Cat People Don't Believe In Cat Allergies

Quinn: [00:00:00] My context for allergies growing up was when Macaulay Culkin got stung by the bee in the movie and died. I was like, so that's allergies, I guess.

Welcome to Not Right Now, the podcast about parenting through all of this.

Claire: We'll be talking about slash crashing out over topics like

Quinn: Lost Chromebook chargers and lost democracy.

Claire: Crying over spilled milk, and also, are we drinking dairy anymore?

Quinn: It's not an advice show.

Claire: It's a you're not alone and you're also not crazy for screaming in the shower kind of show. I'm Claire Zulkey from Evil Witches.

Quinn: And I'm Quinn Emmett from Important, Not Important.

Claire: You can find details on anything we talk about in the show notes or at our website, not right now dot show.

Quinn: Dot show. And if you like what you hear today, please share it with a parent who needs it or who might laugh and tell their kids to be quiet. And then drop us a nice little five star review.

Claire: And reminder, you can send [00:01:00] questions or feedback to questions at not right now dot show.

Quinn: Hey, it's Quinn just a heads up at the first bit of this and then kind of throughout, there's some very well intentioned, lighthearted joking about assisted suicide based on some thing that was in the news.

And I don't know, man, we tried to have some fun with it, but if this is at all triggering to you, skip it. We also talk about allergies and cats and, you know, children who don't believe in real things. So pretty standard stuff. That's it. Just wanted to put that out there. But anyways if you got questions or hate mail or recipes, as always, questions at not right now dot show. Thanks.

Claire: I can't find my garbage can. My son and his friend were up here maybe doing their science project. [00:02:00] And Steve made Paul promise to leave my office pristine, which I guess means there's something clear and sticky on my desk. They definitely opened up my laser hair remover, which I had up here 'cause I was doing it up here in privacy. And he had his friend using my foot massager that I keep under my desk. And this kid has the largest feat in the world. Anyway, so I actually recommend, despite everything that we've said over the last year, that people should get their kid a smartphone or watch, because then you can look forward to punishing them with it by saying you can't use it until you fix everything that you did.

Quinn: Have you taken the watch away yet?

Claire: He lost it last week.

Quinn: Perfect.

Claire: Because he was at academic probation for sports.

Quinn: Oh yeah.

Claire: Which I gotta say, love academic probation. Shameful at first, but also wow, what a nice break to be honest. So he lost it for a week. He was gonna get it back today. [00:03:00] Little does he know, I actually sent him an email.

Quinn: Formal. What are you, Chuck Schumer?

Claire: I didn't yell at him over email, which I wanted to 'cause he is at school. But I did send him an email, no subject line, which I hope he knows means you’re in deep shit.

Quinn: Strong. Yeah. Not great.

Claire: Saying, where's my garbage can? So, anyway, that is, top of mind right now.

Quinn: When you and I were, you know, in high school and college, they didn't, there wasn’t email, but I'm trying to think of like written at the top of like homework or a test or something. Professor like, you were looking for your grade.

Claire: See me.

Quinn:Yeah. See me. Right. Fuck. It’s never like Claire, you blew everybody out of the water. This is incredible. And I'm not surprised 'cause I should expect this of you, but wow. That's not, well it wasn't that for me.

Claire: See me to talk about your bright future. Here's the stapler that the kids can never find. It's on my desk now.

Quinn: Was it on your desk before?

Claire: No, and they have been asking me like bitchily for the last month [00:04:00] where the stapler is, and I don't know, 'cause it's out of my hands. Like they've absorbed it into their ecosystem. So, it's purely by coincidence that the stapler ended up on a desk.

Quinn: Do you feel like he learned a lesson from either, and academic probation from basketball and losing his watch? What was the lesson and which one do you think was more effective, if at all?

Claire: Okay, so the day of academic probation, I picked him up and I was taking him to a dentist appointment and he was getting a filling. And so, I was keeping it kind of, I didn't, I don't think I came down on him too hard. I sort of did the old, how did you feel when you heard about that, you know, did you know what was going on, and you know, not good. I let Steve do the like asshole tearing when we got home because mostly because this was right after break. And they had, he had made him confirm, and this is if parents are listening, who'd have younger kids or who don't have kids. A weird thing about school right now is that you don't go to class, at least in my kids' school and [00:05:00] maybe for yours too, and turn in your work, that's a lot of online turning in.

So a lot of it is like you get the work done, but just fails to submit it online. And it's not necessarily understandable, but it's sort of different than when your teacher is coming around collecting papers. Then you're like, oh shit, I have nothing to turn in.

Quinn: Right.

Claire: A lot of it is like admin work, right, and then another lesson he learned was that we went to my parents' house on Friday and my dad who was famous for not being able to let anything go ever, kept asking him, how did you let that happen? And I finally had to snap on my dad and say, we got this. We're the parents.

Quinn: Oh boy. I’ve said that a lot lately. Yeah.

Claire: Yeah. And then my dad, even worse probably started on some speech about how Paul should never do less than his best and he knows he believes in him that he can do, you know, anyway, so I was like, I hope you learned your lesson, that you don't do that again, so you don't hear it from your grandpa. So I don't know. I don't even give a shit about the watch. The other thing is that he can actually still talk to all his friends and do all his shit. 'cause he has to use a laptop for school. So in a weird way, [00:06:00] it's like the watch is just a, an accessory, you know?

Anyway, so he will feel it today. The other thing I was gonna say, have you noticed that, what is the word? Immature, emotionally immature parenting. That's sort of like a zeitgeist phrase lately.

Quinn: I, less about that. I did, I think related, there's a book that's like children of emotionally stupid parents or something like that.

Claire: Yeah. The premise of which of which I don't even wanna know 'cause I'm like, am I possibly emotionally immature? I don't wanna know. Is that a sign of being emotionally immature? I don't care. But I really wanted to go fuck up his room, basically, like in response to him fucking up my office, and I was like, is that a sign of an emotionally immature parent? The nice thing is that his room is like pre fucked up, so I don't even have to do it for him.

Quinn: That's the thing. I think you had something in here or you texted me something about revenge and you know, there's the videos online and it's you know, like guy now with his own kids and grandpa shows up and he gleefully leaves [00:07:00] the fucking cereal everywhere and the doors open and uses 42 glasses and all that.

And like I get it. I get it. I dunno how effective it is. I do believe in spite and pettiness for sure. I don't know if you need to like beat the dead horse. But for one, like that's for you. You know, like fucking up his room even if he doesn't get the message, oh God, it's gonna feel great. 'cause here's the thing, you're still his parent. You get to be like, clean it up.

Claire: Yeah. Well, and I fucked up his room yesterday by helping him. God, how did this start? Oh, first of all, how are you, by the way, let me pause. How, tell me about some bullshit in your family before I just keep going off. 'cause I could, and like the world is burning and so let me pause and listen to you.

Quinn: The world is burning and we're preparing for snow. But sounds like even more ice mageddon that will either be one inch or 42 inches. And so you're just like, I don't fucking know. I don't fucking know. I've got backup plans on backup plans. Might not do 'em, might do 'em. I dunno. [00:08:00] It's like everything else, it just feels so incredibly out of your control.

Claire: Has school been preemptively canceled for you guys yet?

Quinn: Not yet. They have off Monday for some like teacher workday. God, I love teachers so much. I don't understand how two weeks after holiday break and one week after Martin Luther King day long weekend, we can have another one. I don't know, but I guess there's almost like less stress because we already knew Monday they weren't gonna go to school.

But I don't fucking know. I dunno, that's kind of ever present, everyone was ignoring it and now we're just like, fuck, it's actually happening, I guess. I don't know. I would love for it to, not to, or I dunno, Claire, I dunno. It's a beautiful day. I need to go for a walk. Got a lot to do. We're honing in on our 2026 planning here for everything.

And yeah, well it's, one of my kids started new piano lessons. They're really excited about that. And then last night asked for both an electric guitar and a drum set, which as we have stated, I'm like, one, no, save your money. Two, not a screen. Go get 'em. Don't [00:09:00] care. That's fun. The other two, I dunno.

Everyone's annoyed at me at any given moment. Somebody stomped out, I don't even remember which shot it was, stomped outta the house this morning, 20 minutes before the bus was coming just to not be around me.

Claire: Great.

Quinn: Yep. And which I feel was the right reaction. 'cause I do that all the time. I just go in my bedroom and close the door. All my children got outta bed consecutively over and over again last night for completely ridiculous reasons.

Claire: Tell me, what was one. Did they say?

Quinn: I’m on my wife's heating pad, like leave me alone. Oh man. Well, there's the standard when is mom gonna come in? And I'm like, well, if you left her alone earlier, she wouldn't have to be working now.

Claire: She comes home five minutes after you fall asleep. That's the answer.

Quinn: Yep. That's the answer. That's, well, when is it gonna be, when are you gonna fall asleep? That's when she'll be home. After you're asleep. Maybe I'll still be awake. You're missing the point. They're fine. You know, they're getting exasperated with like activities they're currently signed up for and committed to, and I don't care.

And you know, I like, they're doing fine in school, so I'm like, I could not care more and be [00:10:00] checked out less. Whatever the overlap, the Venn diagram of that is, I'm like, what are you actually doing in math? And they're like, I don't know. I'm like, great conversation's over. I'm not even, I don't, I like, I'm so fucking far past it at this point.

Claire: What are you gonna do some math, like with them?

Quinn: Yeah. Well, what are you gonna do with that information? Truly.

Claire: Dumb question.

Quinn: You know, they were, and then they tried to pronounce like what math thing they're doing and they pronounced it wrong. And I was like, doesn't matter, you're not, what are you gonna go to college? Clearly not, fucking idiot.

Claire: Tell me how you would approach this? Last night I put James to bed and it was right after I was like babysitting my mom for an hour. 'cause, or no, sorry, for several hours. 'cause my dad went out with his buddies to have some pizza and beer, which I support. I’m happy he went out. It wasn't that bad. James was a good guy. Like he was nice. He did try to take one of my pillows from me. He said, you don't ever use this pillow. Don't tell me what I do and do not use. But I went down and who I was doing dishes or something like that. And he called and he said, mom. And I was like, what? You know? And he said, [00:11:00] I was gonna ask you to close my closet door. And then I realized I could do it myself. So on the one hand I'm like, shut up. And also I'm like, you know, I was like, thank you very much.

Quinn: Yeah. You win a Pulitzer. Congratulations.

Claire: Yeah, I mean, and you do get the credit. You didn't need to tell me about it, but proud as hell of that thought process.

Quinn: Truly like that sentence could have ended a thousand different ways.

Claire: Also told Steve, I picked up some books for them at the library and one of the books he told Steve, this is not mom's fault at all, but the book that she got me, we already have a copy of.

Quinn: Honestly, that's growth. That's fucking growth.

Claire: Imagine it was my fault. If it was my fault like that, I had the idiot I was, I had gone to get the book that we already have.

Quinn: Fucking asshole.

Claire: Yeah. Gave me a lot of grace.

Quinn: So, a couple things. I was talking to a friend who was saying, boy, this is a real [00:12:00] A to B to C to D thing. Someone who is like, oh, their kids are like our kids' ages. And she was like, oh, I recently we finished watching the Good Place with our kids again for the second time.

And I was like, that's fucking awesome. It's so great. And then I told them how, our youngest, I got him the audio book of How To Be Perfect, which is the sort of intro philosophy, funny book by Mike Schur who created The Good Place. It's great. He just took like everything he learned for that show and he put it in a book and it's great.

And I was like, oh, I bet he would love The Good Place. Like I love that show. It's really great. And. I thought about, you know, because it's oh, it turns out we're in the Bad Place, this and that. And obviously everyone has their different beliefs and we've talked about it a little bit the death doula stuff.

Is there an afterlife? You know, if it is, what is it? What are your options? Or if any, is it baked in from the fucking start? And then you shared with me what looked to me like the capsule from Alien that everybody sleeps in except it was, I think purple and it was for two people and [00:13:00] it was for the long sleep.

And I will admit, I didn't read the article, but my first thought was, who is the worst person to go into this suicide capsule with? If, let's say, you don't know what the afterlife is. Or what the rules are. And I was thinking also there's some movie out where one of the ladies gotta pick between her longtime husband and like her starter husband who died in the war and she's gotta pick one apparently.

If you have to spend at least a significant part of the afterlife, essentially connected to one person, who would be the worst person in your life, that's not, you know, Hitler, right now, it can change.

Claire: Right now, and I love him. He is a really good man, but my dad, I would have to say, because he does this thing where you'll make a decision like on a restaurant or what you're going to eat, and then he always gives you, he alerts you to the other options and like kind of stirs things up again. And like I said, he can't let anything drop. So if [00:14:00] you made a mistake, or you know, if you're five pounds overweight he'll let you know or ask you how that happened. I've gotten better about understanding that's not his fault. He's also got this interesting balance now of like authoritative boomer lawyer, but also he clearly has ADHD and he's older so he forgets things.

So it's like this combination of like authoritative and helpless at the same time. Like he was laughing about how he doesn't know where the plants in the house are. 'cause I was watering them when my mom was in the hospital.

Quinn: Right.

Claire: So again I love my dad, but I would want to be in the afterlife or go out with someone who is a good balance of go with the flow, has a plan, not imposing it on you. Doesn’t necessarily think they know everything, but what they do know, they know well, you know, like some combination of, it'd be like a travel companion, like anyone I'd wanna go on a girls trip with.

Quinn: Correct.

Claire: Is what I would prefer.

Quinn: I mean, I feel like there's gotta be like a list of non-negotiables, right? So for me, I have that whatever the [00:15:00] fake gene is, where like people eating sends me into like rage, pure eyes glazed over rage. So it's like can't be a loud eater. You gotta eat with your mouth closed. Like I can't do it forever.

Which eliminates everyone in my family. I like how you said the worst person would be someone who micromanages and, or people who are entirely passive. I don't know what's worse. I think passive might be worse.

Claire: Yeah. I mean, again if you ever go on a trip with a buddy or friend the perfect combination is that each person kind of owns one thing and then sits back and lets the other person do the other thing and doesn't bitch about their choices. Or you just have a good trade off of I own this, you own that. I'm grateful for the parts where I'm not owning things, and I'm not gonna complain about the choices that I chose not to make.

Quinn: I think you definitely don't want to go into the pod with someone who's historically pretty indecisive.

Claire: We can do it now or we can wait till Saturday.

Quinn: Yeah.

Claire: You wanna be like someone who's, you know, makes executive decisions.

Quinn: [00:16:00] But also like pretty jittery. What was that noise? It's like, it doesn't matter anymore, you know.

Claire: Not someone fidgety obviously.

Quinn: No.

Claire: You know, not someone who can't enjoy their own company. You know, I always feel bad for those people who don't enjoy their alone time. Like even though we would be together, you know, as someone who like has to always be talking.

Quinn: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. No, I need a minute.

Claire: Yeah.

Quinn: Famous person, dead or alive that you would go in with?

Claire: I feel like Paul McCartney, 'cause you just have a lot of things to ask them about, you know.

Quinn: God, fuck. That's good.

Claire: Yeah, well, he makes me laugh 'cause I love him. You can't deny him. But also I have things to say about Taylor Swift, her opinions, you know, and everyone hates on her for always releasing, you know, new versions of her songs and always making a book.

But I was like, Paul McCartney invented and perfected that, he just released a book about Wings, which my dad gave me for Christmas and now he has another book, a project, I forget, something about his like, post Beatles, pre Wings. His like going solo years. I'm like, he [00:17:00] really does not miss a chance. And I guess I respect it. People want to hear it.

Quinn: Sure. No. The hustles out, right? Also your Paul McCartney, what's somebody gonna say?

Claire: Yeah. But he also seems like a happy person, you know what I mean? I don’t need to be in there with someone angsty. So he would have really good stories. Is kind of funny and you know, a good outlook, I feel like. So how about you?

Quinn: What song do you think, which Beatles or Paul McCartney or Wings song, do you think he's humming as the gas kicks in? Because it's the last song you're gonna hear. What do you think he's humming and what would you prefer him to be humming?

Claire: That's real, I mean, I would be happy with anything. I think he would do something sort of nostalgic. Probably. Penny Lane, maybe.

Quinn: And that's kinda fun. You don't want, like Yesterday.

Claire: Right. Well, his music is very likes to look back on old timey stuff, you know? And I mean, he's been like that since he was young, so, yeah, I think something like that. Yeah. Who knows? Paul, if you're listening, please write in let me know if I'm wrong.

Quinn: Never know. Never know. He's a parent. Grand. All the things. Yeah. [00:18:00] No, those are good ones. Those are good ones.

Claire: Or who you would hate to be stuck in there with.

Quinn: I'm more like conditions I guess. I would definitely, like you said, conversationalist, people you can ask questions of, maybe like I can talk baseball trivia and stats all day and someone who is just an encyclopedia about that and knows stats, I don't know, but is also like willing to go there.

Claire: That’s a nice way to go out. James, just as a pause, like we, he found a sweet spot for me where he was quizzing me on all the football teams because I was saying there's certain teams I don't care about and I can't name a player from each team. And I was playing Scrabble with Paul and Steve and he kept naming teams.

He'd be like, you don't know Emmett Smith? And I'd be like, oh, I do know Emmett Smith. I mean, I know him more as like a dancer, but I do know who he is. So we were going down these teams. So anyway, James is too young and you wouldn't wanna be stuck in there with him. But I do see, having been gone to sleep, like for wisdom teeth, I feel like going out on sports chitchat would be [00:19:00] a pleasant way to, you know, unspool.

Quinn: An old childhood friend and I, we went on a vacation. He came with my family once on a vacation and we spent the entire week playing a game where you would say, if you said Ken Griffey. Okay. Junior, senior. Two different entries. I would have to say a player whose name starts with G, 'cause last name ends with G. So I would say, I mean, there's a thousand different options, right? And then if I next went into with P, Kirby Puckett, right? You would've to start one with .

Claire: Paul Konerko.

Quinn: Correct.

Claire: First names or last names? Could we do this for the whole episode? I would try to do this. Does it have to be all same sport or any athlete?

Quinn: Only baseball, but you got the whole 150 years to work with. And I tell you, we did not do a duplicate or stop for the entire week. And I'll just do that. Do we agree on everything? He and I? No. Not even remotely. But like I get if there's one thing like dure.

Claire: My dad, I told my, I told [00:20:00] James this, sorry. I know we're going so off topic.

Quinn: Who cares?

Claire: I was telling him, his brain reminds me of my dad's brain, even though I was just talking shit about my dad. He is like James, where sometimes you're like I texted you today about like, how can I exchange James for this 5-year-old who was shipped off by ICE? 'cause I was so sick of him.

Quinn: Yeah.

Claire: But he also has a very precious brain. And something that reminds me of my kid is that my dad would tell me that and he swims laps for exercise. Every number lap he would just think about a person whose number, whose number that was. So when he was on lap 23, he would just think about Michael Jordan the whole time Lap 15, he would think about me. 'cause my birthday's on the 15th. Lap 35, he'd think about Frank Thomas. And I was like, that's a very similar, you know, same brain.

Quinn: Sure. Yeah. No. A hundred percent. I can appreciate that stuff for sure.

Claire: Ok back to the coffin, to the, you know, the portal to the other world.

Quinn: Portal to the other side. Yeah I feel like I got a, or just someone who's like down to again, Oliver's new music piano teacher. I briefly last night, this is the first time I'd met her. I talked to her on the phone, totally love her vibe. She's I dunno, [00:21:00] mid sixties, early seventies. Just teaches in her apartment.

I mentioned one, what did I mention? Herbie Hancock. And we're instantly down a road of music history for 10 minutes and this and that. And I was like, oh, I could do this all day. That's, it's not, I'm not gonna get tired of that, you know? Someone who's fine to let me just handle the admin of it so we can just get it done and get it done right the first time would be great. I think that's probably helpful. And then yeah, not allowed.

Claire: Love aside, love and relationship and history aside, be brutally honest. Would Dana be a good person to do that with?

Quinn: Well, I think she's asleep the whole time no matter what, no matter where we are.

Claire: Okay.

Quinn: Whatever's left. So she, yeah. Obviously first choice, this and that. Yeah. I think she'd be great. She doesn't take up much room, you know, so I'm gonna get a disproportionate amount of the pod. Again she's very quick to fall asleep either way.

And I think she's going to be able to roll with the flow a little bit, you know, no matter how it goes down. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Definitely. [00:22:00] Many worse choices. What about you? Are you choosing your husband?

Claire: I would choose him if he had not had anything to drink because he snores when he is drinking.

Quinn: Oh sure.

Claire: Sometimes when he's had a drink, he starts sort of like spooling off in these sort of conversations that I've heard before. And they're sort of like pronouncements kind of things. And that's fine.

There's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing like violent, but, you know, I've heard these sort of stories before, these sort of trains of thought. So I don't wanna go out hearing him talking about, you know why he left Phoenix or something like that.

Quinn: Jesus. Yeah. I mean truly. My wife said the other day that my dad told a story that instantly annoyed me and she actually said, but I haven't heard that one before. So it was not as bad, and I was like, okay.

Claire: My dad told me a crazy story. So my mom is not supposed to drink post hospital. And of course she, my dad says he's only fixing her small cocktails and whatever.

I have to let go and let God. But this first family dinner, after [00:23:00] she got released from rehab my dad was making this pronouncement overly loud that they were not gonna drink anymore. And my brother, who was doing dry January, said, well, you should try THC, which I don't agree with. My parents don't need to get into fucking that shit.

But my brother was like, gummies help me. And my dad said, you do that. And we're just like, in this new phase where I am, we're clearly adults now. We're not children. We're not like, and I said, I do too, or I have too. And then my dad wanted this story and he has never ever told us a story about either of them doing drugs.

And he told this story about how in college. He had known my mom like earlier in middle school, but he was in college at Northwestern. He was hitchhiking somewhere, and my mom picked him up. She happened to be driving and she picked him up and she said, I know where I can get some weed. And they got high together. And I've never, I mean, it was just wild.

Quinn: Never heard that one before?

Claire: Never. Ever, I don't know where that shook loose from. Like maybe there's a new, you know, paradigm I guess, [00:24:00] where we’re just gonna let it all hang out. And then he started telling some other story about like their first date when they started making out. And then my brother and I were like stop, we don't, you know.

Quinn: Nope.

Claire: Yeah. That was just wild. Again, just it'd be like if your dad was like, did I ever tell you about the three years I was a cross dresser? And you're like, what? Just here’s something completely different,

Quinn: Gonna finally let that one out. The sandwich generation thing. What a time, what a fucking time to be alive, Virginia legislature was sworn in last week, and then the new governor, and lieutenant governor and Attorney General by the skin of his fucking teeth were sworn in this weekend.

We went, we were very thankful. We went to Gazala Hashmi, an inaugural ball, and we were very proud of her. And then we went to the actual ceremony, and that was great. And then Dana said she forgot to read the program and that we were in Virginia. And so after they did, they swore in Attorney General and then Lieutenant Governor, and then the governor, and then right before her speech, like they did a 21 Cannon salute. And things are tense, you know, where [00:25:00] I am down here and there, we probably have 10 podcasts where a cannon has gone off. And you might not be able to hear it, but it happens. But these, she was like, I didn't know that was happening and was sure this was it. 'Cause they were like right behind. It was like three cannons.

Claire: Yeah, that would scare the shit outta me. I remember when I was a kid, I was very afraid of fireworks and I went to a Bulls game after the Bulls had won the championship. Maybe after they threepeated, I don't remember, and they unveiled some new feature where they had some like indoor fireworks, like during the, you know, the Bulls had this big introduction and I ran for the exits and now of course the, like that Swiss fire that happened over New Year's. I'm like, why are we, anyway I was thinking about your Virginia, the new governor who I like to think I helped elect as well with some fundraising.

Quinn: You did. You did.

Claire: I, this is my, I'm angry at myself for letting this get in my head, but Megan McCain posted some picture of her, the governor because she was like wearing a gas mask, I guess, [00:26:00] like during January 6th, and Megan McCain was like, we're cooked.

And I was like, what the, I was just, I'm mad at myself for wasting precious time thinking about something Megan McCain said, like, why, I'm more mad at myself than Megan McCain,

Quinn: Just leave me alone. I mean, you asked me like how to unsubscribe to the political things and by the way, again, like the legit ones, if you say Stop it should actually stop. But there's so many that are not legit or a nightmare, and someone's like, Hey Quinn, sorry, it's Sunday morning.

It's Liz Cheney. And I'm like, Liz. Don't have it. Don't have it right now. Everybody's mad at the brand of pancake mix I bought, even though it's the same brand of pancake. Well, mom makes 'em different. Okay. Go get her up. See how that goes. Sorry, Liz. I don't fucking have it.

Claire: No, I don't have, I'm not giving anything to anybody and I don't like, let's just get us through this, like whatever, it's been interesting how, I feel like death has entered the conversation in an interesting way more lately. Like where, last night my dad came home from his night with his buddies and [00:27:00] he was saying how they all started the conversation by comparing notes about whether anyone had fallen down lately. And then he said, they were all talking about how like whether they're gonna be cremated or buried. And I said, well, my friends and I are all talking about how we're all gonna kill ourselves when we're 65, so we don't have to put our kids through what you guys are. And he kind of was like, you know, he kind of was like, whoa.

Quinn: Yeah.

Claire: I think it's the Catholic in him, maybe he doesn't wanna.

Quinn: But also like much respect to your dad. It's kinda like how I told you I got that book Nobody Wants Your Shit and I just leave it around the various houses of our family. And it's get rid of your shit before you die. 'cause nobody wants it. We don't want to, I don't wanna fucking deal with it.

And you got in our notes here, how we're gonna aggressively sweep ourselves up ahead of time. I have already begun, like I am already in the cut it down phase. And just more of it, but again, like respect to your dad. But should he be surprised that we're all like we're not gonna do this to our, the kids. You guys fucked us up in a real way. [00:28:00] It's in, in a lot of ways, in a lot of ways.

Claire: I don't even blame her 'cause she's just not like, her brain is just different than it used to be. But at this dinner on Friday, my dad was telling my mom like with his whole chest, like how much I helped, while they, she was in the hospital. He was like, you have no idea everything that Claire did, and she was, you, he'd had a few drinks.

So he was really going off, but she was sometimes a pain in the ass, but sort of a good way. And the kids, of course, loved that. And my mom, how do you think she responded to this little speech about how much I did?

Quinn: Based on the context I have, which, you know, the last lucid thing I remember you telling me about her before we had to take our little break, was her telling you that you were gonna fuck up Christmas. Or sorry, was it that you always fuck up Christmas, something similar?

Claire: She was like, why make a plan before you ruin Christmas for other people? Something like that.

Quinn: So that's what I'm going on. Optimistically I'm gonna say, she was like, that's great, not thank you, but that's great.

Claire: [00:29:00] No, like this, like sort of like that, like this again, alright. You know, basically something like that.

Quinn: Claire needs her accolades again. I mean.

Claire: Yeah, exactly. Like she, no one asked for this, which is fine. 'cause I would almost rather that's how I feel. 'cause I'm like I didn't do this for, like there's no good side of it. So anyway. I don't need any kind of appreciation for you know, anything like that. So where were we going again? Oh yeah. Death. Let's go, looking forward to it.

Quinn: Yeah, no sign, sign. Sign me up. Oh, gotta cough, gotta go. Going back though to academic probation. That didn't happen though. I don't know if in Catholic school they send this to you, these kind of things to you guys, but so we've discussed, our children are on computers the entire day as it is, and we get these emails once a week or something like that.

That's like, here's the stuff your children use their computer for, and there's a brief synopsis in the email and then you can click through tomorrow. I don't really care, but [00:30:00] they'll send an image of one thing they searched for in the search box. I mean, first of all, again, just insane surveillance and I completely fucking hate and disagree with all of it.

It's insane. On the other, one of them, it showed up. And it said they searched for, and then it shows the little entry box, Nazi salute. And I said, Hey bud, you know I get these emails right? And he is like, yeah, I said, just asking because of in general, but also now, why did you search for Nazi salute? And he said, oh, it's not well, you know, we all know that you guys get those emails.

And so sometimes we're trying to just put funny stuff in so that you guys will get to see it. But also, like one of my friends didn't really know what it was, and so I said I'd look it up. I was like, that's great. This is the answer I was expecting. Don't do that. I said, do you think that's not a, like a trigger thing?

I was like, one, I guess it's [00:31:00] not. 'cause I didn't get a fucking phone call that you were looking up Nazi salute. I was like two. But just the street smarts are just not, there're just not there. They're just not there.

Claire: Yeah, that's kind of funny. There's some football player on the Rams, I wanna say I forgot his name, but he was in trouble for doing some kind of antisemitic gesture that's not a Nazi salute. And I don't remember what it was, but we were telling James that this guy, this player's a dumb ass for that. And he was like, what is the dance? Or whatever it is. We were like, we don't know. We're not gonna look it up and we're not gonna show you.

Quinn: But I just feel like if you have to say, please don't if you and your friends are aware this is all being tracked and sent to your parents, I understand the inclination to say let's booby trap it, but I hope you have the street smarts to say, maybe I'll put something else in the box.

Claire: I don’t believe, do they send you just any random sample or do they send you things that are most like inflammatory?

Quinn: It could be anything.

Claire: I don't believe that he did it just to troll you. 'Cause otherwise, like he could have been caught looking up and to be [00:32:00] fair, like as a parent, I would not like to hear that, but also, you know, maybe he's studying history, you know.

Quinn: Easy. Sure. Right. By the way he could have used it as an excuse, he did not.

Claire: I have a friend whose son got suspended or he got in big trouble because he was, he and his friends were Googling butts, I think in fifth grade or so. And, you know, they were well, fuck him, but also fuck the school for, like letting a bunch of fifth graders have unfettered access to devices.

Quinn: That's the whole thing. One, I'm entirely against the surveillance stuff anyways but also two, just don't like, if this, then what else? What else are you gonna do? That's dumb?

Claire: You know what's funny? Paul asked to put on find my location on his watch. Like I don't have the evidence for this, but you know, we're always talking about how in our generation, our year, you know, like we all rode the bus on our own and we all went to study abroad and our parents didn't know where we were.

And you know, like all that stuff. What a shame it is that kids have to be surveilled or parents surveilled. I think some kids like to [00:33:00] be surveilled or wanna be surveilled or they think it's, I don't know. I don't have any evidence for this.

Quinn: Well, it's the whole thing. I mean, I think it's like an exception to the rule if they're not at this point, like it's like they all totally share each other's location about everything. The Snap Maps and all that stuff. It's crazy. It's, I mean, it's crazy to us, but it's also, I don't know, man.

Claire: Yeah, he was talking about that happily, and I just was like, well, I can't say anything about it. I carry my phone around, you know, and I often, if I go for a long walk, I put on like map my run, so I know how long I'm walking. So I'm sure that sends everything up to the satellite. And my car has GPS and my credit card, so it's not like I'm off the grid.

Quinn: It reminds me of one of my favorite Reductress posts. That was like quotes: Sorry, just got this says woman who hasn't pooped without her phone in 10 years.

Claire: Yes. I have to say my favorite features of update, and maybe this has been around for a while, but sending texts later, hitting a send later message is great for like when you, I like that feeling of like inbox zero. So if I had a text from [00:34:00] someone and I don't wanna talk to them right away, but I wanna feel like I've answered them and I'll write a text and then I'll have it send, you know, for later on.

Or I had one sent for a cousin of mine who likes to pop by while my family was outta town and I wrote a message to him to send the day my family was getting home saying, oh, just got this, they're coming home today. 'cause I didn't want him to think I was rude.

Quinn: Well done. I do this to Willow all the time on Slack because we have a pretty firm like. We just don't, not don't work at night, but we're not gonna involve each other. You got something to do. She's three hours behind, different hours, whatever. And we do on the weekends, but I will abuse that occasionally but not want to involve her in it.

And so I will send these insane Slack messages, but the default is like Monday at 9:00 AM or something like that. And they'll have very little context of course. And so she'll just wake up and the first thing she gets is, instead of good morning or Hi Monday, it'll just be like, and another thing on this spreadsheet is, and so that feels insane in a different way. [00:35:00]

Claire: I had this like crazy boss, the former dietician. She used to, she didn't, she wasn't so good at email. And she would like, if she got an email string instead of reading to the end, and then like reading back, she would've replied to each one in real time in all capital letters. So she'd be like, what is this? And then she'd be like, disregard, you know, like to each one. So, you are that person.

Quinn: I am that person.

Claire: We were talking about different, not right now things this week, like my kid, he was an academic probation. We had eighth grade portraits yesterday, which made him announce that he has no clothes, which led me to passive aggressively do my laundry. But you had to do an allergy appointment, let's talk about who has what allergies and the state of allergies in our families.

Quinn: Okay. My context for allergies growing up was when Macaulay Culkin got stung by the bee in the movie and died. I was like, so that's allergies, I guess. Fuck that shit. And then someone told someone [00:36:00] to not give kids peanut butter for a while and everybody got peanut allergies and then they finally reversed course, and like, oh, of course we should expose them to it, and then they will not have this, the whole thing.

Of course, as we know with all the health stuff, the further we've come along, cancer, all this stuff, blood tests, we're finding so many more things out than we used to and earlier, and we don't, now we wrestle with is it so early that we even need to do anything about it? Right. For a lot of these things, we've gone, through that with the BRCA stuff, prostate cancer's one for sure, which is like a killer.

But also at some point it's pretty late. There's a thousand of these things. I feel like there's so many more allergies and I also wonder how much my children, like I have a terrible dust one, right? And I had sinus infections every week for my whole life until I just got rid of carpets and air purifiers and God vacuuming those fucking things every week.

But it does work. But I feel like the children will both say, well, it must be one of my [00:37:00] allergies. And I'm like, well, you're not a doctor and you've never been tested, so you have no idea. But then they feel sick every time they eat fucking dairy. We go to the doctor, the allergy doctor, which I dunno if you've ever used that as a threat. I was like, oh, okay, then we'll just go to the doctor. And they go, Nope, nevermind. Yep.

Claire: That’s a good one.

Quinn: Didn't back down this time, we went, they told half truths half the time. And then the rest of it again you know, essentially spoke out of turn on behalf of the rest of the family about how they were being treated.

And we get home and this morning, our deal is you gotta make your lunch every day, except one day of the week. You can get school lunch. Right. I used to make their lunches all the time. I loved doing it. Wrote 'em a little note and then they were dicks and they were like, I didn't like it. And great, you make it. I'm, that phase of my life is over. This morning goes oh, I'm, today's my get lunch day. I'm just gonna get it. And Dana's like, oh, that's great. Is there something you're excited about? What's on the menu? And he goes, pizza. And she goes, well, [00:38:00] remember the doctor did say, Hey listen, we don't really need, if you're worried about dairy and or lactose, we don't need to do the prick you 40 times test. You can just do elimination. If it seems pretty one-to-one, we can do elimination. Let's try that for a week and see, and this fucker, she says, well, remember the doctor said we should just lay off the pizza in the dairy for a week. And he goes, that's not what elimination is.

Claire: I’ll eliminate you.

Quinn: That literally my first thought was like laser beams. Just seeing where it was going, I was like, no, that is maybe not a word you'd encountered. It is pretty like binary. It's elimination. And then you work it back in and you see how it goes. He's like, that's not what it means. And that's not what he told me to do.

I was like, it is. And my instinct now with them, 'cause I think they're at least getting to be big enough at this point, definitely with a 13-year-old, where I just go, oh, then you just don't, fine. Great. You just don't get to [00:39:00] complain about it. That's it. Shit your pants. Best wishes. Like I'm just, you've lost the right, if you're consciously making this decision, not my problem anymore. And so I'm like, lean on your allergies all you fucking want, but, or whatever it is. You know. You got a limp today. I dunno. This is the same kid who once, I think I told you came up from our basement with his best friend and just face all fucked up. And we're like, what? What? What did you do?

Not crying or anything. He's like, oh, this is crazy. You're never gonna believe this. I was like, good way to start. I was standing on the skateboard in the basement, we don't have a skateboard. And it slipped and my eye hit the corner of the wall and I fell all the way down the wall and it got my whole face.

And we're like, okay. And then some other kid comes up 20 minutes later and I was like, oh, they were throwing hammers at each other. So you know, great, eat your pizza. But the point is I think we all have got a little dairy. We've definitely got some dust. I fucking hate dust.[00:40:00] I dunno. Other stuff, I believe allergy shots. I know they work. It takes a long time, but I'm just like, they're everywhere. The children both use them as a crutch, but also want zero responsibility for them. I dunno man, that’s my rant.

Claire: We're extremely privileged in that my kids don't exhibit any kind of allergies currently. Like we, I mean, we don't expose him to anything particular. Paul says that he is sniffy when he is around his friend's dog who sheds, you know? So that might be possible. For a long time, I think I lived in denial that I was allergic to dogs. 'cause I love dogs so much that I refuse to believe I was allergic to them until we went several years without having a dog. And we, I met a Greyhound, like out in the wild, and that our last dog was a Greyhound. And I was loving on him and petting him and then all this fur came up and I was a wreck for the rest of the day. And I was like, I think I'm allergic to dog hair, which is why we have this Wheaton terrier who doesn't shed?

Quinn: Say his name.[00:41:00]

Claire: Ollie.

Quinn: He's a person. You can say his name. Thank you. Yeah.

Claire: And cats I hate cats partially 'cause they make me desperately ill because they make people insane. You know, people with cats, I know dogs, I'm sure dogs are like this, but I'm like, there's something about cats that force people to, hoard them and then act as if not hoarding them is a Nazi salute, you know what I mean?

Quinn: Right. You're the problem.

Claire: I lived with Steve's cats for a couple years, getting allergy shots for him, taking the medicine. I don't think it really helped at all. 'cause the cat had like scaly dry skin. She liked to piss outside the box and then, you know, all the cat people will be like, there's something wrong with the cat. Steve is a bad cat owner. Probably, not my problem. But they, anyway, that's fine. We don't have cats.

That makes life easy. Of course. Cats always know that I don't like them. You know, I'm hands off and then they like rub all over me. But I got stung by a bee once for the [00:42:00] first time when I was like 16. And I was rollerblading.

Quinn: Sure you were.

Claire: I know. And I came back from rollerblading and I was taking a shower and I had a rash all over my body and I could feel my eyelids and lips swelling, and my dad's allergic to bees. So even though it was very dramatic, it was not a surprise. Yeah, I have a friend whose kids had terrible food allergies, by the way, she breastfed and I didn't just saying. But what a, just what a liberation. It's like having kids who don't have bad anxiety, you know, when you're like, it's just, you don't realize like what a freedom it is to just be able to feed them whatever the fuck, you know, without looking at the label.

Quinn: Yeah. And we can mostly do that like, dairy, fine. I don't give, fuck, it's 2026. There's a thousand different options. You know, we definitely have friends who, like their kids have 42 food allergies. They were born that way. They're like severe. They have to hand make every, what a fucking pain in the ass. And like parents going above and beyond. But it's more like the little non-dangerous ones where I'm like, alright, you know? Okay. Everybody's got something bud. I don't know what to tell you.

Claire: [00:43:00] It's not like you're gluten-free and you can't like, I felt so bad we had to co-host this bowling party for the eighth grade a couple weeks ago, and we got pizza for the kids, and then this one kid is gluten-free and we completely forgotten about him. So he just couldn't have anything.

He had pop and I, you know, on the one hand I felt terrible, but also I was like, like someone should have reminded us. We could have brought him something but also.

Quinn: And so I don't know if it's just the moment or my just exasperation and I'm definitely like, something's really wrong. We should go to the doctor, old person, young person, whatever it is. I'm the dad in the middle. I'm not like, rub some fucking grease on it, you know? But I'm like, you're probably fine.

My mom always tells a story of her dad used to work for, was a salesman for Procter and Gamble after the war. And so this was like the early days of Listerine, which if it tastes like fire now, it was unregulated fire then, but it's also just like alcohol. And he was like, put it on a wound. Put some Listerine on it, which by the way, probably fucking works. But [00:44:00] that's my, like you have in here, Claire's impatience with her kids being scared of bees. If they're not McCulley Culkin, if it's oh yeah, she gets a big red bump. Guys, I got so much other shit going on.

Claire: God. I was so like, 'cause I had to carry around an EpiPen, you know? And because my dad's also allergic. I get, this is real privilege, this is like being on your parents' family phone plan when you're an adult, I get EpiPens from my dad because he has better insurance than me. So that's always like a nice treat to get like an extra one instead of a cloudy brown one from three years ago. But yeah, I took the kids once to some far-flung park a couple years ago on the far south side and I was really excited about this jaunt. And there were bees about, and James was just at that age, kids just, there is like a stage of kids' lives where they are panicky and flayly about bees. And I know that, but also part of me is well if I get stung I could die. So I’m for your like, and we were on this long hike and James kept freaking out about the bees. And I said, then go stand by the car and wait for us [00:45:00] if you're so scared of the bees, not go into the car, stand by the car. And he said some like older folks walked by 'cause he was maybe eight at the time. Seven. And they're like, are you okay? Because he was there standing alone. He’s like my mom made me stand here 'cause I was afraid of the bees. So I don't have a lot of patience for it.

Quinn: Because again, here's the thing. This is where my empathy is for parents and the kids like, again, one of our friends, she has to make her son every, has to like, it is not a good situation if the smallest one of 40 different things gets in there.

Claire: Yeah.

Quinn: If you've got the bee thing or whatever. But again, for us when it's like dust or something like that, I'm like, guys, you know, we got a friend and this one is not as lethal, but she's her kid's allergic to every, all of the grass.

All of the grass. She's like, he can't do any activities. I'm like, he can, but it's very annoying. And that is what a, God this is where I'm like, you gotta start the shots. It takes a long time, but you got you, you gotta try to do the thing.

Claire: No, [00:46:00] and they're very nice. Like I feel like those allergy shot people are so nice. 'cause they know, they're like, everyone fears them and they tend to be so kind and make it nice and easy. But yeah, there was a moment where Steve worried that maybe he had lactose allergy, but he had gotten, we had gone to Cold Stone Creamery for some reason and he'd gotten like a gigantic bowl, like cone bowl of ice cream and eaten all of it.

Quinn: As you do.

Claire: Yeah. And I was so attracted to him and he didn't feel well after that. He was like, maybe I'm allergic to dairy. I was like, maybe you just ate like a shit ton of ice cream.

Quinn: Correct. Right, right, right, right. But also there's, what was the research? It's you know,basically, like most, what is it like most Global North, white people just do not have the gene to process dairy anyways, essentially. Like we've effectively evolved out of it. It's like that's the fucking baseline is cheese is delicious. It's gonna give you farts. You just gotta be glad it's not worse than that. But also if you eat a tub of fucking Cold Stone. [00:47:00]

Claire: Yeah.

Quinn: This is again, Henry this morning being like, yeah, I'm gonna get pizza. I'm gonna get multiple pizzas. And I was like, go fuck yourself. Don't come home until after.

Claire: I love that he was doubling down and mansplaining elimination not over like good pizza.

Quinn: Yeah. No. I love your note cat people do not believe in cat allergies. It's, ah, it's so true.

Claire: Yeah. No, and it's absolutely, I was on Reddit and there was, someone on there, it was like, it's a fact that if you don't like cats, like you're just a bad person basically. And there were like all these cat people in the comments were like, yo, that is like a crazy take. There were a lot of like cats who were simply assholes out there. But I remember sleeping over at a friend's house once when I was in my twenties, and she had cats, and my eyes were like, bulging outta my head, you know? She said, I really didn't think cat allergies were real, but I'm starting to think that maybe they were. And of course she was one of those people who like, didn't have real medicine, not Benadryl, but like some kind of tincture.

Quinn: Oh. Mm-hmm. [00:48:00] It's lemons.

Claire: Yeah, seriously. And then, oh man, she ended up accidentally hoarding cats which was a trigger for me. She said I think she had cats at the time, and she was like, I didn't mean to have this many cats. And I felt like like a stab, it was like a cold, icy needle in my heart. That's not a good track to be on. When you were taking in more cats. Closing that chapter, like the whole death allergy animal chapter. See, his parents have 16 to 17 cats in their house right now, and they live in Arizona. We live here. And I don't, we are just real not thinking about that part.

Like that will come whenever the time comes. His dad's in his nineties almost, but I don't know. We'll see. He talks about just blowing up the house with the, with all the cats in it.

Quinn: I think that's a reasonable option.

Claire: Yeah.

Quinn: I mean, those cats don't give. Here's the thing, those cats would blow you up in the house. No questions asked. No questions asked.

Claire: They would ask to do it. [00:49:00] No they wouldn't even ask. You're right, no questions asked.

Quinn: They might actually respect you for it.

Claire: Yeah, but not my problem, not my cats. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

Quinn: But I just love, and again you do, you, but people are like, no. What's great about cats is you gotta earn their love. I'm like, the fact that my wife hasn't left me yet, I've earned enough. I'm spent, there's no. I need a dog. What's the comedian, the Nick whatever, he is like, they're not dogs anymore. They're just doodles. They're like people. And I'm good. I'm good.

Claire: Yeah. We were so tickled yesterday. 'cause I was rehydrating some shitake mushrooms, and I took him out of the water and Ollie came over wagging his tail and looked at it, and he like, sat for it. So I offered it to him and he just tooted, right when I put the mushroom up to his nose.

Quinn: Adorable.

Claire: That was like the happiest moment of the year for me so far.

Quinn: Yeah, that's it. The bar's so fucking low. Why would I want someone who, I don't need to earn? Yeah, no, I'm good.

Claire: There are a couple cats out there that are fine. [00:50:00] I'm not gonna name them by name, but if you're listening, you're a cat person. I'm sure your cat is a good cat and would never blow you up.

Quinn: I'm sure it's fine. By the way, my brother like inadvertently gave my mom a cat, who's super allergic to them, once for 10 years. But he was more like a dog. We named him Bruce Springsteen. He had a spike collar. I think an eagle took him. That's what we're the current consensus is 'cause he just disappeared one day.

He was quite small and we have fucking bald eagles everywhere. And again, to circle back I don't know, man, if you're gonna go, like an eagle taking you it's pretty fucking rad.

Claire: An article in the New Yorker about like national parks in North Carolina, and someone talked about an eagle dropped a cat through their windshield and they said the cat didn't make it. And I was like, that would be kind of rad, like an exciting way to go.

Quinn: I think that look, as we get older, like I'm still terrified of dying. I should be the one on the LSD like this and this. Don't wanna lose my time or this or that, all that stuff. But the more you think about it, there are awesome ways to go. Right? Maybe not the love [00:51:00] capsule or maybe that's your thing and it could change, but I dunno, I feel like someone's like, he got ripped apart by that fucking shark and it lasted a long time. But I did see him get a couple punches in. Sure.

Claire: Yeah. I would go in the pod with another mom who is also a sandwich, who has been the sandwich generation mom and we'd be like, this is it. This is the ultimate spa day.

Quinn: It is the ultimate spa day, isn't it? Right. This is your cult by the way. You're going to, it just leads to that pod. Your spa cult.

Claire: Yeah. By the way, like I went to the sauna club yesterday 'cause I just needed something, and people were fucking walking right into the lake and it is icy as shit. And I didn't do it. 'cause I just was like, I don't, it is I have my sanity. Like I only poured water over my, but it is very, it is cult-like to see these people like walking in this icy lake and sitting there and so, you know, whatever it takes, I guess.

Quinn: I think I've sent you the [00:52:00] meme that's your email has found me filling my pockets with rocks and walking to the ocean. I know, you really want to talk about this fucking David Beckham stuff. Can you just spend 30 seconds? 'cause here's the thing.

One of the greatest soccer players of all time. Style icon, owns, it's all sport and like fashion and hair related to me. I don't know. I actually watched the documentary. It was a couple years ago. It was great. I actually thought that was really great. What is, go ahead and hit. I feel like we should call Willow on for this. I feel like she would appreciate that.

Claire: Well, if you are like me, one nice thing about this time of the, like the current events are extremely fucked, but we are being blessed by a lot of gossip right now. That is, I think, sort of, where it's like everyone involved is fucked. Like everyone is insane, like Queer Eye right now, for instance, another one where all the Queer Eye guys were on a talk show yesterday, holding hands while I think it was Gayle read an announcement from Karamo saying he wouldn't be on 'cause he was being bullied and and it's just so much drama where you're like, I think everyone [00:53:00] involved is problematic. And that's how this Beckham situation is where Brooklyn Beckham was the oldest of their kids, right? Anyone who follows the Beckhams and gossip knows that Brooklyn has tried a lot of different careers over his life that have met with varying levels of success. A photographer, he has been a chef.

He's tried to, he's launched a hot sauce brand and his parents have always been very supportive of him. Full throated, couldn't be more supportive even though it's a little bit, bless his heart every time he launches one of these things. And so he got married to this woman, Nicola Peltz, and I forgot exactly where their money came from, but she comes from like a billionaire, like billionaire’s money. And when they were getting married there was all this drama about did the Peltz’s hate the Beckhams and all this stuff, like new money versus newer money. And there's been a rift for the last few years brewing between Brooklyn and his family where he was like, not talk, he was not seeing them. Then he blocked them on social media. And then this [00:54:00] week he put out this story saying here's the reasons I'm not talking to my family. They have been trying to destroy my marriage from the get-go. My mom like hijacked my first dance with my wife and danced inappropriately with me. So, I mean, honestly, big picture, it's really sad. I'm always really sad when you hear about, some people obviously go no contact with their families for good reason and I think we're in a funny place in history right now where people cheer the idea of going no contact, they don't even need to hear the context. They're just like yes, do it. But the broader like grand ecosystem of it is that like the Beckhams are ridiculous people, and the Peltz’s are not known for being like good people either. So you're so, so it's just sort of like a team nobody situation where you know, poor Brooklyn seems like he has always been sort of pulled into someone's orbit. And I, what do I know? Maybe he's his own man who stands at his own two feet, makes his own [00:55:00] decisions. But anyway, it's just feeding a lot of good gossip right now that is very cleansing in terms of the broader situation.

So I was encouraging you, Quinn, to get up to speed on this because you might be at some swim meet or some school thing, and you'll hear someone talking about it and you'll be like, well, obviously I'm above all this. As we all know, you don't like, you only like sports and you only like the, you know, but.

Quinn: This is where you're, there's a fundamental misunderstanding here. I don't engage with people. This is it. This is it.

Claire: I want you to use this.

Quinn: I don't want to, I don't like.

Claire: You can say, and also now that I sent you the text of David got a Brooklyn text, like a text, he got a tramp stamp over his booty when Brooklyn was born. And I sent you a picture of it. So I want you to use this like I'm giving you something like some currency, some conversational pop culture currency.

Quinn: But then I gotta keep going and then they're [00:56:00] gonna wanna talk about other stuff. I don't, I just wanna read my books.

Claire: You can just say, I don't like, I don't talk about this kind of stuff, but I can't help but overhearing you. My podcast co-host made me talk about this, and so I can't believe this is going on. What a shame?

Quinn: When people are like, birds aren't real. I don't involve myself. Like so maybe this is lower. So maybe this actually would be the thing. I don't know.

Claire: Who was your favorite Spice Girl?

Quinn: She was up there for sure. God, it's so great. I was just, when my children are like, I like this song, I ruin it, not the song, but I immediately go, oh, here's all the artists that clearly inspired them and let's listen to those first. And they just wanted to listen to their one song. And I lean on the Spice Girls for quite a bit 'cause I'm like, look man, all this Katseye and all that stuff.

It is difficult to describe how big the Spice Girls were at that peak, which I actually think that documentary does a good job of he was like the most famous person alive besides Michael Jordan. But she was as well. And it was crazy. [00:57:00] But yeah. I dunno. Did you have a favorite?

Claire: Well, I always like the least popular one in a group usually, so I like Sporty the most.

Quinn: No. Sporty is great. Sporty is great.

Claire: She was a real singer too, and she seems like she's doing well. Like she's, you know, doesn't seem, she's doing her own thing. She looks great. Spice World. It is a shame that is not available on streaming. It is a legitimately fun movie, and I wish I could watch it with my kids.

Quinn: Is it not on streaming?

Claire: No, it is like some. it has weird rights issues and you can't get it you went on the some you know.

Quinn: Dark web?

Claire: Yeah. And I don't do that kind of stuff.

Quinn: You can purchase it digitally.

Claire: That's too much. That's like going to the library. I wanna be able to download it like immediately.

Quinn: I want it now.

Claire: Yeah. I wanna stream it for four dollars.

Quinn: Not at all the problem with everything that's going on. Can you briefly tell me about the woman who referred to herself as an open face sandwich? Before we go.

Claire: Oh, it was at the Sauna Club yesterday. And we, God, how did I get into this?

Quinn: What does that mean?

Claire: I was kind of just talking about, the [00:58:00] nice thing about sauna club is you just end up chit chatting with whomever's there. Like you just can't help it. You're all sweaty, you know, you're barely clothed. And I was saying I was there 'cause I was in a sandwich generation bullshit. Like I just needed the half an hour to myself and we all started commiserating about taking care of our elders.

Quinn: Everyone.

Claire: Yeah. And this one woman said, I don't have kids, but I did do elder care. So I'm an open face sandwich and so yeah, I mean respect.