It’s the episode directly after Halloween! LeeLee and ValVal recap the highlights of their candy-giving. Also, Lee went to a haunted house and met a clown with an evocative name and lots of layers. In the Books segment, Val and Lee discuss their recent and current reads. Plus, they choose the next podcast book!SHOW NOTES: The porn star who shot his Tesla is named Dante Colle.You can’t take a train from Philly to Jim Thorpe. Jim Thorpe, back when it was called Mauch Chunk, used to be called “The Switzerland of America” or “the Little Switzerland of America.” Val can’t find a source that explains when/how it got that name.Books we recommended:Hench by Natalie Zina WalschotsThe God of the Woods by Liz MooreThe Three-Body Problem books by Cixin LiuThe Mars House by Natasha PulleyThe Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock - our next pick!! Read along with us!Email us! [email protected] LeeLee: https://www.instagram.com/leelee_draws_picturesBuy merch from LeeLee: https://www.redbubble.com/people/superstarling/shopFollow Books & Blooms: https://www.instagram.com/booksandblooms_phlBuy from Books & Blooms: https://www.booksandblooms.shop/Sound attribution credits: Theme song: Snabba Ladda, Snappy beat, Cheerful feeling! by kjartan_abel – https://freesound.org/s/632406/ -- License: Attribution 4.0.Haiku segment intro: Strange wind chimes duo! — Debussy Bells, bamboo by Philip_Goddard -- https://freesound.org/s/686153/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0. Haiku background: bell-bowl G-ish.wav by Squidocto -- https://freesound.org/s/255762/ -- License: Creative Commons 0. Books segment intro: Summer Surf (loop ver.1) by AudioCoffee -- https://freesound.org/s/711669/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ValVal and LeeLee hate cleaning. LeeLee got a roomba, but the results weren't great. There’s a lot of trivia in this ep! Does the Philly pretzel really belong to Central PA? Do you know the full “no one likes us” Eagles chant? What ingredient was originally in 7Up? What Vice Presidential candidates can you name from 2000 on? Listen to find out! Also, Lee tells Val about the J.D. Vance couch fucking incident, and Val tells Lee a story about tiny succulents. SHOW NOTES:Beloved Philly chants Pretzels were brought over by the Pennsylvania Dutch, so it makes sense that the Philly and Central PA versions are similar.There was up to 200 mg of lithium in the original 7Up! Hilary Clinton’s VP pick in 2016 was Tim Kaine. “My President Was Black” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a beautiful piece that ran in The Atlantic, describes the Obamas’ farewell party, which was presented by BET and had an incredible lineup of musical guests. We Mostly Come Out at Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other Creaturesis available online and can be ordered through your local bookstore. Val’s story in the collection is called “How to Summon Me.” Hyperemesis gravidarum is extreme, persistent nausea during pregnancy. Yikes. Email us! [email protected] LeeLee: https://www.instagram.com/leelee_draws_picturesBuy merch from LeeLee: https://www.redbubble.com/people/superstarling/shopFollow Books & Blooms: https://www.instagram.com/booksandblooms_phlBuy from Books & Blooms: https://www.booksandblooms.shop/Sound attribution credits: Theme song: Snabba Ladda, Snappy beat, Cheerful feeling! by kjartan_abel – https://freesound.org/s/632406/ -- License: Attribution 4.0.Trivia segment intro: Electric Chimes.wav by zilverton -- https://freesound.org/s/201109/ -- License: Creative Commons 0. Calming manatee segment intro: Happy Lazy Loop by SergeQuadrado -- https://freesound.org/s/555800/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0. Haiku segment intro: Strange wind chimes duo! — Debussy Bells, bamboo by Philip_Goddard -- https://freesound.org/s/686153/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0. Haiku background: bell-bowl G-ish.wav by Squidocto -- https://freesound.org/s/255762/ -- License: Creative Commons 0. Plant story intro: Golvuna by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/610679/ -- License: Attribution 4.0.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As part of our nostalgia books series, Lee and I have an important discussion about The Babysitters Club. But first! We give you a highlights reel of Lee’s Taskmaster-themed 40th birthday. From the babysitters, we learn that Lee does not like script fonts, and socialism pushes its own agenda. SHOW NOTES: Google Belgian malinois to get a sense of Nico’s energy. Revenge bedtime procrastination appears more in people who struggle with self-regulation. (Guilty!)I couldn’t find one website that shows all the handwriting fonts in the Babysitters Club, but you can find plenty of them by googling “babysitters club handwriting.”Stacey McGill was the babysitter who dotted her i’s with hearts. Val was wrong about when Dawn panics in New York City—it doesn’t happen during a super special. It happens in the main series, in book 18, Stacey’s Mistake. “Stacey has a problem and it's not her diabetes - it's her parents” is a wikipedia description of BSC Book 3, The Truth About Stacey. BSC Book 7, Claudia and Mean Janine, is the story where Mimi has stroke. Stacey’s bad girl arc starts on book 83, Stacey vs. The BSC, and ends on book 87, literally Stacey and the Bad Girls. Amber Tamblyn was not in The Babysitters Club movie, but it did feature Rachel Leigh Cook (Mary Anne), Schuyler Fisk (Kristy), and Larisa Oleynik (Dawn), who you might also remember as Alex Mack!Email us! [email protected] LeeLee: https://www.instagram.com/leelee_draws_picturesBuy merch from LeeLee: https://www.redbubble.com/people/superstarling/shopFollow Books & Blooms: https://www.instagram.com/booksandblooms_phlBuy from Books & Blooms: https://www.booksandblooms.shop/Sound attribution credits: Theme song: Snabba Ladda, Snappy beat, Cheerful feeling! by kjartan_abel – https://freesound.org/s/632406/ -- License: Attribution 4.0.Haiku segment intro: Strange wind chimes duo! — Debussy Bells, bamboo by Philip_Goddard -- https://freesound.org/s/686153/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0. Haiku background: bell-bowl G-ish.wav by Squidocto -- https://freesound.org/s/255762/ -- License: Creative Commons 0. Books segment intro: Summer Surf (loop ver.1) by AudioCoffee -- https://freesound.org/s/711669/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special ep, ValVal and LeeLee are together! Talking into one mic! They discuss many topics, including: the pitfalls of naming your daughter Belladonna, health food stores, #BlazerLife, Lee’s fascination with pimple popping and earwax, and whether one dress can be as big news as the swan and meat dresses were. Also, Lee went to a hobbit party. Val’s plant story stars a cashier at a witchy store who was like a riddler: he told Val one true fact about the Brassica oleracea species (which includes a surprising amount of veggies you know) and something very false. With bonus trivia about supertasters, bitter receptors, and competitive cousins AVI and PAV. SHOW NOTES: This article explains how Hurricane Milton “formed under the perfect conditions for rapid intensification.”The sound of rhubarb popping as it grows: https://soundcloud.com/rhubarb-rhubarb-rhubarb/a-mass-of-popping-rhubarbSounds of a murmuration of starlings: https://www.richardmudhar.com/blog/2019/11/the-sound-of-starlings-massing/Apparently, you can see the aurora borealis on latitudes between 60 and 75 degrees, which includes Iceland, northern parts of Sweden, Finland, Norway, Russia, Canada and Alaska as well as southern Greenland. But you still have to look things up and plan ahead, because it’s visibility changes. Do women have a better sense of smell? According to this article, studies show that on average, they do. More on bitter receptors and supertastersEmail us! [email protected] LeeLee: https://www.instagram.com/leelee_draws_picturesBuy merch from LeeLee: https://www.redbubble.com/people/superstarling/shopFollow Books & Blooms: https://www.instagram.com/booksandblooms_phlBuy from Books & Blooms: https://www.booksandblooms.shop/Sound attribution credits: Theme song: Snabba Ladda, Snappy beat, Cheerful feeling! by kjartan_abel – https://freesound.org/s/632406/ -- License: Attribution 4.0.Haiku segment intro: Strange wind chimes duo! — Debussy Bells, bamboo by Philip_Goddard -- https://freesound.org/s/686153/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0. Haiku background: bell-bowl G-ish.wav by Squidocto -- https://freesound.org/s/255762/ -- License: Creative Commons 0. Plant story intro: Golvuna by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/610679/ -- License: Attribution 4.0. The Yoke of Capitalism segment intro: Playful Haunt (30s) by UNIVERSFIELD -- https://freesound.org/s/755864/ -- License: Attribution 4.0 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to book club with Val and Lee! But first, dog talk! But before that, haikus about the Vice Presidential Debate! We absolutely loved All the Names They Used for God by Anjali Sachdeva and we had fun talking about her stories. If you also read the book and have any takes you want to share, email us at [email protected]. SHOW NOTES: The Penn State Mascot: The Nittany LionVal was wrong about The Great American Baking Show—there is no cash prize. They just compete like there is one. From The New York Times: ‘Vance’s Excellent Reviews Will Enrage Trump’: 13 Writers on Who Won the Vice-Presidential Debate. Val’s haiku featured the words of Katherine Mangu-Ward.Pesto the PenguinThe boat thought experiment is called Theseus’s ParadoxEdgar Allen Poe wrote about how short stories great a “single effect” in an essay called ​​”The Importance of the Single Effect in a Prose Tale.”The Power is a novel by Naomi Alderman.What Happened to Monday is a scifi show on Netflix. Follow LeeLee: https://www.instagram.com/leelee_draws_picturesBuy merch from LeeLee: https://www.redbubble.com/people/superstarling/shopFollow Books & Blooms: https://www.instagram.com/booksandblooms_phlBuy from Books & Blooms: https://www.booksandblooms.shop/Sound attribution credits: Theme song: Snabba Ladda, Snappy beat, Cheerful feeling! by kjartan_abel – https://freesound.org/s/632406/ -- License: Attribution 4.0.Calming manatee segment intro: Happy Lazy Loop by SergeQuadrado -- https://freesound.org/s/555800/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0. Haiku segment intro: Strange wind chimes duo! — Debussy Bells, bamboo by Philip_Goddard -- https://freesound.org/s/686153/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0. Haiku background: bell-bowl G-ish.wav by Squidocto -- https://freesound.org/s/255762/ -- License: Creative Commons 0. Books segment intro: Summer Surf (loop ver.1) by AudioCoffee -- https://freesound.org/s/711669/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let’s talk about pants, baby. In a new segment called “The Yoke of Capitalism,” Lee waxes poetic about the benefits of skinny jeans, muses about shorter-leg shorts, and wonders what to do with a coffee-stained shirt. Val, a conspiracy theorist about Big Seltzer, shares some dahlia facts and a story about a garden lady named Mary. Lee shares the plan for her 40th birthday. (Hint: It’s inspired by the show Taskmasters.)SHOW NOTES: We now have an email! It’s [email protected]! Send us your thoughts, questions, and stories. What makes skinny jeans stretchy? According to this website, skinny jeans tend to have built in stretchy material like Elastane or lycra.Val isn’t the only person suspicious of “natural flavors” in seltzer. A few years ago, a lawsuit was filed against LaCroix about their use of linalool under the “natural flavors” umbrella. However, the case was dropped. Coke Zero and Oreo collaborationFear of holes is called trypophobia. Dahlia tubers look like this. Ball dahlias look like this. Follow LeeLee: https://www.instagram.com/leelee_draws_picturesBuy merch from LeeLee: https://www.redbubble.com/people/superstarling/shopFollow Books & Blooms: https://www.instagram.com/booksandblooms_phlBuy from Books & Blooms: https://www.booksandblooms.shop/Sound attribution credits: Theme song: Snabba Ladda, Snappy beat, Cheerful feeling! by kjartan_abel – https://freesound.org/s/632406/ -- License: Attribution 4.0.Haiku segment intro: Strange wind chimes duo! — Debussy Bells, bamboo by Philip_Goddard -- https://freesound.org/s/686153/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0. Haiku background: bell-bowl G-ish.wav by Squidocto -- https://freesound.org/s/255762/ -- License: Creative Commons 0. Plant story intro: Golvuna by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/610679/ -- License: Attribution 4.0. The Yoke of Capitalism segment intro: Playful Haunt (30s) by UNIVERSFIELD -- https://freesound.org/s/755864/ -- License: Attribution 4.0 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lee brings her trivia A game by sharing the lore of Colonel Sanders as well as the real names of many cartoon mascots and characters. Val discusses the benefits of Rita’s, being a creature of habit, and adderall. Which childhood book series harmed us more: Sweet Valley or Goosebumps? We weigh in on this and other important questions in our Books segment. Cool baby name of the week: Esme. SHOW NOTES: The Colonel Sanders wikipedia pageThe real name of Shaggy (who wrote the song It Wasn’t Me): Orville Richard Burrell The real name of Shaggy from Scooby Doo: Norville RogersADHD inattentive typeLee’s childhood gemstone boxR.L. Stine might have had ghostwriters. This article about R.L. Stine and Scholastic suing each other delves into the question. Goosebumps books referenced: Night of the Living Dummy, Stay Out of the Basement, Welcome to the Dead House, Say Cheese and Die!Sweet Valley books referenced: Sweet Valley University Thriller Edition: The Roommate (Val thought the story happened to Lila Fowler but it actually happened to an SVU-only character named Isabella), Sweet Valley Twins: The Carnival Ghost, Sweet Valley Saga: The Wakefields of Sweet Valley Follow LeeLeeBuy merch from LeeLeeFollow Books & BloomsBuy from Books & BloomsSound attribution credits: Theme song: Snabba Ladda, Snappy beat, Cheerful feeling! by kjartan_abel – https://freesound.org/s/632406/ -- License: Attribution 4.0. Trivia segment intro: Electric Chimes.wav by zilverton -- https://freesound.org/s/201109/ -- License: Creative Commons 0. Haiku segment intro: Strange wind chimes duo! — Debussy Bells, bamboo by Philip_Goddard -- https://freesound.org/s/686153/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0. Haiku background: bell-bowl G-ish.wav by Squidocto -- https://freesound.org/s/255762/ -- License: Creative Commons 0. Books segment intro: Summer Surf (loop ver.1) by AudioCoffee -- https://freesound.org/s/711669/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are you the anchor or the kite? Lee and Val recover from their days by venting a little, arguing about cold plunges, and telling dog stories. They read debate-themed haikus and somehow wind up discussing the American Girl series for awhile. Val tells a story about an early fall flower: the zinnia, which is also the baby name of the week! Lee had to buy a new water heater. RIP her back. SHOW NOTES: The author of the Addy books was Connie Porter. The article Val referred to was a fascinating, thorough piece in Slate about the decisions that went into the creation of the Addy story and doll, including her hair: The Making of An American Girl Doll by Aisha Harris. From the American Girl wiki: Josefina Montoya is a Mexican girl living on a rancho (ranch settlement) fifteen miles away from Santa Fe in 1824, during the time when the territory was under Mexican rule, only a few years after Mexican independence from Spanish colonialism. Kaya is a Native American/Indigenous girl of the Nimíipuu, or Nez Perce tribe. Her stories take place in the 1760s and are set prior to permanent settlement of the Pacific Northwest by white European-Americans. Here’s a bit more about how the first zinnias in space were grown. Follow LeeLee: https://www.instagram.com/leelee_draws_picturesBuy merch from LeeLee: https://www.redbubble.com/people/superstarling/shopFollow Books & Blooms: https://www.instagram.com/booksandblooms_phlBuy from Books & Blooms: https://www.booksandblooms.shop/Sound attribution credits: Theme song: Snabba Ladda, Snappy beat, Cheerful feeling! by kjartan_abel – https://freesound.org/s/632406/ -- License: Attribution 4.0.Haiku segment intro: Strange wind chimes duo! — Debussy Bells, bamboo by Philip_Goddard -- https://freesound.org/s/686153/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0. Haiku background: bell-bowl G-ish.wav by Squidocto -- https://freesound.org/s/255762/ -- License: Creative Commons 0. Plant story intro: Golvuna by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/610679/ -- License: Attribution 4.0.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.