An Americanist
Welcome to An Americanist, your go-to solo podcast for a quick and snarky dive into the current events and politics shaping our nation! As a daily extension of the An Americanist blog, I’m here to break down the headlines that matter—Monday through Friday—without the fluff and filler.
In each bite-sized episode, I tackle the latest political news, dissect current events, and share my unfiltered thoughts, all with a sprinkle of humor and a touch of sass. From legislative shenanigans to social issues stirring the pot, I’ll keep you informed and entertained in just a few minutes each day.
Join me as we explore the stories that impact America and remind ourselves why an engaged citizenry is essential for our democracy. Whether you’re commuting, grabbing coffee, or taking a break, An Americanist Daily is the perfect way to stay in the loop without sacrificing your time or sense of humor.
Subscribe now and let’s navigate the complexities of today’s America—one short episode at a time. The. Go read the blog for a more in depth analysis. AnAmericanist.com
An Americanist
Pot-Smoking Spouses and Snake-Infested Bathrooms: A Morning Roundup
Ever wonder if your hotel checkout routine brands you as "old-fashioned"? You're not alone! Today's episode dives into the surprisingly heated debate over proper hotel etiquette, where younger travelers champion the "ghost exit" while others defend the traditional front desk farewell as basic courtesy to hardworking staff.
The absurdity of corporate America takes center stage with Mattel's lawsuit against podcaster Ken Bibiragi for daring to use his actual name in his show "Coffee with Ken." The toy giant claims this creates confusion with Barbie's boyfriend—a stretch that has us questioning whether legal departments sometimes have too much time on their hands. This David-versus-Goliath no battle reveals how aggressive trademark protection can border on the ridiculous.
We also explore Zoe Kravitz's misadventure at Taylor Swift's $25 million mansion, where a pet snake escape led to bathroom demolition, and tackle a controversial Dear Abby letter from a woman considering divorce after 50 years of marriage because her 70-year-old husband has taken up daily marijuana use. This sparks our deeper discussion about cannabis legalization, medical benefits, and societal double standards between marijuana and cigarette smoking. Share your thoughts on these topics—especially if you work in healthcare, we'd love to hear your professional perspective on marijuana's legitimate uses versus recreational consumption!
Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE
Thanks for listening!
Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast.
Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE
Tip Jar for coffee $ - Thanks
Music by Alehandro Vodnik from Pixabay
Blog - AnAmericanist.com
X - @americanistblog
Hello, good morning. We have a few light stories for you today, thank goodness, and maybe one controversial one, but we'll save the controversial one at the end, okay. So let's see what we have here. How do you check out of a hotel? Generations argue over the right way to do it An old person thing. So I've traveled a lot. We still travel.
Speaker 1:We go to Tunica quite often, and you know we check out of the. When we check out, we've we have in the past gone to the desk to check out like normal people. Lately, though, we've just they have a box out before you leave that you can put your room key in, and then we just leave this last time we went, I think we just walked right out without going to the desk to check out. Normally we don't do that. Apparently, it's an old thing to do to go to the desk, though this one, tiktoker, said that it's an old person thing. You don't have to go by the desk to check out. However, she's gotten some pushback on this, but let's start For older generations. This is how you check out of the hotel you just walk out. The video read the front desk doesn't need you to tell them you're checking out and they don't need you to hand them your room key.
Speaker 1:She doubled down in the caption, but her ghost exit hack didn't exactly get standing ovation in the comments section. First of all, that's not a hack of any kind. To walk by, not check, that's not a hack. Okay, younger generations, this is how you leave. If you don't want to be kind and maybe give someone else the early check-in, they really need.
Speaker 1:One critic clapped back, one other noted no, but as a former housekeeper, it makes your jobs a lot easier if you're polite and let someone know. An additional user replied. You do you. I'm not afraid of a minor social interaction. Travel for work, hundreds of hotels. I always check out at the desk Key receipt, and it's the right thing to do. Someone insisted Another one piled on. Checking out isn't an old person thing, it's empathetic to the staff. So what do you think about that? When you travel, do you check out at the desk? I mean, plus, you want to kind of go over your bill to make sure it's all right before you leave the hotel, I would imagine. I mean, I know you can do that online. You can go to your car, check out online. You get your bill right away or even before you leave. Before you even leave your room, you probably get a thing on your phone, a receipt, email, whatever. So maybe you don't need to go by the desk. Who knows. What are your thoughts on that? That is not the question of the day, but you can still give me your thoughts on that if you'd like.
Speaker 1:All right, next up, mattel, the toy company, is suing Coffee with Ken podcast is some David versus Goliath style bullying. I guess. This guy has a podcast called Coffee with Ken and for some reason Mattel wants to end on that action and says no, you can't have a podcast named Coffee with Ken because you're assuming the Ken doll Barbie identity. His name is Ken, ken and it's coffee with Ken. Get it, it goes together. So another nice little story.
Speaker 1:Mattel is suing political podcaster. Oh, so it's political. I wonder which way he leans Ken. I cannot pronounce his last name, which is probably why he calls it coffee with Ken and not coffee with Ken Bibberage, a realtor and former Manhattan Chamber of Commerce chair. Why Such a good question? Because Ken is using his name Ken, his own legal name, hung on him in the hospital incubator by his own birth mother but not allowed, as per Mattel. Why, you ask. Ask, his show is coffee with Ken, mattel. Mattel insists Ken's name is associated, is associated with Barbie's squeaky clean boyfriend and could cause confusion. Oh my gosh, we are not stupid people. Do you think coffee with Ken is going to be about a stupid Barbie doll named Ken? No, I swear. Mattel insists Ken's name is okay. Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:The gigantic cockamamie company in whose movie Ken was Ryan Gosling, is suing, saying Biberage's Ken would damage its brand. What it might damage is their brain. Lawyers need something to do besides defending the menendez brothers, apparently. So I have spoken with bibiraji, who is forging ahead despite its david versus goliath bullying. Bibiraji's family owns okay, get this, he's not such a little david, after all. Bibiraji's family owns the, the Russian tea room. Hello, if Mattel doesn't back off, putin can sit. Putin could send his troops over for some chicken. Kaiv chick no, that's dumb, okay. And then it goes on to a different story, just ends that way. It doesn't give us anything else, all right, uh, I just think that's ridiculous, all right.
Speaker 1:Moving on this, zoe Kravitz. She's the daughter of Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz, right, lenny Kravitz Is that his name? The singer song, whatever she's been in a lot of things. I had to look her up because I have no idea who she is. I know the name, kravitz, but I have no idea who she is, what she's been in. I looked her up. She's been in a lot of things, a lot of things I have not seen because I'm an old person, apparently.
Speaker 1:Anyway, during those LA fires, taylor Swift took her in and let her stay at her big, huge mansion, and they stayed there for a couple of weeks she and her mother, I think. And why do people have pet snakes is beyond me, I don't know. So Zoe Kravitz has revealed that she stayed at Taylor Swift's sprawling Beverly Hills home as the deadly wildfires ravaged through California earlier this year, during an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, she said that the 14-time Grammy winner opened up her lavish $25 million Beverly Hills mansion to her and her famous mom, lisa Bonet. So yes, her mom was with her. We ended up having to stay there for about two weeks, the High Fidelity actress said, adding that they were joined by her mom's pet snake, orpheus. So Lisa Bonet has a pet snake. Why people do this, I don't know. And Taylor has this beautiful house it's from the 30s, something you want to preserve and take care of. So of course they tried to take care of it. She says she likes to be a good house guest, leave the place better than when she arrived, and I believe that and I guess the day that they were leaving they were cleaning things up and everything and um, so, as the mother-daughter duo was cleaning before leaving the home, at the end of their stay, the Batman actress received a call from her mom, who was also inside the property.
Speaker 1:After looking for her mom for some time, kravitz found Bonet crouched in the corner in this weird way in the upstairs bathroom and I'm like what's going on, dude? And she's like so I was washing my face and I had Orpheus and I just put her down for a second, closed the door and she found this little hole in the corner. She explained. So you know what's about to happen, right, the snake crawls through the hole, gets stuck in there and I didn't read the rest of the story. So they're ripping up the tile, we're scratching the walls, completely destroyed Taylor's bathroom. And there was this moment where I was like either we destroy her bathroom or I have to tell her that there's a snake somewhere in her house. Let's see if she gets it out. I said to her house manager obviously I'm going to pay for everything to be fixed. Please just don't say anything until it's fixed.
Speaker 1:But when Kravitz had called Swift her longtime friend for many years to fess up to the situation, the fortnight singer was already in the know. Uh-oh, I remember calling her and saying hey, I wanted to talk to you about something. And she was like is it the fact that you almost lost a snake in my house and destroyed my bathroom? Kravitz quipped that the singer's next album would be titled Orpheus, a wishful claim that was squashed this week after Swift re-unveiled the actual title of her upcoming 12th album the Life of a Showgirl. Okay, this title the Life of a Showgirl. She is not a showgirl. And the gall of her to name her album the Life of a Showgirl, thinking she's a showgirl. She's not. Okay, I don't like the name of her title. I don't like her anyway.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, we are moving on to the last. Is this right? Is this all? Yeah, that's all I've got. All right, this last. Dear Abby, I want your thoughts on this Because I know I'm going to be crucified with my thoughts. All right, here we go.
Speaker 1:My husband is going to be 70 next month. He is in good physical shape but he has taken up smoking marijuana every day. He says he's addicted. I have told him how much I hate that he uses dope. He quits for a while and then goes back to it. We have been married almost 50 years. I would be disappointed filing for divorce, but I am starting to think it's my only way out of a situation that has become increasingly frustrating. His doctor has told him it probably won't kill him. Frustrating His doctor has told him it probably won't kill him. Seriously, what's your advice? Abby Pothead's wife in Arizona. Okay, this couple has been married nearly 50 years and they're in their 70s.
Speaker 1:When I first read the headline about her husband smoking dope, I thought, yeah, I'd probably file a divorce too. But I was thinking the couple was younger, like 30s or something like that, and maybe he wasn't working. He was just laying around the house smoking dope. I'd be like, yeah, I'd divorce your ass too. But now that they're been married 50s, they're in their 70s, obviously he either doesn't have to work, they're retired, whatever. I don't know how I feel about this now, but let's see what Dear Abby says. I'm surprised at Dear Abby's response, quite frankly. All right, let's see, dear wife, unless there are other reasons why you want out of your marriage, perhaps you should lighten up.
Speaker 1:Some people smoke marijuana to relax or to relieve tension, depression or even boredom. Let me tell you, people, there are other ways to do all of those things than smoke dope. Do you know why your husband does it on a daily basis and why you are bothered to the point you are considering divorce? Because it's marijuana, it's dope. That's why, before talking to an attorney, you might benefit from attending a few Naranon's meetings to gain some insight. No, that's no Okay. I'm just surprised at her response.
Speaker 1:And look, I don't do drugs, I don't smoke dope. I understand people do. They claim it helps them with the anxiety. Yada, yada, yada. There are other ways to do that. You don't have to smoke dope or marijuana, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 1:I find it totally disgusting, and here's my. I have so many questions. I'm trying to keep an open mind. I won't. Totally disgusting, and here's my. I have so many questions. I'm trying to keep an open mind. I won't do it. I don't want other people around me to do it. I don't want my friends and family to do it. I don't want my family to do it and so far as that I know none of them do.
Speaker 1:So here's the thing. Is there a way to take the benefits of marijuana and put it in some other form than smoking it or vaping it and ruining your lungs? I mean, remember when smoking regular cigarettes was such a thing that you know lung cancer and all of that? How come smoking marijuana is acceptable but smoking cigarettes is not? Why is that? Somebody tell me that. Here's the thing. I don't want to have to pay for you smoking dope and not working because anxiety and mental health reasons and you have to stay home and get on the government dime and so you're going to smoke dope. I don't want to have to pay for that shit. That's what I'm mad about.
Speaker 1:All right, I need a question of the day, I guess. Give me your thoughts on that. I especially want to hear from Mr Shantz, since he's in the medical field. I'm sure he's going to push back on me a little bit, because I'm sure it does have some kind of benefits for people with cancer, pain or whatever. I'm sure it does. But my question why can't they put it in a different form to help? We're in 2025. They should be able to do that nowadays, other than smoking and then ruining your lungs. And besides, it stinks. It's awful, luckily, where I live and what I do in my regular daily basis, I don't have to put up with it with other people, thank God. But when we go to Tunica we can smell it a lot, that's for sure. Okay, I guess that's my question today.
Speaker 1:What are your thoughts on making marijuana legal? I mean, I'm sure it's legal everywhere nowadays, isn't it? I don't know what it is here it? I don't know what. I don't know what it is here. I don't know, I don't know. I don't know what my thoughts are on that. I don't have an answer for you on that. All right, I know I've gone over time. Okay, I gotta go. Thanks for listening. Love y'all bye.
