spk_0:   0:32
history. I'm Jonathan, and I'm Kylie. And this is show where we talk about the upcoming week, but allowing them ago

spk_1:   0:38
pretty long ago. Well, yeah,

spk_0:   0:40
mine is still in the vein of the last few episodes we've done.

spk_1:   0:44
Oh, I just look back at my date. Mind is

spk_0:   0:47
not long ago, uh, continuing the trend of not understanding time. This is great for historians.

spk_1:   0:55
I completely forgot when mine was and just didn't look at my paper until after I said that and then went, Ha ha. Oops, I lied.

spk_0:   1:05
Uh, do we have any updates?

spk_1:   1:08
I do not.

spk_0:   1:09
I don't either.

spk_1:   1:10
Woo. Let's dive on in, then.

spk_0:   1:12
Pick. Yeah. When is your date?

spk_1:   1:14
1934.

spk_0:   1:16
Mine is 1936. You get to go first,

spk_1:   1:19
huh? Already. So this week, I wanted to get back into the Was it real or not? Theme on February 22nd 1934. And I'm gonna butcher these French names. Um, George, Andre, Malraux and Eduard. Um, Cornelia. I'm going with Cornelia and there's a G in there, but I'm

spk_0:   1:45
not sure how to pronounce that carnelian. Maybe,

spk_1:   1:47
maybe. And ah, it's Carnelian Mullah Near set out to find the lost capital of the Queen of Sheba that was mentioned in the Old Testament. Oh, exciting. Yeah, For reference, Uh, Moreau was a French novelist art theorist and served as the minister of information from 1945 to 1946. And he was France's first minister of cultural affairs from 1959 to 1969 under President Charles de Gaulle. So he was like a fairly influential person, I guess. Um, Melanie Air was an aviator and member of the French Resistance and a member of the French government during the French Fourth Republic, which lasted from 1946 to 1958. France had many Republics, Um, and then in the 19 thirties and forties, he was a movie producer. Interesting. So, yeah, it's a really yet it's a very interesting. So you're the French Resistance fighter and a movie producer and a pilot. So sure, Jack of all Trades Forest. Yep, has a very interesting duo on that set on on this little adventure. So the start of their search was highly publicized, possibly because of what they were looking for. A k a. The lost queen of Sheba's everything. Um, but more likely because of where they were going. At the time, it was believed that the biblical Kingdom of Sheba was somewhere around Saudi Arabia and Yemen, which were both remote and dangerous places that few Westerners visited at the time. What made the expedition especially dangerous was that while Melrose was searching for the lost cities of Sheba, King had been sowed of Saudi Arabia, invaded Yemen, and the ensuing Saudi Yamani war greatly complicated their search. From what I can tell, he pretty much just, uh, Morrow pretty much just flew over the deserts and an airplane hoping to find the ruins of an ancient city.

spk_0:   3:45
I mean, how else sounds

spk_1:   3:47
like just kind of him in, Um, Molinari just kind of flew back and forth, presumably in some sort of pattern. I'm just looking for ruins, and then I would assume that when they found them, they'd just closer. Look,

spk_0:   4:02
my immediate thought whenever I think about someone flying, looking for ruins, is a scene from Avatar, The Last Airbender where now the blind girl, tough, traveling for a long time, looking for these ruins, with a group of other people

spk_1:   4:16
flying in the air.

spk_0:   4:18
The air just points in a random direction and goes, I think I see it and everybody else goes, Oh, where and they're all looking. And then she's just like I'm blind

spk_1:   4:28
And like, waves her hand back and forth in front of her

spk_0:   4:31
face. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, that's probably the mike hit that you just heard my and John Sina asked.

spk_1:   4:40
Now, did he come up with that before her? Or did she do

spk_0:   4:44
that? First? She was actually a parody of John Sena

spk_1:   4:48
That explains so much.

spk_0:   4:50
Just like a person that she's fighting against in the like W W s is named the Boulder.

spk_1:   4:57
Yes, for the rock, right? Yeah. Okay. All right. I can't remember. Like what? Avatar first came out, so I couldn't. My mental timeline is all messed up. All right,

spk_0:   5:09
One last aside with that scene, the boulder is voiced by Mick Foley, who notoriously disliked the rock.

spk_1:   5:16
Oh, well, then, all right.

spk_0:   5:21
Sorry about that. Back to your traveling over deficits. Looking for ruins.

spk_1:   5:24
It's my turn. Eso After weeks of this this'll flight over deserts, um, Mel row and millennia returned to France and announce that the ruins Morrow had found up on the mountains up in the mountains of Yemen were in fact the capital of the Queen of Sheba. His claim was not supported by archaeologists, however. It did boost his fame and provided him with material for several of his next essays that he wrote. So do you know anything about the Queen of Sheba? No. Well, in case anyone at home listening doesn't either. And for your edification, she was a biblical queen mentioned in the Old Testament slash the Hebrew Bible. However, her existence has been heavily disputed by historians. The story goes that hearing of the wisdom and wealth of the Israel. Like King Solomon, she visited him at in Jerusalem, bringing quote a great read new with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones for a gift there, she found that his fame, great as it was, fell far short of the truth. And after exchanging costly presents and proving him with hard questions, she returned to her own land, marveling at what she had seen and heard. So this jail has undergone extensive Jewish, Islamic and Ethiopian elaborations, and it's become the subject of one of the most widespread and fertile cycles of legends in the Orient. So according to Titus Flavius Josephus, a first century Romano Jewish historian, she was the queen of Egypt and Ethiopia. And she brought to Palestine the first specimens of the bossam, which grew in the Holy Land. In his own time, in the Jewish tradition, the Queen of Sheba had Solomon answer her riddles. Kind of like a sphinx to test his wisdom. The first question was, what is a well of wood? A pail of iron which draws up stones and pours out water.

spk_0:   7:21
I'm not sure I understood the question.

spk_1:   7:23
What is a well of wood? A pail of iron which draws up stone and pours out water.

spk_0:   7:29
Yep. This is going right above my head. I have no idea what you're even asking me.

spk_1:   7:32
Well, the answer is a tube of cosmetic. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I mean, ancient riddles, dude. So her next question was, What is that? Which comes from the earth as dust, the food of which is dust, which is poured out like water and which, looking toward the house,

spk_0:   7:51
I thought I was onto something until this dust started looking at houses I'm looking to buy. Was it a good market.

spk_1:   8:02
Maybe the answer is Nafisa. Do you know what that is? No. I had to google it. I didn't either. It's a flammable oil containing various hydrocarbons contained by the dry distillation of organic substances like coal shale or petroleum.

spk_0:   8:17
Okay, that riddle made sense, at least

spk_1:   8:19
Yes, that one makes more sense. Right? So her final question was

spk_0:   8:22
Wait, hold on. Why does it look at a house? Uh ah.

spk_1:   8:27
Heating the flammable oil.

spk_0:   8:30
Maybe next riddle,

spk_1:   8:33
I you know, neither of them are alive to ask anymore. So

spk_0:   8:37
I You sure about that?

spk_1:   8:40
Okay. Her last. Her final question was, What is that? Which proceed. Proceed it all like a general, which crying loudly and bitterly, the head of which is like a reed, which is the glory of the rich and the shame of the poor, the glory of the dead and the shame of the living, The joy of the birds and the sorrow of the fishes.

spk_0:   9:00
I am not a wise King, Solomon.

spk_1:   9:03
The answer apparently, is flax

spk_0:   9:06
dead. Okay, so it was really literal with looks like a reed. Yeah. Okay. Create v Queen Sheba.

spk_1:   9:16
Well, and I mean crazy King Solomon because he answered them all to her satisfaction. Apparently so. The Arabic tradition also tells of Solomon solving riddles and other proofs of his wisdom and contains, in general, most of the stories that are also found in the Jewish tradition. And a Christian legend claims that the Queen of Sheba brought Solomon the same gifts that the Madge I would later give to Christ. So some interesting like parallels there, um, and support indifferent, like religious traditions of the same kind of legend. So it's interesting to me anyway, So virtually all modern scholars agree that she, Bo, was the South Arabian kingdom of Saba, centered around the oasis of Marib, the present in present day Yemen. She was quite well known in the classical world, and its country was called Arabia Felix. Around the middle of the first millennium BC There were Serbians, also in the Horn of Africa, in the area that later became the realm of Axum, which I'm going to assume is not what is called anymore. There are five places in the Bible where the writer distinguishes Sheba. AII the Yemenites Serbians from Ciba um meeting the African civilians in some 72 10 there. Mentioned together, the Kings of Sheba and Ciba shall offer gifts. So the spelling differentiation, however, might be purely fictitious. Um, the indigenous inscriptions make no such difference in both Iemma night and African Serbians are there are spelt exactly the same way like later, So it may be a difference that might not be. But some people have spent a lot of time delving into the difference of one letter. The alphabetic inscriptions from South Arabia furnished no evidence for women rulers. And additionally, the British Museum states that there is no archaeological evidence for such a queen and Israel. Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silverman who are both archaeologists, right, that the story of Solomon and Sheba is quote in an anachronistic seventh century piece meant to legitimize the participant participation of Judah in the lucrative Arabian trade. So given mostly, like hype, almost in a way meant to support other things, I guess.

spk_0:   11:44
Look how smart Solomon Waas,

spk_1:   11:46
right? Exactly.

spk_0:   11:47
Some crazy queen came in riddles at him, and he got him all

spk_1:   11:51
Yep. S o the queen of Sheba, who remains nameless in the Hebrew and Christian bibles but is given the name uh macula in easy open Ethiopian and bill quests in Arabic traditions, so she may or may not have been a real person. Um, there's not a whole lot of evidence to support honestly. Either way, um, however, Queens were well attested in Arabia, though not after 6 90 B. C and a Syrian inscriptions repeatedly mentioned Arab queens in the north, a k where she would have been from, um Macula or Met Makua. The personal name of the Queen in Ethiopian legend might be interpreted as a popular rendering of the title mcw it meaning high official. Or it could be derived from ancient Egyptian nick it meeting protect tress or housewife. So it's really anyone's guess as to whether or not it was a title or someone's actual name and refer to an actual queen. Ah, yeah, So the fullest and most significant version of the legend appears in the Cabra nag assed or the glory of the King's, which is the Ethiopian national saga translated from Arabic and 13 22 and here, Menelik, the first is the child of Solomon and Maketa, a k a. The Queen of Sheba, from whom the Ethiopian dynasty claims descent to the present day based on the gospels of Matthew and Luke, the Queen of the South is claimed to be the queen of Ethiopia in this one and in those times King Solomon, salt merchants from all over the world in order to buy materials for the building of the temple. Among them was Tamarin, the great merchant of Queen Mak Uda of Ethiopia, Having returned to Ethiopia that Oh Pia Tamarine told of the queen of the wonderful things he had seen in Jerusalem. End of Solomon's wisdom and generosity. Whereupon she decided to visit Solomon. She was warmly welcomed to give it a palace for dwelling and received great gifts every day. Also, can we just talk about the fact that someone had enough an extra palace to give her to live in while she visited?

spk_0:   13:56
Didn't Solomon have many cities? Not just like a palace.

spk_1:   13:59
Yes, yes, he had many cities like, Yeah, there was a lot of stuff, but I'm just marveling at the fact that she was given her own palace for her visit.

spk_0:   14:09
Quite a hotel ST What Airbnb?

spk_1:   14:12
Can we rent that one for anyone? That would be

spk_0:   14:14
great. Thing is a little far from Disney.

spk_1:   14:17
Mmmmmmmmm true, unfortunately. So Solomon and Mak Uda spoke with great wisdom and instructed by him she converted to Judaism before she left. There was a great feast in the Kings Palace Mackett estate in the palace overnight after Salomon had sworn that he would not do her any harm while she swore in return that she would not steal for him from him. As the meals have been spicy, magadha woke thirsty at night and went to drink some water. When Solomon appeared reminding her of her oath, she Izzard, ignore your oath. Just let me drink water. I don't know how drinking water is, um, theft, theft, But whatever. Also, she told him to ignore his oath. Basically meeting you can do me harm, I guess. I

spk_0:   15:02
guess she really wanted, Ah, water that badly,

spk_1:   15:05
apparently. Or

spk_0:   15:06
maybe she considered the meal being too spicy to be doing her harm.

spk_1:   15:10
Me, that is also I mean, that's how I feel most of

spk_0:   15:13
the time. You do look like a hurt puppy whenever you eat something. Thio.

spk_1:   15:18
Yeah. Ah, So that same night, Salomon had a dream about the sun rising over Israel, but being mistreated and despised by the Jews. The sun moved to shine over Ethiopia in Rome, a k a. The Byzantine Empire. Solomon gave Makita ring as a token of faith. And then she left. On her way home, she gave birth to his son.

spk_0:   15:39
Oh, yeah, it wasn't just a ring he gave.

spk_1:   15:42
Nope. Will remember at the very beginning of this little bit I said mental, like the first is a child of Solomon in Makati. Um apparently she named him beina Lech. Um, I'm buttering that I'm sure meaning son of the wise man and that later became Menelik. So after the boy had grown into, um had grown up in Ethiopia, he went to Jerusalem carrying the rings that have been given to back it up by Solomon. And he was received with great honors. The king and the people tried in vain to persuade him to stay. Solomon gathered his nobles and announced that he would send his first born son to Ethiopia together with their firstborns. And he added that he was expecting 1/3 son who would marry the king of Rome's daughter and reign over Rome so the entire world would be ruled by David's descendants. I have absolutely no idea if that, in any way shape performance has any accuracy whatsoever.

spk_0:   16:38
Are we court currently ruled by David's descendants?

spk_1:   16:40
I have no idea.

spk_0:   16:44
Any culture actually ruled the entire world at any given time?

spk_1:   16:48
No, I don't think so. But I mean, at this given time, the light known world was significantly smaller now, at least to them. So, like their concept of ruling, the whole world was significantly smaller than what we would consider it now.

spk_0:   17:05
Yeah, that's true.

spk_1:   17:07
So So Menelik was anointed king by Zadok the high priest, and he then took the name David. The firstborn nobles who followed him are named, and even today some Ethiopian family's claim their ancestry from them. So prior to leaving the priest, sons had stolen the ark of the covenant after their leader, Azarias, had offered a sacrifice as commanded by one of God's angels with much wailing, the procession left Jerusalem on a wind cart lead and carried by the arch angle arch arch angle,

spk_0:   17:41
the biggest angle

spk_1:   17:42
Thea Arch Angel Michael,

spk_0:   17:44
the most potent of angles,

spk_1:   17:48
eso having arrived at the Red Sea Azarias received to the revealed to the people that the ark was with them. David A. K. Menelik prayed to the ark, and the people rejoiced, singing, dancing, blowing horns and flutes and beating drums. The ark showed its miraculous powers during the crossing of the stormy sea, and all arrived unscathed. When Solomon learned that the argument stolen, he sent a horseman after the thieves and even gave chase himself. But neither could catch them, sell them, and then returned to Jerusalem and gave orders to the priest to remain silent about the theft and to place a copy of the ark in the temple so that the foreign nations could not say that Israel had lost its fame. And so this is how I'm assuming Indiana Jones finds the Ark of the Covenant.

spk_0:   18:32
Oh, true.

spk_1:   18:35
That is where my assumption is going. So, yes. Oh, Solomon got a kid on the Queen of Sheba. The kid then came back, basically was like, Hi, I'm your son. Crown me king and then stole The argon left is pretty much what I got from that.

spk_0:   18:52
Sounds all right.

spk_1:   18:54
What a crazy family. And I thought your family was nuts.

spk_0:   18:57
No, I'm about to tell you about crazy families. in my topic soon.

spk_1:   19:01
Oh, good. Already. Then I'm gonna wrap this up. So there's a lot more information on the different religious legends of the Queen of Sheba with lots of difference opinion, different opinions on whether she was really and her supposed role in history. So if you're interested in finding out more, there are several books out there, all with varying degrees of historical research versus fiction. Personally, the book Sheba Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen by Nicholas Clap, seems to be a good combination of research and lore and details his archaeological expedition to find the truth. There's also, um, a couple of books by those. Ah, the archaeologists I mentioned earlier. Israel, like single burger or something like that is one that I remember particularly wrote

spk_0:   19:43
a book being Goldberg. Oh, okay. What? No fairly odd parents references for you.

spk_1:   19:50
Oh, I didn't get it, but it's dunkelberg and fairly That may be why I didn't get it. So beyond Melrose and Mullen Ears Expedition, there have been several other efforts to find evidence of the Queen of Sheba in both the archaeological and historical records. The ancient Subasic Alum Temple known in folklore as Mara Bill Qu'est CE, or the Sanctuary of Bill Quests and Bill Quest, was one of the Queen of Sheba's supposed names. Ah, the temple was excavated by archaeologists in 1951 52 by the American Foundation for the Study of Man, led by Wendell Phillips. They cleared the entrance court almost completely and made numerous discoveries, including elaborate bronze statues and the usage of the southern interest entrance in the elliptic elliptic wallpher abolition rituals. When you like clean yourself, I don't know how to say that word, but

spk_0:   20:47
I've never heard of what you're talking about.

spk_1:   20:48
All right, well, bathing rituals were gonna go with that. There

spk_0:   20:51
we go

spk_1:   20:51
for entering the cellar. But no trace of the Queen of Sheba has been discovered so far in the many inscriptions that were found down there. And this supposedly her tumble. So you're her sanctuary. In 1999 British scientists from Born Myth University, working with archaeologist Dr Patrick Darling, unearthed a possible burial site for the Queen of Sheba in Nigeria. Now, for you joggers reminded folks out there Ethiopia and Nigeria are pretty far. Burt, we should make it extremely difficult for the supposed people to be the same. But that's the claim you. So the boundaries of this expedition are believed to be the, uh, the boundary of the original issue. Be kingdom ruled by the Oh, I was jolly. 500 year old Portuguese documents hint at the power of an edgy boo kingdom and build the case for Sheba being on the other side of the continent. A k not in like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Ethiopia, Darling said. Local people around the everyday monuments linked the area, too. The Billy Ki Su Sung Bo and another name for Sheba and local tradition speaks of a great queen building a vast monument of remembrance. And there's a yearly pilgrimage to what's believed to be her grave. Okay, yeah. So the region's long history of golden ivory trade and the cultural importance of UNIX linked two royal households further support the Sheba. Linc and Darling added that the local people believe it, and that's what's important. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims come to this area every year to honor what could be her grave, a magical shrine grove under tall trees. So possibilities abound, and I feel like that maybe part of why this legend has been so difficult to kind of nailed down. And admittedly, the source for this was the Nigerian news. So who really knows?

spk_0:   22:51
You

spk_1:   22:51
could be a little biased. So another, more recent discovery is that of the potential goldmine of the Queen of Sheba. Remember, she brought Salomon lots of lots of gold and jewels, and I mean an actual gold mine like mine of gold. In 2012 a British archaeology team headed by Luke um, Louise Scofield, an archaeologist and former British museum curator, struck gold Hardy har

spk_0:   23:19
har. Ah, you're so funny.

spk_1:   23:23
Um, on the high Gerald, a plateau in northern Ethiopia. So again, Ethiopia. This time, um, an initial clue lay in a 20 foot stone slab carved with a son in Crescent Moon, which was the Carling calling card of the Land of Sheba. And Scofield said, I crawled beneath the stone. Wary of a nine foot cobra, I was warned, lived there and came face to face with an inscription in Serbian, the language that the Queen of Sheba would have spoken. Although local people still pan for gold in the river, they were unaware of the ancient mine, like just yards away is Shaftesbury DSM four feet down in a hill above which vultures swoop. An ancient human skull is embedded in the entrance shaft, which bears to be in chiseling. So they put a skull in there and then rode on it. Oh, yeah. So test by a gold prospector who alerted Scofield to the mind show that it is extensive with a proper shaft and big tunnels big enough to walk along. So, like it was a functioning mind at some point in time and like it's really old because it has all the Serbian writing in it. Um, the article says that a full excavation of the site would begin a suna. Scofield secured the necessary funding, but I haven't seen any further information on it. So I guess I'll keep my ears peeled. And if I ever find more, I'll do it update. Okay, so that's the Queen of Sheba. The actual queen or figment of someone's imagination. Maybe someday we'll find out.

spk_0:   24:55
Yeah, so, apologies. If you just heard incessant squeaking that entire time, our puppy was throwing a fit. Yeah. Hey, Bud,

spk_1:   25:06
can you lay down buddy?

spk_0:   25:07
Hi. So my topic is from February 17th of 1936 and it is the world's first superhero. Makes his first appearance in comics

spk_1:   25:17
do

spk_0:   25:18
so despite what comics historians say. Ah, who do you think that they think is the first superhero?

spk_1:   25:24
I feel like my aunt is gonna be Superman, and I feel like that's really

spk_0:   25:28
far off base. It's not Superman, but it's not far off base.

spk_1:   25:32
Oh, good.

spk_0:   25:33
So Superman was released two years after our topics. Hero Phantom. Okay, Yeah, I saw that first, and I was like, Oh, is that Ah, villain. Not a hero. Yeah. Fantome seems like a very villain name.

spk_1:   25:46
Yes, it

spk_0:   25:46
does. So not a superhero ex sounding name. And it kind of sounds creepy, but I assure you that Phantom is who is also known as the ghost who walks

spk_1:   25:55
is a good guy. I mean, the ghost who walks make it sound even more like a villain.

spk_0:   26:00
Yeah, it really does. And he gets another nickname that will mention later where it's still just sounds like a villain. Fair enough. So why do people generally agree that Superman was first? Because Superman was the first to be to put the super into heroics. Phantom didn't have any powers, and we'll talk more about who Phantom wasn't just a second. But I would argue that there are plenty of superheroes these days who also lack powers like the entirety of the bat family and arguably the most famous superhero of recent time, Iron Man. So maybe it's time to solidify Phantom as the origin of superhero comics.

spk_1:   26:39
All right, I'll buy it.

spk_0:   26:40
And, uh, just from more reading down below, I kind of think that a good portion of the world does view him as the origin. Okay. And maybe it's just the U. S. Who doesn't? Ah, which is weird, because he was I'm pretty sure he was a U. S comic, huh? Interesting. Yeah, I don't know. I think so. For here, Superman may have just ah, pushed him out.

spk_1:   27:05
Overshadowed a little bit.

spk_0:   27:07
At least year. Yeah. So what did Phantom have tight spandex bodysuit Check. First use of a domino mask with white out eyes. Check, huh? Trademark weapons and gadgets. Guns that were always period appropriate to the date of release. Homing pigeons and his phantom rings of good and evil.

spk_1:   27:28
Interesting. I like the homing pigeons. That's a fun touch. The rings. I'm less sure about

spk_0:   27:34
more into those.

spk_1:   27:35
If he's a good guy, why does he have a ring of good and

spk_0:   27:38
evil? We'll talk about that, All right. He had a secret layer called the Skull Cave. That sounds about right. Yep. And he had a secret identity, and he had to nemesis ease the sang brotherhood made up of traditional greedy pirates. Find in the Sky Band a group of all female pirates whose business was mostly human sacrifice and drug trafficking.

spk_1:   28:00
Okay. Yeah. All right. What is

spk_0:   28:04
0 to 100 with pirates there?

spk_1:   28:06
Yeah, that's a lot of pirates.

spk_0:   28:08
So, in, like every hero worth their salt, he had an origin story. So sometime in the 15 hundreds, a British merchant ship helmed by Sir Christopher Standish was raided by pirates, killing all but sir standards. His son, Kit Walker, who washed up on an unspecified shore with a lush jungle surroundings. The area would later become known as the fictional African country of Bengal. Leah Kit was taken in and cared for by a local tribe, and as he grew up and becomes became stronger. He vowed to destroy all piracy, greed and cruelty and accustomed to tribes, tradition, Wow! And accustomed to the tribes. Traditions created a persona based on a native idol designed to strike fear into the hearts of his enemies. A quick note on that suit that he made the creator of the phantom leave. Faulk had intended for the suit to be gray so that he could also have the alias of the Gray Ghost. So there's another kind of evil sounding superhero

spk_1:   29:07
name. Yeah, it, yeah, I'm getting a vibe of like evil

spk_0:   29:12
Superheroes were just funny because he looks ridiculous and definitely looks like you would be a hero rather than a villain. But he does it. It's so strange, and you

spk_1:   29:21
definitely need to see a picture of this dude.

spk_0:   29:22
Now it's full head to toe Purple spandex

spk_1:   29:26
cheese. It sounds like your dream

spk_0:   29:29
honestly. So when it was first published in color in 1939 the printer colored the soup purple instead of Gray Eppes. So despite the color being purple, Faulk would continue to call the suit gray until 1960. You know it was purple when it was finally written that the color purple came from the idol that they based a suit off of as well. And the suit was colored with native Berries that died it purple. So eventually they wrote in a reason every day. And so the suit was always gray, but it was dyed purple. So speaking of this idol that keeps getting mentioned, I'm not sure how head to toe purple spandex man with diagonally striped underwear would ever look like a tribal idol of Africa on. Ah, I also found a little odd that the skull that was on Phantoms belt was very, very similar to the Punisher is logo.

spk_1:   30:25
Uh, superhero, that is, that is a lot of purple

spk_0:   30:29
spandex. Yeah, it's a lot of purple space.

spk_1:   30:31
Also. What's with the striped underwear?

spk_0:   30:33
Yeah, so, other than the skull on his belt, he also had a skull on his ring. The phantom mark of evil was worn on the Phantom's right hand, and he would punch his enemies with it forever, branding them with as an enemy of the Phantom. So that's why he had the ring. The mark of evil would mark people as his enemy.

spk_1:   30:52
He funds them so hard the ring left a giant imprint permanently I like it.

spk_0:   30:58
So according to the Phantom Men, which is a Swedish magazine that were huge fans of the Phantom and there were such big fans that they published their own Fantom comics,

spk_1:   31:08
who

spk_0:   31:08
this ring was given to the first Phantom by Paracelsus, which is weird as hack. Because why would the Phantom have any reason to interact with a Swiss philosopher, astrologer and alchemist? Unknown? Not only that, this ring was apparently first owned by Roman Emperor Nero. Oh, fine. And it was actually made of the melted down nails of Jesus's Cross.

spk_1:   31:34
Doesn't make aware good at fiddling. What does Nero fiddled while Rome burned?

spk_0:   31:39
Oh, it's funny. I was too dumb. Threat

spk_1:   31:48
also. Why would they assume Jesus was nailed to the cross with gold nails?

spk_0:   31:53
I never said the ring was gold.

spk_1:   31:55
Oh, OK, Fair point.

spk_0:   31:57
Just a ring?

spk_1:   31:58
Yep, Just a ring. I think I assumed

spk_0:   32:00
it was gold, obviously. Well, so notice how I've mentioned the first Phantom and in your yours topic. I said that there was a crazy family. Who so the last part of the oath that the first phantom swore against pirates also included a line about how this vengeance would be never ending, as he would teach all of his sons to carry out. The vengeance is, well, fun. So this helped keep rumors of the Phantom being a ghost alive as the Phantom has been around in the same form for over 400 years. Currently, we're on the 21st Phantom in the comics, and even that's a little convoluted because the 22nd Phantom existed in a 1996 movie, also titled The Phantom and the Phantoms have a fun naming convention. They're all named Kit Walker. Jeez, ass. So this guy named his son and his son named his son and his son named his son all Kit Walker.

spk_1:   32:57
Do they like, put like the first us? I can't the third or junior or anything? Or is it just

spk_0:   33:03
Kit Walker? So we'll get there in, like, two sentences. So they even read Conn's The Phantom's father. The after mentioned Christopher Standish to either be called Kit Standish Kittredge Standish or plain old Kit Walker. Jeez, they just decided. Nope, that was also Kit Walker. So, oddly, the 22nd Phantom, the one that was in the movie in 1996 is the only one named Junior. All right, so all of them are just known as Kit Walker. Except for the 22nd Phantom. Who is Kit Walker Jr.

spk_1:   33:37
Wow. I bet they're family reunions get really confusing.

spk_0:   33:40
Well, I don't think anyone becomes another phantom until their dad dies.

spk_1:   33:45
Oh, already. So, like, they just become their father. Essentially every time. It's like, Well, I am now, like, can't Walker the Phantom and walks? Yeah, fizzle. Morbid, But all right, I am the ghost of my father, and I am

spk_0:   34:03
walking. Hey, hip. So there was also a phantom 2040 that let us know that there will eventually be 31 phantoms. Ogata. And also none of them are named Junior either. But there is one of them that is not named Kit Walker. And that is the 28th Phantom who is gentle. Walker, the only child of her father and the only female phantom that didn't have a brother named Kit.

spk_1:   34:27
All right,

spk_0:   34:28
so there is one non kit walker.

spk_1:   34:31
Honestly, I'm kind of surprised they didn't just name her kid. Anyway,

spk_0:   34:34
it is definitely a neutral name, so that's a lot of family history and did I forget to mention that this lineage of British merchants from 1500 that were raised in a jungle in Africa all believe that they were American? Wait a second. Yep. Apparently all of the Children portray themselves as American.

spk_1:   34:59
But But America didn't exist

spk_0:   35:03
in the 15 hundreds. Yeah. Yeah, that was, like right around the time that Christopher Columbus discovered. Ah, quote unquote, the Americas Discover. Yeah, with lots of air quotes. So there is no way that this family is even remotely American. No. I mean, even at one point, they end up, I forget which one. But there there was a phantom that they decided to make it cowboy just to make this stick a little bit better

spk_1:   35:32
to feel more Americans.

spk_0:   35:34
For some reason, a cowboy, phantom or one of the phantoms decided to leave Africa the place where they're destined to protect, to go to the U. S. To be a cowboy for a few years and then come back. And now they're all American.

spk_1:   35:48
I'm so confused.

spk_0:   35:49
Crazy family. I told you

spk_1:   35:51
also, what is more American, apparently than a cowboy? Yeah, I says American is You can get.

spk_0:   35:57
So we're gonna jump back a second because I also forgot to mention that by the six Phantom, the hero gained a new tool for a crime fighting. And that was the phantom mark of good that I mentioned earlier.

spk_1:   36:07
Wait, so you didn't get the good and the you point at the same time?

spk_0:   36:10
No, You just had the evil one until there were six generations of Phantom, all right? And they they had started something called the Jungle League at that protect the jungle. And that allowed some of the some of the Children of the Phantom to practice being the Phantom before they were the Phantom

spk_1:   36:28
as it was. A It seems like, Ah, hard job. Just being your dad's a phantom that all of a sudden you're the phantom. No preparation.

spk_0:   36:34
Yeah. The funny thing is, the only difference between the phantom costumes when you weren't the Phantom is that your seat wasn't purple.

spk_1:   36:41
Oh, was it actually great, like it was

spk_0:   36:43
supposed to be. It was just a different variant color. Oh, so you weren't The real phantom lesser suit was purple?

spk_1:   36:51
Fair enough.

spk_0:   36:52
So the phantom wore this ring on their left hand because it is the hand closest to the heart. It's symbol is four. Savor. Its symbol is four savers touching at the tips in like a plus sign. So hence the small detail in old comics. And because it was supposed to fit on a ring, the detail of the Sabres and just the symbol for evermore was reduced to looking like a few peas. So with the bottom of the pea touching in the center of the circular ring and the peas being located at, um +369 and 12 o'clock. So if you imagine this for a second, it doesn't look all that off from a swastika. Oh, no, that never got brought up anywhere. But that's just something that I saw is every time I saw the picture of the ring is I'm like It's so close to being a slot stick,

spk_1:   37:42
a blurred.

spk_0:   37:44
So let's forget that, because it's not literally not mentioned anywhere. It's just what I saw when I saw it is the mark of good after all.

spk_1:   37:54
All right,

spk_0:   37:55
so another strange thing about how the mark of evil was placed on enemies of The Phantom was it was done by punching. So in mythbuster season, five, which aired in 2007. The Mythbusters tested superhero myths and one of the witch that they tested. You guessed it, which was how the Phantom got his evil marked. You stay on people. Oh, boy. So the force that they would need to hit the human with would be enough to break a skull to leave a permanent mark. Oh, my. And let's hope that the Phantom isn't punching people with the mark of good like that. Why? I mean, here you're good. And then punch is the hard enough to break this girl a fair fight. So we actually do need we do know that he didn't need to punch people that hard. I'm not. I didn't see the Mythbusters episodes, so maybe they didn't bring it up or did I don't know. But in one of the comics, it's revealed that the rings of the Phantom were actually extremely sharp and always had a permanent ink coating on it, made from the plants found in the fake country of Beng Galya. So effectively the Phantom was handing out justice in the form of instant tattoos.

spk_1:   39:09
I like it. This doesn't like I'm the justice your bad tattoo. Instant tattoo That labels you

spk_0:   39:15
bad? Yep. Luckily for our recipients of the mark of good, it actually didn't involve punching or instant tattoos at all. You know, luckily, unless you're into both of those things, that sorry. So the Phantom would nearly only hand out the mark of good people that saved his life. And it was in the form of a necklace with the symbol.

spk_1:   39:36
Oh, that's nice. I like that version.

spk_0:   39:38
So if you wore the necklace, people knew that you were protected by the Phantom.

spk_1:   39:42
That's nice. I like that.

spk_0:   39:44
So did the popularity of our hero. Fair through history. Well, I already mentioned that in Scandinavia they had a group called The Phantom Men that made their own comics. The Phantom ends. Latest work is scheduled for release of March 5th of this year, and they have already released nine comics since the start of the new year.

spk_1:   40:02
Oh, wow.

spk_0:   40:03
So phantom is actually still very popular.

spk_1:   40:06
Yeah, Apparently they don't busy.

spk_0:   40:09
Uh, and even in Stockholm until 2010 they even had a phantom theme park. Ah, that's cool. Yeah. So I wasn't expecting to see that at all. Cause again Phantom isn't popular here,

spk_1:   40:22
right?

spk_0:   40:23
So in Australia, a similar group has fandom comics that are published in over 500 papers to this day as well. Wow! And as recently as 2010 there was also a television series for The Phantom that aired on the Sci Fi Channel.

spk_1:   40:36
Oh my gosh,

spk_0:   40:37
yeah, The Phantom has been parodied by Paul Hogan, The guy who played Crocodile Dundee. No Catherine Zeta Jones start in The Phantom movie in 1996.

spk_1:   40:47
All right, quick Googling of this phantom movie.

spk_0:   40:49
Yep. Ah, the adult swim cartoon Venture Brothers had a parody character called The Phantom Limb. That was exactly the same as the Phantom. Except he was just a floating torso. Okay, get it. Phantom limbs?

spk_1:   41:02
Yeah. Yep. No limbs. Just floating torso

spk_0:   41:05
and robot chicken. Another adult swim show that was a stop motion sketch comedy has also cast The Phantom previously, and the character was voiced by Frank Welker. If you don't know is the voice of Fred and Scooby from Scooby Doo, along with a lot of other things that I looked up and I won that stood out the most. His Frank Welker is the voice of Dragon from Shrek. Oh, isn't that wild? Well, that's unfortunate. Yeah, Eddie Murphy, Frank. Frank Welker does a lot. Maybe we'll try and do a episode on him at some point, because I was astounded by the number of voices that that man is that

spk_1:   41:46
he does an insane amount of voices. Also, Billy Zane played the

spk_0:   41:52
fans. Yes, Billy Zane was the Phantom. Yeah, I forgot about that. Dear God. Oh, supposedly the fans really liked the Phantom movie. It was like super true to the feel of the comics, which is hilarious because the few seconds that I watched a few different clips of the Phantom movie where really, really cheesy and I I thought it was super funny. But these there are a lot of people who really like Phantom

spk_1:   42:19
already

spk_0:   42:20
and specifically like in Australia and, you know, Scandinavian countries. He's just a cz popular, if not more popular, than like Superman and Batman

spk_1:   42:30
and Iron

spk_0:   42:30
Man and Spider Man,

spk_1:   42:32
the girl who plays Diana Palmer. I don't know who that is. I'm assuming is the love interest was also the girl who played Buffy and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. Yeah. Wow, this is wild phantoms really popular? Jeez. All right, we are gonna have to, like, watch the movie or something, because now I'm super curious.

spk_0:   42:54
Yeah, I feel like we've been really missing out on something,

spk_1:   42:57
right. I need to Look, I need to, like, look at

spk_0:   42:59
these comics, I think because the sons of Harry entertaining Yeah, so that's the story. Ah, Phantom. At least a small portion of it.

spk_1:   43:08
I like it.

spk_0:   43:10
Maybe we'll learn more about it now because I had no idea that this guy even existed.

spk_1:   43:14
Yeah, this is nuts. I'd never heard of it before. Voice by Frank Welker. Yeah,

spk_0:   43:20
so now it's time for our call to action. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter at half wit history. You can visit our website at half wit. Dash history dot com. We have ah Ko Phi. If you'd like to send us a little bit of change for our time,

spk_1:   43:37
send us a golfing

spk_0:   43:38
moments for the pole.

spk_1:   43:39
Yeah, little valued lolly galley. La. Today

spk_0:   43:43
will be Robin Hood sometime too. Oh, yes. You can find us on Ko Phi Ko dash f i dot com forward slash half with history. Yeah, and You can always send us an email at Half Wit pod at gmail dot com.

spk_1:   43:57
We really appreciate your feedback comments, anything of that sort because, um, we're always trying to get better. So anything you might have to throw our way, that would be great. Or if you have any possible topics or general ideas for topics like you want to hear more about pirates. Sorry. That was the first thing that came to mind or

spk_0:   44:20
is kind of those pirates all the time. And I brought a pirate's again.

spk_1:   44:22
I've only done Pirates ones, but I'd like to do more, so request fire. It's, um Yeah. So if you have anything like that, shoot it our way and we'll see what we can do. Um, we'll do all the hard work, so

spk_0:   44:35
I won't.

spk_1:   44:36
I will specifically send them to me

spk_0:   44:42
also. Thank you to the fishermen for the use of our theme song. Another day, you can find a link to their soundcloud in our episode descriptions.

spk_1:   44:50
Go check him out.

spk_0:   44:51
Yeah. Okay. Are we on two fun bags? Yale's. I only have one, so I'm gonna take it from you.

spk_1:   44:58
You should do that.

spk_0:   45:01
February 22nd of 1989 UK physicist Stephen Hawking calls the proposed missile defense system known as Star Wars deliberate fraud. Figured I would go with the kind of nerd thing going from comics to Star Wars, so I looked into it a little bit. But I'm like, What in the world is this? It was actually known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. It was a not really a branch of the government, but an initiative of the government that just had, like, a big shield in space with some stars on it. It was started by Ronald Reagan, and it was ended in 1993 by Bill Clinton. But it wasn't actually ended by Bill Clinton. He just renamed it and kept the program going off. And the Star Wars thing was nicknamed by Ted Kennedy, the senator of Massachusetts.

spk_1:   45:50
Yeah, All right.

spk_0:   45:51
So he thought it was so ridiculous that he was like, I'm just gonna call this Star Wars, Okay? Apparently, Stephen Hawking agreed with him. That was ridiculous. Yeah, they were trying Thio make, like, phase cannons. Like all this, like Saif eyes tech and have it up in space so that they could combat missiles from space. Good luck. Yeah, phase beans and stuff.

spk_1:   46:15
Oh, boy. All right, I guess On the train of the ridiculousness on February 19th 1914 4 year old Charlotte married Peter Store for was mailed by train from Grange Hill, Idaho, to her grandparent's house 73 miles away.

spk_0:   46:34
Oh, I've heard about people doing

spk_1:   46:35
in the most famous child in the post instance.

spk_0:   46:39
Yeah, that's really far.

spk_1:   46:41
Yep, it's a It's a truck. That's a long time to be. I'm assuming not in a box. I am assuming it went along with the anything you can put a stamp on. They put a stamp on her and send her on her way. I'm really hoping someone said her.

spk_0:   46:55
Yeah, I mean, I saw I saw pictures from when people were doing that, and the male men were literally just carrying the babies in their bags.

spk_1:   47:03
Yeah, there's a reason it's not allowed anymore.

spk_0:   47:06
Yeah, because, you know, the male men were forced to make sure that the livelihood of this child was OK.

spk_1:   47:12
Yeah, exactly. Like that's a lot of that is not in their job

spk_0:   47:16
description on Well, Anyways, we hope you enjoyed listening because we sure as heck enjoyed recording. As always, I've been your half wit and I'm your historian and we hope you come back, Theo.