Episode 305: Your Urban Legends LXIX - The Secret Doctor Who Episode
/Did you have an imaginary friend growing up? Was he a creepy shadow hanging out in the corner? Even if you didn’t, we’ve got plenty of scary stories submitted by our listeners for this urban legends episode!
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of murder, death, medical horror, military, dismemberment, dead animals, colonialism, bugs, and mutiliation.
Housekeeping
- Recommendation: This week, Amanda recommends The Hookup Plan by Farrah Rochon
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
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Transcript
AMANDA: Welcome to Spirits Podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends and folklore. Every week we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda.
JULIA: And I'm Julia.
ERIC: And I'm Eric.
AMANDA: And this is Episode 305. Another Hometown Urban Legend. That's right. Don't adjust your dial folks. It's October it's the month of urban legends and creepy cool shit here at spirits, and we're gonna bring you some more urban legends today.
JULIA: The month just gets spookier and spookier. And that's a real win for both us and for our listeners.
AMANDA: Absolutely. I am having the haunting of having a wedding of three days. That is my you know, my main thing, but I'll be able to see you both in person which will be incredibly lovely.
JULIA: Oh, yeah.
ERIC: It will be so nice. I am looking forward to the journey to get to your wedding.
AMANDA: That's right.
JULIA: Yes. And the Fall foliage of where you're getting married, Amanda in middle of October is going to be beautiful.
AMANDA: Thank you, Eric and I hope you enjoy riding the rails and you don't become a train ghost on your way from Cleveland to upstate New York. Yeah.
ERIC: Wearing a top hat.
AMANDA: Yeah!
JULIA: Yeah!
ERIC: I'll become a colonial ghost.
JULIA: Fantastic.
ERIC: An old timey ghost via train.
JULIA: Yeah, I mean, if you dress like an old timey ghost, who's to say that you're not an old timey ghost when you die, you know? Like, it's all about the outfit.
ERIC: Exactly. It's the vibes you give off on your die. But maybe that's it maybe, that maybe we've solved why there's no new ghosts. Maybe there are new ghosts. But the vibes are just like olden times, because that's what we think of when we think of ghosts.
JULIA: Eric, it would be very funny if you were dressed like an old timey ghost when you die. And you talk about like the YouTube algorithm.
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: And we're like, Oh, I'm so thrown off by what this ghost knows and doesn't know.
AMANDA: It's like, what do you see someone with a really modern face in a period film and my fiance Eric and I were talking about this in Game of Thrones, where at a certain point, Matt Smith's character gets a haircut. And Eric's like that man looks like he he has had a cell phone like the modern haircut really just makes his face look like a modern face. But that's not always true of old timey ghosts.
JULIA: Truly, they need to give everyone in Game of Thrones, all the men need to have bowl buts, because otherwise it's not historically accurate.
ERIC: Right.
AMANDA: Do you guys mind if I start with an aperitif that involves friends and also a train?
ERIC: Yeah, why not?
JULIA: Sure.
AMANDA: So this story comes from Gretty, she/they and it's titled, Skeptic with a Ghost Friend who Wanted to Prove Her Wrong.
JULIA: Oooh!
ERIC: Interesting.
AMANDA: Alright, “Hey, spooky crew hope you're doing well. I've submitted before but I'm been debating about whether or not to share this particular ghostly encounter. But now that we're fully into spooky season, I figured why not?”
JULIA: Yeah!
AMANDA: “I live adjacent to a town that flourished at the end of the 19th century because of a train stop that allowed rich families from within the city to stop off to summer houses and entertainment.” Sound familiar, Julia?
JULIA: I mean, yes, it does. But also like the historical influence of trains on this country cannot be understated, especially for towns like this. Anyway, sorry. I get really excited about train history sometimes.
AMANDA: Yeah, we're not talking about it enough. “The central business district of this town still has a bunch of buildings from that era, and then 19th century with all built in brick all around a lake. It's pretty cool.”
JULIA: Cool.
AMANDA: “I worked as a waitress in one of these old buildings at an Irish pub on and off for about five years.”
ERIC: Classic.
AMANDA: “Since before I started working there, every one of the employees talked about a ghost who lived in the basement fondly referred to as Henry. He would apparently rattle door handles and flicker lights and just in general make the place feel pretty creepy. Once all the patrons had left in the waitresses were checking out during their meal, he would sometimes venture upstairs and do other creepy stuff. Now, I say all of this having closed the restaurant many times and always been the one to volunteer to go to the basement and I myself have never had an experience with Henry at the restaurant that is.”
JULIA: Uh-oh!
AMANDA: “I had a bad habit of snorting at people's stories when they talked about their experiences with Henry and I would often teasingly ask him to help me find stuff in the basement after the owners reorganized.” What are we thinking guys? Is this is this good behavior to beat the ghost or to ask the ghost for help I see a world where being like hey ghosts I'm looking for something could sort of chattel the ghosts energy like a toddler when you teach them to put things away, you know?
ERIC: Yeah, I mean, I feel like this is this is in the wheelhouse of Team Ignorance. Team Ignorance is all about avoiding the thing when you're not sure what the situation is, but we've gotten past that point. So now it's like, come up, help me out a little bit. I've established some level of help you might be able to provide for me, why not do it?
JULIA: I feel like this ghost knows that this person does not believe in said ghost, right? Because if they are snorting at stories mentioning this ghost and the ghost is overhearing, they're like, oh, well you only talk to me and ask for favors when people are not around. Excuse me, how rude. So I think this ghost is not going to be happy with this person. That would be my guess. I'm a spiteful person though. So–
AMANDA: Well, Julia, here's what happened. In April 2021. The restaurant closed because the owners were retiring. On one of my last shifts, I was having an off-the-clock-tail”, and then parentheses. “(That's the best joke I've ever made wow) with the bartender while he was finishing up the till along with another of my waitress friends, and we got to chatting about whether the new owners are going to like Henry. I said, “Well, if Henry doesn't want to risk it, he can always come home with me. My house doesn't have its own ghost yet.”
JULIA: You cannot do that. You cannot just jokingly invite a ghost into your home.
AMANDA: It got a laugh from my coworkers, so I didn't think much of it. I think you thought of this. I think you needed a haunting and you wanted a haunting and you were beating Henry into coming into your life.
JULIA: You've invited a ghost into your home.
ERIC: Yeah, I've now turned back again. Thinking about it more it's too open. That's too much of an open door policy for ghosts and like I'm fine with being like the ghosts probably knows where my keys or or something like that. But getting the ghosts to like, oh, come with me for a second location. A second ghoscation.
JULIA: Don't invite it goes to a secondary location. No!
AMANDA: No, no.
ERIC: No.
AMANDA: “Fast forward, maybe three days later, and I got back late from a dinner with some friends. I was sweaty and decided to quickly pop in the shower before bed.” Very relatable as we're in the last gasp of a summer heat here. “I was in a towel walking to the bathroom and was reaching out ahead to turn on the bathroom light when I heard a man's voice clear as day say quite conversationally, “Oh, hello.”” That's two words, guys. That's not like a whisper in the wind that kind of sounds like someone saying–
AMANDA (as a ghost): Watch out!
AMANDA: –or whatever.
JULIA (as a ghost): Get out!
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah.
JULIA (as a ghost): It's my house now.
AMANDA: “When I tell you I stopped, hell, I was paralysed, in a towel, two steps from a light switch, terrified. I swear I stood there a good 15 minutes waiting for Ghostface to poke around and say, “Boo!” Though I was a good team ignorant and refused to call out who’s there or anything. I just stood silent until I could will my legs to move forward and turn the bathroom light on. I showered with the curtain open just in case and didn’t bother defogging the mirror just in case…” something appeared behind me.
JULIA: Classic.
AMANDA: “I hopped into bed and watch silly videos until I fell asleep. Now I'm a pretty good skeptic. But I also registered that meat offering for ghosts to come home with me in 100 plus year old building is stupid.”
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: “Luckily, since making his initial presence known, I haven't had any other interactions, though if he's the one who misplaced my favorite flip flops, I'd like them back please.”
JULIA: I mean, ask politely. We've talked about this. You already asked this ghost for help trying to find stuff in the basement of the restaurant.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: You can I ask for your flip flops back.
AMANDA: Yeah, you've done it now. You know, like you've you've opened the box, you have invited the ghost in. And I think now you and Henry need to come to a working relationship where you are not just waiting for Henry to you know, make his presence known. So I am going to need an update on this one, okay?
JULIA: Yeah, get those flip flops back. Seriously.
AMANDA: It's important. It's hard to find one that fits well.
JULIA: Eric, you told us before we started recording that you had a follow up to our 300th episode.
ERIC: Yeah, I've got another email from Maggie who wrote us in the blue dog problem.
JULIA: Uh-oh!
AMANDA: Yes!
ERIC: And I'm going to just read that update. That's that's titled, “some weird dreams I've had!! (also a little update!)”
JULIA: This is also the person where we figured out that it was a ghost of Garfield the cat, perhaps?
ERIC: Yes, yes.
JULIA: Great.
ERIC: It was that evil ghost cat causing all the machinations.
JULIA: Yep, that was the problem.
ERIC: In our opinion, obviously.
JULIA: In our humble opinion.
ERIC: “Hello, spooky friends. It made me so happy to hear my email read on Episode 300. And since you enjoyed my story, I thought I give a little update.”
JULIA: Whoo!
ERIC: The reason I knew that the cat was named Dot is because the kids (the ones that looked like me and my brothers) would sing and chant to the cat and call her Dot.”
JULIA: Okay.
ERIC: Yes, that is an important update that you forgot to tell us.
JULIA: Okay.
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: Singing, little kids sing. It's creepy when little kids sing but they do sing. The concept of chanting the cat's name is horrifying.
JULIA AND ERIC: [quietly chanting] Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot.
ERIC: “As a four or five or six year old, this was terrifying. So I would close my eyes and burrow myself and my giant queen bed. I'm the middle kid and the only girl so that's why I think I had the nicest bed. I don't know. And then I tried to to fall back asleep. The next bit is some weird dreams I've had. Some of them are truly scary and some of them are just silly. So strap in and enjoy the chaotic Dreamland I go to almost every night.”
JULIA: As a fellow chaotic dreamer. I feel bad I feel it in my bones.
ERIC: What does that mean for you, Julia? What does chaotic dreaming mean for you?
JULIA: Ah, my dreams are just buck wild man. Like I feel like Amanda and I have compared dreams before and Amanda's are like, there was a lot of plants in my apartment, and it was great. And I'm just like, Yeah, you know, I had a really vivid dream where I definitely murdered someone and then I had to like dig up their body before my parents sold my childhood home.
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: Yep, and my mind is like, oh, yeah, a meeting I have tomorrow went bad. Or a thing I thought about on my to do list two hours before I fell asleep, that thing it remains undone. Like it's always something I experienced in the last six hours slightly bad.
JULIA: Yeah.
ERIC: Yeah, I would say most of my dreams are like the weirder ones are like in a place but the place is kind of different. And there's a weird stressor thing happening, like we're getting our basement fixed up this month, and the situation is should be pretty straightforward. They're just gonna do some jackhammering stuff like that. And like I had a dream where there's like a waterfall in my basement now and just all like I like this. Like I was in my basement and I wasn't in my base– this is not how my basement is, it's not my basement is going to be after this work that's costing me far too much money. So–
JULIA: Ah, classic. No, I constantly can fly. I have super powers. In my dreams. I have magical abilities a lot of times in my dreams. I'm different people in my dreams very often. Like, yeah. No, my dreams are weird.
ERIC: I've never been a different person.
JULIA: Oh, I'm a different person all the time in my dreams, and like I switch.
ERIC: Amanda, different person, same person for you?
AMANDA: Same person.
ERIC: Same person.
JULIA: I like switch like perspectives. Like I'm in like a movie and I'm like a new character and like a new POV character.
ERIC: I think if I saw myself in my dream, I would my brain would melt.
AMANDA: Julia, maybe you're just more creative than us. I think you are like having a cinematic directorial vision in your own dreams. And I am like, what if I have to experience this unpleasant thing I don't want to have to do twice?
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: Oh, no.
AMANDA: Yeah, it's just anxiety. It's just anxiety again.
JULIA: Yeah.
ERIC: Alright. So back to Maggie's dreams. So this first one is when I was eight after writing in a couple times, you might think I was a creepy kid, but no, I definitely wasn't. So I asked my parents to assure me that I was in fact a perfectly normal kid, and I just had really weird dreams. But this one is probably the spookiest, so be prepared. I was hanging out with my best friend Hannah. And I had to walk her home. Instead of just walking down the street. We got squished into gelatinous orbs.” Now that's interesting, because usually painlessly you will be pushed into a gelatinous cube but an orb, suspicious. “And then we got rocketed through tubes.” Does that explain where the tubes come from? They're, they're just the tubes. They're in there in the jaw gelatin. They're in the tube. They're moving quick.
JULIA: Great.
ERIC: That's what you got to know.
JULIA: If I could travel via pneumatic tube I would constantly.
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: That's true. Every time I walk into like an old hotel or skyscraper or apartment building, and they have pneumatic tube mail systems. I'm just like, I love it.
ERIC: “Also, if I'm remembering correctly, we either look like Phineas and Ferb or maybe we were just hanging out with them. I honestly can't remember. When we got to Hannah's house I dropped her off and then the dream immediately flashed to me sitting on a dark loveseat in a dark room looking at a little TV.” A little TV very creepy to me.
Bad news.
Because I like I like a big ol like an LG C2 55 incher, baby! Little TV, very scary to me.
JULIA: Must be nice.
AMANDA: Must be nice.
ERIC: Put me on blast for my TV, apparently. It's a good, it's a good panel, we got those Oh LEDs the pixels they turned out it off.
JULIA: Wow.
ERIC: “Nothing else was in the room like the walls had nothing but one window and outside it was pitch black and this room just gave me the creeps. The TV glitched on and there was a movie of a doctor who–” Not, not like that.
JULIA: A Doctor Who episode. The Weeping Angels.
AMANDA: Matt Smith got a haircut he looks really modern now.
ERIC: There's a movie of a doctor who had just internationally no–
JULIA: Internationally acclaimed doctor, I'm sorry.
AMANDA: International doctor, must be nice!
ERIC: Oh boy, “Who had just intentionally killed somebody.”
JULIA: [14:41]
AMANDA: [14:41]
ERIC: All of these objects are staying in the episode because there's no way we're gonna get past me confused like the word intentionally and internationally because it's a very different skill that are nationally that if a doctor has killed intentionally.
AMANDA: It is.
JULIA: One’s a serial killer, one still a murder.
ERIC: Neither are probably good but it's important to the story to get that detail correct.
AMANDA: You know, I am now thinking it would be interesting if at home say you know you are Kelsey Schneider like leaves out the almond milk and one of you says like, oh, did you leave this almond milk out intentionally and then you go no, I did it internationally. And it's like, whoa, it must be the European model to keep the almond milk on the counter.
ERIC: Yeah, also if you just read the whole sentence all by first takes, we had a movie of Doctor Who internationally killed somebody which is obviously not in the doctor’s usual mo.
JULIA: No, not really.
AMANDA: Not you don't usually. No. Must of you like a Bond crossover then that makes me dream.
ERIC: Yeah, that's that's definitely out the horizons. So anyways, they kill them with a poisoned shot. I'm not going to read that verbatim because who knows how this sentence would would go. This was a dream they had when they were eight, they point out.
JULIA: Cool!
ERIC: Which is quite quite intense about the doctor, internationally poisoning people as Matt Smith.
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: “The doctor was in a stereotypical hospital room. The doctor was an extremely tall woman.”
JULIA: The doctor was the mother.
ERIC: “–and was wearing scrubs, and I'm pretty sure her eyes were pure black.”
JULIA: Nice.
ERIC: “The doctor pulled out a crumpled line piece of paper and started reading the poor lady's life story to no one but the corpse.
JULIA: Cool.
ERIC: Very weird.
AMANDA: What were you watching?
ERIC: Yeah, “"wow, this is really scary!!" and the doctor turned around, stared into my eyes, and replyed-"Yes, Maggie dear, of course it is! And if you stay much longer, the same will happen to you." I woke up immediately. I was sweating and breathing very heavily. It might not sound very scary, but this was truly horrifying in the moment.” I mean, I would say that is truly horrifying as a dream to have.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Damn.
ERIC: Alright, we have two more dreams from Maggie.
JULIA: Here we go. I would have liked to state a gelatinous cube I would have you know forego in the creepy room with a doctor who then turns to me and says, “You’re next!”
ERIC: Yeah,
AMANDA: Yeah, it really seems relaxing to be suspended in jello.
JULIA: Or just to be jello. Imagine like no bones.
AMANDA: Yeah, no bones, just gel.
JULIA: It would be nice.
ERIC: “This dream probably occurred when I was seven or eight. So some context before I start, my older brother, who is three years older than me had recently told me about five nights at Freddy's and a certain terrifying Minecraft monster. It was very scared of both those things.” So once again, I feel extremely old. Because this person was seven or eight just learning about five days of Friday's which didn't exist until I was in my mid to late 20s at the earliest.
JULIA: Yeah, the Phineas and Ferb one got me earlier. So I feel you.
ERIC: “I had a super active imagination and read a lot of books and still do. And that really impacted my dreams. I was in my basement storage room, which was honestly already a pretty bad sign. The way my basement works is that it has three to four main rooms in the main area with workout stuff and a TV and an office where my dad works and a bathroom, which is very spooky, And then finally the storage room. The storage room is very long and thin. The shelves on both sides kind of cluttered so it's hard to get out quickly. Especially if you're a 4’8 kid. I suddenly heard loud thump, thump, thump noise and immediately panic. I saw a very large terrifying glowing Minecraft-Y giant. And I'm pretty sure it ate me, and that was the end of that dream.”
JULIA: Again, the level of wow, this is a Gen Z person is really throwing me for a loop in these stories.
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: Where it's like, oh, yes, the Minecraft monster. I'm like you're how old and Minecraft?
ERIC: Those Minecraft Mods they're spooky sometimes, and especially since the lighting is real dim in Minecraft sometimes, like they really pop out of nowhere.
AMANDA: All I know is I was at Coney Island recently, and there was a like Co Op video game that was Minecraft licensed. And I was like, oh, they got real stuff now? I know I’m old because I have no concept of the scope of Minecraft anymore.
JULIA: Yeah. Yeah.
ERIC: It's big now like I mean, it's always been big as a game but like there's like stories and plots and things that I mean it's it's pretty, pretty impressive what they've what they've done over there.
AMANDA: Listen, it's a hell of a lot more impressive than the giant omelet in Neopets, which was the extent of my, you know, online participation.
JULIA: Shout out to the giant omelet.
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: Probably. “So this is the last stream and it happened a bit more recently, when Maggie was reading The Hobbit. The goblins were attacking. I don't know how I knew this, but I definitely did. I realized that I had the invisibility ring in my pocket, but it wouldn't work for long.” I mean, this is very much the hobbit classic. “My younger brother, Rolf was there too, and it couldn't be protected by the ring. So what should I have done? My bedroom for some reason didn't have a lock, and Rolf doesn't even have a door. So that's a big issue. So where should we go? The bathrooms.”
JULIA: Naturally.
ERIC: “The bathroom closet. We hid there for as long as possible. But of course the goblins got us eventually so yeah, we both got got.”
JULIA: Poor thing keeps dying in their dreams and I feel bad.
ERIC: Yeah, so those are Maggie's dreams and the little update about the chanting children and the cat Dot.
JULIA: Still horrifying.
ERIC: So, so pretty, pretty, pretty wild stuff going on there.
AMANDA: We love an update. Thank you.
JULIA: So I have one quick one guys about my favorite of the stories that people send in which is the childhood man with a hat and a trench coat story.
AMANDA: Yay. But Julie, I have a quick problem which is I'm going to need to refill my drink first is that alright?
JULIA: Yeah, let's go get it.
ERIC: Let's do it.
[theme]
AMANDA: Hello, everybody. Welcome to the refill, Amanda here recording in advance because I am off preparing to get married, which I'm very excited about. Thank you so much to Julia and Eric Schneider for helping make sure that I can take some time off and if you have joined the Patreon recently, thank you. We are going to be thanking you in a couple of weeks because again, we're doing this in advance but first I want to make sure I thank our supporting producer-level patrons, Uhleeseeuh, Anne, Brittany, Daisy, Froody Chick, Hannah, Iron Havoc, Jack Marie, Jane, Jessica Stewart, Kneazlekins, Lily, Megan Moon, Nathan, Phil Fresh, Rikoelike, Captain Jonathan MAL-uh-kye Cosmos, Sarah, Scott, and Zazi and of course, our legend level patrons who are beginning to take us up on our myth monikers, which is one of the new Patreon benefits that they like you can enjoy. So thank you to Arianna, Audra, Bex, Chibi Yokai, Cicuta Maculata, Clara, Ginger Spurs Boi, Morgan, Sarah, Schmitty, & Bea Me Up Scotty. You can join the Patreon at patreon.com/spiritspodcast where you can enjoy years worth of bonus urban legends and much much more. I have been reading a ton of rom-coms as I wade through wedding and work stress and all the rest. And today I want to recommend to you The Hookup Plan by Farrah Rochon. This is the third book in a trilogy all about remember the thing on Twitter several years ago where like three women sort of met up and work together because a dude was saying he was only seeing them but actually seeing all three of them all using the same like hookup app. Yeah, so that was the inspiration for this series where three women in Austin, Texas become really good friends because the same dude attempted to meet all of them in the same restaurant on the same night, and they all supported him and the power of friendship outweighs, you know, like kind of temporary hookups with dudes. Something I really love about Farrah’s books is that it's all about the women's careers. One of them is personal trainer who's kind of figuring out whether or not to go back to school, the protagonist of this book is a doctor and really figuring out how to balance you know her life with her sort of failing needs and her goals. Like it's as much about making your workplace better and advocating for people who need it as it is sort of finding love along the way, which I really love about so many contemporary rom-coms. So you can find the link to that and all of the books that we have ever recommended, plus all of the books that our guests have written at spiritspodcast.com/books. If you wish you had more Multitude shows to catch up on I have very good news, which is that we have been making a weekly friendly debate show for years, called Head Heart Gut. This is where all of the Multitude hosts get in the mix to debate each month, which have an iconic set of three items from pop culture or the world we live in is the best that includes things like best fruit, this movie sequel, best Fast and Furious movie, best thing to do to theme park, the kind of thing where you and your friends sort of when hanging out or in the car will be like, no, I insist that hotdogs are better than hamburgers. It's like that. But it's a formal structured debate. It's so good. One of my favorite things to do at work every month. So what you can actually do is search for Head Heart Gut in your podcast app, this one you're using right now. So you can listen to a couple months worth of head heart gut for free two full months worth of head heart gut for free. And then if you like it, join the Multicrew. That's our membership program that supports all of Multitude. So listen to Head Heart Gut for free search for it in your podcast app. And then if you like it, you know where to go. That's multicrew.club. We are sponsored this week by Apostrophe Skincare. And listen, I'm 30 Turning 31 soon and I have definitely realized that things my skin needs are different. I can no longer just wash my face with Irish Spring soap and maybe moisturize it and my skin looks good like I did when I was in my early 20s. 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And when they came to the product, they also like email and texted me afterwards to say like, how's it going? It's been a month is everything cool? It's been two months, like how's it going, they really want to make sure that what you have works for you. And we have a special deal here for the spirits audience, you can get your first visit for only $5 at apostrophe.com/spirits. When you use our code spirits, that's a savings of $15, and the code is only available for you spirits listeners. To get started, go to apostrophe.com/spirits and click Begin Visit then use the code spirits at sign up and you'll get your first visit for only $5. Thank you, Apostrophe for sponsoring this episode. When I'm getting up in the middle of the night, and thinking about all the stuff going on in my life and all of the problems that I have in front of me. I don't know why it is but my brain is so good at just dwelling on those problems and being like problems. There are so many of them so many problems. It's really hard to make my brain take that step to say okay, like what can we do about this? What can we change? Who can we ask for help all that good stuff, it's really hard to train your brain to solve a problem instead of just like dwelling on it or being frightened by it. And it's something I work on in therapy all the time. And I really appreciate about BetterHelp that I can talk to my therapist also named Amanda at a time that's convenient for me. I actually tried recently to go to kind of like a specialized therapist here in New York City. And she was like, “Um, yeah, can you come on Fridays at 9 AM?” And I was like, “Oh, actually I like I have worked, no.” she's like, “Okay, well I can't see you then goodbye.” And I was like, “What?”. So being able to work with somebody to use an app to like select an opening on the calendar to be flexible, being able to talk via phone or voice or even just go back and forth on text chat if I don't have time for a call is so flexible and so useful. And listen, if you don't jive with the first therapist you meet you're able to switch totally for free within BetterHelp which is such a useful thing when trying therapy when dipping your toe in the water when figuring out who you're going to get along well with so when you want to be a better problem solver therapy can get you there was it betterhelp.com/spirits today to get 10% off your first month that's better H E L P.com/spirits. We are also sponsored today by Blueland which is on a mission to eliminate single use plastic by reinventing cleaning essentials to be better for you and the planet. And listen guys, they're also really pretty they smell really good. I love Blueland. 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[end of midroll]
AMANDA: All right I'm back, Julia and I am drinking some of that delicious coffee mother pumpkin that we grabbed recently at Bluepoint brewing good god this stuff is good.
JULIA: It is really good. I'm usually not a pumpkin beer person honestly, that and the and this is going to be ridiculous but the Gourd Reaper from Narragansett are my two favorite pumpkin beers for this time of year.
AMANDA: It's on brand It's not ridiculous.
JULIA: It is. It is. Eric, how about you what you've been drinking this spooky season?
ERIC: I had a pumpkin beer from a place around here called Saucy Brew Works.
JULIA: Saucy.
ERIC: It was pretty tasty, they’re around this area they make a mean pizza and yeah, I've had that I tried one other pumpkin beer I can't remember where it was from but you know what pumpkin beers are real real hit or miss. But once you found one that you like, it's worth sticking sticking with it. It's got those those nice flavors, so it's like spices.
JULIA: I have a question for you all.
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: Are you pro like cinnamon sugar ring or anti cinnamon sugar ring on your pumpkin beer?
AMANDA: You gotta
ERIC: On a Christmas ale you gotta, I'm less convinced it's necessary on a pumpkin beer.
JULIA: Interesting.
ERIC: But it's not unappreciated when it happens. But I don't view it as much as a requirement.
AMANDA: I never expect it. Much like when I order an Oktoberfest beer. Like I hope it comes in pretty stein. But if it doesn't, I'm like, this is regular, that's fine. And so if I order a pumpkin beer like the Brooklyn Brewing Company, pumpkin beer typically comes to the cinnamon sugar rink. God that shits good all day. Like I know it can do it at home. I never do. And so I particularly appreciate that. I know
JULIA: I know it's a pain in the ass for bartenders to do too.
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: And especially if you have like an outdoor venue then like the the bees come by and the flies and everything and that's not fun. But it does add a certain level to it. You know, as long as the pumpkin beer is not overly sweet. I think that the cinnamon sugar ring is always a good option.
AMANDA: A plus.
ERIC: I couldn't agree more.
AMANDA: But Julia, you were about to give us an update on another childhood man with the hat and a dog.
JULIA: Right and this comes from Dani H and she titles it, “a childhood Man-with-the-hat-and-trenchcoat (minus dog) story”.
AMANDA: Oh minus dog, okay.
JULIA: So Danny writes, “Howdy y'all! I've been catching up on old urban legends episodes while working, and I just got to the series of man-with-hat+trenchcoat-with-dog stories... and it reminded me of multiple occasions from when I was little. I only remember seeing him once, but he was a frequent sighting by one of my childhood friends. I had a friend in elementary school named Tabitha. She lived in this trailer park behind the school separated by a fenced off woods - so kids in the park had to ride the bus instead of walk. The school sat at the corner of a four-way intersection, with no sidewalk or crosswalks. I'd visit Tabitha pretty frequently for short periods of time, but I only stayed overnight once... because of Mr. Trenchcoat. Y'see, Tabitha had an imaginary friend - a tall, shadowy man wearing a trenchcoat and large hat, that no one else could see. I never had an imaginary friend, but I knew about them, and assumed that that was what this was. Until I saw him. Every time I'd go over to visit, Tabitha would talk about her imaginary friend. We were in early elementary school- around 6 or 7 - so this wasn't particularly concerning to the adults. And I liked going over to her place, because she had a water mattress and a playstation so like, what else could a kid want tbh.” Did you guys have a friend where it's like, you know what? You're just okay, but you do have like a Gamecube or an N64 or a PlayStation or something like that?
AMANDA: Yeah, one of the Jessica's that we went to elementary school with Julia had a house with like, what must have been just kind of like an attic crawlspace that her parents let her sort of like put some pillows and blankets up there and made it a little fort. I only got to hang out in it once. But I was like, I don't care what your company is like, I want to come back here. This feels like this was great.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Then she moved.
JULIA: Jessica. Dang you, Jessica who moved!
AMANDA: Jessica C.!
ERIC: I had a friend that lived across the street from my grandmother's. And I only visited him when I was staying at my grandmother's, essentially. But we also did We did come to birthday parties. I went to his so like we knew each other kind of but like the main activity–
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: –was definitely like, Oh, he's got a new game. So let's check it out. So I mean, it wasn't like just for that. But it was, I would say probably a big factor–
JULIA: Yeah.
ERIC: –on why we ended up hanging out.
JULIA: I get that. I had one friend who I was like, every time we went to hang out, I was like, you're great and whatever you want to do, we can do but also you have an N64 And you have Pokemon Stadium and I want to play Pokemon Stadium.
AMANDA: That is what made us sign up for the like Nintendo Switch Game Pass situation because they're adding Pokemon Stadium and we're like nice. Yes, please.
JULIA: So Danny continues. “The problem was Tabitha started getting in trouble a lot. She started running away from school trying to get home. That road that I mentioned she multiple times managed to escape from her captors at school and get as far as the middle of the intersection before being apprehended. One She actually dug her way under the playground fence bordering the road and made her escape that way. Aside from these escape attempts while at home, she would also run away instead trying to get to school. It was very strange. And when questioned by adults about these escapades, she always said that the man told her to do it. Back to my sighting though, I had convinced my parents to let me stay the night a Tabitha's house for the first time, we had plans of video games and candy and cartoon marathons on VHS. My dad had recorded multiple Saturday cartoons and I was going to take the tapes with me so that we could watch them much fun was to be had. However, I didn't end up staying the night. The whole time. I was there until a few hours past dark, my friend had been telling me that the man wanted to meet me that she'd been telling him about me and that she wanted us to be friends. And I was like, Yeah, sure, okay, because I figured he was her imaginary friend and just went back to binging on candy. But I kept seeing someone out of the corner of my eye. Tabitha's room was pretty bright. We had the lights on because I was scared of the dark. But there was one corner that was darker than the rest, and I kept seeing movement there. I ignored it in favor of Crash Bandicoot. But my paranoia eventually won out and I looked, and I probably shouldn't have. I finally saw what Tabitha had been talking about. A tall shadowy figure in the shape of a man with the shape of a hat and a coat. I immediately screamed.”
AMANDA: Good.
JULIA: “Tabitha’s parents came running. They asked me what happened and I told them, they ended up calling my parents and I went home. The Monday after it had been the weekend at school, Tabitha apologized, saying that the man hadn't meant to scare me and just want to say hello. I never went back to her house again. Although we stayed friends and she moved away a year later. So yeah, that's my story. I'm happy to say that I never had another sighting and honestly prefer that way. Hope y'all had a great day with much love from rural Tennessee. -Dani”
AMANDA: Damn, Dani, glad you're okay. Damn, that's scary.
JULIA: Damn, Danny. That’s Scary.
ERIC: No good. Just no good.
JULIA: No, good. Okay, so like, children understand the concept of the imaginary friend, right? For the most part, I feel like that's like something that is covered enough in media and like books and TV and stuff that we understand like, oh, an imaginary friend is a friend that we've created in our minds.
ERIC: I mean, I never had imaginary friends. So I'm not entirely sure I feel like feel like kids, like understand on some level, but like, I feel like they do– My impression is that kids have an idea that like, this is my friend who no one else can see but haven't fully developed the idea of what imaginary truly means. I feel like a lot of the time.
JULIA: Okay.
AMANDA: It's also a language development thing where a lot of the times when kids say creepy shit, like, oh, you know, I used to see grandpa all the time. Like they're, they're kind of getting used to verb tenses, and also remembering, you know, when stuff used to be versus what they hope will happen versus what they were just thinking about, like, the line between memory and imagination is porous. When I was a kid, my imaginary friend was just a bee. Just a bee.
JULIA: Of course, it was
ERIC: Just one bee.
AMANDA: Just a bee called Buzzer Bee, and it was just a bee.
JULIA: Was just to be was he normal size bee or was he a big bee or?
AMANDA: Normal bee, Julia. Normal size bee.
JULIA: Wow.
ERIC: Now we'll see friends with the titular and N64 character Buck Bumble.
AMANDA: I don't know who that guy is no.
ERIC: Oh, man. Here's the here's a little treat for everybody. For both of you, and for the listeners.
AMANDA: Okay.
ERIC: Go to youtube.com type in Buck Bumble theme song, and just like have a really good two minutes, and then come back and just listen the rest of this episode, but like, you'll you'll now have the experience of hearing what is 100% the most killer theme song for the N64.
JULIA: Well, Eric, I Googled him and I like his vibe. His colors are good.
ERIC: So great vibe, the music immaculate vibe.
JULIA: I'll have to listen to the music after this episode. Maybe you can put in like, you know, 10 seconds of it at the beginning of this.
ERIC: No, I want people to do the work.
JULIA: Okay, fair enough.
AMANDA: Yeah, this guy's a little friend.
ERIC: I want people to know that they've they've spent the time to research Buck Bumble. Julia’s now listening to the music.
AMANDA: Oh, yeah.
ERIC: It’s clearly a bop.
AMANDA: Oh, yeah. She's boppin. She's poppin like Eric's head did when the previous letter mentioned Crash Bandicoot.
ERIC: Yep.
AMANDA: Eric like nodded approvingly.
JULIA: There's so much happening there, Eric.
ERIC: Yeah, it's a lot.
JULIA: But I love it. Amanda, I know you're you're bee wasn't rocking out like that. But that's extremely cool.
AMANDA: I mean, he should have been
ERIC: Now that you've heard the music Amanda, do you think your bee and Buzzer Bee would be friends with Buck Bumble?
AMANDA: Probably. I think Buzzer Bee would be like the sort of reserved sidekick to Buck Bumbles protagonist.
ERIC: Okay, sorry, sorry to derail you with my Bumble talk.
JULIA: No.
ERIC: But by all means continue with your beat.
JULIA: My point being though is like you imagine–
ERIC: Bee-ing.
JULIA: Oh shit. God damn, it, Eric.
AMANDA: That's just a word. You can't make that upon. It's just the word
ERIC: No, I did.
JULIA: So my point It is like you're hanging out with a friend and they have an imaginary friend would you understand as a child being a friend that I can't see, right?
AMANDA: Oh yeah, they happen all the time. Like friends would be like, oh yes like There's three of us this tea party and one of them is an imaginary friend. Yeah.
JULIA: Now imagine, you saw that friend–
AMANDA:
Yeah, hate it.
JULIA: –and it was a Shadow Man.
AMANDA: Oh yeah.
JULIA: That'd be bad.
AMANDA: Oh yeah.
ERIC: Especially if it's shadow man hanging out with a kid and it's like doubly bad.
JULIA: Oh yeah.
ERIC: Very tall, tall creature
JULIA: Extremely worse.
AMANDA: Would you all like to hear some stories including a basement ghost at work from Singapore.
JULIA: Another basement ghost at work Amanda? Give it to us.
AMANDA: This comes from Cat, they/them and the title is a ghost in the Natural History Museum and other Singapore stories.
ERIC: Ooh!
JULIA: Here we go.
AMANDA: “Dear Julia, Amanda and Eric. As I write this email, it's the beginning of the Hungry Ghost Festival–”
JULIA: Yey!
AMANDA: “–which lasts throughout the seventh month in the Chinese lunar calendar–” This just came in as of this recording about a month and a half ago in late August. “This is when the gates of hell open and the ghosts of our ancestors return. What better time to send my favorite paranormal podcasters and email?”
JULIA: Yes, yes, yes.
AMANDA: “I've three ghost stories from my home country of Singapore for you a personal story about my grandfather after he passed away. A friend's near miss maybe with a local spirit and our titular Natural History Museum ghost.Feel free to choose whichever you like for the podcast, or just enjoy!”
JULIA: All of them. We choose all of them.
AMANDA: All of them, please! So this first one begins. The day my grandfather passed away, a large white butterfly appeared outside the door to my grandparents apartment. Chinese funerals in Singapore are usually a three day event held on the ground floor of the deceased apartment block. And throughout those three days, my family often saw that butterfly flitting about the plants near the door to my grandparents flat as he went up and down carrying food and incense paper or just to take a rest. On the second day, my mom pointed it out to me, and said, “That’s probably your grandfather.” In Chinese culture, butterflies can be seen as manifestations of the spirits of the dead. On the third day, we finished my grandfather’s final rites, and when we got back from his cremation, the butterfly was gone. But it wasn't the last time we saw the butterfly. Though it didn't hang around constantly the way it did during the funeral. My grandmother worried about whether my grandfather was at rest, and we hoped he just needed time. Then about a month later, I was having a dream where I looked across a room full of people and saw my grandfather standing at the door. I waved at him and he nodded back. I pushed my way over but when I got to the door, he was already gone. I told my mom a few days later, and to my surprise, her response was oh, you had that one too. It turned out she my grandmother, my aunt, two cousins and I all had my grandfather appear in their dreams on the same night. She said your grandmother hasn't seen that butterfly since. To this day though other more colorful butterflies have visited her plants. None has been that large white butterfly from those first few days. I've heard several stories with the spirits and listeners loved ones on the urban legends episode. It's interesting to me how many come in the form of apparitions. While stories of butterflies like mine are not uncommon at all among my Chinese friends and family.” I like how hauntings are shaped by our culture's.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: That's [43:04]. Story number two. “In Singapore it's compulsory for men to be conscripted into national service were late nights in an army camp full of boys aged 18 to their early 20s form a major source of ghost stories in this country. Maybe you can blame this atmosphere for my friend’s experience. One day near the end of a group navigational exercise through the jungle, my friend caught a strong whiff of the sweet fragrance of frangipani flowers, my friend froze glancing around with the rest of the group, some of whom were already also looking behind them nervously. In silent agreement, the whole group started walking much faster out of the forest. As they broke the tree line and camp was in sight. One of the groups spoke up: “Uh… did anyone else smell that?” “Why did you have to say that,” Why did you have to see that? “My friend panic breaking into a run and the whole team ran all the way back to camp.”
JULIA: It's a real Eric response.
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: Where it's like we're all just going to not acknowledge this because if we all acknowledge it, then it's going to be true.
ERIC: See, it's like multiple levels of like checks and balances and to make ignorance because like the first check is like everybody else not acknowledging it. But now that someone has acknowledged it, which is wrong. Everyone else has decided we must get away instead of investigate. So they have maintained despite something going wrong in the system, there was a failsafe in place to escape and continue being ignorant of the terrible thing chasing you
AMANDA: Sure. Sure.
JULIA: Despite breaking the first rule everyone follows the second rule.
ERIC: It's more of like every– like, I've described them film Uncut Gems, a film in which you watch Adam Sandler make the wrong decision every five minutes. And if he just made the right decision, he could at least I don't know if things would get better, but they would at least stop getting worse.
JULIA: Sure.
ERIC: I feel like that's the same policy with Team Ignorant. Like until you have found the source of the creepy thing, you can always continue back on the path of Team ignorance. It's a bunch of forks and every time you go down the investigation fork, you fucked up.
AMANDA: Fascinating.
ERIC: But as long as you keep going down the ignoring, you can occasionally lean towards it and then come here, you can get back you can get back until until Slenderman is in front of you, you're good, and then once you aren't, you're aren’t
AMANDA: Just last week was Yom Kippur and I fasted for the first time, which is a fascinating experience. Where your your body leaves your soul, you're like a biblical angel and you don't eat, drink, anoint or embrace. It was fascinating. And Eric Silver has long like gone to the movies or you know, like you pass the time some you have to pass the time somehow right to like, distract yourself until it's time to eat. And we decided to watch Uncut Gems, which was incredibly suspenseful, because it truly felt like every five minutes a whole movie had happened.
ERIC: Yeah, it's phenomenal filmmaking.
AMANDA: It’s so good and also so tense and fully distracted me from my paralyzed the husk of a body. I recommended it.
ERIC: That film so intense. It gave Kelsey a an anxiety rash.
AMANDA: Oh, Kelsey.
JULIA: Wow!
ERIC: I mean, she like walked out. I was like, red. She’s just like I'm so stressed right now. And I did it.
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: I just watched a fake story happened, and it's too stressful.
AMANDA: Yeah, it's the best.
JULIA: I watched the first 20 minutes of that. And then I was like, you know what? I'm good.
AMANDA: It's so good. It's so good.
ERIC: You could probably skip to the last one events because they aren’t truly shocking in 20 minutes. Just imagined just all the other minutes in between are just bad decisions.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Alright. So let's figure out why this smell was so terrifying, shall we?
JULIA: Yes.
ERIC: Oh, yeah.
AMANDA: Cat continues. “Now my friend was not particularly superstitious. But when you live in a region as haunted as Southeast Asia, there are some things you just don't take chances with. And one of them is smelling this kind of flower, a light loving ornamental garden tree, especially where there shouldn't be any like a shady tropical forest. That's the sign that the Pontianak is near. A vengeful ghost from Malay folklore of a blood drenched woman dressed in white, I think usually the fragrance we followed by the stench of a corpse, but obviously nobody was going to stick around for that lest they be torn to pieces such that no one could ever find them. This is all to say that I think smell is the worst sense for experiencing a haunting because in Southeast Asia, It foretells brutal dismemberment by a very angry ghost.
JULIA: Fair.
AMANDA: Fair. Completely fair.
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: And there's something like about the strong scent of flowers that is also very reminiscent of rot.
AMANDA: Exactly.
JULIA: And I don't know if that is just like, funeral homes and the association of flowers with death or if that's like, you know, there is something kind of sickly sweet about rotting meat.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: Whether it's human or otherwise, that does kind of evoke bad things.
AMANDA: Exactly. And like smelling a fruit or a flower at the peak of ripeness means that it will very soon be followed by decay.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: And sometimes, like, you know, the fruit turns right? Or the meat turns or you smell what you think or like, oh, what's that, and your brain doesn't catch up that it's disturbing until it's too late, and you're like firmly in it. So I love that and you guys know how much I love a smell based haunting.
JULIA: Your favorite scent.
ERIC: It's true, it's well established.
AMANDA: And finally, the third story. When I was an undergraduate, I did a bit of part time work in Singapore's only Natural History Museum. I jumped at every chance I could to visit the back collections, which is where most of the museum's things are stored. And as far as I'm concerned, the best place in the world. I love wandering the rows and rows of shelving holding all manner of interesting creatures. Jewel toned beetles, intricately patterned mollusk shells, bird nests, endless microscope slides of plankton jars of fish, an entire manatee even.”
JULIA: Wow.
AMANDA: “One day, I was talking to a colleague about the collections, and she said, “Have you met Charlie?”, “Who?” I asked. “The ghost.” I was surprised. The building was only a couple of years old, how could it already have a ghost?”
JULIA: Because it's not the building. It's the land it was built on.
AMANDA: “My colleague didn't know. At this point. I admit that I'm only about 70% sure that ghosts name is Charlie's. It's been a few years since I had this conversation, but I needed a name for dramatic purposes. Anyway, my colleagues said she saw Charlie once when she was working late and alone in the collections, a white human figure walking between the shelves and decided it was time to go home. When I told my mom about this afterwards. By the way, she told me a white ghost means the Spirit is benign and a black one is malicious and a red one is vengeful.”
JULIA: Whoa-oh!
AMANDA: Haven't heard that before.
ERIC: Color coded.
JULIA: Right? Yeah.
ERIC: Color coded spookiness.
AMANDA: You think in the museum full of dead animals, we'd be haunted by those instead of a person. “I found out more about the ghosts later from the director of the museum when he was giving a talk about its history. The building which currently houses the museum might be new, but the museum itself has a long history and it's one of the oldest natural history institute in Southeast Asia. The collections themselves can be traced back to the Raffles Museum and Library, which was established in Colonial Era Singapore in the 1800s. After Singapore’s towards independence as a nation, the museum was renamed the National Museum and focused on art and history. The zoological collections were moved out in 1972 to the National University of Singapore's old campus, where they were crammed into the basement of a WWII era building that was already haunted by Charlie, who was apparently in life either a soldier or a member of the resistance. The students of the time used to go and ask Charlie for luck in their exams. When the collection moved to the new university campus, it seems that Charlie decided to move with it, and a few decades later, came along again to the collections’ current beautiful home.” Honestly, I'm jealous hunting a natural history collection of browsing the many interesting animals and plants and scaring researchers into pursuing proper work life balance, that seems to me like an ideal afterlife.
JULIA: Truly, as long as the collection keeps growing, and you don't get bored. You're like, oh, I've seen the same manatee five times. Something new, please.
AMANDA: So we've talked about the button that led to the soldier haunting in the in the attic, or the trunk? What do we think is anchoring Charlie to this collection?
JULIA: I bet that they like used a piece of his clothing or something like they just found some rags that used to be his clothing and wrapped up one of the pieces of the collection in that for storage. And now he's like, Well, my sweater went there. So now I gotta go there.
AMANDA: That's good. Yeah, maybe he donated a specimen or something and is like, I gotta make sure that's okay. Or maybe he just really wanted to, like do a graduate degree in natural sciences, and now he gets to do that on his own.
ERIC: Wouldn't be funny if like his soul attached itself to like, one of the benches or like, one of like, the little marble things that they put, like, the pottery on.
JULIA: Yea, the pedestal. Yeah.
ERIC: Like obviously, like that would be ludicrous. But what are we funny? It's like I'm stuck at a museum because my soul has attached itself to a weird object that just kind of hangs out here.
JULIA: That one beetle and part of that one beetle now.
ERIC: Exactly, yeah.
AMANDA: Yeah. I mean, maybe he and the beetle died in the same moment, and so they're sort of like tied together.
JULIA: Souls entwined. Yeah.
AMANDA: Right on.
JULIA: I mean, being really creepy if you were working in an exhibit and then like, you know, everything's behind glass and is presumably dead and then one of the beetles starts moving and crawling around and breaks out the glass.
ERIC: That'd be bad.
JULIA: Yeah, be very scary.
AMANDA: Well, Cat concludes, “I'm finishing this email as the moon wanes and the seventh month ends because I procrastinate emails for just that long.”
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: “As I lie in wait for October (aka spooky month 2), I wish the Spirits team love, spooky happenings, and early office exits. Signed, Cat”
JULIA: Thanks, cat.
AMANDA: Thank you, Cat. This was lovely. And I hope you had an extremely good Hungry Ghost Festival.
ERIC: I know the perfect way to end this episode.
AMANDA: Oh yeah.
JULIA: Tell us
ERIC: It’s with this joke, more like unnatural History Museum.
JULIA: Oh, shi–
AMANDA: Alright, folks, that's a wrap. We'll see you next week with more urban legends. Until then, remember–
JULIA: Stay creepy.
AMANDA: Stay cool.
ERIC: Stay International.
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AMANDA: Spirits was created by Amanda McLoughlin, Julia Schifini, and Eric Schneider with music by Kevin MacLeod and visual design by Alison Wakeman.
JULIA: Keep up with all things creepy and cool by following us @SpiritsPodcast on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr. We also have all of our episode transcripts, guest appearances, and merch on our website. As well as a form to send us in your urban legends and your advice from folklore questions at spiritspodcast.com.
AMANDA: Join our member community on Patreon, patreon.com/spiritspodcast, for all kinds of behind-the-scenes goodies. Just $1 gets you access to audio extras with so much more. Like recipe cards with alcoholic and nonalcoholic for every single episode, directors' commentaries, real physical gifts, and more.
JULIA: We are a founding member of Multitude, an independent podcast collective, and production studio. If you like Spirits you will love the other shows that live on our website at multitude.productions.
AMANDA: Above all else, if you liked what you heard today, please text one friend about us. That's the very best way to help keep us growing.
JULIA: Thanks for listening to Spirits. We'll see you next week.
AMANDA: Bye!
Transcriptionist: KM