IAT s08e44

Thu, Nov 10, 2022 9:28PM • 27:34

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

corn, people, kelp, noodles, seaweed, violets, big, delicious, ramen, rich, backpack, thought, algae, seaweed snacks, latte, eating, pack, feet, retro, love

SPEAKERS

Tom Merritt, Molly Wood

Molly Wood  00:05

Hey everyone, I'm Hollywood.

Tom Merritt  00:07

And I'm Tom Merritt.

Molly Wood  00:08

And welcome to it's a thing the weekly podcast supported by you, which was the first ever podcast to feature our thing technology. revolutionising the game and podcast culture forever. Over three decades since its first release, it's a thing remains true to its roots, while earning its status as a staple for seasons to come. Thanks for joining us and wearing us on your feet and wearing us on your feet. That's right. Last week's episode comes right back around with the Air Force One, the Nike Air Force One,

Tom Merritt  00:40

right nice, nice circular reference. Love it. Also,

Molly Wood  00:43

I would like this one. As a follow up, by the way to last week, my son would like us all to know that I am an idiot. Air Force ones are not the thing. dunks are the thing. And I was like, You know what, I'm just gonna call it Nikes. And we're gonna move on

Tom Merritt  00:56

Nikes Yeah, that's a collective thing.

Molly Wood  00:59

Yes, but in his opinion, should you be about to email me? I have been informed.

Tom Merritt  01:06

You have been in for that. If anything,

Molly Wood  01:09

it's dunks, Mark. Like, whatever. Now to take him to sneaker con.

Tom Merritt  01:15

Well, my dog is almost as old as her so

Molly Wood  01:22

I'm gonna start asking her advice. Advice rather who's Yeah,

Tom Merritt  01:25

so it's the boy is advice. No, I mean, Ray would give you advice, but she's much younger.

Molly Wood  01:30

It's true. It's all yours. Just the more experienced? Yeah, yeah. And I think we can all agree has the best style.

Tom Merritt  01:37

Oh, yeah. That one sock up on one of his feet. You know, the little Splosh

Molly Wood  01:45

looks amazing.

Tom Merritt  01:46

All right. I really that I've been in a thing dry spell. I had to work for the things there was a long period where the things just come but you know, sometimes you go through a little thing desert, probably related to the elections. I don't know. Like, we may have things out of the world. But I found a couple here that I think are pretty good. One is kelp slash seaweed becoming a thing. More, more people getting into seaweed based recipes, eating kelp eating seaweed, using the word kelp instead of seaweed to make it more palatable to people. And lots of these kinds of seaweed snacks. One of my favorites, I can't remember what they're called. But they have a little shark on the bag. You get them at Whole Foods, and they're just kind of like lightly salted dried seaweed. But yeah, I think we're seeing a slowly rising thickness for kelp.

Molly Wood  02:49

I love it. I love to see it. I mean the little like seaweed snacks have been a big thing. But there is a lot of kelp and algae supplements and I think you are exactly on trend with this like some people are using it as like even like a protein replacement. There's a whole thing about how kelp and like different kinds of kelp can be part of a plant based diet and replace protein I think that might have been in that like weightlifting documentary with like Arnold and stuff about FaceTime.

Tom Merritt  03:20

The thing that that convinced me is this this article from Tribune it's I found it on MSN. Just a couple of days old. The wave of seaweed in the food world is making a delicious and nutritious splash.

Molly Wood  03:33

There you go. And even as pawns beyond sushi

Tom Merritt  03:36

roll wrappers there is a sea of innovative products from snacks such as roasted seaweed, kelp popcorn and jerky to kelp burgers, noodles, condiments and seasonings.

Molly Wood  03:48

Really fascinating. Yep. 100% and I think it's awesome. Like I'm super into this idea that there's a whole ocean full of foods and like vegetables and all this stuff that we just have not even considering we don't we're like in this agriculture freak out. And turns out there's massive food supplies. I rang and

Tom Merritt  04:11

I thought eating seaweed sounded horrible growing up until the first time I had some oh my god it's not that bad. And now I love it. Yeah, like we sat

Molly Wood  04:19

on those good i mean i for for like almost a decade. I put those little Trader Joe's packs of the salty seaweed snacks. Oh, yeah. And my kids lunch like almost every day.

Tom Merritt  04:30

Oh, smartest California. Yeah.

Molly Wood  04:34

Like this and like a little avocado. Oh, yeah. Amazing.

Tom Merritt  04:39

So So yeah, it's not just the nori wrappers, although that's certainly part of it. Like it seems like it's moving beyond that. So keep keep an eye out.

Molly Wood  04:46

Yep, totally keep an eye out for algae. I can tell you I have seen some startups in this field as well. Like what makes like a little cube that you can use in your smoothies and oh, yeah, total thing I'm trying to think of the name of the one is like, specifically a thing. I'll look it up during your next thing

Tom Merritt  05:03

cube.

Molly Wood  05:04

Um, algae

Tom Merritt  05:07

spoke clearly. Oh, spirulina. Yeah, right. Right. Okay. Yeah.

Molly Wood  05:11

Which isn't I, you know, precisely a seaweed, but it's more of an algae. And algae.

Tom Merritt  05:18

Yeah. But it's kind of in the family. Yeah.

Molly Wood  05:23

You could definitely crunch up some of those little yummy salty ones and sprinkle it on top of your latte. Oh, and I bet people do and I bet people do because people are doing all kinds of crazy stuff with corn right now. Yeah, I thought I had done this one even actually, but it looked a I think a corn but not a lotay Maybe, yeah, Mexican street corn. And it's just I'm starting to see it like in fancy restaurants. And I'm starting to see all these different variations of it. Like, at its basic layer, it's kind of it's you know, blackened corn. And then you put crema and sour cream on it. And that cookie or sorry, crema, and then that cotija cheese, you know that like, the yummy salty, crumbly kind? Yep. Some chili powder and some fresh cilantro. And that's it. But people are doing all kinds of lotay hacks,

Tom Merritt  06:19

if you like Robin hacks. Exactly.

Molly Wood  06:23

In fact, I'm gonna duck duck lotay hacks and see. Oh, yeah, look, there's an lotay Instant Ramen instant noodle hack.

Tom Merritt  06:28

There's a course of Wow, how does that work?

Molly Wood  06:32

I should have known. But yeah, like people are turning it into chowder. There's an Lotame mac and cheese. It's just like, Oh, really? Perfect

Tom Merritt  06:40

sentence. Yeah.

Molly Wood  06:41

Kind of does sound delicious. Actually. Yeah, I'm just starting to see a latte pop up as a side dish. Like everywhere. And I don't know why.

Tom Merritt  06:51

It's hard for me to tell if this is widening or not from being in Los Angeles where a lotay is pretty common. But I'm doing through the searching you know, through the reaching our fingers out into the wider world. It certainly looks like it. Yeah, cuz you're getting all these results, right?

Molly Wood  07:11

Yeah, I'm definitely seeing it pop up more than the spruce. Which is of course as we know, the source the ground truth for

Tom Merritt  07:19

all one of the Yeah, what are the ground? The experience? Yeah,

Molly Wood  07:23

the spruce eats put up an A latte recipe in December of last year. So I can imagine that has helped kick off the more and more growing coffee James reports. It's just barely starting to hit Chicago. Okay, I just think it's just becoming like a fancy slot side. And I'm into it because it's it's delicious. Yeah,

Tom Merritt  07:43

I actually prefer this to a lot of other corn things. Weirdly, being someone who grew up in Southern Illinois. I don't love corn that much.

Molly Wood  07:52

Wow. I was wondering why you seem so muted on my tank. I

Tom Merritt  07:55

think I overdid the corn like I met my my lifetime maximum of corn at some point in my younger younger life. I also don't love corn on the cob because it gets stuck in your teeth and everything. What a lotay does though is it overcomes that barrier of like, corn, I don't know, because it's like corn, but also delicious. Cheese, chili powder. So I almost look at it like a popsicle. Like just liquid cheese.

Molly Wood  08:25

It pretty much is and it is messy. And they have it at the county fair. It's just like, it's so delicious. It's at delighted cooking.com and a piece that was just posted October 3.

Tom Merritt  08:38

And it's in the United States anyway, a perfect marriage of our many cultural roots, right? The corn loving Midwest that I hail from and that you also heal from you know, we're never going to turn down a new way to eat corn. Right. So it's almost shocking that it took this long.

Molly Wood  08:59

It really actually is Yeah, I think it probably has been a big deal in you know, the Southwest United States or in LA or whatever. But yeah, it's it's spreading. And it's so good. Good. Good

Tom Merritt  09:11

spot.

Molly Wood  09:12

Thank you. That's a fun one.

Tom Merritt  09:14

Yeah, I like that one. I in fact, immediately was thinking, Oh, if you didn't like cilantro, right, because some people have the soap taste thing. You could do a little kelp.

Molly Wood  09:25

I mean, totally could be totally good. I mean, I'm really I'm trying to we watch this show on Netflix that it was a Spanish language. Like it was a Mexican food tour type show. And they went to a place I mean granted this was in Mexico, but they went to a place that had like, every different kind of holiday it was like here's one with like pulled pork and one you know like a sweet one. And I want to go sit there

Tom Merritt  09:50

before we get off because it you because you brought up the ramen thing. I probably got sucked into an Instagram ad I'm not gonna lie, but Momofuku, the famous noodle place in New York. Yeah, it is selling instant noodles now. fuku branded instant noodles. They have a soy and green onion is their like most popular flavor and then they have a spicy soy. And then they have a what do they call tingly chili? So it uses that numbing spice. Yeah. And yeah, they're air dried noodles, not pan not fried. So they're a little little healthier than the ramen noodles. You often get in the instant packs. And I bought some and they're great. The noodles boil up three, four minutes just like any other ramen, but they're they're nice, chewy, delicious noodles. And they don't Momofuku doesn't make the noodles they they found a place in Taiwan that they partnered with that they're like, Okay, these noodles are good enough. But then they make the sauce and it's not powder. It's a it's a sauce right? So you boil the noodles drain off the water put in the sauce and in the green and once you put in the dried green onions, stir it up and

Molly Wood  11:11

it's delicious. That sounds phenomenal. It's not

Tom Merritt  11:15

an ad either. I get done. Oh by the means.

Molly Wood  11:18

We're barely monetized people. Like that's

Tom Merritt  11:22

not I mean, it should be it should be but

Molly Wood  11:25

yeah, because now I wanted desperately this. Yes, but Oh, good to know. Yeah.

Tom Merritt  11:30

Mobile for good noodles. And they're not that they're not expensive. pack comes with five. And unlike some they don't they don't do the normal thing where the ramen pack is like two servings wink wink because I mean, who does? Yeah, what is that? No, it's one pack is one serving. And you get five packs in a bag like you bought you buy them by by the

Molly Wood  11:55

five pack or nine bucks or you can get a variety pack, right? I just found it on Amazon. I'm not saying I'm shopping. I'm saying that. Oh my God, these look incredible.

Tom Merritt  12:06

Yeah, this is not even a thing. This is just something I ad libbed. Because we were talking about ramen and seaweed and a low day and it's yeah, it's a bonus. All right. Here's my thing. Retro futurism.

Molly Wood  12:18

Oh my god. So totally, yes. Yeah. And please go on.

Tom Merritt  12:25

So if retro futurism is the name, it's basically taking old ways that people thought the future would be and then using that to make art now. So you know, when you when you see something that's like, oh, that's in the 60s style of spacey stuff. That's retro futurism. Right? And it's everywhere, right? It's everywhere. like video games and posters in like packaging of food. It's all over the place.

Molly Wood  13:03

That is so awesome. So like, in the 60s, when everybody thought that the year 2000 would have all the blank cards and everything. They'd created a design aesthetic. And now people are going back and grabbing that and using it.

Tom Merritt  13:13

Yeah. Yeah. It's taking any old way of looking at the future and then using it now.

Molly Wood  13:19

And now flags present slash retro that is so delightful. Yeah. I love that. I'm gonna start looking for it everywhere.

Tom Merritt  13:29

You will see it all over the place. Like some of it is even just kind of just, you're seeing a retro packaging, say, and then they'll just have like, a little one of their characters has his spacesuit on. But it's a 60 spacesuit. Right. Is that the spacesuit they were on the International Space Station? Yeah.

Molly Wood  13:50

That's so awesome. I love it. And I'm just going to start saying that because it makes me like feel really fancy and sound really smart.

Tom Merritt  13:58

Retro future is future. I love it.

Molly Wood  14:03

Yeah, would we say retro, futuristic?

Tom Merritt  14:05

Retro, futuristic? Yeah, that's right.

Molly Wood  14:07

That sounds right. Or should we say retro futurist, which I kind of like because I am a little more pretentious.

Tom Merritt  14:13

I'm a retro futurist. That's my job. That's my I just decided now

Molly Wood  14:18

but this style is retro futuristic. Yeah. I mean, I'm into it. Sure. Like and also I am one.

Tom Merritt  14:25

I am now a retro futurist. I will be predicting how things are now. Based on what we thought they were

Molly Wood  14:33

always is a totally retro thing to do. Exactly. Amazing.

Tom Merritt  14:38

In the future, we will have ways to instantly communicate around the world

Molly Wood  14:46

it won't always go great. Oh my god. Um, well, my second thing has been around for a while and is on the rise all over again in the wake of the elections and that thing is big Gretch I did not know that for a couple of years now. Everybody has been referring to the Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. Gretchen was Governor of Michigan governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitner, like a Detroit hip hop artists made a song about her called Big Gretch Oh, wow. Legendary Detroit rapper blade ice would be put out this like song. I'm just making sure that that's accurate, but like calling her big Gretch. And evidently for like a couple of years, people in Michigan have been calling her big reg. But now in the wake of the election, it's just like, spread like wildfire all over Tik Tok. And so all these Gen Z's who went and voted for the first time. Bless them are like so excited. And they're making all these funny tic TOCs with the big Gretch song. So much so that my son was like, Oh my God, have you heard the big grant? Have you heard about big Gretch? Wow. Yeah. Okay, it's all over. And it's just like, it's in support of her. You know, it's like because she's like, so tough and almost got kidnapped and all this stuff. And they're just like, big rich.

Tom Merritt  16:09

So what you're saying is tick tock is in the pocket of big rich

Molly Wood  16:16

that's exactly what I'm saying.

Tom Merritt  16:19

People that's amazing. So it's not just a like, it's not just, it's not just a like a candidate one and the people who voted for them are celebrating. It's like a thing. It's beyond the borders of its precinct.

Molly Wood  16:35

Yeah, exactly. And like when and if this woman runs for president, this is you know, she's like, got a built in because like, there's not this kind of love. That's a good politician. my

Tom Merritt  16:45

back pocket. Yeah.

Molly Wood  16:46

That much anymore. You know, but yeah, big Gretch

Tom Merritt  16:50

Well, it's it's it's sounds like a cousin of dark Brandon.

Molly Wood  16:56

It does. It does, actually. Yeah.

Tom Merritt  17:00

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Anyway, that might be a meta thing is like coming up with maybe nicknames for your favorite candidate,

Molly Wood  17:09

maybe totally, like the sanctimonious, which, by the way, hilarious. You can say whatever else you will about love or hate him. He is that, like, without question, he is it sanctimonious as hell? That nickname is beautiful or cocaine, Mitch? Cocaine. Mitch never gets old? Mitch, I'll take it. Yeah. Yeah, it is kind of a meta thing. But the ones that are positive are a little more unusual. So I think that's what I liked about this one.

Tom Merritt  17:43

Yeah. Send us to your favorite positives. I want to hear. I want to hear if there's any others out there, that little undiscovered gems.

Molly Wood  17:51

Do it feedback, and it's a thing not me. Speaking of which, Oh Ha. How smooth Are we at the segue? Let's get to your emails. So you can tell us all of the other things that we either let you have or didn't see at all. Matt from Hudson, Ohio producer, which note the quaint capital of the state wrote in with a new ID thing for the holidays. Dear Tom and Malia had never heard of tree collars before last week, when my wife announced she purchased one from her latest trip to Costco. I asked her what it was and she proceeded to tell me it's a choker for your Christmas tree to cover your tree Stan. I said what about the tree skirt? And she said tree skirts are out. Tree collars are

Tom Merritt  18:32

in. Okay. All right. Good to know.

Molly Wood  18:36

I didn't know but obviously now I need this.

Tom Merritt  18:39

The tree skirt is like a like like wearing the corset.

Molly Wood  18:45

I guess. Oh, you can get like a cute cedar box. Like modern farm style. Oh, there you go. Now you're probably get one that says live laugh love on. You can? Can. So far I've seen the ones that are like family. You can literally get a custom one with your family name like yep. Oh, wow. Three callers.

Tom Merritt  19:12

Well done, Matt. Well done. I believe what Rich was trying to say is the capital of quaintness. Yes, not not. Columbus is the capital of Ohio. But Hudson is the capital of being quaint in Ohio. Yeah, exactly. I would never put Columbus quaint.

Molly Wood  19:34

No, no, no. Don't be ridiculous.

Tom Merritt  19:37

Marlon Roden with some haka knowledge. The whole haka thing about flying down a mountain is because the original founders of the company were trail runners who wanted a highly cushioned shoe that would allow them to run fast on the downhills while minimizing the pounding. I've been running Ultras and marathons with them since the early 2010s and love them for the short cushioning when you You are on your feet for 24 plus hours.

Molly Wood  20:05

Okay, well, Marlin, aside from you being functionally insane, great email, good to know. And that actually makes perfect sense because running downhill is incredibly painful or can be. And

Tom Merritt  20:17

that makes the whole thing make perfect design sense and why people would be like, Well, I'm not running downhill, but I certainly want the cushioning for the

Molly Wood  20:24

feet. Right, lying down a mountain. That's amazing. There we go. Thank you, Marlon. For us, so good. I still you haven't solved the mystery of why people do ultra marathons but good job you, buddy. That Charlie dude. Probably, that Charlie dude wrote in on a new collectible. Hi to Mitch. Damali. And Rich. Have y'all talked about character backpacks, like the ones you can buy from loungefly These collector bags are pretty popular income and tons of varieties. The discussion about collectible shoes made me think of them. So funny story, man, he's just turned 10 And she's super into all the Hello Kitty spin offs. And our favorite character is karumi. And I got her in the backpack. Yeah, so can confirm

Tom Merritt  21:12

immediately think of Greg who? The child for the Mandalorian that totally that is the thing I have seen the most of which is you know, you're wearing the child on your back, but it's actually a backpack. Yep. Yep. But yeah, no, good. Good spot, Charlie. Dude,

Molly Wood  21:28

that's so good. And also I feel really on trend since I actually literally just bought one and had like, you know? It has ears and stuff. We

Tom Merritt  21:39

didn't even have backpacks when I was a kid. Really? Yeah. Like who roam like elementary school. You just carried your books. Like an animal.

Molly Wood  21:56

When did Jansport come around?

Tom Merritt  21:58

high school junior high high school for me. Okay, but I think it was we didn't make elementary kids carried much like your books stayed at school honestly, in the in the desk. So yeah, the only thing I carried really was the lunchbox and maybe a pencil case or something.

Molly Wood  22:13

I mean, I think I probably just yeah, like maybe like a little brown bag with their stuff in it. Just kind of picture this cute backpack and I'm putting it in the discord because it's so freakin cute. I was

Tom Merritt  22:24

fun. What is though? Oh, that's Caronia Okay.

Molly Wood  22:28

From the Sanrio universe I got it I got my niece was like a little bit golf so she you know she had a darker version. I like that. So cute.

Tom Merritt  22:39

Mike wrote in on more chicken mania and thank goodness not a moment too soon. Hello my brothers and sisters in thing bless you. Just in case you thought the fried chicken thing had calmed down I thought I'd mentioned that Orlando's cock block continues to grow. I've included a link to the updated list of restaurants and I'd like to point out that you can no buy a shirt that allows you that to check off the not comprehensive list as you partake in their deliciousness. You can buy a shirt to check off the chicken houses as you eat at them. She I don't think the podcast has a Pio box but if either of you'd like a shirt I'd be happy to support the local retailer selling them 11 870 Santa Monica Boulevard Suite 106551 Los Angeles California nine double O to five Mike

Molly Wood  23:29

oh my god southern biscuits and righteous chicken joining the cock block flocks as the headline at bungah lower.com.

Tom Merritt  23:36

Also, like the ability to get away with that as your restaurants what

Molly Wood  23:43

well played well played. Well played friends like wow, chicken. Fascinating. Great. Love it keep it coming.

Tom Merritt  23:51

Yeah, thank you Mike.

Molly Wood  23:53

And keep the emails coming of course feedback and it's a thing not me. You guys are the best. And now it is time for the other best. The best bestest, the shout outs,

Tom Merritt  24:03

yay out with these shouts. If you are a patron we thank you if you're a patron at the highest level we offer we extra thank you by including you in a textual exploration of your name.

Molly Wood  24:23

Indeed a custom that is needed Well, that was inconvenient a custom carefully hand crafted like, I mean, rich spends a week thinking about this. He's got a notebook that I feel like is scribbled and stained with his own tears

Tom Merritt  24:44

degree in a college degree. Put solely at your disposal.

Molly Wood  24:51

For amazing shout out so thank you for your support and today's shout outs are based on the start of Tierra sampler Winslow's short story. Org It's as printed in the November 1917 edition of the smart set.

Tom Merritt  25:05

I just figured out what I'm getting rich for Christmas, shall we then? Let's, let's begin. I'll

Molly Wood  25:12

do the last two.

Tom Merritt  25:14

Yeah. Okay, I'll start us off. Here we go. Gabrielle Cohen had never had any orchids before she had married Kevin so he had given her occasionally bunches of violets. Once in a while the bunches of violets had a Morris Jones bud or even Lee price in the heart of them, and came properly encased in glazed paper, and the Benjamin forests box, accompanied by violet headed pins, and delivered pompously by Eric Duncan.

Molly Wood  25:45

Usually, however, the violets were purchased from a St. Mike Aikens and were already slightly withered by the time Miranda Janelle pinned them on her coat. Not that Andrew Bradley was any less grateful for them. She loved them, even the withered Jake woods, but now there were housekeeping expenses. Even a three room apartment takes a lot of Louis St. amour, and close for two all out of Joe hoods salary. Laura Abel was quite content and never even thought of the present dearth of violets and the total absence of jamesy Smith

Tom Merritt  26:21

Z folks, look some some some podcast out there, it's just gonna be like, hey, this show is brought to you by baranda James Louis. No, no, we don't do that. No, we all evaded the art rich and elevated the art and what

Molly Wood  26:37

Rich has pointed out in our Discord where you can also hang out with us live if you support the show@patreon.com slash it's the thing is that a character in this story is named Tom Merritt,

Tom Merritt  26:48

one of the characters that was replaced that's why it's hilarious. Yeah,

Molly Wood  26:51

he chose it. Daisy,

Tom Merritt  26:54

that is fantastic. Yes, thank

Molly Wood  26:57

you, everyone. Thank you.

Tom Merritt  26:59

What do you what else can we tell you? We've got to go out and look for more things.

Molly Wood  27:03

It's true but keep your things come in. Like I said, and may I remind you, you can become a member of it's a thing you can get our Discord access chat with us live during our tapings and ad free RSS feed and more patreon.com/ It's a thing.

Tom Merritt  27:16

You can also email us that email address once again feedback and it's a thing got me

Molly Wood  27:20

the next week. Brendan's