Episode 24: Sweet N Low Suicide, Dire Wolves, & Staples vs Office Depot

Kathleen opens the show drinking a Michelob Ultra out of her favorite Ole Smoky Moonshine pint glass. She talks about sampling moonshine on the border of a dry county, and her shock in finding out too late that Disneyland doesn’t serve alcohol when she took her young nephews for a day at the park. “BAD GOOD FOOD”: In her quest for new and delicious not-so-nutritious junk food, Kathleen extends her tasting of last week’s Cheetos Bold n Cheesy Mac n Cheese by making and sampling a Cheetos Mac n Cheese Jalapeno Cup , which she likes the “kick” of the flavor and would recommend to listeners. She then samples the new Ruffles potato chips flavor Ruffles Double Crunch Hot Wings , which she rates “delicious” but doesn’t taste the “hot wing” flavor. STELLA PARTON QUOTE: Kathleen reads a tweet from Stella Parton denouncing code & bots, and proving without effort that she IS cool as well as tough as hell. Kathleen loves Stella’s Twitter feed, and recommends that her Termite listeners follow it. SOCIAL MEDIA & QANON: As a follow up to Episode 23, Kathleen provides an overview of the insurrection at the US Capitol building on January 6th, 2021 (Kathleen’s refers to the event as “Honky Kong”) and social media’s role in organizing that event. She reads a few social media posts from QAnon followers and muses over the absurdity of some of their beliefs including use of a secret morse code style “Q Code” that allows Trump to communicate with followers, and claiming their own “ Great Awakening .” Kathleen then scoffs at an interview that Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg gave immediately after the Capitol riots where Sandberg maintained that the riot was “largely” not organized on the Facebook platform. Kathleen then shares a memory of marching at a protest in DC with her parents and Susan Sarandon . DOLLY PARTON STATUE AT TN CAPITOL: Democratic Rep. John Mark Windle has introduced a bill that will honor Dolly Parton with a statue at the state Capitol , as lawmakers move forward with replacing Confederate statues around numerous publicly funded buildings. Dolly will be recognized for her incredible contributions to the state of Tennessee, from her multiple philanthropic efforts to her decades of writing and performing music that redefined Nashville and East Tennessee where the Parton family hails from. GENERAL MOTORS UNVEILS FLYING CAR CONCEPT: Kathleen is thrilled to read a recent article announcing General Motor’s development of a flying Cadillac . GM’s flying Cadillac is designed to hold one passenger and travel roughly 56 mph between rooftops and other urban destinations. ELIZABETH HOLMES EVIDENCE TAMPERING: As a follow up to Episode 13, prosecutors managing the case against entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes and her now defunct company Theranos have subpoenaed an internal Theranos database they say proved executives knew the famous blood test product was a sham. A new court filing has disclosed that the database was promptly destroyed when requested by the courts, which will make a conviction of Holmes much more difficult. ANIMALS MOST LIKELY TO KILL YOU BY STATE: Kathleen continues with the segment Animals Most Likely to Kill You (By State), as reported by the Center for Disease Control . If you live in Kentucky beware of black bears, and in Louisiana watch out for insects “the size of a drone,” as Kathleen states. She then tells listeners to watch a YouYube video of rattlesnakes that have overtaken a crawlspace in Texas. SIEGFRIED PASSES: Kathleen reads the news that legendary Vegas performer Siegfried Fischbacher, one-half of the famous magician duo Siegfried & Roy, passed away at the age of 81 from pancreatic cancer. She tells the story of seeing their stage show for the first time while she was playing in Vegas, and also of the crowd reaction the night that Roy was mauled by one of the tigers onstage. SWEET’N LOW SUICIDE: Kathleen reads a shocking article about the suicide of Donald Tober , CEO and founder of Sweet’N Low artificial sweetener. Tober suffered from Parkinsons Disease, and leapt to his death at the age of 89. Kathleen provides the history behind Sweet’N Low’s name and iconic pink packets. STAPLES OFFICE SUPPLY DOMINATION: In alignment with Kathleen’s hatred of having to shop for office supplies for the Pubcast, she provides an update that Staples is trying to buy Office Depot again. Staples recently offered to buy Office Depot for $2.1 billion, in an attempt to consolidate the office-products space and better compete against online retailers. Kathleen describes her past depressing trips to BOTH stores to purchase printer ink, and now purchases online. As a result, she is now being stalked via email by Ink Pixie ☺ WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEK: Kathleen tells listeners to watch “ Some Kind Of Heaven ,” the Netflix documentary about the Florida-based retirement community “The Villages.” Kathleen is fascinated by the methodology behind this community, and outlines her awe of it in her bit “ The Villages ” from her Netflix special “ Bothering Jesus .” MYSTERY OF THE WEEK: Kathleen tells the mystery of the Dire Wolf , the creature made famous by Game of Thrones. The prehistoric wolf, which prowled the Americas over 11 millennia ago, has been proven by a group of international scientists to be a distinctly different species from any other dog or wolf. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .