Thirsty Topics
A weekly podcast dedicated to trending topics on social media, pop culture and entertainment.
Thirsty Topics
Stardom, Stumbles, and Social Media: Exploring Celebrity Turmoil for 4/2/25
Dive into the latest celebrity controversies as we explore Justin Bieber's erratic social media behavior amid his ex Selena Gomez's new relationship, and examine a high school basketball coach who was fired for yanking a player's hair during a game.
• Justin Bieber's concerning Instagram activity including bird photos and account deactivation
• Debate over appropriate physical contact after a basketball coach pulled a female player's hair
• Charli XCX's controversial comments about parents of young children being universally unhappy
• 23andMe's bankruptcy raising serious concerns about customer DNA data protection
• New laws allowing dogs to serve as official wedding witnesses in several states
• A mother's dolphin-riding accident highlights the risks of animal tourist attractions
• Snow White live action remake bombing as the worst-rated blockbuster in IMDb history
• Yankees' custom "torpedo bats" changing the home run game in baseball
• Disney World's skyrocketing prices making it unaffordable for average American families
• The welcome return of vocational education and trades training in high schools
Hello, and thank you for listening to Thirsty Topics podcast! I'm Lawrence Elrod, and every week Meryl Klemow and I dive deep into the stories that matter, the conversations that shape our world."
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Hello everyone, welcome to this week's episode of Thirsty Topics. I'm Lauren Selrod and I am Meryl Clemo. Welcome to the show, everyone.
Speaker 2:Woohoo, hey, meryl rod, and I am merrill clemo. Welcome to the show everyone. Hey, merrill. Hey, I'm feeling good. I feel like all of our topics are like light, or some of them are light-hearted compared to the happiness of the world that is true.
Speaker 1:That is true. We got to mix it up, though everything can be crazy, right yeah, totally don't mind my boyfriend coughing in the background.
Speaker 2:He's a, a psa for not vaping. Yeah, totally Don't mind my boyfriend coughing in the background. He's a PSA for not vaping. No problem at all Talk about thirsty conversations.
Speaker 1:I have one happening in the living room right now.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to go ahead and let you start this off, okay. Well, this has been. I don't know how much you're entangled with this gossip, because you do have a job and a life and you're like a grown adult. So how much do you know about, like, what's happening lately with, like, justin? Like, let me ask this Do you know that Selena Gomez, his ex, put out a new album?
Speaker 1:You know what I did not know, that no.
Speaker 2:Okay, see, that helps me know, because I feel like there's a whole subset of the population like me that, like I'm in it too deep and I know too much and I have to remember that like normal humans don't know all this. So you know, like Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez used to date like wait, when they were like little babies you know like 14, or you know very, very young. And then he married Hailey Bieber. Or you know he married Hailey Baldwin at the time and now she's Hailey Bieber. You know that much, right, and now, like even all these years, you would think him and Selena just would be like fully over it. But she just recently released she's marrying Benny Blanco, the music producer who also used to work with Justin, and he, you know he's responsible for like a lot of great songs.
Speaker 2:And so now Selena's album brings up like she doesn't say it's Justin, obviously, but it's about an ex and it's about you know how does it feel to be forgotten and all these things which is now dragging everyone back to like the Justin, haley, selena triangle of it all.
Speaker 2:And then on Tik TOK, someone put out a seven part series about how, like proving that Hayley was a stalker and basically stalked Justin from the time that she was younger and then, like, ultimately manifested him. But it was all these videos of her like lurking in the back of all these things that has seemed to be debunked. But it's pretty weird of like, just her copying selena, like if I had to pick a team, I'm, I'm terrible, I'm kind of team hayley, but um, but anyway, this all goes to show that, like, the three of them are just still a mess and to me, like if you're selena and justin and you're still going back and forth, like at this point he has a son, like him and hayley have a little son and if you're, like you know, still about your ex, even if it's for views.
Speaker 2:It's like everyone in the situation is a little bit nuts, but he's been. You know, we talked about him a few months ago, like as part of the Diddy situation, and it seems like he's been taken advantage of throughout most of his career as a child advantage of throughout most of his career as a child. But now he's starting to really show signs of just like you know, whether it's substance use or whether it's mental health or you know whatever. But he just he looks very gaunt and he's posting really erratically on social media. He's kind of giving like the Britney, like Aaron Carter, you know, before people seem to have bad things happen, like that type of posting, which is very sad.
Speaker 2:And yesterday he posted he's been posting all of these like birds and just Instagram stories and then he deactivated his account. But it made it look like he Haley unfollowed him because, basically, when Haley, when you checked who Haley was following, her husband Justin wasn't in the name. Haley, when you checked who Haley was following, her husband Justin wasn't in the name, and so I think that was because he deactivated his account. But this is all to say that if, like you know, if you're someone's ex and they're going crazy like a decade later, it's just A embarrassing and B. I hope he's okay and I feel like we're at the point now. You know we talk a lot about conservatorship with, like Wendy Williams and all that, and I don't think he needs a conservatorship, but I feel like, with him, someone in his life or team needs to look into this, because it seems like it's getting pretty messy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, obviously Justin Bieber is not the same person he was a few years back. There's a few things with this One I never knew people really looked at who follows their stars that closely.
Speaker 2:I know, when it comes to those three, everyone's watching, everyone's move.
Speaker 1:It's amazing that people have that kind of time. I know.
Speaker 2:I know it definitely is. People will do it the minute that it happens, or they'll notice like someone took a third photo out of a carousel from like a year ago. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously they got things going on. I agree with you, you know. I don't think, you know, conservatorship is something to be talked about or anything, but you know, I think he has been going through some stuff, because I don't know when the last time he put out music.
Speaker 1:I know I know, like even his look. Honestly, he can blend in and you would not know he's Justin Bieber because his look is so different right now. So I just kind of hope that they work their things out, no matter what's going on. But there's definitely some things going on. As far as what it is, we don't know, because here's the thing too even if they're having trouble in their marriage because of who they are, they have to put on a front until they want to release that news, if there's news to be released.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, and the reason why I'm like team hayley.
Speaker 2:I'm sure all these people are to some extent good people, but also to some extent, I think all of them are probably lost in the sauce, and you know what I mean like they're not normal people, like all of them. But at least hayley doesn't like do anything wrong to people like she's just quiet. Besides, like she, you know, she has her own makeup company and she's like really just posting for herself. She doesn't really like ever give a victim thing, or like she just wants to post in cute outfits and so um. But I was gonna say could you imagine if, like you know, you're married, say if your wife had an ex-husband that put out an album and all of a sudden now your wife like goes crazy and is like deactivating her account and like posting Instagrams of birds and stuff? It's just like to me Justin is not doing a very good job of seeming unbothered very much, like you know. So him and Selena still seem to like go nuts with each other over the internet whenever one of them has something coming out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true, and you know, sometimes people could misinterpret that for something else, you know.
Speaker 2:Right, like they still like like each other, or just yeah, I don't know what it is, but to me it's like Justin has a baby and Selena's engaged. Like everyone should just like forget about each other and move on with their lives.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. I mean I hope that, whatever's going on, they, they work it out and get through it. Um, because, um, it seemed like for a while, you know, everything was going really great in his life and I hope yeah I really do I do too.
Speaker 2:He's so talented and I just hope you know they've gotten like really religious. But then also there was like a scandal about his pastor not too long ago. Like it always seems like whoever he puts himself around, then like shortly thereafter that person is found to be like not a great influence on him. So I'm sure he feels like he could barely trust anyone. Maybe that's why, uh, you know, he keeps on acting out, but it definitely seems like. Of course we don't know for sure, but just the way he looks and acts, it definitely seems like maybe there's some substance stuff which is very sad.
Speaker 1:That's true, that's true, but we'll definitely keep an eye on this story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll keep an eye out for Selena. As the song says about Selena Gomez Like all of them are so weird. If anyone's watching, I'm sorry, but it's just weird to like watch Selena Gomez. Like all of them are like insane, except for Hailey Bieber's. Really pretty, but that's it.
Speaker 1:Talk about insane. There is a gentleman. He used to be a coach For a high school basketball team Women's high school basketball team. His name is Jim Zulo and he was fired after pulling the hair of one of his players during the game.
Speaker 2:Okay, yes, I remember that. Yep, I saw that Like hard too.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't care what's going on on the court. There is zero reason to ever put your hands on a child Never.
Speaker 2:Not like that at all either.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I just think that he should never, ever, coach again, because if you get that worked up, and here's the thing, it's a high school game. It's not an NBA or WNBA game. It's a high school basketball game. You're supposed to be teaching the fundamentals and also supposed to be fun. That's not fun, because other people, other players, could be traumatized from that too.
Speaker 2:Looking at this life, wow, you know exactly, yeah, I saw that and I mean, could you imagine if it even was the WNBA or like something even more high profile? Like I feel like by the time you're that age, hopefully you have enough agency that you're like, don't do that, you know, to the coach. I feel like they should never like, if anything, maybe like a tap on the shoulder or like grabbing someone, you know like lightly kind of grabbing someone by the shoulder, but there is no need to pull on someone's hair.
Speaker 1:Like that's just weird. I mean, he pulled her. I don't know if you got a chance to see the video, but he pulled her so hard her head yanked back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is very weird. I can see like in the right scenario if someone's almost like good game and like almost like in just like a light, like boop, you know, but like not in a way that that should not be used to like control someone or steer them.
Speaker 1:That's very weird. Yeah, I mean I know over the years it seemed like it's calmed down, but at some point it was getting out of control. You know where you have parents fighting on the field, coaches fighting. You remember when, every time you turned around, there was a fight at some kind of oh yeah, like baseball, dad standing up. And the crazy thing is, it wasn't the players, it was the parents, I know which is humiliating and you know, the kid, the poor kids.
Speaker 1:They're supposed to be learning about sportsmanship and they're watching this nonsense like, okay, we're teaching them a great thing, right do you think that's just like?
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't, I don't feel sympathy for that man, but obviously I bet he was because he's older, so I bet that he was like from a time where that almost happened. Because I feel like when our parents went to school, they a lot of schools did like you know, they like slapped their hands or they were allowed to like touch the students in a way that obviously now isn't right. But I feel like they need to have education for, like the modern day of like what's okay and what's not.
Speaker 1:I feel like they need to have education for, like, the modern day of like what's okay and what's not, I don't know. I think I disagree, and the only reason why is because, if it was something that just changed over, yeah, that's true, but you know, between the Me Too movement and you know we're 2025, which means we're talking decades, since you know that kind of culture exists, right, he knows better he does.
Speaker 2:He just got caught, yeah, definitely, and that's honestly even like I don't want to say abusive, but that's definitely not even great. Uh, parenting of your parents, like even to do that to your child, is not a really great way to like reprimand them and stuff you. You know what I mean. And so these kids aren't your children, but even if they were, that's not a really great way to teach children at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would say in a way it could be borderline abuse, because, no matter what's going on, I don't even see a parent pulling their child like that.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 1:So why would you as a coach? Because you know that could get really, really dangerous. Because what? If her father saw that, came down and decided to slam the coach to the ground. Yeah, it would really get out of hand very fast. Exactly.
Speaker 2:Now, okay, you're a dad. If it was like if your son was a little bit younger and you saw something like that at a game, would you like go off right then and there Would you wait till after the game?
Speaker 1:No, I'd go down to the floor and I'd grab the coach by his hair and slam him to the floor.
Speaker 2:You really, would you really?
Speaker 1:would, I would. Here's the thing, and I'm kind of weird like this. You know I could brush off pretty much anything being said to me, no matter how disgusting or whatever it is. Don't touch me. Okay, say whatever, don't touch me. Don't touch my family, and it's not about being bad or anything like that, but I'm from old school. You know, if you're going to put your hands on me and my family, I'll put my hands on you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:You can talk without touching.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I feel like if that, if my parents were watching something, they A would probably tell me Meryl, what did you do? But then after that they would probably like let me say as well, they would probably almost like have me talk to the principal, or like I could see in a scenario.
Speaker 2:then afterwards I mean, thank goodness, this was on camera too, it was clear as day and I think anyone could watch. It's not like, oh, he lightly grabbed it or you know like there's, there's proof right there what happened. So I think it was done.
Speaker 1:So it was like it was so casual that I'm willing to bet you that wasn't the only time he's ever put his hands on the studio. I know that could be wrong, but it just seemed like something that was way too natural for him to do Exactly Now.
Speaker 2:do you believe if this say if, like, besides this, the coach has a lot of good attributes, are you kind of like I don't care, I want them gone? Him gone like forever? No, or what if he's like, I'm so sorry, I learned my lesson.
Speaker 1:Can I like have one more try? Well, unfortunately it would not be my decision, but if it was my decision, absolutely not really good for you. I respect that once, once you put your hand on a child, you do not deserve to be coaching ever again yeah, yeah because the thing is, in any sport, once a coach has lost the locker room, meaning lost lost the confidence of their players, you're done. It doesn't matter how good you are, they're never going to play up to the potential you need them to.
Speaker 2:It's true? Yep, it's not the way. And like, especially when you're not teaching them anything by yanking on their hair, you're not being like, hey, that play didn't happen because you did this or you threw the ball this way, you know what I mean Like you're not teaching them anything.
Speaker 1:I'm curious Now, same question for you. Do you think you would want to see that person coach again?
Speaker 2:Something like I mean, I take, I hear you Like I don't like the no touching at all, but something like this if, like the person showed had like a good track record and really showed true remorse and sorrow, I would probably put them on a probation, maybe of three to six months, and then really really use that probation very tough and really be stern with them, and then if it was better we'd be okay, but if not, I'd be like you're out, okay. Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 2:If it was a different type of touching, of course, and they would be out immediately, but something that's like this, I feel like I'd be like that's really stupid and I'd make them feel bad and apologize, obviously, and take some education or whatever. But it also seems like this person's so old. They just need to retire and let someone young and nice Get in the game.
Speaker 2:That's true, that's very, very true we used to have a librarian this is so ridiculous. But we had a librarian. She she wasn't hurting us, but she would tell us, um, she would like give extra credit to anyone that was massaging her back and like, wow, she wasn't, like, it wasn't anything like nefarious or it wasn't anything bad. She was just like an old woman that constantly like had a backache and she would always tell kids, like you know, you get extra credit and I remember my friends would like rub her back. I'd be like you know, I could never touch her. I could like feel her like old bra, like her hair was just so curly and like old and stuff. And so, looking back, I'm like that is so inappropriate. But at the time no one thought anything weird about it. She wasn't even weird. It just was like, okay, this person needs a back rub. I guess it wasn't sexual at all, it was very just, almost. She didn't know any better. The things that we hear today are so strange.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would be borderline creepy to me though, isn't it?
Speaker 2:And it's like she just was an old lady, and half the time she'd just be like needing a back rub through her like cashmere old sweater. Okay, cheers, just line up to give me my back rub now, that's honestly what it was, and I'm like also, we were in library class. Why do you need extra credit for library class? But yeah.
Speaker 1:All righty now.
Speaker 2:I know. Whatever it was Pennsylvania in the 80s, no one knew what was happening. Okay, well, we'll keep the kid discussion going. This is a whole different, other version of it, but something that happened recently. Do you know who Pop Singer Chapel Roan is? Yes, I do, she's constantly. I think we've talked about her a bunch of times before because she's the past, I feel like her career, when she kind of got really big and really famous.
Speaker 2:She's known to be not so nice as paparazzi and she kind of has some moments of not wanting to say hi to her fans and just kind of she's not my favorite. But she got in trouble the other day on a podcast. She said a podcast called Call Her Daddy. She basically said that none of her friends that are parents are happy. Everyone is miserable. Let's see. I'm trying to find the exact quote. But she said I literally have not met. Oh, she said I don't know anyone. I actually don't know anyone who's happy and has children at this age.
Speaker 2:She went off rattling off ages of children under five as examples. I literally have not met anyone who's happy, anyone who has light in their eyes, anyone who has slept, and that got a lot of moms like riled up. Um, I don't know. My thoughts are like A that's kind of stupid to say, I mean, but that could be her experience.
Speaker 2:You know, she could be in her twenties and all of her friends right now might have like young children and they are really tired and really bedraggled and that doesn't mean they hate their lives or like they regret their choices, they just mean like they're tired and they're it's harder, you know, right now. But B I also think moms should like also not care as much, because it's like Chapel Roan is just a singer that like kind of gets in trouble every other month and like doesn't seem to know a lot about anything, and so like I feel like if you're a mom, you should, in a good way, I wouldn't like put a lot of weight into like what this person has to say in the world and that's her experience. But it's also like I wouldn't look to her as my source of intellectual sourcing.
Speaker 1:You know the interesting thing that I've learned over the years and I'm not going to say all single people, all people with no children, but the people I ran across the most that has the most to say aren't other parents, it's people who don't have kids, right, yes, and you know, it's like they have so much to say and it's like so how did you learn this if you have no kids? Well, I saw. I don't give a shit what that book says or what you watch on TV. Have some kids one day, and then you can talk.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:They literally tell you how to raise your child. Oh wow. You must have children I don't know about. Oh my God, how many kids you got. I don't have any kids. Depending on your relationship, you're like you know what that's okay, or you know shut the fuck up, go away.
Speaker 2:Exactly know what that's okay.
Speaker 2:Or you know, let's shut the fuck up, go away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, I constantly tell my friends that have children like I don't know how they do it and I never, ever, I never like suppose that I would know anything about them. And like my friends aren't miserable. Or my friends with killed children are just as miserable as my single friends with no boyfriends, single, you know, boys and girls with a husband, like we all have different levels of joy and misery and I feel like a lot of times my friends with kids, like on an Easter when they're with their family, then like I don't really have that, but then I have the freedom of you know it all. There's pros and cons of like all of it. So, but to me it's also, I think, sometimes in the media need to just like we can't all jump on like yeah, that's Chapel Roan's, like that's her truth, like that is her truth. You know she probably could have said it in a less snarky way, but it's like that could be true and mom shouldn't feel bad if, like that's what's happening with her.
Speaker 1:But I also think too, it's a kind of stupid thing to say well, yeah, and the thing is, everything has its ups and downs, even the best relationships and the best marriages. This is going to shock the whole world. But yes, they argue too. They may not do it in front of you, but they have their ups and downs too, and just because they have a bad moment with their child doesn't mean they don't love their child. They just had a bad moment.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:It doesn't mean that they're miserable.
Speaker 2:No, not at all. I feel very like I'm proud of myself for picking good friends early on, because my friends that are mothers and fathers like have still remained really cool and like still funny and, like you know, as much as I'm narcissistic of not having children, they are self-absorbed with their kids but like we're also all trying like everyone is trying their best to like maintain a friendship and I feel like if you pick good friends before they have kids, like hopefully you guys can all help each other and everything. And you know, I think I see all these like tropes all the time on TikTok of like the childless people being so being like why don't you have time for me? And you know like people misunderstanding each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean just, even if, let's say, you have a best friend and that best friend gets married, you can still hang out with a friend. Now, are you going to be able to hang out as much? No, because they're in a relationship, exactly you know, it kind of works both ways. You still need to spend some time with your friends, but as the person who's not married, you also have to understand too that they have a relationship too, exactly. So there's got to be a balance there.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 2:And when you pick friends like I'm genuinely interested in my friend's children's, like, oh, I want to hear about what's going on, especially when they get into like middle school age, and then there's gossip and then there's, you know, like other parents that they talk about.
Speaker 2:But I do think in the beginning it's up to like the me of the situation, the childless person to like go to the person's house when they just had a baby and like, maybe follow up a little bit more, because my best friend for the first two years we'd be on the phone and then all of a sudden she'd be like, ah, and the phone would just hang up, like like you know, I knew it would be like that, because I just knew like, okay, she has two young boys, they're gonna be like eating her alive, basically, and so I feel like when you find friends that you want to invest in for the long time, it's like okay, that's a small period of our friendship when her kids are little. So like if I get hung up on every couple weeks, it's okay. But also Chapel's like kind of young also and like I don't know how much media training she's had. I think part of her appeal is that she just speaks her mind and if she wants to say her friends aren't happy, you have kids, like that's truth and like people shouldn't be mad. That's just her life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. But also she needs to understand that may have a negative effect because her friends may look at her a little bit differently. You know Exactly the comments she made, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Imagine being one of the friends that has like a two-year-old and be like hello, what are you talking?
Speaker 2:about yep, exactly. So, like I said, I think you know, you just kind of shake your head, okay, and just kind of move on to the next exactly. Do you have any friends that, um, don't like, are happy, like happily unchilded?
Speaker 1:uh, you know yeah, I do have some friends that don't have children yeah, are they like?
Speaker 2:are they like jet setters like their life, or are they pretty much like still family people, but just not with children, or like it's kind of a mix of both.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, some are still family oriented, even though they don't have any children themselves. Some, um know, they don't have children and they don't really think about it much. So, it's kind of on both, on both spectrums.
Speaker 2:See, that's cool and I like being like the cool wild aunt to some kids where, like they know, they could like tell me anything or call me or whatever, and yeah, but some I have not my best friends, but there are some friends that I actively have to like write down their children's names because I just like can't remember. I'm like how is like okay, aiden, okay.
Speaker 1:No, I totally understand. Now talking about memory and other things, this one is a very interesting story, 23 and Me do you. One is a very interesting story, 23andme do you know who they are?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:For other people watching. 23andme is a place where you can get your DNA ran. This way, you can see if you have family members out there, find other people or even find some history about yourself. They have now filed for bankruptcy and now there's serious concerns about the customer data that they have. So you know a lot of people are saying you should go in there and delete your account, delete all your information, and I guess I've never done dna um just because of the fact that I'm a little worried about my information. Yeah, yep and um. This is.
Speaker 2:This story actually doesn't help at any I know it doesn't seem like a weird sci-fi movie like about to start. You know, it seems like the making of a weird movie and no one's really okay.
Speaker 1:We talked about the personal data, but what about your DNA that they've connected?
Speaker 2:I know that's true. I didn't even think about that?
Speaker 1:What happens to that? Oh?
Speaker 2:my God, I did not think about that. That's so funny because, like you know, as we talked about, I'm definitely like I can sit very much on the conspiracy spectrum and I have not thought about that yet. I'm going to have to go on Reddit after this one. They're building like a whole AI super robot of all of us or something.
Speaker 1:But the one thing I'm very surprised about is and I know people are like I don't want the government on our lives or whatever but I think this is one of those times where maybe government should step in and go.
Speaker 2:Hey, what are you?
Speaker 1:doing with the DNA, exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:It could be dangerous if that's in the wrong hands.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it definitely is. I did because wait, there's 23andMe and Ancestrycom, right, I think I did one of those and it was so funny. I think I did. I did one of those and it was so funny. It told me like things I already knew, basically, you know, like the diseases that my grandparents had, that I'm like okay, I'll probably get that one day too. But like, but it also told me that I like metabolize coffee really well.
Speaker 2:So if anything that helped me know that I could drink a lot of coffee, but but you know it scared me, and especially since I mean it's no secret, like I coffee, but but you know it scared me, and especially since I mean it's no secret, like I'm Jewish. You know I'm Jewish and so you never know, especially with, like, how things are going lately and everything you just don't know. And I mean I mean it's, if people want to find Jewish people, it's very easy to to do that and hopefully people don't want to do that anymore. But like that's something I didn't really think about at the time, but that's just I don't know. You never know, in the wrong hands, anything could be scary. You know, black, asian, jewish, like anything could be something that you don't want um to get that's a very real, legitimate concern you just brought up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, unfortunately these are things that you someone has to talk about, because once they go out of business, if no one is watching over them to see what they're doing, that information could be anywhere. And what's to stop them from selling that information to unsavory people?
Speaker 2:Exactly, and you think about I mean like and I know this is like way dark and everything like that, but it's like like, oh, nothing would ever happen. But I'm like, okay, could you imagine if there wasn't 2023? And me and like Germany and back in the day, you know? And so it's like we think these things can't happen. But it's scary when a company and remember when it was like just hacked and like you think these things are more encrypted than they are and then all of a sudden they could just get hacked like a regular, like an Ashley Madison type website. It's just very weird.
Speaker 1:Very, very weird. I don't know. I mean, I guess it's a personal decision when it comes to giving up your DNA, but unless I'm forced to, I don't know if I'm.
Speaker 2:I know, I know it is cool to find out, I think your lineage, I mean. I also don't know how deeply accurate that is, so but you know, I think it's cool. But it's also kind of like, what do you do with that?
Speaker 2:And I guess a lot of people too, I've heard, especially over the pandemic a lot of people did find like their birth parents, you know who were adopted and I think that's a big way, for I can totally see the draw with that if you are adopted in any way or want to find more of your biological family.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I agree. I just think that there really this kind of highlights that there should be some rules in place, some laws in place for the what-ifs. What if the company goes bankrupt? What if the company is shutting down? What are you doing with the information? This is what you should or shouldn't be doing with it. I just think that is one of those situations where the laws haven't caught up to the times.
Speaker 2:Exactly. I know people that also have found they had siblings they didn't know about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean mean if it's used the right way, it is a great thing.
Speaker 2:It really is yeah, mine was just like you're jewish and you're anxious. I'm like yeah, I know that, like, why did I just pay 79 to find that out? Thank you, it was like you're 99, like exactly what you know you are so well at least you confirmed it right exactly.
Speaker 2:That'd be very weird. And also like I look exactly like if you like, ai morphed my parents together, like like if you took my parents and like overlapped their face. I have like a venn diagram of them. So I wasn't expecting to find out that I was like from a sri lankan family or anything, but that's a good one so, yeah, no, no time soon are we going to get more, uh, genetic testing then?
Speaker 2:amen to that um, okay, well, something I am going to be doing is having when I have another dog one day, it can be an official wedding witness, especially if you live in New York now. So another state, new York, has made it legal for dogs to act as official wedding witnesses. So let's see this already said, you can't have your dog be the officiant, but you can have it be a witness, and so a lot of times like, the state allows pets to serve as a secondary witness by signing with a paw print. I think that is like, actually so cute.
Speaker 2:Um, this seems silly but like I've owned two dogs in the past and, like either one of both of my dogs I love so much that it would be like an honor to have them witness me get married. Honestly, I'd rather, looking back, I like have loved the dogs more than the actual man I was gonna marry, so like that would that would be the good takeaway of that situation would be the dog. Um, but I think it's cool. I mean it's very like kitschy and obviously I don't know how people take it very seriously, but I think like dogs can be part of our family and especially when you're a couple like and you have a dog together. It really is like a direct family member and I think I think that's like very cute. I think it's a it's a little silly, but I think it's very sweet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was actually a little shocked about it at first, until I read the article and I noticed that a lot of States that don't require a separate witness are allowing the dogs to be a witness. Yeah, my question is for states that do require a witness one, are they going to allow the dog to be a witness? And two, do they have to still have a human witness or are they going to? They can take the place of a human as a witness?
Speaker 2:I know that's true. Yeah, yeah, I think for like New York, colorado, kansas, pennsylvania, like I think you're on your own, you could just have a Springer Spaniel right there. That's it.
Speaker 1:Now those states they don't have a now did they have a rule where someone had to be a witness?
Speaker 2:No, I know Colorado doesn't mandate human witnesses for weddings.
Speaker 1:Ah, okay.
Speaker 2:And this is very exciting as well witnesses for weddings. And this is very exciting as well the 23 states where a dog can be your wedding witness. Also, this counts to have a bird, cat or pig. So like, literally, I haven't been interested in getting married recently, but if I could have a pig stamp its hoof honestly, now we're talking yes, that would be interesting. Oh my god, if I could truly have a wedding where there's like a dog and a pig watching me. Now I'm more excited than I ever have been for a wedding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it would be cute, though it would be nice and cute, definitely something to remember.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know I think that would be so, though it would be nice and cute, definitely something to remember. Yeah, I know I think that would be so sweet, especially like if you have a dog together and I just think I don't know if you're a family person. Like I think about my dogs that have passed all the time and that's just like they're part of my. You know our stories and everything.
Speaker 1:So I just think that's great.
Speaker 2:A lot of times, people that are your wedding uh witnesses like kind of you know you're not, you don't talk that much, or whatever.
Speaker 1:So I think this is I love it yeah, that's a nice story, very, very nice, positive.
Speaker 2:I think it's so cute my dogs would have like lifted their leg and like peed on the the wedding uh registry, though wedding registry though.
Speaker 1:Well, since we're talking about animals, this one is a somewhat feel-good, somewhat ouch-type situation. A mom her name is Sierra, she's from Stockyard, Tennessee Was injured while on vacation riding two dolphins. Scary, what happened was they have these two dolphins and basically what you do is you get on top, you know, one foot on one dolphin, one foot on the other, oh yeah, and then you kind of just ride them and the dolphins, kind of, you know, fly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's almost like a jet ski.
Speaker 1:You're like you know, almost like you're like yeah, yeah yeah well, the issue is is that while she was doing this on vacation, uh, with her kids? Um, she was saying that one dolphin was moving a little faster than the other, so she was off balance and she fell. She fell her back, hit the fin of one of the dolphins. It was very painful and the dolphins actually was interesting. They actually surrounded her to make sure she was okay. You know, kind of like you know, because dolphins are very, very smart animals.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But it was kind of a shame. I mean they interviewed the mom and she was saying that you know she still had fun even though this happened, or whatever, and you know it was a great experience. And I'm curious would you ride dolphins?
Speaker 2:No, I mean so far. My mom works at SeaWorld in San Diego. Oh, wow, yep. So, like you know, she's not in the tank or in the whatever with them. She's like more giving just tours and everything, but like or in the whatever with them. She's like more giving just whores and everything, but like, no, I wouldn't ride them.
Speaker 2:I would definitely like get in there nicely and like pet them, but I just feel like with animals like to me they're not to be ridden, or like I don't. I don't like any of that stuff, like bull riding or like I didn't like it all when they would stand on the killer whale's back and ride it. I'm all for nicely petting an animal or just feeding it nicely, but I wouldn't ride it. I'm surprised that, honestly, this doesn't happen more, because it just seems like with being with two huge creatures like that, I'm surprised that we don't hear more stories like that. But yeah, I've heard too, like how you said, there they all surrounded her. I've heard stories about how, like dolphins will look after surfers and bring them to the shore.
Speaker 2:Sometimes, you know if they've done bad, so um, but I could also see how that would be a cool experience for like the mom to do. So I wouldn't do it, but I could see why people the draw of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I kind of agree with you on that. Um, I will go there. Yeah, I kind of agree with you on that. I will go there, I'll watch it, I'll even pet it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely not.
Speaker 2:Even when I see horses I'm like how beautiful. I don't need to sit on you, I just want to touch the mane. But yeah, I think that would be. You didn't say she wasn't like Paralyzed or anything, was she?
Speaker 1:Thank God no.
Speaker 2:So hopefully that will be okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the scary part is what if she was paralyzed Because you could hit the right way in the back?
Speaker 2:I know, and especially if, like you know, if she fell the wrong way and like one landed like on her and like they could like easily like snap your neck or you know, I know that's so. I just feel like with those, with creatures, it's sad to make them do that, even if they're happy and like well taken care of. Um, I know like sea world has really had to change there like just make sure all the animals are happy and like do a lot of things to rescue them. They don't really treat them like that anymore. They do like a lot of good stuff. I think sometimes their image doesn't always come across like that in the media, but behind the scenes they really help the animals so much.
Speaker 2:Just a side note this is so cute. My mom had to. There was a little dolphin in San Diego that was rescued and it didn't know how to use its flippers so they made it their flipper. They made one out of a pool noodle and it was the cutest little baby dolphin with a pool noodle as a flipper. Nice, it's still there, but it's really friendly. My mom said that it actively wants to see people. It's really, really social.
Speaker 1:That's nice. That is definitely nice. I love being around animals. Animals have a way of calming you down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they definitely do. Maybe a dolphin could be a witness to a wedding, but we just can't ride them.
Speaker 1:That's true. That's true. Just be prepared to get wet.
Speaker 2:Honestly, if people get married in the ocean, they can take their little flipper and say yes to it, but yeah that's weird.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't do stuff like that. I think about that all the time of just like I used to um, I used to live by an amusement park called hershey park and you would go and kiss. They had like sea lions and you could go and, you know, kiss a sea lion like right in its face, and I'm like I never thought about like a how dirty that was and be like the fact that they could just bite your face, like in that moment.
Speaker 1:I don't know People trying to get that perfect shot.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Have you ever done any weird animal encounters?
Speaker 1:No, absolutely not.
Speaker 1:I'll watch people do it, though, but I won't do it now Exactly. Yeah, I've seen people do crazy stuff, like you know, play with reptiles. You know, of course, the big thing now is that you know play with reptiles. Um, you know, of course, you know the big thing now is that you know alligators and crocodiles. You know stuff like yeah, that's all cute and dandy. Like I can never see myself living in florida, because any place where I have to literally walk outside, make a lot of noise to make sure there's no alligator yeah, in my backyard, I don't want to live there.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and especially if you can't really have a backyard without making sure that they can't crawl in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that would kind of scare the hell out of me. Pretty weird.
Speaker 2:Well, this is a good transition. Was Snow White the one that attracted all the animals? That's Snow White, right, okay, well, yeah.
Speaker 1:The Seven Dwarfs.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, that's right. Was she the one that had all the animals would come to her too, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. The Seven Dwarfs too. Well, you know we love that version of Snow White, but the version that's out now is bombing. So, snow White, but the version that's out now is bombing.
Speaker 2:So the Snow White bombed into the worst blockbuster in IMDb history. Let's see, on IMDb it has at this point. When I the article came out, it had 227,000 reviews, putting it at a 1.5 out of 10, the lowest score of not just any blockbuster of a similar budget but also almost all the movies on the entire site. Now, of course, you know stuff like this, like there is definitely is a hate train where it's just fun to hate on things. By the time they like get such bad reviews. So I don't know how many of these are actually like real, real reviews.
Speaker 2:But Rotten Tomatoes, it's gotten really bad. A lot of one-star things People are and also a lot of people are coming onto TikTok who wanted to like the movie People that are fans saying that this is indeed terrible. Now Rachel Ziegler has been harassed a lot about the actress, the Snow White actress. She's been making a lot of statements about Palestine, blah, blah, blah, one way or another. Like, hopefully that shouldn't have a lot to do with like actual Snow White, you know what I mean. Like, even if I don't agree with some of her stuff, I would still absolutely watch like Snow White with an open mind and, you know, really like her work. So I don't know, have you seen it?
Speaker 1:I haven't seen it, but I'm really shocked that you know, especially being a disney um production, that it's really bombing so bad.
Speaker 2:I know, oh my god, this is so funny it's doing worse than a few of these movies, including cats glitter, cat woman, dragon ball, evolution and and so, excuse me, I think this also caught um. Remember, like when she was first making it, rachel ziggler was saying, basically about how this isn't like your 1930s, no way, and how the old story was outdated and a lot of people were kind of like, oh man, you know, kind of can't we have anything that's still left to to go now I kind of see I haven't seen it.
Speaker 1:So my assumption is that they change it to the point that people don't like the storyline.
Speaker 2:Now yeah, which like I don't think that means that they want to like live in an old time era, like that doesn't necessarily mean that you're like not woke or whatever. You know that just mean could mean it's like a bad movie done and it's kind of like don't fix what's broken or whatever the thing is. You know what's not broken. So, um, I don't really know, even if, like I said, even if rachel's not really likable or she's had some like whatever, like political things, I still feel like maybe she could be a good actress. But, like I've heard friends that were like I actively like this, I was ready to go to it and it was really bad and just really stupid.
Speaker 1:Did they say why they thought that?
Speaker 2:One friend who does like musicals said that there was too many songs and that the songs were really bad, badly done.
Speaker 1:Ah, so it's not a regular movie, it's a musical.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she said there's like a song Every single second. It's really terrible. And another friend, the friend that I went to go See the Wizard of Oz with, or whatever. I just saw the one with Ariana. I forget If that movie was even called With Ariana Grande and Cynthia. Was it Wizard?
Speaker 1:of.
Speaker 2:Oz.
Speaker 1:I think that's the Wizard wizard. I think it's called the wiz or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I just saw the part one of that I saw with the friend and we love that and she's like this was totally different. It was really bad, like the rate.
Speaker 2:The actress was terrible, um, so I don't know you know, even though it bombed, I'm really curious enough because I want to yeah exactly and once again, I still feel like the same thing with chapel road, like if the actress wants to go online and say her truth, which is that like she's ready for a new version, like I'm fine with that, I can make my own opinions, and on that, you know, I don't need I don't need her and I to like line up 24 7 on everything, but I know I almost want to see it when it comes out to video.
Speaker 1:It kind of makes you wonder if they didn't do a good job marketing it. If you don't market it, you already have an impression on your head about the old Snow White and the Dorffs story. You just go in there with that expectation.
Speaker 2:Exactly, I agree Totally, like, yeah, I haven't seen any positive things on it. I don't know how Rotten Tomatoes makes sure that people have seen movies, but they said that it's like, yeah, people seem bad for it and I do think it's probably a little. Oh, it says its critic scores are the lowest of all the major live action Disney adaptations, at a 41%. So like I feel like if critics are hating on it too, that really says something, because these aren't just like people that are mad because she tweeted like Free Palestine or something. These are like critics that are actively trying to like see the movie for what it is.
Speaker 1:That's true, but you know the thing is. There are times that's true, but the thing is, there are times where critics are wrong and the movie's a blockbuster.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and the people like it a lot. I feel like that happens a lot of times. The movie's actually great. We love it as people, but the critics are hating on it. That's true, that's true, I want to see it.
Speaker 1:I just want to see what it's all about, because it's like okay, if it's so horrible, why is it horrible? I know.
Speaker 2:I know, and maybe it is like I mean, what do you think? I don't think we need to modernize every single Disney movie. Like if something is outdated or not, like I'm fine with if something's terrible and like hurting society, then by all means, like we can like redo it nicely, but I think we don't need to like change every single thing.
Speaker 1:No, I agree, I mean. The thing is I think you should keep stuff original. Sometimes you may update a little bit depending on what's going on, but you still want to stay with the original storyline. Otherwise the audience is going to get lost as to. Okay, what are you doing?
Speaker 2:the audience is going to get lost as to, okay, what?
Speaker 1:are you doing? What are you trying to show? Yeah, exactly, Talking about showing. This is an interesting one here. Meryl, do you like baseball?
Speaker 2:I have to because my partner is obsessed. So yes, I've watched three Padres games so far.
Speaker 1:Well, he will definitely appreciate this story. Now we all know that the baseball season has just started.
Speaker 2:Yep, I have to Yep.
Speaker 1:And the New York Yankees has hit around 15 home runs in over three games.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, I saw this clip, yeah.
Speaker 1:And nine of those home runs, I believe was in one game alone. So now there's a big controversy of the bats they're using. So the bats, I guess, have been specially designed for each player. They're custom. Yeah, and they still fit into the Major League and the national league standards, so they're not going. They're not too big and they're not too short or whatever. But there's a big controversy and people are nicknaming them the torpedo bats and it's giving them an unfair advantage.
Speaker 2:I saw that we were watching the clip and I was screaming. Being like this is performance-enhancing bats. These are like the. I'm like. I know these players are good, but that is so nuts that it was like one after another, after another after another. I don't know, though, because then will this change? Will every team look into this now? Is this a proprietary thing, or is this something that every team can look into?
Speaker 1:Well, I'm not sure if it's something that they went to someone and they did it for them or they custom designed it within the team. That I don't know. But here's the thing about it If New York Mets can do it, any other team can do it, as well, exactly, that just seemed like everyone was hitting so much home runs.
Speaker 2:It did seem like something fishy or just like not fair. But I guess, if it's fair, like good for them for figuring it out. But I was screaming at the TV being like this is fixed. This is fixed.
Speaker 1:Hey, you know what? They figured out how to build a better mousetrap, exactly. Yeah, I tip my hat off they figured out how to build a better mousetrap, exactly. Yeah, I tip my hat off. I mean, as a sports fan, I think it's going to make the game that much more interesting now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think they have to like. Yeah, that's very true. Is that now everyone should have the right ability to do that to customize it exactly for them. But what if, like, it makes it so easy for people to get home runs that it's like not that? What if it's too often that people are getting home runs?
Speaker 1:that's a good point. I mean, basically, really, the bat just kind of enhances the skill that the person already has. So you know, if they're a great ball hitter, they're really going to be a great ball hitter, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If they're not that great of a hitter, maybe it helps them become an average hitter. So I think what it could do is make it more exciting, because, you know, hitting a home run does excite the crowd. Excite the crowd and I think by getting more home runs, maybe getting more baseline balls, it'll kind of speed the game up and it won't be this this just grudge match to watch, because yeah yes, I know a lot of people don't like watching baseball because they feel it's incredibly boring.
Speaker 1:I can tell you, being there at the park is much different than watching it on tv totally agreed.
Speaker 2:100. I feel like baseball is one of my favorite sports to go to go hang out at and to go to games, but watching it is like oh my gosh, you know, unless, like now, I've gotten to know some of the players and I like some of like the funny crowd shots and just the things, but I agree it's like it's really boring sometimes yeah, so I think you know what.
Speaker 1:I be wrong, but I think it's going to add excitement to the game and I'm willing to bet you it's probably not going to be a full season, maybe half the season. Through that, one or more of the teams are going to start cutting their own bets, and I could be wrong, but I think that's what's going to happen.
Speaker 2:Do you have a team that you really like?
Speaker 1:You know what? I'm more of a of a chicago fan, so I can, okay, yeah, tubs and socks. Um, I mean, I am a sports fan, my number one sports team, which is the bears friday's years the chicago bears, but we'll see how they go.
Speaker 2:Football is way more exciting to watch, I think, in my opinion, than baseball and even basketball basketball is so like slick and cool to watch that, I think, in my opinion, than baseball, even basketball Basketball is so slick and cool to watch.
Speaker 1:That's true. I think anything that's going to give the game more excitement and probably, at the same time, bring in more fans of hey go for it. I think it's a good thing.
Speaker 2:My last thing I was going to say about that. When I was watching and it's like the first three people are getting home runs and imagine if you're the fourth person up and you don't get a home run I'm like oh, idiot, idiot, that's such pressure. It's like, okay, keep the streak going.
Speaker 1:Yes, that is true. That is true, we will see. What do you think? Do you think more teams are gonna?
Speaker 2:otherwise it's gonna be a little ridiculous if, like the New York is like what team was it doing that again? Was it the Mets?
Speaker 1:New York get the Mets.
Speaker 2:So it's gonna be crazy if, like every game, I'm sorry, not the Mets in New York Yankees. Yankees. Okay, the Yankees, yeah, yeah, so like I think they'll have to adapt, or I hope that the MLB or whatever doesn't like have to go back on anything. But I think if it gets to be like two in one direction, people will have to like make a move one way or another.
Speaker 1:That's true, that's true.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I saw that that was crazy. I was like, no, no, let's hope that the Padres figure out a way to do that for my own sanity there you go my boyfriend was so excited on opening day that he got a nosebleed oh, wow, yeah, that excitement, that excitement for the game I know exactly. But yeah, I like. I just like to like look at which ones I think are cute. Like I constantly rate who my crushes are, I figure out a way to watch everything but baseball when I'm watching.
Speaker 1:Hey, whatever works right.
Speaker 2:Exactly exactly.
Speaker 1:Well, Meryl, this next one is yours.
Speaker 2:Oh, oh, my God, did I Whoops? I think I closed my thing by accident.
Speaker 1:I think you skipped one.
Speaker 2:I did. Oh yes, oh my gosh. Okay, that's right.
Speaker 1:I did.
Speaker 2:Speaking of Disney, we just talked about Disney's Snow White bombing. It happened at a time when Disney World and I can also add for sure Disneyland is becoming very unaffordable for the average American families. Disney has now become a very luxury experience. By the time you add in not even food or anything like that. Like not even food or merchandise, but even just a ticket itself can be like 194 dollars per person, not even counting tax. And then if you wanted to add on, like the g pass or any of the lightning passes and stuff you know, so, um, back in the day, like 50 years ago, a family of four could visit for 262 dollars.
Speaker 2:Of course we don't expect it to be that much, but like a family visiting for $700 just to get into Disney. Like not counting all the extra add-ons and not even counting the hotel and the airfare Like. To me that's just it should not count cost as much like to fly there as to like have a vacation in Italy or something you know. So I know for us too. We used to go to Disneyland in Anaheim all the time and it just became like I want to join my friends, but the last time I'm like I can't spend like $180 today just to stand in line for a few hours.
Speaker 1:I don't blame you. I think you hit it right on the head Years ago, when my son was very, very young. We went and we went to I think it's Disney World. That's in Florida, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep, yep.
Speaker 1:So we went to Disney World and everyone told us how expensive everything was or whatever. Well, what we did? We kind of planned it out where we actually went to go eat before we went to the parks.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's smart, that's really smart.
Speaker 1:So, course, over, you know, over the time, you know you still bought, you know, something to drink or something to snack on, but you know it wasn't a $50 meal either, so it wasn't as bad. And then, like I said, my son was real young so there was a lot of stuff that he got on, but some stuff he couldn't, just because of how small he was. But it wasn't that bad if you planned it out. But I mean, if you're paying almost $1,000 just to walk through the game, I mean you know some people can't afford that.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and it's funny because this whole article is about how like it has become unaffordable for people. But then the Catch-22 is that then it's like so it's also at the same time so crowded there that to you know the one in disneyland too you could buy a genie pass or um, they have all these like for 20 you could ride the ride faster, and I'm like I can't spend like 20 every single time I want to ride, to ride it.
Speaker 1:I have definitely added an extra like $120 onto just writing the Star Wars thing and I'm like this is so crazy oh yeah, and the thing is that the way they do it is, you know you turn around and look you're like I spent $500 here. Yeah, you know it takes away from it, I think, because I get it. They have to make money. You know everyone has to make money. They have to pay for everything, but you know it should be within some kind of reach, though exactly. There's a point of no return where some people are going to be like you know what.
Speaker 2:This is just too expensive, yep this article also said that disney world ticket prices have grown at almost nine times the rate of inflation and that many elements of the Disney experience that were once free now incur add-on fees. So not only are you paying more, but you're getting less for your spending, and I think that's like how people feel, where the Lightning Lane multi-pass, which is like $40 a day and it can be up to $15 per ride. So it's like so, if you're a family of four and you're trying to do like $15 per person per ride, that's so much. And so I wonder, I don't know, I wonder if, like, disney will care or if they'll drop it down.
Speaker 1:I mean, just think about it If you go in and you're there right in the morning, either when it opens or right after it opens, and you get there right in the morning, either when it opens or right after it opens, and you get on 10 rides where you want to try and zoom past everyone at 15 bucks times four, you've spent 600 bucks yeah, what you paid to get in.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:And, like you said before, this doesn't even count. Parking doesn't count, hotel, it doesn't, you know, count airfare or, you know, gas, depending on whether you drove or whether you flew. I mean, we're talking about a situation where you're literally paying thousands of dollars to go there exactly at some point you gotta go. Is this really worth it?
Speaker 2:yes, and I know they have like, uh, like in-state, like local discounts, but they're not even that much, and that's if you also buy three days in a row. It definitely gets down a little bit. For us too, we have, which I think is for Disney World as well, but there's Disneyland and then there's California Adventure, and then a lot of times it's an extra $90 to upgrade to California Adventure. I'm like, oh my god, this is truly becoming like $300 just to get into this stupid place.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean, I think it probably is good if you can do it once in a lifetime. Yeah, is this a place I'd go every year? Probably not.
Speaker 2:No, it's so funny. The only friends I have going to Disneyland now are the ones with no kids. Only friends I have going to Disneyland now are the ones with no kids. It's like my my wealthy gay married couple, like my two, two gay best friends that are married that like have a lot of money and they just go to Disneyland a lot, and then another couple that have dual income, no children, so like that's so ridiculous that you know that's who's going now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is actually pretty interesting, cause, like like we, that's who's going now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is actually pretty interesting Because, like there was a time a few years ago that we were going so often that I truly was like I can't, like I'm done with Disney, I need a break. And now it's just like that has not been a priority to spend like over $300 on one day just to, you know, kind of ride, a few rides and stand in line.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't blame you. I do not blame you at all, but, like I say, maybe I will go back one day, not anytime soon, though.
Speaker 2:Exactly, I think you said it exactly like a once in a decade type of thing.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, I agree 100%. Well, I would like to end this on a positive note. Good, please. I am very excited about this story. I grew up in an era where they had vocational classes in high school, meaning they had shop drafting, accounting, woodshop, you know all kinds of different trades. Well, now there's a big thing where there's a return of shopping vocational classes in high schools around the country, and I commend them for it. Yes, because a lot of people and I don't know why, but they look down at vocational or tech-type training. I mean, I don't know if people realize this, but there is a national shortage of diesel mechanics and it's only going to get worse Of what mechanics?
Speaker 1:Diesel mechanics. Oh, that's right, yeah, yeah, okay, yep. And then, plus, you still need plumbers, you still need carpenters to build the homes. Yep, these trades don't go away. And we used to push this back in the day where, hey, everyone's not going to go to college, but hey, here's another option.
Speaker 1:If you don't go to college or you don't go to military, here's a third option and I don't think that people should be looked down on because they decide you know what? I want to be a carpenter. I want to be a mechanic. You know I want to be a CNC working on machinery. Or you know I want to be a mechanic. You know I want to be a cnc working on machinery. Or you know I want to be. You know there's so many different technical uh technical trades out there. What do you think, merrill?
Speaker 2:oh my gosh. I think, like, honestly, I think trade jobs are kind of cooler now than like even just like office jobs. You know, like I I think I think some of the happiest people that I know are like out there building with their hands or plumbing electricians. I think that's so cool and I think, especially if someone doesn't know if they want to go to college or they just can't and they want to get right into the workforce or right into the vocational school, I think it's so freaking cool. I don't know who in their right mind would like make fun or look down upon these people.
Speaker 2:If you do like, you have serious issues, because I think it's just like that's a, it's a really cool skill to have, and I think, with AI replacing a lot of jobs like the kind of jobs that I have, you know, like more writing, copywriting, like it's so smart to go into these things, because these are the types of things that like, yeah, you may be working with robots and everything, but they will still need actual humans to oversee the projects or at least, like put the hammer into the nail and you know all that stuff.
Speaker 2:So I'm a big, big fan of that and I also agree. Even growing up, like in high school, I always thought the woodworking class was so cool and just teaching people real skills, and even like I wish that, even if I didn't go to school for it, I wish more like they had. I wish there was a class that they taught you more about cars, or like you know that if you just opened up a hood like I, no one's really there to teach you this kind of stuff. So I think it's. I think the more like tactical stuff we can learn as a society, the happier we're all going to be.
Speaker 1:That's true, and I think that learning a trade gives you an extra option. Yeah, if you're not sure what to do with your life, you can literally come out of school and make a decent living without having to work minimum wage Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I just I feel like there shouldn't be a stigma anymore about like more office jobs or like the white collar stuff versus more trade jobs, because it doesn't even matter. And I feel like, honestly, a lot of the more office jobs are kind of more soul draining and more you know nothing.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and you know the crazy thing, meryl, is that college is getting more and more more expensive. Is that college is getting more and more more expensive? Yeah, and you know you have to think about it. You know you put on depending on your major, what school you go to. I mean you can have debt as high as like $200,000 or more, depending on what you're going into. Yeah, and then you graduate, you're all excited, you got your degree and everything and you're making $30,000 a year.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Now, before people get online and bash me there's nothing wrong with $30,000 a year, no, no. But when you're expecting, hey, I done spent all this money into this education. A lot of kids come out with this false sense of what they're going to make, thinking they're going to make big out of high school I mean out of college.
Speaker 2:That's not real yeah, I know they need to change the narrative that like go more vocational thing and hands-on, it's not like giving up or like failing. You're not doing this in a response to like not doing college, you're doing it like intentionally. I think you know. And also, even if you decide to not even do that as a profession, how good to know when you become a homeowner or something, how to be an electrician or if you could fix your own plumbing heck yeah, why wouldn't you want to?
Speaker 1:do that, oh yeah, and sometimes kids come out of high school and they have no idea what they want to do, right, and I personally think that, okay, if you don't know what you want to do, but you do know you want to go to school, I think you should do a community college until you figure it out. Yeah, I have never been a big supporter of going to college just for the sake of going to college. Right, because you're just basically putting on sake of going to college, right, you know, because you know you're just basically putting on a mortgage for no reason.
Speaker 2:Exactly, yeah, yeah, especially. Like if you can do that with ease of money, then like by all means, go do that, that's fine. Like go do that and have that experience. But if you can't for any reason, or you just don't want to like, it should the other path is totally fine.
Speaker 1:oh yeah, and again, college makes sense if you have a plan where you want to be and it fits into that plan exactly. And let's say, for example, if you want to be a mechanic, but you know you're being pushed to go to college because you should have a four-year degree, that's not a good uh source of what you should be doing with your phone, right? So it has to make sense because really a degree doesn't guarantee anything.
Speaker 2:It's just an extra tool in your toolbox that you can use Yep and I think too, like even the vocational schools down the road, if someone wants to go into like, like civil engineering or something, it's good to have a foundation of knowing exactly what you're building and why, like it will Down the road. I think it will make people even better job prospect if you know about how to fix these things, plumbers owning their own company, and it's actually a really good way to become a business person.
Speaker 1:I agree. I agree, there's a lot of options that you could go through. Me too. You could probably tell how I agree. I agree, there's a lot of options that you could go through.
Speaker 2:So me too.
Speaker 1:You could probably tell how excited I am.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say that's so funny. I feel like I think this is the strongest we have ever felt about this, and, as someone that I have, like literally no vocational skills whatsoever, Like I think I am the spokesperson of, like don't like, I feel like I, you know, I went to school and did all these office jobs and I'm like we are not like smarter or better by any means, Like we are actually more flawed humans. So so yeah.
Speaker 1:That was a great way to end.
Speaker 2:It was, it totally was Well.
Speaker 1:Meryl, what do you have coming?
Speaker 2:up. Oh my gosh, let's see Show, show wise. Oh my gosh, let's see Show, show wise. I'm going to give a plug to just because I don't have a show for another week or so Another kind of publication that I write for called the LA Girl, which is really cool. This is so ridiculous, but for my job there I just went pickle tasting and so it sounds pretty weird, but it's not vocation. But you will see. If people are interested in seeing more LA adventures, I take a lot of video for that and just kind of get some LA stuff. So it's called the LA Girl.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice. Now how can people see that publication?
Speaker 2:It's just called like if they go to like the LA Girl. If you search it anywhere, you can see. So it's things happening in LA. A lot of like travel, you know. Just you know going around tasting different food. I know you're a foodie, so you would love. Do you like pickles?
Speaker 1:Yes, I do.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's good. There's a company called Kalen and Kalen Pickles out here and they have like horseradish flavor. It was really good, like all the different types, so it's really cool.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, I definitely need to check that out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll send you the link to it. It's really good. I have my boyfriend had to tell me to stop, had gone to bed and I was standing in front of the fridge drinking and he's like Meryl, what are you doing? So I guess that's not really an event coming up, but that's just more a confession to you guys.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 2:Well everyone.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for watching. We had such and such a great time. Always remember to support us by watching us and letting people know who we are, and also make sure that you support my girl, meryl, too.
Speaker 2:Yay, thank you, you're the best.
Speaker 1:Well, everyone, enjoy the rest of your day. I'm Lawrence Elrod.
Speaker 2:And I'm Meryl Clemo.
