Behind the Scenes Minis: Stitching Hangovers

Summary

Episode Summary: "Behind the Scenes Minis: Stitching Hangovers"

Released on January 3, 2025, "Behind the Scenes Minis: Stitching Hangovers" from the "Stuff You Missed in History Class" podcast by iHeartPodcasts delves into the intricate world of sewing, interwoven with personal anecdotes and historical insights. Hosts Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson explore the evolution of sewing machines, the nostalgic allure of sergers, and the unexpected challenges of crafting a themed episode on hangovers.

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1. Introduction to Sewing and Helen Blanchard

The episode kicks off with Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson reminiscing about Helen Blanchard’s contributions to sewing, setting a warm and nostalgic tone for the discussion.

• Holly Fry [01:14]: "We talked about Helen Blanchard and sewing this week... made my little heart happy."

• Tracy V. Wilson [01:16]: "And also while I was researching this, I got super nostalgic about sewing things through the years."

2. The Evolution of Sergers (Overlock Machines)

Holly introduces the concept of sergers, clarifying terminology and sharing historical context.

• Holly Fry [01:53]: "Today an overlock machine is a serger."

She reflects on the first home serger model, the Baby Lock EF205, released in 1968, evoking a sense of wistfulness for a time when owning such a machine was a novel concept.

• Holly Fry [02:07]: "It made me wistful for when the idea of having a serger in your home was a brand new concept."

Tracy adds her experiences with durable Singer machines and the Elna, highlighting the longevity and maintenance challenges of vintage sewing equipment.

• Tracy V. Wilson [05:22]: "My mom had a Singer... and then I had this Elna which is 35 years old."

3. Personal Sewing Journeys and Anecdotes

Both hosts share heartfelt stories about their personal relationships with sewing, emphasizing how these machines became integral to their lives.

• Holly Fry [03:20]: "I sewed my outfit for the next day... that's how I built up my professional wardrobe."

• Tracy V. Wilson [07:11]: "I still have the Elna and it still does get some use... it's not getting a ton of use, but it does still work."

Holly recounts her teenage desire for a serger, the eventual acquisition of one as an adult, and its pivotal role in her sewing projects over 30 years.

• Holly Fry [03:24]: "I harangued my parents. They did eventually get one, but not until I was a fully grown adult."

4. Nostalgia for Vintage Sewing Magazines

Holly expresses a longing for a specific vintage sewing magazine issue featuring plush koalas, underscoring the sentimental value of sewing literature.

• Holly Fry [07:34]: "There was probably around 1980 or 81, a how-to thing one year at Christmas... I could talk about sewing forever."

Tracy empathizes, sharing her own treasured memories linked to sewing publications and their creative inspirations.

5. The Challenge of Crafting the Hangover Episode

Transitioning from sewing to their research process, Tracy discusses the complexities of developing the episode on hangovers, revealing the unexpected difficulties in sourcing historical references.

• Tracy V. Wilson [12:56]: "Working on this episode gave me a hangover... It never felt like it was going to get any better."

Holly acknowledges the challenge, noting the difficulty in finding comprehensive historical data on hangovers without delving solely into drinking culture.

• Holly Fry [14:33]: "Any book that's kind of ostensibly tackling hangovers really becomes about drinking culture more than science."

6. Reflections on Historical Research and Personal Experiences

The hosts reflect on their research journeys, discussing how certain topics, like hangovers, often intertwine with broader cultural narratives rather than distinct scientific exploration.

• Tracy V. Wilson [16:32]: "It's tricky because then you are doing exactly what, you know where we landed where it's like, okay, well, so there's this apocryphal thing we might know about."

Holly and Tracy share personal experiences with hangovers, adding a relatable and humorous dimension to the historical discourse.

• Holly Fry [20:19]: "I always just chalk it up to hydration maybe... I keep it on the back bar. I don't use it all that much."

7. Conclusion and Future Episodes

As the episode wraps up, Holly and Tracy ponder future topics, contemplating the unpredictability of content that aligns with significant dates like New Year's Day.

• Tracy V. Wilson [30:50]: "I don't know if the next time that New Year's Day rolls around is the day that we have a podcast episode coming out."

They end on a hopeful note, wishing listeners a happy New Year and teasing upcoming content, maintaining an engaging and personable connection with their audience.

• Holly Fry [31:18]: "Happy New Year, everybody. Whatever's coming your way tomorrow, I hope it is great."

---

Notable Quotes:

• Holly Fry [03:19]: "I was just like, we need this, we need to buy this. Mom was just like, no."

• Tracy V. Wilson [04:33]: "I had really started in earnest to read my mother's copies of Threads magazine."

• Holly Fry [08:25]: "If you happen to be that one person who's like, oh, I know what that is, give me a yell."

• Tracy V. Wilson [12:56]: "It never felt like it was soup yet, if that makes sense."

---

Conclusion

"Behind the Scenes Minis: Stitching Hangovers" offers a rich tapestry of sewing history intertwined with personal narratives and the complexities of historical research. Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson adeptly blend factual insights with heartfelt stories, providing listeners with both educational content and relatable experiences. Whether you're an avid sewer or a history enthusiast, this episode delivers a compelling exploration of how seemingly simple topics like sewing machines and hangovers can reveal deeper cultural and personal connections.

Transcript

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[Jason Alexander]

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[Peter Tilden]

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[Jason Alexander]

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[Peter Tilden]

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[Jason Alexander]

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[Holly Fry]

Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartradio. Hello and happy Friday. I'm Holly Fry.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Holly Fry]

We talked about Helen Blanchard and sewing this week. Yeah, which made my little heart happy. And also while I was researching this, I got super nostalgic about sewing things through the years. One of the things I wanted to mention, because we talked about it somewhat in the show, was sergers, and we didn't specify in the course of the show, but she uses the term overlock sometimes when she's referring to a zigzag stitch because it overlocks the edge of the fabric. But today an overlock machine is a serger.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Right.

[Holly Fry]

But it made me wistful for when the idea of having a serger in your home was a brand new concept. And the first home model of Serger was the baby lock EF205.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Okay.

[Holly Fry]

And that came out in 1968.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Okay.

[Holly Fry]

Which is before I was born. But I remember so distinctly when I was about 9 or 10 and I had really started in earnest to read my mother's copies of Threads magazine, and there was an ad in the back of one of them for a baby lock serger. And just the description of how it would sew your seam and trim away the Excess fabric simultaneously. To me, a stitching kid sounded about as thrilling and drool inducing as like if an ad for ice cream sundaes. I was just like, we need this, we need to buy this. Mom was just like, no. To be clear, they were very expensive at that point. Now you can get a pretty good overlock for home use for a couple hundred bucks, but at the time, you were looking at probably over $1,000 in the 1970s. So it was a lot of money. But I wanted one so bad. I mean, I harangued my parents. They did eventually get one, but not until I was a fully grown adult.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Right.

[Holly Fry]

Because here is why I got a serger.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Okay?

[Holly Fry]

My mom got a serger when I was a teenager, so I used hers. But then when I got to college, I sewed in the costume shop at the theater there at school. Cause my work study job was there in the costume shop, which was great. But then when I graduated from college and I got my first job job, there was a little problem, which was that I did not have job job clothes.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, sure.

[Holly Fry]

And I was poor as dirt. So for the first two weeks that I worked as a receptionist in a hair salon, every night when I got home from work, I would sew my outfit for the next day. Wow. And then that's how I built up my professional wardrobe. And my parents were like, I don't remember if it fell around my birthday or a Christmas or something, but got me a serger kind of as all of that was happening, because they were just like, oh, dear Lord. Like, because I need. I needed clothes.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

I had that serger for exactly how long do you think?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

40 years, 30. Okay.

[Holly Fry]

Because last year it made me a lot of clothes. And last year, early in the year.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I just did a thing that I think was mathematically impossible.

[Holly Fry]

You would have been if I had gotten it when I was a teenager.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

13.

[Holly Fry]

I turned it on. It had been, you know, declining, I knew. And I turned it on and I hit the pedal and instead of stitches coming out, smoke came out.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, no.

[Holly Fry]

And I was like, this is a 30 year old searcher. No one's gonna want to fix this. Like, the one of the needle hooks was a little bit bent. I was just like, go with God, sergeant. Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The sewing machine that I have is probably about that old. At least it has to be a little older than that. My mom had a singer, one of those, like metal bodied, very sturdy singers, which is what I learned to sew on. And at the time she was doing a lot of Sewing and a lot of crafts. And she got an Elma, which had little cartridges that could do all kinds of little fancy stitches.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And so she gave me the Singer and she worked on the Elna. And then as I got to the age of, like, moving out on my own, she wasn't really sewing anymore. And so we traded sewing machines so that she had the Singer and that she or my dad would use to do stuff like sew my brother's Boy Scout patches on. And then I had this Elna. I still have the Elna and it still does get some use. Like, it needs a tune up at this point. And the figuring out of, like, where can I take an Elna that's 35 years old to get it tuned up? Is its own thing. And at this point, it is mostly being used to, like, repair things. Sew. Like, Patrick sews patches onto things that he wears at the game conventions that he works at and stuff. So it's not getting a ton of use, but it does still work and can do a number of fancy stitches. I say fancy and that they are just not straight line chain stitch stitches. The kinds of things that Blanchard was working on.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I still love sewing. I still sew quite a bit. Not as much as I used to lately, just because I've been too busy. But I have a situation brewing in the sewing room which is like, I need to start working through the fabric because we're reaching like a hoarding level of giant towers of fabric.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, shit. Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

Really need to work on. Also, I'm using my platform for personal benefit, maybe. In thinking about those old threads magazines and my mother's various stitching magazines, I had a flashback to what has become a little bit of a white whale for me. One year in one of those magazines, I thought it was threads, but I'm not confident. So any of my stitchers in the crowd. You know a lot about old sewing magazines. There was probably around 1980 or 81, a how to thing one year at Christmas. That was two tiny plush koalas and their entire Christmas wardrobe and their little tiny duffel bags you could put their wardrobes in. And I was obsessed with it, and I would love to find a copy of it again.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I'm so cute.

[Holly Fry]

I've searched and searched and have not found it. If you happen to be that one person who's like, oh, I know what that is, give me a yell, because that would be amazing. I could talk about sewing forever.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

I feel like there have been big moments in my life That I associate with what I was sewing at the time. Like, my senior year of high school, I sewed a lot before that. I made a lot of my clothes for school. But my senior year, I just decided I wanted to make all retro and vintage fashions for my school wardrobe that year. And in what was probably the one time my mother ever showed me a ton of trust, she gave me her credit card and let me go to the fabric and just pick out whatever I wanted or needed for that.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, wow, that's cool.

[Holly Fry]

And I did. And I stitched up all that stuff. And I wore a lot of 50s clothes that year. I love it. Which was very weird in 1989.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I'm into it, though.

[Holly Fry]

But it was also coming off of me doing a lot of, like, very sort of more punk referencing wardrobe. So one, I think my parents were probably happy that they were like, you want to plaid pinafore? What is this about? But what they didn't realize is, like, those could easily be styled in either direction. Yeah, I had a great time. I loved those. I still think about those clothes and how much I loved them. Yeah, that's one of the big times. I had a pretty good wardrobe that year. I just sew a lot. Anyway, I told you while I was working on this that I had something funny to tell you.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, yeah. I wasn't sure if your funny thing was about your episode or about my episode.

[Holly Fry]

No, it's about mine.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Okay.

[Holly Fry]

Tracy.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yes.

[Holly Fry]

The curse continues.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

What is it?

[Holly Fry]

Because right after Blanchard in Notable Women Encyclopedias comes Helen Blavatsky. She kept jump scaring me every time I opened something. That's so funny. Didn't even think about. It was like looking at one of these encyclopedias that I have, like, a physical copy of. And in bold are the words Helen Blavat. I was, like, jumping out.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So funny.

[Holly Fry]

I almost dropped the book. I was, like, both startled and laughing at the same time.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I love it.

[Holly Fry]

I was like, I'm ready for a poltergeist experience to happen at my house. And it will be Madame Blavatsky.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

He's gonna walk in the door being.

[Holly Fry]

Like, why are you trash talking me? What is going on?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It's gonna be Helen Blavatsky at the top of the stairs.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready. I feel like she's the curse of all of my research.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

If she comes up, no matter what I'm looking at, it'll be like some weird licorice made in the 1800s. And it will be like, this was Helen Blavatsky's favorite candy. Like there's no way to escape her, she keeps arriving anyway.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Funny.

[Holly Fry]

That is my curse, which I'm actually fine with. I think she'd be quite interesting if I ever met her ghost. I'm down with it. Come on, Helen. Come on. We can hang out. Helen. And Madame Blavatsky and I are gonna sew ghost outfits together.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It's gonna be great.

[Jason Alexander]

I'm Jason Alexander.

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[Jason Alexander]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

Our New Year's Day episode was about hangovers.

[Holly Fry]

Yes, indeed.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Let me tell you, working on this episode gave me a hangover. Talk about something I thought was going to be easy that turned out to be ridiculously hard. I did not know going into it that the word hangover to mean the. You know, the day after drinking, feeling bad, not knowing that that had not been coined until, I think, 1904 is what we said. 1904, 1906, something like that. Which meant I would not just be able to go into historical sources and put the word hangover in there and come up with some kind of, you know, delightful historical treatise on hangovers. I took all of these notes. Then when I went through all the notes, I was like, these notes are a mess. And then as I was trying to make the notes into an episode, I was like, this episode is a mess. And it never felt like it was soup yet, if that makes sense. Sense in the context of this. And I finally got to a point where I was like, this is the length of an episode and I'm not fully satisfied with where it has arrived, but it's not going to get any better. So it's things about, about Hangovers in history, which I feel like kind of add up to a fun assortment of stuff. Fun in some contexts, maybe not in all of them, but not like the unified overview of history that I thought it would be going into it.

[Holly Fry]

Right. Cause there isn't one.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

No, it's really like the.

[Holly Fry]

I mean, that's it. I mean, I think it's delightful, but you are essentially trying to make solid matter out of like clouds.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yes, really true. So there were two different books that I read that is as part of this. And one of them was the one we specifically mentioned, which was the Hangover A Literary and Cultural History. And the other was one that like, I did not mention because I didn't ultimately end up using any information from it at all. And both of them were less concrete than I would have actually found very helpful. The one that was the Hangover A Literary and Cultural History was really interesting, but I wound up taking almost no notes from it. I think that was where I learned about the. That you and I did a dramatic reading from that 17th century, the contented Cuckold or a woman's advocate. Like, that is where I first saw reference to that was in this book. But yeah, I was like, well, this is a multi hundred page book that isn't really approaching the topic in a way. I'm not saying it's bad in any way. Again, it was very interesting, but like, it wasn't approaching the topic in a way that like led to productive research for me doing on this topic.

[Holly Fry]

Right. I think part of the problem there.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Right.

[Holly Fry]

Is that any book that's kind of ostensibly tackling hangovers really becomes about drinking culture more than science.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Holly Fry]

Which is just. It's tricky because then you are doing exactly what, you know where we landed where it's like, okay, well, so there's this apocryphal thing we might know about.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

Oh, hangovers.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And since it really seems like, at least based on everything that I read, that it was kind of in terms of Europe. It was the early modern period. By the time people were sort of thinking of this as like a phenomenon that specifically follows drinking in a way that it was like it was an entity now, not just writing to your sister to say, I Drank wine last night and now I feel terrible. Anyway, it was an episode that I went into thinking it was going to be easy, and it turned out to be very hard.

[Holly Fry]

You accidentally stumbled into a thing in this episode that was on one of my lists that I had thought would be an episode that was easy and turned out to be very hard.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, yeah.

[Holly Fry]

Which was. I was gonna do some years back, the History of Brunch. And other than that one article, which is very charming. After that, it just then is like. And then there were restaurants that started offering brunch, and I'm like, well, that's the end of that story.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Buy eggs for $19. Boy, I do love brunch.

[Holly Fry]

I love brunch as well. This made me think of so many things. One, I had a sudden flash to. If I'm remembering correctly, I've not got the book at hand to look it up. PJ O'Rourke's Hangover Cure, which may disgust.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

You, probably some of them really do to me.

[Holly Fry]

I mean, this one isn't as disgusting as many other things as the prairie.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It was.

[Holly Fry]

I do think it's funny that I will drink a flip without hesitation, put the whole egg in my drink, But I don't want the drink in Tabasco sauce or the egg and Tabasco sauce. Right. Like, I don't know why. If you mixed all of that with brandy, I'd be like, oh, yeah, let's have that. But not just the egg. But, no, his, if I'm remembering correctly, was to dump an entire, like, 1 pound package of bacon into a frying pan, cook the bacon, pull out the bacon, and then you kind of poach your eggs in the bacon grease, and then you eat the eggs and bacon, which, to me, just sounds like a pretty yummy breakfast, although very heavy and not super healthful. But, yeah, I don't. I don't. Yeah, I never had to test it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That does seem a little heavy. There's, like, the various hangover cures. I didn't put this into the episode, but a lot of it are things that just, to me, are inherently kind of gross or extremely pungent. So, like, I am definitely not into a shot glass that has raw egg and Tabasco sauce and Worcestershire in it. I'm like, no, thanks. That does not sound like. That sounds like it's gonna make my situation worse. And while I do really like pickled things and briny things, there are a number of, like, pickled fish kind of things that, like, we talked about with, like, the German hangover breakfast and some of that. Like, if I wake up in the morning and I am not feeling good, a pickled herring is not going to make me feel any better. And so there. Some of them are like, is the goal here to make you feel a lot worse and maybe even be sick? And then maybe by comparison, you might feel better? I don't know.

[Holly Fry]

Maybe. I don't know. I am one of those jerks that is very lucky that doesn't get hangovers.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Well, that is amazing for you.

[Holly Fry]

It's unfair. I understand. Sometimes to my husband's complete consternation and almost fear where on the rare occasion. Cause I love to drink. I don't like to get drunk for sure, right. But there have certainly been rare occasions where I have overindulged or I started drinking when I didn't eat and got intoxicated. And he's convinced the next morning is gonna be rough. And then I wake up chirpy as a bird and he's just like, I'm afraid.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Ye.

[Holly Fry]

I always just chalk it up to hydration maybe. Because I always am drinking a lot of beverages, not just my cocktails. Even if I'm having a long evening of drinking or at a party or something, I usually also am having a soda. And more often, even though I hate it. Water.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

Et cetera. So that might just be it. I've just been staving it off because I'm so thirsty all the time. I always want many beverages at hand.

[Jason Alexander]

I'm Jason Alexander.

[Peter Tilden]

And I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the really no, really.

[Jason Alexander]

Podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions, like.

[Peter Tilden]

Why they refused to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor.

[Jason Alexander]

We got the answer.

[Peter Tilden]

Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the woolly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer. And you never know who's gonna drop by.

[Jason Alexander]

Mr. Bryan Cranston is with us.

[Peter Tilden]

How are you?

[Jason Alexander]

Hello.

[Peter Tilden]

My friend Wayne Knight. About Jurassic Park.

[Jason Alexander]

Wayne Knight, welcome to really really, sir. Bless you all.

[Peter Tilden]

Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging.

[Jason Alexander]

Really? That's the opening. Really? No, really? Yeah, really? No, really. Go to reallynoreally.com and register to win.

[Peter Tilden]

$500, a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign. Jason Bobblehead.

[Jason Alexander]

It's Called really? No, really. And you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

My experiences are usually like some kind of accidental miscalculation. Like, for example, when I first moved to Massachusetts, you could not ship alcohol to Massachusetts, much like Georgia.

[Holly Fry]

Georgia now.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Well, this is something. I think there wound up being court cases about it, because in. As I recall, and this is my memory, so it might not be correct. Massachusetts distilleries and whatnot were allowed to ship out of Massachusetts, but Massachusetts would not allow you to ship into Massachusetts. And this is a matter of interstate commerce. So it wound up in federal court, and the ruling was, no, you can't do it that way. Before that changed, though, if I wanted something that could not be gotten locally, I would have to ship it to friends in Connecticut and get it from them. And one time, what I specifically wanted was Cathead Honeysuckle vodka, which is not something. It's possible that maybe you can get it in New England now. It was not something that could be procured in New England at the time. So I had ordered it. My friends who live in Connecticut had. We had connected so that I could get it. And we made some cocktails with it. And then later the same evening, another friend started making champagne cocktails with it. And the next morning I woke up and was like, why do I feel bad? And I was like, the amount that I had consumed felt like a normal, responsible amount to me. And I'd also had, you know, the amount of other water and other, like, I had done the things that I normally do, because I also, like. I don't like to feel bad, and I don't like to be drunk either. And it took me a minute to be like, that other cocktail was made with champagne and vodka, right? Not with, like, vodka and something. Not an alcohol. And the worst part of that was it was a day that I needed to get up and get on an airplane and fly to Atlanta for work reasons. And I remember being at the airport and I had gotten through security, and I was like, my head hurts and my body feels bad, and I feel very anxious. And I went to one of the newsstands and I bought one of those little, little things of Cheerios that comes in a little plastic thing. I did not get milk. I just had, like, dry Cheerios and. And ginger ale. And then I felt somewhat better before I had to get on the airplane. So, yeah.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what I would do if I got A hangover. I don't know. I like that you brought up Fernet.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. You said you had lots of thoughts about Fernet.

[Holly Fry]

I do. And it's mostly because nowadays Fernet is, like, kind of jokingly referred to as. It's one of the things that gets referred to as the bartender's handshake. Like that bar staff loves to do shots of Fernette together.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, fun.

[Holly Fry]

And I don't know if it's because of its connotations as a hangover cure or if it's just one of those things that it is a very uniquely flavored drink. And Amaros in general. Right. Are a little bitey. They have.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Holly Fry]

They're not necessarily super palatable to everyone, because they are not. Even though it's technically a liqueur, they're not sweet the way you would think of, like, a fruity liqueur. They have that herbal bite to them. And so I think some of it is a little bit of a dare factor. Right. Like, oh, I can do three shots of Fernet, no problem.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I love this table.

[Holly Fry]

I don't, but it just makes me chuckle.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

I keep it on the back bar. I don't use it all that much. Perhaps I should.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

You never know. I was just happy that you wanted to look at the ABC cocktails. I love old cocktail books. I love them.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. So when I asked you if you had that, because I. There's a lot of stuff you can just find old scans of. And I could not find a scan of that when I was looking, and I thought that you might have it. And so the first thing that I looked for, because it's an alphabetical order, I looked under B for bloody, and it was. There was no thing there. And so then I looked, I was like, maybe it's under Mary, comma, bloody. So I looked under M and not there, and I think I found it under red Mary by searching the book for tomato.

[Holly Fry]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are always weird. It's always funny. One of the things I love about old cocktail books, specifically, like the ones that are now famous in the cocktail world. Right. Like Jerry Thomas book that we've talked about on the show before. And like Harry Craddock's Savoy cocktail book. Those are like the heavy hitters. Right. Like, those are like the godfathers of modern cocktail culture. And it always tickles me now that I have put a cocktail book into the world, which is very, very nerve wracking for me. And I'm like, everybody's gonna think I stink And I don't know what I'm doing. It's always good to go back and look at these cocktails that are literally like, I don't know, throw whiskey and cream in a glass and it's like, wait a minute. You're like, you're like the apex, dude. Some of them are really abysmal. That is an actual drink that's in the Savoy cocktail book. I actually, it came up on an episode of Criminalia recently called A Cowboy, and it's literally two thirds whiskey, one third cream. That doesn't sound the least bit delightful to me.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

What does that. I. Yeah, it also seems like it wouldn't incorporate.

[Holly Fry]

Well, it sounds gross.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, it sounds icky.

[Holly Fry]

I mean, that being said, sometimes those weird, simple things will actually be not too bad. But I have made a lot of these older cocktails just to be like, that doesn't have a lot of stuff we'd include in a cocktail today. I wonder what this tastes. Nope, it's not so great or surprisingly good and all over the map. But I'm like, well, I guess if these guys would do so throw whiskey and cream at a glass. I don't have to feel too guilty. If somebody doesn't like something.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That'S so.

[Holly Fry]

Funny, they're not over there doing this, you know, being like, let's infuse the vodka with a tea bag. Like, which is one of the. One of my favorite things to do on the planet. I was also gonna say for people like me that don't like Bloody Marys because we don't enjoy tomato.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Uh huh.

[Holly Fry]

I will occasionally. I did it one of our early seasons of Criminalia, but I now occasionally will make it. I do a Bloody Mary with beet juice instead of tomato juice. It's a very different flavor profile. Obviously it's a good bit sweeter. It doesn't have that like, acid note. I quite like it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

But if you don't like beets, you're also out of luck.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, I don't know. I initially did not like the tomato juice aspect. And so the first couple of times that I tried a Bloody Mary, I was like, no, no thanks. And then I had one that was made with like really, really fresh, like it might have been made with tomatoes there at the bar, lemon juice or tomato juice. And I was like, oh, this is.

[Holly Fry]

Actually, this is a different situation.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And so, yeah, they grew on me in that way. I guess we didn't put a please drink responsibly note at the end of the Hangover episode because I felt like it was obvious we've been talking about feeling terrible and various negative health effects of alcohol, but since this episode has been more about the things we enjoy drinking, always drink responsibly. Yeah, and don't drink and drive.

[Holly Fry]

Don't do that.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

All of that.

[Holly Fry]

Don't rub dog hair in a wound, dear Lord.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, don't. Don't burn a dog hair and think you're gonna prevent rabies. That's definitely not how that works.

[Holly Fry]

Not how it does.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I'll also just say I don't know if the next time that New Year's Day rolls around is the day that we have a podcast episode coming out. If we'll have a fun, contextually relevant episode to do. Because one year we did day planners. That was your episode. And I thought that was a masterful stroke of something to do on New Year's Day. And then hangovers turned out to be really difficult.

[Holly Fry]

We'll think of something.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We may think of something. Or there may just be a random thing that has nothing to do with anything. We'll see. It's in the future. Who knows? Who knows what will happen in in the future? Happy New Year, everybody. Whatever's coming your way tomorrow, I hope it is great. We will have a Saturday classic tomorrow. We will have something brand new on Monday. And if you haven't, you can subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio app or wherever else you like to get your podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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