You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.

When Johann Rawl received the letter on Christmas Day 1776, he put it away to read later.

Maybe he thought it was a season's greeting and wanted to save it for the fireside.

But what it actually was, was a warning, delivered to the Hessian colonel, letting him know that

General George Washington

was crossing the Delaware and would soon attack his forces.

The next day, when Rawl lost the Battle of Trenton and died from two colonial Boxing Day

musket balls, the letter was found, unopened in his vest pocket.

As someone with 15,000 unread emails in his inbox,

I feel like there's a lesson there.

Oh well, this is the Constant, a history of getting things wrong.

I'm Mark Chrysler.

Every episode, we look at the bad ideas, mistakes, and accidents

that misshaped our world.

Find us at Constantpodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Dan Sacks, a music educator and the host of Noodle Loaf, the interactive music-themed

podcast for kids. Each episode of Noodle Loaf is a series of fun games

designed to get the kids and their grown-up singing,

moving, and laughing together.

We sing Echo Songs, we play clapping games,

and other stuff like trivia.

It's a blast.

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