Muse

Okay, everyone got a celebrity name in? All right, team one, you're up.

Okay, he was in Ocean's Eleven.

Matt Tiemann.

No, um, he has a tequila, silver fox.

Ah, George Clooney.

Yes, okay, um, she was a pretty woman.

Julie Roberts.

Yes, okay, um, all right, I guess this is a musician.

John Mayer.

No, I, older. Time. Goddamn, it's jazz legend Marcus the Worm Hicks.

Okay, who put that in?

That one might be one of mine.

Okay, team two, we're up.

Howie, you go first.

All right, this guy ran with Thaddeus Finks. He was one of the eight balls in Mookie Kramer and the eight ball. I don't know, this doesn't sound like anything. He played the alto sax with the kink in it? I don't know.

Not sure.

Really? Okay, pass. Okay, this one's easy. He's got the freak lips. He can hit the high C all night long. He was king of the tuck-tuck sound. Is this another jazz guy? Time.

Ah, come on, guys.

We didn't get one.

That's because they're supposed to be celebrities everyone knows.

Oh, you mean like household names like Roy Donk or Jack Marshall who wrote the Munsters theme song? Roy Donk?

Oh, I think this one's Howie's. Yep, I don't know what to do.

Just, what was it?

Tiny Boop Squig Shorterly.

What do you mean? Come on, is that even a celebrity? He's no Roy Donk, but he was a regular guest on the Colgate Hour. TBTL!

It's the first line of the film, man. It's got to be on the money here.

Hey, baby.

T-T-T-L.

I just feel like I'm excited and I feel relaxed

and I'm ready to party with the best of them. If there's a better use for the internet, I haven't found it.

All right, hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Thursday edition of TBTL, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. A beautifully wrapped, glossy, sweet-smelling show. My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host.

Hello, everyone!

Coming to you from the Hollywood Broadcast Center right here in Portland, Oregon, where some clouds, but also some sun. We had a beautiful afternoon yesterday, which was nice and surprising.

Oh, Ma, Pa, it's just beautiful.

But it did allow me and Becca to go on a lovely walk to a place called Mock Crest Park here in Portland. And as I was standing in the middle of this kind of grassy field, every single bit of seasonal allergy related matter just went directly into my nose my lungs my brain my ears and i am feeling so allergic right now that i actually did something i don't usually i took a zyrtec right before the show so we're gonna get to find out what happens when I am podcasting high as balls.

You know what I used to eat for breakfast? Cocaine.

So we'll see how it goes here on episode 3,700 and... Jeez, I got the extra long drum roll here. 3,700 and... Seven. In a collector's series. We'll call back to yesterday's show and a conversation we were having at the end of the program. So here we are, everyone. We have made it. It's episode 3,707.

Let the fun begin.

Collector's series. The Washington Post yesterday ran two side-by-side opinion columns. A couple of hot takes on the pros and cons. One of the opinion columns was arguing for QR-coded menus in restaurants being a permanent thing, and one was arguing against it.

First of all, I'd like to see the chef face-to-face. These are the best Cajun chicken niblets I've ever had.

So we will weigh the merits of both of these arguments coming up. Also, it's a Thursday, a.k.a. a Blur's Day.

It's my birthday today.

We'll do the Blur's Day messages. is. And yesterday on the show, I also asked for help from the listeners solving a little bit of a mystery. The past is history. The future is a mystery. Regarding a photo of Andre the Giant that I saw framed in a, I guess, bar, restaurant bar situation here in Portland. And the listeners have not disappointed. There's been some real internet sleuthing going on. And so we'll talk about that.

as well we'll talk about all that with this guy speaking of andrew the giant anybody you want to feel it he is the longest running cobro of the show maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships and he's joining me right now good morning my friend you know don't you think that some mysteries these days are just solved too easily with the help of the internet like i feel like i'm even though we don't have a really satisfying answer right now to that andre the giant photo hanging up in that hot dog place that you stumbled upon. I kind of love that somebody wasn't able to just go clack, clack, clack into the internet and give us the result immediately. We have a real mystery on our hands here. Well, we've got a couple of listeners who have been weighing in on it, right? Yeah. I mean, we have a lot of information, but people are triangulating. They're doing that thing with the thread or the yarn on the board. Beautiful mind stuff Or maybe not so much beautiful mind But more Mel Gibson in conspiracy theory Who knew that was going to be a documentary I've actually never seen that Have you seen that or do you just know of it I did I saw that in a theater Oh see I don't really know it And I mean I vaguely I think that the tagline for the film was something like Just because You're paranoid doesn't mean you're wrong Or something like that I mean, the idea is that Mel Gibson is a complete conspiracy theorist, but he's right, which, again, just seems like such a Mel Gibson movie to make now. Like, now that we just know what an absolutely despicable human he is, it's like, of course, he was early on making movies that would say, you know, QAnon, there could be something there. Sure, yeah, could be something there. He didn't weigh in on this, did he? No, these aren't. But you're right, though, that this has taken some kind of, well, it still involves the internet, but still relatively old-fashioned kind of sleuthing to try to, so the story, if you missed yesterday's show, was I popped into this place, I think it's called Nathan's Coney Island. You think I would just do a one-second internet search so I can call it the right place? But anyway, it's got a bunch of framed photos, and I also assumed, Andrew, that these pictures were you know like i don't know i mean where where do you get the random pictures that are in uh one of the kind of restaurants that has a million random pictures but i assume they went to the random picture store and just got a bunch of you know what i mean the random uh picture section of town i think i'm yeah it's in the random picture district yeah sure yeah i you know what i mean though it's like i didn't think that there was any chance that any of these photos were actually had actual historic value or were related to portland so there's this picture that i saw of andre the giant in like the 70s or 80s and he's just walking down the street and he's obviously very large and he's got some more standard sized dudes with him who look tiny compared it's just it's just kind of a cool picture and so i took a picture of it on my phone and i actually texted

camaro and rodent and uh our friend alger to uh see if they knew anything about it they didn't And anyway, it now appears, I think. Let me see. I want to get the exact. I have one email in front of me here. Okay. We got one from Patty and one from Cheryl. Those are the two that I'm aware of so far. I'm going to share with you what Patty wrote in, and then Cheryl sent us some actual photo imagery that we can't share necessarily on a podcast, but I'll let you untangle that, Luke. But Patty says, after hearing you talk about that photo, I put on my sleuthing hat, got to work using Google Maps. I want to see what Patty's sleuthing hat looks like. Yeah, me too. And is it different than the gumshoe hat? Right. Is it like a Sherlock Holmes kind of hat? You know, that was a look that never took off. Is there anyone who's not Sherlock Holmes who's ever worn that hat again? Yeah, if you wear, I mean, that goes beyond hipster, right? Like you wear a Sherlock Holmes hat, you are, no offense, but like, I mean, you're solidly lizard on your shoulder territory, right? Yeah, you're walking a ferret on a leash, 100%. Maybe unicycling behind a ferret. Maybe Janko's involved, exaggerated Janko's. But that is weird to think about, like, Sherlock Holmes, a famous fictional character, but one who is quite, you know, sort of well regarded for his powers of deduction. You'd think that hat would have somehow taken off. Yeah. That reminds me. I didn't get my little golf hat, you know, the hat that looks like a wedge that snaps in front. And that was something that I've been wanting because I had a lot of those when I was kids. That was something that I was wanting for a while. Then they became very trendy last year, and now the trend has sort of passed us. I haven't been seeing them as much as I was. I saw a guy wearing one of those yesterday on the streets of Portland, and it looked great. Those things look great. And I have to say that I'm not always – well, this guy was pulling it off, and it was just – it had to do with his – he kind of looked like he might have been in Peaky Blinders, but he wasn't overdoing it. It wasn't – I don't even mean his fashion. I mean his kind of build. wasn't particularly tall but he just kind of looked sort of i don't know wiry and strong in a way in a kind of way that you would be from working down on the docks or whatever yeah and and somehow this hat just really worked for him even though i that hat to me is is can be tough to pull off sometimes um yeah this guy was really doing it it made me really reconsider that hat as look not for me but i was it was nice to see it being successfully pulled off yeah it's

interesting because it can almost be and maybe i'm wrong about this but in some ways you can almost see a scholarly fellow wearing it right like um a jacket with uh patches on the elbows kind of almost like almost pipe smoking but then you're right there's also more of a pugnacious aspect of this the person down the docks who will like kind of do who went when he gets into a fight he does with his fists that thing that the little fighting irish logo yeah the notre dame logo that's how he fights just spins them spins them or like a kangaroo yeah okay here's what Patty said, using not the gumshoe hat, but the sleuthing hat, using Google Maps, I think this photo is from Portland, the photo in question here. It's from Portland, specifically the intersection of Southwest Oak Street and Southwest Third Street. Andre and company would have been walking Southwest. Are you following this? Everybody walking Southwest on Southwest Third Avenue in the photo. While many of the buildings in the background have changed, there's just enough to make me think this is the right location. When compared to Google Street View and that's where Cheryl jumped in and also kind of included some snapshots from Google Street View and kind of circling a building like the facade of one building that remains that looks like the same building that's right over Andre's left shoulder.

right and so uh i when i got patty's email first and so then i did some i did my own google street viewing of that and the thing that was throwing me off was that the initially was that they're in the background of the andre the giant photo you can see a bridge it might even be i'm terrible with geography but it might even be the the steel bridge that i talk about sometimes because i used to jog on it a lot and sometimes it was the one the steel bridge is the one that i uh ran across like when they had closed it and then they were yelling at me over the microphone and then i had to jump over a gate to get off of the bridge before it started going up um in the onto the giant photo you can see the top of a bridge and in the updated version you can't see that bridge and i think that's just because they've built taller buildings now and so you just can't see it it's still there but initially i was like well no this isn't it from portland or at least not from where patty thought it was because i couldn't see that bridge but then when cheryl sent in all this photographic evidence i think it is the same place and i think it's just and then this is what was especially helpful about cheryl's sleuthing she then cross references was andre the giant in portland in the early 80s this is amazing i mean this is really this is quality detective work Apparently he was February 24, 1981 Andre the Giant Was in Portland For a wrestling match And he was wrestling At the, well somebody said they saw Andre the Giant wrestle at the Portland Sports Arena In 1981 This is like a comment section on an internet board Somewhere, they call them internet boards And then Cheryl also found some other evidence Pacific Northwest wrestling in Portland, Oregon Andre the Giant won a battle royal. Oh, wow. There was Andre the Giant, Matt Bourne, and Buzz Sawyer defeated Gene Kaniski and Rip Oliver. Oh, and also Moose Murawski was there. But Andrew, was Baron Von Rasky there?

I know. I'm immediately thinking of our friend in St. Paul.

So there was a battle royal that happened in 1981 in Portland involving Andre the Giant so all of this taken together and again thank you so much Cheryl and Patty for putting in the work on this this really makes me think this is just a photo of Andre the Giant wandering around Portland in the 80s which makes me love it so much more so here's my latest plan Andrew I am going to go back to the hot dog place I am going to talk to the owner possibly named nathan i still haven't solved that mystery and i'm going to see if he will let me take the

photo i'm googling what the name i was looking before when you were talking i think it's just nathan's famous they opened up a bunch of it looks like they opened up a bunch of like kitchens during the pandemic maybe no because this is hanging there for too long yeah no i think i'm

conflating things let's see coney uh let me sorry i'm just have to do this in real time there's no way i could do this before the show in the four hours before we were doing the show in the 22 hours wait Going back to yesterday, Nick's. Oh, okay. Nick's, your buddy. Nick's Famous Coney Island.

Okay. That makes more sense. Now, look at this sign, Andrew. Because I was looking at those restaurants, and that didn't make a lot of sense. Yeah.

Because, you know, Nathan's is who sponsors the hot dog eating contest at Coney Island. But go ahead and throw Nick's Famous Coney Island into your restaurant. Oh, yeah. Oh, God. Look at that sign. How great is that sign, by the way? Goodness gracious.

Yes. Goodness gracious.

That, like, I mean, you see that sign, Andrew. You turn into a cartoon. Yeah. A cartoon skunk flying on ascent into that place.

Yeah. In fact, the style of that sign is very similar to the style of the parking sign that is above Andre the Giant's head in this photo, presumably from 1981. This is really exciting. I'm very excited about this place, too, because you kept saying Nathan's. I typed in Nathan's. I'm like, that doesn't seem like your kind of place. No, this is, this is, this is.

Well, you can tell why. I mean, yeah. Go ahead. Sorry. I've been driving past this place since I've lived here, and I've always been like, I've got to go in there and find something on the menu that I can eat to just be in the physical space of that place. And then by coincidence, I was getting my hair cut next door, and so I did go in there. But here's my plan. There is a Nick, I've been told. I'm going to approach Nick and see if he will let me take the photo. Now, here's the thing. The photo is in a – the glass that is covering the photo is currently broken. There's a big crack in it. Right across it. So what I'm going to propose a little – I scratch your back, you scratch mine. I'm going to see if he will let me take the photo. I will go somewhere. I will have the photo copied at some kind of photo lab, and then I will bring it back with a new piece of glass that is not broken. With a new frame, yes, or a new glass. So he so they get an upgrade in their photo and I get to maybe have a copy of it myself, which, again, the fact that this is seems for all the world to just be a random snapshot. Somebody took a bunch of the giant in Portland is that elevates it so much. And explains why I couldn't find it anywhere on the Internet.

I don't know if this makes sense or not. And I don't know if you would even mention this, if it'd be too embarrassing or awkward. But this is also one of those situations where the fact that you have a record online of who you are, that you are a known commodity, you know, in Portland with the radio show and, of course, CBS, like you're not like if I were to come in and do that, it's like nobody knows who I am. like it's like am I going to give it to this schlub who isn't even wearing one of those dock worker hats like of course not but like if there's any chance that they know who you are or if you can like somehow even mention like I don't know say it that you're kind of doing it for a project for one of your shows or something that gives you legitimacy it might give you a leg up

in this situation it's possible I mean boy it is this sounds I don't know it sounds like I'm trying to uh polish my own apple here but or whatever but like I have been on a hot streak with getting recognized yeah like i got recognized twice yesterday were their names nobody named nick yet i was getting on a plane the other day and the guy goes the i was not i was this is when i was going to deep coach and a guy was sitting in first class and he just goes hey i'm a fan and he was with his kid who was clearly embarrassed that their dad was a fan of mine of some kind i was like hey thanks and then i and then i like giving your seat bozo i know right uh really big fan how big big enough that you're gonna go back to deep coach and let me sit in first class um and then um i uh i got yeah two times yesterday i got uh recognized just on the streets of portland it's very uh unusual for me for that to be happening as much so i'm my point is maybe maybe uh there is a way that i can leverage my very microscopic local celebrity to get nick to give me that photo

Yeah, I do. I like that approach. I mean, I like the approach of you just asking whether or not it has to get into who you are. Yes, I'm not going to lead with the, you know, do you know who I am situation. But no, no, I love that because I love the idea of like also replacing the glass and saying, but here's the thing. This is the big takeaway for me, and Cheryl kind of mentions this at the end of her email too, that this is sort of special that like, and this is maybe what i was trying to blab about at the top of the show is i just love the fact that no this isn't something that's on the internet no this isn't something that's a famous photo no this isn't something that has been mass produced or even mass produced digitally it's just a photo it's a photograph that somebody took it's looking that way um because i did a lot of googling around yesterday too and i know that you had as well luke nobody ever believes the other person's googling skills by the way everybody always think the other person can that they they have a leg up but um it's just a photo and god that's so goddamn great and in fact i almost feel bad we're the we're the ones who've now put this on the internet in a digital form that's a really

good point we've taken it from analog to digital are ourselves because it was yesterday's show pick if anybody wants to see it go to tbtl.net and you

can look at yesterday's show but like yeah it was something it was one of the rare beautiful things that apparently didn't have a digital any kind of digital existence yeah and we have now we've now

crossed it over to the other side yeah yeah oh and speaking of tbtl.net really quickly of course you alluded to this at the beginning of the show we had a um conversation at the end of yesterday's program where we were talking about whether or not we should correct the record we'd been misnumbering episodes going back about four episodes we got off somehow and i asked you if we should um change them and you said no but i did it anyway i had to i you know i think by the time we ended that show we both knew i had a sense when i asked the question i honestly didn't know but the second i started talking about it i'm like of course i gotta change these numbers i can't

sleep like this when i um yeah when i went to the website this morning to update the show number i was let's just say not shocked yeah and the answer won't shock you yeah exactly um so uh thank you everyone for your help on the andre the giant situation yeah and i will keep everybody posted on kind of what the progress is with that i am feeling a little better by the way i think that zyrtec is kicking in yeah i don't i don't i i have that stuff and if i weren't doing a show if it was like a saturday i'd probably just take some but i am very i don't know i'm very nervous around taking any kind of a medication or something that i don't know exactly how it's going to hit me particularly if like we're like we're doing live wire tonight although that's many hours from now so i can't imagine one zyrtec uh you know would would do me that much harm but the idea of like of feeling spacey today or you know just kind of not really being on my game is very uh is not what i'm going for but on the other hand i was i was in miserable shape this

morning so yeah that's rough man i don't think i've ever taken it that's not um prescription

right it's just over the no but this is the whole thing i must have at some point in my life taken some kind of cold medicine that really made me feel loopy because i'm not lying before the show i stared at that box of zyrtec for so long even though it said it's 24 hours it's like it's not nighttime like my big fear is i'm gonna take a nighttime cold medicine something that's basically intended to knock you out but i'm gonna take it at the wrong time and then i'm just gonna be like catatonic yep so i i was just staring at the box like am i missing something here does it say somewhere on here that this is the nighttime and it was like no it's not and i but i couldn't fully commit to taking the pill because i kept thinking but what if it is the nighttime pill

i remember i mean i have a it's funny how you and i have as different as we are we're alike in a couple of weird quirky ways and i don't know like i don't know what cold medicine hurt us in the past but like i'm the same way like i remember and not because i was behind a microphone at all i was just behind a desk i was behind a desk behind the person behind the microphone um and i i must have taking day quill or something a couple of times early in my career and just feeling like I'm walking around the office spacey as hell like I only take those medicines if I'm like straight up taking a sick day which you and I don't usually do anymore because we can usually just drag ourselves behind these microphones in our homes but like if I'm at home being like I can't do it I can't go in the office I can't infect everybody and I can't you know I just can't work today then fine I'll take all the medicines and I'll just stay in bed and I'll kind of drift in and out but like the idea of non drowsy day quill yeah it might not be drowsy but it's doing something to me and i just remember finding it hard to think on that stuff well and that for some reason this

is probably our most go-to commercial reference like reference to a tv commercial that we make on this show but that one commercial the cartoon where the guy's head turns into a balloon yeah and starts to float away has scarred me for life that now is what taking cold medicine or allergy stuff or anything that's what i think is going to happen to me i don't even know what the ad was for the ad was probably for a product that promised to not do that but my takeaway from it was yeah i don't want my my head cannot turn into a balloon today andrew i got to interview chuck klosterman

tonight i uh i i could be wrong about this again you and i have taken such a similar journey on this i could be wrong but i almost remember like seeing those commercials not really thinking much about them they're just like somewhere in the back of my subconscious but then whatever experience on day quill that i had probably at let's say new hampshire public radio in 2002 or something like that whatever that lightheaded feeling i had i think it reminds it made me recall that commercial and suddenly like like retroactively realize oh that commercial that's what they're talking about Because I remember feeling very kind of I don't know, just sort of out of it Yeah, Andrew i don't think you heard this i'm very proud of myself because i persevered through something during my uh sort of opening of the show my little patter there i was i don't know maybe 30 seconds into my my my part of the beginning of the show first of all that tim heidecker tape killed me every time i was just wandering around the studio laughing my ass off with the mic muted i just but then i start talking and the cat i don't know if it's come up on the show before but i got a cat now the cat climbed up onto the printer which is sitting on top of a unopened drink works cocktail

machine and you have yours how are you gonna oh man i guess you that probably came with a few of the little cups that you can still make i know i'm gonna open it at some point but um actually

I didn't even think about that I don't know if I even have any Alcohol in my house right now Like I just haven't Had much lately And But I've forgotten Like if I was in a really Desperate moment I guess I could break open The drink works And see what's in there Anyway I'm a drink works drunk So she Climbs up on the printer And like I said The other day What she's figured out now It's really wild to see And I know people With human children Are like If you think cats are interesting You should try having A human child which i did once long ago but anyway it's really interesting to see her brain how fast her brain is growing and how many things she's figuring out now and a big thing that she figured out recently was oh if something seems too high for me to get up to i can climb on something smaller and then get over to it like she just figured that out move out and that's radically transformed everything in this house now so she's figured out she can get up on the my bathroom counter Because she gets up on the back of the toilet Like the part between the toilet seat cover And the tank She can get to that And then if she can get to that She can get to the counter Anyway, so I'm standing here I'm starting to do the show She climbs up onto the printer And the next thing I know, Andrew She has flung herself From the top of the printer Across, I don't know, three, four feet And fully landed on my back Just claws out All four paws engaging with my like through my running shirt that i'm wearing because i'm gonna go for a jog after this she just and using my back using my back i mean luckily it was mostly the shirt that she was grabbing onto somehow this shirt kind of saved me the shirt i got from doing the newport oregon half marathon but like a lot of cloths in my back as well like i was unintentionally doing one of those uh real hardcore snm things that people get into that i am not personally signing up for all of a sudden this cat is just clinging to my back and i had to like so that happened first of all it was just shocking it was pretty painful but i just powered through andrew that's what i did so i just wanted to say go me so let me get this straight you have a cat

i know i know no no no no oh god listen my cat's 11 i talk about her all the time too that wasn't a real burn that was me just playing off of your joke no i know but i mean it is there

is there is a point at which it becomes i know this wasn't exactly what you're saying but i am trying i'm trying to not have it be the only thing i was considering bringing her to live wire tonight which is a weird move i'm not going to do that by the way but i was like would it add an interesting development if i'm just like the the public radio host who also has a cat with them

on stage i doubt there's anybody in our audience who's like more cat talk i mean if you're listening to this show you know that we go on you know we obviously go on tangents but also we'll be obsessed with something for a certain amount of time and like whether it's me and making stock and bone collecting i'm just thinking about that because somebody wrote in about that recently somebody wants me to do a hay dummies um where i uh make stock which i might actually do that in the fall or whenever i make stock again but um you know what i mean like i don't know that like talking about the cat has been more obsessive than some of the other things we've obsessed about maybe it's equal to but i also think i mean i could be wrong here but i think people like cat talk no they do

i i just mean for the there's you know we have a lot well let me put it this way before i got this kitten i you know i thought cats were kind of cool i had a cat you know olive um who i was actually pretty fascinated with but olive was not an overly social cat with me i mean she was a barn cat and she kind of just ran free in the neighborhood and unfortunately would occasionally bring in smaller critters into the house which was upsetting but this is the most i've ever sort of been really bonding with like a small cat and before this i was like yeah cats they're they're cool i get it people like their cats people are really the internet really loves its cats etc but now it's on a whole.

other level for me so i guess my point is there are probably at least a few listeners who are where i was four months ago which was like fine with it but not overly obsessed with the topic

sure yeah i feel bad for those listeners sure yeah i see what you mean i was just going to twitter by the way to see um to see uh if you still had my cat in your profile pic i see that there i was surprised like there's no way you still have a photo of me of you and my cat you don't but i'm surprised to see that you don't have a picture of your cat in your profile i took here's what

happened i i did i had a pic that was very similar to the picture that i had unintentionally taken with theo um but this one was me sitting on this rocking chair in my house with the cat with bubbles on my shoulder and that was my profile pic for a while and what i liked about it was it was only half of my face i would really like to have none of my face in my twitter profile but i also kind of find it a little i mean people everyone gets to make whatever choice they want to make with their twitter profile but certainly if someone is being critical of me or trolling me or getting into internet arguments and there's no imagery of them there's no sense of context of who this person is and their name is like none ya business 320 and then it's like their picture is like a power ranger you found it just like my secret account damn it You know, it's just like, again, people people get to make whatever choice they want to make. But for me, I feel like if you want to really meaningfully engage in the discourse to the degree that Twitter has a discourse, I think it to me, it seems like we should have a sense of who folks are a little bit. So we just can get some sense of like lived experience. I also think people are probably less likely to post something rageful if their actual face is also associated with the account. um so i so anyway i i kind of want to have a picture of me but i really don't want to have a picture of me so the cat thing was was great because it was just half of my face and then bubbles sitting on my shoulder but then i realized every single tweet that i tweet these days has the cat in it because i'm the world's thirstiest cat owner and so i was imagining someone going to my twitter feed and seeing like 25 posts about the cat and then looking at my picture and seeing the cats in the picture and being like dude get a new personality i am just something just occurred to

me the reason i'm sort of pausing there is because i yeah i love my little twitter profile pic that i had custom drawn for me i can't mission that you do like as i was going to say that breaks your rule of twitter you don't like it when people use some sort of illustration or bitmoji version of themselves i know i don't have a problem with that oh i thought i'm just thinking i thought we talked Like, a long time ago, I thought you thought there was something a little bit, like, kind of in the vein of what we were talking about on Monday, which is, like, is it, I mean, moral and ethics, I don't think, really come into this, but, like, the idea of using a photo of yourself that's maybe five years old, ten years old, fifteen. You know, then eventually you use such an old photo that it's cute because you're acknowledging that this was me as a kid or a teenager or whatever. But, like, just using that valley, that uncanny valley of this isn't me right now, but it's sort of me at my best five years ago or whatever. Drawing, using a drawing of yourself. And I'm not saying that I feel this way. I'm using this thing and I like my little drawing. But, like, I could see that being somewhat misleading or overly flattering in a way, too.

I think it's cute. I really like your avatar is that the word we're looking for your avi but but and also here's the thing I don't hope this doesn't get get weird fast but what I like about it is that I have a sense of who you are I have a sense that you're a white male in the world um which is if some and this wouldn't be something you would ever be tweeting about but if you were like weighing in on issues related to people of color I would I would interpret it differently based on you being a white person um and so that like what i want the twitter photograph or whatever representation to let me know is what is this person's what is likely this person's lived experience and you know

i'm a mariners fan because i'm wearing my mariners hat in there and that actually does come into play because i would never do this but let's say there is a specifically annoying astros fan who has a uh a twitter account in which he trolls mariners fans during mariners series and then when the Mariners end up beating the Astros in two series in a row if you go and just subtly like tweets that he sent out before the Mariners ended up winning those series he knows that it's a Mariners fan liking those tweets ironically if you can follow there you go yeah I just would I like it

I just like as much transparency as people feel comfortable with in that particular space and so I feel like I get a sense of kind of who who you are in the world and what baseball team you're a

fan of. So that passes. That's the important thing. passes the the burb tell test i'm kind of confusing the bechdel test and the touring uh test which are two different things right is it like the bechdel test that's allison bechdel the uh the the podcaster and and i think would you say film critic who came up with uh this idea that if you have a movie and there are two uh female characters that are having a conversation that has nothing to do with the male character i think that's i i'm trying to look it up on the

I think that there are like several things. I think it's like a bullet point of like three different things to see whether or not it passes the Bechtel test. And yeah, basically it's a way and maybe you're Googling this as we talk, but it's a way of like kind of examining film through a critical lens to see if like how how male focused or male centered film tends to be. And like if there are women in the movie, are they there just to support the male characters and their journey? Or like you say, one of the things is do you have two women who are having a conversation amongst themselves that is not about a man in the movie? I believe that is one of the things in the Bechdel test. And that could be wrong.

No, I think you're right. By the way, Alison Bechdel is a cartoonist.

OK, I didn't know about identify.

I'm now I'm looking. The Bechdel test is a measure of the representation of women in fiction. It asks whether a work features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. The requirement that the two women be named is sometimes added.

Oh, so that's it. That's it. That's the test. I thought it was several things, but it's just that.

That's that. Okay. So there you go. So the Burbtel test. Yeah. But I was also confusing it with what? Turing, right? Is it Alan Turing who created the Turing test?

Are you a robot? Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Are you a robot test? So I just I guess I wanted to explain why my joke Fell so flat because I was confusing And conflating various tests As I am want to do

Is that the touring test that they're taking at the beginning of Blade Runner that kind of iconic Scene is that right I don't know I don't even

I mean the Harrison Ford Blade Runner

Yeah have you seen Blade Runner

I watched it a long time ago because I wanted To see a specific set Piece so there is a place Called the Ennis Brown House in Los Angeles that I did a radio story about many years ago because it was designed by frank lloyd wright and it's very iconic but it's sliding down this hill i think it's kind of in sort of like los felis griffith parky and it also was famously on part of the um where they shot blade runner and so i went back and watched that movie probably five ten years ago just to see if i could recognize the ennis brown house but which i did but i didn't remember the the opening of it but that would make sense yeah considering it's i mean it's a philip k dick book initially right yeah i think it's um do

androids dream of electric sheep and by the way just everybody who's about to send an email or throw your phone if you heard me mutter rutger howard i know that that's not him at the beginning of the film it's um i'm looking it up it's brian james i didn't know that guy's his name but rutger howard is in that movie but that's not the that's not the guy in the iconic scene where he's taking the test gotcha all right that was important to you i realized but like there was somebody out there who was just their head was about to explode and i just wanted to calm that person

down release the tension whoa okay easy that's your other podcast releasing the tension with yeah uh all right let's take a quick break and then we come back i want to talk menu qr codes because i have i have so many takes on this stay with us on tvtl hello and welcome to top story i saw this in the washington post yesterday and i feel like it's kind of old school like you don't see this a lot anymore and i kind of enjoyed it actually it was like basically they got two of their columnists or two people that contribute to the washington post to take on the same issue from either side and the question of course is QR code restaurant menus are they are they great or are they annoying so Helene Olin was the person tasked with talking about how terrible they are this headline QR code restaurant menus are the death of civilization and then right next to it the piece from Robert Gebelhoff why I love QR code menus and you should too that's good headline writing right there is what I'm saying

Mm hmm. And Helene Olin works for the works in the editorial department as well. Right. These aren't guests. These aren't like guest opinion pieces. I don't know why that matters. Yeah. Contribute contributor post opinions. Yeah. Because it's one of those things where I don't know. Part of this is also like, did they just like flip a coin and say, you're going to write this side of the other or did they like get into a debate themselves? Like, you know, in a you know, over a Zoom call or something. Right. Anyway, it's kind of because. I didn't know about Helene's piece that says QR code menus are the death of civilization. I just happened to stubble on the other one yesterday, which was like, hey, this is why I like QR code menus. And it's a little bit it's a I don't I don't hate it. I'm a dunking on him, but it was a bit of a it was a bit of a tepid argument. It wasn't like, you know what I mean?

Yes. And I get the feeling that poor Robert just that, you know, he called heads and it was tails. So you do get that. Yeah. I that's what I feel like because I just I mean I mean first of all so Robert the person defending QR codes throughout the piece kind of apologizes for her for his standpoint throughout he says like there are some who see those ugly little squares not just as a minor annoyance but as a threat to the restaurant experience. I won't dismiss these feelings as simply complaints from, well, customers of a certain generation, because, again, I get it. I understand the appeal of holding a menu in my hands. I particularly enjoy quietly judging a restaurant's choice of typography. This is what we expect from dining out. It's a ritual, a comforting formality. This is from the guy who's trying to defend QR codes. He's making a strong argument for regular old menus. He also ends by saying, I won't be heartbroken if I'm wrong, and restaurants decide in the end that QR codes are just not worth the trouble. But if they do fade with the pandemic, I hope it's for better reason than that people just don't like change. Weigh all the pros and cons, and QR code menus are clearly a change for the better. his point is look you know this uh it's more sanitary it's uh easier for people uh you know than for the people that work at the restaurant as far as like bringing out the menus and taking them back in and collecting them and all that kind of stuff and uh you know that and his big argument seems to be that he was slow to adopt to having um his airplane boarding pass on his phone He comes back to that multiple times and he's like saying basically he was the guy walking around the airport with his printed out paper ticket to his wife's chagrin. And and but then when he finally switched over to using, you know, the app based stuff, he realized it's a vastly superior system. So now the thing about his the thing I don't agree with that. And again, I don't even know this is Robert's real feelings or he just they wanted to have someone argue on behalf of QR code menus. i very much agree more with the opinion that qr code restaurant menus are the death of civilization by helene olin for all the reasons she lays out which is basically that like look it's kind of antisocial it gets you looking at your phone instead of the people you're dining with also some people don't have smartphones also some people um you know may be visually impaired like there's an access question there's a bunch of reasons why just the looking at the menu the physical menu is as part of the enjoyment of the of the restaurant experience the thing that came up I think it was maybe in Robert's argument that I found very chilling for some reason was the idea of dynamic pricing within the day. Did you see that?

No, I did. I must have scanned over that. He mentioned well, he mentioned that people you can update the menus more easily if it's a digital menu, which I agree with.

And he's talking to a restaurant industry analyst, I think, who says that basically where they think the business is going is that based on market prices and also popularity. Imagine you go into a restaurant, Andrew, and they've got their, you know, I don't know, their roast beef sandwich is really popular that day. if you went in at noon it might cost you eight bucks but as the demand goes up and as they're running low on roast beef now the price is going up and now at 5 p.m you're paying 12 bucks for that sandwich like and this is something that could happen with a qr code menu because it's totally digital and you could literally just the price of an item of food could change within the same day at a restaurant i don't know why that terrifies me but for some reason it does oh i

see that's in helene's piece saying why they're the death that's why i was confused because i had Oh yeah, sorry about that I had read his the day before No, I just felt like I was out of my mind for a second But anyway, yeah, I don't love that Here's the deal Here is my deal Nobody cares about my deal Here's the deal with Andrew Walsh Oh god, that's a sec If I were on Kyra right now, I guarantee you One segment of my show every Wednesday would be Here's the deal with Andrew Walsh I have a little sounder I'm already boring myself with this And you've heard me kind of take this stance on other things so it's i just feel like i'm gonna fatigue you luke here with this but like while i am actually in the pro physical menu column like as a person who goes out to lunch almost every day like yes i would prefer to hold a real menu absolutely yet it was the qr code menus or the death of civilization article uh piece that pissed not pissed me off but that i liked least because now listen i think it's well written i think helene olin is um being a bit you know they're exaggerating with this headline clearly whoever picked the headline and that's good editorial page writing right you want to get people sucked in you want to exaggerate i don't i think that that is obviously um an exaggeration but just reading helene's argument for this in the current climate i found just so off-putting luke like of all of the things that we as a society are dealing with and then all of the things that restaurants are dealing with right now like when you go to lunch right now prices are incredibly high um wait times are longer because of a labor shortage um things aren't on the menu because of supply chain issues like we are living in a messed up time I mean we are living in a messed up time I'm glad that we're not in the pandemic anymore obviously that was an incredibly messed up time but like where it has left us is straight it's almost like the tide has gone back out and we're left to like just gonna pick up the pieces and things are weird and like you know people like you and me like we are not you know really suffering the way other people are kind of suffering for things but it just sort of seems like to make it sound like the big and again I know it's just an editorial page exercise and that's what they do but there was something about reading this about like oh no it's the qr codes that are going to be really the problem here no like what the problem is it's just like that we have probably kids who are like that i think i told you about that woman who was working at the hotel that i stayed at in bakersfield and she was telling me that she was finally getting off of work after a 16 hour day so that she'd get eight hours off and then go back so i'm not trying to turn this into a labor issue it just seemed like really this is the time and place to make it seem like this is gonna be the downfall of civilization like also it really depends on what kind of place you're you're eating too you know what I mean what about there are sometimes that I really want to be in a place where a server comes and brings food to me even

if it's not a nice place just a luncheon place and then there are other times where it's like okay I'm fine to walk up to a counter and order off a wall like it's a different thing and like I don't think ordering off of my phone is that much worse than ordering off of a wall you know what I mean at like a coffee shop or something that has sandwiches i i agree with almost everything

you just said in terms of what a strange time it is in the uh restaurant and food service industry for all the reasons that you spelled out and i agree that it's so this is not like on the one hand i think anything that makes life easier on the hard-working people who are working in restaurants right now i am for that you know what i mean so but on the other hand i will say that my experience feels greatly diminished my my dining experience feels greatly diminished by having to use a qr code menu on my phone i like i mean to me the discovery of what's on the menu and by the way i 90 of it i wouldn't even eat right because of i don't eat meat mostly but like i like looking through the menu and then seeing different things and like what i feel like on the phone is what i really need is a i need to bring around like your gaming laptop andrew and then use that to look at the menus because for me it's really a screen size issue i always feel like i'm scrolling around i'm not really seeing everything on the menu it depends also how format it is you know some of them are much more kind of user friendly than others and i guess i just feel like when i'm looking at the menu on my phone i always think there's some part of the menu i'm not seeing i'm not getting to the right page it just it makes it feel more confusing to me whereas when i get a traditional menu it's a fun voyage of discovery for me and i agree with you this is not the most pressing issue in america but it is believed or not something that i think about a lot because i

eat out constantly by the way i just want to reiterate i agree with you like i do not like menus on my phone because there's something about like opening up a menu and then like your eye can bounce between like usually i'm narrowing it down between like three things then two things and i'll reread the description and your eye can just naturally bounce from one to the other when you're on the same page as opposed to like scrolling up scrolling down scrolling up scrolling down i am not at all arguing that the experience is the same or better on a phone i'm just saying i'd be pretty embarrassed to make this a huge argument about the state of the dining situation right now and again i know they're just doing their jobs but i found it a little cringy

who had totally worked in that and made me click on the article me too yeah and i was the one i didn't agree with yeah the precise job of that headline writer yeah yeah absolutely but um yeah i i mean i also hadn't really thought about it about how much easier it is for a restaurant to do what they need to do if they don't have to constantly update the menu so like if an item can't you know if they if suddenly they don't have an item i went to denny's the other day andrew i just had a weird hankering for denny's and i got a grilled cheese sandwich with extra cheese and some hash browns. It was so good, by the way. that was a place i got recognized which was really shocking was it a denny's that did it have any like there's a denny's in south seattle that is not like not in a particularly nice area of town and it's kind of the the area around it is kind of scuzzy but i was surprised when i went into it it was an old school denny's with i kind of a uh it had some flourishes of the past little design

flourishes and setup how was this one you went to it was totally old school i've been i've been driving past it forever i mean i think it was probably closed or only doing takeout for the pandemic and it's in this kind of interesting part of portland i wouldn't call the sketchy part of portland but i would i would i would note that it is a place where you have a lot of people who are you know experiencing homelessness and uh there's some encampments around there and stuff but this denny's is a total time capsule and i'd just been driving by it forever and i was like you know what damn it this is the day i think our friend roden was tweeting about going to a denny's

the other day I was gonna ask put it in my brain he did yeah because he had texted us about that too and I was like what a coincidence because I had coincidentally been to IHOP two times in the in two days as he sent that out because Genevieve was out of town and she had the car and there's an IHOP and walking distance to me so I was like okay I'll just walk to IHOP and then I ordered the same exact thing off the menu which I think is just called like the artery killer or something like that and uh yeah so it was just kind of funny that we're all for some reason having this like somewhat commute not that denny's is probably cooler than ihop but yeah it was great by the

way a hundred percent delivered on what i was going for in that moment like just that whatever that kind of whatever the denny's umami is like i just was like this is perfect but my point is the line was so like there was they had like three people working at the entire restaurant and it was full of families and they were so harried and they were really apologetic everybody did a great job but i was just sitting there at my table just watching the like one server for the whole restaurant and i was thinking to myself this is amazing that this person that this woman is doing this because it was hard work and there i mean that anybody shows up for a food service job right now who doesn't own the restaurant is to me a miracle because like just watching the the man everybody like i said the the literal three employees at this entire denny's were working so hard and so many people were being kind of rude to them or just you know annoyed in line annoyed at the weight and i mean i went into it i'm not trying to paint myself as the hero here but i just went into it knowing this is going to take a while i'm just going to wait for my stuff i'm you know it's going to be fine but so many people were not having that opinion they were just mad that their moons over my hammy were taking too long and i just i was just i was just sort of um thinking about as i was observing this woman just run around and basically take care of this entire restaurant i thought god bless this person yeah i left her probably and again i'm this is like saying this makes me sound like i'm trying to just be like go luke but i left her probably the biggest tip i've ever left somebody related to the price of the food it was i i'm not trying to say this to pat myself on the back but i left her the tip was much more than the food cost and it was just because i was like a i was slightly drunk and i was and b i just was like man this person is working their ass off right here and i bet you if they come over and get this and grab this check later and they see that the tip was pretty significant for them it'll make their night so anyway um you know i had embarrassed that i mentioned that detail but i guess the only reason i want to mention that detail is just to say that's how impacted i was by observing how

hard these people were working sure and also if it inspires other people to do the same not that like you know i don't go in for those like everybody pay it forward situations but every now and then it's nice if you're in a position to do that to do something like that i had um so the first so let's see genevieve was out of town on like a saturday so saturday morning i wake up and i walk to ihop and it's fine like the service is okay you know it's not great but it's not awful it's fine and I was totally happy and then the next day I go in on Sunday and the service like was I guess inarguably kind of terrible like the young man who was like trying to serve me and I'd seen him before like it was it was really bad like I ordered a coffee and an orange juice and like they kind of never came and after a long time I just kind of pointed waves and said hey a coffee and he's like oh yeah and an orange juice too and he brought in sweet sweet guy and then I'm just happy I'm reading my book and drinking my coffee and um it is taking a long time for my food but it's also really busy there's tons of families there it's a Sunday at IHOP right um and uh and I'm totally fine I really just wanted to be there to read my book kind of anyway and so I'm totally fine and then at some point like the manager comes up to me with him and It kind of says, I'm sorry.

your food is taking so long can you remind me what you ordered and i'm like yeah and i told her and like they're like he later on apologized to me too and never in my life have i with my face and full body tried to tell them honestly it's cool man it's fine like later on he forgot i never got a second cup of coffee that was the one thing i kind of wanted but like i still tipped you know i didn't i mean i'm no luke burbank well yeah famously but no i still tipped north of 20 percent like you know what i mean like and i was ready if they apologized one more time i was going to tell

them we're going to torch the place i was going to say no i was like i am so not mad about this that i have to burn down this restaurant to prove to you how much i'm okay with the fact that you're

all really working hard no and they only apologized twice but i was ready to say if they apologize again i'm like say listen this you're doing a better job than i would be doing like it's fine like you know what i mean because i'm sure there are other people who are more impatient and whatever and i just wanted them to feel like don't worry about me this is my second trip to ihop in two days i'm good and i think about the other times where i do get maybe a little bit more um itchy towards service but like those are first of all maybe in a different time and also a different kind of restaurant and how you're treated there like these people had the best intentions you know what i mean it was just a tough day at the ihop and it's a tough goddamn job you know now did they have a regular menu or was it qr code um they had a regular menu but they also had a qr code on the table kind of stuck to the table because i think they perma stuck those to

the tables during the pandemic i'll tell you what you want to talk about iconic ads those cliff at ihop rooty tootie fresh and fruity ads i don't know if i mean i know that those were

iconic from back in the day from back in the day so there was uh yeah growing up so i don't

that's probably why they didn't air in my uh in my neighborhood um they were uh these like basically this guy named cliff would go to ihop let me see if i can find one for you this will be a real if i can find a good one uh i think this will probably deliver on some this is let's see here 1997 rooty tootie fresh and fruity so let's see uh i think the deal is if i remember right It's like this guy wants to order this breakfast at IHOP, but he feels so silly saying Rudy Tootie, Fresh and Fruity. He doesn't want to say it. Uh-huh. So let's think of it.

Come on in, Cliff. What exactly does this thing do? Turns. Does it always work? No. What is this place? Can I help you? I don't know. You can cook on this, right? Uh-huh.

It's kind of neat.

Well, this is really weird. So this ad, it says Rudy Tootie, Fresh and Fruity, and it's this guy Cliff. It is Cliff, but for some reason, he's talking to this guy who's like an inventor. It's like in a like a weird place where this guy has this like machinery and these like meters to read the electricity. I don't know how this is related, but let's just let it go. It's only three seconds.

Do you ever eat breakfast at dinner? I probably had breakfast at every time of the day.

Well, have you ever tried IHOP's Rootie Tootie Fresh and Fruity? Luscious blueberries, cinnamon apple, or strawberry top pancakes, plus eggs, bacon, and sausage, all for $3.99.

Does anything here work? That works, see?

So that really didn't pay off. But I feel like this guy, Cliff, was he was sort of the spokesperson for this whole rooty tootie, fresh and fruity idea. Now, that ad was very strange. He's like just talking to a kind of kooky inventor on things unrelated to breakfast. And then he just asked him if he's ever had the breakfast. But like, can I try this one? Yeah, please.

So this is it looks like this is maybe, you know, deep into the campaign because the description is it looks like Cliff is having a meal with a woman. And it says this woman is honored to be having breakfast with Cliff at IHOP in this classic commercial from 1997. So Cliff is already an established deal here. But all of this, I think, is new to me, Luke. Let's take a listen.

This is really special, Cliff. I never thought I'd have time for a real breakfast during the week.

Well, you do with IHOP's truly special breakfast special.

Free fruit top pancakes, two eggs, bacon, or sausage.

Special breakfast at a special price. What a way to start the day, huh?

You make it special, Cliff.

No, IHOP makes it special.

Things got a little bit romantic

in a way that Cliff was not ready for there and then she had to kind of catch herself. I'll tell you one thing, Luke. I'm going to IHOP again today.

I think they switched Cliffs. I'm so hungry. Andrew, I think part of my confusion is let me try this one. I'm sorry. You know, Andrew, if it's worth doing it wrong, it's worth overdoing it wrong. So here's a third IHOP commercial that may or may not pay off. this is a different guy now than the first one that i was playing and let's see if he identifies himself as cliff it means they pulled a real bewitched they switched darrens on us yes is this switch i think they switched cliffs and i think that's where my confusion was so the first cliff was a guy in like a trench coat who was kind of like uh sort of doing man on the street type interviews, but now they've got this guy who's a little bit maybe a little older a little more avuncular who's just sitting in the ihop and i think this is the cliff i was thinking of gray shirt you know ihop has a dozen different home

style dinners the kind of hearty meals you used to get at home for instance half a golden roasted chicken potatoes vegetables and super salad in fact they're so good people often forget they're not at home mom sit down they have people do this thank you milk son yes ma'am selected home

style dinners now just so that's i think that's the cliff okay that's the cliff in question that's

the cliff i was thinking yeah and i think that's the same guy who was having uh this non-date date

hi cliff here wondering just what those fast food guys will think of next maybe prune danish in a cup or omelet on a stick well here at ihop they've got a menu full of great tasting ways

to start your day yeah no this is all new to me i didn't know about cliff but i am so hungry right

now i am obsessed with figuring out if they switched if they i think i might have found is this a real guy cliff bemis uh i think there's a real yeah i think that this is the the cliff that we're that we're just watching you and i that the listeners were hearing i think is a real cliff i think his name is cliff bemis and he's got his own website so it's interesting what they're

going for there he's not at first like you know you think of this era you think of cheers and cliff and it's like kind of an annoying know-it-all i mean that's just one guy named cliff but i don't know i didn't know what to expect here he's just a he's just a guy he's just you know what i mean he doesn't really have a bit he's not like especially dumb or obnoxious or a know-it-all

he's just a guy who likes ihop yeah exactly although you know what this cliff was apparently i'm now on his um resume page he did appear in an episode of cheers an episode that was directed by John Ratzenberger who actually plays the character Cliff

very Cliff focused I see you let Cliff take the wheel Cliff is going to take the wheel

is Cliff take the wheel or how about Cliff's Notes maybe Cliff's Notes is today's today's show title I don't know

there's a right way to rock and a wrong way to roll you can't 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 nothing but

it's thirst it's time to blurs leanne wants to wish a very happy blurs day to her son spencer She says he's kind, thoughtful, a lovely person in every way. I couldn't be more proud of him and have always looked forward to spending time with him. May I suggest another cocktail and movie night before the summer is over?

Spencer is turning six, by the way.

Yes, I know. Actually, you know what? I was confused for a second. I thought I was misreading this for a second because I was grabbing other Blurs days for much younger fives. And I did get really confused at the end of that one.

happy blurs day to our dear friend amy in seattle you are an incredible educator and friend here's wishing you an awesome day and a smooth end to the school year love christy and michael in olympia

nice blurs day thoughts coming from olympia to seattle takes about an hour for those blurs days to get here christina says happy birthday to my five william who's turning six william's the coolest, kindest, funniest, smartest kid I know. To be fair, Christina only was one kid. Love to have cocktails with him. William has had a big year, going to kindergarten, making new friends, learning to read, and welcoming a new baby brother to the family. TBTL. TBTL has been playing in the background for William's whole life. Oh, I'm sorry, William. But, happy Blur's Day.

Did you see that? I know you did because it was on Twitter. Listener Joe, our longtime listener and one time, I believe, Jeopardy contestant Joe, who I remember I was eating Thai food in Bellingham and he was on Jeopardy and he was on the TV and I was telling everyone there. I know that. I don't know if I'd even met Joe in real life at this point, but I was like, I know that guy on Jeopardy. I was very excited. Anyway, that video that Joe made in his car with his little kid who was asking if we started podcasting when we were one or something.

Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, on Twitter, right.

Because basically I think it was like, it sounds like Joe was, is it Beatrix maybe? He was mentioning to Beatrix that it was episode 3000 or whatever and the kid was saying, that is a lot of things.

It certainly is.

I can't believe something has happened that many times. And B, I'm with you. I can. I can't believe this has happened as many times as it has either. Yeah. Let's see. Rock, Mac, and Amy, they say happy birthday to Brett in the U District, a stellar human dad and husband. You will probably hear this as you are driving to your favorite campsite at Deception Pass Thursday night. Nice. We hope it's not a soggy trip like the last time and that you enjoy a grand sunset. Oh, man. Very nice. Have you been out to Deception Pass, Andrew? No, I haven't. It sounds like a place where I'd get murdered. or deceased it's named because uh let me see if i can remember this uh basically it i think it might have been um vancouver or one of those sort of like early white dudes that showed up you know i don't know obviously there was folks living here already but there was some uh like british sailor person who was confused by deception pass and thought that it meant that they were it was a new island or something but it wasn't there was something about the way that it was shaped that deceived someone into thinking something was geographically different than it was and thus got the name deception pass it does have an ominous name doesn't it yes it's beautiful though it is unbelievably beautiful but andrew you would poop your pants because the bridge i don't want there's these two bridges that everybody walks on to walk across deception pass and i'm not nearly as afraid of heights as you are but it wigs me out and you have to do it like that's you have to

like to to get to where you need to go like you need it's not just like hey you're there and you

can take it if you're feeling daring i i think i mean here's what you could do you could park on the on one side of the bridge and then you could wend your way down some rocks and get down to the water without going across the bridge but the bigger parking area is on one side of these bridges and the the area where you can walk down to the beach is typically on the other so in other words what happens is most people park in the parking area and then they walk across these bridges because it's so cool and the sunset is beautiful and it's just an amazing place but it it it gives me some some strong butt pucker vibes now is this the bridge that cars can go i'm looking

at photos now is this a bridge that cars can go on as well okay and you walk across i see the two i see yeah they kind of meet at an island in the middle and then there's another bridge yeah no i don't could I do that um could I do that could I walk across these bridges because I'm basically at a point with my fear of heights now where I'm just like nope shut it down I'm not doing it like I have no I have no shame about it really or I'm all shame about it I don't even know um but it's like this though it's wide enough that if I could shut down traffic and walk across the middle of it like if I could walk on the yellow double line maybe I could do it but walking along so if you You could shut down all traffic and you could have all the cars stop and you could have the width of that.

Sure, absolutely. Yeah, because, well, that's the thing, too. For me, it's like they don't have a very high barrier. Like I'm saying the actual, you know, like the bridge, the railing is not something that goes up 10 feet or whatever because they, I guess, probably want to preserve the views. And there are cars driving by, and I just think to myself, this is like, you know, if somebody's looking down at their phone or trying to get their phone out to take a picture and they were to veer, it could be a very dangerous thing. situation very quickly uh by the way the bridge at deception pass between whidbey island and fidalgo islands it got its name from captain george vancouver who felt deceived deceived or even deceived he had a guy named steve on the board but then they made him walk the plank so they were deceived steved yeah sure uh george vancouver felt deceived by the width of the waterway so i think that's on him i agree but i'm saying i'm proud of myself that i had the van the george vancouver part right and that i i mean i was semi close on that and that's rare for me

um i don't know if that's rare for you actually i would just i would disagree with that i'm still looking at photos of this bridge yeah trying to decide if you can make the walk or not and also if you're camping there are no showers i'm probably just gonna stay home there is a and play a camping

video game there's a i could absolutely see genevieve will be camping with rachel bell and you will be building a campsite in Minecraft. I have to collect wood. There is a state park associated with Deception Pass, and it's on a little island. I don't know if it's actually on Deception Island or somewhere near there, but you can kayak to it, or if you have, I guess, any kind of boat, you can get out there, and it's just a little cabin that you can rent through the Washington State Park whatever association. And I've never done it, but I have dreamed of it. it seems like unbelievably serene. Maybe that's where listener, maybe that's where Brett is. going. Anyway, be careful out there,

Brett. Yeah, happy Blur's Day, Brett.

Farron says, I want to wish Lisa a happy Blur's Day. Oh, these are our pals from Oceanside, although Lisa is no longer in Oceanside. As my gift to her, I made you a spreadsheet with all the facts about our meet cute that seemed to get jumbled when you and Luke tried to recall them. So Farron wrote her story of her friendship in spreadsheet form With Lisa and sent it to us I'll share that with you They didn't meet at a They might be giant show

Well because we've tried to recall it Perfectly I believe And we've done it George Vancouver was playing a concert

That's right But enough about us Farron says I hope Lisa has a wonderful celebration In her new city And I look forward to visiting again soon

Jake The perfect daddy says I want to wish my 11 Rel R-E-L A happy R-E-L Okay, I got confused there because the pronunciation You deceived me with this pronunciation, Andrew

You deceived me with this pronunciation No, Jake sent that in So he explained that it's pronounced R-E-L by spelling out R-E-N-L

R-E-L Right, so here's what I saw And sorry, Ariel, that this is where your Blur's Day message is going to go. But you have only Jake to blame for this. First of all, if I look at that name, it looks like Ariel to me. I don't know what else. Ariel. I think a lot of people probably say Ariel. And that's why Jake is saying it's Ariel. I see. So the letters R-E-L are the phonetic representation of how you say the name. But all I saw was P-R-O-N period R-E-L. And I thought, is that a pronoun thing? Because also, you know, lots of folks have different pronouns that we try to be respectful of. So my brain went on a whole journey there, Arielle. And I was, well, again, I was deceived by Jake, the perfect daddy. That's right. Happy Blur's Day this Sunday and a happy Juneteenth. I love you more than you could ever know. I don't know if you remember asking me for this, but I'm very happy you did. My mission now is to eventually make you a full-fledged 10 and to deem you the perfect mommy. Wow. Yeah.

and finally a very happy birthday to Aaron from your 10 pal Terry I'm so thankful for your friendship over the years and I'm sending an Amazon birthday angel to your doorstep today to celebrate many happy returns of the day that's a very regal way of putting many

happy returns of the day I guess that means many happy returns I never thought of it but I guess is the message there may you live long may you have many may you return to this date many times over the years

may there be more birthdays in the future many many many more and many more did you go on channel 4 as a kid did I go on channel 4 as a kid

no no did you and many more on channel 4 oh no I've never heard that and Scooby Doo on channel 2 you know that like little that was a thing I didn't know about Cliff and I certainly didn't know about this At the end of the Happy Birthday song, you would say, you know, Happy Birthday, dear Ariel, Happy Birthday to you, and many more on Channel 4, and Scooby-Doo on Channel 2. And, like, I feel like when I've hung out with people from different regions, everyone has a slightly different version of that. Different families have different versions, etc. Nope, this is all new to me, man. I've never heard of that at all. I also don't see you being a big happy birthday singer. I mean, I could see you being happy for someone that it's their birthday and you want to, like, congratulate them or whatever it is, celebrate that with them. But I don't see you starting. I don't see you being the guy going, happy birthday. I don't see you getting that ball rolling.

Or being the person who then says, and many more when nobody else does. Like, no, I don't do that. In fact, like, I find.

Have you ever sung happy birthday in your life?

I mean, sort of. like yeah I mean there are times you're kind of forced to do it so you at least have to move your lips but I will say it is literally one of my least favorite moments in life well I mean there's a lot of tough stuff out there but like one of the most awkward social moments no matter whose birthday what the situation is I mean the best you can hope for is a hell of a lot of people there a smallish crowd singing happy birthday is the worst somehow it always turns into kind of a death march it slows down I will say this and I think I mentioned this to you, I think I mentioned this to you on the show not long after it happened, but I was in Cleveland visiting the family whatever, this spring or winter, and, oh well it was winter because it happened to co-align with my sister's

birthday and so we had a gang of people over and it was a decent sized group of people and when they started to sing happy birthday or I could tell that things were moving in that direction I just like excuse myself to use the restroom and there were enough people there that I don't think it was an obvious slight I wasn't trying to be rude to anybody but there were enough people there to pick up the slack nobody I don't think anybody noticed that I didn't happen to be in the room for it but because I find it to be such an awkward moment I'm like this would be the perfect time to use the restroom then my plan worked i heard them sing happy birthday while i was still like washing my hands in there and luke i never realized that the song is not that long i if you were to ask me if i'm in a room singing happy birthday with a bunch of people i would guess that it takes about 25 to 30 minutes to sing to complete the song from beginning to end war on drugs songs exactly but it turns out it's not that long of a song at all when you're not participating in it and you're hearing it from the other room it goes by relatively quickly but uh man it feels like to

you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear Andrew happy birthday to you and then if you choose to you can extend the mix with and many more on channel four but I mean the song itself

could be sung in under 20 seconds um yeah I mean you did it pretty you did a bit of a rush job there but certainly yeah no it's I know it's I just when you're when you're in the middle of singing happy birthday it feels like you're never going to get out of it it's just i don't know what it is about me i guess i'm just a no fun person no listen what it is about you is obviously

that some stuff went down for you whether specific to the singing of that song or adjacent to it or that song makes you have a certain kind of feeling because of to use that term again your lived experience so i don't think you you ever thought you know it would be fun if the happy birthday song was like nails on a chalkboard to me i don't think that's a conscious choice you would ever make it's it's just because you know your life has put you in that place so i don't beat yourself

up the happy birthday song once gave me a swirly luke in front of all the other songs it was yeah well now that's that's probably related now that i think about it oh my god gave you a purple nurple it's so clear oh those were the worst i would take a million um what do you call it like somebody would somebody would take their forefinger and middle finger but then just use like the big knuckles of it and grab a piece of the skin on your arm and twist what is

that i don't think we had a name for that or if we did it was probably racist well that was a thing there was another thing we'd yeah everything we did as kids yeah right like there was yeah there was one i just feel like almost everything that we every name we had for everything that i look back on now i'm like oh that was not okay yeah exactly exactly all right okay that's all

I got ending strong like we like to the show numbers are in order so that's right that's all that matters yeah uh thanks for listening everyone late show tomorrow remind everybody

we should have done at the beginning huh yeah tomorrow uh we're calling it tbtl happy hour uh that's the way of making it seem like it's an advantage that we're going to be posting the show later than normal and also that I might be having a drink when we do the show uh because uh we've got live wire tonight at revolution hall still time to get tickets for that um but uh then tomorrow i have a like a board retreat that is going to be during the time we would normally be taping the show so i'm going to come tape the show after that so anyway just a heads up the show will be coming out more like tomorrow night uh than in the midday as it does usually but uh we hope you will still join us for that until then have a great thursday take care of yourselves and please remember no mountain too tall and good luck to all

you see if you go back in history and take every president you'll find that the numerical value of each letter in the last name was equally divisible into the year in which they were elected so who's going to win Reagan again no not a chance see I figured it out by my calculations my next president has to be named Yelnick McWawa power out