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R E He. We're

0:47

going another they should A Cool

0:49

stuff right? L Markers bad joined

0:51

by reggie resume and today's episode.

0:53

a rare art exhibition is underway

0:55

in France. Likes to first responders

0:58

of the two thousand and eighteen

1:00

fire of Notre Dame. More details

1:02

to come was weird. Wednesday brings

1:04

us a rat hole. Update: Banning

1:07

Joe Auto in Italy. That's right,

1:09

I said banning a long tail

1:11

and a tree hugger blossom this

1:13

day and history. the washing toilet

1:15

and spending. A penny will explain

1:18

that's coming up on cool stuff

1:20

where whether you fancy yourself an

1:22

art lover or kind of sewers

1:24

really irrelevant as most of us

1:27

can at least appreciate classical works

1:29

regardless of whether artist quote unquote

1:31

our thing That's what makes this

1:33

story so cool. For Jihad and

1:35

a collection of historic artwork saved

1:38

from the April Twenty Nineteen fires

1:40

of Notre Dame are set to

1:42

be exhibited once again as the.

1:44

Eight Hundred and Sixty. One year

1:47

old Cathedral nears it's reopening this

1:49

December built and Thirteen Forty Five.

1:51

If you're trying to do the

1:53

math in your head, the Seventy

1:55

Six Religious works collectively known as

1:58

The Maze of Notre Dame. are mostly

2:01

from the 17th century and 13

2:03

of them were on display in the cathedral

2:05

at the time of the fire. Adding

2:08

to the intrigue here, the 17 pieces reportedly

2:11

have not been displayed together in

2:13

over 160 years and the reason

2:17

has to do with one

2:19

particular employee of the cathedral.

2:21

Notre Dame's famous architectural custodian,

2:23

Eugene Viollet de Lhut apparently

2:26

just didn't like them and

2:28

had them removed from their

2:30

place between the central columns of

2:32

the transept and placed in the

2:34

side chapels. Their new display location

2:36

was one of the last to

2:39

suffer damage from the blaze, meaning

2:41

Viollet de Lhut's displeasure was their

2:43

salvation. To commemorate the Virgin Mary

2:45

every May from 1630 to

2:48

1707, the Goldsmith's Guild in Paris

2:50

would present a monumental religious scene

2:52

to honor the saint painted by

2:54

some of the best artists of

2:57

the time. Giving this collection of

2:59

paintings the nickname, as referenced earlier,

3:01

the Maze of Notre Dame. They were

3:03

all uniform in size and style, painted

3:05

10 feet by 8 inches wide and

3:08

8 feet by 6

3:10

inches tall, with the paintings borrowing

3:12

scenes from Greece, the Bible, and

3:14

Rome all to tell religious stories.

3:17

As you might expect on the day

3:19

of the fire, treasures of all kinds

3:21

were saved here, including a wooden chest

3:23

that contained the 27 meter long chancel

3:27

rug of the cathedral, last

3:29

used for the procession of

3:31

Napoleon III's wedding. Once

3:33

the fires were extinguished that day, first responders

3:36

found the 13 maze

3:38

still hanging in the side chapels

3:40

and apart from some minor water

3:42

damage, they were unscathed. Per Emmanuel

3:44

Penicout, director of Mobileer National Collections,

3:47

that's the association appointed by the

3:49

French government to restore these works,

3:51

quote, we began removing them the

3:53

day after the fire and decided

3:56

they would all be restored. The

3:58

exhibition is a chance... to see

4:00

them all in one place in the

4:02

order they were painted, which is how

4:04

they would have been originally displayed. What

4:06

you see now is how they would

4:08

have looked the day they were completed."

4:10

End quote. The exhibition also features another

4:13

nine religious paintings saved from the fire

4:15

and 14 tapestries that were

4:17

part of the Notre Dame's chancel,

4:20

which now reside in Strasbourg. The

4:22

treasures of Notre Dame are now

4:24

on display and will stay that

4:26

way until July 21st. So

4:28

if you're interested, book your

4:30

flight to France now. Reggie,

4:33

are you an art lover of any

4:35

kind? I can

4:37

appreciate some art, definitely not to the

4:39

level of a lot of people out

4:41

there. So I'll take a

4:43

look at them, I'll be like, oh, that's cool. And

4:45

that's usually my extent. All right, fair

4:47

enough. I think I'm probably in the same boat. I

4:51

wouldn't tell anyone that I have a keen

4:53

eye for it or know even what I'm

4:55

looking for, but I think I could appreciate

4:57

something if someone were to tell me this

5:00

has historical relevance. And certainly when you're talking

5:02

about a lot of these religious pieces that

5:04

date back centuries, I

5:06

mean, whether they are or are not considered

5:08

quote unquote masterpieces, I think you have to

5:10

at least appreciate the time and circumstances from

5:12

which they were derived. So it would be

5:14

pretty cool to see these things in person.

5:17

And the fact that they held up over time.

5:19

I mean, not every painting was, I

5:22

guess, designed the same. Some of them just don't

5:24

hold up, whether it be the materials

5:26

used or something like that, they

5:28

gotta last and they gotta be somewhat appealing

5:30

over time to be considered artwork, I

5:33

guess. But I do remember the Notre Dame fires.

5:35

I remember that very vividly. Well,

5:38

it was like four years ago, five years

5:40

ago. I mean, good for you. I

5:43

don't remember a lot of things. So I'm proud

5:45

that I remember that. That sharp memory of yours,

5:47

like harkening back to the 1800s. I

5:50

do remember that too, kids, back in 2019,

5:54

before we knew what a pandemic was. Who

5:57

are you again? I don't

5:59

know, Father Time. The perfect. This.

6:01

Valentine's Day. Don't consider the perfect pairing

6:04

see show your love So get down

6:06

on one knee with a dozen brownie

6:08

better donuts and a coke. I'm okay

6:10

Signature latte or make them swoon with

6:12

a strawberry Dragon Fruit Duncan refresher with

6:14

a cupid Choice? Don't I? Are you

6:16

ready for love? America runs on Dunkin.

6:18

Precipitously. From a very limited time offer.

6:21

The fact that. Are.

6:23

I were going to start off Weird Wednesday

6:25

with a follow up story. A

6:27

while back we mentioned the Rat Hole in

6:29

Chicago, which if you don't remember with a

6:31

section in the sidewalk on Chicago's North Side,

6:34

they had an imprint of an animal that

6:36

somehow a Puritan. It. Recently

6:38

regained fame but has now

6:40

been removed. Neighbors. About

6:42

Rat Hole complained about visitors coming at

6:44

all hours and they would leave items

6:47

like coins scattered across the sidewalk. Personally,

6:50

I don't have an issue with that. I would just pick up the

6:52

coins, but. Anyway, he's they offer

6:54

complained that it looked more like a

6:56

squirrel. And that is what they believed

6:58

cause the imprint not a rat. Erica.

7:00

Schrader, a spokesperson for the Chicago

7:03

Department of Transportation, said the square

7:05

of the sidewalk quote containing the

7:07

famous Chicago Rat Hole and quote

7:09

is now in temporary storage and

7:11

as for where it'll end up,

7:14

Well. That is expected to be a

7:16

court collaborative decision between the city departments

7:18

and the Mayor's office and quote She

7:20

said it wasn't just the rat hole

7:22

section that needed to be replaced, other

7:24

portions were removed as well as they

7:26

determine the needed to be fix because

7:28

of damage. The. Alderman for the

7:30

district had been receiving complaints of the

7:32

sidewalk was an even. And people

7:35

congregated around the rat holed the take pictures.

7:37

So I guess now I'm just going up

7:39

to cancel my biggest and to Chicago they're

7:41

They're tough enough to see their for there's

7:43

no rattle. of course of course not

7:45

who would want to watch that baseball team the

7:47

cubs boy i'm kidding with medical that so i

7:50

never i never got to see the rat hole

7:52

i don't have the heck would have any interest

7:54

and seen it i wonder are they going to

7:56

put it on display somewhere i don't know if

7:58

you can go next the bean, I don't know.

8:00

I have absolutely zero

8:02

desire or care to see this thing.

8:05

Put it that way. All

8:07

right, I guess we're moving on. Well,

8:09

let's head over to Italy where a new

8:12

proposed law in Milan is trying to get

8:14

ice cream and other foods banned for late

8:16

night patrons. The law would cover 12

8:18

districts and would ban all takeaway food,

8:21

which also includes pizza and drinks after

8:23

midnight. The goal is to prevent

8:25

noisy crowds on the streets, which can keep

8:27

local residents up at night. The

8:29

deputy mayor Marco Grinelli said, quote,

8:31

the goal is to seek a

8:34

balance between socializing and entertainment and

8:36

the peace and tranquility of residents, end quote.

8:39

The ban would last from mid-May until November and would

8:41

be in effect from 1230 a.m. on weekdays and 1

8:43

30 a.m. on weekends and

8:47

public holidays. The citizens still

8:49

have a little time to appeal the

8:51

suggested law. This also isn't the first time

8:53

they tried to pass a law like this. In

8:55

2013, the mayor tried to

8:57

implement similar measures but was met

8:59

with resistance, which included an Occupy

9:01

Gelato movement. After that, he

9:04

was quoted in saying, people can eat

9:06

ice cream day and night any

9:08

way they like, end quote. I

9:10

honestly, when it comes to Europe, like in the

9:12

U.S., I can see this being a problem. In

9:14

Europe, they do everything a

9:16

little bit later. You don't really eat dinner

9:18

until 9, 10 o'clock at night.

9:21

So having ice cream and stuff at this time

9:23

kind of makes sense to me. Although,

9:26

as being a grumpy old man, I can also

9:28

see, hey, I want to go to bed. It's

9:30

1230. Yeah, I mean, either

9:32

way, I can sort of see both

9:34

sides here. I don't necessarily want to

9:37

be listening to hustle and bustle outside

9:40

my window all hours of

9:42

the night. Then again, you know

9:44

where you live and you know that you're

9:46

in a part of town that has a

9:48

lot of action. And quite frankly, maybe that's

9:50

part of the reason you live where you

9:52

do. So I don't know. I don't

9:54

know who's in the right here, but I can see

9:57

trying to strike a happy balance of saying, here's the

9:59

cutoff point. Enjoy. yourself until this time

10:01

and then after that you can

10:03

go somewhere else and continue the fun if you so

10:05

choose. And there's one

10:07

thing Marcus I have learned in life getting

10:10

pizza late at night is a staple at

10:12

least in the US you can always find

10:14

Sal's pizza open sometime somewhere. That

10:17

is true so many times where we've

10:19

been looking for something and

10:21

that's the only salvation that we can find and you

10:23

know what I'm a-okay with that pizza is alright in

10:26

my book. Alright we're gonna

10:28

close out with two Guinness World Records the

10:30

first one is for animal lovers. Sweetie

10:32

a miniature horse in South Carolina broke the

10:35

record for the longest tail on a miniature

10:37

horse measuring five feet and 11.26 inches.

10:41

Now the horse itself is only three feet

10:43

one inch tall and is a

10:45

whopping 36 years old. The

10:48

horse's owner says she wraps the tail

10:50

up to prevent it from dragging behind

10:52

her. She also washes and conditions it

10:54

twice a year. The tail first

10:56

reached the ground in 2012 and has

10:58

been growing ever since. So

11:00

I don't know enough about horses I

11:02

guess their tails just continue to grow

11:05

throughout their life then it's not like

11:07

they reach a set point and just stop

11:09

it's probably a sounds like a stupid question

11:11

to people who know equine

11:13

but I don't is that

11:15

fair to say? Yeah I thought

11:17

the horse like the hair

11:20

would fall off at some point and would

11:22

kind of just stay around a certain length

11:24

but yeah I guess I

11:26

didn't know that answer either until I

11:28

guess it keeps growing if you don't do anything with it. There

11:31

are people right now who are really cursing

11:33

the air because we don't know these things

11:35

and you know what I apologize I'm sorry.

11:38

Yeah I don't know my horse maintenance. My

11:40

dad had a horse I never had one I

11:42

don't know. Alright well we

11:44

had that animal lover story now let's go

11:46

to a tree lover story. A

11:48

man from Ghana who is studying forestry in

11:51

Alabama set a world record for hugging the

11:53

most trees in an hour as he

11:55

hugged 1,123 trees at the Tuskegee

11:58

National Forest. 29-year-old

12:00

Abubakar Tehiru is currently studying for

12:02

his master's degree in forestry at

12:04

Auburn University. Now, like all Guinness

12:06

World Record attempts, there are some rules he had

12:09

to follow. He had to wrap

12:11

both arms around each tree in a

12:13

close embrace without damaging the tree. No

12:15

tree could be hugged more than once. To

12:17

make matters more difficult, Tehiru was

12:20

also fasting for Ramadan during his

12:22

attempt. He told Guinness World Records,

12:24

quote, "...not being able to

12:26

drink water throughout the attempt posed a

12:28

significant challenge, especially given the physical exertion

12:30

required. However, this also proved to be

12:32

helpful in a way, as

12:34

there is no need to pause for water

12:37

breaks, allowing me to continue the attempt uninterrupted

12:39

from start to finish." End quote. Now, if

12:41

you're curious that averages out to about 19

12:43

trees per minute, the old record was

12:45

700. Wow.

12:48

I cannot fathom a world where

12:50

I cared enough to set this

12:52

record for tree hugging.

12:55

But, you know, good for

12:57

Abubakar, and I do venture

12:59

to guess that it was more

13:01

physically exhausting than maybe we would give it

13:04

credit for at first blush. Just thinking about

13:06

this, you're going, how difficult

13:08

can it be? But then you

13:10

think about running from tree to tree, even though

13:13

they are probably very close together if you're able

13:15

to get to a thousand of them or 1100

13:18

plus in that amount of time. But still

13:21

moving like that continuously, I'm sure

13:23

takes it out of you. And to not

13:25

have water breaks is almost like that

13:27

could be a little bit dangerous. I wonder what the

13:29

weather conditions were like. Hopefully not too, too

13:31

hot out that day. Yeah. The picture

13:34

I saw of him, he looked exhausted. It's

13:36

not actually it sounds like a silly world

13:38

record, but yeah, it sounds like a very

13:40

physical world record to go through. Like you

13:42

said, you're running from tree to tree. You

13:45

have to wrap your arms around it, hug it,

13:47

then go to the next tree. I would imagine

13:49

getting like scrapes on my face as well by

13:51

doing this. I hope he at least got

13:53

a t-shirt out of this ordeal. Guinness

13:56

World Record holder. Wear it proudly.

14:00

Marcus, I'm going to start this day in history with

14:02

a question for you. Have you ever used the phrase

14:04

to spend a penny when referring

14:06

to using the toilet? No, never

14:08

heard the phrase in my life. I

14:11

was unaware of it as well, but

14:13

I guess that phrase basically started on

14:15

this day in history with the first

14:17

flushing toilet. On May 1, 1851,

14:20

the great exhibition at Hyde Park in London

14:22

started and ran until October. During

14:24

this event, a man named George

14:26

Jennings installed what he called monkey

14:28

closets in the retiring rooms of

14:30

the Crystal Palace. They were

14:32

the first public toilets and they caused a lot

14:34

of excitement. In fact, 827,280 visitors used

14:40

the monkey room, which included a flushable toilet,

14:42

a clean seat, a towel, a comb, and

14:44

a shoeshine, all for one penny. That

14:47

is when people started using the phrase to spend

14:49

a penny to use the toilet. After

14:52

the exhibition was finished, the Crystal Palace was to be

14:54

moved and the toilets were going to be closed down,

14:57

but Jennings convinced them to keep them open. They

14:59

would end up making a thousand pounds a year. After

15:02

the success of the monkey closet, he went

15:04

on to create the public waiting rooms, which

15:07

contained toilets in wooden surrounds. They cost

15:09

two pence and extra

15:11

for washing or clothes brushes.

15:14

They, however, had an awkward design and

15:16

the flushing technique wasn't great, so they

15:18

weren't overly successful. Now, after

15:20

Jennings' death in 1882 at the age of 72 due to a traffic

15:22

accident, his son took

15:26

over the business. In 1895,

15:28

the business created a better flushing method

15:30

and was added to public toilets in

15:32

36 British towns. These public toilets

15:35

were built in a Victorian style and were

15:37

designed to be aesthetically pleasing as they were

15:39

built with marble and copper and were furnished

15:41

with fine ceramics and tiles. Now,

15:44

there aren't many of these Victorian public

15:46

toilets left today. However, I would kind

15:48

of be curious to see what they look like, although

15:50

after 100 years of youth, I don't think I want

15:52

to know how they smell. Also,

15:56

because I'm a child at heart, here's a side note

15:59

that the public toilets that Jennings created, you

16:01

know, the ones that weren't overly successful, they

16:04

did end up gaining some success after

16:06

the flushing mechanism had improvements

16:08

from Thomas Crapper, who

16:12

is sometimes mistakenly created with inventing

16:14

the flushing toilet. He

16:17

just actually improved the functionality and developed a

16:19

few older inventions for the

16:21

toilet like the ballcock, which is also known

16:23

as the float valve. So I

16:25

think from now on, when I go to the bathroom, I'm

16:27

either going to spend a

16:29

penny or say I'm taking a Jennings instead

16:31

of something else. The

16:36

built in childish jokes to this

16:38

story. Unbelievable. And you never

16:40

stop to think about hey, the first time

16:42

there was a public toilet that flushed how

16:45

fascinating it must be because now I just

16:47

think disgusting. If I'm in a public toilet,

16:49

public restroom, like get me out of

16:51

here as fast as possible, especially at like

16:53

an airport. Well, you also

16:55

didn't get a shoeshine included with

16:58

it along with a comb and you know,

17:00

everything else. Now you just have to go.

17:03

You don't get anything out of it besides the toilet, which

17:05

by the way, is very convenient. I'm not going to complain

17:07

about that. Reggie

17:09

complains about public indoor plumbing.

17:13

On that note, that'll do it for this

17:15

edition of Cool Stuff Ride Home. You can

17:17

reach us at [email protected]. Also like us

17:19

and leave a review on Apple podcast or

17:22

Spotify. I'm Reggie Rizzo. He's Marcus Path. We'll

17:24

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