Futility Closet

In 1928 Nancy Wake ran away from her Australian home and into an unlikely destiny: She became a dynamo in the French resistance, helping more than a thousand people to flee the Germans and then organizing partisans to fight them directly. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of the White Mouse, one of the bravest heroes of World War II. We'll also marvel at mailmen and puzzle over an expensive homework assignment. Intro: The town of Agloe, New York, was invented by a pair of mapmakers. F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise contains two hidden poems. Sources for our feature on Nancy Wake: Peter FitzSimons, Nancy Wake, 2001. Nancy Wake, The White Mouse, 1985. Russell Braddon, The White Mouse, 1956. "Dispatches," World War II 26:4 (November/December 2011), 16. "History in the Media," History Today 55:4 (April 2005), 9. "Sound Off," Leatherneck 85:6 (June 2002), 2. Adam Bernstein, "Nancy Wake, 'White Mouse' of World War II, Dies at 98," Washington Post, Aug. 9, 2011. Paul Vitello, "Nancy Wake, Proud Spy and Nazi Foe, Dies at 98," New York Times, Aug. 13, 2011. "Obituary: Nancy Wake," Economist 400:8746 (Aug. 13, 2011), 82. Chris Brice, "The Mouse That Roared," [Adelaide] Advertiser, June 2, 2001. Bruce Wilson, "Forever in Her Debt," [Brisbane] Courier-Mail, Feb. 15, 2003, 34. "War Heroine Nancy Wake Dies," ABC Premium News, Aug. 8, 2011. "Prince Helps Pauper Heroine," [Adelaide] Advertiser, Feb. 11, 2003, 22. "Australian 'White Mouse' Was a Guerrilla to Nazis Selling Her War Medals Did Not Endear Her to Countrymen, Though," Christian Science Monitor, June 8, 1994. Sandra Laville, "Penniless Resistance Hero Stays On ... and On ... at Hotel," Vancouver Sun, Feb. 11, 2003, A16. Red Harrison, "All Guts and Garters," Weekend Australian, June 9, 2001. Lydia Clifford, "Secrets and White Lies," Daily Telegraph, June 1, 2001, 117. Bruce Wilson, "Penniless Wake Is Also Priceless," Daily Telegraph, Feb. 14, 2003, 23. Nate Rawlings, "Nancy Wake," Time 178:8 (Aug. 29, 2011), 20. Roderick Bailey, "Wake, Nancy Grace Augusta," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Jan. 8, 2015. Listener mail: A 1797 George III Cartwheel penny, a handgun, and a selection of pottery and pipes found on the Thames foreshore. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle's "Police Reports." The neural net that Dave Lawrence fed them through. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Simone Hilliard, who sent this corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

In 1804, when she was 5 years old, Mary Anning began to dig in the cliffs that flanked her English seaside town. What she found amazed the scientists of her time and challenged the established view of world history. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of "the greatest fossilist the world ever knew." We'll also try to identify a Norwegian commando and puzzle over some further string pulling. Intro: William Rowan Hamilton was so pleased with the fundamental formula for quaternions that he carved it into the bridge on which it occurred to him. On Christmas morning 1875, Mark Twain's daughter discovered a letter from the moon. Sources for our feature on Mary Anning: Shelley Emling, The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World, 2009. Thomas W. Goodhue, Fossil Hunter: The Life and Times of Mary Anning (1799-1847), 2004. Hugh Torrens, "Presidential Address: Mary Anning (1799-1847) of Lyme; 'The Greatest Fossilist the World Ever Knew,'" British Journal for the History of Science 28:3 (September 1995), 257-284. Crispin Tickell, "Princess of Palaeontology," Nature 400:6742 (July 22, 1999), 321. Adrian Burton, "The Ichthyosaur in the Room," Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 10:6 (August 2012), 340. Tom Huntington, "The Princess of Paleontology," British Heritage 26:2 (May 2005), 44-59. Michael A. Taylor and Hugh S. Torrens, "Fossils by the Sea," Natural History 104:10 (October 1995), 66. Renee M. Clary and James H. Wandersee, "Mary Anning: She's More Than 'Seller of Sea Shells at the Seashore,'" American Biology Teacher 68:3 (March 2006), 153-157. Peggy Vincent et al., "Mary Anning's Legacy to French Vertebrate Palaeontology," Geological Magazine 151:1 (January 2014), 7-20. Michael A. Taylor and Hugh S. Torrens, "An Anonymous Account of Mary Anning (1799–1847), Fossil Collector of Lyme Regis, England, Published in Chambers's Journal in 1857, and its Attribution to Frank Buckland (1826–1880), George Roberts (c.1804–1860) and William Buckland (1784–1856)," Archives of Natural History 41:2 (2014), 309–325. Justin Pollard and Stephanie Pollard, "Mary Anning: Born 21 May 1799," History Today 68:3 (March 2018), 22-23. Sarah Zielinski, "Mary Anning, an Amazing Fossil Hunter," Smithsonian, Jan. 5, 2010. Shelley Emling, "Mary Anning and the Birth of Paleontology," Scientific American, Oct. 21, 2009. "Mary Anning," Discover 38:4 (May 2017), 47. "Mary Anning, the Fossil Finder," All the Year Round 13:303 (Feb. 11, 1865), 60-63. John P. Rafferty, "Mary Anning," Encyclopaedia Britannica, May 17, 2018. "Mary Anning (1799-1847)," University of California Museum of Paleontology (accessed May 27, 2018). "Mary Anning," University of Bristol Paleobiology Research Group (accessed May 27, 2018). In 1830 the geologist Henry De la Beche painted this watercolor depicting every one of Mary's finds -- he sold lithographs and gave the proceeds to her. This increased her security, but apparently not beyond worry. Listener mail: Ryan Osborne, "'America's Spirit Animal 2018:' Twitter Loves the Bear Who Ate Two Dozen Cupcakes," WFAA, May 12, 2018. Michael George, "New Jersey Baker Says Bear Broke Into Car, Ate 2 Dozen Cupcakes, Left Only Paw Print," NBC New York, May 11, 2018. Gene Myers, "Cupcake-Eating Bear Celebrated With Bear-Shaped Cupcakes by Bakery," North Jersey, May 11, 2018. Thomson Reuters, "Alaska Bear Falls Through Skylight Into Party, Eats All the Cupcakes," CBC News, June 25, 2014. Lindsay Deutsch, "Bear Falls Through Skylight, Eats Birthday Cupcakes," USA Today, June 26, 2014. Brendan Rand, "5-Year-Old Girl Attacked, Dragged by Black Bear," ABC News, May 14, 2018. Courtney Han, "5-Year-Old Girl Who Was Attacked and Dragged by Bear Is Released From Hospital," ABC News, May 19, 2018. To Tell the Truth, Jan. 17, 1966. Wikipedia, "To Tell the Truth" (accessed June 9, 2018). This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Stefan, who sent this corroborating link (warning -- this spoils this puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll explore some more curiosities and unanswered questions from Greg's research, including a misplaced elephant, a momentous biscuit failure, a peripatetic ax murderer, and the importance of the 9 of diamonds. We'll also revisit Michael Malloy's resilience and puzzle over an uncommonly casual prison break. Intro: In 1846, geologist Adam Sedgwick sent his niece some tips on pronouncing Welsh. In 1961, psychologist Robert Sommer reflected that a person's importance is reflected in his keyring. Sources for our feature on notes and queries: Justin Kaplan and Anne Bernays mention the naming of Deathball Rock, Oregon, in their 1999 book The Language of Names: What We Call Ourselves and Why It Matters. The anecdote about the King Kong animator is from Orville Goldner and George E. Turner's 1975 book The Making of King Kong. The anecdote about Fred Astaire and the editor is from Brian Seibert's 2015 history of tap dancing, What the Eye Hears, supplemented by this New Yorker letter. Oxford mathematician Nick Trefethen's jotted thoughts are collected in Trefethen's Index Cards, 2011. The identity of the "bravest man" at the Battle of the Little Bighorn is discussed in Thom Hatch's 2000 Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn: An Encyclopedia and Frederic C. Wagner III's 2016 Participants in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. But I don't know any source that makes a decided claim as to his identity. "Icy Mike," the bull elephant skeleton discovered on Mount Kenya, is mentioned in Matthew Power and Keridwen Cornelius' article "Escape to Mount Kenya" in National Geographic Adventure 9:7 (September 2007), 65-71. Bernard Suits defines games in The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia, 1978. The anecdote about Maidenhead, Berkshire, is from Gordon Snell's The Book of Theatre Quotes, 1982. The observation about William Byrd's diary is in Margaret Fleming's "Analysis of a Four-Letter Word," in Maledicta 1:2 (1977). Bill James' book about the Villisca ax murders is The Man From the Train, co-written with his daughter Rachel McCarthy James. Richard O. Jones describes the Cincinnati privy disaster of 1904 in this Belt Magazine article of Nov. 4, 2014. (Thanks, Glenn.) Here's a diagram of the Woodingdean Well, the deepest hand-dug well in the world. Barry Day mentions P.G. Wodehouse's characterization of his comic novels in his 2004 book The Complete Lyrics of P.G. Wodehouse (according to N.T.P. Murphy's 2006 A Wodehouse Handbook). Wikipedia gives a long list of reputed reasons the 9 of diamonds is called the "curse of Scotland." English curate Francis Kilvert mentions a mysterious organ grinder in his diary entry for May 12, 1874. Horace Walpole's owl whistles are mentioned in Arthur Michael Samuel's Mancroft Essays, 1912. The story about the Dabneys' clothesline telegraph appears in David Williams' I Freed Myself: African American Self-Emancipation in the Civil War Era, 2014, among other modern sources. Williams cites John Truesdale's The Blue Coats, and How They Lived, Fought and Died for the Union, from 1867. I'd be more sanguine with more authoritative sources. Listener mail: Nidhi Goyal, "Your Stomach Acid Can Dissolve Metal," Industry Tap, Feb. 3, 2016. Wikipedia, "Hydrochloric Acid" (accessed June 2, 2018). S.E. Gould, "What Makes Things Acid: The pH Scale," Lab Rat, Scientific American, Dec. 3, 2012. Charles Herman Sulz, A Treatise on Beverages, Or, The Complete Practical Bottler, 1888. "Properties of Some Metals: Tin," James P. Birk, CHM-115: General Chemistry with Qualitative Analysis, Arizona State University. P.K. Li et al., "In Vitro Effects of Simulated Gastric Juice on Swallowed Metal Objects: Implications for Practical Management," Gastrointestinal Endoscopy 46:2 (August 1997), 152-155. IMDb, "Open Water 2: Adrift." https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470055/ Wikipedia, "Open Water 2: Adrift" (accessed June 2, 2018). This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Esmeralda Rupp-Spangle, who sent this corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

In the 1970s psychologist David Rosenhan sent healthy volunteers to 12 psychiatric hospitals, where they claimed to be hearing voices. Once they were admitted, they behaved normally, but the hospitals diagnosed all of them as seriously mentally ill. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe the Rosenhan experiment, which challenged the validity of psychiatric diagnosis and set off a furor in the field. We'll also spot hawks at Wimbledon and puzzle over a finicky payment processor. Intro: In 2002, Burkard Polster investigated the mathematics of shoelaces. A raindrop that lands on Montana's Triple Divide Peak might arrive at any of three oceans. Sources for our feature on the Rosenhan experiment: Roger R. Hock, Forty Studies That Changed Psychology, 2009. Dusan Kecmanovic, Controversies and Dilemmas in Contemporary Psychiatry, 2017. Donald O. Granberg and John F. Galliher, A Most Human Enterprise, 2010. David Rosenhan, "On Being Sane in Insane Places," Science 179:4070 (Jan. 19, 1973), 250–258. Paul R. Fleischman et al., "Psychiatric Diagnosis," Science, New Series 180:4084 (April 27, 1973), 356+358+360-369. Robert L. Spitzer, "On Pseudoscience in Science, Logic in Remission, and Psychiatric Diagnosis: A Critique of Rosenhan's 'On Being Sane in Insane Places,'" Journal of Abnormal Psychology 84:5, 442–452. Ulric Neisser, "Reversibility of Psychiatric Diagnoses," Science, New Series 180:4091 (June 15, 1973), 1116. Martin Bulmer, "Are Pseudo-Patient Studies Justified?," Journal of Medical Ethics 8:2 (June 1982), 65-71. Peter C. Gaughwin, "On Being Insane in Medico-Legal Places: The Importance of Taking a Complete History in Forensic Mental Health Assessment," Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 12:2 (2005), 298-310. Theodore Millon, "Reflections on Rosenhan's 'On Being Sane in Insane Places,'" Journal of Abnormal Psychology 84:5 (October 1975), 456-461. Maurice K. Temerlin, "Suggestion Effects in Psychiatric Diagnosis," Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 147:4 (October 1968), 349–353. Murray J. Goddard, "Personal Accounts: On Being Possibly Sane in Possibly Insane Places," Psychiatric Services 62:8 (August 2011), 831-832. Jared M. Bartels and Daniel Peters, "Coverage of Rosenhan's 'On Being Sane in Insane Places' in Abnormal Psychology Textbooks," Teaching of Psychology 44:2 (2017), 169-173. Marti Loring and Brian Powell, "Gender, Race, and DSM-III: A Study of the Objectivity of Psychiatric Diagnostic Behavior," Journal of Health and Social Behavior 29:1 (March 1988), 1–22. Jim Schnabel, "Puck in the Laboratory: The Construction and Deconstruction of Hoaxlike Deception in Science," Science, Technology, & Human Values 19:4 (October 1, 1994), 459-492. Michael Fontaine, "On Being Sane in an Insane Place -- The Rosenhan Experiment in the Laboratory of Plautus' Epidamnus," Current Psychology: Research and Reviews 32:4 (December 2013), 348-365. Mark Moran, "Writer Ignites Firestorm With Misdiagnosis Claims," Psychiatric News 41:7 (April 7, 2006), 10–12. Sandra Blakeslee, "8 Feign Insanity in Test and Are Termed Insane," New York Times, Jan. 21, 1973. Nathaniel Morris, "This Secret Experiment Tricked Psychiatrists Into Diagnosing Sane People as Having Schizophrenia," Washington Post, Dec. 29, 2017. Claudia Hammond, "One Flew Into the Cuckoo's Nest," Times, July 27, 2009, 8. Richard M. Restak, "Medicine of the Mind," Wilson Quarterly 7:4 (Autumn 1983), 112-118. Listener mail: Pierre Bertrand, "Feral Parakeets Taking Over London, Prompting Concerns They'll Push Out Native Birds," CBC News, Feb. 14, 2016. Wikipedia, "Feral Parakeets in Great Britain," (accessed May 23, 2018). James Owen, "Feral Parrot Population Soars in U.K., Study Says," National Geographic News, July 8, 2004. Hazel Jackson, "Move Aside, Pigeons: Wild Parakeets Poised for World Domination," CNN, Aug. 17, 2016. Oliver Pickup, "Introducing Rufus the Hawk: The Official Bird Scarer of the Wimbledon Championships," Telegraph, July 3, 2017. Wikipedia, "Rufus the Hawk" (accessed May 23, 2018). "Rufus the Hawk Back at Work," BT, June 25, 2013. Bryony Gordon, "Rufus the Hawk: Quails, Baths And Me-Time -- Meet Wimbledon's Biggest Diva," Telegraph, July 2, 2012. "Nosy Neighbour," finalist, 2016 Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year, 2016. Sam Hobson's photography. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Tommy Honton, who sent this corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

In 1990, two thieves dressed as policemen walked into Boston's Gardner museum and walked out with 13 artworks worth half a billion dollars. After 28 years the lost masterpieces have never been recovered. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe the largest art theft in history and the ongoing search for its solution. We'll also discover the benefits of mustard gas and puzzle over a surprisingly effective fighter pilot. Intro: In 1938, Italian physicist Ettore Majorana vanished without a trace. Many of the foremost intellectuals of the early 20th century frequented the same café in Vienna. Sources for our feature on the Gardner heist: Ulrich Boser, The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft, 2008. Stephen Kurkjian, Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World's Greatest Art Heist, 2015. Michael Brenson, "Robbers Seem to Know Just What They Want," New York Times, March 19, 1990. Peter S. Canellos, Andy Dabilis, and Kevin Cullen, "Art Stolen From Gardner Museum Was Uninsured, Cost of Theft Coverage Described as Prohibitive," Boston Globe, March 20, 1990, 1. Robert Hughes, "A Boston Theft Reflects the Art World's Turmoil," Time 135:14 (April 2, 1990), 54. Peter Plagens, Mark Starr, and Kate Robins, "To Catch an Art Thief," Newsweek 115:14 (April 2, 1990), 52. Scott Baldauf, "Museum Asks: Does It Take a Thief to Catch a Degas?," Christian Science Monitor 89:193 (Aug. 29, 1997), 3. Steve Lopez and Charlotte Faltermayer, "The Great Art Caper," Time 150:21 (Nov. 17, 1997), 74. "Missing Masterpieces," Security 37:6 (June 2000), 14-18. Robert M. Poole, "Ripped From the Walls (And the Headlines)," Smithsonian 36:4 (July 2005), 92-103. Paige Williams, "The Art of the Story," Boston Magazine, March 2010. Randy Kennedy, "20th Anniversary of a Boston Art Heist," New York Times, March 17, 2010. Mark Durney and Blythe Proulx, "Art Crime: A Brief Introduction," Crime, Law and Social Change 56:115 (September 2011). Katharine Q. Seelye and Tom Mashberg, "A New Effort in Boston to Catch 1990 Art Thieves," New York Times, March 18, 2013. Tom Mashberg, "Isabella Stewart Gardner: 25 Years of Theories," New York Times, Feb. 26, 2015. Shelley Murphy, "Search for Artworks From Gardner Heist Continues 25 Years Later," Boston Globe, March 17, 2015. Tom Mashberg, "Arrest by F.B.I. Is Tied to $500 Million Art Theft From Boston Museum, Lawyer Says," New York Times, April 17, 2015. Serge F. Kovaleski and Tom Mashberg, "Reputed Mobster May Be Last Link to Gardner Museum Art Heist," New York Times, April 24, 2015. "New Video in 25-Year-Old Art Heist at Boston's Isabella Gardner Museum," New York Daily News, Aug. 6, 2015. Tom Mashberg, "25 Years After Gardner Museum Heist, Video Raises Questions," New York Times, Aug. 6, 2015. Rodrigue Ngowi and William J. Kole, "2 Suspects in Boston Art Theft Worth $500 Million Are Dead, FBI Says," Washington Post, Aug. 7, 2015. Sarah Kaplan, "Surveillance Video Raises Questions — and Possible Clues — in 25-Year-Old Museum Mystery," Washington Post, Aug. 7, 2015. Justin Peters, "Why Is Stolen Art So Hard to Find?," Slate, Aug. 14, 2015. Erick Trickey, "The Gardner Museum Heist: Who's Got the Art?," Boston Magazine, March 13, 2016. Shelley Murphy and Stephen Kurkjian, "Six Theories Behind The Stolen Gardner Museum Paintings," Boston Globe, March 18, 2017. Graham Bowley, "Gardner Museum Doubles Reward for Recovery of Stolen Masterpieces," New York Times, May 23, 2017. Edmund H. Mahony, "Stubborn Stand-Off Over Stolen Gardner Museum Art Could End With Sentencing of Hartford Gangster," Hartford Courant, Sept. 5, 2017. Katharine Q. Seelye, "Clock Is Ticking on $10 Million Reward in Gardner Art Heist," New York Times, Dec. 26, 2017. Camila Domonoske, "Got the Scoop on the Gardner Museum Art Heist? You Have 4 Days to Earn $10 Million," The Two-Way, National Public Radio, Dec. 27, 2017. Edmund H. Mahony, "Museum Extends $10 Million Reward in Notorious Boston Gardner Museum Art Heist," Hartford Courant, Jan. 11, 2018. Colin Moynihan, "Gardner Museum Extends $10 Million Reward for Information in Art Heist," New York Times, Jan. 11, 2018. Nadja Sayej, "Will Boston's $500m Art Heist Ever Be Solved?," Guardian, Jan. 19, 2018. Leah Silverman, "Suspect in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist Sentenced to Four Years in Prison," Town & Country, Feb. 28, 2018. Sarah Cascone, "Paintings Stolen in America's Biggest Art Heist Have Returned to Their Frames -- Thanks to Augmented Reality," Artnet, March 26, 2018. "Learn About the Theft," Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (accessed April 29, 2018). Listener mail: Derek Lowe, "Understanding Antidepressants -- or Not," Science Translational Medicine, Feb. 12, 2018. Johnathan Frunzi, "From Weapon to Wonder Drug," Hospitalist, February 2007. "Evolution of Cancer Treatments: Chemotherapy," American Cancer Society (accessed May 17, 2018). Augustus De Morgan, A Budget of Paradoxes Reprinted, With the Author's Additions, From the Athenaeum, 1872. Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein, "Medicinal Notes: Honey Works Better Than Cow-Dung," Independent, May 4, 1999. Ole Peter Grell, Paracelsus, 1998. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Steven Jones. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

Here are five new lateral thinking puzzles -- play along with us as we try to untangle some perplexing situations using yes-or-no questions. Here are the sources for this week's puzzles. In a few places we've included links to further information -- these contain spoilers, so don't click until you've listened to the episode: Puzzle #1 was contributed by listener Mary McNally. Puzzle #2 is from listeners Tay Moss and John Russell. Puzzle #3 is from Paul Sloane and Des MacHale's 2014 book Remarkable Lateral Thinking Puzzles, plus this article. Puzzle #4 was suggested by an item in Kevin McAleer's 2014 book Dueling: The Cult of Honor in Fin-de-Siècle Germany. Puzzle #5 was devised by Sharon. Here are three corroborating links. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

In 1921 a schooner ran aground on the treacherous shoals off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. When rescuers climbed aboard, they found signs of a strange drama in the ship's last moments -- and no trace of the 11-man crew. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll examine the curious case of the Carroll A. Deering, which has been called "one of the enduring mysteries of maritime history." We'll also experiment with yellow fever and puzzle over a disputed time of death. Intro: Benoni Lanctot's 1867 Chinese and English Phrase Book is not a model of cross-cultural comity. In 1916 a bank director mailed 15,000 bricks to establish a new bank in Vernal, Utah. Sources for our feature on the Carroll A. Deering: Bland Simpson, Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals, 2002. Edward Rowe Snow, Mysteries and Adventures Along the Atlantic Coast, 1948. David Stick, Graveyard of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast, 1952. David H. Grover, "Baffling Mystery of Cape Hatteras' Twin Ship Disappearances," Sea Classics 40:6 (June 2007), 42. David Grover, "Bedeviling Mystery of the Vanished Conestoga," Sea Classics 42:4 (April 2009), 42-49. National Park Foundation, "The Legend of the Ghost Ship: Carroll A. Deering," Oct. 28, 2015. National Park Service, "The Ghost Ship of the Outer Banks," April 14, 2015. Richard Seamon, "Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals: The Mystery of Carroll A. Deering," United States Naval Institute Proceedings 128:11 (November 2002), 82-84. "3 U.S. Ships Vanish at Sea With Crews; Reds Blamed," New York Tribune, June 21, 1921. "Piracy Suspected in Disappearance of 3 American Ships," New York Times, June 21, 1921. "Ghost Ship Met Foul Play, U.S. Charges," Washington Times, June 21, 1921. "Bath Owners Skeptical," New York Times, June 21, 1921. "Schooner Deering Seized by Pirates Off the North Carolina Coast, Is Belief," Great Falls [Mont.] Tribune, June 22, 1921. "Deering Skipper's Wife Caused Investigation," New York Times, June 22, 1921. "More Ships Added to Mystery List," New York Times, June 22, 1921. "Divided as to Theory About Missing Ships," New York Times, June 22, 1921. "Are Pirates Afloat in North Atlantic? Is Question Asked," Union [S.C.] Times, June 23, 1921. "Skipper's Daughter Holds Pirate Theory," New York Times, June 23, 1921. "London Isn't Thrilled by Ship Mysteries," New York Times, June 25, 1921. "Soviet Pirate Tale Declared a 'Fake,'" New York Times, Aug. 26, 1921. Shaila Dewan, "A Journey Back in Maritime," New York Times, July 4, 2008. Alyson Cunningham, "Schooner's Voyage Ends on Carolina Coast," [Salisbury, Md.] Daily Times, Feb. 26, 2014, 40. "The 'Ghost Ship' Mysteries Yet to be Solved," Telegraph, Jan. 23, 2014. Engineer James Steel took the above photograph of the Carroll A. Deering from the deck of the lightship off Cape Lookout, North Carolina, on Jan. 28, 1921. Listener mail: Wikipedia, "Self-Experimentation in Medicine" (accessed May 4, 2018). Wikipedia, "Max Joseph von Pettenkofer" (accessed May 4, 2018). Wikipedia, "Jesse William Lazear" (accessed May 4, 2018). Kiona N. Smith, "The Epidemiologist Who Killed Himself for Science," Forbes, Sept. 25, 2017. Neil A. Grauer, "'The Myth of Walter Reed,'" Washington Post, Aug. 26, 1997 Karin Brulliard, "Could a Bear Break Into That Cooler? Watch These Grizzlies Try," Washington Post, Nov. 29, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdOcrUtE-UQ This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listeners Neil de Carteret and Nala, who sent this corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

In 1932 a quartet of Bronx gangsters set out to murder a friend of theirs in order to collect his life insurance. But Michael Malloy proved to be almost comically difficult to kill. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll review what one observer called "the most clumsily executed insurance scam in New York City history." We'll also burrow into hoarding and puzzle over the value of silence. Intro: In May 1856 Abraham Lincoln gave a fiery speech of which no record exists. Calvin S. Brown argued that Thomas De Quincey modeled the third part of his 1849 essay "The English Mail-Coach" deliberately on a musical fugue. Sources for our feature on Michael Malloy: Simon Read, On the House: The Bizarre Killing of Michael Malloy, 2005. Deborah Blum, The Poisoner's Handbook, 2011. Karen Abbott, "The Man Who Wouldn't Die," Smithsonian, Feb. 7, 2012. Isabelle Keating, "Doctor and Undertaker Held in 'Murder Trust,'" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 12, 1933. "Insurance Murder Charged to Five," New York Times, May 13, 1933. "4 Murder Attempts Cited in Weird Insurance Plot," Altoona (Pa.) Tribune, May 13, 1933. "Murder Plot Seen in Another Death," New York Times, May 14, 1933. "Murder Inquiry Is Widened by Foley," New York Times, May 16, 1933. "Six Are Indicted in Insurance Plot," [Washington D.C.] Evening Star, May 17, 1933. "Indicted as Slayers in Insurance Plot," New York Times, May 17, 1933. "4 on Trial in Bronx Insurance Slaying," New York Times, Oct. 5, 1933. "4 Men Go on Trial in Old Insurance Plot," Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Oct. 18, 1933. "Jury Weighs Fate of Four in Killing," New York Times, Oct. 19, 1933. "Four Men to Die for Bronx Killing," New York Times, Oct. 20, 1933. "Three Die at Sing Sing for Bronx Murder," New York Times, June 8, 1934. "Murphy Goes to the Chair," New York Times, July 6, 1934. "The Durable Mike Malloy," New York Daily News, Oct. 14, 2007. Max Haines, "Inept Gang of Murderers Found Barfly Michael Malloy Almost Indestructible," Kamloops [B.C.] Daily News, Feb. 23, 2008. Deborah Blum, "The Strange Death of Mike the Durable," Women in Crime Ink, March 23, 2010. Listener mail: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), American Psychiatric Association, 2013. Fugen Neziroglu, "Hoarding: The Basics," Anxiety and Depression Association of America (accessed April 27, 2018). Scott O. Lilienfeld and Hal Arkowitz, "Hoarding Can Be a Deadly Business," Scientific American, Sept. 1, 2013. Ferris Jabr, "Step Inside the Real World of Compulsive Hoarders," Scientific American, Feb. 25, 2013. Homer and Langley's Mystery Spot Antiques: This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener David Marrero, who sent these corroborating links (warning -- these spoil the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

In 1977, a young woman named Robyn Davidson set out to pursue what she called a "lunatic idea" -- to lead a group of camels 1,700 miles across western Australia, from the center of the continent to the Indian Ocean. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll follow Davidson's remarkable journey alone through the Outback and learn what it taught her. We'll also dive into the La Brea Tar Pits and puzzle over some striking workers. Intro: O.E. Young of Petersburg, Va., assembled a two-story house from the marble headstones of 2,000 Union soldiers. In 1946 Stan Bult began recording the faces of London clowns on eggshells. Sources for our feature on Robyn Davidson: Robyn Davidson, Tracks, 1980. Paul Smethurst, Travel Writing and the Natural World, 1768-1840, 2012. Robert Clarke, Travel Writing From Black Australia: Utopia, Melancholia, and Aboriginality, 2016. Amanda Hooton, "Travels of the Heart," Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 8, 2014. Robyn Davidson, "Walk My Country," Mānoa 18:2 (Winter 2006), 7-17. "The Inspiration: Robyn Davidson," Australian Geographic 90 (April-June 2008), 112-112. Dea Birkett, "The Books Interview: Robyn Davidson -- Landmarks of an Accursed Art," Independent, Aug. 4, 2001, 9. Luke Slattery, "10 Questions: Robyn Davidson, Writer, Traveller, 59," Australian Magazine, Oct. 13, 2012, 10. Michele Field, "Robyn Davidson: A Literary Nomad," Publishers Weekly 243:46 (Nov. 11, 1996), 52-53. Cathy Pryor, "Tracks Author Robyn Davidson Reflects on a Changing Australia, 40 Years After Her Desert Trek," ABC News, Dec. 8, 2017. Richard Feloni, "16 Striking Photos of One Woman's 2,835km Trek Across the Australian Outback," Business Insider Australia, Feb. 15, 2015. Robyn Davidson, "Tracks: The True Story Behind the Film," Telegraph, April 19, 2014. Duncan Campbell, "Making Tracks: Robyn Davidson's Australian Camel Trip on the Big Screen," Guardian, April 21, 2014. "Indomitable Spirit," Canberra Times, Sept. 29, 2012, 8. Coburn Dukehart, "Rick Smolan's Trek With Tracks, From Australian Outback to Silver Screen," National Geographic, Sept. 19, 2014. Brad Wetzler, "Australian Camel Odyssey: A Voyage of Self Discovery," Kitchener-Waterloo Record, Jan. 2, 1993, E1. Eleanor Massey, "Women Who Discovered the World," Eureka Street 21:2 (Feb. 11, 2011), 1-2. Mary Warner Marien, "Desert Journeys With Women Are Anything But Dry," Christian Science Monitor, March 12, 1997. Jennifer H. Laing and Geoffrey I. Crouch, "Lone Wolves? Isolation and Solitude Within the Frontier Travel Experience," Geografiska Annaler, Series B, Human Geography 91:4 (December 2009), 325-342. Gary Krist, "Ironic Journeys: Travel Writing in the Age of Tourism," Hudson Review 45:4 (Winter 1993), 593-601. Robert Clarke, "Travel and Celebrity Culture: An Introduction," Postcolonial Studies 12:2 (June 2009), 145-152. Richard Snailham, "Tracks by Robyn Davidson," Geographical Journal 148:1 (March 1982), 116-117. Ihab Hassan, "Australian Journeys: A Personal Essay on Spirit," Religion & Literature 34:3 (Autumn, 2002), 75-90. Rachael Weaver, "Adaptation and Authorial Celebrity: Robyn Davidson and the Context of John Curran's Tracks (2013)," Adaptation 9:1 (March 2016), 12-21. Listener mail: Helen Lawson, "'My Job Stinks': The Diver Who Has to Swim Through Sewers to Unblock the Drains of Mexico City," Daily Mail, March 23, 2013. Michael Walsh, "It's A Dirty Job: Meet Mexico City'S Official Sewer Diver," New York Daily News, March 23, 2013. Eric Hodge, Phoebe Judge, and Rebecca Martinez, "Criminal: La Brea Dave's Deep Dive," WUNC, Dec. 18, 2015. Wikipedia, "La Brea Tar Pits" (accessed April 19, 2018). "FAQs," La Brea Tar Pits & Museum (accessed April 19, 2018). Andrew Blankstein, "Police Find Evidence Linked to Homicide in La Brea Tar Pits," Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2013. Wikipedia, "Grapheme-Color Synesthesia" (accessed April 19, 2018). Maggie Koerth-Baker, "Magnetic Letters Taught Us More Than How to Spell," National Geographic, March 9, 2016. "Synesthesia," Psychology Today (accessed April 19, 2018). Nathan Witthoft, Jonathan Winawer, and David M. Eagleman, "Prevalence of Learned Grapheme-Color Pairings in a Large Online Sample of Synesthetes," PLOS One 10:3 (March 4, 2015), e0118996. A.N. Rich, J.L. Bradshaw, and J.B. Mattingley, "A Systematic, Large-Scale Study of Synaesthesia: Implications for the Role of Early Experience in Lexical-Colour Associations," Cognition 98:1 (November 2005), 53-84. Wikipedia, "Synesthesia" (accessed April 19, 2018). Patricia Lynne Duffy, Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color Their Worlds, 2011. This week's lateral thinking puzzle is from Paul Sloane and Des MacHale's 2014 book Remarkable Lateral Thinking Puzzles. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the crew of an American seaplane were caught off guard near New Zealand. Unable to return across the Pacific, they were forced to fly home "the long way" -- all the way around the world. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll follow the adventures of the Pacific Clipper on its 30,000-mile journey through a world engulfed in war. We'll also delve into the drug industry and puzzle over a curious case of skin lesions. Intro: In the 18th century Italian artist Giovanni Piranesi began to turn out etchings of fantastic prisons. Spanish philologist Valentín García Yebra contends that this six-word Portuguese poem can't be translated effectively into another language. Sources for our feature on the Pacific Clipper: Ed Dover, The Long Way Home, 2010. Archie Satterfield, The Day the War Began, 1992. C.V. Glines, "The China Clipper, Pan American Airways and Popular Culture," Aviation History 18:1 (September 2007), 69-70. C.V. Glines, "Clippers Circle the Globe," Aviation History 17:4 (March 2007), 34-43. John A. Marshall, "The Long Way Home," Air & Space Smithsonian 10:2 (June/July 1995), 18. Wolfgang Saxon, "Robert Ford, Clipper Pilot of 40's Who Circled Globe, Dies at 88," New York Times, Oct. 19, 1994. "World Travelers Pearl Harbor Turns a Routine Pan Am Clipper Flight Into a 31,500-Mile Odyssey," Chicago Tribune, Dec. 3, 2000. Byron Darnton, "Pacific Clipper, Racing War, Circles Globe, Lands Here," New York Times, Jan. 7, 1942. "Pacific Clipper at Noumea," New York Times, Nov. 11, 1941. "Pan Am's Pacific Clippers," Pacific Aviation Museum, Sept. 14, 2011. Robert van der Linden, "December 7, 1941 and the First Around-the-World Commercial Flight," Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Dec. 8, 2011. John A. Marshall, "Celebrating the 75th Anniversary: The 'Round The World Saga of the 'Pacific Clipper,'" Pan Am Historical Foundation (accessed April 1, 2018). Listener mail: Nicola Nosengo, "Can You Teach Old Drugs New Tricks?", Nature, June 14, 2016. James Rudd, "From Viagra to Valium, the Drugs That Were Discovered by Accident," Guardian, July 10, 2017. Thomas A. Ban, "The Role of Serendipity in Drug Discovery," Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience 8:3 (September 2006), 335–344. David W. Thomas et al., "Clinical Development Success Rates 2006-2015," BIO/Biomedtracker/Amplion, 2016. Charlie Sorrel, "The Bicycle Is Still a Scientific Mystery: Here's Why," Fast Company, Aug. 1, 2016. Michael Brooks, "We Still Don't Really Know How Bicycles Work," New Statesman, Aug. 6, 2013. Michael Brooks, "How Does a Bicycle Stay Upright?", New Scientist, Sept. 2, 2015. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Arabo Avanes. Here are two corroborating links (warning -- these spoil the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!