The Anne Levine Show
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The Anne Levine Show
Black Moon Rising
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The cosmos keeps offering us fascinating phenomena to contemplate, from Black Moons to Saturn's temporarily vanishing rings. Unlike Blue Moons (two full moons in one month), Black Moons occur when we experience an extra new moon – completely dark and invisible to observers on Earth. This celestial event sparked a discussion about lunar calendars and how our ancestors used the 29.5-day lunar cycle as a natural timekeeper, something many cultures still honor today. Meanwhile, Saturn's rings are performing their own disappearing act through a "ring plane crossing," a natural optical illusion occurring every 13-16 years when the rings tilt edge-on relative to Earth. While this temporary vanishing act will reverse in November, scientists predict the rings will truly disappear in about 100 million years due to "ring rain."
From astronomical wonders, we descended to earthly spectacles – including a bizarre incident at Boston Logan Airport where a passenger decided waiting for a flight was "too ordinary" and staged an impromptu striptease that ended with full nudity and state trooper intervention. This seemingly absurd news story raised serious questions about mental health and appropriate public behavior.
We're particularly enthusiastic about the groundbreaking Netflix documentary "Sunday Best," which reveals Ed Sullivan as far more than just a television host – he was a courageous civil rights warrior. Despite network directives prohibiting physical contact with Black performers and threats from sponsors and viewers, Sullivan defiantly showcased Black artists during segregation, insisting on live performances and embracing talents like Pearl Bailey, Harry Belafonte, and the Jackson 5. The documentary features extraordinary archival footage alongside contemporary interviews with music legends who witnessed Sullivan's quiet revolution firsthand.
Our conversation took several unexpected turns, from the bizarre WNBA dildo-throwing incidents (connected to a crypto meme coin group) to fascinating Halloween trivia (did you know 50% of American jack-o'-lanterns come from Illinois pumpkins?). As summer wanes, we reflected on holiday decorations and the merits of simplicity versus commercial excess. Whether you're fascinated by cosmic events, cultural history, or contemporary oddities, there's something in this episode to spark your curiosity and perhaps change how you view the world around you.
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Welcome and Black Moon Discussion
Speaker 2Hello, hello, welcome to the Ann Levine Show. It's Tuesday, augustust 26th 2025. I'm joined by michael over there hello and we're coming to you from womr 92.1 fm in provincetown that's right.
Speaker 1and wfFMR 91.3 FM and streaming worldwide at WOMRorg. And hey, this is it. We're kind of you know.
Speaker 2Thanks for listening. Yeah, this is it?
Speaker 1We're happy to be here.
Speaker 2We're thrilled to be here.
Speaker 1Thank you for joining us and we're dancing in the moonlight.
Speaker 2With King Harvest. Such an oldie, such a goodie. This one takes me right back.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, me too. I love this song. It's like 1972 or 73 or something like that, something like that.
Speaker 2I remember learning how to play this on the piano actually. Oh cool, that little, just that little riff. Yeah Well, I'm. I've chosen this song in homage to the Black Moon.
Speaker 1Yeah, we just had one of those, didn't we?
Speaker 2Yeah, and it got a lot of press and talk.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And more really than maybe it deserved, uh-huh. But for those of you who don't know, unlike a blue moon, which is when you have two blue moons in a month, Well, when you have a blue moon, which is two full moons in one month, yeah, yeah, I meant two full moons in one month.
Speaker 2Right, that's a blue moon. Right, a black moon refers to an extra or a missing new moon Right In a month. And since a new moon is when the moon is completely dark and invisible to us, that's why it's called a black moon.
Speaker 1Yeah, I know, because usually there's. You know, at this point there's a tiny little sliver you can see like a little smile quite often this time of year. You know it's facing that way. From here it looks like a little smile in the sky and that's it. That's your new moon, right? But after a blue moon you get a black moon, which is dark. It's all there. It's up there in the sky but we just can't see it because the light's not coming off it. It's completely in our shadow, right?
Speaker 2Well, it's rare because the lunar cycle is 29 and a half days, right, which people don't understand. Most people, right, and that's what a lunar calendar means. So people who use the lunar calendar actually have a month that's 29 and a half days, actually you have a month that's 29 and a half days, right. So giving a little clarity perhaps to those who celebrate, say, chinese New Year or Asian New Year.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2Lots of people or Jewish.
Speaker 1Jews use the lunar calendar. I don't know.
Speaker 2I mean you know that's, that's probably, you know, basically, the calendar that, uh, we've been using forever right until recent history until the romans decided that we needed to have some months, that were, that we needed 12 months right and when you go, chop that up. Well, some of your months have 30 days, some have 31 days and then one has 28 or 29 days yeah depends, depends. Yeah, that's a tricky one anyway, yeah, so we've bent ourselves in and out of all kinds of shape to follow this bizarre thing that they came up with. Whoever they are, yeah it's really so.
Speaker 1The lunar calendar is just so easy and it's right there for you to look at. Yeah, exactly. It actually makes sense, but you know God forbid human beings would. Uh, it actually makes sense, yeah, but you know god forbid human beings would do something I mean people, could you know, people could, uh, can tell basically what time it is by the position of the sun in the sky and you know?
Speaker 2back then people would be able to tell you exactly what time of year we are, just based on the moon, right, so yeah well, a black moon is similar to a blue moon because it's it happens all the time, uh, like full moons do, except that if you get two of them in one month, right, yeah, then it's called a black moon. So it's like a blue moon in that sense. Uh, so you get about two or three of these a year, but the the black ones are when you get two of them in one month, right. So it's not all that, but people got really freaked out.
Speaker 1Yeah, they kind of made a deal of it, yeah.
Speaker 2And it's a witchy thing. You know there's a lot of stuff in witchcraft and in some other. What would you refer to them to?
Speaker 1Practices I don't know. Older religions Right. Pre-christian religions yeah. Practices I don't know. Older religions Right, or?
Speaker 2pre-Christian religions yeah, practices, yeah, from back in way back in the day.
Speaker 1Yeah, pre-christian traditions.
Speaker 2Yeah, that sounds and so it's supposed to be a good time to let go of things, to start new things. You don't have the same gravitational pull. I mean, all that stuff is based in some reality At any rate.
Speaker 1Oh, yeah, Well, because it's all based on real things like the stars and the moon.
Speaker 2Yeah, real things. Yeah, actual real things. It's all based on real things like the stars and the moon.
Speaker 1Yeah, real things, yeah actual, real things up there.
Speaker 2Well, there's a whole Saturn thing. Do you know about that?
Speaker 1I do not. Is there a Saturn?
Speaker 2thing Major Saturn. Thing.
Speaker 1Oh my goodness, a Saturn thing. I didn't know. Tell me about it. Well, the—. Is it not real? Is Saturn not real? No, it's.
Speaker 2Well, there's a ring plane crossing going on Okay. And so Saturn's rings are vanishing from our view. Oh, I see, not because they're gone, but it's an optical illusion yeah, it's yes, exactly I understand.
Speaker 1It's light yeah, it's yes, exactly I understand.
Speaker 2And it happens when Saturn's rings tilt edge on relative to the Earth.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2So it makes these wide icy bands just appear really narrow.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2Okay, yeah, I get it.
Speaker 1I get it, yep.
Speaker 2So this event occurs every 13 to 16 years.
Speaker 1That's pretty cool. I've not heard of this.
Speaker 2Yeah so.
Speaker 1I like this. This is something new for me.
Speaker 2Well, Saturn orbits the sun over a 29-year period, which I didn't know that at all, so I'd be two.
Speaker 1I'm two years old.
Speaker 2On Saturn yes on Saturn, yes, on saturn, right on kind of you're around two years. I'm around two years, but anyway, never mind, um, but and it's not permanent, it's temporary in november, saturn tilts back and, ta-da, the rings will be in view again, but in the far, far future that humans will probably not be around to see. Okay, saturn's rings are truly fading. Oh, okay, um, saturn's rings are truly fading. Oh, okay, over geological time, because of this thing called ring rain and, as I said before, rain.
Speaker 1Well, you know all those down with ring rain exactly they're um. I'd like some ring rain, depending on, don't you bring no ring rain around here?
Speaker 2um the. So there are these ice particles you know that spiral saturn that are in saturn's gravity yeah, okay, and that's what those rings are yes, but because of saturn's gravity and magnetic influence, the rings are going to get erased.
Speaker 1Going to get pulled into Exactly.
Speaker 2Okay, Yep Into the atmosphere and literally melt Right Now.
Speaker 1this is I mean, you can see. You know, we can actually see this phenomenon on the planet Earth, you know, with a rainbow. Right, we can actually see this phenomenon on the planet Earth with a rainbow, because if you're looking at a rainbow and you move to one side or the other of the rainbow and it's going to start to disappear, even though from your original point of view it's still there, right, it's really wild, yeah.
Speaker 2So now, the timeline for the complete disappearance of Saturn's rings is 100 million years. So, I'm going to go out on a limb and say don't worry about it, we got other fish to fry.
Speaker 1You know what it pays to be prepared.
Speaker 2It does, and how do we prepare for this, michael?
Speaker 1Find some other place to go. We got a little bit of time this time, right, it's not like a comet's headed here and we got to get off in three months. No, we got a little bit of time that we can figure out a way to hop off and go somewhere else.
Speaker 2Because of Saturn's rings.
Speaker 1Oh yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, okay. Well, you clearly know more about the deep implications of this for Earth than I do.
Speaker 1Well, yeah, obviously.
Speaker 2Well, far be it from me to allow the opportunity for something stupid and raunchy to go by. So, since we're talking about moons, here's something that went down at Logan, boston, logan.
Speaker 1Oh, no way. Okay, yes, with your lead up I was thinking oh, a Florida man story. But no, no, no, no Boston man which is.
Speaker 2You know, I don't talk about Boston man that often, but there is a whole Boston man thing there really is, and you can find them on social media, yeah. And they are some of the most hilarious people in the world, Unlike Florida. Well, whatever. Anyway, JetBlue passengers. So this is at Boston Logan this weekend.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2This past weekend.
Speaker 1Oh no.
Speaker 2Okay, at Gate C.
Speaker 1Oh, that's a past weekend, oh no, okay, at Gate C. Oh, that's a busy weekend.
Speaker 2Well, I have a stick, a pin in that.
Speaker 1Okay, all right, all right.
Speaker 2An unidentified passenger decided waiting for a plane. This is what he said waiting for a plane is too ordinary.
Speaker 1Okay yeah, ordinary, okay yeah yeah, yeah, ordinary.
Speaker 2So he staged an impromptu strip tease.
Speaker 1Oh no.
Speaker 2Yeah, he went extemporane, he just got up and started doing it Okay.
Speaker 1Up and started doing it Okay.
Speaker 2And so first he took his jeans off and posed theatrically. You've got to go online and see this Exactly. He had on bright red underwear.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2Which around here is nothing special.
Speaker 1Yeah, no.
Speaker 2I mean, my favorite underwear that you have are the ones with the shark. Oh yeah, yeah, biting your delicate bits.
Speaker 1Well, yeah, I mean what else are they going to do? Well, I bought them, I mean you know you got to go for the vitals You're brave for wearing them yeah.
Speaker 2At any rate.
Speaker 1Thank you, thanks for noticing, of course.
Speaker 2I noticed. That's why I bought them. They're fabulous. Anyway, what's the name of that brand? Is it Saks, saks, saks, s-a-x, saks? Yeah, of course, s-a-x-x. Yeah, people go online check out Saks underwear. It's kind of fabulous, okay. So first he did the red underwear, did the striptease and then, for the showstopper, he pulled them down and mooned the crowd.
Speaker 1Oh, good for him. What a guy.
Speaker 2And then he dropped to the floor. Okay, so now we're naked at Gate C.
Speaker 1Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2Dropped to the floor and did poses and then stood arms wide but was like muttering to himself.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2In full view of stunt traveler. So he went from mooning to what do you call it when someone gives you full frontal?
Speaker 1um, I don't know, what do you? What do you call that sexual assault?
Speaker 2well then, what happened? What happened? Who arrived?
Speaker 1I'll tell you who Someone left the Dunkin'.
Speaker 2Exactly. Some guys got a radio call at the Dunkin', so two troopers, yep, yep, so mass troopers, a famous group of people, state troopers, oh yeah, showed up. Wonderful people Escorted him off.
Speaker 1Aha, yes.
Speaker 2And brought a halt to the spectacle. So we don't know yet if anything happened to him. Did he get arrested? Were charges pressed?
Speaker 1Were his trousers pressed.
Speaker 2We don't know. Were his jeans pressed. Yeah, Public indecency. Legally, public indecency in Massachusetts can lead to jail time, fines or both, but we don't know yeah come on, I mean, yeah, it's.
Speaker 1You know, it's getting harder to also say what indecent is well, you know what world today?
Speaker 2there are two things about this that raise red flags for me. Okay, I love the striptease, I love mooning like a quick moon and pull your jeans up. You're back on the plane. There you go. Yeah, in my opinion, okay, um, but the two red flags are that. He then went. All right, no, I'm taking it all off and I'm going through full frontal I'm standing here with my arms wide, muttering to myself yeah, okay. So that's indicating that there might be some sort of psychological challenge here?
Speaker 1You would think yes.
Speaker 2And so I hope that this person was okay and was not treated terribly. I mean assuming that this is the whole story yeah so right I guess we'll.
Speaker 1We'll have to find out, you know when, when there's more, oh, there will be more yeah, we'll follow up on this.
Speaker 2You know when, when there's more oh there'll be more. Yeah, we'll follow up on this.
Speaker 1Yeah, we're going to follow up on this one.
Speaker 2As we always do. We always follow up on our stories. Oh yeah, you know. One thing that I don't do is I say, oh wait, it can't be over yet, I've got more.
Speaker 1Yeah, never get back to it. Never get back to it, no, no, well, because by next week it just feels stale, right, right, because you've been already, you know everything, you've already gone, done the whole story in your head.
Boston Logan Airport Incident
Speaker 2I've done that. Yeah, not to, not to be too cliche about it all right. Michael and I saw something pretty extraordinary and you must all watch this. This is homework, this is not optional. Okay, that is correct. There's a new doc on Netflix called Sunday Best and it's extraordinary.
Speaker 1It really, really, it truly is yes.
Speaker 2It's the untold story of Ed Sullivan, and he's recast not just as the toast of the town, which is how he was known in his time. It's amazing, because I know so many people who have these strong memories of the Ed Sullivan show.
Speaker 1I have very strong memories of the Ed Sullivan show, so do I, and they're wonderful memories and they're wonderful memories but we forget that.
Speaker 2You know we were watching this, you know as infants, right, because he went off the air in 1971. Right.
Speaker 1And what we were watching was historic really.
Speaker 2Well, that's what's in here, and there's so much I didn't know about ed sullivan.
Speaker 2I don't know why, but I was under the impression that he was not born in this country yeah I don't know where that came from midwest or something like that, but I found out differently he was born in Harlem, yeah, born and raised, and his family did move, I think, to the Midwest. But I would say that his formative, the guy, was amazing and he was the an unlikely. He was a civil rights pioneer Yep, he was a total. What did I say?
Speaker 1A civil rights pioneer.
Speaker 2No, not just a second. When we were watching it, I said, oh my God, he was a warrior. He was a warrior for civil rights. Yes, the guy was amazing.
Speaker 1I mean he was a warrior period, he was in the war. He was in a war anyway, yeah.
Speaker 2Well, this is Sunday Best, oh it's good, oh man, it's a told story of Ed Sullivan and it's on Netflix. It's a film. It's a documentary film. It's what? 90 minutes, yeah, something like that, or less.
Speaker 1Yeah, you've got to watch this. It's really really yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, netflix, if you have any memories of Ed Sullivan.
Speaker 1This is going to be a wonderful thing. If you don't know who he is, it's also a good thing to watch, because he influenced so many people. Well, he influenced the country.
Ed Sullivan Documentary Recommendation
Speaker 2Yeah, he changed the world. He did change the world All on his own and he amplified black artistry during segregation, yep, and he did things that were you know. Know. The network would say you can't do this, that's right. You can't hug, kiss or touch a black performer. No, and he was like hey, pearl bailey wants to give me a smack on the lips, I'm going in. Yep, and he shook hands with everyone and embraced everyone. He was told not to shake hands with joe lewis, right, that was like that's the first thing he did right first thing, he did grab his hand.
Speaker 2Yep, and the people and the performances you get to see yeah, some of the wonderful things you get to see Bojangles.
Speaker 1Oh my goodness, yeah, you get to see what was his name?
Speaker 2Peg Legs, this tap dancer who had a peg leg, and it wasn't a comedic.
Speaker 1Oh, no, it was amazing. No, he was amazing, yeah.
Speaker 2And you see. Harry Belafonte, Dionne Warwick, Smokey Robinson, Barry Gordy, Otis Williams.
Speaker 1Those are the people who are— Jackie Jackie Wilson.
Speaker 2Right, oh my.
Speaker 1God.
Speaker 2And one thing that Ed Sullivan insisted upon and I didn't know this was that you couldn't lip sync on his show no lip syncing. And these performances are live. Yeah, isn't that wonderful. And, oh my God, the Jackson 5? Uh-huh, when Michael was a real person. Yep, right, oh my gosh. Yes, tito, and one of the other it germaine, I think. So, um, they do a little. You get to see them now.
Speaker 1They're old men, some of it's a little whoa, you know oh, yeah, you get slapped in the face with reality yeah, there's a's a sort of a time warp thing going on in there. Yeah, might give you a bit of a boomerang effect.
Speaker 2It's incredible. It's all verbatim quotes from columns, articles, letters and a lot of him. You know a lot of actual recordings of him right from interviews and and being on stage and yeah he got threatened for featuring Nat King Cole, and there was this whole movement called I'm not gonna even, I'm going to say the actual words. Um, you can't even say these words, um, on the radio or in at all anymore. But there was this thing called the black communist, the negro communist, something front or collective, or.
Speaker 2Which is so weird that there were this group of lunatic sort of KKK-affiliated people who lined up African-Americans with communists.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And said, oh, to make them part of the threat. Total BS, absolutely. The whole thing of communism being the great evil is is so bizarre. Anyway, but watch this, because this man and he was courageous. I mean, you know, he was constantly threatened, he got death threats, he, he got sponsors saying they were going to quit. Yeah, what was it? Lincoln Mercury.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean. Well, people told him you know that the Lincoln dealers were not going to stick by him, but they did for years and years.
Speaker 2And they ended up like actually tripling their sales. Yep so. But you know, in the face of the pressure and the threats and everything it had to be, you know that took some major cojones. Yep In his chones, it sure did. So watch it. It is extraordinary, you know, I was not initially uh feeling super compelled to watch it and then jacob moon sent me a text and said watch this.
Speaker 2And and I did, and, oh my God. Thank God, because Jacob and I have like the same taste in, which is the best taste, in my opinion in streaming, in film, in music.
Speaker 1Yeah, you do seem to be pretty simpatico.
Speaker 2We're so aligned. Yeah, and here's another.
Speaker 1That's what drew you to him and his voice to begin with. I mean that's.
Speaker 2Yeah, this weird like heart to heart.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2Or brain to brain I don't even know how to describe it.
Speaker 1Person to person, yeah, Magnetism, that's what it is.
Speaker 2So, and here's another thing that Jacob turned me on to Fisk, which I've mentioned before, if you haven't watched it, you're just hurting yourself. It's Australian. It's Australian. It is so hilarious.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And this character, Helen Tudor Fisk, who's played by Kitty Flanagan, one of the most hilarious people of all time.
Speaker 1Yep.
Speaker 2Season three just came out, and that's why I'm mentioning this. It's also on Netflix.
Speaker 1I see Okay.
Speaker 2It's only six. Each season is only six episodes. Yeah, it's only six. Each season is only six episodes.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's very British.
Speaker 2And I think they're what half an hour long, 40 minutes max. Yeah, I mean you can binge all three seasons, you know, in an evening.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, yep, Get on the sofa and go yeah and enjoy. Every single word is written somehow to elicit a laugh. It's like it's one of those shows you know where the writing is so very funny. Everything everybody says has something funny in it.
Speaker 2Well, this season has in it. I haven't watched the whole season yet. I just I'm trying to, you know, savor each one as a special bonbon. Oh, okay, yeah, you know, rather than just jamming down a two-pan bag of peanut M&Ms, because then you won't have any.
Speaker 1Exactly yeah, peanut M&Ms, you won't have any?
Speaker 2Exactly, yeah, but this season includes one of my favorite storylines of all time A 12-year-old landscaper who's owed money by the company. Okay, yeah, yeah, I can see that Some crazy Zoom meetings Hilarious, some crazy Zoom meetings Hilarious. And an espresso machine episode, which doesn't sound that funny until If you've ever had an espresso machine at home that misbehaves, which I have, I used to have. Then we had a coffee maker that misbehaved, oh my goodness, yes. Anyway, it is hilarious, watch it.
Speaker 1Okay, I'm going to watch it.
Speaker 2It's so good. Now here's a film called the Thursday Murder Club which just came out. Okay, this is, I think, think also on netflix. You know, I'm not sure. Maybe you can look up, yeah, poke around, uh, where it is now I actually read the book, the thursday murder club, and, if you like, um silly cozy british fiction, um, this is, this is a, a murder mystery, um, with and there's a hook which I'll tell you in a second, the cast of this, the thursday murder club. And this is a film, yeah, netflix, on netflix. The cast is absolutely. It's coming out this week, I think on friday. Listen to who's in this helen mirren.
Speaker 1I, I don't need to continue well, how about with the name of her character? Because that that says it all elizabeth best, best she's the best. So there you go, done we're done.
Speaker 2Pierce brosnan yep, now the two of them, helen and pierce, were on jimmy fallon this week promoting the film, and they're Pierce.
Speaker 1Brosnan, they're very, very funny.
Speaker 2They're very old. Oh yeah, and Pierce Brosnan is exactly what you'd expect him to be. They made salsa on the show, which is ridiculous, yeah, but I mean that was their gimmick, but they put a little jalapeno in it with one of jimmy's tomatoes from his yard right, yeah, but pierce brosnan almost had like was apoplectic yeah, he almost needed an ambulance exactly because he tasted a little bit of jalapeno.
Speaker 2No, he was seriously in distress. Yeah, yeah, that was the funniest part about this. But anyway, a man that I love to hate, ben Kingsley, oh yeah.
Speaker 2He's an amazing actor Now this is all in a retirement home. I don't know how to describe this place, but if I ever have to go into some sort of home, this is where I want to be. It's basically a big house where three elegant meals a day are served. And you leave your quarters and you come to have your meals, and everyone is beautifully dressed. And you leave your quarters and you come to have your meals and everyone is beautifully dressed. And so Helen Mirren is a former spy, pierce Brosnan's an ex-union leader, ben Kingsley is an ex-psychiatrist my God, that guy needs one. Jonathan Price Is in this.
Speaker 1We also have Celia Emery. Do you remember her? Yes, she's in it. David Tennant, doctor who, the former Doctor who, is also in it Richard E Grant, isn't that?
Speaker 2great. Who is one of the greatest of all time, absolutely, in my opinion, now Spielberg.
Speaker 1Oh, here I got the button for that.
Speaker 2Richard E Grant. Richard E Grant, please come up and accept your award, your award. Steven Spielberg's company Amblin Entertainment produced this. Oh, okay, so this is a. You know, critics praised it as a delightful mix of mystery and humor Awesome, so I am actually going to want it. Normally, if Ben Kingsley is in something, it's an immediate pass. For me, it's a boycott. And let me tell you why. Ben Kingsley was one of my favorite actors for a long time. Nothing can compare to Sexy Beast. Nothing can compare to Gandhi. Yeah, I mean, so much of his work has been extraordinary. His shakespeare is flawless. Uh, and then he went on mark maron oh and go listen to that interview.
Speaker 2Look it up. I don't know what episode it was. It was a few years ago.
Speaker 1Go listen to it. Okay so, and that was it for you. Huh, Never again.
Speaker 2Anything in particular.
Speaker 1I mean, did they start talking politics? Nothing.
Speaker 2He was so rude, he was so obnoxious.
Speaker 1Oh wait, I think I remember a bit about this Number one. The complaint was where it was being recorded. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2And so now, just to put this in context, let's remember that Mark Maron's WTF, which I have another announcement about this, w2f pod yep, it's going off, the he's quitting, is he? Yes, oh wow. And so these shows that are coming out now are the last I still have my boomer lives t-shirt somewhere.
Speaker 1Oh my gosh, that's right yeah that's an original, a classic yeah, don't ever throw that away collector's item.
Speaker 2Now put it in my t-shirt drawer. Okay, um oh, boomer lives. Yeah, wow, okay, anyhow, ben kingsley was just he's just like a horrible human really, truly, huh, I mean so out of touch, yeah, with reality, so obnoxious and mean. And he was just acting. I've never heard anything like it. You know, wow, and I can see where. Maybe at the beginning, you know, it's a little confusing. Oh, what I was starting to say is Obama was in the garage.
Speaker 1I was going to get to that point too. It's like, you know, the guys were doing this in your garage and, yeah, the president of we're doing this in your garage and, yeah, the president of the united states was in that garage. It wasn't uncool, it wasn't? You know, he didn't demean mark for having doing this show from his garage everyone knows that.
Speaker 2That's one of the first things you're told if you get booked on the show and garage in major quotes when he first started out, what was it in in 20? I don't know it's been like 20 well, he was one of the first podcasts he's came out in like oh, seven, yeah, and he's considered the father of podcasting because it was the first sort of popular podcast. Anyhow, the garage yeah, originally that's exactly what it was, yeah.
Speaker 1At his house.
Speaker 2Right, yeah Well, he's moved since the very beginning, but it's still the garage, sort of the garage he's, and it's this amazing studio, yeah, and it's quite lovely. It's a lovely space. So, ben kingsley, the fact that it's, I can't remember what neighborhood it is. Is it Glen? No, glenridge, I don't know, but it's a house. Yeah and nothing. You, kingsley, took exception to everything and wouldn't answer any questions. He was horrible.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2But go listen to that interview because you won't believe it it's worth listening to. I'm going to listen to it again and listen to WTF because it's going to be over really soon. It's very sad. Yeah, that will be a vacancy.
Speaker 1Wow, that makes a big hole.
Speaker 2Yeah, really kind of it does and I feel old.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it.
Speaker 2I mean, I guess it's been what 18, 17 years or something, something like that, sort of the same amount of time I've been here, but anyway, I mean here meaning on the air but anyway. I mean here meaning on the air. So check out the Thursday Murder Club, yeah, and put a pin in checking out Mark Maron's last interviews that are coming up and going back in the catalog and listening to the Ben Kingsley episode.
Speaker 1Yeah, do that yeah.
Speaker 2Mark Maron's catalog has famously been open, not behind a paywall or anything like that, and I don't know if it will stay like that, if it will all be available online all 17 years for free. But while it is, check it out, Check out some of the other interviews. Name a famous person. Helen Mirren's been on yeah yeah, hillary, hillary, yeah, michelle.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, that whole bunch, that whole bunch. That Michelle Yep, yeah, that whole bunch. That whole bunch, that whole bunch.
Thursday Murder Club and Ben Kingsley
Speaker 2Well, here's something that Sounds funny but it's actually kind of disgusting. Okay, that's been happening. Have you heard about this WNBA situation?
Speaker 1I don't know.
Speaker 2I mean, I know a little bit about the WNBA, but Well, since late July, so in the last four weeks, five weeks.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2This has been happening at WNBA courts. So Atlanta, Phoenix, LA, Chicago and New York. Okay, there have been six confirmed incidents where people have been hurling neon green dildos at the players.
Speaker 1No kidding, oh wow, okay.
Speaker 2Now ha ha ha, not really.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean. Well, that explains a meme I saw of Trump throwing a neon green dildo at some basketball players.
Speaker 2Well, there you go.
Speaker 1Yeah, Exactly, and so in New York— Wow, I've not heard—no, I didn't know that that was actually happening. Yeah, that's very weird.
Speaker 2It's so gross, what the hell. At a New York Liberty versus Dallas Wings game on August 5th, one of these was thrown and hit a 12-year-old girl. Oh, great In the stance, hit her in the head. Now I mean, ha-ha, dildos are, you know, not like, not something you, you can absolutely get? Now it gets funny when you try to talk about it. You can get killed. Yeah, if someone hits you in the head with a dildo, that is true If someone lobs one at you.
Speaker 1You're not ready for that impact that continues after it hits you, you know, because it doesn't just bounce right off. The impact continues to spread through it and then it might bounce off, but it's more of an impact than getting hit with a baseball. Right, exactly Because that hits you and it's bounced off than getting hit with a baseball Right, exactly, yeah, because that hits you and it's bounced off. Well, they're throwing them at the players.
Speaker 2Yeah, no, I get it, I get it so the players are totally freaking out for many reasons, not just because people are launching dangerous items at them in the middle of games.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2But it's this disgusting, weird misogynistic thing. Now I don't get that Wait till. I tell you who's behind this.
Speaker 1Oh, you know who's behind this. Yes, this is known. Oh, okay.
Speaker 2They've been talking about this. Okay, there is a crypto meme coin group called Green Dildo Coin. Oh my God. And that? This was meant to be a viral protest, not misogyny. What?
Speaker 1the hell.
Speaker 2Does that mean A?
Speaker 1viral protest. Yeah, not misogyny. What the hell does that mean?
Speaker 2Uh, hmm, A viral protest, yeah, but not misogyny. What are they?
Speaker 1protesting? Uh, anti-misogyny, Seriously, I mean, they might be. They might be protesting that oh they're protesting anti-misogyny. Yes.
Speaker 2Let's protest. Let's keep women on basketball courts, but barefoot in the kitchen. Is that what we're saying, I guess? So in a Telegram chat log one member of this group. Green Dildo Coin or Douche Coin this is the new Douche Coin for me posted Dildo Warrior practicing his. Throw on a picture of one of these, and then others joked we will soon buy the league.
Speaker 1Well, that may be possible actually.
Speaker 2Well, here's what's happened Baruch Hashem In Atlanta.
Speaker 1A guy named Delbert Carver Okay, how many people do you know named Delbert?
Speaker 2I know you know more than one. Yeah, that is true, well. Well, this one is 23 years old, okay. Arrested in atlanta for the first incident. Good for him. Charged with misdemeanors, disorderly content conduct, indecent exposure, which is interesting, okay, because what was it? I guess a dildo in public counts as indecent exposure.
Speaker 1Whatever, I don't know.
Speaker 2I don't know. So he said this was supposed to be a joke, it was supposed to go viral.
Speaker 1Uh-huh.
Speaker 2Now I don't like giving these people oxygen, which I'm doing, but not in a way that I think this is just revolting. Caden Lopez, 18 years old, arrested during a Phoenix game and he ended up hitting a man and a nine-year-old with these stupid things, with these dildos. So he's facing misdemeanor charges. These are all arrests. Charles Burgess, aged 32, arrested after the New York incident and he's going down Assault, reckless endangerment. He's pleading not guilty because no one was actually struck and the WNBA has taken a firm stand on this. So offenders get immediate ejection from the game, bans from ever going to games.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, that should be like totally.
Speaker 2Right. Sop Standard Operating Procedure yeah and these players have, of course been saying, hey, this is ridiculous, dumb, dangerous. You're going to hurt one of us.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's stupid.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1It's so freaking juvenile, it's pathetic.
Speaker 2Yeah well, it's weaponized nonsense, Yep, and it's internet culture and misogyny.
Speaker 1Yeah, exactly Misogyny for likes at this. Exactly God.
Speaker 2And the San Francisco Chronicle said this is peak 2025 America, where quote funny equals quote power. But yeah, this is internet garbage Agreed, that's getting spewed and that's potentially hurting people. Hey, michael, over there.
Speaker 1Hello.
Speaker 2Do you have something to tell us?
WNBA Dildo Throwing Incidents
Speaker 1well, you know what? Um, yeah, I do, and uh, it's been, uh, brought to me, brought to my attention, that the sun's going down a little earlier and coming up a little later wow, is that this should have been part of our celestial segment. I have noticed that and I've also noticed the preponderance of pumpkin spice, halloween decorations and even Christmas Peppermint Peppermint stuff coming out.
Speaker 2Yep.
Speaker 1Right, yep so, but it did get me thinking about Halloween, and here we go. Okay, here is some information you may or may not know about the holiday of Halloween. In the United States of America, approximately 50% of all jack-o'-lanterns the pumpkins that people carve into jack-o'-lanterns in the United States. I'm familiar 542 million pounds worth of pumpkins grown in Illinois. Okay, how about?
Speaker 2that? How about that Illinois of all places? Illinois, of all places, illinois of all places Making Halloween Halloween since 1830.
Speaker 1And speaking of that, of those pumpkins 542 million pounds worth of pumpkins. Well, that's half of them. Only 43% of American families are actually going to carve one. So figure that out, that's a lot of pumpkins, I'm telling you per family. Right, when you work it out like that, yeah, let's see. Work it out like that, yeah, let's see. Um 73 percent of american householders plan to stay at home on halloween so they can hand out candy to the kids.
Speaker 1Yep um, and 92 percent of americans still believe that their neighborhood is safe for trick-or-treating. But 92, it's not 100, right? 92. 49 of people in the united states will actually decorate their home for halloween. How about that?
Speaker 2you mean the outside?
Speaker 1I don't know I mean, that's the you know. Decorate, that's that's the word I've got. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2Well, Halloween decorations are one of the banes of my existence. One of the things that I dislike about holidays are lawn decorations, house decorations. I can't stand the Halloween ones. I really can't stand the Christmas ones. I really can't stand the Christmas ones.
Speaker 1All of these giant inflatables now.
Speaker 2Ugh.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And then we've got this one house a couple miles down the road that has inflatable dragons, not dragons dinosaurs on their lawn. Yeah, Like all the time.
Speaker 1But they're not inflatable.
Speaker 2Oh, they're what Like plastic of some kind. Right Huge plastic dinosaurs.
Speaker 1Life size. They're life size, yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1The Velociraptor out in front. And they will put a sweater on it in the wintertime.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1Yeah, they will decorate it for different seasons.
Speaker 2Yeah, and there's a beautiful, beautiful inn that has a split rail white little adorable fence around it and they have to ruin it. They ruined it Every month by putting different decorations on this beautiful little white fence yeah and oh, yeah, yeah yeah. So you get little pals with shovels in july and you get huge pencils and things for back that's coming up really soon.
Speaker 1They're not there yet, but they will be there soon, yep and or the beach balls, and then you get little surfboards.
Speaker 2They've had little surfboards yeah, it's just, it's gross, you know, I I mean it's wrong. This is cape cod, this stuff that has really no place here. There's one thing that's acceptable. What's?
Speaker 1there are two things that are acceptable okay single candles in windows yeah, and a lot of people do that, which is which is traditional and it's beautiful, it's really lovely isn't it?
Speaker 2And it's not religious or Santa. You know what I mean? It's not cartoon, no, but it's so comforting. It's such a warm feeling to see that.
Speaker 1I love that.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And I'm not from here, so I didn't grow up with this. It's not part of my DNA, yeah, but it feels like it is when up with this. It's not part of my DNA, yeah, but it feels like it is when you see it.
Speaker 2It's really yeah, I love it. The other thing I will allow is a wreath on a door.
Speaker 1I like a wreath Right, but you've got to take it down and the plainer the better, Right.
Speaker 2If it's specifically Christmas, it's got to come down.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, You've got to take that thing down.
Speaker 2Yeah, my favorite are and this is the only kind I've ever used, and I used to get them because a friend of mine had kids who sold them as fundraisers for their school. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah and they were just plain oh yeah, the wreaths, yeah, they were just evergreen rings, yep and so, and they smell great and they're I okay, I'll allow it.
Speaker 1Yeah, and they had no decorations on them no, so yeah, and you could, you know, put a like the cranberry thing on them or whatever. Like people, do you know and do it yourself if you wanted to, but they're just so pretty by themselves.
Speaker 2No, they were wonderful. Yeah, and I love bringing greenery into the house. Yeah, or on whatever.
Speaker 1I love that smell, but that's it.
Speaker 2That's it for decorations, in my opinion.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2On these part on. It's it for decorations, in my opinion. Okay, On historic parts of the Cape. I'm fully against all of the other unga-patch stuff. I hate it. Yeah, so yeah, people are already getting their Christmas on, getting their Halloween on.
Speaker 1Yep, it's happening.
Speaker 2It's not, it is not cool.
Speaker 1I mean, and it's barely back to school. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2I mean it's August. It's August, people, Kids, going back to school yet here.
Speaker 1Don't rush it. My grandson in Texas started on the 12th of August. I don't know how that happens.
Speaker 2Well, because it's Texas. I guess, I don't quite understand Texas.
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 2But what is our time, Michael? We're pretty much out of time.
Speaker 1We are yeah, how out of time. Out of like, if you had another topic, we would have time to discuss what it is, the topic itself, but not the topic. See, you understand what I'm saying. We could talk about like what you want to talk about, but we can't delve at all Because in like 45 seconds I'm going to hit the go button.
Halloween Facts and Holiday Decorations
Speaker 2Oh okay, delve at all because. Uh, all right, 45 seconds. I'm gonna hit the go button. Oh okay, so let me get to then the actor jerry adler, best known for the sopranos, so beloved, he passed away on August 23rd. He just died and he was 96. He was born on February 4th 1929 in Brooklyn and was a resident of New York New York, where so many good people were born and, I assume, are still being born. He passed away peacefully in his sleep in New York City, which is how we all would like to go, I believe. So for Jerry Adler, please put a light on.
Speaker 1Adler, I've alone, when the sun Particulates Out of nowhere, when the background Fades Out of focus, as the picture's changing Every moment and your destination, you don't know where I belong. Avalon, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. When you're bossing over, there's no holding. Would you have me dancing Out of nowhere, out of nowhere, everlong? Thank you, I'm alone, I'm alone, I'm alone, I'm alone, I'm alone, I'm alone.
