HOLIDAY PARTY!

HAPPY NATIONAL CANNOLI DAY! Join us as we celebrate the lovely dessert tubes of flavor! Today we're partying with dessert fan and one-time attempted cannoli chef Kevin Scott Brown (@truerealkevin on twitter)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 Find show notes for this episode at laughowenslaugh.com/holiday-party-june-16th-2021--national-cannoli-day-with-kevin-scott-brown

HAPPY NATIONAL NURSES WEEK! Join us as we celebrate the people out there doing heavy lifting in hospitals and saving lives. Today we're partying with sister, master Tweeter and nurse Deidre Emerson (@lilredrooster)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 Find show notes for this episode at https://laughowenslaugh.com/holiday-party-may-6-may-12-2020-national-nurses-week-with-deidre-emerson/

HAPPY NATIONAL NURSES WEEK! Join us as we celebrate the people out there doing heavy lifting in hospitals and saving lives. Today we're partying with sister, master Tweeter and nurse Deidre Emerson (@lilredrooster)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 Find show notes for this episode at https://laughowenslaugh.com/holiday-party-may-6-may-12-2020-national-nurses-week-with-deidre-emerson/

HAPPY NATIONAL GET OVER IT DAY! Join us as we celebrate moving on with your life or callously telling people to shut up about their problems! Today we're partying with someone who was really disconcerted when we told her what the topic was, Amy Cowan (AmyACowan.com)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 Find the show notes at https://laughowenslaugh.com/holiday-party-march-9th-2021--national-get-over-it-day-with-amy-cowan/

HAPPY NATIONAL PERSONAL SPACE DAY! Join us as we celebrate our personal bubbles and keeping our hands to our goddamn selves! Today we're partying with personal space aficionado and friend Adam (Twitter: @mrmadamadam / Instagram: @mrmadamadam)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842

HAPPY NATIONAL MAGIC DAY! Join us as we celebrate sleight of hand, illusion and fun mystical stuff on this day where there's only one holiday happening (which is National Magic Day)! (NOTE: This episode is not about Magic: The Gathering, Magic Johnson, or Magic Mike.) Today we're partying with magic fan, beloved DJ and jewelry artist Annie Saunders (Twitter: @anniemated / Instagram: @anniemated / Radio Show / Shop: League of Shadows)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842

HAPPY NATIONAL ONE-HIT WONDER DAY! Join us as we celebrate the artists that made a single thing people loved and then disappeared into the night. Today we're partying with Cody Skinner and Norm Quarrinton (@NormanQ on Twitter)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 Find show notes for this episode at https://laughowenslaugh.com/holiday-party-september-25th-national-one-hit-wonder-day-with-cody-skinner-and-norm-quarrinton/

HAPPY NATIONAL MUTT DAY! Join us as we celebrate those mixed breed dogs that fill our lives with joy. Today we're partying with dog pal Nicki Fuchs (@nfewks on Instagram and Twitter)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 Find show notes for this episode at laughowenslaugh.com/holiday-party-july-31-december-2nd-national-mutt-day-with-nicki-fuchs/

HAPPY NATIONAL NURSES WEEK! Join us as we celebrate the people out there doing heavy lifting in hospitals and saving lives. Today we're partying with sister, master Tweeter and nurse Deidre Emerson (@lilredrooster)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 Find show notes for this episode at https://www.holidaypartypodcast.com/may-6-may-12-2020-national-nurses-week-with-deidre-emerson

HAPPY NATIONAL GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH DAY! Join us as we celebrate those delicious cheese filled dreams. Today we're partying with pal, comedian and grilled cheese fan Dan Kapr (Twitch.TV/DanHasJokes)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 Find show notes at https://www.holidaypartypodcast.com/april-12-2020-national-grilled-cheese-sandwich-day-with-dan-kapr

MAKE UP YOUR OWN HOLIDAY DAY with Kevin Tit! Join us as we celebrate making up even more things to celebrate. Today we're partying with celebrated friend, celebrated comedian and celebrated music man Kevin Tit!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 Find show notes at https://www.holidaypartypodcast.com/march-26-2020-make-up-your-own-holiday-day-with-kevin-tit

HAPPY INCONVENIENCE YOURSELF DAY! Join us as celebrate everything the stuff that gets in the way of other stuff. Today we're celebrating with the lovely and sometimes inconvenient Amy Cowan (aacowan.com)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 SHOW NOTES Definition of the topic Inconvenience, as defined by Merriam-Webster is:  Something that is inconvenient….or not convenient especially in giving trouble or annoyance The top definition on Urban Dictionary, with 16 thumbs up, is that Inconvenience is “a version of baseball you play when you do not have enough people to field two full teams. The rules are that “you can only hit to right field or left field, which you have to call before you are up. If you hit to the opposite field, you are out. The outfield can throw the ball to the pitcher to get the lead runner out.” Conveniently, or inconveniently depending on how you look at it, this is also the most downvoted definition of “inconvenience” on Urban Dictionary, with 47 thumbs down. It was posted on July 12, 2004 by “Steve”. The only other definition of “inconvenience” on UD was posted on November 2, 2019, and states that inconvenience is the “trouble or difficulty caused to one’s personal requirements or comfort.”  It has no votes either way, and was added by the user “TheUnseenWriter” (lol) History of the holiday According to Worldwide Weird Holidays, Inconvenience Yourself Day has been celebrated on the 4th Wednesday in February since 2006. The holiday was created by Julie Thompson, the then (and now?) president of Environmental Resources Network in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, to encourage everyone to recognize how our actions impact the lives of those around us I checked, and this sadly means that it will never fall on Leap Day, which is too bad because it would make it an incredibly inconvenient holiday “It’s easy to become so focused on our own crazy to-do lists that we forget to hold open a door, let a customer with only a few items get ahead of us in line, thank someone who has helped us or just be kind to others when there is no tangible benefit to us.” Its goal is not only to recognize a person’s self awareness in life, but also to acknowledge other peoples’ lives and actions as well. There are times where you need to put yourself first, but this day is meant to encourage you to try to put someone else before you And according to WWH, “the secret payoff of inconveniencing ourselves: it makes us feel good. Who knows? It could become a habit. Slow down, say thanks, and have a happy Inconvenience Yourself Day!” Fun facts and opinions A 2018 NYTimes opinion piece by Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia, entitled “The Tyranny of Convenience”, says that “convenience is the most underestimated and least understood force in the world today.” Defining convenience as the more efficient and easier ways of doing personal tasks, Wu describes its effects on our individual lives and our economies.  “Convenience seems to make our decisions for us, trumping what we like to imagine are our true preferences. Easy is better, easiest is best.”  “Convenience has the ability to make other options unthinkable.” Why wash your dishes or clothes by hand when you can let machines do it? When you can watch streaming television or listen to a podcast anytime you want, why would you bother with waiting for a prescribed radio or television hour? Why would you use BIng when you have Google? Resisting convenience, such as refusing to get a smartphone or printing out Mapquest instructions instead of using a GPS, must “come to require a special kind of dedication that is often taken for eccentricity, if not fanaticism.”  The “article describes two separate cultural waves of convenience,” with the first taking place in the early 20th century with labor-saving inventions for the home and industry, such as convenience foods, washing machines, electric vacuum cleaners, and factory farming. The inventions were quickly embraced, since people thought it would free them from extraneous labor and offer the possibility of leisure for the first time, meaning that time could be used instead for hobbies, education, or binge watching I Love Lucy or The Jetsons This first wave began to wane and people seemed to intentionally embrace some inconvenience in the 60s and 70s in order to resist conformity and retain a sense of individuality. So it was fitting that the second wave of convenience, which occurred in the 1980s, would co-opt this ideal by presenting the idea of personal technology with the invention of the Sony Walkman.  According to Wu, “if the first convenience revolution promised to make life and work easier for you, the second promised to make it easier to be you. The new technologies were catalysts of selfhood. They conferred efficiency on self-expression.”  This version of convenience is no longer occupied with saving physical labor or creating free time--”it is about minimizing the mental resources, the mental exertion, required to choose among the options that express ourselves. Convenience is one-click, one-stop shopping, the seamless experience of “plug and play.” The ideal is personal preference with no effort.” But convenience has a dark side. “With its promise of smooth, effortless efficiency, it threatens to erase the sort of struggles and challenges that help give meaning to life. Created to free us, it can become a constraint on what we are willing to do, and thus in a subtle way it can enslave us.”  We pay a premium for convenience. As Wu states, “We are spoiled by immediacy and become annoyed by tasks that remain at the old level of effort and time. When you can skip the line and buy concert tickets on your phone, waiting in line to vote in an election is irritating.” (On the other hand, I miss the days of buying concert tickets in person. Not only were they cheaper, but I’m a sentimental fuck who loves keeping the physical tickets as a memento) Wu presents the concept of a paradoxical truth that today’s technologies of individualization are technologies of mass individualization, and that customization can be surprisingly homogenizing. Social media like Facebook and Instagram are vehicles intended to help you present your unique self, yet their formats and conventions force us to present ourselves as overwhelmingly the same He argues that “being a person is only partly about having and exercising choices. It is also about how we face up to situations that are thrust upon us, about overcoming worthy challenges and finishing difficult tasks--the struggles that help make us who we are.” “Today’s cult of convenience fails to acknowledge that difficulty is a constitutive feature of human experience. Convenience is all destination and no journey...We are becoming people who care mainly or only about outcomes.” Wu recommends that “we need to consciously embrace the inconvenient...if you want to be someone, you cannot allow convenience to be the value that transcends all others. Struggle is not always a problem. Sometimes struggle is a solution. It can be the solution to the question of who you are.” We already do this to a great degree, though we call these inconveniences other names, such as hobbies or passions. If you’re into wood carving, glass-blowing, exercise, or talking about inconvenience on your hobby podcast, you already making inconvenient choices in order to create your own character and give your life meaning.  Wu concludes by insisting that “we must never forget the joy of doing something slow and something difficult, the satisfaction of not doing what is easiest. The constellation of inconvenient choices may be all that stands between us and a life of total, efficient conformity.” If you do find yourself annoyed by inconveniences that were not intentional, such as locking yourself out, dealing with intense traffic, or breaking your phone, sersanoconsulting.com has some advice for how to change your perspective and therefore your experience of the inconvenient.  Remind yourself that these problems are almost certainly temporary Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions during these moments of inconvenience. See if you can take a different course of action that will counteract the typical build-up of frustration and irritation. For example, if you lock yourself out of your home and catch yourself in a spiral of blame or anger, see what else you can do with the time you’re about to spend locked out, such as taking a walk and exploring a different neighborhood, or in my case, developing a real appreciation for how fucking difficult it is to actually break into someone’s home thanks to modern door locks You don’t have to get mentally stuck when your plans go off the rails, since the misfortune is not likely to be eternal and you can make the choice to not let that time and emotion go to waste A thinkpiece from HackSpirit.com entitled “These 20 inconvenient truths about life are hard to admit but they’ll change your life when you do” highlight some “hard truths about life that will benefit you in the long run” to accept, including: We haven’t got that much control in life Our expectations are what cause are [sic] suffering Everything, even you, is imperfect Worrying is a complete waste of time The best lessons often come from hardships We often confuse being busy with being productive Most of us don’t need more to be happy, we need less As a society, we’re way too focused on outer beauty Most arguments we have are pointless It’s easier to hold onto the way things are than to learn and grow Everyone will die You give your own life meaning There is no such thing as a perfect partner Life isn’t that serious Everything will come to an end Be

HAPPY NATIONAL NOTHING DAY! Join us as we celebrate the vast emptiness of the lack of anything. Today we're celebrating with writer and fellow fan of nothing Norm Quarrinton (Twitter: @NormanQ)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 SHOW NOTES History/Fun facts about the topic How do we define “nothing”? (What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of “nothing”?) An article from Vice summarizes this conundrum pretty well. “Nothing is a concept so deceptively simple that it inhabits the strange intersection of science, philosophy, and language itself. Like a child asking “Why?” to the point of absurdity, trying to get to the bottom of this problem can be pretty frustrating” “‘Nothing’, used as a pronoun subject, is the absence of a something or particular thing that one might expect or desire to be present (“We found nothing”, “Nothing was there”) or the inactivity of a thing or things that are usually or could be active (“Nothing moved”, “Nothing happened”). As a predicate or complement “nothing” is the absence of meaning, value, worth, relevance, standing, or significance (“It is a tale/Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing”; “The affair meant nothing”; “I’m nothing in their eyes”).  Grammatically, the word “nothing” is an indefinite pronoun, which means that it refers to something. According to cute-calendar.com, “one might argue that ‘nothing’ is a concept, and since concepts are things, the concept of “nothing” itself is a thing. Many philosophers hold that the word “nothing” does not function as a noun, as there is no object to which it refers.” “Nothingness” is a philosophical term for the general state of nonexistence, sometimes reified as a domain or dimension into which things pass when they cease to exist or out of which they may come to exist, e.g. God is understood to have created the universe ex nihilo, “out of nothing”. Creatio ex nihilo is one of the most common themes in ancient myths and religions Western philosophy has been obsessing over “nothingness” for a  very long time. To avoid linguistic traps over the meaning of “nothing”, philosophers will often use a phrase such as not-being to make clear what is being discussed One of the earliest Western philosophers to consider nothing as a concept was Parmenides, a Greek philosopher of the monist school who lived in the 5th century BC. He reasoned that “nothing” cannot exist because to speak of a thing, one has to speak of a thing that exists. Since we can speak of a thing in the past, this thing must still exist (in some sense) now. From this, he concludes that there is no such thing as change, there can be no such things as coming-into-being, passing-out-of-being, or not-being Parmenides was an influence for other philosophers such as Socrates and Plato, though Aristotle shrugged him off, concluding, “Although these opinions seem to follow logically in a dialectical discussion, yet to believe them seems next door to madness when one considers the facts.”  Aristotle provided an escape from the logical problem posed by Parmenides by distinguishing things that are matter and things that are space. In this scenario, space is not “nothing” but, rather, a receptacle in which objects of matter can be placed. The true void (as “nothing”) is different from “space” and is removed from consideration.  This characterization of space reached its pinnacle with Isaac Newton who asserted the existence of absolute space. Rene Descartes, however, espoused an argument similar to Parmenides, which denied the existence of space. For Descartes, there was matter, and there was extension of matter leaving no room for the existence of “nothing.” In modern times, Albert Einstein’s concept of spacetime has led many scientists, including Einstein himself, to adopt a position remarkably similar to Parmenides. On the death of his friend Michelle Besso, Einstein consoled his widow with the words, “Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of time. That signifies nothing. For those of us that believe in physics, the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”  Existentialists really like to spend a lot of time considering ‘nothing.’ “The most prominent figure among the existentialists is Jean-Paul Sartre, whose ideas in his book Being and Nothingness are heavily influenced by Being and Time of Martin Heidegger, although Heidegger later stated that he was misunderstood by Satre.  Sartre defines two kinds of “being” or etre. One kind is etre-en-soi, the brute existence of things such as a tree. The other kind is etre-pour-soi which is consciousness. Sartre claims that this second kind of being is “nothing” since consciousness cannot be an object of consciousness and can possess no essence. Sartre uses this conception of nothing as the foundation of his atheist philosophy, since equating nothingness with being leads to creation from nothing. Hence, God is no longer needed for there to be existence Modern day philosopher Jim Holt describes nothingness as “a state in which everything is not self-identical. If for all x, x is unequal to x; that sentence in logic describes a state of nothingness. It doesn’t help the imagination, but it doesn’t give rise to any contradictions. It can only be true if nothing exists, because if anything exists, it equals itself.” He also contends that, “Nothing is the simplest way that reality could turn out; it’s the least arbitrary, because it excludes everything. Once you take that seriously, you begin to think, ‘That’s how it should have been; why should there be something rather than nothing?’” Of course, the understanding of ‘nothing’ varies between cultures. In some Eastern philosophies, the concept of “nothingness” is characterized by an egoless state of being in which one fully realizes one’s own small part in the cosmos.  Sunyata, or emptiness, is considered a state of mind in some forms of Buddhism--achieving ‘nothing’ in this tradition allows one to be totally focused on a thought or activity at a level of intensity that they would not be able to achieve if they were consciously thinking.  A classic example of this is an archer attempting to erase the mind and clear the thoughts to better focus on the shot Some have pointed to similarities between the Buddhist conception of nothingness and the ideas of Martin Heidegger and existentialists like Sartre Before moving on from the philosophical interpretations of “nothing,” I would be remiss to not mention Seinfeld, which is popularly known as “the show about nothing” as many of its episodes are about the minutiae of daily life.  According to a BBC article, “Was Seinfeld Really ‘About Nothing’?”, the show “revealed the same problems of being that nauseated the existentialists: the tiniest acts of its characters come together to wreak havoc, sometimes on other characters, more commonly on unsuspecting strangers.” “...one could argue [the show] has a strong nihilistic streak throughout its run - if it’s about ‘nothing’, it’s about the nothingness of existence, the futility of it all.” Just as with ‘nothing’ throughout history, books have been written about Seinfeld since it’s conclusion, colleges offer classes on it that tend to fill to capacity, and think pieces still regularly pop up about the show, despite its finale airing over twenty years ago, on May 14, 1998. From the article, Seinfeld is one of many major works of pop culture that “show us why we say the things we do, do the things we do, thinking the things we think, like the things we like. Seinfeld teaches us what at least one sliver of life was like in 1990s America: silly, banal, self-indulgent, self-obsessed and maybe even nihilistic underneath it all” and shows us “the more universal tendencies we share: we’re probably still a little self-indulgent, even more self-obsessed and still questioning what it all means. And any show that makes us think about all of that - while making nihilism and existentialism fun - can’t really be about nothing after all, can it?” Both philosophically and mathematically, the concept of “zero” has a bumpy history. The ancient Greeks hated the concept of zero so much that they refused to incorporate it into their number system, even when their astronomical calculations called for it. They were uneasy, thinking, “How can nothing be something?”  Aristotle once wrote, “Nature abhors a vacuum,” and so did he (I’m naming my next dog Aristotle). His complete rejection of vacuums and voids and his subsequent influence on centuries of learning prevented the adoption and the concept of zero in the Western world until around the 13th century, when Italian bankers found it to be extraordinarily useful in financial transactions Other terms for ‘zero’ include ‘nought’, which is where“naughty” is derived from because it was bad to be nothing. Zero was thought of as Devil’s work and the antithesis of God “Zero” was first seen in cuneiform tablets written around 300 BC by Babylonians who used it as a placeholder (to distinguish 36 from 306 or 360, for example). The concept of zero in its mathematical sense was developed in India in the 5th century, and popularized in Europe by Fibonacci in the eleventh century Any number divided by zero is...nothing, not even zero. The equation is mathematically impossible A mathematical concept of nothing proposed by science journalist Charles Seife, who authored “Zero: The Biography of of a Dangerous idea,” proposed starting with a set of numbers that included only the number zero, then removing zero, leaving with is called a null set In computing, “nothing” can be a keyword used in place of some

HAPPY NATIONAL EMO DAY! ... I guess join us, as we talk about emo music or whatever. Do what you want, I don't feel good today. Today I guess we're celebrating with a super cool person and we're surprised he even noticed us, comedian and musician Cory Barringer (Twitter: @HunkyCory / Instagram: HunkyCory / The Kelps on Bandcamp)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 SHOW NOTES History/Fun facts about the topic Definition and history--What exactly is emo, you ask? To start, Dictionary.com gives a two-part definition of emo as a noun 1. A type of guitar-based music developed from emocore but having a softer, pop, or mainstream sound 2. A fan of emo, especially a person who is overly sensitive and full of angst or adopts a certain style characterized by dyed black hair, tight t-shirts and jeans Wikipedia further defines Emo as “a rock music genre characterized by an emphasis on emotional expression, sometimes through confessional lyrics.”  Urban Dictionary has over 1400 entries for the definition of emo, with the top entry outlining three applications of the word as: an emotional person, a style, and a genre of music, from user “One of the few people who will say what the labels are instead of my opinion on them” in February 2008. This was their only submission to the site According to NME, emo might be “music’s dirtiest word,” one that “attracts scorn like few others.”  As a genre, It emerged as a style of post-hardcore from the mid-1980s hardcore punk movement in Washington DC, where it was known as ‘emotional or emotive hardcore’ or ‘emocore’.” The origin of the term itself is hard to pin down, though evidence shows that it was coined in 1985. Some attribute its birth to a 1985 Thrasher article in which Embrace and other Washington DC bands were referred to as “emo-core,” while others claim that Minor Threat frontman Ian MacKaye used it self-mockingly in a magazine, and yet other people give credit to an audience member at an Embrace show, who shouted as an insult that the band was “emocore.” Either way, the general consensus is that the term was intended as an insult from the very beginning, and none of the flagship bands wanted anything to do it Though The Beach Boys’ 1966 album “Pet Sounds” was labelled “the first emo album” by Treble Zine’s Ernest Simpson, the first Emo band is often cited to be Rites of Spring, ostensibly because of their lyrics, such as, “I woke up this morning with a piece of past caught in my throat/And then I choked,” from their song “For Want Of.” Apparently the members of Rites of Spring hate being called emo, though, with Guy Picciotto once saying, “I’ve never recognized ‘emo’ as a genre of music… the reason I think it’s so stupid is that--what, like the Bad Brains weren’t emotional? What--they were robots or something? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.” In 1980, Minor Threat frontman Ian Mackaye founded the Dischord record label where it signed many DC hardcore punk bands. Later on, it went on to sign MacKaye and Picciotto’s iconic band Fugazi. Fugazi were not emo, drawing in elements of hardcore, funk, and jazz instead, but they did inspire bands in the mid 90s to abandon conventional hardcore roots The first wave of emo took off with Revolution Summer 1985, which was an attempt deliberately sought by emo-core bands like Gray Matter, Beefeater, Dag Nasty, Soulside, and Embrace to break the limitations of hardcore punk in favor for a fresh idea of creativity. It was a social movement that challenged the initial wave of hardcore music, the attitudes of fans and bands before them, and also the image mainstream media protrayed of punks. The bands that spawned from Revolution Summer often took a stand against violence, especially at shows in the form of slamdancing, as well as standing up against the sexism of the scene. During the 90s, a second wave of emo began to spread out and started splintering into different subgenres, and became to be defined by an emotional intimacy between bands and their fans. According to the altpress.com article “What is Emo, Anyway? We Look at History to Define a Genre,” this is where we saw the birth of screamo, with bands like Antioch Arrow and Swing Kids.  In Seattle, Sunny Day Real Estate drew elements of grunge and alt-rock, and were in fact often pegged as the “next Nirvana” by industry insiders before they broke up for the first time in 1995. Farther down the West Coast in California, Green Day, Rancid, Jawbreaker, and Weezer were exploding onto the national scene The emo scene was particularly prolific in the Midwest at this time, giving us bands such as The Promise Ring, Cap’n Jazz, American Football, and The Get Up Kids, as well as many of the stereotypes that continue to this day--that emo is “boy-driven, glasses-wearing, overly sensitive, overly brainy, chiming-guitar-driven college music,” according to author Andy Greenwald, who wrote “Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and EMO,” a 2003 book that explores the evolution of the emo scene and how this culture has affected its largest group, teenagers. According to The Chicago Reader critic Leor Galil, Midwest, or second-wave, emo was critical in transforming DC emo into “something malleable, melodic, and cathartic--its common features included cycling guitar parts, chugging bass lines, and unconventional singing that sounded like a sweet neighbor kid with no vocal training but plenty of heart.” The 2000s saw a third wave of emo music, and saw pop-punk and emo become inexorably intertwined. It was during this period when bands like Jimmy Eat World, Thursday, Taking Back Sunday, At The Drive-In, Saves The Day, and Brand New were at their respective peaks. We also saw the likes of Atreyu, the Faint, Bright Eyes, and Coheed and Cambria. As altpress notes, “one thing about all of these bands [is that] they all sound wildly different from one another. The sonic palette of emo is widening as quickly as outside influences can be embraced.” With the advent of MySpace in the mid 2000s, emo blew up into a full-blown counter-culture, with groups such as Fall Out Boy, AFI, My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Relient K, Plain White T’s, and Panic! At the DIsco at the forefront, giving us all the inspo to go full “mall emo.”  Through that entire decade, emo purists were incensed, claiming that “emo” is already dead, horrified that bands like the Used and Senses Fail were being called “screamo,” and referring to their precious OG screamo bands as “skramz” instead.  According to NME, “this is an era that countless emo purists like to reject, but it saw the genre take flight like never before.” The last decade has seen emo take two clear paths. There has been something of an underground revival, with many newer bands finding inspiration from emo’s second wave the 90s, while the emo acts from the mid-2000s explosion have gone on to huge pop success and transitions to other genres.   With artists such as Lil Peep, Princess Nokia, nothing, nowhere, and Ghostmane, the next generation of emo may see the continuation of blending emo elements with hip-hop. Wherever it goes, we can surely expect the OG emo gatekeepers to keep their pearls clutched close and their tissues even closer The most significant update to the world of emo, as least to me, is taking place practically as we speak. The return of My Chemical Romance commences tomorrow, December 20th, at the Shrine Expo Hall In LA. The saga to this reunion has been a long and painful one. First, they stomped on the souls of emos around the world when they announced their breakup on March 22nd, 2013.  Then in July 2016, they posted to their social media for the first time in years a video with the piano intro from “Welcome to the Black Parade,” ending with a cryptic date, “9/23/16”, which stoked hopes for a reunion announcement. It ended up being the reissue date of The Black Parade with unreleased demos.  Next, in June of this year, Joe Jonas claimed that he saw the band was rehearsing in a New York studio space. Frank Iero sort of quashed these rumors, and a lot of people speculated that Joe Jonas may have confused Iero’s band, Frank Iero and the Future Violents, with My Chemical Romance.  Turns out that MCR just sucked at being sneaky. They announced on Halloween 2019 that they would be performing in LA, then followed up that announcement a week later with more dates in Australia, Japan, and New Zealand for 2020 Since the reunion announcement, Pitchfork issued a retrospective review of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, giving it an 8.2 score, describing it as “an operatic pop-rock behemoth that became an icon for outcasts.” Criticisms and controversies (from Wikipedia) Emo music was blamed for the suicide of teenager Hannah Bond by the coroner at her inquest and her mother, with emo music reportedly glamorizing suicide. She had an online presence in emo forums where she discussed the “glamour” of hanging, as well as telling her parents that her self-harm was an “emo initiation ceremony.” A qualitative study showed emo respondents reporting “attitudes including high acceptance for suicidal behavior and self-injury,” and concluded, “the identification with the emo youth subculture is considered to be a factor strengthening vulnerability towards risky behaviors.” Emo has been criticized for being androcentrist, with Andy Greenwald citing that there are few women in emo bands and those who are have little influence on lyrical content. “Emo’s popularity and its “lonely boy’s aesthetic” have lead to a litany of one-sided songs in which men vent their fury at the women who have wronged them. Some emo bands’ lyrics disguise violent anti-women sentiments with a pop-music veneer.” The em

HAPPY NATIONAL UNFRIEND DAY! Join us as we celebrate kicking the squares out of your friends lists on social media! Today we're partying with funny dude and victim of unfriending Steven Chen (Twitter: @stevenchenshow / Instagram: gifilterfish)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / Instagram: lettertalkpodcast / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Twitter: @cinnamonenemy / Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 SHOW NOTES History/Fun facts about the topic Urban Dictionary defines unfriending as “removing a person from your list on a social network site, i.e. Facebook (292-87 thumbs up:down ratio) “Compulsive people prune their friend list periodically, removing people that they no longer have contact with. More often though, unfriending is only done when a particular friend’s updates and self-promotions become so annoying that you can no longer stand hearing about them. Or you might unfriend someone when they piss you off, however, this is not very effective since the person who is unfriended is not notified that you unfriended them and you’d be better off to keep them as a friend and plot your revenge.” Mirriam-Webster claims that the first use of ‘unfriend’ took place in 2003, which would put it in the same vocabulary time capsule as baby bump, binge-watch, clapback, flash mob, manscaping, muffin top, net neutrality, and SARS However, according to a 2016 article from curiosity.com and a 2016 article from interestingliterature.com, the first known usage of a form of “unfriend” took place in the Middle English poem “Brut” by Layamon. “We sollen...slean houre onfreondes and wenden after Brenne.” Here, the noun form of unfriend delineates someone who is not a friend, but not necessarily an enemy either This is apparently the same poem that provided us with the first presentation of the legends of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, as well as the first instance of the word ‘muggle’ It was in the 17th century that ‘unfriend’ was first used as a verb, by good ole Shakespeare in “Twelfth Night” (1601-02) His use referred more to a passive losing of friends, rather than an active one, stating, “Being skilless in these parts; which to a stranger,/Unguided and unfriended, often prove/Rough and unhospitable.” In King Lear (1606), he says, “Sir, will you, with those infirmities she owes--./Unfriended, new adopted to our hate.” Regardless, the use of the term among social media references still predates Facebook. The first known recorded use was on Usenet in 2003 by a user named Woo-hoo who commented, “I have been “unfriended” by somebody in the LJ world today.”LJ is LiveJournal? In 2009, the New Oxford American Dictionary named “unfriend” the word of the year! According to an abcnews.go.com article from the same year, this was received in mixed fashion by Facebook users, who reportedly “erupted with commentary.”  “It should be de-friend, not unfriend. I’ve been using facebook since it began and do not agree with unfriend. (and I guarantee my facebook friends agree with me),” “I also use ‘defriend’ and have never heard of ‘unfriend.’ For the record, I’m 24 and use Facebook most regularly. I first signed on Facebook when I was 19, right when it opened up to my college.”  “No, unfriend is definitely more lexy. Defriend misses the whole point and is both boring and uncreative. Unfriend should be compared to undo--which is in social networking exactly what one does. It’s not befriending someone and making acquaintances in reverse, it’s just undoing a function--unhitting the friend button.” Ultimately, according to the folks at Oxford, “unfriend” was chosen because it’s much more common than defriend. According to a 2010 nytimes article and a 2014 article from theatlantic, research done by a graduate student at the Business School at the University of Colorado, Denver, gives the top four reasons that people unfriend each other on Facebook, in the following order of frequency: Frequent/unimportant posts; Polarizing posts, such as politics and religion; Inappropriate posts, such as sexist or racist remarks; Everyday life posts such as those about children, a spouse, or eating habits The student, Christopher Sibona, stated, “One of the interesting things about unfriending is that most real-world friendships either blow up or fade away. But on Facebook, users actively make the decision to unfriend, and people often don’t know why or what’s happened in the relationship.” According to the study, those who initiate a friendship are more likely to be unfriended than those on the receiving end, which seems to mirror how we treat friendships in the real world. Research has shown that those who make friendship overtures tend to be of lower social status than those they court. The recipient of the overtures seems to value those relationships less than the initiator does The study was done by Sibona reaching out to those who had tweeted about unfriending. He sent out over 7300 recruitment tweets, and received 1552 completed surveys. The survey asked the participant to identify the last person they unfriended on Facebook, and to classify the nature of the friendship Un-friends were most likely to be a high-school buddy, a work colleague, a friend of a friend, or “other” which included “didn’t know them,” “former student,” or “enemy.” Interestingly, work friends were more likely to be unfriended for their real-life behavior rather than their posting patterns Lee Siegel, the author of “Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob,” is quoted as saying, “Unfriending reflects the instrumentalization and commodifying of friendship on Facebook. Why unfriend someone at all? After all, in the real world,  you don’t just ignore an obnoxious relative. The very act of unfriending acknowledges that the Facebook definition of friend is different from the traditional.”    Some stats and facts from wincalendar.com, cnn.com As of January 2019, Facebook is the leading social network with approximately 1.6 billion active monthly users. This is in comparison to WhatsApp (1 billion), Instagram (400 million), and Twitter (320 million) The average Facebook user has 338 friends. 27% of users have >500 friends, compared to an average of 100 friends for 72% of users who are older than 65 36% of Facebook users strongly dislike it when someone shares too much information or photos about themselves, as well as when they post photos of others without asking for permission After the 2016 US presidential election, a poll by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 13% of people reported unfriending, blocking, or no longer following someone because of political posts Democrats were the most likely to do so, with almost 24% reporting unfriending, blocking, or unfollowing someone due to political differences, compared to 9% of Republicans, and 9% of independents This is unfortunate, since it creates what author Eli Pariser calls “filter bubbles,” which is when we only consume content and talk to others who already agree with our ideologies  There have been two movies made about unfriending: 2014’s “Unfriended” and its 2018 sequel “Unfriended: Dark Web” “Unfriended” is a found footage supernatural horror film, shot as a computer screen film. The film follows a group of high school students in a Skype conversation that is haunted by a student who was bullied and committed suicide after an anonymous person uploaded  a video of her passing out and defecating at a party. The video goes viral, as does the video of her subsequent suicide. Two of the participants die, each seemingly of suicide (which we later find out was really the influence of the ghost), and then the rest of the group are forced by the anonymous user to play a game of Never Have I Ever, stating that the loser will die They are forced to reveal hurtful secrets which reveal their backstabbing against each other. Ultimately, three more of the group die by ghost-assisted suicide, and the movie closes with a shot of the ghost violently lunging at the final girl as the screen cuts to black The sequel, “Unfriended: Dark Web” is shot in the same computer screen film style, and follows a group of friends who find a laptop that has access to the dark web, only to realize they are being watched by the original owners While on a video call with friends, using a new laptop, the protagonist keeps getting messages for someone named Erica for the original owner of the laptop He then finds hidden videos, most of which are girls being tortured. The film continues on, revealing a group of hackers that threaten the main character in order for them to get the laptop back. They then engineer the deaths of the rest of the characters, including the protagonist. The entire scheme turns out to be basically a big game for the hackers A cnn.com article from the 2017 Unfriend Day highlights some safety reasons for culling your friends list, stating that “Facebook friends can do us a great deal of harm in the real world. They can use the information we share about ourselves to cause us devastating physical, emotional, and financial pain.” People can post directly to your page, which may include photos of you doing something inflammatory or offensive, which can lead to greater consequences. The example they gave was dubious though. They wrote about a woman whose “friend” posted a photo of her “making an obscene gesture at Arlington National Cemetery,” and then lost her job and fell into a depression after the photo went viral. This case was presented by the article as an example of a bad “friend,” but clicking through to the source article reveals that the photo was taken as a joke among these friends, posted WITH the woman’s permission, and she even said that the photo should

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL ROLLERSKATING DAY! Join us as we celebrate putting wheels on our feet, traveling on a surface and then falling down! Today we're partying with roller skating aficionado and cool sis Deidre Emerson!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Twitter: @cinnamonenemy / Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 According to Wikipedia, “roller skating has had a checkered past over its nearly-three century history. Given its ebb and flow of popularity, writers labeled each generation’s attraction a ‘craze!’ The caption in a 1904 Decatur newspaper read, ‘Old Craze Comes Back,’ adding, ‘Roller skating promises to be as popular as it was twenty years ago.’” In 1906, the Inter Ocean newspaper wrote that, “after 20 years of exemption from the affliction the desire to roll is again taking possession of American adults… the mania has struck Chicago!” SImilar reports surfaced again in 1941, when ball bearings revolutionized roller technology and roller skaters staged spectacle events and speed-skating marathons. I’d like to close out the history segment with a quote from Wikipedia: “Today, the acceptance for roller skating is not unlike a waning moon but the sport persists. Roller skating continues to thrive as a part of pop culture in the form of recreation for leisure, dance, and sport. Rollers, past and present, are diehards.” Facts about the holiday International Roller Skating Day seems to be either one component or a spin-off of a month-long celebration for National Roller Skating Month, which lasts through the month of October.  I only found one mention of International Roller Skating Day, from listofnationalholidays.com. The site has no information on the holiday, just two sentences with observation recommendations: “Go to local roller skating rink. One could also rent skates and go down a boardwalk.” On the other hand, there are numerous mentions of National Roller Skating Month. Checkiday.com claims that the month-long holiday has been celebrated since October 1983 Stories/anecdotes/stats/fun facts--from Wikipedia, a 2013 Mental Floss article,  a 2015 article from isccherryhill.com (international sport center, NJ) Some health benefits from roller skating, as per the Roller Skating Association, an article from skagitskate.com (PNW, holla), include: Providing a complete aerobic workout Burning 330 calories per hour while skating 6 miles per hour for a 143-lb person or 600 calories while skating 10 miles per hour Roller skating is equivalent to jogging in terms of health benefits The American Heart Association recommends roller skating as an aerobic fitness sport According to research conducted at the Universitat Konstantz (Germany), moderate roller skating increases the skater’s heart rate to levels ranging from 140-160 bmp, while skating at top speeds can increase heart rate up to around 180 bpm An infographic on skagitskate.com states that, “according to the American Heart Association, physically active people save $500 per year in medical costs.” I find this laughable, as my ER visit from my most recent skating adventure will probably be quadruple that number According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, roller skating is 2x safer than school playgrounds, 3x safer than football and baseball, 4x safer than basketball, and 5x safer than riding a bicycle According to a study at the University of Massachusetts, skating causes less than 50% of the impact shock to join compared to running, which is something like 3-7x a person’s body weight (each footfall may experience the force impact of up to 1000 lbs, but usually around 500-600) As the US readied for WWII, the government entertained the notion to add roller skates as essential equipment to move infantry around Europe to save gas The first marriage ceremony on roller skates took place in 1912 between a couple from Milwaukee between Miss Hattie Baldwin and Mr. W. McGrath In the 1950s and 60s, roller skating carhops became a popular staple in US culture, and still exist day with the Sonic restaurant chain. Sonic hosts an annual event called the Sonic Skate-Off, which is a competition to find the most skillful skating carhop from its 3600 drive-ins. From what I can tell, eager employees submit 1-2 minute long videos to Sonic, showing off their skills but also blowing a lot of smoke about how much they love their jobs, in order to get a shot at the final competition According to stories.inspirebrands.com, 2019’s Skate-Off was held on August 6 in Oklahoma City. The final 5 carhops were required to carry a tray full of Sonic menu items through an obstacle course, which included having to duck under, step over or around barriers, before making a final dash to the finish line https://stories.inspirebrands.com/2019-sonic-drive-in-skate-off-recap/ The winner not only received the championship title, but new skates and a cash prize. The champion for the 2019 Sonic Skate-Off was Ryan “Flyin’ Ryan” Pierce out of Pineville, Louisiana. I have included his audition video in the shownotes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsjsY5i4ZOg The day after the competition, the skaters finished off their trip with a team-building exercise at Oklahoma City’s Riversports Adventures, where they kayaked through river rapids, zip lined, and trekked through a ropes course One of the first modern MTV-style videos occurred in 1970 and featured Cher on roller skates in a zebra-print jumpsuit, along with truck drivers and bikers. The video was for the song, “Hell on Wheels” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW_kIlaU41Y According to the mentalfloss article, “at the height of the 1970s roller revolution, each major American city developed its own skate style, though some styles were more distinctive than others. Chicago especially became known as a roller skating city ad became famous for JB skating, which borrowed many of its intricate moves from the Godfather of Soul or James Brown. Fancy footwork and standing dance routines are hallmarks of the JB style, and a well-known move is aptly called the “Crazy Leg” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcNWS8dsxIg The world’s largest roller skating parade took place in Paris in June of 2008. 1188 participants skates for 12.68 miles (20.4km) New York City’s last indoor roller rink called RollerJam USA was badly damaged during Hurricane Sandy. It took $750k and six months of repairs, but the rink was finally able to reopen. The owner, Joe Costa, is quoted as saying, “It was worth it. There’s still this whole underground skating community that you wouldn’t even know exists--people from the 70s who are still doing it. And there’s a new generation that’s definitely getting interested in roller skating. Gliding on skates to the music--there’s no feeling like it.” In Questlove’s 2013 memoir, Mo’Meta Blues, he recounts that Prince was a very talented roller skater. His experience took place in 2005 and started with a text message from Prince’s assistant, inviting Questlove to a Valentine’s Day roller-skating party and to bring some “cool people.”The “cool people” that Questlove was with at the time turned out to be Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Common, Chris Rock, and Eddie Murphy. Among them, only Eddie Murphy accepted the invitation to go roller skating with Prince.  Questlove, his girlfriend, and Eddie Murphy showed up to a mostly empty rink sometime around 1am. They skated around for about an hour before Prince arrived carrying a “mysterious briefcase,” and at which point he sternly instructed Questlove to check his phone at the coat check.  Prince opened the briefcase and took out a pair of roller skates, that Questlove described as the “strangest, most singular pair of roller skates [he] had ever seen. They were clear skates that lit up, and the wheels sent a multi-colored spark trail into your path.” Prince then did a lap around the rink, leaving a rainbow trail of light and sparks in his wake. Questlove went on to say that Prince “could skate like he could sing.” Activities to celebrate Use #InternationalRollerSkatingDay and #RollerSkatingMonth on social media National Day Calendar basically indicates that your mileage may vary on how best to celebrate this holiday. Depending on where you live, you may have to consider when to contain your observation indoors, since fall weather can be treacherous in some places. Regardless, they do recommend getting together with a group of friends and going roller skating. Visit the National Museum of Roller Skating, established in 2000, is FREE (but accepts donations), and located at 4730 South St., Lincoln Nebraska. They are open Monday through Friday from 9-5 Rollerskating.com of Roller Skating Association International hosts a page with a National Roller Skating Month toolkit, which includes links to the 2019 Poster, Facebook Header, coupons, class lesson passes, the press release, a video for how to shuffle skate, and ideas on how to observe the holiday. Some of the suggestions  include conducting social media challenges, such as having a skater show off a skill on video and then challenging others to do it as well Video contests Posting pictures or videos on social media at your rink, tagging your skating center for a special prize or discount Purchasing a VIP family package, which includes a ½ hour lesson, session, food, and drink for a special rate Conducting a food drive or charity skate Stream casting DJ’s into your skating center with videos across rinks nationwide Organizing a lip syncing flash mob video with staff and skaters for social media Making boomerang videos of skater skills Hosting games such as relay races, four corners, shoot the duck or squat contest, limbo, crazy couples and trios, freeze frame with last person rolling,

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL ROLLERSKATING DAY! Join us as we celebrate putting wheels on our feet, traveling on a surface and then falling down! Today we're partying with roller skating aficionado and cool sis Deidre Emerson!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / Instagram: lettertalkpodcast / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Twitter: @cinnamonenemy / Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 PART 1 SHOW NOTES History/Fun facts about the holiday Definition/history of roller skating/roller skates From Wikipedia: Roller skates are shoes, or bindings that fit onto shoes, that are worn to enable the wearer to roll along on wheels. The first roller skate was effectively an ice skate with wheels replacing the blade. Later the “quad” style of roller skate became more popular consisting of four wheels arranged in the same configuration as a typical car Skates generally come in three basic varieties: quad roller skates, inline skates or blades, and tri-skates, though some have experimented with a single-wheeled “quintessence skate” as well as other variations on the basic skate design Roller skating is the traveling on surfaces with roller skates. It is a form of recreational activity as well as a sport, and can also be a form of transportation. In America, roller skating was most popular between 1935 and the 1960s and then in the 1970s, when polyurethane wheels were created and disco music oriented roller rinks were the rage, and then AGAIN in the 1990s when in-line outdoor roller skating took hold, thanks to the improvement made to inline roller skates in 1981 by Scott Olson The first reported use of roller skates was on a London stage in 1743. The first patented roller skate was introduced in 1760 by Belgian inventor John Joseph Merlin, which was essentially a version of what we would call an inline skate today, with wheels where the blade on ice skates would go. They were hard to steer and to stop because they didn’t have brakes. The initial “test piloting” of the first prototype was in the city of Huy, which had a party with Merlin playing the violin. According to a 2013 mentalfloss.com article, Merlin’s plan was to “suavely skate into [the] salon [of a fancy masquerade party] while simultaneously playing the violin. Unfortunately, Merlin hadn’t practiced skating much prior to the soiree, nor were his skates engineered for turning. Merlin ended up crashing into a large mirror and suffering serious physical injuries, though his pride might have been the part of him most severely bruised.” It was until the 1860s that “trucks” were employed. James Plimpton created a four-wheeled skate that made use of springy carriages called trucks that allowed the skater to turn by leaning in the direction of travel. This was a vast improvement on the Merlin design due to its ease of use, and ended up driving the huge popularity of roller skating, dubbed “rinkomania” in the 1860s and 1870s. The Plimpton skate is still in use today According to a 2014 article from The Atlantic, it was greatly due to the advent of the disco age that roller skating took off in the latter part of the 20th century, since songs with an up beat and a down beat really help the sport. However, as with all things in the 70s, roller skating took a hit when the economy started to tank. Many rinks were forced to closed, and some of those that survived weren’t adequately prepared for the inevitable wane of the disco era and ended up closing as well The popularity of rollerblading in the 90s offered an option for the remaining rinks to adjust and even continue to thrive The article goes on to detail an experience at the Roller Skating Association Convention and Trade Show for that year, where it appeared that attendees were optimistic for renewed interest in the sport. The Top 40 songs at the time appeared to be compatible with skating culture, with 80s nuwave vibes in abundance. One such example is Avicii’s “You Make Me.” The video is set in a roller rink, and has a Scott Pilgrim kind of vibe, but with synchronized roller skating and only one ex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GADx4Hy-Gg&feature=kp Eventually, roller skating evolved to become a competitive sport, including speed skating, racing on skates, inline figure skating, jam skating, and roller derby. In the mid 1990s, roller hockey, which is played with a ball instead of a puck, became so popular that it even made an appearance in the 1992 Olympics.  While roller skating was considered for the 2012 Summer Olympics, it has never become an Olympic event Roller skating popularity exploded during the disco era but tapered off in the 80s and 90s Jam skating! Is a combination of dance, gymnastics, and roller skating. The style has its roots in traditional roller disco, but has been greatly influenced by breakdancing, artistic skating, gymnastics, and modern dance. Successful jam skaters are well practiced in these different forms and must have the ability to translate these movements while on skates. Jam skating first became popular in the early 1990s and is still going strong throughout the nation Example of jam skating in pop culture can be found in the music videos: 1, 2 Step by Ciara ft. Missy Elliott Disease by Matchbox 20 My Shoes by Murphy Lee I Heart You by Toni Braxton Ladies of the World by Flight of the Conchords Blow by Beyonce Cool Patrol by Ninja Sex Party Gold by Chet Faker As well as an Apple iPod commercial featuring the song “Feel Good, Inc.” by Gorillaz SOURCES http://listofnationaldays.com/international-roller-skating-day/ https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-roller-skating-month-october/ https://www.checkiday.com/40e04d7b10d7177c74dd96ed93e2b7f8/national-roller-skating-month https://www.rollerskating.com/pages/national+roller+skating+month+tool+kit/169 https://www.rollerskating.com/pages/convention/50 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_skating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_skates https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/whatever-happened-to-roller-skating/362100/ https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/nyregion/the-history-of-roller-skates.html http://mentalfloss.com/article/52168/11-things-you-might-not-know-about-roller-skates https://isccherryhill.com/fun-facts-about-roller-skating/ https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/prince-roller-skating-story-questlove https://www.fastcompany.com/1672183/the-legend-of-princes-rainbow-roller-skates https://uproxx.com/tv/a-few-quick-thoughts-about-questloves-story-about-roller-skating-with-prince/ https://www.yelp.com/biz/national-museum-of-roller-skating-lincoln https://skagitskate.com/other/healthy-skating-facts/https://stories.inspirebrands.com/2019-sonic-drive-in-skate-off-recap/

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL PODCAST DAY! Join us as we celebrate the thing that we're doing while we're celebrating it! Today we're partying with pal and beloved guest Amy Cowan (aacowan.com)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / Instagram: lettertalkpodcast / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Twitter: @cinnamonenemy / Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 SHOW NOTES History/Fun facts about the holiday According to Wikipedia, a podcast is “an episodic series of digital audio or video files which a user can download to listen. Alternatively, the word “podcast” may refer to the individual component of such a series or to an individual media file Podcasting often uses a subscription model, whereby new episodes automatically download via web syndication to a user’s own local computer, mobile application, or portable media player Some have labeled podcasting a “converged medium,” that is bringing together audio, the web, and portable media players, as well as a disruptive technology, having caused some in the radio business to reconsider established practices and preconceptions about audiences, consumption, production, and distribution Listeners typically consume podcasts for free, and producers can usually create them for little to no cost. This sets podcast apart from the traditional 20th-century model of “gate-kept” media. Podcasting is a horizontal media form--producers are consumers, consumers may become producers, and both can engage in conversations with each other Variants of podcasts include  Enhanced podcasts, which can display images synchronized with audio. These can contain chapter markers, hyperlinks, and artwork Podcast novels, also known as serialized audiobooks or podcast audiobooks. This is a literary form that combines the concepts of a podcast and an audiobook. Like a traditional novel is a work of long literary fiction; however this form of the novel is recorded into episodes that are delivered online over a period of time and in the end is available as a complete work for download. They can vary from new works from new authors that have never been printed, to well-established authors that have been around for years, to classic works of literature that have been in print for over a century  Video podcasts, which include video clips. Web television series are often distributed as video podcasts Oggcast, which is a podcast recorded and distributed exclusively in the Vorbis audio codec with the Ogg container format, which is a format state that is unrestricted by software patents. The name is derived from “ogging”, jargon from the computer game Netrek, which came to mean doing something forcefully, possibly without consideration of the drain on future resources Political podcasts, which focus on current events, usually last 30 minutes to an hour, often featuring journalists, politicians, pollsters, writers, and others with credentials in the public sphere. Most have a host-guest interview format and are broadcast each week based on the news cycle Podguide, an enhanced audio tour podcast. It’s a single audio file where each chapter displays a picture and a number of what to look at a certain stopover. The numbers correspond to the numbers on a map that can be downloaded via the link incorporated into the artwork of the chapters in the podguide. Wikipedia describes it as being like a soundseeing tour but with pictures and a map, so users can take the tour themselves It was previously known as “audioblogging”, and has its roots dating back to the 1980s. With the advent of broadband internet access and portable digital audio playback devices, podcasting began to catch more mainstream hold in late 2004. In the 1980s, Radio Computing Services (RCS) provided music and talk-related software to radio stations in a digital format Before online music digital distribution, the MIDI format as well as the Mbone, Multicast Network was used to distribute audio and video files. The Mbone was a multicast network over the internet used primarily by educational and research institutes, but there were audio talk programs In 1993, Carl Malamud launched Internet Talk Radio which was the “first computer-radio talk show, each week interviewing a computer expert.” It was distributed “as audio files that computer users fetch one by one.” Malamud said that listeners could pause and restart the audio files at will, as well as skip content they didn’t like In 2001, Applian Technologies introduced Replay Radio, a TiVo-like recorder for Internet Radio Shows. One of the features was a Direct Download link, which would scan a radio publishers site for new files and copy them directly to a PC’s hard disk. The first radio show to publish in this format was WebTalkGuys World Radio Show, produced by Rob and Dana Greenlee In September 2000, the first system that enabled the selection, automatic downloading and storage of serial episodic audio content on PCs and portable devices was launched from early MP3 player manufacturer, i2Go, which introduced a digital audio news and entertainment service called MyAudio2Go. This enabled users to download episodic news, sports, entertainment, weather, and music in audio format for listening on a PC, the eGo portable audio player, or other MP3 players. The app could be programmed to automatically download the latest episodic content from user selected content types to a PC or portable device. Unfortunately, the service succumbed after a little over a year, due to the i2Go company running out of capital during the dot-com crash. In October 2000, the concept of attaching sound and video files in RSS feeds was proposed in a draft by Tristan Louis, and implemented  by Dave Winer. Winer had received other requests for “audioblogging” features and had discussed the enclosure concept with Adam Curry in the same month. They are credited in 2004 for coming up with the idea to automate the delivery and syncing of textual content to portable audio players In September 2003, Winer created a special RSS-with-enclosures feed for his colleague Christopher Lydon’s weblog, which previously only had a text-only RSS feed. When Lydon had accumulated about 25 audio interviews with bloggers, futurists, and political figures, Winer gradually released them as a new RSS feed. Winer challenged other aggregator developers to support this new form of content and provide enclosure support.  Lydon’s blog eventually became Radio Open Source and is now the oldest, still-running podcast Matt Schichter’s The Backstage Pass is widely believed to be the first podcast to be published online, despite lacking a commonly accepted identifying name for the medium. The chat show was launched in October 2003 Ben Hammersley originally suggested the word “podcast” as a portmanteau of “iPod” and “broadcast” in February 2004 Other names in limited use include “net cast,” which is intended as a vendor-neutral term without the loose reference to the Apple iPod. Other sources have suggested “portable on demand” or “POD” for similar reasons In September 2004, blogger and columnist Doc Searls began keeping track of how many “hits” Google found for the word “podcasts”. His first query reportedly returned 24 results. On September 28, there were 526 hits on Google for “podcasts”. On October 1, there were 2750 hits. The number continued to double every few days In June 2005, Apple released iTunes 4.9, which added formal support for podcasts, thus negating the need to use a separate program in order to download and transfer them to a mobile device. While this made access to podcasts more convenient and widespread, it also effectively ended advancement of podcatchers by independent developers. Additionally, Apple issued cease and desist orders to many podcast application developers and service providers for using the terms “iPod” or “Pod” in their products’ names In July 2005, US President George W. Bush became a podcaster of sorts when the White House website added an RSS 2.0 feed to the previously downloadable files of the president’s weekly radio addresses Also in July of that year, the first People’s Choice Podcast Awards were held during Podcast Expo, with awards being given in 20 categories. The Awards are still held annually and now better known as the Podcast Awards, and the now-22 categories are the following. I also added who won for 2018: People’s Choice--The Fantasy Footballers Best Produced--N/A Best Video Podcast--N/A Best Mobile Podcast--N/A Arts--We Like Drinking Business--Extraordinary Women Radio Comedy--2 Girls on a Bench Education--Our Fake History Entertainment--We’re Drunk and We Know Things Food and Drink--N/A Games & Hobbies--Trivial Warfare General--N/A LGBQ--Derek and Romaine Health--A Better Night’s Sleep Government & Organizations--Democracy Works Kids & Family--Cool Facts About Animals Mature--Turn Me On Music--The Modern Vinyl Podcast News & Politics--Consider This Religion & Spirituality--For the Love with Jen Hatmaker Science & Medicine--Curiosity Daily Society-Culture--Travel Oddities Sports & Recreation--The Fantasy Footballers Technology--Why’d You Push That Button? Travel--N/A TV & Film--Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Podcast This year’s award ceremony was live streamed on September 29 On September 28, 2005, Google found more than 100M hits on the word “podcasts” In December 2005, “podcast” was named the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, and added the word to the dictionary in 2006 In February 2006, Lance Anderson became the first to take a podcast and create a live venue tour with his podcast The Lance Anderson Podcast Experiment In 2014, This American Life launched the first season of their Serial podcast, and went on to achieve 68 million downloads by the end of Season 1 and became the first podcast to win

HAPPY NATIONAL TYPO DAY! Jon us as we celebrate those typgrpacial erros that we all kno and love! Today we're celebrating with pal and comedian Pete Musto (midnightgardenersleague.com / Facebook: MidnightGardenersLeague)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / Instagram: lettertalkpodcast / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Twitter: @cinnamonenemy / Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 Find show notes at https://laughowenslaugh.com/holiday-party-september-24-2019-national-typo-day-with-pete-musto/  

HAPPY NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS MONTH! Join us as we celebrate having our shit together when life surprises us with disastrous bullshit! Today we're celebrating with friend and comedian Dan Kapr (danhasjokes.com / Twitter: @danhasjokes / Instagram: danhasjokes)!! LET'S PARTY!! Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / Instagram: lettertalkpodcast / alyssapants.com Find Disa – Twitter: @cinnamonenemy / Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 SHOW NOTES History/Fun facts about the holiday Lifted straight from Wikipedia: “Preparedness refers to a very concrete research-based set of actions that are taken as precautionary measures in the face of potential disasters. These actions can include both physical preparations, such as emergency supplies depots, adapting buildings to survive earthquakes, etc., and trainings for emergency action. Preparedness is an important quality in achieving goals and in avoiding and mitigating negative outcomes.” There are different types of preparedness, including public health preparedness, local emergency preparedness or snow preparedness, and “disaster preparedness,” which is probably the most developed type.  “Disaster Preparedness” is defined by the UN as involving “forecasting and taking precautionary measures to an imminent threat when advance warnings are possible.” Along with natural disasters, this type can include all kinds of severe damage caused in a relatively short period of time, including warfare. Preparedness is a major phase of emergency management, and is particularly valued in areas of competition such as sport and military science Methods of preparation include research, estimation, planning, resourcing, education, practicing, and rehearsing In the US, preparedness used to be largely viewed as the responsibility of first responders and other emergency services. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it became evident that first responders can and will become overwhelmed in a large-scale disaster; unable to effectively respond to the emergency. The idea of whole community preparedness is, “By working together, everyone can keep the nation safe from harm and resilient when struck by hazards, such as natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and pandemics.”  National Preparedness Month has been observed every September since 2004, and is sponsored by FEMA. It is part of a governmental effort to strengthen the United States’ preparedness capabilities. The national preparedness architecture encompasses prevention, protection, response, and recovery efforts to prepare the US for all hazards, whether terrorist attack or natural disaster September was chosen “as the tragedies of the September 11, 2001 highlighted to the nation the importance of being prepared.” It was also partly chosen because the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season occurs in mid-September As of 2016, the National Household Survey revealed that while more than 75% of Americans surveyed report having supplies set aside in their homes just for disasters, less than 50% have a household emergency plan National Preparedness Month serves to encourage people to take important preparedness steps including: getting an emergency supply kit, making a family emergency plan, being informed about the different emergencies that may affect them, as well as taking the necessary steps to get trained and become engaged in community preparedness and response efforts Some big-picture basics that you can personally assess and adjust may include (from consumer.ftc.gov) organizing your finances by having your financial documents up-to-date, in one place, and portable; replacing missing documents; checking your insurance to see if any of them will pay for temporary shelter, replacement clothing, furniture, or other items; preparing your home against fires, earthquakes, high winds and tornadoes, storms, or flooding; planning for your pets; and signing up for alerts and warnings in your area A typical emergency or survival kit could include a knife (often a Swiss army knife or a multi-tool), matches, tinder, first aid kit, bandana, fish hooks, sewing kit, and a flashlight. The American Red Cross recommends an emergency preparedness kit that is easy to carry and use in the event of an emergency or disaster The general contents of an emergency kit depend on the location, though basic components address the needs of first aid, food, water, shelter and warmth, navigation, and signaling The Wikipedia article for Survival Kits has a relatively exhaustive list of options for each of these components, so you can check there or the American Red Cross for ideas to customize your own kit The article also includes information for other types of survival kits, such as for lifeboats, military, spacecraft, mini-survival or “Altoids tin” kits, and vehicle kits The spacecraft kits are provided due to the difficulty of predicting where a spacecraft will land on its return to earth, especially in the case of an equipment failure. For example, the Apollo program kit was “designed to provide a 48-hour postlanding survival capability for three crewman between 40 degrees North and South latitudes” and contained “a survival radio, a survival light assembly, desalter kits, a machete, sunglasses, water cans, sun lotion, a blanket, a pocket knife, netting and foam pads.” “Altoid tin” kits generally contain a few basic tools, such as a small compass, waterproof matches, minimum fishing tackles, large plastic bag, small candle, jigsaw blade, craft knife or scalpel blade, and/or a safety pin For natural disasters, the US government Homeland Security provides a list of recommended in-home kit items, with the content focusing on the basics of survival: fresh water, food, clean air, and materials to maintain body warmth. These items comprised into a kit are known as a bug-out bag, and include:  At least one gallon of water per person for each day of drinking and sanitation Non-perishable food for at least three days, which does not require being cooked or refrigerated Emergency food bars, preferably products with 2400 or 3600 calories and contain no coconut or tropical oils to which many people may have an allergic reaction Battery- or hand-powered radio with the Weather band LED type flashlight, either battery- or hand-powered Extra batteries for anything needing them, lithium being preferred for shelf life First aid kit Copies of any medical prescriptions A whistle for signaling Dust mask, plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter in place Moist towelettes, garbage bags, and plastic ties for personal sanitation Wrench or pliers to turn off water valves Can opener Local maps Spare keys for household and motor vehicles Sturdy, comfortable shoes and lightweight rain gear Contact and meeting place information for the household Bug-out bags, or BOBs, are variably known as “Personal Emergency Relocation Kits, or PERKs, or “get out of dodge” (GOOD) kits. They’re typically backed into backpacks or duffel bags, and designed specifically to be more easily carried by the individual in case alternate forms of transportation are unavailable or impossible to use Some additional pointers to consider, from epa.gov, include How to report emergencies: Call 911 if you are in immediate danger--although that might not work anyway, as we can glean from a very recent case in Arkansas. According to the Daily Wire, 47-year old Debra Stevens called 911 on August 24 while on her newspaper delivery route when her SUV was trapped in a flash flood. The call lasted 22 minutes, during which time Debra conveyed her fear and confusion and the dispatcher responded dismissively and callously.  NOTE: I will not be going over the full details of this case, because they’re deeply upsetting. I made the mistake of listening to some of the audio of the 911 call and I greatly wish I hadn’t SYNOPSIS: Stevens called 911 when her car was suddenly swept away from rapid flash flood waters and into a grove of trees. The dispatcher was dismissive, rude, and condescending throughout the call, in response to Stevens’ panic and distress. By the time first responders were attempting to reach Stevens, she had drowned.  Stevens, while in her car that was trapped amongst a group of trees: “I have an emergency--a severe emergency. I can’t get out, and I’m scared to death, ma’am. Can you please help me”? Dispatcher: “You’re not going to die. I don’t know why you’re freaking out...You freaking out is doing nothing but losing your oxygen in there. So, calm down.”  “Stevens said that she hadn’t seen the water and had plunged into it; that the water was now as high as her chest. She added that she could see people in the distance who were likely laughing at her. She apologized to the dispatcher, adding that she felt she was about to throw up.” Dispatcher: “Well, you’re in water, you can throw up. It’s not going to matter.”  Stevens: “Please help and get me out of this water, dear Father.” Then she apologized again for her rudeness. Dispatcher: “This will teach you next time don’t drive in the water.”  Stevens: “I couldn’t see it ma’am. I’m sorry or I wouldn’t have.” She said she had delivered the newspaper on the same route for 21 years and never seen anything like it.  Dispatcher: “I don’t know how you didn’t see it. You had to go right over it. The water just didn’t appear.”  The dispatcher went on to take other calls, including relaying to first responders that “she is legit freaking out.” When Stevens said, “I’m going to die!”, the dispatcher responded, “ Miss Debbie, you’re breathing just fine because you’re screaming at me. So, calm down. I know you’re scared. Hold on for me.”  Roughly an hour later, rescuers found Stevens’ car. She had drowned.  The dispatcher had already submitted her resignation earlier in August. Her last da