Muse

I don't think it's overstating anything to say that I was the first female to bring notoriety to our field. As Minnie the Moose, the Vernon Community College baseball team's mascot, I once held the splits for the entire length of an extra inning baseball game in spite of excruciating pain and a severe severing of my adductor longest muscle that eventually required four hours of surgery and added two and a half inches to my left leg, forcing me to retire. I wrote a tale documenting that journey. A moose in grace, a mascot's journey to God and success in real estate. TBTL! In the next hour, we will present information that's both shocking and enlightening.

This need you have to be the smartest guy in the room is off-putting. I mean, I understand how people can love podcasts. I just never, they've never fit into my, into my day. I just have never gotten into the habit.

It isn't so much about what it is altogether. It's more about the modulation and what it is once it starts. It's a little bit of a groove. Can you say apple?

Apple.

Can you say banana?

Apple. Okay, T-Bone, time for some serious crunching. All right, hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Thursday edition of TVTL, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. Yeah! My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. Because I sit with it. Coming to you today from the Riverhouse Studios, the future home of TVTL, perched high above the mighty Columbia River. Oh, ma, pa, it's just beautiful. Beautiful and snowy. I forgot that, you know, this is, I don't know, maybe we're like 500 feet above sea level or river level. And it is noticeably colder up here. There's some snow on the ground. It is wicked cold here in this little hovel of a house that I'm broadcasting from right now because, of course, there's no insulation. There are very few walls. So apologies. I have the one heater that is operational in the house running behind me. I am bundled up and I'm still having to do that thing where I sort of blow on my hands so that they are functional for playing audio drops like this. And let the fun begin. Because, of course, we have to let the fun begin here on episode 3,882 in a collector series. Some students in New Hampshire spent a week working on a mural at a beloved bakery. And they painted, I thought, a really cool-looking mural on top of the building where this bakery is. and now they're being told or really more specifically the owner of the bakery is being told that the mural has to come down because what they make at this bakery is donuts and the mural has donuts on it and so that makes it subject to a bunch of other regulations you gotta be kidding me um and speaking of signs in the news the um federal highway folks are not that sort of pleased with the state highway folks who insist on putting up clever jokes and witty things on those little you know those those uh digital reader boards that you can um you know modify to talk about amber alerts and traffic issues states seem to love putting funny little

jokes on those things jokes are really difficult i must say and the federal government is not

into it uh the federal government has a policy that said states need to avoid and i quote here witticisms colloquialisms and popular culture or slang references on those signs we'll talk about that plus it's a thursday aka blurs days we'll do the blurs days i'll tell you what this guy the longest running cobro of the show may be best known for his depictions of the tall ships is also well known for his witticisms and colloquialisms He's Andrew Walsh He's got like every meme ever produced on the internet He can knock us out with his memes And he's joining us right now, good morning my friend

Good morning Luke, sorry about the microphone I think my mute button is getting worse on the board I don't know if you heard the crackle there My apologies I did, a little bit

Just get that compressed air and get after it

Yeah, I'll just blow some compressed air into the microphone after the show And cover that whole thing up I am here talking

I'm talking to you, Luke, right now. Physically, I'm here doing TBTL. Emotionally, mentally, I am playing the Simpsons arcade game that I clocked a lot of hours on yesterday at my friend's birthday party. Do you know about the Southgate roller rink in White Center, by the way?

No. It is a hell of a place.

Wait a second. It is a hell of a place.

Hold on, Andrew. I'm sorry. Excuse me for this. Stop the show.

Show is stopped.

Do you know what I was doing last night in Portland, Oregon?

No, playing the roller skating.

Oh, really?

You were at a roller?

Were we at where we each at a roller rink on a Wednesday night? I think we were.

I was at out coordinating it. I was at a birthday, a roller skating birthday party. I will admit something here, which is, you know, going to be very unfun for this story. And it's, you know, true trademark. But no, I didn't actually skate yesterday, even though like I know that you guys all know me as a professional rollerblader. I've never strapped on those rollerblades since I stopped rollerblading after I broke my hand. Now, I did not break my hand rollerblading, but it just I was doing a lot of rollerblading around that time. Made me too nervous to do it with some broken fingers. And then ever since then, I was like, you know what? I'm not good at rollerblading. It just never felt natural to me, no matter how much I practiced. I don't think I'm going to rollerblade anymore, and so when my friend had this party last night, and basically, this is my friend Pauly, he and his wife rented out, like, two hours worth of nothing, but, like, we had the run of the place. Like, it was not open to the public from 6 to 8, and this is really, I mean, really boss roller rink in White Center here in Seattle that I've never been to before. Just, like, super cool, little bar in the back, and apparently, like, a little bar where you can get cocktails next to the rink, but also, like, in the backpack, apparently, like, a full standing bar where they were doing, like, drag karaoke or something back there. I didn't go back there. But, yeah, it's this amazing place, and they have these old-school video games, too. And I showed up and I was like, you know what? I'm not really in the mood to have wheels on my feet all night and doing that thing where you're constantly thinking about your balance. Like what I came here to do is play the Simpsons arcade game and eat some Little Caesars pizza pizza. And I did that. But I washed my hands in between playing the video game and eating the pizza, as you should do at bowling alleys and roller rinks. But, man, the video games are still just a quarter apiece. They have Mortal Kombat. They have some X-Men Mortal Kombat-esque game that my friend's son just absolutely destroyed me at. He was creating these big ice balls that were coming down and crashing on Wolverine's head. I was Wolverine. It was terrible. I don't like the fighting games. But also I clocked a lot of time on the Simpsons game where two people can play at the same time. And so therefore you can kind of collaborate And get further in the game And I got to do something that I never did as a child Never Like on the rare occasion I'd play an arcade game as a kid The quarters were so valuable That I never put another quarter in To continue my journey on a video game Oh sure, right Maybe it felt like cheating or whatever Luke, I'm an adult now I mean, not to brag, I'm 46 years old, I think You're 46, right? Yep

Okay. So I'm 46 years old now. I can just put dollars in that machine, get a bunch of quarters, and I can just keep continuing, continuing, continuing. And I made it past the graveyard in the Simpsons video game. I was playing Marge the whole time. Her weapon is a vacuum, which is a little reductive, but it felt good to me, though. And yeah, it was a lot of fun. I think I made the right decision by not having wheels on my feet, honestly.

Well, listen, I don't want this question to sound like I have already a preconceived notion about this, but I'm just basing this on my roller skating adventure last night at the Oaks Amusement Roller Rink, which, let me just tell you, Andrew, is an amazing place as well. now they don't have a bar which at the beginning of the night i thought oh well okay i guess i'm not going to have a drink and then at the end of the night uh i was very glad that i wasn't getting tuned up because i had really early morning today so it's interesting to me that southgate has a bar and not just a bar with some beer but they've got cocktails because that seems like uh you know a dangerous combo maybe for folks i was very shocked yeah getting kind of loopy and then getting out on your skates but uh the question i have is do you feel like so last night i was it was a live wire kind of staff event that was pulled together and um it was fun because i was out there kind of roller skating around with my colleagues and we were sort of chatting and having a nice time And I noticed that they had an arcade. I noticed they had all kinds of different things you could do for entertainment. And the thought actually occurred to me, should I go over to that arcade and see if they've got like a skill crane or something I want to do? But then I was like, well, then I'm not really engaging with my colleagues. Were you able to engage with the birthday party festivities? I mean, you were playing against somebody's kids. So clearly people were spread out throughout the facility. You weren't being a little bit to the side of the action by not skating, right?

no in fact like almost exclusively when i was playing the um the simpsons game i was playing with somebody because it's a two it can be a two-player game so if i wasn't playing you know i was playing with my friend katherine i played with genevieve i played with some kids like no i mean it was a it was just great to have the whole um to have the whole run of the place you know yeah um and so yeah and and i was actually kind of glad like again i'm i don't know if part of me is like i don't know if i'll ever roller skate or rollerblade again and like i'm just generally fine with that i might who knows but like i remember walking in there and being like this looks like so much fun but you know what i don't feel like dealing with not being able to walk like that just doesn't sound like something i feel like dealing with right now

and i think when you're not on the floor like when you're just standing around the rest of the time which is a pain in the butt i realized yesterday what you have to do is just keep skating yeah Which feels weird like you walking on the carpet felt way less stable to me than to just be like a weird guy skating on the carpet over to the snack bar.

Right. You know, the hardest part of skating is is getting off of the floor. Right. Like when you're like going around, you've been going around in a circle for 10 minutes or whatever. Now it's time to exit the rink and you're like, I don't know exactly how to stop. I need to like slow down enough so that I can kind of get off, you know, go through one of those gates getting off the roller rink floor. um you know maybe maybe i'll do it again someday i also think that because i had i know it's been a couple of years now but because i did spend so much time during the pandemic kind of skating and even going by myself right before the pandemic to some do you remember that time i went to a a roller rink by myself but it wasn't like more of a i feel like this roller rink i was at i don't know what it's like when it's open to the public but you definitely get the impression that it's geared more towards adults like it was kind of like a little punk rock roller rink sort of i I don't know if that's accurate or not. I don't know how many kids usually go there, but it sort of had that vibe. It was really cool and not like overly like not overly done either. Like it was it felt gritty and old school and cool. But I don't know. I just really like the vibe of it. But do you remember the time I went to more of a kind of a standard skate rink where there's it was like the middle of the day around the holidays? I just got in my my you made a friend.

Weren't you taking lessons or something?

I did take lessons a couple of times on the east side, but this was just a day that I can't remember if it was an easy TBTL day or maybe it was around the holidays so we didn't have to work. I don't know what it was, but one day I was like, I want to practice my rollerblading. I don't want to do it outside. I never got to that stage of doing it outside. I tried it a couple of times. It was the most terrifying thing in the world. I'm like, I'm just going to find a roller rink. So I found a roller rink somewhere, and I feel like it was somewhere in South Seattle, but I was the only adult there who was not there, not only without a child, but without anybody. And I was just, like, skating by myself and trying to learn, but there's just nothing but little kids and families all around me. I'm trying not to kill them. And then what is the little shark or the dancing shark song came on?

Oh, Baby Shark?

Baby Shark came on, and I'm just like, I got to get off this floor, like, now. it was oh there was another song that came out it was a pop song at the time that had like sort of dirty undertones or maybe overtones and then it went right into baby shark and i was like i i feel like a predator here i gotta get off this this role i'm gonna say programmatically that's

somewhat on the dj what are you doing what are you doing uh going from little john and the east side boys to the windows to the walls right into baby shark what is this song you gotta think that

through there was some song it was very popular it was by a young woman musician who was blowing up at the time but the song prominently in the in the chorus there was a reference to her knees being bruised i believe and there's some connotations maybe from roller skating yeah maybe from roller skating does that does that ring a bell to you it was a very popular song

i'll figure it out at some point i bet you that if you played it i would recognize it but i don't that lyric doesn't uh jump right out i feel like she was i feel like she was a white performer who

often had very colorful hair she was so huge about three or four years ago and i can't think

halsey maybe i'll figure it out now it's funny that you bring this up andrew though this fear about or at least sensitivity around being an adult male at a roller rink by yourself because is when I rolled up to Oaks. And by the way, this place...

is so amazingly cool. It's part of the Oaks Amusement Park, which is right on the Willamette River. It's just very cool to have this kind of old-school amusement park that's also got these very cool views of Portland, and it's on the water, which is kind of just a cool, I don't know, just element of it. I like that kind of stuff. And then they've got these two huge barns, and one of them is where the local roller derby team practices. so I parked by the wrong barn and tried to go in there and the Rose City Rippers or whatever they're called were in there doing their thing and then I get over to the other huge barn which still has this like old lettering on the side of the barn that says like Oaks Roller Rink you know painted on there from like the 1930s there's all these old photos in there of people from the 1940s and 50s roller skating at this place it's got a huge Wurlitzer organ and the all the pipes like the the organ pipes are suspended above the middle of the roller rink and then there's like a booth that somebody can play the organ and i think on like thursday nights they just play like worlitzer organ music they've also got this side area that's like imagine a roller skating floor like it's a long narrow one but it goes up and down it's like it's got little hills in it so you can go over there and just have fun if you want to skate on it like i'd never seen anything like that before but here's where i'm going with this when i showed up i was under the impression this was going to be like 15 or 20 like live wire folks um this was sort of in lieu of our christmas our holiday get together because that got canceled because people weren't feeling great and so uh they were like let's do something else and then someone said we'll do this skate night i was like okay it was like four of us so when i got there i'm looking around and i'm not seeing anyone and then i'm thinking do i have the wrong night am i like am i at the wrong roller rink what's going on and i already had my skates on and i was looking out onto the floor not seeing anyone i recognize and i was like if i don't see someone i recognize within one minute i'm leaving i am not getting on this floor solo as a 46 year old dude and skating around because that would and i'm not judging anybody who likes to do that that's Everybody, everybody follow your own path. But I would have felt very weird about that. And then I sure enough, I did see one of the folks from Livewire. So, OK, we've got the crew here. We're roller skating. And then my next big concern was there was a lot of people skating. It was a popular night. Every time I would find myself sort of in a tighter cluster of people that I meant to be in, you know, people I don't know, i would put my arms against my sides right like like like i was what i was what i was assuming was an extremely unbalanced stance in other words really if you want to not fall over you need to have your arms out you need to kind of spread your like weight distribution you also want to

have your arms out so if you do fall you know you can kind of catch yourself i was doing the exact opposite because i was terrified of bumping up against someone particularly someone you know a young woman or something i was so worried that i was going to bump into somebody and it was going to seem weird that i was almost making it more likely that i was going to fall and i very much enjoyed the skating experience but i also was racked with concern about making physical contact with somebody that i didn't mean to make contact with and seeming like a weirdo i think you would

have been fine i think you'd have to go out of your way to i think people can tell when you're

being a creep and when you're i hope so but i just was like you know i'm like all of a sudden i'm i'm i'm skating and i'm talking to like my friends from livewire and then you know the whole kind of crowd it's like an amoeba it's sort of undulating and suddenly it's like well now i'm skating next to three 14 year old girls and if i fall and like grab one of them for support that's going to be a bad scene so let me just like really really make sure that nothing like that happens

okay I found the song I want you to know how bad my description was although with my with my with the knowledge that I had I was able to get to it this is definitely the song I was thinking of tell me when you recognize it I've fast forwarded fast forwarded about 15 seconds in here I'm hoping to get to the lyrics I'll play 10 seconds of this at the risk of being pulled down for copyright infringement

Oh, Billie Eilish? Yes.

This is the I'm the bad one, right? It's called Bad Guy, yeah. And so it's not a filthy song, but there's just like that one reference in there that I think is pretty, you know.

Which is interesting to me that you're not a lyrics guy, but you zero in on the one. one bit of billy eilish being a little you know descriptive a little descriptive a bit fresh but

it was weird hearing that then going right into baby shark and like i am like for me i was with again this is going this is not last night this is going back a couple of years it was right before the pandemic i think um but it's like the middle of the day of a weekday i believe i'm the only man i'm the only like purse adult who is not there with like a family or kids i'm skating around very awkwardly my only concern is like killing one of the young people or even old people on the floor like because i'm you know i'm gonna fall down i'm i'm a tall person like if i if i fall down and you're near me i'm taking you down with me right and we've all seen the pile ups on the on the rink as well right and then you do not want to be you do not want to be that guy clear of that

That unfolded in front of me a couple of times last night where I was just like, I got to really make sure I don't get caught. It's like the Indianapolis 500. I'm like, I'm leading. I'm in the pole position right now. I cannot get taken down by Emerson Fittipaldi. I try to keep my Indy 500 references.

I wouldn't believe that that was current. He is. I have no idea. Oh, he is current. Oh, no, he's not. No, no, no.

He was from the 80s. I think he used to win it a lot in the 80s.

All I had was Dale Earnhardt, and I realized that that would be a very inappropriate thing to say.

Well, also, I believe a different discipline. I think he was a NASCAR guy.

Oh, oh, oh.

When you're talking Indy 500, I believe this is F1. This is open wheel racing, Andrew.

Wait, hold on, though. Do they both go vroom, vroom? They do.

That part you do have right. They both go vroom, vroom. Okay, good. I just think the fact that you were circling the floor singing I'm the bad guy at the top of your lungs. also might have raised some suspicion wait just to be very clear what was happening was they were

playing the baby shark song but i was right exactly over it because that's why they asked you to leave the rink no oh that's what i was gonna say it really i i swear to god this is the closest other than that time i got kicked out of the children's section of the library because i was there by myself sitting on a couch that i really did feel a little bit conspicuous in that

situation oh the other thing that i last night that um i thought was kind of interesting was i had a like 12 year old tell me to spit out my gum so at the oaks roller skating rink it is a no gum allowed zone and i was buying my ticket that's how we do the christmas parties at livewire is apparently you still pay your own 12 to get into this but i'm bitter mine was not that i'm bitter

mine was free and it wasn't a work event just it's fine you know it's like sometimes when your

work says we're moving the holiday party it's gonna be roller skating they might throw down a credit card or something yeah that's not our that's not the live wire way but anyway as i'm buying my ticket this very very young person who's telling me the ticket goes and also no gum allowed and i was like oh i'm sorry she goes she just points she just points towards a garbage can that's back towards the door and then i'm like oh okay and then i as a 46 year old man walk over to the garbage can and spit my gum out under her gaze under her gaze under her supervision

under her watchful stare oh my god that is i feel that i feel that like the only thing that would be worse would be if she held out her hand like you're supposed to spit into her palm like a

teacher oh my god um yeah they i guess they got a lot of rules there too um one of my colleagues was telling me that because she had like a knit cap on when she went in because it's like you know it's winter and they also said no hats um because if a hat falls off of your head it could then get caught yeah that makes sense yeah that's reasonable the no gum thing i get it because you got a lot of kids and everyone's chewing gum it'll be probably stuck under every surface exactly so i didn't like i wasn't like put out by that or like how dare you but i did it was an interesting moment to have a a person who's a quarter of my age or you know wait yeah what's yeah probably almost exactly a quarter of my age be like out with the gum and that's where you spit it sir okay I don't want

to tell you how you should like react to my stories but I feel like it's a little bit weird that you didn't ask me what the plot of the Simpsons video game is well you know I actually

was about to ask you that and then i got distracted with roller rink talk because it's just funny because like last night as i was leaving the rink i thought well andrew and i'll have something to talk about at the top of the show because i went roller skating on a wednesday which is really out of the blue imagine my shock but i found out you were also at a roller rink i know but okay so marge is vacuuming what's did you get to see like the homer character in action i assume bart is skateboarding because, you know.

they've got a that's his his whole rep or something what what is the plot a lot of people

might know this this was a i think a pretty popular arcade game back in the day and again these were all like these were all like kind of from from the era there was a gal uh galaga there

too um man which is really i don't think i ever knew how to say galaga as a kid because it was in that like kind of script well also i just think it was oh maybe i'm thinking of another one there was a few different games that the hand like the the i think it was galaga i think the way that

they wrote it in cursive was confusing to my i could see that i could see that um but the uh the video game of the simpsons here's the plot that kind of plays out before you start playing that they kind of set up like what you're doing you have the simpsons and they're walking down the street in springfield that's where they live i don't know if you know that um i thought there were Shelbyville it sounds like a Shelbyville idea you ever have that just go through your head like if I'm thinking about something just by myself I might think to myself that sounds like

a Shelbyville idea Andrew can I just tell you very quickly I want to hear more about the Simpsons but I want to also tell you this is the fractured media landscape that we operate in you know you play a little hex empire sometime to calm your brain while we're chatting I will sometimes um enact the two screen uh approach like we're chatting but maybe I'm mindlessly scrolling instagram i'm now looking at a post on instagram from genevieve of you oh playing a video game against the young person you mentioned already oh so it's just it's just weird because i'm just and i didn't i wasn't looking for it i was just mindlessly scrolling i'm alternating between looking at at the natural beauty of the columbia river oh there yeah she just posted that i'm at the unnatural beauty of our social media driven society and i'm just looking down and then there you are doing the very thing that we're describing oh yeah and that is a weird moment for me to have

a visual along with the auditory experience yeah and that actually is even the simpsons game yeah huh so so what's the plot so the plot is thank you for asking the plot is um the simpsons are walking down the street in springfield and they're the whole family you know it looks like they're having a nice day and then the um they're walking past a some sort of a jewelry store i I don't know if it's Tom Shane or what they have in Springfield there, but that store is being robbed at the time, and they don't know it. But then the burglars run out of the jewelry store that they – sorry, it's hard for me to say that word.

Is the burglar Snake?

I don't think it's anybody from the canon. I think it's just kind of random bad guys. Missed opportunity. It looks like some sort of organized crime because – Give me all your jewels. That's not bad. The bad guys rush out of the store and then they knock into the Simpsons and everybody's just like kind of a big, you know, it's confusion. It's chaos. And one of the diamonds that they stole goes spinning way up in the air. And then it lands. Luke, where do you think it lands? Right in baby Maggie's mouth. And she goes, oh, like it's her like it's her binky. And then the bad guys are like the main bad guy. Steal the baby Maggie because Maggie has the diamond. And so that's where the action begins. Now you get to choose to be one of four Simpsons characters, Marge, Lisa, Bart, or Homer. I chose to be Marge. Her weapon is a vacuum cleaner. Lisa's weapon is a jump rope. Hans Molman, not available. Hans Molman, not available, at least not at the level I was playing. Homer gets to use his hands, and Bart, as you said, did ride a skateboard.

What does Lisa use? Her saxophone?

That would be better. No, it's a jump rope. I feel like the – I don't want to get into a whole feminist critique of this video game, but I will. But I will because I was thinking about it all night. Like if Marge – like I was playing Marge all night.

Is Andrew going to break down – is Andrew going to use discretion and not break down the Simpsons video game plot from 20 years ago?

Hell no. The answer sadly is not yes.

That was so tortured because I was trying to remember where Skinner ends up with that because there's so many double negatives. that i was trying to make a sentence that that audio would answer but i just couldn't do it in

the moment and i apologize this is andrew gonna do a feminist breakdown of a 40 year old simpsons video game yes he is um anyway marge if you stop like kind of if if if you kind of stop moving the joystick for a little bit because like maybe you're going to get some more quarters because like i said i just kept feeding the machine um she's a little thought bubble goes up how's my hair i'm just like really that's not even something that marge would say and then lisa doesn't even get to use a saxophone she's using a jump rope which i is that part of her character like that didn't seem right to me but either way then you are chasing these thugs through various levels of springfield and i went through the the main the weird thing is at some point like all these Characters are coming at you, and you're fighting them, right? But then these firemen come out, and you're like, well, these are first responders. We respect firemen in this country. But no, then the firemen, the first time I died in the game was because I took a bullet or some gas or something from a firefighter. I'm like, what's up with that? And now I'm attacking first responders with a vacuum? That didn't seem right to me. Made it to the graveyard, and I think we beat the big boss at the end of the graveyard.

And Mr. Burns doesn't make an appearance?

Not yet. I saw a little bit of Principal Skinner talking to Ralph Wiggum, but they didn't really play a part. They were just along the side of the sidewalk while I was fighting these goons.

I'm sure I've seen this game in an arcade, but I don't know if I've ever played it. I don't think I have. What it's sounding like to me is that basically a video game company got the IP, you know, somebody paid, somebody paid, you know, I don't know who the Fox, whoever the, you know, parent company is, whoever owns the Simpsons IP. Somebody paid them a pretty penny to be able to make a Simpsons game, but then kind of just like went on their own from there. Like that does not feel like something that was from the minds of the creators of the Simpsons. It feels like it was some other party just, like, buying the rights to it and then doing their own thing.

I don't know that I fully agree with that. I think what it is, and I'm looking this up now, it was a Konami game. I think that it's from the early, early days of The Sims. Not like the Tracy Ullman early days. Yeah, so this game came out in 1991, and that's pretty early in The Simpsons being, like, kind of their own show. It's not the earliest, I realize. I don't know when the show itself launched. 89, maybe? and I know that it had origins as a Tracy Ullman show before that but my guess is the Simpsons universe was not as fleshed out like 1991 Simpsons is very much like don't have a cow man you know it's like it was a very it was a much it just wasn't as big of a universe and they didn't know that like having a Ralph Wiggum you know would be such a big deal and also video games in 1991 weren't as

sophisticated right some of it might have been literally driven by what they're bit technology availability was like you know maybe if either lisa didn't have a saxophone yet as part of her character or it was harder to somehow animate that or make that work just

as a thing yeah and you know what i'm realizing because when i saw this and it was the the version i was playing was a two-player game yesterday and i when i saw it i was like i thought this was a four-player game and i see that it was supposed to be a four-player game we must have been playing like some sort of a um some sort of a smaller cabinet version of the game either way it was a lot of fun and this morning i had this thought like and i don't know if you can relate to this i know you're not a video game guy but you're an experienced guy man and i like woke up and i had such a good time yesterday and i was thinking like oh i should download that i should find some way to download that simpsons video game and play it here at home whether it's through my the the weird emulator i have on my what is it raspberry device um or on my pc or something i was like no you know why that was fun it was because i was there with like friends and kids in a fun place like i don't want to play the simpsons by myself at home like go maybe invite people to go roller skating again in the future and play it that way like don't emulate this in

your basement you loser i do think that that's a really wise approach and my version of that is i think there are i see on tiktok and whatever there are now all kinds of casino apps that you can download and play for real money now i don't really know how legal it is but there's there must be workarounds because i constantly see clips of like drake playing roulette on his computer and winning like four million dollars on a spin i'm not even kidding like putting down like a half a mill and then hitting the number just craziness like i see enough stuff where people are playing in fact there's even a couple of like live streamers that i'll see on tiktok who are just playing blackjack on their computer for real money and people are just watching it oh wow and i for a lot of reasons will never ever dip my toe into those waters one just obviously the financial repercussions uh it would not be good for me to have that easy access to that kind of stuff and two because i don't think it's not the same for me like i don't want to be sitting in my darkened apartment playing for real money on the thing it's it's fun to maybe make a trip to vegas with our friends or go to a casino you know around you know around the portland area or whatever like make it at least a little bit of a trip or like for you it'd be like pull tabs like if you could buy a brick of pull tabs and just sit in your basement pulling tabs like that would be so much it seems like so much less fun and less the point of it than being at the Eagles with your friends and having a drink and pulling some tabs, you know? So I totally hear you. I think that's good that you're leaving the Simpsons. as a special thing for when you visit the Southgate roller rink.

I forgot, Genevieve did show me this photo. Actually, I think I got a little bait and switch action going on here. Genevieve showed me a different photo she was going to post of me. And because I'm a big baby, and sometimes I complain if I see a photo of me posted that I didn't approve of, she asked me, I said, can I post this photo of you that she had taken from across the rink of me playing this video game? It looks like I gave her permission for one photo, but she swapped it out with a different. I guess this photo is okay, but I forgot that I told her you can only post it if you say that I won, and she put that in the caption.

You've got to get your story straight because you came on this program today and talked about how you just got absolutely pwned by one of these young people, but now you're trying to get Genevieve to lie for you.

That was the X-Men game. I mean, honestly, no joke, and we can move on because now I really have taken this beyond any kind of entertainment value. But the thing is, I do like playing video games with people like these arcade style games. But I like it when you play together, like when you're playing the Simpsons game together, like Genevieve, I believe, was playing Lisa and I was playing Marge. And like you are fighting the goons together and trying to accomplish this together. And that's so much more fun than when I played my friend's son, Elliot, at like this X-Men game that was like Mortal Kombat. And we're just like fighting each other. I'm just like hitting buttons as fast as I can. I don't know what they're doing I can't tell Even what my Wolverine guy is Doing he's just like dancing around Flopping around every now and then landing A punch or a slash and then Eventually I just like die like I have No idea what's going on there I like to work together

Luke no I would be if I were to game If I were to play the video Games I would want to be like on a team That seems kind of fun to me Alright speaking of Donuts Which I consider to be in the homer simpson oeuvre uh we're going to talk after this break about a situation in new hampshire where a guy is being told that his uh mural on top of his business that sells donuts has to be torn down because it has donuts on it um so we'll do that in a minute we've got signs in the news

coming up on tbtl on your mark on your mark get set get set now ready ready go everybody

Hey, let's thank some dazzling donors. These folks are supporting TBTL very generously, and we are super-duper appreciative of that. Folks like our old friends Johnny and Riley Calcagno of Seattle, Washington. This may be the first time that I've ever actually known how to pronounce Johnny and Riley's name, even though Riley has been on the program. We've known them for years I think I always mess up the name And now we have a pronouncer It's Calcagno Yeah, I love these pronouncers Way helpful, thank you Thanks for sticking with us all those years Where I was saying it wrong, Johnny and Riley Johnny says, I'm checking in Just to reflect on how insane it is That I've spent 4,000 hours of my life With the sound of you blokes Blathering on in my ears About nothing and everything Some highlights Listening in 2008 while driving Riley to his pre-tween extracurriculars. Riley shouting out from a Folklife stage in 2009 about TBTL and then being invited by Jen to join you in studio. In 2012, his pal Leo had also become hooked on the show, so he and Riley traveled to Luke's Mountbaker studio to hang out with you two. There were the trips to Chateau Saint-Michel, the Neptune Theater for the 2000th show, the Argosy, Stickam, and so many... Golly, there has been a lot of stuff When you just list it like that Johnny says Though now I mostly listen With Millie the Cat The true queen to us sorry people Karen is still the best Eleven and Riley still dips in As he tours through the US making music We were also appreciative of Luke Making Riley's album release With Vivian Oliva A music for your weekend choice in 2021 Look for them on Instagram and Spotify And for a new record soon This is the duo that Riley is in with Vivian and they make great music and you know uh I feel with some of the the younger you know they're not so young anymore they're adults now but some of the the the people who I first met through TBTL who were like you know in middle school or something and now that they're off living grown-up lives and touring with bands and playing the Alberta Rose Theater it's just a very mind-blowing to me I remember once leaving uh my house in Mount Baker and being at like a stop like a four-way stop and looking in my rearview mirror and there was Johnny and Riley sitting behind me in the car I think like on their way to school or something so this is why

we always have to be polite while we're driving you know what I mean I've told you in the past I've had

my occasional issue with road rage and i realize now this is seattle this is a small town if nothing else don't get into it with another driver because that driver may be a dazzling donor

it's very possible which again as we've said about you know just walking around in our in seattle and portland if you if you see us you have to identify yourself also as a driver if you see us you have to drive right up close to our bumper and beep your horn turn on your hazards beep your horn, wave your arms, and let us know, even if it terrifies us, let us know that you're a 10 so that we don't then do something regrettable on the road like flip you off and then have you follow us all the way to Scamania Lodge. Maybe that guy was just a 10, Andrew. Oh my god, he was just trying to get close to you. Huh. There's a better way to do it, large, large man. Anyway, thanks, Johnny and Riley. Appreciate you. Maestro.

On your mark. On your mark. Get set. Get set. Now ready.

We've also got to thank Megan French today from Sacramento, California, where the laws are made for California. That's right, because it's the state capital of California. Megan says, hi, all. Thanks to the guys for razzling and dazzling us for another year. A special hello to all my fellow tens in the mental health world. I feel like we over, our audience is sort of overrepresented in the world of teaching and the world of like, you know, mental health and therapy and things along those lines. I feel like we have a lot of people that work in that part of the world. Yeah, I think you're right.

I think you're right.

I think it's because we so clearly, well, I'll speak for myself, are in need of mental health attention. And I think that it draws, we're like a case study. A lot of people that work in therapy listen to the show to just kind of, you know, sort of it keeps them sharp for when they're dealing with their actual clients.

That's a good point. Because I was thinking like they might if you're like, let's say you're a therapist, you might be sick of hearing from people who are like kind of spilling their guts to you all the time, which is basically what we do on the show.

With more and more people getting into the podcast game, Andrew, I think most a lot of the questions in therapy are about people's podcasts.

Oh, that's true.

And so I think people listening to us and all of our sort of machinations and tortured over analysis of things, I think that it just it helps give them a sort of baseline of information for their clients. So in that way, you're welcome.

Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, I guess we are heroes. Jeez, Louise, I didn't even realize that.

Yeah. We're like a first responder in the Simpsons game. Turn your back on us. We might take you down.

If you see us in public, whack us with your vacuum.

Exactly. Megan continues. I hope you all are taking good care of yourselves the way you take care of others. Love to you and your families. Thank you, Megan. Megan in Sacramento. Well, love to you, Megan. Thank you so much for being such a great friend of the show and for helping us keep it going on the financial side. We really do appreciate you. Hello, and welcome to Top Story. Let's start with the story that you sent me, Andrew, but I think by way of a listener. Somebody sent us this story out of New Hampshire

Yeah, it did come in from a list there I apologize that I can't remember Who sent this in But I was going through my email yesterday And I came across this story

So this is related to a place called Levitt's Country Bakery Which is in Conway, New Hampshire Did you ever get out to Conway in your New Hampshire days?

You know, I know the name Conway With every passing year I remember less about the geography But yeah, I believe I spent some time in Conway

Did they have any down market Chinese restaurants

that you would go to for lunch yeah um i know that's how you orient your time in new hampshire

yeah i'm not sure so this uh bakery has been around for 45 years and it's uh really it sounds like it's quite loved in conway uh it's been named best donuts in new hampshire by um they say in this now let's mention too that um uh when you sent me this article it's printed in forbes or at least it's on the Forbes website. But you, Andrew, as a longtime radio producer and still keen, keen eyed journalist mentioned that this is actually written by a place called the it's by somebody named Andrew Wimmer, who is the media relations guy for the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm. So the Institute for Justice is the law firm and the organization that is representing the owner of this bakery who actually bought the bakery um when it was going up for sale because he had been a customer at the bakery uh for years his name is sean young and uh he was worried that the court is i'm again i i don't see anything sinister in this organization wanting this guy to be able to have his mural but i just want to mention that we're just reading their side of the story yeah if you know i just i just want

to jump in here and i know that this is not the interesting part of

the story. But I was reading this and, you know, the this this law organization, the Institute for Justice is like quoted in this story. And in the middle of the story, there is a video that is hosted by another journalist who sort of it's kind of like just a video version of the story with quotes from this donut shop owner. But everything seemed just a little bit off about it. I'm just reading this Forbes article and then I start to realize oh this the video the article it's all written and it's it's also clearly like it's got a stake in this like they refer to the lawsuit or something as like or the law as ridiculous or something and I'm just like wait a second Forbes is just like straight up saying is just taking a side on this and then I look more closely I'm like oh we're reading like the press release from the multi basically the multimedia like you know kind a sexed-up press release from the Institute of Justice that is just presented as a Forbes story. That's weird. Yeah, again, like, I don't think... Oh, they also have an audio version of it embedded in here, too. And again, I think it's an interesting story, but I just... I don't think I've ever come across this exact media conundrum before. It's a strange way of packaging this. Yeah.

I'd like to point out to anybody watching, this is really bunk journalism.

Bunk journalism, but a good story. Also was sent in by listener Eric Thank you Eric Thank you Eric

Yeah it is an interesting story Because what basically happened was this guy Sean Young He buys this bakery Because he's worried that if he doesn't buy it If somebody else does it'll be torn down And they'll turn the land into something else And so he buys this bakery Like last year in 2021 And there was this Kind of What they call an unadorned space Above the shop So there was a big flat surface that was part of the building, and Sean connected up with a local high school art teacher, and she basically said, oh, you know, my students would really – it would be a great project for them to, like, paint something on this big flat area above the kind of entrance to the donut shop or the bakery. and so I guess he said sure go for it and so they he didn't according to this thing didn't tell him what to paint or whatever but they just painted this mural of different kinds of donuts it's

actually very cute it's like the sun it's like the sun rising behind a bunch of pastries you

see scones and donuts and a blueberry muffin and so um apparently the owner of the bakery uh really liked it and thought that was really cool that's and it's fun the story of how it came together like this was done by students here in conway well it turns out because it's a bakery and they sell donuts and pastries the painting is considered a sign and therefore it is subject to certain codes for signage and it is in violation of those codes and there was the potential for a daily fine of 275 dollars as long as the mural was up now i don't know how much a bakery in conway new hampshire grosses per day but i feel like 275 dollars is going to really cut into your profits yeah well did you see he said that like he he bought this because it was

like you know it's an old bakery that's beloved and they were selling it and there was a chance it was going to become something else but he was a regular customer and i don't know what his background is i don't know how you just like learn how to operate a donut shop but anyway um so he bought it but he it said that he's he's owned it for a couple of years now i think but he has not drawn a salary from it like he's not i think they're just breaking even right it just

it just seems like i mean to read this article which again or this this op-ed piece which is written very much from the perspective of this organization which i don't know anything about this organization but i'm guessing between the name institute for justice and just like this particular case my guess would be that they take a dim view of what they consider to be onerous governmental regulation you think that's a safe assumption on my part yeah because they

literally call it something like onerous i'm gonna look for the word because that's when i started to be like that's when i started to be like i talk for a living that's when sometimes it really do be like that exactly that's when i started to realize wait a second who wrote this article because they refer to it as something like overreaching government regulation or something like that i'm like wait a second here like you're just this is clearly on the side of this this donut shop owner in fact i don't know if it's too early to mention this because i don't know exactly what the rules are that are being broken that like the codes that are being doesn't say and i think that that is something that maybe a journalist would have included in here if it wasn't like just one-sided and

Also, if you look at the photo of the mural, it is a big blank spot that was just painted with like, again, this just depiction of a kind of a sun rising over pastries. But below it is like in like kind of in a another part of the facade of the building. That same design kind of continues down and it looks like the name of the bakery might be painted into the middle of another design. And it's clearly all part of the same artwork. So, again, I don't know what the codes are or why. It's not like they built some huge contraption on top of this that is an eyesore or, you know, it's not a billboard erected illegally.

Some giant neon flashing thing that's like, you know, light pollution or something.

But I'm looking at the photos and this article, quote unquote article, does also does not mention that another part of the building is also painted in the same motif, presumably by these people. And it does look like it says the name of the company in it, which maybe I mean, that makes me think a little bit more that like, oh. And again, I'm not even saying that he's wrong about this, but I just wish that this was written by a more objective journalist.

I have my guess if the Institute for Justice if all they do is try to advocate for small bakery businesses that would just like to have a student painted mural on their building if that's their main thing then I I would say I support that my guess is that if you were to look at some of the other amicus briefs that are filed it starts to it starts to diverge from my particular kind of political philosophy about rules and regulations. Now, if you remember, though, I don't like any rules or regulations applied to me personally, but I do agree they should exist. And this is kind of funny because, you know, my dad's a sign painter and there are a lot of codes around signage because if you don't have any kind of rules, you know, just it can be really kind of an eyesore. People can just put up all kinds of crazy stuff and it just there's a reason why they have some rules around what you're allowed to do. That being said, this does seem like a, I would, I really hesitate to use the word overreach because, again, I don't really like that kind of language because it's, I think, usually used to just describe the government just trying to do its job. But I do think that you would wish, having looked at the mural and the business and he's not taking a salary, you kind of, it feels to me like it would be nice if they just left the guy alone. Like, I mean, really, who is he hurting with this mural painted by students?

Right. And it also, like, I don't know if the Institute for Justice is a New Hampshire organization. I feel like it's an organization that I used to book people from a lot in New Hampshire. Keep in mind that New Hampshire still has this.

There's one called, like, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation in Washington that's, like, very, very much in that kind of ilk.

And I'm sure the Institute for Justice considers themselves to be, like, libertarian. In fact, I'm looking at the thing. Like, they're all about fighting government overreach, right? Like, here are their issues. private property they defend the right of all americans to own and enjoy property free from unjust seizures economic liberty they believe that anybody can have an occupation of their choice without arbitrary unnecessary or protectionist government interference like it's an anti-big government libertarian conservative organization that um that is representing and that wrote this piece so in fact me even saying things like this guy hasn't taken a salary well that's what they're saying like i don't know the background of it um but having said all of that like this is i i would like to know what the rules are that are being broken because i mean again i don't think that there should be absolutely no rules regarding signage like there can be eyesores you know like if somebody if beetlejuice erected a big flashing sign across the street from my house and it kept me awake at night because it was flashing red lights then I think that I would have a legitimate complaint right but in this case you can sort of see it's like in this rural town I don't know who's around it doesn't look like there's a lot of other business or homes around here and it's just a painted sign it does not seem to be like

like it would be a distraction to anybody yeah they've got a real kind of litany of other similar cases around the country in this op-ed piece they talk about a case in Arlington Virginia where local officials made a doggy daycare paint over cartoon dogs. A pizza parlor had to paint over a mural of Italian food in 2019. They talk about a Minnesota town where a hair salon was threatened to be fined because they had some kind of a mural. And then they also mention something that happened in Mandan, North Dakota. Andrew, do you realize I was recently in Mandan, North Dakota? Isn't that the coach of the Lions It is And this town is named for his family The Lonesome

dove saloon in mandan north dakota was ordered to remove a mural because it included the name of the business in its artwork after the owners sued with institute for justice a judge issued a temporary restraining order um saying that they thought that a ban on commercial murals was unlikely to survive constitutional muster i'm reminded of one other thing speaking of my dad my dad once spent at least an entire summer if not longer painting this enormous mural on the side of a building in downtown Seattle it was for Warshall's Sporting Goods but it was like an abstract mural it didn't say Warshall's it just was like these kind of different colors it's hard to describe but it was a huge project and I'm wondering if why it didn't say Warshall's Sporting Goods was because that would have moved it into a different category of signage I always thought it was kind of interesting and edgy that they had him doing it was him and his kind of partner Jerry who was a really good painter like a very good fine art painter and never really wanted to do signs because he didn't care about putting together menu boards for casita burritos at taco time he was much more into painting like um still life and things i mean a very very talented painter so somehow this was bringing the two things together because they were they were getting paid to do a painting but it was just the entire side of like a giant like 15 story brick building. But I'm wondering if maybe even in that case, the reason it didn't say Warshall's was because that would make it some kind of a different sign with different implications.

I'm now reading other news sources. I wish I had done this yesterday. Actually, the more we talk about this, the more I'm kind of bummed that we're using this Institute of Justice's release as our prime source here, because I'm trying to figure out, like, what are the zoning ordinances that are being broken? I'm on the Conway Daily Sun now trying to get some answers. But I will go back to the piece that we were referring to and say they make an interesting argument if it's to be believed that essentially if this mural was exactly the same but the donuts were replaced by mountains it would be fine because it would be a mural but because the donuts are donuts and the place sells donuts it becomes a sign and therefore is subject to ordinances right i think they say if it was a tire shop exactly have a mural of donuts yeah exactly or if this had if this had pictures of tires and a sun rising behind them it would be fine because it doesn't sell tires but oh do they even say that if the tire shop started selling scones then the sign would become illegal it was again them kind of presenting their very specific argument but it is it is interesting but i'm just again trying to figure out like what are the rules for signage that this would be breaking Because obviously it's not illegal for a business to have a sign on the front of its – and again, I would like to make it clear. Like the big thing here is this is painted onto the existing structure of the building. It's not even something that is built off of the roof on a pole or something like that.

It's making me think, I wonder if you need a permit for any large sign, and this is unpermitted. It's a size thing. That might be part of the problem.

So here's what the town – so this is the Conway Daily Sun. The town says based on the size of Levitt's building, the sign should be about 22 square feet, but the mural is 91 square feet. So it's kind of they must have like some sort of rules about like you can't like if a sign is way too big compared to they say my sign is too big for my building. And I say compared to what? It sounds like that's sort of it. Like if you're a building of a certain size, but you have a sign of a certain size, like it could be too big and garish. And and I guess what's the word I'm looking for? Not a distraction, but like just out of proportion, out of proportion and ugly, basically.

Right. And I mean, we've all like you've driven through a town where maybe they have a lax standards and there's like some kind of, you know, cannabis shop or fireworks stand or something. You can tell when you roll into a small town That has probably limited economic Engines and also Limited regulation And it's just a bunch of Shitty looking giant things Like signs that are pointing with an arrow To this thing I wouldn't want to have that be the overriding Aesthetic of a town that I lived in But this one seems pretty innocent So I guess you could say The good news for Sean Young and the bakery Is that the um city has agreed that this is now going to like uh there's going to be a trial or some kind of a hearing on this and he's not racking up 275 a day while this is going you know to trial as it were or whatever while the hearing is happening uh so that's at least good so i guess if they decide you know if they did come back and they say like you've got to change this at least he won't be in the hole for 10 grand by that time he gets that information so you know there's that i

I'm now hating this organization so freaking much that I'm now taking it. the side of the town i don't care um like here here's the final poll quote from the conway sun this is from an attorney from the institute of justice rob frommer who's like representing it uh he was questioned whether or not um you know like well didn't didn't the business have opportunities to to approach the the town about this you know before before painting the mural he says we don't have to go on bended knee and say can i pretty please paint a donut mural i'm Just like, you know what? Now I'm starting to wonder if this whole thing was just created. So they hired the kids to do this so they could bring the lawsuit. It's their test case. Yeah, exactly. Trying to get it in front of that Roberts court. God, I know. Since I dashed this off to you pretty quickly yesterday afternoon.

What a journey for us all, Andrew, to hear your personal voyage on this whole subject.

Okay, let me ask you this. This is the most relevant part of this conversation. Before we took a break, you promoted this segment or teased this segment by saying, speaking of donuts, would you agree – I have two questions for you. This is a two-pronged question. Would you agree that the donut, the round donut with pink frosting and sprinkles as depicted in The Simpsons, would you say that that is the platonic ideal of a donut? and if so would you say that that is because this or the Simpsons had a hand in it becoming the platonic ideal or it always was and the Simpsons knew that and that's why that's what it's drawn

like in that universe I think it is now the platonic ideal of a donut and I think it is because of the Simpsons because I don't remember when I was I don't know 11 whenever before the Simpsons was around which is actually a very short amount of my life I don't remember seeing that like everywhere as the default setting and now it is and in fact you know we fetishize donuts and pizza and tacos and these food things so that you can buy all kinds of like inflatable like you can buy a pool floaty that's a donut and they're always gonna go with the pink what i would call

the simpsons donut do you agree yeah no i think so too and that's why i that's why i asked the question because like before the simpsons i don't know that i'd be drawn to that style of a donut i As a kid –

I don't order that when I go into the – if I go into a donut shop, that's not my go-to.

It might be now for me. I do like a simple round donut. Now, I mean, if I'm really just going for it, I think my favorite is a maple bar, right? Yeah. You tell me. I'm not a maple bar guy. Sorry, I was just thinking about that. But, yeah, I think maple bar would be my go-to, but that is not the platonic ideal of a donut. And if I'm getting something that is more donut shaped, I'm probably getting like maybe a blueberry donut or something that is just like a like a donut that has like the chocolate drip on it or the pink frosting or something like that. I do like a simple donut like that. I feel like when I was a kid, though, if like on the rare occasion that like maybe my parents would bring home a box of donuts or were at a church event or something, I think I would try to go for the jelly donut. I don't think I would do that anymore because it's too messy. but um and if i'm eating a donut i'm probably at a work event but um i think i used to as a kid i think jelly donuts were the like were the the gold standard not for me as a kid i liked the um

you know like the shape of a maple bar but the one that had chocolate on it and ideally if it also had like a cream in the middle i like the cream because i thought i was just getting more for my money that's also why i liked charleston chew arguably one of the worst candy bars ever

created shut your mouth do you remember i went on my whole charleston chew adventure almost a year ago now it's not even we're not even quite to the one year anniversary of that that oh my god

i'm a i'm a convert i love i'm currently being represented by the institute for candy justice and we are currently seeking to push back on the overreach of charleston chew in our lives I used to just like I was like I have 25 cents what candy bar appears to be the largest or I have a dime I'm in Albertsons what donut is going to give me not only chocolate not only the donut material but then the middle will be but you know what the thing is two bites of that and it's like too much for me like that's the thing it's like you I can't eat like I could not eat more than like half of one of those chocolate like filled with cream filled things because they're like delicious but they're really sweet. So the other thing And this would still be to this day My go to would be an old fashioned Glazed donut I really am a fan Of that technology

Does the old fashioned have a little bit of the frilliness Around it or is it just a solid circle

You mean like the ridges Yeah does it have ridges In my experience yes What I don't like are the cake donuts Well I don't not like them but I don't like them as much Like this has got to have icing on it It's got to have that clear really

sweet icing whereas you know you can you can buy one you can buy donuts that don't have any exterior kind of frosting or icing on them they're just i think they're called cake donuts i think so yeah

like a blueberry cake donut is something i used to get a lot yeah that's not that isn't the one

that i would go to remember i told you like right when i moved down to portland i was going to my sisters or something and i was with addy i think we were grabbing some donuts and wasn't it like 60 bucks for a dozen donuts because i went to like one of these portland hand forged situations and what what really struck me about it was how unbelievably blasé the employees were about the fact that they were requesting 60 us from me right right i just i was i mean you know a lot of work goes into it this is small batch stuff the donuts were very yummy so it wasn't like you know i mean i guess i understand that there are costs associated with things but that's just so i still think of like a dozen donuts as you go to safeway and it's i don't know 15 bucks and they give it to you in that box it's got the big clear plastic in the middle of it so you can gaze upon the donuts that's that's the level of donut that i need in my life there's a right way to rock

Get a wrong way to roll. You can just listen to your soul. Just remember that life is number one. You can be having so much fun. Just remember that life is much fun. You can be number one.

All right, let's get into some Blur's days. If you have a Blur's Day that you would like to share on the show, email me, Andrew, at tbtl.net. And make sure to put Blur's Day in the subject line. That's what Catherine did. Catherine says, I'd like to wish myself a happy Blur's Day. It's been quite a year having my first baby, working on my career, and having my very sweet stepkids come live with us. My life has been enriched. Love to Patrick, Finley, and baby Sophie. And happy Valentine's Blur's Day to Finley and almost first Blur's Day to Sophie. Happy Blur's Day, everybody.

Jesse in Hanford says, I want to wish myself a happy 40th Blur's Day. I don't have any 10 friends, but my five, Charlie, will likely get a kick out of this message. What up, Charlie? I love my cobros and imaginary radio friends who've become a part of my life, and especially the drops that have wriggled into my everyday vocabulary. This is special. I feel happy of myself, and I like turtles. Happy Blurs Day, Jesse.

Michelle says, happy birthday to my husband and partner, Mike. He's a home chef, a pseudo GC for our house construction, a car mechanic. Oh, man, I've got questions, Mike. Don't volunteer that, Michelle. A car mechanic, a certified sailing captain, the love of my life, and now a wonderful father to our new son, Kaladin. You always amaze me, and I love you so much. Happy Blurs Day, Mike, and congratulations.

Sounds like Mike is good at all of the things that I'm bad at Being a bird captain Parenting Home construction Really learn a lot from Mike Robin in 10 verse says Happy birthday to my buddy Corbin Remember when you said you'd organize a happy hour for us And our other zoo friends This is where I'm going to do my Vizzini From Princess Bride voice

I'm waiting

That's what Robin says Robin says I'm still waiting But I thought it was an opportunity for me to roll out my Wallace Shawn impression

I'm waiting Inconceivable

As his TBTL daddy I'm officially allowed to publicly shame him Comma for the record Oh of course I would never question that

I like this one This is to Maria Hi mom just wanted to wish you a happy Blur's Day I know you listen to this podcast every day And I just want to say I love you From Mateo

Happy Blurs Day Maria from Mateo Sweet Avery who's outside of Atlanta says I'm the only 10 I know in real life So happy 45th Blurs Day to me As a non-binary person I can't wait to hear What my doctor tells all their 45 Year old NBs Looks like 45 is shaping up To be a banner year for me I've been on a gender journey And will be getting top surgery it's never too late to start being more authentically yourself well avery congratulations and good luck with that i've got friends who are on the other side of that particular surgery and i know that they are all extremely extremely happy to be getting to live in their authentic more authentic body so stoked for you Yeah, congratulations, and happy Blur's Day to Avery. Denny says, please wish a happy Blur's Day to Lizzie's and Bobby's Bundles of Joy, who all turned two recently. The struggles are real, but the rewards will be infinite.

Happy Blur's to those kids who apparently quite a struggle for their parents. It's early for them to learn this, to learn the burden that they've created for Lizzie and Bobby. You think the terrible twos are bad. Somebody told them, and Denny was the one. And Denny stepped up and said, I'm going to tell these kids that they are a handful. Stephen in Port Orchard says, Happy Blur's Day to me. I'm celebrating on Monday when I attend the Bruce Springsteen concert in the sterile confines of the Amazon Climate Misdirection Arena.

I love that.

Based on the early set list, it's unlikely I'll hear my favorite Bruce song, Thunder Road. Hey, that's a good one, Stephen. If I had my bell, I would ding it. That's fine. And my doctor tells all his 61-year-old guys Glory Days should be their favorite song anyway. Oh, that one also slaps. How about Hungry Heart? That'd be a good one. I mean, there's just so many. I know you're still developing. And I do think that that one Magnetic Fields song that he does that you like, that's going to be your entry point. That's your gateway drug to appreciating the boss.

Yeah, Stephen put a note in there and said it's unlikely that the boss will be playing that either. But that's okay.

Hey, you know what, by the way, speaking of Climate Pledge Arena, you know, we're doing Live Wire at Town Hall in Seattle in March. I forget the exact date, but you know who our musical act is going to be? Bruce Willis.

Bruce Willis.

Yes, it's going to be Bruce Willis.

Bruce Willis doing his blues.

What was his blues name? Sea Gromes. Golden Wine Cooler. No, it's going to be the band Who Is She that were, I think, unfairly maligned by Climate Pledge Arena and the Kraken because they sang that anti-Jeff Bezos song.

Oh, nice. They're going to be on Livewire, did you say?

They're going to be on Livewire at Town Hall. They'll be our musical guest. Adam Gopnik is going to be there. It's going to be a great night. And yeah, our band, our musical guest is going to be that super group of folks Who did not get to play their full three nights at the Climate Pledge Arena So we're going to give them a chance at Town Hall to do their thing

Bruce Willis used to perform under the name Bruno Remember that? The return of Bruno I couldn't quite remember the name of that Alright, how about Corey who says Happy 6th Thursday to Eliza It's been a big year for you going to Spain, starting kindergarten, and becoming a big sister. I know. Your mom, Ava, and I are so proud of what a smart, fun, and amazing kid you are, and we can wait. I think that's maybe we can't wait to do more fun things with you this year. We love you. Or you can wait. They can wait.

Maybe they're like, ooh, yeah, you know what? Don't call us. We'll call you. Wow. Harsh. Happy birthday, Eliza. Also, Rebecca in Philly says, I'm blursing myself this year because I'm turning 40. things are going to start happening to me now. My Blur's Day wish is a year full of 360 spins and slam dunk pointers and lots of TBTL. Well, I can guarantee one of those things, Rebecca, which is lots of TBTL and lots of slam dunk pointers.

And finally, Elizabeth says happy Blur's Day today to Justin. You're an inspiration and joy to everyone you meet and a wonderful partner in life. We hope you feel celebrated today And always love Liz and Bob And the Fur Prince I was going to go with the nickname The Fur Prince for myself We can still call you that

Just don't tell those listeners That have called dibs on the nickname And one more Andrew before we get out of here Which is to my own actual real life daughter Addie Who is turning 29 tomorrow You mentioned that on the show I was explaining that to some people last night Whilst roller skating And I realize that if you're not me It's not that big of a deal Because most people People tend to turn 29 at some point Usually between the ages of 28 and 30 Is typically when it happens But for me to think That my beloved daughter Who of course I can remember Being a wee little thing Is now going to be 29 Is quite mind blowing And I love her very much She will not hear this But just know Addie that you're the best thing that ever happened to me. So happy Blur's Day to my kid, who is not a handful. See, I wouldn't say that about my child or someone else's child.

Well, they call them the terrible 29s, so watch out.

Oh, dear God. Are we entering the terrible 29s finally? All right, that's going to do it for the show this week, or I should say this day. We do have one more tomorrow, so we will be doing it. uh tomorrow morning and then sending it out to all of you uh so please do join us for that in the meantime have a great thursday take care of yourselves and please remember no mountain too

tall and good luck to all i always get weaseled into getting donuts with my sister she says oh i'll get donuts for us i say that sounds fantastic i get myself all hungry i forget that she's really overeducated so she's not looking for the donuts that she's looking for a strong donut lead she's looking for artisanal donuts subtle flavors so katie shows up with a box i'm frothing i'm so hungry and she opens it and i see these unrecognizable knickknacks oh chris okay you're going to want to first try the orange basil then we have this is lamb water this was made with water they were going to give lambs. This one's the old butter donut. This is mezcal panko. You won't like it and neither will I. We need to split the Montana chocolate. This is sourdough spider plant right here. This is lilac kiwi. This flavor is so insane. It almost killed Fran Leibovitz. She tried it in 91 and had to get airlifted out of port authority. Power out.