Apologies Accepted

The Bakery House: Donut Mess With the Cops

A police officer celebrating his 25^th year in the force was surprised by his friend with a beautiful cake.  The cake was meant to celebrate the officer’s long career in a pretty tough, sometimes thankless job.  Instead the cake insulted the entire Philly police department.  The cake was decorated with a Philly PD badge, but the PPD slogan “Honor, Integrity, Service” had been replaced with the words “Coffee, Donuts, Corruption.”  The customer (whose name ironically is not Karen) who ordered the cake called the bakery and spoke to the manager to complain and then called a local news station because she felt the bakery was lying.  The local news station took Not-Karen’s complaint very seriously and aired a news story about the cake with the bad-badge.  There was no other news to report that week so the news station was probably very grateful to the customer for calling them and reporting the incident.

The bakery claimed it was an honest mistake.  They had simply grabbed an image off the internet and printed it out without really looking at the fine print on the image.  They are bakers and don’t know that the internet sometimes lies.   Plus, that bad-badge image is one of the first images that pop up when you google “Philly PD badge” so what’s a bakery to do except issue a sweet apology and hope everyone understands that workplace accidents happen when people are overworked because companies are understaffed because of COVID.

Michael Chabon: Pay to Play in Hollywood

Michael Chabon recently learned that people in Hollywood don't play nice, and if you are going to be in the game, you're gonna get hurt.  Michael spent 20 years working with Scott Rudin, a huge Hollywood producer responsible for a ton of your favorite TV programs, movies, and Broadway shows.  Scott was also responsible for throwing things at staff, calling people names, forcing people out of cars, forcing people to work insane hours, screaming to the point that staff would have panic attacks, and one person's mental collapse.  Scott was mean, vindictive, and spiteful.  He was hated by everyone - but he produced hits and made money and in the end that's all that counts!  Michael Chabon had heard all of this but turned a blind eye (like everyone else in Hollywood).  Until something happened that caused Michael to take a step back and really look at who he'd been working with all these years, and he didn't like what he saw.  He penned an apology that is at the heart of this week's episode, alongside Scott's sort of apology

Bill Clinton: Sorry for the Government Conspiracy

In 1997 President Bill Clinton apologized to a group of 8 black men from Alabama who were the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Experiment.  In the early years of the 20th century it was believed by the medical community that black people and white people experienced syphilis differently.  In 1932 two doctors set about studying how untreated syphilis affected black men in Tuskegee Alabama and lied to them about the study.  The patients/test subjects were told they had "bad blood" and needed treatments that included spinal taps and doses of mercury.  The disease was allowed to develop unchecked while the doctors  continuously lied to the 400 men for over 40 years about what was wrong with them.  The horrific experiment was exposed by a whistleblower who saw parallels to the Nazis, a group of people he felt he knew something about having fled from them in the 30s to come to the US.  The press reported on the study in 1972 and by 1974 everything was wonderful and nothing like this ever happened again.  That is until MK Ultra (which is not a beer) and a handful of other super unethical and definitely illegal experiments were conducted by divisions within the US Government.

Get ready for unethical doctors, surprise LSD trips, and whispers of truth (or are they rumors?) from the world of conspiracy theories!

Kathy Griffin: Heads Up!

Comedian Kathy Griffin had a bit of a quiet period in 2017.  She decided to hire a famous photographer to take some “fun snaps” to send out for glorious self-promotion and maybe drum up some business.  That day led to the infamous “Donald Trump as Medusa” photo that set the right-wing media afire and burned Kathy Griffin’s career to ashes.  She apologized, but that didn’t seem to matter to the political right or political left – friends left her in droves and every venue in America canceled future shows.  She was hounded by the press, stalked by crazies, interrogated by the FBI and DOJ, and faced a never-ending tunnel of depression.  But, never one to give up, she did what she knows best and found the funny in the situation, creating a new show and taking it to Europe - to rise like a phoenix out of the ashes and maybe have the last laugh.

Note: This discussion contains mention of attempted suicide.  If you, or someone you know, is struggling with suicidal ideation, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255 available 24/7, free and confidential.

DaBaby: No, Homo

In July 2021 DaBaby performed on stage live and wanted to get the audience hyped up.  He made some comments that quickly went viral and angered not only the LGBTQ+ community, but also other performers he had previously worked with on some pretty big projects.  His comments also made some brands angry.  Oh, and some concert venues which were quick to cancel his upcoming shows.  So DaBaby did what any celebrity does when the "sorry" hits the fan and he made some public apologies using his own words.  His words didn't improve matters, so he said some more words to explain his position and basically people just got madder.  Finally he explained that while his gay fans are awesome, he himself is not a fan of the gays in general.  But hold up, that is said with love and he has a right to say it because gay people are allowed to exist and plus hip hop itself isn't down with the gays so why is everyone freakin out at DaBaby?!

Is homophobia built into rap and hip hop, in the same way that misogyny and sexism are (that's written like a question, but duh).  What about gay rappers, can they be considered rappers?  Can you throw respect at someone who is prejudice against you for at least being honest?

Tech note: This week it is Theo with the audio audio issues and he is blaming everything on Island WiFi.

John Barrowman: Just Hanging Out

Most women experience sexual harassment in the workplace.  It's a given that if you have breasts someone is going to comment on them.  And sometimes not saying anything and just going along feels like the easier option - and also the best way to not get labeled a killjoy sourpuss who hates fun.  So when your adorable and sweet coworker takes his willy out to wag it about and chase you with it...well he's laughing and it's in public and other people are laughing so it's not sexual harassment but clearly a joke.  It's "what he's known for" and everyone knows it is "his thing" to hang out naked or flash his d*ck (not duck) at friends because hahahahahaha d*cks are funny when you aren't expecting them.

Yet jokes can go to far, and as John Barrowman has recently discovered, d*ck jokes are distasteful (sorry) and not to be touched (sorry) and that's just the long and short (sorry) of it.

hatWRKS: The Mad Hater

Hats!  They aren't just for sane people, as one hat-maker in Nashville set out to prove when she created a yellow Star of David badge (only $5!) that had the word "unvaccinated" written inside.  Trucker caps were soon to follow, except people were kind of outraged at her appropriation of this symbol of the holocaust.  The hat-maker quickly dropped her truck cap plans and issued an insta-apology on the 'gram, explaining that she in NO WAY supported Nazis, no matter what it might look like.  And don't think you can call her a racist either because she has black neighbors!  If you want a real villain to hate you should be looking at antifa and BLM and not her because she's just selling hates (typo and it stays) and everyone loves hats so leave her alone!!  She's just spreading love and misinformation - when did the world become so hatful towards haters?!

 

Hate and hat puns aside - grab your fries, Lady, and get ready for a conversation full of holocaust deniers, alternative versions of history, and some real facts around Covid-19, the Delta variant, and antisemitism.

Billie Eilish: Happier Than Ever?

New album, new look, and old videos of Billie Eilish using an anti-Asian racial slur fueled the excitement in the Billie-sphere this month.  Arguably the most famous 19-year-old on the planet, Billie Eilish is a singer-songwriter-phenomenon who perfectly encapsulates Gen-Z angst.  She’s edgy and caring and nihilistic and full of hope, all at once.  She seemingly came out of nowhere and now has multiple music-industry awards, tens of millions of followers, and set new records across the internet.  Recently old videos of 13-year-old Billie appeared, showing her singing a song containing a slur against Asians, using a “blaccent,” and speaking in a gibberish-language that sounds a lot like a mock-Asian language.  Many of her fans were outraged and Billie was quick to act, offering heartfelt apologies directly to her followers.

 

But as we all know, the internet is judge and jury and holds a grudge.

 

Audio note: It’s not you, it’s us.

Allison Mack: NXIVM Queen

Being number one is great, but being number two is pretty nice, too.  Just ask Allison Mack.  She was second in command of the NXIVM cult and the leader of a devoted group of women who called her "master" and did her bidding.  Sounds great!  Except it involved a cult and blackmail and sex-trafficking and branding and enslaving others.  That all sounds pretty bad, but the bad parts were kept secret – so on the surface it still sounded pretty great!  That is until NXIVM found itself in court and had to admit the secret parts out loud. 

The truth comes spilling out this episode as NXIVM comes tumbling down – and we are here to make sense of all the nonsense as we examine the eternal question: “why would anyone ever do something this stupid ever?”

Future Juliette Update: Allison Mack received 3 years in prison and a $20,000 fine for her part in the NXIVM cult.  Keith Raniere, the cult leader, is currently serving 120 years in prison but don’t worry, he’s writing a book about how he is innocent and completely misunderstood.

The Pope: Holy Sadness

He's the Pope and he's pretty important.  His word is law so when he says something there is no argument.  Also when he doesn't say something it's pretty important, so when the Pope didn't apologize for 215 unmarked graves found at a Catholic school in Canada...words kind of fail us here but they didn't fail the Pope!  He expressed sorrow and sadness and is filled with sympathy.  And there's some good news!  Now the church can be forgiven by Canada's indigenous people because that's one of the great powers of faith - mercy!  And since he's the Pope, that's kind of the last word on the subject.

Or is it?  A 10 million dollar grant from the Canadian government and a network of First Nation Peoples ready to dig up the past will decide how quickly forgiveness and mercy will be coming.