1384 – Twin Cities Sitters Club | Trending Tuesday
Steve & Eve & Nev & Neve & Eva & Eve welcome you to the first official club meeting. On the docket: a wicker mystery, a poetic postcard, and a reminder that the call to mystery is always there.
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Episode 1384 – Twin Cities Sitters Club | Trending Tuesday
[START OF RECORDING]
SCOOTER: Friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it’s time for the podcaster…you say, it’s not like a treat. It’s not like…what do they do, turn-down service? I think they puts mints on your pillows. I’d just like to figure out who thought of that idea; dentists? No offense, but definitely not the people that gotta clean the room, because they’ll say, what are you doing? ‘Cause some people may not be…I’ve never had…I’ve never been on a cruise before, and so, I don't know where else you'd get a turn-down service. So, anyway…but this is kinda like a turn-down service. No tricks. No treats. As cool as…maybe that’s why they said it; as cool as…someone said, as cool as the other side of the pillow. But like a cool mint on your pillow, but not a mint…well, I guess a mint; I’m associating chocolate and mints.
Sorry. I mean, if it was a mint, I guess you'd have…you'd say, okay, I could see that on the pillow. Is it like a after-brushing mint, though? What is this, the…? I thought I tuned into a sleep podcast. What are you doing? Yeah, I’m just going…this is…welcome to Sleep With Me, by the way. I’m glad you're here. This show is very different; you're right. I’m here to keep you company and take your mind off of stuff so you could fall asleep versus putting you to sleep directly. I’m kinda just here to be your friend and hang out with you and…yeah, while you fall asleep. I kinda already said that, and then I thought I’d try to explain it a different way, and then I couldn't find the words for it. But if you're new, just kinda see how it goes. I’ll give you a little heads up of what to expect coming up.
Regular listeners, occasional listeners, people listening while you're going through something, welcome back. So glad everybody’s here, 'cause where else would I talk about this stuff, right, and have it actually be useful? You can roll your eyes here, too, just like people do in my…their regular life, or they say, excuse me; I’ll be back. They never come back. I’ll be right back; I just gotta go, you know, check those mints, check my pillows for mints, check my mints for pillows. Mints for Pillows; was that…? That was like…what are those called? Indie rock band, Mints for Pillows. Turned out I was wrong, though. It was Mints for Pillows #4, but not…there was…the lead singer was named Mince with CE, and there was four other band members, four pillows. But yeah, it…yeah, it was quite…Mints for Pillows. Oh, I’m trying to introduce a sleep podcast, though.
So…okay, so what we got coming up is support so that paying for the show is optional for those of you that are new or those of you that kinda listen from time to time. This show is brought to you really by the sponsors and the people that get the most out of the podcast whose lives are changed regularly by the podcast. They support it back. Then after that is a long, meandering intro meant to ease you into bedtime, and later on…well, I’ll tell a little bedtime story, a seasonal bedtime story. So, I’m glad you're here. If you're new, just kinda see how it goes. I’m gonna ease you into bedtime and then you could fall asleep whenever you want. So, yeah, I’m really glad you're here, and if this show has made your life better continually, these are the ways you could support the show…make sure we're here for you and everybody else. Thanks.
INTRO: [INTRO MUSIC] Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing? Trouble getting to sleep? Trouble staying asleep? Well, welcome. This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep. We do it with a bedtime story. Alls you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights, and press Play. I’m gonna do the rest. What I’m going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you could set aside whatever’s keeping you awake.
It could be thoughts about the past, the present, the future, thoughts you're thinking about, so think…thoughts on your mind, feelings, anything coming up for you emotionally related to those thoughts or feelings that are just left over from the day, feelings that are there, physical sensations, changes in time, temperature, routine, you could be going through something, in the middle of something, getting over something. Whatever it is, I’m here to keep you company and take your mind off of that stuff versus putting you to sleep, which is a bit different. But let me tell you why I make the show or why I talk about not being able to sleep on a sleep podcast. The main reason is 'cause I want you to feel or get a sense you may be in the right place. You don’t have to be in the right place.
You don’t have to be comfortable when you get here. You don’t have to feel at home here. This show’s…doesn't have to put you to sleep. It could, and I want to get to the place where it’s like you could feel seen and welcomed in here, or you say, maybe I’ll…maybe I could get on the page with that. It’s funny; On the Page is one of the first podcasts I ever listened to, at least regularly, with Pilar about screenwriting. But talk about a random tangent in the middle of a tangent. But whatever it is that’s keeping you awake…I have trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep, trouble waking up, trouble with travel, changes in time, temperature, routine, thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and a bunch of other stuff.
So, I know what it feels like for me and I know it’s not pleasant, and there’s a variety of ways it’s not pleasant during, before, and after, and in the deepest depths of the dark night. I don't know what it’s like for you, but I hope you know I respect how it feels for you even if I can't relate to it. But I think we might share some feelings or at least some language or some understanding. I just want to say if it’s like…for you like anything like it is for me, I really hope I can help you out. If you're like, no, you can't understand what I’m dealing with or what I’m going through, I respect that, too. I value it, actually, because there’s other people out there who have said that to me and told me their stories.
I know that there’s someone out there…there’s enough people listening, really, that there’s someone out there who has experienced something similar to whatever it is that you've been dealing with, whether it’s temporarily or long-term or in-between, and they're really hoping 'cause they really know what it feels like, and they hope this podcast can help you out. Them welcoming you feels good for them, too. They get to feel this…wow, somebody new here, and I can welcome them in. So, I hope you get both of those experiences. Now, the show is not guaranteed to work, but just see how it goes. I’ll explain more.
The other reason I make the show is that you deserve a bedtime that you don’t have to dread, that doesn't S-U-C-K, that you could look forward to or at least feel neutral about and that you get the rest you need on a regular basis so your life is more manageable, so that eventually you could be living your life and you could be flourishing. The goal of the show is that you're out there in the world flourishing, and that’s what I’m hoping to provide. The way it works is I send my voice across the deep, dark night. I use lull…the deef, dark night…Steve and Deve; they were twin brothers that existed only in my imagination. Huh, somebody…somewhere out there is somebody named Deve. I couldn't spell it. Steve is S-T-E-V-E, though. Deve…seems like it would…Neve is…Neve…there’s Nev and Neve, too.
Were they Steve and Deve’s cousins or sisters? What is this, the Eve…the Eve Club; yeah, the Eves. Their last name was Eve. Steve, Deve, Eve, Neve…I forgot…Neve and Neef…Neve and Steve? Nev; Nev and Neve. So, there’s Steve, Deve, Nev, and Neve, and Eve and Eva…Eve. No…would you call someone Eve Eve? Yeah, I think so. I like that, actually. Eve Eve here reporting on a sleep podcaster that just created us. So, yeah, what was my point there? I don't know. Oh, I was trying to figure out how to spell…not Neve. Steve and…oh, I was gonna send my voice across the deep, dark night. The deve, deve, dark night…use lulling, soothing, creaky, dulcet tones, pointless meanders, and superfluous tangents, which you've just gotten a little taste of there. Hopefully these characters will make an appearance in our story tonight.
I don't know. I mean, it sounds like a great team, the Eves, a family of twins, the twin sitters…the Twin Cities Sitters Club. Is that a thing? How about that? Twin Cities Sitters Club. The Eves…yeah, we run the Twin Cities Sitters Club. We just…we're in a podcast right now, a intro. We're part of a pointless meander and a superfluous tangent where the podcaster goes off topic and gets mixed up, over-pronounces and under-pronounces words, uses filler words and gratuitous…it’s been a while since I’ve given out a gratuitous, pregnant pause, but here you go, Eves. That’s for the Twin…this pregnant pause, this gratuitous, pregnant pause is for the Twin Cities Sitters Club. It’s interesting; is it a club of babysitters or people that sit around as a club? What percentage of clubs sit around? Seventy percent? I don't know.
So, I go off topic, I get mixed up, my voice is not traditionally soothing, and that’s…so, when you get here, you may not like me or the show, and it may be a lot stronger than that. Believe me, I’ve been doing this twelve years and I’ve seen it all in the e-mails, and it’s not for the faint of heart. We have a website set up, sleepwithmepodcast.com/nothankyou, because all the other stuff I said is true. So, if you find you get here…this show is an acquired taste…that you don’t acquire the taste for me or you're already certain, that’s what that website’s set up for. Go there, click one button; it’ll take you to a list of other sleep podcasts and sleepy stuff, 'cause I still want you to find something to help you get the sleep you need.
So, yeah, if you're skeptical or doubtful though but you're not certain, please give the show a few tries. You really have nothing to lose, and that’s the most common refrain I’ve heard from most people that support the show now. They're super listeners, they listen three, four, five nights a week, and they support the podcast back. Those people, a lot of them, e-mail me; at first I didn’t like you or the show, then I was confused, and then on the third listen I just woke up the next day. So, just kinda see how it goes, 'cause it is a bit different. One, this is a podcast you don’t really listen to. You just kinda barely listen to it, and that takes some adjustment, right?
It’s a bit like elEvated background noise, a TV on in the other room, music or a party down the street, a show streaming under your pillow, a out-of-focus picture, sand passing through your hands. You can listen but you don’t need to listen. So, I guess it is different than background noise, 'cause background…I don't know. For me, a lot of times, even now…and I’m sorry, sports, but…and now my friend has the Northwoods Baseball Podcast which is meant to help people fall asleep, too. For me it was listening to sports. I’d not be paying attention, but having that running in the background was soothing to me and I could listen to it when I needed to, especially…not just sleeping but other situations. So, just kinda see how it goes. It’s a podcast you don’t listen to. Believe it or not, this is a sleep podcast.
I’ve been going over twelve years now, and it’s not meant to put you to sleep. There is no pressure to fall asleep with this show. My job is to keep you company while you fall asleep but whether you're awake or asleep, because there’s people listening who can't sleep at all and people that need a break during the day or wake up in the middle of the night. So, I’m here to the very end whether you're awake or asleep. My job is not to put you to sleep but to distract you so you could fall asleep, to comfort you and chill with you, to be barely entertaining. That’s why the episodes are over an hour.
I’m here to be your bore-friend, your bore-bae, your bore-sib, your bore-bestie, your chairman of the boreds, your Boris Borlaf, your bore-bie, your boreman, your neigh-bore…I think I said bore-bie…your bores, your best bore-friend f’Eva, to be here as your friend, just like if it was a service or a friend you could call. But you can't call most friends every night and say, talk to me for a few hours. I won't be paying attention, but I might, so please be mildly…could you tell…could you ease me into bedtime and then tell me a story? It’d be great if it was about the Twin Cities Sitters Club and the…all the Eves. So, yeah, I’m glad you're here. What else do you need to know? A podcast you don’t listen to, most people don’t like it, especially when they get here…even super listeners didn’t like it.
It doesn't put you to sleep even though it’s a sleep pod…I expected something more…I don't know what I expected, but this isn't it. That’s what super listeners say; I never knew to look for something like this. I never knew something like this could be out there. So, this does fit a very specific niche, people that want a friend to hang with them that’s barely funny and barely entertaining but that’s friendly. So…oh, structure of the show is the last thing I like to point out. We structure this podcast based on years and years of feedback to benefit the maximum amount of people we can, because there’s a lot of different styles of listening. But the show is adaptable if you become a regular listener. But let me tell you why so I can meet you where you are.
The show start…all our shows start off with a greeting; friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, so you feel seen and welcomed in and you say, okay, that sounds like a nice enough spot. I might be able to check that out to sleep. Then there’s support so we can put the show out…well, now we put out three different episodes a week, and it takes a team of people to do that. The listener support and the sponsor support is what enables us to do that. If you prefer something without that, you could get it on Sleep With Me+. But for new listeners or casual listeners, right, the sponsors work for most of those type of listening. Then we don’t have to have everything behind a paywall.
There’s 600+ episodes you could get right now ready to go. Then after that, which we're almost done with, is a long, meandering intro separate from the support. It’s a show within a show and it’s not meant to put you to sleep. It’s meant to ease you into bedtime and introduce the podcast in a new way every single time. I don't think the Twin Cities Sitters Club or Steve and Neve and Nev and Deve and Eve and Eva or Ava came up; the Eves of the Twin Cities Sitters Club. But now they're here, so we're happy to have them. So, every intro is different but it follows a familiar structure so it has variety and familiarity, which I’ve found works.
That’s why I made over 1,300, 1,400 episodes, because my brain adapts to whatever I listen to or whatever I try at bedtime, and then it tries to say, oh, that’s too predictable; I need something different, but I also want something that I can count on…and familiar. That’s why I designed the show this way. But the intro is also meant to be part of your wind-down routine because that’s what works and what’s been shown to work, is having a little bit of time to get ready for bed, to wind down, to get comfortable, and to have some distance between the day and sleep, like a in-between time. So, if you find you want a show without intros, we have Bedtime Stories from Sleep With Me; that’s available everywhere, and you could test that out.
But for most people, getting eased into bedtime and having a nice bedtime routine makes bedtime more something to look forward to or to count on. While it doesn't work for me all the time, it does work most of the time. So, that’s the intro, then after the intro will be support and then it’ll be our bedtime story. All told, we’ll be here just over an hour. I’m really glad you're here. I work really, really hard on the show. So do a team of people, because we really want to help you out, to help you fall asleep. We yearn and strive to do so. If you're new or just an occasional listener or whatever, don’t worry about any of this stuff. But if Sleep With Me makes your life better on a regular basis, it’s changed your life, it’s a part of your life, these are the ways you could be a part of the life of the show and get even closer to the show and help all those other people out that are listening, too. So, thanks so much.
Alright everybody, this is Scoots here. This is a Trending Tuesday style episode, and…that we put out…try to put one of these out a month. This is also…a lot of these are tales never told, though this is from a particular club. So, kind of exciting, 'cause we’ve never had a episode with this new club and these new characters. Can't say they're recurring 'cause they just made an appearance in the intro. So, yeah, I’m gonna turn things over to the story. I hope you enjoy this episode in the pumpkin season. Thanks for listening, and goodnight.
Oh, before I get to the story here, I forgot; a little behind the scenes for everybody. I had forgot to bring a randomizer with me, so I just…this is something I’ve never done before, is a randomizer. I don't know why I’ve never thought of this. But I got a stack of sci-fi book cover postcards from one of my siblings, my brother Ken, and so, I’m gonna try to use these as a randomizer 'cause it was the first thing I saw. I’m pack…when I’m recording this, I’m trying to pack my life up and move eventually. So, this might really work well, kinda like whatever…it’s trending. So, anyway, yeah, this is…welcome to Sleep With Me, the story part.
Alright everybody, hear ye, hear ye, calling the first official meeting of Twin Cities Sitters Club. We’ve all decided to go with our names that we’ll speak now even though they may have been…so, who…okay, who’s present? Okay, Nev and Neve; present. Steve; present. I’m Deve. I’m also present. I don't know…I may have been…I may have had other names in intros of podcasts before, but I’m Deve. Deve, Steve, Nev, Neve, and Eve and Ava all present here for the first official meeting of the Twin Cities Sitters Club. Glad everybody’s here. While I don't consider myself the spokesperson, I guess I’ll be talking as everyone’s encouraging me to talk.
We're recording this meeting for posterity because in the great traditions of babysitters who adventure and Hardy Drews, Nancys, and Stiltons everywhere, fancy Nancys, Nancy Drews, Drew the podcaster…well, I don't know if he solves any mysteries. Encyclopedia Brown…so many others. We’ve come together as…we're a family of babysitters. We all just happen to be fairly close in age since we're three sets of twins, and we don’t have to get into any of that or why we're close in age. That’s not part of the meeting minutes. But we are…have always been a team of babysitters, and we usually babysit in pairs. I’m recording this for the…thank you for pointing that out, Nev.
The reason I’m doing it is because people might not understand that sometimes we do babysit as twin…in our pairs, and sometimes we switch pairs. Eventually even at…because we have a set of parent…not to get into our family business, we did have to make it clear after a while that we're paid as two individuals, not as one individual. Like, we're not a pair, but that offers a lot of advantages with babysitting and we’ve gotten a lot of referrals, and we’ve stayed pretty busy. But as we know, the babysitting business can be quite dull, especially in pairs, right? Because…especially if we're only babysitting one person, we kinda usually…I mean, I guess recording for posterity…these are our methods and tips, not to be reused. But I guess future babysitters…when we age out of babysitting, that’s fine.
Or maybe the Twin Cities Sitters Club will become a thing, 'cause we love…we're so…and we love sitting around. Just to note for the meeting minutes or whatever this is called, we all are sitting down and we're in our clubhouse which is also a treehouse, and it’s a big treehouse because…yeah, some people might say we're too…you're too old to be in that treehouse. We say, well, it’s structurally sound, so…but we know that we're all lucky to be big readers and we like consuming other media and we're all fans of different degrees of media and different reading, and of course we're a fan of many…Poker Face and Lady Marple and all the other Marple derivatives, the official ones.
But we’ve always wanted to look into…we’ve always wanted to have our own cases, and we learned early on not to put…not to…don’t investigate when you're getting paid by somebody…don’t investigate your client, your babysitting clients, your…Twin Cities Sitters; we're sitters. We're not looking for cases. We're looking for cases from our clients. We're not looking to create fictional things…like, oh, I wonder why they have that, or are they…do they work for…are they part of that cool dispute that the places had when…back in the day? Because one lesson we learned is there’s…that we were taught…because one of the things when you're part of a family of three sets of twins with various adults in your life…you learn about the term ‘roadside picnic’. What is a roadside picnic?
A roadside picnic is no picnic, we all like to say here at Twin Cities Sitters Club. Because you'd say, well, there is an idyllic idea of a roadside picnic but we don’t know about it, because if you're in a roadside picnic, that probably means you're eating in the car on the side of the road or you've pulled over to eat outside of the car on the side of the road because you're on a road trip and you had to bring a picnic lunch instead of saying, can't we eat at that…? No; we brought…we got ham and cheese and PB&Js here. So, we’ve always said a roadside picnic is not a picnic. Well, I guess some…it’s no picnic, but it’s no…not a picnic at all. I mean, technically it is, is what…we’d fold down the back door of the station wagon, and people could sit on it or we could use it as a table.
Usually it was used as a buffet table for distributing sandwiches and drinks. Maybe if we were lucky we had a Bugel. But we’ve all…so, we're all…we're on a case right now, is why we're having this first official meeting of Twin Cities Sitters Club. Before that, we were just a business. We didn’t have meetings like this and we didn’t think to record them. But we finally stumbled upon…well, we finally have our first case. It’s a interesting case at that because it involves a picnic basket, and that’s probably why I have a picnic on my mind, is that a client of ours who will remain nameless though we may have worked with them professionally…'cause the Twin Cities Sitters Club, that says more…we never said we're baby…I mean, we are babysitters, but we just like the name.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Joy and Luck Club, and other ones…we say, man, it’d be pretty cool to be in a club like that, so we made one. But just like…I mean, just because not everybody…not all the…everyone in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants wears…I haven't read that one, though my sisters have, and a couple of my brothers. But I’d say, well, they didn’t always have to wear pants all the time, right? Correct. It’s actually…why didn’t you just read the book? Well, 'cause I’m afraid I’d be jealous. So, that’s why I didn’t read the book or watch…maybe I’ll watch the movie one day. But this mystery came to us from a client, and they had found something in a picnic basket. I guess I’m trying to figure out…this was very seasonal because it’s the season for this kind of thing.
They found a picnic basket, and interestingly enough, it was on the side of a road and it was in a tree. We're in a treehouse now. I don't know if those are…what’s up with those connections, but the picnic basket was in a tree. They saw it. They said, is that something in that tree? They pulled over out on a country road, one of the great country byways and highways and side roads around here. By the way, Twin Cities is a great…full of great people as far as…we know a lot of great people in Twin Cities, and we love it. So…but back to the Twin Cities…oh, back to the picnic basket. Out on the road our client was. They saw something in a tree out of the corner of their eye. They pulled over, they parked their car, they turned on their blinkers.
They were far enough…this was a big curb, plenty…not curb; the road had more than two shoulders because it was a road that was I guess meant for pulling over. Then they reversed for a while 'cause it was a country road, not very busy. Then they got out…so, they got out of the car after, obviously. I did that out of order. This is my first time running the meeting, by the way. We're filling in things. They saw something in the tree, so they walked up to the tree. First…it was a grove of trees. They said, which tree was that in? Did I really see something? They thought it might have been something exciting like a large bird, a giant bird, as a matter of fact, or some sort of mammalian friend. Alls they know is it caught their eye because it was a dark color, but it was clearly not part of the tree. It caught their eye.
They didn’t know why. Then they looked up in the tree, in a grove of trees, and then they found…by the way, it’s autumn here but…it’s fall but the leaves had not started to fall yet. We're still…they're beginning to fall. But this grove of trees at this particular time still had a lot of leaves in it of varying shades, but some still green. Our client saw something in the tree. They eventually identified the tree and they…but they still didn’t 100% identify what they saw because their first reaction was ‘that looks like a picnic basket’, but it’s like a grayish-black picnic basket. They said to themselves, huh, it looks…what? What is that? They thought a lot about movies, about the Wizarding of Oz and movies where the wind blows and magic happens, and they said, is that…?
I gotta figure out what that is. It does look like a basket. Why is it in the tree? So, they climbed the tree and it took them a little bit of effort. Then they got up, and it was in the…in a nook or a elbow, a shoulder…not a hollow, but a intersection of branches or trunks, if you will. Since we're in a tree, you'd say, are these branches? ‘Cause they're pretty thick. I don't…I guess I don't know the technical terms. Everybody was shaking their head. Yeah, we're the Twin…we're not the Twin Cities Tree Club, though we're sitting in a tree. We could say we're the Twin Cities Tree Sitters Club, but that would be very confusing. Just 'cause we have our meetings in a treehouse…it could be a in a clubhouse anywhere or it could be in our kitchen, though then adults would be listening in to us.
So, our client climbed the tree, in summary, and when they were in the tree, they happened to be able to sit down, and they noticed the basket was kinda caught on a couple branches and that it was a black, gray, or a faded-black picnic basket. Yes, to answer the question or to make the point to answer to anybody listening, it was a wicker picnic basket. They said, huh, a black wicker piskit basnasket? No, a picnic basket. That’s interesting. They even said in a very cinematic way, how’d you get in this tree? But the basket did not answer. The basket had clasps with those metal twisty things so that you're…if you were running through the fields on a picnic, as people do in…at least in dreams and animated in films…or I guess if…yeah, or I guess we put the picnic basket down…or, yeah, like those cartoons with Yogi.
It would be a little bit harder for Yogi to get in your picnic basket and take your sandwiches. So, they kinda said, okay, let me…now, luckily, this had a handle like picnic baskets do, and they put it in the crook of their arm and climbed back down the tree. Then they carried the picnic basket with them and they got in their car and they drove off. Now, here’s where things get interesting. They had…they were going from place to place, and the kinda…the picnic basket slipped their mind for a bit until they got home that night. They said, oh, there’s…I forgot about that picnic basket. I put it in the back seat; I forgot about you back there, they said as the garage closed and they looked in the rear-view mirror and they saw a picnic basket just sitting there.
In the light of the garage, the picnic basket looked quite interesting 'cause it was a different color than most picnic baskets are. They reached over the seat and they put it in the front seat with them and they said, now let’s see what you got inside. They went to turn the first clasp un-clasper, and it didn’t move. It was…was this rusted shut, they said as they told us, the Twin Cities Sitters Club? Huh, I can't get this undone. Then they went to the other side of the basket and they tried to undo it, and it was stuck as well. They said, this is…and they tried really hard. But then they thought about breaking it, and it was rusty. They said, I gotta have some WD-40 somewhere. Okay, I’ll…but then they…they said, wait a second, picnic baskets aren't exactly airtight.
So, they kinda moved the flaps, we’ll call them, of the picnic basket with their fingers. They noticed a piece of paper sticking out from there. So, they pulled the piece of paper, pull, pull, pull. The piece of paper was a folded-up note. It was…they unwrapped the note and it said something interesting to them. Maybe it’s only interesting in retrospect. Maybe it’s only interesting…well, because it’s really the only clue we have and the only clue we have to go on, because it said, ‘A date with the taker of unders.’ That was all it said. They said, huh, was this a picnic for a date with the taker of unders? What’s a taker of unders, anyway? It sounds like a very royal name.
Now, they claim, our client, that they left the picnic basket in the car, and they said, well, let’s see about the WD-40, and then I’ll get you outta here, then I’ll try to use some WD-40 on you tomorrow. ‘Cause, whatever, they had groceries in the car, typical things. So, they said…they put the note in their pocket and they went inside their house. Now, whether or not they locked their car, we don’t know. Alls we know is their client reported to us that the next day…the picnic basket had slipped their mind for a while, and then they had to use the car again. As they were going to the car, their hand hit the door. They said, wait a second, I’m supposed to remember something. There’s something related to…oh, that WD-40 or silicone spray, maybe. ‘Cause the Twin Cities Sitters Club, we don’t just represent any spray lubricants.
We kinda can represent them all as needed. So, here thereto fore, we…you guys like that? It’s pretty funny. Do I sound like an adult? I’m trying to sound as adult as I can. I bet you can't even guess my name; Deve. Yeah, that’s my name, Deve, Deve Eve. Steve Eve, Eva Eve, Neve Eve, Nev Eve, and Ava Eve. We're the Twin Cities Sitters Club. Well, we're not gonna be sitting around much longer because our client got their silicone spray, shook it up, shook, shook, shook it up, and then said, I better not spray it in the car because…and I better not spray it in the garage. I’ll open the garage and I’ll spray it on the grass on the side of the drive. Their garage door opened. They stepped outside. They put the silicone spray on the side of the driveway where aerosol cans can stand with ease, then they returned to the car.
They opened the door of the car and they looked inside the car, and there was no picnic basket at all. They said, huh, no pisket…pisken masket…I’m having trouble saying that…picnic basket at all. It’s the strangest thing. I know it was in the car. No one would have taken it from the car. The garage was closed. Picnic basket’s gone. Then they went in the house. They looked around. They checked the car, they checked the trunk, they checked the garage. Now, because it wasn’t…this was something interesting but not something essential. They didn’t look super hard, but hard enough, 'cause they said, I’m positive. Was that whole thing a dream? Black wicker picnic basket in a tree? Huh. They laughed to themselves, and then they started to drive out. They bumped the silicone spray. They stopped the car.
They put the silicone spray back in the car. They looked around the garage, then they noticed one clue, one more clue that we have, which was a piece of black fabric flopping in the breeze just outside the garage. They said, that’s a piece of black fabric, a kind of tattered black fabric flapping in the breeze on this nail outside my garage. Then they checked their app that they used to open the garage, and the garage hadn't been opened since they had returned home the night before. Then they checked…they were technologically advanced 'cause they checked the doors and the doors had not been opened since they were…actually, 'cause they went in through the garage, the door from the garage to their kitchen had been opened. The door from their garage to the backyard had not been opened.
Now, you might say to yourself, can you tell me more? I don't live in the Twin Cities or a snow-based region. Yeah, this is the advantage of the Twin Cities. Let me just tell you a little bit about them. Nowadays you might have a home with a mudroom as well, or some sort of antiroom or wet room. But yeah, in the wintertime you can drive into your garage, close the garage, turn off your car, or turn off your car and then close the garage. It’s not heated but it’s protected from the winter winds, the rains. Then you could get out of your car, and if you don’t have a mudroom or anything, sometimes you leave your boots and your wet clothes outside in the garage if you have no space. But then there’s a room. Usually it goes into…a lot of times it goes into a hallway which would then become…dubbed a mudroom.
Sometimes if you have a basement, there’s a door to the basement, maybe a door to a half-bath. That door may open directly into your kitchen or it could be some other part of your house; a back porch. Then usually you have, yeah, a door that goes into your backyard from your garage or out the side of the house. That door would probably be…more likely to be used in the summer, spring, and fall, probably not in the winter. Maybe that door would be snowed in in the winter unless you happened to have…I don't know. You use that door, and so, you shovel it. It’s a little bit of facts about how…to answer your questions about houses in the Twin Cities. Most houses…yeah, we have…most houses have silicone-based spray on hand.
You'd be surprised what the winter roads and salt and all that stuff will do to things that could be sprayed with silicone spray. But, okay, so, they knew this tatter…well, it could have just been something. Who knows? They said. But they couldn't let it go, right? In the back of their mind, this picnic basket like no picnic basket that had ever been seen had disappeared, and it had this strange note in it. They couldn't open the clasps. It was in a tree. It was a mystery without a doubt. Where did it go? How did it get there? What was inside it? What about this tattered piece of clothing? It was a mystery.
As we started to try to figure out how you could expand beyond just babysitting as Twin Cities Sitters Club, some of us happened…now, this was…it happened to be a time…let’s see, without exposing the name of this client, they happened to have a large family, and their oldest son may or may not be known as Andy. He may actually be the same age as some of us, but he just isn't…he just doesn't have the wherewithal of…he’s just different than the Twin Cities Sitters Club and us Eves. So, we do usually bring two or three of us minimum when we go over to babysit at this home because it takes quite a effort, right, and…there’s a bunch of kids there, is what I’m saying.
We tend to have a lot of fun there, and we try to get the kids to bed on time, and Andy’s what you call a little bit more of one of those moody kids, so he’s off reading, or sometimes he’ll want to hang with us. He’s a loner, I guess you'd say. He’s not…we're not looking at him as anything to do with the picnic basket. But so, we happened to be sitting around. We were playing a little bit of cards, the members of the Twin Cities Sitters Club that were working, when our client came home. She said, huh, how’s playing some cards? Yeah, it’s…and she happened to say something about Andy, and we said, oh yeah, he did good, but he’s a mystery to us anyway. She laughed and said, he’s a mystery to all of us. She made a noise like that. When people make noises like that, it’s a mini-mystery, right?
The call to mystery is always there for the Twin Cities Sitters Club. By the way, that’s over…one of the boards we worked…the call of the mystery is always there. I don't know if that’s our club…is that our club saying? Everybody’s shrugging. It’s a saying our club appreciates. A roadside picnic is no picnic; that’s…probably doesn't have to do…but the call to mystery is always there. So, Eve, it was you that…Eve Eve, by the way. Nice of all of you to meet my sister. Eve said…sorry, you paused there. Was there something about a mystery? I don't know if you knew this, but we don’t just babysit anymore. We just all happened to have our books with us, so a collection of youngster-solving mysteries or miss…lost items, all those things. We liked reading them with these kids, too.
So, said, sounds like something’s going on when you said ‘mystery’. That’s when this mother relayed all the information we just relayed to you, and we said, so, it’s a missing picnic basket and it’s a mystery of how the picnic basket got there. Do you have a copy of the note? Which she did. We said, do you have the tattered clothing? She said, no. But she said, I just happened to have our trick-or-treating…we’ve been decorating for the trick-or-treating season. She said, I just happened to have this…a couple of the decorations have similar tattered clothing. She said, so, yeah, it’s…she showed us a couple of the decorations, including stuff outside. She said, it’s kinda like this, which was kinda the things like cloaks for things that like to surprise you with joy of treats in the Halloween season.
We said, we’d be happy to figure out this picnic basket mystery for you. It sounds like a case, the case of the take…a date with the taker of unders. She said, well, you're hired. She laughed quite a bit and she said, I’m not sure what I could give you. Ava said, well, this sounds like a case that has its own…it’s multiple mysteries, one. Two, we’d need…we could…this is a case…Neve said, yeah, this is a case that if we solve it, it would be its own rewards. Nev said, but we’d need you to write us some sort of testimonial and maybe…could you even put up a sign? We don’t have signs right now, but like a yard sign, Twin Cities Sitters Club. Case…maybe…'cause we already got enough babysitting clients. We don’t need any more. The mom said, free is…that’s…the price is right with me. Job…case…hand…whatever.
We said, client hired. We're on the case now. Now we're here as our first meeting 'cause we’ve collected what we think is…we think we may…we're on the case. Our first thing was to look at the note. The note just had those words on there. Now, we did notice that it was written in some sort of…well, we did derive a few things, but not all at once. But now when I’m describing it to you, it may sound easy. But nothing’s easy for the Twin Cities Sitters Club, so don’t get…don’t imagine it all comes to us naturally. We work at it. But we determined a couple things about the note. There was some prints, palm…finger-side prints which we eventually…the note was written with wet ink and that it was a finger-side print and that it had been under that…we didn’t…we said, man, it’d be nice to carbon-date this note.
But we said, okay, well, it’s at least been around since ink was invented. We also were like, I don't think it could have made it through one winter season in that tree, 'cause it was exposed to some elements but it hadn't started to deterior…like it had been rained on repetitively or gone through an entire winter here in Twin Cities. Now, you may say, Twin Cities, you haven't mentioend the state fair or the Mall of America at all. I say, yeah, we're more than that. I mean, those are great things about the Twin Cities. We also have an amazing winter festival and…but, yeah, we're not here to talk about that. We're here to talk about Twin Cities Sitters Club.
Okay, so, we knew we had a note probably made by a left-handed person because of the finger…the side of the handprints, 'cause people with…we have enough siblings that we have left-handers, though we won't disclose that on this audio. So, in case you're trying to pretend you're one of the Twin Cities Sitters Club…I don't know, maybe one day we’ll take a new entrance…be great to have you, if you're listening to this. The least you could be in your heart, remember the Twin…alls you gotta say to be a heart-based member is Twin Cities Sitters Club. You could create your own name. But that’s really my name. But Deve, Feve, Zeve…but probably more…probably…I don't know. Anyway, we're on the case. Now, we got directions back to the estimate of where this tree was.
We weren't certain we could find it. Also, we decided we needed some cover because we were like…we said…I don't know. We thought if we were solving this mystery, we don’t want to be looking like we're solving the mystery, and we don’t want to…so, we brought a bunch of kites. We call that game when we all have kites Kite World, and we have a song and stuff. This predates Twin…maybe this is what…the prequel to Twin Cities Sitters Club, Kite World. Everybody’s welcome in Kite World. That’s part of our song. Even though the kites can get…we try not to get the kites caught together in Kite World, but…anyway, so, we brought a bunch of kites. What we noticed is that if you're looking in tree…if you're looking to investigate a tree, crashing a kite into it is a pretty good way to do it.
Everybody driving by…also, we were known around town for Kite World, and this happened to be a very rural area. Not clear on the ownership of this part of the land. So, it wasn’t like somebody said, don’t bring Kite World near my home. We usually did Kite World in open fields. But we were big on Kite World, we were. So, we were…but this was just Kite World for deceptive purposes. As we laid out, as my siblings are agreeing with me, we took turns…we only brought four kites. We were flying two to three kites at a time while everybody else was canvassing the area looking for clues. It wasn’t actual intent…it wasn’t intentional, but it kinda worked out that we started crashing kites into trees. Then we had to get in the trees to get the kites out.
We said, wait a second; this is perfect, the perfect cover and the perfect way to investigate inadvertently, which is sometimes the best way to investigate anything. We started to look for clues. Now, we came up not successful until the tree…the kites started crashing into the trees. The one thing we found is that we found…first we found the kite…where we were…strongly believed…well, positive that the picnic basket was. The way we found that kite is it had a very specific kind of intersection that even had grass and a little bit of dirt in it, like it had had a friend living in there, and that had one broken piece of black wicker. We did debate it back and forth; we could…but it was smooth. It was a U. It wasn’t a branch. It wasn’t something from a tree, I guess.
We never…we're fairly very certain that it was the place where the mystery picnic basket was resting. So, the next thing we established was that we had to get our trick…other kites out of the other trees, 'cause we had crashed a kite there. We got it outta there. Then we moved on to another tree. Now, Nev’s the best climber in the family, and…again, 'cause we have a team, we can take…so, Nev actually went from the tree…we’ll call this Tree A, the tree with the picnic basket, Tree A, in a grove of trees. Nev was able to navigate one of the giant limbs of Tree A that rolled over to Tree B. Again, we were on the ground covering. That’s what we do. We're the Twin Cities Sitters Club. We take care of each other. We didn’t need to take care of Nev, but we're babysitters, right? We practice best practices. So, Neve…Nev; sorry.
This is my first time being recorded. But so…navigated from one tree to another where there was another one of our kites from Kite World resting. Sometimes they're resting…they're in need of great repair. This particular kite was. Nev even said the joking thing; this kite’s in need of great repair. We didn’t know if we could fix…it was kind of a joke at the kite’s expense, though kites aren't sentient even if a sleep podcaster tells you they are. We made these…this…so, we were kinda having a laugh. It was like a inside joke not from the Twin Cities…well, I guess from Kite World, or another…other ones…this tree…this kite’s gonna need a looking-at. We like to say that. This kite could use a kiss. This kite could use…any of those things. This kite needs to be held.
That one could be so we could get it up in the air, or it could be like, you need to hold it and rock it like a baby. A lot of people thought it was strange that we had such a fun relationship with kites, but we highly suggest it if you're listening to this; create your own Kite World. Leave the mysteries of the Twin Cities to the Twin Cities Sitters Club, but you can do Kite World where…you can bring Kite World wherever you are. So, my sister was navigating these trees, laughing, and then trying to do the…we leave no lines behind if at all possible, because there’s forest friends. We don’t need them running into the kite string.
So, then Nev started throwing down the parts of the kite and we were trying to catch them or watch out so that we didn’t…you know, and then trying to untangle the line, which can be quite a boring job and quite involved. We got the third kite down from Tree C, unimportant. Tree C, unimportant. Just establishing that there’s a pattern of trees. Then Tree B…my sister’s in Tree B working on the kite string and untangling it, un-knotting it, when she says, wait a second, I’ve got a clue here, maybe. We said, what? She said, I got a clue here, maybe. We said, what’s the clue? She said, it’s up here. It’s a carving in the tree. We said, a carving in the tree? She said, a romantic or a wistful carving in the tree. I can't quite make it out. We said, oh, make room, make room. We’ll come up there, come up there.
She said, well, I don't know if there’s room, but I’ll try to make room. So, we started climbing up. There was room for three of us in this tree, and the tree seemed to like it. But so, we climbed and we saw what was a tradition back in the day still used from time to time, carved with some sort of blade. Again, we're not here to…we weren't doing any of this. We were observing it. So, we're not laying any judgement either way, 'cause this was a clue. But it was a shape that was supposed to look like a heart, but it wasn’t really well done. Then it had a plus and then two sets of initials in the plus. Now, we're only gonna tell you one of the initials, which was an A, because that was…eventually would either become a confirmation or a clue. Can't tell you right now.
But we were looking at it and we were trying to figure out…it was really hard to read, really terrible tree handwriting. I said, hey, anybody know…? Oh, I don't know, was that a Q? Was that a Z? Was that a P? But we were pretty certain about the A. That was the first letter, too; A something plus blah, blah. It really means love…within love, these two are within love, or something. Now, the other thing we were able to say is, hey, this doesn't look…it’s not like the tree had healed from this. The tree was entering a healing process. We said, okay, well, this isn't that old. Maybe not even the winter? We didn’t know 'cause, again, we're not tree experts. We're not the Twin Cities Tree Club. But we had an…we said, okay, that’s interesting.
We kinda looked at it and we took pictures, but Nev was like, something about this reminds me of the note. We pulled out the note, but there’s no way to compare handwriting and tree writing. But, you know, when you're in the Twin Cities Sitters Club, when you're a babysitter, too, your gut matters. We respected Nev’s gut saying there’s something similar. So, what did we establish? Well, that the picnic basket was probably real and in that tree. That’s all we had established so far, and that somebody carved their initials in the tree nearby. Then we kept looking around. Obviously we weren't about to give up. There had to be something else that could point us in the right direction. So, we searched the area. We searched it high. We searched it low.
Eventually in the crook of another tree we found a sealed plastic Ziploc bag. Now, this was on the ground level in a hole where you think a forest friend might live. This was a plastic, smooth…whatever, close…bag with closure that was watertight, and in there was a deck of cards. Now, these weren't just any cards, but we said, according to Hoyle, that’s…we liked to have fake…we did like to pretend we were in books or movies, so that was pretty funny. Who said that? Ava said that. According to Hoyle, this must be a clue. Now, the clue wasn’t just the cards, but that these were a very specific deck of cards. Again, I don't want to reveal any inside information, but these cards were given as a part of a specific TV show on air in Twin Cities actually linked to the movie Multiplex, which was such a big part of our youth, you know?
Multiplex…like Goonies and Back to the Future. The show that could have been based on here in the Twin Cities was…the cards of the fan club from that show, which I’ll just…late night trips to the Multiplex, we’ll just say. It was a public-access show where they’d show movies and someone would talk between them. That was portrayed in the movie Multiplex, basically just another thing we were proud of here in the Twin Cities. Now, this was something that was…you had to be a member of the fan club. Now, this is the thing that we already knew, was that when we babysat at our client’s house, their son Andy was a huge fan of this show.
No matter what was happening…they only had two TVs in this house, right, and no matter what we were…he had to watch this show, which was always on Saturday nights, sometimes Friday nights, particularly during this season, because it was his favorite show. Then he’s…well, I’m allowed to stay up late ‘til my mom gets home. So, yeah. So, he…we had…we said, wait a second, the…it’s all coming together. Because we said, what is the most likely solution to the mystery? Is that it’s always the most obvious thing, like shaving an octo or whatever. So, we said, holy cow. Again, it goes back to Nev’s gut, and Nev said, it’s gotta be. They said, that was the letter of their last name, maybe. We said, wait a second, that’s a person that a lot of people at our school are attracted to, maybe’s initials. So, it was all coming back together.
So, we returned to our client’s house. Now, we wondered what we should do here. But we knew we didn’t actually have to do anything, 'cause we knew more than you know. But we knew we had to tie it up in a bow. So, we got there and we set a time to meet with our client. We said, we need to meet with you at our…come by our clubhouse. We told her what we believed happened, and she said, thank you. She said, okay, I think I know what to do. She said, listen, let me tell you…actually give you an idea, because I think this case is closed. ‘Cause she talked about Andy being a little bit…a bit…Andy was close to Andy’s mom. Like, this mom, and Andy had another mom, and they were parents together. But Andy’s…and not like the mom that was our client. She had said, well, I’m gonna go visit these other realms.
No, it’s not what everybody wants, but actually, I wasn’t the one that made the decision. It was made and I was just transferred to a new realm. Andy had not…was particularly close. So, this whole realm changing was not easy on him, and this particular season was a reminder of that. Maybe that was…so, the mom said, yeah, I already knew what had happened. We said, well, what happened? She said, well, this is private, but you're…we have a client relationship. She said, yeah, Andy likes to go in that tree, apparently. I talked to him about it. And he plays cards and he plays a kind of Solitaire and talks to my wife and he has picnics with her, and he brings her favorite kinds of food. Then Steve was like, so that’s like a goth-style picnic basket. I didn’t even think that was a thing. She said, yeah, I’m so proud of him.
He made his own picnic basket to kind of create a somber tone. Even though what he was doing was having his own roadside picnic…though it was far off the road and in a tree, a roadside tree picnic, and taking the time to spend the time. We said, well, maybe he’s not a loner at all, really. She said, yeah, it’s like a thing. I think it’s very healthy. So, he took the picnic basket back and then explained it…and actually, I got invited and I got to go with him. We played cards, him and I, with…'cause his cards were missing, obviously, but you had discovered them, so I’ll return the cards to him, and you…we brought…he had the picnic basket in his room, so we brought the picnic basket.
Luckily I had brought the WD-40, too, 'cause…yeah, it’s been…I left it out here in the rain once. I forgot. So, it was kind of a bummer. So, it was a good thing we had that silicone spray. So, that’s the first mystery we solved here as the Twin Cities Sitters Club, the case of the taker of unders. Now we get it, and it’s interesting. We're assuming Andy wrote poetry and that was just the beginning of a poem. Maybe he read it to his mom, but we don’t know that for sure. But we know that this case is closed. Another mystery will open up soon here with the Twin Cities Sitters Club. Goodnight, everybody.
[END OF RECORDING]
(Transcription performed by LeahTranscribes)
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Trending Tuesday
Northwoods Baseball Podcast
https://www.sleepbaseball.com/
The Baby-Sitters Club
https://bookriot.com/how-the-baby-sitters-club-graphic-novels-were-adapted/
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/83908/15-fun-facts-about-baby-sitters-club
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/baby-sitters-club-books-1.7183119
The Mudroom
https://www.whatitmeanstobeamerican.org/places/the-puritans-didnt-have-mudrooms/
https://www.imagekitchenbath.com/when-did-mudrooms-become-a-part-of-house-design
https://www.redesignblvd.com/trends/mudrooms
History of Wicker
http://theantiquesalmanac.com/wickersenduringcharm.htm
DOWN TO BUSINESS
Who thought of putting mints on your pillows?
I’ve never been on a cruise before
Kind of like a Turndown Service
Like a cool mint on your pillow
Mints for Pillows
Mince 4 Pillows, my indie rock band
PLUGS
Sleep With Me Plus; SleepPhones; Story Only Feed; Rusty Biscuit Links; Emily Tat Artwork; Crisis Textline
SPONSORS
Helix Sleep; Zocdoc; Progressive; Kindred; Odoo; Uncommon Goods
INTRO
Thoughts on your mind
Feelings left over from the day
You don’t have to feel comfortable here
I want you to feel like you could feel seen here if you want
Shoutout to the podcast On The Page
Believe me, I do know that it’s not pleasant
I respect how you feel, even if I don’t know exactly how you feel
You deserve a bedtime that doesn’t S-U-C-K
The goal is for you to flourish
The Deve Dark Night
Steve and Deve, the twins in my imagination
Well, there’s also Nev and Neve
Welcome to the Eve Club
Steve, Deve, Nev, Neve, Eve, and Eva
Hopefully these characters make an appearance tonight
The Twin Cities Sitters Club
Well, that’ll be tonight’s episode
Time for a gratuitous pregnant pause
Believe me, I’ve seen it all in the emails I get
It’s totally normal to not like me
Shoutout to the North Woods Baseball podcast
A friend you can call whenever
Explaining the show structure
Even super listeners don’t like this at first
I’m your barely entertaining friend
Variety in Familiarity
Thanks for being here
STORY
A Tale Never Told from a new club
These characters aren’t recurring…yet
Enjoy this pumpkin season episode
I forgot a randomizer
So I’ll use this stack of sci fi postcards as a randomizer
Calling the first official meeting of the Twin Cities Sitters Club to order
Nev and Neve
Steve
Deve
Eve and Eva
All present
We’re recording this meeting for posterity
In the tradition of Drews, Hardys, and Stiltons everywhere
We’re three sets of twins
We babysit as a team
We are now being paid as two people, not one
Babysitting can be quite dull on occasion
We’re in our clubhouse treehouse
We’re not too old for this treehouse, it’s structurally sound
We’re fans of all the Marple Derivatives
We’re not gonna investigate our clients
No questions asked
A roadside picnic is no picnic
It’s no idyll for us
I mean, it’s technically a picnic but you get what I mean
We’re on a case right now
This case involves a picnic basket
We just thought it would be cool to have a club
I’ve never read Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Our client found something in a picnic basket
The picnic basket was in a tree!
BTW, the Twin Cities are great
They pulled over after something in a tree caught their eye
They thought it might be a bird
It’s autumn here, but the leaves haven’t changed yet
A black picnic basket
What’s up with that basket?
It was at an intersection of branches, or trunks
Black Wicker Picnic Basket
The basket did not tell them where it came from
They put the basket in the back of their car
They forgot about it until they got home
The first clasp was rusted shut!
They found a folded up piece of paper
A date with a Taker of Unders
They claim they left the basket in the car but took the note
A date with some WD-40
The next day, the basket was gone!
Trying to sound as adult as possible
Shakin’ Up Your Silicone Spray
They checked everywhere
Was it all a dream?
Tattered black fabric, flapping in the breeze
The garage doors had not been opened since last night
The advantage of the mudroom
Twin Cities Specific Architecture
So our client brought this mystery to us
This client had a large family with an eldest son named…Andy
It normally takes at least 2 of us to look after all the kids
The Call To Mystery is Always There
Is that our Club Saying?
Our client had some trick or treating decorations with similarly tattered clothing
Cloaks for things that like to surprise you with the joy of the Halloween season
Our client officially hired us
A case of multiple mysteries
The case offers its own rewards
Examining the note
Nothing’s easy for the Twin Cities Sitters Club
Finger-side prints in red ink
Can we carbon date this note?
This note had been in the elements for some time but a whole winter
We’re more than just the Mall of America
A note probably made by a left-handed person
We “play kite world” so people don’t realize we’re trying to solve a case
Crashing a kite into a tree is a pretty good way to investigate a tree
Canvassing for Clues
Inadvertent Investigating is the best investigating
We found one of our kites where we believed the basket had been
A broken piece of black wicker
We’re fairly very certain that that’s where it had been
Then we had to gather all our crashed kites
Nev is the best climber in the family
Navigating a giant limb of Tree A to Tree B
Best Babysitting Practices
Determining the physical and emotional needs of our kites
Create Your Own Kite World
Taking down the remaining kite strings
My sister found a clue in Tree B!
A carving in the tree!
Romantic, wistful carving in the tree
No judgment on tree carvers
A not well-carved heart
I won’t tell you all the initials
Really terrible tree handwriting
This carving is fresh!
How can you compare tree writing and handwriting?
There must be another clue nearby
A sealed plastic Ziploc bag
In it was a deck of cards
A specific deck of cards for the classic movie Multiplex
A public access show from the Twin Cities about multiplex movies
Little Andy always watched this show when we’d watch it
The simplest solution is…
Andy might have had a crush on a family friend
Goth Style Picnic Basket, made by little Andy
We’re assuming that postcard was the beginning of a poem by Little Andy
Case Solved
SUMMARY:
Episode: 1384
Title: Twin Cities Sitters Club | Trending Tuesday
Plugs: Sleep With Me Plus; SleepPhones; Story Only Feed; Rusty Biscuit Links; Emily Tat Artwork; Crisis Textline
Sponsors: Helix Sleep; Zocdoc; Progressive; Kindred; Odoo; Uncommon Goods
Notable Language:
- Turndown Service
- Mints for Pillows
- S-U-C-K
- The Eve Club
- Gratuitous Pregnant Pause
- Variety in Familiarity
- Marple Derivatives
- A roadside picnic is no picnic
- Black Wicker Picnic Basket
- Taker of Unders
- Shakin’ Up Your Silicone Spray
- Twin Cities Specific Architecture
- The Call To Mystery is Always There
- Playing Kite World
- Inadvertent Investigating
- Create Your Own Kite World
- Really terrible tree handwriting
- Shave and and Octo
- Goth Style Picnic Basket
Notable Culture:
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- Mince 4 Pillows, my indie rock band
- On The Page podcast
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- North Woods Baseball podcast
- Fancy Nancy
- The Hardy Boys
- Nancy Drew
- Thea and Geronimo Stilton
- Pokerface
- Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
- Joy Luck Club
- The Wizard of Oz
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- WD-40
- Mall of America
- Ziploc
- Multiplex
- Occam’s Razor
Notable Talking Points:
- Thoughts on your mind
- Feelings left over from the day
- You don’t have to feel comfortable here
- I want you to feel like you could feel seen here if you want
- Shoutout to the podcast On The Page
- Believe me, I do know that it’s not pleasant
- I respect how you feel, even if I don’t know exactly how you feel
- You deserve a bedtime that doesn’t S-U-C-K
- The goal is for you to flourish
- The Deve Dark Night
- Steve and Deve, the twins in my imagination
- Well, there’s also Nev and Neve
- Welcome to the Eve Club
- Steve, Deve, Nev, Neve, Eve, and Eva
- Hopefully these characters make an appearance tonight
- The Twin Cities Sitters Club
- Well, that’ll be tonight’s episode
- Time for a gratuitous pregnant pause
- Believe me, I’ve seen it all in the emails I get
- It’s totally normal to not like me
- Shoutout to the North Woods Baseball podcast
- A friend you can call whenever
- Explaining the show structure
- Even super listeners don’t like this at first
- I’m your barely entertaining friend
- Variety in Familiarity
- Thanks for being here
- A Tale Never Told from a new club
- These characters aren’t recurring…yet
- Enjoy this pumpkin season episode
- I forgot a randomizer
- So I’ll use this stack of sci fi postcards as a randomizer
- Calling the first official meeting of the Twin Cities Sitters Club to order
- Nev and Neve
- Steve
- Deve
- Eve and Eva
- All present
- We’re recording this meeting for posterity
- In the tradition of Drews, Hardys, and Stiltons everywhere
- We’re three sets of twins
- We babysit as a team
- We are now being paid as two people, not one
- Babysitting can be quite dull on occasion
- We’re in our clubhouse treehouse
- We’re not too old for this treehouse, it’s structurally sound
- We’re fans of all the Marple Derivatives
- We’re not gonna investigate our clients
- No questions asked
- A roadside picnic is no picnic
- It’s no idyll for us
- I mean, it’s technically a picnic but you get what I mean
- We’re on a case right now
- This case involves a picnic basket
- We just thought it would be cool to have a club
- I’ve never read Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
- Our client found something in a picnic basket
- The picnic basket was in a tree!
- BTW, the Twin Cities are great
- They pulled over after something in a tree caught their eye
- They thought it might be a bird
- It’s autumn here, but the leaves haven’t changed yet
- A black picnic basket
- What’s up with that basket?
- It was at an intersection of branches, or trunks
- Black Wicker Picnic Basket
- The basket did not tell them where it came from
- They put the basket in the back of their car
- They forgot about it until they got home
- The first clasp was rusted shut!
- They found a folded up piece of paper
- A date with a Taker of Unders
- They claim they left the basket in the car but took the note
- A date with some WD-40
- The next day, the basket was gone!
- Trying to sound as adult as possible
- Shakin’ Up Your Silicone Spray
- They checked everywhere
- Was it all a dream?
- Tattered black fabric, flapping in the breeze
- The garage doors had not been opened since last night
- The advantage of the mudroom
- Twin Cities Specific Architecture
- So our client brought this mystery to us
- This client had a large family with an eldest son named…Andy
- It normally takes at least 2 of us to look after all the kids
- The Call To Mystery is Always There
- Is that our Club Saying?
- Our client had some trick or treating decorations with similarly tattered clothing
- Cloaks for things that like to surprise you with the joy of the Halloween season
- Our client officially hired us
- A case of multiple mysteries
- The case offers its own rewards
- Examining the note
- Nothing’s easy for the Twin Cities Sitters Club
- Finger-side prints in red ink
- Can we carbon date this note?
- This note had been in the elements for some time but a whole winter
- We’re more than just the Mall of America
- A note probably made by a left-handed person
- We “play kite world” so people don’t realize we’re trying to solve a case
- Crashing a kite into a tree is a pretty good way to investigate a tree
- Canvassing for Clues
- Inadvertent Investigating is the best investigating
- We found one of our kites where we believed the basket had been
- A broken piece of black wicker
- We’re fairly very certain that that’s where it had been
- Then we had to gather all our crashed kites
- Nev is the best climber in the family
- Navigating a giant limb of Tree A to Tree B
- Best Babysitting Practices
- Determining the physical and emotional needs of our kites
- Create Your Own Kite World
- Taking down the remaining kite strings
- My sister found a clue in Tree B!
- A carving in the tree!
- Romantic, wistful carving in the tree
- No judgment on tree carvers
- A not well-carved heart
- I won’t tell you all the initials
- Really terrible tree handwriting
- This carving is fresh!
- How can you compare tree writing and handwriting?
- There must be another clue nearby
- A sealed plastic Ziploc bag
- In it was a deck of cards
- A specific deck of cards for the classic movie Multiplex
- A public access show from the Twin Cities about multiplex movies
- Little Andy always watched this show when we’d watch it
- The simplest solution is…
- Andy might have had a crush on a family friend
- Goth Style Picnic Basket, made by little Andy
- We’re assuming that postcard was the beginning of a poem by Little Andy
- Case Solved
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