Yellow dogs, Cold turkeys and strange names.

Hello and welcome to Kabot T. Kill a bit of time. We can have a few laughs, a few tears along the way. If you've been waiting for a podcast about yellow dogs, cold turkeys, and people with strange names, you're in the right place. So, let's get started with episode one. How are you? And welcome to today's podcast. And thank you for listening.

Uh, this podcast is free and it always will be. I'm not interested in monetizing or profiting from it in any way. It's more for my own personal enjoyment, education, and development, as well as trying to hopefully entertain, help, and interact with other people from around the world.

So, what is this podcast? Uh, what's it going to be about? Well, today it's going to be loosely themed around self-improvement. And there's going to be discuss a discussion around a wide variety of topics that I find interesting. There may be some edgy topics there as well, as I like exploring cultural boundaries and looking at things that you should and shouldn't say. There may be a little bit of foul and abusive language. Not abusive, but you know what I mean. Maybe, you know, there might few words might slip out. I'm not going to intentionally do it, but I want to be myself as well. And um so yeah, I want to um I want to have something at the end of the end of the day that sort of delivered on the reasons that I've listened to podcasts in in my in my personal experience. It's always been filling out filling out a silence where it feels like otherwise it would just be a waste of a waste of airway if you know what I mean. Like when I'm doing the ironing for example, why not just have a podcast in the background and you might learn something. At least it's going to be entertaining. Or sometimes you're just going off a cheeky little nap in the afternoon. A little podcast helps you on your way. Or sometimes you just wake up to a sometimes you got a lion planned. You think, "Oh, I can stay in bed till 11 tomorrow." But you just wake up at 7 and you and yeah, you think, well, I'm not getting out of bed. I've got this time for my lion. I'm having a lion, whether I'm sleeping or not. Perfect time for a podcast in my eyes. That's what I've done in the past. So that's my u the reason is and it goes back to the loosely to the term of the show which is just killing a bit of time. So that's what it's all about really. And it can be shaped by feedback. I will take questions. I'll I'll look at feedback and I'll shape future episodes based around that as well. I'm going to try to release an episode at least once a week. It's going to be a weekly release. And you can follow me at killer Bit of Time on Instagram and I'll also be releasing episodes on Facebook, maybe Tik Tok, but I don't really want to get too deep into the whole social media thing. Does my editing, but I will be keeping up to date with that. I'll be checking my messages and things like that daily. So, yeah, feel free to follow and I'll answer any questions that come my way.

So, who am I and how did I get into podcasting? So, I am someone who works a full-time job. I've got a family, so a lot of my time is taken up with that, to be honest. But, um, I've recently given up drinking just because, um, that's something I'm going to talk about later on in the show, actually. And it's it's freed me up a bit of spare time. And I I go through phases of do of creating doing things creatively. Sometimes I might go for a spell of learning an instrument. I might make some music. I did music production at university. So, I've always been led by that in terms of how I can fill any free time I have. I like to be creative with it. So, I've decided to this time to come up with this podcast and see see where it takes me really. I was inspired by people that I've listened to in the past. I listened to Ricky Jay's Carl Pilington and Steve Merchant on the Ricky Jay show for probably a solid 10 years. No exaggeration. I didn't know there was anything else out there. I just loved it. I listened to it every night without fail. I reckon I listened to every episode as well as the XFM series, you know, three or four times. It was getting to the point where I'd had enough of it. And then my sister introduced me to Blind Boy, uh, the Blind Boy Boat House podcast, and I absolutely loved it, and it was just great. It was just it was informative, entertaining, all that stuff. The Ricky Vase podcast was great as well. really funny u addictive. So those two podcasts were the main things that um inspired me to to uh produce this one really. So yeah, so that's that's how I've how I've got into it.

What is in today's podcast? My current state of self-improvement. I'm going to be talking a bit about that. Um I'm going to do a little bit of a deep dive into an age-old phrase that you'll be very familiar with. I'm going to look at why you should never touch a yellow dog and a discussion around someone with a weird name. I was going to see if they're as weird as their name was. Um, so yeah. So, let's let's get let's get started, I suppose.

So, first topic, um, giving up alcohol. The reason I've done it is is quite a few reasons actually. First of all, it's just like I wanted to It's not like I wake up every morning just clutching with a shaking hand towards a bottle of JD, but um it this I still feel like I was sort of on a cycle of get pissed, recover, get pissed again. And it's like my my mental state and my emotions were slave to that cycle. Like how I was going to be with you that day would would probably depend on what stage of that cycle I was on. If I was like two days after a hangover, I'll probably be a bit of a wanker. If I was on like day three or day four and I'm starting to get, you know, get get right again, I'll probably be in a pretty good mood. Probably celebrate with a few pints and then the cycle continues. Anyway, I just I just wanted to get off that. Also, I've got a little girl. She's 15 months and it's just I want to be present for her as much as possible. I don't want to be I don't know if I'm hung over, my partner's having to do more nappy changes cuz I'm cuz I'm hung over. I don't think that's very fair. And uh so that's that was another reason. And as well as that, I just feel like I've just been in the habit of getting wankered for years since I was about 15. And I was thinking, right, I'm I'm I'm 36 now. That's, you know, over over 20 years getting on it. So I thought that can't be too good for you surely. And uh we did had some rare old times back in the day. I mean, it was not not just four or five pints at the pub on a Friday night. It was it was 3 or 4 days still going and uh until you until you cannot go no more. There's a few of them chucked in there as well. So I just feel like longterm I was like I need to do this for me. It's a challenge as well. I was like I just want to see if first of all it's a personal challenge. Can I do it? Is my will enough? Can I break out of this cultural sort of drinking thing that we're all that we're all in in the UK? It's very like if you're not drinking at an event it's like you're weird. you go out, I don't know, if there's an anniversary party or or or just just just a gathering of I'd say four or more people anywhere at someone's house in a park, if you're not cracking open a tiny, you're you're a little bit suspect. And um that's just the culture of what it is. I don't know why. I've got a friend called Liam who um told me that so he used to um drink non-alcoholic beers, right? Not cuz he wanted to. He gave up alcohol. Not because he wanted the taste of beer, but he said because it made everyone else around him comfortable. And I thought that was so weird. I was like, "Oh, right." Because it does put people on edge. It's like when I meet up with some friends, sometimes I'm like, "Oh, I'm not I'm not drinking." They're like, "Oh, all right. Well, what do what do you mean? What we what we going to do? What's the point in even meeting up?" I mean, sometimes it is like that cuz some friendships are built off of getting wankered. There's friends in life that I've had that you you meet up to get wankered. You meet up to drink and other things other things. And without that, take that away. Is the friendship still there? So, that's an interesting um um sort of exploration I want to discover as well. In fact, I've got another friend who's who's recently given up substance abuse and alcohol. And I haven't spoken to for years. We used to be great mates. We are great mates. We used to hang around to each other all the time back in the day when I was between the ages of like 15 and and 22. But obviously pe life happens, people drift apart, people move to other areas, blah blah blah. Communication breaks down. I haven't really spoke to him that much over the last 10 years, but recently since um he's chosen to uh give it up. It's uh we've we've spoken a lot more. So sometimes friendships can actually get better or or or true the truer of friendships reveal themselves and the ones that are just based on getting wankered as uh they sort of fizzle away. But that's not to take away from the fact that those friendships are still real. Um it's just like that doesn't take away from all the fantastic times you had with each other. It doesn't change that. You still had those times. You you still built up love for each other as friends. It's just that if you take the alcohol away or whatever it might be, sometimes the reason for meeting up might not might not be there and it's just a bit of a sad truth to it sometimes. But it could be anything. Just sometimes it's alcohol taken away. It could be anything. It could just be moving to another part of the country. Can I be asked if most of my mates if they moved to Scotland it's like I probably I wouldn't bother no matter how good friends are you are. It's just not worth it. I'm not get a plane. I won't drive to Scotland. If I went to Scotland, I'll get a plane. And I'm not getting a plane to see anyone. Not even family. Know what I mean? I mean, it's a bit of a ballache just going My mom and dad live in Glouester. My sister's traveling. I go see my mom and dad every month. Lived in Scotland. I mean, don't know if it' be every month. Sorry, Mom, but I three month. It's going have to be three after six months. Scotland. It's the right mission. Uh, sorry, I went off on a tangent there. Um, yeah. So, that's why I've What have I gone? Oh, yeah. That's why I'm doing it. So, I want to give up alcohol. So, that's that's um part of the reason I started this podcast because it's freed me up a bit of time cuz all that time that I was spending being hung over or drinking a few little tinies, just playing a banjo in the corner. Uh, that that was not a euphemism, by the way. I do actually genuinely have a banjo, five string banjo that I have been learning the finger rolls and things like that. All right. Um, but after a few tinies is great fun. But anyway, I've I've um I've got more free time, so I thought I'd start start this podcast. And that's part of the reason why. Um, yeah. So, for me, it's just like it alcohol's always been a part of my life from a very young age. Seeing it, just seeing adults going to parties. You're always stringing along, aren't you? Even even when you're like four, chuck all the kids in a room and the parents going to get pissed. I was that kid in that room and I was watching them with my beady little eyes and I was thinking right they're having a great old time here. I've got them stuck here with broken Lego and they're all having a great time. Why? And it doesn't take it doesn't take a genius even as a kid to work out that alcohol looks like a good time. So I think I remember when I was like eight or nine me and my mate just like take like stealing some beer and going outside and like drinking it. I remember clearly like drinking some and thinking I'm going to pretend to be pissed. I'm not going to be pissed even as a kid off of one sip of beer. So I I took a sip and probably about five minutes later was just just like stumbling over the place imit imitating the pissed adults pretending I was pissed cuz that's what I thought you were meant to be. That's how I thought you but deep down I knew I was faking it. But I was like it's a bit awkward if you take a sip of beer. Right, we got it. We got the special potion. Quick, let's go have some. You sip it and you go, well that's horrible, isn't it? What's the point in that? not going to be like that. U you're gonna revel in the in the joy of of of discovering the forbidden potion. Um so that was like my earliest memory of it. And then even growing up it was just like yeah you come of that age I think about 14 15 where you um you shouldn't drink but you you but the parents may give you a small glass of beer at the table. Yeah. You you're old enough my lad. You may drink some beer. And it's just like a cup that that you like you feel like you've become a man almost because your mom and dad are letting you have a beer and you go, "Yeah, nice." And then uh and then and then and then you start to really go, "Oh, had two of these. I'm starting to I'm starting to feel a little bit funky." And then uh you realize the the beautiful intoxicative effect of alcohol. And then at some point you drink too much and you're sick and you get into what I call my friends call swirly pits where you lie on the floor and you have to hang on. And if you don't hang on, you'll be sick and you may just be sick anyway. It's it's likely. It's on the cards. Um so uh yeah, that's uh that's that. And then as you get to 18, it's um it's more like it's a regular thing. You're getting pissed every weekend guaranteed. You're starting to do other stuff as well. you're experimenting. Alcohol is just the stand the bog standard and you getting up. We used to get bottles of Strong Bow to sit on a bench and just and just for the pure fact of getting drunk. It's not like, oh, we're we're going to have a kick about football and we're going to have a few beers just as a little side thing. No, you get in the beers for one purpose and one purpose only and that is to get drunk. That's the sole purpose. And then that carries on 18, 19, 20, you still have that. you still carry that torch for like let's get pissed and that didn't really for me that didn't really ever kind of go away. I know maybe some obviously everyone's journey is different but for me even when I was like 30 I I I started to realize when I was about 30 that I was like hang on I've got a bit of a habit here like I've got a slight bit of dependency here like I would never go to a social occasion without drinking because I would feel too anxious about it. I hate mingling with people honestly. I do. And I don't know that's I don't know whether that's because I never learned to do it properly cuz I was always pissed or whether that's just me. I just don't like doing it. But anyway, either either thing is I I'll get pissed. No, like guaranteed. And then and then and that's that's where I got my confidence from to deal with social situations. Um so yeah, that was the standard and then you carried that on and then I realized I realized I was like I need I need that to feel all right in social situations. And then sometimes it's like ah I need it to feel all right anyway even if I'm not mingling with people like if I I used to finish work sometimes when I was I think 26 27 used to work at Weatherspoons and I used to finish work and I was like I need now three or four pints just to feel good just to feel normal and that's when I was like ah I got a bit of a problem here I mean it's not major I'm not like I said before not waking up and drinking but it sort of it I feel like it evolved into the next age and um that's when I that's like 5 years ago, five six years ago when um I started my new job and I was like, "Yeah, still drinking and things like that." But I knew I recognized it. I recognized I was like, "Ah, I'm going to have to deal with that at some point when the time is right. I need to deal with that because I'm not going through my life like that. I've seen people do it." And I don't want to be one of those people who like you see them, don't you? They're like, I don't know, 50, 60, and they've just been caning it for and they don't even enjoy it anymore. They're just having a point cuz that's that's what you do. And yeah, I was like, I'm not I'm not going to be like that. Um, so that's that's sort of my journey with it growing up. So yeah, so but it's it's it's it's led me to some great times. I've had awesome times on alcohol. You know what I mean? There's nothing more exciting than going, "Right, should we have a barbecue? The weather's nice." And you go, "I'm going to get some tinies." You go to the shop, you get some Thatcher's gold or whatever it might be. That's not a plug. It's just the greatest drink in the world. Um, and yeah, it's that anticipation, that flutter of oil, you're having a few drinks, but the actual reality of it is never as good as the amount how you imagine it to be. You you you get six, seven, eight points deep. You're you're you're not as as good as a human as you were before at anything, especially music. I'm into music but and I love playing guitar but I know that um after a few points your your your mobility in your fingers goes down your memory goes down but saying that, you know, it's always good to have a few little tinies but no not for me I'm on um about I'm on day 19 now of no alcohol and it's going all right I feel more energetic I feel more um I feel more spontaneous I don't feel the need to have three naps a day. But yeah, so that sort of sums up my first topic. Um so yeah, uh if anyone uh wants to uh ping me a message or whatever about about their their journey with alcohol or got any questions about mine, feel free. That just sums up sums up uh topic one. And now we're uh going to flutter on over to part two, which is uh a feature that I'm going to call Cheeky Little Plunge.

Cheeky little plunge. First installment of this feature is going to be about the phrase cold turkey. Um its origins and if let's see if it takes us on a little journey. Um the so the term cold turkey when everyone hears it you think one thing heroine straight away it's first thing that comes to mind and that's through films like train spotting for me it was personally anyway I've watched that movie about 15 20 times absolutely brilliant. It's just the first thing people think of when they hear cold turkey is about um heroin use. And and they're right in thinking that that is the the most popular way that that term is used. And it's used to describe the their skin. Actually, it's supposed to be like the refrigerated skin of a cold turkey. And it is also used to describe it when people come off alcohol. The only difference is if you are a raging alcoholic and you have tremors, hallucinations, and things like that when you when you go through withdrawals, it can it's fatal. It's potentially fatal. You know what I mean? It can it can kill you if if you just stop drinking. So, they don't recommend you do that. They recommend that you sort of taper off or that you get uh you might get some sort of medication. I'm not a doctor, okay? And I'm not giving any sort of medical advice. It's my first time doing a podcast. I don't know. I don't want to be sued by anyone. You know what I mean? I'm I just take take what I say with a pinch of salt. Yeah. Um but um it is if you if you're coming off of heroin, I've read that it is not fatal. I'm not recommending you act on any of my words, but yeah. So, but it will be one of the most um horrific experiences of your life. And that's what the um the term comes from. So the the the the chicken the turkey skin. If you don't know what a turkey skin feels like, everyone knows what a chicken skin feels like. When I was a kid, I used to my one of my jobs was getting a Sunday getting a Sunday roast ready to join in. I had to rub salt and butter and pepper into the into the chicken carcass. So I'm assuming that the turkey skin feels a lot like a chicken skin. And if you are a vegan, then you're going to struggle because uh you don't know what that feels like. All I can think of is it may feel slightly like a refrigerated freshly shaven ball sack. Um if so if you can imagine that that's probably a lot like what um a chicken skin or a turkey skin is going to feel like. If you are a vegan and also don't know what a ball sack feels like especially refrigerated in refrigerated form then I'm going to struggle to um describe to you the the feeling of of of that um texture and and and temperature. It's very difficult I found to um explain something without any point of reference. Like even if you say someone who's never had a chili before, it's uh it it's it's how they've never had a spicy food in their life, you will say, "Oh, it's hot. It's it's like hot." Everyone knows what heat feels like. You describe it to fire. You compare it to that. So, there's a point of reference there where you can describe spicy food to someone. You say it's hot. I I can't think of any other point of reference to describe that. So, if you're a vegan and you never touched a ball sack, I'm sorry, you're not going to get this reference of cold turkey and uh that's not me being discriminative against you as vegans. More power to you. I think you're do you're doing a sterling job there taking one for the team and but you do get and and I'm not I'm generalizing a little bit. you tend to be a little bit um highly strong um you like a sort of m like highly strong marts and that's the general thing they vegans always seem to think it's their decision as well and sometimes it is okay but a lot of the time it's not when you got a vegan right and both their parents are vegans yeah they're probably a vegan because of that they it's been passed down the line but they will defend it to the hills saying it was their own decision it clearly wasn't And and look look if you were born in India and I don't mean this in a racist way so don't try and twist my words. If you were born in India you most likely be Hindu or a Muslim. And that's not be that's not by chance. That's it's just it's because of the culture and your family and and behaviors and learnings and religions and teachings that get passed down. It's the same thing of veganism a lot of the time. Not all the time. Uh but but but a lot of the time. Okay. So, get off your high horse. All right. And it's okay to be it's okay to be conditioned by your parents. I know I certainly was in lots of ways. That's why that's where my my fond love of alcohol came from, for example. Not afraid to say it. It's um things get passed down. I was at a wedding. This reminds me, I was at a wedding a couple of years ago and they had a Thai noodle takeaway van roll up for dinner. They had all the allergy people come up first and then they called out. They're like, "Right, vegans next." And then about 10 to 12 vegans stood up to go and get their meals, and they all got a big fat round of applause. So, you know, they get a they get a fair bit of recognition. Anyway, we've gone a bit of we've gone off on a bit of a tangent there. So, the cold turkey thing, it's about the cold refrigerated texture and feeling of a of a plucked turkey or whatever. That's the most common thing, and it's it's referencing um cold turkey. So, the abrupt sessation of the use of a substance. But I I did a little bit of looking into it and there there is another there is another meaning. There is another origin for that term. Back in 1877, there was a journal written by someone called Robert William Service. I think it was uh I think it was a I think it was a story actually. He was a he was a he was a poet and he was a writer and he come up with this sort of journal thing. And in that journal it it was a story about a bloke who was getting pushed out of a will and he was cut out of the will and he was cut out of the home. And part of what he they did to him was give him cold slices of turkey again and again and again. And that was sort of to give him the message that you know you're not wanted here. all the rest of the family are getting a nice nice hot meal and you're just getting a cold slice of turkey. And I think that might be where the phrase um giving someone the cold shoulder comes from as well. It's to exclude someone. So you're giving someone a cold shavings of the cold shoulder of lamb or whatever. Cold slice of turkey. It's like, all right, I got the message. I mean, I don't think it would work that I don't think it would work these days if you given someone if if someone came around. I might try actually someone come around give them a few cold slice of turkey. just see what their reaction is. I doubt they're going to turn around and go, "Well, I'm clearly not welcome here." and walk away. But maybe maybe back then having a hot meal was a bigger thing, especially if it in more like wealthier families. I think obviously poor people would be happy just to have any sort of meat whatsoever. So, I think this term probably comes from wealthy families who who probably have a hot meal every day. And to give someone a cold cold turkey of an evening meal was like, "Oh, I'll get my coat." But that was back in 1877. Robin Will Ser Robert Williams service, he was a poet. He um he wrote a poem called The Trail of 98, which was about the gold rush in the Yukon. All right. And um basically it was about um it was about the shooting of someone called Dan Mcgru. And basically this Dan Mcgru fella was um was in the Yukon with his misses and everyone was there just just just profiting from the gold rush that was going on. And there was this random gold prospector who was in the area and he had beef with Dan Mcgru from back in the day and he spotted him in the saloon. He's like, "Ah, right. See you. We got unsettled business." And they had a they had a little shootout and I think uh Dan Mcgru got shot in the eye and went up to tend to his wounds and the prospector. What happened to the prospector? I think he I think he uh did he die? But anyway, he this was all the the uh basis of the song by Paul McCartney, Rocky Raccoon. And I was like that makes sense now because I was reading about the story and actually it's all Dan Mcgru in the story by by Robert William Service but in the song by Paul McCartney he changes his name to Dan McIll. He goes Miss Mrs. McIll and Miss McGill and Dan McIll. So he changed the name slightly and uh he the the prospector in the poem who was unnamed Paul McCartney called Rocky Raccoon. Um obviously renowned from the renowned White album. Great song. I've learned it on guitar in the past with my sister. I used to sing it. Uh I absolutely love that song. It's awesome. It was quite interesting that I I managed to find the um the um the source of the inspiration for it. Um so Rocky Raccoon. Yeah. And then I thought, well, why did he choose the name Rocky Raccoon? So originally it was meant to be Rocky Sassoon, right? But but he he said he didn't but Paul didn't think it sounded cowboy enough, so he literally just changed it to Rocky Raccoon. That was literally the it behind that apparently. But he called him Rocky because he was named he he got his inspiration from uh is it Rocky Mariana? Rocky Mariana or something like that from 13 Floor Elevators. Rocky Oh, no. Rocky Ericen. That was it. Rocky Ericen. Psychedelic rock band, right? He got his name from him. And I listened to 13 Floor Elevators in absolutely years. So, I I flicked through a couple of tunes and I was like, "Oh, yeah. I remember this now." And um I I looked a little bit into Rocky's Rocky's life and and it just revealed to me about how brutal the 60s were. When when you think about the 60s, right, you always think flowers in your hair, hitchhiking down to San Francisco, free love, um Woodstock, smoking marijuana, everyone's tripping their balls on acid. That's that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it? The 60s. Everyone's chill. It's all sound. Um, psychedelic rock, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, all that stuff. All that great stuff. And it's just a good old Rocky a good old little time. Um, when you're looking into Rocky Ericson's life, you you you realize it. It wasn't quite actually it wasn't actually like that. Apparently, in 1968 when he was performing a concert, the the report said he started speaking gibberish and he was and he was di diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. And I was just thinking, hang on, this fell, it's 1968. He's performing a psychedelic rock concert and he starts speaking gibberish. He clearly tripping his balls off, right? Quite evidently. But do you know what they did to him? They take they take him to Houston Psychic Hospital where he was given involuntarily electroconvulsive therapy. So, and he was the one performing, let alone the people in the crowd who might get busted. This guy was actually on stage, so they took him off. He was tripping, you know, he's tripping balls in the 60s. I thought that was just standard. Anyway, he gets He gets taken into a mental hospital and electrocuted in the skull for it. When I read that, I was like, "All right, I think I've been conditioned to view the 60s in a certain way." And it actually wasn't quite like that. Another um thing that happened to to him was he was found with a joint, a single marijuana joint, and he was he was handed a 10-year sentence, right? And he he actually pleaded insanity to avoid prison. And then he went to Austin State Mental Hospital again. So back once again, he's back in mental hospital where he he he escaped several times apparently and was given yet more electroic therapy, electrotherapy, as well as thorazine treatment. And anyone who doesn't know what thorazine is, it's uh what if you ever seen the movies where they they send in the men in white and they stab you in the leg and inject you? That's most likely thorazine. And it sort of just turns you into a vegetable. I don't know if you've ever watched Bronson. It's all about the life of Charles Bronson. And he was the most one of the most dangerous criminals in the UK at the time or whatever. And he was sent to wormwell scrubs, all loads of different prisons and eventually into a mental hospital. And they you you see you see a depiction of him getting stabbed and injected with thorazine and it just turns you into like a a vegetable. You lose sort of your ability to move your muscles. You dribble. You you can't really do much of anything. So you got given all that as well. But the interesting thing about the thorazine is that it uh they use they still use it today. I don't know if they use it in mental hospitals. I think it might change from whatever country you're in. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. And there's different levels of mental hospitals, isn't there? Sometimes, sometimes you just got to touch the old paranoid schizophrenia. Sometimes you're a fullyfledged absolute nutcase, which you might need a bit a bit of thorazine might do you good. But the interesting thing about thorazine in terms of today's use is that they use it now to prolong the painkilling effects of opioids or opioid therapy in hospitals as well as reducing the effects of nausea whilst taking them. So, it's taken us in a full little lovely little loop back to the opioid use again, which is basically where we started with the cold turkey. So, my cheeky little plunge. We've gone down, we've plunged down, and we come back up. And now we're breathing oxygen again. Okay. So, there we are. There we have it.

So, as we go into topic two, um I don't have a name for it. It's just about phrases and things people say and where it comes from and and if there's anything in that in that. So, I suppose it could be called things people say and where it comes from. There we go. There's the jingle for that one.

So, my dad always used to say to me, uh, never never touch a yellow dog. Never stroke a yellow dog. And I always thought, why did he say that? I thought more and more. I've thought about it recently. And I just thought, I've never heard anyone say that other than him. And that was back when I was a kid and we were just uh roaming around France. We used to go to France a lot on camping trips and things like that. And he used to play in abandon. He used to gig around the south of France. And he always used to say, "Never touch yellow dog." because you see a lot of mang feral dogs around the south of France and I assumed he just said it because he's just basically saying just don't touch feral dogs just leave them be they could be aggressive and that and after looking into it that's that's basically it. Um there's a lot about rabies at the minute and in the news and if you I didn't realize until looking into this how how savage rabies is. Obviously, you know, I knew it wasn't good news, but if you if you get rabies from an animal and it gets into your nervous system and crosses the blood brain barrier, it can it will you up. You will not die. There's Sorry, not you will die. There's no cure for it. You're you're doomed, right? And there's two types of rabies. In dogs, it's called dumb rabies and and and furious rabies. And in humans, it's called furious rabies and paralytic rabies. And I think that's just because they don't if someone had if someone had dumb rabies, you couldn't really tell that to their family. I'm sorry, it's not good news. Um, they've got dumb rabies. What do you mean dumb? So, they changed it to paralytic rabies. But in dogs, that's that type of rabies called dumb rabies. And the differences between the two is one makes you very placid uh uh you want to stay away from things you're anxious you're drooling and you eventually become paralyzed and and then you die. The other one is you become anxious aggressive. You get hydrophobia. So you're get you're you get a fear of water and that's the same weirdly enough it's the same symptoms in humans. But but there's not been a there's rarely a death in humans because if if you get scratched by a rabid animal, you tend to know about it and you and you got plenty of time to get a series of shots. I mean, it's at least going to take days. It can apparently it can take months or even some in some cases years before symptoms develop. But once those symptoms do develop, you're You're going to get the the dumb rabies or the aggressive rabies. But because you got so much time to get the shots in and because it's pretty obvious when you've been bitten by a rabid animal, you're you're going to go to hospital and get those shots. But in in some cases and and recently, there was a woman called Ivonne Ford. I think the wife of Rob Ford, I think it's Rob Ford, she was scratched by a puppy in Morocco or something. And she thought nothing of it. Turned out that puppy had rabies. She developed symptoms and she died and she died. But I just thought it was pretty mental how you you become aggressive even as a a human and because you know what a rabid dog in the movies looks like. It's it's it's barking. It's it's throwing at the mouth and it's pretty mental how uh it that virus affects your brain and it does exactly the same thing as a dog's brain it does in a human's brain. And it travels to the brain and it and it intentionally tampers with parts of your brain that moderate your behavior and it makes you more aggressive because you're more likely to attack someone and bite them, therefore spreading the virus on. So the virus is making you aggressive to perpetuate its own existence, which I just find absolutely bizarre. And it was, of course, the inspiration behind the movie 28 Days Later. This in in that movie is not rabies. They say they're infected by rage or whatever it is. But the whole thing was um yeah, it was inspired by rabies, which I thought was quite cool because we're not a far cry away from of that then. What if there was like a mass outbreak of rabies apart from it it didn't take weeks and months for the symptoms to kick in. It did just take like minutes and and and and it affected your brain a lot in a lot more of a an exaggerated way. And you did just go around biting people. I It's not that far away from the tree, is it? Just like that. Just like that cordiceps fungus that affects the ants, right? The way they make it affects it affects them and then they they want to climb a tree. They've got no they've got no control over their what they do. The fungus takes over their mind. They crawl to the top of a tree, they die, and the fungus spreads its little spores. So, what if there was some sort of like mixture between some sort of fungus rabies, right, that gets into you? Look, I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm saying it could. Yeah. Especially as like climate change is going up cuz apparently the only reason that cordiseps fungus can't survive in a mammal's body is because the temperature, we're too hot for it. Like 37°, it's too hot. But as the climate increases generally, surely that fungus is going to evolve and adapt to be able to cope with those higher temperatures, which means that it can then spread into mammals bodies. Could that could happen. You never know. But anyway, how do we get on to this? Yellow dogs. Oh yeah, the yellow dogs. Also, I don't know if I if I mentioned this yet, but the the bloody what I didn't realize is is apparently if you see a yellow yellow not a yellow dog, if you see a dog wearing yellow, there's something called the yellow dog project, right? And it was started to raise awareness and help people who have timid or aggressive pets that might be prone to attack. And they say the guidelines are to get get them a little yellow scarf or a little yellow jacket or a hat or something. So if you ever see a dog wearing yellow, you're meant to stay away from it. And I never I just never knew about that before. This is that was brand new information to me. But I'm going to be looking out for these dogs wearing yellow now. And I'm going to be like, hm. Because sometimes you don't see things if you're not looking for it. It's like when you get a new car, you suddenly start seeing that car everywhere you look. So maybe it's going to be like that with the dogs wearing yellow. Maybe we're not now going to see dogs in yellow jackets all the time. But anyway, the guidelines is keep your distance. If you see your dog wearing a yellow yellow jacket or whatever, do not approach. Don't stare at it. All right? So don't lock eyes onto it, which is going to be it's going to be quite tempting not to do that now. And respect the owner space. Like don't you obviously do that anyway. But thing is, next time I see a dog wearing yellow, I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to have to just out of moral principle just lock lock eyes of it and see what happens. And if it starts like raring it little lip up, showing a bit of teeth, I'm going to know there's some truth behind it. You know what I mean? It's not just it's not just more twaddle on the internet. So yeah, keep your eyes peeled. Dogs wearing yellow. All right. stay away from the little. All right. And that concludes my um that concludes my uh my my section of where where do you hear that from or where do you get it from section. Yeah. Topic number two.

So, now we're going to be moving on to the next section which is uh they've got a weird name. Are they weird as their name is? They weird as their name sounds they are. And the jingle goes a little something like this.

Have a strange name. So, the person I've chosen with a strange name today is someone called Schlitzy, also known as Schlitzy Jaba or Schultz, depending on what country you you hail from. Born under the name Simon Mittz, which doesn't really have the same ring to it. And he spent I keep accidentally saying her because they dressed him up in as girls in some movies. He spent most of his life performing as a sideshow performer. Uh performed in a few movies. The most famous one being Freaks from 1932 and that was that was his little career. He became a cultural little cultural icon. He was born with a condition called microphily which was a neurodedevelopmental disorder which made him have a smaller brain and a smaller skull than most people and was quite small as well. I think he's only about 4 foot but it didn't didn't hold him back. He made a great little life for himself. And yes, he did spend most of his time doing sideshow performances, but back then, if you

Were if you were in that position, I think you sort of made the most of it. I mean, in the movie Freaks, the other people that were were trying to rub shoulders of him weren't that weren't that good. There was a woman with a beard. I mean, these days that's normal. There's women that ate with her feet or something like that. Anyway, Schlitzy was the best one and that's why he became a sort of cultural icon at the time.

It's a little bit controversial because you think, is it right that he was a sideshow performer? Is it right? And I think the alternative was worse, cuz the alternative is that he was going to be housed in some sort of mental asylum. And I can't imagine that 1920s, 1930s mental hospitals were that nice place to be. So we had a choice of doing the circuits with a sideshow or being housed in a 1920s nut house. So I know what I would choose.

I don't know how it worked as a sideshow performer. I don't know if he got paid or what he'd spend his money on if he did get paid. I'm assuming he was given food and accommodation for his work. And I've done that when I went to travel Australia. I did something called woofing. I don't know if it's still called that, but back in the day you call something woofing, where you'd contact someone, you'd work for them and in return you'd get food and accommodation. So I imagine it was the same sort of deal for him.

But obviously his work was a lot easier than my work. I had to do like hard labor. This guy probably just had to stand in a stand somewhere and people come and watch. And obviously it can't be that nice for people just pointing and looking at you. I mean, they did have they did get labeled as some fairly derogatory things. In the movie Freaks, him and his someone else with the same condition were called pin heads or missing links. And when he was doing his sideshow performances, they used to hang signs on his little tent or wherever he was performing with things such as the last of the Aztecs or the monkey girl or what is it?

So, I mean, you couldn't get away with that these days, could you? You know what I mean? I can't imagine that you could get away with getting someone with physical and mental disabilities, sticking them in a tent, hanging a sign on the door that says monkey girl, charging 2 pound 50 per entry. I mean, that was only about 100 years ago they were doing that. So, times have changed a fair bit.

But this Schlitzy fellow, I mean, he had an interesting life. He starred in a few movies. He done the rounds on the sideshow circuits. Would he have had a better life if he was around today than he did back then? And I question that because I think if he was around today, he would have been in care, in serious care. He wouldn't have had a family. He wouldn't have had people around him all the time. He would have been separated from the community, separated from society, and plopped in a home somewhere and tended to. Which back then he was surrounded by loads of people. You know what I mean? I don't think it would have been a strictly negative atmosphere all the time. Yes, there was a sign on the door that said monkey girl, but I think the crowds would have been like amazed and like happy and cheering and things like that.

Like they did in India, they still do things like that with people born with weird abnormalities. At some of the festivals, they have like the big religious festivals, you see people with like big growths on their head and people celebrate it. They go, "Oh, they're a bit like Ganesh the elephant and they think they've got like special powers." I think that's better than just sticking someone in a home. You know what I mean? I think we've gone backwards a little bit.

I think if you're born with some sort of deficiency, I'm not saying deficiency. If you're born with no legs, it's going to be [ __ ] then. It'll be [ __ ] now. You got no legs. Nothing's going to help that. But if you're a bit mental, I mean, I think back in the day, you're accepted more by the community. If you got a nutcase roaming about the streets these days, you get locked up in a home. If you get a nutcase knocking about in the olden days, they'll probably just be like, "Oh, there's Cedric. He's off his head, that guy, and he's just going down the road on his merry little way." As long as he's not attacking anyone, what harm are they doing? They're just a bit mental and then they're in the community. They're part of the community rather than just being locked away.

So I think Schlitzy was born in the right time. I think if he was born these days, he wouldn't have had such a good life. So that's my take on it anyway. And I might be right. I might be wrong. Anyway, to sum it all up, he had a weird name. And he was a bit weird, but weird in a way that should be celebrated and not put down. If he was born these days, I'd have him around for a cup of tea and have a little chat, see what's going on. They're interesting, aren't they? You know what I mean?

But anyway, that pretty much summarizes my first episode of Kab and I've loved every second of it, to be fair. I've enjoyed it. I've learned something. You've learned something. It's entertained me. I've enjoyed making it. You know what I mean? And I'm looking forward to making the next one. And like I say, I'm going to aim for every week. I hope I can stick to that. I'm sure I can. And yeah, I don't know how to leave it really. How about this? Well, thanks for swinging by. We've had a few highs, a few lows. So, join me next time on Kill a Bit of Time. Join me next week where we'll kill a Bit of Time again on episode two. Two. Two. [Music]