Some things aren't as real as they seem, and others...well, we sort of wish they weren't real at all. We'll explain all during today's tour.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosity is 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. Everyone knows about the big government organizations that monitor things like our money, our Internet activity, and our impact on the environment. From the I R S and the n s A to the f d A and the e p A. There seems to be a department that touches almost every aspect of our lives. But beneath the FBI and the CIA, there are other organizations, some clandestine, others that have fallen through the crack due to obscurity or lack of funding. For example, NASA has an unknown division known as the Office of Planetary Protection. It's responsible for preventing cross contamination of the Earth by space based organisms and vice versa. Even specific foods used to have their own agency. In eight seven, the Board of Tea Experts was formed to make sure any tea imported into the United States met specific guidelines for public consumption. The members of the organization assembled for two days each year to sample a variety of tea. Their findings were then sent to the FDA, which used the tasting notes as a rubric for which to judge all imported tea. But perhaps the strangest government agency of all was the International Board of Hygiene, formed in nineteen six. It was created by Honorable J. Fortescue, a prominent surgeon from San Diego, California. The members, all doctors and physicians, almost never met within the United States itself, choosing to hold their meetings all over the world, and unlike other government organizations, those who joined were not assigned to their stations. Anyone could become a member for life simply by attending a single meeting. Fortescue sent the League of Nations a formal proposal for membership, which was accepted several weeks later. As the years went on, interest in the Board grew among the other agencies, especially where its elusive founder was concerned. He was invited to join other groups, including the American Conference on Hospital Service, and he was added to a government list of child psychologists, although that wasn't part of his medical background. Over time, Fortescue worked his way up the ladder of success, winning prizes and getting published in numerous journals. He traveled the world as part of work with the Board of Hygiene and invited anyone he thought would benefit from membership to join. The organization grew by leaps and bounds thanks to Fortescue's work. He was revered all over the world until his untimely death in nineteen sixty three. Except his death wasn't that untimely. The Honorable J. Fortescue never really died because he never really lived. Fortescue was the creation of Dr Ross and Piccard, pathologist who really was from San Diego. He and a group of fellow doctors like to get together and knock back a few drinks at a local turf bar during the Prohibition, and one day Piccard and his buddies came up with the persona of the Honorable J. Fortescue and his new agency, the International Board of Hygiene. From there, the surgeon took on a life of his own. What started out as a harmless joke eventually became a formally recognized organization by the League of Nations and its founder a sudden celebrity throughout the medical profession. Fortescue's name wound up in a nineteen thirty six edition of Who's Who in San Diego. His backstory grew to include a lengthy stay in Paris, as well as author credits on articles penned by Piccard himself. None of the other founding members made as big as splash as Fortescue, who remained an enigma until after Piccard's death in nineteen sixty three. For years, everyone believed the International Board of Hygiene was a real agency focused on promoting good health and commenting on everything from proper vitamin regimen to polio. As a side note, Fortescue was also the only fake winner of the very real Fleishman Prize, an essay contest held by the Fleishman Yeast Company each year, his prize ten thousand dollars. No matter how outlandish piccards hijinks were, no one ever figured that the International Board of Hygiene wasn't real. They assumed it was just one more obscure government agency, which means we should all probably re examine the real ones, just to make sure. Many of our favorite foods can be traced back to unusual origins. For example, in nineteen oh five, eleven year old Frank Epperson left a cup of powdered soda and water outside his house one winter night. The next morning, he woke up to find the solution had frozen and the mixing stick he left in was now stuck in the middle. By running the cup under hot water, he was able to pull the icy treat free. He called it an epsicle. Over the years, Frank kept freezing water and powdered sodas for his friends. By the time he became a father himself, his children suggested renaming them from epsicles to popsicles, a mixture of the words pops and sickles. He patented the name in nineteen three, and two years later popsicles were in grocery stores all over America. But some things don't have such wholesome, delicious beginnings. In Dawson City, Yukon, there is a drink unlike any other. It all started in the nineteen twenties with bootleggers Louis and Otto Lin. A blizzard had moved in while the brother as were on their way back from a delivery. Louis, unable to see where he was going, stepped through a thin patch of ice and got his foot wet, the temperature outside dropped considerably, and by the time they made it home to their cabin, Louie's foot was frozen. One of his toes had become badly frost bitten and at risk of turning. Gangrenus Otto, thinking on his feet, so to speak, pulled out his axe and chopped off the toe. Then he poured some alcohol into a jar and dropped the toe inside, a trophy for his heroic actions. Fifty years later, Captain Dick Stevenson was cleaning the cabin when he came upon the jar. Rather than throw it out or donate it to a local university, Stevenson opted to do something a little more adventurous. He carried it down to the local bar, the Sour Dough Saloon, and created the Sour Toe Cocktail Club. Membership could only be obtained one way, by consuming a drink with the toe in the glass. As Stevenson put it, you can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch that gnarly toe. He would go around asking to fellow patrons wanted membership in his club, at which point he would drop the toe into their drinks. Lichens Severed Toe made the rounds for almost a decade until in July of that year. Gary Younger, an eager member of the Sour Toe Cocktail Club, was going for a record. He had already consumed twelve glasses of Sour Toe champagne and was about to finish his thirteen when he leaned back a little too far in his chair and fell over, swallowing the toe. It seemed the membership to the club was done for good, but people are resourceful and morbid. Over the last forty years, the Sour Dough Saloon has welcomed the additional seven toes through their doors. Some were the result of frostbite like lichens, while others came from botched surgeries and amputations due to diabetes complications. In one case, a toe was donated with a note that read, don't wear open toad sandals while mowing the lawn. Two came for him an older man who just wanted to reward the nurses taking care of him with a few drinks. And along with the random toes also came new fines from the town which were aimed at preventing such a gross pastime from continuing. In the summer of two thousand, a tourist from New Orleans ordered a sour toe shot and swallowed the toe with it. Doing so cost him five and a lot more. Apparently, his little stunt angered the locals, who chased him out of town and banned him from the bar. Since then, the fine has been increased to that might seem steep to most people, But somewhere out there is a person looking for one more thrill, one more way to stand out from the crowd, someone who will happily foot the bill. 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 at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,