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

[00:19] 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.

[00:27] Meg: And where we podcast about New York City in the 80s. I do ripped from the headlines.

[00:33] Jessica: And I do pop culture.

[00:35] Meg: Now, Jessica, I heard that you might have a follow up on our Truman Capote story.

[00:41] Jessica: Yes, I do. And unsurprisingly, it features our frequently mentioned friend and friend of the podcast, Nick.

[00:52] Meg: BBBFFF.

[00:53] Jessica: Exactly. And Nick reminded me of something that I can remember so vividly, but it wouldn't have even crossed my mind if he hadn't brought it up. And once he did, I was like, Yep. Everything, I remember. So in in 1995. So that wait, before I say the dates, the reason that we were talking about La Cote Basque was on the last podcast, we were talking about Truman Capote. And the chapter in his book called.. Answered Prayers. Thank you. Is called La Cote Basque 1965. So La Cote Basque moved from the east side to the west side. It had a second incarnation, and it was on West 55th between 6th and 5th, which I did not recall. I thought it was still on the east side. And Nick corrected me. I remember this so clearly. I had never been before. And Nick found out somehow that it was closing. So he called me up and he said, we cannot not have ever been at La Cote Basque. So we're going, and I was like, whatever you say. All right. So we trundled off. We were 25 and 26 years old. Two morons. We trundle off. We go. And one of the things about Le Cote Basque and there are a couple of French restaurants like this, and then they disappeared. And now there's sort of a revival of it. But there was a whole kind of old school French cuisine which fell out of favor with nouvelle cuisine. Right?

[02:37] Meg: We kind of talked about this on one of the podcasts, right? Very rich.

[02:41] Jessica: Very rich. And there is a particular dish anyway, there's a particular dish that both of us, Nick and I, represents that old school French cooking, which is quenelle, which is this gorgeous, like, fish mousse kind of thing. And then it's steamed, and it's like the lightest dumpling ever with this gorgeous velvety sauce on it. For my fellow members of the tribe, it's basically the most elevated gefilte fish you could ever imagine. Anyway, in other words, it tastes delicious and not like something frightening. So we go, and the place was empty except for us, two old ladies and an ancient man with his oxygen tank. Oh, my. We got there, we were like, well, now we see why it's closing, because on our way there, we were grousing like, everything good in New York is closing, and there's no reason for it. You got there and you're like, yeah, we're like, I don't think that those people can sustain a business. So we sat there. So the clientele died off. Oh, my God, they died off. So imagine, I mean, it's 30 years after 1965. It's heyday. Exactly. Wild. I love it. So there we were, and the food was remarkably good, considering that there was probably, like, one person left in the kitchen, and it closed that week.

[04:15] Meg: Wow, that's wonderful.

[04:18] Jessica: Yes. I can attest it happened in New York.

[04:34] Meg: So my engagement question, Jessica.

[04:37] Jessica: You know I'm very, very tired. Oh, my God. we are both so tired. We are so burned out that. This is going to be a very special, very special episode. But it's like, we're not talking about someone who's very special. We're very special.

[04:52] Meg: Jessica, just to give some context, Jessica just got back from a whirlwind European tour, and I just did a show last night, and I have never felt so, like, just physically exhausted without actually being, like, I don't know, something wrong with me. So, yeah, I'm kind of on fumes. We'll see what comes out of my mouth.

[05:14] Jessica: So far you've been lucid, but I'm not expecting you to keep that up at all. I'm thinking that, like, it's very low bar today.

[05:21] Meg: Yeah.

[05:21] Jessica: In five minutes in, you're going to lose it.

[05:24] Meg: Okay.

[05:25] Jessica: Yeah.

[05:25] Meg: So engagement.

[05:26] Jessica: Bring it.

[05:27] Meg: Question.

[05:27] Jessica: Yes.

[05:29] Meg: Do you remember or were you a teacher's pet ever?

[05:35] Jessica: Yes.

[05:35] Meg: Oh, you were?

[05:37] Jessica: Yes. Okay.

[05:37] Meg: Do you remember or a better question would be, do you remember somebody else who was a teacher's pet?

[05:42] Jessica: It's funny. I was a teacher's pet at The Fleming School, and I remember there being certain girls at Nightingale who were really, like, hard workers in a way that I was not.

[05:55] Meg: Okay.

[05:56] Jessica: And how they were really held up as shining examples of.

[06:01] Meg: Let's talk about them for a second. So those particular people you have in mind at Nightingale, who the teachers all loved and were held up as shining examples of what we should all aspire to be, did we get along with them?

[06:15] Jessica: Yes, we did. But I don't think that our school was representative of normal teenage culture. Which, funny enough, I was having a chat about with my friend Kelly, who's a BFF of the podcast, who is my friend who I stayed with in London. We were talking about single sex education versus coed. And the way that things ran for us, I don't think is typical. So I don't remember us disliking anyone. I think that oh, you know what I just remembered? I just remembered a clique of, like, six five or six girls who we really didn't like because they were, like, little, they weren't grade grubbers, but yeah, I guess they were. Ass kissers. I know who you're talking about. I know exactly. All right, it took me a moment. Because there was the other group that was, like, associated with our group.

[07:24] Meg: Oh, right. No, they just got great grades.

[07:27] Jessica: Yes, but they weren't great grubbers. They just worked like animals and it paid off for them.

[07:33] Meg: No. Wonderful work ethic.

[07:35] Jessica: No.

[07:35] Meg: We're talking about a different group.

[07:37] Jessica: Yes. I just mouthed it to you. Yes.

[07:42] Meg: All right. So, anyway, teachers pet. So, okay. You are engaged.

[07:47] Jessica: I'm now engaged, yes.

[07:48] Meg: Sources are.

[07:48] Jessica: And now I'm angry. Actually, I'm remembering them now.

[07:52] Meg: Okay. My sources for this story are New York Magazine, The Observer, The New York Times, L.A. Times and The Chronicle. Ever heard of it?

[08:02] Jessica: No.

[08:02] Meg: I'm not surprised. It comes up in the story and then you'll find out, I mean, what it is. Okay, great. When 17 year old David Bloom showed up at Duke University in 1982, he was ready for a fresh start. On paper, everything was so promising. He'd grown up on 83rd & Madison, a couple blocks from The Met, which fed his love of art history. His father, Daniel, owned an upscale restaurant in The Village called Pizza Piazza, and his mother, Lois, was a restaurant design consultant. David had gone to high school at Trinity School. Actually, I think he went all the way through. And Trinity is a really good school.

[08:42] Jessica: Yes. Great school.

[08:44] Meg: But in spite of all of this good fortune and privilege, David had never really found his tribe. He was 5'2", 120 pounds, and felt much more comfortable talking with his parents friends than his peers.

[09:03] Jessica: That's a very particular New York City type. Yep. I, in fact, there was a movie about that type that if it didn't have Jesse Eisenberg in it, it should have. But I remember that we're going to have to get that.

[09:19] Meg: We're going to have to think about that during the break.

[09:22] Jessica: You know what I'm talking about?

[09:23] Meg: I think it's like a Wes Anderson film.

[09:26] Jessica: No, it wasn't. Anyway, we'll figure it out. And usually those kids were also only children.

[09:36] Meg: The quote that he chose for his high school yearbook page was from a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald called The Rich Boy. This was the quote. "We are all queer fish, queerer behind our faces and voices than we want anyone to know or than we know ourselves."

[09:56] Jessica: Well, if that's not foreshadowing, I don't know what is.

[10:00] Meg: I love that quote. Isn't that wonderful?

[10:02] Jessica: It's a wonderful quote, but now I feel like he's revealed himself in some terrifying way.

[10:08] Meg: So when he showed up at Duke University his freshman year, he was excited to join the rich kid frat Beta Theta Pi like many of his fellow New Yorkers, that was sort of like the New Yorker frat at this southern school. But the Beta bros weren't so keen to have him. While his professors found him exceedingly charming, one Beta said, quote, "he wasn't the kind of guy we wanted around." Fortunately, he got along well with his roommate, and the two boys started an investment club. He and his roommate managed to raise $8,000 from fellow students, which is like $24,600 today.

[10:53] Jessica: Wow.

[10:54] Meg: I know. And they made a 30% profit on their investments in two months.

[11:00] Jessica: What was it, a Ponzi scheme?

[11:02] Meg: No, I don't think so. I mean, they were just pretty good at picking investments.

[11:06] Jessica: All right. Well, good for them. That's quite a track record.

[11:09] Meg: But Beta Theta Pi still wouldn't have him. They would invest with him, but no one wanted to party with him. So, David, the look on your face right now, you're like, where is this story going?

[11:22] Jessica: I'm terrified for David. And I'm terrified of David. Exactly. Let's see. Okay. I just have a bad feeling.

[11:35] Meg: David lived in the dingy Hanes dorm because he couldn't get into the frat. And he graduated with a degree in art history and he headed back to New York in 1985.

[11:47] Jessica: Did he grow? I don't think so.

[11:52] Meg: Okay, so 1985, right. He's back at home in New York, two years later.

[11:58] Jessica: Wait, he graduated in '85, and he got there in '82. Yeah. So he graduated early.

[12:05] Meg: You know, those were the years that were given me. I took note of it. It was interesting.

[12:10] Jessica: Yeah. All right. Two years later. In '87. Yeah. When we were graduating from high school.

[12:19] Meg: Yes. He calls up Duke University and pledges to donate $1 million and two very valuable paintings. Quote, "The Duke museum has a terrible collection of American art," he said to The Chronicle, which was the campus newspaper. And Duke officials call David, quote, "a truly remarkable young man whose deep interest in Duke is unsurpassed." At the very tender age of 23, David was a distinguished alumnus, and he was living large. His $830,000 apartment on 72nd and Park was impeccably decorated with Chinese wallpaper and marble tables and filled ceiling to floor with his $4.7 million American art collection including works by John Sloan, Thomas Hart Benton, Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent.

[13:20] Jessica: What?

[13:21] Meg: He had a $1.9 million farmhouse in East Hampton. He had a Mercedes and an Aston Martin convertible. He dined at Petrossian and Cipriani. He took his parents to the Super Bowl.

[13:37] Jessica: Chipriani?

[13:38] Meg: No, I looked that up.

[13:39] Jessica: Okay. I just love that you were like, no, you asshole.

[13:46] Meg: I know some people do say Chipriani, but I think it's proper to say Cipriani.

[13:50] Jessica: As you wish.

[13:52] Meg: As I wish? Okay. I don't know what that who am I to say? All right. He took his parents to the Super Bowl and St. Bart's. He dated. He lavished jewelry on the various young women who accompanied him to social events. He once showed up, uninvited, to a party on Park Avenue hosted by a Duke alum. The guests agreed he hadn't changed. He was still weird, and he definitely talked about money way too much. Speaking of money, how did a 23 year old with an art history degree amass so much of it in two years? As soon as he got back to Manhattan in 1985, he got an office at 9 West 57th Street, leased a stock ticker and hung out a shingle as the Greater Sutton Investors Group. His parents, their friends, his grandmother, all were delighted to invest their money with David in amounts ranging from $25,000 to $1 million. He told potential investors that Bill Cosby and the Sultan of Brunei were also clients. So '80s. Were they? He printed statements on elegant business stationery, letting investors know how their portfolios were rapidly growing. There was only one problem.

[15:19] Jessica: It was all bullshit.

[15:21] Meg: He hadn't invested his clients money. He had pocketed it. And then he had spent it on houses and cars and jewelry and art and Duke. He managed to pull in $15 million from 140 clients, including his grandmother.

[15:48] Jessica: Hold on. What I find so weird is that getting money out of people is the job of; people are good at it, are people who are great with people, and he seems to be socially just poison. So how did he do that if his personality was so terrible?

[16:10] Meg: Remember, though, his peers thought he was creepy and weird, but older old people loved him. He charmed the old people.

[16:22] Jessica: So he's just scum.

[16:25] Meg: Some Wall Street guys heard rumor of this fancy whiz kid, and did some digging. Turns out David hadn't covered his tracks very well. He hadn't even registered with the SEC.

[16:38] Jessica: Oops.

[16:39] Meg: I mean, there are people who have been very successful running Ponzi schemes for decades, as we well know. It was like, what's the end game here?

[16:50] Jessica: Well, that's a 23 year old being a 23 year old. I feel terrible. I'm five foot two. Everyone hates me. And Duke, he probably left Duke as quickly as he could because he was not having a good time. But by God, he'll show them. Exactly. Crazy.

[17:08] Meg: On January 12, 1988, five and a half years after graduating from Trinity, the SEC seized all his assets, and David Bloom was charged with mail and security fraud. He pled guilty and was sentenced to eight years in prison for defrauding investors of almost $15 million. His parents were sued for the $191,250 that Bloom had spent on them, and they settled for $30,000. Duke had to return the money and the art. Ironically, you're going to love this part, the market had crashed in 1987, as we know, Black Monday. So the people who had given him money might have lost everything if he had actually invested in stocks. Instead, he bought real estate and art, and his victims were mostly made whole.

[18:03] Jessica: I actually just got a chill.

[18:04] Meg: Crazy stuff.

[18:06] Jessica: That's incredible.

[18:07] Meg: All right, there's an epilogue. He served five years in prison and came back to New York once he was released. He lived with his parents and started hanging out at Houston's at 54th and 3rd during the day. Have you been there?

[18:19] Jessica: Yes. In fact, when I worked a dot com, there was one on Park Avenue that we would go to in the thirties, I think.

[18:26] Meg: No, I go there now. It's called Hillstone now. Yeah, but the one on 54th and 3rd.

[18:31] Jessica: Yes, I do know that one.

[18:33] Meg: Kathy and I love, love, love going there. That's our favorite place to have lunch. It's got an amazing artichoke dip.

[18:40] Jessica: I was, get out of my head. I was just going to say to you, have you had the hot artichoke dip? It's so good.

[18:48] Meg: Oh my God, it's so fattening. But, oh, it's so worth it. He would hang out at the bar there, so if you can picture it, on the left there.

[18:57] Jessica: His little feet dangling over bar stool.

[19:00] Meg: He would hang out at the bar for hours, sipping wine and watching the financial news. Every so often he would slip out to, quote, "meet with clients." He became very close with the bartenders and wait staff and started giving them stock tips. One day, he said Morgan Stanley was offering him, quote, "gift IPOs" because of the high volume of trading he was bringing in through the company. They were offering to set him up with a couple of thousand shares of several initial public offerings, which Morgan was underwriting. Kind of makes sense, right? I guess, what do I know?

[19:37] Jessica: Not really, but okay.

[19:39] Meg: He said his clients weren't interested in these gift IPOs because they were only a couple thousand shares and not millions of shares. The staff at Houston's bit that apple and they were thrilled.

[19:53] Jessica: He could not stop himself.

[19:56] Meg: Every week they say David would announce IPOs: Amerisoft, Opus 360, Krispy Kreme. And when the companies went public, the stock prices would zoom up. So he was picking good stocks for them. One bartender's investment of $20,000 had supposedly turned into over $750,000. Another bartender quit his job. After all, he was now a millionaire. Now this is 1998, and it was much easier to check someone out. But David had given the staff a fake name David Daly. And it wasn't until he hedged about giving one of the bartenders a couple thousand dollars from her portfolio that she started calling around different brokerage houses and no one had heard of David Daly. She called the police, and David went back to prison for five years for bilking the staff at Houston's for $50,000. The story continues. He was released from prison in 2006.

[20:57] Jessica: How long until he went back in?

[21:00] Meg: Just four months ago. Four months ago he was arrested again, this time in L.A.. For bilking his neighbors and some acquaintances he met at bars of $200,000. Nancy Ozeas, who had the misfortune of marrying him, says he's, quote, "a certified, verified sociopath. He's literally able to sit down and kind of very quickly figure out what to say to make himself indispensable in your life, to be that person that understands you better than anyone else ever has, that's his charm. In retrospect, I have absolutely no idea if anything he ever told me was true. I can definitively say he was the most destructive person I've ever met. I wish I never married him." Currently, he is 59 years old and awaiting trial, he posted $45,000 bail. One of his current victims said, quote, "he already went to prison. It's not going to change anything. He doesn't know how to work differently."

[22:05] Jessica: Oh, David. But not surprising, I guess, that it's as this person said, it's simply his nature.

[22:15] Meg: But, like, from that first story, it didn't feel that just felt human to me. Like, he's like, I want things. I want to impress people. I'm just not thinking ahead.

[22:26] Jessica: You mean it's like taking money from his grandmother?

[22:31] Meg: Just not, because he's 23 and he's an idiot.

[22:32] Jessica: No, 23. No, I hear you, but don't forget 23, you know, difference between stealing and not. He was consciously saying, I am going to do this with your money, and then did something entirely different.

[22:55] Meg: The art that he bought appreciated in value. He was actually, he was good at picking stocks and he was good at art collecting.

[23:03] Jessica: He just wasn't good in getting the money all the way to whatever company he was investing in. He had a little blockage there. I know you know, I'm just.

[23:14] Meg: Well, I think it's interesting. He loved art and he's good at it. Oh, my God. That doesn't happen every day. That you actually have the skill set for the thing that you really love. I mean, that's the dream.

[23:29] Jessica: Well, there's a part of that which to me says, because I can only imagine that he was also quite self loathing and that if he loves something and it's what he's really good at, it must have no value. So the thing that he valued was probably the thing that was really hard to do, which was amass huge amounts of money from people who wouldn't socialize with him. That's the hard thing. So if he could do that, that must mean that he has value. Oh, my God. I'm a genius. Did you hear this?

[24:10] Meg: Yeah, we've already talked about it a little bit. But the difference between the people who were charmed and the people who weren't and I guess that's the whole teacher's pet thing. I mean, it is kind of funny, right, when teachers are just like, that kid is amazing, and all the other kids in the class are like, yeah, you don't sit next to them in class.

[24:31] Jessica: Right. Because the adults are not in a position to see them in contrast to the other kids. Right? Like the people who he was scamming and I don't know, like teachers pets. I find that teacher's pets tend to be in two categories. The ones who are sort of pathetic and they want to protect them, and the ones who are working at it.

[24:57] Meg: The precocious one.

[24:59] Jessica: Yes, exactly. And sometimes there's an overlap between the two, which I think is where I sat squarely in fifth grade. He did a huge amount of damage. I just look at him as a really sad character because all that I get off this story is like, he hated himself and that was reinforced over and over and over again in his peer group. I don't know. I don't know. Am I crazy? Am I a sociopath? Because I think that.

[25:31] Meg: That you feel sorry for the sociopath.

[25:33] Jessica: Yes. Yeah.

[25:34] Meg: I don't know. You can feel sorry for whoever you want.

[25:37] Jessica: No, I can't. Sure you can't. Are you insane?

[25:40] Meg: Stop you. I will not stop you.

[25:42] Jessica: But you should. What kind of friend are you? Oh, my God.

[25:58] Meg: What you got?

[26:00] Jessica: All right, so I'm grumpy. Okay. Okay. I'm crabby.

[26:04] Meg: Yes.

[26:04] Jessica: And so I have kind of a crabby report today. Okay. Which of course, I will laugh straight through, but every now and then, as you know, I really need to just get my grumpy old man, shakes fist at cloud self.

[26:22] Meg: All right. Going to be one of those.

[26:22] Jessica: This is definitely one of those, but it starts with something I love. And here's the crabby part. I don't think enough other people love it. Okay, so that's grump number one. What is it? When people talk about New York movies.

[26:40] Meg: Okay.

[26:41] Jessica: And New York movies of the '80s, including us.

[26:45] Meg: Yes. Many.

[26:46] Jessica: There is a film that we have not talked about and I don't think a lot of people know about. And I think if you want to understand New York and sort of the color of old New York, this 1981 movie really does it. Do you remember the film My Favorite Year?

[27:05] Meg: Oh, yes.

[27:07] Jessica: It was made into a musical or a play or something at some point?

[27:12] Meg: Why was someone talking about that recently. Am I having a crazy deja vu moment? Why are you talking about it?

[27:19] Jessica: Well, it's one of my favorite movies of all time, and it's incredibly quotable and hilarious, and I don't know why it hasn't become a cult movie, and that pisses me off.

[27:31] Meg: Okay, so you're going to tell me all the things to love about My Favorite Year?

[27:35] Jessica: I'm going to mention a few things, and then I'm going to go on another rant because it led me down and this is a spoiler it led me down a path, bookmark that, of cranky. So, My Favorite Year, it is the story of a young man. It's basically what happened to the writer of the film. Okay, so young man working on The Sid Caesar Show in the '50s in New York, and Errol Flynn comes on the show and he's an alcoholic. He's out of his nut. And this.

[28:16] Meg: Is he called Errol Flynn?

[28:18] Jessica: No, this is the real thing that happened.

[28:19] Meg: Okay.

[28:20] Jessica: And this young man had to basically babysit him to make sure that he could do what he had to do. And he was also a movie star of a certain era, and remembering his lines was not a strong point, particularly when boozed up.

[28:40] Meg: Got it.

[28:41] Jessica: So this movie, My Favorite Year, is that story, but not using those names. No. Mark Linn-Baker plays the main character, and he's a love interest, whatever and Peter O'Toole plays the Errol Flynn character.

[28:57] Meg: Riiight. Oh Peter O'Toole, charm machine.

[28:58] Jessica: And it shows so beautifully. Like how in the '50s, this is just post war America when things are really booming. How in New York there was this relationship between Manhattan and Brooklyn and Manhattan was where you aspired to be and Brooklyn is where you came from, and it's where your embarrassing family was. And in this film, Mark Linn-Baker's character Benjy, is horrified by his family in Brooklyn, and at one point in babysitting the completely brilliantly soused Peter O'Toole, he takes him home to Brooklyn, and the family includes, I think, Lainie Kazan plays his mother and the aunts and the uncles, and they're insane. Anyway, it's a great, great movie, and absolutely I'm pushing for it to become a cult classic. Okay, so 1981, New York, My Favorite Year.

[30:04] Meg: Wonderful.

[30:05] Jessica: Now rant number two.

[30:07] Meg: Yes.

[30:07] Jessica: Well, one of the things I love about this film is that it shows these fantastic shots of the city, and it's a love letter to New York, as are many, many movies, but this is its own flavor. By the way, for those of you who don't know who Mark Linn-Baker is, yes, you do. In 1986. You are cracking me up today. Because I'm just cranky. In 1986, the show Perfect Strangers launched with Mark Linn-Baker and the genius Bronson Pinchot, who, also 1980s was the memorable Serge in Beverly Hills Cop. So good. Yes, you are not sex. That is not sexy. That is animal. You want an espresso. The '80s was good. To Mark Linn-Baker. Anyway, one of the shots that they're famous for is in that film, is there's a horse involved and they're in Central Park. And then I was thinking about how much I loved the bridle path, even though it also terrified me to be on we've talked about this, that I rode every single Sunday with my heart in my throat, like having a total nervous breakdown.

[31:24] Meg: So you rode in the park?

[31:26] Jessica: In the '80s and the late '70s, I would go to Claremont Stables, which is the last existing stable in New York City that closed in 2007, but it had been serving New York City and New York City Central Park riders for decades. I mean, it was in their family for a very long time. So, I mean, close to 100 years. Yeah, there was a ring and like, the kids would learn in the ring. And we had little horse shows. And I told you, like, I finally retired when I got a blue ribbon or maybe my dad was telling you that story, maybe recently.

[32:01] Meg: I didn't realize it was in that you were in the stables in Manhattan.

[32:04] Jessica: In Manhattan. Okay? And did I tell you about on this podcast about how I went riding with a teacher and we went to Tavern on the Green and side saddles? No. Okay.

[32:15] Meg: Wow.

[32:16] Jessica: Okay, so here's the deal about riding in Central Park in the '80s. This stable was a really interesting place. And all of the horses were stabled upstairs, and they would come down this long ramp, and the ground floor, which had like, a garage door type opening, which was always open, was the ring where you would have lessons, right. And they had their little horse shows, and you would jump. I mean, it wasn't even that little. Like, it was a properly sized ring, and you have jumping lessons and all kinds of stuff. And I think I mentioned my brother was a great rider, and because I suffered deeply from oh, no, you didn't without me, deeply, I insisted on riding, even though it was later revealed to me, I think, like, a few weeks ago by my dad, that he was fully aware of the fact that I hated it, but I forced myself to go.

[33:16] Meg: Interesting.

[33:17] Jessica: Yes. I'm not a well person, and I think that we've established that on many levels. But anyway, so John went on to become part of the equestrian team at Princeton, and I was, like, fainting going to riding classes. But anyway and it had in the building all kinds of relics from the many, many years gone by that this place had been open. I had a riding instructor who was named Babette. And Babette was a little short person like me, and she had long, black, curly hair. And she said, I don't know why she was trying to give me some end of the year treat or something, but she found two side saddles in the stables upstairs. And she said, wear a long skirt.

[34:08] Meg: Wow. That is crazy.

[34:09] Jessica: So we rode. You don't have pictures, do you? Of course not. No.

[34:15] Meg: That is so priceless.

[34:17] Jessica: It is priceless, and it's a terrible thing, but it's like it wouldn't have even occurred to us to take a photo. It was just like, oh, I'm going to my riding lesson, and this thing is happening.

[34:26] Meg: And I'm going to be side saddle all the way to Tavern on the Green.

[34:31] Jessica: What? Right.

[34:34] Meg: So you got along with Babette.

[34:36] Jessica: I really liked her. I'm not crabby about Babette at all. Where's the crabby coming? It's coming. Okay. Okay. So we went to Tavern on the Green, and this was when another '80s phenomenon, Frozefruit, first launched. It was considered so fancy that they had a cart right in the courtyard area in front of Tavern on the Green.

[35:03] Meg: I can picture that.

[35:04] Jessica: And the bridle path goes right up to Tavern on the Green. So we rode right onto it and got Frozefruits and rode around side saddle in the park with our Frozefruits. Now you're going to understand why I'm crabby. So at the time, the bridle path was still used by horses.

[35:24] Meg: I can still smell it.

[35:25] Jessica: Riding was a thing, at that time joggers started using the bridle path even though it was hazardous to them and the horses, and they would bring their dogs with them.

[35:37] Meg: That's so bad.

[35:37] Jessica: And the dogs would go after the horses. My brother was out with his instructor in Central Park, and the dog got so I think it was my brother's instructor. The dog got so close and was nipping at the horse that was starting to go crazy that the instructor reached back and whipped the dog to get it off the horse because it wasn't on a leash. And the owner was super angry and like, how could you touch my dog? And they're like, you're going to kill people. Don't you get it?

[36:11] Meg: No joke.

[36:12] Jessica: You're going to kill people.

[36:13] Meg: And you're certainly going to kill your dog.

[36:14] Jessica: Yes.

[36:15] Meg: That horse is not going to take that.

[36:16] Jessica: No, not at all.

[36:17] Meg: That would be saving the dog's life, is what just happened.

[36:20] Jessica: Correct. So, anyway, what pissed me off was that as time went by, having horses in the city became less and less popular, and partly because the bridle paths were also being poorly kept. So we know that the Central Park I don't know, what is it? The Central Park Conservancy. Conservancy or yeah, we're New Yorkers and we don't know what it's called. Well, that's great. We're genius, we're close.

[36:48] Meg: We've got most of the syllables.

[36:49] Jessica: centralpark.org. Okay.

[36:51] Meg: Conservancy.

[36:53] Jessica: Whatever. Yeah, but they also I don't know. Anyway, the entity that takes care of the park.

[36:59] Meg: My godfather Steven Rickert was very involved with them.

[37:01] Jessica: Really?

[37:02] Meg: Yeah. He would go and take care of different plants and trees in the park.

[37:07] Jessica: And your mother is a great birder in the park.

[37:09] Meg: She sure is.

[37:10] Jessica: Schlepping Bert around. Look at birds. Look at birds with Bert. Hi, dad. The joggers really took over. And that's part of what, the lack of popularity of riding. That's why Claremont Stables closed in 2007, sadly. And when it opened, when the park opened in 1858 and through the 1860s, the bridle paths were so popular, and they were kept so well. I found this out that they were watered down to keep the dust down in the morning and then smoothed out at night.

[37:53] Meg: Like an ice rink.

[37:55] Jessica: Yes, they were zambonied. And I think that it would be really wonderful if that could come back. And it makes me really sad.

[38:05] Meg: Alice took riding class when she was little, but we had to go all the way to the Bronx.

[38:11] Jessica: That's the thing. And there are still, I think, horses in Prospect Park, and there's something in Queens, and they're trying to come up with some way to bring riding back to the park now, but I think that it continues to be sort of an impossible task, because you need to have a stable that's right there. So, anyway, then I started to think about now, this is where I got super crabby, and this really is like old lady shakes fist at cloud. So I was thinking about all of these eighty s New York movies that really are these love letters to New York, and I found a list of the movies that were made in the '80s that feature Central Park and the list. I'm just going to give you a few highlights. But starting in 1980 was One-Trick Pony. Never heard of it. My Favorite Year. No Small Affair, Rich and Famous, Traces, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Tootsie, Ghostbusters. Tootsie Broadway Danny Rose, Splash. Splash. Brewsters Millions, Desperately Seeking Susan, Hangin' Tough, Breeders, 84 Charing Cross Road, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Pick-up Artist, Baby Boom. I'm only a 1987 right now. Hello Again, Married to The Mob, Scrooge, Three Men and a Baby, Wall Street, Arthur 2: On the rocks.

[39:45] Meg: Arthur 2.

[39:47] Jessica: Ghostbusters, New York Stories, Crimes and Misdemeanors.

[39:52] Meg: Some great movies there. There are some not so great movies.

[39:54] Jessica: Well, there are tons of not great movies, but just in the list is like 50, 60 around there long. They all feature the bridle path and that's what pisses me off. It's like, if this is so great, bring it back. Have New Yorkers have something to do that's an outdoorsy thing. That's genuinely New York. I'm so tired of people in L.A. being like, we're going hiking. That's not hiking, that's walking up a slight incline, you dummy.

[40:29] Meg: You are still jet lagged.

[40:32] Jessica: I am. Just bring back the bridle path. I'm willing to be scared shitless. It's fine, it's fine. I just want something that is so genuinely New York to be back and part of what the young people now enjoy. So that's how my brain works. So I lie awake at night and I'm like, oh, here's something I love. And I spin it and spin it until I'm in a rage. So there you go from this is a movie that should be a cult classic, you idiots to why did you get rid of the bridle path, you schmucks? That's my contribution for the week. Good night and good luck. Okay, fact checked.

[41:33] Meg: Yes.

[41:33] Jessica: Here are a couple of things. Number one, My Favorite Year was made in 1981 and released in 1982. Check. It was directed by Richard Benjamin, like the king of New York and L.A., frankly cinema of the '60s through the '80s. If you ever want to see a great, great movie, see the film version of Goodbye, Philip Roth's book, short story, whatever novella, Goodbye, Columbus. Richard Benjamin is the main character. It is, so he directed this and it was written by Norman Steinberg and Dennis Palumbo. But who it happened to, got it, was Mel Brooks.

[42:20] Meg: Mel Brooks. New York native.

[42:22] Jessica: New York native. How much do we, working for the Sid Caesar show, I believe it was 1954.

[42:30] Meg: And The Sid Caesar Show.

[42:33] Jessica: He genuinely did have to look after Errol Flynn and keep him sober enough to learn his lines and stay lucid while on the show.

[42:41] Meg: And The Sid Caesar Show was filmed in New York.

[42:44] Jessica: Yes.

[42:45] Meg: Amazing. Lots of TV used to happen here.

[42:48] Jessica: Woody Allen, by the way, wrote for Sid Caesar with at the same time as Mel Brooks. So that character is based on the two of them apparently, it's the most charming, most adorable New York affirming and life affirming story.

[43:06] Meg: Yay. It's very. My Favorite Year. So what's our tie in today?

[43:12] Jessica: We've got young men, young, making their way in the world and stumbling okay.

[43:22] Meg: Young, stumbling men.

[43:23] Jessica: Young men making their way in the world and stumbling on the path to, on the bridle path. On the bridle path. Oh, my God.

[43:32] Meg: All right, that's good enough.

[43:34] Jessica: I think you can't ring another drop of anything out of me and dad, sorry that I cursed. I waited till the end.