Transcript - BSFC #20: Kristy and the Walking Disaster

Brooke Suchomel: 0:18

Welcome to the Baby-sitters Fight Club, where the first rule is, you don't talk about Fight Club. Instead, you talk about the battles fought and the lessons learned in the Baby-sitters Club series of books by Ann M. Martin. I'm Brooke Suchomel, an editor who's revisiting these books after 30 years.

Kaykay Brady: 0:35

And I'm Kaykay Brady, a therapist and keytar enthusiast. I'm just throwing it right out there from the beginning. Brooke's got a keytar, and it's strapped to her chest right now.

Brooke Suchomel: 0:44

I am indeed wearing a keytar, which I will prove at the moment. [plays the riff to "The Final Countdown" on keytar] I don't know if you could hear that. Was that audible? I heard it? Okay, excellent. I heard Final Countdown magic. Yeah, I recently turned 40 and for my gift from Kaykay and other great friends, I was granted a keytar, which is my dream. I opened it and my brain stopped working briefly, because I was like, this is a keytar. It can't be a keytar. I could never be so fortunate as to be amongst the keytar owners of the world. And I am! So the lesson there is never give up on your dreams. If you are a young child out there who dreams of owning a keytar one day of your very own and you think that that is beyond reach, just hang in there. Keep striving for that keytar. Because one day, you too could be able to play The Final Countdown whenever the mood Maybe you could program it to have sounds so that'll be like strikes. Like, you know, right now. It's really satisfying our soundboard. whenever you're having a bad day, so this is my emotional support keytar. This goes with me everywhere, because I found that it is really remarkable at turning a mood around very quickly. At least for me. There you go. It's my keytar strapped to my chest.

Kaykay Brady: 2:23

It'd be like, oh, I don't know. [fart noise] [air horn]

Brooke Suchomel: 2:26

Yeah, I need to program fart noises into my keytar.

Kaykay Brady: 2:31

And they'll all just be my voice mimicking sounds. How bout that?

Brooke Suchomel: 2:35

That's great! So fart sounds made by Kaykay's mouth on my keytar.

Kaykay Brady: 2:40

Just like 100 different versions.

Brooke Suchomel: 2:42

I can't wait. This is gonna be really fun. The programming of this is gonna be fun. So that's something for us to look forward to, but at the moment we will not be programming fart noises into my keytar during this episode. I'm sorry for anybody who is hoping for that. Instead, what we're going to do is what we normally do, which is discuss the Baby-sitters Club series of books in historical context. This episode, we're discussing Book 20, Kristy and the Walking Disaster, aka...

Kaykay Brady: 3:11

Kristy's Krushers!

Brooke Suchomel: 3:11

The moment Kaykay has been waiting for for months.

Kaykay Brady: 3:17

My whole life.

Brooke Suchomel: 3:18

Seriously. Kristy and the Walking Disaster introduces Kristy's Krushers, and this was published in January of 1989. So as we always do, let's start by putting this book into historical context with a little pop culture history from January 1989. The music, we had a couple of number ones, the one that was the longest number one this month was Phil Collins' "Two Hearts." However, the one that I got very excited about is Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative."

Kaykay Brady: 3:50

Oh, yeah!

Brooke Suchomel: 3:51

Which is just the best. I love that song so much. Your face lit up.

Kaykay Brady: 3:54

Yeah, it's a great song. It's a great video, the dancing is second to none. A lot of Hammer type throwing of legs, which was and is my dancing specialty.

Brooke Suchomel: 4:05

The throwing of the leg? That's your move?

Kaykay Brady: 4:07

Yeah, just kind of like the legs going everywhere. The Running Man. You know, I'm in kind of a constant Running Man, a low grade Running Man, all the time. And then, you know, I'll throw a side leg in there.

Brooke Suchomel: 4:16

So you feel understood by the video.

Kaykay Brady: 4:19

I mean, it's probably more accurate to say I was created by the "My Prerogative" the video and other videos of its ilk.

Brooke Suchomel: 4:26

Yeah. Yeah, it is great. It's that concert performance video. The legs are great. The shoulders, we can't neglect the shoulders. There's great shoulder action happening in that video.

Kaykay Brady: 4:37

And I come from a people that dances with no shoulders. The number one rule of jigging is, "Don't move your shoulders."

Brooke Suchomel: 4:45

So when you saw the "My Prerogative" video, you were like, "Wait a minute." There's a whole new world of dance that you had not conceived of.

Kaykay Brady: 4:54

Okay, so I was in Ireland once at my aunt's farm, and I mean, first of all her brogue was so heavy you could barely understand it. But she said to me, she said, "Can you jive?" I was like, "What?" She's like, "Can you jive? All you Americans, you can jive." And what she meant was, "Can you dance?" And I was like, "Well, I guess I can dance." Then later, we went out to a club in Dublin, we went into the city, and there were the worst fucking dancers I've ever seen in my life. I mean, I started dancing and literally like three people came up to me and were like, "Are you a professional dancer?" And I think it's the shoulders. I think, you know, in America, you learn how to dance with shoulders, you learn how to use your whole body and in Ireland, the poor things can only jig. So when you try to do like modern dance there, they can't do it. They've got no shoulders available to them.

Brooke Suchomel: 5:44

Waist down only.

Kaykay Brady: 5:45

That's right.

Brooke Suchomel: 5:46

Up above is just rigid.

Kaykay Brady: 5:47

That's correct.

Brooke Suchomel: 5:48

Just lock everything in place.

Kaykay Brady: 5:50

Stomp the fuck with those feet. Well, that's probably where I got all my leg skills, honestly. So it's like, I have the legs skills down. Once you gave me the shoulders, I was unstoppable.

Brooke Suchomel: 5:59

Thank you, Bobby Brown.

Kaykay Brady: 6:00

Thank you Bobby Brown.

Brooke Suchomel: 6:01

For the shoulders.

Kaykay Brady: 6:02

For making this Irish girl a professional dancer.

Brooke Suchomel: 6:05

She's the toast of Dublin, one young Kaykay Brady. Thanks to Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative" video. They're like, "Are you a professional dancer?" You're like, "No, I've just seen the 'My Prerogative' video. Have you not? Has the 'My Prerogative' video not made its way across the pond? Let's rectify that immediately."

Kaykay Brady: 6:22

Let's all watch it. Now we can all dance! Fantastic.

Brooke Suchomel: 6:26

So those are the number one singles, but also that month, we had two huge albums that I think were foundational to you and I, respectively. I think we each had a big album that was released in one day, which was January 24. So we started off with Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth that day. We've discussed that in previous episodes.

Kaykay Brady: 6:47

Yes.

Brooke Suchomel: 6:48

So that brought about that album and all of the corresponding merch, which included obviously the perfume that is legendary, and then she also had like a makeup line I guess, so Electric Youth was a big deal. And, Kaykay, this is where you get Skid Row's self titled debut album.

Kaykay Brady: 7:09

"18 and Life"?

Brooke Suchomel: 7:10

Yeah, "18 and Life" was on that one. Both of those albums came out the same day. So no matter what side of...

Kaykay Brady: 7:17

Whether you were a Brooke or a Kaykay, you got something this day.

Brooke Suchomel: 7:21

Movies, there wasn't shit. It's January. Nothing good comes out.

Kaykay Brady: 7:25

Yeah, true.

Brooke Suchomel: 7:25

Everybody was just watching Rain Man, which cleaned up at the Golden Globes that month. On TV, the Arsenio Hall Show premiered in January of '89. But then the other big event on TV was obviously the Super Bowl. This was a Joe Montana winning team, so the Niners beat the Bengals. But that's not what I wanted to talk about in this particular intro. The halftime show of the Super Bowl was in 3D.

Kaykay Brady: 7:54

I remember this.

Brooke Suchomel: 7:55

You remember this?!

Kaykay Brady: 7:56

Yeah.

Brooke Suchomel: 7:57

Do you remember what they did?

Kaykay Brady: 7:59

No. I remember everybody trying to get the glasses, securing the glasses, getting excited about the event. Do I remember what happened? No, it's not there. Probably for the best.

Brooke Suchomel: 8:11

I'm so excited to inform you of this. So yes, it was a big deal leading up to the Super Bowl that they would have this halftime show in 3D. Coca-Cola sponsored it, because they had the first 3D commercial. It was for Diet Coke, so you could get a set of the cardboard 3D glasses with like a six pack. It was sold in stores, so you secured your bag by getting Diet Coke.

Kaykay Brady: 8:36

Somehow, I'm sure. Even though I hated Diet Coke, and I hate it to this day, I'm sure I sacrificed and threw it in the trash.

Brooke Suchomel: 8:43

Because you needed those glasses so badly.

Kaykay Brady: 8:46

Yes.

Brooke Suchomel: 8:47

So the glasses were for a halftime show that was titled BeBop Bamboozled. This is literally the name of it. So we're not yet at the Beyonce level, Prince level of Super Bowl halftime shows yet. No, we are at the level of a magician named Elvis Presto doing the quote, "biggest ever card trick." This was what was done in the 3D. You can watch this halftime show on YouTube. It is adorable. They were so hyped about this, and this magician Elvis Presto, who apparently turns out was just this Solid Gold dancer who was the choreographer for the show. This guy that they hired to play Elvis Presto booked a Lee Jeans commercial and bailed three days before the game, so they were like, "Hey choreographer, can you play this role?" And they were like, "Sure!" There was no singing of any Elvis songs or anything. It was just like, "Ohh, what card do you want?" Like that. And he had backup dancers who were dressed kind of like the Supremes that were like throwing records at the camera. So that's what was 3D, was like a record coming towards you, and then they had these rotating cards. They asked everybody in the stadium to clap for their favorite card of four options. There's four cards, and whichever card gets applauded for the loudest is the winning card. The cards to choose from are the Jack of Clubs, the Three of Diamonds, the Two of Spades, and the King of Hearts. Of those options, which card do you think everybody applauds the most for?

Kaykay Brady: 10:36

King of Hearts. I mean, c'mon.

Brooke Suchomel: 10:37

Yeah, it's a real mystery there what people are gonna pick, right?

Kaykay Brady: 10:40

It's like a shitty two, a shitty three.

Brooke Suchomel: 10:42

Yeah. Then the crowd was instructed to hold up their seat cushions, which supposedly...

Kaykay Brady: 10:48

Yeah, I totally remember this. Yes! This is a vague memory, all of it.

Brooke Suchomel: 10:54

So I'll link to it. I'll post it on our social media because supposedly when they hold up their seat cushions it's supposed to make like a K with a heart. It's completely invisible. You can't see shit. And they roll out a King face on the field. That is what had to be in 3D. So do you remember watching that and feeling any kind of way?

Kaykay Brady: 11:18

I do. I'm telling you, it is a vague memory, but no, I don't remember having any feeling. I must have been underwhelmed, even then.

Brooke Suchomel: 11:24

I think the world was underwhelmed. I think that set 3D technology back about a decade.

Kaykay Brady: 11:29

It was a simpler time where you can be entertained by non existent card tricks.

Brooke Suchomel: 11:33

Exactly. As long as it made us buy Diet Coke, we're happy. And then events wise, we had Reagan leaving office. Yay! [plays upbeat keytar riff] That makes Brooke feel like this.

Kaykay Brady: 11:45

That's a Final Countdown moment. That's a Jump moment.

Brooke Suchomel: 11:48

But he was replaced by Dad Bush, which makes Brooke feel like [plays one low minor note on the keytar] that. You know, six in one hand, half dozen in the other.

Kaykay Brady: 11:56

Dad Bush. I don't know. I'm thinking about that in a different context. It's funny.

Brooke Suchomel: 12:00

It's funny in any context. We laugh so we don't cry.

Kaykay Brady: 12:03

"Dad Bush."

Brooke Suchomel: 12:04

Yeah. And I hate to break this to you, Kaykay, but Starlight Express closed on Broadway after 761 performances, half of which you were at, correct? You only saw half of them.

Kaykay Brady: 12:17

Yeah, give or take.

Brooke Suchomel: 12:20

Okay. So this is the world in which the 20th book in the core Baby-sitters Club series, Kristy and the Walking Disaster, was released, and it's time for some back cover copy. And I quote, "They're lean, mean, they're the pride of Stoneybrook. Who are they? They're Kristy's Krushers! [awesome keytar riff] When Kristy sees how much her little brothers and sister want to play on a softball team, she starts a rag-tag team of her own. Maybe Kristy's Krushers aren't world champions (how could they be, with Jackie Radowsky, walking disaster, playing for them?)..." That's kind of shitty. I think the two and a half year old is probably a greater liability than Jackie Radowsky. But anyways.

Kaykay Brady: 13:02

Sure.

Brooke Suchomel: 13:03

"...but nobody beats them when it comes to team spirit. Now Bart's Bashers have challenged the Krushers to a real live game. It's bad enough that the Bashers truly are lean and mean. But what's worse is that Kristy has a crush on the Bashers' coach. A crush with a capital C!" End quote. Kaykay, any key plot points that you think were overlooked there in the back cover copy or did that cover it?

Kaykay Brady: 13:28

Well, I mean, they don't get into the sort of battle that the two of them have over the teams so Bart's Bashers come to check out Kristy's team and they like pick on them. They make fun of a kid who's hearing impaired. They make fun of a fat kid. They're jerks.

Brooke Suchomel: 13:46

They're awful.

Kaykay Brady: 13:47

They're awful.

Brooke Suchomel: 13:47

They're really terrible.

Kaykay Brady: 13:49

Which is so 80s.

Brooke Suchomel: 13:50

Yeah.

Kaykay Brady: 13:51

It's one of the more 80s moments in this book is Bart's Bashers. But I think that's all that I missed. Any plot points you think they missed?

Brooke Suchomel: 13:58

I mean, I think that pretty much covers it, because there really wasn't much happening in this book besides baseball.

Kaykay Brady: 14:07

Yeah, I love that...

Brooke Suchomel: 14:08

Softball!

Kaykay Brady: 14:09

...you said baseball, because fucking A, are they pitching overhand? I think Ann M. Martin does not understand that softball is an underhand pitch.

Brooke Suchomel: 14:19

And I'm also like, hold on, T-ball was a thing in 1989. Why in the world...so to set the groundwork, Kristy's Krushers are kids that are between two and a half to eight.

Kaykay Brady: 14:35

It's insane. It's madness.

Brooke Suchomel: 14:39

She says that the average age of a player on her team is 5.8 years old. Like, she breaks that down and references that a couple of times.

Kaykay Brady: 14:49

All right, so this is where I think we figure out what kind of lesbian Ann M. is, and it's not the sporty kind. Because not only are they pitching overhand, which you never do in softball. It's very hard to pitch a softball overhand, and you definitely can't do it when you're 5.8. Not only that, she has fuckin' Claire batting fourth in the batting order?

Brooke Suchomel: 15:15

I love that you broke down her coaching choices. That's delightful.

Kaykay Brady: 15:19

These are just things that jumped out at me is like, this person has never played softball. You have Claire fourth?! Uh-uh, you get Matt in fourth. Matt is fourth.

Brooke Suchomel: 15:29

So this book is really, like this is why, Kaykay, you're able to break down the flaws in her coaching decisions. Because this book is like, we have five chapters of just practice, out of 15 chapters in the book.

Kaykay Brady: 15:44

It's a lot of softball.

Brooke Suchomel: 15:45

And then we have two chapters of the actual ultimate game that's referenced in the back cover copy. We have a couple other chapters of little one-off practice fun games that are sort of spontaneously happening. I mean, the vast majority of chapters in this book are just describing, it's like play by play.

Kaykay Brady: 16:08

Yes, literally. I mean, we are getting some life lessons too. Obviously there's life lessons happening, and then we're gonna have to go into the fact that, you know, of course it's the gayest topic that this book series tackles yet, the softball team, so of course there has to be huge beard in it, which is Bart's Beards. He should be Bart's Beards. That's what the team should be called.

Brooke Suchomel: 16:31

Which would be wonderful, because his team, so Kristy's team, Kristy's Krushers, with the exception of David Michael and Karen and Andrew, these kids are made up of like Baby-sitters Club charges. So they're pretty much all public school kids, again, with just a couple of very close to home exceptions, and they're all from the not bougie part of town. Whereas Bart's Bashers are 10 year olds from the rich part of town. So I think that it is very appropriate to have to put them into, "You're beards. That is the role that you play," these superior feeling rich kids who just show up to just shit all over every other kid.

Kaykay Brady: 17:18

I know. It's really absurd. And like, who the fuck feels good about beating a two and a half year old? First of all, a two and a half year old can't even hold the bat. Come on. Come on.

Brooke Suchomel: 17:28

Yeah, Kristy needed to, like, call a shot, because not only is there a two and a half year old, there's multiple four year olds as well. We got little kids here.

Kaykay Brady: 17:35

No, I was a camp counselor. I was a camp counselor to four year olds. They can't play any sports. I mean, you're lucky if they can sort of catch a tennis ball when you like loft it to them really slowly. There's no way they're playing softball.

Brooke Suchomel: 17:47

Nor should they. I mean, they describe how Jamie Newton, who again, is four, the 10 year old from Bart Bashers is just chucking, like straight at his head, pitches. Like right at him, where this four year old is having to constantly duck, and nobody intervenes.

Kaykay Brady: 18:03

They're probably not wearing helmets, either.

Brooke Suchomel: 18:06

I'm sure they're not wearing helmets.

Kaykay Brady: 18:07

Oh right, they can't, they barely have uniforms. They buy t shirts, and they iron on letters, so they definitely don't have those fancy batters hats with their ear protectors.

Brooke Suchomel: 18:16

There's no protection happening there. There's just potential death. I mean, the fact that every single member of Kristy's team survives, I think...

Kaykay Brady: 18:27

Is a victory.

Brooke Suchomel: 18:28

I think that in and of itself is the real victory here. But yeah, you're right. Like, this is the chapter where Kristy, in her words, decides that she has a Gigantic Crush, capital G, capital C, on Bart. She says it is a decision that she makes.

Kaykay Brady: 18:48

I get you, girl. I have made similar decisions in my life. And you know, you really have to persevere with those decisions. But that's how it goes. That's how it goes when you're a young lesbian. You're like, "That guy. I mean, I guess there's something about him I like. Okay, he's it. He's it. I'm gonna be attracted to this guy, by hook or by crook."

Brooke Suchomel: 19:08

So did you have any similar experiences that come to mind when you were Kristy's age?

Kaykay Brady: 19:13

I can read about sports all day long, because that's all I was doing was playing sports. I didn't play softball. I definitely played baseball until I was forced to play softball on organized teams.

Brooke Suchomel: 19:23

Oh, that's right, because that's what girls have to play.

Kaykay Brady: 19:25

Yeah, you couldn't play baseball. I actually wanted to try out for the baseball team, but they wouldn't let me. So definitely playing softball, and then also, you know, having a beard. Trying to force a attraction to some guy, and usually it was some guy that I was playing sports with in some capacity and hanging out with daily. So yeah, definitely relatable.

Brooke Suchomel: 19:47

That was the part that I sort of unpacked throughout, where it's like, she's Bart curious, I think. I just thought that the language of "it was a decision," you know, that is how it's introduced. And then at the end, it kind of seems like she's like, "Eh." You know what I mean? Did you get that feeling too?

Kaykay Brady: 20:11

Yeah, definitely. And they kind of tried to couch that in she wasn't sure, you know, what she saw from him behaviorally, about whether or not he was really a good guy. But yeah, there was definitely some ambivalence. Also, interestingly enough, when she describes why she's attracted to him again, it was his hair. Something about his hair, either looking like a movie star or looking like he just stepped out of a salon or something.

Brooke Suchomel: 20:36

Yeah, it looked like he got his hair done, potentially.

Kaykay Brady: 20:39

Yeah. So again, when we when we hear female characters described, it's always like luscious breasts and hot bodies. And then when we hear men described, it's like, "He looked like a movie star. He looked like he just got his hair done."

Brooke Suchomel: 20:51

Yeah. Or his deep brown eyes, which we know is the color of her eyes, and also Mary Anne's eyes. That gets brought up not long before she's rhapsodizing about his deep brown eyes.

Kaykay Brady: 21:04

Yeah, so she likes brown eyes, but perhaps not on Bart.

Brooke Suchomel: 21:08

Yeah, exactly. "You've got brown eyes. I like brown eyes. That's all you need, right?"

Kaykay Brady: 21:13

"I might be able to pretend you're Mary Anne. Maybe we'll just really dim the lights and I'll squint real good."

Brooke Suchomel: 21:19

But yeah, the whole point about whether or not he's a good guy, what's your take on that question?

Kaykay Brady: 21:29

I mean, to me, that character is just not fleshed out, so it's just hard to have a take. He just doesn't really ring true. He doesn't come across as a full character, the way that the characters in the Baby-sitters Club does. Again, he comes across as a beard. Like, he has a specific purpose, and the purpose is for Kristy, right? It's for Kristy to have a romantic love interest. It's for Kristy to have a competitor that is challenging the Krushers who she reaches a good place with. So it's just so hard to say, because it's almost like he doesn't really get to live on his own as a person. He's kind of like Shannon that way.

Brooke Suchomel: 22:08

Yeah. There's a role to play, there's a foil to operate against in some way.

Kaykay Brady: 22:13

Exactly, he's a foil. Also, his behavior one way or the other sometimes may be egregious, but it's ambiguous. You know, does he know? Is he watching them pick on, is he distracted? I mean, you just don't get enough information about this guy.

Brooke Suchomel: 22:27

And it's so convenient, right?

Kaykay Brady: 22:29

It's very convenient.

Brooke Suchomel: 22:29

Like, how convenient for him. So first of all, what the fuck is he doing showing up at their practice? You don't do that in sports. You don't do that.

Kaykay Brady: 22:37

Yeah, and he's like, "This is legal. You can do this." What is he talking about, "legal"? This is a fucking neighborhood mom and pop softball league. There are no legal and illegal maneuvers. There's a dick move, which you just did.

Brooke Suchomel: 22:49

Exactly. So he gets 10 of his players, who again, they're 10. And he also says they're not good enough yet, are not big enough yet to play Little League. There's something about them where this is the only way that they can play, and so it's almost like they are even bigger assholes, because they feel like they have been rejected. And so they're like, "Oh, great. We feel like we've been punched down on," and again, these are the bougie kids from the private school. So they're coming up in a world where they feel like, you know, "We're the ones on top, we should get whatever we want." And then it's like, well, you're not good enough to actually make the Little League team, which I didn't realize that was a thing.

Kaykay Brady: 23:33

But you're right, there was T-ball. I mean, they would be in T-ball before Little League. And T-ball's great because there is no pitching. First of all, a six year old can't even pitch a softball pitch underhand. You can't even do it. It's actually quite hard to do. Here I am, I'm getting back to the fucking softball semantics again. You're falling asleep. Brooke's like, "Enough already! Goddamn, enough with the batting order."

Brooke Suchomel: 23:57

No, but see, for me, as I was reading it, I was like, "Okay, this is boring to me. I wonder if it's boring to Kaykay?"

Kaykay Brady: 24:05

It was not boring to me.

Brooke Suchomel: 24:06

I'm seeing that the answer is "no." Yeah. I felt that it would probably not be the case.

Kaykay Brady: 24:10

I was so amused because I was definitely picking up right away, this person did not play softball. And somehow I'm wondering, how did she learn? You know, did she get a friend? Did she read a book?

Brooke Suchomel: 24:21

Was this the tryout for the ghostwriters that would come along later on?

Kaykay Brady: 24:25

She got like a super sporty lesbian...

Brooke Suchomel: 24:28

Softball loving ghostwriter?

Kaykay Brady: 24:29

...to write it, and then they started dating. That's what I'm gonna pretend.

Brooke Suchomel: 24:33

You're seeing a love story behind the scenes.

Kaykay Brady: 24:37

I'm seeing the love story behind the story. And it's Ann M. and her super butch ghostwriter, who's an amazing softball player.

Brooke Suchomel: 24:44

So it says this book is dedicated to the members of the Lunch Club. Maybe the Lunch Club was a local New York City lesbian softball team who broke this down for her.

Kaykay Brady: 24:56

Have you seen the movie Carol?

Brooke Suchomel: 24:58

Yes.

Kaykay Brady: 24:58

Maybe it's a glove lunch. It's just a different kind of glove lunch, you're bringing your softball glove.

Brooke Suchomel: 25:04

There you go. I love that.

Kaykay Brady: 25:06

See? It's all coming together.

Brooke Suchomel: 25:07

You can see there's a couple of useful tips. There's baseball slash softball slash whatever ball that's coming at you advice.

Kaykay Brady: 25:16

Wiffle ball. They did have wiffle balls. Who needed the wiffle ball?

Brooke Suchomel: 25:19

The two and a half year old.

Kaykay Brady: 25:20

Yeah.

Brooke Suchomel: 25:21

Who shouldn't be playing.

Kaykay Brady: 25:24

Right.

Brooke Suchomel: 25:25

What are you doing? Puts her up to bat first, too. So that everybody who bats behind her has to, like, how the hell is she gonna get on base before...?

Kaykay Brady: 25:35

Brooke, thank you. Your inherent intelligence and logic as a person is starting to pay dividends.

Brooke Suchomel: 25:42

Finally. This is where it pays off.

Kaykay Brady: 25:44

You put your best batters first, second, third, fourth. Duh! Because you put a two year old, the two year olds not gonna...you're gonna be out! And you got to get the momentum going.

Brooke Suchomel: 25:55

Well, but they make it so that she's not out. So that she definitely makes it to base. But then now she has to make it around all of the other bases with people running behind her. Reading that stressed me out so much. She's gonna get bowled over.

Kaykay Brady: 26:09

I mean, two and a half year olds, some of them, you know, have not been walking for too long. And certainly have not been running for too long, depending on the two and a half year old.

Brooke Suchomel: 26:19

Yeah, this one doesn't quite pan out. But she does give coaching advice. So you see Kristy giving, like, it starts off, the very first chapter, this is yet another of Kristy's great ideas, right? Because the whole thing starts off with her step siblings and her little brother, they want to play baseball, but they don't have anywhere to do that. And so she's kind of coaching them, and then they're like, "Well, I think that there's a bunch of other little kids in the neighborhood that would love to." So she just sort of comes up with this idea to get her own little team together to just have fun. They're not in a league or anything like that.

Kaykay Brady: 26:58

Yeah, it's very Kristy, too, to just make it happen.

Brooke Suchomel: 27:01

Super casual. So the coaching tips that she's giving both before and after she starts the team, you get, "Keep your eye on the ball," for both catching and hitting.

Kaykay Brady: 27:11

Yeah. Solid.

Brooke Suchomel: 27:12

You get, "Close the glove around the ball after you catch it," which...

Kaykay Brady: 27:17

Seems obvious.

Brooke Suchomel: 27:18

…seems obvious, but she's coaching two and a half year olds. And then you get, "Run toward the ball. Don't wait for it to come to you." So you get like, really, this is your first exposure to the concept of baseball, softball, whatever. Like, you are an alien that has come to Stoneybrook, and you don't know what sports is, so Kristy is going to convey a couple of key points to know about sports. There you go. Those are the coaching tips that you get in this book. Obviously, that's not the overall message. But you know, I think what they're trying to do is just show you like Kristy has, you know, she's athletic, she's picked up some pieces of advice through playing sports. And now she wants to take on a mentorship position where she can sort of translate the lessons that she's learned onto other kids because she's comfortable leading young children. So it's sort of like a natural evolution for her.

Kaykay Brady: 28:18

Yeah. And I think Kristy and Watson both come out great in this book. You know, Kristy's shining, she's at her best. And I love it, because that makes a lot of sense. Sometimes, I feel like some books, I don't buy the Kristy character. She really veers, for me, off of what other books are creating. But in this book, it's like I really saw Kristy and I believed this. Kristy is the kind of person that is seeing that need, creating that safe space for the kids and also being able to sort of translate her advanced skill into really simple things, like you're saying. Little building blocks. So I thought that was cool. And then also the life lessons that she's giving and getting from Watson about, you know, it's really about being loyal to your team. It's really about trying hard. It's about getting better, it's not about winning. So I loved Kristy in this book. It was one of my favorite Kristy books. I also loved Watson, and it was the first time, I swear, in all of the 20 babysitters books that we've read, where the parenting lessons were great. It was neither too hands off nor micromanaging.

Brooke Suchomel: 29:24

Right.

Kaykay Brady: 29:25

It was like a great level of parenting where Watson is there when she needs him. He's not, you know, making anything worse, he's making things better. He is just a great resource for her, so I thought it was really nice to see some really positive parenting and it was interesting to me that it came through sports.

Brooke Suchomel: 29:43

Yeah. And that it came through the stepdad. You know? That wasn't something that I've really thought through until now, as you're talking about it, and how, you know, in a lot of books, we talk about the problems that we see with parenting or lack of parenting throughout. Because we see parenting where you can see that the parents are trying, right? Not to say that we don't have empathy for the majority of parents that we see in these books, with a few exceptions. There are a few characters where we're like, this is just straight up bad parenting. I don't know that they're trying, I don't know that this person actually wants to be a parent. Mrs. Barrett is a person who I'm like, you know, hopefully the Mrs. Barretts of today realize that child free by choice is a totally valid decision to make for your life, and they're not having kids that they seem like they don't want, because being a mother doesn't seem to really be a goal for them. And that's 100% okay. But for the most part, we see parents who seem to love their kids and want what's best for their kids, but they haven't been armed with either the resources, or the knowledge, or the skills to be able to really support them in the way that today we hope that parents know, this is how to support their kids. And we do see it, like, this is maybe the first example of parenting that holds up today, in this book.

Kaykay Brady: 31:18

I totally agree.

Brooke Suchomel: 31:19

And it comes from the stepfather, who, in the very first book, appears, and it's very clear Kristy doesn't want him around.

Kaykay Brady: 31:29

Yeah, she doesn't want anything to do with him at first.

Brooke Suchomel: 31:31

Right. And you know, to be fair, Ann M. Martin doesn't write Watson in the sort of stereotypical way that you would expect to see a step parent written in the 80s.

Kaykay Brady: 31:42

He's not, who's the other dude, Tad? Todd?

Brooke Suchomel: 31:45

Oh, Trip?

Kaykay Brady: 31:46

Trip!

Brooke Suchomel: 31:47

The Trip Man.

Kaykay Brady: 31:48

Trip the Drip.

Brooke Suchomel: 31:51

Dawn's mom's boyfriend. Yeah. No, he always is written as being somebody who loves his kids and is there.

Kaykay Brady: 32:00

Solid.

Brooke Suchomel: 32:01

Yeah, he seems like a solid dude, but we don't see a whole lot of him. We see him making overtures to Kristy, and you know, we don't necessarily see much that's ever problematic from Watson. But we don't also see a whole lot that would make you go like, "Oh yeah, this guy really gets it."

Kaykay Brady: 32:18

Yeah. And I thought that was a cool arc, because that's almost a positive intervention from Watson. That he's not overtly, you know, he's giving Kristy space and time. And he's really been pretty expert at this from the beginning, right? We don't see it, so it's hard to notice it. But in this book, I really noticed it, thinking, "Oh, interesting." You know, when you think about Watson, he really took it easy and gave Kristy that space and time. And then when she needs him, he's there. And you know, he's got the support that she needs at the right moment after they've been living together for a while.

Brooke Suchomel: 32:52

And to your point, you see that she's willing to go to him. She's the one that reaches out to him, right? So she reaches out to him like, "I want to start this softball team, can you help me with logistics and organization?" He's really happy that she reaches out to him, and he 100% steps up to do that. So yeah, to your point, he has spent the last 20, 21 with the Super Special, books building up that trust. And we're at a point now where it's real. It's not like, him trying too hard, and Kristy having to lash out against that. He's just been there in a way that she hasn't seen from a father figure. She mentions that even though Dawn, her family is split up now, and the sort of the empathy that she has for Dawn with her brother moving away and all of that, and how she can relate because her brother is now in California, and Kristy's dad ran off to California and she never sees him, but she feels luckier than Dawn because she has that new family now. So it's like, "My dad was never there for me anyway, and has just taken off and wants nothing to do with us anymore. But I love my family now." She's able to settle in, and I think that kids reading this that are going through, as we've talked a lot about like in the 80s, you had a lot of kids whose parents were getting divorced, remarried, chances are really high that a kid reading this book was going through something similar.

Kaykay Brady: 34:31

Yeah, or a best friend, or someone very close to them.

Brooke Suchomel: 34:35

Totally. Or even if they're not going through it, you know, when you see all of your friends' parents getting divorced or separated or remarried, you're thinking, "What if that happens in my family?" It was just a reality that I think was on most kids' minds. So to see an example of, like, "and this worked out for this main character," and we've sort of seen that arc from the get go, I think is really positive that it's giving kids reading this some hope. If only every blended family situation was as comfortable as what we see here in this book, but it is good to see an example of that. But yeah, we see that she feels like she can go to Watson. She references advice and things that he's done in the past, and on page 102, she said, "Once I was giving him," "him" being Watson, "the news that I'd gotten a C plus on a math test. Now, a C plus is not a bad grade, but I usually get mostly As and a few Bs. Watson looked thoughtful and asked, 'Did you study for this test? Did you do your best?' 'Yes,' I answered. "Honest. It's just that we're doing pre algebra now, and it's really hard.' 'Your best is all you can expect,' said Watson. 'If you want, I'll give you some extra help. But since you did your best, I'm not disappointed. I'm proud of you.'" And then she says, "I would like some help." So she feels like she can trust him. She feels like she'll be understood and not judged if she's if she's trying her hardest. So that's the message, you see her conveying that message to the Krushers. That's what she says, "Just do your best." That comes up over and over and over again, she's saying, "Just try."

Kaykay Brady: 36:20

Yeah, it's such a brilliant parenting strategy, because, you know, it's taking the locus of control for the child from an external source that they can't control, to something much more genuine and reflected in themselves. And it's actually a challenging approach, because the kid has to ask themselves, "How did I do? Was this my best?" It's actually harder to figure that out than to reach for the brass ring or get the A, right? It's actually harder to think of, "Who are you? What do you want? What did you achieve, and did you do your best?" It's giving the child agency, and that agency will last a lifetime and can produce very positive things for human beings, versus "You've got to win, always an A, whatever brass ring somebody puts in front of you, you grab that."

Brooke Suchomel: 38:16

for a lot of disappointment and confusion.

Kaykay Brady: 38:19

And it also sets you up for a limited life. Because if your goal is to get As, then you are going to only pick the situations where you feel you can get an A.

Brooke Suchomel: 38:26

Yeah.

Kaykay Brady: 38:27

And so now you can't fail. And kids that can't fail are kids that suffer a lot, because they can't do things that are really hard. They can't do things they might really want to try, because they don't know if they're good at it. That's why all the parenting has moved from, you know, praise the results to praise the effort, right? Praise the "You really tried, you put so much work into this. I really love the way you work and you persevere." Like, that will create resilient kids. But if you praise the As over the results, then kids are gonna start only taking on challenges that they feel they can crush.

Brooke Suchomel: 39:04

Right, and I feel this so hard. I feel like you're setting me up for my therapy appointment later on today.

Kaykay Brady: 39:11

I mean, a lot of people suffer from this. A lot of female people, especially.

Brooke Suchomel: 39:15

This was absolutely, at least in my experience, Watson's message was not the common message in our time, in the 80s.

Kaykay Brady: 39:23

No, no, no.

Brooke Suchomel: 39:24

It was the performance.

Kaykay Brady: 39:25

And in fact, not even today. I mean, it's getting more today. But this is a lot of, like, when you're guiding parents and parenting, you're teaching parents this. Most parents today don't know this. They're praising the results, the As, that kind of thing.

Brooke Suchomel: 39:38

Right. And again, that's something that that is time limited. You are going to get into a world where there will be no more grades, and how do you find your sense of validation and purpose if there's no more GPA to strive for, right? You've got to find other goals. I think what Watson is modeling here is what now is referred to as a growth mindset. So the focus is on the progress and not so much like "you have this inherent ability." I mean, I think that was the good thing with Kristy. You see, most of the kids that Kristy is working with don't have a natural ability for sports. Some of these kids do, but they're either too young, like Nicky Pike is too young. He's her star pitcher, but he's too young to go out for Little League yet. Matt Braddock, same. He's really good, but he's also deaf, so he needs different accommodations that Kristy is willing to provide. And we see the way that the Bashers show up and make fun of this kid for being deaf, call him a dummy. Society would not have been super accommodating at that time, and he finds that accommodation with Kristy. So she's willing to sort of, you know, she kind of has like a Bad News Bears sort of team, but it's all about that teamwork. It's about that progress. And these kids are going to be set up, if she continues through, and if the kids stick with it, and if they internalize these lessons, they're going to be set up so much better for happiness than those kids that are focused on, like Bart's Bashers, where it's like, "We have to win."

Kaykay Brady: 41:21

Yep.

Brooke Suchomel: 41:22

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but so much research has been done, and I had an author who did research in this area that shows that the key to happiness is continuous incremental progress. You think that the end result is what's going to make you happy, and it doesn't, because your life continues past that result. It's why you get high school football stars that go on to just be angry and miserable, because their glory days are behind them. Because to them, it's all about, "When I had this accomplishment, this achievement, that was when I was happy. And I can't have that accomplishment, that achievement, anymore, so I can't be happy." And it's like, No, no, no, no, no, it was in the growth. It was in the new experiences, it was in the progress that you were making that you were happy, and so you've got to focus on that and not the end result. Otherwise, you're gonna be miserable. And Kristy is very focused on the process. And Bart's team is much more focused on the results, to the point where he brings 10 children across town to crash a softball practice.

Kaykay Brady: 42:35

So fucked up.

Brooke Suchomel: 42:35

You don't crash practice. You scout at games, you don't scout at practice, dickhead. And you certainly don't bring 10 kids that you then set free to taunt...

Kaykay Brady: 42:48

To mock people with disabilities. Good lord!

Brooke Suchomel: 42:52

I mean, ridiculous. And then it's like, "Oh, I was so focused on your team that I wasn't paying attention." Fuck you, Bart. Like, fuck you for so many reasons. I mean, it was just like, total asshole behavior. And where is it coming from? It's coming from the, "Oh, we can't lose to this team." And he said he brought his team there so that they could see that they didn't have anything to worry about. That was his purpose. Which is even worse coaching!

Kaykay Brady: 43:19

Exactly. It's exactly what we're talking about.

Brooke Suchomel: 43:21

Yeah. "Come see how much they suck so that you won't sweat this game." What coach does that?

Kaykay Brady: 43:28

It's true. And it's making me realize, you know, the lesson, the sort of positive end of that lesson we heard from Watson, we're getting an example of the negative end of that lesson. Of the people that have been taught that it's about winning, and it's about achievement. And so anything they do to facilitate that winning and achievement is okay, including mocking, playing, destroying a group of like, five year olds.

Brooke Suchomel: 43:54

Right, chucking softballs at the head of a four year old, you know? Whatever it takes to win this game that counts for nothing.

Kaykay Brady: 44:01

Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do for that W.

Brooke Suchomel: 44:06

It is. And it's very, I mean, today, it's that sort of win at all costs culture that we're still in. I think a lot of people are trying to get out of it...

Kaykay Brady: 44:18

Oh yeah, maybe even more so.

Brooke Suchomel: 44:19

...but this country is like, that is sort of the overriding definition of America. "Do whatever it takes to be number one. Even if you're not number one, tell yourself that you're number one. Tell yourself you don't have to worry about something else, because you're so great." And all that ends up doing is, it just ends up ensuring that you don't progress in anyway.

Kaykay Brady: 44:43

And it just makes really unhappy humans.

Brooke Suchomel: 44:45

It does. We don't live in a happy country.

Kaykay Brady: 44:49

Just thinking of The Breakfast Club. "You gotta win, Andrew! We won't tolerate losers in this family!" Breakfast Club.

Brooke Suchomel: 44:56

Yes. That I have seen. That reference I did get.

Kaykay Brady: 44:57

Yeah. I mean, that's quintessential 80s.

Brooke Suchomel: 45:00

I do think that it's good that they show sort of the flip side of two different approaches to the same scenario, the same situation, you know, and you see that Kristy's team, they lose but they leave happy.

Kaykay Brady: 45:16

Yes, they leave better people too, right? They leave elevated.

Brooke Suchomel: 45:21

Absolutely.

Kaykay Brady: 45:22

They've elevated each other, they've elevated themselves.

Brooke Suchomel: 45:24

Right, and hopefully their next game will be against another team. Or if it's not, hopefully Bart won't be the umpire.

Kaykay Brady: 45:33

Was there an umpire?

Brooke Suchomel: 45:34

Bart was the umpire.

Kaykay Brady: 45:35

I guess I thought he was just pretending to be the umpire.

Brooke Suchomel: 45:38

No, she said he was the umpire.

Kaykay Brady: 45:40

That does not ring true for Kristy. Do you think Kristy would let that happen? No. She'd have a solution ready. You know, she'd be like, “Oh blah, blah, blah's gonna umpire. I hired them. We're paying them.”

Brooke Suchomel: 45:54

Unless maybe we're supposed to believe she lets it slide because she has such a crush on a boy? Come on. Come on.

Kaykay Brady: 46:03

Gotta secure that beard.

Brooke Suchomel: 46:04

Did you see the cover? I'm just saying.

Kaykay Brady: 46:06

I actually didn't see the cover because I read it...can you show it?

Brooke Suchomel: 46:09

Oh. Oh, Kaykay.

Kaykay Brady: 46:10

I know. I meant to...

Brooke Suchomel: 46:13

Like, Kristy knows who she is.

Kaykay Brady: 46:15

Kristy's looking very comfortable and confident.

Brooke Suchomel: 46:17

She's very comfortable and confident.

Kaykay Brady: 46:19

Yeah, and she looks older. That's the other interesting thing. You know, they always talk about, "Oh, she looks so young, blah, blah, blah," because she dresses young. It's interesting that in this cover, she's ostensibly still dressed very young in sweatpants and a softball t shirt, and yet she looks quite a bit older. She looks very confident, like she knows who she is.

Brooke Suchomel: 46:36

And I think that they're doing that because on the rest of the cover, you've got nine young children who are players, and so the artist is probably really trying to differentiate, making it very clear that she's older. And so for that reason, Kristy is aged up on this cover, I would say in a way that you don't see in other covers, but yeah, that is that is the face of a confident lesbian, who is very proud...

Kaykay Brady: 47:02

In her early 20s.

Brooke Suchomel: 47:03

...of the team that she's assembled. And I love this Kristy.

Kaykay Brady: 47:06

So do I!

Brooke Suchomel: 47:06

This is Kristy's future, and I love that for her.

Kaykay Brady: 47:11

Kristy, you go.

Brooke Suchomel: 47:13

You go.

Kaykay Brady: 47:13

Kristy's gonna like, you know, coach the softball team at Amherst or something.

Brooke Suchomel: 47:17

Yeah!

Kaykay Brady: 47:18

That's what I see. She's gonna go coach the softball team at Smith.

Brooke Suchomel: 47:21

Good for her. Good for her. Did you define what they were fighting?

Kaykay Brady: 47:26

I had a hard time defining it when I was reading it, but now I think I would say they're fighting that sort of like win at all costs culture.

Brooke Suchomel: 47:35

Yeah.

Kaykay Brady: 47:36

How about you?

Brooke Suchomel: 47:37

I had that they were fighting others' expectations of them.

Kaykay Brady: 47:40

Good one.

Brooke Suchomel: 47:41

You know, that sort of dismissal of, "This team isn't going to be very good." And also sort of fighting the gap that they have between their aspirations and both their experience and their innate talent.

Kaykay Brady: 47:54

Yes.

Brooke Suchomel: 47:54

They want to be good. It's not that the players are like, "We're just having fun, and we don't want to improve."

Kaykay Brady: 48:00

No, they really want to be good.

Brooke Suchomel: 48:01

They also seem to know, and she teaches them, like, this is going to be a process. You're learning. And so the tool that they use is constant practice. This book is basically narration of softball practice. And then, in Bart's words, "dedication." Their dedication is noticed and called out. You know, their dedication to the team, their dedication to each other. That's really what they use to combat those low expectations, and also the fact that they aren't where they want to ultimately be.

Kaykay Brady: 48:34

Yeah. I think it's so well put, and I would also add mindset. And this comes from Watson, the explicit mindset, again, the growth mindset, the positive mindset, the mindset of "do your best." I feel like that, more than anything, is the tool they use most. And it's so nice to see it, because that's what sports did for me. You know, I feel like a lot of my personality came from sports. And like, all of my ability to succeed at any of the jobs that I ever had, it all came from sports, because that's the mindset that I was taught in sports. It's like, if you don't have a mindset in sports, you can go off the rails so fast, because there's a lot of aggression in it. There's trying, there's wanting, and there's scores, right? Like, things are not open to interpretation.

Brooke Suchomel: 49:28

Well, and physical confrontation.

Kaykay Brady: 49:30

Yes. Yes, and so it's like, the mindset is so important in sports, because all of those things need to be managed, and they don't get managed without the proper mindset. And then you take that mindset with you into anything you do in this world. I don't know, I'm a huge fan of especially young women in sports, because this is something like, most men just get through sports. And it's such an advantage they have in the world that our mothers never had, our grandmothers never had, and it makes me so fucking sad.

Brooke Suchomel: 49:59

Yeah. Well, I think that that just really goes to show how the whole asinine debate about "Should trans kids be allowed to play sports?" I mean, I have an entire episode where I would just rant about this, but what you've just described, that sort of teamwork, that sort of working with others to achieve a goal, and to grow, and to progress. Why should any kid be barred from that?

Kaykay Brady: 50:30

They should not.

Brooke Suchomel: 50:31

Especially those who, for the fact that they are trans, are already feeling alienated. So it's like, you're going to further alienate them and push them down that road, just because you don't, I mean, it's just...yeah, like I said, I can't get into it too much, because it makes me too angry. But what you've said, it's really important and powerful. And it calls to mind how all kids should be given that opportunity, in the way that she makes sure to make accommodations for Matt Braddock. And because they make modifications, he's their best player. The best player on the team is one that, on other teams, wouldn't even be allowed to try.

Kaykay Brady: 51:10

Yeah, and the mindset leads you to that inclusivity.

Brooke Suchomel: 51:13

Yep.

Kaykay Brady: 51:14

Right? Because with that mindset, you can be inclusive, because the goal is not to fucking crush everyone else and have the highest score in the world.

Brooke Suchomel: 51:22

Despite the name of your team.

Kaykay Brady: 51:24

Right. That's not the goal.

Brooke Suchomel: 51:26

You're gonna crush your personal best. Kristy's Krushers, everybody individually crushing their personal best.

Kaykay Brady: 51:33

Was Kristy the first person to be crushing it in our culture?

Brooke Suchomel: 51:36

No, that's probably like, you know, you had Krush Groove. This is perhaps a little bit of a co-opting of other cool things.

Kaykay Brady: 51:44

Definitely. And it's definitely co-opting of Bad News Bears.

Brooke Suchomel: 51:47

For sure, for sure. But that's okay.

Kaykay Brady: 51:49

Which I loved, because I love them.

Brooke Suchomel: 51:51

Kristy's team is definitely set up for better success, I think, than Bart's team. And I think it's because you're probably seeing a difference, you know, when you talk about the mindset, Kristy is picking up a mindset from Watson. And so it just shows how impressionable kids are, and how they pick up the lessons that they are taught at home, and how then those lessons get communicated to others that they come in contact with. And so just how critical it is to make sure that people are being really deliberate with the lessons that they're teaching their kids, both explicitly and implicitly, because they pick up on it. And it doesn't stop with them, it goes out into the world. And so because Watson was patient with Kristy, and focused on her effort as opposed to her performance, all of these kids on her team are getting that lesson too.

Kaykay Brady: 52:43

Yeah, the whole team gets to enjoy that and gets to live it.

Brooke Suchomel: 52:46

Yeah, as opposed to Bart, where we can probably infer that he's getting a different message at home, based on the message that he's communicating to the kids that are under his responsibility.

Kaykay Brady: 52:57

No doubt.

Brooke Suchomel: 52:57

You can spread good if you stay focused on making sure that the kids are getting that message from you.

Kaykay Brady: 53:02

It's so funny. You know, part of my master's degree was child psychology. And there were lots of parents in that class who were basically crying because they're like, "Why wasn't I pushed to take this class before I had kids?"

Brooke Suchomel: 53:13

Seriously.

Kaykay Brady: 53:14

Because it's not easy. And there's not a guidebook. But child psychology is very different from adult psychology, and there's lots of things you can learn.

Brooke Suchomel: 53:24

There's a lot that we need to revamp about our educational system, courses that people are required to take, and yeah, I think that that might be something that people should be required to take.

Kaykay Brady: 53:33

Oh, I just wanted to say also, what a magical town this is that everybody loves softball. I mean, it's like everybody's up to play!

Brooke Suchomel: 53:40

Everybody.

Kaykay Brady: 53:41

Yeah. Anyway, I love the world where everybody was like, "Yes, I'll play softball!"

Brooke Suchomel: 53:45

Something for us to aspire to. What did you have for most 80s moments?

Kaykay Brady: 53:49

Well, the whole book. It was the most 80s book to me, because you had just the most 80s trope there is, which is the sort of rich, privileged, snobby shitheads trying to oppress the ragtag, less privileged, less athletic, less good looking group. This was every 80s movie, and also living in the 80s. Those kids were dicks and they reigned supreme, and there wasn't a lot of controlling of those kids. So I thought this was the most 80s book that there was.

Brooke Suchomel: 54:22

Yeah.

Kaykay Brady: 54:23

What did you have?

Brooke Suchomel: 54:24

The iron on messages on T shirts. So in lieu of a uniform, you know, Mallory is like, "Go get those iron on letters that you can get at Woolworths." So a reference to Woolworths, too. Did you ever do iron on shirts?

Kaykay Brady: 54:38

We did. Also, just the idea that kids would be playing sports without the parents spending $500 on an insane uniform. I mean, shit, I sound so old right now, but I'm going there. I'm Peter Griffin. "You know what grinds my gears?" What grinds my gears is I see like five year olds in like $1,000 uniforms and I think to myself, how is that kid ever gonna feel special when they play high school ball? Because I remember, when you got into like a really good team in high school, you finally had a beautiful uniform, right? That was supplied for you, and you just felt like the shit. But imagine, before you can even play the sport, someone's giving you a $1,000 kit.

Brooke Suchomel: 55:19

I mean, I would destroy it immediately.

Kaykay Brady: 55:22

Well, most kids would. But that's what I'm saying, like, you don't appreciate it at all, because it's just given to you, and it's an expectation. "I'm gonna be dressed to the nines for whatever sport I play."

Brooke Suchomel: 55:31

Yeah. Setting the bar so high as opposed to like, you know, when I played t ball, you got your T shirt that had screen printed the local car garage place that sponsored the team. And it was like, "Oh, look at my T shirt!" You're super excited about that. Kids can be really excited about a T shirt, you know. Don't set the bar so high for them that they peak at five. That sucks.

Kaykay Brady: 55:57

Exactly, exactly.

Brooke Suchomel: 55:58

So yeah, that was definitely very 80s. I'm glad that we got to Kristy's Krushers. Kristy's Krushers has been a milestone that I've been waiting for, for us to get to this book, because I know how important it was to you.

Kaykay Brady: 56:13

Yes! And we crushed it.

Brooke Suchomel: 56:15

So now that we have achieved that milestone, we are going to take a little bit of a different path for the next set of episodes, because I've actually gotten some requests from listeners wondering when we're going to cover the Netflix series. The next episode is when we're going to start covering the Netflix series. We're really excited to take a look at how the series has been updated for kids today and adult today. So we're going to have little bit of a different schedule. The episodes are probably going to be a little bit shorter, but we're going to release them weekly. So starting in two weeks, we'll take a crack at the Netflix Season One series, so that we can hopefully be prepared to address Season Two when it comes out. I know that Season Two has finished filming and it'll be nice for us to be able to tackle that in real time, now that we've got the foundation of the characters that we've gotten through the coverage of he first 20 books plus Super Special Number One.

Kaykay Brady: 57:15

Sweet! I'm pumped.

Brooke Suchomel: 57:16

I'm super excited about that. But until then...

Kaykay Brady: 57:19

Just keep sittin'! [theme song] [Final Countdown riff]