The Dollop – The Past Times with Carmen Lagala (Ep 144)

Release Date: September 26, 2025
Hosts: Dave Anthony & Gareth Reynolds
Guest: Carmen Lagala
Theme: Comedians dive into the peculiar, hilarious, and sometimes dark headlines of an actual 1906 Nevada newspaper, offering present-day perspective and comic riffs.

Episode Overview

Comedian Carmen Lagala joins Dave and Gareth to riff through the oddities and eccentricities of a random Nevada newspaper from July 5, 1906. The trio discusses everything from leap year trivia and tragic dance hall stories to the importance of not hugging while waltzing and why college girls in Nevada were denied tamales. Their sharp, irreverent humor highlights the bizarre, archaic, and often misogynistic logic of early-20th-century news.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Specials, Comedy, and Creating New Material

• Carmen’s Special "Sweet Batch" (00:36–02:10)
  • Carmen explains the experience of recording and releasing a stand-up special on YouTube for free.
  • The group jokes about the economics of comedy: some creators get rich while most don’t, and options for monetization.
  • Dave remarks: "Have you considered going on a podcast and saying racist and anti-trans stuff on this one?" [01:23] (sarcastically referring to controversial 'hot take' podcasters).
• They also talk about aggressively recycling old material, referencing Denny Johnson and Pablo Francisco as comics known for sticking to the same act.

2. Guessing the Newspaper’s Year & Setting the Scene

• The group tries to guess the year of the newspaper, with Gareth joking: "I’m gonna guess 804." [04:25]
• Dave reveals it’s from July 5, 1906, Central Nevada Central (a small-town Nevada newspaper).
• They riff on the oddities and slow news days of small-town papers: "This is pretty much a pasture today..." [03:37]

3. Leap Year Oddities and ‘Extra Sundays’

• Leap Year Trivia (05:00–06:00)
  • The paper notes there will be 53 Sundays in 1906, "an occurrence that will not happen again for 110 years."
  • Carmen observes the peculiar leap year humor, including birthday jokes about being "12" if born on a leap day.
  • The group riffs on pedophile loopholes and the weird priorities of the time: "You can be a pedophile. It’s a nice little loophole." (Carmen, [06:08])

4. Life in 1906 Nevada: Church, Masturbation, & Breaking Colts

• The paper lists wholesome ways to spend the "extra Sunday," including going to church and "calling your best girl."
• Gareth riffs: "Sit around masturbating. Paint the fence. Kill your neighbor. Bury him in his own yard." [06:41]
• Quote: "110 years from this date, you will probably be paying the penalty or enjoying the pleasures of the method in which you chose to spend this extra Sunday." [07:22] (Reading from the paper; group mocks the high-stakes tone.)

5. Dance Hall Tragedy and Misogynistic Reporting

• A woman employed at a dance hall in Iono "shot herself through the left breast," supposedly after reading a novel in a "fit of despondency."
• The hosts lament the archaic, dismissive headline: "They’re mourning the boob. The woman's dead. But Jesus Christ, why couldn’t she have died through the stomach?" (Gareth, [08:56])
• Discussion about the meaning of “dance hall” — Dave: "They would give guys Tugs... dancing, not stripping." [10:36]
• Carmen imagines being the author blamed for a tragic suicide, paralleling it to modern-day podcasting.

6. Fireworks/Bomb Injury

• Story of a boy, Donald Hoskins, whose face was "frightfully burned" after a bomb/large firework exploded as he tried to re-light it.
• Group riffs on the universal experience of nervously checking faulty fireworks, and workplace safety in 1906.
• Carmen suggests "sitting on the bucket" (over the bomb), prompting Dave to dub it a "Wile E. Coyote solution."

7. College Girls Forbidden Tamales: Food, Gender, Rebellion

• University girls forbidden from receiving tamales at night due to an angry matron's order.
  • Quote: “And the fair damsels who are getting knowledge injected will not be comforted. And all because their hot tamale supply has been cut off.” (Reading from the paper, [25:18])
• Carmen cracks: "Maybe it's like their milk challenge," about the allure of forbidden tamales [24:22].
• The trio jokes about the labor of eating tamales, how "sucking at tamales" sounds filthier than intended, and considers whether the tamale man is really just a campus heartthrob.

8. Beauty Fads: Fasting for Attractiveness

• Article on female students fasting as the latest "fashionable fad" to improve "beauty."
• Carmen: "Wait, was she fasting for a week?" [34:38]
• Gareth: "Just let them eat tamales." [35:10]
• The group notes the disturbing continuity between 1906 diet culture and modern "intermittent fasting" trends.
• Dave notes: "This feels particularly dark." [35:10]

9. Waltzing Without Hugging & Sexual Repression

• Article: "Now hugging is tabooed while waltzing."
• Carmen and Gareth lampoon 1906’s sexual repression, with Gareth noting: "I mean, could you imagine how much you just wanted to fuck back then?" [41:37]
• Carmen: "It's just a play about anorexia." [40:46] (referring to the earlier fasting story)
• United Professional Masters of Dancing: No hugging allowed, dancers must waltz at arm’s length.

10. Miners' 10 Commandments: Satire and Safety

• Parody commandments for miners (not children): don’t sleep late, don’t mix ore and waste, don’t eat onions before entering the mine, don’t stand in the middle of the elevator, always laugh at the boss’s jokes, etc.
  • Dave tries to translate: "Don’t shit in the bucket that’s meant for the ore." [49:06]
• Carmen: "I'm really drunk right now, you guys." [45:50] (playing along with the confusion over biblical-style language)
• The commandments blur the line between genuine rules and sarcastic commentary.

11. Marriage “Advice” & Practical Women

• A young woman prefers "an old horse that knows how to pull the load"—choosing to marry an older man.
• The group rolls with the analogy, Gareth: "Honestly, I can't really argue with her there. ... Way more breakable now.” [54:40]

12. Workplace Injury & Mining Mishaps

• Miner Jerry Reese has his hand accidentally impaled by a candlestick (a mining tool for holding candles).
  • Gareth investigates what a candlestick is and describes its likely use: "It could be quite stabby. You would put it in the wall... then you would place your candle on it." [56:04]

13. Apocalyptic Predictions

• A quack in 1906 predicts all cities will be destroyed by earthquakes in 1982.
  • Carmen: "This is like... Like a Joe Rogan of the time." [58:26]
  • The group jokes about pseudo-scientific bravado in both 1906 and today.

14. Rise of Socialism & Unions in Early Nevada

• The paper reports on political fear of the "socialist vote" in Nevada.
  • Gareth: "It's always fleeting. Anytime unions have power... the evil is..." [59:26]

15. Spectacularly Misogynist Ending: “Take Your Medicine”

• An Oklahoma girl dislocates her neck pulling away from an unwanted kiss. The paper admonishes: “Dear girls, it is always safer to stand up and take your medicine.” [61:39–61:53]
• Gareth, aghast: "What the fuck...Finally we know the gender of the author. Wow. What a horrible... This is why you can't reject men, women. Your back will hurt, so just take your medicine.” [62:05]
• The group calls out the pervasive victim-blaming and sexism of the era, with Gareth: "If someone writes a mean comment on your video and you attack them with a better line, the fellas just need to take their medicine and shut the fuck up." [63:17]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Gareth: "They were mourning the boob. The woman’s dead. But Jesus Christ, why couldn’t she have died through the stomach?” [08:56] (on the dance hall tragedy)
• Carmen: "I'm really drunk right now, you guys." [45:50] (while making sense of the miner’s commandments)
• Gareth: "Just let them eat tamales." [35:10] (on the ridiculousness of food policing)
• Carmen: "It's just a play about anorexia." [40:46]
• Gareth (on Oklahoma girl’s injury): "What the fuck... What a horrible. Christy, this is why you can't reject men women. Your back will hurt, so just take your medicine.” [62:05]
• Carmen: "So they experiment on one of them, the weakest one." [39:25] (on the fasting club)
• Dave: "If thou refuseth to toil as they dictate, thou and thy dog and all that thou possesseth will be hitting the trail for Tonopah." [52:34] (reciting the miner’s commandments)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:36] – Carmen discusses her special, comedy business
• [03:37] – Guessing the newspaper year & intro to 1906 Nevada
• [05:00] – Leap year and extra Sunday weirdness
• [08:56] – Dance hall suicide and media portrayal
• [13:28] – Firework/bomb injury in small-town Nevada
• [23:54] – University girls forbidden tamales (start of tamale saga)
• [34:32] – Fasting: the newest fad for beauty, 1906 style
• [41:06] – Waltzing without hugging becomes law
• [45:07] – Miners' 10 Commandments: satire, safety, and onions
• [53:16] – "Practical" women and marriage to older men
• [56:00] – Candlestick workplace injury, explained
• [58:26] – Apocalyptic predictions, Joe Rogan riff
• [61:39] – Oklahoma girl’s neck injury; misogynistic “medicine” advice
• [62:46] – Carmen on responding to online comments
• [63:35] – Wrap-up & thanks

Tone and Style

The hosts maintain their trademark irreverence and sarcasm, using the archaic, often bizarre content of the 1906 newspaper as a springboard for modern social commentary, rampant absurdity, and sharp one-liners. Carmen Lagala proves a game guest, rolling with the weirdness and adding her own comic lenses to both the historical oddities and the sexist, moralizing subtexts.

Recurring Themes

• The bewildering priorities and judgments of early newspapers: from trivializing women’s mental health to obsessing over trivial food bans.
• Persistent misogyny and lack of self-awareness in the media, both then and now.
• Parallels between early-20th-century trends (fasting, social policing, social movements) and those of today.
• The utter strangeness of small-town reporting, then and now.

Listener Takeaway:
Even seemingly mundane slices of century-old news are rife with comedy, darkness, and lessons—most obviously, that some societal ills are disturbingly persistent.

Closing Note:
Carmen can be found on YouTube with her special "Sweet Batch" and engages with commenters, even the snarky ones (especially on Instagram). If you want more historic absurdity, The Dollop’s archives await.