DayStrider: Tales from a Time Traveler

Jul 15th: Secrets of the Rosetta Stone

• Truman Pastworthy • Episode 15

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July 15th is a great day to unlock some of the hidden truths from the past!  You thought you knew them - but are you sure?  Today’s stories include: 

  • Some unsettling mistakes that lead to the worst disaster in marine history
  • Celebrating I Love Horses Day and a surprising truth about the American mustangs
  • How the Rosetta Stone unlocked the secrets of a 5,000 year old language   

If it's a special day for you or for someone you care about, why not learn a little more about today by listening to some fun, engaging stories.  You’ll find yourself a little smarter and have some great stories you can tell at the next summer bar-b-q!  If you need some great gift ideas, we have those too (along with links to where you can find them on Amazon).

Today’s guest Ilona Regulski has some YouTube videos that may interest you (these links worked in mid-2024 - not sure how long the links will be available):

  • Link to Ilona’s short video about the Rosetta Stone
  • Link to Ilona’s long video about the Rosetta Stone


Gift ideas for folks who celebrate July 15th:

Text me your favorite time travel movie!!!


~~~ DayStrider Fun ~~~


Do you want to be mentioned here in the podcast? Or do you want me to do a shout-out for a loved one? All you need to do is send me an e-mail: daystriderstories@gmail.com


Better yet, you can record your own shout-out by leaving me a voice message using this SpeakPipe link


Do you have a story that you wish to share? Join me as a guest and let’s tell the world together! Once again, just send me an e-mail or find me here on Facebook: Truman Pastworthy


If you had as much fun listening as I did creating this episode, please click "follow" in your favorite podcast platform . . . oh . . . and even better - why not share it with a friend (or three)! I’m betting you know just the perfect person who would enjoy today’s stories!


If you feel adventurous, how 'bout writing a great review? :-)



Truman:

Welcome, Seeker. Your portal is all warmed up and ready to stride through history with me. Together, we'll discover why July 15th is so unique. Surprising events, intriguing discoveries, and many fun stories in between. Today, we start off in the Gulf of Mexico, traveling back only a decade or so to hear about one of the worst disasters in maritime history. Thank goodness nature finds a way to recover from man's mistakes. After that, we'll journey across many points in time to experience the awesomeness of a particular animal that literally improved life as we know it on this planet. And then, strap in for a trip to ancient Egypt and dive into the secrets of hieroglyphics and learn how we unlock their truths. Curator Ilona Rogolsky will be our amazing tour guide. After striding through July 15th, you'll have a greater appreciation for our planet's resilience, the incredible bond we make with animals, and the enduring legacy of ancient civilizations. Get ready for a journey through the past that will inspire your vision for the future. Time's a-tickin', so let's get to it. Welcome, seekers, to the enchanting world of Daystrider, the podcast where we embark on a daily journey through history. I'm your travel guide, Truman Pastworthy, and together we'll explore some fascinating stories that happened on this exact day, but from some time in the past. From groundbreaking inventions to remarkable birthdays and extraordinary events to quirky national holidays, we've got it all. So kick back, relax, and open your mind for some lighthearted stories that'll leave you saying, huh, I never knew that happened on this day. Alrighty then, let's get to it. Have you ever tried to imagine a number so large that it seems unreal? For example, if I asked you to imagine 200 million gallons of liquid, how would you think about that? Or how would you even describe that to others? Well, an Olympic-sized swimming pool holds a lot of water, right? But guess what? You'd need over 300 pools to hold that much water. Can you actually picture in your head 300 Olympic-sized swimming pools all next to each other? I can't imagine that. How about this? How about one of those oil tanker train cars? You know, the ones I mean that pass by on the train? All right, so guess what? You'd need almost 6,700 of those to hold 200 million gallons of oil. So probably, again, hard to imagine. But hey, let me help. If you hooked up those cars all in one long train, it would stretch on and on for 62 miles. So basically, if the train tracks were running alongside a highway and it was sitting still, it would take you an hour to drive from the caboose all the way up to the engine. That's how many train tanker cars you'd pass. Well, guess what? That is how much oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico in the spring of 2010 making it the largest oil spill ever and one of the worst environmental disasters in the history of human existence. Yes, 200 million gallons of oil, 62 miles worth of oil tanker train cars. That's horrible. This oil killed thousands and thousands of marine plants and animals in the Gulf and thousands more along the shores of Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Mexico. Oil damaged a total of 16,000 miles of coastline. It's crazy, right? And what's worse, based on all the investigations and reports that came out afterwards, the accident was preventable. There was a bunch of mistakes made that didn't have to be and a lot of warnings that were simply ignored. Yeah, and probably that doesn't surprise you. And yes, it's very frustrating. So how and why did something like this happen? Well... Let's get some perspective here. There are many, many oil fields deep in the Earth's crust under the Gulf of Mexico. And it is a big, huge business to get that oil out of the ground. About one-seventh of all oil produced in the U.S. comes from under the Gulf. And there are over 50 different companies out there with over 120 oil rigs in production right now drilling and pumping oil out of the ground. And BP happens to be one of those companies. So here's their story. In February 2010, BP's contractors positioned their drilling rig, called the Deepwater Horizon, in the Gulf about 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana. And this thing is huge. And it's pretty much like how the movie Armageddon showed it, where people live in barracks on the rigs and they eat there and they work their shifts there. And then helicopters fly in every two weeks. They bring supplies and a fresh crew of workers to replace the team that was there those past two weeks. And these crews have dozens of workers who have such a dirty, messy job. And not only that, they're under a lot of pressure and stress to get the job done on time and on budget. Running a rig like this cost BP a million dollars a day, roughly. Okay, so the Deepwater Horizon was situated a mile above the seafloor. And then the oil well that it was drilling went another three miles into the Earth's crust. So that's a long way down, four total miles, right? A mile of sea, three miles of Earth. And of course, there were some hiccups in this drilling project, and they were actually six weeks behind schedule. But it should have been longer, people. But due to some tough guy bosses who have this I'm smarter than you syndrome, several questionable decisions were made about warning signs that things were wrong. And several crew members thought that the blowout preventer was damaged. A blowout preventer is exactly what it sounds like. A device that's supposed to shut the pipes off. If the oil begins forcing its way backwards out of the well and blowing out of the pipes. So it's supposed to prevent that. And it's a critical component. And every drilling operation has one of these. And they test them regularly to make sure they're going to work if the oil decides to blow out. Anyway... In early April, just when they thought the project was finished and the big cheeses at BP were helicoptered onto the rig, my friend Shannon calls the highest level people and companies the big cheeses. So anyway, that night, after their celebrations were over, bad things started to happen. Oil burst through the faulty blowout preventer and forcefully squirted up the four-mile pipe onto the rig, spraying everything and everyone with oil and muck. And of course, oil is flammable, right? So once a spark happened, the entire rig exploded, caught fire, and became engulfed in flames. Even though it's made mostly out of metal. 11 people died in this explosion. 17 were injured. And the other 90, they made it off the rig safely with no issues. But the same can't be said for the marine plants and animals that lived in this once peaceful section of the Gulf. But more on that in a minute. So then the rig sank. and that mile of piping in the water all broke up, and down at the bottom of the well, the oil just began gushing, unchecked, into the Gulf from the seafloor. Remember when you pictured that 200 million gallons of oil a few minutes ago? Well, for the 87 days that it took officials to figure out how to cap this well, that's how much oil was gushing all through the Gulf, spreading around, killing marine plants and animals, Yeah, so 87 days went by before they could finally get a cap that weighed 75 tons down to the well opening and then plug it up so that no more oil would gush out. And I remember watching this on the news every day, wondering each day how much damage is being done to the marine life. Every day thinking, why haven't they fixed this yet? They finally did. On this day, July 15, 2010. Thank goodness. Finally. But man, such a lot of damage had already been done. Goodness. So how bad was it? Well, we know thousands of animals died and who knows how many plants were destroyed. BP ended up paying out billions of dollars in fines and cleanup costs. And at least $20 billion of those dollars were set aside to study the impact of the disaster afterwards on the marine life in the Gulf and along the coastline for the years after the accident. And what's good is there have been lots of 10 years later studies in 2020, and I'm sure soon we're going to have the 15 year later studies as well in 2025. Surprisingly, from what I'm reading, all signs are indicating marine life, plants and animals are recovering. They have found a way to survive this mess. They adapted and overcame. Of course, it's still not nearly back to the pre-spill levels. But it is promising that the recovery is better than what researchers have expected. So even so, this disaster should remind us of the importance of safeguarding the environment. So drillers, please run your tests and then please don't ignore the warning signs. Think about it. What's worse? A million dollars a day for a few extra weeks to fix whatever was broken? Or $60 billion in fines and cleanup costs? along with a huge negative impact to your reputation. Yeah, my goodness. But what's amazing is life found a way. That is what's most inspiring. Roses are red and oil is black. Writing a review will keep us on track. Can't think of the words? Don't stress or fret. Type, this pod's a gem. The best one yet. Today is I Love Horses Day, and so I figured what better way to celebrate than to regale you with stories about some of the most famous horses in all of history. And when I suggest that, what horse comes to your mind as famous? Did you jump straight to TV or the movies? Did you immediately think about racehorses? Well, before I share some famous horse stories, let me share something that totally surprised me, because here's what I thought. Yeah, that's right, but I'll explain that in a minute. First, Let's go back to the beginning of horse time. About 5,000 years ago people stopped hunting horses and began trying to tame them and ride them. And once mankind figured out that a horse was friend, not food, everything changed. Horses enabled people to travel great distances now. Horses allowed them to carry heavy loads and bring things with them. Horses allowed them to fight in bigger and bolder battles than they could on feet. It's true. Horses changed everything. They improved transportation. They sped up communications. They made heavy, difficult manual tasks more efficient. The horse has been the most amazing animal to improve our lives on this planet. And so it's great that we have a day to celebrate them. All right, so now let's get back to my Mustangs in the wild, wild west. If they weren't there already, where did they come from? How did they get there? Well, it turns out that Christopher Columbus and the other explorers after him brought Spanish horses with them on the ships across the Atlantic to help them explore and conquer the New World. And as you know from your history classes, a number of the attempted settlements and colonies from Europe failed when they got into the New World, and all the humans either died or went back home. But the animals, in particular the horses they brought, they figured out how to survive in the wild. Yeah. So that's how those wild horses got there. And now they can't even be counted as wild. Instead, they have to be referred to as feral, which means an animal that's returned to being untamed. Yeah, but DNA proved that they were Spanish lineage. How about that? All right, so now that I've dashed your romanticized view of the wild horses of America, let me try to rebuild your admiration and appreciation of horses. It is I Love Horses Day, after all. So I'm going to pluck a few horses from the annals of time and share some stories with you. The first one is from the ancient days of Alexander the Great. His famous horse was named Bucephalus. And the stories claim that this horse refused to allow anyone else to ride him except Alexander. In fact, the story goes that no one could even tame Bucephalus. The horse was a huge black stallion, and he desperately fought any rider who attempted to get on his back. And it was actually decided that he was going to be cast off. They couldn't tame him. He was worthless. But at the time, Alexander, who was 13, stepped in and suggested that he could tame the horse. And naturally, there was laughter and skepticism because all the skilled riders of the city couldn't do so. But Alexander wasn't daunted. Instead, He walked up to the horse and slowly spun the stallion towards the sun, facing the sun, so that it couldn't see its shadow on the ground. And he calmly and lightly pet the horse and then suddenly leapt up onto its back and tightly grabbed the reins. Little by little, he released the reins and the horse began to walk and eventually trot. And then eventually they got into a full gallop. And the two of them formed a bond that lasted the rest of Bucephalus' life. Sounds like the scene from the movie Avatar, right? Maybe that's where they got the idea. But at the time, Alexander's father proclaimed, you must find a kingdom that will do justice to your dimension, as Macedonia is too small for you. And Alexander, together with his great war horse, did go on to conquer most of the known world. All right, now let's try to the 1950s and look in on the Roy Rogers show. So this was basically a Western television show about the adventures of Roy and his horse, Trigger, and it aired 100 episodes over a span of six years. Now, of course, I want to talk about the co-star, Trigger. He was a Palomino, which means that he had a golden coat with a starkly contrasted, flowing white mane and tail. Beautiful. Now, this was a pretty incredible horse. He was able to learn over 150 trick cues. Of course, a lot of those were for the actions that he took in the TV show. But some of his tricks are very impressive. The most impressive of which, the horse could rear up on its hind legs and then walk backwards 50 feet on just its hind legs. That's pretty crazy, right? It's hard enough for you and I to walk backwards 50 feet. And there's more. He could also sit in a chair. He could bow. He could lie down and cover himself with a blanket and pretend to take a nap. And another impressive trick, he could sign his name in an X with a pencil if you put it in his mouth. What? Yeah. Apparently, Trigger was such a ham that if people were to start clapping and cheering for him, even when he was in the middle of a trick, he would stop doing what he was doing and take a bow. I love it. I love it. All right. The last horse we're going to meet today, Racehorse Secretariat. Now, he actually only raced for two years, but during that run, he won 16 of the 21 races he was in. And those other five, he got some seconds and some thirds and one fourth. And of course, three of those races were the 1973 Triple Crown events. And in each of those Triple Crown races, he set track records for the fastest time. And I actually went back and looked. As of 2024, he still holds all the records for those three races. And the most amazing thing is in the third leg called the Belmont Stakes, he actually won that race by 31 lengths, which means he was so far ahead of the next horse that that second place horse thought it was winning. 31 lengths actually means that the length of a horse. So he was 31 horses ahead of the second place horse. That's a huge margin of victory, isn't it? All right. A couple of quick notes about Secretariat. He liked to horse around. Yeah. If you were standing too close and drinking a beer, the secretary would stalk you, and then he would grab the bottle of beer out of your hands and start gulping it down. I'm telling you, that was more than one said that. He also once grabbed William Knack's notepad. It's a writer for Sports Illustrated, and he refused to give it back. He wouldn't let it go. And then another time, he grabbed a rake with his teeth and went back and forth dragging the rake in his stall like his groomers had done. That's funny. All right. So that was probably too quick of a gallop through some of the notable horses from history. And for those of you who love horses, you probably wish that I did a whole bonus episode talking about them. Maybe we will do that. My youngest daughter, she loves horses for sure. And she and my wife truly enjoy every chance they get to bond with these amazing creatures at the local farm where my daughter rides. And I'll tell you also, people who interact with horses will all agree that The bonds they share with their equine friends is a wonderful blessing. It's amazing. One thing's for sure, horses have left an indelible hoofprint on history. Happy trails, everybody. A time traveler's delight, we step back in time to moments and stories both grand and sublime. If these tales have warmed your heart and your mind, please share with your friends. Be thoughtful and kind. If you watch movies, perhaps you've seen The Night at the Museum, Secret of the Tomb. Or perhaps you've seen The Mummy Returns. How about if you're a reader, perhaps you've enjoyed the fast-paced stories by Clive Cussler or Dan Brown. Well, if you have, you've been introduced to the Rosetta Stone. And even if you aren't into these adventures, you've surely heard of this massive stone tablet that weighs in at almost two tons and stands about three and a half feet tall and and is filled with ancient hieroglyphs? Well, here's your chance to get up close and personal with this amazing artifact and its discovery, and the secrets it has unlocked. Even better, you get to hear all of this from one of the world's experts on the Rosetta Stone, Egyptologist Ilona Rogalski. She and I spent almost an hour talking about the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, its significance to unlocking the meaning of ancient hieroglyphs from Egypt, and more. And so up next are the highlights of that conversation. Ilona? Take it away.

Ilona:

Yeah. Hello, everyone. I'm Ilona Regulski. I'm an Egyptologist currently working as a curator in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. I like to spend my days amongst ancient Egyptian objects. And yeah, I've worked and lived in many different countries, many different institutions. And that is, I guess, also very typical for the field of Egyptology, where it's very global, it's very international. So you have to move around a little bit. I'm originally from from Belgium and I studied Egyptology, of course.

Truman:

So how did you get into Egyptology? Like what about Egypt attracted you?

Ilona:

I guess. I've always been attracted to very ancient cultures, so I'd like to go back to the beginning of things. There is, of course, Rome, there is Greece, but you can always go back. I wouldn't go back as far as prehistory, because I like writing systems, and there were not yet writing in most prehistoric civilizations. But I think I came into... Yeah, I came to be interested in ancient Egyptian culture through art history. So I did art school my whole life since I was little. And I guess the visual aspect of hieroglyphs is also definitely something that intrigued me when I was 17 or 18 years old. And then once I started studying Egyptology, of course, I got interested in many other aspects of the field. But I guess it was the visual arts... aspect that initially interested me together with the fact that it's very old, basically.

Truman:

Yep. Yep. So hieroglyphs obviously have been around for thousands of years, right? How far back do hieroglyphs go? Have you been able to determine that?

Ilona:

Yes, I actually wrote my PhD on the origins of writing in Egypt. So I know the early hieroglyphs very well. There's a lot of discussion still going on, as it has to be, with these kind of things. But we now more or less date the earliest writing in Egypt to 3,250 BC. Wow, okay. That's more or less when we start to have... a writing system that we can also read.

Truman:

So we're talking over 5,000 years, right? Yes. Okay. And it wasn't until roughly 1799 or sometime after that that people didn't know what hieroglyphs meant, right? So a lot of people who were your predecessors in the 1700s would see the hieroglyphs and not know what they mean at all,

Ilona:

right? Yes. So it's the knowledge that's went that lost yeah it was lost for some time um lost and indeed that starts in 1799 with the discovery of the rosetta stone but it actually it actually doesn't start there it started earlier but it's the discovery of the rosetta stone accelerated the process we could say

Truman:

yeah so Since you brought that up, can you share the story? Do you know the story of that discovery? Give me the details. What was it like that day? What was going on in

Ilona:

Egypt? I'm not sure I know what it was like that day. Egypt was going through a turbulent period. As we know, Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798. Initially, the Egyptians asked the British forces to help them defeat the French, basically. And during that political upheaval, you could say, Napoleon, of course, felt the heat. And he was reinforcing some of the fortresses that were located on the north coast of Egypt. And one of them was Fort Julien, as his army called it. And during the works on the foundations of that fort in what was later called Rosetta, they discovered this stone. And it was called the Stone of Rosetta because... The town was called Rosette by the French, Little Rose. Okay. And so when they discovered it, it became the Pierre de Rosette and then it became the Rosetta Stone. The city is actually present-day Rashid. It's known

Truman:

as Rashid. Okay, different name now.

Ilona:

Yeah. Well, it always had a different name for the Egyptians.

Truman:

The Rashid Stone. Yeah. Okay.

Ilona:

And yeah, so it was discovered upside down. It was turned around and then... the people who were working on this suddenly saw all these scripts and some of them, the lieutenant who was in charge of the of the works immediately recognized the importance, which is quite astonishing. So you have to imagine that a bit before, well, the decades and centuries beforehand, people were working on hieroglyphs and more and more scholars started to be interested in hieroglyphs. And what we see towards the end of the 18th century is that scholars who are communicating with each other say in their letters, well, we've We've come as far as we can with the information we have, with the sources we have for the moment. We really need a bilingual inscription where hieroglyphs are juxtaposed with a script and a language that is known to people, known to us, that we can read so that we know what the hieroglyphs are saying. And so this was a very conscious problem that there was a lack of bilingual inscriptions. So this was known to people. So when they found the stone, there was immediately, it was said this may be this bilingual inscription that we've been waiting for.

Truman:

So you're using bilingual descriptions. So talk to me about what's on the stone itself. What do you see when you look at the stone?

Ilona:

So at the top, we have hieroglyphs, which is the ancient script of Egypt. It's the script that was used for temples. They were carved on temple walls or written in tombs on stone, basically. Any kind of monumental architecture, but sometimes also on smaller objects. And then you have a middle script that was not correctly identified initially. It's a cursive. writing system. It's basically the handwritten version of hieroglyphs.

Truman:

So you say handwritten version, so you're saying the hieroglyphs are like artistic pictures, and then the next script is the cursive version of the pictures.

Ilona:

Yes, so hieroglyphs are a script. They represent the same language as is represented by the cursive writing. We call it, in the time of the Rosetta Stone, we call the script demotic. And they refer to the script as the script of the people, demos, and that's why we call this

Truman:

demotic, as

Ilona:

opposed to the hieroglyphs that are carved on temple walls. So those are the two scripts we have representing the same Egyptian language. The hieroglyphs are a little bit more archaic because they try to sound a little bit more ancient. That's... what the priests wanted to do. But essentially, it's the same language. And then below that, you have the third script that is Greek. Okay. So they hoped that through the Greek, which they knew, of course, they could translate the two other scripts.

Truman:

And eventually they did,

Ilona:

right? Eventually they did, yes. It took a long time. It took 22 years, 23 years, in fact, until that first breakthrough happened. But even that was a very slow process, and it's not like in 1822 we could suddenly write all the texts that we have. Definitely not. It was a first step.

Truman:

So if we go back in time to the time that he's still trying to figure this out, the translations... What were people thinking about the Rosetta Stone? Were they amazed? Were they alarmed? Were they not caring at all? What was the vibe back then?

Ilona:

Yeah, so we have to imagine, of course, this is all going on in very select circles. I don't know if the man in the street really realized what was happening.

Truman:

Okay.

Ilona:

In the Egyptian newspaper of the day, it did say we have perhaps discovered the tool that will lead us to decipherment. So some travelers report that people flocked to the harbor in Cairo to see that wonderful stone and you may know that there is a piece missing at the top and it was then also said that that missing piece heart would be worth its weight in diamonds or something like that. So definitely it did engage the public.

Truman:

And you're really into hieroglyphs, right? What's your favorite hieroglyphic symbol?

Ilona:

Well, we have about 800 that are very common. 800? Yes, that are very common. We have more, but 800 are very common to us, at least. So it's a bit difficult to choose between all of them, but I really like the bee, the honeybee. because I like honeybees.

Truman:

The honeybee.

Ilona:

I think honeybees are great. And it's usually carved in a very beautiful way. They spend a lot of time writing the honeybee.

Truman:

When you were talking about the top of the stone, now we know what it looks like because there is more than one of these stones around that you found, right?

Ilona:

Correct. This is a very important part of the story. So the Rosetta Stone was the first that was discovered. Almost immediately afterwards, another such stone was found. Meanwhile, we have about 27 or something.

Truman:

27. Yeah,

Ilona:

stones that are better preserved or worse preserved. Sometimes we only have one of the scripts preserved. but it was a template that was copied over and over again. So it's a text that was probably introduced to Egypt by Ptolemies, so by the Greek rulers of Egypt, because it's the kind of text that speaks about the deification of the king. So basically the whole text is about treating the king as a god.

Truman:

All right, who had some fun there? I sure enjoyed spending some time with Alona. Hopefully you did too. You can definitely tell She's very much into Egyptology. If you enjoyed hearing Ilona's stories and want more of the same, please check out the bonus episode called Unlocking Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs with Ilona Rogalski. There, you'll hear the full interview. I was able to come up with a couple questions that no one has ever asked her before. So please go check those out. And until next time, may your curiosity continue to unlock the secrets of the past. We'll do our best to help you do that with each Daystrider episode. And there you have it. Some great stories to share with your someone special to celebrate July 15th. Once again, those are Today Saw an End to the Worst Oil Spill in Human History. We got to hear some cute stories about some famous horses from history to celebrate I Love Horses Day. and the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, and why it was so significant. Now, if you were glad to hear that life finds a way, even after when facing disaster, you were going to love the April 26th episode about nature's recovery from the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Of course, that episode isn't published yet, so stay tuned. If you loved hearing about animals, December 9th features llamas, and then you can learn more about some famous groundhogs on the February 2nd episode. If ancient things get you all jazzed up, the story of Remus and Romulus on April 21st might be right up your alley. And of course, if you enjoy hearing from guests about their favorite subjects, there are lots of great bonus episode options for you. To find them, just scroll through the feed and look for the words bonus episode. Enjoy. Now for my reflection moment of the day, you might think that I'm a little crazy. Because it's not about how amazing it is that life found a way to survive that massive oil spill. Instead, I was thinking that maybe we are lucky that BP was the company that caused this to happen. Now, of course, no one wants an environmental disaster, so I'm not saying that. But if it's going to happen, I'm suggesting that a company with insanely deep pockets that could pay out the more than $60 billion in fines and expenses that were needed to clean up the mess... Maybe it's good that BP was the one that happened to because they had the cash to do it. And so much of that money was put to good use to support the environmental recovery. Think about it. If this happened to a smaller company, and it easily could have, maybe there simply wouldn't have been enough money available to write that huge check. Insurance? Maybe they'd step in. Maybe they wouldn't. Maybe they wouldn't have paid. Who knows? And so we, the taxpayers, would have been on the hook in that scenario. So maybe it's okay that BP was the company. And by the way, BP still is in business. Even after all that, in March of 24, I looked at their balance sheet. They have $32 billion in cash. That's hard to believe, isn't it? All right. Well, let's move on. So after you share these special stories, you can also mention the following famous people who celebrate their birthdays today. Ariana Huffington turns 39 again this year. She's had over 30 of these 39th birthdays. If you don't recognize that last name, then perhaps you need to just Google it. Although she no longer runs the Huffington Post, now called HuffPost, she stays involved and leads a few philanthropic businesses, so good for her. Forrest Whitaker adds a candle to his cake today. He's an actor who's had many roles. He's got an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. He did Platoon and Good Morning Vietnam in the 80s, Blown Away in the 90s, Panic Room and The Last King of Scotland in the 2000s, Rogue One and Black Panther in the 20-teens, and surely he'll be up to something good here in the 2020s. Ian Armitage turns 16 today. He's the actor who plays young Sheldon. He also played Ziggy Chapman in Big Little Lies, and I suppose he's going to be around acting for quite some time, right? And another famous birthday today, Rembrandt the Artist. He was born on this day in 1606. His paintings are famous for their drama as well as the use of contrasts between light and dark. His most famous work is The Night Watch, which is a mega-sized painting that's 11 feet by 14 feet. But I like The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicholas Tulp. You'll have to look that one up. It's pretty creepy. And as you've come to learn, I also like to feature the 50th most famous person showing up on famousbirthdays.com. Well, here on July 15th, that honor goes to Yoko Shimizu. She's a famous illustrator from Japan who has collaborated on branding projects with Gap, Pepsi, Apple, and Nike. And in 2009, she was selected by Newsweek Japan for being one of 100 Japanese people the world respects. That's pretty neat. And yes, people, I looked up how to say her name correctly, Yuko Shimizu. When I looked at Wikipedia's centenarians list, I found that Brenda Milner turns 106 today here in 2024. She is Canada's preeminent neuropsychologist. Many consider her a founder of the field of clinical neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. I find that those words are very hard to say. Okay. So we already knew that July 15th is I Love Horses Day. Well, it's also Tapioca Pudding Day. Have you ever heard of this dessert? If not, it's similar in flavor to a vanilla pudding, but man, the texture is very different. The tapioca part comes in little pearls that are starchy and not really flavorful, but they're there to give the pudding its texture. And then you can flavor it however you'd like. So tapioca pudding. It's also Orange Chicken Day. This is the Chinese meal where the chicken is cut up into bite-sized pieces and flavored with orange sauce that is made in so many different ways. If you like orange chicken, you should try it out at all the different Chinese carry-out places in your area. I guarantee you they'll all be slightly different. Some have just orange juice flavoring, some have orange peels zested in there, and some actually leave the slices of the orange peel right in the sauce. Seriously, go do a study. You'll see. And speaking of studies, today is also National Be a Dork Day. I think someone's trying to lighten this derogatory term. To help you see the light, a nerd is an intelligent person who's got a deep knowledge of a particular subject, but can also be socially awkward. A geek, on the other hand, is someone who's deeply passionate about a very specific topic. And they are deep experts about that topic and can be regarded favorably or awkwardly about it. Now, a dork, on the other hand, this is a socially awkward person who behaves in a silly or foolish manner. And they may or may not be also a nerd or a geek. So, do you see the difference? Try not to be a dork, even though it's National Dork Day. Alright, do you need a great gift idea for your loved one? Well, after you share these awesome stories, you can have them open up a gift that is customized to their birthday. I have several great ideas for you and, as always, you can find links to those in the gift idea section of the show notes. And often I mention that you can get a unique gift for the person who has everything. Well, today is no exception. I normally feature gifts that celebrate each of the segments we cover. But who wants to celebrate the BP oil spill? But if your loved one is into the Gulf of Mexico, there are some great books about the Gulf you can get for them. If your loved one is into horses, there are tons of gifts available for you. Decor, stuffed animals, books, movies, and on and on. And I've got a number of links in the show notes you can check out. And then there are also some great books about the Rosetta Stone. Both adult versions and kid versions. And also, here's why my gift ideas are so intriguing. Who do you know that has books about hieroglyphics? Well, you can surprise your loved one with just such an option. Check out the link in the show notes. We also mentioned tapioca pudding and Orange Chicken Day. There are some great gifts related to those as well. Yep, so actually lots of customized gifts for July 15th as great options. And of course, if those ideas aren't cool enough, you can give them a personalized shout out right here on the podcast. If you want to do it the old fashioned way, email me their name and some interesting tidbits that you want mentioned and I'll do some shout outs for you. Or if you want to try the speak by feature that we've added, you can record your own shout out that might sound something like this. I

Guest:

want to wish Stephanie a happy birthday to one of my oldest and longest and dearest friends. I hope you have an amazing day. Hi, Steffers. I wish I could be there to celebrate with you. I hope you have an amazing day full of everything you love most. Maybe a shot of buttery nipples? Love, Britters.

Truman:

Buttery nipples, huh? All right. Well, you can find the link to do that in the show notes. And as always, if you have a story that just needs to be shared about any day in the past, send me an email and let's connect. Now while you're thinking about all that, how about clicking the follow button on your podcast app so that you get notifications when the next episode is released. And if you're still listening at this point, I'm repeating the challenge I've issued for several episodes now. It's really easy. I'm going to ask you to think of your favorite time travel movie, and then I'm going to ask you to try out the new Buzzsprout feature to text me. There's a link in the show notes that says, text me your favorite time travel movie. I've actually had somebody else step up to the challenge and send me an entry, the movie 13 going on 30. So thanks, Anonymous Poster. As I've said, I have my own list, but I'll be featuring the time travel movies on December 8th of 2024. So I'll leave you with this. I hope you had half as much fun listening as I did creating this episode. because I had a lot of fun. Sharing it with a friend or family member would be incredible and sincerely appreciated. Thanks so much for listening. Until next time, this is Truman Pastworthy, reminding you that every day has a great story. And we'll be striding through them all to find some more goodies for you. Now get out there and make your own great story today.