Rerun: Back to School & Lisa Frank

We're discussing heading back to school! We know how hard it can be for kids and parents alike so we have compiled some of our favorite back to school topics: our feelings as parents, what's cool to wear, tips to ease the transition and school supplies. And speaking of school supplies, we dive into the surprisingly VERY dark history of everyone's favorite cartoonist, Lisa Frank. From her early break through her tumultuous reign as queen of the trapper keeper, we discuss it all, including one very strange tie to Eminem??

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:06

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of a really good podcast with Greg and Liz. And today's episode is our season premiere. We missed you. Although we didn't really because we're recording the same time as we normally would.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

You know, Liz, you drop the ball on one thing. What? When telling me things to research for this, you should have mentioned the movie Back to School.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Is that a movie? I don't know. I don't think we know about it.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

With Rodney Dangerfield and he does the triple movie.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Oh yeah. I know. There was actually a lot to kind of go over. So I should say this much that we actually talked about doing this episode as one of our first episodes. When I went to go back to get my notes for this, it was from March 2023. So I already had a bunch of notes and everything. So I didn't really think we needed that much extra material. I did make Greg watch some episodes of TV that I didn't really watch, so apologies. But you know what? He can use the extra word.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Let me ask you this, because there's kind of two camps when it comes to back to school. Now, I was the kid riddled with anxiety for the week before school. Like I was not wanting to go back to school ever. I always hit the ground running. I always did pretty good. Like I got my folders and everything like that. And then I would lose all that stuff. But like, were you were you the kind of person who looked forward to school? Like one of those psychopaths?

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Um, yes and no. I mean, I think going back to school is always exciting. You know, it's one of those things where like you're going back, you know, it's like the first day after vacation.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Exciting or shitty?

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Exciting. Like initially going back to get to see your friends. I mean, I don't know about you, but like I only had a select amount of friends that I saw over the summer. So some people, it's like you didn't see the whole summer.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

I was fine with that. See, I had my neighborhood friends, and that was kind of it. And I think like you you do mention something important there. If you have a best friend at school, you're okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Yeah, and most of my friends were my friends from elementary school. And I grew up in Warwick, which is very condensed. You know, every elementary school, you're only in like a two-mile radius. So it's not like my kids right now, some of their friends live 15 minutes away. We were all within walking distance of everybody that we went to elementary school with. So we I had a lot of like local friends, but you actually, the big kickers, your two best friends, one was homeschooled and one went to a different school.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Yeah. And the problem with that is my house was like right on the cus where like some kids, most kids were going to the other school. Yeah. I was like right on the line where I was like, so all my friends, yeah, they went to different schools. And so when I went to school, I was like kind of an outcast.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

And you switched schools a lot because you were a delinquent. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

And they say, like, and it's kind of unfair for me to say this other thing too, like, oh yeah, just have a best friend and then school will be easy. It's like, I remember when I was like, when I first lost the hair, I was like, how do you know, how do you look good bald? And like the all the advice was like, be super fit. It's like, okay, well, that's easier said than done. So yeah, if you if you can do it, grab yourself a best friend. If not, still it always stressed me out though.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Well, at the end of the episode, we're going to discuss some tips for parents, because I'm assuming most of the people listening to this are the parents about what you can do to help your children have a successful school year. To an extent. I mean, there's only so much you can do. If your kid sucks, it is what it is. It is what it is. Okay, let me just break down what we're gonna do today. We're gonna talk about going back to school, our thoughts about going back to school, some school supply stuff, some shopping. I did a poll on Facebook where I asked parents what their kids were into. What's hip these days, as I phrased it in there. What is hip these days? Okay, can we find out?

SPEAKER_01 3:30

I'm like, I'm dying to know.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

And then we are gonna dive into the dark history of Lisa Frank, which I'm very excited about because it is not all unicorns and rainbows, let me tell you. And that's a play on the stickers. Yeah, it was. It was. Thank you for picking that up. All right, so to start out, going back to school. It's interesting. Like, how do you feel as a parent, though? Are you just like, get the fuck out of here?

SPEAKER_01 3:51

No, I have a similar you know, it's wow, no one's really ever asked me that. And I appreciate it because I have a similar anxiety. It's almost like like I was telling Natasha, I'm like, man, I don't I don't want them to go back to school. I feel bad. And she's like, Do you just want them to never like this is like these struggles are important for them? And like, yeah, I know, but it's it's I do feel for them because my kids are sort are like me. I can see it on their faces like the first day of school, the backpack's too big, it's like it looks like it's pulling them down into the earth. It's it's they're very nervous. I and I'm my energy is probably doing that to them.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Yeah, well, that's one of the things, don't put your experiences on your kids. So, like, I saw a post where this woman was like, you know, my daughter's really excited for junior high, but I had a really hard time in junior high. And should I give her a heads up that it may be difficult? And everyone was like, absolutely not. If it's gonna be difficult, it's gonna be difficult one way or the other. You don't need to make her anxious about it.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Do you want to know my welcome to junior high? What? Okay, so there's this kid, Kenny Irazari. I won't I'm not cooking him anymore. He's what he used to walk around the hallways when everyone else is in class and he would be doing like a like a little beatbox thing, like which was really cool at the time. I had never seen it. So I'm like seeing this kid over and over again, the coolest kid in school, mustache. Yeah. Big huge kid.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

In seventh grade?

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Oh yeah. Oh wow. Big huge kid. And so it was the strangest thing. So my sister used to like, my sister was in language too, she would throw all these parties and like older kids would go. And I was out being a good person with my parents. We were at my grandparents' house, and we came late and like things were stolen, right? Yeah. Stereo was stolen, all kinds of things were stolen from our house. Oh god. And so that was a Friday night. And then so Saturday morning, I'm sitting on the couch facing the TV off to the side. Yeah. And who knocks on the door? Kenny E. Rosari and his dad. So this kid out of context, this the most cool kid in school, comes to my house and his dad had brought them there because while he was at my house over the weekend, he had stolen a stereo. And is that dad found it?

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Had I was like, where the hell did you get this? We're bringing it back.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Like, thank God for it. Thank God.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

That's good parenting, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Oh, it's great parenting. And then may he made him be there. And then if you know anything about my dad, it was a little battle there.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Like, so it's like your dad was like combative about it?

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Oh, he's rough around the edges.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Yeah, but like he was a was it an appreciative?

SPEAKER_01 5:54

That he stole the stereo?

SPEAKER_00 5:55

No, that like the dad made him bring it back.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Yeah, no, they they I think they might be friends till this day.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Oh, look at that. That's nice. You know what I was thinking about though? Do you remember the I think it was Walmart had that commercial where they use it's the most wonderful time of the year, and it showed the parents like going through on the cart and playing this song. I am not anxious about it. I mean, I do love the summer. I love waking up and not having anything to do. My kids are in camp though, so they're still getting there at 8:30, 9 o'clock. So it's not that different. My schedule is not that different. I do like having a little bit more flexibility. Like they don't have to be at camp at 8:30, whereas they have to be at school by nine o'clock. But I don't know, they have a good amount of friends there that they like, so it just depends what your kid has going on, I would say. But have you noticed that school is like starting earlier and earlier every year?

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

I already have friends. I mean, this is also in the south, which I think has more to do with the temperature. But I already have friends whose kids are back in school already.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Oh, my brother in Florida? I mean, they're taking pictures, it feels like it's not even the 4th of July.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

I know. And I mean, just to give you where we are in time, it's August 13th. So it's like already. People are back in school. Yeah, they went back to school, I believe, last week. Yeah. Some of them they do get out earlier, though. And you know, it's one of those things where it's like you always hear people like, oh, teachers get so much time off. And it's like, they only get maybe two months. And honestly, like, I wouldn't teach for two months and get 10 months off. So like I give them credit. I'd say they need that time.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

I do give them credit.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

And they have to be up. I remember my mom used to have to be up at like 5 a.m. every day to get to school on time. Oh, your mom was a teacher? Yeah, she was a home ec teacher. Nice. Which they don't have anymore, which is a shame. It's a shame. It taught life skills. I know. I can't tell you how many people I'll tell you who. He had my mom as a teacher, and he would talk about how she taught him how to sew. He still like knows how to sew to this day because of my mom. What a skill. Right? How about that?

SPEAKER_01 7:43

I know he's just constantly sewing things.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Yeah, because of my mom. So uh another thing I noticed is that this new thing is that we find out the teachers in the summer. Have you seen this? Yeah. And I don't understand. First of all, I think it's a mistake because everybody's freaking out about it. I have uh one friend who every day, like, I still don't know who my daughter's teacher is, and it's like, what does it matter? Like, you're not gonna switch her out no matter who it is.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Oh no, here's the thing. It's so funny you're talking about this because Natasha sees the teacher that Ben's gonna have. And she's like, they're not a good fit. I'm like, what do you mean? Like, she's really tied in, like, with the school. And I'm like, she's like, you need to talk to the principal and get it to change. I don't, I'm like, I think it's roll of dice.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Yeah, no, somebody told me that I don't know if this is just at my kids' school, but if you request a teacher, a lot of times they'll purposely not give you that teacher, or like to put two kids in a class together, they try not to do that.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Last year, Tucker and I worked at Field Day, and there was a teacher that's gonna be in fourth grade. So it's my son is going into fourth grade. They had like all these obstacle courses, all these relay races, and she did the entire thing with her class. Like she was running the relay races, going through the obstacle, and not just once. She was going through it over and over again. And the way she was talking to the kids, I love the way she was talking to the kids. I love that she was doing that. And I almost requested her, and then I was like, you know what though? Like, I don't know if that's gonna matter when it comes to teaching my child. Right. You know, so like I feel like requesting can be a gamble. I am gonna request in fifth grade because there is one male teacher, and I think that my son would do really well with a male teacher. So I'm gonna go for that. But besides that, outside of that, what happened to like you show up on the first day and they like yell your name out? Yeah, and you're like, fuck. I remember so the first day of first grade I showed up and there was one teacher. I think I actually have told this story before, but do you remember the Miss Nelson book? Scary. She was that scary teacher she dressed up as. The teacher looked exactly like Miss Nelson, and I started hysterically crying because I was so afraid that I had her, and then they put me on the front page of the Warwick Beacon, hysterically crying. I would give anything to have that picture.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

I have a picture for me on the front page, first day of school, too. Really? Oh my god, that's hysterical.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Wait, I think we did talk about the digital. So sorry, guys. You know, we've been doing this. Is our 76th episode, you know? We're gonna repeat stories. So, school supplies in America, it's estimated we're gonna spend 135 billion on school shopping. Probably a 1 billion of that is gonna be me, because it's fucking absurd how much.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Trapper keepers.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

I don't think trapper keepers you do that anymore. It's a shame. I know they outlawed it because they were too big. Crayola produces nearly 3 billion crayons each year. It says that by the time a child turns 10, he will have worn down approximately 730 crayons. I mean, worn down, let's be honest here. Kids throw those shit that shit out like nobody's business. Before the invention of erasers, they used to use a rolled up piece of white bread to erase pencil. How about that? Can you imagine?

SPEAKER_01 10:26

That's a great little tip.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Right?

SPEAKER_01 10:28

In a pinch, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 10:29

I thought that was interesting. In the color census of 2000, blue was voted the favorite crayon color. I'd I'd guess it would be blue green. Blue green is angelic. Teal? Teal. No, like blue-green. They have blue-green and then they have green-blue if you get the big crayon box. Oh, okay. Did you not have the big crayon box? No. You don't know the one with the sharpener in the back? They weren't crayons, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

They were like those like slippery ones that, you know, the shitty paper.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Yeah. So tan, tumbleweed, and spring green were voted the least favorite colors. Spring green, I would imagine, because you can't even see it. It's like white. Like, what are we doing? Why are we using spring green's that light? I think it's that light, light green that they have.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

You want to be using the hunter green on the trees and everything.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Yeah. Now the folders. There is this whole thing going on in the internet of what color each folder is. So, like the subjects. You have math, English, social studies, and science. Okay. What would you Okay, I love this. I'm gonna go with red is science to me. But a lot of people said red is math.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Me too. I'm right there.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

I like red is evil. I uh picture red being science. I don't know why. Math, I go yellow.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Green science, biology, life, green.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

That's what that's what people said. I don't see that. So I'm doing well, right? I mean, it's opinion. Okay, there's no actual like fact about it. English, I go blue.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

English, I would go blue too.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Yeah. I don't know why it's calming. I always but English was always my favorite subject. So history. History? Yellow?

SPEAKER_01 11:50

I would have been brown on that.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Well, yeah, but you're not gonna buy a brown folder. That's psychotic.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Yellow then.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

But even though that's the worst match.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Speaking of brown, how about the covering your textbooks? You brown paper bag it?

SPEAKER_01 12:03

You know how much guff I used to get from the teachers? Because it would be like three weeks and they'd be like, You still haven't you covered your books? I'd be like, oh my God. Like, I don't sorry I don't have the special sticky stuff that some of these kids have, and I'd come in there with like a Shaw's bag wrapped around my bag.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Everybody did the the I brown paper bagged it. Did you really in my elite childhood? Oh man. I mean, what are you gonna do? The sticky one? Like, no. I didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Because no one was doing that for me at home when I and I could not get that, like, I could not get that beautiful crisp look.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

I know. There it was, it really was lovely. I love that. I actually watched a video of it that one of our listeners, Jill, sent to me, and I was like, oh, that was a great feeling. To get that nice crisp. You did it yourself? Yeah. Oh yeah. I was very independent. I would occasionally make my own lunch. Not always, but you know. All right, so let's talk about back to school shopping. I love back to school shopping because it was always that magical feeling of being able to reinvent yourself. While realistically, you always ended up with the same old shit. You very rarely like actually reinvented yourself.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

This year, like my friend Brandon Fuller is wearing South Pole jeans. So he's we're gonna take him a little bit more serious these days. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

So I did a poll on Facebook. It wasn't really a poll. I just asked for people's opinions of all the moms. Like, what is cool this year? What's the 411? And number number one. Well, first, we're gonna get this over with. Fucking Crocs. Like, what, where, what happened? How and by the way, I got my kids Crocs for the first time last year. Brand new Crocs. I'd never done that before because obviously they're a horrifying shoe. Did you know that Crocs were invented by like a sci-fi writer? They were supposed to be in a movie or something, and they were like, let's show the stupidest looking shoe we can possibly find. It was like in space or something like that. They're everywhere. They're like 50, 60 bucks each. I know, and they're still going. Oh yeah, oh yeah, they're everywhere. The kid that was refereeing Crosby's basketball game last week had him on. I think it's just a good one. I get that there's a sport mode, but that doesn't mean that you should use it for athletic activity.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

All right, so I have to get used to you're all gonna wear your pajamas every day of your life, all day. So now I have to get used to some kind of like, I don't know. What what is that thing? Like plastic shoe?

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yeah. Is it plastic or rubber?

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Rubber, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Is it rubber? Comfortable, though, I think. I think it's comfortable. I haven't gone down that road and I don't know that. I'm gonna stick with a flip-flop. Okay. You know? Fair enough. And then it goes with the high sock. I the high sock has just I can it's elusive to me. I don't get it. There's no planet in which a high sock that cuts you off mid-calf is going to be make your legs look better than a nice low sock.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Listen, the days of ankle socks are gone. I mean, they're temporarily gone. I know yeah, you're right. Like I'm I'm on board with the high socks. Really?

SPEAKER_00 14:43

Do you do a high sock?

SPEAKER_01 14:44

I do. Like a cruise sock? I do.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Oh, you do crocs too, don't you? I do. You have a a smoker on your croc, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 14:51

I'm pretty cool. You know what I mean? So like if the thing Sure, sure you are. No, but the thing is, it's like you kind of gotta change with the times, fashion wise. Yeah. And I just I don't feel like that way.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

No, because I don't care. I've never been fashionable, so I'm not about to start when I'm 40.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

And no, here's the thing that's where I might be making a mistake. So if I'm wearing Crocs in my high socks, people might be like, what the hell's going on with this guy? Yeah, I know. You're like trying really hard. Yeah. So you're and then I I see in your notes JANS port, and like I'm so JANSPORT backpacks are huge. So happy to hear that's still a thing.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Really? I don't think it's still a thing. I think it's come back into the fold. Okay. I don't think it was a thing before.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

I'm glad it's not like your initials on an L mean backpack.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

No, no. I never had that. I was told by my nine-year-old, well, now ten-year-old, actually, turned 10 last week, that major league sweatshirts are really popular. Major league baseball? Like any kind of like major league team or professional sports team. So like he has like a Celtics one, that's cool. Um, black hoodies, he said, are really cool. I don't I don't know. I asked Dylan, and she's seven, and she said fluffy pens and toys and fluffy backpacks are in style. So I think she may be a little bit before the actual like style. Yeah. But then we have we come to the water bottles. So I was under the impression a lot of people said Stanley. I'm hearing that a walla is the new thing.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

That's constantly shifting because it was something before Stanley.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

It was the uh Yeti.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

And then it was something else.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

And the I can't remember what it's called.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

The water flask.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Yeah, like I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Hydro flask.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Hydro flask, yeah. Yeah. And it's like, guys, just be dehydrated, like we all were. I know. I didn't drink water until I was like 25.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Like when you're allowed to stand around that stupid thing. Like you usually oh, that's how you wash your hands when you step on that thing and then wash your hands around.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

And then we have for athletic wear, Lululemon crop tops. Now, this I don't understand. How are people allowed to wear crop tops? I couldn't wear spaghetti straps in high school. Like I literally got sent to the principal.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

You're a 13-year-old girl, like you you should have.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Yeah, but like also, like, they don't say anything to the boys. What are the boys wearing though? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Revealing.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

You know, it's not on the they always put it on the girls.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

I know, I know. You're right. You're actually right about that. And I'm sorry. But like, if there's an epidemic of boys wearing belly shirts, then maybe we'll fucking want to dress it.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Well, boys had their ass hanging out of their pants for a very long time and nobody said anything. We did say something. But like, my mom bought my niece like an $80 Lululemon crop top. I'm like, you didn't even buy me a $5 crop top. I wasn't even allowed to wear a crop top.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

I'm glad that Jack seems to be like the beat-up sneaker and like the very low-key just shorts and a t-shirt. They like to wear shorts forever.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

But like, have you seen this new what are those sneakers called? They're awful. They're dirty looking. They're oh what the fuck are they called? Yeah, I've seen them. They're like dog or rocket or something, red something. I don't know. Red rocket dog? Which one? They're a little different now. We're finding out it. It's got some weird, oh god, I don't know what they're called, but they have like a star on them, and they're so fucking ugly. And one of my friends had them, and she was like showing them to me, and then I found out they're like $300. And I'm like, not to sound like a mom, you're paying $300 for a dirty pair of sneakers. Like, get a crispy white and I'll go walk outside in the You sound like the mom that was shitting on ripped jeans. I know, I know. You know, but like it is stupid. It is stupid. And like to be fair, you have to have a nice pair of ripped jeans to pull off the ripped jeans because if not, they're just gonna fall apart. Yeah. You know? And then we got Jordan's in under armor, and the last one, I wanted your opinion on this because I know Jack does a quaff. Yes, he does. The perms.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

So Ben has asked me for a perm, and I was taken above. And I was like, excuse me? Like, you want a perm. Like you want to have a puffy, curly head of hair.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Yeah, it's that new thing. All the stupid Instagram influencer boys. I don't even know what they would look like. I know. Well, you do know what it looks like. You see every kid, like it's like Jack, but a little bit curlier. So that's a perm? Some kids that like have that terrible straight hair, you know, that like you can't do anything with. Yeah, they go for it. And it was funny because I wrote this on my notes. I was like, Perms question mark, because I had seen that. And then somebody who's a teacher in high school actually commented on it and said perms, and I was like, oh my god, I put that in my notes. I didn't even realize that. So I don't know. I mean, I'm not really sure how much of this is like us as parents, but perm was like, when I think of perm, I think of like Betty White.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Yeah. Like an old my grandmother.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

I mean, I have only done one perm in my life. I was in hairdressing school. And when you do a perm, you have to do a test rod first, which means you have to basically do the whole process on one thing to make sure if you think the hair isn't gonna be able to hold it, to make sure that the hair isn't gonna break off, because it's a very intensive process on your hair. It essentially breaks down your hair and like changes the whole makeup of your hair. So I had to do it on her, and as I was doing it, it was like 9 30 in the morning, so I had the whole day left of school. I was shaking up, and if you know anything about perms, they smell like rotten eggs. So I'm mixing it and I accidentally sprayed it all over myself, and the whole day I smelled like perms, and it was awful. Why do perms smell like rotten eggs? What's going on? That's like the chemicals. The chemicals smell really bad. All right, so shall we get into Lisa Frank?

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Yeah, let's get in. I'm gonna very excited.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

I'm excited about this too. Okay, so this is a lot darker than you think it's gonna be. Let me tell you. Oh, I have to get my phone. I have a visual aid as part of this, too. Okay, good. So Lisa Frank hails from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. It is a city just north of Detroit that is routinely ranked in the top five wealthiest cities in America with a population under 10,000. Her father ran Detroit Aluminum and Brass, which was founded by her grandfather and his brothers in 1925. Part of the business's claim to fame was that it was the only company in the entire US with the contract to make engine bearings for tanks during World War II. I thought you'd really like that little factoid. So she was rich rich. That's a rich rich. She was rich rich.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

She had a head start.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Her dad was an art collector, her mom had a little kiln in the basement, they would make pottery. She was a big colorer, which I think really probably shaped what she ended up doing because it was such a specific medium of like coloring, more so than, you know, any kind of other she did do other things, but she really loved art. That was her whole thing. She attended Cranbrook School, which was the same elite prep school as Mitt and Ann Romney. When I first saw this a year and a half ago, I'm looking at it and I'm like, Cranbrook, Cranbrook. I was like, I know I have heard this before. Where have I heard this before? Okay, are you ready? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Don't never try to judge me, dude. You don't know what the fuck I've been through. But I know something about you. You went to Cranbrook at a private school. It's a really expensive private school. So you really go to Cranbrook that kind of.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

So Papa Duck, Lisa Frank, went to the same high school as Papa Duck. Now, a fun little fact that I actually looked up about that is that Eminem, when he was making that scene, he actually Googled what's the guy's name? Anthony Mackey. And Anthony Mackey went to Cranbrook and he had really rich parents. So Eminem was actually kind of shitting on Anthony Mackey as a person when he did that whole thing. But I was really proud of myself when I put that together.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

That was amazing, actually.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Yeah, thank you. I've been holding on to that for a year and a half. So this was where she began painting. At an art show her senior year, she managed to earn $3,000. And this was in the early 70s. Which averages out to be around $23,000 nowadays. Her senior in high school. One of her first buyers was Lee Ayacoka, the former CEO of Chrysler. So, I mean, she's kind of a Nepo baby, not like necessarily a Nepo baby, but definitely like has the connections. She's not starting from nothing, that's for sure. So her entrepreneurial instincts first kicked in during her time at the University of Arizona, where she would purchase handmade pottery and jewelry from local Native American communities and sell them at a markup back home in Michigan, which is fucked up. She did so well she eventually started directing the artists on what kind of jewelry to make. By the time she was 20, she created a plastic jewelry line called Sticky Fingers that got picked up by Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales. This is when she also started to design stickers and buttons. In 1979, she renames the company Lisa Frank Inc., and that same year she receives her first million-dollar order from Spencer Gifts. She was 25 years old, and that equals out to be almost $4 million, which you have to think about, this is only five years or so after women were allowed to have credit cards.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Yeah, so like wait, the first million dollar order was Spencer Gifts. Like, was she in a different market at the time? Was she like little unicorns with boners or something? Like isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Well, no, Spencer has like normal stuff. Does he? Yeah, like I've been in there with my kids and stuff. It's got like lava lamps and like, you know, like keychains and all that kind of stuff. So I mean, there is obviously the like sexy section. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Maybe that's because like whenever I went there, I was just like, let's go see what the sexy section is. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

You were like sticking to the creepy stuff, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

I guess I was.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Kind of goes without saying her designs blew up from there. And you know, she ends up having this chokehold on the back to school scene through the 80s and 90s. Anyone who knows Lisa Frank, her designs are famous for their vivid colors, joyful imagery, fantastical animals, whimsical scenes. She has this kind of unique sense of wonder. And I mean, it just fit in so well with the 90s aesthetic. I loved Lisa Frank. And I mean, I wasn't even my mom wasn't gonna drop the money to like get all of her stuff. It was expensive. I mean, she figured out a way to sell a pencil for three dollars. I know. You know, like that's really impressive. Her signature ink that was used for her designs actually comes with its own NDA, and the formula is a closely guarded secret. So this is not yeah. Well, I mean, I don't know about still. Shit's about to hit the fan. Okay. So she has a line of products that were so popular that the company was raking in over 60 million a year in sales during its peak, and her and her husband, who were shareholders, made more than a hundred million dollars between 1995 and 2005. That's not too shabby. Not too bad. But alas, what goes up must come down. As the company grew exponentially, they needed more employees, creatives, artists, etc., to get it all done. But then her personal life and marriage starts to take a turn and things start to, you know, shit starts to hit the fan. In 1994, Lisa Frank married James A. Green, who had actually been hired as an illustrator in 1982. So he was one of the original people that worked for the company and kind of he would say things that, like, he made the designs, he did all this, and like that's not really fair because she was like doing this stuff before he even came into it, but he was a big part of it. For all intents and purposes, he's a huge asshole. Okay. He has there's all these rumors, he's rumored to have a drug problem. He's like a very difficult person to work for. They end up having two kids shortly after they get married, and he ends up becoming the president and CEO. They don't specifically say this, but it kind of seems like she wanted to take a step back and stay home with the kids. So he ends up running the company and turns it into a nightmare place to work for, to the point where it was referred to as the Rainbow Gulag. So, for anyone who doesn't know, the gulag was the government agency in charge of the Soviet network of forced labor camps, which were set up by Lenin, reaching its peak during Joseph Stalin's rule from the 1930s to the 1950s. Jezebel did an expose on the company in December 2013, which is where a lot of this information came from. Lisa Frank is notorious in Tucson as the world's shittiest employer, said Caroline, who considered applying for one of the many job openings at the company when she moved to Tucson in 2001, but decided against it after speaking with the locals. Every single person I talked to advised me to avoid Lisa Frank at all costs, she said. I don't know a single person who had not heard horror stories about the work environment there. I don't know how it's possible to even really communicate how bad their reputation was around town. Every person who's ever worked there seemed to have a case of PTSD from it. Rainbow Gulag is really an apt description.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

So do they talk about like what kind of exact things were going on? Yes, I'm gonna tell you that right now.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

On top of like, James was a huge asshole. He had all these weird rules, like he liked to tower over people, so he wouldn't allow the women to wear heels. He was known to throw chairs. It said while there was an emphasis on productivity, the rules that were implemented seemed kind of counterproductive to it. So, according to former employees, the office was a place of silence. You were not allowed to speak to one another. The management secretly and illegally recorded phone calls. They would cancel health benefits when they didn't approve of the work being done, according to an affidavit from a former employee that sued the company. An inter-office bi-monthly publication called Frankly Speaking informed employees how they were to behave, particularly regarding how they were expected to interact with their boss, James Green. Memos were frequently circulated with new, increasingly restrictive company policies. There were no visitors, no family members were allowed there. The penalty for any violations ranged from verbal abuse to name calling to screaming to automatic termination to even more bizarre restrictions. One time, after discovering that somebody left the office 10 minutes early, an enraged Green instructed the warehouse manager to put chains and padlocks on the downstairs doors so the staff couldn't escape.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

And if working there was so difficult, so was leaving. The company allegedly often failed to give promised severance packages, fought unemployment benefits, and former employees had to sue for their final paychecks or commissions, as evidenced by public records of the numerous civil judgments entered against LFI.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

So Lisa Frank's kind of the worst.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Yeah. Now, a lot of this came from his little lady friend, Rhonda Rousey? Where is it?

SPEAKER_01 27:41

That's the MMA fighter, so probably not.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

No. Alright. There was a woman that worked for the company named Rhonda Rowlette, who he ended up promoting, and it's pretty well established. This is alleged that they were having an affair. Okay. They were big into La Cocaina. Which cocaine. Which could answer for the chairs throwing, the tantrums, like all the crazy stuff.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

The happy, weird creatures.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Yeah. Well, no, I don't think that that was like the good stuff. I think it was mostly the bad stuff. Well, I don't know, actually. But she was kind of his right-hand man. So if he would send her to like do a lot of his dirty work, and it was the two of them when they got together that they really made this horrible environment. And then Lisa was kind of at home. She was kind of like on the outskirts of it, so she didn't really know exactly what was going on. They weren't paying contractors, they weren't paying builders. They had a huge turnover rate. Man Jacob, who worked as an illustrator there for four years, said it was a revolving door. In the four years that he was there, in the 40-person creative department, he estimates that the group may have changed over at least two to three times. One year almost a third of the entire staff turned over. Now, Lisa was not exactly a walk in the park either. In 35 years, there have only been two photos of Lisa Frank floating around the internet. So she's kind of a recluse.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Oh wow, that's actually makes her elusive and kind of mystery, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:57

Yep. So she does a 2012 interview with The Daily. She's only done like two or three interviews in this whole thing. Like it's very, very mysterious. And she says, in my own little way, I understood Michael Jackson. Frank said, imitating that her own level of fame is in some way comparable to that of the late King of Pop and has thus affected how she interacts with the public. If I use my credit cards and they go, oh my gosh, there's Lisa Frank who makes the stickers, I go, isn't it the craziest thing? I have the same name. The author of the article said that she believes she can comprehend or relate to what life was like for the most famous entertainer of all time was pretty confounding. But it also provides an illuminating peek into her mindset. According to Karen, who worked in the sales department in the early 2000s, she was very beauty focused. She was obsessed with her body image and her waning youth, which they think had a big part of her reclusive nature.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

Yeah, and maybe that's something like maybe she was aware of her husband cheating and that was causing her to feel insecure about her.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, you can tell she likes beautiful things.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

So I could see how there could be kind of a dichotomy there. Lisa Frank, if you can find it. She looks like exactly kind of what you'd expect her to look like. Dark hair. Ends up divorcing in 2005. It's a whole push and pull. So when they got married, she gave him 49% of the stock or whatever it was. She kept 51%, so she would be the majority stakeholder in the company. When she divorced him, she had to go before the board to remove him. And he avoided her for like a year of going to this meeting, even though he's still working there and he's still in the company. But like for some reason he they couldn't get in there. And then finally they ended up suing and going back and forth. But I mean, he was like, he had a private jet. He was like spending money left and right. I guess their mansion was like bright neon in Tucson. And like, I don't know if you've ever been to Tucson, but everything's tan, you know? Like Arizona's exactly as you think it is. Like nobody has any color in anything besides burnt orange, you know. So like a big neon.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

Southwest stuff, right? Nice floor blanket.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Yeah. Yep, exactly. But you can imagine this would have stood out on top of the fact that it has this horrible reputation in the area. And it's probably, you know, at that time too, it's not a huge place that has like a million companies there. So it's probably one of the biggest places that people are working in the area and they're just treating everyone horribly. They said she was very passionate though, a little manic. So they start to really go downhill. They only earned an estimate 2.3 annual revenue in like 2013. The retail stores all shuttered. The number of corporate employees dwindled from 350 to six. Wow. That was according to a June 2013 article in the Arizona Daily Star that Frank's executive assistant Jackie Gambrel referred to as unkind and untrue about the article. So the thing that's kind of funny though is Lisa Frank has this huge warehouse. It's 320,000 square feet. It's really infamous. It's got big music notes on it, hearts, stars, it's got fiberglass statues around it, all like unicorns, everything you would think it would be. But then it like gets abandoned. And then all of a sudden you have this huge, creepy warehouse that's got like all these rainbows everywhere. And like if you look up pictures of it, it's very unnerving. I was thinking it would make a great scene for a horror movie.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Yeah, like there's that abandoned, was it of Oz? Um, you know, I don't know, amusement park, and it's it's very creepy. I think that's I love that stuff. Like abandoned places.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

According to Tim Healy, who was the listing agent at the time, it's still operating. They'd been trying to sell it for years, but he said it was the silliest setup you've ever seen. And of course, outside it's colorful. You've got the rainbow, the stars, the hearts, there's a big statue of a panda, but inside was like an abusive alcoholic home. So it really like went downhill. By 2013, it was like pretty much pretty much done. However, there starts to be a little renaissance in the 2010s and early 2020s. You know, everything's coming back. The 90s are coming back. We're starting to see a lot more of that. And she ends up partnering with Reebok in 2017 to feature designs on some shoes. Partners with someone to develop a movie inspired by her work. I don't think that ever happened. In 2019, she designed the logo for John Mayer's Instagram series, Current Mood. In 2023, she collaborated with Crocs on a line of platform clogs and Evite on a line of digital invitations. And then on Wednesday, November 29th, 2023, a video is posted to the official Lisa Frank TikTok account showing two Lisa Frank characters standing in front of the company's Tucson warehouse. It's been repainted, and the TikTok post is captioned, We're back, with the hashtag Lisa Frank Warehouse. But I looked it up and I it doesn't appear that anything's happened since then. So I don't know if like maybe they're still in the works with something, but they are still selling stuff on her website. However, you go on the website, it's $85 for a backpack.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Retro.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Well, that's the thing. She's being sold as like at like urban outfitters as vintage.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

So I don't know what's gonna happen, but I will say, if ever the time, now's the time.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

Now's the time to get in on that. So, and she's so she's still alive and everything's going.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

Oh, yeah, she's still alive, she's still a recluse, she's still not ready.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

So do you think that you have like any old sheets of like untouched Lisa Frank? Like that could be worth something?

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Maybe why do you have some?

SPEAKER_01 33:42

No.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

That's too bad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Like an old Lisa crap.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

I mean, yeah, no, I think that if you had, like if you saved some stuff, a trapper keeper, perhaps. Because she partnered with trapper keepers. She was one of the big ones with the trapper keeper. I think that you could probably make some stuff happen. I mean, I'm gonna go back to school shopping with my kids soon. So keep an eye out. So what do you think? Isn't that fascinating?

SPEAKER_01 34:05

It's great, yeah, I love it. It's because it's so the thing about it is if it was like an oil company, you wouldn't like an eye, right? But since like this is the facade is like cheery, you know, baby tigers and like, you know, pandas and all colorful and happy, and you know, behind that it's like all just dark.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

I know. It makes it scarier. Picturing like this guy in this in this warehouse, like throwing chairs while he's like next to a big rainbow panda is like such a crazy. I think they should make a movie about it.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

I absolutely think so, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

That would be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

Like she catches like him cheating and then she just goes off the rails and like I don't know, like they just him doing blow off of like one of the a trapper keeper.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

Yeah. Like it is. A million dollar idea. Somebody make this movie, please. But yeah, no, I had no idea. When I started looking at it, I was like, oh, is Lisa Frank a person? And then I like got into it and I was like, holy shit.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

Not so nice.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

So, anyways, now I thought we'd do some back to school tips for getting back into the routine, trying to figure out the best way to like set your kids up for success. I think the first thing is getting into a routine. I think you gotta start doing more of like closer to bedtime. They said they have a whole thing if you you can look it up where it's like, you know, do it like 10 minutes earlier every night if your kids have been standing up to like 10.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

That's crazy. It does go off the rails, huh? It's like now my kids like I look at them and I'm like, it's like 10 30. What the hell are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 35:27

My kids are watching like multiple episodes of Raven's Home before bed.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

And like they're really not like when we go upstairs and we watch TV, and I'm like, what?

unknown 35:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

They're waking up at 6 a.m. and watching TV. And speaking of the electronics, trying to like ease up on the electronics leading up to it. Like, you can't just let them like do it until the day before school because you're probably gonna like Oh, can I ask you a question?

SPEAKER_01 35:47

Yeah. And let's see if you're maybe is this going on in the estates where you live? I noticed something about the way the kids play over the last few years. So in the beginning of the summer, it's like they're out there. Yeah, they're grinding, they're out there with their friends, so all the kids are running around. I mean, all the kids in the neighborhood come around like early July, they disappear. Yeah, everyone disappears, and people are just like, it's too hot, I'm done. Do you notice that?

SPEAKER_00 36:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's too hot. And then you know what it I think a lot of it is, which I'm very against, it's the activities. So many people I know, their kids are in these travel sports or they're doing all these different activities that you can't find anyone to hang out with because everyone's got different stuff on different nights. You know? That's sad. I think that goes hand in hand with like the whole now and then thing. It's like you don't have those aimless days because everyone's got shit to do.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

And like all families, like a whole ton of families, are like blended or like split. And it's like, where's Benjamin Marcos? Oh, he's with his dad over this week.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Yeah, no, that's Dylan's best friend. Her parents are divorced, and so they're only together on like Mondays and Tuesdays and every other weekend. So I'm like, oh, is so-and-so around this weekend? And it's like, now it's like, all right. I guess we'll see you next week. No, I know, and it's sad. That's why I try to get them out more, and they do play outside, I will say that. But you have to arrange it and you have to like bring kids over to your house. You can't just like send them outside. I know. Like if you were to send your kid outside and be like, drink from the hose, like you would have the cops at your door within 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

I can taste that as you said it. Like the drinking from the hot hose.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

A little bit metallic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

So one thing that I think would be really good to do, especially if you have younger kids who are like going into maybe kindergarten, first grade, whatever, is to prepare them, teach them how to use their stuff. I remember my mom sitting me down at the kitchen table right before I started first grade, because kindergarten used to be half day, so you didn't have lunch there. And I have my little Wizard of Oz lunchbox, and she like had me open the lunchbox and do a run through. And like just because you don't want your kid to get there and be like, I don't know how to drink out of my water bottle, you know, like they're all complicated now. So kind of like go through that. If they're walking or biking to school, maybe take them on the route or you know, walking home from the bus, take them on the route. Is anybody letting them their kids like walk to school just like we were talking about this with junior high because at the middle school is I think it's maybe like a little over a mile. And I'm like, you could do this if you had someone to walk with. You know, need a crew.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

I mean, because listen, I hate to be that guy, but people can scoop them up.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Yeah, I don't think anyone's like kidnapping kids like that, are they? You don't think so?

SPEAKER_01 38:17

I don't know. Someone's doing it.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

Well, yeah. I you don't hear about it that much. In the grand scheme of things, it's not even in my top 10 that I worry about.

SPEAKER_01 38:23

I know.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Like I let my kids play outside, and it's like, uh, what is somebody gonna come into my neighborhood and go down my cul-de-sac to like see if my kids are outside? Maybe. I know.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

See, I'm constantly worried about stuff. Like constantly.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

Like, even I feel like there's so many more things you could worry about that are like actual issues. You want to establish a good workspace, give them set up a nice little homework nook if you can do that. Maybe make up a schedule and let them know kind of I'm trying to enforce some more chores as we go into the new year. I like that. With some reward here. Like we got Crosby, one of the things he really wanted was a monthly Fortnite thing. It's like $12 for monthly, and you get like a certain amount of V-bucks or whatever the fuck it is. So I'm like, that's fine, but like you have to do stuff. So we've given him the chore of emptying the dishwasher. And when I tell you, it's changed my whole life. Is he good at it? I mean, he he can't like put the plates up because it's too high, but even just like having most of it put away, that like, yeah, I can take the plates and put them in the cupboard. It's it's so much easier to do that. And then like he has a little bit of responsibility, and he does it too. Like he it's not even a question. But I think you need to make up some kind of schedule or some kind of list to really I think kids you need to lay it out for them.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

Absolutely. The external list, yeah. Check it off. Don't ask me for anything unless you see checks.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Yeah.

unknown 39:36

You know?

SPEAKER_00 39:37

And then another good idea, which I kind of made up, but like I think it's a good idea, is sit down with them and make a list of the foods that they want for lunch or breakfast. And then you don't have to sit here and wonder, like, what kind of fruit do you like? What kind of vegetables do you like? You can just say, like, okay, when you go to the grocery store, these are all the things you like, and then get that, and then you have it right there, ready to go. Maybe make up some baggies with some grapes in it for the week. Okay, then cut them in half. I don't cut my kids' grapes in half. They're 10 and 7. Is this something you worry about? Your kids choking on grapes. If your kids can't handle grapes by the time they're in like second grade, like I don't know what to tell you.

SPEAKER_01 40:10

I know, I know. I'm I'm talking about coddling your children. I'm worried about choking.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

And then I think, as we said before, kind of avoid doom and gloom. Don't put your anxieties on them.

SPEAKER_01 40:20

Those grapes can kill you.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

Yeah, don't do that. Focus on the positive, a fresh start, making new friends. Maybe get them excited, have them pick out an outfit they're really excited about for the first day of school. And then one tip I have, which I know is not gonna be popular with a lot of people, is one thing that I do, which you don't have to do this exactly as I do it, is I actually have a little party in the beginning of the school year where I invite, I just get pizzas. I get like five pizzas from Domino's, and I just we have a pool, so that like helps, but you could do this at like the playground, organize like a meetup and meet the parents. And that way, when they want to have play dates, I have all the parents' phone numbers because they've RSVP'd and I already know the parents. So when one kid's being a dick and I have to call his parents, I've already met them.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

And it kind of like helps them kind of establish a little bit. I've made a bunch of mom friends, like it's kind of helped that. So you could even do it with like a playground. Be like, do you uh want to meet up at a playground and then just get to know each other, kids get to know each other outside of school? It's a great way to like help them bond a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

These are some good tips. Yeah. Yeah, I'm like I'm being serious. Like, that's actually some really well thought out. You're good mom. Thank you. You should be proud of yourself. Very good.

SPEAKER_00 41:26

Um, all right. Well, back to school.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

I'm glad I watched Full House and Corey and Okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

I made him watch the episode of Full House when DJ goes to junior high and she ends up wearing the same outfit as the teacher, and I I laughed at it, but I will admit I was a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

Do the things they were talking about in those shows though, like the say by the bell one when then and Sean says something along the lines of like summer's been good to you. Say by the belly, not say by the bell, uh, but means world, yeah. He says like summer's been good to you, to banga, like meaning her she's and it's like, can you see?

SPEAKER_00 41:54

How about when Eric was like, people find out I have a seventh grade brother? It's like, are you gonna get made fun of for having a brother?

SPEAKER_01 41:59

I know, oh none of it is offensive to me, but it's it's funny because like you could not hear that on a show anymore. Oh, it's completely different now. I don't ever remember being like, oh man, they did some like Tabanga boob talk back in the day. Like I just you just kind of like it was like nothing to you.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

We are much more sensitive society nowadays.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

Better for better or for worse.

SPEAKER_00 42:17

I know. I will say though, one thing I did note when I was watching Full House fucking Michelle Tanner, the Olson twins, were so goddamn cute. Dude, she was like she was a talent. Yeah, like she was so good.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

I I saw that when she says she looks in the DJ's lunch because DJ's like, oh, bag lunches aren't cool anymore, Dad. And she looks and she gets to Michelle and Michelle looks in it and she looks in the bag and she goes, No cookies.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

And you're like, oh my god, beautiful. She's so cute, she's so talented. Like you can see how she was like, they knew they were gonna be a star. But, anyways, well, we are so glad to be back and we have some great stuff lined up. I'm trying to convince Greg to do an episode on Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, but we'll see. We'll see in uh Aesop. Aesop's fables. We'll see. We got we got some good stuff. Don't take that. Take that what we just said with a grain. All right, please rate and review. You did great. All right, we will see you next week.