Designing Women S3 E21 - Return of the Mac

Well, well, well. Reggie Mac Dawson – and the accountant who absconded with all Suzanne’s money – is back and stirring up trouble for the ladies. It’s a real circus (wink, wink). We had strong opinions on this one.

Stick around for this week’s “Extra Sugar” where we explore crazy Southern laws and ordinances. (Psst, there may be a “Grits Blitz” afoot!)

A few fun references for you to peruse:

• A little more information on Harry Thomason and his brother, Danny

• Infamous list of people who stayed at the White House during the Clinton Administration, including Danny & Harry Thomason

• Deep South Magazine’s listing of the strangest Southern laws and a couple more on WideOpenCountry.com

• Reference on Florida’s parking meter law

• The Louisiana code Nikki cited around jambalaya preparation

• University of Tennessee’s Daily Beacon’s take on the skunk laws

Come on, let’s get into it!

Or listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music.

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Transcript

Salina: Hey, Nikki.

Nikki: Hey, Salina.

Salina: And hello, everyone.

Salina: Welcome to Sweet Tea and TV.

Salina: Hey y'all.

Salina: Welcome, welcome.

Salina: Oh, that's so nice.

Salina: My own hands.

Salina: Sit down.

Salina: Spill.

Nikki: Keep going.

Salina: Sweet tea or something.

Salina: So today I thought we would just start with something super random and super cute, unfortunately.

Nikki: Random and cute.

Salina: Well, this is super random.

Salina: I want to introduce you to did.

Nikki: You get a dog?

Salina: The world did you get a cat?

Salina: Yeah, and it's on my laptop.

Nikki: Did you get a hamster?

Salina: I want to introduce you to the world's smallest reptile, first reported last year in 2021.

Salina: Now I'm going to show Nikki it's a show and tell.

Salina: We'll see how I can drop it in on social.

Nikki: Oh, goodness gracious.

Nikki: And I'm so old.

Nikki: I need to pull it closer.

Salina: Well, yeah.

Salina: So this reptile that's crazy.

Nikki: Is that full grown?

Salina: I think so.

Salina: It is on the tip of a person's finger and it is the cutest little thing.

Salina: I think it's a chameleon.

Nikki: I was going to say it looks like a chameleon.

Salina: Let me navigate back to my notes.

Salina: So it is a tiny chameleon discovered in northern Madagascar and measuring just 28.9 mm or again, basically less than the size of your fingertips.

Nikki: Oh my goodness.

Salina: And it's so funny because kind of terrifying, even though it's so tiny, like, it's still like fully formed.

Nikki: It looks like a chameleon.

Nikki: It's got shrunk down.

Nikki: Just honey, I shrunk the chameleon.

Salina: You might be onto something, I don't know.

Salina: So the article I found also notes, and I'm just the messenger that the genitalia of the males measures almost 20% of its body.

Salina: So according to them, not everything is small.

Salina: I didn't say it, they said it.

Salina: I'm just reporting the news.

Nikki: I can't with you.

Salina: I'm just reporting the news.

Salina: I've also got one random trivia question to get you warmed up.

Nikki: That wasn't warm up enough.

Salina: Do you know what the dot over the lowercase I or J is known as?

Salina: You might actually know.

Nikki: I will know when you say it.

Nikki: I won't be able to tell you.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: But I'm going to incorporate this.

Salina: I may have heard it in the past.

Nikki: Is it a p****?

Nikki: It's you.

Nikki: So I feel like that's why it's coming up.

Salina: No, it's a tittle.

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: Not so far removed.

Salina: I mean definitely far removed.

Salina: It is thought that the phrase to a T is actually derived from the phrase to a tittle.

Salina: A phrase that was used in the same sense dating back to the early 17th century and excuse me, Nicki Maze, I was not even trying to be dirty with that.

Salina: I think the word tittle is kind of cute.

Nikki: You know, in Spanish, the mark till day tilde.

Salina: I wonder if it's like related.

Salina: Samesies maybe, but I really would like to start including the phrase to a tittle.

Nikki: Please do.

Nikki: Just not at work.

Salina: So let's get into this episode.

Salina: To a tittle.

Nikki: To a tittle.

Nikki: This episode is called the last humorously dressed bellboy in America.

Nikki: I have to say it so slowly, humorously is hard for me to say.

Salina: Yeah, that's fair.

Nikki: Suzanne discovers Reggie Macdawson, the accountant who absconded with her life savings is back in Atlanta working as a bellboy and a pianist.

Nikki: He explains the convoluted story of how and why he left the country and what happened to Suzanne's money.

Nikki: He used it to buy a circus.

Nikki: There's the episode.

Nikki: Air date May 15, 1989 we're calling this one return of the Mac, written by LBT.

Nikki: And directed by David Trainer.

Nikki: I feel, Salina, just by some things you've said in passing, maybe you have some strong opinions about this episode.

Salina: Well, okay.

Salina: I think this will probably tell you that my first general reaction is that this entire episode is a stray observation.

Nikki: Yes.

Nikki: My first general reaction is that this.

Salina: Entire episode wait, are you about to tell me if you liked it or not?

Nikki: Yes.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Don't.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: All right.

Salina: Because I'm curious if we've reached expert level knowing of when one of us will love or pass on an episode.

Salina: So I'd like to take a guess.

Salina: I'm going to write it on a slip of paper whether you loved it or hated it.

Nikki: Okay.

Salina: And then I'm going to pass it to you.

Salina: And then with my guess, Nikki, did you love this one or did you pass on it?

Salina: And I'm going to go ahead and write it so you know that I'm not trying to steal your answer on this side.

Salina: It's on the other side.

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: Do I read this?

Nikki: I missed your game.

Salina: I'm guessing whether or not and do I read this out loud?

Salina: You can.

Nikki: Oh, she says yes heart.

Nikki: Or if you read the other side, it's notes about shacking up previous segment.

Nikki: You asking me to shack up previous.

Salina: Salina, yes or no?

Nikki: Check one.

Salina: That is what the full context of that?

Nikki: Can I guess mine for you?

Salina: Sure.

Salina: I got to have a piece of paper.

Salina: We got to carry on going to have to have the same piece of paper.

Nikki: We've got to carry on the facade.

Salina: So I'm guessing that Nikki loves it and Nikki's going to about to guess whether or not I loved it or whether I pass on it.

Nikki: Oops, I think I spelled that wrong.

Salina: It's okay.

Salina: I just wiped my eyebrow off.

Salina: Hatred and disdain.

Nikki: Yes.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: All right.

Salina: So you go first.

Salina: Was I right or wrong?

Nikki: I thought this episode was delightful.

Nikki: It was so silly and ridiculous.

Nikki: I loved Reggie Mcdawson.

Nikki: I loved how random it was.

Nikki: The other women found him, his whole setup.

Nikki: It was delightful to me.

Nikki: Was I right about you hatred and just being yes.

Salina: I think it's a series low for me.

Salina: Oh, no.

Salina: Series low.

Nikki: Oh, man.

Nikki: I thought it was delightful, but I think this sort of is going to.

Salina: Play into the point you're making right now, but you've actually talked about this before that it's nice to have some level of absurdity.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: It's literally what's written down, so almost like a sense of escapism.

Salina: Right?

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: But to me, this one just felt absurd, and I was really ready for it to be over.

Salina: I'm sorry.

Salina: I felt bad, but I just feel like I could be honest.

Salina: Yeah, no, don't feel bad.

Salina: I got to say my truth.

Nikki: You're allowed to not like things.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I think it was largely because of the character of Reggie Mcdawson.

Nikki: I loved him.

Salina: I didn't enjoy him.

Salina: I didn't enjoy him.

Salina: So you loved him, and that was my question about him.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Is he a legitimate accountant or just a liar?

Nikki: What wasn't clear to me from the storyline is whether he was truly living off of her money because he was in all these exotic places, but he was simultaneously working these very blue collar jobs to try to, I guess, make ends meet.

Nikki: So is he a real accountant, or is he just I think you and.

Salina: I have different reads on the character.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: I think he is a con artist, so I think he takes these little jobs because he can't even go get, like, a formal job anymore because he's a con artist, and the police are looking for him.

Nikki: I see.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I do think that he is, like, whatever license or whatever you have to be an accountant.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I think he probably had it at some point in time, but I think his he sort of explains it there.

Salina: It's like, is he a reliable narrator, I think is at play, and so it sounds like at some point the flip just switched.

Salina: No, the switch flip, then the switch flipped, and then he couldn't get enough of he liked having the extra money and doing the extra things and getting a taste of the finer life or whatever.

Salina: His whole backstory was about how he oh, he got involved in gambling or something, I think.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Maybe he started out as legitimate.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: But everything he said just sounded like he was just a big liar.

Nikki: He did love Suzanne.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: To the extent that someone like him probably can love somebody, there was definitely something there.

Salina: Have you ever met someone I can't decide if this sounds like me or not, but maybe I can't stand myself.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: But have you ever met someone and they talk and talk and talk at you, and at the end, you have no idea what they said, but you don't want to do that again.

Salina: That's how I felt about Reggie Macdawson.

Salina: There were just times where literally I can see maybe that's how it was being written for it to almost be incoherent.

Salina: But since I'm watching a plot line, I kind of need it to be coherent, so yeah, I don't know.

Nikki: I think that was the whole point.

Nikki: I think that's the character he was supposed to be.

Nikki: And I think that drove Julia crazy.

Nikki: I think it drove Suzanne crazy that he took advantage of her.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: I just thought he was really funny.

Salina: Yeah, that's good.

Salina: I'm glad.

Nikki: I'm glad he didn't take my money and run.

Salina: Should we also just go ahead and say who he is?

Salina: Yes.

Salina: So he's played by Harry Thomason's little brother, Danny Thomason.

Nikki: Did you also read that he was once in a long term relationship with Leslie Jordan?

Salina: No.

Nikki: I know Leslie Jordan best as Beverly Leslie on Willing Grace.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: But apparently he was also on LBT's hearts of Fire.

Salina: Right.

Nikki: With Danny Thomason.

Nikki: So I read they were in a relationship for many, many years.

Salina: Oh, that's funny.

Nikki: As an aside, Leslie also has the most delightful Instagram feed.

Salina: Oh, does he?

Nikki: Yes.

Salina: I never got the chance to watch it.

Salina: I can't remember if in my head, I was like, I'd like to save this towards the end.

Salina: But during the pandemic, when everyone really was staying at home and all these old shows came together and came out of the woodworks and did these reunions, they did do a Designing Women one.

Salina: I think Leslie Jordan was involved.

Nikki: Oh, I don't remember.

Salina: I don't remember.

Salina: I'm pretty sure he was because they had to replace some of the cast members since we've lost some cast members.

Nikki: Well, Leslie Jordan's delightful, apparently, according to Danny's instagram.

Nikki: I think he's Twitter.

Nikki: Maybe he lives in Little Rock now and he's an eye doctor.

Salina: Oh, really?

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: Just going back to regular life.

Nikki: Also, he is the person that introduced LBT.

Nikki: And Harry to the Clintons, so it sounds like they're very good friends.

Nikki: And in fact, Danny is also on the infamous list of people who stayed at the White House along with the Thomasons.

Nikki: Harry bloodroys thomas.

Nikki: Sorry, I can't get the last name straight.

Nikki: The Thomas.

Salina: What's happening?

Salina: Okay, well, we know each other really well.

Salina: Thing one and thing two is we have made it very abundantly clear how we felt about the episode.

Salina: Do we feel good about moving to Strays?

Nikki: Yes.

Salina: All right, put it out there.

Nikki: We have an address for Sugar Bakers, 1521 Sycamore.

Nikki: I think a police officer said that at some point.

Nikki: Okay, put that in the old noggin.

Nikki: I think it's also important to take stock of Reggie Mac's resume.

Nikki: Okay, interesting.

Nikki: Here are a couple of the quote unquote opportunities he called out throughout the episode.

Nikki: He recently completed a world tour where Iranian customs officials took his costumes, bought a circus.

Nikki: He had a Peruvian coin deal.

Nikki: And it looks like now we may get in on the ground floor of a new industry that makes gourmet ice cubes from glaciers.

Salina: That last thing sounds like it would have been like a joke then, but.

Nikki: It could be real now.

Salina: Absolutely.

Nikki: I bought some of those at a fresh market yesterday.

Salina: Were they delicious?

Nikki: Delicious.

Nikki: Tasted like a glacier.

Nikki: Just like a glacier fresh off mother.

Salina: Nature'S forehead, just right off the calving.

Salina: Is that what it's called when it, like, sheds?

Nikki: Oh, calf, maybe.

Salina: Calving.

Salina: All right, well, my first stray is that I've never been to the circus.

Salina: I've been to circus circus in Vegas.

Salina: I've just never had any desire.

Salina: Plus, the whole animal thing is tough for me, but I do think the trapeze is cool, and I'd actually like to do that.

Salina: So that's real.

Nikki: You can do that?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I mean, I'd have to take steps to do it.

Nikki: I have been to the circus.

Nikki: I don't know that it was out of a place of desire so much as my parents took me.

Salina: Right.

Salina: Well, neither one of my parents desired to take me, either.

Nikki: I don't think I would go now.

Nikki: I mean, it's not a thing now, but I don't think I would go.

Salina: It's still a thing.

Salina: Not like it was, though, right.

Nikki: It's a coming back thing.

Salina: Oh, yeah.

Nikki: Maybe.

Salina: We'll see.

Salina: And then my other straight observation is just, like, can't we all identify with Suzanne on some level at the beginning?

Salina: Maybe not.

Salina: Her story about dating an 85 year old and arguing with his nurse over the dinner entree, but feeling like you're in a rut, no matter where you go, there you are.

Salina: It's just like a go to saying for me.

Salina: And then later, she mentions her day, starting with the tickets, so, of course she'd own a circus.

Salina: By the end.

Salina: I mean, that whole escalated quickly concept just really resonates.

Nikki: Well, how did you like that?

Salina: Yeah, we sure have.

Salina: Anything else?

Salina: All right, well, I'll see you around.

Salina: Well, we got to do what we.

Nikki: Liked and what we didn't like.

Salina: Oh, my bad.

Salina: I'm sorry.

Salina: I thought we were just done.

Salina: So, tell me what you liked.

Nikki: I thought the character of Reggie Macdawson was delightful.

Nikki: You can see how Suzanne let herself get taken in by him.

Nikki: He would not have appeared as, like, some stodgy old accountant.

Nikki: Like, he's got some color, he's got some pizzazz, he's got some flair, and he adores her.

Nikki: You could totally see how that attracted her.

Salina: Well, he also doesn't come off like a con artist.

Salina: He doesn't visually look like whatever our perception of a con artist is.

Salina: I think he's unassuming.

Salina: Maybe he kind of seems like trustworthy ish until he opens his mouth.

Nikki: But I also love the idea of Suzanne owning a circus that's on brand, in my opinion, for her.

Salina: Well, I think that's a lot of what got brought up is it's not that different.

Salina: There is a pageantry to it.

Nikki: That's the word that was going through my head.

Salina: And so I think that that is definitely in line with her character.

Salina: I like that Suzanne called it limestone cowboy instead of rhinestone cowboy.

Salina: That's also on brand.

Salina: For her, it's just getting these things, like, just slightly off.

Nikki: But when you think of Rhinestone Cowboy?

Salina: What do you think of a couple of things, but isn't one of them a John Lovett's movie?

Nikki: If you don't say high school high, I'm getting up and walking away.

Salina: You know, I forgot about High School High until I was looking into John lovett's for some random reason.

Nikki: Everyone does.

Salina: You know, I really can't even remember.

Salina: Maybe it's because I went down the league of their own rabbit hole or something.

Salina: But anyways, and I was like, I forgot that that movie existed.

Salina: But that was such like a big deal.

Salina: I feel like when it came out, just probably for people in middle school.

Nikki: Honestly, I used to love it.

Nikki: There was a very brief period in time in which I love that movie.

Nikki: Like a run, run stone cow.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: We didn't even really understand.

Nikki: Oh, I had no idea.

Nikki: It was just very funny.

Salina: It's just good timing.

Salina: It was important in all of this insanity.

Salina: I actually think Suzanne had some pretty sage advice at one point.

Salina: She says, I just figure, you know, we're only here on earth for a short while, and if someone says they're going to pick you up at seven in a horse drawn carriage and drive you through the streets of Atlanta to your very own circus, well, maybe you should just give it a whirl.

Nikki: Amen.

Salina: I love that.

Nikki: Amen.

Nikki: Take life by the horns.

Salina: Got to try new things.

Nikki: It's important.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: And then the last thing I liked was the Trapeze Flyers interaction with Julia over the pasty glue.

Salina: She just thought she had some, like, on hand, which I actually don't.

Salina: I don't know that that's the weirdest thing to ask a woman because we often have things.

Salina: We often have things for our bosoms.

Salina: Just random things.

Nikki: I have weird tape stuff in my drawer from certain dresses that you wear.

Nikki: You got to have a little coverage.

Salina: I don't think it's that they ask you to do a lot of weird things there.

Nikki: Okay, so we're just they being the main patriarchy.

Salina: So I know you loved the return of the Mac, but is there anything else specific that you wanted to call out that you really liked or loved?

Nikki: No, but I only have one thing I didn't like.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Of course I don't love for Suzanne to be taken advantage of.

Nikki: Well, no, but I really like laughing at it.

Salina: Oh, you do?

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: I really enjoyed that.

Nikki: She's been on the skids for a while and this episode didn't take anything else away from her, so I felt okay about it.

Salina: Yeah, that was actually my last it's related.

Salina: It's my last don't like.

Salina: But I'm going to start with that because we go through this whole string of events only for Suzanne to not get her money back.

Salina: And I was just like, couldn't she have gotten something at the end?

Salina: It just felt like she yeah, well, she did win some money.

Salina: In last season when they went gambling.

Salina: So maybe that's the only time she can win.

Salina: I'm not sure.

Salina: So two other things that really stuck out for me.

Salina: One is the circus conversations.

Salina: Every time that gets started, it makes me nervous because I know we're headed to the quote unquote freak show path.

Salina: I just know we're headed there, which I find to be like, one of the most distasteful human fascinations.

Salina: So I wasn't thrilled with Mary Joe's childhood story about the 800 pound man.

Salina: I didn't know what to do with it.

Salina: I didn't know why we were hearing it.

Salina: I didn't know why it was happening to me.

Salina: Just so many things, and I honestly didn't understand what are we talking about here?

Salina: Except for the fact that this poor man is incredibly obese.

Salina: What are we doing?

Nikki: Like a human level?

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: That sucks.

Nikki: On a plot writing and a script writing level, it makes a lot of sense.

Nikki: I think that's what you identify with circuses and fairs is the three headed woman or the bearded lady or whatever.

Salina: I go to a fair for the fried foods and occasionally to get on a ride that makes me wonder whether or not I'll live to see the next day.

Nikki: To be clear, I don't go to the fair to see that.

Nikki: I've never seen those things.

Nikki: It just makes me uncomfortable for a lot of reasons.

Nikki: All the reasons, I'm sure, are going through your head.

Nikki: I think, though, my point is the broader universe can identify with that.

Salina: She's trying to like a point, like a touch.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: And people are like, I remember when I was a kid, my mom showed me the three fingered man, which I.

Salina: Do think probably is fair to the time period.

Salina: I think now we are Mary Joe's age, so I can't really with that.

Nikki: I know that it's a thing.

Nikki: Yeah, I know it's something over there.

Nikki: The Gwennette County Fair has something.

Nikki: I don't remember what it is, but like the six foot man or something.

Nikki: Not six foot.

Nikki: That was bad.

Nikki: Like ten foot man or something.

Nikki: There's something that was and I haven't been at the fair in a few years, but there was something, and it's this concept in my mind, what I identify it with is a person that's being exploited for a physical feature, and they're hidden away in a room as if it's some sort of spectacle you.

Salina: Need to go see.

Nikki: And it just freaks me out.

Nikki: I'm never going to go see that.

Nikki: So I know it.

Nikki: I get the reference.

Nikki: And from a story writer perspective, I know why she put it there.

Nikki: From a human perspective, it sucks, and we should just move away from it's.

Salina: Dusty right.

Nikki: It is.

Salina: So it didn't feel good.

Salina: This episode also really gave me whiplash.

Salina: It felt a little all over the place to me.

Salina: I've talked a lot about it did, and I loved it.

Salina: I've talked a lot about pacing this season, like, a lot, because it's just something that really stands out to me.

Salina: And for me, the pacing in this one wasn't right for me.

Salina: We spent all this time at the beginning of the episode dining out on the eccentricity that is, whatever his name is, reggie Macdawson.

Salina: The man got two full songs in at the hotel, and then we rushed through to the ending.

Salina: So that, again, is that kind of thing.

Salina: I just feel like the latter part was the more interesting part, seeing Suzanne and the big plume and the feather on her head and that kind of thing.

Salina: It was much more interesting, out of all of the things than seeing them run into him at the hotel for 25 minutes.

Salina: That's where I felt like we were a lot.

Salina: And I was like, what are we doing?

Nikki: It would have been great to see Suzanne somehow still doing the thing the police told her she can't do.

Nikki: It's very Suzanne hanging out of the window with an AK 47 or whatever, that she would still take the carriage and make it like an event.

Nikki: And I wish she could have at least gotten that sense of justice.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: And it's another time, too, where we talk about the show don't tell.

Salina: And sometimes the tell don't show is great.

Nikki: Right?

Salina: It's been used really well in this series.

Salina: But then there are other times where I'm like, dang, but I want to see Anthony and Bernice at the dance contest.

Salina: I want to see Suzanne in the streets of Atlanta.

Salina: I see how that would have been complicated, especially since they're in La.

Salina: I'm just saying, those are the things where I'm like, oh, that just feels like a loss.

Nikki: Yeah, it really does.

Nikki: That's true.

Salina: You want to rate this sucker?

Salina: I do.

Nikki: My rating scale is wretched.

Nikki: Mac men.

Nikki: Giving it a five out of five.

Nikki: This episode is just darn delight.

Nikki: It's ridiculous in all the best ways.

Nikki: I love the camp and the charisma of Reggie Mac.

Nikki: I loved learning more about this person who was able to take advantage of Suzanne and see why he was able to take advantage of her.

Nikki: And I think it's really because he adored her.

Nikki: It was that she likes to be adored, and that is her undoing.

Nikki: And hopefully she will grow from this.

Nikki: And then the circus was just absurd and ridiculous and wonderful.

Salina: Well, that was very poetic.

Nikki: Episode sucked.

Salina: I gave it a two out of five.

Salina: Eight horse drawn characters.

Nikki: Come on.

Nikki: Come on.

Salina: You got to keep it spicy.

Nikki: Nikki, you are bringing the spice.

Salina: It's not my favorite.

Salina: I will say I'm very grateful that this isn't the last episode.

Salina: I would have been so upset if this was the episode that we went out on.

Nikki: I get that.

Nikki: I'll give you that.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: This would be a better, like, early season episode, maybe, or, like, mid season episode.

Salina: Yeah, it felt like Filler, which is fine.

Salina: We're going to get a lot of fillers again.

Salina: It's 22.

Salina: I think one of the seasons is, like, 24 episodes.

Salina: Who won the episode for you?

Salina: Who buttered our biscuits?

Nikki: Mary Joe.

Salina: Oh, okay.

Nikki: The way she took charge of the circus people sleeping arrangements.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Clipboards and all.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: I adore a well organized queen, and she brought that to me.

Salina: Adore it.

Nikki: Adore it.

Salina: Technically, I think it has to be Reggie Macdawson, because he keeps away yeah.

Nikki: He keeps getting away with scones.

Salina: He absconds again, but I refuse to say that that little weasel buttered my biscuit, so I'm giving it to Suzanne.

Nikki: He burned your biscuit?

Salina: He burned him.

Salina: That girl needs a win.

Salina: Plus, I thought that she exhibited very admirable qualities in this one.

Salina: I think she is a cynic, but she wants to try to be a believer, and she was trying to get out of her comfort zone, and I can appreciate that.

Salina: I also found her to be very charming.

Salina: Again, much like I was saying in the last episode, she's really winning me over in the back half of season three.

Salina: All right, who lost the episode?

Salina: Who served us lumpy gravy?

Nikki: The police.

Nikki: At the end.

Nikki: I needed to see that circus entrance through, and I'm really sad we never got it.

Nikki: And then, of course, Reggie Mcdawson, but.

Salina: The policeman, technically, it should be Suzanne.

Salina: She really went through the ringer in this one, and in the end, she still didn't get her money back.

Salina: But I'm giving it to Reggie Macdawson because I definitely consider him a pot of lumpy gravy.

Salina: And I think that he was supposed to be some version of charming.

Nikki: I never said he was charming.

Salina: I'll stop there.

Nikki: I never said he was charming.

Nikki: I said he had charisma.

Nikki: Charisma.

Salina: The other ch.

Nikki: The other ch.

Nikki: Okay, camp and charisma.

Salina: How about 80s things?

Nikki: I mean, maybe the circus.

Nikki: That's it.

Salina: I had bad checks.

Nikki: Oh, yeah.

Salina: And then a lot of checks lately.

Salina: Lots of checks.

Nikki: Sound of the times.

Salina: We should have a category for that.

Nikki: I'm kidding.

Salina: Southern things.

Nikki: We had an Athens, Georgia reference, which is where the circus was coming from.

Nikki: And Reggie Mac just had a bunch of, like, what in the Sam Hill?

Nikki: My word.

Nikki: Things like that.

Nikki: They were all very southern.

Salina: You Franklin, Tennessee, where Mary Joe is from.

Salina: And then she also references the big star.

Salina: But that like putting two and two together.

Salina: It sounds like this could have been a real store in Tennessee.

Nikki: There's more, but it's I got tired looking that one up.

Salina: Same.

Salina: There was, like, this whole thing about how there's another one, but this is a franchise, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Salina: Apparently, there was, like, the other one, not this one was in Georgia at some point, but I don't remember it.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: So there you go.

Salina: That's why you get tired.

Nikki: I got tired.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: References we need to talk about.

Nikki: I mean, I don't know that we need to talk about it, but Mamie Eisenhower was mentioned, and I was like, Who's Mamie Eisenhower?

Nikki: She was the First Lady.

Nikki: I assumed she was related to Dwight Eisenhower.

Nikki: I didn't process I mean, I was getting to the point that maybe she was his wife.

Nikki: I've literally never heard that woman's name before.

Nikki: But she was the First Lady from 1953 to 1961, and what does that tell you?

Salina: Patriarchy.

Nikki: Patriarchy.

Nikki: But right.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Also, I have to read you this exact sentence.

Salina: I think it's very important that you.

Nikki: Hear can I also say, though, patriarchy, but also because of the patriarchy.

Nikki: That was the role the First Lady played for a really long time.

Nikki: It wasn't probably until the late 80s that we had a very vivacious First Lady other than Jackie Kennedy.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Roosevelt.

Nikki: Oh, yeah, that's true.

Nikki: We talked about her.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: She's a cool lady.

Salina: I do it.

Salina: Definitely.

Salina: They get kind of throw some parties, and it really took up a Christmas tree.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Which I would like to put up a Christmas tree.

Salina: Sounds nice.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: So my sentence, though, along with Mamie Eisenhower, says, first lady and wife of President Eisenhower.

Salina: Like I figured, but wasn't 100% sure she wasn't another relative.

Nikki: Yeah, right.

Nikki: I thought maybe it was a daughter situation, because we covered a daughter at some point.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Reagan's.

Nikki: Right.

Salina: Also, maybe her real name is Mary.

Salina: What it called?

Salina: Mary.

Salina: Just going to throw that out here.

Nikki: Also, the Philip Morris boy.

Salina: Yes.

Nikki: Got that one, too.

Salina: Did you know what that was?

Salina: Without looking into it?

Salina: I'm sorry.

Nikki: I know what Philip Morris is.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: So I had, like, pictured something yeah.

Nikki: But I didn't actually know yeah, I.

Salina: Didn'T know that we were talking.

Salina: I didn't know that.

Salina: This guy kind of gets discovered and then winds up working his way into these ad campaigns.

Salina: And he made good money.

Salina: I looked it up.

Salina: His annual salary for these ads would be about a million dollars a year today.

Nikki: So he was a bellboy at the New Yorker Hotel who, like Salina said in 1933, was discovered fully grown.

Nikki: He was less than 4ft tall and had a very distinctive voice.

Nikki: This ad executive discovered him.

Nikki: He ended up becoming a spokesperson, most notably for Philip Morris Cigarettes, a role for which he served for over 40 years.

Salina: It's crazy.

Salina: It's also like, what a time.

Salina: Because he looks like a kid.

Salina: So the whole thing is like a kid selling cigarettes.

Salina: It's just like, what a time.

Nikki: What a time.

Salina: Delta dawn.

Salina: Was that on your list?

Nikki: Yes.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: One of the two.

Nikki: Just that that's the song he was singing, which is funny because he was singing it for Suzanne.

Nikki: Who's dawn.

Nikki: I mean, Delta Burke.

Salina: Well, that's what okay, so this is at first that's what I thought, and maybe it still.

Nikki: Is.

Salina: But I thought it was something meta because, like delta delta dawn delta Burke.

Salina: But then I was like, maybe it's a little bit of a Suzanne slam because I looked into the history of the song.

Salina: So it's written and first recorded by Alex Harvey and he wrote it for his mom who died in a car crash when he was a teenager.

Salina: There's like a really sad story there.

Salina: The story also suggests, among other things, that she was a complicated lady and they had a complicated relationship.

Salina: Okay, but here's the thing.

Salina: It tells the story of a faded Southern bell whose reputation was tainted following a romantic encounter with a man of ill repute.

Nikki: Reggie MacDonald.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: Is there like a double meaning there?

Salina: I wasn't sure.

Nikki: Did you pick up on the second song that Reggie Mac was singing?

Nikki: Something about sharks and pretty teeth?

Nikki: It was Mac.

Nikki: The knife.

Salina: I love that song.

Nikki: It was Mac.

Nikki: The knife.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Which you talked about in season one, episode twelve.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: I'm sorry.

Salina: I was very happy to hear it, Sheena.

Salina: And it's such a weird song.

Salina: So weird.

Salina: It's weird.

Salina: Cut lines.

Nikki: There was a cut after Reggie Max stopped singing where we learn Reggie Mac's alter ego.

Nikki: So the server comes up and asks the ladies this is in the hotel when he's singing.

Nikki: May I take your order?

Nikki: Four club sodas, please.

Nikki: Oh, I'd like a little umbrella in mine.

Nikki: Can you tell me how long that gentleman playing the piano has been working here?

Nikki: I don't know.

Nikki: He was here when I started.

Nikki: And when was that?

Nikki: This morning.

Nikki: But I'm quitting as soon as my husband picks me up at five.

Nikki: I mean, I want to work, but not bad enough to listen to this.

Nikki: What's his name?

Nikki: Bobby Bojangles.

Nikki: So I think maybe later they mentioned that he's Mr.

Nikki: Bojangles or something.

Nikki: And that's where that comes from.

Nikki: There was another big cut line after the ladies get Reggie Mac back to Sugar Bakers where we learn more about Reggie Mac's history.

Nikki: And that's where Anthony's introduced to him.

Nikki: He says, you see, if my parents had been normal, none of this would have happened.

Nikki: I mean, to give you some idea, my father drove a hearse and we weren't even in the funeral business.

Nikki: And my mother had been on two Darvex tranquilizers every day since 1959.

Nikki: That was the year the school nurse called her and told her I might be having gender identification problems.

Nikki: Charlene says you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

Nikki: You know what she's been doing because of you?

Nikki: Clipping coupons, selling underwear and gambling in Atlantic City.

Nikki: Anthony, maybe you should take Mr.

Nikki: Dawson outside and just have a little talk with him.

Nikki: Why?

Nikki: I don't know.

Nikki: Rough him up a little.

Nikki: Yeah, maybe I should do that.

Nikki: Oh, and who might you be, young man?

Nikki: I'm Anthony Bouvier.

Nikki: I'm out on parole and I hate accountants, so it's just a lot happening in there.

Salina: A lot.

Nikki: I feel like there's some character development that possibly if you were inclined to believe Reggie Mac's story, might have made you sort of understand his backstory a little bit and understand that maybe he's had some trauma.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I don't know.

Nikki: Glaring at me through squinted eyes.

Salina: I just thought the story was weird.

Salina: I don't know.

Nikki: Well, do with it what you will.

Salina: And it sounded more like it was I don't know.

Salina: It didn't even sound like I don't know.

Salina: It sounded like it was coming from someone else putting their opinions in his mouth or something.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: It was just weird.

Salina: I'll stop there.

Nikki: That poor man.

Nikki: Next Episode episode 22 julia Drives Over the First Amendment We love everyone to follow along with us and engage Instagram and Facebook at sweettntv.

Nikki: Email sweettvpod@gmail.com.

Nikki: Our website is www.sweettv.com.

Nikki: You can support the show lots of ways.

Nikki: Tell your family and friends about us, rate and or review the podcast.

Nikki: And if you're so inclined, go to the support us page on our website to learn more.

Nikki: And hang tight for an Extra Sugar, where we're going to talk about crazy ordinances and laws still on the books here in the south.

Salina: You know what that means?

Nikki: What does it mean?

Salina: Salina, we'll see you around the bin.

Nikki: Welcome to this week's edition of Extra Sugar.

Nikki: In this week's episode, we met possibly the greatest con artist of all time, the infamous Reggie Macdawson, who's had more than a few run ins with the law.

Nikki: And in this episode, poor Suzanne had a couple run ins with the law herself, building on her assault rifle unlicensed pig charges from a few episodes ago.

Nikki: So I feel like our minds were working over time on legal issues, which led us to this extra Sugar, which is going to be a.

Salina: Great split.

Salina: Split, split, split.

Nikki: That's right.

Nikki: We've got ourselves a game and I think a fun one.

Nikki: Salina, I've got a list of laws and ordinances here.

Nikki: I don't actually know the difference between a law and an ordinance.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: I feel like law is more substantial.

Salina: It has to go by, like, city.

Nikki: Ordinances versus state and federal laws, something like that.

Nikki: Yeah, I'm a lawyer.

Nikki: Anyway, your assignment is twofold.

Nikki: You have to decide if it's real and if it is, which state it applies to.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Insert all the excitement.

Nikki: Let me just go ahead and put here.

Nikki: It's not really a true like I didn't come up with stakes because I feel like twofold on something like this is not really going to be a competition.

Nikki: You can win, necessarily, but if you get to the end and you feel like you did really well and that I owe you some kind of treat, maybe we can negotiate.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: I have to tell you that unlike a statute or state law, an ordinance is a local law that is passed by municipal governing authorities, such as a city council or a county board of commissioners, all to say that I think.

Nikki: That we're right like ones we're lawyers.

Salina: Uber local.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: JDS.

Salina: Is that what it is?

Nikki: It is.

Nikki: Wonderful.

Nikki: So let's get into it.

Salina: Let's get into it.

Nikki: Law number one, you must always pay a parking meter when you tie up an elephant.

Nikki: Now, Salina, is this first law fake or real?

Nikki: And if real, which state?

Salina: An elephant?

Salina: The elephant makes it a little tricky, but I want to say so it's got to be somewhere where it feels like maybe where there would be a substantial zoo.

Salina: But I want to say it sounds true, and I'm going to say the way you said makes me think that it's false, but I'm going to stick with true.

Salina: I'm going to stick to my gums.

Salina: Well, you know what?

Salina: Screw it.

Salina: I am.

Salina: I'm going to stick to those, too, but I'm also going to stick to the guns, and I'm going to say California because of the San Diego Zoo.

Salina: So tell me why I'm wrong.

Nikki: You're half right.

Nikki: Oh, it is real.

Nikki: Or at least it was.

Salina: Should I make a guess of the state?

Nikki: Well, no.

Nikki: Yeah, you can.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Utah.

Salina: No.

Salina: All right.

Salina: I don't know.

Nikki: Do you want to do a list of states like I usually do?

Salina: I'm going to let it go.

Nikki: It was florida.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: It was logical to think in terms of where the animal would be.

Nikki: I think where this animal would be is going to surprise you.

Nikki: So I'm always a little skeptical on things like this because laws come and go over the years, and I think sometimes articles compile these things, but they don't do the legwork to determine if they're really real or not.

Nikki: So I dug a little.

Salina: By real, do you mean enforced or just like real at all?

Nikki: That exist on the books at all?

Nikki: And then I think that the enforcement is an important wrinkle.

Nikki: And so I think I mentioned that a couple of times throughout here.

Nikki: But I just want to know, are they real at all?

Nikki: Because I think sometimes these things are sort of made up, or they were laws in 1943 and fell off the books in the 60s or whatever.

Salina: Right.

Nikki: So I dug a little deeper than the original source material on this one, and I found a My 13 article, which looks like a Florida news source.

Nikki: They shared that they asked the Orlando Police Department about this, and it garnered some giggles and ultimately an agreement that there's no current statewide ordinance on this, but it was probably a localized thing.

Nikki: At some point, they said it could have had its origins in western Florida.

Nikki: Sarasota specifically as a result of all things given this week's episode, Ringling Brothers Circus.

Nikki: Apparently, John Ringling moved the company's winter work to Sarasota in the late twenty s.

Nikki: Nineteen twenty s, where he'd purchased St.

Nikki: Armin's key and had used his elephants to help build the causeway to the key.

Nikki: I guess they needed a law to keep his elephants in line.

Nikki: I think there's more to that law.

Nikki: I think it includes, like, your alligator, too.

Nikki: And I think that's why I went with elephant, because alligator would have given it away a little bit more.

Salina: Yeah, I think I'm really disappointed that my first guess wasn't Florida.

Nikki: Maybe a default.

Salina: Just give it a try.

Salina: That's what I'm saying.

Salina: Just try Florida.

Salina: That could be their tagline.

Salina: Just try it.

Nikki: You could be pleasantly surprised.

Salina: Just try it.

Nikki: So next up, when making jumbalaya, you can make it however you want.

Nikki: State sanitary and food preparation codes be darned real.

Nikki: Fake.

Nikki: In which state?

Salina: Well, I mean, I want to say true, and I want to say Louisiana, but I think I'm going to say false.

Salina: All right, tell me why I'm wrong.

Nikki: It's true, and it's obviously in Louisiana.

Salina: Oh, really?

Salina: I just thought that was too easy.

Salina: Is that what you did?

Salina: It was like a Jedi mind trick, but like the Doubled.

Nikki: It's a really funny dovetail, given my nicki's nibbles in episode 20.

Nikki: Yeah, but this is the actual code that I found.

Nikki: Notwithstanding any contrary provisions of the state sanitary code or any contrary provision of any other law or regulation, it shall be lawful to prepare jumbalaya in the traditional manner for public consumption, including the use of iron pots, wood fires, and preparation in the open for service to the public at public gatherings.

Nikki: This section shall not be construed to allow the sale or distribution of any unwholesome food.

Nikki: So make it how you want, so long as it doesn't kill anybody.

Salina: I like it.

Salina: They take it seriously, and I appreciate that they do.

Nikki: I like hewing closely to tradition.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Law number three it is illegal to transport skunks across state lines.

Salina: Well, I think it should be real.

Nikki: Fake.

Nikki: If real, which state?

Salina: Yeah, I mean, that's my opinion.

Salina: I think that we should make that illegal.

Salina: Maybe don't transport them.

Nikki: What are you doing?

Salina: So I want to say that this one's false and I'm probably wrong.

Salina: So I'm going to give you two answers.

Salina: I'm going to say false and true and wrong.

Salina: False in no state, and I'm going to say true in Alabama.

Nikki: Half right again.

Nikki: It's totally Tennessee true.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: According to a University of Tennessee Daily Beacon article I found, code 74 two eight was enacted by lawmakers in Tennessee in a bid to prevent the spread of rabies.

Nikki: The code completely forbids the importation and sale of live skunks.

Nikki: Anyone who fails to follow this law will face a class C misdemeanor.

Salina: But who was buying skunks?

Nikki: You know, I wish I could answer that question for you, and I think given a couple of seconds with Google, I probably can.

Nikki: I think it was a problem.

Salina: It sounds like a problem.

Nikki: Rabies.

Nikki: I think became a significant problem, and this was, like, one of the creative solutions to it.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Law number four, lawmakers cannot be duelers.

Nikki: That is, if you've ever taken part in a duel, you cannot run for office later.

Nikki: Real, fake.

Nikki: Which state?

Salina: Gosh, that's awfully specific.

Salina: That feels old.

Salina: Like duels.

Salina: That's so 18th century.

Salina: Oh, man.

Salina: I think it's probably false, but that's not fun because then I don't get to guess an area, and so I'm going to say true, and then I'm going to say, that sounds so old that we'd have to be talking like original colonies.

Salina: I'm going to take it back that far because we weren't dueling like in 2015.

Salina: Fistfighting maybe, but not dueling.

Salina: So I'm going to say, yeah, true.

Salina: Maryland.

Nikki: Good guess.

Salina: False.

Nikki: It is true.

Nikki: Okay, but it's Tennessee again.

Salina: Oh, tennesseans.

Nikki: It's part of article nine of their state constitution, which outlines disqualifications for those seeking to run for office.

Nikki: In its entirety.

Nikki: It says, any person who shall, after the adoption of this constitution, fight in a duel or knowingly be the bearer of a challenge to fight a duel or send or accept a challenge for that purpose.

Nikki: Or be an aider or a better in fighting a duel shall be deprived of the right to hold any office of honor or profit in the state and shall be punished otherwise.

Nikki: In any such manner, the legislature may.

Salina: Prescribe or.

Nikki: Have hair or law number five, one southern state has a swear jar where you have to put $1 for every curse word you utter in public.

Nikki: Real, fake.

Nikki: Which state?

Salina: Gosh.

Salina: That could really go either way, like the rest of these.

Salina: I think fun again is more true.

Salina: More fun.

Salina: Wait, true.

Salina: What are the words I'm saying?

Salina: Yeah, I think true is a more fun game.

Salina: So it's Southern state.

Salina: I'm going to go true, and I'm going to say Mississippi.

Nikki: Final answer?

Salina: Sure.

Nikki: So this one's kind of a trick question.

Nikki: There's no actual swear jar, but you really can be fined $1 for every swear word that you utter in public in West Virginia.

Nikki: It's part of West Virginia code 61 815, profane, swearing, and drunkenness.

Nikki: And it states, if any person arrived at the age of discretion, profanely, curse, or swear, or get drunk in public, he shall be fined by a justice $1 for every offense.

Nikki: All right, ready for the last one?

Salina: I think so.

Nikki: Number six, two for one.

Nikki: Beers are illegal.

Nikki: Real, fake, which state?

Salina: I want to say true, and I want to say because happy hour was illegal here for a long time.

Nikki: Oh, I didn't know that.

Salina: I need to be careful in these terms.

Salina: But it wasn't allowed for a long time.

Nikki: Like the type of specials you could offer, probably, yeah.

Salina: And you had to call it people found ways around it, of course, but you couldn't call it happy hour.

Salina: Okay, let's see.

Salina: For some reason, I'm wanting to think of a state, like wherever Budweiser is headquartered or something.

Salina: And I'm thinking, would your research have been led by looking closely at Southern states, or would you really have just been running out of ordinances to highlight that you could find?

Salina: It's a real question unanswerable until you tell me later.

Salina: So I'm going to say true, and I'm going to say Colorado with the Rocky Mountains.

Nikki: Good guess.

Salina: It's wrong.

Nikki: Let me say my research did not run out of laws and ordinances.

Nikki: I had plenty more to do, but I just felt like it was getting a little long.

Nikki: But this one is very true, and it is a home state law in Columbus, Georgia.

Nikki: Setting one price for two beers is a law that was created to protect a local craft beer company that opened up after Prohibition.

Nikki: They needed to be able to be competitive with larger brewers, so a law was set to prohibit selling less than cost beers.

Nikki: So you were kind of on the right track about a place with a large brewing company because it's sort of the big guy versus the little guy.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: It's interesting because I feel like maybe I had heard something similar and maybe that had somehow affected bars around Georgia Southern or something.

Salina: Anyway, but maybe yeah.

Nikki: So so lots of ways to run afoul of the law in the south.

Nikki: But if it makes you feel any better, I think you're safe to trust that the restaurants you're eating at know the laws that apply to them.

Nikki: Maybe just do a little research before you take in or take out into public any wildlife, and I think you'll be okay.

Nikki: It's not that hard.

Salina: Sure.

Nikki: Not that complicated.

Nikki: So that has been this week's extra lawful, extra sugar.