S1E6: Parashat Thanksgiving

A Thanksgiving Seder of sorts, featuring a different kind of bear, charoset, racist college deans, "quotas," Justin Long, guarded domains, and blanching or talking (but not both).

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Take that turkey out of the dryer and call up the country club. It's para shot Thanksgiving this week on Jew Girl. Hello and welcome to Jew Girl, a New Girl podcast for the Jew Curious, in which I make my brother watch my favorite TV show New Girl for the first time and learn some stuff about Judaism. My name is Robin.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

My name is Jay. And the turkey's name is Hank.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

I love that so much. Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving. Alright, well, let's jump into a recap, shall we?

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:44

So Jess invites her cute coworker to Thanksgiving because his grandma died, Paul. She brings home a frozen turkey, last turkey in America, she says. Uh, and in trying to get it to thaw, they stick it in the dryer. Schmidt is cooking the rest of the meal, and we find out that he has some control issues and gets really wigged out over unsanitary things, uh, which ends up turning Cece on for some reason. Uh Nick's really grumpy and does not like Paul at all. Winston's concerned about this new guy potentially being a fifth roommate, but Paul wins him over eventually by asking about his grandpa. That's really sweet. Uh the turkey in the dryer catches on fire. So they go upstairs to, or across the hall, I'm not sure, to Miss Beverly's apartment because she's away and Jess has the key. And uh Jess tells off Nick for being mean to Paul, and although everybody hears it and it's kind of awkward. Um, but as they're finally sitting down to eat, Paul finds that Miss Beverly has died and her dead body is in the apartment, and that's the end of that. And Paul leaves in a shock blanket with Thanksgiving ruined, but he eventually meets up with them in the line for Best Buy, and he and Jess skip merrily into the distance together.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

They do. I was really uh confused for a minute watching that because I really thought that they were like, oh, he guess he's not the one for Jess, and he's scared away because he saw a dead body, and that ruined everything.

SPEAKER_05 2:10

That's that.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Romance over.

SPEAKER_05 2:14

That would be ins what an insane ending to that romance arc. It's just dead body done.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Right? Like, yeah, there's a lot of heightened reality in this show, but that one would have been just a little too far-fetched. Like, what? So I'm glad that wasn't the case.

SPEAKER_05 2:30

Either that or extremely real. Like, maybe if I saw a dead body, I would not be able to look that person in the face without seeing that dead body. You know what I mean? It could really ruin it, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

That's a good point. That's a good point.

SPEAKER_04 2:44

But what did you like? What were your favorite moments?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

My favorite moments, of course, the Hank the Turkey, you know. I, you know, I really liked the like, oh, is Paul the turkey thing?

SPEAKER_05 2:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

And no, of course, Paul is not the turkey, but I so good that she still did have a name, you know, like already picked out.

SPEAKER_05 3:01

Very just that was one of mine too. And the fact that she kind of laughs when she says Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

I also liked when Winston says they're talking about Black Friday, and he says, or as I like to call it, Friday.

SPEAKER_05 3:17

Friday. It's just such a silly joke.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Also, when Schmidt looks at Cece as he's furiously washing his hands and he says, beautiful savage.

SPEAKER_05 3:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

It's just like something about that is really funny. And also another quote from Schmidt: I can blanch or I can talk, but I can't do both. It's just, I don't know. Schmidt was Schmidt was cracking me up in this one.

SPEAKER_05 3:44

Schmidt had a good episode. Honestly, I like this episode. This this episode has a lot of good moments.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:49

Um, the other ones I pointed out are when Schmidt is asked, Well, what are the most sexy holidays? You know, because he's saying that Thanksgiving is the least. He's like, 4th of July, uh, Independence Day, obviously, which is the same as 4th of July, right?

SPEAKER_05 4:02

Uh, Women's History Month, and Christmas. I just, you know me now, you know I love like a string of jokes all in a row, especially when it's delivered by Schmidt. They're just kind of nonsense. So that was another one of those. Um, and then I also really love when they're the turkey's in the dryer, and Jess says, I put it on permanent press, and Nick says, Good, so you don't have to iron it. It's just a really good line. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Gosh, there's so many jokes in each episode that just like happen so fast. Like, I missed that one. I don't even remember that. It just flies over my head.

SPEAKER_04 4:33

That's why this is a great rewatch show because they really cram in, and it actually only escalates from here. Like right now, the jokes are kind of at least the ones that really get me, they're like decently paced and spaced. But as this show goes on, sometimes it is just like every line gets me, Jay.

SPEAKER_05 4:49

You'll see as it goes on. It but yeah, they they cram a lot in. It's a great rewatch show for that reason.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Paring down my favorite moments is getting increasingly hard because there are more things that I just actually laugh out loud about. Right? Not just like a like a nose, hmm, you know? Yeah. But an actual like laugh. Right. Anyways, are there any uh douchebag tzaka box coins for you to put in?

SPEAKER_04 5:15

The douchebag tsunaka box, I think, is I'm not touching it today. Nothing really jumped out at me. Did you have anything?

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Only just the minor thing that they're just like watching Jess hug the turkey on the ground and like being weirdly turned on by it and commenting on that. I'm like, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 5:34

Yeah, I almost put that too, especially with CC there's the idea that CC might join in, and they're like, oh yeah, yeah, do that.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Right, yeah, that was the that was the little thing. Also, there is a moment though where Nick straight up tells Schmidt to put coin or put money in the jar again. True. I didn't bother mentioning that because Nick calls it out, you know. So good old Nick covering our bases.

SPEAKER_04 5:59

Well, uh let's you know, let's pass around that feeling shtick. Why don't you tell me any other feelings you had about the episode? Any other thoughts, any other predictions? How'd you feel overall?

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Overall, loved this episode, very funny. When Nick says, oh my god, there's two of them, referring to Paul basically being a duplicate of Jess personality-wise, right? It made me think, oh, you know what? Now I ship Nick and Paul instead of Nick and Jess. I love that. Wait. That's my new joke prediction is that Nick will actually end up falling for Paul, obviously.

SPEAKER_05 6:41

I love that. Yes. Really rocky start, really starting out in the hatred camp, but yes, it's gonna totally escalate to love.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

And their ship name can either be Pick or Nall.

SPEAKER_05 6:55

Nall. Nall's good.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Nall. No, on a more serious note, uh this is not a ser more serious note, but you know how I kept joking that Nick and Jess were gonna adopt either a dog or a child or or something? Yes. Well, I kind of was thinking, and I don't know if this really bears any holds any weight. Bears any water? Bears any bears any water weight. Where Nick Like a pregnant woman bears any water weight. Jess and Nick, in a way, in this episode, adopt Paul. Oh. Because he no longer has he's lost his family that he spends Thanksgiving with, and they bring him in, you know, they welcome into their home, into the loft. In a way, they are adopting a child together.

SPEAKER_05 7:50

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 7:51

Nick very begrudgingly, because he does not like right, but he's the verbally abusive father in the situation, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Yeah, maybe it wasn't a good adoption. But I'm gonna just like plant that seed. The last note in the feeling stick I have refers to this, and it's basically how long of a distraction is Paul going to be for this show? Because he's annoying, even though he is like great for Jess, like great chemistry, two P's in a pod. He is annoying, and Justin Long, who's the actor, does a very good job of portraying some boyish, annoying adult man, you know. Um if you know Nick and Jess are endgame, how long of a distraction are we gonna have to deal with Paul? But while he's here, I'd like to view him in the lens of metaphorically being adopted by them, by the by the group.

SPEAKER_05 8:46

You know, Jay, it's hard to do that and also ship null at the same time, isn't it? You might have to pick one.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Um oh goodness. Okay. Here my my new prediction is either Jess and Nick will happen or null will happen. And there's no there's no middle ground. It's gotta be one or the other. And I think it's a coin toss at this point.

SPEAKER_05 9:11

Honestly, it could go either way from what I'm seeing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

You know, Paul and Nick, they got a they got sort of like like a banter thing going on, you know? It's like, why do you hate me, Nick? Why do you hate me? I do hate you. You're correct.

SPEAKER_04 9:27

Like hey, some love stories start out in the hate camp and then it turns into love.

SPEAKER_05 9:34

You're absolutely right. Anything can happen today.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Enemies to lovers.

SPEAKER_04 9:38

Enemies to lovers.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

What about you?

SPEAKER_04 9:40

Yeah, you know, I thought there were some wholesome moments in this episode that I really liked. Oh, firstly, she's wearing the Jamboree shirt from that second episode. So I was like, yeah. But um, yeah, some wholesome moments, like when Cece I hate the beginning of this moment when she's telling Schmidt that like he made her feel like a really bad girl, she's doing that in like a sexy voice, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Right.

SPEAKER_04 10:01

And he just earnestly responds. He's like, I know, and I'll never yell at you again like that. I'm like, oh Schmidt.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Right.

SPEAKER_04 10:09

Um, and then similarly, when Winston decides he likes Paul because he asked him his grandfather's name, and Nick's like, you don't know my grandpa's name. And he's like, Do you mean Mason on your dad's or Charles on your mom's?

SPEAKER_05 10:19

Oh, Winston. Winston. You know what I mean? It was really sweet. Honorable Mensch, always Winston with the honorable mensch, mensch moment.

SPEAKER_04 10:29

So yeah, that's how I felt about it. So I'm building up some wholesome moments in addition to you know, me liking this episode as the season goes on. I like them more and more.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

So yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_04 10:38

I'm feeling it.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

And Justin Long. He's like a big-ish actor, you know?

SPEAKER_04 10:44

Yeah, I guess he is. You know, I forgot to look up if he was Jewish. What do what do we place your bets now?

SPEAKER_00 10:50

I went on his IMDB and didn't see anything about it, though I don't know if they would put that on IMDb.

SPEAKER_04 10:56

My my guess is also no. Click, click, click, click, click, Sicilian. Catholic.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Ah, there you go. You know, in my mind, the thing I always picture him in is, and maybe it's the same for you, I don't know. Do you know what I'm gonna say?

SPEAKER_04 11:11

No, because I don't really have any strong associations with him, I don't think.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Galaxy Quest.

SPEAKER_04 11:16

Galaxy Quest.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

He was young, maybe in college or high school back then.

SPEAKER_04 11:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Yeah, he plays one of the like Star Trek nerds, but you know, Galaxy Quest nerds. That ends up helping them to day.

SPEAKER_04 11:31

Well, is there should we s should we step into the little Oive Edibay? You want to put on your little Steven Spielberg hat? Put on your little Steven Spielberg hat. Is there anything TV production-wise you want to tell us, Oive?

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Yeah, I didn't have anything for this segment originally, but something my wife said w stood out in my mind after we watched the episode, and and I think it's worth addressing. And I haven't gone back to re-watch the scene that that made her call this out, but are you familiar with TV production prop paper bags?

SPEAKER_05 12:05

No.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

So, it you're probably familiar with Foley, where Foley art basically, if you don't know what Foley art is, essentially it's like if you see someone pull a sword out of a sheath, right? And in your head, you know, you picture the shing noise, right? Well, someone in post-production like made that noise. It probably wasn't actually captured on set when the actor did it, right? That is fully art when you make sound effects and then overlay them.

SPEAKER_04 12:33

You know, I used to want to be a fully artist.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Oh, there's such a good documentary out there. I f I think everyone I talked to in film school was like, yeah, if I had to be a fully artist, I would absolutely love it because it's so cool.

SPEAKER_04 12:44

I know, right? I watched when I was a kid, I remember watching a behind the scenes for Monsters Inc., the Foley Artists for that. And I was like, do I want to be a foley artist when I grow?

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Anyway, okay, anyway. It's probably a very sought-after job because it's a lot of fun to just try to think about how to make these things. Anyways, my production corner tidbit is not actually about foley art. It's sort of, that was just a lead-in. Okay. It's sort of the opposite, which is that on set, you can get noises that you don't want to be recorded, right? So, like foliart, you're making sound effects for things that aren't actually happening on set, but there's the opposite.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Think of a paper bag. Imagine you have a character walk into a room carrying a bunch of groceries, and the paper bags, you know, you crinkle them a little bit, like you move them just a little bit, and they make noise, they rustle. Yeah. And that noise is stuff that like is gonna be picked up by the microphones, but you don't want it because it might be muddling the dialogue. So production paper bags basically prop masters create fake bags that look like paper bags, but they're made out of like a softer material that doesn't crinkle. And you can have the same thing for like chip bags. It might have been chip bags in this episode that my wife flagged. I'm not 100% sure. I need to double check that. But what she said, she was like, uh, you know, ever since I learned about production fake bags, I can never not see it. Because it's never perfect because the material's different. So if you know to look out for it, you'll be like, oh yeah, that's that's totally fake. That's not real plastic or paper.

SPEAKER_04 14:20

Whoa, that's amazing. I am so gonna be so tuned into that from now on. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Yeah. And I think, I mean, just in my mind, like, chip bags have to be way worse because that plastic is just the most noisy thing. Ask any cat out there that's ever gotten their hands on one of those bags, and they'll tell you it makes the best noises. Hardly any effort. So, anyways, I guess there was probably some fake bags in this.

SPEAKER_05 14:49

Love that. Yeah, fake bag watch.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Yeah, we can add that to the things we're looking out for. Maybe we can add that to observant Jews.

SPEAKER_05 14:58

Observant Jews, where are the bags?

SPEAKER_04 15:01

Well, speaking of observant Jews, Jay, thank you for that segue because I think it is time for us to move into Observant Jews, the segment in which we two Jews see how observant we were this week and trying to catch any Jewish jokes and you know, that ever-elusive bear of the episode. So, Jewish jokes. Were you an observant Jew? Did you find any Jewish content, Jewish jokes in this episode, Jay?

SPEAKER_00 15:28

I did not. You you know, usually I've been watching these episodes twice just to make sure I catch things. I didn't watch this one twice, even though I liked it that much. I didn't have time. And something's gnawing at the back of my brain, like, oh, uh, was there a Jewish joke I missed? I feel like there might have been.

SPEAKER_04 15:44

I will put you at ease. I didn't find any.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Oh, few.

SPEAKER_04 15:47

So you're good.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Oh good, oh good.

SPEAKER_04 15:50

But did you find the bear? There, I know there's a bear in this one.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

There is a bear in this one. And sadly, because I didn't watch it twice, I had to be told by my wife.

SPEAKER_03 16:03

Oh, so she got it.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Tune in next time when just my wife replaces me on this podcast for being a better uh host. More things to say, catch us more of the references. We love her.

SPEAKER_05 16:18

We love her.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Yes, there's the bear reference when Jess is just listing again a bunch of presumably made-up sex positions in the hallway. Another one of those list jokes. And something about a bear, I guess, was slipped into that list.

SPEAKER_05 16:33

Yeah. The wiggly one and the bear attack.

unknown 16:36

The bear attack.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

This is sort of a side tangent, but on the topic of bear, very loosely in this context, but not in this context. Don't don't worry.

SPEAKER_04 16:49

I should hope not, Jay. But yeah, go for it.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

No. A bear is also a term for like a very large, hairy gay man. Are you familiar with this?

SPEAKER_05 17:00

Oh, that's right. Yes. Yeah. I love a bear.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

Yeah, I have a in whatever way a street woman could love a bear.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Uh well, anyw.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

I've known some bears and I love them as people.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Keep keep digging that hole.

unknown 17:16

Keep going.

SPEAKER_05 17:17

It's just that I love a beard. Do you know what I mean? I feel like they always have beards, they're always wearing flannel. No, that's a hole. I'm digging myself. I need to get out of that hole. Sorry, all the bears out there. I do love you, but not in a weird, fetishizing way.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Rama's just like, mmm, lumberjacks.

SPEAKER_05 17:33

That is kind of the vibe, I guess, that I'm describing.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Well, anyways, I have a friend who is not gay, but is very lumberjack-y in being the the hairy, burly man. And the one time that I ever visited Provincetown, which is a town in Massachusetts, the very tip of Cape Cod, known for being a gay hub culture. The only time I ever went there, we did not know I was with this friend, and we did not know that it was Bear Week, I guess, in the town. And so him being a very handsome, oh yeah, burly hairy man in Provincetown at Bear Week, uh was getting hit on left and right while like we stumbled upon parades and and you know, a bunch of stuff. And it was a very it was a very fun time. But uh we'll never let him live that down.

SPEAKER_05 18:29

That's great. I hope that boosted his confidence to the moon. That's good for him, you know?

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it probably did. But that's just a little jay-aside, a little J tidbit, similar to how we might be moving on to a little schmidt bit.

SPEAKER_05 18:47

Oh, you're the king of my segues to JJ. I love it. Thank you for doing all that work for me. That is right.

SPEAKER_04 18:53

We will get some schmidbits in here. And this is, you know, a juicy little tidbit inspired by something that our canonical Jew of the Loft, our dude Schmidt, something he said or did this episode. And this episode, our launching off point is walnuts. When uh, you know, Cece's digging her grimy little fingers into that bowl of walnuts and he's getting real freaked out. That's enough for me. We're talking about walnuts, okay? The entire bowl of walnuts is compromised, as he said. Um Jay, do you have any guesses on what I'm going to talk about with walnuts? Walnuts.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Hmm. Is it a culinary dish relating to Passover?

SPEAKER_04 19:43

You got it, you got it. So anyone who has been to one of my satyrs will will know, just like you just did, it is Heroset. We are talking about Heroset. Orosis, as we grew up calling it, right? And see, I can see your mind being blown on our video chat right now because you suddenly understand why we grew up calling it horosis.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Wow. The classic T2S transition.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

The classic T to S transition from our Yiddish-speaking ancestors passed down to our father. Yes. And I'm sure, like me, you probably felt betrayed the first time you ever saw it written out, right? Because we did not know about that, those pronunciation differences, of course. And so we grew up calling it horosis, and then you see it, and you're like, where's that tea coming from? What have they taught me? You know, do I know nothing? Um, but for our listeners out there who have never had this delicious little dish, it is a it is, yes. So as Jay said, it's something that we eat on Passover, the holiday of Passover. And it is a sweet mixture, often paste-like or mush-like, sometimes kind of just chopped-up stuff. And uh it usually, in fact, has a place on the Seder plate, which is the plate where you put all the ritual objects that have to do with the various parts of the Seder and things we eat.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

What could we compare it to that that a listener might be familiar with? Like almost a mix between a trail mix and mashed potatoes, like if you combine to the two. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:23

Or sometimes see the problem is there's like a wide variety of ways people can make it. So sometimes it's chunkier, sometimes it's really paste and mush-like like mashed potatoes. Pico de gallo might be another option. Like sometimes it's kind of like pico de gallo with really tiny diced up stuff. But sometimes it's bigger chunks like trail mix. That's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Or um like Thanksgiving stuffing sometimes. I guess that's probably more on the mashed potato y side, but no, but yeah, but still with some chunks and some heterogeneity in there.

SPEAKER_04 21:53

Yeah. So it's usually in our case, it's usually made out of chopped fruits and nuts. Often nuts. So Ashkenazim tend to use walnuts. That's what got us here. And the other things that are usually in it for uh in Ashkenazi circles is apples and sweet red wine and some other spices or sweeteners like honey or cinnamon and things like that. And so, you know, imagine all that chopped up and the apples either largely chunked or almost mush, and you can see the range of textures we're describing here. But other players in other communities' horosets are dates, figs, almonds, raisins, things like that. So you can tell it's all a lot of it is very trail mix-y. It's kind of apt that you've made that comparison, right? But um, fruits and nuts, a lot of fruits and nuts, and and always sweet, always made to be sweet. And the point of it, of course, is that it is meant to resemble the mortar, which, you know, in the story of X the Exodus from Egypt, the story is that the the Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt and they were helping to build the well, helping, you know. I guess if you're enslaved, you're being forced to uh build the pyramids.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

They were contractors being consulted for no that's right, independent contractors.

SPEAKER_04 23:22

Um, so you know, in if if you think about laying bricks, the mortars, you know, the goop you put between the bricks or whatever. So that's the that's the idea. That's where it comes from. That's why it's paste-like. Um, so no matter how they make it, no matter what fruits you use, what nuts you use, that's the symbolism that it's trying to get at.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

Okay. So maybe a maybe a more finely chopped, mixed together, more pasty version of Heroset or Herosis would be more apt because it's closer to mortar in consistency?

SPEAKER_04 23:56

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I certainly like a mush and I do think it is it is apt for the metaphor for sure. I'm always a little disappointed when I go to a satyr and it's like really big chunks, you know.

SPEAKER_05 24:08

Honestly, sorry everyone who's ever invited me to a satyr and given me really big chunked horoset.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

You just lost a lot of friends just now. Honestly, you just burned so many bridges.

SPEAKER_05 24:22

You have no idea, Jay. In my circles, I might have. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 24:26

People are very protective of their horoset recipes. Oh man, this last this last Passover though, I used um a food processor for the first time, I think, because I think we didn't own them before that. What a game changer. What a game changer. And it did make it mushier because you know they were sort of like thin, it was a different texture, but I liked it.

SPEAKER_05 24:46

I thought it was good.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

This episode brought to you by food processors.

SPEAKER_05 24:50

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 24:51

Come at me for a sponsorship, food processor industry. So, okay, so the blessing that you say over walnuts. We're back to just walnuts now. So walnuts were my segue to talk a little bit about Herosa on the Passover um plate. But if we're just talking about eating a walnut, so you know, in Judaism, there's we you call them a bracha. It's just a blessing. That's what bracha means. But you say a bracha over, you know, theoretically anything you eat, any meal you sit down to, you would you would bless it, depending on, you know, whatever the key component of that meal is, basically. But anyway, say you're about to just pop a walnut, the bracha you would say is um barika tarana, alohina malacha olam. You know, it has that whole intro formula that anyone who's ever heard any Hebrew blessing is familiar with. And, you know, you start with that, and then that last bit is like whatever's the specificity to the moment. So the end of this one, the end of the bracha for walnuts is bore puri ha eats. So you probably recognize bore puri from the Passover Seder when like a bajillion times we say Bore Puri Hagafin. Exactly. And so that means um, okay, so the whole thing, you know, that first chunk means blessed are you, Lord our God, sovereign of the universe, who, right? And then it's always like, whatever we're doing. So bore puri hagafin, when we do that at Passover um over the wine, that means who creates the fruit of the vine, the gothen. Um hu means the in Hebrew, by the way. So haffin, the vine. Um, so ha etz. U tree. So in this case it is who creates the fruit of the tree.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 26:35

Isn't that nice? And I I didn't know that walnuts grew on trees. Do they? Actually, I feel like I Googled it when I wrote this down.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

I think they're technically tree nuts. Clack, click, clack, click, clack.

SPEAKER_04 26:43

Walnuts are tree nuts, the internet tells me. So don't eat them, you tree nut allergy folks. You know the thing about tree nuts? Sorry, this is a tangent here, but um, I know the phrase tree nuts and I say it all the time because I know someone who's allergic to tree nuts.

SPEAKER_05 26:58

For some reason, I've never internalized the fact that nuts grow on trees. Tree nuts mean they grow on a tree? That's crazy. Yes, it does. I've never seen a nut on a tree. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

I think uh like cashews and pistachios. Yeah, I'm looking at a whole list now.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

Almonds, almonds are growing on trees and we're milking them for milk.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Okay, look at cashews. Look up photos of a cashew on a tree. It looks like a joke. It looks like there's a pepper and then someone just stuck a cashew underneath it.

SPEAKER_04 27:31

Do you see this? Is exactly what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_05 27:33

If somebody showed me a picture and was like, this is how this is how cashews grow, I'd be like, you can't fool me. You think I'm an idiot? Come on.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

That's AI generated.

SPEAKER_05 27:43

That's AI, this is AI slop.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

You know, almonds on trees look a little bit more natural. I can kind of see how they actually do look like a seed that I would see on the ground and not think, oh, food. Yeah, that's true. I would think, oh, food for a squirrel.

SPEAKER_04 28:01

Right. Right, exactly. Well, on that note, would you like to waltz right into a larger theme discussion, Jay?

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Let's see what this larger theme is.

SPEAKER_04 28:12

The larger theme this week is guarded domains. All right. Guarded domains. Okay, guarded domains.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Uh wait, sorry, can you say that one more time?

SPEAKER_04 28:29

So in the episode, we have got a lot of different examples, I think, of people guarding their domain. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 28:38

We have got Schmidt being protective of his domain, the kitchen, and Cece trying to gain admittance to that domain in order to help. Right. Okay. Um we have Winston being pretty overtly concerned with guarding his domain from Paul. He's he's obsessed with Paul respecting the boundaries if he'll be spending time in the apartment. You know, he's even making him do that word association game, like, if I say boundaries, you know, what do you think of? We've also similarly got Nick really resisting Paul's entering their space. He says, Did you invite someone named Paul into our apartment? You know, that was that's sort of how he starts off the whole thing, and it's it sets the tone for the rest of the episode. He doesn't like him, he's really trying to keep him out by making it clear that he doesn't like him. Maybe he's even presenting him as an interloper with his dynamic with Jess. I don't know. It's that's for you to wonder, I guess. But Nick eventually accepts his participation in the group. You could say he, this is interesting. If we're talking about guarded domains physically, he cedes ground literally by giving up his physical spot in the best buy line to accommodate him. So he's literally ceding ground in this, in this, if we're talking about you know, guarded domains. By the end of the episode, he's come around and he cedes that territory to Paul, even though they all then run off and you know don't take advantage of their line in the spot, but whatever. I even saw it in their gaining access to Miss Beverly's apartment because Jess was entrusted with the key to that guarded domain.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

Right.

SPEAKER_04 30:22

And uh there's also like a close-up on the police tape at the end, that sort of, you know, physical manifestation of guarding a domain. Um, and then last but not least, everybody being just hella protective of the Black Friday line.

SPEAKER_05 30:37

Like a heavily guarded domain. Clearly, we got cutters, they're cutting. Yeah. What does Nick yell like? You gotta be you gotta stop being honestly stop overreacting to cutting, I think he says.

SPEAKER_04 30:51

So guarded domains, those are some guarded domains I saw in sort of everybody's plot in the episode, or you know, a lot of the plots in the episode. Schmidt's Kitchen, the dynamic of Paul entering.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

And also going back to Nick, you know, if we're thinking about this from the lens of shipping Nall, right? He has his guarded domain, he's he's not letting Paul win his heart that easy.

SPEAKER_04 31:14

That's right. It's gonna take some time to enter that heart, to break down those walls of our little turtle-faced Nick.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

What a good theme. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 31:24

Thank you. Well, in the in the Jewish corner, I'm gonna actually talk about it from a couple different angles. Okay, so we're gonna talk about guarded domains outside the Jewish community that kept Jews out. Okay. As well as the flip side, Jewish community itself, as a guarded domain. Okay, so we're gonna see it from both sides here. I like it. So let's start out with the negative stuff. Um, you ever heard of Jewish quotas? Have you ever heard that phrase being bandied about? Yeah, you're grimacing because it sounds terrifying.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

Uh no, I have not heard that term.

SPEAKER_04 32:00

Well, in the American universities of the like first half of the 20th century, in response to what they called the Jewish problem, which is not a great phrase. We've heard that phrase in other contexts, right? We don't like that phrase. But anyway, in this case, the Jewish problem was there being too many Jews on campus. Too many Jews were going to these elite universities. These universities started having what they were, what what people at least now refer to as Jewish quotas that capped the number of Jews they would admit. I know quota is a weird word to me now. I think of it as like you want so many, but in this case, people in this discourse, it it means a cap on the number of Jews that they were admitting.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

So And I think that's why I got tripped up because I was I was thinking of it as like a trying to get enough to hit a certain number.

SPEAKER_04 32:53

Right. You thought it was a nice DEI initiative, not so much.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Yeah, or like Nazis trying to hit their quotas in the war or something. I didn't know where how dark this was gonna get.

SPEAKER_04 33:05

Much worse. Yeah, I should have led with the colleges. I should have couched it in the in a college context. Well, this particular charge, it was led by elite universities: Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and then as a result, hundreds of other universities followed suit. So they were, I mean, Jews were obviously, obviously not the only group discriminated against by any means. Um, I found this quote, I think, that said, in 1935, Yale accepted 76 applicants from a pool of 501. About 200 of those applicants were Jewish, and only five got in.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 33:45

And the dean's instructions were remarkably precise. Quote, and then here's here's where you can see it's not there's the Jews. So, quote, never admit more than five Jews, take only two Italian Catholics, and take no blacks at all. So, problems all around, okay?

SPEAKER_01 34:01

It's not a great look. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 34:03

Not a good look for these universities at this time. I know, can you believe that? That's a quote from the dean. I'd forget. Oh, yeah, Yale's Dean. Yikes. Big yikes.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

But also, in terms of having primary documents to turn to for historical context and backing up claims, you know, and seeing that, like, yes, this really is our history, like as a country. Thank goodness for primary documents.

SPEAKER_04 34:25

Very true. I know, it's so true. And this discrimination, it was not just based on like a religion checkbox, okay? Because I mean, I'm sure a lot of these students would not have even checked the box. You know, some of them were totally non-practicing, right? So didn't even think of themselves as overtly Jewish in some way.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

They wouldn't fall into that phrase that we don't like to use about being Jewish enough, but you know, for for lack of a better term.

SPEAKER_04 34:52

Yeah. So this is it was more insidious than just like a checkbox saying, What religion are you? They would look for, for example, Jewish sounding last names, you know? Or um, oh, this is crazy. Legacy admissions, you know, legacy admissions where you sort of get a leg up if your uh parents went to that college or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

Yeah, I think it's called nepotism.

SPEAKER_04 35:16

Yeah, it's called nepotism.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

Nepotism for college.

SPEAKER_04 35:19

Legacy admissions, nepotism for college at Yale was started to keep out Jews.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_04 35:25

And this is also why they started recruiting for quote geographic diversity, because a lot of these universities were in the city. I mean, Yale is very close to New York City, where there were a lot of, you know, a large Jewish population. So this whole recruiting for geographic diversity started out as them really saying, let's go to places with fewer Jews and say, oh, we need more people from all these states that have very few Jews, you know. Um, admission interviews were held to suss out accents and backgrounds that weren't the right quote fit, you know, all of these things weirdly have roots in the anti-Semitism that, you know, they were trying to keep the Jews out of the universities. And what's insane is the policies only officially died out in like the 60s and 70s. Um what I I think like, yeah, I I I don't know. I'd have to do a deep dive on the research of what that means that they only died out there, but yeah, that's that's what the internet was telling me.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

I guess that shouldn't be surprising considering like all social problems in this country throughout the 20th century.

SPEAKER_04 36:35

So and uh as I alluded to also in my intro command here, in the 19th and 20th centuries, Jews were also excluded from a lot of country clubs, along with all those other quote undesirables. So those are two examples of uh, you know, the guarded domains that were trying to keep the Jews out. These universities and the country clubs.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

Do you remember? And maybe you have this in your notes. All right, I don't even need to No, no, no, I know exactly what you're gonna say, though. All right, no, no, no, you can say it.

SPEAKER_03 37:10

No, I want you to.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

All right. How many years ago do you think this was? Like 14 years ago, 15 years ago, something like 15 years ago. We went to a wedding in North Carolina, I want to say. Possibly South Carolina, but I think South.

SPEAKER_04 37:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

We'll say North Carolina.

SPEAKER_04 37:33

Love you the South. Love you the South. But this did happen in the South.

SPEAKER_00 37:36

And it was a wedding, a very not Jewish wedding. We can start by saying, right? Like none of the people getting married were Jewish. And the bride's family was sort of like a like a well-to-do Southern family, I guess, right? With like a lot of that like southern Protestant money.

SPEAKER_04 37:58

Peak wasp mixed with Southern Bell vibes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

Yeah. And we also had some relatives that were in the area, much older Jewish folk that we chose to visit on this trip. And when we were telling them about this wedding and the country club that it had taken place at, they said to us, like, oh yeah, that's the country club we can't go to because we're Jewish.

SPEAKER_04 38:25

I actually forgot that part of the story, Jay. All I remembered is that we kept making jokes about, like, oh, are they gonna kick us out?

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Oh no, oh no. Our our great uncle uh told us that, and and his wife told us that they can't go to that country club because they were Jewish and it's uh not allowed. Oh my gosh. I don't I don't know how explicitly or implicitly this uh moratorium is or was.

SPEAKER_04 38:53

Yeah, no, I think right. I think today it's like off the books, but if it still happens, it's just one of those unstated, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

But it should be mentioned that like in our lifetimes, right, there are are still situations where like that sort of discrimination happens in places. Crazy. Whether explicitly or implicitly.

SPEAKER_04 39:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

I'm glad you knew exactly what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_04 39:21

I knew, yeah, I knew, but I mean I'm glad you told it because I totally forgot that there was something to back up that feeling. I just remember the feeling, us joking about it, you know, like, uh-uh, don't let them find out, you know.

SPEAKER_00 39:32

Wild.

SPEAKER_04 39:33

Well, let's flip the script a little bit, and uh we're not it's not discrimination. Everybody calm down. I'm not about to talk about how Jewish people discriminate against other people. Um, I like to think we try not to, generally, at least the we that I'm a part of. But um, I'm going to talk about the Jewish community itself as a guarded domain in a little bit of a different way. So it guards entry, the Jewish community guards entry to the community in regards to people wanting to convert. Okay. So um traditionally, a convert is supposed to be discouraged from converting. There's like this custom that you're supposed to turn them away three times. In fact, you know, the rabbi is supposed to be like, nope. And then the person comes back and asks again, and the guy's like, nope, you know, turned away three times, trying to discourage them from converting.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

Now, do they tell people who are trying to convert that they're going to be discouraged three times? Or is it just like, uh, let's hope that they keep coming back?

SPEAKER_05 40:34

Well, I will say, I did know about this rule before I approached our rabbi to convert. Um, and he didn't turn me away. I was a little, I was, uh, I was ready to come back those other times, but okay, alright.

SPEAKER_04 40:49

But why? You know, why do we discourage conversion? And um for a few reasons. So because it's a hard life to choose in some ways, both societally, as we've just talked about, you can face real discrimination, even still, it's hard in that sense. And personally, it's hard to follow the commandments if if that's you know your intent to do as a Jew. And because they want to test how serious somebody is about it. So Judaism is a very communal religion, as opposed to some others that are more individualistic, it's sort of your relationship with God. Judaism puts a huge emphasis, more so on community, the community of Jews. A lot of our prayers are in like we language and us as opposed to I and me. And so, you know, they want to be serious about admitting people into that community. And also it is uh traditionally considered irreversible. Once you've converted, once a Jew, always a Jew. So you convert, that's it. You're in. So it's a big deal, right? You sort of want to protect that a little bit to make sure that people crossing the threshold want to cross the threshold, realize what it means, and that you'll be okay with them sticking around and wearing that label, you know, I'm Jewish for the rest of their lives, no matter what they do. So there are also, you know, barriers to entry that aren't necessarily present in other religions. So it demands a lot of time, a lot of study and commitment. It, you know, it usually takes a whole year. It's not like a religion where you can just be like, I believe now, and then bam, you're in. Um there are these barriers to entry that are baked in because of all these reasons. So in in contemporary discourse, um, I think this was born out of like sensitivities to cultural appropriation specifically, but you will sometimes hear Jews referring to Judaism as a quote, closed practice, meaning that if you have no ethno-religious, ethno and or religious connection to the community, the practices are not for you. Um I sometimes do things that fly in the face of that. Like I invite my non-Jewish friends to my satyrs, my Passover satyrs.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

And power to you for it, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_04 43:16

Well, thank you. Thank you very much. I mean, that's obviously how I feel about it too. To be fair, some people in my community might frown upon that, just and and sort of for all these reasons mentioned, right? Like it's a community thing, this is what binds us together. It's you know, it's a big deal to be part of the Jewish community. But um, but it's also not like I'm saying everyone, hey, you're at my satyr, so you're Jewish, and because you're participating, you can now go off and host your own satyrs. That's totally not weird. Like, I'm not saying that. It would be weird if they all went off and hosted their own satyrs.

SPEAKER_00 43:46

So And I'm not saying power to you in the way that it's like, oh great, you are like evangelizing them or converting them. Right. Right? Not in that way, but in like uh good on you for exposing other people to. Jewish practices and and culture and tradition and rituals. Yeah. Because like knowledge is power and getting to know people that are different than you is very important. It is a good thing that should be fostered in the world at large.

SPEAKER_04 44:14

Thank you. Yeah, I agree. And the people that I really love having at my seders, these are the these are the people that we end up inviting a lot. It's um people who are Jew-ish, you might say. So, you know, kind of like we used to be, maybe I I know several either patrilineal Jews or um people whose mother was maybe a Jew, but like the father was involved in his religion, like very Catholic or something. So they grew up doing the Catholic thing or something like that. So I know a lot of people like that and then their and their spouses. So you know I'm always encouraging. I mean, we're not supposed to, we don't evangelize sort of as a group, generally speaking, not a lot of that. And we discourage conversion, right?

SPEAKER_02 44:57

But for those people that I'm like, well, you're a little bit Jewish though, don't forget, you're a little bit Jewish though.

SPEAKER_05 45:03

And so and then they're and then their girlfriends are like, oh, you got a nice Jewish boy, you know, and you got an NJB.

SPEAKER_04 45:10

Um, so I have a lot of friends like that, weirdly. So I love inviting them. And also I love inviting my friends who are have no ties to Judaism whatsoever, but are, except for us, in their life, hopefully Jewish friends, um, but are very into their own religions. You know, I've got a few really committed and wonderful people, Catholic friends, and you know, I've got a Muslim friend who always comes to our seder, and uh a Hindu friend who always comes to our seder. And I think it's just really nice. You know, it's if you're involved in one culture and you don't have a lot of experience with the other cultures, I mean, like you said, it's just building bridges. I think cultural exposure never hurts. I think it's great. So that's my take. Come at me, synagogue, if you disagree officially in your stance.

SPEAKER_00 45:57

I would like to think that, uh, and and maybe you have more experience to to back up whether or not what I'm gonna say is true, but I would like to think that at large uh Judaism is more open to wanting to build bridges, uh specifically because it's not focused on trying to convert as many people as possible and spread the belief for the sake of the belief and and you know, spread in power and you know, control.

SPEAKER_04 46:27

Right. It's very coexisty.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

Yes, very coexisty. In a way that is also demonstrated, I'm sure, by many other religions.

SPEAKER_04 46:35

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

But then there's also like people that are, you know, like, oh well, we just we gotta convert it's my mission to convert absolutely everyone I can on this planet to my way of thinking or my religion, which is not great.

SPEAKER_04 46:48

My truth with the capital T is the one that everybody needs to have to get into heaven, which you know Right. If that's what you believe, I get it. I get that you wanna help people.

SPEAKER_00 46:57

Yeah, if that's what you believe, I understand.

SPEAKER_04 46:59

Right. But yes, yeah, Judaism's not quite so like that.

SPEAKER_00 47:02

I just feel bad for you.

SPEAKER_04 47:04

Right. Yeah, in in you know, in Judaism's perspective, you don't need to be Jewish, and you can still be a good person and whatever. But yeah, not everybody needs to be Jewish in Judaism. This whole thing actually makes me reflect back on the episode. This whole conversation about inviting people in to the Seder meal. I hadn't even thought about this before, but you know, they invite Paul in, or I should say Jess invites Paul in. She's she's making a wide, uh, a wide tent here, big tent, big tent Thanksgiving, just like my big tent Judaism, right?

SPEAKER_00 47:36

Oh, that's a great point.

SPEAKER_04 47:37

Yeah, she's she's breaking down that guarded domain. So I guess, yeah, you know, me presenting a bad way of Jews being kept out, and then also the I guess I would say understandable way that a Jewish community wants to guard its own territory to keep it safe, I guess, and uh communal. It's sort of like a good and bad, right? And in the episode, I'm trying to think now. Do we think it's the guarding of the domains? Is it good or is it is it bad? You know, we I feel like maybe it starts out in a bad place when Winston is just really overtly concerned. I don't know. Or I mean Winston seems like it comes from a troubled place, right?

SPEAKER_00 48:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:20

Are is there any example of it being good or understand- I mean it's understandable, I guess. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

If they hadn't invited him in, they wouldn't have actually done a Thanksgiving dinner. Which I I wanna say is like that was a good that came out of it. But uh if I say that, then I'm saying it was bad that they weren't gonna do that, you know, which is kind of invalidating, because like the you know, if their tradition was just they wanted to just have beer or ale or whatever they called it, and watch and watch uh the football game and not do like this big dinner. I you know, uh I'm not trying to rain on their parade.

SPEAKER_04 49:01

Yeah, harsh their vibes.

SPEAKER_00 49:03

But I think it's is a good thing, I guess, still. Like, like I could say, hold two truths, right? I could say that that was what they planned was gonna be fine, and what they did instead was equally great, and maybe they think that it was better by the end.

SPEAKER_04 49:18

Yeah, and you know, so obviously Nick is a real jerk in this episode, but just having said all of this about how Judaism treats itself as a guarded domain, I actually am I'm sympathizing with that now. I you know, I he was still a jerk, but I can see how he's sort of doing all these same things. He he sees the loft as a really important, precious communal space, a communal relationship web.

SPEAKER_00 49:51

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 49:52

And I actually I guess I can understand why he's so on edge about just letting somebody waltz in, mess up the dynamic. Uh yeah, I guess, you know, talking about it from this Jewish perspective of, you know, oh, it's understandable that they want to sort of discourage people from joining because it's serious to be a part of this community. Like maybe he just takes the Loft community really seriously.

SPEAKER_05 50:16

Maybe this is overly generous to attribute to him. Maybe he just thinks Paul is super weird.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

All right, all right. Now, now you have the gears turning in my head. If we want to equate this to what you do by inviting people into like satyrs, for instance, right? It's not that they are making Paul part of the group or the crew, or I don't know if there's a term for what they call like the people that live in the loft, right? Like the core team, you know, the core cast.

SPEAKER_01 50:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:47

It's not that they're making him part of it, because we know probably from a meta level, like I don't think Justin Long is gonna be on the show for very long.

SPEAKER_04 50:56

Oh, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 50:58

But it's still a good thing that they are welcoming him into that shared space, you know what I mean? And like have breaking bread with him, you know, and and even being friends, maybe, right? Yeah. It doesn't mean that he's moving into the apartment, but it says something about Jess and later Winston and Schmidt and begrudgingly Nick that they're willing to open their arms to him.

SPEAKER_04 51:26

Right. I love that connection. I think that's a great way to look at it.

SPEAKER_00 51:30

And so, yeah, sorry, the connection to you, you're welcoming people in in that way, right?

SPEAKER_04 51:35

Yeah, right, right. It's not like I'm saying, oh, you are Jewish now. Well, except for the Jewish ones. I'm like, you're Jewish now. But you're like, oh, don't forget. Right. Don't forget, you're a little Jewish though. Um, but right, but they're welcoming him in regardless. To to be exposed to it. Yeah, I like that. Very good.

SPEAKER_00 51:58

Thanks.

SPEAKER_04 52:00

Well, this was nice. Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for listening. Thank you, Jay. If y'all want to get in touch with us, you could send us an email. Our email is jugirlpodcast at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_00 52:13

Join us next time. Wait, wait, should we do a sentence one word at a time? Okay. Let's try it. Join us next time when we find a turkey.

SPEAKER_04 52:27

You could do an idea. You could do an idea.

SPEAKER_00 52:29

And Paul drinks.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

This is a terrible idea.

unknown 52:35

I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 52:37

Terrible idea. Alright, let's start again.

SPEAKER_00 52:39

I can blanch or I can talk, but I can't do both.

SPEAKER_04 52:42

Join us next time when we drink a pumpkin ale with that racist dean from Yale and toast two Thanksgiving pageants. Being also sometimes racist. In a bad way.

SPEAKER_05 53:00

We toast in a bad way. Like, like, yay, no more.

SPEAKER_00 53:04

Like, join us next time when Justin Long is on the show. We've really been out of the park with all of our celebrity guest stars.

SPEAKER_05 53:14

Ten for ten, however many we invited on, they've all accepted. We just cut that we cut those parts out. They're just not that interesting.

SPEAKER_00 53:21

Join us next time when the country club invites us into the fold. Not to be members, but you know, to become friends.

SPEAKER_05 53:29

Help fold their laundry. We can be staff. We can work for them. Give them our labor. Just like building the pyramids with that Horesset mortar.

unknown 53:38

Oh no!