Muse

I know somebody here. I met him on a train. His name is... His name is James... No. His name is James Josephson. No, no, no. James Lawrence. Lawrence! Lawrence! Lawrence Fells. Lawrence Fangs. Forrest Lawrenston. L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L Well, here we are. I want to congratulate you for being on time.

I have a beta sequence I've been working on. Would you like to see it? I'm not handling this well. I don't feel competent. I'm depressed.

Okay, so you need to talk to me, and I can't have you back here because my iguana was injured from all the noise. You got really scared.

I have no idea what you just said, but I feel totally transformed. TV, TV out!

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

I heard about that thing on the AM radio.

My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host.

Brother, who are you? What are you doing?

Mostly I'm running a cat daycare here in this room that I'm in. Holly is visiting again. And Holly's move is hiding out in the closet in this room and staying there most of the day. And then Bubbles' move is sitting right outside the door of the closet, trying to nose her way in so that she can, I'm just going to call it what it is, sniff at Holly's nether regions in a very intrusive way. And now that I'm talking about her, she's decided to get up on this director's chair again like yesterday and get back to erasing some of my events on my day calendar. So some things never change around here on this wet Thursday. You know, you like to get wet, though. Did I mention I'm at the Hollywood Broadcast Center right here in Portland, Oregon? If I didn't, I meant to. I also meant to tell you it's episode 3,897 in a collector's series.

Let the fun begin.

When we wrap things up here, I'm going to be jumping in the car and heading right on up to Seattle, where we've got an episode of Livewire taping a town hall in Seattle. If you hear this in time, if you're in the area, come on by and say hi. We would love to see you, and we'd love you to continue listening to today's episode of TBTL because we have some food news today. Welcome to Food News Today. President Joe and Dr. Jill Biden went out to dinner in D.C. recently, and it's kind of a big story any time the president and their spouse go out for a meal. What did they order? How did they treat the people, etc.? well, there's something about the order that the Bidens put in that a lot of people think is kind of weird. I think I agree with them, the people who think it's weird what the Bidens did, but we'll talk about that. Then also so-called sushi terrorism is causing some changes in Japan at those sushi restaurants where your fish or whatever it is comes out on the conveyor belt.

Is it too early to get a fish sandwich?

We'll look into the latest Sushi Terrorism, and then it's a Thursday, a.k.a. Blur's Day. We'll do some Blur's Day messages as well. And we'll talk to this guy, the longest-running Cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He comes today with a stern warning for anyone who would mess with the TBTL brand. You've gobbled, you last ghoul. He's Andrew Walsh, and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

Hello, Luke. as a language model chatbot, I cannot comment on your intro, but take this as an acknowledgement that you did an intro. I wasn't planning on doing that. Sorry. It was actually good.

You know what? Can I tell you something? That was a bad riff. I'm proud that you committed to the bit.

I did not know what I was going to say until I opened my mouth. I originally was just going to say, Luke, could you keep talking because I'm working on the Blurs days, but that seemed like a real show killer.

Maybe that's pulling the curtain. just 5% too far back. I actually am proud of you that you committed and stayed in your chatbot persona because you and I both, I think are very nervous improvisers and very self-critical improvisers and also

Also, very brief improvisers. Like, if I go into a voice or a bit, and within the first half second, it just shows itself to be not working. I was going to say, it turns out it's not working. But it so rarely turns out it is working. It's just when in the bit do I realize it's not working. As soon as I realize that, I immediately hit the eject button. And you stayed in that. You did that chatbot for up to 15 seconds.

Well, you know it worked there. I mean, sort of, although I'm pretty sure you were able to see through any kind of ruse. Again, I would like to reiterate, it wasn't like 10 seconds before I opened my microphone that I thought, oh, that'll be a funny bit. I literally opened my microphone, was going to say, Luke, please keep talking. But instead, like in the very moment, I decided, oh, we were talking about chatbots yesterday. Let's do this. The thing about imitating a robot is you can take long, uncomfortable pauses while you're waiting to figure out what the next word is while you're still somewhat bleary eyed, even at this late time in the morning that we're recording. So thanks for the encouraging words. I plan on doing more improv as the show goes on. You'll know it when it happens. I'll know when the improv is happening. Yeah, exactly.

I was trying to use some kind of, I don't know, robotic help, AI help this morning, trying to figure out how to pronounce. I think it's called paresis, which is inability to urinate at public bathrooms or at least a real hard time with it. It's sometimes called Shy Bladder, but I guess it's actually it's it's mentioned in Adam Gopnik's new book, Andrew. And we're going to be talking to him tonight for Livewire at Town Hall. And he has a chapter about like his book is about basically him trying to like get good at a bunch of stuff later in life. Like he decides he's been an art critic for many years. He should actually try to learn how to draw. So he takes drawing classes. He basically is just kind of taking on – he gets his driver's license, which he's never had in his life because he's lived in New York. And then at like the, I don't know, second to last chapter, all of a sudden it's like, oh, and by the way, my entire life has revolved around – my life of travel has completely revolved around my inability to urinate in public places or public bathrooms, meaning trips to writing conferences that are more than six-hour flights are out, meaning the whole way that me and my family tend to travel and go on vacation it's all dictated by this paresis thing or however you say it but i couldn't find a proper pronunciation it wasn't one of those words first of all the spell check in the program that i write in which is just called an email draft would never recognize it as a real word which was weird and i couldn't find a pro i found like one of those weird youtube videos where a robot who sounded not unlike you andrew your robot impression that is was talking about it but i i'm still i'm going to be on stage and i'm going to be talking about adam gopnick's inability to mictriate in uh public bathrooms and i'm not going to know how to say what the thing is called this is not it because i just

typed the word in and you just get that first google result has the little haresis oh great

that is the weirdest thing that's what i was looking for this morning i'm not kidding you And I, for some reason, oh, I was, you know, I was using Alta Vista.

I think that was part of the confusion. They don't have, yeah, no, they don't have the audio yet. Do you remember, and I'm going to get all of the details wrong on this, Rob Lowe is the guy's name. Do you remember he was in those commercials? I want to say, I want to say they were for DirecTV taking aim at your cable service and saying you should get DirecTV instead. And it was like, Rob Lowe, I'm normal Rob Lowe, but I'm Rob Lowe who uses cable or whatever. And the other Rob Lowe would be a very weak person. And that was like he was, you know, described as weak or shown as weak in various ways. You are right, by the way. It's Rob Lowe.

And it is for DirecTV. So far, Andrew, you've got everything right. If this is an improvisation, stay in it. Stay present.

Yes, and. Then Rob Lowe, in one of them, he meets an AI chatbot. Okay, now it's starting to deteriorate. Oh, God. No, I was going to say there is a commercial, and I think he, not he, but I think the company took some, I don't know if they really took heat for this. There was an activist group that wanted them to take heat for the Shy Bladder commercial. There was one where he was like, I'm Rob Lowe, who still uses cable, and one of his forms of weakness is he's too shy to pee in a public restroom. And I remember a press release came out for some group that says, like, this is a real issue, and people making fun of it doesn't really help. and DirecTV should be ashamed of itself. Do you remember that?

Well, I'll tell you this. I feel like we might have even talked about that at the time. Probably. Certainly that was a story that I was vaguely aware of. But having read this particular chapter of Adam Gopnik's book about this, I will say, struggle for him.

I think I now am more likely to be sympathetic towards the people saying maybe don't make fun of that because it hadn't really occurred to me. I mean, that's not something that I particularly have suffered from. And so it had not occurred to me, if it's really happening for you, how life-ruining it could be because it really would dictate a lot of your behaviors and what you could do and couldn't do. And also such a seemingly small and silly thing that for people that don't struggle with it, be like just get over it just you stand there you go to the bathroom and it's you know and you get on with your life but uh but anyway now yeah now i think i have more sympathy for that than i would

have had i not read this book luke this is not a bit this is not improv and i hate saying these words but i owe you an apology all you had to do is google the word and the audio is like the very first result. Parasis. Different word. Different word. I was spelling it incorrectly and I was noticing the dictionary definition. I was looking for a word that I spelled P-A-R-E-S-I-S which is a condition of muscular weakness caused by nerve damage, partial paralysis. That is not the word. I just was like, wait a second though. How do you spell yours? Yours, which I don't know if you want to claim ownership of it, but here we are, is

P-A-R-U-R-E-S-I-S-I-S

And I am not, when I Google that, getting an immediate audio version pronouncer. So my apologies for talking down to you.

Well, no problem. I appreciate you being quick on looking for it and then also quick to realize the error of your ways. It's strange to me, though, that it's a known medical condition, and yet there isn't, that I found, there isn't that quick, easy little pronouncer with the kind of cartoon of a person's mouth or whatever. which is now how I find out how almost anything is pronounced, which is kind of, I don't know if that's sad or not, or just a function of life in these United States. But it's, I mean, if I can't find that, then I just give up on. I was going to call it shy bladder, and then I read in that chapter of the book where he says, it's kind of misdescribed as shy bladder, because it's not just your bladder is shy. It's basically like a mini panic attack in a way. I mean, it operates along the same sort of like, I don't know if you'd call it emotional or sort of physiological continuum as a panic attack. And in fact, he's got like a he's going to a therapist for it, a guy who himself had struggled with it. And and that he's like texting the guy from the bathroom of the plane saying, I'm having a mini panic attack because it's not working.

You know, that that that makes sense to me. Like as somebody who has like who can get in his head about things, I've never suffered from that specifically. But I got to say, when you put it that way, you can understand how it could be really could really work on you mentally. And I got to say, you're right. It gives me a little bit more compassion, maybe, as opposed to just going to the quick, you know, shy peer joke, which, by the way, I am looking at a book right now on Amazon called Pea Shy to Pea Free. How one man overcame paresis. How do you say it? pararesis and how you can, too, with these practical action steps to cure bashful bladder.

I mean, what it sounds like in this book is that he basically just did a version of like what they would call exposure therapy, which is commonly used to try to treat certain obsessive compulsive intrusive thoughts and phobias of things like if you're very, very afraid of germs to the point where it's really making your life kind of difficult to live, they'll take you somewhere like to like a grody dumpster behind an Albertsons and they'll just have you put your hand on the grody dumpster and you'll rank you'll sort of list what's your level of anxiety one to ten it'll be a ten and what eventually happens it doesn't stay at ten because we just can't stay there and so over time through exposure those things become a little bit less triggering for folks and it seems like this he and the guy just bike to Central Park and they just go around to various places that have lots of different bathrooms and just try it out you know that that does remind me

i you know as as a as a kid and then a young person i never went to the bathroom in public i never uh went number two as we don't say like in public ever and you're talking about kind of exposure therapy and what changed that for me was just like a life situation i went to college And when you go to college, you don't have an en suite bathroom, at least not at Kent State University. I don't know what it's like in those Ivy League schools that you traverse, Luke. But I but I remember like actually thinking like, oh, I went from not really ever wanting and I think maybe not even needing to do it. Like my body just did not need to usually go. I didn't have like situations that I can recall, like your infamous kingdom situation where you had to really. go but you didn't want to i don't remember like holding it in so much as just like i just didn't do that you know it was when i was at home that the that the mood moved me um but then you know when you don't have access to your own private bathroom and the only thing you have for four years of your life or i guess i was only in the dorms for one year but it felt like four um because i didn't go to the bathroom the entire time only on weekends when i was visiting my parents but uh yeah bring home your laundry and your feces oh god i um but anyway yeah i mean that is a that is like one of those things where you're just like oh well life changes around you and therefore like you just get used to something it just becomes a way of life yeah you know it's

funny because i yeah my freshman year i lived in the in the dorms as well and it was the same thing it was called the cluster system which meant like there was four dorm rooms that had a shared little tv watching area balcony which was always closed because someone was always throwing a couch off of one of them this was mcmahon hall at the university of washington um allegedly a balcony and then a bathroom so you'd be sharing the bathroom with like eight people and yeah up to that point i mean see previous story about me violently crapping my pants at the mariners game because of how much i didn't want to go use a public bathroom for that you'd think that that would have really cured me of that particular like I would have realized the deep humiliation of going to the bathroom in your pants is so much worse than whatever mild amount of embarrassment happens from like being in a stall and someone can see your shoes and

your pants or whatever you know whatever the whatever the fear or whatever the block is

you know but but funnily enough I still think I was pretty shy about that kind of stuff about you know using the bathroom for the number two the public bathroom that is and then yeah the same thing in college i just don't remember it being a big deal like i i think i was kind of dreading it i was like oh great you know i'm sharing a bathroom with seven other dudes it just didn't seem like a big deal for some reason um and then that must have mostly cured i'd still not let me put it this way i just still don't look forward to it there are people i know some people where it's that's their favorite that's their favorite way to get that particular kind of business done wait really that they don't they don't want to go at home they well no but they really don't they do not mind doing it in public and in fact you know it's like they don't have to that's how much less they have to clean their bathroom that's free toilet paper that's like you know free hand soap like it's just a not i used to work with a guy andrew i don't know if i've told you the story before he shall remain nameless but this was at npr in la and you'd be walking down the hall with this guy like in the work area talking chatting and then he would just you'd he would you'd realize oh we're both walking towards the bathroom and the conversation would continue and he would just walk right into the stall just drop oh yeah commence to dropping a deuce conversation unbroken just like and i was like well that okay now that is a level of comfort i will never have with this and i'm okay with not having it yeah i'm not okay being a part of that

at all like i i don't or i think i structured that sentence funnily but um yeah i don't want to be the person being talked to in that situation either because also if you're not going in there to do that you're not going in there for as long of a period of time how does the person who's now behind a closed door of a stall know when you're like okay i'm done here i've washed my hands i'm ready to leave the room but you're still like you're still just on leg one of a four leg stem

winder like harley yeah exactly um so all that is to say please for for these kinds of riveting stories about um having difficulty urinating and public bathrooms come on out to liveware tonight at town hall now i know you can't make it andrew conveniently it's also your partner's birthday today yeah and i see how you set that up just so you wouldn't have to come to town hall

yeah well it was it was a long process but about 45 years ago i said you know what we're going to need to make sure that this falls on the proper date can i ask one more question about the bathroom

i mean i like the idea of someone in georgia reaching out to like veve's parents reaching out to your parents in ohio and going like does it seem like a good day for this probably because in about 45 years this is going to really come in handy for your son exactly hey i do want to go

back i have a question about the bathroom i know we've pivoted but i have a question about your living arrangement in yeah the the college there at the university um or at university

yeah that's what i call it i just took my a levels at university as a levels i that's new to me i don't know i took maths but i only got to i only got to c level there's this whole world of talking about college as it relates to the uk that is completely mysterious to me calling it maths

which we got to the bottom of listeners are like well it's mathematics so it's short for

mathematics oh i've completely and totally erased that conversation from my mind

And then there's, you know, there's certain level of accomplishment that I was reading some some writing from somebody who was British and they were like lamenting the fact that they had only I only tested whatever level of this thing. And I assumed it was bad from context. But, you know, I was I didn't know what they were talking about.

Here's my question. But first, the setup. when I was telling you that I didn't like to use the restroom for number two in public. But then I moved into a dorm system and then you just had to because every every restroom I had access to, whether it was the one on my floor or in one of the academic buildings or whatever, was essentially a public restroom. You were talking about your cluster system where you had a bathroom shared with maybe eight other occupants. The reason I bring it all up in that context again is because my bathroom was on my dorm floor. was that a public bathroom where there was a cleaning staff that came in and cleaned it like they cleaned the rest of the public spaces if you have a little cluster you're kind of like roommates were you guys responsible for cleaning your own public spaces including the bathroom because that sounds awful i cannot imagine they trusted eight male college freshmen to

Diligently clean Their shared bathroom space There must have been like a day When the like custodial folks came through I don't remember them Having a lot to do with whatever the You know I guess we call the living room Which was really being generous It was just a little tiny room that had like A couple couches you know those like Sort of like a kind of couch That you can leave in a dorm living room That it's impossible for people to Destroy the couch no matter how hard Other than throwing it out the window off the balcony Just like that. That was the other room. Anyway, they must have cleaned the bathrooms. They must have. But I don't have any memory of that, exactly how that went down. But also, it was pretty fortunate that group of people that I was with, if I remember right, they were a really chill, very kind of generally bookish group of folks. Like, we didn't have any crazy parties. Now, maybe, you know, it's funny because nowadays I'm much more I'm much more immature as a 46 year old than I was as a, you know, 19 year old. But I loved it because it was like nobody was drinking. There was anything crazy going on. We just was everybody kind of took care of their, you know, everyone kept it pretty clean. It just was a very mellow scene. Nowadays, I'd be like nerds. But at the time I was I was down with it. And in fact, one of my roommates or one of the people in the cluster, his name is Dan. And he and I had the exact same birthday We were both born in Northern California On May 8th, 1976 And I lost touch with him And we ended up on an airplane together 20 years later Just randomly flying somewhere Like, hey Dan, hey Luke, what's up? How's it going?

Who recognized whom? I would never recognize somebody Who rescued whom, Andrew? Who rescued whom from the middle seat?

I told you I have intense I have intense face-sightedness If you have a little bit of face blindness and to the point where this is fading, like everything with my cognitive abilities, this is starting to fade a bit now. I will see people will come up to me. In fact, it will probably happen tonight after Livewire. There will people will be coming up to me and saying hi, and they'll have a more vivid memory of our last interaction than I will. That's a function of there being one of me and there being 500 of people at a show like that. But that being said, I still do have a pretty decent eye for that stuff. And so I'm sure I saw Dan and was like, holy shit. Dan also looked very similar, you know, plus 20 years, but basically the same basic structure of the person that was Dan.

Do you think that if you and I stopped working together and didn't see each other for three years, you'd still recognize me? Three? Yeah. So I'm 46 now, and then you stop looking at me, and then you run into me, and I'm 49 years old. Do you have your beard or not? I've shaved my beard. Oh, some mitigating factors I should tell you about. I've got a rock-hard body now. I have been not just going to the gym. It's not just a T-shirt with a very, very fit male frame on it. No, it's interesting. That's how it started, though. See, this is an interesting story. This all starts tomorrow. Oh, wow. Yeah, when you stop talking to me.

So it's kind of like dress for the bod you want.

So here's what's going to happen. And you and I get into a fight at the end of today's show. I'm not sure if you know that or not. It involves chatbots. Tomorrow I wake up, a whole new start. I'm like, I need a new job. I need new friends. I need a new life. I'm going to start by putting on this T-shirt that makes me feel good. It's a T-shirt of a really fit torso, sort of. You can see the six-pack. And then I wear that around and I get some compliments because people are confused. They think I'm walking around shirtless, right? And they're like, hey, you look really good. And I'm like, thanks. Maybe I should make this permanent. start going to the

gym all the time that's not enough i moved down to venice beach i started hanging out on muscle then i'm hanging on muscle beach and now i'm one of those guys and i'm doing the i'm doing the flexing i and then and then i'm there for about three years luke i get back into rollerblading it's a whole thing i'm tan i'm tan i have um i don't i don't have hair replacement surgery but i now shave my head i shave everything so i'm totally but eyebrows and everything i shave everything on my head and face and then i need to fly back up to seattle uh to see a live wire taping uh because i'm still a huge fan and uh and you see me on the airplane still or have become

do you i stopped that part of new andrew that he cares a whit about my life outside of the show

i stopped pretending that i have a girlfriend to avoid your bullshit and i uh fly up to seattle for um well this is kind of the sad part it is the last live wire show with luke burbank they they're going to replace you um the next week with a chat gpt which is honestly exactly overdue and uh you see me on the plane do you recognize me and do you say hi considering how kind of uncomfortable our parting was yes i would say hi i have said hi to people

andrew who i've seen in an airport who i've had a more uncomfortable parting with than even you've describe than even what's going to happen later today than even what our inevitable future is because i have in the way that you and i can't leave much uh sort of dead space or or silence on this show or just in our lives i have the same thing with i could i could bump into my most sworn nemesis in like an airport or something and i would say instinctively reflexively i would say hi to them um because it would feel more weird to me to pretend to ignore them or to look at them and not acknowledge them in fact like i said something like that happened to me i don't want to get overly specific but let's just say was in an airport was in atlanta bumped into someone who had had some issues with and jimmy carter and i could was rosalyn carter and i pronounced the name correctly because it matters and i went up to the person and i said hey how's it going and was like overly nice to this person who i'd had some sort of ongoing issues with because that is something in my that's that's how insecure i am i cannot withhold saying hi to someone in an airport even if i desperately want to be withholding it i am not and i'm being serious i'm not going to

play 20 questions or try to publicly betray your confidence in this story but i just have one question for you do i know this person do i know this person okay so you have not met this person so i have no idea what this scenario is i'm just kind of curious as a human i'm going to tell you

i'll tell you off air but also but i and by the way we're going to have a new donor level this year at the thon which is luke will tell you the stuff off air that he tells andrew it's going to be expensive okay but it's going to be worth it the tea spiller level yep exactly at the hot goss level uh you'll get to listen to all of the conversations andrew and i have before during and after the show that gets edited out um i will say this too and this is the person in question who i'd found to be a fairly aggressive fairly um hot-headed person when we'd had some conflicts that person was on the telephone having a super aggressive conversation with someone and my thought was oh when you saw them when you saw when i saw them in the airport they were on their cell phone and they were they were they were into it with someone and i turned i was married to carrie at the time i turned to carrie and i said that checks out and it was very interesting to observe someone in the world being a kind of a not great way in the same way that my my perception is that they had been not great to me and to have had nothing to do with it i'm just looking at it and i'm just seeing it and i'm like well you know i can i i have some confirmation that this wasn't a hundred percent me that these interactions were fraught because this person is doing that same

thing to someone who i don't know yeah that's that's really interesting that's a good that's

kind of a weirdly good feeling like maybe that's why i was emboldened to go up and say hey how's

it going to this person there's somebody in my life and you'll know who i'm talking about here luke who i had a professional relationship with who i found very difficult to work with uh and we had to work closely together and i would you know in professional circles meet other people who'd worked with this person and it would kind of and this is a terrible thing to admit but it would kind of bum me out when somebody's when somebody would say like oh i love working with them yeah yeah it was a lot of fun because then i would meet plenty of other people who were like that person is a pain in the ass and it's why i got out of radio like maybe not quite that but like actually kind of close to that at times but then there were the people who like got along with this person well and I was always like god damn it so it is it is partially me here oh there's nothing better there's very few things that are better than disliking the same person that somebody else dislikes i mean that's one of the main ways that people connect with other people it's just mutual dislike of a third party tap into that for a dating app you know what i had thought that they'd sliced that you know onion every possible way you can but you're right a dating app that's based on who you dislike you know though i feel like is it called hater but it's h-a-t-r h-a-t-r um i was going with like

tinder right tinder misspelled i think that's missing an e or something um you know what though this is a very gen x thing though i i think you know what i mean like i mean well i mean you tell me maybe i'm wrong about this and maybe i'm too obsessed with did i say gender i meant generation No, you said Gen X. Oh, I did say Gen X. For a second, I was like... You said Gen X. Oh, okay. Sorry. Let's roll back the tape. Sorry. I mean, maybe I'm too obsessed with generational talk, and maybe the differences aren't...

At the hot goss level, you'll get to hear Andrew share his real feelings on gender.

Well, it's just so funny. I'm never saying, well, I think women drive like this, and guys drive like this. Anyway, but I do think that our generation has more... bonds more over negative stuff right like i sort of think that like younger generations even starting with millennials but even like the zoomers or whatever you want to call the younger generations who are in school now like i don't think like hating on shit and eye rolling is as big of a deal is as much of a bonding experience you're probably right i guess i'm

not in those generations yeah so i just don't know but i mean there is a kind of like if we can say that like daria and beavis and butthead in any way represented the philosophy i mean seriously exactly yes like is there you know it's it's like is what are the young people uh you know the what are the the 17 year olds consuming now from a pop culture standpoint and is it similar in that kind of uh view on the world also by the way i think some of it is just the age that you're at i guess you know i mean there is an age where you probably slightly define yourself by the things you're not um and that might just go across all the different generations but i could see a world i mean it also seems logical that you have one generation that's really into one thing and then the next generation is not that way just as a reaction to it so i would i wouldn't be shocked to hear that our generation which is um gen z right is that what we are gen gen x you mean oh gen x sorry gen x gen z are the young ones yeah i got confused because i think i almost sneak in as a geriatric millennial i might as well actually we got an email you would more than i because you're

a little bit younger than me you know i'm trying to think this might have been i'm trying to think if this is on the hey dummies list or not but we got an email from our friend listener levi who kind of was wanted us to address the generation thing i think levi's our age i'm gonna say mid 40s he might be i'm guessing based on this email that he's around our age which i don't have in front of me right now but basically saying that like i guess technically i'm a gen x person but i don't associate with that generation at all and how do we feel about that and i guess i won't do this as a video but i'll say here that i think that i'm almost the opposite like technically i'm like so on the cusp like i'm a very very young gen xer or as you say maybe i'm just in between because i just don't think that i'm whatever a millennial there's a three month period where you don't get to be in any generation like my neighborhood like every little pocket around us has a little neighborhood name except for mine but anyway um the thing is like it doesn't matter to me how old i am or where i i fit on the age spectrum for that like what i grew up or what i came of age around and what my influences were was so deeply gen xy like just so deeply gen xy That is certainly the generation that I associate it with.

Yeah, I've seen that question on the Hey Dummies list. By the way, we can always use more Hey Dummies suggestions. You can send them to Andrew at tbtl.net. But the reason that I don't have a great answer to that question is because, well, as evidenced by me just saying I think I'm Gen Z, like I'm so terrible with numbers and dates and like historic periods. Like, in other words, I think sometimes I forget for long stretches that I'm technically in some generation of people that's called Generation X that was born at a certain time. It's so not how I orient my world at all. Like, just for myself, like, I don't think of myself as being part of, like, and I probably am a part of a group, and I probably have been influenced by being in that group. But that's, like, right now I feel like, and I'm about to be...

47 like soon i feel like i internally i feel like i'm a 22 year old who's about to write a great screenplay and really get my film career going like i my sense of like self what's that get that pipe out get your writing pipe there you go exactly um uh i am so what how i feel inside and how i identify is so wildly out of step with my actual age and physical circumstances that it's like so the idea of what generation i'm in is just almost kind of meaningless to me because i'm just going around all the time thinking like i don't know could i still make the nba could i like if i really like if i dropped 25 pounds and i really really worked on my left-handed dribbling could i like i'm just such a nutcase when it comes to all that kind of stuff that me like i just don't identify as any generation i just identify as luke who still thinks he's got a and then when i when i and then what it is is when i have to really face the fact that as i've said before at best we are at cruising altitude on this flight called luke burbank airlines at best we're at cruising altitude likely we've begun our initial descent like when i'm forced to really be realistic about that i am overwhelmed well not overwhelmed i feel Kind of sad you know what I mean I feel kind of like wow Huh okay this is Happened to everyone else in the history of human time But I thought I was going to get out of it somehow And I'm not and I'm middle aged And I'm not getting younger you know So anyway all that is to say What generation I'm in is like the furthest thought From my mind most of the time

But the important thing is they cleaned your bathroom For you you did not You did not have to like between the eight of you You didn't have to figure out like oh it's your turn I love you know me I love having we didn't have a chore wheel Yeah, exactly. But like, I love having clean surroundings and I don't mind cleaning my own, you know, cleaning my surroundings. But the idea of sharing a bathroom with seven other people in college and then being the only one college boys. Oh, my God. No, that would be bad. A levels are a UK subject based qualification for students age 16 and above.

They're usually studied over two years, leading to qualifications recognized for entrance to higher education institutes in the U.K. and many others worldwide. Most higher education institutes require a minimum of three subjects. Okay. That's what I need to do. Just in case you were wondering. Okay. Now we've got that cleared up, and we can finally go to the break with all of the knowledge that we need here on this Thursday. So we'll do that. Quick break, and then back with more TBTL in just a moment.

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

All right, let's thank some dazzling donors who are making this episode of TBTL possible. I know we talk about the cats way too much, Andrew, but I wish you could just see this. I don't know. Oh, by the way, it was Bubbles' birthday on March 5th. I checked the paperwork.

Oh, so March 5th is in the rearview mirror. Did you do anything?

No, I didn't. I'm celebrating her birthday by not water bottles spraying her right now, even though I'm tempted to. She's sitting just very properly On this book cover desk Next to where I broadcast from And she desperately wants To, don't do it buddy She desperately wants to jump onto this Table where I'm actually doing the broadcasting from But she does know This I will say is a slight argument For the water bottle If she sees the water bottle She does not jump up here Because she does not want to get sprayed

We've been sparing the water bottle as much as possible. Spoil the cat. Exactly, but there's been just a couple of things where our newest cat, Bingo, will sort of get up on the counter, and that's our food space, you know what I mean? No cats on the counter. I know he does it when we're not looking, but when we're there, Genevieve just has, if he's getting kind of close to it or like hopped up on the garbage can, Genevieve just reaches for the spray bottle, and he's like, oh, you know what? There's something in the other room I should check out right now.

Right, that's kind of where we're at, but if I take my eyes off her and look at Kathy Backman's name, who's our first dazzling donor. By the way, we're thanking these generous people who are keeping TVTL going day in and day out, folks like Kathy Backman in Rochester, Washington. Every time I look at Kathy's dazzling donor message, Bubbles reads my eye movement and then gets closer. I want to send you a picture of this, but I'm actually kind of embarrassed because it looks like I'm getting into a, what they might call, hoarder-type situation here, Andrew. I just want to tell you, I sent you the photo. It's a very particular time where I've got a bunch of books I have to read for Livewire that are stacked up in a certain order of when I have to read them. I also have all my tax documentation, my W-2s and 1099s that have been coming in the mail. So I just want you to know I'm not descending into hoarding, okay? That's just, it's a very cluttered desk area right now where bubbles happen to be.

do you want me to use this as a show pick even though you've embarrassed your whole family with

this mess i do not i legitimately had just after our whole conversation about you know cleaning dorm bathrooms and whatnot and general cleanliness this looks like an unquiet mind no it doesn't i

mean by most i mean you we've talked about this before and i don't i'm not saying this judgmentally Everybody's got their own journey and everybody's needs their surroundings as they need them. But like, you know, you see so many people making videos and posting them online and whatever the focus of the video is, is one thing. But in the background, you see people's living spaces. I'm not talking about our listeners here. I just mean, generally speaking, as you go through tick tock or Instagram stories or what have you. And people I mean, what you have here is like a nicely appointed, like mid-century looking. i don't know if it's actually from the time period or not like kind of bureau and then you know some but it looks like you know like maybe uh somebody who does a lot of reading and writing and some paperwork stacked up it's like it isn't like there's a balled up like one balled up sock in the corner and you know cables all oh also now i'm just noticing this good job on getting your daytime emmy award in there too you freak um can you send one can you send one picture can you said one picture without the goddamn trophy in there yeah i'm using it as a bookend yeah no but it's just so funny that you see this you're like oh my god this is look at this this is an uncluttered mind no this looks like somebody who's like kind of working on stuff but it's also like

you know keeps things very neat it looks at well um just so you know that this wasn't all like a subtle move by me to try to get you to publish a picture of my daytime emmy that i was part of a team that got i do not post the photo because honestly when i and i know what you're saying but just when i look at it i'm like whoa that just looks like i i have a kind of a i wouldn't say a clutter problem i am a tidy person but i'm not quite as neat of a or as clean of a person as i'd like to be something that you do a lot more than i do and by the way this all brought to you by kathy backman in rochester washington something you do a lot more than i do is um you really deep clean stuff and you take a whole you know afternoon or evening and you pull everything out of your shower at slash bathroom and really go to town you will never find like a gross situation in my bathroom as far as the kitty litter being on the floor or the toilet that needs to be scrubbed but there is a just a layer of like everything is tidy but i don't deep clean as much as i should

is what i'm trying to say i have a story for you that i think i should tell you i think you'll be interested in this but i think i should tell you it after the dazzling donor because i think it'd be an insult to tell this story during the dazzling donor message we would never want to insult

Kathy and her time with a story that could be potentially insulting Kathy says hi Luke and Andrew thanks for the opportunity to give a dazzling message thank you Kathy for the opportunity for us to have a podcast yes exactly yes I live in Rochester it's between Portland and Olympia and if you've driven through there it's near Tonino home of the famous wooden money yes yes this is all tracking Kathy I've been part of this community since the radio days and I'm happy to support it I've been to some live events even virtual events and participated in the holiday mailing fun i appreciate the media suggestions from you and the fellow tens through all the changes in my life i appreciate having tbtl as a constant ah kathy thank you so much thank you very much really appreciate it i will um i'm gonna be driving past rochester at about 12 30 today so i don't know if you're out there by that james g murphy auction house or whatever and you know you see me give me the high sign you have to we will you have to legally if you see me on i-5 near rochester kathy you have to identify yourself uh thank you very much we really appreciate you kathy

maestro on your mark on your mark get set get set now ready ready go everybody

all right we've also got to thank dazzling donor cory plucker who's in east hampton massachusetts cory says hello would y'all please play the slab jacking and that's why i live in a teepee drops cory going back to the old school one to hear a little bit of a slab jacking and then also chris latanzi that's why i live in a teepee what is that those this this particular drop that's why i live in a teepee there was some kind of uh reality show where i believe it was children of famous people were trying to make it in singing maybe there was some kind of reality show that involved the daughter of the the late now singer olivia newton john and olivia newton john had had this child with a guy named matt latanzi or matt latanzi who was kind of a quirky character i'm sure it was very much heightened for the purposes of the reality show they made him seem just like a real a real

eccentric and i believe i don't know if i even actually saw this myself or this was all just in jen's retelling of it but like this is the ex-husband of olivia newton johns and he's like living in a teepee somewhere and i don't think because of you know housing insecurity i think it was and then something dramatic is happening on the show and he's sort of over it and he's just

saying well this is why i live in a teepee that's why i live in a teepee i see so that's not a that's not a joke from a scripted comedy like that's funny no that's actually that's human being that's a human being first sighing

what you hear first is a sigh

that's why I live in a teepee I wish I could remember someone will remember

the circumstances but there you go Corey thank you for helping support the show and for giving us an excuse to stride down we striding here we rolling to rollerblade down memory land like that yeah really appreciate you hello and welcome to top story all right uh what's the what's the story that you wanted to tell me

this is one of those moments where i was like if you forgot that i was going to tell this story you were going to be fine with it yeah because this is a story and the reason i realized i should tell it here is because this is an honest to god secret i've been living with that i find incredibly shameful um that involves a friend of ours who we talk about on this show quite a bit and i'll name them in a moment um and it's really embarrassing and i think it'll make good content because i've literally never told this to anyone and i i'm carrying it around as we speak i've been secrets i prefer to keep clandestine i've been carrying this around for about i'm gonna say two months now maybe not even quite that um so we're not talking about the

biden's ordering styles people no i this is actually i think i'm drawing this out too much

It's a relatively quick story, but it's gross I want to give people a heads up This is a gross bathroom story Here's the context for this As I've mentioned many times on this show And almost rubbed it in everybody's faces We are now a two

Hope this story doesn't involve rubbing anything in anyone's face

We are a two-bathroom family Genevieve has a bathroom upstairs I have a bathroom downstairs We've never had this luxury as a couple In our 20-some years together, right? So it's pretty We're pretty appreciative and it's pretty sweet Now the thing is, as you know, Luke as you alluded to i am usually the one who does all really all of the cleaning around the house and that's fine i like doing it when you share a bathroom uh and i'm the cleaner it makes sense that i would clean that bathroom but since genevieve has an upstairs bathroom of her own now it's kind of like well what's my motivation for doing that yeah when we moved in like interesting it's a development for y'all and so and actually when we moved in like i think i took the lead on painting that bathroom and getting it spiffy and stuff for her and she was very excited about it She got put in an accent wall that she really likes. But then after that, I was like, okay, here's your bathroom. Have fun cleaning it. I remember there was a moment where she was like, oh, I got to clean my – well, why wouldn't – well, I guess, yeah, okay. And so the situation now is basically Genevieve, for the most part, cleans her own bathroom. I will say I cleaned it top to bottom. I gave her the royalty bathroom cleaning treatment.

You, like, left it – you were like, I am going to martinize this bathroom. On Saturday before I cease ever cleaning it again.

Well, no, that was then. But then this weekend, Genevieve, I think on Friday night, Genevieve said, oh, the one thing I have to do tomorrow is clean my bathroom. It is a mess. And it was. It needed real cleaning. The tub and the sink and everything needed cleaning. Sometimes she uses that dry shampoo spray stuff and that clings to everything. It just was. It was just a mess. And so I said, well, it's your birthday week I will give you as a gift I will clean that bathroom in a way that Nobody's ever cleaned a bathroom before And I did, I spent Saturday night just cleaning That thing down to the bones But anyway, all that is to say, generally speaking We have kind of this, I guess, unsaid rule Slash kind of joke or whatever That Genevieve is in charge of cleaning her own bathroom Now, and I clean Mine downstairs, which at the time Was not a nice bathroom, because we hadn't Kind of remodeled it yet, but At least it's very clean We had a friend over here, a friend named Broadcast Barry, who I assume will hear the story. And honestly, I've been wanting to reach out to him about this, but I'm too embarrassed to. And it doesn't make sense. I guess it just makes sense to do it here in a podcast. But Broadcast Barry was visiting a few, I don't know, like five weeks ago or something. And he we were upstairs in the kitchen and he said, OK, I need to use the restroom. Which which bathroom should I use? And I made a joke. I said something like, well, Genevieve has the nicer bathroom, but it's going to be way dirtier, or you can use my clean bathroom downstairs. And so whatever. And Genevieve, I think, snarked at that or something, whatever. We tease. We love. Barry chooses to use the upstairs bathroom, and I'm sure it was fine. bold I hope yeah but I mean again I'm you know it wasn't Genevieve's bathroom at that moment was not like gross I said that as a joke to razz her a little bit it was not a disgusting bathroom at the time it just wasn't you know it hadn't been cleaned recently by me so I make a joke I say well you can use Genevieve's was going to be dirty or whatever Barry uses that restroom um that bathroom later on maybe 20 minutes later we're getting ready to go out we're going to go grab a bite to eat the three of us and I run downstairs to like kind of tidy up or something maybe brush my teeth and i use my bathroom i use my toilet and i pick i i open the lid like i pick up the toilet seat you know there's the lid and then the seat i need to pee so i pick them both up and this is gross underneath the the toilet seat and like the bottom part that faces the water when it's closed was a splash of poo unlike any i've ever seen before i know that sometimes when you when one has to go to the bathroom yeah and make a splash like sometimes that stuff happens i'm not saying the phenomenon is a mystery to me or unprecedented i've seen it right i've created some messes i've cleaned up messes when i saw myself pooping i was just like you gotta be

kidding me this was it defied physics i don't understand it like i just don't understand it it was one it was listen it was just just know that what when i lifted up that lid what i saw made me almost wretch i know i was responsible for it in some way i don't know when um i don't know how i didn't notice it i don't know what it was and i am thinking in my head now first of all thank the ever loving god that barry used the upstairs bathroom number two i can't believe that i made a joke about genevieve's bathroom being dirty when i had this mine waiting for him downstairs were he to choose that porcelain house that's right and thirdly and this is the think that the only reason i almost wanted to raise it with barry but i never would and this is a very private thing i would never tell anybody is is there any chance and this is what lives in my head is there any chance that barry actually was downstairs and went to use the restroom and saw that and then later on needed to use the restroom again and said which bathroom should i use almost as a way of now as i say it out loud it doesn't make sense it doesn't make sense but i

was just i know where you're going with it though like was he establishing an alibi like because

and this is not putting barry barry's business out there but we know this wasn't but we know barry didn't oh no no we know that barry didn't do this my thing was kind of like it was an interesting question which bathroom should i use i was like well we're you know just in hindsight because i'm getting paranoid and i'm thinking about that conversation i'm like well hiney site like that's an interesting question because we're upstairs there's a bathroom right around the corner you might just say hey can i use your restroom and be like yeah it's right there and you'd point to one or something but Barry specifically said which one should I use I think that's just because he knows us and he knows that we like having two bathrooms or whatever but in my head I had this whole paranoid story where Barry had somehow stumbled on my oopsie downstairs and didn't want to say anything about it but also wanted to maybe avoid I don't know it doesn't make sense as I say it out loud I don't think that was the case I don't think Barry knew about this or knows about this and nobody tell Barry about this well no but I was just like if he saw it living it in my head like

what if he had chosen this and knows right I but I also think that there's a world in which he did he did use the basement bathroom he didn't do that thing but he saw it and then realized I need to now establish that it's either he's going to go like well I've got to use the restroom I guess I'll just use this upstairs one or he's got to ask a question about he's got to establish again an alibi not even an alibi alibi makes it sounds suspicious he's got to make it very clear to y'all that he wasn't going into the downstairs bathroom so that later when you see the thing that he didn't do you know he didn't do it

I mean it's still a possibility the more I say it out loud the less I'm kind of worried about that and now it's kind of like well I've I've spilled the beans anyway but it's still better that he didn't have to come face to face with that but like I still in my head just think about what if after that conversation i had said well mine is clean and he said yeah that's right i'll go use the clean one and had gone downstairs to use that that and i would have instinctively

used the downstairs bathroom because even if you know regardless of what i have going on i'm always see the opening comments of this very episode i you know if you guys you and vives are upstairs and and the music is playing and everyone was sitting around the you know the dining room table and having a nice time.

I would just like to be as far away from all of that for anything, number one, number two, you name it. So my instinct is always going to be to go down to the basement bathroom. Yeah, the more buffer the better. Just because why wouldn't I just create a little more distance? Sure. And so, I mean, God, that was really a near miss for you. Although now the near miss has been completely – it's been turned into a direct hit because you're now telling the story of what Barry would have seen at he gone downstairs.

And I'm naming names. Although, even as gross as this story was coming from me, at least nobody had to actually see what I saw. Only my eyes hath seen what I saw. Doctor, my eyes?

So much fun, just remember that life is much fun, you can't be nothing but fun.

We're blursing at the seams with Blursdays today, Luke. The first one comes from Sally in North Bend, Washington, who says, Happy 60th Blursday to my 11, Charlie. You're the kindest and sweetest man And my world is forever changed because of you I'm going to assume for the better I'm hoping for the better And now for a surprise Friday we will be going to We will be going to get you that new set of golf clubs So that you can hit the trees And brush with even more accuracy Happy birthday Charlie I love you Well that's an exciting surprise But also with a little bit of a jab Just a little bit of a jab

That's good that you said with you and Genevieve

You tease, you love Exactly You laugh Nice, enjoy those clubs Happy Blurs Day, Charlie

Brad says, happy Blurs Day to my co-bro and wife, Rachel I'm so happy that friends and family are coming from near and far to celebrate This is one of those big round number Blurs Days It is impolite to say how old But if she were on the periodic table She would be post-transition metal That means she rocks

I'm going to assume

I know so little about the periodic table That I was I stopped understanding that joke midway through But I assume that it's funny And also a compliment to Rachel saying that Rachel does in fact rock

Take this as an acknowledgement That you made a joke Christina says wishing a happy 35th blursday to Alex From your loving partner Christina I guess you can have a quarter life crisis Now if you want Love ya cute

happy blursday to scott from ann ann says have fun and stay safe on your scuba adventure this weekend sorry the red robin is closed but hopefully you can still track down some bottomless fries because you deserve it oh man that reminds me i haven't ordered from that red robin here in portland in a while i should do that maybe this weekend i got you know it's been a pretty busy week for me we've got this live wire thing tonight and you and I are up to all kinds of things Andrew but like maybe Saturday afternoon just like get all cozy hunker down order some DoorDash Red Robin delivery they've got a real um I've really life hacked it buddy on a on a non-meat burger thing I can do there and those damn bottomless fries they're they're an elixir for anything

that ails you put on some pants you damn fries never been to Red Robin although

I do sometimes I feel like it would be Taco time-esque to you in that it would be like, yeah, this is totally fine, but if you didn't grow up in the Northwest going, and I don't think Red Robin's just the Northwest, but it's kind of the main location. They've got those what they call steak fries. They're like wide. Oh, yeah.

I'm not even really into that kind of fry that much.

I wouldn't be if I went somewhere else, but because it reminds me of my childhood, I am very pro those kinds of French fries at Red Robin. Do you use

them, like is there a specific sauce specifically? Oh, I'll get a side of

I have a ranch with that, Andrew, and I make no apologies. And the thing is, it's, as is mentioned in the Blur's Day message, they're bottomless fries. So they just bring you, you know, in my dotage now that this flight is beginning its initial descent, we'd ask you to please put your tray tables upright and your seats back in the upright position. I can't eat that many baskets of fries anymore. But when I was a teen, oh boy, I could do some real damage. And I just love that. Also, being kind of a poor teen, anytime, anywhere, they were like, just have as much of this as you want. I was pretty into it. Nice.

Yeah, even the fries that I like the most, I don't.

I don't think I would do a bottomless fry situation just because, like, fries—fries are not, like, the main thing for me, you know? Like, if I go to Burger King, I actually get onion rings, you know? Or if I'm at a bar, I get tater tots.

But, I mean, they just—you don't even have to—you don't even have to tell them. It's not a special order. It's just the default setting. So if you ordered, like, a tavern burger or a black and blue burger or a bonsai burger—I don't know if they call it that anymore. Hopefully they don't. That was, like, a teriyaki chicken type situation, but— Anyway, you get the fries You get as many of the fries as you want

I was just thinking about Bonsai Because I think of Bonsai plans Well, yeah, you know what?

I don't know Just any time a bunch of people who are white Generally speaking Like I know the founders of the Red Robin franchise Were white guys Get into naming something for any other culture I get nervous I'm just going to be honest

I think rightfully so Sorry to leave you hanging there We just had a moment of awkward silence I try to avoid those. How about this from Lee, who says, Lee, by the way, loves the awkward silence. He says that's where the show really lives.

They pay extra for that.

I'd like to wish a very happy Golden Blur's Day to my wonderful friend, Olivia. Now, just doing the math on this, I don't know if today is actually the Blur's Day, but if it is, or around here, Olivia must be around nine years old for Golden Birthday, right? Yeah. Does that make sense? I would believe, hold on, look into the calendar.

I can do this, Andrew. This can't be right, though. Olivia would have to be between 6 and 10. That's what you would think. Well, no. If it's this week.

If it's this week. But Lee says that Olivia is amazingly kind, hardworking, and funny, and since she introduced me to TBTL last year, my work shifts got a bit more entertaining, to say the least. Oh, thanks. She's also starting a new job next week, and I know she'll crush it. That doesn't sound like a nine-year-old. Or a very highly functioning nine-year-old? Yeah, I don't know. Either way, Olivia, happy dang Blur's Day from Lee and us.

Show says happy Blur's Day, Aaron. Aaron is the best of friendo and a badass babes book club you could ever ask for. Her smile.

Wait, no, she's not a book club. This is a little bit of a tough sentence. I was hoping I get this one because I pre-read it before. Aaron is the best of friendo that a badass babes book club could ask for.

Oh, see, it's missing the word that.

I kind of put that in there for clarity, as I was saying.

Oh, I see. Smart. We can do that?

Well, I, you know, I'm riffing.

Now that I know that, it's going to be a whole, I'm going to start talking about which listeners should be dating other listeners now. When we're allowed to inject our own words and takes back into, I was told by management to stop doing that.

Well, that word that, when I'm writing, like you often do not need the word that, and also like probably less words the better, and that's coming from me. But sometimes I think maybe a well-placed That sort of helps Guide the sentence a little bit more I'm going to back away from this now, Luke And let you take it over again

Okay I'm going to pick up where we left off Which was really still early In this list of Blur's Days We got a heap in helping of them Happy Blur's Day, Aaron Aaron is the best-o-friend-o That a badass babe's book club Could ask for Her smile and zest for life Brighten any space virtual or otherwise she's helpful and kind she takes very appetizing pictures of food and she has great tastes in podcasts well that part nice if aaron's hearing this then obviously that is

the case so happy blurs day happy blurs day aaron kellen says i'd like to wish my dad a happy blurs day this year he's the best dad i could ever ask for and i appreciate him so much we've enjoyed We'd many car rides together listening to your guys' show. So it really means a lot. Aw, thanks to you both. Happy Blur's Day, Dad.

Danielle says, happy Blur's Day to my amazing fives. Jonas, age 12, and Zeke, age 6. They are definitely the coolest kids I know. For sharks, I'm so thankful to be your mom. Aw, sweet, sweetness. Be nice to your mom. And each other Which I'm sure you are She brought you into this world And she can take you out That's what my mom used to say to me all the time

I mean not legally Definitely not legally No Yeah My mom did say that to me a lot I don't know if you got that a lot

My mom would say My mom stopped short of threatening to end my life But she would remind me often that

She brought me into the world A lot of parenting books Starting maybe after I was a child Started to tell parents Probably stop threatening your children's lives

Yeah stop

That's probably not a good way to get them to pick up their room. It's fair. Once you go there, what else is left in your quiver? Sarah in Woodinville says, I would like to wish my kiddo Cooper a happy 15th, Blur's Day. Coop. Coop. I bet you Coop knows what it's like to have a name like I do, Luke, where if people are ever, you know, celebrating you, being like, hey, Coop made it. Coop. It always gets drawn out. Sounds like a boo. Coop.

It does, but it's not a boo. I know you know. It's a blurs. It's a Coop. Sarah says Cooper is a pretty, pretty cool. No, not a. He's pretty, pretty cool. Always finds a way to make me laugh and is about to start learning to drive. Yowza. Happy B-Day, Coop. I love you and I'm proud of you sweet

Erica says I'd like to wish my mom middle shelf Maggie a happy blurs day she is middle to you but to me she is top shelf she's my quote claim to fame in the teniverse she's a rock star, a cat masseuse and the best mama a kid who is almost 40 could ask for my kids love her grandma Maggie is the best I wish her all the pussy willows her heart desires Aw, that is really sweet.

And thank you both for being such a strong part of the family for so long. Yes, definitely. Holly in Alexandria says, Happy Blur's Day to Virginia in Dallas-Fort Worth. May the year ahead continue to celebrate your fierce joy, passion for expanding family connections, and energy for capturing moments. Ever more delighted to be your virtual 10 friends. Wow, great. Listeners. Yeah, happy Blur's Day, Virginia.

They're really, they're doing important work in the world. I don't know what we're doing, but they're certainly out there doing stuff. And we wrap things up with Max in Seattle, who says, It is my very honor to wish my TBTL progenitor, Katie, in Seattle, a very happy and belated 40th Blurs. Although we haven't been in touch in recent years, I am still so very thankful for Katie bringing me into this community, And I hope she's had the very bestest of blurs here is to many more. Don't we have a friend named Katie who is I think this is not our Katie, though.

It's a different. This is spelled differently. But this is a good time to point out that we should be wishing our friend Katie, our very dear friend Katie, a happy Blurs Day week. And also there's somebody in my house who's Genevieve. Genevieve is also celebrating a Blur's Day today, the big 4-5, so we're going to be celebrating that tonight

I wanted to ask, we're out of time now, and also I don't want to put you in an odd position, but Genevieve said something funny to me on a text chain, which I think is probably okay to repeat which was, I said, oh hey, we're doing live if you want to come by, and she said, oh I would love to, but it's my birthday, and something like, I've strong-armed Andrew and taking me out to a fancy dinner

I'm forcing it, I was, yeah, that was a public, or that was a shared text chain, and she said, I'm forcing Andrew to take me to dinner, and I told her later I'm like hey man I mean I know that she was just teasing but I'm like just for real like I'm really looking forward to going to dinner with you tonight I hope you don't really think that you're forcing me to do this and she said no no I read it I took it as the joke that it was intended but I'm just

curious because uh you know uh you have a certain um is it a restaurant you've been to before no no

but it looks good um uh I can't remember the name of it it's it's an it's a restaurant that's all numbers luke it's like oh 1901 or something like that or is that a book okay i don't know i'm not sure it's some it's some uh nice restaurants that genevieve picked out and made her own reservation for in seattle so um but i mean i offered to do all of that stuff but uh yeah no i'm looking forward to it it'll be good like here's the well whatever i almost wanted to get into this a little bit with uh with the biden story which maybe we'll get to tomorrow like i don't dislike good food there are Certain things that nicer restaurants do that some nice restaurants do. And honestly, it's not even the nicer restaurants. It's the trendier restaurants that are trying to act like they're a little bit better than they are in the same way certain hotels sort of do that, too. Like and it's like I'm not against good food and fine dining. I just think that sometimes people are putting on a little bit of a show that doesn't necessarily need to be put on. And that's what I usually take exception to. Not like not that I can't enjoy a good meal with my beloved.

Well, this is actually going to set up perfectly for tomorrow because I'll be at your house. We can hear how dinner went and we can finally talk about food news today with this Biden story and their particular style of ordering at the restaurant. So we will do all of that on tomorrow's episode of the program. In the meantime, have a great Thursday. Take care of yourselves. Maybe I'll see some of you out at town hall tonight. And for the rest of you, we'll see you on the imaginary radio tomorrow. Until then, have a great Thursday, and please remember, no mountain too tall. And good luck to all. It's the story of a man with a brothel of a home and a pool filled with human excrement.

Power out.