Muse

Whoa, is this the new copier? It sure is, Dennis. They installed it this morning. Can't believe corporate actually listened to our request. Yep, I guess Christmas came early this year. This thing rules. It collates, staples pages, no more stapling by hand.

Yeah, Santa should have wrapped it. What? The printer. Santa should have wrapped it when he gave it early. Oh. This is going to make our lives so much easier.

I know, this is so much nicer than the old copier

Yeah, I know, and Santa and all His elves must have worked so hard on it And then they gave it to us early

It's a very nice printer, Tracy Just make sure no one copies their rear end, eh?

Oh, that naughty old elf Must be one mean bastard To give us this so early What? Did I stutter, Megan? Santa Claus

Okay, it looks like the printer's gotten everyone a little too excited Of course it did Everyone just go back to work. TBTL!

I have never heard someone say so many wrong things, one after the other, consecutively, in a row.

If there's a better use for the internet, I haven't found it.

It's embarrassing and it's gross, but at least it's kind of funny.

This one was created from a wooden vase from Fiji. I'm not sure what type of timber, but it's a ladies' bong for ladies. What do you say we go out and get some Carvel?

I got the time if you got the diapers.

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

Is it too early to fish sandwich?

My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. Where is he now? Somewhere in Albania, getting drunk. Coming to you from the Hollywood Broadcast Center right here in Portland, Oregon, where I have been like, I've been leaning into cozy season. I got the heat going at like 85 in here.

I feel warm and I'm levitating.

I have the Christmas tree light going in the other room, even though I'm not in the room. I have this old Christmas tree. It's aluminum. It's probably full of all kinds of chemicals that are banned in most developed countries because it's like from the 50s. But it doesn't you don't put lights on it. You have this kind of you have a light that has a color wheel that rotates in front of it and it changes the color on the tree. It's a very cool effect. I'm very into it. But I'm running. I'm not even in that room. Also, it's daylight, but I'm running it in the other room. I've got my special Fraser for Christmas, like, pine smell diffuser going. I am just full on. Now that I'm home, now that I don't have to go anywhere between now and the holidays, I am, like, getting hardcore holiday fun on it. And you're all invited to episode 3835 in a collector's series. Let the fun begin. Today we are going to celebrate the holidays by taking a quiz from the Washington Post where Andrew and I try to figure out if we speak Gen Z office slang.

LOL. Laugh out loud. OMG. Oh my God. WTF. Why the face?

You know, in that fine holiday tradition, that's how I know many of you are celebrating these holidays is by taking a Washington Post quiz about Gen Z office slang. So we'll do that. We'll do some emails and emails. And we'll talk to this guy, the aforementioned longest running cobro of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He is. Oh, hey, y'all said my name. My good friend, Andrew Targis, Targis Walsh. And he's joining me right now. Good morning. Good morning, Luke. I'm in an audio conundrum here. I need to fade out this music for a second because there's something I want to play for you and I can't play them at the same time.

But in anticipation of this quiz, I thought it might come up on the show today. And I taped myself practicing last night.

It is testing week and it's time to slay all day.

Stay woke beyond fleek and get that Gucci breakfast.

Goals say bye, Felicia, to that testing stress. Weather's going to be turnt. Right, Chris? Yes.

OK, we'll leave it there. No, no.

Did you look at the quiz? Those are that's literally the 15 questions.

Yeah, I'm sorry. And you know what? I should have saved that probably for the top story second. I was just so excited because I had gotten my recorder out. I had opened the study books. Yes. What do you call the study books? It's been a while since I've studied books.

Yeah, what do you mean? Do you mean the thing where you would write down the answers to the quiz, or do you mean a CliffsNotes, or do you just mean a textbook?

I feel like if you're taking a really big, important test.

Like, yeah, like you you get study guides, don't you? And you take fake tests and there's all yeah, there's all kinds of like there's a special word for that. I thought again, I'm not I'm not really showing off my academic bona fides here, but I feel like there are books.

You know, last week I was in Ohio and I was at Ohio State University briefly and the Ohio State University. And I was talking to somebody there, and they mentioned in passing, oh, yeah, well, there's so many students here because they're all studying for finals. And just a shiver ran through me. Like, I know a lot of people. In fact, you know, I know a number of people, let me put it this way, who have said to me, the reason I pause is because it's all people I've either been married to or engaged to. It's been basically people I've been in serious relationships. For some reason, I seem to attract a kind of person who has said to me, if I could do nothing but be in college for the rest of my life, I would do that.

Yeah. Have you been in a relationship with my girlfriend, Genevieve? Because I think she said that before, too.

And if so, dude, what I'm trying to say is she has a type and it's me. It's funny because, yeah, no, seriously, like multiple people that I have. Again, I don't know why this is where this conversation is going. My point is, I am not that kind of person. No, I am so glad that I am done with college and that I presumably will never again have that particular kind of stress hanging over my head. I do not miss it. You know, there is, of course, there are some fun moments from college if you think back and maybe a really interesting professor or just kind of like a cool project you got to do. But it's like I am not one of those people who would be perpetually just attending undergrad for as long as I could were it financially feasible.

Yeah, I'm with you. Like, I feel incredibly fortunate that I was able to go to college and have the college experience that I had. And I wouldn't trade that for anything. But, I mean, you're just in this world where you go in. It's the first day of school. And you're going to go to maybe, well, I guess in the first week of classes, let's say. And you sit down in five new classes with five new professors, and day one, they just hand you a sheet of paper that says, this is everything you owe me or will owe me throughout the next four months. And, like, that's the syllabus. And there's nothing silly about the syllabus. No, there isn't. And it's just like, oh, God, you just dump trucked a whole bunch of deadlines on me. And then, of course, maybe a more astute student would then start maybe working towards those goals and develop a plan. Instead, I just took all of those worries and buried them deep, deep in my tummy, Luke. And I just carried that around for four weeks and then jammed some shit out at the very last minute. Luckily, I did OK. But like, yeah, it was just like I just felt like the academic side of things was just like carrying around anxiety for four months, knowing everything that is that is due of you.

Now, I think part of my challenge was that I also was working a full-time job and had a baby. And that's on me, because if I didn't have a baby, I wouldn't probably have had to work a full-time job. So I also just didn't get to really marinate in the college experience the way that might have been. Like, for me, it was just something that I had to get done each day so that I could then get to the next day. It was no, like, I'm sitting under the cherry trees in the quad studying Shakespeare with my study pals. Like, it just, that wasn't my, in fact, probably no reason for me to go to a, you know, I probably should have done my first two years of community college. Much more affordable, much more sort of commuter style, you know. Like, for me, it was like, and the other thing is, no one, to my knowledge, has ever once asked if I graduated from college. It's like in a job scenario. No one has ever called. Transcript verification, which, by the way, I used to answer the phone for at the UW. When I worked at the Visitor Information Center, it was visitor information, trademarks and licensing, and degree verification.

Well, let me ask you this, Luke. Did you ever graduate from college?

I did, but sort of to my great surprise. By that I mean I did get all my credits. I had to do intensive Swahili for a summer that was in like year four and a half or something for me. And then I never really checked up on I didn't go to graduation. My sister Liz and I went to New York on a fun trip. And it was at the same time that that the commencement was for the UW. So I was like, I'm going to go to New York instead. And then it was just I just never thought about it for like five, six years. And I would apply for various jobs and I would write down that I graduated from this.

But to my to my knowledge, nobody ever checked up on. And one day I thought I should just call that phone number and see if I even technically graduated because I could have been missing five credits somewhere that could have been, you know, I'd never really verified it. And so I called and I was I was genuinely fairly shocked when they said, yes, he has a bachelor's of arts or whatever from this college. Like I was kind of news to me.

But do you feel that me asking you that on the air, point blank like that, and you being able to answer, does that kind of help add more value to your degree?

I mean, it's the most value I've gotten out of the degree so far.

Yeah, okay. Well, you're welcome.

Yeah, thank you. I mean, that was worth – and you know what? I was about to give a number, but then I was going to – then I felt sheepish because the amount of money that cost me to do four years at the University of Washington is comically low. compared to what people are paying you know uh to go to college these days i i'm i'm gonna say probably it cost me 30 grand or something in student loans um which is a pittance um compared to uh you know what a lot of folks are paying but um yeah that was 30 grand right there andrew for me to tell you confidently that i did in fact graduate from that college you know i did you graduate from kent state i did magna cum laude mother flipper oh wow so apparently you were able to take that all of those assignments that you were just pushing down and then covering with cheap beer and then you were able to actually pull those out and do the assignments and do them very well ultimately so it sounds like you were actually a good student I did all right I

mean the paranoia of not doing okay kind of fed me I think like for another for example like my sister went to school for like a year and then and then kind of couldn't couldn't hack it and And and then I had a bunch of my friends were about a year older than me, and I knew a couple of them who went to school. And I think like there was a point where college just sort of seemed, I don't know, it's just inevitable. That was the track I was on. I went to like a college preparatory high school. Right. So it's just like, I don't know. And my parents had expectations for me to go to college. So it was just from the earliest age I can remember. It's like you go to school through grade 12 and then I guess I'll just go to college. it didn't seem much like a choice until I started to see people going to college and then not completing their college and then me realizing oh like this is a choice I feel like I was just talking to somebody about this recently if I said it on the show my apologies but I think I think seeing other people go through that experience even though I did not love school like at all or classwork or that type of thing or or certainly like the big end of your projects like I think I early on recognized this idea that like I'm going to school right now but I'm technically an adult and I don't have to be doing this. And so if I'm doing this for myself, if I'm going to do it, you might as well do it. Right. And I'm not trying to paint myself as some hero. I do think that it was like, well, if I'm not going to take this seriously to some degree, then why am I here? I could just go get a job, you know? Yeah, I am the my first some core. I

think the UW was on the quarter system. My first quarter I did so badly in college that I almost I was on academic probation because I had an 830 class, which it's very strange what happens in college. And by the way, I wasn't a big drinker in college at all. It wasn't like I was partying somehow. I mean, when you're in high school, you sometimes you have to be there like 745 or some craziness. Then you go to college. You live next to where the classes are. You literally can like wake up, take an elevator downstairs, walk across the campus and you're in class. Right. And suddenly, 830 a.m. might as well be at 430 a.m. I had the speech communications class at 830 and I got a point like zero one on it or something like I did so badly in speech communication, which is, you could say, ironic, I guess, considering my job stuff. But that when I got my first round of grades, like after the first semester, because I was getting a bunch of financial aid, too. They were like, you know, you're on academic probation right now. Like you your GPA is like in the toilet. it so then the next semester or quarter or whatever it was i kind of freaked out and i went to every i made a deal with myself like i'm going to attend every single class like literally go to class every day and i'm going to take notes all class and i'm going to study for the test and then i got a 4.0 and then that like luckily it was so early in the um creation of my grade point average that i was able to basically go from like having a terrible gpa to having like a 3.8 or something And then I did that for like another year or two And then I coasted off of that And I could just watch my GPA decline every quarter As I became less interested in college From its high point of like 3.8 To eventually like a solid 3.0 or something

This is definitely going to sound like a humble brag here But this is what it's like when a dumb guy graduates with honors I remember I can't remember if I got a phone call This is still like landline era, everybody Somebody called me and I said Ahoy hoy. No.

I can't remember if I got a phone call or if I had to call some office at the university as it was getting closer to graduation day to kind of figure out what was what for because I did not ever assume that I would be like walking on graduation day. Like, I was just like, no, that doesn't interest me. Like, I'll get my degree. Get out of here.

And yeah, imagine if somebody was taking odds of draft kings had existed back then and there were the Vegas odds on who is going to walk at their graduation, Luke Burbank or Andrew Walsh.

yeah well I didn't expect to but then you know and you were talking I'll share something here you want to talk about privilege my parents actually put me through school so like I didn't have any student loan debt at all and so you know and that's something that I'm eternally grateful for and I actually think about all the time talk about like really you know getting a leg up you know in this world especially in young adulthood and so I didn't think it was a deal at all I was just like oh whatever i'll get my degree and and i think i maybe already had a did i already have a job lined up at that point no i didn't have i had a part-time job at the public radio station lined up they offered to give me sort of some bridge work until i landed a job at another station and um i remember just telling mentioning that briefly to my parents i'm like oh well i'm not doing that and they were like what do you mean the hell you're not doing that i don't think i don't think they like lay down the law but it was just like are you kidding me like and i guess i was i guess i was the first person in my immediate family to graduate from from college so the idea of like not having the celebratory day was anathema to them and I didn't it honestly was one of those things I was like oh I guess I just I did it didn't occur to me that that's important to anybody I mean that's you know me like with any kind of tradition or holiday or whatever that's kind of my default is I'm almost my brain is almost broken in a way that I forget that things like that are important to other people because they're just aren't to me for the most part and so I remember being like okay well I'll figure it out I'll get that square hat thing or whatever and so I called whatever office at the college and they're like okay well you got to get your cord or whatever i'm like what do you mean my core they're like you know you're magna cum laude i'm like i don't know what that means are you telling me i need to magna keep it down what do you mean i'm magna cum laude i just came up with that now but that is a solid uncle joke if there are any uncles in

the audience i got i'll see that i'll see that joke and i'll raise it okay when i was a kid my parents listened to a ton of christian radio and there was some kind of um pastor i don't know if it was chuck swindoll but there was a pastor who and i didn't understand what this joke was when i was a kid he was like yeah he graduated magnum cum laude some people were saying laude how'd he do that laude how'd he do that yes okay that took me a second yeah like and i remember being a kid and not understanding what magnum cum laude or laude or however you say it was having absolutely no idea the premise of that joke but that joke has just sat in my head for

the last 40 years jokes like that laudy laudy look who's graduating magna cum laude um yeah so anyway i remember them like somebody on the phone awkwardly trying to explain to me my situation because i literally had i didn't i didn't know that i was graduating with honors i guess is the term although in this case it seems like too strong of a word but for the

joe pesci film with honors where he goes yeah i'm a bum but i'm a hobbit bum that was such an

interesting time wasn't it when like comedic actors were playing like serious roles in people

experiencing homelessness and adjacent to higher education locations what a what a world but um

yeah it was just like this awkward conversation and then that's how i found out i was like oh i guess that's good good for me and i you know i went to a very difficult high school where i did not graduate with a good grade point average at all and then i went to a university which you know i don't want to slam kent state university although in the hey dummies video a couple of weeks ago if you happen to see it i was doing a tbtl unboxing or a what's in the box segment and somebody a nameless um a nameless listener sent me a shirt that said kent read kent write kent state which was our man unofficial motto back in the 90s at kent and maybe still is i'm not sure but no i don't want to i don't want to slag on that university i you know again it set me up well for what it was but coming out of the challenges that i had in high school college was less difficult for me despite the despite the picture that i painted at the beginning of this conversation and again i would like to say like i wouldn't trade that experience for my life like i actually did you talk about like having those quintessential college experiences like i remember literally sitting on a hill with acoustic guitars with me and scott woodling and And Becca or Rebecca, who was my first. Better not be McCulloch. I will come for you. I always like. Probably wasn't born. I actually, I don't remember. This was not, I wouldn't call her my first girlfriend because I don't think we kind of got to that level. But she was the first girl I ever kissed. And we definitely hung out like kind of romantically for a while. And we were in the same friend group. I literally.

don't remember her last name now and i can't cyber stalk her which is probably for the best but it would be interesting to see like if this person who was a big part of my life for a section of uh college was on social media or something but uh it was a different time but i remember literally sitting on a hill with them me trying to learn guitar scott woodling being good at guitar and teaching me like c g and d those chords that could unlock several pop songs or whatever yeah

The entire Tom Petty catalog.

Exactly, exactly.

Free Fallen, baby. D, Sustained. You got that. You know, I feel like I never miss a chance to talk about how kind of, you know, kind of in certain ways financially kind of humble my life was as a kid or whatever. But it really everything just kind of comes with its own set of strings. and i sometimes forget how privileged i was in the fact that my parents had zero expectations of me and i mean that in a good way like and by zero expectations i mean no pressure and i don't now don't get me wrong i don't think your parents were putting any pressure on you but like obviously rightfully so your parents were probably really proud that you graduated you know from a four-year college and we're excited to see you walk and everything that's a big deal in the family particularly if you're the first person to go through that um and i also would have been the first person in my family to graduate from college but it's a different vibe in that i'm thinking about like i have a very specific memory i'm sitting at my job at metro traffic control and i'm on their computer because this is still in the days when you had to be somewhere that had fast internet you know that move like you probably didn't have internet at your apartment or if you did it was dial it was like the most dial-up that ever dialed up so if you had a job on campus or somewhere where there was fast computers you were like let me just really

maximize this time yeah i mean i don't even remember having fast it's funny because you're you're a year older than me but like anyway i don't mean to bog down your story i don't even remember designating certain computers as being fast or slow there were just computers then the internet seemed so new to me i would have to march to the library and log on with some weird email address to like explore the internet i feel like we had for some reason maybe because we were trying

to report traffic incidents in real time we had sort of fast internet at metro and i remember look figuring out what my um when i could get some vacation time from that when i could basically get a unpaid week of not doing that and then also going on the internet and looking up a very very i'm sure like basic website for like a hotel in new york called the malibu suites i think which is you know the upper west side of manhattan the malibu of the tri-state area looking up the malibu suites apartments and being like okay um these are available these are hotel rooms these hotel this hotel room is available for these like 10 days this is also when i can get vacation time oh cool i'm gonna do this i'm going to new york and oh it's when my commencement is well who cares it never at any point occurred to me to let my parents know that i wasn't going to actually walk i never had to think oh what is their are they going to be mad about this and again i'm not saying anything about your parents in this in sense of them being mad at you or not but like i just have been very the thing is i've been very lucky in my life that i have never had to labor under the question of like how are my parents going to feel about this my parents are super loving and supportive and my mom like texts me every single week if i'm on cbs and is really stoked for me and like i i kind of got all the love and support and none of the like expectations none of the like well your father and i don't know if this is the right thing and like that is also a massive amount of privilege in its own way because I just I've just never had to be worried about are my parents going to be cool with me doing this my parents basic setting is whatever you want to do we support you which is a very lucky place to be yeah absolutely um I guess I

did feel yeah I mean there was definitely some pressure on me too I mean I told you I put that pressure on myself in college it was maybe more of like just sort of the fear of failure I guess to a degree but it was kind of a combination of a lot of things but yeah I mean growing up now we're just getting into it but like growing up it was an interesting dynamic because my sister always did much better in school than I was like she was a really good student she was a good musician she played the clarinet and that was like an extracurricular that became kind of a bigger part of her life as she kind of got older and while all of our childhoods are complicated like my sister had at least that stuff locked in you know I mean the good academics and that started when we were going to public school in the country and then eventually we both kind of navigated our way into, well I guess our, well that's the thing, we didn't navigate our way into it, it was important for our parents, like my parents didn't go to any kind of private schools or anything but they really wanted us to have a really good education which is, it's nice, it's good, it's a very very good thing but I do think

Thank you.

that they wanted for us, maybe things that they didn't have. And my sister, though, and this is, you know, why I will never forgive her, is she was good in school. And God damn it, why did you have to be so good in school? Because I was, what's the word, not. And so because of that, like, I would, you know, I would be struggling with Cs or whatever. And getting a C on the report card was like getting an F. Like, I was in trouble when I brought home Cs. But I brought them home anyway. They kind of clung to me. So, yeah, I mean, I do remember kind of feeling a lot of pressure. And, you know, again, because my sister was good at playing clarinet and my folks were like, OK, we're going to get you into music. And that's how I end up, you know, playing the trombone and making fart noises upstairs that the family ended up finding kind of intolerable after a certain period of time. So, yeah, it was it is a little bit tough having somebody sort of blaze a path in front of you in that way to have an older sibling set those higher expectations.

You know, I'm just imagining you at your commencement just with your fingers in your ears as you walk up on the stage to get your diploma. Like not unlike that photo of you when people are singing happy birthday and you're like whatever, 10, 11 years old. Yeah. Like you did go to the commencement, but you made it very clear you did not want to be there.

Yeah. You know, I don't remember. I remember. I remember being hung over. I remember going out the night before. I think I remember drinking. I, you know, it's still, I was old enough to drink at this point, but like, you know, I was like, what, 21 when I graduated? Because I think I, I think maybe usually you'd be, I don't know how old you usually be anyway. I know I wasn't 21. I was probably 22 or something, but I remember being at a bar whose name I cannot remember anymore. It doesn't exist anymore, but it was my favorite place because while it was a college bar, it sort of felt like the slightly more adult college bar. I would sometimes go there and sit at the bar and read by myself which was not like a real move that a lot of people were pulling back then but i remember like discovering luke quote-unquote discovering johnny walker red and

just really feeling like a sophisticated and yeah i still feel i still feel sophisticated

but uh yeah that was like my drink and this bar would have i think they had popcorn too which i love they had johnny walker red and then they had some sort of an amber beer i would drink too i want to say uh sam adams and i can almost smell that place i wish i can remember the name of it and i think i'd spent some time with some friends there the night before drinking a lot of scotch and then being pretty bleary eyed but i don't remember being super reluctant or pouty as i walked i mean listen we were also like major gen x vibes so i was probably in line with some other eye rolling slack jaws too and we all probably just thought we were too cool for it but also So, you know, I remember it being a nice day. And now, you know, there are a lot of photos of me, you know, with my grandma and grandpa and some relatives who aren't around anymore. And it's a beautiful sunny day. And my parents had a little post-graduation party at their place. And some friends were there. And, again, I remember that almost more through photographs at this point. But, like, you know, those do mean something to me. And it's a good reminder that sometimes, like, when you feel like you're kind of, especially me, who's so reluctant to do anything, like go to prom. I was almost kind of pushed into that. and other things like that when you actually do them you can kind of grow up and be like yeah that was that was a good move I'm glad I had people kind of nudging me yeah you know that's a good

point too and I'm also bad with that stuff because I don't I come from a family of not shower uppers like I come from an extremely loving family but not a family where it's a given that you will be at someone's graduation or that you will it's just it's basically I love my parents a lot and And again, they've been so supportive and loving to me in my life. But I mean, famously, I've told the story a million times. I've had to talk my mom into coming to watch me throw out the first pitch at a Mariners game because she was working at Costco at the time and was going to have to ask for some time off. That's just the vibe of my family, which is why when we try to do a get together in my family, we're supposed to, I say supposed to, we're all going to my sister Hannah's house on Sunday for a big holiday get together. and I will be shocked if we get 60% attendance because the guiding principle for a lot not everyone for instance my sister Hannah very selfless but for most of us the guiding principle in our life is what is working for me in this moment what is convenient to me and if it becomes inconvenient to any of us by the way including my parents if it becomes if my mom were to find out that there was a screaming deal on some timeshare time down in Seaside, Oregon on sunday i would be unsurprised on sunday to get a message from my mom saying we actually we're in seaside right now because they had some bonus time it's called which is basically this timeshare club they're in if there's a room that no one's taking you can go stay there you know for free last minute like my whole life has been uh you know my whole adult life has been like everybody in my family is always into like hey let's all get together or let's all be at that thing but until you see the whites of anyone's eyes it's not a guarantee that anyone is going to be anywhere because everyone's operating from the again with the exception of my sister hannah everyone's operate she's also the only one who listens to this show so i got to be really careful everyone is again speaking of showing up um everyone else it's kind of like okay what works for me and my family because everybody else has kids everyone's life is complicated we're just not the kind of people who and meanwhile to take it back again because for some reason this is the episode of the show where i speculate on the kind of person that i tend to end up with one we know they loved being in college uh two jet with one exception that i can think of um everyone i've had serious relationships with are awesome at showing up and they're from families that show up for everything like it's been very typical for me to be doing performative things and to have my fan whether it's Carrie's family now whether it's Becca's family to have the families of the people that I'm in a relationship with much more regular in their attendance of things that I'm hosting or things that are going on I think I'm attracted to people who are show or uppers maybe because low-key I wish I was that way but I'm really I'm also not because I'm

you know a Burbank yeah I don't well we should probably go to a break we're getting kind of long in the tooth as you would say here but I do remember we probably shouldn't even I shouldn't even bring this up but um just talking about you know all of y'all including your mom being like well i don't know there's a timeshare over here something flashy catches their eye and they don't show up i mean that was kind of the thing about you throwing out the first pitch right didn't you have kind of have to physically make sure that your mom was there because she almost decided to take an extra shift

at the library or something well no no um am i well yeah it was it was it was costco yeah no the mariners thing was i um i told them my folks i was like hey i'm gonna be doing this thing and my mom was like, yeah, that day's not great for me because I'm on pierogies and that station is really a hassle because my mom would do the samples at Costco. And then I had to say to her, to both of them, I think I kind of went off a little bit, which is probably not the best way to handle it. I think I was like, all caps, texting, kind of like, this is a really big deal to me. And the fact that you would not come to this is really kind of shocking to me. And then they were like, okay, we're coming. And then later when I bring it up, my mom was like, we came. And I was like, because I had to yell at you. that's so funny and then it was a whole thing too because we're doing a live broadcast i'm sorry for the people that were both at this game and have heard this story a thousand times over the last 10 years the thing that was funny was they get there but of course they get there kind of a little late and the way those seats are at the field at whatever it's called now t-mobile park if you're in the nosebleeds like we were we had a thousand seats by the way like that was how many tickets we sold to that game to tbtl listeners and the seats are the kind of thing where they fold up automatically as soon as you're not sitting in them and so my mom was getting seated but she didn't realize like she pulled the seat down but then didn't realize that it was going to go back up so i'm we're broadcasting live i've already thrown out the first pitch i actually don't even know if my mom saw that part i'm up in the stands now so i throw the first pitch out Which is five minutes after the top of the hour Five minutes after TBTL has started Jen is solo hosting While I'm on the field I throw the pitch I run up to the nosebleeds I put on a headset microphone It's now 7.09 or something And I'm hosting and I look over My mom is just getting seated She pulls the seat down And then without realizing it's gone back up She sits and falls And is mad and embarrassed She's yelling at my brother David Because she thinks that David is pranking her

That doesn't sound like David by the way I can't see David being the type of person who Pulls a chair out from anybody Let alone his mother

Of course not She was just like confused and kind of You know upset but she's so Mad at David and she's talking so loudly That it's getting onto the broadcast Because I'm standing kind of near them with the mic on And I'm thinking in my mind Only my mother Would I have to A. Convince to come to this And then B. Once she's here she's somehow making this harder on me ruining the broadcast how is she doing how are both of those things true at the same time anyway love you mom you'll never hear this happy holidays that's right see you sunday maybe all right uh let's do this let's take a quick break and then uh hey when we come back uh we're gonna take this quiz on gen z office culture terminology to see if Andrew and I can finally pursue our lifelong passion of working in a nine-to-five office scenario with people much younger than us. Yeah, sounds great. All right, back in a moment here on TBTL.

Thank you, babe. Hey, let's thank some of our daily donors for keeping this program occurring 52 weeks a year. You'd think I would just know that off the top of my head. I was trying to think of how many actual episodes a year that we do. I was explaining this to someone the other day, Andrew, that because of the format that we follow for years now, how many years would you say it is? Maybe four or five years? There has never been a weekday of the year where there is not a new episode Maybe it's a half hour long Maybe it's a winter game or a summer game But we're never not putting up a new episode

Yeah, we started doing that, yeah, maybe even five years ago We said no more reruns Who does reruns on podcasts? I'm proud of that decision, by the way So that would be 260 episodes, I believe, right? Because we do 52 weeks a year And there are five working days

Yes

So there you go You said 260? 260, so how much would that be per show For each of these donors

Oh gosh, now you're asking me to do some complicated math Yeah But you know what, John Williams of Midwest City, Oklahoma I'll get back to you Because we're nothing if not financially transparent on this program We're like, you know that FTX thing that the guy just got arrested for Yeah We're the opposite of that

Although I am in the Bahamas right now You should know that as well.

I was wondering, there's a little bit of a delay in the line.

Yep, yep.

Are you there with your... I forget what the name for their supposedly sort of polyamorous setup was. It was one that I'd never heard of, I think because it involved so many people. Again, who knows if that was even real or just the New York Post, you know, clutching their pearls. But anyway, John Williams, thank you very much for supporting the program. I'm also thanks to Angela Santa Rosa in Carmel, Indiana. Mmm, sounds delicious. It really does. I need to eat more.

Do you go caramel or do you go caramel? I think I say caramel, but I wouldn't stand by that if somebody told me I was wrong. Although, don't tell me I'm wrong.

Is there, what is, how's the candy spelled?

I mean, look, you're right, because that's probably the city is, if I'm adding a caramel, yeah, caramel has three syllables, a C-A-R-A-M-E-L. This is definitely caramel.

But you know what's funny? If you look it up, the walmart.com website lists it as caramel, like C-A-R-M-E-L, caramel candy. They say they have 1,000 plus items that fall under, this is their website, under the category of caramel candy. But then if you look at the actual Werther's and other products, it's all spelled caramel.

Interesting, though, and I'm not even joking, when I type in Walmart Carmel, C-A-R-M-E-L, now I can't even say it, the first thing that comes up is the Walmart Supercenter in Carmel, Indiana. And then the second thing is the misspelled candy for some reason.

I see. Well, we thank Angela in there in Carmel, Indiana. Also thanks to Nicholas Carter in Concord, Massachusetts. Ah, the more famous Concord, really, right? Mm-hmm. I think of it. Actually, Concord, California is the one I think of. But I'm a West Coast guy, Andrew. You know that about me.

But wasn't there a big battle at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts?

Yes. That does ring a vague bell from my middle school history class or something. Thanks, Nicholas. And speaking of the West Coast, look who it is. It's our friend Ivan Chabra in San Francisco. Did I just say Santa Francisco? Well, it's the Santa Francisco.

It's the holiday season.

Thank you, Ivan, in Santa Francisco. I left my heart and my brain in Santa Francisco, California. Andrew Fusen is in, no, don't do it, don't do it, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He did it. No, I was telling myself, don't say it normally.

Oh, right, don't not do it.

Don't say Baton Rouge, exactly, and so there we go. I won over my brain.

A lot of fusion in the news today. Do you think Andrew's excited about all the fusion news this week?

i have a feeling andrew having fusion brought up is like well is like people saying a star wars reference to me but the thing is that doesn't really bother me so maybe it doesn't bother andrew by the way what do you think about that i don't know the ins and outs luke i don't know

that i have well i do other okay what are the ends wait no start with the outs then tell me

the ends are lasers okay and the outs are creating more energy than you put in oh yes i did see that yeah and they shoot these lasers i think it was like 112 lasers at something the size of a um an eraser on a pencil and inside that pencil eraser size thing is some kind of i forget what the actual compound is but there

They're trying to blast that thing inside this containment, and then it – they've never been able to – previously they've never been able to have it generate more power than what was put into it. And this is the first time that they've measured – they've been able to measure that it's creating more power than they're putting in, which is the definition of Andrew fission.

Oh, I see. Oh, fission is the opposite of – so I thought it had to do with separating cells versus – Anyway well never mind But I would say that I'd be more impressed If they use like 113 or 114 Lasers I mean 112 is good But if I were doing it If I were in the lab if I were to don one of those coats I'd add a laser

No no I'm wrong I'm wrong sorry I was right about everything I said until I started Trying to throw around fission and fusion So fission is When you Split two heavy unstable atomic Nuclei into two lighter nuclei which releases energy i my my guess is fission is what we're doing currently at nuclear plants that's where we're like splitting atoms and there are like there's something that we're doing maybe it involves uranium that like we're that's how we're getting the energy but fusion which is not fission fusion is what the sun uses and it involves i think hydrogen and if we could the idea is that if we could figure out a way to harness fusion, we could have unlimited clean energy for this planet. And we have Andrew in Baton Rouge to thank for all of this. And to some degree, Richard Oakerson in Woodinville, Washington. I would say to a lesser degree in terms of the fusion, but to an equal degree in terms of the TBTL financial support.

Absolutely. And wine. There's wine in Woodinville, which is when you get done fusioning,

sit back have yourself a glass of red you earned it honestly like celebrate anyway thanks to all of our donors for making tbtl possible hello and welcome to top story realizing i i made a huge in the words of joe bluth i made a huge mistake andrew you know how i said i've i cranked the heat up this morning because i wanted to feel cozy in here what i forgot is that my body is not unlike a nuclear reactor and that i'm generating my own heat and now i'm realizing 85 was way too warm but that the thermostats in the other room so i'm gonna have to just push through i'm having

a lot of trouble regulating the temperature inside this house and i can't tell if it's because it's a new house or because i'm going through like menopause as genevieve calls it like i do feel like i'm having trouble sort of regulating my own personal uh body temperature lately but also i do sort of feel like and this is not a this is not a complaint at all I think one of the good things about this house is most of the windows in here are relatively new and efficient windows which is great like as a renter I haven't had that in a long time like I've been very used to like those wooden frame windows that just sort of clackle around in the frame as you try to open it and then prop it open with a stick or something like that literally that's how I was opening the windows in our last house so having these windows is great but in the wintertime I feel like the house does a really good job of sort of maintaining heat but it's just sort of like i don't know like there's something about the thermostat where if it's on like 66 it's too cold or 67 it's too hot i just

kind of can't quite dial it in yeah um usually those windows you were describing the older ones there's 10 to 12 coats of paint yes exactly that have gone on at some point and either they're painted shut or then somebody like got out a chisel and kind of got them open but they're just never quite right there might be a sash in there or like a counterweight but the but the

thing broke so now it doesn't work anymore and now there's just a hanging string genevieve was the guy who unstuck one of the windows at our last place because there were a few windows that simply would not open but we really wanted one to open because it was kind of the nearest to the kitchen and we wanted airflow and um genevieve i mean she borrowed ladder i think she had to borrow a couple of different ladders because from the outside she had to get to it also from the outside but this thing was up on like the second floor because of the way this building was sort of jacked up and so she literally took chisels without our um without the permission of our property manager because he basically said no nothing you can do and so she just and you're

such good friends with him and have you ever told him is it weird now that you made it better she

absolutely made it better i think she even had to maybe repaint it a little bit it did it wasn't like a it didn't look all jacked up she got she freed it up you know and but i remember like that was like i think he said no that window doesn't open and she said i'll be damned if that window doesn't open and like that was like her big victory that summer um so this uh washington

post quiz is put together by somebody named um danielle abril uh who says uh with boomers gen x millennials and gen z all in one workplace and increasingly communicating online some of the quirkiness of each generation. has come to light the result the potential for confusion and misinterpretation of what your colleague is saying especially as younger workers introduce new lingo and expressions this was shocking to me by the way gen z workers they're defined as those born between 1997 and 2012 they're expected to more than triple in the united states uh france germany etc um by 2030 what i was shocked by is like my daughter's not even in gen z my daughter was born in 1994 yeah so she is would she be considered a young millennial maybe or a geriatric gen z i'm not sure but like this is a you know this is a group of people that uh are much younger than you and i are andrew and this is why we need to know what our gen z colleagues do you think we have any gen z colleagues at apm

oh let's see between 90s yes yes i do think so i think some of the maybe have you seen any like

The bassinets are pack and plays at the home office because I assume that's what a Gen Z person probably, you know, when they take a break, they just crawl back into the bassinet and, you know, take a little schnooze. Okay, here's question number one of six. I haven't looked at these, by the way, Andrew. I'm assuming you actually have not seen these. No, no, I haven't looked at these. This is one of those quizzes that you and I can take together. Good.

Oh, should I click it open, you mean? Oh, no.

Oh, I mean, I think, are you at the link as well?

I have not opened it because I didn't want to ruin anything, but I wasn't sure if we're both supposed to fill in our own answers.

No, I'm just going to give you – it's multiple choice. I'm going to read these to you, and then I'm going to pick one, or we're going to pick one together, and then we're going to see what the answer is. Number one, your Gen Z colleague reacts to something you said with a skull emoji. So, like, you know, that's the skull, not the crossbones, but just the skull with kind of like black eyes. What is this person likely Conveying So your Gen Z colleague responds With a skull emoji are they conveying Laughter are they Conveying the end of life Are they conveying destruction or are they Conveying Halloween I didn't know that

It was multiple choice but I'm going to say laughter It's like dead over here

You killed me that's what I'm Guessing too and I'm also hoping that because Most of the responses I get from my Gen Z Colleagues are Skeletons correct Andrew right look Look at us. Look at us. For Gen Z, known as Zoomers, emojis don't solely carry a literal meaning. Gen Z are digital natives who grew up using social media and digital devices to communicate. So they often use emojis for connotations versus denotation. That's kind of the difference between fusion and fission. Yes, exactly. In one of them, you're splitting a meaning. In another one, you're combining a meaning. Exactly. In this case, the connotation of the skull centers on the idea that the person is dying from laughter. That's what you said. Or that the comment was so funny that the person is dying or dead. Wow. That's good. So we're one for one. I mean, honestly, I feel like we might almost be Gen Z. We're this good at this. We're that good at this. Okay, number two. You assign your Gen Z colleague a task on Slack and end the sentence with a period. What is risky about this message?

Can I take a stab at this before you give the multiple choice?

Cocky. Classic Gen Z.

Well, I mean, you can still go through. Unearned confidence. just like gen z great yeah i think that you're risking sounding sort of cold or um or demanding

i think you're right actually these were the possibilities gen z hates slack this guy hates slack stay away from the slack is that a show title stay away from the slack yeah which by the way you do very well well i don't want to take any chances when working for mr hartoonian Gen Z hates Slack Gen Z only reads messages that arrive via email I'm feeling like we're I feel like we're othering Gen Z in a way here That's probably not great Was it the bassinet comment from me

I was going to say

You know what Andrew I'm 46 years old I'm entering my cantankerous phase Where I say that people that are younger than me Drink baby bottles Gen Z might interpret the period as a mere Suggestion versus an assignment Or I think the correct answer, which you've already sort of mentioned, Andrew, Gen Z might interpret the period as a sign of anger or coldness. We're going with that. And we are correct. Look at us.

We're master communicators, I think, as anybody who's listened to the show would know.

I would say take that professor of speech communication at the University of Washington circa 1994. Actually, 95, probably. Graduated high school in 94 or so. It might have still been 94, actually.

By the way, more on that in a little bit. Some really good emails defining exactly what grades we were in in 1986.

Okay, question. We are two for two. We are hot. Question number three on this quiz. You say you're going to be out of pocket for a week. You're just.

gen z colleague is confused why oh because they don't put pockets no i feel like they're putting more pockets on clothes these days i felt like it was oh my god dude i was uh shopping yesterday

and um cargo pants are back like khaki i know they never stopped being in for you but like for tonight pants or whatever but like definitely that was a whole mood when i was in like when i was short recently out of college was like gap you know cargo pants just a second here i've never

worn a pair of cargo pants in my life i just want that to be clear i thought you tonight pants were cargo pants don't cargo pants indicate a lot of pockets with snaps and stuff well big the big

pocket on the side yeah no i've never had that no oh i thought like khakis khakis well okay or chinos maybe okay gotcha i thought that at some point one of those things had the cargo kind of

pocket on the side of them no shame to people who have it but i just want to be on the record as saying that that is not if you're picturing me because honestly even me the idea of like laying down with a bunch of snaps and stuff digging into me doesn't sound super great

um i think when you said khaki i just my brain converted it because all the all the cargo the cargo pants that i would wear from the gap were like you know khaki colored that was a real look for me in about 1999 and to walk into a banana republic yesterday at the Bridgeport Village Mall outside of Portland and just see that they're just selling cargo pants again like the last 20 years didn't happen

you had a wallet chain didn't you? I had a wallet chain for a big chunk of high school really

I was never into that move but I do sleep with a wallet chain now I call my tonight chain

my tonight chain

Okay, you say you're going out of pocket. Why would a Gen Z colleague be confused? They think your clothing is out of pockets. They assume you're lost. They think it's a warning you're going to be wild or crazy. They think you've run out of money. I think I know which is by elimination.

From context, I'm going to say C because it must mean something different in a different vernacular.

Yes, I think that that's the answer. They think it's a warning you're going to be wild or crazy. correct Andrew we get this generation yep yep um uh you may have thought out of pocket only means unavailable for a certain period of time but not for Gen Z it has another meaning suggesting something inappropriate or wild I have seen that on TikTok being like somebody is totally out of pocket on this that makes sense the new out of pocket though is feral everyone's talking about being oh go feral everybody yeah it's sort of goblin mode it's like and it's typically a certain And it's kind of often, in my experience, on TikTok, which is, you know, just my view of this world, maybe a woman in her 20s who's, like, talking about kind of, you know, having a wild night or a wild whatever, and it's, like, just going absolutely feral. That's the new way to talk about, you know, I don't know, having a good time. All right, number four. I mean, we're three—I don't know if we've ever been three for three on any quiz in the history of this program, Andrew.

Yeah, and we've been in sync on these, too. So I don't think there's been any split decisions from us yet.

I know, which is kind of a bummer. I think that dynamism is what's really interesting. It's a certain, I don't know, it's like a cosmic gumbo. It's kind of a fusion-fission thing that I was looking forward to. But it's so clear what the answer is that you and I are in agreement on this. Okay, number four, you send an email to a Gen Z colleague asking the person to complete a task. You add a smiley face emoji at the end of your paragraph. Your Gen Z colleague becomes worried. Why? Because they think it's sarcastic. That's my guess. your colleague doesn't want more work classic gen z they're just busy going feral the first

the a answers on all of these are like something out of a train like a work training manual or something right like obviously that's never the answer on these things yeah exactly it's your lucky day you just found a usb flash drive in the parking lot all right you're right uh a is does not

seem very promising your colleague doesn't want more work b the emoji makes your colleague think something is wrong c the emoji makes your colleague think you're happy there's more work or actually this is kind of an interesting one d your colleague hates emojis i'm gonna say your colleague hates emoji that's now the thing is question number one was this hypothetical gen z colleague sending you a skull so which yeah we gotta we gotta decide here do do these folks do they hate do they hate emojis do they use emojis i think literal emo going back to that

connotation thing you're talking about before i think probably like the literal use of emoji like reminds them of you know their parents sending them a text message like just making sure that you're still coming home for easter smiley face and then maybe heavy eye roll from gen z I'm like, I'm way, I'm like way out over my skis on this, but like, that's kind of what I'm thinking that like, maybe there are, generally speaking, they hate emoji. Also, I say emoji. I don't know. Is it emojis or emoji? I don't know.

Well, this, they're, they're writing this emojis with an S. Okay. So, all right. You're going with your colleague hates emojis. Just to keep it interesting, I'm going to go with the emoji makes your colleague think something is wrong. I kind of, those are both very close. I don't know. they're very close i already have regrets one of us is correct and it's not you oh god damn it the emoji makes your colleague think something is wrong gen z often finds great the more that i read this the more i can't believe we're really actually i mean we're playing this for a joke but it's like can we really group everybody from a certain generation in together this way uh gen z often finds greater nuance in different smiley face emojis than their older counterparts according to by the way there's a an expert on this who's been interviewed throughout this quiz I just didn't get into the nitty-gritty with them. But according to this one expert, apparently in Gen Z often there's greater nuance in the different kind of smiley face emojis. The range in different smiley faces offers a diversity in the level of enthusiasm a Gen Z person might express in a text-based message. The plain smiley face, which on some services automatically converts to a colon and closed parenthesis into a smiley emoji, doesn't emit much enthusiasm. It could come across as passive-aggressive. so the regular smiley face is apparently potentially passive aggressive to your gen z colleagues i'd like to point out that i am now four and oh and andrew you are three and one which is still pretty good but just not as good as i'm doing you know i don't want to do this anymore you know what one of our friends our dear friend who's not gen z uses this emoji a lot which is question number five your gen z colleague responds to something you said with a painting of fingernails emoji. Oh, yeah. What is this person expressing? Do you know the person I'm talking about?

Maybe Phyllis? That's right. Our friend P. Fletch

will sometimes respond in our text chains with the fingernails being painted, and I'm going to be honest

with you, I don't know what that is. Oh, really? I mean, I've always assumed, I haven't looked it up on knowyourmeme.net, but I always assume that means like, yeah, you're a little boastful. In other words, if I got wordled in two, I might send you my results along with like me doing my nails like these are the possible i think you

might be right these are the possible answers it's time for a manicure is that what this has been telling me you gotta get a manicure luke my nails are jacked um it's time for a manicure or is our colleague suggesting sass pettiness or nonchalant confidence well listen that's a lot of different things there sass pettiness or nonchalant confidence i don't feel like you're kind of You're giving a few potential answers there. But I do think that that's what I'm leaning towards. Okay, your colleague is extremely bored and has nothing to do. That's classic Phyllis. Or your colleague's nails are chipped. That would never happen to our friend Phyllis.

Or call HR and tell them about the issue.

It's your lucky day. You just found a manicure in the parking lot. All right, you're going with your colleagues. Yeah, it's pretty obvious. Suggesting sass, pay this nonchalant confidence. I'm going to go with you on that. to complete or continue my unbeaten streak you're absolutely right uh our colleague is suggesting sass pettiness or nonchalant confidence uh gen z is going for a non-literal meaning with the nails emoji um all of this indicates how your message should be interpreted writes the expert younger people want to wait i should have jumped ahead in the description i was trying to just condense things but now without hearing the previous part that made no sense it doesn't matter we're at number six i'm five and oh you're four and one actually retroactively since i'm trying to guess

before you give me the multiple choice i think we're actually tied now half a point you have

i am five and oh and you are four and a half and point zero five okay uh although that's not how that works because one of them would be 50 and the other would be five percent yeah i don't know how that happened um your gen z colleague responds to you with the word slay what does this person Likely mean. This is the final question.

Oh, no.

Slay. What do they mean? Do they mean go kill someone? Now, what if you work? Now, here's a real question. What if the place you work is an international assassin ring? Sure, yeah. And you happen to be working with someone who's Gen Z. It's very possible that that could be them telling you, hey, how's it going with the Jacobson account? I keep killing that guy named Jacobson. Right. Exactly. slay go kill something you got killed at or beaten by something kudos awesome job or defeat the dragon what the fuck sorry i was able to contain myself this is so terrible Obviously, it's the, you know, congratulations, like, you go, girl, like, et cetera.

And it is. Well, you might think. I'm wondering.

Was that the lowest energy you go, girl, that's ever been recorded on tape? What I just offered there a moment ago. Or even uttered. I just sounded so depressed. I don't think anybody's ever said you go, girl, in a more depressed voice than what I just offered you. You do whatever feels right to you, girl.

You know what? I'm so tired, girl. I'm so tired. I'm so tired, queen. The thing is, I didn't pick this quiz because I wanted to sort of drag it or anything, but it was pretty clear as we went through it that these seem to be pretty knowable things. I guess my question is, do you think somebody of maybe my mom's generation taking this would have actually found this to be a little more challenging? Are we is the real outcome here is the real discovery for us that we actually are closer to this kind of way of speaking than we think? Like, why was this so easy for us?

Well, yeah, I mean, it's definitely generational. We're not that far away from it. You and I are still communicating with folks who, you know, who just whether we're on social media or whatever, we're more exposed to this kind of language. your parents sound like they're a little bit more like you guys all have your text chain which spans multiple generations

my parents use emojis

yeah and I know my parents do too but my dad will just you know do the more simple like what you'd expect from the kind of boomer generation like you know very straightforward stuff in fact they use more emoji than I do and they're like iPhone users in some ways like my parents are more up on like using stickers and what have you than I am but I don't think I honestly think that these questions would not have made sense to my dad either. And again, that's not like that's not that's not a put down. Certainly, you know, you said not to drag the generation. I was thinking about that word, too, like that. You know, that was a relatively new slang word introduced to the mainstream culture. Not all that long ago, too. And I remember this is one of those things, too, that like kind of lives in my brain because I wanted to sort of reject it at first. but somebody you know i'm sure on instagram stories or something like sharing a list of terms that like you shouldn't use because it's appropriation like i think in this case like appropriation from the queer community um and like the idea of like drag like that was kind of like you know like that was our word it was like the kind of general tone of this and i remember at the time being like but but if you if you are part of a community this is what i thought at the time i don't think i'm necessarily right about this but i remember being somewhat defensive about it I mean, like, OK, let's say that you're part of a marginalized community like the queer community has been and is and remains. And you see a piece of your slang go mainstream. You're you're upset about that because you feel like that's misappropriation. But also, could there be an argument that, well, if you're seeing parts of your culture go mainstream, isn't that sort of a good sign? But that's not really that's not really the answer to that either. I remember just sort of thinking that at the time and this living in my head for years and years now, some slide that I probably whiz past in like 15 seconds on Instagram years ago. just kind of like what are the lines between like using slang without being without appropriating essentially but also like going mainstream if a culture goes mainstream is that a good thing or a bad thing or are we cherry picking the way you know our racist country would cherry pick from black culture especially like during the rap heyday of the 90s or what have you you know and

it's a very complicated topic right i mean i guess that on the question of drag my thought was always That would be to drag somebody through the mud It's just an abbreviated version I don't want to drag this person through the mud Like that to me seems like there's A pretty logical case for that being something And also drag is not used as a pejorative Like to say To drag someone I don't think anybody would think the indication is To have them dress in drag Oh no I wasn't implying that I thought you were saying that the push I thought you were saying that somebody online was saying We should not say Drag someone because that is somehow appropriating something from like the queer community i was saying that but not that they

were using it to first of all i you know i think i might have been you first of all i think i'm thinking about shade i think actually throwing shade or using shade um and i might be totally wrong about drag but i also thought that drag might have come from the queer community but not in that not not in that definition of it but just that it was something like oh you're you're you're dragging him or whatever it was just like a term that might have come from the queer community i could be totally wrong about that but i don't want to make it sound like i thought that it was because of drag shows or drag queens or anything like that that's a separate thing um the other

thing that i heard uh the other day while I was on a shoot was and this was I feel like I started to bring this up the other day on the show and maybe I got distracted or maybe I was just thinking about it but we were filming in a kind of small room and there was a number of us this was the thing I was doing for the big software concern on the east side and there was some white folks and some people of color in there and we were talking about something and one of the folks i was with who was white said something about dreadlocks and both of the people of color who you're with uh said oh hey by the way just so you know dreadlocks is actually really not the preferred nomenclature anymore because uh because the dread was a reference to the hair somebody you know some like white people back in the day thinking the hair looked dreadful and that now the preferred thing is just to say locks and i was like oh that's news to me so i'm I didn't actually then, like, do a bunch of research on the topic, but I was like, oh, that's a new one for me. Again, I was, like, low-key relieved I wasn't the person who had just casually said dreadlocks, because I absolutely would have. Like, I had never heard that as a, you know, as a thing. But both of the people that were there, who were both people of color, were, like, both quickly identified it, and both were in agreement on that, hey, that's the thing we're not saying anymore. And it was actually great, because the person who said it was like, oh, wow, I didn't know that. okay and like i learned something it was like it seemed like a pretty positive way for that kind of information to move around like somebody saying oh yeah we're not doing that anymore and then the

other person just taking that under advisement yeah exactly and i heard um i don't know we don't have to keep on listing examples i guess but i always do this i always start a sentence and then i undermine myself and then i say i shouldn't be saying this i'm gonna say it anyway but like i heard a commercial for some sort of remodeling service and they referred to a master bathroom just yesterday on the radio i was like oh do we still say that i thought like master bedroom and master bathroom we don't really use anymore because of connections to the the slave days i i think i was totally i think i was totally confusing by the way um when i gave that example before throwing shade or using the word shade i think i was confusing that with drag i wasn't confusing it with the idea of a drag show but i did think that the word drag and shade were both like queer culture but i think i'm wrong about the drag thing so sorry for trying to make a point to illustrate it and totally whiffing. I don't want to drag you, Andrew, but that was not your finest moment.

Here I go once again with the email. Every week, I hope that it's from a female. Oh, man, it's not from a female.

All right. Emails or V-mails or both? Drags. Or neither.

Some emails here, but drag is also, now I'm just on the Urban Dictionary, and drag also a marijuana cigarette. hey cuz I'm gonna go smoke me a drag what do you think of that that's well I

hadn't heard that before but I'm also you know me Andrew I don't stand for weed culture I don't like it I thought you're part of weed culture now I thought that was your whole thing it's one of those things I'm like a sober bartender I'm forced to work within this industry of covering weed but I don't like it you're the Sam Malone of THC I'm more like coach because he was from Albania and he knew

that their main export was chrome that is true but did coach i don't think coach was from albania

was he i think he was just why does he sing the song about albania because i think sam had to

teach him that that that tape was sent to us by listener bobby because of your um albanian connections and so there's a song where coaches they call me by the way on the streets the albanian connection but i think that the point of that is sam malone boy this goes back to higher education I think Sam Malone is in like night school or something like that And he has to study for a test and he's struggling And so Coach tries to teach him to study by turning things into songs Turning facts into songs

Got it Because Cheers was a bit of a pop cultural blind spot for me I assumed somehow that Coach's backstory was that he was Albanian And so he had that song to try to teach people about Albania

I think I don't think he's actually Albanian But I do think that he made that song

Yeah, I believe you on these matters. You're much more cheersed up than I was.

All right. Here, I want to get into this a little bit, kind of a dark topic, actually, as I introduce it here. But we were talking on the show yesterday about this podcast I've been listening to called One Year from Slate, where they kind of focus on stories from one particular year in history. And they explored the year of 1986 last season. And I've been going through those episodes and absolutely enjoying them. And one of them was about the Challenger explosion, specifically in this case, through the lens of the other teachers who were part of the program with Krista McAuliffe and who clearly did not go into space. And so just as such, I can't recommend that episode enough, but it really threw you and me into a mind pretzel, as I'm calling it.

About what age we were when this happened Because in my head I've always said I was in third grade I kind of can picture the classroom I was in But that didn't seem to jibe With your memories And I know that you won that quiz But the thing is I've won the war Because I have gotten emails from a lot of people Who've done a lot of math Explaining that I was definitely in third grade Along with some other folks as well I want to read a couple of these to you

That actually supports my theory That I wasn't in sixth grade You, for a moment, were speculating you might be in fifth grade, which would have meant I was in sixth grade, which would have meant I wasn't going to school at the time. But if you were in third grade, that means I was in fourth grade and I very much was going to school.

Oh, then I don't know what confuses. I thought my memory didn't jive with yours because I always said third grade, but then I thought you were saying, well, if that's the case, then you would have been homeschooled at the time and it didn't make up. No, no, you said fifth grade yesterday. If I said fifth grade, I was just talking too fast because I always remembered it as a third grade thing. But then you start I could have sworn I shifted on that because you said it didn't line up.

And I said, well, then it must have been because at some point, maybe you just maybe you were thinking third and you said fifth. But you said fifth grade. And then I was like, well, holy shit, that means I was sixth grade.

You're right. You know what? In my head, I've always said third grade. But then on the fly yesterday when I was feeling insecure about all of this, I wrote a little chart out for myself. And I tried to guess like what age I started school and then what grade I would have been in. And then, yeah, I talked myself out of third grade, but we were both right. So now I won the quiz and you didn't even do the show today. Another one of those. So we don't need a we don't need a bunch of these. But I do think this is kind of interesting.

I think we can agree. It's an Andrew W. Tuesday. Yes. That's the takeaway.

An Andrew W. Tuesday. I love what Nate did here. And again, this just, I guess, verifies what we both thought going into yesterday's show before I turned it into a mind pretzel. But this is from listener Nate, who, as he points out here, I accidentally referred to as Bruce when I ran into him at the Pavement concert a few months ago. Hi, Nate. I was listening to yesterday's show. You guys were talking about the Challenger explosion. And basically, this was a total Mandela effect for me. I thought I was in the fourth grade, so I had to confirm it with a spreadsheet. She turns out I was in the fifth grade, but more importantly, here's the spreadsheet with a table of your ages and what grades you are at throughout the years. I am going to send this to you, Luke, and I am going to save this forever because I find myself like always with my back up against the wall trying to figure out what grade I was in compared to what age I was. And for some reason, maybe because I don't have kids myself, I can never get it straight, which is why I messed that up yesterday and suddenly thinking I was in the fifth grade when I realized in the third grade. And Evan here says, I think sharing some memories of the where Evan was for the Challenger explosion. I remember exactly where I was. I was in Georgia Guernsey's third grade class. She had stepped out for a moment. And when she came back, she had a horrified look on her face. She went to the coat closet and rolled out an old console television, plugged it in so we could see the news footage of the tragedy. Now, that's interesting. I'm going to continue reading here. Well, hold on. Yeah, that's interesting that you would.

How did this person, how does Evan know his teacher's first name?

I don't know. I was thinking my third grade teacher, I remember Mrs. Velardo. That was another thing that my mind was blown yesterday. I was like, I swear I was in Mrs. Velardo's third grade class.

I honestly could not tell you the first name of any teacher I had before probably 12th grade because you just never knew their first name. You was like, I had Mrs. Stone, Mrs. Vandenberg, Mrs. Wharton. I could never tell you what they're... It was almost like that was privileged information.

I feel like, I'm looking this up now, if I saw Mrs. Velardo's first name, would it ring a bell to me? Unfortunately, it's very hard to find. This is pre-internet. I went to school pre-internet.

I don't know if we've covered that today or not. Well, it explains a lot of our informational blind spots, too. I'd like to point out to these Gen Z listeners who just had their digital natives and they just have had every piece of information ever at their fingertips. We didn't we had to walk uphill both ways on the Internet in the snow dial up when we were kids.

I want to continue reading Evan's note here quickly, but I did want to what struck me about that wasn't just that Evan knows Miss Guernsey's first name. But also, I think it's interesting that she pulled out the TV after the tragedy happened to watch the news coverage. That kind of shocks me. Like, I think that most of us were watching it thinking it was, you know, it was just going to be a very exciting moment in American history to send a teacher to space. And then the tragedy happened and then people sort of like, OK, well, they I do remember an announcement coming over the loudspeaker or something about maybe we had a moment of silence or something like that and then trying to move. on with our day but i don't remember or i've never heard other people's stories of being like once the tragedy happened then we rolled out the tvs to watch the coverage i mean that's a lot for

a third grader i would think absolutely yeah i'm with you like the the trauma of the event was bad enough for a lot of people that witnessed it unintentionally and a lot of young people the aftermath would be the kind of thing if i were a teacher i don't know if i'd want to if i would really want to like just sort of be in that grief space or that whatever you want to call it scary Space with a classroom

Full of kids yeah Evan says Oh by the way this is Evan and Blaine Washington Is this your buddy Evan no

Blaine Washington is up Right on the Canadian yeah I know where

Blaine is but this isn't your buddy Evan that you know He's in a different park okay no

It's muck duck how dare you It's called gunk holding okay

What I said cleaned it up a little bit It's a family show for goodness Sake anyway I guess this is Maybe maybe we've already covered This but Evan goes on to say this was on january 28th 1986 i was born i think this is interesting november 16th 1976 making me a few months younger than luke and a few days older than andrew evan and blaine washington and i are almost the exact same age so now whenever i have any questions about what happened when i am going to email evan that's perfect that's actually absolutely that's the real takeaway from this is

once again us more or less subcontracting out having to remember or know anything exactly and i think it's needed now more i consider myself the general knowledge contractor on this i'm the i'm the gc it means i don't do any of the stuff i don't do the plumbing i don't do any of can you tell i'm remodeling a house right now i hire the people i know the people that know the stuff and that's my job as the general and so um that's what we're doing here evan is going to be your fact checking cuz on age things um trying to think our friend phyllis is handling things on the emoji front for me and we just continue to farm out all of the actual knowing things uh to

other people who know them i wish everybody could have the joy that i have when i am driving in my car and my phone is plugged into my car's computer system and i receive a text message from phyllis fletcher with a whole bunch of emoji and the car describes each one of them it is awesome i need

you to record that sometime i don't know how i guess you can't do it because you have your phone your phone is the thing that's receiving the info but i would love to hear the audio of that video

i tried to do it once because another thing is i'm on this wordle text chain and i was at the cabin with a bunch of my wordle buds this summer at our friend aaron's cabin but then i left i think a day early and on my drive back home people were apparently waking up having their morning coffee doing wordle together and then texting the chain and i kept getting text messages on my road trip home of just like wordle date four out of five and then yellow emoji black emoji yellow emoji green emoji and it just lists hundreds of green black and yellow square emoji while you're driving it's quite i tried to tape that it's i mean you would not believe how long it goes on i think you

played that for me when we were in denver and you were driving me to the airport oh yeah probably

because i probably just got some incoming wordles while you were in the car with saturday morning I remember that in fact Okay well that's where we will leave the Emails and voicemail segment for Today

Yeah because we are going to be recording some Winter games later today Which is exciting Also it gives me a chance to remind folks Although if you made it to this point of the show You already know that on Friday We are having a TBTL holiday Happening at 5pm West Coast it's going to be on Zoom The link is in at tbtl.net and on the stens page and all kinds of different places but please do join us for that it's going to be really fun and again our colleague john really went to the mat to get us 500 slots for this thing and um i don't know what the latest count is but i believe it's south of 500 you don't

know you know what i i was i misrepresented that a little bit as i apparently did a lot of things you know there was a 300 limit and then he had to fight to get us something that could give us between three and 500 people so as soon as we get over 300 people we justify all the work john put in and at the last count i think we were we were over 200 so less than 250 but more than 200 so we are within barking distance of making all of this worthwhile if we can get over if we just 301 people

yeah could we get 60 more people to sign up for the uh holiday happen it's also going to be fun because we're going to have the great TBTL holiday food off where we would like you to prepare some traditional holiday dish or even one you've just been intrigued by or cocktail or mocktail. And then, oh, I got an outfit, by the way, that I'm wearing here, Drew.

I got something a little special on the way to my house, too. Nice. Can I address one little thing here?

It's cargo pants from Banana Rock.

i wanted to say one thing too but like it's also to whatever degree you want to participate in in the dress up or the the foodiness of this i mean like as we say we now have i'm going to put it let's say 225 people on the line we're not going to have the time or resources to highlight every single person's food so if you're somebody who's on the fence i got an email from somebody today kind of a little bit stressed out about like well i'm not available friday should i make some food in advance on thursday and reheated and um and i'll respond to that person later but there's no pressure it's just like if you want now if you if you want to do it if you want like i'm going to be pretty low-keying it like i'm probably just going to have some eggnog maybe spice that up a little bit with a little bit of medicine or something um and uh you know it's just to whatever degree like so if you have something that you are very excited about a family recipe that you want to share or cookies that you just made beautifully tbtl holiday related we will try to share as many as possible but my goodness please nobody stress

about this we just want to kind of hang out with you a little bit yes as as you said this is as participatory or as kind of hang back and just take it all in as you feel comfortable with and want to be doing on a on a friday afternoon slash evening so yes definitely um there will not be um mandatory participation at all um okay that is gonna do it for today's episode thank you everyone for listening uh we'll be back tomorrow with more imaginary radio for you until then have a great tuesday take care of yourselves and please remember no mountain too tall and good luck to all

you can learn about anything in this world if you'll just follow my little trick. Got it? All right. Albania. Here, Albania. Or should we say Albania? Why'd you say it like that? We learn our facts by associating countries with music. One, two, three. Albania. Albania you border on the Adriatic your land is mostly mountainous and your chief export is chrome power out