Blowing Up

Published Jun 30, 2022, 9:00 AM

We often refer to fame as "blowing up", and these two famous individuals both experienced that. To one degree or another.

Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. To earn a title like the Conqueror, one must well conquer, and not just a little either, maybe even when it's not appropriate. That's what William the First did, after all, enough to stave off his alternative title, William the Bastard, although there are many who would argue that he deserved that one much more. After a twenty year reign of conquering and not being much loved by his people, William the Career was keeping himself entertained by partaking in a little recreational rating against his French adversary, King Philip. However, if you put yourself in enough deadly situations, it's likely that death will soon win the day, and eventually it did. While the exact nature of William's ultimate demise isn't agreed upon, the general consensus is that he fell hard onto the wooden pommel of his saddle, which ruptured and internal organs so severely that he couldn't be saved, which admittedly sounds pretty painful. Immediately after, he was taken from the battlefield to a medical facility in ruin Que, the deathbed scene where he has seen to his last will and testament among many a quibbling relative and or attendant, eager for his crown, his sword, his armor, his everything. William did not leave anything up to chance in securing his legacy, though a mirror image of how protective he was of his kingdom during his reign. But in life at least he could see to it that his rules were followed, whereas in death, well not so much. In fact, in the end, everything more or less came undone. As soon as William passed away, his attendance collected his belongings, as in, they took all of his stuff for themselves and promptly vacated the premises, leaving the corpse of the conquering king naked on the floor. Not exactly what anyone would imagine themselves looking like moments after death, let alone a king who had earned himself such a fearsome nickname as the conqueror. Fortunately, after some time passed, a traveling night happened by the baffling situation and began the embalming process all by himself. By this point, though, the body had already begun to decompose, but the night pretended not to notice and proceeded anyway. After that came the seventy mile journey from Ruan to Khan. On the way, bacteria began to seep into Williams intestines and fill his body with the gas that all things considered, should never be allowed to reach the open air. Upon reaching Khan, monks came to meet the corpse of the king, but before they could proceed with the rights and eulogies, a fire broke out in town, and the body was again left unattended for far longer than any cadaver should be. He was essentially a quickly inflating gas bag. As everyone reconvened to forgive any wrongs William might have done against them a funeral right at the time, a rather loud man yelled out that the king had stolen land from his own family. A debate ensued, all while the body of the king progressed uncomfortably closer to something that no one wanted to look at. Eventually, though, a payment was agreed upon to get the man to go away his pockets bulging, but that wasn't the only thing that was expanding the King's body. Now hours passed the recommended burial time had begun to bloat. The funeral attendants hastily tried to lower the king into the stone sarcophagus, but unfortunately for them, he wouldn't fit no matter how hard they pushed or wriggled or folded, and apparently they pushed a bit too much. Picture, if you will, a large water balloon being forced into a small box, because that's essentially what we had here. Suddenly, his swollen ball burst, causing and I quote, an intolerable stench that assailed nostrils of the bystanders and the whole crowd. The bits and pieces were forced into the steaming grave. The funeral finished as quickly as possible, and everyone moved on, having seen Williams last and most probably disgusting conquest. Many of us dream of accomplishing something great within our lifetimes. They might be to climb the tallest mountain, or star in a movie, or even something as simple as starting our own business, but few get to do anything close to those feats. They live their lives, retire and hope they left some kind of lasting impression on a small piece of the world. And then there's Pelee Hould. Hohold was alive during a time when people were doing great, big things all the time. Time he lived during the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. He was also there when Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. But Hould wasn't going to sit back and let others have all the glory. He wanted to go out and make a name for himself too, and to do that he would have to travel the world. It started with a contest. Hold was born and raised in Denmark and saw a story on the front page of his country's newspaper, Politic n The paper wanted to pay tribute to the one birthday of French author Jules Verne. Verne, who had written such popular tales as twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth, had inspired numerous authors over the years, and this time he had inspired the paper to put on a competition. Borrowing from the plot of one of his other stories, Around the World in eighty Days. Politican picked one person out of hundreds to undertake a difficult challenge circumnavigate the globe in forty six days, just over half the time in Verne's novel. It seems they believe all of the advances of the modern world should make such an endeavor a piece of cake. Of the many potential contestants it was hooled they picked. The rules were quite simple too. He could use any method to travel the world except by plane. He kicked off his trip on March one of ninety eight by going to England, followed by a jump over to Scotland. From there he went to Canada, Japan, Korea, China, the Soviet Union, Poland and Germany. And he did all of it almost entirely by himself. But there were of course reporters from Politican who followed him on his journey, documenting it for the paper. But he managed the trip mostly on his own, at least so he thought. Hold didn't realize that Politican readers had been keeping track of him as well, and his story had exploded beyond the margins of that paper. His exploits were being read about by thousands of people in all the countries he was visiting. At the end of his forty four day journey. When he finally came back home to Denmark, there were twenty thousand people waiting to see him. He was a celebrity and his travels were all anyone could talk about, mainly because he wasn't just anyone. He was a fifteen year old boy scout. He'd been working in a car dealership before being chosen for the contest, which had only been open to teenage boys to begin with. Hold would later write about his eventful trip in a memoir he called a boy Scout around the world, and people were inspired by what he'd accomplished, perhaps none more than George Remy, also a boy Scott in his youth. Remy was a Belgian illustrator who drew cartoons and comic strips for his local papers. In ninety nine, he debuted a new character partly based on his brother Paul. Paul's rounded face and puffed up quiff hairstyle made him the perfect reference for the look of Remy's latest creation, a globe trotting reporter with a small dog for a best friend. Now Hold never had a dog with him, but outside of that, all of the similarities were uncanny. Hold had a youthful look, red hair, and freckles, just like Remy's character. He'd also documented his travels all over the world. Remy, under the pen name er J, combined these two real people into one fictional entity, a Belgian reporter who often found himself embroiled in some kind of international mystery along with his dog, Snowy pell. Hold certainly didn't realize it at the time, but his exploits had led to the creation of the popular literary character Tintin, one who would endure for the next ninety years. Now that's one long and curious journey. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over the world of Lore dot Come and until next time, stay curious. Yeah,

Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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