Lindsey McCarry introduces a series of short visits with listeners, presenting odd historical facts and anecdotes. The first scene is set in a General Hospital corridor in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1938, where nurses and an intern discover that Aunt Mary, aged 92, is growing a new tooth. The program then moves through several brief stories: a Korean naval commander who builds an iron-plated warship during a war with Japan, the origin of the phrase mumbo jumbo, and a clerk named Charlie Powers whose new suit is stolen on a steamer trip to San Francisco. The episode closes with a discussion of how the hymn In the Garden shares its opening melody with the popular song My Gal Sal.

With Lindsey McCarry, Aunt Mary, Doctor Holmes, Lester, Yi Sun-Sin, Charlie Powers, Paul Dresser, Louise Dresser.

Listen for: The first scene in the Knoxville hospital, where a nurse is startled to find Aunt Mary sprouting a new tooth

First aired in 1950.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

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Lindsay McCarry presents several short stories from history. A sailor on a British man of war in 1740 complains that his rum has been watered down by Admiral Vernon, nicknamed Old Grog, and the watered rum comes to be called grog. In Eastland, Texas, in 1928, workmen opening a cornerstone find a horned toad that appears to have been sealed there for 31 years, and scientists dispute whether it could have survived. In Dauphin, Alabama, an eleven-year-old boy named Henry Matthews is lowered into a thirty-foot well to rescue a baby. In Louisville, Kentucky, in 1875, Thomas Westendorf writes the song I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen after his wife is advised to change her surroundings.

With Lindsay McCarry, Admiral Vernon, Judge Edward Pritchard, Henry Matthews, Benny Grant, Thomas Westendorf, Kathleen.

Listen for: The origin of the word grog and the Texas horned toad debate

First aired in 1950.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

Free, complete and restored, no modern ads. A new episode every week: Can You Imagine That on Stupid Potato, every episode so far and the episode guide.

Stupid Potato restores classic radio and TV audio and runs 60 free 24/7 channels and 188 podcasts: old-time radio westerns, detectives, comedy, science fiction and suspense, vintage TV, Saturday-morning cartoons, Halloween and Christmas. No modern ads. Listen free at stupidpotato.com.

Lindsay McCarry presents a short collection of curious facts and anecdotes. He explains that clam chowder comes from the fishing folk of Brittany, France, and that its name derives from a cauldron. He notes that the word eternity appears only once in the Bible, in Isaiah. A brief story follows of a sixteen-year-old runaway, Eugene Roar, who is picked up on the highway by his father, Edward Roar, a truck driver, who has been driving home. The program then traces baseball's origins to earlier English games and a young man named Abner Doubleday. It also tells how kangaroo may have come from a native phrase meaning I don't understand, and closes with a melody from Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor that resembles the song Markita.

With Lindsay McCarry, Edward Roar, Eugene Roar, Jean Roar, Abner Doubleday, Alexander Cartwright, Captain James Cook.

Listen for: The story of Eugene Roar's return home, and the origin of the word kangaroo

First aired in 1950.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

Free, complete and restored, no modern ads. A new episode every week: Can You Imagine That on Stupid Potato, every episode so far and the episode guide.

Stupid Potato restores classic radio and TV audio and runs 60 free 24/7 channels and 188 podcasts: old-time radio westerns, detectives, comedy, science fiction and suspense, vintage TV, Saturday-morning cartoons, Halloween and Christmas. No modern ads. Listen free at stupidpotato.com.