Lateral with Tom Scott

47: Apples for General Lee?

19 snips
Sep 1, 2023
Topics covered include using rice in relation to musical instruments, the tradition of offering apples to General Robert E. Lee's horse, analyzing the odds and financial implications of playing table games at a casino in Paris, an unusual book with misprinted page numbers, tour guides who walk backwards, and a tamper-evident marker for ketchup bottles.
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ANECDOTE

Rice Cleans Guitar Interiors

  • Tom Scott recounts an old-fashioned guitar-cleaning trick using a cup of rice placed in the sound hole and shaken to remove dust and mildew.
  • Caroline and others note it's effective but a nightmare to extract all the rice afterward.
INSIGHT

Apples For The Horse Traveler

  • Visitors leave apples at a gravestone inscribed "General Robert E. Lee" as offerings for his horse, Traveler, not Lee himself.
  • The horse's stable remains and traditions keep Traveler's memory alive with apples and carrots as gifts.
INSIGHT

Double Zero Raises House Edge

  • American-style roulette wheels (e.g., Paris casino in Las Vegas) add a double zero, increasing the house edge compared with single-zero European wheels.
  • Players may rationally accept higher losses at a favored casino to avoid travel costs or for convenience.
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