Dan Pashman:  Hey everyone, Dan here with a very special Sporkful Reheat for you. This is the debut episode of a spinoff podcast we did a few years back called Ask Mimi. Ask Mimi was an advice show starring legendary food critic, Mimi Sheraton. She was the first woman ever named New York Times restaurant critic. She was known for not being shy about her opinions.

Dan Pashman: Also, as you'll hear, her comedic timing is unparalleled. We made eight episodes of Ask Mimi that culminated with us celebrating Mimi's 92nd birthday live on stage. Now, I should mention that Mimi died in April 2023 at the age of 97. I am so glad I got to work with her when I did. And I'll tell you one of my memories.

Dan Pashman: So we did the first live taping of Ask Mimi. My producer on that project, Margaret Kelly and I, we would go to Mimi's house for coffee and we would plan the show. So after the first episode, look, Mimi came up on stage. She had this crowd eating out of the palm of her hand. They were laughing when she was giving advice. They were silent. They were just total reverence. And adoration for Mimi. And after that first show, we show up for coffee, Mimi's house to plan the next show. And Mimi's first question, she turns to the two of us and says, how can we make it better?  And that was such a great lesson. Here's someone she's already accomplished everything there is to accomplish.

Dan Pashman: She crushed it. She crushed it on stage and yet she wanted to know how she could do better and how the show could be better. And that's a great lesson about, well, any kind of work you're doing, and that's how you end up being successful for as long as Mimi was. So I'm very excited for you to hear this one.

Dan Pashman: Now, if there's an episode of The Sporkful you want us to pull out of the deep freezer and reheat, you gotta let me know. Don't be shy. Send me an email or voice memo to hello@sporkful.com. Tell me your name, location, which episode you want us to reheat and why. Thanks so much and enjoy this episode of Ask Mimi. 

Mimi Sheraton: Great to be here and wonderful to see such a terrific crowd at a place I never heard of before.

Dan Pashman: From Stitcher and The Sporkful, this is Ask Mimi. I'm Dan Pashman, and we're coming to you from Union Hall in Brooklyn, New York.

Dan Pashman: Thank you so much everyone for coming out. Welcome to our new podcast. It's very exciting. In this show, Mimi Sheraton offers advice on food and life to live callers from around the country, audience members and celebrity guests. Coming up in a bit, humorist Mo Rocca will be here to ask Mimi for advice.

Dan Pashman: And you know, to do a great advice show, there's one thing you need more than anything else, and that's the right person to give the advice. Mimi Sheraton has been a food critic and writer for more than 60 years. Today, she's a columnist for the Daily Beast, and she's written more than a dozen books. I host a food podcast called The Sporkful, and I was asked to interview Mimi a few years back, upon the release of her book, One Thousand Foods to Eat Before You Die, which features everything from caviar to frozen Milky Ways.

Dan Pashman: So I was gonna go interview Mimi, and I was asking people, you know, What can you tell me about Mimi? How should I prepare? And people said, You're interviewing Mimi?! Watch out. Mimi is so tough, and she is so thorough. You gotta prep, Dan. You better be prepared for this interview. Because Mimi, she's the kind of person, like, when she did a story about which deli in New York gives you the best value for your money, she had 102 pastrami sandwiches in her car.

Dan Pashman: That's Mimi. She's the kind of person who, like, when a chef didn't like one of her restaurant reviews, He accosted her, and she did not back down. Alright? Mimi was the first woman ever named New York Times restaurant critic back in 1975. 

[CHEERING]

Dan Pashman: Yeah. And I was just getting nervous. People were like, Don't cross Mimi. Mimi is a silverback gorilla. She will kill you where you stand. And I interviewed Mimi, and I found that everything I just told you was true. But, I also found that she is incredibly witty, and kind, and warm, and wonderful, and we totally hit it off. A couple years later I had her on The Sporkful and we took questions from the audience.

Dan Pashman: It was live on stage again and I said, Mimi, on stage, the crowd, the advice, this is its own show. And that is the story of how we are here tonight. So, are you guys ready? 

[CHEERING]

Dan Pashman: Let's bring on the star of the show. She once tweeted, forthcoming New York Times Magazine piece on simple way to prepare kale. Mine is simpler. I call it Farm to Garbage Pail.

Dan Pashman: You must need advice about something, so it's time to ask Mimi. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the one and only Mimi Sheraton! 

[CHEERING]

Mimi Sheraton: Thank you all, thank you for coming. It's just wonderful with such a reception, and I hope you enjoy the evening.

Dan Pashman: Hey, Mimi. 

Mimi Sheraton: Hi. 

Dan Pashman: So, one of the cool things about this show is we're actually taking live calls from all over the country. A safer show would just tape these people, Mimi.

Mimi Sheraton: Not as, not as interesting, not as funny. I think it's sort of dead.

This is better. And it's wonderful having an audience. 

Dan Pashman: Yeah. 

Mimi Sheraton: Because you feel much better talking to the real people.

Dan Pashman: I love that you're giving a review of our show while we're doing it. We like it. Alright, let's go to the phones. Paul in Alexandria, Virginia. You're on with Mimi Sheraton.

Mimi Sheraton: Hi, Paul. 

Paul: Hi, Dan. Hi, Mimi.

Mimi Sheraton: Go ahead. 

Paul: Okay, so I have a question regarding food truck etiquette, I guess. So I had just started a new job out here with two other co-workers who were also new. And for lunch, we would frequently go out together to get our meals to eat together. So, our first adventure was out to the food trucks that were parked outside.

Paul: Two of us went to one food truck, had kind of like an average wait time before we got our food. The other person went to another food truck, and it took a really long time. We ended up standing there waiting with him to get his food, but by the time he got his food, my meal was cold, the ice cream that came with my meal was melted.

Dan Pashman: Oh God, yeah.

Paul: At what point is it safe to abandon the people you're with and just go eat your meal?

Dan Pashman: Alright, well, so it sounds like we have an etiquette question here, Mimi. What do you want to ask Paul? 

Mimi Sheraton: I think Emily Post never dealt with this, but we obviously need a new etiquette for street eating. Was he aware of how long it would be at the truck he chose?

Paul: No, all of the lines were basically, they were long. You know, I've always grown up that you wait for everyone to have their food before you start eating it.

Mimi Sheraton: That's at a table though, I mean. Or in a restaurant where I think everything will be put down in good order, even if one takes a little longer. But I would say this is so informal that you should just go ahead and eat. But what is surprising me is that he had no indication that his truck would take much longer than yours. Because if he had ascertained that, it would be incumbent upon him to either change his choice of truck or to take his chances.

Paul: Yeah, yeah, and eventually about 30 minutes into it, he did say, Oh, this is kind of taking forever, why don't you guys go eat?

Dan Pashman: I mean, is this guy, like, clueless? I mean, did he say anything to you? Did he at any point say, Paul, like, you know, you guys go ahead, you just eat your food, like, this is insane? Wasn't he also disturbed about the state of his food? Like, what? There's a lot of problems here.

Paul: Yeah, yeah, a lot of problems there, I agree.

Dan Pashman: Alright, so Mimi, it sounds like you're saying next time Paul should just eat.

Mimi Sheraton: Oh, I think absolutely. I mean, even at a table, let's say a dinner at a home, if someone puts three or four plates down and it's very, very hot, I really think the other people should say, go ahead and eat while it's warm.

Dan Pashman: Well, Paul in Alexandria, Virginia, thank you for your call. 

Paul: Alright, thank you, Dan. Thank you, Mimi. Alright, next call, Stephanie in Oakland, California. Hey, Stephanie.

Stephanie: Hey, how's it going?

Dan Pashman: It's going well. What's your question for Mimi?

Stephanie: Hi, Mimi. Okay, so, I am a super amateur home cook, and I am looking for ways to add acid to my dishes. But my challenge is that I actually really can't stand vinegar. There's something about it, I just hate it. Like, I've hated pickles since I was a kid, and I'm the kind of person that will, like, go to brunch, get a really good Bloody Mary, cause I love them, and I take the entire garnish and I put it on the side. Or I'll, like, go to a barbecue place and put all the coleslaw, like, off this beautiful sandwich.

Mimi Sheraton: Stephanie, as a home cook, have you tried alternate acids?  In your home cooking, have you tried citrus juice?

Stephanie: Well, that's my question. Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: So, what was your suggestion? 

Mimi Sheraton:  Were you happy with lemon juice or orange juice or lime? 

Stephanie: I do. I love citrus. I use lemon in just about everything, and I like vinaigrettes a lot.

Mimi Sheraton:  Have you tried what are known as sweet vinegars? Sherry vinegar? Apple cider vinegar and balsamic vinegar. Those are sweet. 

Stephanie: Yeah, those are good alternatives. 

Mimi Sheraton: Are you using white distilled vinegar? 

Stephanie: Um, not that, so what would you put that in? 

Mimi Sheraton: Nothing. 

[LAUGHTER]

Mimi Sheraton: That's much too caustic. You can clean your chopping board with white distilled vinegar, but there are very good white and red wine vinegars from Italy and France. Plus those I mentioned, the sherry, the apple cider, and the balsamic. And if you're happy with citrus, I can't imagine that you have a problem if you go out to a restaurant and there's coleslaw made with vinegar you don't like. You just can't eat the coleslaw. There's not much you can do about that.

Stephanie: I was just hoping there was some magic trick to liking the coleslaw on a barbecue sandwich?

Dan Pashman: Well, there is a trick, but it's not magic. I mean, I can say, as someone who has learned to like acidic flavors relatively late in life, it's just a matter of doing what you're doing. Start off with baby steps, just very small amounts, and when you enjoy very small amounts, then you could also try a balsamic reduction.

Dan Pashman: Take balsamic vinegar, add a little honey, and cook it until it reduces down and let it cool so it's thick, and it's almost like a syrup. And it's mostly sweet and only a tiny bit vinegary, and you put that over some, like, sweet potatoes or something, and it's fantastic.

Mimi Sheraton: Sounds very sweet. 

Stephanie: That's great. I'll have to try that.

Dan Pashman: It is sweet, but she doesn't like vinegar, Mimi. I'm trying to help.

[LAUGHTER]

Dan Pashman: All right, thank you, Stephanie.

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: Next up, we have Charlotte in Westport, Connecticut. Hi, Charlotte.

Charlotte: Hi, Dan. Hi, Mimi.

Dan Pashman: What's your question for Mimi?

Charlotte: Yeah, for some reason, I attract these men who really don't like food. Some of them have total disinterest in food. Some of them have, like, really specific foods they don't like. One of them refused to eat, like, any noodles or pasta.

Charlotte: Uh, like one wouldn't eat any fruit. On the other hand, I love food. I love trying new foods, trying new restaurants, experimenting with new foods. So I would want to, you know, share my love for food with these people who I was spending my time with. And so I try to get them to be less picky and more adventurous.

Charlotte: And then I kind of realized that I was trying to like change them to be these people that I wanted to, you know, spend time with and share this thing with. And that's not always, like, a good thing to, to change someone. I feel like it's not good to not just take someone for who they are. And so, the question is that I need advice on, do I just, you know, not date people who don't love food as much as I do? Because that feels like very snobbish, but then at the same time, maybe it's better than asking someone, or trying to get someone to change into someone who wants to, you know,  share all the food things with me. 

Mimi Sheraton: Well, if it happens frequently, and you find that out later, I'm wondering what other characteristics they have that attract you that might also indicate they don't like food. For example, do you meet them in a gymnasium?

[LAUGHTER]

Charlotte: Yeah, that sounds awful. 

Mimi Sheraton: You know, are they jocks? Are they very thin? I mean, there must be, you can't know how they feel about food until you know them, but you are attracted to so many who have that problem, or it's your problem, that there must be another telltale. I don't know if people who don't like food exude different pheromones than people who do, but that might be it. What, what do you look for in a man?

Charlotte: I feel like I look for people who are nice and, and funny and good to talk to. I'll pretty quickly figure out if they don't like food.

Mimi Sheraton: Well, let me ask you this. Pry into a more private corner of your life. Since the love of food is, uh, indicates a certain sensual appreciation, does their lack of food appetite indicate a lack of sex appetite?

[LAUGHTER]

Charlotte: Uh, not directly, I don't think.

Dan Pashman: Ooh, it's getting hot in here, Mimi.

Mimi Sheraton: Charlotte, are you there? 

Charlotte: Oh yeah, no. Yeah, sorry, I said not directly, I don't think.

Dan Pashman: Okay. And where are you meeting these guys, Charlotte? Are you meeting them online? Is it Tinder or something? Or are you meeting them in person?

Charlotte: You know, a mix of both. Some I met while I was at school. Some are from, you know, Bumble. Not Tinder. Tinder's not so great.

Mimi Sheraton: Have you ever met a man who loves food? 

Charlotte: Um, yeah.

Mimi Sheraton: What else was wrong with him?

Charlotte: He was kind of annoying.

[LAUGHTER]

Dan Pashman: Mimi, let me ask you. Do you think it's possible for a food lover, someone really passionate about eating, to have a good long term relationship with someone who's a picky eater?

Mimi Sheraton: I suppose it's possible because I know some people who do, but I cannot imagine living that way. I did a column for the Daily Beast not long ago on questions that are asked of people who are going to marry each other to judge compatibility. Not one of them asked, do you eat well together? And that was the point of my column, that if you are interested in food, if you're not interested in food, of course it doesn't matter, but if you are, and you are constantly, a couple of times a day, uh, faced with someone who's eating lettuce while you're eating prime rib, it's a very funny feeling. 

Mimi Sheraton: So, I mean, there are people who like one thing and not another. I mean, my late husband and we ate very well together. There were a few things he loved that I hated. He ordered them and I did not. That's a different thing. But the interest in eating and the interest in food and the feeling of adventure and experimentation was on both sides. 

Mimi Sheraton: Now, obviously with my occupation, that magnified the necessity to be with someone who was interested in food. But that's kind of what drew us together in the very beginning. In fact, when he and I were dating, we were at a former very popular Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village, and my husband was Italian American, and he ordered this huge meal, an appetizer, a pasta, uh, meat, and salad, and I ate everything, and he said, You're all right. You want to get married?

[LAUGHTER]

Mimi Sheraton: So, you know, there's a casting couch and there's a casting table.

Dan Pashman: So Mimi, what advice do you have for Charlotte? What do you think she can do to find a better-eating boyfriend?

Mimi Sheraton: Now if you really want to be sure, the first question you ask a man, almost before you say hello, is, what do you like to eat? And see what happens to you when you say that. I can think of no other way to be sure so soon and not waste a lot of time.

Dan Pashman: And the only thing I would add, Charlotte, is maybe try taking a cooking class. Maybe you meet a guy in a cooking class or something. Like, go hang out in places where people who are passionate about food are liable to be hanging out and you may get a self selecting sample.

Mimi Sheraton: You go to a supermarket and see what's in a man's basket.

Dan Pashman: Oh, that is good. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. If he's got 16 boxes of mac and cheese, you gotta move on. Well, Charlotte in Westport, Connecticut, good luck on the dating scene. Thanks for calling.

Charlotte: Thank you.

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: Coming up after the break, Ask Mimi continues. Mimi will give advice to live audience members. Plus, humorist Mo Rocca stops by to seek out Mimi's guidance.

Mo Rocca: There is a guy down the hall who's super friendly, but I think he's a total pothead. And nothing, there's something wrong with that.

Mimi Sheraton: Right.

Mo Rocca: Yeah.

Mimi Sheraton: We all know that.

Mo Rocca: Right.

Dan Pashman: That's all coming up. Stick around. 

+++ BREAK +++

Dan Pashman:  Welcome back to another Sporkful Reheat. I'm Dan Pashman.

Dan Pashman: Hey, if you want to hear what I'm eating and reading every week, you should sign up for The Sporkful newsletter. I'll give you my weekly recommendations, and so do our producers and the whole rest of our team. We also share announcements about exciting things happening with the show, when there's special discounts on my pastas, and on top of all that, if you subscribe to the newsletter, you're automatically entered into giveaways for cookbooks featured on the show, as long as you live in the US or Canada.

Dan Pashman: There's literally no downside. Sign up right now at  sporkful.com/newsletter. I promise we won't spam you. We're only going to send you really good stuff. Again, that's sporkful.com/newsletter. Thanks.  

Dan Pashman: Now, let's return to the debut episode of our brand new spin off podcast, Ask Mimi, taped live on stage at Union Hall in Brooklyn.

Dan Pashman: All right, we have reached the audience participation portion of our show. Please step right up. This is your opportunity to ask Mimi. Please step right up to the microphone and tell us your name.

Chelsea: My name is Chelsea. So, my boyfriend is 31 years old and has never tried soup.

Mimi Sheraton: Never tried what?

Chelsea: Soup. 

Mimi Sheraton: Soup? 

Chelsea: Yes.

Chelsea: So, I would like some advice as to how I can convince him to try soup. Why doesn't

Mimi Sheraton: Why doesn't he try soup? What does he got against soup? Did he never had soup at home with his mother? 

Chelsea: Nope, not once. 

Mimi Sheraton: Why? Why not? What, what about him? What about soup puts him off?

Chelsea: Honestly, I think at this point he's only not eating it because he likes being the person who's made it 31 years through life, never having tried soup. It's just stubbornness. 

Dan Pashman: Do you feel like he just enjoys giving you a hard time about it?

Chelsea: We can ask him.

Mimi Sheraton: Were you once scalded by hot soup as a baby?

Boyfriend: Not that I can recall. Did

Mimi Sheraton: Did your mother make soup?

Boyfriend: She wasn't much of a cook.

Mimi Sheraton: Oh, so there was no soup for everybody else at the table to be eating.

Boyfriend: That's correct.

Mimi Sheraton: And what puts you off about it now?

Boyfriend: Uh, I, I don't know. The texture, the consistency, just, yeah, general stubbornness and

Mimi Sheraton: General stat you could get over.

Boyfriend: Do you drink things?

Chelsea: So he actually really likes the broth when I make braised short ribs, and I keep telling him that this is soup. I mean, he insists that it's different somehow.

Mimi Sheraton: Well, it's very hard to know what to say. Have you tried it? Have you used a spoon?

Boyfriend: I'm, I'm working myself up to that.

Mimi Sheraton: You like stew that has gravy all over it, like thick soup?

Chelsea: No. He won't eat that. I think he would just refuse. 

Mimi Sheraton: I think it's a pose. I think he just does it to be different and annoy people. He'd probably secretly eat soup when no one is looking.

Chelsea: We don't live together so he might.

Dan Pashman: Yeah, find his soup closet. It's somewhere.

Chelsea: I'm gonna look for it. 

Dan Pashman: Alright, thank you very much.

Dan Pashman: That is not one I anticipated, Mimi.

Mimi Sheraton: I love soup.

Dan Pashman: Alright, we got time for one more audience question. Hey look, it's a celebrity questioner. It's my dad.

Dan's Father: I wanted to know, if your son had a food related podcast, what advice would you give him? 

Mimi Sheraton: Get an honest job.

[LAUGHTER]

Dan Pashman: Alright. Thank you, Mimi, thank you, Dad. Now it's time for our special guest. He's a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning and the host of CBS's Innovation Nation. You've also seen him hosting Cooking Channel’s My Grandmother's Ravioli, and you've heard him as a regular guest on NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Please welcome Mo Rocca! 

[CHEERING]

MUSIC

Mimi Sheraton: Thank you for coming. 

Dan Pashman: Mo, thank you for being here.

Mo Rocca: Well, thanks for having me.

Dan Pashman: Before we get to your question for Mimi, can you just tell us briefly, sort of, give us a little bit about your relationship with food.

Mo Rocca: Um, well, I grew up in a house without much salt, actually. I think that the food that I ate growing up was pretty flavorless, but healthy.

Mo Rocca: My mother's Colombian, and she's amazing in many ways, but she made a diet. She liked rice and chicken, and a vegetable, and we basically had a very consistent diet without much, much flavoring added. 

Dan Pashman:  She's here tonight, Moe, because you seem very reticent to,

Mo Rocca: No, because I don't want to, I don't want to hurt her feelings, because she's amazing. But by the time I got to college, when I ate college food, and I tasted salt, it was like cracked cocaine. I mean, it was crazy. It tasted incredible to me. So I never complained. 

Dan Pashman: Okay. So what's your question for Mimi? 

Mo Rocca: Well, about a year and a half ago, my brother and I moved our mother up to New York City from the suburbs of Maryland, where we grew up, right outside of Washington, D.C., and my mother moved into the top floor of my apartment building. I love it. It's been amazing. I really do. It's been wonderful. I want to help her make friends. So I want your advice on that. Before she came up, I sort of asked the doorman in the building like, who were the other older women to hang out with?

Mo Rocca: Like, who were the ones that were really fun? And I was told that Norma on three and Wendy on five were like the women. 

Mimi Sheraton: Did you know them? 

Mo Rocca: I knew them a little. I knew that Wendy is super cool, and she's really popular, and she's British, and she's kind of funky. She's a little bit funky. She's younger than my mother. Norma is Italian. My mother's Colombian, but my father was Italian, so I thought there might be a little simpatico there. And my mother is so charming, and is in great shape. She's pretty introverted. And so, at first, I would just hang out in the lobby, waiting for either Norma or Wendy to come by. And I did like, I would sort of skulk around the mail area. Like, pretending I was checking mail when I already had, if I could hear Wendy coming. 

Mo Rocca: And, my mother enjoys playing cards. She's not like a serious bridge player. But you know, one day you know, when I was doing a fake mail check, Wendy came up to get her mail, and I said, Oh, Wendy! I said, Wendy, I'm just wondering, do you play cards?

Mo Rocca: And she said, Oh, love, no, I don't. But if it's for your mother, maybe go to the senior center down the street. And I said, Oh, no, no, no! I said, Actually, it's not for my mother. She hates cards. What do you like to do? Anything you like to do, she would love to do. So, you know, and, and she's great, but it didn't, it didn't work.

Mo Rocca: So, we're a year and a half into this, and, so, I'm just trying to make my mother friends, so… 

Mimi Sheraton: Have you had a little welcome reception for her in your apartment, in which you might invite some other people in the building?

Mo Rocca: That's a good idea. I've probably been spending too much time in the male area. But, okay. So, that's interesting.

Dan Pashman: A moment with a male area focused strategy.

Mimi Sheraton: An afternoon tea where you don't have to prepare the food, I'm sure. Where do you live?

Mo Rocca: Uh, in the village.

Mimi Sheraton: In the village. So there are many places where you can get little sandwiches, little pastries, tea, if you think it should be tea.

Mimi Sheraton: If you think the ladies are more given to cocktail parties, you might want to do that. You might want to ask more than just the ladies, just a few other people you know in the building, so it isn't so obvious. There must be some men or couples. And just a welcome to whatever your mother's name is.

Mo Rocca: Right, right, Teenie is her name, her nickname, Teenie.

Mo Rocca: Okay, and she's got a penthouse apartment. Her apartment's better than mine. 

Mimi Sheraton: So maybe invite them to her apartment.

Mo Rocca: Good idea. I even have little cocktail napkins made up. Cocktail napkins with green writing that say, Teenie's Penthouse. As if it's like a hot new club in town.

Mimi Sheraton: Like Hernando's Hideaway.

Mo Rocca: Right, exactly. There is a guy down the hall who's super friendly. But I think he's a total pothead, and nothing, there's something wrong with that.

Mimi Sheraton: Right.

Mo Rocca: Yeah.

Mimi Sheraton: We all know that.

Mo Rocca: Right. But I don't, I don't want to just have, I, but I think you're right. I should cast widenet in the cocktail party that's in my mother's apartment.

Mimi Sheraton: Right. How long has your mother been there?

Mo Rocca: About a year and three months.

Mimi Sheraton: Oh, it's a little late for welcome, but

Dan Pashman: Is there like a birthday or an occasion you can have as an excuse?

Mimi Sheraton: Or an anniversary of her having moved in?

Mo Rocca: There you go. Sure, I could do something like a 15 month anniversary party. 

Mimi Sheraton: Sounds logical to me.

Mo Rocca: I could do that. I could say it's like a Colombian tradition.

Mo Rocca: It’s not a quinceanera, it's a quince-mes.

Dan Pashman: You know what else, Mo? At the cocktail party. You can have a signature cocktail, and you can call it a Teeny Teeny.

Mo Rocca: Oh my god, that is so great! I'm so happy! Can you be my mother's friend? That would be amazing, a Teeny Teeny!

Dan Pashman: There you go! 

Mo Rocca: That is awesome! 

Dan Pashman: If you serve them in small glasses, you know what it would be called? 

Mo Rocca: Teeny teeny teeny. Teeny cubed. Um, and my mother, yeah, she loves guava and mango. 

Dan Pashman: This thing mixes itself.

Mo Rocca: It really does.

Mimi Sheraton: Would your mother like that if you did it?

Dan Pashman: That's a good question. 

Mimi Sheraton: Would your mother be willing to do this in her penthouse?

Mo Rocca: The thing is, she's, as I said, a charming, classy person. She's not, I don't know. I think that she thinks it's the kind of thing, look, it'll just happen. I mean, I'm more concerned about it than she is.

Mimi Sheraton: What does she do all day?

Mo Rocca: Okay, so, she loves baseball. So, six months out of every year, remember Damien Kiesman? Anyway, so for six months out of every year, she's doing that. 

Mimi Sheraton: Playing? 

Mo Rocca: Watching baseball. No, she loves watching baseball.

Mimi Sheraton: On TV? She doesn't go to Yankee stadiums?

Mo Rocca: She's been a couple of times.

Mo Rocca:  So, she also plays this game on MLB. com called Beat the Streak. And so what it is is, you know, DiMaggio got a hit in 56 games, consecutive games, and my father always said that was the greatest athletic feat ever, because no one's ever come close.

Mimi Sheraton: But she stays alone and plays these games?

Mo Rocca: Look, here's the thing, if you can guess 57 players in a row who will get a hit in a game, basically, You win 5.7 million dollars. So, you know, she sits there with an iPad on one leg and an iPhone on the other like a bookie, looking back and forth, keeping track of all the different games. So she does that.

Mo Rocca: So she talks on the phone with friends. Uh, she'll go for a walk to Washington Square Park. She volunteers every couple of weeks there. 

Mimi Sheraton: Does she go to any of the wonderful free movies at the Jefferson Library just across the street?

Mo Rocca: Well now, now you're talking!

Mimi Sheraton: That's great! They have wonderful movies. They have talks. They have interesting people. Free.

Mo Rocca: Okay, but let me ask this, not to be a buzzkill, some of the public libraries in New York have bed bugs.

Mimi Sheraton: Bookworms, I can tell you. Bed bugs, I don't know. 

[LAUGHTER]

Mo Rocca: I don't know. Very good. Very good. The NYPL thanks you for that deflection.

Dan Pashman: So. I think it's interesting to me, Mo,  and Mimi said, are you sure that she wants this?

Dan Pashman:  And I think sometimes because you know, Mo, I know that sometimes folks who are in the world of entertainment, as you are, are kind of, extroverted at work and introverted in their personal lives, so perhaps you actually take after her to some degree, but sometimes it's hard for people who are extroverted to imagine that people who are introverted are actually happy being by themselves.

Mo Rocca: That's a great point, because my mother will often say, Stop worrying. Stop worrying. I'm fine. So I'll say, What did you do today? Well, I talked to Luisa, and she told me about her trip to Spain, and, and I'll think, like, Oh, that's all you did, is you talked on the phone, I'm worried, and, but that was, like, really nice, that she caught up with her friend Luisa, who told her over the course of an hour and a half every single step of what happened when she and her husband Tony went to Spain.

Mo Rocca: But I will say that, just, it's kind of a grounding thing for me, because, you know, I can get through a whole day. And you say, what did you have for lunch? And I can't tell you what I had for lunch. And my mother living in my building, it's a reminder, I know this sounds weird, but it's a reminder of how, the value of like the quotidian of the everyday.

Mo Rocca: Like, she'll tell me about her day, and sometimes it'll make me realize how much of my own day I'm ignoring. Caught up in, in work stuff.

Dan Pashman: So Mimi, do you have any final advice for Mo? Should he be trying to help her get friends? And if so, how?

Mimi Sheraton: Well, by having this reception at home, that would be one. The other is, taking her with other people to restaurants that she might become friendly with. It would be awkward to invite other people in the building out to a restaurant.

Mo Rocca: Mimi, I'm just wondering, what are you doing next Sunday afternoon?

Mimi Sheraton: I'm not far away from you.

Dan Pashman: Mo Rocca is a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning and the host of CBS Innovation Nation. Big hand for Mo Rocca!

[CHEERING]

Dan Pashman: And a big hand for our star, Mimi Sheraton!

Dan Pashman: This has been Ask Mimi. Thank you for coming out. Good night!

Mimi Sheraton: Thank you all!

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: Alright, there you have it, the first ever episode of our first ever spinoff podcast, Ask Mimi. I hope that you enjoyed listening to that as much as we enjoyed making it.