The Beginning
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Hello everyone and welcome to the very first Sweet Paul podcast that is called Chasing the Sweet Things in Life. Yes. Yes. And I am here. I'm Sweet Paul.

Who are you? I'm James. Hi, James. I'm, yeah, once in a while sweet James, but not usually. Salty James. We are coming to you from beautiful Palm Springs, where we live.

It's another sunny day. Yes. We haven't seen... Surprise, surprise. We honestly haven't seen... There hasn't been rain since we moved here, which is now three months. And I think we had one day of a little cloudy weather.

Yeah, I think it rained one day, but we were out of town, unfortunately. So we missed that special event. We were in San Francisco. The special event of rain in Palm Springs. Yeah, very excited. But maybe this Tuesday, yeah, it's supposed to rain. I think it's going to rain on Tuesday. I'm super excited about that. Yeah.

Okay, so podcast. That's fun. Yeah. So what is it we're doing with this podcast? We'll be talking about my favorite subject. Yeah. Yourself. Me. I mean. Me, myself, and I. Yes. Yeah. And this episode's called The Beginning because we're starting from the very beginning. Yes. I think the beginning is kind of like a Star Wars episode or Star Trek. Oh, my God.

The beginning. Yes. Yeah. So what do you want to know? Well, first of all, where were you born? I was born in Oslo, Norway. In Oslo proper. Yes. In a hospital. Yes. In a hospital. Not in the woods with elves, with fairies. Okay.

Delivering you from the mushroom. There might have been some fairies there. But no, my mom was always very proud of this because I was supposed to be born in a regular hospital. But apparently... Like a common person. Like a common person. But the day I was supposed to be born, the hospital was full. The inn was full. Oh, okay.

Oh my goodness gracious. For our Lord and Savior. So I actually, they sent her to this private hospital. And I and she shared a room with the wife of a kind of a famous Norwegian musician. Oh my God, so fabulous. So she was like first class all the way. Yes, first class. Yes, I was born in a private hospital.

I mean... It was called Britannia. Which set the course for you being spoiled your entire life. More or less. More or less. But yeah, I think my mom was kind of proud of that. Was it an easy delivery? Or did you give her problems? Oh, I gave her a lot of problems. Like, a lot. I came with my behind first. Oh my god. I know. Ass first into the world. Ass first. You're like, hey! Ah!

Yeah, yeah. Apparently it was really bad. But I wasn't... Were you a big baby? No, I was small. So that's the good thing. Yeah. I was small. I was very skinny. I was tall and skinny. Yeah. And apparently kind of ugly. I think most babies are ugly when they come out. Yeah, I was particularly ugly. Yeah. Ass first. Ugly baby.

But, you know, I... Chapter one. Ask first, ugly baby. But, you know, I made up for it. I mean, now I'm just like... Yeah. Now I'm chubby and cute. Okay. Interesting. So, what else do you know about, have been told about that time in your parents? How were your... Was your mother young? Yeah, my mother was young. My mom and dad...

She was 18. He was 19. That's like my parents, too. Yeah. They met at a dance at a famous nightclub in Oslo. As teenagers? Yes. And my mom said that she wore this...

low-cut dress. And my mom had big boobs. And she danced with my dad. My dad looked at her. Well, she said he looked more at her boobs than her. And they were dancing and he was like, oh, do you live alone? Oh my God. Scandalous. Wow. Scandalous. But yeah, so they got married.

Quite young. Yeah. And as a kid, I used to... Their generation, even my parents, they got married young. It's so weird. Yeah. Yeah. And I used to play dress-up with my mom's wedding gown when I was a kid. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I did. Yeah, I used to... It was...

White lace. I think it's called boat sleeve, like boat neck, boat neck sleeve. No, boat neck, neck and long sleeves.

A boat neck and long sleeves. Yeah. Sounds kind of frumpy. What's the style? Yeah. I mean, that's just how it was. Yeah. Interesting. She was beautiful. Both my mom and dad were like stunning couples. So how old was your mother when she had you? 19. Oh, so they got immediately pregnant. Yeah. Yeah.

Were they pregnant before they got married? I don't know. Okay. It's probably not as big of a deal there, is it? No. No, no, no. No, not at all. I actually think they were. I was apparently conceived in Copenhagen, in Denmark. So when I was a kid, I walked around saying I was half Danish. Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. You know, they should never have told me.

I also had this thing where I, in my head, I thought my mom was Dutch. And this was before I started school. So I would walk around telling people that my mom was Dutch. And she was like, you have to stop saying that. Oh my God. I'm not Dutch. I'm Norwegian. You have to stop saying that. Yeah. You just had an active imagination. Yes. It was because my grandmother would tell me this story about how

Her, her husband, and my mom would go to Holland after the war. And how beautiful it was. And all the tulips and the cheeses and the meat. Well, that's the thing. The herring. So, in my head, I was just like, I don't know. I was just, yeah. Yeah. It was spinning around. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But yeah, no, she's not Dutch. She wasn't. No. No.

So, yeah, young parents, very young parents. So your grandmother and your great aunt who raised you were probably young too at that time-ish in comparison. I guess they were like in their 40s. Oh my God, that's so crazy. I know, I know. That seems so young. The sad, the very sad thing is that I never met my grandfather.

He died while my mom was pregnant. Yeah, and he was apparently very excited to meet me. Yeah. So your grandmother who raised you was your mother's mother? Mm-hmm. And your great-aunt was your grandmother's sister? Yes. Okay. So were they living with you guys at the time, or did they live in the neighborhood? So we lived in my grandmother's house.

Oh, when you were born. Yeah. Okay. And then she gave the house to my mom and my dad. Uh-huh. Yeah. And then she lived with us her entire life. Both of them or just your grandmother? No, just my grandmother. And your aunt, great aunt, lived in the hood? She lived like 20 minutes away. Okay. She would take the bus every morning. Yeah.

It's a cute story about them because they grew up. There were four kids, three sisters, one brother. Both parents died very young. The oldest girl went to live with an aunt. The boy got sent to the countryside somewhere to live at the farm. And my grandmother and great aunt had to go to an orphanage. And...

I remember they told all these crazy stories about the orphanage. It was a little bit like... Have you seen prison movies now? Because my grandmother came in and she asked someone, so who's the toughest girl here? And she literally beat up that girl. No, are you serious? Yes, just to like... She said the reason... Because I was always kind of shocked when she told me. And I was like, why did you do that? But she said the reason why...

Is that her sister was very shy. And she was young and a little bit like weakish. Yeah. So she didn't want anyone to pick on her sister. So that's why she did it. Because then they were both kind of the same. That's so interesting that she had that kind of instinct. Well, I guess if you're raising... Yourself. And your siblings. Yeah. You have this sort of maternal...

Like lioness. Yes. Like instinct. She also cut the braids of a girl. Oh my God. I know. I know. It's kind of crazy. Just a little side note. If you hear a funny noise in the background, it's just Lestat snoring. Oh, yes. Yes. We have two dogs. We have Hugo and Lestat.

Lestat is an older gentleman and he sleeps a lot and he snores. So he's sitting right under me, so FYI. So interesting, great. Okay, so your parents brought you home to your grandmother's house where your aunt and your grandmother were around all the time. What was your...

earliest memory of that home? I thought a lot about what my earliest memories are. And my earliest childhood memory has nothing to do with our home. It was...

I mean, what I can remember is I can remember blue canvas, tent canvas. I can remember red tent canvas. I can remember the smell of like a blow up mattress. And apparently what happened, I think I was like three. We were on a camping trip. The one and only time we ever went camping, it was my mom and dad and me. And apparently I had went into the neighbor's tent and I pooped. I pooped.

I pooped in a neighbor's tent. And it was kind of like, you know. Well, now we know where Hugo gets it from. Yeah. I think that's my earliest childhood memory. Yeah. That's so interesting that that's...

Do you think you remember that because you knew you were doing something bad or did everyone freak out? I think it was because there was a commotion. Yeah. And apparently the blue tent was ours and the red tent was my bathroom.

You know, you have to, you know, you have to, yeah. And also back then, I don't think we wore like little kids, like we didn't wear any pants. Oh yeah, you were just naked. We were just naked running around. You just went in there and squat, squatted down. You know, this was Europe, so, you know. Yeah, of course. We don't care. So that's your earliest memory. Yeah, I've been thinking because, you know, as you grow older...

You think about your childhood more. And I definitely do that. And so, yeah, I've been thinking about what was my first memory. I have one more. We can talk about that after the break. James, did you know that you can subscribe to Sweet Paul Magazine? I heard it on the streets. It's the rumor on the streets. Yes, if you subscribe to the magazine, they are only $10 an issue.

That's a deal, actually. Yeah, and that includes shipping. So all you have to do is go to sweetpollmagazine.com and click on shop.

So sweetpolemagazines.com and you click on shop. And then is it like a subscription? Like you get charged along the way? How does that work? It's an ongoing subscription. So you get charged every time we come up to the new issue. And 10 bucks, you won't even notice. No, it's, what is that? Two cups of coffee? Yes. And some bacon egg bites. Okay. No, 10 bucks an issue. That's such a deal. Sweetpolemagazine.com shop.

And we are back. Yes, we are. Yes. So in terms of your memories, what is your first memory in and around the house, your grandmother's house, when you were... It was my grandma's coffee pots. And it's so bizarre because I played with coffee pots. I had this weird obsession. I would sit out in the garden and I would surround myself with eight coffee pots and I would...

pour water from one into the other. And I would... I could play with that, like, all day. But were you having, like, a tea party or something? No, I don't... No, I didn't. It was just... Do you know what I think it is? I think I had an obsession with anyone that was serving. Like...

A waitress, stewardess in an airplane, you know, anyone who was like serving stuff. That was kind of, I think that was my obsession. Yeah. And the craziest thing is that, and this I remember very vivid. I must have been very young, like four or five.

And my grandmother took me to one of her friends' houses for a party. The first thing I would say when I came into someone's house was, do you have a coffee pot? Oh my gosh. And she was like, yes, I have one in the kitchen. And it was one of those big, you know, that can make like 100 cups of coffee. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And apparently I...

Drew out a little, like, footstool. And I sat in that kitchen the entire day and I looked at that coffee pot. Oh, my gosh. I should maybe talk to a shrink about this. Like, one of those big silver ones with, like, black handles. Yeah. In Norway, we call it the mission coffee pot. It was, you know, made for, like...

You know, make coffee for a bunch of people. Yeah. Yeah, I can. Yeah, I remember that. I can still remember. Yeah. The coffee pot. Yeah. But it all makes sense. But you've been interested in your whole life that you would like a serving sets and kitchen stuff. Yeah, I wasn't too interested in toys and stuff like that. I kind of like made up my own.

Yeah. Well, tell the story about Show and Tell. How old were you? First grade in school. And we'll come back to this, but I was very... Growing up, my grandmother would take me to flea markets and antique shops and stuff like that. That was one of our favorite things to do. She would make us, especially flea markets, she would make us

Super good sandwiches. And we would have like hot chocolate in a thermos. And then we would go to flea marketing. So I was very interested in old things. And for the first show and tell in school...

I brought an old, I think it was Royal Copenhagen. And I showed it up to the class and I was like, so this is an 1865 Royal Copenhagen dinner plate, blue and white, mussel malt. And the reason why I can tell the date is because of the stamp on the back. And all the kids were laughing at me.

And my teacher wrote a letter to my parents saying that Paul should probably play more with other kids. I'm obsessed. Yeah, and I remember the feeling of them all laughing at me.

And I thought they would be so interested. Yeah. Because all the other kids, you know, they had like a teddy bear or a football or a book or, you know, whatever. And then I came my old plate and I think it even was a chip in it. Oh my God. So good. But that was like something I had found in the flea market. And for me, it was a treasure. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Of course. But no. So going back to you being a little bit younger. Yeah.

Well, first of all, how old are you when you start school in Norway? I was seven. You start school at seven years old? Oh, and a funny story. So, I never went to kindergarten. So, you go to kindergarten first. I never did that. Because that's... You're not required. No, no, no. Okay. So, it's probably more like preschool. Yes. And my parents really wanted me to go to kindergarten to have more interactions with other kids. And I did...

My mom took me to one. And you know what I did? I asked to see if they had a coffee pot. And they had one beat up in a corner somewhere. And I went to my mom and I said, no, no, not going here. Take me home. Yeah, that coffee pot won't do. Yeah, it didn't have a lid. It was beat up. No, how am I going to play with a beat up coffee pot? Oh, my God. Genius. Yeah.

So then first grade is the first grade. Yeah. So seven years old. So you spent seven years at home. Terrorizing everyone. Yeah, I did. So what was your earliest memory of like your daily routine? Like did your parents go to work? Yeah, both my parents went to work. They worked a lot. They had their own restaurants and stuff like that. So they were gone a lot. So I was left alone.

to myself with my great aunt and my grandmother. And my great aunt would take the bus every morning. She was at our house like eight o'clock in the morning. And she went home late at night. She never spent the night, which is weird. Yeah. So how long did you... Oh, so you lived in that house forever. That's right, because your grandmother gave it to your parents. So did you have your own room...

How old were you when you had your own room? I think I had my own room from the beginning. So it was like a three-bedroom house? Yes, three bedrooms, one bathroom. I had the smallest bedroom. I was maybe like, I can't remember exactly what it looked like. I think it was very plain. I think it was just like some white wallpaper and stuff. But when, I think I was maybe six when my mom said, okay, let's redo your room. And she let me pick.

And I picked black and watch checked wallpaper. Black and white? No, black and watch. It's Scottish tartan. Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So I had that in wallpaper. I had it in curtains that my grandmother helped me sew. I sewed them myself.

And bedspread and pillows. It was dark green, black and yellow. That was your story at six years old? Yeah, I was six years old. Amazing. When I did that. So those seven years you were at home, what was your routine? So your parents would go to work, your aunt would show up.

Would your grandmother cook breakfast for you? Yeah. So I would wake up every morning to very strong smell of coffee. Very strong. My grandmother made, she ground her own beans in an old fashioned coffee grinder. And then she had a pot on the stove that would sort of like boil all day, like simmer.

So there was hot coffee all day? All day. Yeah, it was hot coffee all day. And I think like the later in the day that kind of turned into like a syrup. Yeah. Like consistency. Yeah. And she would give me milk.

Warm milk with a little bit of coffee in it. Oh, interesting. Yeah, I like it. So you tasted coffee very young? Yeah. Yeah, I did. But I didn't start drinking coffee until I was in my 20s. Yeah, me too. Yeah, we would make breakfast. And what would she make for breakfast? Did she make it for the whole family or were your parents gone by that point? I think, no, my parents were gone. So it was just me. So it was kind of like what I wanted. Oh, my God.

Oh my god. That's face... I mean, I was extremely... Oh no, wait. Isn't there a story where you sent the eggs back? No, or you sent... Okay, come on. I've heard this. I know. Yes. Yes. I was extremely spoiled. I was cute, but I was very spoiled. Yeah, that was... I was staying... I often would go and stay at my aunt's house. Great aunt's house. Great aunt's house.

Just like a sleepover. At one time, yeah, she made me eggs and they were too runny and I made her do them again. You sent them back. Yeah, I sent them back. So your grandmother made eggs perfectly every... Yeah, she made eggs and then we would... It was kind of whatever I wanted to do. You know, if I wanted to bake a cake, then we would bake a cake. If I wanted to go, you know, walk in the forest, we would go and walk in the forest.

Or if I wanted to make something like... So on the daily, that was your... You just do whatever you wanted to do. Yeah, totally. And in summer, we were out a lot. We had a big garden with berries and flowers and vegetables. But that clearly led to the path of your entire life. Oh, yeah. The creativity, the...

That's something you would have never learned in school. No, absolutely not. Yeah, it's the foundation of who I am. And the great thing is that they realized from very early on that I was like a peculiar kid who was interested in these things. They were great cooks and seamstresses and all these things. So they...

They thought it was fun to show me because I was interested. Yeah, you could have been into sports and they would have felt maybe a little bit less useful to your upbringing. Yes, exactly. So, yeah, they must have had such a good time. Yeah, I think they loved it. And then, of course, after seven years, my sister came and then my universe just fell apart. Yeah. Yeah.

I think it's time for some questions. Yeah. So in every podcast, we're going to do a section called What's Up, Sweet Paul? If you have a question, if you have any comments or anything, you can email us at podcast at sweetpaulmag.com. Podcast at sweetpaulmag.com. Do you have any questions? Yes, we have some questions here. First one from Janelle.

In Yucca Valley. Oh, I think I know her. Yeah. Our friend Janelle, who's a fabulous fiber artist in the high desert. She wants to know, what meals do you cook most at home?

I could answer that question. Okay. Yes. You answer. Well, I actually was recently diagnosed diabetic. So, that means this entire household is on a low-carb diet. So, Paul is fabulous at cooking a great protein and a lot of delicious vegetables. Okay.

And so he roasts lots of things that are in season. We've actually discovered, just to sort of make it a little bit easier on him because he does all of the cooking, is that Trader Joe's, they have a lot of frozen, really great Indian food.

or like a cauliflower rice side or like a quinoa thing or like a sweet potato thing. So things that are really good for low-carb diets. And so we eat very well and it does not feel like being on a diet because everything is so delicious and robust. So that's pretty much what we cook. Yeah. I mean, we try to cook every meal. Yeah.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner. We have eggs every single morning. We have, yeah, three eggs each. We both love eggs. Yes. Every morning. Yeah, very often I get asked, like, what's your favorite ingredients? And it's eggs. Yeah. Eggs with Mexican chorizo, which is readily available here in Southern California. And it's delicious. Scrambled eggs with chorizo. And then, you know, like this morning he sauteed eggs with spinach and

We'll often do it with like a packaged sort of broccoli and carrot sort of. Like a slaw? Slaw. So eggs with...

Yesterday we had eggs with carnitas. So eggs go with everything. But our favorite is eggs a la Frances. Oh, yes, of course. Yes, which is? Soft scrambled, lots of butter. Yes, very soft scrambled. You have to make it on low temperature and you have to stir all the time. Yeah. So good. Delicious. Okay, next question. Yes. Brian wants to know, have you ever cooked...

With lab-grown protein or insects? And if you haven't, would you ever want to? What is a lab-grown protein? So now they can actually make a meat-like product that has no meat in it. It's all made with vegetables. But it has the texture and it has the flavor of meat. Interesting. Yeah.

And I would totally cook with it. That's some like 20 year 2050. Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually, I think it's here already. It's here.

It's expensive now because... But it'll probably be the future. Absolutely, because we have to eat less meat. We just have to because it's ruining the world. Yeah. As we speak, the Amazon is burning. Insects? Yeah, totally. I've had stuff with insects. I never had a lab-grown product before. I never tasted that. We totally tasted it.

Insects I've had in Thailand. I had like barbecued grasshoppers and stuff. Stop it. It's actually kind of good. No, I would never. No, it's good because it's all about the spices and perfectly roasted. It's crunchy. Yes, I'm sure. I had a couple of things here. Some that I wasn't that into. Other things I thought was really good. I imagine it tasting bitter. Yeah.

No. Does it taste like dirt? No. You know, like earthy, like escargot or a mushroom? It doesn't really taste that much. Yeah. I would never have. It's so weird because I've had escargot and there's certain Mexican dishes that are, if I didn't grow up with them, I wouldn't eat them. Yeah. But I don't know, bugs are like...

No, ma'am. It can actually feed the world if we ate. Yeah. They're probably super high in nutrients, too. In a weird way. This is James, and some of you may know, but what I do for a living is produce makers markets across the nation. We started with Phoenicia Flea, which is in the northeast, predominantly in the Hudson Valley.

And then this last summer, when Paul and I came out, actually this last winter, Paul and I came out to Palm Springs, we launched Mojave Flea, which is a market in the Southwest, California, Arizona, Florida.

And we just recently launched Fog City Flea exclusively for the Ferry Building in San Francisco, the historic Ferry Building. Ooh, you're taking over the world. Yes, and I dragged Paul all over with me where he sells his ceramics and sells his magazines.

And you can check out all these different markets depending on where you live in the country. And you can come say hi to us. You can check out all the different market experiences at phoeniciaflea.com. That's P-H-O-E-N-I-C-I-A-F-L-E-A dot com. And we hope to see you somewhere in a marketplace.

And we are back. Yes. Okay. Any more questions? Two more. Oh. Pookieboo.

What? The Pookie Boo. I don't know who that is. That's their drag name, I guess. Pookie Boo. From Pookie Boo, how do you take care of your cast iron pans? Ooh, that's a good question. Which we have none of now because we probably sold them all when we left Kingston. We did. I have one small one. You have one small one? Yeah. Cast iron pans, worst enemy is water. So after you use it, you just wash it.

in warm water, no soap, and dry it off immediately. And then you rub it in with a little vegetable oil. That's the way to keep your pants dry.

fresh and ready yeah and you can't leave any water in them or they will rust they will rust very fast yeah so no water you just wash it in warm water do you like scrub it or you just rinse it no you should scrub i mean if there's leftover food you need to scrub it yeah but uh no detergent clean dry dry it completely and then rub it in with a little oil vegetable oil then it's gonna be perfect

Every time? Every time. Last question. Becky from Florida. Hi, Becky. What comic book...

or cartoon character or superhero would you identify the most with and why? Oh. I love a non-cooking question. I would have to say Tintin. I never read superhero comic books growing up. When I was eight, I had the measles and I was gone from school over a month. And my dad bought me all the Tintin books. So for you who don't know, Tintin is a Belgian comic book.

about this journalist who has adventures all over the world. And I was so fascinated. So Tintin is a journalist? Isn't he a boy? Well, he's a young man. Oh, okay. I thought he was a boy. He has a dog. He has a dog called Snowy.

And his best friend is Captain Haddock. Yeah. I always, as a kid, I was like, because there was no like female love interest ever in the comics. Yeah.

Just his older best friend with the black beard. Yes, yes. Total bear. Yeah, I was obsessed about those books. And it kind of helped me through that whole misel thing. So, yes, I'm going to say Tintin. Yeah. Were they translated into Norwegian? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I just love those. And now you have him tattooed on your arm. I do. Yeah.

Reminds me of when I had the measles. Yeah, that was rough at home. That's such an old-timey disease. I think by the time I got a vaccination for that, right? Yeah, I had it. My sister had it too. Measles? Yeah, right after. After you recovered from polio? You got it.

I'm not that old. Whatever. She got it two weeks in, so... From you? Yeah. So you can imagine, like, the state of the house. Yeah. It's just like... Yeah. Well, we'll get to, eventually, your sister being born and your reign coming to an end. I know. I know.

But we'll save that for the next episode. Yes. So thank you so much for listening. And if you like the podcast, you should subscribe and like and share and whatever. Tell your friends. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Send us gifts. Yes. Just kidding. Send us cash. Yeah. Yeah. Tens and twenties. Cash is king. Yeah, no ones. We don't take ones. Yeah, that's it. All right. Until next time. Bye. Bye. Bye.