Muse

Thank you for being a 10. Traveled down the road and back again. Your heart is true. You're a pal and a confidant. Hey, if you threw a party, invited everyone you knew, you would see the biggest gift would be from me, and the card attached would say, thank you for being a 10.

Hi, Brosis. Maggie from The Middle Show. I'm going to do my best oh god I can't even think of the guy's name you'll know who he is from Vegas and he's got a really bad facelift and he sings Mandy I just when you were talking about Gary I made a song he says oh Andrew well you talked and remind me of Gary and it's freaking me out oh Andrew well you walked and it's so much it's just scary. But I sent you away. Oh, God. I did not have a power out for that. Gary. TBTL.

Yes. Money has been a little bit tight lately, but at the end of my life, when I'm sitting on my yacht. Am I going to be thinking about how much money I have? No. I'm going to be thinking about how many friends I have and my children and my comedy albums. I mean, I have a yacht, so I obviously did pretty well money-wise. I swear, every time this guy talks, all I hear is

a turkey goblin. Do I look like I know what a JPEG is? I just want a picture of a goddamn hot dog.

What are you saying? I can't have your product because I don't have the right number of money?

I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who said, You have reached the end of your free trial membership at BenjaminFranklinQuotes.com. What a wise man. What's on the agenda, my friend-a?

Well, hello, good morning, and welcome everyone to a Thursday edition of TVTL, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. The vibes will be the illest, and the jams, not ridiculous. My name is Luke Burbank. I'm your host. I'm so excited about this show. Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio perched high above the mighty Columbia. It is day four of TBTL-a-thon 15. Thank you for being a 10. And we are coming to you live worldwide via YouTube.

So if you don't like swearing or angry people from Wisconsin, then turn your mother effing camera off now.

We, of course, have so much to get to today on the show. Things have been piling up this week. We've had some really fun shows and some really great Zooms with everyone. Great time last night crafting our pants with the crafty tens of listeners. But we have a lot of content that we want to get to today as we arrive at episode 4247 in a collector series.

Let the fun begin.

But amidst all that, we're also taking your phone calls at 206-414-TBTL, 206-414-8285. Ahoy, ahoy. And we're also going to be placing a phone call today to a very special guest. A special guest who you may have received an email from in your inbox today, and that would be my dear mother, the one, the only, Susie Burbank.

I'll say, what's up, dog?

And also, we have a big announcement, a big TBTL announcement today.

Attention everybody, madames and miswoz.

Related to some upcoming stuff that we think people are going to be very excited about. So stick around for that. And also, it's a Thursday, a.k.a. Blur's Day. The Blur's Day train does not stop just because it is a TBTL-a-thon week. And this guy never stops sorting bees. He was doing it in the hotel room last night.

Beads. Beads? Beads. Beads.

He's the longest-running Cobra of the show, maybe best known for his A's, I's, O's, E's, and U's. He is Andrew Walsh, and he's joining me right now. Good morning.

Sometimes why?

Honestly, I'm kind of proud I could recite the vowels off the top of my head. There was midway through that I thought, do I actually know all of the vowels?

how we keep lowering that bar for success yes indeed good morning my friend good morning i'm sorry that i come to you today bracelet less i did sort some vowels last night but

I think I already told you this, Luke. I went back to my hotel yesterday with a big bag of bracelet-making materials and bees. Beads. Beads. Beads. Beads. And I laid them all out, and I was ready to make more bracelets that say Frendo on them, and then I realized I left all the ends behind. I don't know where they are right now, and I had a choice. I could either make a bunch of bracelets that say Frito.

Or Fredo. Are you planning on selling me out?

I wonder what he's been up to lately.

I haven't heard much about old Fredo.

Could use some closure on that storyline anyway. So I just sorted beads instead and watched Superman 4.

I did not have the excuse of lack of access to the beads. I just hit some sort of wall. And it was interesting because that is my way of saying I did not really do much beading last night either or even being. Um, I, uh, was talking a really big game during the zoom because we had all these tens that were joining us and our friend Jen from the making app, uh, was here and we were talking crafts and I was talking about how I'm getting so into doing these beads and these friendship buddies, which I genuinely am. But then after all of that, we turned the cameras off and then I just, it was the first night where it was actually comfortable to be in the house. Right. And I temperature wise, temperature wise. And I just kind of zoned out And I'll be honest Looked at some TikTok Watched some of my lousy True crime television And then I looked up And it was like 11 o'clock at night I had accomplished nothing In the world of friendship Bracelet making And then I went to sleep That was pretty much my night So I want to apologize to you As a team But I didn't really help I didn't pull our weight last night But I guess none of us did In fact, this guy over there TBTL employee numero uno was too busy refining his taco ordering strategy as he made his third trip to taco time. I might have tacos when I go home. I'm not quite sure yet. He is John Sklaroff, and he is also joining me right now. Good morning, sir.

Good morning, and sorry, yes, I also failed on bracelet making. I think we're exhausted.

But we're there. Well, we decided we need to make about, what, 1,600, 1,700 bracelets? In total, yeah. And we need about 100. Yeah, we're 1,625.

We're closer to 200.

Are we? Okay, good. Does that make us an eighth of the way there? Is that how math works?

We're an eighth of the way. We'll finish it tonight, I'm sure. Yeah, exactly.

I'll finish it tonight as I'm hosting an event at the Jefferson County Land Trust get together in Port Towns in Washington at Port Ludlow. I'll see some of you up there maybe.

Have you had any bead dreams yet? I have not had any.

No, but I've seen people in the comment section of the broadcast today saying that they had a bead dream. Let me see if I can scroll back here. Yeah, somebody said, here we go. Oh, well, I know Kendra said the other night I dreamt that I told Luke and Andrew they are very good broadcasters. We will always accept that kind of feedback. Yes. And I feel like somebody maybe.

You can Freddy Krueger that my way any time.

Here we go. Kathleen said, I had a dream about beads yesterday. I'm an accountant and hoping to get Spreadshee bracelet. I didn't get it and the thon was still going. So I created separate donations for my mom, bro, and friends.

do it that sounds like it sounds like that's like the most accountant dream i've ever i love that

ever heard and also um uh kathleen shout out to the spread she heads out there as soon as we get those h's we're gonna start right in on that project that's right um let's let's get to the the the the big topic today at least amongst a certain quarter of the tens which is john sklaroff's taco time strategy now um the if people uh if this is the first show they're tuning into like ever in tbtl history wow what a show can i catch everybody up really quickly please do

okay so back in 2000 okay when a luke and a jen love each other very much they have a sean de tory

um so as you and andrew were coming down from seattle on sunday you rolled through a taco time which is a a kind of local chain of kind of fast food but but i would say it's slightly better than just fast food mexican restaurants in the northwest i talk about it all the time it is though the kind of regional thing that you have to really grow up with it to a care about the topic and b have a strong opinion about what the right food to order is and wherever you grew up there's a version of this uh what was the version of this in in new york where you grew up john like a regional kind of place where you had very strong thoughts about what the best stuff to order was you know it's

i don't really think i had something in new york because my pizza is the new york thing and it's

like well what was the best pizza joint well maria's pizza oh of course i mean because the

slices were literally a foot long and they're just the best so maria's pizza shout out yorktown uh i know the thalers and shrabok should know that one so uh yeah i think doug kayaked over

there eat some yellow cedar dan yeah dan exactly yeah that's a lot of d's dude uh andrew in growing up in ohio where was the spot i know you guys didn't do drive-thru much because of bob's clean

car policy i'm drawing a blank as far as regional like kind of experiences are concerned you know

because you guys were were you like a kind of an applebee's type of family like where did you when

you went out to eat where did you go well when we grew up in the country there weren't a lot of options we'd go over to um we would go over to brunswick ohio and there was a like just a family restaurant oh man there's a family restaurant called denny's it's not the denny's the chain

it was just like so i i think did you go to lou burger's uh burger place called burger king

unrelated to the national chain exactly there was this guy named danny mcdonald who had a fast food

restaurant uh called that's so funny there was a denny's that was not related to the chain yes

And well, I can't go into the whole detail of the story.

Although they had a famous dish called Moons Over Orlando.

This is just a story in and of itself, but I can't help myself from telling it. It was just like a family restaurant. I don't think it was a regional thing. It's just someplace. I think it was in Brunswick. And my family would go there like almost like every Friday or we were on some sort of regular schedule there. And I was little. And then one day, and I did not understand what was happening at the time. I had to like kind of hear about it later. I understood that there was drama happening around me and that we left before our food came out. We left Denny's early as a family. And what was happening was there was some sort of a comedy show going on. And it got bawdy.

At the Denny's, but not the Denny's you're thinking of.

Yes, not the Denny's the audience is thinking of. The Denny's I'm thinking of. I'm addressing the audience by way of our Logitech two-shot. And all I remember is, and I'm trying to think how much detail I want to go in here. There was somebody who was doing some sort of comedy. I wasn't paying that much attention. I was probably just like tying my straw wrappers together or something. But I guess this guy was wearing an apron, and he pulled something out of his apron that was phallic in nature. And that was the joke. And my parents, my dad, I think especially, were very protective of us and maybe even you'd say maybe a bit prudish. I don't know.

But they thought it was just because you cry every time you disrobe doesn't mean that you were overly sheltered and have shame issues.

Andrew, just because I now wear a chef's apron in the shower. I don't think this really I don't think unrelated, totally unrelated. But I just remember being a kid, knowing that something special was going on at Denny's in the fact that there was some sort of performance going on. I'm not really paying that much attention, but I just remember my dad kind of angrily calling a server over, having some words with them, and then suddenly not understanding why we all had to get up and leave either mid-meal or before the food came out. And I'm a very small kid. And the funny thing is, I don't even think I noticed this joke. the act of pulling us out of dinner in this abrupt way shown such a bigger light yes to me like that almost traumatized me more then i'm like talking to my sister what happened like what's going on and then and now it's lived very and i don't think we ever went back to denny's wow that was a

terrible idea for them to book that comic it really yeah was you lost you lost a family of customers that used to go there on a pretty regular basis permanently over a bad joke yeah

so i guess i give cookie jars about anyway back to taco time really far i'm sorry about that's a

great story that's actually no getting it that's a that's i love your story it's a beautiful story so when john and andrew uh although it was really more john than andrew because andrew went to subway when john texted me i've gone to a taco time i immediately had thoughts uh he revealed to me and the audience on Monday that he had ordered, he had been recommended by a staffer there to order the classic chicken burrito, which is something I had never even heard of on the menu, which raises the question of how classic it could be, and then also some habanero thing. And habanero, I'm sure that, you know, the people of the world have been cultivating habanero peppers for some amount of time. In the context of Taco Time, that feels very new to me. That feels part of this kind of like the spicification of everything in America. Like, I'm telling you, the 80s was a different time. Andrew's family was burning books and censoring comics. My family was using the entertainment book to go to Burger Master. Nobody was eating habanero. As far as like the people that I grew up around, it was not a big part of the restaurant culture. So my point is I had very, very strong feelings about your ordering on Monday, John. And then... you went back on, was it Tuesday or Monday?

It's all blur all the time.

So then you went back again. You freelanced though. And you, what did you order the second time through?

Under some guidance from a friend of ours, from a former colleague at APM, Annie, thank you very much for tuning out. I got two crisp tacos and I did one chicken, one beef, and then I got the tater. Okay. I have so many opinions on Taco Time. Okay, but let's just,

I don't want to mess up the chain of events here because the second time You ordered the what we would just consider A hard shell taco the classic thing That we've all had which yes I've also never Ordered at taco time right which they call

A crisp taco but which is misleading Hard shell names for everything Over there that doesn't make sense to me and so

Then last night I believe you returned and we actually Have some audio of this Andrew you You were surreptitiously You were violating various Wiretapping acts and you were surreptitiously Recording our colleague John Sklaroff Again, without his knowledge, as he was ordering this Taco Time food, can we hear that tape?

Sorry about that.

I think we're going to whatever you're right. Yeah, that's all good. Can I do a one beef soft taco?

Okay, I like where this is going.

One chicken crisp burrito.

I'd like to just jump in here and just say, John is reading this order off of his phone. He's behind the wheel of the Jeep, and he's got his phone in his hand, and he's very carefully reading this off of his phone.

Yeah, that's all good. Can I do a one beef soft taco?

Okay.

One chicken crisp burrito.

This is such a good order already.

An order of the rice pinto beans and black beans.

On the line. Do you hear the confusion in her voice?

Because no one's ever ordered that before. Well, we're getting... Well, listen, I had so much confusion. Are those three separate things, or is that like one thing?

Yeah, well, we can do rice and pinto beans, or we can do like rice.

Oh, okay. Let's do rice and pinto.

Rice and pinto, okay.

And then I need a couple things of ranch and a couple things of hot sauce.

Very strong.

Like two of each?

Okay.

Excellent.

Yeah, I should cover it.

It's going to be 1473.

There's 1473. I would have liked to hear three ranches in that order, but two ranches, that's a strong, that's a big improvement, by the way, because the advice that I gave you yesterday as you left the Madrona Hill studio was just when in doubt put ranch on it at taco time that's really the best thing they sell everything it's the the ranch is the sun and everything else in taco time orbits around it in my opinion and now that explains why it's not big on Andrew's list yeah yeah that's why you know I I was thinking

about this this morning because taco time is in the news which I'm sure you'll get to here in a moment Luke I'm not trying to step on that but like I'm reading this story in the paper about taco time. And of course, we've been talking about taco time so much this week. And I realize I'm reading this article and I still don't know what you think people are supposed to order. I knew that it was ranch based, but it's like amazing how you could talk about taco time for hours to me. And it's just so not relevant to my interests that I still don't know what the good

order. Did you enjoy being looped in on my conversation with Camaro Kev last night? Because out of the blue 7 25 p.m this might have been almost exactly as you two were passing through the drive-thru camaro kev text you and i andrew and says just listen to the taco time legislation on monday's show and i almost wanted to drive off the ship canal bridge my response all caps infuriating camaro says i really felt for you trying to explain it i just want to say so this

happened it was an interesting sort of um way this sort of came so john had just gone through the taco time drive through and then we went back to the hotel and i dropped him off i was like i'm gonna go find a pizza somewhere i found this place some guy named joe domino uh-huh has not the chain has a pizza joint called domino's pizza and i was like i might do that i don't know i just was like i couldn't make up my mind in the car what i wanted so i'm like john i'm dropping you off at the hotel and i'm taking this jeep and so now i'm driving it in the ass i'm booting in the ass i'm drive around the greater Kelso area. And then I start getting these bleeps on the dashboard, right? And it's like, oh, Camaro Kev has just texted you and Luke. Okay, what is it? And it's that first message. Then, and I'm like, oh, I'm not really part of this. I appreciate, I always appreciate being included, generally speaking. It's a nice gesture. But I'm like, this isn't a conversation for me. I don't know Taco Time. I didn't grow up with it. And next thing I know is it's just a cascade of text messages coming in through the jeep dashboard of you and camaro kev litigating this yes uh camaro said i

really felt for you trying to explain i said my guess is that it actually has been on the menu for a long time but quote classic chicken burrito question mark new message with rice question mark if someone ordered that in high school after a basketball game we

knew they were a narc response from camaro kev no shit and then follow up i'm fairly certain it was not on the menu back in the day and the child helping him at the counter doesn't know that was it you or kevin that was kevin and i emphasize that because uh that was i think absolutely spot on so uh all that is the setup for the order that we all just heard and i just and that was i believe also a co-production with our friend phyllis fletcher fletch full name fletch f fletch uh who

was also sort of coaching you up on this john so when i was reading the order from my phone that was primarily p fletch's uh guidance and also i should get off the phone for some reason just

kills me i love this i love this level of specificity i should say also after andrew

text the video of me ordering to you and phyllis phyllis venmoed me that 1473 and i'm like phyllis you are a dazzling donor please don't buy me dinner she wanted to buy you she wanted to buy

your first proper taco time okay so the question is that's a good order for you i feel like that's a pretty strong order now i want to say hold on let me just sorry i messed up no no no that's you it's actually there's i need to say one more thing on this topic before we hit the drum roll sound effect which is i think that was a really strong order now you still may not have liked it and and and if you didn't like it that's totally okay too because as i've said so many times on this topic as we sort of started things today. I'm not even here to tell you that Taco Time is objectively speaking some great food. It's not going to show up on any Michelin list. It's not going to get any James Beard awards. It is just the thing that if you grew up eating it, you have a lot of thoughts about, but it's not objectively speaking something super duper great. So if you ordered this, what I think was a really good order, John, and you still didn't love it, that's totally okay. That is totally acceptable. But I do think that we gave This is the best In my opinion this is the best sort of Light that you're going to possibly see Taco Time And so my question is Do you have the long one What did you think of the food last night

Of the food last night I enjoyed it but i have lots of thoughts can i can i give my two minute breakdown you absolutely can't we're about out of time on this no i need because i need to defend that drum roll up again i need to defend myself okay the question monday was john do you know a burrito is

no no no no no no no no hold on let me just please i i i think you know what a burrito is

i think taco time doesn't know what a burrito is and i don't think taco time knows what a taco is because shots fired because the soft beef burrito i got or taco i got last night very tasty not a taco it was completely wrapped and folded like a burrito but what but it was called a soft taco yes so they don't know what a taco is and they don't know what a burrito is that's why well

here is the reason that i think yeah i mean that's fair i think their terminology is off there's the problem this was started by a bunch of white people who had only a minimal knowledge of like quote-unquote mexican cuisine the time family right wait i'm not following taco time i'm doing that thing where i belabor a joke luke um uh so yes they have some naming problem and

it's misleading the crisp burrito which was the best thing especially in the ranch that was the best thing but the crisp burrito and people said this phyllis said this i think annie said this when she emailed me and i've heard from others it is like a taquito it is not enclosed so that's not a burrito so taco time does not know what a taco is right it's it's sort of a deep fried

missile yeah it's a flavor it's delicious that has that it's open on each end though you're absolutely right it looks like the cigar that triumphed the insult comic dog smokes imagine that filled with savory ground beef yeah i see those like on the rollers at 7-eleven sometimes yeah exactly this is yeah i would argue uh a a more well executed version of that but that's

effectively what it is yeah okay so tasty nah burrito okay but so uh and the other things i'll say about talking time real quick is their tater tots i don't care what you tell me they are tater tots not fries delicious i love a tater tot yes but call it where it is yes did you dip

those in the ranch and the hot sauce both i mean how one of those tots again it's a tater tot in this bizarro ranch dressing they make but that's pretty actually i lied i just had that on hot

sauce because i didn't get the ranch the other day when i got those now but you didn't get those the second time no because i wanted the rice and beans because i want to mix it up i want to try

well i just want to try different things yeah see i think part of my whole suspicion around the rice is i've never ever ordered the rice it was good rice and beans for like a rice and beans that

come from a fast casual restaurant it's good the last thing i'll say is uh in their tacos both the the crisp aka hard shell and the soft shell there's tomatoes in there which are great but they don't dice them up there's just like a half of a tomato slice like a crescent moon tomato slice I don't know.

just shoved in the middle. Yes. So it's like you don't get it with every bite. It's just kind of there. It's a weird. It is weird. I don't understand the point of that.

I will agree with you that the tomato distribution in the hard shell taco is odd.

It was in the soft, too, and I got that last night.

I guess something about the tortilla holding it all together, it works better for me in the soft taco application than in the hard taco application, but that's just personal preference.

Yeah.

Let's now— You mean the tortilla holding it together because it's wrapped up like a burrito? Well, sure. I mean, you come from the burrito capital of the world, Westchester, New York, Westchester via St. Paul. The only place that has less burrito cred than Seattle is probably New York, upper, not upstate New York, but outside of the city. Andrew, what are you raising? Yeah, I just said, I may speak. You have the floor.

Well, I'm running the risk here because I know that we have more taco time to talk about. And I don't want to get us too far afield of this. I'm also a little bit gun shy today. i really enjoyed the zoom last night but there are several times where i really took that zoom conversation in places it didn't need to go yesterday and i'm that's living large in my head so my apologies for those awkward moments as i think i said on the zoom one thing i crafted last night was a bunch of awkward moments but i thought it was i thought it was a really fun it was a fun night i just uh i feel i feel bad i think i put you in some uncomfortable positions at times but having said when i called you the show killer yeah that was one of the things that that was Because if you listen closely, there are little things that I can... That was me kidding too hard, and I apologize.

I shouldn't feed into your natural tendency towards being mean to yourself.

I deserved it in that sense. I don't think you were in the wrong. But having said all that, I am taking us a little bit afield here, and then we'll come back to taco time. But speaking of this idea of tater tots, what they used to call Mexi fries, and now they're calling spicy fries or whatever. And the fact that they're just tater tots. I think people from outside this region all have that realization at some time. I remember being in the back of your car. We're heading to the winery for a TV show picnic.

Yeah, it was like Rudy in the way back, I believe.

And that might have been the same time, yeah. And it was the first time I'd ever gone to Taco Time, and it was the Wallingford location. You went through the drive-thru, and you're like, you're going to try Mexi fries for the first time. And I was really shocked to get them and say, well, these are tater tots. I'm trying to think if I even asked you if they gave me the wrong thing. And they were very good, but I just was like, why have we not been calling them tater tots with, like, some seasoning on them the whole time? So all of that is to say there is a commercial running right now. It is not for Taco Time. It's for the fast food restaurant Sonic. Do you know Sonic?

I do know Sonic. They are famous for having the good ice. And the drive-thru.

Oh, okay, yeah. Okay, yeah. And they have the kind of pebble ice. Yeah, exactly. Well, I'm not really familiar with their food, but they have a campaign that is, I find it really, really irritating. I think the main spokesman for it is just kind of he's putting on this character that I find to be a bit douchey, if you don't mind me saying. But there's this one commercial that features him and a woman. And it's almost like kind of like an Apple product launch type of thing, like the new iPhone newsy kind of, you know, it's sort of TED conference or whatever. but but it's him and this woman and they're doing this presentation saying like there are two types of people in this world those who like french fries and those who like tater tots either one

of you have seen this yet is it is this the live free eat sonic campaign is that i reject that

notion though because i like them both of course you do i mean they're both good um but so anyway

so that notion is ridiculous chief ingenuity officer that's the guy oh god it's just it's so

it's such a bad commercial all the way around but what so even if you want to buy into that preference that that that premise that people want something in between a tater tot and a french fry what they've come out with is something first of all they're calling groovy fries which is a terrible name and you you guys want to know what a groovy fry is a tater tot i don't even want it's a crinkle cut french fry that is not first of all just call it's not a groovy fry but aside from that call it what you want i guess but do you guys think there's any world in which a crinkle cut french fry is the best of both a tater tot and a french fry it's just a french fry that is slightly different than a french fry it has none of the it has none of the components of a tater tot genevieve and i have had this conversation a lot oh this is a different terrible commercial

really campaign same guy he pulls up in a in like a van and he's going into a boring burger

Come with me if you want to live a more delicious life.

Is this the same dude? Yeah.

Well, maybe we should get in the van. So some family that's eating this.

In this world, we don't get to control much. The past. Oh, interesting, Andrew. Yeah, the bobbleheads. It's a reference to my friend, Peter Gross, who was one of the original two dudes. He and his buddy, TJ, Jack of Cows. used to do those ads where they would be sitting in a convertible talking about Sonic or whatever.

And they've sort of been, they kind of phased those guys out. I wonder if they had to pay Peter for that,

for his likeness.

They kind of phased those guys out, and the campaign became other, like, kind of ordinary people kind of sitting in the cars talking. Now, clearly, this is a new campaign, and they're paying homage to the old campaign by showing on the dashboard of this douchebag's van, sorry, because, is two bobbleheads of those two comedians.

Can I give Sonic a free billion dollar idea Here if they're listening Because I've been in the position where I'm like I want fries But maybe a tot or two and like getting the both Mix them up Just mix them up

You ever get a rogue curly fry In your regular fries I mean that is the sweetest Sweetest berry

With your onion rings

Come on over here you little refugee But I was

I'll give you harbor Genevieve was saying like When she heard the setup for this, she was expecting them to be sort of elongated tater tots. That would be weird, but at least that would actually serve the promise of being somewhere between a french fry and a tater tot. I'm just so irritated by that whole thing.

No, that's a bad product.

Well, very quickly, back to Taco Time, just because it is in the news. And Andrew, you brought this up last week. You heard about this on Reddit. I broke this before the Seattle Times did. The person who supposedly does not care about the Taco Time discourse is also the person who sent this to me and P. Fletch last week, which is that the Taco Time on 45th in Seattle, as I call it, Biodome Taco Time. It's so weird. The building is so interesting. It's a mirrored building. Even to this day, it looks futuristic to me. And it's been there. I mean, I remember when they built this thing, which is wild because it's now been there for, I don't know, 20, 30 years. It's in the 90s, I think. It says in the article, yeah, when it was built. I remember when they built it, I thought, this is an impossible, yeah. It had its notorious reflective facade since 1990. This is an article in the Seattle Times written by Jackie Variano, a Seattle Times food writer, about the fact that this particular Taco Time on 45th is going to be closing down. now these taco times are owned by different groups of people there are some families that own like a large number of them then there are little individual ones that are owned by people just individuals apparently someone named Kristen Hanna is the owner of this particular store and has let the staff know that because of rising food costs and also I guess lack of business post-covid that this location was just not profitable which I find hard to believe because i find i think it's one of the most iconic taco times out there uh so that's a real bummer uh by the way but to me the biggest bummer is the last line in this article in the seattle time this is

what i wanted to ask you about is it about the reference to a menu item it says as for the

wallingford location and again i don't want to i don't want to you know cast uh stones at a fellow journalist but jackie seriously jackie writes as for the wallingford location uh vasquez that's the manager of this location says it will soon become a chipotle outpost which i don't know what

that means a chipotle there are not a lot of chipoles in well is there some other version of

is there like a white outpost is there a faster uh chipotle like you get like a grab and go chipotle outpost why wouldn't you say it's a chipotle but anyway it's unclear at this time If the glass exterior will stay But at least there will still be tacos That's like saying You know Dick's Drive-In is leaving And it's going to become a McDonald's But they'll still have burgers Like a taco All tacos are not created equal And some are burritos Some are called crisp burritos And they're actually tacos With one tomato in them Like if you wanted to go get a Taco Time taco Or a Taco Time product It is not all the same that it's now going to be a chipotle so you're just going to be like well at least it still has tacos now by the way you might like chipotle more maybe this is an upgrade for you but to the real heads my guess is jackie did not grow up in the pacific northwest or did not grow up eating taco time because to say that it's all the same like well they still have tacos it's like that is such a miss it's a deep misunderstanding of the culture of taco time i which is white people misnaming

mexican food it's funny because i love chipotle but even i would say though but if somebody were to say what's your favorite burrito i consider what what chipotle sells something kind of different than a traditional burrito too i know it's you know it's all the same ingredients but it's like i don't know there's something not authentic about a chipotle burrito but i like it as a food i was going to ask you about something else though luke because i wasn't sure and now i think i've got a little bit more clarity after our conversation with john but um the uh graph right above that. So I guess the second to last graph is for disappointed local talk.

Taco Time fans, there's another gleaming glass Taco Time still in business at 14th Street, Northeast in Auburn, and several dozen additional locations strewn across Western Washington, presenting plenty of opportunities for crisp burritos and tater fries. Whoa. That was so crisp burritos. I was wondering if you were going to disagree with the writer for saying that crisp burritos is what most people are going to Taco Time for.

You know, no offense to Jackie, but this, to me, this indicates a person who did not necessarily grow up eating a taco.

Okay, so that is a tell.

That's what I was wondering. I could see Jackie ordering a habanero burrito, like a real noob.

Luke, what if it's not that Jackie's not from here, but grew up in a different era? What if Jackie's like, you know, a young go-gang journalist who's in their, like, early 20s, and that, for them—

That would not explain to me this blind spot that is taco time.

Okay, what if Luke's just wrong?

Wow.

I don't want to even consider that universe.

I mean, it's in the young gray lady here. You're also implying that Camaro calf and P. Fletch and annual.

What I'm saying is people in their 40s who grew up eating Taco Time have a very, very specific opinions on this matter, and I am in that camp. Now, I could be wrong, but I feel like... And you're right, John. Maybe the younger generation... I mean, I trained my daughter well, is what I'm going to say. Adelaide knows her way around a Taco Time order And I'm proud of that It's literally some of the only good parenting I did So I stand by that Hey, speaking of good parenting We're going to talk to my mom coming up here In just a few moments Which is going to be exciting But first

Thank you for being a 10

We want to remind everyone That this is of course the TBTL-a-thon 15 And we are raising money for the show We are basically doing our once a year reminder That this thing only exists because of your donations And I want to say, first of all, thank you so much To everyone who's already donated Lots of people supporting the show Lots of people supporting the show with really generous gifts Thank you very, very much John, can you remind us of what is available for people as a thank you?

Absolutely, absolutely So number one, everyone who gives gets the bracelet made of beads, not bees. That's everyone. A handmade bracelet. Handmade that we're going to hand make eventually.

We're almost there. We just have like $1,600. We're an eighth of the way there.

We're doing great on Thursday. At the $10 a month or $120 one time, again, these are available if you give a one-time gift as well, of course.

We do accept Klarna if you want to make payments.

What is that? You don't know Klarna? No. Is that something out of the Taco Time menu? No, Klarna

is, you'll start seeing references to it clarna is some kind of financial instrument that when you buy a lot of stuff on instagram they will offer you clarna payments which is it's basically reverse layaway i mean it's a credit card of some kind but it's very ingrained in the in the instagram culture and it's a this is why i'm such a hit with the youth because i drop clarna references they know

what that is well we definitely accept monthly donations which is like layaway but i don't think clorna specifically no we don't yeah that was a joke you can rent to own tbtl right uh so we have the pennant at the 10 a month club at fifth i keep saying club i'm at 15 a month donation level you get the tbtl ball cap which we're really excited for the junior slugger ball cap at 25 a month it's the tbtl junior sluggers t with the number 10 and junior sluggers on the back bumping up from there to 50 a month you're a dazzling donor where you at that level you get all the all the thank you gifts that's the only level where you get everything um well not that and above i should say and you also get your customized dazzling donor message on air and then if you're super generous and have it within you it's within your budget you're not you're not going broke to support tbtl and you want to do a hundred dollars a month you get the dazzling perks plus the special uh video message which i think we confirmed yesterday will be both of you guys yes can confirm yes at

the burned out husk of the biodome taco time.

That's right. That's where we're going to film all of these videos

as a protest of the Chipotle

that's moving in. I'm going to be really happy eating my chicken burrito, and you're going to be really angry at me for

enjoying it. I'm going to be screaming to the

heavens. Can I, just like a maintenance thing, I just want to throw this out there too. Some folks have been doing this right. If in the last year you've moved, please email me, johnjon at tbtl.net your new address so we can make sure get you your thank you gifts when the time comes don't want anyone to miss out and and so if you have if you moved or if anything's changed or if you have any questions about your donation of

course always feel free to reach out to me all right john at tbtl.net and i just want to say one thing here please um first of all okay i want to say a couple things okay uh thank you to everybody who has been seriously it's been You know, it's always so encouraging and humbling and various other emotions that are hard for me to put a word on to when I see the tons of listeners coming out to support this thing that we do and to support each other and the community that has been built around this podcast. Thank you so much. One thing that also gives me sort of complicated feelings is when I see the folks who have already been so generous towards this show for so long going to the website and upping their donation level. We're asking you to do that, and it means so much to us, and so thank you for doing that. But I also would like to send a special message to the people who maybe have never given before. And I don't want to get specifically into numbers, but as I was thinking about the number of bracelets we were supposed to make last night, I was thinking, that's a big number. And then I started comparing that number to our download numbers in my head. I was just musing, Luke. And without getting into all the numbers, I was like, oh, wait a second. So, like, maybe that's a fifth of our – a fifth of the people who listen maybe donate to this show. And we're really grateful for that. but that's a big burden for a small number of listeners and I'm wondering if there are listeners out there who've been listening for a while and maybe you're a little bit more of a quieter listener maybe you're in the shadows more maybe you're not raising your hand on the zoom calls or whatever but you tune into tbtl maybe even just a couple of times a week although you're probably missing the good stuff if you're only doing it a couple of times a week but and it hasn't occurred to you that oh we're talking to you too we are talking to you too And maybe you can just start with a small donation and just do something so that we don't have to like kind of have a small group of people carry all of the burden.

So I just want to throw that out there. You're so right, Andrew. And we want to we want to try to move away from the business model where we have a relatively small number of people who are giving a relatively large amount. Yeah. Which we, again, appreciate it. It's how we're able to do the show. But one of the things we noted at APM was We wanted to try to reverse the trend that was happening Which is to have We want to try to get to more and more people That are maybe donating smaller amounts But it's spread across a wider group of folks And we're still in that mode Where we have a small number of super generous people And again, thank you Like from the very bottom of our heart We want to get as a show to the point Where Andrew isn't wearing headphones That have NPR West etched into them Which he currently does We want to be a show that can afford We want a show that can afford Its own headphones that were not Stolen from NPR That's all That's what we're trying to get to John looks like you want to say something

We actually This wasn't pre-planned but we have Somebody who is a first time donor Who wrote a really sweet comment So I just wanted to share that This is Kate in Boston so I forgive you for being in Boston Because you're a donor Kate so thank you very much You're saying that it's a Yankees situation yeah yeah yeah sorry don't listen to him ignore him but so Kate said my little sister slash tbtl baby usually donates as my birthday present presumably to thank me for introducing her to your fabulous podcast but this year I'm putting my big girl pants on so Kate is donating for you know sounds like for the first time and yeah nice that's

very nice and you mentioned yesterday that we got a nice note from somebody who started listening very recently because of our show that we do with Text Me Back. That worked. Yeah. I can't believe it.

None of our promotional things worked, but that actually worked. That's dope.

And now you're listening to TBTL, which really just means the world to us and stepping up and helping keep the show going into the future. So thank you so much. Think of it as light as a feather, stiff as a board, right? Yes. I think that's how that works. I've never actually done that before, but I think it's a lot of people can do a lot of heavy lifting together. Can have a seance. They can have a seance. Think of it as a Ouija board.

Wait, what? Yes. I also, you know, we talk so much about the community of tens and when people donate and they write us the dazzling donor messages, they often talk about the how sort of life affirming it is to be part of this group of listeners of the show. And that's just like this lucky accident that's happened, which is, you know, really starting with Jen Flash Andrews, who was really good at cultivating this community of listeners. And then at some point it just sort of took on a life of its own, the Stens page and the card exchanges and the ways that everybody looks out for each other. and um and and part of that community uh was a person named karina lynch who uh listener and donor christine wanted to let us know that we lost karina this year which was a really sad thing karina was at the 4000th episode uh i got a chance to say hi to her and we just wanted to honor karina and just uh you know sort of honor her memory and also mention i'm learning from her husband Steve by way of Christine that one of the special facts about Karina was that she was not a very tall person she was in fact about five feet tall and so the

running gag that they had was anytime she was near one of those signs that said you must be this tall to go on the ride there's like a picture that they sent us of her standing i it's in i don't know if it's in tavoli italy or if it's just something that's tavoli themed or or wherever that is switzerland i don't know where tavoli is that's in the mountains right between italy and switzerland i'm not sure you guys did not do well in the geography but there's a picture of Corita standing next to one of these you must be this tall to go on this ride thing anyway we lost Corita this year which is such a sad thing we wanted to honor her memory a little bit and we wanted to just you know give a shout out to the community of folks that's really grieving that and hurting and that's you know kind of part of this thing right which is this group of folks that have all gotten together around this idea of TBTL but have become friends in real life and look out for each other and sort of mourn for each other you know there's like ups and downs in this life and this life that's now been created by TBTL. So we just wanted to say to Steve, we're so sorry for your loss and to everybody else. Also wanted to give a shout out to our good friend, Jen, and her husband, Chris. Jen is dealing with some health stuff as well. They're our friends out at Terramar in Bo, Washington. Jen, just wanted to let you know that we're sending you a bunch of love right now. Death. And sending you all the positive vibes we can for what you've been going through. And we know that you're gonna make it through. So shout out to you as well So yeah that's again that's part of life Right I guess you know it's like When you get a community of people together Like I said there's going to be The ups and like which is Us talking about taco time that would be one of the ups That's one of the highlights of the week And then there's the downside which is You know health things And people you know leaving us There's also the downside of my dad thinking That I'm calling him a racist Which he explained to me last night He's not a fan of the Chinese bullshit conversation

From Monday's show Do you want to explain what the Chinese bullshit conversation was?

I do want to give some context for that Because first of all I had no idea My dad was going to hear that But then my mom tuned in And then I think my dad overheard it in the background As my mom was listening to it

Because your mom likes to listen to the TBT elathons

My mom, yes My mom really enjoys listening to the show And in particular shows where she might be mentioned Or even might be on Which is this show coming up in a moment We're going to give her a ring But I was talking to her last night About her appearance And then I heard my dad in the background Just go, Chinese bullshit And my mom clarified that my dad Did not particularly love that Now, I want to just be clear That my dad is really and truly A person who harbors no ill will And doesn't have any bad takes Like he is really not a person Who tends to have sort of stereotypes in his mind Or makes off-color jokes Or any of those things which on some level would be understandable just based on the generational difference you know maybe older folks aren't getting every single memo about the different ways that we're talking about people and things and whatever but that being said my dad is really not that way which i love it's nice we don't have to have awkward conversations where he says something and i'm kind of like oh we don't say that anymore dad like that's really not the vibe but he has been calling a lot of the things that he had to install in this studio because they're kind of poorly made because I didn't pay a lot for them, and they did, in fact, come from China. He's been calling those things Chinese bullshit.

Kind of mumbling and grumbling while installing a light fixture or something.

Yes, it's become shorthand for something that's a cheapo product that I bought from China that is more difficult than it needs to be to install. But it's never, I promise, attached to a person or a particular group of people. It is purely about the wiring of various sconces. In fact, I would call that sconce in the bathroom Chinese bullshit Because it is not orange, even when you turn the light on

When you turn the light on, it doesn't even let that much light through No

It fails on almost every Every single thing you would like An orange sconce to be Which is orange and something that lets light through It does neither of those two things

When they say, oh turn it on, the light will make it orange That is not true I just want to be here for you That's some Chinese bullshit It really is

But Walter is not a racist And I want to be very clear about that I felt bad I talked to him last night and I said Would you like me to officially make a retraction on the air Would you like me to clarify He said no it's fine But I ignored that and I am officially clarifying Now many of you Got an email Today in your inbox From my mother Susie Burbank We sent out these emails during the TBTelethon week Kind of reminding you of some reasons Maybe you should donate to the show And I thought there's some interesting Ideas that are raised in this email that my mom Composed about reasons why you might listen To TBTL and reasons why you might support it She says it's a fun relaxing listen Of two ordinary guys Living ordinary lives That hurts a little bit I tend to think of Of our lives is hopefully being Maybe one click up from ordinary Maybe that's why people tune in I consider myself an extraordinary fellow Well that might be pushing it just a little bit Anyway I thought we could call my mom

Did you hear my story about Denny's?

Okay legit that is extraordinary It is extraordinary that there was a place called Denny's That isn't the Denny's that the listeners are thinking of And that your family started boycotting it Because of a bawdy stand up comedy show

So weird He might have been doing magic

Anyway go ahead That would actually make more sense with the sort of like you know making his pickle disappear or whatever was going on man so i thought maybe we'd call my mom up and kind of just talk through this email with her so uh we're gonna do this on the fly it is hit and miss calling my parents at their house because the cell service can sometimes be a little dodgy so we're calling my mom this is happening live on the air um hopefully she is near her phone and going to answer it if not i've got a good two more hours of taco time talk i'd

like to get into the sound of a ringing phone is very meditative it's calming hello mother

hi Luke hi can you hear us okay yep you scared me there you let that wait for you you let that ring like four or five times I thought maybe you weren't near your phone well I was and then I just went in the house for a second oh okay the phone was outside oh sure so you left your phone at the critical moment when we were going to call you.

Hi, Susie. Well, I was waiting since like 10 o'clock.

Oh, I'm sorry. I said 10.30.

I know you said 10.30, but...

Yeah. Right. Well, Mom, can you... I want to make sure. Can you hear Andrew and John as well?

Hi, Susie. How are you doing? Hey, Susie. Yeah. Hi, guys.

Mom, I want to say thank you for writing this email. Yeah. It was very, very compelling. I think that it's maybe the best email of the week so far.

That's fine. No problem. I enjoyed it.

Now, I did want to go through some of the things. So there's five points that are listed in this email as reasons why people should enjoy the show and also should maybe donate. And point number two is honesty rules, exclamation point. When Luke or Andrew talk openly about their day-to-day lives with their many foibles. Okay, many foibles, Mom? That hurts.

How about with a few foibles?

Okay, I would have taken a few. Listeners can say, yep, been there, done that. There's a level ground here. No highfalutin jargon. So you think that the jargon on the show is not highfalutin?

It is not highfalutin. Hmm. That surprises me. I thought I had some highfalutin jargon.

Andrew has been trying to be highfalutin.

Listen, highfalutin means like snobby.

Oh. Where did that come from? I know we grew up saying highfalutin in our house. Is that from like a movie or TV show that we saw? Or is that just something that you started saying at some point?

it's just an it's like an old school term for somebody who is like talking above you uh-huh which i mean like they're not using they're not using common language they're trying to impress you with their you know extra vocabulary or something like that you know like they're more you know educated vocabulary or you know they they uh they talk above

i don't know how else to put that yeah yeah um the other thing that you say here mom is uh point number three you may just come away feeling better about yourself when listening to them as long as long as your name is not as long as your name is not walt burbank because he uh was not happy with the chinese bullshit conversation on monday how's he doing with

that whole thing no he wasn't unhappy about it he actually went into the kitchen when i was listen to you on the phone you know and um he went into the kitchen so he didn't hear all the really nice things you said about him previous to that yeah he heard a little bit but i was like i i understood that first you prefaced it with really very nice things so you clarified that

with him because i want to make sure he doesn't think that i'm like talking smack about him on

the show no he just said that you said Chinese bullshit way too many times he said it way too

many times he never stopped muttering it when he was working here hey Susie let me ask you a

question I can't remember if this has come up on the show recently or if it's just a notion I have but you know Luke talks about growing up I mean you guys were not allowed to swear I don't know that you were exposed to much like kind of, you know, language like that. Has Walt been swearing more as he gets older, or are you guys just more comfortable doing it around Luke now that he's an adult?

Oh, definitely more as he gets older.

Really?

Yeah, like, but, you know, I've told Luke before that years, for years and years, if he's working in the shop on some kind of like sign project or something that's a little difficult, this goes way back. he usually kind of loses himself in it and gets frustrated.

and he may be swearing but he doesn't like swear in normal you know day-to-day talk this is my

theory mom when he's frustrated my theory is you know dad is such a like generally speaking he's such an agreeable easygoing guy that yeah it's he has it all out yeah he has a lot of anger building up like whereas you and i just express our anger all the time so we have no no anger building up

so we don't have to and mom well you know speaking of that yeah i was going to say that i was feeling bad about your uncle chuck the other day and he was here for you know sam and ashley's you know celebration yeah i call it celebration because they were already married right but um back you know in october a year ago and i was thinking he was sick when he came him and you know your aunt yeah and he was so hard to be around but he was sick and then i just met him right where he was And I gave him a lot of flack, like, you know, kind of like, come on now. You know, you're here for the wedding. You really, I really didn't, like, have compassion for him.

Why, was he being grumpy, Susie?

What's that?

Was he being, like, grumpy? Is that what you mean, being difficult? So grumpy.

Grumpy to a whole new level.

Okay.

And, you know, my brother Chuck and me are a lot alike. So like Luke was just saying, we kind of like, and Luke's, of course, like me, you just let it all out. Yeah. And then you kind of feel like, ooh, maybe I went a little too far. Right. So that situation with your Uncle Chuck, Luke, I felt like, you know what, I owe him even a further apology. Because we sort of like, sort of brushed over it.

Yeah.

Because it's been a while. But I said, I am so sorry. You were sick, and I needed to have way more understanding and compassion on you. and you know he said uh yeah i um his response was yes yes you should have had more compassion for me the response was sue you already apologized but thanks but it just felt to me that you know that's like kind of what we were talking about over that force you know you just you need to show your best self to people even if they're kind of putting you out you know yeah so you and

you and uncle chuck though it sounds like you guys have recently kind of repaired things and you guys are are in a really good place now which i'm always glad to hear because we're even we're even better off yeah good um speaking of uncle chuck mom anyway i'm just saying that's how

that's you know i'm really seeing the the need to you know just kind of chill a little bit and not just kind of meet people at the level of their anger like even your dad if he's like swearing and stuff he's trying to work on something my first thought is get a grip it's not the end of the world but instead i just kind of like i back away i just go in another spot you know go in the house or something and just let him work it out yeah i think even even at your house we were doing that in the adu you know uh-huh like time for us

to split yeah you and i were hiding out in the main house with becca uh letting dad just do his

thing at the adu and making uh hey dummies videos because we knew he would come to uh you know

completion and it would work yeah but it's just the process absolutely hey mom i'm speaking of uncle chuck and speaking of your your um origin story i thought this would be a good time to make an announcement about the show and about something that we have coming up i have even a special little um sound effect here we are officially announcing the next tbtl live show live september 28th in philadelphia pennsylvania mark your calendars saturday the 28th uh philly pa tbtl live and mom is it true that you are actually going to be there i'm coming for the occasion nice that absolutely is really exciting for me and for the listeners now you don't need any excuse to get back to philly because you love it there and have lots of friends and family but this is going to be really great um you and dad are

going to be coming too though yeah right well you know um yeah but i mean i think that's cool you know that your dad wants to jump on board too yeah because a lot of times when i go back to philly to visit it's about you know my sisters my friends and you know your dad kind of says okay do your thing go ahead but this time he's like no no i want to come well i want to you know because

you're going to be there in tbtl i'm really looking forward to seeing you guys and i'm looking forward to hanging out with all the listeners we are not saying today what the actual venue is yet we're going to be making that announcement later this week um and i think that'll be next week that will make that announcement. So I'm going to be very careful here, but I will say this, where we are holding this event.

we might want to keep the swearing down. And so if we could get that message to Walter that we don't want a lot of foul language involved in this particular TBT Almeida.

Yeah, no, it's a Chinese bullshit-free zone where we're going to be having the show.

Yeah, we don't want the mouth of sailors floating around here.

Exactly. Thank you. Thank you, Mom. That's a great expression. Mom, if you can kind of ride herd on that, that would be sort of great. also i i kind of have i sort of go back and forth on if i if i think that we want to try to get the extended family out to this thing or not by that i mean like uncle chuck and aunt cath and the crew because you know some of them came to see me do wait wait at the man center and that was like pretty cool right because that's like a big venue and there's thousands of people it's a whole thing i felt like that was me operating at my coolest this is me operating at my weirdest this is more like this little podcast that we do with this like great group of fans but it's a smaller group of people like i don't know i'm not sure if aunt kathy and uncle chuck will really get it so like i'm wondering i understand that maybe i don't know what do you think should we invite

them or not i think we could invite them but if they i mean your aunt cap didn't even come to

wait wait no yeah well screw her she's off the list i mean she can but she's willing to buy a

ticket it's hard for her to get around and get herself settled in the crowd you know yeah Surely, I would think invite them, but they may not get it. You're right. They may be like, what?

Yeah, it is.

It's not like the finished wait, wait, don't tell me. And even wait, wait can be boring at times. So you know what I'm saying?

Wow. What if I use more highfalutin language? Maybe that'll connect with them better.

Mom, you have some of the hottest takes of anyone I know. The other day when my mom was here, she said, do you know mo rocca and i said yes she goes not a fan not a fan and you're not a fan because you think he was too understated on celebrity jeopardy but you also think that other celebrities were too overstated on celebrity jeopardy what is this what is the right amount of excitement when someone is

on celebrity jeopardy um oh celebrity jeopardy probably the gal that um you know she was in SNL and then she was the girlfriend of Spence in King of Queens whatever her name is

I was going to say the King of Queens reference lost me yeah not Leah Remini

yeah you know she's really kind of like not really very attractive but she's hilarious wow

I'm going to look up the King of Queens cast here

now I want to remind everyone

she was Spence's girlfriend that he oh gosh, she was so funny.

Was she on MADtv? Yeah, it's Nicole something, right? Sullivan. Nicole Sullivan from MADtv. I think so. She was on MADtv, mom. She was not on SNL.

I think she got her start on SNL.

Oh, okay. Well, we'll agree to agree on that.

By the way, mom. She is hilarious. But she was great on it because she wasn't like all, like the other celebrity, quote unquote, was a blonde and she was just like getting so mad and like yelling at Ken Jennings you know wait a minute I almost said that you know it's just like get a grip you can't almost say it you know and that kind of stuff she was a little bit hard to take but this this other one was just like she's really like surprised that she did so well and then also really like you know sort of like grateful that she did so well but you

You thought that Mo Rocco was too understated?

Very understated. It's almost like I could fall asleep with his talking, you know. He's just kind of like, you know, just not a bit animated.

Hmm, I'll tell him.

Maybe it was just... It doesn't matter. That might be who he is, and it's all right, you know.

Uh-huh.

In my book, he might be a 7, not a 10, you know.

Do you think, Mom, that you just were suspicious of the whole thing because you know that I will never be a big enough celebrity to be on Celebrity Jeopardy?

I'll tell you what I don't like about Celebrity Jeopardy. The questions are really toned down. Dumbed down is the word I want to say.

Yeah.

And it's just like, oh, come on, you've got to know that. And it's like, here's these celebrities that are like the superstars of life, and they're not all that smart. It really surprises me.

Yeah. I have a newfound respect.

When you see somebody in regular Jeopardy, they're really, they're, man, oh, man. I mean, even your, Elena.

Yeah.

She did really well.

She did. She almost won.

In Jeopardy.

Yeah.

That was impressive. I know, and she's smart.

She sure is.

A lot smarter than these celebrities.

Yeah.

But you know what I mean? It's like, it's just like they dumb it down for the celebrity.

celebrities well i have a whole newfound respect for the thing mom can we kill her microphone i was gonna say mom i have a newfound respect for how hard that show is from doing that story about ken jennings and being on the set like because you know you watch at home i watch it at home sometimes and i'm just yelling the answers and it's so low pressure if i'm on my couch but being there in the room and watch i'm amazed that anyone can do it at all it's so much pressure it's

crazy and they make celebrity jeopardy easier because it's for charity right like they want them to win money right isn't

that right exactly so they're not going to make it so that you know they can't they can't answer the right the right answers it is always sad when they're like probably

the reason when somebody like bets all their money at the end and they lose and it's like well that's not going to children burn victims sorry right it's like a little bit

they still get I think they get 50 grand or something like that.

I see, I see.

Yeah, they get a certain amount just for the charity. And if they win, then they get more, of course. But yeah, so yeah, I didn't think about that, Andrew. It's definitely because they don't want them to not win the charity.

That was John, but the point stands, yeah.

Oh, yeah, John.

Well, listen, Mama, we've got to go because we're going to do the birthday messages here, which includes our Lizzie, my sister Liz's actual birthday today but i just wanted to say thank you very much isn't that amazing she's 45 45 wow three

years younger than you right but still 45 yeah she's a beautiful 45 is she not sure is sure is

not like the lady from mad tv it was a very beautiful 45 um mom uh thank you for writing this email and thanks for being like last year thanks to you and dad for hosting us and and thanks for you know uh just being who you are and also for being engaged with the tens i know they love hearing from you and seeing you on the facebook page and all that and hearing you on the show so and thank you for um basically uh in informing my entire personality and way of being in the world because it's all 100 from you you're so welcome all right mom love you okay have a

great rest of your day i'll see you in philly okay well sooner than that maybe i don't know We'll see.

Okay. Bye, Mom. Love you. Bye, Suzy.

Okay. Okay. Bye-bye. That was great.

My mom is a one-of-a-kind. I'll tell you that much.

She's got opinions.

She sure does. She sure does. Should we do some Blur's Days?

I think we should.

There's a wrong way to run.

Ooh, are we using this this year? I wasn't supposed to do it. Talk over it. Talk over it. Make some noise. Make some noise. Nobody heard anything. I forgot.

That'll get us literally playing that. Will get us pulled from. Do you guys just want to sing it?

Let's just use this.

We have the rights thanks to listener Brian I think once I get into this part We can talk It's just that beginning part Where they're singing About a right way to rock Oh that's the part that

Sort of throws up a red flag Throws up a spotlight

Yeah I don't think the algorithm recognizes this sound Although there's also Tim Heidecker Which did you see he's got a new album coming out He does Yeah I haven't heard anything off of it yet But let's do some Blursdays here. Would you like to do a more official Blursday wish to your sister?

Happy Blursday to my dear sister, Elizabeth. I don't think anyone's called her Elizabeth in a long time. My sister, Liz. It's her birthday day. I just learned she's 45. Nice. Happy Blursday, Liz. I would have guessed like 20-something because I don't keep track of these kinds of things. And also my sister, my little sister being 45 indicates that I am much older than that. And I don't like to think about that. So anyway. So explain that. Happy of Thursday, Luke.

Luke, do you remember, and I don't know if you do, we did a Zoom call on Monday night with a bunch of listeners, and one of them, Ben, was a brand new dad. Yes. And we met an 11-hour-old baby.

Who's now named what, John? Jonah. Jonah.

Well, Ben's brother, I believe Matthew, is also a listener to this very podcast. And Matthew says, I'd like to wish a happy Blur's Day to my TBTL grandson, nephew, and the previously unnamed baby from Monday's Craft Night, now known as Judah Miles. Welcome. What?

Judah? Have you been saying the wrong name this whole time?

What were you saying?

I thought it was Jonah. Oh, that's pretty close.

I got Judah Miles here. I'll go with that. I can go back to Matthew.

I'm guessing the baby. So we. Wait a second. You said, because you said Jonah back on the first time, and I said, don't let him near a whale.

You guys are making me nervous here. I need to go back to, do I have to go to my email? I mean, I copy and pasted this. I don't think I would have changed the name.

What I'm going to say is, whatever we've been calling this baby is the baby's new name.

Yeah, Target.

Targus. Your baby's new name is Targus. I mean, Jonah, Judah, Tomato, Tomato.

Both biblical, they're similar. Yeah, exactly. No, yeah, I think that we got it right here. I mean, unless Matthew's wrong, but we got Judah Miles. Welcome to the world, little guy. Much love from Uncle Matt.

All right.

If Matthew is wrong, I'll just say it's probably autocorrect. We don't want to throw the uncle under the bus here. That's probably autocorrect. If Matthew's wrong, John is his new uncle. Not legally, but seriously. Nikki in Worcester says, happy birthday. This is Worcester, Ohio, I believe. Oh, sure, sure. Spilled with two O's the proper way. Happy birthday to my dear friend and fellow 10, Caitlin in Idaho. I'm looking forward to another wine trip with you next year. But until then, I hope you have a wine and fun-filled birthday. Nice. I miss you much. Happy Blur's Day, Caitlin. Annie in Seattle says, I want to wish Megan and Edmonds a very happy Blur's Day. I hope your day is amazing in every way. Thank you for being a 10 and a friend. Red Robin and Husky Helmet Car forever. Thank you for being a 10. I love that Husky Helmet Car. I'm not somebody. I don't consider myself like a Huskies fan necessarily. I'm not against them, but I'm not like I don't have a huge rooting interest there until I see that helmet car driving around the sidelines or the end zone. I'm like, I could get into this.

With the dog in it, which, by the way, my friend Todd. Dubs? My friend Todd's daughter is one of the handlers for Dubs. Oh, really? And I feel like I'm adjacent to a celebrity.

I have been in the presence of Dubs, but I don't believe I've ever petted Dubs.

When I was a kid, the husky mascot dog was always named Sun Dodger. And they got onto, like, Sundodger 4 or something?

Yeah, I think they're on Dubs 3 or 4 now, too. Paul says, happy birthday to Craig. Craig turned 50. Did I say Craig funny? Craig? No, you said it right. Should it rhyme with Greg? Yes. Okay, and I was saying, like, Craig. Wow. No, you're saying it right. Okay, anyway, this is from Paul, not me anyway. Happy birthday to Craig. Craig turned 55 on July 5th, and we celebrated on the 4th of July.

The name that you would probably say with your Ohio accent most noticeably would be if somebody was named Hal. Hal. That's Hal. That's weird. Hal. Hal. Hal. Craig.

Craig and Hal went down to the river. Jennifer, a.k.a. Mayor Gregerson. Oh, yeah, sure.

Sure, yeah.

Got it.

Don't blame me. I voted for Gregerson.

Oh, no. This is the one. I forgot about this. I've been I'm checking my phone because I want to see if Genevieve texted me back. I asked a favor from Genevieve. She has not gotten back to me to help me with this because Genevieve has been learning French for the past several years now. And I wanted to see if she could help me out with this. She decided to ignore my text message of my plea for help because Jennifer says happy birthday to my partner, Paul. Oh, sure. Paul. We know Paul. Yeah, we know Paul for a long time now. He just earned his American citizenship on the 4th of July. Yeah, I saw that on Instagram. That was great. He's a great cat dad and gardener. Why use anniversary? Are you okay over there?

I am having joya anniversary, like joya Noel, like happy.

This is the pronouncer that I'm ignoring how it's actually spelled in French, And I'm going with a pronouncer that Jennifer sent, which is Jay-Z dash, the word Y, W-H-Y, dash U's. As if you're in Philly and you're saying, U's, come over here.

U's going down to Pat's and Gino's to get a steak. I'm just trying to match your energy. Just Y-U's anniversary? No. I would say joye anniversary. I got in trouble today, by the way. Yeah, that might be a typo. Speaking of fern languages, you know, Becca's been doing Italian on Duolingo because we are going to be going to Italy this summer. And she sent me a message in the morning that was, you know, kind of like a in Italian, some nice little thing. Buongiorno, ragazzo mio. And I responded, hola, amigo. And that did not go over well because it's the wrong language and also put her in the friend zone.

That's, wait, what? Because Amigo is friend, and also it's male friend. There was a lot wrong with that.

I was trying to be funny, but it was a swing and a miss.

Zona Amigo.

It was a bit of a...

Zona Amiga. Do you know that...

Zona de Amigo.

So Vives and I, when we were down in Mexico, we were staying in an area called Zona Romantico. I do remember that.

or whatever, and a friend who was recommending it before we booked our trip suggested that, and Genevieve did look at me, and she said, do they have a Zona Amigo?

Do they have a Zona Cabeza Hedeko Tonaito?

Anyway, the point is, happy Blur's Day, Paul, and congratulations. Yes! Oui, oui, ooh la la. Jennifer says, I'd like to give a shout-out to my IRL mommy, Judy. I hope this year brings you all things good. Let the fun begin. Love, Jennifer, your TBTL daddy. Look at that. An IRL mommy of a TBTL daddy. Let's see here. And finally, this is our friend David in Vermont of the Smitten.

Oh, sure. We know them. I should say.

David says, normally I wouldn't send a Blur's Day's Day message for myself. However, this Sunday, I turn 49, crossing the Wilford Brimley line. Oh, gosh. The upside is everyone will be shocked and amazed when I do a cannonball into a pool. I'm afraid I just blurs myself. And that's it. David is a very young 49. He really is. I'm very shocked to hear that he's a bit older than me.

David, you don't look. I mean, I don't want to frame things this way. I don't want to pull a Susie. That one not very attractive woman From SNL But I would say David You look very very good for your age

Andrew can I tack on one more blurs

I think we're about wrapped up here Sorry the music stopped

But this one's important because it's my mother-in-law's birthday Oh wow Patty and I say that For her birthday but also because earlier this week She increased her donation To a dazzling donor So I feel Which is so embarrassing and I feel I text her immediately Thank you for being a 10 To shame her But happy birthday to Patty

Thanks Patty Happy Blurs Day Patty And thank you so much For supporting the show

Appreciate you very much And thank you to All of the people Who've been supporting TBTL this week We are in the Sort of We're in the I guess eighth inning Of this whole thing Right Because it's the Penultimate day Tomorrow will be the last day Where we're doing this Although I'm guessing That we'll leave We're going to leave Things open Through the weekend

on tbtl.net yeah maybe a little bit in the next week yeah maybe get some stragglers yeah um but

uh but again a huge huge thanks to everybody who's been supporting us uh so far this week and uh to whoever is uh spam calling me whoever gave my phone number to the spam people i want to thank you for that too because it's just been a a joyful experience for me to get to have hundreds of calls from the area code that my phone is from thank you for being a spam

Thank you for being a tan

All right, that's going to wrap it up By the way, we took zero phone calls today We made one phone call We accepted zero calls Maybe we'll try to up that tomorrow But anyway, thanks again for spending this time with us We will be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for you In the meantime, have a great Thursday Take care of yourselves And please remember, no mountain too tall And good luck to all Thank you for being a tan

Power out.