Bonding Over Submechanophobia

In this 50th episode of Queernecks, queer rural Appalachian LGBTQ hosts Beck and Dash chat about pets, junk food, and digestive issues, then reflect on smoking—how early they started, how it was normalized, and how quitting saved Christmas. They discuss teaching, student pass/fail options, rate-my-professor culture, and gaps in student literacy, tech skills, and civic knowledge, plus the poverty-simulator game, Spent. They share fears about cruises and the ocean, mention Netflix’s Trainwreck and the “poop cruise,” and touch on end-of-life planning, wills, and transfer-on-death paperwork. A sponsor segment celebrates nostalgic Wishbook catalogs and their digitized archives. The Appalachian noun of interest is “Fiesta Ware,” and its cultural labor history, before closing with travel and food plans and a one-year anniversary tease.

Send us mail at [e-mail]

Follow us on Facebook or Instagram at @Queernecks

Subscribe to out newsletter for the Queernecks ramble expansion pack: https://substack.com/@queernecks

And join our discord by joining our Ko-Fi for $2 a month: https://ko-fi.com/queernecks

00:00 Podcast Welcome

00:20 Pets And Treats

00:40 Taffy And Tummy Talk

02:06 Quitting Smoking Benefits

03:47 Smoking Habits And Movies

05:13 Starting Young Stories

08:15 Poverty Simulator Spent

11:06 Privilege And Coping

12:30 Ashtrays And Nostalgia

13:46 Small Town Oddities

15:19 No More Political News

15:57 Pass Fail And Ratings

18:06 Teaching New Course Prep

20:05 Travel Plans And Cruises

22:24 Ocean Fears And Rivers

26:26 Lakes And Submechanophobia

29:28 Claustrophobia And Burial

30:31 End Of Life Paperwork

31:28 Dad’s Final Wishes

32:35 Probate Planning Nightmares

34:04 Wishbook Sponsor Break

36:39 Digitized Catalog Rabbit Hole

40:31 Devil Wears Prada 2

43:21 Literacy and Life Skills

47:33 Teaching Boundaries and Absences

50:50 Yesterwear Fiestaware History

54:16 AI Scraping and Analytics

56:04 Road Trips and Treats

58:35 Episode 50 Wrap Up

Episode Transcript

Beck (00:05):
Welcome to Queernecks, the podcast that puts the yehaw in y'all means all.
I'm your host, Beck.

Dash (00:10):
And I am your host, Dash.
Welcome to today's episode
Okay.

Beck (00:16):
of us getting Rue.

Dash (00:17):
That went by fast.

Beck (00:19):
Yeah.
She's settling in nicely.

Dash (00:22):
Nice.

Beck (00:24):
so...

Dash (00:25):
I got, uh, Ziggy's fancy new stainless steel litter box yesterday,
but I haven't set it up yet.

Beck (00:32):
Nice.

Dash (00:33):
Guess what the, treat, the junk food I got for myself
after the dojo last night was?

Beck (00:39):
I don't know, what?

Dash (00:40):
A gigantic bag of saltwater taffy.

Beck (00:44):
Oh, wow.

Dash (00:45):
I love that stuff.
I've already eaten, like, 20 pieces.

Beck (00:50):
You're gonna have a bellyache.
Not to mention colorful

Dash (00:53):
maybe.
Does it do that?
I

Beck (00:56):
eat

Dash (00:56):
hope not.

Beck (00:57):
it will.

Dash (00:58):
Well, that's true, yeah, the dyes.
I think, uh, sprinkles are actually oneof the most likely one, like blue or...
I don't know if it's blue or greensprinkles, but if you eat those,
because they have so much coloringin them for how small they are,
you will have bright green poops.

Beck (01:15):
I'm one of the lucky people that my, my poop does turn
colors every time I do anything,

Dash (01:19):
Well, you've probably got malabsorption and stuff
from, from your diabetes.

Beck (01:24):
Probably.
' Cause I have

Dash (01:26):
'Cause I have not how it works, but mine stays at bay most of

Beck (01:38):
I don't recommend

Dash (01:39):
Don't recommend that.
That's probably my least favorite Yeah.
My Aunt Josie had it for decades beforeshe passed, and it was, I think...
I mean, it, it wasn't what killedher, but it may have been the thing
that caused her the most discomfort.

Beck (01:54):
Yeah, 'cause you get really bad gas from it.
Like, I get what I call my egg

Dash (01:59):
Yeah, but I

Beck (02:00):
like rotten eggs.

Dash (02:01):
That's next level.

Beck (02:03):
Pepto-Bismol is the only thing that settles that down, so...

Dash (02:07):
I was for, from basically the time I quit drinking until Uh, when I
quit smoking a few months ago, I wastaking a daily or every other day proton
pump inhibitor, It's, it's those pillsthat you take every day, and it's, it
stops you from producing stomach acid.

Beck (02:28):
Oh, nice, Like

Dash (02:29):
Yeah, Pepcid or, um, Prilosec.
There's several different ones.
And because my heartburn, uh, was so bad,I had GERD, and it was, it was God-awful.
Like, I could not function.
But I also had a b- whole bunchof other GI symptoms, and just
really unpredictable stuff.

(02:51):
And then, but, like, smoking issomething that really makes that worse.
And then all of a sudden, like,when I quit smoking months ago, I
ha- I went off of them immediately.
Like, sometimes I have to take a Tums ora Rolaids or something, and that's it.

Beck (03:04):
That's a major improvement, though.

Dash (03:05):
Yeah.
It is fucking crazy how manylittle things smoking does to
you that don't make any sense.

Beck (03:13):
Yeah.
I can't imagine how much worse I wouldfeel on the daily if I was still a smoker.

Dash (03:17):
Yeah, and it does get worse as you age.

Beck (03:19):
Yeah.

Dash (03:20):
Woo-hoo.

Beck (03:21):
I don't miss it.
Like, every

Dash (03:22):
One

Beck (03:26):
I'll be

Dash (03:28):
a guy was in

Beck (03:30):
truck, and he was pretty

Dash (03:31):
a pickup truck, being pretty high above off the ground,

Beck (03:33):
down, and I

Dash (03:34):
and his window was down, and I watched him put that cigarette
between his lips and light it upand take a big drag and let it
out, and I was like, "Oh my God."
Bad experience, but I didn't

Beck (03:45):
I

Dash (03:46):
smoke a cigarette.
I wanted the release of tension thatcomes from that first hit of the You
know what, like, one of my pet peevesis in movies is when it's in the script
for someone to smoke, but the actorclearly has no idea how to smoke.

Beck (04:01):
Right?

Dash (04:03):
they, they put it in their mouth and, like, like,

Beck (04:05):
Right?

Dash (04:24):
it, it's not even that it's a social thing.
It's the ergonomics.
Like, you're, you develop a morecomfortable, um, like, way to do
it after practice, and so they justdon't look like a smoker when they do

Beck (04:38):
Yeah, I don't think you ever lose the fluidity that comes with that.
Like, I could

Dash (04:42):
Like, I can still, like And then get to the cellophane
and then tap it to stop Uh-huh
drink to come out.
And I c- I can't do it with my final, doit, but I can still whip that shit out

Beck (05:01):
you ever flip a Lucky?

Dash (05:02):
Oh, yeah.
Two luckies.

Beck (05:04):
Why two?

Dash (05:05):
One for good luck, one for a good fuck.

Beck (05:07):
Ah.

Dash (05:08):
That was the thing in my high school.

Beck (05:12):
kidding.

Dash (05:13):
Yeah.

Beck (05:13):
Uh, I used to measure how far, like, things were by how many cigarettes
I could smoke between my house and there.
School was a cigarette and a half away.
When did you start

Dash (05:25):
I was ... I mean, when you start as young as I did, you didn't ever
... It's not actually starting, right?
'Cause you just have one, and then younever know when you'll have another one.
But I am pretty sure I was 9 or 10.
I usually just go ahead and say nine,'cause that's the worst case scenario.
And I s- started by smoking the buttsof the adults' cigarettes that they

(05:49):
left in the, the trays, or pickingthem up outside and smoking them.
Like, I don't know how I don'thave some horrible disease.
I actually can't remember whenI started, like, buying my own.
I was in high school.
I was, like
I was in eighth grade probably.
Yeah.

Beck (06:06):
in eighth

Dash (06:08):
Eighth grade.
it was because wetransferred to Williamsburg.
Across the street from the high schoolwas, the q- I can't remember if it
was the Quick Stop or the Quick Trip.
I think it was the Quick Stop.
And just a little bitty conveniencestore, and all the kids would, well,
they would get dropped off there inthe morning so the parents could avoid
the school line, like going through theschool parking lot, and we would just

(06:30):
walk across the street to the school.
And the woman in there soldcigarettes to the kids.

Beck (06:37):
That's hilarious.

Dash (06:39):
if you looked old enough.
Like, if you were a literalchild, you know, like, they
weren't gonna sell it to you.
But when I was b- betweenseventh and eighth grade, like
the summer between seventh andeighth grade, I grew five inches.

Beck (06:50):
Oh, wow.

Dash (06:51):
and I was, so I was 5'8" in the eighth grade and then also, You could
buy a cigarette from the older kids.
Like, people would...
The going rate for acigarette was a quarter.
I don't know how, because it was thesame in Jellico as it was at Waynesburg.
Everybody knew a cigarette cost a quarter.
So you could also buy them, and so Iwould spend my lunch money on cigarettes.
And I would save up my lunchmoney and, and like skip lunch

(07:14):
or whatever or go to McDonald's.
I would use-- If I had a shift later, Iwould go to McDonald's and use my dinner.
You get a free meal with your shift.
I would eat it for lunch and thensave my lunch money for cigarettes.
I don't know.
Like, they, they sold themto us, like, super young.
Back then, I think people just didn'tcare as much, 'cause we could also buy

(07:35):
alcohol if we drove up to Richmond.
David was 15 when we started sending himinto the liquor stores up at Richmond.

Beck (07:41):
Oh, wow.

' Dash (07:42):
Cause he grew a full beard and he was, you know, 6'2",
so they didn't even card him.
Back then, all the clubswere 18 and up, too, so

Beck (07:50):
Yeah.

Dash (07:50):
When did you start?

Beck (07:51):
I started when I was 16.
The first time I had a cigarette, I was10, I think, was the first time I smoked
one, on my paper route of all things.
and then when I was 16,

Dash (08:02):
Yeah

Beck (08:04):
and it really pissed me off that

Dash (08:05):
And it really pissed me off that everybody got a smoke break and I didn't.

Beck (08:08):
started smoking to also

Dash (08:09):
I started smoking to also get a smoke break.

Beck (08:12):
that's
was stupid.
Well, Have you ever played the gamePlay Spent, like playspent.org?
Have you ever played thegame Spent it's a poverty

Dash (08:21):
So

Beck (08:21):
It's playspent.org
is the website.
It's a poverty simulator, andwe play it every semester in my
class, in my women's studies class,and it ... You rule by majority.
That's how you make decisions.
And so the premise of thegame is that you have $1,000

Dash (08:35):
you have $1,000 and a kid, and you lost your home, $100 an hour

Beck (08:39):
What do

Dash (08:39):
for what you do, right?

Beck (08:41):
how far you're

Dash (08:42):
But you have to decide how far you're gonna live away from
work, and then you have to decidewhat kind of job you're gonna get.
And then it takes your money, andthen you start working for checks,
and then it just starts growing.

Beck (08:53):
Your

Dash (08:53):
Stuff that you--

Beck (08:54):
is

Dash (08:54):
Your car registration is expired.
Tutoring.

Beck (08:57):
$10 in the

Dash (08:57):
kid gets $10 in the mail for his birthday.
What do you do with it?

Beck (09:00):
cream

Dash (09:01):
Your kid wants ice

Beck (09:02):
broke something at

Dash (09:03):
If you broke something at work, you sell that.
Somebody bumps you in the parkinglot with his car, you get in

Beck (09:09):
Like,

Dash (09:09):
an argument with them.

Beck (09:11):
have a

Dash (09:12):
all kinds of things.
Like, it's intense.

Beck (09:16):
of the game is to make it through 30

Dash (09:18):
Maybe 30 days

Beck (09:19):
of the,

Dash (09:20):
with money in the account.
I did this once

Beck (09:21):
if you

Dash (09:22):
And then

Beck (09:22):
make it

Dash (09:22):
if you

Beck (09:23):
it does

Dash (09:23):
make it through, it does happen, right?

Beck (09:25):
first try, but

Dash (09:25):
usually not the first try, but if you do make it through, then it says,

Beck (09:29):
You

Dash (09:29):
"Congratulations, you ended with like $200 in your account,

Beck (09:32):
back on
right?
So why was I telling you that?
We played that in class the other day.

Dash (09:40):
Right?
Yeah.
Cigarettes.

Beck (09:41):
Oh, one of the questions is You're under a lot of stress and one of your

Dash (09:44):
then, and then

Beck (09:49):
that the answer to

Dash (09:50):
she talked and she answered that no.

Beck (09:52):
smoking

Dash (09:53):
when I started to think

Beck (09:54):
over

Dash (09:54):
because Andrews came over with a pack of clothes.

Beck (09:57):
in my,

Dash (09:58):
Like, it was finally,

Beck (09:59):
program, and

Dash (09:59):
my,

Beck (09:59):
like, "Give

Dash (10:00):
year of my PhD

Beck (10:00):
fucking

Dash (10:00):
program, I was like, "Fuck this fucking thing," you know?
I was stressed out, and that'swhen it started clicking.

Beck (10:06):
do dumb things

Dash (10:07):
people do dumb things all

Beck (10:08):
like to point that

Dash (10:09):
the time.
Yeah.

Beck (10:10):
a very realistic option to put in there.

Dash (10:12):
one, thank you for sharing that fucking site because I had
been inventing that game fromscratch every time I teach it.
Yeah, I designed, I even madecurrency, like cards I would give
out, and it had numbers written on it.
Like, so this is gonna save me so muchtime the next time I have to teach this.
It didn't even occur to me tolook and see if anybody made it.

(10:35):
Oh, that's so...
I'm embarrassed that I didn'teven look to see if this already
existed before fucking inventing it.

Beck (10:43):
a good time.
The, in one, in the middle of

Dash (10:45):
Mm.

Beck (10:46):
have to go grocery shopping, right?
And grocery shopping as a majorityrules, uh, with a group of 30, you know,
undergrads is always really interesting.
They always get into an argumentabout whether they should buy
the $1 drink mix for their kid.
They're like, "What elseare you gonna drink?
Water?"
You know, and they like get reallypassionate about whether they should get
fish sticks or, or that kind of thing.

(11:06):
And I use you an example.
I tell them if they don't get anyvegetables, they're gonna get scurvy.

Dash (11:12):
true.
The amount of things that we forgetto even be worried about because
of the, the privilege that we...
You know, not all of us live withaccess to that privilege, but we
live with the knowledge of it.

Beck (11:24):
Yeah.

Dash (11:24):
we live with the knowledge and the assumptions that we should be better than
that in the country that we live in, andthen we for- we get got by shit, you know?

Beck (11:32):
Yep.

Dash (11:33):
talking about the fact that smart people do dumb shit I don't often
do this whole, like, I- this thinghappened to me specifically because
it was inherited generational cursesand trauma and shit like that, right?
Like, I, I like to hold out a littlehope that we do have a little bit
more agency over how things go for us.
But if I hadn't grown up around abunch of adults and peers who were

(11:56):
also smoking, maybe the answer to thequestion, "Do you want a cigarette
because you're stressed out?"
would be, "Well, obviously, no."

Beck (12:03):
Right.

Dash (12:05):
yes if I hadn't seen that be the number one coping mechanism of the highest
functioning people around me, right?
Because even people who weren't addictsor alcoholics were smokers, and so
a lot of positive af- associationswith smoking and success and well-
wellness and wellbeing, that stuff'sjust part of the, the discourse,

(12:27):
the, the fabric of where I grew up.
Aw.

Beck (12:30):
Yeah, there's an ashtray in every one of my childhood pictures, you know.
That's one of the things I inheritedfrom mom, was her collection of ashtrays.
What am I gonna do with themnow except keep them in a box?

Dash (12:41):
Well, I'd like to see some pictures of them, 'cause I love, I miss them,
that too, like, right, like, the...
Because they weren't just atool, they were also decor.
They, they would have, therewere certain styles, I remember,
like, the blown glass ones.
Mom had, they had, like, thesebottoms on them to stop them from
falling over, like the beaded, didyou ha- like, I'm making this motion
like I'm doing something unsavory.

(13:02):
But they had, like, the, this,like, beanbag chair type of
thing on the bottom of it so thatthey were harder to knock over.

Beck (13:09):
yeah, so it stayed in place.
Yeah.
Did your
I think we talked about it in the veryearly in the podcast the sequin cigarette

Dash (13:17):
Clasp?
Yes.
We, it was a, I think it was a sponsor,and you found that amazing image of it.
That mi- I think that was, like, our,the first, the first newsletter we did.

Beck (13:28):
Maybe.

Dash (13:29):
that awesome image of the teal one, and it was the exact shape.
My mom didn't have that color, but sheabsolutely had that clasp, the, like,
the brass, fake brass clasp on top of it.
And I remember, and shewould sit and fidget with it.
Open it and close it, open it andclose it until it was wore out.

Beck (13:46):
Did your mom ever go to bingo?

Dash (13:48):
No, I don't remember, um- I'm sh- I'm sure there w- there was
bingo in Corbin, I know for a fact,but I don't remember if ever hearing
or knowing about bingo at Jellico.
Jellico was a very liminal place.
It didn't have its own things.
The things it did have were kind ofin service to the surrounding areas.

(14:09):
For instance, people would cometo Jellico to buy alcohol or
to get married or something.

Beck (14:13):
Right.

Dash (14:15):
much like I, I don't know.
I don't know how to put it.

Beck (14:17):
That sounds like a little town called Catlettsburg,

Dash (14:20):
Oh man,

Beck (14:20):
They have a, a, the...

Dash (14:22):
when

Beck (14:22):
can get married there, and they have lots, a few

Dash (14:25):
you Google that,

Beck (14:26):
like that, and it's between Ashland, Kentucky, and Kenova, West Virginia.

Dash (14:30):
the, the slideshow that comes up is incredible.
Yeah.
It's,
the first thing is thisamazing garish haunted house.

Beck (14:42):
Have you ever heard of the pumpkin house where they have, like, at
Halloween there's, like, 2,000 pumpkinsoutside of this house in West Virginia?
Maybe I should do that as a noun.

Dash (14:52):
Yeah, do it.
I wanna know more.

Beck (14:53):
the West Virginia pumpkin, pumpkin

Dash (14:55):
Oh my g- Oh, these pictures are crazy.
Yeah, you gotta tell thepeople about that one.

Beck (15:00):
Will
One of
You have to go see it to reallyappreciate the scale of it.

Dash (15:11):
Right, 'cause even the photos looks like...
I, I don't know, it looks kind of likeAI or something, but it's clearly not.

Beck (15:17):
It's 100% real

Dash (15:19):
I don't know if I wa- I was gonna change the subject to Trump's new,
like, surgeon general nominee, right?
And then I realized, like, Idon't wanna talk about that.
Fuck her.
Fuck them, whatever.

Beck (15:29):
Boo.

Dash (15:31):
Fox News podcast host.

Beck (15:33):
I haven't heard anything

Dash (15:34):
Whatever.

Beck (15:35):
in the grade book the last few days, so I've missed the news.
If it wasn't on Jimmy Kimmel, I
it.

Dash (15:41):
Did you finish?

Beck (15:42):
Yes, I posted grades about, uh, 11:30 this morning.

Dash (15:45):
All right.
What does that...

Beck (15:57):
me.

Dash (15:58):
What, what does that do c- last time I taught, that wasn't a thing.

Beck (16:02):
It protects your GPA.
So, say you're gonna take a

Dash (16:05):
it...

Beck (16:06):
the pass/fail, you get more points out of it than you would from getting a C.
So, you take that on

Dash (16:11):
it You can take it for a required.
I

Beck (16:13):
up to, like, three classes as an

Dash (16:15):
it's like

Beck (16:15):
as pass/fail.
like that.

Dash (16:17):
three credits Okay.
'Cause I was about to say,like, what's to stop them from
just doing that for everything?
Oh, yeah, they're- Okay.
' Cause when we were doing advisinglast summer, um, like, that was one
of the things, like, this-- theycould choose whether they wanted to
take it for grades or for pass/fail,and I was like, "Wait a minute.
I don't remember this."

Beck (16:35):
Right.
No, that's been a thing for along time but just, it- they
don't really talk about that as

Dash (16:40):
But yeah, they, uh, they don't really talk about that.

Beck (16:41):
an option.
You just don't hear about it

Dash (16:43):
But it Yeah.
Interesting.
Yeah, I wonder why they picked your class.

Beck (16:46):
don't know.
My, my rate my professor says,

Dash (16:49):
My body bio.
My, my, my professor says my, my headtold me it was completed, so like

Beck (16:52):
it's

Dash (16:53):
I- So there's that,

Beck (17:03):
of
and one,
awful.

Dash (17:06):
I can't believe that's still a thing.

Beck (17:08):
Yeah, they use it like the Bible.

Dash (17:09):
Interesting.
It goes...

Beck (17:12):
rate my

Dash (17:13):
Interesting.
So universities all havea report card on Niche.
And it's not user, it's not--There's, I think maybe some student
input is considered, but it'salso a, a wide variety of metrics.
But a-anytime I'm, you know...
I will research the hell out ofan institution if I say I want to
apply to it or something like that.
And it's hard not to be...

(17:34):
If you see one thing, I've noticedthat, like, it kind of skews me.
I think I'm becoming morenegative, 'cause I'm like,

Beck (17:40):
Oh, no.

Dash (17:41):
"Okay, so this community college that I'm interviewing with
has a C+ rating on academic rigor."
Of course it does.
Like...

Beck (17:49):
college.

Dash (17:49):
Right, and rigor is not, like...
That's something that is skewed towardsresearch institutions, because it has
to do with, like, your publication and,like, your, your research and stuff like
that, your contribution to scholarship.
Community college, professors,that's not part of their tenure,
and they wouldn't have time to doit because they teach a five-five.

Beck (18:05):
Right.

Dash (18:08):
lot of learning to do this summer.
There's no, like, guidebook to thatapparently, which I thought there would
be at least, like, some document that

Beck (18:19):
I

Dash (18:19):
Right?

Beck (18:20):
look at other

Dash (18:20):
I basically I figure out what they're doing and
there's a couple of things

Beck (18:25):
down,

Dash (18:25):
to go take those down, which I find interesting.

Beck (18:27):
and then I also have to learn

Dash (18:29):
I also have a little account called person in

Beck (18:33):
been

Dash (18:33):
class I'm taking over and how they've been doing.

Beck (18:35):
one of

Dash (18:36):
I've already been given access to...

Beck (18:38):
assignments and stuff like that.

Dash (18:40):
that.
And I'm doing it withthe variant stuff too.
Like they're, they've alreadydone the ground stuff.
Like activities and stuff like that.
Okay.

Beck (18:49):
you know.
So I'll be

Dash (18:50):
Yeah.

Beck (18:51):
their syllabus and all that, so I need to get familiar with that

Dash (18:54):
That sounds kind of stressful though.

Beck (18:56):
Yeah, it's gonna be...
But it got me my job back, so.
My boss always kept saying, "I'm soglad you wanna teach the large lecture."
I'm like, "Well, let's do it.
It's just one more thing Ican add to my CV, you know?"

Dash (19:08):
yeah.
Right, and y- and I h- haveoften thought, like, what is
teaching a humanities course?
I've taken those classes, and I'vefound them diffi- like, different
and difficult as a, as a student.
What is it like for professors to go from,to go into a situation where you can't
really have that, like, discussion-basedtype of interaction as easily?

(19:30):
You have to create it in other ways.

Beck (19:32):
a class be like around Well, it's a hybrid class.
The, the main instructionis through the internet,

Dash (19:37):
Like the city of things like that.
It

Beck (19:46):
to come on Friday have- having done the reading and
listened to the videos and all that

Dash (19:50):
really

Beck (19:50):
that they're prepped, and then they do

Dash (19:52):
comes with one class.

Beck (19:53):
on Fridays.

Dash (19:53):
I'll

Beck (19:54):
I think it's an interesting

Dash (19:55):
have like

Beck (19:55):
be excited to...

Dash (19:56):
200

Beck (20:01):
it'll be worth it.
Or it won't, but it'll bemy only year to do it, so.

Dash (20:04):
That's true.

Beck (20:05):
Virginia

Dash (20:07):
Are you?

Beck (20:08):
Yeah.

Dash (20:08):
Though, yeah, to see Shana's family.

Beck (20:10):
Yeah, we haven't been down...
it's been over a year and a half.
Shannon went down for mybest friend's mom's funeral.
I wasn't able to go because of school.
So she's been home since I have, but Ihaven't been down since October of '24.

Dash (20:21):
I

Beck (20:23):
Yeah, you should do it.

Dash (20:24):
I wanna try to, even if I have to drive.

Beck (20:26):
Yeah.
Oh,

Dash (20:29):
In fact, I don't wanna go near any people for a long time because of all the
ways to go I've always had such a fear ofhemorrhagic fevers and things like that.
Like, and, and also this is just likeI'm never gonna get on a cruise ship.
Listeners, if you don't know what we'retalking about, it's the, the hantavirus
outbreak on whatever cruise ship that is.

Beck (20:50):
My niece loves cruises.
They're-- I just, you couldn't getme on one of those floating cities.
No.
That there's no escape,and it could go down.
Like, no thank you.

Dash (20:58):
There's a, there's a series on, um, Netflix called Trainwreck.
Have you ever watched any of those?
They're...
It's just kind of, um, each episodeis a deep dive into something
that went horrifically wrong.
It picks apart, like, what wentinto creating the, the issue.
I think the first one they did was, uh,Woodstock '99, and that was the first

(21:19):
one I watched, and it's a very good,uh, example of edutainment, basically.
I don't know if you'd callit investigative journalism.
It's a little bit documentary.
But they do interviews and stuff, and sothe Woodstock one was awesome because they
got all of the, or a lot of the musicians.
Like, Jonathan Davis from Kornwas there, Gavin Rossdale, Jewel.

(21:40):
You know, people who could speak to how itact- like, what actually went into that.
Do you know anythingabout how that went down?
Do you remember Woodstock '99?

Beck (21:47):
it on TV, and I

Dash (21:48):
I remember it on

Beck (21:49):
show.

Dash (21:50):
the news.
Yeah, lots of, lots of issues.
So but anyway, they have...
I, I found out, uh, it's a series,and one of them is on the poop cruise.
Do you know about the poop cruise?

Beck (22:01):
about that in the, in the

Dash (22:02):
I

Beck (22:02):
yeah.

Dash (22:03):
remember it.
It wasn't long ago.
Yeah.
And I was like, yeah.
I mean, you tell me anything happenedon a fucking cruise, and I'll go,
"Uh-huh, yeah, that makes sense."
Like, that's one ofthe scenarios I've run.
Thank you.
I already covered that one.
You don't need to tell me.

Beck (22:17):
Have you ever been on a cruise before or is this a new...
or

Dash (22:20):
No.
Mm-mm.

Beck (22:22):
Never?

Dash (22:22):
Always been a fear of mine.
Like, I'm afraid of theocean, but, like, not...
Like, I'm not angry at it, you know?
Like, I'm even a littlefascinated and impressed by it.
It's, uh, my f- I'm, I'm...
I know that my fear iswarranted, you know?
And so I like learning about it.
I don't hate boats.
I'm not opposed to that kind ofthing, but I'm not, like you said.

(22:44):
Like, locking myself on a fuckingPetri dish flotilla and hanging
out with, being, or being trappedwith people, like, I, I have...
I don't think it's claustrophobia,but, like, I don't like
knowing that I can't leave.

Beck (22:58):
Yeah.
That's how I

Dash (22:59):
And I know that that would be the first thought I had is s- if I
walk onto, if I walk on board one ofthose, I'd be like, "Wait a minute.
I can't get off of here."
I'd probably jump overboard immediately
Like, you...

Beck (23:10):
no cruises for Dash.
We got it.

Dash (23:12):
No, not a one.
Vanessa has done one, and, youknow, her pictures were awesome.
I think she had a good time.
You know, it's, I think she saidthere was a little bit of, like,
uncomfortable or, like, discomfortjust from being on the boat.
They move weird.
And I've been on boats before.
I don't mind boats, but not a cruise, no.
Would you do one?

Beck (23:32):
on several of them.
No, I've never been onone, and I never would.

Dash (23:36):
I need to spend several months

Beck (23:37):
don't know if it's claustrophobic, but

Dash (23:38):
sea.
Like, months at

Beck (23:39):
out of there.

Dash (23:40):
sea.

Beck (23:40):
And if I was on a boat, that

Dash (23:42):
Yeah.

Beck (23:42):
and I

Dash (23:43):
Yeah.
R- 'Cause

Beck (23:44):
'Cause

Dash (23:44):
the

Beck (23:45):
of

Dash (23:46):
other option is getting on

Beck (23:50):
like, my deepest fear.

Dash (23:52):
a ship and going down, and, you know.
Yes.

Beck (23:55):
I don't like holes.
Like, I'm one of those peoplethat doesn't like lots of holes
and stuff, and the ocean is justone giant hole, and I just...
We don't even know what's down there.
Hell no.

Dash (24:05):
I don't like oceans because it's like unlimited stuff, and
the ocean is just one giant...
Like, we don't evenknow what's down there.
Yeah.
Um, I think we talked about thisbefore, but the, it, it, I don't know
if I've told you about this specificYouTuber I like to watch who reacts to,

Beck (24:21):
right.

Dash (24:55):
him watch videos.

Beck (25:02):
Yeah,

Dash (25:02):
Wow.
I think about the giant fish.
Like, I grew up on the Ohio River.
I wouldn't even step foot in it.

Beck (25:09):
it

Dash (25:10):
I would be like, "What the fuck?"
Like, I would

Beck (25:17):
never been on a boat on it.
I've never been swimming in it.
I just, I would never step foot in it.
No.

Dash (25:23):
be like, "What

Beck (25:24):
Absolutely

Dash (25:25):
fuck?"
Yeah.
Not for me.

Beck (25:27):
I wouldn't even put my feet in

Dash (25:28):
I wouldn't even

Beck (25:28):
know what I mean?

Dash (25:29):
put

Beck (25:29):
wouldn't sit on the dock and

Dash (25:30):
my feet

Beck (25:31):
put

Dash (25:31):
in

Beck (25:31):
Nope.
It might, the
and
bite

Dash (25:35):
for all this-

Beck (25:36):
But I'll just

Dash (25:36):
For all this talk, I did do a summer of white water rafting and
we were on the Cumberland River.
Uh, this was when I was 19.
I didn't...
My anxiety hadn't, like, reached itsfinal form yet until I, my, like, mid-20s.
But I also, I knew I couldn'tswim, but you don't really...
Swimming's not a necessity when it comesto white water to, for, um, rafting

(25:59):
because you can't swim in a PFD anyway.
I didn't love the times when we hadto be in the lake part of the...
Like, the parts of the riverthat are moving for some reason
were fine with me, but the stillwater parts, like the open...
' Cause the Cum- Lake Cumberland is, large.
Laurel Lake and CumberlandLake are very big.
You know, they call Minnesotathe land of, is it 10,000 lakes?

(26:20):
I'm not gonna say that there's notthat many, but they're also real loose
with what they call a lake around here.
I w- was in Alexandria last night,'cause that's where this dojo is,
and I went around a curve, or I wasgetting ready to turn around at a stop
sign, and I looked at the sign andit said, it was, it said Lake Winona.
And I looked at it and I waslike, "This is a puddle."

(26:40):
It was just, like, a s-in a, in a, a roundabout.
It was, like, just some still waterin the middle of a roundabout,
and they called that a lake.
And that's pretty common.
Like, there are things that I wouldnever, that wouldn't even get a, the,
a, a pond name in Kentucky, you know?

Beck (26:56):
Yeah.

Dash (26:56):
So, like, yeah, you c- I think a lot of states would have
10,000 lakes in them if you countedeverywhere a puddle came up.
But there's also plenty of them thatare fucking huge and terrifying.
Some of the, like, the, the actuallarge lakes here, they're like
little oceans or seas, I guess.
What do you mean?

Beck (27:17):
Like the

Dash (27:18):
Like, the Probably that, but also, like, the size and the way
that there's no topography, so whenyou see one, it's just that forever.
Um, It's perfectly flat,and it doesn't move.

Beck (27:30):
Can you imagine swimming in one of those lakes like in Atlanta where
it's, uh, there's a city underneath it?
Ooh.
That

Dash (27:38):
Yeah, that's submechanophobia.
Like, here, I wanna show youa submechanopho- phobia video,
because there's some good ones.

Beck (27:44):
Beep, beep, beep,

Dash (27:45):
homichanophobia.

Beck (27:46):
Peter says hello.

Dash (27:47):
Hi, Peter.
Hi, Peter.
It sounds like, um, Lois from Family Guy.
Oh, there's a Reddit, there's a sub.
Looking for a good one.
There's one in particular I'm thinking of.
Th- this is a good one.
Th- this motherfucker jumped off of it.
You see that?

Beck (28:04):
Are they, like, building a bridge or something?

Dash (28:06):
No, it was an abandoned crane in the middle of a ocean.

Beck (28:10):
Huh.
That's creepy.

Dash (28:12):
It's awful.
And I, I wonder why.
Like, is it you imagine yourself as, as...

Beck (28:19):
it's 'cause we're not supposed to be there.

Dash (28:21):
Right.

Beck (28:22):
One of those verboten, you know

Dash (28:24):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, a, like a ship under...
Stair-

Beck (28:28):
I find that shit creepy too, the statues and

Dash (28:30):
that shit creepy too.
Oh This is a railroad
that a

Beck (28:39):
boat.
But I think the only time I've ever beenon a riverboat was I went on to do some
pictures for a, a school's prom one time.
Uh, we were right on the Ohio River.
And it was a small

Dash (28:48):
I

Beck (28:48):
so they did their whole prom on a riverboat.
I think that's the onlytime I've ever been on a big

Dash (28:52):
don't know.
I'll I can find...

Beck (28:56):
I knew a guy who was a submariner when he was in the Navy.
He, we worked together atAmazon years and years ago.
But he would tell storiesabout how tight it was

Dash (29:03):
Tell stories about how tight it was,

Beck (29:05):
like

Dash (29:05):
size separation and stuff like that.
Oh my God.

Beck (29:08):
I can't imagine being in that confined of a space.
Or

Dash (29:12):
Oh.

Beck (29:12):
sleeping quarters for submarines?

Dash (29:14):
Yeah.

Beck (29:15):
God.
Ugh.
I j- I j- I can't breathewhen I just think about it.

Dash (29:19):
I wear my clothes

Beck (29:20):
I wear my clothes

Dash (29:21):
I like

Beck (29:21):
I like

Dash (29:21):
my car

Beck (29:24):
big.

Dash (29:27):
Yeah,

Beck (29:28):
You know,

Dash (29:28):
You know, that's one of the reasons my mom wanted to way that she was buried.

Beck (29:39):
she and my

Dash (29:39):
was

Beck (29:39):
had this agreement that he would

Dash (29:41):
originally

Beck (29:42):
the, oh, what are they called?
The vault that you get put in.
Put that on top of the groundand not put her under the dirt,
He put the vault in the ground, and thenthere was the, the decorative topper on
top of it, and that's what came out of the

Dash (29:53):
I had her moved, had the totally

Beck (29:56):
originally, was to not

Dash (29:58):
was to not have her

Beck (29:58):
between her.

Dash (29:59):
ground.

Beck (29:59):
I figure as long as she's safe

Dash (30:01):
as long as she's safe

Beck (30:02):
that's really all that matters.

Dash (30:04):
But she was, she was worried about being claustrophobic in the afterlife?

Beck (30:08):
Yeah.

Dash (30:09):
Yeah.

Beck (30:11):
or a bra.

Dash (30:12):
Cause yeah, I mean, that I totally see.

Beck (30:15):
We buried her in a pink cardigan that was my niece's
that she stole from, from Haley.
She loved it, so we buried her in that.

Dash (30:22):
I have not really...
I, I don't even know what ourplans are for our parents.
This is morbid, so I may cutit out, but I don't know.
we just don't talk about it.

Beck (30:31):
if I can give everybody a recommendation get shit on paper.
And a will is great, but what youreally need is to have something
called the transfer upon death.
like when my grandmother died, they had a

Dash (30:43):
My grandmother died, they had a dream first on death in place and we

Beck (30:46):
have to go through court.

Dash (30:47):
didn't have to go through court.
We didn't have to go through escrow.
We didn't have to of it.

Beck (30:51):
It was just his, because she

Dash (30:52):
It was just his because she died and they had it set up that way.

Beck (30:55):
she

Dash (30:55):
stepmother, she--

Beck (30:57):
car

Dash (30:57):
dad only car when he died,

Beck (30:59):
years

Dash (30:59):
took her almost two years to get that car in her name,

Beck (31:02):
it

Dash (31:02):
and then she couldn't because it was in his name, so she couldn't
even drive it for those years.

Beck (31:06):
had to go

Dash (31:07):
So I had to go back If

Beck (31:10):
dad had.
There was, like, a dozen of them.
If I can give you any

Dash (31:13):
I may give you any,

Beck (31:14):
your

Dash (31:15):
A, know what your parents want.

Beck (31:16):
have

Dash (31:17):
B,

Beck (31:17):
insurance

Dash (31:17):
if they have life insurance and where all of that

Beck (31:19):
and

Dash (31:19):
is going.
And C,

Beck (31:21):
what the plan is,

Dash (31:22):
what the plan is if, if they want it to go to where they want to
be buried, if they want it cremated,

Beck (31:26):
on life

Dash (31:27):
if they don't want to be on life support.
All of that is very important informationbecause the situation you don't--

Beck (31:33):
Like

Dash (31:33):
there's no way to my dad,

Beck (31:35):
father, he died,

Dash (31:36):
he died,

Beck (31:37):
stroke

Dash (31:38):
he had a stroke.
It was a COVID complication.
He got blood clot in his lung a stroke,

Beck (31:42):
was,

Dash (31:42):
was awake

Beck (31:44):
you, and he cried,
but he

Dash (31:45):
cried

Beck (31:46):
That was all

Dash (31:47):
before he stepped off.

Beck (31:48):
uh, when Mom

Dash (31:48):
And my father,

Beck (31:49):
we had

Dash (31:50):
we

Beck (31:50):
very pointed

Dash (31:51):
had some very pointed discussions where he said, "If I'm ever on tubes
or on a machine, take me let me die."

Beck (31:56):
very

Dash (31:56):
Very and

Beck (31:57):
And then, you know, a year

Dash (31:58):
then, you know, a year later he was that situation and so we went through

Beck (32:02):
and that's how

Dash (32:03):
wishes

Beck (32:03):
right?
We

Dash (32:03):
and that's how it went, right?
We let

Beck (32:05):
and

Dash (32:06):
passed

Beck (32:07):
but if you don't know what somebody

Dash (32:09):
but if you don't know make decisions or guesses,

Beck (32:12):
enough

Dash (32:12):
I can't recommend you enough having none of that stuff in place.

Beck (32:15):
a

Dash (32:15):
It doesn't hurt you to have a

Beck (32:17):
in, in place.

Dash (32:18):
in place.
So

Beck (32:19):
have it in place for

Dash (32:20):
I

Beck (32:21):
That way, you know, you don't have to go through all of the court system.
I had to pay my lawyer over 10

Dash (32:26):
had to pay my lawyer by having the

Beck (32:29):
all of that heartache by having those papers in place.

Dash (32:33):
Yeah.

Beck (32:33):
Okay, that's my public service message for the day

Dash (32:35):
my, uh, grandmother, who's the only remaining grandparent I have alive, is
refusing to do any end of life planning.
She's currently in-- She's not inhospice, she's in a home, but she's You
know, at that period where every fewweeks they find a new thing wrong with
her and it becomes a discussion of isit really worth fixing that or this?

(33:00):
Not, they're not at the stagewhere somebody has said, let's
just make her comfortable.

Beck (33:03):
Right.

Dash (33:04):
But she is really enjoying refusing to to talk about or set
up any kind of end of life care.
It's going to be her lastway of controlling them,
my dad and my uncle Steve.
It'll be the last thing that she can holdover them even after she's dead is to
make their life hell in probate court.
In Tennessee probate court, the Wild West.

Beck (33:25):
Oh yeah, I imagine.
I was very lucky

Dash (33:28):
I was very lucky

Beck (33:29):
heir

Dash (33:29):
I was the only heir where I was adopted by Mark.

Beck (33:32):
not his

Dash (33:33):
My sister was not an heir.
My brother was not an heir.

Beck (33:35):
paper that was related to him.
So we didn't

Dash (33:38):
Yeah.

Beck (33:38):
like,

Dash (33:39):
So he didn't leave anything to us.
He left everything to mysister and my brother.
And then

Beck (33:45):
know,

Dash (33:45):
after we paid,

Beck (33:46):
of

Dash (33:46):
you know, he had quite a bit of bills and he had

Beck (33:48):
the,

Dash (33:48):
a house,

Beck (33:51):
credit cards and all that kind of

Dash (33:52):
a couple credit cards and all that pay off.
But yeah,

Beck (33:55):
of it went.
So

Dash (33:56):
got everything.
And that's, that's helpful.
No, she's, she's still evil.

Beck (34:04):
Yeah.

Dash (34:04):
Well, let's, uh, take a break in here from this week's sponsor.

Beck (34:08):
Sounds

Dash (34:08):
I wore my glasses this time, so

Beck (34:10):
Nice.

Dash (34:11):
it'll be easier.
This week's episode of QueerNext is brought to you by
Wishbooks, the Wishbook catalog.

Beck (34:20):
Ah,

Dash (34:22):
I know, like, I, I don't know how I forgot about them, but...
And I, I fell down a rabbit hole.
I wanna show you somestuff I found online too.
So the annual publication thattaught an entire generation of
rural kids how to want things theyabsolutely were never going to have.
Before the internet started trackingour impulses like a digital bounty
hunter, there was the Wishbook.

(34:42):
It was a catalog so thick it couldprop up a sagging porch and so full of
tantalizing possibility it could keepa kid occupied till the spring thaw.
Every winter, that thing hit the mailboxlike a sacred text, and a shoving
match broke out as soon as the brownpaper wrap slab entered the house.
The winner would sit there with a redpen, the others craning over their
shoulder to dream vicariously, circlingNintendo consoles, leather jackets with

(35:05):
more zippers than you have socks, andenough battery-operated nonsense to
brown out the tri-county power grid.
You did this knowing your mama wasgonna flip through it later, cackle
at your audacity, and tell you topick two things under $10, and one had
better be socks For a lot of us, itwas our first introduction to fantasy.
not of the dragons and wizardsvariety, but of a becoming

(35:25):
someone else entirely variety.
You'd linger on the page with theprofessional-grade vanity mirror,
imagining your life transformedby the soft glow of those bulbs.
Or you'd stare at the outdoorgear and wonder if rugged was a
personality you could just buyand wear like a suit of armor.
You wondered if the piece of youthat felt like it was missing
would be for sale someday.

(35:45):
And whose business is it really ifyou gave all the underwear models
names and personalities and cut themout and hid them under your pillow?
The Wish Book was a tomeof incredible range.
You had industrial power tools on onepage, porcelain dolls with haunted
eyes on the next, and then suddenlya teen bedroom set so aggressively
teal and geometric it looked like a1994 lesbian DJ's first apartment.

(36:06):
These were design choices madeby people who feared neither
God nor the limits of polyester.
And even if you couldn't affordthe products in the Wish Book,
you could steal a bit of audacity.
It suggested that even if your familywas currently using a Maxwell House can
as a bacon grease repository, somewhereout there was a world in which a child
owned a personal karaoke machine.

(36:26):
The Wish Book taught us how to dreamirresponsibly long before we surrendered
our dreaming to the algorithm.
And now, back to Queernecks, where mostof our life choices still felt like
something we circled in red Sharpie.

Beck (36:37):
That's
those

Dash (36:39):
Oh, you're gonna love this then because some folks have digitized them and
archived them on the internet, so yeah.
And I've been going through them.
I got a little lost in this this morning.
This page here has 1937 through 1975,and you just go down and pick whichever
one you want, like the Christmas book.
Here's the Sears Christmas book.

(37:01):
It has every fucking page in it.

Beck (37:04):
Oh, wow.

Dash (37:05):
wow.

Beck (37:05):
took some dedication.

Dash (37:08):
Yeah, right?
And then, uh, this other page herehas all the way up to 2017, which
was when this website was created.
They may still have ... Maybethey still make the Wish Books.
I remember them from the '80s and '90s.

Beck (37:23):
Yep.

Dash (37:24):
Oh, goodness, looky here.
Oh, it, this didn't updateto the screen I'm sharing.
There we go.
Karate ninja master.
I remember this.
Look at these, the camouflagel- what's it called?
A pajama set.
Oh, this one you can justtab between the pages.
I, I wanted these pajama sets sobad, these little boys pajama sets.

(37:45):
Yeah.

Beck (37:46):
I remember I had, Because I

Dash (37:48):
Because I,

Beck (37:49):
before

Dash (37:49):
you know, princess thing

Beck (37:50):
thing became a

Dash (37:51):
became

Beck (37:51):
Like, there were princesses, but

Dash (37:52):
big thing.
There were princesses,but it wasn't, you know,

Beck (37:55):
I

Dash (37:55):
everywhere.

Beck (37:56):
Shortcake
on something.

Dash (37:58):
Shortcake.
Yeah.

Beck (37:59):
and I had a couple of nightgowns that were Strawberry Shortcake.

Dash (38:01):
Strawberry Shortcake.

Beck (38:02):
one time my

Dash (38:03):
I remember one time my dad got really mad at me and yelled at me,

Beck (38:06):
from the

Dash (38:07):
because I made the Wish Book, and I put something like tri-color
T-shirt, and he like, tie-dye shirt or

Beck (38:12):
shirts

Dash (38:13):
if I meant, like, the shirt's red.

Beck (38:20):
So I learned to be very specific in those kinds of things.
I don't want five T-shirts.
I'll say

Dash (38:24):
I don't want five T-shirts Um, Wish Book also became kind of, like,
just the name for any kind of catalog.
Like, this is the Wish Book, so, like,Sears, like a yearly catalog that has
a collection that they've curated.
Look at this Columbo motherfucker here.
I think my dad had this jacket.
This is the JCPenney's one, so this one...

Beck (38:43):
Well, a lot of women used JCPenney because they were
one of the first companies togive credit to women, uh, once

Dash (38:49):
Yeah.

Beck (38:50):
you know, was allowed, women were allowed to get credit cards
without their husband's signatures in

Dash (38:54):
Oh, look at this.

Beck (38:55):
why JCPenney

Dash (38:56):
salons and photo studios and, and all that

Beck (39:02):
Those are

Dash (39:02):
Yeah.

Beck (39:03):
You should get one of

Dash (39:04):
Yeah.
I'd pay money to see you in that

Beck (39:06):
I'd pay money to see you in that outfit.

Dash (39:09):
outfit.
Yeah.
The, I just, every pageI click on is fantastic.
I've been going through these all morning.
And I, I mean, it was...
I don't know, like, this was how Ilearned about, like, what other people
dressed like because this was the closestfashion ever came to Jellico, you know?

Beck (39:26):
right?
Well, that's awesome.
That was a really good

Dash (39:30):
I don't...
Did you ever actually ordersomething from a Wish Book?
I didn't.

Beck (39:33):
I didn't.
Maybe Mom did, I don't know.
I was never given...
I mean, we were more using the Raleighcoupons to order from catalogs, you know?

Dash (39:40):
Yeah,

Beck (39:40):
the cigarette coupons.
I don't re- I

Dash (39:42):
I

Beck (39:43):
may- and Fingerhut.
We

Dash (39:44):
I figured,

Beck (39:44):
stuff,

Dash (39:45):
out

Beck (39:45):
'cause you

Dash (39:45):
stuff

Beck (39:46):
credit on

Dash (39:46):
too.

Beck (39:47):
Uh,

Dash (39:48):
I don't

Beck (39:48):
but I don't remember me ever placing an

Dash (39:50):
me actually

Beck (39:51):
I wasn't privy to that information.
Like,

Dash (39:54):
Yeah, I don't, I don't remember ever actually ordering something
from a catalog, but I don't know.
It's kind of, it's...
You can see how they went out ofbusiness, how that, because they were
a lot of trouble to make, I'm sure.

Beck (40:08):
they are still
that are, are doing it, like the, TheWoman Within and the Kingsize, and
like, if you order something from oneof those places, they send you like 15
different magazines from different places.
they still have a very vibrantcatalog order system, I guess.
I got my jacket fromKingsize, and it's wonderful.
love everything being very oversized.

(40:30):
the,

Dash (40:31):
Devil Wears Prada 2,

Beck (40:33):
How was that?

Dash (40:34):
oh, I loved it.
I mean, I th- I thought itwas, first of all, really fun.
I thought that the thingsthat they did to sort of

Beck (40:43):
screen in the

Dash (40:43):
comment on the passage of time in the fashion industry
itself were, it was a good amount.
It wasn't, that was, but that wasn'tentirely what the story was about.
It wasn't like, "Ooh, thingshave changed so much," because
it's like, yeah, we know.
We were there.
We're watching this because we saw thefirst one, and we've lived the years in
between, so you don't have to do all that.
they, so like for instance, therewere gestures to body positivity in

(41:07):
advertising representation, stufflike that, but they didn't need to

Beck (41:11):
like,

Dash (41:11):
preach that to us.
So I appreciated that.
S- and it was done in a way thatshowed that it was Miranda's
character who was the one whowas out of step on that, right?
Like she, it wasn't, she didn'tbecome some like empowered
visionary or something.
So they didn't like go redeemher necessarily, just like
they did in the first one.
At the end, she's still this like kindof steely-eyed, monster of the industry.

(41:37):
Oh my God.
I actually hadn't either.
I watched it because I was going to seethe second one with my friend Elise.
And now I kinda wanna watch the fir-I wanna watch the first one again.
I really enjoyed it.
It was such a surprising movie.

Beck (41:50):
And then she just, like, arrived there.
I've never seen

Dash (41:52):
so yeah, if you, if you watch it, let us know.
I wanna know what you think about it.
Um, and then Gaga was init, which was exciting.
And I think, uh, Anne Hathaway, I'vetalked to several queer women who
were like, uh, y- like younger, likemillennials or even like older Gen
Z who, Anne Hathaway was formativefor them having crushes on girls.
And I was like, "I could totally see it.
She's objectively beautiful andalso kind of like endearing."

Beck (42:14):
know much only watched the trailer.
Very cool.
So yeah, watching the trailer,um, you know, And then

Dash (42:15):
But a big, the, the main complication of the story is the
death of catalogs and the, um,impact of bespoke apps, you know,
based purchasing or algorithmic...
Like, the evolution, because they describethe algorithm in the first one, but they,
they describe it as people-centered.
And, uh, Miranda's character, whichis, um, Meryl Streep's character,

(42:38):
she has a bunch of really great, uh,diatribes and speeches and stuff.
Yes, she is a very good actress.
I mean...
And Emily Blunt.
Like, all the characters were back,so Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt.
There was, like, one or two newcharacters who were also really
fun and felt, like, necessary.
Highly recommend.

(42:58):
There've been a few,like, hit pieces on it.
Like, I've seen people trying to...
It's just rage bait.
I don't think anybody who says somethinglike, "Nobody wanted The Devil Wears
Prada 2 to exist," is actually...
I don't think they actually mean that.
I think they're just tryingto get people to rage comment.
Either that or there's way more stupidpeople out there than I was aware.

Beck (43:15):
Oh, there is, for sure.

Dash (43:17):
You can never underestimate the amount of stupid people.

Beck (43:23):
54% of Americans read below the sixth-grade level.

Dash (43:27):
have you seen the, the video, the TikToks, it's
probably on other social media.
There's a kid walking around his highschool handing a piece of paper to
kids and saying, "Can you read this?"
And it's, it is crushingand, and damning, right?
Like, this...
We have absolutely fucked it up.
for a long time it's beenlike, "Gen Alpha can't read.

(43:48):
Gen Alpha can't read."
And we've been able to go, "Yes,but this," and, "Yes, but that."
But, like, no, this kid is just walkingaround his high school, and the, the
sentence is s- something, she worea silhouette of extraordinary...
It has, like, it was one of those ACTwords, like they gave us when we were
gonna work at call centers with like,um, words to gauge our literacy level,
and they were upperclassmen, clearly.

(44:09):
These were older high schoolkids, and they couldn't read it.
Sev- like, one or two of them I've seen inthe videos could get through the sentence.
And then, but at the end of it, the personasks, "Okay, and what does that mean?"
They didn't know.

Beck (44:21):
Wow.

Dash (44:22):
Oh, it ha- it was the words silhouette, extraordinary, and
d- gauche were the, trick words

Beck (44:27):
Wow.
know I, I often stop and

Dash (44:35):
I know I have

Beck (44:36):
they know what I mean by X term or whatever.

Dash (44:39):
Yeah.

Beck (44:40):
like I explain to them what the judiciary committees were uh,
'cause they had no idea what that was.
I ex- explain the different welfareprograms to them 'cause they

Dash (44:47):
Welfare programs, even if they didn't work.
You know, uh,

Beck (44:51):
Security

Dash (44:52):
complained to the Social Security line is a very hard general.
Like they, they had no idea,

Beck (44:56):
there's a lot...
I mean, and,

Dash (44:57):
Yeah ... there's a lot.
I mean, and, and someof that is youngness.
I don't know

Beck (45:00):
have a full understanding of Social

Dash (45:01):
have a poor understanding

Beck (45:02):
but

Dash (45:02):
Social Security.

Beck (45:03):
that you

Dash (45:04):
But those are the things that they should be covering in school, right?

Beck (45:07):
be a class

Dash (45:08):
there should be a class on, on political or like public life.
I have to pay taxes, how property taxes

Beck (45:14):
a

Dash (45:15):
work, and how buying house

Beck (45:16):
know, all of those

Dash (45:17):
works.
You know, all of those things.
I'm getting off on a tangent

Beck (45:20):
should all be

Dash (45:20):
here.

Beck (45:21):
should be useful stuff taught as well.

Dash (45:24):
That was what our, our home economics class was.
I can't remember if it was called that ornot, but like it, it was things like how
to boil water, how to balance a checkbook.
It-- That was where like we ins-And we only took it one year or one
semester in high school, but I stillremember the things I learned in that.

(45:45):
But this is also, it's a, it's--There's a tension between the skill
of reading and comprehension, andalso what you're talking about,
which is basically just knowledge,you know, awareness of something.
And w- Some-something we did gatekept oneof those things from them, or I-- if not

(46:05):
gatekept, then just kind of left it out.

Beck (46:08):
It's surprising to me how many

Dash (46:09):
surprising to me how many don't know how
make a folder on their phone, like howto save something to a flash drive.
They have no idea how that works,

Beck (46:17):
from

Dash (46:17):
how to send a file from one machine to They have no idea.
I have a kid, like- Uh-huh

Beck (46:23):
.DOCX
because every student has access

Dash (46:26):
student has

Beck (46:27):
on my computer.
I

Dash (46:28):
access to Word.
If I can't open

Beck (46:30):
or, or that kind

Dash (46:31):
it, you know, Word or that kind of thing,

Beck (46:33):
either.

Dash (46:33):
won't let me turn it in either.
And I've had a kid that this semester,

Beck (46:37):
different

Dash (46:37):
he, he had to try five different times, but luckily he turned in a zip

Beck (46:40):
know

Dash (46:40):
file.
Like I don't know what he wasdoing, and finally he got it.

Beck (46:45):
tries and

Dash (46:45):
him like five different tries, like three days of questions.

Beck (46:49):
file in the

Dash (46:50):
Zip file

Beck (46:51):
And that was an athlete

Dash (46:52):
That's been actually Well, and, and there's, there's nothing weird
or wrong about not knowing something.
But the You should be ableto find out, you know?
Like, wh- so I like to read commentson things on social media and, uh,
especially because I like to watchmovie reviews or something like that.
And I saw a really commonthing is someone's like, "Is

(47:15):
this streaming somewhere?"
Why did you comment thaton somebody's TikTok video?
Like, you could've typed that into Google.

Beck (47:23):
Right.

Dash (47:24):
But you didn't.
You typed it into the commentsof a U- a TikTok video that the
person who made won't see, or,and probably won't reply to.
It's weird.

Beck (47:33):
It sounds like my students when they

Dash (47:38):
You're gonna feel like this doesn't apply 100% applies to you.
And I get that.
I say I don't board reactto this dispenser that's

Beck (47:56):
to do with as they please.
Your

Dash (47:58):
with as,

Beck (47:59):
you have

Dash (47:59):
they please.
Your dog dies, you have a fever,

Beck (48:01):
to

Dash (48:01):
you just don't feel like having a class meeting, they
decide how to use this board.

Beck (48:04):
students will be

Dash (48:04):
And over and class system where it costs money to go to

Beck (48:14):
you

Dash (48:15):
the

Beck (48:15):
tell

Dash (48:15):
doctor.
I'm not that kind of doctor.
Yeah.
I tell somebody they can't missclass and then go to a doctor."
That's just the way work.
And over and over, they ask meto make exceptions to things.

Beck (48:24):
me that I

Dash (48:24):
I had one kid tell me that I need to mark him as, uh,

Beck (48:27):
uh, because he was ill, and that was a

Dash (48:29):
when he was ill and he sat next to

Beck (48:32):
no."
Like, he, he formally,

Dash (48:34):
Like he, he formally like what to do.
I love freshmen like that.
I told him, "Okay."

Beck (48:40):
He was using the like emoji

Dash (48:42):
to

Beck (48:43):
to emails,

Dash (48:44):
emails, and

Beck (48:45):
all of his

Dash (48:46):
he marked me all of his emails as No.
No, no, no, no.

Beck (48:50):
So I, I said, "I

Dash (48:51):
So I,

Beck (48:52):
this, but your education is my job, so I'm gonna point this out."
And I said, "This is not professional,and this isn't professional, and
you really shouldn't be doing that.
So have a nice life."
And he was like, "Iwill keep that in mind."
I'm like, "Good for you."

Dash (49:04):
I said, I hate to say but your education is my job,
so I'm gonna put this down.
And I said, "This is not professional.
This is a professional university.
You need to be managed."
Like I would keep that in mind.
Right.
Y- yeah, there's, uh, I mean, there'scertain, um, absences that are
mandated by the university to be,um, verified, excused, and that's it.
That is y- you know, athletics is one ora competition choir, you know, whatever.
But, you know, anything that'sunder my discretion, like There's

(49:25):
no way for me to ensure the equityof what counts as excused or not.
right?

Beck (49:31):
I don't excuse, uh, athletics either.
They get just as many absencesas everybody else, you know?
They have the same rights and entitlementsto my class as everybody else.
I don't care that you're on the golf team.
You don't get extra absences for that.
You make

Dash (49:43):
You make up the

Beck (50:01):
think I've

Dash (50:01):
teams there.

Beck (50:02):
somewhere that I'm a good instructor for athletes
because I am very accommodating.

Dash (50:06):
am very accommodating.

Beck (50:07):
If you

Dash (50:08):
Like, I will...

Beck (50:08):
like, an,

Dash (50:09):
If you come to me with, like, the schedule you think you can go with this
and you're gonna try to do this on thisday, then you can make it up, right?
But if you just miss it, don'ttry to then And they have their
schedules well in advance.

Beck (50:22):
Yeah.
Like, the BGSU band, themarching band went to Ireland

Dash (50:26):
Marching band with the

Beck (50:27):
and I had several

Dash (50:28):
Damn.
And students that

Beck (50:31):
band

Dash (50:32):
were very proactive.
I think the band was telling them tobe proactive and say, "Can we do this?
Can I do this?"

Beck (50:37):
good about getting things

Dash (50:38):
And they were very good about getting it arranged Did you bring
a noun of Appalachian interest?
Hi, Rue.

Beck (50:44):
Hello.
She was too cute to lay-le- leave sitting there.
All right, this week's noun of Appalachian

Dash (50:52):
So now the noun of Appalachian interest is the yesterwear.

Beck (50:56):
your

Dash (50:56):
Yesterwear is that bright, colorful dinnerware.

Beck (51:04):
or in somebody's

Dash (51:05):
It doesn't...

Beck (51:05):
a thrift

Dash (51:06):
These patterns range from British floral shells

Beck (51:08):
where

Dash (51:08):
or even stacks of very firm opinions of kitchenware.

Beck (51:13):
Virginia,

Dash (51:13):
Made in dual Western states, if I was

Beck (51:15):
Company.

Dash (51:16):
about Nashville, yesterday was beautiful.
Dad, it was a super popular trend,

Beck (51:20):
to the

Dash (51:20):
during the time.

Beck (51:21):
generations.
Fiesta itself came out

Dash (51:24):
Yester itself came out of the Great Depression

Beck (51:27):
the table

Dash (51:27):
with little cover of patience.

Beck (51:29):
and that's part of why I love

Dash (51:31):
And that's part of why I love

Beck (51:32):
but

Dash (51:32):
it.
Yesterwear is beautiful,so it is also unique.
It's a bowl, yes, but it is a bowl thatshowed up at the restaurant function.

Beck (51:38):
is your

Dash (51:38):
It doesn't whisper, "Here is your soup."
It said,

Beck (51:41):
in a

Dash (51:41):
"Here is your soup," but it was served in a

Beck (51:42):
we still

Dash (51:42):
turquoise bowl because we still deserve food.
It was a beautiful,

Beck (51:46):
instead of buying one

Dash (51:47):
color that shines still

Beck (51:49):
belonged in a room nobody

Dash (51:50):
like it belonged there.
Nobody was allowed to shame it.
And that makes sense to me.

Beck (51:54):
been about

Dash (51:54):
kitchens have never been about perfection.

Beck (51:56):
gets passed

Dash (51:57):
They're about you, like goddamn

Beck (51:58):
the

Dash (51:59):
What survives the move or the divorce or the yard sale or the
church bake sale is somebody saying,

Beck (52:03):
still

Dash (52:03):
"Hey, that's still good."

Beck (52:04):
right into

Dash (52:05):
Fiesta ware is a bright pattern that's collectible but not delicate
in any way that fancy china can be.
You don't look at it andthink, "Well, I better wait
for the governor to come over."

Beck (52:13):
"Put the beans in that orange bowl."
And people do collect it.
Lord, do they

Dash (52:17):
Collectible.
Where do they collect?

Beck (52:18):
who can spot a

Dash (52:19):
There are folks who can spot a Fiesta ware across an antique mall
like they've been trained by the FBI.
They'll pick up a plate, flip it over,squint at the stamp, and suddenly
they're talking dates and glazers andwhether the bright turquoise is from
'52 or if they're holding mugs that

Beck (52:32):
I

Dash (52:33):
came just one a year.

Beck (52:34):
But behind all that color is labor.
Fiestaware

Dash (52:36):
over.

Beck (52:36):
just a cute

Dash (52:37):
Fiesta ware is not just for the kitchen sink.
It's also part of WestVirginia made in factories.
It comes from a place where peopleworked with their hands, where factory
jobs shaped families and towns, andwhere something made in Appalachia
ends up on tables all over the

Beck (52:50):
operates in

Dash (52:51):
world.
The companies that were

Beck (52:52):
matters.

Dash (52:52):
it out today have that matter.

Beck (52:53):
is

Dash (52:54):
So yes,

Beck (52:54):
pretty, it

Dash (52:55):
ware is cheerful.
It's colorful.

Beck (52:56):
plans for the

Dash (52:57):
It was

Beck (52:58):
bigger

Dash (52:59):
a

Beck (52:59):
about work,

Dash (53:00):
bigger story about work

Beck (53:01):
and the way

Dash (53:01):
and place behind your

Beck (53:02):
part of

Dash (53:03):
dinnerware that ordinary objects become part of family memory.
Because sometimes Appalachia history is a

Beck (53:07):
or a mountain

Dash (53:08):
union hall

Beck (53:09):
and

Dash (53:09):
and a mountain broker,

Beck (53:10):
stack of

Dash (53:10):
and sometimes the stack of plates

Beck (53:11):
in a

Dash (53:12):
is five different colors.

Beck (53:15):
week's noun of Appalachian

Dash (53:16):
Now, Appalachia interest, Fiesta ware, right?
Beautiful, a little extra.

Beck (53:20):
for company.

Dash (53:21):
Now always We never had any.
Did you have some?

Beck (53:23):
I did when I was out on my own but it's been on

Dash (53:25):
Oh.

Beck (53:26):
The Big Bang Theory to, uh, I've seen it on several different shows and

Dash (53:30):
I was just

Beck (53:30):
and stuff.
I had, I think,

Dash (53:32):
to

Beck (53:32):
version of it

Dash (53:33):
say I had the knockoff.

Beck (53:36):
I don't think I had the real thing, but I knew exactly what it was
when I started doing this research.
It's one of those things everybody'sgrandma has a few of them.

Dash (53:44):
Oh, man.
Th- there's some photos ofit on the Wikipedia page.

Beck (53:47):
Uh-huh.

Dash (53:48):
It's
really bringing me back,
this big display.

Beck (53:51):
I

Dash (53:53):
No, me neither.

Beck (53:54):
We can thank Shanna for that tidbit.

Dash (53:56):
Thank you, Shanna.

Beck (53:57):
She knows her West Virginia

Dash (53:58):
have a catalog?

Beck (54:00):
They do?

Dash (54:01):
I'm g- I'm looking.
no, I don't think so.
There's a subreddit.
Fiesta ware subreddit.

Beck (54:08):
Lord, there's a subreddit for

Dash (54:12):
is Reddit for everything.
That's a red flag

Beck (54:15):
Yeah,

Dash (54:17):
We got scraped by an AI though.

Beck (54:19):
We

Dash (54:19):
Yeah.
One day I just opened up the analytics,and it wasn't a day like we had
released an episode or anything, justmiddle, you know, middle of the week,
and it was like hundreds of downloadsand I was like, "Wait a minute."
And then I looked at the map andthey were all over the globe.
Um, but a lot of them came out of Vietnam,and that's kind of a dead giveaway.
F- like Finland, Vietnam, like there,that's where the big data centers

(54:42):
are, and also the newest ones.
And it was last month sometime,and in March Google launched some
new LLM thing, and so I wouldsay a lot of folks got scraped.
So, um, I, I don't know.
I f- I feel kind of some waysabout it, but it's kind of...
It's, so it's like y- yeah, now, now anAI has all the stuff we say, but also it

(55:09):
thought that we were a credible source
. So, somehow it got convinced that, that...
I think it, um, it's lookingfor like a, experiences, right?
Like ins- like the next stage of LLMlearning is onto human experiences.
So I don't know.
What happens if you Google us?

Beck (55:27):
We're fancy.

Dash (55:28):
I'll have to open up a incognito window.

Beck (55:31):
Did you know your mommy is fancy?
She was unaware that her mommy was fancy.
She's doing so good.
But I'm, I'm interested to see howshe's gonna do on the road trip when
we have to pee in, in different placesand, know, we'll see how that goes.

Dash (55:45):
Well, Spotify Global.
Oh, is this our website?
Yeah, it is.

Beck (55:52):
Which needs desperately updated.
' Cause I'm paying for

Dash (55:55):
Yeah, ain't that the way?
Yeah, mostly our episodes comeup, which, you know, makes sense.
I'm, uh, driving up to Fargo.
And I knew I wasn't gonna get up at 3:00and be on the road by 4:00 or whatever.

(56:19):
And if I was, it wouldn't be...
Like, I would, might be sleepy orsomething, so I just got a hotel.

Beck (56:25):
possible to get it done in time for the deadline.
But

Dash (56:26):
I had some,

Beck (56:27):
I'm working on it.
And,

Dash (56:27):
rewards points
left over from when I was a recruiter.
I traveled all the time andstayed at hotels and stuff.

Beck (56:32):
for shows.
So

Dash (56:34):
I got a hotel there in Fargo for, like,

Beck (56:36):
going to Dallas.
And for it.
Yeah.
Get

Dash (56:40):
uh, get up at 4:00 AM and you're like, "There's no way
I can drive, I'm too sleepy."
'Cause I'm, like, fucking narcoleptic.
If I'm too sleepy todrive, I will fall asleep.

Beck (56:47):
5:00 in the morning.
Yeah.
I try to be very careful
I'm not a good driver when I'm sleepy.

Dash (56:52):
I've had to, like, especially when I was r- on the road for recruitment,
I've had to, like, stop on the sideof the road and lay the chair back
and sleep to, like, take a nap.
And this is before I had been,had done the sleep study and
knew that I had a sleep disorder.
But I was like, "This isn't safe.
I'm gonna die or killsomebody or wreck this car."
it's not as bad now that I have, youknow, treatment and stuff, but still.

Beck (57:15):
Yeah.

Dash (57:16):
So I'm gonna go to Fargo and maybe, uh, I might e- eat something interesting,
get some Thai food, might see a movie.
They have actual movie theaters there.
I don't know.
Might do some stuffthat you do in a place.
What about

Beck (57:28):
I'm gonna

Dash (57:30):
you?
I'm gonna give the dog

Beck (57:33):
and

Dash (57:34):
and then come back and pretty much

Beck (57:37):
I

Dash (57:37):
take the day off because I deserve it.
I got my grades in thismorning and Hell yeah.

Beck (57:42):
when I

Dash (57:42):
And then when I get back from

Beck (57:44):
it's

Dash (57:44):
little vacation, it's

Beck (57:45):
the dissertation,

Dash (57:46):
dive back Well, that'll be good.
Get a reset, get back to work.
Yeah.

Beck (57:50):
Yeah, I get to go get some Giovanni's, so I'm
very excited about that.
And then there's this bakery in,

Dash (57:55):
And then there's a

Beck (57:56):
Boston called Scent from Heaven,

Dash (57:58):
they make they make,

Beck (57:58):
make,

Dash (57:59):
and then they deep-fry them in icing.
They are so

Beck (58:00):
and then they

Dash (58:00):
ridiculously good, but they are delicious.

Beck (58:01):
them in

Dash (58:02):
Like That sounds awesome.

Beck (58:10):
I'm gonna get me one of those, and maybe some Tutors too.
My diabetic

Dash (58:14):
Yeah,

Beck (58:14):
not need that, but I'm getting it anyway.
I don't care.

Dash (58:17):
but

Beck (58:17):
in a two-year trip.

Dash (58:18):
again

Beck (58:20):
kill me.

Dash (58:20):
Yeah, the diet starts Monday.

Beck (58:22):
Yeah, no, I'll, I, I try to be more careful than I used to be, for sure.
Uh, but I ain't skipping a donut.
That's, that's, that's all there is to it.

Dash (58:30):
Right.
Yeah, whenever I go home, I'm definitelyhitting up, like, my favorite diner.

Beck (58:34):
Yeah.

Dash (58:35):
Well, congratulations on getting out of the school year.
That goes for everybodyelse who was in one.
thanks for another week.
This is our 50th episode.
As promised, we didn't doanything special at all.
Uh, but, you know, maybe for our one-yearanniversary, which is next month.

Beck (58:52):
Yeah.
That'll be easier.
That'll be...
We,

Dash (58:55):
Well,

Beck (58:55):
two weeks to
so...

Dash (58:56):
a little bit more time.
Um, but yeah, have a, have a good weekeveryone, and we'll see you next time.
Say hi to your mom and them.

Beck (59:04):
Bye.