00:00:08 Speaker 1: And I invited you here. I thought I made myself perfectly clear. When you're a 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 do you dare to surbey me? 00:00:49 Speaker 2: Welcome to I said, no gifts. I'm pretcher. Whyne girl, We're right into it. I'm just feeling incredible. I got here later than usual. I absolutely took the wrong freeway to get here. In my defense, it was raining. It's raining, and I was worrying about Claire Danes. We need to put Claire Danes in something where she's not stressed out. I just finished the beast inside me. I want to see Claire Danes in a TV show or a movie where she goes on vacation, just goes on, maybe even a staycation. Maybe she just wakes up later than usual, tools around the house, goes to a lunch that's nice, but you know, not so expensive that it stresses her out. I don't know. It goes to a boutique, doesn't just browse. Maybe she splurges on a new bracelet or a watch or something. No, not a watch is too stressful. Just a nice little gift for herself. That's it once where she's not trembling, and I love the trembling. I just it's every time I watch a Claire Danes vehicle, I'm stressed for her. So let's give her a break. Claire reach out. So that took me onto the one thirty four I was supposed to get on the five. That added some time to my commute, and so that leads us to me talking to Claire Danes directly. I think that's all I've thought about this morning, to be honest, the show had a big impact on me. She went through a lot in the beasts in me, and we should talk about I guess the other thing is the Patreon. Of course. I just need to remind you about the Patreon existing Patreon dot com slash I said no gifts upon the release of this episode. I think we'll just be starting season four of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and I'll be getting into it with the gals. I am the expert on the gals, and it looks like it's going to be a very big season. Things are falling apart again for mom Talk, and so we wish them all the best get on to Patreon. I also recap every commercial I see while watching that show, so if you're more of someone who cares about commercials, you'll also get to hear me talk about neutrophile and all of these hair care journeys people are going on. It's important. Get over there. Oh the rain, it's gotten me into a mood. Let's get into the podcast. I love today's guest. It's Stephanie Courtney. Stephanie, welcome to I said no gift. 00:03:24 Speaker 3: Hello, I'm thrilled to be here. 00:03:27 Speaker 2: Does the rain stress you out while you're driving? Yes? 00:03:30 Speaker 3: And then I'm always like everyone else has the problem, and then I do something dumb and I'm like, ah, crap. 00:03:34 Speaker 2: It's me. I think I finally admitted to myself today that I am also as bad as everybody else in the rain. 00:03:40 Speaker 3: I'm always like, be very careful, and then i do the most rash, idiotic move. I'm just like, I'm a patron. 00:03:45 Speaker 2: I gotta get there. Yeah, I mean I literally took the wrong freeway. I am as bad, if not worse than most people on the road while driving in the rain. Are you from California? 00:03:57 Speaker 3: No, I'm from New York. Just outside and you're like thirty minutes outside of New York City and the staburbs. 00:04:03 Speaker 2: Okay, so you grew up driving in the snow or this kind of thing and actual weather. 00:04:07 Speaker 3: Yeah, but I feel I had to. I lived in New York for six years and happily didn't. 00:04:12 Speaker 2: Drive at all. Right, and then I. 00:04:15 Speaker 3: Was like kicking and screaming getting used to driving again, right in the worst cars that Craigslist or the back of the LA Weekly could cough up. 00:04:24 Speaker 2: I just I don't know what inspired this, but somebody got me thinking about a car I had sold on Craigslist when I moved. I was in New York for a little bit in twenty the mid It doesn't matter what time period. I sold my car, my old Honda Fit and I was like, where is it now? And I looked up the VIN number and founded it's made its way to New Jersey. Oh they've painted it orange. Oh what. I was thrilled to see it was still alive for a business or for fun. I don't know, that's a great question, but it looks it's in better condition than when I sold it to them. 00:04:56 Speaker 3: I love it. 00:04:57 Speaker 2: I sold it to them with a big crack in the windshield and absolutely filthy. They've taken good care of it. 00:05:04 Speaker 3: I still see my Hyundai, I think out there because I was like, there's a dent by the gas gap, and I'm like, there's a white. 00:05:13 Speaker 2: With a dent by the gas I'm like, hello, old pal, just longing for this Hyundai. It probably is. 00:05:19 Speaker 3: Who knows it's passed by a few. Yeah. We sold it to a friend very good price, and then he sold it and now I'm like, no, no, Now it's on its own adventure. 00:05:28 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's own journey. 00:05:29 Speaker 3: It's going to be a Pixar movie. It's gonna win awards. 00:05:32 Speaker 2: Specifically hyundaive oriented Pixarnday. 00:05:35 Speaker 3: With a tape deck, enjoy it. 00:05:38 Speaker 2: Does your car now have a tape deck or a CD player or anything? 00:05:41 Speaker 3: No, now it's all Wi Fi cloud right. 00:05:44 Speaker 2: I kind of miss having at least a CD player. Uh. I feel like that could be useful at some point for me. 00:05:52 Speaker 3: My sister one of the awful cars she bought had a CD player in the back, like where you would put ten CDs. 00:05:58 Speaker 2: I forgot about the and it would shuffle the songs. Ooh, the CD change. 00:06:03 Speaker 3: Yes, it was just like David Gray David Gray, David Gray, Alanis Morissett and like it was a lot of difficult I just remember like this a lot. 00:06:11 Speaker 2: Yeah, the CD changer seems like such a luxurious thing for a minute, but then it's like, actually, that's terrible. You have to really think about what ten ten CDs you're going to put in there. I'm very fickle and picky. I want to be changing things constantly. What if you're suddenly not in the mood and the other nine CDs in there aren't what you need. 00:06:29 Speaker 3: If you are coming in crying, I'm like, I need I need a better song. I have to cater, I have to get. 00:06:37 Speaker 2: My brain here. How often were people like going, you have to go to the trunk, Yeah, and then replace all of the CD That actually seems like the worst possible piece of technology. 00:06:48 Speaker 3: And forget about putting your suitcase back there. Oh of course, because you're going to destroy on whatever. 00:06:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, and you don't want any liquid. I'm not going to be throwing a gallon of milk back there or any loose liquids. You don't want that getting destroyed. 00:06:59 Speaker 3: Now, it's just like a very sensitive area, right. 00:07:02 Speaker 2: You can't like carry soil. There's nothing you can do with that trunk but put CDs in there. Oh what a bizarre I had totally forgotten. But what a luxury at the time it was to have CDs in your trunk. 00:07:15 Speaker 3: Yeah, I believe I had a tape deck with a wire like I had the wire. 00:07:19 Speaker 2: Oh of course they went to your CD. 00:07:21 Speaker 3: Yeah. Well no, it was an adapter. But all I could do was the cassette. So I was just like, well, I'm listening to high school in early college. I guess just the Sundays and all the Sundays. 00:07:34 Speaker 2: Oh, I adore this. Why we need more the Sundays, not enough Sunday's materials? 00:07:40 Speaker 3: I agree. I agree that was a perfect album. 00:07:43 Speaker 2: What was it? 00:07:43 Speaker 1: Reading? 00:07:44 Speaker 2: A reading, writing arithmetic? I think so the one? Does that? Is that? The one with the seashell on the front? Yes? Yes, And then there's one. I think there may have only been two Sundays albums. Is that? 00:07:56 Speaker 1: Yes? 00:07:56 Speaker 3: But I never caught onto the second one. I guess the first one was. 00:07:59 Speaker 2: Just so if the second one is that the second one have that's where the story ends? Is that or something? I think that's the first one. God, Oh, what a great banand. 00:08:12 Speaker 3: Beautiful moody rainy day. 00:08:14 Speaker 2: Well, hey, yeah, this is a good Sunday's Day. Yes, and I kind of a hard band to kind of replicate. So I feel like whatever influence they have, you don't notice as much in other stuff. Right. 00:08:28 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was sort of its own what would you call it? 00:08:30 Speaker 2: It's kind of jangly, but her voice is. 00:08:32 Speaker 3: So ethereal yeah, so pretty. It could hit notes that like nobody. 00:08:36 Speaker 2: Can do it, unbelievable. No, I feel like there was a do you know the band Japanese Breakfast, Yes, her first I think her first album had a little Sunday's ness to it. But wow, what a great band. You've got a good taste. 00:08:51 Speaker 3: Well, thank you. I was, you know, and I listened to your Wennie mcclennan Covey interview, which I loved. 00:08:56 Speaker 2: I loved. I love her, Okay, so you don't. 00:09:01 Speaker 3: No, No, I am falling in love with you and I'm already in love with her. But we get into such deep dives on missing persons. Oh and we actually went and saw missing person. She listen, the band sounds the same, the same, and she's wonderful. She's lived a life, She's lived a hard life. 00:09:24 Speaker 2: What's happened? I'm not familiar. 00:09:26 Speaker 3: Well, I know Wendy knows more, and I feel like I'm stealing her stories. But I think, uh, first of all, we shook hands, Wenny and I did. We're gonna do a documentary on Dale Bozio. 00:09:35 Speaker 2: Oh amazing. 00:09:36 Speaker 3: We have to do it because her story is so interesting. I guess she moved out here originally to be a playboy. Bunny checked out. The situation is like, no, never mind, never mind, and then joins up the I'm skipping over a lot of important details that will be in the documentary, but uh, just we would just sing the deep cuts to each other on set of the Gold like. 00:10:01 Speaker 2: Great, before you make that documentary, just promise me that you'll first make a documentary about the Beatles. We don't have enough of those. I don't think we've covered that band. 00:10:11 Speaker 3: Just a specific six months, just one that they Oh my god, I know, No. 00:10:18 Speaker 2: That's a great More bands deserve documentary. 00:10:21 Speaker 3: Especially if they made such a hit like The Sundays and Missing Persons like no one sounded like you. 00:10:28 Speaker 2: And there are stories that we haven't heard a billion times already. 00:10:30 Speaker 3: Yes, women, musicians, singers. 00:10:34 Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of any female fronted bands that have had great documentaries, not. 00:10:40 Speaker 3: Even Pat Benattar. 00:10:41 Speaker 2: Right, yeah, I'm like, let's see. I mean I also have a bad memory, so this is part of the problem. But what was the last band that I I don't know? 00:10:53 Speaker 3: How about this? Dione Faris remember wild Seed wall Flower? 00:10:56 Speaker 2: No, I'm not familiar. 00:10:57 Speaker 3: Holy moly, it's another perfect album. She's from another band and I'm an old lady with an adult brain, but she was like a kid in this previous band and then this was her. 00:11:09 Speaker 2: I know what just do? Oh? Yeah, of course, of course. 00:11:13 Speaker 3: That album is amazing. David Allan Greer also joins in and does like they do some skits in between that are so amazing. Anyway, just wild Seed Wildflower. 00:11:23 Speaker 2: And there's not a documentary. 00:11:24 Speaker 3: About Nope, but that's my next one. My child's gonna have to work early because his money's God. 00:11:31 Speaker 2: You just dump all of your money into music documentary. 00:11:34 Speaker 3: I'm sorry you still love mother, but look. 00:11:36 Speaker 2: At all of these bands you can learn about. Are you a musician at all? 00:11:44 Speaker 3: I'm a singer. I love to sing, and I took piano lessons and then I quit in a snit after three. 00:11:50 Speaker 2: Years, three years. 00:11:51 Speaker 3: Yeah, I was bad. 00:11:52 Speaker 2: I was just bad. Was it as a kid? Yeah? I was a kid. 00:11:55 Speaker 3: And as soon as it was like this is we're going to center on cords, I'm like, no one can do this, no id and then I quit. 00:12:03 Speaker 2: Wow. I mean I was bad, and that didn't stop me from taking ten years of lissense in piano. Piano? Are you good? 00:12:10 Speaker 3: You can you? Oh? 00:12:12 Speaker 2: I can form chords. 00:12:13 Speaker 3: But someone framed it really well. They were like, are you a codebreaker? And my son loves piano and has stuck with it and he is a code breaker brain and is like, are you good at languages? 00:12:24 Speaker 2: He's good at languages. Interesting, I kind of ain't. 00:12:27 Speaker 3: And so yeah, it's that kind of I understand. 00:12:31 Speaker 2: There's like kind of a math brainness to it. Maybe, Yeah, that makes sense, which is kind of counterintuitive because you kind of think of music as this very emotional yes, uh, free flowing thing. 00:12:42 Speaker 3: But that's the thing, it's the both sides of the brain coming together. 00:12:45 Speaker 2: Right, So it really requires somebody smart. Yeah, someone like me is going to struggle, No, really have a hard time. 00:12:53 Speaker 3: Like other people do that for me And I put it in my CD player, press shuffle. 00:12:59 Speaker 2: I mean, I think part of my problem with piano lessons was I wasn't getting to play anything that I actually wanted to play. There was no like nothing to aspire to. Yeah, and so I'm sitting there with like my eighty year old teacher who's like making it as boring as possible. It's like if you, I feel like with a kid, you just show them something that's fun to play and then allowed them to do something. I don't know. 00:13:22 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you know. I think that also helped because a few years after taking his first lesson, him and his friends got a band together. 00:13:30 Speaker 2: Oh see, here we go. 00:13:31 Speaker 3: One of the dads can play every instrument, and so he pared down seven Nation Army for them. Oh how fun, and they're rocked out and they were so great. I remember my piano teacher. One thing that drove me crazy is that she would always be cooking dinner when I came over, and it smelled really good and like it was because it's clear, it was like a balanced meal, and I'm just like. 00:13:53 Speaker 2: Oh god, I want that so bad. That's that's pot ROAs. It's so unprofessional of her, damn it. I know. I was just like, I don't even get to eat that. That's very handsle on Gretel as well, very witch with the yes. 00:14:05 Speaker 3: It's like, dope, you don't get to. 00:14:07 Speaker 2: My whole trick during piano lessons was I would ask for a glass of water and then take as long as possible drinking the water. So fifteen minutes of my lesson would just be me like sipping a glass of water and then maybe being like, oh, could you show me because she had a garden in her backyard. Why don't you show me the garden. 00:14:23 Speaker 3: They always have a garden. 00:14:24 Speaker 2: They always have a garden. 00:14:25 Speaker 3: Yeah, they always have interests. 00:14:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, you bastards. 00:14:29 Speaker 3: My son's piano teacher is amazing because she's just a character, Like, my son's a little on the shire side. 00:14:34 Speaker 2: How did you find a teacher for him? 00:14:35 Speaker 3: She teaches at the school, so he already trusted her. She's fun, and she's loud and just like doesn't care, you know, and so and I don't know. I think that just she provides that kind of passion. And then he's got the map and then like they. 00:14:50 Speaker 2: Right, I'm starting to wonder how my mom had my piano teacher. She wasn't in our neighborhood or anything. She was neighborhoods away church. Maybe it was it must have been somebody church, a panlod or something like that. Yeah, that makes sense because otherwise you had no connection to missus Ziegler. Interesting. What's happening? Very interesting? But the other thing with my mom, like we would kick and scream off the entire way to the piano list if I mean, I guess God bless my mom for putting up with it, because if I was the parent in this situation, I would have just given up and said, okay, just lie around on the floor. 00:15:27 Speaker 3: I yeah, me too. I was waiting for it. I was just like, oh, right, the three year mark and then I'm like, wait, you get this? You understand this interesting? 00:15:35 Speaker 2: Do you think he's going to have some sort of career in it? I? 00:15:39 Speaker 3: I think here's what I want to do. And this is how they sat in first grade. When he was in first grade. They were like, don't worry about your child being the best reader of the earliest reader. As long as they enjoy reading. I want him to enjoy it, right, and if that means playing around with friends, amen, he still enjoys learning because it's like a challenge, that's great, right, but I think he's gonna I think it'll be a tool in his tool belt. 00:16:04 Speaker 2: I'll say that right for him. Yeah, I think that's having You can't have music beat the number one thing at this point anyway. 00:16:11 Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess. 00:16:12 Speaker 2: Yeah, tough path to follow as far as making money, yea, yeah at fourteen. 00:16:19 Speaker 3: Yeah, come on the way mom's spending. 00:16:23 Speaker 2: On these documentaries. He's got to get into a band that you'll make a documentary about. 00:16:27 Speaker 3: Oh, we'll finally have something to talk about, me and him. 00:16:31 Speaker 2: Have you been to any other concerts recently? 00:16:34 Speaker 3: Let me think we saw David Byrne when he was That was amazing. 00:16:38 Speaker 2: Did you see No, I didn't. I've never seen him live. It feels like a mistake on my part. 00:16:43 Speaker 3: Oh, enjoy him the next time he comes around. He's got like we saw him when he did Utopia, which was fantastic, and you always think like, oh, this is his crowning jewel or whatever, and now he has a whole slew of other young you know, in strumentalist musicians is another. Sometimes they say I haven't heard it too old, and they were amazing a whole new shown. 00:17:08 Speaker 2: He was very good at staying with it. Oh my gosh, everyone should look to David Byrne for his like if you don't want to seem like an extremely old person. Yes, because he still seems like he's in his thirties. 00:17:22 Speaker 3: Yes, he has discovered it. 00:17:23 Speaker 2: And I guess part of it is riding his bike all the time. Yes, won't do it. I won't do it. Not in La. Are you kidding that? 00:17:31 Speaker 3: Now? 00:17:32 Speaker 2: Oh my god, I can't imagine. 00:17:34 Speaker 3: Do you imagine Clardine's on a bike? Could that be an next show? Put her on a bike in La in the country trembling loop. Oh, she's wonderful. She's a master at the craft shew. 00:17:45 Speaker 2: She's so good, but she's always stressed out. 00:17:47 Speaker 3: Yeah, that would be funny. I was thinking like an episode where like the therapist is like, it wasn't your fault, You're off the hook, and then that's like halfway through and then she's like. 00:17:56 Speaker 2: A free right, a free because the last three things I've seen her in were The Beast in Me, which she's so stressed out. To see that, it's really great, it's really exciting. 00:18:06 Speaker 3: I love him too. 00:18:07 Speaker 2: Yeah, he's fantastic. Matthew Reese have you ever heard his accent? 00:18:10 Speaker 3: No, it's Welsh, right. 00:18:11 Speaker 2: Yeah, I need to look up an interview with him because I'm curious what he sounds like when he's not doing an American accent. 00:18:16 Speaker 3: I can't imagine. 00:18:18 Speaker 2: Yeah, because he's got an excellent American accent. 00:18:20 Speaker 3: Well, we've got great actors coming out of Hoyle's. Who is who's the oh gosh, the one who is in the the Kinsey Show, that Kinsey show. 00:18:32 Speaker 2: Let me see here, let's see. I'm willing to do some online research show. I know I'm not good enough research Masters of Sex. Masters of Sex is what it's called, and it's what's her name? And and what's his name? And his name is Michael Sheen Michael. He's Welsh, also from Wales as well. 00:18:49 Speaker 3: Wow, I know we've. 00:18:50 Speaker 2: Got some you would never know. It's a crucible. Great. Maybe the Welsh accent is not that thick and yeah, maybe it's like a neutral, more of a neutral thing. I feel like that frequently with Irish accents, sometimes you can almost mistake that for an American. That's right, there's certain and then sometimes you hear an Irish accent and you're like, I that's another language. 00:19:11 Speaker 3: Yeah. I there's a show called Love hate. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but it's fantastic. It's about like a drug gang in Ireland and one guy is from Limerick and I can't understand one word and he's incredible, and you just need the subtitles. But it's like a backwards It's like every vowel is something else. 00:19:34 Speaker 2: Right. There are a lot of these British shows that I tried to power through without subtitles. What a mistake. Nah, man, we're too far. Oh yeah, there will be once where I just like, I'll give up because I don't understand what's going on. I finally have committed to using well subtitles on almost everything at this point, but especially with these thick accents, because otherwise it's you're watching him show in a foreign language. 00:19:57 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:19:58 Speaker 2: Yeah, is that how British people field watching American shows? 00:20:01 Speaker 3: Whenever they do an impression of us, not like professionally, I mean like when they try to echo what we sound like. It's flat and bland and. 00:20:12 Speaker 2: It must be easier to understand. Yeah, because we're slower. We're slower. We really like stretch the words out. Yeah, maybe Southern is a different story. I've never since. 00:20:25 Speaker 3: Had an English or Irish person ever asked me to repeat anything. 00:20:28 Speaker 2: You know what I mean, they get it. I assume that it's just because they don't care about what I'm saying, no interest in what I have to say. 00:20:36 Speaker 3: It all like, hey, guys, clean up your own mask before you tell me anything. 00:20:40 Speaker 2: Yeah, but I've seen Claire in this. I saw her in Fleischmann Is in Trouble, which was great, that's great, also very stressed, and then Homeland where it was like a new age of her. 00:20:52 Speaker 3: Being stress during this stress character, it's just on the edge. 00:20:56 Speaker 2: Yeah, and it was like, wow, full panic all the time, and you buy it because there's a bomb about to go on, yeah, which is great, but you start to worry about her mental health. 00:21:05 Speaker 3: Or off and her drug use in that show. 00:21:08 Speaker 2: Oh that's right, she went through it and pills. And then she's got Mandy nearby, who's such a comforting source of you know, I would love to have Mandy as a teammate, said Everyone's grandpa. But yeah, I think it's time for just one show or movie. Yeah, it's even just an eighty minute long movie where she has a nice time. 00:21:29 Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, is there a like a novel from the late eighteen hundreds, where it's like gardening, yes, discovering yourself through the growth of your hyacinth. We're all growing credits. 00:21:45 Speaker 2: Just once, even if it's a bomb, it'll just be a nice break for Yeah, a wonderful time. Well, speaking of things that are stressful and make me my lip tremble, Stephanie, I was looking forward to having you here on the podcast today. She'll come by, we'll have a pleasant time, cozy time while it's raining outside. We'll move on with our days. You know. I broke my back to get here to the studio, thinking we're going to have a good time. And I sit down and you walk in. The podcast is called. I said, no gifts and you're holding. First of all, it was a garbage bag, and I thought, okay, so she brought her garbage. But then I noticed through the bag a beautifully wrapped gift. 00:22:27 Speaker 3: I respect you, but I also need to live with myself. And I was raised a certain way, okay, And I did put it in a trash bag to take the shine off it, to get it past the guards. Yes, exactly, your guards they are they hold a lot of authority here, Yes they do. I put the usual amount of effort in nothing extra, and it might not even be for you. You know what, Now, don't put me on the back, wasn't it? What do you even mean for you? 00:23:00 Speaker 1: Well? 00:23:01 Speaker 2: Should we open it here on the podcast? Yeah? Why not? All right, you've got time to burn. Well, I put it on the floor earlier, if you wouldn't mind picking it up for me. I don't mind that. I do mind it's on the floor. I will say this is I mean, no offense to past guests. I think this is my favorite wrapping paper that's ever been on the show. It's like a woodprint. Yes, it's like uh and it feels almost like a texture of wood. 00:23:29 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:23:29 Speaker 2: I'm going to need that paper back. Yes, you'll get it back in good time. And it also has a monarch butterfly and this beautiful green ribbon. 00:23:38 Speaker 3: Yes. If you twist the top half of that butterfly. Yeah, then and then you let it go, it'll fly away or fall dead. 00:23:47 Speaker 2: Wait is that true? 00:23:49 Speaker 1: Wait? 00:23:49 Speaker 2: What do I do here? 00:23:50 Speaker 3: You twist the top? 00:23:51 Speaker 2: You see how it's this little rubbery part. No, I believe the. 00:23:54 Speaker 3: Top yes exactly, yes, so give that a go. 00:23:58 Speaker 2: I'm twisting. Oh, I've never seen some thing like this before. This is for the video of you, r listener. If you're just listening, you are missing out on a gorgeous thing that's about to happen. Hopefully. 00:24:08 Speaker 3: I'm gonna put my glasses on again because I don't. 00:24:10 Speaker 2: Trust you want to see this thing? Am I doing it correct? You're doing great? 00:24:13 Speaker 3: Now I let go yep, and then I feel you let go to the bottom part two. So nervous, I know. 00:24:18 Speaker 1: It. 00:24:19 Speaker 2: Day, I'm gonna get this right for the listener. I'll at least give you the twisting of Let's see if you can hear that. Okay, now I just throw it. 00:24:29 Speaker 3: Yep. 00:24:29 Speaker 2: I'm so nervous. There you do it. 00:24:34 Speaker 3: I think the point is you put it in a card, all twist it up. 00:24:37 Speaker 2: Oh you put it. You put it so it's scared. 00:24:40 Speaker 3: Exactly, and they open the card and then it's like this, Oh, so you can use this. 00:24:46 Speaker 2: Again, startling butterfly. I'm gonna do it one more time because I know the listener loves a quiet, twisting noise. Let's do as tight as possible here. It's gonna be dangerous. This could blind somebody. 00:25:01 Speaker 3: I'm a risk taker. 00:25:02 Speaker 2: Okay, that was beautiful. That was the best. I love this thing. 00:25:08 Speaker 1: You know. 00:25:08 Speaker 3: I catered a wedding once, uh, and they had lab grown butterflies inside envelopes like folded paper, and they're like, just pass here's a basket. I'm in my tuxedo to the guests, pass them out and tell them be gentle. But everyone's coming at once and they're like thanks, and I'm like, oh, got be gentle. And then they were like when they say I do, open your thing, and it. 00:25:29 Speaker 2: Was just just tons of dead butterfly, half dead butterfly, like. 00:25:34 Speaker 3: Crawling everyone like a couple escape, but they were like lab grown. So they were like, I don't understand. 00:25:40 Speaker 2: That's horrifying. 00:25:42 Speaker 3: I wonder if that marriage left. What a terrible ITEA is a terrible Nobody. 00:25:48 Speaker 2: Tested that before. Clearly that wasn't going to work. 00:25:51 Speaker 3: No one cared, no one asked a question, passed the first question, can it be done? And then there's a lab that will do it for you. 00:26:00 Speaker 2: Now your wedding is covered in dead bugs yep, crawling, crawling, and like the guests are like, I don't know what to do, Like there's do I save it? 00:26:08 Speaker 3: No, We're going to receptions. 00:26:10 Speaker 2: What a distraction? 00:26:13 Speaker 3: It was rough and I was complicit, like all of us and our tuxedos were looking at each other like. 00:26:19 Speaker 2: I'm complicit. This is your Tyra Banks documentary. Did you watch that? 00:26:24 Speaker 3: No? 00:26:25 Speaker 2: But I paid for it? No, my kidding. 00:26:26 Speaker 3: I haven't watched it, but I have to. Yes, there's a lot I need to watch. Gush, darn it. 00:26:30 Speaker 2: Okay, well, let's open this gift. Here. I wrote something says dearest Bridgard, this is for you, exo stiff than it is for you. Okay, fine, I'll open it up. I'm trying to be careful with this. 00:26:44 Speaker 3: It's done. 00:26:45 Speaker 2: Oh, it's beautiful. I wanted to not be totally shredded. I had to use two sheets. Let's see here. Oh where did you get this wrapping paper? 00:26:54 Speaker 3: Let me think I'd like to go to like paper sores or whatever. Then they've got them, and she up. 00:27:00 Speaker 2: Against the wall. That's the best wrapping paper. So fun. 00:27:03 Speaker 3: And if you just get a bunch, then you always have some night. 00:27:07 Speaker 2: Okay, getting in here, Oh you might need okay, Oh, let's see, we'll see. I think you can. Really you're underestimating my finger strength here. 00:27:16 Speaker 3: Don't look at the box. The box isn't the the Yeah, if you do that, I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, you've got it. 00:27:23 Speaker 2: Look at you. Okay, and then that. 00:27:29 Speaker 3: Packing tape. 00:27:31 Speaker 2: Okay, we're getting okay, we're getting a door to the tissue. 00:27:38 Speaker 3: I am going to need that. 00:27:40 Speaker 2: You're just gonna keep saying that this is a new type of rap. 00:27:44 Speaker 3: I see it everywhere. I think it's just it's you got extra cushioning. 00:27:48 Speaker 2: It's almost like fish net or something. You could catch an animal in this. Okay, Oh and I look at this little there several little birds I'm finding adorable little included little pink and orange and green birds are almost like sherbetrbet colored. 00:28:09 Speaker 3: Let's see here, put them anywhere. 00:28:12 Speaker 2: These My table is now filling with adorable small birds. 00:28:17 Speaker 3: And oh my god, this is so cute. 00:28:19 Speaker 2: Where did these come from? I don't know. 00:28:21 Speaker 3: Somewhere a week that I skip therapy, I went on birds, birds and paper. 00:28:27 Speaker 2: There's now this, there's this kind of crimped paper. And yeah, they've got a nest. I'm creating a nest on my table again. The listener is loving this to me, just crafting, taking a hard turn to me crafting. Okay, make sure I've got all the birds. Okay, now we're pulling out. Okay, now. 00:28:48 Speaker 3: With an explanation, are you ready? 00:28:50 Speaker 2: Yes, I absolutely. Let me describe what I'm seeing. This is a little wood box that's like kind of what color? Would you say? This is cherry cherry and it has it's like a little treasure chest with a switch on the top. 00:29:05 Speaker 3: Okay, I would like for you to set it on the table, and I say, carefully, all right, this is called a useless box. What did you call me? I'm joking. It's called a useless box. And if you keep your fingers away from the top, but just move the lever, okay, right, So like maybe I'm scared, hold it from the other hold it from the lever side. 00:29:27 Speaker 2: Let's see here exactly. 00:29:28 Speaker 3: And then just with your other finger, just flick the lever. 00:29:33 Speaker 2: I'm so scared, and so a little. 00:29:38 Speaker 3: Finger by what by flicking the lever, a finger comes out and pushes it back. Oh so it's completely useless. 00:29:48 Speaker 2: What where did you get this thing? 00:29:51 Speaker 3: My husband found it somewhere and it is the funniest thing. 00:29:55 Speaker 2: It's none of your business. 00:29:56 Speaker 3: Box, that's right, that's right, And it's called the useless box. And it will never let you see what's inside because it's not on your biz listener. 00:30:05 Speaker 2: It's almost kind of hard to describe. It's like I hold the box and it has a little the lever is like one of those little switches that it's like a little old timy like old timey switch and when you push it, let's see you might be able to hear this. The box slightly opens and a little finger comes out and pushes your finger away. I want to do this for the rest of my life. 00:30:25 Speaker 3: It's so quick, Yes, it is fright, and it's a little more delicate than you would imagine. 00:30:33 Speaker 2: So we're like on our third Oh do they fall apart pretty quickly? Just you know, treat it well. It's a whole I mean, it's a device. 00:30:42 Speaker 3: It's a whole device for no reason, just to be I don't know, just to tell you to mind your biz. 00:30:48 Speaker 2: This is a funny invention because it's the sort of thing that like, conceptually no box exists like this that you would be like, oh, yeah, there's the little thing. I know, I'll push this and get what's inside. It's like the trick is unlike anything you've experienced before, and it's quick. 00:31:03 Speaker 3: It's so much faster than you would It doesn't even. 00:31:05 Speaker 2: Give you time. No, you kind of don't even understand what's happening while you're not even in on the joke. You're the joke. But then once you're now I'm in a relationship. Yeah, I want to do this all the time. Yes, I wonder how that even works. I guess this is it's almost in the same category as the what is that the perpetual motion bird thing that like drink going to drink? Yes, yeah, I like I don't I really, I guess I would classify this as a gag. 00:31:36 Speaker 3: Yes, a prank, and a curiosity on your table. 00:31:40 Speaker 2: It's an oddity, a curiosity. 00:31:42 Speaker 3: To confound and delight and annoy. 00:31:44 Speaker 2: Yes, something you would buy out of a wagon something like that, right, or at the old general's store. Yes, where How where did your husband find that? 00:31:53 Speaker 3: He finds like he's sort of in charge of sort of like the art in our home, like he will find really cool. I don't know. Short answer, like it just arrived and he's like, oh, this is kind of horror movie. Yes, we had to make a deal, and you're going to have to make a deal with the devil to keep this. 00:32:10 Speaker 2: Keep doing it, don't stop. 00:32:13 Speaker 3: I think what he does is he does gofundmes, you know where it's like, so then a lot of things appear where he's like, I just respect this. 00:32:21 Speaker 2: And do you think this was a gofund me? I love the idea of this Kickstarter campaign. Yes, finally everyone's been asking for a box that won't let you open it. We figured it out. 00:32:32 Speaker 3: We figured it out. We can make it to the four million dollar goal again, our kid really start working. 00:32:40 Speaker 1: Now. 00:32:41 Speaker 2: I just love this thing. I don't I uh, it's almost like something that Grandpa would have or uncle. Yeah, give that a but no one's partner. And now I kind of am desperate to know what's going on inside and I'll never know. 00:32:56 Speaker 3: Well you could. I think there's a little you see, the little like classes you can open that you can open. 00:33:01 Speaker 2: But again, I ruin it for I don't know if I should ruin it for life. 00:33:04 Speaker 3: Maybe keep it have one mystery. 00:33:06 Speaker 2: It's its own little magician and it shouldn't give away its secrets. Yeah, so what are there other things in your house like this? Um? 00:33:14 Speaker 3: Let me think think think. Uh No, I'm trying to think if there's anything as funny as that, But I don't think so, but I do. I'm sort of like the person that shows up with a crystal or two. 00:33:27 Speaker 2: Oh sure, sure. 00:33:28 Speaker 3: So I'll do a thing where like we have, you know, like just a bowl of artistic moss and rocks or whatever, and then I found a little Lego Drothy and a little Lego Toto and I'll like So there's little bits of whimsy that I try. 00:33:42 Speaker 2: So do you take Do you buy crystals? Often? 00:33:46 Speaker 3: A little bit sometimes I I don't know why, but like they're pretty and right. 00:33:53 Speaker 2: I mean I think that's enough enough. And if they happen to have some sort of that's. 00:34:00 Speaker 3: It where I'm not going to delve too deeply. 00:34:03 Speaker 2: But it can't hurt with Yeah, unless it's cursed, unless it's an evil crystal. Oh I don't buy evil crystals. Well you think you don't buy it? Oh no, it depends on if you're tricked or not. It's not rich which you buy them from. 00:34:18 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, shoot, that's that's where I mess up. 00:34:22 Speaker 2: This sounds like something that could have some sort of evil property. 00:34:25 Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. This is like one of those movies where it's like right psychological torture. Yeah, I promise you it's just a little finger that keeps shutting. 00:34:36 Speaker 2: Up, but I just want to keep doing it. Kind of feels like it's almost like this podcast turned into a box or something. 00:34:43 Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe that's why I made the connection. I'm like, I have the perfect thing. No, it's just I've heard other people's gifts and I'm like, oh gosh, darn it. 00:34:51 Speaker 2: Like that, I gotta step up. I know this is absolutely top five gifts. It's such a fun it's a I've never heard of something like this, never experienced something like this. 00:35:01 Speaker 3: I have a feeling that the person who makes this it is gonna have a lot of business once you put that on. 00:35:05 Speaker 2: The Instagram right to right they're going to it'll probably ruin their life because suddenly they're gonna blow up and they're gonna be making too many of these boxes. 00:35:14 Speaker 3: I just leave more destruction in my weight, just like Dead Butterfly, Like bye bye guys. 00:35:20 Speaker 2: Uh, not to go back to crystals, but I feel like doing it anyway. Okay, I don't know that much about crystals. When you go do you just go to a crystal shop? Do you just see them at random places? 00:35:31 Speaker 3: There's a place, you know in of the Seventh Ray, do you know that it's so pretty. It's up on the Pega can. Yes, Yes, it's beautiful pretty. Yes, it's like there's a little brook and it's outdoors and there's fairy lights and all that stuff. And then they've got this little store and it's perfect. It's a perfect tourist trap because I don't normally like walk into a crystal store. Right, you're on a night out and you're feeling magical anyway, Yes, and it's that's where I have the majority, that's where I get them. 00:36:03 Speaker 2: That feels like the best place to get them. 00:36:05 Speaker 3: Yes, yes, because you do feel magical already. 00:36:08 Speaker 2: Right, it's like almost like a tree house or like a somewhere over an elf would live or something that's fairy lights. 00:36:14 Speaker 3: Man, that's all I need, is all I want. And I'm you know, I'm like. 00:36:18 Speaker 2: I'm magical. Oh this is talking to me. Do have you eaten there? Yes, I've never. I've just been to visit. Oh, okay, what sort of food are they serving at the end of the secon? 00:36:30 Speaker 3: I think kind of Americana and then you could get your you get sort of anything there. But if you're vegan, you can be happy there, you know. I think the last time. They've got a really nice like polenta. Oh interesting, but a good steak. Yeah, nice, nice wine. 00:36:45 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:36:45 Speaker 2: It feels kind of Laurel Canyon, New Age. Nice place. 00:36:50 Speaker 3: Absolutely, you're in the Topanga Canyon. You know, like there's you know that there's a big there's just art everywhere, like a pig lying on a huge spike. When nearby the Arboretum like the will. 00:37:04 Speaker 2: Gear Wait, I'm not familiar with this. 00:37:06 Speaker 3: Oh botanic and pardon me not the arboretom. It's the will Have you heard of the will Gear Theater? Oh my god, you gotta go. Will Gear. I guess played grandpa on The Waltons. But he loved Shakespeare and he and his family we're talking now probably his great grandchildren run it. And they do Shakespeare in an outdoor amphitheater. Oh, and it's beautiful and you show up and you bring a picnic and you bring whatever you want. 00:37:30 Speaker 2: Oh, that sounds so nice. 00:37:31 Speaker 3: And it's very near end of the seventh ra so I'm not changing topics. But it's lovely and they have classes for kids and stuff, and they perform like you know, a mid summer night's dream. But you're in the woods and right absolutely stunning. 00:37:43 Speaker 2: Oh that sounds really lovely, really nice. Have you ever done live theater? 00:37:47 Speaker 3: Yeah? I all right, Well I went to I did it all throughout, like elementary school up and then in college, and then I went to acting school for two years. And then I was broke in New York City. And then because I was like catering so much to just pay the bills and stuff, I started to stand up. My friend dared me to do some stand up and that was a game changer because I'm like, oh my god, like I don't have to. 00:38:14 Speaker 2: Rehearse, like rehearse with a bunch of people and rent the theater. I can control this. I can control this. 00:38:19 Speaker 3: And it's at the time, it was like and it was six minutes and I was just I ran into someone last night actually who saw me do my first like act, And I had a jingle bell earring that I would ring to do the what do you call it? Changing the topic basically segways my segway belt. So I'd be like, oh, that was my first joke because I was so new and I didn't know what I was doing, and it was so funny to like this was ninety six or something and so I was like, oh my. 00:38:47 Speaker 2: God, that's right, what a gimmick. 00:38:49 Speaker 3: Yeah, And but then things well whatever, things started moving before they stopped for a long time. But my now manager saw me and said, if you want a manager, come to LA and like, oh god, yes. 00:39:01 Speaker 2: Don't forget the jingle bell. Don't forget the jingle bell or the jingle bell. Comic got your talent, right, the jingle bell? Have you got the bell? 00:39:09 Speaker 3: Can we get a headshot of the bell? 00:39:13 Speaker 2: Do you still have the jingle bell? No? 00:39:14 Speaker 3: I don't think. Well maybe maybe I saved it, Like I've got like little boxes of like this is precious to me, and I'm sure it's somewhere there. It was a little Christmas ear ring, so it was like a hook with a bell and a little tiny, tiny read bell. 00:39:28 Speaker 2: Mean, someday you're going to be cleaning out a back room or a basement or something. You'll hear the jingling. You'll be sobbing. No one will be able to get you out of this absolute melt. 00:39:41 Speaker 3: Right, it'll be like Grammar, stop crying. 00:39:47 Speaker 2: Do you remember what your first play was in elementary school? 00:39:50 Speaker 1: Oh? 00:39:50 Speaker 3: Golly, okay, yes, I believe that that was Okay, I was a bee, and it was like I was the bee. I was the bee in the motel. Don't you remember Willie Loman, that's a prostitute. And then I fly away. Your son's crying. It was it was like it was like a celebration of spring. And I remember just being Oh, I rate that. I had to memorize lines. And by the way, the lines was like a strip of paper with a little you know, I come outs, get on exit stage right. Yeah, so that was my first theatrical rule. 00:40:34 Speaker 2: That's adorable. That's pretty cute. It's kind of like the uh what music video of blind Melon video picturing that. Yeah, so you're like the second most famous B Yeah. 00:40:46 Speaker 3: Well there's two B movies. 00:40:47 Speaker 2: Oh right, right, so but at the time, you were probably the most famous bee. 00:40:53 Speaker 3: In Stony Point, New York. Yeah. 00:40:54 Speaker 2: Sure, of course. Nobody else had done the bee. 00:40:56 Speaker 3: Yet, no I had done it. It was me set the stage for other Yeah, no one, No one gives me any credit. Thank you for this, of course. 00:41:05 Speaker 2: Of course that's why you came here today. Look at this little scene I've set up here. The birds surrounding reminded what this is called. 00:41:12 Speaker 3: The useless box. 00:41:13 Speaker 2: Useless box. 00:41:14 Speaker 3: Yeah, and you got your so you've got some friends. 00:41:17 Speaker 2: Look at that. 00:41:19 Speaker 3: It's very silly. 00:41:21 Speaker 2: I really like that. Are you into like magic or any of these things? Do you like going to magic shows? 00:41:27 Speaker 3: I love going to the I know I have a friend of mine. He was in the Growlings for a while and he is a great magician. Oh gosh, of course now I'm gosh darn it. I will remember his name in a second. But he got us, my husband and I tickets to see I love it. It's great at the Magic Castle, at the Magic cast. Thanks for finishing my thoughts, I trailed off. 00:41:52 Speaker 2: What sort of magic did he do? Just stay? 00:41:55 Speaker 3: He does kind of close up? 00:41:57 Speaker 2: Okay, he's great. 00:41:58 Speaker 3: And then his partner, she's a mentalist. Oh and she that was incredible too. She would guess what people were thinking. I don't know how they do it. How do either of them do it? 00:42:13 Speaker 2: Did you go on stage and get your thoughts? 00:42:17 Speaker 3: I was just part of an audience, but watching her deal with the audience. And his name, Oh my god, I'm gonna have to write to you and tell you his name. Harrison Lambert. 00:42:29 Speaker 2: Oh, Harrison Lambert, magician name right? 00:42:31 Speaker 3: And his partner is Christa. I believe anyway. Harrison Lambert, he actually did one of the progressive commercials. Oh no, he was someone who came up in a karaoke bar and was But he brings a deck of cards wherever he works, and like, if you're in between, he'll do a card trick. 00:42:49 Speaker 2: Oh what a nice thing to be able to do. 00:42:51 Speaker 3: And but he does it well, so it's. 00:42:52 Speaker 2: Not like annoyed by someone's like first time magic trick. 00:42:57 Speaker 3: Oh the cards I spilled up on the No, he's a master, and you're like. 00:43:03 Speaker 2: Wow, And I'm so curious about this mentalist thing. I guess they're just so there's a whole field that you learn about figuring out how to guess what people are I know, and leading them into telling you information that you're able to then build. 00:43:16 Speaker 3: That must be maybe there's physical cues. I mean she's not telling. I'm not asking because it's like a lot of fun. 00:43:21 Speaker 2: It's fun to be mystified fun. She might be just magic. 00:43:25 Speaker 3: Maybe she's magical. 00:43:26 Speaker 2: Were we how frustrating it would be for her to be like, no, it's not a trick. I just am able to tap into another dimensional someone, Please believe. 00:43:37 Speaker 3: No, I've stood next to crystals. I'm not magic, so you can't be. 00:43:42 Speaker 2: Oh my god, I've stood next to crystals. Resume special skills. 00:43:50 Speaker 3: I've stood next to crystals, really and what happened? Nothing? Nothing. I chose them for the color in the room. 00:43:58 Speaker 2: Oh, I need to get into crystals. 00:44:01 Speaker 3: I don't know. They feel good in the hand. I know I love just like rolling them around, and a geode is kind of magical. 00:44:06 Speaker 2: Yeah, they're very pretty. Yeah, they kind of do nothing beyond that. But maybe there's some sort of placebo effect. 00:44:13 Speaker 3: Yes there maybe crystal festivals people go to. I'm going to out her, but Wenny mcclennan Covey, that's a crystal. 00:44:20 Speaker 2: Oh, she's a big crystal gal. 00:44:21 Speaker 3: He's a crystal gal. 00:44:23 Speaker 2: M hmm. 00:44:24 Speaker 3: She she has a collection, Wendy Wendy Parts two. 00:44:32 Speaker 2: We need explain. So she has a big collection. 00:44:37 Speaker 3: I have not seen it, but I know that she loves them. Okay, but uh, yeah, I think I'm just a sucker for like, what a pretty color? Even just looking at these little colorful. 00:44:48 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm very much a child in that way. 00:44:50 Speaker 3: Yeah, And I feel like we're kind of, I don't know, we're influenced by pretty things. Well, Wendy, Well, Weny, figure that you have splained interview. 00:45:03 Speaker 2: Well, is there anything left to say about the box? 00:45:05 Speaker 3: No, man, enjoy it justin. 00:45:07 Speaker 2: I just love this thing. 00:45:09 Speaker 3: It is very fun. 00:45:12 Speaker 2: Well, I think we should play a game. Okay, We're going to play a game called Gift to a Curse. But I need a number between one and ten from you. Seven. Okay. I have to do some light calculating to get our game pieces. So right now you can recommend, promote, do whatever you want with the microphone. I'll be right back. 00:45:27 Speaker 3: Okay. Oh he just disappeared in a Bridger shaped puff of smoke. 00:45:31 Speaker 2: I can still hear. Hello. My name is Stephany Courtney. 00:45:35 Speaker 3: And I'm a gen X the Quaires. I would love to plug a show that I do every week. I do a show Wednesdays at the Grownlings Theater in Los Angeles and it's called the Crazy Uncle Joe Show. And it's me and I five friends or my five friends, and I I feel like my mom's standing right behind me correcting my English. And we do we invite a couple of guests so long, and we do a long form show and it's an improv show and it's so fun and it moves quickly. It's an hour and a half top to bottom, and we hope to see you there. 00:46:10 Speaker 2: Gorgeous, everybody, go see Stephanie's show. That sounds like so much fun. 00:46:15 Speaker 3: Just watch the crystals. They're scattered all over the audience. Just watch your eyes. Wear glass. 00:46:22 Speaker 2: They're just throwing crystals. People. 00:46:23 Speaker 3: We have to stop doing that, but we won't. 00:46:26 Speaker 2: Too many people have been hospitalized. When will it not be enough for you? Sorry? Okay, let's see. This is how we play gift to a curse. I'm going to name three things. You'll tell me if there are a gift or a curse, and why I don't tell you if you're right or wrong, because there are correct answers. You can walk away a big winner or a total loser, so be careful, or something in between, which is also a total loser. These are all from our Patreon listeners today. This first one is from a listener named Anna. Gift or a curse. When a landscaper drives their lawnmower down the center of the street, that's a curse. 00:47:01 Speaker 3: I feel that's a curse because we are so on autopilot when it comes to driving that any aberration can just throw you off like a lot more than what the situation calls for. 00:47:15 Speaker 2: But if you're like I didn't expect. 00:47:17 Speaker 3: And then just a slight turnoment wheel, it could be a disaster. So I say it's a curse. 00:47:22 Speaker 2: Wrong, This is a gift. Oh. I love to see somebody driving a lawn mower down the street. I think that they's what a power that they take. Suddenly they're the king of the road. Nobody They get to call every shot from here on out because they are on the vehicle that nobody else is on. They also have a weapon attached to their vehicle, and they're having the time of their life. You know, they're they're proving that these machines don't just have to be on the grass. 00:47:48 Speaker 3: They must they must feel very powerful. 00:47:51 Speaker 2: Imagine the power. Yeah, I'm essentially a throne. 00:47:54 Speaker 3: Yeah, slow thrown with a weapon in the front. 00:47:58 Speaker 2: Yeah. And also reminds me of the David Lynch movie What Was That where he drives the lawnmower across the United States. 00:48:04 Speaker 3: It's his brother, A very long tail, a very short tail, a very love. 00:48:09 Speaker 2: It's weirdly, it's a weird David Lynch movie. For how sweet it is. It is David Lynch lawnmower. A straight story, A straight story. And is that guy the dad from Anne of green Gables. 00:48:22 Speaker 3: Oh my god, the one who played Matthew Cuthbert on the Anna green Gables. 00:48:26 Speaker 2: Wrong, Uncle Matthew, let's see here. I might be wrong. No, I don't think it is. Who's that guy? 00:48:34 Speaker 1: It is? 00:48:35 Speaker 2: It is? Oh my goodness, Matthew. 00:48:39 Speaker 3: I told you I'm in charge of raising the child. Keep your or out. Oh my god, I'm the woman I am today because of Anna green Gables. Oh I love it. 00:48:54 Speaker 2: I need to go back and rewatch that I didn't see the new version. I didn't either. I don't. I don't need that tarnishing my memory. Is a band of green game. Megan follows Yes and lastic series. Oh my god, I don't know that I saw all of it, because you know, it keeps becoming Anne of you know, advantually becomes like Anne of Burbank or something. But the huge chunk that I saw wonderful, amazing. 00:49:18 Speaker 3: You know Anna Burbank. She works in the TJ Max at the Empire Center. It's crazy. It went too far. It went too long. 00:49:28 Speaker 2: They went she lived too long. She's one hundred and fifty years old. She's working at teaching. 00:49:35 Speaker 3: What did I? 00:49:38 Speaker 2: Uh, No, you're wrong. It's a gift. We get to imagine the grandpa or the I guess, wait, what are they in Ann of Green Gables. 00:49:46 Speaker 3: He's the adopted Yes, but he's very old. 00:49:50 Speaker 2: Yes, so can you be in the adoptive grandfather? I think at that point you just just get to skip. You just get to say I'm not your dad, I'm your grandpa. He just she would. 00:50:00 Speaker 3: Blather on, and then he'd just smile. 00:50:03 Speaker 1: A heart. 00:50:04 Speaker 2: It just broke your heart. Such a sweetie. Well, you've gotten one wrong so far. Let's see what happens next. Alright, this is from Luna. Gift You're a curse dessert in a jar. 00:50:18 Speaker 3: Oh. I find myself charmed by it. I think it's a gift because then you can if you don't finish it, you can always reseal it and then use the jar. I think it's a gift. I think you win twice three times because you eat it. 00:50:33 Speaker 2: Correct. That's a good. 00:50:34 Speaker 3: Oh my god, I'm still alive. 00:50:38 Speaker 2: No, I love it. I think it's nice. I think there's nothing wrong with this. It's a nice little container with a reusable thing that later can be used for dessert, drink, jam, capturing bugs. Probably a fifth thing you use your imagination, you can think of anytime you use your imagination, you can think of a fifth thing. 00:50:58 Speaker 3: So imagination is to give. 00:51:01 Speaker 2: So I think this is very nice. It's usually kind of a good dessert. You don't usually you don't have the boring desserts in a jar. 00:51:06 Speaker 3: You know what is the kind of a dessert in a jar? Layered layers, Yes, some layers, textures, Oh, just a surprise. 00:51:13 Speaker 2: Yes, at least one of those will be whipped cream. Problems. No notes, Yeah, no notes at all. That's an absolute gift. I can't imagine that being a problem for anybody. And if it is, just take a look in the mirror. 00:51:25 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:51:25 Speaker 2: Finally, this is from a listener named Joseph. Gift or a curse when you buy a new pair of shoelaces for an old pair of shoes. 00:51:33 Speaker 3: Oh, that's I have a lot of emotions coming up with that. I think it's a gift. I'm gonna say it's a gift because you're you're giving a gift to the planet by not like throwing away shoes you're having them live longer. I think you're you're you've jazzed up your shoe and I think once shoelaces like break or fray. That's depressing, that's just depressing. You feel like, I'm not gonna say you do you writer, I'm gonna say I feel like I'm I'm not operating. 00:52:04 Speaker 2: At a high level. 00:52:06 Speaker 3: Like my shoelaces frayed and dirty and gross. 00:52:10 Speaker 2: I think it's a gift. I'm gonna do it wrong. 00:52:13 Speaker 3: I'm dead. 00:52:14 Speaker 2: Oh no, this is for me. This is an absolute curse. I've I've tried it over and over, always thinking this is giving the shoes new life. No, it just becomes an uncanny situation where you're looking at your shoes. You're thinking, well, they still look terrible, but now the shoelaces looks new, and it's distracting, and everybody can tell I'm a fraud. It has done nothing but make the shoe look worse. At some point you have to say goodbye shoes. 00:52:38 Speaker 3: Okay, okay, I'll take my loss with grace. 00:52:42 Speaker 2: You've got one out of threat brother, pretty bad job today. That's tough, tough pill to swallow, but Ellis has their own gift or a curse, and now they're going to present us with it and we'll both have to speak to Okay, ellis what are we talking about today? 00:52:57 Speaker 4: Gift or a curse? Grocery store suit? 00:53:00 Speaker 1: She h. 00:53:02 Speaker 3: I never like it, and I'm gonna tell you why. I'm going to tell you why because it's sushi shouldn't be refrigerated. You know what I'm saying interesting that rice should not be cold and chucky, which is once if you have like leftover sushi and stuff. I'm just like roll the insides. I just can't abide. 00:53:25 Speaker 2: A cold, stiff, chalky rice. I can't. 00:53:28 Speaker 3: I can only say that like Harrison, like a Harrison Ford. 00:53:32 Speaker 4: Are cold chockery rice. 00:53:35 Speaker 2: I don't kill my wife, but chalky rice the fugitive too. It's just all about getting bad grocery store sushi. I'm a doctor. Uh No, I'm on the same page. I think this is a curse. I h. I think that sushi has its place, and I think sushi should always be kind of an occasion, even if it's like you know, you go to a cheap, affordable sushi, it should just be it should have been just made. I don't like the idea of that gumminess that happens when rice gets cold. God knows how long it's actually been in there. I don't think it's often that cheap enough to even justify it. You know. It's like, well, if I'm going to get sushi, all spend a little bit extra and just go to a restaurant where they're going to make it for me. I agree. 00:54:20 Speaker 3: I feel there has to be some measure of respect for the art of it. 00:54:24 Speaker 2: Right, I don't know, you know, there are certain things I just don't want refrigerated served in a plastic dish. Yeah, there's something that I'm going to be gagging, And there's. 00:54:35 Speaker 3: A lot of I feel like once you get the rubber band and the plastic in the thing, the little plastic separators, you're just like it's like having a party for yourself that no one showed up. Like I feel, there's like there's been effort made, but why. 00:54:50 Speaker 2: It's just me right, just pick something else in the refrigerated section, something you can microwave. Yeah, I agree, ellis No, it's a gift. 00:55:01 Speaker 4: The amount of times that I've been in the store tempted to buy something quick and easy and unhealthy for me. Now, I'm not saying that the grocery store sushi is good. I'm not saying it, But that's not the question. The question is if it helps you in some way? 00:55:15 Speaker 2: Is it a gift? 00:55:16 Speaker 4: Yeah, because I've like eaten that instead of something that's way worse for me. Yes, and it's helped me out of those situations. And as a child, it was my first exposure to sushi. 00:55:25 Speaker 2: And it was kind of like terrible exposure. 00:55:28 Speaker 1: Mmm. 00:55:28 Speaker 4: I mean, say what you want about that, but like I it did help me introduce It introduced me to a whole new world that opened up my world to better sushi. So you know, there you go. 00:55:38 Speaker 3: When you had better sushi, did you feel like I'm eating something different, like completely different than. 00:55:43 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, but like a in a good way. It was like, oh wow, this is even better than I could have ever imagined. But I already enjoyed the taste of the grocery store sushi enough that it was like a treat, Like good sushi, real sushi was the treat. 00:55:56 Speaker 3: Well, I feel like I died and was revived and died again. 00:55:59 Speaker 2: Well, will you do me a favor? 00:56:02 Speaker 4: Maybe? 00:56:03 Speaker 2: Will you just edit out everything you said? How you do. It's a kindness you'll find out. Okay, well, we uh walked away losers in Ellis's sick game. But that's fine. Let's we hope me answer a question. Sure people are writing into I said no gifts at gmail dot com or sending voice notes that have to be sixty seconds or shorter and decent audio if we all know what decent audio sounds like at this point, let's read one today. Though. Let me get into the dock here, let's see. Okay, okay, this is dearest Bridger, an esteemed guest. That's very nice. I'm desperately seeking assistance as my neighbor's dog. And let me just note here neighbor with a U. So we don't know where this person is or if they're just trying to be fancy in the United I tell you that, yeah, we do not like this person's I'm desperately seeking assistance as my neighbor's dog is constantly getting out and running a muck in the neighborhood without a caller or id. Our neighbors have three kids and one dog. It's clear that they have their hands full, but their dog somehow escapes at least once a week, and they don't seem to make any attempt to stop him. I spend a lot of time at home, so I'm typically the dog's rescuer, But I have a one year old baby and a dog of my own to care for and can't constantly be on neighborhood dog watch. Just this afternoon, I lured their dog to me because he was running through our street and was approached by a car full of these sweet people who said they'd been looking for him after seeing him running through the neighborhood. This is the fifth neighborhood with the U. Okay. Normally i'd force myself to confront the owner and tell them to do something about the situation, but I believe they're moving out soon. Oh and obviously I hate confrontation of any kind. My question finally, would it be totally deranged for me to buy a caller and ID tag with the dog's name and address and affix it to him the next time he gets out? Bless you for reading? Yes, bless me. That's from Sarah. Okay, okay, Sarah, neighborhood with the you. The dog is all over the place, it's bothering her. She's very nosy, she can't mind her own business. She's looking out and just looking for neighborhood business to get her fingers in. What is she supposed to do in this situation? 00:58:25 Speaker 3: Okay, I'm very concerned for this dog getting hit by a car. It's driving me nuts. So number one, I think that's very generous of Sarah to offer to get the ID tag and the collar. I wonder if because I know, like, if you show up to a neighbor with just a complaint and notes, that can be just fall on deaf. 00:58:51 Speaker 2: Ear right, just giving them a chore. 00:58:53 Speaker 3: But if you give them a solution, that's a different thing. So I wonder if there's like, is there a fence opportunity, is there a electronic fence opportunity? Is there a microchip situation? Or that sweet family full of people in the cart? Can you say, are you overwhelmed with this dog? Because there might be people that want the dog? 00:59:15 Speaker 2: Oh? Interesting, So I. 00:59:17 Speaker 3: Have like the three kind of solutions, but. 00:59:19 Speaker 2: Right it's a tricky one. I mean, I something I'm seeing here is that this person hates confrontation, but these people are moving, so maybe this is a good opportunity to try confronting someone where the stakes are pretty low. You can be as nasty as you want, right, just be as confrontational as possible, because pretty soon the slave will be wiped clean anyway. So you show up and you're just the worst to them, and it'll teach them a lesson and you'll also get to learn something yourself, which is that you can be as confrontational as possible. 00:59:50 Speaker 3: It's practice, yeah. 00:59:51 Speaker 2: Practice to you know, cause a lot of confrontations. 00:59:56 Speaker 3: Yes, and then like bye as the moving van pulls up. 01:00:00 Speaker 2: You've hired to help them get out of. 01:00:01 Speaker 3: Here, yes, yeah. All my solutions are like, spend a lot of cash on doing their job for them. Yeah. That that is crazy making though, because you're like, oh, once the dog's on the. 01:00:13 Speaker 2: Street, people have got to get their dogs and their the thing is needs help and you don't watch out. 01:00:19 Speaker 3: I just always think like, you don't get a second chance. You don't if you get a warning. If you get a second warning and a third one, like something you're. 01:00:27 Speaker 2: Wrong borrowed time. Yeah, right right, an off leash dog alone is too much for me. A dog running around the neighborhood. It's not You should not be the other neighbor's problem, right, I mean maybe Sarah. Maybe Sarah takes take dog in and the dog has miss disappeared for a few days, share the wits out of them. Oh, and then they really learned the lesson. 01:00:52 Speaker 3: Oh gosh, uh my my. Also, because I'm non confrontational, excepting I yelled at. 01:00:58 Speaker 2: You, love, yes you did so, sorry whatever. 01:01:02 Speaker 3: But I would say, show up with a couple of solutions and then uh and one threat and one threat. 01:01:08 Speaker 2: Two solutions and one threat. Right, If the two first two solutions don't work, then you move to threat. If the threat doesn't work, kidnap the dog. Kidnap the dog. 01:01:19 Speaker 3: Now you have another dog solved, but you have escape art it. 01:01:22 Speaker 2: Yes, I think that that's a kind of a perfect solution to what is essentially to what I'm seeing here is not a problem, and it just seems like a cry for attention from Sarah just wanted to be on a podcast or something, and he. 01:01:34 Speaker 3: Did a writing assignment. Yeah, it has to be five hundred words. 01:01:41 Speaker 2: Well, I think that we've solved Sarah's situation. Yes, and hopefully the dog is in safe hands, away from the neighbor, away from Sarah. In a third situation where somebody that's not desperate for attention and can take care of dogs. Is taking care of it? 01:01:57 Speaker 3: Yeah, I hope they moved somewhere where there's a fence. 01:02:00 Speaker 2: Yeah, or a big field and they're the only house in the neighborhood. Kind of an Ann of green Gables situation that sounds like heaven. I hope Matthew Cuthbert comes along. They moved to Prince Edward Island. 01:02:11 Speaker 3: Oh god, that's all I want. 01:02:13 Speaker 2: I think that's all anyone wants. Oh my god, how the people that actually live on Prince Edward Island field, They must just be flying high all the time. They must be so happy all the time. Yeah, except for probably the nine months of winter they experience whatever, and then they have the winter bowl. 01:02:31 Speaker 3: Puffs sleeves. Everyone's in puffs sleeves. 01:02:34 Speaker 2: Love of puffs. Well I have, I mean, just an all time best gift. This one more time. 01:02:42 Speaker 3: I want to rate. I just want to rate. I want the gift to rate. That's all I want. 01:02:46 Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, let's see if we can get that sound on Mike, isn't it. That's cute. 01:02:52 Speaker 3: That's a little finger coming out turning it off. 01:02:54 Speaker 2: I love this thing. I'm so glad that's such a nice time with you. Wonderful time with you. I've been a fan and now I got to be guests. I've been a fan of yours and I'm glad that you've gotten to be a guest as well. Oh my goodness, what a great situation for both of us. 01:03:09 Speaker 3: Even though I lost other gifts. 01:03:12 Speaker 2: Yeah, these are past gifts, a small sampling, it's a growing selection. Jephane's just picked up a sign that says I have no cruise control. It's like the cruises book themselves. That's from Damien Fahi. My gorgeous piece of decor. What a beauty. Yeah, you've got some good stuff. Yeah, I've gotten some good stuff. I've gotten a lot of garbage, and those guests should be ashamed. We'll talk off, Mike. I'll email you the list. Thank you, thank you for being here. 01:03:42 Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. 01:03:43 Speaker 2: Have a wonderful day. Listener. The podcast is over, and that's fine. Podcasts come to an end on occasion. This one's ending, and you have to just deal with those feelings on your own. I'm closing the door. I love you, goodbye. I said no gifts is an exactly right production. Our senior producer is Ellis Nelson, and our episodes are beautifully mixed by Ben Holliday. The theme song is by Miracle Worker Amy Mann, and we couldn't do it without our booker, Patrick Cottner. You must follow the show on Instagram. At I said, no gifts, that's where you're going to see pictures of all these wonderful gifts I'm getting. And don't you want to see the gifts? 01:04:27 Speaker 1: Lie? 01:04:28 Speaker 2: Why did you hear? 01:04:31 Speaker 1: Gonta man? Myself perfectly clear? But you're a guest to me. You gotta come to me empty, And I said, no guests. Your presences presents enough. I'm already too much stuff. 01:04:53 Speaker 2: So how do you dance? Survey me 01:05:01 Speaker 3: Fifteen day