Muse

We must get him out before daybreak. Well, and that's the thing with these nightwalkers here, isn't it? You know, a little bit of sunlight, poof! They go up in flames. I've never gone poof, but it's okay. Not yet. The vampires are always like, Oh, I'm a vampire! I'm immortal! I'm whatever. Well, okay, how about you go be immortal at brunch? TBTL!

Is the length, the shagginess, the anything can happen but frequently nothing does nature of a lot of popular podcasts, is that a bug or a feature?

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

She was a shake dancer. She did the hutchie kutch. And, uh, uh, right on you. Midnight, cowboy. That's not a thing. All right, hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Thursday edition of TBTL, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. The past is history. The future is a mystery. My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. Explaining how a show works means the show's already in trouble. Coming to you from Los Angeles, California, once again.

California got sunshine.

It's a beautiful day. I will say this about the weather in L.A., in my experience. even when they think it's going to be a lousy day weather-wise. It's nicer than most of the other places where you might be in the country. Today is supposed to be sort of cloudy. I was listening to KCRW this morning. I refuse to listen to the competitor public radio station because they've changed their name to LAist, which I just can't, I cannot ken that. It's not ken-uff for me in the naming department. But I was listening to KCRW, and they were talking about how kind of the weather was going to be a real mixed bag today and how it's kind of not great and June gloom and all that. I know we're months away from June, but it's beautiful. A bad weather day. The worst day of weather in California is better than the best day of weather in a lot of other places.

California got sunshine.

Anyway, I used this nice weather to walk over to the Starbucks located in the Ralphs, which is connected to my hotel.

This song goes out to all the coffee lovers of the world.

And I have thoughts. First thought, best thought. Don't ever stay in any hotel if you can handle it. I mean, if you can make this happen, I would recommend only stay in a hotel that's attached to a grocery store. It is amazing. It is such a game changer. for so many reasons that I'd love to get into in a minute here on the show. But they do have a Starbucks in there, and I was getting coffee, and something happened between me and the barista, or something didn't happen. And I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that, which, you know, makes this a Thursday. Luke's had another awkward interaction in a retail setting. Let the fun begin. It's only happened 4,191 other times, which means we're at episode 4,192 in a collector's series. Speaking of business interactions, the Red Lobster Corporation decided at some point that they would make their shrimp. Unlimited. And that, it looks like, was a bad idea based on some of the financials that are coming in. So we will hopefully finally talk about that today. It's only been like four shows that I've been promoting that conversation. And maybe it'll really happen today. It just might. Also, it's Thursday, a.k.a. Blur's Day, so we'll do the Blur's Day messages. And we will talk to this guy, the longest-running co-bro of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. We at TBTV have been doing all kinds of sort of training and skills building, and I think he is finally really figuring this TBTL thing out. I agree with everything that you said. He's Andrew Walsh, and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

Good morning, Luke. Have you ever seen the movie Pacific Rim?

No, I haven't, but I know you and Genevieve went and saw it in a theater and enjoyed it as one of those, I believe you say, popcorn films.

Sure, yeah. That's a good memory. That is true. It's one that I saw in the theater. I don't remember it that well. It came out a long time ago now. I remember basically enjoying it. But there's one thing that Genevieve and I sort of, like, quote to each other sometimes or reference. And I want to let all of the Pacific Rim heads out there know I'm going to get some of this wrong. This is just how I slash we remember it in the movie, okay? You got these monsters, and they're called kaiju, and so humanity builds these.

huge robots that are as big as the kaiju to fight them right that's the basic plot it's pretty cool

it's pretty spectacular to watch well you know what i've found over the years is that the facts

are your friends huh might want to revisit that mike um but anyway no need to relitigate that now um but uh i was gonna say there's something happens to the technology or to the earth or to the people, let's just call them the good guys who are fighting the monsters, where they can no longer use their giant robots because the technology has failed, and specifically, it's the nuclear technology, I believe, that has failed. So they don't know what to do to fight these monsters anymore, and then they realize Does this sound like a musical robot? They can go analog. Ah. Now, I don't know exactly what analog means in the future, or whatever parallel universe that is but i think these and i started laughing out loud in the theater because they're still getting they're not attacking the monsters with acoustic guitars i

want to be clear about that or sticks they're making the monsters listen to a limited release

vinyl they have a wrist rocket and a dream um so anyway we're just laughing because they're still getting in these giant robots and i can't remember how it's depicted uh on screen that it's more you know challenging for them to fight in analog mode than i guess digital mode but it's somehow analog if i'm remembering it right yeah it's like i'm glad that that's stuck in your head too the i know why that of all the things andrew for mr show show reunion sketch that i'm always quoting of him it's david cross doing imitation of who is the futurist is it shingy is it shingy shingy he does an imitation of a futurist named shingy just keeps on saying digital digital that ruin that word is forever ruined for me now but anyway i bring up this story about doing everything analog because that's essentially what's going on here with tbtl right now luke even though i'm recording digitally into my computer right now and i can watch the wave files bounce around it's a different system than we usually use or something that we have been using lately because you're in LA throwback we're doing some throwback technology here by our standards throwing back like all the way to January of 2024 if you can imagine it um and so I was posting the show yesterday and I realized a bunch of my levels were off because we use a system now where you don't even have to really think about levels that much anymore my whole life I've spent thinking about levels and in a matter of jerry levels mere months i've forgotten how to watch my level so i had to do a lot of like poking around that's how they get you and so we are essentially fighting the kaiju on analog mode right now which is the point of that story which i think most people

saw coming the the so what happened when we uh went to dial up for yesterday's program was we realized that uh this hotel that i'm in which i feel comfortable mentioning because no one's going to come here at this point, is the Hotel June. I mean, no one's going to come try to find me at this hotel by the time they hear this. It would be flattering, but don't do it. The Hotel June, I love this place so much. It's my favorite place to stay in L.A., which is kind of a bit odd because when I'm on CBS's Dime, there are lots of options and some of them can be pretty fancy. And this is not necessarily the fanciest hotel that I could stay at on CBS's time, nor is it the most conveniently located. In fact, if we're filming anywhere that's not on the west side of Los Angeles, it's actually actively a bad place to stay from a geography standpoint. But what I love about it is that it is reasonably priced, so I'm able to get a nicer room and still fall within the CBS budget parameters. Like if I was staying at the Beverly Wilshire, as I have before, or one of those other real schmancy places. Yeah, that's like the epitome, yeah. Big timing. That's real pretty woman territory. I believe that's where Richard Gere and Julia Roberts go. But I like this place because over at the Beverly Wilshire, I would get a broom closet. They would say, sir, let us show you, please, to your well-appointed broom closet. But here, they're like, oh, my God, it's a guy from CBS. What do you want? Which floor of the hotel would you like, sir? And I like that. I'd rather have a really nice room in a more kind of more moderately priced place than a broom closet at a real fancy place. The other thing I love about this is that it's attached to a grocery store. It is attached to a Ralph's, which is amazing. But what it doesn't have Andrew

and I'm going somewhere with this, is good Wi-Fi, apparently. And that is why we had to switch. We had to take evasive action against the kaiju and switch from our normal system where it's video and you and I are looking at each other and we have all kinds of cool assets afterwards. We have lots of digital assets.

I'm just leaving a trail of assets. I'm just dragging my asset across the carpet. Terry!

But the two things that stuck in my mind were digital and Terry.

And my grandfather yelling at his dog, Terry, both of whom have long since passed.

But yeah, no, the connectivity here is bad, unfortunately. And so we had to switch over. And I'll be honest with you, Andrew, it bums me out because I love this hotel so much that I – do you ever have this experience with a place, a restaurant, what have you? I'm not going to say a person because that's a very different category. And we talked about this actually on the show, I think, earlier this week maybe. this idea of like you like something and you're almost become sort of preemptively worried about it, not being here. So again, I'm not trying to anthropomorphize this place. It's just a hotel, but I really like it. I know I, I always get the same room. Literally. They give me the same room. Now I know everybody here. I have my jogging route. I feel I got here. Are you Royal Tenenbaum? I'm seriously, dude, if I could make it happen, I walked into this hotel room The night that I got here And it was late too I took a late flight With a super ager As you all know If you listened to yesterday's show I got into the room And I literally said Out loud for no one Hello old friend I said hello old friend To the hotel room That's weird But it's because I love the fact That I know Where everything is I know exactly What I'm going to get I have my whole setup i i it's the room they give me has the sleeping area and then there's a little other area and uh another like room basically and that's where i set up that's where i'm talking to you from i can see lax i can see in the far distance the pacific ocean um i just love this place so much and as i was finishing up my jog earlier this morning i was looking up at the hotel as i was coming around the corner and i thought i hope to god this business model is working yes you'll pay a little extra it's almost like i'm not i'm not getting you know i'm not promising anything but if they had a tip jar if they had like a venmo keep the hotel june going i would consider it because i know what's going to happen at some point i'm going to go on the website to book this and it's going to have a new name and a new concept and it's going to be owned by a different mega hotel group currently it is a bonvoy property which that's just gravy my friend that is just gravy but like i actually had the thought man i hope this place doesn't change hands in the near future because i really enjoy my experience of being here and the fact that the wi-fi is shite is a little bit of a bummer because i want to stay here i want to stay here going forward i mean i have been now for a good couple years probably this has been my primary joint but like the other thing is i i this is will now be the third time i've said this on this episode and probably have said it to you in previous conversations the proximity to a working grocery store is so phenomenal it changes everything about the hotel staying experience because what is one of the things that happens if you stay in a hotel particularly for a few days

the food situation is a problem unless you are a real high net worth individual which i am not and you're ordering room service left and right or eating in the hotel restaurants you it's like getting or your door dashing, which is something I do a lot at hotels now, there's just never like access to food in the way you kind of would in your normal life. At least there often isn't in the kind of hotels that I try to stay in. Again, not on my own dime, but like usually I'm somewhere where your options are kind of there. There's a lot of food in the hotel, but none of it's affordable. And the idea of just what I did last night when I got in grabbing, I went down. so okay here was the exact order of events i'm checking into the hotel they say uh hey there mr burbank welcome back you know that i love that kind of thing it was late and i was like the ralphs has got to be closed right and the front desk person goes she goes no it's open till midnight first of all take a note zoo pans take a note it was like 11 10 and the ralphs was open i love this so much and what did i do instead of door dashing some kind of ungodly pizza concoction that i would have been eating on the bed and wiping my mouth with the towel and then i would have woken up the next day with like a towel that looks like a crime had been committed in the hotel room like instead of that whole scene i got some wheat thins i got one of those little trays of of pre-sliced cheese had a delicious little late night snack put it in the refrigerator guess what i'm going to be having that later uh grabbed a couple of diet dr peppers these would retail at the beverly hilton for uh or the beverly wilshire either one those dr peppers would retail for twelve dollars two bucks at the ralph's in westchester i am so in love with the fact that i can just go next door and anything i need i mean they give you a lot of water in this uh in this hotel which is cool like a lot of free water but it's that boxed water have you had boxed water

yet i think i've seen it around the white box with the black letter yes yes the irony is the box says

boxed water is better and it is manifestly worse it tastes like cardboard because the packaging surprises me all those p fast horrible forever plastics that are you know going to be our undoing are very bad but they do one thing which is the bottle of water the bottle of dasani or whatever doesn't taste like the bottle to me these boxed waters taste exactly like the box of water

i haven't had the box water that i can remember but i will tell you that i don't like it when you get a bottle of water and it's like the the metal bottle it's in the shape of a bottle but it's not technically i love those oh you like those see those i think i don't know it's not a taste i was gonna say i feel like i can sort of taste the metal in those i don't think that's true i think it's something about the sensation of it maybe i'm not exactly sure what it is but

it it hits weird i don't like those i feel like i'm getting a high-end vessel for this water that i could reuse if i was willing to dedicate myself to the process and the project yeah i could start washing those out although do you wash out a thing that's just had sterilized water in it um but um Here's the other thing about these boxed waters.

You know, I think about that every time. Sometimes I use a little shot glass in the kitchen to measure out like a shot of vodka if I'm making like a mixed drink or something like that, just to give me some sense of how much I'm imbibing. Otherwise, it'll just sort of be a drop of cranberry juice or what have you. And so after I pour a little vodka in the shot glass and I pour it into the drink, then it sits on the kitchen counter. And I wonder, do I have to wash that? Because people use vodka as a cleaning agent, don't they? Yeah. Of course, I do rinse it out, but I always wonder.

The line between washing and licking it out is a blurry one, Andrew.

I crawl. What I do is I like to crawl into the bottle of Absolute. But anyway, yeah, it's like one of those things. I wait, who's cleaning the cleaners here? Anyway, it's important for me to interrupt you with that.

Well, I actually bought me some time. I'm sending you a photograph right now of this boxed water that I have here, courtesy of the hotel. Which, again, I do end up consuming a fair amount of this because, like, any port in the storm, and it's free. but you can also buy water next door you know at the normal grocery store price which is great it's because again water is another thing if like you go to one like if you're in staying in a nice enough hotel and they've got the like a couple bottles of fiji in there and it's got the little cardboard around it that's like uh please enjoy this fiji for fourteen dollars i just love getting access to like basic necessities at the going rate for those basic

necessities uh i don't think water is a basic necessity luke it's a human right andrew and you just fell into my trap it is the most basic human necessity i will say this about the the fiji water though and i don't understand i mean shout out to fiji water and shout out to soft soap in various bathrooms across the country because they have learned that there is something special when you're when you're selling something that is a clear liquid to put the design on the back label so that you can see it through said liquid it is a magical way of selling a product the square

bottle the square plastic bottle of the Fiji is a very uh is a very very clever invention there are a lot of indications that the actual harvesting of the Fiji water is tremendously bad for Fijians and the people that live in the area where the water is coming from which you'll be shocked to hear about something called colonialism but i financial colonialism uh in this case i think not literal colonialism although i wouldn't rule it out google it fiji

bad um but again balance that with it looks cool and i do every day this is the struggle

andrew this is the struggle of being a high design minded person with a scintilla of morality so I sent you this picture of this boxed water because it here's the problem I do have you have

you received the photograph yet no let's see here oh I see this was via email so let me sorry because

I thought you might want to use it as a show pick and I know that you like it via email I do I

appreciate it all the different ways but mostly email no I like it one way and it's email yeah

okay so I'm looking at the box so imagine that you unscrew this cap what it's shaped like is imagine a like a carton of milk but But let's imagine the kind of carton of milk you'd get at school, but now imagine it's much taller, but it's the same basic dimensions, but it's just been stretched. It's like a little high-rise version of a carton of milk from school, but there's this plastic kind of spout. The problem is when you unscrew that spout, now imagine you're raising that to your lips, Andrew, your beautiful bearded lips. And now imagine you're trying to tip this thing up in the air so you can get more of the water. What do you think is hitting the bridge of your nose? Oh, the flap on top of it. The goddamn roof line. Oh, yes. The roof line of the thing. The steeple. I have to drink this water, and usually it's after a jog, so I'm particularly parched. You have to drink it out of the side. I'm doing it right now. You have to drink it out of the side of your mouth like a gold prospector. That's my gold prospector impression. Oh, I thought that was a fire alarm. Well, what about bending that thing? It is the worst design of all time, and I can't believe nobody's reached out to them. You can't bend it down. You can't, like, bend it away. Not effectively. Not to where it's not still creating a certain amount of blockage. Like, compared to a standard, like, plastic water bottle that you would just pick up and take a drink from, it is so much more work. You have to kind of side-long this thing to keep the very tippy-top from just—it's, like, structurally impossible to drink this. And I just don't know how they've gotten this far with this concept with such a bad design. Maybe you're supposed to take your keys and punch holes in the bottom and then open up the top. Shotgun it. Yeah, have you thought about that? But so the other thing that I love about this Ralph's Next Store is that they have a Starby's. They got a Starbucks in there. And that is nice because, again, coffee not always on offer here at this hotel or at least not in an easy way. I have a feeling because this hotel is kind of hip and has kind of a hip clientele. What they don't have is a deep commitment to their coffee culture the way that like a Hampton Inn would. And the reason is, I think, because the Hampton Inn is a bunch of people that are here for some kind of aluminum conference. And they're up at the they're up at the crack of dawn. They've got the lanyard on. They're getting their Java juice, their their moon juice. They're they're powering up. There are certain kind of hotels where they're like, it's a bunch of people that are here for work and they need their coffee at 6 a.m. and they need it to be a steady drip. Yes, this is more like this is more like, hi, I'm a Brazilian influencer who's considering investing some of my family money in, you know, renewable boxed water. And I've decided to come out to L.A. for a couple of months to just, I don't know, take in the vibes. That's more the energy here. And those are not the people that need their coffee early and often. So I've been downstairs many times going, where's the coffee?

And they're like, it's not out yet. And I'm like, it's like 730. And they look at me like I got two heads. Or what would happen to the coffee? Well, it's like 10. Everyone's having a mezcal now. What are you doing? It's like, okay. So all that is to say, I go to the Starbucks today to get my coffee. And my order, I'm the only person, I want to say, and this is one of those Starbucks that's in a grocery store. There is a person working there. She's very nice. And I am the only customer Oddly enough for this Starbucks There is no line She's not in the midst of Making a whole variety Of complicated drinks She's just standing there And I walk up and I say Hi I'd like a large drip with some room for cream please And to her left Is the What would you call it The carafe, the thermos The kind of thing where once you make the coffee You put it in there but it insulates it and keeps it warm Like a little insulated pitcher? Yeah, and the kind that, you know, you press down the top of, and it sends out a stream of coffee. Oh, yeah, sure, of course, yeah, yeah. Whatever you call that. And she's got it, like, if it's a snake, it would have bit her. If she moves her hand five inches, she hits it with her left hand. And I said, okay, large coffee with room for cream, please. And she goes, okay. And then I'm looking at the little, you know, payment kiosk thing. Uh-oh. And I'm trying to kind of figure out how to operate it because I'm going to use my phone as like a tap. You know, my phone has my bank account. And that's pretty standard at this point. And so I said, a large coffee, a little room for cream, please. She goes, okay. And then I start looking at the payment thing. And then she just picks up her cell phone and just starts scrolling and looking at it. And I'm thinking, oh, that's kind of funny because I'm the only person here. And the order has been pretty clearly placed. I wonder why it is she isn't preparing the coffee. That seems like the natural next step in this transaction. Large coffee, please, room for cream. Sure. Back to the phone. So I was like, huh. So I'm kind of looking, but I'm mostly distracted. I'm trying to pay. I'm trying to figure out how to do tap on this. little deal and it turns out i think she maybe hasn't hit something on her side that like gets it to that next screen then it's like ralph's is asking me for my reward number which i put in because i've still not fully emotionally detached from los angeles and the fact that i can put my phone number and it works makes me feel connected to this part of the world i know that feeling like this this key still work it's like going back to your elementary school and you know visiting an old classroom i remember boy it seems smaller this ralph's it seems so small right so uh so i'm i go does this have tap she goes yeah and then she realizes so she hit something on her side so now it's going to give me the screen that'll get me through the payment of this thing and uh i look up and she's still now on her phone again and then i go where on the it wasn't clear where i should be hovering my phone you know how like yeah it's different based

on the device and sometimes it's not it's not actually displayed they don't have a little helpful indicator for olds like me and i have found myself occasionally standing in front of a tablet just pressing my phone against random parts of it trying to find wherever the tap energy chi trying to open the third eye of this to get the kundalini rising of this of this payment process every time i interact with this young person dennis miller i've ever heard you and i loved it that was amazing so like every time that i have another question which granted i have too many questions about this very simple process that she's very helpful and she helps me and then goes back to her phone at no time begins the process of preparing the coffee and it is only so then i get to the payment i'm like yes tap do it and now i'm ready for her to go to the coffee and i realized she still has not budged she's still checking her phone and i look down and it's one of those tap things where it also wants my pin number because it's my debit card and that's also by the way hit and miss i feel like half of the times when you pay with tap it wants a i'm people will probably say it's just a debit versus credit but that's not true because i my debit card is what's associated with my phone and i do this all the time now because i lost my

debit card years ago yeah true story don't tell me i don't know what i'm talking about because i

lost my debit card years ago i mean easily a year and a half ago i stopped knowing where my debit card was and my phone became my debit card no one's been doing anything to my debit card or with my debit card so it's not it's not stolen it's overflowing but i am a little bit you're

so shadow boxing some like email that you're gonna get i kind of lost the thread but like are you you're saying that while you still had a working debit card you inputted it into your phone and so it treats your phone like the debit card the card itself is not turned off or something

it's just sort of in the wind the card is in the wind yeah nobody has ever tried to use it nefariously it's probably was like in the bottom of a shoe that i threw out or something and if i were to call the bank and say the card is lost then they would make me change all my information and so what i did at some point was just shifted to also it was a period of time where i was spending more time than was advisable in portland bars playing their little slot machines and what you can't do with the phone is use it as a bank card at those like they've got these the world's jankiest atms you know the kind that's got like some kind of 1990s graphic of a globe on it you know what i mean like just from a graphic standpoint you're like oh this could be going if this thing knew what the dark web was it would be going there i just have a phone receiver attached to it that's so weird seriously like there are and the portland bars are full of these i don't know who the company is but it is i mean it's it believe it belongs in the museum of jurassic technology which is a thing here in la um so you couldn't use this was a serious calculation i made i was like i can't this is this is a debit card if i'm at say ralph's and i'm buying some groceries or some wheat thins but what it isn't is a thing that will allow me to get more money out from one of these jank atms that are next to the mighty minor game at the rose and thistle in portland and i thought that was actually not a bad governor to have on my finances true story so what i realized is um this i still have yet to successfully pay for this three dollar coffee because i have not put my pin number in i put the pin number in something goes blink and the person immediately puts her phone down reaches over to the carafe fills the cup with coffee, puts a lid on it and a sleeve and hands it to me and says, thank you very much. Meaning, she was waiting until she knew that my mother...

was good for this three dollar coffee there was no trust in this interaction there was no i was this the process of the engaging with the making of this coffee or i should just say the distributing of the coffee because the coffee had already been made no part of that was going to start until every i was dotted and t was crossed as far as me paying the ralphs of westchester California Los Angeles three dollars and whatever it was in change and that and it was amazing as soon as the machine said like this guy has paid she went right to work wow okay that's not a couple

of times I thought I knew where that story was going and I was wrong both times this is way more interesting than any place I was taking than you usually get from me I usually get well I thought you know not that it's uninteresting I thought at first it might be a tipping situation because You're talking about how easy you're almost setting up for how easy this task was going to be. But then they flip the thing around. But I was like, wow, we just talked about tipping recently. And then I thought it was going to be now. I'm just not responding to your story. I'm just telling you all the stories I thought is going to be. I thought she was going to wait around for her colleague to come off of their break or something to pump the coffee for you. But this is interesting. It was a it was a trust issue. Now, here's the deal. You're hurting right now because of this. But what I'm telling you is she's been hurt before, or at least that Starbucks has been hurt before. And that's what's happening. It's not about you. It's about something that has happened there maybe many times over. And so they have a policy in place. And it's not about the way you look or carry yourself.

You are exactly right. I realized this later was this was how this person was trained. And it's Pavlovian, you could say. And I know this with various things. You talked about how we're recording on an analog system today and how, how much muscle memory do you have around the new version of how we do the show compared to the old version? This is just what happens. This is a, this is a person who again was absolutely pleasant. Like I had a, I had a perfectly fine interaction, but she has, was trained to do this and has now almost, she almost went into sleep mode every time we weren't talking and before the thing indicated that the money had been paid it was like she just like shut down it was like it was like those cars that turn themselves off at every stoplight that was this person and it's purely you're right it's because that's the policy there she was taught that she's observed that policy i you know rightfully so and didn't even consider it like didn't even think about it was just she was just doing this thing that she does a hundred times a day but it was so odd to me because i was like is there no trust here that i will pay for this coffee and the answer is no

there wasn't there wasn't any trust and maybe you just haven't earned that trust you gotta work on

earning you gotta stay in that hotel she was like is this the guy that can't even trust himself with

a debit card in a bar in portland i like the way you set it up as you're like the most you can't even trust yourself but you're you're insulted that they don't trust andrew honestly i need

someone else to trust me so i can trust myself he doesn't know how to trust we was hoping for

some razzle dazzle razzle dazzle that's right man razzle dazzle on your mark on your mark get set

get set now ready ready go everybody razzle dazzle hey we've got some dazzling donors to thank these are the folks and i want to tell you something andrew i don't read one word of these dazzling donor messages until that nickel drops that's just policy around here sometimes i've

told you before i'm like hey sometimes you know could you read this message a little bit early the check hasn't cleared yet and you are you stand firm on that that is a hard no i just kind of like

i just shut down and then as soon as stripe tells me that there's been a transaction i oh hey we got to thank kevin zintarsky of omaha nebraska the check cleared yes debit worked thank you kevin kevin knows where his debit card is he's a normal person Kevin can trust himself with his debit card and is using it, presumably, to support this thing. Kevin is in Omaha, Nebraska, of course. We know Kevin, dear friend of the program, for years and years. Kevin says, hi, friendos. So happy to be among this group of special people for another year. Luke, Andrew, and John, keep doing what you're doing, and please don't be afraid to continue trying new things as you move forward in independence. Well, Kevin, I've got news. We're trying something new on tomorrow's show.

Yeah, very exciting.

so it was the prophecy was foretold you manifested this you named it and claimed it my friend and we're doing it

the text me back people had been saying for a long time hey we should do a show together we should do some sort of big crossover super show and I kept saying no that's not in the mission that's not in the mission and then I read Kevin's note and then I waited for the money to clear and then I said yes we will try something new exactly Exactly. We just have to keep all of the carts behind all of the horses. That's right. And we did that. And here we are reading Kevin's message. I'm just getting to Kevin's next line. Carvana be with you all. Speaking of questionable, I would love to know how much money American public media got from Carvana. Yeah. for the overall buy and also like it's this is an unknowable number or an unknowable data point because the way these things were and this is where kevin and the zentarskys of omaha love so much about the show is when i take something to the least interesting place but of course we had all those carvana ads on because uh as part of this network of shows american public media all of the ad spaces across all of these different shows had been sold and so it wasn't that carvana said oh we would love to get on this niche podcast it was that we were just another show part of this network and they were going to stick it on our breaks like everybody else's but i think that how much they were paying or the amount of lifting that tbtl was doing on this whole project was based on downloads in other words we were doing the least lift of anyone as far as what we were charging i wonder what apm was able to recoup for those ads that ran all those times on tbtl you

mean sometimes when the same caravana ad would run two times well drive you happy before the show would even begin like that we're talking about i um i like to do this thing where you will often take the blame or maybe the credit for taking something into the most boring place possible And then I always say, hold my coffee, hold my podcast, because I would like to double or triple down on that and see if I can make it even more boring or less relatable. But I think I'm developing a theory about my feelings towards podcast ads that might fly in the face of what you'd expect, which is and I'd like to I'd like to just give one more caveat because it's not boring enough yet. this might be very specific to my particular podcast obsession the Dan Lebitard show and maybe it's just that show but I think I now like just regular ass radio commercials Napa know how in my podcasts as opposed to get in the zone yeah and like I don't think that like if you and I started advertising again you know like on this show which is not in the plans everybody but if you know not saying it'll never happen who knows what's going to go on with this industry but i think we would probably still lean towards so explain that you and i doing ads together or reading them ourselves or whatever and having our voices attached to them but when i'm listening to the levitard show and i'm hearing like the same host read over and over that is irritating more than just like sometimes they just drop in like a trailer for an upcoming movie with the trailer voice guy and i'm like this is so much better like it's just i would rather just like let's just let's just do it let's just run commercials i don't I don't know if I need to hear this host trying this hard to be this cute.

You know what I, my version of that is, and, and I'm with you. So the starting point on this is the, the, the thought in the industry. And I do think actually it is true that if you have the hosts of a show talking about a product, it is going to be more appealing. It'd be a better kind of sales pitch to the listener because the listeners presumably kind of like the host, they trust the hosts. It's supposed to be a better ad. There's a premium paid for that for a host read Even on like commercial radio

And generally speaking I've always agreed with that And still do there's value in that

But there is something that's Kind of Comforting about Just a straight up GD Good old fashioned ad and like for Instance two examples of this in my life I was watching MSNBC special Coverage of the Trump trial When I was home on like monday night this week or tuesday or something and because i was watching it in real time usually what i do is i watch our friend chris hayes's show um but i will sometimes i dvr it as well and i will sometimes get to it a little bit late which means i have some fast forwarding abilities and i'll fast forward through the commercials or whatever but because i was watching this in real time and they had like their dream team together of like rachel maddow and um joy reed and and chris and everything love that it's honestly like i don't want u.s politics to sort of mean the end of like what we think of as western democracy but god damn i love watching these people talk about it yeah the potential end of of democracy so i'm watching that but i'm watching it in real time which means when they go to a break i just have to watch the ads or i have to experience the ads or i have to leave the room and do something else but there's just something about it that was like, oh yeah, this is how life used to be. to be. And I don't really mind this that I, because if you don't just sit there and watch the ad, if you use it as a chance to go into the other room and do something you've been meaning to do, um, then it's kind of useful. The other thing is when I'm listening to podcasts, particularly the daily on my little jog, and instead of fast forwarding the commercials, which I'm allowed to do, you know, like it'll let you, um, uh, I use that time to daydream because if I'm listening to an episode of the daily where they're talking about how avian flu has now jumped species and is in mammals and we're seeing it in um in in elephant seals in south america and we're seeing it in bottlenose dolphins and we're worried that it's also going to kill our bear population etc i am listening very intensely and intently to that because it feels like we're oh we're at the beginning of another movie and i'm like just that's my concentration and then they put on the carvana ad and like oh good now i can just zone out i need a break sometimes from the content when the now that's where uh that's where tbtl's programming makes this unique you don't need a

break from this this is the daydreaming part the whole show is the daydreaming part yes exactly

just the podcast you can sort of pay attention to love uh the zintarskis and then p.s we're back to Listener Kevin's message here, by the way For those of you who got lost In all of the advertising Model talk for Podcasting, radio shows, and the like P.S. Please feel free to use the rest of my time to fire Off as many random drops as you see fit Thank you. Well, Kevin, we've Used up all your time talking about Carvana And that's on you

You never raise the specter of Carvana

Exactly, that's, that, honestly Like, next year, send us the same message hold the carvana and we will have time to to play audio drops as it was you you raised such a good topic for us that uh we burned up eight minutes on it so thank you very much though we do appreciate

you maestro wait are you seriously you're not going to play him any drops i mean that was on us he's on us don't i'm not i'm not trying to play good cop bad cop here but uh well you very much are i mean this is all public right now i mean can i play some drops for him i feel terrible

not delivering okay well here's the thing here's what i'm gonna have to do then and this is what gets me nervous i could do it on my end i'll just play i can do it here but remember um how i ended up with a bunch of weird when i was actually you know what maybe not on this should actually be slightly better on this computer there is a lot of this stuff though these sound effects because remember when remember when i like i'll give you your money back i'm when i was dragging files around i accidentally imported a bunch of just that's called base chair c that's what that is and there's a lot of that just floating around so i fear that if i hit go on something we may get an un but it's fine you know what you you've you've in the words of morrissey you've started something forced me to a zone so here we go enjoy it kevin i can't speak for the levels or the content which makes it a normal tbtl this is the most duress i've ever heard you do

any part of tbtl under targets targets blank ass wall

watch out beep beep watch out deal with it cape blanchett to me it look like a level coming to me he's not even levitating me down oh my god guys we are crushing it hey then what's up it's great no actually i'm kind of busy right now to me it looks like a level coming to me he's not

even levitating me wow it just like started over did the whole is the whole thing looped back to the beginning well you know i mean we were that was that was barely scratching the surface of all the audio but you know what happened a video like one of the files this is gonna make people just beg for the uh american public media slash cadence 13 ad revenue vertical integration

conversation everybody's saying just say maestro again please for some right for some reason i now

am weirdly incentivized to make this the worst segment of all time because you forced me to do it but but no somehow when it was clicking through files it like wanted to start up like um you know uh, a video player because as part of this whole dump of, of, of files that I was trying to get off of this other older computer, some of them were these weird like video clips that I, again, it was just some kind of Kazaa situation. It'd be like a one and a half. second clip from like a bollywood movie or it'd be like a um you know a cartoon and animaniac for like a second and i all i can think is maybe these were like listed as like funny drops that i got off the internet at some point so when it was ticking through all this audio all of a sudden it tried to show me a video and then it just went back to the first piece of audio so i don't know why i did that let's try this one more time let's see what happened by the way to 33 30

podcasts are the future of show business i like to get wet though huh training day so who needs a movie what i like words and and and i like radio

everyone knows the only thing we should be ashamed of is our bodies He's a wild card, but I'm glad he's in our deck. It's all voodoo nonsense as far as this cat's concerned. There is something about the soul of a cat.

It is important to remember the true meaning of Christmas.

So that's one of them. Wow. So that was just a video of Bill Murray from Scrooged. So I was watching when that happened, all of a sudden a video pops up and it's Bill Murray from Scrooged saying that line. So there's some, I don't know how this happened. robotic to us i think that i don't know if a listener sent this in or if i was just trying to grab you know large data dumps of of um you know so-called funny audio i don't know how it ended up in here but it's uh uh it's it makes it a little bit i mean i do think that actually paid

off more than i expected yeah i enjoyed it i honestly like i would say if we didn't have more dazzling donors to think i'd say just keep that rolling for the rest of the show

and we call it good but that's not yeah i was tempted to but instead i am contractually abrogated? No, the problem is I've been abrogating my duty of co-host of the show. I'm contractually obligated to say

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

Everybody rattles down. I'm also really wondering if I used abrogated right. I think to abrogate a treaty is to not honor it.

I thought you were mispronouncing abdicate. That's where I was. also i i don't know that i know the word abrogate until somebody tells me that we've already had this conversation what did you say the word was is it abrogate i think to abrogate a treaty

is to kind of um annul it or to just basically like invalidate an agreed upon thing is to

abrogate it sure it looks like you're right about that to avoid uh to abolish by authoritative of action to veto essentially. But I do

not want to abrogate or veto or even Danny DeVito the dazzling donor message submitted by Mike Duncan of Columbia, South Carolina. In case there was any confusion about Mike's last name and how it's pronounced, it's like Ben Affleck's donut store. Oh, the

Dunkings. So it's Duncan.

Dunking. Mike Dunking.

Yes. Mike

says, hey friendos, congratulations on tbtl's independence i want to say that this part of the show the donor segment is often my favorite part of the program that's an interesting piece of feedback and probably a good one for me to hear andrew and also a good thing for me to sort of keep in mind i guess just when i'm putting together the plan for the show i should remember that the dazzling donor segment is going to be a

minimum of 20 minutes yeah and also keep in mind and i don't want to throw any cold water on this But keep in mind, Mike has not heard the first part of this dazzling donor segment yet. And so that might be past tense by the time he hears this. The donor segment was often my favorite part of the program.

But see, the thing is, as much as I think of our show as a bunch of top stories that just keep getting pushed off because we want to talk about Carvana or, you know, a lack of trust in the Starbucks interaction. really the show is that stuff. And the, I, I know this is an insult to the term riffing, but I guess us riffing on things and the dazzling donor messages often provide a lot of riff material. And it sounds like at least for Mike, he likes that. And I, and I guess it's good for me to just think about what the, what is it about the show that people like? And if I'm being honest, it's probably more our riffing than our, uh, or at least my insightful takes on the news or,

you know of the day or whatever although we really i'm just thinking this now we probably have to get to the the top story because you mentioned the top of the show but it'll be fast

it'll be very fast be very quick i promise uh mike says um it gives me a warm feeling to hear about different listeners oh i'm completely misread the nature of mike's message you could have no he likes hearing it's that last sentence

problem andrew what a theory what a theory i just spun up out of absolute whole cloth and it was so wrong based on what mike is saying it could only be better if the next sentence was

and i'm not talking about you two riffing i mean that's implied that is heavily implied

uh it gives me a warm feeling to hear about different listeners from around the world it makes me feel like uh part of a small yet global community i'm glad to be able to give a little financial support to keep the ss friendship afloat i love it if there are any other columbia tens out there that want to get together uh you have to do it without me i never know where these

sentences are going with i read this earlier today and it literally alone no microphones on i lulled i bark laughed out loud when i got to the end of this message i mean always keep them guessing congratulations many columbia tens out there want to get together you'll have to do it

without me i'm a highly reclusive individual who's rarely spotted in public like a sasquatch you'll never find me don't even try it much love power out mike in columbia south carolina i would just say if you're a 10 in columbia just go around asking after people named mike but there's not many probably find this mike right away so mike thank you so much for your support and um i hope that at least a little part of you was enjoying uh historically has enjoyed uh our flights of fancy during the dazzling donor messages at least a little part of you hello and welcome to top story um the top story that we're finally going to get to andrew mostly just because this drop exists unlimited i made you laugh during the sound check with that which is my greatest joy listeners if they like the show that's great but really if i can after all these years make you laugh i'm very very uh happy about that because i'm not getting paid for those

laughs that's what makes them worth more when we're rolling i'm getting paid for every laugh i don't allow but if you make sound check that's just a real laugh that's on me that's no that is

the sweetest that is the sweetest berry that one is so so hard to get to i've got to climb through so much bramble um but um uh this story and i believe you may have actually sent this to me lo those many years ago when it came out but the uh the company that owns red lobster has been trying to sell red lobster uh to an international concern and that international concern uh recently pulled out of the deal decided that they just uh in fact one of their investors said that they're no longer going to invest in the company because they're not seeing enough upside and prospective buyers of red lobster are shying away uh it would seem because the financials at red lobster are not particularly great but the one that jumped out at me in this article that you sent me i think i saw it in san francisco chronicle or i'm sorry the gate the gate everybody calm down sf gate right everybody knows it's sf gate okay but seriously um the uh the thing that jumped out at me and and that people have been talking about is one of the apparent missteps for the red lobster company in trying to get people in the door was to offer unlimited shrimp for $19.99 and it turns out that they lost a lot of money on that particular project it was a it was a real miscalculation they had to then I guess eventually raise the price yeah I think they raised it like $29.99 they had to add they had to increase it by a third because of the amount of

shrimp they raised it by five bucks I think okay I don't know only five bucks I don't have in front of me but I thought it was written and I don't think it was intentionally funny but basically There are a bunch of headlines because it's a very grabby headline that says, like, you know, Red Lobster.

Don't find yourself alone with that headline, Andrew.

But, like, the headline is what I saw in several publications, like, you know, Red Lobster looking to, you know, looking to bankruptcy. What do you call it? Restructure or whatever. Yeah. Chapter 11. After after shrimp giveaway goes bad or something. Because, you know, that's such a great clicker. And then you click on it and you're like, well, this is a bunch of business bullshit. Blah, blah, blah. Is it really? can you really tie it back to one promotion really and i apparently yes you can thank you sf gate it said that i think they lost am i right 11 million dollars on this um on this particular low yeah it does as i say it out loud but i need to i need to get the article back in front of me i thought it was that i'm trying to find it andrew 25 so that the end of the article that i thought was kind of Funny was they later change it to $25.

you can eat shrimp and i was kind of like yeah that's all you had to do huh according to a

business an earnings call the chain of 670 restaurants experienced a four percent year over year growth in its number of customers thanks to this promotion but the deal's 20 price tag for patrons to get two different types of shrimp was too little to make up the difference now they've upped the price to 25 so it was getting people in the door but then the people were apparently capable of consuming a lot of shrimp which i feel like i would be too i don't even want to like shrimp isn't necessarily my thing i don't like like it's it's not a hugely appealing thing for me but if you asked me to if you said how many shrimp could you i could eat twenty dollars worth of shrimp my friends i could completely obliterate whatever profit margin you thought you were going to make on that the other thing that's funny andrews as i was just trying to look this story up and i was putting um unlimited shrimp into the internet the number one search result that comes back is is the unlimited shrimp at red lobster ending yeah people don't care about this americans want to know when it is ending because they want to get into red lobster and take advantage of this deal even at 25 dollars wow you know this funny part is like i i just said it i'm not like shrimp is not a huge thing for me but the fact that now i'm wondering if red lobster will continue to exist and that i could for 25 have all of the shrimp that i could possibly eat also i'm also very hungry right now as we're doing the more you're talking about it the more hungry i'm getting i i mean i do feel like i could easily eat 20 i don't know what 20 i mean it's one shrimp michael what could it be i could easily eat 25 worth of shrimp

don't you think you could well first of all i want to say never overpay for seafood i'm like it's funny like there's something because i'm not a person who's drawn a lot to fish and seafood i do like shrimp you know i like the occasional like basket of fry as general people call it like when you go to like whether you're on the east coast and you're at some sort of a like a coastal town or even here in seattle like the um the pacific inn and no i'm I'm not talking about Pacific Rim again. I'm talking about the Pacific Inn.

You've finally gotten off that topic.

You get yourself like a fisherman's platter with like, you know, some battered fish and shrimp. And what else do they throw in there?

Sometimes they accidentally fry some of the basket and you just gnaw on that too.

It's good.

It's all good. It's usually in some kind of fake newsprint type situation.

Yeah, or a red and white checkered piece of like wax paper or parchment paper. But anyway, all of that is to say I do go in for that from time to time. But with any kind of fish or anything from the sea, like my body knows when it's had enough. Like other things I can overeat on, but I kind of can't overeat on fish. I think I've said this before, like in context of sushi for sure. You know what I mean? Like I'll come into a sushi restaurant hot, like real hungry, right? And so we order a whole bunch of stuff to share, and I'll just be gobbling it down, and then I just hit a wall. Like, immediately, my body says, you're done eating fish now. You can't overdo it on this.

So when you say you can't overeat, your system stops you. I said that in a funny way. It's not that there isn't an amount that is too much for you to consume. It's the opposite. Your body says, okay, we're done with this.

We're done with this. Yeah, I didn't mean in, like, the I can't overstate way. I constructed that sentence very confusingly. Sorry. But literally, like there's something like, you know, if I finish a hamburger and I'm full, but there's still a bunch of tots. If they're just sitting in front of me for a long time, I can continue to eat them even against my best judgment. But fish, I'm not that way with. So I don't know how much shrimp I would be able to eat. I would like to say, though, that it is 11 million. The headline that I saw was Red Lobster reportedly considers bankruptcy after 11 million dollar loss on endless.

That's just super. I feel like they must pay out 11 million dollars in slip and falls a month. Just do the scope of the operation.

I do think that it's a little clicky. Like, obviously, it's not just this $11 million that is making them restructure. It has to do with the pandemic. It has to do with all kinds of things. But that is definitely the most dazzling. The clamdemic. The clamdemic. That is the most. That's pretty good, actually. Sorry. I'll give it a moment. Don't just speed over it. Okay. Now, remember, he's being paid for this, everyone. Our friend Phyllis Fletcher texted us a joke that you said during the show earlier this week.

No, no. You said it. It was about Wu-Tang. It was about rappers in the car.

No, but I'm thinking of a different one. There was another one, and I can't remember what it was. Look at you and I trying to give each other credit for each other's jokes. But you had said something, a little joke that you inserted while I was talking quickly.

Oh, it was about the show 99% Invisible analyzing the design of being thrown under the bus.

That's right. Exactly. And when Phyllis mentioned that joke in the text thread.

I immediately remembered I did not give that joke the space it was due. Thank you. And so I'm trying to take some corrective action. The arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice. Yeah, exactly. Okay, here's the one thing I wanted to say about this store, other than getting into the boring details of the headline or the restructuring or what have you. I think that you almost accidentally hinted at this tone a little bit a moment ago when you were saying, I could eat $20 worth of shrimp or $25. when i first heard this news without thinking about it without applying my rational brain my initial reaction was sort of like a victorious hell yeah because there's something about growing up i think especially our generation in the 80s going to like either a buffet or some sort of all you can eat thing it isn't a treat it's a challenge right and like there's something about But we, with our big bellies, cooked down Red Lobster because they didn't believe we could eat more than $20 worth of shrimp. We got you. And it's like, wait, why would we root for that? If we like Red Lobster, we want it to stick around. We don't want to beat Red Lobster. But there was this knee-jerk reaction.

It's like one of those promotions that is absolutely a challenge. it's like you know it's like you know going to a carnival and they're like there's some big prize but you've got to be able to do something that they don't think we can do they don't think we can knock those milk jugs over well just you just you watch uh i totally agree with you that like this idea that you know what it is is we beat the final boss of red lobster right as a society we did it we were just like um you you think that you have like figured out using saber metrics what amount of shrimp we can eat and you've set a price point and and you you're dead wrong you are you have underestimated us for the last time red lobster incorporated um and i've underestimated i should say i've overestimated my ability to remember things because i always say the arc of history as long as it's not that it's the arc of the moral universe as stated by martin luther king jr i'm going to try to remember that because it is oh it's sadly arc of history i didn't know that it's not i will at least not it's not what the internet is telling me right now and i say that actually a lot on the show and if i'm misquoting it because the arc of history doesn't really make sense the arc of the moral universe makes way more sense if it's bending towards justice yeah yeah yeah um so i want to clarify that also just because i'm here and i'm wallowing in it uh a listener pointed out i think it might have been listener jamie uh not our friend jamie in mississippi a different jamie uh that i commonly will call it maz eisley's space court and it's Mos Eisley Mos Eisley Space Port it is not like you know and Judge Wapner will preside over Mos Eisley Space Court yes I've read the I've seen the I've seen the supporting details that's my Judge Wapner impression he was always so mad at everyone on the people's court like he'd be like well what happened to the couch and we'd be like well I have photos I've seen the photos well then why are you asking

I always took the court more as a food court i didn't think of it as like as right judge wapner territory but more like yeah it's a food court okay the port so a port is a place where so that's just like a bar that's a bar that is one part of this bigger port because a port is a place where ships come and go right right or air ships

or millennium falcons or things like that um i mean i probably have i think actually literally have is it alec guinness saying that right here let me see if i can find that drop on the fly moss a more wretched hive of scum and let's see okay here we go ready and you know what Andrew the drop that you did nail that by the way that was pretty good the drop that I have loaded in which I wrote with my own little hand says Moss Isley's Space Court so this is clearly a misunderstanding that I have been carrying around for a significant portion of my adult life from whenever I loaded this audio in, lo those many years ago, here is what he actually says.

Mos Eisley Spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

It's definitely Spaceport. I'm going to have to re- Mos Eisley Spaceport. Okay. That's going to be hard. Now I am changing it. I know, I don't know if I'll ever say it right again, but I just wanted to correct that while we were here.

So once again, we would just like to issue an apology to both Martin Luther King Jr. and George Lucas. Exactly.

Oh, you wanted some Blur's Days. We got some Blur's Days. We're going to lose $11 million by giving away these free Blur's Days.

All the Blur's Days you can eat. That's right.

Maggie from the Middle Shelf. Our dear friend Maggie says, I would like to send a happy, happy Blur's Day to my 10. Erica, my sweet daughter. Her birthday is on Earth Day, which is perfect because she means the world to me. Erica is kind, intelligent, compassionate, talented, creative, funny, beautiful, fiercely loyal. She's all of the good things rolled into one sweet girl, my girl. Happy Blur's Day, Erica. Sinclair says, I am the oldest daughter of listener Sally from North Bend. Okay. The week of my mom's birthday, she got a massive bacterial infection and is currently recovering at the hospital. Oh, no. It's going to be there for some time. So sorry to hear that, Sally. Sally. Thank you for letting us know. She says she would also like to shout out the non-prof she works for Encompass. I'm sorry, do I have that right? Yeah, EncompassNorthwest.org. They provide much-needed services to children across the valley. Thank you, Michael Barbaro. For real, I hope you feel better soon, Sally.

Yeah, Sally, sorry about that. Hope that they will allow someone to sneak an iPod into the hospital so you can listen to this.

Exactly. It has to be an iPod nano.

It would be great if the hospital had a no iPod policy.

Yeah, but it's like it's too old, which just makes us look uncool. Actually, an iPod would be super cool right now, wouldn't it?

Oh, so cool. You know what that is, Andrew? Analog technology.

Eric says, oh, is that a Barbaro laugh?

Sure is.

I didn't know he had that. Nice. Oh, he does. He does, my friend. Mm-hmm. Hey, Mike. Oh, wait. No, you can't have him. I was going to say, where does an army keep him? Oh, good Lord. I ruined the joke.

Good God.

How are the Thursdays going? Oh, wow. Indeed. Oh, my God. What a meltdown. Let's get going here.

Eric says, wishing a very happy Blur's Day. To my daughter, Tess, we can't wait to see you and Brennan and Clayton and Caroline and, of course, Daphne, the fuzzy dumpling to celebrate not just your birthday, but also for you earning your master's in documentary film. Nice. Congratulations. You are smart and funny and big-hearted, and we couldn't be prouder. Love you to bits, my Tessa Lulu McScooby pants. Okay. I need a raise. I need a raise.

So explain that.

Jay Hutch and Lincoln would like to wish Thea a very happy 40th birthday, which is spending in Greece. Yes, Thea. but was a dazzling donor just recently. I think maybe a week or so ago. We hope you have a great time and spend lots of time with your family. I think I'm adding this. I think a.k.a. us. So explain that. Have a great time, Thea. Happy Blur's Day. Mark in Ballard says, Happy Blur's Day to me. On Monday, I'll be turning the big 5-0. I'll be celebrating by flying to Hawaii this weekend with my best friends. I've been listening to TBTL since its beginning on Cairo Radio. Thank you both for the great entertainment over the years and I look forward to many more. Aloha and power out. Happy Blur's Day, Mark. Enjoy that trip. Got it. These pangs of jealousy I'm feeling. And finally, Susan in Shrub Oak, this is our pal Susan, says happiest of Blur's Days to the amazing Ruby. Your dad and I are so proud to have brought you into the world and watched you become a truly amazing person. I'm sorry a truly amazing woman, a talented singer and a wonderful dog mom to Gus I'm especially glad that we've had a couple of chances to get the conspiracy back together this past year I can't wait to harmonize with you. Oh okay

that's a music thing I see

Wow. Happy Blur's Day

everybody. Yeah absolutely Interesting right. Alright calm down dude. Seriously What's going on here?

Across Iceland's spaceport, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

What we may have to do, Andrew, is get the Cinco Party Mask audio. You need a Cinco Party Mask audio board, and I need Barbaro. And then we just bounce them back. Dueling, just dueling.

Got it. it i don't think i the the party is it the party it probably has also some insane music playing behind it that we don't even realize yeah exactly all right i'll work on that for tomorrow because i don't have it i don't have it all chopped up actually not for tomorrow tomorrow's our very uh our very exciting crossover show with the text me back yes yes exactly it's gonna be incredible

wow it's you may even hear a couple barbaro drops in there but yes we are gonna be collabing that's what everybody's doing these days it's a collab it's text me back x tbtl

that's what they'll do sometimes like or fenty x rihanna how do you feel about the plus symbol

i feel like it's got battery plus vibes okay batteries bulbs plus which i don't know if i'm really interesting right if that's like the energy i feel like isn't the cool thing like rihanna rihanna X Fenty doesn't that mean that Rihanna and like her well her brand Is X Fenty I don't know So yes so explain that I can't that's the problem Michael Will you just leave me alone please

Okay you know this is actually this is my

Plan someday Andrew if you ever call in Sick is just me I like this a lot Talking to these drops and wow It's just it's powerful Clint Eastwood vibes at At the Oscars he was Just talking to an empty chair

But anyway all right all right

let's get out of here thank you everyone for listening today um we have this special show tomorrow which we're so excited for you to tune into uh so uh make sure you join us for that in the meantime have a great thursday take care of yourselves go junior sluggers and please remember no mountain too tall and good luck to all

Honey. Come on, honey. Wake up. No, I'm so tired. It's our engagement party. All of our friends are going to be here. I don't want to talk to anybody. I'm going to sleep. Fine. Put on your Cinco FaceTime Party Snoozer then.

It's the Cinco FaceTime Party Snoozer. Sleep right through parties and social gatherings without anyone noticing. The Zinco FaceTime Party Snoozer features five distinct audio responses using my professional voice. And the Zinco FaceTime Party Snoozer comes with this amazing body brace and earphones that pipe in soothing music so you won't need to hear a single word anyone is saying.

My accountant tells me that I might be eligible for a 436 rebate now. Sure, why not? As a small business owner, that's exactly what you want to hear. I understand. Rebate, sign me up. Thanks for coming.

Take part in interesting conversations while you get much-needed rest.

We'd be on this river, and it would wind around like this. Sure, why not? We'd have our fishing pole. I understand. Pulling the fish.

I understand. The fish would be flapping around like this. Sounds good.

Nobody's fitness at all. Okay. But, you know. Thanks for coming. We caught maybe, I don't know, a dozen or so. I understand. Blue river. Okay.

Really gorgeous, though. Sure, why not? It's the Cinco FaceTime Party Snoozer. I understand. Power out.