Muse

I know we've only known each other for four weeks and three days, but to me it seems like nine weeks and five days. The first day seemed like a week, and the second day seemed like five days, and the third day seemed like a week again, and the fourth day seemed like eight days, the fifth day you went to see your mother and that seemed just like a day but then you came back and then later on the sixth day in the evening when we saw each other that started seeming like two days so in the evening it seemed like two days spilling over into the next day and that started seeming like four days so at the end of the sixth day on into the seventh day it seemed like a total of five days and the sixth day seemed like a week and a half I have it written down but I can show it to you tomorrow if you want to see it

T-B-T-L Guess what day it is Guess what day it is It's Friday, Friday Gotta get down on Friday Everybody's looking forward to the weekend.

There are many ways to keep one's lips conditioned. I don't kiss, for example, 24 hours before a performance because kissing makes your lips mushy and we cannot have mushy lips and be a champion.

Actually, you know what? I can email you. Or, you know, you can email me at splat2 at splatnet.net. Splat1's my father. I mean, I'll be sad to see him go. It'll be nice to get my hands on that handle, you know?

All right, hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Friday edition of TBTL, The show that just might be too beautiful to live.

Ambition accompanied with ineptitude, a deadly combination.

My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. Are you sure? That's what they said on Ask Chiefs. Coming to you from the Nest Broadcast Center perched high in the sky above Portland, Oregon, where we have another beautiful day scheduled in the weather department. Yesterday was great, too. It was, as I mentioned, things had cooled down a bit. I think it was in the mid 80s, which felt when I was outside, you know, like a nice temperature, a nice temperature to try some physical activity, maybe a physical activity I haven't tried since before the pandemic. And that is playing pickup basketball, 360 spins and slam dunk pointers, went over to Irvington Park here in Portland and got on the court and really showed them how it's not done. just total liability to my team just absolutely the worst player on the team that i had joined everybody was nice to me about it but i was just like i apologized in advance i looked around at these four strangers and i said i want to apologize for what is about to happen and um after the game they said apology not accepted sir no everybody was cool but anyway it was uh It was an adventure getting back out there. I plan to haunt the courts and disappoint the teammates on various basketball spots around Portland in the coming weeks. Speaking of disappointing folks, guess what we're at? We're at episode 3438 in a collector's series. Let the fun begin. We got some Sky Jinx woo that we didn't get to yesterday. Hello? Airplanes? Yeah, it's blimps. You win. Bye. Including the question of if we should bring alcohol back to flight. It was taken off due to COVID concerns, and a number of the major airlines are delaying the reintroduction of alcohol. They're trying to say I was drunk. I drank eight beers yesterday. That was all I drank. Because even though fewer people are flying than during normal times, there's a huge uptick in incidents of belligerent behavior, and it can almost all be tracked to alcohol, involving people bringing their own booze onto the plane. seems to be a problem once the airlines eliminated it people started bringing their own situation so uh we'll talk about that also like at one point two-thirds of the um planes like the commercial jets i was driving through the mojave desert i don't know a month ago when i was in california for a tv story and i was near victorville and i saw hundreds and hundreds of planes that were just like parked and i thought those planes all just like not useful anymore and i learned that no they were part of this kind of storage plan for a lot of the commercial airlines

uh in america and they store them in the desert because it's better for the equipment but they also

Have to be careful of snakes, literal snakes on a plane, because rattlesnakes are crawling up onto these Qantas jets, so we'll talk about that. Plus, do some music for your weekend. All with the help of this hombre. He's a handsome young stranger. He's baby-stepping. He's doing the work. He may be best known for his depictions of the tall ships, and he is not psyched about the snake component of today's show.

Snakes freak me out. Frogs freak me out. Spiders, dogs, cats, birds, a lot of things.

Doesn't leave us a whole lot of room to talk, but we're going to try. He's Andrew Walsh, and he's joining me right now from the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Good morning, my friend. Good morning, Luke.

Why can't we just talk about nice things like bunnies and Spanish teenagers? Oh, so bunnies don't freak you out. Well, if they look at me, they do, obviously. But to see one far away.

If it's like a bunicula situation, sure.

Yeah, I mean, if it's really, really far away, like, I don't know. Nobody knows how long a football field is, but around that, whatever that would be.

You know what's really long, Andrew? A basketball court at Irvington Park in Portland. Like, when you play pickup basketball, a lot of the full courts, so meaning like, you know, you've got a hoop at either end. There's a mid-court line. There are maybe three-point lines and whatever. A lot of times those courts aren't actually regulation length. They're like a lot shorter because it turns out when you get on a regulation length court, like what the Trailblazers were playing on last night and losing to the Nuggets.

Oh, are they out of it now?

Yeah, unfortunately. I literally fully embraced the Trailblazers two hours before they were eliminated for the season.

Oh, that's such an Andrew move. Congratulations.

Well, because what's happened is here in Portland, everybody's just been so excited because they've been in this this they were in a playoff series with the Denver Nuggets. By the way, congrats to the Tenvers, the Tenverites. You guys must be very happy that the Denver is moving on. But it's been building like there was a double overtime game the other day. I mean, the Blazers have this guy, Dame Lillard, who is just like one of the most exciting and fun to watch basketball players you will ever see. Like of any player I've ever seen. And he just he there's something about these big moments where I mean, he had like 55 points the other night in a double overtime loss. But everybody was tweeting about it and everybody in Portland's got their Blazers jerseys on. So they're just kind of general. I also live like I'm looking at the Moda Center. I'm like Sarah Palin. I can see the Moda Center, which is where they play from my front porch. um so yesterday i knew that they were playing last night and yesterday i went and i played my very very very sad pickup game um on a full court in the blazing sun and i was immediately like three times up and down the court and i was just like sucking wind but um when i when i was coming back from that uh to my place uh i drive i was driving right past the motor center and the game was starting in like 10 minutes and it was just like a throng of people in blazers jerseys and they were all going to the game and it was just like it just made me feel excited and so i actually turned the game on while i was taking a shower and getting ready for things and kind of got into it and then of course they lost and now they're out it's exciting to see i i've

described this feeling on the show to you before i think maybe the older you get maybe the more you can associate with it or identify with it because i maybe was just hemorrhoids yes um maybe old in an unfun way uh beyond my time but um i like seeing big groups of people enjoying themselves from afar okay i was spoofing about the bunny before but i'm not spoofing now like for real like seeing a big crowd of people getting excited to go into a game or a concert or something um gives me life thinking about being in that crowd does not give me life gives me anxiety in a lot of really in a lot of cases i mean listen i still love going to games you know me like Going to see, well, my beloved Mariners, who I could never say anything bad about, obviously, because they won last night. Firmer Modesto Nut Jane Fraley. That's right. And Firmer Nut Walton. John Walton? What's that guy's name? I don't think it's John. Anyway. Yeah, that little scrappy second baseman. Yeah, I don't think he had a great night last night, but I was really hoping he would so I could say Firmer Nut Walton. But anyway, that's just inside jokes that nobody needs to know about. But today's question in the newsletter video is, do you ever cut – you always say you're going to cut stuff out of the show. Do you ever cut anything out of the show? I think the fact that you just heard me make that joke and I didn't cut it out answers your question for you. Anyway, I love seeing it. I kind of get – like I used to love, love, love driving up and down Sunset right before the Oscars. I only did it a couple of times, but that was like, wow, this is like – I'm not into the Oscars. like the oscars i don't even watch it on tv and that's about as far away as you can get um i have no interest in it but god i got a high from seeing people gathering and seeing the streets kind of transform in front of my eyes yeah any kind of you know any sort of group event like

that around you know sports or things like that when we're all kind of on the same page or all you know all excited about the same thing that is a feeling of camaraderie and it's also i will mention something that's been pretty rare outside of you know protests that have gone on and that's a whole different energy because that's a an attempt to try to move for social justice although i would imagine that for folks that were heavily involved in that stuff there was a sense of camaraderie in that as well um but as somebody who wasn't out there very much in those situations myself like just seeing a bunch of people on the streets of portland um excited about the same thing just kind of reminded me of how life used to be they also allowed 10 000 people in the stadium which turns out is just a fraction of what that place holds because it was still empty on television. Really? I thought, yeah, 10,000 people, that would fill that thing up.

Yeah, I don't have a sense for basketball stadiums. I mean, is it maybe double that? It can't be that much.

Well, it depends because where the Sonics used to play, I had to, speaking of angry sports tweets and taking things down, I put up a tweet about the Sonics and took it down the other day. There was just somebody Like some NBA memories website Or whatever had tweeted out this moment From the Western Conference Finals when the Sonics were playing The Utah Jazz And the recording Was insanity how Hyped Key Arena was The Sonics were making a run this was I think in Game 7 and they were going to eventually win and move on To play the Chicago Bulls and lose To them because George Carl didn't shake Michael Jordan's hand in his Chris Steakhouse Just to tie it all back together But anyway The volume in this bus Was astronomical, it was so crazy The fan excitement And I said something like I retweeted this clip and I said Any league that lets a team leave a town With this kind of fan energy is bunk in my book Because I still harbor a lot of anger At the NBA But then I also thought I don't know, let's not be sour I also was at that point getting kind of reintegrated Into NBA playoff watching Like, I was starting to kind of follow some of the plot lines. And so I guess I don't think it's bunk because I'm still watching it. And, like, had the Blazers won, I would have been very hyped for Game 7 against Denver. So I just took it down because I was like, I don't know. I'm putting negativity into the world. Yeah. And it's not going to drive any kind of movement. Like, Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, is not going to see it.

That would be funny if after all the protests, it's your tweet. Like, God, you know what? I hadn't thought of it that way. like I don't want to be bunk I think we can be better exactly so I just I just I was just having

a moment because I remember watching those games and and just being so enthralled with that with that team and so just energized over the whole thing that the fact that team doesn't exist in Seattle anymore you know just made me mad in a moment but anyway I don't know how many people were in key arena I thought key arena might be like 10,000 15,000 it probably varies but here in portland turns out that the moda center holds many more people than 10 000 because it was still and i'm sure that they could have sold the thing out if they would have allowed it you know it wasn't about that it's not about lack of excitement around the trailblazers here it was just because of i guess baby steps on the whole covid stuff can i give you a number here now

this is i don't know i'm guessing that this is going to be the renovated key arena which is It's going to be called Climate Pledge Arena, brought to you by Amazon Smile or whatever. Oh, I just saw another one. 73. Amazon Drive.

If you say Amazon Smile, this is a count.

Yes.

This is going to be one of those shows that's just for you and me, Andrew. Yeah, it's like the end of the week.

I'm getting that.

I'm getting that. We're back from the Thawne. By the way, the van, the Delica, is on the truck, Andrew. Oh, nice. The Delica is on the truck. I have received photographic confirmation from the driver. Oh, cool. It's sitting right behind a Tesla. It's doing great.

Several things there. First of all, the other thing we were counting on the road were not just Amazon semis. The other road game was how many car carriers full of Teslas do we see? We did not know that the vehicle that we were driving when we were playing this road game would one day be on a truck with other Teslas. There's some irony there.

It's all coming back together.

So you're still in the loop on this. I actually – oh, $17,500 basically. Is the average? That's Climate Pledge Arena. So they're renovated. So my guess is that's significantly more than when it was Key Arena, but I don't know. I mean maybe Key Arena topped out at $15,000 or something. Anyway, but anyway, this is interesting. So you're still in the loop on the van situation, huh? Like you're – it's not just like –

Like, you washed your hands of this, like, Judas, and now it's up to the owners. Like, you're still a middleman here. No, I'm taking a great personal interest in the Delica getting home safely. So what happened was yesterday I started getting these calls on my phone from a Las Vegas area code. And I was like, oh, gosh, I'm getting spammed. And so I kept ignoring it. And the person who was actually trying to call me was smart enough to text me and go, hey, this is the guy picking up the van. Smart. Okay, yeah. So then he called again and I answered and he was a very jovial fellow who had essentially zero information around where to get the van, who had the keys. None of the information that I had been transmitting to various people had made it to the person driving the thing that was going to pick up the van. But it was I mean, it was it wasn't I'm making that sound like a bigger deal than it was. I told him where it was. I told him where the keys were, explained the whole thing. And then he – what was weird was then I got a text later from a Seattle number that said, and so the journey begins. And I've sent you a picture of this now. Yeah, I see that picture. And it's the Delica on a long – like maybe longer than our friend Ruben's tow operation. And then there is a Tesla in front of it. And who's the Seattle number? I don't know. That's what I'm confused by. I don't know. Well, I mean, but the point is, yes, I have been coordinating a lot of this stuff. But I feel good now. I feel good knowing that van is on a larger vehicle and is safely being towed back to the Portland area.

And the owner, hopefully, has looped in on this, too. I would say that's more important than you being.

Yes, no, I texted her immediately, and she said something slightly sheepish. She said something like, I gave them all of my information, and, of course, here's what she said. Ha, of course, I gave them my info, but they called you.

So, oh, that's fine. I mean, I'm just glad I know that this is like business and this isn't how business works. But in the back of my head, I just keep thinking I don't want to be hollered at. And I kind of feel bad that they're going through all this. So no one has your phone number. No, I'm just glad that she's not upset with with us for not bringing. No, I may be.

I'm probably going to be taking her and her partner out for a little dinner on me slash on APM. I don't know what the rules on that are on me to, you know, smooth everything over. But you're you're you're come. I mean, honestly, Andrew, you just you're walking out of this totally clean.

None of this is sticking to your permanent record. Do you want me to come to that dinner with you? And then I can learn that I'm hosting the Ron and Don show the next day, which is the last time you and I had a business dinner together about seven, eight years ago.

I'll see if there's a Daniel's broiler down here in Portland. Hey, speaking of getting hollered at, I didn't want to talk about this. And then I started talking about it with you before we started the show. And now I do. I think it's a slightly interesting topic. Maybe there's been a little back and forth on Twitter about a tweet that I tweeted about the TV show Mayor of Easttown. And I know you haven't seen the show, Andrew, and I don't want to spoil anything for folks that aren't all the way through the show. So I guess although this is this is not really a spoiler. It's just me kind of trying to analyze if I think a character worked or not as a sort of plot device. but if you are like very very into mayor of east town and you don't want anything spoiled you might want to like um you know skip ahead four hours i don't know how long this is going to take honestly um i there is a character played by guy pierce who uh so like i don't know how much i need to explain the plot of mayor of east town to folks but in case you haven't seen the show kate winslet is a detective in this kind of um i think made up town in delaware county which is kind of the you know sort of exurbs of philadelphia um kind of rural but you know small towns maybe 50 000 people or something and uh part of the show's arc is that this author guy pierce is in town doing some kind of like guest teaching at a local university and his character's deal is that he wrote a very very popular book but it was kind of a long time ago but he's still kind of um a sort of a literary um celebrity but one that is maybe fading a little bit but he meets Kate Winslet's character at a bar he's very interested in her they they end up hooking up that night but then she's kind of keeping him at arm's length and but he seems very interested in her he's pursuing her he's coming over to her house he's like wants to meet her mom he invites her to a book event he's having which ends up being very lavish and he's surrounded by like female admirers um who are I don't know what the content of his book is, but obviously like they're very these women in this scene are very excited to be talking to this kind of famous author, which also I will just say plot wise is a little confusing because he's trying to say that he's kind of a faded star, a faded literary star. But then this event that he has is like very posh and catered and like tons of people are there and it's valet and all. these basically hot chicks are fawning over him which to me belies the idea that he's a faded literary star like it's but anyway point is they start kind of dating but then she sort of goes on another date with her like co-detective and that ends the way it ends if you've seen the show but at the very end i kept waiting for something meaning what i thought of as meaningful to happen between these two people at these two characters and then at the end literally like the last episode where everyone's just kind of getting their five minutes. It's almost like when you have a band, and it's like a jazz band, and everyone gets their chance to go off on their solo.

Like the bass player does their thing, and then the drummer does their thing, and then everyone applauds politely after each performer has had their moment. This was like that of television. They check in with every character, and every character does their little thing and then says, I think it's going to be okay, or whatever. So Guy Pearce's character Just like rolls up behind her house And is like okay I'm leaving for Colby College Where I'll be a professor And she's like where's Colby College He's like I'll call you when I get there And then she says like what's going to happen to us And he goes I don't know And then he literally gets in a Jaguar Now mind you everybody else in this show Is driving like a beat to shit Ford F-150 And Guy Pearce gets in his Jaguar And drives away to his you know tenured professorship at Colby College and he won't tell her where Colby College is? Suspicious much? Season 2? Mayor of Colby College? Okay you know what I take it all back She Googles Colby College You Googled my dirter Anyway I want to keep trying to make murder dirter jokes I'm already out of it Even Googled my dirter was a stretch So So That whole thing kind of was a little confusing To me because I kept waiting to see if Guy Pearce Was like a bad guy like he had done Something or just was Something more than just a kind of a random Person who just seemed from a totally different World like I wouldn't I didn't understand why those Characters why they Made him that why they wrote that Character the way they wrote it okay so In a fit of peak I wrote on Twitter the other day did Guy Pearce lose money trying to short GameStop or something. Why was he slash that character in Mayor of Easttown? That made zero sense. That was a tweet that I put out and then I got a response from someone named Abby who said, you totally misunderstood the show, Luke. It's killing me, Marge Simpson sound. His character is there to show that Mayor is capable of being in a relationship again. It even surprises her. He adds a lot to the story. It's a shame they didn't do more with him. And then I responded, it still feels random to me. It's like, let's have Michael Chabon randomly move to a shite town and fall in love with local police detective um then somebody replied to that uh abby replied uh kind of agreeing with me saying um uh basically saying yeah that was kind of slightly weird how they did that then somebody else jumped in later and said my take uh is somebody who goes by the name public emily my take is it's a simple gender swap sorry that's a good handle though my take is that it's a simple gender swap we aren't used to male characters existing only to further the emotional development of women but it happens the other way around in virtually every property even to famous actresses paltrow i believe that's gwyneth paltrow in iron man for instance yeah um zabe's relationship i didn't even know that um a guy

pierce's name was zabe's i'm continuing another reading another tweet from public emily zabe's relationship to mayor also feels like a typical lady role plucky younger upstart who has oh zabes must be the detective who has a crush on mayor who they go on one date together this is like her partner who she's very basically this show should have been called mayor's jury is still out on things because everyone she meets she's like not into them and then eventually she's into them like that's what happens with her her partner who she's sort of paired with she doesn't really want him there she wants to do the case herself but then they you know end up appreciating each other uh zabe's relationship with mayor also feels like a typical lady role plucky younger upstart who has a crush on grizzled damaged detective he's cute he's generic he has a little in the way he has little in the way of an inner life he's a woman in literally any movie and then um kelly listener kelly says this is such a good point no shade to luke but will we even be having this discussion if mayor were a man um so it would there seem to be a few people on twitter who think that maybe this is just a gender thing and i and i don't i don't really feel called in on this because everyone's being very nice to me like i don't feel like anyone's trying to you know like roast me or dunk on me too hard um but i've been kind of wrestling with this the whole morning thinking is this am i kind of not buying this plot because of the gender Thank you. roles or am i not blind buying the plot because it just seems a little bit undercooked to me and i i think i don't know if it's just me being defensive i kind of think it's for me not so much about gender like for instance if everybody were a different gender in this show it would still maybe i wouldn't have maybe here's the thing though maybe it wouldn't have jumped out at me as being kind of as pointless as it was if the gender roles were reversed i've also never seen iron man so i don't have a context for that gwyneth paltrow character oh yeah and i don't

I don't know enough about Iron Man either. I was just excited when you mentioned Paltrow. I thought, I'll bet you he's going to say Iron Man. I don't even really know why in the context or if I understand or agree with public enemy there. I was just – I want you to know that. Public Emily. Emily. What did I say? I messed up the whole joke. I'll cut it out. If you're hearing this, reader, you did not cut it out. Anyway, so I don't even fully understand that just for the record. I only gasped because I recognized a name, I think.

There's so much. I mean, I kind of, to me, it was, again, maybe it only stuck out to me because the Guy Pearce's character was there purely to serve the plot of or the character's arc of Mayor of Easttown. It's very possible that I wouldn't have noticed it if the roles were reversed. Although I do think, I kind of can't help but shake the feeling that if it were, and I don't know who a perfect analog would be in the world of writing, but let's just go with, oh, I don't know, Sloane Crosley. Okay, so the writer Sloane Crosley Who wrote the great book I was told there would be cake Very funny essayist Has sometimes been compared to David Sedaris Which is probably its own gendered thing If you're comparing her to a male writer But let's say Sloane Crosley comes to Easttown And a very rumpled Russell Crowe I was going to say Sipowitz from NYPD Blue But I don't think that's fair to Kate Winslet Because Kate Winslet is no Dennis Franz A lot of Dennis Franz on the show the last few weeks, by the way. Has Franz popped up? Yeah, I can't remember why, but we were talking about him the other day, too. But if if a if a successful writer who was a woman came to Easttown and then fell hard for the male detective who was just kind of in a totally different socioeconomic world and kind of cultural world and like, would it have jumped out at me? You know what as I say this out loud It would have been less shocking So I think I actually have to side with Twitter on this

Isn't it kind of exactly though What you and I got into our tiff about Which is now one of the longest running jokes on TBTL Which was when you were trying to justify a relationship It wasn't True Detective What show was that We met at a police conference The movie is the seven billboards outside of I know I'm getting that all wrong

Seven billboards outside of Ebbing, Missouri I think I got the

Do I have the number of billboards wrong though

Three billboards outside.

Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. Three little billboards outside of Ebbing. Okay, because I have several things to say having not seen Mare. So just from an outside perspective, like I'm not going to weigh in heavily on this, but just like kind of the feelings and the thoughts on this stuff. But is there a parallel between what you saw in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Which was you have like literally this wasn't it Woody Harrelson playing a police detective and you were just like why this woman who just seems like she's from a completely different world and literally a different country because she has an accent. It's just like suddenly in in his world. Is there a parallel?

The problem with the problem with this part of the conversation is I have forgotten so much about that film that I just can't say anything with even by my standards, any amount of accuracy or authority. But but but maybe so. I mean, I guess what I'm saying here in this is rare for me is I think maybe the people that were tweeting at me saying the genders are why this jumped out at me are probably not wrong. I think we're probably used to. And by the way, I find it corny. Like, it's not like I think, oh, good, Russell Crowe. I don't know why I'm being mean to Russell Crowe. He seems like a nice enough fellow. And maybe there's lots of people think Russell Crowe is like the sexiest guy on earth. But like, I don't know. It's the kind of thing where I guess we're used to seeing guys who look and behave a certain kind of way often become the object of affection of a woman who's maybe more conventionally attractive or outside of their culture. Like it could be the like, you know, the TV or the courthouse TV reporter who's or in the case, let's go back to the NYPD blue model. I believe he dated the like very conventionally attractive like D.A. or something. So it's like.

Like, that was the whole plot of NYPD Blue is Dennis Franz wooing the DA. And there was literally a scene where their first date, he's eating and he goes, and he's sweating and he goes, I sweat when I eat. And it didn't seem crazy. Like, no one was writing think pieces about why this very conventionally attractive DA is hooking up with Dennis Franz. So, I mean, maybe we're just used to it. And when it gets, when the script gets flipped, it seems odd to me. Again, I really just wanted them to make Guy Pearce a murderer or something. I just wanted his character to I just want his character to do something more than leaving his Jaguar at the end, I guess.

Right. And I mean, it seems like we're having a couple of different conversations here because it seems like the conversation has shifted to say this trope is a pretty bad trope and it has roots in sexism when the shoe is on the other foot. And isn't it interesting how it stands out more when the genders are reversed? That is actually a very interesting conversation, and maybe there's some truth to it. But I don't think that's the point of your original – like I feel like – and again, I don't know why I would – why would I even insert myself into this and make people angry at me too? But just to kind of toss it around a little bit.

I love that you're drawing the fire away from me. This is a hero. You're going to get – if you survive this, you're going to get a silver star.

Right. Well, let me put it this way. It's like the Palestinian-Israeli crisis, right? thank you for the donation i inserted that into the show for some reason for no reason whatsoever i drew some parallel to that the other day like a couple of weeks ago and i got literally the funniest text message from chris hayes i've ever gotten him just totally busting my chops he's like yeah anytime hey real pro move there dude anytime you can just reach out and grab that hot stove do it don't let the opportunity pass you by anyway what I was going to say was that is an interesting conversation to have and I actually look for this stuff all the time I'm reading this article Luke that is kind of hard to describe but you and I you know what I'm talking about it was in the New Yorker recently it's called the strange story of Dagobert the DuckTales Bandit it's kind of a long read and I kind of read half of it and then I kind of forgot I want to pick it up again it's actually not written in the very kind of more I don't know. It's not as craftily written, for lack of a better word, as as I expect a lot of my New Yorker features to be. It's a little bit like it's. Have you started reading this, too? Or did you read? I haven't yet. I mean, I saw my list for this weekend. Yeah, but it's just, you know, the writing itself is a little stilted, I think, and a little far removed. I'm kind of surprised. But, you know, it's it's about this this person who was setting off bombs in Europe in order to extort money out of businesses and then how he became kind of a folk hero as sometimes these criminals do because it became him versus the clumsy cops who were trying to get him and he used all these gadgets and weird things that seemed to be inspired by the Uncle Scrooge comics which were apparently revered in Europe at the time as a sort of intellectual comic. I mean, there's a lot of dazzling details in here that sound amazing, but as I'm reading the story, I'm like, this isn't as good as the description, But sorry to the writer of this for being so frank about it. But here's the thing that I noticed in this article. You're wondering, well, how does this tie in? This writer whose name is Jeff Mache, he's not a regular writer for The New Yorker. He was just commissioned for this piece, I guess, or they hired him as a freelancer for this piece. And he lists so many characters in this. He never mentions what they look like except the one woman police officer. Oh, mentions all of these police officers. And then he he mentions one detective and he doesn't go into tons of detail or make her sound, you know, like he doesn't objectify her necessarily in some sort of like a sexualized way. But he just in the in her introduction, he says something about her glasses and her steely, her steely hair or something along the lines of that, you know, like silver hair or something. and it just stood out to me I was just like you have not described one person now you gave one sentence of a description to this person if you had described everybody else and mentioned you know

this person's like coffee stained mustache and this other person you know what I mean like but why was it this one character that he had to describe her glasses and her hair right and that stood out to me I'm just like that's fucking that's sexist how did how did nobody how did nobody in the editing process

Well, The New Yorker is a famously kind of chill operation. Yeah, right. A little fact-checking. The editorial process is just kind of like, I don't know. Do you feel good about the piece? Throw it up there.

I'm just very confused about how this thing ended up getting in this writer's hands anyway. But anyway, that's pretty rude to this writer. But also I think it's pretty rude the fact that I'm still – I'm scrolling through it and talking at the same time. I can't find the sentence. It doesn't matter. So anyway, that is to say that I am not blind – not always blind to, although certainly in a lot of –

I'm sure I'm blind to all kinds of casual sexism in the world. I find it really interesting to call that out or when somebody else calls it out and to talk about it and to talk about these things that stand out when roles are reversed. That's all interesting. Totally. I do wonder, though, if that's the does that really address and I'll put this as a question, the point of your tweet? Or should I say, once we point these things out, is it good writing to just reverse it and keep it going? Like, it would be one thing if it was – if this movie, The Mayor of Easttown, or if this TV show was doing it specifically – It's not TV. It's HBO. Max.

God, I wish I could make that sound effect with my mouth, and I can't. Nope. Wow. What was that? That's something that will live on marsupial gurgle, and I deserve it.

But you know what I'm saying? If this was something that they were trying to make a point about it and this was the part of the show is calling out these things, maybe even very subtly. Or if there was like if we talked to the director and said, yeah, we wanted to insert this because we wanted to open people's eyes to how ridiculous this character seems when gender roles are reversed or whatever. That would be interesting. I don't think that's what the show is doing. I do think it. I mean, from what you're saying, I have not seen it. And so, honestly, I will admit that. Do not come at me and explain Mayor of Easton. I haven't seen it. But given everything you've said. Don't explain to him. But it sounds like you're just making a comment about what you think to be kind of some lazy writing or a lazy plot device and people pointing out to you that, well, it happens, you know, in the other way all the time. That's interesting, but it doesn't invalidate your point, I don't think.

Well, and I think you're right. I don't watch a lot of this kind of stuff. I don't I don't. And you know what I mean? like as far as um fictional crime shows like I watch a lot of documentary style crime shows and things like that but like it's fairly rare that I am watching along with something like Mare of Easttown that a lot of other people are watching that's kind of I mean even I even said this a couple days ago about how that sketch the SNL sketch murder murder murder it sort of felt like Like the satire of it was kind of funnier and funnier to me as the show went on because there were more and more scenes that were kind of very, in my mind, mockable. Like the show started off really well because there was a lot of mystery. But then it just – anytime they weren't actively pursuing the mystery, the plot arcs of the characters were very uninteresting to me. And so I – I mean that's just my take on the show. uh doesn't mean that's how anyone else should feel about it but i i think you're right i think what it was is it just felt like it was kind of it was kind of slapdash and not particularly useful and it would have been the the guy pierce character and it would have been slapdash and not particularly useful if it was sloan crosley and russell crowe like you know what i mean like i just but i'm just not used to watching most of the time if like i don't go see very many movies that are like this i don't go see very you know i don't watch how many tv shows are like this And so I'm just not – I guess I'm sensitive to what I consider to be a little bit of hokiness or a little bit of like not great plot development. And so I noted it and I did note it involving a female protagonist and then a guy who was there to kind of serve her character's arc. But I think it would have been uninteresting to me if the genders were reversed because it just seemed like it was kind of hokey writing.

Oh, you know what? I thought I had a big surprise for you here, Luke, because while you were talking, I heard Genevieve was passing by my door, so I yelled, Genevieve, come in here. This is the type of thing where Genevieve's opinion would be, this is exactly because it's about pop culture and kind of social perspective and everything.

Would you describe Genevieve as having blonde hair and a steely demeanor, not unlike Claudia Brockman?

Genevieve is here right now, but she's mouth... Oh, wait, is your mic on? Here you go.

Hey.

But you're mouthing to me that you haven't finished it yet.

I haven't had a chance to watch the final episode, and I know it's increasingly going to be hard for me to avoid spoilers, but I so far have avoided them.

I'm sorry I set this whole thing up.

Let me ask you a question, Genevieve. Let me ask you – by the way, hi, how are you?

Good, how are you?

Thank you for jumping on the show, even if only for a moment. I'm going to – if – I think I can talk about this a little bit without spoiling anything the conversation Andrew and I are having is about a tweet that I put out about Guy Ritchie Guy Pierce's character on Mare and my kind of not fully understanding kind of what he was doing there in the show and also him being from this other struck me as from this literary world and what was like just the whole thing seemed weird to me their characters being interested in each other or whatever and some people were saying on twitter that that i was having that reaction because the gender roles were reversed from the traditional sort of thing now i don't i i don't want to say i don't talk about the end of the show because anything i say about the guy pierce character will tell you either he's involved or he's not involved or whatever so i don't know if we can actually really talk very much about it but what was your take so far this far into the show what's your take on the guy pierce uh kate winslet thing

right like and it is interesting to imagine if they if the genders were reversed and you had kind of a like i don't know if what she does would be considered working class she's a detective but you know she's sort of more like sort of like slightly kind of townie she's a townie and he's a he's a well-educated outsider what clearly white collar um would we find it surprising if a if a woman you know were in that role and then was attracted to kind of like the tough the tough sheriff or detective guy i think people are right that that is a trope we're more familiar with um and so i do think it's reasonable that they would be attracted to each other i actually find it a little weird that i don't i found his whole thing weird um and he he gave me like a slightly he a little bit of a creep factor which is why don't tell me anything because i well that's why i'm trying to be vague yeah um but it won't shock me to if to to watch it and find out that there's more there's some secret part of him um but yeah like i i get on you know on paper at least i get their their appeal to each other okay let me ask you an unrelated

question that nobody can figure out where the hell is colby college this is related to a different conversation we're having before um colby is that

maine i think that's in like maine or something feels like the northeast to me yeah i got a um I got a mailer from Colby College when I was in – it's in Maine. Good call, Vives. When I was taking the, like, PSAT, like the thing before the SAT, they just said, what kind of college do you want to go to? And I just checked liberal arts. I didn't even know what that meant. But still, that's a good call. You couldn't find conservative arts, so you're like, all right. And so all I got were mailings from, like, Colby College and Davidson and, like, just a ton of schools that now if I ever hear them, I just remember getting a glossy magazine from them that the PSAT had pointed them in my direction.

I had a full library of all of those colleges brochures as well.

Well, Veeves, maybe – you know what would be kind of fun, actually, and not to obligate you to more podcast – unpaid podcast work? I mean, the amount of unpaid podcast labor that women in this country do for TVTL actually is terrible. But it'd be maybe just like we'll hang out on your roof and talk about it. But I'd love to get your take on Mare when you're all done with it. Yeah. Then we can speak freely.

I need to I need to get on watching it. I don't know why I have put it off. It's kind of one of those things where by the time I sit down to watch something, usually in the evening, it's after sort of a long day. And I've I want to be focused and and usually the time I like to watch those kinds of things are like on a Sunday morning with a cup of coffee. And I just haven't had a chance to like sit down in on a in a morning time environment and watch it. But I will make an effort to to get it watched this weekend and then we could talk about it whenever.

OK, I like to sit down on a Monday morning with a yingling and a hokey from Wawa or a rolling rock.

I mean yeah yingling's bad right because the guy who who runs yingling is a real trumpster oh that

is the least surprise I didn't know that but I am completely unshocked to hear that the amount of rolling rock that is consumed in that show just as like water I know right yeah it's like

it doesn't matter what time of day or who who's who is in the kitchen there's a rolling rock coming out of the fridge.

Everyone's always offering someone a rolling rock. Everyone's always accepting the rolling rock. It'll be like you're at a brisk. Rolling rock, and the moil takes the rolling rock. One hand, the foreskin in the other hand. It's like... Anyway. All right. Thanks, Steve. Thanks for not spoiling it. Sorry I didn't have more to add. Oh, not at all. Not at all. Appreciate your time. All right. All right. Let's take a quick break.

Who booked her? What's that? Who booked her? No pre-interview? Like, come on.

let's take a quick break and then we'll come back we'll talk about this airplane stuff and we'll play some music for your weekend my song I believe that I have for this week was I picked it a few weeks ago and it got bumped by the Counting Crows

oh that's right when the brand new Counting Crows song came out we never listened to that on the road trip

the worst Counting Crows song and then I found a better one but it was like coming down the line in mono was a whole situation so I aim to do a better job with my music for your weekend this week anyway stick around for that coming up on TBTL

Thank you.

hello and welcome to top story our top story a piece in the washington post by hannah sampson airline passengers are behaving worse than ever one proposed solution ban alcohol um and the article um hannah writes about southwest airlines announcing that they're going to postpone the return of alcohol until an unspecified time. They had planned to resume sales this month on certain flights, but they're not going to do that now. This is due to an uptick industry-wide in incidents of in-flight disruptive passengers. American Airlines followed suit, telling flight attendants in a memo last weekend that it was suspending alcohol in the main cabin, even though they're still going to sell it or offer it in business and first class. Um, uh, the, uh, American memo talked about some deeply disturbing situations that have been occurring lately with passengers. Uh, let me say, I have the number here. Uh, it's something like the federal aviation administration, uh, said that it's received 2,500 reports of unruly behavior since the beginning of the year, including 1,900 reports of passengers disobeying federal face mask requirements. It would appear that the, uh, issue a lot of the time is that people have been drinking, often bringing their own alcohol on which as we hear on the pre-flight message is not allowed how are they getting away with that by the way because i've been i won't lie i've been tempted um my guess would be you can bring airline bottles they're smaller than like in a carry-on we used to do this going to vegas the mummy would bring this was his only contribution uh financially or otherwise would bring a bunch of airline bottles of booze because individually they're all small enough to get through the tsa and then you crack those open on the plane and you've saved yourself some dough um this was when i read this i started to think to myself i started to have a moment of really wondering like it doesn't actually make sense as a person who enjoys getting liquored up at 30 000 feet does it actually make sense that alcohol is such a key component of flight for so many people and i will also mention this you know i'm always like suspicious of corporations making rules saying where this is to save the whales or this is because of covid this is one where i think these companies are probably they're doing this at a financial loss i would assume that alcohol sales are a big profit driver for airlines maybe i'm wrong about that but it just seems like that's another thing they can sell to you at a decent markup so if they're eliminating it they're doing this because they really feel like it's gotten out of control would you would you agree

with that that sort of theory yeah it's funny i i um for some reason yesterday right before the show after you and i had already sound checked i told you oh you know i had read this article that put me in the mood for it was morning so i was on a weekday it was like maybe wednesday when this first showed up in the show you had your wednesday yingling right and i was like oh man it's probably you know, like 10 o'clock in the morning, you and I had not, I don't know, maybe we hadn't dialed up yet, but I just read this article. And it made me want to Bloody Mary so bad, because I just reading about drinking on an airplane made me think about that good Bloody Mary mix that they have on specifically on Alaska Airlines. And we've talked on the show before about why being up that high kind of does something to your taste buds that makes umami stand out more, which is why people will often be attracted to Bloody Marys up there if they're not usually drinking them down on the ground, etc. So anyway, I was actually got up for a second and considered making myself a Virgin Mary. I was not going to get in the habit of drinking in the mornings during the show. Don't worry. I don't think anybody's worried about that but I just want it on the record. But anyway, Genevieve maybe asked me what I was doing or something and I said, oh, I was just reading this article about how they might stop serving booze on flights and she let out a whale that was like, I thought that she what's the dungeon in The Pit of Despair? Yeah, she sounded like she was in the pit of despair, and she just yelled, this is why we can't have nice things, which I understand. We're going to be headed to Hawaii around Christmastime again, and we're really looking forward to it. Haven't taken, obviously, kind of a real vacation in a long time, as most people haven't. And part of that will be looking forward to maybe being on the flight. It's a nonstop flight, getting on that flight and having a cocktail or two to kick off the vacation. That's a pleasure of life right there for those of us who go in for it. But on the other hand, like, yeah, we need to really think about employee protections, generally speaking. And if we're in a situation, I mean, either we need to start hiring and training flight attendants. I mean, they're already hired and trained to take care of unruly passengers, which they should not have to do. Yeah, they shouldn't know how to operate zip ties. Exactly. And like, well, we're going to deputize.

them even further like that should not be what their priority is and if if passengers are getting drunk and and putting other passengers and the employees um health at risk or or life at risk certainly then yeah this is one of those pleasures that we clearly we haven't earned it anymore and also flight has just changed i mean it is i mean again i'm not advocating for this change what i'm advocating for is people to stop being assholes but so that we can have nice things but i mean when you look at um how air travel has changed we're not getting all dressed up and putting on a tie and getting on airplanes anymore like it was a special occasion like not serving us a prime rib

right exactly like pictures from the 50s everybody's just shuffling on in their soft

pants and slippers and you know and that's fine people can do what they want i'm not trying to judge but i'm just saying that like maybe then as as this becomes more and more like public transportation owned by private industry i'd point out but as it kind of takes more and more of that feel maybe that booze is not something that we should be adding to the mix any more than we should be you know serving booze on the uh metro buses i take to get downtown i will tell you that

um i don't think i have been on a flight that has alcohol in fact i'm i'm almost certain of it so i have now i've flown a fair number of times during the pandemic like uh you know a couple times when i wasn't vaxxed when i was you know trying to be real careful with double masks and all that and then once i was vaxxed uh a few times and i the thing that's been interesting to me is that i have not felt like the experience of flying has been radically different for me minus alcohol even though uh two years ago i would have told you one of the greatest joys in life is sitting down settling into your flight getting that first little drink feeling i much like how i think that the bloody mary mix hits your tongue different at 30 000 feet i think being mildly buzzed at 30 000 feet feels different at least to me and i would have said oh the whole reason try to get upgraded to first class will be because you might get a free you know you get a free drink or whatever it is all these flights have been fine that i've been on you know maybe i've been distracted trying to not get covid or whatever but it it hasn't it hasn't like made the experience way worse for me and in fact it's kind of nice to get to my destination and you know not worry about like oh have i had too many drinks to go like get in the rental car or uh was i annoying my seatmate with this conversation because i was at that point two vodka sodas in or whatever like as a person who loves drinking on airplanes i have i can now say it's not that critical to

the experience it's i didn't know like the flight that i was on just recently coming back from phoenix to seattle short flight three hours um they did have booze on that flight i didn't have any but i heard somebody like somebody behind me ordered a scotch and they didn't have scotch but they gave him a whiskey or whatever so that's how i know wow yeah so um it sounds like at least in

southwest does not have it yet that's why i had to fly home on because of the timing of things that's going to be a whole situation because i didn't book it through the proper channels Oh, boy. I've got my weekend cut out for me. But we flew.

I will say, like, we did – you and I, because you weren't drinking at the time, so I didn't want to sit there and, you know, have drinks in front of you while you were potentially white-knuckling it. But, like, that flight to Australia, like that – Oh, I'm sorry. What was that, like 15 – was that a 13-hour flight or 15?

I feel terrible that you couldn't enjoy a drink. No, no, no, no. No, no, no. I do. I feel a little bad, though, because because that's a long flight to not get to enjoy a Bloody Mary.

I don't. You know what? Flying. Listen, I enjoy having a drink on an airplane. I've done it plenty. It's I didn't I don't celebrate it or even maybe fetishize it as much as you did maybe back in that day. And I knew that it was again. Was I if I was by myself? Yeah, I would have had one. But I'm not saying that I'm like some sort of martyr here that I took, you know, like some huge bullet. But it was totally fine. And, again, I would expect – honestly, I'd expect you to do the same for me if the roles were reversed, and I think you would. I don't think that's a lot to ask of somebody in that situation. But having said that, like that was a long flight. Like what was it? Again, 13 hours or something, and you survived that. You know what I mean? So, like, we can do it. Clearly we can do it.

Well, what I've noticed is it seems – well, I was going to say it seems like there's two kind of people, but there's actually three kinds of people. There is the person who Doesn't want to drink On the airplane because the whole situation Is already a bit stressful or whatever They're just like not interested in being drunk And at 30,000 feet and trying to navigate All of the indignities of air travel Then there's the person Who might in normal life not be Much of a drinker but who is having their Second double at the airport Bar at 7am That's an interesting move Because it's this kind of socially acceptable Way to binge drink Like everyone was like, oh, you want to double for $5 more? And like.

like everyone's drinking at 7 a.m. like do we again i'm not the listeners know my complex history with alcohol i'm not going to judge anybody over what they're doing but it's interesting how you'll see otherwise i people who generally probably wouldn't be drinking at 7 a.m. are tossing them

back and it might have to do with nerves too right not just the because there's the the cultural shift i'm kind of like that too sometimes i sit next to a guy in the phoenix airport and he was you know sucking back several what do you call them screwdrivers and it was you know kind of it was you know maybe 11 in the morning and I was like that actually kind of seems nice like you're maybe going somewhere on vacation so again like you're kind of breaking the rules but also I think there are some people who maybe are anxious and they're taking the edge off or at one point they told themselves they were anxious like years ago and it's just become maybe part of their their flight ritual just like well I'm an anxious flyer so I get to the you know bar and I

i have a couple of doubles yeah i wonder how much of it is because of actual anxiety and how much of it is because it's just become the habit and again i'm not judging anyone at all i mean i've made eight billion questionable decisions around alcohol this week but um uh but i guess i would then there's the third person who is probably more like you or me andrew at least me at this point which is you'll have a drink on the plane but you're not going to go gerard Depardieu on it and start urinating in the aisle forgot about and it's like the question is what breaks in the brain of the people who are doing the bananas shit that we then hear about on the news the person who's trying to open the thing you know trying to open the emergency slide at 30,000 feet the person who wants to fight the air marshal the person who is like just wearing a burger king uh wearing a burger king crown hat and yelling the n-word on a flight from jamaica which literally happened andrew a white guy recently yes he's become a meme it's terrible don't even look it up i don't want to give him any attention but like what it kind of was what is it what goes on that for some people they lose their damn minds when they have a few of those

drinks it's just the weirdest thing yeah i i have no idea i mean it probably is also what kind of a But, I mean, that could be people drinking in the sky, but also it's probably just amplified what their personalities are like when they're drinking. I don't think that you and I are – maybe this doesn't speak well of us in our relationship to alcohol. But I don't think that you and I are the type of people whose personality changes greatly when we've had too many drinks or some drinks.

No, I think it just amps. I think it probably slightly amplifies. So that's a thing about you, Andrew, is that you are even more, like, thoughtful and self-deprecating and all of the characteristics of your personality, they just come out more when you've had a few drinks. And then sometimes it's the next day and you're like, oh, I wonder if I was being too much or annoying. And I'm like, no, you were being Andrew, which is a lovely person to be around. You were just being more Andrew. I've had, you know, I've had my high points and my low points as far as the parts of my personality it brings out. um but um but but yeah i it would be i don't know what the perfect solution is but i definitely think these poor flight attendants should not be dealing with as much bullshit as they're dealing

yeah that that's the that's the number one thing for me honestly it's just they're already dealing with too much we we treat them like they're they're waiters and they're trained so far beyond that for you know and like i know that we can kind of dismiss the emergency um you know procedures that they have to go over every time. But, like, I do know from talking to them, like, they take it very seriously and they have real training there. And we are in a tube 30,000 feet in the sky, you know? Like, there is something to be taken seriously there. We can't have people just, like, you know, drinking their Jim Beam or Jack Daniels and, you know, tormenting these people.

You know who else doesn't need this bullshit? The people that are working at this kind of Mojave Desert area plane storage facility in Victorville, where they have all these Qantas jets, and they have to walk around these – they're called engineers. They have to walk around with what they call a wheel whacker, which it turns out is just a repurposed broom handle, although each wheel whacker –

Like an engineering kind of, you know, scientific important name. No, they just called it a wheel, a wheel whacker, a wheel whacker complete with each aircraft's registration written on it.

Oh, OK. Every airplane has its own dedicated broom handle, a wheel whacker that somebody like a guy named Tim Haywood is in charge of taking and whacking the wheels of the airplane so that the rattlesnakes leave the wheels of the plane. He said, we've encountered rattlesnakes and also some scorpions, but the wheel whacker does its job and they scuttle off. That's what Tim.

Tim is a very, very chill individual.

Yeah, I take it. And are we making sure that these rattlesnakes are not getting on the plane, as I think you were moving to yesterday?

You figure, I mean, yeah, who knows? I guess we'll find out when we get back up in the sky. This article, which is from CNN, was actually very interesting about what an undertaking it is to, like, put a plane in storage. because there are so many little engine, you know, parts and things that where the airflow and fuel flow and things need to be like very, very, very controlled and you can't have stuff drying out. You can't have like gaskets and gauges and things drying out or getting stuck. So you've got to cover over all these sensitive like, you know, sensors and elements with like special paper that keeps them kind of like in an okay state. So then you got to take it all off, right and you got to make sure everything works they think that it's going to be two years before traffic returns to pre-pandemic levels um and so i guess they have a little bit of time but i was just shocked i guess i shouldn't have been shocked because these airplanes are complicated and i would like them to stay aloft when i'm in them but like shutting an airplane down takes like a hundred hours like a hundred person hours and then bringing it out of storage takes another hundred person hours so that's a lot of work to just make sure that thing is going to work again yeah somehow i

don't find that surprising because they just seem so like i don't know i just think about how five years ago how long it took my computer to start you know like the last non-laptop computer i had probably took like probably like honestly i would hit the power button and then walk away for three to five minutes before i could log on like that was not that long ago maybe 10 years ago right like i would assume that i mean we have these giant computers that fly through the sky Like, yeah, it seems like – and I'm glad to hear it. I'm always glad to hear it. It's like, oh, no, we just turned the key, we put it under the seat, and then we go on with our business. That's a plane I don't want to fly on.

I don't want to, like, make anybody who's a nervous flyer more nervous, and I don't want to get into speculating about air safety. But when I read this article, I was like, I hope they – I hope they dot all those I's and cross all those T's. Because I don't think we've ever had something like this where two-thirds of the commercial airplanes have been put into storage and then taken out. And that's just a lot of planes for a lot of people to have to remember a lot of details on. And I just had this kind of panic moment of thinking about one stuck sensor that's got just a piece of tape on it. You know what they do here in Portland that I haven't seen before? It must just be this one chain of car wash places. is they tape your back windshield wiper down with, like, a piece of masking tape. I guess so when you go through the car wash, it doesn't, like, get too crazy or get knocked off.

Have you ever seen that? No, I haven't seen that. We do have a rear windshield wiper now, and I have taken it through car washes. No, I've never seen that. Why is that more vulnerable than the front ones?

Or maybe it's this one place here, but I went through the car wash, and then the thing that was kind of funny was where they put the tape, nothing got clean so oh yeah yeah sure there was a big dust like the car was immaculate and there was a big square of dust where the tape had been and now that i know what that was all over portland there are people driving around that have no idea that their back windshield wipers taped down with some green masking tape and they're not untaping it for you no i mean you know it's not a huge it's not a huge deal to untape it but it's funny because like no everyone's walking everyone's driving around with the with the equivalent of toilet paper on their shoe yeah i mean it's not

a huge deal but if you go in are these car washes where you stay in the car or you get out of the car though that's what i did yeah especially if you stay in the car and then if they're taping something down they have to untape it because then you're what is the expectation that you're going to get out and the other end of the like assembly line that they push you through and then

like untape it before like what's the plan here i had no idea it was there until one day i walked up to the car from the rear and was like oh and then i figured out what it was but i guess a bad outcome also would be if you didn't know it was there and then there was a rainstorm and then you're trying to activate your rear windshield wiper and it's taped down i don't like this policy luke i'm not gonna lie all right let's do a little um music for your weekend before we ski daddle this has been a fun week um it's you know we had such a great time doing the thon and again thank you so much everyone who supported us and are giving us a chance to keep doing this for a year it's also fun to kind of be back in our normal spots and and do normal shows too i've really

enjoyed doing the show this week yeah me too it's been a good one i'm i'm looking here by the way enjoyed it otherwise no i really did i was thinking that i was putting putting together the newsletter and um and kind of uh you know i accumulate or accumulate i'm sorry i'm distracted i uh collect all of the i collect all the recaps um for the week shows and put them in the newsletter and um i was reflecting on that yesterday the reason i was distracted

there was because it's i assume it's my turn to play music some music for your weekend and i have this you know playlist going it says may 2021 now it's like may and june it's just stuff i've been listening to lately often if you or a listener plays something for a music for your weekend if i like it i'll drag it over to this playlist it's just like my active playlist for the month or two and there's a song in here called party time by true love always and i remember liking this song but i can't remember what it sounds like and i also can't remember is this a song that you or a listener played for me I was distracted there because I was going back through old emails and it looks like I have not played this on the show and you have not played this on the show so I'm assuming this is a new song to us I'm going to hit play on it if it sounds like something that we've already played on the show in the past couple of weeks stop me but for now

as long as it's not counting crows I know I haven't played it

no wish I hadn't done that alright so anyway I know nothing about this song or why it ended up in my playlist, but I think I like it. It's called Party Time by True Love Always. Okay.

For so long I loved you so shamelessly You were never sure if you really never wanted to fall Inside out cause I thought you were the same as me You were just joking but I wasn't joking Cause I didn't know you at all

I want to know

When will you Step by step And we're checking out the sound effects Are there pictures of skylight Falling down where you are I remember why this song is in the playlist

And it is related to TBTL But it happened Skylab? Exactly You mentioned Skylab And also like you and me wishing on the same bright star or something And listener David of the band The Smittens sent this to me Ah, David, whose last name I can never say I'm blanking on it right now It's like Zacharias, but it's not Yes, and he emailed this to me He's probably listening right now And he probably heard that whole introduction and thought Bozo, I sent that to you That's why, but yeah

He's trying a new thing where he calls us Bozo

It's working And so he said, in fact, The Smittens have done a cover of this as well But that was True Love Always And I really like this song This song is old It's from like I think the 90s or early 2000s But I liked it And I love a good Skylab reference Yeah, sure

That might be the first one I've ever heard That actually references it I'm getting distracted, Andrew Because the train is honking outside And can I quickly tell you Before we get to my song About a great accomplishment That I had yesterday That I was so freaking proud of So you know how I've kind of complained that the way that portland is set up at least the part of portland i live in with these trains is that you can get stuck on the wrong side of a train for like about 30 minutes sometimes depending on if it just stops and waits or whatever last night i was coming down this little off ramp to water street to get to my apartment and normally i would go left and drive on this kind of little street under some other freeway overpasses and such and then i would come around And I would hit these train tracks And those are the train tracks where I have been stuck Waiting many a time now I'm exiting off of this little off-ramp From the freeway Water Street And I hear a train horn, Andrew And instead of going left Because I can hear the train is on the left I go right And I go down a block And I shoot across the train tracks And as I get across the train tracks The freaking arms come down Wow I beat it by five seconds Indiana Jones over here I was so proud of myself that I heard that sound and that I made the right call, like, because it could have been coming from the right. And it would have been like I had to either go left or right to try to buy myself a couple blocks. That makes any sense to get in front of the train. And like, I guessed right.

and I got in front of it and then you know what I did I sat in my car and I watched the train for about five minutes from the other side of the tracks because I was so freaking chuffed I know that's weird behavior

I mean no it's not weird behavior to watch a train but the whole thing was I need to beat the train I know it was something about the fact

that I could just go to my apartment whenever I wanted I was I probably could have sat there and watched the entire thing go by Just because I wasn't trapped Psychologically it was a totally different experience

Right, right, right And you said that that's a super long train, right? Is that the one that...

It's really long And then I think there's something to do with There must be something with other trains and the tracks Because sometimes what will happen is It'll go really, really slow Then it'll stop Then it'll back up Then it'll go forward again And I think that the backing up is maybe Because somewhere way down the line they need to make room for something else to merge onto some tracks like i don't know how all this works but that's what really gets you is when it just stops or when it backs up then you're then you're really in trouble but i've been like on jogs over on the other side of the river and been trapped by a different train like you know like i'm out on the road and i come coming back on the path and it's like now there's just a train going and i don't think it's the same one it's like a very weird city in or at least i'm in the part of the city where there are multiple trains crisscrossing major arteries of both pedestrian and car traffic and when you're on the wrong side of it you're just on the i listened to half an episode of wait wait don't tell me one time andrew sitting down by the dairy gold factory waiting for a train on a saturday morning and i like remember thinking hey this is a pretty good episode mave higgins was on they were talking about christmas trees i like literally got through half an episode of wait wait but what if you had a job interview to get to that's what i don't know how do you plan for this i don't know what if you i I mean, heaven forbid, the people that drive the ambulances must know, well, first of all, they know, definitely try to drive under Luke's window whenever possible. But they must have routes they follow because imagine that you needed to do some life saving and you were trapped on the wrong side of that train. I mean, that could be really a bad scene. So, yeah, it's strange to me that that's how this place got laid out. But apparently it did.

Luke, we have to move on. I got to we got to play the song and then I got to start working on some newsletter stuff. But I got to tell you one thing. Maybe we can go into more detail on this on Monday, but I realize I've had a life change that I should tell you about. This is the type of thing that we talk about on this show. We get vulnerable and we put it all out there. And I want you to know that in the past several days, I have become the type of person who listens to the police scanner in my neighborhood. What are you hearing? I'm hearing some wacky shit, man.

I love it. Will you do this over the weekend and then give me a report?

Yeah, I'll try to remember to do it. It's happened very naturally. The other day, we had a bunch of sirens screaming down the street, cop cars, ambulances. Vives and I were outside playing cards. We're like, what was that? I'm like, oh, let me download this this, you know, scanner app. When the first I think it based on location that said you want the northern Seattle district for cops and fire. And I'm like, yeah. And then yesterday I was out on the porch and we couldn't really figure out what was happening that night. But then I was on the porch last night. Cop car goes screaming by. I dialed that thing up, and there was all kinds of chatter last night, including one dispatcher saying something along the lines of, yes, when you arrive on the scene, the person who called may not be there. He was frustrated with our delay. He says he's going to bed. The call was because he was fighting about politics with his roommate. They had a difference of opinions. And it was like, by the way, 830 at night. and this part so it sounds like it actually for a second gave me and you know a real appreciation

of the bullshit these people have to put up with you know like you called 9-1-1 because you had a disagreement with your roommate but now you're going to go to sleep yeah exactly i mean

clearly the caller is belligerent but they have to take the stuff seriously so anyway it's just

kind of um weird you know what's what's funny is i jumped on the old portland scanner the other night before our trip what is happening to us before our trip because you know where i live It's a very active area There's just a lot going on here I'm right in the thick of all kinds of stuff In Portland in terms of Lots of different people coming together And doing lots of different things Some of it apparently illegal I looked out my bedroom window one night I was in bed actually Because I had heard sirens Just tons of sirens That kind of level of sirens That's like, okay, this isn't three cars This is like 20 cop cars And they had parked They had blocked off Different parts of this bridge That goes over I-84 Not the soon-to-be-built Earl Blumenauer cyclist And pedestrian bridge But just like kind of Regular car bridge That's near it There was cops on both sides of it Then down

the freeway it looked like they were blocking another on-ramp and I was like is there somebody on the road is there like a OJ Simpson slow speed chase that they're about like so I was like at least 20 cop cars all with their lights flashing in these different strategic positions at like 11 o'clock at night and I was like what is this and so I got on the scanner and got absolutely zero clarity it's really hard to follow it's so impossible Well, and everyone sounds incredibly, I'm going to misuse this word, everybody sounds incredibly nonplussed. Yeah, or nonchalant. Nonchalant is the bright word. Everyone's just like, 11, I'm 12. Yeah. Act clear and sane. Yep. I'm going to say it to the fire truck. 11, I'm 12. Like, it was just like complete, I couldn't, no one was saying anything I could understand. And then, like, I just got bored and fell asleep, and then I woke up later to pee, and I looked out, and the cars were gone. So apparently whatever happened, happened. And I looked in the Oregonian the next day. There was no, like, I guess it was a non-event.

Huh, nothing. I like the long pauses, too, where you forget you have the app on because I was watching the ball game, like, on my lap or on my whatever iPad thing, and then I had my phone kind of up to my ear, and then I kind of forgot about it, and I set the phone down, and then, like, I don't know, five minutes go by without any activity. You know, it's like squawking at me. I'm like, ah.

Well, if the mood strikes you this weekend, I'll do it, too, depending on what I'm up to. But maybe we can. And again, not in a Lord knows if there's anybody who won't do this. It's you, Andrew. Not in the next door dot com way. Not in a not in a like, I don't know, getting weird on the people in the neighborhood thing. But just maybe we could have a little a little Monday debrief on if we heard anything cool on the scanner.

I mean, the fact that the dispatcher was actually talking about, yeah, roommates getting into an argument about politics and that the caller was frustrated and is going to bed now because he's mad at us. I was like, that is way more detail than I ever thought I'd get off a scanner, and I was there for it. Nice. All right.

How about I suggest a song for a little music for your weekend here. I would like to suggest a song by the Australian band. They're called Good Morning. Do I know about them because my daughter texted me this song and said, cool summery vibes, dad? Yes, that's why I know about them. And I am not embarrassed of that fact. The song is Keep It, and it's really good. So take a listen to this. This is the Australian band Good Morning.

Here's what happens. Get a bit alone. Not everybody gets that time on their own What's in that box, man? You know it's not my head Maybe just all the stupid shit I've said Over the years Your days go on and lose Your months end up there too Let you hug me, baby, if there's something to do And you were the best one, the best I've ever had And even that best one can still turn back Over the years That's the secret I keep it You never felt so old You never felt so dumb

All right, so there you go.

A little bit of good morning. What do you think? I like it. Very chill. I mean, I think it's super embarrassing that your daughter hipped you to this. I mean, what could be more embarrassing than that? But aside from that, it's a great song. I consider all the child support I paid just an investment.

No, it's just so funny. In knowing about good music in my mid-40s.

You're so apologetic about that. I'm like, why are you apologetic about that?

I don't know, because all I'm doing is just essentially laundering the songs that a 27-year-old cool person in Seattle sends me. But, yeah, you know, this is the upside of being a teen parent, is that one day when you're a middle-aged podcast host, you have a pipeline to the good tunes. What a TED Talk you have in you. It will probably be like a Gresham, TEDx Gresham.

I'm such a... It took me a second.

I'm such a I'm such a little I'm such a catty little bitch who lives for the drama. But like a lot of times people will pitch themselves to like Livewire or they'll be someone will be pitching them.

And they have a TEDx talk. Out of Oxnard. Exactly. And like, hey, I don't have a TEDx talk out of anywhere. But it's like when you think, I mean, of course, the phenomenon of the TED talk and people like our friend Nora has like a TED talk with millions and billions of views and stuff. And I don't even think every TED talk is so great or whatever, but there is a certain prestige there. But then, you know, there are TED, there are smaller TEDx events happening even as we speak in all kinds of small places. And again, I'm not saying that there isn't cool stuff that comes out of that, but when someone's like trying to like hype themselves for like live wire inclusion and they're just like TEDx, any city I say is going to hurt the feelings of the people that live in that city. So I'll withhold specifics, but that's going to be my say Strongsville, Ohio.

I don't think we have any listeners in Strongsville.

I'm going to give my TEDx Strongsville, Ohio thing called the upside of teen parenting. All right. Our listener suggestion comes from listener Ben. He says, I heard this off an Instagram story on a pretty shite day, and it was totes what I needed. I think this is going to be my sunny day song all summer long. It's by a band called Polo and Pan, and I believe the song is called Feel Good. And Ben says, have a glorious weekend. All right. So that's what we're going to go out with. I listened to this song yesterday when I was putting this little list together, and it is real good. I think you're going to enjoy it, Andrew.

Yeah, I'll probably choose it for music for my weekend next week.

Well, you don't have an Addy to send you songs, so you've got to do what you've got to do. Exactly. We're all just trying to get by here. All right. That's how we'll wrap things up this week. Thanks again, everybody, for being part of TBTL. Again, thanks for supporting us during the Thawne. Even as we speak, little elves are putting together your thank yous and sending them out to you. so again we are stoked that this is still our job have a great weekend we'll be back here on Monday with more imaginary radio for you and an update on the police scanners until then have a great weekend stay safe take care of yourselves go mariners go eat a bagel it's not the water please remember no mountain too tall

good luck to all

Sometimes I just wanna

You know I like to

Oh, I want we It's hard time you Don't you wanna It's so good to

We could really

Love it when you Hit it We'll be right back.

I thought that was going to be perfect. Cause I thought for sure, cause Genevieve's really smart in this. Oh, it's still, no, it's still good. I mean, she's always, anytime we can put views on the show, but I do think I fully support that. I'll say this quietly. I do think that once she sees the end of the show, I think that's kind of the whole thing, right? When it ends up being nothing. And then the other thing is, could it, is the whole purpose of that just being a red herring? Because like right now, that's what everybody was also saying on Twitter. Yeah. You don't have to whisper, she can't hear you

I love it Power out