Tag: life experiences

Episodes

Grande Upside-down Catch-up Frap, No Whip!

themuglytruth

TMT_Ep37_IGPhoto

Greetings and happy Tuesday! Today’s episode is all about catching up over a cuppa of Kris’ Keurig coffee and Kym’s Medicine Ball elixir of life from Starbucks (10/10 recommended!). We talk celebrity podcasts, the most notorious cold case of the 20th century, how successful we were at being randomly kind, Kym tries to sing opera even though she has no voice, and in the end we try to come up with some ways to improve certain areas of our lives. Confused? Especially about Kym singing opera? Don’t be! Today’s episode is brought to you by caffeine-fueled stream of consciousness! LET’S GO!!

Today we fall prey to a wee bit of celebrity podcast listener envy. Yep. We whine just a little about how all these famous people with millions of fans start podcasting and are top of the charts within two days. Waaaah. That’s ok. WE’LL GET THERE!! Just you watch. AND listen. And subscribe, download, rate and review…

We go on to discuss our escapades from Valentine’s day and just how successful we were during Random Acts of Kindness week, even in the face of adversity. As for VD (Valentine’s Day) Kym got some sweet kicks, while Kris just waited the day out. Good news, everyone survived.

But then we get into the real weeds about our latest favorites on tv and in the podcast world…including The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Kris went from “meh” to “BINGED BOTH SEASONS!” in no-time flat), Kym is all about the new Dirty John filmed documentary, and we’re both interested in a new podcast from Australia called “Who the Hell is Hamish” (introduced through the Teacher’s Pet podcast out of Australia). And we mention a few of  those danged, uber-popular (and TBH, really good) celebrity podcasts: Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, The Monday Morning Podcast with Bill Burr, and SuperSoul Conversations with Oprah Winfrey. We REALLY do love them and don’t begrudge them their success. REALLY.

Unlike our coffee, we’re not bitter.

I Am The Night
“I Am the Night”. Photo courtesy of TNT.

But wait! The discussion gets juicier! And by juicy we mean downright gruesome, so honestly if you’re not really into discussing mutilated bodies, skip ahead, because we blithely chatter along, not paying much mind to the details of our subject. Some people might not be so immune to the subject as we seem to be. Of course we are talking about true crime, and our latest obsession being the limited series “I Am The Night” starring Chris Pine.

The show chronicles the life of American author Fauna Hodel, granddaughter of the infamous and disturbed (our words) Los Angeles physician George Hodel – who is suspected by his Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective son (and author) Steve Hodel of being the Black Dahlia murderer!

Elizabeth_Short_photo_from_police_bulletin
Elizabeth short, forever known as the Black Dahlia, brutally murdered in 1947.

Ahem. How horrible do you have to be as a parent (and a person) to have your child grow up and write a book outlining their theory that you’re the perpetrator of the 20th century’s most notorious cold case ever?

The limited series is fantastic. If you didn’t know the truth behind it, you might not believe it was based on real life events because when we say it’s fantastic we mean in the “unfathomable” sense of the word.

Luckily there’s our new favorite podcast called “Root of Evil“, which is hosted by Fauna Hodel’s daughters Yvette and Rasha, with audio recordings of their mom and grandmother Tamar, as well as input by other members of the Hodel family, including their great-uncle Steve.

TheRootOfEvil_TrueStoryOfHodelFamilyAndBlackDahlia
THIS PODCAST! This is the album art for the Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia. IT IS A MUST-LISTEN! Go! Now! LISTEN!

The family members reflect on growing up behind the closed doors of Hollywood’s Sowden House (a Lloyd Wright architectural icon at the corner of Franklin and Normandie) and in the process they reveal the dark secrets and not-so-secret dastardly exploits of the family patriarch, Dr. H.

We top the episode with some pretty good ideas about things we’d like to be better at. Like being funny. (FunnIER.) And better at art. And emotional maturity. You know, typical goals. And just like that, we call it a day. Done and done. Because honestly, Kym is still REALLY sick in this episode and even though she made a valiant effort, it’s just clear as can be that all she really needed to do better was to go home and take care of her poor self.

OH and before we sign off, it’s imperative to shout out HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SAMANTHA!!!!!!!! TODAY is Sam’s birthday and I (Kris) couldn’t be prouder of her. (I love you to the moon, the deathstar, and to infinity and beyond Sami…so proud to be your momma, and so lucky).

Check out our Grande Upside-down Catch-up Frap, No Whip! episode on  iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Libsyn, Pocket Cast, Stitcher or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Then all you need to do is 1) subscribe 2) download and 3) listen! AND!!! 4) If you enjoy what you hear, please leave a rating and a review (pretty please?). The more subscribers and reviews we get, the more opportunities we get to grow this podcast and bring you richer content.

And don’t forget to follow us here at themuglytruth.com (click that blue WordPress Follow button on the right side of your screen) so you get notifications every time we post an episode blog! You can also follow The Mugly Truth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

© The Mugly Truth 2019 and © The Mugly Truth Podcast 2019. All rights reserved.
Intro and outro music, “Clever as a Fox”  by Espresso Music through premiumbeats.com
Photos courtesy Wikipedia commons and public domain, Steve Hodel, and Kimberly Sickel @riverdeer.
Episodes

Please Don’t Eat the Children

themuglytruth

TMT_Ep36_IGPhoto

Happy Tuesday and Happy National Tell a Fairytale Day!! That’s right, February 26 is all about celebrating fairytales. Naturally Kym and Kris have chosen to take what’s lovely and beautiful and seemingly happy-ever-after and turn it on it’s morbid little head. Because if you really believe all those Disney happy endings, honey sit down, because the truth is downright scary. AND mugly.

First of all, the fairytales we all know and love have been around for centuries (the oldest known tale called “The Smith and The Devil” is believed to be 7,000 years old!). Among the most well known set of stories published in the early 19th century were by librarian brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm as a way to prevent the stories of their Germanic heritage being lost forever. Prior to that, most tales were passed down in oral tradition as moral teachings and guidance. Apparently, telling children not to wander into the forest for fear of being baked by a witch was a great way to keep them playing in the front yard.

But beyond just moralizing opportunities, the tales were a snapshot of the social norms of the day. The value (or lack thereof, let’s face it) of women and children, the struggles of day to day existence, famine, disease…many of the stories we fawn over today as lovely and feel-good really were quite gruesome. So much so that over time some storylines actually became omitted. (Do you know what the ugly step sisters actually did to get that damned slipper to fit?? DO YOU??)  We’ll warn you now…many include the deaths of women and children and there seemed to be just a smidge of cannibalism going on. Remember, famine.

Interesting side-note: according to this article History of Fairytales, by Susie McGee, the oral origins of the stories made famous by male authors like the Grimms, Hans Christian Andersen, and Charles Perrault, “[go] back much further than the 17th century, and many of these stories are actually just retellings of age-old tales, many created by women and retold throughout history” and “women typically created fairy tales with a distinct purpose in mind-to protest the societal constraints that were placed upon them and to emphasis their own rights as women in a man’s world.”

 Hmmm. 

Mostly the takeaway is we’re REALLY glad we’re 21st century women and that our kids have no idea how great their lives are.

Speaking of grim, those brothers are the ones mainly responsible for the rest of the world learning about Little Snow White, The Golden Goose, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Brave Little Tailor, The Pied Piper, and Rumplestiltskin.

Wilhelm_Grimm _and_Jacob_Grimm_1855_painting_by_Elisabeth_Jerichau-Baumann
Wilhelm Grimm (left) and Jacob Grim, 1855, painting by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann. Photo from Wikipedia. This photo is in public domain.
Frontispiece and title-page
Frontispiece and title-page, illustrated by Ludwig Emil Grimm of the 1819 edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen). Source: Toronto Public Library and Wikipedia. This photo is in public domain.
Pied Piper of Hamelin
The Deutsche Sagen (German Legends) included stories such as “Pied Piper of Hamelin”, shown here in an illustration by Kate Greenaway. Artist: Kate Greenaway (1846–1901) Engraver: Edmund Evans  (1826–1905) Photo from Wikipedia. This photo is in public domain.

But they’re not the only ones who you know about even if you don’t know you know them. Mm-hmm.

In France, Charles Perrault created the classic Tales of Mother Goose including a version of Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood, as well as Puss In Boots, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, and Bluebeard. In Denmark Hans Christian Andersen gained fame with The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, The Snow Queen, and many others.

Clearly, ticking off popular Disney movie title after movie title after movie title, one doesn’t have to look very far in today’s entertainment industry to understand how far-reaching the legacies of these stories have been.

Don’t even get us started on how all the happy-ending purty la la renditions have caused a whole generation of people to expect unrealistic life arcs. Which makes them easily offended. Which makes life annoying a lot of times. There’s no scientific data to back that statement, we just feel VURRRY strongly that that is accurate. Just an observation.

We ARE glad certain huge movie makers are creating better female characters who are heroic, brave, and can save their own hide and a couple other people’s as well. And they don’t necessarily have to marry anyone in the end either. You go Elsa and Anna!

Anyway. Hey. Look. Looklookie here. Listen. Don’t mind us. Have we mentioned we’re getting older and hormonal? OF COURSE we’re going to find the bitching in the pudding (by the way, the story behind Jack Horner is kind of cool)…but don’t let us ruin a perfectly amazing opportunity to crack open your favorite Beauty and the Beast illustrated book and read it to a loved one (including yourself) if you’re so inclined. Because truth…mugly truth that is…be told, we’re suckers for happily ever after, so bring on the sanitized versions dear friends. Let’s all d’awwww together.

For more information on the articles cited in this episode and blog post please visit the following:

How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale by Jack Zipes

History of Fairy Tales by Susie McGee

The True Stories Behind Classic Fairy Tales by Valerie Ogden

And, if you’re motivated, unlike Kris, to write your very own fairytale, feel free to check this article out: Exploring genre | How to write a fairy tale

Check out our Please Don’t Eat the Children episode on  iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Libsyn, Pocket Cast, Stitcher or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Then all you need to do is 1) subscribe 2) download and 3) listen! AND!!! 4) If you enjoy what you hear, please leave a rating and a review (pretty please?). The more subscribers and reviews we get, the more opportunities we get to grow this podcast and bring you richer content.

And don’t forget to follow us here at themuglytruth.com (click that blue WordPress Follow button on the right side of your screen) so you get notifications every time we post an episode blog! You can also follow The Mugly Truth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

© The Mugly Truth 2019 and © The Mugly Truth Podcast 2019. All rights reserved.
Intro and outro music, “Clever as a Fox”  by Espresso Music through premiumbeats.com
Photos courtesy Wikipedia commons and public domain.

 

Episodes

Random Acts of Kindness

themuglytruth
white cup filled by coffee
Photo by Jonas Mohamadi on Pexels.com

Happy Tuesday! Did you know February 17th, 2019 was National Random Acts of Kindness Day? In today’s episode we discuss how to celebrate (you don’t have to wait til next year folks) by making that little bit of extra effort to do a good deed for people you encounter in your daily routine. It can be one or one-hundred acts of unselfishness, and it can be for friends, family, coworkers, and strangers. The lovely part is that kindness is free and (almost) effortless.

Some people are naturally bright, cheerful folk, while others may need to make a conscious decision to turn up the corners of their mouth to show a smile. Obviously, if you’re a grouch, then it’s a bit more of a concerted push to get to the nice side. No matter where you are on the decency spectrum, we think everyone can agree this world needs more “random acts of kindness, and senseless acts of beauty” in it.

According to improvisedlife.com, that phrase was scribbled onto a placemat in a restaurant in Sausalito, CA, back in 1982 by journalist Anne Herbert. At that time Herbert was despairing over escalating violence in her community and elsewhere, and so turned the nightly news aphorism “random acts of violence and senseless acts of cruelty” into a revolutionary new philosophy. She started writing a column to highlight true stories of acts of kindness, encouraging people to shift their focus from cruelty to goodwill. A little over 10 years later, the nonprofit Random Acts of Kindness Foundation (RAK) was started in Denver, Colorado.

Today you can visit the RAK website for all kinds of ideas to celebrate not just one but all 365 days. Visitors to the website can download posters, certificates, tag-you’re-it cards, and other forms of inspiration for their home, school, and workplace.

Being a good human can be expressed in the simplest of acts, from smiling at a stranger to paying for someone’s coffee in the drive-thru. It can be volunteering your time to help others in need. You can drop some change in a vending machine, leave an uplifting note for a stranger on a car window, donate blankets to an animal shelter, or hold the door open for someone (10 extra karma points if you’re in a hurry). Tell the cashier at your grocery store they’re doing a great job. Better yet, tell their boss too.

sunset hands love woman
Photo by Stokpic on Pexels.com

Here’s something else to think about: we are HUGGERS! WE LOVE HUGGING! It’s our go-to greeting because hugging is amazing and so very awesome and we encourage people to do it more. BUT!!! (Always with the buts!) Always ask first. Not everyone likes hugs; some people may have issues with being touched so intimately. Showing concern for someone else’s boundaries and respecting them is a TOTALLY “woke” thing to do and will certainly make your new friend feel comfortable and safe with you.

Now. Don’t feel guilty if you’re NOT that ray of freaking sunshine all the time. No one is asking you to be something you’re not. And don’t forget we KNOW about what traffic does to people. Hell, even perpetual smiley people have bad days. We’re all human. And that’s the point, really. We all just need to practice (again, some more than others) pausing, breathing and shifting perspective every once in awhile. We’re just encouraging everyone (ourselves included) to give it a shot here and there, off and on. You know, try it on, wear it awhile, see how it feels. You might find it…suits you.

But yeah, yeah, but what happens if you meet – UGH – just the BIGGEST jerk in the world? And you want to yell, or physically fight even, or maybe just walk away but curse the a-hole at the top of your lungs in the privacy of your car?! What happens if…you perform the unusual act of kindness by understanding you’re all of a sudden in a 2- maybe 5- or even 10-minute life snapshot of someone you have never met, know absolutely nothing about, and are probably at their verrrry lowest point in that infinitesimal space and time? Seeing beyond the regular stress and frustration of such an encounter could be one of the nicest things you can do. For you, them, and everyone in hearing distance.

Oooof. That is a tall order. Maybe just try smiling and holding doors and leaving dollar bills for people to find for awhile and work your way up to that level of zen? Let’s recap: Start small, try often, pause, breathe, shift. You’ll likely find that tranquility comes into play much more readily than you thought possible.

But wait, there’s more: this is just the tip of the niceberg. (bwahahahahaha!!! THAT’S a good one. Wiping one laugh-induced tear from cheek).

smiling woman looking upright standing against yellow wall
Photo by juan mendez on Pexels.com

The physical ramifications of being a good human are also a terrific reason to (gritting teeth) let that guy merge in front of you on the way home after a super long day: helpfulness releases all sorts of chemicals and hormones in our bodies that help decrease stress and blood pressure and increases other good stuff like oxytocin. D’aw. Since we’re not doctors, read this if you don’t believe us.

To bring a smile to your face, here’s a gallery of some truly wonderful acts of kindness:

adult black and white books boy
Read a book for someone who is unable to do so themselves. Photo by Tookapic on Pexels.com
woman reading book
Leave a dollar bill in a library book. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
person holding a sticky note
YES YOU ARE! Leave an uplifting note for a loved one, coworker, or a stranger. But be mindful of the message, because you know, even nice notes can be construed as creepy in some circumstances. Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com
architecture buildings business commerce
Shhhhhh! Drop a few coins in a parking meter “if the local laws allow it”. ((((There is NOTHING to see here. I did NOT put quarters in the not-my-parking-meter))) Photo by Scott Webb on Pexels.com
soldier-military-uniform-american.jpg
We just love this photo…not sure who is being kind to whom, but it’s all sweet. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
person touching brown puppy
ALL THE FREAKING FEEELZ!!!!! Nobody writing this caption is crying! YOU’RE crying. If you’re getting a new family pet, please consider one from a shelter if at all possible. Fostering pets is also a great way to enjoy giving dogs, cats, and other animals a new lease on life, literally, and helping them find their forever homes. Photo by Helena Lopes on Pexels.com
Rocky the Podcat Meets Sami
This photo is from Rocky the Podcat’s first encounter with her new small hoomans. Rocky was a rescue kitteh and continues to be the best dog-cat in the world. Photo by Kristen Core.
Rocky the Podcat
ALL THE LOVE!! That is one happy, comfy, chill kitten. Recap: FIRST DAY AT FOREVER HOME. It’s like it was meant to be or something. Photo by Kristen Core.
Rocky Arm Wrestles
Pets give so much and expect so little in return so Small Hooman let her win this round of arm wrestling, because adorable kitten. Photo by Kristen Core.

 

Check out our Random Acts of Kindness episode on  iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Libsyn, Pocket Cast, Stitcher or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Then all you need to do is 1) subscribe 2) download and 3) listen! AND!!! 4) If you enjoy what you hear, please leave a rating and a review (pretty please?). The more subscribers and reviews we get, the more opportunities we get to grow this podcast and bring you richer content.

And don’t forget to follow us here at themuglytruth.com (click that blue WordPress Follow button on the right side of your screen) so you get notifications every time we post an episode blog! You can also follow The Mugly Truth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Sirius Black
Kris’ beloved Sirius Black, the “goodest boy that ever was.” Rest in peace dear boy, and thank you for your love, companionship, and protection. And for that EPIC day you pulled up stake, raced across camp, and jumped in the lake leash, stake and all to get ducks. Photo by Kristen Core.
© The Mugly Truth 2019 and © The Mugly Truth Podcast 2019. All rights reserved.
Intro and outro music, “Clever as a Fox”  by Espresso Music through premiumbeats.com
Photos courtesy WordPress free library, by Pexels.com, and Kristen Core.