Welcome to Interesting If True,

The podcast my wife begrudgingly listens to in order to support my hobbies.

I'm your host this week, Shea, and with me are Aaron, and Jenn!

I'm Aaron, and this week I learned that cats are the primary predators of modern dinosaurs.

I'm Jenn, and this week I learned that when actor Michael Clark Duncan (Green Mile, Armageddon) died he had nearly a dozen pets, including a cat named Dribbles.

Strings and Things

Today’s episode comes to us from the back of the junk drawer. There are things around us every day that often get shoved into the junk drawer of life so today I’m organizing and unpacking facts about wires and cords. Maybe next week I can find some cool stuff about halfway used pens or old chapsticks.

Largest Loopholes

How big do you think the largest loophole is?

It's hard to imagine anything huge being hidden in cities all over the world, but look up and you might just see the huge loophole over your heads. Winding its way 18 miles around Manhattan is a thin translucent wire stretched above the skyline, hardly noticed, is an eurvin.

An eurvin or eurv plural, is a symbolic wall that allows Jews to, essentially break some of their laws on Shabbat. Shabbat is the Jewish Sabbath and goes from sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday night. In the simplest of explanations, Shabbat symbolises the seventh day of creation when God rests. During this observation members are told to refrain from working and rest, and when I say no work I mean no work, no turning lights on, no cooking, no lighting fires, even no carrying things outside of the home, this includes pushing a stroller or carrying your keys.

Under Jewish law on Shabbat, it is forbidden to carry anything—regardless of its weight, size or purpose—from a "private" domain into a "public" one or vice versa, or more than four cubits (approximately 6 feet) within a public domain. Private and public do not refer to ownership, rather to the nature of the area. An enclosed area is considered a private domain, whereas an open area is considered public for the purposes of these laws.

It became obvious even in ancient times, that on Shabbat, as on other days, there are certain things people wish to carry. People also want to get together with their friends after synagogue and take things with them—including their babies. They want to get together to learn, to socialize and to be a community.

Given the design of many communities in the past, many neighborhoods or even cities were walled. As such, the whole area was regarded as "private," and carrying allowed. That, however, wasn’t always the case. And today, it is an obvious impracticality to build walls throughout portions of cities, crossing over or through streets and walkways, in order to place one's home and synagogue within the same "private" domain.

The Answer is the Eruv

The answer is a technical enclosure which surrounds both private and public domains and thus creates a large private domain in which carrying is permitted on Shabbat.

Or as I call it, the giant flying loophole!

Two Pennies for a Hangover

When I told you I was going to talk about wires today I doubt you would think about homeless shelters. Back in the late 19th early 20th Century the Salvation Army operated the first homeless shelter in London. Back in those days the poor and destitute didn't have anywhere to go and had to hunker in a corner or find outdoor shelter for warmth. The Salvation Army had a great idea to help those less fortunate and set up Coffin Houses. For four pennies, a homeless client could stay at a coffin house. He received food and shelter and, he was allowed to lie down flat on his back and sleep i...