He Said She Said: Live and with the Alien Guest

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:44):
And welcome to another episode of he said. She said,

(01:47):
I am one of your hosts for the evening, Aggie,
and with me tonight is a very special guest host
is one of the one and only Jeff. I'm doing
this evening.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Loaded question, But hi, Aggie, I'm going to okay, thank
you for having me on.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Well, I just want to give a quick shout out.
Are awesome Kaylaar and radio station owner and my guest,
my host for he said. She said, our beloved Rick
lost his brother this past week, so he has been
dealing with that and we want to express our condolences

(02:30):
on that tragic loss. Hopefully he'll be back with us soon,
but until then, I know that you you are basically
just stepping up and helping us out with the station.
So thank you for producing tonight. I really do appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, to follow up that sad news, I guess we
should also wish someone else a happy birthday. Yes, you
on this show. Yes, and get whipped and never does
shows now and doesn't even produce them, makes me do it?

(03:09):
I know he just kidding.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
He just just threw you to the lions. You know.
That's yes, it's actually there's two special birthdays tonight one
of our favorite Stacy d Mama five. She it's her
birthday as well as well as our beloved Bicky blow
Towards it is his birthday as well, so happy birthday
you two. I'm sure that Mickey is relaxing. He's like,

(03:37):
he's got like a week and a half off right
now and he's just doing his video games.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
But yeah, he's whipped. He's not relaxing the old Mickey way.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Get older, you know, get older, things start, you know,
like creaking and you know, snap crackle pop is no
longer a cereal? Okay, no it is not.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
It is every morning, yes it is.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
It was for me this morning. Oh my word.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah. At least we got him back for the place,
so that's good.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
And I think I saw him and John talking about
doing a podcast soon. You know, John has his his
podcast on John Casts has his podcast up on YouTube,
so maybe we'll see him there too, So.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
That'd be nice. It'd be nice to get the bum
off his ass. Quentin playing video games nicky kid, I
kid anyway, So I'm thinking maybe it's like beetle Juice.
If we say Mickey's name enough, he'll peer in chat
to give us crap.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Well, as long as it's not like bloody Mary, I'll
feel good with that.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
True, very true.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
That was. You know, to this day, I still think
that's one of the weirdest ones because I did have
a friend that tried doing it in the school bathroom
and I was like, and she's one of the smart people,
and she honestly fell for this. So I'm I'm like, okay, anyway,

(05:13):
So so.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
I brought the I brought the high ammunition snack and
drinks tonight.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
What are you having?

Speaker 2 (05:22):
I am. I have two long islands sitting in front
of me. Dude, wow, should get me till ten, and
I am eating some butter cream frosting for my snack.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Okay, that total pass. I do the same thing. I will.
There are times when I will just be like walking
down the sugar isle, you know where they have all
the sugar flour and whatever, and you have the little
tubs of frosting, and I'll just look at that cream cheese,
going yeah, you're coming home with me.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
It was I didn't have any clean cups, or I
would have made microwave cake and then put some of
the frosting on top of the little microwave cake. I
don't know if you've ever had.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
It, but I've had the depression cake. Well, it's flour
and cocoa powder and sugar and bake vinegar and water.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
This is literally three tablespoons of pre made cake mix
and two tablespoons of water in the microwave for a minute.
Oh wow, okay, and it puffs up to a cupcake
to cake inside the cup and inside of a mug.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Interesting, I've never tried that. I know that there was
there's something called depression cake and what it was it
was you didn't It doesn't use any egg, any oil,
any butter, which were very hard to get during the depression.
So it uses flour, sugar, baking sort of vinegar, vanilla extract,

(07:05):
and water. And you you bake that, you know, like
you would a regular cake. And it's very spongy. It's
a little bit denser that most cakes would be, but
it's still cake.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, And that's that's this. This is not going to
replace your cake. But like I'll get one box of
like chocolate cake or red velvet pre mix, and instead
of making a bunch of cupcakes for me and me
and the executive producer, I'll just put them in the
cupboard and an air airtight container and just scoop a
couple out if I'm really craving and I don't want

(07:41):
to make a whole batch just for him and I,
and you know it like it's not the same, not
even close, but it's good and you're happy with the results.
So yeah, it's it's incredible when you're you know, two
o'clock in the morning and you're like, oh, I got
to get this project done. Oh I want some chocolate

(08:01):
or I want some cake, and you can't, you don't
have any. So you just put it in the mug
and do it that way. Yeah, it hits the spot
real quick.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
I'll have to remember that. I will have to remember that.
But you know, the whole I have been I've been
on a kick with You go to Pinterest and you
find all of these, you know, recipes and whatever. But
if you go to like Facebook and they have reels,
and if you had the if you were looking up

(08:33):
recipes right on a different web browser or whatever, and
you go to Facebook, all of a sudden, the reels
are all about recipes because it reads the algorithm on
your phone, you know, right, Yes, So that's how I
learned about depression cake, and she also broke it down
to where you can make it just a single serving

(08:54):
and a mug. So I'm going to be trying that
out this weekkend. Like we discussed that, I did the
beef Borgignon. That was great. Tonight I met Julia Child's
mushrooms and I I'm putting this on my rotation for
the rest of my freakin' life.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
I could not believe how awesome and it was. It
was amazing. The thing is, it wasn't even it wasn't difficult,
and you know, you're I grew up watching Julia Child,
but it was dubbed in Spanish, okay, so I didn't

(09:36):
understand it because she was talking in kitchen terms, and
at age of eight, I didn't know what that was,
you know. But my mom would watch it every so
it would come on we only had two channels where
we were at, and it would come on Sunday afternoon,
and after that it was Domingo Higante whatever it was,

(10:01):
and after that it was Dark Shadows in Spanish, and
I wasn't supposed to watch that, but I would sneak around.
I would come down the hall, go through the kitchen
go around, and then sneak underneath my mom's chair while
she was watching the TV, and I got hooked on.

(10:22):
I didn't know what was going on, but it was melodrama,
so of course I'm hispanic. Of course I'm going to
be drawn to it. So those were the major things
that my mom watched on Sundays. And when I came
over here, I found that Julia Child was on PBS.
They were doing the reruns and everything, and so I

(10:42):
watched those and one of my favorite episodes was when
they remember when they gave her the solid gold pan
the saucepot, because she had said that the best conductor
of heat is gold, so they made her a solid
cold pot and she said I couldn't lift that. She

(11:04):
had trouble because it was so heavy, you know, but
I remember watching that. That was so great. I remember
when she dropped the bird, and I remember when she was,
you know, talking about the eggs and how some people
do separation. They have an egg separator. You don't eat that,
you could just use your hands.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
It's funny you said that because the first when you
said that, the very first thought went to my mind
when you when you said you watched the translated versions
of in the Spanish was Please tell me you ever
watched Justin Wilson The Cajun Cook?

Speaker 1 (11:41):
And I guarante, oh yes, wait then watch Spanish.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
Because I would love to see how they did that.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
I wish, I you know, I would have to ask
my uncle. He's really into cooking shows to this day.
I don't know. I'm pretty sure most of these well
known PBS chefs did get because PBS was a big
part of Puerto Rico and and the reason for that

(12:13):
is that we don't have the variety of channels that
they do over here. So everything that's on PBS over here,
it's usually carried over there, either by PBS or by
a major station, So it doesn't necessarily have to be
the public broadcasting system. It's that it's you know, it's
actually one of the stations there. And I know that

(12:36):
they have had Emerald, they've had Prudon, they had uh oh.
Ramsey is very popular, very popular. The problem with Ramsey
is that over here we would have to beat them,
but over there they don't beat them because what they
do is they substitute a word. So most of my

(12:59):
most of my cousins don't know that he cusses up
a storm.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
They don't know. They don't know.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
They just think that he's he's screaming, but he's screaming
regular words. So it's pretty funny. Yeah. Oh no, it
was great because one of my cousins was visiting here
a couple of years ago. So we're watching at My Bombs,
you know, and we were, you know, I was flipping
the channels and it happened to be Kitchen Nightmares or

(13:26):
something was on, and she just said, oh my goodness,
it's going to Ramsey. I love him. And I said, okay,
we can watch it. And she's she's bilingual, but not
very not as fluent as I am, but she's still,
you know, she's fine with it. And so we decided
to watch it. And after all the beeping, she's like,
why did they keep peeping? And I had to explain

(13:49):
it to her. She was like, you're kidding, I've been
missing this out. I said, oh yeah, you're missing out.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
Well it's so then we spent the night on YouTube
watching these uncensored and she she just loved it. She
fell in love with this man.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Well, I know me and you will occasionally exchange like
Max Miller videos. Uh, you know, because so I know
we both have grown up a long time watching these kinds.
I mean I've turned. I don't know if if he's
still watching them. I gave a couple episodes of Kent
the Cowboy who he was one Food Network for a

(14:28):
little while to Wordy, and also a another one I
sent him was about this guy named Liam who's a
fitness instructor and hates cottage cheese and a bunch of
other stuff but tells you, you know, eat your chocolate,
you know, don't stress, don't stress, just don't overdo it.

(14:49):
And and he tries to make fun of other people.
So it's it's always seems like it's been in our
blood that you know, that we enjoy watching cooking shows
and experimenting. I know with me years ago it was
more into the beer side, but now it's like, Okay,
now I'm starting to come back into the baking and
the cooking side and experimenting here and there. And it's I.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Had this for some reason, I had a like a
mental block, thinking I can't cook like the main chefs,
like like the the ogs. I just I can't do
that until I remember my mom she has she she
has a first edition Julia's Child, you know, mastering the

(15:39):
you know, French Cooking or whatever it's called. I know
it in Spanish, but she has the first edition because
when when my dad was courting her, and the way
my dad courted her was he dated the entire family. Okay,
so eight brothers and sisters and my grandparents. But he

(16:03):
bought this when it first came out in Spanish, he
bought a copy and he gave it to my mom.
And my mom was very afraid of using that book.
And then she figured out that Julia Child actually had
broken it down into simple steps that anybody could do it.
She it really was mastering French cooking by breaking everything down,

(16:27):
you know, and she would give you substitutes and she
would tell you, instead of this, use this, if you
have this, use that, you know, that kind of thing.
It was taking the the mystery out of it, and
my mom took to it. I mean, her freak, I
say came from that book. Her. A lot of the

(16:48):
dishes that my mom mastered came from that book. And
growing up, these were dishes that my mom would make
for special guests that would come to dinner. I never
got to eat any of this. Okay, I'm just going
to put that up. My mom even made as pick
from Julia Child and people ate that. And to this day,
I'm like, when I found out what aspect was, I
was like, but why, I just could not understand it.

(17:12):
My mom made a tomato aspect and people loved it.
I maybe it was the seventies, maybe it was the drugs.
I don't know, but people.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Let's embrace the power of vandal this.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
But you know it just like you know, she just
decided this is an instruction manual and it's all broken down,
and I you know, if I can follow instructions, I
can follow a recipe, and I can honestly say that's
the only book my mom has ever followed a recipe
on everything else, She's like, she doesn't use a book.

(17:46):
She just does, you know, from looking at it or
you know, reading about it or whatever, or she put
something together, whatever reason. But that's the only book she
I remember her actually reading. So when I I want
to say, this was about two thousand and six, two
thousand and seven, I decided to go out and buy

(18:07):
by own copy. And I think this was around the
time that Julie and Julia was coming out. Oh yeah,
I come out, remember, So it brought Julia Child back
into rotation, right, And I'll be I admit it. I
went I saw the movie. I thought the movie was
really kind of cool. The way that they took both lives,

(18:29):
you know, and did a parallel type of thing going on.
I thought that was really cool. And so I figured,
you know, she's taking this on. She decided to just
do the whole book. And I'm like, I've read some
of those recipes and I can tell you right now,
some of those recipes have never see the latter day

(18:49):
in my kitchen to include aspect because I'm not doing that. No.
But you know, because that movie was so popular, they
you know, Barnes and Nobles had had the book. Every
everybody had the book, and I got lucky. I got
it on sale and everything, and I brought it home

(19:10):
and I started reading it, and at first I was like,
so overwhelmed with everything, and I put it away and
I was just like, no, And you know, I have kids.
Kids are picky eaters. There's no way they're gonna eat
any of this stuff. Blah blah blah. So I didn't
even look at it. And it wasn't until I we

(19:31):
moved that I started looking at it again, and at
first I thought I was going to be overwhelmed again.
But if it hadn't been for Max Miller, believe it
or not, I would not have opened that book. I
would not have opened Julia Child's book. And the reason
for that is that Max Miller actually gives you the
history of whatever he's making from, you know, I mean,

(19:55):
tasting history is such a great concept because that's the
kind of stuff I studied in school.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Right history and food I'm.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
In is exactly my favorite. My mentor was a nutritional anthropologist,
so of course all of this stuff was like ingrained me.
And so to see him actually break down and tell
you how to do these things, you know, to see
him doing it right there in a video, I was like,
I can do this, and so I went and I

(20:26):
did that. I pulled out my James Beard book. I
pulled out all of these books that I had been
gifted or my parents gave me from their stash of
recipe books throughout the years, and so I have I
can honestly say I am not intimidated by Julia Child anymore. Anybody,

(20:47):
any woman that can just drop a drop a bird
and then just pick it up and keep going. It's
got my own.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
So I have a follow up question to this, believe
it or not.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
What is the weirdest thing you have in your refrigerator
right now?

Speaker 1 (21:11):
Okay for consumption or otherwise for consumption? I have an
elderberry tincture. Okay, Yeah, I think that's the weirdest thing
that I have in my refrigerator right now, and only
because I cleaned out my refrigerator because there were some

(21:33):
things in there that would looking back at me. So yeah,
but I think that's the honest thing I have. What
about you?

Speaker 2 (21:42):
I have a hot sauce made from craft beer that
is mostly green Jalapeno's White Vinegar Stalt. But the beer
it's made out of is one of the worldwide ranked
number one beers that I absolute hate. I hate the
beer and there is no other way for me to

(22:05):
describe it as the in the way I'm going to
in the way I'm going to describe it is absolutely sick.
The beer itself tastes like robotic vagina. A yeah, I
know that's what it tastes like to me. Okay it is.

(22:27):
But for whatever reason, in this blend of green hollowpanions
and white vinegar and salt, if I make a little
bit of cheese sauce and put a little bit in, awe,
I will dip chips, chicken, anything in that thing and
we'll just enjoy the crap out of it. It is

(22:47):
so weird that I hate the beer. And like I said,
it's one of the top ranked beers in the world.
It's heady top or by alchemist. I mean, this is
beers where people when they found out and when I
was brewing beer lived in Vermont, the very first question
was can you ship me some? Not is it good

(23:08):
or whatever? Can you ship me some? So? You know,
so for me to hate that beer that much, but
the company that uses it in their hot sauce is
like chef's kiss. It's perfect. You only need a little
bit to do, you know, depending on your heat flavor.
Like ill I added all my case ideas, it's like,
oh yeah, it's just amazing.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
I just your description is still kind of I yeah,
I got nothing, but it's accurate.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
It trust me, it is accurate. And with that Chinese
robot that was just put out on the video, I
have to admit I did chuckle because I was like, oh,
I see a product placement ad coming soon.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Well, well, the reason I have the elderberry tincture. I
was at the farmer's market and there was a gentleman
that was selling, you know, all sorts of weird things.
But I saw the elderberry tincture and I thought it
was kind of strange that that was made into a
tincture because normally you use bark, you use leaves, you

(24:24):
use stems. You know, you use the green and the brown,
but never the red. But they that's something we used
to say in purples, use the green and the brown,
but never the red. You don't use the berries to
make tinctures. You use the rest of the stuff to
make tinctures. And so I asked, and he said that

(24:45):
before they ripen, you can make the tincture so that
you know, and everything, and it's supposed to aid in digestion.
It helps the flora in your gut. You know that
kind of thing. Now, ask me if it's open.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
I think that question had a leading answer your own.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Yeah, I have not. I'm like, you know, I'm I'm chicken.
I'll admit it. I have my and the thing is,
the weird thing is is that I do have herbals
in my house because my miner in college it was geography,
but it was botany. E's a botany, which falls under geography,

(25:27):
and so we all learned how to make all sorts
of stuff from you know, uh, greenery, plants and woody
shrubs and trees and pine needles and whatever. And so
I'm not afraid of doing that. Hell, I grew up
with a My grandmother would make the weirdest ship and

(25:48):
it worked. Okay. I remember being in uh the Tmi.
But when I was younger, I used to have excruciating
cramps during that time of the month. And so when
I was in Puerto Rico, I was not well and
I was in the room in bed and I was

(26:09):
just curled up and dying. And my grandmother walks in
and she asked me what was wrong, and I told her,
because you can't keep anything from your grandma, no, So
she said, oh, I got something for that. She comes
back later would be most disgusting smelling stuff. So I
asked her, what wasn't it? She said, oh, it's just

(26:31):
a little bit of milk onions some ginger root. I
did get some cumin put in there. There's cinnamon and
then some other stuff that she grows in the backyard
that doesn't grow here. It just grows in the backyard.
And I looked at her. I was like, and this
is for pain, right, She said, just drink it all up.
So I drank it. I'll be damned. I was fine

(26:55):
for the rest of the cycle. I did not have nothing, nothing.
And when I went to ask her exactly what was
in it, She's like, oh, I just threw stuff together.
She couldn't tell me how much. But imagine milk and onions.
Imagine that put together in a in a pine in
a pan set to boiling, and then adding all of

(27:16):
this stuff in there. And I think one of them
was recau, which is a it's a it's a it's
a weed that we use in cooking it. What's in
there too? You know? All this stuff was in there
and it and it worked. And that was That was
the only time in my young life when I did

(27:38):
not have pain throughout my cycle. And she could never
give me the recipe because she had no idea. She
just threw stuff together. So I'm not afraid. I know
it's pretty much it. Uh and uh yeah she lived
up to that too, So there's that. But I'm not
afraid of actually doing herbals and stuff like that. I mean,

(27:58):
I consult my herbals all the time, and I make
my own, you know, pultices and stuff like that. Here,
I know everything works. I have this thing. It's like
if I didn't make it, I'm like, how do I
trust it? So it's still unopened in the refrigerator.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
That's too funny. Yeah, I am speaking of that kind
of stuff. I walked in. We have Vermont has legalized
a certain substance and oh really, yes, And I love
going into the shops even though I don't partake. And
I'm waiting. I'm waiting for the first one to give

(28:40):
me a ten percent discount just because of my name.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
I would have imagined that everybody would give you a discount.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
So far, I haven't gotten authorized by anyone. I don't
know if it's legality issues in this state or not
that they just simply can't. I haven't been bothered to ask.
And but yeah, if I ever walk in the one
and get that ten percent discount, I will walk out
with something. Even though I've never never really done any
of it, but it reminds me of I got really

(29:13):
pissed off recently. And I love cooking with wine. I
mean I love drinking it, don't get me wrong, but
I love cooking with wine. And one of the things
I like is, especially if I can do it, soak
my steaks and a mouth back for a little bit.

(29:35):
And I went to grocery shopping with my son a
couple of weeks ago and they wouldn't sell me the
wine because he didn't have an ID.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
Wait, because your son didn't have an ID, you couldn't
buy the wine.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
Yes, So I was like, okay, this wait, yes, but
do you have the ID? Yes? Yes. So I'm thinking, okay,
this is a one off. This is I hate saying it.
This is a really elderly woman who was checking us,
you know, cashiering. Maybe she misheard a new rule or something.

(30:20):
And the fact that it was in New Hampshire really
threw me off, because I mean, you don't even need
a helmet to wear a motorcycle. But they're gonna get
pissy I'm buying wine with my son present. So the
very next night I go to the local convenience store
It's about eight thirty and I'm like, you know, I'm
gonna I'm gonna soak some stuff overnight, and they refuse

(30:44):
to sell it. And this was in Vermont. They refuse
to sell wine because my son didn't have ID. And
I'm like, dude, he's seventeen, he's my son. Well, I
can't sell it to you. Well, you know, because I don't.
I don't have proof that he's actually your son. I
stopped and looked at him and went, dude, pardon my language,

(31:06):
take a fucking look at us. This is me and
mini me. You don't need any more proof than that. Yeah,
I wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
I've seen pictures.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Yeah, told me, yeah, the guy wouldn't. The guy wouldn't
do it. So I left everything on the counter, told
him to go f himself, and walked out of the store. Well,
there's another convenience store right next door. I literally kept
my car in the parking lot, daring that asshole to call.
I walked over with my son to this next one,

(31:36):
got the exact same stuff we got at the other
convenience store. Went to check out. The lady goes, okay,
this is your total. Okay, thanks, And then I was like, well,
you're not going to ask for his ID? She goes, no,
why would I? And I was like, the last two
places I've tried to buy alcohol with my son I
was told no. And I'm like and then she's like

(31:58):
what I said, Yeah, New Hampshire, Vermont. Is there a
new rule I haven't been told about? She goes, hell no,
and she goes, besides, take a look at you too,
I can tell your father and son. I'm like, thank you,
because if my son's not driving or doing anything, he
doesn't always bring his license or you know, identification. I'm like, what,

(32:22):
So twice in a span of a couple of days,
it happened to me. I'm sitting here and going, what
the hell is going on with the I I almost
agreed with Rick and and already saying cern was to blame,
that's how bad it was. And if I'm saying Stern
was at fault.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
I'm just trying to figure. I'm trying to make it
work in my head, because if your son's not with you,
you're allowed to buy the wine and then go home
where your son is at I'm right, yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Now, I'm not going to say I've ever done this
or I am going to plead innocent of ever asking
someone who was of drinking age, of ever getting me alcohol.
But if that case ever came up, as sure as
hell was not walking into the store with him. Yeah,

(33:17):
I'm buying alcohol for this underage stranger who's standing right
next to me with no ID. No, no, that dude
would be standing on the corner, you know, three hundred
yards away, so no one can freaking see him if
I was to buy him or give someone twenty bucks
for a six pack. You know, I'm just saying, he's
not going to be standing right next to me, let alone,

(33:40):
looking like a beardless version of me many years ago.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
I'm just it makes no sense to me. It really doesn't,
because it doesn't matter if I mean, as long as
if your sense out there, they would sell it to you.
But your son would be in the car. Wait maybe,
and it makes no sense.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yeah, yeah, I was. I was flabbergasted that I was.
Like I said, when when I walked over and I
even told her, I said, yeah, I left my car
in that parking lot, walked over to here. I said,
I'm daring that s B to call over here. I'm
daring them too, And even She's like, yeah, they've gone
through a lot of employees. They probably have been selling

(34:24):
the minors, so he's probably being overly college. So I'm like, ah, okay,
that makes sense. Doesn't explain the old lady in New Hampshire.
But yeah, I was like, come.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
On, yeah, yeah, I got nothing.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Yeah, I got nothing. And I like to think I'm
a reasonably intelligent person that can deduce things. I got nothing.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
Yeah, I just I don't understand that at all. That
makes absolutely no sense.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
And the weirdest, weirdest part is the convenience store. I
went to the main reason I go there. The manager
who works days shipped was a friend of the family.
So I showed up the next morning and looked at her.
I said, hey, you hear about the incident last night.

(35:16):
She's looking at me like yeah. I said, yeah, next time,
tell the asshole to serve me my wine. She just
started laughing.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
I just seriously, I'm just I got I got nothing.
I honestly, I can't make it work in my head.
So yeah, it's probably sir.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Yeah, you know, I hate agreeing, I really do. Now, Yeah,
there was a hiccup insern activity that day or those
couple of days had to have been because I.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Got every day.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
No, sirn is innocent most of the time, but for
maybe a three day period, maybe they were focusing on
that Atlas that everyone thinks is an alien ship, and
and maybe they'd messed up the timeline a little bit
and everything kicked up. I'm willing to.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Give grace discern.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
I'm willing to allow blame being placed concerned for at
least three to seven days.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Okay, I can I Okay, that's a deal.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Okay, I.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Set up every day.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
Oh but yeah, that that on top of everything else
that's happened in this last last week I was talking
to you pre show, I had a two hundred and
fifty pound printer fall on me just thanks to it,
thanks to obey them. So that was fun. I was

(36:50):
he I was impressed that I could still with my
bum bum ankle, I was able to hold it all
from crashing solidly to the ground. So I was impressed
that I still had at least enough core strength that I,
you know, I prevented it from crashing until the they
them could strap it into the dolly and we could
get it in the right position. But yeah, this was this,

(37:11):
This is all all of this has happened probably within
ten days, and I'm just like, oh, and I know
M will probably bust my balls on this one. But
I'm the reason we didn't do Spirited last week. Oh
it's you.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
I don't mind taking I was. I was so exhausted
from the play and everything else that took place afterwards
that I I couldn't even find time to pick a
book let alone read one.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
But yeah, it was. It was a hectic week.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
I have a book I haven't read. We are definitely
on for Monday because out of the next ten days,
Monday is one of the few days we are not
getting snow, so we will be on for Monday, one.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Of the few days I can't I okay, I know,
I get it. It is November and you are way
up north compared to me. But considering I was in
a T shirt, I felt kind of bad to at snow.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
I mean, it's only thirty one thirty two, so you
know it's I'm still in a light jacket even with
the snow. I'm not in the winter winter gear yet.
But there is one thing about snow, and actually part
of the Spirited books. I think it is interesting because

(38:38):
there's always this great ex Twitter social media debate. I
would love to get your opinion on. Okay, is it
too early to decorate?

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Okay? So I cannot say that snow is a determinant
for decorating because half of the world right now is
about to slip into summer, and so you can't really
use snow as a guideline unless you know you live

(39:14):
in the northern Hemisphere, in which case, okay, fine, but
there are places that have snow like ten months out.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
Of the year.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
So you know, what are you gonna do? So I
try to take weather out of it. I grew up
in Puerto Rico. We did not have snow. We had
those little pine trees. They start with an N. That's

(39:39):
the name of the pine. It starts with an N
and I can't think of it, but you know, they
grow in Puerto Rico because they're very temperate. They can
wear in tropical areas, one of the few pines that can.
So that's what we use for Christmas trees. We didn't
have unless you were rich and you had it shipped in. Yeah,

(40:01):
we didn't have We had different Christmas trees, but for us,
you know, we didn't have snow, so but we did.
Even though Thanksgiving is a bigger holiday over here than
it is over there, we did observe it. Yeah, and
it was observed by having the you know, because it's

(40:23):
public schools. You know, you did have the two days off.
We don't have football. We weren't watching football. We were
actually having the feast, you know, And it was a
big family gathering otherwise known as Saturday, and most Hispanic
households and you know, every everybody came and it was
a big thing. You had a turkey if you had

(40:46):
a lot of money, or if you do somebody that
was raising turkeys, and lucky for us, we did know
somebody that was raising turkeys. Turkeys are not indigenous to
Puerto Rico, so they you know, it's unlike guinea fowl
that's everywhere, which is weird because over here guinea fowl
is outrageously expensive and I'm like, we could literally go

(41:07):
down the street and pick one up, you know, from
the corner. They are everywhere. I'm not even joking. So
for me, I always got used to the whole American
thing about decorating for Christmas. After Thanksgiving, there was we

(41:30):
paused because November was specifically a fall month. It was
not a winter month, and that's when Thanksgiving was. And
I love Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is for me, it's different for
me than it is for most Americans, I have to say,

(41:50):
the concept of having a day specifically set aside for
where we give thanks for the things in our life
and for everything that's happened to us and everything. And
it's a secular holiday. You don't even have to bring
religion into it to be grateful and be thankful. So

(42:10):
for me, it was like it was a big deal,
you know. And so growing up, Thanksgiving was something that
we especially my mom when we came over here, she
made a big deal about Thanksgiving because we couldn't make
a big deal about it over there, because we couldn't
you know. Yeah, we could get our hands on a
on a turkey, don't get me wrong, but it was

(42:33):
always such a big production for the whole family that
one turkey wasn't always enough. It was never enough, I
should say, so only the grown ups would get the turkey.
The kids would get you know, rice and beans. Whi's fine.
I like rice and beans, right, yeah, But you always
wanted one of those big ass drumsticks because those things

(42:54):
were half your size and you just wanted to be
able to club somebody else with it. But I never
got the chance. So for me, I always I liked
that tradition that a lot of people decided on that
it was okay to decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving. And
when I lived in Germany, that was not even something

(43:16):
they did. You didn't decorate your tree until Christmas Eve.
And I was like, no, I want my tree throughout December.
I want to If I'm going to put this much
effort into my tree, I want to leave some months
worth out of it.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
So for me, you know, I prefer to wait until
after Thanksgiving, simply because Thanksgiving deserves respect.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
Okay, well, it's funny because I like rexious types. I
had a turkey drumstick last Saturday. Got out of the fair.
I don't know. You have to remember I grew up
in Maryland. Now, for those that do not know, Maryland

(44:04):
State song is based on the German song Lauriger Horatius
And if you don't know that song, that is the
same tune as O. Tannenbaum. Now, yes, so you literally
sang Maryland, my Maryland. So from an early age, you

(44:26):
already are tuned into otannan Bomb and school starts in September,
so from especially from an early age, you're singing basically
O Tannenbomb, learning the Maryland State song from a very
early age, so it's already subliminally put in your brain.
Now that said, Maryland has a lot of beautiful Christmas

(44:47):
tree farms, so we wouldn't get our tree until you know,
the first week of December. But moving to Vermont, all
of it changed. The first hollowe I was here, I
was told, point blank, prepare two costumes, normal and one

(45:10):
that fits over a snowsuit. So when you start planning
on Halloween and thinking of snow, you get put into
Christmas mood way way earlier than I ever have in
my life. And it is so weird because I have

(45:34):
finally fallen into a pattern where all the decorations come
out the day after Halloween. The artificial tree gets put
up the day after Halloween, but I do not decorate
until Thanksgiving, so it's kind of a blending of the
waiting and not waiting. So for about three and a

(45:57):
half four weeks, you know, I'm walking in the house,
walking in the living room, I'm seeing the bear Christmas tree.
So it's like, okay, we're almost there. We're almost there,
We're almost a Christmas side. And then as the football
games come on and I'm making eat my son and
myself our Thanksgiving dinner, you know we will start putting
decorations on the tree and elsewhere and go with it.

(46:19):
But it is. It's funny how Thanksgiving has a different
feel of all places up here in New England. You know,
you would think they would still love to celebrate the food,
and they do. They have big town get togethers where
the town sponsors meals and everyone from the town goes
to their little local whatever rec center and building they're doing,

(46:44):
and you know, you can get up to one and
two hundred townsfolk there to have a meal in laughter.
But even that is already decorated for Christmas. You know,
people have already had their snow tires on, people have
already been playing the music. So it's weird here. And
I don't know any other way just to say it's

(47:05):
weird because there they don't they haven't pushed Thanksgiving out
mm hmm. But it's like the red headed stepchild. You
still pay attention to it and you still feed it,
even though it's a red headed stepchild. But you're you're, you're,
your your focus is on on that Sydney Sweeney tree

(47:26):
in the corner waiting to be decorated.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Okay, I guess you know for me? I have you
guys have one tree? Correct? Or do you have more
than one?

Speaker 2 (47:54):
One technical tree to electric trees? Because EP and I
both have a little little metal, probably twelve inches tall
Christmas tree with white LEDs that we put on our
on top of our computers for Christmas.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
Okay, all right, well that's that's that's doable. I have
more than that. I have. I have my main tree,
the crab tree. I call it the crab tree. And
this goes back several years, two thousand and six. I
believe a very dear friend of mine. He passed away

(48:37):
a few years ago. He was well known on x
He was at Dave in Texas. He wrote a blog
post called the Crab Tree and it was a story
of hes. He was a child at heart and he
loved Christmas, and every Christmas he would get the gaud
some of the gaudiest, you know, decorations for the tree

(48:58):
and everything, and he just had he had chili pepper lights.
I gifted him some shotgun shell lights. He would always
get the Godzilla ornament. Just it was a mishmash of everything.
And the reason it was called the craftree was because
his wife bought a bunch of beautiful ornaments for the

(49:22):
tree that was going to be in the front room,
which had the big window that phased out so that
everybody could see. And when he saw that the tree
was up, he got excited. He goes up to the
addic to get everything down, and his wife screens at him, No,

(49:43):
this is the fancy tree. It does not get the crap.
So why it became the craft tree. So the one
in the den had all of the ornaments that were mismatched,
but that meant something for the family and everything, and
so that became the crabtree. And so we each had
uh in his circle. Everybody had a crab tree. And

(50:03):
so I have the crab tree, which has the ornaments
that means something to me. The ornaments my kids made,
the ornaments my mom has gifted me. Ornaments that I've
got that I've gotten through my travels. You know things
that things I've made, you know, those are upon the tree.
I have my wine tree, which is I have the
Lolita wine ornaments, wine glass ornaments, and that goes on

(50:29):
one tree. I have my death Star tree, which the
mover's broke, so I have to get a black Christmas
tree because it has to be black because it's all
of these are you know, space themes ornaments, so it
looks like they're all floating in space. So I have
to get that done this year. I have the Peacock tree,
which has all my glass peacock ornaments that I bought

(50:50):
when I was in Germany. I have it's so you
see where I'm going with this. There's there's a lot
and so then I would like to get a Christmas
tree for outside. But the problem with having a Christmas
tree outside is that risting birds will find them. Yes, yeah,

(51:11):
I was very surprised one year because I did not
expect that and it meant to my surprise when I
find when I find this crow just flew out at
me and I just I screamed, and it was it
wasn't pretty, but you know, so I would like to

(51:34):
get one for outside that is not green, but it's
just it's lit like maybe just lights or something. I
don't know, something to decorate outside, but all of the
bedrooms have their own Christmas tree. There's the pink and
white Christmas tree that goes in the guest house. There's
the Twelve Days of Christmas tree. So I have so
many Christmas trees. I started just putting them on rotation

(51:57):
because I didn't know where to put them. And then, yeah,
then the hammer came down and everybody in my family
said we need all the Christmas trees up, and I'm like,
who's going to help me? And nobody volunteered. Nobody volunteered.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Isn't that amazing how that always happens.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
Yes, So I've decided that for the week, you know,
the day after Thanksgiving, for the next five days, that's
when I put up all the main trees. So one
tree will be one day, the next tree will be
the next day, then the other tree, and so forth
and so on. And thankfully there's only three trees that
are more than six week talk. The rest are manageable.

(52:41):
One is four feet, one is three feet or something
like that, and then the ones in the bedrooms are
all you know, one and a half feet or something
like that. So it's doable. It's just I don't have
them predecorated, so I have to gather to ball the
decorations and everything. And oh, I do have one called

(53:01):
a jam tree. And the reason it's called the jam
tree is that all of the ornaments are the color
of raspberry jam or grape jam. They all look jammy
to me, so I just call it the jam tree.
So it's all royal colors and everything. But my favorite

(53:22):
tree to put up is the crab tree because as
I unwrap every single ornament, it means something to be yes, yes,
And I have all of my kids ornaments. They all laugh, Mom,
I can't believe that you kept all this stuff. And
I'm like, are you kidding me? I'm about to shellack
the hell out of this stuff so that it lasts forever.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
Right, No, it's funny you say that because thinking back
to with Thanksgiving coming up, I growing up, I used
to live next to my grandmother and grandfather who still
had a minor arm at like five acres. Now before
they quote unquote retired, they had a couple hundred acres
of farm property that they sold to their eldest son,

(54:04):
but they still call. Everyone from the family would come
and includes gentlemen from Alabama gentlemen from Oh God, where
was I think he was in Texas at the time.
And she would have three Thanksgiving meals in a given
day because family members were expected to eat at certain hours.

(54:31):
And I remember because since I lived there and I
worked on their farm, I got to be around all
of it and help in the kitchen and help help
do this and all that. But all the men would
be in the living room watching watching football, and the
women would be, you know, cleaning up, and then the
next group of family would come in and same same thing.
It was like you'd have four uncles at one o'clock,

(54:54):
you'd have like another three uncles at four o'clock. But
the moment Thanksgiving was done, I always waited for my grandmother,
who always called me Shorty because she was four foot
nine and I'm six foot one, and she would always
soon as that soon as that last plate was cleared

(55:16):
off the table, I would stand in the room in
the living room waiting, and then when she gave this
the okay, I would run up the three stare three
stories of the house to go up into the attic
to dig out the Christmas stuff and the smell in
the act. Now the house was built in eighteen sixty,

(55:40):
so you know you're talking real wood, real timber. And
the smell in that attic, Oh yeah, that I'll never
ever forget that smell of that attic. But digging that
stuff out, digging the train out, now, we didn't set
it up even after Thanksgiving, but it was my job
to bring it down for her and get it in

(56:01):
in the in her sewing room and get it ready.
You know, everything placed out and you know, clear clear
the corner, you know, make sure the fireplace is cleared.
And I just like, ah, there are there are moments
I missed that because, like I said, the smells of
the food and most of the you know, most of
the food was farm grown, all most of it was

(56:22):
fresh outside. She would get buy turkeys. But oh, just
you know, I just I just remember the chaotic chorus.
The week leading up, like like she would send out
because she had my grandmother had two daughters, she would
send out a list of food that would need to
be made two to three days before Thanksgiving, and then

(56:46):
she would send a list to all the wives of
her sons that were coming saying this is what they
needed to bring. And it was just ah, it was
awesome and then that was where I was introduced to
authentic German sausage because my uncle from Alabama married a

(57:08):
German woman and named her name was Gertrude, and she
would bring some of the best German food I've ever had,
and at Christmas time she went all over board because
they would stay up for a week at Christmas time,
so she would take German food out the walls when
I'm sitting there going hah. Until I went to high

(57:29):
school and she learned I was speaking German and would
only speak to me in German. Then I hated it.
But yeah, it's always that fun, fun times, fun get togethers,
and don't get I don't hate Thanksgiving, but especially in

(57:50):
the last twelve years, it's been me and my son,
so it's like, you know, I don't have anyone to
cook for. I don't know anyone up here. I'm like, eh,
let's just do this and do this and we'll make
our holiday tradition setting the tree up. So it's it's weird,
but I do miss the childhood events of what Thanksgiving was.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
Yeah, man, I'm just like overwhelmed just thinking about all
the ship I have to bring down from it. Sometimes.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Sorry, you're not going to have the show.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
I'm gonna been kind of overwhelmed. It's okay, Oh.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
That is yeah. So is there is there anything for
Thanksgiving you have to make?

Speaker 1 (58:47):
Oh dah.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
I can't stand that.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
I can't stand Yes. Yes I do. I make Brussels sprouts. Yes,
I have the only one in my family that cannot
stand Brussels sprouts. But everybody loves them. So I actually
do saute them in bacon fat and people seem to

(59:12):
like it. They eat it. But like I, you know,
I don't make turkey for Christmas anymore. Excuse me for well,
I don't make it for Christmas either. I don't make
it for Thanksgiving. And everybody asked me, why don't you
make turkey? Turkey is what we're supposed to eat on Thanksgiving,

(59:34):
I said, if you recall the first Thanksgiving, they had
no turkeys. They had fish. So they had fish, they
had lobster oysters. I mean it got a little pricey. Yes, yes,
but my family really likes how I roast duck, and

(59:57):
so we got into that habit of making roast duck
for Thanksgiving instead of turkey. Now I made the mistake
of cooking for my parents, and I got them hooked.
As a matter of fact, when I was when my

(01:00:17):
dad was in the hospital, he really did not feel
like eating anything. He passed it he had he was asperating.
He said he had a idol hernia and so he
was not eating a lot. But when he found out
that I was going to make a roast duck, he said,
can you break some? And so I had to clear

(01:00:39):
it with ICU and I said, look, if this is
the only way I can get him to eat anything,
because at the time we weren't aware of how great
the situation was. And the doctor told me, oh, yeah,
I'll bring it and he said, how do you make it?
So I explained everything and he was like, that sounds
really good. So I brought the doctor a little bit

(01:01:00):
so he could try it as well, and he was
like super wowed with it. And I'm like, it's just
it's kind of a little labor intensive because you do
have to turn the duck, you know. Yeah, I don't
have a rotisserie. I don't have a you know. But
other than that, it's not that difficult to make. So
my dad got to eat a little bit before before

(01:01:22):
he passed away, so he was quite happy about that
my mom. When they were here, my dad came up
here for a week to visit up here with friends
and my mom. And while they were here, it was
Easter Sunday. So I made a roast duck for them
Easter Sunday, and of course they were all very happy

(01:01:42):
about that. And so Mom is now planning on being
here for Thanksgiving. First words out of her mouth were like,
you're gonna be making a roast duck, right, I'm actually
making three.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
Oh my god, it's funny you say that because I
make duck breast poutine for Christmas. Oh. And the what
I was in charge with with Mike when I was
married to my first wife was she also was a
big historian frequ when it came to Thanksgiving. You know,
I kept reminding her, like, you know, your family's a

(01:02:16):
part of the KKK, right, we might want to be
a little careful on how we celebrate history. But she
insisted on having Maryland crabcakes because you know, we lived
in Maryland, and I forget where I found the might
have been my grandmother's recipe I found for crab cakes

(01:02:39):
and I made it for her one one night. Just
you know, I was like hey, let's let's I'll make
you this special dinner because you know you've worked, you worked,
you've been working hard, you're doing this. And I made
it and she goes, oh my god, this is the
best I've ever had. And I'm like, okay, thank you,
I'll take your word for it. So at the very

(01:02:59):
next Thanksgiving, she's like, Jeff, you got to make a
bunch of the crab cakes. I'm like, oh, come on, no,
because proper Maryland crab cakes can take up to twenty
four hours to prep. I'm like, uh, I'm like okay,
And I make it and I'm sitting here. You know,
there's like eight people at the table. They're all chowing
down and oh man, this is awesome, this is great.
And I'm sitting there looking at him, going, I hate

(01:03:21):
you all. I hate you, absolutely hate you because I
can't have a damn bite because I'm allergic. Oh no,
I could tell how how awesome they smelled. Like as
I'm as I'm making them up smelling, I'm gonna go, oh,
this was freaking amazing. Okay, here you go have fun

(01:03:47):
instead of just sit at the table and see them
chowing down on and just and I'm eating dry turkey
because she didn't know how to make turkey. Yeah, oh yeah,
that was mine. I'll I'm not saying that's why we
got divorced, but I'm not saying it wasn't why we
didn't stay together. You're awful, Yes, yes, I am.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
Yes, I am. Well, I know. Let's see. I think
that's about the only thing I don't like making that
I make for Thanksgiving because everybody else likes it, and
thankfully I don't have to deal with leftovers. But I

(01:04:38):
do make things for myself that nobody else likes, so
so balances out right. They're okay with I make I
guess sweet potatoes, yeahs, whatever you want to call it.

(01:04:59):
I like them into rounds, and then I coat them
in butter, melted butter, and I put them on a
sheet and I sprinkle the I sprinkle salt and cinnamon,
and I forget what else and some other herb or whatever,

(01:05:21):
and I roast those and they like them like that.
But I prefer to have all of the sweet everything
in Miam so I will I will mash them and
then I will put brown sugar and butter and marshmallows
in there and bake that shit. So I have one

(01:05:43):
little side that it's aline, and everybody else gets the
rest of.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
It's It's funny you say that, because I know we've
done the play Miracle on thirty fourth Street, and you
know how it's always the Thanksgiving parade always ended with Santa.
And I don't know if this was just a Pennsylvania
Dutch thing, but one of the desserts that got brought
out was a celebration of the Christmas season about to come.

(01:06:10):
And there are a handful of people who know what
this candy is and some don't. It's called potato candy.
It's basically basically, you take a rusted potato, add a
crap ton of powdered sugar, make a dough, then put
jeff peanut butter, spread it out, roll it up and
cut it in the candies. Now, what you do is,

(01:06:30):
after you make the dough, you split the dough in
three and you food collar it so it's red, white,
and green pieces. So that gets brought out as the
after after everything else has been been put away, that
I brought down the Christmas stuff, the plate a potato
candy would come out. They'll get kind of signal. Okay, now,
we're in the Christmas mode, and it was okay, you

(01:06:56):
you you boil a potato, you add powdered sugar and
Jeff peanut butter. You couldn't get simpler. I mean, it's
practically boiling water level. I cannot make potato candy up here.
I have been trying for eighteen years and I have
not found the ratio. Something is different up here, and

(01:07:19):
it pisses me off. I cannot make it. And it's
like the one person I know who makes perfect is
I don't speak to anymore. So I'm like, ah, every year,
I'm like, I have my potato candy, and even the
stores that do sell a version of it, it is

(01:07:41):
not the same. And already it may be I just
haven't found out what that ratio is to make it.
And you know, normally it's like with one potato, it's
roughly fitting on the side of potato, six to eight
cups of powdered sugar. Okay, so you're I mean, it's

(01:08:03):
it's diabetes in a bowl, okay, which I'm good with
im yes, And and the Jeff peanut butter cuts it perfectly.
Now you need do need creamy? None of this nuts crap.
And already that's the crazy part. I'm under forty five hundred,
so I shouldn't have to change anything. But there is

(01:08:25):
something I don't know. If we get our recip potatoes
from like you know, up here, I don't know. I
don't know. It is so weird. I can never get
the right mix and right ratio to get it into
dope form.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
That's really odd. I mean, I I do an altitude
doesn't really get it doesn't come into it because you've
had it there, so it's not the altitude correct.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
No, And already I used to live right next to
Potomac River, so really low altitude. So I don't I
don't get it. There's just something different that I joked
about eight years ago when I was last down in
Maryland going, I wanted to buy the ingredients down there,

(01:09:15):
including the water, and bring it up to make it.
I never did, though, I would laugh my ass off,
And next time I go to Maryland or down that area,
pick up all the greats to bring home and I
can make it. All of a sudden again it's just weird.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
Cern will actually flip just a little bit and then
you'll get it right.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
Maybe it is the weirdest out of it. I mean,
I can grow award winning beer, I understand water chemistry,
I understand ingredients and how to use them, and I
can't make the potata candy. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's hilarious.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
Isn't he It.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
Makes no rhyme or read. Maybe maybe maybe I have
to show the potato my son's I d before I'm
allowed to make it. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
Yeah, one day, one day, you'll, you know, cern will
like somebody will find the screw that fell off and
put it back on, and you'll be able to make
the potato candy.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
Do I need to get you know, mid of night
grown Russet potatoes? Do I need to get it shipped
up here? Do I need to go to white Hall
and get some Amish ones? I don't know. Yeah, that's
just that that was for food. That's the signal for
me that, okay, we're we're getting in the holiday spirit.

(01:10:58):
And is do people in your family at Thanksgiving have rituals?

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
Well, we do have one that I remember from when
I was very little. Like I said, Thanksgiving, though it
is it was fostered as a Christian day of thanks
you know, it is completely it can be completely secular.

(01:11:29):
Giving thanks is not limited to being religious, so you know,
take that for what it's worth. But when I was little,
I remember my mom was a school teacher, and my
fourth grade math teacher invited some of the school teachers
and their families for Thanksgiving. But what that meant was

(01:11:54):
that the adults were going to be eating and the
kids who are going to be playing outside, you know,
and we were going to be eating like regular stuff
like the tostonos, the alcapula, the stuff that had nothing
to do with Thanksgiving. The turkey was going to be theirs, okay,
And I remember my mom brought the candle operas that

(01:12:15):
she had that she had gotten as a wedding gift,
which was very ritzy. It was that gift came from
one of my dad's aunts who was pretty well to do,
and so she gave my mom these silver candle holders,

(01:12:35):
three on each side, and so she brought those so
that she could her friend could decorate the table. I
used to term friend loosely because that woman didn't get
along with anybody, but she wanted to have Thanksgiving and
you know whatever. And so I remember going and we
before we even went outside to play and eat whatever

(01:12:56):
was said out there. I remember her saying that, and
it was very humbling because I didn't realize it until
years later, because for me, she was just a teacher,
right But like I said, she didn't get along with
a lot of people, and this was her way to
say thank you for at least putting up with me

(01:13:19):
type of thing, you know. And so she was very
humble that day, and she asked that everybody hold hands
and that we each take time to be grateful for
one thing and to you know, say it out loud.
And so we did, and I remember when I got
to my sister. My sister said, I'm grateful we don't

(01:13:41):
have school today. Of Course everybody was laughing. Everybody thought
that was cute, but you know, and so I remember
doing that, and so we do that. We before we
do our prayer of thanks, we each say one thing

(01:14:06):
that we're grateful for. And it doesn't have to be
anything big, and it doesn't have to be an emotional thing.
It could be I'm grateful that I didn't have a
flat tire on the way over here. I mean, you know,
it can be anything that you're grateful for, but at
least showing gratitude for even the smallest thing. It puts
you in a good frame of mind to enjoy what

(01:14:29):
traditionally is a day that we set aside to give
thanks for all the bounty that we have, regardless of
how big or how small. So I got into that habit,
and now my kids are getting into that habit too.
Even when they're not here, they'll call me and they'll say, Hey,
I wanted to let you know to this today. I'm

(01:14:49):
grateful for this, you know. And it's really cool that
they do that. They still call me if they're not
here to tell me what they're grateful for. It's really
cool that is know that is that is something that
that actually helps. And and I know that a lot
of people have issues with stress, issues with anxiety, and

(01:15:10):
especially seasonal this is dissociative disorder or whatever it's called.
And you know, and taking the time to be just
grateful for one thing each day goes a long way
for keeping a healthier attitude through that season when you
feel like, oh my gosh, this weather's going to kill me.

(01:15:33):
I need the sun or whatever. So keep that in
mind as you go forward.

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
I miss the sun. It comes out for like three
weeks up here.

Speaker 1 (01:15:44):
Oh no, no joke. When I lived in and Oh,
my sister she's currently they're currently stationed in Germany, and
she tells me I have She'll be talking to me
on the phone. She's like, I gotta go. The sun's out,
and she'll literally.

Speaker 2 (01:15:59):
Hang up up.

Speaker 1 (01:16:00):
I won't have the opportunity to say goodbye because it's
so rare that she as soon as it's out she
goes outside.

Speaker 2 (01:16:09):
Oh yeah, so I totally get it. It's I'll never
forget speaking of what daylight change, especially since we just
got that whole hour back crap. The first winter I
spent up here in Vermont, it gets dark at like

(01:16:31):
two thirty in the afternoon. And it was the weirdest
thing because the first time going back to visit family,
it was an eight and a half hour drive from
Vermont to where I lived in Maryland. And about you know,
three three thirty, we're sitting in the car and we're
like middle of Pennsylvania and we're going, oh, it's still

(01:16:56):
light out, and you know, and even though I grew
up in Maryland and we're still we're still east of
where I grew up. My first thought was, did we
get into a different time zone. Is is it not?
Something happened here? And where I live there is about
an hour and fifteen minutes of less daylight because of

(01:17:19):
the mountains. So when the sun starts setting our our
darkness usually starts anywhere from an hour to an hour
and a half, depending on where you know, the res
rotation in the in which mountains it hits. And it
is so weird sometimes to be, uh, say, on the
other side of the of the Killington Mountains, in part

(01:17:43):
of the Appalachians, the and being in New York side,
because it'll be so much flatter and it feels like
time travel and it throws your your whole body cadence
off because you know, sitting out here tonight, I got home, well,
I got home from work at like three thirty and
it was already dimming. You know, it looked like storm

(01:18:05):
was about to come. And you're looking out and going, oh, oh,
there's clear skies. Oh crap, that's right. We changed clocks
back in an hour. It is. That is so weird,
And I don't get how how people live with I
understand why Russians drink as much as they do, and

(01:18:26):
I understand why Vermoners drink as much, I mean as
much as they do.

Speaker 1 (01:18:31):
Uh yeah, I get that, and and I I feel
bad because there's some people that like, I hate this
time change, and for me, it's the best time change ever.
I love standard time I do, and for me it
makes more sense for my body, and I just I

(01:18:51):
I know that there's some people that prefer the other one.
I get that, So I try to hide my glee
when the you know, fall back happens, because but I
get it, a lot of people don't. And personally, I
hate the switching. I really hate the switching. I we

(01:19:12):
contemplateing moving to Arizona just to avoid it. Great, I'm like,
how is that spread? And the thing is, every time
it comes up vote vote here, it's always fifty to fifty.
So it's a damnable thing.

Speaker 2 (01:19:31):
So I'm going to pigtail on our discussion a little
earlier about is it too early to decorate? H It
is the one thing I love and I would love
to see if there's ever been a study on it,
if say, people in Vermont and New England, especially Maine,
if they don't decorate early because it gets lights on

(01:19:53):
the houses and as you're driving you get a little
more light in your life.

Speaker 1 (01:20:03):
Hmm, Okay, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:20:10):
It's like just that little spark, a little twinkle of light, going, hey,
it's not all lost.

Speaker 1 (01:20:14):
Yeah, I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
Yeah, you know, so I don't. I used to be
so anti that it's like just wait, to just wait.
But eighteen years up here, it really has. My view
has changed so drastically. You know that the first house
I see with lights on, I'm like, okay, okay, here
we go. Please don't use the all red and green.

(01:20:41):
Let's use the bright whites, please, because I'm want to
come home and at least, you know, not feel like
going to bed an hour after I get home and
it only being four o'clock.

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
That's fine. I I live so far removed from civilization
that it is pointless for me to have decorations outside.
They're for me. So this year I decided, if I'm
going to decorate anything, it's going to be my back

(01:21:15):
deck because that's where I would be. That's where the
fire pit is. So or I call it a fire pit,
it's not. It's just a hole where I throw wood.
And you know that for now. Yeah, But you know,
in the front of the house, there's there's no reason,
there's no reason to decorate anything. And now, the previous

(01:21:38):
owners of this house, they had a full size Santa
Sleigh in the front yard. Every year they decorated this house.
It could be seen from space, and they showed me.
They showed me pictures of it being decorated and everything,
and it was absolutely stunny. It wasn't all white lights.

(01:21:59):
I'm just gonna say them. But you know, I asked him,
I did. I asked him. I broke down. I said, so,
how long does it take you to put all this
stuff up? It takes about a month. They starred October first. Wow,
And I'm like, yeah, this is not That's not going

(01:22:19):
to work for me. Just so, when they asked me
if I wanted to buy the sleigh, I said, no,
I'm never putting none of the front yard.

Speaker 2 (01:22:31):
On the way to my uncle's farm that used to
be my grandfather's farm, usually right after Halloween. And I
gotta admit I never enjoyed it as much as I
do now thinking back upon it. We had this guy
who owned a farm lived right next to the mill shop.

(01:22:53):
He had a small operable helicopter painted red and the
blades were painted white and it was lit up and
he had a fake Santa Claus as a pilot, and
he lit up the whole yard that the helicopter was in,
looked made it look like a landing pad, made it

(01:23:13):
look like everything had had reindeer or you know, little
little reindeer statues are all around, and looking back, I
I was like, man, how long did it take him
to do that? But then it was always one of
those things where it's like, Okay, I appreciate it. But

(01:23:34):
once Thanksgiving hit, I couldn't wait to go to my
uncle's house because then I was like, okay, we get
to go past the helicopter for Christmas. Ya it. Yeah,
it's so much work, but I know it brings so
many people enjoyment.

Speaker 1 (01:23:50):
And you know, depending on where you live. I mean
there's Green Tea area, which is and that's t ee
as opposed to Tea. It's part of a golf club
in the clear Lake area and that's outside of Houston.

(01:24:12):
And they when you purchase a house in that area,
it comes with Christmas lights and they're not set up.
They give you the Christmas lights when you buy the
house because part of the hoa is that you will

(01:24:33):
decorate your house for Christmas because people come from all
over Texas and Louisiana to see this this area.

Speaker 2 (01:24:41):
So is this the first thing? I might be okay
with an hoa one.

Speaker 1 (01:24:49):
It's really it's really interesting when I found out that
when you buy the house, they give you the Christmas
lights to put on it, and they said this is
the minimum. And a friend of mine, her her parents,
bought a house. We were in college at the time,
and she was saying, yeah, we just bought a house
and they give us Christmas lights. I don't know what's
going on with that. And I was like, I looked

(01:25:10):
at her. I was like, did you buy your house
at Green Tea? And she looked at me and saying,
how the hell would you know that. I was like, oh, honey,
it's famous all over Texas. Yeah, when you buy a
house there, they give you the Christmas lights. The only
question is how many lights to give you. She told
me they were given a hundred boxes of course. Oh yeah.

(01:25:31):
They're not small houses either, you know, most of them
are two story and they're rather grand. I mean, this
is a very ritchy area. She was like, she was like,
this is the minimum, and I was like wow, I said, well, yeah,
good luck with that. But they most of the people
that are there actually hire outside contractors to come and

(01:25:55):
set all this stuff up because it is so labor intensive.
And this was back in the eighties, you guys, when
it was just the Christmas lights. There were no blow
up things in there. Nothing was coordinated with the music
that was playing, none of that. It was just Christmas

(01:26:16):
lights and maybe the little plastic you know, Holy Family
and Santa Claus and stuff like that, but that was it.
And so you have to be very inventive in how
you did the Christmas lights. And one of the things
that a lot of people use pull noodles, because you
could grab the Christmas lights and bend them with wire

(01:26:38):
inside so you can make candy canes. And so you
could make all these candy canes with that, you can
make reets with it, you can make all sorts of stuff.
It was a lot of fun. But yeah, it used
to be that you could go there for free and
just just drive slowly just to look at the houses.
And they gave you the pathway so that you could,

(01:27:00):
you know, look at all the houses and then leave.
Now they're charging you caught on. Oh, oh, well, so
much for that. Oh anyway, so guess what time it is.

Speaker 2 (01:27:16):
Yeah, we somehow muddled her away through an hour and
a half.

Speaker 1 (01:27:20):
I know, talking nothing and everything, literally half an hour show.
We just went okay, yeah, this was totally on the fly.
We had absolutely no plans. But I cannot say that
I had no plan. Jeff always has a plan. Jeff
A B C the all the way at least two.

Speaker 2 (01:27:43):
Q probably the j No, probably the Jay tonight. Okay,
probably yeah I did. I won't lie. But yeah, it
was one of those things you just see how it goes.
It's kind of that oh crap, we're silent for two minutes.
Let's pick as.

Speaker 1 (01:28:04):
It was. We had a lot of fun, it was.
It was a nice uh trip down memory lane for me,
and of course the realization that I'm going to have
to start hauling Christmas trees from everywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:28:16):
And fine finding a half an ache where I can
build something in Texas and just escape every everything that
is Vermont here in the next couple of months.

Speaker 1 (01:28:26):
Well, you know, keep keep me posted because I can
possibly talk to the guy that bought all the land
next to us because they're not developing it, so maybe
you could get a good deal, all.

Speaker 2 (01:28:39):
Right, I would have producer with an arms reach.

Speaker 1 (01:28:50):
I'd steal your kid.

Speaker 2 (01:28:52):
There you go. I do want to appreciate you inviting
me to do this tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:28:57):
That it was a lot of fun. Thanks for thanks
for joining. So tell us where we can find you,
because you have a lot of places.

Speaker 2 (01:29:06):
Let's see Sunday six pm Eastern on the Vincent Charles Project,
where I think we're talking music and some other stuff,
and oh maybe for the first fifteen minutes before Vincent
and Janelle go off the rail. Then at eight I
have in the crease where I will be doing an
episode on The Night Witches, which I am way excited

(01:29:29):
to do. And Monday I'll be back around here with
you doing our makeup because you know, I didn't get
a chance to read my book this time. Then Tuesday,
possibly on Manorama, depending if Steve is back or not
and they need a six chair. Other than that, I'll

(01:29:52):
be around here and there and everywhere in a cosmic
bart on Twitter about yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:29:59):
Well, you can find me at Haggie the barkeep. You
can find me eight thirty pm Eastern Tuesday nights doing
the Cocktait Lounge with the ever swap Brad Slager a
thirty pm Eastern Friday nights doing he said, She said,
with usually the awesome Writy Rick the second Wednesday of

(01:30:19):
every month, and that's coming up next week. So next
week's gonna be busy for me. The guys get together
for Toxic Masculinity at eight pm Eastern. I bring the
drink of the evening and we shall be having our
makeup next week. But it's usually on the first Monday
of every month, as you mentioned, at eight thirty pm Eastern,
which is kind of Aggie time.

Speaker 2 (01:30:40):
So yeah, as long as as long as already doesn't say, hey, Jeff,
you got three weeks the put on a play will
be airing Monday.

Speaker 1 (01:30:50):
I'm excited for the upcoming play. I can't wait to
see who you pick for everything. It'll be fun, it
should be.

Speaker 2 (01:30:56):
Yeah. I have a six weeks, six week plan laid
out to ease the stress of what happened with the Halloween.
So yeah, I'm getting all the back back, get back in.
Where are the play done? And then Thanksgiving we'll start
casting and doing everything else and making that push. Once

(01:31:17):
we figured out a date that will air.

Speaker 1 (01:31:21):
Awesome, looking forward to it. It should be a lot
of fun. Thanks everyone for joining us tonight. We hope
you had fun as we You know THI, boats, supers, secrets,
and the that I should not be talking about, but whatever,
we hope you have a great evening.

Speaker 2 (01:31:40):
Good Night everyone, A