Riots, Donkeys and Pretty Lights: History's Most Memorable Holiday Parties!

Part-Time Genius

iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Want to know why George Washington's eggnog was so potent? Or how new immigrants partied on Ellis Island? Or what was the wildest party to ever take place at West Point? Or the very particular way that Thomas Edison changed the way we make shrubbery more festive? You're in luck! Will and Mango get the lowdown on just a few of the historical parties they weren't invited to.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Once upon a time, Amazon Music met audiobooks and listeners everywhere rejoiced.
0:05.8	Oh yeah.
0:06.6	Because now they could listen to one audiobook title a month from an enormous library of popular audiobook titles, including romanticity,
0:15.3	autobiographies, true crime, and more.
0:19.3	Suddenly listeners didn't mind sitting in traffic or even missing their
0:22.6	flight. Amazon Music Unlimited now includes Audible. No way. Download the Amazon Music app now to start
0:28.4	listening. Terms apply. You're listening to Part-Time Genius, the production of
0:35.8	kaleidoscope and IHeart Radio.
0:41.8	Guess what, Mingo?
0:42.9	What's that, Will?
0:43.7	So I was looking to the history of Christmas lights this week, and I was trying to figure out
0:48.0	who exactly is to blame for the yearly chore of untangling them. I don't know if you
0:52.3	deal with this, but it's sort of a nightmare around here. In my house, it's Ruby. Ruby is always the culprit. You didn't have to tell me that.
0:58.9	I already knew that it was Ruby, but I was looking a little further back, further back than Ruby even.
1:04.2	And my search led me all the way back to Thomas Edison's Christmas party. This was back in 1880. Now, to be clear, Edison didn't invent Christmas
1:11.8	lights, just in case you were curious about that. And he didn't technically invent the light bulb,
1:16.9	but by all accounts, he was the first to string lights together and use them as Yule Tide decorations,
1:23.1	which I did not know before this episode. That is pretty awesome. Can I tell you something ridiculous?
1:28.3	Always.
1:28.8	On Friday, I snuck into this reading of a new musical in the works about Nicola Tesla and Edison.
1:36.3	And the Edison character was incredible.
1:39.5	It was almost like DeVee Diggs as like Jefferson in Hamilton.
	...

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