Good morning, SYSK Army. And isn’t it a lovely morning? It sure is here in the ATL. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, which means some nice relaxation for yours truly, along with a few little house projects during my time off. You gotta have life balance, right? Enough about me, how about a little podcast goodness?

This week on the SYSK podcast program Dr. Clark and I covered a couple of fun topics. Nothing too heady, but some interesting things to learn about at the same time. Tuesday we dug into totem poles a little. We were both surprised about how little we knew about these things until we did some research. We’ve seen them here and there our whole lives, but until you know about the history of the totem and what they’re actually used for you can’t really appreciate them so fully. I won’t spoil everything in this post, but here’s one neat-o fact for you — the phrase “low man on the totem pole” makes no sense. The lowest images carved on the totems were actually the most significant, carved by the head carver instead of his assistants. We’re trying to start a movement to use the term correctly…

With enough hard work and perseverance, one day I might be the low man on the totem pole.

Pretty silly huh? On yesterday’s program we got even sillier with a show about odd town festivals. This stemmed from the fact that Josh and I, as city dwellers, didn’t have the opportunity to grow up going to a corn or peanut festival, and we’re lesser men because of it. We talked about a festival in Montana where you eat bull testicles. Mmmmmm. We also hit on the tradition of mooning Amtrak trains in Southern California, having a tomato fight in Spain, and my favorite — the frozen dead guy festival. Suffice to say that we only covered a handful and there are thousands more, so chime in here if you have one of your own you’d like to highlight.

Have a great weekend, everyone and be safe. Check out our video challenge to Colbert for the Kiva-Smackdown. And vote for us in the general category at the Podcast Awards… but only if you think we deserve it!

Reading is fundamental:
How Totem Poles Work
5 Wacky Small Town Festivals
What are wife-carrying contests?