Previously on the Fina Mendoza Mysteries.
The winner of the St.
Phillips reading competition between our fourth grade class and Mr. Thursby's fifth grade class.
And the winner is, well, unfortunately, it's not us.
Well, we don't get the free pizza, Ms.
Greenwood.
They do.
Yeah, yeah, I have a delivery for a Fina Mendoza.
That's me.
Thank you for sending the pizza.
It was great.
Wait a minute.
What pizza?
Fina, come look at the TV.
It's like a movie.
All those people.
Look!
They're climbing all over the inauguration platform in front of the Capitol!
My name is Fina Mendoza.
I moved to Washington, D.C. with my older sister, Gabby, because Papa works in the U.S.
Capitol.
He's a congressman.
Me?
I solve mysteries.
Congresswoman Mitchell's office.
May I help you?
Hello, this is Fina.
Is Senator something there?
Just a minute.
Here you go.
Senator something, are you all right?
I was so worried about you, but I figured if I didn't see you on TV, you'd be okay.
Oh, Senator Something, there's something out.
I have another mystery to solve.
You know we have this reading competition with the fifth grade and the prize was free pizza delivered to everybody's home for the class that read the most pages.
Well, they won.
The fifth graders.
No pizza for us.
Thanks.
It's too bad.
I read four books myself.
But here's the mystery.
Even though we lost, guess what showed up at my house last night?
Exactly!
A pizza!
We all thought it was from Miss Greenwood, but she said it wasn't.
You know what I think, Senator Something?
I think we got the fifth grade's pizza.
I don't know, but I'm going to find out.
I'll start by tracing the pizza back to its origin.
That means where it came from.
Mario's Pizza!
Hello.
Did you deliver a pizza to 403 A Street SE on Monday night?
Why?
Was something wrong with it?
No.
It was great.
Sausage and mushrooms are the perfect combo.
But I'm wondering whether you can tell me who placed the order?
Oh, sorry, kiddo.
We believe in keeping our customers' personal information private.
Yes, but well, you see, a lot of pizzas were delivered to a lot of people on Monday night and none of us can figure out who sent them.
We want to thank them.
No can do, miss.
I'm sorry, but you like the pizza, yes?
Yes, I did.
We all did.
Then would you write us a review on Yelp?
Gabby, can I come in?
I suppose.
Hey!
Don't mess up my bed.
Sorry.
I'm stuck.
Your latest mystery?
No one knows where the pizza came from?
Nope.
And the pizza place won't tell me who made the order.
Why make such a big deal about it?
It's just a pizza.
But it wasn't our pizza!
What else?
I'm still worried about Papa.
Working in the capital?
Oh, he'll be okay.
You saw all those National Guard guys and the new fences around the Capitol with the razor wire on top.
It feels like a prison now.
That makes me even more scared.
Oh, you know they've caught some of the people who broke into the Capitol.
How did they find them?
Social media?
Some of those guys posted videos of themselves under the rotunda or did shout outs from the speaker's office on instagram.
That was pretty dumb, like photoshopping your own wanted poster.
Yeah, the fbi has been arresting them all week.
Social media What about it?
Gabby, can I borrow your phone for a minute?
I don't think so.
Please?
Don't break it.
Duh.
Ha!
Wait till I show this to Miss Greenwood.
What?
You'll see.
Class, we're going to postpone the rest of our presentations about the 50 states until next week.
So I would advise those of you who aren't quite finished I'm talking to you, Mason to use your weekend wisely.
Understood?
Yes, Ms.
Greenwood.
Yes, Ms.
Greenwood.
Yes, Ms.
Greenwood.
Now, we haven't really talked about what happened at the U.S.
Capitol on Wednesday.
First of all, I'm so very glad your parents are all okay.
But how are you feeling?
It was scary.
They broke my dad's camera, even though he was wearing his press ID.
I'm so mad at those people.
My mom said she had to hide in the bathroom in the back of the senator's office for five hours.
But why did it happen, Miss Greenwood?
Why do you think it happened?
Because those people didn't want to wait in line to get into the Capitol.
I'm afraid it was more than that, Margaret.
Maybe they just wanted to see themselves all over social media.
You know, be the king of TikTok.
Interesting.
My papa said it's because people were angry because their person lost the election.
Losing.
Let's talk a bit about losing.
And about winning.
And about American history.
All right, all right.
Let's start with something simple.
You all know who the first president of the United States was?
Duh, George Washington.
Thank you, Becca.
And he served how many years as president?
Eight, but they wanted him to stay president forever.
They?
The people in the United States.
George Washington was like, like a rock star.
I suppose he was.
Now he was the king of TikTok, if they had TikTok back in the 1700s.
But President Washington didn't want to be an American king, so he didn't run for re-election another time.
Yes, that's right.
Now, what happened next?
Yes, Margaret?
George Washington went home to Mount Vernon.
Well, yes, he did.
But what happened to the United States?
Who was the second president?
Sam Adams.
Actually, that's the beer.
John Adams.
That's right.
But what happened four years later when he ran for re-election?
John Adams lost to Thomas Jefferson, although it was actually the House of Representatives that decided that election.
Right, Ms.
Greenwood?
You are correct, Becca, as usual.
Do you think he was mad, John Adams, I mean?
I would be, especially since he thought he was cheated out of winning by Congress.
I think he was mad too, Miss Greenwood.
He went right home to his farm.
He didn't even stay for the inauguration of the new president.
So what does this tell us?
That you shouldn't have run against Thomas Jefferson?
That's one answer.
John Adams was very angry with Thomas Jefferson for many, many years.
But something happened.
The two men started writing letters to each other.
158 letters over the years.
What did they write about?
You name it.
Politics, of course, the role of religion throughout history, the French Revolution.
How Americans were creating their own version of the English language about growing old.
They kept talking to each other through their letters.
Adams told Jefferson, you and I ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other.
So they became friends?
I wouldn't go that far.
Friendly rivals is more like it.
But let's get back to the thing John Adams did after losing the election.
Is there some important lesson in there that we can learn?
That losing is important?
What do you mean by that, Fina?
Well, it's like in Little League.
After a game, the coaches make the players line up and the winners and the losers all give each other high fives.
Good sportsmanship.
But it's more than that.
Losing is important in baseball.
Important in all sports.
And in elections.
If no one loses, no one wins.
Everybody loses.
But losing stinks.
It does indeed.
Are you talking about the reading competition, Ms.
Greenwood?
I am.
Someone, and I won't say who posted a video of themselves on TikTok stuffing his or her mouth with pizza and saying who's the loser now?
Fifth grade.
At least that's what I think they said, since their mouth was full of pizza at the time.
Our pizza?
Yes, or more accurately, the fifth grade's pizza.
It wasn't me.
Not me.
I wouldn't do something like that.
That's enough.
I've spoken with the students' parents and they will reimburse the school for the cost of the pizza.
And we will resend the reading prize to the fifth graders tonight.
But our fourth grade reputation has been tarnished.
How can we show our school community that we are good losers, good citizens?
We could just tell the fifth grader who did it.
And invite mob justice?
I don't think that's particularly democratic.
We could hold a class trial and vote on a punishment.
We could, but frankly, I think the punishment coming from this person's parents will be sufficient.
What about the rest of us?
What should we do?
But we didn't steal the pizzas.
No, but we lost the reading contest.
How can we show the fifth grade and the rest of St.
Philip's that we are gracious losers?
We could give them high fives in the hall.
We could apologize for eating their pizza.
I think we should write them a letter, all of us, just like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, telling them congratulations.
And challenging them to another reading competition next month.
Excellent.
So that will be your assignment for the weekend.
Each of you will write a letter of apology to the fifth grade and next week we'll deliver them to Mr Thursby for his class.
Miss Greenwood, do we have to write 158 letters?
I don't think that'll be necessary, Margaret.
Just one letter is fine.
Can you believe it, Senator Something?
It was Mason, of course.
He posted that stupid video on TikTok bragging that he got away with it.
I sent a link to Ms.
Greenwood.
Remember, Senator Something, you've got to be careful with social media.
Miss Greenwood says Mr Thursby emailed the addresses of all the fifth graders to the pizza place when he placed the order so they'd know where to deliver the pizza.
But then Mason pretended to be Mr Thursby and emailed the fourth grade addresses instead saying there'd been a mistake.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
It's not funny, Senator Something.
It costs a lot of money to send pizzas to the wrong people.
And worse than that, it makes the whole fourth grade class look like real losers.
Like we're babies or something.
Anyway, I solved the mystery of the missing pizza, Senator Something.
I wonder what our next case will be.
The Fina Mendoza Mysteries podcast is written and produced by Kitty Felde.
Our cast includes Amy Solano as Fina Mendoza, Monica Vigil as Gabby, Stephen Cuevas as Papa, Christine Avila as Abuelita, Susan Vallad as Miss Greenwood, India Scalioni as Becca, William Beamer as Michael.
Mika Scalioni as Margaret Leo Schoedorf as Mason Isla Schoedorf as Kara Wenzel Jones as the guy at Mario's Pizza, Steve Gamber as the pizza delivery guy and Steve Dvorkin is Senator Something.
Hannah Matzecki is our associate producer.
Hunter Felde is associate sound designer.
Our music comes from composer and musician Andrew Barkin.
Our logo designer is Imelda Hinojosa.
And special thanks to singer-songwriter Annie Chelsea.
This episode is based on the Fina Mendoza novella Losing is Democratic How to Talk to Kids About January 6th, published by Chesapeake Press.
You can get an autographed copy of the book by following the link in the show notes.
The book includes curriculum that can be used in the classroom or for homeschooling.
Losing is Democratic has been praised by Democratic U.S.
Senator Adam Schiff and former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, both members of the House Select Committee, on the January 6th attack.
By the way, book three in the Fina Mendoza Mysteries is called Snake in the Grass and it will be released on April 1st 2025.
In the book.
The bitter partisanship has gotten so bad on Capitol Hill.
Somebody is putting snakes in the trash cans and gym bags of members of Congress.
That's Snake in the Grass, published by Chesapeake Press.
I'm Kitty Felde.
Thanks so much for listening.
