Alaska Airlines has teamed up with Hawaiian Airlines to create new nonstop international flights.

Go to Alaskaair.com or Hawaiian Airlines.com and I'll tell you more details later in the show.

Welcome to The Leftovers. I'm Rachel Bell. The Leftovers is audio left on the cutting room

floor from last week's Your Last Meal interview. And today, you'll hear never before heard cuts

from Jay Ryan Strattel, the New York Times best-selling author of three novels,

Kitchens of the Great Midwest, the Lager Queen of Minnesota,

and Saturday night at the Lakeside Supper Club. On last week's episode, Jay Ryan was lamenting

that he grew up eating bland food, cooked by parents who were more concerned with getting calories

than having a flavorful meal. So as soon as he got his driver's license, he started making

trips to the

Twin Cities to try foods he'd only read about in the newspaper. I had never even heard of a lot of

these nouns before, Tajine, Shaksuka, saffron, complete mysteries to me. Totally weird to be a teenage

foodie in the 1990s. That term didn't even exist yet.

We didn't know what to call ourselves. That was last week's show. Now, on to the leftovers with

Jay Ryan Straddle.

What does the J. in your name stand for?

You may not believe me, but it doesn't stand for anything.

My parents name me J.D. Ryan Straddle.

Yeah, the J was originally going to be Joseph because I had a great uncle named Joseph

who died shortly before I was born.

But my dad's mom poo-pooed the idea, and so they thought, well, let's give him the J.

So it still honors my great uncle without annoying grandma.

...