Light Banter

Dolls are Scary, What's scarier? Clowns or dolls or clown dolls? Hmm. Lisa noticed she'd been seeing a lot of ads about American Girl dolls. Did the patriotic fervor of the Olympics cause this influx of Groupon ads for the cultishly creepy soulless but wildly popular and expensive dolls? Or is something more sinister afoot? This drudged up childhood memories--and nightmares--of the once-popular Baby Alive, complete with bodily functions. Because you know it's every girl's dream to change pee-pee and poo-poo diapers . . .  wink, wink. Later, Quinn chimes in with a warm Halloween tale about Chucky chasing patrons through the Universal Studios Halloween Horror Night mazes all for the bargain rate of approximately $100 per person. And let's not forget about everyone's favorite clown-wielding chain saws. Yeah, clowns and dolls are scary, but in the best possible way.

The Dark Side of Meditation, Just kidding. There is no dark side. Meditation is great! But sometimes Quinn "zens" out a little bit too much especially when driving and parking. So much so that she's created some hazardous situations for herself like blocking an entire apartment building driveway. To say the tenants were not happy would be a gross understatement. Luckily Quinn gave a quick namaste and got the hell out of there before she saw any dwellers carrying torches and pitchforks. Not to be outdone, all the ladies joined in with crazy, yet highly relatable tales of the ingresses and egresses of parking. Whether you live in a big metropolis or a small cow town, stories of parking dilemmas abound.

There, I Fixed It, Chrys' seemingly innocent question, "What was your worst car?" triggered a range of stories from interesting to innovative, and outright bad DIY repair jobs, including a Frankenstein-looking camper and a jerry, rigged compact side mirror. Best of all a story of grand theft auto with an oblivious accessory to the crime. Luckily Chyrs' criminal naivete is well past the statute of limitations so we can all laugh about it now but the moral of this cautionary tale is ignorance is no defense kids. If someone starts a car with a screwdriver in the middle of nowhere Wyoming, it could be a red flag of foul play.

We’re back with another update about the Ken’s and Karen’s wreaking havoc at 40,000 feet in the air. Anti-vaxxers, anti-masker, as well as covid-political outrage, have become almost commonplace on airlines. Today’s “Ken” story of the week is ostensibly mild on the idiocracy scale. He’s just a drunk knucklehead (read sarcasm) who gropes flight attendants and then scream-brags about his parents’ vast fortune of two million dollars (think Dr. Evil). Of course, he couldn’t get his pinky finger to his mouth for the full effect because in the end he was just another idiot taped to his chair, while fellow passengers looked on with nervous laughter. At least he didn’t try to open a door like other wing nuts. God, when will the insanity end? This can’t be part of the new normal . . . can it?

A Split Decision On Driverless Cars, Quinn is ready for driverless cars anytime and anywhere. Chrys and Erika don't mind the idea of driverless cars but only for a short trip around town--not long journies. Rebecca wants her driverless car to be a version of Kit from Knight Rider. While Lisa, a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Total Recall" is holding out for a futuristic Johnny Cab version of a driverless taxi. In any event, driverless taxis are already here--at least in Phoenix anyway. They're called Waymo (from Google) and getting good reviews so far.

Social Media Food Conspiracies, Have you ever opened a box of cereal to find something strange in it? And no, not the secret prize at the bottom of the box. This conversation is all about the urban legends around food conspiracies. What's real and what's just a bunch of hooey. It's hard to know. Most recently the makers of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Subway Tuna Sandwiches are defending their integrity from campaigns that began as Reddit threads and have gone viral via social media. While we're unsure of how this all plays out, we all love Subway's tuna so fight on Subway!

The Karen Rabbit Hole, Lisa recently discovered many social media pages dedicated to aggregating content solely focused on "The Karen" phenomena. Time loses all meaning when you're awestruck with such ignorance. An hour can feel like five minutes perusing these sites. It's truly shocking. Karen's aren't new and historically have gone by other names, including "Miss Ann" as far back as the antebellum south. Now that we are working desperately to have zero tolerance for the Karen's and Ken's of the world, we have to have these hard conversations in the hopes that society can and will change.

Olympic Door Dash, Unfortunately, none of us are avid Olympic watchers but we do get updates in this digital age and of course are always cheering on Team USA in spirit. Instead, we embarked on a riveting conversation about delivery services such as Door Dash, which entertained us far more than it should have, but we do like a good random conversation. Listen in as Erika and Rebecca regale us with first-hand knowledge of modern delivery services and the interesting things you see and people you meet. Spoiler Alert: Stoners are good tippers.

The Yelp Equation and Morbid Estate Sales, The conversation segues into our feelings about Yelp reviews, which we unanimously question the veracity of user comments. There's an algorithm, an equation to how to be successful in review endorsements. Yelp, Google, and Amazon are complicit in encouraging aggressive vendor tactics to achieve sales and ongoing interest. Of course, this immediately reminded Quinn of friends that had purchased furniture for their new home at an estate sale of a murder victim, which creeped her out especially when she learned that the bargain they got for the furniture also required cleaning the blood out of the couch. How far are you willing to go to get a really good deal on a couch or any product?

White Hangers and Frothy Milk, What happens when you purchase 20 white hangars and then are bombarded with requests for a review. Unapologetic Amazon superuser, Lisa gives us the scoop of navigating the marketing gauntlet of Amazon's vendors that will stop at nothing for a good rating. And if you think that's bad, wait till you hear Rebecca's interactions with a vendor willing to pay her with a $40 gift card to change her review for a product that's only worth $15. Unbelievable and yet hilarious to discuss because haven't we all been bullied by an Amazon vendor in at least one online shopping experience?