CBR12 BINGO: Debut
This whole hermit lifestyle I have been living for the last five months has yielded a handful of healthy side effects. In an unprecedented turn of events, I have turned to walking as a quarantine-induced anxiety and stress reliever. My sister gave me her old FitBit and my non-athletic competitive spirit kicked in. I WILL get in at least 13,000-15,000 steps EVERY DAMN DAY. Those circles WILL BE closed.
If I’m not feeling like slapping on a mask and braving the city sidewalks where 6 feet is APPARENTLY a variable measurement, I accomplish this by circling the first floor of my house. I am a big fan of routine and naturally lean in to being a homebody, but this can get tedious. So, I turned to podcasts which, up until this point, I reserved for long car rides and cooking dinner.
Stitcher kept floating the same crazy ransom note lettered graphic at me every time I got on: My Favorite Murder. I finally heeded the advertising call and listened to the first episode from 2016. I was hooked. I have been working my way towards the middle by alternating between the start of the podcast and the current episodes. See-sawing between the 2016 Presidential election and the dumpster fire that is 2020 is very interesting.
Looks like there a few “murderinos” amongst the Cannonballers and I’m not surprised. However, for those of you who are unfamiliar or did not read the previous reviews of this book here, My Favorite Murder is a true crime podcast about…murder. Well, mostly about murder. Two women who love true crime get to talking about murder at a party. Eventually they look up and notice they have cleared the room but realize they have found a kindred spirit. A lunch or two later and a podcast was born.
Every week Karen and Georgia either each choose a murder to talk about or read a handful of “hometown murders” sent in by listeners on special “Minisodes.” The podcast is interspersed with very candid discussions about their mental health, past addiction issues, and personal lives, and feels a lot like a slumber party without all of the mean girls. A lights off, under the covers with a flashlight scary story situation minus trying to make someone pee their pants or cry. It’s delightful.
After spending all of this time pacing my house with their voices in my ears, I was ready for a deeper dive into their “real lives” so I picked up a copy of their “dual memoir.” I’m not going to lie. It took a little while for me to get comfortable with the writing style here. It’s more of a series of essays loosely tied to a handful of catch phrases that have stuck with listeners and spawned a pile of memes, fan art and merchandise: Fuck Politeness, Sweet Baby Angel, You’re in a Cult Call Your Dad, Send ’em Back, Don’t be A Fucking Lunatic, Buy Your Own Shit and Stay Out of the Forest.
Karen and Georgia take turns applying personal experiences to each of these phrases. It often takes a very meandering path. My inner editor cringed more than I would like to admit but once I relaxed and began to read the way that I listen to their podcast, I enjoyed getting some of the personal things they mention fleshed out. I imagine it was a little like the lunch conversations that they had when they were hatching their podcast plans.
These ladies are definitely a piece of my “surviving this pandemic” puzzle and their book was a quick pleasure read. I think they’d call it a “fuckin’ hooray.”