Off The Desk 11/12/26

Thank you. Hello and happy Friday, Junior. Thanks for being here with us for another episode of Off the Desk. I'm Kaylee Collins. And I'm Julia O'Keefe. Yes, happy Thursday. One day closer to the weekend. Almost there. Yes, almost there. Chris Mazzakis is not with us today. He is down in South Carolina, hopefully enjoying warmer weather than we are getting here. You probably have noticed the rain outside today, but we've been keeping an eye on this, so we knew it was coming. Yeah, and the cold is here. Looks like it's going to be staying. Uh, colder temperatures, definitely in the evenings and overnight hours too. So just kind of get ready for that. As far as the rain goes, Adam Stremko was filling in for Chris today and throughout the morning newscast, he was just saying that you can expect light rain throughout the day today in our area. Some places in Western Massachusetts, more so like the Berkshires and stuff, um, might get some snow. That's kind of exciting. If you're a snow fan, um, the chance is a little bit less here in the Pioneer Valley, But you might see some snowflakes, but probably not really much. Much accumulation. Yeah. But yeah, it's about time, the time of year for that to begin. So, um, Keep an eye on the roads out there. Be safe. You were mentioning earlier that, you know, there's some leaves that are still coming down on the ground. So that makes for slicker conditions, too. So just be careful. And probably expect to take it a little slower out there with the rain that's coming down today. But, yeah. Yeah. That's our weather. That's our weather in New England. It's crazy to think. Like, last week, we were breaking record high temperatures. I know. And today, we're talking about snow. It happens so fast. And we always say that. I feel like in New England, every single, it's usually the transition period between different seasons. We expect it to go a little bit slower and it always is just like a 180. Yeah. So yeah, it's here. It is here for sure. Yeah. Fall, honestly, it's kind of on it. Well, we have more than a month left of true fall, but December 1st is meteorological winter. Yeah. It's my birthday. Look at that. First day of meteorological winter. Exciting. Happy birthday to me. Um, Yeah, that's our weather. Stay safe out there. Get that rain jacket. Your rain jacket, rain boots. I actually just realized, I actually did not just realize, I realize this every time it rains that I don't have a good pair of rain boots. Like true rain boots? Yeah, I need to get some. Me either. I have the LL Bean boots that I've had since middle school. But at least that's good. It has that same type of material. They're, yeah, yeah, all reliable. But they're not insulated. So they're cold. Oh, yeah, so you get cold. Thank I'm going to expose myself here. I, my snow boots are still under my desk from the winter. Really? I never brought them home. I mean, You only really used them here, I guess. It's like, ah, eh. There were some times where they were here and I wish they were out. Really? But I think it was May. There was still snow on the ground in May. So at that point, it was just an excuse you. to not bring them out to my car. Yeah. They're nice and neat under my desk. No one sees them. There you go. I leave shoes by my desk. Yeah. Not snow boots, but. You know, more so heels. They'll be ready for me when the first snowfall hits. There you go. Already prepared. So, yeah. Get ready for. those conditions today and probably over the next couple of days in our area too. But yeah, so we did have, we discussed obviously the weather in the newscast this morning. A couple of other local stuff. It was obviously Veterans Day yesterday. So there were a lot of local parades and celebrations. A big thank you to everybody who has served our country. And there was a lot of appreciation in Western Massachusetts, of course, all over the country as well. But if you want a recap of any of those events, you can head to our website. We also covered Obviously, the big story today is the building collapse in Brooklyn, which is really tragic. There's already now the death count is up to eight and plenty more people were injured as well. But there were some, you know, kind of moments of hope and good news, like silver linings in that whole situation. There were reports that a pregnant woman was found beneath the alive beneath the rubble and was pulled out and taken to a hospital. Her husband had been like frantically searching for her. And so that was. You know, good news for him to see her taken out. So I'm sure we're going to hear more updates as that recovery effort continues and they continue searching for people in that building as well. But crazy, they don't know the exact cause of the collapse at this point. There was a demolition, a planned demolition of a building right next door that was going on. So but they haven't said at this point if it's definitely connected. So we'll have updates on that and other. So like national stories and stuff going into the noon newscast, but. That was kind of an overview of our morning news today. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that whole story, I mean, it's so tragic. And the images to see, Adam Stramko said it. He said it looked like a dollhouse, the way the wall just fell. And there were rooms exposed just, you know, the way people left them. So, yeah, we're going to continue following that story and obviously hoping that the death toll doesn't increase by that much more. We'll see what happens there as they continue that. But yeah, so today on the National Day calendar for our lighter good news, it was just kind of random, very niche topics today, so we figured we'd just gloss over that one today. Yeah, it's okay. But we also do have a special guest joining us tomorrow. It may or may not have to do with the reality show that Julia and I typically talk about here on Off the Desk that Chris has. No knowledge about because he doesn't watch the show. Love is blind is what we're talking about. But yeah, we have someone joining us that we are really excited to chat with and hear a little bit more about the show and the experience of Love is Blind. So definitely tune in to that tomorrow if you're a Love is Blind fan. And even if you haven't seen the show, it'll be eye-opening. You'll learn a little bit about what goes on. Yeah, I'm very curious to know. You know, her experience, but also kind of some general questions of what is the mindset going into this show? Why this show among there's so many dating shows now, you know, why this show? Do you feel like? there was a big enough success rate that you wanted to be a part of that because there's really not. But over the last few seasons, yeah, it's been rough, but we're going to hear what she has to say and, you know, what went into that decision. Also, she was so, so career oriented. I'm kind of giving away who this is, but it's okay. I realize you didn't say it was. I'm not going to say it directly, but this goes for everybody on the show. Like, how does this Does this affect your career? You know, a lot of, I feel like Love is Blind. Less so than like The Bachelor or Love Island because those people kind of come off it and then they get thrown into more reality TV or influencer status and things like that. Is that something that you were looking for? Were you really going to find love? And how has it affected your career? Yeah. Because these people are just kind of going back to life now. Yeah, it's true. We're very excited to see what she'll have to say. We did kind of give away. It is a woman from the show that we're speaking with. So stay tuned to see exactly who it is. Since we'll be focusing a majority of our conversation on that tomorrow, we figured we could give our weekend previews today since it is Friday, June. It is Friday, June. Yes. I have a very chill weekend ahead, which I'm looking forward to. After last week, I need to like refresh. Yeah, no, for sure. No really set plans yet. I'm going with Noah to visit some of his cousins, though, and they have two young kids. They just had a baby not too long after you did. Oh, wow. Yeah, two young kids. Congrats to them. So excited to do that. And then maybe if things, you know, we find time, I would love to go see a movie. I would love to go see the Elizabeth Holmes documentary. Oh, you guys have to let me know how that is. We can go. Yeah, so we'll see. See, maybe you end up doing that tomorrow night. Or Sunday, but, you know, Sunday football, so I don't know. It depends what the vibe is. I really don't have any set plans, and I am thrilled about it. It's kind of the best, those types of weekends. I'm trying to think. I don't think I really do either. Yeah, I'm thinking Saturday I may go see my parents and bring Ava over there. I don't think I'm doing much Friday night. me I'll probably go to bed early. I tend to do. Try to get some stuff done around the apartment and stuff this weekend. neither. And then on Sunday. Bobby and his family and other co-workers at the business plan to do this team bonding outing. So they're going out on a little, I think, brewery tour, I guess. So they're going to do that. And I think a couple of my friends who are also... with people in the business who are going to get together while they're all together and maybe hang out at somebody's house and maybe watch football or make food or something like that. So that's really about it for my weekend. It'll be a nice, chill weekend. Maybe I'll make some soup. There you go. Cool. All right. Let's take a break. We'll be right back. All right, welcome back to off the desk on this Thursday, Friday, Jr. Friday's upon us. But yes, we mentioned at the end of the last segment that we are going to have a special guest on tomorrow from Love is Blind. And we figured we would talk about our thoughts with the show being wrapped up now and the reunion finally aired. So it's. It's nice and tied up, although now in the age of social media and podcasting and exit interviews, there's so much more to unfold. Oh, yeah. And a lot more is coming out every single day about these people. Yeah. And we're here for all of it. Yeah, we get sucked in every season, you know? Yeah, I did finally watch the reunion, the word was escaping me, on I think Monday or Tuesday night. And yeah, it was interesting. Interesting. I think. Compared to reunions of past seasons, I felt like a lot of the people were a little bit more civil in airing out what issues they had with each other. There was still a decent amount of drama, but it was kind of like those, oh my gosh moments, but more so coming from people. In the crowd, people who were not in a couple on the stage, it was like Maury, you know, his reactions and them going to him for his thoughts on like things that were happening with the couples or family members trying to defend people who were on the stage. So basically at the reunion, it's everyone who's on the stage is someone who they were a couple in the show, whether or not they made it to the altar. They were actually. The couples that made it out of the pods said yes initially to getting engaged. Yep. And then they talk about how their experience unfolded and what happened to the relationship after basically the show ends. Yeah. Yeah. And it was interesting. I think I said it and I stand by this. I don't think we got more answers than what we saw necessarily. I mean, there were some, but it always leaves you wanting more. Like you always have more questions. Thank you for your questions. And Nick and Vanessa Lachey, the host of it, have gotten criticism in the past for not asking enough questions. And I saw some mixed feedback on them this time. Some people said, oh, they took our notes. They're asking the hard questions. They're pressing them this time. And others are still saying, oh, we want to know more. But you're always going to want to know more because there's only so much. One, they have to edit it to fit in the amount of time. And two, there's only so much that you can get people to say. I wonder if this time, like, for example, John, who, who did something bad, he, he did cheat on his wife and he admitted to that at the reunion. Um, but he didn't explicitly give the details as to what, what does that mean? He was saying that it wasn't a, it wasn't physical cheating. Yeah. And so then that leaves the question, okay, well, what kind of cheating was it? Emotional? What does that mean? What does that look like? Of course, everybody's curious. And I think that he and Sarah were trying to kind of protect his image a little bit because you are on national television. This is their real life. This is something that they had to deal with within their marriage and then deciding to end their marriage. So I understand that. And I guess You think about it as a regular person, you would probably discuss that with the person before you're going on this reunion and going on national TV, if that's what. The conclusion they came to, they agreed that they were not going to really air out all the details. But then it's also hard when, yeah, you do, there's all this public interest in it. You have hosts of a show that are pressing, asking those questions. So it does put you on the spot to whether or not you go ahead and just give those details or you say, yeah, I'm really not talking about it. Because then either way, people... Online are going to have things to say. Like if he didn't admit to what he end up giving a few more details on what they were like alluding to people would have been speculating anyways. And that's just kind of what happens with this show. Even after the reunion, like you said, so many people will go on podcasts or we'll do a TV interviews or other social media interviews. And then you get these little other stories that didn't make it to the reunion that weren't shown on the show. So it's just also just interesting about, yeah like reality tv how it's become so popular but then the the integration with social media and the internet yes wild in this society it's gonna come out yeah it is gonna come out um the internet sleuths work 24 they will find out and it will come out so you know and no matter what the show did maybe to it was funny i think they For sure. Edited in long pauses too. I mean, there were definitely long pauses, but they're choosing to use that as time codes to contribute to the longer time that they're allotted. So. It's all intentional and it's all by design. So you could feel obviously the uncomfortable energy in there, but they're also leaving space for viewers to be like, okay, something clearly happened. It's right. It's so funny because we know this as people who work in media and you know how things are edited and when you can tell that something maybe didn't go in chronological order, you know what I mean? Yeah. But still, as a viewer of the show, I'll be watching and it's like a extreme long pause at the altar of will they say yes and then facial expressions of people in the crowd that probably weren't the facial expression they were making in that exact moment and I still find myself being like wow Bobby was like Kaylee you know that that was ended like yeah like I know but it's just it hooks you yep or when you can you can sense when they're piecing together conversations um because it'll be two people talking and then They'll zoom into like a food bowl or the table and the audio is still going and that's clearly different B-roll placed over to make the jump cut less obvious. Yes. So it's very interesting to watch it with. I definitely watch reality TV with a critical eye to try to pick up on those things. But I really noticed it this season. I really did. Yeah. I want to ask our guests tomorrow about that. What is your reaction to watching it back your real life? And you have, you have a notepad of when you were in the pods, you have a certain memory of how things went down and then to watch it back. That experience must just be weird in and of itself, but then also to see how your edit was and how you're coming across, how you're being perceived on national television. Yeah. Um, cause I do feel For some people who maybe they don't think that they had gotten like a favorable edit or things were taken out of context, I have since seen a clip of Anaya on social media talking about how she was portrayed in the reunion. Because I did feel a little lost when I was watching that part because it didn't match like Cam's reaction to her story about what happened to them. This is one of the couples where she called, she did not say yes at the altar. Not yet. And then it was, okay, where does their relationship go from there? And she was giving a recount of what happened. And it just, the way that it was edited, it wasn't cohesive. It was almost like the hosts were like, okay, what else? Get to the point. Yeah. Which I think that was a genuine reaction because she was just going on and on. And it wasn't making sense or answering kind of the question I think that everyone had, which was what happened. And it was... Yeah, it felt like a lot of twists and turns to get to the point was just that they're not together anymore. And the way that yeah, they're panning to people reacting, but you don't know if that's what they're reacting to. At one point, it looked like Cam's eyes were so big. He was like, what is she talking about? But then I think they probably did intentionally on purpose, but then he didn't have a chance to really say his side. Um, whether that was for timing restrictions or they didn't ask him, we don't really know, but I would have loved to know what he had to say. Yeah. I just, I do think it was interesting. The editing choices. Also, I've seen people online talking about there is, um, one person who, who trips and falls as they're trying to console another person who is crying during the reunion. So they trip and fall. You see everybody's reaction to them. She gets up. She was fine. But why would you keep that in there? You know, if you can edit out other things, you didn't have to have this clip of somebody tripping and falling included. It's just, it's interesting. Because in a sense, anything is fair game. So that was an editing choice. That would be good television Comedic relief. But it's also, it was a very solemn moment, but also a moment of girlhood. And everyone is supporting this girl who's crying. She falls. And then it does bring some laughter. Yeah. Like, good thing she was okay. Yeah. Yeah, that could have been a different ending, but then they're showing all the guys' faces, like, no one gets up to help her either. I thought that was interesting. He's mad, get up, go help the girl up. It was like, I mean, Blake had the most reaction, like, oh my God, are you okay? There were some of the guys that were literally just like, or is that editing? Like, we don't know. Or that might be the editing. I don't know. It's always interesting. But yeah, so, really no success. I did see, actually, a post. Thank today that there was a couple who got engaged in the pods that never went to Mexico or had the wedding, but they're still dating. Oh, they are still dating. Yeah. So, okay. So one successful couple, of course it's the one that we don't see. I know. I'd love to see that. I also wonder how they go about choosing those couples or if those couples, you. there are people that opt out or what they say, how that all works. I don't know if we'll get some insight on that. I guess if you I don't know if you opt out. I mean. That really is just showing you don't really care about being on TV. It's just kind of like a speed dating thing. Yeah. It's so interesting. I mean, you never know. And like a lot of people get friendships out of it. Yeah. I see people from past seasons that still come up on my social media feed and they're very close and they're hanging out with the people that they like lived with in their headquarters or whatever while going through this experience. It's certainly an interesting show. Definitely not like a lot of the other reality TV shows just because of the concept of being behind the wall and not seeing a person until you decide, yes, we're going to get married. I'm Yeah. If you haven't watched it at this point, go check it out. Let us know your thoughts. married. One thing I do think that Love is Blind does well, I will say, is that they do the seasons based on location. Yes. Because that location becomes a very... tough barrier for people like on The Bachelor and Love Island. And yeah, sure. A lot of the Love Island people moved to L.A. to be influencers. Sure. They have dreams of moving to L.A. anyway. So let's both move to L.A. Sure. But that's might be a smaller population than, you know, all the couples who then have to think of, OK, where are we going to live? So at least that barrier is taken away. But then, of course. You don't see the person. You still had one couple in this season that that was their biggest issue. And perhaps it would have been a different scenario if one of the people in this relationship was not planning to move out of the country after the experience. Maybe we'll hear more about that. Maybe we will. Maybe. We'll see. All right, we'll take a quick break and come back with the last couple of minutes of this episode. All right, back here on this Friday Junior episode of Off the Desk. We talked a while there about one hit show on Netflix. Yeah. But there's another show that's probably going to blow up on Netflix relatively soon, at least if you've been following the Karen Reid trial or had been following it. Big case here in Massachusetts. There's going to be a new documentary on Netflix next week it comes out. Yeah, November 23rd. It's actually a three-part docu-series. Oh, it's a docu-series. And episodes, yeah. Um, I've watched a few of the Karen Reid, when I say a few, I think I've watched all the Karen Reid documentaries that are very like locked in on not just this case, but a lot of the big court cases you follow. Yeah, I do. I well, I think we know I do a lot of driving and I like to listen to Dateline and Crime Junkie podcast. I have a few that I like, but every time I find myself interested in the case, I try to find a podcast about it. And Netflix documentaries, too. I mean, there's a lot of good ones out there right now. I could talk about a bunch. I just finished one yesterday, but that's besides the point. At this point. Yeah, the Karen Reed Netflix docuseries is coming out November 23rd. And the way... I think it's interesting because it comes obviously at a time where we just had two very large trials in Massachusetts besides Karen Reed. That's, of course, Lindsay Clancy and Sandra Birchmore. But these three are oftentimes looped together for involvement with Massachusetts State Police and everything that kind of went down. Thank So the fact that this is coming out now is huge because it's bringing our attention back to Karen Reed, even though that wrapped up. Well, it didn't ever really wrap up, but that ended last year. Um, but it's also Jen McCabe is going to be interviewed. Michael Proctor's making an appearance like these people that People did not think you. we're going to agree to be involved in this are sitting down and doing interviews. So I think it's going to be very interesting to see how it's all produced together, who's participating, and kind of what makes it different than these other, like Dateline or the ABC 2020 episode, these other documentaries. Well, that's big that they've agreed to talk. They've agreed to do it. I wonder if there's like a stipulation that they gave for doing those interviews if they said they would only do it if they were able to Like rewatch or like ask to cut things out or you know what I mean? I wonder that. Yeah, I wonder that for a lot for a lot of these. Like you listen to some to some Dateline episodes, too, or watch some Datelines where that one, especially if it's one that you don't know the outcome of it or you don't know who did it. And these people are sitting down and doing an interview. So in your mind, you're like, oh, they probably didn't do it. And then it starts to get a little weirder and you start to think, oh, yeah, maybe, you know, they did. And they get these people to to agree to do this. Right. It's like, how? Yeah. But also, you know, in the Karen Reed case, especially because there's so many unanswered questions, having these people in it, I think is going to make this one pretty compelling. I think so, too. Yeah. There's definitely a lot of public interest in that case still. We just had an update recently, too, that part of it was like Karen Reed was trying to. Yeah, it was a civil lawsuit. Yeah, they said they settled the civil suit for one hundred thousand dollars. There were a few conditions there, though. She she dismissed one one of the or she dismissed some of the claims and then accepted the the settlement for for others. But yeah, that was the the civil conspiracy. Oh, that was what it was. Yeah. So so that that civil case was essentially settled upon. Probably won't be any other developments there, but we truly never know with the Reed case. It is continuously developing, but yeah, I'm excited to watch it. I think Netflix typically does a pretty good job with their documentaries, and they also get a lot. The Netflix documentary has become a genre in itself. Yeah, it really has. People often like them, and the true crime junkies out there are going to be tuning in. They're going to watch it. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. So those were kind of our bigger updates for today. Make sure to join us back here tomorrow if you want to talk more Love is Blind and we'll hear from somebody who was involved firsthand in that experience. So we're looking forward to that. You can ask her, is love blind? Is love blind? We're going to find out. That's the question. Yeah. All right. Happy Thursday, everybody. Bye.