SHOW NOTES: S02E09, "Someone Else's Eyes"
Welcome back, and happy 2020! We hope you're all transitioning smoothly and happily into this new decade.
And on that note, it's time to skip back two decades and talk about... Teletubbies!
Teletubbies ran from March 1997 to February 2001, so by the time broken-legged Nikolai was gaping at Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po from the Fishers' couch, it was already off the air. We tried to answer Nikolai's question—What are these supposed to be?—but sadly, we couldn't find anything more specific than "multicolored creatures who communicate through gibberish and are designed to bear resemblance to toddlers." In our research, we also found such facts as "The Teletubbies were friends with giant sex-crazed rabbits" and "The Teletubbies were founded on Jungian principles," and then producer Alison got scared and had to move on to something else.
In case you, unlike Claire, care about the "Was Britney Spears a virgin?" controversy of the early aughts, here's an interview with MTV in which she talks about her breakup with Justin Timberlake, whom she told reporters was the first man she slept with after they had been together two years. Previously, she had publicly stated that she planned to abstain from sex until marriage, but in 2002, she went on The Oprah Winfrey Show and said that she (very understandably) regretted making her virginity a topic of public discussion. The shoes and socks she's wearing in this video are truly stellar—please enjoy.
Caroline accuses Ruth of having "big Munchausen by proxy energy" as she cares for Nikolai, and we just want to point out that we're using this term loosely for comedic effect. Munchausen by proxy, according to WebMD, is "a psychological disorder marked by attention-seeking behavior by a caregiver through those who are in their care." Although Ruth does exhibit that behavior, the "caregiver" in Munchausen by proxy generally seeks attention from medical professionals by exaggerating, making up, or causing the symptoms in the person (usually a child) under their care. Ruth most definitely did not cause Nikolai's symptoms, and if anything, she's guilty of getting him too little medical attention—what doctor released him after less than a day with two broken legs?? She's simply after attention from her patient because she's a very needy person (who grew up taking care of her legless grandmother).
Speaking of mental illness, we did some investigating into the books Brenda sees in the self-help section of the bookstore before she stumbles on the obviously made-up Your Brother is a Whacko and Your Fiancé is Going to Die. Damaged Beyond Repair and Nothing Means Anything So Why Bother are, to our great dismay, also not real books. But I Hate You, Don't Leave Me by Jarold J. Kreisman and Hal Straus is a real guide to understanding bipolar disorder that continues to be revised and updated.
We've got two songs to play you out this week! The first is "Pure" by Blue Six, otherwise known by Jenna as "sex music for the heavily medicated." The second (and our preferred song by a lot) is "Souljacker" by the Eels. If you've been meaning to sort through your collection of matchbooks and business cards with random dudes' numbers scrawled on them, this is the perfect soundtrack for that task, as Brenda demonstrated. For your edification, here's a picture of Mark Oliver Everett, lead singer of The Eels, with a very cute dog.
