Episode 324: Your Urban Legends LXXV (with Mischa Stanton)
/We’re joined by audio sorcerer, Mischa Stanton, who swears they are not that spooky. Amanda tells us you’re not getting a horse in a basement, we debate whether a ghost makes a hotel sexier or less sexy, and we learn how Mischa managed to get their friends all worked up over a ghost they might have seen.
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of unsanitary conditions, sexual content, illness, death, and body horror.
Guest
Mischa Stanton is an audio storyteller & full-time podcaster. Check out their shows StarTripper!!, Marvels, and the many many shows on Multitude like Pale Blue Pod, Games & Feelings, and Tell Me About It!
Housekeeping
- Recommendation: This week, Julia recommends The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian!
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
- Call to Action: Check out Tell Me About It, a madcap game show about proving that the things you like are actually interesting, hosted by Adal Rifai (from Hello From the Magic Tavern and Hey, Riddle Riddle) and our own Eric Silver.
Sponsors
- Calm is the #1 app to help you reduce your anxiety and stress and help you sleep better. Get 40% off a Calm Premium subscription at calm.com/spirits.
- Blueland creates everyday eco-friendly cleaning productions that save you money and space, without any plastic waste. Get 20% off your first order when you go to blueland.com/spirits.
- BetterHelp is an online therapy service. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/spirits
Find Us Online
If you like Spirits, help us grow by spreading the word! Follow us @SpiritsPodcast on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads. You can support us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/spiritspodcast) to unlock bonus Your Urban Legends episodes, director’s commentaries, custom recipe cards, and so much more. We also have lists of our book recommendations and previous guests’ books at http://spiritspodcast.com/books.
Transcript
[theme]
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.
ERIC: And I'm Eric.
MISCHA: And I'm Mischa.
AMANDA: And we are here with our good friend Mischa Stanton—
MISCHA: Hello!
AMANDA: Senior audio editor here at Multitude, and all-around friend of the show. Longtime supporter. Longtime pal. Welcome, Mischa.
MISCHA: Hello, welcome. Yes, it's been a full 300 episodes of this show since I was last on this show!
ERIC: Wow!
AMANDA: Past and future guests. And thank you for joining us for our Hometown Urban Legends Episode.
MISCHA: My pleasure.
AMANDA: Now, Mischa, what was your formative urban legend milieu? Like, what were you telling friends at sleepovers, and, camp and drama practice?
MISCHA: Oh, what a good question. Um, I don't know I came from a pretty—maybe I just wasn't like privy to it. But I— my— I don't remember a lot of urban legend sort of culture growing up. I mean, there was stuff at summer camps. But I stopped going to traditional summer camps halfway through my summer camp experience and went to a place that didn't re—again didn't really have urban legends. It's interesting to me that I—you asked me this question, you know, think about what urban legends I grew up with. And I can't— I started came up empty. I can tell you about the time that me and two of my neighbors, with ourselves into a hysterical frenzy and could swear we saw a ghost bleeding from the eyes, at a construction site, as a new house was being built on our street.
ERIC: Hmm. Hmm. Yes.
AMANDA: I want to hear that in the back half of you.
MISCHA: Yeah, okay.
AMANDA: Because I have an urban legend that is going to segue perfectly into it. But perhaps then, Mischa, you became a spooky adult. How did you get into spooky shit, and you know, being a ghost queer.
MISCHA: Is that true? I didn't— I don't know if I knew that about myself. Am I a spooky queer?
AMANDA: Maybe not. Maybe—Maybe—maybe theater kids, and spooky kids have a lot on.
ERIC: You know—I mean, you're def— you're definitely not, not spooky.
MISCHA: Thank you.
AMANDA: Yeah.
MISCHA: This is news to me.
ERIC: I mean it in a goo—in a good way. I mean, all of this—all of this is things we—we love about you.
AMANDA: Oh, yeah. No.
MISCHA: And I appreciate that. It's just like, what a wild way to find something out about yourself in the middle of a podcast.
AMANDA: Well, I think Mischa if I were to have like a haunting experience, or you know, have an in— like find an interesting urban legend and be like, look at this yokai, look at this pal, you'd be really into it. And maybe you're just supportive of your friend's hobbies. But that's— that's more what I'm referring to.
MISCHA: I'm very supportive of my friends' hobbies. That's true. I've always been a fantasy kid. So I always like wanted to see fantastical stuff around every corner.
AMANDA: Yeah.
MISCHA: I do love exploring an abandoned building or abandoned place. That's a pretty good time. And I would like to say that, like I myself maintain an air of party cryptid
AMANDA: Yes.
MISCHA: Where like, I'm never like the center of attention of the party, but I will drift from room to room. And then at the end of the night, completely leave. Like I'll say goodbye to the host because that's just good fairy lore. And then I'll just completely leave and people will be like, when did you leave that party, like three hours before it ended?
AMANDA: Incredible. Can confirm, we did go to a party recently after Pax Unplugged, and I— it was like, like a three-story apartment townhouse situation. And I at one point, could have sworn I turned my back to Mischa in the kitchen and turned around, they were not there. And then later on the roof, saw them outside with new people. And I was like, what?! How that happened?
MISCHA: Yeah, I do love to drift into like, sit in dark corners and observe the party until someone notices that I was there, and then I'll talk to them as though they were a weary traveler upon the road.
AMANDA: That's good. That's good.
ERIC: Yeah, that I mean, I—I think— I think we've honed in on the spookiness that you— that you— that you have. You yourself are not a spooky person. It's not like we see you and we go, wah! There's one of you have an air about you that is—that has an ethereal presence to you.
AMANDA: Yes.
ERIC: But I feel like you— you drift. You're here. You're there. You're everywhere.
MISCHA: Well, thank you. Yeah, you gotta be the urban legend you want to see in the world. Really.
ERIC: Exactly.
AMANDA: Exactly. And we do call you our audio fairy because you edit ep, we'll like, we'll upload footage at the end of the day, you know, and then good, bad. And then the next morning Mischa has sprinkled like so many tooth mouse's you know under our pillow. Several final versions. Several episodes, edited and ready.
MISCHA: That's my— it's my new persona in the Multitude, Slack is the editing fairy that comes in the middle of the night while all of you should be sleeping. Although the amount of times I catch both Roux and Eric awake when I'm posting things.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah.
MISCHA: I'm like, you guys shouldn't be awake when I'm posting things. And then I post—
AMANDA: I know.
MISCHA: —them with little fairy emojis and I'm just like, I leave it—I leave this little podcast under your pillow for the morning. Enjoy.
ERIC: Now—now this brings up an interesting question. Now if—if Mischa is the audio fairy, and I edit this show.
AMANDA: Yes.
ERIC: I don't think Mischa has ever—has ever touched the Spirits waveform as far as I know. I know Eric Silver edited one when I—when I had a family thing pop up.
AMANDA: Yes.
ERIC: But what does that make me? What mythical editing creature, am I—am I the editing ogre? Am I the editing Centaur? Wha—what—what—what presence am I bringing mythologically to the— to the edits of the show, [5:35]
MISCHA: [5:35]
ERIC: Yeah, exactly.
AMANDA: Yeah. I think—I think this is something we have to marinate on. I think we got to get some suggestions from listeners. And I also want to make sure that Julia who is off this week dealing with some family stuff, is able to weigh in.
ERIC: [5:50]
AMANDA: So let us know what—what kind of fairy creature, fey, bridge troll does Eric Schneider remind you of?
ERIC: You do have to pay the toll for [6:00] for another episode about toll is waveforms.
AMANDA: Yeah!
ERIC: I don't have the waveforms. You ain't get across this bridge to a release.
AMANDA: It's true. That's true. Well, Mischa, we've prepared several tasty urban legends for your consideration today. So you want to start off with some stories?
MISCHA: Yes, please.
AMANDA: Alright, now you are a famous cat parent, at least in my eyes. And so I thought I would bring to you a ghost cat urban legend.
MISCHA: Ghost cat.
AMANDA: Yeah. So this comes from Sam, she/they, and it's titled, of course, Ghost Cat. “Hi, Spirits team, I just finished Episode 318 and wanted to send in my own ghost cat story. Hope you like it. My sister and I both went to grad school in Boston. In June of 2016, we moved into a three-bedroom apartment in Brookline.”
MISCHA: Okay.
AMANDA: And now Mischa, you famously also went to school in Boston.
MISCHA: I did. I went to school in Boston. I never lived in Brookline. Brookline is kind of on the western side of the city down towards the end of the Green Line. But a great place for college kid party houses. Absolutely.
AMANDA: That is exactly the intel's looking for. Excellent. Okay. So I have party kid, a house that probably belongs to someone's grandma and people don't love that they're having parties now.
MISCHA: Yeah!
AMANDA: I'm gotta have that in mind.
MISCHA: Yeah, like some—some grungy art houses, definitely some like good basement punk venues out in Brookline.
AMANDA: Good. Love it. “So someone from my sister's cohort moved into the third bedroom in the apartment. The building was creepy and old. The lights in the basement were entirely too far apart for comfort, creating shadows and cobweb-covered corners that scared me every time I went down there to do laundry. It was definitely a murder basement. I screamed at least one time when another tenant entered the laundry area when I was getting my clean clothes.”
ERIC: That's not something you want to hear someone scream. If you're like cohabitating with them. This like screaming, this is a murder basement. It's not something you want to like hear as you are about to like do a load of whites.
AMANDA: Oh, that might have been my diction here. So different sentences. It was definitely murder basement period. I screamed at least one time.
ERIC: Ah, okay. Okay.
AMANDA: So they did not scream, this is a murder basement. I totally agree, Eric. I also would not want to hear that in the basement. Now I've never lived in a— in a building with a laundry in it. That's—that's for my 40s maybe. But Schneider, have you in any of your Midwestern apartments had laundry in building in a way that was creepy?
ERIC: Kelsey's apartment when she moved to Cleveland, it was right across the hall, but her apartment was one of those ones where the bottom floor, which is what she lived up was like kind of half-buried. And the laundry room was also like the storage room. And it looked like it was everything was kind of put in there maybe in 1812 and had it—which was weird because there's a lot—there's—there's a functional washer—functional might be the wrong word. There was a washer and dryer—
AMANDA: Yeah. [8:52]
ERIC: —kind of doing stuff.
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: So that wa— that one was pretty creepy, but the on— the apartments that I've had that had laundry in them, nothing particularly creepy about—about them. The one creepy thing is in our current house, which is not haunted, Mischa.
MISCHA: Okay. I mean, I have to take your word for it.
AMANDA: Okay.
ERIC: We do have—we do—you'll have to only take my word for it. Not Amanda's and Julia's specifically. Our laundry is actually on this floor, which is the second floor of the house. And the thing that is great about that, is it's right, right down the road from— from the bedroom.
AMANDA: Sure.
ERIC: The bad thing is it does shake the entire second floor of the house, which makes my monitors just kind of while I'm working and doing laundry during the day, just kind of shake uncontrollably in a way that is a little headache-inducing. The first time it happened I was like what—what—why is the room shaking? What's going on?
AMANDA: [9:43]
ERIC: Oh—
MISCHA: Yeah.
ERIC: —just laundry
MISCHA: Pu—putting a big cyclotron in the middle of a wooden frame is a choice.
ERIC: Hmm. Hmm.
AMANDA: Yeah, I mean, you could get like one of those drummer acoustic pads I guess? But I know you've had your— your troubles with the laundry machine to begin with. Maybe you don't want to disturb that.
ERIC: Yeah.
MISCHA: I will say this—the start of this story completely tracks with me just because I lived in slum lords house in Somerville that we called the House of Sue, that definitely had laundry and a murder basement. So this is right in line with what I know about living in Boston.
ERIC: Now you said that house had a— had a name?
MISCHA: Yeah, the name was the House of Sue. We can get back to that later.
ERIC: Okay, let's— let's definitely do that when you tell us your other story towards the end of the episode.
MISCHA: [10:21] cryptid than I thought.
ERIC: See you're learning a lot about yourself.
AMANDA: TBD. Okay, so “in this basement there was not only the laundry room, but each apartment had a storage unit, also in the basement that looked like it had been legit a horse stall in a previous century, stall doors and all.”
ERIC: This—this is literally, they are describing Kelsey's. These is very similar vibes.
AMANDA: My only objection as a horse girl TM, is that you're not getting a horse into a basement. A horse is not going in a basement. So maybe they like purchased the hardware from a barn that was being torn down and put it down there. But you're not getting a horse in a basement. You just not.
MISCHA: Who knows what horse-like creature might have once lived in this basement?
AMANDA: It's true. It's true. “The basement would have been the perfect place for a legitimately scary Halloween party, had we not all been permanently exhausted grad students with no time or energy for fun. My cat Milo, of course, moved into the apartment with me. Like all cats, he doesn't respect the boundaries of bedrooms unless doors are closed. And he made himself at home in whichever bedroom he wanted to be in at any particular time. I always slept with my door open so he could go in and out as he pleased, hoping that he would come in and sleep on me the whole night. Sometimes Milo would be chilling under my sister's bed when she was trying to go to sleep. Rather than forcibly evict him, she also left her door open when she went to sleep. Our third roommate slept with his door closed and Milo rarely spent time in that room anyway. So one night, maybe a month after we moved into the apartment. I woke up in the middle of the night. I checked my watch to see how much longer I had to sleep before my alarm went off and I had to go to my lab. It was 3:30 AM. I saw Milo sitting on his favorite windowsill in my bedroom staring at me. He seemed fine and wasn't committing any crimes, so I went back to sleep.” Mischa, cat owner, how typical is this behavior?
MISCHA: Oh 100% typical. The cats will be where they want to be. Cats were for a little bit they're believed to be nocturnal creatures. They actually probably are crepuscular creatures, which is that they are active at twilight. So sunrise and sunset are their most active times. And so you really can't predict a cat's schedule. They're also like at least semi-liquid. They can get into any space that—it's like an octopus. Any space that can fit their beak, the cat can get into.
AMANDA: Incredible.
MISCHA: Yeah.
AMANDA: “So later that evening, my sister and I are making dinner together and she mentioned that she had seen Milo staring at her like a creeper last night. That's so weird I said. Milo was also staring at me like a creeper. What time was that? My sister said 3:30 in the morning. I said, Milo was in my room at 3:30 staring at me like a creeper. Our other roommate then chimed in, saying he had definitely seen Milo on his windowsill at exactly 3:30 In the morning staring at him like a creeper. And he remembered it because it was weird since his door had been closed. After the three of us recovered from the icy chill that came with the realization that one, we all been awakened at 3:30 on the same morning. And two that each of us had seen a cat on our windowsill at the exact same time. We decided that the only explanation that make any kind of sense is that we had two ghost cats living with us."
MISCHA: Yeah!
AMANDA: “One of us have seen the real Milo, two have seen the ghost cats, which we named Ginger and Mittens.”
MISCHA: Amanda, this thing happened to me in the House of Sue. This exact thing—
AMANDA: Really?!
MISCHA: —happened to me at the House of Sue. Okay.
AMANDA: No kidding?!
MISCHA: So, I lived in this house in Somerville, Massachusetts, right near Porter Square. And I moved in there with my girlfriend at the time. And it was just like a summer lease. We were subletting from someone, turns out, people had been handing off leases, to lease, to leases without really like a full move out for the past 15 years.
AMANDA: Oh, boy!
MISCHA: And this house had just had like five other roommates in it. We were on like the second and third floor of the Victorian house. And like there was stuff in it that like people didn't remember whose it was. It was from previous tenants and like just left in like a trophy case in the dining room, this kind of place. One of the other tenants had a dog, and a couple of them had cats. And so we—you know, I've— this—at this point in my life, I had not had any kind of pets really beyond, you know, fish. But my girlfriend at the time was really, you know, into dogs and okay with cats. So we moved in and it was fine. We lived there for about two months. And it was called the House of Sue because the landlord was a Chinese man named John Sue, who like would show up and be very shady landlord business practices, and then completely leave without fixing anything. And one of the other housemates was a sign maker and had cut out a metal sign that said the House of Sue in like a fancy like New York Times font and put it over the front door. As we were living there, this was the end of this handoff. Everybody was starting to move out and like somehow my girlfriend and I who were there the shortest amount of time ended up being some of the final people in the house, as people were leaving. And just leaving the place gross, just disgusting.
AMANDA: Yeah.
MISCHA: But right before one of the other tenants moved out, my girlfriend got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. And you know, in the [15:22] the house had a great cat, and an orange cat, and then a couple of dogs. And so we had seen the cats around. But she woke up in the middle of the night and went out to the bathroom and staring at her were two identical copies of the orange cat.
AMANDA: [15:35]
MISCHA: They've been split half in the middle of the night and we're both staring at her. Turns out there had been three cats living in the house the entire time, one gray cat, and two orange cats and we just never seen them in the same place the entire [15:47]
ERIC: Ahh.
AMANDA: Damn!
MISCHA: Yeah, so I definitely like something about weird crusty Boston houses, splits cats in quantum space, and allows them to be wherever they want to be.
AMANDA: That's really the cat version of the like the Tumblr thing I see going around of would it be creepier to find a ghost in your attic where a person, which we have covered on the show before. And the answer is definitively a person.
MISCHA: Oh yeah!
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: When we got back from— from Christmas this— this is not going to be as scary as [16:14] it's going to be. When we got—when we got back in from Christmas, I unlocked the backdoor but then my memory immediately lapse and I was like the back door was unlocked. But like after like reevaluate it, It definitely wasn't. But for like the next week, anytime I heard something I'd like double investigate the attic and the basement.
AMANDA: Yeah, yes.
ERIC: Because I was like, what if someone's in here and then like, if someone was in here, I work from home, I would have noticed that by this point. And no one is coming or going. It is quite obvious no one is here. But like for like—for like a week I was just like extra paranoid that there could be someone at the house, and there— there wasn't.
AMANDA: Oh, yeah. No totally relatable. So just to finish up Sam's story, they add “I lived in that apartment for three years and multiple nights a week would feel a cat jump up on my bed and walk around. But when I set up and look for Milo, there was no cat on the bed. I like to think that Ginger and Mittens were comfortable with us and enjoy sleeping on my bed with me, even when Milo was off committing nocturnal crimes. If you want to see a photo of him, I'm happy to send one in. If we were in high school, he totally be a theater gay and wants you to paint him like one of your french girls. Stay creepy. Stay cool, Sam.”
MISCHA: Thank you, Sam, for the relatable experience of also experiencing a quantum split ghost cat in an apartment in Boston. I didn't know anyone else had that experience. Apparently, it's very common.
AMANDA: Maybe it's in the water. We will never know.
MISCHA: [sings] Love that dirty water. That's a Boston reference.
AMANDA: I'll take your word.
MISCHA: The people who lived in Boston we get it.
AMANDA: That's—that's what we have guests on for, Mischa. We—we have no cat owners among us. Julia lived in Boston, but not in the same place. So yeah, it's important.
MISCHA: Julia and I lived in Boston pretty near each other the entire time and we—we didn't know each other until after. It's one of like the great disappointments of our relationship.
ERIC: But you know each other now, and that's what matters.
MISCHA: And that's the thing is like, I know that Julia will pick up a lot of my Boston references like we do bond after the fact.
ERIC: Hmm. That's cute.
AMANDA: There you go. Speaking of dirty water, let's go ahead into the kitchen where the water is clean I promise and get a quick refill.
ERIC: Let's do it.
[theme]
JULIA: Hey, this is Julia and welcome to the refill. I know I'm not in this episode, but you know I just want to say hey, I love you guys. Also, I want to thank our newest patron Jordan, Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us. You of course join the incredible supporting producer-level patrons like Uhleeseeuh, Anne, Brittany, Froody Chick, Hannah, Jack Marie, Jane, 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 Arianna, Audra, Bex, Chibi Yokai, Clara, Morgan, Sarah, Schmitty, & Bea Me Up Scotty. And you also can join the Patreon. Go to patreon.com/spiritspodcast. We have a lot of cool stuff there. If you like these Urban Legends Episodes, and you want to hear more of them you can sign up right now and you can get a bunch of bonus urban legends episodes that we've recorded over the years. And trust me, we do save some of the best ones for those episodes. So go check it out. Again that's patreon.com/spiritspodcast. I have been trying to read a lot more lately, you know how it is. Sometimes you just want to escape reality and so you pick up a good book and one of the ones that I was really enjoying lately was The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian. I think sometime last year I probably recommended the first book in the series. And I picked up the sequel and man, is good. If you want to talk about great bio representation of both the love interest in this book, pick it up right now. It's fantastic. It is great. I love a shiny, lovely criminal meets a very hardened lady, and I, oh, boy. Steamy and I love it a lot. Check it out. That is The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian. And of course, you can check out all of our recommendations by going to spiritspodcast.com/books. Now, of course, this is the time where I tell you about some interesting shows here that are part of the Multitude Collective. But I need to tell you, I need to tell you right now about the newest show here on the Multitude Collective and that is, Tell Me About It. Tell Me About It, is a med cap game show about proving that the things you like are actually interesting. Hosted by one of my favorite podcasters Adal Rifai from Hello From the Magic Tavern. And my personal favorite podcast Hey, Riddle Riddle, and our own friend Eric Silver. You've heard him on the pod many times. Adal is playing an eccentric billionaire who has wrangled his quote-unquote, “audio butler, Eric” to prove that the single most interesting and cool thing ever is the movie musical Grease. You heard me right. That's the greatest thing in the universe. In every episode, a guest comes on to share and defended their favorite thing through a series of absurd games and challenges to prove that their favorite thing is actually better than Grease the movie musical. Yes, the one with John Travolta. The trailer is out now, and the first two episodes dropped February 23. If you're listening to this episode when it drops, that means they are out tomorrow. And you get new episodes after that every other Thursday. So if you go and subscribe to the podcast now, by tomorrow, you'll have two new episodes in your feed. So go do it. Check it out, it is Tell Me About It. It is the most fun podcast produced by a multibillionaire. And trust me a lot of multibillionaire podcasts, very boring. But Tell Me About it, a lot of fun. Go check it out. So now's the time for me to tell you a little bit about our sponsors. And I have a question for you. Do you have anxious thoughts? Are you restless at night? Or do you just not feel like your best self? Seriously making sure that you feel your best should always be your top priority. And by spending just a few minutes with Calm each and every day, you can be sure that you are taking the necessary time to prioritize myself. 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AMANDA: Welcome back. Mischa, we always ask our guests what you have been enjoying drinking recently, alcoholic or not. So what's been a comfort beverage for you of late?
MISCHA: Well, the coc—beverage of late for me right now is just a classic coffee with Bailey's in it. I actually I got a really nice ceramic mug with like an embossed D20 on it when we were at PAX together.
AMANDA: Yeah!
MISCHA: And it fits my hand really nicely. It was like handmade. And so I—I drink my coffee out of that every morning. I've been staying in rural Pennsylvania, moving back to my home in LA soon. And so we got to get rid of that Bailey's. So sometimes, it's just a Bailey [27:14] morning.
AMANDA: You got it. Eric, what about you?
ERIC: Well, I have great news, Amanda. A few years ago, we were in Portland. And we were invited to a nice distillery tour, Westward Whiskey.
AMANDA: Westward Whiskey!
ERIC: Very good.
AMANDA: Where you and Julia unbeknownst to each other, got matching hats?
ERIC: Yes, we have matching hats. They're beautiful. And I think—I think you might recall the last time we were together right before the pandemic. I ordered an old-fashioned made with Westward because they had at this Whiskey Bar we were at.
AMANDA: You did.
ERIC: And it was like $26, which I was not.
AMANDA: It was incredibly expensive, and you're like, oh, no.
ERIC: I was not prepared for that. Did I order a second one then knowing it was $26? Yes, I did. Because you know what, live a little and you definitely don't regret it because I didn't go to a bar for two years after that.
AMANDA: That's right.
ERIC: But they're now distributing Westward Whiskey in Cleveland.
AMANDA: Yay!
ERIC: They've expanded. So there's a whole bunch of places that have it. I was so thrilled when I saw it. So I picked up a bottle of their Stout Cask Aged Bourbon, which was very good, and I'll probably get a, their—their regular next time I'm at the store. I will say, like the $26 makes a lot of sense because the bottle is about 90. But I—I significantly decreased my drinking for the new year. And so splurging on a nice bottle is what I'm going to be going with this year, rather than just drinking some— some bullet or whatever.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. And we have been stocking up recently on Arnold Palmer cans, the Arizona brand. They make the like regular soda cans size. And listen, there are tallboys those are nice, but the small crushable cans are the ones that I truly love. And we have people were for the Super Bowl, and lots of people for various reasons, don't drink so we always make sure to have Seltzer and lots of Lemons and Limes and Arnold Palmer's on tap, by which I mean in our fridge. So it was very fun for everybody to be like very excited to see these half and-half iced tea lemonade, which you can add lemon to, you can dilute them with some Seltzer, or you can just have them with ice. Or you can just crush a can, by which I mean drinking very fast, and then crush the actual can, because they only have so big of a recycling bin.
ERIC: Yeah, there is something about physically crushing a can while you're watching the big game, you know?
MISCHA: Yeah.
AMANDA: It was very, very nice.
ERIC: Well, we just heard a story about a cat and a whole bunch of stuff about a creepy House of Sue that you lived in.
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: But I've got a story titled Haunted Hotel: The Painted Cat Thief.
AMANDA: Oh!
ERIC: Interesting. This comes to us from Sarah. And she writes, “I listen to Spirits as I walk to my university in London, though I am from California. I'm a chaotic listener just choosing a random episode, depending on what I'm feeling.” Like I love that. I just love like rolling the dice and see what you end up with.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah, spin the wheel. Let's land on it.
ERIC: “Because of that, I only just ran into the Urban Legends episode about Haunted Hotels. And I was disappointed because I have a great haunted hotel story. So hopefully at some point, you'll find a place to fit this in. And here it is.”
MISCHA: Hotels great for haunting stories, liminal spaces, especially the hallways of hotels.
ERIC: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
AMANDA: Oh, yes.
ERIC: Mischa, do you know about my—my sexy hotel scale about this? This is very important. So one time I was— I was abandoned to New York City by weather, and I had to just get a hotel, and I got this hotel called The Standard, which was an extremely sexy hotel. But everyone was at the front desk was a hipster. Which was weird because it was like 2019. But then there was also like a pleather lips pillow of the bed, which is what really made it weird.
MISCHA: What?!
ERIC: And so since then, I found a scale between six and nine, of course.
MISCHA: Yeah.
ERIC: And that is the— the sexiness scale of hotels. So if you're ever trying to figure out how sexy hotel is come to me, I'll let you know.
MISCHA: Okay, thank you!
AMANDA: So, Eric does a haunting improve or lower the sexiness score of hotel?
ERIC: I need to know more about the base of the hotel because—because Mischa we've determined that—that roadside hotel that's—that's a night surprisingly, that's the sexiest hotel.
MISCHA: Okay, why do you go there?
ERIC: Because people are—because you're only going there for one thing?
MISCHA: Yeah, no. You know true.
ERIC: At a holiday it is a sex.
MISCHA: I don't know if the sex you go to a roadside motel for, is very sexy.
ERIC: No, but it's the sexiest type of hotel.
AMANDA: [31:43] about sex? Yeah.
MISCHA: I hear you, I'm just saying—
AMANDA: We're rating not—we're rating not the ambiance, but the like—
MISCHA: The sex you have there is a little desperate. It's not that sexy.
ERIC: That's true.
AMANDA: No, no, but it's not about how—how sexy the vibe is. It's about how dedicated the vibe is to set.
MISCHA: Got it. Okay, understood.
ERIC: Yeah. Yeah.
MISCHA: Sexiness as like a data, a quantitative, not sex like is sexy.
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: Yeah. Got it.
ERIC: Yeah, so I think— I think if it's one of those, it actually does make it less sexy. If there's a ghost at one of those. Because that's— it's already a kind of creepy hotel as well. So there's like ghosts of all like, but that—but a really nice hotel real upscale hotel, that's like an 8.5 And then there's also a spooky ghost. I think that might get it to a 9.
AMANDA: Wow! Okay.
MISCHA: What a system!
ERIC: I think it's—very much depends on—on how the hunting is going. If you're like a Room 1408 movie situation, that's definitely lowered the sexiness.
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: But maybe if it's just like a little like hello, kind of thing.
AMANDA: A little— a little flash of skirt, a little you know strong shoulder and in a shirt that you know passing through the balcony. Oooh.
MISCHA: Yeah, sure. A little— your Victorian shift moving in a wind that no one else can feel, great! Yeah.
AMANDA: A little whisper?
MISCHA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Okay!
ERIC: Yeah, yeah, ohh, a third voice in here, interesting.
AMANDA: Little flutter on the curtain.
MISCHA: The ghost in the corner, like I just like to watch it.
ERIC: [33:05] That's it. I think that lowers [33:06] Unless—unless—unless that wha—unless that what she want. Are you— that's reall—I guess that's a personal thing.
AMANDA: That's a personal thing.
ERIC: If you want a ghost to watch you fuck, then—then sure. [33:15] it for you. For me. I don't think that would—that would assist me in my enjoyment of the hotel.
AMANDA: Alright, well, let's hear about this hotel.
ERIC: Yes. Anyways, I am sorry, I didn't—I didn't mean to [33:27] about sexy hotels. But I was like, I think most people want to know this story. But I don't know if Mischa does—
MISCHA: [33:31]
ERIC: [33:32] it because all of them. I've almost always been staying at these hotels at Multitude events. So like, I've been able to rate the live with everybody.
AMANDA: Yeah. Mischa, the lowest rating of a hotel Eric stayed at during a work event was, of course, the podcast conference we went to about six months before locked down. Where they were out of rooms, and so Eric's team fully just a corporate meeting room with a bed all the way over, in just a side.
ERIC: It was a Murphy bed. So it was very uncomfortable.
AMANDA: Yes.
ERIC: But the others either there was a full— full board room table with 12 chairs that. That in the dark, the room was so large. I mean, we're talking 25-foot ceilings. The room was so large that I couldn't see the walls. And you don't want to be in a hotel room where you can't see all the walls because you're used to hotel rooms big.
AMANDA: No.
ERIC: Cramped or—or have a smaller size. This was massive in a way where it's like anything could be going up literally 30 feet away from me, and it would be the safe room.
MISCHA: So remember how I was saying how hotel hallways are great for hauntings because they're liminal spaces?
AMANDA: Yeah.
MISCHA: Hotel boardrooms are great for demon summonings because they're liminal but evil spaces.
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: A 100%.
ERIC: Great—great place to throw my 29th birthday party though, which was happening at that conference. So I mean, worked out—worked out very beneficially, but was a real creepy, real creepy sleeping situation. Anyways, let's get back to Sarah's story. “My sister's wedding took place at a cool Hotel near Portland. The hotel was full of kooky and somewhat creepy art and surprises. For example, there are a lot of exposed pipes. And all of the beds have somewhat creepy faces painted onto them. The building started out as a poor farm and a refuge for diseased women in the 1910s.”
MISCHA: A perfect recipe for ghosts. Oh, no!
ERIC: Yep, yep. Already not good. “And much of the art, though painted later is supposed to reflect that history.” Those are the vibes you want your hotel patrons—
MISCHA: Okay.
ERIC: —get in as soon as they walk in the lobby?
MISCHA: So the souls of the sick women were trapped in the painting. That's not good. Oh, no!
ERIC: There we go. “There are so many reported legends, and ghost sightings, that there is a binder with all of them behind the front desk.”
MISCHA: Binders full of ghosts woman.
ERIC: I'm so glad you're on this episode. I'm so glad you got there.
AMANDA: I know. God. Eric has never been tickled like that by any joke I've ever said.
ERIC: [35:58] you made some great jokes, Amanda. Roll back the tapes, there are lots of times I've laughed at your jokes.
AMANDA: Alright. Alright. Alright.
ERIC: “We asked for a mini tour of some of the ghostly sightings. And in our brief overview, one story stuck out. There was a painting of five women dressed in the fashion of the early 1930s or so. They were in color-coordinated shades of brown, teal, and pastel purple. Their faces are painted with particularly large eyes that appear to stare, somewhat blankly as you walk by. There's something unusual about one of the women. Four of them are wearing matching plain black heels. But the second woman from the left is barefoot.”
ERIC: Don't like that.
MISCHA: Okay.
ERIC: Don't like that.
AMANDA: No, they should match. If they match, they should match.
ERIC: They should match. Yes, yeah. “Around the corner, there is a painting of a black cat with a shoe in its mouth. The shoe is not the black shoe from the painting. But according to my memory, a more modern-looking lace-up shoe. The manager giving us a tour explained that legend has it this painted cat is a thief of shoes. And a long time ago is believed to have stolen the shoes of the women in the paintings around the corner. The manager also said that on several occasions, guests had found their shoes missing, hinted that this is not just some spooky situation in which the cat can only move from portrait to portrait, but she can actually leave the painting and take mortal world objects into the painting.”
AMANDA: Hell yeah.
ERIC: “We thought it was a cute story, but most likely that it just adds a tale to the hotel's haunted charm. But on the day of the wedding, tragedy ensued. My sister the bride lost her shoes.”
MISCHA: Yeah, I was gonna say no one could lose their shoes to the ghost cat, but the bride.
ERIC: “Everyone ran around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to find the place where the shoes were, to no avail. My sister-in-law's parents ended up the heroes driving into town and purchasing five new pairs of shoes for the bride to choose from.” Now. Amanda, you were—you were recently married?
AMANDA: Yes.
ERIC: Is that the number of shoes you would want to select from if your shoe suddenly went missing on your day?
AMANDA: Yeah. No, that's—that's very smart. I did bring a backup, Eric and I both brought backup pairs of shoes. You know if anything went wrong. But yes, that—that is feels like a nightmare. And I absolutely would appreciate the choice.
ERIC: Yeah. “We figured they would turn up unpacked under the seat of someone's car or something like that the next day, but they didn't. They were never seen from again. Since the event, Several theories have been postulated.” So here we have, we have three different theories three different logical answers we could select from.
MISCHA: Okay.
ERIC: Or possibly spooky answers. “The black cat from the painting stole the shoes, and they are lost somewhere in the depths of the world of paintings. Staff from the hotel are stealing shoes and telling the story of the painted cat as a thief to cover it up. The photographer took the shoes to take photos of them and left them somewhere, and then they were either stolen or lost to the ethers. Personally, I like to believe theory one though, I do love a good conspiracy theory. Let me know which theory you think is the most plausible. Stay creepy. Stay cool. Sarah.”
MISCHA: The most pawsible? [39:18]
AMANDA: Cause it's the ghost cat? Get it?
ERIC: Now, Amanda you said earlier that I've never laughed at one of your jokes. [39:25] I also don't think I've ever oof, as much as one of your jokes as I did that. So.
MISCHA: You know the extremes today.
AMANDA: It happens. Now I do want to say so photographers, you know weddings, they'll take a picture of like the you know, the rings, the invitation, the shoes, the tie all that stuff. But I have never trusted anyone more than the photographer, Danielle at my wedding. I like gave her all the important items we need and nobody was more on top of like where things were, and where they needed to be when then Danielle. So that, I could not believe that a wedding photographer would misplace such an important item.
MISCHA: Yeah, I mean, of these three options like the—the outcomes of them, right is what I'm thinking about. So option one goes cat offered the shoes up to the world of paintings. And that's—that's your offering and pray they don't take more because, you know, they're capricious over there. Option two jail. Nope, just jail, jail, jail, jail, Option thre—option three, like, I can imagine, I have now dealt with enough vendors and contractors to imagine that someone you have hired who has lost or misplaced a precious item to you, or like a necessary needed item, like she was on your wedding day might truly attempt to cover it up. But in which case, you got to take them to the Better Business Bureau. So like—
AMANDA: Yeah.
MISCHA: —of those three options, the most fun, like, action items clearly belong to the ghost cat, to the— to the cat painting. Just like I would rather move forward with my life, believing that that's what happened to the shoes, rather than follow up the far more mundane and carceral consequences of someone else having taken the shoes.
ERIC: I love the idea of the hotel staff doing it. I think that— I think that what a grift what a perfect [41:11]
AMANDA: It's really good.
MISCHA: There's an episode of [41:13] where that happens. There's an episode where like, you know, they like break a precious item. And somebody who's seen every TV show knows how replacing a precious broken item works. So they like blame it on their landlord, who it turns out has been stealing shoes from every woman in the building, and they just open a closet, it's full of shoes. So that's all I can think is that it's got to be the staff, not just the whole staff. One person on the staff is taking all the shoes. And the rest of the people have heard so much stories about this one staff member who's pretty good at covering it up. They feel like yeah, it's a— it actually might be a ghost. And the one person is like, yeah, ghost, that's a good way to explain what's been happening. No one looked into it further than that. Thank you.
AMANDA: I'm just now realizing so occasionally, Mischa, as you know, as a listener of the show, you know, we will read stories where you realize that, like you were the cryptid writer, you were the urban legend all along. And a few different times. So especially when I was younger, I would go you know, kind of backpacking and like, you know, visiting friends and things like that with, you know, just a backpack to travel with definitionally. And I'm normally not bring any changes of shoes, because that's like the bulkiest item you can bring. But occasionally I would bring, you know, I would like wear, you know, boots, but then pack tennis shoes. And whenever possible, I would bring a pair of shoes that were like on their last legs so that I didn't have to bring them back. So that way if I you know, bought something on the road, I could sort of replace it in the backpack, and my tennis shoes that were you know, four years old, and I was intending to get rid of anyway, as you get dirty on the you know, walking through Peru or whatever, and it wouldn't matter. And I would just leave them behind and throw them out at the end of my stay. And mostly I was staying in hostels then, or with my friends and not at a hotel. But I am wondering if I were a hotel housekeeper and walked into a hotel room and somebody had left, and there was simply a pair of shoes, like in the trash can or under the desk. I find that pretty creepy. I don't think I would think ah, someone must have forgotten their shoes because that seems like a thing you don't forget.
ERIC: I would immediately think rapture, the rapture has happened.
MISCHA: There's something about shoes left behind as a lost item that is different—
AMANDA: Yeah.
MISCHA: —from [43:19] of clothing. Because as as a kid, I used to lose hats everywhere.
AMANDA: Sure.
MISCHA: But there's something about shoes that's like a person could not leave without these and yet they have.
AMANDA: Yeah.
MISCHA: That—that just really—
AMANDA: [43:31]
MISCHA: —speaks to something. It's also like the thing closest to the ground. So you feel like if you—yeah, like the rapture, like if you picked someone up, they might accidentally like their shoes might get stuck to the ground or they might leave the shoes behind. There's yeah, there's something about the way shoes are like connected to the ground and motion that says like, ooh, a person's not here but they left behind their—their walkers. Ooh, that's, don't like.
ERIC: Yeah. Before we move on. I do want to— I do want to really call out Amanda's beautiful [44:02] of the shoes being out their last legs.
AMANDA: Thank you. Thank you.
MISCHA: That's what’s worth going back for actually.
AMANDA: Thank you. Then, Mischa, I was going to read another story, but I am— I am so intrigued about your self-frothed frenzy.
MISCHA: Oh my gosh! Yeah.
AMANDA: That I need to hear about the story.
MISCHA: Okay, so this. I grew up in Westchester, New York, and my house was sort of on a cul de sac pretty far into the woods. Like, you know, it was a pretty woodsy area where I grew up, but even some friends of mine would go like to get to my house. They'd be like, oh, you kind of live in the woods here. You know, they were always like clearing out sections of the woods to increase the cul de sac and they would like—I remember once they put in like six new houses and there were six new lots and my dad used to take me sort of like tromping through those woods. And we found the signs as we were trumping that like, oh, we're going to clear this section of the woods, and like they started doing it, but that didn't stop my dad from taking me to explore the woods. We were just like, looking back on it now. We were definitely trespassing on people's properties. Anyway.
ERIC: But landownership is fast, so it's okay.
MISCHA: Yeah, exactly. for sure.
AMANDA: Yeah! And like if people were living in the houses, yet, then it's owned by a property developer and that doesn't go.
MISCHA: Well right. So the house next door to me got knocked down and in its place was being built a huge McMansion. They went from like a one storey almost chicken-coop-looking house to a huge McMansion. So they—there was an extended building process. And while they were building it on the construction worker's days off, me and my friends would go and climb through the wooden structure. It was probably not the safest thing. So me and two kids from my block, who were not my friends, but like, you know, they're around and you kind of hang out with them sometimes. We were running around being kids, and I don't know who saw it first. But like somebody spotted, a guy sitting on top of the structure, as we were walking away from it was like, is someone out there? And we looked up, and we thought, maybe, you know, must have been like a trick of the light or a tree or whatever. But, you know, we all maybe saw— I thought we saw something, but weren't quite sure. We ran off into the rest of the street. Now, my street met the main street that cut through the woods and kind of like at a tea stop, right at the—that was where our bus stop was. And like going down from there was our cul de sacs. There were like two cul de sacs that on my street. So we were like playing and running around, we ran up to the tea stop. And we saw a car drive by and like, we—all three of us said, we saw someone in the backseat, and that person maybe looked like they were lying down and didn't have their eyes open, which you know, could just be a person asleep in the back seat. But one of us said they saw them bleeding out of their face. And all three of us now we're you know, 9,10, 11 years old, prime hysteria, like movements. And so we're like, yeah, we totally saw that. Yeah, yeah. And then like, 20 minutes later, we saw the same car, drive back the other direction, with no one in the backseat. And we went, oh, they definitely bury that person in the woods. Oh. And then we went back to the construction site. And now I'm—at this point, I'm pretty sure one of my neighbors who was kind of a bully was messing with me, right? But like started saying, like, oh, that guy's back. And he's bleeding from the eyes this time. And so now we're whipping ourselves into a frenzy of like, we've constructed an entire narrative where this dude's ghost was like trying to flag us down before they buried the body in the woods. And now the ghost wants us to go find it. And like we didn't end up doing a lot of that kind of stuff. Because I had been in trouble a couple of times for running off into the woods and staying out past you know, when my parents would have wanted me back. So I knew that like running off into the woods past our streets so far was not like maybe the best idea my parents are getting at.
ERIC: The start of this episode Mischa, I'm not that spooky—
AMANDA: I'm not spooky, what do you mean?!
ERIC: Later on this episode, I always used to just get in trouble for running out into the woods.
MISCHA: It was like a park that was like there were plenty of nature trails well trodden, well up, kept by the parks department. Like I lived in a hiking area, like this is you know, there was also like, a pretty well marked like powerline trail with like, you know, you could take like a four-wheeler, like a truck and go out and maintain those things. And you could just go there, it wasn't like—there was like a barbed wire fence, you could just go.
AMANDA: You don't have to justify yourself. We— we are in the vibe. I'm just saying!
ERIC: We're good!
AMANDA: You're connecting some dots here.
MISCHA: So I said, maybe we shouldn't run off into the woods and try to chase down and find this body. And my friends were like, yeah, okay, that sounds like a good idea. We all went home. And then like three days later. I swear, I saw that dude in that construction site again, and I never told anybody about that until this podcast. But I'm pretty sure I saw him again.
ERIC: Woah, exclusive!
MISCHA: Now, I'm not like a huge believer in ghosts. I really don't. But I do believe in the power of suggestion. And I was a very suggestible little child who read a lot of fantasy and like, YA literature and was all— I was looking around every corner for my call to adventure. I thought one day I was going to find a magic sword and like, run off to a fairytale land. Any moment that was going to happen to me. Yeah. So I was very suggestible. And I do think that the power of suggestion is very strong, especially in moldable young minds.
AMANDA: Oh, yeah.
MISCHA: Yeah. So that's the time I saw a bloody head ghost with my neighbors.
AMANDA: Incredible. Mischa, you brought everything I expected you to, to this episode and so much more.
MISCHA: Thank you. I miss this show. I miss being on the show. This is a good time.
AMANDA: Well, we're gonna have to have you back. That's why you are a past, present and future guest.
MISCHA: Yay!
AMANDA: And Mischa if people cannot get enough of your humor and spookiness and fantasy nerddom, can you let them know where to find you and follow your work online?
MISCHA: Sure. You can find my work at my website, mischastanton.com. You can follow me on Twitter for what that's still worth at mischaetc. And M I S C H A E T C. If you like my nerdom and my humor and a little bit of my spookiness, please check out sci-fi adventure podcast that I make called Star Tripper, which like I do a lot of work for Multitude and I do a lot of work for bigger client, and this is just my little show that is nearest and dearest to my heart. And I make it because it makes me laugh and it's— it warms me and if I hope you'll like it too.
AMANDA: Can confirm and it's excellent. Well, Eric, for the first time without Julia here, I need you to help me remind our listeners.
ERIC: Okay. Okay.
AMANDA: To—
ERIC: Stay creepy.
AMANDA: Stay cool.
MISCHA: Nailed it.
[theme]
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!