Muse

Good evening, America. This is Arthur Bong from Shore to Shore, and this is Too Beautiful to Live. If you live east or west of the Mason-Dixon line, dial our wildcard line at 206-414-TBTL. Once again, if you live in the mountains above the tree line, the number is 206-414-TBTL. TBTL!

I'm the king of the castle and you're the dirty rascal crash into me crash into me I love you oh my god with your cheekbones and your guitar playing and it's all very very attractive and very very talented what have you got to say for yourselves it's hammer time isn't it a shame that this kind of thing has come up it's what the bible calls an abomination so what if I smell

like roast beef this whole place smells like roast beef I can't contain myself I can't contain

Come on, Jordan! This is hell of time!

All right, hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Wednesday edition of TBTL, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. The vibes will be the illest, and the jams, not again. My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. I'm going to be a sit-down comedian on Tiki-Taki. Coming to you from the Nest Broadcast Center high in the sky above Portland, Oregon, where, okay, so last night, really the story that I'm going to tell you starts, I think, three days ago when I was watching college basketball and there was an ad for Pizza Hut, which evokes very strong childhood memories for me i've never i haven't lived in a pizza hut delivery zone do they call it that da zone if you're in da pizza hut delivery area i've never been in da zone with a pizza hut but when i watch major sports particularly college sports i'll see ads for the stuff and so about three days ago i saw an ad and it got me thinking that would be delicious and then i went online and then i wasn't in so anyway yesterday i built my whole day around driving to the nearest pizza hut and getting not just a pizza hut pizza but a a pizza hut stuffed crust pizza that was the thing that had captured my fancy those few days ago.

Hey, where's the freaking gabagoo?

I went and I got it and I brought it home and it was everything that I was hoping it would be. It was a trip back to my teenage years, probably. But there was one piece left last night and I was like full. I had gotten like a medium-sized pizza. And I was like, you don't need that last piece. and I went to bed, and I woke up this morning at, like, 6 a.m., and the first thing I thought of was, there's that piece of pizza in the kitchen. And, of course, I try not to eat a lot of food. In the daytime, I try to kind of intermittent fast and wait until evening to eat my stuffed crust pizzas. And, anyway, I went through my whole morning getting ready for the show and straightening things up and just doing, you know, whatever I do in the morning, And then, like, ten minutes before showtime, I just, I turned into a cartoon, I turned into Pepe Le Pew, and a smell, I mean, this doesn't make any sense because the pizza was, like, cold in the box, but, like, a cartoon smell came into the broadcast center, picked me up like a cartoon, and took me into the other room, where I almost, like, involuntarily picked up this cold slice of pizza and began eating it. I can't believe I ate that whole thing. So I've already demonstrated absolutely zero willpower today, and it's not even 10 a.m. yet on the West Coast. Anyway, that's how my morning's going. Hope you're having a nice Wednesday. It's episode 3,396 in a collector's series. Let the fun begin. Oh, we've got a big announcement on the show today. Attention everybody, madames and miss was involving the TBTL drops of stupider, the deuce, the deuce. This will be the second time that we've done a March Madness style bracket of TBTL things. The first time it was drops, hence the name drops of stupider. This time around, it's TBTL. moments so we've got 32 tbtl moments moments from the history of this show all however many years it's been 11 12 years and over the course of the next few weeks each day we're going to have a um we're going to have a you know a sort of a head-to-head competition between two moments from tbtl history and then you the tens will get to vote and decide what your favorite What is the greatest moment in TVTL history? So we'll do that. Plus, we'll talk about ketchup and the fact that there is apparently a huge shortage in this country of ketchup, specifically individually packaged ketchup, because, of course, with the pandemic, that's what a lot of places are doing.

Long John Silver's spent an extra half a million dollars last year just on ketchup because they can't find any ketchup packets. They had to buy him on the secondary market. Sounds expensive. So we'll get into that as well, plus emails and V-mails. Oh, and this guy, the longest-running co-bro of the show. He may be best known for his depictions of the tall ships. And he, speaking of big announcements, he's got a big day ahead of him. I'm a sexy vaccine. He is Andrew Walsh, and he's joining me right now from the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Good morning, my friend.

Good morning. That drop really got me. Was I talking about people dressing up like vaccines for Halloween? Is that where that drop comes from?

I have no idea. I just wanted to find a drop about, like an audio drop about vaccines. And when I put vaccine into my iTunes, this is literally the only drop that references vaccine.

I'm a sexy vaccine. I will say I don't usually get high off my own supply. But if that was me riffing about people trying to have a Halloween based on COVID, that's not the worst spoof you could ask for. Boy, that alone was a shot in the arm for me today, Luke. There you go.

Hey, speaking of shots in the arm, you are getting your first dose of the vax today.

I am, yeah, heading down to Lumen Field, the old century link. It might be renamed something else by the time I get there. It's really hard to keep it straight. But, yeah, it's like at the event center there. I don't know, you know, the thought I had this morning. So I made this appointment. You know, it seems like I made the appointment forever ago because of the way I think our brains work and the way we've been, you know, really fixated as individuals and a society on getting our shots. But last week, early last week, the rules changed a little bit to allow more people eligibility. And because of my work on the weekends I'm eligible now Because I work with food And the public What's that? You and Drake working on the weekends like usual Oh, is that a I love the Drake line Is that from Club going up on a Tuesday? No, that's I love Maconan, right? Yeah, but Drake's on that I wasn't sure Because they also talk about He's got a line

In one of his big songs Working on the weekend like usual and I always thought, get someone to cover for you, Drake. Right, right. You're Drake. I promise you, there's got to be somebody you lower on the food chain. Can you get Meek Mill to fill in for you? So your weekend of volunteer stuff where you help and you interact with a very vulnerable population of folks that are experiencing homelessness. So you're going to get the shot.

That made me eligible. So I signed up last week. It seems like forever because I've been so excited to get it. And the thing I thought this morning, though, was it's interesting that I'm not nervous about this because I'm nervous about most things. And I realized, oh, yeah, because what I've been fixated on is not like, is it going to hurt? I don't think it is. I've never heard from anybody that getting the actual shot hurts. I'm not great with needles and stuff, but I'm completely unconcerned with that aspect of it.

Can I just tell you, needle technology has come so far, you will not even feel it.

Yeah, that's kind of what I understand. But the thing I'm fixated on is the line. I keep on asking everybody, like, how bad was the line? Where, you know, like, we're kind of heading, you know, I think we're going to take public transportation to get down there. And just because I don't, you know, me, I hate having to park, like, downtown or in Soto or what have you. I just don't like dealing with it. So we're taking public transport to get down there. And I just keep on thinking, like, I'm going to show up and it's going to be this super long line. And I just kind of hate lines. I have this phobia way more than a phobia of needles. I have a phobia of waiting in line. But everybody I talk to who has been through the Lumen Field experience says they are astounded by it. You show up, and it looks intimidating because it looks like a line is going several blocks. But they say that it is just so efficient, and they just – move you through so quickly and cleanly so i'll let you know tomorrow how that goes i think your line aversion is maybe related to the fact and we were just talking about this on yesterday's show that when you're in a line somewhere there's also a lot of time or a lot of opportunity for people to misbehave for people to uh you know maybe cut the line or like you know if you're in line at the deli or you were talking about being in line in the you know in the wine department you know for the liquor cabinet at the grocery store people do you think that's part of it like are you on some level like worried just that there will be rude behavior people being thoughtless not in this

case although that's a fair question I think sometimes that is like sometimes my line of version is connected to that this time that doesn't seem to creep in because you know we have an appointment and i think it's just it's just kind of my fear of the unknown you know it's almost like if you told me i was going to a comic-con just to pull you know something just to pull an example that would also be happening at a lumen field event center type of thing and there's just something about like kind of like you know crowds and lines and in this case like i'm not really thinking there's going to be a lot of opportunity for somebody to game the system and get ahead of me like we have an appointment and we're gonna you know get our shot like i'm not really worried about bad rude boorish behavior as i like to say um but i think it's just kind of like i can't quite picture it and i know that i'm gonna show up and just seeing i think just showing up somewhere and seeing a really long line that stretches for blocks always just triggers something in me quickly like i'm just like oh god uh but i'm sure like the second time there and it's no longer a question mark and i can see what we're dealing with it'll be fine but i did just sort of think that like everybody is focused on this vaccine and i'm focused on the line which

seems like a very andrew way to approach this well i will tell you i already kind of mentioned this but uh the good news is i don't know what they have figured out but like the needle situation is so at least in oregon where i got it the needle situation is amazing you do not feel it i mean i also get a flu vaccine you know when i remember to most years and that's like the typical thing where it's like you feel a little poke it's not great the anticipation is bad always but you just kind of look the other way and you just you know think about mother england and then it's like you feel a little poke and then it's over and everything's fine this isn't even that like i got the johnson and johnson it was two shots and both times i was like i kept waiting for the i was looking away and i was kind of just like getting ready for that little bit of discomfort and both times i literally did not feel the needle so hopefully they'll have the same kind of technology there at lumen field and hopefully i mean i i think you're what you've heard is probably right too like these lines for these vaccinations are interesting because it's like you're in line for like the best concert of your life everybody's in a good mood yeah right because everybody is excited about getting the vaccine. I mean, if you've gotten to that line, you are not one of the holdouts. You are somebody who believes in science and you are somebody who realizes that on the other side of this, your life is going to change quite radically. And so the energy is just really positive in that line. I mean, and then the really, I mean, honestly, like there's the waiting area afterwards where you've got to go for, you know, 15, 20 minutes or whatever it is just to make sure you're not having an adverse reaction and that is like that's like the lifeboat that's like the lifeboat that left the titanic that's now being picked up by a rescue ship everybody wait in that waiting area is so blissed out it's just like i mean explains why everyone pretty much who gets vaxxed send well definitely sends pictures to their loved ones. And this happens within my own family. I did this within my own family when I got vaxxed and maybe puts it on social media because there is just also this other kind of I wouldn't expect you to necessarily, Andrew, although if you do, of course, that would be fine, too. There is this just sort of like it seems like this series of mental things that happen to every single person who gets vaccinated. It's like immense relief, overwhelming joy. Need to post it.

Yes. You know, I see obviously a lot of people posting their vax selfies. Like you said, that's not exactly my speed. I don't do I don't go in for selfies that much. But I'm thinking right now and I don't know if this was somebody's story or if it was there like a post on Instagram. I'm looking now because I wanted to see if I could call this up. No, it must have been a story that is has disappeared. But a friend of mine who just recently, I believe, got her. second shot like last week, instead of posting a selfie, posted a pretty, you know, non-descript is the wrong word, but a very, what's a word that means like nothing that you would necessarily comment on, right? A very mundane sort of photo of a bunch of people sitting in chairs in a big area. And it was her text that stood out to me. And she said, I just know that this is a memory I'm going to have forever I can't remember she was at like an ex she's in a different state but I think she was like at an expo center or wherever they were doing it right and so there's nothing like kind of nice about the surroundings nothing not nice about the surroundings it's just like people sitting in chairs and and she said like this moment where I wait for the 15 minutes before I can leave after having my second shot she's like it's just been such a weird year and this this moment is one of the kind of weirdest and sort of kind of we hope puts a cap on it in a certain way um and that that was something that i thought about a lot more than the selfies that people take um is that moment because that's very much how i think about things like sometimes i'm trying to identify like this moment well i remember that crack in the ceiling you know as this thing is happening to me and i thought that that was kind of powerful although if you were just scrolling quickly you would have never stopped on this photo necessarily but it was so important to her

i um was at the uh the salem i guess it was the like the fairgrounds like where the state fair is in salem oregon and the the room the the building where they were doing it uh where the waiting area was i went to use the bathroom and it was like a bathroom that reminded me of like you go to your like your old high school and you use the bathroom yeah yeah urinals go all the way to the floor and a kind of very institutional vibe uh-huh and i was the only person in there i mean it was this is you know how i was able to get the vaccine early there was a very brief window where it was like no one was getting it for some reason i don't oddly and so there was nobody in there the bathroom like the lights were out i had to fumble around and find the lights and i'm just in this kind of like really old institutional high school style bathroom by myself having been vaccinated that for some reason is that you want to talk about extremely like unremarkable places yeah for your for your memory to be fixated but like that's probably what i'll think about uh about when i you know knew that for me personally i was i had been very fortunate so as to kind of get through the greatest amount of danger to me with this whole thing yeah you and I talked you know as you know

a year ago as we realized how serious this situation was and how it kind of kind of fully dawned on us how long of a slog this was going to be that we were not going to have the um what we were describing as like the the kiss a nurse in in the middle of New York City moment like you know war is over now we all open up our doors and run out to our uh favorite water hole right that that is just not the way this is going to work and i also want to say and i would say this

even if we were i did kiss a nurse in that bathroom though for the record oh really i was like what are you doing in here right yeah and then she was like it's been a long time mr torrance I was like, wait, I'm in the shining. Oh, she was an elderly woman. Nobody listed that as one of the side effects of the Pfizer shining hallucination.

Just go back to your bath. But I do I would say this, even if you and I were just like kind of talking off air, I'm not just trying to be responsible here. But, you know, there are concerns that I am taking very seriously in reading the news about the variants and the need to continue to be careful. But there is this is the closest thing I think we've had as a society, people individually getting their shots and then having their feelings, whatever those feelings are. I mean, especially, I think, of people who've gone through this time in much tougher circumstances than I have personally, people who've lost loved ones or came close to losing loved ones or lost work or all of the bad things that are happening to people around the country. Their feelings might be slightly different than mine, where I feel like I can go bowling again. But either way, we're all having our feelings. I think they're all legitimate. And I feel like this is the kind of closest thing that our society is having as it as it rolls out somewhat slowly and people have their selfie moments like that's their that's their nurse kissing moment sort of.

Right. Absolutely. And I and again, I don't I don't begrudge. Probably the only reason I didn't do I didn't put mine out in a more public way was because I was in this very lucky, weird quirk of getting it very early in. game and i didn't feel like that was the greatest look for me to be trumpeting that around and so i i kind of you know i low-keyed it a little bit but i get that there's got to be something there's there's a there's a celebratory moment and a kind of like you said it's it's it's it's it's the 2021 version of an iconic moment right like the 1940 whatever iconic moment is like you said those those two people kissing i assume it's in time square but i actually don't know i wonder if I've invented that part of that story yeah but I have a sense that they're in Times Square and they're kissing and it was like so like you said we're not having that with this pandemic in fact we're still not out of the woods yet but but as you also said like for for each of us who gets vaccinated there is a tremendous feeling of relief and a sense of like at least some part of this for for me for the person who's been vaccinated feels like it might be coming to a close but instead of that triumphant we're all out there's ticker tape people are leaning out of windows you know and yelling things it's more just like no a picture of yourself sitting in a waiting area in a

convention center somewhere right having that feeling right that's bringing it back to that that photo of my friends that's exactly it like just a pretty unremarkable I guess that's the word I was looking for before kind of this unremarkable otherwise unremarkable setting yet here it is where it sort of feels like life is changing once again yeah the way that i've been

celebrating andrew is and maybe this is another side effect of the vaccine is by reverting to my 11 year old self and by that i mean putting up a strike zone in my apartment so that when i watch the baseball games i can throw pitches against the wall which is concrete by the way um and try to reenact what's going on for the mariners uh i want to give hat tip to listener bobby in boston who i was talking about how i wanted to get a like a racquetball like a blue racquetball ball that i could bounce and kind of sit at my desk with my feet up in you know kind of like a collared shirt but the sleeves are rolled up and i've got a tie on but it's loose and there's black coffee on my desk you know that's gone cold and i'm bouncing the ball thinking about that big jacobson account um i'm basically like i'm a guy in mad men or something well bobby said no you got to get one of these spalding high bounce pink balls which was absolutely right i ordered some on amazon of course and they're great so i put the strike zone up i put this on twitter i'm sure some of the listeners have seen it it's so much fun andrew i just sit there at night with the baseball game on just pitching to this thing are you sitting or you standing i'm standing yeah okay um and it's Now, I could actually do an almost regulation, like I think it's 64 feet, 62 feet from the rubber to home plate. I could almost do that down my hall, but then I'd be throwing the ball against like a bathroom door that's kind of hollow.

Yeah, you know, when you were describing this, I had forgotten that you had kind of had that cool like kind of unfinished cement wall because it kind of didn't quite make sense to me. I thought, oh, that'll be kind of loud or – but no, it seems very satisfying that you're throwing it up against something solid. And that's like the – is that the elevator shaft?

Yes, the wall, like basically one side of my apartment is the back side of the elevators. And so it's just this big, giant concrete wall. It's an interior wall, but it's kind of unfinished concrete. And so, yeah, it's very – the bounce is very satisfying. I could pitch it down the hall, but then it's hitting a hollow door, which is crazy loud. And also at some point would probably destroy the door. So I'm going with the non-regulation. But first of all, again, thanks to listener Bobby for the tip. That was a great call, Bobby. Second of all, Andrew, I got up the next – after I taped the strike zone up and did my thing of pitching, got up the next morning and got the ball. And maybe it was in the afternoon or something. But I was like, oh, I'm going to go take five minutes and go do my little game here where I bounce the ball off the wall. My arm was sore as shit. i had like thrown not thrown it fully out but i had like i could feel in my like a rotator cuff and my labrum and my arm that my arm had done some work the day before which is

a really sad state of affairs oh my god you're gonna get tommy john surgery aren't you i threw 28 pitches andrew and i got pulled oh big maple i don't want big maple let's talk about One of the good news, just a quick reminder here as we go to the break, that you and I remain in first place. I believe we have been in first place in our Fantasy League for five days now. Did we reach the peak last Thursday or something? Oh, wow. If that's true, if we've been there since Thursday, it's going on a week now. So, wow.

really happening man high school bud c leagues dominating the uh fantasy baseball league that we are in and that's all due to you andrew i did one thing on the team and i almost ruined everything

i had one just don't touch the il that's all i made one move and it was the wrong move and i was like set us back by weeks we're all learning but i will say i keep on thinking about that question you asked me is this going to be more fun or less fun than I expected or is this more fun or less fun than I expected and I am having so much fun like I love it I love like at the end of the day now the last thing I do is I look at tomorrow's lineup and you know if I have any questions I don't know I'm actually I'm actually learning somehow fantasy football I don't know somehow fantasy football seemed more overwhelming to me but I think I was so geared up for this to be such a big project that I've thrown myself into it more and I wonder what it'll be like this next football season if I'm on a fantasy league how this will kind of translate but anyway I'm sorry I did not really mean to turn this into a conversation about fantasy sports I was the one who brought up

James Paxton yeah I know but I brought up

I just wanted to remind everybody I don't want to have a big conversation about it every day but I do want to let everybody know that we are still in first place because that's a pretty big deal

obviously yeah it is good job man that's it's It's that you get 99 I get 1% of the credit Because I talked you into being in the league And you get 99% of the credit Because you're now the person that's doing all of the day-to-day I actually really appreciate it Yeah, it's working out so far Alright, let's do a quick break here And then when we come back TBTL drops of Stupider The Deuce Will kick off Plus we got some top stories and some emails and emails So stay with us, this is TBTL

On your mark On your mark. Get set. Get set. Now ready. Ready. Go. Everybody rattle, dazzle. Everybody rattle, dazzle.

Hey, let's thank some dazzling donors, the wonderful, generous, fine folks who are dazzling us with their donations each month and making the program possible. People like Ryan Honick of Alexandria, Virginia. We know Ryan. Yeah. Ryan says, as I sit here sipping from my custom Hydro Flask emblazoned with the Little Red Bandwagon logo, the LRB logo for Walsh Walsh and Dormat, and staring at my Podpet poster, thanks to Amy Ashton, it exemplifies the community of tens. Okay, so wait a sec. Sorry, Ryan, I don't mean to hit pause on your message. So, Little Red Bandwagon has Hydro Flasks that have Walsh Walsh and Dormat on them?

Yeah, they created a whole logo. It's pretty sweet. They created an entire logo for my law firm for Walsh, Walsh and Dormat. We're sorry is the log line or whatever you would call it on the catchphrase on the thing. And so, yeah, so that is emblazoned on a hydro flask. And then, of course, the pod pet poster was a TV telethon gift. And also Amy Ashton, I know, was able to get a special copy to Ryan as well. It was very sweet. Yeah.

So Ryan says, I say it every year, but this pod card is so dang important, especially during the last year when we were all struggling in our own way to redefine normal. You both are an appreciated constant in all of this uncertainty, whether accompanying me during puttering or my daily grind. It's commonly said that we are the product of the five people we spend the most time with. I actually have not heard that. I have not heard that saying before, Andrew, but that's a very interesting one. We are the product of the five people we spend the most time with. I could see that. Ryan says, well, in COVID times, that means you guys, Hannah Brooks Olson, Genevieve, and Dan Savage. If you're keeping score, that's 3X the Andrew. Step it up, Luke. You haven't heard my podcast with Dan Savage that I do about bear culture? Tune in, Ryan. It's not bad. Is it called In the Wild?

Well, that's a KUOW podcast, right?

Yes, we have the study of bears. That's quite the crew that I roll with. And aside from proving my thesis that Andrew really is everybody's best friend. I could see that. It really has kept me sane adjacent. I also want to take a minute to tell my imaginary radio friendos a quick hot dog story. Well, it's your dime, Ryan. I recently started dating this amazing woman named Rachel. Nice. Among all the ways she and I are discovering our shared love, our shared level of weird, insert Andrew drop, she's happily listened to the TBTL intro episode and is now slowly beginning to understand how my brain works and the role of TBTL in my life. She's even commented on Luke's mom and the...

hypothetical podcast deal with it with suzy burbank i forgot about that i forgot about that i did too good reminder it's already become a hilarious refrain in our daily banter as we learn about one another i could go on but suffice it to say i have a new 11 now and it may be too late to enter that tbtl contest and it may be too early to get a fish sandwich but it looks like things are going to start happening for me now. That's awesome. Ryan and Rachel, congratulations and thanks for reminding me about my mom's podcast. Yeah, and when are you going to make me a grandpa? We've got to get that off the ground. It's disposable media podcast number 20 or so, I think, that we'll have to get developing. So, hey, Ryan, thanks man so much. We really appreciate all your support and input and just being part of the fam for all these years. We couldn't do this without you. And Rachel, welcome. And we're sorry. Welcome to this thing. And as my mom famously says, deal with it. Maestro?

On your mark. On your mark. Get set. Get set. Now ready. Ready. Go. Everybody rattle, dazzle.

Speaking of the fam, our next dazzling donor is none other than Lynn Fam of Beaverton, Oregon. Lynn says, I would like Luke and Andrew to shout out my wait, wait, don't tell me stats page, which is at stats, S-T-A-T-S dot W-W-D-T dot M-E. So that's stats.wwdt.me slash tbtl. Use the code tbtl for 40% off your first batch of Weight Weight Stats. Some restrictions apply. You must be one of the first 100 tbtl10s to go to stats.wwdt.me and use the code tbtl, and you will get a special discount. This is the best offer they have. We need to say that. It's in the copy. This is the best offer they have. And please don't call Lynn's stats page a gun.

Now Luke and I are just driving away existing advertisers.

Lynn says, please promote stats page and just say something funny and roasty. It's a dangerous game, Dan-o.

It sure is. Can I say something nice instead of

Roasty? Do you think that's okay? Yes, I don't like Roasty, we love Lynn and we appreciate everything Lynn does for the show which is immense like, I mean, Lynn is without, if not the most kind of productive TBTL employee, definitely the second most, it might go Andrew and then Lynn and then somewhere down the list me, but I mean, it's very very very possible that Lynn puts more time per day into this show

than I do. Here's a real thing that I almost emailed Lynn about yesterday and this really saves us all some time here so I can just say it on the podcast you mentioned at the top of the show that we're going to be launching this drops of stupider contest where we're going to be playing bits of tape from shows past spanning back 12 years now and when we post a show and we've talked for you know anywhere between an hour and two and a half hours in some case and then we write two sentences on the website to describe what the show is that day Luke's irritable about something and Andrew's mad at his neighbors right and it's like yeah but there was so much more in there how will we ever go back and find these specific moments that listeners say are their favorite moments of all time and I'll tell you how you do that you type in tbtl and a couple of keywords and the thing that always pops up is marsupialgurgle.com of course that's where lynn has been you know grabbing bits of tape and transcribing them and posting them and the seo on that is so much better than on tbtl.net that it has been an absolute godsend it has been an absolute lynn send to to have some way of tracking down these moments and um some other folks have worked hard on that too with other various archiving projects but i can't i can't overstate how much marsupial gurgle has helped in that mission so i was just thinking that yesterday so thank you for that lynn and thanks for all you do to support tbtl like honestly financially emotionally friendshiply and marsupial gurglely marsupially marsupial all of

the lees are covered by our friend and one of our dazzling donors today lynn so thanks lynn we Really appreciate you, buddy.

He also has a closing song request. He wants us to go out today with Happier by Guster from, I'm assuming, the album Lost and Gone Forever. So don't let me forget that. I will not.

Hello and welcome to Top Story. All right. This is very exciting, everyone. Our first top story today is that we are officially kicking off the TBTL Drops of Stupider 2 competition. That's just absolute stupidity. You thought March Madness was over, my friends. It's just getting started here in April. I love this intro. The TBTL. I'm pumped, my friend. Isn't this? this is the uh ncaa tournament on cbs theme music from 1993 to 2003 and it was that hawk harrelson

i heard at the beginning that was is he still doing his thing a good question this is him on guitar too wow watch out tim heidecker

key change baby

how's this gonna work so this is how it's working um you set it up really well at the beginning of the show that um jake in chicago i will say this once he goes by the nickname the perfect daddy you can accept that or you can refuse to accept it but it is reality um jake who set up the drops of stupider contests last year came at us this year and said, let's do it again. But let's have people nominate like segments that they've really enjoyed over the years and vote on it in a bracket type of system. And so people submitted all kinds of things, just a little explanation of how this ended up working. What we did was we took kind of broad examples like, I don't know, top stories or something that was a little bit too broad. And we tried to narrow it down in the editing process to like actual moments on the show that we can play and tried to have kind of like parallels in those cases. And we've come up with 32 moments on TBTL that will be going head-to-head in a bracket system. Today, the very first – so we're going to release these one at a time over the course of the next 16 shows. One match-up at a time. One match-up at a time. And so there are two TBTL moments going head-to-head today. this first one is the cereal show famously wow tbc one seed cereal have are there any like

with the drops of course there was the idea that one was the high seed and one was the the lower seed yep are we able to seed these i mean that's a very kind of arbitrary thing no yeah jake has

put so much work into this honestly i need to thank him too like i mean for coming up with the idea and then like all we had a meeting we had a zoom meeting like a couple of goddamn businessmen the other day wow to set this up um and he's been doing tons of work and yes he's meticulous with the seating so he broke up all of these into four categories um single episodes so today's matchup is cereal versus the minnesota state fair ah okay and so uh cereal is the number one seed Minnesota State Fair is number eight. Just if you're looking ahead, the other categories he came up with were recurring segments and stories slash stem winders and then guest segments. So those are the four different categories. We're starting with single episodes. So let's start with serial. Luke, the whole show was fun, but I think we both agree. Yes. Some of the funnest tape came at the very beginning where we made our parody of the podcast cereal. Right now it's rolling. And it's pronounced Chateau Saint-Michel.

Support for TBTL comes from Chateau... Chateau? Support for TBTL comes from Chateau Saint-Michel, located in Woodinville, Washington.

Featuring a variety of amazing wines for your upcoming holiday celebration. Including their Riesling, which is the perfect... Which is the perfect turkey...

Which is the perfect turkey wine. Look for the Chateau Saint-Michel display in a grocery store near you.

And don't forget to tag your fun holiday photos on Twitter with the hashtag AToast2. Chateau Saint-Michel, official wine sponsor of TBTL. I actually drink Chateau Saint-Michel. Really? Look at this stuff. Some cereal. It's supposed to be good for you.

Previously on Cereal. I gave my wife a bowl full of frankenberry, and she took one bite of frankenberry, and she was, like, weak in the knees. Hello, my name is Boo. Let me finish. Booberry. Is Booberry actually blueberry flavored? Or is it just called Booberry because it's a ghost? There are no female serial characters, like, at all, right? This is a Global Tell Link prepaid call from... It's Captain Crunch. An inmate at a Maryland Correctional Facility.

Wait, Captain Crunch is in prison in Maryland? That does not sound good. This sounds good, though. A TBTL edition that we're calling Serial. That's right, an entire episode of our little imaginary radio show Which we like to say just might be too beautiful to live An entire episode dedicated to the topic of cereal And then we talked about cereal I will tell you, Andrew, I don't want to, you know, sort of put my thumb on the scale Or, I don't know, mess up the fairness of this whole thing but it's very rare that i try to play part of tbtl for anybody in my life by way of burnishing my own reputation with them or impressing them but i can tell you that over the last like three or four years if i have been trying to kind of like show what i think of as being the best most clever thing we've ever done it has always been playing that intro that you made because that was pure genius particularly at the time that was me trying i also then it involves me explaining what mail chimp is yeah i know we used to have ads for this winery and how like you were able to like perfectly mimic the ad on cereal but about an actual sponsor that's usually when the other person's eyes glaze over and they ask me uh what's on tv alone but no that's amazing and And that was 100% you, and it was 100% amazing.

I also love hearing the voices in there because I, you know, recorded all of those.

Those are people you worked with in L.A., right?

Yes, and some close friends to this day are still in there. Is there a Christian Bordal in there? There's a Christian Bordal in there. Yes, there's a Mario, our board op engineer, and a guy who I miss greatly from my days in L.A. Just a bunch of voices in there. So for me, it's also got that layer. Okay and now a serial show The number one seed goes up against The Minnesota State Fair so this would have been What's the date on the State Fair this is August 30th 2019 this was during The busiest segment Or the busiest like Time of TBTL certainly In my history we had done like the Thing festival and then we had Done I think a listener like we literally did

Thing I think and then just like Rushed to airplanes to fly to Minnesota to do the show there, to have meetings, then to go to the State Fair.

Yes, and I think the TBTL picnic was in there, and I think we were knocking on the door of doing our little mini tour. It was a very, very heady time. And I enjoyed it, and I loved the State Fair because we also got to meet our now friend Brandi Brown, who was our guest on stage live at the State Fair. She was obsessed with the State Fair. Here's a little bit of how that conversation went.

Did you grow up in the Twin Cities? Like, when did you become, I'll just say fixated, on the Minnesota State Fair?

I mean, I remember when I was young enough, old enough to be leashed at the State Fair, like a tiny child. I had the wrist leashed because my family believed in dignity. And the kind of where everyone could eat and then move about the fair without me getting lost.

What's one of the bigger Minnesota State Fair cliches?

um i yeah i mean obviously you've got the butter princesses princess of the milky way um which is right across from us in the dairy building and yeah that's a cliche thing uh the all you can drink milk i'm lactose intolerant what yeah they have all you can drink milk yeah yeah it used to be way cheaper but it's like two bucks now i don't know how much it is now but you could just drink milk from nine to nine straight from the cow no that is disgusting no but if you wanted to give that a try what you want to do is go down to the cattle barn and then Probably you're going to get picked up at the police station Yeah

That brings back such fond memories I cannot wait To be able to go back to the Minnesota State Fair

What is the deal on that Is that I think I've asked that before And somebody said Maybe even somebody we work with said It's not going to be Like they're having it But it's going to be The Minnesota State Fair that is But it's going to be heavily modified this year Because of you know COVID stuff

Yeah I'm looking now It is happening in the late, late summer Okay, but it is happening I think it is happening, but you're right I think, you know, the advice from our colleague was You know, probably don't mess with it this year I mean, to us as a show

Oh, that was Eric, right?

Yeah, yeah, to us as a show Things are going to be very stripped down We'll make that decision, Eric You're not in charge of us Actually, Eric is our boss now, did you not hear?

I am absolutely please. dying to get back to the Minnesota State Fair and to just be in that environment. I will tell you this, though. Speaking of our new boss, Eric, and also our now former colleague, Corey Schreppel, who's moved on to that great podcasting entity in the sky, by which I mean the New York Times, just because they're in a very tall skyscraper. We're not using those damn headphones again, Andrew. You know what? I refuse. On principle, I'm a conscientious objector to us. wearing those cans with the mic built onto them i can be trusted to hold a microphone because we i mean actually that sounded so much better than the experience of doing that show was you mean the actual the actual sound that you just heard the tape the audio was good and also just the liveliness and brandy being funny yeah i mean you obviously picked kind of a good little moment a good little back and forth but like and like next time we do it we're we're setting the the ground rules one we're micing the audience oh yeah two we're we're not because this is well i can tell you this andrew what i'm about to say this will never be in any drops of stupid or competition as one of the great moments of our show but but they wanted us to wear these kind of like sportscaster headphones that were fully like completely kind of encompassed your ears and then had a mic built onto them which was fine but it felt like we were on the surface of mars you can't hear anything you can't hear any of the noise of the fair you can't hear any of the of the just the normal noise that you're used to hearing in life all i could hear was you to some degree the stew bot and then brandy and it felt very disorienting to me and also i can't believe i was not going to

do this but since you brought us here i'm trying to be i want the drops of stupider because this is going to be an ongoing project i was telling you before the show i don't want to test your patience or the listeners patience by extending it you know further into the show than it needs to be us just just gazing at our navels like this but those headsets I was noticing when you listen to the very beginning of this episode which by the way one of the best titles of an episode ever 20 seeds from stardom our buddy came up with that on stage and it was really amazing I'm going to try to play the very beginning of this while we're playing the intro tape in front of the audience instead of hearing the audience react to the intro tape you can hear us snickering because we couldn't like move away from our microphones because they were stuck to our head

listen media at the state fair is an old tradition and it continues most of the leading radio and television stations in the twin cities are represented here in some way or another Does this disc jockey look anything like you thought he'd look?

No, he doesn't.

What did you think he'd look like?

I didn't think he'd have a beard or mustache or anything like that. I thought he'd have dark hair, dark wavy hair or something.

TBTN!

You can hear us snickering back there. Because the crowd's not mic'd, because, like you said, those mics were super close to our mouth. So I'm actually, I was pleasantly surprised to hear what the actual like the audio that the listeners were hearing you know like it sounded like we were sounded lively sound like we were having fun and we were i just look forward to going back to that state fair and doing it doing it up exactly right doing it on our terms andrew

anyway there you have it okay so how can people vote on these um jake is going to post today's poll to facebook and slack i will have it though on today's show page each day as i uh continue to roll these out i will include the um the you know the the link to where you can vote on each of these in each day's show page so today's will just include today's tomorrow's will include today's and tomorrow's etc etc etc and we'll see if we can get like one page eventually set up for all of the

for all the polls but also andrew thank you to you i know you didn't bring this up i know this is embarrassing you but but like jake put a crazy amount of work into this and also you have been putting a ton of work into this and into listening back to old episodes and combing through shows trying to find those little moments so thanks man I appreciate uh I appreciate the time you've been

putting in as well this is where my obsessiveness has almost been a double-edged sword like I kind of enjoy it it's like I had other things to do but like once I'm kind of I'm like I need to find this moment I know there was this moment and I start it's almost like when you and I have bonded over that feeling when you're trying to track down guests when we were like bookers for various talk shows like you become like a dog with a bone like alright well there's a clue over here well if I do a reverse address search of their third apartment I can call their landlord and then figure out where they are now I'm doing that for little bits of tape I can't stop it. Have you found all of the pieces of tape that you need or is there going to be

be a point where we need to kind of open source it or hive mind it there are some that like there's

one that i spent and i'm not saying this i'm not saying this so you can say at a boy but i probably spent i listened to an entire months of shows yesterday when i say listen to i mean opened it up and then skipped forward like by one minute one minute one minute looking for a very specific moment no i found something close that's a pretty good moment but i don't feel is the pinnacle of what i'm looking for i don't want to talk about what it is right now because i want to reveal these one at a time so when i play the piece of tape that i feel like is close i will let people know that i'm still looking for a very specific piece of tape if anybody remembers it and maybe we can maybe we can rely on the hive mind but like i say this is kind of on us for or me specifically for not having more detailed um descriptions of the show you know it's just like it's really hard

to find audio i mean honestly back when that fell to me which has now been many years i remember trying to write those show descriptions actually in a slightly vague way because honestly every single one of these shows is just more or less the same crap so if i make it if i my thought was well if we keep it kind of vague you know maybe the listeners will think huh this might be this might be different like if you kind of want to try to be put one intriguing thing down to draw people in but then not get so specific that people can actually get essentially the gist of the show from reading the description and realize they don't want to listen to it

oh yeah Andrew's just complaining about his neighbors again

when's the last time you even complained back to my strike zone by the way I had this moment and it was when I was noticing my arm was sore and also because it was the daytime although actually the daytime should be fine as opposed to the night time in terms of possible noise I'm not worried about, and the noise I might be making, I'm not worried about making noise for people that are in the elevator. They would never even hear it. I'm worried about people that are below me when the ball bounced on the floor. But here's what I will tell you. For all the complaining that I've done about this apartment building, I have literally never heard a noise from anyone else in the building. Like, I'm looking up right now. The ceiling is concrete. Yeah, that's nice.

That is the thing that drives me the most crazy of sharing any kind of walls with a neighbor is I I have such a low tolerance for any kind of sound seeping in, especially into my home, like in a workplace. OK, whatever. But like whether it's the subtle or not so subtle thump of somebody's music, the base of somebody's music or just overhearing conversation or hearing a door shut that kind of like maybe shakes your apartment for a second or like anything like that feels like an intrusion into my personal space. And so if you've got it locked down there, man, that's wonderful.

I mean, it would appear so. Or I just have incredibly quiet neighbors. But, I mean, I am under the impression that every wall in this apartment, like every shared wall or my ceiling, which is someone else's floor, et cetera, my floor, which is someone else's ceiling, it all appears to be thick concrete. Like I'm in kind of like a vault, which is pretty great, I have to say, for the complaining that I've done about this apartment building. they really did kind of nail that part of it because you're right like that's the most annoying part about living in a building where you're attached to other people is just having their noises in your life and they seem to have completely it's funny though because as I was throwing the ball off of the the the strike zone and thinking about it reminded me of that um simpsons episode where I think it's I think it's um Lenny has this like incredibly beautiful apartment and you know like Lenny one of Homer's like co-workers from the plant but it turns out that the reason it's so cheap is because he shares a wall with a highlight court I don't remember that at all which is that sport where you like do you know what highlight is

I can kind of picture you've got a kind of a big flat baton bat thing right or like a kind of a paddle that can hook the ball do I have that right yes

that's on your yeah that's on your arm it's like attached to your arm oh okay I don't know if i realized it was actually attached okay yeah and um simpsons hajai a lie um let's see if i can

well that's how i gotta spell it i know i know i do that for wednesday when i type out wednesday

i always say wednesday it's from helter shelter season 14 i for some reason can find stills of the scene but uh oh okay here we go i think i've actually found it so uh bear with me this is from 1989 and uh highlight court oh well highlight court wow highlight court well that's helpful anyway somebody just looped somebody literally just highlighted lenny saying highlight court how long is that

Thank you.

Does it just loop it and go on? This is the entire clip.

Oh, oh, oh, you were hitting it over and over. Highlight coin.

It just keeps repeating, yeah. Anyway, I kind of feel like that because it's like, you know, I'm throwing this ball off of this wall and I'm hoping that somebody somewhere in this building isn't being tortured by it. But until they tell me that it's bothering them, I'm just going to proceed with my Ricky Schroeder-esque life of a man-child living by himself in the sky, reenacting all of his, you know, childhood stuff. I think Bobby said something like, when you go full race car bed, because I sent Bobby the video saying, hey, dude, this is a good call with this Spalding Ball. And he said, like, when you get a race car bed, that's where we're going to come get you. Yeah, exactly. That's fair.

Here I go once again with the email. Every week, I hope that it's from a female. No, man, it's not from a female.

All right. We ran out of time for the catch-up story, which is actually full of dazzling details. So we'll push that till tomorrow and tell you what's going on with that. And maybe in the meantime, I can also do a gentle amount of research on what the law even is from state to state, because I feel like as far as like when you get the if you go to eat in a restaurant where you can sit down, whether it's, you know, outside or safely indoors with limited capacity, when they bring you the packet of ketchup versus the thing that, you know, the regular container of ketchup. I feel like it's totally inconsistent like there's no predicting when they're going to bring you the normal condiments and when they're going to bring you stuff in the little individual packets I don't know if that's a state law, city law it's just up to the proprietors

I'm trying to think in my experience yeah I don't think I've been anywhere where they just have like where they just bring you a bottle of something and there's certainly no in the places I've been I have not seen any like just like ketchup sitting on the table i don't think anybody's doing that right they're only bringing it out to you and i think i've only seen like you know packets of of stuff

anyway well we'll talk about tomorrow because i have surprisingly a lot of thoughts about the experience of eating a meal with packets versus the traditional containers like the glass bottle or whatever you might be using in the meantime uh we got an email from sophia uh who says a gentle defense of hot ones hot ones is that uh internet show where uh put out by a first we feast uh where people um you know celebrities are interviewed while they're eating super duper hot chicken wings uh i was kind of talking about it because there was i thought a really funny sketch on snl where amaya rudolph was pretending to be beyonce getting the hot ones treatment um sophia says hello friendos i'm sure i'm not the only one to write in but i swear i just get excited when people talk about a thing i enjoy and i want to chime in on the conversation um i think this might be the only email we got about hot ones so sophia thank you um you are correct that some of the wings are not very hot it's a scale that goes up over the course of the show some people handle it better than others and that's what keeps it interesting also those who like spicy food comment on if they like the taste or not which helps promote the sauces they are selling because i I had wondered if, like, this show, if they're allowed to really go ham on the spice because you would then have a situation like they were making a joke out of on SNL where if you were to have somebody on whose image is very important to them, the celebrity, and then they just have snot running down their face and they're crying and they just look completely ridiculous. Is that bad for the brand?

I don't think they go ham on the spice. I think they put the spice on the ham.

Oh, that's what it is. Sure. Since you haven't seen the show Part of the genius of the SNL skit Is mocking the kinds of questions The host asks He is a surprisingly good interviewer But often asks really random questions The guests are always promoting something too So I think this show is a nice change For folks looking to do something different From all the other PR gigs They probably have to do I also confess I don't watch it that much But sometimes a certain guest will pique my interest So don't worry, I love you guys more Soph in Rhode Island And, God, you have heard the show before, Soph, because you know that everything is interpreted through the filter of do you like them more than us? Speaking of things people might like more than us, Sarah sent an email about the Exxon Valdez and a podcast about it. Remember when we were talking about the Ever Given being stuck in the Suez Canal and got us talking a little bit about the Exxon Valdez? Because you asked if we know anything about the captain of the Ever Given. And I said, I don't think we do. It's not like a Joseph Hazelwood thing. That was, I think, the guy that was in charge of the Valdez. And then I went on to say something like, I bet you there's more to that Valdez story than we do.

We realize just because it's always the case, like whatever we were getting in the by the way, I tend to believe the mainstream media. So don't take this as like some kind of a comment on, quote unquote, fake news. But just whatever the broadest of broad strokes were about the Valdez, just based on when it happened. And we were revisiting so many things from that era and finding out there was much more to the story than we were learning. So I sort of said that casually. And Sarah said, I want to let you both know, if you didn't already, about one of my favorite podcasts, which I like more than TBTL. Wow. Whoa. Shots fired, man. No. Sarah said, it's one of my favorite podcasts. It's called You're Wrong About. They debunk so many interesting historical events, including the Exxon Valdez. Or is it Valdez? I've always been saying Valdez, but it might be Valdez. Anyway. And they cover other events, such as the DC Sniper, Terry Schiavo, Tonya Harding, Lorena Bobbitt, O.J. Simpson, and so many others in a very entertaining and educational way. Basically, TBTL and You're Wrong About have gotten me through quarantine. So thanks for everything you do. Okay, Sarah. No, finally. You got it back right there at the end. Did you hear, Andrew, that the – there was – speaking of news that is not accurate, there was this rumor going around that the captain of the Ever Given was the only female captain of one of these huge ships that go through the Suez, and the internet ran with that story. It turned out to be completely untrue. This captain who was being essentially libeled was in a ship, but that's not the ever given. She was in a totally different vessel that was far away from this. Oh, okay. But the internet really went with that for a while. Yeah. The kind of less great corners of the internet were like, guess what? Of course, it would be a woman captain. But that was untrue. So if you heard that, if you're borderline misogynist and not borderline racist, just way over the line racist, uncle sent you some kind of a Facebook page about or post about how the captain of the ever given was a is a woman. That is incorrect.

I don't know why I would bring this up. It is against my best interest. But one thing that I'm really shocked about that I was sort of bracing for yesterday was emails from people concerned that we gave Chet Hayes way more consideration than he deserved. I was really waiting. And maybe it's because people haven't maybe caught up with yesterday's show yet. But just hadn't thought of it. But now they have. Thanks a lot. Exactly. But now I'm getting ahead of it. they know that I'm concerned about it because that was a lot of the flack that the writer Nomi Fry, I believe her name was, right, who wrote about it in the New York Times. A lot of the complaint was like, you've given— New Yorker. I'm sorry, the New Yorker, yes. People were saying, you've given this way more thought than Chet Hayes has, which is true, but I also don't think that's a reason not to consider things. But I did wonder, I'm like, oh, is this—are we going to get an email that might have some validity to it that's like why were you a couple of white guys like spending 15 minutes trying to bend over backwards trying to figure out if chet hayes's white boy summer is defensible why can't you just dismiss that out of hand like why does he deserve that kind of extra consideration i just read that piece by no mean i just thought it was really interesting so it happened to be top of mind for me um and i like considering things i like considering cultural conundrums you know um and i was kind of surprised that i didn't get more kind of flaming emails about that and if you do want to send me a flaming email please do luke at tbtl.net um why did i bring that up

is that why in the words of ll cool j shadow boxing when i heard you on the radio oh they just don't know well that's you that's you shadow boxing that's you just that's you uh but i understand that thought i have it sometimes uh where it's like we say something it's you and i both wonder later that the best use of our time or did we have the best take on that and then you start to imagine what the critical email or tweet or whatever slack message would be about what we said and then and then you're in it regardless of that message ever comes now the now the dialogue

is happening in your own brain and i will say in this particular case i don't know that i was shadowboxing to the degree where I was then arguing back with the fantasy people who were concerned. Okay, so first of all, haven't heard from anybody who is concerned. I mean, I'm not saying nobody is, but I haven't heard from them. But in my head, wondering, am I going to get some pushback on this? I don't think in this case, I'm not trying to make myself sound better than I am because I'm not good as a human when it comes to these things. But in this case, I don't

think I was then firing back or being defensive about it, but actually wondering if that's a decent point or, or just how it comes off again, like it's you and I doing this, you know what I mean? It's not, it's not a couple of people like Nomi Fry as a woman, um, that gives her a slightly different angle on it than you and I, I think I'm in my head a lot about the fact that we're a couple of white middle-aged guys doing a podcast, weighing in on our opinions on everything. I don't think it's wrong for me to consider that when I'm giving my opinions on things. And so, you know, I was just sort of like wondering, like, yeah, was that was that something that is not condemnable, but maybe not the best use of our time? I'm not sure. I actually enjoyed talking about it with you. And I like turn. Yeah, I enjoyed that you were you you had thoughts on it.

You know what I mean? Like and the other thing is, I mean, first of all, I agree with you. I don't think it's a bad thing to – if we're going to be overly thoughtful or not as thoughtful as we should be when we think about what we're going to talk about in the topics, like as far as just weighing in on the world, I think we're better off to overthink it. So I agree with that. But then also it's like, well, you know, a conversation that we would be less qualified to have a conversation about maybe, you know, something involving a woman of color and something that she's dealing with and us trying to weigh in on that. I mean, Chet Hayes is the closest thing to a slam dunk we have on this show. White guy, lots of privilege. That is our wheelhouse. That's literally the only thing we can talk about from any perspective of like lived experience. Anything that's anything that involves somebody who we're not who's further outside of our experience. That's when it gets extra dicey.

And I think what was maybe in the back of my head, and I apologize to the listener because I think she listens to every show and will probably hear this. But we got – I apologize to the listener because I can't recall who it was off the top of my head. But we did get an email once about, I'm going to say maybe in the past year or so, from a woman who's a black woman who listens to TBTL Daily. And we were talking about some other white guy's questionable behavior. And I think it was one of those things where I didn't really know the background and we were you were filling me in on the show about and I can't remember what it was, but it was something that seemed like it might be sort of on the edge. And we got an email that was a very, very nice email, not a scolding email, but just saying, I want you guys to think about why you spent so much time trying to figure out if this one white guy's actions were defensible. Like, would you have and I just remember that. Do you do you have any recollection of that at all, Luke, that email or the conversation?

yeah I do do you remember who it was yeah I think it was or who you're talking about I don't remember who we were talking about but was it listener like uh Maria Alicia maybe and it was a nice email but

like I like considering things like that honestly like I probably am annoying about it in some cases but like I want to be on the right side of things because I look back at thoughts I've held or arguments I've made over the course of my 44 years that I think like, I wish I I wish I hadn't done that or, you know, and like, whatever. It's all we're all hopefully evolving and thinking and trying to think about things and get back. Hopefully we're all trying to get better in some way or another and consider more perspectives. I mean, that might not always make for the best radio if I'm tripping over myself, trying not to offend. I know that's something that kind of that's the the other side of it for you, I think, Luke, is if I get too much in my head about things. But I also, you know, I would always rather err on the side of consideration, you know.

Right. I think that that's a good thing overall. And I think I have come a long way in that probably due to just like doing this show with you. If I was – it's, you know, it's like Listener Ryan famously said, you know, we are the product of the five people we spend the most time with. Yes. You're the, you know, the one person I probably spend the most time with at this point in my life anyway. And so I'm sure that us, the way that we talk on the show is to some degree a result of me, of you being the co-host, you know, because if you were a different kind of host and if you had a, I don't know, a different kind of vibe, I could probably go towards that vibe a little bit more, too. I think my tendency is to be a little bit less in my head than you are in your head. But I think it's a good thing. And I like looking back on the show, the times when I was like being overly PC, if you will, I don't regret those times. I regret the times when I was arguing for why I should be able to say the N-word so as to bring hip hop together.

Right. Exactly. Thank you, Chet. Thanks for putting a bow on it, Chet. Chet Burbs. But yeah, I have definitely gotten emails. In fact, I got one not all that long ago. I don't think we mentioned it on the show because we didn't want to give more air to it. I can't remember. But we did get an email from somebody who said, I'm going to stop listening. I'm sick of you guys trying to apologize too much for everything. You don't have to apologize for being a white guy or whatever. I'm just like, I would take Maria Alicia's emails a thousand times over. that like if you stop listening because you're concerned that we want to be considerate like bye like that's not that's not who I am then again I don't want to be so annoying about it that it's unlistenable but I want to have thoughtful conversations yeah I'm with that

I think it's good I think it's you know uh I I think it's it is actually something that we provide on this show I don't know if I would say it's unique only because there's so many podcasts out there that i don't have an accurate real accounting of like you know what shows are doing what but i do know that there's kind of like the you know there's the like the world of joe rogan and adam carolla and barstool sports and then you know there's a presence on the internet of guys who i think are going more towards just like you know saturday is for the boys and then you have like the public radio side of things which is usually very scripted and planned and edited and then somewhere in the middle of all of that is these just these two dudes talking to each other for endless amount of hours each week and trying to just kind of like somewhat talk about the news and definitely talk about whatever thoughts are coming into their brain and do all of it in a way that isn't alienating to people or making people feel you know erased or whatever uh so i'm i'm glad that we do it because i honestly think it may in for all the podcasts that are out there it may be a fairly unique service yeah maybe yeah all right hey we have a song to go out with i just remembered by the way yes we do by guster thank you the recommendation

of one of our dazzling donors scrambling to get it here which is why i wasn't really the one

the only lynn fam i wonder if i'm gonna see lynn and no pressure lynn this is totally a down to whatever you feel safe uh about but you know we're gonna do a live wire event not quite a live show but a get-together, Andrew, on the roof of Revolution Hall. Yeah, like the B-sharps. Yes, exactly. The crowd's going to be down in the parking lot, and we're going to sing Baby on Board. No, we're actually doing our first Live Wire kind of live event. It'll be outside. It'll be safe. We're following all the rules. But I think that's going to be in July. I'm sure it's at the website somewhere. So if you're in Portland and you want to come be outside and safe and hang in, come say hi. that's gonna i'm i'm i'm uh really excited to to have a thing on the schedule that involves a somewhat public gathering again can't stress this enough a safe public gathering so you're gonna be

on the roof um and the spectators will all be at street level no they'll be on the roof too i was just running with the b sharps oh no i wasn't sure though i wasn't sure if that was the bit

and i was no they have a huge no they have a huge rooftop like area that's like you know Revolution Hall is a converted high school And so it's a huge footprint And so anyway they've got this giant Roof deck that's like Thousands of square feet That's where people will be That's where the event will be

I just want to let you know One of the reasons I was asking those follow up questions Was because my internet took a hit And I was not able to call up this song So I was also just stalling a little bit there I think I have it now Looks like Spotify is back I got this thing Luke This is interesting Actually, this will be great for next year's Drops of Stupider. I have this thing going on where when I'm VPNed into APM every now and then, it just cuts off all of my Internet altogether. And I have to toggle my Internet off and on. Somehow the VPN, Luke, is throttling my Internet. Are you VPNed in right now? I am VPNed in right now because I wanted to remember to post the voting poll at tbtl.net. And I was worried if I didn't start doing that during the show, I would forget to do it. So I VPNed a little bit earlier than usual, which has led to this fascinating conversation.

What's that tournament going to be called when it's just us talking about technical stuff? Where it's just me talking about not liking wearing the headphones at the Minnesota State Fair. It's you talking about Cody and VPNing in.

Right. And also you trying to log in or you trying to log into your cloud service.

so i could like email myself snl sound god just like the 32 greatest moments of us struggling with technology or just talking about some extremely specific thing that the listeners

couldn't possibly care less yes cody itasca all the hits yeah all right so we're gonna go out with

this guster song recommended by lynn and we're gonna let you know that that brings us to the end of today's show but there's great news we've got another one coming your way tomorrow morning so please do tune in for that until then have a great thursday stay safe take care of yourselves take care of each other go mariners good luck james paxton thinking of you yeah uh and if you're one of my neighbors in the building let me have my fun with my bouncy balls please don't complain

to the management uh and also paint the corners luke Thank you.

Yeah, I know. The ump is not giving me those high strikes, Andrew. It's killing me. Absolutely killing me. I have to throw everything right down in the zone, and they're just absolutely taking me yard. Wailing on it. All right. Thanks for listening, folks. See you tomorrow. Until then, please remember, no mountain too tall. And good luck to all.

Too prone to break their knees too deep, their skin too thin. By now you took what was to take. Turn it apart and start again

So go on If this'll make you happier It got you this far Did what you do

you've wasted every moment of your saturdays and your sundays you're all wasted from the boredom was never supposed to be Like your father said, just do what was done unto you always. In your father's steps, you'll do what was done unto you. It won't be hard to start again.

So come on, if this will make you happier, it got you this far. do what you have to

and you're gonna

power out