230. Absolut Cranberry

"Fudge-a-Mania", chapters 1-3. New book, new year, and new co-host as the Cocoon welcomes Molly Sanchez into the fold! Join Jody and Molly on a trip back to 1990, where Wilson Phillips is pumpin', My Pretty Ballerina is dancin', and Moscow is Big Mac-in'. They chat about the epic Chunnel breakthrough, Ryan White, the ADA Capitol Crawl, and a Big Bird near-miss space tragedy. The gals also talk about the Netflix Forever trailer and toilet reading. Meanwhile, over in Fudge-land, the Hatchers head to Maine! But Sheila is there, oh no! And they're sharing a house! It's a Judy Blume book club. Join us every other week! 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I'm Jodie and I'm Mollie, and you're listening to the
Blue Saloon.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
It's a Judy Blue Book Club.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
You did it.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Oh my god. That makes me emotional to say.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
It's big shoes to fill, but you got this.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
I miss Alison so much.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I know, I know she's with us always. Even though
we may not hear her voice, she is here metaphorically
and she will be back, y'all. I mean, we're not
getting through a fudge book without her doing some fudge voices.
I mean I will kidnap her and bring her over
to the cocoon if I have to. Don't you worry.

(00:57):
We are reading chapters one through three today of fudge Mania.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
I'm so excited, so excited to have you, Mollie. So, Bloomheads,
in case you're just catching up and missed our last
episode where we made our big announcement for Bloom Saloon
two point zero, we have Molly Sanchez here. She is
a long time Bloomhead, longtime listener, longtime podcaster in her
own right, and comedian and writer and so many things,

(01:27):
and she is just the perfect fit. So Mollie, What
would you like to tell us about yourself, about your
past podcasts, about your comedy, anything, what's your like elevator pitch?

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Well, I'm my bio and everything eas to be. I'm
a writer, comedian, and lover of burritos and I stand
by all of that except for La has horrible burritos
and that's my least favorite part about living here. But yeah,
I've been a stand up for about fifteen years. I
want to be a TV writer, and then I've been

(02:06):
proud to do a host a bunch of podcasts. Mostly
though I was a host a co host of Red
all Over, a Handmaid's Tale recap podcast with my main girl,
Kelly Anakin, who now also has a really good Yellow
Jackets podcast called blood Hive that you should check out.

(02:26):
And I also used to have a podcast called The
hold Up and that's no that doesn't exist anymore, but
that was also a fun podcast to have. So I've
been out of the podcasting game for a minute. So
if I sound rusty, that is why. Well same, Oh,
how will we remember how to talk into microphones again?

Speaker 2 (02:48):
I don't know, I don't know how we're doing this? Like,
God speed to us? All, But I feel your feel
like you're two former podcasts. We're almost like almost led
you here. You know what I mean, like pop culture literature,
and we know that Judes in Margaret Atwood are like buds.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, that has to be the best dinner party in
the entire world. I would love to sit in and
be a fly on the wall for that. But yeah,
I'm a big reader. I love books. I was a
big reader, like when I was a little kid and
would sit inside of the library at lunch, a big rereader.
And I'm now in like a grown up book club,

(03:28):
and I just books are my absolute favorite thing to
talk about. So this is really to be honest. To
be co hosting this podcast feels like can make a
wish wish. So I'm really so excited to be here.
I think that the joy of my adult life is
finding all the other kids who ate lunch in the
library and being friends with them.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Oh god, yeah, what about bathroom stalls?

Speaker 1 (03:53):
I was just thinking about this the other day because
sorry gang TMI. One of my New Year's resolution is
to stop taking my phone into the bathroom, and I
was just remembering that, like the halcyon days when I
would just like read full books sitting on the toilet.
Like that seems so quaint now, but might be bringing

(04:15):
it back.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Tyler never stopped doing that. Like he's not a huge reader.
He has dyslexia. He prefers books on tape. But I
buy him these like cool like reference books, like these
large print like cool illustrations, like science books, and they
are specifically for him to read on the toilet. It's
just like an unspoken roll that that's where they're going

(04:39):
to live.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
That's so cute. I would be curious. It is a
secret shave, like, bloomheads, are you reading on the toilet?
Are you reading physical media? Are you reading your phones? Is?
What are you doing there?

Speaker 2 (04:52):
How many poop articles are on your books? Wasn't that
a Seinfeld?

Speaker 3 (04:57):
No?

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Was it Seinfeld where George takes a book from the
bookstore into the toilet and then like he's like banned forever.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
From really a likely thing for him to do?

Speaker 2 (05:09):
It sounds likely, Yeah, Bloomheads, let us know we are
hungry for your letters. Well, let's get right into some questions.
Because you touched on the fact that you're a huge reader.
We want to know more about this. Bloom had to
have questions for you. So let's talk about your favorite
Judy book.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Do you have one, apsote doodle, I have a favorite
Judy Bloom book. My favorite Judy Bloom book is starring
Sally J. Friedman as herself. I love that one. I
read that one to literally the cover fell off, and
I think that was my first Bloom Saloon episode I
was ever on was a Sally J. Friedman epp and

(05:52):
I relate to her because she wrote fan fiction about
killing Hitler and I famously wrote fan fiction when I
was that age about stopping nine to eleven. So, uh,
we have a lot in common, me and Sally J.
And we like Latin lovers as well.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Oh you do. Somehow I had kind of forgotten about
your nine to eleven fanfic, but now yes, oh never forget, famously,
never forget, literally, never forgot. Okay, so maybe you've already
answered this question. But who's your favorite Jude's character?

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Oh gosh, there are so many. I it really changes
the day that you ask me. But I think I'd
like to pour one out for Rachel Robinson. I just
I feel for her so hard, and it's really like,
I think Rachel Robinson is in like the Hermione tier

(06:48):
of characters of like they weren't wrong, they were just
obnoxious about everything and it's not their fault. They're just
girls trying to be girls. And I grew up with
kind of a hard brother to grow up with, and
so I really related to that when I was reading it.
Every time I read it.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
You had a Charles.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, I had a Charles, and I had a Fudge.
I had a Charles. And now I just have a
guy named Tyler, who is pretty nice. It's not it's
my brother, is not JODI's husband, It's just another man
named Tyler.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
There's so many adjacent Tyler's on the pod because Al's
best friend from home was a girl Tyler. So that's sexy, yeah,
isn't it.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
Girls with boy names are elite. And then fun fact,
my mom got remarried after my dad and that guy's
kid is also named Tyler. So I really I escape
a Tyler.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Oh that's right, that's a good answer, because I agree
with you. I don't know if I can name one
favorite Judy character. It changes with the season, which I
think is the way it should be.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
I do like the way she writes like little Girls,
like I feel like I love. I love also Sheila Tubman,
and I think I was very much a Sheila Tubman
when I was growing up, so I'm happy to see
a lot of her in rare form in this book.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Another question we have from a listener is, how do
you feel about young adult books from the seventies? Is
that you're Do you like that era? Do you prefer
more contemporary?

Speaker 1 (08:27):
So? I love that era because I was also a
big I did a lot of library theft in my beating.
I stole from my teacher's libraries, like very prolifically because
that I was just bad, I guess in that regard.

(08:47):
But all of my teachers were older, and so all
my teachers had basically only books like the seventies, right,
So I read every Judy Bloom book. I read Beverly Cleary.
I love. Actually, there is a series that I think
we should cover at some point if we feel like veering.
Have you ever read Jody The Face on the Milk Cart?

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes yes.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
This book was true crime before there was true crime.
It is batshit, mama, and I think about it all
the time. I love Face on the Milk Cart.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
I remember exactly where I was reading that too. I
was visiting my grandma in England. There's like nothing to
do in that small town, and I just devoured that
book and I was like, why do I like kidnappings
and missing children?

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Oh? It gave me nightmares and I just couldn't stop
reading it. And there's a whole series associated with it,
and I have read them all.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
So yeah, I haven't read any of the others, but
I love this.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yes, yeah, So I read pretty prolifically in that, and
then I guess more contempt for very ya stuff and
then kind of skipped right from like young adult books
to like grown up books. So I would be in
like seventh grade being like, had anybody writ a Da
Vinci Code? It's like super good, So you're mature, I

(10:19):
think again, obnoxious is the actual.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Speaking of decades? If you could be a teen in
any decade, ever, what would you pick?

Speaker 1 (10:32):
That's such a good question. I didn't even think to
prepare for that.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Oh, I don't even think about it. We can come
back to it later because it's very important.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
It's so important. Yeah, I don't really have an answer.
I was fine with being a teen in the decade
that I was a teen, but I guess maybe I
don't know. I think the seventies seem pretty fun minus
the kidnappings.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
But yeah, yeah, if we can just get rid of
that part, I mean idyllic.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Yeah, I guess what's your answer, Oh, seventies for sure.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
Okay, there's for me, there's no other era.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
I'll do that with you then, because I don't want
to be by myself.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
But I was a teen in the nineties, late nineties,
and that was pretty awesome. That was like we were
the last pre internet youth. So I feel very lucky
in that way.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, maybe I would pick that, maybe I would be
a teen when you were a teen with you.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Well, maybe this is a good time to mention I
love our age difference, because I don't know if you
want to talk about this now. But I was like, Mollie,
where were you in nineteen ninety when h fudge Manium
was written? And your answer was I was.

Speaker 1 (11:49):
Swimming in my dad's balls deer. I wasn't earthside yet
in nineteen ninety. I wouldn't be born till a year later.
So that's a fun new thing we're at.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
It's like we didn't even share the eighties together. Mollie,
like what we did.

Speaker 3 (12:07):
I know.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
I'm sorry if only my mom had been sluttier.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Oh my god. So you were born in ninety one.
I was twelve. Oh I was your babysitter.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Oh honestly, excellent vibe. Excellent vibe.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
But you know what, You're mature and I'm immature, So
I say we meet in the middle.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
It does kind of work that way.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Okay. What is your most beloved eighties or nineties movie?
Oh my goodness, And if you don't have one, that's okay.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
No, I definitely do. I just want to check the
time stamp. Oh yeah, absolutely. It has to be ever After?

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Wait is that Drew Marymore?

Speaker 1 (12:57):
Yes, and I have talked about this at lean on
at least two different podcasts. But ever After is my jam?

Speaker 2 (13:05):
Oh my god, tell me more. I haven't seen it.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
You've never seen it? No o MG. So Drew Barrymore
plays Cinderella, but in the very like girl bossification of
fairy tale characters that the nineties was all about. Eight
and then Leonard da Vinci is also there for some reason.

(13:29):
Can she Yes? It has everything a good movie should have.
It has strong female characters, cod pieces, kissing Melanie Lynsky.
It's one of the best movies of all time, and
that's my favorite of the nineties. Thank you for recommending,

(13:51):
you know it, find a conversation with me where I'm
not talking about nineteen ninety eights ever After, and that's
more rare than anything.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Well I mean speaking of I know we're both deep
into severance, so I do need something to replace my
obsession with severance. So maybe ever After can come next.
But this is my last question for you. Wait, what's
your favorite eighties or nineties movie? Yeah, okay, one that

(14:22):
I will never ever that will never leave my top
three is Annie. And it's not a teen movie. It's
not a cool movie, but it's just been with me
my entire life, and I know every moment.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Is that I deeply identify. I almost got in a
fight the other day when somebody's like the Kathy Baits
Annie is better than the carro Brenette Annie, and I'm like,
bite your tongue. That is not true at all.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, who do I need to beat up? Because that's
not okay.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
They're both good, but it's just rude to say Kathy
Baits is better than Carol Burnett. It's rude.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, that's true. It's true. Last question, because I'm gonna
be watching the most current Severance episode tonight, we just
need to know who's your favorite Severance character right now?

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Easy peasy, it's Dylan. I would lay down my life
for this man.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
He is such a hero, a sweety hero. I love him.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
A good boy, a sweet boy, a kind boy. This
this will this will make sense to you, uh after
you watch this episode, but keep this quote in mind.
He a dick. It's brilliant.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Okay, okay, I'll remember that.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Who's yours? IRV?

Speaker 2 (15:40):
I mean, you know, we talked about this over brunch
the other day, but I am in love with IRV,
like in a sexual way.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
So there's a way to be in love with someone
that isn't sexual. Wow, news to me.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, you know that is a question that I should
be asking myself more often. But yeah, IRV all the way.
Oh all right. So, now that we've sufficiently gotten to
know Molly and we'll get to know you throughout these episodes,
I don't want to bombard you with questions, but those

(16:19):
were the most important ones. We should move on to
our thoughts on the Forever trailer. Because I just watched it.
I think it came out yesterday. Yeah, yeah, what do
we think? I took some notes?

Speaker 1 (16:35):
Go ahead?

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, well, okay, I watched it a few times. I paused,
I wrote some things down. I want to chronicle what
we know. So it looks like Keisha and Justin. Those
are our two main characters are Kath and Michael, if
you will. It looks like they've known each other since
they were kids, right, because there's the part where she's like,

(16:56):
do you even know who I am? And somehow they
lost touch sure became distance. So that's very interesting and
not like the book at all.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
Yeah. So how do you feel about the seemingly big
book divergence about it?

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah? I mean I would love for it to be
a Margaret, you know, in terms of authenticity and closeness
with the book, but I think we've known for a
while that it's not going to be, and so I've
let that go and I'm excited for this like brand
new piece of work that Judy is really closely involved with.
So I'm kind of not viewing it as like forever.

(17:39):
I'm just viewing it as like this cool new Judy
Netflix series.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
I R I'm good because I initially I was like, well,
I don't understand why they would call it forever, because
to my mind, like Forever isn't necessarily distinct in terms
of a like teen romance, except for the fact that
it's kind of marketing that they have sex and nothing

(18:06):
bad happens. And right, I definitely think we should make
more media for teens where they have sex and nothing
bad happens. Though in a post euphoria world, do we
but we do? But then I was thinking about, and
I think al brought this up last episode, but if
Judy like wants to lend her ip to something that

(18:26):
makes it so a bunch of bipoc people get jobs
and get projects made, I'm totally fine with that. I
think that's a really cool, responsible use of your power
to like uplift other creators who might not have a
chance to make their original stuff otherwise. So I'm fine
with that.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
I was pleasantly surprised to read all the comments on
that YouTube clip and everybody's so pomped. Yeah, Like the
resounding sentiment was like, thank god, like a young black
love story where nothing bad happens, like you said, and
no one really brought up the book differences and there

(19:06):
were There were some bloom heads in there, like Judle
fans that were like please and thank you, this is great.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
The one thing I will be mad if they change,
And I think everybody listening is gonna know the one
plot element that must stay the same.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Can I guess?

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah, Ralph. Yeah, he must name his penis, and the
name of that penis must be Ralph. Though it would
be very funny if he names it, but he names
it something different that would be hilarious to me. But
I insist a penis must be named. Title of up.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yes, you know, the trailer revealed a lot, but I
would love it if that's just like the the little
Easter egg for us, thank you. The other comments that oh,
because I scrolled all the way down, I was like
trying to find anything negative just to see like who's
out there being a troll? And the only negative comments

(20:08):
were like where's Cobra Kai. It's like, why are you
posting on this trailer? Are you nerd?

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Where's Cobra Kai? Where are your parents? Get out of
this thread? Go to school exactly.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
But yeah, so we we get a pretty clear vision
of what this show is going to be. We're in
or near La lots of palm trees. It looks like la,
there's tears, there's roses, there's a prom there's like nosy
family members. I really liked the song in the background. Yes,
it was like wait for me, wait for me, I'll

(20:48):
wait for you. It's like waiting waiting. And then it
did say inspired by the Judy Bloom Classic, so it
wasn't like based on the Judy Bloom Classic. Were adapted
from the Duty Bloom Classic. So I think that word
was pretty telling, right, Yeah, but yeah, I'm excited and
it seems like it's coming out soon.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
I'm stoked.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Oh do you want to get into the movies, the TV,
the music of nineteen ninety I do.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
I also feel like potentially people are judging me for
picking like such a late nineties B side type movie
as my favorite eighties and nineties movie. Well, I just
want to re shore everybody I know, the hits I understand.
I just really like ever After. But here these are
the top four movie these of nineteen ninety Number one

(22:03):
Ghost kind of timely considering the Demi morrissance that's happening
right now.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Is there an aissance going on? I haven't been paying
attention of.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Course, because she won the Golden Globe for the substance
and now she's nominated for an Oscar for the substance.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
Have you seen No, I'm out of it. I need
you to tell me these things.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Please watch and also go look up her Golden Globe
speech because it's very, very inspiring and she is phenomenal
in the substance. I hope she wins. I don't think
she will, but I really hope she wins.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Okay, but she.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
Actually compared the substance to Ghost in terms of a
script that she read that was like, this is either
gonna be insane or it's gonna be the coolest thing ever.
And in both cases she was right. Uh, it was
the latter. Actually it was kind of both both of them.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
I know it's I would say both, right.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yeah, so number one is Ghost. Number two is Pretty Woman,
which I love. Yes, I love pretty women. Number three
home alone, Oh pretty much. Banger's only nineteen ninety as
far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
Yeah, it's very good year for movies.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
Until you get to teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yeah, which
I have seen because I date straight men, But it
is not as good as a Pretty Woman. Or a
home alone, but it was up there is.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
There a song that goes coming out of our shells?

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Listen, it's anyone's guess.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Somehow I know that song I.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Coming out of our shells and I've been coming.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Yeah it sounds right, but no, I never saw that.
But yeah, nineteen ninety was a good year for movies
for me because that was the year that I was
very like I'm going to Mall's and getting dropped off
and like seeing three movies in a row and going
to Claire's Boutique and all those things. So aside from
Ninja Turtles, I probably saw all the nineteen ninety movies.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Wow, did you have a formative mal movie experience around
that time?

Speaker 2 (24:18):
Just like sneaking into movies in general, because then you
would get one ticket, right, and then you go out
the exit a emergency exit, and you go in another
theater and you catch half of one movie. So maybe
maybe I lied. Maybe I've seen half of every movie
that came out in nineteen ninety.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
Hello Police, We Got Her.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yeah, h.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
So those are the movies. But I also feel like
it's pertinent to say what one best picture. It's technically
the following year. But it's for the you know, the
previous year, YadA YadA, but the according to the Academy,
the best picture of nineteen ninety was Dance with Wolves.

(25:03):
And I have never seen this, but I know of
it because I've watched home videos of my first couple
days as a person being alive, and they are all
soundtracked to the VHS copy of Dances with Wolves. And
my dad even says it to baby me, He goes,

(25:25):
this day is significant because this is the day we
got Dances with Wolves on tape, and so it's just
like me being a baby in the background. It's like
Tanaka adopted Kevin Costner and now they live together. The
wolves taught me many things, as like Burpurper, like in
the back of all my baby videos, as dances with Wolves.

(25:47):
Oh my god, it's the best thing I've ever heard.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Can we post some of these on our bloomsalom social
needs like that?

Speaker 1 (25:56):
If I can dig them up, you can. But you
just have to take my word for it.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
For the meantime, I believe you, but the blumheads might not,
so we need evidence. But I thought, what a way
to come into the world. Maybe this just made you
who you are today.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yeah, maybe a lot of people say I have Dances
with Wolves energy, so mm hmmm.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
I remember seeing that, but yeah, like as an eleven
year old, that was a boring grown up movie and
I never revisited. So I have no idea if it
was good or not.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
I would think potentially, given that it's a story about
a white guy living with indigenous people, it might not
hold up the way you'd want it to. No, but
Kevin Costner a dish in every generation. I think in
a wild.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
And unknown land. She taught him the language of a
noble people. With courage and passion, their love grows stronger.
My place is with you, but with the threat of
a hostile world, it may never survive.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
I'll catch up.

Speaker 4 (27:02):
I'll catch up, Kevin Custer. The Dances with Williams.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
Okay, the top Songs of nineteen ninety were number one,
hold on by Wilson Phillips, featured in the movie Bridesmaids.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
I gave it a whole new life. I mean, thank
God for that movie. Yeah, thank god.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
You know he's.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
The second top song was it must have been loved
by Roxette.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
I just added that to my karaoke list like yesterday.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Sometimes when I'm driving, I'm listening to the radio and
a song comes on, I pull out my phone as
I'm driving, and I add it to my karaoke list
as I'm driving. So if I ever get in an
accident and the police look at my phone, it's gonna
be my notes up karaoke list.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
That's gonna happen to me too, because I just did
that same thing yesterday with Harper Valley Pta. Have you
heard this song? This is my new karaoke song. So
coming to a karaoke bar near you is Harper Valley Pta.
It's a good one.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
I love that we do this.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Listen, you have to do this. This is important life
admin is you have to keep a running list of
karaoke songs that you like.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
It's true, It's true. It's only the responsible thing to do.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
And then the third most popular song is Nothing Compares
to You, sung by Snead O'Connor May She Rest, but
originally by Prince May He Rest. So yes, goode.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
I'm just like giving these huge size every song you mentioned,
I'm like, yes, like all the mixtapes made from Casey
Casem's American Top forty and just pressing record when they
came on, and like getting mad when he starts talking
over the intros and outros. But yeah, that's that's it.

(29:14):
I'm sorry that you weren't born yet and that this
is maybe my favorite year of my life. I just
had such a fun time at that age. I loved school,
I loved everything. I was just having the best little
life you could have.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Well, listen, all things considered, I probably was having a
great time not having any brain or thoughts of body.
Some days, I think that's preferable. So yeah, everybody was chilling.
And that last thing I'll say is notable. TV. Was
the Simpsons premiered? Oh yeah, the Simpsons premiered Quick Trivia?

(29:55):
Do you know what show the Simpsons cartoons were it
originally featured.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
On, Yes, because I remember watching it, Tracy Allmen.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
Amazing.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
They were so goofy looking though. Yeah, the early Simpsons
they're funny. Yeah, I like them. They're spiky.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
It's an evolution for sure. And they're currently in what
season do you think the Simpsons is currently in? Don't
do math?

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Just guess, okay, don't do math like thirty thirty six.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
Whoh okay, Yeah, wild Simpsons have smartphones. Now it's bananas.
That is all of the pop culture that I wrote
down for the nineteen ninety.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
It is so wild to think of Peter Hatcher living
in this era because I consider this the modern era,
whereas when we first read Peter Hatcher it was very
old timey.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
Well point of order. I mean, technically, this book happens
the same summer that otherwise known as Sheila the Great happens.
So technically in the timeline, this is happening in the
year that Watergate happened. But when Judy was writing it,
it was in the nineties, so yeah, mental gymnastics there.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
But she is writing about like four Broncos or what car?

Speaker 1 (31:21):
Do they have a Blazer? Do you think they update
the cars like they update the period products.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
I think they do. Yes, it's going to get this
totally pinto Well, I'm glad you brought up the timeline
because that's something that I want to just solidify, clarify,
make sure we were all understanding the timeline, because it
is a little confusing, like what summer this was and

(31:48):
how old they all were and everything. So we'll get there.
Let's bookmark that, okay, I okay, do to do Are
you ready for some current events. Yes, not so current events,
because this is nineteen ninety. So just events, okay, the

(32:09):
biggest So okay, Obviously a lot of things happened in
nineteen ninety, but I'm trying to focus on the things
that i think are the most interesting. So I know
I'm going to leave out a lot of important world events.
But I want to talk about McDonald's coming to the
Soviet Union.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
Well, who does it?

Speaker 2 (32:31):
This is a huge deal in nineteen ninety. It's a
deal which took fourteen years of planning, talks and negotiations
and all sorts of wheeling and dealing, but it finally
happened and it was huge international news. They had started
talking about opening the McDonald's before the nineteen eighty Summer Olympics,

(32:55):
so this was again fourteen years earlier, because they knew
that a bunch of Western tourists would be coming in
for the Olympics, and there was no food for them
to eat, Like, what will the westerners eat? We don't
have any burgers and fries. And to be fair, the
Russian restaurants at the time were not known for like

(33:17):
their ambiance or their friendliness, or like consistency of cuisine.
They were reportedly very bad, but they were just like,
you know what, Americans are gonna have to deal, and
I guess they did a deal. But in nineteen ninety
ten years later, McDonald's of Canada was able to push
it through and they opened their first location in Moscow.

(33:40):
And this was a huge event, Like thousands of people
came that day. Hundreds were lined up before they even opened.
And this was the dead of winter. This was like
January in Moscow, Like can you even imagine, y'all. They
served thirty thousand customers that day, like a small town,

(34:01):
and it was a party. People were dancing. We had
like people dressed in furry costumes doing tricks. There was music.
They had imported employees from the US and Canada and
train them for a month, and a lot of the
training was like cultural training, like you guys have to
smile because the locals were not used to smiling. They

(34:24):
were very put off by it.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
But eventually, god, I would watch a movie about this.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
Yeah, like someone was like I thought they were laughing
at me. So it was the world's biggest McDonald's ever.
It had a hammer and sickle flag under the Golden arches,
because you know, gotta be local and inside though was
an international theme. It had a model of Big Ben

(34:53):
in the dining room. Huh yeah, so fun. We'll post
photos of this.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
It was.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
It's all extremely symbolic of like the Cold War thawing
the Iron curtain. You know, it is being pulled back
a little bit. I found this amazing quote from the
Washington Post from February first, nineteen ninety, and I thought
we could do a dramatic reading. Tell us what is this?
Big mac shouted an elderly matron with red dyed hair,

(35:23):
looking suspiciously at a line of several thousand Muscovites three
blocks from the Kremlin.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
The Bolshoi mic comrades. The Bolshoy mik is like something
you've never tasted before. You take a bun, a very
tasty bun, and you cut in here. Then you d
girled meat, top quality meat. Mine do not like the
meat we get here. Then some cheese, then very many vitamins,
and then you add some spinach, and that comroids is

(35:52):
the Bolshoy mick, and.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
Then it's in parentheses. Russians generally do not eat lettuce,
and many have never seen but the very many vitamins
is so beautiful, Like people are going to McDonald's for
their vitamins. Oh what a time. So always well in
McDonald's land. It's thriving in Russia for decades. But fast

(36:19):
forward to recently. In twenty twenty two, during Russian's invasion
of Ukraine, McDonald's ended up shutting all their locations. They
are donezo. A lot of the locations were sold off
and rebranded, like basically keeping the same menu and furniture
and everything. The rebrandings are insane.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
Oh my gosh. Some of them were put it on
our Instagram.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
Yeah, some of them are called Uncle Vanya's and they're
totally ripping off the Golden Arches. They just like rotated
that big M sideways ninety degrees and.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
This is so funny.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
This might be a myth, though. I had a lot
of trouble finding like cold hard facts about all these
rebranded McDonald's. But I do know that there were trademarks
filed with different clever names. So these are facts, Like
fun and Tasty was filed the same one was another name,

(37:20):
but my favorite, very much, my favorite, And this one
seems to be an operation. It's called tasty period.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
Wait, sorry, excuse me, point of order. It's the word
tasty with the period after it.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Right, No, it's like, well, it's like tasty comma period.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
But I mean, come on, that's so y.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
I'm gonna eat a tasty period for my vitamins. I
think of how much iron we would get.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
So yes, we'll post photos.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
So yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Nineteen ninety Soviet Union. It's in its final hammer and
sickle months. Like things are happening. It's becoming more modern,
more westernized. Gorbachop is elected president. East and West Germany
are reunited after forty five years.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
So the Iron Curtain is like getting a real tug
at this point. Speaking of iron, there's a theme here.
Many very many vitamins, very many vitamins. Well, the Iron Lady,
Margaret Thatcher resigns after eleven long years, long years of

(38:46):
being Prime Minister, and people just didn't really like her anymore.
She was old fashioned and like a fuddy duddy and
didn't really embrace modernism and Europeanism. So she was oudy.
But this is very exciting. This was the year the

(39:07):
chunnel officially connected England and France.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
I remember this happening because we talked all about it
in my French class. This it's so quaint. So each
country had been digging and digging towards the middle from
their own sides, so they had like diggers and they're
like getting closer and closer and closer. And then finally,
on December first, an English worker and a French worker

(39:36):
broke through the dirt to each other with little flags
from their countries and it was just so sweet and amazing.
And then the Englishman his name was Graham fag even.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
Sorry, his name was Graham Cigarette.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yeah, it was Graham's cigarette. He handed over a stuffed
Paddington Mare through the hole.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
Guys, don't worry. I'll post a picture of this because
I don't want you to have to cold google bear
stuffing hole.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
You're so considerate. Thank you, Molly. That's so cute, this
whole story. So I can speed through some of this
other stuff. So in the US or in the Middle East,
George Bush, the first George Bush orders Operation Desert Shield.
That was kind of the start of, you know, the

(40:41):
Gulf War. I remember writing letters to troops at school
during this time, like for social studies. What what the
hell were we writing, like, what the hell did I
think a man in his twenties would enjoy hearing about
from me? I wonder, I don't know, I don't know.

(41:04):
In some good news, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the
ADA was passed over years of advocacy and struggle. One
thing I learned about in researching this was the Capital Crawl.
Have you heard about this?

Speaker 1 (41:18):
I have it? What is this?

Speaker 2 (41:20):
So in March of nineteen ninety, a group of sixty
sixty activists, activists with physical disabilities like thrust off their
crutches or mobility devices and pulled themselves up one hundred
steps of the Capitol Building to demonstrate the lack of accessibility.

(41:41):
And one of them was this girl who was eight
years old, Jennifer Keelan Chaffins. She is a hero, amazing
And this just really brought awareness to what was going on,
and the bill was passed unanimously. Good old President H.
Bush famously declared, let the shameful wall. I can't do

(42:04):
his voice, I wish, but he said, the shameful wall
of exclusion was finally coming tumbling down.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
Wow, that's so cool.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Yeah, do you remember Ryan White?

Speaker 1 (42:17):
No? I do not.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
I know you were in your dad's balls, but maybe
you've heard.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
Of him, didn't really make it there.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
So Ryan White, he's always stuck with me because we
learned about him at school and I thought he was hot.
But he was this kid, tragic, tragic. He was from Indiana.
He contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion when he was
thirteen because he had chemophilia and had to get you know,
frequent blood transfusions, but they weren't properly testing and he

(42:48):
was given a shitty batch of blood. No, I just
learned this fact. Ninety percent of American hemophiliacs who received
similar treatments between seventy nine and eight before suffered the
same fate. So like, what, what is unacceptable?

Speaker 1 (43:06):
Oh, that's awful.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
So this poor kid, on top of all this, he
went through hell within his community because he was well
enough to go to school for a time, but the
school wouldn't let him go to school because people were
ignorant and they thought you could catch AIDS from a toilet. See,
you know, just like this was late, Like this wasn't

(43:30):
like nineteen eighty three, right, this was the nineteen ninety
so people should have known better. But his family and
advocates just really battled to get him back to school,
and they won. And then by this time he became
a celebrity. He was a champion for AIDS awareness and
destigmatization and really you know, helped his cause. But in

(43:51):
nineteen ninety this is why I bring him up. He
died at age eighteen. So rip Ryan White.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
I'm I'm just I find it so funny and charming
that you looked at this guy and was like, oh,
bu ho bu yeah, I'm looking at pictures and not no.
But I just think that's funny that that's where your
erotic imagination went. I know, like, no judgment, I just appreciate.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
It's just I mean, I know you, of all people
can relate, right.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
Oh. Absolutely, I have had a bad crush a time
or two. I can't think of any now, but I
am positive that they exist. Positive positive. Oh no oh.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
No, oh no oh no. So I have a few
other things, but I feel like I'm going on for
too long, So I will end on the most fun
note that I can think of. And this is a
list of the most popular Christmas toys of nineteen ninety
so number one. This relates to what you said about movies.

(44:58):
Ninja Turtles was big Ninja Turtle action figures were all
the rage. That was like the number one by far toy.
There was this other toy called My Pretty Ballerina. It
was a very creepy, blonde haired, blue eyed, kind of

(45:19):
like American doll sized ballerina who would if you raise
her arms, she goes on tiptoe and goes tiptoe tiptoe
like she just so daintily will like traverse across her floor.
And then she came with a ballet music cassette tape.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
She beautiful.

Speaker 3 (45:39):
She gas on her coat like a real ballerina. I
love her leg warmer. I find a new rally book.

(46:01):
Here's your ballet music.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
My pretty Ballerina.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
Just lift her hand and she dances.

Speaker 3 (46:06):
On her toes. You can dress her and told her
in the most beautiful costumes. I could seal your hair
in so many ways. That's pretty juring. I love her hearing.
She sparkles like a princess on her so beautiful thing.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
My pretty bald.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
That for my pretty Gallerina.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
My pretty Ballerina comes from all you see here. Other
costumes soul separately. Batteries not included from.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
Tigo Batman figurines were huge. Doctor Mario on Nintendo. I
never played this one, but like, I guess you kill viruses?

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Huh? Could he use that?

Speaker 2 (46:50):
Maybe the coolest thing was the New Kids on the
Block concert kits?

Speaker 1 (46:54):
What is this?

Speaker 2 (46:56):
You could order these kits and they you could get
figures of the guys, all the kids, and then you
could get interview cassette tapes like one for each guy,
and then a phone like a phone, a real phone
with a collage of their pictures on the receiver.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
That's so great. I love this. Jos, Jonathan, George, Donny
and Danny.

Speaker 3 (47:21):
Who's the number one fan? I ain't a number one fan.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
I've got all five coss kids.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
Is off my personal interview accents.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
I am.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
I've got all five Cossa kids with their cassettes and
a new Kids see with all.

Speaker 4 (47:31):
My kids miss clothes.

Speaker 3 (47:32):
I'm a number one fan.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
I've got all the kids mistakes and the Naghy's in
about Mo the New Kids on the book. Who's the
number one fan? I have New Kids on the Block
concert kids, coed cassette days hanging lu Kids an accessory
so separately.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Coo, Yeah, well, I guess we should start talking about
Judy in the book. You want to talk about where
Jude was in nineteen ninety What was she doing when
she wrote this?

Speaker 1 (47:57):
Okay, So in nineteen ninety, Jue is fifty two, She's
married to George and Fudge many at the book is
dedicated to to George, who took me to Maine and
was there to encourage me every day, and to Larry,
the original Fudge, currently a member of the ISAF Club.

(48:23):
Now that last dedication is going to come into handy
later in the book. But that first one to your husband, George,
she sort of explains in her blurb talking about it
on her website. So I'd like to read that another
seven years past, and Fudge's fans were begging again, because

(48:43):
at this point the last Fudge book was otherwise known
as Sheila the Great, So this is the most recent
Fudge book after that. Though in the Judy timeline, the
last book that she had written was Just as Long
as We're Together in nineteen eighty seven. So she goes
another seven years past and Fudge's fans were begging again.
But I didn't have an idea until George, my husband,

(49:05):
and I rented a place in Southwest Harbor, Maine, during
the summer of nineteen eighty nine. As soon as we
pulled up to the old shingled house and I saw
the rope swing hanging from the tree, I imagine Gela
Tubman swinging on it, and an idea came to me.
Peter's family and Sheila's family would spend the summer vacation
sharing a house in Maine. It was a cold, damp summer,

(49:28):
a disappointment to us, but it turned out great, a
great summer for writing. I set the book in Southwest
Harbor and had fun using the names of local shops
and characters. There really was a guy everyone called bicycle Bob.
I bought a bike from him that summer. We grocery
shopped at Sawyer's Market on Main Street and spent time
prowsing oz Books, a children's bookstore, though the owner wasn't

(49:51):
really called Dorothy. George came up with the title for
this book, but he meant it to be fudge a
Mania and the main here is spelled like a M
A I n e. The state, And I think that's cute.
And I think this book is where my lifelong fascination
with Maine came about because I want to go to

(50:15):
Maine so bad. I did my state report on it
in fifth grade and I made a cake in the
shape of Maine. I know that picture exists, so I'll
have to find it. But ever since I read this book,
this is I think this is also the first Judy
book I ever read, and I have a picture of

(50:36):
that too. But ever since I read this book, I
have been feral to go to Maine and I still
haven't been. Yeah, so that's where Judy was. And timeline wise,
this happens the same summer that otherwise known as Sheila
the Great hat happens. I don't know if it's the

(50:58):
same summer that super Fudge happens. I don't think so,
but I know that coming into the first couple of
chapters of the book, the Tubmans are coming from their
summer in Terrytown and the Hatchers are coming to meet them.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Oh, that makes so much more sense because I was
thinking this was the summer after the Tubmans went to Terrytown.
Like I didn't realize. Oh, I guess two books could
happen in the same summer.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
Well, I think so. I think the Tubmans just had
like a whirlwind summer.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Where started it out in Terrytown and then they ended
with three weeks in Maine, So they're cruising.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
That makes sense because they said they just got their dog,
and I was like, wait, they got their dog a
year earlier. So she's lying.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
But so I think I don't know quite the ages.
I think Peter says he's in sixth grade. So there's that.
Fudge is five, Tootsie is a baby still but talking
and walking.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
Let's do a quick synopsis of the other books, just
so we can get up to speed on where Peter
and everyone is at Tales of a fourth Grade. Nothing
that came out in nineteen seventy two. It's such a
different time. But in that book, Peter's nine, Fudge is
two and a half. This is where we have the
turtle byte commercial. There's like infamous Hamburger Heaven. There's the

(52:27):
teeth getting knocked out, there's the cereal over the head.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Oh at that part, I wasn't on the Bloom Saloon yet,
but I was reading it along with Bloom Saloon.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
And that part is child abuse. Yeah, that sucks. That's
that age is super poorly.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
And the turtle abuse, I mean I will. I'm still
so irate about fudge eating Dribble and like nobody cared.
It's just I still have like this, like Turtle Rescue.
I want to start that's like justice for Dribble, but
you know, I have to sem my priorities. And then

(53:06):
we have otherwise known as Sheila the Great, and that
also came out in seventy two.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
What a year.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Yeah, but this year Sheila is ten, so they've aged
up a year. It's her summer vacation in Terrytown. She
goes to camp, she does pottery with the barefoot counselor.
This is like the mimeograph newspaper situation. She learns to swim,
she meets Mouse Ellis coolest girl in the world. Honestly, like,

(53:36):
is Mouse our favorite character?

Speaker 1 (53:40):
No? Not mine. I don't align with mouse Ellis culture.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
Okay, there's the slam Book sleepover, there's the getting stuck
in the milt door. And this is where we have
Sheila and Libby adopting one of Jennifer's puppies, which we
know now is Jake. Jenny was the dog that came
with the house they were renting. Yes, And so this

(54:05):
is where I'm still a little confused. Okay, super Fudge
comes out next In nineteen eighty Chixy's born. Fudge is
four now and in kindergarten and Peter's in sixth grade.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
And they live in They live in They went to Providen, Princeton, Princeton.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
Yeah, yeah, they went to Princeton for the school year
because dad wanted to write a book. And it was
just like a life experiment, like on a whim. Here
has his bromance with Alex Santo, his new friend, and
there's like beef between Alex and Jimmy Fargo.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
There's Anita's anger, which I think comes up again in
this book.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
Anita's anger, Oh yes. And the Crescins Crystal.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Oh creston Chriscal definitely comes up in this.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
Book, Oh does it. There's the rat face teacher. There
is Peter's crush on Joanne. Fudge runs away. This is
when his parents give a four year old a minor
bird for some reason, like a bird that can live
up to twelve years, like these people and their animals.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
So maybe Superfudge happens this school year that precedes fudge Mania,
otherwise known as Sheila look great, I don't I think
there's some funky timeline stuff happening because I think in
otherwise known as Sheila the Great, she mentions being at
school with Peter. So where in time is Superfudge?

Speaker 2 (55:41):
Yeah totally because Tutsi's born in Superfudge, so it has
to have come before fudge Mania. So I do think
this is the summer after Sheila's Terrytown summer. I don't know. Okay,
some men's like, help us.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
I think Judy got confused because ain't no way she's
coming straight from Terrytown to this main house.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Yeah, yes, so yeah, this is real detective work. We
need to buckle down, all right, should we? Should we
get into the book?

Speaker 1 (56:18):
Oh my god, I'm so excited.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
Oh wow, only one hour into the episode.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
You'll be able to edit it right?

Speaker 2 (56:27):
No, no, this is great. People love a long episode.
That's one of the bits of feedback we got is like,
longer episodes please.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
So okay, I'm doing it. Have always felt that way too.
I just didn't. I don't want to overstay my welcome.
I feel I'm a guest in the house.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
No, this is your house, baby. We share a house. Now,
we share the cuckoo. There's room for two oh, so
I have roll call. This is again big shoes to
fill because Al did it so well. Yeah, and maybe
you and I can switch off roll call. We'll figure

(57:01):
out what feels good, what's comfy, Roca. We have Peter Hatcher,
as far as we know, he just finished sixth grade.
He's our guy. He has his brother Fudge, who is
Farley Drexel Hatcher, who is five years old. And then

(57:21):
Tutsie Tamara or Tamara or Tamara who knows rock San
what a name. She is one and a half.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
I think it's so weird that two kids in the
family have like really creative names and they're just like,
I don't know. The first one's Peter, right.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
I think about that all the time because I think
I'm sure I've talked about this on the pod, but
that's like a weird pet peeve of mine is when
siblings don't have names that go together. And I'm not
talking about like, oh, everyone's name has to begin with
Jay or whatever, but like they have to be of
the same cadence. So you've got Mollie and ty Tyler.

(58:01):
I think those go together.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
I think so, except for sometimes my mom would be
yelling for both of us at the same time, and
she would accidentally say to Molly, Oh, that happens a
time or two.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
What's your sister's name, Rosie?

Speaker 1 (58:17):
Oh, Rosie and Jody. Those are like cabbage patched all names.
That's so beautiful.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
Thank you. That is the nicest thing anyone's ever said
to me. So the thing is, my full name is Jody,
like full stop, and then hers is Rosanna, and I
wouldn't say Jody and Rosanna go together. So so, yeah,
we have Peter Fudge in tutsie. We've got mom and dad.

(58:46):
I think Mom's name is Anne.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
I had to look it up.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
Yeah, Warren is that right? Yes, Okay, Uncle Feather. He's
the minor bird. His favorite name is stupid. That's what
we've learned about him so far. There's Turtle. That's Peter's dog,
remember from Tales of a fourth Grade Nothing. He got
Turtle when Dribble died. And I don't know if it's
ever been said, but in my mind he's a yellow

(59:10):
lab or a Golden retriever. What do you think?

Speaker 1 (59:13):
Oh, in my mind he's a boxer really because I
I picture him, maybe because I feel so strongly for Sheila.
Is I pictured him as kind of a a no offense.
I don't actually feel this way, but as like a
more scary looking dog and like a less friendly looking dog.

(59:34):
So I always pictured him as like a boxer or
like a pit bull. I love boxers, I love pit bulls.
But I'm saying if I was a small girl who
was already inclined to be afraid of dogs, I might
those might be the ones I was especially afraid of.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
Totally well, and she's always like, he's so disgusting, He's
so gross.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Yeah. I can't picture her looking at like a Golden
Retriever and being like, hell.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
That's true. That is true. Oh okay. Wow. There's Jimmy Fargo.
He's Peter's bestie who lives with his dad, the famous
artist Frank Fargo of Anita's Anger fame. Sheila Tubman is
We love her, but in Peter's mind, she is the
most annoying girl in the world. Libby is Sheila's sister,

(01:00:19):
who is now sixteen. She was like really into ballet
for a while. I don't know if she still is.
We'll find out, I guess. Mister and Missus Tubman. So far,
we haven't heard much about them, but I think the
mom's name is Jean, and I think the dad's name
has to be buzz or Buzzy, because then there's Buzzy Senior,
who is the grandpa. Yep, Jake is Sheila and Libby's

(01:00:44):
little brown, brown and white doggie. He's really cute.

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
And point a void. I think Jake is a girl.
I think that's another example of a girl with a
boy's name, which, as we've established, is the sickest thing
that could happen to a bird.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
So she Oh my god, Jake so chic. You're right.
And then lastly, I have grand Grandma, and we don't
know much about her yet. This is Peter's grandma. She
is flying up to Maine from New York. I think
she's from New York and we haven't met her, but
maybe she's rich. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
It seems like because they imply that she's paying for
a lot of this trip.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
So yes, she has.

Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
It reminds me of Margaret a lot and Margaret's Graanda totally.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Totally, totally, and I bet Grandma is like sixty, but
she's not.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
Oh my god, you're so right, Oh my god. Ever
since I first read this book, I'm like, surely this
is an aged woman. It's like, oh no, that's my
mom's age, right, God, Oh wow, that's that's it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
So let's dig in.

Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
I'm so excited to be doing this. Also, this was
my first Judy book that I ever read, but I
listened to it on book on tape. That was my
first experience of it. And who read the book on
tape but Judy herself. So I think it's cool that
the first Judy book I ever read Judy read to me.

(01:02:16):
But as such, I have listened to that book on
tape so many times. And also fun life hack. Definitely
get kids young adult books from your youth and listen
to them when you're trying to fall asleep. It's so good.
But all that is to say is I have listened
to this so much. I have to do everything in
Judy's cadence, So please do.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
Oh I'd love to hear it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:41):
I just want to read the first couple of lines,
because Judy, I think, is great at opening lines of books.
So it says, chapter one, who's the lucky bride?

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Oh God, this is hard. Guess what Pete? My brother
Fudge said. Wait, that doesn't sound right. I'm trying to consider.
I think I'm gonna do Al's fudge war.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
Okay, there's just like.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
You know, Okay, no other way sounds right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
I agree.

Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
Guess what, Pete, I'm getting married tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
I looked up for my baseball cards. Isn't this kind
of sudden, I asked, since Fudge is only five. No, well,
who's the lucky bride? God man, that's so good. Wow,

(01:03:37):
I think, really good. I felt I felt her here
with me, I think. So this is the intro to
the book, and it opens with the bombshell that Fudge
is gonna marry Sheila, Peter's enemy.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
Oh my god, isn't he a little young?

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
Yeah? He is. And this whole rest of this chapter
is everybody but Peter reacting to this as if it's normal.
Oh good, So Peter pretends to faint hilarious classic older
sibling joke, and he also mentions that this is the
first time that Fudge has called him Pete, because, if

(01:04:19):
you remember from previous iterations, he usually says Peoa, Peter.
So everybody else considers this to be totally normal. Mom
comes in and she goes, oh, who are you marrying Fudge?

(01:04:39):
Mom asked as if we were seriously discussing his wedding.
Mom says, speaking of Sheila Tubman, guess what, We're gonna
share a house in Maine with them for three weeks
this August.

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
So I don't have to marry Shirla tomorrow. I'll marry
her May.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
That makes more sense. Mom said, in Maine, you can
have a nice wedding under the trees.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
Under the trees.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
So again, I as an older sibling, I feel Peter
so hard when he's like, you, guys, something crazy is happening.
I need you to react. As if something crazy is
happening and everybody just goes on with their lives.

Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
You feel like you're the only sane one in the room.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
Literally up till like a year ago. Yeah, I'm still
the dynamic.

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
Yeah. For the fudges of this world, bluemheads, if you're
a fudge, let us know what that's like.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
Sounds relaxing, t being. Yeah, I just watched this movie.
Have you seen this movie? A Real Pain?

Speaker 4 (01:05:53):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
Huh Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:05:54):
It's with Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Colkin, And I will
say I think if you were ever like, hmmm, I
wonder what happened when Peter and Fudge grew up. I
think that dynamic is very present in a real.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
Pain Ooh I love that. Also, Heir and Culkin ymm yes, yes, yes, yes,
absolute Cranberry Yes Cranberry no, because absolute is the liquor.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
This is a new phrase I'm trying to get catching on.
It's like, when you're really in agreement with something, you say, yes,
absolute Cranberry.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
That's my favorite thing. Now, Oh my god, you're introducing
me to so much. Okay, Chapter twough, we go to
Teaco Taco for dinner, and of course I look up
Teaco Taco because I'm like, is this a real thing?
You did too?

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
Okay, so tell me if you saw what I saw.
But we get too close encounters there. First, there's no
real Teaco Taco as far as I can tell, but
there is a Taco Tico, Yes, which was a beloved
Kansas taco franchise who they had to close most of
their stores for tax evasion, but people loved it in

(01:07:14):
the Midwest. And then the second close call is on Instagram.
There's a mister Pico Taco Pomeranian poppyon Pica poo mix. No.
I love him. He has seventeen followers, and it's a
private account. And he likes to play ball and dine

(01:07:37):
and play with Chubka, Oh my gosh. And he's really cute.
And that's it. I mean, oh wow, where did you
find anything else?

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
Pretty much?

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
That? Okay? Yeah, yeah, so Tico Taco. They're there for dinner.
Peter can't eat. He's just worried about all this Main
and Sheila business, like what the fuck? And we're reminded
that they see a lot of each other because a
they go to the same school. Be they live in
the same building. Oh yeah, ugh, Dad says.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
What is it, Peter, Sheila Tubman? What about her?

Speaker 2 (01:08:20):
We're getting married.

Speaker 1 (01:08:23):
I'm not talking about your wedding. I'm talking about spending
three weeks in May next door to the Tubmans.

Speaker 2 (01:08:30):
It won't be as bad as you think.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
You don't know how bad I think it'll be.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
She was older. Now she's finished sixth grade, same as you.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
What's age got to do with it? She'll still be
the queen of cooties.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
What's courtis?

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
What's courts?

Speaker 3 (01:08:52):
Pete?

Speaker 1 (01:08:53):
Since when am I Pete?

Speaker 2 (01:08:56):
Since today?

Speaker 1 (01:08:57):
Well? I prefer Peter, if you don't mind.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
Pete is a better name for a big brother.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
And Farley is a better name for a little brother.

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
Don't call me Farley. I'm Fudge. So oh, this waiter
comes over and he's like, oh, Fudge, do you want dessert?
We don't have fudge, but we have mud pie. He's
like very accommodating, and then the parents like show him away, like,
don't bother us. Like moms, something very snotty. She says,

(01:09:32):
we never eat dessert until we finished our main course.
I'm like, lady girl.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
Your kid is being disruptive. That guy's being attentive. Don't
be snotty.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
Yes, I forgot that Mom kind of bothers me. She
kind of bothers me into other books too, and I
don't know. Wow, yeah, I mean it's all back to dribble,
you know, but that's where it all started. So they
show this poor waiter away and Fudge is persistent he

(01:10:04):
needs to know what cooties are, and mom says they're
just like knits, which brings us back to Sally Ja.
There's a lot of nit talk in Sally Jay Nits.

Speaker 1 (01:10:13):
And trench Mouth. Can't get them out of my mind.
Yeah this, I'm so I'm not a parent. I feel
like you don't tell kids cooties are a real thing,
because they're not, and they're they're all reacting when Fudge
is like screaming lice in the restaurant, and it's like, well, babe,

(01:10:35):
what did you expect tell him cooties? I pretend I
don't want those. It does bring me flashing back, though,
because one time my grandma, when I was about Fudge's age,
told me that if I used her hair brush, she
she would get bugs called pet thieves that would bite her. Wait,

(01:10:56):
pet peeves, which is a turn of phrase, but it
is not a bug. And she told me it was
a buck. And I'm like, oh my god, I don't
want grandma to give bugs. I can't use her stuff.
So no parents from that era, I guess just lied
about what was and wasn't a bug totally.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
Oh god, that is yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm so
sorry for you.

Speaker 1 (01:11:23):
Thank you. Finally someonet acknowledged I see you.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
So yeah, friend is freaking out. He's disrupting this whole
restaurant like Tootsie's banging on her spoon and shrieking and
one and a half year old. One thing I know
about them, as they can scream, Mom is getting mad.
Peter's sitting there like this is gonna be my whole summer.

(01:11:48):
It's this is this is just foreshadowing, And he's like,
maybe I maybe I'm just gonna go to camp, like
somewhere else away from you. Turns out the Hatchers ain't rich,
which okay, it's something I've always wondered about because they
live on the Upper East Side, right, they live.

Speaker 1 (01:12:10):
Right across the street from Central Park.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
Your dad is an admin who can afford to leave
work for a year to write a book, but they
don't have enough money for camp, and it sounds like
Grandma is helping them out with this main trip. So
maybe grandma's the rich one.

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
Maybe I think something screwy is happening here though, because
you're right, I went through the same thing of like, okay,
dad took a leave of absence or whatever, so that
must be something depleted there. But then they go on
a three week vacation. Yeah, it's like, oh, we can't

(01:12:47):
afford to go to camp, but I can miss work
fully for three weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:12:52):
Yeah, so like, actually, who knows is he back at
the ad agency or is he still writing his book? Maybe, well,
I haven't read this in forever. Oh hmm, maybe you know.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:03):
No spoilers, I don't. I don't remember them saying let's
I guess we'll find out. But it does seem something
screwy is happening here.

Speaker 2 (01:13:09):
Yeah. Yeah, but mom says, hey, Peter, you know what, like,
there's no camp for you, but you can bring a
friend to Maine. And he's like, oh my god, Jimmy Fargo,
like that's I think maybe his only friend. So he's
coming now.

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
I wanted to ask you, Jodie, did your family ever
participate in bring a friend on vacation culture? Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:13:32):
Oh, but it was it was always the same friend.
It was just like Jamie because either I was at
her house every weekend all weekend or she was at
my house every weekend all weekend. So it was like
a given. But it wasn't like it wasn't like, oh,
pick somebody from school to come, you know, it was
like either Jamie or nobody. What about you?

Speaker 1 (01:13:53):
Uh, very much not. I think my parents weren't. They
were really friendly and really nice, but like I think
their thinking was, well, you have a brother, why bring
another kid around? You have a friend. But I can
only think of one time where my brother got to
bring a friend on vacation, and that was his friend,

(01:14:16):
Brian went on vacation with us one year. But other
than that, I can't think of another time it happened.

Speaker 2 (01:14:22):
Why does he get Brian and I get nobody?

Speaker 1 (01:14:26):
I think, in my mom's defense, I think they offered
for me to have someone, and I think the person
I wanted to come couldn't come, so it was just
me and my brother and Brian at the beach.

Speaker 2 (01:14:43):
So Fudge went in on this action, and he says,
what about me? Can I bring a friend too? You'll
find a friend in May. I suppose I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:14:54):
You're getting married.

Speaker 2 (01:14:56):
Does that mean I don't get a friend? Of course not.
I'm married and I have friends. Daddy's married and he
has friends.

Speaker 1 (01:15:04):
What about Uncle Feather? He's your friend, isn't he.

Speaker 2 (01:15:07):
I can't play with Uncle Feather. He's not that kind
of friend. And I can't marry him either. If he
was a girl bird, it would be different.

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
People don't marry birds. Some people do. Name one the
guy who's married to Big Bird on Sesame Street. Big
Bird's not married.

Speaker 2 (01:15:30):
That's how much you know.

Speaker 1 (01:15:33):
This exchange is so funny.

Speaker 2 (01:15:36):
It is very good, like sums all of their personalities
up so well. And I have more on Big Bird later.

Speaker 1 (01:15:44):
Oh, big Bird is one of my favorite things in
this world, and be careful. Big Bird makes me cry
to think about him, so maybe i'll cry on this
up too.

Speaker 2 (01:15:55):
I'm there with you. He's such a special creature. And
I love that Fudge thinks Big Bird's either a gay
boy bird or a girl bird.

Speaker 1 (01:16:06):
Yeah, well, his name is Carol Spinney, so that is
another that's the opposite of girl with boys name.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
It's a boy with the girls and that's true. And
also I was just I was googling Big Bird to see, like,
did Big Bird have a significant other? The answer is no.
But I learned all about Big Bird's like aunt and
his parents, and he is a boy. But there's a
whole section of people out there that think he's non binary,
so they they them. Perhaps I did find an interesting

(01:16:35):
fact about Big Bird that I will tell you at
the end of this because I don't wanted to reail
this too much, but remind me, please, I will.

Speaker 1 (01:16:45):
Because I love Big Bird. That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:16:48):
Later that night, Peter calls Jimmy Fargo Jimmy Fargo is
also never just Jimmy. It's always Jimmy Fargo, which we
all have that friend, right, there's the friends full name, yep,
And Jimmy Fargo is just like three weeks next door
to Shila Tubman. Peter tells him a bold face lie.

(01:17:10):
He says, you know, the houses are really far apart,
and there's like a forest between them. He has no idea,
and then Peter mentions turtle. They'll use turtle to keep
Sheila away since she's scared of dogs. So everything is
going to be perfect. Well, maybe I can come for
a week. A week isn't long enough, hey, Peter, no offense,

(01:17:34):
but a week with your family can feel like a
long time.

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
How about two weeks?

Speaker 2 (01:17:40):
Is your brother bringing his bird?

Speaker 1 (01:17:43):
Yeah, Uncle Feather's part of the family, same as turtle.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
So it'll be your mother, your father fuz took the turtle,
Uncle Feather and you.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
Hey, and my grandmother's coming.

Speaker 2 (01:17:56):
Too, the one who taught you to stand on your head. Yeah,
do you think she could teach me?

Speaker 1 (01:18:02):
Maybe I'll talk to my father.

Speaker 2 (01:18:05):
I'll let you know tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:18:08):
So it's great.

Speaker 2 (01:18:09):
Yeah, there's like a possibility. He calls back, the next morning,
mister Fargo was like, hell yeah, like go to Maine.
So he's gonna drive up Jimmy and camp out in
the area himself.

Speaker 1 (01:18:23):
Mister Fargo Famous Transient. Chapter three the most disgusting of

(01:18:53):
them all. So this chapter opens with a fact that
rocked my world and says it took ten hours to
drive to Southwest Harbor, Maine. Ten hours in the backseat
of an old Blazer with fudge Tootsie Turtle, Uncle Feather
who wouldn't shut up. Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (01:19:12):
I'm also thinking of all the farts.

Speaker 1 (01:19:14):
Oh my god, ten hours. How the fuck did they
have a mid size suv with three kids, a bird,
and a dog and two adults drive for ten hours straight?

Speaker 2 (01:19:25):
They're crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:19:27):
They didn't break it up? Did they stop? What? They're
just too cavalier about the ten hours of it all.
I'm sorry. Yeah. And then when I was reading this
and they said they didn't have that much money, I
was like, Oh, perhaps it'll be a terrytown situation where
you know, the dads come on the weekends, or the
dads come take the train don Draper style at night.

(01:19:50):
But then I remembered that, uh, Maine, I guess ten
hours away from New York. So they're all the adults
are taking three weeks off of jobs. That's why. Else,
so they're driving, Mom is reading stuff from guide books.
The town is so quaint, they love it. As soon
as they drive up to the house, they see the

(01:20:11):
thing that Judy dreamed of, which is Sheila Tubman standing
on the seat of a rope swing and swinging on
the swing. And as soon as they open the car door,
because they've been in there famously ten hours, Turtle runs
out because he has to pee. And frankly, I don't

(01:20:34):
see why everybody else isn't running out of the car too.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
Right, And maybe they had a lot of just like bottles.

Speaker 1 (01:20:43):
I think they were doing full astronaut lady who wanted
to kill the other astronaut diaper diapers. Yes, we meet
Buzzy Senior, who is buzz Tubman's dad, and he seems
there very nice and very down to clown.

Speaker 2 (01:21:02):
He makes a great lemonade.

Speaker 1 (01:21:04):
He makes a great lemonade. I here's one other thing.
You guys always talk about how Judy loves like a
peanut butter sandwich. I think Judy also appreciates a glug
of juice. Every time she describes someone like gulping juice
in one of her books. I'm like, that sounds like
the best slurp of juice I've ever heard of. I
want to drink JUICEO. I want to drink this lemonade.

(01:21:27):
There's like want to drink.

Speaker 2 (01:21:28):
Juice and books like Delicious grape Juice.

Speaker 1 (01:21:33):
Ugh, I'm parched.

Speaker 2 (01:21:34):
We don't drink enough juice anymore, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:21:38):
We sure don't. We sure don't. Absolute Cranberry to that.
So Budge tells Buzzy Senior he's going to marry Sheila.
Blah blah blah. Sheila thinks that's so funny, And all
of a sudden, a dog run out with Libby.

Speaker 2 (01:22:02):
Ooh my baby, my precious little furry baby.

Speaker 1 (01:22:07):
You have a dog.

Speaker 2 (01:22:09):
Yes, her name is Jake, and I just got her.
Isn't she adorable?

Speaker 1 (01:22:15):
I thought you're afraid of dogs?

Speaker 2 (01:22:17):
She is. I'm not afraid of Jake.

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
She's afraid of dogs in general.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
Oh my god, that's a good Libby.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
That is so unfair, but true, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:32):
I just the big, smelly, disgusting dogs.

Speaker 1 (01:22:37):
Are you calling my dog smelly and disgusting?

Speaker 2 (01:22:42):
Turtle is the most disgusting dog ever born?

Speaker 1 (01:22:46):
Do you want to see disgusting? Look in the mirror,
you want to smell disgusting? Smell yourself top to your insult.
I think that's great. So we established that she's not
afraid of her dog Jake, but she is afraid of Turtle. Yeah,
she contains multitudes. And then as soon as we say

(01:23:07):
Turtle is not the smelliest dog, what happens. Turtle gets
sprayed by a skunk. Oh, he gets sprayed by a stickkunk.
They have to get tomato juice, and it is a fiasco.
And in the midst of all this, Peter's like, okay,
well I'll go to my house and you go to yours.
And She's like, this is your house. We're in the
same house. They're connected. And Peter's like, oh no.

Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
Oh no, wow ow oh too much.

Speaker 1 (01:23:39):
It's too much. So the chapter ends with Turtle being
tomato juice and Peter's sinking realization that he's going to
be one inside door, separated from Sheila for the whole
rest of the summer.

Speaker 2 (01:23:55):
Bom bom bom bomb bomb. Also, tomato juice is a myth?

Speaker 1 (01:24:01):
Is it really?

Speaker 2 (01:24:02):
Yeah? Tomato juice doesn't like, have any actual things that
neutralize skunk musk?

Speaker 1 (01:24:10):
That's weird. I wonder how that got started with someone
just like drinking of bloody marry and I like, I
don't know, try that right.

Speaker 2 (01:24:16):
Turns out tomato juice is like the fabreeze of skunk juice.
It it just tends to be the most pungent smelling
liquid in people's cell and so it masks the sense wow,
but there's nothing like chemical about it that neutralizes it.
And I did find a whole like solution, like if

(01:24:37):
you have peroxide and baking soda, like, oh no, that's
that's what you do. Just remember that for next time
you get skunked. And oh, the last thing is the
Big Bird thing. Oh and it's like kind of sad,

(01:24:57):
but well, okay, so I'll just say it. So Big
Bird was supposed to fly on the Challenger in nineteen
o six, like the you know, the Challenger that famously
exploded on live TV. But he didn't because he was
too big, like.

Speaker 1 (01:25:16):
You and I thank god every day, thank God?

Speaker 2 (01:25:21):
Right, I get knees. Oh, and so instead they the
plan B was to have Big Bird's Teddy Bear. I
don't remember this, but Big had a teddy bear called Radar,
which Irv's dog in Severance is called Radar. Yes, so
what so they were gonna get Radar on the Challenger instead,

(01:25:47):
and then he Radar was even included in like the
original mission plan.

Speaker 1 (01:25:51):
Oh my god, no.

Speaker 2 (01:25:52):
But the plan was scrapped in favor of the teacher
being on the White.

Speaker 1 (01:26:00):
Well, that's fucked up. They're like, let's see, it could
either be a teacher or a pretend doll. Let's think
about that. That sucks. I'm mad knowing this.

Speaker 2 (01:26:17):
I'm sorry. That is not the thing we should be
ending on.

Speaker 1 (01:26:21):
Well, see you guys next week.

Speaker 2 (01:26:23):
Yeah, well, guys, it's been great. You should know this
by now. I tend to bring things to dark places
and I don't mean to, so that's just part of
the pod. And it's been so fun. This was such
a fun time. This is like so wonderful to get

(01:26:44):
back into the world of Judy and especially the Hatchers,
and even just looking at the art on my book,
I just I'm full of warmth. So oh me too.

Speaker 1 (01:26:57):
I'm genuinely so happy to be here, so excited. I
hope I hope y'all like me. Oh really love.

Speaker 2 (01:27:07):
They love you. Y'all stay tuned because we'll be back
in two weeks and we're not sure what chapters we're
gonna do yet, but it'll probably be at least two, three, four,
maybe five. We'll see and send us your letters Bloom
Saloon and Gmail. Also like us, rate us, and review
us because we have a four point nine star rating

(01:27:31):
on Apple Podcasts, which is great, but like, wouldn't it
be so great to get to five? Okay, yeah, we'll
see you in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:27:42):
Bye bye,