April 9, 2024 • 36 mins
This week, Ellie and Scott share what they love from 1999. The two discuss their love of Wawa, the hit song “Closing Time” and most importantly, meeting each other!
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Fall too love, closed my eyes for that one, got
into the spirit of the music, lost myself in the jingle.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Maybe you lost yourself in the jingle because this is
a very special episode of Born to Love. Normally we
bring on a guest to talk about something that they love,
but today it's just you and.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Me, Scott. It's what Ellie loves, It's what Scott loves,
and I am not sorry about it. We get all
the airtime. It's just you and me talking about what
we love.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
One of the things that both of us love is talking.
We like to hear ourselves talk. So this this is
tailor made for us. We were both born to love
the year nineteen ninety nine? Am I right about that? Ellie?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
You couldn't be more right? Full disclosure. I was born
in nineteen eighty Scott was born in nineteen eighty one.
Can I tell people that.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I mean, I prefer you not. But the cat's out
of the bag. But now you know.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
How old we are, and we are very excited to
talk about the year nineteen ninety nine. Scott. What was
happening in the what's set the scene for some of
our younger listeners, some of our toddlers.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
The last year of the twentieth century. Boy, the internet
guys taken off. The tech bubble was about to burst,
but having to get President Bill Clinton impeached in December
nineteen ninety eight. So the fallout from that and impeach does.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Not mean indicted something some people confuse.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Look it up, kids, because it's a little racy what
Bill Clinton was doing in the White House and then
got in trouble for it. What were you up to, Li,
I was in my senior year of high.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
School, bmocuit. Do you know what that means?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I don't know what that means.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh, it's big man on campus, ohmoc.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I was a huge man on campus, bmo.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Okay, in nineteen ninety nine, do the math. I was
a year older than you. I still am. And in
nineteen ninety nine, I had graduated from high school and
I was a freshman in college.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Okay, you you have picked three things that you most
loved about nineteen ninety nine. I picked three things that
I most love about nineteen We're gonna do a little countdown.
So do you want to go first? Or should I
go first?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
You go first, Scott, You're the BMOC So I feel
like the BMOC goes the first turn.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
If it were nineteen ninety nine, I would be the
bmocn Here we go. The first thing that I love
from the year nineteen ninety nine Star Wars episode one.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Okay, okay, god yet listen.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
So wait, let's say let's take back it up, back
it up. Are you familiar with the Star Wars franchise?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Ellie, very very vaguely. I'm saying that because I need
to just let people know that when you talk about
Star Wars, I will not know half of the things
you're referencing. But also I understand that people are going
to come after me for this. I did see Star Wars,
(03:09):
but I have very little memory of it, and I'm.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I mean the first one because there's a whole bunch
of since then. You don't know, no idea I saw.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
The first one that was out in the world was
Harrison Ford.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
In the Star Wars You saw.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Correct, Carrie Fisher, Yeah, that's the one I saw. Okay,
So that's my starting point. I just needed to put
that out there as a disclaimer. Okay, yeah, tell us
why you loved it was Star Wars episode one.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
This is only going to confuse you more Ellie, the
one that you saw. Yeah, it was made first, but
it turns out it was episode four. So do you
know a character by the name of Darth Vader? Yes, yes,
guess what, I'm about to blow your mind out in
nineteen ninety nine and they made a movie where Darth
Vader was the star and he was eight years old.
(03:57):
It may as well have been called Kid Darth Vader.
I had a very good film. Everyone was very excited
for it, and I myself at you know, Big Man
on campus, Scott Eckert, I was so excited. I was
the first Star Wars that was gonna lit. I was
going to get to see in the theaters. And it
wasn't not very good, but we collectively, at least the
nerds among us, decided it was good. So I Ellie
(04:20):
worked at a movie theater over the summer when it
came out. Okay, and you know the best perk of
working in a movie theater.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Is you get to see the movies for free.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Free movies. If you had to guess how many times
I've seen Star Wars episode one, what would your guests be,
I'll cut to the chase. I saw it about twenty times.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Oh my God, Now, would you stay would you go
like independent of your work hours? Or I don't mean
you would watch it during work, but would you stay
after work to watch it? Or would you come back
on it?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I actually watched it during work. I'm exagerating. I didn't
see it the whole thing twenty times.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
What I would do is I knew exactly when the
pod Race was to the minute, so I would take
my breaks, yeah, during those times, and then I get
some free popcorn and I'd watch the pod Race.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Uh yeah, I'm so curious. Your own assessment of the
film is that it was not that good. But what
you're saying is it seems to be like the critical
response was also not good? Am I wrong?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Medium? I would say medium. The thing is that it's hard.
And this is why I struggle with this choice. I
love that movie, and I loved it in nineteen ninety nine,
but it's not that great. The pod Race is good,
and the Darth Maul Duel is good.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
But sorry, I'm really curious to get to the bottom
of this. Is your love for it, like warts and all?
You love it in its imperfection. What do you love
about it besides the pod Race and the other thing.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Those are mostly the things I love about it. I
also love the music. I mean, it's a Star Wars movie.
I mean, I'll go to Star Wars till the day
I die, which it just brings me such joy Man
to be transported to a galaxy far, far away.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Envious of that. Do you know how many times I've
wished I loved Star Wars? Every May the Fourth I'm like,
I wish I loved it more so I could make
more references than May the Fourth Be with You.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
That's the number one one.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
So I love Star Wars Episode one. What do you
love about nineteen ninety nine?
Speaker 1 (06:17):
It's another movie, Scott. It couldn't be more different from
Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I'm guessing one in my head, go go what is yours?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Blair Witch Projects Nasticks Crackling The scariest horror film ever
made by man or which I love that movie. It
still chills me to my core just thinking of it
brings back absolute terror in me. And I love to
(06:50):
be scared. And I'm not a horror film officionado.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I thoughd you would hate horror movies.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I don't horror movies on the whole. I'm not trying
to be mister tough guy. You're BMOC. I'm MTG, mister
juff guy. I'm not scared by horror movies, are you? Like?
Do horror movies scared?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I'm terrified by them? Well, I mean I'm not scared
to go see one, but like, I don't enjoy myself
because they scare me while I'm watching them.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Do you mean blood and gore scares? Like? What is
it that scares you about them?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I could count the number of horror movies that I've
seen in their entirety on one hand, and The Blair
Witch Project is one of them.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Okay, Scott, so you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I know exactly what at the end, when she's standing
in the corner or whatever scared. The sounds you made
is exactly right, Ellie. It was a phenomenon back in
nineteen ninety nine. I remember it. Where did you see
the Blair Witch Because I imagine it was in a.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Packed Every screening of The Blair Witch Project was packed
because it was it was a sleeper hit and a phenomenon.
Nobody could believe what they were seeing. Everybody wanted to
see it. I saw it in a packed movie house.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
A movie organist was playing. We thought that the train
was going to come out of the screen and roll
over us.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
We were talking about eighteen ninety nine, right, No, nineteen
ninety nine. I saw a pack movie theater in Saint Louis, Missouri.
I hope this isn't like shaming my parents. But my
parents were out of town. So I went home to
an empty house.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I stay alone by my business, risky business.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I guess nineteen year olds stay alone. Anyway. I went
back to an empty house and I couldn't sleep. Of Court,
I couldn't sleep. Who can sleep after watching that movie?
Not I? And it was I just I loved the
feeling of being scared. I haven't seen something that has
really scared me as much since, and it was a
great movie. I also have a really nice little memory.
Because this might make you laugh, Scott, my family made
(08:50):
a parody. My sister Carrie was the Blair Witch and
my dad and I were the hikers. And you know
my dad he's pretty serious.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Right, well, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Look I made you say yes he is because I
was like, right, and then I stared right at.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
You through her. I didn't want to start characterizing your
dad because he's so serious. He's serious enough that you
want to be well behaved. I'm a man in my
forties and I do not want to get on the
wrong side of your father. So yes, he's a serious
man whom I respect deeply, and he was in your movie.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, because the thing is as serious as he is,
he's also as funny. He has got both sides of
the coin. He's a serious man who's very funny. So
we three made this movie and it was such a wonderful, funny,
weird thing to make. So that's mine. Blair Witch project Scott, your.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Turn, all right, this one, Ellie. This was a little
bit of a deeper cut, and if you didn't know
Star Wars, you might not know this one.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I love Michael crichton novels now Scott. I know that
you do.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I know that you actually, I think I know that
you like him, and I know Michael Crichton because of
Jurassic Park.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Jurassic Park was the first adult book I read. I
didn't read in nineteen ninety nine. I read it in
like nineteen ninety two, but I was like, you're super fan.
I felt like such a grown up for reading it.
And I read all of Michael Crichton's books, and every
time a new one would come out, it was like
a phenomenon. There were lines outside the Barnes and Noble
(10:23):
and I was in those lines. So he would come
up with just bonkers ones. The one that came out
in nineteen ninety nine I had to refresh myself. Is
a time travel one about some scientists to go back
to like the medieval erae.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Oh, I'm looking it up. Is it timeline?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
It's timeline, But so that one's not so great. It's
about you know, quantum stuff. It was always a like
Jurassic Park has a veneer of science, which only made
me feel smart. I mean, I was reading about it
for the Dino chases and for the you know, I
assumed that there was bad guy knights and Timeline, but
it was such an edge of your seat science thriller.
(11:01):
In Sphere they go under the ocean. Ah, do you
know what he also did, Ellie? Do you know what
he did in the television space?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
I might because I'm I was just looking him up.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Here's a guy, best selling author, every book he sells huge,
makes the biggest movie of all time. Jurassic Park, spawned
a franchise that is with us to this day. And
then just decides to dabble in television one time and
creates e R.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
No, I didn't know he did.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Er Er medical drama basically invented the modern medical drama
insane hugest TV show for like a decade. We all
of us collectively as a society have Michael Crichton to
thank for. George Clooney. George Clooney was made famous by
r R, such a hit that it minted a movie star.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
To have that talent. I mean, you could argue what
he's doing in books, movies, and television is all a
similar thing. He's creating these edge of your seat thriller
I mean, ER isn't an edge of your seat thriller,
I guess, But.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
It's pretty thrilling to watch those er doctors save lives
and you.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Can make a thousand episodes from.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
It, and they is sexy, and then then when they
were so stressed out from saving lives that maybe they
hook up. Sometimes it happens outside the er. Okay, sometimes
it happens inside the ark.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
But how does he know? Like, I don't know if
I envy him or not, But to have that brain
to be able to create such hits, it seems like
nothing is halfway with him.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Michael Crichton, hit maker, He's timeless.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Wait, I have to tell you one other thing about
Michael Crichton.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Oh I want to hear it.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Can you even guess how tall he was?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Uh? Well, now now I'm imagining, I seem to remember
he's tall. How tall is he? Ellie?
Speaker 1 (13:00):
This cartoonish six foot nine?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
He was also a forward for the Boston Celtics. Michael, Ellie,
what is your second thing? I guess we're down to
(13:29):
down the countdown.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
No, we're down to three. We're down to three.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I was too busy being popular in high school to
learn my math.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Skip math, come out with us. Okay, okay, let's read
these Michael Quinton novels and watch Star Wars for the.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Twenty year time.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
A big man on campus.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
You're almost as big as Michael.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Christ six foot nine. Why are there so many little
kids at your high school?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
That's why I was the big man on campus exactly.
Wasn't so hard going to school with second graders?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Okay, number three for me or for us, I have
to preface this isn't unique to nineteen ninety nine, but
I discovered it in nineteen ninety nine, and therefore it
is extremely special to me. Wah Wah convenience stores, I.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Know it and I love it.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I love it. For those of you who aren't located
in the northeast, wah Wah is I think an elevated
seven to eleven, and there was a wah Wah right
next to our college. Scott and I went to college together.
That's why I said our college and my dorm was
located right next to one, and I sort of went
my first half of school in nineteen ninety eight. I
(14:45):
like maybe when I got a water there, But it
wasn't until nineteen ninety nine that I really took advantage
of all wah Wah had to offer. Specifically, it's wah
Wah brand ice cream, and I do hope while WA
is listening so they will send me some merch. But
I love Not only did I find the ice cream
very comforting. You know, I was homesick the first year
(15:07):
and ice cream brought me a lot of comfort. And
also what I loved about wah Wah was it was
my first experience ordering sandwiches on a touch screen.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
All of that is iconic. You eating late night ice
cream because you're lonely and using a touch screen for
the first time in your life.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
I mean, I kind of it's the only word. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Now everyone's got a touch screen in your pocket. You
walk into a Wawa in nineteen ninety nine and there's
a screen that you operate with your finger.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Insane. I didn't even understand how to use it at first.
I started speaking with the sandwich maker and she like
politely told me, oh, you can do it on the screen.
Oh my gosh. What a life of gluttony and bad choices.
But then apple fritter that I had like regularly, and
so you shouldn't be having apple fritters more than once.
(16:02):
I don't know a week. Is that terrible?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I think you can buy apples. I would say that
the ice cream is probably probably. I love that.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I came after the apple fritter and the ice cream
was like, no, I think I always consider there or
I don't, because there is I always like acknowledge the
protein and calcium in ice cream, so I always think, oh,
there is some value to that. But the apple fritters
I ate like five times a week, it's weird because
(16:34):
of course Wahwa is linked to nineteen ninety nine and
meeting that age, So that's why I have a nostalgia
for it. I don't know that it's actually that good,
but it did feel like a very special sandwich that
I haven't been able to replicate elsewhere. And I know
in my heart it's a convenience store sandwich. You know.
I always got like whatever, turkey cheese, pickles. And it's
(16:59):
weird because like, you can go to any bodega in
New York and order that same thing, but it just
doesn't have that same It's not zest, it just doesn't happen,
but it just doesn't have that.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Really. One of the things that I loved so much
about wah Wah is it's radically different depending what time
you go. Because if you went in the morning, I
don't when you're getting thoz apple firs. If you went
in the morning, it's like a bunch of adults getting
coffee because they're commuting. If you go sort of midday,
then it's a hot lunch spot. But if you went
at like two am, it was wow. It was an
(17:40):
animal house.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
I mean, because it was a twenty four hour store.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Oh yeah, Wowa, the one near us, the only one
I think I've ever been to. Have you been to
any other wahwahs?
Speaker 1 (17:49):
No, I haven't. I mean it begins and ends with
that wahwah. So I actually don't know the wah wah
chain in general. I guess it's just that specific wah
wah which was a universe unto itself. But yeah, it
changed with the time and it was like, you know,
a beacon for us, and I just I love it.
I love the food there. I love you ice cream.
I love the apple fritters. I loathe to love them.
(18:12):
But that was my number three. Scott nineteen ninety nine.
We're getting to the end of the countdown here. Number two.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
This is my number one. It's number two overall, but
it's my number one. It's also a little bit of
a cheat, but I hope people will forgive me. My
favorite thing about nineteen ninety nine was senior Prom. I
went to senior Prom.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Ellie, I mean, of course you did.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I was a big man on campus, rented my tuxedo,
got my corsage, all that stuff. Elie, quick quiz. I
think our listeners are going to be ahead of you
on this one. Okay, how much game do you think
that I had back in nineteen ninety nine? Scott?
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Why are you making me answer that question?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
All? I answer it for you? Not much.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Based on your two favorite things.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Based on my Star Wars and Michael Crichton obsessions, you
might have figured out no no, no, no no no.
So prom for me, I was like, pretty excited. It
was a big deal. A girl asked me out. I
thought she was joking. She asked me out again. I
thought she was joking.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I'm crying.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
She asked me out a third time, and then I
was like, oh, she's not joking.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Didn't you believe that?
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Well? Because I didn't have much game, Ellie, I didn't
play it well. It's a fun, delightful, happy Her name
was Katie, very very nice, much cooler, truly one of
the big big men on campus. Oh she was a woman.
An unforgettable prom night. I might have gotten the kiss,
(19:48):
Ellie Scott. Very exciting for me. One of my favorite
parts of the whole experience was the next morning, my
best friend and pick me up in his parents like
hatchback and we drove around with the windows down. The
(20:08):
lasting Mo Money Mo problems. Yes, we were just so happy.
We were like, yeah, we're kissing. It was all. It
was great, unbridled joy.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
But I have to tell you I was not groaning
and making sad sounds because I thought it was a
bad man. I was. I wish that you had had
more confidence in high school.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I had a lot of confidence, just not a lot
of game. That's all. There is a little sad ending
to the story. You want to hear the sad part. Yeah,
I see Elie space and I'm like, oh, why why
are you taking these skeletons out of the closet for
all to seat?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Here we go.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
So another thing that wasn't around a lot in nineteen
ninety nine was cell phones. Sure, no, So I had
two jobs. I worked at the movie theater and I
also worked out of Barnes and Noble, where I would
get my Michael Crichton books. I was a bookseller. And
there's no real way to reach me because I didn't
have a cell phone and I was working. And my
best friend, the same one that I had driven around
(21:12):
with about a week after prom, came into the Barnes
and Noble because he had an important message to deliver,
and I was like, oh, this must be a big
deal if he drove all the way to Barnes and
Noble to see it. And he was like, Katie, she
started hooking up with some other guy. How my romance
lasted exactly one week, and I was good, heartbroken.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I'm sorry. I'm not gonna I'm not saying anything about Katie,
but I do wonder what happened because she was so
intent on taking you to promt and she asked not once,
not twice, but three times.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Rice.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
I guess she got what she needed, which was a kiss.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
And then moved on and then moved on or maybe
just maybe bad kiss her.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Scott again, you got to up your confidence.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Don't worry, guys. The last twenty four years, I've turned
into a pro kissing professional FMOC BTC, big tongue on campus, disgusting, Scott.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
That's really beautiful. I'm glad you had a nice promise.
I'm sorry the afterglow can I all of that only
lasted a week, but it sounds like it's a fond memory.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
You know. That's love, Ellie. They're ups and downs, and
the ups are worth the downs. And that's how it
was for my high school point they.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Couldn't agree more. They're the tax you pay.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
On the ups, and just like the stock market, on
balance over time, you usually come out ahead.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
That's exactly absolutely right with the stock market.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
So ellie, why don't you, why don't you take us home?
Speaker 1 (22:51):
My number one? It's number one for both this list
and number one for me. Nineteen ninety nine favorite thing.
It's a little pro considering the time that it's coming
in this conversation. It's the song Closing Time.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Oh semisnic, you don't have to go home.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
But you know what you can't say here, you're in
like a limbo land. I sorry. Closing Time came out
in nineteen ninety eight. Okay, so no, I know, I know.
I just don't know if it was as relevant or
as like prominent in your life as it was in mine.
Because they played Closing Time a lot when I was
a senior in high school. Because hello, it represented so much.
(23:36):
It was closing time on our high school experiences. The
reason I liked it in nineteen ninety nine. Again, I mean,
you're gonna think I was just a real mess my
first year living away from my home. But I really
liked listening to Closing Time.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Because it was well a lot ice cream and closing
time where you're Solas, That's exactly it.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
And I would blast closing time and slurt my because
it was always melted by the time I got it
back to my dorm, slurt my little mint chocolate chip
wo wa ice cream and cry fist, oh my gosh,
dipping it in the foamy aftermath of the wah wah
(24:21):
mint chalk. It was always really bubbly. And I again
I I would always acknowledge. I always thought, Oh, it's
because there isn't so much fat in there, That's why
it's so like watery when it melts. It was always bubbly.
Isn't that weird? Was it a witch's brew? When my
green ice cream would melt and start to burble up, bubble, gurgle, cauldron.
(24:44):
I don't know Shakespeare's collar. So anyway, I loved that song.
And my friend Larry, he caught me crying once to
that song. We were out partying as you do, and
and that song came on and I started crying, and
he was so nice, and he was like, it's okay,
(25:06):
we should go home.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Closing time. It was closing time for you that night,
and yeah, and it was time to leave.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
And so again for our listeners who never really heard
that song, it's a very sweet song about the time
of closing and so it's you know, represents a lot
of things in life. Everything does come to an end.
You don't have to go home, as Scott said, but
you know you can't stay here. That's how life is.
And I felt that they summed it up very well
in the song. But also I just like the melody,
(25:34):
the tune.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
It's fantastic. It's a phenomenal song. And Ellie, you may
not have known this about it. Semi Sonic, the group
that sings Closing Time is from Minnesota, and I was
in Minnesota, so it was on the radio, like however
often it was on the radio in Saint Louis. Just
double it, triple it. It was a hometown hit. I
think that the bar. It would be cool if I
(25:57):
could say I'd been to the bar that inspired the song.
I know I've much too dorky to be going to
bars in nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
And you, well, you wouldn't be let in.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I wouldn't be let in.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
You know what you could do? You could just arbitrarily
name a bar and say that that's the bar, and
then in your head you've been to this iconic bar
and it doesn't really matter if it's bad or not.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
And the saddest thing is maybe I've been there many
times and didn't even know.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Well, that's that's the tragedy of all of this.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
But that one bar is every bar, and that experiences universe,
and that's why the song is so amazing. I have
a bonus one for you that I wanted to spring on.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Right, great, great?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Do you know what I most loved about nineteen ninety nine?
No meeting you.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Closing time, Scott Eckert. It's so I was saving that
for the bonus too.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
You were not.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
I don't know we were allowed a bonus, Scott. Nineteen
ninety nine is the year Scott and I met in
our college improv comedy groups.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Sepetember nineteen ninety nine, I believe, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
And we were both auditioning. We both joined Oh my
gosh and Denny's. We should have named that.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
We should have named Denny's. Yeh yeah, yeah, Denny's and
wah wah, that's the high class stuff that we like
back in college. Yeah, well, yesteryear, Yeah, how do you
say goodbye in French, oh revoir uh.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
With abiento abiento or nineteen ninety nine. It's time to
get back to the current year. We have a very
special round of love it or loath It coming out.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Oh we do. I've got some good ones. You've got
some good ones. Stick around for love and loathed.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
You and I both know how to play the game.
But for anyone who's listening for the first time, I
don't think they know.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
No, it's a complicated game. We're going to say, I'm kidding,
it's not complicated at all. Scott and I are going
to give each other items and we're going to answer
the other person with a love it or a loath it.
There is no in between. You're all in or you're
all out on the subject mentioned, okay, Scott Ecker, love
it or loathe it?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Midi Chlorians midichlorians loath loath Ellie, you have no idea
what many Chlorians are? None an invention in Star Wars
episode one. There's something in your blood that gives you
the force power and I do not like the idea
that the force is determined by your biology. The force
(28:40):
should be determined by maybe your talent, by maybe your
will power. I do not like that there is a
scientific basis for the force is antathetical? Antithetical. My first
one for you, Ellie, AOL instant messenge.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
L love it. I love AOL instant message. I love it.
Do you understand how thrilling that was as a person?
Speaker 2 (29:12):
We were all why didn't you explain what it is
to all the tweens out there?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Is it that different from direct messaging?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Now?
Speaker 1 (29:19):
It's basically AOL instant message was a way of essentially
texting someone on your computer. Though we didn't have cell
phones and you could talk to anyone, mostly in your school.
And I talked to Craig, who was a powerful football player,
but he was a very quiet guy, and on AOL
(29:39):
Instant message he opened up. We didn't have deep talks
or anything, but the difference was so stark between seeing
him in person and not really talking to him at
all and then online. He was just one example, but
you got to talk to people in this new medium
and it was nothing short of thrilling. I can't explain
what it was, but do you remember that adrenaline?
Speaker 2 (29:59):
It was so exciting, and everyone would open up a
bunch of aol instant messengers on their tabs. Now we
be texting. We have different threads, you know, sort of simultaneously,
but we're only looking at one at a time. We
used to have like eight open at once. Yeah, and
then you'd copy and paste. It's like, oh, David just
said this.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
It was all so exciting. I loved it.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
It's funny to talk about this, and everybody now in
their pockets is doing it all the time. The miracle
of technology.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
It was so exciting. Okay, Scott, love it or Loathe it?
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Eighteen ninety nine, eighteen ninety nine, I like it. Steampunk
President William McKinley, I believe. Let's see. Now, I gotta
figure out.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I got to look that up.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I guess that I have to say, loath it. I
don't like that. I don't like Jai eighteen ninety nine. No,
I don't think. No, there's the plutocracy's running America. Yeah,
there's a lot of strife, a lot of forgettable stuff.
I mean, I don't think I liked it.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Well, there's not I didn't think. It's either you love
it or you loathe it. So it seems like you.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Loath it loath I did say loath, right.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
You did, but then you like tempered it with I
didn't really like it, but you have to loathe it.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I loath it. I'm sorry, all right, I'm not going
to break the rules. I'm going to lay a nineteen
ninety nine er on you. Another bit of technology. Napster.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Oh my gosh, I don't know what napster was. I
didn't use it, I really do, Yeah, I didn't. I
never use Oh. Oh, I'm so sorry. I like momentarily
forgot the rules of the game. I loathed it because
I know that it was. Was it illegal?
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Was something like bad legally downloading music.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
That's why I didn't know about it, because I didn't
do anything illegal, and I still don't law or any
law law enforcement officers listening. I don't do anything against
the law. But anyway, no, I I guess I loathe it.
I loathe it. I feel like when it comes to whatever.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
That was, digital piracy, you're against it.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I'm against digital piracy.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Love it or loathe it, actual pirates like school love
everybody does digital piracy. No real piracy?
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yes, yes, Scott, this is a callback to prom love
it or loathe it?
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Slow dancing hmmm, I really got to think about this one.
I think love I think I love it. I don't
know so much anxiety, so much stress, especially for a
big man on campus like me without a lot of game. Yep,
(32:37):
I think I love it. Ellie, what's your take on
slow dance? Oh?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
I loath it?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Well wait, wait, wait, I want to clarify. I'm thinking
of how I felt about it in nineteen ninety nine.
In nineteen ninety nine, there are a lot of stress
and anxiety, but I was into the physical touch of
a lady and that was like all I was getting.
So now now I hate it. Man, we're at a
I went a wedding with my wife and a slow dance.
Come on, It's like, give me thirty seconds tops. I'm like, well,
(33:03):
we don't need what are we doing here? But back
as a kid, it was like closing times playing on
the gym speakers.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. I haven't convinced you because I'm
a prude and I was always uncomfortable with slow dancing
and the intimacy it necessitated. So no, I didn't like it.
I loath it. I love it, I load it. Then
I love it. Now Okay, got your turn for me?
Speaker 2 (33:29):
I think it's the last one, Ellie. James Vanderbeek, I
guess I.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Have to go with love. Oh my gosh, I definitely
have to go with love.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I mean Dawson's Creek. He was Dawson right.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
I didn't watch Dawson's Creek. But he's such a likable guy.
He's a positive force in the world. He's a he's
suddenly goes would be like, he's a net positive.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
He made it admit of a love It TV show.
So you're not a Dawson's Creek fan. What were your
television viewing happenings.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
In the nineties. I watched Beverly Hills nine O two
one oh, and I watched My So Called Life, and
I watched Seinfeld. I didn't watch a lot of TV
in the nineties. I was always doing my homework. Yeah yeah,
but James Vanderbeek love love Now, there is actually one
more I want to ask you about love it or
(34:20):
love it, because I know.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
How about it? Going out strong?
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Love it? I load it Mambo number five. I think
I think there, you just gave me.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Your I mean I think I love it. I love
it as you know, Ellie. Music in general, let's just
say I don't love it. I know very little about music.
The only music window that I'm a little familiar with
high school, so late nineties chart toppers Before Nothing, After Nothing,
(34:57):
Mambo number five. Yes, definitely could sing the whole song
if it started playing, right now.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Well, what are all those all those girls that he
just names? Right? Oh my god, now that I think
about it. Also, you just the unexamined lyrics of songs
where a guy just lists the number of ladies that
he's yeah, you know, slow dancing with, slow dancing with. Yeah. Well, Ellie,
thank you so much for reminding me all the stuff
(35:26):
that I love about nineteen So.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
For that nice little walk down memory lane. Thank you
everybody for joining us on our walk we were born
to Love.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
You bye, thanks for listening to Born to Love. We'll
be back next week with brand new things that we love.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
We want to hear from you. Leave us a review
in Apple Podcasts and tell us what you love. We
might even ask one of our guests in an upcoming
love it or Load It.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Born to Love is hosted and created by Ellie Kemper
and Scott Our.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Executive producer is Aaron Kaufman. Our producers are Sina Ozaki
and Zoe Dankla.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Born to Love is part of Will Ferrell's Big Money
Players Network in collaboration with iHeart Podcasts. Special thanks to
Hans Sonni.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Rachel Kaplan and Adriana Cassiano
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Michael Fails, Alex Korl and Bahied Frazier
Fall too love, closed my eyes for that one, got
into the spirit of the music, lost myself in the jingle.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Maybe you lost yourself in the jingle because this is
a very special episode of Born to Love. Normally we
bring on a guest to talk about something that they love,
but today it's just you and.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Me, Scott. It's what Ellie loves, It's what Scott loves,
and I am not sorry about it. We get all
the airtime. It's just you and me talking about what
we love.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
One of the things that both of us love is talking.
We like to hear ourselves talk. So this this is
tailor made for us. We were both born to love
the year nineteen ninety nine? Am I right about that? Ellie?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
You couldn't be more right? Full disclosure. I was born
in nineteen eighty Scott was born in nineteen eighty one.
Can I tell people that.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I mean, I prefer you not. But the cat's out
of the bag. But now you know.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
How old we are, and we are very excited to
talk about the year nineteen ninety nine. Scott. What was
happening in the what's set the scene for some of
our younger listeners, some of our toddlers.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
The last year of the twentieth century. Boy, the internet
guys taken off. The tech bubble was about to burst,
but having to get President Bill Clinton impeached in December
nineteen ninety eight. So the fallout from that and impeach does.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Not mean indicted something some people confuse.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Look it up, kids, because it's a little racy what
Bill Clinton was doing in the White House and then
got in trouble for it. What were you up to, Li,
I was in my senior year of high.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
School, bmocuit. Do you know what that means?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I don't know what that means.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh, it's big man on campus, ohmoc.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I was a huge man on campus, bmo.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Okay, in nineteen ninety nine, do the math. I was
a year older than you. I still am. And in
nineteen ninety nine, I had graduated from high school and
I was a freshman in college.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Okay, you you have picked three things that you most
loved about nineteen ninety nine. I picked three things that
I most love about nineteen We're gonna do a little countdown.
So do you want to go first? Or should I
go first?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
You go first, Scott, You're the BMOC So I feel
like the BMOC goes the first turn.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
If it were nineteen ninety nine, I would be the
bmocn Here we go. The first thing that I love
from the year nineteen ninety nine Star Wars episode one.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Okay, okay, god yet listen.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
So wait, let's say let's take back it up, back
it up. Are you familiar with the Star Wars franchise?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Ellie, very very vaguely. I'm saying that because I need
to just let people know that when you talk about
Star Wars, I will not know half of the things
you're referencing. But also I understand that people are going
to come after me for this. I did see Star Wars,
(03:09):
but I have very little memory of it, and I'm.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I mean the first one because there's a whole bunch
of since then. You don't know, no idea I saw.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
The first one that was out in the world was
Harrison Ford.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
In the Star Wars You saw.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Correct, Carrie Fisher, Yeah, that's the one I saw. Okay,
So that's my starting point. I just needed to put
that out there as a disclaimer. Okay, yeah, tell us
why you loved it was Star Wars episode one.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
This is only going to confuse you more Ellie, the
one that you saw. Yeah, it was made first, but
it turns out it was episode four. So do you
know a character by the name of Darth Vader? Yes, yes,
guess what, I'm about to blow your mind out in
nineteen ninety nine and they made a movie where Darth
Vader was the star and he was eight years old.
(03:57):
It may as well have been called Kid Darth Vader.
I had a very good film. Everyone was very excited
for it, and I myself at you know, Big Man
on campus, Scott Eckert, I was so excited. I was
the first Star Wars that was gonna lit. I was
going to get to see in the theaters. And it
wasn't not very good, but we collectively, at least the
nerds among us, decided it was good. So I Ellie
(04:20):
worked at a movie theater over the summer when it
came out. Okay, and you know the best perk of
working in a movie theater.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Is you get to see the movies for free.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Free movies. If you had to guess how many times
I've seen Star Wars episode one, what would your guests be,
I'll cut to the chase. I saw it about twenty times.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Oh my God, Now, would you stay would you go
like independent of your work hours? Or I don't mean
you would watch it during work, but would you stay
after work to watch it? Or would you come back
on it?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I actually watched it during work. I'm exagerating. I didn't
see it the whole thing twenty times.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
What I would do is I knew exactly when the
pod Race was to the minute, so I would take
my breaks, yeah, during those times, and then I get
some free popcorn and I'd watch the pod Race.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Uh yeah, I'm so curious. Your own assessment of the
film is that it was not that good. But what
you're saying is it seems to be like the critical
response was also not good? Am I wrong?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Medium? I would say medium. The thing is that it's hard.
And this is why I struggle with this choice. I
love that movie, and I loved it in nineteen ninety nine,
but it's not that great. The pod Race is good,
and the Darth Maul Duel is good.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
But sorry, I'm really curious to get to the bottom
of this. Is your love for it, like warts and all?
You love it in its imperfection. What do you love
about it besides the pod Race and the other thing.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Those are mostly the things I love about it. I
also love the music. I mean, it's a Star Wars movie.
I mean, I'll go to Star Wars till the day
I die, which it just brings me such joy Man
to be transported to a galaxy far, far away.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Envious of that. Do you know how many times I've
wished I loved Star Wars? Every May the Fourth I'm like,
I wish I loved it more so I could make
more references than May the Fourth Be with You.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
That's the number one one.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
So I love Star Wars Episode one. What do you
love about nineteen ninety nine?
Speaker 1 (06:17):
It's another movie, Scott. It couldn't be more different from
Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I'm guessing one in my head, go go what is yours?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Blair Witch Projects Nasticks Crackling The scariest horror film ever
made by man or which I love that movie. It
still chills me to my core just thinking of it
brings back absolute terror in me. And I love to
(06:50):
be scared. And I'm not a horror film officionado.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I thoughd you would hate horror movies.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I don't horror movies on the whole. I'm not trying
to be mister tough guy. You're BMOC. I'm MTG, mister
juff guy. I'm not scared by horror movies, are you? Like?
Do horror movies scared?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I'm terrified by them? Well, I mean I'm not scared
to go see one, but like, I don't enjoy myself
because they scare me while I'm watching them.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Do you mean blood and gore scares? Like? What is
it that scares you about them?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I could count the number of horror movies that I've
seen in their entirety on one hand, and The Blair
Witch Project is one of them.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Okay, Scott, so you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I know exactly what at the end, when she's standing
in the corner or whatever scared. The sounds you made
is exactly right, Ellie. It was a phenomenon back in
nineteen ninety nine. I remember it. Where did you see
the Blair Witch Because I imagine it was in a.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Packed Every screening of The Blair Witch Project was packed
because it was it was a sleeper hit and a phenomenon.
Nobody could believe what they were seeing. Everybody wanted to
see it. I saw it in a packed movie house.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
A movie organist was playing. We thought that the train
was going to come out of the screen and roll
over us.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
We were talking about eighteen ninety nine, right, No, nineteen
ninety nine. I saw a pack movie theater in Saint Louis, Missouri.
I hope this isn't like shaming my parents. But my
parents were out of town. So I went home to
an empty house.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I stay alone by my business, risky business.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I guess nineteen year olds stay alone. Anyway. I went
back to an empty house and I couldn't sleep. Of Court,
I couldn't sleep. Who can sleep after watching that movie?
Not I? And it was I just I loved the
feeling of being scared. I haven't seen something that has
really scared me as much since, and it was a
great movie. I also have a really nice little memory.
Because this might make you laugh, Scott, my family made
(08:50):
a parody. My sister Carrie was the Blair Witch and
my dad and I were the hikers. And you know
my dad he's pretty serious.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Right, well, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Look I made you say yes he is because I
was like, right, and then I stared right at.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
You through her. I didn't want to start characterizing your
dad because he's so serious. He's serious enough that you
want to be well behaved. I'm a man in my
forties and I do not want to get on the
wrong side of your father. So yes, he's a serious
man whom I respect deeply, and he was in your movie.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, because the thing is as serious as he is,
he's also as funny. He has got both sides of
the coin. He's a serious man who's very funny. So
we three made this movie and it was such a wonderful, funny,
weird thing to make. So that's mine. Blair Witch project Scott, your.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Turn, all right, this one, Ellie. This was a little
bit of a deeper cut, and if you didn't know
Star Wars, you might not know this one.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I love Michael crichton novels now Scott. I know that
you do.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I know that you actually, I think I know that
you like him, and I know Michael Crichton because of
Jurassic Park.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Jurassic Park was the first adult book I read. I
didn't read in nineteen ninety nine. I read it in
like nineteen ninety two, but I was like, you're super fan.
I felt like such a grown up for reading it.
And I read all of Michael Crichton's books, and every
time a new one would come out, it was like
a phenomenon. There were lines outside the Barnes and Noble
(10:23):
and I was in those lines. So he would come
up with just bonkers ones. The one that came out
in nineteen ninety nine I had to refresh myself. Is
a time travel one about some scientists to go back
to like the medieval erae.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Oh, I'm looking it up. Is it timeline?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
It's timeline, But so that one's not so great. It's
about you know, quantum stuff. It was always a like
Jurassic Park has a veneer of science, which only made
me feel smart. I mean, I was reading about it
for the Dino chases and for the you know, I
assumed that there was bad guy knights and Timeline, but
it was such an edge of your seat science thriller.
(11:01):
In Sphere they go under the ocean. Ah, do you
know what he also did, Ellie? Do you know what
he did in the television space?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
I might because I'm I was just looking him up.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Here's a guy, best selling author, every book he sells huge,
makes the biggest movie of all time. Jurassic Park, spawned
a franchise that is with us to this day. And
then just decides to dabble in television one time and
creates e R.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
No, I didn't know he did.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Er Er medical drama basically invented the modern medical drama
insane hugest TV show for like a decade. We all
of us collectively as a society have Michael Crichton to
thank for. George Clooney. George Clooney was made famous by
r R, such a hit that it minted a movie star.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
To have that talent. I mean, you could argue what
he's doing in books, movies, and television is all a
similar thing. He's creating these edge of your seat thriller
I mean, ER isn't an edge of your seat thriller,
I guess, But.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
It's pretty thrilling to watch those er doctors save lives
and you.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Can make a thousand episodes from.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
It, and they is sexy, and then then when they
were so stressed out from saving lives that maybe they
hook up. Sometimes it happens outside the er. Okay, sometimes
it happens inside the ark.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
But how does he know? Like, I don't know if
I envy him or not, But to have that brain
to be able to create such hits, it seems like
nothing is halfway with him.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Michael Crichton, hit maker, He's timeless.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Wait, I have to tell you one other thing about
Michael Crichton.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Oh I want to hear it.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Can you even guess how tall he was?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Uh? Well, now now I'm imagining, I seem to remember
he's tall. How tall is he? Ellie?
Speaker 1 (13:00):
This cartoonish six foot nine?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
He was also a forward for the Boston Celtics. Michael, Ellie,
what is your second thing? I guess we're down to
(13:29):
down the countdown.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
No, we're down to three. We're down to three.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I was too busy being popular in high school to
learn my math.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Skip math, come out with us. Okay, okay, let's read
these Michael Quinton novels and watch Star Wars for the.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Twenty year time.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
A big man on campus.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
You're almost as big as Michael.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Christ six foot nine. Why are there so many little
kids at your high school?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
That's why I was the big man on campus exactly.
Wasn't so hard going to school with second graders?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Okay, number three for me or for us, I have
to preface this isn't unique to nineteen ninety nine, but
I discovered it in nineteen ninety nine, and therefore it
is extremely special to me. Wah Wah convenience stores, I.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Know it and I love it.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I love it. For those of you who aren't located
in the northeast, wah Wah is I think an elevated
seven to eleven, and there was a wah Wah right
next to our college. Scott and I went to college together.
That's why I said our college and my dorm was
located right next to one, and I sort of went
my first half of school in nineteen ninety eight. I
(14:45):
like maybe when I got a water there, But it
wasn't until nineteen ninety nine that I really took advantage
of all wah Wah had to offer. Specifically, it's wah
Wah brand ice cream, and I do hope while WA
is listening so they will send me some merch. But
I love Not only did I find the ice cream
very comforting. You know, I was homesick the first year
(15:07):
and ice cream brought me a lot of comfort. And
also what I loved about wah Wah was it was
my first experience ordering sandwiches on a touch screen.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
All of that is iconic. You eating late night ice
cream because you're lonely and using a touch screen for
the first time in your life.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
I mean, I kind of it's the only word. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Now everyone's got a touch screen in your pocket. You
walk into a Wawa in nineteen ninety nine and there's
a screen that you operate with your finger.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Insane. I didn't even understand how to use it at first.
I started speaking with the sandwich maker and she like
politely told me, oh, you can do it on the screen.
Oh my gosh. What a life of gluttony and bad choices.
But then apple fritter that I had like regularly, and
so you shouldn't be having apple fritters more than once.
(16:02):
I don't know a week. Is that terrible?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I think you can buy apples. I would say that
the ice cream is probably probably. I love that.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I came after the apple fritter and the ice cream
was like, no, I think I always consider there or
I don't, because there is I always like acknowledge the
protein and calcium in ice cream, so I always think, oh,
there is some value to that. But the apple fritters
I ate like five times a week, it's weird because
(16:34):
of course Wahwa is linked to nineteen ninety nine and
meeting that age, So that's why I have a nostalgia
for it. I don't know that it's actually that good,
but it did feel like a very special sandwich that
I haven't been able to replicate elsewhere. And I know
in my heart it's a convenience store sandwich. You know.
I always got like whatever, turkey cheese, pickles. And it's
(16:59):
weird because like, you can go to any bodega in
New York and order that same thing, but it just
doesn't have that same It's not zest, it just doesn't happen,
but it just doesn't have that.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Really. One of the things that I loved so much
about wah Wah is it's radically different depending what time
you go. Because if you went in the morning, I
don't when you're getting thoz apple firs. If you went
in the morning, it's like a bunch of adults getting
coffee because they're commuting. If you go sort of midday,
then it's a hot lunch spot. But if you went
at like two am, it was wow. It was an
(17:40):
animal house.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
I mean, because it was a twenty four hour store.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Oh yeah, Wowa, the one near us, the only one
I think I've ever been to. Have you been to
any other wahwahs?
Speaker 1 (17:49):
No, I haven't. I mean it begins and ends with
that wahwah. So I actually don't know the wah wah
chain in general. I guess it's just that specific wah
wah which was a universe unto itself. But yeah, it
changed with the time and it was like, you know,
a beacon for us, and I just I love it.
I love the food there. I love you ice cream.
I love the apple fritters. I loathe to love them.
(18:12):
But that was my number three. Scott nineteen ninety nine.
We're getting to the end of the countdown here. Number two.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
This is my number one. It's number two overall, but
it's my number one. It's also a little bit of
a cheat, but I hope people will forgive me. My
favorite thing about nineteen ninety nine was senior Prom. I
went to senior Prom.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Ellie, I mean, of course you did.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I was a big man on campus, rented my tuxedo,
got my corsage, all that stuff. Elie, quick quiz. I
think our listeners are going to be ahead of you
on this one. Okay, how much game do you think
that I had back in nineteen ninety nine? Scott?
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Why are you making me answer that question?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
All? I answer it for you? Not much.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Based on your two favorite things.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Based on my Star Wars and Michael Crichton obsessions, you
might have figured out no no, no, no no no.
So prom for me, I was like, pretty excited. It
was a big deal. A girl asked me out. I
thought she was joking. She asked me out again. I
thought she was joking.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I'm crying.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
She asked me out a third time, and then I
was like, oh, she's not joking.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Didn't you believe that?
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Well? Because I didn't have much game, Ellie, I didn't
play it well. It's a fun, delightful, happy Her name
was Katie, very very nice, much cooler, truly one of
the big big men on campus. Oh she was a woman.
An unforgettable prom night. I might have gotten the kiss,
(19:48):
Ellie Scott. Very exciting for me. One of my favorite
parts of the whole experience was the next morning, my
best friend and pick me up in his parents like
hatchback and we drove around with the windows down. The
(20:08):
lasting Mo Money Mo problems. Yes, we were just so happy.
We were like, yeah, we're kissing. It was all. It
was great, unbridled joy.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
But I have to tell you I was not groaning
and making sad sounds because I thought it was a
bad man. I was. I wish that you had had
more confidence in high school.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I had a lot of confidence, just not a lot
of game. That's all. There is a little sad ending
to the story. You want to hear the sad part. Yeah,
I see Elie space and I'm like, oh, why why
are you taking these skeletons out of the closet for
all to seat?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Here we go.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
So another thing that wasn't around a lot in nineteen
ninety nine was cell phones. Sure, no, So I had
two jobs. I worked at the movie theater and I
also worked out of Barnes and Noble, where I would
get my Michael Crichton books. I was a bookseller. And
there's no real way to reach me because I didn't
have a cell phone and I was working. And my
best friend, the same one that I had driven around
(21:12):
with about a week after prom, came into the Barnes
and Noble because he had an important message to deliver,
and I was like, oh, this must be a big
deal if he drove all the way to Barnes and
Noble to see it. And he was like, Katie, she
started hooking up with some other guy. How my romance
lasted exactly one week, and I was good, heartbroken.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I'm sorry. I'm not gonna I'm not saying anything about Katie,
but I do wonder what happened because she was so
intent on taking you to promt and she asked not once,
not twice, but three times.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Rice.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
I guess she got what she needed, which was a kiss.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
And then moved on and then moved on or maybe
just maybe bad kiss her.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Scott again, you got to up your confidence.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Don't worry, guys. The last twenty four years, I've turned
into a pro kissing professional FMOC BTC, big tongue on campus, disgusting, Scott.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
That's really beautiful. I'm glad you had a nice promise.
I'm sorry the afterglow can I all of that only
lasted a week, but it sounds like it's a fond memory.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
You know. That's love, Ellie. They're ups and downs, and
the ups are worth the downs. And that's how it
was for my high school point they.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Couldn't agree more. They're the tax you pay.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
On the ups, and just like the stock market, on
balance over time, you usually come out ahead.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
That's exactly absolutely right with the stock market.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
So ellie, why don't you, why don't you take us home?
Speaker 1 (22:51):
My number one? It's number one for both this list
and number one for me. Nineteen ninety nine favorite thing.
It's a little pro considering the time that it's coming
in this conversation. It's the song Closing Time.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Oh semisnic, you don't have to go home.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
But you know what you can't say here, you're in
like a limbo land. I sorry. Closing Time came out
in nineteen ninety eight. Okay, so no, I know, I know.
I just don't know if it was as relevant or
as like prominent in your life as it was in mine.
Because they played Closing Time a lot when I was
a senior in high school. Because hello, it represented so much.
(23:36):
It was closing time on our high school experiences. The
reason I liked it in nineteen ninety nine. Again, I mean,
you're gonna think I was just a real mess my
first year living away from my home. But I really
liked listening to Closing Time.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Because it was well a lot ice cream and closing
time where you're Solas, That's exactly it.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
And I would blast closing time and slurt my because
it was always melted by the time I got it
back to my dorm, slurt my little mint chocolate chip
wo wa ice cream and cry fist, oh my gosh,
dipping it in the foamy aftermath of the wah wah
(24:21):
mint chalk. It was always really bubbly. And I again
I I would always acknowledge. I always thought, Oh, it's
because there isn't so much fat in there, That's why
it's so like watery when it melts. It was always bubbly.
Isn't that weird? Was it a witch's brew? When my
green ice cream would melt and start to burble up, bubble, gurgle, cauldron.
(24:44):
I don't know Shakespeare's collar. So anyway, I loved that song.
And my friend Larry, he caught me crying once to
that song. We were out partying as you do, and
and that song came on and I started crying, and
he was so nice, and he was like, it's okay,
(25:06):
we should go home.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Closing time. It was closing time for you that night,
and yeah, and it was time to leave.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
And so again for our listeners who never really heard
that song, it's a very sweet song about the time
of closing and so it's you know, represents a lot
of things in life. Everything does come to an end.
You don't have to go home, as Scott said, but
you know you can't stay here. That's how life is.
And I felt that they summed it up very well
in the song. But also I just like the melody,
(25:34):
the tune.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
It's fantastic. It's a phenomenal song. And Ellie, you may
not have known this about it. Semi Sonic, the group
that sings Closing Time is from Minnesota, and I was
in Minnesota, so it was on the radio, like however
often it was on the radio in Saint Louis. Just
double it, triple it. It was a hometown hit. I
think that the bar. It would be cool if I
(25:57):
could say I'd been to the bar that inspired the song.
I know I've much too dorky to be going to
bars in nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
And you, well, you wouldn't be let in.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I wouldn't be let in.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
You know what you could do? You could just arbitrarily
name a bar and say that that's the bar, and
then in your head you've been to this iconic bar
and it doesn't really matter if it's bad or not.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
And the saddest thing is maybe I've been there many
times and didn't even know.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Well, that's that's the tragedy of all of this.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
But that one bar is every bar, and that experiences universe,
and that's why the song is so amazing. I have
a bonus one for you that I wanted to spring on.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Right, great, great?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Do you know what I most loved about nineteen ninety nine?
No meeting you.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Closing time, Scott Eckert. It's so I was saving that
for the bonus too.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
You were not.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
I don't know we were allowed a bonus, Scott. Nineteen
ninety nine is the year Scott and I met in
our college improv comedy groups.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Sepetember nineteen ninety nine, I believe, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
And we were both auditioning. We both joined Oh my
gosh and Denny's. We should have named that.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
We should have named Denny's. Yeh yeah, yeah, Denny's and
wah wah, that's the high class stuff that we like
back in college. Yeah, well, yesteryear, Yeah, how do you
say goodbye in French, oh revoir uh.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
With abiento abiento or nineteen ninety nine. It's time to
get back to the current year. We have a very
special round of love it or loath It coming out.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Oh we do. I've got some good ones. You've got
some good ones. Stick around for love and loathed.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
You and I both know how to play the game.
But for anyone who's listening for the first time, I
don't think they know.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
No, it's a complicated game. We're going to say, I'm kidding,
it's not complicated at all. Scott and I are going
to give each other items and we're going to answer
the other person with a love it or a loath it.
There is no in between. You're all in or you're
all out on the subject mentioned, okay, Scott Ecker, love
it or loathe it?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Midi Chlorians midichlorians loath loath Ellie, you have no idea
what many Chlorians are? None an invention in Star Wars
episode one. There's something in your blood that gives you
the force power and I do not like the idea
that the force is determined by your biology. The force
(28:40):
should be determined by maybe your talent, by maybe your
will power. I do not like that there is a
scientific basis for the force is antathetical? Antithetical. My first
one for you, Ellie, AOL instant messenge.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
L love it. I love AOL instant message. I love it.
Do you understand how thrilling that was as a person?
Speaker 2 (29:12):
We were all why didn't you explain what it is
to all the tweens out there?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Is it that different from direct messaging?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Now?
Speaker 1 (29:19):
It's basically AOL instant message was a way of essentially
texting someone on your computer. Though we didn't have cell
phones and you could talk to anyone, mostly in your school.
And I talked to Craig, who was a powerful football player,
but he was a very quiet guy, and on AOL
(29:39):
Instant message he opened up. We didn't have deep talks
or anything, but the difference was so stark between seeing
him in person and not really talking to him at
all and then online. He was just one example, but
you got to talk to people in this new medium
and it was nothing short of thrilling. I can't explain
what it was, but do you remember that adrenaline?
Speaker 2 (29:59):
It was so exciting, and everyone would open up a
bunch of aol instant messengers on their tabs. Now we
be texting. We have different threads, you know, sort of simultaneously,
but we're only looking at one at a time. We
used to have like eight open at once. Yeah, and
then you'd copy and paste. It's like, oh, David just
said this.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
It was all so exciting. I loved it.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
It's funny to talk about this, and everybody now in
their pockets is doing it all the time. The miracle
of technology.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
It was so exciting. Okay, Scott, love it or Loathe it?
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Eighteen ninety nine, eighteen ninety nine, I like it. Steampunk
President William McKinley, I believe. Let's see. Now, I gotta
figure out.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I got to look that up.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I guess that I have to say, loath it. I
don't like that. I don't like Jai eighteen ninety nine. No,
I don't think. No, there's the plutocracy's running America. Yeah,
there's a lot of strife, a lot of forgettable stuff.
I mean, I don't think I liked it.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Well, there's not I didn't think. It's either you love
it or you loathe it. So it seems like you.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Loath it loath I did say loath, right.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
You did, but then you like tempered it with I
didn't really like it, but you have to loathe it.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I loath it. I'm sorry, all right, I'm not going
to break the rules. I'm going to lay a nineteen
ninety nine er on you. Another bit of technology. Napster.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Oh my gosh, I don't know what napster was. I
didn't use it, I really do, Yeah, I didn't. I
never use Oh. Oh, I'm so sorry. I like momentarily
forgot the rules of the game. I loathed it because
I know that it was. Was it illegal?
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Was something like bad legally downloading music.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
That's why I didn't know about it, because I didn't
do anything illegal, and I still don't law or any
law law enforcement officers listening. I don't do anything against
the law. But anyway, no, I I guess I loathe it.
I loathe it. I feel like when it comes to whatever.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
That was, digital piracy, you're against it.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I'm against digital piracy.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Love it or loathe it, actual pirates like school love
everybody does digital piracy. No real piracy?
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yes, yes, Scott, this is a callback to prom love
it or loathe it?
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Slow dancing hmmm, I really got to think about this one.
I think love I think I love it. I don't
know so much anxiety, so much stress, especially for a
big man on campus like me without a lot of game. Yep,
(32:37):
I think I love it. Ellie, what's your take on
slow dance? Oh?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
I loath it?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Well wait, wait, wait, I want to clarify. I'm thinking
of how I felt about it in nineteen ninety nine.
In nineteen ninety nine, there are a lot of stress
and anxiety, but I was into the physical touch of
a lady and that was like all I was getting.
So now now I hate it. Man, we're at a
I went a wedding with my wife and a slow dance.
Come on, It's like, give me thirty seconds tops. I'm like, well,
(33:03):
we don't need what are we doing here? But back
as a kid, it was like closing times playing on
the gym speakers.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. I haven't convinced you because I'm
a prude and I was always uncomfortable with slow dancing
and the intimacy it necessitated. So no, I didn't like it.
I loath it. I love it, I load it. Then
I love it. Now Okay, got your turn for me?
Speaker 2 (33:29):
I think it's the last one, Ellie. James Vanderbeek, I
guess I.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Have to go with love. Oh my gosh, I definitely
have to go with love.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I mean Dawson's Creek. He was Dawson right.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
I didn't watch Dawson's Creek. But he's such a likable guy.
He's a positive force in the world. He's a he's
suddenly goes would be like, he's a net positive.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
He made it admit of a love It TV show.
So you're not a Dawson's Creek fan. What were your
television viewing happenings.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
In the nineties. I watched Beverly Hills nine O two
one oh, and I watched My So Called Life, and
I watched Seinfeld. I didn't watch a lot of TV
in the nineties. I was always doing my homework. Yeah yeah,
but James Vanderbeek love love Now, there is actually one
more I want to ask you about love it or
(34:20):
love it, because I know.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
How about it? Going out strong?
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Love it? I load it Mambo number five. I think
I think there, you just gave me.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Your I mean I think I love it. I love
it as you know, Ellie. Music in general, let's just
say I don't love it. I know very little about music.
The only music window that I'm a little familiar with
high school, so late nineties chart toppers Before Nothing, After Nothing,
(34:57):
Mambo number five. Yes, definitely could sing the whole song
if it started playing, right now.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Well, what are all those all those girls that he
just names? Right? Oh my god, now that I think
about it. Also, you just the unexamined lyrics of songs
where a guy just lists the number of ladies that
he's yeah, you know, slow dancing with, slow dancing with. Yeah. Well, Ellie,
thank you so much for reminding me all the stuff
(35:26):
that I love about nineteen So.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
For that nice little walk down memory lane. Thank you
everybody for joining us on our walk we were born
to Love.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
You bye, thanks for listening to Born to Love. We'll
be back next week with brand new things that we love.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
We want to hear from you. Leave us a review
in Apple Podcasts and tell us what you love. We
might even ask one of our guests in an upcoming
love it or Load It.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Born to Love is hosted and created by Ellie Kemper
and Scott Our.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Executive producer is Aaron Kaufman. Our producers are Sina Ozaki
and Zoe Dankla.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Born to Love is part of Will Ferrell's Big Money
Players Network in collaboration with iHeart Podcasts. Special thanks to
Hans Sonni.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Rachel Kaplan and Adriana Cassiano
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Michael Fails, Alex Korl and Bahied Frazier
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