Welcome to the show of shows! Today we're bitter and sweet as we whack, tap and unwrap 20 segments of corporate history before milking our feelings. We discover there is a fine line between flailing and success as we encounter grocery stores, cereal mascots, pulpoids and pulp boys before moving in our graves.
Molly's Now but Wow: Charlie’s Queer Books
Molly 0:04
Hi, I'm Molly,
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:05
and I'm Matthew,
Molly 0:06
and this is spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious, eat it all, and you can't have it. And put a real emphasis on show
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:13
that, yes, this is your show shows. This is this. Yeah, it's a, we're a Variety Show coming to you from the Catskills, and we and we have Catskills, this episode, I think, was suggested by me. It's what I've been wanting to for a while. I annoyed producer Abby by saying, Could we like cut this in early and it's Terry's chocolate orange.
Molly 0:35
So I did not know until you suggested it that this was not a Trader Joe's product, because Trader Joe's makes a dupe of it that's even sold in similar packs. They
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:45
do make a dupe. Now, I heard a rumor that they're not doing it this year. I have you seen it? Think?
Molly 0:50
Well, I when I was doing research for this episode, I did see something on Reddit saying that they didn't make it last year.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:56
Oh, okay, yeah, who knows? So we'll see. Okay. I did not get to Trader Joe's, but I got the original Terry's chocolate orange from QFC. Okay, I had to go to three stores. I went to Walgreens, then I went to Safeway, and then I went to QFC, and finally they had it there. And I was, I was nervous, because, like, what if I told Abby, we have to rearrange the schedule for the chocolate orange. And then I came up with no chocolate orange. You
Molly 1:18
You texted me a photo of, like, a whole, like, display of chocolate, orange, yeah, whole dump. And so was that at your last stop? That
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:28
was at my last stop. You must have been desperate. Yeah, I was. I was all set to, like, get on the bus over to metropolitan market. Let's mention all the stores in Seattle, PCC,
Molly 1:37
a whole central Co Op. Central Co Op, just Town and Country in general. Safeway, yep,
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:47
I already mentioned that one. All right, that's it, Matthew, I'm
Molly 1:51
sorry, I need to start working on this. Oh, yeah, yeah. We point out though that what? So I want to point out how this comes packaged, and then we'll talk about what the actual thing is. So this comes in a box. It's got a little window on two sides of the box, so you can look inside and see this, like, this sphere wrapped in gold foil. Oh, yeah, and it looks like it's floating, yeah. Did you notice that? Like, because of the little, like, plastic,
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:21
like enclosure.
Molly 2:22
It has a real gravity defying appeal to it. Yep, and oh, Matthew, I'm feeling so impatient. Just do it. Okay, here we go. All right, did I hit it hard enough? I don't know. Should I do it again?
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:39
Guess we all know when we when we open it up, oh yeah, it's falling apart. Oh yeah, okay. Oh, it is yes. Oh, this is great. Oh, wow. And there's still a weird stick in the middle. Good. Okay. Wait
Molly 2:51
here. Hold on. We can, we can pull the Oh yeah, there we go. All right,
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:54
so we're not going to tell you what this is. We're just gonna, like, whack things and eat
Molly 2:59
them. Okay, so Terry's chocolate orange. So basically, before we do Memory Lane, I just want to say what this is for listeners like me who didn't really know what this was. So Terry's chocolate orange is a chocolate product infused with orange flavoring, supposedly orange oil, and it's made to look like an orange. It is 20 segments of chocolate, okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:25
Then you asked me how many segments I would have said it's about 20.
Molly 3:31
And then it's wrapped in gold foil to look like an orange, okay, and we'll talk more about about what that impact sound was that you heard. But anyway, Matthew, are these? Are these on your memory lane?
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:43
So when I was a kid, it was made clear to me by mom, the show Judy, that this was, like the ultimate stocking stuffer, really, that, like I remember hearing about it before I even ever saw one or tasted one that, like there was this thing there was like the chocolate orange that you smack it and then unwrap it and it falls apart into orange segments, and it's chocolate, orange flavored chocolate. And I was like, Sign me up. And, like, it did not disappoint. Is
Molly 4:12
mama the show Judy? Uh, is she generally an anglophile? No, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:16
wouldn't say that. No, no, I don't think. I don't think I knew, like, I think by the time we were, like, set to record this episode, I think I did know it was an English thing. But, like, as a kid, I don't think I did. I don't think I knew what England was. As a kid, I thought England was like, it was like, when, when you buy something and it has too many u's in the name, okay? I guess I knew about England from Disney's Robin
Molly 4:43
Hood. Where's England in there? Is that? Okay? All right, so, um, I think that. Oh, do you need to say something? Yeah, okay. You're waving your hands around a lot. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:54
love this is like, this is like, really great, mediocre chocolate. It's. You know, I came up with a great punk rock band that will only make sense to people who are fans of Disney's Robin Hood. Okay, you know how a lot of punk bands have like, three, three initials like, like an AFI or an MCR DOA. My band is gonna be called I MP and only, like, only like, the cool fans know that it stands for insolent musical peasants.
Molly 5:25
So my former one
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:27
person in our audience, just like laughed so hard that they peed.
Molly 5:31
I wish it were me, but it wasn't me, but I love that you did that, whatever that was, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:37
no, usually you laugh so that you pee out of your eyes.
Molly 5:44
That's true. I can't deny it. So my in laws used to always put the Trader Joe's version of this in Brandon stocking, or maybe in June's. I can't remember which I've had, and it's great. Is it pretty much the same? I think it is. Yeah, there's, I think. Is it only dark chocolate?
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:00
I think maybe it's only dark chocolate. I think I like the milk chocolate better. We have the milk and the dark hair.
Molly 6:05
I don't think I'd ever really actually tasted this, and I do agree so far, I like the milk better. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:10
generally speaking, we've talked about this for like, if we're gonna have like, kind of crappy chocolate, which I love, crappy chocolate, I'd rather have milk chocolate. If it's good chocolate, I'd rather have dark chocolate.
Molly 6:21
Okay, oh yeah. I think the orange flavor works better with the milk chocolate. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:25
And I do. I love how the the slices, the individual slices, have, like a contour to them, and like some, some orange What do you call it? Like the little
Molly 6:33
the segment, the little segment, no, but this,
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:37
this is what I'm pulling, is the segment, pulp boys. Little, pulp boys, yeah,
Molly 6:42
I said pulp boys. Little,
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:45
oh, wow, if you do not want to go to the doctor, tell you have pulp boys
Molly 6:55
when it's still smashed together in the segment.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:57
Yeah, yeah, no, I know what you mean. Like little, like, pulp, like, like pulp fingers or pulp boys.
Molly 7:06
Okay, okay. Anyway, hold on, yep. So I took the lead in researching this one because I was really hoping for some corporate and corporate history is my specialty this show. So anyway, we've talked about, like, what this stuff looks like, but basically, I wanted to do a little bit of history. So once upon a time,
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:28
okay, back in a mythical angle in England, climb under
Molly 7:33
the quilt and rest your head, and I'll tell you a
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:39
story. Every time someone said, collide under the quilt, and then something terrible happened.
Molly 7:49
What are you insinuating?
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:51
I don't know. This could go any number of ways, but none of them are good.
Molly 7:55
I'm picturing like at the beginning of the princess bride with a nice reading to Fred Savage. So you can chime in, like, Fred Savage and be like, God, is there gonna
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:05
be this story in this corporate history?
Molly 8:08
Okay, so once upon a time in 1767,
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:13
wow, that's like shame here, your dad invented Altoids. I think also in England, I think our Alto is like ball points.
Molly 8:28
Yeah, a chocolate shop opened in York, England, specializing in lemon and candied orange peel. Oh, sure, all right. So, you know, like, roughly 60 years later, a chemist named Joseph Terry, joined the company, and he, I guess, became their product developer. He developed a whole bunch of new products, most of which also involved orange, hard work. Terry, marmalade, more candied peels and new lines of chocolate. We developed
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:54
marmalade.
Molly 8:55
He did. He invented it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:59
He didn't, I don't think we've never, have we ever done a marmalade marmalade episode?
Molly 9:03
I think we should. Okay, let's do it. We'll find out that Joseph Terry did, he did invent marmalade. So in any way, in any way, whatever that means, he basically, kind of became the business he he became the sole owner of it in 1830 he passed it on to his sons. Needless to say, it was a while before this company invented his namesake, chocolate orange. All right, in 1926 his sons, because he had died by this point, his sons opened a new factory, and they called it Terry's chocolate works. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:35
so you're saying that the guy, the guy who joined the company in 1823 had died by 1926
Molly 9:43
That's right. But anyway, I mean all this. So the company had been around for, like, over 150 years, so
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:48
Terry was long gone by the time the Terry's chocolate orange came on this, that's right.
Molly 9:52
But his sons were running the place, and so when they began calling the company Terry's chocolate works when they like. Created this new factory. In 1926 they began launching these kind of like weird chocolate fruit things. I'm calling them weird. So the first one actually was not the chocolate orange. It was the chocolate Apple, okay, and it was called Terry's chocolate works, dessert, chocolate Apple,
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:19
okay, I have two questions about the chocolate apple that you may or may not be able to answer, was it apple flavored?
Molly 10:24
I don't know. I don't understand this like it
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:28
seems. It doesn't seem like it should have been, but who knows? Well,
Molly 10:31
yeah. I mean, for one thing, we don't think of apple and chocolate as being flavors that really go together. But also, Apple is a pretty quiet flavor, like, get that into
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:40
And my other question, did it have the like, smack and unwrap format? I
Molly 10:44
don't know. Okay, so the chocolate Apple was launched in 1926 then they launched basically, like, sort of an assorted box of chocolates called Terry's all gold in 19 sounds like they were really flailing, and it was really popular, actually, never mind. And then the chocolate orange launched in 1932 so it was neither the first product, nor was it like the first really successful product. Okay, they no longer make the chocolate apple. Actually. I'll get there in just a second. It's interesting. I was trying to decide whether to cut this part of the history, but it shows up like on the Terry's website, it shows up on Wikipedia, it shows up in all these other histories. And I'm like, Well, I guess, okay, what part? So things at Terry's became tough during World War Two, as one might expect. Yeah, right,
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:33
probably, probably, they. Probably the Terry's factory had harder than anyone else. Sure? I'm
Molly 11:39
sure, basically what happened was, during World War Two, the factory was taken over and used to manufacture and repair aircraft propeller blades. Is that
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:50
just because it was a factory, just because it was a factory, they didn't have, like, like, none of their like, chocolate making stuff was especially well suited to making propeller blades? I
Molly 11:59
don't think so. Even after it was given back to the company post war production was really difficult because of rationing in the UK, and there were limited imports of cocoa. And so in 1954 they kind of like nixed, from what I understand, a lot of their stuff, including the chocolate Apple, their their original product, and they okay increased production of the orange. So basically, World War Two caused the business to kind of begin to specialize. All right? They've tried other things, like they had a chocolate lemon, but nothing has stuck. It was a lemon, yes, okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:33
I get it. It's
Molly 12:34
been owned by lots of different companies since then. Craft owned it. Mondelez, is that how you say? I think that's right. And then now some company called eurasio, I think, which
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:46
was e, u, r, a, z, e, o, which is a funny name for some reason, really
Molly 12:50
is that company owns Karen bar, which, if you are in France, or maybe a country that gets French candy imported, one of those places you'll recognize Karen bar as kind of a big manufacturer of gummy candies. Oh, okay, and so that is who owns, like, Terry's chocolate orange at this point. So the chocolate orange is now, God, almost 100 years old. Okay, in 2020, 32, and Terry
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:20
is, like 200 years old. Terry is, you think he's in the Madam Tussauds Wax Museum. I
Molly 13:30
was just thinking the other day about how June, June, I love it when kids mess up idioms. And June said something the other day, oh, she said something about Maria Montessori, that Maria Montessori was moving in her grave was like, do you mean like, her index finger was wiggling a little bit, or like, anyway, so I like the idea of Joseph Terry. He's,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:56
wait, can we back up a second? What was, what was caused Jude to talk about Maria Montessori rolling over in her grave. Oh,
Molly 14:03
June. June goes to a Montessori I know, but it has gone to a Montessori school since she was three, and
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:09
so she has some strong opinions about the right and wrong ways to Montessori. She
Molly 14:13
knows a lot about Montessori education for peace, etc. I can't remember what it was, okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:21
yeah, but that's great.
Molly 14:32
The chocolate orange has done nothing but grow in popularity. In fact, from 2019 to 2022, global sales doubled just in that three year period. I would not have guessed that at all, including a tripling of sales in the US. No.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:47
I mean, I had to go to three stores, admittedly, but when I got to the third store, there was a huge display of them. But we're,
Molly 14:53
we're taping this. I mean, we should say, listen, we're taping this, like two, two weeks before Thanksgiving. Yeah. So I would expect to see a lot more of this after, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:03
but if you had told me that this was like a product in decline, I would have believed that. But no, I mean, good for them,
Molly 15:09
yeah, good for them. Good for them, not for me, but because I'm not making any money off it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:15
All right. So, so wait, so this is this kind of their only product now,
Molly 15:19
so my understanding is that these chocolate oranges, they have a couple different types, or they have multiple different types. Some of them, they phased out over the years. I mean, they tend to be really trendy, like, like, a chocolate egg that includes popping candy. I mean, a chocolate orange that includes popping candy, stuff like that. They also have bars, all right, like, like, orange infused chocolate bar. It sounds like it's a very seasonal business, yes, although they have attempted to capture other candy heavy holidays like Easter, all right, so I'll talk about that in a minute. It's primarily a seasonal product associated with Christmas. They've branched into Easter a little bit. I can't really speak to what it's like in the UK. Maybe it's like a full on Easter thing.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:01
What it's like in the UK either? I just learned it was a real country. So,
Molly 16:06
so basically, what this is, is, so imagine something that is like the shape of a small orange, but it's not a solid but
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:13
even say like a medium sized orange, yeah, yeah, when you say a small orange, I imagine like a, like a little mandarin orange. No, it's bigger than that. This
Molly 16:22
is not a full on navel. It's maybe Valencia. It's it's not a solid ball. It is divided into 20 segments. Actually, each of those segments is solid. It's divided into segments, kind of like a real orange, and they're held together in the middle by like, a little line of chocolate, yeah, like a little dowel, yeah. And and then it's all wrapped in like an orange foil. And so before you eat it, what you're supposed to do, and this has always been a big part of the company's marketing, is you're supposed to, like, whack the ball. It even has, like, a flat surface on the bottom. Yeah, you're supposed to whack it on a hard surface. Sometimes they they say, tap it. But it really is, I think, more like whacking than tapping. They should ask me,
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:07
yes, but So wait, so is the slogan tap and unwrap or whack and unwrap.
Molly 17:12
So what I read was that tap and unwrap was the older slogan. And whack and unwrap is its replacement. But if you look at the box, it says, tap it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:21
Oh, yeah, yeah, tap it, unwrap it, share it, yeah. Oh, and this is made in France. Oh,
Molly 17:26
you're right. Actually, I did see somewhere that it's manufactured like near Strasbourg. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:31
it's made on the room Maurice, Maier Malay in isI Leno.
Molly 17:39
Oh, I'm I think that is near Paris. Could be near Paris.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:44
We could Google Map it. Oh, God, let's
Molly 17:46
Google Map it, because now I really need to know, I'm pretty sure you see Les mullino is near Paris. Okay, you
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:53
see Les Mullen? Mullen? No, it's in Bologna Bianco. Oh yeah, it's just outside of Paris. Cool to the West. We could tour the factory to the west. Yeah, you're right.
Molly 18:06
I think when I taught English conversation at a school in Versailles, when I would ride the rar out there, I feel like one of the stops was, EC, okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:14
Could you, could you like, smell the chocolate orange? I couldn't. Could you hear the the whacking and the No,
Molly 18:20
I could hear the tapping, okay, I do want to mention a couple of the the spin off products.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:26
I see you're skipping this bit. I am skipping this. Okay, great.
Molly 18:31
So one of the one of the products that they have created, this one is, I believe, intended to be. I'm laughing at
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:40
the name. I looked ahead. I'm laughing at the name. Sorry. I
Molly 18:42
think that this is just supposed to I don't really understand what season this is for. Okay, maybe this is Christmas. It's called segations, like segmentation, but
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:52
when you say it, it's, there's no like sexation, sexations,
Molly 18:56
right? And what it is is individual segments of chocolate in different flavors, I guess, all within one orange so sounds awesome. It does sound pretty awesome, really like this. So it includes milk chocolate, puffed rice, Honeycomb, corn flake, and a double sag of layered milk and dark chocolate, all flavored with orange oil. Get
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:16
out a double sag.
Molly 19:20
None of your business. Okay? And then this second one is a an Easter spin off. It's called the chocolate orange egg. And spoon is the name of the product. And it's kind of like a Cadbury's cream egg. It's a milk chocolate egg filled with an orange fondant filling. Interesting.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:36
I would try that. I have a question. Did you look at a picture of this product? I didn't, does it come with a spoon? Is what I'm wondering. Let's, let's, yeah, I think we need to.
Molly 19:45
I hope it comes with those Alice Waters egg spoons. Okay, so you can reuse it to cook your egg afterward.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:50
What are you talking about? Oh,
Molly 19:54
the Alice Waters egg spoon.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:56
Okay. What is that?
Molly 19:57
There was a big, like, kerfuffle on the. Internet, basically, Alice Waters once wrote about how she really likes cooking an egg over her hearth in a special spoon like this sort of wide, shallow, very circular, shaped spoon designed for cooking an egg. Okay, I think Tamar Adler wrote about it at some point, or talked about, maybe I'm throwing Tamar Adler under the bus, but basically it was used as a way to label Alice Waters and certain other food people as being, like, out of touch, that we should all be buying, like $250 egg spoons, sure.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:33
But okay, this product looks fantastic. Oh, can I see? Yes. So it comes in a little, a little egg carton, okay, like, maybe, like, a four egg sized egg carton. And there definitely is a spoon in there. There's
Molly 20:47
a spoon in there. Oh, yeah, are you meant to eat it with a spoon? I
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:50
think you're meant to eat it with a spoon. And there's also, there's also a Cadbury version, that's not orange, that's just like, like, chalk mousy chocolate.
Molly 20:58
I'm intrigued by, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:00
I need to. We need to go to where English candy is sold and see if we can get this. I mean, England,
Molly 21:09
I'm especially interested because it would never occur to me to eat a Cadbury cream egg with a spoon. No, it sounds nauseating. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:16
Now you're going to Paris. Oh, you're right. You can use drop by the Terry's factory in EC
Molly 21:25
Leo, yeah, I will be in Paris in April. Okay, on my way to a teaching job.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:32
Okay, see if you can get I'll see what I can do. I'll see
Molly 21:36
what I can do. This stuff is super popular in the UK, as you might expect, apparently, at one time, at least according to Wikipedia, it was said to be in 1/10 of British Christmas stockings.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:46
Nice. Yeah, it was certainly in mine. And I'm not even British. You're not. You didn't even know what England. Didn't even know what
Molly 21:53
it was today, one thing that you should do, if you if you just want something fun to do, is get on YouTube and look up Terry's chocolate orange ads featuring the British actress Dawn, French that's Dawn as in D, A, W, N. She is, or was, a British actress who was in pretty much all their ads in the late 90s and early 2000s and pretty much what she's always doing is in some way, kind of hiding, or like, trying to keep the egg for herself. She's like, trying to keep the, sorry, the orange for herself. She's
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:28
like, the tricks rabbit. That's right, that's right. Is that? No, the Lucky Charms, the lucky chars leprechaun. Is she like that? They're always trying to get me Lucky Charms. Or is that? Well, silly rabbit tricks her for kids. So, okay, so the rabbit is trying to steal the trick. So she's the opposite of the tricks rabbit. She's, what is, two kids. Okay, two kids and fall. It's like, follow my nose. It always knows, like, I think she is most like, like, actress Dawn French is most like, Wait, what did I say? Tony? No, wait, we had it in
Molly 23:11
the tricks bunny. No,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:12
no. She's not the trick buddy, no. The other one, the Lucky Charms. No, no. This is not a Hamburglar. She's trying to stop someone from from burgling. Wait, so
Molly 23:24
what's the Lucky Charms? The
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:25
Lucky Charms, leprechaun says they're always after me. Lucky Charms. So, so, like, the so, like, like, she's got the chocolate orange other people, other people are trying to get it, but it's hers. That's how the leprechaun feels about Lucky Charms. Well,
Molly 23:39
that's right. Okay, so don French, her ads would mostly end with her saying, it's not Terry's, it's mine.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:46
Yeah, you showed me a couple, a couple of these ads, and they're great. And Don French is absolutely now my celebrity crush. Great. I love it. I
Molly 23:54
wonder. I don't know if she's still around. I should more recent ad campaigns after they moved on from Don French. Very unfortunate. Use the slogan round, but not round for long. Okay, that's good. I like it. Smash it to pieces. Love it to bits. Okay, sounds vaguely menacing,
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:15
yeah, I suppose I'm looking up Don sounds like very Don French still with us. Oh, thank
Molly 24:20
god. Okay, not even that old. We'll, we'll see if we can link to the YouTube ad that I particularly liked, which is Christmas themed, and she does something really interesting with her mouth. Yes,
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:29
it was made me feel things.
Molly 24:34
Okay, well, I really like these things.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:37
Yeah, I was, I was hoping this, this was gonna be a fun experience to like, to like, whack and unwrap with you. And it sure was.
Molly 24:44
I think I would definitely buy the original. So, yeah, I think that it's a little tricky to figure out the original is the milk chocolate one. It's a blue package. Yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:54
definitely like that one better. But I would be happy to receive any of these things we've talked about in my style. Talking like an egg and a spoon, like some sort of, like weird Franken orange made up of like, 20 segments, all with different flavors.
Molly 25:07
I would especially love the one with puffed rice, yeah, like, you know, like a crackle meets Terry's chocolate orange. Okay, well,
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:14
we, we, we took, like, a really small corporate retreat this year, and we're talking about doing a bigger one next year, maybe, maybe we can go to England, if it still exists.
Molly 25:24
It's more like if the US still exists, maybe we'll be able to fly out exactly. Okay, so we've got some spilled mail.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:41
This spelled mail comes to us from listener Clara, who asks Molly and Matthew, Hi, how are you both going so far this year, I had a random question that I've always wanted to hear your thoughts on, how do you deal with heartbreak? Take this as seriously or as lightheartedly as you want. Love your work. Listener Clara.
Molly 25:55
Listener Clara, I love this question. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:58
it's a tough it's a tough question, because, like, how serious are we gonna be? Well, I
Molly 26:03
think that another thing we should say is that it's probably been a long time since you had romantic heartbreak, yeah, but there are other kinds, for sure, other kinds of heartbreak. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:12
mean, a national heartbreak, yeah, that's I was thinking about that for no, no particular No,
Molly 26:17
no reason at all for me, and this has proven especially true in the wake of the the US presidential election, more than ever, I really feel like writing is how I do these things. And I think I'm someone who has never felt that I need to like that I must write to live. Yeah, me neither. I don't feel that way, however I do feel that if I'm trying to transform like one feeling or one or if I want, if I want to move through a feeling or a thought, or if I want to try to work something out within my own mind, writing is inevitably the thing I turn to, yeah, if for no other reason than putting language to things helps me work with
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:10
them. Yeah, no, I get that. I've been thinking about that also maybe doing a little writing, probably just journaling only for myself. I've two answers. One is the first time I got dumped by my high school girlfriend. I went to the store and I got a pint of Ben and Jerry's chocolate peanut butter cookie dough, and ate the whole thing. And didn't feel great afterwards, but also felt like the right thing to do, yeah, for me, I would say the answer is music. Like, I wanna like, you know, heartbreak is an inherently lonely feeling and like, so I want to know that, like, even if I can't fix the problem, that I'm not the only person who feels the way I do, and nothing does that for me like a good sad song. Yeah, so
Molly 27:53
you turn to sad music. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:55
love sad music.
Molly 27:56
I have to say that there are a lot of songs, especially Radiohead songs that I have turned on specifically to sort of like milk, a feeling out of myself. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, like, okay, and also gross. Yeah, that's pretty gross. It's like muscle milk
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:16
not getting any less grass.
Molly 28:17
You know that feeling when like a song really like, makes you cry. I don't know how often a song makes you cry, very often, but sort of like an open mouth kind of ugly cry where maybe you even have, like a web of spit in the corner of your mouth. You're all alone listening to this song and just feeling your feelings. Yeah. No,
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:35
yeah, no. Question. Like, if I feel heartbreak, I'm gonna put on Elliot Smith Walt's number two, XO. That's the saddest song that I know always works, wow. Okay, that's a great question.
Molly 28:46
Thank you. Thanks. Thanks. Listener, Clara and and I hope that the heartbreak leaves you soon. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:53
Molly, do you have a now? But wow,
Molly 28:55
I do have a now, but wow.
I have been wanting for a while, and I keep forgetting to mention it. I've been wanting to give a little shout of recognition here to a bookstore that's opened in Fremont neighborhood here in Seattle. It's called Charlie's queer books. It is owned by a guy named Charlie hunts. He's often in there, and you will know it when you see it by its like, brightly colored exterior. There's a lot of pink and purple going on. Yeah. This
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:31
is a great store.
Molly 29:32
Have you been there? Yeah? Oh, I love it anyway, June and I have been there, I think, like, four times at this point, inevitably, we always keep taking aims with us. And he ruins everything. Take all the books off the shelf. But anyway, they even have, they have a great
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:47
would always take all the books off the shelf. When they were they were like, one, yeah, yeah.
Molly 29:52
They have a fantastic ya, like a queer ya section, fantastic merch, a fantastic kid. Section picture books that are really queer and gender affirming. And then, of course, a whole variety of adults books like having to do with queer topics andor by queer authors. It is just fantastic. They celebrated their one year anniversary in early November and long May, Charlie's queer books rain. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:20
Do they do online orders? I
Molly 30:21
think they do. And, in fact, I think that they also can ship to you discreetly, okay, like, if you don't want the return to say Charlie's queer books or whatever. I mean, it's pretty cool. They're just really smart, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:33
no, I love, like, a small, a small bookstore with a with a clear sense of purpose. And like, this one is one of the best.
Molly 30:41
It's great. It's great. In fact, I'm drinking water from a Charlie's queer books water bottle today. So, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:47
Charlie, charliesqueer books.com or visit them in Fremont, Seattle. Yeah, that was, I mean, Merry Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas to us. Yeah, and to our producer, Abby cercatella,
Molly 31:02
happy holidays. To all our listeners, yep, this Wednesday episode,
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:06
oh yeah, this is gonna be like, Oh, early December.
Molly 31:08
Early December. Yeah. So, you know, may you find an orange in your stocking, and may it be a chocolate orange, not a regular orange,
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:17
exactly, yeah. And if, and if you don't, like celebrate Christmas and have a Christmas stocking that you just open your sock drawer and find a chocolate orange in your sock?
Molly 31:25
Yeah. All right. Our producer is Abby cercatella. You can
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:29
chat with other spelled milk listeners at everything spelled milk.reddit.com. It's a very lovely and supportive community. It is. And see you next week, until next time, work, just a couple of pulp boys. No, actually, I'm
Molly 31:43
a pulp boy.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:44
And I'm Richard Helen and a void oId.
Molly 31:49
I'm Molly, yeah, we know. I mean Molly, Molly, Weisenberg, oh,
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:53
and I'm Matthew. I mean Matthew, that's your friend, okay.
Molly 32:02
Oh, my God, I've got to find out right now.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai