Speaker 1: This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
Speaker 1: A M six forty, The Gary and Shannon Show on
Speaker 1: demand on the iHeartRadio app Life Office This lively music,
Speaker 1: exciting games, Cupid, shooting arrows. Oh plus, don't miss out
Speaker 1: on sending a special Valentine's Day graham to your special
Speaker 1: iHeart sweetheart HR line one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think we do that anymore.
Speaker 3: What the hell?
Speaker 2: What did you got second grade?
Speaker 3: That was uncomfortable? In second grade?
Speaker 1: I remember being wildly uncomfortable as a young child. How
Speaker 1: did you guys do getting Valentine's Days Valentine grahams from boys?
Speaker 3: Like you had?
Speaker 2: What you had like a brown box bag?
Speaker 1: Bole would drop them by your desk, and then like
Speaker 1: you found out that, like you know.
Speaker 2: Go on, I don't want to name name? Was it
Speaker 2: Jimmy Dave?
Speaker 1: There was like three Daves. Some of them went by David.
Speaker 1: There was like a good Dave and like a bad
Speaker 1: David anyway.
Speaker 2: The uppity David, Yeah, the lazy David.
Speaker 3: The athletic David.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, in second grade, the athletic David.
Speaker 1: I later never mind, but anyway, terrifying, Like how uncomfortable
Speaker 1: was that?
Speaker 3: I was so uncomfortable by that.
Speaker 2: I figured it was free candy.
Speaker 3: Yeah see boys, Yeah, I know, until you.
Speaker 4: Get in like fifth or sixth grade, and then it's
Speaker 4: a little uncomfortable because you want to try to add
Speaker 4: just a specific note to the one that.
Speaker 3: I like your boobs or just boobs.
Speaker 2: No, not in sixth grade.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I didn't like it. I wasn't
Speaker 1: ready for any of that until I was about twenty five.
Speaker 4: And then by then you were like, I don't want
Speaker 4: it any No, silly little Valentine's my little.
Speaker 2: Hey, Gary and Chen.
Speaker 5: A while back, wordle uh the word of the day,
Speaker 5: and wordle was oh yeah, And I had never heard
Speaker 5: that word before, and I thought I really had it nailed.
Speaker 5: When I entered volvah, oh boy, and was baffled, and
Speaker 5: that was not the correct word.
Speaker 2: It happens. I just thought you might like.
Speaker 1: To know I remember that day.
Speaker 3: I thought of you.
Speaker 1: I think of you every time I see the word
Speaker 1: uvula or volva, you and your wife, think about both
Speaker 1: of you.
Speaker 4: I guess I appreciate the big stories that were following today.
Speaker 4: Of course, the rain coming back in this weekend. This
Speaker 4: week we will see some rain start to arrive tomorrow.
Speaker 4: The biggest day though, is going to be Thursday. It's
Speaker 4: just going to basically rain from midnight to midnight on
Speaker 4: two inches.
Speaker 1: And so we should do we should send a Valentine
Speaker 1: an iHeart Valentine Graham to like the Woody Show or something.
Speaker 3: Don't you think we should do that?
Speaker 2: I would? Yes?
Speaker 3: What should it say?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: But we feel like you guys hate us. We don't
Speaker 1: know why we love your show. Happy Valentine's Day.
Speaker 2: Why don't we just we love your show.
Speaker 4: We don't need to, We don't need to back fill
Speaker 4: all of the emotional scarring that we have.
Speaker 1: But then I feel like it's we're just being saying
Speaker 1: we love your show, like everybody says that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we do.
Speaker 3: Though, well, we should make it specific.
Speaker 2: We love it.
Speaker 3: I like it when you wear your green socks.
Speaker 4: I like no, specifically like it when Sammy says something funny,
Speaker 4: or when who's Sammy see it? Apparently you don't love
Speaker 4: the show. I'll take care of writing the Valentine to
Speaker 4: the Woody Show.
Speaker 2: The Flu is back.
Speaker 4: California's flu season, they said could be one of the
Speaker 4: worst that we've seen in a century. California Department of
Speaker 4: Public Health's weekly report show statewide influenza activity is high
Speaker 4: and increasing because things like COVID and RSV have been low.
Speaker 2: They said, already it's.
Speaker 4: One of the fourth worst that we've seen in about
Speaker 4: a century. And then finally, more than one hundred and
Speaker 4: seventy World War Two era practice bombs have been found
Speaker 4: beneath a playground in England during a renovation of that site.
Speaker 2: Come that's fine.
Speaker 1: A lawsuit filed against LA Unified that they've been spending
Speaker 1: money the wrong way, and that.
Speaker 3: Is exactly the case.
Speaker 1: Proposition twenty eight was all about new art programs in schools.
Speaker 1: This has been such an underfunded area of learning for kids.
Speaker 1: It's gone by the wayside.
Speaker 3: It would be one.
Speaker 1: Thing if we were knocking at it out of the
Speaker 1: park with our math and reading scores, but we're not
Speaker 1: doing that, and you're taking away the outlet for so
Speaker 1: many creative types in schools to grow through art classes
Speaker 1: and art programs and everything that comes along with that.
Speaker 1: So Prop twenty eight was passed to kind of fill
Speaker 1: that need. And instead of filling that need, what LA
Speaker 1: Unified has been doing is just going along status quo
Speaker 1: and using that money for other things and barely keeping
Speaker 1: the arts.
Speaker 3: Program that was running up and running.
Speaker 1: And that is putting it lightly because most of these
Speaker 1: programs are not up and running. They exist, but they're
Speaker 1: wildly under fund This was supposed to remedy that. Instead
Speaker 1: they're using the money for other things.
Speaker 4: Yeah, about I'm billion dollars in additional art funding was
Speaker 4: raised a large portion promise to the underserved communities in
Speaker 4: about eighty percent of it specifically earmarked to hire new
Speaker 4: art teachers.
Speaker 2: LAUSD got the biggest check.
Speaker 4: It's the biggest school district in the state, obviously, but
Speaker 4: they said parents started noticing a problem that the district
Speaker 4: wasn't doing what was intended with the money. Former superintendent
Speaker 4: Austin Butner said that the district received seventy seven million dollars,
Speaker 4: but none of it went to hiring new teachers.
Speaker 1: Right the district la Unified prioritized the use of this
Speaker 1: money to cover existing staff as well as higher new
Speaker 1: staff because you need more staff. The money was illegally
Speaker 1: redirected to things like increasing senior staff salaries. Their pay
Speaker 1: has increased fivefold since twenty ten, while at the same
Speaker 1: time student enrolled has plunged. These school bureaucracies are criminal
Speaker 1: mafia like enterprises that need to be stopped. They've found
Speaker 1: a way to get all of the union goons involved,
Speaker 1: paid them handsomely to just run rackets left and right
Speaker 1: and listen.
Speaker 4: The parents have the very simple cry of In this case,
Speaker 4: one mom wants her son he'd have no arts in
Speaker 4: middle school or high school. In his middle school, there's none, said.
Speaker 4: I want to make sure that the money's supposed to
Speaker 4: go to the schools that gets there. She just wants
Speaker 4: more art, less questionable math. Yeah, that's funny, true, and
Speaker 4: for her son to dance and not suffer any of
Speaker 4: the side stepping around his opportunity. She says, it's sad
Speaker 4: you want the best for your kids. I'm not asking
Speaker 4: for more, I'm asking for what's rightfully theirs.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: I don't know how I would have survived the questionable
Speaker 1: math years, the whole changing the way math is done
Speaker 1: math common course.
Speaker 4: We were on the very very tail or the very
Speaker 4: very beginnings of that with our kids. So when they
Speaker 4: were in elementary school, obviously it was just we would teach,
Speaker 4: we would help them do the math the way we
Speaker 4: were also taught to do math, and it was easy
Speaker 4: to see. I mean there's minor, minor differences in how
Speaker 4: the teacher might describe how you're gonna, you know, carry
Speaker 4: the one or whatever, but it all made sense. It
Speaker 4: was all very common, despite the the word meaning now
Speaker 4: it was easy for us to help our kids with math.
Speaker 4: And then on the very end of their their career,
Speaker 4: their high school careers, at least, when we could still
Speaker 4: help them with that sort of a thing, it started
Speaker 4: getting a little weird, like why are you.
Speaker 2: Doing it that way?
Speaker 4: I understand that someone told you that there's a way
Speaker 4: to do it that's easier for you to think of it.
Speaker 4: But it's okay to struggle with math, like it's okay
Speaker 4: to work through the problem. That's part of what's showing
Speaker 4: math matheahs, not just it's so valuable.
Speaker 2: Yes, because I'm not a mass I loved matt.
Speaker 3: I loved it, but I was not a savant.
Speaker 2: Well it was it was.
Speaker 4: I loved it because it was a you had a
Speaker 4: right answer and a wrong answer, and if you were wrong,
Speaker 4: you did something wrong and you had to go back
Speaker 4: and problem solve and figure out where.
Speaker 2: You should be.
Speaker 1: I liked that it was an actual challenge when so
Speaker 1: much of curriculum is not a challenge, So there are
Speaker 1: some schools that are trying to course correct. When it
Speaker 1: comes to the drop off in learning, some will say
Speaker 1: there's not a drop off, it just has been a
Speaker 1: failed system for quite some time, and they're trying to
Speaker 1: account for that with in class tutors and what's called
Speaker 1: data chats. Specifically, in the Associated Press they highlighted a
Speaker 1: middle school in Compton that these in class tutors and
Speaker 1: data chats have made quite a difference. Schools have poured
Speaker 1: federal and local relief money into things like this following
Speaker 1: the pandemic, hoping to catch students up following the COVID mess,
Speaker 1: but as we reported to you, a new analysis shows
Speaker 1: that the average student remains half a grade level behind
Speaker 1: pre pandemic achievement in reading and math. In reading, especially,
Speaker 1: students are even further behind. Part of that is that
Speaker 1: kids are just not reading for fun anymore. We've talked
Speaker 1: about that, and it's a lot of the screens and
Speaker 1: the parents using the screens. And screens are okay. Screens
Speaker 1: were a bad thing when we were kids. You know,
Speaker 1: you'd get maybe a little bit of television time, but
Speaker 1: you weren't allowed to just look at screens. God forbideo
Speaker 1: a screen in your room. You know, it just wasn't
Speaker 1: a thing. You had books, you had homework, and you
Speaker 1: had reading for fun. And that's just gone by the wayside.
Speaker 1: And that's just the way it is. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to say get off my lawn. I'm just
Speaker 1: saying times have changed and it's harder for people, and
Speaker 1: in adults as well. You're probably opening up fewer books
Speaker 1: as well. But this is making a difference there at
Speaker 1: that middle school in Compton when it comes to actually
Speaker 1: putting and the resources inside the classroom like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, the district responded by hiring about two hundred and
Speaker 4: fifty tutors that specialized in math and reading and students
Speaker 4: learning English. So certain classes are staffed with multiple tutors
Speaker 4: to assist the teachers, and schools offered tutoring before and
Speaker 4: during and after school. They also do a Saturday school
Speaker 4: and some summer programs for the students, about seventeen thousand
Speaker 4: of them there in the district.
Speaker 1: They're also conducting dyslexia screenings in all elementary schools so
Speaker 1: students aren't just suffering and failing because of this and
Speaker 1: nobody knows about it this area, Compton, We're talking about
Speaker 1: a student body that's eighty four percent Latino, fourteen percent black.
Speaker 1: Now as a graduation rate of ninety three percent.
Speaker 3: That is an outlier that.
Speaker 4: Compared to fifty eight percent just about ten years ago.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's ridiculous. That is incredible.
Speaker 1: There is a woman, a girl, excuse me, that they
Speaker 1: highlight in this article named Harmony No. She is eleven
Speaker 1: years old. She's in sixth grade, and she says, these tutors,
Speaker 1: these in class tutors and data chats have really helped
Speaker 1: given her more confidence in math. She has these data
Speaker 1: chats with her math specialist, part performance review, part PEP talk.
Speaker 3: And how important is that?
Speaker 1: It's so important to have confidence when you're learning, especially
Speaker 1: in math right, and to have that is so key,
Speaker 1: she says, Looking at my data, it kind of disappoints me. Harmon,
Speaker 1: He says, when the numbers are low, it makes me
Speaker 1: realize I can do better in the future.
Speaker 3: And also now.
Speaker 4: That brings up two issues. This whole story brings up
Speaker 4: two issues. That is one of them is are we
Speaker 4: doing enough to keep the kids apprised of their own progress?
Speaker 2: Is there a way, because.
Speaker 4: I remember doing on my own progress reports, like in
Speaker 4: high school, because I started thinking about, well, I better
Speaker 4: get the right grades for college, and I can't wait
Speaker 4: until every nine weeks to get an update from my teacher.
Speaker 4: Could I do it every other week and have them
Speaker 4: fill out the little form. Usually it was kids that
Speaker 4: were on some sort of academic probation, or they were
Speaker 4: on a sports team.
Speaker 2: You had to do it.
Speaker 4: If you were playing football, you had to have weekly
Speaker 4: updates from your teachers, kind of.
Speaker 1: A precursor to having bringing a little slip into your
Speaker 1: court case or whatever when you get in trouble with
Speaker 1: the law. Growing up, you've got to get things signed
Speaker 1: off as an adulty.
Speaker 3: But I remember that.
Speaker 1: In class, like there were some kids who had to
Speaker 1: get things signed off on in their little card or whatever.
Speaker 4: But I was doing it because I was I just
Speaker 4: want to make sure I was on the right pat like.
Speaker 1: I'm the right conscientious kids and the troublemakers have those cards.
Speaker 4: The other thing is, and I know that this maybe
Speaker 4: conflating a couple of issues, but one of the things
Speaker 4: that kids do is they look to their parents for
Speaker 4: the example of how to work right in school.
Speaker 2: For an eleven year old.
Speaker 4: President Trump hosted King Abdullah the Second of Jordan at
Speaker 4: the White House today. Of course, the topic of Gaza
Speaker 4: rev fugis is and will be at the top of
Speaker 4: the agenda. The President said he believes the King of
Speaker 4: Della and some other leaders in the Arab world will
Speaker 4: take in Palestinians from Gaza because they have good hearts.
Speaker 4: At the news conference or the informal news conference that
Speaker 4: they did this morning from the Oval Office with the
Speaker 4: fireplace in the background, Trump did say that they had
Speaker 4: some great discussions already today and that they will continue
Speaker 4: to have them. There's a more formal news conference expected
Speaker 4: a little bit later. Top official in Trump's Department of
Speaker 4: Justice has instructed the federal prosecutors in Manhattan to drop
Speaker 4: federal corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York.
Speaker 4: The Times that the case would be dismissed without prejudice,
Speaker 4: meaning that it could be reinstated. But these charges, the
Speaker 4: wire fraud, the bribery, soliciting illegal campaign contributions, would have
Speaker 4: carried up to forty five years in prison. Jury selection
Speaker 4: was going to start in a couple of weeks, he said.
Speaker 4: The Justice Department, that is I think at Emil Bovol
Speaker 4: had said that this was another example of the Biden
Speaker 4: Department of Justice being weaponized against politicians, despite the fact
Speaker 4: that Eric Adams is a Democrat.
Speaker 1: One of the things we're keeping our eye on. As
Speaker 1: well as this meeting between Trump and King Abdullah, he
Speaker 1: did say from the Oval Office alongside the King of
Speaker 1: Jordan that the US taking control of Gaza will lead
Speaker 1: to peace in the Middle East. Now, King Abdullah, for
Speaker 1: his part, pledged to take in two thousand Palestinian children.
Speaker 1: Trump at one point said, We're going to pull all
Speaker 1: our aid if you don't take in the Palestinian So
Speaker 1: this seems to be a happy medium. We'll take in
Speaker 1: a couple thousand children, but that's all we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: Trump also doubled down on that deadline for Hamas, saying
Speaker 1: he doesn't think Hamas will meet the demand when it
Speaker 1: comes to releasing all those remaining hostages.
Speaker 3: And I said that again today just now in the
Speaker 3: Oval Office.
Speaker 4: If you've been to a high profile comedy show a
Speaker 4: lot of times now, they're using yonder pouches to prevent
Speaker 4: people from recording, and a yonder pouch is this is this?
Speaker 4: I guess high tech fabric pouch that locks with a
Speaker 4: magnet and you put your phone in there and you
Speaker 4: can't use your phone, and.
Speaker 3: You can hold the pouch, you can get into.
Speaker 4: It, can't get into your phone, and then once you leave,
Speaker 4: it's like you are you.
Speaker 1: Put it next to the metal thing the magnet, it
Speaker 1: unlops open, get.
Speaker 2: Your phone back.
Speaker 4: And schools have been doing this because schools are now
Speaker 4: in instituting these policies where kids cannot have access to
Speaker 4: their phones during school hours, and whether it's a locker
Speaker 4: in some cases or these yonder pouches which then the
Speaker 4: kids get to carry with them, they're smart enough to
Speaker 4: figure out ways around it, and once one kid figures
Speaker 4: it out, it spreads like.
Speaker 2: Wildfires, like Pruno through a jail. Yes, okay, exactly.
Speaker 1: When you're locked up like children are in schools, News
Speaker 1: travels like wildfire. How to evade teachers, capture school lessons, plans, homework, yeah,
Speaker 1: general attendance. All of the lessons are learned pretty quickly
Speaker 1: amongst the masses.
Speaker 4: Just like fermenting rotten fruit and your toilet in order
Speaker 4: to get some sort of wine.
Speaker 1: Right, the kids are always going to outsmart the people
Speaker 1: who think they're smarter.
Speaker 2: Than the kids.
Speaker 4: Students in some cases aren't even putting their phones in
Speaker 4: the Yonder pouches.
Speaker 2: They're just holding the Yonder pouches.
Speaker 3: Or why not bring a Burner phone and bring and
Speaker 3: put it in there.
Speaker 1: That way, how do they know you don't have that
Speaker 1: other phone that's in your back pocket.
Speaker 4: There are students who have found that if you tear
Speaker 4: at exactly the right seam, you can open that Yonder
Speaker 4: pouchre smart.
Speaker 3: Our kids are so smart. We just we're not paying attention.
Speaker 4: The talk about the history of the Yonder pouch all
Speaker 4: which I think is a SoCal business if I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 4: there about twenty I think it's somewhere between twenty five
Speaker 4: and thirty bucks a piece, depending on the contract that
Speaker 4: Yonder is able to negotiate with the school district.
Speaker 2: By twenty sixteen.
Speaker 4: The technology and again by technology, it's just a significant pouch.
Speaker 4: It's been used in fifty seven venues. It was in
Speaker 4: three hundred schools. Denver school districts got the idea to
Speaker 4: try the Yonder pouches in twenty seventeen because teachers experienced
Speaker 4: locking their phones in Yonder pouches during local concerts, and
Speaker 4: somebody said, oh my gosh, if it works at a
Speaker 4: concert or a stand up a comedy special, it should
Speaker 4: work in schools. So one of the chemistry teachers at
Speaker 4: Broomfield High School in Denver did so brought it to
Speaker 4: the school board. San Mateo High School became the largest
Speaker 4: public school to deploy Yonder pouches for seventeen hundred students,
Speaker 4: and the Yonder company saw more than tenfold increase in
Speaker 4: sales from government contracts between twenty twenty one and twenty
Speaker 4: twenty three.
Speaker 2: Almost all of.
Speaker 4: Those were school districts. However, doesn't mean it's infallible. And
Speaker 4: like I said, those smart kids or nefarious kids, or
Speaker 4: whatever adjective you want to add to those kids, they're
Speaker 4: smart enough to defeat these things. And it's still incumbent
Speaker 4: upon us as parents these children to teach them adequate, accurate,
Speaker 4: positive phone etiquette. And one of the things that I
Speaker 4: would do is just tell my kids leave it in
Speaker 4: your car if you're going to school, if you're going
Speaker 4: to high school, leave it in your car, or leave
Speaker 4: it at home. It'll be here when you get here,
Speaker 4: fully charged and ready for you to turn your brain
Speaker 4: into mush.
Speaker 1: I will read this book. I will watch the movie.
Speaker 1: It is all about the Gray Quill Society. This is
Speaker 1: a weekly memoir writing group for residents of the Motion
Speaker 1: Picture and Television Funds Woodland Hills Community for Aging Entertainment Professionals.
Speaker 1: This is a writing group for the retired the senior citizens,
Speaker 1: and it is proving that creativity is ageless.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: I have a thing to go back to for just
Speaker 2: for a second.
Speaker 4: Is this about the Volva No, it's about the Valentine's
Speaker 4: Okay Party?
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no way in a Valentine's d graham to.
Speaker 3: A co worker is appropriate.
Speaker 4: It's tomorrow, right, it's not even on Valentine Say it's tomorrow.
Speaker 3: That that bothers you, That bothers you.
Speaker 4: Well, this is like the sixth thing on the list
Speaker 4: that bothers me.
Speaker 1: It doesn't bother you that Catherine from accounting is going
Speaker 1: to send you or underwear and or iHeart Valentine's Graham.
Speaker 2: That part of it.
Speaker 1: I get that all the time. It's just it's that
Speaker 1: I forgot. It's been a while since you've got a
Speaker 1: pair of underwear sent to the office. Do you have
Speaker 1: another address you have?
Speaker 2: What are you doing now? I know what you're doing.
Speaker 2: You make I do not want nor will.
Speaker 3: I accept good idea.
Speaker 1: If you want to send Gary your underwear for Valentine's Day,
Speaker 1: you know the address.
Speaker 4: This Great Quill Society makes me laugh and I'm surprised
Speaker 4: it has not yet been.
Speaker 2: Optioned into a show.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 4: I mean it's built for streaming service eight episode something something.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think I'd like to read the book first and
Speaker 3: then watch this.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's fine.
Speaker 4: This is a group of a writing group, memoir writing
Speaker 4: group for residents at the Motion Picture in Television Funds
Speaker 4: Woodland Hills Community for Aging Entertainment professionals to would you
Speaker 4: say rest home perhaps for those who have worked in
Speaker 4: the industry, And I think.
Speaker 3: Rest home is an antiquated term.
Speaker 4: I don't even know what you call sior facility in your.
Speaker 3: Home of happiness.
Speaker 4: You can kich you call those things, he said, a
Speaker 4: retirement community. Yeah, that's nice, because then everybody's just leisure world, right.
Speaker 4: There are there are people, For example, Melody Sherwood eighty
Speaker 4: one years old. She says, one of carry Grant's favorite
Speaker 4: things to do was to tell stories. He had an
Speaker 4: abundant supply, and one of my favorite things to do
Speaker 4: was listened to him tell them. Melody was spent thirty
Speaker 4: years working as Lou Wasserman's executive assistant at Universal, so
Speaker 4: she became a close friend of Carry Grant and went
Speaker 4: on to relay the only in Hollywood stale tale that
Speaker 4: involved Carry Grant's first time entertaining troops overseas, a joke
Speaker 4: played by actor David Niven, and why she had a
Speaker 4: vanity license plate with the letters GAFY printed on it,
Speaker 4: which was an acronym for go and f yourself.
Speaker 1: That wasn't the only story heard at a recent morning
Speaker 1: amongst the Greg Quill Society. The group heard from a
Speaker 1: retired character actor about the time Doris Day persuaded her
Speaker 1: to help rescue a starving dog in Beverly Hills. They
Speaker 1: have all of these stories from the golden ages of Hollywood.
Speaker 1: There are people who drop in on these meetings whenever
Speaker 1: they can, hoping to soak up some of this Hollywood
Speaker 1: legendary folklore.
Speaker 3: Shall you say?
Speaker 1: It's run by a forty year old writer and producer
Speaker 1: named Victoria Bullock, and it's part writers group, part support group,
Speaker 1: occasional stand up show. They've got roughly two dozen members
Speaker 1: They're in age from sixty five to ninety five, and
Speaker 1: they all agree, most of them that this two hour
Speaker 1: meeting is the highlight of their week. Their shared experience
Speaker 1: working in Hollywood gives them an easy rapport. They said,
Speaker 1: it's such a unique group of people because we spent
Speaker 1: all our lives in the industry.
Speaker 4: This started eleven years ago. It originally was only going
Speaker 4: to be about a four week writing class, memoir writing class,
Speaker 4: but they just continued indefinitely. They've published five essay compilations
Speaker 4: that you can buy at Amazon. And then you've got
Speaker 4: current celebrities John Ham, Matthew McConaughey, Billy Porter and others
Speaker 4: who have read some of the stories out loud as
Speaker 4: part of fundraisers.
Speaker 2: And what I love about this.
Speaker 4: Is that this group, you know, this motion picture of
Speaker 4: television funds Woodland Hills community there.
Speaker 2: Is replete with story.
Speaker 4: I mean, there are probably thousands of stories that would
Speaker 4: be fun and entertaining or eye opening or jaw whatever
Speaker 4: it is, but that they would there's just so many
Speaker 4: stories in the walls of that place, within that campus.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know the deal.
Speaker 1: It's like if you're a cop or a retired cop, specifically,
Speaker 1: you get together with your friends who or people you
Speaker 1: don't even know who worked in law enforcement. You could
Speaker 1: tell stories all day, all night for a week, and
Speaker 1: for a week, for a year, for several years. It's
Speaker 1: fun getting together with people who worked in your line
Speaker 1: of work and swapping stories or who you know in common.
Speaker 1: And this is just about Hollywood stars as well, so
Speaker 1: it's like another layer of fun and cool and nostalgia
Speaker 1: on top of that. The founding leader was a volunteer
Speaker 1: by the name of Peter Dunn, a writer, producer, writing
Speaker 1: instructor who worked on Dallas Melrose Place as well, and
Speaker 1: he taught this group that there's a difference between autobiography
Speaker 1: and memoir. If autobiography is a recording of facts in
Speaker 1: chronological order, then memoir seeks to focus on specific moments, episodes,
Speaker 1: or people who changed the writer for better for worse.
Speaker 1: That's very cool, isn't it. It's an interesting specification when
Speaker 1: it comes to autobiography and memoir. Memoirs seem like they're
Speaker 1: so much more personal, don't they.
Speaker 4: And that's why. Yeah, And let's not be coy about
Speaker 4: what this place is. It is a rest home, retirement home.
Speaker 4: These people are in the winter of their years. Shall
Speaker 4: we say, well, not all of them. I mean some
Speaker 4: of them are sixty five, going.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But.
Speaker 4: Just to give you the idea, there's only one original
Speaker 4: member that's still in the group, And they say they
Speaker 4: don't talk about it much, but they kind of know.
Speaker 2: Death is sort of just below the surface there.
Speaker 4: And they always at the Television Foundation's campus. They always
Speaker 4: hold a memorial service for people who die there. They
Speaker 4: probably know each other very well, but specifically when one
Speaker 4: of the Great Quill Society members dies, they have their
Speaker 4: own rituals. They pick a piece that was written by
Speaker 4: that person who died, They read it out loud, they
Speaker 4: talk about that person's writing history and journey with the group,
Speaker 4: and then other members share their own memories.
Speaker 2: It's just a nice way to it's good with.
Speaker 3: Some of the stories are great.
Speaker 1: A retired character actor shared a story about playing a
Speaker 1: cop on a TV series and getting a panicked phone
Speaker 1: call from her grandmother. Grandma was worried she'd taken a
Speaker 1: dangerous job in the police force. Another actor recalled the
Speaker 1: time she was in production of Arsenic and Old Lace
Speaker 1: with Bella Lugosi, who she worried wanted to suck her blood.
Speaker 1: Just great, just great stories, and how nice it is
Speaker 1: to have a group. I can't wait to pick out
Speaker 1: a place.
Speaker 3: No. I was gonna say a passage to read at
Speaker 3: your passing.
Speaker 2: Oh, well that's dark.
Speaker 3: I just have so many different options.
Speaker 2: I bet you.
Speaker 3: I think I'll tell the vulva story.
Speaker 2: You've been listening to The Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 4: You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
Speaker 4: forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
Speaker 4: and any time on demand on the iHeartRadio app.