Before we get to our show, here is a podcast we think you're going to love. Have you ever heard of the Vietnamese sisters who led a revolution against the Han dynasty? Or the Achenese woman admiral who commanded an army of widows? How about the world's largest microlinial society in the highlands of West Sumatra? There's a whole world waiting for you in the Her Story Southeast Asia podcast. Episode by episode, we tell the history of Southeast Asia from her perspective. Join me, Agas Ramirez, as we discover the queens, commanders, and pioneers who don't normally make it into your textbooks.
Her Story is available wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at HerStoryCPod. That's HerStory, S-E-A, pod. Sampai Jumbalagi! Hello, friends and enemies. Welcome. It's Perhaps It's You. I'm Liz. And I'm Samantha. And this is an unofficial Unsolved Mysteries rewatch podcast. That's right. We watch a show, tell you what happened, and complain the whole time. Basically. That's pretty much a summary of the whole podcast. Yeah, so we hope you're on board. If not, I don't know, move along. Don't care.
How are you doing? I'm good. I'm having a very rural problem right now, which is that the cows who live down the street will not stop mooing. I hope the microphone doesn't pick it up. I don't know what has upset them. Maybe their babies have been taken away. I know nothing about cows, but I know they started at approximately one o'clock this morning and have not stopped since. Oh, my God. Maybe one of them has fallen in a hole. I'm really not sure what would upset a cow that much. Are there holes over there big enough for a cow to fall in? I don't know.
I'm just like picturing. Oh, man. Cows are just kind of funny. They are just kind of funny. I really know very little about them, except that this one's very upset. Wow, that is one of the upset cows. Moo!
Yeah, so I'm a little tired. No, I can't hear. I'm actually kind of disappointed I can't hear the cow mooing in the background. Be thankful. I have my windows open because it's a really nice day out, and I was kind of like, are they going to be able to hear the cows? But I don't think the microphone's picking it up, so thank goodness for that. Common recording problem on podcasts everywhere. I like this podcast except for the incessant mooing. When will it stop? They're pretty far away. They're not like right next door or anything, so I'm surprised. I don't know if that's what woke me up, but I was awake at 1 a.m., and I heard the cows.
They're pretty loud. I don't know. That seems unnaturally loud. Is that a cow with like a microphone? Maybe the cow has a podcast. The cow has a bullhorn. The cow has a podcast. I mean, that's probably out there. There's so many. Everyone has a podcast now. Including cows. I'm surprised my dog Lenny Briscoe doesn't have his own podcast. It's probably coming any day. Yeah, how they do that without thumbs is a mystery. That's what the Patreon is for. Get them some assistance. I didn't see that coming. And I like it.
full of surprises yeah do we have any updates um do we have any updates okay so we got an email from last night Tiffany who was disappointed that I was not more enthusiastic about the Danny Casolaro mystery Tiffany I'm gonna suggest you not put your thoughts about this mystery in writing just some advice just some advice Tiffany you said you're disappointed I didn't like the segment and I liked the segment but I'm not looking into it any further and neither should you I'm saying this to save your life no I'm not going down any of those rabbit holes you sent along I do not want to know anything more about the octopus. It is one thing to complain about the government. It is another thing to actually know shit. I'm not making that mistake. No. Nope. I'm not dying for this podcast. That's not happening. I like this podcast. I like our listeners. I like most of the episodes of Unsolved Mysteries we watch. But I'm just going to throw this out there that some mysteries need to remain kind of unsolved. And this is one of them. Yeah. I'm not the champion that's going to bring the government down. If Danny Castellaro couldn't do it with all of his evidence, it's not going to be me.
It's not going to happen. It's certainly not going to be us. But we did, for the record, like the segment. The mystery was interesting. I'd love to know more, but I'm not going to pursue it. No. It's better left unsolved, got to say. For my own...
Life. Yeah. I told Samantha that I got to live. I got to find out if Paul Rudd ever ages. It's important. If the government takes me out soon, I won't know. I got to. I got to. So it's not happening. We have things to live for is what we're saying. Yeah, exactly. I've got a lot to live for, Tiffany. So the octopus is just going to remain.
as it is on on investigated by myself it's a cartoon villain the porpoise of justice is pursuing it i'm sure we'll leave it at that yeah let the porpoise of justice handle that not me yeah i'm not anything of justice i'm just a mere podcaster really one of the saddest things you could be don't don't look to for to us for justice that's not happening absolutely not can i read this review that we got that i just really like yes i mean it has like i don't know it's not really an update or news of any kind i just like i just saw it and liked it This is from Mills Lightfoot, who said that this is the realest podcast you'll ever listen to. I love hosts that don't apologize for their views and opinions. The show might be bad, but they persevere and review everything. I've never even watched this show, and I love the recaps. They deserve all the sparkling water and alien keychains.
I mean, that's just quality. What a lovely thing to say about our podcast. I know. The realest podcast. I do need a sparkly alien keychain now that I think about it. I think the water was supposed to be sparkling, but the alien keychain should be too. Well, everything I think should sparkle. Yeah, exactly. Why not? It's nice to be appreciated for being a loud mouth.
So I, that's not, that has not really been my experience. So I was thinking that, okay, so there's this like idea in internet discourse, right? This complaint about social justice warriors are just saying things because they feel like they need to out of peer pressure. Like virtue signaling kind of? Yes, exactly. And I was like, do you think being a nag has made me friends? Do you think being an opinionated loudmouth has like worked out well for me in general?
Hasn't been my experience. I feel like that has definitely cost me socially more than it has helped me. Yeah, I don't know that people who complain about virtue signaling, I'm doing scare quotes, really think about it that much because it's really true. I was like, yeah, I don't know that that was like really winning me a lot of friends in high school. You know what I mean? They're like, oh, I really hope Liz comes over, sits at our lunch table and then proceeds to tell us we're a bunch of racists. That would be a great day. So I don't really understand that whole concept. But anyway, I like that this is saying we don't apologize for reviews and opinions. I thought that was really sweet. It is a sweet review.
So we always appreciate your we only accept five star reviews. I mean, this is five stars. Obviously, I should have said we only accept five stars. And yeah, now that I'm unemployed, no one has told me that my voice really carries in a while. So, I mean, I guess that's a plus of the pandemic. That hasn't happened. OK, I guess I don't think I have any other updates. We actually basically just recorded because we needed to rerecord. So really, nothing's happened.
I still haven't tried those vampire Hershey Kisses, and I really want one. That's my update. Next time I'm at the grocery store, I'm going to cruise down to Yale. They've got to be a Walderians or something. They've got to be out there. Okay. So we're talking about Season 5, Episode 22. So I watched this on YouTube. Did you also? I did, yeah. So you can watch this on Amazon with a bunch of ads. Apparently, if you have the Peacock Screaming app, which is NBC's streaming thing, you can also watch it on there. I don't understand why Unsolved Mysteries is selling on every single streaming thing.
Yeah, what's up with that? It has its own YouTube channel. Yeah, it's everywhere. Like, Robert Stack is coming for you. You cannot escape him. So I don't use that Peacock thing. I'm not really sure if that's a free thing or not. I'm sure you have to pay for it. I don't need that many streaming services. I have so many streaming services. It's just eventually it's cable, but you've paid for every single channel separately. You just have like 14 different payments go out every month. Yeah, this was supposed to be like a cost-saving. The cord cutting was supposed to be a cost-saving measure, and yet slowly it just becomes cable all over again.
Pretty much. So this is a season five, episode 22, and this is an Easter special. Yeah. I'm not happy about it. I'm going to say I'm not. Okay. Look, I love the Cadbury mini egg. We all know. It's maybe not my favorite favorite anymore, but I've probably sacrificed a couple of teeth to eating the Cadbury mini egg, not the mini cream egg. I want to be clear. Their candy is confusingly named. I don't want any of that gross cream in there, but in general, not really in the Easter.
Yeah, the whole not being a Christian thing makes it kind of hard to celebrate Easter. Although, you know what? The Reese's eggs. We talked about Reese's pumpkins on our last episode. I'm into a Reese's egg. That's true. Okay, so there's some good candy. I like the color scheme, generally. But a family holiday where you don't get off work? Thumbs down. Nope. Easter. Also, sometimes falls on my birthday. Always a bummer. Yeah, it's not my favorite holiday. You can predict when Easter is. I know it's based on something. Some, like, older calendar.
No. I don't know. It's a little bit strange to have an Unsolved Mysteries Easter special, but you know what? They figured it out and we've got some Jesus mysteries to bring to you today. I think the target market for this show really was old people and then their grandchildren that were forced to watch with them. So I'm guessing it's catering to the elderly that they would like some, that they were just waiting for some Jesus mysteries.
I mean, this is really laying the ground for the Da Vinci Code, I guess. Jesus mysteries. That's where the American... You know how I was like, oh, just wait till they have Nazis and sharks. Cable TV is going to love that for America. Really, what we're looking for is Jesus plus mysteries. Those are the two things that we love. If it was a Jesus mystery involving a monster truck, yes, that's America. That would be... My country is the... Yeah.
So this first one is an unexplained. And it is the mystery of Our Lady of Guadalupe. And we've had a couple mysteries like this. I forget. I knew when I took notes. We did the Shroud of Turin. Yes. We did that one in Ukraine. What was that place called? Medjugorje. Medjugorje. Yep. We did that one. This one's very similar to Medjugorje. So we've had a few of these. So there's a precedent on Unself Mysteries for these types of mysteries. And I guess they were like Easter. Let's do this. So this is, like I said, the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is a Catholic miracle slash relic in.
Mexico City. I feel stupid that I didn't already know this story. Did you already know this story? So I have heard of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but I didn't know the full story. Yeah, I mean, I just feel like it's such a popular icon and you see it all the time. But I was like, oh, I should probably know this. It's really revealing my ignorance once again. Yeah, I was in the same boat. I definitely should have known this before this episode. So the image of Guadalupe is a miracle that occurred when the Virgin Mary allegedly printed her image onto a cloth in Mexico City back in 19... I'm sorry, 1531. Okay, read my own notes.
Since then, millions of people have flocked to the city every year to see the image. According to church records, the story began when a man named Juan Diego, who lived with his uncle in a village five miles north of Mexico City, he was one of the few Aztec people who had been converted to Christianity. One day in December 1531, Juan was heading to Mass when he passed by the base of a hill called Tepeyac. Did I say that right? I'm really going to try hard to pronounce these things correctly. I think it's Tepeyac. As he approached the summit, he heard someone call out his name and was instantly overwhelmed by a godlike radiance and the Virgin Mary appeared before him.
I do like that this part of the reenactment is in Spanish. Yeah, it is. She told Juan that she wanted to build a temple on Tepeyac Hill. She also said that he was her messenger and that he should tell the bishop about the temple. He told her that he was just a poor native person and that the bishop wouldn't listen to him. But she told him to have faith and then she disappeared. So Juan, believing that he had just experienced a miracle, went straight to Mexico City. At the time, it was the seat of the Roman Catholic Church in the, quote, New World.
He waited hours to meet with Bishop Zuman... Zuman... Zuman... Iga. I'm sorry. The bishop. The main guy. He was known as a powerful but gentle man who treated the Native people with kindness and respect. I mean, I'm sure he technically did, but I think we could have a larger conversation about colonialism. Anyway, Juan told the bishop that he had been sent to him by the Virgin Mary, who wanted a temple built on Tepeyac Hill. The bishop was skeptical and told Juan that he desired to see proof. So Juan returned home kind of dejected because he didn't know how he could possibly come up with proof.
And then unfortunately, the next day, his uncle fell gravely ill, and he immediately set out to find a priest to administer the last rites. Along the way, he again passed Tabiak Hill, where the Virgin Mary returned to him. She told Juan that he would not need a priest and that his uncle was completely healed. He told her that he was unable to convince the bishop and that the bishop wanted proof. So she told him to go to the top of the hill and cut the flowers that he would find there. Juan was immediately doubtful because this was the middle of a very barren and cold winter and there wouldn't be any flowers blooming. Juan, have faith. The Virgin Mary. I was really disappointed in Juan at the point of the story. Yeah, yeah, he definitely is being tested, I would say. So he did go to the top of the hill where he was surprised to see it was filled with...
roses of castine he gathered them up in his it's called a tilma and it was made of a fragile cactus cloth um so he carried these in this cloth and brought the flowers to the bishop um where he told the bishop that this was the sign he had desired and he he basically poured out the flowers and where the flowers had been an image of the virgin mary appeared imprinted in the cactus cloth it's a dramatic reveal he like walks in he's like holding his robe close to him and he's like oh bishop i have your proof and then he he lets all the roses spill out and then there's this image of the virgin mary and it's like oh my goodness it's a very it's a very like drag race moment it's like when sasha velour took off that wig and all the rose petals fell out can you imagine if he did one of those like jump and split things oh that's rob he should have he should have dumped out those roses and then yeah just flattened flat on the ground So the bishop's like, work it, bitch. Yeah, I can see it. I can see it. So the bishop believed that a miracle had just occurred before him and that Juan had indeed seen the Virgin Mary. After Juan's vision in the next, I think they said three years in the episode, approximately a million Aztec people converted to Roman Catholicism. And then in accordance to the Virgin Mary's wishes, a shrine was built on Tabiak Hill with the image still on display.
The church was named Our Lady of Guadalupe after a village in Spain. Throughout the years, the church has allowed some changes to be made to the image on the cactus cloth, including like a gold halo around. It's not like a border. Yeah, the glowing thing. They added a cherub and then they added green and white colors to represent Mexico.
Let's face it, the miracle wasn't enough. More. More flash. More pizzazz. I needed a little bit extra. Since 1976, the image has been housed in a special basilica, and every year, 5 million people make pilgrimages. But for as long as it has existed, there have been debate over whether the image is really a miracle. However, many believers are certain that the image of Guadalupe is truly a miracle. And the Catholic Church has recognized it as a miracle. So, I mean, it's legit as far as the Catholic Church is concerned. So, we see some...
investigators i will call them in the segment they interview a couple white dudes basically about whether or not this is uh actually real or if it was you know forged or whatever um we meet jody smith who is an associate professor of philosophy at a florida college and the leading authority on the image according to as early as 1666 the church commissioned a group of physicians and a master artist named one salguero to inspect the image he concluded that the painting is on the correct type of cloth and that it was which was in the legend and that it um so that it should have disintegrated basically they're the only thing that any of these quote experts point to as being proof that this is legit is that it is cactus cloth and that cactus cloth is so delicate and fragile that over hundreds of years it should have deteriorated but it's in like pristine condition what i mean Art preservation is very hard to predict because there's a lot of factors like humidity and temperature and stuff like that that impact how quickly things decay. I don't know that you can really say it definitely should have decayed, like particularly since it's framed.
Yeah, it seemed shaky. James Randi, who is an investigator of paranormal phenomenon, has seen the same type of cloth that dates back to about 450 to 550 years from Peru. However, he claims that if it was put in a frame, it could last that long. But in the first 100 years, the cloth was exposed to a high concentration of humidity and salt, and that, he says, should have caused the images disintegration, but it didn't. I have no idea. Okay, I realize that this is an important thing to a lot of people, and I don't want to rag on it too much, but for me personally, if this is a miracle, why is it in paint?
why would God need to use paint to make an image? I'm not sure. I'm a non-believer. So of course that's what I'm going to say with my skeptical mouth. But like, wouldn't the image just be there? Why is it in paint? So later they do, there was some like photographic analysis and they said that because there was no sketch underneath the paint that that proved it was made by God or whatever, which as if paint without outlining first, I don't know. That just proves it's by a ballsy artist. They didn't feel the need to plan ahead.
Which is a good image, so they were a good artist. I don't know. I know people were tuning in thinking that we're religious scholars and that we have a lot of insight on this. You're going to be very disappointed. We don't. We're just people who watch TV. But I found this segment frustrating. I don't have a lot of insight on it. And I was kind of like, if that's your thing, great. But look, it didn't convince me. It didn't convert me. No. I didn't look upon the Lady of Guadalupe and go, oh, I get it now. Yeah, and I think these dudes who are supposed experts in this idol, I think their evidence is flimsy.
Yeah, it wasn't very convincing. It sounds like trying to justify something you already think. It's not like... One of them, and I forget who it was, was like, God revealed himself, or the Virgin Mary revealed herself at a time when she was really needed. And I was kind of like, why? She was needed to convert these Native people to Catholicism? Is that what we're going with here? Yeah, that is gross. I keep thinking about this image of the Virgin Mary that appeared under a bridge back when I lived in Logan Square in Chicago in like, I don't know, maybe 2005.
And people, like, made this whole huge, it was, like, under this gross, disgusting bridge. I think I've talked about this on the show before. And people, you know, left flowers. There was candles lit all the time. And it was just this, like, water stain or, like, oil stain. And it just, like, as time went on, it got more and more distorted. And, like, you know, I don't think there was anything there. But if that brought people joy, good. Yeah, I mean.
Yeah, there's no harm, I guess, in believing that this is, you know, the Virgin Mary revealed herself to Juan Diego and whatever. I, like you said, am not convinced myself. They did talk about in May of, no, sorry. They did talk about in 1789, a skeptical priest ordered 11 artists to make 11 copies of the painting using the same cloth and similar, or what might be similar techniques. See, that makes no sense. It can't be a similar technique because it's supposedly imprinted by God. Did God do it with a brush? God could make the whole earth. God made the universe. Why does God need paint?
I can't get over that detail. God created life, but also made a painting? What? Uh-huh. Yeah. So, well, these replicas, supposedly, they disintegrated within a few years, while the image of Guadalupe remained intact in pristine condition. In May of 1979, Jodi Smith and Philip Callahan were given permission to view the image up close without the protective glass. And although...
They said the parts that had been painted on afterwards were chipping and falling apart. The face was still very bright. And when they studied it with a magnifying glass, there were no hairline cracks. And there was, after so many centuries, no age. The painting didn't seem to have aged at all. So yeah, I guess that's good. I don't know. Like I said, infrared photographs show that there was a lack of undersketch. And they basically made it sound like... It would be impossible to paint without sketching. Yeah, or that painters of this era wouldn't have been able to paint without sketching. And I find that hard to believe.
I don't know. I don't see how that is really evidence of anything. Because again, it's paint. Like you said, it's still paint. Does God have paint? Yes. God made paint. God made.
The cactus cloth, God made the roses, God made the hill. Yeah, I don't know. According to Unsolved Mysteries, Wikios is unsolved. Oh, I really thought viewers were going to call in and solve that one. What did your family usually eat as like an Easter dinner? We were ham. Yeah, your ham family. Ham and cheesy potatoes. Yeah. Yeah, although we didn't usually do Easter dinner. We normally did like a brunch. Okay. We never really sat down for an Easter dinner. Solid. Usually earlier in the day. But yeah, it was typically like ham, cheesy potatoes, whatever. We haven't had a duck. Oh, okay. Fancy. Or lamb.
I know. I know. Just living the life. I don't really care for an Easter ham, I'm going to say. I'm not a big ham person, to be honest. Not really my thing. I don't know. I mean, it's not like I won't eat it if it's served to me, but it's not something I would ever seek out in the world. I feel like my family has never been able to cook it right. It's always really dry. So I can kind of feel it in my mouth just thinking about it. It's just too dry. It needed a sauce.
My family was never, like, quite there with the ham. I used to work in a store that was next to a honey-baked ham place, and that honey-baked ham place was only, like, open for holidays. Like, they did such big business for, like, Christmas, Easter, or whatever. You'll get trampled for a honey-baked ham. Yeah. Well, they would have this guy dress up in a bear costume, I guess because of the honey, and, like, dance outside so people knew that the store was open and you could go get hams. But that would cause car accidents.
Because people would be driving along, see a bear dancing by themselves, get distracted, and then hit the car in front of them. And it happened at least twice while I was working there. I don't think it was a great promotional tool, the bear. Put up an open sign. You don't need a dancing bear. I also just feel like the connection is loose to a honey-baked ham. Yeah, you would think it would be a dancing pig. But I guess that you don't want to think about the animal that you're eating. Because that's like a little, you know, that can get a little gross. Maybe a bee.
The bears eat honey, therefore we have honey-baked hams. I don't know. That place did a great business during ham season. But it also made the shop I worked with smell like ham. Oh. Yeah, I know.
wasn't great. Not a fan of the smell of ham. No. No, it wasn't the best. Okay, we have another Jesus mystery for you. It's sort of. I mean, Jesus evolved, kind of. Yeah, kind of. It is actually a robbery. So this is about 15 paintings depicting the final days of Jesus. And the robbery took place 10 days after Easter. They really want to get this Easter connection in there in 1969. So this is Ben Stoll's collection of paintings. He passed away in 1987, but I think his children had contacted Unsolved Mysteries saying that they were still trying to get these paintings back.
And they wanted to get them back before Easter, which seemed like a really unnecessary timeline, but whatever. So Benton Stoll was born in Chicago in 1910. And even at a young age, he was considered a skilled artist. He illustrated from books and magazines. And we get this example from a letter where he's praised by Norman Rockwell. And you're supposed to go, oh, he must have been so good. But then you see these paintings and you go, eh. So in 1954, he was commissioned by the Catholic press to paint a series of illustrations of the Stations of the Cross for an edition of the Bible they were making. So that's 14 paint. It's just like...
I don't know if you've ever been to a Catholic church, I'm sure you've seen something like stained glass windows or paintings or something showing the Stations of the Cross, like where Jesus has to carry it and blah, blah, blah. Okay. So that's what he was depicting. He likes the paintings that he made so much that he ended up making them again on a larger scale. And I guess this edition of the Bible was pretty popular and he received letters from people all over the place requesting to come and see the paintings.
So he decided to make another set that was even bigger and then make a museum specifically to display them. And I cannot imagine going to a museum just to see 15 paintings of Jesus, but hey, that's what people wanted. So there's 14 Stations of the Cross and he also added a 15th painting to show the resurrection. So he spent two years working on these larger scale paintings, and then he opened the Museum of the Cross in Sarasota, Florida. This came to an end on April 17th, 1969, when he got a frantic call from the museum director. So why does this museum that literally only has 15 paintings of the director, but whatever. All the paintings have been stolen.
the museum didn't have any alarms and didn't have any insurance. He trusted people. Yeah, they talk about how much he trusted people. I feel like in general, small museums do not have good security at all. So that's not really a surprise to me. But the fact that he had no insurance is kind of weird. I'm sure like probably the building was insured, but not maybe the art, you know? That seems like more important to insure. But I guess he never thought anyone would steal from him because he was just that trusting.
But what if your building was hit by lightning and it burns down? That's weird. If you don't trust people, something could still happen to those paintings. I feel like you would insure the building for fires or damage or whatever, but maybe he didn't specifically insure the art. So then when the art was stolen, he didn't... I mean, it's not like he was going to get those back. He would just get whatever the supposed monetary value of that is, which with art is pretty arbitrary. So I guess it would depend how much he had insured them for, but he didn't insure them at all. So they were worthless. So they had broken in through the security door or the fire door. Often art thieves cut...
paintings out of canvas stretchers so they can just roll up the canvas but in this case they actually removed each staple from the back which would have taken a really long time um and then rolled them up for like easy transport so it was suspected that this would have to be three to four people and still would have taken hours i don't know about that it's only 15 paintings yeah like i get that there was like a faster way to steal them but that still seems like no one was coming for them it's like an alarm was blaring they had plenty of time yeah i just don't even know that it would have taken three to four people that much time even to remove every little staple on the back like okay Like, that's tedious, but whatever. Anyway, six weeks later, a priest called the sheriff's office in Sarasota to say that he'd been approached by someone at his church saying that the paintings were for ransom. Is this art thief in this reenactment the same actor from streaming history from last episode? Also really terrible. It's just this guy wearing, again, a ridiculous wig and sunglasses. There's like no one else in the church. The priest is up at the, I don't know, front area. Someone's going to tell me what that's called, but guess what? I don't care.
And he's like, hey, hey, how about those paintings? And the priest is like, what? He's like, yeah, you know, those paintings. How about them? And everyone's like, in Sarasota? He's like, yeah, well, they can have him back for a million dollars or something totally ridiculous. And in this, the priest is clearly like, okay. Like, the priest is acting like I would act. Like, what? Like, who are you? Why is this happening? Also, I don't care. But it's kind of doubtful to me whether or not this even happened. The priest refused to give his name and then just stopped answering their phone calls. Yeah, that doesn't really sound like a priest to me. That sounds like just a quack, but.
so anyway that lead couldn't be pursued so the mystery is where are the paintings the statute of limitations has run out so they could be returned without fear of prosecution um there's really no update on this i think what's kind of weird is honestly from my perspective these paintings are not that good they're kind of just generic pain i feel like we've all seen paintings like this at a church i don't really know why someone was so determined to steal them they seem kind of run the mill i I didn't get a good sense of how famous these were. The kids talked about how people would come to the museum and leave just crying because of how powerful it was or whatever. I feel like people do that just for church. I don't know. I'm not that impressed by that. I don't know if that's an indication of how valuable they were. That's all we got. That's the only info we got. I didn't really get an understanding of how... They didn't give us a monetary estimate for the paintings. I'm not really sure what the resale... There must have been some resale value to even steal them, you would think. Yeah, I don't know. Let's see what Unsolved Mysteries Whitney says here.
Okay, so a friend new to an informant said the paintings were stolen by a figure known only as Travis Roush, aided by two other men. On his own, Stahl had privately been following every lead, but without the assistance of the Sheriff's Department and FBI, he was limited in his investigation. I mean, honestly, I don't really want the FBI spending that much time on this. It just doesn't... Yeah. It doesn't seem that important. I understand his children want them back, but...
I don't know. Sometimes things get stolen. There was a bleed that they were seen in the storage at the museum of Fort Lauderdale, but that tip was never followed up for some reason. I don't know. Look, the paintings are still out there somewhere. I feel like it sounds like he made these paintings a couple of times. His children still have the smaller ones. Yeah. I don't know. I guess someone out there has some paintings of some white Jesus. Yeah. They seem very generic. And I don't know. I can't get excited about this story. I would like to hear more art facts as general. I think that's kind of interesting, but.
i'm not i don't know there was an interesting story a little while ago um that this you know couple passed away i'm sure they didn't die exactly the same time but whatever but when people went into their home after they're dead they found in their bedroom this giant painting that had been stolen from a museum in santa fe years earlier oh interesting and they had just been keeping it in their house to look at themselves i guess that's so selfish though was there an indication that they knew it was stolen or did they just like buy a painting and The implication was sort of that they had stolen it and hung it up in their house. And nobody had ever suspected them of that previously. But then sort of like on reflection, they were like, yeah, for two teachers, they did live a pretty lavish lifestyle. They were going on like lots of international trips. You know, they enjoyed flight dining stuff. People were kind of like, yeah, how did they afford all that stuff? Like, were they stealing and selling art? And then they kept this like one painting. Man. Yeah, that's the story I want to hear. That sounds fascinating. Yeah. In general, like.
museum heist stories are like pretty fascinating to me we read that book the feather thief oh yeah book club earlier this year about the dude that stole a bunch of birds uh that was really good for victorian fly lure like making it was really good i highly recommend that book it was really interesting i also want to say it's a man out there that toxic masculinity has lied to you and it's okay to just make craps and you don't have to pretend that you're making fishing lures that you're never actually going to use fishing like you're actually allowed to make anything Because that's like such a window into that niche world of like people who are obsessed with recreating these Victorian fishing lures. But no one is actually using them to fish. And no one used them then to fish. People just like showing off fancy. They just basically think they're pretty. So I just want you to know that it's OK. You can make it doesn't have to be somehow tied to fishing very loosely. You're allowed to make whatever you want. Yes. And you don't. Don't steal from museums. I know that lots of things in museums are stolen. Like lots of.
historical museums have things that are looted but those are now they're not just for you you don't get to steal them and keep them from yourself they're for everybody it's rude it's rude to steal a painting and hang it in your own bedroom so only you can look at it go to the museum and look at it with everybody else that's just it's very rude i don't approve apparently and i don't know a lot of details about this but apparently since covid started uh there's been like a dramatic increase in the people who are interested in rare house plants which is like not something i'm interested in but i do find that world a little bit fascinating like i follow a few like rare house plant youtube channels that'll like show off their plants and stuff and i like watching them from time to time and i recently stumbled upon some like drama where like apparently like demand like supply cannot keep up with demand because people are buying there's just not i mean they're rare right so there's like an abundance that's by definition there's not a bunch of these plants available and uh because people have been buying them all up there's been such like a crazy demand for them that it's led to like a small rash and like people stealing plants from like botanical gardens and reselling them. That's terrible. Don't do that. Do not do that. Do not snatch plants from a botanical garden. That's horrible. That's for everybody. That's for everybody. And also the people there like take really good care of them and know how to care for them. Yeah, they don't need to be in your living room where you're probably going to kill them. Yeah, exactly. Samantha and I went to the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago last summer and we got to see, I can't remember the name of that century plant that like grew through. Oh, it was an adobe, yeah.
It was so cool to see because it only happens like very rarely. And it had like literally grown so tall that they had to take out like a little window piece of the room for it to go through. And we just happened to be there when it happened. And I think it does that like right before it dies. And it takes like 100 years for that to happen. So we just happened to be there and see that before the plant died. But that was so cool. And everybody should be able to go and look at that and not just whoever, you know, what if someone had stolen that? We didn't get to see it. Right. Exactly. Don't be selfish. It has an educational purpose, not just a monetary value. Don't be selfish. Go get a spider plant from...
Home Depot or something. You don't need a rare whatever. Yeah. Spider pants are great because they're like, they give you gifts. They're a plant that just keeps giving you little presents that it makes of other plants. I think it's so adorable. And then you can give those to people and then they'll keep going and going.
That's one of my favorite things about gardening is you can just like, for most plants, you can just like break a piece off and then make a new plant from it. And then gardeners are typically overflowing with like plants and plants that need to be divided. And like, we'll just give you plants. Like I just divided by speaking spider plants. I had a huge spider plant I just divided yesterday and I now have three of them. So I really like that about, I think that's, you know, people are stuck at home. Like I can totally understand why like COVID has resulted in more people getting into gardening and plants and things like that. But let's all calm down a little bit. We don't need to be like, they're just plants. All right.
There was kind of a puzzle shortage for a minute. Like it was hard to order puzzles. And I am now wondering if that led to any puzzle related theft. Maybe. Do you think so? We were talking about the Minnesota's largest candy store, which is attached to Minnesota's largest puzzle store. You think the puzzle store got broken into or anything like that? I mean, I haven't heard tale, but maybe. They deserve it.
All right. So there are some non Jesus mysteries in this episode. All right. You're going to tell us about what? This is an unexplained death. I think this is the death of Friday the 13th. Okay. This is my question. I know that 13 is, you know, ominous, but did people think Friday the 13th was bad before the movie? Is that literally just a movie thing or has that always been bad?
Okay, I'm going to look that up while you talk. Yeah, find that out. That's interesting to me. Okay, so this is the death of Tom Roche. Tom Roche, 37, and Barbara Rondeau, 32, of Burbank, California, had dated for over 16 years. They met in Rhode Island, but moved to California in 1988. They both shared a love for motorcycle riding, and they were well-liked by their motorcycle friends. Barbara worked at a blueprint company, while Tom was an expert in metal plating. In fall 1991, he accepted a management position with a company that plated airplane parts. That's a tongue twister. He was supposed to start there on Monday, September 16th.
Three days before that, however, on Friday, September 13th, Friday the 13th, he dropped Barbara off at work. They made plans for lunch. However, he never came back to pick her up, and she was concerned when he did not call her at all. When she returned home at 5.30 p.m., she had not heard from him still and was surprised to find that the front door was unlocked. She searched the house but found no sign of Tom. She noticed that the newspaper was also unopened, which is unusual because she said that he never didn't read the sports section. It was just a sign that he hadn't really been in the house. The day hadn't gone as planned. He should have installed that battery. He should have read the newspaper. Yes, a motorcycle battery that he had planned to install was still sitting on the counter, and the answering machine was turned off, which suggested that he had been planning to stay home that day, but for some reason he wasn't there and hadn't done any of the things he had planned to do.
Barbara decided to wait, hoping that Tom would come home or at least call, and the next day, when he still had it, she reported him missing, and the police began an investigation. They questioned neighbors, but no significant information was uncovered. They could not determine if Tom left voluntarily or if he was the victim of foul play, because there really wasn't any evidence. He didn't leave a note. It wasn't like the whole house was overturned. He just simply vanished. Barbara circulated several missing persons flyers, hoping to find out what happened to him, and I realize this is very serious and he's missing, but these missing persons flyers were really funny.
On September 19th, several days after Tom vanished, she got a letter from someone who claimed to be his alleged killer, which included some of his personal belongings, including his ID. And an earring. Yeah, an earring that he was wearing the day that she last saw him. Barbara had no idea who would have wanted to kill Tom. He didn't have any enemies. He was well-liked by his coworkers and all his friends. Police tried to retrace Tom's steps on the day of his disappearance. Bank records showed that he had made two deposits at approximately 8.20 a.m.
He did not withdraw any money, which indicated to them that he didn't have any plans to leave town. At 9.30 a.m., a neighbor saw him leaving his home with an unidentified man, and it's believed that that man may have been Tom's killer. However, there was another witness that contradicted this. They came forward claiming to have seen Tom after he had vanished. The witness, Andy Marsala, was the owner of a motorcycle parts store in nearby Glendale. He claimed to have seen Tom come into his store on Saturday, September 14th. He and Tom were acquaintances and he noticed that Tom was acting strangely that day. Some, however, believe that Andy was mistaken about the exact day he saw him. Yeah, why would he necessarily remember what day that was? I don't know. This is always suspect to me because this comes up all the time in these cases is that people's memories are not exactly that accurate. You may think that you remembered it on a specific day, but unless there's anything like...
very specific about that day like it was my birthday or it was his birthday or like right there has to be something very specific that would make you remember the exact date otherwise it's really flimsy evidence uh the citing led some to suggest that tom may have written the confession letter himself and intentionally disappeared I feel like that's so cruel to her. Yeah, it is. I don't think he would write a letter, say he wanted to leave her and leave town. Would he write a letter saying he had literally been murdered and here's some of his stuff? Like, I can't think of a meaner thing you could do. Yeah, I don't think so. And they had a good relationship. They'd been together for a really long time. She clearly loves him. Yeah. When she's talking about him, she loves him. And the idea that he would be like.
not only am I gone, but I've been brutally murdered. Bye. Ha ha. Like, no, I don't buy it at all. No, definitely not. And she herself says that if he wanted to leave me, he would have just told me and then left me. Like this is way, this is definitely a bizarre way to dump someone. You've been murdered over the top.
So then on January 11th, 1992, four months after he vanished, weathered bone fragments and personal effects were found in a remote location in Placer County, 500 miles north of Burbank. Motorcycle emblems on some of the clothing led police to believe that the effects and the bones belonged to Tom. The scattered possessions included a duffel bag, flashlight, hunting knife, bottled water, two pairs of prescription eyeglasses, an empty prescription bottle, and several shirts. This suggested to them that Tom was packed and ready to go on the road. Barbara confirmed that the shirts and one of the pairs of eyeglasses belonged to Tom. At this time, testing was still being done to determine whether or not the bones belonged to Tom.
Interestingly, the letter writer claimed that Tom had been buried in Los Angeles, which was several hundred miles away from Placer County. It is possible that the writer purposely misled authorities. Yeah. Let me look at Unsolved Mysteries Wiki to get the update. Oh, here's what the note said. I'm very sorry for what I have done. I know that in time the guilt will leave me and so will your pain. What a weird, cruel thing for a murderer to say. It's all about me. Yeah. I do feel bad, but not forever. And neither will you. I guess. That's just like making himself feel better. So this case is still unresolved. However, DNA testing did confirm that the bones were Tom's. The cause of death was determined to be a gunshot wound. However, the identity of his killer remains unknown. And sadly, Barbara passed away in 2010. She was only 49.
gosh that's terrible yeah so it doesn't really seem like i don't know he doesn't seem like he had any enemies yeah why would someone kill him and dump him in it doesn't make any sense i don't know but not all of the items that were found with him belong to him like there was a pair of eyeglasses that weren't his so or is she that she just didn't recognize yeah i guess that's true i feel like they could find some of mac's stuff and they could be like is this his sunglasses and i'd be like honestly i don't know maybe yeah you're right that is that is true i don't know this one is weird i mean I don't think, I think he's just murdered. I don't think he tricked her or whatever. No, I think so too. And who's that, who was last seen with him? Who's that, who was that dude? Yeah. I mean, I, violence towards men. I'm just going to say maybe it's drug related, but who the hell knows? Could be. Like, yeah. Great biker fashion. So. Oh yeah, definitely. I think I had a.
there's not really great mustaches in this episode. There was one on the cop in this and I called it Mr. Twix bar. I like it. Kind of what his mustache looks like. Okay. I have some information to read to you about, uh, the superstitions for Friday the 13th. This is from history.com. Ooh, great.
So long considered a harbinger of bad luck, Friday the 13th has inspired a late 19th century secret society, an early 20th century novel, a horror film franchise, and there's two different phobias associated with Friday the 13th, but I don't think I can pronounce either of those words. So it goes on to talk about how in Western culture, the number 12 is often thought as like a complete set. And that's an example are the 12 days of Christmas, there's 12 months, there's 12 zodiac signs, stuff like that. So its successor, 13, has a long history of being bad luck. And it goes back to talking about the Bible, that there's 13 guests at the Last Supper. So you have like...
12 apostles plus jesus blah blah okay and so then the next day good friday sort of connects to it being friday the 13th um so there's a lot of history of 13 being bad luck and one example of that is that in the 19th century there was a 13 club um that would meet for dinner on the 13th day of the month in room 13 of the knickerbocker cottage and have a 13 first dinner Anyway, the concept of Friday seems to have first showed up in the novel Friday the 13th written by Thomas William Lawson in 1907. And that was the story of a stock poker who plays superstitions about the date to create chaos in the stock market. Okay. And then the movie in the 80s. Yeah, I don't know. So it seems like the Friday part was kind of tenuous.
until the movie but it did exist okay that's interesting about the like being one more than 12 i never never thought about that that's interesting okay so we have one last mystery there was an update in there but you know what we've already talked about that thing so we're not talking about it it's the lost love from canada with the mullets we like just talked about it yeah um this is a wanted robert stack comes out to tell you that random crime seems like it's something that only happens in the movies but it's actually very real be scared And the story takes place in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania. We learn about Pam and David Hurley, who were married in 1983. By 1988, they had had three sons. So this is early morning, Saturday, June 13th, 1992. That weekend, David and his brother were taking Boy Scouts on a canoe trip. And this is something they had planned for a long time. I think it was like, you know, like a little weekend camping trip. David leaves home at the ungodly time of 1.30 in the morning for some reason, saying that he's going to pick. He like is too keyed up to sleep. So he's going to pick up donuts and go over to his brother's house and like get ready to leave for the canoe trip.
Yeah, he seems really peppy in this reenactment. I'm not sure if that was true to him in real life. I'm assuming it is if he's up at one in the morning that excited about this canoe trip. To go canoeing with a bunch of kids, which sounds terrible to me. They play him like a huge dork. So hopefully that's accurate because otherwise his ghost is going to be insulted. So his wife was startled to hear him call out about an hour and a half later, calling for her to come downstairs. And if the reenactment is true, it's like pretty casual where he's like, Pam, you gotta come down here. Pam, can you do me a favor? Can you come on down here? She's like, what? Because it's the middle of the night. And he's like, yeah, I've been shot.
So I've been shot. If you could come on downstairs. I liked Pam. What? Actress Pam's reaction to this where she was really just. Wait, I'm sorry. What did you say? You've been. Honey. Honey, if you could come on downstairs. So there's a bullet inside my body. Yeah, I was shot with a gun. Uh huh. Yep. So she runs downstairs and while they're waiting for the paramedics to arrive, he tells his wife the story that he had picked up donuts and was heading over to his brother's house when suddenly a car appeared and sideswiped him. So he pulls over to exchange info, but the man in the other vehicle gets out, is so mad at him that he punches him and then shoots him.
That's a strong reaction. Yeah, to something that seems to be entirely this other guy's fault. Yes. I'm guessing he just wasn't expecting other people to be on the road, right? It's like the middle of the night. He's not paying attention. He side swipes this guy's car, but then gets out, punches him, and shoots him. So a paramedic arrived at 3.30 in the morning, and he told his story again. He was rushed to the hospital via a helicopter and was operated on for two hours. Unfortunately, during the surgery, he went into cardiac arrest and died. He was only 34. So Unsolved Mysteries was looking for a young black male driving a champagne-colored Honda Prelude.
which is what he had described to his wife in paramedics. There weren't really any distinguishing features or anything other than that. I mean, you always kind of have to be suspicious when someone blames a crime just on a young black male. But honestly, I... I don't know of a reason for him to lie, but also the story is weird. It's really weird. I would look, take a look at unsolved mysteries.com. Viewers are not buying it. They do not believe this guy was driving around at one 30 in the morning to get donuts. Like, first of all, where? I don't know. Would his brother have appreciated him showing up? I'm just that excited for this canoe trip. Be like, dude, great, but stay at home until a reasonable time. I'm asleep because we're going to have to be dealing with children and hauling canoes all day. I kind of need my sleep. Like.
I don't know. I mean, this donut shop was four hours away. Like, you're going to show up at, like, 2 a.m. at your brother's house? Yeah, and they show him, like, saying goodbye to his wife. Like, I just got to go. I'm going to go pick up those donuts. And she's, like, reading or something. I'm like, okay, honey. Not, what? That plan makes no sense. I mean, people have been shot in road rage incidents. That's not that weird. But something is bizarre about this. Or maybe he's just a weird dude. I mean, I don't, maybe. Okay, some sources were saying that he actually, the times in Unsolved Mysteries are wrong. And it's actually he left at 3 a.m.
instead of 130. That's slightly better, I guess. Okay, Unsull Mystery Wiki says, unresolved, in 1995, police got a break when a client lab determined a gun involved in another case matched the one used in the murder. However, because it had changed hands since then, the investigation led nowhere. Authorities stated that they have a suspect in the case that they believe is responsible. However, they do not have enough evidence to charge him. They reportedly needed an unidentified woman who may have information about the case to come forward. Okay, so...
I'm not necessarily speculating that David was going to see another woman in the middle of the night, but it seems to be someone is speculating that. Okay. Because what unidentified woman? What? Yeah. There wasn't a witness on the road at 3 a.m. Not that we've heard about. No. Okay. That's all the information that we have. I mean, maybe this is like, I don't know, her husband. A lot of people on unsolved.com thought this was drug related. Who knows? I think that's kind of like the go-to every time a guy dies, but.
there's really nothing to suggest that either there's really nothing to suggest anything like this could just be a weird road rage incident yeah it could be weird i don't know that one's yeah it's too bad it's sad but also strange the reenactments in this are pretty funny and sort of seem like a parody of unsolved mysteries because this guy is real casual about being shot And I can't imagine. I mean, maybe you would just be in shock. But I don't know. It's also, people have said it's kind of weird he went home. Like, I don't know that it is. Maybe you just, like, do that automatically. But he probably would have been better off driving himself to the hospital than driving to his house. I don't know. Maybe he didn't know how to get there. But it's a little bit odd. It's a strange one. I don't know what to make of it. Honey? Yeah, if you could just come on down. I'm bleeding everywhere. This is probably the last time we're ever going to talk.
The reenactment is so weird. The tone of it is very off and, I don't know, almost like not in good taste. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. I would say that is very true. Okay, but that closes up this episode. We are done and ready to rate. Mysteriousness. Thumbs way up. Okay, ignoring the Jesus mysteries because I don't know who stole those paintings. That's still a mystery. Actually, that's true. Okay, so Jesus, he's kind of a mystery. What's his deal?
Stolen paintings. Mystery. Dead biker. Mystery. Donut guy. Mystery. Actually, extremely mysterious. This one's quite mysterious, so two thumbs up. Yeah, way up. Way up to heaven. How are we going to rate the reenactments? On one hand, the reenactments of the first segment are pretty decent. I actually was surprised that I thought the Lady of Guadalupe reenactments, despite Mary being pretty white, I thought they were actually handled pretty well. I appreciated that the dialogue was taking place in Spanish and had subtitles for people who don't speak Spanish. I thought that was appropriate. But this last case seems like a sketch. Yeah, and that...
The guy's so casual about being shot that it leads to his death. I don't know. Also, that church reenactment in the stolen art segment is not super great. Very casual. Like, hey, hey, priest. Yeah, so you know about the stolen paintings. What? Is that how that would work? If you're trying to get millions of dollars, you just go talk to any random-ass priest? I think that whole bit is a lie. I think someone just made that up. Well, yeah. So, I don't know. Maybe they cancel each other out and we do it sideways.
Actually, I say thumbs down. All right. Yeah. The last ones are so bad. It's true. They're really bad. I would be very insulted if I died and this is how my death was portrayed. It's like, first of all, this was a huge dork. Yeah. See, your dogs are mad about it.
The mailman just came and dropped something off. Yeah, thumbs down. I would be insulted if this is how my death was portrayed to everyone. To everyone or your grandparents. I don't think I would be that happy about it. Samantha? Hey, Samantha, can you do me a quick favor? Yeah, could you keep me from dying? Yeah, just real quick. It's only going to take a minute. If you could call the paramedics, I am bleeding out. You should see it. There's like a lot of blood.
All right. Fashion. I feel like fashion was pretty decent. Like the biker fashion. We see a lot of biker looks and I like them. So thumbs up for that. Just that. I don't know. Also, when do we talk about cactus cloth robes? Never. That was a twist. A fashion twist. Sure.
Thumbs up. Thumbs up. Why not? Robert Stack talks a lot about the Bible. Yeah. Actually, you know what? Thumbs down for me. He talks a lot about the crucifixion. Again, thumbs down. But otherwise the standards back there. I don't know. Robert Stack, I'm not here for Sunday school. I'm here to solve some mysteries. At one point he does handle some evidence again. At least it's bagged up this time. I think that was in the... That was in your biker mystery. My biker mystery. He reads the actual letter. He reads the actual letter. Why? Why does he have that? It seems irresponsible. At least it was...
packaged up i just i want to see the like chain of custody that's like and then we sent it to unsolved mysteries and then robert stack touched the bag and then they sent it like what no no it's not really they invented a xerox machine for these very situations take that blessing and use it please yeah so just a standard stack episode i think i'm giving them a thumbs down because all of all because easter that's why yeah we didn't we're not in church i don't really need yeah that's not why i'm tuning in no am i gonna solve the lady of guadalupe and call up to tip line no Well, I'm not sure anyone's really... I mean, other than those white dudes. Like, it doesn't really need to be... It doesn't need to be solved. I mean... Yeah, just let people enjoy it then. All right, well, that concludes scene five, episode 22. Well, wait, but we have to rate it. Yes. I don't know. This wasn't my favorite. No, I was kind of disappointed. I didn't hate it, but it wasn't my favorite. I would like more art thief mysteries, but... Interesting. Not like this. Maybe one's where I care about what happened to that art, and if the conclusion was this, like, oh, it went to a landfill, I'd be like, hmm, okay. Well, you can have some elements that are interesting. This one kind of...
I mean, I realize the kids really want it back, but I don't know. When someone just walks in and took it and walked out, there's not like... You can't always get what you want, kids. I don't know what to tell you. It's gone. If it hasn't come back by now, I don't think it's coming back. I mean, okay, I told you that this was an Easter one and we were going to get two Jesus mysteries and you were like, I'm not watching that on a Saturday. So I think that kind of shows where this needs... I'm two. This is a two. I agree. Yeah, I specifically didn't want to spend my Saturday watching Jesus mysteries, so I'm clearly not the target audience for this episode.
This is our opinion. We can only bring it as ourselves. That's what people are tuning in for. They need to know. It's on our minds. Yeah, this is not what I want. I feel like this last mystery, there's something else going on here. I feel like it could have been a longer segment. We're missing some details, I think. Yeah. I would like this episode more if that one had been done better. I think it's a good mystery, but not a good segment. Agreed. A two is fitting, I think. What is your favorite Easter candy? I mean, mine's a mini egg, obviously, but...
You know, I like the malted milk ball eggs. I don't know if they're my favorite. I think probably the Reese's egg wins out because I just love those so much. I used to be a big fan of the Cadbury eggs when I was a child and could actually eat them. Now they're just like, you might as well eat, you might just swallow a cup of sugar. It's so much. So those were by far my favorite as a kid. I loved those, but I'm not, yeah, they're too sweet for me now. You understood. Yeah, I think that's her.
This isn't going to divide us apart like your opinion of those Reese's Pieces eggs, which honestly might be my favorite Halloween candy. It all comes back to that. Yeah, they're okay. I'm not. You don't have to say that. I'm actively dislike them, but if I'm going to buy Reese's eggs, I'm going to get the originals. You don't have to say that just for me. That's sweet of you, but you don't have to lie. Okay, so now it's time for the recommendations part of our show. We like to close things out with...
A recommendation is sort of a little palate cleanser after talking about so much doom and gloom and Jesus. My recommendation, we've referred to Amazon as our evil overlords. And I want to recommend an alternate bookseller. Oh, I like it. So in Minneapolis, the bookstore Moon Palace is actually right next to the police station here that burned down. So during the George Floyd motivated Black Lives Matter protests, that police station asked the bookstore Moon Palace if they would like police protection.
And the bookstore said, haha, no thanks. And they put out a table with like water and first aid supplies for protesters. They let people use their bathroom and come in for whatever. That bookstore was untouched. And the police store across the street completely burned down. So I think if you're actually looking to order a book, I realize that's not really what Amazon is for anymore.
If you're looking to get your hands on a book, I would recommend ordering it from Moon Palace. It will take a little bit longer, probably, to get it than it would from Amazon. But you'll be supporting cool people. It's a nice spot in Minneapolis that deserves our support. And shipping through them, they ship media mail. So it's only like a couple bucks. So yes, like if you have your Amazon Prime, it's free. But this really is not going to add like the shipping. You're not going to get to the shipping and then go, oh, never mind. You know that step of online shopping where you go, oh, I'm going to get this. And then it's like shipping, $29. And you go, no, I'm not.
Is that going to happen? Because it's through media mail. And also, if you're local, you can go and pick it up curbside. Yeah, they have like a little window on the side of their building. I follow them on Instagram and I saw it the other day. There's like a little pickup window. You can go pick up your books. It's delightful. Also, if you're an audiobook person, I think they have Libro, which is an alternative audiobook resource if you're looking for that. I mean, audiobooks to buy them are expensive, so I would always use the library if I were you. But if you're looking to get something specific and you want an audio version and you don't want to give your money to Amazon, I think they have Libro. So you can get, it's a way to get audiobooks from independent bookstores. Libro FM, I think is.
what it's called i've used it a few times the other local place i know that's doing curbside pickup is the irreverent bookworm you can also order from them and either have it shipped or go pick it up so that's a really good bookstore i would be really sad if they didn't survive this i actually just ordered our book club book from for this month from them the five so i have to go pick that up and i just ordered some um obviously this is a baraska fan podcast i ordered some um cw walker books from moon palace so two bookstores i would recommend supporting that's a great recommendation i'm glad you recommended that What's on your mind? I'm recommending something that I hope we haven't recommended before on this podcast. It's an Etsy shop. I don't think we have. Although I think I definitely...
I think you may have turned me on to the Etsy shop, so I'm not totally sure if we haven't talked about it on the show. But anyway, this is an Etsy shop that I recently put a few purchases in, and I wanted to shout them out because I think their stuff is so adorable and it's perfect for this time of year. It's a little spooky studio. They're out of Portland, Oregon, and I think their stuff is freaking adorable. They have a lot of Halloween things. I just ordered a pin from them, and I think sold out now, but they'll restock things from time to time. It's like a little jack-o'-lantern stack, three little jack-o'-lantern pins. I had a ghost pin I ordered as a gift for someone, and they have really adorable art prints, mostly Halloween, but there's some other things. I'm looking at their Etsy shop right now, just scrolling through it. They have a little alien sticker.
That says true, true believer. They have these really cute little pins. One is Bigfoot fan club and one is a Yeti fan club. And there's cute little illustrations of a Yeti and a Bigfoot. Do you think you're in the Bigfoot fan club or the Yeti fan club? If you had to pick. I think Bigfoot. I think Yeti. They're both. Yes. It's hard. It's hard.
But I think probably Bigfoot. I've never really put a lot of thought into that. Yeah, I would check them out. They did recently close their shop to get caught up and then reopen. So they don't have as many items as I think they normally do. But their stuff is so cute. I follow them on Instagram as well. It is really cute, yeah. If you're looking for some cute stuff, check them out. Great idea. It's always good to support artists. I love getting recommendations for little shops like this on Etsy or otherwise. Because sometimes they're hard to find organically. I don't know. I don't really typically look at things that are recommended to me.
you know, on like Etsy or whatever. So actually the rest of the recommendations, I don't know what they did to their algorithm, but they're trash now. They used to be pretty good, but the stuff it recommends to me will seriously just be like a plain ring, like just a metal. And I'll be like, okay, like why? Like it's probably popular, but that has like nothing to do with me specifically, you know? And I feel like I previously had found a lot of like independent artists and small shops through Instagram, but their algorithm is trash now too, because it's definitely just a vehicle for larger, like more popular platforms. It's getting harder and harder to find.
like just artists and people with like a thousand followers instead of two million followers. Right. So it helps to have those recommendations because I think people are getting kind of lost in the shuffle of things that used to spotlight them. Absolutely. And I find that my Etsy recommendations on like the homepage, at least of the app, it'll just show me like whatever I searched for last, it'll just give me more of that exact same thing, which I guess is fine, but I'm not always trying to buy like the same stuff over. I bought a plant the other day on Etsy and now it's just like all.
like and more plants yeah yeah i feel like different plants just the same exact one and i'm kind of like that's cool but i would like to see some variety i don't know whatever like i said i don't normally antsy has changed a lot over the years and it's a much more like mass-produced things that it used to be and i feel like kind of the the individuality of also just even the recommendations has kind of gone too where it's like for sure okay those are just stud earrings I think if that's what I wanted, I could have found it. Yeah, exactly. Okay, well, we can stop rambling about algorithms and bring the show to a close by reminding you to follow us on those social media things that we just complained about. Twitter, Instagram, we have two Facebook groups. You know how Facebook is terrible? Well, there are still groups and you should join ours. Yeah, our spinoff group for Animal Crossing is still going strong. If you feel like you're late to the game, maybe your Switch took a really long time to arrive. It's not too late. We're still playing Animal Crossing, having a good time. Make sure you join us.
The group of the non-creeps you can talk to about Animal Crossing. You can be there for me demanding certain furniture items. I'm trying to get diner items because obviously I'm making a Riverdale. So if you want to be part of that exchange. Well, it's fun to be.
in a group that's a little bit smaller because i don't know i've i joined a few animal crossing groups but anytime like anyone wants to give you anything they want to like charge you for it not like real money but like game money sure or you know whatever they want to like exchange or trade something and i don't know if you don't play a lot you may not have a lot to trade so our group is just really fun um people are very generous and really enjoying it back it's not yeah i don't know a lot of people aren't on facebook anymore but if you still are join us um what else okay give us five star reviews the only type of reviews we accept we really appreciate them we might read on the show if they're particularly good so get creative yeah And if you have a spooky story or any sort of paranormal phenomenon, or perhaps you solved a crime, I don't know. Perhaps you are frauding people right now. Write into perhapsitupodcast at gmail.com. Confess to your crimes. We would like those for our listeners' stories episode. We do have a website, perhapsitupodcast.com. And I sort of feel like that's everything. Except, oh, nope. It's like I always forget. We have a Patreon. You should sign up for that so you can hear us talk about the reboot. We're going to be talking about the last two episodes that have been released so far, including the Berkshires UFO. That's this month.
with Rob, formerly of Our Strange Skies, and all of his UFO knowledge and his giant brain. I'm glad he's not going to talk about that one. I feel like even if I dedicate the next two years to researching just the Berkshires UFO, there's no way I would know as much as him. So let's just cut to the chase. Exactly.
All right, everyone. I guess maybe if you have those Jesus paintings, you should probably return them to the family. It seems like they really want them. Okay. Yeah, please do that. And the Statue of Limitations has run out. So you're not even getting into trouble. You can just be like, I, you can just brag. Like I pulled off a cool art heist. Boom. Here are your paintings. It's like, that'd be kind of cool. Yeah. Okay. Bye everyone. Keep barking.