November 25, 2025 • 57 mins
"Beginner's Love," chapter 16. Folks, we tried to make this one a Thanksgiving shorty with one chapter, but in true Molly and Jody fashion, we somehow filled an hour! Joel and Leda go cowgirl and have another post-coital misunderstanding. And we STILL don't know if Leda is pregnant. Molly presents a David Niven Special Report, and Jody reveals the latest *crystals* discovery from Kleinstein. Last but not least, thank you to Blume Heads Jill and Dawn for their truly outrageous Yearbook Club entries. It's a (sometimes) Judy Blume book club. Join us every other week!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm Jody and I'm Mollie, and you're listening to the
Bloom Saloon.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
It's a Judy Bloom book Globe.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hi friends, we're here today with a very special Thanksgiving episode,
meaning is going to be a short episode consisting of
one whole chapter. Whoa, whoa, I'm here in Austin. I'm
in the Cocoon South, Mollie, are you at your desk
that looks out the window where you spy on people? I, in.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Fact, I am, and I'm throwing it back old cocoon style,
and I'm having a whiskey drink while I'm recording. I
had the dregs of a bottle of whiskey and a
cad of ginger ale, and so I saw it perfect cocktail.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Are you an old man?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
How dare you? Plenty of young and vibrant people drink
whiskey gingers.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It's not the whiskey bart, it's the ginger I don't know,
Maybe I'm probably wrong.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
How dare you listen to me as a representative of
the tummy ache community. You gotta have this on hand
as a recreational and medicinal beverage. In fact, I think
my ginger ale I have is from the last time
I had a cold or I was sick. I just
bought a big thing and now I just have a
(01:42):
big thing of ginger aal on half on hand on
a FEMA tent. So how dare you like a Femasulkay?
And here's the thing, I know you are also part
of the gastro intestinal distress community. So I think those
of you with her tummy she throw stones.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
No, you know, as soon as I said that, I
realized I was wrong. I was very wrong. I've just
been noticing ginger ale a lot. It's always like an
airplane drink. Yeah, or there's one random one in the
fridge that your uncle brought over and no one wants
to touch it. So I but so, I think I'm
letting that tarnish my view.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
It's not any I don't think it's anybody's like go
to soft drink. I'll say that. I'll say that it's
for emergencies or planes or sometimes at Christmas, I like
it a ginger real Yeah, it's funny, yeah anyway, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Okay, Yeah, I consider me converted because the Bloom Saloon
also converted me to cottage cheese.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
So I'm open.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Okay, Well, I guess I'm open too, but tentatively that
does not sound good to me.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, okay, we have a couple things to cover. We've
got some letters, We've got Judy Minudie's Molly, You've got
a special report for later.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, in this short episode we have all let's get
into it. Then let's do it. How about let's start
with our Judy Manudi, which is where we take one
minute or less or more to talk about the most
study bloom thing that happened to us this week. Jody,
what's the most study bloom thing that happened to you
this week?
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Mine just happened to me yesterday.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I like, I said him in Austin and I flew
in yesterday and it was an early morning flight out
of Oakland, so you know, jump out of bed, don't
wash your face. And I had Bo with me, and
Bo likes to travel in his baby Bjorn.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
So I.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Get off the plane.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I am heading to baggage claim with Bo and my
baby Bjorn, looking gross.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
And then a.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Woman passes me and she gives Bo like a nodding smile,
and then she walks past, and I'm like, I know her.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Oh my god, it's from high school, the most popular
girl in my grade, the hottest, prettiest, like also very nice,
captain of the drill team.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Like I was just like always in awe of her
beauty and charm.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
We're friends on Facebook.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Who knows how that happened, but we don't interact on Facebook,
but I see all her photos and so when.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
I saw her in person, it was like I saw a.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Celebrity, and you know that feeling when you see a
famous person You're like, oh, I really shouldn't stop.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Them, but like I would regret it if I never did.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
So I was like, Emily, oh cool, I did the
whole like, you probably don't recognize me or remember me,
but we went to high school together, and she did
remember me, or she said she did, and she was like, she.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Was like, oh my god, you look so beautiful. And
I was like, what you.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Know, dude, you look just the same as your high
school pictures.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I think, oh, well, thank you so much. I mean,
maybe that's what she was referring to.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I just had caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror,
and again, like I woke up at five in the
morning and looked like it, but oh, she was so
sweet and like for a popular girl, so down to earth,
so nice. So we had a little catchup and I
did feel a little awestruck, and I walked away just
like so happy about it.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Oh that's terrific. I'm so glad.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Oh and then we had a hug with soo in
the middle.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Oh I love that.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Yeah, what's yours?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Molly? Uh? Yesterday I got off fork and I had
a phone call with my best friend. Talking to her
is probably like in my top five favorite things. I
could talk to her until like all the breath left
my body, but we were talking on the phone. It
was just such a good, cathartic phone call. And she
(06:11):
works at a high school and they had to confiscate
some kid's phone because they were texting, and they saw
what this kid was texting. Now this does this fall
under the same umbrella as like Norma reading her kid's diaries? Yes, okay, yes,
but they saw what this boy was texting, and he
(06:36):
texted his girlfriend. He texts her, I want to tell
you something, but I'm scared, and she goes, what and
he goes, he goes, when we grow up, I'm gonna
eat that ass. The same thing happened to me. I
(07:03):
was dying, Yeah, take a drink. I felt like blood
was coming out of my eye sockets. I was laughing
so hard. When we grow up, I'm gonna eat that.
I just like, it's like so respectful and so foul
at the same time.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Oh my god, it's the best thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
It's so great. I love it so much. And I
was telling her. I was like, you know, I I
was a like precocious middle school in high school or
like talking above my station all the time sex wise,
and nobody ever responded this way. And if somebody did, honestly,
(07:49):
I would be so shocked and like my body would
like spontaneously combust like you would just find my like
legs in my shoes in my room and like burn Marron.
That would have just killed me dead. And oh, it
makes me laugh so hard. So I texted her this morning.
I'm like, hey, I need to talk to you just
(08:11):
so you know when we grow up that that's a
really good thing to text your friends.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I think I'm going to try it. I think this
is this has got legs. I think it's gonna go
well beyond the circle.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Of so beautiful.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
It's so beautiful.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
I was like, I read that.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I'm like, free him, let him keep texting.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Yeah, he earned that phone.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
That is a poet.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, you don't want to stifle that.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
That's beautiful. When we grow up, not now, when we
grow up.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
When we grow up? Can I ask what the girl's
response was? Well, do we know?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Part of the reason they knew about it is because
the girl brought her phone to my friend and was like,
how do I interpret? Oh? Well, my friend was like, well,
I think it's just how do you feel about this information?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Oh god, I would never be prepared for that question.
I don't I don't know what you're doing.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
I had a really cathartic chattherday, A cathartic chat and
a laugh.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Remember your book Club.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
We have a year book club entry. This is so exciting.
We love it when Bloomheads participate, especially with your book club,
because these are some really good ones. This first one
here is from Bloomhead Jill, and she says your book
Club the way. I ran here to tell you what
(10:16):
my freshman year crush wrote in my yearbook. A bit
of a backstory. We were friends. He was older, but
we knew each other from church.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
I had liked him and tried desperately not.
Speaker 7 (10:27):
To the whole year.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
He flirted a lot, but always gravitated towards other girls.
Eventually he kissed me, my first ever kissed, and I
had a literal panic attack after he slipped me the tongue.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
My body just couldn't handle it.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
A week later, he asked another girl out and just
casually told me about it like it was nothing. I
was less upset about him moving on to yet another
girl so quickly, and more upset that he just acted
like my feelings didn't matter. Everyone sticks their tongue in
a platonic friend's mouth.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
So I wrote him a note.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
This was nineteen ninety seven notes on paper, taking him
to task for it, and that was pretty much the
end of it. Flirtation, friendship, all of it. Still, I
asked him to sign my yearbook, just out of perhaps
more big curiosity. He wrote, Jill, sorry about all the confusion.
I know your spelled yo. You are not too fond
(11:30):
of me right now, but stay the.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Same your yo. You are nice.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Comma, maybe too nice Call me sometime and he left
his phone number, and Jill says, twenty eight years later,
I am still wondering what is this?
Speaker 6 (11:48):
Even me?
Speaker 3 (11:50):
God, I'm so mad.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Sorry about all the confusion.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Wowie wowe you owe you You're nice too, nice nice
Yoh you are Thank you so much, Jill.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
And if you ever meet this guy or see him
at a reunion or at the grocery store or at
the Austin airport, you got to ask him.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
What does this mean?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Now? Think about this? The writing notes on pen and paper, crowd,
they would also be dead when we grow up. I'm
anna nature ask.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
The nineties mind could not comprehend so far outside of
that realm.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I have another entry from your book club, and this
is from down Hi, Jody and Molly. Here's a message
from my senior yearbooks, Sir Good, nineteen ninety three. The
singer in question was a dude. I knew my whole
life the way you know people in a small town.
We ran in the same circles throughout high school. But
I didn't have a crush on him at any point.
(12:56):
He wrote, Dawn, I know this will come as an
extreme shock. I guess is as good a time as
any to spill my guts. The exact truth is that
here we go, you gulp, were my first love. Now,
before you choke to death, let me explain. Picture this,
(13:18):
me an elementary schooler and you a Saint John's Catholic
elementary school. But you are so cute. You know this
is tough.
Speaker 7 (13:27):
I'll go on.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
I thought you were great. Now listen to this and
bear spelled b are with me. I couldn't bring myself
to make any sort of move, so I did this. Chris,
who is a person not related to me but with
the same last name, who I thought may have been
related to you, was talking to me one day. I
(13:51):
asked him if he was. When I heard his response,
I blurted out, she likes you. Now now that I
look back, I asked myself, well why, I guess the
reason is that I had to do something to get
hooked up. Well that's pretty much the story. If you
have any more questions after you stop laughing, like why
(14:15):
just ask. You are a very gifted person, and I'm
proud to think to myself that you were my first.
I've kept this inside for a long time. I felt
you ought to know. What more can I say? Still
love you?
Speaker 7 (14:32):
Fuck?
Speaker 3 (14:33):
And Don says I never brought it up with him.
YadA YadA. He turned out to be a sociopath, and
I can kind of see the roots of that here,
especially since he took up a whole page writing this
in gold pen keep avoiding the clap down. Oh my god,
Oh so much to unpack here.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
First of all, a whole page. That is so rude.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
You have to be a friend to use a whole page.
Everybody knew that true and.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
What happened.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
I'm so confused about the forensics of this.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, but I do like that he said, if you
have any questions, just asked, because the bloomhead Jill could
have used that.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
It's true. I honestly feel like every man should sign
every missive with if you have any questions, just ask,
because I always have several follow up questions.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Yes, yes, yes, I'm I'm.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Still unclear about what happens. Like he met a person
that he thought was related to her. He asked, Hey,
are you related to her? They said no, This person
goes she likes you, and then he's like, so, as
you can see from this story, you were my first love.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
It's like, what, Yeah, I think it's a lot of
head nonsense.
Speaker 7 (16:00):
Oh boy, who.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
All right? We're doing Beginners Love chapter sixteen today and
I'll start with a roll call. We have Joel, who's seventeen,
who's our main character. He is a boy who is
like growing more emotionally intelligent by the day. Good for him.
We have Leda, also seventeen, who's his girlfriend and who
(16:40):
is the coolest girl in the world. We learn that
Lida's last name is Borof in this chapter surprise, because
we meet, we are reintroduced to her parents, the borofs
mom who's Joel's mom. She's a galerina. We have Dad,
who's Jewel's dad. He's always got something to say. We
(17:04):
have a Knox who's Joel's brother. We have Angelica. I
forget how we oh.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
I think we're saying Speedvac.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Now Angelica Spivac, who is Knox's fiance and they live
in LA. We have a surprise cameo from Prestige actor
David Nevin.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Uh, don't worry.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
I have a special report on later in the episode. Okay,
So this chapter starts off with Joel getting a letter.
A letter which is wild because in nineteen eighty three,
phone calls exist. So I'm so confused why this is
delivered via letter.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
I did wonder if it was like a save the
date card. Oh okay, maybe.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
That makes way more sense. That makes way more But
they get a missive that says that, uh, Knox and
Angelica are going to be married April April eighteenth instead
of June. And the reason that they're getting married on
that date is because Angelica's parents got married on that date,
her sister got married on that date, and Angelica's parents
(18:20):
have been married twenty five years. Like that's cute.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
We also get an interesting lore drop about Knox that
he has a big house in LA with three bedrooms jealous,
and he has a basement where a basement, which no,
he doesn't, There aren't basements in LA. He doesn't have
a basement, but he has a separate room in his house.
That is such like a genuinely like that is such
(18:47):
a It seems to me like a East Coast writer
writing about the West Coast.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Totally, yes, because it's just.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
We just don't have basement culture. Especially LA just doesn't
have basement culture the way that New York or the
East Coast does.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Definitely not good catch though, Yeah, that's so right.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
I have a feeling that as I say this, like
a million bluemheads will call and be like, actually, I
do have a basement. I live in Pacoima, so whatever.
But I've I've lived here my entire life. I've never
met a basement. But anyway, Knox apparently has the one
basement in all of la and he records songs he
(19:27):
makes up. This is such a rude way of saying,
oh killed me, you know how like your husband Tyley
records songs he makes up, just making them up.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
So rude.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
And it's like especially rude coming from Joel, who knows
like two chords of Stairway to Heaven. It's like, I
want to move to Paris and become a guitarist like
Bud come on. But it is so funny to think that,
like Joel doesn't have original like ideas, He's just stealing
kind of everything from Knox.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
And also it sounds like Joel is playing all covers
at least, not playing his own music.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Little made up songs, little maties. That's like one time
when I started a new job, somebody asked me, you
know what I did for hobbies. I was like, oh,
I do stand up. I'm doing stand up for like
ten years at the time, and she goes, oh, it's
nice to be still putting yourself out there. Yeah, with
(20:34):
your little skits, just with.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Your little skits.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
We're trying, You're trying so hard.
Speaker 6 (20:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
So anyway, honestly, this makes Knocks sexier to my mind
because he's a gainfully employed dentist of the stars. He's
a homeowner, and he has a music hobby. Like, honestly,
good for you, Angelica agree. So anyway, they're having lieda
over for dinner because Mom worries that maybe he's spending
(21:04):
too much time at Leida's house and not that she's
not spending enough time at theirs. And this is the
first time we here mentioned that Mom wants to have
a drink with Leida's parents, which I think is nice.
But Joel does not think it's nice. He says, sometimes
I wish my mother wasn't that friendly.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, I would have not stood for that had I
had a boyfriend, And first of all, there's no way
my parents would have reached out that.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
It does make me wonder, like wow, thinking of.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
All, like the hot couples that I knew in high school, Like,
were there parents also hanging out? That's so interesting and
something I never thought about before.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Yeah, I don't know truly. The only instance of that
I know is the parents of my prom dates hanging
out together before coming to my house.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
How dare his parents? I still can't get over it.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I know somebody in the comments called it my villain
origin story, and I'm like, you know what not? No, yeah,
but that is nice. So if you have stories of
your parents hanging out with your spouse or partner, whatever's parents,
let me know.
Speaker 7 (22:16):
So.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
I think that's cute and interesting. So they're all having
dinner together and they're kind of speculating about how long
certain people have been together. Angelica's parents have been together
twenty five years, Joel's parents have been married thirty two years.
It seems like Lida pipes up that her parents have
(22:39):
been married thirty five years. And they're kind of talking
about the differences in their families, like Leeda's only child
because her parents waited a while to have kids. And
on that tip, Mom, this is this whole run is
such a mom thing, Like out of nowhere, Mom is like, hey,
(23:05):
do you think they switched the wedding date because they
you know, had to. Everybody's like, are you implying what
we think you're implying, and Dad puts it most diccinctly.
He goes, you mean she's knocked up? And I think, like,
(23:27):
if it was any other circumstances, I might be like, Okay, Mom,
you got a point. But like she says, two different
people in her family have gotten married on this exact date. YEA,
Like now it just seems rude to speculate otherwise. Yes,
And when Dad says, Sweetie, you're concocting worries out of
(23:49):
thin air, I'm like, if that ain't a mom, that's
moms do be doing that. And then Lida again, Lida
is pipe and up this episode. God bless her.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Oh she's so good.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
She goes, I'm not gonna have a baby till I'm
thirty because I think otherwise you don't have a chance
to do things. And that's true, but I'm I'm scared
at how thick they're laying the Lida and baby stuff
on because I still don't know what's gonna happen, and
I'm really worried. Mom and Dad have such a busy
(24:23):
social calendar. They are always out and about and I
appreciate that about them, and Joel also appreciates that about them.
Because he and Lida are in the room with the
door closed, which I could not believe. I could not.
I straight up brought a man home that I had
been living with for a year and I could not
(24:43):
have the door closed.
Speaker 7 (24:45):
Really.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Yeah, more, my mom was strict about this stuff, and
I am a dummy and listen to rules. I was
living with somebody, and we went home to visit my
parents when my parents were still together, and we stayed
in my childhood home and uh, he had to stay
(25:07):
in the guest room downstairs and I stayed in my room,
which is fine. I'm not trying to like do it
in my parents' house, but it is like it is like, guys,
we split the rent. The jig is up.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
I remember one time because we lived in a studio
apartment too, And I remember one time we'd been dating
several years. My dad came over to visit us in
San Francisco and he visited our apartment and he looked
at he's joking, but he looked at our tiny apartment
with one bed. He goes, this is nice. Where does
Mitch sleep on? So yeah, all that is to say,
(25:47):
I can't imagine having a closed door with a boy
in my room. Ever to this day.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
I heard I remember hearing stories like, oh, so and
so his parents took their door off the hinges so
they could never be.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Alone, Like my dad did do that, not to me,
to my brother. Really not for that, but for other reasons.
But it's it's not the good parenting technique. I want
to go on the record saying that.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, it had its moment. I feel like some self
help book probably told parents in the eighties and nineties
it was the thing to do.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
I guess, so, I guess so wow. Well, at any rate,
Joel's parents never read that because they're in the room
with the door locked, and the mom's like, okay, see
you later. We are going out now, okay bye. So
they're talking on the bed and they are talking about
(26:50):
how Leita maybe didn't have a poker face when they
were talking about people being trapped. I have it. Oh,
I'm sorry, I missed a big part mom. Mom says
something like, so we can so such a that's all.
That's such a mom thing to say, and then mom
continues to say true, and they were going to get
(27:13):
married anyway. It's just I think people who look back
and know that they had to well, there's always that
feeling of being trapped in some way.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Trapped for who trapped for? Because I think Joel interprets
it as trapped.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
For the man.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
I think Mom's talking about the women.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Because Mom is a feminist, so that she probably was.
That's really smart. You pointing that out makes me think
that's another tick in the tally of Mom affirming what
Lda is saying about waiting to have kids until you're thirty,
Like she's into it. She doesn't want anybody to be trapped.
(27:55):
And Leada is reflecting on that when they're in bed,
and she says, people alway talk about how the guy
is trapped, but how about the girl? And I really
relate to Lyda in these moments of stress, like really
popping off and getting under high horse, because I think
(28:15):
part of the dissonance of being like a feminist and
dating a man is you know you love this man,
and you know this man is so nice, but we
live in such a sexist, patriarchal society that sometimes it's like,
(28:37):
I'm so mad at this thing, and you're the nearest
man to me. Yeah, so I have to tell you
everything I wish I could say to this system that
can't hear me.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Yeah, that's so true.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
And then it often doesn't get interpreted the right way.
It gets interpreted as a direct attack, and it's more
just like, hey, I need you to understand this is
this is something you're you know, victim as well.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Totally, And I don't think it's so like like, you know,
there's that feminist author Angela Dowrkin who who was really
on this tip, and she said something like, all like
penetrative sex is is rape because there's there's no way
to consent under the patriarchy.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
And I don't believe that, but I.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Do think, like, you know, if you are mad enough,
you get a whiff of that feeling with the nearest
person to talk to, and it is it is so
much more than can be fixed, you know, after dinner.
So it's kind of comforting to know that, like girls
and women have always felt little bits of this feeling.
(29:52):
And I don't think I've ever read a book before
where like the teenage girl was talking like this to
her her her boyfriend before.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
So that's yeah, I don't think I have either. This
really does feel different.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Yeah, I would be really excited if a girl read
this book and was like, I want to be like
Lyda because I think Leda is a really good example.
And you know, does she make the best decisions all
the time? No? Can we can we tell from Joel's
perspective how much of a whiplash that must beat it,
like hang out with this person totally. But I think
(30:26):
she's really strident and cool and like, doesn't you know
as much as she has people pleasing tendency, she doesn't
take anything lying down, And I really appreciate that about her.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Oh coming up, she literally doesn't make anything lying down.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
And yeah, this book is a feminist test because what's
about to happen. So she starts off the way any
good foreplace should by making a man a little bit
afraid of you. This is like one of the only
times that I'm happy that this book is from perspective,
because I so appreciate from his perspective how he's like,
(31:03):
I want to be good. This is a minefield. I
don't know what to do because remember last week she
has berated him for only wanting sex, and so they're
sitting there and he goes, I'm afraid to make anything
like a pass at her. She'll get mad and say
all I think about is sex, but if I don't,
she might wonder if I don't like her that much.
(31:27):
So they start kind of kissing, and then Lida's like
okay and takes all her clothes off. She says another
thing that I think is so funny because he voices
being nervous about it, which again great emotional intelligence Joel.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
So Joel goes, it's just I'm afraid if we do it.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
If I say I want to, you'll think that's all
I'm interested.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
No, I don't think that. I know you basically love
me for my one rful creative mind. Am I sardonic wit?
You just put up with my body because you don't
want to hurt my feelings.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
So good, Okay. So they're lying down and they're fooling around,
and all of a sudden she flips on top of him.
They decide they're gonna do it that way and listen
to me. I want to read this part. I think
it is genuinely lovely writing about sex, and I don't
want to read it in Joel's voice.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
And ruin it.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
So I'm gonna read this in my normal voice. But no,
Joel is saying this okay, all right, here we go.
Leta has a great bottom. It's round and smooth and
terrific to feel. Lying on my back that way, I
could run my hands all over it, which it's hard
to do the other way when I'm on top. All
(32:55):
her breasts were hanging almost right in my face. Her
nipples touch the tip of my nose was like soft
flower petals. She moved back and forth slowly. I opened
my eyes one second. Leida's eyes were closed too. She
looked so beautiful that way, her hair falling into her face,
her mouth slightly open. I'd been trying not to get
(33:15):
too excited, but when I closed my eyes again, she
made a sudden move, began going faster, and I couldn't
hold back. I gripped a hold of her and came
shooting up into her in short sudden thrusts. Leda cried out,
and then collapse on top of me, her hair falling
into my face. We lay like that for several minutes.
Then I withdrew and she lay beside me. She didn't
(33:38):
nestle against me the way she sometimes does. Maybe it
would be better if we didn't have bodies, she said, Oh,
that kills me. That kills me dead. Oh. I think
that was such a beautifully written scene. And then to
have joelby like looking up at her with such awe
(33:59):
and and them having experienced something like this together and
for to end with I wish we didn't have bodies
just breaks my heart. And I think it's another example
of that whiplash we're talking about of like it's so
good but it's so fraud. It's just like, Oh, that's
that's kind of the experience of vulnerability is it's it's
(34:22):
all those things.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Mm hmm, yeah, the whole I.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
This is me being flippant about her comment, but it
did remind me of like when you were younger, did
you ever have combos with like would you still love
me if I was a bug?
Speaker 4 (34:40):
What if I was invisible? Did you ever go through that?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
And it's like do you want them to be like yeah,
the answer is yes always, but no, you don't get
the answer you want ever. Baby, does she want to
hear that Joel would still I mean, she doesn't hear
that Joel would want to love her if she didn't
have a body. But I think he's just like really
(35:12):
confused by it. And then he's just like, oh, is
your diaphragm, buddy body.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Yeah, that's yeah. Again, all all of the things you
have to think about when you want to think about
if you want to start having sex, is like you
open yourself to all these weirdo feelings. But you're right.
The answer is always yes, I would love you if
you were a worm.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
What about the stinkiest, grossest, slimiest worm.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Yes, yes, keep you a cigar box with all Yes,
a little.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Cigar bar bocks holes in it sounds so cute like
the the sesame street worms. You have their little like
flower pots and oh god, I would.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Do with you.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Yeah. Same, m.
Speaker 8 (36:10):
H m.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
The conversation continues, and uh.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Lida says no, I mean, like, do you think we'd
be friends if it weren't for sure?
Speaker 4 (36:34):
I feel like we are and we're not.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
We're close about a lot of things, but it's not
like with me and Danny, where we tell each other everything.
We're completely open. I'm not sure you tell me everything
you feel.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
I don't tell anyone else more than I tell you.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
Well, that's not the same thing. Oh Lee, are you
wearing your d What does it matter?
Speaker 6 (37:03):
I thought you thought you weren't pregnant.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I don't think I am, but I could be. Yeah,
I'm wearing it. Does that set your mind at rest?
Speaker 7 (37:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Listen, you have nothing to worry about either way. We're
not going to have a shotgun wedding. Even if I am.
I'll just have an abortion and that's all.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
God.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Don't you hate those books for teenagers where they have
to get married and she drops out of school and
then they live over her garage and he works in
some used car lot And there's always some scene where
the girl who had an abortion comes to visit and
she's gone insane and becomes a bowery bum.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Just in case you didn't get the point.
Speaker 6 (37:44):
Oh, I I never read a book like that.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
You're lucky.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Every other book I've read since I was ten is
like that. The Girls of Moron, the Guys of Moron.
They never heard of birth control. But I love the
scenes where the father takes the guy aside and says, son,
if you married Betsy, you'll have to give up your
football scholarship to Oklahoma State. They're always going to some
(38:11):
god forsaken place in like Oklahoma State. And the guy says,
but dad, I love her. And then there's a scene
where the mother says, dear, you.
Speaker 4 (38:21):
Haven't let him take advantage of you.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
You know what boys are like, quote unquote God, I
think writers must be really dumb or else they're living
in the stone age.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
Oh it's a norma.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
I know. It's so interesting because this reminds me of
like what norm wi pardon me of what Judy said
her daughter said when asking her to write Forever is
she wanted her to write Forever because she wanted a
book where the nice teens had sex and nothing bad happened.
So it's kind of interesting that they're contemporaries in this
(38:57):
world and they're so aware of other people in their
genre and how they write these like morality tales for
teens and they're just trying to convey it how it
actually is. And I think that's really admirable.
Speaker 4 (39:11):
It isn't it.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
But it also kind of makes me want to read
one of these morality novels because I don't think I really.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Think any It's like, go ask Alice Oops all sex.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Edition, Yeah, totally.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (39:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
If if you Bloomheads, if you know of a book
like that, let us know, maybe we'll read excerpts from it.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
Yeah, that could be fun.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
Yeah, But that's interesting that it's nineteen eighty three and
Leada is like, don't worry, ill, let's have an abortion.
So let's see when one was seventy seventy three, so
it's been at that point lol, when we still had
Roe v. Wade in the seventies. So when this book
(39:56):
came out, it would be ten years old. So yeah,
that makes sense that she's like, yeah, no worries, I'll
I'll just get an abortion.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Joel's thinking, he hopes Sleita isn't pregnant. Obviously, he knows
abortions are legal and safe, but he just he's not
into the idea of it. And Lida consents he's thinking something,
and she says.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
I mean, at least we love each other. We're not
just two horny.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Jerks who jumped into bed because we couldn't think of
anything better to do.
Speaker 6 (40:28):
I love you a lot.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
You look glowing.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Horses sweat, men perspire, women glow. That's what our gym
teacher told us. And then Joel thinks to himself, it's true.
I remember hearing that phrase, oh you do, Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
I wonder if whoever I heard it from.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Heard it from this book, or if it was a
phrase that people said, and Norma just picked up on it.
But also the first thing I thought when he said,
you're glowing, I'm like the sea glow. No, does she
have a pregnancy glow?
Speaker 3 (41:03):
No?
Speaker 6 (41:06):
Oh gosh?
Speaker 4 (41:07):
Oh man? Okay.
Speaker 7 (41:09):
Well.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
The next day, Joel's parents recount their hang with Lida's parents.
This is when we learned their last name is Borof.
Dad thinks Leda's mom was very interesting, kind of European
and old world. And I feel like that could mean
so many different things.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
I'm like, what do you she has Harry Armpits?
Speaker 6 (41:31):
Like, yeah, right, that.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Does seem like a mom way to say someone has
Harry Right.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
It could either mean like, oh, so sophisticated or also
like from the old country, you know.
Speaker 4 (41:45):
But I think she means sophisticated, but maybe also Harry Armpits.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
I wonder I took it to mean like a little bohemian.
I don't know why. Maybe I'm cowering it in with
what I know about Rida.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
Yes, I can see that.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
But then Leada's dad, he did not come off well.
He apparently drank too much. Was he drinking whiskey? I
think he was drinking whiskey Yep, he drank too much
and then poop pooed Yale and all the Ivy League
schools and basically education in general, especially for someone who
(42:20):
wants to be an actor, because there's no point in
going to acting school.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
You just have to like do it.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
And that really rubbed Joel's dad the wrong way, being a.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
Big Yale head and.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Joel's dad he uh, he gets a little analytical, and
he says some interesting things here. He thinks Leada's dad
is edible and that he doesn't want to let Leda
go losing the light of his life.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
And then he says, look, I don't blame him. She's
an adorable girl. I wouldn't want to lose her either.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
I put a sad face in my book, and I'm like, Dad,
there's gotta be a better way to convey what you
mean there.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
That's the thing.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
It's like, I think all these ideas are pretty normal,
but like the way they talk about them is so gross.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
I know, every man in this book is like, you know,
how like babies want to fuck you? Yeah no, I
don't know that. Free say do a second hey, Bud,
do a second draft for me.
Speaker 4 (43:24):
You can just say he's gonna miss his little girl.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Yeah, come on, I do think that's weird. Though. I
do notice that when you go to like weddings that
is kind of the slant sometimes. Yeah, when like Dad's
and like those weird like country songs that are like.
Speaker 6 (43:45):
I'm losing my little girl.
Speaker 3 (43:47):
I'm taking her down out to give her to another man.
It's like, stop, everybody.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
Stop, I'm a girl dad.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
It's just like it's such a sweet idea, and just
I don't want anyone to be girl dad, boy mom, anything.
Just be be regular.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
Just be normal, be regular, be normal?
Speaker 3 (44:10):
Please?
Speaker 4 (44:10):
Did you ever so on teen Mom?
Speaker 2 (44:13):
You know, yes, the kids are always going to daddy
daughter dances.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Oh we know.
Speaker 6 (44:23):
No.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
But like my dad one time, for some reason, he
brought home corsages and he brought my mom one, and
he brought me one.
Speaker 6 (44:33):
And then and then't know, like he.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Would like send me flowers sometimes. I used to have
a joke in my stand up that's like, my dad
send me flowers on Valentine's Day? How do I tell him?
I just like him as a friend. So he he
I am like my dad's favorite, and he's not shy
about it. But we didn't have a formal dance about it.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
Okay, you never did daddy daughter dance. You didn't dance,
you didn't step on the feet.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
No, no, I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
But in okay, but in good news, Lyda's parents did
say how wonderful Joel is.
Speaker 4 (45:10):
They really like him.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
He's a great influence on Lida because apparently she used
to go out and party a lot. She would go
to parties and dances, and now she just stays home.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
And then there's a pause and Joel things like fuck,
did they know she fucks?
Speaker 2 (45:30):
And then her parents continue their sentence and they say
she studies.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
This actually makes me mad. Now I'm a little mad
that Joela hasn't taking Leada on dates. Maybe that's just
a high school thing. I wouldn't know date. I never
really dated in high school, so I don't really know.
But they really are never taking this relationship on dry land,
like since the Simon and Garfunkle concert, it seems, or
since sorry, since they saw et post boning. But it
(45:59):
doesn't seem like they do anything else.
Speaker 4 (46:01):
They went to the laundromat. Oh excuse me, Yeah, that's
a good point.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
And so we end with this convo between Joel and dad,
and Dad's giving him a real heart to heart.
Speaker 4 (46:12):
He puts his hand on his shoulder, Joel. Fathers of
daughters are just it's a whole other ballgame.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
NaN's father never asked me in fifteen years, a single
question about myself, not one.
Speaker 4 (46:28):
I don't think he even knew what profession I was in.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
I was just some guy who hung around the house
occasionally siring a child and taking her to concerts.
Speaker 3 (46:38):
Taking her to concerts is so funny. Yeah, would you
have been like that with a daughter? Hmm?
Speaker 4 (46:47):
Maybe? Who knows.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
I'd like to think not, but you can't tell. And
then lead a calls that evening.
Speaker 8 (46:57):
Listen, I want to apologize for daddy.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
That's okay.
Speaker 8 (47:01):
Mom said he was just awful. He can get like that,
like sometimes he has too much a drink and he
starts thinking I'm ten years old or something. He's not
really like that. He's really a darling. But Mom was
afraid your parents might have been offended or something.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
No, they liked your mother a lot.
Speaker 8 (47:20):
Didn't they think her horribly old fashioned? No, my father
said she was I forget, very European. That's what I mean. Well,
she thought your parents were great. She thinks your father
is urbane and witty, and she said he reminded her
of David Niven, and your mother seems very smart and
(47:43):
well put together.
Speaker 4 (47:45):
And then Joel thinks David nivin.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
I wonder if I should tell Dad that I certainly
never noticed any special resemblance.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
Do you get a celebrity you look alike? Ever?
Speaker 2 (48:00):
I've gotten random like that girl on that show he's
in the background, but never a proper celeb What about you.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
When I was younger and skin and skinnier, people used
to say, wow, you look like what actually a mean
person said. People said Sandra Bullock before, but one person said, oh,
you look like an ugly Sandra Bullock.
Speaker 4 (48:27):
Oh rude, oh.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
Bo like that either, hold on, I got a hold on.
Speaker 3 (48:36):
Oh just goes and barks in the rest of the house.
Speaker 4 (48:42):
Yeah, but that is so.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
You know what, I think you look like a pretty
Sandra Bullet because I see it.
Speaker 4 (48:52):
I see it if you had a ponytail.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
Yeah, people have like strong features and big laughs. But
so I but Dad got David Niven, and I didn't
recognize that name. So I did a little research, and
I have a little bit of a special report. Did
you know who David Nivin is. No.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
I had to look him up too, and I was like, oh,
he looks like every other Debonair man of a certain era.
Speaker 4 (49:18):
He looks like my grandfather. So I liked him.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
Immediately, totally. So David Niven was a British actor and
writer and just a guy about town in the thirties.
He was in all kinds of movies. He was in
Wuthering Heights, he was in one of my favorite movies,
which is My Men, Godfrey. That's a really excellent movie.
(49:40):
If you haven't seen it, it's wonderful. And then he
also played James Bond in Casina Real. But something interesting
about him is that when World War Two was starting up,
David Niven was living in Hollywood. He was like acting
in all these movies. He was really doing like two
(50:01):
to three movies a year, just back to back to back,
big movies. When World War Two started, he almost immediately
left the US to go fight and join the British Army.
The studio didn't want to let him out of his contract.
They were like, no, stay here, there's actively a war
(50:21):
over there. Like stay here where it's safe. You're an actor,
we need to protect you. And he felt so patriotic
that he forged a like I don't know what it's called,
but like an army summons. He like forged one of
those to give to the head of the studio to
get out of his contract. And he went to go
fight in World War Two. And what is cool about
(50:45):
him is he they said, well, this is great, we'll
give you the jobs that we give to actors, you know,
you can work on like the media team or whatever.
And he did that for a little bit and then
he's like, no, I want to help a lot more.
So he got a bigger position in the army. He
was at D Day. Actually I think it was, like
(51:06):
he said, shortly after D Day, but still he was
like in the thick of it. And he also served
in this secret reconnaissance group called Phantom, which was like
scouting out enemy positions and sort of reporting back. So
he's like really really in it. There's this funny quote
(51:28):
where he's in the you know, abroad and in the
trenches or whatever, and he's trying to get to the
other section and it happens to be an American run section,
and the people at the gate think that he's a
spy because he's all of a sudden, this like British
(51:48):
guy going into the different camp or whatever, and so
they ask him to try and like get him to
crack if he's a spy. They ask him, like, who
won the World Series in nineteen forty three, and he goes,
I haven't the foggiest idea, but I did co star
with Ginger Roberts and Bachelor Mother. I couldn't listen. I
(52:11):
can't pass your test, but I am famous.
Speaker 4 (52:14):
So you know who you're talking to, Come.
Speaker 3 (52:17):
On, who I am? Yeah, And he has this other
funny quote that you know he he was always trying
to keep like morale up and these were like bleak,
scary times he fought in the Battle of the Bold
and he talks about there's this quote of him trying
to egg on his fellow soldiers into action and he goes, look,
(52:39):
you chaps only have to do this once, but I'll
have to do it over and over again in Hollywood
with Errol Flynn. So funny.
Speaker 6 (52:47):
I love this.
Speaker 4 (52:49):
Oh he sounds so cool.
Speaker 6 (52:51):
He was so cool.
Speaker 3 (52:53):
And so he gets back, you know, a war hero
and keeps making movies. And that's kind of where I
stopped writing about him. He wrote a lot of famous books,
including one about conversations with Winston Churchill, and lived lived
a really interesting life. The last thing I will say,
and this is a PSA, his first wife died playing sardines.
(53:18):
Do you know? Do you know what Sardine says?
Speaker 6 (53:20):
I do?
Speaker 3 (53:21):
Okay, if you don't know, it's this game. It's like
reverse hide and go seek. And so what happens is
one person Wait, how does it happen? Okay, one person.
One person hides, and then everybody tries to find them,
and when you find them, you have to like hide
with them until it becomes like this group of like
seven people hiding and one person seeking. It's so fun.
(53:45):
But his wife was playing this game with their friends
at a party and she opened a closet and walked
into it. Except it wasn't a closet. It was the
door to like down the step to their basement, and
she fell down the steps and cracked her skull open.
Speaker 4 (54:05):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (54:06):
So you guys, when you're playing sardines, be so careful,
so careful when you're playing sardines.
Speaker 4 (54:15):
That's really tragic.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
Oh okay, well, so I guess that's what Joel's dad
looks like.
Speaker 4 (54:25):
I have one last thing.
Speaker 2 (54:27):
And it is also film related, so this is a
good tie in.
Speaker 3 (54:32):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (54:32):
We received some intel from Kleinstein on something so crystals.
Speaker 4 (54:40):
That you're like, what tell me?
Speaker 2 (54:43):
Okay, So Kleinstein said, Hi, just wanted to share that
the movie Joel and Lyda probably watched. This is the
Valerie Burtonelly movie was Young Love, First Love. It was
based on its It's Okay If you don't Love Me.
See below for writer credit, writer credit Norma Flin. Norma
(55:12):
Cline wrote a Valerie Burton Ellie movie.
Speaker 3 (55:15):
Oh my god, and she's referencing it. Oh my god,
Oh my god, Oh my god. That is crystal.
Speaker 4 (55:21):
It is crystal. So everybody.
Speaker 2 (55:24):
The movie is Young Love, First Love came out in
seventy nine. The writers were Norma Cline and Dan Pollier Junior.
And I looked him up and he'd only done like
one other thing.
Speaker 3 (55:35):
That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
Yeah, and it stars Valerie Burton Ellie, Timothy Hutton.
Speaker 3 (55:41):
Well and listen to this description of young Love, First Love.
It's a Midwestern boy moves to California to begin a
romance with a girl advanced for her age. Oh my God,
Norma's like I got one thing.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
Yeah, this does make me wonder if Norma had some
kind of time into David Niven, because she's not just.
Speaker 4 (56:02):
Willy nilly mentioning celebrities for no reason.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
Cut to me, making like a serial killer connection.
Speaker 4 (56:12):
Yes, you have to find the David Niven connection.
Speaker 3 (56:17):
Whoa, that is the crystaliest crystal thing I have seen
in a while. That's cool.
Speaker 4 (56:22):
Thank My sign is so good.
Speaker 2 (56:25):
We are so thankful for their intel and dedication.
Speaker 3 (56:32):
That's righteous. Thank you so much for sharing that with me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (56:37):
Well that's it for this shorty episode.
Speaker 4 (56:41):
Yeah, so short, so short, Bluemheads.
Speaker 2 (56:46):
Remember our year book club theme is prenemies nimmi.
Speaker 4 (56:52):
But you can also write us letters about anything you want.
Speaker 2 (56:54):
Ye, and happy Thanksgiving and we will see you in
two weeks.
Speaker 4 (57:00):
By by bye
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm Jody and I'm Mollie, and you're listening to the
Bloom Saloon.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
It's a Judy Bloom book Globe.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hi friends, we're here today with a very special Thanksgiving episode,
meaning is going to be a short episode consisting of
one whole chapter. Whoa, whoa, I'm here in Austin. I'm
in the Cocoon South, Mollie, are you at your desk
that looks out the window where you spy on people? I, in.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Fact, I am, and I'm throwing it back old cocoon style,
and I'm having a whiskey drink while I'm recording. I
had the dregs of a bottle of whiskey and a
cad of ginger ale, and so I saw it perfect cocktail.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Are you an old man?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
How dare you? Plenty of young and vibrant people drink
whiskey gingers.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It's not the whiskey bart, it's the ginger I don't know,
Maybe I'm probably wrong.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
How dare you listen to me as a representative of
the tummy ache community. You gotta have this on hand
as a recreational and medicinal beverage. In fact, I think
my ginger ale I have is from the last time
I had a cold or I was sick. I just
bought a big thing and now I just have a
(01:42):
big thing of ginger aal on half on hand on
a FEMA tent. So how dare you like a Femasulkay?
And here's the thing, I know you are also part
of the gastro intestinal distress community. So I think those
of you with her tummy she throw stones.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
No, you know, as soon as I said that, I
realized I was wrong. I was very wrong. I've just
been noticing ginger ale a lot. It's always like an
airplane drink. Yeah, or there's one random one in the
fridge that your uncle brought over and no one wants
to touch it. So I but so, I think I'm
letting that tarnish my view.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
It's not any I don't think it's anybody's like go
to soft drink. I'll say that. I'll say that it's
for emergencies or planes or sometimes at Christmas, I like
it a ginger real Yeah, it's funny, yeah anyway, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Okay, Yeah, I consider me converted because the Bloom Saloon
also converted me to cottage cheese.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
So I'm open.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Okay, Well, I guess I'm open too, but tentatively that
does not sound good to me.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, okay, we have a couple things to cover. We've
got some letters, We've got Judy Minudie's Molly, You've got
a special report for later.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, in this short episode we have all let's get
into it. Then let's do it. How about let's start
with our Judy Manudi, which is where we take one
minute or less or more to talk about the most
study bloom thing that happened to us this week. Jody,
what's the most study bloom thing that happened to you
this week?
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Mine just happened to me yesterday.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I like, I said him in Austin and I flew
in yesterday and it was an early morning flight out
of Oakland, so you know, jump out of bed, don't
wash your face. And I had Bo with me, and
Bo likes to travel in his baby Bjorn.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
So I.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Get off the plane.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I am heading to baggage claim with Bo and my
baby Bjorn, looking gross.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
And then a.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Woman passes me and she gives Bo like a nodding smile,
and then she walks past, and I'm like, I know her.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Oh my god, it's from high school, the most popular
girl in my grade, the hottest, prettiest, like also very nice,
captain of the drill team.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Like I was just like always in awe of her
beauty and charm.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
We're friends on Facebook.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Who knows how that happened, but we don't interact on Facebook,
but I see all her photos and so when.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
I saw her in person, it was like I saw a.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Celebrity, and you know that feeling when you see a
famous person You're like, oh, I really shouldn't stop.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Them, but like I would regret it if I never did.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
So I was like, Emily, oh cool, I did the
whole like, you probably don't recognize me or remember me,
but we went to high school together, and she did
remember me, or she said she did, and she was like, she.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Was like, oh my god, you look so beautiful. And
I was like, what you.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Know, dude, you look just the same as your high
school pictures.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I think, oh, well, thank you so much. I mean,
maybe that's what she was referring to.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I just had caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror,
and again, like I woke up at five in the
morning and looked like it, but oh, she was so
sweet and like for a popular girl, so down to earth,
so nice. So we had a little catchup and I
did feel a little awestruck, and I walked away just
like so happy about it.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Oh that's terrific. I'm so glad.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Oh and then we had a hug with soo in
the middle.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Oh I love that.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Yeah, what's yours?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Molly? Uh? Yesterday I got off fork and I had
a phone call with my best friend. Talking to her
is probably like in my top five favorite things. I
could talk to her until like all the breath left
my body, but we were talking on the phone. It
was just such a good, cathartic phone call. And she
(06:11):
works at a high school and they had to confiscate
some kid's phone because they were texting, and they saw
what this kid was texting. Now this does this fall
under the same umbrella as like Norma reading her kid's diaries? Yes, okay, yes,
but they saw what this boy was texting, and he
(06:36):
texted his girlfriend. He texts her, I want to tell
you something, but I'm scared, and she goes, what and
he goes, he goes, when we grow up, I'm gonna
eat that ass. The same thing happened to me. I
(07:03):
was dying, Yeah, take a drink. I felt like blood
was coming out of my eye sockets. I was laughing
so hard. When we grow up, I'm gonna eat that.
I just like, it's like so respectful and so foul
at the same time.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Oh my god, it's the best thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
It's so great. I love it so much. And I
was telling her. I was like, you know, I I
was a like precocious middle school in high school or
like talking above my station all the time sex wise,
and nobody ever responded this way. And if somebody did, honestly,
(07:49):
I would be so shocked and like my body would
like spontaneously combust like you would just find my like
legs in my shoes in my room and like burn Marron.
That would have just killed me dead. And oh, it
makes me laugh so hard. So I texted her this morning.
I'm like, hey, I need to talk to you just
(08:11):
so you know when we grow up that that's a
really good thing to text your friends.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I think I'm going to try it. I think this
is this has got legs. I think it's gonna go
well beyond the circle.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Of so beautiful.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
It's so beautiful.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
I was like, I read that.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I'm like, free him, let him keep texting.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Yeah, he earned that phone.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
That is a poet.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, you don't want to stifle that.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
That's beautiful. When we grow up, not now, when we
grow up.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
When we grow up? Can I ask what the girl's
response was? Well, do we know?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Part of the reason they knew about it is because
the girl brought her phone to my friend and was like,
how do I interpret? Oh? Well, my friend was like, well,
I think it's just how do you feel about this information?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Oh god, I would never be prepared for that question.
I don't I don't know what you're doing.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
I had a really cathartic chattherday, A cathartic chat and
a laugh.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Remember your book Club.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
We have a year book club entry. This is so exciting.
We love it when Bloomheads participate, especially with your book club,
because these are some really good ones. This first one
here is from Bloomhead Jill, and she says your book
Club the way. I ran here to tell you what
(10:16):
my freshman year crush wrote in my yearbook. A bit
of a backstory. We were friends. He was older, but
we knew each other from church.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
I had liked him and tried desperately not.
Speaker 7 (10:27):
To the whole year.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
He flirted a lot, but always gravitated towards other girls.
Eventually he kissed me, my first ever kissed, and I
had a literal panic attack after he slipped me the tongue.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
My body just couldn't handle it.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
A week later, he asked another girl out and just
casually told me about it like it was nothing. I
was less upset about him moving on to yet another
girl so quickly, and more upset that he just acted
like my feelings didn't matter. Everyone sticks their tongue in
a platonic friend's mouth.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
So I wrote him a note.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
This was nineteen ninety seven notes on paper, taking him
to task for it, and that was pretty much the
end of it. Flirtation, friendship, all of it. Still, I
asked him to sign my yearbook, just out of perhaps
more big curiosity. He wrote, Jill, sorry about all the confusion.
I know your spelled yo. You are not too fond
(11:30):
of me right now, but stay the.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Same your yo. You are nice.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Comma, maybe too nice Call me sometime and he left
his phone number, and Jill says, twenty eight years later,
I am still wondering what is this?
Speaker 6 (11:48):
Even me?
Speaker 3 (11:50):
God, I'm so mad.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Sorry about all the confusion.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Wowie wowe you owe you You're nice too, nice nice
Yoh you are Thank you so much, Jill.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
And if you ever meet this guy or see him
at a reunion or at the grocery store or at
the Austin airport, you got to ask him.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
What does this mean?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Now? Think about this? The writing notes on pen and paper, crowd,
they would also be dead when we grow up. I'm
anna nature ask.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
The nineties mind could not comprehend so far outside of
that realm.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I have another entry from your book club, and this
is from down Hi, Jody and Molly. Here's a message
from my senior yearbooks, Sir Good, nineteen ninety three. The
singer in question was a dude. I knew my whole
life the way you know people in a small town.
We ran in the same circles throughout high school. But
I didn't have a crush on him at any point.
(12:56):
He wrote, Dawn, I know this will come as an
extreme shock. I guess is as good a time as
any to spill my guts. The exact truth is that
here we go, you gulp, were my first love. Now,
before you choke to death, let me explain. Picture this,
(13:18):
me an elementary schooler and you a Saint John's Catholic
elementary school. But you are so cute. You know this
is tough.
Speaker 7 (13:27):
I'll go on.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
I thought you were great. Now listen to this and
bear spelled b are with me. I couldn't bring myself
to make any sort of move, so I did this. Chris,
who is a person not related to me but with
the same last name, who I thought may have been
related to you, was talking to me one day. I
(13:51):
asked him if he was. When I heard his response,
I blurted out, she likes you. Now now that I
look back, I asked myself, well why, I guess the
reason is that I had to do something to get
hooked up. Well that's pretty much the story. If you
have any more questions after you stop laughing, like why
(14:15):
just ask. You are a very gifted person, and I'm
proud to think to myself that you were my first.
I've kept this inside for a long time. I felt
you ought to know. What more can I say? Still
love you?
Speaker 7 (14:32):
Fuck?
Speaker 3 (14:33):
And Don says I never brought it up with him.
YadA YadA. He turned out to be a sociopath, and
I can kind of see the roots of that here,
especially since he took up a whole page writing this
in gold pen keep avoiding the clap down. Oh my god,
Oh so much to unpack here.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
First of all, a whole page. That is so rude.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
You have to be a friend to use a whole page.
Everybody knew that true and.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
What happened.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
I'm so confused about the forensics of this.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, but I do like that he said, if you
have any questions, just asked, because the bloomhead Jill could
have used that.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
It's true. I honestly feel like every man should sign
every missive with if you have any questions, just ask,
because I always have several follow up questions.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Yes, yes, yes, I'm I'm.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Still unclear about what happens. Like he met a person
that he thought was related to her. He asked, Hey,
are you related to her? They said no, This person
goes she likes you, and then he's like, so, as
you can see from this story, you were my first love.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
It's like, what, Yeah, I think it's a lot of
head nonsense.
Speaker 7 (16:00):
Oh boy, who.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
All right? We're doing Beginners Love chapter sixteen today and
I'll start with a roll call. We have Joel, who's seventeen,
who's our main character. He is a boy who is
like growing more emotionally intelligent by the day. Good for him.
We have Leda, also seventeen, who's his girlfriend and who
(16:40):
is the coolest girl in the world. We learn that
Lida's last name is Borof in this chapter surprise, because
we meet, we are reintroduced to her parents, the borofs
mom who's Joel's mom. She's a galerina. We have Dad,
who's Jewel's dad. He's always got something to say. We
(17:04):
have a Knox who's Joel's brother. We have Angelica. I
forget how we oh.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
I think we're saying Speedvac.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Now Angelica Spivac, who is Knox's fiance and they live
in LA. We have a surprise cameo from Prestige actor
David Nevin.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Uh, don't worry.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
I have a special report on later in the episode. Okay,
So this chapter starts off with Joel getting a letter.
A letter which is wild because in nineteen eighty three,
phone calls exist. So I'm so confused why this is
delivered via letter.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
I did wonder if it was like a save the
date card. Oh okay, maybe.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
That makes way more sense. That makes way more But
they get a missive that says that, uh, Knox and
Angelica are going to be married April April eighteenth instead
of June. And the reason that they're getting married on
that date is because Angelica's parents got married on that date,
her sister got married on that date, and Angelica's parents
(18:20):
have been married twenty five years. Like that's cute.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
We also get an interesting lore drop about Knox that
he has a big house in LA with three bedrooms jealous,
and he has a basement where a basement, which no,
he doesn't, There aren't basements in LA. He doesn't have
a basement, but he has a separate room in his house.
That is such like a genuinely like that is such
(18:47):
a It seems to me like a East Coast writer
writing about the West Coast.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Totally, yes, because it's just.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
We just don't have basement culture. Especially LA just doesn't
have basement culture the way that New York or the
East Coast does.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Definitely not good catch though, Yeah, that's so right.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
I have a feeling that as I say this, like
a million bluemheads will call and be like, actually, I
do have a basement. I live in Pacoima, so whatever.
But I've I've lived here my entire life. I've never
met a basement. But anyway, Knox apparently has the one
basement in all of la and he records songs he
(19:27):
makes up. This is such a rude way of saying,
oh killed me, you know how like your husband Tyley
records songs he makes up, just making them up.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
So rude.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
And it's like especially rude coming from Joel, who knows
like two chords of Stairway to Heaven. It's like, I
want to move to Paris and become a guitarist like
Bud come on. But it is so funny to think that,
like Joel doesn't have original like ideas, He's just stealing
kind of everything from Knox.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
And also it sounds like Joel is playing all covers
at least, not playing his own music.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Little made up songs, little maties. That's like one time
when I started a new job, somebody asked me, you
know what I did for hobbies. I was like, oh,
I do stand up. I'm doing stand up for like
ten years at the time, and she goes, oh, it's
nice to be still putting yourself out there. Yeah, with
(20:34):
your little skits, just with.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Your little skits.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
We're trying, You're trying so hard.
Speaker 6 (20:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
So anyway, honestly, this makes Knocks sexier to my mind
because he's a gainfully employed dentist of the stars. He's
a homeowner, and he has a music hobby. Like, honestly,
good for you, Angelica agree. So anyway, they're having lieda
over for dinner because Mom worries that maybe he's spending
(21:04):
too much time at Leida's house and not that she's
not spending enough time at theirs. And this is the
first time we here mentioned that Mom wants to have
a drink with Leida's parents, which I think is nice.
But Joel does not think it's nice. He says, sometimes
I wish my mother wasn't that friendly.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, I would have not stood for that had I
had a boyfriend, And first of all, there's no way
my parents would have reached out that.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
It does make me wonder, like wow, thinking of.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
All, like the hot couples that I knew in high school, Like,
were there parents also hanging out? That's so interesting and
something I never thought about before.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Yeah, I don't know truly. The only instance of that
I know is the parents of my prom dates hanging
out together before coming to my house.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
How dare his parents? I still can't get over it.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I know somebody in the comments called it my villain
origin story, and I'm like, you know what not? No, yeah,
but that is nice. So if you have stories of
your parents hanging out with your spouse or partner, whatever's parents,
let me know.
Speaker 7 (22:16):
So.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
I think that's cute and interesting. So they're all having
dinner together and they're kind of speculating about how long
certain people have been together. Angelica's parents have been together
twenty five years, Joel's parents have been married thirty two years.
It seems like Lida pipes up that her parents have
(22:39):
been married thirty five years. And they're kind of talking
about the differences in their families, like Leeda's only child
because her parents waited a while to have kids. And
on that tip, Mom, this is this whole run is
such a mom thing, Like out of nowhere, Mom is like, hey,
(23:05):
do you think they switched the wedding date because they
you know, had to. Everybody's like, are you implying what
we think you're implying, and Dad puts it most diccinctly.
He goes, you mean she's knocked up? And I think, like,
(23:27):
if it was any other circumstances, I might be like, Okay, Mom,
you got a point. But like she says, two different
people in her family have gotten married on this exact date. YEA,
Like now it just seems rude to speculate otherwise. Yes,
And when Dad says, Sweetie, you're concocting worries out of
(23:49):
thin air, I'm like, if that ain't a mom, that's
moms do be doing that. And then Lida again, Lida
is pipe and up this episode. God bless her.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Oh she's so good.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
She goes, I'm not gonna have a baby till I'm
thirty because I think otherwise you don't have a chance
to do things. And that's true, but I'm I'm scared
at how thick they're laying the Lida and baby stuff
on because I still don't know what's gonna happen, and
I'm really worried. Mom and Dad have such a busy
(24:23):
social calendar. They are always out and about and I
appreciate that about them, and Joel also appreciates that about them.
Because he and Lida are in the room with the
door closed, which I could not believe. I could not.
I straight up brought a man home that I had
been living with for a year and I could not
(24:43):
have the door closed.
Speaker 7 (24:45):
Really.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Yeah, more, my mom was strict about this stuff, and
I am a dummy and listen to rules. I was
living with somebody, and we went home to visit my
parents when my parents were still together, and we stayed
in my childhood home and uh, he had to stay
(25:07):
in the guest room downstairs and I stayed in my room,
which is fine. I'm not trying to like do it
in my parents' house, but it is like it is like, guys,
we split the rent. The jig is up.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
I remember one time because we lived in a studio
apartment too, And I remember one time we'd been dating
several years. My dad came over to visit us in
San Francisco and he visited our apartment and he looked
at he's joking, but he looked at our tiny apartment
with one bed. He goes, this is nice. Where does
Mitch sleep on? So yeah, all that is to say,
(25:47):
I can't imagine having a closed door with a boy
in my room. Ever to this day.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
I heard I remember hearing stories like, oh, so and
so his parents took their door off the hinges so
they could never be.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Alone, Like my dad did do that, not to me,
to my brother. Really not for that, but for other reasons.
But it's it's not the good parenting technique. I want
to go on the record saying that.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, it had its moment. I feel like some self
help book probably told parents in the eighties and nineties
it was the thing to do.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
I guess, so, I guess so wow. Well, at any rate,
Joel's parents never read that because they're in the room
with the door locked, and the mom's like, okay, see
you later. We are going out now, okay bye. So
they're talking on the bed and they are talking about
(26:50):
how Leita maybe didn't have a poker face when they
were talking about people being trapped. I have it. Oh,
I'm sorry, I missed a big part mom. Mom says
something like, so we can so such a that's all.
That's such a mom thing to say, and then mom
continues to say true, and they were going to get
(27:13):
married anyway. It's just I think people who look back
and know that they had to well, there's always that
feeling of being trapped in some way.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Trapped for who trapped for? Because I think Joel interprets
it as trapped.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
For the man.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
I think Mom's talking about the women.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Because Mom is a feminist, so that she probably was.
That's really smart. You pointing that out makes me think
that's another tick in the tally of Mom affirming what
Lda is saying about waiting to have kids until you're thirty,
Like she's into it. She doesn't want anybody to be trapped.
(27:55):
And Leada is reflecting on that when they're in bed,
and she says, people alway talk about how the guy
is trapped, but how about the girl? And I really
relate to Lyda in these moments of stress, like really
popping off and getting under high horse, because I think
(28:15):
part of the dissonance of being like a feminist and
dating a man is you know you love this man,
and you know this man is so nice, but we
live in such a sexist, patriarchal society that sometimes it's like,
(28:37):
I'm so mad at this thing, and you're the nearest
man to me. Yeah, so I have to tell you
everything I wish I could say to this system that
can't hear me.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Yeah, that's so true.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
And then it often doesn't get interpreted the right way.
It gets interpreted as a direct attack, and it's more
just like, hey, I need you to understand this is
this is something you're you know, victim as well.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Totally, And I don't think it's so like like, you know,
there's that feminist author Angela Dowrkin who who was really
on this tip, and she said something like, all like
penetrative sex is is rape because there's there's no way
to consent under the patriarchy.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
And I don't believe that, but I.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Do think, like, you know, if you are mad enough,
you get a whiff of that feeling with the nearest
person to talk to, and it is it is so
much more than can be fixed, you know, after dinner.
So it's kind of comforting to know that, like girls
and women have always felt little bits of this feeling.
(29:52):
And I don't think I've ever read a book before
where like the teenage girl was talking like this to
her her her boyfriend before.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
So that's yeah, I don't think I have either. This
really does feel different.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Yeah, I would be really excited if a girl read
this book and was like, I want to be like
Lyda because I think Leda is a really good example.
And you know, does she make the best decisions all
the time? No? Can we can we tell from Joel's
perspective how much of a whiplash that must beat it,
like hang out with this person totally. But I think
(30:26):
she's really strident and cool and like, doesn't you know
as much as she has people pleasing tendency, she doesn't
take anything lying down, And I really appreciate that about her.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Oh coming up, she literally doesn't make anything lying down.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
And yeah, this book is a feminist test because what's
about to happen. So she starts off the way any
good foreplace should by making a man a little bit
afraid of you. This is like one of the only
times that I'm happy that this book is from perspective,
because I so appreciate from his perspective how he's like,
(31:03):
I want to be good. This is a minefield. I
don't know what to do because remember last week she
has berated him for only wanting sex, and so they're
sitting there and he goes, I'm afraid to make anything
like a pass at her. She'll get mad and say
all I think about is sex, but if I don't,
she might wonder if I don't like her that much.
(31:27):
So they start kind of kissing, and then Lida's like
okay and takes all her clothes off. She says another
thing that I think is so funny because he voices
being nervous about it, which again great emotional intelligence Joel.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
So Joel goes, it's just I'm afraid if we do it.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
If I say I want to, you'll think that's all
I'm interested.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
No, I don't think that. I know you basically love
me for my one rful creative mind. Am I sardonic wit?
You just put up with my body because you don't
want to hurt my feelings.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
So good, Okay. So they're lying down and they're fooling around,
and all of a sudden she flips on top of him.
They decide they're gonna do it that way and listen
to me. I want to read this part. I think
it is genuinely lovely writing about sex, and I don't
want to read it in Joel's voice.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
And ruin it.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
So I'm gonna read this in my normal voice. But no,
Joel is saying this okay, all right, here we go.
Leta has a great bottom. It's round and smooth and
terrific to feel. Lying on my back that way, I
could run my hands all over it, which it's hard
to do the other way when I'm on top. All
(32:55):
her breasts were hanging almost right in my face. Her
nipples touch the tip of my nose was like soft
flower petals. She moved back and forth slowly. I opened
my eyes one second. Leida's eyes were closed too. She
looked so beautiful that way, her hair falling into her face,
her mouth slightly open. I'd been trying not to get
(33:15):
too excited, but when I closed my eyes again, she
made a sudden move, began going faster, and I couldn't
hold back. I gripped a hold of her and came
shooting up into her in short sudden thrusts. Leda cried out,
and then collapse on top of me, her hair falling
into my face. We lay like that for several minutes.
Then I withdrew and she lay beside me. She didn't
(33:38):
nestle against me the way she sometimes does. Maybe it
would be better if we didn't have bodies, she said, Oh,
that kills me. That kills me dead. Oh. I think
that was such a beautifully written scene. And then to
have joelby like looking up at her with such awe
(33:59):
and and them having experienced something like this together and
for to end with I wish we didn't have bodies
just breaks my heart. And I think it's another example
of that whiplash we're talking about of like it's so
good but it's so fraud. It's just like, Oh, that's
that's kind of the experience of vulnerability is it's it's
(34:22):
all those things.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Mm hmm, yeah, the whole I.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
This is me being flippant about her comment, but it
did remind me of like when you were younger, did
you ever have combos with like would you still love
me if I was a bug?
Speaker 4 (34:40):
What if I was invisible? Did you ever go through that?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
And it's like do you want them to be like yeah,
the answer is yes always, but no, you don't get
the answer you want ever. Baby, does she want to
hear that Joel would still I mean, she doesn't hear
that Joel would want to love her if she didn't
have a body. But I think he's just like really
(35:12):
confused by it. And then he's just like, oh, is
your diaphragm, buddy body.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Yeah, that's yeah. Again, all all of the things you
have to think about when you want to think about
if you want to start having sex, is like you
open yourself to all these weirdo feelings. But you're right.
The answer is always yes, I would love you if
you were a worm.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
What about the stinkiest, grossest, slimiest worm.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Yes, yes, keep you a cigar box with all Yes,
a little.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Cigar bar bocks holes in it sounds so cute like
the the sesame street worms. You have their little like
flower pots and oh god, I would.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Do with you.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Yeah. Same, m.
Speaker 8 (36:10):
H m.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
The conversation continues, and uh.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Lida says no, I mean, like, do you think we'd
be friends if it weren't for sure?
Speaker 4 (36:34):
I feel like we are and we're not.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
We're close about a lot of things, but it's not
like with me and Danny, where we tell each other everything.
We're completely open. I'm not sure you tell me everything
you feel.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
I don't tell anyone else more than I tell you.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
Well, that's not the same thing. Oh Lee, are you
wearing your d What does it matter?
Speaker 6 (37:03):
I thought you thought you weren't pregnant.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I don't think I am, but I could be. Yeah,
I'm wearing it. Does that set your mind at rest?
Speaker 7 (37:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Listen, you have nothing to worry about either way. We're
not going to have a shotgun wedding. Even if I am.
I'll just have an abortion and that's all.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
God.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Don't you hate those books for teenagers where they have
to get married and she drops out of school and
then they live over her garage and he works in
some used car lot And there's always some scene where
the girl who had an abortion comes to visit and
she's gone insane and becomes a bowery bum.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Just in case you didn't get the point.
Speaker 6 (37:44):
Oh, I I never read a book like that.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
You're lucky.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Every other book I've read since I was ten is
like that. The Girls of Moron, the Guys of Moron.
They never heard of birth control. But I love the
scenes where the father takes the guy aside and says, son,
if you married Betsy, you'll have to give up your
football scholarship to Oklahoma State. They're always going to some
(38:11):
god forsaken place in like Oklahoma State. And the guy says,
but dad, I love her. And then there's a scene
where the mother says, dear, you.
Speaker 4 (38:21):
Haven't let him take advantage of you.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
You know what boys are like, quote unquote God, I
think writers must be really dumb or else they're living
in the stone age.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
Oh it's a norma.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
I know. It's so interesting because this reminds me of
like what norm wi pardon me of what Judy said
her daughter said when asking her to write Forever is
she wanted her to write Forever because she wanted a
book where the nice teens had sex and nothing bad happened.
So it's kind of interesting that they're contemporaries in this
(38:57):
world and they're so aware of other people in their
genre and how they write these like morality tales for
teens and they're just trying to convey it how it
actually is. And I think that's really admirable.
Speaker 4 (39:11):
It isn't it.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
But it also kind of makes me want to read
one of these morality novels because I don't think I really.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Think any It's like, go ask Alice Oops all sex.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Edition, Yeah, totally.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (39:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
If if you Bloomheads, if you know of a book
like that, let us know, maybe we'll read excerpts from it.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
Yeah, that could be fun.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
Yeah, But that's interesting that it's nineteen eighty three and
Leada is like, don't worry, ill, let's have an abortion.
So let's see when one was seventy seventy three, so
it's been at that point lol, when we still had
Roe v. Wade in the seventies. So when this book
(39:56):
came out, it would be ten years old. So yeah,
that makes sense that she's like, yeah, no worries, I'll
I'll just get an abortion.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Joel's thinking, he hopes Sleita isn't pregnant. Obviously, he knows
abortions are legal and safe, but he just he's not
into the idea of it. And Lida consents he's thinking something,
and she says.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
I mean, at least we love each other. We're not
just two horny.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Jerks who jumped into bed because we couldn't think of
anything better to do.
Speaker 6 (40:28):
I love you a lot.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
You look glowing.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Horses sweat, men perspire, women glow. That's what our gym
teacher told us. And then Joel thinks to himself, it's true.
I remember hearing that phrase, oh you do, Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
I wonder if whoever I heard it from.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Heard it from this book, or if it was a
phrase that people said, and Norma just picked up on it.
But also the first thing I thought when he said,
you're glowing, I'm like the sea glow. No, does she
have a pregnancy glow?
Speaker 3 (41:03):
No?
Speaker 6 (41:06):
Oh gosh?
Speaker 4 (41:07):
Oh man? Okay.
Speaker 7 (41:09):
Well.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
The next day, Joel's parents recount their hang with Lida's parents.
This is when we learned their last name is Borof.
Dad thinks Leda's mom was very interesting, kind of European
and old world. And I feel like that could mean
so many different things.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
I'm like, what do you she has Harry Armpits?
Speaker 6 (41:31):
Like, yeah, right, that.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Does seem like a mom way to say someone has
Harry Right.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
It could either mean like, oh, so sophisticated or also
like from the old country, you know.
Speaker 4 (41:45):
But I think she means sophisticated, but maybe also Harry Armpits.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
I wonder I took it to mean like a little bohemian.
I don't know why. Maybe I'm cowering it in with
what I know about Rida.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
Yes, I can see that.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
But then Leada's dad, he did not come off well.
He apparently drank too much. Was he drinking whiskey? I
think he was drinking whiskey Yep, he drank too much
and then poop pooed Yale and all the Ivy League
schools and basically education in general, especially for someone who
(42:20):
wants to be an actor, because there's no point in
going to acting school.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
You just have to like do it.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
And that really rubbed Joel's dad the wrong way, being a.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
Big Yale head and.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Joel's dad he uh, he gets a little analytical, and
he says some interesting things here. He thinks Leada's dad
is edible and that he doesn't want to let Leda
go losing the light of his life.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
And then he says, look, I don't blame him. She's
an adorable girl. I wouldn't want to lose her either.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
I put a sad face in my book, and I'm like, Dad,
there's gotta be a better way to convey what you
mean there.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
That's the thing.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
It's like, I think all these ideas are pretty normal,
but like the way they talk about them is so gross.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
I know, every man in this book is like, you know,
how like babies want to fuck you? Yeah no, I
don't know that. Free say do a second hey, Bud,
do a second draft for me.
Speaker 4 (43:24):
You can just say he's gonna miss his little girl.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Yeah, come on, I do think that's weird. Though. I
do notice that when you go to like weddings that
is kind of the slant sometimes. Yeah, when like Dad's
and like those weird like country songs that are like.
Speaker 6 (43:45):
I'm losing my little girl.
Speaker 3 (43:47):
I'm taking her down out to give her to another man.
It's like, stop, everybody.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
Stop, I'm a girl dad.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
It's just like it's such a sweet idea, and just
I don't want anyone to be girl dad, boy mom, anything.
Just be be regular.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
Just be normal, be regular, be normal?
Speaker 3 (44:10):
Please?
Speaker 4 (44:10):
Did you ever so on teen Mom?
Speaker 2 (44:13):
You know, yes, the kids are always going to daddy
daughter dances.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Oh we know.
Speaker 6 (44:23):
No.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
But like my dad one time, for some reason, he
brought home corsages and he brought my mom one, and
he brought me one.
Speaker 6 (44:33):
And then and then't know, like he.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Would like send me flowers sometimes. I used to have
a joke in my stand up that's like, my dad
send me flowers on Valentine's Day? How do I tell him?
I just like him as a friend. So he he
I am like my dad's favorite, and he's not shy
about it. But we didn't have a formal dance about it.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
Okay, you never did daddy daughter dance. You didn't dance,
you didn't step on the feet.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
No, no, I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
But in okay, but in good news, Lyda's parents did
say how wonderful Joel is.
Speaker 4 (45:10):
They really like him.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
He's a great influence on Lida because apparently she used
to go out and party a lot. She would go
to parties and dances, and now she just stays home.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
And then there's a pause and Joel things like fuck,
did they know she fucks?
Speaker 2 (45:30):
And then her parents continue their sentence and they say
she studies.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
This actually makes me mad. Now I'm a little mad
that Joela hasn't taking Leada on dates. Maybe that's just
a high school thing. I wouldn't know date. I never
really dated in high school, so I don't really know.
But they really are never taking this relationship on dry land,
like since the Simon and Garfunkle concert, it seems, or
since sorry, since they saw et post boning. But it
(45:59):
doesn't seem like they do anything else.
Speaker 4 (46:01):
They went to the laundromat. Oh excuse me, Yeah, that's
a good point.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
And so we end with this convo between Joel and dad,
and Dad's giving him a real heart to heart.
Speaker 4 (46:12):
He puts his hand on his shoulder, Joel. Fathers of
daughters are just it's a whole other ballgame.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
NaN's father never asked me in fifteen years, a single
question about myself, not one.
Speaker 4 (46:28):
I don't think he even knew what profession I was in.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
I was just some guy who hung around the house
occasionally siring a child and taking her to concerts.
Speaker 3 (46:38):
Taking her to concerts is so funny. Yeah, would you
have been like that with a daughter? Hmm?
Speaker 4 (46:47):
Maybe? Who knows.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
I'd like to think not, but you can't tell. And
then lead a calls that evening.
Speaker 8 (46:57):
Listen, I want to apologize for daddy.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
That's okay.
Speaker 8 (47:01):
Mom said he was just awful. He can get like that,
like sometimes he has too much a drink and he
starts thinking I'm ten years old or something. He's not
really like that. He's really a darling. But Mom was
afraid your parents might have been offended or something.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
No, they liked your mother a lot.
Speaker 8 (47:20):
Didn't they think her horribly old fashioned? No, my father
said she was I forget, very European. That's what I mean. Well,
she thought your parents were great. She thinks your father
is urbane and witty, and she said he reminded her
of David Niven, and your mother seems very smart and
(47:43):
well put together.
Speaker 4 (47:45):
And then Joel thinks David nivin.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
I wonder if I should tell Dad that I certainly
never noticed any special resemblance.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
Do you get a celebrity you look alike? Ever?
Speaker 2 (48:00):
I've gotten random like that girl on that show he's
in the background, but never a proper celeb What about you.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
When I was younger and skin and skinnier, people used
to say, wow, you look like what actually a mean
person said. People said Sandra Bullock before, but one person said, oh,
you look like an ugly Sandra Bullock.
Speaker 4 (48:27):
Oh rude, oh.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
Bo like that either, hold on, I got a hold on.
Speaker 3 (48:36):
Oh just goes and barks in the rest of the house.
Speaker 4 (48:42):
Yeah, but that is so.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
You know what, I think you look like a pretty
Sandra Bullet because I see it.
Speaker 4 (48:52):
I see it if you had a ponytail.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
Yeah, people have like strong features and big laughs. But
so I but Dad got David Niven, and I didn't
recognize that name. So I did a little research, and
I have a little bit of a special report. Did
you know who David Nivin is. No.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
I had to look him up too, and I was like, oh,
he looks like every other Debonair man of a certain era.
Speaker 4 (49:18):
He looks like my grandfather. So I liked him.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
Immediately, totally. So David Niven was a British actor and
writer and just a guy about town in the thirties.
He was in all kinds of movies. He was in
Wuthering Heights, he was in one of my favorite movies,
which is My Men, Godfrey. That's a really excellent movie.
(49:40):
If you haven't seen it, it's wonderful. And then he
also played James Bond in Casina Real. But something interesting
about him is that when World War Two was starting up,
David Niven was living in Hollywood. He was like acting
in all these movies. He was really doing like two
(50:01):
to three movies a year, just back to back to back,
big movies. When World War Two started, he almost immediately
left the US to go fight and join the British Army.
The studio didn't want to let him out of his contract.
They were like, no, stay here, there's actively a war
(50:21):
over there. Like stay here where it's safe. You're an actor,
we need to protect you. And he felt so patriotic
that he forged a like I don't know what it's called,
but like an army summons. He like forged one of
those to give to the head of the studio to
get out of his contract. And he went to go
fight in World War Two. And what is cool about
(50:45):
him is he they said, well, this is great, we'll
give you the jobs that we give to actors, you know,
you can work on like the media team or whatever.
And he did that for a little bit and then
he's like, no, I want to help a lot more.
So he got a bigger position in the army. He
was at D Day. Actually I think it was, like
(51:06):
he said, shortly after D Day, but still he was
like in the thick of it. And he also served
in this secret reconnaissance group called Phantom, which was like
scouting out enemy positions and sort of reporting back. So
he's like really really in it. There's this funny quote
(51:28):
where he's in the you know, abroad and in the
trenches or whatever, and he's trying to get to the
other section and it happens to be an American run section,
and the people at the gate think that he's a
spy because he's all of a sudden, this like British
(51:48):
guy going into the different camp or whatever, and so
they ask him to try and like get him to
crack if he's a spy. They ask him, like, who
won the World Series in nineteen forty three, and he goes,
I haven't the foggiest idea, but I did co star
with Ginger Roberts and Bachelor Mother. I couldn't listen. I
(52:11):
can't pass your test, but I am famous.
Speaker 4 (52:14):
So you know who you're talking to, Come.
Speaker 3 (52:17):
On, who I am? Yeah, And he has this other
funny quote that you know he he was always trying
to keep like morale up and these were like bleak,
scary times he fought in the Battle of the Bold
and he talks about there's this quote of him trying
to egg on his fellow soldiers into action and he goes, look,
(52:39):
you chaps only have to do this once, but I'll
have to do it over and over again in Hollywood
with Errol Flynn. So funny.
Speaker 6 (52:47):
I love this.
Speaker 4 (52:49):
Oh he sounds so cool.
Speaker 6 (52:51):
He was so cool.
Speaker 3 (52:53):
And so he gets back, you know, a war hero
and keeps making movies. And that's kind of where I
stopped writing about him. He wrote a lot of famous books,
including one about conversations with Winston Churchill, and lived lived
a really interesting life. The last thing I will say,
and this is a PSA, his first wife died playing sardines.
(53:18):
Do you know? Do you know what Sardine says?
Speaker 6 (53:20):
I do?
Speaker 3 (53:21):
Okay, if you don't know, it's this game. It's like
reverse hide and go seek. And so what happens is
one person Wait, how does it happen? Okay, one person.
One person hides, and then everybody tries to find them,
and when you find them, you have to like hide
with them until it becomes like this group of like
seven people hiding and one person seeking. It's so fun.
(53:45):
But his wife was playing this game with their friends
at a party and she opened a closet and walked
into it. Except it wasn't a closet. It was the
door to like down the step to their basement, and
she fell down the steps and cracked her skull open.
Speaker 4 (54:05):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (54:06):
So you guys, when you're playing sardines, be so careful,
so careful when you're playing sardines.
Speaker 4 (54:15):
That's really tragic.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
Oh okay, well, so I guess that's what Joel's dad
looks like.
Speaker 4 (54:25):
I have one last thing.
Speaker 2 (54:27):
And it is also film related, so this is a
good tie in.
Speaker 3 (54:32):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (54:32):
We received some intel from Kleinstein on something so crystals.
Speaker 4 (54:40):
That you're like, what tell me?
Speaker 2 (54:43):
Okay, So Kleinstein said, Hi, just wanted to share that
the movie Joel and Lyda probably watched. This is the
Valerie Burtonelly movie was Young Love, First Love. It was
based on its It's Okay If you don't Love Me.
See below for writer credit, writer credit Norma Flin. Norma
(55:12):
Cline wrote a Valerie Burton Ellie movie.
Speaker 3 (55:15):
Oh my god, and she's referencing it. Oh my god,
Oh my god, Oh my god. That is crystal.
Speaker 4 (55:21):
It is crystal. So everybody.
Speaker 2 (55:24):
The movie is Young Love, First Love came out in
seventy nine. The writers were Norma Cline and Dan Pollier Junior.
And I looked him up and he'd only done like
one other thing.
Speaker 3 (55:35):
That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
Yeah, and it stars Valerie Burton Ellie, Timothy Hutton.
Speaker 3 (55:41):
Well and listen to this description of young Love, First Love.
It's a Midwestern boy moves to California to begin a
romance with a girl advanced for her age. Oh my God,
Norma's like I got one thing.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
Yeah, this does make me wonder if Norma had some
kind of time into David Niven, because she's not just.
Speaker 4 (56:02):
Willy nilly mentioning celebrities for no reason.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
Cut to me, making like a serial killer connection.
Speaker 4 (56:12):
Yes, you have to find the David Niven connection.
Speaker 3 (56:17):
Whoa, that is the crystaliest crystal thing I have seen
in a while. That's cool.
Speaker 4 (56:22):
Thank My sign is so good.
Speaker 2 (56:25):
We are so thankful for their intel and dedication.
Speaker 3 (56:32):
That's righteous. Thank you so much for sharing that with me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (56:37):
Well that's it for this shorty episode.
Speaker 4 (56:41):
Yeah, so short, so short, Bluemheads.
Speaker 2 (56:46):
Remember our year book club theme is prenemies nimmi.
Speaker 4 (56:52):
But you can also write us letters about anything you want.
Speaker 2 (56:54):
Ye, and happy Thanksgiving and we will see you in
two weeks.
Speaker 4 (57:00):
By by bye
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The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.