Debates, Food and Fears 43:45

Welcome back everybody, it's the Jan Arden Podcast. I haven't completely sorted out the music yet. I mean, we do have theme music. I'm Jan Arden. I'm here with Caitlin Green, Adam Karsh. We are still working from our respective homes.

And I really wish I could see you guys. I miss the days of overheating in your studio, Adam, where I was sweating in there like menopause had taken over my entire being. There is an air conditioning unit, right? Well, I know, but we have to turn it off so it's not noisy. Right, correct. I know the sweat is just pouring down your back. You think you're going to get electrocuted. I just miss leaving the house. Yeah.

On a smaller note, I just wish leaving the house was easier. Yeah, totally. Come on, tell me, when's the last time you left the house?

Well, I've left the house, like, you know, go to like get groceries and like do errands and stuff. But it's been a little bit since I've gone out and seen people and like done things. I'm trying to think, like, has it been a week? It can't have been a week. We sat in a friend's backyard. It can't be a week. We sat in a friend's backyard last Friday and maybe that was it.

I don't know, the cases in Ontario have me a little bit freaked out. The cases are going up again. You have a jingle for the cases? Well, I'm trying to make it sound cheerier. I'm trying to make it not sound so. But we knew this was going to happen. Yeah. We knew this was coming.

They've talked about the second wave forever and a day. They talked about the second wave before the first wave really was even upon us. But the reason for that is when things get a little bit better, people drop their guard. We've got kids back in school. The workforce is back in the hospitality industry a little bit. Restaurants and whatnot are open for business. Hotels. I mean, everyone's kind of trying to go about life, but...

And I don't want to be the harbinger of doom, but I'm going to be anyway. Folks, we're going to be here for a few years. We will be. This is my thoughts. And to lament life the way it used to be is almost, mom used to call it living in the someday.

Well, someday I'll do this. Someday I'll get that. Someday when I lose weight, someday when I have the right, someday when, you know, and I think people are doing that now in terms of, you know, we're living in times of COVID, but people are so much lamenting the past. Now they're thinking, well, when things get back to normal, when we get to here, when this goes away, I'm telling you, even with a vaccine,

We're going to be dealing with this for a few years, which is not the end of the world, folks. It's not. It comes in like waves of not only cases, but also like waves of boredom. And when our cases were lower this summer, and I think everybody was taking a little bit more advantage of going out. And when you see, when there were days where like the city of Toronto, like 3 million people had, you know, less than five cases. I think there was one day where there was none. Wow.

That felt great. That felt like we were, you know, like I could hear like walking on sunshine playing when everybody was going outside and like leaving the house. I'm walking on sunshine. Yeah. That's how it felt. You're like going to Loblaws. I'm like, this is great. We're saying hi to people. Would it kill Loblaws to sponsor us? Loblaws, we're here for you. If you need us. I would even change my name to Bob. You would. Yeah.

Blah, blah, blah.

You know what? I'm going to, we should be like, we should call Galen up and say, look it, I really love a variety of your products. I especially like your apple crisp. Hook us up. Decadent chocolate chip cookies are fantastic. We would take payment in cookies. Yeah. Well, I'll take payment in cozy baked goods. We're ready for lockdown here. Well, have no fear. I mean, this was to be expected, but you know, no one has dared mentioned third wave yet.

So I will be that person. But there will be a third and fourth and fifth wave. You know, this thing is not... I think what people keep picturing in their minds is that it's suddenly going to disappear. So that's not going to happen. It's with us now for the rest of time. COVID-19 is not going to disappear. It's not going to sink into some hole somewhere. So...

We have to adapt and we will. We will get better medications to deal with it. But what do we do in the meantime? People feel like they're hiding away. I'm still telling you the greatest, best way forward, wear a mask and keep social distancing going. But I think, you know, obviously we can live with this. We can find joy. We can find happiness. I was writing about this last week that within all these things that are happening in the world, you still have to find a way to be happy.

happy and to enjoy your life and to have great meals and to enjoy friendships. You know, it doesn't, you know, the long phases of feeling like everything has stopped. It hasn't stopped. Look outside, you know, and, and go for walks and, and the winter's not going to be that bad. Like it, we have to find the positivity and we will get past it. And they are coming up with better medications. I don't think the mortality rate is as high. I know we've talked about that on the show before.

Yeah. We're treating it better. Maybe the virus isn't as lethal, but the mortality doesn't seem to be where it was.

Yeah, I think, I mean, I feel like I've never personally from just knowing people who've had it, I've never been worried about, maybe this is foolish also, about it being like a killer virus as much as I've been worried about the fact that like with things, you know, like polio, for example, you have all these people who had post polio syndrome afterwards, right? Those are the things that I worry about for my friends who have had it.

You know, will their taste buds come back? Hopefully. Will the fatigue last for a long time? Hopefully not. And those kinds of things that they just really don't know a ton about. Another thing that I think is great is like the rapid testing. They just approved a bunch of rapid testing because a big issue is like getting the results back. And once they have the home test,

Yes, that will be so great. So those are the kind of things that I think will make, you know, while you while we're still dealing with it, and we're waiting for our vaccine, that will make living your day to day life feel a little bit more normal. Like, can you imagine if they had like a P test version of the of COVID, like a pregnancy test or something where the results come back, and you're at home, and you know that you're safe to like go out in the world. And I think those are the kind of things I've seen promised that could make a really big difference in living our day to day life with the virus still around.

You nailed it. It's going to be rapid testing at home testing that gives us instant results that are effective, that are reliable. Yeah. That, you know, their kid comes home kind of sick. They stick the thing under his tongue. They see the strip is green. He's okay. And everybody's worry level goes down. Anyway, I don't know what any of this has to do with the debate. Yeah.

That's the real train wreck of the week. So we can't not talk about it. I didn't see it. I'm going to tell you right now. I went out of my way to avoid watching that. Caitlin, you saw it, Adam. You probably saw it or saw bits of it. But apparently it was so terrifying that they're now amending the rules of debating on national television. Well, thank God because

As a person who worked in radio, I was just watching this being like, this could all be resolved if one producer would just cut his mic. Just cut it.

Every radio person in the world is just screaming at the TV, like, pot down his mic. He just wouldn't relent. He just talked over him. Think of it this way. Fox News' Chris Wallace is the moderator. This is a Fox News debate. Chris Wallace

gets badgered instantly by Trump. Trump is like arguing with the moderator of the debate within, I'd say 15 minutes. It's completely off the rails. And Chris Wallace is watching, probably watching this happen to him as the president badgers him. And he's realizing like,

our base, you know, Fox News is like our base. They're his supporters. So it put him in this very awkward situation and it was terrible to watch. He couldn't reign them in. A lot of people really heavily criticized his performance as a moderator, feeling like he couldn't get on top of things. But I think he was blindsided. So whoever's moderating the next one, I don't know offhand who it is. It should be Rosie O'Donnell. It should be someone. She would freak him out too. That would throw him off, I think.

I don't think he could handle it. Well, they need somebody who's extremely tough. Like I said, I didn't see it, but I knew what was going to happen. I just thought Don is going to go in there swinging the bats, swinging cats around, anything. And he's not going to let Joe Biden speak.

a clear sentence. And I mean, I saw one clip where Joe was like, can you just shut up, man? I was like, God, did it really come to this? Shut up, man started trending. It's like on t-shirts now was a trending hashtag around the debate. And it just meant what really happened to the takeaway. And everyone was saying this is that the people lost because they never talked about any issues. So considering we're, you know, it's the year 2020, did climate change come up?

once? No. Did they talk about gun control? No, they didn't. Did they talk about terrorism? No. And they could barely scratch the surface of the issues that they did talk about or they did plan to talk about because it just devolved into this yelling at each other. Nothing was clear and

It was muddy. They're yelling at the moderator. It was very unenjoyable to watch. And the ratings were terrible. I know Trump was going around being like, all ratings were great. They weren't. The ratings were really bad. Cause I think a lot of people like you, Jan just said, I have no interest in watching this because I know it's going to be stressful. Well, I don't want to feel crappy. Like I've got enough things going on in my world. Um,

But the good thing that has come out of it is they are amending the rules. The next debate, whenever that is, they are amending the rules. We'll just wrap this up. We've got one more minute left. They are amending the rules and they are going to change how these mics are left live. I'm a huge fan of that. Yeah, they're going to be muting mics. Anyway, you're listening to the Jen Arden podcast. We're going to be right back with a whole bunch of

fiercely interesting things when we come back. Welcome back everybody. I'm Jan Arden and this is the Jan Arden podcast and show. It's not just a podcast. It's a show too. Caitlin and Adam are here with me as always. Listen, kind of linking up to talking about the second wave of

the COVID virus hitting different spots, but I will gloat and say that the West is doing a little bit better than the East, but the East East, the maritime provinces are acing this still. They are in single digits. They have done something so excellent that I just wanna send them some shining shout outs

to the Maritime Provinces for doing such an incredible job. And I'm jealous. Yeah, they've nailed it. My in-laws live in Halifax and that Atlantic bubble that they did, that really worked. Well, the Atlantic bubble, I'm loving the Atlantic. Alberta's not doing great either.

Alberta is not doing as well as they were. I think we're up to like 18,000 active cases again. Oh, yep. But speaking of that, I mean, I know it's stressful, but there's, this is probably a good time to talk about stress relieving things that we can all do. Yes. Share yours, please, with me. Well,

Well, I mean, I have a few things that I talk about always, but the one that I'm reading about that's so interesting, and I kind of knew this, is that watching videos of cute animals, like literally brings your blood pressure down. It makes you feel better. Like it does something viscerally to your physical health. I feel like you and I have probably talked about this before on the show, but the Instagram account, The Dodo,

I love Dodo. Is there anything better than that Instagram account? I love it so much. Well, they save animals. They rescue animals. They show cute animals. They animals recovering from horrific things. But I think, I mean, there is something to be said for nature. I live out here in the trees and we saw what happened.

This summer, like March, April, May, going into June, there was an exodus out of people's homes, onto the streets, into the parks, into the trees, going up into Muskoka, into Lake. People were just in their cars. Highways were jammed. And they were getting into nature because they knew they felt better. I know a lot of people are worried. Winter's coming. So what are you guys' thoughts on...

It's 25 below. You're in your house with your kids. You don't even want to go to the grocery store. Like what do we, what can we look forward to changing up our moods? Like I'm, I'm even worried about that. I always, I like baking a little bit. I don't know why I find it comforting. So I'll go for baking or cooking. We're all going to be fat again. Correct. Absolutely. There's no two ways about it.

I'm at peace with the fact that I'm going to be gaining a spare tire. No, you won't. Which is fine. I probably will. We had to buy a new bread maker, speaking about baking, because we used our bread maker so much, it died. We had to buy a new bread maker. Did you ever think you'd be saying those words? No. I bought a new blender. What'd you get? I killed my blender. I had a Vitamix blender and I killed it. They're the best.

Well, I didn't go Vitamix, so I know Vitamix won't be sponsoring our show. I went with a Blendtec. Those are good. Those are really good. Oh, yeah, those are supposed to be good, too. Really good. Well, I'm loving my Blendtec. Dear Blendtec, my name's Jan. I have a podcast. I'm in Canada. You know, if you want to just throw a little...

Blender at us once a week. We'd feature your recipes. I bet you guys have great salsa recipes. Ooh, yeah. How to make ice cream in your Blendtec or soups. I wonder if they make bread in a Blendtec. Let's find out.

I think we all, we talked about this in the spring, like cooking will be a huge thing that people turn to probably once again. We've got some great takeout options here in Toronto. I always like that. There are some really like genuinely fancy restaurants that will put together like a multi-course dinner for you and you can take home. There's some prep work at home, but it's kind of fun. Those are always like things to look forward to. I would buy, I'm not joking. I would buy a child breakfast.

level one piece one piece snowsuit like the snowsuit that your parents put you in the one that the kid was forced to wear in a Christmas story yeah I would buy I would buy one of those so that I could like go out and actually enjoy winter this year well get on it you can buy one online listen no but seriously things we could let's look ahead here this is stuff we need to consider

We need to organize our pantries. Like it is now, what is it? October. We're in October. I know, we made it. Oh, my Lord Tundren, as they say. We have to get our pantries organized. And I think instead of there being an emptying of shelves again, going into these winter months, because fresh foods are not readily available, as we know, you know, getting fruits and vegetables might prove to be

a little more challenging this year. Like, I don't know what to expect. I think we should be going out and doing some prep work on every shopping trip that we do now running into the snow. You got to start bringing home a few more little extra things.

Yeah, so that you're not stockpiling because that was bizarre to see. It was like, okay, our supply chain's fine, everyone. Stop hoarding toilet paper. This isn't a gastrointestinal virus necessarily anyways. I mean, I would have been, I did okay for toilet paper. On my birthday, which was in March, my friends literally threw

20 rolls of toilet paper at me in my driveway. And that was supposed to like really cheer me up. It's like, I don't know if it was the best birthday or the worst birthday. Cause I thought this is really horrible that they're throwing toilet paper at me. And then I'm like, this is amazing because I have a lot of toilet paper.

It's very useful. It's not going to go bad, but I just hope that panic buying, I don't want that this time around, but you're right. Now that it's fall, it would be good to treat yourself to one or two extra little nice items for your pantry, probably in your grocery shop now. It would be wise. Well,

Get things that will bring you comfort. Like get some marshmallows and get some big blocks of chocolate so you can do s'moresy type things. Like just get organized. Don't everybody catch yourself like off guard going, I should have, could have, would have. Let's take a little extra time because like we said at the top of the program,

We're going to be here for a while, which is no, I don't want anyone panicking. I don't want anyone worrying. Worry is a liar and we're going to be absolutely a-okay, but we got to keep wearing masks and we got to keep social distancing. I'm a scaredy cat. I'm perfect for this virus because I'm scared to get it. So I do all the right things. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. We're going to be right back.

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Go right now. Welcome back to the Jan Arden Podcast and Show. That's how I'm going to start talking about this now. I'm going to say podcast and show because we're not just a podcast. You probably are listening to us right now on the radio, in your car, in your cabin, or in your trailer parked on a very remote piece of land in northern Saskatchewan because you just want to get away from people.

What illogical fear did you guys have as kids? I'm going to ask you separately. What really was a monster under the bed, monster in the closet, the dark, kidney beans? Adam, what was an illogical childhood fear? Um...

I had a lot of separation anxiety as a kid. So I think it was like something bad is going to happen to someone if we're not together. Oh, that's a terrible fear to have as a kid. I want to come through this phone line, whatever this is, and squish you. Thank you.

I mean, I think that's really common. I was scared of my parents leaving too. Yeah, I think that is common. I got a little bit of that also. I was always afraid of car accidents. I think I saw like a car accident in one. Car accidents? In like one movie I saw it. So if my parents were going out and they were like late, I would be like sitting by the window like a puppy being like, I hope they didn't get in a car accident.

They're probably walking home or something, but I was also, I was an only child and both of my sets of grandparents lived, they live kind of far away. We, we didn't see them that often. So I would be like sitting in my room and I'd be like, well, if they dead in a car accident, I'm gonna have to go live with my grandparents. I don't know very well. I feel you Adam. I feel you. Well, no, it's, it's true. Um, the loss of a parent, the, the death of a parent, um,

Having a parent get sick, like I really do feel for kids that have even a brother or a sister going through cancer treatments or a mom going through breast cancer. Like I remember when I was, gosh, I'm going to say six or seven years old. My mom had a hysterectomy very early as a very young woman. She was in her early 30s and she had to go into the hospital.

And hysterectomies back then were not the little laparoscopic, seemingly, you know, the quick surgeries they are now. Not that, I mean, it's a major surgery still, but you know what I mean? I remember her having a really big scar and she was there for a few days and I was scared of losing my mom. So I'm with you on that one too, guys.

I had like a way more illogical fear that wasn't at all weighted in anything real in any way. If we want, if we want to go a complete 180. No, no. What? What? I was deathly afraid of wind socks. Really? Okay. Um,

Okay, so a windsock, folks, is usually seen at smaller airports when a pilot that is landing visually needs to see the direction of the wind. So it is a long sock-like thing that fills with wind, and it spins around on a post depending on how the wind is catching it and blowing it. Why in God's name would you be afraid of that?

So when I was a kid, I was a really big fan of Winnie the Pooh. And in Winnie the Pooh, the evil characters were the Heffalumps and the Woozles. And one of them was just like a giant elephant. And they were big and they were scary and they had big, scary trunks. And they would suck things up and blow out smoke. And I...

equated the wind sock with a giant evil Winnie the Pooh elephant trunk. And they had them outside of the Scarborough town center here in Toronto. And I didn't want to go to that. I didn't want to go to that mall because it had wind socks out front. You must've been mortified at the used car lots that had those tall, really weird noodley guys. Arms are waving around.

Well, I was afraid, deathly afraid of getting trapped in the freezer. Oh, I get that. As a 10, 11-year-old, I was told to go down into our very scary basement. No windows, not a walkout basement, nothing. Dark concrete walls. It smelled wet. There was a light bulb in the corner of one of the rooms where the freezer was with a string on it. And I had to wave my arms around.

in the last bastion of a bit of light to hit the string and pull it. It was a very scary few seconds. It felt like an eternity, but lifting that freezer door up because it was a chest freezer and pulling out one of the God awful packages because dad always went together with a neighbor to get a half a side of beef. And that's a lot. I mean, those were my disdain started already and they were marked with

It was like a grease pencil on the wax paper mark. I hated going to the packages of meat to find ground round or a flank steak or a chuck or a row. It made me gag. And I couldn't shut that freezer quick enough. And I know those freezers don't lock. Like you can actually go in a freezer quickly.

and push it open like you wouldn't be trapped in a freezer. But it did have a key to lock it. So can someone freaking explain to me why in God's name you would want to lock a freezer? From the outside, right? It just looks... Yeah, there's no reason. I don't understand. I feel like there's no justifiable reason for it. It's a glaring safety issue. And I just feel like there's a person in there if it's locked. Like, it's just unsettling. You're right. Have you seen Dexter? Yes. I have not.

Oh, Caitlin. Caitlin was just talking about Roger Ebert's 100 Greatest Movies of All Times. And what's old is new again. And I understand that when you are like Caitlin and have gone through everything that's been streaming. The fact that you haven't seen Dexter is a huge...

uh oversight on your part no you will we need to talk again in a couple of weeks you need to start look at adam's nodding i love that show i did not love the finale by the way i did not love the finale it was so i've watched a few episodes okay and i i didn't feel great about it because maybe it was just the episode that i saw because we're cheering on a mass murderer

Wasn't so much that, although I, yeah, I was cheering for him, of course, but it was like the detail of the other murders and the, it just like, it wasn't for me. There's like an element at a certain point in any show. And maybe I was like, just tuned into the wrong episode. Cause some are probably gorier than others and less about characters. But I was like, I don't really care what's happening to anybody. It was all bad guys. Yeah. It was all trying to get rid of bad guys. Well, let me ask you this. Did you like six feet under?

Sort of. Yes. I wasn't, it wasn't my favorite. Cause every episode started off with somebody dying a very bizarre way. And, but it was still captivating because it was about the family. It was relationships. It could be romantic. I thought it was very innovative television. You know,

Yeah, I feel like when it came out, I might have been just like a bit young to have like gotten into it at the time. And then I've never gotten how young you are. But I mean, it's not like I don't enjoy, you know, dark things necessarily. I really liked Ozark recently. I really like my parents' freezer.

Yeah. I love Ozark. That's great. Ozark is good. Great. True to the original, the first season, True Detective, one of my very favorites, but I'm more of a succession and Mad Men gal personally. Okay. I've never seen Mad Men. I bet I'd love it. Do I need to watch that? Yes. Okay. My favorite. I love it so much. I've passed it by because I want to learn more about you.

For sure. Other childhood illogical fears. So definitely the freezer was one of them. I was terribly afraid. I don't know about you guys, but riding my bike on a summer evening, I was so afraid of going through the cold patches of air.

Do you remember riding your bike and that you'd go down a hill and you'd hit a cold patch of air and it was always filled with mosquitoes. And I remember taking my chances, shutting my eyes and shutting my mouth and gliding through the cold patches of air so that I didn't get mosquitoes in my mouth or my eyeballs. I'm surprised I am alive sitting here telling you this story, but I was afraid of that feeling. Yes. Right. I know that feeling.

Like going through a cold patch of air. Yep. Yep. That's unsettling. Well, I don't know. I think children have way bigger fish to fry as far as illogical fears these days. So ours seem pretty pedestrian. I know. If I had a kid and found out that they were just afraid of windsocks, I'd be like, bless your heart. I've done something right.

Well, listen, I'm going to make sure that I take my windsock down if you ever come here to visit. No, I don't. I've overcome it, thankfully. I have a windsock. Through years of therapy. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast and Show. We'll be right back. Welcome back. Jan, Caitlin, Adam, Jan Arden Podcast.

Adam just said something so ridiculous on the break that I have to frigging bring it up. Like, well, this isn't really a fear, but.

I really, I hate raisins. I hate how they look. I hate how they feel. I hate how they taste. I can't touch them. And then he follows that up with this unbelievable statement, but I don't mind craisins. Are you, you're bananas. That makes no sense, right? That makes, I like bananas. A craisin and a raisin are this virtually the same thing. Yeah. A craisin is like the raisins yuppie sibling.

Yes. They're sweeter. They're tarter. Raisins are like, that's wrong. Once I got a, I got a cookie from a bakery or something and I said, are there raisins in there? Oh no, no, no. And I took a bite and it was a raisin. I'm like, no, thank you. No, wrong. I don't like raisins. People are going to write into us. I, I know there's always that debate.

And it's kind of a quandary. I've seen it online before. Butter tarts with raisins or without raisins. Oh, never. Oh, God. Yes, you always have butter tarts with raisins. I'm good with either. I love butter tarts. You know, here's the lengths that I went to during this pandemic because I didn't have raisins in my house and we were too scared to go anywhere. I was making butter tarts. I had all the stuff.

All the stuff. I go into my pantry to get the raisins to put into my beautiful dark syrup that I had made with vegan butter and everything. I had no raisins. So I was so inventive. I was so proud of myself. I went into my raisin brand. I dumped my box of raisin brand, not kidding, onto a clean tea towel.

And I picked out half of the raisins because I knew I would be so disappointed when I went to have raisin bran like two weeks later when I still had no food and I needed something to eat that I

Jan, you're going to regret taking all the raisins out of the raisin brand. So I left some in, but I made really good butter tarts. Anyway, we're going to move forward because that was the most ridiculous break I've ever had with you, Adam Karsh. I know. I don't like dates either. I don't like dates either. Okay. Well, at least a date is a bigger version of a raisin. It's a scary, it looks like a, like a bug larva. I can't stand it. Okay. You and I could never go on amazing race Canada. So just know that because you couldn't do any of the food stuff.

I know. And I'm not a picky eater. Jan, we could go on Amazing Race Canada together because I'm just listening to your fear of dates and raisins and realizing I had once inadvertently eaten a cod testicle. That's a real story. I'd rather eat a cod testicle than a raisin. Okay. Do you know what? A cod doesn't have a testicle. So back up, Barbie. It's called, okay, so it is apparently a Japanese delicacy called Milt, M-I-L-T, and

And it is either the testicle itself or perhaps an internal gland or the byproduct of said testicle. And it is consumed sometimes. And I was at a fancy Japanese restaurant in Las Vegas because they have excellent sushi. But people that have just joined us.

Yeah, it's true. I didn't realize until after they gave it to me. It was like a tasting menu. So they just bring out course after course after course. And then I realized this one. Yeah. Anyways, it happened. I did it. And you know, it wasn't great. Well, in this country, they call them cod balls. And that's just the way it goes. Okay, we're moving on because

I apologize to our listeners. We value our listeners. And you know what? If you ever get a chance to hit subscribe on the Jan Arden podcast, you won't even have to worry about missing one of our podcasts because every week, you know, you'll be reminded. So hit the subscribe button, write us at Jan Arden podcast on Twitter and let us know how you are. Anyway, moving on a 35 year old kindergarten teacher in France lost his, lost his job. This was last year.

because parents, out of all the things they were complaining about his appearance, because get this, Sylvain Hélène was covered, and I'm not kidding you here, head to toes, like hairline, everything, eyeballs. Eyeballs, eyeballs, eyeballs. Head to toe in tattoos, including the whites of his eyes, which he had surgically turned black.

So this is a kindergarten teacher. He got fired. And he just thinks that it's very disappointing. I need thoughts on this because... I'm Googling to see what he looks like. I would have been scared out of my mind. I mean, we're just talking about our illogical fears. But he said the kids did not mind it at all. It was just when you saw him from far away...

that he could be scary, which I don't understand. He looks like something out of a Stephen King novel. I'm an adult, and if he was approaching me on the street, I would have a certain feeling about it for sure. Because I don't know what he... First of all, the eyeball white tattoo part, his entire eyeball is black. He had to travel to Germany to get it done because it's illegal in France.

So, you know, this is a very dedicated individual and he put a lot of time and energy and clearly money into his appearance. I just would say if he could have stuck to maybe an older grade versus nursery school. He's teaching grade six and up now.

Yeah, and that's good. You know what? Stick it right there because I was afraid of wind socks. So if some man with entirely black eyeballs was singing me nursery rhymes, it's like Stephen King. It would have been a no for me. Is it fair to fire somebody based on their appearance, though? And I mean, you cannot...

You can't just pick and choose what that appearance is. I think if you have laws in place about firing someone over their appearance, then you get into the territory of someone who's too big to properly fit behind the teacher's desk. Somebody who has...

a growth or a large birthmark that covers their face. That's disconcerting to other people. Like where does this stuff begin and end guys? Because it's,

Because this man chose to tattoo his whole body for one thing, he's got clothes on. So the only thing that's going to be exposed for nursery school kids, which I'm thinking is ages four, five, six. Am I correct? Kind of in there. I think they said one of the kids with, yeah. One of the kids that was having nightmares or their parents claimed they were having nightmares was three.

But he would just see the man's head and his hands. And his dark black eyeballs. I don't know. And his black eyeballs. I just Googled this guy. He's unsettling to look at. I mean, I'm not saying he'd tattoo. Not at all. Have tattoos. This guy, I'm going to have nightmares and I'm 46. So if you're three years old, and I'm not saying this guy shouldn't have tattoos, tattoo all you want. But this guy, just this guy, a tad unsettling to look at. Yeah. I feel like to me at least,

I mean, like legally, I'm no expert. I'm probably going to say the wrong thing, but he knowingly went out and chose to drastically alter his appearance in a way that eyeball wise is particularly shocking. And so I think the logical part of my brain says, yeah, there's going to be some fallout from that. People are going to have feelings on it. And a three-year-old might cry if they see you, but you should have gone into that black eyeballs wide open and, and, and,

had some expectation of it. But I mean, I do think the school actually relocated him. So legally they might've found the right HR option. Well, it looks like he is teaching in grade six and up now.

And he said that the kids are really, they like him. Yeah. Parents like him, that they like his teaching style, that they're learning. And, but I mean, like, once again, it just, it raises the question, like where maybe you have to go into in order to get these jobs. This is the criteria we expect. So, I mean, yeah,

Did they hire him as a normal guy, Caitlin? And then he started modifying himself? Like, did he start off normal? I would love...

I would love an interview with the person who hired him because I'm sure they are just going through it right now. Cause I mean, if I decided to like walk into a children's school and I was the sweetest, loveliest person, but I said, Hey, I've decided to surgically implant a bar in my head for whatever reason I chose to. I have read stuff about the surgical implants. I saw photographs not too long ago of a woman that had made a

all her teeth like primary colors and she had horns put in just above her temples yeah and like you always say Jan whatever blows your skirt up I'm cool with it but

I just think that three-year-old children don't have the same level of context for things. And if you're going to freak them out or they're having nightmares, then you might need to go to an older grade where everyone can put your appearance into context and you can have a conversation about it. You know, little kids get scared of silly things. So it might be not the best choice for a primary teacher. A lot of kids, I remember being devastated watching Bambi.

as a three and four year old. Like there was cartoons that were geared for children that I don't know if Walt Disney expected there to be an exodus of parents hauling out falling children when Bambi's mom got shot. I hope that wasn't a spoiler for anybody. - No, that was dark. That was really dark. - Yeah.

But when you start out a show, you know, you don't know how kids are going to be. I think a lot of parents have lots of decisions to make. I feel like if I went to the school with my kid and Sylvain was there and I was able to say, this is Sylvain and he's your teacher and this is all make-believe what he has.

Like this isn't, you know, he got, this is all stuff that he wanted to do because it made him feel better about himself. I mean, maybe there's a real teaching moment here too, because I have a feeling as humanity moves forward, these augmentations, these startling surgical procedures that human beings do, whether it's getting a phone put into their wrist. Yeah.

that they don't carry it anymore. It's under the skin on their right hand. Like, I think we're headed in that direction. So maybe this was a teaching opportunity. Well, I'm going to live in the woods, so. Well, I'll live in the woods with you. And just for the record, I'm not judging this guy. I'm sure he's a super nice guy and a great teacher. Like, I'm not, I'm just, just based on his looks, I find him unsettling to look at. For the people that want to look him up.

His last name is H-E-L-A-I-N-E. So Helene, Sylvain Helene. Nice name. It's a beautiful name. Anyway, this has been interesting to talk to you guys about this. Rules going forward, I will not be watching the next debate either. Okay, I will. FYI. I will let you do that. Let me know how it goes with muting the mics. Done. Happily. Caitlin,

Trump is still going to yell over his, Mike's going to be muted, but he's still going to be yelling. It's going to be a, it's going to be a very nutty looking program. I think he, there's a chance he might not, he might choose not to take part of the debate. We'll just see if he says I'm taking my ball and going home. Cause they said the terms of the new debate rules are non-negotiable. So I think he's just going to get so flustered and hot under the collar that he can't interrupt and yell over people and scream QAnon conspiracy theories that he might just leave altogether. Yeah.

Oh, I'm sorry. I don't mean to laugh to all of our American friends. We're praying for you. We love you. Yeah, we do. We love you. And anyhow, look after yourselves, guys. Wear a mask, social distance. You're listening and have been listening to the Jen Arden podcast. We appreciate your patronage and we hope to see you back next week. Totally do.

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