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Rollo, the chocolate treat with caramel inside. Rollo, Rollo, Roll your boat gently in my mouth. Pop, top, check it out. Lick the foil with your tongue. Give it to your friends as a gift. Let's change gears. Rollo, Tony, Brown Town. Check yourself at the door. Give me some more, give me some more, give me some more on your Rollos. That's pretty good. TBTN. Oh, this is my jam right here.

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We may have created a monster in the lab. It's not a monster. It's a cyborg that can kill without remorse.

And there's just nothing wrong with listening ever, so listen if you know what's good for you. Remember, to achieve success, you must first conceive it and believe in it. Remember, impossible is nothing.

all right hello good morning and welcome everyone to a thursday edition of tbtl the show that just

might be too beautiful to live oh it might not be good for the mind but it's most definitely

good for the soul my name is luke burbank i'm your host hello everybody coming to you from the matrona hill studio perched high above the mighty columbia where once again it's just absolutely dumping dumping rain it is like we're it's like being inside the mighty columbia river here right now there's almost no difference between the air and the liquid water it's all kind of the same thing right now it tastes like soot and hot water i'm hooked so ready for this stuff to be over but i'm also so ready to start episode 4622 in a collector's series let the fun begin. David Sedaris wrote an essay in The New Yorker about being bitten by a dog in Portland, and it's kind of a larger, you might say, broadside against a lot of the policies in Portland and things like that. But there's an element of the article that has me absolutely losing my mind and questioning my very memory. Memories are made in your mouth. To the point where I emailed David sedaris this morning to try to get i don't know how to i don't know how to solve this mystery besides just going to the guy who wrote it and asking him to clarify something for me so we'll probably get into that uh we'll definitely get into the blurs days here on this thursday and we'll say hello to this young man longest running cobro of the show may be best known for his depictions of the tall ships this shiny guy always worries he is andrew walsh and he's joining

me right now good morning my friend good morning luke sorry i forgot about my mute button there for a second did it was there a little skip in your heart there as it took me an extra second

to say hello did you worry that the isdn line was down well the issue is and by the way i just figured out yesterday that i've been doing this show all wrong from a technical standpoint for you for now years as it relates to riverside i would say also from a stylistic standpoint but let's start with the technical and content but you know what let's start with the things we can fix sure yes let's shoot the alligator that's closest to the boat as they say in recovery okay

do they say that i thought they said that i thought you're gonna say that you learned that

when you're on the boat out in miami when i was with when me and ice cube and john voight were on that river cruise looking for that anaconda uh-huh uh-huh uh they said shoot the anaconda that's closest to the boat. I think that's a recovery thing, meaning that when you're dealing with a suite of issues, when you're dealing with a bunch of problems, you start with the one that's most likely to kill you. The alligator that's closest to the boat. You kill that one first, and then you work your way through. Now, what would PETA change

that to, though?

You cuddle the alligator that's closest to the boat.

You spoon the alligator that's closest to the boat.

You're the big spoon with the littlest alligator that's closest to the boat. I don't know, Wes, what would you say, if you're even real? Oh, did I tell you

So I got a follow-up from Wes.

Yeah, but that proves nothing. It just proves it's still scraping the internet for mentions. Yes. And I found that his response was also very parsed. So you didn't get that. He didn't say, I'm not scraping the internet.

I did see it, and it did nothing for me. Well, the good news is you're back in your TBTL email. Okay, listen, I've distracted you too much. So, okay, let's shoot alligators.

Okay, so when we are talking to each other on this internet connection called Riverside, we can see each other. But also, when I'm at the beginning of the show, I'm looking at a different screen that has all of the little audio drops on it that I'm going to activate when the time is appropriate. And what that means, hold on, sneeze incoming. Uh-oh.

Oh, we had sneeze. We need some sneeze music. We had this set up when we were talking about Rob Reiner.

Now it seems to have passed.

All right.

um okay um and and so what happens is i often i'm not looking at you when i'm playing those little sound effects and then i will just forget for possibly the remainder of the show that we have visuals potentially i'll just be on my screen looking at that audio board screen and and missing it not that it it matters so much in terms of because this is mostly released as an audio product but like that little hiccup we had at the beginning where you forgot to unmute your microphone because i wasn't looking at you i did literally wonder if the connection went down just for a split second but here's the thing there's a feature on old riversidey where i can be looking at anything i need to on my computer and you and i are just in a much smaller little window up in

the corner like zoom that's that what it's called no like the like the uh software product zoom will also sort of minimize into a little picture in picture so you can always this is the thing

I don't know how to do that. It just happened accidentally yesterday. I can't reproduce it now.

I think just minimize your whole window, and it should do it, I think. Or just open another tab. Open another tab. Well, the problem is my sound device is not another tab.

It's an app.

That's a good point. Yeah, because it does it automatically for me when I open another tab. But you're right. That's not web-based, so I don't know.

Somehow yesterday, without meaning to, I had it going where you and I, I could see you. I could see your cute little face and my face in kind of a picture-in-picture, but it also allowed me to then play my sound effects and do other things, and they were not in competition with each other. And I was like, oh, this is the perfect solution. It's only how do I do it.

Okay, so I just recreated it. I don't have your special sound software, but I just recreated it using Spotify. What you want to do, I'm going to walk you through this, and this is good for the listeners too. So if you are ever using Riverside to podcast with someone, Play audio out of Faragio. But playing audio out of Faragio, here's what I think you want to do. First of all, just forget about Faragio for a second. I'm sorry. We're going to come back around to that. I'm on Riverside.

I'm on Riverside in Chrome. I'm looking at you. I'm locked in.

Now open a new tab in the Chrome browser. It doesn't even matter if it goes to anything. Oh! Then, now that has activated the picture-in-picture mode, now open Faragio again, and it'll stay a floating little window, I believe.

Andrew, you, my friend, are an absolute genius. You're a genius. Real time. You're a genius. People heard that in real time. I love this so much. Like, I'm half joking about the kind of fact that it took me years and years to even know this was a thing. But it legitimately will improve. I don't know if it will improve my performance, but it will improve something. Because what it means is now I don't have to choose between keeping eyes on you and maybe bingo and things that are happening. like before this before this breakthrough it was possible that you could have keeled over in the middle of the show and it would have taken me minutes if not hours to realize how deep into a story you were i'm looking at my sound effects that i've completely zoned out about the visuals

so this is good i'm very excited about there is something that sometimes happens on this show that i don't know if we've ever talked about and i don't know if you've experienced this to the same degree on your end i assume you have to a certain degree but like you like we have this screen in front of us so we can see each other but i'm not always looking at it especially when i'm talking i feel like my eyes wander all over the place and i'm not really looking at you so there are times and it's a really it ends up being a very embarrassing feeling even though i'm the only one who experienced it i can't explain the feeling but i'll be talking and talking and talking maybe you even ask me like a follow-up question that i'm going into all these details But then you and I, I think subconsciously in ways that we don't even realize sort of feed off of each other's just little sort of audible nods of approval to go along with us there like that. Uh-huh. You know, like that. You don't want to do that too much because then you end up like the guy from The Daily. Hmm. But, you know, like these little audio cues you have. But sometimes when those go away, you just keep talking and talking and talking. and then you get done and there's nothing and the other person just doesn't say anything and then you realize oh we've been disconnected yeah for minutes for minutes and you're just like i've just been blabbing my i'm gonna swear i've been blabbing my ass off and nobody's been hearing it and i'm such a blabber mouth i didn't even know i was talking to myself it's an embarrassing

feeling uh i'm a i'm a poet and i didn't even know i was rhyming that's right what's he say r.i.p man even though i was right that is a that is a bad feeling because it i think considering this is our job you and i are both still highly sensitive in real social situations about not reading the room or going on and on about something or like considering that our whole job is to more or less fill time on here based on the idea that we are somehow inherently interesting people I think you and I are both very like never want to be the person at the function who's dominating the conversation or talking about themselves endlessly and when you're in the presence of someone like that it's very off-putting and so there's something about realizing that like yeah I've just been going on and on and that happens to me maybe even more than you because i until this breakthrough i would say 80 of most shows i'm not looking at a screen that even has you on there so like if i was i could see that it's frozen or maybe it's gone away there's a visual indicator but i'm i'm flying pretty blind here a lot of the time and so i feel like i do that sometimes and yeah it's a you you sort of feel like uh the road runner or sorry you feel like wiley coyote yeah you went out you thought that you thought there was more road

underneath you and there wasn't that is actually a perfect analogy that is because you're just like you're you're going and you're going you're going but something just is kind of like feels a little

bit off and then all of a sudden you look down should we talk about this sedaris thing yeah so

i have not read this piece but when you said you were writing i don't think you i don't think you

should read the piece i think it would i think it would i think it would it would anger you well

it's funny because i was i read a little blurb about it in whatever the the the portland free presses and so the willamette week probably or the mercury yes i think the willamette week is

still the more yeah by the way willamette week is i've said this before recently on the show it is a really good weekly newspaper and i don't know how they're doing it but they're still doing a ton of original reporting and i salute them i salute them by purchasing a tote bag and also purchasing an issue of a free magazine they put out which i did not know was free until i was in a store in portland and i told becca oh i just bought that she goes why it's free oh i don't

know so you took it up to the register and they just like sort of scan well it just said free on

it basically they do like their version of dwell magazine the willamette week it's about you know people in portland and the kind of choices they make about their homes and i was reading it and i thought it looked really cool and i went on their merch page and i realized i think what i paid for was the shipping oh i see more so than the magazine i had it shipped out here to the place all that is to say i'm a willamette week fan i'm guessing that this was mentioned in the

I think it was, and it was sort of a damning headline as one of those, like, because, you know, people like you and I, NPR fans who grew up kind of in, you know, like kind of came of NPR age in the 90s and 2000s, huge fans of David Sedaris. I know you know him personally, and I am a big fan too, but I also know that as he's getting older, he's been criticized a lot, not a lot, but a couple of essays he's written as kind of losing touch with the common person and just becoming kind of cranky old man sort of. And like people who were maybe liberal or progressive and assume that they're they're in agreement on everything with him maybe are not so much. So I see this article that's complaining about him and I click on it. And honestly, again, I think it was Willamette week. I don't want to throw anybody under the bus. But the complaints in the piece that I read seemed a little bit weak to me. I know that he sort of it's about getting bit by a dog and probably by like a homeless person or somebody maybe doing drugs on the street. So it's kind of have these elements. And it was a defensive article that I read from the perspective of somebody who truly loves and feels defensive of their city. And here's another person from outside the city who is pointing out some of the stuff that you see on the sidewalks of Portland that don't represent the whole city. But honestly, I was kind of expecting to read this and be like, yeah, David Sedaris, what are you doing? But honestly, it just sort of sounded like somebody who loves their city and was slightly uncomfortable with his depiction of it.

i think the people in portland yeah the people in portland particularly at the willamette week and and folks that are you know boosters of portland feel like portland gets a lot of crap already and uh and that and yes we all love david sedaris i love david sedaris a lot and so to have him because the the piece is is about this moment where he gets bitten by a dog and essentially nobody is nobody seems even moderately upset in fact they're worried about the dog and he takes that as a kind of an indication of the overall sort of a deterioration of portland and he kind of gets into some policy stuff and talking about when they decriminalize small amounts of drugs it's the opening graph is a is is pretty tough on portland um from sedaris but this is the thing that i cannot figure out and it's driving me crazy i have a memory i saw so i saw the same headline you did probably from the willamette week that was something like david sedaris was bitten by a dog and now he's taking it out on portland or something like that and i thought well yeah i know but he got bit by a dog in portland a long time ago like three four years ago i have this memory of this thing happening now again this is the week of l's for l this is the week of me being so wrong about so many things that i'm i'm really

in my head about this, I have this, because the essay was just published in the New Yorker this week. So all of the, all of the response to it and the kerfuffle around it is, is basically, um, is, is new and all the SEO and all the trending, it's all from right now. But I swear to God, I heard him either talk about this on a talk show or like, I, I have this, I have a very strong memory of a few years ago hearing about david sedaris getting bitten by a dog in portland maybe i heard it from the dog i don't know where i got this information but i swear to god this happened a few years ago now that has nothing to do in my mind with the sort of you know i guess you could say the salience of what he's writing like he's entitled to his opinion and this is not an attempt by me to like then prove that his essay is more or less valid it's just it's driving me crazy so i got it because becca sent me the articles like did you hear about sedaris he's going off on portland i said yeah but like the dog bit him a long time ago and she was like though the essay was just out this week i go i know but i so i go on the internet and i can't

get any satisfaction on this no because everything is going to be all the everything is rooted in

the essay coming out last week so even ai like as if ai is the highest even ai even look how quick right? Boy, how quick did that go? I don't want to read the AI to like, even the AI is not giving me help on this, Andrew, but it's like, I can't, I swear to God, I don't think I'm crazy. Although I could be, I could be very crazy. So this morning I made the, uh, I, I, I sort of really pulled the, I, I, uh, I broke the glass on this in case of emergency. And I pulled the lever that is email David Sedaris directly, who I don't really know. Like I've interviewed him. We've interacted online a couple of times we both do commentaries for cbs sunday morning which i tried to leverage a little bit i said my email was like hey it's luke burbank from public radio fellow cbs sunday morning opinion haver my hope was that that would i don't know cause him to uh give me some sort of um standing in his mind and then i basically just asked like uh i you know i saw the essay about portland but i i think i'm going crazy but i feel like i heard you talk about this a couple of years ago uh i didn't ask him outright when did the dog bite happen because the other thing i'm trying to do with my email is i don't much like uh yeah i i didn't want it to seem like i was trying to be accusatory or gotcha like i'm not trying to prove that his essay is invalid because he was bitten by a dog three years ago but is only writing about it now but for my own mental well-being i need to know when the dog bite occurred and it's not in the essay it doesn't say last month while i was walking on the streets of portland he talks about the fact that he visits portland about once a year usually it's always for work you know he's doing a book reading he always stays in the same hotel right by his theater etc etc but what he doesn't clarify is which yearly trip did the dog bite occur in i feel silly even talking about this a little bit

because I haven't read the original piece, but in the sort of recap, a little bit of criticism. And by the way, I want to make something clear here. Boy, what a strong way to say something that is not strong. But generally speaking, I think this is one of those things where it doesn't have to be all or nothing. I don't think you have to be angry at Davidson Ferris for being out of touch, but you can just disagree. I'm so glad to hear you say this. And I haven't read his piece. Maybe if I read it, I'd be all triggered and going after him. But it just sort of seems like one of those things where and also Willamette, we can can write a piece saying, hey, this doesn't represent our city and we love our city. And also you got some facts wrong about the drug laws here. Like, that's fine, too. You know what I mean? And again, I haven't read his piece, but it just sort of seems like one of those things where you can sort of disagree. And also the piece I read, and I think this was smart, having, again, not read the original. The writer that I was reading even said, it's hard to say if this was kind of on the level or if he's doing that thing where he's exaggerating his complaints as a reflection of who he is. That's my memory of him, too. Are we taking him more literally now if we want to be offended by something as opposed to in the back in the day, the joke was always on the narrator who was basically a version of Sedaris, right? It was somebody freaking out about something. But his freakouts were over the top, almost in a Seinfeldian way. I mean, it's a classic thing. And I liked the fact that this writer was writing from that position, too. It's like, it's unclear how much he's exaggerating for humor or whatever. So all of that is to say, in this piece that I read, it did mention that he was leaving a live event. And I thought for a moment you were going to say you thought this happened after he was a guest on Livewire or something like that, which would have been really amazing.

Would that we could get Sedaris on Livewire.

Oh, he's never been on? I'm actually surprised by that.

I thought for sure. No, he's been on TBTL. Well, that, yeah, way back in the day, right? Yeah, that's the only time I've ever interviewed him. Oh, OK. I thought for some reason I thought maybe for one of those book festivals or something like that. But that would be a pretty that'd be a pretty big, pretty big get for us. But you got to be. But I'm with you that you don't and he doesn't. You have to be very careful because if he is receiving some slings and arrows or criticism for this one, you don't want to seem like you're saying, wait a second, buddy. I thought blah, blah, blah. Here's what

i wrote subject line very quick question about dog bite timeline hi david luke burbank here public radio person and fellow cbs sunday morning opinion haver i was hoping you could clarify something that's driving me crazy obviously your dog bite essay was just published but i have this weird memory of hearing you discuss it a while ago somewhere did this bite just happen or was it a few years back again this couldn't be less important other than i feel like i'm losing my mind and would like to hang on to it for at least a few more years appreciatively luke i think that's Does that convey that this is a good faith question? This is not an attempt to undermine the veracity?

So long as he gets through that subject line. If he's getting a bunch of subject lines that are kind of like, the word timeline seems a little officious. So that's the one thing. Maybe my subject line would have been like, quick, unimportant question about your latest essay or something like that.

I should have put unimportant in the, yeah. I was going to say hi from Luke Burbank but then I was like he doesn't know what a Luke Burbank is and it might just go into his spam or he might just be like I was trying to and you're right I should have put dog bite timeline does sound like I'm trying to get to the bottom of something I'm trying to like fact check something more like just which I'm not I'm just personally curious about it so I don't know we shall see but if anybody out there in the hive mind can help me solve this I'm by the way I would put it at less than 30% that David Sedaris emails me back about this But if somebody out there who's hearing this if anyone has any intel if anyone can Confirm what I'm talking about or has a memory of what I'm having a vague memory of I would appreciate it because it's also possible That I invented this like it's pot I heard maybe I heard someone else talking about getting bitten by a dog or what I don't I don't know I just Feel I mean I could also if I wanted to take it to another level I'm actually more friendly with Amy Sedaris than I am with David Sedaris. I could also ask Amy Sedaris, when was your brother bitten by a dog?

You can write to her a very serious question about your brother's attack on Portland. Life or death question related to the future of my fine city. Marked urgent. Can you still do that to emails me? I want to say, though, it also would not. I'm actually thinking there's a good chance that you're right about this. Like I could see like the New Yorker in him, you know, because he writes somewhat used to be more frequent. Right. I don't really follow him. I don't think we get the New Yorker anymore. So I don't know to what frequency he writes essays for them. But I could see him just being like, oh, yeah, like we should do another essay and kind of going through his notes. I kind of scratch. You know, he famously carries a notepad around all the time. I could sort of see this being like something that he was writing, you know, or had written a while back, but it wasn't complete. and saying, oh, I'll dust this thing off and put it in there because it's not, like, you know, no longer relevant. My question is, is there anything in the article that, like, says, I was walking through Portland late last night when suddenly I saw. I was walking through Portland late last night. No, you don't have to be honest.

He got a bit.

I got a doggy bit.

It felt like shit.

It was a doggy bit. But, you know, in other words, like, does he timestamp it at all in the recent piece?

Not that I was able to—that was my first thing, was I went to read the essay to see if he time-stamped it, and he did not.

Yeah, see, I mean, that's totally reasonable, right? Like a little essay that's quasi-evergreen, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm glad to hear you say, Andrew, exactly what I've been thinking, not just about this essay, but about a lot of stuff. and i don't want to turn this into i don't know a larger discussion about about i don't know culture and how we respond to things but i feel like the older i'm getting the more i'm going in the direction of what you described which was like okay i listen i am such a fan of the writing of david sedaris is it's produced much joy for me over my lifetime i also don't think that he 100 nailed it in this essay with everything but it also doesn't mean that i'm uh in my own mind canceling david sedaris for me like i will no longer read his stuff it's just like there's a couple things in there i was like i don't know if that's the most generous interpretation of this but whatever that's how he feels and then also the willamette week can write up their thing and say what they don't agree with in the essay and like we can all kind of move forward with our lives

you said the same thing about cosby i mean you've been very consistent on this you said the same

thing about Bill Cosby. Exactly, even when that was an unpopular opinion i said that now that it's now that it's cycled back into being the uh i'm trying to read

you see i'm showing you i'm getting an in i'm getting a call coming in on my phone right now you probably can't read it it's sweet water they're sending you more candy sound yes these are the people that i got my microphone arm from and now they're calling me remember they put uh they put some candy i think i was telling you this off air i bet you it is calling you to ask

you how you like your microphone

stand experience. I'll betcha. How about that?

Although that's a little aggressive. I don't like a phone

call for that. Really? I feel seen. I feel like, I mean, because I really like my new microphone arm, and you know, it wasn't... How about an email though? I mean, yeah. Do you feel like a call?

I've said this a lot. I feel like a phone call is aggressive.

They said, the question about your microphone arm timeline. And I was like, ooh, I don't know.

You said, extremely important question about your microphone arm. I watched When Harry Met Sally last night, Andrew, because I'm on a mission to literally watch every Rob Reiner film ever made. Oh, right. And it was good. So now I've watched Princess Bride, Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, and When Harry Met Sally.

You skipped his second one, which is one you've never seen before. We got a note from a listener who says it's pretty good. Do you remember what his second movie is? I'm looking up Rob Reiner filmography for the third time in three days.

His second movie, was that the sure thing with John Cusack?

Yes, yes. Now, you've never seen that, right?

I haven't seen that one. So, I mean, I guess I could at some point. I feel like there are enough Rob Reiner movies that I want to indulge in that I do know that it'll take me a while to get to that one. But because probably Misery should be on the list, too. But although I have to say the scene, the famous scene with the sledgehammer is so upsetting and misery that it's just like, like it almost was a disincentive to use one of our favorite words. It's almost a disincentive for me to tune into that movie.

do you know that it happens differently in another very grotesque way but that actually doesn't happen in the book yeah they do something she does something else to hobble him in the book and it is um i don't know if it's worse necessarily but it's graphic and i i guess i won't tell you what it is here but it's really really graphic and the details of it are so specific and so And I was such a messed up kid that in some high school class, I think like a public speaking class, we had to choose a piece of like literature or a famous speech or something and read that. And I read that scene. That is a really weird thing for me to do. You read it in front of the class. I read it in front of the class. And again, it's not the thing where she doesn't break his legs. The priest was okay with that? I don't think it was. I think it was a layperson teacher. But like, yeah, I'm trying to think if they screened it at the time. So all your teachers were not, like, Jesuit brothers or whatever? No, no, some were. I had a couple of priests. I had Brother Giao, who's now—Father Giao, who's now the president of the school, actually. But he was, like, kind of fresh out of—I don't know if it was seminary or what at the time. So we had a mix, but I think way more teachers were laypeople than men of the cloth.

Well, I did not read the book, but I did see the movie, and I found the movie totally entertaining. there is one incredibly gruesome scene and it's almost like like i'm it makes me not want to put the movie on because i don't want to have to see the gruesome scene i could just close my eyes and and you know whatever i'll still hear james con's uh discomfort let's just call it but anyway all that is to say i watched when harry met sally last night i would say of the movies that i've watched a princess bride is still top it's like top shelf top elite level of holding up and maybe that's because it's kind of a historic in a way you know what i mean it's the thing about when harry met sally is that it's it is set very much in like early 1990s new york and like even though it is really good and i really really loved it and i did cry at the end a little bit and that's okay i can admit to that um it has a few more little i wouldn't even call there's nothing in there that is odd like from a kind of like homophobic or like kind of racist standpoint or the kind of thing that just was casually in so many movies that we would have watched from that era that I wasn't even clocking at the time. It doesn't have any of that stuff, to its credit, that I noticed. It's just, there's a couple of little moments here or there that I was like, oh, that feels of a time or something. But overall, still really, really holds up and just renewed my crush on Meg Ryan. What I realized was that era, so that would have been, I think that movie came out in 92, so I would have been like a sophomore in high school. I don't know if I watched it when it came out, but I know that when I had my first really serious girlfriend, like my first like falling very hard in love, Jeanette, we watched When Harry Met Sally, and I somehow felt like it was the story of our life, even though it's the story of two people in New York City who are much older than us and have careers. And somehow it...

felt representative of us and somehow also like i loved her i loved meg ryan i thought that meg ryan just was the most adorable thing that's that had ever existed and i went back to thinking that

watching it last night just a absolutely adorable person i i also caught a crush watching a movie last night i felt and i'm sure like everybody of my generation uh fell for myrna lloy who played Oh, Myrna Loy. Myrna Loy. Do you know Myrna Loy?

I know the name. I think she's like in black and white films, right?

That's funny. I thought you were just joking because I'd never heard that name before. Oh, yeah.

Wasn't she in The Thin Man?

That's exactly what I watched last night. Have you seen The Thin Man? Yeah, dude. I can't believe how good that movie was. I was flipping and I've been watching some older movies. And that's a Dashiell Hammett movie. The film is not really film noir. It's more of a romp. And I kind of didn't realize that because I knew that the book was like a noir-y kind of private eye thing. because it was Dashiell Hammett.

He's got the little Jack Russell Terrier, right?

Yeah, yeah. And so I thought I was going to be watching something that was a little bit more hard-boiled, and Veeves was watching it with me. It's not hard-boiled, but I guess it's a Nick and Nora story, and I didn't realize that these were Hammett kind of regulars. And so instead of being the private eye who's alone and hard-boiled and somebody comes in on their getaway sticks, it's more about this married couple who are drunk all the time and so in love with each other and always teasing each other. in the most loving way, and I fell in love with her. I fell in love with them. Their chemistry is so good as William Powell and Myrna Loy playing them, and it's so great. And at one point, he's leaving on a dangerous, kind of near the end of the movie, he's leaving on some sort of a dangerous, let's say, mission or something. And they still can't, their love is kind of always a ball-breaking kind of love, and she says, I don't love you, I've just gotten used to you, and she doesn't want him to go on this. It's such a good movie. I was really I was really surprised then the end is more like a kind of closed door mystery kind of big reveal he gathers all the suspects around a table and and does that almost like knives out kind of thing which is funny because I tried to watch the latest knives out the night before and I watched two hours of it and there was like I gave up on it I found it a little bit obnoxious by the end but to go to watch two hours of a mystery movie and then give up right at the big reveal I was like Like, maybe it speaks to me, but I also sort of spoke to Knives Out, generally speaking. But I kept watching this, which was like a tight 90 minutes and such a great story and so much good chemistry between the characters. And it's almost 100 years old. Incredible. I was blown away at how good it was.

yeah some of those movies those like you know sort of 1930s and i guess 40s era black and white movies the writing is so sharp like for particularly those those kinds of movies like there's some great like um you know uh spencer tracy catherine hepburn versions adam's rib and things like that where it's just like the it's almost like 30 rock it's like the jokes per minute and the just just the just the droll little one-liners and asides and things it's just like it's endlessly uh charming to me i love it they're so much better than a lot of the stuff they make today but um but yeah that makes me want to go back and uh and revisit some of those i'm looking up a list now from cinema blend of what is described as some of the um the the best Although now this is Turns out cinemablend.com Andrew is an extremely Kludgy website I just had this list and now it just went away Great black and white comedies It was of course One of their first ones they list is Clerks Because it was shot in black and white I'm like get the memo

While you do that let's do something else here Do you want to listen to the Sweetwater voicemail I think we know what it is but should we just play it up Yeah why not I'm kind of curious I know you are. You can't do the show without hearing it.

I'm giving you a call.

I am calling today to follow up with you here.

We received a new order from you. It looks like a few weeks ago for a K&M desktop or a desk arm. So we wanted to just follow up to say thank you for the order and to make sure that that has been delivered for you. And hopefully there's no issues there. If you do have any issues or questions, we do cover that under a free two-year warranty. and then you also get unlimited product and tech support.

If you need to utilize any of that, do give me a call.

I'm your point of view. Oh, I see.

So it's a little bit of an upsell.

Right. Okay.

That's interesting, though, because, yeah, I was like, man, this is a high touch. This is some white glove service just over a mic arm. Yeah. But then there's the, we'd love to tell you more about. Sure. I'm still surprised that that, I don't know how much your mic arm was, I guess I could check the TVTB account, but like, I'm surprised that they don't internally have a, like a floor for what generates the call out, as far as, you know, like, in other words, if they sold me.

It wasn't a piece of electronics, right? It wasn't a microphone, it wasn't an audio board, it was an arm.

Yeah, and it wasn't also, I assume it wasn't $500. No. I just wonder, what's the minimum thing I could buy where I would get that call? What if I bought a bunch of guitar picks? Would I get a call? It seems like that's taking some time out of that person's day to call about a relatively inexpensive item to see if they can upsell you to the warranty on it. It's kind of interesting.

Yeah. I mean, people could look it up. You just heard what the mic arm was. It was a couple hundred bucks, I'll be honest with you. So, you know, it wasn't cheap. It's a professional-grade piece of equipment. um and so uh you know i understand like yeah maybe it would be i don't know a hundred dollars what if you bought a what if you bought two hundred dollars worth of guitar picks

then can you buy a i wonder if that's in its own category because there's literally just a piece of plastic so they would know that there's no chance of selling me on the uh warranty but i wonder also if we're going to see more of that i told you that the heating company the boulder company had called me because i had complained to them i wonder if some of these companies are also now to try to break through all the noise in our inbox of of email reach out and text reach out i wonder if now there's a certain move towards trying to have a human call you because that's

something you're more likely to respond to it's almost like when your sports team scores way too many runs or points in one game and you're like save it let's spread it out a little bit it's like How about instead of having a human call me from Sweetwater on something I don't need a reply on because it's a pretty standard piece of equipment, how about we send some of these call center operators over to Verizon or Xfinity or some of the more frustrating companies where you literally – or the bank that put me on hold for $45. I was so frustrated I'll tell this very quickly but there was just like on one of my several Bank of America accounts I noticed they were doing this thing where they round up every one of my payments made with my debit card they kind of round the change up and then they take that money let's say it's like between 90 and 50 cents each purchase they take that money and they automatically move it over to a savings account for me and they're like this is a good way to get you to save basically with just like pennies on the dollar and that's fine they're not taking my money but i didn't ask them to do that and i have my own system for keeping track of things i have my own system for saving and i know that i didn't opt into that and so i'm on their website and i go to opt out like they want you to do everything online but there must be some advantage for the banks to automatically opt you into this and make it incredibly difficult to opt out because every I had to click on three different links that said how to opt out of this, how to opt out. And eventually the last one just said, you must call our customer service center in order to opt out of this. I'm like, why would you? And then I was on hold, and I have the record on my phone here, I think 40 minutes. I think I was on hold for 40 minutes before I could reach an operator who then just said, okay, yeah, I'll take care of that for you. And, you know, she was helpful, and I was off the phone with her in probably about five or ten minutes or less. But I just, like, there's something. And now I've got conspiracy theories going on about this. Why would the bank that doesn't want me to call them for shit, you know what I mean? Yeah. There could be like a masked burglar in here holding two bags with dollar signs on them and saying, I just took this out of your BOA account. And there's no number for me to call. The bank would just say, well, why don't you just go online and hit stop payment on those two bags of money or something? why is the bank so insistent upon not making it possible for me to opt out of a very simple plan that just moves my money around a little bit and there's something there's some advantage for the bank for us to all be automatically enrolled in this yeah that's i'm trying to think i wonder what

their angle is on that because it doesn't my first thought is always well if that allows them somehow more liquidity with your money in terms of the ways that they are like basically like loaning your money out to other people i wonder if that category is different somehow if there's some sort of a fdic rule like yeah why are they why is that an opt-out thing why do they care if it's rounding up for you there has to be an advantage for them and i don't know what it is but i know it's an

advantage for them yeah because just to be clear it's not their money and i'm not handing over my money to them. It's just them taking a little extra.

of my money and moving it over from a checking over to a savings each time. And Genevieve's theory was along the lines of yours, which is, well, once it's in a savings account, then they can kind of, you know, that's what they do. She even quoted your favorite quote from It's a Wonderful Life. You should have heard her Jimmy Stewart impression. Oh, I thought it was wonderful. It lasted about a half a second before it all fell apart. It was so great. Can't you see?

Your money's not here. It's

in joe's house literally yeah mine went three seconds but yeah so she's like maybe that's it like it's just like when you just take all those pennies all those pennies across every single account that bank of america has then they're moving that over to savings and then they can

invest that you know right like they maybe can't do that with your checking because because you're checking you might need it more quickly but there's again there's probably some federal rule at least for now about about what they can do with what pot of your money and somehow it's

better if it's in that pot for them but it's real galling that there's yeah you did not sign up for this but the only way to sign out is by calling us and we're not even gonna get you to a live human being for 40 minutes like oh that's kind of bullshit and oftentimes if you go into the bank

and you're asking about something like that, they have to, at the bank, call the number. Yes. I've had that experience before. I've been sitting with a personal banker. Yep. And the way that the personal banker can fix my issue is by calling the same number I was just on hold with for a day and a half.

Oh, I had a slightly separate, very similar, but I had to go into the bank to fix something. God knows what it was. And I think I told you about this. And he had a special number. But basically, like he had a number that wasn't on the website, but basically he just pushed his phone across the desk and laughed about it with me, too. He's like, I know it's crazy. You got to come in here and we just got to call the bank. But we have a number that kind of gets through some of the phone tree stuff. And he just sat there and looked at me while I was talking to his colleague in another city somewhere.

Speaking of high finance, right now it's time to thank some of our donors. These folks are donating to TVTL, and it's how this show can exist. 100% listener-supported podcast, right here, right now, supported by folks like Colin Richard, who's in University City, Missouri. Thank you, Colin. I wonder what university is in University City, Missouri.

Have we done this before? I feel like maybe we did that for another area, university.

Well, yeah, we were talking about University Place, which is down near Tacoma. Oh, maybe that's what I'm thinking of. Yeah, yeah. But I was just wondering, because if you name your city University City, oh, my God. They do have a city. Wait, City of University City.

City of University City, Missouri.

That's the logo for University City, Missouri, the city of University City. Let's see. I'm trying to find out. Is this where Tekka is based? I'm not sure.

I didn't know what you were talking about for a second here. Let's see here. We'll never know.

But what we know about University City, Missouri is Colin is there, and we appreciate Colin. Thank you so much. Thanks also to Tricia Shearer of Bellingham, Washington, the Bay City, the city of subdued, I always get this wrong, subdued expectations. No, not subdued expectations. Subdued excitement?

I think so. And also home to Western.

Yes, Western Washington. It used to be known as University City, Washington. That's right. And then they went with Bellingham. Thanks to Nicole Hampton, who's in Portland, Oregon. Thank you, Nicole. Don't believe what David Sedaris says about your town, Nicole. Yeah, that scab. That, oh my God, is so canceled with me. Thanks, Nicole. Thanks, Rick Manson of Seattle, Washington. Hey, hey. Our dogs don't bite. Seattle, our dogs don't bite. That's right. Seattle, no dog bites since, it's been 12 days since a dog has bitten a noted essayist here in Seattle.

I don't think I ever talked about this on the show, but I did this, I set something up just to make you and Genevieve laugh independently. It was so good, dude. When I had that scare when Bingo accidentally dipped his tail into a candle on the show, and I freaked out because he singed the hair on his tail, I took a piece of paper and I wrote, it's been blank days since we've set a cat on fire. And then I put a sticky note with one on it and hung it up and took a photo with Bingo next to it. I sent it to you and Veeves. That was an exclusive. That was exclusive just for you. Love it. Now we're using it on the show, but it's nice we have some special content that doesn't have to be monetized. Although now it's been in a roundabout way, I guess you could say monetized. Monetized for Christina Strand, who's in Everett, Washington. Thank you, Christina. Your donations

went towards that muddled story I just told. Yep.

And then Elaine Olson is in Buckley, Washington. I think about Trisha and Rick and Christina and Elaine all in the state of Washington, Andrew, And I wonder, maybe all as worried as I am about this Seahawks tonight, worried is the wrong term for it. I guess you could say anxious, like it's not even that it's not even that I necessarily think it's going to go terribly. You know me, I'm sort of a kind of an eternal optimist with these things. It's more that I am just like, I know that I'm going to have a really strong emotional reaction one way or the other. I'm either going to feel real good by about 8.30 p.m. or real bad. And there's something about just going into that scenario, just knowing I'm either going to be on cloud nine or I'm going to be a little bummed.

I don't think this is necessary, but we had a very rare, weird internet hiccup right when you said Seahawks game. So some listeners might not know that you're talking about the Seahawks game. I think from context, and if you listen to the show at all, most people would know that that's what you said, but I wanted to clarify because we lost you for literally that, like, half second. But, yeah, I was thinking about the game. First of all, I'm excited because I don't get to watch a lot of these games if they happen on Sundays. Yeah, I'm excited for you. So I get to watch the game, and I'm with you. Like, I saw that some people were talking about maybe gathering. Sometimes I change my mind about this stuff when it gets closer to game time. But, like, I'm thinking I don't want to gather for this one. This one feels like, hey, if I only get to watch a couple of games a season, and this one is huge for us. It's a very, very important game. We don't have to get into why for people who don't know. But it's just a big, important, near-the-end-of-the-season game for us. And it's on Thursday. And Genevieve got us that antenna, so I should be able to watch it. Now, it's interesting because Thursday Night Football has been taken over by Amazon Prime, but I'm pretty sure the local games are still broadcast over the air.

Oh, interesting. I hadn't thought about that in you as a prime conscientious objector.

Yeah, we ditched our prime. And ironically, this time last year, it was Thursday Night Football, were the only games we had easy access to, but we ditched Prime.

Now, would that mean, can I ask quickly, because I know that you know how to get the football games through extra legal means, but those are games that at some level are being broadcast over the air to some degree. How does that affect something that's only digital like Amazon Prime? Is that easier or harder to harvest through the dark web?

I don't think any difference, to be honest with you. I don't know, because I had Amazon Prime for so long, and it's been a while since I cared to look up a Thursday night game. I don't know, but it shouldn't make a difference. You just go to this site, and it's kind of like, here's a bunch of mirrors, which is basically the same site, repeated in different places. So anyway, I don't know, but I think for this one, I'll probably, as long as that antenna works, it is funny. it's charming to be somewhat at the um mercy of the atmosphere like literally the atmospheric conditions to know how well you're going to be able to watch this game you know like right

antenna like i did have an old cabin in new hampshire you've got just hoping the wind doesn't

blow too hard and move your antenna around the difference is it is a digital antenna so it's not And, you know, everything is broadcast digitally now, even over the air. So you're not going to get like fuzzy white snow that you and I grew up with on the TV set. And you adjust it a little bit and it gets a little bit more clear. It really is a little bit all or nothing. It'll like glitch out, you know, just digital glitches. It'll freeze or whatever. But then you can adjust the antenna and then it'll come in better. But it really does depend on like, well, what's the weather doing? How's my knee feel? so anyway but i am i am back back to what i was blabbing about before i i do think this is one where as of right now i think i want to be like kind of here at home locked in probably by myself i think genevieve has a something that she has to do for work or something around that time and so i could see myself sort of just like pacing in front of the tv and actually getting to listen to the commentators and everything which is you don't get to do if you're like at the eagles or

something yeah i think that's what i've landed on too is i'm just gonna watch up here and do my pacing and have the thing on full volume and just kind of you know yeah experience it solo which is a little bit unfun but it's like the thing is i don't have a crew in portland who you know becca doesn't didn't grow up with the seahawks her brothers and family don't really care that much like i mean you know what i mean it's like i don't it's not if i was in seattle and it was happening at the Eagles. I might.

be a little more tempted to be around people but I think you know and also the game could go sideways yeah and so I think I'd rather not make a long voyage somewhere and kind of change the whole trajectory of my night for a game that might leave me feeling a little bummed anyway I'd like to do my normal Thursday night thing and hope that it's just buoyed by good Seahawkness but if not I'm not like oh now I get to drive 45 minutes home yeah right

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I could definitely see that. And also like having to like kind of moderate your mood. I do think that I'm a little bit it's you know, it's not like the baseball playoffs. I don't think I'm going to be as emotionally wrapped up in this because of my personal relationship with football these days. Not that I'm not rooting for them, but even a loss here won't feel as probably like as much of a deep cut to me as it would for you.

I've been hanging on every play. And the thing is not to get to like football with it. But the thing is, the Seahawks are going to be going to the playoffs, presumably one way or the other. It would be like this is almost really purely an ego thing for me, which is I would like for all of the announcer people to have to say that the Seahawks are the best team in football, which if they beat the Rams, particularly if they beat them handily, that would start to become the conversation or they'd start to be seen as like in the top two of teams. and i just like that for some reason like but if they don't win they'll still get into the playoffs they'll have to go play on the road who knows i don't i don't think that they are going to win the super bowl this year but so in other words if they go two rounds or they go one round or whatever it's it's it's all kind of mixed up into the same thing for me but there is something yeah tonight it would be fun if they won because then you get to just kind of like enjoy a lot because they're not playing this weekend so you get to enjoy a whole weekend of all of the punditry around like well you've got to take the seahawks seriously now yeah right sam darnold has for those who don't know the seahawks have this guy named sam darnold is their quarterback and the thing on him is he was kind of considered to be a bust of a quarterback when he came out of usc but then he played real well last year for the minnesota vikings and then at the very end of the season in the playoffs the highly touted minnesota vikings played the at the time very lowly Los Angeles Rams they were not thought to be a good team and the Rams just shut him down and then in the first game of this season when we played the Rams again they shut this guy Sam Darnold down so there's this kind of almost like cinematic kind of thing which is like is there a particular coach or team that just owns our guy even though he's putting up all these amazing statistics against everybody else in the league is it possible that you can just have one sort of bet noir just one like nemesis who has your number and that's sort of the narrative right now and so it's like if he plays bad tonight that confirms the idea that one coach has him figured out but if he does well tonight it means that narrative is out the window i don't i'm not

in the prediction business as you know um especially on this topic that i'm not super well read up on but i do think i mean if we're just talking about this now and why the hell not yeah um a lot of people are concerned about approaching the Badlands the Seahawks performance last week they did win but did they win without any touchdowns I know they got six they got six field goals and ended up winning at the very last minute with a long field goal and so people are like man they were playing a 44 year old quarterback who just came off the couch like if that's how they play this team then they're going to be just lambs before the slaughter in front of the rams but I don't see it ironically aren't rams kind of a or is a ram like a u yeah a ram could be brought to the so that's interesting but anyway so lambs before the lambs the tougher lambs but anyway i just don't see it that way and i think you would agree with me i just think that we're not going to see the same kind of play from the seahawks i'm you know predicting another you know probably tough first half they have been slow to sort of wake up but i don't think that last week's game i don't i just don't think there's a lot of takeaways from last week's game that you can apply to this week's game

as far as like the the soft offense i if i'm taking the absolutely most generous interpretation of the seahawks game against the colts it's that the seahawks did not want to reveal any of their plays if possible to the rams they didn't want to give the rams any really particularly usable footage from sunday interesting they knew that the only way they were going to lose is if they turned the ball over and so they were like we don't care if this is an ugly game where we just grind it out we just do just enough to win the game we're we're going to make philip rivers beat us by having a phenomenal game we're going to let him have little short throws we're not going to let him chuck one down the field and we're not going to try anything particularly challenging for our team that would either risk injury or give the rams some intel on us we're just gonna we're basically it

to do what we need to do to win this game and it and it ended up being a little closer than any of us wanted it should not have come down to a final field goal but the generous interpretation was that the seahawks did not give anything away and they didn't get anyone hurt and they got a w and that's all you really want from a game like that and now they're gonna like just absolutely i don't know they're gonna open up their bag of tricks against the rams that's what i'm hoping is what happened there's also the other narrative which is the seahawks offense is really stalling out of late and that's not a good thing going up against the most explosive offense in the football yeah

we'll see i am looking forward to it though yeah so um yeah there probably won't be a newsletter this week is basically fair that's that's what it comes honestly though actually let's sort of talk about that because also tomorrow is friday which is our tbtl holiday party in the evening So I was already sort of thinking that, like, I probably won't be able to do all the regular weekly email production this week. But I am looking forward to the TBTL holiday party, and it's not too late to join. So if you haven't caught wind of this, it's a Zoom party that we do. We didn't do it the last couple of holidays, but I think we did it maybe a couple of years ago or a few years ago. It's over Zoom, and if you go to tbtl.net right now, you'll see a button at the top of the page. You can sign up, and we'll send you a Zoom link. I think we got like 200 people who are planning on attending so far if everybody shows up. And you have to show up or we keep your money. No, obviously it's free. And we're just going to be gathering. Luke and I will be sipping some eggnog in our respective studios and chatting with you guys. John will be there. John is going to be there. John's kind of running the show, honestly, from a technical standpoint, which we appreciate. And it's just a good time. We'll be chatting it up. And then as a sort of a focus, we're asking people to come if you want to chat about your favorite holiday traditions, whether it's a tradition that you take part in now or a tradition that you remember from your childhood. That'll be sort of the question du jour. But also, if you don't feel like talking into the Zoom to 200 of your closest friends, you can also just sort of join and watch along with us. So that's what's going on tomorrow night.

A lot of folks really like what they love about these Zoom meetups is just getting to kind of talk to each other in the like not really so much the waiting room but just kind of the hangout area like it's really fun to get to see everybody on camera and get to you know kind of just catch up and like so it's just a it's a fun as far you know during the pandemic obviously like we all got sold this bill of goods that like oh the virtual is as good as real life and i think a lot of that it it's not great or it's certainly not like doesn't do the same thing as getting together with people but these things are really fun actually and i know people really have a good time and people do really feel kind of emotionally and socially kind of fed by them and like you keep saying andrew because i know we've got listeners that have all different levels of comfort around how kind of uh you know what their social battery is and things like that and what's really fun about this is like wherever you are in terms of like how much you like to have people paying attention to you or not there's a there's a spot for everyone you can kind of hang back and just enjoy the whole thing you can jump on and tell us your holiday tradition so it's uh everybody is invited and it should be fun for everyone so that's uh i plan on not opening my mic i plan on just sitting back and well i have someone who will fill in for you i believe my mother

will be zooming oh gosh i really don't need to turn on my mic good good i have a feeling

it's going to be you and me and john and two people and then there's going to be a hundred and ninety-three people in a in a breakout room sitting around my mom just in a circle yeah asking my mom questions about growing up in philadelphia yes i love it

There's a right way to rock And a wrong way to roll You can just listen to your soul 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 right, Luke, are you ready to do some Blur's Days here? I am so ready, man. Do you know how people can get me a Blur's Day if they want it right on the show? Stand outside their home and yell into the wind. That's right. You go outside your home, not my home, but you face in the direction of Seattle.

That's it. So you've got to figure out what direction is Seattle, particularly I'd say sort of north, not all the way north of Seattle, but the northern part of Seattle. That's where you're aiming for.

Yeah, if you're in Seattle, aim north. If you're in Shoreline, aim south. So that's basically the line there. Problem solved. The demarcation. And you yell, Andrew, I have a Blur's Day. And then you yell the whole Blur's Day out. And keep them short. I'm worried about your voice. Actually, you know what? I think there's a better way. Would it be to email you? We could try that. We could try that. Yeah, actually, that would be easy.

year for everybody probably if you just email me andrew at tbtl.net and maybe put blursday in the subject line. That's actually a good idea Luke. We should have been doing that all along. Nathan yelled this from outside his house in Salt Lake City. So it was facing was facing what? Northwest. Yeah. And he yelled at me. Let's see here. Nathan in Salt Lake City would like to return the favor and wish Jesse or Jessup in Albuquerque a very happy blursday. You're still the funniest person I know And I can't believe how lucky I am To have you as a best friend Most importantly When was the last time you shared, Jesse? I really think you should share Hmm I wonder what that is a reference to I don't know I love little inside jokes that I don't get Between these folks, though Use us as your communication line It doesn't matter if we get it We're not supposed to be listening in anyway We're like the operators of the old timey days Ringy dingy Interesting, right Oh, and look at this. Oh, my goodness. Look at this. Look at this. Somebody who goes by the name Phyllis P. Fletcher, who I believe is on KOW Fundraising as we speak, or was as of 20 minutes ago, says, Gus. Now, Gus, of course, is Phyllis' son and our dear friend, Gus. Phyllis says, Gus, I'm excited you got glasses this year. Now you look just a little bit more like mom. I've had the day you turned 16 marked on my calendar since you were a baby. I knew you'd get your driver's license and maybe even a job. And sure enough, you've passed your driving test and you're a certified lifeguard. I think those are two different ideas, by the way. It would be amazing if you passed your driving test and became a certified lifeguard. That would be pretty cool. But I think there may be separate tests. I don't know. I haven't been 16 in a while. But Phyllis says, I'm excited for everything coming your way. Happy Blur's Day. That's amazing, Luke. Gus is 16 years old. He's out there saving lives and driving a car.

And both pumping me up and I would say slightly negging me. Did I tell you about he DM'd me a photograph the other day from class?

Yeah.

He was in some kind of a class I talk about on the show. And it was like, I guess I forget what was. Somehow the teacher in the class was presenting something I had done. It was like a TV story I had done or something, I think it was. And he said, hey, they're showing this video of you in my class right now. And I was like, oh, cool. Did you tell him, did you tell the teacher that you know that person and that you've been on that person's show? He goes, I don't know. I might do it tomorrow.

Oh, wow. No follow-up on that either. No follow-up on that. Happy Blur's Day, Gus. All right. We got this note from Christine that says, I would like to wish my five, Grace, a happy 17th birthday on her actual birthday. You know what that means, Luke. That's a golden blurs right there. I love that little trillo in there. It's been a busy year for her navigating the challenging junior year, advanced math, SAT prep, and college choices. She handles it all with grace. That's not a pun. And no one could wish for a more kind, smart, and funny daughter. Happy Blur's Day, Grayson. Good luck with all of that. You'll get through it. Yeah. You'll do well. Solid name. So glad I don't have to deal with that stuff anymore. That's a tough, you know, you get through it, and it's good. You go through that school-related stuff and all the prep for college, and you're going to be glad you did it, but also you're going to be glad when you don't have to deal with it anymore. Rachel in Maine says, Happy Blur's Day to my awesome five, Henry Leaf, who turns nine on Monday. He's a smart and quirky kiddo who is great at drawing comics. Oh, I'm jealous. Making inventions. Oh, I'm even more jealous. And making his sister and I laugh. I'm super jealous. We love you, Henry. Love, Mama, and Louise. Aw, happy blurs, Henry. Indeed. I love the name Henry, by the way. Stephanie in New York City says, Happy Golden Blurs Day to Peter, who's turning 50. Peter, you love me so much that you leave the light off when I'm still asleep. And even though you accidentally grabbed that stupid I heart NY t-shirt, you still wore it out that day rather than come back in the room and wake me up. I am the luckiest. That's my wife. Wish you the very happiest 50th birthday. Happy Thursday to Peter. yeah i was telling you the other day i was feeling self-conscious even though i had my headphones on i was listening to nirvana on the bus in seattle and i thought oh this is embarrassing i'm a stereotype i guess if you're if you're a new yorker if you're a brooklynite and you're walking around wearing an i heart new york i'm surprised

I'm surprised that he even has it, that Peter has that shirt.

Exactly. Those shirts have been replaced in all the tourist shops, but just full on the F word. Like, F you, F, do I F and look like I F and care about your F and problems? Right. Like, it's so, it's the discourse has gotten so bad in all those like Times Square's T-shirt shops.

I'm trying to think what was it. I Heart Let's Go Brandon was probably a big one.

There is also that, too, which is like, actually, just when I was in Miami, in Miami Beach, I walked by some, you know, those tourist shops. They just have a bunch of souvenirs and hats and T-shirts, and there was so much MAGA stuff in there. And again, I don't think that the guy who's working at that store or even owns it is in the slightest bit political. Doesn't care. It's purely like what product is moving and how do we make sure we have enough product for anyone's political persuasion? But it's like, oh, man, you don't know you're making the world a worse place with this.

Adam says, I feel weird doing this, but since I don't know any fellow 10s IRL, screw it. Happy Blurzay to me. 45 was a blah year, but damn it, I'm going to do my best to make 46 rock. Heck yeah. Yeah, heck yeah. Happy Blurzay, Adam. Hope you have a good one. kj says this week i will mark a very special milestone blursday my full retirement age as blursdays go and i think kj is writing from overseas although i don't have the details in front of me here but kj says as blursdays go surely this ranks up there with turning 18 21 or 50 years old 66 years and 10 months is officially full retirement age for those of born in 1959. So this is a weird sort of off year Blur's Day. 66 years and 10 months. And since KJ, you know, I got to hold the line, Luke. I can't let everybody wish a happy Blur's Day for every month, but this is a special occasion. Hold the line. Love it and always on time. That's right. Happy Blur's Day, KJ. Enjoy that retirement. Absolutely. Congratulations. If you're retiring. I don't know if KJ is retiring. You have the option. Jeff says, I have the pleasure of wishing a happy Blur's Day to my wonderful wife jenna that's my wife who is basking in that magical moment in time closer to 40 than her mid 30s you're aging like a fine chateau san michelle my dear i couldn't find a better travel companion

through this life than you i love you more there's a great scene in when harry met sally where he goes over she's she's having sort of a crisis because the person that she was living with and then they broke up because they didn't he didn't want to get married he's now getting married shortly thereafter and um she's very distraught about it and she's kind of taking account of her life and she says to harry she's like and i'm gonna be 40 and he goes what she goes he goes yeah but that's in eight years and she goes yeah but it's just there hanging over me i'm not doing it justice but i remember that because you kind of don't know her age exactly as the viewer and she says it with such conviction and then you realize she's 32 32 years old i've never seen that movie but i've seen that scene yeah that's oh man it's that i honestly just for you know we talk about sometimes about the like the look of films from a certain era and how it's just comforting yeah it's like again nobody could ever live in any of the apartments that they all live in as like you know one is a writer for new york magazine i don't think we even exactly know what harry does but they all just have these like spectacular 90s era new york city apartments that, you know, everybody in the movies about New York City, the previous version of that would have been the Woody Allen films, it's like everyone's always just living in some amazing place, but they have a very normal job.

Yeah. In fact, that's another argument for me. I don't know why I haven't watched that movie. It's one of those things where it's so beloved, and I've never seen it, and it's just kind of hard for me. It's like my friend who's never seen The Big Lebowski is like, I don't know, I can't go back. I've heard so much about it and everything. Although a good argument for it is that it is from that era of New York-centric movies. And I don't really watch those anymore But I cut my teeth in them As a young man who loved Woody Allen films In college And I miss that feel And the closest thing I have to that is Moonstruck I don't know if you like the movie Moonstruck I love Moonstruck But that kind of scratches a bit of that itch for me

It's a love I mean that movie, When Harry Met Sally Is a real love letter to New York Because half of the movie is just people Walking in Central Park There's this amazing I don't want to give it away But there's a great scene They're at a Giants football game Bruno Kirby Also Bruno Kirby is just like the best Bruno Kirby and Billy Crystal And Billy Crystal is sharing his heartbreak Of his divorce he's going through And they're sitting in the stands But also the wave is going on So the entire scene is punctuated by them Also having to do the wave every 20 seconds seven seconds he's just like pouring his heart out about how his his now ex-wife was cheating on him and then as soon as he gets to any important emotional point he has to get up and do it and they go back to like the conversation this little stuff like that is like really clever

now i'm thinking about kitty dukakis for anything have i seen kitty dukakis in anything other than Moonlighting. I'm sorry, Moonstruck and also not Kitty. Olympia. Olympia. Kitty Dukakis was famous for different reasons. Dog on the car? Wait, no, no. That was RFK Jr. No, well, I'm thinking of...

Oh, you're thinking of Mitt. Mitt Romney. I think whale or bear on the car? I think whale on the car was RFK Jr. And then also bear in the park. And then Kitty Dukakis was Michael Dukakis' wife. She'd struggled with alcoholism, and I remember being a kid and seeing the cover of, like, People magazine in, like, you know, Cragen's Pharmacy, and it was some headline that was, like, Kitty Dukakis struggles with alcohol, and something about her drinking rubbing alcohol.

Oh, I think that rings a bell, yeah.

And as a kid, I didn't know what that, I didn't know the details on that, but I knew that sounded like, that wasn't great.

I'm just astounded by how many things You were saying before about The jokes per minute of a 30 Rock Or I can't remember what movie you were talking about I had so many mistakes per minute there So it went from Kitty Dukakis I meant Olympia You had the last name right Then I got them confused with Now I can't get Dukakis And the other The dog on the car Mitt Romney I got the Romneys and the Dukakases I got Olympia and Kitty Confused, and I think I threw in an RFK as well. Maybe that one was you. Anyway, that was painful for a lot of people, especially me.

By the way, Mike Dukakis, 92 years old. Still kicking, too, right?

Still kicking. Love that man. We are out of music. I refuse to restart it. I'm going to go for it. By the way, you know who his cousin is? Hmm. Olympia Dukakis. Oh, nice. So, see, you were in the neighborhood. That'd be cool. And is Olympia?

Olympia's probably not still with us, right? Olympia Dukakis has passed away. She passed away in 2021. Okay. But she had a good run. She was 89. She's great in Moonstruck.

Oh, yeah, that was another mistake, too. I also said Moonlighting. Wow, amazing.

We all, Andrew, you know what? Language is flexible. Yes, exactly.

We knew you were talking about the movie Moonlighting. I do that all the time. Moonstruck. Chris in Brooklyn says, I'd like to gift me a self-golden blurs day. Hopefully by the time you're reading this, I'm on a beach in the Florida Keys, sipping on a frozen drink, earbuds in. Thanks for the best Blurze gift of all, your pod cart and the TBTL community. That's amazing. Thank you, Chris.

Yeah, I hope you are exactly where, as you hear this, Chris, I hope you are exactly where you thought you were going to be. Because let me tell you, as you hear this, it is terrible where we are. Yes, that's right. It's lousy. They've got two heaters going here in this room, and they're not doing the job. So I hope you're on a beach somewhere soaking up the rays and enjoying yourself.

If you happen to misplace temporarily those earbuds, though, Chris, be prepared to have to show several forms of ID and have them hook up to your phone in front of a mean, mugging hotel clerk who is not going to trust you.

Good time hotel in South Beach. That's how they handle it there.

All right. Our friend Jake has two blurs to share, and this is how we'll round things out. And, of course, this is Jake in Chicago, Portland. Jake in Portland. This is Jake in Portland, husband to Stephanie and father to Augie the baby. Oh, that Jake. I'm sorry. I believe we just opened up a gift from Stephanie yesterday on the show. So Jake says, this is a Blur's Day for Stephanie for her 28th Blur's Day. Oh, wow. That's my wife. Stephanie's about to turn 40 in 12 years.

It's just out there. It's just out there.

You guys are kids. Jake says, happy Blur's Day to Stephanie in Portland. You are too cool to be forgotten, written in your book speak there. Hope your birthday is like a roll of Grove toilet paper. long and most critically not covered in jalapeno jalapeno jalapenos jk you're the best let's freaking party love you pretty lady happy blurs day to stephanie and jake also says there you go happy blurs day to my five augie actually it says august i don't know are we the

ones who call him augie or did i hope not i don't feel like that's a that's presumptuous of us yeah i don't like to do that either into uh augie territory if he's not an augie and i like the

name August, too. So if we've started doing that, I think Stephanie maybe has said Augie before. But anyway, Jake says, what's up, little honey man? You are a curious, sweet, and kind, ciggy guy, and I love you so much. Your enthusiasm for partying and enjoying life is infectious. Sorry for the belated blurs. Your mom is better at things than I am. So a lot to celebrate down there in Portland and across this great globe of ours. Happy Blurs Day, everybody.

Absolutely. Happy Blurs, folks. all right that is going to do it for today's program but we are going to be right back here tomorrow uh with some exciting medical news andrew during the show i saw a headline in the new york times that really put some wind in my sails which i'd like to talk to you about tomorrow it involves a thing that i already eat too much of that apparently is maybe good for me and my brain health um so we'll uh and i'm sure we'll have a debrief from how our football watching was and all of that so everybody please tune in for that in the meantime have a great thursday take care of yourselves go seahawks and please remember no mountain too tall and good luck to all

power out