A Very Peculiar Boy
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Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Chasing the Sweet Things in Life. Where we talk about our favorite subject. Our? My? Yes, I think it's the world's favorite subject. The world's best subject. Yes, me. Moi. Myself. Yes. So this is the second episode and...

I have called this episode A Very Peculiar Boy. And I call it that because I've been on a BBC period drama binge the last couple of weeks. So you're still a peculiar boy. So I thought I was very like Charles Dickens. Oh, yes. Yes. Very peculiar boy. Yes. Yes. I think that's something they would have said.

So that's why I've called this episode that. And again, Hugo's drinking water. Yeah. And Lestat is snoring. Yes. So get used to it. There's no pigeons or owls in the background. It is. Or camels. Okay. The dogs drink so much water now. I know. They're like, I'm in the desert. I'm going to. So dramatic. Okay.

Anyway, let's get on with the show. Yes, let's get on with the show. So, actually, I want to first ask about, you mentioned your grandmother and great-aunts, other siblings. One went to a farm and one went to another relative. Yeah, so the oldest girl went to another relative. She went to a great-aunt. And she was kind of always like the favorite relative.

The oldest? Yeah, the oldest. How old was she? Do you know? I don't know. Okay. But they were kids. They were kids. They were small kids. She was very pretty.

And I think there was a little jealousy involved. Interesting. And the boy went to the countryside. So who decided all this? I don't know. Because their parents died very early. I think it was tuberculosis. Oh my God. Yeah. It was kind of dramatic. So did you meet them? Did you see them when you were a kid? The man I never saw. I think he died when I was very little. Oh, okay. My other great aunt...

Her name was Haldis, Haldis Brambani. She was married to an Italian man. She would call us once a year, and she would talk about all her millions. Stop it. From Italy? No, she lived in Oslo. Oh, okay. In a very beautiful but small apartment. She would talk about... Her husband had died, had passed on, and she...

Apparently, she was suing the Norwegian government for money. And she talked about that for like 20 years. But she would only call us like once a year and talk about her millions and her... So the millions from the death of her husband. Yeah. Which didn't exist. Interesting. There was no millions. Was there a husband? There was a husband. Yes. Interesting. He was very handsome. That's all a product of being given up as a child. Like...

I don't know. You know what I mean? It's like you start to create your own reality. I actually think she lost her mind at the end. Yeah.

She became completely senile. Wait, this isn't the one that gave all her money to the Red Cross. No, no. No, we'll come back to that. We'll get to that. We'll get to that. They found her walking in her nightgown on the highway. Oh, that's awful. Yeah. But the thing is, yeah, she would call us like once a year and we would talk to her and she would talk about her millions and she would talk about her paintings and her books and all this stuff. That's it? You never went to her house? She never came by? No.

No, I never. There were some pictures of her and me as a baby, but as growing up, I never met her. My grandmother invited her several times, but she never showed up. Interesting. Complicated. Interesting. Sad. Yes, it was sad. She became completely senile.

So it was just you, your great aunt, your parents, and your happy little home. Yes. Were there other kids in the neighborhood? Did you entertain with neighbors? There was a girl. Her name was Rudy. Rudy? Yeah. Her name was Rudy Klaas. We played together a little bit. In her neighborhood? Yeah. She lived a couple of houses away from me. I do remember that.

She's actually now a famous actress in Norway. Really? Yeah, it's kind of interesting. Did you remain friendly throughout your life? I haven't seen her or spoken to her in many, many, many years. We went to school together. And of course, when you go to school, things change because then she's all of a sudden, you know, I was more or less the only kid there growing up.

In our neighborhood. Oh yeah. When there's other options. Yes. She found other options. Yeah. Nothing wrong with that. Plus I was a boy and she was a girl and she wanted girlfriends. And you know, I told her to get that. Yeah. So I was mostly left alone with my great aunt and my grandmother.

And you know what I wanted to do? That was to rule. Yes. So besides breakfast, which we talked about, what's your earliest food memory?

What was your first cooking memory? That's the question. Well, I have two. The first, like, tasting memory was the first time I tasted Thousand Island dressing. Oh my gosh. I know. Which was... Which was purely American. Oh no, it's a kind of Russian dressing. Isn't it like a Russian... Yeah, it's kind of mixed between Russian and... It's kind of Russian dressing. Yeah. We call it Thousand Island. And it was served...

At Rudy's house by her mom. Oh, your little friend. Yeah. Like a cabbage salad. It was cabbage salad with Thousand Island dressing. And I thought that was the most amazing thing I have ever tasted. It was incredible. Well, Thousand Island, isn't it just ketchup, mayo, and relish? I think so. I think so. I remember going home to my grandma and saying, we have to buy this. And she was like, hell no. Oh, my God.

He was like, no, that's all I do. It is delicious, though. It's delicious. Yeah. Yeah. In California, it's like a standard for hamburgers. Yes. It's so good. It's a thousand iron dressing. Yeah. A secret sauce. So that was the first taste I remember. Very vivid that I absolutely wanted. I did.

But every time I went back to Rudy's house, I was like, can we have some Tyson Highland with this? Oh my gosh, I love it. My first food memory is actually... So in Norway, we have a very famous children's book called... Oh my God, he's snoring so loud now. Yeah, it's fine.

Anyway, so we have a famous children's book called Dyrene i Hakkebakkeskogen, which means the animals in the Hakkebakke forest. And it's this super cute story about, you know, all the animals in the forest and what they do and what they make. And it's illustrated, it's by an author called Torbjørn Egner.

And it's been made into a movie. It's been made into a play. The play is kind of like a musical. So in this forest, there is a bakery. And the bunny is the baker. Oh, my God. And he sings a song about making gingerbread man. He sort of sings the recipe. Okay. But, of course, it's not a real recipe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I didn't know that. So before Christmas, very early one morning, I think it was 5 o'clock in the morning,

I woke up and I was like, I'm going to surprise my family with gingerbread cookies. So I took my little record player. I had one of those little portable record players. And the record went down to the kitchen and started playing the record and trying to follow the recipe. Oh my gosh. My mom told me that her and my dad and everyone else woke up really early and

by this song playing over and over again. And they were like, what is going on? And they walked into the kitchen and there I am in the middle in a complete mess.

It's kind of how you see it in the movies. There's like flowers and eggs and sugar and stuff everywhere. Yeah. And they're like, what are you doing? And I was like, well, I'm just going to surprise you all with gingerbread cookies. Oh, my gosh. And I... Do you remember what the recipe was in the song? Well, it was all about... It's probably vague, like eggs and flour and it didn't... No, it said how many and how much, but of course...

I didn't really know how much like four cups of flour was because I was very young. The whole song is about, it's supposed to be like one teaspoon of pepper in them. But then it changed to like one kilo of pepper. That's like the whole theme of the song. But I remember that my parents were just like laughing hysterically. Well, that's good. At least they had a sense of humor. Yes. And they sent me to the bathtub and,

So I had to take a bath and they cleaned up the kitchen. They cleaned up everything. Yeah. And later that day, which is very sweet, my grandmother made gingerbread cookies with me. Yeah. So that was very sweet. Was that the first time you made gingerbread cookies? I think so. I wish my...

I wish my parents would have taken pictures of the whole thing because it must have been like quite a sight. Oh yeah, of course. I've seen some pictures of, like you just posted some to announce this podcast on Instagram stories and there's some with you and your aunt and you can tell that you guys were very affectionate. Oh yeah, they were very sweet and they were, you know, it was a lot of like, you know, I love you. And I remember saying to my grandma that I was going to marry her when I grew up. Oh my God, that's so sweet. Yes.

I can still remember it. She would always tell these amazing stories. So what she would do, she would go in the kitchen and she would make us sandwiches. And of course, they were open sandwiches and she cut the bread super thin.

And then it was a lot of butter and, you know, a lot of other things. So I remember lying in her bed and eating those sandwiches and she would tell stories that was like amazing. And their stories would always be about mice. Yeah.

I don't know why. Made-up stories or true stories? No, made-up stories about little mice and how they lived. And she would explain all the colors, and they would eat little golden plates. Oh, my gosh. She was very like... Imaginative. Yes. And I could kind of see it in my head. They had like...

velvet drapings and paisley couches. And she was very into all the colors. Yeah, they were always about little mice. And it was just sort of like a stream of consciousness story about mice. It wasn't really...

so much a story that it was a description of how they lived. Yeah. I didn't really care about what they did. What the plot was. It was just about a description. Yeah. There wasn't really any plot. It was just like a description of how they lived and how beautiful everything was. That makes so much sense. You have to remember that my grandmother, she went through two world wars. So she had this whole thing where, I don't know, she lived through...

Her imagination. Yes. And how the world could be. Yes, exactly. Because she had seen some really bad stuff. Yeah, and that instilled so much in you, obviously, about creating a beautiful world to live in. Yeah, totally. And to chase the sweet things in life. And to chase the sweet things in life, yes. So you were really the only kid around in your neighborhood besides Rudy. There were a couple of other kids, but they were older.

There was a girl next door, and I think her name was Jorunn. She was much older than me, but I think once in a while she would play with me. And I remember one time, it was her birthday. A couple of years earlier, I had begged my mom to get me one of those Norwegian folk costumes. So it had like little short trousers with wool socks, and it had like a little vest, a little hat. It was like a shirt with like,

Yeah. It was really pretty. It was red wool, I remember. And they weren't cheap, probably. No, but this wasn't like one of the very expensive ones. This was kind of like a copy. Yes, like a costume. We bought it used. I do remember that. And a couple of years later, I got invited to Julian's birthday party. And I decided I wanted to wear that. And my parents were gone. And my grandmother was like, you can't really wear that. It's too small for you now. But I wore it anyway. Yeah.

Like there was a gap between the sock and the pant. And I couldn't really, you know. And the vest? Yeah. Oh my God, that's hilarious. Yeah, and I remember my mom came home and she saw that and she got really upset with me.

So the next day she sold that little... And how did they react when you showed up to the party? I can't remember. I just remember my mom's reaction. I'm sure they were like, oh my God, what is he doing? But the people in the neighborhood were a little like, oh, well, that's... They knew you were peculiar. Yes. A very peculiar boy. Yeah. And with that, maybe we should take a break. Yes. Okay. We'll be right back.

Have you heard of Eat and Make? I have. Didn't you write it? Yeah, I did. So it's Sweet Paul cook and crafting book. It's called Eat and Make, and it contains recipes divided into morning, noon, and night, including cocktails. And then there are also some craft projects, and they are mostly based around kitchen and entertaining.

Fabulous. Yeah, it's a really cute book. It contains a ton of great recipes, including the hit wonder, The World's Best Cake. Yes, the controversial wonder, The World's Best Cake. I don't claim it's The World's Best Cake. It's actually the name. Yes, it's the Norwegian name translated into English, The World's Best Cake.

So the book is called Eat and Make. Where can people buy it? They can buy it anywhere, everywhere where the books are sold. You know, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, independent bookstores. If you don't see it, just ask for it. Eat and Make. Yay!

And we are back. Yes, we are. Yeah. So about the neighborhood, did you spend time like outside in the yard or anything? Yes. And apparently, I can't remember this myself. So it was kind of like a bunch of houses in a circle. Like a cul-de-sac. Yeah, with a green space in the middle. It was very pretty. And there was a big rock outside our house. And apparently, I would sit there.

And sing. And I was maybe like three, four years old. Oh my God. And at that time I had long curly hair. Yeah. A little bit like, you know, Shirley Temple. And my mom always dressed me very nice. So I was sitting outside on the rock and singing.

And all the housewives in the neighborhood come out and like stand around me and cry and stuff. Oh my gosh. As you sang songs. As I sang. My specialty was a Swedish hit called Tiotusen röda rosor.

which means 10,000 red roses. 10,000 red roses I want to give you. 10,000 red roses in my family. And you would sing and they would cry? And they would cry. Oh my God, that's so sweet. Did you feel like you were performing? I guess. Oh, you don't really remember. I don't really remember. I remember the rock part.

But I can't remember like, I can't remember that. But yeah. So fabulous. Yeah, because. I would do anything to see that. Because later in life, I met some of these women again and they were like, oh my God, I remember when you were sitting outside on that rock singing. With your curly hair. With my curly hair. Singing that I would give them 10,000 red roses. Oh my gosh. So amazing. Oh, well. Yeah.

What else would you do outside? Well, I was in the garden a lot because we have the big garden. In the back? Yeah, in the back. We had apple trees, plum trees. We had tons of vegetables, berries, raspberries. And I think there was blackberries.

There was a big tree that you can climb in, tons of flowers. My grandmother was a really good gardener. So I did that a lot. And you would eat all the produce from the stuff, or was it just wild? I mean, did she grow it to eat? Yes, she grew it to eat. Yeah. You have to remember that her and my...

grandmother made everything from scratch. There was never a mix. And they also taught me very early to help them. I knew how to make bechamel sauce and gravy. All the staples. Because everything was made from scratch. And my grandmother said that

I asked her once, I said, oh, you use a lot of butter. Because I noticed when I saw other people cooking, and then there was one woman on TV. We had like our own Julia Child on TV, which I got to meet later. And I actually worked with her a few times. And my grandmother didn't like her.

She didn't like the way she cooked. Oh my gosh. Yeah, she said that now. I don't like the way she cooks because she doesn't use fat. Interesting. Because this woman was very like...

No, but she was a caution. Yes, yes, yes. She wasn't Julia Child. No, she wasn't Julia Child when it comes to that. And my grandmother, who had been through two wars, and especially the last war, the Second World War, they had to eat a lot of crap. Yeah, like probably powdered milk and stuff like that. Oh, worse. She said that they made flour out of tree bark.

What? Yes. Yes. Which was very hard to find decent food. Yeah. And she was like, okay, I survived the war. I'm not going to eat any crappy food anymore. Yeah. Well, just to enjoy and indulge, I mean. Yeah. And she was very smart after the war. So the story is that when my great aunt and grandmother got out of the orphanage, they both started working in a sewing factory. Okay.

So they learned how to sew. Then the war came. And after the war, clothing was very hard to come by. So what my grandmother did, she went to fabric companies, sewing companies, and bought up fabric scraps, very cheap. She then took that home. And her, my grandfather, and great aunt would turn them into children's clothing. And she would go to the department stores and

children's clothing stores in Oslo and sell it. And that actually became a really big business. That's incredible. So my grandmother, she would make the patterns and she would cut. My great aunt would sew. And my grandfather would do the buttons, make the buttonholes and sew the buttons and deliver.

And she employed a lot of women around where we lived with extra work after the war. It's incredible. Yeah. So, were they adopted or did they stay in the orphanage until they were of age? No, they were never adopted. So interesting. Yeah. I mean, my grandmother was terror. No wonder. Yeah.

Yeah. They just ran their own lives and learned. I guess they were there until they were maybe like 14. And then they went to work. And then they went to work. So wild. That's how it was. Yeah. This was maybe like 19, like the end of the 20s. It's 100 years. My God.

So, yeah, she did all that after the war. And that was, you know, so industrious of her. Yeah. So back to the garden. Yes. So this big, beautiful garden. I would spend a lot of time there. And then also next to us was a big forest.

which unfortunately doesn't exist anymore last time i was back in norway me and my sister drove to the place where we grew up and oh yeah yeah the house is still there the house is still there just more houses yeah tons tons tons yeah we used to have a big forest next to it would you wander in the forest were you allowed to i wasn't allowed was it scary well we would go i would go with my grandmother and we would you know go foresting for mushrooms for blueberries

I did go a few times by myself, and once I got lost. I got totally lost.

There was always like this stream that you would follow. Yeah. So I knew when I would find a stream, that would be fine. But I couldn't find it. Were you frightened or you... I was a little bit frightened. Because I think for like an American kid, that would be literally terrifying. Well, I mean, I was a little bit used to the forest. But of course, no. I think I was scared. But then...

I just sat on this like piece of wood and I'm thinking someone's going to come get me. Oh my gosh. And my dad actually did come get me. He did. Yeah. I could hear him like shouting and I was like, oh dad, dad, I'm here. Oh my goodness. Yes.

And I remember when I came home, my grandmother cried. Yeah. She was so scared. Yeah. Yeah. You were safe. You know, it's not like a horror story. No, no, no, no, no. I was fine. Yeah. Yes. I was never in any danger. It sounds scarier than it probably actually was. Totally, totally. Okay. So if you listen to the first episode of this podcast...

We didn't get rain. What about that? Oh, no. The rain didn't show up. But yesterday, it was the strangest, foggiest evening. Like, we thought it was going to storm, but I don't think it did, right? No, it didn't. So, that was super unusual. So, for those of you who don't know, we're sitting in Palm Springs. We live in Palm Springs, and we want some rain because it's been...

100 days without anything. Yeah. Yeah, so you want some rain. So back inside the house, what was your room like besides the decorating? What did you have in your room? You didn't really have toys? I didn't have many toys, but what I did have. So my room had this weird, I think it's English, it's called like an alcove, like this. Is this an alcove? Yeah. Yeah.

Did it have a seat? No, it didn't have a seat. Okay. But it wasn't to a window. It was just like, it was kind of like a closet, but without doors. Yeah, okay. Yeah.

So I made my dad make me some shelves. He made some shelves for me that he put up in there. And then, as I said, I had a love for going to flea markets and to antique shops and stuff like that. And I got like a little bit of money every week, like, you know, pocket money. You got an allowance? Yeah, I got an allowance. When you were like five years old, you got an allowance. Oh my gosh. And, you know, we would go...

antiquing and flea marketing and I would buy little things that I thought was treasures and then you know my great aunt would give me stuff and other people would give me stuff so I put

Put like stuff on my shelves. And I would call it like a museum. Yeah. And I would let other kids come and see it and other grown-ups. Only one at a time. Because you never know what shenanigans, you know, people get up to. Yeah. Yeah. So, one at a time. And I would show them and explain. Which eat?

Each piece was? Yeah, sort of, you know. So do you remember the pieces you had? I had a couple of old clocks. I had some old glasses. Just little, like, knickknacks. I mean, nothing. Like, figurine and figurine. Yeah, nothing, nothing. No teddy bears. No teddy bears. No stuffed animals. Nothing precious whatsoever. The only thing I collected that was precious and was really cheap back then was...

was these old glass holiday ornaments. I collected those. Oh, okay. They had to be glass and they were usually German. Like bulbs or figurines? Bulbs and figurines. And every year I would have my own little tree in my room. Really? Yeah, with these ornaments on. And then one year... A real tree? A real tree. Yeah. And I have a lot.

Because back then I could get like 10 ornaments for like a crown. And one year my mom was like, would you like to decorate the tree? Meaning like the main tree in our living room. And I was ecstatic, ecstatic to the point where like there was no door into the living room. My mom had pulled those out and made like an arch. Arches were very big back then in the 70s.

I put up a towel. No, a sheet. Oh, so they couldn't see? So they couldn't see. Because it was supposed to be like a big reveal. Yeah, of course. And I worked really hard on that tree. And I put up all my ornaments. And it looked amazing.

And had the big reveal and everything was incredible. And then the next day, what happened? The tree fell over. The tree fell over. And 85% of my ornaments got broken. Oh, my gosh. Did it fall because of the weight? No.

I don't know. Sabotage. I think we had a dog back then, a poodle, whose name was Snip. I think it had something to do with the dog. Oh my gosh. Yeah, but that actually more or less broke my heart.

To the point where I stopped collecting those ornaments because I just couldn't deal. Is there any pictures of the tree? I don't think so. It's been so cool to see. I know there was a big box of pictures from my childhood that got thrown away by mistake years ago. Wow. Yeah.

Also years ago, I was moving my room. This was when I was a teenager. I was moving my room from upstairs to the basement. I was going to live in the basement. And I put all my clothing in garbage bags. Just to move it quickly, yeah. Yeah. And then my grandmother put it in garbage and threw it out.

My God. Yeah, my parents did that once too. I had all the, when I worked in the music industry, I had all the press clippings in one box and my mom threw out the box. I'm like, there goes an entire history. Yes, exactly, exactly. It happens. Yeah, it happens. So what about games? Did you guys play any games at home? We played games later when my sister came. When she, you know, was older. We played Monopoly and she was a terrible...

Oh my God, she's going to kill me for saying this. But she was the worst person to play with because she got so angry. Competitive? If she lost. Yeah. Yeah, I remember once with Monopoly that she lost and she got so angry. She threw the...

The whole game. I crossed the room. I never found all the pieces. We just have to throw the fruit out. Oh my gosh. Yeah, me and my brother would play in summer and sometimes the game would last like two days. Yeah, I think this was one that was very like nail biting and she lost and it did not go well. Yeah. Okay, we're going to take another break and then we'll be back and then we are going to talk about Bingo.

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And we are back. We're back. So besides Monopoly, you played bingo at home? Not at home. But my grandmother had one big... Addiction? Addiction, yes. Well, she had three. Coffee, cigarettes, and the third one is bingo.

So I'm not kidding. And she would take me from a very early age. We would go, we would take the bus. She would get all dressed up. She put on a hat. She made me wear something. I think even sometimes I had to wear a little tie and we would take the bus into the city, into Oslo. And we would go to, she had this one favorite bingo place.

She had her own table. God forbid if someone sat on that table. Oh, my gosh. Was it like a community center or like a church or –

Yeah, more like a community center. Yeah. And yeah, she would play bingo. I would play bingo. I thought it was really fun. You know, she was kind of like a high stake. Was this for money? Yeah, it was for money. You could win money, coffee, gift cards. Yeah. It's the same as today. Same as today. Yeah. She would smoke cigarettes. She would smoke cigarettes, drink coffee. I remember there was waffles. There was waffles with butter and goat cheese, you know, the brown...

Oh, yeah. Yes. Which you can get here, too. It's called Ski Queen. It's actually really delicious. Yeah, it tastes like caramel. Yes. You know, I would have that, and then I would have, like, a little bottle of some soda, and we would sit there, we'd play bingo, and she would win a lot. She would. Yeah. She had luck, so she would win, and...

No, it was really fun. The crazy thing is that she would dream about playing bingo at night. Oh my gosh. So she would scream out bingo? Yes, yes. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Yeah. Several times we woke up by my grandmother screaming. Oh, she's dreaming about bingo. Bingo! That's hilarious. I know, I know. And sometimes when we played bingo, she would let me call. And I'm like, oh, okay.

Yeah, I thought it was really fun. And actually, I have to say, today, I could totally be one of those old ladies. Yes, old lady playing bingo. Well, we have drag bingo here in Palm Springs, so we need to start doing it for sure. Minus the cigarettes. Minus the cigarettes. And I don't want to dream about bingo. Yeah. Oh my god, it'd be so amazing if you became obsessed. Yeah.

So the next issue of Sweet Paul Magazine is going to be the bingo issue. Oh my gosh. All right. How about some questions? Yes. Let's do some questions. Okay. What's up, Sweet Paul? Yeah. What's up? Don asks. Yes. The mountains, the ocean, or the desert?

Where would you go to get away from it all? That's interesting because your answer probably is different now than it would have been maybe a year ago. Well, yeah, no, it is different now. I don't really have the need to be away that much anymore.

To get away from things. I feel like where we live in Palm Springs feel like... Well, we've lived in the mountains. We now live in the desert. And the ocean is... I have lived by the ocean before. You have? Yes, in Norway. I don't need to get away from it all. I think the main thing for me is that I am where you are and the dogs are. Yeah. That's the... Well, and we've chosen to live in a place that...

Honestly, it feels like we're on vacation every day. Yeah, there's, you know, it's palm trees, it's desert. Peace and quiet. It's peace and quiet. It's mountains. It's pools. Yeah, it feels like we're on 24-7 vacation. Even if we are working, it just feels like that. Yeah. But yeah, I'm happy to be where you are and the dogs are. I don't need to like get away. No. Our lifestyle is getting away. Yeah.

It's getting away from us. Yeah. So the next question is from PJ Prince.

What's your favorite memory from a dinner party? Oh, from a dinner party. I don't know if I have a memory from like a specific dinner party. What I will say is like later in life is the dinners I would have with my family in Norway while my mom was alive. Either like at home or in a restaurant. They...

are very special to me and I do remember a lot of those and how much fun we had. There was tons of laughing and we would always talk about the same thing.

Which was food. Yeah. Yeah. Like what you were eating. Yes. We were eating and we would talk about food. Like, oh, do you remember that time in Paris where we had like this thing and that thing that we had like there? Yeah. We always talked about food. I remember years ago I had a French boyfriend and he came to Norway. He met my family and we all had dinner. And afterward he was like, oh my God, you guys didn't talk about anything else than food. Yeah.

But yeah, that's kind of what we talked about. Your whole family life sort of revolved around food. Yeah, it was important, but it was good memories. It was like food memories. Yeah. So that's special. That's something I do remember. Yeah. And I think as you get older, I think Thanksgiving's a really, probably the number one thing.

meal that has great memories with the friends and family you've made throughout your life, at least here in America. Yeah, here it is. Remember, we don't have Thanksgiving in Norway. That's a very American thing. Yeah, so for me, it would be more like Christmas. Yeah. You know, because that's the big celebration in Norway is Christmas. Yeah. Okay, Stephanie. What is Stephanie asking? What was your inspiration for starting Sweetball Magazine?

Ooh, so when I moved here 13 years ago, I started working as a food prop stylist, same as I had been doing in Norway and, you know, in Europe. After a while, and the recession happened, and I just felt like I didn't feel like the jobs I got was very creative. I thought they were kind of a little bit boring.

That's probably an American thing at that time. It was, yes, very American. And there was so much fussing about, you know, oh no, we can't use blue plates, we can't do this, we can't. It was a lot of like, we can't do. And it started to annoy me. Yeah. Probably always chasing perfection, too.

Yeah, which is just, you know, fake. Because that's not how things look. Yeah. You know, that perfectly brown turkey that doesn't have a wrinkle. Yeah. And actually on the picture is raw because it's been painted and maybe cooked for like 20 minutes. Yeah, it looks pretty, but you can't eat it. It's not how it really looks. Yeah. So I just got tired of all that. Yeah.

I remember one day coming home from a shoot that was very rough and I was thinking, why was I even there? Train Monkey could have done that. And another magazine had just launched online, like the first online magazine. It was called Lonnie. It was like a home decor magazine.

And I was thinking, oh, maybe I can do like a little online publication just to do something fun. Yeah. And, you know, I spoke to all my, you know, photographer friends and other stylist friends. And they were like, oh, yeah, that's cool. We'll help you. You know, we'll do stuff for you. And that's kind of how it started. You know, the first edition came.

came out and I was like, oh, this is cute. This is fun. And I just, I was just thinking I'll do this as a creative outlet. Yes, exactly. I never expected it to be like a thing. So that's how it came about. Just that I wanted to have an outlet. Yeah. And we'll talk more about that in episode number 59. Or 62. Or I think it might be 62. I think I put it down in 62. Yeah.

So lastly, Gina asks, what's your favorite reading genre and your most beloved author? It's a good question. Oh, yeah. Well, reading genre is definitely history. Biographies. On Marie Antoinette. I don't know why, but I have this obsession about the French Revolution and especially Marie Antoinette. And I think it comes from...

As a kid, I watched an old black and white movie called Marie Antoinette with Norma Scherer as Marie Antoinette. And I was very mesmerized by the story. To the point where I went to the library the next day and I found a book about her, which was like 700 pages thick. And it was just insane.

And you read the whole thing. And I did read the whole thing. It took me a while, but I did read the whole thing. I remember I returned a book late, so I had to pay like two crowns or something. Yeah. So I've always been obsessed about reading about the French Revolution and all that. And when it comes to favorite author, I kind of like everything from Jane Austen to... What's the guy with the cider house rule and Garp and...

What's his name? Yeah, I don't remember. What's your favorite book of all time? Your favorite fiction? I would say mine is Middle Sex. Did you ever read that? Yeah. It's incredible. It's really good. I think mine still is Garp. Really? Yeah. I've never even seen the movie.

The book is incredible. What is his name? There's a movie, right? Like what's it according to Garp or whatever? Yeah. Let me look up because this is annoying. John Irving. Oh, John Irving. He wrote Cider House Rules? Yes. He wrote a ton of books. But Garp, I can still remember as a young man reading Garp and finding it so incredible. The World According to Garp. The World According to Garp. Yeah, I guess that's what the book is called too.

Oh, and then I also did read Rosemary's Baby. And it's really good as a book, too. Really? Yeah. It's funny because we just the other day listened to another podcast about Mia Farrow's life. Yeah. And that talked a lot about the filming of Rosemary's Baby. Lots of good stuff. Yes, yes, yes. All right. Is that it for this episode? Yeah. All I want to say is if you have any comments...

suggestions, questions that you want us to answer, maybe something you want us to talk about, you can email us at podcast at sweetpaulmag.com. Yeah. And we're just going to keep moving through your life. Yes. Talking about a little...

bit of current life as well and jumping around. Yeah. We're just going to have fun. I mean, it's, it's, this is nothing serious. We know, we know it's not brain surgery. It's true. Yeah. We're just gonna, we're just gonna keep talking about, yeah, about me. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot to get through, but it's really, I think, an interesting story about creativity and really just like going for it in life. Yeah. Chasing the sweet things. Yes. That was a good end. Okay. Thank you, guys. Thank you. And don't forget to send money. Oh, yeah. We're going to send it every time. Don't forget to send money. Bye. Bye.