S4E40 What Happened to Mica Miller? 10/4/26

Joy McKeon (0:06)

Welcome to Murder and Everything Else. My name is Joy.

Cheryl Yamaguchi (0:10)

And my name is Cheryl. Joy and I are two very old friends who love to talk about murder and everything else.

Joy McKeon (0:18)

Cheryl, guys, listen to this.

I have talked about it, I feel like I've talked about this, but I play mahjong every Sunday with my neighbor ladies. We started playing Chinese mahjong, and now we play American mahjong. We just learned, we took a class, and then we did, did, did it anyway. I signed up for this free play. It's with Chapel Hill mahjong or something like that.

Cheryl Yamaguchi (0:40)

And who would have thunk?

Joy McKeon (0:42)

I know. And I went to this free play and I won. That's so awesome. So if you go to their Instagram, there's like a little video of me winning mahjong among other ladies. But it's so cute. And I have to tell you, like the neighbor ladies, I have a Chinese mahjong set, so we can only use mine for Chinese mahjong, which I feel like is very important. But American, like the ladies have taken off with these American mahjong sets. They bought mats and like organizational tools and stands and little push things and little sticky strips. And you have to buy cards every year for $15.

And I mean, it's like a whole thing.

Cheryl Yamaguchi (1:28)

So there's actually different tiles for the American version. Oh, I thought maybe you just did different rules.

Joy McKeon (1:35)

No, they come with eight jokers and you play with the jokers. Whereas with Chinese mahjong, we don't play with the jokers.

Cheryl Yamaguchi (1:41)

Which one do you like more?

Joy McKeon (1:44)

I like both of them. The American mahjong requires more strategy and more balls in the air. The Chinese mahjong requires it be faster.

And you have to be really alert. So it's two totally different games. And who knew that the same set of tiles would be two totally different games. So like when we play Chinese mahjong, you can have six or seven wins in a two hour period. With American mahjong, you can have maybe one or two wins in a two hour period.

Cheryl Yamaguchi (2:14)

Wait, what did you say? Which one do you like better?

Joy McKeon (2:16)

I like them both for different reasons. No wonder I didn't know what you said. It took me a lot longer to get to the strategy on American mahjong, but it helped me become a faster, better player with American mahjong by starting with Chinese mahjong.

Anyway, if you are playing mahjong out there, I want to hear from you. Is it mahjong? Is it mahjong? Is it mahjong? Like I've heard so many different pronunciations. I say mahjong. Cheryl says mahjong, which is wrong, probably. Wrong, wrong, mahjong.

Cheryl Yamaguchi (2:52)

Mahjong, wrong.

Joy McKeon (2:54)

Anywho, guys, this week, I have some retractions. Oh, boy. There are actually less retractions and more clarifications. Okay. So last week, we did an episode on Hello Kitty.

And for those of you who are filthy minded, no, it's not the only fans Hello Kitty. It's actual Kitty, the Hello Kitty Sanrio Hello Kitty.

Cheryl Yamaguchi (3:16)

What he was thinking then?

Joy McKeon (3:17)

Anyway, Cheryl asked how Hello Kitty got her name since her official name is Kitty White. And I talked about the designer Yuko Shimizu when she first created the character in 1974 She was simply known as the White Kitten with no name. So she wasn't a girl originally. She was the White Kitten with no name.

The Kitty part, Shimizu named the character after Kitty, the cat that Alice plays with in the early scenes of Lewis Carroll's classic book Through the Looking Glass.

Cheryl Yamaguchi (3:50)

Oh my gosh.

Joy McKeon (3:51)

Isn't that interesting? Which also was the author of Alice in Wonderland.

Cheryl Yamaguchi (3:56)

So what's with the Kitty White?

Joy McKeon (3:58)

The owner of Sandrio, Tsuji wanted a welcoming phrase to emphasize social connection. So he first thought of Hi Kitty before he settled on Hello Kitty as the final brand name.

And then I also forgot to mention that in that episode, Kitty White is an eight-year-old girl. Did I say that?

Cheryl Yamaguchi (4:16)

I don't remember that. So I don't think so.

Joy McKeon (4:18)

So that explains all the cute bows and the outfits and you know.

Cheryl Yamaguchi (4:22)

So there was a real little girl named Kitty White.

Joy McKeon (4:27)

Well, no, Hello Kitty was Kitty White.

Cheryl Yamaguchi (4:31)

Oh, you said she named the character after a girl, a person named Kitty White.