Small talk: Lazy Cakes, hot dogs and the pork chopper bill
Kai Ryssdal: This final note on the way out today. Something we could all probably use more of on a Friday: a chance to get away from the big news and catch up on stuff that didn’t quite make the headlines. It comes to us courtesy of Rico Gagliano, Brendan Francis Newnam and the rest of the Marketplace staff.
Brendan Newnam: Nancy Farghalli, editor for Marketplace. What story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Nancy Farghalli: The state of Massachusetts is trying to prohibit Lazy Cakes from being sold in its state.
Newnam: What are Lazy Cakes?
Farghalli: Basically brownies laced with melatonin. Kids are eating the brownies and they’re falling asleep and then having to go to the hospital.
Newnam: Whoa. So these are like the opposite of Red Bull?
Farghalli: Very much so. You want to drink Red Bull to keep you up, and then you want to have Lazy Cakes to bring you down.
Newnam: Why don’t people just have food that feeds them? Like why do they expect more?
Farghalli: Because we’re multi-taskers. I want my food to feed me, clothe me and make me go to bed.
Newnam: How about a candy bar that would, like, edge my lawn?
Farghalli: Of course.
Rico Gagliano: Jennifer Collins, reporter. What story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Jennifer Collins: Well I’m going to be talking about Nathan’s hot dogs. So you know they have this big, huge hot-dog-eating contest every July 4th. They’ve created a division specifically for women.
Gagliano: Wow. Out of the kindness of their heart?
Collins: Well, you know there are a lot of women who are competing these days. We’re big eaters, Rico.
Gagliano: I guess so. How big? Is there a female champ?
Collins: Well they call her the Black Widow. Her name’s Sonya Thomas. Her record is 41 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
Gagliano: My god. You’ve come a long way, baby. Gloria Steinem can retire.
Collins: The ketchup ceiling has been broken.
Newnam: Matt Berger, senior web producer for Marketplace. What story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Matt Berger: The pork chopper bill.
Newnam: What? Is this like a regulation for a butchers’ union?
Berger: Nope. It’s actually in the Texas Senate, they’ve passed a bill to deal with this huge problem in the state — they’re being overrun by feral hogs.
Newnam: So what is this bill about?
Berger: Well the pork chopper bill allows people to hunt them from helicopters.
Newnam: Not from motorcycles.
Berger: No, that’s a different kind of hog.
Newnam: It’s a different sort of chopper.
Ryssdal: There’s much more where that came from. The podcast Brendan and Rico do is called Dinner Party Download.
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