in November 2004, I believe.

But that's not relevant, I guess, September.

I will tell you this much, Hannah.

When you look back on this episode, when you suddenly wistfully went, what is the significance?

That will mean a lot.

Oh, no.

Have a talk through about lottery numbers, things like that.

I'm going to leave you to talk for a little while rather than take questions.

hypothetically mathematical significance can come into play uh significant figures statistical significance yes

um because normally people put like birthdays as like a classic lottery number what else might inspire lottery numbers was there like um an end of the year not the end of the year like the end of the world um

you know like the pe the people who like think that like that the world is gonna end and they thought the world was gonna end in in like august 2004 and then the world didn't end so then they were like oh great all of these new dates and numbers are available to us

i don't know

no but yet again hannah there's something you're going to come back to and like is significance is the world going to end is

just come what happened in 2004

i think it'd be it'd be helpful to talk about what other influences there might be on people picking lottery numbers.

The internet became a thing.

Well, it became more popular.

YouTube started in 2005.

So Newgrounds.

Why would someone get a lottery ticket?

It's usually birthdays or birth years.

No.

My God.

Anniversaries.

I genuinely don't know why anyone would get.

I mean, you've kind of identified a thing here, which is that

clearly lots of people were picking the same numbers here, or similar numbers.

Um, I just realized we've not said that out loud.

Like, you are, you are right.

Well, yeah, for that many people to win, yeah,

something something had happened, but but so this was only made possible after September 2004, but it never didn't happen until the 4th of January 2011.

Correct, hypothetically, a TV show.

It's no,

oh, no,

010411.

No, I think.

Oh, wait, but if you're an American, which we remember?

I mean, we can let Hannah spin in the wind here for a while, but I think.

I think I know what this is.

Lost.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think it was Evan quietly muttering TV show that gave you it.

It's the Lost Numbers, yeah.

Oh, it's the Lost Numbers.

I literally said Lost.

Yes, okay.

So, yeah, when you said, what is the significance?

And will the world end?

That was, yeah, those were the numbers in Lost that had those plot threads attached to them.

You were absolutely.

I only watched the first two episodes of that series.

You were probably better off for it.

Oliver, you seem to remember the numbers a little better than the rest of the people here.

Do you want to?

I've told the numbers themselves, no, but it was the numbers were used to keep some sort of force field alive for the bad person to stay on the island.

So someone has to be there to tap in the numbers.

And those two people.

The numbers appeared in September 2004, and they are lottery numbers.

They are 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42.

Fans of the show will know them off by heart and it turns out that people are really unimaginative when they pick lottery numbers.

Oh I see and it just so happens that they were the winning numbers 4th of January 2011.

Just four of them.

That was the very first time that that combination of numbers, four of them were picked.

So on that day, those people suddenly found out how many other people were playing the same numbers of them and how little they would win if all six of them got picked.

Wow, as it happened, that drawing also had a at the time record jackpot, so it was 355 million dollars.

So, loads of other people who weren't normally playing also came in and got a ticket as well, and loads of them just picked the lost numbers.

Well, they found them,

Hannah.

Over to you.

So, this question has been sent in by Jovi Thorne.

Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland contains an unmarked headstone.

On it, some of the many visitors leave a tiny portrait of someone who isn't buried there.

Why?

Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland contains an unmarked headstone.

On it, some of the many visitors leave a tiny portrait of someone who isn't buried there.

Why?

I'm wondering if this is very similar to that gravestone that is in Wales where Derby is buried.

And people put

socks there.

I was thinking of a different shrine, not a gravestone, just a shrine, which for a long time was in Millennium Square in Cardiff to one of the characters from Torchwood, the Doctor Who Spin-Off, who got unceremoniously killed in an episode and the fans just

there's just a door with a lot of memorabilia on it.

So I was assuming it was something fictional like that.

If it is Baltimore, Maryland, I'm wondering if the significance of that is

I believe that should be roughly nearby the grave of the unmarked soldier, but

maybe that's not close enough.

I don't know.

I thought you were going for the wire.

I'm still on TV shows.

Evan, you're closer.

I don't know if the unmarked soldier is the same as this unmarked headstone, but you're closer in terms of, I guess, like.

Well, yeah, because there's quite a few cemeteries, especially in the D.C.

area.

Baltimore is like somewhat nearby.

In which if your body was never recovered from war, there is no one buried there.

It's just that you get to go to

Memorialized people that, yes, like Arlington Cemetery, actually.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington, Virginia.

So, no, but

you are correct in that we're in real life.

Okay.

But they put a little portrait.

So I'm guessing this is then the portrait of the people they want to remember.

Because then it's like I'm putting down a portrait or put something down to.

Because it's not marked.

I'm guessing there probably is someone there.

But if

it's not marked for some reason.

For some reason oh

what is the significance

lost here we go

clue the portraits are all of the same person because then i'm thinking it is

like it's closer to then what i think what tom is thinking which was like like uh closer to uh an event or a tv show like everybody remembers like this is the connection which is like like oh we don't know where author x is buried so instead of using we we put it there right yeah there's a few places in the UK where you will find memorials to particular authors, figures from history, because either we don't know where they're buried or it's more difficult to get to that gravestone.

So

the memorial happens somewhere, usually nearer to London where the tourists go.

Because then it would be connected if it is, like, I'm guessing it's not that, like, oh, it's in their book in this location, there is a gravestone that is unmarked, but why would it then be there unmarked?

Unless maybe then it's not supposed to be a gravestone and there's nobody there it's just someone put a gravestone

like a blank gravestone there here's a weird suggestion what if it's bob ross or someone like that who does art and they're all like and somehow it's become traditional yeah the tradition is you do a little painting of bob ross who taught you to paint uh and you take it and you leave it as a pilgrimage at his gravesite or at a but he's not buried there no he's not but maybe maybe it's maybe it's a landscape that inspired him or something like that like it it's there's got to be a a connection there somewhere.

I think the word portrait is a bit of a, like, it throws you off a bit because I think your brain automatically goes to like the art world.

I'm thinking a photo.

All of these portraits are

like the same person, completely identical.

Okay, I hate to metagame this, but this is a question editor's trick.

This is the standard, like, crossword question editor thing.

If you are going for small identical portraits of people, that is a very fancy way of saying postage stamp.

Right.

Or money.

I don't know how that connects to grave.

I don't know whether it's postage stamp or money.

I feel like I gave too much away, so I'm going to let you stew in that.

We have arrived.

All right.

I can't imagine it'd be money, because then other people would come and take said money.

Yes, and a postage stamp you can just add here to the gravestone.

Oh, are they?

Yeah, are they just filling in the gravestone?

Yeah, in my head, they were attaching them all to the top right of the gravestone like it's a.

But it makes much more sense, they're just creating a collage of various things.

So, postage stamps is not correct.

Oh, it is.

It is.

It's got to be money then.

Like a tiny portrait of someone, it's got to be money.

It is money.

There is a US military tradition where if you visit the grave of someone you served with, you leave a coin behind and the denomination of the coin is different depending on where and how you served with someone well that would be lots of different graves this is one grave and is it the same you said it's the same portrait so it's always the same coin

so it could be George Washington

it could be Thomas Jefferson and it can okay so we got George Washington so which means he's it's a quarter keep going Evan keep going so we got George Washington we got Thomas Jefferson we got James Madison on the dime uh

Soccer Joey, the pound coin.

Oh, John F.

Kennedy is a.

No, he would have his own grave.

Wait a minute.

What was the name of this place?

Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.

Is this Alexander Hamilton?

So in terms of bills, you have Lincoln on the five.

I think Jefferson on the 10.

Oh, Benjamin Franklin's on the 100.

Nobody's leaving.

Yeah, and Alexander Hamilton's on the 10.

You've still not said the name of the person or identified the

denomination of the money.

And isn't Lincoln on the penny?

Yeah.

Yes.

putting pennies

lincoln we're getting that it's not where he's buried this is where the

is it where the uh

oh the theatre is oh you're so close oh

you're so close is it just like lincoln's birthplace or lincoln's memorial place or something like that

happened at the theatre he was shot he was shot yeah yeah by

John Wilkes Booth yeah is it his uh gravestone yes it's John Wilkes Booth grave they

They leave pennies

which have Lincoln's face on them on John Wilkes Booth's unmarked grave.

Yes, so that Lincoln can have the last word.

Oh my god.

He's worth only a penny.

Yeah, it's John Wilkes-Booth's grave.

He

was the stage actor who shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in 1865.

And after he, so then John Wilkes Booth was then killed in a shootout at at some point later,

and his remains ended up at this cemetery.

And the Booth family decided on a small plain gravestone with no markings to prevent vandalism.

And yeah, people leave one penny one cent coins.

I think you call them pennies, don't you, in the US?

We call them pennies.

Yeah, that has Lincoln's face on it as a way of giving him the last laugh.

And the person who sent in this question has done that.

I guess that makes sense.

Oh,

no.

Oh, no, no, no, no.

The final thing then.

At the start of the show, I asked in 1949, what did the residents of Mole Hill, West Virginia, change the community's name to?

Anyone want to take a guess at that?

Mole Valley, after they dug up the hill.

True Hill.

Hill Mole.

It is just a jokey publicity stunt.

Hell.

I've been to Hell, Michigan.

This was not a different place.

There's also Hell in Norway, and it freezes.

Yes.

Is the 1949s the year significant?

No, but Mole Hill definitely is.

Mole Hill.

Shrew Mound.

Mole Mountain.

I mean, nearly.

There is a famous phrase that you have apparently not heard of.

Make a

mountain out of a molehill.

You've got to try that one more time.

Make a mountain out of a molehill.

There we go.

So they called it?

Mountain out of a molehill?

Mountain out of molehill.

They just called it mountain.

Oh, mountain.

They just called it mountain, West Virginia.

Molehill became mountain.

Phenomenal.

This was a campaign by an advertising executive.

So the old sign saying Molehill was taken down, and a new one saying mountain was installed.

Love it.

Thank you very much to our players.

Where can people find you?

What's going on in your world?

We'll start with Oliver.

So I am Oliver W on all the internet.

You can yell at me if you want.

People seem to like doing that.

And what kind of things do you make?

So I make silly videos about the Nordics.

And I'm trying to move on to the more bigger longer videos now so it's gonna be the stuff coming up and evan uh i am evan uh you can find me at youtube.com slash evan e-v-a-n uh i make videos on whatever i fancy at the moment whether that be uh housing developers or language learning apps or british american culture and hannah uh i'm hannah witten you can find me on youtube and instagram uh mostly chatting about work, career, parenting and

slow fashion.

And Taylor Swift, why not?

And if you want to know more about this show, you can do that at lateralcast.com.

Where you can also send in your own idea for a question.

We are at lateralcast basically everywhere, and you can get video highlights regularly at youtube.com/slash lateralcast.

Thank you very much to Hannah Witten,

Evan Edinger,

I've forgotten we'd set that up.

Sorry,

and Oliver Vorgay.

Yippee.

I've been Tom Scott, and that's been Lateral.