In short
Bonus “No Such Thing as a Fish” episode where hosts Dan Schreiber, Andrew Hunter-Murray, and James Harkin read and discuss listener-submitted facts from the past week, plus Patreon “Club Fish” shout-outs.
Guest backgrounds
No guests appear as interview subjects; the “guests” are the hosts themselves (Dan Schreiber, Andrew Hunter-Murray, James Harkin).
Key claims & notable examples
- Sialkot, Pakistan makes World Cup balls (and many bagpipes outside the UK); industry traced to 1889 after a British sergeant had a football repaired.
- London, Ontario is claimed to have “London” landmarks and produced celebrities like Justin Bieber, Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, and Victor Garber.
- Hole in the Wall pub in Dublin (Europe’s longest pub) faced closure order due to rats and “holes in the wall.”
- Chalk cliffs of Dover are linked to microscopic “cockolith” skeletons.
- Cruise ships may print newspapers onboard; Sir Christopher Wren credited for set design on a 2013 Question Time episode.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOFIFA World Cup Insights
0:00 to 0:24
Learn about the surprising contributions of Sialkot, Pakistan to football.
“Kitchen and bathroom professionals know what goes behind the tile matters.”
FIFA World Cup Insights
1:33 to 2:38
Learn about the surprising contributions of Sialkot, Pakistan to football.
“I've got one here from Sword, and it is about the FIFA World Cup, which is now all over.”
The Unlikely London
2:39 to 6:06
Uncover the quirky similarities between London, UK and London, Ontario.
“yeah i mean like jam do a sort of tracheotomy on it jam in the pipes very true that'd be exciting Or vice versa?”
The Hole in the Wall Pub
6:07 to 9:08
Explore the story behind the closure of the longest pub in Europe due to hygiene issues.
“No, we're in Dublin now This is from Michael McLaughlin And he says, thought you might enjoy this And this is new news.”
The Skeletons Beneath
9:09 to 10:40
Delve into the fascinating history of chalk and the microscopic skeletons that form it.
Cruise Ship Newspapers
10:41 to 14:01
Discover how cruise ships manage to deliver newspapers to their passengers.
“think of how many billions of living creatures yeah made those cliffs yeah yeah for you to just draw a shitty picture of them.”
Discussion on Early Edition
14:01 to 15:09
Exploring the concept of the show 'Early Edition' and its plot.
“yeah this guy was always being arrested for making bombs and stuff day three he's most wanted man in America.”
IMDb Credits and Historical Figures
15:10 to 18:43
Examining the IMDb credits of historical figures like Christopher Wren and Sigmund Freud.
“Here's one that's come in from Alex Nelson.”
Rubik's Cube World Records
18:44 to 20:44
Delving into the Rubik's Cube world record holders and their solving techniques.
The Speed of Robots vs. Humans
20:45 to 22:34
Discussing the speed of robots in solving Rubik's Cubes compared to human abilities.
“No, it wouldn't have been Correct first letter Rector McAdams Correct From London, Ontario That's right.”
Show all 18 chapters
Patreon Clubfish Facts
22:35 to 24:32
Sharing facts and trivia with members of Clubfish, including unique vegetable facts.
“And if you slowed down the audio, it would break down into the entire word.”
Animal Facts and Funny Anecdotes
24:33 to 27:52
Presenting humorous and unusual animal facts shared by listeners.
“They must have, when they first tasted that Cos lettuce, they must have thought, we've blown this shit wide open.”
Seuss and Strange Predictions
27:53 to 28:06
Discussing Dr. Seuss's banned Warner Brothers film and its predictions.
Stuck in a Lift with Barry Crier
28:06 to 28:50
A humorous recount of a lift encounter with comedian Barry Crier.
Dr. Seuss and the Banned Film
28:50 to 29:48
Discussion about Dr. Seuss's controversial film predicting the Manhattan Project.
“Seuss once wrote a Warner Brothers film that was banned because it accidentally predicted the Manhattan Project.”
Google Trends on Poop Color
29:48 to 30:52
Exploration of the peculiar search trends related to poop color.
“The phrase, why is my poop green, is googled most commonly between 5 and 6 a.m.”
Wearing Socks Outside Shoes
30:52 to 31:58
Discussion on the unconventional practice of wearing socks outside shoes in winter.
“The reason you're lonely is because everyone else is asleep.”
Custodians of Facts and Patreon
31:58 to 32:53
Wrap-up about the custodianship of facts and a call to action for listeners.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Kitchen and bathroom professionals know what goes behind the tile matters. That's why trade pros trust fiber cement Hardy Backer Board to keep tile firmly in place, resist cracking, and help block moisture. Chosen in over 40 million kitchens and bathrooms, Hardy Backer Board, what the best build on. Shop now at participating Home Depot, Lowe's, and Floor & Decor stores. For more information, visit jameshardy.com slash hardybacker. Create the deck of your dreams with Menards. Build your outdoor project from the largest in-stock selection of AC2 lumber and thick decking. All pressure treated for enhanced durability.
0:39And it's easy to load in our drive-thru lumber yard. Plus get free estimates with our easy-to-use deck design program. Available in-store or on Menards.com. Save big on AC2 pressure treated lumber and thick decking. Plus check out our weekly flyer online for all the great deals happening now. Save big money at Menards.
1:13James Harkin:Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Little Fish. This is the bonus Monday episode where we put down our favorite facts from the last seven days and we go through all of yours. We get to sit back and enjoy them. Thank you for sending them in. My name is Dan Schreiber. I'm sitting here with Andrew Hunter-Murray and James Harkin. We've got a great batch this week, so why don't we get straight into it. Who wants to go first? I will. I've got one here from Sword, and it is about the FIFA World Cup, which is now all over. But I think we might have a few sort of strugglers in the FIFA World Cup facts.
1:47This is to wean people off the excitement of
1:50James Harkin:what we've gone through.
1:50Anna Ptaszynski:Just to give people a bit of inside knowledge. When you email in, if it's a good fact and it's going to be in little fish hopefully that will be in about eight weeks time actually this is about the fifa world cup 2002 so it must be that's when they sent it uh no actually it's about um all of the world cups i would say certainly the more recent ones and it is about the hometown of this person called sialcot in pakistan and sialcot manufactures all the bowls used in the world cup so pakistan is always represented at the tournament even though the men's team is ranked 198th in the world oh and sielka also manufactures the most bagpipes in the world outside of the united kingdom so it's all pipes and pipes and balls leathery containers i guess they are yeah you could in extremis use a squished football to be the the bag for a bagpipe yeah i mean like jam do a sort of tracheotomy on it jam in the pipes very true that'd be exciting Or vice versa?
2:51Anna Ptaszynski:Absolutely. Yeah. Scotland's first ever World Cup final. But oh no, there's been a mix-up with the delivery from Pakistan. So you're going to have to play with bagpipes. Guys, yes. No, I like, you know, it's a really good concept, but I think you have to suspend belief a little bit for Scotland getting to the final of a World Cup. Sorry, Scotland. So yeah, this place, the industry began in 1889 in this Pakistani town, when a British sergeant asked a local saddle maker to repair a damaged football. It's kind of been an industrial town for a long time, and they just have really good artisans, really good sewers and stuff, because hand-sewn balls are way better than machine-sewn ones.
3:30Are they? Right.
3:32Anna Ptaszynski:Okay, Andy, have you got one? Yes, this is a fantastic one. Okay, so it's from Elise Liu, and I'm going to give it to you in the form of a riddle. Okay. Okay. So I'm standing on Blackfriars Bridge, overlooking the River Thames. Yes. And I'm in London. Okay. What country am I in? The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
3:56James Harkin:You're in, you know, those places that rebuild the world in a small little town. Are you in London, Manitoba or wherever it is? Ontario. Are you?
4:06Anna Ptaszynski:London, Ontario is a town of about half a million people between Toronto and Detroit in a bit of Canada sticking down between the Great Lakes. And Elise has just provided what they have in London, brackets, Canada. They've got the River Thames They've got Covent Garden Market They've got Blackfriars Bridge, Victoria Park Vauxhall Park, Oxford Street, Piccadilly Street Pall Mall, Kensington Avenue Regent Street They should get their own stuff Why are they stealing all our stuff? They've got Westminster, Hyde Park, Lambeth To name three of the jewels of London Brackets Original I just love it Have they got Hackney Fried Chicken?
4:46Anna Ptaszynski:And also Also, this is the weird thing. It is a crucible of Canadian celebrity talent. Oh, I thought you were going to say crucible of Canadian witch burning. Celine Dion? Why don't I tell you? Alanis Morissette. Again. Justin Bieber. Okay, yes, granted. But at least provides a list of people. Okay. And I think there is quite a clear fame meridian, which we pass. At some point of the list. I'm not going to tell you when. Okay. All right. These people were all born in London, Ontario. The Biebs. Justin Bieber. Yeah. Ryan Gosling. Yeah. Rachel McAdams. Yep. Victor Garber. Paul Haggis. Did he invent the Haggis?
5:34Anna Ptaszynski:Invented the Haggis. Pakistani man, actually. But yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, the one before Paul Haggis, I wasn't aware of. Victor Garber, I think, is a producer. No, performer. The one's a performer, the one's a producer. But I would say the FAME Meridian is between Bieber and Garber Okay Of course they didn't stay there forever Gosling moved to Cornwall, which is in Ontario And Rachel McAdams went off to York University Brackets, Toronto, Ontario Very good Thank you Elise, lovely fact
6:03James Harkin:Very good, I'm going to take us over to Dublin Dublin, Ontario No, we're in Dublin now This is from Michael McLaughlin And he says, thought you might enjoy this And this is new news. So this is sort of topical. The Hole in the Wall pub in Dublin was recently issued a closure order because there were holes in the wall. Have we been to this pub? I feel like I have been there. I haven't been. And I think I'd know that we've been there purely because it is the longest pub in Europe. It stretches 100 meters long. Yeah, it wraps around this whole road. On their site, it says it's 153 meters. And then other places, it says it's 100 meters.
6:44But how...
6:46James Harkin:is it deep? Yeah, it's... Or is it just long? Oh, once you're inside, if it's long, isn't it deep? Incorrect.
6:57Anna Ptaszynski:It's a long pub going all the way along the road, right? Yeah. How deep is it, front to back? Is it like six feet deep, but 100 meters long? I think I don't understand what deep means. What do you mean? In a three-dimensional... look, Jesus Christ. Right, look. Get a pen out. The pub is 100 meters long, right? Yeah. Which is what I said. It goes along the road. That's what you said. And there's no problem there. Yeah. But is it a shallow pub? Which is only like that.
7:25James Harkin:I don't have the dimensions on its width. How tall is it? I think it's largely one floor with a mezzanine bit. Didn't expect you to know that. Very impressive. I know. But it's been shut down because they had a problem with rat droppings and so on. so the hygiene levels have not been great that was part the holes in the wall the holes in the wall mean that that's where the access points are for all of the rodents that are getting in
7:50Anna Ptaszynski:it's not entirely because of the holes in the wall it's a two-parter it was rats and holes were the were the two things i've been to what was claimed to be the longest bar in i'm gonna say the world but it could be europe and this is the actual bar itself not the not the length of The pub Ah yeah And that was bar one in Sheffield Ah And also while I was there I broke the world record For the biggest round Ever sold As in What? How many did you buy? I didn't buy No I was part of the I was a recipient Wow Of one of the drinks When you say I broke the record It did sound like There are 10 ,000 people here James James was just like Yeah it's alright I'll get it Yeah it's fine Let's go on the company card please I don't wanna Well, that's really impressive, Dan.
8:41Anna Ptaszynski:Very cool. Hole in the Wall.
8:43James Harkin:Yeah, it had a name before. It became the Hole in the Wall. There's a rumor that it became... It was called the Rat Shit Pub. I'm sure it's a great pub. I've been there. I think I'm pretty sure I've been there and I'm pretty sure it is awesome. Yeah, nice. Yeah. And one of the thoughts is why it was given its new name, the Hole in the Wall, is because of the local army barracks that are around. They're not allowed on licensed premises. So they thought that there might be holes that they could sell them. the alcohol through that's clever no no it's just a it's just a theory might be might be all right let's get let's get another okay this one is from john kelly and john was walking down the south downs so back in good old blighty not the south downs in new zealand or whatever uh and john was curious about how many skeletons lay under his feet and it turned out that according to john's calculations there was roughly one between one and five quadrillion skeletons huh oh we're talking like animal carcass and insect carcass we're talking cockolith carcass uh because this is chalk and chalk is made of billions of microscopic skeletons uh and john did the maths and that's how many five quadrillion maximum i don't know what a quadrillion is that is that just beneath him or is it the whole of the uh i think it must be not just like the outline of his feet i'm gonna draw no no no don't draw it right this is now not the part this is now the white cliffs of dover it's john walking along okay okay okay has that helped you james with andy's question neil buchanan shitting himself that's what i could say uh for international never mind so yeah these are just cockoliths they create a protective shell known as the cockosphere and when they die they sink down to the bottom of the ocean and they turn into chalk and that's what the white cliffs of dover are made from it is pretty cool it's pretty metal it's amazing just think of how many billions of living creatures yeah made those cliffs yeah yeah for you to just draw a shitty picture of them.
10:54James Harkin:Interesting. It's hard seeing your art criticized, but I'm going to say that was fair.
11:02Anna Ptaszynski:Andy, give us facts. Alright, here's one. This is from John Cornwall, brackets, Ontario. Is it really? No. John Cornwall. That's his name. Oh, it's his name. Yeah. It was just, this is a very interesting fact, I think. I saw a post yesterday about someone that was on a cruise that set off the day before. They saw someone reading that day's newspaper and asked how on earth they had got it. Maybe a drone delivery or a paperboy who'd invested in a speedboat. Turns out that some of the larger cruise boats, I believe they call them liners, have a printing press on board and they print a slimmed down version of some newspapers.
11:39That's really cool.
11:40Anna Ptaszynski:This may be common knowledge, but I found it amazing and thought some of your listeners might as well. And I know that for Dan, who has a special interest in printing out things and putting the date on the top, and whether that's a wasteful policy, you might like to know that. I think that's a great, that's an amazing idea. And I've got personal experience of this because I've done a voyage from Southampton to New York. Yeah. And they had something like three copies of The Times available for the whole ship. Oh, did they? Because... So whoever gets it first and does the crossword, spells it for everyone.
12:12Yeah.
12:12James Harkin:See, what I'd like to do for cruises is a predictive newspaper where you pre-print every day of the voyage with the news you think is going to happen and how things are going to play out. Oh my God, ship hits iceberg. What the hell? No survivors? Oh my God. But you live in this bubble of this news that gets passed around and then you get off on the other side and you find out how different it was. There was that TV show called The Bubble, wasn't there? Do you remember? Yes. It was very short-lived. I think it did really well in another country like Netherlands or something, but they brought it here and they put celebrities in a bubble.
12:48And then after a week, they asked some questions about the news, which obviously everyone at home would know. Right. But they wouldn't know because they were in the bubble. That's quite good.
12:56Anna Ptaszynski:It's quite a good idea, but it didn't work at all. What was the TV show where the guy got tomorrow's paper delivered to his door every day? Really? Yeah, it was brilliant. It was an old American series. And basically he got a paper delivered. He never saw who delivered it. He was always rushing to the door saying, who's delivered this? And it was tomorrow's paper. And it was all the awful things that would happen in the city. And he'd have to try and stop it. He then had to run around and stop it. I think at the end of the episode, he'd actually see the paper that ended up being printed. And it was always better because he'd saved the day.
13:25Anna Ptaszynski:Yeah, it was like building doesn't burn down. Right. Or whatever. I'd never heard of that. It's a fantastic show. I'm going to have to look it up.
13:32James Harkin:I wonder how many things you could get to in a day to prevent. It's not a whole newspaper's worth, you know. It's just the front page. Would you choose the one which did the best good for the whole city or the one which was closest? and you were more likely to be able to do something to save yeah i might put in a few
13:50Anna Ptaszynski:calls for the ones that were let's say on the other side of the river yeah i might just ring up and say by the way there's um there's gonna be an atrocity is gonna happen the problem is that if you ring up and say the trust is gonna happen then you're directly implicated in that atrocity oh
14:05James Harkin:yeah this guy was always being arrested for making bombs and stuff day three he's most wanted man in America.
14:12Anna Ptaszynski:I probably completely butchered the explanation of the series. Wait, I gotta find out. Sounds a bit like Quantum Leap, doesn't it? Do you know what? I think it was shown in a double bill with Quantum Leap. I seem to remember that. It was called Early Edition. Right. 1990's supernatural drama. Yes, it was on for four years, from 1996 to 2000. And he uses his knowledge to prevent terrible events. Do you think someone sent him an email the day before it got cancelled, saying, Watch out.
15:08Scan the QR code on a Sprite or Sprite Zero Sugar to see the full breakdown. Obey your thirst. Sprite.
15:16James Harkin:Here's one that's come in from Alex Nelson. Alex Nelson says, Sir Christopher Wren has a single IMDB credit. Art department on a 2013 episode of Question Time. And I looked it up and it's there. That's very good. It's very good. So it was basically held in one of his buildings. It was filmed in St. Paul's Cathedral, and he is listed as set designer in the credits. And I tried to find more because it's actually quite hard to find on IMDb who's going to be listed. So you just have to chuck some names in and hope it lands. Were you trying to find particular architects? I looked, so Frank Lloyd Wright, he's got a credit for Cliff House designer.
16:01James Harkin:But then you have things like in 2014, Sigmund Freud was named a spiritual consultant on a movie. but that's on imdb it's an official credit for sigmund they all have i mean everyone does have it because they as they appear as their self don't they in archive i suppose yeah but it's weird when you see like hitler's imdb and there's six listings of thanks you know what that's where it gets a bit strange what do you know what they are can you remember them some of them were ironic surely these oh right okay like i think airplane has him listed as worst boy that kind of thing that's such a good joke but i did see i put rosa parks's name in there because last little fish uh that the three of us were on um she came up as a part of potentially being on predator and she has a lot of self and she has a lot of thanks but she also has a credit for a show she was in an episode playing herself i know i know this she was in only fools and horses wasn't she she just did one episode yes it was really funny she gets engaged to dell boy yeah and then there's a whole caper that leads to the falling apart is it can we guess it it's an american drama early edition imagine if that was right yeah like he reads
17:21Anna Ptaszynski:the news of this civil rights protest he's like i must stop this now you see me far
17:27James Harkin:No, it was a show I knew growing up in Hong Kong It was on TV all the time Touched by an Angel I was about to guess Speed
17:34Anna Ptaszynski:Because I was trying to think of other great bus based Oh yeah, Spice World the movie Summer holiday with Clifford Chin and Rosa Parks
Read the full transcript
17:44James Harkin:Do you think her agent was always calling her up Going, there's a real amazing ceremony going on in your honour You're up for it? Great we've also got an offer from keanu reeves and speed no okay i'm just checking i just i always like to check with you i always like to check um yeah she was in an episode of touched by an angel which was in america yeah i don't remember that one it's hard to describe but there's like an angel who basically does the same as all these american dramas used to do which is something dramatic is happening and then someone has a superpower that helps them to solve it yeah Yeah, I think it might have been.
18:21James Harkin:I can't remember, but it's not a drama as in like Dallas where it was like on every day It was more like party of five or whatever that however those American things are anyway She's she's got that brilliant. Yeah. So anyway, congrats to sir Christopher Wren Okay, here's one from Shen Flindle and they write if the Rubik's Cube world record holder and the blindfold cube world record holder solve the same scramble the blindfold solver would probably be finished before the regular solver had even started oh what's because when you see it you can start right as in when you when you get the cube you just get you you just go well no oh what happens is when you get the cube you have 15 seconds to look at it and work out what you're gonna do and then work out what all the moves are gonna do and then you go go and you go and you make it okay the blindfold record is 11.67 seconds but in that rule you basically you get it you look at it and then as soon as you're ready then you put the blindfold on and then you solve it so you're allowed to start before the 15 seconds oh we're carrying it so that's why he would always have beaten uh this guy called charlie eggins who's the blindfolded guy would have beaten it before theodore zeider from poland right uh would have done his because of just the rules in actual fact theodore zeider could do it quicker but in the rules he has to wait his 15 seconds can i i know because james you can solve a rubik's cube and you can do it really fast well but you can do it i can't do it at all so much faster than that yeah
20:05you just try every one of the 15 billion possible places it can be and then eventually it comes and
20:11James Harkin:then you get force majeure yeah so my question is is that if you're blindfolded is the time that you're given that's extra looking at it it's because there is a set way of just turning it right until you get there so you've got to work out how many of those moves are because you can no one's going to stop you if you get it if you go past it presumably in the blind version of solving it you just keep going past the final configuration i see what you mean yeah you might do that but i mean i don't have the brain capacity or exactly the understanding to do it so i don't know exactly how it works but i think it would be pretty unlikely for you to get the final configuration then go past it i guess you could go one you can't see it right yeah someone's they've got someone standing by coughing scream stop stop stop no you can't say it but you would just know like because you know what order all the moves are in so the final section of moves where you're getting the final pieces in that will always be the last move you make will always be one of those ice so you know configuration changes yeah exactly so you would i guess it's possible you could get just past it but you would never be miles past it well there's one behind there's one
21:15Anna Ptaszynski:literally behind you on the shelf down so let's just let's just you just you just you just start doing it now no no we're gonna get down to do it this only needs one turn to be complete so Welcome to the next 15 hours of your life This is a Richard Herring special Rubik's Cube, yeah Done Wow I think that was even faster than you could do it I think honestly it was, yeah Okay, interesting, amazing The record for solving a Rubik's Cube Was done by Rubik? No, it wouldn't have been Correct first letter Rector McAdams Correct From London, Ontario That's right. No, it's a robot. Oh, yes it is. A robot can now do it in 103 milliseconds.
22:01Wow. And for reference, it takes you between 200 and 300 milliseconds to blink. So if you're watching a robot doing the cube, it would be definitely possible for you to blink and it'll just have happened when you were blinking. How would it not shatter the cube? They're special, yeah.
22:19Anna Ptaszynski:Reinforced and extra lubricated cubes. They're very lubricated, yeah. Yeah, okay. Because you can buy Rubik's lube, can't you?
22:25James Harkin:Cube lube, they call it. My son and I, Ted, were trying to say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious as quick as possible the other day. And we tried to see whether or not it's possible that you can bunch them up so tightly that you can just go splash. And if you slowed down the audio, it would break down into the entire word. And I wonder if that's possible. It's really nice that you found someone at the same mental level as you to have conversations. we're actually setting up a rival podcast to fish uh soon we're down in the water andy with that kind of chat yeah oh my god don't they also like soap up rubik's cube are you allowed to you lube them you can lube them yeah yeah bring your lube to the cube this is why you weren't allowed on the icp game show bring your lube to the cube with dan shriver i didn't know it used to be philip schofield who
23:16Anna Ptaszynski:hosted that was it the cube yeah i don't remember i think it was i think of dan as the phillips gofield of fish oh that's very sweet okay andy go on give us another fact here's one more fact about canadian geography i just love this so much it's from this is a wonderful name clementine curly from melbourne melbourne australia australia doesn't actually clementine doesn't say could be Melbourne, Ontario. Clementine writes, I recently learned, are you familiar with the actor Nathan Fillion? No. He was in Buffy, he was in Firefly and Serenity. Oh, I think I know who he is. You probably know who he is.
23:54Anna Ptaszynski:Yeah, he's a great actor, really good. Anyway, Nathan Fillion has a little parklet dedicated to him in his hometown of Edmonton, Canada which is called the Nathan Fillion Civilian Pavilion.
24:09Anna Ptaszynski:That's really good. And is painted Vermillion. is it really yeah that's great that's brilliant yeah well that is fantastic uh but that's enough
24:19James Harkin:of your facts for now we can't wait to read more of them out next week but before we wrap up today's show we love to hand out one of our old facts to members of clubfish so if you join on patreon.com slash clubfish at the highest tier which is friend of the podcast we assign you one of the headline facts from the last 12 years of fish you get a really cool digital certificate along with it and uh we like to read out who's got what so we're going to do some now uh who wants to go first i'll
24:48Anna Ptaszynski:do one this one goes out to swinung carlson swinung congratulations to you your fact is if you grow coz lettuce in a spaceship it tastes like rocket perfect brilliant fact brilliant fact Because they did it and it does. They must have, when they first tasted that Cos lettuce, they must have thought, we've blown this shit wide open. Or if you're in America, it tastes like arugula. Oh yeah, but it doesn't work quite as well. The joke doesn't work. No. I've got another one here about vegetables. Oh yeah? This is that the National Giant Vegetable Championship had to move venue in the mid-1980s as the pumpkins started getting too big to fit through the doors.
25:33And that now is under the custodianship of Heather Klein. Love it. Oh my god, I love this fact so much. Yeah, I remember that. Do you remember we did quite a lot on big vegetables and big pumpkins and stuff? Yes.
25:44Anna Ptaszynski:This is not meaning to sound like a joke. It was the low-hanging fruit of its time. I mean, just giant vegetable growing competitions are just wonderfully funny things, and the people who run them are brilliant.
25:55James Harkin:All right, let's get another one out here. This goes to Michael Luna. Your fact is the bearded lacewing insect incapacitates its prey by farting on it. Oh. That's nice. That's nice. That's gonna look nice on your wall, framed. It's a conversation piece like all of these are. It is.
26:17Anna Ptaszynski:They stun termites 30 times their size with anal vapor. Isn't that incredible? That's like me knocking out an elephant with a fart. Yes, I would like to see that Right
26:31James Harkin:You'd have to get your bum right up to the elephant's nose Well, it's got a movable trunk though The trunk is, yeah, yeah You picked a good animal there
26:41How do you encourage the elephant to get its trunk near your bum though? Put a peanut in it?
26:49Well I just think I hope no poachers are listening to this because you've given them too many good ideas.
27:00Anna Ptaszynski:Put a peanut in it. Brilliant. Here's another one. This one goes out to Harry. Harry, your fact is that Ruby, a sheep which had been genetically engineered to glow in the dark, was accidentally sold to an abattoir. Lovely. Another nice one to go on someone's wall. This was an Ann Miller fact. Was it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ruby's mother had been given this gene. You know what, Ann? Yeah. For the nicest woman you'll meet, She does come here with some dodgy facts, doesn't she? Do you remember the one about the bear who they had to castrate them because they'd been having sex with their family members or whatever it was?
27:38Anna Ptaszynski:That's right. It was a sort of incest bear in Romania or somewhere. Yes, that's right. Yeah. No, I know. I mean, well, she likes crime, doesn't she? She likes murder. Oh, yeah. That's true. In fictional terms. Anyway, congratulations, Harry. That's a lovely fact. Okay, here is another fact. this one goes under the custodianship of zachary nichols zachary your fact is that during the launch of bbc2 in 1964 a live kangaroo got stuck in a lift at television center
28:06James Harkin:i i pretended to sort of be stuck in a lift um with the comedian barry crier oh yeah so i kept sending us to the wrong floor so that i just got more time with him to get more chatting with him did you yeah so we went up we went down we're like oh no this is not it what's going on kind of thing and i i milked it for quite some time because he was like it's a confusing building isn't it which it was wasn't it it was a confusing building yeah um it feels like that's kidnapping yeah and a pensioner as well yeah when you frame it in a negative way yeah I can see how that might. Let's do another one.
28:50James Harkin:This one is going to J Now. Your fact is, Dr. Seuss once wrote a Warner Brothers film that was banned because it accidentally predicted the Manhattan Project. Brilliant. A lot going on in there. Yep. Dr.
29:05Anna Ptaszynski:Seuss wrote a film that was banned. By Warner Brothers. How can you accidentally predict the most complicated human endeavor ever created? I guess you just have to predict it a bit, don't you? Yeah, you don't have to be like, first this Wockets goes in this socket Then this goes boom and this goes doom And loads of room is...
29:21James Harkin:Oh my god, that is quite good Before he was a children's author He worked in the writing department for the military Didn't he? He wrote a lot of movies And so on, so he must have written Something that just was a bit too close He also wrote one with loads Of naked characters in it, didn't he? Do you remember that? Did he? Yeah, but then it was illustrated in the same way as his normal books I don't remember that one
29:44Anna Ptaszynski:Here's one that goes out to Robert Dixon Robert, your fact, now and forever, is The phrase, why is my poop green, is googled most commonly between 5 and 6 a.m. Yeah It does make sense It does There are peaks and troughs of when you're googling things Yeah, people are most likely to find out after a long sleep, maybe 5 and 6 in the morning, quite early Feels like these are people who are having a long dark ride of the soul
30:10James Harkin:I think you've had a night poo It's been green, you thought that's probably normal You've woken up at four You've spent an hour freaking out And then you've googled I mean that's certainly how I did it Just as an example of how that might happen But yeah I think this was just like Google had released a load of Data about when people Search for different things And what was the most searched item in that year And whatever And this was the funniest part of it
30:37Anna Ptaszynski:Oh, God, you had a follow-up fact on this one, James. The percentage of people Googling lonely peaks at 3.24am. Yeah. Because I normally wait until 3.25am to do that, so I hold off.
30:48James Harkin:It's not a very social hour, 3am, is it? No, naturally. The reason you're lonely is because everyone else is asleep. Okay, the final one for today goes now under the custodianship of Guinevere Darroch. And your fact, Guinevere, is that in winter, we should all wear our socks outside our shoes. Brilliant. Dan Schreiber, you said this 11 years ago. Do you still do it? If I was writing my predictive newspaper, I would have said it had changed the world and that's how we were all doing it since we'd said this fact. Yeah. And I don't think anyone's doing it.
31:28Anna Ptaszynski:Weird.
31:28James Harkin:Despite the science being on its side. Who's to stop you slipping over, right? exactly you get more grip on the ice if you have your socks on the outside and um this was tested i'm going from memory in new zealand and i believe either they won an ignoble prize for it or it was reported by mark abrams in the improbable pages i'm pretty sure that's where i got this from but yeah they found that it was an obvious thing to do if you're on very slippery ice just take your socks off put them on the outside it feels like if you're wearing specialist walking shoes with very good grip on yeah then maybe you shouldn't do that that's true and you're allowed to wear
32:00Anna Ptaszynski:extra socks on the inside i think the thing that people find a bit gross is the idea of not wearing anything between your foot and your shoe i don't like that you wear always socks with your crocs
32:10James Harkin:of course of course i think that's in at the moment i mean my kids are certainly doing it socks with crocs is it yeah it also sounds like a dr seuss book doesn't it
32:22Anna Ptaszynski:coxing crocs was that one it was about another of the naked people period yeah
32:27James Harkin:yeah well cool hey these are what a great batch that's a killer batch of facts so uh congratulations you are now the custodians of these facts so please look after them guinevere robert jay zachary harry michael heather and swinung you hopefully have your digitally printed version of this and if you want your own fact again just go to patreon.com slash club fish but if you rather just listen to this show with someone who's hoping that they can get their fact read out, podcast at qi.com. Send them our way. Andy goes through the emails. He cherry picks the best. He brings them here. We love reading them.
33:04James Harkin:So please continue to send them along. But for now, that's all from me, James and Andy. And we'll see you again on Friday with another episode of No Such Thing as a Fish. But for now, bye.
33:22Thank you.
From the publisher
The gang discuss YOUR facts, and Dan completes a Rubik's cube in just a few seconds. This week's subjects include Pakistan, pubs and printing papers. And Anna, James and Andy shout-out eight more Friend of the Podcast custodians.
Visit nosuchthingasafish.com for news about live shows, merchandise and more episodes.
Join Club Fish for ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content at apple.co/nosuchthingasafish or nosuchthingasafish.com/patreon
Edited by James Harkin
Produced by Leying Lee
Team includes Tara Dorrell, Joe Mayo and Ethan Ruparelia
