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as of January, 2026. For full offer details, visit BoostMobile.com. There's a difference between liking a house
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00:01:37
hello hello and welcome to my favorite murder the mini sode that's right we read you your stories
00:02:00
and maybe you listen to them that'd be cool you should you're here well just just listen
00:02:07
Should I go first this time? Okay. How about some spooky Halloween ghost stories?
00:02:15
Yes. Hello. Here's a series of spooky Halloween ghost stories. And they do the O uppercase,
00:02:22
lowercase, uppercase, lowercase O. Yes. You know, I'll tell you now. Up until I was like seven,
00:02:27
I saw ghosts and stuff. This is a fairly normal timeline of kids and supernatural things, I guess.
00:02:32
I eventually got super scared of it and therefore stopped seeing paranormal things.
00:02:37
Here are a few of my favorite stories of me being a totally freaky child and telling others I see dead people.
00:02:44
Wow. My mom's friend, Adam, died in a motorcycle accident before my brother and I were born.
00:02:49
My family was having dinner with Adam's parents. I was two or three at the time, so tiny baby.
00:02:55
Adam's dad starts crying and says, I wish Adam were here. He would have loved to meet you kids.
00:03:00
I do not skip a beat and say, what do you mean? He's standing right behind you. Here's another one.
00:03:08
I'm like two or three years old and we were visiting my great grandmother who I called
00:03:12
Bopsy, it's Polish for grandma, in hospice. She used to give us some money, send us to the toy store to get something and have us
00:03:20
come back to show her what we got every time we visited. So we go to visit her and I curl up in bed with her and sing to her the only song I knew.
00:03:28
proud to be an American. We look like a three-year-old singing that. My parents, brother, and I then get into the car
00:03:38
to go to Toys R Us and get a toy like Bob Shee told us to. Little BB Me says, I just sang Bob Shee to heaven.
00:03:46
Oh. My family thinks nothing of this. I'm the youngest and a literal baby. We do our shopping at the toy store,
00:03:52
and my brother and I each pick something out. We then head back to Bob Shee at hospice.
00:03:57
When we got there, the staff informed my parents that Bob, she had just passed a little after we left.
00:04:02
I indeed had sang her to heaven. And knew it. And knew it. Oh, what a nice way to die to have your little granddaughter singing a song to you.
00:04:11
And an American song. Proud to be an American. Up to a Polish grandma. She had no idea what that child was saying.
00:04:19
Right. After this, I inherited Bob, she's super fancy self-made dollhouse that sat on my shelf in my room for years.
00:04:26
By age six, I firmly believed that Bob, she was stuck inside for a while. And that's when I started getting scared.
00:04:33
Yeah. After this came the things that really scared me and I never saw anything again.
00:04:37
My parents told me to tell the spirits, you're scaring me, go away. And I guess it worked.
00:04:42
I stopped seeing things. All these slightly creepy, somewhat heartfelt stories to say, I definitely believe there
00:04:49
is something after death. All the love, Kayla. Good email, Kayla. I mean, that's just fascinating.
00:04:56
Like you are living proof that there's potentially something else going on. That's such an exciting feeling.
00:05:03
There's so many of those stories in the world. Like there has to be some kind of credence to them.
00:05:09
I think so. And while we're talking about it, you should definitely listen to Ghosted by Roz Hernandez on the Exactly Right Podcast Network.
00:05:16
That's right. So my first email, I'm not going to read you the subject line. It just starts out, hey, it's me again.
00:05:23
third time writer hoping this story is up to par oh by the way if you've written and written
00:05:29
please don't take it personally our gmail is jam-packed alejandra our producer who is here
00:05:36
with us right now does such an amazing job but it takes a lot to go through these emails and
00:05:41
organize them and so anyway please keep submitting if you know your story's good then your story's
00:05:47
good yeah okay still love you all the same as the day this podcast dropped are they saying they're a
00:05:53
Day one listener. Aw. Aw So this is a tad long so let get into it When I was just a wee thing in my early 20s I decided to take a solo trip from my Wisconsin college to Copenhagen Denmark
00:06:05
The overall goal was to visit one of my greatest friends who was an exchange student at my high school.
00:06:10
Shout out, Caroline. Everything started off grand with free upgraded plane seats, an amazing walk to see the Little Mermaid statue,
00:06:17
and stumbling into a plaza that turned out to be the Queen's castle. Craziest part was I saw the queen herself leave the castle in a motorcade because it was a national holiday.
00:06:28
I was off to a great start, but something told me it was a little too great. A few days later, I went to a museum.
00:06:35
One exhibit in the museum held the crown jewels. Yes, the crown of the queen I just saw days earlier.
00:06:41
The room that held these jewels was a descending spiral ramp to a small room at the bottom.
00:06:47
As I approached the bottom, I passed a cute baby and its mother said hi and approached the case that held the crowns.
00:06:54
Almost immediately, that baby I passed started crying. I do not know if it was the acoustics in the room, but all caps, that baby was loud.
00:07:04
So loud, the burglar alarms were set off. To make things even more exciting, they were set off as I was one of two people in the room with one of the country's most prized possessions.
00:07:16
Guards came rushing in and instructed us to take a seat on the floor as they ensured all items were in their place.
00:07:22
As any young 20-year-old with anxiety would do, I started rehearsing my one telephone call to my parents,
00:07:28
explaining to them that I am not a master jewel thief, all the while giving some casual side eye to a baby.
00:07:34
Obviously, all was in its place and everyone was free to go on about their day. I was forced to take one last stroll past the infant that almost sent me to a Danish prison.
00:07:43
Let's not be dramatic. Exited the museum and enjoyed some pastries in the park to calm my nerves.
00:07:49
Actually, though, all that love to the mother and child, who both must have been just as embarrassed as I was feeling.
00:07:56
What if that baby was so embarrassed? Oh, my God. Mortified. Oh, dying. All in all, the trip to Denmark was amazing, and I recommend it to everyone.
00:08:05
It's such an underrated country filled with amazing people and culture. Stay sexy and don't have a face that makes babies cry, I guess.
00:08:13
Quentin, he, him. Oh my God. That was great. And now we need vacation disaster stories.
00:08:21
Yes. Quentin gave us the idea. Good idea. And you know, we're going to get so many
00:08:26
fucking cruise stories. Oh yeah. I want disaster stories of trips. I think Quentin's burglar alarm
00:08:32
near the Danish crown jewels is a perfect example. Anything around that area, that embarrassing,
00:08:40
that large scale. We love it. Send them to myfavoritemurderer at Gmail. Hey, everyone.
00:08:48
It's Cal Penn, host of Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. This week on the podcast,
00:08:54
I'm sitting down with Lily Chu, the author of the Audible original romantic comedy
00:08:59
Just Kiss Already. It's a story about a forensic anthropologist who secretly writes
00:09:04
mystery novels, an actress who adapts his book into a film, and what happens when a meme
00:09:09
and a media tour collide with a slow burn romance. It's performed by Simu Liu and Philippa Su,
00:09:17
and it is an absolute blast. When you actually hear the performance, you realize that other people are taking your words
00:09:26
and what you thought was kind of a straightforward sentence, like the cat in the corner is black.
00:09:31
In my head, it's the cat in the corner is black, not the dog, not the gerbil. But someone else might say it,
00:09:37
the cat in the corner is black. that's always fascinating to me. How they just bring in all these different nuances
00:09:42
and really make it fun and interesting and distinctive. Listen to Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club
00:09:50
on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Your pet is your bestie.
00:10:02
Your therapist, your perfect match. It's easy to love them. It's easy to protect them too.
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with pet insurance coverage from Pets Best. Because it's all fun and games until they chew on something they shouldn't.
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00:10:25
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00:10:30
From puppies and kittens to seniors. Find your perfect match plan and get a quote at PetsBest.com.
00:10:35
Pet insurance products offered and administered by Pets Best Insurance Services, LLC, are underwritten by American Pet Insurance Company or Independence American Insurance Company.
00:10:42
For terms and conditions, visit www.petsbest.com backslash policy. Products are underwritten by American Pet Insurance Company, Independence American Insurance Company or MS Transverse Insurance Company and administered by Pets Best Insurance Services, LLC.
00:10:52
One dollar a day premium based on 2024 average new policyholder data for accident and illness plans.
00:10:57
Pets age zero to 10. Let's talk about modern home shopping. It's sort of become a fun side hobby, right?
00:11:05
Scrolling listings at night, dreaming about kitchens you've never seen, or backyards you haven't even stepped foot in.
00:11:11
All from the comforts of pretty much anywhere. Redfin knows a lot of people like you want to own,
00:11:17
but are stuck in this browsing mode loop. That's where Redfin flips the script. With listings that update within minutes,
00:11:24
and tours you can book right from the Redfin app, you can see your dream home the moment it appears.
00:11:30
Now, liking a listing is easy, but actually landing it, that's where Redfin comes in. Redfin has over 2,200 agents with local expertise. And Redfin
00:11:41
agents close twice as many deals as other agents. That means they want to help you win,
00:11:46
not just window shop. Redfin is built to help you go from just looking to wait. This could
00:11:51
actually be home So become the newest neighbor on the block Visit redfin to start finding and start owning That redfin Here New Orleans Hidden Remains Hey y in 2018 I was dabbling in the dating world and met a
00:12:10
super hot, exceptionally tall, and it says this is relevant later, rock climber while visiting a
00:12:17
friend in Atlanta. The only problem, he lived in Georgia while I was living in New Orleans.
00:12:22
We hit it off so well that after I returned to New Orleans, we continued talking and he
00:12:26
asked if he could visit me for a weekend. It's like a seven hour drive. I said yes and excitedly made plans to show him what New Orleans and I had to offer.
00:12:37
He arrived and I gave him a quick tour of my, it was an aside, so that's how I imagine
00:12:41
it. And I, you know. And I. And I, maybe. He arrived and I gave him a quick tour of my rental place, which was a slightly renovated
00:12:51
portion of the ground level floor in a quintessential giant old new orleans house
00:12:56
cool does that sound my landlady was lovely but eccentric and lived upstairs where she primarily
00:13:02
hung out with her cocker spaniel ike and drink rum and diet cokes yes oh my that's the life
00:13:09
love her and her name was jennifer coolidge hot rock climber guy and i were suddenly awkward
00:13:17
around each other when he arrived and we sort of made small talk and stood around the kitchen oh
00:13:22
god that's the worst and you're like i'm so excited are we gonna hit it off again we had such a great
00:13:26
time and then they get there and the magic isn't fucking there anymore it's too much energy and
00:13:30
then everybody pulls way back and then you're in a weird like you're almost pretending you don't
00:13:35
like each other because you went too far in the other direction right and the expectations are so
00:13:40
fucking high then no one can live up to them and there's no worse feeling than when someone's like
00:13:44
I think you like me more than I like you. So like, I think everyone operates in the, oh my God, if that's what you're about to accuse me of, like, I can't live in that world.
00:13:54
Yeah. To the detriment of their relationships. Mr. Climber ended up glancing at my refrigerator and spotting something unusual in the wall behind it.
00:14:05
He was tall so he could see over the top of the fridge. Wow. He asked jokingly, do you have a secret compartment in your wall back there?
00:14:13
I told him I had no idea what he was talking about. I ended up climbing onto his shoulders.
00:14:19
Yes, hot. Sounds like a good icebreaker. Yeah. So I could peer farther over the refrigerator.
00:14:26
Can you imagine him being awkward already? And we're like, I'm not going to get a chair. I'm
00:14:30
going to climb onto you, Mr. Rock Clamber. How did they bridge that gap of like kind of
00:14:35
stammering and bad conversation? And then it's like, did he go down on one knee? He's like,
00:14:40
get up here, girl. You know, we've got to do this together. I'm going to go ahead and guess
00:14:44
alcohol was involved. That's how they bridged that gap. Yeah. It was just like 45 minutes past
00:14:49
and they had three Coors lights. Okay. I could peer farther over the refrigerator when I saw a
00:14:55
small alcove in the wall. In this small cubby there was dot, dot, dot. Well, it looked like a
00:15:01
shrine with an ornate box nestled in the center. I tentatively pulled it out and me and my new date
00:15:07
stared at it. I opened the lid slowly and saw on the inside the engraving quote in loving memory
00:15:14
of our mother. And there in the red velvety interior of this box was a white powdery substance
00:15:21
in a baggie. And I was pretty sure it wasn't cocaine. No, it was somebody's ashes.
00:15:29
Initially, my landlady who was just as mystified as I was, she came to own the old house through
00:15:33
her husband's side of the family. But after she did some digging and inquiring, she told me that
00:15:39
it was her late husband's aunt or was a great aunt. And that quote, we just forgot she was there,
00:15:45
but don't worry. She'd be a good spirit if she decided to stay around and haunt the apartment.
00:15:49
Excuse me. No, but don't worry. We're not going to do anything about it. Leave our aunt alone.
00:15:57
She's chill. So she's there. She's like not a dick, you know, ghost. She's like a chill,
00:16:02
cool ghost. Just live with the ghost of our aunt, please. My landlady took possession of the ashes
00:16:09
and she made sure to tell me that this wasn't a whole body's worth of ashes, rather only a portion
00:16:15
and the rest had been divided up among family members most likely. So calm the fuck down.
00:16:20
Worse. Worse news. It's gone from bed to worse. This ghost is like, where's the rest of my body?
00:16:26
That's why she's coming to haunt. That's terrifying. I couldn't help but shake the
00:16:31
feeling that I hadn't truly been alone in that little apartment. Yeah. And sadly, Mr. Clymer
00:16:36
called it off after that. He blamed it on the distance, but it could have been that our first
00:16:41
official date involved finding human remains hidden in my apartment. Finding hidden remains
00:16:48
while you're on his shoulders like you're at a Van Halen concert. Right. Like there's nothing normal
00:16:54
about this date. Yeah, but I feel like for some of us, and I think a lot of murderinos will agree
00:16:59
that that would bond you. And for the rest of the weekend, you'd be like, we fucking treasure hunted
00:17:05
and found this insane thing. We can just talk about it all weekend and it's kind of romantic.
00:17:10
Yeah, but it sounds like Rock Climber was like no bonding for me. It doesn't matter how incredible
00:17:15
the experience is that we have. He sounds like a normie. And so maybe... Bye. Climb your rocks then, friend.
00:17:22
Go fucking climb a rock. Stay sexy and double check your apartment for weird shit
00:17:26
before your date gets there. Therese. Yeah. Teresa, that was an epic email because the details were also the story. And that's my
00:17:37
favorite. I wish I could watch a 15 second hiate film of you climbing on this guy's shoulders.
00:17:43
I think that piece is what I'm in it for. Okay. The subject line of this email is my husband's
00:17:53
avalanche survival story Oh my God And then the first line just says my people it really you Since you featured so many natural disasters as MFM topics and Karen can get enough of survival stories
00:18:07
allow me to introduce you to my husband, Paul. In short, he's the bane of a lazy, relaxed weekend
00:18:13
with brunch, a nice book and nothing productive happening. He's a professionally trained mountain
00:18:19
guide, rock and ice climbing instructor, backcountry skier, Arctic survival expert,
00:18:25
trail runner, backpacker, and all around nature boy. Is he the fucking rock climber?
00:18:30
That's what I'm saying. What if Paul went on to meet this person of this life? Yeah.
00:18:37
That'd be amazing. Yeah. This whole podcast turns into just a chronology of Paul's life.
00:18:44
He's involved in every email we've ever read. he's our forest gump six degrees of paul okay i like the sound of paul already though i like when
00:18:55
people live their life to the literal and utmost fullest in the exact opposite of how i am it makes
00:19:02
me happy oh the next line is he has absolutely zero chill there are all aspects of his career
00:19:09
as a master mountaineer where he can do things like coordinate mountain rescues and train members
00:19:15
of the military. And while I agree that people have no business in the forest, if you have Paul,
00:19:20
you'll be totally fine. An important part of Paul's job is avalanche risk assessment. You need to be
00:19:26
able to move safely in a high altitude mountain environment without triggering an avalanche by
00:19:31
considering things like the snowpack, what face of the mountain you're on, and weather patterns.
00:19:36
It's a science that takes hundreds of hours of training to learn. And for our non-mountain
00:19:40
living listeners, here's the gist on avalanches. An unstable mass of snow that breaks away from a
00:19:46
slope due to added weight or vibrations and picks up speed as it moves downhill, producing a river
00:19:52
of snow and a cloud of icy particles that rises high in the air. The moving mass picks up even
00:19:59
more snow as it surges downhill. And according to Nat Geo, a large fully developed avalanche can
00:20:05
weigh as much as a million tons and travel faster than 200 miles an hour. That's insane.
00:20:12
So Paul goes out often with other instructors on weekends to scope out new training areas for the
00:20:19
courses he manages and uses this knowledge to navigate. This involves backcountry skiing,
00:20:24
where you essentially hike and cross country ski for hours up a mountain and then ski down it
00:20:29
after. And then in parentheses, it says, yeah, that's a hard pass for me also. This spring,
00:20:35
he was just starting his initial ski descent down one of these climbs when a large flat rock
00:20:40
concealed by the snow caused his ski to slip and ultimately detach from his boot. His subsequent
00:20:46
and uncontrollable fall triggered an avalanche. He was swept up by it entirely until he couldn't
00:20:53
see, feel, or hear anything. He almost got buried underneath it, which would have been absolutely
00:20:59
fatal, but the avalanche ended up throwing him off a cliff where he landed on a different part
00:21:04
of Snowpacked Mountain to continue his descent, but unburied. His ski partner watched everything
00:21:11
happen in seconds from just a few feet above him and didn't think his friend survived flying head
00:21:16
over foot down the slope and off a cliff until he got a call on his walkie talkie about five minutes
00:21:22
later saying, I'm okay, I'm okay, but I'm definitely a little fucked up. That's horrifying.
00:21:30
His ski partner, a professional medic, made the incredibly dangerous 2,200 foot trek down on foot
00:21:38
for almost two hours, painstakingly avoiding triggering a second avalanche due to all the
00:21:44
newly loosened snow and began treating and assessing Paul's wounds, bleeding from a laceration across
00:21:50
his knee and only having a single broken rib. Paul was in shock, but alert and talking,
00:21:56
never having lost consciousness, despite his helmet having a life-saving sized crack across it.
00:22:03
Paul was airlifted by search and rescue to the nearest hospital where he stayed for two weeks
00:22:08
to treat severe internal trauma and extensive internal bleeding. Oh man. So it's like he was
00:22:14
okay on the outside, but it was the inside. Wow. He sustained no head, neck, or spinal injuries and
00:22:20
Nobody from the flight team, the many surgeons, the nurses, or the caseworkers could believe that Paul literally walked away from his accident.
00:22:28
He chalks it up to the cardinal rules of being outside. Oh, I would love to hear these.
00:22:33
Let's find out. Can we please? Maybe I'll go outside once I know these. Maybe it won't seem so scary to me.
00:22:39
Here's the cardinal rules of being outside. Being prepared and never being alone.
00:22:43
Ah. I could do that. The amount of equipment that he and his medic had on hand, in addition to satellite radios to call in for help, saved both their lives.
00:22:54
I would argue that a lifetime of training doesn't hurt, and he will also concede that he's just one lucky son of a bitch.
00:23:00
So far in the 2022-23 season, 25 people have died in avalanches across the U.S. Holy shit, that's a lot.
00:23:08
Yeah, I didn't realize that number was like that. But My Nature Boy was not one of them.
00:23:13
We joke now that we are a knitting family and that Paul can never leave the house again.
00:23:18
Stay sexy and just wear a helmet everywhere all the time. Andrea, she, her. See, when I hear stories like this, it makes me feel less bad about the fact that I'll stay in the lodge and watch everyone's purse and have a hot toddy and read a book.
00:23:36
Skiing girl. You know what I mean? I think it truly is for adventurers and the idea that everyone is supposed to feel like oh I should
00:23:44
ski or I should whatever it's like I remember the first time I was made to ski as an adult and I was
00:23:51
like I don't want to do this I don't think it's for me I don't like it and it was a disaster yeah
00:23:57
I think you have to start young that's a big piece of it. I did it as a kid. My dad, you know, always trying to find something to do with
00:24:04
us every other weekend, would take us skiing. I was still a couch potato. I wanted a cat and a couch
00:24:10
and a TV. There's nothing better than being inside when it's cold outside. That's like,
00:24:16
that's success for human beings. Yeah, that's right. Hey, everyone. It's Cal Penn, host of Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club.
00:24:27
This week on the podcast, I'm sitting down with Will Wheaton, who played Gordy Lachance in Stand By Me 40 years ago
00:24:34
and now narrates Stephen King's The Body, the novella that inspired it all. We talk about what it's like to return to a story that shaped his life,
00:24:43
channeling his memories of River Phoenix and the recording booth, and why the friendships you have at 12 might be the most important ones you'll ever have.
00:24:51
I know Gordy Lachance. I am Gordy Lachance. Like, I mean, even when I was a little kid, I was Gordy Lachance when I didn't know it.
00:25:01
Listen to Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:25:07
Your pet is your bestie, your therapist, your perfect match. It's easy to love them.
00:25:14
It's easy to protect them, too, with pet insurance coverage from Pets Best. Because it's all fun and games until they chew on something they shouldn't.
00:25:21
And you get a vet bill to match. With perfect timing, Pets Best helps protect your furry friend and your budget from this imperfect world.
00:25:30
Get up to 90% cash back on eligible vet bills from less than a dollar a day. Pets Best has plans to cover accidents, injuries, and more.
00:25:37
From puppies and kittens to seniors. Find your perfect match plan and get a quote at PetsBest.com.
00:25:43
Pet insurance products offered and administered by Pets Best Insurance Services, LLC,
00:25:46
are underwritten by American Pet Insurance Company or Independence American Insurance Company.
00:25:49
For terms and conditions, visit www.petsbest.com backslash policy. Products are underwritten by American Pet Insurance Company, Independence American Insurance Company, or MS Transverse Insurance Company, and administered by Pets Best Insurance Services, LLC.
00:26:00
$1 a day premium based on 2024 average new policyholder data for accident and illness plans, pets age 0 to 10.
00:26:07
Let's talk about modern home shopping. It's sort of become a fun side hobby, right?
00:26:12
Scrolling listings at night, dreaming about kitchens you've never seen, or backyards you haven't even stepped foot in.
00:26:19
All from the comfort of pretty much anywhere. Redfin knows a lot of people like you want to own, but are stuck in this browsing mode loop.
00:26:27
That's where Redfin flips the script. With listings that update within minutes, and tours you can book right from the Redfin app, you can see your dream home the moment it appears.
00:26:37
Now, liking a listing is easy, but actually landing it, that's where Redfin comes in.
00:26:43
Redfin has over 2,200 agents with local expertise. And Redfin agents close twice as many deals as
00:26:50
other agents. That means they want to help you win, not just window shop. Redfin is built to help
00:26:56
you go from just looking to wait. This could actually be home. So become the newest neighbor
00:27:02
on the block. Visit redfin.com to start finding and start owning. That's redfin.com.
00:27:10
Okay here my last one Dad did what is the title I sent this before but let give it another go Last year my sister who lives with my parents was hanging out at my apartment I got a call from my dad put it on speaker and as I started to say hello he yelled
00:27:28
all caps, what is this? What is this on Nico's leash? I said, what? You mean the poop bags?
00:27:35
What's going on? He hung up. 20 minutes later, I got a calmer explanation phone call.
00:27:41
You see, I have a dog, Nico, who often stays at my parents' while I work, so he has a leash at their house.
00:27:48
My parents were about to take their dog on a walk. My mom was getting ready. My dad was grabbing their dog's leash, so my mom shouted across the house for him to grab some poop bags off of Nico's leash.
00:27:59
He did the typical man look and couldn't see what was right in front of him, so he yelled for my mom to help him.
00:28:05
In a perfect storm of timing, just as she started to walk in, he said, oh, this and push down on the red button, what my dad would later call a little black poop bag dispenser as he turned toward her.
00:28:22
The problem is he hadn't grabbed Nico's leash. He had grabbed my sister's key chain and it wasn't a poop bag dispenser.
00:28:30
Say it with me. It was pepper spray. That's right. as my mother walked into hell,
00:28:36
my dad sprayed her right in the face with pepper spray. Oh, that's horrible. She sprayed her, I know.
00:28:44
They didn't end up going on their walk. To this day, he still claims that it is somehow mine and my sister's fault.
00:28:51
Sure. That's the way to be about it. Thanks for existing. Love, tie, she, her. Oh, that is truly awful.
00:29:03
Yeah, that's... That's their fault. I love that. That's such a dad. Well, you shouldn't have put the thing in the thing.
00:29:09
You shouldn't have done anything. Right. Okay, here's my last one. I'm not going to read you the subject line.
00:29:15
It just says, Hi, friends. Since it's currently late summer and the season for county fairs,
00:29:20
I wanted to send in this celebrity story from my childhood. I grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York State.
00:29:25
My hometown is almost two hours away from NYC by train, but many city dwellers and others living in the tri-state area
00:29:32
are known to travel the distance in order to visit our county fair. It's not as large as the state fair, but it's still a pretty sizable event
00:29:39
with all the rides, games, and food that we know and love. My family would visit the fair every year as I was growing up.
00:29:46
And even though I was an anxious child who avoided every ride at all costs, I still loved playing carnival games with my mom.
00:29:52
One of our favorites was the water gun game. Yes, that was absolutely my favorite.
00:29:58
You know, the one where you have to aim a giant water gun at a target in the hopes of reaching the finish line before everyone you're playing against.
00:30:05
My favorite one was the one that it was a water gun that filled up a balloon. Right, like in a clown's mouth or whatever.
00:30:11
Yes. Yeah, totally. So good. So one year in the early 2000s, when I was probably around 10 years old,
00:30:17
my mom and I were at the fair and ready to kick some ass at this game. When we got to the stall, no one was around.
00:30:23
So the game operator told us that we needed to wait for more people to play against.
00:30:27
Now, I really wanted to play the water gun game. So as shy as I was, I looked into the crowd and tried to find some worthy opponents.
00:30:33
There was a dad and his son walking by which seemed almost too coincidental The carnival worker tried to coax them into playing with us and my shy self did the best I could to try to convince them to play without speaking at all
00:30:47
Mind meld. It says in parentheses, a.k.a. I smiled as big as I could and tried to look cute for the boy who was close to my age.
00:30:55
I'm not sure if the boy fell for my prepubescent charms or not, but the father and son duo walked over to challenge us.
00:31:01
It was around this time that I realized that my mom was being suspiciously quiet.
00:31:06
Now, my mom isn't the most extroverted person by any means, but she does love to gamble and normally would have tried to convince any random passerby to play against us.
00:31:14
When the game operator said that he was ready to start the game, I brushed the thought away and focused on my target.
00:31:20
Despite my determination, though, the dad won the game and let his son pick a prize.
00:31:25
I thought my mom and I would stay to play a few more rounds, but she quickly got up and told me to follow her.
00:31:29
I looked over to the dad who waved and smiled at me sheepishly as if to say he was sorry.
00:31:35
And we walked away to find my own dad. When we found him, he asked how the game went.
00:31:40
My mom had an obvious frustration in her voice as she said something like, well, if it wasn't
00:31:44
obvious before, it's obvious now that those games are rigged. That carny let the other guy win just because he's James Gandolfini.
00:31:52
That's right, folks. My mom and I played a water gun game against Tony Soprano. And my mother was completely convinced that she would have won against him if it weren't for the quote unquote rigged game.
00:32:04
Oh, my fucking God. I was not expecting that. And also, that isn't what happened.
00:32:13
No, no. I forgot the title of this because I my brain. And so I was like, what is her ex-boyfriend or something?
00:32:20
It was James Gandolfini. That's hilarious. It's James Gandolfini. stay sexy and maybe don't get angry if television's most notorious mobster beats you at a game that
00:32:28
involves a gun fake or not Megan right totally okay so there's a p.s to that but first I just
00:32:36
want to say because it'll it's almost like a subject change I bet you that is such a treasured
00:32:41
memory now because James Gandolfino dying so young and so out of the blue and at the like
00:32:47
height of his career is still to me one of the saddest things that's ever happened like with
00:32:52
someone who delivered that level of a performance where everyone just will say that's the best show
00:33:00
of all time forever and it's because of him yeah and then he is just dead and it's like you got to
00:33:07
have a real life moment with him i wonder if his son would remember that oh here's the back half of
00:33:13
that it says p.s in episode 382 during karen's story about the boy edward jones you asked fashion
00:33:20
historians to let you know what Queen Victoria's underwear would have looked like. Remember that?
00:33:26
I happen to be a fashion historian. And since no one has answered your question yet that I know of,
00:33:32
I figured I would add here as a postscript in the hopes of not making my email too long.
00:33:37
Underwear at the beginning of Victoria's reign actually consisted of several garments,
00:33:42
including a chemise, which is an undershirt or an underdress, drawers, which are basically like
00:33:47
shorts, but the middle was left open, making it easier to use the bathroom. A corset, sometimes
00:33:53
called stays at the time and layers and layers of petticoats Let me know if you have any more fashion history questions Wow Queen Victoria had literally seven layers of clothes on under a dress
00:34:07
How did you pee? How did you pee? Just once in a while. Yeah. You're like so dehydrated because you don't want to have to keep going to the bathroom.
00:34:15
Well, thanks guys for writing in. Please do so anytime you feel like it, you know?
00:34:20
Yeah. And if you're in the fan cult, you can watch us read this, which is probably one of the most fascinating things of all time.
00:34:28
Definitely. Here's Mimi just to show you how. Mimi's a guest star. She's a drop-in guest star.
00:34:33
That's right. She's bit me multiple times during this recording. So you can check that out.
00:34:38
We love Mimi. Did you hear about my idea for a TikTok series you could do called Mimi Says No?
00:34:45
And you just hold her up to different things and you get the expression on her face of Mimi saying no.
00:34:50
That's a great idea. She is very much a no cat. She can't do improv. Okay, stay sexy.
00:34:59
And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an Exactly Right production.
00:35:14
Our senior producer is Alejandra Keck. Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Liana Squalacci.
00:35:22
Email your hometowns to myfavoritemurder at gmail.com. And follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at My Favorite Murder and on Twitter at My Fave Murder.
00:35:30
Goodbye! Hey everyone, it's Cal Penn. I'm inviting you to join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with my podcast, Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club.
00:35:45
Every episode, I nerd out with amazing guests and dive into the best new audiobooks available on Audible.
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It's the book club for your ears. Listen to Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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