The Anne Levine Show
Funny, weekly, sugar free: Starring "Michael-over-there."
The Anne Levine Show
Death, Cats, and Ice Cream: My Life of Crime
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Here's what happens when someone fakes their own death to avoid wedding costs, and will a librarian leaving $2 million to her cat change your perspective on loyalty? These stories and more await in our latest adventure through the strange corners of human experience.
We kick off with birthday celebrations featuring Canadian musician Jacob Moon and his lovely wife Ally, along with their impossibly fluffy sheepadoodle Huckleberry. The celebration led to unexpected indulgences at Holy Cow Ice Cream in Dennisport, where we discovered "Ritzy AF" – a mind-blowing flavor loaded with Ritz crackers that creates the perfect sweet-salty-buttery combination. This sparked a heated debate about dessert preferences and why raisins in cookies might just be "sadness in a wrinkled coat."
The conversation takes fascinating turns as we explore the growing trend of dangerous cosmetic procedures, from paralyzing back-alley Botox to TikTok's disturbing DIY plastic surgery kits. We're equally captivated by the digital revolution where AI influencer Sienna Blue – entirely fictional – has secured deals with multiple fashion brands, leaving human influencers fuming. Meanwhile, young people are embracing "Victorian Mourning Fashion" complete with black veils and jet jewelry under hashtags like #grievechic.
Perhaps most sobering is our deep dive into Thomas Midgley Jr., dubbed "the most dangerous man in history." His dual inventions of leaded gasoline and freon (the first CFCs) caused unprecedented environmental damage before he died tragically, entangled in another of his own inventions – a mechanical bed. Finally, from Ethel's brutally honest 90-something advice hotline to a centenarian recreating his 1954 mugshot, we celebrate the wisdom and humor that come with aging authentically.
Listen now and join our exploration of life's beautiful absurdities, tragic coincidences, and unexpected connections. Be sure to check out our tribute to Colorado Poet Laureate Andrea Gibson, whose final poem reminds us that "dying is the opposite of leaving."
Intro: My Life of Crime - Jacob Moon
Outro: New Star - Jonatha Brooke
Find our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/447251562357065/
Birthday Celebrations and Musical Guests
Speaker 3Hello, hello, welcome to the Ann Levine Show. It's Tuesday, july 22nd 2025. I'm Ann Levine and I'm joined by Michael over there.
Speaker 4Hello, and I'm joined by Michael over there.
Speaker 3Hello, we're coming to you from WOMR 92.1 FM in Provincetown.
Speaker 4That's right, and WFMR 91.3 FM Orleans and we're streaming worldwide at WOMRorg and we're doing it 24-7.
Speaker 3That's right, we're listening to jacob moon, my life of crime. This is a live recording and I was there, and you can actually hear me hooting At the end of this. This was 2002 or something.
Speaker 4Well, you know, it was a 2022 when some people who may be listening to this now Heard him singing Ed at pale met.
Speaker 3That's right, yeah well, jacob and his wife ally were here this week. That's right, yeah, staying with us for like a and it was dreaming and it was my birthday present to myself.
Speaker 4Yeah, In a way.
Speaker 3To have them here, michael and I adore both of them and I've known Jacob. I met Jacob in Canada in like 1998, 1999. Something like that, yeah, a long time ago. Anyway, what's better on your landmark birthday than opening your door on a beautiful sunny Cape Cod morning and Jacob is standing there with a guitar next to Allie and singing Happy Birthday.
Speaker 4Yeah, to me At your front door, at my front door.
Speaker 3Pretty great yeah, it was amazing. Yeah, then we went to sit in the Apple Tree Lounge, which is a private lounge.
Speaker 4That's right. Invitation only.
Speaker 3Yeah, steps from our front door. And we played music trivia. We played all kinds of music games.
Speaker 4And Jacob has got a pretty killer, stevie Winvie winwood oh yeah, that was really good. Stevie winwood and he did, he did michael michael michael mcdonald, however, and he did it really well, except it sounded way too easy, see, because michael mcdonald sounds like he can hardly get it out, you know.
Speaker 3Right, so I mean Jacob, he's doing his best to get anything out.
Speaker 4Yeah, there's strain. You can hear the strain.
Speaker 3Yeah, Jacob's just like.
Speaker 4Yeah, he doesn't quite have that strain in his voice.
Speaker 3No, no, but it was the best thing in the world and we had plans to go out. Yeah, we were going to be more of us, and then a couple of them dropped out. Long story short, it ended up being just the four of us and I don't know. It was like around four o'clock, michael was napping and I thought, oh, let me text you know two rooms over and see what they're saying. They're like it's your birthday, right?
Speaker 3yeah, and I was like yeah, but I've already been fetid with cards and presents and yeah, you're feeling pretty good about it so far, yeah and the facebook cavalcade, the whole thing, and they were like, okay, maybe we should make it an at-home night or an. I knew that they yeah, they weren't interested, so we ended up watching. Am Bradley is Missing.
Speaker 4Correct yeah.
Speaker 3Which is on Netflix.
Speaker 4It's a documentary on Netflix.
Speaker 3It's three episodes and you can't help binging it. We watched one episode.
Speaker 4Right the first night. And then, the final night, we watched two.
Speaker 3The final night. We watched the last two and you should watch it. It's riveting.
Speaker 4Yeah, and there's a lot going on. Yeah, there's really a lot going on.
Ice Cream Adventures at Holy Cow
Speaker 3There's a whole lot going on Like, as this gets distributed and watched by more and more people, a definitive answer may come up. I don't know, yeah, who the heck knows? Yeah, we're going to find out. We'll find out. Definitively. Right In this, you're left with sort of one or two paths, although really one path, I don't know. Watch it. You tell us Now. I received beautiful gifts for my birthday. Thank you, thank you to my husband. I'm not going to say what he got me, but it's fabulous, it's perfect. And I got beautiful presents from others who sent me things. Jacob and Allie got me some amazing presents, yep, and one of the biggest presents now, I didn't have a birthday cake, right? I had birthday ice cream. Yeah, and, as you may know, I don't eat sugar.
Speaker 4Right, you don't really do either one of those two things normally.
Speaker 3Oh, no, yeah, Definitely. And. But Jacob and Allie went to Holy Cow Right, which has the best.
Speaker 4Oh my goodness folks, but Jacob and Allie went to Holy Cow Right, which has the best?
Speaker 3Oh my goodness folks, if you've never been there, and this is obviously. It's not an advertisement. But if you've never been there, go. Or if it is an advertisement, holy.
Speaker 4Cow Ice Cream in.
Speaker 3Dennisport, feel free to give us ice cream money, whatever you want, so they have a flavor there.
Speaker 4They have wonderful combinations of things that you don't really expect in an ice cream shop.
Speaker 3No, and that may not sound right to you off the bat Right, so like baklava ice cream that was so good To god that is one of the number one things in the world yeah, yeah which I mentioned that was the first thing I ever got there I don't, I think I want those things
Speaker 4separate. Yeah, which I understand that, but he hasn't tried them together well now.
Speaker 3I think he'd be more likely to try it yeah, because the other one I told them about is called ritzy af yeah and that is loaded with ritz crackers.
Speaker 4Yeah, and then the there's they make like a chocolate, they make like a bark out of it.
Speaker 3So it's that sweet salty thing. But then you get the buttery Ritz cracker situation in the background and, if you like, salted caramel, meh Forget about it this is what you want.
Speaker 4That is exactly what you want, yeah.
Speaker 3Well, they brought home a pint of that.
Speaker 4They did Happy birthday.
Speaker 3And yes, yes, say I. And they also got me a candle, a gorgeous candle, my birthday candle, and I had my delicious birthday treat, which I'm still dreaming of, because our dinner also the whole thing was cuckoo.
Speaker 4None of it was anything. I ever eat pizza. I never eat any of that I never eat sugar.
Speaker 3I never. No, it's like plant-based diet and no sugar. That's kind of my jam. Well, anyway, I lost it on my birthday. Yeah, but it was pretty good, though it was so fun. Birthday yeah, it was pretty good though it was so fun. And the you know I am not a chocolate fan, like if I have a choice of say, chocolate rugelach versus cinnamon I'm going cinnamon okay, yeah, all Okay yeah all right, same thing.
Speaker 3Babka Right Same thing, most things right. I'm going like the cinnamon nut raisin root. So if Holy Cow or whichever ice cream emporium the smuggler Sunday School Ice Cream Emporium the Smuggler Sunday School I was going to go to on Cape Cod was offering a really delicious rum raisin situation, yeah. I might be going there.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 3That might be, or mint, right Right. Yeah, I love mint ice cream Sunday.
Speaker 4School occasionally has no sugar frozen pudding, which is, you know, rum raisin. That's another. Yeah, exactly, I love that.
Speaker 3I love that and those would always be my picks over chocolate. Yeah, yum. And there's something that I've been devoted to, and this whole thing last night with Ritzy AF from from holy cow, it made me realize something. Now I've been a devotee of an oatmeal raisin cookie over an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Either way, I want the base to be the oatmeal cookie.
Speaker 4Yeah, I think that's a better choice right there Right.
Speaker 3Yeah, well, you know, there's something I thought of last night. Okay, you know, when you get an oatmeal raisin cookie and I've got some from Levain, yeah, yeah, hello, yeah, hello.
Speaker 4I mean, those are insane they are really, and that is my ridiculously good quote favorite levain, and I still have some in the freezer.
Speaker 3Yep, because my friend sean sent me some. I can't remember why something was going. My friend sean sent me a huge box of Levain cookies. Yeah, and one is enough to last you like a week. You could live off one of their cookies for a week on a desert island.
Speaker 4Yeah, I bet you could yeah. On a desert island not just any island, that's right. Yeah, it could be dessert desert, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 3Just one of these cookies and you're good but I was thinking about ritzy af and my. What would I think if there were raisins in there instead? Of chocolate I see, because you know, an oatmeal raisin cookie looks exactly like a chocolate chip.
Speaker 4Oh, I don't know it certainly can, you are right.
Speaker 3Yeah, and there's that golden exterior. Yeah, the chewy, promise. And you think, oh, this is going to be warm and sweet and it's going to taste like love, yeah, okay. But you bite in and it's raisins, yeah. And then you realize it's the taste of disappointment.
Speaker 4Oh, I love raisins and cookies. It's the taste of disappointment. Oh, I love raisins in cookies.
Speaker 3It's the flavor of regret.
Speaker 4And it's like surprise, I'd rather not have a chocolate chip in an oatmeal cookie.
Speaker 3I used to be a grape, but now I'm just sadness in a wrinkle coat.
Speaker 4Oh see, that's what a raisin is All of the grape goodness concentrated into a much smaller yeah, well, that's how I used to feel until last night.
Speaker 3Okay.
Speaker 4Yeah, raisins and trail mix. They changed your mind right then.
Unexpected Love for Ritzy AF Flavor
Speaker 3You don't want it pretending to be. You certainly want to know before you bite in that it's going to be sadness in a wrinkle coat.
Speaker 4Right.
Speaker 3And not warm love.
Speaker 4You might be able to. You know, depending on how good your nose is, you might sniff it out and be able to tell before you take a good bite of it.
Speaker 3You know bite of it. You know well, you know. And if I want dry fruit in a dessert, yeah, I can like rum, raisin ice cream cry into a fig, or I can a date dates.
Speaker 4Yeah, I mean, you know.
Speaker 3Add dates to anything Sticky toffee pudding. Why aren't there oatmeal date cookies? Now see that. That would outstrip Raisins and chocolate. You're right. Alright, we'll get to work on that.
Speaker 4Okay, I'll come up with it. Well.
Speaker 3I think I said all my birthday stuff. Did I say all of it? I just want to say To tie a bow on this. I think I said all my birthday stuff.
Speaker 4Did I say all of it? Was that all your birthday stuff? I just want to say it.
Speaker 3It was fun. You had a good day, didn't you? To tie a bow on this, having Jacob and Allie here, oh, wait, wait hold on Jacob and Allie and. Yes.
Speaker 4Oh, huckleberry. Huckleberry, their dog, who was also here with us, and he's a sheepadoodle or something. He's sheepdog, full-size poodle mix. And boy, he's big, he's huge. Yeah, he's cuddly, he really is, yeah.
Speaker 3He's got like three inches thick of fur and he doesn't look real. The curly hair.
Speaker 4No, he looks more, you know, he looks more like the sheep dog Than anything else. So he's got the hair in his eyes and even though he's just had a haircut you know he's had a lot cut off, but he's still got that gorgeous sheep dog- he's huge paws and he's a gentle giant.
Speaker 3I mean, this dog is so big and so sort of un-self-aware. Do you know what I mean? Oh, yeah, he doesn't realize how large he is and he knocks things over by mistake.
Speaker 4yep, just by walking through well, you know I mean it's. It might be a con, a thing that a lot of dogs have, because rosie's kind of like that too. Rosie wants to. Sometimes she literally thinks she's a pocket dog and she's 50 pounds right. She tries to get in your lap or tries to get in your pocket.
Speaker 3You know she's trying well, huckleberry is what a great dog name, right? Yeah, huckleberry is 80 something pounds and about a foot taller than rosie yeah and when you bump into him. Uh, he doesn't move no, it's, that's a little. It's a fluffy wall, yeah, and so I I don't even know how to describe this dog.
Speaker 4He was a really great dog.
Speaker 3Well, the funniest thing is our dog yaya, all 11.2 pounds of her, totally running with huckleberry. Oh yeah, who could just eat her as a snack, um, but he is not at all so inclined. No, you know, and she was growling at him, yep, she was giving him a hard time and she scared him away very, very mellow dog. That's right, yeah, so anyhow, we loved having, yeah, so the three of them, the three of them, yeah, no, huckleberry was definitely a third member.
Speaker 4Oh yeah, he hung out with us the whole time. That's right, yeah.
Fake Deaths and Plastic Surgery Gone Wrong
Speaker 3Anyway, I want to tell you about a British man who tried to fake his own death. Oh good one To wait to avoid paying for his wedding. Oh, my God, really. Out his own obituary, yeah, and funeral invitations to avoid marrying his fiancee and, more importantly, to skip paying for the reception oh my god.
Speaker 4he's like, okay, I can do this, but I can't tell her, I'm just going to die.
Speaker 3I'm going to die, and then my down payment on the reception my full payment that's gone.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 3That will be refunded Anyway. Wow, he created, he made up a fake grieving cousin and sent an email to guests.
Speaker 4I see yes and saying poor Skippy or whatever his name was.
Speaker 3What's his name? Um, his name is not mentioned in this article.
Speaker 4Earl, let's call him Earl.
Speaker 3Oh yeah. Um, anyway, so the plan unraveled. So the fake cousin sent the email and the plan unraveled because he forgot to log out of his what's up app account and the bride-to-be received a message from him about this whole rigmarole I see yes so charges pending.
Speaker 4Love is dead or at least, oh my yeah. Yeah, that's what it's on life support here, that's for sure.
Speaker 3Well, he's dead. I mean, and warning to any woman out there who's thinking of picking up this flag and running with it- yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, just don't.
Speaker 4Yeah, don't do it no.
Speaker 3Stay away, do it? No, stay away. Now we've talked a lot about, uh, the plastic surgery situation. Oh yeah, yep, well, there are. Now there's another level here.
Speaker 4Okay, so I'm going to recap. We kind of talked about this a little bit last week and we were talking about some of the crazy stuff that people are doing now, but up to and including like late teens and 20-year-olds that are doing this ridiculous stuff. So what new have they decided to?
Speaker 3come up with now. Well, and we were also talking about that there are these like fly-by-night kind of that's right, these back alley, right Back alley Botox places, yeah. Remember the back alley COVID vaccines, yeah.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 3Well, this is similar Like there's a woman who went and got a face full of botox at a bargain price from someone in a shed and it paralyzed.
Speaker 4Paralyzed her face, the whole face, her whole face.
Speaker 3Oh good, yeah great, I thought it was just the one side. So, and who do you sue?
Speaker 4right, yeah, right yeah, you sue, no one. Yeah, the woman who's doing this out of her truck, you sue yourself for being a complete jackass seems reasonable.
Speaker 3And then there was the woman who was so desperate to have cosmetic procedures that she used fake id and stolen credit cards oh, that's right finally got got busted right as her butt lift was being.
Speaker 4Right, she was recovering from that surgery, BBL surgery and so she gets carted off to jail with stitches. With stitches in her. Yeah.
Speaker 3Stolen or behind idiot. Well now, so you take out the middleman, this one diy plastic surgery kits oh no, are selling on tiktok, oh my god, and they're viral kits that now include nose shaping clamps. Oh, wow. Jawline enhancers, chin sharpening tape, all with instructions, with warnings, like not for serious use, unless you mean it.
Speaker 4Uh-huh Right.
Cat Stories and Million Dollar Inheritances
Speaker 3Yeah, and of course, once again dermatologists begging teens to stay away. In the animal world, I love this one. So in Maine, a retired librarian has a 15-year-old tabby named Agatha. Now this librarian left her entire estate to her cat To Agatha, yes, okay, which reminds me a little bit of Leona Helmsley Mm-hmm, yeah, and her lawyer says that this is 100% okay. I mean Leona Helmsley's family, of course. She left tens of millions.
Speaker 4Right, if not hundreds of millions.
Speaker 3Yeah, To her dog. I think it was To like her Yorkie Mm-hmm. And so her family, you know, jumped all over that.
Speaker 4Right, of course.
Speaker 3But this woman didn't have anyone or anything she wanted. She wanted to leave two million dollars to. You know, I would think nice, maybe she would have left it to an animal rescue, you know, or to a library right or to some sort of you know, national or international library thing or book thing right, no, okay agatha, a 15 year old cat, right, yeah?
Speaker 3and she said in her well, that agatha is the only creature who never let me down. Oh wow, and take that, relatives. Yeah, I mean, that's what that's all about, right that is, isn't it, yep?
Speaker 4yep so that's exactly what that's about, so yeah it's uh what? Uh? They started calling a teachable moment a few years back. Right, yeah, pound, yeah, pounded that one to death, didn't they?
Speaker 3Oh gosh.
Speaker 4Every single conversation had someone said teachable moment.
Speaker 3You know, that's become like woke a little bit. It's like, oh, don't even say that.
Speaker 4That doesn't mean anything anymore. Yeah.
Speaker 3I agree, yep Nothing means anything anymore. Oh, I agree, yep, nothing means anything anymore.
Speaker 4Oh, I know that song. Nothing really matters. Anyone can see. Nothing really matters to me.
Speaker 3What's that? Oh nothing really. Queen, Queen, yeah, Gotcha. Now here's another cat story that I'm obsessed with. Okay, okay, here's another cat story that I'm obsessed with. Okay, okay, okay. This is another one in Kentucky but it involves a Maine Coon. Okay, and the Maine Coon is named Mr Pickle.
Speaker 4He sure as hell is.
Speaker 3Mr Pickle.
Speaker 4He sure as hell is Now.
Speaker 3I am obsessed by this.
Speaker 4You're obsessed with Mr Pickle.
Speaker 3Yes, because this woman is in Portland. Did I just say that.
Speaker 4You said in Kentucky.
Speaker 3So it's no this you did say Maine Coon in Kentucky. I know I did, but what I'm trying to say is that Mr Pickle belongs to a woman in Portland and the story doesn't tell me whether we're in Maine or in Oregon, and the story doesn't tell me whether we're in Maine or in Oregon. I don't know, I'm thinking it's Maine.
Speaker 4Okay, yeah, I don't know A Maine coon, so let's go with that.
Speaker 3Well, take the Maine coon out of this. Well, now it's. She went and she brought a paw print Mr Pickle's paw print to a tattoo artist as a memorial to her beloved cat, mr Pickle.
Speaker 4Mr Pickle.
Speaker 3And said I want this paw print tattooed onto me, right, okay, this paw print tattooed onto me Right Okay. Well, six weeks later and I don't know how this happened, but she discovered she'd accidentally submitted a random image from Google.
Speaker 4Oh no.
Speaker 3And this paw print, not Mr Pickle's paw paw print, it's birdie in kentucky and the paw print belongs toa name bertie in kentucky oh no, that's too bad.
Speaker 4Yeah, now, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 3you got another cat's I would be paw print, I would be really, really upset. But she has no one to blame but herself and possibly AI, because I think she tried to. Obviously she tried to input something and it outputted something else.
Speaker 4Right, yeah.
Speaker 3It's not like the tattoo artist decided to give her a different paw print.
Speaker 4Right, I'm going to give you the exact replica of a cat's paw, print from Kentucky Right.
Speaker 3But here's the thing she has since connected with Birdie's owner. Uh-huh. And they now quote co-parent symbolically on Instagram. What's wrong with everybody? Okay Well, they co-parent symbolically on Instagram. What's wrong with everybody? Okay well, they co-parent.
Speaker 4Yeah, well, whoever Birdie's parent is, they're very nice people. So they're like okay, this woman's a little whacked, We'll just go along. You know it's not harming anybody. She doesn't know where we live, yeah.
Speaker 3Yeah, I'm thinking about. Now that I think about this, I'm wondering if I want paw prints of all our animals.
Speaker 4Okay, yeah.
Speaker 3But then am I going to get a tattoo of a paw print? I've never gotten a tattoo of anything.
Speaker 4Right.
Speaker 3And I'm not a tattoo enthusiast. Yeah, I'm not a tattoo enthusiast, certainly not for myself, for some people it actually looks really great. It all depends but no, I don't think we're candidates for that as far as would that look good on me? Absolutely not, you know and what in the world would I tattoo on myself, and why? Right because you're just gonna end up. It's not forever, okay, it's not eternal. I'm just saying yeah think about it yeah well, here's one of my favorite things my stupid story from stupid instagram okay tiktok the whole.
Speaker 4Thing okay, it's stupid.
Speaker 3Social media yeah well an ai influencer. Ai influencer.
DIY Plastic Surgery and AI Influencers
Speaker 4Okay, an AI influencer, that's right. Yeah.
Speaker 3So this is an influence, an influencer created by AI, by someone created it on AI. Her name is Sienna Blue. Okay, has been signed by three fashion brands. Oh my God, really. Signed by three fashion brands, oh my god, really. So she now, sienna blue, has deals with a shapewear brand, a skincare brand and a vitamin brand, all while being 100% fictional.
Speaker 4That is ridiculous.
Speaker 3Well, you know what though? Human influencers are really angry, I'll bet they are. Which you know I—.
Speaker 4I'll bet they are. They love this AI stuff. But it's like, uh-oh, is it taking my job?
Speaker 3Oops, it's plumping my lips and it's narrowing my waist and now it's getting my checks and my swag. I do want swag from Holy Cow. I'm just mentioning that again. Okay yeah, holy cow. I'm just mentioning that again. Okay, yeah. And then there's a new trend, of course, because we've got to have a fashion moment on the Ann Levine Show. Yes, and of course this is peak Gen Z and I've seen a lot of this and I hate it. It's called Victorian Morning Fashion, m-o-u-r-n-i-n-g.
Speaker 4Okay.
Speaker 3Now morning. Jewelry has been extremely popular in the antique jewelry business, yeah, popular in the antique jewelry business.
Speaker 4Yeah, for as long as there's been an antique jewelry business, it's been popular, but the number of people involved in the buying and selling of it aren't that? I mean it's not a huge number of people well, the stuff has it's exorbitant.
Speaker 3It's different. Yeah, I mean certain kinds of pieces like the hair jewelry hair jewelry.
Speaker 4Yeah, it's coming back.
Speaker 3So much but the piece is the georgian morning rings and it's always a beautiful woman under a weeping willow. Yeah, I love them. I've always wanted one, um, but they cost too much. Yeah, anyway, that um, memento mori stuff is now so popular that these influencers are wearing black veils, corsets, jet jewelry which is your closest approximation and anything inspired by Victorian mourning attire. Okay, and so they're all walking around like 1860s widows.
Speaker 4Like the Munsters.
Speaker 3While they're sipping matcha.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 3And complaining about the rent in the city, and so popular hashtags are hashtag grieve chic uh-huh and hashtag widow core. Yeah and slay, but sad, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, okay.
Speaker 4Well, speaking of stuff, very sad that you can buy online yeah from ebay, from etsy, from whatever okay, from the places that you can buy online from Well this caught me up pretty short.
Speaker 3Okay, because this is something very close to something I did when eBay first. When did eBay first?
Speaker 4Oh boy, I don't know, I'll look it up 97? I'm going to say the late 90s.
Speaker 3Well, this is something very similar to something I did, and this entire category has gotten quite crowded, okay, so, yeah, now, that lines up perfectly with when I would have been doing this, which would have been 96, 97, 98 in there, all right. This man, all right, launched a business. This is on Etsy, offering personalized cursed objects on Etsy, and this is not as far as I went. For $49.95, you can buy a handcrafted cursed object complete with a backstory, a cryptic symbol and a warning note written in Victorian calligraphy.
Speaker 4Very nice, sounds spooky.
Speaker 3Well, listen, you will realize immediately that we can make a fortune doing this. Okay, they're made from doll heads. Oh, antique spoons, mm-hmm. Old piano keys.
Speaker 4Oh, very nice, we even have an old piano.
Speaker 3And one review is my haunted spoon keeps moving. Five stars.
Speaker 4Does it go from the dishwasher to the drawer or something?
Speaker 3It just on its own. It just hops out of the drawer into the dishwasher basket. The seller insists that the curses are ethically sourced. What does that mean?
Speaker 4No one was forced, no one was harmed in the performance of cursing In the sending of this spoon. I guess In the shipping of this spoon, I guess.
Speaker 3In the shipping of this piano key Right. Yeah, Well, you know, no dolls were. Well, that's not true.
Speaker 4Yeah, that's not true. No, those dolls are messed up.
Speaker 3Yeah, and in fact we created partially some of it was already, but Michael put together a very famous freaky doll head cursed not cursed, I would say blessed doll head sculpture that looks cursed. Yeah, that is owned by a listener, a friend of the show yeah, kate in Brooklyn.
Speaker 4It's a masterpiece, isn't it? It is a masterpiece actually.
Speaker 3I was just looking at pictures of it recently.
Speaker 4That little person Made up of fish bones and barnacles, and moss and a doll head and driftwood Antique busted up doll head. Yeah, it's pretty great.
Speaker 3Gosh, it's awesome. Anyway, I used to do this on eBay and this is the late 90s, so eBay wasn't anything like it is now. Yeah, 90s, so ebay wasn't anything like it is now. Yeah, you would take, I would take. And this is because I learned a bunch of stuff from a native american medicine woman in canada who lived in the wilderness and she taught me a whole bunch of stuff about blessings, curses and spells, incantations, I see, and I thought how fabulous would it be to put together little spell kits, and I did.
Speaker 4Oh, I see.
Speaker 3So I would put in thread to make witch's knots, right. I would put in a feather Feather. I would think, yeah, you light a candle depending on what you want. So if you're looking for money, you light green, right.
Speaker 4Okay, If you're looking for money. You like green.
Speaker 3Okay, if you're looking for love you like red, so I would have the different spells for what you wanted to manifest and I would put a little incense.
Speaker 3Don't ask, I went crazy. And then I would write the spell and I don't remember what I was selling these things for. But what a shame that I didn't expand on it, because I really could have, if I had stayed committed, made a fortune. Yeah yeah, these could be selling all over the world. I mean, you know, there's that store, uncommon Goods. Right, there are stores everywhere where I could have been selling these.
Speaker 4That is true, yeah. But Well, there's a store down the road from here, that has you know. Yes, that would love items like that, yeah.
The Most Dangerous Man in History
Speaker 3Well, I should consider once again. Anyway, this would be easier. It sounds like way less. You just throw some antique. You know what I'm thinking? China.
Speaker 4Oh right Cursed.
Speaker 3Cursed China.
Speaker 4Right, I can sit and curse at every piece it's already cursed.
Speaker 3Yeah, you know that is true. So here's a saucer for 85 bucks and it's cursed. It is cursed. Give this to your ex Yep, you know. Put a candle on it, whatever.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 3But yeah, we could just sell it off one piece at a time and ascribe some characteristics to it. That's right, all right.
Speaker 4Well, I've now destroyed our base you have, oh, okay, well, let's bring them back, because we are the most educational radio program on the air at this time.
Speaker 3So it's time that sounds like.
Speaker 4It's time to learn a new thing. Okay, yeah, and this is something I've never known, but we should all know. It's about the most dangerous man in the world, the one man that has done the most to harm the human race. His name is Thomas Midgley Jr. Is he a Brit? No, he's an American, okay, and he was born in Ohio, I think, mm-hmm, and he's one of the guys, one of the primary guys, who developed leaded gasoline.
Speaker 4Oh Lord To get rid of the knock in the engine which created, you know, yep, the whole smog world.
Speaker 3Right, when was this? I mean, he's got to be long gone, right?
Speaker 4Well we'll talk about that too, okay yeah. He died in 1944. Right, but after he did that, okay, mm-hmm.
Speaker 3Well, obviously I don't think he invented leaded gasoline from the afterlife.
Speaker 4No, no no no, no, but he invented leaded gasoline. But he had another invention as well, and freon. Oh, the first cfcs that have destroyed the ozone layer. Yeah, yeah, this is the guy.
Speaker 3This is incredible, uh-huh what a horrendous. He won all kinds of awards, was lauded for years Did he make insane amounts of money.
Speaker 4Well, no, not really. I mean he had more than 100 patents granted to him. However, he contracted polio in 1940 and he was left disabled, but he was an inventor, so he created a device that would allow him to get out of bed unassisted, and one day he was found caught up in the device.
Speaker 3Did he die of his own patent? He did. That is just horrible. Yep, everything about that story is horrible.
Speaker 4It's rumored that he accidentally was killed by his own invention, but his death by the coron corner was ruled a suicide. So anyway, yeah, and you know, the biggest part with leaded gasoline, you know where the first problem lied in was in the creation of it. People died by the buckets full, and those that didn't die went insane or had no other brain right, heavy metal poisoning?
Speaker 3yes, yeah. Well, the um. The other thing is, a lot of people took their own lives. Yes, yeah, that way. And they've changed something about the formula of the emissions. That don't make it as easy, haven't they?
Speaker 4Oh yeah, oh, it's very different from what it was Right.
Speaker 3So you can't just like turn your car on in your garage and come to a peaceful sleep. Well, you might still be able to do that. Not as easily, it's a little harder to do Right and come to a peaceful sleep.
Speaker 4Well, you might still be able to do that Not as easily. It's a little harder to do, yeah, anyway, so, yeah. So this guy, yeah, freon and Leaded Gas, one man, and he has been called the one person that's had the single greatest impact on the planet, Good Lord. Well, actually here it is. Had more adverse impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history.
Speaker 3Oh, well, you know, as I said, yeah, recently, so we're all going down the drain. Well, we learned something, though, you know. Yeah, we're all. There's a, there's a circling. I'm not gonna call it a culling there's a circling I think there's gonna be a.
Speaker 4there's gonna be a movie terence winter. I is writing a movie about this guy Wow, Called Midge.
Speaker 3I wonder who's going to play Midge.
Speaker 4Yeah, that's a good question, Will it?
Speaker 3be Jeremy Irons? No, he retired. Will it be? What's his name? Killiam.
Speaker 4I don't think so.
Speaker 3Eddie Redmayne, I don't know. So, eddie Redmayne, I don't know. Yeah, oh, an American maybe. No, that doesn't happen anymore. Why would you do that? Come on. All right, so there you go.
Speaker 4So you've been educated, thank you.
Speaker 3Thomas Midgley.
Speaker 4Jr Wow, wow.
Aging Stories and Ethel's Advice Hotline
Speaker 3I have a few stories, as an homage to my birthday, about people aging, or actually people who've already aged.
Speaker 4I see Aged people.
Speaker 3Aged people. Woman arrested because she checked out the book a tree grows in brooklyn in 1965 and when the local library automated their system it flagged the book and she was arrested by a deputy. And she's now a library ambassador and it says she's not returning anything without snacks. Oh, that's, right Well yeah, so 60 years overdue. 92-year-old woman she was gently arrested. 92 year old woman she was gently arrested um a retirement home, which this reminds me of the the tv series land man, if you haven't watched it, get a going of florida.
Speaker 3of course senior center's A Florida. Of course senior center's drag queen bingo brunch got so popular that it bumped the Wednesday chair yoga class. Oh no, Leading to a passive-aggressive battle over room bookings in the senior center room bookings in the senior center and into this came the issue, of course, of snacks.
Speaker 4Well, yeah, yeah, and thermostat control, oh okay, yeah, I understand that that's important.
Speaker 3The yoga class wanted it warmer. Drag queen Bingo Brunch wanted it cooler. And so they co-hosted a wildly successful event. That's how they put it Very good Called Downward Drag.
Speaker 4I like it. I do too. I like the title that's good, called Downward Drag. I like it. I do too. Yeah, I like the title, that's good.
Speaker 3And now here's another one. This is in New Orleans.
Speaker 4Okay, been there a few times.
Speaker 3An assisted living center added Tattoo Day and immediately regretted it, because residents were ordered free temporary tattoos from local artists I see yes well what happened? 17 people insisted they wanted real ones instead. So there's a waiting list for and this is true matching cryptic frogs Okay.
Speaker 3And hot nana in script and one woman said if I can't't drive, I might as well shock my grandchildren. And now see, this is when my tattoo story, like my questions about why should someone, why should we get them? Yes, this is why. Okay, we can shock our friends, that is true, yeah, we actually horrify our friends.
Speaker 4Imagine and um, I mean, we kind of do that anyway sometimes. Well, that's true.
Speaker 3Um here's a man who turned 100 and celebrated by recreating his mugshot from 1954. Oh my God, wow. So for his 100th birthday, a former quote troublemaker, now long reformed, recreated the mugshot he got for stealing a police horse as a drunk college dare.
Speaker 4That is hilarious. Oh wow, I never would have even thought of trying to steal a police horse.
Speaker 3I can just see it as a college dare, especially in the 50s.
Speaker 4Yeah yeah, as a college dare, especially in the 50s. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3And the caption on his. He wore the same shirt and made the same face as best he could from his mugshot, of which he's always been very proud.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 3And the caption read still not sorry, still faster than you. I want a copy of that. Oh yeah, yeah, I of his mugshot. You know, in in these times I feel like getting myself an actual mugshot mock-up which I can see doing. Oh yeah, for something I did. I don't know that it's past the statute of limitations right okay, that could go so wrong. Yeah, really, you know it really could. You got to be careful you really do yeah now I got another one. A woman in her 90s opened an advice hotline.
Speaker 4Okay, Now this seems reasonable. I know who else, who's better equipped? I wish I had done it. Yeah, well, before you turn 90,. You mean.
Speaker 3Yeah, tomorrow I should start this, you should. Yeah, tired of hearing everyone complain, she put her number on a flyer. Now I don't know where the heck this would have like had put some up in town or like at the post office or something Right on a phone pole.
Speaker 4Right on a phone pole.
Speaker 3Right on a phone pole. Yeah, and she put her number and it says call Ethel, I'm not busy. Advice hotline. Ethel, by the way, was what they called the first leaded gasoline Ethylene, pam yeah, polyethylene.
Speaker 4Ethylene. Pam Call back to Midge there.
Speaker 3Yeah, good call back yeah. And so thinking they're going to get sweet ethyl woman in her 90s advice hotline You're calling a landline, okay, I'm expecting sweet advice, yeah, okay. So they're expecting kindness. And here is one of the responses that someone got to put up a complaint about Ethel Right, and she called about her boyfriend and Ethel said he ghosted you Good by a mirror. Oh my goodness, she is nasty, naughty, snappy. Oh my yeah, she's one of those. And the merch is selling like crazy.
Speaker 4Oh, that's nuts. Yeah, that's hilarious.
Speaker 3What would Ethel say? What would Ethel do? Wwd.
Speaker 4Oh, I got to go check out Ethel yeah.
Speaker 3Check out Ethel. Yeah yeah, the advice hotline.
Speaker 4All right, so we got two kinds of Ethel on this show. Even we do.
Tribute to Andrea Gibson
Speaker 3You're calling back again.
Speaker 4Well, I was just thinking that's a record for Ethels on the show.
Speaker 3Well, I got more. Oh, do you have another Ethel going? Yeah, do I have time for more?
Speaker 4No, oh, Not yeah. Do I have time for more?
Speaker 3No, oh, not really, not really Nah.
Speaker 4I mean, the music's going to start in, you know like 15 seconds.
Speaker 3All right, so Well, there's an 104-year-old woman who credits her longevity to being nosy and a little mean.
Speaker 4Oh.
Speaker 3People who bottle things up die early. I say what I want and I eat butter.
Speaker 2I say what I want, and I eat butter.
Speaker 3So I'm taking that advice. I think I'm already there. I think I've been nosy, mean and eaten enough butter to last a while.
Speaker 4Well, you know, butter is good.
Speaker 3I want to say a few words about someone we lost this week. Colorado's Poet Laureate from 2023 to her recent death in 2025, andrea Gibson, whose voice resonated with raw emotion and unwavering truth, and their poetry was rich with themes of gender identity, queerness, politics, social justice, mental health, love, illness and mortality, health, love, illness and mortality. And they were a safe haven for countless listeners. And Andrea was lauded by so many for her spoken word, for her live performances, and you can see if you go look this up. Andrea had ovarian cancer, which was diagnosed in 2021 and died on July 14th 2025. And she kept writing about the experience of dying and about death and the afterlife, and Andrea's final poem, love Letter from the Afterlife, is extraordinary. Letter from the afterlife is extraordinary and there are videos of Andrea reading it to their wife, meg, and it's a mind-blowing work and pain was turned into this incredible thing. Andrea wrote dying is the opposite of leaving. So for the late, extraordinarily great Andrea Gibson please put a light on Tonight tonight.
Speaker 2My new star in heaven Tonight, it's when I'm gone. I'll shine bright for you. My new star in heaven Tonight. My new star in heaven tonight, guitar solo. There's my new star in heaven tonight. My new star in heaven tonight it's when I'm gone. I'll shine bright for you. My new star in heaven tonight when I'm gone. I'll shine bright for you. My new star in heaven tonight.
