Monthly Spooky | Golem Folklore, Ghost Ships, Grinches & Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2

Conversation transcript for the December 2022 episode, recovered from its released recording using automatic speech recognition. Separate opening appeals and closing promotional segments are omitted. Automated punctuation restoration was checked to preserve the words. Speaker names are not assigned where turns are uncertain. Not checked word for word by a human against the audio; transcription errors may remain. Dates and references reflect the original recording.

We all know the story of Frankenstein and the folly of man's hubris, but what about the original story of the golem in Jewish folklore? All that and an adult film star is haunted by a ghost with tentacles. Get comfortable. Turn off the lights. It's Monthly Spooky. Hello my friends, my spookies, and welcome to a very special post-Christmas edition of Monthly Spooky. I'm of course your host Henrique Couto here with my co-host Michelle.

Michelle, how are you? I'm fine. Oh, you hear that everybody? Michelle is fine. Yeah. Michelle is wearing a really fun Christmas sweater and I feel completely left out. It's not your, I mean, I didn't intend to wear this. I just didn't have any more sweaters and I was cold. I'm sorry you were cold. Well, so, I mean, I hate to break the magic, but we're not, you know, we're recording this before Christmas because it's not like we're going to sit down and record this on Christmas day.

So there's like a giant winter storm coming. Yeah. This huge, huge cold snap with snow and da-da-da. And Michelle's in Philadelphia. I'm in Ohio. So we're both getting like totally different storms. Yeah. But they're the same storm. It's just, you know, when there's like 450 miles, the storms change, you know, as they travel somewhat, I suppose. So like the storm is supposed to hit tomorrow and Michelle's over here.

What's the temperature supposed to be like there? Oh, well, tomorrow it's supposed to be like the high of 49. And then it's supposed to drop down into the 20s or the teens or something. That's so cute. Yeah. Tomorrow the high is here is four. Well, the thing is that's not fair because we're off by about a day. Yeah. So what's your high today?

My high today. That is a great question. And I'm going to find out right now, except that my phone's in airplane mode because I'm a professional. So I'm really good. That's okay. You don't have to. Oh no, it's fine. Oh, here's a notification from rallies. Checkers. Um, sorry. Today. Oh my God. It got worse. Our high is 43. Our low is negative five.

Okay, so similar. What's your low today? What are you talking? No, no, similar to my tomorrow. My low today is like 48 or something. It's going up overnight, or like 40, something like that. It's going up overnight, oh yeah, oh, my god, remember how I said I couldn't believe how like close the high and low was friday. Now, the high, friday, is three and the low is two.

Oh, it went up a degree, the low went up a degree, but the high went down a degree. Oh, I thought the high was three already. No, it was one and four. Oh, and then, on Christmas eve, the highest 13 and the lowest four. Okay, yeah, I mean here I'm not gonna look because it'll take too long, but it's like 20, 25 and like the low is 10.

It's gonna be cold, yeah, yeah, but you don't have your pipes freeze when it hits like 15. Well, I don't, because all of my plumbing is right in the middle of my home, like a smart house is built like a very smart, and I have that brand new, highly expensive furnace, yeah, which my new thing has been. So, for those who don't know, I had to buy a new furnace, you know, to survive, or whatever you want to call it.

Uh, but I had to buy a new furnace because my old furnace was old enough to fight and die for this country. And in getting a new furnace, you know, it's just one of those things: when your furnace dies you have to get a new furnace. But now I'm acting like I bought a new furnace because I had foresight. But this big cold snap, that's because, because it's almost historic cold snap, in some areas of the country it'll be setting records for cold.

So that's been my joke, like when people are talking about that, whether I'm like, ah, y'all said I was crazy when I bought a new furnace. Now, look at you, you wish you were me. That's been my joke. When in reality it's just like: well, no, everybody needs a functional furnace. That's just a normal part of homeownership is, yeah, you would have a functional.

And I'm like, oh, no, no, no. You all doubted me. You all thought I was insane. And now look. You'll be pounding on my door, begging not to freeze to death. And I'll be laughing, covered in golden doubloons. As you and your children freeze. Wow. Jeez. I mean, you could let them in. No. No, because the door's frozen shut. Oh, okay. I did.

I was on a Reddit, like a Reddit for home improvement. And someone was like, what do I do? My doorknob frozen. I was just like, I don't know. What is that? And she's like, oh, it happens a lot. You know, we have a problem. We either get locked in or locked out of the house. Or maybe it was like the key, like the lock.

Oh, yeah, yeah. But I just I don't know what that means. What do you mean? You it froze. See, I have my trunk hatch on my car will freeze shut if it gets really really cold, which is really fun because, like last year when I had to go on a big trip, I had to like open my back doors and then just drop the seats down because I couldn't access my trunk at all.

That's always fun. I mean, I live in southwestern Ohio. You live in eastern Pennsylvania, southeastern Pennsylvania. Yeah. So like we don't get like it's not like we live in Minnesota or something like we get we get in decently intense winters. We don't get like crazy intense winters. We're not in like upstate New York or something or New England. But when you tell when you talk to friends who live in like Mississippi or Arkansas or something, I mean, they get some winter, too.

But they're just like, whoa. And you have to explain like, well, we're not, we're not like Minnesota. Like it's not, it's not quite, we have like days like that. Not a winter like that. Yeah. Usually though. We'll see. Cause this cold snap is really unusual. Yeah. It is supposed to be here next week in the fifties though. So yeah. Here too. Next week it's supposed to be in like the mid forties or low forties next week.

So all I know is give me that white Christmas. I'll take it. So, and, and you know what, just because it's Christmas, look what I have. They're sleigh bells. They're on my desk. Cause I'm that person. So before we go on further with, with the show, I've worked really hard on the crypt. Yeah. And I wanted to know if you like my Hanukkah decor.

Um, yes. Yeah, I guess. What's wrong with it? I just don't usually see that many menorahs. Like there's a menorah, like literally on every surface you have a menorah. Well, hold on. But look at the, I know the ceilings are kind of, look at the ceiling. Oh. There's menorahs on the ceiling. That's, that's really intense. Do you know how hard it was to get candles that can burn like that?

I didn't think that you could. Oh, you can get them on wish. Oh okay, they are not safe, though. No, nothing is safe on wish, but I- but you know, I- I was like I was like can, is it okay? I was like is it okay to buy menorah candles, Shabbat candles, on Wish? And then I was like if it's a good deal, then that is the most.

I can't even get the joke out. I'm a little goofy today. The holidays have been stressful and I'm on the tail end of all the stress, so I'm actually pretty happy, but also very tired and a little goofy. So I'm I'm glad you like the menorahs. I'm sorry to hear that where you are, shabbat candles are like impossible to get. Yeah, I mean, I, I did get the candles.

It just took two stores. So this year I just was at Meyer, which is a grocery chain out where I am. And they were just right next to the matzo meal because I made matzo ball soup yesterday. Which turned out really well. And I'm going to run some to my mom before the horrible winter storm starts because I need to know that my mom is protected by good, wholesome Jewish joy.

Yeah. So I am not Jewish, but nobody's perfect. So I, but yeah, I do enjoy a, I do enjoy a good, a good matzo ball soup. So, um, and you had latkes a couple of days ago, right? I still have them. I have a lot of them. I'm making latkes tonight. Good. So, um, yeah, it was a very, it was an exercise in extremes yesterday.

Cause I had matzo ball soup simmering and then I had to run out to pick up a ham. And I was like, huh? All right then. Fair enough. So, but yeah, because as we're recording this, Hanukkah is still going on. And as you're listening to this, Hanukkah just ended. Yeah, I believe Hanukkah. Or it ends today. I think the last, yeah. Either way, Hanukkah's wrapped up or wrapping up.

Yeah. So that's why today's topic we'll be getting to a little bit later is going to be one of my favorite pieces of Jewish folklore. A piece of Jewish folklore you didn't even know about. No, because I don't know anything in general or about jewish folklore in general. Oh, fair, fair. But we're going to be talking about the, the golem um, which I actually was like: is it a golem or a golem?

It's golem, at least that's the way it's pronounced in hebrew. Okay, so we're going to talk about that in a little bit. If you don't, if you're not familiar out there, it's a pretty interesting story and I feel like we don't get enough jewish folklore, especially in the spooky realm. So I think this is going to be a really cool topic. And, uh, Michelle and I have been bsing a lot because, um, I think we're both really tired of I, I, I love the holidays and, Michelle, you've always been pretty festive yourself.

Yeah, I guess. No, you are. You're very festive for you. Send me homemade cookies for Christmas. I guess. You guess? Did you not make them at your house? I don't remember. You just black out. You wake up at the post office and they're like, it'll get there in two days. And you're like, thanks. Yeah. I mean, I don't have the heart to ask what I just mailed.

You're just like, did that box smell bad or was it leaking any kind of viscous liquid? What? What? You said that there was nothing dangerous in it or hazardous or whatever. Yeah, but did you believe me? Yeah. Was I convincing? No, Michelle sent me snowball cookies, which almost every year you've sent me snowball cookies. I think the year you moved, you just sent me a present from Amazon because there was too much going on.

Quite possibly, yeah. Because you moved right before Christmas? Or right after, yeah, but like we didn't know when it was gonna be because it kept changing. Well, and and just because you moved your home- it moved into your home in January- doesn't mean that that that the month before was like calm and peaceful and easygoing. It was very, very stressful. So I'm just glad that, uh, I had my snowball cookie.

I still have like three left. Must be nice. Probably Do you want me to mail them back? No, I'll just make more. Well, I mean, do you have that kind of time to black out again? I mean, I don't know. I don't really control it. Well, this is a fascinating turn of events that Michelle just has no idea she's making cookies. Yeah.

But fair enough, though. So this is. I want to say something. This is the like the sixth time we've sat down to do Monthly Spooky, Michelle. So we've been doing Monthly Spooky for a half a year. What? Yeah, wow, yeah, sorry, I really enjoy doing this show with you and I know that folks listening have been really enjoying it too. So this is our ending the year by just enjoying our time together as friends.

Oh, I like how that's. Like, oh, it's such a sentimental way to say, set your expectations low for this episode, but, um, but now, my friends, we're gonna go to a quick commercial break and then, when we get back, it'll be time for the spooky news right after these words. All right, we're back now and it's time for the spooky news, the spooky news.

So this first piece of spooky news is, uh, courtesy of newsweek and uh, the headline is: stormy daniels says- quote: non-human thing with tentacles haunted her former home. What? I mean, is it, can it be any more clear? Do you want me to read it again? No, no, no, it's okay. Do you know who Stormy Daniels is? I don't know. I'm sure they're probably, oh yeah, they, they, they mentioned it.

She's a former adult movie star. Oh, okay. And she was involved in that like lawsuit with Donald Trump, like at the beginning of his presidential career or whatever. Yeah. Then they go into it more. I thought it sounded familiar, but I also thought maybe she was a weather person. No, that's way too on the nose. Oh, man, that's like being a writer named Paige Turner.

Yeah. Although that both names sound like they could be those things or adult movie stars. Yeah, that's fair. So the article says Stormy Daniels has opened up about her paranormal experiences, claiming that a, quote, very dark, non-human thing with tentacles haunted her former home. She also claimed the spirit broke items and affected her health and the mental health of her then boyfriend.

Daniels, 43, is an adult film actress and director best known for being involved in a legal dispute with Donald Trump. She claimed that she had an affair with him and was paid to hush money to keep her silent. Trump, 76, has always denied the affair. So, first of all, who is more reliable than stormy daniels? Though I don't know. I mean, I'm just saying like I don't believe at all she would make up a story to get in the news headlines- not even a little bit, like it wouldn't make any sense.

Yeah, yeah, I mean I think she's telling the truth, but I understand why you wouldn't think that because I'm a man. Is that what you're getting at? Because you don't believe women when they tell about their um, um tentacle ghosts. Yeah, I really need to check. I need to do some thinking about who I am as a person. I think is what is what it's coming down to?

That's fair. Daniel's real name, stephanie gregory clifford, appeared on the pod podcast ghost magnet with bridget marquard- uh, I want to say bridget marquard. I am not familiar with Bridget Marquardt, but great name for somebody to host a paranormal podcast. Marquardt. I love that last name Marquardt. But whenever you hear the last name Marquardt, you expect that whatever they do needs to match the eccentricity of that name.

But apparently, as it says here, it's hosted by the former Playboy star. So I guess Bridget Marquardt was a Playboy star. Oh. So now we have two adult entertainers. Yeah. Talking all about ghosts. Yeah, see? On it, the guest discussed her intense experiences with the paranormal, which began when she moved into a 200-year-old house in the Garden District of New Orleans in 2019.

Okay. I mean, New Orleans has got to be one of the most haunted places there is because of the sheer amount of murders. that were going on there for a while. For a while, New Orleans was like the murder capital of America. Yeah. But hey, but you're like, yeah, not anymore. Philly represent. I don't think we're the murder capital, but I won't be surprised when I hear otherwise.

Let's find out. What is the murder capital of the U.S.? Oh, that's old hat. But it's always Detroit. Oh, wait. Hold on. Gary, Indiana. Oh, man, I wish. What does that even mean? In the month of September of 2022, we are already very close to reaching that number. The city of New Orleans has been declared the murder capital of the United States for the first half of 2022.

Okay. So they're on their way back. Yeah. They're on their way back. So highest murder rates in the U.S. I love that it's called most deadly cities. Like the cities are walking around killing you. Okay, so. So number one is st louis, missouri- okay, yeah, I believe that. Oh man, that's. This is not a fair. Dayton Ohio is too, no, but detroit.

Detroit is number four and Dayton is number five people, oh, and new orleans is number seven, according to this list from cbs news. Well, where's if Philadelphia is, like, not even in the top 10? What year is this from? I'm assuming this is from an alternate timeline. Oh. Let me find out. Number 16. The murder rate in Philadelphia is 22.47 per 100,000.

Okay. So, and this is from February 23rd, 2022. Oh, okay. We're doing pretty well. That's good to know. Yeah, but there's all these articles saying that, uh, st louis, or that, uh, new orleans has overtaken st louis as the murder capital of america, with a 141 increase in homicides. Well, somebody, it doesn't know what they're talking about. So you have to pick one.

Maybe it's per capita versus just per pile of corpses, okay, well, I I think per capita is probably more useful. Because if you have a little city, you know? Yeah, that's true. You're not going to get a million people dead in a city that only has 500,000 people, probably. Not if you have that attitude. I mean, you can bring people there and then kill them.

See, that is the American spirit. Speaking of spirits, let's get back to the start. Daniels began by saying she hired two mediums to come to her home who informed her there were multiple entities in the house. Daniels proceeded to describe them to Marquardt, 49. Quote, definitely one very, very dark, non-human thing with these tentacles. And that's what I caught on camera and it shattered my ex's guitar.

It just snapped it in half one day sitting on the stand. It did not like him at all. What? Okay, so so the creature is a non-human being, so I guess I guess this is a demon, would be the assumption, because it's not. I mean, or do these things exist somewhere, die? And then I mean I'm asking a question, I don't know, I don't know what that's supposed to mean, I don't know.

I I don't normally hear about tentacle monsters outside of hentai, and I was. I don't know what to do with this information. I was going to let that go and not throw hentai at you, but you're right. I don't like tentacle hentai, by the way. Just putting that out there. Then what is the hentai you do like? We don't know. That was all on you.

I know. That was entirely your fault. I know. Okay, as long as we get that. I also like that this like non-human tentacle monster ghost creature really doesn't like her boyfriend. It's just got that. It's got a willingness to just like hold a grudge. Well, it might it might want to like get with her. So just because just because she probably had an affair with former President Donald Trump does not mean that every creature wants her.

I just thought that's what tentacle monsters did. I don't understand. You do only know about tentacle monsters from hentai. Were you shocked when you found out that there are tentacles in nature, like that octopuses exist? You were like, I thought this was just a concept from hentai. Yeah. Okay. Oh my God. Okay. Quote, one is a woman who lost a child and blamed herself.

And if I stood in a certain spot in the kitchen, I would just cry. And like a couple of people said, like they felt like she was cutting herself. Daniel said. Okay. So did the tentacle monster steal her child? I don't think that. Because I feel like it'd be weird if the ghost of a woman who lost her child predated the tentacle monster.

Well, if the tentacle monster is like a demon or something, maybe it just appeared there and it has no relation to the actual property. Oh, or maybe it's shopping. You know, it's a buyer's market in 2019. Yeah. Yeah. The final spirit Daniel's described was felt by a medium whom she talked to over Zoom. Oh, my. How can. What? Now, I. Yeah. I know I love doing a little bit of paranormal stuff on the podcast, but I make no bones about the fact that I'm not really a believer in psychics and ghosts.

Really? I just, but I think the stories are fun. Over Zoom, a psychic is like going to be able to tell if your house has like, like Michelle, you're a home inspector. Can you inspect a home over Zoom? I mean, yes, but not well. You can do anything you want. I mean, but would you be able to keep your E&O insurance if you did your inspections over Zoom?

You know what? I don't know. Maybe if I put in the contract, I'm not actually going to do a good job because it's all over Zoom. Maybe. I should put that in all of my contracts. Like, please note, any work I do over Zoom will be poor. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, was felt by a medium who she talked to over zoom, quote: the house is partially furnished and there's a very old mirror upstairs that I used to always feel like someone was watching me, but it was kind of a protective feeling.

She said: oh well, it is. I mean, I had a mirror once. Every time I looked into it, I swear to christ, I saw a face. That's weird. I don't see anything in mirrors like at all. And the sunlight burn you. I mean it. It might, but I don't go outside during the day, so I don't know. And crosses don't hurt you, but that's because you're jewish.

Well, I mean, I just don't have any access to crosses like I like that. It's no access. It's not that like. It's like, well, there aren't any crosses. It's like I can't find them or get them. Yeah, like you walk, you walk. You walk into a catholic store. I don't know why. That was what my brain wanted to say. You walk into a Catholic store like get out, get out with you.

Out. You're just walking in in like a big trench coat. Like, hello, my fellow Gentile. I am interested in a cross. And then you're like a bunch of matzah just falls out of the jacket and you're like gathering it up really quick. And he's like, out with you. Out with you. I'm glad I took that that nap. That made me even goofier instead of making me feel more rested.

I should always do the show immediately after a nap. So, um, Daniels, confirmed, the medium knew about the mirror without seeing it and could describe its look well. I mean sure, she continued, quote: and they're like, there's a woman that used to get made up in that mirror. She was a lady of the night and she identifies with you because you're a sex worker and she's very protective of any man who gets in that bed with you.

Okay, so, first of all, that's confusing. Well, first of all, it is not a stretch to be like, oh, you live in an old, spooky house in new orleans prostitute. Yeah, yeah, new orleans is known for its prostitutes and and the subsequent murder of them, probably, uh, due to just the subsequent murder of everyone. I mean also, even if they didn't get murdered, if they're old enough, they died.

So that's a fair point. That's a fair point. Yeah, you know, I heard when I, when I was in school, in high school, uh, we were in a sex ed class and some girl had said that, uh, you should kiss lots of people, because the more people you kiss, the more your immune system will boost oh and and therefore you'll be healthier and and better.

Because you kiss a lot of people And I, at 16 years, 15 or 16, I literally was like. I was like that is insane. If that were true, porn stars would be like Highlander. They would all live forever and have to fight each other on mountaintops, decapitating one another because there can only be one. That doesn't make any sense. Anyway, I digress.

I don't know why I told I told that joke basically for David DeNoyer. Annoy her, oh, um, but I think this really, she's very protective of any man who gets in that bed with you, do you? I think maybe she misspoke in that quote. Yeah, I think she meant she's very protective of you with any man, because otherwise the suggestion is that you will hurt the man.

Yeah, I, I think it was. It was a. I don't think that she meant that it like that. Yeah, I mean, that would be my guess. Uh, daniels went on to describe how the strange happenings in the house started to ramp up over time, affecting not just her but also the partner she was living with- quote the guy who was living with me at the time.

We started fighting. He got real mean, would say horrible things to me for no reason, and then it escalated to him putting his hands on me, which had never happened when we lived together in our previous place, and then he was gone. I'm assuming she she actually means gone because he moved out, um, but I like to think it's just that he vanished.

I think he vanished because If he didn't vanish, then I'm not sure how. This is paranormal. It sounds like he's just a bad dude. It sounds like their relationship just went sour. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes when you start a relationship, people are really nice because they're trying to impress you. And then, you know, they're not nice anymore because they don't want to impress you and they want to hurt you now.

And you should start. We should start a segment of the show where you just give relationship advice. I was going to say some people, you know, when they start a relationship with you, they like you and then they get to know you more. And then eventually they don't like you anymore. Oh, oh, I liked mine better, but I understand yours was a lot nicer than mine.

Do you just it's just funny the way she describes it, like he got real mean and would say horrible things to me for no reason. Do you think that was after him just sitting there trying to eat a turkey sandwich while she won't stop talking about the psychic from Zoom and what they said about the mirror and stuff? Well, I would have, but it sounded like that predated that.

Maybe. I don't know. Now I'm confused. Yeah, I don't know. I really don't know. Also, not an excuse. Control yourself. Say, I really don't want to hear about the psychic lady from Zoom. I'm trying to eat a turkey sandwich. But what if they don't listen? What if they're like, so anyway, she said you would say that because the ghost is protecting me from you.

Then you say, okay, I guess this isn't going to work out because all I wanted to do was eat the sandwich. What if she was like, I just need to know if this is really happening. So I was like, all right, we're going to find out if the ghost protects you. And then he just like attacked her. Yeah, that doesn't, that doesn't help.

No, that's called science, Michelle. That's literally how science works. You don't know that the ghost has the ability to stop corporeal beings from doing things? It has the ability to break a guitar in half, apparently. I thought that that was the tentacle monster. Oh, right. I'm having trouble keeping it straight. Yeah, the tentacle monster breaks guitars. Yeah, the tentacle monster, of course.

Ah, when daniels was left alone in the house, she said she installed cameras that caught shadows of things moving in the house. Oh, I'm assuming she means like things that shouldn't be there and not like, you know, my cat's casting a shadow, or like maybe she had a, um, like a, the kind of camera that takes pictures every couple seconds. So she saw, like the shadows moving throughout the day at the sun changed position.

Eventually. Oh gosh. Eventually when her lease was up, she was preparing to leave. Okay. At least she didn't own the place. And then quote, the house got aggressive. Daniel's explained quote, I started having these headaches and my hair was falling out. And I have pictures of me with like blood coming out of my ears. Then like, then like stuff would, instead of something just moving or tapping, fly at me.

You could feel the hostility in the house. Carbon monoxide detectors. Does carbon monoxide poisoning make your ears bleed? No, but what if she, they didn't. And she just thinks that they did. I mean, that's a, that's a fair point. I want to know: is this the tentacle monster? Well, I don't know what, the one that doesn't want her to leave, I guess, which is like I'm gonna make you really scared so you don't leave?

Yeah, yeah, you'd think it would be more like: once I decided to leave, the house really tried to keep me. It made me a nice dinner, I got all the premium cable channels for free. It'd be more like an abusive relationship. It's like, oh no, he made the house, made me a steak and told me it would never do that again. Yeah, yeah, uh.

After her boyfriend moved out of the property, daniel said she had not spoken to him since. Wow, so that's uh, yeah, that's quite a story. That was it, I mean. The rest is about how Marquardt worked at the Playboy Mansion. It has nothing to do with ghosts. Oh wait. Marquardt has previously said she was visited by the ghost of Hugh Hefner. Oh, what was it like?

Even in death, I'll be questionably problematic, you know friggin Hugh Hefner, but uh, you know what it's funny. So I was avoiding that story because I felt like maybe it was too stupid, and I'm glad we read it. It was actually pretty entertaining. Good, I'm glad too. I hope stormy daniels is in a much safer place- me too, and I hope that she's uh, not talking to any more psychic mediums via zoom I.

I mean, I don't care about that, I just hope that she's in a better relationship with- with people who don't, you know, disbelieve the ghosts are in her house. I mean attacker, yeah, yeah, the ghost thing. You know. The thing they didn't mention in this is: if they moved in in 2019, does this mean their relationship crumbled apart throughout 2020 because a lot of relationships mysteriously started having serious problems in 2020?

Yeah, like a lot. That's because there's more ghosts than usual. That's what it was, and the ghosts were like: we can't go out, we don't want to get covid. That's how ghosts are. They're very cautious, very risk adverse. You know they don't want it. They don't want it. Well, I mean, they do like usually just hang out in the same place and they like things exactly the same as they're used to.

So, yeah, in a way, ghosts are just like persnickety old men. It's like, I don't want my green beans and my corn to mix. I don't want no more men in that bed. I'm a ghost. Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're really just like a grandpa that, you know, insists on their coffee the same way every single morning. Yeah, I get it. I feel like we've really uncovered a lot.

I think so. Yeah. So we'll be right back after a few words. And then we have even more spooky news. Welcome back. And my friends, this next story comes from the Huffington Post. And it says this one is seasonal, Michelle. I think you'll I think you'll enjoy this one. Arizona police ticket driver for carpooling with inflatable Grinch. I know this one's not particularly spooky, but it caught my eye and I really wanted to talk about it.

While the gag may have caused the officer's heart to grow, it did not stop the driver from getting cited for being in the HOV lane during a restricted time. Aww, I have never lived in a place that had an active carpool lane. Yeah, I only ever hear about carpool lanes, but I never. We don't have carpool lanes here in Ohio and where I lived in Jersey I never noticed any.

I'm sure there were some. They're not as popular in New Jersey as they are a little bit south of me like there's- I'm like 95 in either like Delaware or Maryland or Virginia or all of them. There are some. There are a lot of high occupancy vehicle lanes. I like the idea that it's like, you don't have any friends. You don't get the good road.

Yeah. That's what I think when I travel. All right. So this is Phoenix, Arizona. The Grinch came early for an Arizona driver who tried to pass off an inflatable figure of the Dr. Seuss character as a passenger. I've heard stories of people using blow up dolls. Me too. I thought it was not true. I thought it was like an urban legend, though.

It might be an urban legend, but it would also be the least expensive way to try to fool that system. Sure. I mean, you could just be like, I went to Spencer's gift. I paid $17. And now let's go. Excuse me. The Arizona Department of Public Safety says a state trooper last week noticed a car in a high occupancy vehicle lane on Interstate 10 in Phoenix with a suspicious looking.

Green passenger. That's, that's what the article said. That was not my comic genius. While the gag may have caused the officer's heart to go great, just reuse the line. The agency, however, could not help but post a photo of the grinch figure with the driver's face blurred on its twitter account. Officials say they appreciate the festive flair, but that the driver's actions were still illegal.

They are urging motorists to follow traffic laws. Dude, I would sue. I'd be like you can't. You're pulling me over, giving me a ticket and going. Yeah, but it's cute. It's like: screw you. Yeah, yeah, no, no, if this is so cute, no, no, it's like what are you like? No, like next, you're gonna post a picture of a guy that's, like, you know, drunk.

Like, uh, blur his face and be like, hey, this person was driving drunk, but uh, their sweater sure is funny. Like get bent, yeah, I agree, but also I don't think it's that cute. So well, there is no sweater. I just made that up. Oh, no, no, no, I mean the, the grinch thing, and I, I mean I think it's funny, but uh, talk about a victimless crime too.

Like, yeah, well, no, because maybe they made traffic on the road. They're all gonna make traffic on the road get home now I I can't get home on time because it's one person with the Grinch thing in their car is in my way. And the battery's dying on the breathing machine my grandmother's on. And I have to get there right now. My poor planning is not a question here.

No. So speaking of the Grinch, I did go see The Mean One in theaters. For those uninitiated, the mean one is a unauthorized parody of the Grinch as a violent horror movie. Yes. So it's basically the story of the Grinch as if it had went very poorly. So instead of the Grinch growing his heart three sizes and deciding not to steal Christmas, when he breaks into Cindy Lou Who's house, he instead accidentally murders her mother when she attacks him.

In self-defense, he shoves her and she falls and dies. So then the Grinch becomes a murderer. So now he hides and kills people who celebrate Christmas and also eats them for reasons. He's hungry. I guess so. And the weird thing is because the one thing we never really explain about the Grinch. What is he? He's a thing. He's not. He's not like the other things.

You know, he's not like the who's. He's this hairy creature. And when you listen to the song, it does not make it clear. Is the Grinch his name? Or is it his species? Or is it his job? I think it's his name. But they're like, I've never seen a Grinch as mean as you. It's like, what does that mean? Oh, yeah. Well, maybe everyone with that name.

They're like, I've never seen it. I don't know. I don't know. I'm just saying the lyrics are not clear. Yeah. Like, you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch. You really are a heel. You're as cuddly as a cactus, as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch. You're a bad banana with a greasy black peel. Just face the music. You're a monster, mr grinch. Yes, you are.

Your heart's full of holes. Um, like it. Just well, they keep calling him mr grinch. That's true, I don't know anymore, I just figured that. I mean, it's not any weirder than the tentacle monster that lives in that house. So, no, that's fair, but that's pretty weird actually. Yeah, and that's not a children's story, that's true, right? Yeah, do you like dr?

Dr. Seuss? I mean, pretty much. Yeah. Me too. What's your favorite Dr. Seuss? I don't know. It's probably green eggs and ham. I don't know. It would be. You would like green eggs and ham. It's good to try new things. Mine's Fox and Socks. Yeah, that's good. Fox and Socks is good. My mom used to read it like as fast as she could.

And I would worry that it would like hurt her mouth. She was reading it so fast. So, but that's actually the whole article. It was just like, haha, look at this guy. Anyway we extorted money out of him. I'm not the biggest fan of police officers, I guess. I just don't like that kind of stuff where it's like a relatively victimless crime.

But this one from mirror.co. Uk says british warship is 166 years old and haunted by demonic spirits. Ghost hunters fear oh, oh, that's good. It would be weirder if it was like it's haunted by demonic spirits. Dental hygienists fear, but I would like believe that I would. Seven out of ten dental hygienists agree this ship is haunted blissfully. Happy couples get hitched on the retired warship and thousands of families enjoy a day out exploring its moored remains.

But one ghost hunter believes the HMS warrior wants the pride of the Royal Navy's fleet during Queen Victoria's reign could be home to sinister forces. So like so wait so nobody agrees everybody's like this is great we love being here it's so warm and inviting and this guy's like no! No! Like is he just it's like Jaws but with a ghost on the ship.

You can't do it. We can't cancel all the wedding engagements. This is how we make all of our money. Ghost! Ghost! No, that was a propeller accident. Investigator, tony ferguson, said he would. He has even managed to convince paranormal skeptics that something otherworldly occupies the portsmouth bound ship or base. Sorry, portsmouth based ship. Oh right, who are these paranormal skeptics? It's usually pretty hard to convince paranormal skeptics of the paranormal, let alone a specific instance of the paranormal, but I think the only way to find out if that's true is for you to go to the ship and then find out for yourself.

Tickets to port smith. That's a little too expensive, all right, okay. So the 40 gun hms warrior was the first armor-plated warship in britain's navy when it set sail in 1861 and was part of the country's fleet for almost 30 years. After being deployed in a variety of ways following its decommission, it became a museum ship in portsmouth in 1987. So it's almost as old as us.

Uh, at being in portsmouth, yeah, okay, and and? But thank goodness tony ferguson just figured out that it's haunted. Uh, today it plays host to weddings, Christmas parties and visits by family and school trips. Okay. A shot was... Oh, wow. A shot was never fired in anger before Warrior was decommissioned in 1883, but that has not stopped those interested in the supernatural from reporting strange findings on board.

Wait, what? A shot was never fired in anger before the Warrior was decommissioned. So does that mean it never saw battle? I'm guessing it never saw battle. I mean, I know that when it comes to naval fleets, just it's kind of like stock. But back in the olden days, it was kind of like stockpiling nuclear weapons. It was a deterrent. The idea that you have a giant Navy just kind of made people go, OK, we're not going to go fight with you.

Similar to having nuclear weapons. People are like, oh, I don't want to bomb you. You'll bomb me back. Right. So maybe that's what they're referring to. But that's hilarious, though, that it's like it hasn't stopped those interested in the supernatural from saying strange things. Is it just because it's old and dark because no one apparently died on it? Maybe. But maybe. Wait.

Yeah. We don't know that no one died on it just because nobody was killed on purpose. Or do you think it's cursed by all the marriages that ended in divorce? Maybe. I mean, that sounds just as likely. So mr ferguson 37 said he encountered- quote- loud bangs and quote an uneasy energy when he boarded the steam-powered frigate- frigate, frigate, I don't know- frigate alone.

For the first time the southampton man decided to take a group which included people he referred to as paranormal skeptics onto the ship to test out his theory that the cabins and gun deck might be haunted. It's very scientific. I see a group of them all holding hands in a big circle. Oh, very scientific quote. We encountered hissing sounds, disembodied voices saying get out, leave, go.

And banging noises. The way that's structured it sounds like the ghosts are going. Get out, leave, go. Banging noises. We don't know how to do that actually, but we can say it: banging noises, damn it. I read the stage direction again. He claimed his guests last month also saw a strange anomaly on the screen of one of his high tech pieces of detection kit and that at that same moment a voice could be heard saying satanic.

The voice, the voice said satanic, satanic. What does that mean? What I mean? I mean I know what that kind of, what that means, but what a voice could be heard saying satanic. Maybe it was supposed to say like satanic things, not satanic. Maybe it was trying to say Santa, or or like Santana. Yeah, I was going to say Satan, but I guess those are better.

I just feel like they're more likely to be brought up is all. The spirit hunter, who has been investigating paranormal activity for 13 years and believes he has had his first experience with the dead while still a child, said, quote: we were left shocked by what we experienced throughout the night, and this was all witnessed by members of the general public who were skeptics, believers and non-believers.

Wait, skeptics, believers and non-believers. I want to know what the difference between a skeptic and a non-believer is. Is there a difference? What do you think? Um, I think they think there's a difference And that's all that matters? Yeah. Maybe the ghosts really were just the friends we made along the way. I mean, eventually. Michelle's really on this everyone dies kick. Jeez.

Sorry. I mean, it's just a little heavy, but whatever. You know, it's okay. I know who you are. Quote, they were left stunned by what they were hearing. Mr. Ferguson is no stranger to Portsmouth's historic dockyard. In 2018, he told The News, the Hampshire city's newspaper, that he believed he had captured the ghost of Francis Nelson, the wife of the celebrated Admiral Horatio Nelson, while exploring HMS Victory.

Like in a thing? Like a box? I'm not sure. The ship was the British war hero's flagship during the Battle of Trafalgar, with Nelson killed on board the vessel during his decisive win against French Emperor Napoleon. Okay, I'm really confused. That's a different ship. All right, okay. That's one of the few times that you can fix confusion with the least amount of words.

Yeah. It's a different ship. Oh. What, you don't know all of your British naval ships? No, I'm getting... No. You're making me sad. I know. You're like, good, good, good. It is also not the first time investigators have taken to HMS Warrior looking for signs of the supernatural. The team behind the website Spooky Things. Hey, that sounds like a competitor and now I'm mad.

The website Spooky Things said the ship had, quote, many secrets to share. The dark rooms are said to give off an eerie feel and the ship's iron design, which was very advanced for the time, means the sea clangs against its frame. Okay. I'm guessing it's just very loud because it's made of iron. Okay, but that's not scary. I mean, it could sound scary, but it's not like.

Yeah, I mean, you're perfectly safe. Yeah. Wait, hold on. I just saw a link to another news story and that's the one we're talking about next because it's way better than the one I had planned. Sorry. Okay. Where were we? Okay. Describing being in the, quote, belly of the vessel, a spooky thing's author said, quote, I felt very uneasy down here, but I think it's more to do with the feeling of being enclosed.

Below deck, the furnaces split the ship down the middle. It's dark, cramped and generally not nice. I really did not enjoy being on my own because the hull is metal. You can hear strange noises coming right across the body of the ship. That makes sense, because metal reverberates sound. Yeah, that makes sense. I get that. Uh, quote. I think this is more down to the mooring ropes and the four anchors hitting the sides.

Oh, and the anchors are bumping. Yeah, portsmouth historic dockyard poked fun at those regularly turning up to hunt ghosts in a mock-up mock-up video posted on facebook in 2014 titled hms warrior 1860 ghost caught on cctv. The footage shows surveillance images of the boat's interior taken in murky lighting, before a man with a white sheet over his head runs the length of the ship, dick move.

After warrior was decommissioned In 1883, the warship spent most of the early 1900s as a storage vessel, Royal Navy School and a floating oil jetty. I've never heard the phrase oil jetty, but I like it. Yeah. Yeah. Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, chaired a meeting that discussed preserving and restoring its remains in 1968. A nine million quid restoration project began in 1979 in Hartlepool County, Durham, before HMS Warrior was returned to Portsmouth, the place it was forged in the 19th century as a museum piece eight years later.

That's the story. So a guy thinks this thing is haunted and everyone else who hangs out around it is like, this is a cool place to be. Let's have a wedding here. Yay. I, how come nobody ever is like, Michelle, what place do you think is haunted that no one else thinks is haunted and then does an article about it? I don't know.

Maybe you need to start just, you should start doing like the worst ghost hunting videos ever on TikTok. You're just like, I'm in this house, guys. I'm pretty sure it's haunted. Oh my God. I probably saw a ghost. Like and subscribe. And then it just ends. I don't think I could do that. I think I'd be like, I'm in this house. I was going to stay here and look for ghosts, but I just realized that there's this giant crack in the wall and I don't think it's structurally sound.

So I'm going to leave right now, guys. And I don't recommend anyone purchase this house. This is not a good house. You can have to do a lot of work to the foundation before you can move in. So this is another one from England I really wanted to share. Okay. Because I saw the headline and went, oh my God, how did I miss this?

Because this is a brand new article. From mirror.co.uk, Loch Ness Monster spotted just seven times this year as Nessie experts tighten rules. Oh, what? They're tightening the rules for official sightings of the Loch Ness Monster. Oh. Sightings of the Loch Ness Monster have halved in 2022, but it's not because people have stopped believing. Tighter webcam rules meant just seven reports have been placed on the register.

There's a Loch Ness Monster register. Wow, I've. So, Michelle, do you remember when you first learned about the Loch Ness Monster? No, really, yes, the Loch Ness Monster was one of those first things that really like, as far as monsters go in folklore, that really like grabbed my imagination as a kid. I don't know why, but I was way more into the Loch Ness.

I do know why now that I think about it. I was way more into the Loch Ness Monster than Bigfoot, I think because of my fear of the water. Okay, that makes sense, but I always thought the loch ness monster was so cool. I, I, I was. I was the kid that in my elementary school I checked out all of the books about, like, the loch ness monster, sasquatch and ufos.

Wow, and what's really funny is I remember every time I would check one of those books out, I was the only name on the little card on all of them. Like, they know, no one ever read them but me. Wow, yeah, that's right. Like people may be like, oh, you just don't know stuff because you're a skeptic. Hey, I knew all about project blue book when I was in elementary school.

Project blue book was the, the uh book that the government kept information about ufos in. Okay, anyway, loch ness, monster sightings. Um, let's see. Uh sorry they, they gave me the same thing again. There we go. Um, this was because of tightening up the criteria over webcam sightings, not because people have given up their hope that the creature of Scottish folklore exists.

Just one webcam image was accepted by the register this year compared to 10 last year. And several of those were just one person dedicated Nessie washer. Oyen O'Fagan from Ireland. In fact, webcam glimpses of Nessie made up more than half of 2021's 16 sightings. Hmm. But this year, the only such image accepted was from a watcher in Ireland who saw an unexplained moving object off your court castle said to be a favorite haunt of the monster.

And England is so like Ireland's so much harder for me to read. Sorry. Nessie certainly did not believe in lockdown in 2021 with a record number of sightings. This century lockdown. Sorry, that's what it said. That year even ended with a snack in the shape of nessie on sale on ebay for more than 630 000 quid, while another of the- I guess it was, it was a cheetos puff.

Um, another cheetos puff shaped like the loch ness monster was uh sold for a more reasonable, or was for sale for a more reasonable 210 quid. However, Gary Campbell, keeper of the official register said today, quote, this year has been an average year for sightings, and that is due to a much stricter acceptance by the webcam operators of what is a clear, unexplained sighting.

Wow. So they're showing a sighting right here. It is literally just like a little squiggly shadow under the water. It looks like a Z almost. That's what it looks like, though. That's true. It's the Z-shaped Nessie. Yeah. Their criterion has changed, and we accept that. In an average year, we have about four or five good sightings, so 2022 was very typical. Nessie has not gone away.

The year's sixth accepted sighting of the Loch Ness Monster came after a mother and daughter visited from the east of Scotland and reported seeing a strange black shape at 5.24 p.m. on October 11th. They told the official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register, 200 yards off the bank, we noticed a long break in the water, which was otherwise still and calm. As we watched, a black lump appeared out of the water and sat for approximately 30 seconds before disappearing once again under the water.

After another 30 seconds, the black lump resurfaced for a shorter amount of time before disappearing under the water again. The lump appeared to be boxy in shape, about the size of a football. It did not appear to swim about, rather it just bobbed and then disappeared under the water before resurfacing to do the same a second time. The glimpse came after the hunt for nessie was given a high-tech boost, with more webcams installed to spotter.

Visit Invernus Loch Ness, V-I-L-N, oh, Visit Invernus Loch Ness, V-I-L-N, has put in five new webcams along Loch Ness, making it easier for avid armchair Nessie hunters 365 days a year. Wow, you can just, like, look at it? You can just sit and look at Loch Ness all day long instead of loving your family. Oh, yeah, yeah, you don't have a family.

Okay, fine, rude, sorry, I have a family. You should be whenever. Whenever dave, my good buddy dave, whenever he's like I'm gonna go have lunch with my dad, I'm always like show off, oh, and then he feels bad about his life being slightly okay And I'm like good. Previously, many of the accepted sightings of Nessie in recent years have been from a single monitor by people as far away as China and the U.S.

Wow. The new cameras are located at, oh, God, Craig Durock Hotel, Foyer, Foyer's Drover's Lodge near, oh, my God. I can't say any of these. Lodge's Fort Augustus, I could say that. Uh, locks lock, lockness clansman hotel- I don't like the sound of that. And and aaron lock bnb lock end and live feeds will be available to watch at viln's website. Wow, so that's yeah.

If you want to sit and watch the lockness monster all day, you can do it there for all I care. I think it's always important to add for all I care to information. Just really makes it clear where you stand. Yeah. So, all right, we're going to go to a quick break. And when we get back, we are going to learn together all about one of the greatest scary legends in Jewish folklore, the Golem.

Welcome back to Monthly Spooky. We have a very special, uh scary uh bit of history folklore to give you guys. Um, it's from jewish folklore which, uh, I think is horribly underrepresented in general. Um, even in the jewish community, I think they just don't talk enough about the folklore elements of their, their history. What do you think, Michelle? You are a member of the tribe.

What do you think? I don't know. I, I don't know about any folklore. So have you talked to either of your parents about the golem since I brought it up? No, sorry. I got it. I got stuff going on. I don't know. Sorry. No, you don't. Now you're just lying to sound cool. Yeah. Must be nice. Well, I am a big fan of folklore and I was learning about Jewish folklore and learned that they have a couple of kind of scary, kind of scary things, which is interesting because Jewish folklore has the golem and the Dybbuk.

Those are the things I've read about so far. And then in Islam, you have the jinn or genie, which was almost always evil in their texts. Yeah. And then in Christianity, you actually don't have that much scary stuff until you get to Catholicism. And then there's lots of demons and stuff like and cool and cool stuff like that. So but anyway, we're going to Michelle and I are going to go through the Wikipedia page for Gollum because obviously that will give us the most fair, balanced and accredited information possible.

And Michelle, you're going to learn all of this and then you'll have something to talk about with your family, okay, um, okay. So a golem, uh, which is spelled like golem, like from lord of the rings. A golem is an animated anthropomorphic being in jewish folklore which is entirely created from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud. In the psalms and medieval writings, the word golem or golem, sorry, golem- was used as a term for an am from more am from morphic, amorphous, sorry, amorphous- unformed material.

Okay, the most famous golem narrative involves judah lo ben basal, basle baslel, sorry, baslel man. It's always like there's some I know, but I expect myself to pronounce everything perfectly, even when their languages I'm not familiar with at all. The late 16th century rabbi of Prague. Many tales differ on how the golem was brought to life and controlled. According to Moment Magazine, the golem is a highly mutable metaphor with seemingly limitless symbolism.

It can be a victim or villain, Jew or non-Jew, man or woman or sometimes both. Over the centuries... Oh, I know. That's not okay. Over the centuries, it has been used to connote war. community, isolation, hope, and despair. That's everything. Yeah. Well, I mean, that makes it a really good folklore if it can, if over time it just gets used to represent everything.

Interesting. I mean, don't you think? Yes. You better think so. So as far as etymology, the word golem occurs once in the Bible in Psalm 139, 16, which uses the word golem, that means my light form, raw material, connoting the unfinished human being before God's eyes. The Mishnah uses the term for an uncultivated person. Quote, seven characteristics are in an uncultivated person and seven in a learned one.

Okay. In modern Hebrew, golem is used to mean dumb or helpless. and also to describe an insect in its inactive, immature form between larva and adult. Similarly, it is often used today as a metaphor for a mindless lunk or entity that serves a man under controlled conditions, but is hostile to him under other conditions. Okay. Golem passed into Yiddish as golem, uh-oh, to mean someone who is lethargic or beneath a stupor.

I don't know how I feel about them adding goy in there. Goylam. That's a little concerning. I feel like it's a little, it might be a little hateful. Yeah, but that's okay. For those that don't know, goy and goyam means non-Jew. Yeah. So it's like, oh, they added goy in Yiddish. Okay. Okay. Whatever. So let's dive into the history, Michelle. Okay. The oldest stories of of golems date back to early julie judaism.

In the talmud, adam was initially created as a golem when his dust was kneaded into a shapeless husk. Like adam, all golems are created from mud by those close to divinity, but no, but no anthropogenic golem is fully human. Early on, the main disability of the golem was its inability to speak. Sanhedrin 65B describes Rava creating a man, Gavra. He sent the man to Rav Zira.

Rav Zira spoke to him. We're just reading the Talmud now, but he did not answer. Rav Zira said, you were created by the sages. Return to your dust. Oh. Don't worry. Now we're moving into the Middle Ages, so I'm not just reading the Talmud. We could just read the Talmud for the rest of the day. That would be wholesome. Yeah, we can do that.

That's fine. It is Hanukkah. Yeah. So during the Middle Ages, passages from the Sefer Yetzirah book of creation were studied as a means to create and animate a golem, although little in the writings of Jewish mysticism supports this belief. There's a whole page on Jewish mysticism. I might have to look into that. It was believed that golems could be activated by an ecstatic experience induced by the ritualistic use of various letters of the Hebrew alphabet forming a Shem- any one of the names of God wherein the Shem was written on a piece of paper and inserted in the mouth or in the forehead of the golem.

A golem is inscribed with Hebrew words in some tales, for example, some versions of Chelm and Prague, as well as in Polish tales and versions of the Brothers Grimm. Such as the word emet, which means truth in Hebrew written on its forehead. The golem could then be deactivated by removing the first letter of the word to create the first letter of the word Emmett, thus changing the inscription from truth to death.

That's cool. I mean, that's a kind of a cool like vampire thing. I like how you're like, you're like, my people's culture is so boring. Why are we talking about it? It's like, I think this is really interesting. I've never heard any of this stuff for the most part. So let's see. Samuel of Spire from the 12th century was said to have created a golem.

Rabbi Jacob Ben Shalom arrived at Barcelona from Germany in 1325 and remarked that the law of destruction is the reversal of the law of creation. One source credits 11th century Solomon Ibn Gaberl with creating a golem, possibly female, for household chores. Oh, OK. I mean, in the 11th century, that's pretty progressive. It's like, why? I mean, he's like not making a woman do it.

He's literally making a woman to do it. It's the same thing. I mean, yeah, okay. He could literally have made just a thing that wasn't a woman to do the chores, but he made it a woman. Is it a compliment to say that, well, the woman would do a better job? No. I mean, in the most literal term of compliment, I guess that is a compliment.

I don't know. To say anyone would do a better job, but it's also not. Let's see. In 1625, Joseph del Mendigo wrote, quote, many legends of this sort are current, particularly in Germany. The earliest known written account of how to create a golem can be found in sodi razaya by eleazar ben judah of worms of the late 12th and early 13th century.

So, uh, now we're gonna go into so well, first of all, what do you think of this so far, Michelle? Does this make you want to make a clay person? I mean, it would if I wasn't scared of things like I don't want a thing that's alive in my house with me. That's not my cat. I was, I was, I was gonna say, I was like, but you have a kitty cat.

Yeah. That's, that's, that's a one-off. I don't want any more alive things in the house. You didn't make gigs out of clay. Did you? Um, that, I do think she looks so weird. I don't know how to make a cat out of clay. I'm not very down. bit. Ouch. Do you, I wonder, I wonder if this is going to mention, cause it just, it's just a funny thing.

It's like, is this going to mention how like dreidels were traditionally made out of clay? Like that, like, I don't think so, but who knows? So here are some famous examples of golems. The golem of Chelm. The oldest description of the creation of a golem by a historical figure is included in a tradition connected to Rabbi Eliyou of Chelm from 1550 to 1583.

A Polish Kabbalist writing in in about 1630 through 1650, reported the creation of a golem by Rabbi Eliyou. Thusly quote: And I have heard in a certain and explicit way from several respectable persons that one man living close to our time, whose name is R,. Eliyou, the master of the name, who made a creature out of matter, and form and it performed hard work for him for a long period and the name of Emmett was hanging upon his neck until he finally removed it for a certain reason.

The name from his neck was removed and it turned to dust. Also, if, if I made something and it helped me, I'd feel really bad. Make making it turn to dust. Yeah, that would feel, but what if it was like, it was like, I have done your dishes. Now I kill you. And you're like, I knew it. Yeah, I guess then you got to do what you got to do for self-defense.

You got to protect yourself. A similar account was reported by a Christian author, Christoph Arnold in 1674. Oh. So people were believing this concept. Rabbi Jacob Emden elaborated on the story in a book published in 1748. I like how it's like now we're 200 years away from when it happened. I mean, that's how all this stuff happens. But I've worked back then.

Anything biblical, especially. It would be hundreds of years later. But also, like, not everybody has the power to make these things. It's like one every couple hundred years, I guess. So, yeah. As an aside, I'll mention here. This is what he wrote. Rabbi Jacob Emden wrote. As an aside, I'll mention here what I heard from my father's holy mouth regarding the golem created by his ancestor.

the Gon-ar-Elaju, Baal Shem of Blessed Memory. When the Gon saw that the golem was growing larger and larger, he feared that the golem would destroy the universe. Oh, shit. Sorry. He then removed the holy name that was embedded on his forehead, thus causing him to disintegrate and return to dust. Nonetheless, while he was engaged in extracting the holy name from him, The golem injured him, scarring him on the face.

So this guy writing in 1748 is which which, by the way, like he died in 1776, which means he died like right when the American Revolution, when the Declaration of Independence happened. He is saying that his father told him true stories of golems, which is I mean, like which means that this is like Jewish, like werewolves and vampires. Like, yeah, like that's around the same time period.

So there were people actively believing in this, which is always mind-blowing to me. Yeah, yeah, it is. I get believing in kind of goofy stuff kind of as a treat to yourself. And I don't fault people who believe in Bigfoot or believe in cryptids because it's like maybe it's out there. There's lots of animals we never found, but believing in a clay man who's alive, that's a big stretch.

Yeah, it is. Yeah. But everybody knows about it. It must be true. That's true. See, I feel like if this was a real Jewish story, it would be like, so there's a golem. He's single. He has a good job. According to the polish kabbalist, the kabbalist quote, the legend was known for several persons, thus allowing us to speculate that the legend had indeed circulated for some time before it was committed to writing, and consequently, we may assume that its origins are to be traced to the generation immediately following the death of our ilayahu, if not earlier.

Okay, so that's the earliest story. Okay. But the most famous story is the Golem of Prague. This is what's considered kind of the template of all Golem stories after it. Hmm. And it involves Judah Lo Ben Bezele. These middle eastern names, you're doing good. The late 16th century rabbi of Prague, also known as Marahal, who reported, created a golem out of clay from the banks of the Vidava River and brought it to life through rituals and Hebrew incantations to defend the Prague ghetto from anti-semitic attacks and pogroms.

I don't know what pogroms are. No, I don't know either. Let me see if I can find out. Let me see if I can find out. Let me see if the internet will tell me. Oh, oh, oh. A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group. Oh, okay, okay, yeah, yeah, geez, depending on the version of the legend, the jews in prog were to be either expelled or deac, expelled or killed under the rule of rudolph ii, the holy roman emperor.

The golem was called joseph and was known as yosel. He was said to be a sorry, oh, I just said okay, I like. It's like he was called joseph and was known as a different name. It's like he has all these. He's like he's like old, dirty bastard. It's like, yeah, he's old, dirty bastard, but also big baby jesus dirt dog. You know he has many names.

He was said to be able to make himself invisible and summon spirits from the dead. Rabbi Lowe deactivated the golem on Friday evenings by removing the Shem before the Sabbath began, so as to let it rest on the Sabbath. Look at that. Even when they create possibly violent men, creatures out of clay, they let them have a little Sabbath rest. Yeah, it's really nice.

That is nice. I feel like, you know, nothing against modern Jewish people, but I feel like especially, have you heard about how in Israel they have services specifically so that Goyim will come and turn on your lights and stuff? They'll do things for you that you're not allowed to do. It's like a loophole, basically. Oh, okay. I know what you mean. I understand.

I feel like nowadays if they had golems, they would have them do like, they'd be their loophole thing. I always find that funny. It's like we have a guy who comes who's not Jewish who comes and like turns on the lights for us on Sabbath. Yeah. It's very interesting, though. It's like we're so dedicated that we work around God's law instead of just like instead of just following it within reason, like being like, well, we'll turn a light on because we'd like to sit.

You know? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of like with with Amish people as well. Oh, sure. Well, Amish people, it's really funny. I was talking about Amish people the other day because I have a friend who lives in Amish country. Mm-hmm. And we were talking about how they can have a phone, but it can't be in the house. It has to be on a pole, you know, in the front yard, basically.

Mm-hmm. But it's not. It's because it has to be for business. Okay. The big thing that Amish people have kind of accepted is that they need to use some degree of technology in order to compete economically. Yeah. So, like, they can have refrigeration for the milk they sell, but they can't have a refrigerator in their home. They can't refrigerate their own goods.

They can refrigerate what they're going to sell. Interesting. It's things like that. And that's simply because the English are, you know, doing, doing way, you know, doing whatever they want. And they have trucks and buses and refrigeration and stuff like that. Anyway. One Friday evening, Rabbi Lowe forgot to remove the Shem. Uh-oh. And feared that the golem would desecrate the Sabbath. Oh, this isn't about its rest.

He's afraid it'll desecrate the Sabbath. Okay. Yeah. Oh. A different story tells of a golem that fell in love and when rejected became the violent monster seen in most accounts. Jeez. Some versions have the golem eventually going on a murderous rampage. The rabbi then managed to pull the shem from his mouth and immobilize him in front of the synagogue, whereupon the golem fell in pieces.

Well, this is very frankenstein-y. Like I'm starting to think mary shelley was um a thieving goyim. Watch mary shelley be jewish and I'm just a total idiot. I don't know, but that's a really cool monster story, though. Like it violates the Sabbath or it falls in love or whatever. That's really interesting. So the golem's body was stored in the attic of Genzia, of the old new synagogue, where it would be restored to life again if needed.

So at this point it's like it's like a unlikely protector of the Jewish people in Prague. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's not the hero they want, but it's the hero they deserve. Yeah. Yeah. He's the knight. He's Batman. Yeah. He's Clayman. Ironically, Batman does fight a clay monster named Clayface. Does he? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Clayface. He's one of the saddest characters in Batman lore.

I mean, he sounds sad. He's a man who, if I remember correctly, he had a scar on his face, like a really hideous scar. So he developed this clay you could put over it and it just kind of fixes it like it fixes any blemish. But then he accidentally falls into a vat of it and it burns into his body and he becomes just a big bulbous clay creature that can't hold an attractive form.

He's just a monster. That's really sad. It's so sad. You clearly did not watch the anime, the animated adventures of Or Batman, the Animated Series, when you were a kid. I guess I didn't. It was so dark and it was for kids. It was so dark. But Clayface was the one that always stuck with me as being like really, really sad. Yeah.

And it always made me so sad. So anyway, Rabbi Lowe then forbade anyone except his successors from going into the attic. Oh, so no one can find out that it's not real. Sorry. Wow. Michelle's a heretic over here. You don't believe the golem was real? No. I'm calling your mom right now. Oh, she'll be so confused. Watch me call your mom and be like, Michelle doesn't believe in the golem and her eyes just widen.

She's like, what? What if it turned out that every other family member is completely, fully aware of the golem except you? That would be bad. And it's real. and we're the protectors of it. Or at least, you know, like your father's, an offshoot of your father's family are the protectors. You're like adjacent to it. It's like, haven't you ever wondered why you never see those cousins?

They're in Prague protecting the golem. I just thought they didn't like me. They don't like you either, but they're also in Prague protecting the golem. And that's how it gets loose. You go to Prague and they're like, and they leave and the golem gets loose. Oh, man. Um, okay, uh, uh, rabbi yekent yekent landau, a successor of rabbi low, reportedly wanted to go up the steps to the attic when he was chief rabbi of prog to verify the tradition.

He wanted to prove it was real. I told you, yeah, rabbi landau fasted and immersed himself in a mikveh and mikveh. Do you know what a mikveh is? Not right now I don't. Uh, a mikveh or a mikveh is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in judaism, to achieve ritual purity. Okay, I figured it was something like that. If he was fasting, it must have been something to like increase his piety, you know to to be as pure as possible.

Um, then he wrapped himself in- how do you say this word? Flat, flat, flat. Therese flacteries, uh, which are a set of small black leather boxes with leather straps containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses of the torah. Okay, you, you don't know so much about. About the weird side, I feel like that happens a lot. Um, like cat, because catholics can be that way too, like they don't know, like some of the really weird stuff.

Yeah, um, I always freak people out when I explain that voodoo is basically a little bit of African tribal rights and a lot of Catholicism. They're like, what? And I'm like, oh, yeah, dude. It's like all Catholicism. Anyway. And a prayer shawl and started ascending the steps. At the top of the steps, he hesitated and then came immediately back down, trembling and frightened.

He then reenacted Rabbi Lowe's original warning. Wow, so he was. So he was like I don't know if this is real, I'm gonna get myself all pious and ready and I'm gonna go up and see if the pieces of the golem are there. And then he and then, like he couldn't even do it, he was like never mind, just nobody ever go there.

Yeah, and he was the one that was like rabbi lowe's orders, where he was allowed to go because he was one of his- uh, the people who followed him. Wow, I wonder if we can visit this synagogue. Yeah, I'll go, I don't care, you're like I'll go, I don't care, I'll end the world, whatever. We just gotta do the thing to stop him if he comes back, right, yeah, it's, it's easy peasy: take the thing away and then it's good.

According to legend, the body of rabbi lowe's golem still lies in the synagogue's attic. When the attic was renovated in 1883, no evidence of the golem was found. It was stolen. The next indiana jones movie- we got it. Yeah, indiana jones and the golem of prog. That sounds completely accurate. Like that is. Oh, my god, I want to write a golem of prog Weekly Spooky story or have someone write one.

Oh man, I hey, Michelle, you want to write a golem of prog Weekly Spooky story. I don't know um. Some versions of the tale state that the golem was stolen by the Genzia and entombed in a graveyard in Prague's Zikov district where the Zikov television tower now stands. Oh. A recent legend tells of a Nazi agent ascending to the synagogue attic, dying under suspicious circumstances thereafter, and the attic, uh-oh, is not open to the general public.

You cannot access the attic to this day. But why not? I mean, there's no golem. and that makes me think the golem is in there. Yeah, they're just like, oh, it's not here. Don't worry about it. You and I just go to Prague and we're like, hey, can we go in the attic? And they're like, no. It's like, why? They're like, it's not available to the public.

It's like, is there a golem in there? They're like, no. It's like, then why can't we go up there? You can't. It's not available to the public. Because of the golem? It's like, no, there's no golem up there. Then I think we should be allowed in. Yeah. And meanwhile, in reality, he would just be looking at us like, huh? Because he doesn't speak English.

Some Orthodox Jews believe that the Maharal did actually create a golem. The evidence of this belief has been analyzed from an Orthodox Jewish perspective by Shaner Z. Lehman. That's wild. Yeah. So we have a couple more I'll point out and then we'll uh, we'll move on, but actually this is really interesting. I kind of love that story. Yeah, that's a really cool story and it's just frankenstein- almost not quite, but almost um.

The golem of vilna is another, uh famous example of a golem story. A similar tradition relates to vilna going, or the saintly genius of vilness. Vilnius rabbi shame Volzin from Lithuania reported in an introduction to Sifra de Zenucia that he once presented to his teacher, the Vilna Goen, 10 different versions of a certain passage in the Sefer Yetzirah and asked the Goen to determine the correct text.

The Goen immediately identified one version as the accurate rendition of the passage. The amazed student then commented to his teacher that with such clarity, he should easily be able to create a live human. The Goan affirmed Rabbi Shams' assertion and said that he once began to create a person when he was a child under the age of 13, but during the process he received a sign from heaven ordering him to desist because of his tender age.

See, I don't necessarily disbelieve that because he's like, yeah, I was making a person And then I was like, oh, I guess I didn't work out or something. Whoopsie doodle. Yeah. Apparently, the most common theme is hubris, that that's what the story is warning about. Okay. Is, you know, being too cocky. And it mentions that many people have pointed out that that similar theme is used in Frankenstein and the Sorcerer's Apprentice and even in Terminator, which, you know, where it's like creating life is dangerous.

Yeah. So two more things. The culture of the Czech Republic was heavily affected by the golem. In fact, the golem is a popular figure in the Czech Republic. In the 1915 novel by Gustav Merynk, the name of the book was briefly popular and did much to keep the imagination about the golem going. Several restaurants and other businesses have names that make reference to the creature.

A czech strongman named renee richter uh goes by the nickname golem, and a czech monster truck outfit calls itself the golem team. Abraham ackerman uh preceded his article on human automatism in the contemporary city with a short satirical poem on a pair of golems turning human, and there's one variation. Um. So the yiddish took this and kind of changed it a bit.

Um, a yiddish and slavic folk tale known as the clay boy combines elements of the golem and the gingerbread man, in which a lonely couple makes a child out of clay, with disastrous or comical consequences. In one common russian version, an older- I'm assuming this is the russian version- will be the disastrous one. An older couple whose children have left home make a boy out of clay and dry him by their hearth.

The clay boy comes to life at first. The couple is delighted and treats him like a real child, but the clay boy does not stop growing and eats all of their food, then all of their livestock, then the clay boy eats his parents. The clay boy rampages through the village until he is smashed by a quick-thinking goat. Yay! Wow. I, okay. So I got to ask you, cause I feel like you weren't super amped on this concept on learning about the golem.

Do you feel a little bit more amped now that you've learned about the golem? Do you think it's kind of a cool, a cool story? Sure. And also it's not that I'm not super amped about it. I'm just not super amped in general. So. It's okay. You don't have to lie to me. Oh, well, Well, we're going to go to a quick break.

And when we get back, we're going to talk a little bit about Reddit, a little bit about movies we watched and a little bit about the coming new year. So stick around right after these messages from our sponsors. And we are back wrapping up the final episode of Monthly Spooky in 2022. And I wanted to point out that, Michelle, I made you watch one of the greatest, not just Christmas films, not just horror films, but one of the greatest films of all time ever made.

And that film is Silent Night, Deadly Night 2. I did watch that. So for those uninitiated, silent night, deadly night two is a well sequel to silent night, deadly night, which is, in my opinion, kind of the ultimate Christmas horror movie. But silent night, deadly night two involves literally about half of silent night, deadly night one, and then some new, really weird and quirky segments.

Michelle's eyes widened as I. As I said, quirky because they are very, very quirky. So Michelle, I would like to hear your thoughts on silent night, deadly night too. So the brother that was killing everybody this time. Yes. He just seemed so happy. He was so happy. And his eyebrows are moving a lot. And his eyes are so wide. and he's laughing and laughing.

This film is where a meme started where he basically yelled Garbage Day! And then shot someone who was taking their garbage out. Which was a meme before memes were even memes. People used to pass around an image of him with the words Garbage Day. And that was before memes were a thing. So Silent Night, Deadly Night is possibly one of my favorite Christmas horror movies and Silent Night Deadly Night 2 is is a most of Silent Night Deadly Night and also really silly and fun yeah would you disagree?

No. Did you hate it? No I didn't. It's okay if you hated it. I thought it was I thought it was silly and fun. Yeah. And did you feel like you learned more about the holiday season and Catholicism in particular? No. It would be very weird if you did. I would be very confused if you were like, absolutely. Yeah, I know so much more now.

I'm going to go kill some people. Garbage day. So, well, I'm glad you enjoyed that. Because of the season, because of December being kind of, not kind of, being completely insane. I have not watched even half of the Christmas movies I wanted to watch this season. I've been trying really hard to make time to relax and watch them. But between my dogs being sick, Chicano is resting quietly right now.

His cancer tumor was removed on Tuesday. So two days ago, Henwolf is getting around. Okay. But she's been having mobility problems. You know, it's just been a really hectic time. And on top of that, I'm cursed with blessings because Weekly Spooky is just doing great. People are really enjoying the shows we're putting out. So I've been putting out lots and lots of shows in December because most podcasts put out less in December.

I'm putting out way more. So I've just been kind of overworked, but it is fun because at least when I'm not feeling very Christmassy, I get to sit down and read Christmas scary stories and stuff. So that's actually pretty fun. So, but I haven't watched as many as I'd like. Like I haven't had a chance to watch Jack Frost yet. I haven't had a chance to watch a Christmas story yet.

I haven't had a chance to watch a die hard yet, which I promised myself I'd watch die hard this year. So just a lot of Christmas movies to watch. Are you going to be watching any Christmas movies on Christmas? I don't know. I sent you a blu-ray of a Christmas story. You should watch it. Yeah, I might. I was thinking on Christmas, I'm not, I'm just going to not do that.

I don't know. Just not going to watch Christmas movies. Yeah. I'm just going to watch non Christmas movies. You mean you're just going to watch anime? Yeah. I got you. Well, speaking of anime, before we move into you talking a little bit about Reddit, I want to remind people Michelle has her own podcast. It's called Michelle Explains Anime Poorly. And it's available wherever you get your podcasts.

It's really fun. I think you just published, was it episode 10? I think so. Is that the one that we just did? Yeah, you just published episode 10. Yeah. So if you like anime, you want to learn a little bit more about current anime, hang out with Michelle and give it a listen. Her show is very, very funny. She has a great sense of humor.

She'll deny it till the day she dies. But it's the truth. So if you get a chance, please check out Michelle's new podcast. And I think you'll really enjoy it. It's called Michelle Explains Anime. Poorly. You shouldn't do that. Don't, don't, don't. What? I'm just, I'm just saying like this year has been a good year for having cool podcasts. I'm so happy you're podcasting beyond when I force you at gunpoint to podcast like right now.

And I have a new podcast that just reached, I think it's 10th episode as well, or somewhere in that neighborhood called welcome to prime time. It's a podcast where I talk all about Freddie's nightmares with my buddy, David DeNoyer. It's really cool. And next week, which will be tomorrow when you're listening to this, we're publishing our first interview. We interviewed a writer from Freddy's Nightmares.

That's really cool. He's a great guest, very candid. He talked very intensely about his battle with depression and his battle with all these things, which is, I think, very important to talking about being a creative person. So I really appreciated his level of candidness. So also check that out, because in the new year we'll be running that podcast, Michelle will have her podcast going as well, and, of course, we'll be back at the end of next month with another Monthly Spooky where hopefully I'll have lots of funny stories about going to Northern Michigan in the dead of winter- yet again, because I'm a fool.

No, it's good. So anyway, Michelle, do you have anything great to share with us from Reddit? So I don't have too much because for some reason, Ask Reddit wasn't asking people anything scary. Maybe because it's too Christmassy, I guess. Yeah, but I did see on the glitch in the matrix subreddit. There's a couple of cat things. Well, cats are like a very common element I'm noticing in glitching matrices.

Yeah. Yes. We believe that cats are not from this planet or something. I don't know. I could buy that. Yeah. So there's this person and she has a cat that's like 14. It's a Siamese cat. And she's like watching tv on the couch, I guess with her cat who fell, and she, she fell asleep and she wakes up and her cat is dead.

Oh god, giggs just jumped when I said that, really high. Yeah, can you blame her? Yeah, so her cat's dead, like she's cold, her eyes are open- the cat that is- And she's like rigid and she like screamed and she's like crying. And then she goes to the bathroom just to get some tissues so she can blow her nose because she's been crying.

And all of a sudden her cat just walks into the bathroom and rubs herself on her leg. And then she screams again because that's what's happening. That would be very scary. Yeah. And so she doesn't know what happened. Does she have a carbon monoxide detector? Um, I don't know, but she did take her cat to the vet after, later on, because she was like: is she like, is she okay?

Did something happen? And the vet says, like, everything looks good, and actually she's, she's, she's sick. The cat has been sick, but it her, her results actually look better than they used to look now. So so the cat was sick. To her knowledge, to the owner's knowledge, yeah, okay. So do you want to hear my theory or do you have a theory you want to share first?

No, you can tell me your theory, I probably, like I, yeah, go for it. My theory is very simple. Yeah, she dreamed the cat died. That's what everybody on reddit said. Yeah, because the anxiety of having a sick pet- well, I mean, it's not. She's not sick like she has a cold, she's sick like she has diseases. Yeah, but I have an anxiety disorder.

So any problem with my pet is going to make me worry about my pet. So I just think that it's a subconscious thing. So that's my point is like, I think subconsciously she's just worried about her cat a little bit. So she dreams that the cat is unmoving and dead and still, and then wakes up and not, and is just kind of not aware.

It's because haven't you ever dreamt that you've like gotten a phone call or a text and you answered it and then you wake up and realize you didn't actually do anything. Absolutely. But I'm listening. Sorry. Everybody said you were probably just asleep, but she said that she's she was absolutely not asleep. And her her she lives with her husband and her husband heard both of her screams.

Okay. I don't buy that. She has a cat and is also married. Yeah. No, I mean, that's possible. I mean, I just can't think of any other thing. To me, it just sounds like something you would imagine when you're worried about your pet. And I mean as somebody who is spending a lot of time worrying about their pets right now. I have had- I have- nightmares like Chicano is recovering from his surgery really well.

I just had a nightmare that he couldn't fall asleep, like that's just pure anxiety. He just wouldn't fall asleep and I was like buddy, I'm so sorry that you're not sleepy, you need sleep. And then I woke up but I didn't really realize it and I looked over. I was like: buddy, are you? Did you finally fall asleep? And I look at him and he has just sprawled out, clearly been asleep for hours.

Okay. So that's just my theory. I'm not saying that I'm right. I'm just saying that would be my guess. Okay, so then in the comments, someone else had an experience with their cat that you definitely can't say was them sleeping. Okay. So these people have a cat and the cat one day comes home from outside and they are clearly hurt. Like really, really hurt.

So they take the cat to the vet and it turns out that they had a blood clot in there somewhere. And they're not going to be able, they're like paralyzed now and they have to put the cat down. So they put the cat down, bring the cat back in a box and bury them in their yard. And then later that afternoon or something, um, the person's like father-in-law is over, who's kind of like an old hippie- which is important- and he goes outside for a second and then he comes back in and he looks confused and he goes back outside and he comes back in and he goes back out again and he's like: hey, can you, can you come here?

Because I'm not sure if what I'm seeing is correct, is real or if I'm like having like a drug flashback. So they go outside and their cat's there and apparently, according to this woman, it was like they have a. They had a very large cat with distinct markings. So I'm gonna just assume that it's distinct enough that they know what their cat looks like- cats there outside- and they take him inside and they He just lived, and then everything and everything was fine.

And they never they were they were too afraid to dig up the grave and look inside. Oh, that's the first thing I would have done is dig it up. Yeah, no, I understand. Like, you maybe you don't want to know. No, I would want to know. Yeah, I would like wouldn't even wait to find a shovel. I would dig it up with my hands.

I'd be like, what the hell just happened? Like, so have you ever heard the urban legend of the dead bunny rabbit? I think probably. So. So there's this urban legend that's gone around for a long time about a family that have a pitbull or a rottweiler or a doberman. Um, it just depends on the legend you hear. But they have this dog and their neighbors have a bunny rabbit, a white bunny rabbit that lives in a cage out back, and one day, um, the person comes home and they find their dog- just really the bunny rabbit's in his mouth and he is just shaking it to death and chewing on it.

Right. And the, the owner's like the home, the owner of the dog's like, Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. And he's like, I don't know what to do. And like, I don't want them to think that like, I don't want them to hate me. I don't want them to hate my dog. I don't want to get blamed for this.

So he gets the bunny rabbit from the dog, cleans it up and realizes, okay, it's not really bleeding. Yeah. I do know this. So maybe if I clean it up and, you know, shampoo it and get the dirt off it and get everything off of it, I can just put it back in the cage and maybe they'll think it just died in its sleep or something.

So they put it in the cage and they're like, okay, it's going to be fine. So then they go inside and an hour or two later they hear a child scream and they're like, oh God, they found their dead rabbit. So they go outside to see what's the matter. And the kid is like, oh my God, my rabbit is in the cage, but I buried him earlier today.

I always loved that story. That makes me think of that. Have you seen Pet Sematary? Parts of it. Oh, man. You need to watch Pet Sematary. One of my favorite things about Pet Sematary, because they bring a cat back to life named Winston Churchill. Church. I love that in the movie, to make sure you believe the cat is dead, when he goes to pick the dead cat up because he finds that it had been hit by a truck the day before, it's stuck to the ground.

He has to pull it. It's like. because it's like frozen to the grass and stuff. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's mortifying, but I like that because that's like, okay, that cat's dead. Like that is not, that cat is not asleep. Yeah. That cat is not stunned. That cat is dead. Like that could not live. So, um, but that's a, that, that, that one, I, I'm sure that people on, on a Reddit were like, dig it up, you idiot.

Like we need to know what happened. Yeah. Did they ever dig it up? I'm assuming not. No, they didn't. I'm assuming that they died mysteriously shortly thereafter. Yeah, probably. I mean, that would be weird. Because wasn't the whole thing like, and then my cat was just alive. I also have information that will lead to the arrest of the Clintons. And then it was like, uh-oh, here we go again.

So do you have any more? Any more glitches in the matrix? That's it? That's all I got. That's okay, because it's about time that we go and celebrate not only Christmas and Hanukkah, but also the new year. So, Michelle, I want to know what do you want out of the new year? Like, really, yeah, what, really, what do you want out of the new year?

I don't know, I just want to be okay. I mean that's not a bad goal. I guess sad, but that's a goal. No, I mean that's no, that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that. Uh, you want your business to prosper, I guess okay. Well, I'm excited for the new year, Michelle, because you have been so creative lately. You've, your new comic is awesome.

And I really like your new podcast. I really do. I really do. I think I'm going to try to trick you into letting me talk about mob psycho 100 with you on your podcast at some point, once we start watching the new season. Okay. But we have to watch the new season and I have to try not to make a podcast about it right now.

Well, you could make a podcast about each episode and then we could just talk about it after you're done. Oh no, I was no, I was just gonna like cry about it on the the, on your podcast. This is that's kind of the point of having a podcast: is that you can cry into a microphone and someone might hear it. That's kind of the goal.

So, but no, my, my goal for the new year is more podcasts. Uh, more Weekly Spooky content. I can't tell you how grateful I am. We have 95 Patreon backers. I wanted to get to a hundred by the end of the year, but I think I already won. I feel like that's an incredible amount of support. I'm so thankful. Um, I'm so thankful for you, Michelle, because I really love doing this podcast.

This is one of the few, uh, podcasts I do where I can like just relax and have a fun time and talk because when I'm doing the main podcast, I love it, but it's very intense. I want people to be scared. I want them to be invested. I want them to be, you know, whatever. It's so important, you know? So just thank you, Michelle.

I'm excited to have another year of our friendship. Thanks. I am too. If when neither of us die, that's a great note to end on. So we're going to get out of here. My friends, we hope you have had a wonderful holiday season and a very happy new year.