The Unmade Podcast - 120: Podcast in a Bottle

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

Tim and Brady discuss praying for sporting success, Nick Cave, leftie correspondence, memorable housemates, the Christmas Moon, messages in bottles, and Paul McCartney. Hover - register your domain now and get 10% off by going to hover.com/unmade - https://www.hover.com/Unmade Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/unmadeFM Join the discussion of this episode on our subreddit - https://youtu.be/PcYZTo2WHFY Catch the podcast on YouTube where we often include accompanying videos and pictures - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkIRMZDOKKKs-d14YPmLMxg USEFUL LINKS Pics from the Nick Cave meeting - https://www.unmade.fm/episode-120-pictures Nick Cave - https://www.nickcave.com Our Nick Cave-inspired Sofa Shop cover - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XheYkRbzZE Our leftie episode - episode 119 - https://www.unmade.fm/episodes/episode119 Pics of Graeme's Kombi - https://www.unmade.fm/episode-120-pictures Pictures of Spoon of the Week - https://www.unmade.fm/spoon-of-the-week Send your own spoon by following these instructions - https://www.unmade.fm/send-us-a-spoon Christmas Moon - https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/rare-full-moon-on-christmas-day Messages in Bottles - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_in_a_bottle Paul McCartney - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCartney

Tim, I have a religious question for you, a theological issue. Oh, here we go. Pull up your seats, people. It's about to get real. I've been watching a lot of the World Cup of football or soccer, which is just finished. Yes. And I've noticed something happen a lot. And I want to ask you a question.

Yeah. Is it okay to pray to win at sport? I'm not talking about praying that everyone's healthy and all those nice things or that everyone plays their best. And I'm not talking about playing to give the glory to God and all that, you know, worthy hugging stuff. I'm talking about cold, hard, dear God, please let me win this penalty shootout. Dear God, please let us win today at sport. Dear God, please let my team win. Is that okay? Is that a legit prayer? I think so. I don't think it's going to be counterproductive because God's not vengeful like that. But the first rule of prayers is you've got to tell the truth. Right. And if you want to win, then you should ask to win.

All right. You've just, you know, and then the consequences and the chips, you know, fall where they may later on. Right. Why did this happen? You know, that might be a period of doubt and lament and gnashing of teeth and all the rest. But the first rule of prayer, you've got to tell the truth. If you want to win, you should ask to win. Let me ask you a personal question then. Yeah yeah have you ever prayed for a sporting win have you ever prayed for richmond

to win the grand final or anything like that i reckon i have as a kid i'm trying to think when i think it's actually more selfish i think one of the things i really wanted to do when i was playing football as a kid is kick a goal. And I wanted it more than us winning. Like if we win or not win, it's all about how many times you touch the ball or kick a goal, which is like the greatest thing to happen ever. Yeah. And particularly because I wasn't very good. I was a skinny kid on the forward line.

And you're just excited when the ball comes near you. So I have a vague memory. I reckon I prayed that I would kick a goal or something along those lines. And did God answer your prayer? Well, I did. I did kick a couple of goals, yes, and the first one was very, very special. And I got it off a 15-metre penalty, which means the other person sinned and I was rewarded for their sin.

All right. So, it's okay to pray to win at sport? I think it is. It's always okay to tell the truth to God. Yes, absolutely. Yes. But it's no guarantee of it being answered. Speaking of dreams coming true, Tim, I understand you have in recent times met someone very famous

for whom you have much admiration. Yes, and it's not Colonel Sanders. It's the other hero in my life. I did. I met Nick Cave. How did this come to be? What happened? Tell us the story.

Well. You were exceedingly fortunate. I was. This is up there with meeting C.S. Lewis for me. I, you know, it was quite simple in the end. I mean, every time he comes to town, I go and see his concert. I've been doing that for more than 20 years. But this time I noticed that he was doing a book signing because he has a book out.

And a really lovely bookstore that I really love a very sort of small bookstore but a classy one called imprints um we're doing a book signing and and later on I was talking to the owner of the bookstore and he was talking about how it was such a coup because in other states he's done these big bookstores but he just came and did a couple of hours of signings you could put your name down He was just doing a few people, you know, like 150 people or something in the line. And I did and I got through the line and it was Sunday. So, I like left church straight after church, straight down to meet Nick Cope. And look, it was really great. Tell me what it was like when you were waiting in line before you got to him. What was that

feeling like? Well, outside, like before you can see him, it was boring as anything, you know, just going nuts. And then when you sort of get up closer and looking in the window, you're going, oh yeah, there we go. All right. And I got really excited. Like I couldn't even be cool about it. I was just totally, you know, like excited. So, that was really, really great. And then, and the lovely thing was he was taking a lot of time with people. You know, like excited. So that was really, really great. And then the lovely thing was he was taking a lot of time with people. You know, sometimes these book signings, it's like head down and yes, next and all the rest of it. But he was, the people ahead of me was asking questions. Tell me something about yourself and, you know,

what does this mean and what that. He wasn't doing it for everyone, but he was doing enough to show that it was genuine. And then it was our turn to come before the throne. Who were you with? You were with someone, were you? Yes, my wife and a daughter. Yep.

And, look, it was just wonderful. We had a little conversation. I told him that I was a minister and I thanked him for his, you know, not just his music but his lyrics and how fertile it had been. I said, you've given me a lot of material to work with over the years. I really appreciate it. And he liked that. And I gave him a copy of my book, which I said, look,

you had a bit of a hand in inspiring this. And he was kind enough to sort of take it and look at it and put it, you know, next to him on his pile. Did you sign it for him? No. I did actually. Hang on a second. I was thinking of doing that ahead of time.

I can't actually remember if I did or not. I may have. I may have. That was in the days beforehand. I actually couldn't find a copy anywhere, and so I got Mum's copy, the copy I'd given Mum of my book, and gave that to Nick Cave. Did he say anything to you that was memorable, anything that stuck in your head?

He did because I talked to him about faith a little bit. Like he said, I talked, because I'm a minister, right? And so he said, he says, I've been on a bit of a journey around, a long journey about faith, you know, becoming more real and present for him. And I said, I know, I've tracked that a bit of a journey around a long journey about faith, you know, becoming more real and present for him. And I said, I know I've tracked that over the years. It's been really exciting and really interesting to watch. And so we just talked about that for a little bit.

And he talked about sort of, you know, that last step into church and what that means. Were you trying to save his soul, Tim? Only God can save his soul, Brady. can save his soul brady that's if he uses me as a as a vessel i am merely um uh clay in the potter's hands um okay no we it was more like it was he followed it up it was actually we were done it was really lovely i sort of we just had the pleasantries and talked about that for a bit then i moved on and then he said actually and then the conversation you know i turned around i was like oh right we're still going in we chatted a bit longer he was like you want to go to starbucks yeah he was and i was like look nick just sunday leave me alone i've been to church come on but it sounds like it was a great interaction it was

wonderful it was it was exactly what you wanted to be oh it's only a few minutes and it's obviously nothing to him but he took a moment and and in one sense it is a funny thing isn't it doesn't mean anything but it was meaningful. Afterwards, it was over and it's like, well, that's just a fleeting moment. But it was lovely. He signed some things, which was good. I had a copy of his lyrics and a particular page, a particular page of lyric that I love, my favourite lyric. He signed that page so I can sort of tear that out and, you know, put it in a little frame.

He signed that page so I can sort of tear that out and, you know, put it in a little frame. Do you want to tell people listening what your favourite lyric is, just in case they're Nick Cave fans as well and they want to follow up? You really are indulging me. This is really quite unusual. I know. I'm treating you better than Nick Cave treated you. My favourite Nick Cave song is a song called The Mercy Seat.

Yeah. So there's a lovely lyric where he says, In heaven his throne is made of gold and the ark of his testament is stowed, a throne from which I'm told all history does unfold. Down here it's made of wooden wire and my body is on fire and God is never far away. Into the mercy seat I climb, my head is shaved, my head is wired. I hear stories of the chamber of Christ

Was born into a manger And like a ragged stranger he died upon a cross And might I say it seems so fitting in its way He was a carpenter by trade Or at least that's what I'm told You did very well to resist cracking out the guitar then I know you've got it there Oh yes

When I said I was going to let you say a lyric, I didn't think it would be quite so many, but there you go. You got it, man. Welcome. I feel like one of those bush poets, you know, those Australian bush poets who sort of make money out of, you know, a dollar for a poem, young fellow. Very nice.

Very good. There we go. Well, if Tim sends me some pictures and stuff, I'll put some things in the show notes for people who want to say anything. Did you take a picture with him? I did, yeah, yeah. I got a lovely picture with him. He was kind enough to do that, which was really nice of him.

Oh, what a top man. He sounds like a great guy. Yeah. He's meant a lot to me and his his art has meant a lot it was it was really lovely to meet him i feel i feel content now like oh yes that's that's about right yes good lovely did did you uh did you mention the unmade podcast to him at all uh i didn't know no i didn't have time to bring up the podcast well that goes without saying doesn't i mean of course it's like you know mentioning the weather it's like, you know, mentioning the weather. It's like, of course, he loves the Unmade podcast.

Your buddy gave him your book. You could have given him an Unmade spoon or something. I could have, couldn't I? Maybe a collector card. Sofa shop mixtape. You reckon he could have done a version for us? We already have our Nick Cave sofa shop. That's right.

For people who've forgotten. If I meet him again, I'll definitely make the Unmade podcast the focal point of conversation. If he doesn't mention it, I'll mention it. Well, let's get him on. Well, all right. Well, Nick, if you're listening, you're probably feeling quite embarrassed now being mentioned so often. But Nick, if you come on the Unmade podcast, our colonelship could be in the offering.

I mean. I don't know if Nick Cave's got enough creative enough, enough of an ideas man to be on our show, but we'll see. That's right. He does have a lovely sense of humour, I have to say, which is really endearing because a lot of his songs are, you know, sad and dark and very deep and meaningful. But there's a lovely humour that is playful through them as well, which is- He's had a lot of tragedy in his life too, hasn't he? He has, yes, very much so recently.

The sofa shop is the only stop For the sofa that you need Let's move on to some parish notices. Unless you want me to give you 20 minutes to talk about the fact your dad was Dutch or something. We start with a religious question. We've moved from God to Nick Cave. Where do we go next? Parish notices.

In a recent episode, I discussed doing a podcast about left-handedness. Yes. I encouraged left-handers to get in touch. Yes. A lot of left-handed people have gotten in touch with us to tell us stuff. All of them, you reckon? Have all of them got in touch, man? I mean, how many are there?

Well, one in ten people are left-handed. So, if all the left-handed people listening to the podcast got in touch, you're looking at six or seven people, possibly. I was thinking, like, all the left-handed people that there are, but that's actually- Yes. Let me read some of these to you, Tim. J5Dev says, about wearing the wedding ring on the other hand, in some countries like Germany, Austria, Poland, it's normal to wear the ring on the right hand. So it's not a thing about being a righty or a lefty.

It's more of a cultural thing. Right. So there we go. A few people mentioned this as well. Thank you for that. Nuclear Tumbleweed says, I'm nominally right-handed, but my brother is a lefty and I picked up many of his habits growing up. I write, throw and brush my teeth with my right hand, but I do pretty much everything

else with my left hand. From eating to texting to batting, I favour my left side. It's an interesting quirk that catches people off guard and adds fuel to the nature v nurture debate. I do still wear my watch and ring on my left hand to keep with tradition, though. All right. I often wonder if left-handed people, I mean, if you were left-handed, wouldn't you, some sort of connection or signal between them would be great. Like everyone naturally shakes hands with their right hand. Why wouldn't left-handed people put the left hand out and then another left-handed person would know that that's, oh, left.

Yes, I see. And it's like a little signal between them. Secret code. Like Freemasons, don't they have secret handshakes and weird stuff like that? Little tickle on your palm when you shake hands and say, I'm a Freemason. I'm a Freemason. Well, maybe lefties do do that and we just don't know what it is, but they use the right hand. But there's something else going on that's too subtle for us to notice or we haven't been brought in on.

They could have a whole secret thing going on. But maybe they can read minds and stuff and they just haven't told us. They could have all whole secret thing going on. We don't know. Maybe they can read minds and stuff and they just haven't told us. They could have all sorts of powers. A Quaver past eight says, in Australia, I am mostly called a lefty, but I've also been called gammy-fisted and khaki-handed. I actually thought it was khak-handed in Australia. That's the term I know from Australia. But anyway, mostly by my mother who can't stand to watch me using a knife

or pouring a jug of water, but she's not the only one to have called me that. And once a taxi driver called me a molly duker, which I hadn't heard until then, but I've later learned is an older Australian slang. I don't think it's used much anymore. It might possibly be more common in rural areas and in older generations. I actually don't mind molly duker, even though its origins might still be negative. Well, there's Mollie- I've just Googled it. It's Mollieduca wine.

So I guess it's been redeemed as a word, but- Okay. Yeah. It hasn't got some terrible origin, has it? That's racist and we have to cut the whole section. No, it literally means a left handed person. So it's not racist. There we go. It's just-

I've heard them I have heard them Cack-handed in particular I'm very familiar with Gammy-fisted, cack-handed It's Molly Duker, is it not? Molly Duker Molly Duker, D-O-O-K-E-R

There we go Are you familiar with any of those? No, not at all No Let me read some Unusual for me, being an australian bush poet yeah no no yeah uh ends up drivel says i'm left-handed and used to wear my watch on my non-dominant hand between high school and university i worked as a chauffeur for an eccentric picky and very wealthy

individual being in a right-hand traffic country the watch on my right wrist would sometimes reflect sunlight into the back seat, something my employer really didn't appreciate. He insisted I either move my watch to the other hand or stop wearing one altogether. I joked back that he could alternatively purchase a car with the driver's seat on the right side. Ultimately, I agreed to switch hands as it was a small sacrifice for great pay and perks and a summer job. However, I never went back and years later, I continue to wear my watch on my dominant left hand. There you go. Yeah. Would you like to be a chauffeur?

Do you think you'd be a good chauffeur? No. I don't really like driving. I don't think you'd be a good chauffeur. Although you chauffeured me around for many years. I did. I did. Before you had a car.

Driving the other side of town. I never complained about your watch. No. No. And they're long cars to drive. You've got to get in and out and traffic. No. They don't always have to be long.

They don't always have to be like long limousines. You can just drive people around in a nice BMW or something. No, I know. But they're still big cars. I don't like big cars, really. Here's one from Mike. Hi, Tim and Brady. I'm a lefty that grew up in the US. Actually, I was jealous of right-handed people because everything seems designed for them. Like you mentioned, ink always smears when you're writing. Even worse, growing up, the school desks had a gap on the left side to enter. So I had to crane my arm across to write

it all. I could go on, but later in life, I moved to China. Being left-handed here is extremely uncommon, as it is impossible to write Chinese characters correctly with your left hand. This is because they are traditionally written with brushes, so you need to do the strokes in the proper direction for them to look correct. When I started learning, it took quite a bit of searching until I found a tutor that would accept my wrong way of writing. Yeah, okay.

Yeah, well, that makes a bit of sense. Tough gig being a lefty in China. You don't want to be gammy-fisted over there. I wonder if there are any professional calligraphers who are left-handed, if they're able to do the copper plate and all that sort of stuff. This is a burning question. I have a couple of go-to calligraphers because I do weddings as a minister and we get them to do the lovely writing on the wedding certificate. And they just whip it out. You think they're

going to sit there for hours or weeks working on it, but I turn up, they put it down and so forth. There it is. There we go. And it's like their natural handwriting, but carefully done. But using a fountain pen and doing it on with your left hand, I think that might be a challenge. Do you feel pressure when you have to do your signature in like the wedding register and on documents that you do a really nice one? I do take a moment to do it nicely and I use a nice pen. So, you've got to be careful with it and let it dry. You don't immediately, you know, rub it up against something. And I do take a moment, but I have a pretty ordinary signature. It's a very quick, functional one that I've had since I was about 13.

So, it never looks that great, no. Kevin says, my brother wears his watch on his right wrist as well as being left-handed because when he was little, Pierce Brosnan was the infamous James Bond and was a lefty and wore it on his right wrist. And my brother wanted to be like Bond. He got so used to it, he can't wear it in another way. Also, that was quite the controversy over Bond not being a lefty and Brosnan not being fit for the role as a result. Interesting. Interesting piece of left-handed trivia I did not know about the left-handedness of James Bond when Pierce Brosnan took the role.

No, indeed. Anyway. Kevin says, thought you would like the story. I also have a question for you. As I'm from the United States, I've heard people abbreviate this a lot of ways. Is it common in both Europe and Australia to say US, USA or US of A when abbreviating United States of America to the letters. Let's all agree that the last one is wrong at least. What do you say?

US, USA or US of A? I say the US these days, but I think I've only been saying that for about 20 years. I reckon it used to be USA when I was young. Yeah, I say the US. I think when you say US of A, you do it like being, you're being like a bit ironic, like a dad joke. Yeah. You're from the US of A. Yeah.

That's like, if someone says US of A, I think they're being like, they're trying to be a bit funny. Yeah. Yeah. I would say the US. Yeah. Going to the US, going to the States. The States? Do you ever say America?

America. Well, rarely. I probably would have said that more when I was a kid. Now you think, oh, yeah, of course, it's before you knew that, you know, North America's more than the US, but in America. America. Again, I say it in a funny way. I've got a friend who lives in the States and we talk about America, you know, like without the A, just America. Yeah, America, yeah. I liked this one. This came from Brianna in Pennsylvania, and this is talking about another idea. This was Tim's idea of things that you would do for 11

months, things that you did because Tim's obviously trying to go 12 months without eating meat. But at the time he told us about it, he'd only been doing it for 11 months. So, that was the joke. Anyway, this is what Brianna said. I had to laugh when you started talking about, I tried it for a year and only making it to 11 months because this exact phenomenon occurred for me just a few weeks ago at the start of November. At the outset of 2022, I set a very simple goal to go outside for 10 minutes every day this year. I made myself a little calendar and ticked it off every day, bonus points if I made it out during the daylight hours. I achieved this naturally

most days, but there were a few days I had to go out at 11.30pm for stargazing in the freezing cold in my backyard just to keep the streak. On November 3, I woke up and had the horrifying realisation that I hadn't gone outside the day before. It had been my sister's birthday and I was so caught up in the festivities I'd completely forgotten. I'm still riding it out to the end of the year, but the heartbreak of breaking my year-long streak in November is still a little sore.

Love the podcast. Keep up the good work from Brianna. Devastating. Fail. Fail. I think every November too we should have 10 minutes of outside silence in memory of Brianna's broken street. Yes.

What a sad day. I would have thought that's a reasonably low bar to jump, really, going outside for 10 minutes every day. Going outside? I would – there would be a few days a year at least that I don't go outside. Actually, there'd be quite a few days. I live in England, though. Yes, indeed.

I guess through your winter and you work from home, too, so. All right. There we go. Lots of correspondence. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, everyone. Unmadefm at gmail.com is our email address. And also, you know, Reddit, social media, all those places.

Get in touch. If there are any left-handed calligraphers, we'd love to hear some war stories of how you've managed. And if you've met Nick Cave, let us know how it went. That's right. Ideas for a podcast. Which one of us is going first today? Do you want me to go first?

You've been talking a bit there. Yeah, I have, I have. There's been a lot of Brady so far. Mainly reading, but. Well, that's all right. Let's have some dulcet tones of Tim Hine. Would you like some more lyrics before I move on to my idea? Make me some more.

Yeah. I'll ask you for more spiritual guidance, what I can and can't pray for. The idea that I have is my fascinating housemate. You will remember many years ago, when I first moved out of home, that I lived with a couple of guys and it didn't last a long time. But in that house was a person who was, I think, the first and probably still the most fascinating person that I've had as a housemate. I've had a couple of crazy people live with me over the years. But Graham was like an enigma. And I always wonder what's happened to Graham. But living with Graham was a really quite strange and peculiar experience. Now, you know, Graham, because he was at our school as well. And of course, you'd come out and hang out in that crazy summer at that house.

I remember you had to walk through someone's bedroom to get to one of the other bedrooms. Yeah. Whose bedroom did you have to walk to get to your bedroom, was it? Yeah, because Graham's was just sort of like only a partial bedroom. It was basically just a room that, you know room that you walk through to get to another room. Like a hallway. Yeah. But he paid less rent by having that room.

He was quite frugal, Graham. He was. So, yeah, you had to walk through Graham's bedroom to get to your bedroom. But there was no problem for Graham because Graham's entire possessions consisted of, I think, one pair of jeans and a few T-shirts and shirts and about seven or eight novels. And I think that's all he had in the room, really, apart from his mattress. It was he was really quite a bohemian in that sense. He was a simple existence.

That is apart from his KFC uniform, because the great redeeming quality of Graham was that he was manager of a KFC. And that was incredible. He had the keys to the kingdom. He did. So every night he'd bring home a bucket of chicken, which was fantastic. So our fridge consisted just of lots of buckets of chicken from each corresponding day earlier, you know, throughout the week. But Graham was a fascinating guy, firstly because he had so little,

but also because just the way he sort of went about things. He wasn't particularly eccentric, but he was, I don't know, in those post-school years he just seemed to be not like a Kramer but just on a different plane for some reason. He was a mysterious guy. I remember even when you played Monopoly, he played Monopoly like he lived. Like we would have these epic games of Monopoly. Yeah.

And he would do deals with everyone like, you know, okay, yeah, I'll give you my train station or I'll give you Mayfair, I'll give you whatever you need on the condition that you don't charge me if I land on your stuff and that. That's right. So, he became completely non-threatening, but he just travelled the board with all this immunity. So like when his roll of the dice came, it almost became pointless. He just rolled the dice and moved his token. It didn't matter where he landed because he'd cut deals with everyone to not get,

like, you know, and he didn't own anything, but he also didn't like have to spend anything. That's right. He just glid through life. Glid, glide, glided through life. His other great possession, of course, and I think we've mentioned it before, was the Kombi, the legendary Kombi. A Volkswagen Kombi van. The back was completely empty and we would all just, like, stand in it or, like, lie

on duvets and quilts and stuff. Yeah. And we'd drive around corners really fast and we'd all go rolling around. The only two seats were up front in the passenger seat or the driver's seat. And of course, he was in the driver's seat all the time. And so, that was pretty special to get in the front seat. But everyone else was just piled into the back. And we painted this thing all these different colours and wrote Triple J, our favourite

radio station, all over it and all sorts of things. And I always wonder what happened to that Kombi. And I always wonder what happened to that Comby. But I always wonder what happened to Graham. I haven't seen him for 25 years. I, years later, when I was working at the newspaper, there was a girl I worked with who, it turns out, was dating him. Oh. Like, one day she came up to me and said, oh, do you know Graham? You know, and said his name.

And I was like, yeah. She goes, oh, he's my boyfriend. I couldn't believe it. name. And I was like, yeah. She goes, oh, he's my boyfriend. I couldn't believe it. Wow. But I never met him again. I never saw him during that time. And I think, I don't know, they broke up or I don't know what happened. I left the paper.

But so, I knew- so, he was alive. He still existed. But I don't know. I don't know where he went. And he's not the sort of guy that would do social media. So, you can't really track him down. No. He just vanished into- yeah. I like to think he's still working at KFC that would do social media, so you can't really track him down. No. He just vanished into-

Yeah. I like to think he's still working at KFC. That would be great if he was. The last time I saw him was in the foyer before a Radiohead concert, which would have been the same week you interviewed Radiohead famously and didn't tell me about it. Yeah. But that was in 1997, and I haven't seen Graham since seeing him there.

All right. And even then I hadn't seen Graham since seeing him there. All right. And even then I hadn't seen him for a while. So, he was a fascinating roommate and fascinating housemate, I should say, not roommate. We didn't share a room. Well, we did actually share a room and then I walked through his room to get to my room. Yeah. Most of the people I've lived with have been quite close friends. So, they're not like weird or eccentric and I kind of, you know, knew who they were.

Yeah. But I did have fun stories. My mate Rod, who I lived with for many years in multiple houses, was always good fun because we both worked at the newspaper. And if you worked at the newspaper, you had it delivered for free. Yeah. And you had to have it delivered for free. You couldn't cancel it because they wanted to have as many deliveries as they could.

So, because there were two of us there, we had two papers delivered every day. It would be rolled up and wrapped in a sort of a tight plastic cling film. Yes, I remember. And two of them would be thrown onto our front lawn. But of course, every morning we got up and went to work at the newspaper where there were thousands of copies of the newspaper and we'd written the newspaper the day before. So, it wasn't like we had to open it to read it. There was no reason to open the paper so we would always just grab our two newspapers and

throw them on a pool rod's pool table snooker table because we weren't playing a lot of pool then so we didn't use the pool table and it ended up with this like mountain of wrapped newspapers like as high as a person like there was just like months and months and months of newspapers there and the other thing we did the other thing we uh had a huge mountain there was just like months and months and months of newspapers there and the other thing we did the other thing we uh had a huge mountain of was unwashed dishes because we never washed the dishes yes but we owned loads of dishes and we had a huge pile of dishes in the sink and like once every few months we would have a big dishwashing day and we'd put we'd get out the stereo and we'd alternate songs one of us a song he would like and a song i would like while

we stood there and did the dishes for hours and hours and hours. I was always disgusted by the dishes at your house. And I was perplexed by this because I'm a do the dishes guy, right? Like, you don't go to bed until the dishes are done most of the time. You're getting there. So, I'd resist the urge to do the dishes at your place. I wouldn't do them.

I'm not that crazy, but I would see them and be amazed. Like, surely it's more annoying to have all those dishes there than it is to do them. We both work late. So, we, you know, we, I don't know. And we both ordered a lot of takeaway. And I think we just went through all our dishes and then ordered takeaway for a month or two and then said, all right, we're going to do the dishes. Ordered a lot of pizza.

If you've never lived with a really fascinating quirky housemate, maybe that means you're the fascinating quirky housemate. I should have got Rod on to talk about this segment, shouldn't I? He would have had the story. I'm sure I was pretty normal. I'm sure I was pretty normal. Yeah. Well, tell us about your quirky housemates.

Interesting people you've lived with. Yeah. That's a good idea. That's a good quirky housemates. Interesting people you've lived with. Yeah. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. Just stories of people you've lived with. It's better when it's someone you don't really know. I have lived with a couple of people who I didn't know beforehand, but they were pretty normal. One of them was a medical student that was also a personal carer to Stephen Hawking. Oh, wow. That was very- He was an interesting guy. obviously, you know, had an interesting job. Yeah. I lived with a French guy for a little while.

But other than that, mostly it's just been people- I remember I lived with two girls we went to school with for a while. Oh, yes. That was an interesting time because, you know, I'm a pretty square, normal guy and they were going through a huge phase of going out like night clubbing and they would go out at like around 11 at night when I was getting home from work. So, I'd come home from work and open the door and they'd be on their way out with like really weird goth thick makeup that really freaked me out.

I didn't even recognise them when they put all that gear on. That was a weird time. And you were like the dad of the house, just sort of coming home. We were just like, you know, we were friends from school. But during that period, we were just like ships passing in the night. You know, I was just working all the time and they were just going out clubbing all the time. I had a few people that I live with that were a bit strange because in Melbourne, I live in sort of a community with, you know, kids off the street and post-release kids from prison and some of the programs. So, there's some pretty unusual people that came through there sometimes.

And some really fantastic, really great housemates. Not as weird as some others. But I've lived with, I pretty much settled down that I'd like to have a house. I only want to live with females. That's pretty much my policy after that. It was like, girls are cleaner and nicer. It's interesting, you and I were never housemates. Through our friendship, we never shared a house.

I don't know if that would be a good idea. No, a bit too close. Like, we'd have some good laughs. Yeah. But I think we'd also get pissed off with each other a bit. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. This works for us.

You in London and me in Australia. Our friendship's never been better than with a globe between us. Just a safe distance. It is funny that your wife becomes your housemate, isn't it? Like, that's really funny. Effectively, you've got to do all the same stuff and you find rhythms and things like that. But the commitment's so much stronger. I'm so lucky that my wife is so obsessed with neatness and tidiness, though.

It's fabulous and really good at decorating and stuff. Yeah. It just makes life so much better. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, your house is beautiful. And everything's not just in its right place, but, like, decorated in its right place. You know what I mean?

Like, there's a couple of books just sitting there, but they're sitting there perfectly made to look like they're just sitting there, but they're on the perfect angle. You know what I mean? Like there's a couple of books just sitting there, but they're sitting there perfectly made to look like they're just sitting there, but they're on the perfect angle. You know what I mean? Like it's like- Everyone said, you wait till you have a baby. It won't be the same when you have a baby. And I said, you don't know my wife.

Right. It's still a pretty tight ship. So, today's episode has been brought to you by Hover. Hover. Faithful Hover. What a magnificent sponsor. Yes. Domain Registrar.

This is the place to go to buy, register, maintain, divert, do all the stuff, the admin, with your domains, with your BradyHarran.com, with your TimHine.ninja, with all the different domains you may want to get. Hover is not only the place to buy them, it's the place to keep them. If you already have the domains, it's the place to transfer them over to. This is just a fantastic service and a fantastic supporter of our podcast. Go to hover.com slash unmade, hover.com slash unmade, and get 10% off your first purchase with Hover. Their prices are already great, 10% even better. Well, you can get, wow, nickcave.me, nickcave.art, nickcave.shop.

What are you going to do with- Nickcave.store. Nickcave.social, Nick Cave dot social. Nick Cave dot fun. Who would have thought that was available? What about whereisgraham.com? That's a good idea. We'd love to find Graham.

How are we going to track down Graham? We've got to find him. We've got to get like some detectives or something onto it. If you know Graham and you know the Graham we're talking about, please get in touch with us. Oh, I know someone that'll know where he is. Nick. I'm pretty sure I asked Nick some time ago and he'd lost track with Graham.

Which is like saying that Bert doesn't know where Ernie is because they were inseparable. Anyway, Hover, check them out, people. They really have supported the Unmade podcast for a long time, and we're very happy recommending them. Remember, you can always buy a domain as a present for someone, too. I think that's a really good idea, you know, someone who, you know, say you've got a friend called, make up a name, Tim. Graham. Graham.

Graham. And buy Graham a website. We don't know where he is, but yeah. At least we'll know where he is online. It's a good idea. It's like buying a – you can put it in a Christmas card. I don't know what to get you for Christmas. You can get it at the last minute. Yeah.

I'm going to buy you a Christmas present. I'm going to buy you online. You should buy your mum a domain. Oh, that's not a bad idea. Yeah. Like, you know, I've bought you this, dorney.com or something. See if she knows what it is. It doesn't have to be a.com.

What dot would be a good one for your mum? What's a good suffix for your mum? Oh, let's have a look. I'm looking for something like.sundayschool or.sunshine or something, you know. There's a.fashion? No. What's your dot fashion. No. What's your mum really into?

She loves dolls. She loves sort of Dutch stuff around the house. Dot flowers. She likes doing sort of decoupage. She likes quilts. She's not really into things that are very internet-y, is she? So there's not a lot of her. We could get her dawn dot Amsterdam. That's true. very internet-y issue. So there's not a lot of... We could get her dawn.amsterdam.

That's true. We could do that. Yeah. Dawn.digital. I don't think... What's that town she's from that sounds so dawn-y, like Na Na Goon or something? It is Na Na Goon, yes.

Yeah. Again, they haven't got.nanagoon. No. I'm beginning to think maybe a domain's not the thing for your mum, but it's a good present for anyone else. Check out hover.com slash unmade. Get 10% off. And now thanks to Hover.

Here we go. Dornhine.faith. She likes faith. Oh, that's a good one. She likes God. That's a good one. Yeah, get her that one. She loves Jesus.

She does like God. It's time for spoon oh oh now i've got nothing i've let you off the hook yeah i've let you off the hook oh good yep because i've just been on holiday and i went to a place that had loads of good spoons i bought one and then on the on the last I was there, there was a shop that had incredible spoons in the window. Some of the best spoons I've ever seen. But it was shut because it was Sunday. So, I couldn't get them.

Yeah. So, you're going to have to make do with this one. I went to Salzburg in Austria. And let me just say, Salzburg is not secretive about the fact that Mozart was born there. They don't mind letting you know. So I got you a Mozart spoon. I'm holding it up to the camera there. Just a nice run of the mill.

That looks like Mozart. Yep. Decorative spoon. And the handle, the enamel oval top is a portrait of the man himself. Just a good, solid Mozart spoon. It's a nice selfie. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

It's a painted selfie. Fantastic. There'll be a picture of that in the show notes. And also, we've been sent a few spoons lately. I thought I'd just share one with you. This has come from Tim. Dear Brady and other Tim, I took a road trip across the USA this spring

with my 10-year-old daughter Maisie from Everett, Washington, to New London, Connecticut. Along the way, we stopped at a kitschy tourist trap called Wall Drug in the town of Wall, South Dakota. I picked this spoon for you out of a selection of four or five different choices. If you choose to include it in Spoon of the Week, I believe it will be the first in the collection to feature a spinny bit. Thanks again for the years of entertainment.

I'll hold up the spoon for you. Spinny bit. You can see in the oval in the handle there where it says Waldrug, which is obviously the name of the shop, there's like a little picture of the store and the name. And that turns if you push it. Oh, yeah. It's like stuck between two little pins and it rotates. So it's like stuck between two little pins and it rotates. But I'm sorry to say, Tim, this is far from the first spoon that we have featured to have a spinny bit in the handle.

I can think of at least a couple of others. But don't let that diminish from the kitschiness of your spoon and our appreciation of you sending it. I love a moving part on a spoon, certainly. Yeah, it is. It shows an extra degree of engineering. And we've got on the letter here, PS you like my spoon any chance you could give me a brief shout out for my silly podcast about parallel dimensions called dispatches from the multiverse i promise it's clean

plug done done thanks for the spoon now do you want to crack out the guitar? Oh, yes. Because it's time to announce our winners. This is the part of the show where we announce stakeholders, Patreon supporters, people that have gone to patreon.com slash unmadefm and shown us a bit of love, a bit of support. It puts you in the running for prizes. And we're going to send an unmade podcast souvenir spoon to Irene from Vienna. Irene from Vienna.

Keep going, man. Come on, Irene. We'll go. And now we're going to send a tape, a sofa shop mixtape to Peggy from California. Peggy? I feel like Peggy, there's a song about Peggy. Well, there's Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly. Oh, yeah.

I don't know that. You know all that because your parents are boomers. My parents are too old for that sort of stuff. I mean, I think Buddy Holly predates my parents for music taste, but I know it more because I think he sings it in the film La Bamba, which I loved. Oh, yeah. And he died in a plane crash,

and I'm fascinated by people who die in plane crashes. Yeah, with the Big Bopper and Richie Valens. Indeed. All right. We have five Patreon supporters that are going to receive Spoon of the Week collector cards, a handful of those in an envelope. We have Balal from Derby. Balal?

Nice. You're not being very musical there. Oh, man. Okay. Sorry, sir. All right. Balal. Balal.

Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal.

Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. Balal. How about Ross from Scotland? Ross from Scotland Ross from Scotland I don't know why that sounds so funny I just love it Ross from Scotland What about Paula E from Canada?

Paula E from Canada? Paula E. Like Sheila E. Hmm. Yeah. Paula E. Oh, that's nice. Surely you can do something with Justin J from Virginia. Justin J.

JJ. Justin JJ. JJ. And last but not least, Brenton F from New South Wales in Australia. Brenton. I love it. An Australian called Brenton. Brenton's not the most musical name, Brenton.

Where's he from? He's from New South Wales. All right, okay. Brenton from New South Wales. Congratulations, son. All right, okay. Brendan from New South Wales. Congratulations, son. All right. Thank you. As I said, patreon.com slash unmadefm.

We really appreciate those of you who support us, and we've always got little treats and extra things for you guys on the Patreon page. And now it's time for... Moon of the Moon. All right, you start. I'm just going to put the guitar away. This may take a while.

Maybe sometime. Tim? Tim! Tim, are you there? Are you... You done? Tim? Yes.

What do these years have in common? 1977, 2015, and then again in 2034. If you want to go even further, again in 2053, then 2072, which we may or may not be alive for, and 2091, which we certainly won't be alive for. So the first thought that comes to mind is that it's some kind of eclipse. Right. be alive for, and 2091, which we certainly won't be alive for. So, the first thought that comes to mind is that it's some kind of eclipse. Right.

Because that's something that happens every now and then. No. You're right that it's moon-related, but that's not much of a leap considering this is moon of the week. Okay. Let me give you another clue. I'm going to help you get there. Okay. I've chosen this particular phenomenon

because of the time of year we're at right so we're near christmas or new years but christmas christmas yes that's christmas related so what do you think those years the moon and christmas all fit together how do they all fit together so each of those years had a Christmas. Where does the moon fit in? There was a moon during those Christmases. Was the moon in a particular position? Yes, yes. Over the top of like Bethlehem or something? Is that?

No, not quite that esoteric. Right. Something a bit more common, but obviously not that common. It's something that is very common, but not necessarily common on Christmas Day. A full moon on Christmas Day. He's done it. He's done it. He's done it.

Well done. There we go. A full moon on Christmas Day. In America, in the US of A, because the full moon can slightly differ depending on where you are, but not by much. So, for all intents and purposes, it's just a full moon on Christmas Day. But I'm using stats from NASA. So, US of A full moons on Christmas Day. America.

1977, 2015, and the next one is in 2034. Is there some legend associated with this or some phenomena? Well, there's no legend. But let me tell you that I've done a little bit of research, because obviously you get roughly one full moon every month. So, you know, there's a chance it will be on Christmas Day, depending on where it falls. The average frequency of any lunar phase occurring on any particular date, so if you wanted a full moon or a new moon or whatever, or an exact half moon and stuff on a particular day, your birthday, Christmas day, is twice in any 59-year period. This century will feature five Christmas full moons. We've obviously already had the 2015 one, and I mentioned the other four earlier.

The full moon in December, whether it's Christmas day or not, is known as the cold moon. It's also sometimes called the long night moon or the oak moon that's all northern hemisphere talk then presumably yes of course of course you're very winter related so very very biased there the current moon phase on december 25 this year so this year on christmas day the moon will be a waxing crescent it It will be 2.26 days old, so it will have just gone past the new moon, presumably. It will be 7.11% illuminated, so it will just be a bit of a sliver, with a tilt of 163.892 degrees. The approximate distance from Earth to the moon on that day will be 359,698.33 kilometres, approximately, and the moon sign will be Aquarius. I find it amazing how well we can predict where things are in space in the future and the past.

Yes. It's incredible. And it's amazing how far back they were able to do that, weren't they, in terms of the positions of the stars and things? Oh, yeah. Incredible. Yep. And into the future, they can tell you where the moon will be on Christmas Day

in the year 5022, you know, and they can tell you exactly where it'll be. It's fantastic. There you go. Christmas moon. But unfortunately, we had a Christmas moon in 2015. There won't be another one till 2034. It's funny, for something that happens every month, and Christmas happens in a month, obviously,

it surprises me that it's so rare. Well, two in any 59-year period on a given date, because it's always moving. The date, you know, the date, it's always moving. Yes. In its position in the month. So, yeah, there we go. Do you have a favourite stage of the moon when you go, oh, look,

the moon's in its second quarter? And I love that angle. I like it when it is quite crescent-y. I like it crescent-y, like a little bit of a crescent, you know. Not too much of a sliver, not that sort of, you know, fingernail sliver, a little bit more meat to it. But, yeah, yeah, I like a good crescent moon. What about you?

And I like a big full moon you know where you can see the whole and it's really silvery and you can see it all oh yeah do you like looking at the moon i have no feelings about the moon whatsoever so i have no nothing preferred shape of the moon no i go there's the moon i do remember one time when it was really full, like when I felt like I could see shadows on it and it seemed much more crystal clear on it or for some reason, I don't know why, but it was,

I remember being startled by it. Perhaps it was when I was, I was out in the outback or something, but that was just a fleeting moment. And now I've moved on with my life. And whereas I'm stuck in this moon trap i've i've matured i've moved i've moved on you had a choice that day you could you could go down one path and be a normal human adult functioning in society, or you could be like Brady and become forever obsessed with this object in space.

You chose one path, I chose another. Time for my idea for a podcast. All right. I'm quite happy with this one. This started, I've had this one sitting on my list for a while, and it was meant to just be a bit of a novelty, but I thought it was a cool novelty. But as I did some more research this morning, I've actually developed it into a fully-fledged podcast idea that I believe would be well worth making.

Nice. So, my idea is called Podcast in a Bottle. And originally, my idea was to record an episode of a podcast. Yes. To record it onto some medium, like a USB stick or something. You know, obviously I have a long history of making podcasts in unusual formats, like vinyl and tapes and stuff, but make a podcast, a one-off. Say you put it on a USB stick, put it in a special, very well-sealed, very well-designed

bottle, throw it out to sea. Nice. And then hope one day someone finds it and listens to your episode. Love it. Absolutely love it. Least efficient distribution method for a podcast in history. Yes. Have you released a new podcast?

Yes, we have. It is released. It's definitely out there. Oh, really? Or how can I listen to your podcast? Well, just go and stand on a beach and hope. So, I want to do this. I want to record something with you and put it in a bottle and throw it out to sea and see where it ends up.

So, that was my idea, you know, a bit of a laugh, something fun to do. And I still want to do it. So, in the course of preparing this morning, I decided to read some stories about messages in a bottle. Obviously, there's a long history of, you know, people putting messages in bottles and throwing out that to sea. So I went onto the Wikipedia page for messages in bottles and I found all these great stories. And that made me realise what a cool podcast it would be to actually just do message in a bottle podcast,

just do a different episode each week about a different famous message in a bottle story, something about messages in bottles, release it as a normal podcast, but also make 20 copies of that episode that are distributed out to sea in various places in the hope that they'll be found as like an accompanying gimmick to your podcast. And it would be an amazing moment if one day someone actually found one of the episodes, but you could still make a normal episode about messages in bottles. I think that'd be really cool. Every episode of message in a bottle has an accompanying 20 bottles out there in the sea

somewhere to be found. And they wouldn't even have to be at sea. You could hide them in other places too. Oh, that's a good idea. For people to find. Yeah. Yeah. Should we talk about messages in bottles then?

Because I've done a bit of research here. Go for it. Yeah, tell us. I love this idea. The first thing you're probably wondering is how likely is it that a message in a bottle gets found if you throw it out to sea? Now, it's important to point out we have different styles of messages in bottles. You've got the classic, you know, I'm marooned on an island, come and save me.

Yeah. You've got, I'm a single man looking for love. I'm going to throw this into the sea to hope someone finds it. That's quite a common one as well, actually. Really? But you also do get a lot of science done in this way. Not so much anymore. Now we have better satellite technology,

but it used to be quite common for ocean scientists to put 10,000 bottles in certain places in the sea with messages saying, contact us if you find it. Find out where those bottles went. So they could then map ocean currents and find out how ocean currents work. Well, that's what I would have thought. Depending on where you put it, find out where those bottles went so they could then map ocean currents and find out how ocean currents work. Well, that's what I would have thought. Depending on where you put it in,

depending on how the currents work around the globe, I mean, surely there's catch points there. There's a whole bunch of stuff that gets stuck around South America. Indeed. Other things move around. Indeed. They reckon approximately 3% of messages in bottles that get put in the sea are recovered.

3%? I know. That's put in the sea are recovered. 3%? I know. That's massively high, I would have thought. I mean, some of the big scientific studies that have been done have had recovery rates ranging from 11%, 10%, 3%. There are these things called oceanic drift cards, which are used to measure currents. They can be up to 50% if they release them in like a densely populated area, down to 1% if you're doing

it somewhere like Antarctica. There's a rule of thumb that bottles released more than 100 miles from the shore have a recovery rate of below 10%, and it's only a few percent if you release it more than 1,000 miles from a shore. Well, see, now that's right. That depends on, I mean, if I throw something off the Glenelg jetty and someone picks it up in Brighton, well, that's not amazing. That's just rubbish, you know.

But I assume this has got to be something that's taken into a different continent. Hence, you've got your 100 miles, 10%, 1,000 miles, a few percent. But coming back to what you said, they reckon about 90% of marine debris washes up on less than 10% of the world's coastlines. Ah, yeah. And it favours beaches that are perpendicular to dominant ocean currents.

So, you're right. Most things do get kind of funnelled into a smaller percentage of places to be found. So, I've got here a bunch of message in bottle stories too. Can I share some of them with you? Please, yeah. This is great. Some of them are really good. This is something I didn't know.

Christopher Columbus, when he encountered a severe storm while returning from America, the US of A, he is said to have written on parchment what he had found in the new world and requested that it be forwarded to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. He enclosed the parchment in waxed cloth and placed it in a large wooden barrel so it could be cast into the sea. Columbus obviously survived the storm. That barrel was never found. But he was like a kind of, oh, no, all my hard work's going to be lost.

So he threw it out to sea in the hope that it would be found. Imagine if that got found now. How much would that be worth? Oh, goodness gracious. Hundreds of dollars. If you found it, write in. Tell us. In 1784, Chunosuke Matsuyama sent a message detailing his

and 43 shipmates shipwrecking in a bottle. So apparently he was off treasure hunting. They got shipwrecked on some pretty hostile island with not a lot of resources. He put this message in a bottle, 1784. I think they all died on this island. It was pretty grim for them. In 1935, so this is 151 years later apparently, a Japanese seaweed collector in the village of Hiruchimura found the bottle. And Hiruchimura is where Matsuyama was born.

Wow. That's a good one. Yeah, right? What a podcast story there is to be told there. Treasure hunting, shipwrecks. Apparently, the message they wrote on the bottle was, like, carved into the wood of a coconut tree and stuff. Awesome. This is where you need to be playing the police's message in a bottle underneath this little

bit. Funny you should say that too, because I did a lot of research into that song before, because I knew you were going to bring it up. Apparently that's Sting's favourite police song. Right. And I think he says SOS 31 times during the song. Oh, really? Sending out an SOS 31 times during the song. Oh, really? Sending out an SOS.

Yeah. In 1875, ship steward Van Hoeduk and cabin boy Henry Trusselow of the British sailing ship Lenny released 24 bottled messages into the Bay of Biscay telling of the murder by mutineers of their captain and officers. French authorities soon received the message, rescued Hoyduck and Trisolo and brought the mutineers to justice. Wow.

They were in trouble when they chucked out messaging bottles and they got a response, like phoning 911. In 1876, so this is a year later, this was obviously a golden era for messages and bottles. Yes. On the remote Scottish island of St Kilda, freelance journalist John Sands and marooned Austrian sailors deployed two messages requesting the Austrian consul rescue them with provisions. in attached to a sheep's bladder for flotation in an arrangement that was later called the St Kilda Mailboat were discovered in Orkney within nine days and in Rossshire after 22 days.

Since that time, sending St Kilda Mail, in quotation marks, has become a recreational ritual for island visitors, the containers often riding the Gulf Stream to the British mainland, Shetland, Orkney and Scandinavia. Yeah, wow. So, it's become this tradition of making these unusual messages and bottles. Yeah, yeah. To know that there was a particular current that links almost like a sister city or something, you know, that there's a high chance something in this country will reach this particular

beach of this country here. That's nice. A little highway, a little freeway. Yeah. You'll like this one. In 1929, a bottle that became known as the Flying Dutchman was released by a German marine science expedition with instructions for any finders to report the find, but then return the bottle to the sea. It was found at several locations in successions. but then returned the bottle to the sea.

It was found at several locations in successions. The Flying Dutchman travelled 16,000 miles from its release point in the southern Indian Ocean to Cape Horn in South America and back through the Indian Ocean to its last reported find in 1935 on the west coast of Australia. Oh, wow. So this one bottle kept getting found and chucked back in the water. That's pretty honourable, isn't it, to throw it back in rather than keeping it as a cool souvenir but passing it on. That's cool.

Here's one for us. containing a penciled message thrown overboard on April 17, 1916 by an Australian soldier called John Oppie as his troop ship passed between Encounter Bay and Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Oppie himself survived to see the message returned. Oh, wow, that's great. So just near Kangaroo Island there, we threw it in the sea and it got found over in Tasmania. So this gives me an idea.

Like if maybe Graham's out there and he's trying to contact us, but he's throwing bottles, messages in bottles and... Message in a bottle seems like the sort of efficiency of message sending that Graham would use too. Yes. It's his particular brand of analogue. It's his particular brand of analogue. In 1956, a Swedish sailor called Eik Viking or Eiki Viking sent a bottled message, quote, to someone beautiful and far away. The bottle reached a 17-year-old Sicilian girl named Polina, sparking a correspondence that culminated in their marriage in 1958.

The affair attracted so much attention that 4,000 people celebrated their wedding. Ah, that's romantic. There's a few other good ones like this. This is a good one. In what was described as perhaps the most famous message in a bottle love story, in March 1999, a green ginger beer bottle was dredged up by a fisherman off the Essex coast. The bottle contained an 84-year-old letter tossed into the English Channel in 1914 by a British soldier, Private Thomas Hughes, days before he was killed in fighting in France. Wow.

Wow. Wow. Wow. flown to New Zealand at the expense of New Zealand Post. Imagine that, being 86 years old and someone finds a bottle at the bottom of the sea with a message from your dad days before he was killed in World War I. That's amazing. Look, I can relate. I mean, there was an email the other day at work I couldn't find and I went and searched and searched and searched and found.

It took about 15, 20 minutes and then I found the email. It was a draft. I thought it was gone and there it was. Have you ever thrown a message in a bottle into the sea? I think I've done it a few times when I was a kid. No. I'd just write, hello, I'm Brady and just chuck it in a Coke bottle, just off the sand so it would get washed back 10 minutes later.

It's just littering. That's all that is. No, I've never done it. I've never done it. What would you put in now? What would you write today if you had to put a message? We're going to do one. We're going to do one. You and I are going to do an unmade podcast message in a bottle,

and I'm going to arrange to have it dropped in the sea thousands of miles away, not just off the jetty. Right, okay. Okay. Yeah. All right. Well, that's something to look forward to, isn't it? Do you want to hear a couple more?

Yeah. A teardrop-shaped bottle was found in March 2002 on a beach in Kent in the United Kingdom containing an unsigned letter from a French woman expressing her enduring grief over the death of her son at the age of 13. British author Karen Lybrick spent years of research unsuccessfully trying to find the mother and eventually published a book called the letter in the bottle in 2006 the book was published in french three years later in 2009 it sparked huge media coverage that alerted the mother for the first time that her

letter had actually been discovered saying she initially felt violated by the publication of her personal suffering. On the condition of continued anonymity, she agreed to tell Lybrick the details of her son's 1981 death in a bicycle accident, her decades of suffering afterwards, and the story surrounding the release of the letter from an English Channel ferry. I like that. I like that she stayed anonymous, but that is incredible. Yeah.

You mentioned just littering in the sea, which brings me to this next one. July 2017, a Scottish widower seeking female companionship sent 2,000 bottled messages adrift at various locations around the UK. And though claiming he received responses from 50 women, he ceased the practice in response to public complaints and an investigation by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency. Yes, yes. At some point it does just become a problem, doesn't it? You're throwing things in the ocean.

This one's interesting because, A, because it involves South Australia but also the distance. May 2019, a Gatorade bottle with a four-page letter written in Spanish was found in Brown Bay near Mount Gambier, South Australia. The letter had been sent from Argentina by a mother and two children as a loving tribute to their husband and father who had died of a stroke a year earlier. Oh, wow.

Gatorade bottle. I love it. So you don't need a posh bottle. No, you don't. I guess the plastic might even last longer with the seal. But that is amusing. They've obviously done it as a lovely ritual of a farewell, a funeral sort of act. But it is funny that they reached for a Gatorade bottle. It's like this incredibly meaningful moment.

And then they're like, all right, you're finished, Jimmy. Right. All right. Give it here. And then- Let's polish off that Gatorade first. Yeah. Last but not least, this is interesting because this is a lot shorter in terms of time and distance. In June 2019, three hikers trapped above a waterfall on California's Arroyo Seco Tributary

released a bottle SOS message that was quickly discovered a quarter of a mile downstream, allowing them to be rescued by helicopter the following morning. So they just chucked it in the river and someone downstream found it and the helicopter got it. Message in a bottle, podcast in a bottle, that's my idea. I wonder if there's any stories like the shortest time. In other words, I can imagine, you know, so of a guy writing a letter, putting it in a bottle, throwing it into the ocean.

Ten minutes later, a girl picks it up, opens it. They fall in love, get married. It's just like the same beach. It's like, oh, man. Maybe like you'd see the lady down the other end of the beach and think, oh, I like the look of her, but I'm too shy to speak to her. And you use the old bottle ploy. That's right.

It's like she thinks it's all romantic and you just chucked it in 30 metres down the beach. 30 metres. And you've written something like, I will be at the beach on, you know, the 2nd of August in 2022. If you happen to be here, look for me in a, you know, and it's that day. I'm really psyched about this. So we'll come back to this.

I'm going to take this further. We're going to get some bottles out to sea with a podcast in it. I like it. There's all sorts of reasons why it resonates because they're like a time capsule as well. They're like a time capsule that you're not in control of. We have a time capsule under the church, which is to be opened in a few years, actually. And, you know, there's previous, you know, generations of kids have put things in there, presumably, and all the rest.

But not having a control on it is a wonderful idea. You know, you're grabbing an artifact and throwing it out into the ocean. You don't know who's going to find it or if it's going to be found. Do you have any idea what's in that time capsule under the church? No, no, I don't, no. Could it be like gold or stuff? No, no. Ancient relics?

No. No, no. Some saint's, the tooth of a saint or something? No, no, nothing like that. There are people in the church that have been around for, coming for a long time, like 80 years and stuff since they were kids, so they may remember when it was i'm sure they would remember when it was put in there and they may have some idea what's in there they may have a kid that one of their own drawings in there or something like that how do you get to it are you gonna have to like smash the floor

with a sledgehammer to get it like is it no it's um under wooden floorboards and there is a trap door and that kind of thing so i think it's been used a couple of times. I think it was – no, I'm not totally sure. I'm going off my guessing here, but it is under floorboards and the floorboards have been positioned in a way saying, well, you'll be able to unlock this and open it at a certain time. But then I think it goes – I haven't looked in there at all and I don't know if I can get in there or not.

Maybe only someone who's worthy can open it. And, like, on the day, everyone will gather around and Tim, the minister, will come forward and try to open it, and it won't open for him because he's not worthy. They'll look around and say some small child will come forward and they will be the chosen one. And the mantle will move to them and they will become the minister. Would you love to find a message in a bottle on the beach,

like one day when you're out surfing or something? Yeah, it would be nice, wouldn't it? I would like to find that Christopher Columbus barrel. That would be pretty cool. Oh, that would be straight to eBay. Straight to eBay. I'd probably stop my surf earlier that day just to come in, bring it in, just sit on the towel on the beach, go back out, finish the surf,

come back and do back. Yeah. Light the barrel up and have a little beach fire and toast some marshmallows. You don't need the barrel anymore. Just take the contents out. Oh, I had another thing. You're about to drop in some words. No, no, I'm not. No, no, no, no. I'm not going to mention Hawaii, but I was going to mention something else.

I can't believe one of your secret words was Hawaii. We spoke about messages and bottles drifting around islands, and you didn't drop Hawaii in. I sat there with it on my mind the whole time, and I couldn't find an opportunity in the midst of your stories and me talking to fit it in. And every time I went to speak, it didn't come out. And then I've got to go, oh, hang on, we're still on it.

I've still got time and it didn't happen. But talking about time capsules and time and that kind of stuff, I was thinking about something this week which I want to test on you because you know how we've talked before about Groundhog Day and what a great movie it is and all that stuff. But I have a theory that I think Paul McCartney may be living Groundhog Day for real. Like, Paul McCartney, think about it, he's been around forever.

He still looks exactly the same. He looks younger than all of us and he still looks like Paul McCartney. He's gone through several wives and he's come out with ridiculous songs that he seems to have just got from somewhere and he keeps pumping out these songs. I actually think maybe Paul McCartney's been around for like a thousand years like maybe he's maybe he's like a he's like a vampire like in twilight but he keeps coming back and and and going on and on and on i would question that he looks that good and i would also and i also think this magic

source that he's getting his songs from is drying up a little bit. Well, so maybe it's been 2,000 or 3,000 years. I don't know. But don't you think it's strange that he just sort of seems to be living forever? I don't know. I just think people born on June the 18th are awesome, you know. There's just a special quality to being born on that day and he's cashing in on it.

All right, well, we'll investigate this Paul McCartney phenomenon, see if there's anything more to it. I did think there was more to it. All right. Well, Merry Christmas, man. Oh, yeah, this is a sort of Christmassy time episode. This is the one we're putting out at the end of December 2022. If you're listening to this on a USB stick you found in the sea

in 170 years' time. That's right. This is when we recorded it. They may be having a full moon Christmas. They may be. It could be 150 years in the future. Tim and I will be long gone. Paul McCartney will still be releasing songs.

Yes. Dyeing his hair. What if we put this episode on a USB, put it in a bottle, put it out to the ocean, and then in 10 years, put it in a bottle, put it out to the ocean, and then in 10 years Graham found it on Christmas Day and it's a full moon Christmas Day. That would be amazing.