#1716 - Steven Rinella

Joe Rogan (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Steven Rinella (0:16)

Oh, well, I was telling the story the other day. When I was in...

Joe Rogan (0:20)

Are you swallowing it?

Steven Rinella (0:20)

I was just telling the story.

Because we had a bunch of the guys I work with, and then this other dude, Jared Outlaw, who are all big dip guys. We were having a conversation about dip.

Joe Rogan (0:32)

Is Jared the flip flop Flesher?

Steven Rinella (0:35)

No, no, no.

Joe Rogan (0:35)

No, that's Seth.

Steven Rinella (0:36)

That's the guy named Seth. A lot of the guys I used to work with, a lot of the guys I work with, did and do, you know, they're horrible tobacco addicts, dip, because they're all workers. So they don't smoke because it keeps their hands free.

But I was explaining to them my version, and I feel like it traces to when I was in fifth grade, we had to make agricultural maps of the United States of America, and you had to glue the product, so like you get to South Dakota and you glue like a little corn kernel.

Joe Rogan (1:08)

Right, I remember those.

Steven Rinella (1:09)

Yeah, and put some wheat, you know? For whatever reason, like for Virginia, we had tobacco and someone had brought in, I can't even remember what it was, like must have been loose leaf or plug. And me and my buddy, I don't know if this dude remembers it, me and my buddy Stanley Johnson ate, we took it out nd the playground and ate something. Dude, I was, I hallucinated twice as a child, once when I had to get a root canal.

And once when we ate that tobacco, I mean, I was, I was hallucinating. I can't remember, my mom had to come get me, she had to come fetch me from school.

Joe Rogan (1:58)

How old were you?

Steven Rinella (1:59)

5th grade. Unbelievably sick.

Joe Rogan (2:03)

When I was in, I guess it was 7th grade, 6th or 7th grade, I really got into Tom Sawyer, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Steven Rinella (2:11)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (2:12)

I read all his books and they were always chewing tobacco, so I bought some.

And I tried it and I got very sick, just like drool pouring out of my mouth, you know, like you get that, that drool. That set me off from chewing tobacco. I don't know.

Steven Rinella (2:29)

So you were a Mark Twain fan.

Joe Rogan (2:30)

Oh, yeah.

Steven Rinella (2:32)

Have you had your kids read Mark Twain?

Joe Rogan (2:34)

No, I haven't. No.

No, I would though.

Steven Rinella (2:37)

It's a conversation starter.

Joe Rogan (2:38)

It certainly is. I mean, when you find out about, I mean, I don't know how into history they are, but when you just get into just the history of people and the history of people in the United States and those books are fascinating books in that regard. You know, Mark Twain is like widely regarded as the first stand-up comedian.

Steven Rinella (3:00)

Oh, I'd buy that.

Joe Rogan (3:01)

Yeah, because he used to read his books that were humorous in front of people.

SPEAKER_3 (3:05)

Oh.

Joe Rogan (3:06)

And people think that that kind of started out the idea of stand-up comedy.

Steven Rinella (3:10)

Yeah, and he was quick-witted too. That's good.

SPEAKER_3 (3:13)

That's good.

Joe Rogan (3:13)

And then there's the name Mark Twain, which I learned from you, what it meant.

Steven Rinella (3:18)

Yeah, we covered this all the time.

Joe Rogan (3:19)

Yeah.

Steven Rinella (3:20)

Should I share?

Joe Rogan (3:21)

Yeah, sure. Share it for us.

Steven Rinella (3:22)

So, well, recently there's been some controversy introduced into this, but Mark Twain had worked as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi, so he had a very informed perspective for all of his characters. A riverboat required 12 feet of water.

You know, the big paddle wheel of riverboats required 12 feet of water for safe passage. So there would be a guy up on the front of the boat who would have a rope with a weight on the end and every fathom, a fathom is a nautical turn for six feet, he'd have a knot tied in the rope every fathom, and he'd throw the weight out, the weight hits the bottom, and you see how deep the water is. So Mark Twain is second Mark.

Joe Rogan (4:08)

Which is 12 feet.

Steven Rinella (4:09)

12 feet. So he describes like you're going through the fog or in the dark and there's some guy up front going, Mark Twain. Some other guy, we recently, someone sent in to us because we were discussing this on our podcast and a guy sent us in this book, I can't remember who the hell wrote the book, but he was saying the real thing is, Mark Twain, when he was out, I think when he was out visiting one of the silver mines in Nevada, maybe, he took to go into a bar and the bar would log how many drinks you had on a chalkboard, okay, so it's like your tab.