Mother Knows Dad starring Nicole and Jemmy and Maria qk Hi everyone walk on The Mother Knows that this is our annual questions only episode. So Maria is going to ask the questions and we will answer them. All right, first, what do the majority of people or children choke on
over the holidays? I don't know if there's anything different during the holidays than any other time of year, but the most common things are food, obviously, the classic things of hot dogs that are cut in cross sections that are the exact size of a child's airway, grapes, things like that. Another one could be balloons or common one kid's choke on. I don't know if people have a lot of balloons around this time of year, but I don't think it's anything different around this time of year
than any other time of year. It's just terrible to even think about a kid choking around the holidays. But all right, what's the weirdest Christmas related injury you've heard of?
Let me think on that for a second. What are you well?
If I could help you out, there's a lot of electrocutions right that happened with like Christmas trees or the.
Guy the other day.
You know the guy, the guy that we talked about a couple weeks ago that got electrocute to putting his Christmas lights up. Yeah, and it wasn't you know. The way I thought about it was he got electrocuted plugging it in on the roof or something, but he hit the live power line. So yeah, when he was like throwing them, he was throwing them somewhere right to get to the other side to somewhere.
Yeah, it seemed like a lot of.
Real trees also catch on fire a lot, and I think those cause people a lot of problems. That used that used to be a thing that when I was a kid that people were so scared of. And I don't I don't really know. I never really talked a game about it because we only had a real tree a couple times, and it was flocked. And they're like a little bit different because they're sealed and they don't get dried out as easily, like you don't have to water them.
Like crazy like you do a regular tree.
But yeah, like I remember growing up that was it seemed like a lot of people moved to artificial trees in the eighties because they were afraid that the tree was gonna catch on fire in the house. Yeah, I mean, I feel like I definitely don't see as many stories about it recently. I don't know if people are just like better about unplugging them or keeping them on a timer. I think the rule of thumb is just you know, you don't leave stuff plugged in, like while you're not home something like that.
You know.
The lights are different though, I'm guilty of leaving my Christmas lights on all the time. The led wants they don't get hot. Well, considering that you're married to a fireman, you're not really super responsible with fire hazard.
He lives here too. What do you want me to say?
We have a question about Gabe coming up. I'm just gonna jump to it now since we're on the topic. What are some absolutely no go fire hazards or fire safety Gabe preaches around the holidays. Candles are always a thing. I want a house to smell good all the time. But he's constantly yelling at me about having candles too close to things, and I'm like, dude, I really I can't explain to you how far away it is he wants it to be. Like if you add a dining
room table. He wants it to be in the center of the table and no light fixture above it, and nothing anywhere near it, not a curtain, not a shelf, not a piece of taxi army that might catch on fire. That might have happened a couple of years ago. So now he's all paranoid. Yeah, so he's he's he's kind of nuts about the candles. He hates in my house, I have really long curtains on almost every single window, and he's always like, can't you make.
Those curtains shorter? And I'm like, no, that looks terrible. I'm not doing that.
I like them dragging on the floor. He hates it, like he just thinks it's a huge fire hazard. He's not, He's not really. He also gets nuts with cooking. Anytime he calls it a careless cooking incident, he smells like something burning. He like freaks out and like opens all the windows when it's twenty degrees outside. But he's he's
really not that bad. Honestly, your worst defense, in my opinion, is your space heater by your desk, because there have been several times where I've you know, you're away, and then I come in the house and it's on from like two days ago, touching your fur lined.
I cannot believe you have not had a problem. Yeah, and that thing catches on fire sometimes too, like it did a couple of weeks ago. But I need that. That's like my security blanket.
And that's the second time that one is caught on fire, like you got a new one and then the second one caught on fire a couple of weeks ago. So Gabe's dad is a fireman, and I think that I had a conversation with him once about electric blankets, Like he's like a note because he's like old school seventies firefighter, Like he's when electric blankets would like kill people, and shit, they probably still could, I suppose, But I'm like, I would get divorced from you if I couldn't have a
my electric blanket. But one of Gabe's friends had a fire that involved the dryer lint not being cleaned out properly. So he's like a freak about that, Uh, always checking to make sure that that's cleaned out every single time used the dryer and stuff. Just that's that's it, though they're not really I mean, considering the amount of fires that the guys go to.
They don't.
They don't really seem like they're too they don't get too overly crazy with things. I wonder if they blanket careless cooking incidents. As a lot of people store things in their oven. I'm firmly against doing that. But my husband is really about putting all different types of things
in the oven. Just he'll put like food in there to keep it warm or just random shit, and I'm like, don't do it, because I mean, like like he'll mostly he puts pans in there, but let's say he'll cook something and then he'll later want to reuse like the piece of foil he was using, not like he could rip another piece off or anything, right, So he'll put that in there and it'll have grease on it or something, and then I'll turn the oven on not knowing it's
in there, and then it smells bad, and I'm just like, I don't want to worry about something being in there. Just we have places to put everything. You're just being lazy. It just seems like it's like it's like almost an empty cabinet in your kitchen.
That's you know what I mean, I understand it. I actually keep stuff in the one side of mine too. I don't know.
I just I don't see a reason for it, you know. I sometimes I put my sour dough bowl in there to prove it, but I put a note on the thing that says.
It's in there.
Yeah, but there's a piece of plastic wrap on it, so like you know how bad that's gonna be.
I don't know.
I just wonder if they have a lot of problems because of stuff like that. All right, do you have a certain food or snack that you put out every year for the holidays? They said they do strump boli and pepperoni bread. It sounds delicious. When I read that question earlier, I was like, I want to make pepperoni bread for for Christmas Eve now.
Because you can't. So I already I already I already looked.
Up a recipe seriously, like I'm going to make it because one of the things about being gluten free is that you just can't have good stuff like that. And even if I make it, like, it's just not gonna taste like it should.
But that makes me think that I want that.
We didn't we talk about this a few episodes back, like, well, we were talking about our favorite holiday treats.
So stuff.
Yeah, we kind of touched on it a little bit, Like I feel like we're switching it up this year. Normally we make sauce with like sausage and meatballs and everything, and then we do sandwiches. This year, we're gonna be making chicken cutlets, which is a little different, but we're still gonna be doing sausage and peppers. And then every year I try to put out some like cheese board
checuterary situation. But Rick Let's not makes that thing whatever it is that corn beef ball, Yeah, that's that thing's good.
It's really good. What is it. It's like corned beef and cream cheese. That's it. No, there's more stuff, but I'm not gonna give away seat. It's on the air. It's a that's like a family delicacy.
Yeah, it's it's it's like a weird thing, but it works.
Yeah, that thing is really good. I don't know.
I feel like we put out a lot of different stuff. Thanksgiving, we're pretty ritualistic, having the same exact menu every year. But I feel like Christmas Eve we just put like we all like we're big food people and we all like to cook and stuff, so we like to like say, oh,
this year, we're doing this or whatever. Yeah, and I'm you know, I I'm going a little lighter on the Secuterary this year, because let's not forget two years ago when I made the Secuterary chalet and then nobody ate it because everybody was like.
I don't want to touch it, it's too pretty. Ria has this problem all the time. She makes these.
Really she does it for like if we have a like a kid's party or something, she always makes these like extravagant cheese boards, and then nobody wants to eat it because they look so nice they don't want to mess it up. And then we end up having like fifty dollars worth of cheese and shit just like sitting there because nobody touched it. It really seezes me off, though, because it's food, and I'm like, it's I know, I understand that, though, like I would feel weird being the
one to like wreck the way that it looks. You know, well, usually I make it, then I take a picture and then Gabe can't help himself, so he immediately tears into it. And at least other people feel good about it. After that, so I don't know. I'm not The chalet took too long and then nobody touched it. I was really pissed about it. So I'm not going hard on the spreads anymore for my house because it really annoys me.
All Right, what are your favorite ornaments on your Christmas tree? I don't. I don't really have any great ones. She doesn't have any fun ones.
I don't because I am such a crazy person, like I talk about this that I probably have something wrong with me, with my color of coordination, and I just I can't have those like junkie ornaments. I'm like one of those people. I have a whole box of them, but they're not hanging up anywhere. I'm just that person. Sorry, hate me whatever. Actually, Aunttary got me when the girls were born, not you, unfortunately, but the two lillly And and Luccia.
She got me these like little Lennox. They're they're like a little lammer giraffe thing that says their name and their their year that they were born. You're probably my favorite ones, and they match my tree, so it works out. God forbid. They don't match the tree. I have all junkie ones because I love those kind. My favorite one,
it's hard to say. One of my favorites is my husband's stepmother bought him one that's when he learned how to drive that says steer clear, Here comes Ricky and it's a steering wheel.
I think that one's just hilarious.
Oh, I guess one of my favorite ones is I have one that's a little Martha's Beach bubble that says.
More noog and I love it.
And then you got me that really cute chocolate chip canoli one.
I think that one's really cute. Yeah, you have that matter tree. It's pink.
Yeah, but Mike, my kitchen's more of a French theme. Gothic French bistro is my theme. So like, I don't know, just leave my tree alone.
All right, whatever.
What's your favorite cookie recipe?
Oh, the Ricotta cheese cookies.
Mine is the Peppermint Hershey kit Yeah, it's chocolate cookie with a peppermint Hershey kiss in it.
Do you think those.
Ones me and Lara, the ones me and Lara made the other day, you could probably do that with.
I think it's like a trader.
I think the recipe was a trader Joe's and We've made it a couple of years.
It's really good. It makes like a loaf.
We were sinking it looks like a big turd and were like pinching off a loaf to make this. But yeah, it's really good. They're chocolate. But there was there was a section of the recipe that said you could like add peppermint and stuff and make them, because you could do like the chocolate one and the white one and make both of them, and then you you like roll it up and make the pin wheels. Have you ever seen those?
Yeah? Yeah, I think I think Annie used to make those a lot.
She did.
They were really good. I liked those a lot. Yeah.
I think I think the ones I make are essentially the same as yours. But I just add like peppermint extract and then put the her she can. You're making the ricotta cheese once. Yeah, I just this morning got all of the stuff. I'm gonna make them this weekend. All right, make sure you give me some like a lot. I'm making you a whole box. You act like I don't ever give you like an entire box of cars. You're ridiculous. Have you ever refused to do it? Autopsy?
If so why Yes. So there's a disease called CJD and it's a preon disease, which is weird. We talk about it a little bit in the gross room. We've actually done a high profile that's a section on preon diseases.
And it's a little bit different than any kind of infection that you ever think about getting from a bacteria or a virus, because it's not an infectious agent, but it's something that causes abnormal proteins and most of the time when people get it, it just occurs in their body, but there's rare times that you can catch it from
a person. And the people that are most high risk to catch it from a person that has JD are people who are either a brain surgeon that are doing surgery on those patients or a person that's doing autopsy and taking out the brains of those patients. And the reason that it's so dangerous is because when you use the bone saw, it creates aerosols which you could breathe in, even if you're wearing a mask and everything.
It's just kind of risky.
Right now, there's a whole entire procedure on how to do these autopsies and you're supposed to use like specific tools and a different a bone saw that that has a vacuum attached to it that sucks the dustin as you're using it.
And my particular lab.
Wasn't equipped for that. So I did do an autopsy once without all of that stuff on a patient with that and because I just I don't know why, I just did because I worked there, and that's you know. The second time they asked us to do it, one of the neuropathologists that I used to work with, so that's one of the pathologists that specialized in brain pathology, came up to me and he was just like listen, Nicole, like I don't want to start any trouble, but I don't think.
You should do this, and I think you should refuse to do it.
And he's like, I just don't think they know enough about this, and I don't want to see you pop up with something in ten from now because you were exposed to this, because that's how it works, like you wouldn't even really know you were sick for a while. And that was cool that he was trying to look out for me, and it was fine because we ended up. There's there's like certain centers around the country that you could send these patients to that are getting research and stuff,
and they have the equipment to do it. So it wasn't that huge of a deal, you know. So Yeah, so for CJDA only once, do you consider yourself health care or law enforcement? Me?
Healthcare?
Would a medical examiner though, be considered law enforcement or they also healthcare? They're they're government employees, medical, legal, death investigation. I would consider them to be on the on the legal side of things more so. Yeah, but they also have an interesting role because they're also involved with public health, especially if they're doing autopsies on you know, think about COVID,
TB things like that, that like transmissible diseases. They're they're the ones that see the dead people, and so they're they have a really big role in public health as well. But their they're governmental employees. Yeah, for sure. Do you have a specific order that everybody opens the presence? Well, yeah, we let the little kids open them first.
Yeah, like they they come down and do Sanna and all that, and then we.
Wait on a side because this is probably the last year for Sanna.
We've literally been saying that for three years.
Yeah. But but Lucci is ten years old, Come onta tell her she's getting a little Wait, who was telling me?
Oh?
Was Jen telling us the other day that she knows a kid that was in sixth grade or something that still believes in Santa.
I don't like high school? High school? The girl was going into ninth grade. No, they just told her.
No, I don't think so yes is she like like, I don't know how that's that doesn't see right to me, like a kid of that age, Like that's why do you have your kid in a bubble like that? The kid was fifteen years old? This is what I was like, what is happening here? How do you how how do
you keep somebody so sheltered like that? I don't think that's listen, like I believe that that the mom thinks that she still believes, but the kid doesn't because I don't think, like I don't and I don't know Laura, if you're listening that I could be wrong, but I believe that Laura never had a formal conversation about about June.
But she just like she's like, I know, we just never like you know.
How with Lily and like I had a formal conversation with her about like yeah, but she was like questioning that she was yeah, and she was she was ten, and ten's my cut off, so cause I'm like a little bit older, you get you're gonna get beat up. There's like a fine line, and it's ten years old
for me. But like, but Lara, like I mean, I don't think I don't know that June's ever like formally said to her, I don't believe in Santa anymore because she just goes along with it kinda And I know a lot of kids do that, So that doesn't mean like June certainly doesn't believe in Santa anymore, but like you know what I mean, Like I that's what I think is happening there, and the mom maybe isn't letting go. There's no way your fifteen year old believes in Santa.
Still. I'm sorry.
This kind of leads into the next question, which is how and when did we stop believing in Santa. So I actually overheard you one Easter, I think I was around nine, say to somebody in the house, we gotta
go get the bunny shit out of the trunk. But I was like barely asleep in the same room as you, so then you know, I pretended and everything, and then you just you get so excited about it, and it's like hard as a kid that you don't want to disappoint your parent about it, so you just go along with it for a little bit, and then I think that's what happens. It's funny because right now, like Lucia is definitely testing me. I could I feel it. She keeps bringing it up, and I'm like, I don't know.
I just like we just keep saying I told you I probably said this in a previous episode that she was like, wait a second, like don't we think that this is weird that there's just some guy that comes into your house in the middle of the night and he says he like stares at you when you're sleeping and he knows when you're awake, and he's like stalking you. And and then Gabe says, well, so do you not believe in Santa anymore?
Lucha?
And she says, no, I do. It was so funny, but she brought it up again the other day and she did tell me that kids at school said it said it. And then I don't want to straight up lie to her and just be like like no, Santa is real. Santa is real. We say like, well, what do you what do you think about it? You know, we're trying to like and and she's like, oh, I believe And.
I'm like, okay, that's.
You know people, well there's people that think you're like a child abuse her if you lie to your child about Santa.
And I think that's fun ridiculous. It's a good lie. It's a good it is.
It's like a it's a good surprise. And they're like, there's no like lasting damage from that.
People. Lillian was the most.
Mind blown because she couldn't believe that the whole world was in on it. Like after I I told she asked me finally and I told her. She's like, wait a second. She goes and pulls up my computer and goes on Google and she's like, look, you could see where Sanna is. And I'm like, well, that's they make that for kids. And she's like, so they just make all this fake stuff, like every single adult in the
world does this. And I was like, yeah, kind of like people that are in on Christmas and stuff, like most people that celebrate Christmas do that with their kids. To an extent, every single person I know does unless they're like Jewish or Muslim or something, and they don't do it. So she just couldn't believe. And even then it's cool because like the kids that don't believe in it, they still go along with it for them too, it's
amazing kind of yeah, I mean it really is. It's this like, why can't we have respect like that about other things? I don't know, Oh yeah, Like it's like you're an asshole if you ever tell a child that there's no Santa, right, Like everybody could agree on that.
It's something we can all ChIL dress in. All right. What are our favorite true crime podcasts?
Oh, Nancy Grace my number one, Zone seven, Zone seven with Cheryl So Cheryl. I found Cheryl, and I found Joseph Scott Morgan from Nancy Grace, and then I started listening to their podcasts from Nancy Grace, so all three
of them they're my favorites. I also like A last podcast on the Left does really good coverage of high profile stories, and Heather McDonald on her Patreon also does really good true crime stories with her sister who's a criminal defense attorney, So that's a good insight into it.
As well. So those are the ones I listen to the most.
Yeah, I mean I've I listen to Nancy Grace like, and a lot of people think that she's, you know, older, there's other podcasts and stuff. I'm older, and I've been like I used to watch her show when I was younger, and I just whenever, Like when that thing just happened with the CEO and everything getting shot, I was just like, Oh, I can't wait to see what she has to say about this, you know what I mean. So that's like my go to. And Cheryl's just like the best storyteller ever.
She and she just like I love her delivery. And then Joseph, he used to do autopsy, so so I just like like to hear that aspect of it.
You know.
Joseph and Cheryl also have the most calming voices ever, so when you're hearing these horrific stories, it just it just hits different because their voices are so relaxing, and they're like really good people too in real life. Yeah, they really are outside of podcasts, all right. Who is my favorite housewife slash franchise? My favorite franchise right now is Salt Lake City. I think it for a newer franchise,
it's been holding up very well. I think aesthetically, it's really beautiful to see all the mountains and they're skiing all the time, and they always have these like cute head to toe Chanelle skiing outfits and I.
Just like all of that.
And with that said, my favorite housewife is Lisa Barlow, who I also said last year when I was asked this question, She's getting a lot of shit this season, but I'm gonna stand by baby or Lisa.
And like, how much is a Chanelle snowsuit? Oh?
It must be like thirty plus thousand dollars?
I just can't.
Like, I like, one of my dreams is to have a Chanel like blazer. And I went and just listen, like that's not anywhere in my price range. But one time we were at where Sacks are one of those stores, yeah, and we like looked in there and it was ten thousand dollars for a jacket and I just was like, this is not real, Like I can't even believe that.
It's like and it's tweed, right.
So all I kept thinking was like, Okay, I'm gonna take a mortgage on my house and just coat and I'm gonna wear it and like pick up my cat and her fingernail is gonna get stuck in it, and like put a giant pull in it. Like I just can't imagine having a coat that costs. It's not even a coat, it's not like a it's it's just like, how often can you wear it?
Everybody?
I don't know. I guess you'd have to wear it every day if you spent that much money on it. Well, there's event because I will never I just want them to sponsor us or something like give us an outfit that would be really cool. These chicks will never wear the same outfit twice, Like they won't even wear the same person.
You don't I think that like.
Chanelle's giving them these outfits to wear. I don't think so. I think what happens sometimes is they have a stylist that has things in rotation, so they don't own them, and they're paying a stylist and they're getting dressed, or they're borrowing them or making deals with like sax Or Neeman's or companies like that.
But I think that they ever poop in them and return them.
I mean probably there's always rumors circulating this one chick from Beverly Hill saying that she's banned from Louis Vauton because she buys so much stuff and returns it. So they're definitely things circulating out there about their buying and returning processes. But I think a lot of them have stylists.
And then not all of them.
But I think there's a select few out of the over one hundred housewives that have existed that really are that wealthy. Because you know, one of the new checks on Salt Lake City right now, her husband invented the pom pilot, so they have like crazy tech on.
I remember that thing.
Yeah, it's kind of crazy that you're like, you're still like living off of that thing that is so obsolete now. Yeah, but I used to have one of them when I went to when I went to college because it was like I used to write my homework in it and stuff.
It was awesome. She's got like.
An any of the women that's husbands or themselves have worked in any type of tech situation have so much money.
Yeah, you know, it's crazy.
So they are always, you know, living in these crazy houses. But as we know from Bravo History, a lot of them go to jail for financial crimes and there's other stuff involved.
So I don't know.
I just particularly like that franchise because I think the drama is good and just esthetically everything's beautiful. Everybody lives in like lodge looking houses that are beautiful and look at mountains, and for me, it's a good scene, all right. Favorite movie or show of all time Monstrok will be my favorite movie if I had to pick one, and show like old school show Golden Girls, I really like Stranger Things honestly.
To be your favorite show of all time.
I mean it's up there. I like Golden Girls, like Golden Girls, Nanny, Like those kinds are the kind that you could just have on on the background and like listen to, you know. But like, yeah, I would say, though, like like a newer one, I would say Stranger Things probably, But like I really liked The Wire and I really liked Deadwood and you know what I mean, Yeah, Deadwood's so good. I just watched it a couple of months ago. My favorite TV show of all time is probably a
tie between Gilmore Girls and The Nanny. But my favorite show currently is this show Shrinking on Apple TV. I think it's like the most perfect show written. It's hilarious, but it's sad at the same time, so it's just a good mix of emotions. Movie wise, I feel like a couple of years ago, I wrote out a list of I just try to figure out what my favorite
movie is. I just like so many of them, and I think my number one ended up being the trifecta of Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, Wedding Singer, which is not one movie, but I see all three of those the same and I could watch them all the time anytime.
Yeah, Sarah Marshall too.
You know the new ones, Like I don't think the new one's even coming out to the theater. It's going right to Netflix or something.
Yeah.
Probably that's kind of weird, right, But I'm excited to see that because I that movie. When that movie came out, I went to the theater and brought every single person that I knew, and I saw it five times. I thought it was like the funniest shit I ever saw. I thought it was so good.
Yeah, that's how I feel about forgetting Sarah Marshall too.
It's one movie I've seen seventy five times, and every single time I'm crying, laughing, like it never gets.
Old to me. Have you ever seen that one?
Uh?
Oh my god, it is so hilarious.
So speaking of this right, so all like back in the day when Saturday Night Live was like the best ever, all of those spinoff movies with like Chris Farley and Adam Sandler and stuff, they were all like so good and so funny, and then like, what the hell was this Nancy Grace impression?
The other day? It was freaking terrible. Listen.
I sent it to I sent it to my friend too, and he was like, I think you're overly sensitive because you love her, and I'm like, no, I'm overly sensitive because as somebody that listens to her, I think she has a really iconic way of speaking with her accent, and she has catchphrases and stuff, and none of that was utilized at all.
The hair was wrong.
They had the handcuff necklace she wears, but it could have been way bigger the one she woren't.
Right, life was you?
Maria had the best idea that like she start, she should have started off with like a normal size handcuff necklace, and then every time the camera panned over to her, like it just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, like something that would have been hilarious, like her hair. Her hair was off, like she has outraged hair. But I got more of a vibe of like a Petunia
Clark singing downtown kind of vibe than Nancy Grace. Out of that, it was like a quoff, like a boufont kind of rather than And I guess Nancy's hair is a variation of that.
But it's not that I don't know.
I just thought like Nancy Grace is a very easy person to imitate because she's very she has her own personality.
There's nothing like the way she talks and the way she looks right.
So, and they've done her before, and well, I don't think Sarah Sherman was the best person to impersonate her. I think Heidi Gardner Chloe Feinneman would have been done a better job. I think Heidi Gardner would have probably been the best because she kind of has.
A mild eye.
All of those people suck, like Saturday Night Live hasn't been good in like ten years for real, Like seriously, it just I think when you remove a couple of them, I think Heidi Gardner in particular, I'm going to defend because I think when you remove her from Saturday Night Live and you put her in other things, she's incredible. But I don't think they write for her well on
that show. And there are occasional skits where she is funny, but I think the show, you know, I'm curious because it's in its fiftieth year, if Lauren Bichaels is finally going to retire. I've heard rumblings that maybe Tina Fey might take it over.
And if over, yeah, Like.
If she takes it over, then I'd be interested in it because she's she's a funny.
Person, she's a good writer.
So it's a shitty job to have in the sense of like because she's a mom and stuff. So like when you're getting paid a lot of money and you have this executive level job basically at NBC Universal, but their hours suck. They are working. This is why they take off two weeks at a time, because they're working seven days a week, sixteen hours a day writing skits.
They're up all night doing them. They have to film all the pre recorded ones on Thursday and then be doing dress rehearsal that gets taped in case of any errors, and then they have the live show. They have to make all those costumes in like twenty four hours. It's just pure Cha's like a lot of work for the shit.
It is, honestly anymore.
Yeah, I mean, if you had the Golden Era, which was like Maya, Rudolph, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell, that was like the best time of it.
No, that wasn't the best time that. I mean. I just think that there was waves.
There was like the seventies and then you had like Mike Myers and Dana Cart Like all those years were really awesome too, because that's like that was when I was younger, and then Chris Farley and Adam Sandler and then you know, Jimmy fall and all that. But after that, it just was like it's not been good. And it's not just me saying that, like everybody says it's not good.
I don't even.
Want to put the blame on Lord Michael's one hundred percent. I think a lot of it is the network being incredibly difficult and like nobody's allowed to be funny. You know, you're you're not allowed to say funny things.
Anymore.
That's just how it is. And I mean, I've listened to a lot of podcasts. I've read a couple of books about in like wats documentaries about that show. I think the history of that show is really incredible. And even though the show blows right now, I think the fact that Lorden Michael's pretty much he left for a couple of years, but he's pretty much run it the entire time is a huge achievement career wise. He was my age when that show came out.
Think about that. So I think it was an awesome So that's iconic. That chick that.
Played Nancy Grace was in the You're So Not Invited to My bar Mitz for Batmanz for whatever?
Which one's the girl on bot Mitz? Yeah? That did you see that? I haven't watched that one yet.
Yeah.
That that movie's awesome. It's really good.
It's really like, dude, it's Adam Sandler, like he's just he's good, but his girls are in it and they're good and it's just and his wife's in it.
The whole thing is really good. I love it.
Yeah, I love most stuff Adam Sandler that. I mean, his recent movies have been like kind of hit her face. All right, wait, speaking of Jewish people. Okay, so I found some my new favorite influencer on Instagram. I don't know what her name is, but I'll tag it in this episode if I could send it to you. But she's an Orthodox Jew and she talks about her life and it's amazing, Like I went down a rabbit hole for two hours watching the videos.
Where have you been?
There's been Netflix shows, there's a Netflix My Unorthodox Life now. But this is different because people just ask her questions and then she answers them in like a two second clips. I'm I'm just as intrigued with this lifestyle as I am with the Amish.
Like it's cut.
It's so much different than what we are used to that it's so interesting to me. Do you know that they have to like go to this special place and take a bath after they have their period, like seven days after they stop bleeding or something. They have to go to this I don't know what the name of is, Mifka or something like house, and they have to take this special bath. But it's not like it's like a spiritual bath. It's not like a get clean bath. They
have to do that every fricking month. That's nuts. I think this is you know, I've noticed like Mormon cultures having this huge boom in the last five years, and I think it's similar to that because it's just so misunderstood. But it's like a pretty large population of people. No, I really respect it. I just think it's I just think it's so crazy because it's not like that's not
what we're used to. And I just think about, you know how I hate going to get my nails done and I'm thinking, like, God, like you have to be like, oh, I got to go to this place and immerse myself in a bath after I have my period every month. Like it just seems like but she said it's like a spa, Like it's all like really fancy and stuff.
But they have like there was just like a bunch of different questions about like after when they have their period, they're not allowed to like touch their husband and stuff like that. There's just like all these crazy rules and it's I just think I think it's cool that to be able to follow something like that and and never stray. They have rules about all this stuff. I was learning about when they could eat meat and dairy. So like if the kid has, they have to wait six hours
in between. So if the kid has let's say meatballs or something at lunch at school at twelve thirty, then they can't eat dairy if they wanted to eat dairy until six thirty at night.
Like it's you know what I mean, Like they have to seeople have parmesan in them. They don't know, they don't mix, they can't eat them together. That's very it's it's cool.
It's cool, right, Like it's you're just like, oh, that's that's really interesting. So and I do that with the Amish people too, because there's there's people, So there's two different kinds of Amish people. I saw one girl that is Amish who apparently is like sneaking a phone because like, how would anybody in her community even know she has it? A lot of them sneak phones because remember was it this year when they did that emergency alert on everybody's phone?
Oh y, the found out in the Amish community because a lot of people had hidden ones. Yeah, and they were all going off. Yes. So there's that, there's that girl, and then there's people who like left the Amish and now so they grew up Amish and now they're English.
It's so it's just so freaking interesting. I love it.
I think in the Amish culture, when you reach a certain age, they give you the option to leave for two years and.
Regular Springer culture.
Yeah, and then you could decide from there if you want to continue being Amish or go off. There's a part of it that's like because there's just a part of it that's really cool, like the community aspect.
It's the same thing with.
The with the Jewish Orthodox that they all, you know, they go to special schools that all the kids learn the same religion, and then they're living this more unusual life compared to what most Americans are living. So all of the kids, like they all have the same rules when they go at home, you know what I mean. So with all their friends, it's just it's just like really cool and interesting.
All right.
What's the strangest thing you've ever collected? Probably I don't know, Gabe's mustache when he shaves it off.
I have dusting. No it's not, it's it's hilarious. Where is it like? You have it in a jar? Or is it I? I I have it right over there on the shelf. Do you want me to grab it?
No? Uh?
Yeah, like that?
Maybe I UD's I have like my kids placenta's my kids on bilical cord stumps, teeth.
Totally normal.
All right. What's the weirdest nickname somebody ever gave to you?
Mine is Mirth.
I don't know why you guys call me that, and I hate it and pop up. Still I don't know why either, But your name is in my phone as Mirth. Yeah, and when you email me and you see see other emails with business people, we are dealing.
With it, says Mirth. I don't know what to do about that. Change it. I don't. I don't think I've ever had a weird nickname, have I? I don't know. Coli. That's what my family calls me.
Well, I call you Nikki sometimes to piss you off, or to Gabe because we think it's hilarious. Wow, I'm.
You don't like that name?
Uh? What's something you've always wanted to learn or try?
I don't know. I'm pretty good about that kind of stuff.
When I want to learn how to do something, like I wanted to learn how to cook and I figured that out and still working on the gardening situation. Actually, like I could say that, like I would probably want to go to more formal like classes to learn about plants and.
How to take care of them horticulture type stuff. Also, I really want to learn how to.
Like color and draw with colored pencils to do like realism, like realistic pictures. I feel like I could. I just need to learn the certain techniques because I watch I've seen videos that the kids send me of like artists that do drawings in colored pencils that look like portraits are so cool, and I'm like, I feel like I could do that. I want to like look into that more.
I don't know, just like art stuff like that. Yeah, I really want to learn how to like I want to learn how to make clothes or knit or something. I can't crochet, so I assume I can't knit either, because they're kind of really similar. But I would like to learn how to make clothes with the sewing machine.
But sometimes what holds me back is I feel like the more things I learned like that, the more things people ask me to do and I don't want to do though, Like I just want to do it for viseo or to make people presents well you know what I mean.
They know I can't say no. I'm just saying it.
You know. I made us those Phillies cardigans and then everybody asked me for one, and I'm like, I'm sorry, but that was way too much time in my life. That's only worth it for myself or my parent.
You need to do.
You need to skip the embroidery, get the machine and find something else.
Because takes the craft out of it.
It's relaxing because I could sit on my couch and do it and watch a movie, not just you know, be sitting at a desk country door overall day doing it.
Yeah.
It takes away like the art of it all right. Uh, would you guys ever write a book together?
Yeah? I feel like we kind of did our well yeah, but we did. I didn't write it. I just did a loose editing.
Now, Maria did the Maria did the behind the scenes work, all that work with it, with the getting all of the photo what is the releases signed? And emailing the people back and forth and keeping all of the cases organized and harassing people when they wouldn't get back to us and all that stuff.
Yeah, I mean that type of work. I thrive on. I don't know what kind of a book do you? What kind of a book do you want?
Maria and I to write a memoir memoir? I? Yeah, I think we could maybe eventually write like a cute book about our life with you being a teenage mom and our relationship and everything. But otherwise I don't I don't know of what unless we did a collab of like stories we've both written already in the gross room. But it's weird because because before I wrote my book, a lot of publishers that were contacting me wanted me to write like a memoir book, and I'm just like, who cares about my life?
I don't know, you know, I know everybody does it, but like.
It depends because I read a lot of books like that, and I've had a couple this year where I've started reading them and I've I've had to stop, which I am.
If I start something, I finish it, you know what I mean.
So like for me to stop reading a book is like it's really bad and I don't like it. And I've had a couple this year. But maybe it also because I think my life is like like you wouldn't even believe it. If well, I think if we compiled all the stories we tell on here that come up over time, you can make it very entertaining as anybody that has a semi large family and your unique journey and everything you have to do it in a storytelling.
We really shit to bed with like every time, like especially with Popop.
Because he's just prime entertainment we should have.
Just like, so, Gabe is really good about this. Every single time either me or the kids say something funny, he writes it in his notes in his phone. And he's been doing it for ten years at least. He has a document that's so so so long. He goes back to it once in a while and like sends me a quote that I said in twenty fourteen or something. He thought it all the time, And like, if we did that with Popop and just wrote down like every single funny thing he said, because it happens all the time.
I started doing it ten years ago and I called it Lewisms and the mom mom said he was getting pissed about it because he thought were making fun of them all we are, which we are, but I'm like, I'm trying to remember the hilarious things you say and he just thinks.
We just think, not of thinks. He says, it's just like the stories and everything, but.
Because everything he says from his past just seems so ridiculous and made up, but then it all checks out.
Yeah, no, I think that could be a cool concept.
All right, Why did you decide to do everything retro for the show, because that's just our style, That's always been our style. Yeah, we wanted it to have a vibe of like Donna Reed, like, you know, like just old school.
Like sitcom kind of.
Yeah. We came up with the name first, and we knew kind of what we were gonna do, and then you have to kind of come up with a brand like any other business. You have to come up with a brand and colors and everything. So we wanted to keep it pink because that's everything with the doormatter and the grosser rooms pink. So you have to keep branding my house and seek. And then you know, the show was called Mother Knows Death. There used to be a
sitcom called Father Knows Best. So I took influence from those old posters from the fifties to make our cover artwork. And then you just take little bits here and there and we found the song, which just made sense. I feel like the song took us a while though, because at first I was leaning more towards like an Ella
Fitzgerald vibe, like a twenties, a more twenties vibe, you know. No, I always wanted I always wanted it to be super like campy, just because those shows are typically so you know, it reminds like I wanted it to have the vibe of like that, you know, that that diner place in Disney World, in Hollywood Studios, the Primetime ca Yeah.
I just wanted it.
To have like a super cheesy, like a wholesome feel, and then we're talking about like the nastiest stuff.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, exactly Like when we were when we were coming up with all of this stuff, I was watching like old episodes of Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show, like I forever and I don't know how we're gonna use this eventually, but I want to for something. I forever love that look of those curtains that are like, you know, the rainbow curtains that to me is iconic nineteen fifties television. So I'd like to use that look in some capacity. But we just did a lot of research and we thought.
We ever get a set one day.
Yeah, instead of this bobo that it's not you don't need to tell them that.
You don't need to tell them you are trade secrets.
But if you saw what was going on beyond the square frame, it is almost embarrassed.
Well, it's not.
Really embarrassing for me because what's around the square frame is awesome in my office here, but it just like it's us, you know, and occasionally because it's like the desk I record on is my makeup vanity and everything. So I'm sure you guys notice that if you watch on YouTube, occasionally I'll like beat speaking animated with my hands and then I'll like hit something and knock me.
And a couple episodes ago, I don't even think you noticed this because it happened so fast, But I was touching up my eyebrows in between our ad break and I lifted my arm and my my eyebrow brush was stuck on my sweater and I just pulled it off like nothing happened.
Nobody said anything about it, so I don't know.
Yeah, the worst thing that happens in my video is that there's always like a fruit fly in front of my face or something. This one's been chasing me around this whole week, Like I see it right now, Like it's it's like hanging around me, like maybe it's maybe it's like a ghost or something. It's like my grandpap just trying to like look over me. I don't know, just trying to swat them. I'm serious, Like, I just I can't. I can't find where it's coming from, you
know what I mean? Like I have a plant right here. There's no fungus nuts anywhere in any of the plants right now.
I just don't.
I can't tell where it's coming from. It's driving me freakin nuts. And I see it like you probably can't even do you see it in the video when you look. I don't see it when I look, I own, but like when it's like this, I'm just like, no, you can't really see it because they're so small. All right. Do you ever listen to music while performing autop season?
If so?
What? Oh? Yeah, we used to. It depends because when when I was working at the hospital, we would have residents that would rotate every month, so it would depend on who was on that month. Because I was on every day and then every month we would have a new person. So do you remember Jeffrey, Yeah, yeah, he was awesome. We used to listen to like Whitney Houston and shit, and then Frank we used to listen, Oh, Frank.
We listened to like Stevie Wonder and like the Drifters and stuff like really cool stuff.
And then we would just it just would depend.
But always it's always like stuff that's like gen pop music kind of you know, because you know you're in a room with a bunch of people, you can't be listening to anything outrageous.
But yeah, we didn't. We would just depend who was working, you know. All right, do you.
Doctors outside of your department ever come to the Morgue?
Yes.
I used to encourage it all the time, especially I had a pretty close relationship with a lot of the surgeons at the hospital, So if I was ever doing an autopsy on one of their patients or something, I would encourage them to come look if they wanted to look.
So yeah, they do. They they do often from all different floors, from surgery, medicine, whatever. They all come down.
And we used to have a really cool conference once a month that we had a lot of the staff, physicians and the residents and medical students come down to look at the autop season.
I know they do that at.
Other hospitals too, So we would save all of the interesting organs from interesting cases we had throughout the month and also from surgical specimens as well, and then we would present like ten cases a month and show the organs and just show exactly how the person died. We would talk about their you know, their age, their medical history and stuff like that.
It was really, really, it was really awesome.
And really that's that's the best way for doctors to learn because a lot of times we're just seeing like MRIs and CT scants and stuff, and for them to actually see the organ and really be able to touch it and everything, it's just like so magical. All right, this is our last question, which what's a typical day in the lab or the morgue look like? Well, they
are both different typical days. So if if you're working in the lab in the gross room in the hospital, that is pretty much that could change too, but there's only so much you could do there. So you know, you walk in in the morning, you have your coffee, everything, you're not supposed to have coffee in the lab.
I did every day because like, how could you not have coffee day?
Right, It's hard because you're not supposed to drink and eat in the lab. But I'm a rule breaker like that, so you would come in. And so what happens is when the specimens come in from the floor, there's usually an employee that works there, like a secretarial type of labb aid type of position, and they put all of the specimens into the computer and they give them special
numbers that are like our pathology numbers. So the first specimen that comes in on January first is number one, and then by the end of the year you could be at like number eighty thousand. Like it just depends on the volume at the hospital and they get the special numbers, and then we get them, the pas get them and were And like I said, this range is
depending on what you get at what hospital. So they can range anything small like a biopsy you get when you get a colonoscopy, all the way up to like a large colon resection for cancer, and those obviously take longer. So let's say, for example, we had a colon cancer case.
You would pull out the colon and you would look at it and you would measure it, and then you would give a description what's called a gross description, so like what it looks like exactly, because you have to think about this, like the pathologists is getting the slides and they're not seeing the specimen ever, so you have to write it in such a way that they could visualize what you're looking at. And sometimes that's a little
bit easier said than done. Then we you know, during our training, we learned special sections that we take to show the pathologists because that's how they're able to determine, like they figure out what stage a person is of cancer and what grade the tumors and things like that, and if it's spread, if it's confined, all those types of things. So we take special sections and then we usually give those little cassettes that we take the sections to the histology lab and they're the ones that make
the slides for the doctors. There's other times too that we can get specimens from people that are open in the operating room because the surgeon needs to know exactly what we're looking at so they can it kind of guides the course of their surgery. And when they do
that that's called the frozen section. So we get that and we have to make the slide like right away, and we're really supposed to do it within twenty minutes of getting it into the lab, and then we bring it to the pathologists and look at it with the pathologists. So that's pretty much the typical day of working in the gross room. It doesn't really change much from place
to place. And then if you're doing autopsy, so some places you could do all autopsy job or some like when I did it, it was just like I did all the autopsies and then when I didn't have a fruit flies back. You say it, you say it, oh my god. It it depends, it depends. But like I would do all the autopsies, then when I didn't have an autopsy, I would go upstairs and do surgical specimens like di sect the legs or whatever or help out up there. But when you when you do an autopsy,
you it's it's just like a totally different thing. You come in and they'll say you have an autopsy, and like the very first thing you have to do is just make sure that all the PaperWorks squared away. And that can often be a bitch because you have to have the legal nexicicin to sign it, and the doctors on the floor like always wrong. They always fill out the death certificate wrong. They always get the wrong person
to sign it. Then you have to track them down and get like it's it's just a lot of like silly work. And then you know, once you're okay to go, you go down to the Morgan, do the autopsy and put the body back and then you're done.
Well that's fascinating.
So thank you guys so much for all of your questions, and we will continue as always to do the three questions at the end of every news episode. So don't forget every Friday on the app Mother Nose Death Instagram account to submit your questions and we will see you probably in the summer again with our other I guess it's a bi annual questions episode, right, because we typically do it.
I don't even.
Remember we did one in the summer, did we. Yeah, we did it when we went to California.
Okay, gee, it's our vacation question episode. Yeah basic, All right, see you guys later.
Ya, thank you for listening to Mother nos Death. As a reminder, my training is as a pathologist assistant. I have a master's level education and specialize in anatomy and pathology education. I am not a doctor and I have not diagnosed or treated anyone dead or alive without the
assistance of a licensed medical doctor. This show, my website, and social media accounts are designed to educate and inform people based on my experience working in pathology, so they can make healthier decisions regarding their life and well being. Always remember that science is changing every day, and the opinions expressed in this episode are based on my knowledge
of those subjects at the time of publication. If you are having a medical problem, have a medical question, or having a medical emergency, please contact your physician or visit an urgent care center, emergency room.
Or hospital.
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