On this very special episode about publishing enthusiast Benjamin Franklin’s little-known contribution to troll culture, we gab about the occult, Quakers, the Jersey Devil, and the 18th century version of flame wars--pamphlet feuds! We also cover the forthcoming installation of B&N’s new (British!) CEO and his ultimate dream to botox the company back into relevance. Emily reveals that she went to a high school whose most popular sport was water polo, while Corinne struggles to believe that Benjamin Franklin’s charisma was enough to get him laid as much as history would have us believe. Join us, won’t you?

Please rate and review us on whatever podcast platform you happen to use. And follow us on:

Our website: hybridpubscout.com/episode-28-ben-franklin-leeds-devil/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/hybridpubscout/

Twitter: twitter.com/hybridpubscout

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridpubscoutpod/

Our newsletter: eepurl.com/gfajR9

To like, allow me to introduce myself. My name

is silence, and I'm very, very brief.

I'm a Capricorn. I enjoy long walks on the beach.

No, no, not a

Capricorn. Uh, Libra.

Libra.

Yeah, okay, sure, yeah. A very opinionated

Libra, because those exist.

We love all our Libra friends. You

foreign Welcome to the hybrid pub Scout

podcast with me. Emily Einolander and me. Karin

kolasky, hello. We are mapping the frontier between traditional

and indie publishing. How you doing? Corinne, I'm pretty good.

How are you? I am doing just peachy, hanging out in my house

by myself all the time with the dog. Yeah, I will say, though I

have been able to visit with some other work from home,

publishing people good. So I've been getting out of my house

every day, and I've been getting a lot of good tips on

freelancing. Oh, it's been lovely. That's good.

You're not watching any daytime TV then, because I feel

like that's one of the only bonuses of being unemployed.

I had one solid day where I watched six

movies.

Oh, yeah, you told me about Yeah, right, right. Okay,

you know, yeah. Oh, I know,

yeah, because I kept texting. It was

great, though it was great. Got a live in common. I

will. Okay, up your work day. Good. Oh, God, I need it.

Yeah, guys, don't watch The Haunting of

Sharon. That's all I gotta say. Like, what is this? Anyway?

Sadly, we have no reviews on iTunes.

You're killing me. Yeah? Really, you guys, can you

please write a review for us

on iTunes? On iTunes, even if you don't

listen, yeah, on iTunes, maybe just remember the days when you

did dig out your apple password? Yeah, if you have an iPhone, you

have access. Yes, that's true. You do just go on there. Yeah,

do it, uh huh. It'll make you feel good. And then you get to

witness current beautiful acting skills. That's right, because

right is the actor now,

well, I was in drama in high school, so, yeah, I don't

want to brag, but what was your biggest leading Did you have a

leading part? Did I was? I think it was like senior year. I do

not remember which play it was, but I remember. I do remember

the lead, yeah, and I don't remember I probably blocked it

out, but I remember like she was a very, very bitchy character.

And I remember the drama teacher telling me I wasn't being bitchy

enough and getting, like, really angry. But I think this is

because I don't take criticism. Well, I don't. He was probably

correct, but I was just sort of just like, How dare you sir. I'm

being the biggest bitch. I know how to be little.

Did you know that that that there was so much

more plumbed bitchiness inside of you waiting to discover.

But, yeah, that's but I was a lead which was very

exciting. So good for me, good for you. I wish I knew what play

it was. So I wish I did too. I do not remember. Maybe if I

looked back at like I don't know, I don't feel like your

book, maybe, maybe I can look and see, I don't feel like they

gave a shit about the drama people, though, so much. Oh,

they never do, yeah. So it's probably not even in there.

You just run around and, like, try to get

attention by doing weird shit everywhere, and nobody cares,

because they're just like, Okay, those weird, invisible people

again, doing weird things

exactly. Yeah, yeah. I just feel like there's a lot of

pages devoted to, like, the football team, although I did go

to a high school that did not have a football team, which was

like, I know school with my notes crazy our, think big thing

was, like basketball. We were water

polo. Oh, my God, water polo and cross

country. Oh, I thought you're gonna say lacrosse. We had that

guy. We had a guy go to the Olympics for for running, yeah,

wow.

Congrats to that guy. He did great. Oh, good for him.

Yeah, yeah, very exciting, yeah. Anyway, yeah.

His name's Dwayne, okay, and I can't

remember Solomon. Dwayne Solomon, because I said Dwayne,

and then all I could think of was Johnson. I was like, No, he

was not the rock he was. He was much more alive than running.

Runner Lee, oh, my God, you know, yeah, everyone is

different and everyone is

beautiful. Yes, that's exactly right. That's the

mission of this podcast. Yeah, so impressed that it's not

except for Jeff

Bezos and

David. Ugly soul and we'll rot in hell forever David

Foster Wallace and David Foster Wallace, oh, my god, there was

actually that reminds me there was a really groveling,

disgusting article on the Paris Review today, which I should not

be surprised, the parish review. Again, I know, can they talk

about anything else? I don't think they can. No, everything

was about. It's just like, I don't even remember what it was

about exactly, but it was just like, oh, he was so charming. He

was so coy, and he was so witty about I mean, it's the same shit

everybody else who loves themselves anyway. It was

disgusting the end.

Well, so I noticed something that I texted

you about in the past week, yeah, and I said, it's been over

a year, that's right, since your first appearance on the podcast,

which was episode two. However, it was episode one. Of us

together. I think it was

July, end of July, right? Yeah, 25th Yeah, it was

July. 25 Okay, uh huh. So I remember like it was yesterday,

and I think I actually invited myself to be your co host, if I

remember correctly.

I think it was more of a, I think it was more

of a, did we just become best friends sort of thing where we,

like, looked at each other like I was, like, I think I need a co

host. Like, I'll do it. I was like, Oh, good. This will

actually work then, because I'm not good at talking to myself.

No, not no.

Kind of yeah, I'm really good at it, yeah, yeah,

maybe I should start my own podcast by myself. You can talk

about cult Yeah, just to myself

in that, that very like market, that no one is

a part of the cult podcast.

Oh, my God. Why isn't there? Why aren't there any good

cult podcasts? I mean, there are a lot of cult podcasts, I know.

I just haven't. You don't like any of them, no, well, most of

them, I don't know. I feel like the most popular ones are just

not, I don't, yeah, I just don't like them. There's just that

kind of, like plastic, yeah? It's just like they're just, I

don't know. It seems very like I'm speaking especially about

the podcast simply called cults, which is, you're calling them

out. Yeah, because you got podcasts, are you trying to

start podcasting? Yeah, I think so. Well, I'm just okay. I'm not

saying anything that a bazillion other people on their fucking

iTunes page has been said, because a lot of the reviews are

just like, oh, the content is really interesting, but the

people are just reading it off, like, the script or whatever.

There's just no, like, feeling in it, or whatever. And also,

the guy's voice is very annoying, and I can never really

figure out why,

but men don't have annoying voices. No,

I'm sorry I misspoke. Captivating. Yes, what a guy,

but yeah, anyway, it's just a shame, because it is like, the

content is great, but it's just like, I think they're just

really boring people. Maybe that's what it is. They just

don't know how to I don't know. I'm sorry, damn girl. I'm sure

they're listening to this, but, you know, I'm not gonna cut it.

I don't. I'm gonna keep that in. Well, I don't know. No, I don't

mean to call them. It's just the way that they read is like, I

don't know.

I think there's a lot of people who

care. I think there's camps of podcast taste. Yeah, there's the

camp that you and I are probably a part of based on our content,

yes, where we like having goofy conversations and fucking up and

all that kind of stuff. And then there is the other camp, right?

Who likes the more polished? Yes, practice, right? Accurate?

Yeah. Sort of not that we don't try our best to be accurate, but

we have

fun with it, although I guess you can, can't have as

much fun when you're talking about cults and like, cults and

like people being brainwashed and killed. I mean, you probably

could. I mean, I bet is that a challenge? I'll try. Maybe I'll

start my very own cults podcast, just by myself, and then just

laugh maniacally by yourself.

I think the other issue is, you only like

cult podcasts. You don't like crime podcast. That's very true.

And the good cult episodes I have listened to work were in

other crime podcasts,

although I will tell you, I did listen to the

Jonestown episode on a case file today. The three of them, I did

have to shut the third one off, yeah, you know, because he

played the Yeah, the tapes. But I'm he did a good job with that.

He's great. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I'm very confused, but

whatever, I'll find my cold podcast, come come hell or high

water, I was gonna say come rain or shine,

whatever I believe in you. Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

That's gonna be our first T shirt. Oh, all

right, well, you've got an article. Well, let me just say

first that we don't have an interview today. Nope. We also

realized that we missed just the. Have an Emily and Corinne

time, just Gavin, yeah, and so we're gonna try to do more Emily

and Corinne podcasts. And maybe, speaking of podcasts, we, like,

I've been listening to the dollop a lot, which is in

American History podcast. And so I kind of got this idea of,

like, maybe we should look up publishing story podcasts and

tell each other publishing stories in addition to our

current events, yes, and our interviews, right? So that's

kind of a thing that we might do. What do you think? What do

you think guys right into our social medias that we will say,

let us know now,

hybrid pub scout on Twitter and Facebook

and hybrid pub, Scout pod on Instagram, or email me at Emily

at hybrid pubs, calm, or email Corinne

Sure. Email me. Corinne account once every two

weeks. She looks I know you do it once a

week, because I at least email you once to tell you to look at

it. I'm too much of a Virgo to go more than once. I text you my

email. Yeah, that's true anyway. So that's a thought of something

that we're going to do, but, yeah, but also articles, because

Corinne apparently has a good one.

Oh, I do have a good one. Okay, you guys, buckle up.

Here's a real wild story. So I'm sure you remember last summer,

when we were talking about BNN, and it's fun to know yes, for

the for yes, you never know it's true. You're right. You're

right. And kind of like, it's saga of not being able to keep a

CEO, which many people argued is because the CEO that kept trying

to replace himself. Would not leave because Len regio. Regio.

I knew it was regio. Len regio. Len regio. Yeah, so. And then,

of course, like the most recent guy, got fired because of sexual

harassment. That was like last summer, and I think Len had been

Lynn, like, we're on a first name basis. You are my friend.

Len has been serving as like CEO since then, basically so. But I

think we found out, I think it was beginning of June that this

hedge fund in the UK called Elliot advisors decided to buy

BNN, and apparently that purchase has finally gone

through more because more more than 81% of BNN shares were

tendered by the August 6 deadline. So congratulations,

Elliot advisor,

failing company. Insert applause, yeah,

I'm gonna put a little sound effect. Oh, good. Okay,

okay. So as a result of the deal, BNN becomes a private

company controlled by the private equity firm Elliot

advisors, which also owns the UK bookstore chain Waterstones. So

I just doing well, yeah, they're doing really well. And, like,

what's interesting about this is the guy, his name is, I think,

James daunt, who's going to be the CEO, who's also the CEO of

Waterstones. Waterstones was in a really bad state, like, I

don't know how many years ago, but pretty recently, and he was

able to sort of bring them back from the brink of collapse. Wow.

So there's no reason to think that he can't do the same thing

for BNN. I mean, maybe not to as an impressive or as impressive

of a degree, considering how far gone they are in some places,

but you never know they could be. They could come back, like

out of the gate roaring, and everybody would be like, as

excited to go to Barnes and Noble as they did when we were

in college. Well, and I'm

sure that there are a lot of people who, I

mean, especially since bookstores are, you know, brick

and mortar bookstores are more popular. Again, they're probably

people who would be like, Oh, I remember, yeah. I mean, shit

like, our generation loves kitsch. That's true. We do when

I was in high school,

I cannot tell you speaking, well, this isn't

really kitsch, but it's like, nostalgia. Oh, that's what I

meant, yeah. Okay, that's better, yeah. I look at so many

goddamn Pinterest boards that are like, 90s girls will

remember this, or, like, you know, 90s girls trends or

something. I can't tell you how many of those I look at, like a

day, you know. So make you happy. It does make me happy.

Yeah, yeah. It's like, I remember that perfume, or I

remember that denim backpack, or, you know, whatever anyway,

but it's Yeah, it does make me happy.

Were you on were you on Facebook the night

that I found the Tumblr account that was all photocopied Delia's

catalogs? No, oh, I will post it intro.

Please do. That's incredible. My God, Jesus, oh,

Delia's rip well, they're kind of back door, aren't they?

Didn't something happen. They're dolls. Oh, right, okay, they're

making dolls with doll clothes, not no. So no, yeah, so they're

not back. Never mind false alarm. Anyway. So blah, blah,

blah, what else? Don said? This is a very good day for

bookselling. Barnes and Noble is the greatest of all bookstore

names, and will now benefit from the support of an owner

committed to physical bookselling with investment and

concentration on the core principles of good book selling.

The prospects for this extraordinary company are

bright. I look forward very. Very much to working with the

booksellers at Barnes and Noble. He did say that it's going to

take some time for him to get acclimated to the American book

publishing climate, which I guess, is vastly different from

the British book publishing industry. That makes sense, I

guess. So. I thought that was a little weird, but I also don't

know anything about the British industry, so it's it's probably

true that it's like completely different. So, yeah, anyway. But

my favorite quote from this article is that he says, The

simple fact is that BNN needs money. People want to shop in

places that look modern, clean and inviting. The BNN stores

look tired and need a little Botox. Oh, my god. That was

great. That was, that was my favorite part of the article.

Obviously, the rest of this is just boring number stuff.

So anyway, they're gonna turn them into,

like, Apple Stores. Oh, Christ, My money's on that. Yeah, they

probably will. There's gonna be like, Oh no. What if they do the

Amazon thing?

Yeah, yeah, that would be so probably, will, I don't

know. So anyway, stay tuned for what happens next. Saga Barnes,

noble.

Did you notice that they basically did an

obituary for like lenriggio in no back in Shelf Awareness? No,

it wasn't. It wasn't an obituary, but it was like

retrospective on a, on a, on a complicated CEO. And I'm like,

he's not dead. I'm like, Okay, so now you feel comfortable

doing Yeah? I mean, sure, yeah. This is weird, friends. He is

not a dead man, okay, oh yeah.

So I don't know. I'm curious. We'll see what happens

next, I guess. Yeah, very exciting. So what are you

reading right now? I'm so glad you asked. I mean that

sincerely,

you're starting to me that's another

that is one thing that has happened over the last year of

the podcast that we can both be proud of.

Yeah, that you started reading. I did start reading

again. It's very exciting. It's been good. I'm reading normal

people by Sally Rooney, which was, like, long listed for the

Man Booker Prize this year, last year, something like that. And

everyone was talking about, I remember in Erin Clausen was,

yeah, this woman that we interviewed, she had recommended

it, and Erin pellavin, oh, and, yeah, yeah. I think it was her,

because she had it on her Instagram, meeting her, and she

was so excited. I knew it was one of the Canadian errands.

They'll forgive you. Okay, yeah, they're Canadian. What else can

they do? But anyway, so, and I'd heard about it, and heard about

it, and I was just kind of like whatever, because, you know,

there are a lot of books that get a lot of hype and then

really don't deserve it, but I have to say that girls enjoy.

Sorry, keep going. No, no, that's okay. That's okay. But

I'm really, really enjoying it, and I think I'm getting to the

point where I can understand where all the hype came from. So

and I think I'm almost done with it at this point, and I've only

had for almost two weeks, which is, like a personal best, that

is a record. Thank you. So it's, I mean, it's not like a

difficult read or anything like that, but it's very it's

definitely one of those books where you can get, like, lost in

it, you know, and like, lost in the characters heads. And I

think that's really an accomplishment for, like, any

book, but it's, it definitely deserved to be on that list.

And for a lit fic book, that's a pretty big,

yeah, accomplishment, because this can be so hard to get

through some days, you know, I would say the first two thirds

are hard to get through the book. If they're good, yeah?

Then, like, the last part,

right? It's like a breeze, yeah? Then you're like,

I loved that, yeah, exactly. It's hard to make a good ending.

So respect, yeah, yeah. So I'm not, yeah, like, I'm almost done

with it, so, but I'm enjoying it very much.

So good. What are you reading? Well, I'm glad

you asked. Oh, good, because that's, that's what we're going

to talk about for pretty much the rest of the prod, yes, yeah.

Um, well, let me see, is there anything else I've been reading?

I'm reading, um, writing, Frederick Engels, but we don't

need to talk about,

yeah, that's okay. Sorry, Dad.

I'm not sorry. I'm not really. It's not marked,

all right, so I am currently reading The Secret History of

The Jersey Devil by Brian regal and Frank Esposito. Okay, a lot

of the times when you get something on, like the

supernatural or some kind of urban legend or a monster. It's

kind of a dubious looking book. The cover might be bad. It might

be either self published or micro press that no one has

heard of and doesn't have the money to make it look nice, but

this is like a legit book, and every time I looked this up

somewhere to do research on it. It was the authors wrote so many

articles like they did a great job with their publicity, yeah,

and every podcast I listened to to learn about it was

referencing this book. So interesting. All right, so you

lived on the East Coast, sure did. In Pennsylvania,

Pennsylvania. So that's near New Jersey, right?

Yes, it is. In fact, it's immediately west of New

Jersey.

Do you have a Jersey Devil story? No, I don't.

Did you know anyone who claimed to have seen it honestly

when you sent me that outline today was the first time

I've heard of a Jersey

Devil. What really? Yeah. Oh, so you never

saw the last, the last broadcast in the 90s. Then, no, we can

talk about that later. That is very bad found footage horror

movie that everyone's like The Blair Witch Project was ripping

this off, but it's about The Jersey Devil. Oh, okay, okay,

yeah, I never heard of that anyway. So The Jersey Devil is

known as Mother leads his 13th child, and in the more like

fancy lore. And so the story goes that mother leads. Some

people say she's a witch, but some people are like, lady,

okay, she had 12 children. And they say, around it was like

1730 or something, she found out she was pregnant with a 13

Jesus. Yeah, child, okay. And she said, probably because she

was upset, yep, about having another baby. Uh huh. Let this

one be a devil. Oh, baby leads careful what you ask for. You're

going to manifest.

That's true. A she put that under vision board. I want

this baby to be a devil. She gets like, a

picture of a baby out of some like, engraved like page, and

then, like, draws little horns and a pitchfork. And then she's

kind of like, Oh, he's gonna be a farmer. So when the baby was

born, it came out with hooves, cloven hooves, okay, a long

tail. Oh, wow. I assume like a devil. Wait, is that like a

vestigial tail, which is like, maybe, yeah, okay, because some

people have those. I know, but not everyone. Not do people have

hooves? No. I mean, I don't know. I have

not heard of any, but

I have heard of the best digital tale. Yeah,

I have two. I'm guessing it's kind of more of a like double

flippy tale, okay, at least from pictures I've seen, sure. And

then big better, big better Y, big leathery bat wings, big

leathery bat wings, big leathery bat wings. I'm ready for the

theater, but I'm not being bitchy enough

been there,

so either it killed the entire family and

flew out of the chimney, or it just flew out of the chimney.

Oh, okay, and then how much account you read exactly, and

then it haunted the New Jersey pine barrens. Oh, okay, do you

know what those are? Nope, okay, so I barely know. I just know

that it's a bunch of swampy, okay, crap land that you can

that is kind of close to Atlantic City or something.

Okay, I don't know, but maybe that was a joke someone was

telling. Oh, all right, yeah, I don't know. In South New Jersey,

south where is Atlantic City? I don't know. Is it in South New

Jersey? Please write in

and yell at me where Atlantic City is. Yeah, I

honestly have no clue.

I read a book about it. I didn't I listened to

a book about it, and I just remember it being like it was

swampy and terrible. Oh, okay, yeah. Like, sounds delightful,

yeah. So the in, the reason we are talking about this today,

and not instead of it just being a book I'm reading, is because

the origin of the Jersey Devil story comes from publishing and

politics. Oh yeah, tell me more. Yes, I will. Have you ever been

in a fight online? Yeah?

Oh, I Okay. The only time I've ever been just one,

just one, wow, really, yeah, like, I just, I don't have that

time or the energy to get mad at people online, but I do. This

was a few years ago, though, and it was like, one of my friends

made a Facebook post about, like, abortion, and, like, one

of her she has, like, a really conservative, like, extended

family, and of course, her cousins are all like, that's

terrible. Who wants the kill babies, whatever. So I

definitely got in there, and I was like, I used to volunteer at

Planned Parenthood, and you don't know what the fuck you're

talking about. And I like that is, I will say the one issue I

get really heated about, but like, everything else, I'm kind

of like, I just, yeah, like, I don't have the energy to me,

like, I don't care about, yeah, I will say a person I don't even

know or care about. Like, why the fuck would I do that anyway?

But yes, that is the one fight I have gotten in online. So, yeah,

how long did it last? Probably just, like, four comments. So,

no, not very long. So it

didn't go on, like, all. All day, no, like two

days, no. But I know you've been an online fight. I've been in a

lot of online fights, but I would like to say that I have

only been in one in the last year. Oh, that's good. And I

wasn't really fighting. I was just baiting someone. Because

ever since they've invented the the ability to put gifs into

Facebook comments. I've only used that to make fun of people.

Oh, so this guy, this guy comments on every one of one of

my friends posts with a contrarian position. Jesus,

yeah, and so, and he's he's an idiot, so I just started like

baiting him with gifts. And he kept trying to intelligently

debate my gifts. I would recommend that to anyone. And

finally, he was just like, Why do you think blah, blah, blah,

why aren't you taking me seriously? And I was like, I

have no I literally said I have no desire to engage your garbage

takes. Yeah. He was like, well, thank you for being honest.

Maybe then he was like, seriously. He goes, if you ever

want to have an intelligent debate, you can just DM me. I

was

like, Are you hitting on me

after I just, like, mercilessly made fun of

you? Maybe he gets off on them. He probably does those kind of

guys usually do. Yeah, yeah. I think so, yep, Oh, wow. I

enjoyed myself. I enjoyed the story. So now I'm starting to

think of it like maybe I did the wrong thing. Well, so the dialog

in the world right now is, is not great. Yeah, everyone's

fighting. Yep, the media is trash. Yes, you would think it's

just the internet age. It wasn't. It was also in print for

many, many years and but instead of it lasting for four comments,

it's in your position. Yes, it would go on for years. Wow,

there would be years long. Oh, my God. Comment wars, well, they

called them pamphlet feuds. I love that. We should just call

like, oh, retro pamphlet feud. I don't do comment wars. We called

them flame wars in the early 2000s I remember that, stop

flaming my post, that moment you realize you have antiquated

slang. Because I was literally calling things flame wars up

until, like, recently, and then I just, no one had to tell me,

but I was like, No one says this name.

Oh, can I tell you a quick story, please, about so I

can drink my beer? Yes, I'll tell you a long story. Then, no,

um, there are several things that I've had to, like, look up

in recent years because I'm too old to understand what they are

at this point. Like, for example, a couple years ago, I

had to look up what OG meant, because everybody kept saying

that I know what that was. Means, original gang, yes, which

I found out. And then I had to look up what Molly was. I didn't

know what that was either. We called it x, yeah. So I think

those are the two most recent examples. But I do find myself

doing that more often than I'd care to admit. So, but you know

what, whatever, I'm gonna be 40 in a fucking month. So this,

that's right, is anyone throwing you a party? We're going to

Montana. Oh, that's right, yeah. So maybe he's throwing me a

party Montana, I don't know. Oh, yeah, I could do that too.

We'll see, we'll see. We'll talk about this

later. Okay, I think it's good to keep looking at things,

because that means you still want to engage with society and

don't expect everyone to like, conform to your antiquated ideas

about things.

Yes, right, right. Yeah. So yes, go on. Sorry.

Pamphlet wars,

pamphlet wars. So we, I mentioned that the

Jersey Devil is also mother leads 13th child, right? So it

used to be called the leads devil. Oh, okay. Or, I mean, it

didn't used to be that's kind of where it originated from. It

came from an actual family, leads family. They lived on the

Delaware River, which opened up to the ocean. So there was a lot

of you know, boats living there. But he was not Daniel Leeds,

yeah. Was not a sea captain of any kind. He was a writer, oh,

nice and an

astrologer, oh, my God, what

a cool guy. Oh, cool guy, yeah.

Also a Quaker. Oh, interesting.

All right, which, like, honestly, as far as

religious groups go, Quakers are pretty groovy. Yeah. They wanted

to, fine, yeah. They wanted to, like, create a society where

women and people of color and white people were all equal,

yeah, and they were some of the first abolitionists in the

country. So, you know, they're pretty cool. Yeah, you know what

they don't like, though? What's that? Astrology? Oh, no, no. So

he's a Quaker. He's a. Um, considers himself an

intellectual, okay. He's also into the occult, which was

apparently not like, super off limits at the time for like,

mainstream people, because a cult just meant, like, what is

unseen. Oh, sure, so it was sort of, I mean, there's a guy that

created a lot of, like, early magic books from France, from

the 1700s named, I don't, I'm going to pronounce this wrong,

but it's Eliphas Levi. Okay, that made, I don't know if that

was his real name, or, like his magicky name, or something like

that, but he was very into Kabbalah, but he considered

himself a Christian. Oh, interesting. So a lot of people

who were Christians would still get into occult stuff. I see in

that time, yeah. However, not Quaker, so much, not publicly.

Anyway, okay, yeah, everybody's looking, everybody's looking at

tarot cards at home. Yeah? So Quakers were mad. He put out a

pamphlet, which I saw, like one of Brian Regal, I think, in a

podcast I was listening to, who's the author of this book?

Yeah? Called it an almanac. And I'm like, oh, okay, it's one

page. How can it be an almanac? Right? Because an almanac is a

book of dates and like title things and like when you're

supposed to plant stuff, and apparently, also like

inspirational quotes and little funny stories and stuff like

that. So it sounds a lot like the Llewellyn planner I gave you

yes for Christmas. It's like the stars will be here at this time.

So he created this thing. He was very proud of it. He was like,

I'm going to be a leading intellectual person, and all of

my Quaker friends will think I'm so great and a leader in our

group, and they were just like, You're terrible. Oh, and we hate

you. So they bought as many of the pamphlet as they could find,

and, like destroyed all of them. They were so pissed off about

it. God, that's rude. His feelings were so hurt. He was

extremely hurt from it. And so he goes, they just didn't

understand. They just didn't understand. I'm gonna try this

again. And he wrote a book called The Temple of wisdom.

This is in 1688, that he wrote this. He was like, Okay, well, I

didn't write enough in the first one. They don't understand.

Like, how you can also be a good Christian and be into astrology.

So I'm gonna prove it to him. They hated that even more. Oh,

and they bought all of the book and burned all of the books too.

There's only like, one extant copy somewhere.

And, yeah, I have a question, though, yes, did he

get like, profits from the sale of the book or the pamphlet?

Um, you know, I don't know if he just passed

it out.

The joke's on them because they bought them all so

fuck you. I mean, super, right?

Like, yeah, I don't know if he did or not,

that I'll have to go back. Well, yeah, I was

just curious, because I was shouldn't be that upset

about it. If, like, he got

money from them, I don't know if they had

that capitalist mindset at this Oh, God, you know what? I mean,

sure, sure. Because, like, maybe that's true, but I think to him,

it was more important that he be a respected member of the

community. And so it was like, all of his his buds, yeah,

right. It just being like, life's work, yeah, yeah. I can

understand how that would sting, yeah. So after the book was

destroyed, he was like, I'm done with you people, yeah. And so he

dedicated himself to, like, totally discrediting the

Quakers. Oh on mass. Oh, good for him, I guess, yeah, but he

started writing like he wrote a pamphlet in 1701 called,

I hate, I hate the Quakers. No, it's called, oh

boy, good. News of a strumpet cohabitating

in the wilderness. That's pretty good. It's basically just about

how the Quakers are a bunch of like, sexually promiscuous, like

hypocrites. Oh, okay, basically

fair. That's a fair criticism. I mean, is it? I

mean, I don't know any Quakers, but if they're like, saying

they're such good Christians, and then they're like, all

fucking each other and they're not married, then yeah, I guess,

right, I guess, yeah, I'm all strumpets. That is a word I

wish don't strut it shame me.

I really wish that word would come back and vote,

because I think it's a great word.

Well, when we were all theater kids who were

being ignored all the time, we used to call each other back

trumpet. It was a way for the boys to say mean things to the

girls with and then they'd laugh instead of, oh, right, yeah,

being like, You're an asshole. Call me a slut. Yeah, so his,

his, his smear campaign over the moral dissipation of the Quakers

began, okay, and then another Quaker guy named strop it Caleb

pussy

can. Can you please spell that for me?

It's P, U, S, E, y, so maybe, but that's also

terrible. Thank you for saying it like Caleb pussy. Caleb pussy

wrote a book called Daniel leads, justly rebuked.

Oh, my God, at least it's fair, right now, that's

true. That's true.

And then, in response leads, wrote a book

called The rebuker, rebuked Oh, my God. So then it completely

after the books, after the full books were made, it devolved

into a pamphlet, pamphlet feud, I see, um, which is, as I was

saying, yeah, the 16 and 1700s version of a flame war, sure,

Yep, yeah. And it went on, like I said, four years. So on top of

that, though, you know, you might think that Daniel Leeds is

the hero, yeah, but that would make you a bad American. Oh,

okay, because Daniel Leeds was a royalist. Oh no, which even in

1701 was looked askance, I see at the point. At that point, it

wasn't like, you terrible trader, blah, blah, blah. But

apparently Daniel leads was like, really close with one of

the government officials who is especially a pain in the ass.

Oh, okay. And so everyone just looked at him, and was like, Oh,

you're that guy's guy. Like, I don't know. Like, yeah, Mike

Pence, something, yeah, maybe not that bad, but Right, right.

But you know, it's like, why are you talking to the guy, that

guy? Or, like, you know, now that the whole Jeffrey Epstein

thing is happening, Steven Pinker, because apparently they

were friends. Like, fuck that guy. I gotcha. Yeah, anyway. So

they're like, We don't especially like him anyway, but

so all of this stuff is going back and forth and going back

and forth, and then Daniel Leeds was eventually known as Satan's

Harbinger. Cool, yeah, for him. So probably upset about it, but

that's a cool name. So apparently, back in the day, it

was the thing to call your political opponents monsters and

devils. So everyone was calling each other devils, and it was

pretty soon after, like the witch hunts and all that stuff.

So it wasn't like, Yeah, whatever, I'm a devil, yeah. It

was just

like, No, no, I'm not. No, I'm not a devil. How dare

you slander in the public

square. I see. Okay, okay.

So yes, after Daniel leads, either I don't

know if he died or gave up on it, he had been life. I'm done

with this. My pen cannot handle another scratch, or they add up.

They had a press. They had a printing press. By then it was

like, you know, wood and steel and, sure, some kind of Stampy

thing that came down, like a guillotine. Oh, wow. Okay, I

found a picture of it. I will put it on the website. Please

do, yes, but it's the one that Benjamin Franklin used, not the

one that Leeds used. Okay, because we're about to talk

about to talk about Benjamin Franklin. Spoiler alert. I mean,

apparently a lot of people thought he was sexy. Really,

yeah, all the time. Really, yeah, he was, like, the most

fucked, consensually fucked, God founding

father. Wow. I did not see that coming. But all right,

really, yeah,

you then you clearly don't read Kate Beaton,

no, just from pictures I've seen of him, I find that everyone was

a dog back then. Yeah, that's true. Maybe he was just, like,

really charismatic, yes, okay, yeah, that'll get you a lot. And

he lived in France for a while, shit. Yeah, okay, that explains

more. All right. Anyway, I'll show you the hark vagrant. It's

like a comment. It was a, it was a web comic for a while. And

then we also have the book, and Ben Franklin's like a recurring

character, and he's always having sex with two French

ladies. Uh huh, oh, okay, at the same time, sure. Anyway, also

there was, what was it? I started like, reading his

autobiography, and he just kept talking about how like women,

like he was, he came on too strong to women because he was a

prick. Yeah. So he was talking about all the people who like,

all the friends he lost because he did on their wives. Oh, my

God, he was kind of an asshole. He sounds Oh, and we're about to

find out why he's even more of an owl. Oh, okay, but it's

really funny, okay, especially retrospectively. So Titan leads

was Daniel Leeds son, and he took over the Leeds Almanac,

which was became the most popular almanac in Pennsylvania,

a yearly, yeah, a yearly almanac that came out. So, like the

Farmer's Almanac, yeah, okay, yeah, like, which still exists

to this day, sure does. So, all right, so Titan Leeds is in

charge. Uh huh. Enter Benjamin Franklin. Gotcha. I'll give you

a little background on the publishing experience of

Benjamin Franklin to this point. Okay, so he was born January 17,

1706, in Boston. Aquarius, no Capricorn. Oh shit. All right,

how dare you I'm sorry.

I apologize to all the Aquarians out there.

So his career in publishing began when he was

12 years old, and he apprenticed for his brother, James, and he

worked in his print shop. So later, James started an

independent newspaper and took little Ben along with him, and

Ben was not a good student. But you know what entrepreneur is a

good student. He went and started Apple in his garage. Ah,

I

was gonna guess he was too busy chasing skirts.

I mean, possibly, yeah. But he also was,

like, 14. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's fine. Well, yeah, he was, he was

metaphorically wearing a skirt, though. Oh, that's true. What

happened is he really wanted to contribute his thoughts to his

brother's newspaper. He's like, I have many good thoughts. I

read many leather bound books because, you know he wasn't, you

know he he was self educated. Yeah, he wasn't into school.

School didn't get him right. So he read a lot of books, and he

was like, I want to contribute to my brother's newspaper.

James, please. Yeah, Jimmy, please. Jimmy's like, no, never

a child. So without his brother knowing, Benjamin started

writing letters to the editor under a pseudonym.

Oh, was it Benjamin Franklin? Very much.

It was a middle aged widow, oh, named

silence do good. And so he's doing this in 1722, and silenced

do good wrote 14 letters to the newspaper before his brother

figured out that it was what we was doing. This is, this is how

silence do good described herself. Okay. Know then that I

am an enemy to vice and a friend to virtue. I am one of extensive

charity and a great Forgiver of private injuries, a hearty lover

of the clergy and all good men and a moral enemy to arbitrary

government and unlimited power. The original Infowars. I am

naturally very jealous for the rights and liberties of my

country, and the least appearance of an encroachment on

those invaluable privileges is apt to make my blood boil

exceedingly the birth of a founding father. I have,

likewise, a natural inclination to observe and reprove the

faults of others. I thought you were forgiving silence, yeah,

really at which I have an excellent faculty. I speak this

by way of warning to all such offenders shall come under my

cognizance, for I never intend to wrap my talent in a napkin.

To be brief, because, yeah, too late I'm affable, good humored,

unless I am first provoked and handsome and sometimes witty.

Wait a minute, I have a question. So this is a letter to

the editor. It sounds like an OKCupid profile or something

like that. It's not like, I don't feel like he's, or, excuse

me, she has, like an opposition to an idea presented in

the well, I only took an excerpt.

Oh, okay, Jesus Christ, and he kept saying, like this,

I'll keep it brief, and there was more to it. Oh, this was,

like, the fourth paragraph, yeah, 14

letters. Sorry. I just feel like this is like, allow me to

introduce myself. My name is silence, and I'm very, very

brief.

I'm a Capricorn. I enjoy long walks on the

beach. No, no, not a Capricorn.

Libra, yeah, okay, sure, yeah. I'm a Libra, a

very opinionated Libra, because those exist.

We love all our Libra friends.

Oh, I definitely do, yeah. So when

James found out that it was Ben Franklin, he was not happy. Oh,

so around when, when Ben was 17, yeah, he got bored of his

brother and of working at his apprenticeship, and he just

left, which, apparently, back then, could get you thrown in

jail. Oh, leaving your apprenticeship early. Okay,

yeah, it's like if you dropped out of college and you were

still considered truant, I guess. Oh, okay, so he secretly

stole away to Philadelphia, which is where he really wanted

to be, because that's where all the action was. Oh sure. He

started trying to set up his own publishing career, but he wasn't

getting as good of jobs as he wanted, which, you know, yep,

understandable for a young, 17 year old, ambitious fellow who's

already going bald right from stress. Oh my god, he needs to

calm down. So I don't know how it came to this, because I

didn't really have time to super look into it, and I kind of

forgot that. I don't know he was probably at some event or

something like that. But the governor of Pennsylvania was

like, Well, if you're having a hard time here in Philadelphia,

why don't you go to London work on your career over there? Okay?

So he was like, Okay. And he like, got on a boat, and I think

he stowed away on the boat too, or at least he said so in his

autobiography. Yeah, he might have been lying,

okay, because he was wise, yeah, because he thinks

he's silenced too good. It's like, also, I can't believe his

brother didn't think that was a fake name. Like it took him 14

letters to figure out the silence do good was like, not a

real

person, 14. Yeah. Well, I guess on the 14th

he figured, excuse me, 13. No, you were right. I just picture

him as like, what is it like? Costello like, Oh,

you got me again. Benji, anyway, so Benjamin Franklin goes to

London, okay? And he works for another printer for two years,

and so built up a lot of cred, sure. So he comes back to

Philadelphia, and he's like, Okay, I know what I'm doing now.

And he becomes publisher for the Pennsylvania Gazette, and is

running that by 1730 okay? And doing a whole bunch of other

stuff, very political things, but it's his dream come true,

because he's very much about free speech, okay, you know

America, yeah. So he had a bunch of other projects around that

time, including he worked for other newspapers he kind of

didn't. The funny thing about like, printing presses back

then, is they kind of just slapped it together. And I don't

think that there was a standard, you know, correct me if I'm

wrong, if anyone knows. But I don't think there was, like, a

really standardized grammar and spelling, spell check quite yet,

right? So I think there were several different ways of

spelling, different things I see. And he started a library

with some of his friends in Philadelphia, which exists to

this day. Oh, okay, and because they liked reading books. But

what they said was it was hard to get books back then, and so

they'd all kind of pitch in because the books were expensive

too, yeah, so they'd pitch in, they'd bring books in, and then

they'd all share books. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, it's pretty

cool. So that's a cool library, exactly,

okay?

And so he made a lot of political pamphlets as

well, including one that was super racist against Germans.

Oh, which is weird. And also apparently, really hurt his

political career. So he that's part of why he never, like,

became,

like, Chair of Germany.

I was gonna say President,

or that, yeah, but

yeah, so he didn't really get a lot of

positions because he had, he had some controversial opinions. Oh,

wow. He also had slaves up until like 1780 even though he

started, like speaking out against slavery in 17 like nine

or 17 like 69 or something like that. It's like, okay, but these

are my family, right? You can't say these people. It's

different. The only legal slave is my slave, yeah, oh, my God, I

know, a dick, but yeah. Eventually he, like, set up some

abolitionist foundation before he died, or some shit. But, you

know, throw money at the table free

all his slaves before that, he did that. Probably not.

I don't

think so. Anyway, I don't know,

but he said it was bad. He did say it was bad, all

right.

Anyway, so he also, and this is kind of

badass. I think he printed the Bible at a time where it was

illegal for anyone except the king's press in London to print

the Bible. Oh, that is better. Yeah. He was like, I'll

establish what I want. Fuck you, yeah, freedom of speech, right,

right. So he also started an almanac, all right, called Poor

Richard's Almanac, okay? And it was in 1733, and he used this

pseudonym. Am Richard Saunders to write the comic.

He's very fond of pseudonyms, I may say,

yeah, exactly, but that's fine, I guess. Yeah,

it's not chicken shit

at all. Yeah. Why did he just use Benjamin Franklin?

Benjamin Franklin, he's still alive, and

now he's known as Q anon.

So, so he's writing under Richard Saunders, because it's

his almanac. It's poor Richard. He really wanted to be an actor.

Maybe, I don't know, yeah, it sounds that way. Yeah, yeah.

It's like, this is gonna be me someday, where I'm like, I'm

terrible at accents, but I can pretend to write as different

people. So Titan leads, yes, running Leeds Almanac, that was

the most popular almanac in Pennsylvania at the time. And

you know, Ben Franklin, Philadelphia. He wants to be the

most, the best, yeah, obviously. And so Ben Franklin is also

pretty like anti religion and anti astrology, especially he

thought that was the biggest crock of shit. Well, a lot of

people like that now too. Yeah, so, and he loved picking fights,

Oh, great. And he loved free speech, sure. So typical

Capricorn, yeah. So he knew that everybody, kind of like hated.

He knew about all the Quaker bullshit that went on with

Daniel Leeds and all the pamphlet wars and everything

like that. And he's like, Well, this is ripe for me to fuck

with, yes, and like a true member of the American media,

Ben Franklin made up a bunch of bullshit to get attention. Oh,

wow, and to steal Leeds market share. So in character as

Richard Saunders in the almanac. In the first edition of the

almanac, he claimed that through his astrological measurement,

Titan leads would die that year, 1733, in October. And he calls

Leeds his good friend and fellow student of astrology. Oh, exact

quote. He dies by calculation made by his request on October

17, 1733, by his own calculation, he dies by the 26th

of the same month. This small difference between us he is

disputed whenever we have met these past nine years. But at

length, he is inclinable, inclinable, inclinable, inclined

to agree to my judgment which of us is the most exact a little

time will now determine by the next Dominic and find out. So

the next day, Titan leads you know, has to respond to this so

he sees it. He's not amused. He's freaked out. And as we

know, when someone publicly freaks out about someone making

a joke, yeah, they turn themselves into a troll magnet.

That's true, like me sending gifts to that guy

who loved every minute.

Yeah, I don't think, I don't think Titan leads

loved this.

He was not as good as his father, Daniel, oh at pamphlet.

I don't know who, I don't know who this Richard Saunders is.

And so he starts refuting everything, insisting he's

actually dead. So in his next Almanac, he said that Franklin

has usurped the knowledge of the Almighty manifest himself a fool

and a liar. Wow. Them's fighting words, I know. So in response to

this, yes, Ben Franklin stays in character, acts very affronted

and says that his dear friend, the real Titan leads, was too

well a man to treat any man so indecently and so scuriously.

The exact quote, there's the strongest probability that my

dear friend is no more, for there appears in his name, as I

am assured, an almanac for the year 1734, in which I am treated

in a very gross and unhandsome manner in which I am called a

false predictor, an ignorant a conceited scribbler, a fool and

A liar. Oof I know Mr. Leeds was too well bred to use any man so

indecently and so scurrilously, and moreover, his esteem and

affection for me was extraordinary, so that it is to

be feared that pamphlet may be only a contrivance of somebody

or other. Okay. Hopes perhaps to sell two or three years Almanac,

still, by the sole force and virtue of Mr. Leeds name, wow, I

know. So he's accusing him, yeah, of using a publicity stunt

right to sell his almanac. Oh, my God, which is the most

amazing gaslighting I've ever seen. Pretty good. That's pretty

good, yeah. And then he went on to say that he had received

Franklin had received much abuse from the ghost of Titan leads,

whoa, like, obviously this couldn't have been Titan leads,

no. So his ghost is writing this because he wants to make money

on the

almond. Oh, my God, wait. Did the ghost do anything

else? Or he just wrote the letter.

So he wrote another. I don't have it here,

but like, apparently this went back and forth a few times. So

every time Titan leads would be like, I'm not dead. I'm not

dead. Ben Franklin would be like, Titan leads, ghost is very

upset with me. I think he's, oh, he's taken over the paper and

he's trying to sell it. Oh, my God, in real life, Titan leads

wouldn't be so evil. But apparently, when he's dead, he's

very angry. So then, uh huh, Leeds actually died in 1738, oh,

okay, and at this point, yeah, Ben Franklin was very much like,

Okay, well, you know, if we had a good laugh, that was very fun.

Uh huh. Rip. Uh huh. That's not what happened. Benjamin Franklin

faked a letter from Bleach, written from beyond the grave,

of course.

All right, Ben Franklin says, I'm going to read

you the whole Well, it's not the whole letter, but it's two

paragraphs of the letter. So this is what Franklin said. He

said on the fourth instant toward midnight, as I sat in my

little study writing this preface, I fell fast asleep and

continued in that condition for some time without dreaming

anything to my knowledge, on awaking I found lying before me

the following letter, dear friend, Saunders, my respect for

you continues even in this separate state, and I am grieved

to see the aspersions thrown on you by the malevolence of

avaricious publishers of almanacs who envy your success.

They say your prediction of my death in 1733 was false, and

they pretend that I remained alive many years after, but I do

hereby certify that I did actually die at that time,

precisely at the hour you mentioned, with a variation of

only five minutes and 53 seconds, which must be allowed

to be no great matter in such cases. And I do farther declare

that I furnish them with no calculations of the planet's

motions, and seven years after my death, as they are pleased to

give out so that the stuff they publish as an almanac in my name

is no more mine than tis yours. Oh, you will wonder, perhaps,

how this paper comes written on your table. You must know that

no separate spirits are under any confinement till after the

final settlement of all accounts. In the meantime, we

wander where we please, visit our old friends, observe their

actions, enter sometimes into their imaginations and give them

hints waking or sleeping that may be of advantage to them.

Finding you asleep, I entered your left nostril, ascended into

your brain, found out where the ends of those nerves were

fastened that move your right hand and fingers by the help of

which I am now writing unknown to you, but when you open your

eyes, you will see that the hand written is mine, though, wrote

with yours. Whoa, I know.

Yeah, there's no ego here at

all. No, no, yeah, he doesn't have a very high opinion

of himself. Clearly, my God,

it goes on from there, but I'm going to

stop okay. So the unfinished business, business that he had,

that leads had, was telling Benjamin Franklin how great he

was and how he was exactly right about when he died, except by

like, five minutes and 53 seconds there was a difference.

Your calculations were correct. And then Franklin went on to to

thank this gracious ghost for the olive branch. Wished him

well in the afterlife. Wow, that's nice. Yeah. So what does

this have to do with The Jersey Devil? Yes, yes. So Leeds was

basically a political enemy, to Quakers, to a lot of people who

were anti royal, okay, and throughout the years. Because

what? And Daniel Leeds wrote all that stuff in, you know, late

1600s early 1700s there was already some anti royal feelings

going on. But by the time like 1730 came around, it was, you

know, a lot hotter, sure, yeah, so the whole family was still

viewed as, like, sympathizers with the crown. Ah, okay. So,

because at that time, people were considered, anytime you had

an enemy politically, you called them a monster or a devil, yeah,

right, the leads devil kind of was a scapegoat that people it

became like an idiom. Oh, okay. So people would talk about the

Leeds devil and use it as, like a political scape goat, and it

was in like cartoons, oh, cool. And so later on, this, through a

giant game of telephone, yeah, became the leads devil, and then

the leads devil became The Jersey Devil, okay, okay. And so

that's how a pamphlet feud and some serious trolling. Yeah,

from beyond the grave, yes, about the dead, led to the

popular legend of New Jersey's beloved state demon. Oh, wait,

does every state have a demon? Just New

Jersey? That's cool. Good for New Jersey. Seriously,

I mean, you know, yeah, if any state's gonna have a state,

yeah, it's New Jersey. That's true. Yeah, from what I hear,

yeah, New Jersey gets a lot of shit it doesn't deserve. I feel

like, you know, you like it, um, I, I

never went there, but they deserve better.

I mean, I just feel like they do get a lot of shit thrown at

them. I mean, I will say, you know, when I lived in New York,

the bar that was located not directly below my apartment, but

like one apartment over, like below, was definitely patronized

by what we called, like the bridge and tunnel crowd, which

was, of course, people from New Jersey, and they were very loud

and annoying and obnoxious, and would get in fights all the

time, and I can't verify that they were actually from New

Jersey. I just think that's like, you know, a stereotype

that exists that may or not, may or may not be true, but I don't

know. I mean, I will say I just feel like they're unfairly

maligned a lot of the time, because there's a lot of places

in New Jersey that are nice. I'm sure I've just never

been and you're friends with me, so you

like loud, obnoxious

people. You're not obnoxious or loud. What? Just

your laugh, your laugh, but so is mine. So that's why we have a

podcast together, so we can laugh loudly into the microphone

Exactly. Wait, I have been, I've been to Newark, which is just

the airport, though, that doesn't really count. So yeah,

anyway, but I have no beef with New Jersey. No beef in Jersey.

Yeah, yeah.

You're not snobby about it. No, not were

you like reacting to the snobbines of New Yorkers?

Probably, yes, but I do that a lot, because they have a

lot of snobbines. Yeah? You know,

I feel that. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so that's

the end of my story. It's a good story. Let let us know if you

want to hear more stories like that, because that was kind of

fun. That was fun. I had a great time. And I know that you like

scandals. Yeah, you like literary scandal. I love

literary scandals and Grifters and Grifters. Yes, I do Grifters

and hucksters,

uh huh, who are a lot like cult leaders in many ways,

actually, yes, that's the connection

that is true. Yeah, so, yeah, I would ask

maybe Corinne to bring the next story.

Sure. Yeah, awesome, yeah.

All right. Well, you can find us on

Facebook, as we mentioned earlier, hybrid pub Scout,

Twitter, at hybrid pub scouts, Instagram, hybrid pub, Scout

pod. And please, please, please, please, leave us a review on

iTunes, or even just a rating, or

just a rating, but if you leave us a review, would be

great. And I will, I will do an accent of any kind. She is. I've

tried a couple times. I think I did okay with the southern one

before that Russian, oh yeah, that one was okay. I loved it.

If I worked on them a little, I could probably do better. But,

yeah, yeah, you know, but still, you might get some comedy out of

it. So that's worth something.

We gotta take all the laughs We can get in

this world, right? Oh, god, it's fucking true. Yeah, that's true.

You got anything else to say? Corinne, nope. All right,

everybody, thanks for giving a rip about books. Bye.