159: It's raining lemons

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Speaker 2 What does Mrs. Crunch have that Mr.
Crunch does not? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral.

Speaker 2 Welcome to the Lateral Cafe. We're out of quinoa and oat milk, but I can do you trivia porridge, a factoid sandwich, or an omelette that's as eggy as this introduction.

Speaker 2 Thank you. I appreciate the laugh, and so does our producer who wrote the script.
Let's see if our guests today are full of beans. They are the team from Lunchbox Envy.
We start with Jack Chambers.

Speaker 2 Welcome to the show.

Speaker 6 Hello, thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 Tell us a bit about Lunchbox Envy.

Speaker 6 So it's the QI approach to food. It's a podcast that comes out weekly and every week we come up with all this sort of interesting historical stories and scientific

Speaker 6 backstory behind a different ingredient or foodstuff. And we have a lot lot of fun making it.

Speaker 6 We each bring a lunch box and we sort of compete to find the best one and meanwhile, you know, tell the world all about it.

Speaker 2 So I should ask to our next player here, Mano Henriel, also in front of the microphone, who's winning at the moment?

Speaker 7 Oh, oh, I mean, in terms of bringing tasty food,

Speaker 7 definitely Rosie. There is no question.
Jack and I bring in some pretty disgusting foods to try. I'm proud, but you wouldn't want to eat them.
So I think Rosie at the moment.

Speaker 2 Rosie is a professional chef, right?

Speaker 7 Yes, she is fantastic and a food stylist and she's got wealths of knowledge about like the science and nitty-gritty behind like how cooking actually works. So so much fun.

Speaker 2 Well, the third member of our panel today is the producer of the show, Alex Bell. Welcome.
Hi, Tom. From a production side of things, like, do you have to manage like food styling here?

Speaker 2 Like, what's it like working for this? Oh, fortunately, I don't really have to do the styling because Rosie does that and she's so great.

Speaker 2 She knows everything about how to make ice cream that doesn't melt because she's worked in advertising.

Speaker 2 And, you know, you have to put ice cream on the table for three days and make it look exactly the same. So she's very good at cheese pull and sandwich construction and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 But I occasionally pitch in and help make some of the lunchboxes and I invariably make absolutely disgusting things that I don't have to eat, which is brilliant.

Speaker 2 Well, very best of luck to all three of you on the show. Dave, put a quick plug in.
Where can people find you?

Speaker 2 We're on everywhere, wherever you you get your podcasts from and we're also coming to pbc sounds pretty soon well very best of luck to all of you it's time to pull up a plastic chair wipe down the menu and see what's cooking with question one let's go

Speaker 2 thank you to chris dixon for this question in pennsylvania why do thousands of bears suddenly appear when a biscuit goes into a basket I'll say that again.

Speaker 2 In Pennsylvania, why do thousands of bears suddenly appear when a biscuit goes into a basket?

Speaker 6 Is Pennsylvania the state where basketball was invented?

Speaker 6 I'm just

Speaker 6 these sort of connections jump into my head.

Speaker 2 The only thing I know about what you think this is something to do with basketball is a little bit more difficult. Well,

Speaker 2 that's quite a good connection. Because the only thing I know about basketball is that

Speaker 2 when they invented it, it was 30 years before anyone had the idea of putting the hole in the bottom of the net.

Speaker 2 So every single time someone's called a basket, that they'd have to like get a ladder and fish it out and stop the game.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 It sounds like I would go for something along the lines of like, like what is it as you say a fish in a basket a biscuit in a basket biscuit like biscuit in a basket so i'm i'm kind of thinking it's some kind of like hunting i don't know that's i think maybe i was trying to go what kind of biscuits they have in america and i know they have fit goldfish like they look kind of like a snack but i was thinking oh maybe it's like some kind of like a baiting thing where they you like it they're tempting the bears in a national park somewhere now the American definition of biscuit is different to the British one.

Speaker 6 It's an American biscuit or a British biscuit?

Speaker 2 Get onto that later, but how much American biscuit knowledge do you all have?

Speaker 7 I mean, they're like scones, aren't they?

Speaker 2 Yeah, they're kind of like buttermilk scones, a little different to the recipe, more savory and salty, but yes. Okay.

Speaker 2 Because they call cook, like what we would call a biscuit, they often call a cookie. Right.
Yeah, right, yeah.

Speaker 6 So are we not...

Speaker 6 I'm trying to think which of these words are metaphorical.

Speaker 2 This is the right way to approach this question, yes. Because the biscuit is the little code that the president carries for the nuclear codes.
Oh, that's good. So that was the other way

Speaker 6 my lateral thinking.

Speaker 2 Maybe a bear

Speaker 2 is slang for a nuclear missile. So it's like we're just talking about World War III.

Speaker 7 But bears, aren't bears also like a sporty thing? Like, is there a sports team called a bear?

Speaker 6 The bears, Chicago Bears, I think.

Speaker 2 Yeah. What do they do? Football, maybe?

Speaker 2 They're also like,

Speaker 2 speaking of someone from the gay community, they're also like,

Speaker 2 like a big hairy man.

Speaker 2 Yes, that goes along with the Oshkosh Otters and the Tennessee Twinks. There we go.

Speaker 2 I had that joke in my head, and I was like, somewhere starting with, oh, somewhere starting with O.

Speaker 2 Off region was the obvious answer. Someone went with Oshkosh for some reason.

Speaker 2 You are circling around sport, and you've gone to that twice. So I think it is fair to tell you that, yes, this is a sport question.

Speaker 6 And did you say 10,000 or 100,000?

Speaker 2 Thousands of bears suddenly appear when a biscuit goes into a basket. It is not basketball, though.
Interesting.

Speaker 2 I mean, I guess, like, because it could be, I mean, it could be netballed or anything, but maybe because thousands of bears appear, it's something to do with a fan base.

Speaker 2 So, like, if this is, I don't know, like, they, oh, is it something like you've got a load of crowd of people in an arena, and then they all do something like they, like, open their jackets and they're all wearing like their logo of the team whenever they like, you know, the team scores a basket, but not basketball.

Speaker 2 it's very close again I feel like throwing open clothing there tattoos tattoos they've all got tattoos

Speaker 2 not quite right with the throwing open of clothing uh and again not sure quite where your head's going during this episode uh

Speaker 2 but you are definitely along the right lines like this is you'd all stand up right like if when if someone scores a goal or something so yes you said score a goal that's right the the basket is the goal what might the biscuit be If you can work that out, you'll have the sport as well.

Speaker 2 Is it, I mean, I'm going to say, like, is it ice hockey? Because they have a puck. It is.
Yes. Okay.

Speaker 2 Very good.

Speaker 2 That's both biscuit shapes. Yeah.
Yeah. The puck is biscuit shaped.
So when the biscuit goes in the basket, when the puck goes in the goal, the fans do something. You've got nearly all the elements.

Speaker 2 Thousands of bears. I have one more guess is that the pictures are printed on the seats, so they appear because everyone stands up to cheer.
And then the seats flip up. That's very good.
Thank you.

Speaker 2 Oh, lovely guess. It's not right.

Speaker 6 Is it Bear B-A-R-E?

Speaker 2 Like, going back to the houses?

Speaker 2 Let me give you the team name. It's the Hershey Bears of Pennsylvania.
Oh. Well, Hershey is the town.
We talked about this in the podcast. Hershey's was the town that was founded for Hershey's, right?

Speaker 2 Yep.

Speaker 2 Okay. And these days is mostly visited for the theme park there.
Yeah. I really want to go.
Sounds amazing.

Speaker 6 It's not like Winnie Wonker, I'm sure.

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 2 No, the roller coaster's safer at Hershey Park. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 So are they all holding something?

Speaker 2 Is it fashion?

Speaker 2 Is it intentional? Do they intentionally appear? Yes, it's intentional. Yes, they're holding something.

Speaker 6 I mean, is it as simple as having like a small stuffed mascot? Like,

Speaker 6 fancy challenge, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 There is, you know what, we've got through this. I'm going to ask one other thing.

Speaker 2 They've brought all these stuff toys,

Speaker 2 toys of all sorts. Okay.
Why might they suddenly appear on that first goal? What might be the point of that?

Speaker 7 Do they throw them into the rings?

Speaker 2 Yes, they do. Ah, yes.

Speaker 7 I remember this from something. I think I've seen footage of it.
It's mad.

Speaker 2 Yes. Every year, the Hershey Bears of Pennsylvania hold a special event.
And when the first goal is scored by the home team, most of the fans will take out a stuffed toy and throw it onto the rink.

Speaker 2 There's one key thing missing there. Why?

Speaker 2 What's the point of that? Because that's just going to disrupt the game. Yeah, of course.

Speaker 6 I was thinking about the cleanup operation.

Speaker 2 It'd be about 15 minutes at least. It's got to happen very quickly.
And where do they go afterwards? Oh, do they go to charity? Yes. Spartan Jack is a charity promotion.

Speaker 2 In 2025, they set a new record of 102,343 toys. That's eight toys for every person in the stand.
A seat, yeah. It's going to stay.

Speaker 2 That puts a lot of pressure on the team, though, like, because if you don't score, you lose the team. And all the orphans go without their Christmas presents.

Speaker 2 That's so cheap.

Speaker 2 So, yes, this is the Hershey Bears of Pennsylvania who every year hold a promotion where in the first home goal, the fans throw toys on the ice rink for charity.

Speaker 7 Amazing. Oh, that's so sweet.

Speaker 6 I remember reading about

Speaker 6 some sort of college football team where they all throw toast onto the field. And it's not donated, but it is

Speaker 6 a similar tradition. Again, it started out some sort of random rumor that went around that, like, I don't know, or maybe they had their opposition on toast or something and that just became a thing.

Speaker 6 And now they have to like have, you know, professional cleanup teams to

Speaker 6 because they don't want to ban it because it's America land of the free.

Speaker 2 Each of our guests has brought a question in. We will start, I think, with Alex.
What have you got for us? Sure, okay. This question has been sent in by Isaiah.

Speaker 2 Two motorcyclists are eating outside a cafe. Mike looks down and gently mocks Keith for his chicken strips.
What does this tell you about Keith?

Speaker 2 I'll read that one more time. Two motorcyclists are eating outside a cafe.
Mike looks down and gently mocks Keith for his chicken strips. What does this tell you about Keith?

Speaker 6 Okay, this sounds like a body part.

Speaker 2 Vegan?

Speaker 7 Is he being like meat shaming?

Speaker 2 Meat shaming.

Speaker 6 No, I think this relevant to the cyclists, surely.

Speaker 6 So chicken strips. Is it a specific body part that cyclists have? I mean, they're humans.
They've got the same body parts as me, but

Speaker 6 what do chicken strips look like? They're breaded.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we are assuming that these are chicken strips he's eating. And this is.

Speaker 2 We've locked in on the metagame here, which is identify the metaphor in the question.

Speaker 6 Well, it's lateral, pleasing the name.

Speaker 6 Maybe it's a bike part.

Speaker 2 Yeah, okay. So I think I'll say the chicken strips aren't edible.
Okay. Okay.

Speaker 6 I wish my uncle was here. He's a bike mechanic and he was actually the man who built the racing wheelchairs for the Olympians.
Oh, he's got like a number, like multiple gold medals to his name.

Speaker 6 I think he's retired now, but he still sort of fixes people's bikes for fun, which is quite sweet. But he would definitely know.

Speaker 2 The speed of those is incredible. I remember watching the London Marathon and seeing them go by.
And just the shit.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's terrifying. Yeah, yeah, it's amazing.
I wonder if they have. Sorry, I'm going on a tangent here, but I wonder if, like, Formula One, they have to slow down for the corners.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 Because runners don't have to do that in a marathon.

Speaker 6 No, exactly. And I guess maybe you can lean, but you can't lean too far because you're not on two wheels.

Speaker 6 But I don't know if racing wheelchairs have chicken strips.

Speaker 2 Maybe think about where Mike could be looking.

Speaker 6 Yeah, he said looking down.

Speaker 2 That is relevant. And

Speaker 2 I think he's literally looking down. He's not not just looking down on...

Speaker 2 Is it looking down his nose?

Speaker 2 Or maybe he is. The question is, what does that tell us about Keith, right? Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 Something has happened to Keith or his bike that hasn't happened to Mike and he's getting mocked for it. And then it looks like a chicken strip.
And what?

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 this is the right track. Okay, good.

Speaker 6 I know a lot of cyclists shave their legs and then a lot of other cyclists claim that it makes no difference. Is it anything to do with that?

Speaker 2 Again,

Speaker 2 back to the bare skin. I'd say Tom is closer.
Tom is on

Speaker 2 the closest right track.

Speaker 6 Chicken strips. Oh, is it like

Speaker 6 you could be a notch in your bed frame? It's like if you, every time you get a feeding ticket, you put a little chicken strip in your exhaust pipe or something.

Speaker 6 Scratch one out.

Speaker 6 Maybe not.

Speaker 7 And then, is it something on the frame?

Speaker 2 Like,

Speaker 7 I don't know.

Speaker 7 People stick all sorts of stuff to their bikes if they're like bike packing

Speaker 2 uh

Speaker 6 oh this is a show my knowledge of bikes i need to ride more so i guess having chicken strips is unimpressive is that right yeah mike is mocking keith for the chicken strips okay so maybe it's like uh

Speaker 6 without getting too violent maybe he's got some sort of friction burns on his leg

Speaker 2 Okay, you're like, again, you're kind of, you're circling a little bit closer. Okay.
If you're thinking about like marks.

Speaker 6 Oh, is it to do with lycra? Is it about wearing lycra that's too tight?

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 2 I kind of really, I like that answer.

Speaker 2 In that scenario, what are the chicken strips? It's just like the sort of red marks you get when you take them off.

Speaker 6 Because they've stopped for coffee, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah, but I don't think they take all their lycra off when they stop at the gambler. I don't think that's allowed.

Speaker 7 Is it like when you know you're going really fast and you get hit by bugs or something on the way?

Speaker 2 Okay, it's definitely speed is definitely a part of it. Okay, so again, you're inching a little bit closer there.

Speaker 2 The mud getting kicked up or something like that, causing because that'll be roughly the right colour, like red and chicken strips are brown, mud's brown.

Speaker 7 Or I'm thinking like chicken is brown,

Speaker 7 and that looks muddy.

Speaker 2 Okay, I'm gonna say the chicken strips look more like loops than strips, loops, loops, yeah,

Speaker 6 as in circles, yes,

Speaker 7 to the speed and circular.

Speaker 6 Has he not put his leathers on correctly and they're little stones that have like making marks? I know that wouldn't make loops, would it?

Speaker 2 They are strips, but they're circular strips. Oh.
Oh, now, there's two ways that could be. That could be circular, like someone has drawn a zero on the leg, or it could be circular around the leg.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. Also, you're fixating on legs, and it's not necessarily zero legs.
Okay.

Speaker 2 He looks down and mocks Keith for his chicken strips.

Speaker 6 So maybe it's feet.

Speaker 2 It's probably feet and shoes,

Speaker 6 Oh, it's on the tires.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 Correct.

Speaker 6 Oh, are there things that make you go faster that are called chicken strips?

Speaker 2 And he's like. No, it's a little thing you put through the tire that goes click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click,

Speaker 6 I would definitely mock Mike for that.

Speaker 2 I would say it's the opposite, but related to speed. Huh.

Speaker 6 Oh, is it? Well, in track cycling, they often like put a, they block out all the spokes for aerodynamics.

Speaker 2 no it's not that the

Speaker 2 this is a mockery that is most commonly directed at sports bike riders huh something to do with logging your speed in strava

Speaker 2 okay okay i'm gonna give you i'm gonna give you one more clue think about how riders take corners especially in like moto gp

Speaker 2 oh

Speaker 6 is it um Are they sort of like stabilizers that keep you from hitting the ground?

Speaker 2 No, it's got to be a different definition of chicken. It's not they look like chicken strips.
Cowardly. It's a cowardly definition of chicken.
There we go. Yes.
Yes. Amazing.

Speaker 2 What are those going to be?

Speaker 7 So it's to help them take corners more securely.

Speaker 2 Not necessarily. No, it does tell you something about Keith's driving style, though.
More conservative. Let's not say cowardly.
He's more conservative. Okay.
Yes. Yes.
Yes.

Speaker 2 He's not getting as low in the corners. Yes.
So what does that tell you about his driving style?

Speaker 6 oh is it that he's not worn off the the tread from the tires from from when he's yeah

Speaker 2 amazing okay

Speaker 2 yes i can picture that i can see exactly these sort of macho bikers who like assess the tires and like all the the inside well you know further up the tire wall is you know fresh from when you bought them and therefore you're not taking the corners fast enough oh exactly that so mic has noticed that the that only the middle of the tires are worn so the outsides aren't which is they sort of they're like a different color because he doesn't take the corners as quickly and he's afraid to lean in so chicken stretch chicken stretch that's such a clever word i know what a healthy relationship those two have

Speaker 7 cyclists are so mean

Speaker 7 like they look silly and like and they're mean

Speaker 2 this is motorbike to be clear

Speaker 2 yeah yeah

Speaker 2 yeah this is motorbikes and as bikers are a huge segment of our listening uh family so thanks so much for alienating them we're massive into the hardcore biking community

Speaker 6 yeah i don't know how far you lean into corners when you're on your road bike, but

Speaker 2 I'm going to assess your chicken strips tonight.

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Speaker 2 Thank you to Annibal Cuisine for this next question. To find some Swiss cheese, Steve and Alex used to have to travel for a minimum of 12,500 kilometers.
Why did they have to travel so far?

Speaker 2 I'll say that again. To find some Swiss cheese, Steve and Alex used to have to travel for a minimum of 12,500 kilometers.
Why did they have to to travel so far?

Speaker 6 So the number 12,500

Speaker 6 strikes me, if I'm, I can't remember now if it's in miles or kilometers, but I think the Earth's circumference is 24,000 of either of them, kilometers or miles.

Speaker 6 So that would be halfway around the Earth. That would be halfway around the world, yeah.

Speaker 2 Maybe they are just really, really picky. And like, they have a really one preferred shop.

Speaker 2 I was thinking more that, like, because you said a minimum, I was thinking there's something geographical there.

Speaker 2 So, for example, they live in a really remote island and you can like you have to go to the mainland to get it.

Speaker 2 But, like you say, that's such a long distance that I can't really imagine there not being this close shop.

Speaker 6 I think it might be 24,000 miles, in which case, 12,500 kilometers would be less than half the way around here.

Speaker 2 The Earth's circumference is about 40,000 kilometers.

Speaker 6 Okay, yeah, it was 25,000 miles.

Speaker 7 So, or is it Swiss cheese as in literal has to be from Switzerland cheese?

Speaker 6 Oh, yeah, we've been doing the cheese research, haven't we?

Speaker 2 The cheese soap, yeah,

Speaker 6 breeze.

Speaker 2 That's better.

Speaker 2 That's better.

Speaker 2 Um, it might not be, that might be the metaphorical bit. So, like, Swiss cheese, I feel like Swiss cheese could be a nickname for something again, because that sounds like

Speaker 2 something that's got loads of whole holes in. Yes, yep, yep, yep, yes.
You're like, I've heard of something before that's called that's called Swiss cheese as a nickname. I can't think what it was.

Speaker 2 I'll be honest, if you could remember it, that would probably help you a lot with this question.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 6 So wait, 12,500 kilometers. Could it be upwards? Is it going to be in space?

Speaker 2 Ah, okay.

Speaker 6 Because I think it's 100 kilometers until you're officially in space. So that's quite far into space.

Speaker 2 This won't be right, but I do know that on the moon, they have these

Speaker 2 devices that they put up there during the Apollo missions, which are basically reflective plates that look like Swiss cheese.

Speaker 2 They've got loads of holes in, and they're designed specifically to shoot a laser all the way from the Earth to the moon, and it will bounce back again.

Speaker 2 And they can measure exactly like to the sort of centimeter how far away the moon is. And that's how they realize that the moon is actually slowly drifting away from us.
We're going to lose it anyway.

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 6 but I think that's more than 12.

Speaker 2 I think that's actually a lot more, unfortunately, yes.

Speaker 7 So it's not, it's definitely not cheese. We're not talking about cheese.
Right. Something holy.

Speaker 2 They used to travel to get this, and

Speaker 2 now they don't have to, which suggests that either they've moved or the supply of the thing has moved.

Speaker 2 So as in it used to be made in one place and now it's made somewhere else or they just moved closer to it. Or it's not available anymore.

Speaker 2 Oh yeah.

Speaker 6 Is it some sort of lethally toxic refrigerant that we've just found because it's making a hole in the air?

Speaker 6 Are we in arts here?

Speaker 2 Could it actually just be? Very, very vaguely.

Speaker 2 The cheese didn't appear when the distance was small. So, is it something that is generated as a result of them traveling? Generated is definitely the right word here.
Very much like a chicken strip.

Speaker 2 Generated. Well, that makes me think of power.

Speaker 7 Is it the smell? Is it no? Thinking about journeys and smells.

Speaker 2 I know it smells like a smell. Oh, it smells like cheese.

Speaker 7 Oh, or maybe like visual, something holy. Ah.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 visual, definitely.

Speaker 7 Okay, visual traveling holds.

Speaker 2 And I can tell you the Swiss cheese was caused by a glitch.

Speaker 2 It's something like insulation that gets eaten away by.

Speaker 2 I feel like I have this right in the back of my brain somewhere.

Speaker 2 And if the things your brain's coming out with are insulation, gotta be honest with you.

Speaker 2 No, not that. Not that.
Sorry.

Speaker 6 You've just redone your house, haven't you, Alex?

Speaker 2 Like, I I was, again, I was thinking of like space shuttles and like the insulation padding around and then like, you know, how they used to have problems with cuckoos going inside and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 So that's what I was thinking of. But

Speaker 2 Steve and Alex are quite famous. And there is going to be a subset of our audience who have been screaming this since the question came out.

Speaker 6 Their first names for McQueen is famous McQueens, but they're in very different roles.

Speaker 2 Very different industries, yeah.

Speaker 6 Steve and Alex. Maybe they're

Speaker 6 astronauts. Alex, you probably know all the men who've been on space.

Speaker 2 Um, I there are two astronauts. They're not the twins, are they? I don't think they are.
No, remember Glitch. Oh, yes, glitch.

Speaker 6 Oh, um, computers. So, Steve Jobs and

Speaker 2 Alex.

Speaker 6 I know.

Speaker 2 We're getting closer now, though. Yeah, okay.
Maybe.

Speaker 2 This is a computer thing. Yeah.

Speaker 6 It's like pre-

Speaker 6 iPhone, I imagine. It's going to be like.

Speaker 2 Is it like about microprocessing and things? Not really. Like, why would they travel 12,500 kilometers?

Speaker 6 Is it about gaming?

Speaker 2 Yes. Yes, it is.

Speaker 6 Are these Americans who used to travel to Japan to play like Pac-Man or something?

Speaker 2 Steve and Alex are the default characters in something that I suspect none of you play.

Speaker 2 Are they the first names of like Mario and like his brother?

Speaker 2 No, Mario.

Speaker 2 I don't know. Maybe I'm like, wait a second.
Maybe that's just a surname.

Speaker 2 You will all know of this game.

Speaker 7 Is it like a fighting game?

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 no. No.
No, it's not. Because you don't have to travel 12,500 kilometers in a fighting game.

Speaker 6 Oh, it's within the game. It's Minecraft.

Speaker 2 It's Minecraft.

Speaker 2 Yes, it is.

Speaker 6 My cousin would have got this.

Speaker 6 I was sort of 15 years younger, cousin.

Speaker 2 So this is a glitch that appears when you travel in the game. Yes.

Speaker 6 Yes, I reckon. This could be to do with like powers of two.

Speaker 2 Because isn't, maybe I'm going up the wrong tree but like pac-man you got to level two five seven and it just re it's sort of because it was 16 bit or something yeah um i don't really know that yeah you're right jack uh the numbers get too large or at least they they used to it's it's been fixed since once you get too many blocks away um the the terrain generation system just kind of breaks So why might it be called Swiss cheese?

Speaker 6 Presumably it looks like it's full of holes.

Speaker 2 It is full of holes. That's absolutely right.

Speaker 2 Swiss cheese happens when Steve, Alex, or any other Minecraft player get more than 12,500 kilometers from the center of the world, or at least it did until they fixed it.

Speaker 2 Manu, whenever you're ready, it's your question. All right.

Speaker 7 This question has been sent in by Boulia.

Speaker 7 On the 15th of April, 1923, the Canadian province of Nova Scotia was braced for confused horses and accidents, which didn't materialize. Instead, 1923 became known as the Year of Free Beef.
Why?

Speaker 2 Wow, there's a lot to unpack there.

Speaker 7 Yeah, okay, I'm going to read it again. So, on the 15th of April, 1923, the Canadian province of Nova Scotia was braced for confused horses and accidents, which didn't materialise.

Speaker 7 Instead, 1923 became known as the Year of Free Beef. Why?

Speaker 2 I am gonna risk sticking my flag in the ground here and say I think I know this one, or at least I've worked down

Speaker 2 a vague memory. So Alex, Jack, it's over to you.
Okay, so

Speaker 6 firstly, 15th of April, my wife's birthday, presumably nothing to do with it.

Speaker 6 But that jumped out at me straight away. I'm going to rule it out.

Speaker 6 Wasn't 1923 the year of the

Speaker 6 Tunguska explosion?

Speaker 2 Oh, classic. Yeah, of course.
Who could forget? What is the Tunguska explosion?

Speaker 6 There was some sort of meteorite that came into Earth.

Speaker 2 Oh, okay.

Speaker 6 Well, not a meteorite, because I think it it has to land. Oh, no, it's about the atmosphere.
Anyway, some sort of extraterrestrial object came into the Earth's atmosphere and exploded. And

Speaker 6 maybe that was 1913. Anyway, it was around that time.
But that sent me down the idea that, yeah,

Speaker 6 a meteorite would...

Speaker 6 that was predicted might spook some horses.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but it's a bit early to be predicting the feature today.

Speaker 2 My direction for some of it, because I don't think I can explain the the first bit, sounded a bit like you know, when countries

Speaker 2 like switch the direction that vehicles are going on the road, and like and so they have a day, and then at midnight, everyone has to start driving on the right instead of the left, and there's loads of confusion, they have to change over.

Speaker 2 That's what I was thinking.

Speaker 2 That's what I was thinking, but it doesn't explain the rest of it-the year of free beef or anything like that.

Speaker 6 It might do if you take beef to mean aggressiveness.

Speaker 2 Oh, complex. So, interesting.
I agree with you on the first half, and I know it looks like that's right.

Speaker 7 Alex, you are so on the right track. Like doing so well.

Speaker 2 It was the day they changed to driving on the right. Amazing.
So why did all the cows die?

Speaker 2 That's what I want to like. Why were there free beef everywhere? Is the question.

Speaker 2 So that's our second part of the question.

Speaker 6 So could that be, I mean, I suspect it's not.

Speaker 6 Well, okay, it's either something to do with lots of cows dying or like some sort of weird legal loophole that meant that beef was, you know, much cheaper than it was were the were the two are the two things related manu or was this just coincidentally something totally different happened to all the cows no they are absolutely related must be were the cows used to vehicles being on one side of the road

Speaker 2 so they walked the wrong way so they learned and a lot of cows got hit by cars that's pretty that's pretty bang on i'd say so in who's letting cows cross the road unaccompanied so it's um oxen that were driving carts.

Speaker 7 So basically

Speaker 7 they could not be trained to drive on the right side of the road. Like other animals could, people could, but the oxen couldn't.

Speaker 2 So what do you do with oxen that can't be retrained? Wow.

Speaker 2 And thus the price of bees dropped them. Amazing.

Speaker 6 Not amazing for the oxen, but.

Speaker 2 So they thought the horses were going to have an issue with it.

Speaker 2 But actually it was ox. So then horses became the dominant vehicle species.
Is that right?

Speaker 2 Okay, interesting.

Speaker 6 At least in Nova Scotia for that year.

Speaker 2 And were they switching sides of the road or were they just establishing a side of the road to drive on for once?

Speaker 7 No, they were switching, switching sides of the road. So they used to drive, yeah, um, on the right, and then oh no, they used to drive on the left, and then they switched in 1923.

Speaker 2 But the oxen, I guess, what the ones who had grown up their whole lives driving once I couldn't be retrained, but they did understand to drive on the one side.

Speaker 7 Yeah, but I think they just couldn't, yeah, couldn't make that switch.

Speaker 2 You can't teach an old dog. Wow, that's interesting.
You can't teach an old ox on a new side of the road.

Speaker 2 Thank you to Stina for this next question. In 1911, why did crowds gather to see a few lemons rain down on the Norwegian town of Trondheim? I'll say that again.

Speaker 2 In 1911, why did crowds gather to see a few lemons rain down on the Norwegian town of Trondheim?

Speaker 2 Was it because they switched sides of the road and the lemons crashed and then bike those went everywhere?

Speaker 6 No, I think the lemons is the sort of not not too literal meaning here. I think I guess Truntime and 1911

Speaker 6 and just Norway generally, I'm thinking maybe this is one of the early

Speaker 6 the wrong year for a Winter Olympics, but maybe a sort of world championship ski jump or something.

Speaker 2 Oh, interesting. I was thinking like experimental flight because when was the like

Speaker 2 and you know a lemon being something that doesn't work.

Speaker 2 I wonder if, you know, there's one of those like crazy like flight expos where people were trying to demonstrate their ideas of planes where those are like pedal-powered things.

Speaker 6 Sorry, was it multiple lemons, or did you specify hundreds or dozens?

Speaker 2 A few.

Speaker 7 My brain went immediately to, you know, when like

Speaker 7 storms pick up loads of sea animals and then rain them down somewhere else. I was like, maybe there's a fish called a lemon, but if it's a few, I don't think that fits.

Speaker 2 Alex, I'm going to flag up flight expo there. I think.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 that's a fair summary of what's going on here. It was a flight demonstration.
A flight demonstration. I mean,

Speaker 2 when was the plane invented? I suppose

Speaker 2 hot air balloons are another option for

Speaker 2 people gather to see hot air balloons. And I feel like that was the sort of around the world in 80 days era.

Speaker 6 Or the extension of our air balloon, the Zeppelin. I think

Speaker 6 this is before Hindenburg. And I think,

Speaker 6 I don't know how true this is, but like zeppelins and aeroplanes were on a pretty similar trajectory in it. And it was one of those sliding doors moments.

Speaker 2 This is what euphemistics call the Hindenburg a lemon, Jack.

Speaker 6 I think this predates the Hindenburg by 25 years or so, but like, I reckon the early zeppelins might have been, and if they were yellow coloured, they would look like lemons.

Speaker 2 But they fell to the ground. Do you say they fell to the ground? Or they a few lemons rained down.

Speaker 2 Rained down. Okay, because that's quite poetic.
That could be, I mean, that could be land. I'll give you that this was a plane.
Okay, okay.

Speaker 2 Um, the plane had been invented by the Wright brothers about eight years earlier.

Speaker 6 Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 And people gathered, so they knew this was going to happen. Yeah, it was like flight demonstration.

Speaker 6 Did someone throw out Sherbert Lemons from their airplane? Because I'm pretty sure, was it

Speaker 2 when was the Sherbet Lemon invented?

Speaker 2 I'll say that for the Sherbert Lemon podcast.

Speaker 2 It was reminding me, speaking of the podcast, of of the cow that they took up i was gonna say i was thinking about that can you can you remember the story manner i can't remember when yeah so it was it's dead i think it was later than um this but yeah it was someone that was throwing milk out of an aeroplane to advertise the first cow in the air yeah i think they were live milking her below yeah

Speaker 6 and then they'd drop it in parachutes i think that was in america wasn't it I reckon lemons would have been pretty scarce in, if it is literal lemons,

Speaker 2 it is literal lemons. I'll tell you that, Alex, early on you were trying to find the metaphor in this question.
There's not one. There are literal lemons being dropped on Trondheim.

Speaker 6 Wow. You should call this literal, not lateral.

Speaker 6 So, why would they be doing that? I guess they're pretty scarce. You don't find them in Norway, do you?

Speaker 2 Also, like, Netflix had them invented then, so you could literally get people to come and look at anything.

Speaker 2 Yeah, like it was a stunt.

Speaker 2 It was a stunt. It was a flight demonstration.

Speaker 2 This was a Swedish aviation pioneer, but he is demonstrating something that would become

Speaker 2 very important a few years later. Parasheet.
That's a good one. I was going to say,

Speaker 2 the concept of bombing. The concept of bombing.
Yeah,

Speaker 2 yeah.

Speaker 2 Crazy. That's crazy.
Absolutely right. No way.
What a whimsical way to do that.

Speaker 2 Yeah, this is Baron Sederstrom, a Swedish aviation pioneer, who demonstrated a way to bomb enemy territories by taking some lemons and throwing them down at the town. Now,

Speaker 2 you may have noticed something in that description I just gave. Why did some people find that stunt a bit insensitive?

Speaker 6 Is it because lemons are expensive?

Speaker 6 I mean, especially in Norway in 1911, I don't do pen a penny.

Speaker 2 Swedish aviation pioneer.

Speaker 6 Oh, and he's doing it in Norway, ever. Did they have some beef? Was it the year of free beef between Norway and New York?

Speaker 2 Well, in 1905 was kind of the year of beef between Norway and Sweden because that's when they they dissolved the union.

Speaker 2 Okay, so it was only six years after that that a Swedish aviation pioneer flies over Trondheim, demonstrates his plane, and chucks some lemons at them.

Speaker 2 I suppose that could go like you either go in someone's eye or they're eating alfresco and they're having a face and they're like, oh, perfect. And they just get like some free seasoning.

Speaker 6 And then the salt and pepper planes come over.

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Speaker 2 Jack, your question whenever you're ready.

Speaker 6 This question has been sent in by Sebastian Cuttlefish.

Speaker 2 Great name.

Speaker 6 A forge in Herefordshire, England runs events for families to experience blacksmithing. Why does the forge require a supply of lollipops and why are they not given to children?

Speaker 2 I'll read that again.

Speaker 6 A forge in Herefordshire, England runs events for families to experience blacksmithing. Why does the forge require a supply of lollipops and why are they not given to children?

Speaker 2 I remember something

Speaker 2 about police giving out lollipops

Speaker 2 um and again not not for people to enjoy the lollipops or it is for people to enjoy the lollipops but if you give them out to like nightclub people revelers whatever they're called normal normal i go i know i know normal people go i'll go club when when they leave the club absolutely don't

Speaker 2 trapped into a nightclub yeah um when you leave and when you leave a nightclub you don't want people to be noisy on residential streets and it's not very easy to tell drunk people to shut up so police would hand out lollipops and they put the lollipops in their mouths and suck them and not talk.

Speaker 2 And so it would keep them quiet. So it was like a sideways

Speaker 2 solution to a problem that had actually nothing to do with the lollipops.

Speaker 6 You're kind of on the right lines. It's not about keeping them silent, though.

Speaker 2 Is it stopping keeping their tongues in their mouths so they don't get caught in the blacksmithing equipment?

Speaker 6 That would be pretty loose there.

Speaker 2 How do you get your tongue caught up?

Speaker 2 That's an anvil and a hammer.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, I've watched a lot of cartoons growing up, I feel. That's why.

Speaker 6 Is it to stop them breathing out their mouths no good thinking i mean what i will say is they don't give them out to everyone or is it like if you've injured yourself

Speaker 2 oh god are they doing like dentistry like because that's one of the other time you get a lollipop in the oh they like do free tooth removal do you know what a forge does sorry i shouldn't mock the guests but in this question you you

Speaker 2 That's I reckon they could knock some teeth out if they wanted to. That's three subs go on your nightclub social abilities, on your knowledge of forgers, and your knowledge of dentistry.
I apologise.

Speaker 2 Just didn't like it.

Speaker 6 I think Alex is thinking of like a dual business where you've got like a forge on one side and then a dentist on the other.

Speaker 6 I mean,

Speaker 6 I've no information on whether there's a dentist, but that's a red herring. So

Speaker 7 okay, but injuries.

Speaker 6 Yes, you do not went to get a lollipop if you can help it.

Speaker 6 The event is open to adults and children, so why would you not give them to children?

Speaker 2 because the children aren't allowed to do what the adults are allowed to do like for example use the blacksmith equipment um

Speaker 2 it's like a live demo i think i think in some cases they are both allowed to participate so what would what would they be doing here what all the different things that you can make a forgery i mean swords surely is one yeah i looked to the website that there are sword making courses

Speaker 2 maybe like suits of armor that's like i wouldn't go down that route i think

Speaker 6 what's unique about lollipops that, for instance, isn't common? Like you could, in some universes, give them chocolate bars, but they wouldn't work in this case.

Speaker 7 Oh, the heat would melt the chocolate bar in the forge. Lollipops would melt.

Speaker 6 Not necessarily in the forge.

Speaker 2 Yeah, they're quite hard as well, lollipops. So like you could

Speaker 2 crack them, and I don't know.

Speaker 2 Whereas obviously the chocolate bar would just splatter. It's lollipops a metaphor.
We haven't checked if lollipops is a metaphor anymore. We didn't do the metaphor check.

Speaker 6 Luckily, there's no meta, like everything's literal. They are literal lollipops, and they're not the frozen type.

Speaker 6 I don't know who you would call that. That's a lollipop in my head.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but they're not like a freeze pop or something like that. No, exactly.

Speaker 2 They've been given to people to suck. Correct.
See, now I'm thinking that Alex was right with this whole dental injury or mouth injury thing. Oh, you've come around to my dental theory, have you?

Speaker 2 Looking the forge, yes.

Speaker 7 Are burns burns involved?

Speaker 2 Burns are involved, yes.

Speaker 6 You're on the right line.

Speaker 7 If you burn yourself, you get a lollipop.

Speaker 6 You do? And why would you?

Speaker 2 To get saliva?

Speaker 2 Is it a medical connection? It's not just so you feel better and don't sue the forgery?

Speaker 2 It's like if you burn your mouth or something, it's good to suck a lollipop.

Speaker 6 I'd say it's wider than burning your mouth.

Speaker 6 Although, in fact, I think if you burnt your mouth, that would be the time they wouldn't prescribe a lollipop because you could be making it worse. So again, why would you not give them chocolate?

Speaker 6 Because that would help soothe their mind and help them not sue you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it would do the same thing, but like you say, chocolate melts, so that was an issue, which means it doesn't last as long. So, lollipops last a long time, okay, fine, right? So, it

Speaker 2 what, but why, why do you need them to suck a lollipop for a long time if they've been burnt? That's my question to you.

Speaker 2 This show is really hard.

Speaker 7 lollipops are hands-free.

Speaker 7 Is that they burnt their hands?

Speaker 6 Yeah, I think you're going down the wrong line. You're almost there.

Speaker 6 They do take a long time.

Speaker 6 And in fact, they take a specific amount of time.

Speaker 7 Oh.

Speaker 7 Oh, is it when you're like holding your hand under the thing and then you have to suck the lollipop for that amount of time?

Speaker 6 That's exactly it.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 6 when you burn, there's a small possibility, but if you burn yourself, the burn is treated by putting it in cold running water for about 20 minutes.

Speaker 6 So the injured party is given the lollipop to suck so that they can stay there for 20 minutes and they don't have to like look at a camera on their phone.

Speaker 2 Oh, I did not cool my hand for long enough when I got burned in a forge once. That's a very specific thing.
I did like two minutes.

Speaker 2 I can't believe you have first-hand experience with this scenario and you didn't bring that up. No,

Speaker 2 that could have helped. No one gave me a lollipop.

Speaker 7 I swear I read something about that's like like not how you should treat burns as category like don't put it under cold water.

Speaker 6 Oh, well, take it up with this for generic shit.

Speaker 2 You're gonna find them. That sounds like the kind of slightly questionable medical advice we do on QI.

Speaker 2 We're like, actually, this is a misconception of myself. Put it back in the fire.
It'll heal faster.

Speaker 2 Literally fight fire with fire.

Speaker 2 Homeopathic burn recovery. Go.

Speaker 2 Take a tiny bit of fire and then dilute it until there's no fire. That genuinely is probably how homeopathic burn medication is going to work.

Speaker 6 But you haven't fully answered the question. Why would you not give it to children?

Speaker 2 There's a different treatment for children, the hospital.

Speaker 2 That would be the responsible thing to do, is get an actual doctor to take a look at their burns.

Speaker 6 I think that comes later, yeah.

Speaker 7 Is it they take too long to suck the lollipop or like the because of their tiny mouths?

Speaker 2 Yeah, they're small. Stupid children.

Speaker 6 Sort of. I think, how can I push you towards this?

Speaker 2 What is it about children and lollipops that is...

Speaker 2 They tend not to. Well, in my experience, whenever I give my Godcher lollipops, they will suck them for two minutes and then throw them, forget them, get them stuck on somewhere else.

Speaker 6 But have you grown out of a love of lollipops as you've become an adult?

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 6 Because that's why they don't offer them to children.

Speaker 6 Children would accidentally deliberately burn themselves.

Speaker 2 Because they could get lollipops.

Speaker 2 Yeah. That's so funny.
Wow.

Speaker 6 If you tell them, if you show them, here's lollipops, they're for burns victims, then you know children, children.

Speaker 6 They'll stick their hand in the fire.

Speaker 7 That's hardcore. I would want to be friends with that child.

Speaker 2 Just looking the blacksmith dead in the eye with their hand in the flame. They're like, give me lollipops.

Speaker 6 Burning both hands so they get to

Speaker 2 which brings us to the question at the start of the show. Thank you to Zilland for sending this one in.
What does Mrs. Crunch have that Mr.
Crunch does not?

Speaker 2 Any guesses from our panel before I give the audience the answer?

Speaker 6 Is this like Mr. Potato Head?

Speaker 2 Some sort of failed hashtag. It's like

Speaker 2 an active sex life. She's taken a lover.
Her marriage is broken down.

Speaker 6 So the Mrs. Hazan.

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 is it?

Speaker 2 Because I think of Captain Crunch, the serial. So, well, he has obviously like a like he has a title, a command title.
He's in the army. But I don't know what she is.

Speaker 6 Oh, but isn't he missing a leg? So she might have her leg.

Speaker 6 Anyway, that's not Mr. and Mrs.
I don't think there there is anything.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that is Captain Crunch. Yeah, there's not Mrs.
Crunch.

Speaker 6 Are we in the realms of food?

Speaker 2 You are in the realm of food. And it's a fairly well-known pair.
There's the Crunchy.

Speaker 6 Snap, crackle, and pop.

Speaker 2 Well, you think there's an extended family tree. Mr.
Crackley.

Speaker 2 There is. Mr.
and Mrs. Crunch.

Speaker 6 Oh, what are there two of? Is it something like a Twix? Are they known as Mr. and Mrs.

Speaker 2 Crunch?

Speaker 2 Mr. and Mrs.
Crunch are not English. Oh, so this is a foreign version of something we'll recognize.
I wouldn't put those words in exactly that order.

Speaker 2 But yes. Well, I think Mrs.
Pac-Man has a bow.

Speaker 2 This is something really superficial like that.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 sort of, yes.

Speaker 6 Oh, oh, I've got it. Is it French?

Speaker 2 Yes, it is.

Speaker 6 Okay, it's croc monsieur and croque madame. Yes, it is so.
Mrs. Crunch has an egg.
Correct.

Speaker 2 Yes. That's so good.
The croque madame is Mrs. Crunch, which has a sunnyside egg on top, compared to a croc monsieur, which does not.
Thank you very much to all of our players.

Speaker 2 Let's find out where can people find you? What's going on in your lives and work? We will start with Manu.

Speaker 7 Yeah, so you can find us wherever you listen to your podcast. It's called Lunchbox Envy.
And yeah, so like I said, today I've been looking at cheese.

Speaker 7 If you're interested in cheese, this is a place for you. And also

Speaker 7 main foods, all of your foods.

Speaker 2 Jack, what other episodes do you have?

Speaker 6 Well, we've got ones on

Speaker 6 pastries, pizza.

Speaker 6 I think we did a peanuts episode, an olives episode, and you guys recorded the microwaves episode the other day. We did.
Looking forward to hearing that one.

Speaker 2 And Alex, what sort of stuff do you have coming up? Yeah, as many as I was doing cheese,

Speaker 2 we've got

Speaker 2 well, we're going to do sweets. We're definitely going to do something for Christmas.
We've got apples coming up. We're also going on BBC Sounds as well.

Speaker 2 So you'll be able to get us, you'll be able to listen to us literally anywhere, all podcast platforms. And if you want to know more about this show, you can do that at lateralcast.com.

Speaker 2 where you can also send in your own ideas for questions.

Speaker 2 We are at lateralcast basically everywhere, and there are regular video highlights at youtube.com/slash lateralcast and full video episodes on Spotify. Thank you very much to Alex Bell.
Thank you.

Speaker 2 Jack Chambers. Thank you very much.
And Manu Onrio. Oh, thank you.
I've been Tom Scott, and that's been Lateral.

Speaker 2 Tu mereces disfrutartus favorites for men.

Speaker 2 Ja sel na Big Mac, McNuggets, or a sausage, egg and cheese, McCriddles, pie tuentojo como un meal, y a horra.

Speaker 2 Oof, nava comodarto un gustaso por tam poco. The extra value meals están de regres.

Speaker 2 Gana por la mañana con el extra-value meal, sausage, mc, muffin with egg, hash browns, and a cafe

Speaker 2 for sellers. Bara ba ba ba.
Precious y participación pueden varía. Los prees de la promosión pueden serminos que de las comidas.