[00:16] Meg: Welcome to Desperately Seeking the 80s. I am Meg.

[00:20] Jessica: And I am Jessica. And Meg and I have been friends since 1982. We got through middle school and high school together here in New York City where we still live.

[00:29] Meg: And where we podcast about New York City in the 80s. I do ripped from the headlines.

[00:33] Jessica: And I handle Pop culture.

[00:35] Meg: And Jessica, we had so much engagement this week. It was really exciting.

[00:40] Jessica: That is so thrilling.

[00:42] Meg: And I can't even read all of them, but I thought I would pick this one out because it has a special place in my heart.

[00:49] Jessica: Okay, I'm excited.

[00:50] Meg: This is from Ben. I have to tell you that I just discovered your podcast a few weeks ago via a friend, and I love it so much. You have become my best friends on my commute home. Your ripped from the headlines stories routinely make me gasp. Marla Hanson. But last night when I was listening to your history of rats, I was actually screaming. No podcast has ever made me scream in my car. I loved it. He also has some great ideas for stories.

[01:20] Jessica: Yes, I know. We like those engagements.

[01:23] Meg: Well, actually, that's interesting. Some people have been like, do you want to hear my ideas? I hope I'm not stepping on toes. It's like, oh, yes, we do. We want to hear everyone's idea.

[01:34] Jessica: Yes, we are endlessly curious and rapidly running out of our own stories. No, that would be really fantastic. And you know what, Ben, as you may recall, I screamed my head off during the rat episode as well, and it still haunts me. So I'm with you, buddy, all the way.

[01:57] Meg: And on a more somber note, I think you know this already, but for our listeners, Jack Dorrian, who was the founder and the patriarch of Dorrian's Red Hand, which we have spoken about on the show, he passed away today and he leaves many people mourning his loss.

[02:18] Jessica: Yes, I did know. And condolences to the family. It's a terrible loss. And his dad actually started Dorrian's and was also Jack. I can't even imagine the number of stories that are going to come flooding into the many upper east side centric, social media accounts and all of that. So we'll keep an eye open for any great stories. I was born ready.

[03:04] Meg: My engagement question today, bear with me for a minute. Did you have a curfew? Is my first question.

[03:13] Jessica: You know, that's a really good question. I wasn't a kid who was constantly out at all hours, so there wasn't a standing curfew that was like the source of arguments with my parents. I think as I got older, my behavior just naturally changed and I hung out later with my pals, including you. So I think by the time we graduated, it was like, just be home by midnight.

[03:40] Meg: Okay, so was there ever a night when you were like, oh, God, I'm going to be in so much trouble.

[03:45] Jessica: Yeah, of course. It was one of many infamous Dorrian's nights. And I did the classic lie where I told my mom that I was going to be staying with so and so and so and so said that she was going to be staying with me. And at two in the morning, I actually wanted to get out of the situation I was in, but I couldn't because my mother would have lost her mind if I had shown up at two in the morning. So yeah, two was definitely too late.

[04:17] Meg: Okay, well, that leads us into my story, which is a dark one today. Shocker. My sources are a New York Times article, a few New York Times articles from 1983 through 1985, a local news report from 1985, which I found on YouTube, an interview with Suzanne Malik. Have you ever heard of her?

[04:44] Jessica: No.

[04:46] Meg: 1983, she was an artist on the scene. And Wikipedia. A little after midnight on September 15, 1983, Patricia Pesce, who worked at a lingerie store in the East Village, met her friend Michael Stewart at the Pyramid Club off Tompkins Square Park at 7th street and A. Michael Stewart, a 25 year old black man, was very much part of the downtown new Wave art scene. He was a model for a number of aspiring designers and a dancer. He danced in Madonna's first video for Everybody and an artist. He took classes at Pratt. He would occasionally leave his Tag RQS in Magic Marker on walls around the city. He lived in Clinton Hill with his parents. His mom, Carrie, was a retired substitute teacher, and his dad, Millard, was an MTA maintenance worker. Until recently, Michael was working at the Pyramid Club as a busboy. But he'd been fired because he wasn't aggressive enough. Because you have to be willing to push through crowds you're going to bus at a club. But he was still close with the managers and the people who worked there. And on that Wednesday night, he was hanging out with friends at the Pyramid Club. He'd had a couple of beers earlier in the evening, but he didn't order any drinks with Patricia because he was low on funds. He did have a sip of Patricia's rum and orange drink. I just thought that was so sweet.

[06:19] Jessica: What that he wasn't drinking because he ran out of money or because she had the dumbest high school drink ever to sip. There's so many details to get hung up on which one it was.

[06:34] Meg: For me, it was friends sharing drinks like, oh, I know you don't have money, but here, you can have some of mine.

[06:39] Jessica: That's very cute.

[06:40] Meg: Yeah, right?

[06:40] Jessica: Yes.

[06:41] Meg: They left the Pyramid Club at 2:15 and grabbed a cab. As they left the club, Patricia offered to drop him off at the 14th and first subway station. As she headed uptown, Michael was going to take the L home to Clinton Hill. Michael offered to contribute to the cab, but Patricia said it wasn't necessary. She kissed him goodnight and watched him walk down into the station.

[07:03] Jessica: I don't like this story.

[07:06] Meg: Minutes later, Transit Police officer John Kostick said he caught Michael tagging the wall in the subway and arrested him cuffing his hands behind his back. Michael asked Kostick not to call his parents because they were asleep.

[07:23] Jessica: Oh, no.

[07:25] Meg: Then, Kostick says, Michael tried to run off and had to be restrained while they were waiting for the transport van. According to Kostick, quote, at the top of the stairs, Stewart fell face forward on the ground. Kostick held Stewart to the ground until the van arrived. Five additional officers put Michael in the van and they drove him to the District Four Transit Police station at Union Square, two blocks away. Kostick claimed Stewart became, quote, very violent in the van. When the van arrived at the station, he, quote, again became violent and necessary force was used to restrain the defendant. This is when whatever restraint was used by the officers caused Michael to blackout. He was hogtied bound at the ankles and tethered hands to feet by an elastic strap. During the struggle, Michael's wails could be heard by 27 Parsons School of Design students from their dorm windows. Rebecca Reiss heard Michael say, oh, my God, someone help me. And what did I do? What did I do? It's awful.

[08:44] Jessica: Gobsmacked. Continue.

[08:46] Meg: The police decided to take him to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric observation, and on the way there, he lapsed into a coma. It's now been half an hour since his arrest. Bellevue nurses were shocked by his condition. His hands and face were blue when he arrived at the hospital, and it took three minutes to remove the cuffs. They also noted that he had been beaten brutally. Michael's family and friends were immediately distrustful of the policemen's account. After all, Michael was shy and avoided confrontation. He was 6ft tall, but only 140 pounds. Why were six officers needed to subdue him? When Michael died from his injuries 13 days later, medical examiner Dr. Elliot Gross announced he had died of excessive drinking, which led to the coma and subsequent heart attack. Quote, there is no evidence of physical injury resulting in or contributing to death. When Michael's family hired a doctor to do an independent autopsy, Michael's eyes were missing.

[09:57] Jessica: What?

[09:59] Meg: Dr. Gross had removed them during the initial autopsy and now claimed he couldn't find them.

[10:06] Jessica: What?

[10:08] Meg: The Stewart family, their lawyer and doctor were convinced Michael had been strangled specifically by a chokehold. His eyes would have shown evidence of hemorrhaging due to lack of oxygen from being strangled.

[10:25] Jessica: This is the most gruesome, fucked up. I can’t. Nothing. I got nothing. Continue, please. I'm like beside myself.

[10:38] Meg: Gabe Pressman of Channel 4. You're going to like him now too, because he blew the lid off this thing.

[10:42] Jessica: Little Gabe Pressman.

[10:43] Meg: Yeah. He and other press came down hard on Dr. Gross, and a month later, Dr. Gross revised his findings to say Michael, quote, collapsed while in police custody and died from a physical injury to the spinal cord in the upper neck, but stopped short of saying that he was choked.

[11:05] Jessica: What?

[11:06] Meg: The trials that followed were complicated by competing evidence and apparent cover ups. A grand jury convened to determine what happened in the 30 minutes between his arrest and arriving at Bellevue, but was dismissed when no witnesses could identify specific officers. So all those Parsons School of Design witnesses, they couldn't identify the officers.

Jessica: So even though they saw something horrible happen, do they see it or do they hear it?

Meg: They heard it, but that wasn't sufficient. And then also a juror was caught doing his own investigation, so they just dismissed the whole grand jury. A second grand jury indicted three officers John Kostick, Anthony Piscola, and Henry Boerner with criminally negligent homicide, assault, and perjury. Another three officers who were present in the van that night were charged with perjury. Prosecutor Morgenthau presented two theories at the second trial. Either a neck injury led to the death or the beatings caused the cardiac arrest. Either way.

[12:19] Jessica: That way, right.

[12:20] Meg: It's the policemen’s fault.

[12:21] Jessica: It's the same tomato, tomato.

[12:22] Meg: He was pushing for second degree manslaughter as the officers failed to take reasonable steps to prevent death. He hoped to establish a law requiring officers to have an affirmative duty to protect prisoners in their custody from abuse because that doesn't exist. So he wanted this to be the

Jessica: That's insane.

Meg: Isn't it insane that that doesn't exist? And the defense’s response, quote, if someone dies of a heart attack, we're not doctors.

[12:55] Jessica: That's what the defense came up with?

[12:56] Meg: Yes. Ultimately, the six officers were acquitted by an all white jury.

[13:01] Jessica: Unsurprising and nauseating.

[13:06] Meg: And that law was never enacted because Morgenthau didn't win his case. In pop culture, Basquiat's painting Defacement the Death of Michael Stewart was a response to his death. I will post that on Instagram. And the death of Radio Raheem by a police chokehold in Spike Lee's 1989 film Do the Right Thing is inspired by Michael Stewart's arrest.

[13:31] Jessica: Wow.

[13:32] Meg: Do you want to hear some epilogues?

[13:34] Jessica: What do you take me for?

[13:36] Meg: Mayor Ed Koch fired Doctor Gross. It took him a few years in 1987, after more accusations of cover ups came out.

[13:48] Jessica: No way.

[13:49] Meg: Many of which involved the police.

[13:52] Jessica: What was the graph situation at the time? That clearly is a subject matter to explore. How much money did Gross make from misplacing body parts or what have you?

[14:06] Meg: And in 1995, the transit police were folded into the NYPD because in those days, they were separate. I don't know if that affects things so much, but maybe more like you're training. I don't know.

[14:21] Jessica: Oh, wait, so these were transit cops. You got him? Yeah. Okay.

[14:24] Meg: Specifically transit cops. Oh, and here's something. May of this year, the New York Supreme Court reinstated the no chokehold law because of what happened to George Floyd.

[14:35] Jessica: I'm going to blow your mind with a piece of information.

[14:38] Meg: Okay.

[14:38] Jessica: This is in no way meant to take away from Michael Stewart's story, but you know how one of our listeners said that our world of the Upper East Side private schools, everyone is one and a half degrees of separation? Well, you are one degree of separation from a similar murder.

[15:00] Meg: What?

[15:02] Jessica: There was a boy who was in my brother's class at Collegiate who he was really close with, who had some kind of mental health issues, which as a kid he was just a bit more mischievous and hyper than the others, but very smart, very personable. He is very cute. His name is Tony, I think it was in the 90s, but he would have graduated from college. But I don't know if he wound up going to college. He was detained by the police for, I believe it was, erratic behavior publicly and he died in their custody. I believe that it was a knee holding him down by the neck.

[16:01] Meg: Oh, that's George Floyd.

[16:02] Jessica: Yes. Very bad. Very bad. And just heartbreaking. Heartbreaking. These are children.

[16:13] Meg: Yeah.

[16:14] Jessica: How old was Michael Stewart?

[16:16] Meg: 25. I mean, he wasn't a child, but he was a young man who was going home to his parents.

Jessica: He lived with his parents.

Meg: He had a friggin magic marker on a wall. That's ridiculous. And what it made me think about was the whole broken windows policy. Do you know about that? I wish I knew better how to talk about it, but it's something that Giuliani was really into. The idea is if you clean up small things like quality of life things in the neighborhood, then there'll be this image of lawfulness and therefore the laws won't be broken. So how that's enacted by the police is they arrest people for doing stupid things, they arrest people for graffiti as opposed to giving a ticket.

[17:09] Jessica: How completely like Giuliani to have to subscribe to failed theories of trickle down economics in public safety. What a dumbass.

[17:21] Meg: What that sounds like. Sure. Is it nice to have a cleaned up neighborhood or whatever? Absolutely. I kind of get where the idea comes from, but when it's enacted, to me it just seems like they're escalating.

[17:36] Jessica: Absolutely.

[17:37] Meg: Things that don't have to be escalated.

[17:41] Jessica: It's so sub moronic on so many levels.

[17:46] Meg: Why does this have to be a life or death situation when he's marking something on a wall?

[17:51] Jessica: Because Giuliani was a punitive fuck.

[17:54] Meg: Well, this is pre Giuliani, but there was this they were trying this whole Broken Windows thing out. Broken Windows came out in 1983 and this is 1983 so this is the beginning of this. Like, this is how we're going to clean up.

[18:10] Jessica: And whose idea was that?

[18:12] Meg: I can't remember the guy who had the initial idea.

[18:15] Jessica: And was it the mayor's office? Was it a police officer?

[18:20] Meg: Definitely, yes, the mayor, the police, they were into it. They were on board. Giuliani, later on in the 90s, went whole hog on it. But it started earlier than that.

[18:30] Jessica: Well, you've successfully put me in a complete white hot rage, so that's nice. God damn it. That's a horrible, horrible, infuriating story. Yeah. For writing on a wall. For writing on a wall.

[18:46] Meg: And earlier that night, he's like, hey, can I get a sip of your drink? From his friend. He's hanging out at this place where he's surrounded by people who loved him so much. There was like, from what I was reading, his friends and family. He was beloved. He had such a frigging support system, and everyone was just like, this doesn't happen to that guy. Impossible.

[19:10] Jessica: Again, it's a rarity. But I'm at a loss. No, it's horrible. As I say at the end of all of your segments. Thanks, Meg.

Meg: What do you have for me today?

Jessica: I have an engagement question.

[19:36] Meg: Okay. One at a time.

[19:38] Jessica: They're related.

[19:40] Meg: Okay.

[19:41] Jessica: It all boils down to one thing living in New York City.

[19:47] Meg: Yes.

[19:48] Jessica: As you well know, one of the great things about this town of ours is that you can get anything anytime of day or night. So growing up, what was your favorite delivered item?

[20:06] Meg: I can't say we did that much delivery. I'm going to have to say pizza. I know that's boring.

[20:12] Jessica: No, no, so in the food category.

[20:15] Meg: Yeah.

[20:15] Jessica: Okay. And also growing up well, I guess not even just growing up, but when you think of New York City, we already know what your answer to this is going to be from our previous podcast. But when you think of New York City, what kind of animals do you think of?

[20:36] Meg: Well, it's a dog town.

[20:38] Jessica: It's a dog town. I thought you were going to go with rats after our big ratapalooza episode that caused lots of wildlife. Yes, we do have a lot of wildlife, but my questions today are actually related. Okay. Okay. So there have been many animals that have lived in New York City for various reasons and at various times. But for 70 years, there was one type of animal that was very specific and very special that lived right in the center of Manhattan. Do you know who that is or who they were?

[21:25] Meg: I was thinking maybe the children zoo, the polar bear. But he didn't live for 70 years.

[21:31] Jessica: No. From 1864 to 1934, central park was host to 200 sheep.

[21:40] Meg: Yes. Sheep's Meadow.

[21:42] Jessica: That's right. So the history of Sheep's Meadow in brief, brief, brief is that when Central Park was originally planned, there was a grassy square that was going to be used as a military parade ground. And it was and then afterwards, it was turned into Sheep's Meadow. And the sheep were there to be really to be picturesque, that was their job, was to be served adorable purpose. Well, the sheep purpose that they served was to clip the grass and then to fertilize the grass.

[22:25] Meg: Okay.

[22:25] Jessica: So they were like having their own little ecosystem. And the sheep were kept in a special barn. I guess there was a shepherd who was in charge of them, obviously a series of shepherds who lived in the upstairs part of this sort of this glorious Victorian barn. And in 1934, when this was all phased out, the barn was no longer necessary, no longer required. So it was turned into, wait for it, Tavern on the Green. I know, shocking, right? So let's just keep Sheep's Meadow in mind for a second. And we're going to go back to the pizza issue.

[23:11] Meg: Okay.

[23:12] Jessica: So there are a lot of things that get delivered in New York City, but in the 80s, there was something very specific that-

Meg: Pot?

Jessica: Yes, you made the connection. I was waiting for you to find it. So in the 80s in New York City, that was the rise of pot delivery. And I was fascinated by this. So I was just sort of tooling around, trying to figure out what to talk about today. And I had an experience recently that I will share with you that made me think about our past and about what the high school drug experience was. And I'm so happy that you made that connection. Well, that's the thing for those of you who do not know, and I would imagine that most people who are not from New York City and didn't grow up in our specific moment, Sheep's Meadow was where you would go to drink beer, do drugs, hook up with friends from other schools, and it was basically like a giant lounge, really. And there were all kinds of vendors who even twigged onto this and started catering to us. So there were guys who would walk around with, like, backpacks filled with ice cold beer. Ice cold beer, ice cold beer. Water, water, water. It was great.

[24:44] Meg: Yeah.

[24:45] Jessica: But here's how this all came in a hazy cloud of memories come together in my head. So, as many people listening may know, pot is now legal in New York City. And I had the strangest experience, and it was a very Gen X experience because I was walking down Lexington Avenue and there was this really glitzy looking and very big, like, major square footage right on Lexington Avenue store. And I was like, is this a head shop? And I was like, why would they have such a giant store for selling, like, glass pipes and whatever the hell else, garbage accoutrement and, like, big lighters.

[25:34] Meg: I just passed it. Yes, it's on 94th.

[25:37] Jessica: Yes, that's right.

Meg: On my way here today. I was like, what?

Jessica: So I walked in and I looked like a child walking into Willy Wonka’s candy factory and chocolate factory. Let's get it right, Jessica. So I walk in and I look shocked and amazed, and there's this nice young man behind the counter who says, how can I help you? And I can barely form words, I'm so shocked by this. And I was like, do you actually sell weed? And he was like, yes, we do. And gestured to many giant jars labeled medical marijuana. He's like, we have this kind, we have this kind, we have this kind. And I'm just staring at him blankly. And I'm like, wait, so you sell weed? This is what's happening here.

Meg: I would have the same reaction.

Jessica: And I just could not take it in.

Meg: I feel like it’s weed lite.

Jessica: That was what I said. I was like, is it CBD? Right? And he was like, it's weed, old lady. So I'm like having my mind blown just by the fact that this exists. And a guy walks in who I of course think looks like an old guy, but of course is like our age. So he walks in and he looks just like I did. He looks profoundly confused. And he walks up to the guy and he goes, do you sell weed? I started laughing and I was like, You're Gen X, right? And he was like, yeah. And I was like, it's really selling weed. You've got to be kidding me. And so this poor guy behind the counter had to go through his whole rigmarole again.

[27:28] Meg: It's got, like, neon signs. It really is.

[27:32] Jessica: It's clean, it's glossy, it’s beautiful, right? Yeah. And it's really feel trashy at all.

[27:38] Meg: No. Definitely caught my eye.

[27:42] Jessica: They're popping up all around the place. And I was during the worst of the heat wave this summer. I was downtown right off Tompkins Square Park, and I was walking with a friend, and we were just popping into any store we could for air conditioning. And I was like, hey, you know, I think that there's this like weed store that's called, like, Two Hip Grannies or something. He's like, oh, we have to check it out. And I couldn't find that store because I was too impatient because two doors down from them, which I hit first, was what looked like another weed emporium. And I was like, what the hell is going on? So we go in and instantly we're like, oh, these people are cranking the AC to get as much business as they possibly can and what these other stores are doing. And I don't understand what the legality is and why some are doing one thing and some are doing another. But it's not actually a dispensary. It's a club. And you purchase membership to the club that's like the workaround. So you get a one day membership or lifetime membership, whatever. And now you're part of a private club where you could have whatever sold to you or whatever, like, distributed.

[29:03] Meg: Can you leave with it?

[29:05] Jessica: Yeah. And they have, like, a smoking room in the back. And it was all very civilized and they were selling art as well. And I'm quite sure that if you bought any of the art, you are actually buying, like a giant bale of weed. But it was just such a stark shocking difference from how it was when we were growing up, and I was thinking about like, well, what would the experience have been if I had just been walking around in Tompkins Square Park, of all places? Like, I want to get high, what shall I do? Of course, where would one go if not Tompkins Square Park was a little too needly. I know Washington Square Park was one of the main hubs.

[29:53] Meg: Wanna smoke? Wanna smoke?

[29:54] Jessica: Exactly. Or you could go all the way uptown. I did a little research and one of the main places was on 179th street, right off the George Washington Bridge. And the way that it used to be before the delivery services happened in the 80s was that you had to go and find dealers. And the dealers had specific areas where they were going to be hanging out, but they had to be a little on the move. And I was reading someone's comment in a Twitter feed that when he was at Columbia, there was a bodega right nearby with the bulletproof glass scenario. And you'd buy a soda and you put your money in the little turn around thing in the bullet proof glass, and you'd get a soda in a brown paper bag with a shitty dime bag in with the soda.

[30:53] Meg: Got it.

[30:54] Jessica: And his comment was and it was glorious.

[30:59] Meg: Well, I have a question about the delivery.

[31:02] Jessica: Well, we're about to get okay.

[31:04] Meg: Because I don't understand the mechanics.

[31:05] Jessica: Okay, so do you mean then or now?

[31:08] Meg: Then.

[31:09] Jessica: Okay, so what happened was this was so fascinating to me. So there was all of this shitty weed around New York, if it was even weed at all. I don't even know how many people were like, this oregano is getting me wasted, or these stems and seeds are a real find, I'm going to grow this in my closet. This guy who was interviewed for this article, his name was G. Burns. Get it? Like George Burns. B-U-R-N-S.

[31:47] Meg: Okay, got it.

[31:47] Jessica: And he got hookups in LA and Miami for really great weed. And he, and this is when beepers first started being used, right? They're all of our Wall Street dudes with coke running after the hard stuff. And beepers were a thing and whatever. But the beepers, this guy was like, I'm going to evade the cops by having a rotating number of beepers. I think it was like twelve at any time, and a rotating group of delivery people. So he had this really good weed and just built a clientele by doing the beeper scenario. And in New York, a city where everything is delivered, it made perfect sense. So that is a very brief version of how that works, how a beeper works.

[32:45] Meg: Remind of how a beeper works. You call the number.

[32:48] Jessica: You call the number and your number would come up on it, and then the person with the beeper had to call you, which is why those pay phones were always you can't use that payphone. I'm waiting for it. And you're like, oh, I see you have a beeper, my friend.

[33:02] Meg: Do you remember on the first season of The Real World when-

[33:08] Jessica: Heather B. was asked if she had a beeper and she went nuts?

[33:10] Meg: Well, no. Whether she was a drug dealer.

[33:11] Jessica: Drug dealer.

[33:14] Meg: Because she had a beeper. And that had racial overtones.

[33:17] Jessica: Well, clearly I remember it because I instantly was like and Heather B got mad, and it was horrible. And it was Julie who said that. Yes.

[33:30] Meg: And she's from the Midwest.

[33:31] Jessica: South, I think. So, yeah, that was a moment. But there were a couple of other things I found in my research about weed culture and, like, what we experienced versus this brave new world of walking into a store and saying, I would like an ounce of Red Devil blah blah, and some pre rolls of the- Craziness. And I remember in the 80s how furtive it was, and it was so furtive. And part of the rush was like, what are you going to get in the bag at all? What's it going to be? And of course, there was no place you could smoke as a teenager other than maybe the back of a pizza place. So I remember people crowding into phone booths because remember, we used to have real phone booths, like Superman phone booths. But what was even more hilarious is that when those were replaced for safety with the half one. So there's no bottom at all.

[34:45] Meg: There’s no bottom and there's no front. It’s just like a cardboard box without a front.

[34:47] Jessica: It's just like it's like a study carrel. It's like a standing study carrel. And still that was where you smoke weed. As though there was any surprise. I'm really hiding here. It was like holding a notebook up in front of your face, being like, I'm not doing anything. Not at all. And I actually didn't do any of this until senior year because I went to one of the ultimate school university to find yourself as a weed smoker. Between junior year and sophomore year, I went to Oberlin for the summer. I did the Oberlin Theater Institute, where shoes were optional and sexuality was fluid. And it was absolutely to not smoke weed was met with the same confusion that I presented to the Weed Purveyor on Lexington. Just like, Why wouldn't you do this? This is crazy. So there are a couple of really awesome things that I found out, and I'll spare you. There's so many things to put on our Insta. But I did find a Twitter account, and I have to just read from this because it's this woman. I have no idea who she is. Her name is Jessica Valenti. She has a Bajillion followers, 307.2 thousand followers. She's the feminist author, Sex Object, the Purity, Myth and More, a column and a columnist. She lives in Brooklyn and she is one of us because she posted at the beginning of the pandemic, if you ever bought weed at Sheep Meadow, don't worry about what's in the vaccine, which she then follows it with this is a very niche teen in New York City tweet. I'm sorry. And some of her.

[37:01] Meg: That’s exactly what we’ve been doing for the last few months.

[37:03] Jessica: Exactly. I feel like we need to contact Jessica Valenti, and some of the comments are great. That's where I found out about the bodega near Columbia. And another person said about 2002, I was walking in the New York City subway and found a bag of weed on the ground. I smoked it. Vaccines do not scare me. And someone else responded, New York City discarded street drugs are the best. So we live in this culture now of like, oh, my God, there's a peanut someplace, or I must wrap my child in bubble wrap and whatever. And our parents sent us out into the world not only to do battle with the 84th street bars, but to smoke whatever we found on the ground and hope we made it back in one piece. That's a little weed history. Now that you can be all bougie about getting your weed.

[38:08] Meg: Should we do a field trip to the weed store?

[38:10] Jessica: Oh, my God, that would be fantastic.

[38:13] Meg: Why not?

[38:13] Jessica: Let's do that. So you've brought up a very important topic. Shall we discuss Field Trips.

[38:20] Meg: Sure. We think that this is going to be our new segment and we're still kind of playing with it. We already went on a field trip to Dorrian's. We're not sure if we are testing things out. We've got a remote recorder now that works very well. It’s very exciting.

[38:36] Jessica: But the concept of the field trip is that we go to some of the haunts that we talk about and interview. How would you describe our interviewies?

[38:46] Meg: Well, one of our ideas was to go and ask all the doormen along Park Avenue what their favorite stories from the 80s are.

[38:54] Jessica: Because God knows they've seen everything right. At Dorrian’s, we just found some old school drinkers who remembered the time that we're covering. And so, yes, I'm sure that we're going to find a whole bunch of other Gen X crusties like ourselves, too.

[39:10] Meg: So that's coming up. We're still messing with the concept, but I’m thinking maybe field trips.

[39:14] Jessica: Look forward to field trips from Desperately Seeking the 80s.

[39:32] Meg: So we started with a rather somber story. What is our tie in?

[39:36] Jessica: Well, you made it tough this week, I'm not going to lie. But the only parallels that I see are it's best to avoid the cops.

[39:48] Meg: Yes. Good one.

[39:50] Jessica: And Pyramid Club is right off Tompkins Square Park. And that's where I found the weed club. I don't know. That's the best I can do. I think I was so rattled by the Michael Stewart story that I don't have it in me to be glib.

[40:11] Meg: Yeah, fair enough.

[40:12] Jessica: All right, thank you.

[40:14] Meg: So we should tell people that we are going to take next week off, as I think kind of everybody is because it's Labor Day.

[40:22] Jessica: We are people who need breaks.

[40:25] Meg: But when we come back, we are planning something really fun. Do you want to tell them?

[40:32] Jessica: It's going to be a very special episode of Desperately Seeking the 80s.

[40:39] Meg: It's our Back to School Special, and it's going to cover two episodes. That's how big this topic is.

[40:46] Jessica: And it's such a big topic that we are not even splitting it up. It's just going to be the two of us talking a blended commentary. And the topic which we are not going to reveal is actually our most frequently requested subject.

[41:03] Meg: The time has come.

[41:07] Jessica: So we don’t think anyone will be disappointed. And we're excited.

[41:10] Meg: We're very excited to work on it.

[41:12] Jessica: Yes.

[41:14] Meg: And in closing, we were talking about earlier, we're getting all this lovely engagement, and a lot of the people who are reaching out are saying, I heard about your podcast from a friend, and how much do we love the friends who are telling people about the podcast? So we invite you to share with your friends.

[41:32] Jessica: You know what might be a cool thing? Now, I'm not saying we're doing this. I'm just putting it out there.

[41:37] Meg: Okay.

[41:38] Jessica: Tell us who referred you and maybe we'll collect some names and do, like, a little giveaway for people who are referring the most people. You know, it’s a classic move.

[41:51] Meg: Yes, but also yeah, I mean, right now, refer someone if you think you know someone who might enjoy it.

[41:57] Jessica: But if you want prizes, tell us who you are.

[42:01] Meg: There you go.

[42:02] Jessica: I got it. All right. It's incentivizing.