Pumpkin Spice, Sweaters, and Soup: Dive into Fall with Your Favorite Podcast Duo
Richie Roy and John McMullen dive into the spirit of autumn, exploring the season's culinary delights, cultural events, and personal reflections on popular traditions. Soup season is in full swing, with Richie & John discussing their favorite recipes, from clam chowder to potato leek soup, highlighting the comfort that warm, homemade dishes bring as the weather turns crisp. The conversation takes a humorous turn as both hosts reveal their mutual aversion to Halloween, despite its status as a beloved holiday in the LGBTQ community. As they look ahead to Thanksgiving, they share their excitement for the festive foods and the unique challenges of celebrating while managing dietary changes. With a nod to fall fashion, Richie expresses his love for sweater weather, while John hints at the idea of Richie & John-themed hoodies, inviting listeners to engage with the podcast beyond the airwaves.
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Transcript
Colors brown side assemble it hearts feel.
Richie Roy:Light sweaters wrapped around cozy tight autumn whispers day turns tonight feel the breeze.
John McMullen:Let it sing we got autumn on.
Richie Roy:Our minds celebrate with love we find the chill in the air it feels so right?
John McMullen:Together we shine hearts alight pumpkin patches.
Richie Roy:Harvest dreams candles the girl magic beans.
John McMullen:Wolf eyes crackle at the screens in.
Richie Roy:This season, everything redeems.
John McMullen:Richie in Choctaw, it's your home we got all on our eyes celebrate with.
Richie Roy:Love chill in the air it feels so right?
John McMullen:Together we shine hearts alight the mutual broadcasting system presents Richie and John the podcast that connects you with the people, events, headlines, and lifestyle interests of the global LGBTQ community.
John McMullen:Here's Richie Roy and John McMullen, and welcome to another edition of Richie and John.
John McMullen:I'm John McMullen, and I am in the southern California corner of the country.
John McMullen:Diagonally from my friend, we go from the Coachella Valley to the Hudson Valley in New York.
John McMullen:Hello, Richie.
John McMullen:How are you?
Richie Roy:I'm good.
Richie Roy:How's it going?
John McMullen:Great, thank you.
John McMullen:You know, this is that time of year when a lot of people are starting to feel a little more Christmas.
John McMullen:Did I say Christmas?
John McMullen:I meant crispness in the air.
John McMullen:And that comes every time we start to head into autumn, out of summer and fall has just begun officially.
John McMullen:So I thought it was appropriate, as did you, to maybe talk about some spirit of the season things as it has to do with autumn today.
Richie Roy:Yeah, no, it's definitely that time of year.
Richie Roy:I mean, I don't know if you've noticed, but definitely out here, it's starting to get darker earlier.
Richie Roy:It's definitely happening.
John McMullen:Yeah.
Richie Roy:And, you know, that can be a little brutal sometimes.
Richie Roy:You know, just, you know, when you realize, like, you know, you leave work and it's kind of not that bright out anymore.
Richie Roy:And, you know, this year, it's interesting.
Richie Roy:Here on the east coast, at least in the Hudson Valley, the leaves are already deeply changing.
John McMullen:Yeah.
Richie Roy:And that's really early for us.
John McMullen:That must be one of the really nice things about living in that part of the country.
John McMullen:Of course, the closer you're up into New England, nicer it gets when it comes to the colors on the trees starting to change before the leaves begin to fall.
John McMullen:I have to admit that here in the desert, we have not seen palm fronds falling, so.
John McMullen:And that doesn't usually happen until about the time we get into summer, when it's time to get those trees trimmed.
Richie Roy:Well, that's actually interesting.
Richie Roy:Yeah.
Richie Roy:So what's the story with the palm trees?
Richie Roy:Like, do the fronds fall.
Richie Roy:I mean, how does that work?
John McMullen:Well, they, they do when they get cut, when they're basically dying.
Richie Roy:Oh, okay.
John McMullen:I figured.
John McMullen:I figured that they've got it timed out on the Jesus schedule because what is it in the spring that they need to bring them all down for palm.
Richie Roy:Palm Sunday?
John McMullen:And so that's when they go and harvest them.
John McMullen:But mine, they just fall into the pool when they're dead.
Richie Roy:Yeah.
Richie Roy:Yeah, no, we've.
Richie Roy:The leaves have been really changing here, like, like, dramatically.
Richie Roy:Like, I drove, I was, and I don't notice it, really, except when I'm driving on my little road here, and I just drove today, and I was like, oh, my God, there are leaves everywhere, and the trees are, like, red and gold already, which is very, very early.
Richie Roy:So I don't know what that means for the winter because, you know, people out here love to prognosticate.
Richie Roy:They're like, oh, well, last year was a mild snow and it was a medium summer, so it's going to be a hard winter or whatever, but I don't know what any of that means.
John McMullen:But, yeah, I think in the age of all the climate changes that we've gone through, you can take and throw all of that into a blender and out the door or into the, into the dumpster for all that matters, you know?
John McMullen:I mean, yeah.
John McMullen:While you're going through that, your friends who are to the south of you are having a little bit of a blowjob this week.
Richie Roy:Yeah.
Richie Roy:That the hurricane is really, really going through with a lot of intensity.
Richie Roy:I've seen some images that are pretty shocking of just, you know, the amount of flooding and stuff happening.
Richie Roy:So scary stuff.
John McMullen:I shouldn't take this attitude, especially this time of year when it is hurricane season in a couple of parts of the country.
John McMullen:But, you know, as somebody who lives out on the west coast and who, you turn on the news, like last night, turn on the news, and it's nonstop, wall to wallace stuff to do with the hurricane.
John McMullen:And I'm like, you know, there is other news happening in the world besides this big old blowjob.
John McMullen:You know, some people are like, yeah, but it affects millions of people.
John McMullen:And I'm like, yeah, and I live in the most populous state in the country.
John McMullen:And it's not like every time we have 120 degrees here, you know, they're doing nonstop wall to wall coverage of people melting into the sidewalks.
John McMullen:I really think that the people on the east coast just need to be less pussified by the weather.
Richie Roy:Hmm.
Richie Roy:I don't know I mean, I think that it's, I think it's just, we've seen, you know, with things like Katrina and Sandy just, it's, it is catastrophic in a way that is just very surreal in a way that, like, that.
Richie Roy:I think on the west coast, the equivalent is, is really, really bad earthquakes.
Richie Roy:We haven't seen them in a while.
Richie Roy:They're on a seismic timetable.
Richie Roy:They're not seasonal, they're not very often.
Richie Roy:But when you think about things like the Loma Prieta earthquake and stuff that just leveled huge chunks of northern California, we do have those catastrophic events in California.
Richie Roy:It's not as often.
Richie Roy:But the thing is, I think what we do have to really reckon with is with climate change, it's kind of an unfortunate or, you know, I guess to use Al Gore's term, an inconvenient truth that a lot of the states that are affected by hurricanes, which are increasingly large and scary and bad because of climate change, are full of trumpers who don't believe in science.
John McMullen:Right.
Richie Roy:And at some point, you're going to have to reckon with reality.
John McMullen:Well, you know, why?
John McMullen:Here's the reason why.
John McMullen:I'm okay with that.
John McMullen:And I mean, I live absolutely in the heart of earthquake country.
John McMullen:We have them here basically every day.
John McMullen:I don't feel them.
John McMullen:Most people don't feel them, but they're going on every single day in this general vicinity.
John McMullen:And a lot of them are just, you know, in the minor, you know, smaller than a 3.0 level quake.
John McMullen:And so that's why you're not as prone to necessarily feeling them.
John McMullen:And believe me, I've been through a few that I have definitely felt and one where I thought I was actually going to lose my house.
John McMullen:Fortunately, I did not.
John McMullen:And that happened on an Easter Sunday many years ago here in the Palm Springs area with an earthquake that was centered down in Mexicali, Mexico.
John McMullen:And it was at eight point something.
John McMullen:I think at 8.5 down there, it was like a 5.8 here.
John McMullen:So when it shakes like that and it was different because where the ground a lot of times just shakes, that was one of those ones where it was like quicksand and everything was kind of twisting and turning and shaking at the same time.
John McMullen:Those can be rather alarming, however, uh, because I've become so used to them.
John McMullen:Uh, at this point in time, uh, even the fact that we're in the, uh, starting area for what they call what is supposed to eventually be the big one, uh, that's the San Andreas fault.
John McMullen:And that begins at the Salton Sea, which is just 30 miles to the east of me and proceeds, uh, matter of miles, not many, like maybe 15 miles, uh, to the north and goes right along the interstate ten corridor to Los Angeles.
John McMullen:And so I was shocked when I first moved here.
John McMullen:They said that in the event of the big one, which they identify as being like somewhere around a 7.8 to an 8.5 earthquake, that in that scenario, the interstate ten freeway will move by about 50ft one way or the other to the north or the south because it's right along the freeway route all the way out to Glendale before it starts to cut north and.
John McMullen:And head up the coast.
John McMullen:And it's.
John McMullen:It's crazy to think about that.
John McMullen:But I'm not too worried about it.
John McMullen:If the earth opens up and it sucks me in, well, it was just another bad, you know, horror movie, but not, you know, I have a feeling I'll escape here before it gets that bad.
John McMullen:But I know that there's a lot of places in the country where there's a lot of kind of weather conditions that scare me a lot more.
John McMullen:And that includes those hurricanes they experience, especially in the Gulf and in the southeast.
John McMullen:And we've had a few out here too, that come through Mexico and come up through the gulf there.
John McMullen:But what really scares the bejesus out of me is that stuff I see my friends who live pretty much in the southeast and the midwest of the country have to go through with tornadoes.
Richie Roy:Tornadoes?
Richie Roy:Yeah.
John McMullen:Those come on like a buzz saw.
John McMullen:And you don't have a lot of time.
Richie Roy:No.
Richie Roy:Yeah.
Richie Roy:Tornadoes are really scary.
Richie Roy:And you know, all of this actually, it's not Newsday Tuesday, but to put kind of a little gloss on it, one of the things that is important to note is hurricanes and hurricane planning.
Richie Roy:So we've known about these hurricanes for a bit and people have been able to plan and evacuate from certain areas and do all that work.
Richie Roy:Right.
Richie Roy:One of the things.
Richie Roy:What was that?
John McMullen:I said and then they don't, which some don't is mind boggling.
Richie Roy:Some don't.
Richie Roy:But people get the opportunity to.
John McMullen:Yeah.
Richie Roy: ne of the things that Project: John McMullen:Yeah.
Richie Roy:And that is so the national.
Richie Roy:I think it's the oceanic Atmospheric Administration, at administration, they are in charge of the weather.
Richie Roy:They're the ones who run the weather satellites, who do the radar, who do all that work.
John McMullen:Wait, it's not Mother Nature.
Richie Roy:So they're the ones that actually, that keep track of this stuff.
Richie Roy:They're the ones that track hurricanes, that do, you know, all the stuff that keeps us aware of what's happening globally in terms of weather and climate, but because of climate change, because climate change is real, and because that's something that their data tends to show.
Richie Roy: Project: Richie Roy: ow the depth to which Project: John McMullen:Yeah.
John McMullen:You know, it's funny, because I have, I actually have a couple of friends who work at the headquarters for AccuWeather in State College, Pennsylvania.
John McMullen:And incidentally, you know, state college is, of course, the home of Penn State, and Penn State has an amazing meteorology program there.
John McMullen:So it kind of made sense that they would headquarter a company like that in a place where you have a lot of people graduating with degrees in that.
John McMullen:And what blew me away was to learn how many of those people who have become scientists in that profession are kind of climate deniers.
John McMullen:It's really weird.
Richie Roy:That's really interesting.
John McMullen:Yeah, it's really weird.
John McMullen:I mean, even one of my friends who works there, you know, he is, oddly enough, he's gay and he's a trumper.
John McMullen:And it just makes me shake my head.
John McMullen:I'm like, you know, how can you be so damn Harward id, I know.
Richie Roy:What you're saying because I think I've seen this kind of, too.
Richie Roy:And I think it's just that, like, I think that there's climate science and there's meteorology.
Richie Roy:Meteorology is really day to day.
Richie Roy:And I think that it is interesting because you're right.
Richie Roy:I've noticed that meteorologists tend to kind of trumpy and climate deny.
Richie Roy:And I don't get that because it's like, if it's in your, if it's in your business to kind of know the underlying reasons for, you know, things like El Nino, for instance.
Richie Roy:Like, you know, El Nino exists and that changes climate.
Richie Roy:You know, changes the weather every so often when it appears you think you'd want, if your job is to, like, think about the weather, to know about kind of macro things that are changing the weather.
Richie Roy:Yeah, that's a very strange.
Richie Roy:It's, but you're right.
Richie Roy:It is a thing.
Richie Roy:And I don't know what that's about.
John McMullen:They have this thing about, you know, well, it's all cyclical.
John McMullen:Everything's all cyclical.
John McMullen:And it's all going to be fine because we've been fine in the past.
John McMullen:You know, they haven't been around for the millions of years, of course.
John McMullen:And so part of it is that, and I think part of it is that I.
John McMullen:Weathermen and women are not well paid, not generally that well paid, and therefore, they buy into another one of the Republican Party's big lies, which is you two can have the american dream and be a wealthy superstar by, you know, pointing at the weatherboard on the map on tv.
Richie Roy:Right.
John McMullen:It's just, it's beyond me.
John McMullen:I don't get it.
John McMullen:And I'm going to get off the topic.
John McMullen:Otherwise, I'm going to start getting phone calls from my friends who are weather forecasters, and they're going to go, that's not me.
John McMullen:I'm gonna be.
John McMullen:Yes, it is.
Richie Roy:You know, it's, you know, one of the things, because we have a whole show planned, but, you know, when you mentioned kind of the, the grift, I can't let this one go.
Richie Roy:This isn't, this is not something we'd cover on Newsday Tuesday because it's not news per se, and it doesn't really relate to the LGBTQ community.
John McMullen:Yeah.
Richie Roy:I don't know.
Richie Roy:Have you, have you heard, John, about the Trump watch?
John McMullen:The what?
Richie Roy:Trump watch.
John McMullen:Is this like, the Trump coin and the Trump baseball cards?
Richie Roy:Right.
Richie Roy:So there's a new product on the market.
Richie Roy:It is the Trump wristwatch.
John McMullen:Does it go backwards to the 9th?
Richie Roy:It might as well.
Richie Roy:But it's, it's, it is actually kind of outlandish how much of a grift it is.
Richie Roy:And also just a kind of transparent campaign violation.
Richie Roy:It is.
Richie Roy:So what he's offering is a, is a limited edition watch, and it's the tackiest looking thing.
Richie Roy:Of course, worse, it is limited to, I believe, 146 watches each one.
Richie Roy:You can buy them with cryptocurrency, which means it's untraceable.
Richie Roy:And each one is $100,000.
John McMullen:Oh, my God.
Richie Roy:Yeah.
John McMullen:Well, I'm sure that they're worth, you know, $0.25 because as I recall, there was a story somewhere I saw earlier in this past year about how he gave somebody a watch that was supposedly like a Rolex or something, and it turned out to be, you know, one of those knockoffs like you'd buy from some weird guy down at Battery park out of a briefcase.
Richie Roy:Yeah.
Richie Roy:That doesn't surprise me at all.
Richie Roy:I mean, that's.
Richie Roy:That's the, that's the essence.
Richie Roy:That's the essence of what it is.
Richie Roy:It's a sham.
John McMullen:Yeah.
John McMullen:Well, look, if you're.
John McMullen:If you're still supporting Donald at this point in time or, you know, people who are just don't walk, run the other way.
Richie Roy:Yeah.
John McMullen:Yeah.
Richie Roy:So.
John McMullen:And I think the reason that the weather actually fits perfectly into our devoting all this time that we've spent talking about a topic I never thought we would ever talk about on this show is because we're really talking about the fall season.
John McMullen:And so with autumn now having arrived in the last, what we changed a week ago or something like that.
Richie Roy:Yep.
John McMullen:There's a lot to talk about.
John McMullen:Everything from the fact that we've got the holidays coming up.
John McMullen:Uh, there's fashion that plays in.
John McMullen:In to this time of year because, you know, people are going to be not donning their shorts and their t shirts anymore unless they live here in Palm Springs, and people are already just going gaga for Starbucks, where they can go and get their new pumpkin spiced coffee and things like that, or lattes.
John McMullen:So we got a lot of stuff to talk about that's fall related today.
Richie Roy:Yeah.
Richie Roy:So I think the first thing is we're falling into fall, and that is fall foods, you know, so is the end.
Richie Roy:I mean, depending on how, on your hardiness level, you know, that tends to be when the grilling season ends, you kind of put away the tongs and the spatula and the little scraper.
Richie Roy:You put the, you know, you put the little cover over your gas grill for the season, and you head indoors, and you start to look into things like squash and kale, and you start to think about Thanksgiving and what I really associate with this tail out of.
John McMullen:The diet equation here.
Richie Roy:I know you're not a fan, so we'll leave the kale aside.
Richie Roy:But one of the things, I eat.
John McMullen:It, but I eat it because it's healthy for you.
John McMullen:But I don't particularly like it.
Richie Roy:I actually like it, depending on how it's prepared.
Richie Roy:But one of the things that I really think about when I think about this time of year is soups.
Richie Roy:You know, summer is not a soup time for me.
Richie Roy:I don't really have soup in the summer.
Richie Roy:You know, I'm not a big gazpacho fan.
Richie Roy:I wish I were, but I'm not.
Richie Roy:But love soup, and this is the time of year for soup.
Richie Roy:Gonna ask you, John, what's your favorite soup?
John McMullen:Hmm?
John McMullen:My favorite soup, I would have to say.
John McMullen:And there are different soups that I really love, but I would say, as a matter of practice year round and life round my whole life, I have always considered two different soups to be really, I would say, my favorites.
John McMullen:One is french onion, which is really funny, because I generally don't like french anything, and because I'm frenching with someone or being french active or passive.
John McMullen:But also, I also love clam chowder, which I think comes naturally, having grown up in the Pacific Northwest.
Richie Roy:Okay, so a couple questions about those.
Richie Roy:So clam chowder.
Richie Roy:I think I know the answer to this.
Richie Roy:But New England or Manhattan?
John McMullen:New England, definitely.
John McMullen:Yeah.
John McMullen:I don't know whose idea was to put tomatoes into a clam, but, you know, they obviously later came up with the stupid idea of clemato.
Richie Roy:You know what?
Richie Roy:Clemato.
Richie Roy:I'm not that anti a caesar now.
Richie Roy:When I was in Canada, I had a Caesar, and it was actually pretty good.
Richie Roy:You got the umami.
Richie Roy:It doesn't taste too clammy.
Richie Roy:It just tastes kind of umami ish.
Richie Roy:It's not gross.
Richie Roy:It's not as gross growing up.
Richie Roy:Like, my dad loves it to just drink it straight.
John McMullen:No, he has it with.
Richie Roy:Yeah, with beer.
Richie Roy:Okay.
Richie Roy:Yeah, that's the thing.
Richie Roy:Yeah, yeah, no, it's kind of like a.
Richie Roy:It's like a Michelada kind of vibe.
Richie Roy:But, yeah, clam chowder, that's a.
Richie Roy:That's a good one.
Richie Roy:I hadn't put that one on my list.
Richie Roy:But I love a good clam chowder.
Richie Roy:So many of them are too gloopy, like, too floury, like, they thicken it too much.
Richie Roy:But when it's actually kind of, when it's homemade and it's actually kind of on the thinner side, and it's just rich and creamy with real good clam, it's kind of hard to beat.
John McMullen:You know, there's a restaurant here in, pardon me, in the Coachella Valley that is part of a chain of restaurants, but the only one that they actually have in the whole state of California, they're mostly up in the Pacific Northwest and Oregon and Washington.
John McMullen:You've been there is Elmer's, which is a diner, and they serve a very popular brand of chowder that is made at restaurant chain up there.
John McMullen:That's like a fine seafood restaurant chain.
John McMullen:But they then also had this stuff canned and sold in supermarkets.
John McMullen:And that is Ivor's.
John McMullen:And Ivors was well known in the Puget Sound region for their, Ivor's acres of clams restaurants.
John McMullen:And they serve all sorts of seafood and stuff.
John McMullen:And I like ivers.
John McMullen:But there was another chain that was up there when I was a kid called skippers, and it was to me, I would sometimes go to skippers just to have their all you can eat lunch, just to eat that, because I love that clam chowder.
John McMullen:And it was not heavily thick.
John McMullen:It was, it was not necessarily runny either.
John McMullen:But it was kind of a nice balance in between.
John McMullen:And I think one of the really lucky things for me, growing up in the Pacific Northwest, where it came to Chowder, Washington, that there were always all these seafood and clam chowder bake offs that they would have these contests at, you know, various community events and stuff like that, and you can go and try all these different kinds.
John McMullen:So that was definitely a fun thing to do when I was growing up as a kid.
Richie Roy:Yeah, clam chowder, that's a great.
Richie Roy:That's a great option.
Richie Roy:You know, I was, I was thinking earlier about what my favorite soup options are.
Richie Roy:I mean, I love, I just love soups generally, the soup that came to mind right away, and I don't know why, but it must be because I really like it is potato leek soup.
Richie Roy:I love that.
Richie Roy:I love.
Richie Roy:And that feels very autumnal to me.
John McMullen:Just because it's all tomato soup or, I mean, tomato potato oriented soups.
John McMullen:I really do.
John McMullen:And, I mean, that's probably one of the reasons that I like clam chowder.
John McMullen:But.
John McMullen:But I will tell you that I generally tend to stay away from them in the last several years just because of the fact that, you know, me and potatoes, we don't go well together on the couch.
Richie Roy:Right.
Richie Roy:Yeah, no, yeah, it's a heavy.
Richie Roy:It's a heavy soup, for sure.
Richie Roy:But I do like potato leek.
Richie Roy:You know, you mentioned french onion, and that's a soup that can go either way.
John McMullen:Yeah.
Richie Roy:Again, good french onion soup.
Richie Roy:There's nothing better.
John McMullen:You and I went to a french restaurant in the Hudson Valley when I was visiting there a year and a half ago, and I recall that they had a very good one that we actually enjoyed that night when I was there visiting.
Richie Roy:Yeah, there are some good spots for it.
Richie Roy:I actually make a pretty good french onion soup.
Richie Roy:It's very time consuming to make a good french onion soup.
Richie Roy:And you want it to be rich and I.
Richie Roy:And full of depth.
Richie Roy:You know, if it's.
Richie Roy:If it's mailed.
Richie Roy:If it's mailed in, it's not worth it.
Richie Roy:It tastes like dishwater.
Richie Roy:It's like dishwater with some oily cheese floating on top of it and some croutons.
Richie Roy:I mean, no, thank you.
John McMullen:No.
Richie Roy:But when it's.
Richie Roy:When it's that rich, when the onions have been deeply caramelized.
Richie Roy:And you have, you know, either either beef or chicken stock.
Richie Roy:I've had a really good french onion soup with the chicken stock, actually, that was surprisingly good.
Richie Roy:And then you want that thick raft of.
Richie Roy:It has to be Gruyere.
Richie Roy:You know, that beautiful gruyere.
Richie Roy:And then I like some big, massive croutons.
Richie Roy:You know, the kind of circles of baguette.
Richie Roy:That is a great soup.
John McMullen:You know, I'll also add in, I really love chicken and rice and vegetable soups, things like that.
John McMullen:Um, because that has always been kind of my go to food whenever I've had a cold or gotten sick.
John McMullen:And it's just, it's, to me, it's one of the best comfort foods that I know.
John McMullen:And, um.
John McMullen:And I I love that, too.
John McMullen:I had a friend who, when I first moved here to the Coachella valley.
John McMullen:What about.
John McMullen:Gosh, I think it's been now, like, 18 years.
John McMullen:It has really bummed me out.
John McMullen:She passed away a few years ago, and she would make this homemade chicken and rice soup for me all the time when I was sick.
John McMullen:And it just.
John McMullen:I mean, there's nothing like having, of course, fresh soups of any sort compared to, you know, store bought and canned.
John McMullen:Canned crap.
John McMullen:But it's just, it was such a treat every time that Jackie made that.
Richie Roy:Yeah, well, you bring up a good point, which is soups.
Richie Roy:When we're talking about soups, we're talking about homemade soups.
Richie Roy:I mean, can't stand canned soups.
Richie Roy:I just don't think.
Richie Roy:I've never had a good one.
Richie Roy:I mean, never.
Richie Roy:I never had a good one.
Richie Roy:I don't think that it's.
Richie Roy:It just.
Richie Roy:It does not work.
Richie Roy:It doesn't translate.
Richie Roy:Well, I mean, I never.
John McMullen:I never ate tomato soup when I was a kid because, you know, out of the Campbell soup can type thing, and that was never my thing.
John McMullen:But, boy, I'll tell you, I mean, I was just at a event last week, and for lunch one day, they had a tomato leek soup at that lunch.
John McMullen:And it was so good.
John McMullen:It just.
John McMullen:It was really, really awesome.
Richie Roy:Yeah, it's.
Richie Roy:I just.
Richie Roy:Canned soups don't do it for me.
Richie Roy:I mean, I like either, you know, a good restaurant or homemade.
Richie Roy:It just.
Richie Roy:The difference is just immeasurable.
Richie Roy:But, you know, the other soup that I will mention that, and again, it's funny, because I think there are so many soups.
Richie Roy:I mean, like, minestrone is great.
Richie Roy:I mean, italian wedding, there's so many good soups.
Richie Roy:But the other soup that I really like, too is borscht.
Richie Roy:I love a good borscht.
John McMullen:You know, I tried that when I went.
John McMullen:In fact, it was my first meal on the ground there, uh, in 19.
John McMullen:No, not 19.
John McMullen: In: John McMullen:We had it there at a restaurant where they made it.
John McMullen:And, um, you know, I kind of had high hopes being in a place where supposedly this is the way of the land and wasn't really my thing.
Richie Roy:Now, was it hot or cold?
Richie Roy:Okay.
Richie Roy:Because I know that there are some places where they do a cold borscht, and that's a little bit challenging for me.
Richie Roy:I don't love that.
Richie Roy:But a hot borscht, you know, with beef floating in it and, you know, and the beets and stuff, I do love that.
Richie Roy:But, yeah, so it's soup season, you know, I guess the final question I will ask you about soup season before we move on to some other stuff is I go back and forth in this chili soup or not.
John McMullen:Well, as a kid, I didn't like chili at all, and it was not until I got into my adult years that I actually started to enjoy it, because I generally don't like mushy beans.
John McMullen:And, you know, and, of course, tastes and whatnot have changed as an adulthood.
John McMullen:Um, and I really do like chili now.
John McMullen:Um, but I don't know.
John McMullen:I.
John McMullen:You know, to me, chili is more in the category of soup adjacent.
John McMullen:It's more like stew because I also love beef stew.
John McMullen:But, um, I don't consider that to be considered to be kind of soupy, but not a soup.
John McMullen:And the same thing goes with chili.
Richie Roy:Yeah, yeah, I think that's.
Richie Roy:I think that's.
Richie Roy:That's right.
Richie Roy:I think that they're adjacent, but they're not the same.
Richie Roy:They're all of the season.
Richie Roy:I mean, again, I never, like.
Richie Roy:There's a place nearby here that does a really good chili.
Richie Roy:I would never go to get that in the summer, but I am already planning to get it, like, this weekend.
John McMullen:Because I was always so jealous as a kid, too.
John McMullen:Like, my friends who had chili and loved it, they'd have it with cornbread, and I was like, God, I want the cornbread, but I don't know why I couldn't get over the hump with the.
Richie Roy:So, yeah, fall foods, you know, it's.
Richie Roy:It's that time of year soups, you know, pumpkins and squash, apple cider donuts.
John McMullen:Oh, my God.
John McMullen:No, no.
Richie Roy:On that.
John McMullen:Yes, but no, they're really good.
Richie Roy:There's an apple orchard near me where I recently went apple picking, and they have apple cider donuts there at the little stand.
John McMullen:I can hear my endocrinologist now going to.
Richie Roy:But they are so good.
Richie Roy:They are delicious.
John McMullen:Could you bring some?
John McMullen:And I'm not a big donut for the party.
Richie Roy:What?
John McMullen:Could you bring some with you when you come out for the party?
Richie Roy:I can actually.
Richie Roy:I will.
Richie Roy:Yeah.
Richie Roy:Good.
Richie Roy:I'll straighten some grapefruit.
Richie Roy:Absolutely.
Richie Roy:But, like, I'm not a huge donut guy.
Richie Roy:Like, I'm not like, like, I like a maple bar, which you can't get out here, but, like, I'm a maple bar.
Richie Roy:I like a maple bar.
Richie Roy:But, like, I'm not crazy.
Richie Roy:Some people, like, crave donuts.
Richie Roy:I never crave a donut, but apple cider donuts, when I am confronted with them, I have them, and I love them.
John McMullen:Oh, I tell you, life can be such a bitch sometimes.
Richie Roy:I know.
Richie Roy:So that's fall foods.
Richie Roy:And then, of course, you know, you.
John McMullen:Didn'T, by the way, mention butternuthen squash soup.
Richie Roy:I do.
Richie Roy:You know, so, yeah, I do love.
Richie Roy:But that's a great soup.
John McMullen:I like that, too.
John McMullen:It's not always been one of my favorites, but I love the taste of it as well.
Richie Roy:Butternut.
Richie Roy:I mean, butternut.
Richie Roy:And actually, even better than butternut.
Richie Roy:Cause, like, butternut, you know, is a big kind of hard gourd and peeling.
Richie Roy:It's a bitch.
Richie Roy:It's.
Richie Roy:It's hard to peel.
Richie Roy:And then, you know, and then, you know, you cut it up and you cook it up and stuff.
Richie Roy:Honey nut is a hybrid or a development from the butternut, which is tiny, you said, like, a little tiny butternut.
John McMullen:Like the kind that they make Cheerios out of.
Richie Roy:Exactly.
Richie Roy:But a honey nut is a really cute little squash.
Richie Roy:And if you can get your hands on those, they're very easy.
Richie Roy:You split it in half, and you throw it in the oven and roast it up, and it is super delicious.
Richie Roy:If you want, you can throw some maple syrup or some brown sugar on there and some butter.
Richie Roy:But even without any of that, honey nut squash is one of the best.
Richie Roy:You know, it's sort of like, kind of like a delicata squash or an acorn squash, the kind that you just cut in half and you just throw it in the oven.
Richie Roy:But a honey nut squash, it's like a butternut squash, but it's tiny and cute and really easy to do.
Richie Roy:So keep an eye out for honey nut squash.
Richie Roy:But we can't talk about this season, of course, without talking about what's coming up at the end of October, which is gay pride in Palm Springs and gay pride in all Palm Springs.
Richie Roy:Yes, both.
Richie Roy:Yeah, we can talk about both.
Richie Roy:But Halloween is coming up, so it's spooky season.
Richie Roy:And, you know, I have some questions for you, of course.
Richie Roy:But I have to preface this by saying, as long as I've been around on this mortal coil, I personally have never liked Halloween.
Richie Roy:I don't like dressing up for it.
Richie Roy:I never have.
Richie Roy:It's not my favorite.
Richie Roy:I just don't like it.
Richie Roy:It drives me crazy every year because I'm supposed to love Halloween and I just can't stand it.
Richie Roy:So I wonder, what are you?
John McMullen:There was a reason why we were brothers from another mother.
Richie Roy:So what are your thoughts?
John McMullen:I feel the exact same way.
John McMullen:Yeah, it's.
John McMullen:Yeah.
John McMullen:And it, you know, it's not got anything to do with all that bull crud that people who are ultra religious spread and stuff like that, you know, it just.
John McMullen:It's one of those things to me that it's kind of like New Year's, I think, is they're like the two dumbest holidays on the planet.
John McMullen:I keep my opinion to myself, except tonight on this, because Halloween, of course, is considered by so many to be like the official queer holiday of the year.
John McMullen:But I get it.
John McMullen:It's fun to be with friends who like to dress up and do fun and silly stuff, but I've never really enjoyed it that much.
John McMullen:The one thing I enjoy the most about it now of anything is I love to torture my neighbor's children.
John McMullen:And the way that I do that is I go and I buy these bags at Costco of these small little sugary treats, and I fill up a bowl with them and I give these kids enough to make sure that all their teeth are going to rot and fall out so they look like they came from the belly Beverly hillbillies.
John McMullen:So beyond that, I'm really not into it.
John McMullen:But I do love to see the kids when they show up, little kids, when they show up in their costumes and stuff like that.
John McMullen:It's so new.
John McMullen:Yeah.
Richie Roy:Yeah.
Richie Roy:I mean, I will agree with you on that.
Richie Roy:The little kids in their costumes, that's adorable.
Richie Roy:It's adorable.
Richie Roy:But as an adult holiday, as a kid, I hated it.
Richie Roy:But seeing kids now, I'm like, that's cute.
Richie Roy:But as a kid, hated it.
Richie Roy:Well, I hate face paint.
Richie Roy:Like, I don't like the feeling of face paint on my face.
Richie Roy:I don't like, like, I didn't.
Richie Roy:I felt awkward.
Richie Roy:It just like, it made me feel awkward the most I could do.
John McMullen:Body paint on your other head?
Richie Roy:Yeah.
Richie Roy:No.
Richie Roy:No body.
Richie Roy:No potty paint.
Richie Roy:No, we don't like any of it.
John McMullen:Okay.
Richie Roy:And the most I would do for several years, I was a farmer, which basically meant I would just put on overalls and plaid shirts and put.
Richie Roy:And, like, wear a cowboy hat or something.
Richie Roy:But, like, being a ghost or old.
John McMullen:MacMullen had a farm.
Richie Roy:Old MacMullen.
Richie Roy:But, yeah, so it's not my scene.
Richie Roy:I don't love it, but I know.
John McMullen:People event in Seattle every year.
John McMullen:When I lived there for many years, that was.
John McMullen:What was that called?
John McMullen:It was a big Halloween party that they did at the Seattle aquarium.
John McMullen:And now it had a cute name, too, but I forget the name of it at the moment.
John McMullen:And I finally broke down.
John McMullen:A friend of mine had been pushing me for quite some time to do it.
John McMullen:And so one year, I finally broke down and went with him to this thing.
John McMullen:And I don't even remember what the costume was that I wore, but I just remember being so uncomfortable in this packed party in the Seattle aquarium that all I wanted to do was get out of this ridiculous get up that I was anchored down with.
John McMullen:And I think I might have been tired of being anchored down with him, too, because I remember.
John McMullen:I do remember what he wore.
John McMullen:He was in this big dinosaur thing outfit and looked ridiculous.
John McMullen:I mean, he looked like a green Barney.
Richie Roy:Oh, my God.
John McMullen:And, yeah, it was.
John McMullen:I don't know.
John McMullen:It's just like, okay, Halloween be done.
Richie Roy:Yeah, I agree.
Richie Roy:Halloween be done.
Richie Roy:I'm ready for that to be.
John McMullen:You know what?
John McMullen:Maybe he was going his HR puff.
Richie Roy:And stuff, but, yeah, so we've got Halloween.
Richie Roy:Then obviously, thanksgiving is kind of on the horizon, so start planning for that.
Richie Roy:I mean, I love.
Richie Roy:Thanksgiving is, like, my favorite holiday of the year.
Richie Roy:I love it because it's just about food.
Richie Roy:It's not about any kind of ideology.
Richie Roy:It's just about eating.
Richie Roy:And so I love that.
Richie Roy:So, you know, thinking about what to do for that.
John McMullen:And then this is my first thanksgiving while on Munjaro, so it'll be interesting to see what.
John McMullen:What kind of damage I can do, because I just.
John McMullen:I don't have a huge appetite anymore.
John McMullen:And not that I ever had a really huge one.
John McMullen:I just had the gut to show that I did.
John McMullen:And, you know, but now I'm actually.
John McMullen:I got on the scale this past week, and I started this journey at the beginning of the year.
John McMullen:And I am actually, the last time I was the weight that I am now.
John McMullen:I was a senior in high school, and that was, you know, what, 40 some odd years ago.
Richie Roy:That's awesome.
Richie Roy:Yeah.
John McMullen:42 and a half years ago.
John McMullen:Yeah.
Richie Roy:That's crazy.
Richie Roy:I love that.
Richie Roy:Yeah, no, that's great.
Richie Roy:And, you know, for me, thanksgiving has never been about quantity, because I'm not a big.
Richie Roy:I mean, I love eating.
Richie Roy:I love food, but I don't like quantity.
John McMullen:Yeah.
John McMullen:Like, I like trying all kinds of nibbling.
Richie Roy:I like more flavors, and I don't like a big amount of anything.
Richie Roy:So for thanksgiving, what I like about it is there's a lot of dishes, and I usually take just a little spoonful of each dish, and then I'm very happy, and maybe at most, I will.
Richie Roy:The thing I tend to go back for is actually the cranberry.
Richie Roy:I love the cranberry because so many of the dishes, or so many of the dishes, like, um, are really about starch and fat.
Richie Roy:Like, it's, you know, at the end of the day, um, you know, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole.
Richie Roy:You know, it's.
Richie Roy:It's really about cream and butter and flour and salt.
Richie Roy:And one of the few things that really cuts through that is the cranberry.
Richie Roy:Like, you know, it's bright, it's acidic.
John McMullen:And you know what?
John McMullen:Again, another one of those foods, as a kid, I just absolutely couldn't stand them.
John McMullen:And I'm sure that it's because I would see this gelatinous crap that was pulled out of a can look like a can of dog food, but pink or red.
John McMullen:And so I was absolutely so de appetized for it that it wasn't until I was an adult and actually had real cranberries, I mean, made from scratch the way that it should be done, that I was like, oh, my God, this is what I've been missing all my life, or my young life.
John McMullen:And I love cranberry.
Richie Roy:It's so good.
Richie Roy:No, it's so delicious.
Richie Roy:So, yeah, we're kind of heading into that season.
Richie Roy:I mean, the final thing that, you know, that I thought we could talk about.
Richie Roy:But it's interesting because I think that it's a conversation that is actually kind of hard for us to have coast to coast, because Palm Springs does not have the same weather in the fall that we have out here.
John McMullen:Thank God.
Richie Roy:No, thank God in the other direction, because I love sweater weather.
Richie Roy:I'm psyched.
John McMullen:You know, I guess if I, you and I had opposite experiences, even though we both grew up on the same coast about, you know, roughly, I don't know, probably about 800 miles apart.
John McMullen:700 miles apart.
John McMullen:I grew up in the Seattle area.
John McMullen:You grew up in the Sacramento area.
John McMullen:And so you had the benefit of having milder weather as you grew up as a kid and not having more of the seasonal type weather, whereas I grew up having nonstop November, except for a few months in the middle of the year.
John McMullen:And so it was always wet, dank, cold, dark a lot of the year.
John McMullen:And by the time I had been able to move beyond Seattle and realize that there was a whole world of sunshine out there, I was not ready to go back to the.
John McMullen:To the wet, dank, cold weather of fall again on a semi permanent basis.
John McMullen:I do remember when my friend Michael Bradbury came to visit me here in Palm Springs some years ago, and he got down here and we went to have lunch, and he said to me, he said, do you realize that yesterday was the first time in 183 days that Seattle had even a patch of blue sky?
John McMullen:And I was like, I don't care.
John McMullen:I don't live there.
Richie Roy:It's so funny, though, because, like, I, you know, when I'm excited to come out and visit, you know, at the end of October to early November, and.
John McMullen:You only have to do it for five days.
Richie Roy:Right.
Richie Roy:For me, I love the fall.
Richie Roy:I love the change of the seasons.
Richie Roy:I love the leaves, and I love getting out.
Richie Roy:Like, I just recently broke out my hoodie, one of my hoodies for the first time, and just throwing on that hoodie, you know, when the house is a little chilly.
Richie Roy:The house was chilly for the first time, you know, in a year, and I just threw on a hoodie and petted the kitties.
Richie Roy:And I was like, yes, it's that time of year.
Richie Roy:Like, I'm really excited about it.
John McMullen:Let me ask you something.
John McMullen:Do you have a Richie and John Hoodie?
Richie Roy:I don't, actually.
John McMullen:Well, I was thinking about some yesterday.
Richie Roy:Oh, we should do that.
John McMullen:Pitched at me by one of our vendors.
Richie Roy:Oh, yeah.
Richie Roy:I love, hoodies are great.
Richie Roy:I love a hoodie.
John McMullen:If anybody else in this audience is listening tonight or today or this morning or whatever time of day you happen to swallow your podcasts, please drop us a line.
John McMullen:Let us know.
John McMullen:You can write to us at info at Richie and John.
John McMullen:R I c h I e a n dash odhn.com.
John McMullen:info at ritchian john.com.
John McMullen:you can write to us there and let us know if you would be interested in having as part of your fall fashion wardrobe a Richie and John hoodie.
Richie Roy:Absolutely.
John McMullen:I think that there's some forthcoming I'd love that.
Richie Roy:But, yeah.
Richie Roy:So hoodies, sweater weather, you know, I have some sweaters that I can't wait to pull down from the shelf.
John McMullen:I was like, maybe we should design some ugly sweaters in our colors.
Richie Roy:Oh, my God.
Richie Roy:That's very funny.
Richie Roy:Those ugly Christmasy sweaters.
John McMullen:Yeah, something like that.
John McMullen:I'm kidding.
Richie Roy:But yeah, well, we'll see.
Richie Roy:But in any case, you know, follows here.
Richie Roy:And whether you decorate with pumpkins or mums or wreaths or trees or whatever, I hope that you have a great honor.
Richie Roy:And John, even though it's sort of perpetually summer weather there, I hope that you have a good fall as well.
John McMullen:And by the way, if somebody wants to do the Richie and John logo on a pumpkin and send them in, we probably could give a few surprises away with our logo on it.
Richie Roy:So absolutely.
John McMullen:If you want to do a pumpkin and carve a pumpkin and send us the pictures and how we get back a hold of you, that's welcome as well.
John McMullen:Again, info@richianjohn.com dot Richie, what is our phone number?
Richie Roy:Our phone number.
Richie Roy: -: Richie Roy:We would love to hear from you.
John McMullen:We would love to hear from you.
John McMullen:And, you know, it's just like voting.
John McMullen:Vote often and, and let us know what you're voting for, who you're voting for, where you're planning to move if you vote for the wrong people so that we can track you down.
John McMullen:And we hope you have a great week because we're going to come back and talk about the stuff that's in the headlines again on Tuesday right here on Richie and John.
John McMullen:Thanks for being here.
Richie Roy:Yeah, thanks, everyone.
Richie Roy:Talk to you soon.
John McMullen:Thank you for joining us on Richie and John.
John McMullen:This podcast is a production of the mutual broadcasting system and is available@richianjohn.com as well as most major podcast portals, including Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Spotify.
