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- [00:00]
Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford
This is Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford from Therapy for Black Girls. You know that Amazon has millions of books, so you can find one that gives you just the reading feeling you're looking for. You know, like if you're looking for a relaxed feeling, like with a beach read, Amazon has got it covered. Or if you're looking for more of a terrified ah with evil twins or things lurking in the woods or something, Amazon's got you. I mean, even if you want an aw teen romance, Amazon has it covered too. Amazon Books. That reading feeling awaits.
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Erin Manke
Welcome to Erin Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild.
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Aaron Manke
Our world is full of the unexplainable. And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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Narrator
In September of 1985, a fire broke out in a working class home in Yorkshire, England. In just a few short minutes, everything Ron and Mary hall had built for 27 years had gone up in smoke. Well, almost everything. As the firefighters tramped through the home putting out the last of the smoldering embers, something caught their eye. Hanging on the soot blackened wall was a perfectly pristine painting of a young street urchin with tears rolling down his face. Upon seeing it, one of the firefighters sighed. The curse of the crying boy painting had struck again. In the fall of 1985, a strange phenomenon was tearing across England. One by one, houses were going up in smoke. Now, this in and of itself wasn't unusual. Every one of these fires had a perfectly normal explanation, like faulty wiring or a smoldering cigarette. What was strange were the paintings left behind. In nearly every case, the only thing left untouched by the blaze was a framed print of a crying little boy. The crying boy paintings weren't uncommon at the time. In fact, they were hugely popular with working class Brits. As the story goes, after World War II, a series of tearful portraits of children started appearing in Italy and they were attributed to a few different artists like Giovanni Bragelin or Francho Saville. But in truth, these were both pseudonyms for one individual man, Spanish painter Bruno Amedio. Bruno supposedly began painting street urchins as a way to bring attention to the plight of children orphaned by the war. Cheap prints of his paintings were sold all across Europe, proving especially popular with British tourists. So much so that an estimated 50,000 of Bruno's prints were sold in England alone. While this explains why Bruno's paintings were popular, it doesn't shed any light on why they were at the heart of so many mysterious fires. That is, until the newspapers brought a little known story to light. According to the Sun, a British tabloid, one of the most popular Crying Boy paintings was of a young boy named Don Bonillo. Don had been dealt a tragic hand and was orphaned when his parents perished in a fire. And supposedly, wherever Don went, mysterious fires would spontaneously appear. Despite the rumors, Bruno adopted Don. All was well until one day when a fire broke out in Bruno's studio. Angry at the boy, Bruno accused him of arson and kicked him out. And he never saw Don again. But stories of the boy trickled back to him seven years later when a car crashed in Barcelona and burst into flames. The driver's remains were burned beyond recognition, but a driver's license in his wallet identified him as Don Bonillo. This backstory, coupled with the blazes, was enough to convince many Brits that the Crying Boy paintings were cursed. So when a tabloid called the sun offered to help people get rid of their unwanted art, hundreds of prints came pouring into their London office. On Halloween night in 1985, the sun built a bonfire of Crying Boy paintings and set them alight. And with that, they put an end to the Crying Boy curse, which was very poetic, as after all, they had started it in the first place. You see, the sun was a tabloid that was not above embellishing a story to sell a paper. And in 1985, it was a paper that was in a war. Its chief rival, the Daily Mirror, was threatening its circulation. So when the first Crime Boy story proved popular, they leaned into it. Yes, the fires were real, as were the Crime Boy portraits. But since it was such a popular series of prints, there was really nothing unusual about them being present at multiple house fires. Oh, and about Bruno the enigmatic painter. While he was a real painter, it's doubtful that he ever adopted a young fire starter street urchin. Especially not one who wanted to haunt his paintings. That was an invention of the sun as well. And as for the paintings themselves, well, even at the time, the firemen believed that they knew why the prints survived the fires. The cheap prints many people had in their homes were made of high density hardboard. This material is very tough to burn. In fact, when a BBC presenter tried to set one on fire in 2010, he was barely able to singe the boy. With that, any last lingering beliefs in the Crying Boy curse suddenly went up in smoke.
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Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford
This is Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford from Therapy for Black Girls. There are millions of books on Amazon, so there's a reading feeling for everyone. So if you're after that excited haha feeling like when you discover you have a lot in common with Vikings or something, Amazon has books for you. Or maybe you enjoy the sort of nervous haha that comes when the hero barely escapes the zombies. Or maybe you like the smug that comes when the villain gets what he deserves. You know, Amazon has it all. Amazon books that reading feeling awaits Gifting.
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US Cellular Representative
Is hard, but here's a Give the gift of connection from US Cellular. Not sure what that means? Here's a slightly more specific hint. You can choose four free phones and get four lines for $90 a month from US Cellular. Your family wants new phones. How do we know? They told us. The good news is that compared to wrapping presents, you're great at getting hints. So take the hint and get them four free phones and four lines for $90 a month. US Cellular Bul we Eat a Lot.
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Narrator
Of Meat the average American consumes 225 pounds of animal products each year, the vast majority of which is beef, pork, and chicken. Specialty meats like veal, lamb, and bison are reasonably easy to get your hands on, but for the most part we restrict ourselves to a tiny corner of the animal kingdom. At least most of us do. In the 1920s, a group of students at Cambridge University set out to expand their diets by sampling what they called strange flesh. They dubbed themselves the Glutton Club, and they more than lived up to their name. Their mission, as stated, was to dine on, and I quote, birds and beasts which were before unknown to the human palate. The Gluttons met weekly and ate everything they could get their hands on. That mainly turned out to be exotic birds. First they tried hawk, then heron, and eventually an elderly brown owl, which was so stringy they could barely keep it down. As you'd imagine, the club's appetites took a serious dive after that incident, with many members choosing to focus on their port rather than on their plates. But at least one member stayed true to the cause. After leaving Cambridge, the Glutton Club's president was offered a spot on an oceanic voyage around the world. It was the perfect opportunity to encounter and devour species of animals that had never been tasted by an Englishman before. His mouth was watering before he could say yes. For the next five years, he traveled the globe, eating his way across one continent after another. Technically, he was the expedition's naturalist, brought along to study and catalog the various species they encountered during the voyage. And he did do that. But once he was done studying the specimens, each one found its way onto his plate. He filled his research journals with descriptions of the exotic meats. He tried commenting and comparing flavor and tenderness. He sampled everything from pumas and armadillos to iguanas and giant tortoises. And while he did enjoy many of them, it was the South American agouti that proved to be the most memorable. This large rodent weighs upwards of £20, is typically slow roasted over a fire, and is closely related to the guinea pig. According to the Gluttons journals, it was the best meal he had ever tasted. His appetite almost got the better of him one winter when he sat down for Christmas dinner with the crew. He was halfway through what looked like turkey when he realized it was something else. The meat came from a rhea, a large, flightless bird similar to an ostrich. The Glutton had been tracking rhea for weeks, trying to catch one with no luck. Apparently the ship's cook had beaten him to the punch. Realizing that he was about to devour a priceless, unstudied specimen, the Glutton leapt to his feet and shouted for everyone to stop eating. He quickly gathered up the remaining bones, skin and flesh and hacked them into a crate and had them shipped back to London for examination and storage. Christmas dinner was ruined, but the science had been mostly salvaged. The glutton finally returned to England in 1836, but his work was far from over. He spent several more years examining the specimens and the notes that he had brought back, and then finally, in 1859, he published a book on everything he had learned during his voyage. This time he didn't focus so much on the flavor of the animals he encountered, but his beliefs about how they had come to exist in their habitats. From his observations, he extrapolated a theory explaining how organisms changed over time, suggesting that all life on Earth could be traced back to a single origin. His book rocked the scientific community to its core and is still considered one of the most significant works of modern science. The glutton, of course, was named Charles Darwin. His book, the Origin of Species is famous for introducing the theory of evolution that changed our understanding of the natural world forever. And Darwin might not have ever devised it at all if not for his voracious appetite for discovery.
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Aaron Manke
I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts or learn more about the show by visiting curiositiespodcast.com this show was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership with How Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series and television show and you can learn all about it over@theworldoflore.com and until next time, stay curious.