Designing Women S3 E7 - The Evil Money-sucking, Cash-whoring, Decorator Monster

In an unexpected twist, LBT “Schoolhouse Rocks” audiences in 1989 about fair labor practices. Meanwhile, in a tale as old as time, Mary Jo gets ripped off by a body shop. And poor Anthony misses the turn at “the Big Chicken” (if you know, you know).

Stick around for this week’s "Extra Sugar", where we take a look at workers’ rights in the U.S. and the South. You know, keepin’ it light.

Dig deeper with these reads:

• Starbucks workers drive nationwide surge in union organizing

• Union Members Summary - 2021 A01 Results

• Why unions are growing and shrinking at the same time

• What Caused the Decline of Unions in America? - Pacific Standard

• Approval of Labor Unions at Highest Point Since 1965

• Majorities of adults see decline of union membership as bad for the U.S. and working people

• What Unions Do | AFL-CIO

• Right to Work Laws

• The Pros and Cons of Joining a Labor Union | Fox Business

• Despite public support, Southern unions still face barriers to growth

• Right-To-Work Laws Are Good For Workers

• How the South Became Anti-Union - Flagpole

• Perks Members Of Congress Give To Themselves – The Selfie Report

More on some in-show references:

• The Tucker Was the 1940s Car of the Future | History| Smithsonian Magazine

• The Big Chicken | Marietta.com

Come on, let’s get into it!

Or listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts.

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Transcript

Salina: Hey, Nikki.

Nikki: Hey, Salina.

Salina: And welcome to Sweet Tea and TV.

Salina: Hey, y'all.

Salina: This don't worry, I'll play both parts.

Salina: Salina.

Salina: That was dumb.

Salina: All right, moving on.

Nikki: You're keeping up my end of the bargain.

Nikki: Thank you.

Salina: I actually have a housekeeping thing before we get started.

Nikki: Housekeeping?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I don't know if you remember this or not, but last episode we talked about who would we pick to appear on a banknote, like, if we got I remember.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: And I made an offhand comment about being surprised that Eisenhower was on the dime.

Salina: Here's.

Salina: Why?

Salina: I was nervous.

Salina: I started thinking about it, and I was like, I think I said the wrong legacy for him.

Salina: I said something about him, like, being the reason for the highway system.

Nikki: Oh, okay.

Salina: So I went and I fact checked myself.

Nikki: Oh, thank God.

Salina: I have great news.

Nikki: Okay.

Salina: I was right.

Nikki: I knew you were right.

Salina: I thought maybe I had gotten it confused with, like, a Truman legacy.

Salina: So this is the new President's podcast, in case you were wondering.

Salina: But anyways, I was right.

Salina: That's the important part.

Salina: So that's the important part.

Salina: That's what's important.

Salina: Well, hold on.

Salina: We're getting there.

Salina: We're getting there.

Salina: So I wound up running across a couple of interesting things that I either didn't know at all or I kind of forgotten about.

Salina: But one is, like, this is a cool guy.

Salina: He's a cool guy.

Salina: I hear myself.

Salina: I had days and confused in my head.

Salina: It's not important.

Salina: Okay, so he sponsored and signed the Civil Rights Bill of 1957.

Salina: He balanced the budget not once, not twice, but three times.

Salina: That's impressive.

Salina: We don't really get that happening a lot anymore.

Salina: I'm just saying it's important.

Salina: He ended the Korean War, and he kept America at peace.

Salina: So suddenly, I'm, like, sitting there.

Salina: I'm, like, looking at all of this, and I'm like, on the dollar.

Salina: Well, I was like, he should be on the quarter.

Salina: And then, well, something went wrong.

Salina: I did get something wrong.

Salina: He's not on the dime at all.

Nikki: He's on the silver dollar.

Salina: I don't even half dollar, like some special coin that doesn't exist anymore.

Salina: It's FDR that's on the dime.

Salina: So I got my old white men confused.

Nikki: Sure.

Salina: Got it.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: They all look the same when they're on silver.

Nikki: It's true.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: It's hard to tell the difference.

Salina: So I just felt like I needed to come back because someone out there knows who's on a dime.

Nikki: I'm hoping a few people know, just not us.

Salina: It's hard to say.

Salina: I was like, it wasn't you, and it wasn't me.

Nikki: I'm not a coin collector.

Salina: I could have put anybody on the dime.

Nikki: And you probably would have been like, yes, except Lincoln.

Nikki: I know Lincoln.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: Anyway, so I just felt like and.

Nikki: I know George Washington.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: See?

Salina: A lot of dollars.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Wait.

Nikki: Weird.

Salina: Is it?

Nikki: I don't know.

Salina: I used to wait tables.

Nikki: I feel weird.

Salina: So it all connects, though.

Salina: And here's why.

Salina: Banknotes are currency.

Salina: What is currency, really?

Salina: Money.

Salina: And where does money come from?

Salina: Work.

Nikki: Treasury.

Salina: And what is this episode kind of about?

Salina: Workers rights.

Nikki: Oh, look at you.

Nikki: Did you just transition us?

Salina: Kind of.

Nikki: So can I go into the Hulu episode description?

Salina: Please take this away from me.

Nikki: Wow.

Nikki: Well done.

Nikki: I like it.

Nikki: So this episode is called but they're really great curtains, or IMDb says it's just curtains, so you decide.

Nikki: The Hulu episode description is the women of Sugar Bakers find themselves literally, literally in the middle of a labor dispute with angry pickets surrounding the building.

Nikki: January 2, 1989 is when it aired.

Nikki: So we're getting close to the 90.

Salina: Well, they're in style, so we need.

Nikki: The did you know the 90s were 30 years ago?

Salina: I can't talk about it.

Nikki: I know.

Nikki: We are calling this one it doesn't matter if it's curtains or well, they're but they're really great curtains.

Nikki: We're calling it the evil money sucking cash whoring decorator monster.

Salina: And that's no hate to money suckers cash horrors or monster decorators.

Nikki: That was a line in the show.

Salina: It was.

Salina: Thank you.

Nikki: Blame LBT.

Nikki: And or Pamela Norris because they co wrote this one.

Nikki: And this is the first time we've seen her writing credit for Norris.

Nikki: Salina tells me according to her IMDb, she's here to stay through the end of the show.

Nikki: Her credits include a four year stint on SNL, including an Emmy nomination, and she also co wrote the movie troop Beverly Hills.

Nikki: I, however, am not just your parrot.

Nikki: I do my own research.

Salina: Oh, perfect.

Nikki: When I researched Pamela Norris, I found out that your description didn't include her illustrious stint of three Jeopardy.

Nikki: Wins in 1985.

Nikki: She was also a co producer on Hearts of Fire and a consulting producer on Emerald.

Nikki: Also, LBT.

Nikki: Vehicles.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: They must be good friends in real life.

Salina: I'm so sorry.

Salina: I just thought you would they could troop Beverly Hills thing was the most interesting.

Salina: I was trying to tailor it to your thank you.

Nikki: I appreciate that.

Salina: I didn't know about the Jeopardy.

Salina: Thing.

Salina: I know.

Nikki: That's crazy.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Good for her.

Nikki: So it's directed by David trainer.

Nikki: General reactions.

Nikki: Give me one.

Salina: I'll give you one.

Salina: Well, okay.

Salina: All right.

Nikki: Is going to give me, like, eight.

Salina: Yeah, you know it.

Salina: So we've given LBT.

Salina: A lot of praise over the course of the show for using, like, this is a vehicle to raise important issues and certainly taking on the lack of protection for laborer.

Salina: Yeah, them is very admirable.

Salina: There's no getting around that.

Salina: And I'm guessing it was pretty rare for 1989.

Salina: I did actually try and poke around.

Salina: I didn't see anything where they really did anything significant in any shows.

Salina: I'm sure someone could prove me wrong, but I just feel like the execution for this one was a little off.

Salina: Let me tell you why.

Nikki: Tell me.

Salina: I think it's because it's hard for me to watch this episode and not think about how something would be executed today.

Nikki: Okay.

Salina: So I think today it would be handled differently.

Salina: I think we give more screen time to the workers and like Margaret, who we meet later in the episode, I think we would have given them the opportunity to tell their story.

Salina: I think we were sort of like in this version, we're sort of telling the story for them.

Salina: And I also thought the timing needed some fine tuning on this one.

Salina: I didn't not like the B plot for Mary Joe's Car situation, but I do think that that pulled from the main thrust of the episode, and especially when we're focusing on something that we're considering important.

Salina: And then another thing that could have done, if we just can't lose that, then I think we could have tightened up how long we spent just being flabbergasted by the picketing of Sugar.

Salina: We spent a lot of time living in that moment.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: So that was my very first general reaction.

Salina: It was four things, and I think.

Nikki: You touched on a few things I have throughout the episode, throughout our podcast episode.

Nikki: So my first general reaction is that this is two advocacy style episodes in a row.

Nikki: So we just had one.

Nikki: The last one we covered had those sharp points about relationships and sexual harassment with the construction workers.

Salina: Right.

Nikki: And so we talked a lot about sexual harassment.

Nikki: This one, we're going to talk about workers rights.

Nikki: So it just kind of feels like a little bit of a heavy run back to back.

Salina: Yeah, I agree with that.

Nikki: But I did want to bring up here because I'm bringing up the fact that you're mentioning it was sort of advocacy style, talking about workers rights.

Nikki: I'm saying the same thing.

Nikki: So I found that 1988 was the scene for the longest strike ever of the Writers Guild against Hollywood TV and film studios.

Nikki: It lasted 153 days, March to August.

Nikki: Notably, this meant that the fall season for shows that year.

Nikki: So fall of 1988 started later.

Nikki: In fact, that's why it was late.

Nikki: We always announced the start of the or the air dates at the beginning of each episode.

Nikki: Never occurred to me that the first episode of the season, Ursula, aired in November.

Salina: It did occur to me, but I thought they were somehow trying to tie the next episode, the Candidate, where Julia.

Nikki: Rose for office oh, that's smart.

Salina: With the election.

Nikki: Oh, that's smart.

Salina: But it was wrong.

Salina: So this is so interesting.

Nikki: Okay, so, yeah, like we were saying, previous seasons had started in September.

Nikki: I also found that there were massive worker strikes in Poland that year and as well, along or among nurses in England.

Nikki: So it's just kind of a big year for workers rights.

Nikki: And so this was very topical for.

Salina: The time that we're talking, and we know LBT.

Salina: Loves the current event.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: That's really man, that's some impressive research.

Salina: I like that.

Salina: Okay, so you explored real life, and I explored TV.

Nikki: I felt like it had to come from somewhere.

Nikki: Sure.

Salina: Because this is such a it's so specific.

Nikki: It's very niche.

Nikki: And to do it back to back with that previous episode about sexual harassment, it just felt something was going on.

Nikki: Something was circulating.

Salina: I mean, I don't want this to be condescending.

Salina: Good job.

Salina: Thank you.

Salina: I'm so scared.

Nikki: It's good.

Salina: Every time I tell somebody, good job, I'm like, do I sound like an ahole?

Salina: I appreciate because I mean, it, like, in a really nice way.

Nikki: It's a huge compliment to me that you say that.

Salina: So thank you.

Salina: You're very welcome.

Salina: Okay, so my second my second general reaction is that we get two things that I think work well in sitcoms.

Salina: So my second reaction is seven things.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: But I love a little one.

Nikki: And then sub points.

Salina: That's right.

Salina: Literally, I love a little fish out of water story.

Salina: Or a big fish out of water story.

Salina: So they find themselves, our ladies, sewing their curtains in the factory.

Salina: And it was making me think a lot about I Love Lucy.

Salina: Like, it came out of that playbook.

Salina: Have you seen the Chocolate Factory episode?

Nikki: Sure.

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: We all have.

Salina: No, we haven't.

Salina: Also, if you're out there and you have not seen The Chocolate Factory, you have to it's like sitcom history.

Salina: It's literally watching royalty, like, invent funniness.

Salina: And it's important.

Salina: Right.

Salina: And, like, that episode came out at least 30 years before we were born.

Salina: And you know what we did?

Salina: We took the time.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: I mean, you just have to watch it.

Nikki: It's lucille Ball.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: That's classic TV.

Salina: But it also kind of goes back to that thing that we talk about.

Salina: Please don't use your age for an excuse not to have seen something before you were born.

Salina: Like, get it together, whatever.

Salina: It's fine.

Salina: So also, the second thing that I really thought worked well here and in sitcoms generally is, like, preconceived notions being turned on their heads.

Salina: So Mary Joe calls the picketers, quote, unquote, unskilled laborers at one point before she gets a little taste of what they do.

Salina: And then even Julia is on the wrong side of things for much of the episode.

Salina: Or at least what the episode, like, sets up is the wrong side of things.

Nikki: Right?

Salina: It is to me, too, but there might be people out there who see the other side, so I don't want to all anyone's toes, because for her, the strike means, like, a loss of business.

Salina: For Sugar Bakers, they're always on the precipice of losing the business.

Nikki: Maybe.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: But then she runs into Margaret at the factory.

Salina: She realizes they're getting paid by the pace.

Salina: Well, yes, but by the piece.

Salina: This is a Southern podcast but they're getting paid by the piece, which is illegal, which I had to look up because I don't know anything.

Nikki: I just word, so that's true.

Salina: I think it is true.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: I think I looked it up.

Salina: It was like a month ago.

Salina: I'm like, where are we?

Salina: Who am I?

Salina: Who are you?

Salina: What are you doing in my house in my closet?

Salina: Yeah, what are you doing in my closet?

Salina: Strays generals.

Nikki: I have two more generals.

Salina: So sorry.

Nikki: Along the lines of what I think you're kind of getting at there, I appreciated Charlene's first reaction to the strike, which is that people weren't going to have food, they were going to starve.

Nikki: It just felt like a really true to her character response was oddly on topic, but it was still, like, more in her wheelhouse, like the story, the connection she told to the strikers, I just liked it.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: And like, true to her, not just the character that we've met, but where she came from.

Salina: Right.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: That all felt like it fit together nicely.

Nikki: I agree.

Nikki: And then my last general reaction goes back to that b plot about women at a mechanic, and that b plot felt irrelevant for this episode.

Nikki: I feel like there was a better place for it, but I'm glad she did it because I think it's a universal female experience.

Salina: There's something that's aged.

Nikki: Exactly.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Not a day I have been guilty of calling a male figure in my life from the mechanic so that they knew that I had someone that I was interacting with.

Nikki: So they couldn't mess me up or having to.

Salina: Fall back into that old stereotype where and I have to do this from time to time, and I don't like to do it, but just to get people off my a*** is I'll be like, oh, I'm so sorry, but I'm.

Nikki: Just going to have to run that by my husband.

Salina: And I don't want to do that, but I just sort of get the vibe for who I'm on the phone with, and I'm like, I do that.

Nikki: When I'm at the store and they're trying to sell me Internet or a new cell phone.

Nikki: I'm like, oh, gosh, my husband handles I wouldn't even know where to start.

Nikki: What's a gigabyte.

Nikki: I don't understand.

Nikki: I don't know.

Nikki: I'll ask my husband and we'll get back to you.

Salina: But, you know, the truth is, too, is it's like we're also partners.

Salina: That's what the truth of it is.

Nikki: That's the real truth.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I mean, we really do find things by each other, and I expect the same in kind, so we're not trying to be damsels in distress.

Salina: Sometimes you just need to get someone off of you.

Nikki: Well, Kyle, I am not a damsel in distress because Kyle was gone one day and he had his car and I had my car, and the backstory is I don't drive my car very often.

Nikki: I hadn't driven in in probably three months because we just drive one car now and it wouldn't start.

Nikki: And I had the kids with me, so I had to jump my car off by myself.

Nikki: Another costco find is a battery.

Nikki: That a battery jumper.

Nikki: That's electric.

Nikki: It's amazing.

Nikki: Did it myself and I hate doing that.

Nikki: It terrifies me.

Nikki: And I had to go to the battery store and get a new battery myself.

Nikki: And the man was really nice about the whole thing, but he did try to sell me like the premium battery, of course, like $150 more than the middle of the road one.

Nikki: And I looked at him and I said, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I don't drive this car very often.

Nikki: That seems excessive for what I need.

Nikki: I appreciate that you think you're looking out for me, but I'm going to go with the second tier one.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: And then Kyle later told me I would have gotten the cheapest one.

Salina: I was like, whatever man, whatever.

Salina: I wouldn't even gotten a battery.

Nikki: I would have just pushed it with my manly muscles.

Nikki: Whatever.

Nikki: So now strays.

Salina: Sure.

Nikki: I have stray.

Nikki: For the strays, I have fashion notes.

Salina: Oh, wonderful.

Salina: Oh my gosh.

Salina: Are there visuals?

Nikki: But I have visuals, so I need a second.

Salina: Do you want me to do astray while you're I do.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: So yeah, I think just building on.

Nikki: What you then I'm going to interrupt you and say, I found them.

Salina: Well, perfect.

Salina: Actually, my first stray was about Mary Joe in the car thing.

Salina: So the only other thing I was going to say is I completely identify with her, them asking her to make the noise.

Salina: I've had to do that before like more than once.

Nikki: To a mechanic?

Salina: Yes.

Salina: Over the phone.

Salina: And I could just totally see like a whole group of people just sitting around like laughing at the phone.

Nikki: Listen to this woman going, a chug, a chug.

Nikki: I don't know.

Nikki: It's not a real noise.

Salina: Yeah, I'm sure I was like a ping ting.

Nikki: Ma'am, I think your tire fell off.

Salina: You need to get the hospital right away.

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: So my first fashion note was just the ladies in jewel tones at the beginning of the episode.

Nikki: So they were all sort of in that same palette.

Salina: They're all pretty colors.

Nikki: Palette is the right word.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Got like a nice gold, a deep purple.

Salina: And that color Turlene is wearing is.

Nikki: Like it's kind of like a teal turquoise.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Pretty.

Nikki: It is pretty.

Nikki: Then we had this look.

Nikki: I'm going to call this a look.

Nikki: This is like a whole thing from Mary Joe.

Nikki: A black turtleneck with a hot pink skirt.

Nikki: How cute that is.

Nikki: She looks adorable.

Salina: Yeah, like that.

Nikki: And I feel like that outfit would hold today.

Salina: Do her right.

Nikki: So cute, right?

Nikki: Exactly.

Nikki: And then just another Julia crisscross belt.

Salina: She's in it again, which I almost sent you something.

Salina: I saw it on Stranger things, I think.

Nikki: The crisscross belt.

Salina: I think I did.

Nikki: God, I wonder if one of the.

Salina: Moms was wearing it.

Nikki: I have Googled this several times.

Nikki: I'm a little embarrassed because I need to know if it was a specific designer or, like we talked about before, or was it something they specially created for her.

Nikki: But if you saw it I saw.

Salina: Something that was really similar.

Salina: I should have a picture.

Nikki: You should have.

Salina: Well, I'm going to rewatch all of Stranger Things again, because I'm really cool like that.

Salina: And as I do, I'll look out for the belt again.

Nikki: Thank you.

Salina: It might be about a week before I get through all four seasons, you know, again, I understand.

Salina: I have a big life.

Nikki: There's a lot going on.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Good fashion notes.

Salina: Thank you.

Salina: Mary Joe, we learned she drives a Volvo.

Nikki: Tuck that away in the old Marine.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Telling me.

Salina: It's just good to know.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: And I also think it's just good.

Nikki: To know about someone we don't know well.

Salina: I think sometimes it's sort of like playing into their personality a little bit.

Salina: It's a very safe car.

Salina: She has kids.

Nikki: Family oriented.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: The total they're charging to fix it, 506 of them.

Salina: That would be 1173 today.

Salina: That's a lot of money.

Nikki: That is a lot of money.

Salina: That's a lot of jack.

Salina: That's all I'm saying.

Salina: And I got one more.

Salina: Suzanne goes to get pork rinds.

Nikki: What about Noel?

Nikki: She doesn't care.

Salina: Addendum pork rinds are delicious.

Nikki: She really doesn't.

Salina: Don't feed them to Noel.

Salina: And don't eat her.

Salina: Maybe she's eating them now because she cannot eat them later.

Nikki: Right?

Salina: Maybe not.

Nikki: On your note about Mary Joe's Volvo, then I think in this same episode, we hear about Suzanne's Cadillac.

Nikki: And I don't know if we've ever talked about the fact that she drives a Cadillac.

Salina: Wait, is it a suzanne drives a Mercedes?

Nikki: Maybe it's a Mercedes.

Nikki: You're right.

Nikki: Maybe it's a Mercedes.

Nikki: Maybe Julia drives a Lincoln Town Car.

Nikki: She does.

Nikki: Is that soon?

Salina: Yes.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Foreshadowing.

Nikki: And also the sweet TNTV automobile podcast sort of.

Nikki: I'm like is a Mercedes.

Salina: Or to follow our president's podcast.

Salina: They're all so good.

Salina: They're all so good.

Nikki: My last stray is about location.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: So Anthony refers to Textile City as being off 75 north and then exiting at the Big chicken.

Nikki: So there is a KFC, which we talked about in season one of the podcast.

Nikki: I meant to look up what episode?

Nikki: And I did not do that.

Nikki: But we talked about there being a KFC.

Nikki: It's housed in a four story rep one, episode two thank you.

Nikki: Of a giant chicken.

Nikki: It's a very Georgia thing.

Nikki: It's located off highway 41, not I 75.

Nikki: So I've looked this up multiple times on Google maps because I honestly got a little confused in my own head.

Nikki: You would pass it on the way to Textile City if it's off 75 north.

Nikki: But you don't turn at it to get to Dalton, which is where, allegedly, Textile City is.

Nikki: It's like a whole side trip on its own.

Nikki: You get off the exit, you go down the road.

Salina: So what we have is a southern directional faux PA.

Salina: Correct.

Salina: But let me ask you something.

Salina: So this confused you in hearing it, or did you read somewhere that this was wrong?

Nikki: I read it in your notes that it was wrong.

Nikki: And then again, because I am more than just your parrots, I had to go back and do my own research because I've been to the Big Chicken before, and I was like, I should know this, and I wanted to know of, which I spoke.

Salina: Sorry, I didn't realize I shared that part with you.

Salina: About the directional faux paw a little.

Salina: Right.

Nikki: Thank you for that.

Salina: Yeah, that's fair.

Nikki: And then the distance is wrong.

Nikki: The distances were a little bit confusing.

Nikki: Intentionally?

Nikki: I think so.

Nikki: But Dalton, just so everybody knows, is about an hour and a half north of Atlanta when they said it's, like, on the Tennessee border.

Nikki: And the Big Chicken is located in Marietta, also north of Atlanta, but very.

Salina: Far from the Tennessee border.

Nikki: Correct?

Nikki: Yeah, but not 4 hours far, which is how long it took them when they got lost at the end.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Anyhow yeah, see, it's fair for me, though, what's sad is, though, I live here.

Salina: Live here?

Salina: Family of Marietta.

Salina: And the only reason I knew is because I saw it on IMDb.

Salina: Yeah, I would have noticed.

Nikki: Well, Kyle used to live in Marietta in college, so I know it's that general direction, and it's not directionally inaccurate.

Nikki: I want to be clear about that.

Nikki: It is the right direction.

Nikki: It's just you don't get there and turn left to get to Dalton.

Nikki: You keep going, it would be a whole side trip on its own.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Maybe worth it.

Nikki: If you like.

Salina: KFC, don't ever go left.

Salina: Isn't that the takeaway?

Salina: Sure.

Nikki: I try not to go right.

Nikki: It's usually the hardest turn.

Salina: All right, lead home and just keep trucking straight.

Salina: Take the road less traveled.

Salina: Right.

Nikki: I just got my new tattoo.

Salina: Perfect.

Salina: Get all of those.

Nikki: All of it down my forearm.

Salina: Yeah, get yourself start that sleeve.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: All right.

Salina: So what about what we liked?

Nikki: Suzanne's Anecdotes are on point in this episode.

Salina: All right, tell me what really worked for you.

Salina: I loved also a high for me.

Nikki: I loved her.

Nikki: Comparison of Mary Joe's car troubles to Colleen Metcalf.

Nikki: They said having her ears pinned back made her chin too prominent.

Nikki: Then having her chin filed down made her nose look too big.

Nikki: And on and on and on.

Nikki: If it was bumpy, make it flat.

Nikki: If it was big, make it little.

Nikki: If it was little, make it huge.

Nikki: Until every inch of that woman's body had been whittled tucked, lifted, pinned, implanted, or sucked.

Nikki: I mean, she had enough plastic in her for a Tupperware party.

Nikki: I loved that.

Nikki: I loved it so much.

Nikki: But I didn't love it as much as the next one.

Nikki: When she said she herself was made mostly of grizzle, when she was talking about the lady with all the meat hanging off of her at the pageant, she said there was a woman she had steaks and chops all over herself and she was carrying a sign that said beauty pageants are meat markets and Lady Gaga.

Nikki: Right?

Nikki: She said, then you're looking at grade A prime rib right here.

Nikki: She said she herself was mostly grizzle.

Salina: I just love the way she said it.

Nikki: I listened to it multiple times.

Salina: That's so funny.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: That first delivery, too, where she's just like talking about Colleen or whatever.

Salina: It's just really great writing.

Salina: But you need the two things, right?

Salina: You need the writing and you need the good act.

Nikki: You can't separate the two.

Salina: No.

Salina: Because one, if you don't have one, you have nothing, right?

Salina: So, yeah, it was great.

Nikki: I loved her.

Salina: I had one more additional Suzanne line that was alike for me.

Salina: This is later on when they find out they're only going to get $0.50 for 4 hours of work.

Salina: And she says $0.50?

Salina: Are you telling me that three grown up women just work 4 hours for fifty cents?

Salina: I once had a man offer me $400 just to and then right about that, Mary Joe cuts her off and.

Nikki: I want to hear it.

Salina: Yeah, just what I'm going to guess.

Salina: Motorboat.

Nikki: Oh, yeah.

Nikki: Maybe.

Salina: There you go.

Salina: So now we know.

Salina: We'll just fill that gap in.

Salina: There's a joke in there, too.

Salina: Anyways, what else did you like?

Nikki: My last, like for this episode was Anthony's impression of Mary Joe.

Salina: So good.

Salina: Get on with your sales.

Nikki: He was so funny.

Salina: That was great.

Salina: And then it is also just that idea of him just spitting out all of that real car savvy stuff.

Salina: It was just perfect.

Salina: And then him getting the offer of a date was nice.

Salina: That really did it for that guy.

Salina: I've always wanted myself a car woman.

Salina: There were some funny parts at the textile factory.

Salina: It's not the right word, I think.

Salina: So workshop, I guess.

Salina: I don't know.

Nikki: Sweatshop.

Salina: You can tell I've been in a lot of textile factories.

Salina: Anyways, sewing room.

Salina: Yes.

Salina: When the ladies try and finish sewing the curtains themselves, mary Joe calls Suzanne an unskilled laborer.

Salina: To which Suzanne replies she's proud to say that none of her social circle has skills.

Salina: I love that.

Nikki: It's a point of pride for her.

Salina: Which is really it's really all Suzanne things.

Salina: Because the other thing that I thought was the funniest is when she sewed her hair and hair curses.

Salina: And let me tell you why.

Salina: Because that is me in Home Eck.

Nikki: I would have loved did you really do that?

Salina: No, but I was no good.

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: I would have loved if, like, a hair piece had fallen out or something.

Nikki: That would have been very funny.

Salina: Yeah, but she was batting 1000.

Salina: Is that right?

Salina: What do you bet?

Nikki: That sounds right.

Salina: Okay, yes, she was batting twelve.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: I also like Julia's schoolhouse.

Salina: Rock on fair labor.

Salina: That's what I'm calling it.

Salina: Schoolhouse of rock.

Salina: Wait, House of Rock.

Salina: That's not it.

Salina: What is it?

Nikki: Schoolhouse Rock.

Salina: That's it.

Nikki: Yeah, you got it right.

Salina: I was getting Jack Black movie confused.

Salina: I am not batting 1000.

Salina: Okay, so this is what she says.

Salina: She says, you know, I was reciting it to myself just this morning, but there's a problem with it.

Salina: It doesn't wash.

Salina: See, basically that argument goes, it's okay to be unfair to a small group if that makes things run smoother for a large group.

Salina: It sounds good until you realize that's always been the excuse for all the injustice in the world.

Salina: You have to look out for that argument because ultimately we're all small groups and we're all labor.

Salina: So until you wake up and take in that fact, Mr.

Salina: Emery, textile city ain't big enough for the both of us.

Salina: So I thought the lines were good.

Salina: It's also a nice queue up for this week's extra sugar, which will be about labor unions.

Salina: It sounds like it's a joke.

Salina: And I'm going to tell you something else.

Salina: Like, it's going to be a taste test, but it's really going to be about labor unions.

Salina: So buckle up, guys.

Nikki: I feel like it's also a queue up for a thing I didn't like.

Salina: Tell me, tell me.

Nikki: You mentioned this sort of at the top of the episode.

Nikki: I thought the way they introduced that lady at the end was sort of lame.

Nikki: And almost the whole button on the episode, that piece of the episode was sort of lame.

Nikki: So they've had these people standing outside their place of business for a week, weeks, some amount of time.

Nikki: Charlene's been out there talking to them.

Salina: Getting their coffee stories.

Nikki: It took this one lady coming at the end on the weekend to finally get Julia to be an ally.

Nikki: The rest of the episode, she's been kind of a jerk about labor rights.

Nikki: So it took this one lady to bring her around or something.

Nikki: I don't know.

Nikki: It just felt really lame.

Salina: Well, this is what I was talking about, about the execution.

Salina: Just slightly off.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: So I think this will kind of pair nicely with what you're saying.

Salina: And this is one of my dislikes, which was I liked what she said to the manager.

Salina: I'm not sure that it's fair she's the one that got to say it, right?

Salina: It should have been, at the very least, Charles Charlene.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Because she understood what exactly we've been saying this whole time.

Salina: She understood from the beginning and she was like an ally.

Salina: From the beginning and so it felt a little unfair for Julia to be able to lay the SmackDown.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: I love her terminator tirades.

Nikki: I really do, because we talk all the time about how articulate she is and how she says the things we wish we could say.

Nikki: But I do sometimes get annoyed.

Nikki: She gets to be the mouthpiece for everything when she's not always the I don't know.

Nikki: I'm with you.

Nikki: She didn't deserve to say that.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Sit down.

Nikki: Julia, no one asked your opinion.

Salina: What else did you dislike?

Nikki: That was only when I wrote down.

Salina: Okay, you're like, I have other things, I'm going to keep them to myself.

Salina: That better not be for your secret podcast.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: So I only had just one more thing and this actually, I think the reason I even thought about this in the first place is because you mentioned at some point, sometimes the laugh track is weird.

Salina: And so I felt like I would have not kept the laugh track over this line that Anthony said just because it wasn't really funny and it was kind of like it's kind of like a horrible situation.

Salina: Maybe it's an uncomfortable laugh, but he says to Mary Joe, usually this room is crammed full of little women and big sewing machines and it's like and I was like, that's just weird.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I'm like, well, none of that's funny.

Salina: What?

Salina: The line is not funny.

Salina: Reacting in that way isn't funny.

Salina: I feel weird about laughing.

Salina: Like the laughter around it.

Salina: And laugh tracks already suck, right?

Salina: So the whole thing, I was just like, weird.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: But anyways, I think it's got me once you said something, it's got me thinking about where they decided to put those laugh tracks and it wasn't a good placement.

Nikki: Not always good.

Salina: Yeah, pretty much.

Salina: So do you want to rate this sucker?

Nikki: I do.

Nikki: My rating scale is tomatoed auto body shops.

Nikki: I'm not going to be able to say that again.

Salina: That's a toughie.

Nikki: I don't know why I picked that.

Salina: That's real tough.

Nikki: I'm going to shorten it to tabs.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: I gave it three out of five tabs.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: I thought this episode was fine.

Nikki: It wasn't bad.

Nikki: Just wasn't my favorite to watch.

Nikki: I love the dialogue in parts, especially at the beginning.

Nikki: Some of the things Suzanne got to say, it felt kind of preachy, which we've said before, or at least I've said before.

Nikki: There are some episodes where I didn't feel like I was being preached to.

Nikki: I knew I was watching something tremendous, but I didn't feel like someone was shoving it down my throats.

Nikki: This one felt like that.

Salina: It's like the reading episode where dash golf comes and they're like, books are important the more you know.

Salina: Yeah, it's similar to that.

Salina: And actually, I think that might have been episode seven in season two.

Salina: And this is episode seven.

Salina: So maybe this is just where we get you're just trying to hammer out a bunch of episodes.

Salina: Oh, yeah.

Salina: I mean, it's just where it's just pretext.

Nikki: Yeah, it's fine.

Salina: I also gave it three out of five proudly unskilled social circles.

Salina: Three out of five proudly unskilled social circles.

Salina: So also two very difficult reading skills.

Nikki: You said yours better, though.

Salina: Well, I'll screw up other places.

Salina: There were some funny parts sprinkled throughout, same as you.

Salina: But again, it's the same stuff.

Salina: It didn't feel quite right.

Salina: It didn't feel quite finished, so it was a little lacking in some areas.

Salina: So three out of five.

Salina: Three out of five ain't bad.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: It's average.

Salina: Who buttered our biscuits?

Nikki: I guess it's the Sugar Baker's team.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Because they put aside the really good deal to advocate on behalf of all the workers.

Salina: Mine was integrity question mark.

Nikki: Oh.

Salina: I wanted to do, like, a really large concept.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Are you going to break it down for us, or is that it just integrity question for what you will.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Who lost the episode?

Salina: Who served us lumpy gravy?

Nikki: It has to be Mr.

Nikki: Emery, right?

Nikki: There's not another choice.

Salina: I have, like, eight losses here.

Nikki: And Julia.

Nikki: Right.

Salina: I have everyone else question mark.

Nikki: Oh.

Salina: Suzanne had to participate in manual labor, sewed her hair in curtains, can't move her neck, and gets threatened by coworkers unless she pickets.

Salina: Mary joe's mechanic.

Salina: If you just boil it down to that, it feels like she's having a rough day.

Salina: It feels like, I don't know, a day at work.

Salina: Mary Joe's car is being held hostage, so she's having to go, like, PRYA out of the hands of these people.

Salina: Sugar Bakers lost their motel client.

Salina: The textile place lost the Sugar Baker contract.

Salina: It feels like everyone's having lumpy gravy at this point.

Nikki: Some of them deserve it, though, I think.

Salina: There are no winners today.

Salina: 80s things.

Nikki: Jimmy Swagger.

Nikki: We've referenced him a lot.

Nikki: I think we even talked about him at one point in depth.

Salina: We did.

Salina: But this is I'd say the only thing that's different this time is that this is the first post scandal reference that insinuates that he's had an affair before this.

Salina: He was like I think he was still at his elevated status now.

Nikki: Really?

Salina: He's with the rest of us.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: It was just about him being, like, a TV evangelical.

Nikki: Oh, interesting.

Salina: I think.

Salina: And now, like, maybe we broke down.

Nikki: The fact that he had I think we did.

Nikki: So for anyone who hasn't listened to past episodes, he was sort of the original televangelist.

Nikki: He was widely on TV as being a pastor.

Salina: Yeah, I get that.

Salina: Him and Jim Baker, jim and Jerry Falwell, they all sort of run together.

Nikki: One of the originals.

Salina: I know, but I was just saying they all run together in my head.

Nikki: One of them.

Nikki: I'm so sorry, but he tearfully apologized on his television program in 1988 for being caught with a sex worker at a motel.

Salina: There was a lot of tearful apologies that year, I think.

Salina: Oh, really?

Nikki: From all of these.

Salina: Yeah, there was one.

Salina: Well, I didn't realize all I'm saying is you guys go watch the eyes of Tammy Faye Baker.

Salina: Or the eyes of Tammy whatever it's called, with Jessica Chastain.

Salina: Super good.

Nikki: Is that what it's about?

Salina: It's about her.

Salina: And she plays Tammy Faye.

Salina: And then her and Jim Baker and Their rise in that world.

Salina: And then they're fall.

Nikki: Right.

Salina: And it's really good.

Salina: Solid movie.

Salina: I mean, she did win an Oscar, so I guess it's something.

Nikki: The Smurfs is another 80 thing.

Nikki: 80s thing.

Nikki: That's what Charlene's brother looked like after working in Blue Ink.

Nikki: Then my last 80s thing is the Chevy Chavet.

Nikki: That's the car the employee at Textile City wants to buy with the money that she's earning.

Nikki: It was manufactured from the late 70s through the okay.

Salina: All right.

Salina: Good catch.

Salina: The only other one I have in 80s is Tucker.

Salina: This is mentioned when Anthony is speaking to Mary Joe's mechanic.

Salina: This was the 1988 movie with Jeff Bridges called Tucker the man and His Dream.

Salina: I don't think that's the best name for a movie, but who am I to say?

Salina: But it's about Preston Tucker.

Salina: He's the maverick car designer, and it's about his ill fated challenge to the auto industry with his revolutionary car concept.

Salina: We can link to an interesting article about his car that has been described like the Star Wars of that period.

Nikki: What was it?

Salina: I don't remember.

Salina: That is an interesting article.

Nikki: Oh, it wasn't the Back to the Future car.

Salina: No, that was interesting.

Salina: Which they're making an electric version of that.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Was the car of the future.

Salina: That'll be my next car.

Nikki: The DeLorean.

Nikki: That's the name I couldn't think of DeLorean.

Salina: Something practical.

Nikki: Sure.

Salina: Something to shuffle the kids around.

Salina: Then, of course, southern things.

Nikki: Somebody said hillbillies at some point.

Nikki: You've broken that one down for us in season one.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Episode go.

Nikki: Do you know what episode it was?

Salina: Oh, episode four, season one.

Nikki: Look at that.

Nikki: Another Stuckey's reference was in Suzanne's road trip diatribe.

Nikki: You want to say something about that?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Can we stay there for a second?

Nikki: Sure.

Salina: Are you sure?

Salina: Is that all you're going to say is Stuckey's?

Nikki: Yeah, that's all I'm going to say because we've talked about it before.

Salina: Well, it's really a string of Southern references, and she paints a pretty specific stereotype.

Salina: I think this is where we get the hillbillies, right?

Salina: Yeah, but about who stays in motels.

Salina: Stereotype, folks.

Salina: A stereotype.

Salina: I want to be very clear.

Salina: But she says, well, it's fine if you have a bunch of hillbillies traveling to Rock City with a bunch of kids in the backseat playing license plate bingo and eating cold biscuits out of wax paper and stopping at Stuckey's every five minutes for taffy.

Salina: I'm just saying there's a lot of things there to unpack.

Salina: We have Rock City that is located at the top of Lookout Mountain, which is in Tennessee, right?

Nikki: Oh, no, Georgia.

Salina: It's Georgia.

Salina: And that's funny you say that, because it is so far up there that I usually think it's in Chattanooga, but it's just right inside the line, about 6 miles in.

Salina: There's nature trails and panoramic views where you can see seven states.

Salina: But it's really turned into, like, a whole little touristy thing up there.

Salina: The cold biscuit and wax paper.

Nikki: Oh, wait, I have one more thing to add about Rock City.

Salina: Of course.

Nikki: It opened in 1932, and it gained prominence after an artist painted Sea Rock City on barn roofs across the Southeast.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: By 1969, more than 900 roofs and walls had been painted.

Nikki: And if you are from Sea Rock City sea Rock City.

Nikki: Have you seen do you not know what I'm talking about?

Salina: I've seen Sea Rock City on things.

Salina: I just thought it was like a.

Nikki: Marketing campaign in the 1930s.

Nikki: That's a pretty good one.

Nikki: It was.

Salina: How about an enduring legacy there?

Salina: And so what I was going to.

Nikki: Say is, if you've driven around the Southeast, you've probably seen mostly I mostly see birdhouses that are little red barns with a black roof, and it says Sea Rock City.

Nikki: There's one right outside my neighborhood, in fact.

Nikki: But I wanted to mention that because 900 roofs and walls having been painted by 1969.

Nikki: So 30 some odd years.

Nikki: That's a lot.

Salina: That's a lot.

Salina: Have you seen Rock City?

Nikki: I think I asked Kyle this question.

Nikki: I think we went there.

Nikki: I have friends that live in Chattanooga.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: And I think we went to visit them around Christmas, and we saw some lights up near Rock City.

Nikki: And I think we went to Roxy.

Nikki: I'm sure I went as a kid, too.

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: On the list to go back as an adult.

Salina: This is like that thing, too, where I just this doesn't make any sense.

Salina: But I get it because there's a cluster of, like, touristy things in that area.

Salina: In that area, yeah.

Salina: I get it confused with Anna Ruby falls.

Nikki: That was just going through my head.

Salina: Which I know for sure I've been to.

Salina: But Sea Rock City?

Salina: I'm actually not very sure.

Nikki: Yeah, I think they have.

Nikki: I was looking it up and actually thinking it would be a fun trip with the kids because what I read said that it was like the first mini golf in the Southeast or something.

Nikki: It hosted the first mini golf.

Nikki: And I should have written all this down.

Nikki: This man, like, built it for his wife, I think, and wanted it to be like, this fun thing.

Nikki: And so it was the first mini golf place, and anyway, it's a fun little tourist place.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: We've either been or not been.

Salina: You guys should totally go.

Salina: Sea Rock City.

Salina: Would you like to be a sponsor?

Nikki: Sponsor?

Nikki: A trip for us.

Nikki: We'd love to go.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Then we can definitely say we've been right.

Nikki: No questions.

Salina: Somebody's getting tagged soon.

Salina: So cold biscuit and wax paper.

Salina: All I have to say is don't hate Suzanne.

Salina: Some of the best biscuits you ever put in your mouth might be served in wax paper.

Salina: And the worst.

Salina: But also the best.

Nikki: Also the best.

Salina: You never know what you're going to get.

Salina: It's a total crapshoot.

Salina: It's usually like at a little gas station.

Salina: It's worth the chance.

Salina: Could be good.

Salina: Take the chance.

Salina: That's all I'm saying.

Salina: If you're in the south and you see it, get it.

Nikki: Agreed.

Salina: And then we talked about stuckey's before, but I just wanted to mention that I feel like that's bucky's 1.0.

Nikki: I think so.

Nikki: I don't know that I've been to a stuckey's before.

Salina: Well, I've never been to one.

Salina: I mean, maybe when I was real little.

Salina: Right.

Nikki: I don't remember being to one, I should say.

Salina: The reason I say that is because they're rest stops and they were really known for their clean bathrooms.

Salina: But stuckey started in Georgia, so that is a Georgia specific thing.

Nikki: Is the one that had Shoney's connected to it?

Salina: In God's perfect world, it would be.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Nice ducky con logs and Shoney's and.

Salina: Breakfast bar at Shoney's has a whole piece of heaven on her.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Do you have other southern things?

Nikki: I have one more.

Salina: Oh, tell me that Azaleas.

Nikki: So Julia is mad because the protesters are traipsing through her azaleas trapezin.

Nikki: Trapezin.

Nikki: A deep dive tells me they're not unique to the south.

Nikki: They have them in Asia and south America.

Nikki: But on the list of areas with an azalea festival, there are about 1.2 million of them that are hosted in the south, give or take a couple of hundred.

Salina: It feels like we took it over.

Nikki: I think so.

Salina: Yeah, that's right.

Salina: I think our research went different ways, but in the south, per use was good.

Salina: We're covering all the bases.

Salina: You will know everything about the Azilia before we leave.

Salina: No, but it became like a southern garden staple in the 1830s from what I read, and they were actually first planted in south Carolina, specifically Charleston.

Salina: I don't know if you go ran past that or not, but actually what I have is that here's what I'm trying to say.

Salina: If you are in the south and it is spring, you cannot swing a pan of crackling, comb bread and not hit yourself in azalea.

Nikki: You're so extra.

Salina: We're a southern podcast.

Nikki: I like it.

Salina: Suzanne mentions coca colas, which I thought was a very good like atlantean plug, but she also did it right.

Salina: She didn't say coca cola.

Salina: She said coca cola.

Salina: Coca cola, which is if it is a real very southern person, that is what you'll hear.

Salina: I don't say that, but again, I'm a terrible southerner.

Salina: Tammy wynette charlene refers to something Suzanne said sounding like a tammy Wynette song.

Salina: Sounds like they're talking about the song.

Salina: Divorce or divorce, I don't know.

Salina: In Atlanta area.

Salina: Deep cut.

Salina: You already mentioned the Big Chicken you had talked about before.

Salina: But what I could not remember from that, Nikki's Nibbles, because it's been so long, is whether or not you talked about what it was before.

Salina: It was a KFC.

Salina: Did you talk about that?

Nikki: This feels familiar.