Just the Gist

Before Tiger King, before Carole Baskin, before even Siegfried and Roy, there was husband and wife Ron and Joy - two gloriously tacky (but crazy talented) dancers, who decided to spice up their show by bringing in the ultimate back-up performers: tigers. And leopards. Oh, and the occasional jaguar. Add to the mix their shared boy toy Chuck Lizza, throw in some sequins and buckle down for a crazy story... that obviously ends in more than one person getting eaten.

Skip straight to the story: approx 21:03

We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's this:

Watch the Cat Dancers documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sYgkGqzjz0 

Watch 'Tiger Terror' - Season 3 Episode 6 of 'Fatal Attractions' for some glorious reenactments: https://www.amazon.com/Terror-at-Bear-Farm/dp/B079WKVQ7L/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=fatal+attractions&qid=1600920959&sr=8-5 

Interview with Ron Holiday: http://www.stevekorver.com/writing/profilesinterviews/strangerrrrr-than-fiction/

Some articles: https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1999/11/27/a-lasting-trust-in-tigers/

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-cat20jun20-story.html

https://www.popmatters.com/71962-cat-dancers-2496041273.html

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We’ve had a makeover! And Jacob has finally been promoted from ‘And Friends’ to his whole name! And in true ‘ex drama school students who love nothing more than to talk about themselves’ style, this week we talked so much shit answering all your Ask Us Anything questions that we didn’t even get to an actual story! 

Lots of Breakin’ Nooz, lots of reminiscing, lots of surprises and lots of singing (badly). 

Thank you so much for listening so far - here’s to many more! 

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Shannon Whisnant bought an abandoned storage locker, and found a human foot inside. John Wood came forward and was like, "Um, hey, that's my foot, can I have it back please?" But Shannon liked the foot, and didn't want to give it back. He bought it fair and square, damn it! That's how the most bizarro (and hilarious) legal battle began - two men fighting over a LITERAL MUMMIFIED FOOT. Who is the rightful owner in the end?

Story starts at approx 14:36

We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's this:

Make sure you watch the Finders Keepers documentary on Amazon Prime or Google Play - you will LOVE it! https://www.amazon.com/Finders-Keepers-John-Wood/dp/B079599877 

Rolling Stone article that came out around the time of the Finders Keepers documentary: https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/two-men-and-a-severed-foot-inside-the-most-bizarre-doc-of-the-year-72903/  

Hear Shannon talking about the movie and his plans for the future in an episode of the podcast “In the Mouth of Dorkness”: http://inthemouthofdorkness.podbean.com/e/the-foot-man-in-the-mouth-of-dorkness/

Or just read a summary of it here in an obituary for Shannon published shortly after his death in 2016: https://filmschoolrejects.com/win-win-winning-e5377c8b9f97/#.eltnvxb8e

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While living with her parents, Jennifer Pan finished high school, graduated university with a degree in pharmacology and started working as a pharmacist. Except... she didn't. None of it was true. Jennifer had basically spent years hiding in cafes and libraries and making pretend notes so her parents would think she was working hard. And when they found out, the shit really hit the fan.

Story starts at approx 20:16

We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's this:

The book Rosie listed to (A Daughter's Deadly Deception by Jeremy Grimaldi): https://www.booktopia.com.au/a-daughter-s-deadly-deception-jeremy-grimaldi/ebook/9781459735262.html

The Toronto Life article that made the story famous (Jennifer Pan's Revenge by Karen K. Ho): https://torontolife.com/city/crime/jennifer-pan-revenge/

Casefile podcast episode with audio of her interrogation: https://casefilepodcast.com/case-50-jennifer-pan/

Video footage of Pan's police interrogation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfnEO-6Ca7U

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Imagine you’re peacefully sitting by the lake after a lovely swim, you look up, and there is a floating island of mud and gunk the size of 60 tennis courts coming right at you. A poo tsunami. A POONAMI. You can’t run, you can’t hide. And there’s no way of knowing where the killer bog is going to go next. That’s what happened to this US lakeside town in 2017. A massive killer bog was on the loose and destroying everything in its path... until the locals decided to fight back. (Yes, this is completely true. And yes, Rosie loses her mind with poo jokes so strap yourselves in Gisteners.)

Story starts at approx 28:45

We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there’s this:

See just how big the bog was in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHELCyicUZY 

If you want to jump in the rabbit hole Jacob spiralled down, you can read some of the articles written about the incident here: https://www.kare11.com/article/news/wandering-beast-of-a-bog-wreaks-havoc-on-minnesota-lake/483870036 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/floating-island-bog-crow-wing-county-minnesota 

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/4447019-efforts-move-monstrous-floating-bog-northern-minnesota-lake-bogs 

http://www.northlandoutdoors.com/2019/06/17/minnesota-lakeshore-owners-remove-floating-bog-one-piece-at-a-time/ 

See just how impossible it was to move the monster bog in one piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIAsfgosg_U 

And see what it looked like when it got chopped up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGl90Tt3MuE 

Watch Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story: https://youtu.be/RE-GwkeZQmI

Email us your ideas/comments/complaints about the Breakin’ Nooz song! [email protected]

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(Yes he named it after himself - wouldn’t you? HE IS THE REASON FOR KICK-ARSE 80s SAX SOLOS.)

The saxophone is kind of the least interesting thing about this guy. He literally cheated death about 57 times, starting with swallowing a 6-inch needle when he was a toddler, followed by accidentally drinking a cup of poison and surviving assassination attempts from people who were jelly that the saxophone was just so awesome and their instruments were lame. 

Rosie is convinced Kenny G went back in time to make sure he survived

Story starts at approx 26:48

We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there’s this:

The Belgian city where Adolphe was born (Dinante) loves to celebrate their local hero - check out their Sax dedicated page here: http://www.dinant.be/en/inheritance/adolphe-sax 

Stephen Cottrell wrote a very comprehensive biography of Adolphe Sax in his book The Saxophone (which you might have to dig to find if you are keen to read it - it’s out of print and it's rare)

Here are the first articles Jacob came across that piqued his interest:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/adolphe-sax 

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2019/07/the-surprisingly-badass-life-of-the-inventor-of-the-saxophone-adolphe-sax/ 

Mary Trump’s book that Rosie read: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Much_and_Never_Enough

The William Shatner show on Binge that Rosie couldn’t remember the name of (it’s ‘The UnXplained’ btw 😂): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_UnXplained

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The ‘Queen of Tehano music’, people often said it wasn’t that she was ‘the Latin Madonna’ but that Madonna was ‘the English Selena’. She sung her Spanish-language music to stadiums of thousands, was one of the wealthiest Latin-music stars in America and was about to become a mainstream superstar by releasing her first album in English. Then she was murdered, at 23, by the president of her fan club. 

Story starts at approx 21:58

We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there’s this:

Podcasts Rosie listened to:

Selena: A Star Dies in Texas https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/selena-a-star-dies-in-texas/id1505572990?i=1000473720346

Murder Made Me Famous-Yolanda Saldivar https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/murder-made-me-famous/id1492150996?i=1000459993657

Selena (1997 biopic with J-Lo) https://youtu.be/0ottkTXAe_s

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It’s a plague! With dancing! A dancing plague! Like, literally. There once was a town where a plague wiped out a bunch of the residents... by making them dance until they died. (Count how many dancing references Jacob manages to squeeze into this one - it’s truly something to behold.)

Story starts at approx 17:47

Some good, solid articles to get you started if you want to know more: 

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20161028-the-town-the-nearly-danced-itself-to-death 

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/jul/05/bizarre-dance-epidemic-of-summer-1518-strasbourg 

https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-dancing-plague-of-1518 

Puppet History episode that made Jacob briefly obsessed with the story: https://youtu.be/2MZZrDA-I4M

The book Jacob did not read is by a chap called John Waller - if you want to read it buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1848310536/ref=nosim?tag=thepubdomrev-20 

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Did you know that in the US from 1989-2001, there were no real major prize winners of the McDonald's Monopoly game, because THE WHOLE THING WAS RIGGED? Every single person who won a big prize was part of a major scam, and when the FBI found out, they teamed up with Maccas to go UNDER COVER BABY! This one is nuts.

Story starts at approx 24:09

We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's this:

The doco called McMillion$ that just came out that Rosie is OBSESSED with and demands you all watch (available on Binge or HBO):https://binge.com.au/shows/show-mcmillion!6090

The McMillion$ podcast hosted by the doco creators:https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-mcmillion%24-podcast/id1495403653

Some great articles:https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-an-ex-cop-rigged-mcdonalds-monopoly-game-and-stole-millionshttps://www.vulture.com/2020/02/mcdonalds-monopoly-game-fraud-true-story.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/03/arts/television/mcmillions-hbo-explained.html

The Mary Kay Letourneau article Rosie mentioned in Breakin' Nooz:https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/mary-kay-letourneau-vili-fualauu-relationship-media-child-rape-tryst-1025466/

Email us at [email protected]

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So, did you know that in 1932, the Australian Army went to war... against emus? Like, actual emus. The birds. That run. And before you say it doesn't make any sense for the army to go to war against emus, the crazier part of this story is: THE EMUS BLOODY WON. Join us for this bizarre (and embarrassing tbh - for the army, not the emus) little piece of Aussie history.

We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's this:

Some articles Jacob read:

https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2016/10/on-this-day-the-emu-wars-begin/

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/australia-once-lost-a-war-to-the-mighty-emu-fd0f07203ca4

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/the-great-emu-war-in-which-some-large-flightless-birds-unwittingly-foiled-the-australian-army/

Images of the newspaper headlines/articles at the time:https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/great-emu-war-1932-weird-sounds/

Write to us at [email protected] to tell us what you think! 

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