And That's Why We Drink - E454 Graveyard Kids and Barney Scandals

Episode Date: October 19, 2025

It’s Episode 454 and we refuse to be the lid for your candy corn pot. This week Emothy and the Graveyard Kid have teamed up to tell us all about graveyards and the history of various activities that have been done in them. Then Christine was feeling inspired by the Halloween season and brought us a candy crime with the disappearance of Helen Brach, heiress of the Brach candy fortune. And do you want to join our spooky cemetery book club? ...and that’s why we drink! Want to hear more from us? Subscribe to our bonus Yappy Hours on Patreon or Apple Podcasts! http://patreon.com/ATWWDPodcast Grab your Paraween merch at atwwdmerch.com !___________________Grab Freaky Good Cider from Angry Orchard at http://angryorchard.com/halloween – and while you’re there, watch the new Jason vignette, “Sweet Revenge” and shop the collab merch! Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to http://rocketmoney.com/drink today. Ready to say yes to saying no? Make the switch at http://www.mintmobile.com/ATWWD ou can save on the perfect gift that keeps on giving by visiting https://AuraFrames.com For a limited time, listeners can get 20 dollars off their best-selling Carver Mat frame with code DRINK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Okay, I was thinking that. Now, here's what happened. I thought to myself, I want to set up, what I want to set up really is like an actual recording, like, space where, you know, you see like the podcasters on social media where they have, like, they're in like a studio or they have something nice. And I was like, what if I set up like a, a. section for myself where like even when I'm doing virtual with you with my brother it'll still look like I'm in like a little studio and then like yeah you know and so I try I was like oh I got to

work on that I don't have time right now I've been trying to clear stuff out but so I set up like a camera but now then I realize like oh but now when people watch this on YouTube they're looking like at you and they're looking like toward me and I'm not making eye contact with them not anymore babe hang on wait oh shit yeah but see you have to read your notes don't you? No, I'll just talk like we're like, come on now, you face this way. And now it's like we're... See, that's like, that's what I mean.

Like, wouldn't it be cool if we both had like a little like where it looked like we were kind of talking to each other even though... It'd be hysterical. It'd be hysterical. Anyway. Anyway, I, if this makes you feel safer, I can do this. But, uh... I mean, I just worry.

I love... It doesn't look like a studio. It still looks like I'm sitting at a fucking shiplac building, but, um... I also... Here, I'll get a little corner action. You ready? Hang on. Oh.

Oh, see, I'm like me. Look. Why do you have the same fucking wall color? Did we know this? Is this the first time I've ever seen this in my whole life? Do we understand? Christine, wait, we should flip the camera and it will literally look like we are in the same room. Fucking hell.

This is what it took to get us to look like. Hold on. Let me move them. Oh. Oh, wait. No, wait. Now I got a reverse. Wait.

No, no. It looks good on mine. No? Oh, mine's opposite. Oh, hang on. But then I am this way. Okay. I think maybe we have differing.

The lighting was different. The lighting, we just have to match the lighting like that. No? So, oh, so we're looking like we're, I thought we were trying to get the walls to be together, like two green walls. Yeah, but that's how they look on my screen. Oh, that's how it looks on yours. It looks great.

Why do they make it look different on mine? So, okay. It literally looks like we're in the same room if I push the camera right. There. Oh, my God. Christine. I think that's how it looks. Okay, wait, I'm going to flip it for the people who see it my way. I'm worried that, like, what if everyone sees it?

Hold on. How do I mirror? Oh, that didn't help. Did I flip? Nope. What fuck? I'm telling you from my end. Oh, wait, I just realized I flip my camera. My camera's up there.

You idiot. I'm talking to myself. Seriously, Christine. Sometimes I wonder. I'm not kidding. I'm like, I just switched the camera. We literally just figured out that our walls. with the same exact fucking color. That's actually very strange, huh? How did we not know that?

And we even have a corner where it's the color and then like a white color. You realize if I just, if I just put that exact wallpaper on my shiplop, it would look like we just were centered. It's like really trippy, man. I did not see this happening for us at all. I didn't see this coming, I will say. I'll also say that. I would wish I could see it the way that you see it.

Here, here. Well, then I'll just screenshot, dude. Oh, good idea. I wish I could see with your eyes You know what I mean But you need the eyes to see Fuck, that's so true Um

Okay Remove from stage Don't do that Hey Hey Kick from I'm sorry It says kick from studio That feels really aggressive

Yeah No Oh my God It looks way cooler on yours Mine I mean mine looks cool too It just looks like we match walls. Yeah.

We'll have to shop it, but this is a good rough draft. I like it, though, because, like, is this where you would like to stay doing your... No, but, I mean, I mean, yes, I just have to get a different arm for my microphone, because it's currently... It's been tabletop. It's the microphoneing that makes it so confusing. Like, in this picture, I sent, it looks like our wall color really is, like... Is that not the eeriest thing in the whole world? Creeping me out.

everyone's like that's not that weird but i think it's fucking weird okay i mean i can just hear the gen z calling us like the most obvious millennials in the world with like our dark green and like well because you know there was millennial gray and then a bunch of millennials got all up and nasty about it being like i'm different and then they all picked the exact same shade of green which i will just to keep myself feeling young i'm going to say this was the last person who lived here i did not choose okay this was also the last person i lived that lived here and by that i mean me five years ago pre-COVID or during the start of COVID me picked this okay I was struggling we were all struggling and then I bought this entirely way too expensive wallpaper um from anthropology of all

things and then I was like well I think it's there forever because it was really expensive and I don't have changed it but this paint I bought from Claire paints by the way um back in the day it's a it's a black owned black woman owned business and their paints are so beautiful this one was called current mood or is called current mood and i remember buying it like 2020 and going like this is my current fucking mood and i think a lot of millennials felt the same way so i haters gonna hate whatever i have nothing to contribute because i was not responsible for the shiplap i was not responsible for the i mean i just i just bought the house i'm defense i'm feeling defensive don't worry you don't need to feel defensive if you're up to me this place would be a completely

different color i don't even know what it would be what color i don't know because i'm too scared of own brain because I love and I promise I'm not like trying to fit in with the younger generation I just love their little style where everything's just like bursts of fucking colors and crazy shapes I think that's so cool and so um I would probably have like the dr. Seuss syndrome where like there's nothing's a straight line everything's weird and wacky and wonky and oh my god okay I kind of love that but you also really like the mid-century not mid-century um the what is it called the art deco retro futurism yeah so I feel like that fits really well though like with the art deco kind of like retro like curvy I don't know I feel like that kind of neonish like I feel like that kind of matches but yeah so eventually I do want to have like but and if it is really fucking distracting when I'm talking to you no it's not I was just joking I was just fine no no I said it first you didn't even say it I just am projecting concerns on to you um so okay good good good so we'll try it if everyone fucking freaks out I'm sorry And I'm sorry about my walls.

I'm sorry about me as a person and my identity. I don't know what to tell you except sorry. Also, don't judge all of my tabs because I feel like later you're going to zoom in on this. Oh, I wasn't. But now I will. I mean, it's just a lot of like home decor stuff. So it's not very interesting, but still. It's like how to do how to copy Christine's office in my house.

Imagine if you look at the little tabs and it's actually just pictures of you all over. What if it was like my wallpaper and my, yeah. You were like typing Claire paints. No, I'm just teasing. But yeah, I guess I was in the millennial spirits when I developed this room. But, you know, I do want to change it eventually and I don't know. We'll figure it out. But so this is me slowly adjusting to having a camera and doing that whole thing.

Cool. We'll see what happens. I'm also down to get my own actual camera, too, because I'm, But we did that for a while. We have the camera. We did. And now it's easy because you don't have to record on the camera. Like I just,

like there's a cam link that my brother sent me that I just plug into the laptop and it just uses that camera as my webcam. So it doesn't like, you don't need like a memory card in the camera. Nice. Nice. You know what I mean? So it's a lot easier now than it was like when we tried it five years ago.

And in case you're wondering, I'm drinking a mini DPEP. Nice. Crack that bad boy open. Um, And I drink because I'm throwing a party for a bunch of little kids tomorrow. So how much do you, how much, what percentage have you gotten done and what do you have left? Well, my mother-in-law is downstairs.

So I, I assume probably 99% has been completed because she just showed up. She literally showed up at midnight, landed at midnight. She didn't show up at midnight. Sorry, that sounded really ominous. That's the crack of a lightning bolt. Yeah, she, yeah, we set a spell into the fireplace. She showed up last night, and at like 6 a.m. up. Everybody's up. She's like cleaning the house, getting Leona ready for school and taking her there. It was just really nice. So I feel a lot calmer than I normally do right before a party. And I also tried to tone it down this year for myself. I didn't want to put too much pressure because I feel like it gives me so much stress every year. And I'm like, why do I do this? And this year I'm like, you know what? just roll with it see what happens bought the decorations and the food and plates and can confirm my mom used to be one of those moms who like really absolutely lost her mind trying to make it the perfect i mean literally for like my fourth or fifth birthday party she literally got a like pony rides like she was like trying to oh my word yeah she was really trying to do it up don't remember a fucking thing so yes yeah yeah yeah but you know now there's all this evidence right yeah now there's i can be like now i can be like remember

saying I've rented at we just recorded that yesterday but like I we were the only ones in the theater and I was like this is hilarious because the tickets it was like a matinee of gabby's dollhouse so the tickets were like 10 bucks or something each and then and less for the kids and then it's like imagine we spend like 40 bucks on all this and say like oh we rented out an entire movie theater for you and your best friend which like obviously is bullshit um it's only bullshit because if she listens to this episode one day then it's bullshit other than that there is no evidence you just have to burn this episode listen i don't want to be i don't want to set expectations that high i feel like that'll be a card i hold on to if she ever like needs me to prove like that

i i threw her a really cool party or something well i've told you about the the barney fiasco of 95 okay i feel like you haven't i feel like i've put it away in a place in my brain that's hard to access and i'd love for all of us to hear it again if you don't mind yeah and i'll find the picture too um actually i could let me find the picture right now because if you recall i've uploaded every single picture from my from my memory box i think we recall the process the journey the emotional toll it took it was it was a long journey so let me take advantage of it right fucking now um please do so as i'm looking for this story i'll tell you it was my third birthday we lived in san francisco at the time found it immediately i'm so glad i downloaded all these

fucking pictures um so i i we lived in san francisco we lived right next to like m gm studio or something like that or and that was where Barney was films and if you were a kid in 95 it was the coolest thing in the world to be like oh yeah I live like where Barney works it's no big deal and if you are M and the coolness of that I had a psychological disorder when I was a kid with how much I loved Barney I think all of us had that like that like mob mentality about Barney like it's like Swifties today but it was Barney then where for a year like really I should have gone to a doctor I mean this really is is alarming you guys I refused to go by my own name, which might have been assigned for something else later.

Honestly. Great fucking point. Great fucking point. I would not respond to anything except Barney. I did not call my mom. Mom. She was baby Bob. I'm not called my dad. That's not a joke. Like that's literally like M's lifestyle for like I'm committed to the bit so hard. It was a mental disorder. It wasn't a silly little thing. I thought I was Barney. It was a real fucking problem. At what point do you think your mom got like genuinely worried? And I asked that as a parent because I'm like, yeah. I haven't experienced. that yeah but i imagine if it happened i would get blaze and i would really start to be like do we like like after a month like do we well what do we do linda waited a year and did fucking nothing so i think you're fine what was her name baby bop baby bop yeah baby bop did fucking zilch so um that's crazy to me that

you call i mean that you not only had not to call you crazy as a four no i it was it was bonkers anyway but like it feels like so fitting right like you fixated on it and you didn't like your own name and there you go. My parents always thought that I would end up with a man named Barney and just run away and they never seen me again. L.O.L. in a lot of ways. I literally remember you telling me this and I was like, well, you can do the thing like

that Cher said of like, I'm Barney. I know. Selene Dion. One of them. One of the C ladies. It's like when Cher was like, I am a rich man. I am a rich man. That's the one.

But I am Barney. Well, so my first boyfriend, his name was Tristan. And on our very first date, he picked me up in his car, which happened to be in. a big-ass, like, 10-passenger purple van that he named Barney. And my mom was like, here we go. Your mom was like, I fucking foresaw this in the stars. Oh, my Lord. So anyway, this birthday party when I was turning three.

And my mom, she... Well, Barney was turning three. Right. And so my mom slash Baby Bob was planning a big bash. She threw me this big birthday party. And I was obsessed with Barney. She was like, well, we live right next to the studio. I don't think I know this um oh she was like we're actually gonna have Barney come to your birthday party we're gonna

we're gonna call the studio we're gonna have Barney's gonna be here and I remember if it was a surprise to me but I remember sitting on the steps there's video of it which I could also actually probably put up because I do have access to that um and I'm sitting on the steps and I guess they like Barney like literally walked into our backyard and my whole like life. I mean, it was the best day in my life. My whole life I would brag to people. I was like, oh my God, my mom had the real Barney come to my birthday. She had the real Barney there. The real Barney was there. And I guess that wasn't true. And my mom, my mom, she just hired someone with a fucking Barney costume. But because, and here's the thing, though, apparently she was hoping this would be the one time birthday party wise. They're like, I just wouldn't fucking remember. And she could just get away with it. But I spent my whole life bragging to everyone that she did this and she didn't want to ever break my heart so even at 18 years old she was

like that's right the real Barney came the real Barney came oh my god and she was going to let me live this yeah for the rest of my life until i started going through old photos and i found these pictures and i went what the fuck is this it was a lot easier to lie before cameras were invented i tell you what i was like what is happening here oh shit and i was like this isn't that can't Because in my memory, it is real Barney. Of course. It was fucking Barney. And she went, I'm so sorry, I never wanted to tell you.

Like, I thought I never thought you'd find out this way. I thought I got rid of all the photos and I found, I guess I found them. But anyway, this is for you. Please send it to me right now. I also, I definitely don't remember this. This is me hugging the real Barney. Of course it is. And we're all going to.

Oh. His head is. deflated I need to please just show this on that because I don't listen I'm sure oh my word in heaven oh wait wrong camera it's nightmares we'll obviously post them or put them in

actually Jack if you just want to Baby Bop's in there she is Jack if you just want to put this straight in the video that's totally fine okay first of all actually Jack I'll let me get the video clip I'll send us to you and if you could put it like right here here's me seeing the real Barney a baby bob Hello! Hi, Mary!

Hi! Emily! Emily! Emily! Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!

I brought them. Hi! Emily. Emily. Thank you. Thank you. Who did Farnie bring you? Yay!

We're both unsure of the whole situation. Well, you're not, you're fully sure. You're fully bought in. You're, uh, you've, so did you cry? when you found out? Or were you mad at your mom? Or were you just like, oh, well? Well, I found out the day before I was graduating high school. Oh, you were still young. Oh, I thought this was like a recent discovery. No, I was like 17, 18. And so, here's another picture that you can put in. So I really... Oh, I know this picture. Yeah. I think. Yeah. I think you do. I love this picture.

So I found out the day before I was going to graduate high school that I found these pictures because they were looking for pictures for my graduation party. about a scandal and it's like most it's like of all family scandals you found out that it wasn't the real barney i i i truly i was like oh my god i can't believe this happened and uh basically i like i had a data not like a data process as if this was a real trauma but i was like i can't fucking believe it it's like a traumatic incident as like to like i don't know well i just couldn't believe it i was like i've been telling everybody for 15 years oh yeah that's and so I don't know how my mom pulled it off,

but so the next day I was going to graduate and then have my graduation party at the end of the day, my mom last minute tried to like make it up to me and at my graduation party decided to get another Barney impersonator. Oh, she cannot be stopped. This woman, it's like she doubles down. But with 24 hours notice, first of all, the only way you can make it up to me

is get real fucking Barney here in 24 hours, realize. Fair. I mean, she really should have, she should have pulled that off. I think to recreate pictures, she was like, we'll get you a better Barney and then she got me a fucking worse Barney that only has he only has black for eyes so this this is Jackie

he's a black eyed Barney he's like a black eyed kid this was my graduation party I mean hello okay like real talk is that like Linda or somebody in that costume this feels like it's like your friend's parent it was her best friend's husband but here's

the thing like nobody else because this happened the night before this is a picture of me 24 hours after finding out that the first Barney picture was awful. I mean, we're going to have to put, like, put these somewhere, but this is hilarious. But his head's inflated all the way. The rest of him's kind of a little not. That's a great point.

You know, it's like, if you combine the two, it might look realistic. But here's the thing, because we, this discovery just happened 24 hours ago between me and her. And then she tried to just get a Barney impersonator within 24 hours notice that basically, get this. I was having a whole last graduation party of like 300 people and nobody knew the context of this. He just fucking waltzes in. Are you sure nobody knew? You didn't tell all 300 of your classmates how many times that you'd met the real Barney when you were three. My mom was giving a graduation speech and then all of a sudden I hear, I love you. No. By the way, first of all, you're still processing. This is traumatic. She had someone just play it on like a speaker and then

this fuck-ass Barney walks in and I'm like, what the hell? What the hell? baby bob fucking tone it down this is a wildest story i mean to have like wow that feels like me in the way that i would overnight something and just do it like to try and fix the problem um so i do in that way uh what's happening to my computer it's just like zooming me out oh you look fine here okay well yeah i just feel like i can understand that uh that instinct to just fix it but yeah that is quite a bold move to do especially for your teenage child like you're with you teenage child with their entire like school of classmates to bring up like something literally like in a horror movie high school drama I could hear everyone around me going

what's going on what like do you get it I don't get it yeah I mean really it's got to be just chilling the reason I don't get married is because she'll try again I just like oh my god you know now she will now I will now I think we're all on board everyone will just dress as barney and I'll be like what's fucking happening I think it's going to be just no one will and you'll be just like oh few and then the efficient will walk out and you'll go and this time I promise it will be the real Barney well if Barney was the efficient I'd be I could get behind that Allison I don't know well yeah well we'll cross that bridge

when we get there but what would what about if you got to finally be the Barney that you've wanted to be that would be sick I could be Barney here's my question also like did you develop the Barney persona before or after meeting the Barney because I would be worried as a parent too if like she's like look he's really here and then like you decided like from that day on you were Barney. No, no. I've created a monster.

No, I was already in the thick of it. It was a slow. I think you can only go so delusional until you just start calling yourself Barney. I mean, you're right. Like how much more could you have gotten in? How much deeper could you have gotten into this? This was my third birthday. And then I also have home video of this.

The birthday before this was my second birthday where we had a Barney cake and a whole video is just a bunch of grown dads just like beating a Barney Penaata like a bloody pulp and the children are just screaming. Traumatic. I know. I never understood the Penaata at the kid. Like I mean I understand it from a cultural perspective

but from like my, our generation we'd grow up and just like get the cutest little thing and then just like give a bunch of little kids and their dads like baseball bats and I remember being like, oh no. The poor, yeah, the poor Barney. Yeah. Adora the Explorer. Anyway, in a, I didn't know it could be topped and yet I have found a way to make something about me when I was trying to talk about your fucking kid and her birthday. I'm so sorry. I didn't do anything quite as traumatic, I don't think. We'll find out tomorrow. There were tears on the birthday, but they were like over tired and over sugared tears. And so we were like, it's a success, you know? Like she was just like a little weepy, like not anything major. I will say though last night or this morning on the way to school, Sherry and Blaze get home from dropping her off.

and go um there's a slight dilemma and i went uh-oh and they said are you we asked her if she's excited about her birthday party tomorrow and she said yeah it's dino ranch themed and i was like it is and blaze went well it's not and i went i know and i was like i have just spent weeks planning a gabby's doll house birthday and i think it's because she had always said she wanted two themes and i was like you know we should pick one like i don't want to she's such a diva i love her i know she's like we do half and half half the cake is this half the cake is that and she couldn't decide gabby's ranch yeah gabby's ranch or dino dollhouse that's that'd be fun too dino dollhouse fuck okay next year well no just get it just tonight go get a doll house put a bunch of dinosaurs in it dino doll house boom i mean we have a doll house i'll put

dinosaurs in it i think she's she's going to be like that's not it's not the same you know and then blaze was like we have a bunch of dinosaur stuff from last year and i'm like yeah but she's going to be like it's not whatever so basically i found a bunch of printables online like coloring pages and I was like I'm just going to put these out and then she has like diner wrench toys and I was like please these is decorations so there's a lot of kind of finagling going on I don't think it'll be at the level of like the Barney um it does not have to be but I kind of don't want it to be maybe when she's like no I don't know I don't know someday it'll happen but not today Satan please so we're kind of like last minute trying and Dino Ranch is not like as popular

of a brand as it's like a Canadian TV show so I'm like yeah you can't just like it's not like Walmart necessarily right like it's just a little bit harder to find so and you know with my trying to trying to avoid certain online retailers it's been really difficult so thankfully there are a lot of free resources online and then Etsy had some like downloadable digital stuff and you know I got my cricket so we're doing a lot of DIY but it'll be fun and I'm pretty convincing. I can convince her that it's been Dino Ranch all along. You know, if anyone can do it, it's certainly you. And when in doubt, call my mom, she will have a dinosaur there in 24 hours. Oh my gosh. She will literally just send another fuckass Barney, as you called it. And we'll be like,

see, he's from the ranch. I'm just saying, I have two instances where she got a shitty last minute dinosaur. Do you know that it's been, it's the 30 year anniversary of the. Oh, shit. Don't tell her that. 30 year anniversary. Do you think the original one is still around? now he's like 70 in that costume? To the day, I don't know who that man was. He was just in our backyard. An icon, really. And he probably was like, oh, wow, wow, okay.

Anyway. They really think I'm the real deal, huh? He really, he must have felt so good about himself that day. I hope so. But yeah, again, twice now my mom has proved she can get a last minute dinosaur. So if you decide on Dino Ranch... I mean, why did I not even put that together? Like, Leona wants a Dino Ranch.

Linda's got one on standby. I'm she always I honestly I part of me has joked and then she never fully answered the question yeah yep but I was like did you just buy that like at this point you should just have one on lease you should just invest just have an outfit at all moments you should be paying it off over the years because you know you're gonna need it it it's like a time share like someone else will use it then we'll need it just don't ever just don't ever do what my mom did where like every single person you've ever known is next to you can hear them whispering I don't get it that's like well you know that that's my worst nightmare um so don't worry i'm way way way too neurotic to make that happen oh man anyway thanks mom so anyway it's been 45 minutes i'm so sorry and it's been like such a good

i've had the best time we actually started this podcast today going it's going it's going to be so short i know i know because we were like oh we both brought a short story and then of course here we go what do you why you drink a deep peppy and why is there a reason why oh oh because uh because i'm hosting a party children tomorrow. And I don't, I guess I don't have a Dino Ranch party. I have a Gabby's house party with a few Dino Ranch characters sprinkled throughout. Um, but you know what? It's just going to have to have to work because I'm not going to overhaul everything. The best part of this podcast is that one day, Leona can listen to this. And then any issues that come about tomorrow in like 10 years, she'll go, you tried mom. Good job. I just have this

flash of like me sitting there in a therapy office with her and not in a traumatic way but just in like let's all like get you know talk things out and just like so on this part of the podcast mom when you mention me to like I'm like I should probably shut my mouth sometimes but oh well no I mean I don't think you've said anything too damning just yet if she were a teenager you're in trouble I'd be like guess what she did today she hasn't done anything too damning so she better watch it yeah let this be a prophecy don't do don't you mess up Leona don't she do it's perfect well why do I drink um oh my god I'm just so tired I did not know the effect that two red eyes in a row could have on a person um I didn't did you I took a guess but also I was like I'm pretty good at like falling asleep and I just like I think you know what the problem is is I should have just let yesterday be like a day where I rested after the fact but instead I well that was my fault because I said let's record on Thursday no no because I because then after that I had like back to back plans with a bunch of

people and so I didn't go to bed until a normal time after not sleeping so I'm half caught up on my sleep but at the same time I feel like after this I have so many things I need to do around the house when like all I want to do is just be horizontal you don't get rest time you know what and I do it to myself because really who's here telling me I can't me though you know all of a sudden I'm like I have to do this or else it's just going to be looming and like you got to pick your poison you know you either got to feel like guilty for this feel weird for for that but you don't have to feel guilty for anything but i know how brands work i will say though can i get a little clinky a little cheers a little toast because hanky's had a big milestone

he did clink oh wink clinkling clink um we ever as people know because i can't shut up about him um ever since we got him he has been actively destroying the house anytime we leave and yesterday was the first time that the house was like semi full of our stuff we've been living in squalor where like we hide everything whenever we leave and every time we're going to go somewhere i need a half an hour in advance to hide everything so he basically just sits in an empty house because we're scared he's going to eat something um but yesterday was the first day that we didn't hide anything and we left for like we me i left for four hours and he i came back and nothing had been touched nothing wow and i was like what a good boy he's like a little man

what a good boy i don't know where we is but he's like anyway so i was very proud of him. I'm so proud of him. So that's why I drink, because he's become a good man. Oh, my God, I'm so proud of him. Okay. He was staring daggers into my eyes, which is why I'm toning it down a little bit. He's like, dang, you're talking about another man right in front of me. That's crazy. Who the hell are you talking about? Yeah. Wow, good boy. Um, you're probably wondering why I've brought you here to this campfire today. I do not totally know what's happening, actually. Yeah. That's exactly how I want you because I have a good. ghost story to tell you today. Oh, in black light. That's a fluorescent spooky story. It's the only flashlight I could find. So we're going to have to go with it. It's creepy. It's giving a spooky

color. Yeah. Let's go. I'm very excited here. You never do the, uh, the paranormal side of things. I know. This one felt, this one felt special, okay? No pressure. Picture, if you will, a misty hillside where an ancient orchard slumbers under a ghastly, crooked moon. Locals. Call it Crabby Grove. Beautiful. They say every harvest, the trees get irritable. Branches that rattle like brittle bones, an old cider press that creaks to life,

though no one's touched it in decades. No one living, that is. Over the years, the townsfolk had learned to coexist with the land, going a long way, avoiding Crabby Grove and its ghastly groans. Folks around here know better than to wander in after sunset, not after the fruit salad incident. Never. I was there. Trust me. Let's just say the honeydew had its own agenda.

No one dared step foot in the orchard until one night under a full moon. Two podcasters did the unthinkable. Armed only with clip-on mics and misguided confidence, they wandered into crabby grove. Some claim they were brave to enter. Others say foolish. And some say they were just looking for a bathroom. Either way, as they crept across the crispy autumn leaves and neared the gathering of ghastly trees, they heard a creek. That was pretty good.

The air tasted sharp, like a bite from a perfectly crisp apple. And then they heard it. The thump of fruits dropping all around them, though not one leaf stirred. As the mist rolled in, the temperature dropped. The podcasters suddenly realizing they may have gotten in over their heads frantically gathered up their belongings, but it was too late. To their horror, what they thought were gnarled trees began to take shape as something else in entirely. Farm hands, it seemed, and were they wearing overalls?

One of the podcasters said, fun fact, that particular pattern of flannel is called buffalo plaid. Fun fact, if they're farmers and overalls, they might also just be lesbians at the orchard, I don't know, but whatever, yeah. M made a really great, made a really great point. The ghastly farmers approach holding a glowing bottle. Petrified, the podcasters beheld the label. Angry orchard. Before they knew it, the podcasters were now each holding a cold bottle. The bottle cap already removed. Oh, no. It's as if the objects move themselves.

They looked from the bottle back to the ghostly farmhands, and the leader spoke. Take a sip and answer plain, will it cool this orchard's flame? Or rather, will it wake our wrath and bring you down the cider path? And just like that, they vanished. but not before leaving one final word of warning. Choose your words wisely. What the hell was that supposed to mean? The podcaster shouted before shrugging and taking a sip.

It was delicious. Like, weirdly delicious. Crisp, refreshing, a little bold. Something from beyond the veil it had to be. What else could result in such a bright crisp apple flavor? Only something supernatural could result in such a perfect mix of sweetness, bright acidity, and the dryness of traditional cider-making apples. But no, it wasn't paranormal.

Just the best cider they'd ever tried. And it was called Angry Orchard. The podcasters were no longer afraid. Instead, the two were refreshed and emboldened, knowing that apples with attitude weren't something to be afraid of, but instead something to enjoy. As for the honeydew, people say it's still out there, plotting its revenge. grab freaky good cider from Angry Orchard at Angry Orchard.com slash Halloween.

And while you're there, watch the new Jason vignette, sweet revenge, and shop the collab merch. And please drink responsibly. Christine, do you like having no money? Yeah, it's my favorite on opposite day. Because after finally looking at my account on Rocket Money, I realized I actually have no money because it's all been going to subscriptions that I did not know what was paying for. I love when that happened. Just imagine a waterfall, but instead of water, it's all my dollar bills, because that's what was going on.

And then Rocky Money was like... I am imagining that. Yeah. Rocket Money was like, girl, fix this. Well, I got to say, like, I have been canceling a few subscriptions now that they have decided to bend to the will of a certain authoritarian figure. And so I'm like canceling left and right. And it's kind of cheating because they do all the hard work.

Like, you just click a button and Rocky Money's like, got it, we'll cancel. And I'm like, tell them. why. And so it's really useful, especially when, you know, things are changing and you're trying to be more conscientious for how you spend money and your waterfall is just like, you're just trying to stem the flow a little bit. Exactly. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors, and spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings or finally build them if you're me. Rocket Money has over five million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when

using all of the app's premium features. So cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with RocketMoney. Go to RocketMoney.com slash drink. That's rocketmoney.com slash drink. RocketMoney.com slash drink. Okay. So I have a story for you. This was a Christine request because after our last episode, I was saying, man, I want to keep

up the Halloween thing, but I don't really know what to do yet. And so I asked Christine what her Halloween wish would be. And Christine... I have no idea what I said. Yes, you do. You don't remember? No. Okay, well.

Oh, Graveyards! Yes. So, Christine. Games and Graveyards. Christine asked specifically for graveyard games was the situation here, but I have broadened it to, like, ways, activities that we should all be bringing back to graveyards. Oh! Yes. Okay.

Because I tried to look up games. I will bring them up a little bit, but wow, there was just about two whole sentences for the entire. Really? I could bring you a whole sentence. of, I could bring you a whole other sentence of games that I've played in graveyards. Yeah, well, you tell as a graveyard kid, what did, what were things that you would do? That's such a good story. I'm going to write it. Graveyard kids. I'm telling you. I mean, that's a, I just always call you Wednesday Adams, but you really did

grow up in a graveyard. How does someone who has a graveyard in their, in their, in their, as their backyard, what do you do with that? So we used it a lot for background sets for, um, I did a lot of home videos in case that's not clear from my personality. I directed a lot of home videos starring my one suspecting neighbors and little brother. And so a lot of them were centered around that. We use it as like a kind of a set deck, you know. A lot of it was when I was feeling moody and I would kind of open my window and like let the rain drizzle and I would just like listen. No, because I was listening to probably like Kelly Clarkson and just like we're looking at the graveyard, you know.

And I didn't do anything nefarious in there. You know, I would, I, we would, I did do a Ouija board in there. And I don't know that that was maybe necessarily appropriate, but I was, that was actually my high school, speaking of high school graduations, my birthday and high school graduation were like a combo thing. Me too. Yeah. Did you also graduate on June 5th?

I don't remember the day. My birthday was June. It was. Or the graduation was June 5th. I think it was some it was probably right around there um and I had this party and I at one kid actually like got so upset because he's Christian that he um drove home and like wouldn't talk to me um okay and so I remember being like oh that's the point where I realized oh this is maybe not as normal as I think this too my first thought was like 18 like what my first thought would have been like

well I never have to see him again now that we've graduated so I know exactly that was my second thought. I was like, okay, uh, party pooper. And then some people were like, I don't know about this. And I was like, you're probably right. I mean, they're probably all right. But, uh, so I've done that. I would have thought it was sick. I would have thought it was so cool. I mean, some people were really on board. Um, so that's that. So that's, that's my kind of extent. I didn't do like a whole lot of, I mean, we'd play like when we were really little, play like hide and seek in there. But that's not really, you know, paranormal related. That's fine. I mean, I, it's, it's one of those things where, in by doing it in a graveyard it's paranormal right I guess it is right and I like who knows who else was playing with us yeah right like maybe you never actually the seeker has still seeking I don't know there was always this one girl in a Victorian dress oh man well I tried my best but I really I typed in graveyard games and it really kind of just turned into like hokey Halloween like Bob for Apple stuff and I was yeah yeah I was like I can't I'm not doing that no I get listen I just I'm here for the right I'm here along for the

So this is very quick, because this is essentially, instead of normal notes, this is just bullet points of things one can do. Oh, I love it. So if you would like to give your opinion on, I'm not kidding, every single thing, that's fine, because otherwise it's going to be about a two-minute topic. Growned, but I'm in. I tried, man. But, okay, so this was my inspiration for, because I mean, everyone groaned when I said. Oh. Oh, yes, I will be chiming in on every bullet point.

Not groaning at what you said, groaning that I'm going to. make it fucking annoyingly long. Well, the people who like your story and not mine are celebrating. They're like, finally, a quick one. But while I still have their attention. I think this is, you're the perfect person to have this conversation with as someone who is a graveyard kid. Yes, a graveyard kid, TMTM.

They're, you know, box car children. Yes. And I always call myself, like you do too, a box car child. And I call Leone of my little box car child. But like graveyard kid is kickass. I'm surprised. as a little graveyard kid you never called yourself a graveyard kid why didn't i i don't know i would have called you that especially if i went to the same high school i'd been like hey graveyard kid

fucking come over here nobody really like i don't think it was that unusual to me like because it was just normal so maybe i didn't even occur to me i don't know that's true i get that well just know that that's what i've always called you it's kind of like how apparently you always called me emmathy and then didn't announce that information for a while i um get this emothy and the graveyard kid it's like it's like butch in the sundance case yeah it's like but it's better it is it is 100% obviously so okay so you'll be able to tell me how possible these things are and i separated the i separated this up there's some little chunk chunkies um so i would be remiss if i didn't even just mention the game goes in the graveyard which is which is something that

you could in theory play in a graveyard and if you never played that in the graveyard? I also feel like that that's really just hide and seek if you're only playing with two people. Fair enough. Because for those who don't know how to play ghost in the graveyard, it's hide and seek except there's only one hider and everyone else is a seeker. But the hider is the ghost and the seekers are ghost hunters.

And once someone finds the person hiding, you're supposed to shout to everybody else. There's a ghost in the graveyard. And then the ghost will chase the hunters and if they tag you, you're now also a ghost and you become the next person. is it also like with flashlights i think we always played it at night with flashlights maybe i mean there's also a flashlight tag yeah i think i got them i think we kind of crossed wires with those as kids they're all just a little different and i feel like almost every outdoor game is a different just just different enough version of height and seek or or yeah tag it's always like it has the same

elements yeah like i'm gonna tag you and then either the games over and you're the next it or now you're on my side sometimes there's a flashlight red rover sharks and minnows they're all the same um anyway i obviously someone was going to say i missed ghost in the graveyard if i didn't mention it so that is a game one could play in the graveyard as well as the game graveyard did you ever play that as a kid hmm i don't know what is that it was essentially the silent game um it was literally like be as silent as a graveyard pretend you're dead pretty much oh i did that because my parents asked me too me too so the way we played it in school was um it was basically heads up seven up except instead of sitting at your table with your head on

your desk you would just lie down on the ground and just close your eyes and then someone would just go around and like put your thumb in your hand it was yeah the same thing you played that yeah vaguely but it's like were they just trying to get us to take a nap like what were we doing i will say i only ever played that game during quiet time at school so right like okay they were trying to just like tone our they were trying to get our parasit sympathetic nervous systems like back in running they were like it's okay there was another version of graveyard that some of the other kids played where it was also a quiet game but the one person who's it or like we always call them like the grave robber um he his job was to go around to every

kid lying on the ground aka dead body um oh good and his job was to like try to make you laugh and if you if you were the first one out of everyone in the graveyard to laugh then you lost you were like then you become a ghost well then you're the next graveyard digger or whatever oh okay i get it i get it that's fun though to make them laugh i feel like that's always a good like concept of a game yeah try to make me laugh okay i did that with you all the time so i'm i was like i'm you didn't get you gave me a millisecond there see see me maybe laugh good job i did it so those are the two spooky themed graveyard themed games you wanted graveyard games i got you too there you go love it um but now these are just things that i think people should

actually go do in a graveyard, especially as someone who was a graveyard kid, raising a graveyard grandkid. I think these would be fun activities if you're trying to do something other than zoo or museum. If you just want to, or aquarium, I know she loves you. I mean, listen, it's still there. We still live, my mom still lives there. So, you know, she has as much access as I did. Yeah. So if you ever want to like do a day in the graveyard, this is me basically trying to plan out activities for you and Leona. That's kind of what this became. Thank you so much. It comes with. paperwork i'm not kidding i found forms for you so um obviously you could play some fun games like uh find the grave that's like the oldest or who was born the earliest yeah yeah which is the

strangest name which is the coolest looking grave or the weirdest looking grave so that's oh you want know something that i did that did happen in a graveyard sorry i don't mean to burst in right away it's your whole job what i do have a kind of a ghost story from recently that happened i don't know if it's a or like just a strange synchronicity. But it just hit me because I had like meant to bring it up on the show. But I was at my mom's recently and Leona was on her way there with with Blaze or something. And I was walking through the graveyard and I don't go in there very often anymore. Like I don't know.

I just don't. And I went in there. There you go. I went in there and I like was just kind of actually looking at the graves and really just like I was by myself. and I was just, I don't know, meandering, and I saw this one, and it just, like, made my heart ache because it was a little baby, and her name was, like, Ida Mae or something, or no, Fannie Mae. That's what it was. And it had, like, a little lamb on it, like a little lamb statuette, and I just thought it was,

like, so sweet and heartbreaking because she was really little when she passed. And so I, like, went and, like, kind of, like, pet the little lamb and gave a little kiss, and then, like, went back to my house. and a few hours later, Leona was like, can we go exploring? And so my mom and she and I walked into the graveyard, we're looking around, and I'm telling you, like there are hundreds of graves in this thing. It's not like a small plot or anything.

She were wandering around. She goes right up to, and this is when she was like two or three. Like she was speaking, but not too much. And she walked up to the grave of this Fannie Mae, and she just like, and I'm like frozen. I don't say anything. And she like pets the little sheepy, and she goes, Mommy, what's her name?

And I was like, first of all, how do you even know it's a her, you know? Like, it just was so strange. And I was like, oh, her name's Fannie Mae. And that was it. And that was it. But I remember going, like, out of all the hundreds of grave. And it's not the only child grave, unfortunately. But it was a very weird moment.

And I was like, she didn't want to know any of the other names. So the kids are the people there. So, well, honestly, I'm sure that if that little spirit, like, saw that you're like, oh, that's a nice mommy. I hope so and I like that Leona got to come like sear you know it was just like really anyway so that was that moment but yeah so we have like looked around oh here it is I walked through cemetery a two year oh that's what it was oh my god I forgot sorry I found a two year old's tombstone that some asshole had kicked over like somebody had like broken it and I will say it's also oh I don't want to triangulate myself but there's some other reasons that they might have done that

um so I pride it out of the dirt and I and I could tell had been recently knocked over because the dirt was like there was still grass under it. So I like set it back up upright and I said like a little prayer. And then a few hours later, oh, that's what it was. I was kind of touching the graves. I also have OCD. And then Leona said, Mommy, can you touch this one? And I turned around and she was at that grave.

And I was like, oh, and she went, what's her name? And I was like, oh, my God. So that was how it happened. It's like the two of you had a little moment together. I know. I felt really like that was special. And I had fixed the little grave. so I felt like, oh, that was a nice little, like, nod.

You know, while you're there, I don't know if this would, like, put your kid into psychosis, but, um, well, the Barney thing did it for you, so you'd know, you know, I don't know. I was going to say, have you ever thought about taking her there and just going, do you see anyone and just seeing if she does? Um, I feel like she would tell me if she did. You know what I mean? Like, you don't want to, like, open that can of worms. Right. And I don't want her to be like, why are you asking? Because I feel like if she saw somebody.

I would know. Like if she was like looking at a person Like she's old enough now too where I'm like And she also loves to talk to people So sure honestly I'm just waiting for the day She walks up to nobody and goes like hi You're right two plus two is four And you're like what?

I only use that example Because one of the freakiest times I ever heard of somebody like a kid Going up and talking to someone Is the parents were like Okay well ask them this math problem You couldn't possibly know And like he was getting every single one of them right

that was freaky that's not okay that is not cool man anyway in case you ever need to test it just ask like what's like 20 times 100 yeah or like what was like something like about a floppy or something that like she wouldn't know from their era so um by the way do you know the difference between a cemetery and a graveyard i do um a cemetery or i'm sorry a graveyard is usually part of a church right so then i'm wrong it's actually a cemetery you're technically a cemetery kid But graveyard sounds so much cooler. Graveyard kid, it sounds way cooler. But yeah, so I always say a graveyard, but yeah, you're right. Cemetery is the one without attached church. Okay, thank you. A graveyard kid is still cooler than cemetery kid. Oh my gosh, shut up.

Yeah, I think so. Nerd. You nerd, you wish. So, okay, so yeah, you could always play the game. Like, let's go find the oldest grave here. Let's go find who was born the earliest. What's, uh, or who lived, like, the oldest age or who has the silliest name or, just like pick a thing like let's go find a married couple because they're always buried together let's go find you know so that's an easy one just like a let's go on an exploration and an adventure and try to find this one thing I love it I love it um and that's something I added that to the adult list because I did adult list and then like things you want you I said I basically made a date for you and Leona um but so that's something you could do as adults also because I would want to play that with you whether or not Leona was there for sure um I did put Ouija board you know how I feel about Ouija boards but I do

I'm not an idiot. I know someone wants to go to a cemetery and do that. And I've done it. So I, as much as maybe that was probably not, you know, I would say no. Someone, someone would write in the comments and be like, no Ouija board in a graveyard, really? And it's like.

And today, you know, maybe not in a place where it's other people's loved ones. I would not. But, you know, back then as a, as a young teen, I wasn't drinking beer. I was doing weed abort in the graveyard. So. When your frontal lobe has. not developed. I fully understand wanting to do a Ouija board in the cemetery. I mean, also, like, I'm thinking it was a good idea. I'm terrified of Ouija boards just because I've

seen some really creepy shit with them. Like, at some point in my life, I also loved playing with Ouija boards and I would have absolutely wanted to go into a graveyard. Um, I don't know if you want to, if you want to answer this, but I got to ask, did you ever make out in a graveyard? How Wednesday Adams coded would that be? I know, but I didn't, I wasn't, I didn't, I wanted to. I'll tell you that. I would have. no one wanted to kiss you no i just didn't have any prospects christine i would have totally done it i mean listen i i i i yeah i went to a very interesting is actually late blazes right there i'm just saying it's not in the car it's maybe we'll we'll do leona's like i thought this was a date for you and me mom

um okay have you made out in a graveyard slash cemetery no but it's if there if alison and i ever drove past a graveyard i'd be like get out of the car well yeah i've never driven past a graveyard I don't think I've never noticed. I've never paid attention. Oh, really? No. They're everywhere, dude. I think it's one of those things

where now that we're talking about it, I will see it everywhere. No, I think it'd be so, I don't know why. I just like, just go spooky. And you'd be like, why am I so turned on? Yeah, I don't even know if I would be doing it to be turned on. It'd be more like just to check it off the list.

Like, yeah. I mean, honestly, I may have made out in a graveyard at some point in my life as an older person, but not in that graveyard. I don't know. Not in that cemetery. Well, I mainly ask you. about this graveyard because it was like your backyard and everyone like you know it's the quintessential thing like oh you get like a first kiss like in your backyard and yours happens to be a fucking graveyard you know what I mean I used to actually sit outside listening to Kelly Clarkson and thinking like oh I can't wait for my first kiss to be out here I'm serious and then just wasn't in the cars it was actually in a Chevy and Paula and it was just so bad and awkward it was like like example on reclaiming this moment for yourself if that's something you would want to do is that in my neighborhood a little boozier than your graveyard so sorry I grew up on a golf course um oh i thought you meant right now i was like wait what oh yes your childhood so uh and the golf

course was always like all the teens would like go and like hook up and like get fucked up and like like i was always like oh man i wish i was cool enough like that someone would invite me so my so my dad's house was on a golf course and so that is where all the cool kids would be and my parents would be like go play with them and i'd be like they didn't want to play with me they want to go make out they don't want to be there they don't want to be there anyway it was very nice that i i gave of Alice in a tour and I was like, that's the golf course I never got to hook up on. And then she went out there and we just gave a kid or a kiss. Like, nothing crazy.

But, like, it was just so we could say, I could say I'd been kissed on the golf court because it had not happened and it was, like, very overdue. But it was nice. So, I don't know. Blaze, if you're listening, go smooch your wife on a graveyard and just see what happens. Just because it's. Just see what happens. I mean, just, you know, maybe you'll fall even more in love with each other.

Okay, anyway, sorry to put you on the spot like that. I just want, I. No, listen. happy to talk about it anytime I just I'm there's nothing much to say unfortunately I just wanted to know if you ever because I always felt like I missed out on that so I didn't know if you felt the same way so I also felt like I missed out on that but in my own ways yes so um the other thing this is obvious I'm so sorry to say like the boring ones but needs to be said picnics um because that if you recall I've talked about it before um with other graveyards but like they were originally designed to

to be public spaces that people wanted to be a part of. Did you know that? I did not really, no, I don't think I knew that. Yeah, so, well, I don't know if it's all graveyards, but a lot of them were designed to be public parks. So that way, it wasn't just a place where you dump a body that you never see again. It was supposed to be welcoming. So when you went to go visit your family, it would be a place that you wanted to stay.

And that makes sense, right? Like people will gather and, like, bring, yeah, like a blanket and some, and then just chat with their loved one. I like you see that on TikTok too like people will bring like their phones and yeah have like mom talk to dad who's passed or whatever and like you know like update him on life and stuff and I just think those are so sweet so yeah that's it yeah let's bring that back very um and also a lot of uh cemeteries for a while have like an open area which was literally meant I think just to be a public park so that way like you could go spend the weekends at the park and then oh let's go say hi to dad or hi to grandpa while we're here and it was supposed to be it was like it I feel like these days cemeteries are like, oh, we don't go over there unless it's for a sad reason. But it used to be, the intention, at least at a lot of cemetery, was to make sure that all those people stayed in the community. So they tried to make them communal spaces. Why, it makes sense in a community, like, especially a smaller one, you'd know everyone and you'd know their families.

And, like, it would be like somewhere that, yeah, that would make sense. You'd want to spend your weekend. Yeah. Yeah. Especially when there wasn't, like, I'm talking like back in the day when there was. weren't a lot of wild activities out there to do. Like, there weren't, like, I don't know, it was just... There was bobbing for apples.

There was bobbing for apples. And so... Or, like, watching a public execution. But, yeah, picnics were, used to be very common. I, like, people would just go out there and hang out. So I feel like we should bring that back and make... Yeah, I like it. I like it.

I feel like it's just a little bit of a symbolism that, like, we're no longer a village, you know? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I agree. um okay the one that i really like and i have done this in graveyards before and it's so fun is geocaching have you done that no i've done geocaching but not in a graveyard it's so fun people have left things in graveyards before that's so smart yeah that's very that's a perfect place for that yeah and for those who don't know geocaching is like it's you can there's an app on your phone and it'll tell you like oh there's this like there's basically hidden treasure all over the city and the there's always like a

little scroll or a piece of paper for you to write your name on to say like I've been here and I've seen the prize and it's sometimes like a penny but the the rule is always if you're going to take the trinket that you find you always have to put a new one back for the next person who comes here but yeah it's like a little scavenger hunt and you can see the log of all the people who've been here yeah it's like it's like scavenger hunting in your own town so I would suggest going to do that that's very cool um I wrote some other things that I thought either you would enjoy or I could see you wanting to, like, teach Leona and this would be, like, a fun way to teach her. You know what I mean?

I can't wait. Yes. So one of them is helping collect trash, like, always bring, like, an extra trash bag and, like, just be mindful. That's great. I know it's, like, kind of silly, but if you wanted an activity, that's also helpful. Well, and I mean, like, a lot of places just really do, especially places like that. I mean, now this, the cemetery at my house has a patrol, like a patrol because, um, you know, because people are not nice and are disrespectful and we'll go in there and like do drugs or make out but more than that and like you know do like and by the way having a window above it my bedroom window I heard all sorts of things back in the day where I was like geez so now they actually have like a locked gate at night like it's closed but back in the day was just open right and like so I just wander out there but now it's more but they have to patrol it now because and they have to pay to patrol it because people trash it and yeah so it's kind of

of like frustrating and yeah i can i think that's a really great thing to to to help keep places like that clean because someone has to you know and it's like why should the families of the loved ones who are there to just grieve or to like connect yeah have to deal with that and so it would teach your kid to be respectful of the environment and then also i thought you would really get a kick out of this one i came up with this one on my own is build your own um like an activity at home and then bring it to the to the graveyard is like build your own little like um bee house like a little and put it prints it next or prints it put it in like the gardens and everything so that way the flowers stay nice and we save the bees a little pollinator

station pollination station yeah pollination station another one is um go collect rocks and then have leona paint them and then she can have little trinkets to give all the graves um another one i was obsessed with this when i was a kid so i thought leona might like it is when you like would put paper over a rough thing and then like with the crayon you could do that with the grave yard with the gravestones or a pencil works really well oh yeah and that way you can they call what they call it grave rubbing i think something but yeah that way we could like practice reading what could it mean um another one is this is for when she's older but pick a grave and do an ancestry project on them um bring a new also i just looked it up and apparently um you just have to be cautious that it's not a super duper old stone because

it can harm it. I don't know, just a side note before people clock in, but yes. Fair enough, fair enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So don't go to like a, I don't know, a thousands-year-old crumbling thing and put a crayon on it. But you guys know, you have common sense. People just use common sense.

100%. Another one I thought that would be a fun activity for the two of you, and then you can go to the graveyard with it, is to make wind chimes and then maybe hang them in a tree somewhere. Oh, that's beautiful. I was trying you said graveyard games and I was like I don't know the games are going to be activities I don't know man I love activities you know and crafting so this is a dream uh this was one that I used to do um not that I lived at a graveyard but I used to go to them um and I tried to make it like a kid version but like if she ever has like a new toy that she wants to like show off people she can like go to the graveyard and introduce it to people and tell people all about her toy what did you do that you did that when you were young I need to know about that's story um mine was uh i was a really big like music nerd like i i'm not anymore but i used to i have i had like a whole phase where i was like a record collector and all this stuff oh wow um so i used to go there and listen to music and i wanted to like talk to someone about it but i didn't want to know

anyone so i would just like talk to like them about the music i'd be like and then this happens in the music video i don't know it was very silly but i like that though like why not you know i also took that and thought for leona it'd be cool if she it's so stupid i'm sorry i'm like assigning It's not stupid, I want to know. But, like, if she ever went to, like, make up a dance, she can go perform her for them. Like, I don't know. Oh, and she will, by the way. She don't tell her twice.

She'll do a dance and, like, an entire vaudeville performance. Another thing that I used to do, which I, and again, I used to play, I used to play kick the can in, in the cemetery near me. But it was, like, with the goal of, like, not trying to kick any, like, I don't want the can't like kidding him. But if a can rolled over that way, I took it as a sign that I should go talk to them. And so, um, you're like playing kick the can with them. I guess. Or I just kind of took it as like, whoever wants to talk, I'm going to kick the can and just, if it rolls over to you, then I'm just going to take it to a sign that you want to talk. And then I would learn about people that way. So I thought

that was fun. You could also do board games and puzzles. You could bring chalk, which is fun, not for the actual graves, but like for the road. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One family I knew growing up, they would go to the graveyard to go Christmas caroling. So they could still sing to their grandma so I thought you could do that that's nice um uh there was a the grade above us in school they had a graveyard project where they had they were teaching kids about different time period so each kid got to pick a grave and then you had to learn about that time period and then you brought them like a candy or a toy from that time period so cool so you can i love that because then you really learn about like what they when when they lived and what it would have been like and

yeah and then you don't have to pitch you don't have to pigeon hole yourself until like i don't know anything about them but it's like oh they're from the 40s so maybe they would have liked this old magazine like lived in this area or whatever yeah that's really cool i like that a lot and so and now with like um ancestry and all this like you could probably really do so much a lot yeah um another one i thought would be cool is like creating a scavenger hunt and having to look through it um oh yeah like find uh some find twin like a twin or something or find like two people who were born on the same or born on the same day or have the same birthday as you or something there could be a lot of fun

little like well that was one too because it was just her birthday so i thought what if she found one that had her birthday and they would have a birthday party together oh that's cute bringing a piece of cake um this is kind of a combination of that and a scavenger hunt but i always thought this was so cool i saw it on a tv show forever ago if anyone else if anyone remembers it cute please write it because I can't remember the episode but it was a cartoon with a graveyard in it must have been like something on cartoon at work I remember they had like some of adult stuff but um he this is like so sad but this little kid brought it was his birthday and he had an extra balloon and so he walked through the graveyard trying to find someone that shared

his birthday so he could give them a balloon so I thought that'd be kind of cool if I would do this not like even for leona I think it'd be cool if like just get a balloon and then just your whole goal that is to try to find someone in the graveyard that has or just has a birthday that day like the day you walk in that day yeah if they have a birthday now you've got someone now they get a gift like oh and just like i don't know maybe just in case nobody was able to visit that day for their birthday maybe yeah maybe you can visit that's really sweet um i thought this one was also neat similar to like making a little b hotel together but you could set up a little free library and then that way there's always yeah that's good always yeah like that and then um this is how my ADHD

brain would work and I would want to do this but um try to learn all the flowers so you can identify them so when you walk by you go that one means this and that one means this and that one means that's cute same with um the symbolism on like all the signs on a grave like what do they mean and like statues did you ever hear about like the horse statue code a little bit but i don't really know it apparently if you ever see in a in a graveyard oh with the yeah sorry go ahead no no no just Go ahead, if you know it. Is it where, or in a painting where you see, if you see a horse with one leg up, it's like they died in combat or something? Yeah.

So if you ever see a horse statue, if it has all four feet on the ground, it died of natural causes. If only one foot is up, it means that they died from an injury in battle. And if they're like, if they're two feet up and they're basically standing, it means they died during battle. But the person, right? Like, not the horse. No, the horse. Oh, the horse? Yeah.

oh i thought it was about the person riding the horse maybe i don't know but i've always heard it was the horse oh i only know about it in paintings so maybe it's like different in you know statues anyway but there's like a lot of horse graves there that's a great question but i've always heard it's literally called the horse code so i was like morse code that's funny um but i always thought it was about the actual horse themselves i don't know are you looking at up yeah i'm curious okay equest, oh, it's on Snopes, that's good. Equestrian statue code. Oh, folk wisdom has it that equestrian statues contain a code

whereby the rider's fate can be determined by noting how many hoves the horse has raised. The most common theory is that if one hoof is raised, the rider was wounded in battle, two raised hoves death in battle. All four hoves, the writer survived, but apparently this is malarkey. Oh!

Hold on, the hoof code mostly holds true in terms of Gettysburg Equestrian Statute. So you might be honest thing there. Although even that site includes at least one exception. However, even the most cursory look at the statues around other sites such as DC quickly disproves that it holds general sway. So maybe it's just like more some areas, like or some wars or some. So interesting. Yeah.

Oh, Virginia. An additional rumored statue code is prevalent in Virginia's Monument Avenue in Richmond. And that they're facing a certain way. but apparently that's not even true either. Oh. Whoops. Shoot. I thought that was going to be a...

I was going to blow my mind. Fun fact. Um, oh, and then it says parentheses. Please don't write to tell us that the odds of a given person's manner of death matching the correct statutory statuary code are one in nine, not one and three. The latter is correct. Wow. Okay, relax. Don't even fucking try.

Um, okay, good to know. Okay, sorry. Now I feel like a party pooper. But I'd heard that too. Now you could go to a graveyard. and go, well, actually, you know. I can go liars. And on top of that,

so there was a bunch of different, like, I feel like this is something Tim would do. But like to go around and know the name of like every symbol and every shape of the gravestone, do you know how many fucking shapes of gravestones there are? I don't even think I've ever thought about it. I didn't either, but apparently, because I was like, what do you do in graveyards?

What do some people do? And there was like a whole Reddit page of like people being like, this is my favorite shape of monument. And I'm like, what the fuck? So I'm just going to read some of them to you so you know how many there are. And how fun would it be if you, I mean, there's nothing more Wednesday Adams than Leona growing up one day and going, it's not even a whatever. Right.

It's not even a mortuary, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. So obviously this. These are some of the most popular ones. I'm so excited. Okay. Square top, check top, arc top with shoulders.

OG, half OG, half round, P on top, serpentine, heart book, round bench. Animal rustic cross, footstone bedstead, plaque marker, raised top, in socket, on base, pulpit, marker, rectangle, bevel, floral, flat, slanted, upright, or government issue. Jesus. It's like, the duggers. It's like, it just doesn't end. So. It's like it just doesn't end. If you wanted to be a well actually person, I'm just saying, you could absolutely.

And teach the, teach you what all the symbols mean? Because I've always been fascinating, like, what does it mean when there's a fucking lion? Yes, I would love to know. Do you want to guess what the top three symbols on a gravestone are? like the most used across uh i don't know i'm going to say a sheep because that was on that that was one of them but not in the top three okay um a a heart another top contender but no um a symbols and is this just on the top or is this like anywhere on it i'm not too sure a uh an infinity symbol no oh that's a good guess no it's the other two are angel and dove oh okay i mean that makes

It's a little obvious. I was trying to... Should have gotten more traditional, I guess. I really wanted to blow your mind with something that I couldn't. But if you think about, like, how many graves are from thousands and thousands and thousands of years ago, like... I mean, not here necessarily, but... That's a great point, though, because I would be fascinated to see what the numbers look like on that. Like, forever ago, I would think most graves had a cross or something on it.

Any Christian-affiliated person would have a cross, even if they would be... Yeah, exactly. It would just be the norm, probably. But as religion kind of falls to the wayside, I wonder what the now most popular symbols would be on a gravestone. I wonder too. I wonder too. I did look at up. I bet a heart would be up there.

Probably. I did see that a dragon apparently to some means religious sin. And I was like, I just know there's some metal ass person who's going to put a dragon. Oh my God. I hope to find that someday. Would you like me to throw a couple symbols your way and you guess what they mean? Yes. Yes.

absolutely a rooster what that's on there apparently so um so is it like a symbol about how they died or just like a general symbol of some meaning unfortunately they're kind of like the like a boring meaning so yeah so i was like it means he died at the crack of dawn uh he loved those chickadees yeah he loved a cock or okay sorry i for i regret saying that out loud uh maybe it means um diligence i don't know close vigilance oh okay so i telepathically got my wires crossed with you okay got it and actually cockadoodle do a awakening which it does okay that makes sense yeah yeah yeah yeah um another one is ivy oh ivy i bet ivy symbolizes um eternity shut the fuck up christine you're so good at this um

what because i guess ivy stays green forever don't tell alison but we have the outside and I certainly killed that it ain't green um but allegedly you live in california all bets are off when it comes to plants allegedly ivy stays green forever so it is a symbol for immortality and eternal life oh i killed it i had no idea sorry bad pun uh another we'll just do another quick one this one's kind of maybe obvious but a buttercup like the flower oh like spring or rebirth uh happiness cheerfulness okay so i just was yeah i was just guessing um The other ones were way too obvious. I was like, across.

What could across me? You know? Although I did see one where it was like, a vessel with light in it means love for the Lord, but an urn with light in it means friendship. Oh, with light in it. Apparently that's what that means. What do you mean light in it?

Like a flame, I think. I don't know. Oh, I was thinking like you put like a light bulb in it. I was like, is that a thing? Okay, I'm sorry. Yes, I understand. But yeah, so anyway, another thing you guys could do, I guess is just learn all the simples together.

So now I'm just going to read real quick the things that... This is so fun. Is it? I feel this is so boring. I like... No, it's so fun. Okay. Thank you for saying it louder.

Everybody agree with me. I appreciate you. Like I love going to my moms, but I'm always like, oh, we're just, you know, Leon is just going to want to play like Candy Land for three hours. Now I'm like, oh my God, we have so much to do outside. One thing I was going to say, which actually, let me send you this. this form. Could we play Candyland in the cemetery?

Leon is going to ask me, so. I'm saying I literally, I put board games and puzzles. I may not have a puzzle because you're kind of, you have to finish it, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you're asking for lost pieces, you know, but, um, I would do, I would like, like, shoots and ladders can be fun. Yeah.

Here is a form I found. It's called burial grounds family activities. And someone made this little form of, like, things to do with your kids when they're in a cemetery. That's super sweet, you know, especially because people, like, have lost, like, loved ones or if they've lost, like, a sibling or, you know, someone in the family, a parent. Like, that can be really a cool healing thing, I imagine. How cool is that? So one of the activities is find all the flowers.

What plants are there? Can you tell the difference? Do a drawing of the flowers. Can you color a leaf? Like, it's, like, very sweet. And then they have religious symbols that you can go try to find. They have other symbols. You can go try to find.

And then they have a list of some of those heads. stone shape. So it's just like to play easy games. Oh, man, look at this. Yeah, someone made that. I was like, that sounds like something, that's, I feel like I would do something like that. I love this. And it's like, Tulip means life and like Rose means love and Poppy means death, eternal sleep. I'm like, whoa, okay. That got intense real fast. Um, but I did think from that, I don't, I'm sure maybe there's an Etsy something somewhere. But it would be cool if you decided to create like your own little bingo chart. Bingo. Yes. And then the two of you could scavenger hunt until you finish bingo over there.

Oh my God. I mean, literally we just need to like collab with these people because they have all the symbols and like drawn out. We just need to like put them on a little. And you can make them bingo even harder because instead of it, find a flower.

It could be like find the one that means purity. You know, it's like. Yeah, like little hidden meanings and oh my God. This is so fun like a little scavenger hunt bingo thing. So in the adult section, I also have picnic. Again, geocaching. although I think it would be I think it would blow Leona's fucking mind if you were like let's go to the graveyard I know where there's treasure all of a sudden she's going to go there all the time yeah um I also said I tried to like and then we have to tell the people when we go in there and they're like what do you do you have family here and she's like no we're just like digging for treasure and they're going to be like um actually that's called grave robbing yes thank you um the police are already here they they knew I tried to cater these to you because you're the only one to know with a graveyard so

These are things that... At my disposal. If for some reason, Leona is not around and you just wanted your own time in the graveyard. I feel it feels condescending telling you what to do in your own backyard. But these are some new things you can try. Listen, I'm loving it. I don't have any clue to myself. You already gave me make out.

I have that on the list. So that should be at the top. Yep. It is. Then there is obviously listening to music, reading, journaling. Those are standards. Yeah. Maybe read them the newspaper.

If anything interesting is going on, just to catch them up and be like, girl, you are missing out over here. Just in case anything interesting. You're missing out. You're not missing out. I'll tell them that much. Another one, I thought you would fucking love this one, is you find like a married couple one or a family plot and do horoscopes of their compatibilities. And then start some family drama. Yeah, I'd be like, I bet the two you fucking hated this thing about each other.

Rose, you and Ira, I can tell there was a clash for sure, especially when it came to like keeping the home. you know, your approach to that. Wow, I would probably get an entire family of people following me home to yell at me. I don't know. Here's the other thing. On top of figuring out their compatibility to horoscopes, I thought you could also practice taro with them and just like- Oh, that's cool. Do a spread and let the winds kind of pull one out.

That's a really cool idea. Or you could practice. I'm sure some people would not approve of that, but I think it's a great idea. I think it's cool. Or like meditate and see if you can kind of sense which one feels right for them, you know. Oh, and then it says, the devil. It says get out of my fucking space. Another one I thought you would get a kick out of is bird watching, of course.

And then if you were able to go at night, which I think you're maybe the only person on earth you can. If you're technically, if your old bedroom is right above it, you are maybe in the greater. Oh, I mean, technically I'm probably not allowed anymore. I'll have to check. But I think they only close it up mostly so that people don't like go do illicit things in there. But yes, I do have access technically. I was going to say you could learn. I always forget the difference between astronomy and astrology, but you could learn to go stargazing.

Yeah, I love this. Stargazing, yeah. I've always wanted to be that person who's like, oh, there's Hercules. Oh, you can't see it. Oh, that's crazy. You can't see him. You know what? You know, it's so beautiful.

You can do that. You can just go outside and say, there's Hercules. You don't see it. I could. And like everyone would probably be, well, actually, we know a lot of smart people. They'd probably be like, you're full of shit. But I do know Orion's belt. And I brag about that one all the time.

that really that one and then being able to see um Neptune and Jupiter those are my only three skills big dipper you got any action on that big dipper I haven't thought about big D in a while I miss her yeah yeah I know me too let's go to the graveyard we'll find her um another one I thought was you could bring if you were having like a truly a me time experience or if you felt brave enough to do this with Leona I say brave in terms of mess um is that the two of you could go out and have a Bob Ross day and like do a little painting or something. First cute and paint like what we see and like little trees. Oh, that's cute.

Um, another one is card games, board games already said that. Yoga hosts a book club, spooky book club out there. And sit in the little benches and do a book club. That's a great idea. And then, um, I will say there was a lot of opinions online about, hi, Mimi's. Someone just woke up from a nap. Aye.

Oh, sorry. I thought you're talking about. There was a lot of controversy on witch's opinions of all you should be doing in a graveyard. Because I guess graveyard dirt is incredibly powerful. You can get herbs from over there and certain plants from over there. Oh, I see like as far as witchy like, yeah. Yes.

I would redirect people to other sources other than myself on what's appropriate there. too, like, magic, I feel like maybe, yeah, yeah, be, be, uh, conscientious of sourcing your materials, yeah. But when looking up activities to do in a graveyard, a lot of sources were, like, if you're a witch, this is a great place to basically go shopping. And I was like, that doesn't feel right. That doesn't feel right. Well, and also, like, in a lot of, in some cultures, uh, placing stones on the graves is, like, very symbolic. So, like, you don't want to be just, like, taken rocks that are meant for the family. Yeah, I would think if you're taking anything from there, it should be in, like, the communal random shrub next to the road. Yeah. And, you know,

Like, you know, make sure it's cool and everything. Yeah, that feels like a recipe for some trouble if you don't. 100%. And then I was just going to throw at the end that fun fact, there are a lot of cemeteries that do host events. So it's kind of like, oh, cool. You know how libraries throw events because they're like, please come to the library. Of course. They're like, books are cool.

And I'm like, I know. I feel like cemeteries are doing that too where there have been in different towns. People have started doing art fairs at cemeteries. they have started doing obviously walking tours at some of them that are more famous. There are movies in the park. In L.A., we have one every Halloween where they do horror movies in the cemetery, which is super cool. So, yeah, that is everything I think you can do in a graveyard. And the fact that we're doing this, like, I mean, as we recorded this, it's a Friday, October 3rd, but, like, spooky season is upon us.

Like, I never really feel prepared for spooky season. And now I'm like, oh, in my own backyard, I can just kind of wander around. And like, it's under all these beautiful trees. So it's like, oh, as fall rolls in, it is the most beautiful time to go there. So yeah, I really, actually this was, I don't know why this was my Halloween wish, but thank you for making it come true. Yeah. Well, if it weren't you and it was someone who does not make such a mess, I would have also suggested, like, go carve pumpkins out in the cemetery or something. But that just seems like a real hassle.

You know me. Yeah. Yeah, you know me and my, yeah, it's going to be a bad, bad. probably won't be asked back. But I, no, but I, I mean, honestly, how cool would that be, too? If, like, one day, Leon wants to have, like, birthday parties and someone's trying. See, I mean, listen, she'd just be, my mom would be like, I'm not again. Been there and done this.

But she doesn't go to Catholic school. So, you know, that would be a little easier, I think, than inviting my old friends who were, like, mild classmates who are like, I don't think my mom will like this very much. I'd go to that party. That sounds fun as hell, but. Yeah, you would. That's why I feel like we missed out, you know, having each other in our class. I know.

Anyway, I... The world wasn't ready. I hope that you learned something that you can go do. I like the idea of bingo, scavenger hunts, make a wind chime. I can't believe like I never thought of all these things. Like, I was so goddamn bored in middle school, high school, like, playing by myself, not making out with a single soul. And meanwhile, and all I'm doing is reading and journaling, I could have been doing scavenger hunts.

Like, shit. I'm just saying, I think it would be, if I were a kid and I had access to an interesting yard and my mom grew up there who knew, like, all the ins and outs of it. And I knew that there was, like, maybe treasure around there or, like, oh, let's, let's go buy, let's go find a balloon in the basement and blow it up and, like, go find someone who has a birthday today. Like, things like that, I really need you to do the horoscope one and, like, go find if people are compatible with each other.

I think that I would get in big trouble if I did that on TikTok, because I feel like that could be really a fun little, like, I don't know. I think there would be someone who has a problem. That's disrespectful, and I don't want it. I'm not saying I don't want people to say that. I just don't want it to actually be, you know, so I'm trying to, I need to feel out the situation.

Chime in, folks, if that's something that feels way not cool. Because I would love to spend more time there, and I feel like there's rarely anybody in there, and it's maintained beautifully, like, the people who, who, it's a private cemetery, so people who, like, put money into it, you know, take good care of it,

but there's rarely anyone in there. So I'd like to take walks up there and, like, just sit and, you know they have benches it's really beautiful so yeah it would be cool to like get more time we could also i like that i mean also if you wanted to team up i you know how much i love ancestry if you just sent pictures of the ones you're doing horoscopes for i would happily learn everything i could about them for you and then we could we could be like oh how like how does this how is this compatible dude that's like that fucking show with the investigator and the psychic

uh-huh i think so you do the horoscope and the taro i'll try to find as much history as i can And then that'll be the, that's the TikTok right there. Fucking bada, Bing, Bada, boom. Did we just do that? All right. Wow. See, this is what happens. And we haven't even started the intermission yet.

And we're already like rock and rolling. I think that's what we should talk about. Wait, are you done yet or no? Nope, the end. Oh, okay, good. Because I'm ready to jump into this brand new idea and I do have to pee. Okay. So that's perfect.

Okay. We're going to go pee and then we're going to do Patreon. And then we're going to do crime. Awesome story. I loved it. I don't change a thing. No notes. stay perfect baby yeah stay perfect baby no notes i loved it it it feels like a red flag when

a mobile company says their favorite word is no but then i like realize it's mint mobile and they're like oh that's because we say no to all the other stuff like that people are used to dealing with contracts monthly bills i mean overages hidden fees no BS and like that's why we tried mint mobile and it has lived up to the height $15 a month and that's that like Like, no, no BS, no extra dollars. No joke. No joke over here with Mint Mobile. And, I mean, you ditch overpriced wireless and their jaw-dropping monthly bills,

unexpected overages and hidden fees, and plans start $15 a month, like Christine said, at Mint, and all plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text, delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You can use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan and bring your phone number and your contacts, so don't worry about that. We love Mitt Mobile. They've just become a cool service, and I do recommend them to pretty much everyone looking for a lower monthly bill. So ready to say yes, to saying no, make the switch at mintmobile.com slash ATWWD.

That's mintmobile.com slash ATWWD. Upfront payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 a month. Limited time, new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan, taxes and fees extra. See Mittmobile for details. We have an aura frame downstairs that is like above, kind of the little bar area and we're having Leonos birthday party. And so I was all excited and I put like, I selected which photos I wanted to display that day, like all photos of her. You know,

you can like pin one. And so she loves to just like put one of her own face on there with like red flag, I guess, but she's four. But yeah, aura frames are great. They make an awesome gift. I may or may not be giving them away to some people in my life this year. I think aura frames was probably the item. I got the most people last year for Christmas. Yes. My mom got one. My stepdad got one. My mom got one for the basement. My, um, siblings who live with my mom also got one. My mom has eight of them. Um, right? Like in one for above the top. Eventually, every photo frame is going to be moving around like Harry Potter. I don't know. It's like it's going to be. Oh, it's going to be. Oh, my God. Yeah. Oroframes was named the best digital photo frame by wirecutter. And it's easy to see why. You can save on the perfect gift that keeps on giving by visitingoraframes.com. And for a limited time, listeners can get $20 off their best selling Carver mat frame with code drink. It's so beautiful. That's A-U-R-A-Frames.com, promo code drink. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout.

Please, terms and conditions apply. All right, well, we're back from another rousing business meeting where we've changed the world yet again. Like, how often can we do it? You are so welcome, everybody. Yeah, again, you're welcome. So, you know, M, do you remember what your Halloween wish was yesterday when we discussed today's episode?

No, I really don't. you asked for something about candy and you know i had already i said absolutely i'm going to find it and i did okay just to like lay the groundwork here i did but at first when i googled it i was like oh shit i've already done the candy man uh dean coral i've already done um um uh his name is brian or o'brian and he he killed his own child like with poison pixie sticks like so i've done those you know kind of but i found a candy murder that is completely different from that i cannot believe i guess i should say a disappearance because i have never heard of this story this is the disappearance of helen brock the heiress to the brock candy fortune b r a c h shut the hell up are you kidding me your

brain plus the internet is unstoppable i mean i didn't think so but now i might agree with you i was very like well done i was like how is this and then i found a couple episodes like true crime all the time did an episode um the only other one i could really find was uh crime junkie but they they only did a bonus episode so i was like pay for it and i was like no um so you know what i was also i'm this is i'm sure you're about to tell us this but brock that's the one that makes the candy corn which is very Halloween that's exactly right they make the candy corn and they make um candy hearts too I think was there other like really big and like caramels. But yeah, they make the candy corn.

So holy shit. I hadn't even really put that together. How perfect. Here we go. And it's like I did it on purpose, but not really. It's like you suggested it and I found it and it was perfect. Oh, wow. Okay.

Okay. What a tail. The products they sell. So that. Oh yeah. Do you want to say some so that like we can give people an idea of like how massive this brand is? Just like. Sure.

Yeah. They make the like the main. jelly beans like not oh they make like not um not jelly belly but like those big thick ones for easter with like oh those yes okay so they they're like really into the holiday candy then i guess they are they're um on their webs on google if you type in brock's candy the first thing it says is brock's seasonal candy so oh okay so okay that makes sense so yeah i'm sure they do the carmels for Halloween um and then they do peppermint for uh peppermint bites or pieces like the the big thick pillowy peppermint ones yes oh i like those they do that for um christmas and then um

peppermint candy in general is them the circles with the red and white stripe that's yes they're like the very like basic like but not in a bad way but just like the original candy brand i feel like in the u.s like the the big one for for seasonal candy um so yeah so brocks uh very successful uh brand of candy um very fitting here i What do you feel about candy corn? Don't fucking insult me like that. I don't feel good about it either. I know Zandi likes it.

I don't even want to talk about it. I know. And he's like, vegan. And I'm like, what a ridiculous thing to miss. Yeah. From being not vegan.

You know, he's like, I just miss candy corn. And I'm like, you're sick, you know. I can't even. And I have to ask,

was he a candy corn person where like he would have like three or four and he was like, oh, that's enough. Or did he do it like by the handful? No, he, like, loved them. Like he would. like eat them like a person eats an amina eats a handful of emin it like it's gross i gave him a shot just now i know you tried to give him an out and he said as a as himself he staunchly remains in

his position um like i just can't imagine like a like a squirrel cheekful of can't like just chewing into a big wall of candy corn and they're so waxy it's just like damn it that's disgusting i'm not into candy corn i'll be so honest and i love lots of weird things we know that so so I'm sorry everyone. I know there are candy corn diehards out there. I see you because there are some things that I feel that way about that I'm sure most don't agree with, but I just can't get there for you. I'm sorry. There's a pot for every lid, but a lid for every pot. I just, I'm not that for you. I just don't get it. I just refuse to be that lid for your pot. I'm just, I'm not her. Go somewhere else. Don't cover me. Don't cover your pot with my lid if you know what I'm saying.

Don't let me stifle you. You eat your shitty candy corn with a, lidless, lidless. Go for it. You're lidless candy corn. And also, if you think about it, like an entire candy fortune was basically built off this, and now it's more symbolic. I feel like candy corn's everywhere, like visually, not necessarily like the can't. It has staying power of this stuff. I don't know why, but it's still a mainstay. As someone who owns candy corn, or no, Andy doesn't anymore, shit. I would like to see someone actually take all candy corn and stack it as if it is a cob of

candy corn. as a cobb of candy corn because they are oversized they're supposed to be a kernel they're supposed I never like cross that I never got that why hasn't anyone just taken a big also disgusting piece of candy like core and then just has to have done that use frosting and put a bunch of little corn it's a thing is it it's absolutely a thing and it looks like my nightmare candy corn I've been candy corn cob candy corn on the cob okay at least someone's done it I mean that's disgusting disgusting, but at least someone's done it. Like, I never really understood that this was supposed to look like

the changing colors of a corn kernel in the shape of a corn kernel. I think I just, my brain never really... Well, technically, the orange part should be lighter yellow. It should be from white to yellow. So it should be white, white yellow and yellow. Yeah, but... I hate this altogether. There's no, there's no rhyme or reason to why this exists.

And to, like, roll them up and then eat them, like, in a bite makes me just want to scream. Really, it does. I just hate it so much. I'm so sorry, everyone, but that's just a heinous act. So listen, people became bagillionaires because of it. So whatever. It has its fan base.

I know that. But so we're going to get into the disappearance of Helen Brock, the heiress to the Brock Candy Fortune. So Helen Marie Vorhe's Brock, she was born November 10th, 1911, in Union Port, Ohio to a family of postal employees. She married her high school sweetheart in 1921. 28, but by age 21, she was divorced and was starting over.

Okay. She eventually moved to Florida, where she worked as a coat check girl. And as a coat check girl, one day she met Frank Brock, heir to the Chicago-based E.J. Brock and Sons Candy Company. He was married, but she used her feminine wiles on him. He was a much, not a much older man, but he was an older man, I believe, I think, 22 years, something like that. I believe she was 38 and he was

50 something. I mean, it could have been 15, 20 years. I don't know. But so either way, there was an age discrepancy and there was some scandal surrounding him leaving his wife for this younger co-check girl, as you can imagine, societally speaking. They married in 1950 and their life together revolved around multiple homes in, in Glenview, Illinois, and Florida's Fisher Island, which is like a very wealthy area.

The couple were pretty quiet. They kept to themselves. They didn't socialize often. Frank, however, died in 1970, 20 years after they were married. And it was pretty unexpected. And Helen was left a widow. And she ended up inheriting every single asset. God, you know that first wife is pissed.

Oh, yes. Correct. Correct. Correct. She ended up, I don't know that that's correct by when I say like correct. I would be, yeah. Specifically know, but what I'm saying is I don't even know if she was still alive. Like, I don't know. Sure. But in an imaginary world, if you found out that you could have had that inheritance. Yeah. In a hypothetical, like, that's a rough one. Like, I don't know if you had kids either, but that's, it's just rough.

So either way, whatever happened, she inherited everything. And she, um, she, was devastated because even though she had made it pretty clear from early on that her goal was to marry a millionaire, like she wanted a life, she wanted a life where she could be, you know, the wife of a millionaire. Sure. And this was very important to her, but people say they actually were, you know, really in love. And when her husband died, she was just bereft. So as a result, I don't want to say as a result, but after this, as she got older and was single, she became more eccentric. So she fed filet mignon to the dogs she which nowadays is doesn't even that weird i guess you know like i'm sure there's somebody who does it do weirder things with like feet you know people

whatever um she once chartered a plane to sit with a dying pet like she went to she chartered a plane to go see to see a dying pet um and then she poured her fortune into animal welfare so you know some say eccentric i say um perfectly reasonable i also and not joking but It's like, okay, so you gave her dog some steak? I give my dog some steak. Like, I mean, I give my dog the scraps after I eat the good part. But maybe she's got more fucking money than me. So whatever.

Yeah, really. I mean, she actually founded the Helen v. Brock Foundation, which continues today. That was founded in 1974. So we want to fast forward now to 1977. It's February. Her husband has been deceased for about seven years now, and she's 65. Helen checked into the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for a routine medical visit. And afterward, she stopped at the Buckskin gift shop inside the Zumbro Hotel.

I can only imagine those don't exist anymore, but I hope they do. The clerk, Phyllis Radalen, remembered Helen being in a hurry. She was shopping there, and she told the clerk, I'm in a rush. My houseman is waiting, which, like, we don't totally know what that means. she did have a butler back at the house. She's a houseman? What man? My houseman.

Houseman, okay. Yeah. So Helen purchased a $27.50 jewelry box and a $12.50 soap dish for her niece, and she asked them to wrap them up, said she was in a hurry. And this was the last independent sighting of her alive. From there, accounts kind of diverge. So airline crew on the flight to Chicago did not. recall her presence on the plane, but Helen's houseman and chauffeur, which is, I guess, what most

sources called her butler, but she said houseman. So this chauffeur, he claimed that he picked her up at O'Hare Airport that afternoon, even though, again, airline crew on the flight to Chicago didn't recall her being on the plane. And like, on the one hand, yeah, a flight attendant probably wouldn't remember a single person on a plane. But were there logs of that kind of stuff? well yes so there were we hadn't they hadn't gotten quite there yet but uh she did have a ticket already so there was that but um the other thing i thought was like this is a multi millionaire lady like worth 30 million dollars 30 to 50 million dollars like you'd remember her like if you're going to remember anyone on the plane in 1970 whatever yeah she would stand out first class

I imagine she's very wealthy and looks it right so when they say like oh the staff the Airblind staff didn't remember her being on the plane or said she wasn't on the plane. I'm like, well, I can believe that account a bit. Sorry, I was going to say in the 70s, like, I wonder if there were pictures of her because I'm sure I walk by, I was going to say, I'm sure I walk by candy moguls all the time. But like, I'm sure there's like very rich, successful people. I don't recognize. I hope not, because after what, after your candy corn slander, you're probably on a list, you know.

I just, I feel like I, I'm sure I sit by, quote, famous people. people in their industry all the time and don't notice unless there's a picture of them. So I don't know how often she was being photographed. No, she wasn't really because she was so reserved and like she and her husband had been so private that like she wasn't a known figure, you know. But she, you know, was a woman, a multi-millionaire, single woman traveling alone in the 70s. Like I imagine she at least stood out enough for people to be like, whoa, look at that lady.

Her outfits, maybe she had like an obviously richer coat or something. Who knows? Yeah. And like, of course, I assume she's flying like first class if she's like sometimes chartering planes and things. Sure. Either way. So the flight attendants say, nope, she was not on the plane. Her houseman, which like, again, slightly debated. Some people say they don't know why she said my houseman is waiting. Some people claim it's this Jack Matlick. But he claims he picked her up at O'Hare Airport that afternoon so that she had been on the flight and landed in Chicago. Chicago, Matlick said Helen spent the next four days at her 18-room, Glenview Mansion, and he insisted that she made no phone calls and saw no visitors, and that on Monday morning, February 21st, he then drove her back to O'Hare for a flight to her Florida condo. But Helen never arrived in Florida and was never seen again. Okay.

So that's why we say the gift shop is like the only like sort of third person citing of like someone who isn't involved at all. And was this a gift shop in the airport or was this just a gift shop? No. So she had actually, it was inside the Zumbro Hotel. I don't know how you could forget such a thing. Right. Sorry.

No, no. She had actually stopped. She had actually had an appointment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for a routine medical visit. And she came out with a full clean bill of health and went to a gift shop in the hotel. I'm assuming maybe that's where she was. staying but I don't actually know that um but the clerk remembers her being in a hurry and saying her houseman is waiting which didn't really make sense because it would be her driver right and she was

supposed to be flying to meet her house man you know what I mean on a flight so to Chicago and he was going to pick her up so it didn't make sense like it could have been like a slip of the tongue maybe of like just the wrong person my my my my I have to catch a flight or something but yeah it's just odd or maybe she just maybe the cashier was chatty right and like she just want to wanted an excuse to get out. Sure. You know, who knows? Either way, he says, oh, yeah, I totally picked her up.

She was here for four days, and then I drove her back to the airport, and she flew to Florida. Immediate next bullet point is called suspicion on Jack Matlick. So here we go. Police quickly turned their attention to Matlick, who claimed to be the last one to see her alive. During the very weekend, Helen was supposedly home for those four days that he claimed. Here's what he did in the house.

He scrubbed down the maid's quarters. He ordered a meat grinder attachment for Marshall Fields. He had one of her Cadillacs detailed inside and out, but not the other ones. He called a decorating and cleaning service on Sunday night requesting urgent work. He killed her. Someone killed her and he knows it. Like please. I mean, yeah.

Visited her safe deposit box the same Monday morning he claimed to have dropped her off at O'Hare. and here's some financial irregularities. One account says Matlick cashed six checks worth $13,000. Another says they were 11, totaling over $15,000, but they were dated February 17th and 18th, and they were allegedly signed by her the days she was returning from Rochester. It just didn't make any sense because seven of those checks went straight to Matlick. and handwriting experts agreed the signatures were not helens but then when they did further testing they said

they didn't agree that they were matlick's signature either so so i so maybe another person killed her and then he's cleaning it up i mean it sounds like somebody's going to him like but that's just the checks yeah i my guess my guess as to why they didn't match matlicks is because he maybe had really been practicing like maybe he really was practicing to try and get her signature right and was able to change his own i don't know maybe that's like maybe that's not possible but something i'm like that's not enough for me if he if they say oh the signatures were not helens like that's enough of a red flag somebody fucking 100% yeah and he has something to do with it i mean look at him allegedly okay so matlick actually told investigators to give him a polygraph test

like a lie detector test. And they were, which again, like, why are you doing that? That's weird. He didn't fail them, but they were both inconclusive. Okay. It's weird at all that he, like, demanded it. Yes, I think so. It's like he's almost feigning guilt by so desperately trying to be like.

Being like, I'm innocent. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so to reporters, he angrily insisted, I don't know who killed Helen Brock and I have no idea what happened to her. but Helen's brother believed Matlick killed her without any outside help and a federal agent later claimed the same belief that this agent also believed that Matlick killed her and that was the end of the story but Matlick was never charged he died in 2011 at age 79 so he took his version of events to the grave and I will also add one more weird thing that happened was they spoke with his wife and she claimed that on the night that uh that helen was supposedly flying in from chicago i'm sorry to chicago from minnesota that matlick called his wife and told her i need to

stay a few days here or i need to stay overnight or for a few days and she said that was completely out of the ordinary like he never had to stay several days at the house like that was just really weird. And so that also just throws some suspicion. Like if he was doing all this like hiring urgent cleaning services, having her car detailed scrubbing and and his normal routine was not an overnight stay. It's like, what are you doing? Yeah. No, that's, I mean, it's every single bit of it is. It's so shady. So shady. So shady. So that's why it's confusing because we get to Richard Bailey and his horse mafia and then you're like, wait a minute. This fucking guy also probably

I don't know it's hard to say but oh shit okay he's another person of interest so Richard Bailey he's a con man he's a professional con artist specifically using race horses as his kind of

like tool to cheat people out of their money he targeted wealthy women with little knowledge of the horse racing business and would be the slick salesman and like convince them to purchase these horses, these race horses. So just to give you an idea, in 1975, Helen bought three horses from him, from this guy,

Richard Bailey, for $98,000, and that is in 1975 money. She spent $98,000 on these three horses. And then her friends later said to her, you better, like, value these horses, get them appraised by a professional. Yeah, exactly, because he had come to her with, like, a... That's a goat. I'm sorry. whoa what if they were like it was a goat the whole time um this trying to make a stupid nage i'm so yeah i get yeah we know we heard it um it really burst out of my mouth i really should have

just kept a fucking shut your turn you really it felt like a petting zoo had entered the chat you know i'm so sorry christine i don't know what happened there i really wasn't in charge of my own mouth in that moment please don't apologize i love to see you in action the humiliation no no i don't let no no don't be humiliated i had no fucking reason interrupt you like that it just can i be honest you've said way worse puns than that so don't worry thank you just kidding sometimes i don't even laugh at least this one got me um so she spent almost a hundred grand on these things and then they they were later valued by professionals at under 20 grand oh no that's a because these horses they were all it was a huge scam they were all um on their way out like they were like farm horses

basically. They were like out of the racing business. So these appraisers looked at them when these are not, you can't race these. And if you do, you're not going to win anything. Like they're, yeah. Well, yeah, like they've retired. Like they, because they're not qualified anymore. Oh, no. I mean, I think

God for her like 50 to 80 million dollars is like 20 grand's drop in the bucket or 100 grand's drop. Right, right, right. But still, that's so. But so, and part of it was that he had actually pitched like a whole other business plan and she was going to go forward with it. But then she talked to her girlfriends and they were like you need to like get this checked out so that's when she found out

she'd already been scammed like this major amount like there was no denying it and he actually so the investment she was about to put down was 150,000 extra on top of what she had already put down and so and this had been years like she was very close with this person so there's also like this personal element involved where like he apparently what he did which I heard this on an episode of true crime all the time. They were talking about an interview he did where he would explain that to con these women, he was like, I wasn't really attracted to them, but I wanted their money. So I would find one thing I found attractive about them and focus on that while I conned them. And then once I got the hooks in them, I was easily able to feel disgusted about them and

discard them. And it's like, holy shit. Hey, what the fuck? Whoa. And so this mother had been spending years as like a close friend and potentially more to Helen. I don't know that, but he claimed that he would try to woo them by being, you know, romantic and making them feel like they were so beautiful and all this. And they like stayed in places. They went to New York together, you know, like they were very close. And so when she found out that he had like scammed her and a lot of other women, you know, she was not happy. Uh, she, uh, she, apparently, confronted him and claimed that, you know, she was going to get the board of whatever state they were in involved and all this. And so, you know, you don't, as a conman, like to hear that any sort of federal regulators are going to be coming in. So she, she threatened him for that reason. And that's why he's also listed as like a potential suspect. That's a very good reason. That's what I'm saying, especially because when you look at it, they, later investigators later uncovered a much broader racket that he was pulling um he had this

violent horse dealer named silas jane and they were that just sounds like a villain that silas jane i mean really it's like it feels like our it feels like the emothy and um the graveyard kids like arch nemesis oh my god emphy the graveyard kid and silas jane i feel like he's got like that's 14 different guns hidden in his boot like he's yeah oh yeah oh yeah he's got a cape he's got a cape and you know he's like has horses on his side which is like oh we're in trouble yeah so they would like inflate these horses uh they would not inflate the horses i'm sorry they inflated this is a real horse valued at $100,000 like they would inflate the price yes correct okay they would inflate the price not the horse balloon like he's the big like one macy's day balloon that went missing oh my god parade float yeah uh that would be a wild racket if they were like this is a real horse not a parade float got me good okay sorry i'm sorry so no no i'm sorry we're all sorry so what is it we're sorry um so they were accused of selling these horses at inflated prices and even staging insurance fraud

schemes um they would do this by killing the show horses uh for like insurance purposes and then like pretend like they died in an accident and then get money off of it. Yeah. This is so wild. Like they would murder the horses and then like get the money from the insurance. It's sick. So journalist James Ila wrote a book called Who Killed the Candy Lady, which I did add to my good reads,

but I have not had time to read it because I picked this topic yesterday. But it looks really interesting. And in this book, he argues that Helen had uncovered this horse insurance fraud and was preparing to go to authorities. And he believes that that. is why she was silenced, so to speak. Sure. I can believe that.

I mean, it makes a lot of sense you're getting into, like, a multi-million dollar con artist. You're getting in the way of this guy, right? And it's like... And I have a feeling, because she wasn't able to sense this immediately without her, like, girls backing her up. I guarantee you one of them was like, I bet he's a fucking scammer. You should look into that. So that is what happened, 100%. She literally went to her friends and asked.

The horses, though, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I feel like they, I feel like she was going to find out. This is like totally in my head, but I feel like she went to brunch with them and she was like, girl, you were right. All the horses were like so, I got so ripped off. And I feel like they said, there's something even deeper.

Like, I bet you weren't the first person. I bet this is a much bigger con. And I feel like that she, she knew that because she knew he sold horses to all the other women in this like country club. So she knew almost immediately like, oh, so he's doing this to every. And he's like putting on a show for all these people. I don't necessarily think she knew how big it was, like how, and that he had other associates and that he was like killing horses.

I mean, I don't think she necessarily knew that. But she unfortunately challenged that, right? Like said, I'm going to expose you. And yeah, that could have been retaliation. Yeah. So I don't know. I mean, there's no way to know, but that's what his theory is. One witness, Joseph Clemens, later claimed Helen had been kidnapped, beaten, and shot, and then destroyed in an Indiana steel furnace on Silas Jane's orders.

Oh, my God. And, you know, a lot of people believe that because that's the running theory, because they've never found any trace of her body. And this guy really was, like, a mafia-style violent man. oh my god destroyed in a furnace is such a fucking way to put it that's like a steel furnace is like melt like that melted steel i mean it's really dark yeah oh my god and they've said they've never found her body no trace she's but then i mean do they have any idea of how i think you just said it how she was killed like was it a stabbing was it a shooting they said she was kidnapped beaten and shot and shot okay because and this guy plemens and like my thought is why would i mean people lie for

crazy reasons but why would you put yourself in this he also alleged that matlick was involved as part of the crew so that matlick um who was by the way that the house man yeah yeah which is like what in the world is going on here i don't know i feel like maybe they i still think the houseman is kind of i know me too this feels a little too what's that like zebra stripes fucking sentence no okay the gum what are you talking about no there's a sentence in it it's like something about zebras and stripes but basically it means it like it's usually the simplest answer like oh that's what the the phrase is but like I feel like this is like so over the top when like the the houseman was acting really fucking suspicious and signing checks into his name

and signing checks with fraudulent signatures I feel like this random horseman would have just fled he would have just heard oh you're going to expose me i'm out of here yeah so it's well he lived in town like he knew her whole community because he's working he's working at she meets him like through her social circle so it's also like maybe he stands more to lose than i don't know i don't know maybe there was some combination where like the houseman did it and then poor sky came in and was like oh where is she and like caught the butler and then he was like, don't worry, I've got a guy and I want her out of the way anyway. This is like the opposite of the zebra striped theory. He just happens to walk in as the dead body

is laying on the floor and he's like, I want my horse money. They're like, good, I wanted her dead too. Yeah, I actually, I really flip up there. No, the houseman is way too suspicious for nothing going on. Something is so weird about that. Like, for him to be scrubbing and cleaning and detailing and everything and also putting money in his name, like something happened there. But, but, I do believe that she told him, like, I'm going to expose him and, like, he would have reacted poorly, but I, it feels to, because then if your point is that he was already of that community and everything, wouldn't he wanted to be a clean kill, like, so that nobody caught on or even heard that she went missing? Well, but if it was, then it would behoove them to say that the dorm, that the houseman did it, you know? Like, it could have been so clean that, like, nobody knew. they all looked at the houseman, the butler.

The butler did it. I don't know. Could they have killed her in her house so it looked like the houseman? And then he spent the whole weekend like panic cleaning so nobody would think it was him? I don't know. That's interesting because also it's like, I don't necessarily know why the houseman would kill her. I mean, for the money, obviously, like he's trying to sign checks over, but like it's not working. he's not doing a good job of that if he's like getting caught immediately maybe since it was a third

handwriting this is fucking crazy i know everyone leave me one but maybe horse guy zebra has lost in stripes i repeat the zebra is fully naked um murphy's law does not apply maybe horse guy kills her is it murphy's law murphy's law is everything bad happens or everything can go wrong we'll go wrong what's the one um uh What is the thing? Oh my God. Occam's Razor is where it's like, it's usually the simplest explanation. Is that what I was thinking of,

not zebra stripe? Well, I don't know what the fuck you were thinking of. I know Occam's Razor is like, the term for like the simplest is most likely what it is. There was a whole lawn or... I'm sure there is. I'm not just saying that. Hey God, I'm so upset about this now.

if you're if you hear hoof beats don't think zebras oh that's cool i like that that was there was a whole episode called zebras because stabler says it in the beginning and then the irony is the way if they solve the crime is that he's supposed to do that um okay so anyway uh what if horse guy killed her in the home and like it was served as a message to others in some way or like tried to like frame the the house man horse guy goes away but or maybe they made a deal where like he's like I never found any evidence right like I mean he cleaned a bunch of blood everywhere both there's just blood everywhere and then what if the other guy is the third handwriting on those checks to be like clean this up but like the but see this is where I I think that

I think the guy wrote the handwriting because it was so similar that they had to like test it but well maybe not maybe you're right maybe they just copied it hmm this is killing me but I don't know like don't you think the simplest one is that like just one person was involved or like just... Yeah, the simplest one is the houseman did this. I think the simplest one is that the person she had like a public beef with did it. Hmm. But I don't know if I believe it. But I don't know if that's true because like he was shady, but maybe they were saying like look at the house man.

Look how shady he is. Like maybe they were trying to frame him. I don't know. Or maybe he did it for the money. I feel I, I, I, there's no reason for him to be cleaning like. that unless there was blood everywhere well he claimed that it was his routine and then nobody could be like you're lying like because they don't know like he just worked there with her so he was never convicted bailey uh of helen's murder this is we're back to horse mafia by the way um but in 1995

he did plead guilty to racketeering for defrauding helen and other wealthy women um and at sentencing prosecutors introduced evidence linking him to a murder conspiracy and he He was given a 30-year sentence. They never secured a murder conviction for Helen's murder. Bailey protested his innocence to the end, though, and appealed multiple times. But in 2005, the Seventh Circuit rejected new hearings, stating that the evidence did not prove he was innocent of conspiring to kill Helen Brock. So he was released in 2019 after serving his full term. And then in 2022, which is another book I want to read, he wrote a book called Gold.

in tongue the innocent man that killed her question mark um insisting that he was framed wow and he died he died in 2022 at the age of 93 and i'm like i'm curious to read this book but also like you were like defrauding women and were proven to be linked with another murder yeah i don't know how much i believe you either you know like why should i trust you but whatever we it's just tragic because we still don't know and they're of course competing theories that we've mentioned uh some of so one is that Matlick killed her alone for financial gain. One is that the horse mafia, led by Silas Jane's orders, ordered her death to protect their schemes.

And then the other theory being that, you know, the horse mafia with Silas Jane was involved and they ordered her death and then disposed of her body in this like, last friend's, basically. There are some discrepancies like the independent witness citing versus Matlick's claim of meeting her at O'Hare that, like, point. him being shady but also you know and i'm pretty sure i will i will double check this because for some reason it's not my notes but i'm pretty confident that they checked and nobody boarded the plane under her name that day okay i'm pretty i'm pretty confident but back then also like things

weren't like digitized and as thorough as they are today with airline stuff so also back then you could just go you could just give someone your ticket with your own name on it they didn't ask oh right true so it's like they could have just anyone could have walked on with her ticket right right so so if the records had like nobody used the ticket that's a huge red flag too if if matlick is saying well it's a red flag is he's like oh she came home and i saw her for four days yeah but then also it's like why would he say that if she was killed in chicago by the horse mafia i don't know it's so weird i'm telling you i think it was the house guy because he is trying to cover tracks and nobody else is yeah no you're right horse tracks i think you're right i think you're right right. I think you're right. Sorry. Unfortunately, her remains were never found. A marble monument stands in Unionport, Ohio. And now we can look into what the symbolism is and what shape it is and learn more about it.

Finally, it's a big candy corn. Oh my God, imagine. That would be so cool. Her dogs, candy and sugar are both buried there too. Oh, that's precious. It's sad. And it's sad because, like, just we were talking about earlier, the tomb bears Helen's name but is empty, right? Because they never found.

And so, like, I can, of course, understand when you need closure for, you know, something like this, like, so horrific. Or if you just want a place to visit a deceased loved one. But, yeah, Union Port, I don't know where that is. I think that's not far from me anyway. Maybe we can give her, like, a little, a little, bring her some candy next time we're nearby. Yeah. But, yeah, so that's the story of the disappearance of Helen Brock. I know it's kind of like a quick story, but there really wasn't.

there's not much about it online honestly i mean there are those two books but again i didn't have time to read that before today so i'm sure there's some things i'm missing and some nuance i missed but that's just kidding it's literally four hours for me never mind uh okay but yeah that's the story and you said a candy crime and i said i love that thank you that was a good one you know of course do you have any final request because next week i think is our actual Halloween episode just do the request. So you got anything? And it's fun to just, because then you can be like, you can like be kind of vague and just say like candy and it's

like, oh, I'll find something. Like it makes like a scavenger hunt. Yeah. And I said graveyard games and you brought fucking graveyard games. I appreciate. Gary Bird Activities. I don't know. That's even better. Um.

I think if I have anything for you. hmm right we used up all our good ideas in the in the intermission um i let's see do you have anything Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween candy I'm just going to say Halloween things and if anyone's everything okay okay uh skeletons tricker treating costume Oh, costume, like a costume party. Costumes. Costumes. Something where people are in costumes.

So that's broad. That could be like actors. That could be... Costumes is good. Murder mystery. Mm-hmm. Poisoned apples that you bobpour. Okay.

Let's go costume. Costume? Okay. Vague phrase. It could be anything. Or is that both of ours? That's me to you. Oh, that's mine.

Okay, excellent. Yes. Costume is good. What's yours to me? Okay, okay. Let me think. sorry we also have a meeting in five minutes you guys so we're like clearly we're both clearly watching the clock like okay we got five minutes to come up with one word can christine do it probably

not um okay i i i want to say like my gut reaction is like i don't know why but like a haunt that doesn't really make sense I was going to say like haunted homes like a story about someone living alongside their ghost does that make sense I can try to find that like maybe maybe a story where somebody

like was actively living alongside I don't know but I don't know I'll see what I can do ghost roommates I don't know sure perfect yeah okay great

Okay. Haunted home. That's my turn. Are you fucking kidding me? A haunted home, but like, they're not haunted house. Okay, fine. A haunted home. Yeah. A home haunted home. Yes. Home haunted home. That's cute. Yeah. Okay. Got it. All right. Well, we're going to go pee real quick before our meeting. That's right. And we will see you next week for, I think, our Halloween episode or at least the one before that. It is our Halloween one next week because the one after is November 2nd. Oh, okay. Good to know. Is it? can't be right is it this is the 19th this one come out the 19th yeah and then the one after that would be plus 7 is 26 so then that one's our Halloween but this one comes out the 19th oh I see

what's happening now okay the next one sorry you're right when we record will be the Halloween one yeah ah okay well see you for Halloween and see you soon that's why we drink