00:00:08 Speaker 1: But I invited you here. I thought I made myself perfectly clear. 00:00:17 Speaker 2: But you're a. 00:00:17 Speaker 1: Guest to my home. You gotta come to me empty, And I said, no, guests, your presences presents enough. I already had too much stuff, So how did you dare. 00:00:36 Speaker 2: To surbey me? 00:00:48 Speaker 3: Welcome to? I said, no gifts. I'm Richard Wineger. The year is coming to a close. We're in the backyard, twenty twenty three. Goodbye, another perfect year on Earth, flawless. I'm one episode behind on Real Housewives of Solaic City. I can feel my life just spinning further and further out of control. Oh, let's get into the podcast. I'm just thrilled to talk to today's guest because well, we'll get into it. It's Emily Altman. Hi, Emily, Welcome to. I said, no case. 00:01:24 Speaker 2: Oh thank you. I'm so excited to be here and to talk to you. 00:01:28 Speaker 3: People have been telling me, no exaggeration, for seven years, yeah, that I need to meet you, or saying, oh, you haven't met her, or yes, you would love her, So there's a lot of pressure. 00:01:38 Speaker 2: It's the same on my side, and also that like oh you you go. You guys love each other, so there's there's some pressure. 00:01:46 Speaker 3: I think we're going to find out what other people assume about us, right, whatever they think is going to connect us. I feel like one of the early things was cats. 00:01:54 Speaker 2: Oh like the musical or the I wish it was the music. See Okay, so that we're already in it because I've I've seen the musical and I'm fine with it. But I am into the animal. 00:02:03 Speaker 3: The animal itself. 00:02:04 Speaker 2: Do you have a cat current my beloved fun way to start the podcast? My cat, my beloved cat just passed away, the pet Death podcast, So we're going to start with that. But he did. He was awesome though, he's always I'm always happy when he's brought up. How old was he thirteen? 00:02:21 Speaker 3: Okay, that's a decent I think. 00:02:23 Speaker 2: So that's when you start to think, like it's not like he was so young, like you know, he was thirteen. 00:02:30 Speaker 3: He's like a like a seventy year old man dying. I would say, yes, exactly fine, which is fine. 00:02:36 Speaker 2: What was his name? Lionelton to Roney, Oh, that's a lovely name. I usually called him just Lionel though. 00:02:43 Speaker 3: Sure. 00:02:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. 00:02:44 Speaker 3: I feel like long cat names quickly become almost a sound exactly. 00:02:49 Speaker 2: I never used it. I only use his Christian name, but I did. Do you have a cat? 00:02:54 Speaker 3: I oh, my cat situation. I don't currently have a cat. I had two cats. We can get into that, but go on. 00:03:01 Speaker 2: Oh, I was just going to say about names that one thing that I do think is really adorable is when you go to the vet and they come out and they call and they use your last name and so sweet and it's it's just it's like, you know, like Waffles O'Brien and you're like, oh, I just I always loved it when they were like Lionel Altman and I was like, yeah, that's his full. 00:03:21 Speaker 3: Name, his legal person. Yeah, just for a minute, he's just fully realized as a person. Yes, yeah, I don't. I had two cats, don't currently have cats. I'm cats sitting right now. Went and met the cat today. It would not let me touch it. 00:03:37 Speaker 2: Was it hissing and like aggressive or just running away shy, very shy. 00:03:42 Speaker 3: But it would come up and smell my hand, which I felt like was a nice move. 00:03:46 Speaker 2: I think it is. I think that's the first step and the next time you guys will be best friends. 00:03:50 Speaker 3: Yes, I mean I'm feeding at all kinds of foods. The person that I'm cat sitting for has three different things. Wet food, dry food, and then something that's called temptation. 00:04:00 Speaker 2: Oh yes, I know about temptations. 00:04:02 Speaker 3: I wasn't familiar with temptations. 00:04:04 Speaker 2: They love it. 00:04:04 Speaker 3: I'm putting in a bowl like it's food for it, but it seems to be a treat. 00:04:08 Speaker 2: It's a treat, but it has a texture that no one can understand. It's not what you think it's. You know that some people use temptations to put medication in where I was like, but it's like, isn't it hard like a treat? And people were like, push, push into the temptation and see And I did because I tried to use it for medication for my cat and I was like, wow, it's it's eerily soft. 00:04:35 Speaker 3: I would see. I would have had no idea because I, you know, just grabbed a handful and dropped it in the bowl without squeezing. Well, you should always squeeze that first kind of juice, the cat food. Yes, yeah, that's important. Yeah, I love the name temptations. I don't love wet cat food. It's a lot of work just sliding out of the can. Yeah, it doesn't smell as bad as dog wet food, but it's still you know, I'm more of a dry cat food person now. 00:05:01 Speaker 2: Lionel's dry cat food. Whenever it came out of his feeder, I could smell it. This is going to make me sound really gross immediately, but I could like smell it for the next room. And sometimes I was like, hmmm, smells kind of like McDonald's. Like it kind of smelled a little bit like fast food. And I was like that, I mean, trying to put myself into his tiny walnut brain. I was like that, maybe that's delicious to him. Maybe it's his McDonalds. 00:05:25 Speaker 3: He must love it. Yeah, I mean, wow, I wonder if was it like a beef flavored or maybe it's smelled like chicken McNuggets. 00:05:31 Speaker 2: I think yeah, I think it was probably chickenwl an owl. 00:05:37 Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know that. I can't remember if I was loyal to a cat food brand while I had cats. But the smell was I mean, obviously the litter box was the big smell, the big smelling, which it's so shocking to me that we still have not quite developed a way to handle that. 00:05:55 Speaker 2: No, and when people train their cats to use the toilet. I'm always like, oh, well that that's kind of a solution, except that they can't flush. Yeah, it's just sitting, so it's just sitting there, which I was like, that sounds horrifying to me to like just walk you can't just walk in, or to have a friend walk in and doing it, yes, exactly, So that to me doesn't seem like a good solution either. 00:06:19 Speaker 3: Right, My great grandma trained her cat to use the toilet, but I that was before my time. I've never actually seen a cat use the toy. 00:06:27 Speaker 2: I just saw like a video that I'm not like a on like Instagram, where I was like, I don't I don't know if I believe this. That the woman was like when we had our toddler. At first like little Ricky their cat, Like Ricky was so jealous, but then he followed the toddler and did everything that toddler did, including when he was potty trained. Little Ricky started. No, he didn't do it by himself. There's no way. 00:06:50 Speaker 3: What is that person who's manufactured the dumbest possible story to become famous. 00:06:55 Speaker 2: Well, I saw it then and I was like, oh my, is it really that easy? There was just and then if that's the case, why don't they always watch all of us and just do everything that we do. 00:07:04 Speaker 3: I don't know, drive cars, make breakfast. 00:07:08 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:07:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, that is the one big sticking point for my boyfriend is the smell of the litter. 00:07:15 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:07:15 Speaker 3: And so we're not currently one. We also have a large dog that I was gonna say, have another animal. Yeah, so but at some point do you think you'll get another cat soon? Now? 00:07:26 Speaker 2: I think, interestingly you just mentioned your dog. I think now since I am in a moment of grief rip Linel, I was like, I don't want to. I almost in a way to like kind of honor his memory. It's like, I want to get another animal, but I think I'm going to go dog this time. Interesting just because like then after this dog, I'll be ready for another cat again. But I kind of like want a cat space right now, so that he is still the cat of my heart. 00:07:51 Speaker 3: Oh that makes perfect sense. Yeah, I should do that all the time. When someone gets the exact type of pet, I think, what are you doing? What's happening here? It's not the same animal, And now this animal has so much pressure. 00:08:03 Speaker 2: And sometimes they name them the same thing we've heard of that. I think that's like more of a child thing. 00:08:08 Speaker 3: It's like, yes, we had like Michelangelo one, Michelangelo two. We had. Unfortunately, the cats all lived outside and this was the early nineties, so we went through some cats. But I think we had at least three Michelangelos. Yeah, but an adult that names a pet the same. I don't know what to tell anybody. Do you have your eye on any type of dog? 00:08:32 Speaker 2: I do absolutely well. The dog breed is called the Klee Kai. Oh have you heard of it? 00:08:39 Speaker 3: I have never heard of it. 00:08:40 Speaker 2: Now, have you watched the Showtime docuseries Couples Therapy? 00:08:44 Speaker 4: No? 00:08:44 Speaker 3: I should. 00:08:46 Speaker 2: I think you would love it. It's great, but in it's you know, it's a docuseries about a therapist and she brings her dog to like her sessions, right, and the dog is this I saw this dog and I was like, I must know, like, what is this dog? It looks like a not I wouldn't say toy husky because it's not like that small, but it looks like kind of a shrunken husky A little bit. 00:09:08 Speaker 3: Okay, I'm getting oh on a Lisa's got it. Oh, it looks a lot like. 00:09:12 Speaker 2: See, I think that's you can't see the context of the right. 00:09:15 Speaker 3: There's like a regular size, but it is like but it's almost yeah, Oh, here we go. Oh it's very cute. 00:09:22 Speaker 2: Yes, that's the one I have my eye. Clee ki clee Kai. 00:09:25 Speaker 3: Now are you someone who will go buy a dog or are you waiting for it to show up in a rest? 00:09:30 Speaker 2: I have looked at both with them. I obviously we're not going puppy mall. We know that. What a shame. 00:09:38 Speaker 3: This is a very pro puppet I have two puppy mills. 00:09:42 Speaker 2: Oh you do. 00:09:42 Speaker 3: I'm a breeder. Let's just be honest. 00:09:44 Speaker 2: I mean, I hear you. So I'm not going to do that. I don't. I really don't know. I'm just early stages of planning. I there are for a lot of the dogs that I like, there are specific rescues for them because people buy them and don't so there's like I also like Box a lot. There's an La Box to rescue. I like Siba e News. Although they're not supposed to be affectionate and I can't do that. 00:10:07 Speaker 3: Oh if they're not, they're kind of cold. They're supposed to be cold, and that's not what I want for my animals. It look like an animal that would really want to like cuddle up to you. 00:10:15 Speaker 2: Yeah, they look like they're smiling, but I but people are Like the way that my Sheiba shows affection is he comes into the room and sits on the other end of the couch from me, And I'm like, that's like a boy a fight with exactly like a withholding to me, it's like a withholding person. 00:10:33 Speaker 3: That's the opposite. That's a cat. 00:10:35 Speaker 2: Yes, but I forced my cat or I don't know if I forced Lionel into this, but Linel was very Lionel was a lap cat. Like Linel could be in a baby bear and he would have met. So that's my experience of cats too. It's like, I don't know, Maybe I bend animals to my will and just make them cuddle me. 00:10:54 Speaker 3: I think that's kind of what you have to do as a good mother or father. Yes, just break the animal's personality until it's your own. 00:11:01 Speaker 2: Yes, until you think, oh my gosh, I found the perfect animal for me, but I made him. Have you had a dog before I had? Growing up, we had a very bad, very scary miniature docs and who I love it? Who bit a lot, and my sister and I used to hide on the back of our couch and yell to our mom. He's in the biting phase because like something something would like click in his brain and he was not well. He was like not a well dog. So I had that, and then I didn't. I haven't had a dog in my adult life. My sister had one that I was very close to. It was a boxer rescue. Wonderful. 00:11:44 Speaker 3: Yeah, boxers are so loving a mini docs and that's snapping. I mean, I love it, but I've never had to own one. 00:11:51 Speaker 2: He was so cute. He was very cute. 00:11:54 Speaker 3: But I just love an animal with a horrible attitude that's threatening children, just running around the house biting ankles. 00:12:00 Speaker 2: Mean, triggered in ways that I don't understand. I don't know why. I don't know what set him off, but it was abusive. Oh I love it. 00:12:09 Speaker 3: Do you currently live in LA or New York? 00:12:12 Speaker 2: I live in New York, but I come out here a lot for work. So I'm here like since twenty sixteen. I've been out here like half the year. 00:12:19 Speaker 3: So what are you doing pet wise when you're traveling back and forth? 00:12:22 Speaker 2: Well, Linel would come with me on the plane right under the seat. Which is part of the reason I was looking at like a Clee Kai sized dog is because I'm. 00:12:30 Speaker 3: Looking at like, oh, very smart. 00:12:32 Speaker 2: It has to they've got to be able to jet blue under the seat and they have restrictions about height and weight right. 00:12:40 Speaker 3: Too, body shaming jet Blue? Okay? Interesting? And was a cat? 00:12:47 Speaker 2: Was he okay? 00:12:48 Speaker 3: Traveling because I've heard horror story. 00:12:50 Speaker 2: Well, it was among the more stressful experiences of my life every time, because you have to take them out at security, right, That's the big shock her with cats is like you have to take them out and there's like three hundred people watching you, and even a good cat might just lose their mind in that scenario. 00:13:10 Speaker 3: Do you know, Alie Waller? 00:13:12 Speaker 2: No, although that's another person that I've heard a lot about. We have a we have a friend in common who's always like he's me Ally. 00:13:17 Speaker 3: She's wonderful and a big animal lover and has and I hope I'm not misrepresenting the story, but I believe she was taking two cats through JFK and they, of course had she had to take them out of their kennels, took them out, and they peed on her. And this is pre flight. 00:13:33 Speaker 2: Oh god, and then just have to get on a plane like that. I'm very sorry to say that. It's not the first time I've heard that. I heard about the other thing that can also happen when a you understand where I'm going, yes, of course, which I yeah, exactly. That's that's that. Truly. I can't imagine anything worse than the whole flight. Everyone like, kill me. 00:13:57 Speaker 3: Yeah, she's just oh, that's it's horrible. I can barely be on a plane just in perfect scenario. 00:14:04 Speaker 2: What do you do to pass the time on a plane? I'm reading? 00:14:09 Speaker 3: I kind of mix, like if it's a LA to New York flight, it's basically read until I'm bored. They don't play a little Nintendo. Okay, maybe listen to a podcast. Probably do that while playing Nintendo. 00:14:21 Speaker 2: Some movies don't. I'm so interest and impressed that movies and TV didn't even make the list. 00:14:26 Speaker 3: They rarely make the list. If the flight is over six hours, I'll look into a movie. But I need a lot of padding before and after the movie. So like, if a movie takes up half the flight, I don't get to. 00:14:38 Speaker 2: Do all my other things. 00:14:39 Speaker 3: Yes, I need to just basically have a little playtime that's very structured. But yeah, I think that's what I do. And then I, you know, resent whatever's near me and think about how much I hate them. 00:14:50 Speaker 2: You never talk right, or do you? 00:14:52 Speaker 1: Oh? 00:14:52 Speaker 2: I can't talk unless I'm forced into it. 00:14:55 Speaker 3: What do you do? How do you entertain yourself? 00:14:57 Speaker 2: I'm movie and TV okay, I like download stuff. 00:15:01 Speaker 3: On my You're not just dealing with whatever they slop. 00:15:06 Speaker 2: They give you sometimes for fun, like on this last flight I did. I was like, let me see what they have on offer, but like I had already curated my own selections, and that's how I ended up watching. I think no hard feelings that like about it. I was sort of like, this is a perfect environment to watch them. 00:15:23 Speaker 3: It's like an ideal plane. 00:15:24 Speaker 2: Yes, so that's mostly what I do. And then I also, I have like no budget for bad magazines, Like I's shocking how much I'll get like five or six like a S Weekly Life Style in Style, truly, whatever the versions of US Weekly are. I get them all and I read. I always read them on the plane, and I love that. 00:15:49 Speaker 3: I that's such a great idea. I obviously I read every cover of those magazines, but I never I need I need to subscribe. Let's be honest. 00:15:57 Speaker 2: I did to US Weekly for a while, which even close friends were like that, that's crazy, and I was like, I but you mentioned I'm just going to say, you mentioned Real Housewives just to yourself at the beginning of this podcast, and I'm like, that makes me think that the content in these magazines would also be a massage to your. 00:16:16 Speaker 3: Brain as Yeah, I mean, I would just love it. 00:16:20 Speaker 2: Often it's the same stories in every magazine too, which is kind of funny. And the stories are you know, they're nothing, But now what else had you curated for your flight that you ended up not watching? Well, sometimes I like give myself like homework, like you should watch this. Everyone's been talking about this incredible series on and then I download like six of them and then I look at it and I'm like, oh, I don't do that, but I think I oh, I think I'm still I still haven't watched, and I know I'll love it. The New j the Julia Child HBO I have. Everyone says it's great. I was just like, and I love her. What's not till? But I'm just sort of like, I feel like I've there's been a lot of Julia Child content in my life, and sometimes I feel like, as much as I love her, I was like, oh no, we're revisiting her again. 00:17:09 Speaker 3: Okay, we have to about every eight years revisit. Have somebody take the mantle of playing Julia. Yes, it's an important cultural thing for whatever reason. Are there multiple seasons of that show? 00:17:21 Speaker 2: Its season two is out now. And I saw like a massive billboard on sunset today that was like Julia's back. It was like, I gotta see this version. 00:17:34 Speaker 3: No, am I misremembering this or did Julia Child? Was she like a spy at some point? 00:17:40 Speaker 4: Oh? 00:17:40 Speaker 2: God, that that feels true. And then my question is was it her husband or her husband? But then her to be a spy, her to be undercovered. Okay, that's the next series. 00:17:53 Speaker 3: Yes, okay, so you didn't watch that. I haven't watched that, so I guess no one's watching it. 00:18:00 Speaker 2: Somebody is and they're telling us that we should watch it. Then it's good. I do Real Housewives save which ones are you watching? I get around to all of them right now. I just came out of New York and I'm very into Beverly Hills right now, but I'm obviously Salt Lake is amazing as well, and I've got it. But usually in one I'm kind of like focused on that and then I bounce to the next. 00:18:27 Speaker 3: Yeah, people who watch multiple franchises at once, I don't know how. I feel like that's like a weird nightmare thing where it all sorts to blur together and then you're seeing this person. It doesn't make sense to me. I need a nice focused watching the gals, yeah, that I can move to the next city. 00:18:44 Speaker 2: Yes, It's almost as if when I watch one franchise, all of the other ones don't exist, Like I forget about it in a way that I like, which is sort of like New Jersey in the past has been my favorite, Atlanta has been my favorite, and when I'm watching them, I'm sort of like, this is the only ill housewives. But then you know, then I see a new one that I love. 00:19:03 Speaker 3: And do you watch any other reality shows? 00:19:07 Speaker 2: Yeah? Oh yeah, I love Love is Blind. I've never watched Love. I can't recommend it enough. 00:19:12 Speaker 3: Is this the Netflix one where they're just like in a pod for a while talking to themselves. 00:19:17 Speaker 2: Yes, they're in a pod and then they go on dates in the pod and then one of somebody has to They don't have to, but they eventually someone proposes, and then they get They head towards the altar together, but now they see each other and where they like what they see. Have there been seasons where the person doesn't like what they see. Yes, but it's depending on your point of view. I was gonna say it's shockingly rare, but it's probably they just don't like that when that happens, or sort of like force them to stay together. But yes, occasionally it's very awkward and weird where we also you can tell kind of sometimes when they come out of the pod and maybe one person is really into it and the other person is sort of. 00:19:55 Speaker 3: Like, uh, like, is that the end of the season or do they continue. 00:20:00 Speaker 2: Once they see each other? Yes, because then they immediately go to their pre wedding preparation and the season this season it's it's the season ends with the weddings, and you don't know whether they're gonna get They decide at the altar whether they're gonna say I do or not, and all of their families are there, and friend, that's wonderful. 00:20:22 Speaker 3: God, this is very prison adjacent like you're on death row and we're following the whole journey. 00:20:28 Speaker 2: Yeah, that is shocking to me. It is. It's very it's very intense also because I do believe that in the pods almost like a psychological experiment actually kind of. I think people do actually project and have the like chemicals released of falling in love. Like people are like, oh, it's all bullshit, but I'm like, I think because of maybe the prison like atmosphere, something does happen where people like think, I'm really in love with this person, and then they try to interact outside of that and it gets Then sometimes they're like, I don't know your last name. I'm like, I never mind, but real emotion happens. 00:21:04 Speaker 3: I need to watch that. I recently dipped my toe back into ninety Day Fiance, which I. 00:21:09 Speaker 2: Used to love a swal Yeah. 00:21:10 Speaker 3: Yeah, I've watched too much of that at one point and it had to just kind of back away. 00:21:15 Speaker 2: I think that was my experience too. I think I over overdosed on it. 00:21:18 Speaker 3: Yeah, and the episodes I watched recently, I was like, oh, it is still I mean, it actually is way more wild than I can even remember. People just screaming at each other in front of the like during the confessional, things like fighting with each other. You usually saved that for like being in the wild. They fight and then they get into the thing and yeah, this is a ninety day. But I I'm shocked by how many people they continue to like, how do you cast that show? How were that there are that many people doing that? And also that want to appear on TV. I'll never understand it, but it's a nice thing to just flip on when you're traveling. 00:21:53 Speaker 2: I think, so Golden Bachelor, are. 00:21:55 Speaker 3: You I've never watched The Bachelor. 00:21:58 Speaker 2: I like Golden. I think you might like Golden. 00:22:00 Speaker 3: What is just called the Golden Golden? Like, is it significantly different than Bachelor Vanilla? 00:22:11 Speaker 2: Well, it is in that the while you know the conceit right, they're all older, the tone and the feeling is just much kinder. Oh interesting, which some people have been like, I don't like that, and I'm sort of like, it's kind of It's kind of nice and an interesting different show. There's very little like in fighting between and the stuff that they fight about is like sweet, like I think you're guacamole made my tummy hurt. It was like one of the fights between two of the two of the women the season, and it's like, that's not mean. So I'm enjoying it. I find it kind of soue that well. 00:22:46 Speaker 3: That sounds nice. Yeah, because the brief glimpses I've had of Regular Bachelor stressed me out in an enormous way, and seeing that many type of that person on television, I don't think I could sit through hours an hour. Yeah, so maybe I'll get into Golden Bachelor. I don't know. Well, there's something else I want to talk about. I was obviously very excited. I've been counting down the days from basically twenty sixteen, I think is when I first started hearing about you. When am I going to meet Emily Altman? What will take place? Yeah, we'll she live up to my expectations that people are building and building and building. So I was happy that you wanted to come on the podcast, and I was looking forward to this evening. Did I say it was a night at the beginning of the podcast the listener, I think a listener needs to know that darkness has descended on the podcast. It's deep night. A coyote could jump over the fence at any point back to what we're talking about. I was a little shocked. I was a little surprised when you came a knocking and you were holding what, from where I'm sitting, appears to be a gift. It's a gift A podcast is called. I said, no gifts. 00:23:57 Speaker 2: I knew that. 00:24:00 Speaker 3: So interesting You're owning it. 00:24:03 Speaker 2: I mean, what else can I do at this point? I feel like I feel like I have to own it. Egg all over your face, covered an egg, dripping egg. 00:24:14 Speaker 3: Well, uh, I don't know if show I open it here on the podcast, I want you to. Okay, Well, it's a very interesting wrapping. Uh, kind of a tissue with Oh is this Salvador dwelling on it? 00:24:49 Speaker 2: I believe it is, and it says live it up. I think it's a libertine. Okay, but I'm not gonna say anything more. 00:24:59 Speaker 3: Okay, I'm gonna open in the Oh. Yeah, the ribbon does save libertine and so ripping, crumpling, ripping, ripping, ripping. Oh what Wow, this is a butter sculpture of turkey. I've never seen one of these before. 00:25:21 Speaker 2: Okay. 00:25:22 Speaker 3: It's about the size of a I would say the size of a hummingbird. But it's a turkey, and it's a different bird. 00:25:28 Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's a. 00:25:28 Speaker 3: Little different than a humming. Tell me what's going on here? 00:25:33 Speaker 2: Well, we are in the Thanksgiving season, yes, and I just thought this would be, you know, a festive friend that you can have around. Also doesn't have to be for Thanksgiving. 00:25:46 Speaker 3: Oh, of course, save it for Valentine's Day, but. 00:25:48 Speaker 2: It could be cute. It could be cute on any tablescape. I think, Oh yeah, Easter is just around the corner. We never know an Easter is. Wow, it's lovely. I mean, where do you buy something like this local grocery is? And I kept him frozen until I came over here, so he's still I think it's okay for him to be out and chilling. And I'm just saying, if you at some point want to get him in a fridge, there's no rush. 00:26:14 Speaker 3: Well, I feel like I'm confused about how you're supposed to store butter actually, because I feel like, growing up, my mom just had butter on a plate in the cupboard. 00:26:22 Speaker 2: That's what they do in Europe. They'd never put it in they just the European way is, you know, the fringe. But yeah, so I I tried that Actually, for a couple of years I got like the thing on your counter. There's like a specific I forget what it's called, but it's. 00:26:39 Speaker 3: Like a little dome for terrarium essentially. 00:26:42 Speaker 2: Yeah, But then I felt like, am I going to get some disease from doing this? 00:26:46 Speaker 3: And I gave up, right, But I think it makes more sense to have it out because then it's usable. 00:26:52 Speaker 2: It's always soft. 00:26:53 Speaker 3: Yeah, if you're pulling it out of the fridge, you're not getting that on a piece of toast. Now you're scraping and scratched. 00:26:59 Speaker 2: Digging into the or pushing them a lot. 00:27:02 Speaker 3: The world break through, you might break through the bread to just you're squishing the toast and it's got like a slightly cold butter on it, the worst feeling in the world. So I like a room temperature butter. I mean, I don't practice what I preach. It's all in the fridge and I do a lot of baking, and every cookie recipe says room temperature butter, and so it's always me cheating or panicking. So I need to just be better about leaving butter out. Maybe this turkey could sit on my counter. 00:27:31 Speaker 2: I hope. 00:27:32 Speaker 3: So I wonder is it just normal butter. Can I use this in any way I want? 00:27:37 Speaker 2: I really think it's just normal butter. 00:27:40 Speaker 3: Interesting. I want to use this in a recipe. I don't even want to put it on toast or anything. Now it's so I guess it's if you had this at Thanksgiving, you'd be putting that on a roll. 00:27:49 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I sort of imagined, is yeah, like next to the roles at the Thanksgiving table. 00:27:54 Speaker 3: Right, It's been a while since I've had a good roll. I feel like it's hard, Like when are you ever in a situation where rolls are presented? 00:28:02 Speaker 2: If they're on the menu at a restaurant, I get very excited, Like Parker rolls, Oh delicious that I get very excited because it feels yeah, it feels very like every day and yet we don't eat them every day. But restaurants usually don't offer them to me. 00:28:16 Speaker 3: I'm just have you ever been to Hippo and Highland Park? Yes, they have a role there. That is just that I would eat four plates of those roles now, that's what I want. I don't think I'm gonna have roles at Thanksgiving. I have a bad feeling. Why I just have I feel like. 00:28:30 Speaker 2: People prioritize roles. You could get them. Well, I'm in charge of pie. Oh okay, what kind of pie do you mean again? 00:28:38 Speaker 3: I got a what is known as a Derby pie, which is like chocolate pecan. 00:28:44 Speaker 2: Oh, i've made that before. I didn't know it was called that. 00:28:46 Speaker 3: I didn't either. I learned this over the phone when I said, you have a pecan pie and they said no, but we have Derby, which is chocolate pecan. They corrected you. Yes, it was a it was a cold phone call. It was icy. Oh so you're picking up pie picking. I'm not making them because I'm afraid of I've never made pie crust because that's too hard, so high steaks. Yeah, and that's something you need cold butter for. Yeah, that's why you have to have some butter in the fringe. Yes, no, I'm buying the pie. It seemed like a decent price for one. My grandma said I should have gone to Costco. Apparently they have six dollar pies. But I thought, I want this to be a very good pie rather than I feel like a six dollar pumpkin pie is not really what I'm looking for. 00:29:25 Speaker 2: No, yeah, I don't know pumpkin pie kind of honestly always sort of tastes the same to me, even if someone's like it's pumpkin in particular, I'm sort of like, Yep, this is what it tastes like when I have it, and I like it. 00:29:35 Speaker 3: But it's just kind of wet and sweet, and it's all coming from a can. 00:29:41 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:29:41 Speaker 3: I don't think anyone makes fresh pumpkin pie. 00:29:44 Speaker 1: I do. 00:29:45 Speaker 2: I don't want it. There was pulp in there. I don't want that. You mention the strings. 00:29:51 Speaker 3: Strings cutting a piece of pumpkin pie and pulling it out and it's just strings. 00:29:55 Speaker 2: Oh my god, the inside of a jack o lantern directly into a Oh no. 00:30:02 Speaker 3: I mean, now that we're talking about this, I've never been I've never really thought about the process of how a pumpkin becomes whatever that is in the can, because that does not look anything like pumpkin. 00:30:12 Speaker 2: Not at all, not at all. And also that the texture alone is like, how do we get I am? I always thought it was like, did they put like cream in it and boil and gelatin. 00:30:23 Speaker 3: Right or is it straight on? At least we do some research here. I want to know if that's pure pumpkin. It looks like beef tallow or something. 00:30:30 Speaker 2: It's disgusting as marrow in it lardo, And. 00:30:38 Speaker 3: I'm not a pumpkin pie eater. 00:30:39 Speaker 2: Not for me. I get. I have the one a sliver once once a year. Maybe I also have it on Christmas too, but it's just a sliver. It's not my favorite. 00:30:48 Speaker 3: What's your pie? 00:30:49 Speaker 2: Pecan? And actually chocolate pecan probably would be. 00:30:52 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I don't know why more people don't put chocolate and pecan pie. It's right there, it's right there. It's a perfect combination. 00:30:59 Speaker 2: It turns it into essentially around candy bar. That's when you when you get that slice. Sometimes you're eating it and you're like, these are flavors that I only have experienced in a candy bar report, never like on my plate on a lease. I just read a very disturbing sentence. 00:31:15 Speaker 4: So this isn't the disturbing sentence, but basically, have to roast the pumpkin, and it says once the pumpkin is roasted, to throw the softened flesh into a. 00:31:22 Speaker 2: Food process or blend until smooth. Easy. I got goosebumps. Wait, does that mean that the exterior of the pumpkin is in the pie as well as it does. 00:31:34 Speaker 3: I think it's a whole hog, not the. 00:31:36 Speaker 2: Vine, not the curly vinyl say tip to tail, Oh yeah, tip to is that what the fra to use every part of the pumpkin. 00:31:45 Speaker 3: They're not putting the stem in there. 00:31:47 Speaker 2: And I hope they're not putting the stem or that curly vine that I keep sitting in my mind's eye. 00:31:52 Speaker 3: The curly vine. Yeah, that has little spikes on it, and it makes the pumpkin less fun. I'll say that. Yeah, okay, interesting. So people are making this weird wet stuff at home. They're roasting, their crunching, they're smoothing. I've never had I feel like it's the sort of thing where it's like the natural peanut butter wherever. You know, it's not all ketchup. 00:32:13 Speaker 2: When someone's like, we make our own ketchup, but I'm like, don't because it's not as good. 00:32:18 Speaker 3: I had a fanciish ketchup with dinner tonight, and I'm now revealing to you that I had dinner at five pm. But and I was just like, give me hines exactly what everyone wants all the time. 00:32:31 Speaker 2: This is I mean, I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way. But when I have fancy ketchup, I'm like, yeah, this tastes like tomatoes, which is what it should taste like, but I don't want it to. 00:32:42 Speaker 3: But I actually don't think that's what it should taste like. I don't think that's why ketchup exists. 00:32:46 Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think there was. I think it's always been like a sweet, vinegary yeah thing, Yes, I prefer vinegar forward, kind of like sort of like, yeah, it's it's a dressing, it's a I was about to say that it's American, but I don't know that it's America. 00:33:01 Speaker 3: Yeah. We wonder where ketchup came from. Probably Germany. 00:33:05 Speaker 2: Yeah, and you say ketchup, not calf cats up? Have you ever a mess who says cats up? But we know they exist somewhere. 00:33:12 Speaker 3: They must be somewhere on least, what are you saying here? 00:33:15 Speaker 2: Imperial China, China. 00:33:18 Speaker 4: Completely tomato free, So you guys are onto Okay, I'm not there yet. 00:33:24 Speaker 3: But it's pure viegar. It was the soft flesh. 00:33:30 Speaker 4: Interesting, it was made with fish and trails, meat by products and soybeans. 00:33:34 Speaker 2: Oh, this is pretty much the same thing. 00:33:36 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's almost exactly that's the ketchup we know and love kind of a classic thing. You find it a McDonald's or what have you. Okay, so the butter of the the pie, the rolls. What are you in charge of thanks for things? 00:33:50 Speaker 2: I'm actually bringing dessert myself and this is kind of I'm a little I brought this as a gift, but when i'm bringing, I'm going to my sister's for Thanksgiving and I'm bringing. Do you know about the Baskin Robbin's turkey cake? 00:34:05 Speaker 3: No, but I love whatever you're about to tell. 00:34:08 Speaker 2: Me, Well, I'm into as evidenced by your gift, like food that looks like other oh shored. I just think it's fun. And so this was like, I think an eighties thing that Baskin Robbins did, and then it went away because people were like, this is disgusting and has no taste. And then two years ago America was like, we love it, bring it back, and it is. It honestly looks like it's got to be like twenty pounds of ice cream. It's just a we're looking at a picture. It's just glazed looking. It looks exactly like a turkey. But when you cut it open, inside its cookies and cream, ice cream, or any ice cream flavor that you choose. I went with their traditional cookies and cream. So they make it there at the what do we call it a scoopery and ice cream and the Baskin Robins. Yeah, they make it there, and I pre ordered and you just go like any other of their ice cream cakes. 00:35:00 Speaker 3: Okay, I've had their. I mean I love their other normal ice cream cakes. 00:35:03 Speaker 2: I hope it'll taste good like that. What's what's on the outside that looks like Okay, that's it. But the one thing I do really like is that the drumsticks are sugar cones. That sounds kind of fun and maybe you get a little ice I mean, maybe it'll be fun. 00:35:18 Speaker 3: I haven't been to Baskin Robinson a long time. How was it holding up? Ice cream wise? 00:35:22 Speaker 2: I don't think it's very good. I just I was like, by the time I get to the end of the sentence, maybe all it'll land a little differently, maybe we'll soften it. But I was like, I don't, I don't. I don't think it's it's sort of the most basic I think, right, not very junk foody tasting ice cream. 00:35:40 Speaker 3: I hate to hear that. Yeah, because now we've kind of entered the salt and straw or Jenny's phase, which is very good ice cream, but it's unbelievably expensive. 00:35:47 Speaker 2: And also I don't need the like that's so artisanal, Like I don't need like lavender ice cream. I like mcconnald's. I feel like mcconnall's right. Yes, they have like a peanut butter flavor. Yes, just give me treats, put candy in there. Yes, that's why I'm here. I'm not here for my health. Literally, I mean, I'm not here to eat a flower, but they want me to. 00:36:13 Speaker 3: McConnell's is very good, but uh, I actually held a birthday party at the one in those Felis a few years ago and then it shut down. 00:36:19 Speaker 2: And quickly you got in there before it was only opened so briefly. 00:36:22 Speaker 3: Well, it's because there were nineteen ice cream stores in that neighborhood. Yes, only one, and I think only one is still remaining. Jenny's standis because there was the other one that was part of that whole What was that called that like Steven Spielberg was investing in and it was they had a factory in Brooklyn. 00:36:41 Speaker 2: Oh, ample Hills, Ample Hills. 00:36:43 Speaker 3: Yeah, that was an interesting rise and fall of ice cream. 00:36:46 Speaker 2: Yes, they're They're in Brooklyn, where I live most of the time. They are back. They're back. They're back as in this summer, they came back. They rose from their chili creve and their back to serve delicious ice cream. And I really do Ample Hills is delicious and I love them. Wow. So have they changed anything? They were kind of the we work of ice cream. Yes, I thought that was. I don't know if you read the same article I did some. 00:37:10 Speaker 3: Long forms, so I have retained none of the information except for the feeling. 00:37:14 Speaker 2: Retained enough to say long form article. But then what I remember chilling me to the bone about it was it was like two kind of just like creative people that were like, all right, let's run a corporation. Let's like get it bigger and bigger and bigger. And then they got a certain point they were like, we don't know how to do business, Like we don't and sorry, we just signed a deal with Disney and Delta Red Flag and like they just started signing deals with huge corporations and then all the money it just kind of collapsed interesting. Yeah. 00:37:46 Speaker 3: I remember when like Mickey Mouse started appearing in the store. Is like something's gone wrong. Yeah, they have too many corporate sponsorships. They're in bed with too many billion dollar companies. What's happening to the ice cream? 00:37:57 Speaker 2: Yeah? 00:37:58 Speaker 3: And then they all shut down. Yeah, is it still the husband and wife running? 00:38:01 Speaker 2: I think so. I think they're just starting all over again. Yeah, exactly. I'm happy for them, and the ice cream remains delicious. 00:38:09 Speaker 3: I'm rooting for them. 00:38:10 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:38:10 Speaker 3: I feel like they were going to open an ice cream museum. 00:38:13 Speaker 2: It was. 00:38:13 Speaker 3: It was a little too ambitious. Yeah, just make some ice cream. 00:38:17 Speaker 2: Yep, that's all. 00:38:18 Speaker 3: What flavor ice cream is your favorite? What sort of stuff are you dealing with there? I love. 00:38:25 Speaker 2: Well, I do. When you said peanut butter cup before, that's that's a flavor combo that I always really enjoy, peanut butter and chocolate, a cookie in there. I like a nice crunch, Yes, a nice crunch, I don't. I tend to like things that have another thing within them rather than like vanilla, right, or just the one flavor right. 00:38:45 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, if I'm getting two scoops of ice cream, one can be the pure flavor, but one of them has to have some element in there that I'll be chewing at some point. 00:38:54 Speaker 2: Yep. Otherwise it's going to be a weird experience for it. If I have to get the plain flavor, and I would. I do sometimes get coffee. 00:39:01 Speaker 3: I like coffee, a coffee or a really dark chocolate. Oh wow, But the other things. Forget it, yeah, get it out of here. I was just talking to someone recently about how much dogs love peanut butter. I wonder, I like, humans and dogs are the only creatures who love peanut butter. 00:39:17 Speaker 2: It seems like it is, because you know, when you say that, I used to live in Italy and I spent a lot of time in Italy, and they hate peanut butter. 00:39:24 Speaker 3: They hate it. 00:39:26 Speaker 2: They think it's disgusting. What like, they don't understand peanuts in general. They're like, what the hell? But like I've said this before, but I was watching with a group of Italians that movie Meet Joe Black. 00:39:40 Speaker 3: Do you know, I remember I've never seen it, but. 00:39:42 Speaker 2: But it's I forget why. But the Brad Pitt character, I think, like, who's a ghost maybe or something. He's like always eating peanut butter and some of the Italians I was with hissed, they hissed, they hissed when he ate it, And like I've had Italians ask me like, you don't like peanut butter, right, like you don't, and I'm like I do, like I do love it. I think it's just like not. Maybe it's the way that we feel about like marmite or whatever, those like Australian things. 00:40:08 Speaker 3: Australian I was thinking about Duri and yeah, so I guess it's something you just have to be fed as a kid and you grow up with it. My dad hates peanut butter. Actually, interesting, huge rift between us about I'm exactly wow, but peanut butter to me just seems like it should be a universally loved food. 00:40:25 Speaker 2: I know. That's why it was so eye opening for me. Is I thought it was like, sure, I like water milk, peanut butter, Like I thought it was like one of the classic everyone that's all I need. But it's not. It's not. It's not. 00:40:40 Speaker 3: I mean I feel like whenever on Great British Bakeoff that peanut butter gets brought up, it almost feels like even to British people like this kind of exotic thing we're going to put in the dessert like this unconventional thing, where for me it's like I think that that should be in every dessert you make. 00:40:55 Speaker 2: I Oh my god, me too. I love at a restaurant when they are like, here's our elevated version of a Reese's cup or something I get so they could just bring out a Reese's cup, but I'm so excited. 00:41:08 Speaker 3: I was talking about this on the podcast recently about like if cheese It's were served to me at a restaurant, I'd be like I would be telling everyone about that restaurant like it's an incredible food, and same with like a Reese's. 00:41:18 Speaker 2: I've heard that cheese It's in red wine is like a very lovely Seriously, I've heard this, and I keep meaning to try that. It's like a very nice, like opera TiVo snap that the cheese in cheese. It's like, I'm ready for that to be true, and I'm just saying that it is even if it's not. 00:41:36 Speaker 3: That's an incredible little piece of information. I once held a like, instead of a wine and cheese party, amountain doing processed cheese party. 00:41:44 Speaker 2: And let's be honest, processed cheese is very good. It's wonderful. 00:41:49 Speaker 3: I mean, unless it's cold, then I'm in hell. I would rather eat raw chicken than a piece of uh, just like an American cheese raw. No, thank you god. How did we get here? That's always the question on this podcast is how did we end up with me talking about eating raw chicken? It doesn't matter. 00:42:08 Speaker 2: You keep looking at that bird chicken. Oh interesting, But that's what I was thinking, is don't forget that this is a bird too. Yeah, he's cute. Now, what are your plans for New Year's Oh, my goodness. 00:42:23 Speaker 3: I don't Year's person. 00:42:26 Speaker 2: No, I if something. Occasionally I've been, like done a trip with friends or things like that, but I do not put a lot of pressure on myself of like, this has got to be the best night of my life. Often, often i'm asleep before midnight. Beautiful far Often sometimes it's very comforting, actually, But I don't know. Maybe I'll do it either I'll like be with friends and go on a trip, or I'm not. I'm not a big New Year's party person, all right. 00:42:54 Speaker 3: I think going on a trip is probably the best solution. I've never done that before. It's usually just bad party, mediocre party yea, or watching one of these insane TV shows it's on that's just like a bunch of garbage, like a true parade of garbage for four hours. Yes, And then I go to sleep. Yeah, it's the one night of the year that I'm kind of okay going to bed before midnight. 00:43:16 Speaker 2: I oh, I go to bed pretty early anyway. But I also I don't mind just opting out of the whole thing. Sometimes it's kind of fun when you wake up in the morning and you're like, it's the next year. No like to go to sleep, And I don't know, I kind of I don't. I don't mind it. 00:43:32 Speaker 3: Are you a Halloween person? I feel like they're kind of cousin holidays. I yes, I like Halloween. 00:43:37 Speaker 2: I like the Halloween season, and I like spooky and scary things, right, But I think probably of the holidays, I like Christmas. I do. 00:43:47 Speaker 3: Christmas is a wonderful time. 00:43:48 Speaker 2: It is. I like it. There's so many lights up in your neighborhood already. 00:43:51 Speaker 3: My neighbors probably they must be like, oh, that man is so sad. I never decorate for anything, and my boyfriends and New York this year, so I won't even have a Christmas tree that's gonna it's gonna be just kind of a cold, sad place. 00:44:05 Speaker 2: You don't even get a tiny little target. I don't have. Also, when you're at home alone putting up a tree, sometimes it's not It feels better to just ignore. 00:44:14 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's just shut it down. I'll see a tree in New York at some point and that'll be enough. I but my neighbors are doing a good job. It just feels like I'm like the one light bulb that's not working on this string. But I only have so much energy. 00:44:28 Speaker 2: I understand. 00:44:29 Speaker 3: Only did you dress up for Halloween this year? 00:44:34 Speaker 2: I did not. I did not this year. I just wasn't. I wasn't feeling it. This year. I did. I did enjoy seeing other people's costumes, but I didn't get it together in time. I guess snuck up on me. 00:44:45 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:44:45 Speaker 3: I have on and off years. There's some years where it just doesn't matter at all to me, and then there are other years are like, I'm going, I'm excited to put on a costume. 00:44:53 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, if you feel it, if there's a party that you're excited about or like an event, then I will plan and get very excited about it, but I don't. Usually I don't. I don't do anything half asked. That's not true, but no one says that about Yeah, that's that's what I'm known for. But yeah, now, if if I'm not fully planning a costume. 00:45:13 Speaker 3: Then I just usually don't don't do anything. What was the least memorable costume you had? 00:45:17 Speaker 2: I really had a lot of fun. I did Flash Dance Jennifer Beale and Flash Dance, and that was a very satisfying costume because I could get all of the pieces you need for it to make an accurate costume. Yes, and then it just it was. It was satisfying in that way. It wasn't like that kind of like janky version of like who are you? 00:45:37 Speaker 4: Oh? 00:45:38 Speaker 2: I kind of this like you kind of almost don't understand how her outfit is like so iconic. But if you get all the pieces, then everybody knows exactly who you are. 00:45:47 Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, I mean, speaking of janky costumes, I went as Mary Barry one year and it was a thing where I I simply looked like a frightening man. There was nothing about it that looked like an old British just kind of a cheap wig and uh sport code or whatever. Yeah, Halloween, butter, I feel like we've covered a lot of holidays stuff here. Are you gonna be back east for Christmas? 00:46:12 Speaker 2: No, I'm gonna be because my sister is out here. I just was like, and I'm gonna be here through the end of February. I was like, we'll do all the holidays together out here. 00:46:19 Speaker 3: Do you have nieces and nephews? 00:46:21 Speaker 2: I do. I have a niece and a nephew, and they're who I'm thinking of with that turkey cake. Wow, I think they're gonna they're gonna go think for a child, like it looks like a turkey, but it's ice cream on the inside. I think they'll be pretty. 00:46:33 Speaker 3: So they're gonna go. They're gonna be off the wall for that thing. Are you buying them Christmas presents? Oh? 00:46:38 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'll get them. 00:46:39 Speaker 3: What is your process like? Because mine is deeply stressful for my niece's. 00:46:44 Speaker 2: Okay, So I always it's just I turn to my sister and I say what do they want? What is it? And then within that I try to be creative and fun and give my little twist, and sometimes I might add my own own thing that nobody asked for it, but I like to feel on solid ground and confident by getting them things that's somewhere in there that I know that they actually want. What ages are they seven and nine? Okay? 00:47:12 Speaker 3: Those are still like fun toy ages? Yes, yes, I just I ask my sister. But then I kind of ignore her because I think, oh, I want this to be such a unique, incredible present, and then I fail, Uh huh, why just listen to whatever she tells me. 00:47:28 Speaker 2: I understand that drive, though, because I want so badly them to open a present and be like, oh my god, right, I'm so moved, like, thank you. 00:47:39 Speaker 3: For being in my life exactly like you see me in a way that nobody else does. 00:47:43 Speaker 2: Thank you for this. I want, I want that that that hasn't really happened. 00:47:47 Speaker 3: No, I'm I'm personally just kind of waiting for them to be old enough to be excited about money. Oh yeah, when I can just buy a card and put some money in there and that's all they want in the world. Yeah, then I don't have to get online and look for what chapter books are good for a seven year old. This sort of thing, which is eventually is satisfying if you find something good, but you know, I might get one of my nieces. The mouse in the motorcycle, I hadn't thought about that in a long time. 00:48:13 Speaker 2: I actually don't know the mouse in the mouth, don't. I had a visual in my mind of a mouse, I hope, so driving a boat. I'm picturing like Richard's scary style. But that's not what it is. 00:48:25 Speaker 3: No, it's more realistic. And as someone who despises mice and rats, this should not be for me. But it's very cute. And then there's a movie, a live action movie, where there's a little mouse driving a motorcycle around. Who can ask for more? A Lisa, you're familiar with the mouse in the motorcycle. Everyone's looking at me like I'm out of my mind. I thought this was like Bones that it's like bear Bones. Description of like mouse and motorcycle was like, he doesn't even have a name. He just a mouse. 00:48:53 Speaker 2: I think it's Ralph. 00:48:54 Speaker 3: Okay, if it's Ralph, I mean, wow, I learned one thing reading it's Ralph. 00:49:00 Speaker 2: Okay, okay, good. 00:49:01 Speaker 3: Oh, I'm thrilled. That really suck with me, and I feel like it's a whole series. It's a saga. 00:49:06 Speaker 2: Do you like other. Do you like Stuart Little? Do you like other? 00:49:10 Speaker 3: I never read Stuart Little? Okay, I read a book called The Cricket and Times Square. 00:49:14 Speaker 2: I think that was sounds familiar to me. 00:49:16 Speaker 3: Kind of had a big impact on me. You know, you love to hear about small creatures in. 00:49:21 Speaker 2: The big city. 00:49:22 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Stuart Little. Though I wonder why that skipped me. 00:49:27 Speaker 2: I don't remember particularly loving it, but it had like then there was a live action, and I just felt like one of those books that like everyone's like yeah, yeah, like like Flat Stanley, which I do love. Did you you read Flat Stanley? You never read Flat Stanley? And the name of that is so scary. Why why does Flat Stanley sound so scary? Well, because if that story was just like one click to the left, it would be a horror movie. 00:49:49 Speaker 3: Is the story? 00:49:49 Speaker 2: Well, it's what you think. He's flattened. Oh, he's utterly flattened, but he's like supported by his community and everybody loves him, and so they put him in like enviolnce opes and send him around the world. 00:50:01 Speaker 3: And my mom did this. She's a kindergarten so she did send Flat Stanley around. Yeah, so I think I must have taken a picture of a flat Stanley, I think the beach or whatever. 00:50:10 Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's it's about basically about what could be a horrific experience, but it's framed does like it's fun, Like he can travel everywhere. Look what he can do now that he's fully flat. That like nobody else could do what flattens him? I wish I could remember it can't. It must just be magic or something, right, It's not like there's no pain. There's the exactly I don't know. 00:50:36 Speaker 3: Maybe there was a pan, but there's no pain, no pain, Thank goodness. 00:50:40 Speaker 4: He's squashed flat by a bulletin board while sleeping. His last name is lamb Chop. 00:50:48 Speaker 2: Oh, lamb chop. 00:50:51 Speaker 3: Confusing by a bulletin board. I mean that's what happens when you follow sleep by over over his bed. 00:50:56 Speaker 2: I guess that's. 00:51:00 Speaker 3: Board Stanley lamb Chop. Yeah, flattened. I mean that is kind of a scary story. 00:51:06 Speaker 2: I loved it as a kid. I just thought that idea was so cool and fun though, that like he could try, like he a lot of it's about travel and how he does it for free. He can like, you know, like put him in a mailbox, put him in a padded envelope, like he can go wherever and nobody minds. 00:51:21 Speaker 3: Yeah I didn't. I thought that that was like a recent that book was a recent thing and it's been around for a minute. 00:51:26 Speaker 2: Then yeah, I think it's been around for a while. Like when I was growing up, there wasn't the thing in schools where people were doing it. But I did read it as okay, okay, yeah, I feel like we read a lot. 00:51:34 Speaker 3: I mean every version of the gingerbread Man. Oh yeah, yeah, I feel like would go to this school cafeteria and get a gingerbread man or something. Not a gingerbread fan. 00:51:46 Speaker 2: Again, maybe once a year I'll have I'll have a small piece, write a bite, a bite, but I'm not consuming the full gingerbread product. 00:51:55 Speaker 3: No, no, I don't need that, although they do so. Have you ever had those little ice cream sandwiches that are ginger bread men? 00:52:01 Speaker 2: No, although that does sound good, I would try that. 00:52:03 Speaker 3: I remember those being very good, but again, this was when I was in elementary school. It could be a disgusting product. 00:52:08 Speaker 2: Like two men. 00:52:09 Speaker 3: It's in this small gingerbread men with vanilla ice cream. 00:52:11 Speaker 2: Oh that does sound really that calm see to me? Then we've got the ice cream to fall back on. So even if the cookie is not that great, right, I'd still I like an ice cream sandwich. 00:52:21 Speaker 3: So I love an ice cream sandwich. I'm not crazy about an ice cream sandwich that's made out of fresh cookies. No, it doesn't work. 00:52:29 Speaker 2: I like the traditional old like just the with the two like dark brown kind of bricks on either side, which those individually? What are those? They're not cookie. 00:52:40 Speaker 3: It's kind of like a tutsi roll situation where it's like, that's not chocolate, it's not cookie, it's what is. 00:52:46 Speaker 2: I just had this conversation less than one week ago with someone where the question was what is a tutsi roll? And he was like, it's taffy and I was like, don't just say that. We know what taffy is and that's not But then we googled it and it was like, it's a chocolate flavored taffy and he was very triumphant, and I was like, that's not you know, that's cheating and you know that's not fair. It's just not true. It's not true, not true. 00:53:12 Speaker 3: I would almost put a totsy roll in a root beer category or something. 00:53:15 Speaker 2: Oh, I'm so what I that's better. It's almost it's almost like more almost like a caramel almost, right. 00:53:22 Speaker 3: I feel like there's I mean maybe a suggestion of chocolate that it's drown just the. 00:53:30 Speaker 2: Fact that it's brown. That's it. There's not there's nothing. I want some chocolate. Get me a ttzy roll, hmm deep dark. I'm gonna melt this tootsy roll and put it on top of my eyes. No, none of those things. 00:53:43 Speaker 3: Oh my god, that idea is so disgusting. Also, mixing tootsy rolls into like a ch chocolate chip cookie, imagine, because. 00:53:52 Speaker 2: It's not toffee either. It's certainly not toffee either. 00:53:56 Speaker 3: And I feel like if I was blindfolded and someone put and I had never had it totsi roll before, and they put it in my mouth, I wouldn't be like, oh, I'm eating something related to chocolate right now. 00:54:05 Speaker 2: No, No, it would be a like a It's like a nondescript candy in a bowl, like a hard candies in the middle, and you're sort of like, what is this taste? 00:54:14 Speaker 3: I don't know, right, it's a nice chew. 00:54:16 Speaker 2: It's a nice chew. 00:54:17 Speaker 3: I like a chew. But yeah, as far as chocolate goes, it's crazy to me that totsi roll is still in business. Yeah, I'm actually I'm actually happy about that. 00:54:26 Speaker 2: I kind of like it's like an old fashioned I'm amazed that it is. 00:54:29 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's like, uh, it has no reason to still be around. It's just not a cool candy in what in any. 00:54:36 Speaker 2: Way like necho wafers. 00:54:38 Speaker 3: I mean, now that should be shut down. 00:54:39 Speaker 2: Yeah, you can't believe nobody ever liked that, even when they were kids. 00:54:43 Speaker 3: No, it's I have I've said it before, I'll say it again. It's the taste of mother's purse. Yes, that's my mom would have those at the bottom. 00:54:51 Speaker 2: Of her purse. I hated the flavor, The textures horrible. How it's like a powder in a compact kind of like. 00:55:00 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's almost like a gas. You know, it's not it's impossible to say what form that actually is. It's not a liquid, it's not a powder, it's not a solid. It's its own scientific category. 00:55:13 Speaker 2: They're still they persist. 00:55:15 Speaker 3: There's someone likes them. And the chocolate one of that that is the worst flavor in the package. I do like how they look. 00:55:23 Speaker 2: That's what draws me in every time. They're beautiful, the colors, they're stylish, they're stylish, They're like timeless. Absolutely, I feel like they haven't changed the look for as long as they've been around. Is got to want to go out of business? Do They're they're testing. They're sort of like, we're not going to do anything. Let's see if American notices and America is like, we'll continue to support you. I don't know why. It's crazy. 00:55:51 Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't even know where I would buy a neck away for at this point, and I'm glad. 00:55:55 Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of actual there's a lot of candy like that that I'm like, are those still around? And then they are? But I don't know where you go now for like a fifth Avenue or an O Henry fifth Avenue? 00:56:06 Speaker 3: I think is that is gone? 00:56:08 Speaker 2: Oh? 00:56:09 Speaker 3: I used to love Avenue. I felt that I saw it. She merely collapsed. 00:56:15 Speaker 2: That was one of my childhood favorites. 00:56:16 Speaker 3: It was a lot of fun too, and I remember them having good commercials. 00:56:19 Speaker 2: Yeah, and it was. 00:56:21 Speaker 3: I thought it was better than Butterfinger. 00:56:23 Speaker 2: I thought it was superior Butterfinger as well. It had more of a peanut butter flavor and the chocolate on the outside. I believe this is like a darker chalk let. 00:56:30 Speaker 3: It was more sophisticated. Let's be on. 00:56:32 Speaker 2: I can't accept that it's gone. Really of not having Oh wow, okay score. These are ones that used to be able to see at a seven to eleven, and I feel like now you'd have to. I feel like they're still around. You just have to go and find them. 00:56:46 Speaker 3: But I don't know where, right Mars, which is now just a Snicker's almond which is. 00:56:51 Speaker 2: Is it really the same thing? 00:56:52 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's basically this. I think that they decided Mars shouldn't exist anymore. And I loved the Mars package. 00:56:58 Speaker 2: Yeah, me too. 00:56:59 Speaker 3: A lot of things that have just mistakes are constantly being made on a links. 00:57:04 Speaker 4: The Fifth Avenue bars are still available. Oh my god, it's back on hersheyland dot com. 00:57:08 Speaker 3: I don't know hershey Land. 00:57:10 Speaker 4: I don't know why, but something makes me trust a website named hershey Yeah. 00:57:14 Speaker 3: That's my news source. That's my number one news source. They must have brought it back because I remember being heartbroken for years. Fifth Avenue. 00:57:23 Speaker 2: I'm sure it's horrible now it's a pet cemetery situation. Oh yeah, you can't revive that. 00:57:27 Speaker 3: No, no, no, it's disgusting. Now I have to assume. I feel like, uh, and I could be wrong about this, So people have to do. You have to do your own research when you hear something on a podcast, of course, but I feel like a lot of Hershey candies are now Like I remember reading an article that they can have to be described as chocolate tea rather than chocolate. Yeah, because they don't use chocolate ingredients. 00:57:48 Speaker 2: I think that that tracks because I think a lot of things like that we consumed as like, oh, this is chocolate. I found out later like my line all my cat when he was a kitten, he jumped into a sheet cake that I had made, a Duncan heins c It was very cute and like he was like oh and like had like chocolate. But I had never had a cat before, so I called like Cat poison Control and I was like, he's guys covered in like chocolate. And they're like what, ma'am, what is the nature of emergency? They're like, man, what is the nature of the chocolate? And I was like, oh, it's like a Duncan hines like cake. And then there was like a pause and they were like that has such low levels of actual chocolate that there is no danger of him at all having like you know, they're not like supposed to eat chcolate, but like that kind of thing where it's then you look at the packaging and it says like a chocolate experience or like inspired by real. 00:58:44 Speaker 3: Chocolates, disturbed by someone eating a chocolate bar. Yes, something like that. Wow, they really burned Duncan Hines there. 00:58:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, hmm. 00:58:53 Speaker 3: I was thinking about buying Duncan Hines recently because I wanted to put it on a gram cracker, the frosting, the chocolate frosting. Have you ever had chocolate frosting on a gram cracker? 00:59:01 Speaker 4: No? 00:59:02 Speaker 2: And that sounds incredible, unbelievable. 00:59:04 Speaker 3: Oh, and you put it in a tupperware and it gets just slightly soft on alice? 00:59:09 Speaker 2: Have you had this. 00:59:10 Speaker 3: I'm bringing a lot of new ideas to this podcast. 00:59:12 Speaker 2: I ever heard this, and I'm one hundred percent going to try And I bet that would look You could make it look. 00:59:17 Speaker 3: Yeah, you can make it look like a nice little thing like it always came out of a classic lunchbox or something. But I think I've only ever had it with frosting that was made at home, like my mom. So I don't know if Duncan hines would. 00:59:29 Speaker 2: I do frosting. I have no complaints about that. 00:59:32 Speaker 3: So yeah, maybe I need to get into it because that's a nice, easy treat that I recommend to everyone. And I both learned something. It's incredible. 00:59:40 Speaker 2: It's great because I wouldn't eat a gram cracker otherwise. 00:59:43 Speaker 3: Interesting. 00:59:44 Speaker 2: I love a gram cracker just by itself solo. 00:59:46 Speaker 3: Well, I'm not. 00:59:47 Speaker 2: I don't find myself just sitting at home eating a gram cracker. 00:59:50 Speaker 3: I just mean it is small, more delicious. 00:59:54 Speaker 2: It's got to be accompanied by a dessert thing. To me, just by itself, I don't really. 00:59:59 Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, I don't think I would enjoy it. If I, for whatever reason, something went wrong and I was just eating a gram cracker, I think I would enjoy myself. But what is happening when I'm just eating a gram cracker? That's like you've given that by a preschool teacher exactly. 01:00:14 Speaker 2: I think of it accompanied with orange juice, which is like childhood like snack things exactly. But it's not a cookie. It's not a cracker, yeah, but it is. 01:00:23 Speaker 3: I think it was initially made as a health product. Really again, I'm saying things that I'm learning, so but I'm pretty sure Graham Crackers, like in the eighteen hundred some. You know, you're right. I think Graham. 01:00:37 Speaker 2: I think there is some crazy backstory about the Graham Cracker and mister oh no, I know what it is. The town where I went to college, Sylvester Graham was there, and I believe he invented the Grammaster. I think he was the Grandmaster. That could be totally wrong, but that just came back to me. I don't know. 01:00:55 Speaker 3: Yeah, it feels like one of those like a thing that would come up in like a like an almost cult community like Oneida. Is that what those things are like? I feel like one of these like utopian societies came up with a gram Cracker. Then they were all having sex with each other. 01:01:09 Speaker 2: It's just like the Kellogg's story or whatever, like corn flakes has I'm just gonna say it's in my mind because it's not accurate, and then we could look at but it's like corn flakes were invented so that people would be celibate. But there is something there is I mean that works actually that makes sense. There is some backstory about corn flakes where it was like originally a product for a religious group that was like sustenance, and then we've forgotten about its origins. But then it's like if you look it was it was tied to some sort of cult. 01:01:40 Speaker 3: Yeah, plain cornflake is the food of someone that is not having sex. 01:01:44 Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. It's sort of a monkst meal, right, yeah, horrible cereal. 01:01:50 Speaker 3: Oh but I guess it goes on top of a casserole or something. Time to play a game. I need a number between one and ten from you. 01:01:58 Speaker 2: Seven. 01:01:58 Speaker 3: Okay, I have to do some like calculate. Okay, while I'm doing this, you can promote, recommend, do whatever you want with the microphone. 01:02:05 Speaker 2: Aback. I'm going to promote and say that I have a book that came out this week which is called How to Be Sane, And it is a very silly, absurdist comedy prose book. And it tells you it's written by this woman named doctor Teresa Loan, who says that she's a therapist and it's her self help book. But as you read it, you realize that she's just batshit And that's the book. So get it wherever books are sold. And I hope you have a law. 01:02:39 Speaker 3: Beautiful. I'm so excited about the book. 01:02:42 Speaker 2: Oh good. I hope you read it, and I hope it makes you chuckle. 01:02:45 Speaker 3: How long did it take to write all told? 01:02:49 Speaker 2: Maybe about a year? I mean, is doing other stuff too, I'm like, come back with maybe maybe a year total. 01:02:54 Speaker 3: It sounds like such a fun thing. 01:02:56 Speaker 2: I think you. I think for a lot of creative, funny people, you would enjoy doing that because you just get to sit down and just be a lunatic and then nobody is like, actually, no, we can't do that, and you're sort of like, I guess I'm just gonna do this until the end of the book. 01:03:13 Speaker 3: Okay, Right, and it's not there's no worrying about budget or anything. It's just anything gonna happen here. 01:03:19 Speaker 4: Yeah. 01:03:20 Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, let's play the game. 01:03:22 Speaker 2: Okay. 01:03:23 Speaker 3: I feel like I've recommended enough stuff on this podcast. I don't have to recommend anything. Get a gram crack or enough frosting. This is how we play gift Master. I'm gonna name three gifts, three things you can give away. Okay, then I'm gonna name three celebrities. You're gonna tell me which celebrity you would give which gift and why fun? Does that make perfect sense? 01:03:40 Speaker 2: It makes perfect sense. 01:03:41 Speaker 3: Okay. The three gifts you're giving away today are number one a high performance blender, so you know they charge a lot for the I feel like you can buy a blender for nine hundred dollars at this point. Number two an abundance, so just you know this, they'll have an abundance in their life, okay. And number three is a box of assorted dates, which I recently saw kind of a popular gift. Okay, you'll be giving them to Christian Bale, Ru Paul and Lily Rose Depp. 01:04:11 Speaker 2: Okay, coming, Okay, so you can I just repeat back to you of course. Okay. So blender, high performance, high performance, high end, high performance, box full of dates and abundance, and Lily Rose Depp, Christian Bale, and Rue Paul. 01:04:32 Speaker 3: Yes, what if that was the end of the game. I just needed you to remember. 01:04:39 Speaker 2: I'm going to say, wow, my gut came in strong with abundance for Lily Rose Depp. Interesting because I feel I watched that very bad show that. 01:04:55 Speaker 3: She was on the Idol, the Idol. 01:04:59 Speaker 2: And the was very bad and kind of an embarrassment, and certainly I feel like in her personal life, there's been a lot of drama and she with her dad and all that, right, and I on this show was like, she's a I think she's just a good actor in the way, and I'm kind of rooting for her. So I'm wishing her abundance so that she can kind of emerge from this weird period. And I don't know, Triumph, I want her to succeed. 01:05:30 Speaker 3: She's going to She's okay, good, She's absolutely going on to Christian Bale. 01:05:34 Speaker 2: Obviously, I'm going to give him the blender because I feel like he's always transforming for someone else. He's got to transform. Maybe that'll help make it easier for him or his loved ones to have to like support him because he's gonna I don't know what he's going to change into X but perfect. 01:05:53 Speaker 3: He's always on some diet. 01:05:54 Speaker 2: He's always on some diet, changing his body radically for a role, and no one asked him to no, And then I guess that leaves RuPaul with a box of dates. I think I would appreciate that also because Rue Paul loves a pun and like I feel like on Drag Race, you know, it's all about the puns, and I feel like there could be something about like a box of dates, like I haven't had this many dates in my house since you finished that one. 01:06:29 Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, I think that's perfect. These are all perfect answers. 01:06:35 Speaker 2: Oh, thank you. 01:06:36 Speaker 3: And you're saying that about Christian Bale reminds me that I recently learned that Woquin Phoenix was trying to lose weight for the Joker movie and ate an apple a day for like six months. 01:06:46 Speaker 2: That's all the end. So what are people doing? It is that that's that's not a diet, the apple diet. 01:06:55 Speaker 3: There are other things you can have one a day. I'm having like a can of tunas. Yeah, that's so weird. I mean because the Joker was like a little looney. He was like what would he eat? I don't know, And again, who knows if that's true. I feel like I'm saying a lot of things today. 01:07:12 Speaker 2: I definitely did. I definitely said I started talking about like cults and religious beliefs linked to cornflakes. I don't really don't. I'm really digging deep there and I don't know if it's real. 01:07:23 Speaker 3: Well, everyone wins. You did an excellent job, and I have no complaints. This is the final segment of the podcast. It's called I Said No Emails. People write into I Said No gifts at gmail dot com. Questions galore. They're asking all kinds of things. Hopefully a lot of the time we have to tell them what type of gift to buy? Whatever? Will you read one with me? 01:07:44 Speaker 2: Oh, I'd love to. 01:07:45 Speaker 3: Okay, this is dearest Bridger and unnecessarily rude guest. Okay, perfect for you. I have been invited to the boss's house for Christmas gathering, and I am at a loss as to what to bring as a gift. I was always taught that you should never show up to a party empty handed, so the need to bring something is overwhelming me. For some backstory, I started a new job in August at an insurance company, having absolutely no prior experience whatsoever. I am very grateful for the position, but am somewhat uncomfortable with the invitation to said fancy party because this guy has more money than God. Oh interesting, mister insurance. Other than the obvious bottle of wine or box of chocolates, what can I bring that says thanks for the invite and the job without saying I'm paid too much? But also not enough. Oh the layers, Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for the explosion whatever if that was in the background. Yours forever, Jamie. Okay, so the first thing we should say is I think this episode comes out December twenty seventh. Okay, so Jamie's probably now out of a job. Sorry, a little too late, too little, too late from Bridgie. 01:08:55 Speaker 2: Jamie, what did you bring? However, a little late call in we need to know. 01:09:00 Speaker 3: But let's say maybe now Jamie has a full year till the full year till the next party, we could give him some hints as to what you buy for someone who you know has made up more money than God on insurance. 01:09:13 Speaker 2: Right? 01:09:15 Speaker 3: What if we don't know anything about this boss other than the I guess they found Jamie in a gutter. 01:09:20 Speaker 2: Yes, and the the the power dynamic is coming through very strong. Oh like I'm going to this very fancy party, and that this guy that the boss seems just towering over him. Right, But I was disappointed when he said like aside from the obvious bottle of wine, or because my first instinct would be like a nice food product or something, oh right, like a nice and elegant, like if there's like a local like an Italy or something like that, like a or a small place that makes like special cookies or something like that, like a bag of wet pasta, like a bit like a very heavy wet bag of cold pasta slathered in. 01:10:08 Speaker 3: No, I think that that's not a bad idea. I'm obviously. I mean, you don't want to bring too unique of a gift to this thing. Then you're standing out. You're putting your neck out there for the boss to chop. You want to bring something maybe that isn't wine or chocolates, but is a food thing. 01:10:22 Speaker 2: Right, because I feel like that's also like too personal. Is putting your neck out as you say, too personal? Like for a second, I was like an ornament and I was like, oh, that's so embarrassing. Like no, then they like put what they're gonna put it on their personal tree from there to think about you. No, that's too personal. 01:10:38 Speaker 3: Yeah, then the boss is like, does Jamie have a crush on me? It's Jamie like gunning for my job. And then the other thing we have to think about is that Jamie is complaining about their salary too much and also not enough. It's a Goldilocks. 01:10:52 Speaker 2: The too much part at the beginning is really interesting to me. 01:10:56 Speaker 3: Yeah, what is the salary here, Jamie. I mean, if you're gonna, you know, vaguely hint at your money, send us the numbers. 01:11:04 Speaker 2: Just spit it out. 01:11:05 Speaker 3: Yeah, we want to know. I want to know what people are the numbers. 01:11:08 Speaker 2: I got to run some numbers here and figure out what's going on. 01:11:12 Speaker 3: I can't answer this question unless I know your year's salary. Oh well, yeah, I think a nice little food gift or well, actually I was going to say make something home, but no, don't do that for your boss now. 01:11:24 Speaker 1: No. 01:11:24 Speaker 3: That then it's like the boss is gonna throw it away. Yes, they're gonna think. I don't know Jamie well enough to know what his or her or their kitchen is. It could be filthy, covered in cat hair or something. So don't make it at home, Jamie. Buy, as we've said over and over, an ice cream cake shaped like a Turkey's. 01:11:43 Speaker 2: You cannot lose with that. Show up with that. 01:11:45 Speaker 3: Everyone will be screaming. It'll overshadow whatever whatever dessert the boss has thought of, and you'll be the star of the party or fired promoted all kinds of things gonna happen. 01:11:58 Speaker 2: It'll spice things up at work, that's for sure. 01:12:03 Speaker 3: Well, we answered Jamie's question more than perfectly and right on time. Jamie can't complain. You know, it's not my fault. You know, I get around to things when I get around to them, and you've just been dragged into a no choice of your own. I've had such a wonderful time. 01:12:19 Speaker 2: With you, Grace. I just loved it. 01:12:22 Speaker 3: I have this beautiful butter which I'll probably chop up and put into a cookie at some point, and yeah, I'll leave it in the cupboard so it's soft. Although actually, how am I going to measure this? 01:12:33 Speaker 2: Does that tell you how much? 01:12:34 Speaker 3: How many ounces it is or something? 01:12:36 Speaker 2: How much each feather? 01:12:37 Speaker 3: Maybe tick a feather is a teaspoon. Wonderful time with you. I'm so glad to finally meet you. 01:12:45 Speaker 2: Likewise, you were. 01:12:47 Speaker 3: Not a disappointment, and you could have easily been. 01:12:50 Speaker 2: Yes, yes, that's true. 01:12:53 Speaker 3: Thank you so much for being here and listener, go buy Emily's book and listener. It's the end of the podcast. It's the end of the year. Everything's coming to a screeching halt. You've got to figure it out. You've got a few minutes, the ball's gonna drop. Who knows what time? Turn on Dick. 01:13:09 Speaker 2: Clark or whoever. Well, it's certainly not Dick Clark. Impressive if you can, because if you're seeing. 01:13:17 Speaker 3: Yeah, you've got a special ability A The podcast is over. Let's fly into a new year with all of our love. I love you, goodbye, I said, no gifts is ant exactly right production. It's produced by our dear friend Analise Nilson, and it's beautifully mixed by Ben Holliday. And we couldn't do it without our guest booker, Patrick Kottner. The theme song, of course, could only come from miracle worker Amy Man. You must follow the show on Instagram. At I said no gifts. I don't want to hear any excuses. That's where you get to see pictures of all these gorgeous gifts I'm getting. And don't you want to see pictures of the gifts. 01:14:01 Speaker 1: But I invited you here, thought I made myself perfectly clear. 01:14:10 Speaker 2: But you're I guess to my home. 01:14:14 Speaker 1: You gotta come to me empty, And I said, no guests, your presences presents enough. I already had too much stuff, So how do you dare to surbey me