Muse

I know it seems crazy, but Tracy and I are totally, totally in love. In love? Yeah. It's serious. She inspires me in ways that Linda never has. She even wants to read my novel. But you haven't written your novel. That's the whole point! TBTL!

Guys, I'm calling you from a karaoke bar bathroom. Somebody just put on Bohemian Rhapsody. Save me, please.

I have a beta sequence I've been working on. Would you like to see it?

That's our second Arby's in town. Some say it's better. The fries are curlier. Though, I wouldn't know it. I'm loyal to the original.

We have all the facts on this we need. We don't need any more facts. In the land of truth, my friend, the man with one fact is the king.

Hey, look here. Why don't we eat us a few thousand beers and you tell me what's buzzing in the big bad city?

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

Let the great experiment begin!

My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. The extent to which he is addled, the extent to which his brain is scrambled eggs, has become all the more apparent. Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio perched high above the mighty Columbia. Oh, ma, pa, it's just beautiful.

It's getting warm again. It's going to be in the 90s today. I'm surviving mostly on A&W diet root beer.

Gotta have that root beer.

But I am going to make it through. I know it. I'm going to push through and I'm going to help bring you episode 4,262.

In a collector's series, let the fun begin.

Speaking of pushing through, Starbucks employees. This song goes out to all the coffee lovers of the world. Say that these Starbucks BOGO promotions, you know, buy one, get one free. Like if you're one of those Starbucks fans who has the app and you do all this stuff on the phone, the employees of Starbucks would like it if you could please stop coming in to get your buy one, get one free coffees because it's making their life a living hell.

I would say, can you please stop doing this stuff?

We're also going to bring you the Blur's Days on this Blur's Day.

It's my birthday today.

And there are a lot of them. In fact, we may just start them right after I introduce the longest-running co-bro of the show. Yalapano. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He is Andrew Wall. She's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

Our first Blur's Day comes from me to you. Yes. No, you know what I wanted to start with today? And I'll be honest with you, I don't know how this is going to pay off. But I was watching some television last night. Luke, I was watching Monk. You're familiar with the TV show Monk? Sure am. By the way, I had a really bad feeling watching Monk the other day. I was watching it with Genevieve, and then I think she fell asleep. I think she actually went upstairs. And Genevieve, I know I get on her nerves sometimes, like kind of in a real way when I'm like kind of cleaning up, And especially if she's just done, like, got done cooking something, then I'll go in the kitchen and I'll start cleaning. And she'll say, I already cleaned that. And I'll say, yeah, I know. I'm just cleaning it. Again? I'm just doing it. I'm just, you know, I'm not trying to be insulting, but, you know, I'm just, I'm doing it. I know you did it, but now I am doing it because I want it to be, you know, kind of a certain way. And I never really thought there was anything wrong with that until I literally saw Monk do that in a scene. And Genevieve wasn't in the room. And I'm not even joking. It gave me a really bad feeling. I was like, oh. Oh, like we've always joked around so much about how I'm like how I'm like monk and it's kind of a joke. In fact, yesterday in one of the episodes, he says his scheduler said something like, hey, we have we have to be downtown at 10 a.m. He said, it's garbage day. Make it 1130. I just looked at you. But this one moment where Stottlemyre, his chief, had just cleaned something and then a monk went and vacuumed over top of it. He's like, I just vacuumed that. He's like, I know. And he didn't say anything. He didn't want to be insulting and say you didn't do a good job. He just said, I know. And I was like, oh, wow, that's me. I understand how toxic that can be. Anyway, yesterday, Avivs and I were watching a monk together, and a commercial break started. And I saw a commercial, Luke, that brought together one of the greatest loves of my life with one of the greatest loves of your life. And I'm wondering if you noticed this as well. I haven't heard you mention watching much TV lately. Lately, I don't know if you've been on your brick box or or just have been

I've been on my tick-tock. Yeah, and it's really it's it's it's it's not good I need to I need to expand out. I mean last night I spent a significant part of the evening sitting on my deck

with my headphones in, listening to songs by, songs, Ohio, Jason Molina music.

Yeah, that's great.

So that was an emotional journey. Yeah, exactly. But anyway, I haven't been watching a ton of TV. So a lot of laughs, a lot of hugs. A lot of laughs, a lot of good times, a lot of high fives, a lot of smiles. No, I love that. I haven't gone deep in that, but. A lot of silent tears. My goodness. I bought a book. Like, that's the, that's the emotional state I was in was I was listening to, I heard like one of his songs. What happened was I heard a cover song of his, and then I went and listened to the original, and then I couldn't stop listening to the original, and then I wanted to know everything about the guy, and then I bought a biography about him on Amazon, which will be here today.

You know, and Jason Molina, that's the original. So I only know this through what you played for me during the pandemic and that song that I just loved. Farewell Transmission. Farewell Transmission. And so this is the original version of it, right, by Songs Ohio, which is what Jason Molina performed under.

It's kind of confusing because, yeah, it was always this dude, Jason Molina, but then he had this thing, Songs Ohio, but that was also the name of a record, but then he did a record called the Magnolia Electric Company, but then also the band was kind of called that. It's very confusing, but it was just basically these different names for the projects that were this dude, Jason Molina.

But then I have to always backtrack to and remember which version it is because then, of course, Kevin Morby and Waxahatchee did a cover of that song by Jason Molina and I love them both so much and I think I boy I gotta say the pandemic I don't think I'm I'm overreaching here when I say the pandemic had a lot of negative impacts on our culture um but one of the positive impacts was I had a hell of a playlist from that era of the early pandemic where we were just doing a lot of sitting around and we're listening to some pretty um uh wistful tunes and uh and that that really is a hell of a song I decided to reconnect with that energy last night but it involved no tv watching great so anyway uh all of this is to say we're watching some monk and this commercial came on and like i said i think it combines one of the greatest loves of your life one of the greatest loves of my life in a surprising way i'm hoping that the voiceover it's 30 seconds long let it play out i'm hoping that the voiceover will uh eventually reveal what the um service being sold here is

Shooting through every degree. From cooking schools. Wow. To curated restaurants. Or late night eats. With thousands of unique dining experiences. The essential spirit of the B-52s. Anything's on the menu. With Marriott Bonvoy.

Did you hear what it was for, though? No, I'm sorry. I stepped on the left.

No, I wanted you to hear what it was for. because you identified correctly why it's one of the loves of my life, the B-52s. But what is it advertising?

With thousands of unique dining experiences, anything's on the menu with Marriott Bonvoy.

With Marriott Bonvoy. I think I was watching, I was like, I know this song. Oh, my God, this is the first time that I think I've heard that sort of like modern commercialized and i'm going to say a chopped and screwed version of a b-52 song movie trailers and commercials do this for all kinds of music where they slow it down and give it more of an emotional impact that's something we've been seeing a lot in advertising now past decade or so but i don't i don't think i'd heard the b-52s given that treatment before

yeah i was wondering if you felt like that's sort of sacrilege in a way because you could not have You could not have sort of like You know sort of removed More of the soul of that song Or whatever the energy of that song is As the B-52s intended it I mean that was just And it doesn't make It doesn't surprise me That's for a Bonvoy commercial Because that sounds like a song That would be on the TV When you walk into the hotel room That tone Like that treatment of it That home screen That's like welcome Luke And like here's you know All the things you can Visit in the hotel That's just like That version of the song Has so little going for it as far as nutritional value in my opinion i think that didn't make you feel that way no well here's

the deal i think that of the various kinds of music in the world those that you would hold sort of like that you would hold close to your heart yeah that you would hold most self-evident no that you would hold sort of close to your heart and you wouldn't want to see commercialized i don't put the b52s in that category it's mostly fun music it's mostly dance music not that that doesn't give it artistic credibility i mean maybe if they took like rock i mean if red lobster was maybe butchered rock lobster and took all the punk out of it maybe that would be bad but I mean it's still just fun music and honestly if those guys are getting paid you know at this point in their career like I just and you know it's not it didn't really bother me in that way and also it occurred to me like Rome, first of all, it probably helps that Rome is not, like, one of my favorite B-52 songs. Like, it's fine. It was a big hit. But, like, of course, like, Rome, if you want to, Rome around the world. How has that not, I mean, maybe I missed it, but how has that not been used more for travel experiences?

Yeah, I guess. I also just wonder how much people listen to those kinds of lyrics when they're being, you know, like, put, I guess you got to put some kind of song in the commercial. But I always wonder when sometimes you'll hear like a chopped and screwed version of some song just because it has one lyric that seems relevant to the product or something. And I'm like, man, I'm glad that those artists got paid. Yeah. But I don't know if that was worth it. You know, if that if that was worth the hassle to just to get that one word in there that you, the advertising agency thought, well, this is a song we could use for this because it's it's sort of related. You know, I had some thoughts about Fred Schneider this morning, Andrew. Oh, I usually do.

i do my fred schneider thinking in the mid-afternoon usually actually it was someone on tiktok named

olivia is artsy and um and this person had noticed something a similarity between the work of john

malaney and fred schneider came to the realization today that really the only difference between john malaney and the lead singer of the b-52s is tempo and pacing otherwise there's no difference and then

And I said, you're living in your own private Idaho. Don't go on the patio. Get down on the ground like a wild potato. And then out of nowhere, everyone seemed to have matching towels. I was over on the beach. No, see, I was over on the beach. I was on the beach. No, because I was over on the beach. And then my father, Chip Mullaney, who, by the way, has a Chrysler that seats about 20 people. says to come along and bring your jukebox money that's pretty good well now you've angered me

oh i know i did what the bonvoy commercial couldn't i've been fury 52s do not have a lead

singer they all take lead at different moments in different songs i very young andrew i don't

expect them to know why would you don't expect them to know the lead singer of b52s that's like Why would you ruin my day like this? Somebody knowing who was in the Platters, the lead singer of the Platters. I mean, it's an oldie to somebody in their 20s.

First of all, Douglas Platter was not the lead singer of... No, yeah, no, that's actually, that's really good. But I would say that he's not the lead singer. He's one of the vocalists.

The other thing that I was doing this morning, Andrew, was, and I don't want to take it to Baseball Town, but... In fact, maybe we should be leaving Baseball Town. Listen, I got the first ticket out. I'm on the last helicopter out of baseball town. I'm on top of T-Mobile Field, and I'm grabbing onto one of the runners. But yesterday, the Mariners suffered a very frustrating loss in Boston, and it hurt to watch. It was kind of a slow-speed car crash. I kind of knew it was going to happen. And I meant to turn the TV off. Again, not to get into the sports of it, But when the Mariners could not score with great opportunities, and then the Red Sox in the bottom of the 10th had their best hitter coming up, this guy Raphael Devers, who kills us. I was like, this game is over. There's a guy on second, and Raphael Devers is hitting. This is over. And I meant to turn the TV off, and I got distracted, and then I looked over, and he was hitting a double. And I was like, ah, I wanted to not see that. I wanted to turn this off so I wouldn't have to experience. But I then was texting our friend group about my deep, deep disappointment in a player that we have named Mitch Garver. And he is a person that we're paying a lot of money to. We picked him up from, was it like the Texas Rangers maybe?

You know, I'm sorry. I'm blanking on where we got Garver from. But I know we're paying him like $23 million or something like this this year.

Yeah, we're paying him a lot. And I said in our text chain Somebody else said Mitch Garver's my least favorite Mariner of all time and I agreed heartily Because Mitch Garver had He had been at bat with the bases loaded And he didn't get any hits in five Tries yesterday and had In the top of the tenth a chance to Break the game wide open and he failed once again And he failed many times In the game where there were people on base And he could have scored a run for us And I said something like he has no redeeming Qualities his uh his blood is mostly no i was i said something very cutting about him in our friend group which was basically like i said he has no redeeming qualities and he's also just such a mope about it like he's he has he seems to also hate being out there and that really frustrates me did you see ryan divish's piece today in the seattle times i haven't seen the piece but i

turn on the radio briefly today when i was making coffee and the sports show that happened to be on the local sports.

show on am radio was talking about it sounded like maybe it was an open letter that mitch garver had written or maybe a statement he had made about it was an interview okay good and it is

i mean i'll just read you from i mean ryan divish is one of my favorite sports writers out there he's just he's so great um he here's what he's saying about this guy who i was roasting in our text chain yesterday his failure to come through in the 10th was a fitting end to a frustrating game in a season filled filled with far too many of them as he jogged back to the dugout garver looked too physically and emotionally drained to be angry about the ground out he looked broken he'd finished five uh hitless uh hitless and five plate appearances striking out twice yada yada quote uh and then scott service says i thought he had a stretch there where he was doing better but now he's been struggling again lately um let's see me get down to the uh garver knows he's struggling he knows he's been disappointing the fans and that was even before so many people had let him know about his failures via social media quote this is by far the worst i've ever played in my career garver said fighting back tears and his voice shaking it's tough on myself and my family with the death threats the retire and the you suck bleeping kill yourself and all of that bleep it's getting old the only way i change is if i play better and the worse i play the more i hear and rightfully so i'm not playing well i felt so bad even though i'm you know not out in public and i would never say something that mean to an athlete some kind of threat or whatever but even so when i read this i was like oh man i feel bad that somewhere in the universe i was putting negativity out about this guy who is in a sounds like in a really dark place like that's the one of the more sort of honest things i've heard an athlete say in a while first of all for those

keeping count add another um another instance of mariners crying and i do not mean this as a negative thing by the way i actually take pride in this last time i just feel like the mariners cry a lot and i'm actually kind of into it i'm not i'm not joking so i don't want this like especially if we're having sort of a serious conversation about like the the assholery of people saying i mean i want to come back around to having private text conversations as sports fans being frustrated with players versus reaching out to players and saying incredibly toxic things that impact them and their family there's a big difference between that which we can explore although i think people will understand where that line is um having said that like i remember when and now i'm gonna blank on everybody's names but who was our god i say his name i feel like a million times in every sports conversation who was our um star closer who happened to be an anti-vaxxer i believe uh who we uh traded away in the or maybe it was an anti-vaxxer maybe this is pre-pandemic but he had some bad takes on things but um star closer who we loved that we traded away to the astros in the middle of the uh series with the astros name either whatever like very frustrating it was very frustrating in the clubhouse there was a lot of like i remember again of divvish piece in the Seattle Times talking about how the players were crying uh Kelnick cried you know openly after like kind of breaking his foot uh in anger when he kicked a cooler and then a couple of days later in the dugout uh crying and not crying for himself but saying that he let the team down because he was just starting to get good after an incredibly frustrating first part of his career um there's just like so and I don't know if it's just because the Seattle Times writers are putting it into print I just think that there's something different about west coast baseball or seattle baseball like i just don't think there's this much crying in the like you know the yankees clubhouse and and again i'm not saying this is a dig i kind of like it i think we're seeing that there is crying in baseball now right if we had a more winning record i would

feel better about it one of one of the most famous statements about baseball as yelled by tom hanks i believe is that there is no crying baseball but you would say the mariners would would disagree

with that notion the mariners are in their fields yeah and i do think that it speaks to and there were some other trades again after uh after trading away players again there's that one um

and it is driving me bananas it was like it was like graves it's not great oh almost oh yeah

geez louise this is okay we'll figure this out but you're right it is um it was and it was did

they trade away shaky graves they did and then that was right after he played the tbtl live show

in Austin. And it surprised a lot of people. Gray?

No, that was a different picture for the A's, but anyway. That's a good way to look at it. I guess, yeah, I'm with you. If they were, if this team was winning and they had some kind of quirky players who also cried, it would be great. I would love a super emo team. They're just like, you go in the locker room and they're just like blasting my chemical romance. yeah like i'm They're totally here for an emo baseball team.

Right, right, right.

As long as they win some games. That's the problem.

I know, I know. And we've got to remember that, I mean, it's tough where we are right now because I think there might be people in other markets who are just like have absolutely no chance to make the playoffs this year who are already like after the trade deadline have already traded away their best pieces and are already here on August 1st talking about, well, maybe next season or maybe three seasons from now when we rebuild. Where the Mariners are still, I don't know what happened with the Astros yesterday but we're still vying for that first place spot if we're not tied there now i'm not exactly sure like there are definitely worse situations to be in but given where we were and the opportunities that we've below gravemen thank you you were so close with graves i was like why is it why did that not knock it loose why did that not knock the coconut loose from my coconut tree thought you just knocked a coconut loose thank you for getting there that

was seriously the result of all the kendall gravemens that have come before you i literally

don't know anything i said since i couldn't remember his name about five minutes ago it's the only thing i've been thinking while trying to keep my lips flapping but uh anyway yeah we are an emo team um but also to go back to this thing about garver like yeah garver had yeah mitch garver um who's been really really struggling and not just struggling but struggling in very key moments and i believe a couple of very key moments in yesterday's game right clutch moments as you would say yeah there was two times where there were runners on base and it would have we

would have won the game if we would have just gotten a base hit and and that's why we brought

him in you know and and and and that's what he's supposed to do and if we as fans can't grumble on a text chain to each other like this guy i mean we do the same thing about julio i mean there are there would be times where you know and hopefully more times in the future where we would you know voluntarily kiss julio rodriguez on the lips consensually of course um it's the no fly zone not the no kiss zone come here julio um but there are also times where we're just like what are we doing with this guy he can be just so frustrating and that's part of the game i think and maybe it's also part of the curse of being a mariners fan is just like watching us bring in talent and then for some reason being bad the moment they're they're in our clubhouse i don't it's it's very very frustrating but like after a game like yesterday i don't think that anything that was said on the text chain and i don't think i weighed in on it was like beyond the pale nothing i mean yes it's a little bit personal as in he is one of the biggest disappointments i think somebody said

nobody said anything personal about him and i was talking about him being a mope because it's like although i i have a very very narrow range of acceptable behavior from a player who's not playing well because i also don't like them to be happy yeah yeah it makes me mad when julio seems like unaffected by uh another strikeout i'm like and yet i also don't want them to be grumpy about it yeah right that's kind of unfair for me but i guess it was just like i use that word mope specifically because the guy just seems like he's just kind of a grump and then I hear he's in the locker room basically like holding back tears yeah and I'm like well I guess that explains the

mope part yeah yeah you're right though it is frustrating do you remember a few games ago and maybe I'm breaking our rule of trying not to get too far into this but I do think that this like in all honesty I think I can turn this into a story about the human condition because there is something that Julio Rodriguez does. He's kind of our star young player for people who don't know and we put a lot on him and he's been scuffling this season at the plate but he's also a very good defensive player out there in center field and he's stolen home runs from people and they call it the no fly zone. Like if you buy tickets in this certain section out in kind of center field they call it the no fly zone and when Julio snags difficult to catch ball and get somebody out he'll he'll flash the x symbol with his two forearms right up in the air and he will do it sometimes just kind of casually it's his little thing players do these things right and it's his little signature move now i don't think he's obnoxious about it it's just part of the marketing it's part of who he is it's part of having fun with baseball i don't have strong feelings about that one way or the other but julio who's been really struggling to get the ball out of the park recently um it was in a pretty i feel like it was a pretty contentious series i don't remember the team that we were playing but it wasn't like it wasn't like the angels or the white socks it was like a team that's good there was like a lot on the line for it and i think we were going to end up losing this game julio hits a ball that looks like it's going to be a home run but it's stolen from him by i believe another center fielder possibly a right fielder and this player on the opposing team snags this ball gets julio out julio's already kind of rounding first um and then this player on the opposing team flashes julio's x at him right the no fly zone you didn't see this you don't remember this story and see this is where i'm really interested in so all of that is background i know there's a lot of baseball talk for people who don't like baseball but let's examine this from the human perspective because i'm really interested in your opinion on this I'm sorry.

And and how and it's made me really think about how I react to things. So Julio gets robbed of this home run and this player unsmilingly, by the way, just kind of like grumpy old, like grumpy baseball player, kind of like machismo, just sort of casually flashes Julio his own symbol. Like, yeah, no flies on back at you. But it doesn't seem playful. Right. and julio being the fun loving criminal that he is he um he sees that and he gets a big ass grin on his face and he kind of acknowledges it and he points at the fielder on the other team who did that and just kind of like all right you got me man you got me you know like he appreciated the play and he even appreciated the ribbing and i gotta say the the the visage and the body um language of the player who flashed this at julio it didn't seem fun to me it didn't seem fun and flirty and like we're all in this together it seemed like a dick move yeah and i was like how do i feel about julio being cool with that and in the at the end of the day i think it's good i don't think julio getting frustrated and angry at a little thing like that makes him a better better player at the plate maybe i mean maybe if you have that michael jordan mentality and you need that chip on your shoulder it's going to make you like focus more but first of all i don't see that as much in baseball i think as people get frustrated at the plate it just brings about more and more frustration at the plate frankly and in a certain way it's like could i be more like julio when somebody kind of gets me whatever that whatever that means you know when somebody like kind of kind of i don't know at an altercation at the ballpark when i slip into line to go up the stairs or i'm trying to think what it is that somebody in my life might be trying to get me maybe in a, in a, in a contentious, uh, potential road rage moment on the road or something. Maybe somebody flips me off. If I just kind of nod my head and like, yeah, you got me, you got, you got in front of me or whatever. I don't know. Maybe I could use more of that in my life. I was really examining how I react to things and how Julio reacted to that. Yeah. I mean, I would say

generally in life, that's the right approach is to laugh it off. Like it's almost in normal life. It's like, I can't see any time that getting super mad at someone is going to make things better. And like, certainly if you're in traffic and you get cut off or whatever, it's like, it's always better. Just be like, okay, what, you know, just kind of chuckle about it. I mean, that'll give you a happier life, but baseball is different in that you, you said it, uh, you know, with the Michael Jordan reference, like the thing that was frustrating is, is that we have so much futility. This baseball team that we live and die by Has so much futility And therefore you have to ask the question Is it all just fun and games? Is it all just like, hey, he's like a kid Playing out there You know who's not great at baseball? Kids Except for the Junior Sluggers No, they're great Oh man, they're so great They are so amazing When they're not skipping games to act and plays

Or going to concerts And follow their dreams of a STEM education

but um no i i i'm with you yeah i don't actually know how i feel about that other than and i think in the moment like so that ended the game you're saying that moment i don't know i don't think it

ended the game i don't think we won that game though it was not it was not the final out of the game no no i need to be clear about that but it was it was a contentious series against you against a good team during a time that the mariners and especially julio was struggling i think julio was just starting to show a little bit more pop in his bat and then it looked like you know we're all looking for these signs like is he back is he back or is the best version of him back is maybe a better way of putting that and then they look like this one might get out of the park and then it didn't and he had to like kind of shake his head and smile he's like all right you got me and you flashed my own symbol at me I felt like the flashing of your own symbol was just like I don't know I already said the word I just it seemed like a little dickish to me like if the person was kind of like and I don't know like baseball players have relationships outside of their own team right and so I mean Julio's only been with the Mariner so it's not like he's ever played with this fella before but like there's a chance that they know each other they have a rapport or whatever but if they do that did not come across on the screen this this guy seemed more like a guy that i would hate in his delivery of this of this cheeky flash

yeah yeah i mean but then also you have to point out that that other team the mean guys the bad guys they won the game yeah right i think so it's like do we want to be do we want to be the the the team that is like has good boundaries and mental health or do i want to be the team that's kind of bullying everyone but winning right exactly i don't know but in that moment that's crying constantly but winning right exactly that's all i want what's wrong with that right exactly hello and welcome to top story there's a really interesting story in at SFGate, written by Ariana Bindman. Starbucks BOGO deals are breaking baristas across the U.S. What's interesting about this is that there are sort of geopolitical implications, apparently. So there has been a sort of boycott Starbucks movement which is related to Gaza. I didn't know that. Yeah, I didn't know that either until I read this article. And in this article they say that they think it is actually having an impact on Starbucks' business. And so I don't know what Starbucks' corporate policies are. Clearly some people have decided, or maybe accurately so, that somehow Starbucks is not being supportive of the people in Gaza or something. And so because of that, they're trying to kind of goose their business by sending out these constant, like, oh, right, in the next two hours, it's buy one, get one free. And if you're on the Starbucks app, which I'm not ever, but a lot of people are. Like, it's a big thing. like Becca's got that on her phone it's great because I get free coffee whenever I hang out with her because she always has like points on there or something so it's like uh you want a coffee and I'm like yeah and then she's like gets her phone out and it's like free coffee I'm into it but what's happening is it is a hellscape for the employees because you go from just like a normal Tuesday to like a line around the block people are people are ordering mass quantities of these drinks the thing that jumped out at me in this article was that it apparently becomes so chaotic people are waiting an hour for their frappuccino by the way I actually I was trying to I was trying to not talk about the frappuccino in the way that I want to because I feel like it's probably not friendly or inclusive because everyone should probably just make the food choices they want to I feel like it is a milkshake it's technically coffee but it seems like a milkshake to me and I don't know why that matters but it's like it's the hardest thing to make at the Starbucks because you need the blender and they only have three blenders so when these BOGO deals go down it's just like a Frappuccino ordering frenzy and then people will get mad apparently and they will lie to the Starbucks employees about when they put their order in and the article, this is a really good, I said a really good article from this

journalist Arianna Bindman says something to the effect of said that basically customers would lie about when they put their coffee order in which makes no sense because it's right there on the ticket for the Starbucks employee.

How can you lie about that?

It's an extremely knowable thing for the Starbucks employee. You'd be like, I put my order in an hour ago and they're looking at the ticket and it's from five minutes ago. Why would you lie on that when you're going to get totally busted? Also then the problem is because these BOGO sessions and these other like flash promotions that starbucks is like leaning into right now are so demoralizing for the employees people are quitting and now there are fewer employees so the few employees that do work there at a particular store are now having an even more horrible time with this stuff

that reminds me i was talking i don't think it was us i think it was on the kow podcast we were talking about um the ferry system here in um washington which has been really struggling from like both a lack of operating ferries. So like basically ferry service has been really, really hampered the past couple of years, including this summer, which is big ferry system, big ferry system time and very big. You're in the pocket of big ferries. I know. I sort of lost what I was saying. It just occurred to me why I was going to make a really quick aside. And now suddenly I'm describing the entire ferry system of Washington to people. I just like I wanted to bail on this aside. But my point is there's also a shortage of labor to keep these ferries moving as well. And so people are waiting in line for hours and hours and hours. And like the hot sun, sometimes with kids, like in your car, just like long lines of cars. That's kind of my nightmare. I hate that scenario, too. It's, you know, you and I have had conversations about whether or not we should take a ferry over to your parents' house last summer or whatever. And I understand that tempers can run really hot there. But what was happening was people were treating the ferry workers terribly, just absolutely terribly. And it was just, like, really hard for me not to think, like, yeah, but these are the people who showed up. Like, don't treat the people who showed up terribly. That's so – like –

Stop yelling at Mitch Garver. He's hanging by a thread.

Right. Exactly. It's like find the people who didn't come. No, don't stalk people. But anyway, so I didn't know about all of this. And, of course, my brain always just – and this is just very much me, like, the idea of waiting an hour to get a free drink. And I know that these drinks are not, like, cheap. Like, I don't – I mean, it's a frappuccino, Luke. What could it cost? $10? Honestly, yeah, right? Like, some of these push, like, $8 or something if you're getting all the goo gauze and everything. Oh, I think so. I've never bought one, so I couldn't tell you. Yeah, I don't really buy one. buy fancy coffee drinks or whatever you want to call them that that part to me is is doesn't matter if this was a story about people literally buying milkshakes it would still be the same story to me I don't care what people are buying but um I just like even if it's something is like kind of considerably expensive for the product like let's say eight dollars for a cup of a beverage but an hour like couldn't you I mean that would be the most extreme example I think yeah 30 minutes just cited. Still, though, it's just like, and I'm not somebody, I'm not trying to sound like I just throw money at a problem, but it's kind of like, just go to another place and spend that money and forget about the BOGO thing, and I don't know, just like working an extra half hour to get that money, but I don't know, I just can't, I always try to do the math in my head, it's like, is your time really worth it? And not just time, but like, uncomfortable time of jockeying in line and looking around and seeing, did that person go in front of me? And it just seems like, I just hate that, I mean, I especially hate that kind the scene so it's hard for me to wrap my head around that um i i think part of it is probably

that people want the specific taste of that frappuccino like that's what that you know they they they and by the way don't get me wrong i don't think if you handed me a frappuccino and i took a sip of it i'm sure i would think it was delicious i just my personal choices are that i'm not going to try to start my day with 5 000 calories of ice cream that's just not what i'm going to do but other people can do what they want to do uh what i want to do andrew and what i have been what has been giving me life i started out talking about tick tock today is just i've got this weird new thread of tick tock it's just like a person who's got like a green screen behind him and the writing on it is like trump meltdown and like it's just some citizen journalist who's just recapping something that i could have read in the new york times and probably did about basically the fallout from trump's appearance yesterday at that journalism conference did you watch any of

that no i heard some clips on this is i was thinking about this sorry this is another quick aside i had read some clips here and there in the newspaper and then this morning when i heard the actual audio on morning edition i had sort of a a very conscious thought of like wow that is really the difference and sometimes why you need to hear and see something to really get the poison like the poison was written out in the newspaper but there was something about hearing the audio of what trump said yesterday that just seemed like and maybe this is a failure on my part for not kind of feeling the feels having read it in the written word but holy shit i mean it's just

like a racist rally i mean it's just crazy it was totally wild and like i mean i don't know to use the parlance of the kids i feel like he is cooked and like i saw somebody today it might have been jamel bowie saying like i don't know who the voter base of people i don't know how he expands his voter base with people who are their big issue is that kamala harris is actually south asian but lying about being african-american like i don't really know who that voter who that slice of the population is like who is he even who is he appealing to it's like no one and it's just it is so remarkable for me how different i feel now than i did two weeks ago just like my emotional just just and and now it's it's gone from like you know i was talking about how i couldn't even I couldn't go online I couldn't watch anything I couldn't read anything because it just really caused me some pretty intense anxiety and now I can't stop eating it and like to the point where it's like the I'm turning into a nutcase like I would think somebody who was on the other end of the political spectrum than me was a nutcase if they were just scrolling TikTok all day and it was some super right-wing person going like Kamala is secretly not black I'd be like that person who's looking at that tiktok is a bad person and yet i'm doing i'm doing my political side version of that and i can't get enough i can't wait for the show to be done so i can just go look at my phone and just watch people who have zero credentials that i can tell just explain to me why that trump has no chance like it's i there's it's some kind of dopamine thing that i just

really need right now or think i need yeah i i'm not i'm not i i think you and i process these things a little bit differently you're scrolling for two exactly like yeah i always will have a little bit of you know anxiety about it as as you will as well i mean i know that um you know after what happened in um 2020 sorry suddenly i almost said in 2000 let's litigate in the year 2000 quick aside let's go back to gore v bush no um you know after what happened in 2016 is the year that i was thinking of sorry like you know what i mean like i remember genevieve didn't throw an election watching party or a um you know election day party she threw a you know like a um hillary day party or something like that and then like you know i'll i i will live with the the shocking disappointment of that evening for the rest of my life.

life and that's good because i felt like i didn't worry about things enough before that and it really opened up my eyes to the bad things that can happen in the world um so that was great but uh so i'll never you know i i will never count my chickens before they're hatched but for me it is and so and also i'm like just like kind of i'm kind of not where's hayes regarding the chicago cubs we need to get eyes on that situation lock him down you got your world series can we please have democracy now um but uh anyway but i am just so invigorated like just like not not like it's a done deal but like just as somebody who because i mean i know that i came down very very hard and very very negative that day after the debate and you know i still have oh well i have a question for you uh maybe after this um you know like i got into a bit of an argument after the debate with my sort of kooky across the street neighbor who's like an older guy does uh it's kind of hard to put um it's kind of hard to put his personality into words he definitely like you know votes the same way we vote uses different language around certain things is a bit um argumentative in some ways insists he's right like he was really bummed that you know he feels like that the democrats pushed biden out of office and he was immediately like blaming the media as a lot of people who didn't like and by the way i was listening to somebody else on the radio who i was shocked who was i was shocked that she was um also disappointed that they pushed quote-unquote pushed biden out of

the race um i didn't know that was a demo honestly like i felt like yeah i felt like you know the only reason that i didn't want him to leave the race was out of fear thinking it would be more chaotic if he left i mean i just want donald trump to not be president and so i was but i was never opposed to him i mean once he left and once we saw what could happen with with uh vice president harris i mean i was obviously overjoyed i didn't know there were still people walking around going like is there anyone looking at the current state of things as a democrat who thinks this was a bad outcome compared to the alternative now this is two weeks later and i'm getting in

some dicey territory here because i will not be able to sum up her feelings on this but luke the

one that shocked me was jamel hill and out jamel hill is a contrarian is she see i didn't i didn't

really know that about her and she even like knows kamala harris somewhat personally and like apparently like she even got like you know like a text message of congratulations on her wedding day from from kamala harris and um and so you know there's some sort of connection there she's a powerful woman in a lot of ways um people know her probably from her time at espn but she's you know she's a social uh critic on things i don't know if critic is the right word there but she speaks out i think she's on the right side of things but she was somebody who really supported biden and felt like the democrats were essentially throwing harris to the wolves sort of to the

racist okay that's a really interesting thing and i noted this talking to the the african-american women that i have spoken to about this i was getting dinner in la and i was just sitting at the bar at this restaurant by my hotel and i was having a little bit of dinner and i happened to be seated next to a couple of african-american women in their 20s and we were just sort of chatting in it. And, and I was, I sort of didn't want to bring it up, but I also was very curious because like, you know, I have my perspective as a white straight male. And so I said, I hope this is okay for me to ask, but I'm just curious if you have, how are you feeling about this Kamala Harris thing? And they said, Oh, there's no way she can win. And I started to hear that more and more from black women who've experienced racism. Exactly. And even like Becca, just as a woman was like i think the sexism is going to be too much so i i i respect that perspective because it's a lived experience yeah and it's not my lived experience but it's interesting that that was much more um the the sort of take on it from from people of color and from women that i know yeah uh was that they're going to chew her up and spit her out and that doesn't seem to be happening which is great but i can understand the hesitation or the concern based on what someone's life has

been like yeah and i don't know if this is even if i need to go back and finish the thought that i was going to start but like it really irritated me when i would hear people like i don't know my neighbor or other people kind of immediately blame the media for the way biden was being treated this is kind of before biden dropped out of the race but kind of but also i heard it from my neighbor afterwards like but again he's i don't think he speaks for a wide swath of the general population um but like the thing that always irritated me about that was it wasn't the media like i watched that debate live it was shocking and i watched the uh well maybe maybe i didn't maybe i didn't watch his like kind of follow-up like i'm okay to run speech afterwards but i definitely like watched you know it wasn't media manipulation called zelensky putin yes and his running mate trump right exactly like it was like i don't need the media to tell me that that is not a viable candidate. And like that isn't a takeaway. We don't have to relitigate this. I didn't mean it as like we need to take away his accomplishments or besmirch his record or any of those things. But like it needed to happen. And like I just went from feeling like as low as I could possibly feel about an election. And like I was never not going to vote. Of course, I'm going to vote. But if I'm even feeling like, oh, frig, like I do not like if I get a sort of sick feeling filling in this oval, how are the people who are like who don't take this stuff as seriously? you know and so like now like i'm just personally excited about our i mean it just feels so good to be excited about your presidential candidate you know what i mean i get excited when i see her on on screen i think she's she's being a really good candidate and i think she will be a very good president like full stop she's going to be a great president if we get her in the oval office and just feels good to be excited about something i also have been really thinking about this that sort of

perhaps principle that i talk about a lot on the show the kind of you just don't ever know if something is going to be a good thing or a bad thing and i was so so devastated by joe biden's debate performance and yet had he done a little better we would still be barreling towards a very likely defeat yeah yeah you know what i mean like how crazy is that that that was in a weird round about way the best thing that could have happened for democracy was joe biden just absolutely flails Like, had he just been 20 percent better, he's still running for president. And and there's a very good chance that Donald Trump is going to get elected. Instead, now they have absolutely zero playbook for what to do about Vice President Harris, which is also crazy to me because, like, I mean, I don't know if they were just like so busy celebrating in Milwaukee or something. But you would think that it would have been somebody's job in the Trump campaign to kind of have a plan B for if Joe Biden did step away. but it doesn't seem like they they had any kind of plan and it's just wonderful to see i also decided that if the mariners are not going to go to the playoffs but democracy is saved it's worth it like these are the kinds of weird calculations that i make i'm like okay this is a really disappointing mariner situation but if i had to trade unlike chris hayes if i had to trade my baseball team winning the world series or democracy i'm picking democracy yeah well i mean you're a

hero for our time you're the hero our time needs honestly and by the way not officially out of the running for veep not no you are not in fact how many days are left um i'm sure i'm sure you're on the short list you know i know i already said this on the show but i just i just need to say it again because like you you talk about that perhaps principle or even like you could even call it in this case sort of a sliding door situation like well if this had happened this jingle thank you So you are familiar. Like for me, and I know other people have said this, I assume I don't kind of follow the kind of the in the trenches of this the way you do. But like. I've been so mad at Biden, you know, like part of me, even after he finally stepped out, was like, well, my initial reaction was like, well, finally, you should have done it a long time ago or never even like, you know, said you were going to run for reelection and instead handed the baton anyway. But then it would have gone to a more traditional primary process. Now I'm kind of like playing into the Republicans hands here. But like if it was a more if it was a more traditional primary process and if Kamala Harris had still like won the nomination, just that process of like, you know, what I think of her as more like the third choice because she was a, you know, quote unquote cop or like, you know what I mean? And like the primary process could have made me less enthusiastic. It's actually because of the dragging of the feet of the old man who didn't want to give up his car keys that sort of injected a lot. And I don't think it's it's not shenanigans. It's not illegal. It's not any of the things that the the trolls on the right are trying to make it be. But just for me personally, it's kind of like, oh, this was the path that led us to where we are. Like, I don't know how I would feel. I don't know if I'd be as fired up if this had been a more traditional process.

Yeah I mean it really is like They did not during the week They did not run any plays to Account for Kamala Harris as quarterback They have nothing to account for And that's great actually I think it's working There's something about also 100 days Is enough time for an election In a way the idea that the presidential Election takes two years Basically starts shortly After the person is sworn in is just also I think probably kind of bad for society because it's just so much bs going on so it's like there's something about this kind of just like speed race that's happened speed run of a presidential election that kind of puts uh the trump folks on their heels and i mean this like it's also great that this momentum isn't happening like what if she was having this momentum a year before the election yeah it's like how do you maintain that but it just this compressed time table seems to really help and stuff and it's just yeah it's like uh and i think she's also i think she's uniquely positioned because I don't know

would have won a primary but i think you just i mean i was i saw her speaking at a um like pan hello a pan hellenic it was like a it was a african-american sorority um yesterday and uh and and she's speaking to these women who are part of this uh who are you know alums of this particular sorority um and she's talking about the divine nine which i think is the name of these kind of foundational nine um african-american sororities which she's won as well she went to howard despite trying to pretend that she was only south asian she went to howard university she went to a historically south asian university right hbs yes sa um but uh uh just the the difference between what donald trump did in the morning in chicago and was pulled off stage after 34 minutes by the way is that how it ended he was supposed to be there for an hour there were some I guess there was some technical stuff, like literally with the PA system, and so then I guess he didn't get out on stage right on time, but then somebody was in the ear of one of the moderators from the Trump campaign saying, or was backstage doing something where they were like, he basically was only there for 34 minutes because it was going so badly. And it was in front of journalists, right?

I mean, that's the funny thing. This wasn't even like he's just throwing red meat to his like... Go ahead.

Yeah, I'm sorry. That's that's the other thing that became very obvious yesterday, which is like Donald. You know, there was all this talk about, yeah, are they hiding Joe Biden, which low key they kind of were. And I do think that was pretty irresponsible. I do, too. Like like I've really come over to kind of your initial feelings about this. Like you were more like this is really frustrating and kind of not OK is my sense of how you felt the day after the debate. And I was more like just perhaps, Andrew, just perhaps, man.

No, I mean, you were looking at the number. I mean, you were just you were freaking out and saying, like, listen, like you were just saying, like, can we win? I mean, that's the most important thing we be.

But I was wrong about that because I do think we have a much better chance of winning now with him stepping aside. But but what so there was all that, you know, made about like Joe Biden. But, like, the thing is, Donald Trump does not do very many actual interviews that aren't on Fox News. He's not capable of being on a stage with actual journalists who are just asking him real questions based on real things he's said and done. Like, it wasn't a gotcha. It wasn't an attack interview. It was very respectful other than presenting him with the actual facts of things that he has said and done. and it was it it clearly um like unhinged him so much to just have some i mean he's clearly racist and sexist and is extremely dismissive of women and particularly women of color but it was wild to see how unprepared he was to just have a conversation with someone who wasn't sean hannity and the problem is he's not going to expand his base by talking to sean hannity so like i don't know how he goes out and gets more votes because he's not capable of being in the public eye he's trying to not do the debate with vice president harris i'm really trying to work on not referring to the vice president by her first name it's so hard though because i really like her first name you know i've been using it for years until i kind of realized and again was called in on how we tend to at least i was tending to do that and i don't know that that's because she's a woman or not but i'm trying to really kind of err on the side of caution but it's real i'm trying to rewire

my brain i've been hearing from a lot of people about our conversation about that and and you were right that we need to be very careful when we talk about anything like sexism or racism and just say well if the shoe was on the other foot you wouldn't have a problem with it or you would have a problem with it because the shoe just doesn't fit on the other foot well i never call him joe right but we did call bernie bernie i was hearing from a lot of people and i do and i because i brought up the hillary thing too like in a certain way you could argue look we had two presidential candidates who are women both of them in a row uh were known as their first name hillary and kamala like is there some institutional or just embedded sexism in that like you can definitely explore that and i'm not here to say no to that but i also do think but when we look at politics and we look at branding like are there other politicians who do like they you know jeb was an example there's a reason for that there were a million bushes jeb jeb sorry please clap I love that Jeb with an exclamation point and please clap are both of the same campaign. They're the opposite end of the spectrum of enthusiasm. And they happened for the same campaign. Please clap. But obviously Jeb was a special branding thing because there had already been bushes in the White House. And he was trying to carve out his own thing. So that makes sense. But Bernie, Bernie bros, Bernie heads, like whatever. So, again, I'm not trying to say that, like, put the shoe on the other foot and there's no sexism in the world or in politics. but I do think and again when you think like people weren't going around I don't think like it was like Elizabeth you know it was like it was Warren and Klobuchar and stuff so anyway but I cut you off I just wanted to say that I've been here from listeners on that i i guess i was just gonna say that um it's it's it's an amazing feeling to feel like there is at least a reasonable chance democracy will be preserved and it is an amazing thing to see the narrative shift like it has so that suddenly it's like how does donald trump fix this and he is he is uniquely unprepared to fix things because the other thing and i do think this was definitely actually this audio that i played at the beginning of the show this is actually jamelle bowie talking about the extent to which he is addled the extent to which his brain is scrambled eggs uh has become all the more apparent and his point was just all of the strategy that they're talking about any strategy they could even come up with it has to pass through the person of donald trump you know like that's the that's the that's the chris sullivan choke point of this whole thing is like he was supposed to go to that conference yesterday And he was supposed to somehow make the case to black voters that he is actually on their side. That was the idea behind that. And it went so, so bad. He has no message discipline. And you can't just send him into places and think he's going to get the outcome that you want him to. He doesn't stay on message. He just says whatever comes into his head. I mean, it's wild. So even if they had a strategy to try to fix this, they've got the wrong person to try to fix it with.

Yeah. You said something earlier, not to go dark here, but you said something much earlier in this conversation. You're like, who does that appeal to or something along those lines? I might be misquoting you. Don't don't don't hold me to that. But, you know, generally speaking, like, who does this message appeal to? And like, you know, there's a dark part of my brain and heart that says, unfortunately, a lot more people than you'd think, like a lot more people than than you and I come into contact with every day who do kind of even if they don't speak at harbor these kinds of like racist notions you know um but it's not moving you know I just do feel like there probably is a big chunk of Trump's base who hear him spew this like just pure racism like there's no there's no other word for just pure racism yesterday and probably do not and be like yeah that's kind of how I feel too but like those

people are not in play exactly and that's i think the only bright side of that being in the discourse i mean which is it's just it's toxic and terrible to have it even out in the public space but at least it's like those are the people yeah who are already going to be voting for him and so that's his whole problem is he's not it's no ability to i guess the thing the reason i feel sort of euphoric and you know could be famous last words i thought the mariners were going to win yesterday so who knows, but it feels, to borrow a term sort of from our friend Chris Hayes, the number one Cubs fan, is that it feels like there's gravity actually applies again, because there have been so many times where it feels like gravity, just somebody turned off gravity, like you can just be Donald Trump and you can say and do these things that are so reprehensible and there's no consequences, and it only gets better for you, a person tries to assassinate you and they miss you but you get to look tough but you also don't even have to suffer like you got an he got a free ear piercing like it's like and i was like how does this guy keep getting these w's and it just felt like somebody had switched like we were in a space station just like floating by the way i saw one of the astronauts who was not able to come home because like there's some

problem with this boeing thing oh a boeing huh oh yeah i know they would get a black eye in the

press i hope you're sitting down but like um this um this astronaut she was doing an interview from up there but it was i mean it's kind of a serious situation because they're trying to figure out how they're going to fix it how they can get them down but as she's doing this tv interview she's like floating upside down and her hair is like everywhere in the capsule yeah it was like the most serene and cool thing but also like i don't know maybe you live there now permanently but no it feels like someone switched gravity back on and all of a sudden it's like it's like oh yeah this guy is too old to have this job i mean that's not even the beginning of the reason why he shouldn't have that job again but it's like and it's just it's just again it's wild how life can change in a matter of a couple of weeks and how like it's just like he has no answers now we had no answers two weeks ago and now he has no answer and the difference is of course joe biden for whatever you you know might like or not like about him did have at long last and maybe it was just because of the polls and because they cut the money off but he at some point did in fact step aside and donald trump would never will never do that and so that that's again you know they've made this bed and now they have to lie in it and it's like they have a bad candidate now and and it's finally being discussed that way which is just a relief because it was making me crazy when it was acting like god donald trump is just like such a good politician it's like he is so bad

and so now i ask you what i've been asking a lot of people i don't think i already asked you this on the show but is there a chance that kamala harris chooses joe biden as a running mate You

that i mean that would be a flex would that do you think could she i mean obviously that's not going to happen but would she would that lose the election for her i don't think that would i don't think it would be a move in the positive i mean did you hear how uh trump tried to answer like the the question of if jd vance if he thinks jd vance is a good vice president this was it was this at the event yesterday this was at the nabj no i did not hear this by the way i want to say um the journalist on stage with him particularly the journalist from abc and i believe her last name was scott i don't think i was familiar with her before she did an incredible job i heard she was very rude

in the way she asked questions i heard that trump had never been asked a question so rudely before

no hi no hello it was first of all she did say hi to him when he walked out she shook his hand she also referred to him as sir the entire time i don't know what he wanted well he wanted to not get asked any hard questions but or any real questions but um she just was unbelievably poised i can't imagine i would have i would have melted because he's going on his like he's ranting but she is somehow still getting her questions in and that was this very weird thing about his ranting where he's he's ranting and she's trying to talk to ask another question and he's just trying to throw it off the rails and he's talking talking talking and she says something about and they're talking at the same time now and she says something about the january 6th you know protesters uh pardoning them and he just stops yeah i'll pardon them if they're innocent so first of all it's like he is hearing it he's just choosing like it was just the weirdest thing because he was like talking talking talking i was like oh he's not even noticing what's being said but he was and then he answered that question and then he said well of course i'll pardon them if they're innocent and she said well they've been convicted also when when when she was asking about this This unbelievably ridiculous notion of Kamala Harris being a DEI candidate. He was like, explain DEI to me, or define DEI. She goes, well, diversity, equity, and inclusion. He goes, oh, but can you define it for me? She goes, those are literally the words. Those are really withering, and I don't think we've been talking about that enough. So anyway, I'm just a national hero who's traded baseball success. I have a team full of guys hitting 160 who are crying. But on the other hand, democracy is safe. So you're welcome, America.

There's no crying in politics. You'd be roasting me so hard if you saw what was going on in my studio right now, Luke. You know, I have this new computer that I bought a few months ago, and the brand is Razer. And I bought it because it has, you know, strong processing power, which I need for video. I thought you bought it from Destro. I did. I bought it from Chrome Dome. um and uh and i bought it because it serves my needs but technically it's a gaming computer brand right and these gaming computers have all kinds of like whiz bang stuff i turn off the whiz bang stuff but when i first got this computer and i opened it up the keyboard the actual like lights on the keyboard underneath each letter and number they're they're circulating in color so like right now it's like kind of a a cobalt blue and now it's uh turning purple and then it's going to turn green and red and as soon as I got this thing I turned that off it's very difficult you have to go into these settings there's a million different patterns I can literally use my mouse to draw patterns on a virtual keyboard and then have my keyboard sort of display that I usually just turn that stuff off but something must have happened while whilst whilst I was sleeping and my computer keyboard is just going bananas it's like a discotheque in here Luke so sorry if I'm little distracted i just sort of feel like you'd be like what is i feel like you'd be roasting me if you saw this my little oh i'm roasting you okay i'm roasting you like a potato quietly that's all i got no that's not all i got we have so many blurs days today like this one from maya oh by the way two of these two of these blurs days today i found in my spam folder From weeks past So these first two Blurs days are belated And I apologize They're not belated because of the senders But because of the person who reads them That's me This is what Maya said Happy Blurs to my friend Lisa She's living the dream down in beautiful Bend, Oregon But that means we don't get to see one another As much as I'd like Looking forward to a birthday drink Next time you're in Seattle Cheers. Sorry about that, Lisa. I hope you had a great Blur's Day a couple of weeks ago. Lisa's living in Bend. Yeah. Everything's fine.

Bend is nice.

Everybody wants to go to Bend.

If you, and I'm sure there's more than one of these, but if you pass a house in Bend where somebody is taking their front fence and turning it into a fence of old skis, that is my friend Ben's house. Ben in Bend. Say hello. I saw that on Instagram yesterday. very apropos it's very yeah exactly that's why they moved there and another belated one from last week that i missed because of uh spam apparently julie says uh i'm a few days late but wishing my bestie kj in kenmore a very happy birthday can't wait to see you irl soon love you jk i don't think that means just kidding about love you i think they call kj jk sometimes Ah, I see. Keep it fun. Keep it flirty. Exactly. And now here we are, caught up. Joanna says, I'd like to wish my daughter Nola a happy 8th Blur's Day. She's the best cat sitter out there, and we couldn't be prouder of her. Happy Blur's Day, Nola.

I want you to know that I don't have the Blur's Day messages in front of me. That was just serendipity. That was just magic. The fact that you played, oh, the cat sound effect. Oh, that's right. Before you had said the cat thing. I was focusing so much on enunciation that I kind of let that pass me. I just intuited that this was something that Nola would dig. Nola, you're a great cat sitter. And then as you read the message, we found out that it is something that Nola digs.

Nola, we've had voicemails or voice memos from Nola. Nola's been part of the TBTL community. Yeah, it's really great. Happy Blur's Day, Nola. Can't believe you're eight. Got this one. Hello, it's me, August, from last year. But this time I'm writing in to celebrate my mother's 45th birthday. Oh, wow. Hoping you the best birthday, Mom. Dad and me love you so much To the moon and back And finally, happy Blursday birthday

I thought that was from the baby named August That I was holding At the bracelet party That was a cool baby That I got all these pictures Of me holding the baby That August's mom sent me And I just look at the pictures of me and the baby And stare That's how I soothe myself that and listening to Jason Molina music. Hand-scrolling the depths of anti-Trump TikTok. I'd be just the most unhinged sections of anti-Trump TikTok. So bad. It's like one view, one like, just some person but I'm like, oh, you've written Trump Complete Meltdown? Okay,

I'll watch this. You're reaching out. You want to join me on my podcast? Anyway, all of that is to say happy Blur's Day to August's mom. Gotta wait for the beats drop Vern in Tooele, Utah By the way, Vern, thank you so much for the pronunciation on that I wouldn't have known how to say that Tooele, Utah says Happy Blur's Day to my 11 and sometimes 10 Joey, thank you for all the joy and love you bring me And to everyone around you Do I have another Blur's Day to Joey in here? We have a lot of kind of over Yeah, you know what? I'm going to scroll down a little bit at the risk of accidentally skipping somebody again. I also see we got a note here. It says, happy Blur's Day to the best mom, Joey. We are so lucky to have you in our lives, and we hope that this next year is a great one for you. Love, Allie, Cassie, and Maddie. So it looks like the entire family is getting into the Blur's Day. They do. Happy Blur's Day, Joey. hey our friend lydia says happy big six oh to corinne in alabama hey corinne in florence alabama you're the best mommy and tbtl daddy and grandmother and educator and esl course developer and friend out there i've been keeping it a secret but you'll be happy to learn that your prodigal is a prodigal or prodigal prodigal your prodigal tbtl baby has returned after a podcast hiatus. I've missed you, boys. I'm fueled with new TBTL drops to confuse the rest of our family with.

Wait a second. Hold on. But seriously. So that's what was her name? This is Lydia. This is Lydia. The amazing baker. So Lydia is right. I remember all that. Yeah. Lydia is saying that Lydia had stepped away from the program

for a while. Lydia had to step away for a little bit. But Lydia's back, baby. And she's fueling up on drops that she and Corinne can throw back and forth over the Thanksgiving table.

And you know what the 60th birthday is? That's when you get them a hot air balloon. That is. See you later, suckers.

Happy Blur's Day, Corinne. Thanks for being part of the TVTL fam for so long. And Laura in St. Pete says, Happy Blur's Day to Molly. I love watching Toledo through your Instagram. It keeps me connected to home. Plus, your photography is top-notch. I hope you're enjoying your Blur's Day adventure and have

Many more to come. Happy Blur's Day, Molly. I'm assuming that's Toledo, Ohio, and not the Toledo that's up the I-5 from me. I didn't know there was a Toledo up the I-5 from you. There's a Toledo, and they have skydiving. Really?

Out of hot air balloons?

Hmm.

Aaron says, wishing my brother Doug a happy, happy birthday. Looking forward to our upcoming return to the Pacific Northwest, where we can celebrate in person. This is from your little bro in New York, Aaron. Happy birthday, Doug. Okay, this is going to get a little bit complicated here, Luke. This is a lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of twists, a lot of turns. We have this. Krista says, happy birthday to two long-time tens. And, Luke, I want to mention, both of these tens, you and I just cut it up with this past Sunday at the Maple Leaf Eagles. That's what my Eagles is, right? I would say Lake City. Well, it's technically Maple Leaf.

It's on Lake City, though, right? Is it technically Lake City at that point, that road, or has it?

The road is Lake City Way. The address is Lake City Way, but I believe it's the Maple Leaf neighborhood.

I just think if you say to somebody.

It's culturally Lake City. I feel it, but, you know, that could just be my own bias. No, I've always said Lake City. It's only recently that I've realized that technically it's in Maple Leaf, and I've been trying to adjust it. Class it up by using Maple Leaf. Exactly, exactly. But anyway, so this is a Blur's Day shout-out from Krista to two people. that we were hanging out with just last weekend. She says, happiest of Blur's days to our dear friend and loyal 10, Jackie. I hope you got to see you hung out with Jackie on Sunday. Jackie Justice, attorney at law. That's right. Your kindness, optimism, and advocacy are an inspiration. I can't wait to celebrate with you at the Mariners game on Friday. And Krista says, happiest of Blur's days to Tracy, who we also saw on Sunday. You have such a warm heart and a joyful presence. We are so lucky to have you as part of the 10s community. I wish you a wonderful year ahead We got to hang out with Tracy and her sister Amy On Sunday, it was great to see them both Now I told you it gets a little bit complicated Because then also Amy made me a Seahawks beaded necklace

I got a Mariners one I'm going to wear, I'm actually legit excited To wear it during the football games Nice As some sort of good luck charm I feel like it's going to help The Mike McDaniel era Is that the name, is that his name? I think so, Mike McDonnell. There's like 30 coaches that are some version of Mike McDonald, McDaniel. Oh, wait.

No, he's not a McDonald. He's not your way right away.

McDonald is Mike. Mike McDaniel is the Miami guy, right?

Let me see here. This is really embarrassing because it's Mike McDonald. It is Mike McDonald, yes.

Mike McDonald. Okay, gotcha.

So it's the Mike McDonald era. Okay, so Chris did just wish to happy birthday to Jackie and Tracy. Then Tracy weighed in to wish Jackie a happy birthday. She says she's sorry she'll miss that Mariners game. And then Jackie wrote in to wish Tracy a happy birthday, and she says, I hope you have a blast watching the Blue Angels with your family because you're going to be missing the Mariners game. Is this how they figured out they weren't going to the game together? I don't know, man. I'm in too deep. We also got a message from Ben wishing Tracy a happy Blur's Day as well. Aw, Ben. Yes, exactly. So, Ben, thanks for sending that in. Let's see. I'm not going to read Ben's whole message, but there's a lot of love going around. And I will say that Ben said, in her example of kindness and decency during a time when people are just pretty crappy to each other in general, we see a beacon of hope shining in the dark in Tracy. So happy Blur's Day, everybody. A million points of light. Erica says, I planned on sending an actual birthday card to TBTL10 Michael, but I realized that I don't have his address. So I do the next best thing, and I send in a hearty Blur's Day greeting. Last year, he was sad that his family didn't acknowledge his birthday, and I wanted to let him know that someone remembered. Happy Blur's, Michael, from your 10 friend, Erica. No.

Yeah. That was a no to family not remembering people's birthday, not a no to us celebrating Michael's Blur's Day.

Well, check this out. Linder, listener Linder, also sent in a Blur's Day greeting for Michael, saying happy Blur's Day, and Linder sent one in for Barbara. Happy Blur's Day to Barbara, says Linder. I'm glad we met, even for a few moments last summer at the 4000th episode. I hope your day has some good music, good food, and a variety. No, a verity. V-E-R-I-T-Y. A verity of pod pets. Do we call horses pets? That seems wrong, says Linder. Anyway, have a great Blur's Day. Verity. Verity. That's a credit union. Verity. What does BECU stand for? Simply, and then he goes on to say a bunch of the most unsimple things in the world. I hate those commercials. I want to blow up the radio every time I hear it. You know what I'm talking about?

Yes, of course. Do you hear the ads when you're listening to the Mariners, but it's somehow serious? satellite ads the one that's for like fantasy football channel and there's a guy who sounds exactly like bender from futurama no i don't hear those anymore because the more i learn about this guy the more i know that's a bad bender impression but if you're listening if you if you get that you know download of those serious ads sometimes listen for the guy who sounds exactly like bender

you know what's funny when i had my free trial this is not funny um when i had my free trial of Sirius, I had all of the stations, and I could listen to the Mariners games there. I also pay for the MLB audio app, so I can listen to them there, and I can listen to them on the local radio station, so I have my choice, but when I started paying for Sirius Radio, I am no longer getting whatever that top tier of Sirius is, so I do not get baseball streams, at least not on my phone, maybe in my car.

So yeah. You want baseball?

The doggies got you covered. Alright, Chris. All right, and finally, listeners, Brett and Amy, our pals there in the U District, are wishing our Tenverite friend Todd a happy first Blur's Day. It's nowhere near his first birthday, but it is his first Blur's Day. We're so proud to be your TBTL daddy. You know what I think that means? I think that means that Brett and Amy, I think in the parlance of the FBI, they flipped Todd. I think they flipped Todd, and Todd is now celebrating Blur's Day. I don't want to tell you what they had to do.

It was definitely extra legal. It absolutely was. As in not legal, but it worked, and we are happy for it.

That was a very hearty Blur's Day segment, I've got to say. And thank you, everybody, for writing in. And happy Blur's Day, everybody. It's a great Blur's Day weekend, I would say.

It sure is. That's going to do it for today's episode, but guess what? This is very, very fun. Tomorrow, we will be joined by our friends, Lindy West and Megan Hatcher-Mays from the Text Me Back podcast, another one of those crossover shows, which was so much fun last time. And then we said we should do it again. And then we're going to do it again. So tune in tomorrow for that. It's going to be super fun. It really is fun. We texted them back, Luke. We did. A lot of people talk a big game about texting people back. We do it. We texted them back. Promises made, promises kept. And then they texted us back. And we might do more of these. The whole show is a text conversation, actually. There's very little talk.

How satisfying is that little poppy sound that I don't think androids make it, but like on TV or movies, if they're showing somebody like texting, and then the boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop.

Very satisfying. I generally have that off on my phone, but then I'll bump it, and it'll go back on, and then I'll leave it on for a while because it's very ASMR-y. Yeah, nice. So that's the plan for tomorrow. Please join us for that. In the meantime, have a great Thursday. Take care of yourselves, and please remember, no mountain too tall.

And good luck to all.

I've been perusing your fortified wine list, and I've selected the 71 Hobo's Delight, the 57 Chateau Partee, and the 66 Thundershevitz. Exquisite choices, sir. And mix them all together in a big jug. Power out.