Mark: (Laughs.) Yeah. For the early people who clicked on the link, or for everyone who's watching right now, we brought a surprise this week. Alex? Alex? 

So yes, okay. On that side note. . . If you want to leave, in the comments, food-related questions or -- I don't know -- 

Stan: And Alex is not here -- as a food-related item. 

Mark: She's not an expert either. Yeah. 

Stan: I don't know -- she probably knows a lot about dog food.

Mark: Yep.

Stan: Dog food -- food-related. Mostly very bland. Ah, I'm always surprised, whenever my dogs change food, I always taste it just to see. And, ah, it's really generally very bland and gritty. So, yeah. Don't bother.

It never tastes like wet dog food -- Alpo, or whatever. Just the dry.

Mark: For those of you who haven't watched this before, I suppose we should introduce ourselves. So, I'm Mark. And I direct and edit the mental_floss online YouTube show.

Stan: And I'm Stan. I produce the show. Uh, yeah. That's it.

Mark: Yeah. And we have a guest today. (pause) It's muted, I believe.

Stan: We can't hear you. 

Mark: Oh, no! (beeping noise) And we also have another guest. (laughs)

Stan: We have a guest. The very host of the show, John Green. 

Mark: (beeping noise) Maybe you were muted. 

Stan: Can you hear him? I see a microphone next to us. 

Mark: To us. We're hearable.

(01:48)John: I was muted, sorry. Hi. 

Stan: Stacy, are you muted? We still can't hear you. 

John: Stacy, so there's -- up in the right-hand side of your screen -- there's a little microphone, an orange microphone. You've gotta click it to turn. Wup. Bye, Stacy. You've gotta click it -- click that little orange microphone up . . . 

Mark: We were really able to hear her like a minute ago. It's weird. 

Stan: Something strange has happened. 

Mark: Either way, I'll . . . Stacy wrote today's episode on foods named after people. So, we'll figure out the mic situation. I don't know if you'll have to quit and come back -- maybe that's the thing? But, either way, that's who she is. 

Stan: Right, so we're remaining as the dominant . . .

(muttering and fumbling with computers)

Mark: Here we go. Hey, hey!

John: Hi. 

Mark: Oh, that's John. 

(02:42)John: Um, I needed -- I mostly came here to say, hi. Thank you for watching this week's episode. But also I want to tweet the link to this hang out, and I don't know how to do that. 

(garbled talking)

Stan: So, yeah! We're gonna talk about food. John, do you remember anything? Did you learn anything? There were so many . . . I was just looking through the . . .

John: Do you remember this was filmed before I had a child, so I've lost all of my memory.

Stan: (groan) Oh. All you know about now is baby food. 

John: Right. Is Stacy here? 

Mark: I think so. 

John: We can't hear her. 

Stan: I can't hear her either. 

Mark: (chuckles)

John: Well, Stacy, you look great. I love your haircut, but we can't . . .

Stan: (laughs) But we can't hear you!

John: There's an orange -- oh, oh! She can type. Wait, now -- now talk. 

Stacy: Can you hear me? 

Mark, Stan, John: Yes!

Stacy: Oh! Okay.

Stan: So Stacy wrote this week's episode, is where we're trying to get.

Mark: (laughs) Yeah, that's where we're trying to get. (pause) The Salisbury Steak one was, to me, was gross. I don't know if you remember this one. 

Stan: Yeah.

Mark: It was something like 65% meat and the rest could be vegetable filler. 

Stan: Yeah. 

John: Mark, did you e-mail? Mark? 

Stan: Vegetable filler is probably just . . . flour? 

Stacy: I feel like it's deliberately vague. 

John: Yeah. It is disturbingly vague. 

Stacy: Yeah.

Stan: Yeah, well, I mean -- If you don't want to know about percentages of stuff in your food, don't every look up the FDA's acceptable levels document. Uh . . . it's got, like, acceptable levels of bug heads in dried figs, and all of the cut-off levels for the horrible things that can be in your food. And it's shockingly high. 

John: No. . . no . . .no.

Mark: It's not even just hot dogs and stuff. 

Stan: Nope. Every food has horrible, horrible things in it. But, I mean, it all grows on trees and stuff, so the bugs are going to be in there. 

John: So, Stacy, we've never met before, but thank you for writing that great episode. Do you write with mental_floss a lot?

Stacy: I do. I've been writing with them since, like, 2007, I think we determined the other day. 

John: Wow. Not to brag, but I've been writing for them since 2001.

Stacy: I know. I know you were here first. (laughs) But, ah . . .

John: That's great! That's awesome. 

Stacy: I do some blog stuff. I've worked on the board games, and magazine -- kind of. Whatever they want to bring me in on. So.

John: Do you do other kinds of writing, as well? Or mostly mental_floss?

Stacy: I have a full-time job, as well, in an advertising agency here in . . . I'm in Des Moines.

John: Oh! Des Moines is a nice town.

Stacy: Des Moines is quite lovely. We like it. We moved for a while and came back. So.

John: Yeah, I also left the Midwest, and I realized it was a terrible mistake and then came home. 

Stacy: How long did you leave?

John: Um . . . two years. 

Stacy: Okay, nine months. Ha, ha! We moved away, turned around, came home.

John: Wow . . . wow.

Stacy: (laughs) Yep.

John: Yeah, no, I liked New York City ok. There was a lot to like about it. I liked all of my friends there a lot. It all . . .

Stacy: Yeah.

John: It smelled so much like human pee. 

Stacy: (laughs)

Stan: That part's kind of nice.

John: All right, I just found out via text message that, um, that I have to go. Because I have to go pick up my kid. 

Stan: All right. 

Mark: Thanks for joining us. 

John: Continue talking about this video, and thank you all for watching mental_floss on YouTube. Um. And making it so successful. It's crazy how fast it's growing, and we're so grateful. All right, uh, bye guys. 

Stacy, Mark, Stan: Bye.

John: Take care, Stacy. Thanks again. 

Stacy: Yep, thanks.

Stan: So, yeah, joining us from the office next door . . .

Mark: Yeah, next door!

Stan: . . . was best-selling author, John Green, host of the mental_floss List Show.

Mark: Um, if you have a comment or question related to food or the show, feel free to leave it in the comments. We'll try to get through as many as possible.

Stan: Yes!

Mark: If you know of any foods we missed in today's episode -- like a food that is named after a person. We would love to hear about that and continue that list. Make it a little bit longer. 

Stan: Yeah. I'm going to tell you who I missed in this one . . . Nope! No, never mind. There she is: Mrs. Ball. Why did I think Mrs. Ball wasn't in there?

Mark: What did Mrs. Ball do?

Stan: Fish sticks, man!

Mark: Oh, yeah . . .

Stan: Fish sticks!

Mark: Oh yeah, the graphic for that was a fish bowl inside of a microwave.

Stan: Hmmm!

Mark: I didn't know if... I thought someone would call me out on that.

Stan: Nah. As long as it didn't get too graphic. So Stacy, were there any of these that really shocked you?

Stacy: Um . . . The number of opera stars who have food named after them kinda surprised me a little bit. 

Stan: Yeah . . .

Stacy: Not typically a profession you would think inspires great cuisine. Maybe? I don't know. But, um . . . 

Stan: I was surprised that Melba Toast was the inspiring, inspired item. Because that doesn't seem that inspired to me.

Stacy: No!

Stan: I always thought that was sort of a, uh, tooth-breaking kind of stale-seeming crackers.

John: I'll see you guys tomorrow.

Mark and Stan: Bye, John.

Stacy: I wonder if she was insulted after she saw what it was. Like, "Oh. Really? This is what you named after me? Thanks."

Stan: Peaches Melba was better.

Stacy: Yeah.

Mark: My shocking one was right off the bat. The German chocolate cake. It's not German at all. 

Stan: Nope. 

Mark: And I mainly point that out to talk about how we did not copy that from Vsauce 2, who put out a video that had the same fact yesterday.

Stan: Mmmm.

Mark: It's a fact. So. 

Stan: Can't copyright a fact, Michael.

Mark: But also -- yeah -- this video was shot. Gee. It was shot, like, two months ago now? Three months ago?

Stan: Yeah, it's been a while. 

Mark: We shot this one a while ago.

Stacy: Well, and the inspiration for this script was taken from a mental_floss post, which I think Ethan Trex might have written one of the original posts. And that was from, I mean, at least a year ago probably. 

Stan: Okay.

Mark: Okay.

(mumbled comments)

Stan: Call off your lawyers. 

Stacy: Ha!

Stan: I don't know if he saw us. 

Mark: He's so nice though.

Stan: He is. He wouldn't sue us. Probably.

Mark: Probably not. Maybe.

Stan: But, yeah. Anyway, we have very good lawyers even if you do.

Mark: (laughs)

Stan: The one that I was pleased to hear, that Rudolph Boysen was the inventor of the boysenberry, ah. . . . Have you guys ever heard of a marionberry? This is something that in a trip to Oregon I, ah, ran into a marionberry milkshake.

Stacy: Hmm.

Stan: I assumed that it was named after Marion Barry, former mayor of Washington, D.C. And it was an addictive milkshake, but I don't think it had crack cocaine in it. Which you would . . . This is a terrible joke. It's going on and on.

Mark and Stacy: (laughing)

Stan: But anyway, that's one that I was curious about. But I don't know why the marionberry is named the marionberry.

Mark: Um, I was going to ask a question -- and feel free to leave this in the comments, as well -- what is your favorite food? That seems to be a relevant question. 

Stan: Oh, man. 

Mark: I was like, yeah. I'm not going to take it back. 

Stan: Yeah, let's hear it. Tell us what your favorite food is. And especially a food that's named after someone.

Mark: Well, that would be ideal. 

Stacy: Hmm.

Mark: Well, how about like a food that you miss? That you haven't had in a while. Something?!

Stan: For me?

Mark: Yeah. Like what's a good food? What do you like?

Stan: Everything. Um. I know what I don't like. 

Mark: Maybe that's a better question. 

Stan: I don't like to eat fungus. So no mushrooms.

Mark: That's right. 

Stan: No olives 'cause they're gross. 

Mark: I remember we went to a restaurant in Chicago last week.

Stan: Yes!

Mark: You ordered some sort of pasta dish. 

Stan: I ordered it -- well -- this is my own fault. I asked if he could make it without mushrooms . . .

Mark: Can you make it without mushrooms?

Stan: And the guy said, yes. And then it came with a lot of mushrooms in it. And I think where it broke down, I didn't actually say, "Okay, go ahead and make it without the mushrooms."

Mark: You didn't specify, yeah.

Stan: Yeah. I just . . . I was just wondering if he could, I guess he thought. Yeah, so he still got a tip, because --

Mark: I felt really bad, though, watching you have to pick out . . .

Stan: Luckily they were pretty big mushrooms. It was fine. 

Stacy: I have a food I miss. 

Stan: What is it?

Stacy: Dunk-a-roos.

Stan: Dunk-a-roos?

Mark: Oh, woah. Yeah!

Stacy: I had a 90's party for my birthday a few weeks ago, and I tried desperately to find Dunk-a-roos. Because apparently they're still made in Utah and Canada and . . .

Mark: OK, yeah!

Stacy: Yeah, and some part of New England. Could not find Dunk-a-roos.

Stan: I've never even heard of a Dunk-a-roo. What is a Dunk-a-roo?

Stacy: Um, it's like a children's snack from the 90's. Kind of looks like a Handi-Snack, I think, where one side was cookie sticks, and one side was frosting. And you would, you know, like, dunk them.

Stan: Ohhh.

Mark: Oh, yeah. They were great.

Stacy: They were delicious. 

Mark: The best was the white icing with the sparkles inside of it. Rainbow flavor. Extra sugar, I bet. 

Stan: So it was a pastry-based Fun Dip?

Stacy: Uh huh. 

Stan: Hmm. One thing I don't miss is Ring Dang Do which was the, ah, Amway beef jerky. 

Stacy: Hmm.

Stan: Terrible. 

Mark: Um, Callum Smith says marionberry came from Marion County in Oregon.

Stan: What?! Awesome. 

Mark: I don't have time to fact-check it, but. . . 

Stan: I believe that. 

Mark: Good enough. 

Stan: I buy it. Thank you for clearing that up. So, it has nothing to do with crack cocaine. 

Mark: (laughing) I guess not. 

Stan: Huh.

Mark: Valerie2276 says gyros. 

Stan: Gyros!

Mark: (mumbles)

Stan: They are delicious. But who were they named after, Valerie?

Mark: Yeah, Valerie.

Stan: C'mon.

Mark: Valerie used to write, by the way.

Stan: Yes, we know Valerie in real life. Off the internet. 

Mark: Let's see, Alexandria says, salmon sa-. . . sa-shi?

Stan: Salmon sashimi?

Mark: Do you know what that is? 

Stan: It's, ah -- it's in sushi restaurants. Yeah.

Mark: Like, I am not cultured enough for sushi. She joined us the first week!

Stan: Interesting. 

Mark: Yep. Uh . . . apples.

(13:04)Stan: Apples are pretty good. John Green doesn't like apples, interestingly enough. Well, he doesn't often eat apples, I guess. 

Stacy: Any apples?

Stan: I love apples. Didn't we talk about Granny Smith apples in this script? I was surprised to learn that Granny Smith was an actual person.

Mark: Yeah!

Stan: And like many a great artist, didn't have success until after her death. Which is sad. 

Stacy: It is sad. 

Stan: I'm sure she would have loved to see that her apples were $1.48 a pound at Walmart. 'Cause I know I do.