Episode 87: Dawn and the School Spirit War

The episode for "Dawn and the School Spirit War" was originally released on November 13, 2017 and is #84. **You can listen to it here.** This episode is 1:05:29 long.This week's ghostwriter: Suzanne Weyn.

*Previous:* Episode 86: Stacey vs. the BSC | *Next:* Episode 88: Claudia Kishi, Live From WSTO! | *Or,* see all episodes.

## Official Episode Description

There’s a ding dang civil war this week, Baby Nation (we’re saying “ding dang” now, apparently), and it looks like the beautiful friendships that we’ve been following for 83 books so far are starting to fall apart at the seams. We always knew that something was going to be the catalyst for the BSC apocalypse we witnessed in this book but never in a million years could either of us have predicted that it was going to be Mary Anne’s pajamas. And to make matters worse, the civil war between the baby-sitters isn’t the only war brewing – there’s the terrifying battle of the ghosts and spirits referenced in the title, the internal crisis of faith that Dawn is undergoing, and a bit of a "war of words” (if you’ll indulge me) between our hosts about whether or not Ann is explicitly referencing the Marvel Universe in this text (she is). Stick around for some seriously glorious antics from Alan Gray and the debut of a brand new song from Superbrat.

## Music Credits

* “New Dawn,” by Rise Studios
* “The End,” by MotionRide
* “Phantom Phone Call,” by Superbrat
* Original Intro by Scott Lamb

## Book Description

"We should do a bonus episode where I get sixty MINUTES to describe the book."

## Segments

###  Alan Gray Will See You Now

Alan Gray pins yellow water balloons to himself for "wear yellow" day.

###  Burn Of The Week

Jack: Alan Gray handling the spaghetti-dumping: "Oops, I forgot. You're a vegetarian, aren't you?"

Tanner: when Mary Anne was excited about spirit month being canceled, but "April fools!"

## Theories

###  Witchcraft

Something is wrong with the house. "The house is driving me crazy!" The spirits are rising up.

## Jack's References

* Jack relates a story about "tag day" at school, where you could pay $3 to wear street clothes instead of uniforms.
* "Welcome to elementary French with Tanner Greenring."
* Jack brings back the Dawn books = religion theory, where Dawn turns away from the spirit and loses her faith.
* Jack recites a few lyrics from Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
* Jack reads from George Orwell's "1984". He was brainwashed at the end of that book, just as Dawn is now filled with the school spirit at the end of this book.
* Katy O'Shea's dad is begging the question.
* "Don't bring robots into this."

## Tanner's References

* La Maison Sanglante, the bleeding house
* Marvel's Civil War comic and House of M.

"Yes [...] is this a dream?"

## Notes

* "Anyhow, Baby Nation, now this is a fatherhood podcast, where two cool dads..."
* Did you say Dong?
* Tanner Sings and Jack Sings insane in the memb-wayn.
* Neither of the boys enjoyed the book because the BSC members were being cruel to one another.
* Housekeeping: the official announcement of the Baby Nation FB Group.
	+ Baby Bee Jennifer wrote about the shadowy figure lurking behind this all, a man called The Leviathan. His job is to keep the BSC Bible.
	+ Who would play Jack and Tanner in a BSC movie? Tanner proposes Vincent Cartheiser for Jack; for himself, Jason Segal, Chris Pratt, Seth Rogan.
* Battle of the Moms
* Tanner is proud for correctly identifying Franklin DeWitt as an architect (previously he guessed this because he thought that was a good name for an architect)
* Claudia, Kristy, and Jessi are pro-school spirit. Mallory, Mary Anne, and Dawn are anti-school spirit. "This is just like the Civil War," reads the text. Tanner agrees, and says this is just like the Marvel Civil War comic. There is an extended discussion on this topic. Tanner draws parallels because the Marvel Civil War was started when Nitro leveled Stamford, Connecticut. Jack admits that this is a relevant text.
* "For April Pizante and everyone in New Market, Ontario." What's in Newmarket, what do they know? Is this connected to Wauwatosa? Why does Ann write New Market and not the real town name Newmarket? Tanner discusses the sport of ringette which is no longer on the Newmarket page as of 3/26/2019; this is a variant on hockey.
* Tanner discusses the call-sign WSTO for the upcoming book.

## References & Links

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smells\_Like\_Teen\_Spirit
2. ↑ St-Quentin, Aisne; the story is that the walls began to bleed, and the bodies of 50 executed German WWI soldiers were discovered underneath the house once it was torn down. The current owner of the house has not seen this occur: http://www.courrier-picard.fr/archive/recup/region/le-proprietaire-de-la-maison-qui-saigne-a-ia195b0n421783
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil\_War\_(comics)
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House\_of\_M
5. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/groups/314613195686489/
6. ↑ The comment that cast a light on the Leviathan: https://www.facebook.com/groups/314613195686489/permalink/316577032156772/?comment\_id=316580605489748&reply\_comment\_id=316678095479999&comment\_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R%22%7D
7. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newmarket,\_Ontario
8. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringette
9. ↑ The real WSTO is in Stoughton, WI, not too far from Wauwatosa, WI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSTO\_TV
10. ↑ From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call\_signs\_in\_the\_United\_States#Geographical\_separation\_of\_K\_and\_W\_call\_signs: "Although a long established convention, the K-W division has not always been rigidly followed, and over the years a few exceptions have accumulated. One prominent example is KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which was licensed in 1920 during a short period when new land stations were issued call signs from a block of letters that previously had been reserved for ship stations.[6] The FCC has also been lenient in the case of relocations that result in a station moving to the other side of the boundary, especially when close to the Mississippi River.[7] The most extreme example occurred in 2013, when television station KJWP was allowed to keep its call letters even after moving from Jackson, Wyoming to Wilmington, Delaware; the station changed its call letters to WDPN-TV in 2018."

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