Muse

You can't teach an old dog. Because they're too old and they can't listen to you, because they could be deaf. When the going gets tough? You get tougher. Don't judge a book? Yeah, because it's a book. Don't put all of your eggs. oh yeah because if sometimes if you put all your eggs you'll run out of them out of sight out of out of knowing two wrongs don't make it better a picture is worth less than a person you love oh i like that The best things in life are family and pets. Don't cry over anything.

TBTL. I consider myself to be an absolutely dead center, normal, average American. Here's the 1-0. Swung on, there it goes. Deep left center.

That ball is high. It is far. It is gone. What call it?

I'm not very good with chit-chat. I like a structured communication. I like a hard out. You know, chit, chat, chit, chat. Chit, chit. Where are we going with that?

Bee-ba-ba-ba-da-boo.

I don't even know what that means.

No one knows what it means, but it's provocative.

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. This is a whole new level of nerd.

Well, all right. Hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Thursday edition of TBTL, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. Hi, everyone. Welcome to my farm. My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. I hate podcasting. It's just ruined my life. Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio, first high above the mighty Columbia, where it was gorgeous this morning, actually. It feels just beautiful out there. Oh, yeah, buddy. But now it's raining again. I was able to use the brief window of no precipitation to get out there and get on my jog. This is the final day, actually. Ish, ish. Of 75 hard ish for me. Emphasis on the ish. Time flies when you're observing the end of a democracy, my friends. That's a dark start for the show. I promise I just need to get that out of my system. And now I'm ready to just, I'm just sweetness and light for the next 60 minutes here on episode 4,342 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. LeBron James says he is quitting social media.

Cleveland! This is for you!

And I feel like I played a role in cyberbullying LeBron James to within an inch of his life. So we will reflect on that. Also, it's a Thursday, a.k.a. Blur's Day.

It's my birthday tonight.

We have a lot of Blur's Day messages. Life finds a way, people, so we'll do those as well. And we're going to talk to this guy, longest-running co-bro of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He is raring to go on this Thursday.

There's a Hidden Valley Ranch party in my mouth.

He's got his lotion. He's got his... There's a Hidden Valley Ranch party in his mouth. He's Andrew Walsh. He's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

I'll be editing out one of those things you said leading into my introduction.

I am literally quoting a transcript of yesterday's program. Well, maybe. I printed it out. These are your words, sir.

Maybe some things should be left in the past. Speaking of the past, obviously we want to begin today's show by welcoming all the listeners who are checking back in after seeing TBTL mentioned on the Seattle subreddit this morning. I told you before the show that there was a thread of people kind of bemoaning the state of current Seattle radio. And then some very, very fine, and I would say judicious and taste-making people said, you know, back in the glory days when Luke Burbank and TBTL were on the air, that's when stations like Cairo were really killing it. I'm not joking, by the way. This was really a thread that I woke up to on my beloved Seattle subreddit this morning and seeing people say, hey, they're still going. You can check them out. They're doing episodes. TBTL getting mentioned on the Seattle subreddit.

Things are going to start happening to me now.

That's right. And so I assume, because somebody said, hey, they're doing episode 4,342 today. And I was like, you know what? That might get us one listener. And so welcome, listener. We're still doing this shit. Welcome, everyone.

We've been waiting for you. We've been here for 15 years doing this. We've been here.

Forever, that's right. Yes, come play with us, listener. Forever and ever. That must be, not that people who are visiting the Seattle subreddit today, not that many of them were losing a lot of time wondering whatever happened to TBTL, but it must be a shock to some of them to find out that it's still happening all these years later. Like, I'm imagining if there had been a radio show that I was, you know, aware of or maybe mildly entertained by, And then the the the better part of one and a half decades went by. Right. And and then someone's like, you know, that's still happening five days a week from their houses. What? Like, I feel like even we're we I should do a little bit more research. But remember a while ago, we were trying to see if we have done maybe the most daily episodes of of any of the podcasts out there.

There's one podcast that's like.

Something called Something and the Girl. Yes.

And they've been doing it.

Not to be confused with everything but the girl. Right.

Not that. And not.

A way to really get in your feelings if you're Luke Burbank and you're a sophomore in college.

Two guys, a girl, and a pizza shop. That's not it either, I don't think. I don't know how many episodes they've made.

It's like Something and the Girl podcast. But I feel like when I checked on their web page recently, I think they might be on like a couple of days a week schedule. I could be wrong about that.

Oh, Keith and the Girl. Keith and the Girl. Yeah. Were you purposely not saying that because you don't want to lose listeners?

Andrew, when I'm being general about something, it's because my old Swiss cheese of a brain is no longer rotating the information.

I have some very specific information for you. Would you like a count on this? Would you like to go head-to-head with Keith and the girl as far as not quality, but quantity of podcasts are concerned? I think we lose on quality. We certainly lose on quality, but on quantity, we, TBTL, the Too Beautiful to Live podcast, is on 4,342 episodes. If you count today's, Keith and the Girl just posted their latest episode one hour ago, Luke. This is fresh, fresh information. Episode number 3,872. Hold on, hold on. I've got a drumroll for this. I waited for a long time.

I moved the drum roll and I replaced it. Literally the spot where the drum roll goes right now has Razzlecon doing Versace Bedouin. Perfect. I want to apologize to the Keith and the Girl universe because they are very much doing five shows a week.

But fewer total than us, though. We have like 500 on them or something, right?

We do, again, quantity over quality. That is our that is our brand over here. But where did we what did we decide about that as far as, you know, there are radio shows that have been on for years and years and years and they just post their, you know, they post each episode as a podcast. But as far as something that is untethered from the radio universe that is only existing in the podcast space and is happening five days a week, did we ever decide if we might actually be the longest running and have the most episodes?

Well, those are two different things. Longest running, I don't know. But certainly because it's daily, we might have the most episodes. And keep in mind, we had all kinds of side podcasts we would drop in the feed. Our actual podcast load, if you will, which honestly you shouldn't, but if you will.

You're mad at me about how I got into the program today.

It was something like when we had to move all those files over, I think by now it would be in the 5,000s or something. when you can include like you know game of thrones coverage and yes i call it coverage breaking news coverage about about game of thrones um and other projects that we did and all the sports things that we threw in there but didn't number right yeah i um i would i would like to

maybe you know that could be a a branding opportunity for us or a um you know we can never describe what the show is all these years later to people maybe just saying not kind of spiritually what the show is but maybe just a fact about the show like hey so what's your show about and you can just go there's the most of them anyone's ever done yeah and then they say well

that's great but why should i listen what's it about and i'll say i said more than keith and the girl more than keith and the girl what part of that don't you understand yeah it's it's it's some

kind of claim to fame i'm kind of proud of that i i did i also had that luckily this this doesn't happen a whole lot but and you know i've talked about this before where every once in a while i'll wake up on a random morning and i'll just realize oh we got to do a show today for i got to talk for an hour on this thing and be hopefully somewhat interesting and engaged you know and like just makes make phonetic sounds with my mouth that's strung together ideally go in some sort of logical direction and it's it's like sobriety Andrew you just got to take it one day at a time because if you think about every once in a while I get the fear like I'll just kind of go like what if I have literally nothing to say today or you know like or we're just going to go into this you know podcast salt mine and we're just going to like hammer away with our pickaxe for an hour and then we're going to come back tomorrow and do it again i mean it is the the the sheer uh repetition and tediousness of this project is really something to behold and if you think about it for too long it starts to hurt your

brain a little bit something happened to me a couple of months ago a conversation about tbtl that i don't think i told you about that was a first for me you mentioned the phenomenon or non phenomenon is the wrong word there but just the the common occurrence of people saying oh you host a podcast what is it about right and we've discussed at length on the show how there's no good answer for that and how you and I are both caught flat-footed somehow after 15 years of doing this or whatever like how do we not have an answer to that and it's embarrassing but a while back so one of the people I volunteer with has a daughter who's an adult daughter but young like I'm going to put her maybe in her young in her early 20s and she's been volunteering with us or over the summer she volunteered quite a bit and she somehow had found out about tbtl i think she's somewhat interested in broadcasting herself i think maybe she went to school for some sort of communications i'm not exactly sure um but uh that that might have made her slightly interested and then i think she heard her and her family heard me on kuow uh on on the friday roundtable show and so maybe she was like oh this guy's actually doing something and so she listened to tbtl and i can tell you when this was it was right before we did because we saw that our listenership went up by one i can tell you exactly where it is because i have the graph right here no it was right before we started our summer um programming where we did a special week of listening to people's pet songs the songs that our listeners sing to their pets because i remember we were we We were out serving, and she said, oh, I listened to your podcast this week. But it was before the Pets one, right? I listened to your podcast this week. She's like, yeah. Can I ask you a question? I'm like, yeah. She's like, what's it about? And I said, and I realized.

Well, are you familiar with Keith and the Girl and how many episodes they've done?

I realized that even though I have been asked hundreds of times in my life, what is your podcast about? I don't think I've ever had the experience of somebody saying, I've listened to your podcast. Now explain to me, what was that that I heard?

Can you explain to me? How do you think about the thing that I just heard as the creator of it?

The reason I'm pegging it as before the summer pet songs was because I believe our friend Anna was out there as well. Of course, Anna is a longtime listener of TBTL. She said, well, you should listen next week because they're going to be playing people's pet songs. And, like, this young woman's eyes, she was like, now that I'll listen to. Like, that is something I can wrap my head around. Because I just listen to your show and I don't know what it's about. Well, that I'll listen to.

Is it mostly going to be listener-driven?

Exactly.

Okay, listen. Enough jibber-jabber. Let's get down to the big topics that's on everybody's mind, mine included. What happened with the plumbing visit yesterday?

Oh, yeah, we should talk about that.

What is the, just to catch up our new listeners who've come to us by way of the Seattle subreddit, yesterday, Andrew finally called the plumber to come out to try to figure out why there was some water or God knows what coming back up through the bathtub drain in the basement. And it was either going to cost you maybe $150 to fix or maybe $150,000. What was the diagnosis?

How about $99, my friend. It was even less. You and I thought so, yeah. I know that water coming back up through pipes is a common occurrence when you have a clog in your drain somewhere, but it can also be that clog could be something, you know, slightly more catastrophic.

Yeah, it was a $10,000 fix when I had that problem.

Right, because your quote-unquote clog was a tree root going right through your sewer line, right? And so we were like, I don't know, it could be that, Or it could just be a grease ball, you know, just from buildup in the drain somewhere. And you hope for the lesser one. And that's why I was pretty shocked when I was making the appointment and giving all the details to the person on the phone the day before the plumber came out. And the woman on the phone said, yeah, this will probably be $199. That's our, you know, blanket. That's our usual go-to if it's not a huge issue. And I'm like, wow, that's so much less. I was like, are you sure? You don't want to charge me more. i mentioned to you luke also that i had a coupon for 40 49 dollars that i told her about so as i told you like it could be 100 as you just set it up that That's why it could have been $150 or $150,000. And I was shocked to find out when the guy came out. He's like, yeah, I'll probably just snake it. I mean, I don't see any reason why it would be anything more than that. And he snaked the drains and said, yeah, there was quite a bit of buildup in there.

Somebody better get these mother-effing snakes in these mother-effing drains.

Then he said, these pipes are clean, Cabin Boy style. But then I said, oh, yeah, by the way, I have this coupon, so I think I can get it for like $150. He's like, actually, this is a sale today, and it's only $99. What? Even less than that. It was like $109.

Do those people do bathroom tile, Andrew? And by the way, what did you learn about your technician? Did he also send you his Pokemon Go card?

Should I be honest with you? I was a little bit nervous about this. So this is something I almost sent it to you. But I forgot about this part. I wanted to share this with you on the show because a little bit of background here. And I think people know this. When technicians come out to your house now, like, this is somebody that I hired through a company. And I don't mind saying the name of the company because we've had great service from them.

They sound amazing. What are they called?

It's Seatown. And you've probably, if you live in Seattle, you've probably seen their van. They're very distinctive. They have the sort of a 1960s sort of space-aged font, and they have a little, like, an astro.

That's probably why you went for it. That's kind of your vibe.

I actually called around, and then I didn't even realize I was talking to the van people until I did it. You suddenly realized I was talking to them. I was talking to Astro, the dog from the Jetsons. Jetsons. I didn't want to say Astro, though. I wanted to say his boy, his boy, his boy, who is Morty? We know it's Jane, his wife. Jane, his wife, his boy, his Morty, right? Come on, Rick. Okay. Anyway, all of that is to say, when technicians come out to your house, this company, as well as others, will sometimes send a photo in advance. It's like, hey, the plumber is headed your way now, leaving, you know, the last job site. His name is such and such. His name is Elroy. In this case, the name wasn't Elroy. But, yeah, the plumber's coming out, and they'll now attach, like, a photo of the technician as well. And I think that's great. It's a good safety thing, right? Absolutely. And so last week when somebody came out from the same company to look at our furnace, I got a little photo of the furnace technician named Mikey who came out. And it came with a little bio It says Michael Perez is coming out Here's a little bit about him

Now people are going to be showing up at his house Asking for free furnace advice

Honestly though You can request Mikey at C-Town He said that we can request him by name You get the Andrew Walsh Personal recommendation here But they sent this little bio of him It says that in his off time he likes to write and produce music His favorite movie is The Truman Show His favorite part about working at C-Town is a genuine friendship. Getting name-checked on podcasts. Being name-checked on podcasts. Oh, and the free coffee he gets to drink daily. So anyway, that was the one from last week. And then we met Mikey. He was the best. Mikey was the best. And then I got this coming in, this text message yesterday waiting on the plumber. It said Liam is on his way. And then here's what we know about Liam. Liam is a car enthusiast. Complicated relationship with his brother.

Loves making music on the side

Exactly Liam 12 years sober Potentially reuniting Although we know that won't last long Sort of sounds like the Beatles Liam is a car enthusiast He loves going hiking and camping He is an unapologetic Patriots fan I'm so glad That that ended with

With an apostrophe Actually it doesn't But I'm glad that that ended with the word S and then fan, because if it just said he's an unapologetic patriot, think about how different that statement is. If Liam is an unapologetic patriot, full stop, versus Liam is an unapologetic Patriots fan. I mean, neither one is great, but I'll take Patriots fan over a self-described patriot.

But I will say that that sort of got in my head a little bit. And Liam was great, by the way. Liam came over. He took care of business. I again I would recommend him as well he gave you a discount you didn't even know was coming right exactly but I will say this and and this is this I don't I think this just speaks to me and my thin-skinned-ness and how I sometimes take sports in a certain way my sport I don't take sports too seriously but I take my sports pettiness too seriously and I wrap too much into it sort of because when I saw unapologetic Patriots fan I was like this MF-er wrote this when the Patriots were good and now i just want to ask him if he's still unapologized like before he's even here i'm thinking can i work the patriots in like i don't luke well you will know i literally don't know who is the quarterback for the patriots right drake may is and he's a rookie right yes and has he been playing all season or is he a mid-season replacement really and he's doing actually that part i don't

know but i know he's been playing and i think he's been kind of somewhere in the middle like there's this class of rookie quarterbacks that are all sort of being compared to each other you got caleb williams at chicago the number one pick you got bo nicks you got michael pennix jr down there in atlanta and drake may and there's this kind of like one of these quarterbacks may be like a generational talent um and uh and and you know so that's he's on the list of the quarterbacks where there's a question as to if maybe they're the the future of quarterbacking i see well i

don't want to go after drake may but i do know that their record is two and eight and like this is where i'm just like oh this person's coming to my house and i'm already thinking like well you wrote this you're an unapologetic patriots fan when you used to feel like you had to apologize for being a front runner you know what i mean for choosing the the winning the winningest team for

years and years and like i wanted to like the worst is this the worst team that this person

could have been unapologetically a fan of in their bio you to me or to the world yeah i mean i think i mean to you personally maybe yankees and then astros astros would be way up there i mean yeah i think especially if you're working in seattle and you say that you know you're sort of trolling so anyway i was immediately like yeah you were unapologetic when they were good now they're two and eight how are they now you know i was like kind of thinking like and i was like what i mean this was i want to be very clear i wasn't stewing on this for an hour i just meant that like i had this idea flashed through my head really quickly and then i was kind of like maybe they shouldn't put sports stuff in their bio and then i thought no maybe you should just calm the f down yeah like i think you're you got a little hair trigger today well you know where

my pettiness goes with any of those teams that are sort of nationally famous usually through having a really successful period so we're talking the dallas cowboys the new york yankees the red socks and i'd put the patriots in there this is this is where my thing goes and it's equally petty and silly but it's always just like oh uh what part of boston did you grow up in yeah exactly yeah oh um a burien burien massachusetts oh burien washington oh oh oh your your mom your mom's third boyfriend was a Patriots fan like there's something for me about a person not living in the town that they choose to like love the sports team from when it's a team that was probably just killing it when they came into their sports consciousness that I find that so like uh annoying for some reason so that's always where my mind goes when I want to just when I'm just letting out my absolute pettiest little the least likable side of myself around sports it's always like oh hey what part of that town did you grow up in oh you didn't then you're a fraud well I

didn't know that that is something that you say in your head all the time but did you know that I said that to like a super super super obnoxious Dodgers fan who was sitting behind me at a Mariners game last season uh two seasons ago like again I am not proud of this it's kind of like when I talk about like my old road rage issues how it's like kind of embarrassing for me and it's very similar like I'm just so easily triggered about these things and I know that it's about more than sports or whether or not somebody you know cut me off on the highway without properly signaling obviously I think I'm bringing a lot more to these conversations or these actions than than I need to be and I should talk to somebody other than my podcast host about that but I get like real I get real real bent out of shape when I go to see my Mariners in in in my you know stadium or my field and it's just taken over by the you know the front-running fans of the major national teams like the Yankees and the and the Dodgers like I dislike the Astros but when I go to an Astros game at the at you know T-Mobile Park it's Mariners fans there you know it's like these it's these these national institutions um that again just have all these fans all over the country because it's easy to root for these teams not because there's any personal connection there and when they're especially obnoxious obviously that's the worst that's why I've had issues at red sox games they they will be very loud and and kind of trolly to the mariners fans i experienced that um and then at this uh at luckily the red sox game i'm thinking of the mariners end up pulling off a come from behind win which was amazing unfortunately you left graciously that was when i left graciously and i said good game i'll see you next week um i uh but the um but the dodgers one we did end up losing and it was a really painful game i'm wondering if it even was the one where maybe the Dodgers clinched something on our field I'll clinch something on our field but anyway there was this really obnoxious like 20 something year old like just troll of a skinny little bastard sitting behind me at this Dodgers game and we're clearly process this and put it behind you and I think that's really mature oh I think about it I was gonna say every day I think about it when I wake up.

when i go to bed um and uh you know calm down aria i have a list and uh you know the the stadium is filled with dodgers fans but they're not all like misbehaving but this one guy behind me is just trying so hard he's he might even be there by himself and he's just yelling all of this trolley stuff really loudly and just like you can tell when you're supporting your team or when you're trying to get under the skin of the mariners fans around you and so it was kelnick i believe our Our former outfielder, Jared Kelnick, came up to bat. And I'm pretty sure it was him who had Country Roads. OK. What is that song? The John Denver song? Yeah, yeah. And what is the... Take Me Home, Country Roads. Take Me Home, Country Roads. But what is the... West Virginia. West Virginia is... They literally say West Virginia in the song. And this trolley guy, this Dodgers fan, starts yelling, like, country, West Virginia, you're in Seattle, you idiot. Like, blah, blah, blah. And at this point, I couldn't take it anymore. And I just turned around and I'm like, what part of Los Angeles are you from? And he literally said, oh, no, I'm from Linwood. I'm just a hater. Like, that was literally his response. Do you remember me telling you this? This rings a bell. And I was just like, because I at least lived in L.A. for a couple of years. Like, this guy had less of a claim to this team than I did. He was just there because he wanted to wear his stupid Dodgers gear and just, like, troll all of the Mariners fans. And you know what? I didn't let him, Luke. I don't even remember that day.

he didn't get to me at all who you know we live in a world with people like the nihilists like that and someone's got to stand up to him and you right you were sitting on that wall that day andrew and we salute you um anyway my pipes are good that's amazing isn't that great news and it

goes back to the not to rehash our entire conversation yesterday but it's hard not to think once again about the fact that i started to see this issue in my bathtub probably a few months after moving in but was so petrified that my pipes were petrified that like i just didn't i was like i was like well let's keep an eye on it then when it only happened once every six months or so it was one of those things that didn't feel immediate but also felt very looming very hanging over my head like eventually i'm gonna have to get somebody out here and i know how it's gonna go these companies first of all they're gonna try to take all your money and Second of all, it's going to be the worst case scenario. And third of all, like, I'm scared. You may get tackled by either Bobby Wagner or Marshawn Lynch. Marshawn Lynch might just pick up my toilet with one hand and hold it over his head. So anyway, to know that it came out and it was like, you know, a medium priced dinner in Seattle to get it done.

Like half of a Thanksgiving dinner that they never deliver. Yeah, right. Exactly. Think about that. Yeah. Well, speaking of keeping an eye on things, Andrew, I don't know if you probably haven't noticed this on the broadcast because you've kind of talked a little bit about your face blindness. But I have, if you look at this, could you see on my left eye, there's just like red little kind of dot on my lower eyelid? Sort of, yeah. It's kind of hard to see over the internet connection. But basically, like, for about, I want to say a month, I've had this little, like, swollen, like, just like a, and actually, the weirdest thing is, I have one in both islands. Oh, no. Is it a, does it start with an S? Well, I don't know. The internet tells me it's probably called a chalizion slash meibomian cyst. Oh, that's what I was going to say. the good news is are a pretty i don't think it's anything very serious it's just like a blocked gland but um i i started out there was one that kind of developed in my right eyelid and i thought well that's kind of funny i've haven't had that before and then i swear a week later there was one in my left eyelid and i wonder if it was because like after a couple of those actually this is you want to talk about a very literal interpretation of the world remember when i was taking those red eye flights and then going right into film shoots i literally used visine

i'm not even kidding now you have red eyes that's why people don't take red eye flights

well right but i just mean i was trying to combat my eyes being red for a film shoot because i had been on what we kind of describe as the red eye flight i don't know if these things are related but i never use visine i feel like i used it maybe two times and then all of a sudden i got this weird little like swelling in my eyelid on one side and then like a week later i got one in my other eyelid and i went on the internet and they said this is probably just like a blocked gland um just apply a hot compress to it which i've been doing are the i want to just jump in

really quickly are the words you're using to describe this just are they synonyms with stye because i always hear stye and that's the same thing it's basically a pimple like a blocked to gland pimple kind of thing, which forms a red dot on your eyelid. I probably am wrong about styes. I thought a stye lived on your eyeball in some way. No, I think it's on your eyelid. But I guess I'm wrong about that.

Yeah. And it's, again, it's kind of like...

Maybe this is all interchangeable. I don't know. This thing, what I... I'll tell you this. What the Oxford University Hospital, the national... I don't know what the NH is, the National Health System in England. I think they're very proud of the NHS. This is the Oxford Eye Hospital treatment for a... and I'll just say the word again, chalazion slash meibomian cyst. What they're describing on this PDF that I've clicked on is exactly what I think I have. So I was hoping it would go down on its own, so I've been putting a hot compress on it and whatever, but it's not painful or anything. It's just kind of annoying, and I would like to have it dealt with. I also don't want it to get way worse right before I have a film shoot or something. Sure, yeah. So I made an appointment with the, just like, well, this was the whole thing yesterday. I was like, do I see an optometrist for this? I don't think they're really in the, it is eye related, but I don't think they're really in the cutting open your eyelid game. They're more the like, what's blurrier, this one or this one. That's more their deal. So I just made a kind of a quick appointment with a Kaiser Permanente doctor, not my regular guy, but just somebody in town closer to where I am. so I'm going in by the way I also think when I read down in this NHS kind of thing it's very funny the description of it says uh what does the so you can basically it's a little operation that they do on your eyelid if if the thing hasn't broken up on its own I guess over in England anyway uh they they give you a like a kind of a local anesthetic and then they you know they make a little incision and they kind of take this little thing out which makes me feel like it's unlikely I'm going to be able to actually get this taken care of today. I think probably the doctor will look at it and then will recommend something. I would love it if they could just take it out today, but I think it's probably more involved. This is the NHS direction, though. What does the operation involve? You will be asked to come to the eye minor procedures clinic in outpatients at the Oxford Eye Hospital. You will then be called by a member of the team into the minor procedures room. You will be offered a seat, and your nurse practitioner or doctor will confirm your details as well as the eye which is having the procedure i the fact that you're going to be offered a seat and that that's somehow in the literature is really strange to me was that

written by dry keith by any chance arrest in power king dry king that's right uh anyway very um very debaser slicing up eyelids i want you to know do you have you know what i'm talking about I do, yes. Yes, okay. Well, the base, or wait, as in the Pixie song? That is based on that Unchen Andalou. I know I've messed that up. But yeah, the Pixie song. The Pixie song that's based on the, what is it? Is it a French movie about eyeballs?

Well, if it's a French movie about eyeballs, but that's not a reference to the, oh, phooey. What's the movie with the droogs? That's the, Clockwork Orange? It's not a Clockwork Orange reference, it's something else.

I'm looking this up now Debaser Debaser So okay let's back up here Because I made that joke Just sort of make you giggle And then you didn't giggle And then I wasn't sure If you got it And then I said Did you get my joke daddy And then I I'm too busy Reading on in this form This is where we are now But anyway No Debaser The Pixies The band The Pixies Have a song called Debaser Where they say Slicing up eyeballs I want you to know And it's based on And they say the name of this too Unchien Andalou And I'm saying that wrong I'm sure Which is a 1920 Doesn't he also yell Andalusia I think maybe I always thought he was saying I thought he was saying the name of the film during that

I thought he was saying Shake Andalusia or something like that which I thought was a reference to a region of Spain where there's like Andalusian horses are from

I thought he was just saying the name of this film that I am mispronouncing now but anyway the film was like a Dali film and so there was some like weird eyeball stuff going on imagery and it was like a short film and so that is what that song is based on and here's where we are now I'm glad I was able to introduce that into evidence.

I was thinking about you the other day, Andrew, because, or actually, and the other day, I mean, this morning, because this eyeball thing is, or eyelid thing is annoying to the degree where I'm looking forward to having them bring a sharp scalpel and or needle and inject it into my freaking eye. Because that means then this thing will go away, you know what I mean? Kind of like you were with stuff that was going on with your rheumatoid stuff, where you were kind of looking forward to being at the doctor to get to a solution, even though the being at the doctor part was probably going to be unpleasant and maybe painful. That was when they were putting electrical stimuli into your body and things like that.

I'm still so mad about that. That was so expensive and so unpleasant, and it had nothing to do with my current treatment at all. It would have never happened. you were in England. They would have sent you the world's most involved instructions about what was going to happen. You will be asked to sign a consent form to confirm you are happy with the procedure going ahead. If you have any concerns or worries, it's important to discuss them with the nurse practitioner or doctor. After you've signed the consent form, you will be asked to lie on a couch. You can remain in your clothes. A sterile sheet called a drape will be used to cover the front and upper part of your clothes and your face. Your affected eye will be left exposed and we will make room for you to breathe comfortably. The drape helps protect your clothes from being soiled, as well as providing a sterile working area for the nurse practitioner or doctor to carry out the procedure.

Wow. Then what?

Well, Andrew, I'm glad you asked. The nurse practitioner or doctor will put a numbing drop into your affected eye. They will then also inject local anesthetic around your eyelid. The drops and injection will sting for about 10 to 20 seconds, but will soon make the area numb. shall we move on to page four i think i got it my point is i i know what's going to happen today i'm going to go down there doctor's going to look at it and go yeah that's a whatever stye or cyst or thing and then he'll say well we probably need to schedule this for like a procedure and i'll say sir can't you just cut it out or ma'am uh can't you just cut this out today and they'll go no we don't really have the like uh proper equipment here i would say well what he got just find something in the back like that's it's like when i'm uh on the airplane and they're like well uh we can't take off because one of the wings appears to be coming loose and i'm like can't you tape that up i just have places to be like i would really like someone down down there at the kaiser permanente and long for you to just hack this thing off of my face today please i don't want to have to make another appointment and go back in two weeks what if you walk in and it is very

much like the um the doctor's office in 89 batman where the he's trying to save the the man who will end up becoming the joker and he says you see what i have to work with and it's got a bunch of it basically like in my head i've i'm almost conflating his doctor's tools with cow tools the far side comic that remember remember the cow tools i remember like the most i guess if you would call it controversial the most controversial far side comic of all time was just a picture of a cow standing in front of a workbench and there were just some crudely made tools and one sort of looked like a saw maybe like a squiggly saw but then the rest just looked like blobs and this caused such because this is pre-internet and it caused such an uproar that newspapers around the country were just fielding all kinds of letters and calls from people saying what does this cartoon mean and i think larson went on to say yes probably one of the most i don't know if he said worst or controversial things and the whole point was if a cow were to make tools they wouldn't be very good that was i'm looking at it right now i know it has its whole own wikipedia page by the way no it has its own following i think like honestly i think it's got its own religion at this point all right it's time to thank some of our donors today

You don't get to be possibly, Andrew, the longest running daily podcast, or at least the daily podcast with the most episodes, without the financial support of people like Hank Sonder of North Providence, Rhode Island. I've never been there, but I bet you it is beautiful. I bet you it feels like the kind of place where the lobstermen are bringing in the fresh lobster each afternoon.

There's a small newspaper there where somebody is like both the editor and the main reporter and the photographer.

That's right. And the main export is cable knit sweaters. That's right.

And coziness.

That's right. And Hank is there. Thanks, Hank. Thanks also to Alana Sweeney of Brooklyn, New York. Now, same exact description. Same exact description. Their main export is edgy comedy being performed at the Bell House. Thank you, Alana.

Hey, I'm knitting here. I'm knitting here at the factory.

Was that a knitting factory joke? No, just like... I mean, that's actually a pretty solid joke, though, because the knitting factory is a place where much of that kind of content goes down.

That probably is better. I was just thinking, I was trying to combine the sort of coziness of Rhode Island sweaters

with that New York edginess. Sam Charner is in Chicago, Illinois. What do you got for Chicago, Andrew?

da bears i'm sorry man it's all i had no i hate it i hate myself right now i hate myself i gotta

go take a shower uh and what you can do again andrew without any anxiety i'm jealous no that's

not true my showers are filled with anxiety are you none of them plumbing

related no uh julie upton is in lake forest park washington beautiful lake forest park washington oh that's the camera district right that is that's the lens district nice uh jennifer bierman is in

jersey city new jersey i wish there was some sort of that kind of trope or stereotype around jersey city new jersey that i could share but i can't think of any

all that comes to mind are like uh actually speaking of the sopranos One of the greatest throwaway lines.

You weren't speaking of The Sopranos on the show. You were speaking of The Sopranos to me during the break. I was. Thank you for that.

I'm not correcting you. My friend.

I just thought it would be funny to point that out.

Thank you. It's very unclear to me the line between broadcasting and talking to my friend. Yes, during a quick timeout, I had mentioned something about The Sopranos to Andrew. And now I'm bringing it up for the first time on this program, The Sopranos. there's this scene where Christopher is late getting somewhere and I think it's Tony who's like annoyed at him per usual on that show and he says something about the traffic and he says what is the line from Born to Run it's the highway is jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive or something I have no idea Like, Christopher just, like, drops this Springsteen lyric as a way of explaining that traffic was bad. He's like, the highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last-chance power drive.

I can hear him say.

But he says it in Christopher, you know, Maltesanti Ease. Yeah, yeah. It's so good, dude. So that's what I think of when I think of Jersey.

I'm re-watching that right now. Like, I'm re-watching that. So The Sopranos, for a while now, even though I know this might sound sort of odd to people because there's obviously some violence in that show. But for me, The Sopranos is also the type of show that I can go back to and just randomly watch an episode and just sort of have it on. If it's late at night, I don't feel like getting into something I haven't seen before. I don't want to think too hard. Just put on a random Sopranos and enjoy it for what it is. But maybe, I don't know, a few weeks ago or something, I decided, no, I want to actually start from episode one and try to pay attention again. Because there is a lot going on. And I will say the first time I watched it, like, and that was literally, I think we were getting the DVDs delivered to us. um you know like the the this family and that and this guy's crew and that guy's crew and who's getting killed I think I was watching it mostly for the broad strokes for the palace intrigue for the family relations all of that and the performances but like I did not have a good handle on like some of the ins and outs of what was going on and to re-watch from season one and I'm like like honestly like if I fall asleep during an episode I now go back and I re-watch it and I'm now near the beginning of season two or I'm kind of I've started season two a couple of nights ago and um you just for i mean first of all first of all why am i even talking about this we need to thank the donors but i brought it up so twice so much happens in the first season that when you re-watch it you can't believe that that's that though that the entire series doesn't happen in the first season if that makes sense like it's just like it's so so much happens in the first season and you're just like no wonder the show is so popular and it's just like got off to such a great start and you just like really appreciate like the season like premieres and season finales and kind of how they wrap things up and they're and I always knew this but their ability to sort of like handle um surreality sort of like the the the bringing kind of you know I love dream talk but the way they bring dreams in and reality animals in the in the backyard yes and like I had forgotten in season one spoiler alert for a show for a season that came out in 1999. Like, do you remember that he kind of has a bit of a tryst with this beautiful woman who's temporarily living next door, but it's all part of his imagination? It turns out we learned that she doesn't even exist, this Italian dental student. I'm telling you, there's so much about

the show that you have forgotten. Oh, wow. Yeah, I should go back and... I actually started a while ago. I mean, like, maybe during the pandemic, I kind of had the same thought, like, let me just go back, and I really, really enjoyed it, and then I just kind of, like, got distracted with

something else let me just play you a little bit you're late highway was jammed with broken heroes

on a last chance power drive just like never commented on again i wasn't sure how tony was going to react to that uh i've got a hero and they're not broken their name is matthew lee ferris and they're in richmond virginia richmond another classic american city thank you so much matthew lee ferris and thanks to all of our donors today for making tbtl happen all these episodes later couldn't do it without you hello and welcome to top story um the uh announcement came onto it was either my watch or my phone yesterday

gotta really start managing the push notifications on my devices because like you kind of you've talked about how like particularly in the very very early aftermath of the recent election how like the new york times was just like pushing notifications to your stuff yeah and it was just like causing you like a panic attack every time it happened yeah because some of it might be hey

the world is falling apart and the other one might be try this dish for your holiday gathering

are you kidding me yeah four cozy recipes to get you through a bomb cyclone yeah right but I got this push notification that I didn't even catch I just saw like LeBron James and something and I thought oh dude is this guy retiring he seems like he's still pretty good actually and what the actual announcement was LeBron James has announced that he is stepping away from social media and I haven't that's as far as I've read into the story Andrew but I already know why it's because of just the absolute roastification of his son Bronny James and how, for people that don't follow this kind of stuff, LeBron James Jr., a.k.a. Bronny James, was a much better college basketball player than certainly I would ever be, and an elite basketball player by a lot of measurements, but not probably a person who at this moment is going to be a dominant force in the NBA, and yet he was drafted by the Lakers, his dad's team, and then actually started out, made the roster, and was playing with the Los Angeles Lakers in some NBA games before they sent him down to the G League, which is basically the triple-A, it's the minors of basketball, to get better, where he is currently, I think, ranked. I'm going to stop the top of my head, but there's like 430 people in the G League, and he's ranked like 420th. He's also one of the worst players in the G League.

I don't know if this is an ongoing thing, but I heard on AM radio, I think, last week. I heard about that. I heard about that thing on AM radio. But no, just like I always kind of say that just so you know how I'm gathering this information, because it's probably like I'm probably eating cold cuts over the sink, playing Wordle and half listening to some jabronis on AM radio. So like I get a lot of this information kind of wrong, but I heard something like he also was refusing to go on the road with his G League team. He had enough preferential treatment with the team that he was like, well, fine, I'm not traveling. Well, I don't know if that was his tone. But essentially that he can just stay home and play the home games and not go on the road with this G League team. Is that true? Is there any truth to that?

I heard that referenced as well. And I have to be honest with you, I don't know quite enough about the story to know all of the details. But what I know is the reason I'm sure that LeBron James is decided that the social media is not a good place for him is because all of the discourses on there that is related to LeBron James is related to Brawny James and Brawny James being kind of a Nepo baby. I think I probably didn't help when I retweeted this or I reskeeted this on Blue Sky from the Onion. LeBron James denies son receiving preferential treatment while being lifted up to dunk.

Luke, when you said that you were going to blame yourself, I thought you had your own joke, and I have this up on my screen, because when you were done with your joke, I was going to say, maybe it was the onion's fault, because I saw this headline yesterday, and it pretty much slayed me also, the image that goes along with it, because LeBron is holding his son up by the waist.

Dateline Los Angeles, emphasizing that he treated the 20-year-old in the same way as any other rookie. Lakers power forward LeBron James denied Wednesday that his son Bronny received preferential treatment when he lifted him up to dunk. Yes, he's my son, but in no way do I favor him when I give him the ball, help hoist him up, and then walk him to the rim so he can score, said the four-time NBA MVP. Adding that his teammates were likely just jealous that when Bronny gets put back down, everyone cheers and tells him how amazing he is at basketball. now this is the thing i thought that was a funny headline i i put it out on blue sky i reposted it but i will be totally honest with you as when i saw that push notification when i was getting gas at the safeway the real thought i had was lebron james is a human being who loves his son and is probably feeling kind of sad about the way that this is playing out in the kind of public discourse and has literally made the decision, and I think the correct decision, that this is not good for him, like, good for his soul and his spirit to see people being mean to his son. And I kind of get it, like, as a father, like, it's the weirdest thing. And, you know, you and I are both, I think, fans of this sports commentator, Nick Wright. Oh, yeah, big time. I think this guy, Nick Wright, is, I mean, in the take-ification, in the taking, the having-a-take industrial complex, which is unfortunately what most sports coverage is now is just like competitive take having everyone

has to have a take and it's got to be more like kind of explosive than the previous take you know and and a lot of them just i kind of leave me cold but i think this guy nick wright usually has pretty good and interesting takes and i feel like his on this thing was this is kind of great for basketball and kind of like well first of all it means nothing who cares who freaking cares in the grand scheme of things and also anyone else who was in a profession and they loved their son and their son was in the same profession and they were, they would be able to make it happen would probably kind of do the same thing. Like, I forget exactly the way he phrased it, but I thought it was a really nice reset on the topic to the people who were saying like, this is the, you know, this is like the worst thing happening in America. Well, I don't know if you've been following the real news lately, but this is pretty low on the list of important things. And also it's like, I don't know, just there was, again, I'm doing a terrible job of remembering the way that a different person nick right had phrased this but my sense of it was just like in all of this what first of all i really like lebron james like i think lebron james is generally speaking a force for good in the world he's also an unbelievable success story as an athlete and by that i mean he was on the cover of sports illustrated while in high school being called i believe king james i've also tried to describe this sports illustrated cover many times incorrectly but like the fact that lebron james was as hyped as he was and has actually exceeded the hype is an an unbelievable thing to have happened also in all of that have we ever heard one bad thing about lebron james yes like and that was well the big thing is that he wouldn't

separate himself from the kind of um you know chinese labor market and i mean that's kind of

a big one that is often glossed over but that's a macro okay that's a macro economic thing but i mean as far as like him being you know accused of some sort of like illegal right behavior or you know beating someone up or whatever like this stuff no no no no you know what i mean like i and you're right that's a good thing to point out that like that's some bullshit um of his like you know covering up for this terrible authoritarian government but i guess i was thinking more just in terms of like any kind of legal stuff where he's you know caught doing something you're not supposed to be doing or whatever he just has been a pretty exemplary person off the court as far as

that stuff goes you know i feel like the there's some appropriation with the taco tuesday no just joking no no he's also a good point you know what the funny thing is is i'm glad to hear you say this because at one point and and as you know you and i are not hot take machines at least we certainly don't stylize ourselves that way and i think we actually work to maybe even avoid that

well also our takes are not very interesting unless people expect the take to be freezing and then it's room temperature in which case it may burn them it burns your mouth it burns your

whole body i um no it's funny because i had this i and i'm just remembering this now like this wasn't again a long thought out thing but at some point i don't know if it was this morning when you sent me the show sheet and i saw this on here or maybe when you were doing your intro and and you you know kind of promoted that we're going to be talking about this later at some point today i was kind of like because i have weird feelings about lebron i sort of think he's cringy cleveland guy i mean yeah but also like i i want to actually just kind of not take um stolen valor in any because i really don't follow the nba at all so i don't have any bad feelings about him leaving cleveland and doing the whole decision thing other than it just reminds me of just being a very cringy thing i just think that lebron james is like really cringy in this way that just sort of like obviously not russell wilson levels of cringy dorkiness but like you know like when he there's some commercial out that i saw i don't know maybe it was running a couple of months ago And he was just like listening to, I think maybe the song, A Millie by Lil Wayne or something. And that would be appropriate. That's kind of age appropriate for him because he's kind of an older guy now. But there was something about this commercial where he was supposed to be just chilling and enjoying music. And I was just like, this is so like, you're just not cool. And there's nothing wrong with not being cool. I've been not cool my whole life, babe. You were not cool before it was cool to be not cool. You know, I know something about not being cool, babe, because people said I'm not cool my whole life. but anyway and so i always think that like when i think of lebron james i i kind of have these mixed emotions and i had this quick thought today like wait is he a bad guy and then i was like wait a second he doesn't have to be a good guy or a bad guy he does some really great things he does things for i think it was in la where he maybe even started some schools and again i don't i think that his schools actually had more of a focus and a plan unlike unlike russell wilson's

and Deion Sanders' schools.

I think... that that he has done some like actual concrete very good things for various communities for and including like locations like cleveland like la as if la needs help but either way no i think he's a good man in some ways i think that i i would i i think that he should have spoken up about his connections to china and the labor practices there i think he really dropped the ball there and continues to do so with his ongoing silence even though it's not in the headlines anymore i think when he um you know tries to like i think a thing of his is sometimes like and this is more like you know just the maybe echo chamber of of sports people dunking on him a little bit but like he always claims to know about the hottest music and all the younger players and and people are like we don't think that you actually are into what you're saying you're into and it's kind of like and that could be charming or cringy and generally speaking i Oh, and by the way, one other thing that I'll put in the pro column is then when I see clips of him talking about Cleveland in that Amy Schumer movie that I'm blanking on the name of right now, he seems like the most charming guy in the world, and I love it. Trainwreck? I think it is trainwreck. So anyway, my point is I had this flash for a moment today when I was like, oh, we're going to be talking about this. Is he good or is he bad? And I was like, what a dumb question. What an absolutely dumb question to ask yourself, Andrew.

Well, yeah, I'm not here to – well, I guess I am here to say he's good or something. I am here to say it's interesting how these people, when they get to a certain level of fame, it's very easy to forget that they're still actually people at the end of the day. And that I think LeBron James is having a very relatable parental moment right now where he's just like, man, this bums me out when I go online and people are just being mean to my kid. And also, poor Brawny James. Really?

really poor poor i mean that's where i i didn't bring this up in my ongoing litany of things but like that's where i don't know which column to put this in but i would say like is he evil for trying to like give his son a leg up no he's doing he's being a good parent and in a way or he's he's acting in a way that he thinks is good parenting but i think that if we saw this even on a micro level some parent who's giving an unfair advantage to their kid because they're in a place of power amongst other parents or something like no that would be kind of shitty behavior not not not unforgivable behavior not even ununderstandable behavior but like no like i i think using all of your power to give somebody an opportunity that doesn't deserve it isn't necessarily in the pro

column well the reason i say poor brawny james is because do we expect brawny james to say um no thank you lakers right do not draft me right like i feel like at some point this is like you know sort of heavy weighs the crown right and then heavy weighs the junior crown like your dad is freaking lebron james you're trying you're trying your hardest at this basketball thing you know and you know that there's so much speculation around are you going to be as good as your father and also like you want to impress him you want to impress the world you're working really hard you're playing college basketball and then like you know the also side note had a heart event where you were almost dead like had to be I think defibrillated on the court or something like so and then overcame that and you're playing like I guess I just mean I feel like other than maybe just saying I don't want to play basketball what I really want to do is play bassoon in the Los Angeles Philharmonic in other words choosing a totally different life path for Bronny James it's like well what are you going to not go play for the Lakers if they tell they're going to pick you in the second round and then if you know jj reddick puts you in the game are you going to like not play like i feel like this is this weird almost and i don't want to overstate the stakes but it's almost some sort of like a greek tragedy that brawny james is cast in that he kind of at some point has very little control over other than walking away from it all he's just a he's a character in this play called lebron james i would say and again i'm not raising

any of this to the level of something that like you say none of this really matters and i'm not trying to make it sound like he's evil but when we say he's trying as hard as he can now i have confirmed that he is not going on the road with his g league team i don't have specific quotes about what how that decision was made but just going with the like let's say what i would say like the the worst possible scenario which is brawny just feels like he doesn't have to go on the road with his g league team because he's special in some way i would argue then he's not trying as hard as he can like you know that's a bad look there's just and again i'm making and i want to be very clear here i'm making some assumptions it might be his coaches who are saying he should only stay at home because of certain i don't know anything about this world what if the lakers need him at the last minute i mean i i don't i don't know if you're joking or not but he's surprising i would underscore that i i really want to say like despite the despite the tone of my voice right now i want to say like it is just a game it doesn't affect me and i don't really know what I'm

talking about but let's just say that that it is that scenario of like if you're talking about this this scenario of nepotism and everything and you have this young player who is drafted even though maybe other people were passed up before him in the draft class because of your place in life and it's not because of your basketball skills and then you get knocked down to the g league and then you say fine but i'm not going on the road like then you start to say well you know i would like to see more from somebody i would like to see more get up and go in a sport that like at least on its surface celebrates you know like um you know personal ambition yeah i definitely think if

brawny james wants to change the narrative the first thing is be the first guy at practice in the g league and the last guy to leave and go on all of the road trips like fully just like you know almost kind of like do a hard reset unplug the brawny james wait a minute and plug it back in you know unplug the narrative and then plug it back in and see if it's fixed itself because right now it's yeah he seems like he's kind of a spoiled spoiled little rich kid um and you know he has obviously had access to an amount of kind of privilege you know financially anyway that's that's pretty hard to relate to but at the end of all of this like I said I had this I mean I guess I didn't feel so bad that I didn't read you the onion headline and then we both laughed But like there was something about LeBron James stepping away from social media that brought home to me this idea that he is probably just bummed out that everyone's roasting his son. And I found that to be pretty relatable.

Yes. And I also I would say he should step away from social media and a lot of people should and maybe myself included. Like right now, not on a lot of social media, but, you know, you and I have talked on this show about our various steppings away and then stepping closers. and we've been playing around with Blue Sky, but I'm not living on Blue Sky the way Twitter is. I'm nowhere, you know, I'd poke my head in a couple of times a day, see what's up, my peeps.

I did appreciate the, I liked you smashing the like button on my Matt Gaetz ski last night. Thank you.

That's right. Can you remind me of those? You look like you regret doing it. No, no, no, I'm just trying to, I remember it was a close-up of his, oh, oh, yes, yes, yes, yeah.

Oh, by the way, congratulations to America That guy has taken his name out of the ring Or out of the hat

But still has officially resigned from Congress as well, right? There's no putting that toothpaste back in the tube

I believe so, because I think he doesn't want that He doesn't want that ethics report to fully come out

Yeah, because it puts him in too good of a light And he doesn't want all that good attention Well, exactly He's bashful

He's a very humble, very kind of, you know Sort of out of the spotlight guy And if the ethics allegations Which would exonerate him completely And make him look very good came out

He he just wouldn't feel good about that. But all of that is to say, I just want to say normalize stepping away from social media. If that's what if that's what your soul is telling you to do. And I think the more people who do that as needed. And again, I'm not out here saying everybody's social media is awful. You're like, I'm not making any judgments about how people are living their life or consuming their media. But if you're to a point where you're like, wow, this isn't good for me anymore. Get away for a while, my friendos. But first, please do give me a follow on Blue Sky.

Yes.

There's a right way to rock and a wrong way to roll. You can't just listen to your song. Just remember that life is number one. You can be having so much fun. Just remember that life is much fun. You can be number one.

all righty here let's do some blurs days wish people birthday greetings i want to mention a couple of these blurs days um mentioned that the actual birthdays fall next week and i don't know what our plan is for blurs days next week we haven't explain it we haven't a whole had a whole meeting yet about blurs days next week but of course thursday falls on thanksgiving next week so i don't know what's going to happen i'm reading all the blurs days in case we don't have a chance to get to them this week. You cool with that, Luke? I'm sorry I didn't have you sign off on that.

I think that's a good plan. By the way, I don't have a turkey sound effect.

Oh, okay.

I know you do somewhere.

Oh, but I can't play the music and the gobble.

I do have this. This actually kind of sounds... This is a squirrel call I got in Arkansas once,

but it kind of sounds... It's analog. I love that. It's an analog. It's a wooden turkey call.

Yeah.

That's great.

It's a squirrel call, but it kind of sounds like a... Yeah, yeah. Oh, I'm sorry.

Now that sounds great. There you go. I also have this turkey call here. Oh, yeah. Oh, look, it's David from the basement. All right, let's get into some blursies. Please.

It's been a lot to get through. You can email me, andrewattbtl.net. Put Blur's Day in the subject line if you'd like to wish somebody, including yourself, a happy birthday. Brad says, I want to wish a happy eighth Blur's Day to my five. Lee, you're such a kind, smart, and funny boy. Your mom and I can hardly believe we got so lucky in the kid department. We love you, mega-egga, big-time buddy. Happy Blur's Day. Wow, that is loud. Maybe back it away from the microphone just a tad there. So loud, so loud.

Can't you fix that in post?

I have a thousand squirrels surrounding me right now, and they're all menacing me with their eyes. Matt says, Happy Blur's Day to my remarkable partner, listener Annie. Wisconsin is a close second to Tasmania, but I love you no matter where we are and what we're doing. Hey, maybe we can check out the Priceless Granite at Kettle Moraine, listening to TBTL on the way, of course. I had to do it. They put musical notes. Priceless Granite. What a sonic journey I just created. Do you think listeners know which one of those was me and which one was the drop

singing Priceless Granite? I wanted to let you know that I'm playing right now. I'm podcasting at an incredibly high level. I sneezed violently like four times. I found the Priceless Granite audio drop, and I played my squirrel thing an appropriate distance from the microphone. Congratulations.

Where's your parade? Joey says, Happy Blur's Day to Brian. I don't know if you could tell, but there's a Y in that. I was trying to pronounce the Y. Brian, we've never actually met in person, but we've collaborated on a bunch of TBTL music projects, such as Brian in Portland, probably. I think this is a second shout-out. I think Brian is getting double blurs from last week as well. Let's see, Joey and Brian collabed on You Read Your Books, I'll Drive My Truck Remember that TVTL classic And The Wrong Way to Remember, The Right Kind of Night Oh sure, that was my country music hit I'm still waiting for the residuals on that Brian has now put Pedal Steel on three of my albums He always sounds amazing and is so professional and efficient Happy Blurts, Brian Sarah, oh this is my pal Sarah Realtor to the stars Oh, sure. Says, I want to wish a very happy birthday to my friend-o Krista. Oh, I know this Krista, too. Well, I'll read on. Sarah says, I hope your upcoming year is filled with many trips to Rough and Tumble to celebrate women's sports and even more trips to Seattle's parks as you continue your inspiring goal to visit the mall. By the way, I just want to insert here that I saw Krista. Last time I ran into Listener, Krista was at Rough and Tumble there in Ballard. I love that place. Happy birthday, friend. So glad to have you in my life. Happy Blur's Day, Krista.

Mm-hmm.

You know, I have a friend. Well, you know, maybe we don't identify where Krista lives. I know the neighborhood that Krista lives in, and I have a friend who lives in that neighborhood as well. Okay. And my friend said that they were walking by somebody's apartment, this is a couple of years ago, and they heard TBTL blasting from the window, like an open window in the summertime or something. And I always wondered if that was Krista. And I think I asked Krista, and I think we determined it wasn't her. So we have at least two listeners in Krista's neighborhood. Just checking. I love that idea, Andrew. Bumping the TBTL.

It's a warm summer evening. Yeah. And people are out on the stoop, and they're just playing TBTL.

Well, do you know that? I mean, I know I've told you this before. I don't know if you recall it. But before I worked on the show regularly, but I knew you and we were friends, I was grilling outside at my Capitol Hill apartment. You can picture that tiny little front yard right there.

I walked by it the other day with that.

Oh, really? Yeah. And I was grilling on my little Weber grill and bumping my own TBTL podcast. And a neighbor from the next door building or house came over and said, Is Luke here? And I was like, no, no, I'm just listening to TBTL, my dudes.

And that person was in the Seattle subreddit today. That's right. Wistfully remembering TBTL. Come on back.

The water's warm. I have so many warm takes on LeBron James. Emily in Tucson, or as I like to call it, Tuxin, says, Merry, merry half-century blurs day to me. 50 happens, and it happened in style on the Yucatan Peninsula for this lucky golden age lady and her 11. I brought my TBTL family with me on beautiful walks along the beaches and near the Maya ruins and colonial towns. Thank you for being such a great community and reminding me to make the usual small moments verbose memories. Boy, did I mess up that last sentence. Thank you all for being a great community.

and reminding me to make the small moments verbose memories. That's what Emily said. Why do I have this job?

Give it to the guy who can't read. You doing it twice, though, made it more verbose, so I think that was true. Something very appropriate about that. I play into the text.

Why don't we talk about the subtext? Why don't we ever talk about what's above it? Tan Ying says, now Tan Ying didn't say this, but Tan Ying, I believe, a listener in Pittsburgh, right? Yes, memory serves.

Unless we have two Tan Yings.

Yeah, maybe. But I think this is our pal Tan Yings who says, my five turned ten years old last week. So this is a bit of a belated blurs. Happy 10th birthday to you, Shan, my budding cosmologist and future inventor of something that will either save or destroy humanity. She's going to do hair. Future inventor of something that will either save or destroy humanity. We love you so much. Lots of love from Mommy, Daddy, Yan, Wen, and Hugo. Oh, cosmologist. I thought you said cosmetologist. No, cosmologist. Right. Happy Blur's Day to me, says Danny in New Hampshire, and mentions that her sign is Scorpio slash Sagittarius Cosp. Ooh, can we look that up? What are we looking at for a Scorpio? Can we look this up? What's a Scorpio? A Scorpio? What timing? The year is a Scorpio, you mean? No, I just want to see what today's horoscope is, because Nanny's message was so short. Oh, here we go. Hindu Stan Times. You got it there.

I'm at horoscope.com.

Oh, that's probably better. Yeah, why don't you go with that? What do you got? Let's see here.

Scorpio today. Are you feeling somewhat annoyed today?

I don't think horoscope should begin with questions, by the way, but go ahead.

This is hardly surprising, since the day inspires you to take a long, hard look at what's happening with your life. Jeez. Let's go back to the Hindu Stan Times. I like that one better.

making a ruckus in the bedroom. That was harsh. But anyway, let's not worry about that. Happy Blur's Day, Danny. Thanks again for being part of the fam.

Also, it ends with Scorpio be adventurous.

So nice. Let's keep that part. Steven says, happy birthday to that's my wife, Jay, who now shares my difficult to pronounce last name. Bereznoi. I'm just checking myself on that. Bereznoi. Yeah, I think so. Bereznoi. But I'm so happy to be married to my favorite person in the world. That's my wife. Hey, calling back to last year's Blursday, now we're not living in sin anymore. I love you so much, and I'm so glad to be part of your family officially. I hope my Thanksgiving turkey measures up to your mom. Ken, and I have it on good authority that this is our buddy Ken in Michigan, right? Oh, okay, sure. I want to wish Cinder a happy early Blursday. Thank you for posting pictures of your adorable corgi, Edward. The Lions winning a Super Bowl would be a great birthday gift. Wait, for you or for Cinder?

That's a Ken Lee drop just for our friend Ken. And for Cinder.

And for Cinder. Happy birthday, Cinder. And Justin says, Erica, Erica, Erica is a TBTL Army recruiting angel. Ballard chapter celebrating her birthday on Monday. Love it. This is her 11, Justin, dropping a Blur's Day love bomb with her. There's no mountain too tall. Aw. I love that.

Careful with that love bombing, though. Yeah, don't say love bomb in an airport. People, people, that's a big thing on the internet now is people talking about if they got love bombed or not.

Is that true?

Yeah, it's one of those in vogue kind of terms now that refers to somebody coming on very, very strong at the beginning of a relationship, but then kind of flaking.

Yeah, and being very superficial, coming on very, very, very strong.

It's a big part of the Zach Bryan, Brianna Chicken Fry discourse that I know you're breathlessly following.

I do know that Chicken Fry, that's right, she's the barstool person, right? Yeah.

Yes, and she dated a country music singer named Zach Bryan, and it was a very public relationship and now it's gone very publicly sideways.

Yeah, see, I know about that and she claims that he was very, very controlling. You always underestimate my ability

to understand the culture. I don't, for some reason, have a bomb sound effect on this thing,

but I do have a crash sound effect. I'm glad you don't have a bomb sound effect. Heidi in Minnesota says, I would like to celebrate the blurs of my five. Ayrton, who just turned 11, of course, is our pal Heidi in Ayrton. Hope this 11th year will be full of new adventures just like your Dungeons and Dragons campaigns with less sword fighting. Happy Blur's Day, Ayrton. Have you seen the Key and Peele sketch where they're doing D&D?

I think so. Did you bring this up recently? Or did Genevieve and I were dipping into some old Key and Peele recently?

It's pretty funny because you basically have, like, the Keegan-Michael Key guy as the, you know, the sort of D&D, I don't know all the terminology, but let's just say Dungeon Master. Sure. Like, he's leading the, he's kind of leading the night and the adventure. And he's doing it in a very traditional D&D way. and then uh jordan peele's there and jordan peele is clearly new to dnd and like really just wants to kind of like rob people and get girls and and he is like and he's just like presenting like he's just not he's not going with the vibe of like let's let's uh you know use our healing spell to do this he's just like there to kind of like grand theft auto it but what happened what what what becomes clear pretty quickly is all of the other people here for that d and d night who are generally nerdy guys are extremely excited about this possibility uh-huh and keegan michael key completely loses the room to jordan peels just like you know kind of like dude who just is like not into the lore but just like yeah okay well let's uh let's get this all of this money and all of these girls and a bunch of nerds who've never had that be their lived experience are like Yes, this is what we've been waiting for.

That show is so great. I just watched it. I can't believe it was only like, was it only like two seasons maybe? It was such a short-lived thing. And now neither one of them went on to do anything big, I don't think. No. I haven't heard from either of them. Sierra says, happy Blurs Day to Melissa, the best roommate and fellow 10 I've ever known. I hope this next year is filled with laughs, good times, and a huge sense of accomplishment because you are kicking. I don't like to say I don't like when people make me say words like this but anyway Sierra says you are kicking butt at life and I love to see it you deserve all the happiness and love this year and every year of course cheers to you friend happy blurs day Melissa cute sorry I said butt Sierra made me say butt and finally Dan says happy golden blurs day to my wife of 25 years Alicia here's to another year of Pizza Fridays and Pancake Sundays and Taco Tuesdays to family movie nights and Sunday night football to reading the best parts of the paper to each other to reminding each other that that cash could really get us out of a couple of jams. I'll be the Kampari to your Negroni if you'll be the sugar cube in my old fashion. Love you to the desert and back. Love, Dan. Come on. I almost feel like this music wasn't the perfect accompaniment to that. That's a very, very sweet And a heartfelt message. I'm weirdly in love with Dan now. But anyway. Honestly, like, boy, that guy can write. Happy Blur's Day, Alicia. And everybody.

And happy Blur's Day, yeah, to everybody who got shouted out this week. And thank you all for listening. I think that's going to bring us to the end of today's episode. But we're going to be right back here tomorrow. I will have a full report on if I was able to successfully get a walk-in eye surgery.

Oh, yeah. A day of eye surgery. Depending on what it is, it might just be a drain. They might just drain those babies.

Yeah, maybe. If they can just stick a needle in there and, you know, reduce down whatever's in there, I'm down for that.

You want me to call C-Town, have Liam come over? Honestly, I feel like, Mikey, this could be a project for Mikey.

Yeah. Tell him I have a coupon. $45 off.

It was $49.

Andrew, if tomorrow when I join you on this video feed, I have a very cool eyepatch like Slick Rick, like Rick the Ruler.

Or like Jay Leno. Jay Leno's wearing an eyepatch.

You know, I saw that, and I honestly feel, you know, I feel bad for Jay Leno.

Yeah, I know. It was weird. You choked on those words.

Well, right, because it's not, you know, he's not my comedy hero. and there's a lot of things about Jay Leno's professional career that seem a little bit kind of, again, cringed to me. But he also really, really kind of hurt himself falling down a hill.

Yeah, he took a tumble. But it was actually kind of humanizing. He was, I think, doing a gig somewhere, but he wanted to walk down to a restaurant instead of taking a private car or whatever.

That's how it happened?

I think he was just walking, and he was like, I could have gone the long way, but I wanted to take a shortcut, and I ended up tripping and fall. He took a really bad fall and got a pretty, he got a black eye.

He broke his wrist. Yeah, that's right. Half of his face is purple. He has an eye patch.

And he really didn't go to the hospital until after the gig, apparently. So, yeah, hope he's all right.

Hopefully I will not be that roughed up tomorrow, but we'll all find out together what a Friday it's going to be here on TBTL. So please do join us for that. In the meantime, have a great Thursday. Take care of yourselves. And please remember, no mountain too tall. And good luck to all.

Power out.