Pod Insights SNAFU with Ed Helms Desi Lydic and the 1977 NYC Blackout About this episode Desi Lydic thrives in the chaos of New York City. Ed invites her back to one of the city's darkest times, quite literally. It's the 1977 NYC Blackout, a SNAFU showcasing the best and worst of humanity in the Big Apple.
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1:35 Speaker 04 A teenage girl on the Upper West Side lamented that some boys offered to help carry her looted clothing and radios, but then ended up running off with them. So she was quoted saying, "That's just not right. They shouldn't have done that." I love that.
1:49 Speaker 05 Never trust a boy on the Upper West Side.
1:52 Speaker 04 The looter got looted. There's some weird justice in that, I guess.
2:00 Speaker 04 Hello, I'm Ed Helms and this is Snafu, the podcast about history's greatest screw-ups. My guest today is the amazing Desi Lydic, who has been absolutely crushing it on The Daily Show since 2015 with her razor-sharp, next-level satire and just, let's just be honest, brilliantly funny, insightful, and fearless reporting across the board. You're so good at what you do, Desi, and I'm so psyched you're here. Welcome to Snafu.
2:27 Speaker 05 Hey, thanks for having me on. That is way too kind intro, entirely too kind.
2:32 Speaker 04 No, it isn't.
2:33 Speaker 05 And I'm not sure factual, but I really appreciate it. Thank you. This is very cool to be on with you because I was a regular avid watcher of The Daily Show for many, many years while you were on, and you're part of the reason why I wanted to be on The Daily Show, admiring your work and Jon's and Steven and Sam. It's just, yeah, this is very cool. So, thank you.
2:55 Speaker 04 That is so sweet. Go on.
2:57 Speaker 05 Yes. Well, another thing that I specifically like about your performance.
3:02 Speaker 04 Yes.
3:02 Speaker 05 Your everyman-like ability, your razor-sharp wit.
3:07 Speaker 04 Okay, okay, okay. This'll all get edited out, but I'm loving it. Yeah, so we do have The Daily Show in common. It's been, I hate to say this, but it's been almost 20 years since I worked there.
3:19 Speaker 05 Oh, my God.
3:20 Speaker 04 That feels insane to me, but you're there now, and you've been there a bunch of years.
3:25 Speaker 05 Yeah, 10, almost 10.
3:27 Speaker 04 Which is...
3:28 Speaker 05 Which is crazy, too.
3:29 Speaker 04 So badass. You guys are... How was this transition? So, when I was there, obviously, Jon Stewart was the full-time host, and I was sort of a part of a cadre of correspondence. And we did focus mostly on field segments and then the studio pieces with Jon. But now, and that's kind of how you started too, right, with Trevor?
3:50 Speaker 05 Yes, definitely.
3:51 Speaker 04 At a certain point, you transitioned into also part of this rotating host formula, which I just think is so cool. I think it's working so well. What was that like? What was that transition like?
4:07 Speaker 05 Crazy. I mean, I, it, there was a period of time where we were kind of testing out some different ideas and we didn't really know what was gonna happen and who the host was gonna be and, uh, and then it started to open up a little bit and I kinda threw my hat in the ring and put my hand up and said, "Hey, put, put me in, Coach," before I could think about it too hard.
4:28 Speaker 04 Yeah, hell yeah.
4:29 Speaker 05 And, uh, just by some chance that they would consider me. And then we, this format came about and John came back to the show and, yeah, it was, it was a little terrifying because, you know, being a, being a correspondent, it's not an easy job by any means, but you're, you are, you're in character. You're, so I was very accustomed to being on the show as the, the character of the correspondent. And when you're hosting, you're basically yourself. So it was a, it was a whole other type of, um, type of work and like requires practice and giving it a shot. And so I didn't really know if I could do it, but the team here is so incredible. It's a well-oiled machine. Everyone had our backs and we all
5:14 Speaker 05 support one another. And we've got John, who could not be a more exceptional leader. And watching him every Monday is like a masterclass. So to get to try something new creatively and, and something so exciting and to get to look to him is, it's beyond a dream come true.
5:32 Speaker 04 I think comedians in general or comedy people are trained, or, or it's almost like a, like an instinct or a reflex to look for snafus.
5:42 Speaker 05 Yeah.
5:43 Speaker 04 We're always kinda trying to look under the surface at kinda what's going wrong. And especially at a place like The Daily Show, like you're looking for what's going wrong in order to generate satire. Um,
5:57 Speaker 05 Yeah.
5:57 Speaker 04 I actually found that, I loved it. And it was like very invigorating. I felt like I was part of a meaningful satirical voice at the show. But it kind of took a toll on me over a long period of time, focusing entirely on a little bit of the darker side of things. And I wonder if, if you've ever Felt that or felt a sense of exasperation.
6:21 Speaker 05 Yeah.
6:22 Speaker 04 It can sort of like eat you a little bit. That's what I found.
6:25 Speaker 05 Yeah, yeah. Well, Ed, I'm dead inside, so I feel nothing anymore. It is gone. I've lost all sense of humanity. Um, no, it is, it is taxing. It really is. And I think for, for me, I've kind of gone up and down on it. It's a bit of an emotional roller coaster, a mental roller coaster. Um, because you're right, there's no escaping it. You can't just bury your head in the sand and be like, well, I'm just gonna not pay attention to the news today. But I will say, I think some kind of action, even for us, even if it's just finding the comedy in it, even if it's just creative action, it feels good
7:07 Speaker 05 to do something and just talk about it, admit that it's happening in a room full of people who can kind of provide catharsis and support and we can talk it out with each other. And then also being forced to find the humor in it somewhere is my therapy. It is redeeming. It really, and especially this year.
7:29 Speaker 04 Yeah. So The Daily Show is, is your therapist, is, is what you're saying?
7:33 Speaker 05 It totally is. It totally is. They should be billing me. I'm sure I'll get an invoice in the mail. I pay them to do the show.
7:41 Speaker 04 Before we dive into today's snafu, what is a major snafu from your life?
7:48 Speaker 05 Oh, God, I have too many to choose from. I feel like I'm a snafu a day kind of person.
7:54 Speaker 04 Sure.
7:54 Speaker 05 We were just chatting right before we started here about old VHS tapes and it brought up this like humiliation, uh, the snafu that happened when I was a kid. I was obsessed with Madonna, like many young girls. I wanted to be Madonna. And I think I was maybe somewhere around eight. I probably wasn't allowed to watch MTV, but I was snaking it. And Madonna had this performance. It was her MTV Video Music Awards. I think it must have been a rerun because I was like trying to think of what the timeline was, but she performed like a virgin.
8:34 Speaker 04 Oh, yeah.
8:34 Speaker 05 On stage, you remember?
8:36 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah.
8:36 Speaker 05 And she humped, like humped the floor.
8:40 Speaker 04 Mm-hmm.
8:41 Speaker 05 Crawled around, gyrated on the floor. And I was just, I didn't know what any of it meant, but I was so mesmerized. And I, I, I knew that she was about to come on and I grabbed a VHS tape and put it in the recorder. By the way, your young listeners are going to be like, what's a VHS? What, what is she talking about? So I throw a VHS in, in the machine and I hit record just really quickly.
9:04 Speaker 04 Oh no.
9:05 Speaker 05 And months later, my relatives come over and they go, oh, we should watch Tracy's graduation video. Oh yeah, you never got to see that nanny. We should put that on. And it's Christmas time and the whole family gathers around. There's like 18 of us and we're down in the basement. We huddle around the TV and we, we grab my cousin Tracy's graduation video and put it in. And it's Madonna humping the floor. And I, everyone looks at me like, Desi?
9:38 Speaker 04 Oh my god.
9:39 Speaker 05 I felt so terrible.
9:41 Speaker 04 I'm imagining that like the, it's like right as the president of the school is announcing your cousin's name and they're, she's about, she's about to walk up on stage and then it's just like, cut to just the worst.
9:55 Speaker 05 Madonna, just all hip thrust.
9:59 Speaker 04 And, and the whole family's gathered around.
10:02 Speaker 05 It was so humiliating. I'm sure I got grounded for not only taping over my cousin's graduation, but, but also watching something that was highly inappropriate for me at that time.
10:12 Speaker 04 Today's snafu is also kind of tech related.
10:16 Speaker 05 Oh.
10:17 Speaker 04 I want to take you into a truly insane historical snafu. It's a story that gets very dark, very fast. And I mean that in every sense, literally, figuratively, sociopolitically, and possibly even spiritually. Are you ready?
10:32 Speaker 05 Yes.
10:37 Speaker 04 It's July 1977 in the Big Apple, baby. That's right. Disco, punk, and rent you could actually afford. But it wasn't all Studio 54 and Skyline Dreams. The city was a bit of a mess. Unemployment was at 12%. Subway fares had just doubled from 25 cents to a whopping 50 cents. What is it now?
10:57 Speaker 05 Oh.
10:57 Speaker 04 It's like $3.
10:59 Speaker 05 Yeah.
10:59 Speaker 04 And thanks to budget cuts, city services were pretty much in the toilet. Libraries, schools, sanitation, even the NYPD had all taken major hits. Oh, and just to spice things up, the son of Sam was still on the loose. You're aware of the...
11:17 Speaker 05 Oh, that old guy.
11:17 Speaker 04 Yeah, that guy. That old creep. The serial killer who claimed a demon was speaking to him through a barking dog. So, yeah, it was a hell of a time in New York City. Desi, this was New York at one of its most sort of chaotic and volatile moments. Uh, but let's be real, the city's always pretty intense. Do you thrive on that intensity? Do you kind of find your own calm in the chaos? Like, what kind of New Yorker are you?
11:45 Speaker 05 Yeah, I've, I've had to kind of thrive. I've had to adapt to it, that's for sure. But, you know, if you watch Fox News, they will tell you that it is this sort of 1977 version. All day, just a city of hell. It's just a walking nightmare. I don't know. I, yes, it's intense and it's chaotic, but, but I love it.
12:05 Speaker 04 Yes.
12:06 Speaker 05 You have to be out in the middle of it. You have to interact with other people, good or bad. I was walking down the street with my dog the other day, and I look over and there was just a guy selling My Little Ponies with a light bulb coming out the top, just 30 of them on the street. I thought, God, only in New York do you have this, this kind of quirkiness, just out, out, and, and he was making a killing. People were buying them.
12:32 Speaker 04 That's so funny because my only in New York story is like seeing people like defecating in the middle of Fifth Avenue.
12:39 Speaker 05 Yeah, well, there's that too. I'm sorry about that, by the way. I really had to go.
12:47 Speaker 04 No, but I agree with you. I agree. I think there's, there's like something super special about the intensity of New York and it kinda, I don't know, it makes me feel creative, inspired, and, and also just knowing the density of cultural history that has happened and transpired, like all of the incredible people that have lived and thrived in New York. It's just, I just, yeah, I love it. I really miss it.
13:14 Speaker 05 It's a magical place, even among all the defecation and masturbation on the subway. It's really, it's so special.
13:21 Speaker 04 It is, in spite of all that. Anyone who's ever been to New York City during the dead of summer knows that it is a particularly brutal time. But in 1977, it was next level brutal. The city was in the grip of a record heat wave with temperatures hitting 97 degrees for nine straight days. So, yeah, the concrete jungle was basically like a concrete oven. Now, I'm from Georgia, you're from Kentucky, we know a thing or two about heat, but there's something uniquely punishing about New York City summer, right? As much as we love New York, like, it gets hard.
13:57 Speaker 05 It's brutal, because it's humid. It gets humid, more so than you think, and, and the buildings really trap it all in. So you're just stuck in it, and you can't escape into your air-conditioned car very easily, because you don't really drive in New York, so...
14:11 Speaker 04 Can we talk about the smell? Can we talk a little bit about the smell? It's like, the trash is just baking. It's like the trash cans are these little ovens that bake everything, and then of course, anything, any street runoff is, is like just cooking on the hot asphalt and rising into the humidity.
14:31 Speaker 05 Cooking up a stew a city, yeah. It's been urine, there's, even here where we film at The Daily Show, in lovely Hell's Kitchen, we're in between a subway restaurant, which has the lovely aroma of baked bread, and on the other side are the horse stables. So it's just horse shit and a little bit of baked bread, and then garbage and urine smell from the dog. Park across the street. Summer over here gets real, real interesting real quick.
15:00 Speaker 04 It's funny how consistent that smell is. Like every summer, it's just the, like you know, like that's hot city smell. And it's not good, but weirdly, I'm just gonna say it, it's kind of nostalgic now. It's like,
15:13 Speaker 05 It's comforting.
15:14 Speaker 04 It's like fresh cut grass. Like it sort of brings back memories.
15:17 Speaker 05 Maybe we should start an aroma company. Like we should make a candle that has that New York summer smell and we could, we could go out with. Do you think it would sell?
15:27 Speaker 04 City summer funk. The funk of-
15:30 Speaker 05 City summer funk.
15:30 Speaker 04 The funk of the city summer.
15:33 Speaker 05 City summer funk.
15:34 Speaker 04 I think it would sell, I'm not gonna say like hotcakes.
15:39 Speaker 05 I'm just throwing it out there.
15:40 Speaker 04 I'll take it. Uh, picture yourself in the middle of this heat wave throughout the five boroughs. It's the summer of 77. And remember, in the seventies, people wore a lot of polyester, which is not exactly breathable or moisture wicking. So at this point, you might be saying, wow, this is like pretty bleak already. And you'd be right, but we're just setting the stage here. We haven't even gotten to the snafu yet.
16:04 Speaker 05 I'm sweating a little bit. Can you tell? Can you see? I'm sweating.
16:08 Speaker 04 Drink some water. Stay hydrated. Cause here we go.
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18:43 Speaker 04 Now, it's July 13, 1977. To quote The Love and Spoonful, "It's hot time summer in the city." And as the sun goes down, the sky starts to churn. Thick ominous clouds rolling in like they've got unfinished business. Storms a-brewin', and not just any storm, a monster electrical storm. At 8:37 PM, a massive bolt of lightning strikes the Buchanan South Substation in Westchester County, tripping two critical circuit breakers. This lightning strike, combined with a loose locking nut and, of course, some delayed maintenance, prevented the breakers from resetting, cutting off A major power source.
19:24 Speaker 04 Minutes later, at 8:55 PM, another lightning bolt strikes the Sprain Brook substation in Yonkers, knocking out two more vital transmission lines. The system already strained begins to falter. Operators at Con Edison, the city's power provider, attempt to bring additional generators online, but some were actually unmanned, like there was nobody there. And the others just failed to start remotely. So by 9:24 PM, the situation had deteriorated rapidly. The remaining power lines were overloaded, and the city's largest generator, Ravenswood Unit Number Three, nicknamed Big Alice, shut down to protect itself from damage.
20:08 Speaker 04 Minutes later, 9:36 PM, the entire Con Edison system collapsed, plunging New York City into darkness. And thus began what would become known as the 77 Night of Terror.
20:27 Speaker 05 What a perfect storm of a snafu, just a series of mishaps, one right after the next.
20:33 Speaker 04 There's always in these snafus, there's always a lot of human error. I mean, these, these, obviously, like, the lightning is insane. This was like a really exceptional electrical storm, but, but like, there's always like somebody messing up, not enough maintenance was done, there was a loose nut somewhere. Did you, as a kid, did you, like, in the South, we're familiar with big lightning storms.
20:56 Speaker 05 Oh, yeah.
20:57 Speaker 04 Did you like a lightning storm?
20:58 Speaker 05 Oh, it was kind of fun. I mean, I never liked having to come in from being outside playing, because back in those days, we played outside. Kids played outside.
21:08 Speaker 04 I don't even know what you're talking about.
21:10 Speaker 05 Yes, the younger, the younger generation doesn't get it.
21:13 Speaker 04 We played outside through rainstorms, like, even through, like, electrical storms. We didn't even, we didn't care. Our parents didn't care.
21:21 Speaker 05 In the South, a thunderstorm would last sometimes like three and a half minutes and then it would clear up, you know?
21:27 Speaker 04 Yeah.
21:27 Speaker 05 And we also had tornadoes. Did you have tornadoes?
21:30 Speaker 04 We had very rare tornadoes. Did you, uh, did you like when the power went out?
21:34 Speaker 05 I remember, I was in, I was actually in New York during Sandy, which was, that was probably the closest to like the 77 blackout, but similar. I mean, yeah, that, and that was kind of, that was terrifying. That was such an eerie feeling to look outside and
21:52 Speaker 04 For sure.
21:53 Speaker 05 See darkness all the way down Bowery. It was crazy.
22:01 Speaker 04 Things were getting real spooky. Traffic lights stopped working all over the city. Subway trains stopped moving. Streets and stores were pitch black all over town. At Shea Stadium, the Mets were losing 2 to 1 against the Cubs when the lights went out in the bottom of the sixth inning. Mets' third baseman, Lenny Randall, was up to bat and later said, "I thought to myself, this is my last at bat. God is coming for me." Can you imagine? Like, those lights are so bright, right? In those, in those ballpark stadiums and they're just, yeah, like blackout. That would be, that must be jarring.
22:35 Speaker 05 Terrifying.
22:36 Speaker 04 Yeah. There was a pretty big problem right away responding to the power outage. Many of the emergency personnel, first responders, police officers and firefighters lived outside of the city in New Jersey. And because of the blackout, they were unable to get into the city. So, things are about to go seriously off the rails here, but for the record, I was in NYC for the blackout of 2003. No, that's not true. I was not actually in the city. I was on a Daily Show field shoot in 2003. I was in Birmingham, Alabama on a field shoot and I was getting word that like all my friends were in this blackout in New York City. It was funny because all I heard were these great stories of like, "Oh, I met the love
23:18 Speaker 04 of my life," or "I had this incredible one night stand." Like, I went, I went out and had like dirt, you know, some potato chips on my stoop and met these traveling musicians and we, we traipsed around the city. Serenading, like, that sounded like such a wonderful blackout.
23:35 Speaker 05 Yeah.
23:36 Speaker 04 This, this is about to go so, so dark. Do you think New York City is a good place or a bad place for a disaster?
23:44 Speaker 05 It's all the things.
23:45 Speaker 04 Yeah.
23:45 Speaker 05 I think it really, yeah, I think there's capacity for all of it. Cause there's just so many different people in New York City and so many, but, but like the state of the world certainly plays into that.
23:57 Speaker 04 Definitely. That's huge. And that's gonna, you're exactly right. The state of the world is a major factor. So, this blackout happens and at first, the city holds its breath in the darkness, but around 10:00 PM, just a half an hour after the lights went out, New Yorkers began to emerge and it didn't take long for things to go from a sort of mild curiosity to completely spiraling out of control. Looting erupted across the city in neighborhoods already strained by unemployment and economic hardship, to your point. The blackout was a catalyst for unrest. Over the next 25 hours, more than 1,600 stores were damaged or destroyed.
24:38 Speaker 04 Arsonists set over a thousand fires overwhelming the city's fire departments. Mostly, it was a very dark time, no pun intended, but there are a few anecdotes that, that I dug up that revealed some dark irony. Here's one I found in Time Magazine. A teenage girl on the Upper West Side lamented that some boys offered to help carry her looted clothing and radios, but then ended up running off with them. So she was quoted saying, "That's just not right. They shouldn't have done that." I love that.
25:10 Speaker 05 Never trust a boy on the Upper West Side.
25:13 Speaker 04 With your looted belongings.
25:15 Speaker 05 No, no, no, no.
25:16 Speaker 04 Like, the looter got looted. There's some weird justice in that, I guess. Does it freak you out how quickly, like, we just, as a society, we can just unravel in something like a blackout?
25:28 Speaker 05 It is like, it's just, just the second some people have that opening, it's like, "Ah, now's my time. Now's my time." Yeah.
25:36 Speaker 04 Yeah, it goes from like.
25:38 Speaker 05 Especially when.
25:38 Speaker 04 Yeah, you're like lighting candles one minute and then it's just like full on purge vibes.
25:43 Speaker 05 Yeah, I think if you're on the verge enough, if your needs aren't being met for whatever reason, like, you know, if I was in a particular headspace, I might see an opening, you know what, I'm gonna, let's put these candles down, let's go rob a bank.
25:57 Speaker 04 Yeah, it's like I have had trouble making ends meet and getting enough groceries for my family for months now, I'm going to the grocery store to just get as much as I can, like.
26:07 Speaker 05 Now's my chance. Everyone else is doing it.
26:09 Speaker 04 Sure. Well, so, we were talking about other blackouts. Just 12 years before this blackout in 1965, there was another one that was much bigger, affected 25 million people compared to the one in 77 that only affected nine mil- only affected nine million.
26:27 Speaker 05 Only.
26:28 Speaker 04 But during that 65 blackout, city was totally calm. And historians think this is because NYC was simply more stable economically and socially in 1965. People treated that blackout like, like it was just a weird snow day. But in 1977, the city was in full-blown crisis already, high unemployment, crime, budget cuts, all of that. And of course, Son of Sam just walking around.
26:54 Speaker 05 Son of Sam.
26:55 Speaker 04 It's like, you don't know, Son of Sam could be like, in a blackout, he could be right behind you.
26:59 Speaker 05 Yeah, totally.
27:01 Speaker 04 Right?
27:01 Speaker 05 Totally. That guy was everywhere. Fear is a powerful motivator. It really is. It can cause you to do some crazy things. Not that we would know anything about that today.
27:12 Speaker 04 In any context.
27:13 Speaker 05 Politically.
27:15 Speaker 04 Yeah, I feel like you were about to just sort of like unravel the tapestry of modern politics.
27:21 Speaker 05 I'm like, are we in a metaphorical blackout now?
27:24 Speaker 04 Yeah, interesting.
27:26 Speaker 05 Can we not see what's right in front of us? Or is that, is that what's happening to us right now in this moment?
27:31 Speaker 04 Do we feel like a metaphorical Son of Sam is stalking all of us right now? How do you think New Yorkers today would handle a blackout?
27:42 Speaker 05 I was here during the pandemic, the entire time. It was such a scary time and such an awful time. And I vividly remember we opened up our windows every night at 7:00 PM and people stuck their pots and pans and banged on them to cheer on our healthcare workers. And to have that moment, just once a day to hear New Yorkers come together and show some gratitude and appreciation for the real heroes doing the hard work. I mean, I like to think that New Yorkers, you know, would do the right thing and come together.
28:24 Speaker 04 Yeah.
28:25 Speaker 05 But then they're the masturbators on the subway. So I don't know, it could go either way.
28:30 Speaker 04 Yeah, but you're speaking to sort of the resilient spirit of the city, which I also kind of appreciate and I think is always under there somewhere.
28:40 Speaker 05 Yeah.
28:41 Speaker 04 And it's kind of worth rooting for that always. Anyway, 25 hours later, when the lights finally flickered back on, the damage was staggering. Around 4,500 arrests had been made and the estimated cost of the blackout was $350 million, which is nearly $2 billion today.
29:01 Speaker 05 Oh my God, think of all the subway rides you could get with that.
29:05 Speaker 04 I know.
29:10 Speaker 04 The lights may have only gone out for 25 hours, but the blackout had a big effect on New York. That night brought national attention to some of the systemic issues plaguing NYC, economic and otherwise. Many citizens felt abandoned by their institutions with an absent and rundown police force. But the blackout also reinforced the wider narrative that New York was a declining city. It took businesses a while to recover and voters were ready for change. So in November of 1977, New York voters elected Ed Koch as their new mayor. I think we have a photo of old Ed Koch.
29:52 Speaker 05 There he is.
29:53 Speaker 04 He looks, I don't know where that, when that photo was taken, like in his tenure as, as mayor, or even as a candidate, but man, he looks just, he looks worn out.
30:03 Speaker 05 This is not going well. It's not going well.
30:06 Speaker 04 Is there any harder job than mayor of New York City?
30:08 Speaker 05 It's gotta be the hardest job and the, the most, I feel like the only job that is less appreciated is the job of being a mother. It's just, no one, no one ever likes the mayor. No one, no one, everyone complains about the mayor. The mayor's never doing, it's just a thankless job.
30:28 Speaker 04 But I would even say that just to compare the, the epic heroism of motherhood to any job is, is, is doing a disservice to mothers everywhere, especially, especially to compare to Ed Koch.
30:46 Speaker 05 Just thankless, thankless.
30:48 Speaker 04 Koch had already served in Congress for five terms and many people said he made them feel optimistic while the city was still reeling, lifting New York out of that 70's slump. Others say he balanced the city's budget, but mostly at the expense of low-income communities. He began a more comprehensive public housing system, put over a billion dollars towards parks projects, and took Times Square from sleazy Central Plaza to a tourist mecca that is still bustling today.
31:17 Speaker 05 To a sleazy tourist mecca.
31:19 Speaker 04 Yeah, exactly. I don't think Koch totally unsleaze'd it.
31:22 Speaker 05 No, still some sleaze on that old Times Square. If I can never go to Times Square again, I am, I am a happy woman. I will go anywhere else in New York. I have no interest in Times. Just the, just the bodies, just all the, especially in the summertime, just the hot, hot bodies, no.
31:39 Speaker 04 Also, the people walking around Times Square, they don't know how to do New York. They don't know how to walk fast and get out of the way. They don't know how to jaywalk properly. It's like, oh, it's maddening.
31:51 Speaker 05 They're stopping and going, and then you have all the bright lights. Now it's all the screens, so people get distracted. It's too stimulating. It's too much.
32:01 Speaker 04 The vultures descended on Con Ed in the aftermath of this blackout, looking for someone to blame for the night's chaos. In 1978, the lawsuit Koch versus Con Edison was filed. Though the case would drag out until 1982, a court eventually ruled that Con Ed's gross negligence was responsible for the big blackout. The Federal Power Commission also accused the company of not employing emergency measures efficiently after the lightning strike. Con Ed's president bit back, saying that the events were, quote, "so extraordinary that they went beyond the design and capability of the system, and that really nothing could have been done." But I'll leave that up to you to decide.
32:43 Speaker 04 Fun fact, Ed Koch also made a cameo in Muppets Take Manhattan.
32:48 Speaker 05 I loved that movie.
32:50 Speaker 04 Right? That was one of the good... That's the one where Kermit the Frog was riding a bicycle in Central Park, and you could see his frog legs pedaling the bicycle. And I'm still like...
33:00 Speaker 05 How'd they do that?
33:02 Speaker 04 In this age of like crazy cinematic, you know, like crazy animation, like how the hell did they do that?
33:10 Speaker 05 Oh, my God. Oh, that was such a good movie. I think that was my intro to New York City. Joan Rivers was in that movie. Oh, what a great movie.
33:19 Speaker 04 Amen.
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35:21 Speaker 09 Halloween's almost here, and I've got plans. My first stop is Total Wine & More for cold beer, ready-to-drink cocktails, and a bottle of wine to share, and I know I'm getting the lowest prices. Get the fun started at Total Wine & More. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly, be 21.
35:37 Speaker 04 If you became mayor of New York City, Desi Lydic, what would you do? What's the first thing you would change?
35:42 Speaker 05 I think I would make everyone who comes into New York City learn how to walk on the street. That's what I would do, a masterclass in walking.
35:49 Speaker 04 It's sort of like there's a citizenship test, but for New York City, there's like a tourist test, like you have to pass all these like rules of etiquette, of New York City etiquette, which is so different from like the rest of the world.
36:02 Speaker 05 That's right. You got to keep your pace. You have to have a healthy, healthy sense of boundaries between you and other people. If you're going to stop and look at your phone, you peel off, peel off to the side, off to the shoulder of the sidewalk.
36:15 Speaker 04 If you breach New York City like pedestrian etiquette, you will get screamed at, and you better, you better just roll with it, because that's how it, that's how it works.
36:26 Speaker 05 Ridiculed, and you take it. You take it, and you get roasted to your face. And if you can't handle it, go to Jersey.
36:32 Speaker 04 Go to the Jerse.
36:34 Speaker 05 Go to Jersey. That's your punishment.
36:36 Speaker 04 If you get yelled at in New York City, you are legally required to forget about it.
36:42 Speaker 05 Forget about it.
36:43 Speaker 04 Right? Sorry.
36:47 Speaker 05 I think we could, see, we could fix New York.
36:49 Speaker 04 I think we could.
36:49 Speaker 05 We got this. We could have handled this blackout.
36:53 Speaker 04 We'd be a good team in that mayor's office, for sure.
36:56 Speaker 05 Totally, totally.
36:57 Speaker 04 Desi Lydic, that is, that is the blackout of 77, the Night of Terror. Any, like, macro takeaways here, reflections, ideas, thoughts?
37:11 Speaker 05 I think it's possible that we are having our own blackout moment right now, metaphorically. Not literally, but we're just not seeing anything right in front of us. That's what, that's, but that's been my big aha moment, like, oh, this is happening right now. Where we, what are facts? What's even, we're blind to what's actually happening out in the world. What is, what is reality right now? It's, I took an edible before I started here, Ed, so I'm, no.
37:42 Speaker 04 No, but I actually think that's really keen and savvy. This particular blackout happened at a time of unusual desperation among New Yorkers. And that led to some pretty terrible outcomes during the blackout. And I, and I, I think it's, it's a really clean metaphor for this moment of like, information overload and conspiracy theories, which are effectively a kind of blackout, because they're blurring what's maybe like a real take, a take on reality, like, what's, what's really happening.
38:20 Speaker 05 You have fear as a huge motivator.
38:22 Speaker 04 Exactly.
38:23 Speaker 05 Kind of clouding your vision, uh, yeah. And when people's needs aren't being met, that's when, that's when people act out of desperation and, and bad things happen. And when you don't feel like you can trust your leaders to take care of you, or your government, or the economy is failing, you can't put food on the table. Yeah, it's, uh, it's, it can be a scary time. Well, hopefully, we aren't on the brink of that right now, but, uh...
38:51 Speaker 04 Oh, we are.
38:52 Speaker 05 I don't know, we'll see.
38:53 Speaker 04 Oh, we're really, we're...
38:54 Speaker 05 Maybe something...
38:55 Speaker 04 It's like, it's literally like any minute now.
38:57 Speaker 05 Yeah, any minute, any minute.
38:59 Speaker 04 It's just like full Lord of the Flies.
39:01 Speaker 05 I don't disagree.
39:02 Speaker 04 I do think that there's, just to kind of spin it back around on a positive note, the, you know, the city did emerge from this blackout. And as difficult of a chapter as it was, it is also a testament to the resilience of the city. And I kind of feel like, to your point about the broader metaphor, this moment that we're in nationally, I hope is something that can, as we, as we sort of like push through the darkness and the sort of siloed information bubbles that we're all in, that, that there
39:44 Speaker 04 is a kind of new cohesion that rises out of it, a new sense of community, like national community and, and national sort of, how much we're just interwoven and interdependent on one another, that that becomes, that that becomes like a point of pride, instead of like something to sort of shame and ridicule. I believe in New York City. I'm just, I'm such a believer in the spirit of that city. And I'm a believer in our country. I'm still like this weird, I'm just like this dorky patriot. I just love, love our country and I think we can, I think we can bring it around.
40:19 Speaker 05 I do too. I do too. I'm hopeful. I'm right there with you.
40:22 Speaker 04 Amen.
40:23 Speaker 05 And I think it starts with our campaign.
40:25 Speaker 04 For mayor of New York City.
40:27 Speaker 05 For mayor. For co-mayors of New York City.
40:29 Speaker 04 We're turning it around, Desi. You and me, baby.
40:32 Speaker 05 You and me.
40:33 Speaker 04 Here we go. Forget about it.
40:35 Speaker 05 Forget about it.
40:36 Speaker 04 That's our campaign slogan. Forget about it.
40:38 Speaker 05 Forget about it.
40:39 Speaker 04 You got troubles? Forget about it.
40:41 Speaker 05 Forget about it.
40:42 Speaker 04 Desi and Eddie are here. All right, Desi.
40:44 Speaker 05 Amen.
40:45 Speaker 04 Thank you so, so much. This was an absolute blast.
40:47 Speaker 05 Thank you.
40:48 Speaker 04 Keep crushing it.
40:49 Speaker 05 So much fun.
40:50 Speaker 04 Snafu is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Snafu Media,
40:50 Speaker 04 You're doing great.
40:54 Speaker 04 a partnership between Film Nation Entertainment and Pacific Electric Picture Company. Our post-production studio is Gilded Audio. Our executive producers are me, Ed Helms, Mike Falbo, Glenn Basner, Andy Kim, Whitney Donaldson, and Dylan Fagan. This episode was produced by Alyssa Martino and Tori Smith. Our video editor is Jared Smith. Technical direction and engineering from Nick Dooley. Our creative executive is Brett Harris. Logo and branding by The Collected Works. Legal review from Dan Welsh, Megan Halson, and Caroline Johnson. Special thanks to Isaac Dunham, Adam Horn, Lane Klein, and everyone at iHeart Podcasts, but especially Will Pearson, Carrie Lieberman,
41:36 Speaker 04 Nikki Etor, Nathan Otoski, and Alex Corral. While I have you, don't forget to pick up a copy of my book, Snafu: The Definitive Guide to History's Greatest Screwups. It's available now from any book retailer. Just go to snafu-book.com. Thanks for listening and see you next week.
42:07 Speaker 01 Pumpkin carving sounds fun, until you're elbow-deep in pumpkin guts. There's an easier pumpkin tradition: Reese's Pumpkins. No seeds, no giant kitchen knife, no pressure to create a masterpiece that's just gonna shrivel up on the front porch three days later. And if something goes wrong, just eat it. Every mistake is still pretty delicious. So this Halloween, skip the mess of pumpkin carving and stock up on Reese's Pumpkins.
42:36 Speaker 09 Halloween's almost here, and I've got plans. My first stop is Total Wine & More for cold beer, ready-to-drink cocktails, and a bottle of wine to share. And I know I'm getting the lowest prices. Get the fun started at Total Wine & More. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly. Be 21. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.
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