Designing Women S7 E6 Extra Sugar - Toast, Ghosts and UFOs, Oh My!

This week’s Extra Sugar is inspired by Mary Jo’s brush with the supernatural after Elvis’s face appears on her shovel in season 7, episode 17.

We’re also introduced to Jade Herman, a self-proclaimed expert in the “para-spectacular”, who “markets and promotes everything from Jesus’ face on a toaster to UFOs landing in a wheat field outside of London.”

Naturally, Salina then curated a list of five para-spectacular…occurrences…for your listening pleasure. So if you’re into toasts, ghosts, and UFOs, well, this one's for you. 

Some reads:

• ‘Virgin Mary grilled cheese’ sells for $28,000

• 11 Foods That Have an Uncanny Resemblance to Famous People 

• Elvis sightings - Wikipedia 

• Windham man’s toast with Jesus’ face now listed on eBay for $25,000 

• 16 Famous People Who Claim They've Seen UFOs, And Yes It's Exactly Who You'd Expect 

• New Pentagon report on UFOs includes hundreds of new incidents but no evidence of aliens | AP News 

• Celebrity ghosts and where they’ve been seen 

• See Jesus in toast? Elvis on a chip? Science tells who sees faces in objects 

Come on y’all, let’s get into it! 

Or listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music.

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Transcript

Extra Sugar may be calling toast ghosts and UFOs. Why do you keep saying we may be

Hey, Nikki.

Hey, Salina.

Hey, y'all. And welcome to this week's Extra Sugar, which we may be calling toast ghosts and UFOs. Oh, my. Just gonna keep saying it. It's kind of fun.

Why do you keep saying we may be? It's officially the name now. You've said it twice. You're committed.

I don't commit. Except for to Job Marriage Podcast. Podcast. Bills, bills. I'm not committed. If anybody wants to take them away, just keep paying them. Though.

Not a voluntary commitment.

Not really. Not really. the marriages, I guess. so the podcast. Oh, yeah. I guess that will be bad news if it wasn't.

Extra Sugar is inspired by Mary Jo's brush with the supernatural

today's segment is inspired by Mary Jo's brush with the supernatural when she briefly experiences fame and near sainthood after the face of Elvis appears on her shovel in episode 17, shovel off to Buffalo. And since we record these back to back, I just want to say that never in my life have I said the word sainthood or shovel so many times.

Yeah, that's okay. That's all right.

As part of this episode, we meet Jade Herman, a charlatan of sorts, or completely, who blows into town to capitalize on Mary Jo's mysterious shovel. Jade, a self proclaimed expert in the quote Paris Spectacular, tells the late. It's a fake thing, guys. I tried to look it up.

Oh, is it?

yeah, okay, it is. I was really hoping for something.

Yeah, why?

My extra sugar has been all over the map. Welcome. but she tells the ladies that she, quote, markets and promotes everything from Jesus's face on a toaster to UFOs landing in a wheat field outside of London. So naturally, I did what any normal person would do and I dug right into that pair of Spectacular nonsense and found some real life examples to share with you today.

Excellent.

That's why it's extra sugar.

So it's extra something.

Just when it's like this, we should just call it diabetes. You know, just like skip all the pomp a little.

Much too much.

Yeah, Just went too far. So, for those of you who may be new to sweet tea and tv, this is actually not the first time that an Elvis adjacent episode has inspired an extra sugar. In season three, episode three, Extra Sugar, we talked about Graceland, the incredible things that Elvis did for his fans, and some eyebrow raising and downright questionable fan memorabilia. We, also made his favorite sandwich chock full of peanut butter, bacon and bananas. We posted that to Instagram. It was divisive. But as one of the two people sitting here who ate it that day, I was into it. It was good. Thank you. I liked it. I thought, just what's the problem? People are just get so weird. Like, we, like, farted on it.

It's just like, if you don't like something, it's okay to just not like something. Do it quietly in your corner.

I didn't even. You know, they'd have the Instagram that does. Like, sandwiches that don't exist anymore or something. And there's a tuna fish and peanut butter one I didn't say, but I didn't like. You should just kill yourself. It's unnecessary. You know what I mean? It seems unnecessary. and I would probably still take a bite.

I think a lot about the motivation behind the person that comments. What is it they're hoping to accomplish?

I think they've had a bad day.

Want to ruin my day.

I, think they've had a bad day in their life and they need to share that around. Yeah. You know what? That's how we need to approach it from now on. We'll be like, I'm sorry that your life's so sorry. Yeah. I'm.

You don't deserve that. Probably, maybe.

My gosh. This is a new tack I'm gonna take. Thank you so much.

What a wonderful brainstorming thing.

Yes.

Sightings of Elvis started literally the day after he died

So beyond the sandwich, which I am now hungry and still on that Elvis note, it's also worth mentioning that sightings of him are their own phenomenon. People weren't just seeing him in objects, like in our Designing Women episode. They were supposedly seeing him everywhere. Like him. Him. This stemmed from a conspiracy theory right after he died that he faked his death and was in hiding. And these sightings started literally the next day after he died. They went on for decades. even now, you can still find these things to a much smaller extent. Does this ring a bell for you? Is like, a thing. Yeah.

people seeing Elvis.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was like a.

It's kind of like a big.

A big joke, too, where you, like, make a joke about, like, oh, I think I saw Elvis over there, or whatever. It's, like, so seeped in culture.

And I.

Or it was.

Right. And I thought that. I think that's so worth mentioning because we had the chain letters in the episode. If you live through it, you know, it is the basis of if you know. You know, And the same with, like, the miracle worker thing, you know? So, like, these three things combined are just this again, like a time capsule that you can't quite explain how big of a deal it was.

Squidgy gate. Like that whole thing about calling in to listen to that. It didn't really register for me. I don't remember that from that time period. But all these other ones do.

Exactly.

I have curated a list of five paraspectacular occurrences for your listening pleasure

So what, I have done is curated a list of five paraspectacular occurrences for your listening pleasure. Are you ready?

Probably not. Sounds too paraspectacular for me.

So spectacular.

I'm probably ready. Well, these I can handle it.

Are just going to make you hungry. Okay, I got it. but do jump in with any questions.

Okay.

A Florida woman listed a 10 year old grilled cheese sandwich on eBay

Okay, so number one. In 2004, a Florida woman listed a 10 year old grilled cheese sandwich which appeared to feature the face of the Virgin Mary on eBay for $28,000. So, Nikki, call it. Did someone buy this?

Please, for the love of God, no.

Did someone buy this questionably old sandwich that, for the record, also had a bite taken out of it?

quick question. Was it the option to buy it? Like, did you have to buy it now or could you bid? So is it possible it sold for like $10? Because I could see someone buying it for $10, not for 28, 000 or whatever.

Well, they bought it. No, 28.

Stop it.

The buyer, an online casino, golden palace.com, placed, the winning bid. And they told NBC News at the time that they were willing to spend, quote, as much as it took.

Stop it.

Apparently they plan to use the sandwich to raise money for charity.

You know what? I think they're a bunch of liars.

I do. Yeah, I think it's that, Wolf of Wall street publicity stuff. Raw culture maybe where they like put it in a glass case in the middle of their office. And they were like, look what we did.

Look what we did.

Look at all this and laugh.

How much money we have. We could just spend $28,000 on a moldy eating sandwich.

Ed, if I'm a total a hole and these people really did that, then good for you.

Good for them.

I don't know how you were going to turn around and sell it. So that doesn't really make any sense to me. That's where. That's where I.

First time, right?

That's where I was like, yeah, I.

Guess I hadn't made the leap to how it was going to help with charity.

I mean, I. Yeah, I don't know. Anyways, apparently the woman who sold it had made the sandwich 10 years earlier, took a bite and stopped when she saw the face of the Virgin Mary, like we all do.

Thank God. Goodness.

She then proceeded to say, I Mean, I guess for her forethought, she then proceeded to save it in a plastic container with cotton balls for the next 10 years. Just waiting on the magic of ebay, I suppose. It never got moldy. She thought this was a miracle. I think it might be an indictment of American food. Ah. potato. Potato. Whichever way you say it, it was made here. Chances are it's well preserved. So there you go.

Good.

Call number two. There's something going on in the toast space.

A lot of bread.

Right. So, Nikki, the next time that you are buttering up some good sourdough, bear m these things in mind. In 2017, a man in Windham, Maine, claimed to see Jesus on his butter and cinnamon toast. Sounds delicious.

It does.

He listed it on ebay for a minimum of $25,000, a steal, if you will, over the $28,000 toast. At the time it was reported, he was preserving it in his freezer and he planned to use the money for his sons. Do you think that this sold or did not sell?

Gosh, I don't like this game. Yes, it sold.

It doesn't sound like any one bit this time. Oh, you see?

I do. I see. Well done. Well played, Salina.

And then. I know. Poor guy. Yes, terrible. and then he didn't even get to enjoy his cinnamon honey.

Oh, yeah.

Butter toast or what?

Did he make another slice?

It's questionable.

Did you get his name? So we can ask him if he'd come on here and talk to us?

Tim. Tim Paul.

I don't believe you.

Well, we're linked to an article, so if someone wants to read the article and tell us, I won't be looking back at it. I pulled this segment together.

My work here is I used my.

I used time from my life to do this. Says a lot about me.

Says something about you.

Man and his girlfriend find jelly bean with Kate's face on it

Number three. Nikki, this one's for you. Ahead of Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding, a man and his girlfriend found a jelly bean that appeared to have Kate's face on it. They too put this treasure on ebay. So there's something about ebay and there's something about toast. It's just something. Anyways, for about €500, that's about 800. It's not clear if there were any takers though, so I'll just go ahead and rip the band.

Thank you.

For you. Yes. I won't make you guess again.

Thank you. Because I was gonna guess.

Yes. I will also say, for the record, you should look this one up because it does resemble Her. It's weird. It looks like they, like. You know how you can, like, stamp things? Uh-huh. It looks like a little stamp of Kate Middleton's face right there on a little jelly bean.

That's wacky.

It's really weird. I. I probably wouldn't pay someone to have it, though. No, that's all.

But I. I think I showed in the main episode how cheap I am. So, so.

Frugal. Number four is inspired by.

Oh, my gosh. It does look like her.

You see it?

Wow.

Do y'all see it?

That is crazy.

We'll link to it so you can see it. Nikki will. If she feels like it.

If I feel like it?

I don't know. She may not.

I might keep this one to myself.

Why Google exists.

Let's see if it's still posted so I can buy it. You know, I'm a homer for Kate.

You bought that?

I do love Kate.

Well, you can get it for just $800.

That's cheap.

That's pretty good. It's no28,000 if you do the value comparison. You know what I'm saying?

16 famous people claim they've seen UFOs according to an article

Okay, so number four is inspired by Jade's mention of UFOs in the designing Women episode. Someone was just really raking the bottom of the coals here. Not me.

With them. I was gonna say, now we're with them.

I'm bringing us down. So I found an article listing 16 famous people claiming they've seen UFOs. Here are a few that stood out to me. Demi Lovato and Kesha both claim to have seen UFOs at Joshua Tree. It's just interesting. Two singers, both at Joshua Tree. I talked to Casey about this. I was like, why Joshua Tree? There does seem to be a lot of open openness. You know, it's the desert, so, like, you could get a better range of the sky. So I. I could see it. Miley Cyrus has said she and a friend were chased by a UFO in San Bernardino.

So there's that, something about California.

Yes. Yes. Well, they're all there. Kurt Russell was the pilot who reported the Phoenix Lights ufo sightings in 1997. I'm going to tell you, that's harder to say than it sounds. Thousands reported seeing glowing lights and a V shaped object in the sky over areas of Nevada, Arizona and Mexico. Russell claims he was the pilot who initially called it in while flying his son to see his girlfriend.

Oh, I've never heard that.

You just, like, learn a lot in that sin in those sentences, you know.

What I'm saying that was a lot of information. Kurt Russell's a pilot.

Yeah, Exactly.

Russell saw UFOs.

Kurt Russell was like, I'll take you by plane to see your girlfriend. Kurt Russell called in UFOs. And I think I trust Kurt Russell. I do. He was Santa Claus.

I. Yep.

I mean, he saved the movie Tombstone.

He built a cedar closet in a ship in overboard.

He is the partner of Goldie Hawn. He is the father of some children. I forget what. I forget the kid's name. He's in stuff now. I feel terrible.

Oh, the kid.

Yeah.

Oh.

Oh, I felt awful. Anyways, of course. I just also want to point out, as recently as November, a PENTAGON Report on UFOs noted hundreds of new incidents, but, like, no evidence of aliens. So UFOs but not aliens? Correct. These are two different things.

That is true.

Joan Crawford's daughter Christina says her mom's home was haunted

Okay, number five. A paraspectacular list just cannot be complete, Nikki, without something ghosty. Given our recent fascination with Ms. Joan Crawford, I thought you might find her supposedly haunted home. Of particular interest, Crawford's daughter, Christina. This is the one who wrote Mommy dearest, has said that her mom's house in Brentwood was haunted and that it only got worse after her mom died. Apparently, there were spontaneous fires breaking out in the home, especially behind where Crawford's bed was, as, Well as the sounds of children crying in the walls.

Oh, geez.

The fire department once spent four days trying to figure out what happened. As far as I can tell, they never did find out what happened. Christina has also said that horrible things have happened to the families who have lived there since owners have had it exercised. I don't mean jogging, so. It was also featured in an HBO special on Haunted Hollywood. That is on my list of things to check out, but I think it may be a doc that was released late last year. The. The preview didn't mention her house specifically. Anyways, wild stuff, so there's that. If I find it, I'll let you know. Okay, maybe I'll let you all know. Who knows? I gotta tell you, the brain is like. It's working and not working. So I just want you to know, if I ever forget to follow up on something, it's me. I'm the problem.

I think it's the universe that's the problem. Honestly, too many things.

The past. finally, I can't speak to the UFOs and the ghosts, but when you see faces and objects, that's like a real thing. A real thing that one study found tends to happen more to religious people. And paranormal believers versus non religious folks and skeptics. I, I think I could have told you that without a study. But hey, now we know.

Now we know.

Sarah, are there any paraspectacular things that you have experienced

And before we go, I wanted to ask, are there any paraspectacular things that you want to share that you have experienced?

Well, one time I sold a jelly bean on ebay. No, no, I've never experienced anything like this.

Okay, so I definitely see. We'll just start from the bottom though. Because you just saw her face.

Yes.

So I definitely see faces and shapes and objects.

Yes.

That to me is like, I don't.

Know, it's part of your brain just trying to make sense of patterns and.

Well, it's so universal. Right? Yeah.

Ah.

I, mean, isn't that why the Rorschach test exists?

You know, I don't know. So the other thing is I. I have something else. I don't even think I've ever told you this before and you're probably gonna think I've lost it. That's okay. It won't be the first time, probably even today. But. So my friend, sorry, Sarah, I'm gonna call you out because it was both of us, we had a ghost experience in her parents old house.

Oh, you have told me.

Okay, I have told you this. So everyone who lived there encountered something at some time or another. And I'm talking about people who would, you wouldn't suspect to like believe in ghosts? things moved around. I think there were voices sometimes that people heard. Things have flown off the shelves like in front of the whole family while they were having a movie night. And then like right after high school, we spent the night there one time and there was like definitely something in the room with us. And we were so scared that we couldn't move. It was like it froze us. And at one point the covers ripped off of us. Like we still talk about it and both of us almost start crying.

Oh, it's terrifying.

Sorry guys. oopsie, poopsie. That got creepy.

So I do have a go. I have a ghost story. My stepdad, in one of the houses that he lived in in Louisiana, there was a sp spot on the wall that had clearly been patched. And they tried to paint over it because the paint didn't match with the rest of the wall. And when they would paint over it, the paint color would change and, or it wouldn't stay on or like you could still see where it was patched. And they let it go for some period of time, but they Were convinced that house there was something unusual about it. And so I had an aunt who was hearing impaired and she was in the house one time by herself and fe. the floor moving and she thought my stepdad was practicing his drums in the house. So she went to his room and he wasn't there. And she realized like something came over her. I guess she realized like this was unusual. So she went and sat on the front porch. And when they came home, she was like sitting on the front porch trying to explain to them what had happened. She had felt this like repeated banging and you know, she couldn't hear anything, but she felt it and she knew something was in the house with her. So as the story goes by, before they left the house, they did take that patch off the wall and there were some drawings that were tucked in that hole in the wall. They were like Victorian house drawings. My parents have them hanging up in their house.

Would you keep them?

and they creep me out.

No, I would be like. I would be like, yeah, I would let them burn.

Oh no.

I think the thinking your ghost papers went up.

I think the thinking is like just not giving it power or whatever. But they were also really beautiful drawings.

If you burn that, you're also not giving it power.

Yeah, that's true.

That is the ultimate taking back of your power. It's very waiting to exhale.

I totally believe that people have these experience, ghost experiences. I totally believe. and I can definitely feel energy in houses. There was one house that we did not buy when we were looking because I walked in and I was like, it's bad juju. Bad juju. A couple years later, a lady shot up a school bus in that neighborhood. Now granted, she seems a little unhinged and it seems like she had had a fight with someone, but she came out and shot the bus. And I think there was some bad juju in that whole neighborhood.

Oh my goodness.

So I believe in it.

I'm definitely big about energy. I guess the last story I'll throw in, it's not mine. And I don't think I ever experienced anything. But I wasn't ever really alone in my in laws house. They lived there for like 20 something years. They just moved a couple years ago. But I think their ghost name was like Louise. And like, but she's nice. Oh good Louise. Except one time, I guess she did pour detergent all over their laundry room.

Oh.

but like, and occasionally they'd be walking through and smell smoke, but no one was a smoker.

Louise was.

Well, Louise, you know, it's right there in the name.

It is.

So,

We need to help you transition to the other side

And, like, you want to talk about people that don't seem like they would believe in ghosts, it's my in laws, you know? So for them to be like, oh, Louise.

Yeah.

You know, and they're just very casual about it, and I was like, did she move to Marietta with you? I don't remember. You know, I told you. The brain. I'm gonna have to ask again.

You'll have to ask.

Yeah.

Report back.

Yeah, but, she's more like Casper the Friendly Ghost.

That's nice.

Yeah. That's what you want. You want a good ghost, a happy ghost.

Happy ghost.

Otherwise, if you just need to. We need to help you transition to the other side. Let's get that going.

Yeah, it's way better over there than it is over here. Go over there. Over there. We got in there.

We got enough going on over here.

We got our own problems.

Seems like a good time to exit. No reason. So anyways, you know the drill, y'all. Dm, us. Email us or contact us from the website. Find us all over the socials. Be nice, please. And maybe, say a prayer and burn some sage or something. And that's this week's extra sugar.