I'm Drea. I'm Meg. I'm Tina. And I'm Jess. And
this is Pardon My Stash. Welcome back to Pardon
My Stash, a podcast about crafting fiber arts
and how awesome it is. Yeah. I was sorry. I'm
adjusting the sound. That's okay. She did it
enough for both of you. was i supposed to go
to no usually you do usually you both do the
woohoo a hearty hurrah to you sir apparently
she did enough for both of you we have gotten
30 seconds in oh yes we have um before we launch
into today's topics let's talk about what we're
working on andrea you ready bananas yeah you
are That's legit. I'm making bananas. It's literally
bananas. It is bananas. It's totally bananas.
I have frogged the entire Bananasaurus and started
anew. The whole thing. The whole thing. The whole
thing. The whole thing. Is this one smaller?
It looks a little smaller. It is smaller. I am
using a smaller hook. It looks like more sturdy.
It looks better. It looks way more sturdy. Like
the legs look sturdier. It's standing on its
own and everything. Yes. I am learning crochet
as I go. One stitch at a time. I love it. I'm
just, you know, I'm really taking my time with
it. So this is the Bananasaurus crochet pattern
by Emerald Rose Crochet. I think I bought it
on Etsy. I think you did. I vaguely remember
that. I think I did. I'm using Big Twist Baby
Bear. And I think the color is sunshine. That
also sounds familiar. Or lemon drops. I'm not
sure. I think it's sunshine and lemon drops and
yellow. Are you done? No. Ew. It is yellow. It
is bright yellow. It is. Fantastic. It looks
like a banana. It's lovely. Yes. But since we
last recorded, I have also made several octopi.
Octopi. Octopi. The octopi are very cute. They
are so cute. And do you know what? Frank's mom
has taken every single one of them. I love that
for her. I do too. Where is she putting them?
I don't know. Oh, you don't know. I thought she
was like, they're in her collection. All right.
They are in her collection. And every time she
sees me working on them, she's like, oh, is that
for me? Sure is. I do like purple. Sure is. Love
it. So if I finish one while I'm there, like,
how can I say no? Oh, yeah, I know. She's just
so cute. So Norma is getting all of. the octopi
right now oh uh tina i have zero zilch nada i
got nothing for you or me i just felt like singing
it i thought it would make it more substantial
of a segment okay that's it congratulations all
right i'm happy for you thanks it's good to take
a load off your plate Jess, I'm distracted by
a cat in the box, but I am working still on the
cat knit pullover by Andrea Rangel, and it's
taking me forever, but I'm still trucking along.
I've got almost a full cat. Almost a full cat.
That's pretty good. I'm using Critical Hit Dye
Sorcerer in the colorways, Displacer, and Embers.
It's getting there. It is getting there. What's
going to happen when you get past the yoke? Oh,
God, who knows? I know. The yoke is taking you
this long. What's going to happen when you have
the miles of blue stock in it? Well, no, I haven't
split for sleeves yet, so I feel like that might
make it go a little faster once I do that. So
we'll see. We're getting there. It's slow, but
it's happening. Meg, what are you working on?
A whole lot of not much. I mean, I've been working,
quote unquote, on Winterlight by Meg Gadsby.
I really do like this pattern. It's quite simple.
But I'm kind of maxing out at maybe half a row
a day. And that's like the norm. When I have
to take the kid to gymnastics, I generally get
a little bit more done because I actually have
time to just sit and do nothing else but knit.
I haven't really been going as fast as I would
like, but it's a decent pattern. It's a good
pattern. The yarn that I'm using is Fiber Optics
Cashmere Gradient in Texas Blue Bonnets, and
it's really the perfect pattern for it because
this yarn does not need anything fancy to really
shine. I love the way that it's moving the gradient
along. I can't wait to get to the really bright
blue part because that's my favorite part of
the yarn, but that's going to come at the end.
So yeah, it's going. I'm just not spending as
much time knitting as I previously had. Same
girl, same. Me too, because I have picked up
more hobbies. Yeah, same. Have I told you about
my bread making yet? No. I've got a sourdough
starter sitting on my counter now. Noise. Man.
Soon. There will be lots of sourdough. You got
to do sourdough pretzels. I'm going to make sourdough
bagels. I'm very excited. But yes, pretzels too.
She brought dinner rolls over for Easter. And
my goddaughter probably ate half of them. She
did. She had like a thing of butter next to her
and she's just like. yes had rolls on rolls all
right so in that vein of talking about other
hobbies and things we've been doing we've had
kind of an unofficial hiatus for the last couple
weeks um things have been happening probably
noticed we were not releasing episodes um and
as we've not discussed publicly, but we've definitely
discussed privately. There's a lot going on right
now in the United States and the rest of the
world. So tonight we're going to talk a little
bit about how we are dealing with that, what
we are doing, how we are coping, what we are
thinking, and we're going to take it from there.
So we've already started talking about Drea,
Drea with her bread. Bread. What else is going
on, Drea? Crochet. Crochet and bread. That sounds
beautiful. Isn't it? And I have also been playing...
What is that noise? Ice Maker. And I have also
been playing... They released for the PS5 an
HD version of the Okami game. Oh, my God. That's
a blast from the past. I heard that was coming
out, but I forgot when the date was. Do you know
what they're also doing? They're making a part
two. Ooh. I know. Like a sequel? Because they
did like a prequel at some point. Two. That's
exciting. That was a beautiful game. That was
so long ago. I have also been enjoying quite
a lot watching Frank play God of War. Which one?
God of War is just... The first one. First one's
pretty decent. Do you know who the voice actor
is for Kratos? You should know this. I should
know this. You should know this because I pegged
it immediately. No, but you're going to tell
us. I am going to tell you. It is Christopher
Judge. That's right. And do you know what we're
watching now? Yes. Stargate. Stargate. Nice.
Stargate. Nice. It is so good. It is so good.
Like, oh, Christopher Judge. Man, what a treat.
I heard it. And I was like, yes. Nope. Yes. And
Frank was like, what does that mean? Yeah. Well,
Frank, now you're going to know. Here's the entire
lore of Stargate. Nope. Didn't even do that.
I was like, man, do you know what you got to
do? You got to turn that game off because bam,
movie. Yeah. You got to get through the movie.
You got to get through the movie first because
it sets everything up and then you can watch
the series. That's how it goes. And the movie
isn't that bad, even though the actors are different.
Yeah. It's enjoyable. But the series is better.
Richard Dean Anderson was a glow up. Yeah. Yeah.
My dad and I only watched the series. We didn't
start with the movie at all. We started with
the series and we watched it all the way through.
I cried and laughed with my dad through that
whole series. I had no idea that your dad loved
Stargate. My dad was obsessed with Stargate.
Listen, the nerdiness didn't come out of nowhere.
Okay. It definitely wasn't my mom. It was my
dad. I feel like I missed out on so many nerd
conversations. Oh yeah. My dad, my dad watched
like every spinoff, every single, like he watched
more than I did. I watched the original series
with him, but there were like spinoffs that like
I would come into the den and he'd be like, well,
I'm like, is that Stargate? And he's like, Oh,
this is Stargate. Atlantis. Yeah. And I was like,
Oh, okay. I actually never got into Atlantis.
Yeah. But. Oh, my dad did. I've seen all of OT
Stargate A plus. And you listeners should also
watch Stargate because it is absolutely A+. Now
that we've nerded out about Stargate. So sorry.
But those are like all of my new things that
I'm very much into right now. Fantastic. I am
making sourdough. I'm making rolls. Rolls on
rolls on rolls. Actually, what's really good
is like the focaccia bread. frank needs to stop
asking me to make the cinnamon roll focaccia
because i want to make other stuff and i have
like this strawberry one lined up and man he's
in for a treat if he stops asking for cinnamon
rolls he's got to suspend his uh What's the word
I'm looking for here? I was going to say suspend
disbelief and that's incorrect. No, he needs
to broaden his horizon. That's what I was looking
for. That's what I was looking for. It's tough
though. Like if you, you know, you can go to
the same restaurant and you're like, I could
order something new or I could order this thing
that I love and that I know I'm going to like.
You mean like every time I go to Sabadee and
I get Pad Woon Sen because it's like the best.
Yeah. It's hard. Sometimes it's hard to branch
out because you're like, I know this other thing
could be good, but I know this thing is really
good. good exactly so yeah it's hard the internet's
been a hot mess hasn't it though yeah and every
time i hear of a another closure you know with
yarn saver i enjoy getting like talking with
businesses helping them out when they want to
liquidate but i don't want to see it as often
as i do there's a lot of people closing down
there are it's just uh turned into an expensive
mess well there's not a lot of um what's the
word stability right now no there's not a lot
of stability like if you were kind of you know
making ends meet type of thing and then this
all went down um i just every time i get you
know a contact with that i always feel like i
i feel like it's a duty on my on my part because
like i want to help you know i don't want them
to i want them to get something back for what
they got but um But it's not something I enjoy
seeing a lot of. Well, we don't often think of
like knitting, crochet, crafting, et cetera,
as like a luxury hobby. But when push comes to
shove, a lot of times, especially nowadays, it
is like most of us are not doing knitting or
crocheting. You know, we're not making things
for survival. And in times of uncertainty, luxuries
are the first things to go. That's when people
start to. kind of pare down their shopping pare
down their their hobbies um and that's i think
that's really is causing the the entire crafting
world to be upheaved and it's really unfortunate
You know, for me, I've actually noticed I'm sewing
more because I'm mending more. And when I'm knitting,
it's to create like patches and stuff. Like I'm
literally making like little patches right now
to go on the knees of a pair of jeans that I
really love. But the holes have gotten so ridiculously
big and I look like a... 13 -year -old teenager
in 2006 who's about to talk about how her life
is terrible and, you know, have my chemical romance
in the background. So I don't want to do that
as a 37 -year -old. So I want to patch up the
holes. But the jeans are really comfortable.
Anyway. I've actually been doing a lot of patches
on the ladies' sweaters at work. Oh, yeah, yeah,
yeah. Like picking up the stitches and creating
new stitches there, which is fun. But difficult
sometimes. Well, I feel good about it when I
like fix something because I can wear it again
or use it again. But it's definitely like you
said, it's not this like, oh, I'm going to make
a luxurious shawl or something like now I need
to do practical stuff right now. Right. That's
what we're down to. I love how I'm sitting here
agreeing with you as I'm making a Bananasaurus.
No, no, your Bananasaurus is so necessary right
now, it's not even funny. Well, I don't think
it's the crafting itself that is a luxury, but
the buying of crafting materials is the luxury.
And I think a lot of us recognize that we do
have substantial stashes. Not anymore. You should
see my stash now. You've downsized a lot. No,
I think I'm down to about a quarter of what I
had before. Yeah, no, like I'm... And if you
don't know, like my stash was literally, it was
a substantial amount for a single person. But
at this point, I can fit it into like a six by
three, not six, five by three cubby. Good for
you. And it's not packed. Good for you. I actually
have room to put like my project bags and like
a couple of sets that I picked up. Allow the
yarn to aerate. Yeah, like not like how I had
it before where it was like, where is it? I don't
know. You have to look behind the 20 pounds in
front of it. But it's, yeah. No, I definitely,
yeah, it's not. Definitely not as big as it used
to be. And that's between selling and also just
using. I've been using a lot too, so. So it is.
It's, you know, I think it, I mean, we've definitely,
downgraded we made announcement with critical
hit about two months ago that we were going to
stop using i think more than half of our bases
um simply because we don't know what's going
to happen with the tariffs we don't even know
what's what's happening now i mean we're kind
of hovering and hedging our bets but certain
bases were not lucrative people were not buying
them so we and it was also really hard for us
to keep up with trying to oh you know have everything
on 13 different bases a lot of yarn so i mean
we downsized for that reason but there's also
been a lot of like apprehension about you know
how how is this going to affect us all of our
bases are um you know come from overseas so how
is this going to affect business and i think
a lot of other businesses are in the same boat
yeah at least when i'm getting uh the Small companies
that I have talked to, you know, small batch
dyers and stuff like that. It's a lot of that.
It's, you know, my base is overseas. My dyes
are from overseas. I can't afford to bring them
in anymore. And I just can't do it anymore. And
some of it's just in shipping now, too. Right.
And if you're raising, you have to raise it.
Well, you also get to a point where it's like
the market's not going to stand for it. Like
if to sell something, you have to raise the price.
To a point where people are just not going to
buy it. It's not a business model that can hold.
Well, it's hard to buy things when you can't
afford them. Exactly. Well, if your customer
base can't afford it. But also if you can't afford
to create the product without spending so much
money that it's cost prohibitive to make it.
It gets really tough. I had one of those dyers
show me an inventory sheet. The price of the
base didn't really change that much. But then
she showed me the tariff that got applied to
it. Say it was $2, the tariff was like $3 .50.
Yeah. So you're paying more in tariffs than you're
paying for the actual product. Yeah, it was like,
and then it's like for her, she's like, if I
raise my price to cover this tariff, people are
going to say my yarn's ridiculous. Right. And
I'm like, yeah, I don't know. Well, and that's
the thing. It's like, it doesn't matter how beautiful
your yarn is. there's market price. There's what
people will afford. It's the same way like if
say you're going to a seafood restaurant and
you want to have a good lobster. Like there's
a certain point that you can say market price
for lobster, but there's a certain point where
people are going to be like, okay, no, I don't
want it that badly. And that's the way it is
with anything. Like if it gets to the point where
it's cost prohibitive, like it's costing you
so much money to make it and people are not buying
it. yeah so market cannot hold this is an economics
podcast now correct which is terrible because
let me tell you that was my lowest score on my
praxis too. I take, I absolutely, no, I don't
like that. I only passed the praxis because I
had stellar grades in us world and government,
but my economic score was dismal. I can hear
my dad now just looking at me with so much shame.
We are only mentioning economics to the point
that we have actually experienced. Yeah, pretty
much. Pretty much. This is, yeah, no, no, absolutely
not. Disclaimer. here yeah this is just what
the number of times my kids have asked me about
tariffs and i'm like oh dear god please make
sure i'm not messing this one up because economics
and it's not my strong suit on a fortunate side
yarn saver doesn't get affected by tariffs because
i don't import anything i'm you know everything's
domestic um but on a negative side when you know
that it's hard to price items too because um
the cost now that i might not have to buy you
know deal with tariffs but everything else went
up right my electricity went up i joined a uh
collective it was like a fiber business collective
and they she had a thread on there and she was
asking us what are like the invisible costs that
we're dealing with and i was just like electricity
the cost of ziplock bags yeah you know like people
don't think about that because like they're like
oh yeah you just take a picture of the yard and
throw it up i'm like no i have to like power
my freezer your mailer bags like the mailer the
labels the mailing labels the printer ink like
people don't realize the amount of money that
goes into running the water we spend more water
oh god our water bill yeah the ziplock bags though
i don't think you quite understand in my business
i need so many because I have to separate fibers.
And on top of separating fibers, I have to, before
it's like officially assessed, I'm separating
people's collections so that, you know, nobody
gets mixed up. And it's, there's, and I, do I
like using that much plastic? No, but it's a
cleanliness thing. Like if somebody is compromised,
I don't want it to compromise all the other fibers
that I've got going on. Right. So I look at it
as a health kind of like, I'm just trying to
keep things clean. But. I was like, OK, I need
to go get more gallon Ziplocs. Right. And I,
you know, man, I was like, where do I buy these
things? And then it's like I'm and then I'm sitting
there going, I'm pricing Ziploc bags like I don't
I didn't used to. I didn't used to because it
was like relatively the same. It was relative
like it was maybe. 50 cents difference. But now
it's like, okay, like if I go over here, it's
going to be, you know, like this much and I'll
save this much off the top when I get this many.
And it's, yeah. I'm definitely being a lot more
conscientious. I can't say that word. Conscientious.
That. the smaller thing like i know i was always
about the bigger things but now it's like okay
the electricity went up like 200 bucks so now
i have to like cut from somewhere where am i
going to cut so that i don't have to like necessarily
raise prices or like or which i absolutely never
want to do is reduce the amount of valuation
i give when i'm paying out to people um so far
my you know the method works but like If I can't
get to a point where me, like, you know, I have
a formula showing me how much it costs me to
get this skein up to market. And when that exceeds
what I'm making off of it, it's, you know what
I mean? It's not going to end up being worth
it. And I think a lot of people are making a
lot of hard choices and we're seeing the results
of that. We're seeing it on social media as different
companies are either taking hiatuses or closing
or changing their business models because the
market is unstable. I had some collab shut down
on me that I had from influencer marketing that
I don't do like I don't do it like that's not
my main source of income, but it was a nice side
cash, right? No, I got like probably three of
the ones that I was dealing with paused our campaigns
because they don't not that they don't like me.
They just can't afford to pay out influencers
right now, you know, like it's affecting and
then like, you know, you see these little changes
here and there and. You know, if you don't have,
like I said, if you were already skirting the
line of being profitable, like it can really
get you to a point where you're shutting down.
And that sucks. That really sucks. Yeah, it is
hard. It's really hard. Also, you know, in general.
uh besides besides my wallet you know my uh general
well -being well -being is great i'm probably
going to be on 18 lists but other than that you
know life's grand i fit i check a lot of boxes
folks and i don't care about talking about it
because i already know that i'm on 20 lists so
it's okay i love how the number just like exponentially
grows every time every minute a number yeah every
every minute that we talk um there's another
list being generated and it's most likely something
about being like some kind of different and i
fit right in i mean it's like okay i mean i feel
like this is not how you want to find your people
no not really um but you know if you want to
hey Join the club, baby. But I've seen it even
with like, you know, doing like different outside
of like fiber stuff. I work with NAMI and we
do and I do presentations in your own voice to
like talk about in our own voice to talk about
like what people with mental health challenges
deal with. Just, like, without revealing any
kind of privacy, but we had, like, probably a
dozen or so people doing it, and it is a quarter
or maybe even half of what we were doing because
people dropped. Yeah. Yeah. That's what happens.
I think you're going to see a lot of that in
the next few years of people who are afraid or,
yeah. Oh, definitely. Or tenuous positions. Right.
Yeah. Yeah, you're going to see people pulling
back or. Which is unfortunate. It is. All the
algorithms are changing, too, on that front,
too. It's kind of getting harder. You're seeing
more, like, more things mentioned, more things.
getting kind of like falling off of the algorithms
like i because i notice a bunch of people i follow
um a lot of their content doesn't show up on
any of like my for use or anything like that
whatever like on my instagram feed on anything
like that i kind of have to go onto their page
and find it and it's like they're kind of being
pushed off to the side that or they're using
less tags to keep themselves kind of out and
i think you're gonna see a bit more of that as
well so if you haven't seen stuff from your content
creator for a while maybe check their page because
they might actually be posting yeah i can understand
posting less so I think my knee jerk reaction
when everything happened was like, I need to
delete everything and I need to like protect
myself and my family. And I don't think there's
anything wrong with having that as a knee jerk
reaction. You know, all of us here identify as
queer. All of us are some kind of neurodiverse.
So I don't think like we want to necessarily
like, you know, I think it's hard to like. to
sit here and just be like oh it'll be fine because
like we're here guys we're here and we have we
have lovely things going on that are making that
um more and more difficult to be in those categories
but um i just think um in my boat anyway i went
from knee -jerk reaction of i i don't want to
you know i want to be as quiet as possible to
i don't want to be quiet anymore i was very much
on the quiet boat i was and i But, you know,
I saw I was seeing some folks that are less privileged
than I am. And I say that in a sense of like
I'm a white woman and I present in a heterosexual
relationship. And there are certain privileges
that come with that. And I was seeing people
not in that position who were still speaking
out. And I thought to myself, well, if I'm not
speaking out. even though i feel like i could
be probably in a better position or better protected
i'm only just opening up people in less of a
position to be more ostracized and targeted so
no come on come on down i'm available to this
but like i just don't i don't yeah i'm it's It's
crap, guys. It's crap. The amount of stuff that
I'm doing in the background to make sure that
I feel safe or that my family feels safe is ridiculous.
Steps that I never thought I would need to take.
Things that I never thought about because I had,
you know, this quote unquote safety of like,
oh, we live in a country that respects laws and
stuff. I guess we don't do that anymore. We used
to. We used to. But yeah, I just don't. And this
is and it might sound political to you, but like
it's there's no there's no politics when we're
talking about like just being a person. I don't
give a hoot. I don't give a hoot about what quote
unquote side you're on. But I think if everyone
realizes there's no more sides anymore, we just
need to like we need to all come together as
like a community. And we all need to support
each other because I'll tell you what. People
are stressed. Yeah. And I think being quiet stressed
is the worst kind of stress. Oh, I agree with
that 100%. It is. So it's the worst. It doesn't
do anything for you. Your stress is that stress
hormone goes through your body. The cortisol
just goes through your body and destroys you
in more ways than one. Is there an easy way to
make it go away? No, not unless drastic things
happen. But I think, you know. I don't know.
I'm talking a lot. I just don't. I've been so
frustrated just feeling like I'm, you know, initially
in the beginning when everything started to happen
after this election, just like, OK, well, you
know, I got to delete everything off here because
it identified me in these groups and I got to
delete this and I have to hide that and I have
to take this down. And no, nope. I don't want
to do that anymore. I'm not going to shrink myself
so everybody else feels comfortable. Well, I
think, too, there's something to be said for,
like, I don't know. I've always been pretty vocal
about my political leanings. I'm a government
teacher. Like, I keep it out of the classroom,
like, how I feel personally, although my kids
can probably guess. But at the same time, like,
I don't think any of the things that I say are
super radical. Like, if you're going to be mad
at me for saying that all people deserve respect,
all people deserve rights, you know, regardless
of who they are, their backgrounds, that's on
you. Like, you can be mad about that and that's
fine, but I don't personally believe what I'm
saying is that radical. I don't believe what
I'm saying is bad. I mean, I don't know. Well,
we grew up being told to respect everybody else.
The golden rule. That's out the door now. It's
a different type of golden rule. I know it sounds
cliche. I've seen it like a million times on
every single social media platform, but I'd rather
be ostracized for who I include than included
for who I exclude. Part of my job is making sure
that everybody that walks through my door feels
included feels accepted feels wanted regardless
of who they are what they look like how they
act and i try to do that in all walks of life
so if someone's gonna be mad at me for that or
say that i'm being political or i'm being divisive
i mean okay that's on you like I can't change
that. How dare you be nice to people? I can't
change that. Did you just say you want to care
about everybody? How dare you? That's against
law B -6 -7. And in the clause, we should hate
people that don't fit this paradigm exactly.
No, but you know what I mean. It is. It's like,
I don't know. I don't find that divisive. No,
it's not. And that's your, you know, again, it's
the whole idea of like, you know, we all love
the idea that we must be inclusive. be kind but
but then it's like but not to those people but
not to that person but not put it in practice
but not that and I agree with with what Drea
said before like oh we were not raised that way
like like we babies of the 80s and probably the
90s and probably beyond we were all taught that
you know love everybody be nice to everybody
regardless of who they are but to be to be told
that and then you know all of a sudden now we're
adults and it's like hearing from from other
people well not like that but not those people
but those people don't count and no you know
it's no guys i just want to exist like the worst
part is is like the worst thing i'm ever gonna
do in my life honestly is you know if i don't
take my meds is i will not be able to find anything
i will forget what i was doing about 10 minutes
ago I'll also probably make a lot of doom piles.
Also, I already do all those things. Like, long
story short, it will all not affect anybody else.
It will probably help the economy because I will
randomly buy stuff and then forget that I bought
it and then buy it again. Yeah, it's not going
to, I guess my point being, it's not going to
affect anyone else. It's going to make my life
horrid, but it's not going to affect anybody
else. Right. But that's a really good point.
You know? It's not. It's just going to make my
life suck. Right. You're not going to be making
other people. things harder for society or government
on a whole i mean you might upset your job here
or there if you forget to do something but again
those are these are personal these are personal
issues like it's not affecting anybody else like
that would be my job performance that would be
you know right it's not affecting society at
large exactly it is it is right the point is
i'm not gonna affect you so like why do you care
i don't think there's a lot there's a lot there
about you know yeah why do you you know if i
if i happen to marry patricia instead of patrick
why do you care why do you care yeah you know
i'm just saying better health care would take
care of a lot of this let's not get crazy Listen,
we're already off our rockers, okay? We've probably
ended, I think now I'm on 53 lists if we're being
honest. Tina, are you just doubling it every
time we bring it up? Yeah, yeah. I feel like
you are. Next it's going to be 106. You wait.
Well, so in the vein of - Collecting them like
Pokemon. I went through a similar, I kind of
went through like back and forth at the beginning
of the year because my job is literally to teach
government. I mean, that's four out of my five
classes are government classes. That's a list.
Well, no. And then because it is, you're like,
I have to teach authentically. Like, I have to
teach, you know, what is what is truth. That's
a sub list. But then, you know, the whole like,
you know, report teachers that are are teaching
things that shouldn't be taught. And I'm like,
well, what's the standard of what should and
shouldn't be taught? And that was really scary.
I think there is a lot to be said of like, I
wasn't sure how to handle it. And basically what
I do at the beginning of every class now is we
talk about current events. I have the kids bring
up current events. But I let them kind of draw
their own conclusions. Like I've always said
from the start, I'm not here to tell you what
to think. I'm here to present the facts, the
material. Or to show you where to get the facts
and draw your own conclusions. My goal is always
when kids leave my class at the end of the year
that they know why they believe the way they
do. And I'm not here to tell them what that is.
I just I always tell them my one answer that
I don't want to hear from you is I don't know.
That's just how my parents vote. Like there's
nothing wrong with voting the same way your parents
vote. Like there's nothing wrong with that at
all. But I want them to know why. Exactly. And
I don't care how, you know, which way that is.
I don't care what your why is. Exactly. But I
do want you to know your why. And I want you
to understand that, like, we can't invent facts
to to suit our story. Like the goal is if you
can't find facts to back up your stance, you
should probably start thinking about another
stance. That's the goal. So and it took me a
lot of time. And a lot of talking to my colleagues
to come to that conclusion that like my presenting
the facts or presenting them with the materials
to find the facts, I'm not doing anything wrong.
And if I don't do that, I'm doing a bigger disservice
to them in the long run. That I need to teach
them how to find good evidence and to encourage
them. Teaching critical thinking skills. Exactly.
And encourage them that if you can't find the
evidence, then that means you got to find a new
hypothesis. Stop it. Stop putting me on lists.
You just said that you were critical thinking.
I had to put you on, there's a list for that.
I didn't say I was doing it. That's the name
of the episode. There's a list for that. There's
a list for that. There's a list for that. Or
a sub list. There's a list for that. But yeah,
and that's the thing. It's like, okay, I'm not
going to lie. I've had a lot of sleepless nights.
I had a complete crash out last week, as the
kids say. I cannot make things true that are
not true. But in the vein of Drea with her bread,
I've been learning Italian. That's been my hobby.
That's my hobby right now. Well, I found out
two months ago. Ciao, come sta? Nice. Did that
get added to your personal list? Absolutely.
I have been learning Spanish. Oh, are you? I
thought you were doing German. Senior Greg. I
was learning German for a little bit, but that
was very hard. German is tough. I am learning
Spanish through Senior Greg on Instagram. Oh,
beautiful. Let me tell you, Senior Greg is a
blue puppet. He teaches you Spanish phrases every
single day. Magical. And you know what? A plus.
I thought you didn't like puppets. Do you know
what? This one is like, what a banger. It is.
The puppets are a banger. You know what? We're
going to leave that right there. We're not. We're
not. No, no, no. So he says the phrase in Spanish
and then he says it again. But he has this ruler
in his hand and he slaps each word as he says
it. It's very forceful. It's hilarious. And it
helps. like keep things in my head beautiful
I like to go up to Frank and very aggressively
say besame which means kiss me yes I know I do
remember I did make it to Spanish five So poorly.
So you're learning Spanish with a German accent.
Got it. I am learning aggressive Spanish. Well,
since you've all been learning different languages
that are not English, you're all in lists with
me. So congratulations. Amazing. Frank's mom
thinks it's hilarious. I bet she does. She does.
It is hilarious. She's like, you know more Spanish
than Frankie does. To be fair, Patrick probably
is more comfortable speaking Portuguese than
I am. oh there you go he will look at me and
go what did they say and then i'll be like and
he'll be like oh okay hola he won't have half
the words but he will look at me as a translator
just to tell him what they meant so that he could
try to say something back I've been using Coffee
Break Italian, which is a it's a podcast. And
I listen to them and they're very good about
not only just repeating because I hate Duolingo
has been pissing me off because they don't explain
why I'm wrong. They're just like, you're wrong.
And it took me weeks to figure things out that
on Coffee Break Italian, they're just like, oh,
you use a for this and in for this. And I'm like,
that makes so much more sense. But yeah, I found
out a month ago that I qualified for Italian
citizenship. But now I don't anymore because
the entire Italian government is. changing stuff
working that out so um i no longer qualify it
all happened in the course of a week it literally
happened in the course of a week um congratulations
i know i was really excited like i even i even
was like getting my papers ready to to file and
everything and then they're like just kidding
new laws um that are being challenged so we'll
see if that actually goes through or not but
I was like you know what I'm really enjoying
learning Italian so I'm gonna I'm gonna keep
doing that it's fun I'm having a good time it
connects you to your family it really does I
found out a lot of things about my extended family
that I didn't know and it was exciting so I'm
having a good time and I'm like you know what
if nothing else comes of this um I'm learning
Italian I'm having a good time doing it so well
I just sent you in our chat the link to El Senor
Greg oh thank god I had his name wrong before.
It is El Senor Greg. Well, of course. What did
you say it was, Mr. Greg? It was just Senor Greg.
Why is El Senor Greg? The Mr. Greg. The Mr. Greg.
Listen, there can be only one. There can be only
one puppet that teaches you Spanish. Listen,
in Portuguese, we leave off half the words, so
I don't understand why there's more words when
you could just say Senor Greg. If you're Portuguese,
you understood that. If you too would like to
learn Spanish from El Senor Greg, it will be
on the blog. Oh my God. It is a puppet. It is
a puppet. I told you. Oh my God. See, I just
watch horror Let's Plays. And they're really
fun. And then, because I don't have time to play
games, but, you know, I live vicariously through
watching them happen while I do laundry and stuff.
And so I found out a whole bunch of dude bros
really hated this new game called South of Midnight.
So I was like, well, I got to check that out
because it's probably awesome. And it is awesome.
It's beautiful. I need to download the music
because it's fantastic. And so, yeah, so I'm
on. I don't know the chapter with the giant alligator
right now. The guy is playing. Oh, that chapter.
Yeah. There's a giant alligator. No, it's really,
it's like about Southern. Is that going to get
her on a list? Probably because people hate it
because the lead character is a black woman and
she's amazing. And it's about Southern folk tales.
And I'm reporting you to the list right now.
Just to confirm, you enjoy this? I do enjoy this.
List it up. No, it's amazing. No, the music is
great. I mean, I was going to say they were going
to be on a list anyway, because I said alligator
instead of crocodile. folk tales are amazing
and dude bros don't like it it actually made
me look up more of these folk tales because I
knew about some of them but not all of them and
they did a spin on them obviously for the game
but they are really cool and so I'm enjoying
that and I'm watching that now find your joy
i i actually am considering because it looks
like um they have a story mode which is cool
because i definitely have no time to be doing
hard modes on things but um i i am considering
actually because you can get it on pc because
i think it was mainly for xbox but which i do
not have but i do have a pc so i'm like maybe
when i have some time i will buy this game because
it looks cool and if there's a story mode i might
actually be able to get through it Frank is playing
God of War on Story Mode. See, look. What I want
to say is there's no neurodiversity at this table.
Not a single person here. We are all neurotypical.
We did not do anything. Nobody went off trail
once, including myself. I love hiking, though.
I went off trail like twice last weekend. I did.
I went off trail like 90 times. I'm just laughing
because we do all these side quests and then
we get back to it. I climbed a rock. As I said.
Jess did. Jess did go hiking and she climbed
something and we were all very proud. Yeah. I
only fell down once. Okay, but the size of the
rock? Because that depends on the rock list.
My ankle said no. Comparative to Dwayne the Rock
Johnson, how big was the rock you climbed? Wait,
what? It was a bunch of little rocks that made
up like a bigger rock than Dwayne the Rock Johnson.
I like that. Yeah. It had a good view. It did
have a good view. It sounds like it had a good
vibe too. Yeah. That was pretty good. It was
nice. Okay. Nope. We're going to, we're going
to just, we're going to put that down. I just
wanted to see. Nope. We're just going to let
that one sit. I wanted to see. We're going to
let that one cook. Nope. You're going to, you're
going to let that one cook. A hundred percent.
Well, now that we're on 347 lists. Man, you like,
wow. We're going to end at 690 something. Yeah,
in the last two microseconds. Oh, God. Is this
our combined list? Wait a second. Maybe that
is actually the best point of action is to make
so many lists that they can't keep up with all
the lists. It'll blow up the computer. We got
to make more lists, but like really obnoxious
lists. Like it'll be like the garden venture
brothers, you know, the one that they short circuit
by saying weird stuff. Oh yeah. Because he's
a, he's a robot and he's only like programmed
to say so many things. So if you start saying
gibberish, it just falls apart. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty
much. Keep it weird folks. Keep it weird. Is
this a yarn podcast? Yeah. Can we go back to
tariffs? No, I don't want to go back to tariffs.
That was enough economics for one day. No, but
keep being your weird, yarny selves. Yeah. Be
your weird, yarny selves. Do what makes you happy.
If it's not yarn right now, that's cool. And
if you don't feel like you're in a safe predicament
right now, just know that we're here to be a
little safe haven. We are here for you in these
trying times. Right here. Right here. Right here
in our little stash. No, that sounds druggy.
Oh my God. You are going to have to take a hatchet
to this episode. I honestly might do a voiceover
that's like. Due to the prolific nature of this
episode, we had to modify and edit in order to
protect the identities and the safety of the
cast members. But it all seemed like a voice
modifier. You know, like the Law and Order voice?
These are our stories. These are our stories.
All right. And that's all we have for this episode.
Shout out to our sponsor, as always, Jimmy Beans
Wool at JimmyBeansWool .com. They got great stuff.
They do have real good stuff. I actually just
ordered their, what's it? They had like an Easter
bundle. Like it was a three pairing. Oh, the
bunny bag. Yes. And I got the carrot cake. Oh,
it's so pretty. That looked really good. It is
so pretty. God, I love carrot cake. It's just,
it's like a, it's like an orange tonal and a
green tonal and like a whitish tonal. Love it.
Love that. For additional content and opportunities
to connect with the cast, be sure to check out
our website at pardonmystache .com. And be sure
to tune in next time for more fun friends and
fiber at Pardon My Stache.