Episode 33: The Queen Sherpa, Cheerleading Moms, & A Serial Stowaway

Kathleen opens the show drinking a Miller 64 and discussing the strategy behind her March Madness bracket in the Madigan Family pool. “BAD GOOD FOOD”: In her quest for new and delicious not-so-nutritious junk food AND in continuing her search for the best Ranch, Kathleen samples the new Taco Bell Chicken Sandwich taco (she HIGHLY prefers her go-to beef taco), which is available now for a limited time in Nashville and Charlotte. She then tastes Lay’s Crispy Taco potato chips and shares with listeners her Dad’s remedy for any stomach-related illness that involves an entire bag of regular Lay’s potato chips. And in the spirit of finding the best Ranch dressing, Kathleen samples Hidden Valley’s Bacon Ranch Dressing, which she boasts would be a massive hit at any Midwest party. A MAGIC WINE WAND: Kathleen reviews The Wand and The Wave, from Pure Wine. She mentioned the products on a past Pubcast and was absolutely thrilled when the Meadows family who invented the product sent her a few samples. Kathleen has always suffered from headaches when drinking any wine other than light pinot noir, so she’s a massive fan of Dr.David and his son Derek’s invention. She tells listeners to go to drinkpurewine.com to try the product if they suffer from the same sulfite allergies. UPDATE ON KATHLEEN’S QUEEN’S COURT: In an update on her Queens, Kathleen tells the Termites that Dolly Parton is getting her own comic book. Tanya Tucker received her COVID vaccine and is roaming about the country, and Queen Stevie Nicks is standing firm on not sharing the rights of the Fleetwood Mac song “Dreams” with Neil Apodaca as he attempts to sell an original TikTok that went viral in September 2020 as an NFT (more on “NFT’s” later in the Pubcast.) MURDER HORNET SEASON: As a follow up to Episode 14, Kathleen announces that Murder Hornet season is about to begin in the US, and Discovery+ has released a new documentary called “Attack of the Murder Hornets.” The film focuses on the discovery of Asian giant hornets in Washington state and scientists’ pursuit to eradicate the invasive species. MORGAN STANLEY ENDORSES BITCOIN: In continuing her obsession with Cryptocurrency, Kathleen is excited to read an article announcing that Morgan Stanley has become the first bank to formally acknowledge and incorporate Bitcoin in customers portfolios. She’s irritated to read that their customer criteria requires $2M in assets and an aggressive risk tolerance in your portfolio, which obviously removes the majority of the population from participating. NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS: Kathleen takes a big drink of her beer and begins to describe the concept of non-fungible tokens, or “NFT’s,” to listeners. NFT operates on blockchain technology, just like Bitcoin, but unlike the 21 million Bitcoins that will eventually be mined, an NFT is one-of-a-kind, can't be bought or sold in fractional amounts, and can’t be traded for an identical NFT. After Kathleen admits to having her brain explode when she researched the concept, she provides a few recent examples of popular NFT sales to listeners including the sale of a Banksy piece, a Beeple painting, and the Ethereum-based game Cryptokitties, which is the leading NFT of all time. THE SHERPAS OF EVEREST: As discussed on Episode 32, Kathleen is watching the series “Everest: Beyond The Limit” on Amazon Prime and has become fascinated with the Sherpas highlighted in the series. Kathleen LOVES the profile of Lhakpa Sherpa, who (as of 2019) has ascended Everest 19 times and is a dishwasher at Whole Foods in her off-season. Another of Kathleen’s favorite Sherpas is Kami Rita Sherpa who once climbed Everest twice in a single week. 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 South Carolina stock up on bug spray to detract hornets, large mammals cause a high rate of death in South Dakota, Tennessee has an extremely high rate of brown recluse spider bites, and Texas has the most fatalities related to flood-rafting fire ants (NOT deaths involving longhorns, which Kathleen says “have sweet eyes”) ;-) A SERIAL STOWAWAY: Kathleen CANNOT BELIEVE a story that she shares with listeners detailing the incidents of Marilyn Hartman, a serial airline stowaway who has recently been arrested again after her 22nd flight. Hartman’s story started in 2014 when she waged a virtual assault on San Francisco international airport, where she attempted to sneak on to half a dozen planes over the course of several months. COLUMBUS’S BEADS DISCOVERED IN ALASKA: Kathleen is thrilled to share an article about the discover of brilliantly blue beads from Europe unearthed by archaeologists in Arctic Alaska that may predate Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World, a new controversial study finds. The blueberry-size beads were likely created in Venice during the 15th century and then traded eastward, according to a study published online in the journal American Antiquity. Other archaeologists dispute the findings, stating that the materials post-date Columbus’s era. Kathleen then discloses to listeners that she would like to go to Alaska again, and although she is interested in the result of archaeology, she describes her mom and Jeff Foxworthy’s absolute passion for hunting arrowheads. PA CHEERLEADING MOM ARRESTED: Kathleen reads an article about a Pennsylvania mother who was arrested for sending her teen daughter’s cheerleading coaches fake photos and videos depicting her rivals naked, drinking, or smoking, to try to get them kicked off the squad. Kathleen provides her own commentary on how this woman created these pieces of media and then described her own high school cheerleading experience which she compares to something in a “C-level workout video.” THE FAKE SYBIL: Kathleen provides a brief outline of the 1973 book “Sybil,” in which a woman claimed to have sixteen distinct egos which spun into a movie adaptation starring Sally Field. She goes on to read an update disclosing that Shirley Mason, the subject of the story, confessed that her multiple personalities were faked. WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEK: Kathleen recommends watching “Everest: Beyond The Limit” on Amazon Prime, and “Q: Into the Storm” on HBO. 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