Muse

Well, so I'm tending bar down there at Eklund and Sweden's last Tuesday, and this little guy's drinking, and he says, so where can a guy find some action? I'm going crazy out there at the lake. And I says, what kind of action? And he says, woman action. What do I look like? And I says, well, what do I look like? I don't arrange that kind of thing. And he says, but I'm going crazy out there at the lake. And I says, yeah, but this ain't that kind of place. He says, oh, so I get it. So you think I'm some kind of jerk for asking, only you don't use the word jerk. I understand. Then he calls me a jerk, says the last guy thought he's a jerk is dead now. So I don't say nothing. He says, what do you think about that? And I says, well, that don't sound like too good a deal for him then. You got that right. Yeah, he says, yeah, that guy's dead, and I don't mean of old age. And then he says, jeez, I'm going crazy out there at the lake. White Bear Lake? Yeah, well, at Eklund and Sweden, that's closer to Moose Lake, so I made that assumption. Oh, sure. Anyway, he's drinking at the bar, so I don't think a whole great deal of it. But then Mrs. Mora, she heard about the homicides down here and thought I should call it in, so I called it in. End of story. T-T-B-T-L. Guess what day it is? Guess what day it is?

It's Friday, Friday. Gonna get down on Friday. Who is this guy? He's got like every meme ever produced on the Internet. he can knock us out with his memes and i do i have tons of memes i just keep memeing them to death until they just surrender because they just can't do it anymore they don't have the memes that

i have oh well with all due respect i mean i hate to admit this but i mean i don't think i've been online and you know a couple days or weeks or whatever something that's really not an important thing to me my face your face instant face go go talk to whoever you want that does that stuff i

don't 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 podcasts are the future of show business my name is luke burbank i'm your host i always be sneaky like how i get chocolate coming to you from pasadena california california got sunshine where we got a lot of sunshine on this friday Here in the sort of interior of the greater Los Angeles area, it is going to get to 89 degrees today. It's going to be very hot, going to be very uncomfortable for everybody. On February 11th, happy Valentine's, 89 degrees. I'm here for it, though. I'm very excited. Apologies if there's a kind of loud fan whirring in the background. It's the air conditioning unit in this hotel that I'm in, which, well, the thing is, the Super Bowl is happening here in Los Angeles this weekend. And I didn't realize that when we were scheduling this interview that I'm about to go do with television's Amy Poehler. And so I just figured I'd parachute into town and go stay at one of the places I typically stay that's kind of more in the heart of things. But no, all of the hotels in Los Angeles are sold out. And so I am out here in a, well, not the greatest hotel in the history of Southern California. Services. Amenity. Elevator. Curtains with sticks. You'll find all this and more at Business Garden Inn and Suites Inn Hotel Room Inn. Coming to you live from the Business Garden Suites Inn Hotel Room Inn. Right here in the 626. That's all right, though. That's not going to stop us from putting together a real humdinger of a Friday episode of the show. It's episode 3618 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. When I landed here in Southern California, got off the plane, I noticed I had a lot going on on my Twitter account, and it's because of a fight that one of my colleagues at APM American Public Media picked with me online.

And I'm going to get all anecdotal on you.

And I'm not going to stand for it. This aggression will not stand from Kai Rizdahl and his legion of Twitter followers who do not get the joke. You get the joke because you're a TBTL listener. You're in the cool club. They're in the not cool club. And I'm going to speak my truth coming up on that. Also, the government has conducted the I believe it's the largest asset seizure in the history of the United States of America. billions of dollars of cryptocurrency that were stolen, the government alleges, by a couple. And one member of the couple, well, she fancies herself a rapper along with being an alleged Bitcoin thief. This is an actual song that she released. I'm not even kidding. you i'm many things a rapper an economist a journalist a writer a ceo and a dirty dirty

dirty dirty ho i'm the president of rap music and i need to work with you right away so we'll

talk about that and uh we'll do some music for your weekend because it's friday speaking of

people who've got flow as jay would say uh he's got flow this guy's got it he's the longest running

cobro of the show maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships he is andrew Walsh. He's joining me right now from the Roosevelt neighborhood, Seattle, Washington.

Good morning, my friend. Good morning, Luke. Are we allowed to jump in right away and talk about whatever happened on Twitter between you and Ty, or do you want to save that for later in the show? Because I'm very curious about that. And if you just let me talk about something on my mind, it's just going to be stupid and Wordle related. So let's

just get to the beef. Come on. Let's don't, you know, your subconscious can't take a joke. Don't be mean to my friend Andrew. My subconscious can't take a joke. Oh, that's just

something that your therapist used to tell you that's something an ex-girlfriend used to tell me okay um i thought it was a reference to something that i actually did on the show my subconscious really can't take a joke because i got like oh no wait what what did i do

i think what what she was trying to tell me in those days and maybe she'd learned this from her therapist was that when you say negative things about yourself your subconscious doesn't really understand the subtext or if you're being funny or if it's just a mood, it just kind of feeds into then it ends up becoming sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy because when you say bad things about yourself, your subconscious hears it and then it just kind of adds to your overall poor self-image. No. I think is what the idea behind that is.

Wrong, though, for me, because actually that's an insult to my subconscious. My subconscious understands irony. I actually have one of the best subconsciousnesses out there.

Uh-huh. Sure.

How are you doing?

Is this the part where I should start talking again?

Okay, why are you fighting with Kai?

Can your subconscious take a burn from me, though? That's the real question. What does that do? So here's what happened. I got on the airplane yesterday in Portland. I was flying down here, and I noted that the guy next to me, who seemed a little bit terse, kind of just didn't. When I put my backpack down on the chair, he kind of looked up. He didn't look up like, welcome to the flight. he looked up like oh cool someone's sitting near me great like that was kind of i and i probably was assuming things but that was the vibe i got he did not radiate warmth or openness and to be

fair i've probably given people that look before too if i think i'm getting away with having a seat

open next to me sure um but but what i what i got from that or what i what what the effect that had on me was to not feel like this was a person i wanted to ask many favors of i just wanted to kind of leave him alone, fly down to L.A., we'll just get this over with. It was 5, I want to say it was about 5.30, maybe it was pushing 6 o'clock in Portland, and it was a gorgeous day yesterday in Portland. And the thing is, the Portland airport is right along the Columbia River, and there is a really beautiful sunset kind of against Vancouver, Washington. All these houses and hills kind of light up pink. It's very beautiful. And if I'm sitting on the window and I'm taking off at that hour, it's kind of a nice thing to look at as the plane takes off. Well, this guy had the window down. And it had the effect of making the whole area we were sitting really dark because somebody else near us on the other side also had their window down. So I had to, like, literally turn the light on so that I could just kind of, like, see what I was doing with my computer and stuff. But so instead of asking the guy, hey, do you mind opening the window, he also looked like he was trying to kind of nap. And so maybe he wanted the window down because if it was up, it'd be brighter, it's harder for him to nap, whatever. And it occurred to me that it doesn't seem fair to me that the person who just happens to be sitting by the window is also the controller of the window shade. And I wrote on Twitter, I said, why is it that the person who is sitting at the window gets to control the window shade? We should take a vote on that. and so i landed i didn't think too much more of it and but i noticed that there was just like in fact i didn't think that was a very good tweet i didn't think it was that relatable uh or interesting but there was a lot of response to it and a lot of like notifications and i figured out it was because our friend and colleague kai risdahl had decided to chime in and i'm actually trying to find his his response as i scroll through this wow there are so many responses uh let's see here i'm can't basically here's what kai said to me i'm looking forward to you talk i'll see if i can get the actual he said something like well here's why and he said it i can just hear it in his kai rizdal voice he said something like look the reason that they get to control the window is because the person on the window

gets to control the window shade the person in the middle gets both armrests and the person on the aisle gets to come and go as they please or something he was breaking down the kind of yeah i don't know the rules the rules of being in the seats yeah which makes sense and that's all well and good i mean but as i responded to kai something the effect of oh you sweet sweet man you you naive fool like you think people are following those rules do you think that they're leaving where i mean that's great you know what that is that's like libertarianism libertarianism is a great theory if everyone decides to follow the rules and and handle their business but we don't live in a perfect world we live in a world that's messy and sometimes people don't want to give up the both armrests to the middle seat and sometimes the person on the aisle falls asleep and they don't want to let you out like these rules are not followed on the airplane therefore the rule about who gets to control the shade to me is an illegitimate one okay i do you want me to argue

that point or i'm just looking for is there a chance he deleted his tweet by the way because i'm not seeing it in there i'm not either oh no here it is here it is you know what he did is he retweeted it that's why you're getting all the he didn't respond he retweeted it and he wrote it's the rules luke aisle gets the uh aisle gets to get up unimpeded middle gets the armrests window controls the shade now i guess what you're saying is do we follow the middle gets who controls the spice though i mean that's that they control the world but i do agree that like the aisle i mean you're right like maybe the person falls asleep and you have to kind of nudge them and wake them up or hold your pee if you uh if you don't want to wake them up and you need to get out but for the most part like it is kind of that aisle seat which is my seat of choice it's like it is by default like i can every now and then stretch my leg out in the aisle if i want like i hate flying so like you know you're always breaking down the little parts that are like slightly better than the worst parts right oh my god i'm not gonna get into it now but this flight out to cleveland and back is going to be a nightmare i should say these flights it's like four flights oh no really it's one of my least favorite airlines and i'm booking the tickets through like travelocity and don't do it can i help you with this it's already booked but i so i book through there and then it's like okay choose your seats and they have it it's basically there's only one airline that'll basically do this i think it's continental which is terrible and um still exists yeah right yeah i think that you weren't able to fly on pan am right i know anyway um and it's like and they're like okay choose your seats but then you realize when you get to that phase that every single seat that isn't a middle seat or in the very, very last row you have to pay extra for. So like they're already starting to turn up. I'm just like, okay, I know that's a reality. I try not to like, I try not to waste a lot of time on this show or even in conversation complaining about facts of life like that, like popcorn is too expensive at the movie theater or, you know, like all, it's just cliche to make, or to complain about the fact that we're being nickeled and dimed by airlines, but it is pretty galling. you go through and it's like oh anything that isn't a torture device you're going to have to pay more for so i go through the whole process i'm like i'm just trying to like figure out what is my mental state going to be on the way back for like this and i just take these terrible seats and i'm like okay well i'll take this bat this one all the way in the back because then maybe somebody won't sit next to me like whatever i do all of this and i'm already mad at my choices and then when i go to click through it's like okay your reservations are booked none of those seats you picked were available contact your airline for that i'm just like you i've already gone through this emotional labor i am i already went through the emotional labor of uh finding these seats and then like coming to grips with the fact that it's going to be absolutely awful and now you're even telling me that these slightly less than hell seats didn't even really stick and

you're just going to put me in a goddamn middle seat and a man a man of my size and temperament does not do well uh flying that far across the country in middle seats oh i'll figure it out

What's done is done, but can I just say this for the record, and I want everyone to hear this. I'll say it loud for the people in the back, and I mean the back of the airplane sitting in the middle seat. Those services – now, there are probably some exceptions, and maybe it was the exception for you. But did you happen to cross-reference what the price at the airline website was versus what they were charging you by way of this third party?

I should have. I did go. I tried just because the only airline I like to fly is Alaska. So I went to Travelocity, got some prices, and then I did just say, but what if I just go to Alaska's website and just try to book it directly? And there's, like, nothing. They just don't do that, basically.

Yeah, Cleveland is not a hub for them. But what I would just encourage people to do – now, you know, we do ads for things from time to time.

that are ways to search for deals. I think those are all great things to use as a search. I will do it myself. I'll go to Expedia, Travelocity, whatever. But I just use it as a way of finding out who's flying to Cleveland. And then once I see it's Continental, then I go to the Continental website.

I should have done that, yeah.

And then I do the same thing because, again, there's a rare exception, but it's very rare in my experience that Continental is not selling you that ticket for the exact same price. And the difference is you have a lot more agency. And I'm not trying to say that to make you feel worse. I'm just throwing it out there so the listeners maybe who don't know that or do as much traveling as I am doing these days. It's just kind of a little – just a little life hack, as it were. But so this is the thing, though, Andrew. I just sent out a silly little tweet. And let me say this also. You alluded to this. Complaining about air travel is not a personality, even though I'm trying to make it one, and I've been trying for many years now. but I don't think that those things are all equal. Like, in other words, if you're in the aisle, I think you have to sort of do the labor of getting up and letting people out and making room for them, which, of course, we should all do in a society. But that's not a benefit. And if you put your leg out in the aisle, it's going to get deep-trunked by that drink cart. Oh, yeah, do not leave it.

I need to make that very clear. You don't stick your leg and just leave it in the aisle. That is terrible behavior. I just mean...

My point is that everyone who's not on the window has it worse, in my opinion, than the person on the window. Now, like I said, Andrew, you like the aisle because you don't have to ask permission to come and go and use the restroom, et cetera. But this idea that, like, everyone gets their own special treat on the airplane and the special treat of the window person is they control the shade. I don't buy that argument because I don't think there's a special treat to be had for the middle seat and the aisle that is in any way commensurate to the special treat of controlling the shade. But this is the really what happened was because Kyra's doll is actually famous and has like lots of Twitter followers. When he retweets me, it then puts me in contact with a bunch of people who aren't TBTO listeners, who aren't just like extremely careful about my feelings. And so it's just whole night last night was just people like people with Twitter handles like mogul in the making, Wall Street chick turned realtor. Can I mention this is all caps? Wall Street chick turned realtor, funding specialist, credit repair expert, writer. This is all the same person's bio. I just have to stress that. Credit repair expert, writer, author, producer, plastic surgery consultant, and e-com business owner. I have people like that going, we get to control the shade because we paid for the window seat. And then people going like, well, you're in steerage and you just get what you get. And I wanted to say to all these people, haters to the left, I was in first class. Suck it. None of you are right in this matter. But I didn't. I just laughed at all of the people that were basically lecturing me about how wrong I was about this thing that was really meant to just be a stupid joke in the first place.

Yeah. You know what I think about all the time? Because I mean, yeah, my feelings about the aisle are so much different than yours that the point is, it's not to debate your tweet. It was just you being, is it Arch? Yeah, like kind of exaggerating your feelings about this, making it funny, tweeting it out, then losing service. And then you come down and you have, I won't say a firestorm because it's just Twitter. No, no, it's fine. It's fine. But I often, Luke, often, often think of the story, and I only have the sketchiest of details in my memory, but you'll remember it. Oh, I know the one you're going to reference. The woman who was on a flight somewhere, and she, I believe the thing was she was making a joke about white privilege, I think, but did it in a very wrong way.

She was flying to Africa, and she said, I'm on my way to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. and in the air it went viral is that oh and when she landed oh no that might have even worked for

like oxfam or something wait then that oh i misremembered that then that's then that that doesn't make i i could have sworn it was something like it was like one of those things where she was like kind of saying because i'm white or something and then like in some context not aids related and what she meant was kind of acknowledging that but it came off as a joke and flip and it sounded racist but no i did i totally misremember that so she wasn't trying to make any kind of a a higher point that came off wrong she just made a terrible she just made a terrible joke

unless i unless i am critically you have a misinformed no you have a better pretty sure that's what she said something and here's why andrew here's why i think i might be somewhat accurate this woman just popped up in an article

I was reading the other day because guess what she's still working so for all the people who think cancel culture is real this woman is now work does some kind of PR firm thing and she is representing now here's the part I don't remember which side of this that she's representing but let's just take a deep dive for a minute one of the inventors of tinder has sued universe or I I don't know who the company that owns Tinder now, but has sued that company and specifically Barry Dillon, the mogul, because he says that they tried to undervalue Tinder because there was an agreement that basically said the guy that was part of the team that invented Tinder, he invented it as part of one of these incubation labs. And so it was technically owned by whoever owned the incubation lab. But then when it became a big deal, he was able to they were all able to renegotiate their contract so that they would be paid a percentage of what Tinder was worth. What this meant was the company that then owned Tinder wanted the value to be as low as possible so they wouldn't have to pay out a bunch. And he is suing, saying that they deliberately undervalued the company. A footnote in this article was that one of the PR firms representing one of the sides of this is helmed by the woman who sent the I hope I don't get AIDS tweet.

You know what? And I found the actual quote here. This is from the article when it was a fresher story. It's funny. First of all, I want to point out you were you were we were kind of cross talking there. But I just need to point out that at one point during this conversation, I said, well, you have a better memory than I do, which I think that statement really proves itself. You do have a better brim memory Than I do But remember how I said I thought there was some component of it about Being like about white privilege The actual we're both kind of right The actual tweet was going to Africa Hope I don't get AIDS just kidding I'm white Was the actual Quote that she sent out

But again I feel like boy That's just that is not

That is not a good tweet Right it's a terrible terrible terrible Terrible tweet but my point in all of this because I don't know like for people who didn't know that story my point in all this is she tweeted that out as she was getting ready to take off or while she still had some sort of service she logs off she's on a flight to South Africa so it's a very long flight and by the time and she didn't have very many Twitter followers like under 200 and then by the time she got off the plane the entire world knew her name like if this thing had somehow gone viral and to use the parlance of the day she was I guess cancelled or what I don't even think that's She was facing the repercussions of her tweet, and people were outraged about this. And, Luke, I don't think I've been on an airplane without even – it's a tiny part of my brain thinking that. Like, I'm about to go up in the air. Not that I'm, like, sending out tweets right before I go out, but, like, kind of like I am now going to be in an isolation chamber for five to ten hours or whatever. When I land, what will I be landing into?

The world could be different.

The world could be different. My world could be different. And part of it is kind of like when I – I can't explain it. It's not an articulate thought I have. It's just one of those things that will live with me ever since the story.

Well, I landed in a different world, Andrew, a world where our co-worker Kyra's doll is cyberbullying me to within an inch of my life. And it's not cool.

Well, let's talk about this for a second. You and I feel like you and Kai, there's been an increase of stories about you guys interacting on Twitter. Right. Right.

So are you guys always correcting me because I well, no.

But you're more on his radar now than I feel like maybe you were.

But only for the wrong reasons. Only like a badly behaved child who's getting his parents' attention. Because the only times when Kai interacts with me are when he's like, one time I think I wrote a tweet about my podcast I wanted to launch about pets and the business of pets called Marketplace. Yeah. And I believe his response was just no. Oh, that's right. Or something like that. Like, every time we interact, it's always him being like, stop it right now, Burbank. Right, right, right. Or, you have it wrong. This is why the rules are the way they are on the airplane.

But, I mean, you know, it's good to know that, like, you know, you're on his radar potentially. Sure. You know, like, I mean, he could be listening to this conversation right now. I doubt it.

And I'm going to get all anecdotal on you.

If he is listening, I do hope that he will consider this our pitch, though, of course.

the thing about this economy right now treats might not be market drivers as much as we thought also a little bit later on cats love them or hate them yep that old chestnut from american canine media this is bark it plays who made that again that's so good it's our boy max in brook

Pardon me.

God, that's good. Max in Brooklyn. I'm going to send that to him. You got to. That is genius work. That is just genius work, Max. I mean, it's spot on as well.

Yes. What can Max do? Max is also the person who I believe drew the drawing of you and I as Scooby and Shaggy. I believe I'm Scooby. Really? And you are cradling me. What a talented individual. Yes, he's an actor of stage and screen. I don't know about stage. Just it's fun to say.

Would you say this is the only person who has more different – wears more hats than him?

I'm many things. Yeah. A rapper, an economist, a journalist, a writer, a CEO, and a dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty hoe.

I wondered about including that – like, it's so silly, the end of that line. But, I mean, is dirty hoe – is that inappropriate? Should we be bleeping that the way that I would probably bleep the F word or something? Like, I was really kind of torn about that. If that was if that was not appropriate for the airwaves.

Well, I don't know this story. And maybe that's going to be a top story. Right. So you can fill me in on all of that. But even me not being familiar with that story, I just think that that is a contextual decision. And in this case, yes, we would not just play a music for your weekend song that had a man throwing that word around. Sure. Disrespectful way. Sure. Definitely. But I think in this case, I did not.

But it's also a question of like how the word ho has evolved. Right. Because, you know, its original context would be whore, which is not a very, not a nice thing to say to someone or about someone, but that sort of got shortened into ho. And, like, at what point does something that has kind of an ugly backstory, does it get sort of laundered to the point where now we can say it and it doesn't carry the same kind of, I don't know, impact?

Well, aren't we kind of going in the opposite direction with that? I think we're uncovering words now and realizing we're leaving this particular conversation aside, like this example that you're talking about, because we're going to it's related to the story that we're going to be talking about. And again, the context of who is saying this is, I think, relevant. But you said at what point, like broadly speaking, at what point is a word laundered enough that we can use it? I think we're doing the opposite, right? We're going back and realizing the racist background of other words and phrases and saying nobody – I mean very, very few people, a very small percentage of the population would have realized, for example, that the term grandfathered in has racist origins, which is something I just learned recently.

Are you serious? I did not know that.

I was just having a conversation with Genevieve and a friend the other day about this, and I didn't know this. Both of them knew it because they're what we call smart. They have good bremeries, and apparently – and I won't be able to – I won't be able to cite it exactly. Thanks for the bremeries.

Could that be a showtime? I'm writing that down. Okay, keep talking.

I was just going to say I will give you a very shorthand version that is probably somewhat inaccurate, But it goes back to voting laws and racist voting laws and about about, you know, if you was a descendant, who is a descendant of whom. Exactly. And bloodlines and whether you're white or black and the idea of being grandfathered in had to do with grandfathering. So that's probably accurate, although that's not very specific. Genevieve, we could call her, but it's not probably not worth it.

But the question about ho, though, to me is ho is not, as far as I understand, it's, well, it is kind of, I mean, you could make the argument that it has a certain kind of, I guess what I was going to say is the origin word, W-H-O-R-E, I'm just going to spell it this time so that it'll be less bracing for people. the origin word w-h-o-r-e is not something that's related to race it's related to a behavior uh where you know someone is seen as i i'm guessing exchanging you know good services money etc for uh sexual gratification on someone else's part but we've also now tried to destigmatize sex work so this is a weird one to me because it's it's almost like that's probably there could you can make the argument that shouldn't be an insult at all anymore because people who choose to engage in sex work as adults in my opinion should be allowed to do that so is that one can we do we can we bring ho back on as we're retiring things like grandfathered in i don't think that's my

call to make but i will probably not be using it you know in the near future like just me personally i guess that's the best answer i can give to that sure i mean i'm not i guess i'm just that that

word is just in my mind because of that piece of rap music, but I'm not going to be out there trying to also revive that word or introduce it into more conversations, but I guess what I'm just wondering is, are there words, like you said,

There are a lot of words in terms that when we learn the origin of them, we choose to use them less or to eliminate them because we realize there's a hurtful backstory. But what about a word that was used to try to hurt people that we now think those people should certainly not be insulted for the choices that they make? I wonder if there are any words that kind of get put back on the list.

Yeah, again, I think it depends on who's saying them because it's about, you know, like somebody saying that about themselves and the idea of reclaiming it for themselves. And, you know, and again, like just given where I sit, it's kind of like, well, you know it when you hear it. And I think that that tape is fine.

I would say you enter that continental flight to Cleveland just screaming W-H-O-R-E at the top of your lungs. Yeah. Or better, get it printed on a mask. Inslee is a whore on your mask.

Could you tweet that at Kai Riesel?

Are you that scandalized by that word? I don't know.

It's just this just feel. And I'll be honest with you. This could be me. I got like very – I shouldn't say hardly any, but I got very little sleep last night, like four hours, which is like little for my – which is fine. I'm fine. I'm in a goofy mood. But I was like, it's okay. Fridays tend to be kind of off the wall. When Luke decides to say WH-O-R-E a lot. And you're like asking for a ruling from me on when and how we can use this word. I'm just like, oh, man, I don't know that – I don't know that like I'm like sitting in a place right now where I can tackle that. All I can say is, yeah, context is everything. Certain people would be able to say that in a way that is inoffensive or reclaiming it. I'm not one of those people.

Yeah, I don't think I am either, so I'm going to stop doing it right now. Let's take a break, and then when we come back, we'll talk about Bitcoin theft. And also, we've got to check in on this email from listener Tierra in Baltimore about something going on at her place of work. So we'll do all of that and music for your weekend coming up here on TBTL. All right, let's thank some donors of the day. These are the... I'm just remembering something Job said about the difference between an illusion and a trick on the subject of our word that we're not going to say anymore this episode. I don't know why that just popped into my brain, but that's a funny line from Arrested Development. Or cocaine. You know, a podcast is something a Luke and an Andrew do for money, Andrew. And the people providing that money today.

Isn't that the joke? Doesn't he say money? And then somebody looks at him like, you can't say that. And then he says, or cocaine. You're probably wondering why I'm over here just like throwing the word cocaine in there. Yeah, no, I think that's one of those jokes that unfolds in like three beats. It keeps getting funnier as it goes on.

So great. You know what I used to eat for breakfast? Cocaine. Ingrid Marr is in San Francisco, California and is supporting the show. Paying us in money, not illicit substances. Very clear. Thank you, Ingrid.

Thank you.

John Jacobs is in East Grand Rapids, Michigan. Don't do it, Luke. Stifle it. Don't. Contain it Lock it down Trap it like the ghosts and ghostbusters In one of those little boxes And put it away Do you know what I'm telling myself not to do?

I have a feeling it's a maybe John's name Is suggestive of a Childhood rhyme Yep And that's where I'm not going I wonder if John's heard that before though

I feel like would we be doing a disservice Every day of John's life And that is why we're not Be like if I was donating to a podcast and they said, Luke, I'm your father. Although, I've said this many times on the show, that actually doesn't bother me. I like that when I meet people sometimes, it gives them a chance to deploy a fire joke. And it makes people feel good to get a good joke off. And I'm happy to be a part of that process. It certainly doesn't bother me. It doesn't anger me.

Wait, are you serious? Okay, well then hold on a second. We've been working together for like a decade now. I always thought you didn't like that. I never got to say that joke I want to say it Okay here we go Luke I am your daddy That felt good Oh my gosh you got me

You got me I did not see that Ready to laugh and drop until your socks come off I did not see that coming Superbowl week Dano I am your zaddy Like this person who drives a Yaris Yaris in my building And they have the um what do you call it when you do the uh personalized license plate vanity plate oh yeah somebody who has a yard and again i don't i'm not trying to car shame anyone uh i know that you love a good yard

Andrew but better believe it a Yaris with the personalized license plate of

zaddy is quite a look wow that is wow that is I love that that I know I want

to be best friends with that person I believe I wrote on Twitter go off Yaris King because like also by the way no response from Rizdal on that one could be Kai's car I don't know I don't know his comings and going your silence is

You're deafening Rizdahl.

That's what I should start doing. He's just basically pressuring Kai Rizdahl to respond to all of my tweets, such as go off Yaris King.

That is a good tweet. Sorry, I'll retroactively like that. I'll go find that in your feed. I really appreciate that.

Thanks, John, in East Grand Rapids. Also, thanks to Louisa Cohen, who's in North Vancouver, British Columbia.

See, I feel like, okay, so you've heard of Grand Rapids, right? But John is just East Grand Rapids. It's just off by a click. You've heard of Vancouver. Louisa's just not off by a click, but just like not giving in to just the mainstream, right? The generalities. The generalities, exactly.

Neither of these folks are willing to just be absorbed into the sort of larger context of these cities. It's important to them that we know that they're in the east part of that place or the north part of that place.

Would you say that I'm in the southern part of the Roosevelt? district am i in south roosevelt or am i in north roosevelt where does roosevelt i think you're

north roosevelt yeah you're north roosevelt south maple leaf but roosevelt high is still north of you and i think people would agree that it's called roosevelt high that has to be considered roosevelt could i be in central roosevelt i think you're in central roosevelt okay well i think

that's i look forward to you introducing me that way on monday take a note if i remember i will

absolutely do that on monday um brenna collerton is in fox island washington on fox island washington that's a nice that's a beautiful place down there fox island thanks brenna jim jarvis is in mccleary washington go off jarvis home of the go off go off education lawsuit that was lodged in front of the washington state supreme court king was it because of was it because of the was it people

named mccleary was it because of the the city of we do this every time we do this every time yes i didn't even realize we were heading towards this cliff until you asked me and it all came rushing back because i know that we've done this at least once before but i'm pretty sure we've done

this twice before because i always this is why jim donates to hear the mccleary decision brought up

on his favorite pod let me see if i can get this right because there was a similar decision um in new hampshire that i'm blanking on the name of now and i and that was named after the town the district right and so i always assume that mccleary is the town or district as well but i believe it was on the show possibly twice now um that we've looked it up and it turns out i'm wrong that in new hampshire it was based on a place but here it is based on the people who brought the lawsuit

can you confirm or deny were you looking it up no i'm not i'm just staring out the window at a

construction site in pasadena i thought that you were looking it up all right i'll look it up but i'm gonna go with i think absolutely not people okay i'll let you know i think you're probably

right mike mastowitz is in san jose california it's a good distribution i like this got san francisco we've got east grand rapids we've got north vancouver get central fox island we've got mccleary which may or may not be part of the education lawsuit and then we've got san jose california which is just a just a beautiful part of the world to be in so thank you so much to all of our donors of the day thanks for keeping tbtl going we would not be here on this friday without

Hello, and welcome to Top Story.

All right, Andrew. Did you find out about McCleary?

It was people, yeah. It's based on... Yep, exactly. And then I'm also looking forward to...

I'm tempted to yell it. I'm tempted to yell that realization like Charlton Heston yells at the end of Soylent Green. It's people. It's people! Exactly. The McCleary decision was people.

It's driving me I gave in to the temptation Yes, you did But it bought me a little bit of time that I did not use efficiently There it is, Claremont Oh, thank you I mean, when I first started at New Hampshire Public Radio The Claremont decision was like the only thing anybody talked about in public radio Talk radio circles Like it was very much like McCleary It was about like property taxes and whether or not the That's it.

And whether or not the state is living up to its constitutional requirement to provide an education to children. It was the exact same thing happening on the other coast. But, like, I was not coming into that job with a very strong journalistic background. And just, like, everybody was so far into the Claremont story by the time I landed there as a young dummy. And they were just, like, throwing around all these phrases. I was just like, I remember just having to, like, go home one day and just, like, read the hell out of the Claremont decision. And this is kind of not pre-internet, but pre-me having the internet and pre-us relying on the internet for everything. So we had files. We had these big, you know, actual filing cabinets with topics in them, like a wall of them. And for every show we ever did, we would save certain clippings from newspapers and then put them in a file. And the Claremont files took up almost an entire drawer. And you would just pull out this huge thing on the Claremont decision and just start, like, flipping through old articles going back, like, five years. Good story.

Young Dummy is going to be my rap name, by the way. Young Dummy. Okay, we're going to talk rap in a moment. First, though, because we've been promoting this for the last, like, two or three days. What is going on at the workplace of our friend, listener Tiara, in Baltimore? I still haven't actually – I didn't really fully read the emails. My mouse hovered over one of them enough to see that it had something to do with coffee or something.

Yeah, this is a great – I think Tierra might have sent this in as a hey dummies question, but it's too good for us just to like talk about solo into a camera. You and I need to talk about this together. We need to get the listeners in on this. Email us, call us, text us because I want people's – I need suggestions. Email us. Yes, email us. Tierra says, hey dummies. It's Tierra from Baltimore. I have a work dilemma. Young dummy. I have an employee who brings me coffee pretty much every day. However, they have never asked how I take my coffee. The coffee they bring me is sickly sweet. Three sugars and pumps of flavored syrup. I cannot drink it past two sips. I don't know how to address this issue without sounding ungrateful. Help, says Tierra. Now, I would like to point out a couple. i've been thinking about this email for days i have not come up with anything great when the only thing i can offer is the stupidest most ridiculous thing you've ever heard but maybe it'll get the the ball rolling on this but i think this is an interesting wrinkle here that i had forgotten about it sounds like this is somebody who works for tiara because tiara is a manager right so that's interesting i kept thinking of this as a co-worker the fact that it's a you know that it's somebody who probably reports to tiara is an interesting wrinkle i think the only thing and the other thing that makes this interesting is if only they were correcting to the other way right you can always add more to coffee you can't take it out and that's what's just so frustrating about this the only thing that I could think of is the most passive aggressive bullshit you can possibly imagine try to orchestrate this is the best I came up with I've been thinking about this email for a week try to orchestrate a conversation with another co-worker while this employee is in earshot talking about how you prefer to take your coffee and maybe even say, I don't like it too sweet. You know, I usually just take it. I usually just take it with one Splenda and a little cream. That's the best I got.

That's got real strong curb your

enthusiasm. Yes, it does. Vibes to it.

What could go wrong with, like, you've got to get so you've got to get get somebody at your workplace to go in on this

with you and then if then if the other person is like the person that you're trying to reach like clearly isn't listening and then like walks out of the room without even paying attention then you have to like set it up again I don't know right what do you think

that's boy I mean this is not an interesting answer but I think what I would do is I would say to the person it is so sweet of you it is so nice of you to bring me coffee I it's that's just so thoughtful and I really appreciate it without sounding ungrateful would there be a chance of just leaving out the sugar and the sweetener because I'm trying to you know watch my health or something i don't know like interesting it sounds ungrateful a little ungrateful but i think that would be how i would address i think i would for once in my life and i'm not usually this way i think i would take the direct route or i would tweet about it and hope they saw it maybe like i would do what you're talking about but i would just be like i'd send a tweet like boy coffee's too sweet these days and then just like leave leave my twitter account out

Thank you.

and hope that they saw it or something. No, I mean, I think for once in my life I would, well, I don't know, though, because I say that. I imagine making direct eye contact with this person doing this kind thing and telling them they're doing it wrong. That would be hard.

Yeah, and, like, you're not asking them to pick it up. Even if they're paying for it, but, like, they're making a coffee run. Hey, how do you take it? Like, it sounds like it's just a nice treat that somebody is doing. I mean, honestly, we haven't even touched on this. I mean, it also is somewhat sycophantic, isn't it? I mean, I wonder what the what the deal is here. I'm going to give this person the benefit of the doubt that they're not just trying to suck up to their boss, but it's just a nice gesture. It's really hard because it's it's all supposed to be lanyap. You know, I love that word. Like this is a cup of coffee that was not it wasn't part of the arrangement. It wasn't part of the plan. It's a nice little thing that's a co-worker is doing for you wherever you are on the org chart. Right. And so to start putting in a request related to that, I don't know. You know me. I don't like asking for things, but that just seems so awkward to me.

Also, I love the confidence of this person thinking that they guessed right. Yeah, squirts of syrup. That's like buying jewelry for someone you only barely know.

Or buying jewelry for your boss. What about that?

Right?

Right. Like, I mean, that is a that's a bold move. Like, like, OK, I'm bringing you coffee. I'm going to just go ahead and do three packets of sugar and four pumps of whatever. Like that. That is both very kind. And also, again, I just keep going back to the word confident. I don't have the confidence. I would never have the confidence to think I knew what someone wanted in their coffee.

Yeah. And I wonder if this person is maybe that's how they take it. And they think like, oh, because I don't I've never had a coffee with a syrup in it. Luke, I don't think like it's just like that world to me is is when I'm serving somebody coffee. Like when you come over here, I think I usually I will set down a cup of coffee for you if you want one. But then I'll just give you some cream and a couple of packets of sugar and say, like, do it to it, my dude. That's what I say every time. Right. You get my back on that. I say, do it to it, my dude.

It's one of the cooler moves. Exactly.

And then somehow animated sunglasses come down, cover my eyes, and it says deal with it. But anyway, you know what I mean? Like I am legit – like I have never – I shouldn't say I've never had coffee with cream or sugar in it. But I've never – it's so rare that I prepare it, and it's even rarer that I would prepare it for myself. So I don't even know how to do that, let alone putting in pumps of syrup. I wouldn't know where to begin. So maybe this person is just like, hey, I got a hack. I like coffee my way. I call it the, what do you think this person's name is? Let's call it this person. I call it the Larry. We call it Benny. Like, you're going to get the Benny treatment.

Larry wasn't good enough? No, I like Benny. I thought Larry was good. I didn't go with Randy, which is my default setting. I was proud of myself that I at least branched out to a different made-up name.

Anyway, but you know what I mean? Like, maybe they're just like, yeah, this is like, in the way that I'm sort of proud of my Bloody Marys, right? Like, I have a little thing that I do with my Bloody Marys.

I'm so glad that it ended in Mary and not, like, wounds. I didn't realize where you were going with that. I don't think I actually knew that you're proud of your Bloody Marys.

Yeah, I am. Like, I make them from scratch using Clamato juice, which technically makes it a Bloody Caesar. And then I have a whole bunch of ingredients that I put in.

Well, if you don't go harvest the clams, I don't think we can call it from scratch.

That's a good point. But I guess I don't use, like, a pre-made Bloody Mary mix. Anyway, so it could be something like that. Like, this is my signature drink, and now you're getting the Benny or Larry or whatever. So I wonder if that's where this comes from.

I think a power move is to just start bringing your boss a Bloody Mary every morning.

Yeah. Or, yeah, maybe that's it. Like, you're saying that Tierra should say, like, you know, I don't go the direct route. You know, I don't usually take it quite so sweet. Maybe she should just say, I don't usually take it without. Could you Irish this up? Yeah, without any alcohol in it. Right?

No. Like, this is great, Larry, but you know what would be even better? You know? Irish it up. Yeah. Throw a little, you know.

What about the move of having, and I don't think this is appropriate, and I guess I can't really condone this behavior, but how about the move of keeping, like, a little flask in your bottom desk drawer? I'm picturing this person coming and, like, setting the coffee down and saying, hey, Tiara, how was your weekend or whatever? And Tiara's like, oh, pretty good. Thanks for this. But while she's talking, she just opens her bottom drawer, takes out the flask, tops it off with the, what would you be using? They're probably Irish whiskey, I'm guessing. What would you put in coffee? Yeah, some Jameson or something like that. Jameson or something like that. And just, you know, never misses a beat, never breaks eye contact. What a cool move that would be.

Tiara, start drinking at work. That's my solution for you.

The only people that can get away with that are cops who are about to get kicked off the force. And what are the other journalists?

Wait a second, though.

Like in a 1950s newspaper setting. I'm trying to think of the like – and also private detectives also in – it's just anything noir, really.

I think – let me think this through, though. you might have it slightly wrong with the cop it might not be the cop who's about to get kicked off the force it might be the chief who's about to kick you off the force right could i feel like the wild cops coming off the street they've been out there they've been jumping off of roofs and from one roof to another and getting in car chases and they come in and they weren't even supposed to be on this case anymore the mayor is let it go what's happening is the mayor is

The mayor is on the ass of the police chief. Oh, my God. And because of the behavior of these cops that are playing by their own rules.

And they're starting to stir up some things they're not supposed to stir up.

Yeah. And the police chief is mad because they have forced him to start drinking more on the job because of what a headache they're being.

So he's topping off his coffee, but then he's getting increasingly angry. Oh, and the other person is Lou Grant. Ed Asner. Ed Asner as Lou Grant, yeah.

All right. Let me tell you a little bit about this story of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan who have been arrested and charged with Bitcoin theft. Well, it's just theft, and it happens to be Bitcoin. You know what is funny, Andrew, is I actually have to use – remember at the beginning of the show I played you this audio?

Services. Amenity. Elevator. Curtains with sticks.

I am actually using the stick on the curtain in this hotel room to close these shades because the sun is streaming into this hotel room and I couldn't even see my computer screen. anyway uh that is not fixed uh the uh allegation against uh lichtenstein and morgan is that they stole bitcoin from uh from this particular like i'm so bad with anything crypto andrew that i'm just gonna i'm gonna commit a series of truly jarring factual errors as i try to talk about this story but basically uh they basically stole a bunch of crypto some years ago that at the time was worth i think in the millions but because of what crypto has done it's now in the billions i think it was in the neighborhood of four billion dollars of crypto that this guy ilia lichtenstein had in his cloud account which is kind of funny that the because one of the things he would tweet about a lot was the lack of crypto security and how uh and and basically like he was sort of a self-styled expert on cloud security related to crypto and then when the authorities got a search warrant and they went into his cloud account they were like well there's the four billion dollars um so he was maybe not practicing what he was preaching she was also uh heather morgan was an occasional contributor to forbes although kind of in this i would say sort of vanity way Like she would write pieces for them But I read a few of them And they were not particularly compelling And she was not like a full-time employee at Forbes I think she would sort of like Gin up like four ways to conquer Your business challenges And then like submit it to Forbes And then they were like well we'll put this on the internet I mean why wouldn't we I read that it was a good piece by the way

It did help me

But then her other thing was She fancied herself an artist And not just a painter or whatever But she was like a kind of multimedia artist She considered her whole life, it would appear, to be an art project She was sort of a performance artist She made fashion And she made rap music And it's not super-duper good I'm going to tell you right now This is Versace Bedouin This was kind of her, I guess She took a lot of this stuff down, by the way because she had stuff on YouTube and her personal website had stuff. I had to go on SoundCloud to find this. This is a song called Versace Bedouin that Heather Morgan put together. Take a listen.

I'm many things. A rapper, an economist, a journalist.

I want to also mention that you're going to hear a word that may shock you coming up. A word we've been talking about for the last 40 minutes. What are its origins?

Writer, a CEO, and a dirty, dirty, Dirty, dirty ho Better than most writers Creepier than most girls Weirder than most rappers But I still rock pearls Russell Kong The Versace better win

Oh, she also loved to talk about how she was the crocodile of Wall Street.

That was a big thing that kept coming up on her Twitter account and other places. She just, she loved being a disruptor.

my fingers and boots on my feet always be a goat not a goddamn sheep email me your message at the beep beep beep beep versace better win got the bling that win with a berber and mine i'll win every fight my swag ain't just lit silver really packs a hit poppy fashion so legit see bitches saying stop about to pop ain't going quick they say rise i feel bitch but they're jealous of my tits My eyes, my nose, my bling My clothes, these rings, my hose Everyone knows With no bros Unless they're gay Gays don't count, they're exempt Razzlecon

Yeah, so there you go That's a little bit of Razzlecon for you

Rough stuff Very rough stuff Did you edit that? Were there places there where you took out bad words? Or was that the internet?

The only person who's – I am as bad at editing out swears as Razzlecon is at rapping.

No, I'm not – every now and then – I'm the Razzlecon of swear edits. You're on the road, so every now and then there's a little dropout in the line. So I wasn't sure if the line was dropping out. But no, so things got kind of –

That was me cutting out the P word and the B word and the F word.

Yeah, because I couldn't quite hear it in context like what was being cut out. So yeah, pretty rough stuff as far as just performance, but also rough stuff as far as context.

But here's the thing. So I you know, this this was blazing around the Internet the other day was like, oh, of course, these tech bro and his wife who are disruptors and call themselves angel investors. And they just seem like they're part of this world of people who are very proud of themselves because they've somehow made a ton of like theoretical money and by by cracking the code on something. And they all want to go to Burning Man and and like they all want to be something else like a rapper or whatever. They just seemed like they were very predictive Like it was like the internet's reaction was like Of course these same people had a bad rap album Which is all true But then I read this piece she wrote for Forbes About why she became a rapper Like how basically like The thrust of the piece is The way to avoid burnout is finding something you love And I went into it just like I'm so, I can't wait to read how bad this is And to be honest with you, it's not a particularly well written piece But what she writes about in it is that She grew up very insecure her teeth were really crooked and it made her feel embarrassed and she had a speech impediment and she didn't like talking to people because she was very embarrassed of how she spoke and that getting into this rap thing gave her this confidence she didn't have before and I was like really Razzle Khan you gotta go and write something that actually makes me feel kind of bad for you I mean you shouldn't have stolen four billion dollars but the piece actually kind of gave me like it's not good rap music you just heard it you have ears but the back story of it if it's to be believed and I did kind of believe because she's you know being very braggadocious in her rapping but when she wrote about why she actually did it it made me kind of feel bad for her I envisioned her growing up feeling just insecure and sad

that is kind of a sweet story I you know it wasn't until you said that that it really cemented for me that she's taking this seriously and I know that you literally said that she is before you played that tape that she considers herself an artist but when I hear that all I hear is do you remember Gawker used to have that segment don't make that don't make that rap video and then it'd be like colon or don't make that rap song colon don't rap like my brother don't rap like my brother it would be like colon public relations version or whatever and it's like okay some public relations firm and actually I'm thinking about this because Genevieve worked for a public relations firm who I believe right before she was hired there they did one of those rap videos like this is like the early 2000s where you had like corporations taking all of their employees and like like changing the lyrics to some jay-z song and then uh rapping it and you know making a montage video of them rapping around the office or whatever like that was a thing kids for a while it was it was the worst it was just one of the darkest moments in pop culture history when everybody was doing flash mobs and everybody was making all these corporate entities were like making their employees do fun loving rap videos god i'm so glad we got through that anyway that's what that sounds like to me you would quit i think

you would quit you could get your dream job and if they said okay now it's time for the rap and it's compulsory everyone has to be a part of the the rap you would just be like well i don't work

here anymore yeah i you know that was one thing when i took my job at um

kcrw down in la and i was working here in seattle um it took a long time to kind of it was a very strange process they hired me as the head producer for this talk show but then most of the other team was already hired but i don't know i was just up here kind of still working my job up here in seattle but having more and more conversations with people who would eventually work for me and people i would work with about planning of the show and all these things and the one thing was this this co-worker who is now a good friend of mine and somebody I hold dear but I didn't know her at the time but she was organizing a flash mob at KCRW for another employee another employee who was going to be on our team and she just kept saying like oh I'm so if you were only getting down here like one week earlier two weeks earlier you could be in the flash mob with us and I'm just like are you I think no I would rebook my tickets I would push the job offer back by a month I would

I would fly to Cleveland on continental air.

I would move heaven and earth. There's no way I would be a part of that. This is the same job where it was really tight quarters in there, and if I knew it was somebody's birthday and if I heard a group of people coming down the hallway, like it was about to be birthday times, I would run and hide in a studio and just stay there for about 15, 20 minutes until the storm had passed because I didn't feel like singing happy birthday in the newsroom. God, I'm a pretty good guy.

That is a pretty strong reaction, I will say. It really is. I just – I also – I cringe in those moments as well, but I guess I wouldn't take as evasive of action. But I'm with you. Like I don't like any kind of forced merriment. That kind of stuff really – it also makes me feel uncomfortable. But my guess is it makes you even more uncomfortable than it makes you.

Yeah. In fact, I'm having intrusive thoughts, and I'm just remembering that they did that for me when I was leaving. And my desk was right in the middle, and I just remember being so – I'm so bad. Those are my most awkward moments when people are like, let's celebrate Andrew now with a surprise, and everybody's going to stare at me. And I remember the GM was there and my program director, and I was just like, oh, God, get me out of here.

Did you call them all dirty, dirty, W-H-O-R-E-S-es?

I did. I said, are we allowed to say this?

All right, let's do a little music for your weekend here on this Friday. Andrew, what would you like to play?

I am going to play something that was recommended to me via text message. It doesn't really matter, but for what it's worth, by our dear friend Aaron Roden. He sent me a link yesterday. I don't know if you have talked about this band before, Luke, that the name of this musician or group, I don't know anything about them, sounds familiar to me, Men I Trust. I feel like this has come up on the show. Is this something that you've been into or that Addy has introduced you to?

No, it's not a band I've heard of or a thing I do.

I don't know if it's a single artist who goes by the name Men I Trust or a thing I do. Sorry, a little slow today. That was a lag on the line. You have a good bremery. Anyway, the name— Thanks for the bremeries. I've heard of the artist or artists Men I Trust somewhere before. I don't know where. I never listened to it. But Roden sent this to me and said, this is just good rainy day music. So I listened to a little bit of the record yesterday. This song I'm about to play for you is called Oh Dove. I've heard it approximately one time in my life, and that was last night. But take a listen. It is – it's not party time music. It is real chill, but I love it.

All right.

You're not done

You just broke up on

Hooked up You're not the one that's gone

To be ours, like the trees on our shores.

All tweez, cliff seat away on our knees.

Men I Trust is a trio out of Montreal. I should have looked that up before I played that song for you, but it's chill, right? Doesn't it just kind of make you feel good? Yes.

That is lying by the swimming pool on a sunny day.

That's so funny because Roden sent it to me. Here's some good rainy day music.

It could also work on a rainy day.

Exactly.

It also makes great julienne fries. Did that ever actually even... That was the joke about all of the kitchen, you know, sort of miracle. devices yeah yeah but like i don't think i ever actually heard someone say it also makes great julianne fries i think i heard like dana carvey say it on snl pretending to be one of those people and it's always become it's always been a go-to of mine for that kind of stuff i was thinking

about him the other day because i'm with you that we have said on the show before that groaning was why would i why would i take this to a negative place but you and i have talked on the show before opinions will differ on this mileage will vary but you and i adored um i think snl in the 90s and now as adults we look back at that era and some of the stuff that dana carvey did that slayed us and now we look back and we're like really was that really maybe it didn't slay you at the time it slayed me at the time but no the church lady i thought the church lady was the

funniest thing that had ever been created and if i watch it now it doesn't it doesn't make me laugh

a whole lot exactly so all of that is it's not to bring him down but another example of that is the chopping broccoli song that you know he was like he did that for his audition for snl and it was so celebrated and it doesn't really hold up for me yet god damn if that doesn't live in my head man i every time i'm cutting broccoli which is something i do a lot like we cook a lot of broccoli in this house whether it's like in a stir fry or just like uh roasted broccoli or what have you i'm it's one of my favorite vegetables and dude i can't i can't do it without singing that song i'm singing it in the grocery store when i'm buying it it lives in there you know

what i've i'm sure you have already been doing this and other listeners who are good cooks but what i have started doing now is buying um the like some places where they have organic broccoli it'll be like a lot of stem yep and i'm not talking about broccolini but i'm just talking about like yep the stem of the broccoli is longer than what i grew up with let's say the broccoli i grew up was like a big kind of crown and then some stem this is like more stem than crown but i love it because you cut that stem up into medallions yep and it's the i love broccoli i love chopping it i love chopping broccoli andrew no i i love broccoli but i i really like the kind of medallion

stem of broccoli as much if not more than the crown yeah i um i was told that by a guy at Whole Foods I don't do most of my uh like kind of produce shopping at Whole Foods but one day I needed broccoli I was going to chop it um and so I ran across the street and I was buying some broccoli and uh it had really long stems on it and the or maybe it didn't have stems I can't recall but like the guy who was ringing me up just like a young man cashier said uh yeah no I get the stuff with the really long stems I don't understand people throw that away it's the best part I'm like what are you talking about he's like you cut it exactly what you just said you cut it into medallions you know and you and you can um we roast ours for the medallions i've never tried sauteing that i don't know how you do it luke but uh he was right it was amazing they almost are like because what happens is it gets crispy on the outside and a little bit soft on the outside almost like uh it almost takes on the consistency of some sort of a of a potato like right like a like a greek french fry or something like that i just like the flavor of it too because it tastes

a little bit more i'm gonna say maybe bitter or something like it has a slightly different flavor than the crown and uh and i i am a fan i am also a fan andrew of the singer and performer jay psalm i know that i sent you a different song for my music for your weekend but i'm actually i'm pulling a um uh omaha omaha i'm calling an audible at the line because of the defense and what i'm seeing an opportunity here really what it was was last night driving from lax out here to pasadena i was listening to music i stand by our claims a couple weeks ago that la may be the best radio town in america and i say that with peace and love to big fork montana which also has a great radio station montana public radio but i just had a wonderful time listening to i just put it on scan man and like i listened to k-earth i was vibing uh then it went to some spanish language music which i was digging and then it landed on i think maybe kxlu which is the like i think that's the loyola maramount college station and there was just a person who sounded to me like they were probably you know in you know like their early 20s late teens classic college radio sound slightly mumbly but just it just took me back to the era when i used to listen almost exclusively to college radio and they were like i only have a couple more minutes here so i'm gonna just try to play as many songs as i can and then i'll come back and say goodbye or maybe i'll play this song and then i'll say goodbye and then i'll play the other song really it sounded like tbtl now that i think of it really sounds exactly like us but um sounds good anyway they played this jay psalm song jay psalm is the uh kind of stage name of a performer named melina may duterte uh who is from the bay area and And...

Jay Somm has a lot of songs that I like. I don't think I had heard this one before. I didn't remember it. It's called Crown by Jay Somm. And it's kind of like what you were playing. It's just sort of a vibe for either a sunny day or a rainy day. So can we take a listen to that?

We'll be right back. The feeling's all right. We'll be right back.

I think this kind of music is sometimes described as bedroom pop because it sounds like you recorded it in your bedroom, which I'm a fan of a lot of stuff that kind of falls under that category.

So I love this. I absolutely love this. Check out that album. Yeah. Anako. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly. And the cover. I don't know if you were listening to this in a place where you could see the cover art for this. It's not very good podcasting just to say this has got a beautiful cover, but it does. It's very up my alley.

You should check out that whole album. Yeah, I don't know how to say it either. Anika or Anika Ko or something. But that album is, the whole thing is real good. Real good, J-SOM. Love it. All right, our listener suggestion is coming to us from listener Eric in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Says, hi, Luke and Andrew. I've been driving a Mazda 5. This is the week where we talk about Mazdas a lot on the show. I've been driving a Mazda 5 since 2008. It's kind of a cross between a minivan and a car, and when we bought it, we just loved it so much that when it came time to replace it, my wife spent countless hours finding a new version because they stopped making the Mazda 5 in 2014. Long story short, she found a 2014 Mazda 5 in upstate New York. So this winter, we made the five-hour trip and bought that baby. During my wife's exhaustive internet research, she came across this song called Mazda 5 by a band, My Key. I doubt you've ever heard of this guy. I know I hadn't. But this tune is what I'd like to suggest for music for your weekend. It's got a great dreamy summer sound. It's perfect here in February. If I'd known about it earlier, I would have submitted it for Song of the Summer contest. I love that listener Eric and his family found this song, Mazda 5, because they were trying to find another Mazda 5 that they could purchase to replace their beloved Mazda 5. So that's what we're going to go out with, a little Mazda 5 by MyKey. Cool. That's going to bring us to the end of this week. Thank you, everyone, for listening. Thanks for being part of TBTL. We really do appreciate it. We're going to be back here on Monday with more imaginary radio for you. So we will see you then. Until then, have a great Friday. Have a great weekend Stay safe Take care of yourselves And please remember No mountain too tall And good luck to all

Um, maybe try one

cooler and faster and louder and better and less insecure and more just cool power out

Thank you.