Muse

What's TBTL on your phone?

What's your favorite show?

TBTL. Can we please do TBTL?

Yep, we can do TBTL.

TBTL!

For the next little while, it's going to be you and me together alone. I want you to lock the door and turn the phone off and really concentrate on what we're going to do.

Be honest. What is it about me that no one respects? Is it my hair? Yeah. I'm thinking about getting a new haircut, changing stuff up, maybe getting like an Arnie Schwarzenegger jingle all the way type of haircut.

Isn't that for techno geeks with Red Cheek?

We hang out like friends, like the friends from that program Friends. What's that noise?

That's the radio, dear.

All right. Hello. Good morning and welcome, everyone, to a Thursday edition of TBTL. The show that just might be too beautiful to live. Are you sure? That's what they said on Ask Chiefs. My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. Gotta have that root beer. Coming to you from the Nest Broadcast Center high in the sky above Portland, Oregon, where we're looking at another just absolutely gorgeous day, although I will tell you temperature-wise, you can feel it. I was out on my little jog this morning, and I thought this might be the last morning that I can get out and about with a T-shirt on. You may have to switch over to the layered approach, maybe even get the gloves going, because fall is here in all of its pumpkin-bespiced glory.

I'm David Pumpkins!

What else is here in all of its glory is episode 3,512 in a collector's series. Let the fun begin. The story that Nicki Minaj told on Twitter the other day as to why she was skeptical of the vaccine Of course, involved a friend of her cousin who had their wedding called off because of impotence. It has sent shockwaves through Trinidad, the island nation where Nicki Minaj actually hails from. And they don't like Nicki Minaj telling stories about impotence on the local news.

Even if this is the case, to expose your cousin's friend's flat tire in the public domain like that, if the man have a flat tire, okay?

The response from the Nation of Trinidad is really something, and we're going to share it with you coming up. It's apparently, like, the entire focus of Trinidad right now is just trying to debunk this Nicki Minaj story. So we'll get to that also. So, a mystery man was at the trial of Elizabeth Holmes, the one-time head of Theranos. They were trying to figure out who this dude was. I don't know who that is, and I don't care to find out. And they did figure out who he was. He was not just a simple classic car enthusiast, as he said he was. So, we'll talk about that. And because it's a Thursday, a.k.a. a Blur's Day, we'll do the TBTL Blur's Day messages.

It's my birthday today.

Do all that with the help of this young man, the longest-running co-bro of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He's going to fire in some smokers. He's going to wing one Robin Williams style today. He's Andrew.

When it comes to comedy, I'm sort of like a little bit of Eddie Murphy Raw and, well, several others.

Walsh.

And he's joining me right now.

I couldn't remember how that ended. That does sound like me, though. That is how I start a sentence with an idea of how I can end it humorously. But then I just never, I'm just like, I think if I keep talking, I'll get there. And then I don't.

Well, you know, what's funny is I actually thought that was you. So I was originally going to play the Walsh Helm Scream, which we love. And, of course, we appreciate our friend Holly Wu Mike, sound designer and sound engineer extraordinaire down there in Los Angeles, for sending that along. And for putting it in, I guess he didn't send it along. You made the sound and probably our friend Lynn pulled it. But it's now appeared in the background of many a television and film project. But anyway, I was going to play that. And then I thought, well, let's mix it up. And then for some reason, I just searched around comedy and I saw this. And I literally thought that was going to be you talking, Andrew. And I don't know why, because it's not listed as such in my system. I just had it in my head. That's the thing Andrew might have said. It just says, man fails at making points.

You're like, oh, good. Put that in the Walsh folder.

That's a win-win-winning guy, right? Oh, it sounds like it. I believe he maybe says this shortly before or after his win-win-winning. When it comes to comedy, I'm sort of like. like a little bit of Eddie Murphy Raw and, well, several others.

That documentary is, I think, underappreciated. It is a really crazy story about a guy who's...

A banana story. Sorry, I'm not...

His hand... Well, that was the various others part of your comedy. Yeah, right. Various others. That was the story of a guy who had lost an appendage in some sort of accident, I think, or medical, whatever, mishap, and happened to be storing it on a barbecue that then a guy bought.

This is the guy who bought the barbecue, right? When it comes to comedy, I'm sort of like a little bit of Eddie Murphy Raw and, well, several others.

So he bought the barbecue that happened to have the appendage in it and refused to give the appendage back, right? Isn't that the sort of—

You saw the doc. I remember the doc existing, and maybe I even remember late at night one night dialing up the beginning of it, but I never actually watched the documentary, I don't think. I think I've watched the opening of it, so I don't know.

It's called Finders Keepers. It's from 2015, and it was about a foot. In 2004, John Wood and his father, Tom, are involved in a plane crash in Tom's Cessna. Tom is killed, and John's leg must be amputated below the knee. John, celebrating a year of sobriety after an addiction to drugs in his youth, blames himself for the crash, even though his brother and nephew assure him that the crash was not his fault. He asks that the hospital return his amputated leg, intending to turn it into a shrine to his father as a way of coping with his grief. I just want to really stress to the listeners, this is all a real thing. This is not some indie film, you know, written by some sort of real creative type. This is a real thing that happened. Let's see. He gets his amputated leg back. The leg ends up in a barbecue grill in John's storage shed, undergoing a primitive mummification process. The shed is purchased by Shannon Whiznant, a local entrepreneur. When he discovers the leg He sees it as an opportunity To fulfill his lifelong dream Of being a rich And famous television personality He begins spreading news Of the leg In the local media Calling himself The footman And expressing his desire To create a roadside attraction Using it

Man

How do you even like Happen upon that As the documentarians

Yeah I don't I don't know Whose perspective is it from

It's a sort of Omniscient third person it's not from the it's not like i would say that the guy with the foot is not the hero maybe it's the guy whose foot you know used to be on his body is certainly the more sympathetic

character uh see in my vague memory of it i thought it was like the person who lost it they follow him around and it was like kind of their perspective but maybe it's a little bit i don't

know better than me finders keepers would recommend what a what a wild film can i run

someone by you here that i wanted to do this is an experiment that i have not fully i have not fully played out so there's a little bit of risk of this really falling flat on its face but um a couple of weeks ago you and i were kind of just doing old man talk just doing like aging talk where we were starting to kind of realize like things that seemed forever ago when we were kids as you get older and you realize um that that the way time works isn't the way we perceive it as kids and things that like you know growing up in the 80s and thinking that the 1960s were forever ago and now looking back and being like oh yeah that would be like the 2010s to us

essentially or the or the 2000s i guess i believe the the stat that's been making the rounds is that in 1980 1939 was as far away from 1980 as 2021 is from 19 right and this is almost exactly maybe

that was a little bit in the back of my head as i did this the other night as you probably know luke it was bark in the park night at uh at safeway or i'm sorry t-mobile park it was never safeway park used to be safe co field um but at t-mobile park it was bark in the park night so people could bring their dogs i was just listening to the game on the radio and they were mentioning and of course when they're going to play a uh you know when they're gonna play music about dogs they might play who let the dogs out i didn't hear that what they did play was hound dog by elvis And it struck. I heard it on the radio, by the way. Oh, yeah. Me, too. That that's I was listening to the game.

So you were commenting as they came back from break, I believe, about how they were playing Hound Dog. Right.

I think they might have commented on it. Yeah. And they kept on mentioning throughout the broadcast, of course, that it was a special night for the doggos. Anyway, that dog is barking. That is not my dog. This might seem ageist or even anti Elvis, which maybe I'm a little of both. I don't mean. to be um but i was kind of like really like we're still just playing elvis at the ballpark like i don't know there's something just seems so antiquated about that to me and i realized well there are kids there it's just a fun family day like people like elvis that's fine like whatever but i had to do the math and so i'm like okay when did hound dog come out 1956 that was the

elvis version the elvis version right this is when i have to break out my university of washington music 162 history of pop music knowledge which is that of course it was big mama thornton and

but then elvis did it i don't think elvis would steal a black person's music though and then popularize it and profit off it that was not that's not the elvis that i know um so okay elvis hound dog 1956 that was 65 years ago so i'm like okay what if we were at the ballpark 65 years ago in 1956 and you and I have our our wool baseball caps on we're blowing bubbles and it's 1956 and we're like you know what they're playing some music here from 65 years ago that would have been 1891 this is the equivalent of them playing music from 1891 in 1956 yeah so what I just called up here is a song one of the most popular songs from that era it's of course george j gaskins after the ball when you look up like george j gaskins i know we're just gonna oh i love waiting so i haven't listened this is actually 1893 so this is actually a little bit wow this is a little bit newer than elvis's song would be uh you know uh contextually here so take a listen to this this is and i haven't heard this yet but this is the equivalent of we're at the ballpark in 1956 and It's time to rally up the crowd. Yes. After the ball, come by Mr. Jones. I got it. I can't believe you didn't save this for music for your weekend. Well, Luke, I would never play, like, such a popular song for a music video. I'm going to be playing some George J. Gaskins deep cuts and B-sides tomorrow on the show, I think. Wow, that actually really did pay off, my friend. So that was 18 what? That's 1893, so that would be about, actually, that would be like 62.

That's just got to be, like, early, like, the very beginning of recorded music, right? I think so, yeah, because when I was looking at it.

distributed recorded music yeah when i was looking up like while you were doing your intro i was kind of doing the math on this and looking it up and uh yeah a lot of the popular music then was distributed as sheet music of course right but we're still just playing in their parlors

or whatever so okay i just play sheet music and then like player piano roles i think so it was like yeah actually were we uh talking about this or was this um talking to a listener or somebody was saying that i want to say it's like scott joplin uh has a uh a player piano role right that was based on his playing of a song and i forget where that player piano role is but it's you know it's like if you were to go and you were to play that it's like at some museum or whatever it's you're hearing scott joplin play like you're it's it's like the closest thing to a recording of him or at least of that song because it's he played it they made it into player piano music you can get that roll of paper going and the piano will do exactly what Scott Joplin did. And for some reason, that was sort of mild. I wasn't high, by the way, but that was mildly mind-blowing to me. Yeah, I think I might have found it here.

I love how... The cool thing is, I don't think playing this music is going to get us in trouble with ASCAP because I think we're in the clear on these. This is Joplin plays Joplin, his original 1916 piano role of Weeping Willow. Does that ring a bell? No, I only know...

What's the big, um, uh, who let the willows out. That's exactly what I was thinking. Um, well, what's, what's, what's the Scott Joplin's maple leaf rag, I think. Oh yeah. That rings a bell.

The big Scott Joplin number. Anyway. I'm, uh, I don't know why they're leaving so much, um, space at the beginning of this. This should be playing here in just a moment. What are we doing here? Don't make me scared. Here it is. there it is so this is a you know modern recording really like this kind of music yeah

like i don't know if you would find me just sitting in my house vibing to it but anytime i hear like scott joplin i'm like oh yeah no i like this i actually enjoy the sound of it

it does it's not relaxing to me i'm happy you know if somebody if i'm in a situation where

Does it make you feel like you... should be moving a little faster than normal yeah the film stock while it's just like a weird kind of line keeps going through the film as you're quickly cleaning up a mess if i'm hearing this

kind of music i better be able to buy peanuts i don't know exactly what that means but i need to be able to buy peanuts while that music is playing i'm not going to be like kicking i'm not going to be kicking that as i'm puttering around the kitchen let me put it that way i didn't know scott joplin was black i think i assumed that but i don't know i mean it's easy for me to say that

I did not assume it, and now that I'm going down the Scott Joplin rabbit hole, I did not realize that he was African-American. A dazzling deed about Scott Joplin. Another dazzling deed. Now, let me ask you this. I had so much to talk about with you at the beginning of the show, Andrew, involving my conversation with the maintenance person here at the apartment building.

Oh, you know I'm in for that.

But I wanted to quickly ask you if you would have a different thought about the song Hound Dog if the only version that existed was this version. This is the Big Mama Thornton version, okay?

You ain't nothing but a hound dog. It's snooping around the door. You ain't nothing but a hound dog. It's snooping around the door. You can wag your tail, but I ain't gonna feed you no more

Would you say that's better than the Elvis version?

It's definitely better than the Elvis version. I'm not going to be a phony here, though, and pretend that I'm into that style of music. Really? Yeah, I'm not somebody who's a big blues guy. As another famous white, Navin Johnson, once said, and there's something about that music that makes me sad. This man hates cans? There's something about that blues music that makes me sad. No, it's not because it makes me sad. But, yeah, you know, it's just not my style. The same way I said to you the other day, like, I'm not trying to diss on the genre. I'm just saying that for whatever reason, it doesn't it's not it doesn't speak to me in the same way. Like, I appreciate how good funk music is and those, you know, godfathers of funk. But, like, I'm I'm not you're not going to catch me listening to it, really.

Well, obviously, this explains why I didn't see you at the North Seattle Community College Blues Guitar Extension class that I took. That's right. In 1993. because you're not a blues man like I am.

I'm not a blues man. You know, I'm just, I'm not, I'm not, that's going to surprise a lot of people. People are starting to think, wait, that Andrew Walsh, that Andrew Walsh is not into funk or blues? Who is he? And again, I don't think anybody would come at me with this, but like, yeah, I understand like a lot of the music that I listen to contains elements of those and wouldn't exist without what came before, obviously. But no, but I just don't want to be a phony about it. I want to be like here, like trying to bro down with you about blues.

Really leaning into your inner Holden Caulfield right now, which I dig.

Right. I hate phonies.

I almost blew this whole plan to put up some signs in my apartment building asking people to not throw their dog poop into the small garbage container that's in the area where we all wait for the elevators. By the way, just absolutely devastating smell this morning after my jog as I walked through there. I mean, just kind of like just knock you to your knees, kind of just dog poops. Like, I don't know if you've spent a lot of time at dog parks, but, you know, the most to me, the most upsetting part about being at a dog park, which is the only upsetting part because everything else about it kind of rocks. Like, I actually, of course, love going to the dog park generally. But, you know, when your dog poops, you got to go pick it up in one of those bags and then you've got to walk. You got to make the long talk about the green mile. You got to walk to this giant receptacle that, you know, has like 700 other bags of dog poop in it. Not everyone's great at how they tie those bags off. And it's like it's honestly the whole time I'm there. I'm dreading the moment when I have to do this.

Yeah, it really helps with a mask mandate, right? If there were garbage cans like that all over the place, maybe everybody would wear their mask more. Right.

So that's what's basically happening in the lobby for the elevator at my apartment building. And so I asked the listeners to send in some art that I can print out and frame and put up there. And I am actually still going to do this, I promise. But today, because I was walking through the lobby and was just, like, absolutely stunned by how bad the smell was. And I'll mention, too, I don't know why I need to get into these specifics. This is not interesting. But the main floor of my building, there's this, like, kind of fancy lobby. And then there's, like, it's where the offices are for the folks that work for the apartment building. and it's where there's like a kitchen and it has foosball and shuffleboard and allegedly used to have a coffee maker according to our friend cat who also lived here so that's like the main floor of the building you know what they don't have on that floor a garbage can that people throw their dog poop in this is kind of up a couple floors at this other level from a different street that you can get into the apartment building and i am of the opinion That if they had that garbage can at the floor Where all the people that actually work For the apartment building had to use This problem would have been solved a long time ago

Yeah with a cute little sign

Right so I I get in the elevator and it just so happens That the maintenance guy Is getting in the elevator and We're just kind of making small talk As I'm going up to my floor and he's going to wherever He's going and I was so tempted To say to him I don't know why this thought Came over but I was going to say to him hey don't say anything but i'm gonna put a sign up about this dog poop because my first thought was oh i'll enlist him in because he's like a he seems like a cool guy and everything i was like i'll enlist him in this little super secret thing but then i realized if i tell him that and he says oh i'm really sorry we can't do that then he's gonna immediately notice it yeah like what i need to bend much like someone pushing overpriced toner on uh unsuspecting small businesses i basically need everyone who works here to think that someone else put the sign up yeah yeah i'm really surprised i can't have one person who knows that it was me if everyone thinks it was someone else then the sign may actually get to stay there for a while i am really shocked that you even had

that impulse at all that seems like the least burbankian thing that's very much more me like i'm somebody who we talked about this a little bit yesterday i can't i kind of can't keep my mouth shut well in that situation i think i would you know me though i like to like i feel like when you and i are working on projects together i'm the type of person who said well i should run this up the chain or get so-and-so's opinion on this and you might say how about we just chill on that and just sort of do it and see what happens i don't know if that's a good if that's too vague to uh really illustrate our our style our working style in these types of projects but i'm really surprised that you almost blew up your own spot that's what i'm trying to say here does not seem

like because of how overwhelmingly awkward it is to not be talking in the elevator ah yes you know what i mean it was like i needed material and all i could think well i had just walked by a garbage can that was quite pungent so it was really it was really the my my i like i panicked because it's awkward and i also have talked to this guy a lot because this is the other thing this is the dude who he he came around doing like an inspection of the apartments this i talked about this on the show a few weeks ago and i thought it was i mean maybe i maybe it is low-key surveillance and i just didn't realize it but i was like they were like we need to come inspect your apartment and i was kind of annoyed at it because it meant i just had to you know block that out of my for my day but then he showed up and he's actually very nice he didn't even come in the apartment was like no i'm just here to find out if anything is broken which is kind of cool actually like i'm glad that they put the time in to just literally do ask every single person who lives here hey is everything working but of course i said to him well you know the drain the sink in my bathroom drains really slowly and did i tell you what his response was no he said yeah i just youtube how to fix that that's how i learned how to do every part of this job

he told you so he's there to make sure everything's working right you're like well the drain's not working right he says youtube it and fix it yourself i mean yes not in a mean way he's like

a nice dude it's not like he was being it was weird it was so sort of matter of fact he was like you know what i would really do i would just kind of like i'd look that up on youtube because and that's how i learned how to do every part of this job are you you're the first person who's

lived in this apartment right i know that it was a model apartment for a while i mean i think

someone else has lived here this building's been around for a while i think at the time when i rented it it was being used as the demo one but i think other people have lived in fact i know for effect because there's a little evidence of that like if you catch the walls in a certain light you can just see all these plot places where like you know there's they've repainted or like there was somebody had a picture up and then that's taken out and then there's a little hole so

i don't think i'm the first person to live here the reason i bring it up is because you know our kitchen sink at one point was really backed up and i just i looked under the sink and i saw that the trap was easily removed it was like i have this um i don't know what it actually is but some of plastic piping under the sink and it's just like you can quickly probably a piece wrap yeah you can just like quick release it you don't even need to get the the pliers like you used to um so anyway i i took that apart at one point a couple of years ago and it was just you know the nastiest and most satisfying thing in the world right just like so gross luke i mean my my kitchen sink took a poop into a bucket and i was there to watch it it was it was sick it was mesmerizing and it was somebody else's gunk and that's why i'm that's why when you say to somebody and again i'm not trying to put this guy on the wrong side of history or make you mad at him but it is like that's one of the things about being a renter you should be able to say fix this yourself because that's some that's some other tenants gunk in this in the trap well that's the whole thing i I mean, I pay a premium to live in this place and – Part of that is so that I don't have to do stuff like clean out someone else's hair that's become sort of trapped in the sink area or whatever. Like, yeah, that's the upside of this. The downside is I don't own this. It's not cheap. I am not building any equity. I'm sort of at their mercy. There's a lot of things about this that I don't love. But the one thing is I shouldn't have to deal with someone else's. That being said, you're right. If I were just to go down there and unscrew that P-trap, I'm sure it would just, like, it'd fix whatever was going on. And the other thing is there's a lot of stuff on, like, TikTok. I don't know if it's real or not, but there's a lot of, like, sort of videos of people doing various drain. Like, there's one that involves garbage disposal. I don't know if it really works. I don't want to spread misinformation here. There's too much of that happening in the world as it is. But it's like somebody will – it's like you put a bunch of ice cubes like out of your ice maker from your fridge into the garbage disposal and then you do something else and then you turn it on and then it just like makes this crazy – I don't know why the ice would really matter. But it seems like it does something where it really generates this like – it's very kind of satisfying because it seems like it really gets that whole thing cleaned out. A bunch of weird stuff comes out. But the other thing about this maintenance dude, that was kind of funny, was he's going up to the, I don't know, 10th floor, and he's got his work outfit on. He's got some paint on him, other things. And I just see he opens his hand. He looks down, and he's written down. He's got multiple apartment numbers written on his hand of where he's going. And he's like, I can see, like, 1005 or something on his hand. And he opens his hand, looks at it, and he gets out on the 10th floor. And I go, nice system. He goes, yeah, I call it my Palm Pilot.

I like him. I like this guy. That's a pretty good spoof, right? You know, you're talking about the awkwardness of being on an elevator. I feel like – how about you and I put together a skit that we pitch on spec to Saturday Night Live about police officers who decide to do all their interrogating in an elevator because it's so awkward that somebody's bound to talk.

That's a pretty good spoof. They'd break me immediately. Yeah, exactly. Like just two floors in. I'm admitting to the whole – it's a false confession. I didn't even do it, but I would just – just to break the awkwardness. That's actually a very funny idea.

Police stations should just have really, really big elevators. So before you even get – you think that you're going to the interrogation room, but really it's the voyage there.

All right. Let's take a quick break and then we come back. I do want to talk about this Nicki Minaj tweet and what was going on at the Elizabeth Holmes trial as well. Here on TBTL. Stay with us. Thank you, baby Let's thank some donors of the day. These are the wonderful, generous supporters of the program that are making today's episode possible. People like Wendy Volker in Twinsburg, Ohio. I feel like we still owe Wendy a live show. We do. We do, Twinsburg. Isn't she one of the Ohio tens who have long been trying to get us out there?

Yeah, she might be even maybe one of the loudest voices on there. And I do have a tinge of guilt when I see Wendy's name. Because I think we've come so close so many times in our planning. You know what would be fun? And something like pandemic will come up and ruin it all.

When, like, you know, normal life resumes, if that ever happens, It would be fun to go do a show in Cleveland But try to like sort of schedule it around a Browns type event Like go to a Browns game or something I don't know Sounds fun

I guess you wouldn't have a I guess all bars are Browns bars in Cleveland

They just call it food

I'm on a seahorse diet When I see horses I eat them

Alyssa Adelson is in Bellevue, Washington Thank you so much for your support Barbara and Steve Blair Oh man, they're in the small maritime village Of Port Townsend, Washington God, I miss that place You really do It's weird I miss everywhere that I used to live For different reasons Is that normal? Do you miss, you know, New Hampshire? Do you miss, um Did you live in Boston?

I never lived in Boston Veeves lived in Boston

Veeves was in Boston, I believe

Veeves just took a flight into Boston And then the bus from Boston up to New Hampshire to briefly our old house where my sister-in-law, her sister, lives. And Genevieve was taking some photos from that bus trip that I used to take so often back and forth from Concord, New Hampshire to Boston, Massachusetts. Was that a fun law? Did they have that out there? They did, I think. But no, it was a Concord Trailways at the time. I believe it changed its name. But yeah, Genevieve sending photos of her bus leaving Boston really took me back, man.

really took me back yeah i feel like i just have i have so much nostalgia it's i should probably try to be more present because like someday i guess maybe i won't live in portland and i'll be like god remember when i lived in portland i used to hover over cooch street and watch people drive the wrong way up that street wasn't that a fun time there was a global pandemic the world the world was falling apart god i miss it can yeah can i be corny for one second because

I was having a very similar thought last night about kind of appreciating the moment or thinking back about how I will look back on this particular moment in my own personal life in the future. And this is going to get a little bit schmaltzy here. But, you know, Genevieve is on a trip now. And so, of course, I miss her. And maybe that makes me extra nostalgic. But also the fact that she's going back to our romping grounds, right? The place where – and I mean in the cleanest way possible. But the place where we began our relationship and, you know, courted each other. The place where you used to have sex. And also romped. Just all over the Concord Trailways bus.

Anyway, we had this. Have you ever been in the foot high club? What would the bus equivalent of the mile high club be? Have you ever been on the sea level club?

I feel like the equivalent that would be you'd have to go underneath the bus in the storage area. Anyway, let's just get all of that.

Sorry, but you were just feeling it was kind of – you were having feelings.

And there is a specific thing. So long, long ago, Luke, Genevieve, her name's Genevieve. Sometimes I call her Genevieve. Genevieve and I, for some reason, were taking the bus together from – that's not entirely true. Let me start this over. One time, a long, long time ago, I was parking my car, my big 1983 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. I parked my car at the bus station and then took the bus down to Boston. And I knew that Genevieve was going to be giving me a ride back to Concord at the end of the weekend. I was not going to be bringing the bus back. And I was concerned I would forget that my car was parked at the bus station. And at one point, Genevieve said, well, when we're rolling into town and you see the statehouse dome, let that be a reminder to you that you have to pick up your car at the bus station. She likes little memory tricks like this, right? And so later that weekend, she's driving me back to Concord and we see the dome and we're both like, oh, there's the dome. Don't forget. We got to pick up the car at the bus station. The problem with that trick was it never went away. And every time I saw that dome coming in from the south, especially from Austin, I would think, oh, got to pick up the car from the bus station. And we would joke about that all the time. And it was just such a recurring joke. And then I kind of forgot about it. And then yesterday, Genevieve sent me a photo as she's on the bus, Luke, the same bus coming up from Boston. And she took a photo and said, don't forget to pick up your car. And I was like, oh, man. And that got me thinking about like how, you know, and again, like how special that time was, even though no offense to New Hampshire, but that isn't exactly the kind of environment that I hope to be in at that stage in my life. I really wanted to be living in a bigger city. And, you know, you know, New Hampshire was not my favorite place to live, but obviously I had some wonderful, wonderful times there. And it just got me thinking about, like, well, hopefully, you know, 20 years from now, Genevieve and I will still be together and we'll be looking back at this particular time and it will be special in its own ways. So anyway.

Right. You'll have a whole new set of references and inside jokes and things. Yeah. What color was your cutlass? Oh, red. Supreme. Red.

With a white vinyl top. It wasn't a convertible.

I'm looking at a 1983 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme that's red. That was a sweet whip.

Oh, my God. And it had hardly any miles on it because it just sat at, like, my step-grandfather's in his garage for, like, a really, really long time. And then I bought it for $400. And I think the only thing wrong with it was it had some rust issues up underneath. And I think my dad even – I think – I don't know if he made them at the shop or if we had something kind of – we had it kind of bolstered along the bottom. We had put in some sort of like kind of stainless steel stuff along the bottom that looked like it was part of the car, but it kind of covered up some of the rust so it wouldn't all just rot away. And aside from that, it was like riding a magic carpet. It had this big, smooth steering wheel that would have gone right through my forehead if I had got it in action. But just the feel of that steering wheel was so cool.

My buddy, James DeMuth, when I was growing up, his stepdad, actually, I think it was like his mom's boyfriend. His name was Dick. uh he worked at a car stereo place i may have actually been car toys the car toys on aurora but he drove like a black uh cutlass supreme that had a spoiler on the back and just was like the system was so dope the sound system because he worked at a place where he got Got it for not for free, but whatever. He had a hookup. And I always thought it was like it was a very cool car. Although the idea of a spoiler on the back of an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme is so hilarious. That is like you're going to get going that fast. We need to create that down pressure so this thing stays on the road. Trust me, that thing is staying on the road. I promise you, it is neither fast nor furious. You're going to be all right. It was actually very cute because James DeMuth's mom, Shirley, became a huge fan of LiveWire and used to come show up at LiveWire shows and brought this dude, Dick. They were still together. Really? It was like a couple years ago. Like, I get done with the show, and it's like, there's Shirley. And she's like, hey, remember Dick? And I'm like, can't forget him. He was the guy with the cut list supreme with the spoiler on the back.

Did you ask him about that? You must have.

There was a lot of people. I was signing autographs, Andrew. It was kind of a hectic. No, I'm kidding. Yes, I don't think I asked him about the spoiler, but it was actually really fun to get to see those folks. I mean, this is very far away from your actually quite charming story of your inside joke with Genevieve. What I think is so cute about that is it just speaks to what's great about relationships and, you know, relationships that are good and functional is just that sort of shared experience, like how that can be such a funny but also meaningful thing for her to send you that picture. Yeah, yeah, just a blurry-ass photo of the Capitol. It just connects to so many other things, and, I mean, it just – it sort of reminds you of the role that this person has played in your life role that sounds like it's a job, but you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Just kind of like – that's so great, and this is very far away from that, but just getting done with the show and seeing my friend's mom and her boyfriend 25 years later that they came to the Neptune Theater, just like it was – it really kind of warmed my heart.

Yeah, that does warm my heart.

It also warms my heart that Don Bly is supporting the program from Seattle, Washington. Thank you, Don. Dave Gabala is in San Francisco, California. And then Christine Mello is in Wiley, Texas. You know what's going on in Wiley? You know, I'm going to Texas tomorrow, Andrew. Oh, tomorrow. That's where you're going. Yeah. I'm going to San Antonio, going to Hill Country. and then I'm going to do a TV story down there next week.

Which one is this or do you not want to say? Oh, I think I know.

It's a story about a chain of gas stations in Texas called Buc-ee's that have reportedly the cleanest bathrooms of any gas stations in America. That's great.

Are you going to ask them to get a shot of you sitting on the toilet with your pants implied around your ankles even though obviously they wouldn't show that? I don't think so.

I don't go in for number two humor, Andrew. Yeah, no, I know. I'm the one who's always pushing that. Yeah, exactly. I'm going to put a small splooch the turtle sign in each bathroom at every Buc-ee's in Texas. Here's actually, if I can get real for one moment, the dude who owns these, who I'm going to interview, is a big donor to the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott.

Somehow I knew that. I didn't know exactly how that was going to end. I don't know. I didn't know if it was going to be a Trump supporter or something along those lines. But I somehow I knew it was going in that direction when you started that sentence.

I know, which is just kind of like, I mean, the story is not about politics. The story is about bathrooms, you know, gas station bathrooms. But it's great publicity for the. Well, that's the thing. And it's like, you know, I mean, I'm just I'm just airing this out here. So whatever. Don't, you know, nobody. Yeah. No, please, guys. Everyone just be cool for once. don't like report this to my bosses if if the guy who owned these gas stations was a huge nancy pelosi supporter it wouldn't even cross my mind but he's not and i feel like i want to do a fun story that also isn't just a big wet kiss to a guy who is using his resources to support things that i totally disagree with right and i know that's not really journalism that's me being biased but i guess i'm just kind of copying to it i my what i think it's going to come down to is a line in the piece that just says i mean i just have to address it you know what i mean i think you should put it in there that's good that's yes when i'm talking about this guy but again you know the thing is if he was a big lefty donor i would not feel as compelled to have to include it in the piece yeah it feels to me though like i need to what's that that's why we need editors and producers i guess so i mean and maybe i'll lose that maybe people will see this on tv and there will be no mention of it but right now going in i feel like if we're gonna do a more or less an An interview and a profile of this guy and his businesses, it feels weird to me to not mention that some of the proceeds from this are going to support the, I would say, controversial governor of their state.

I mean, there hasn't really been any political news coming out of Texas recently, so you kind of get some cover there.

It's just like the dog days of summer.

It's just slow, slow news.

Slow. I mean, we're just beating the – bush is trying to find something interesting going on in texas oh my gosh all right thanks donors thank you thanks christine thanks to all of our donors of the day thanks for making tbtl pot when i get fired from cbs this is all i'm gonna have to fall back on so i really appreciate y'all making it so this can be a job for me hello and welcome to top story speaking of slow news weeks or at least things that i did not expect to become the international story that they have become this tweet from nikki minaj andrew just continues to reverberate so uh you know she wrote this tweet that was basically questioning the vaccine it was doing that thing that i just find almost worse than just being openly anti-vax i feel like i've run into this Not in my personal life, but like Becca's got friends that are on this train and everyone's got like a uncle or an aunt. I actually literally have like extended family, like people in my extended family who nobody wants to say they're anti-vax. They just want to ask questions. Yeah, right.

Just, you know, she said just pray on it. I'm looking for the actual tweet because in case people happen, I don't know why you would miss an episode of TBTL or this story, but we should probably read the entirety of the original tweet, which I'm looking for here.

Right. I just find it to be almost more annoying when someone's like, I'm not anti-vax. I'm just waiting for more information. It's like, really? Just own it. Own it that you don't believe science and that you're not smart. Just that's fine. You know, if you want to just lead with that, at least I'll respect your honesty. But it's like there's just vax skeptical and vax hesitant and like nobody wants to say that they don't want to get the vaccine, but they're just not getting it. Well, OK, then in my mind, you're anti-vax. I'm sorry.

Well, I was, you know, reading about the the coach of, you know, the Wazoo coach, Nick Rolovich or whatever. Right. Exactly. I mean, there's a state mandate now that somebody in his position at a public university has to be vaccinated or have a legitimate religious excuse or or.

By the way, out of here with that shit, too. I'm sorry. No offense to our people of faith. But like, I don't care that what what if your religion is that you get to kneecap me? I also don't believe that that's protected by your religion.

Now, I'm going to go on too many tangents here. But, yeah, no, I'm really upset because there was some ruling in the somewhat recent past, like in the past couple of months. You know, there is a mission here in Seattle. I can't remember the exact name. Union Gospel? Union Gospel. We hear how many Union Gospel mission commercials do we hear during the Mariners game? And faith will lead me home Do you hear that a lot, Luke?

I don't know if I hear the one with the song in it Oh, really?

They always end with that song

Well, here's the thing When I listen to the Mariners games now Because I'm in Portland I listen on the Sirius satellite app And what I hear are these They put their own promos for Sirius over the commercials And they're terrible They're like baseball highlights, but it'll be like Robin Yout hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth for the Brewers in 1982, but it'll just be on repeat, so every commercial break will just be this Robin Yout highlight. It's just like I'd much rather the Union Gospel Mission and whatever that song was you were singing.

Yeah, and although some of the commercials that I hear over and over during baseball games just get on my nerves.

Yeah, you don't like that Franklin Graham one either.

Yeah, they might. Exactly. They might start on my nerves and then get worse. Sometimes they start OK and then get on my nerves. It's just you hear them so often they have these terrible promos running for the team that are just just so awful. Anyway, I'm on so many tangents to back back up a little bit here. Just talk about religious exemption and why I've been thinking about it. There's no need for me to bring this up. But Union Gospel denied somebody employment. I can't remember if they let somebody go or they explicitly did not hire this person because he was gay. and he sued and basically the court upheld the union gospels decision to do so because they are they are a religious organization and i just don't understand how you can run an organization and say my religion says that not all people are equal i just don't understand how like what it i just don't understand how that is religion i just don't understand how you say that you're christian and your your christian god says that you should you should discriminate against people Like, it just doesn't make sense. What if it was race and not sexuality? Like, it just is it's just hateful. And the fact that our legal system just says, oh, that's their religion. It's just.

Yeah, I know that feels to me like this. I mean, we have look again, we have a lot of listeners who are people of faith. And like, you know, if you're if that's something that you have chosen for your life and it gives you solace and it's something that you.

are able to use as a way to reach out to other people, I salute you in that. But, like, also, I don't think we need In God We Trust on the money. These are these weird holdovers of this, like, you know, spaghetti, flying spaghetti space ghost that means you can do shit that the rest of us can't. It's just like, it's a holdover from a previous era that I just don't, I don't think we need to hold a lot of that stuff over.

Yeah, and I'm not trying to be disrespectful to people's personal beliefs here when it comes to their—

Do you feel like it was disrespectful when I called God a flying spaghetti space ghost monster?

But, like, you know, people's faith, like, yeah, I believe that you should have protections to let you worship how you want to worship. Like, I'm fine with that, and I understand why that needs to be part of our laws. I just sound like a sophomore in college here. But, like, I do not think that anybody will ever be able to convince me that, no, no, we need laws so that organizations that are religious cannot hire gay people. Just be hateful. Just because, like, what? You can't have a receptionist who's gay? Like, that's what your religion is? Your religion says, I can't have a receptionist that's gay. That's not religion. That's being an asshole. Right.

Well, how about also start paying taxes if you're going to do that?

Right. Exactly. So, anyway.

Because that's the other side of it, too. All right. Back to Nicki Minaj.

Oh, yeah.

And her questionable ways. Did you actually locate the tweet in question?

No, I started going way off the rails there.

Okay, so she tweeted out basically this shaggy dog tale about her cousin's friend. I got it. Who supposedly, okay, you've got it now. I need you to read it in a Nicki Minaj. So that's how the show ends.

We all were curious. Nicki Minaj says, my cousin in Trinidad won't get the vaccine because his friend got it and became impotent. His testicles became swollen. his friend was weeks away from getting married now the girl called off the wedding so just pray on it and make sure you're comfortable with your decision, not bullied

as I wrote yesterday on Twitter, a tweet that's getting much more engagement than I expected my cousin's friend was going to be one of the first civilians in space, but he got the vax and his balls literally could not fit through the airlock, I'm still gathering information but for now I will not be wearing a mask in this Joanne fabric maybe that's why it got engagement i guess it was funny but um so i mean that's just like a silly the the nikki minaj tweet is silly and i guess i shouldn't be shocked that somebody who's a you know pop music star is not at the leading edge of science but it's it did kind of bum me out because i tend to like nikki minaj um but what's interesting is how seriously this is being taken by the nation of trinidad um you know they they've got their best people on the case so uh this is the uh i don't know this guy's exact title but he's like basically i get the sense he's sort of the anthony fauci of trinidad and he had to like do a press conference explaining that the cousin's friend with the with the big purple balls is not a

real person he had to debunk this one of the reasons we could not respond yesterday in real time to miss minaj is that we had to check and make sure that what she was claiming was either true or false. We did, and unfortunately, we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim. It is, as far as we know, at this point in time, there has been no such reported either side effect or adverse event. And what was sad about this is that it wasted our time yesterday trying to track down because we take all these claims seriously whether it's on social media or mainstream media as we stand now there is absolutely no reported such side effect or adverse event of testicular swelling in Trinidad or I dare say Dr. Hines anywhere else

none that we know of anywhere else in the world so there you go that's the uh the medical community there what i really enjoyed was the local newscaster in trended on cnc3 television this is in port of spain which i think is might be where nikki minaj originally hails from and i think it's kind of the locus of this kind of made-up story i don't know what a typical night on this show is like but i want to watch this guy talk about anything and everything not to i mean the not the least of which is that apparently in trinidad impotence is described as having a flat tire Which is just either greatest.

Even if this is the case, to expose your cousin friends flat tire in the public domain like that, every man have a flat tire, okay?

Take a listen to this guy. This is a couple of minutes long, but I think it's kind of worth it. This guy is not happy about this Nicki Minaj tweet.

Story, this one dropped yesterday morning. And as the story dropped, it was excitement. Now, Nicki Minaj, no stranger to controversy. see um i mean she was here for carnival in 2020 and that was a bacchanal but she well her husband now husband and iowa she would have made some outlandish statements over the years but this one takes the cake this is almost like what you would hear about apollo where somebody will tell you well your cousin friend neighbor say xyz i mean come on nikki you have 180 million followers people listen to you people follow your particular lead you're going on the social media space

and talking about your cousin friend i don't want to like other this guy at all uh but i just find this accent to be so engaging everything he says is just interesting to me because of the the way

in which he speaks i also feel like i don't know i feel like i have trouble with my words today uh even more than usual everybody but um you having a flat tire no um i um i just it's interesting how much responsibility it feels like this small nation it feels they feel so much responsibility for yes nikki minaj says and does right well because again she's originally

from trinidad and you know if you are trinidad you're not in the international news you know 364 and a half days out of the year you're not the thing people are talking about so when the international spotlight sort of turns to you it's probably feels like a lot yes exactly you know it's just like like i think i may have said this at the beginning it's like all hands on deck in trinidad dealing with this nikki minaj tweet the vaccine and get impotent and all of a sudden you

know marriage called off and some kind of bacchanal story second time he used bacchanal i don't know

if that's a big word in trinidad or it's just this dude but i do also enjoy the word bacchanal it

It might have been on his page-a-day calendar. Don't rule that out.

That's it.

It's responsible on all fronts. One, irresponsible based on the misinformation that is going out there regarding this vaccine. You know, there was no verification of the story. And furthermore, even on a personal note, even if this is the case, to expose your cousin's friend's flat tire in the public domain like that, every man have a flat tire okay he will work on that you know there's herbs and and and punch and so then the man can eat and bring back our vibes practicing my speech to becca every man i get a

flat tire what what did he say after that there are herbs oh wow yeah he's talking about treatments

for the flat tire but don't come now and talk that kind of talk the thing is so hot jake tapper on cnn yesterday at four o'clock talk about this with dr fauci dr fauci is of course the u.s uh that's their their lead leading mine and and specialists with this whole cover 19 uh push back and the fight against the cover 19 and dr fauci had to almost you know like the the man was blindsided he had to answer and he said he didn't hold nothing personal against nikki um i mean i don't think we should per se but but nikki better than that i i honestly expected better and besides um obviously that outlander statement and she always talks about trinidad and she's from trinidad she's yet to collaborate with somebody from here but as a talk for another program on

another day that is a talk yes he's mad that she is not yes sharing the love with uh with the artists the musicians of trinidad yes that is a talk yes for another show on another day andrew

yeah they feel so much like in the responsibility for her words and actions but then also like they feel like she has responsibility to trinidad that she is not all there it sounds like all she's doing is causing trouble for them as as her as the nation's most famous daughter right right and you

know actually i i figured it out the reason that this bums me out is because nikki minaj Has not had the worst takes When it comes to politics Oh you know what I'm confusing her with Cardi B One of them, I think it was Cardi B Was very into Bernie Sanders Oh I didn't know that I think she even did an event with him Or did some kind of Zoom chat

so you know what maybe Nicki Minaj has always had sort of questionable takes I'm not sure but yeah it's just what I really wonder too is and I haven't checked her Twitter feed of late but I wonder if she would if she'll end up taking the tweet down or if she like if she's hearing this pushback you know what I mean like if everyone in Trinidad like her family is like hey we were just watching CNC3 the guy was talking about flat tires and uh was saying you shouldn't have said that and like you know uh dr fauci's talking about it and it's like it's international news do you think that that info is getting back to nikki minaj and she's actually realizing that that was a dumb tweet or do you think that i mean i don't you can't obviously get inside the head of nikki minaj but i just wonder if this kind of pushback actually makes a difference in the life of the person who did

the bad tweet well i'm seeing and this is on foxbusinessnews.com so glad that i um gave them the clicks nikki minaj says she's in twitter jail will never use platform again so that's not the right response she sounds like she's she's claiming that that twitter is uh is not letting her tweet what she believes what the company said no we haven't done anything we have not policed her account at all so now she's like on instagram telling making false claims about not not having

freedom of speech on twitter i i i feel like nikki minaj has access to some pretty big Megaphones if she If she cares Uh too Also uh I don't know why This is where we're Wrapping this up But speaking of Fox I saw a clip I didn't play it Because I didn't want To dignify him But Tucker Carlson Basically Like ended his show The other day Or ended his segment About this tweet By basically trying to Said If you're Nicki Minaj's Minaj's cousin's friend Oh my god We want to hear from you We will come to Port of Spain To interview you And I don't think He was doing it ironically Yeah I think they're so So like basically like in the Fox News verse and in the Tucker Carlson verse, this is yet more evidence that the vaccine – we should be skeptical of the vaccine. And what I was saying earlier about these vaccine, quote-unquote, skeptics and what I find so sort of frustrating and annoying about it is people that they don't want to just admit that they don't believe in science or whatever. Tucker Carlson is obviously the absolute worst of all of them because he's vaccinated, right? When he's asked, like the New York Times, Ben Smith from the New York Times interviewed him and asked him if he was vaccinated. His response was, what's your favorite sexual position and when did you last engage in it? That's Tucker Carlson's glib comeback now. His point being, it's personal information. That's what Nick Rolovich is doing, too. That's what all of these, I'm just going to say, that's what all these assholes are doing, is like acting like it's personal, private medical information. It's not. It's a simple yes or no question. And the reason that the Tucker Carlson stuff is just so absolutely evil is because he gets on TV every night and tells his millions of brain dead followers that they should be skeptical of the vaccine. And then he is vaxxed and then he goes back to his mansion on Martha's Vineyard or whatever and hobnobs like it's cosplay for him. you know it's like you get meanwhile you got at the like lower level you got all these conservative talk radio hosts dying the ones that are at the like you know st louis's patriot talk st louis or whatever louis like because they're true believers you got the moron layer of the people that are literally not getting the vaccine um and they're dying from it and then you've got the like absolute coastal elite that is tucker carlson who's just cosplaying as a vaccine skeptic because he'll get him more viewers. Meanwhile, he's totally vaccinated. That just makes me so furious.

It's so infuriating. And I almost said there just almost is a cliche. I can't believe because that's the thought that goes through my head. Like, I just can't believe this is where we are, that somehow somehow politics has gotten wrapped up in this and like the toxic politics of false information, that this is where we are when we should be all coming together and fighting this this pandemic together and doing the smart things. But here we are. You know, we still have to, you know, wear our masks to baseball games and what have you, because people are not getting vaccinated. But why would I say I can't believe it? Like, this is who we are. Like, this is who we are as a people. Like, you know, we saw it. You know, I mean, the I don't know, man. I mean, we just lived through four years of this kind of stuff. And it's just it's it's astounding. But I shouldn't say I don't believe it because this is more who we are than than anything, I guess.

I think what's shocking about it is the way that it's been normalized. There was always a fringe element. In fact, frankly, I was raised in the fringe element of the conservative movement and of evangelical movement, right? Like, I mean, I grew up in an environment where people very commonly said, oh, yeah, there's secret sex abuse rings that are being run by, you know, fill in the blank. Oh, and the world's going to end in five years because the mark of the beast, people are trying to use UPC codes on things. I mean, I grew up in this, but we were the weirdos. We weren't almost getting elected governor of California. Although I will give Larry Elder one thing to contradict the words of drill. You do, in this case, have to give it to him. At least he conceded. Yeah. Like, how low is the bar now that we're like, well, well, few dodged another one. The guy who lost by a billion votes agreed he lost by a billion votes. Like, but anyway, it's like I think that's what's so troubling about it is that it was this was this has always existed, but it was the fringe and it's not the fringe anymore. And and that's what's really shocking and upsetting about it, you know, is that it's now it's normalized and it's it's it's mainstreamed. And people, you know, there are multiple elected officials who are just openly denying science. It's like hip surgery being politicized. Oh, did you get a hip replacement? Right. Wow. Did you do that so AOC might give you a retweet? What? Like, it's just a medical procedure that the idea that it's politicized is just so crazy. You also just wonder, I'm sorry we're doing this, but whatever. It's the world we live in. I'm sorry I'm doing this. You wonder if at some point the people who support your ideology dying from a preventable thing is bad business. You know what I mean? Like, don't you think at some point that Greg Abbott's of the world and the other, you know, folks, not that he's the most—I mean, DeSantis might be the worst. I don't know who the worst governor is on this, Christy Noem probably in South Dakota. But, like, at some point, it seems like a bad decision to tell the people that believe your ideology that they shouldn't get vaccinated. Doesn't it just seem like you're going to lose a lot of them?

Yeah, I mean, I know I've heard people say that. And then then I think, well, are the I don't know. I don't know how much I want to break that down. I mean, yes, I mean, broad, broad, broadly speaking, that does seem like kind of the obvious kind of thing to say. And then I'm like, yeah, but, like, I don't want to talk about human life in the way that I'm about to, like, talk about human lives. You know, like, how many do you have to lose before it actually becomes a problem for you at the polls? You know what I mean? Like, the strong message is maybe, you know, from a very cynical standpoint. Like, I just don't think that the numbers are there in that way. But it does remind me. I mean, it's so funny. I saw this headline, our boy John, actually, a TBTL10, who's now a colleague of ours, who's going to be working with us on the TBTLathons going forward, which is exciting. We'll talk more about him and that later. Anyway, I saw that he had retweeted something, a headline, I think from the New York Times, that said one in every 500 U.S. residents have died of COVID-19. And while we were talking here, I wanted to make sure I had that number right and that it was a reputable source. And yeah, when you type in one in 500 Americans in Google, you see two different headlines. I think this is actually I think this is actually interesting, if not telling CNN headline is one in every 500 U.S. residents have died of covid-19. Another headline that looks like it's a CBS affiliate, for whatever reason, their headline doesn't use that stat, but it looks at it as 0.2% of Americans have died from COVID-19 data shows. Now, I don't think that's an explicit way of trying to make the numbers seem less. I could be wrong. I think that's just, you know, that's a local CBS station. But don't you think that those two headlines that probably say the same thing sound very different when you say one in every 500 residents versus 0.2% of Americans? Absolutely.

No, I mean – I don't – I'm not looking at either story, so I want to be careful about trying to speculate on motives. But those are interpreted by the reader very differently. And I mean that's the other thing – I love that I'm just like lecturing you and our listeners, most of whom I think are kind of on the same page. Like I'm saying anything, you know, I don't know, what are we – 14 months, 15 months into this whole thing. But it comes down to this question of, like, do you care about human beings who you probably will never meet? Right. Because, yeah, the numbers the numbers are shockingly high, if you think about it. And also, I don't personally know anyone who has died from covid that I can think of now. Maybe like, you know, older friends of friends or something, my parents, friends, maybe somebody has passed. But it's, you know, because of my age, because of my privilege, because of my all these things, I don't I have not had people in my immediate family die from this. So all this stuff that I'm doing and I'm not trying to paint myself as some martyr, but it's like all this.

i'm doing is because i know there are people that are dying and i don't know those people but i i want that to stop and i want particularly the vulnerable people in our society people with underlying conditions i want them to get to keep living you know and the idea like it's just so weird to me that we have half of the population and that's the other question is it half of the population right or is it just the loudest 12 of the population which is another whole thing too Because as they've started to, like, put these mandates in place, you know, various, you know, police or like the state of Oregon is saying if you, you know, although they actually just police apparently don't have to get vaccinated in Portland. But as as these mandates go into place, I sort of tend to think what's going to happen is people are going to make a lot of noise. They're they're going to be out there protesting. And then when it comes down to not paying their mortgage, they're just going to get the fucking shot. because they want to get on the airplane because they want to keep working as a nurse at Oregon OHSU. Like every time I drive down, Becca lives by OHSU and every time I go over to her house, there's this cluster of nurses that are protesting that they have to get vaccinated. Oh, I see. And it's just like, it's like I wrote this on Twitter, it's like firefighters protesting indoor sprinklers. It's like, what are you doing? But what I tend to think, and I don't have any, I haven't done the research, I tend to think there are there's a small and vocal minority of people that have broken brain syndrome and that like to get out and yell and threaten that they're going to quit their job, threaten that they're going to leave the military, threaten that they're not going to be police officers, threaten that they're going to stop being nurses. But when the rubber meets the road and when it actually comes down to them not making their car payment or when it comes down to them wanting to fly to Denver to see their mother, they just people like you go to the airport and you see a bunch of people who probably don't like masking up but they're masked up why because they want to go to maui you know i just think that our kind of like maslow's like sort of hierarchy of needs or in this case hierarchy of wants at the end of the day most people are like well everything in my life or not getting this shot i'm going to take everything in my life i'm going to be a little probably too

clever by half here a little bit but it's almost like it's almost like a variant of freedom you You know, like so this disease mutates. Right. And now we have the Delta variant and it's like freedom has sort of mutated this idea of like, you know, you and I growing up in the 80s and conservative households and probably going to conservative schools, you know, grew up with this. And I think but everybody did like this idea of freedom as this beacon of light to this country, like everything we were just told all of the good stuff and like how good freedom is. But then it's been it's mutated into this idea of if you wear a mask for somebody else, that's taking away your freedom. And that's not what freedom is. I mean, the the glowing examples of what our country can be were at times when we all came together. Well, I mean, again, now I'm going to say we all came together. Well, what was happening to the vulnerable communities and minority communities, you know, during these times that I might cite? But generally speaking, like, you know what World War, the whole kind of World War II era was defined by in America? Sacrifice. It was about sacrifice.

And we and the people freedom to collect all your tinfoil and rubber. Exactly. Wheel it down to the end of your street.

Right. And it was like we made sacrifices because it was it was what we had to do to come together as a country. And again, I know that leaves out a lot of people. I'm kind of talking about the the kind of the white middle class narrative here. But just generally speaking, though, these are the examples that people who I would say are maybe conservative, even maybe small C conservative would point to about like the the great American dream and how great American can be. But like then it's like, oh, wear a mask up yours, asshole. Like, are you kidding me? Like, it's that is definitely the drop I'm introducing you with tomorrow. Do not. No, I would. Nobody pull that.

That's not fair I've also retired

I've said too many things That I really wish I hadn't said on today's show

No no no I don't I didn't mean to I was not trying to Get in your head And you know Generally I think We try to leave this stuff Not alone But it's just like There's so much of it out there I don't know if they need us The listeners need us Weighing in on it But on the other hand It's like we live in the world And this is stuff That impacts us So I think sometimes It just There's no way around it I definitely think We can agree It's a great lead up To the Blurs days though

There's a right way to rock And a wrong way to roll You can just listen to your soul Just remember that life is number one You can be having so much fun Just remember that life is much fun You can be not number one

Ah, that music is just like a

I am just like a nice shower that washes away all the negativity in the world. And here we are in the Blur's Day segment where Alyssa wants to say, I want to submit a Blur's Day message to myself. My actual Blur's Day is the 16th, the day I'll be hearing this message. That's right. Today is the 16th. And I'm glad to know that Alyssa is staying up to date with the podcast. I am now turning 25 and I've been listening since 2016 or 2017 from Paris, France. I am French, and I thank you for the company you gave me during rough times. That's really cool. Thanks. Thanks, Alyssa.

I didn't know we had an actual French listener. I mean, I know we've had listeners from the States that have lived in France for a period of time or are living in France. But to have an actual French listener feels, again, very cosmopolitan for our show.

And, like, a young, cool Parisian? We'll take it. Yes. Happy Blur's Day.

Je m'appelle Luke. I'm going to assume that that was clean.

I don't know.

Hi, guys. It's me, Cynthia, the Joshua Tree 10. I want to send out a happy Blur's Day to my sister, Rina, from McMinnville, Oregon, formerly of Mercer Island, Washington.

Now, Rina just came up on the show the other day, right?

Yeah, McMinnville is the current home of the Spruce Goose airplane. There's a big museum there that was confirmed. Rena changed my life when she told me about TBTL, and I love her and her family so much. She's a huge supporter of TBTL, and it's so cool that we get to share the TBTL zaniness together. Well, thank you so much, Cynthia, for checking in. Happy Blurs, Rena.

How about this from Robert, who says, My wife Kim is celebrating her birthday. I will wish her a happy birthday. My kids will wish her a happy birthday. She'll shrug and say something like, Oh, it's my birthday? Huh, thanks. If you wish her a happy birthday, however, she'll probably have one of those mini Kramer convulsions and say something like, Oh, it's my birthday! Wow! Thanks, Luke Burbank! Now I just realize that you should have read this one, Luke. Can you, in order to get Kim to do one of those convulsions, Can you wish her a happy birthday, please?

Kim, I want to make sure you're sitting down, you're safe, you know, you're not driving or doing something where your response is going to endanger you or other people. So wait for it. Get ready. Happy Blur's Day, Kim.

Nice. And from me, chopped liver. Just kidding. Just kidding. We love you, Kim.

Laura says, I know I skipped over one. Oh, you did that over a minute. But just I feel connected to this next message, Andrew, so I have to do it this way. Laura says, I'd love for you to wish my mom, Sue, from Orlando, a very happy birthday. She's going through a very challenging time right now, and I hope this year takes a turn for the better. All my love, Laura. Well, Sue in Orlando, we are also thinking good thoughts for you and hope that you have a good year from here on out. And happy Blur's Day. I didn't trust you to read that.

No, that's fair. I don't have the best track record. David says Andrea of Centerville, Texas, is celebrating her Blur's Day on September 27th. She is a 10 from way back and listens to you two chuckleheads religiously for whatever reason. For whatever reason By the way I love the term chucklehead Chucklehead is one of my Favorite is one of my favorite words And you know why it's one of my favorite words No I'm curious I'm stalling here because she's Very famous we've talked about her a lot on the show And I'm blanking on her name Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez That's exactly who I was not Thinking of no who is the Historian who we love who writes For the New Yorker quite a bit Oh, Jill Lepore? Jill Lepore, yes. I remember the first time I heard Chucklehead, she was, I believe I was working at Cairo Radio and still doing some work for KUOW. And she was on with you and Dave, you and Dave Ross on the commercial radio station talking about whatever her latest book was. I was there producing that in the daytime.

Now, can I ask a quick question? Yes. I don't want to, like, send you spiraling, but is it possible that it was actually Susan Orlean?

No, this wasn't Susan Orlean.

Because I don't know. I don't remember. I've since talked to Jo Lepore, and I am a huge fan of hers, as are you. I thought when I got to talk to her a while ago, that was the first time I had interviewed her. Because we had Susan Orlean on in person talking about a book about Rin Tin Tin, the dog. um but uh

But I actually trust you more than I trust myself on this because you were producing these things and you were keeping a lot of notes and carrying a clipboard.

I'll tell you what. It's definitely Lepore because it was kind of the first time I met her. And I remember, honestly, maybe developing a tiny little crush. It was kind of hard not to. She's just so cool, Luke. This is going back a long ways. But all I remember, maybe I maybe maybe I was not working at Cairo at the time and maybe she had been a guest on a talk show that I produced earlier that day at K.O.W. But I do know that would. And then later that night, though, I met her in person. I feel like she did the first one kind of remotely or something. And then later that night I went to record the book talk that she was in town. Exactly. In the basement of Town Hall. Yes, Town Hall does have a basement. And when I met her, this is why I thought it was you and Dave.

I need to use the phone.

That's why I thought it was you and Dave, but maybe it was Ross Reynolds that had interviewed her. Either way, she had said, oh, yeah, that went really well this morning. You never know if you're going to end up with a couple of chuckleheads or something along the lines. And so for some reason, I thought that coming on a commercial station talking to you and Dave might have been the chucklehead.

But either way, that sounds, again, not that you need me to confirm that you're accurate, but that sounds like more of a Jill Lepore thing to say than a Susan Orlean thing. It was definitely Jill Lepore.

Yeah, I have never met Susan Orlean. But anyway, so I just remember meeting Jill Lepore and her saying, that segment went really well. I'm glad, you know, you never know if you're going to end up with a couple of chuckleheads. And I always think of that when I hear the word chucklehead.

Who knew all these years later, Andrew, you and I would be hosting this show together and David would be calling us chuckleheads. That's right.

The prophecy was foretold for whatever reason. Please wish her a happy Blur's Day, says David, to Andrea. Sorry about the little stem winder in the middle of your Blur's Day message, Andrea. But that was my gift to you. Happy Blur's Day.

BG says, sending wishes for the happiest of blurs to Mike, the sausage king of Bellingham. Oh, yeah. Yes, indeed. I've met Mike in his element. You wandered into this pretty random meat place. You were coming up to my house for us to do the hot dog show, I believe. Indeed. And you didn't go to just a typical grocery store and grab some packs of hot dogs. You went into a kind of a large butcher shop type of thing, but almost like warehouse meets butcher shop. And because you were getting those kind of hot dogs that, like, they only get eaten in cartoons by dogs.

Those are the kinds I grew up with, and I couldn't find them in real life out here. The kind that are actually kind of linked together. Klaus's, I think it was called, or Klaus's. Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. Yep, good to remember.

Like Santa Claus, Klaus's meat. And you go in and this guy, Mike, is like comes out of wherever he's working. It's like, are you Andrew? I'm like listening to you.

You're actually a bit wrong. I walk in because I knew that there was this was it was Jill LaPorte. I walk in and I saw this place on Google Maps. I'm like, oh, this is the type of place that will have the sausages or the hot dogs rather that I'm looking for. So I walk in, but it did not seem like a customer facing place. As soon as I'm in there, I realize, oh, this is some business that only works with other businesses. I can't just walk in here. And so I – One does not just walk in to his closet's meet. Suddenly I'm like, oh, this is employees only. Yikes. And I spin on my heels and I walk out. And then I'm actually just reaching for the door, maybe walking back out onto the street. I think I'm actually back out on the sidewalk. And who pops out the door but Jill Laporte? No. Mike, the sausage king of Bellingham. Who says, are you Andrew Walsh? I'm listening to you right now. And he points to his earbuds. He'd seen me walk in, looked stunned, laughed. And he said, no, you can buy hot dogs here, my boy. And I did. Wow.

May the pins and pops be plentiful and pleasurable on your Blurs Day and every day. Is that about snapping meat casings? The pins and pops be plentiful? I don't know. It also kind of, maybe so. Mike, get at us. Can you explain what the pins and pops being plentiful and pleasurable, what that means? But happy Blurs. Another place I miss, Andrew. I told you, I miss everywhere I used to be.

And finally, Kathleen says, I'd like to wish a happy Blur's Day to my dad, Alan. You are the best putterer around, even though you understand zero of the cultural references. I'm so glad you taught me the best way to empty a dishwasher. P.S. I wanted to let you guys know that my retired dad has started drinking White Claw because you mentioned it on TBTL. This fact brings my millennial heart so much joy. and just wanted to know you are officially White Claw Influencers.

I find that emptying the dishwasher is interesting because I feel like emptying the dishwasher is pretty straightforward. No, I hate it. Loading the dishwasher. Now that's where, you know, there's a real strategy and everyone's got a different system. You know what I mean? Well, this is something that comes up on the Spotless podcast quite a bit because I find – you're right. Loading the dishwasher is a skill, and I would be lying if I said I didn't rearrange everything in the dishwasher after Genevieve thinks that she loaded it properly because there are ways. There are systems. They seem obvious. Apparently, they aren't. but you would think that emptying the dishwasher would be easy but for some reason me and a lot of people like me do not like it like loading it is fine you're dealing with dirty dishes which is kind of gross um but there's something about the uh the water buildup that will just like stay on the tops of some dimples in the bottom of glasses or whatever when they're in there upside down or the the water that sticks in the crevices of like the tupperware or the gladware that you use for food storage and then so there people have been emailing and calling in with all different kinds of um proper ways to unload the dishwasher some people say you know open it right away while it's hot and let it air out i agree with that some people say throw a like drape a towel a terry cloth towel so that it will um kind of half hang in the dishwasher and then close it like the dishwasher just got done right it's steaming that's like absorbing all the moisture supposedly I've tried it It doesn't seem like It works well to me Other people have Shaking methods For getting rid of that

My cousin's friend Tried to do that Before his wedding It did not end well

And now you're In a Joanne Fabrics Anyway congrats On your tweet Luke And happy Blur's Day To all What Nicki Minaj Song should we go out with

And to all a good Blur's Day

Oh man I actually do love me Some Nicki Minaj But I don't know That anything on the fly That I pick will

You know it's funny Because I was like It was confusing Nicki Minaj and Cardi B I think I'm much more of a Cardi B head Not just because of her association With Bernie Sanders But I'm good with Nicki Minaj You know like I definitely think I like her on that song Monster That you kind of turned me on to And I don't know There's something sticky It's more like sticky Minaj, Andrew There's something that's kind of like It's I don't know It's so stylized her way of rapping That like Basically what it is Is when I hear someone Doing kind of like an impression of her It makes all of her music Sound kind of one note and silly to me I'm not just saying that because she had a bad vaccine take

No, I really like the Pink album She actually rolls out I was really obsessed with that album when I was in LA And I remember playing some of the tracks for you She messes up her flow a little bit here and there Maybe when she's featuring And listen, she's definitely got a sound I'm not going to argue that But she might have a little bit more variety Than you think But also, why am I trying to convince you to like Nicki Minaj I just happen to like the Pink album She's got some really cool stuff on there I just don't trust the language side of that right now. Yeah. Okay. So then where does that leave us? That is a really good question. Sorry. So let me think about this for a second. Do you have anything?

And who else is from Trinidad? Can we highlight? Oh, now that's an interesting question.

And is that what you call folks from Trinidad? I think so. Yeah. Are you looking it up too? Because we might need all hands on deck for this.

Singers from Trinidad. Well, Hathaway. Who's that? Do we know? What is love? Baby, don't hurt me. Don't hurt me no more. That's by somebody named Hathaway? Yeah. I would have never known that. I would have never known that. Baby, don't hurt me. Don't hurt me. Bungie Garland? Who's Bungie Garland? How about Lord Invader? I feel like I've heard that name before. I get the sense. I mean, Lord Invader, it looks like, you know, he was an artist a long time ago. But is there anything, yeah, anything coming up for Lord Invader? Yeah, he's got a bunch. He's roughly that era that you started the show playing, like at the Mariners game. He's only a little bit north of that.

Oh, okay. Well, yeah, let's start with, then he does a, I don't know if this is the original. This might be the original of Rum and Coca-Cola. You know that song that the Andrews sisters did? I always thought it was a little bit appropriation-y.

I think of it as an Elvis song myself.

Because, you know, there's nothing whiter than the Andrews Sisters, right? Or am I wrong about that? I think the Andrews Sisters are black. Are they? Oh, oh my gosh. That really changes how I think about that song because I love that.

No, they're white. Sorry. Scott Joplin, black. Andrews Sisters, deeply white.

And they do a version of Midwest.

You know, that's really – sorry. Can I just say the first time I heard an Andrews Sisters song, It was being covered by En Vogue. It was Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. And so my brain, because the singers in En Vogue are black, somehow I transferred that to the Andrews sisters and was always just imagining the Andrews sisters were black women. They're very much not. But anyway.

So the Andrews sisters did a version of Rum and Coca-Cola. I didn't know that it was originally – I'm assuming here that it did come from a different artist because they were putting on kind of island accents a little bit while they were singing.

it and i love the song but as i got older it made me uncomfortable again because the appropriation aspects of it um and nobody on this show would ever do a trinidadian accent in no uh but anyway but it looks like he did rum and coca-cola maybe the original lord invader i'd love to hear this

luke all right that is gonna do it for today's show the good news is we'll be right back here tomorrow more imaginary radio for you until then have a great thursday uh stay safe take care of yourselves a lot of bad tweets out there folks keep your head on a swivel and one really good one from you as our friend stew said the other day on twitter a lot of bad tweets out there keep your head on a swivel uh we'll see you tomorrow until then please remember no mountain too tall and good luck to all

I had a little girl when the other day, but her mother came and took her away. The self, her mother and her sisters went in the care with some police. They bought rum and coke, cola. When them went to my life, both mothers and daughters were working for the young people. I have an appointment with the horse doctor.

How that horse became a doctor, I don't know. No, I'm kidding. He's just a regular doctor who shoots your horse in the head when its leg is broken.

Power out.