Muse

by Gage Charles. Oh say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars were so gallantly there As the rockets were there, and the twilight's last gleaming. And the rocket's red glare, were so gallantly there. Bird stripes were all there, and the rockets were there. O say does that star-spangled banner yet glaze For the land of the free And the home of the brave T-B-T-L

guess what day it is guess what day it is it's friday friday gonna get down on friday everybody's looking forward to the weekend your favorite dish my favorite dish i like mugs because they're very comfortable in your hand and they hold the hot things that you don't have to touch. So, you know, coffee or hot tea. You look like you're suppressing laughter. Like that sound

you just made was like, I don't want to make any laugh sounds while he's telling jokes. You can

just laugh. You're the only one with the capacity for such tenacity and audacity. But more than

anything, I admire your veracity. Please clap. Well, all right. Hello. Good morning and welcome everyone to a Friday edition of TVTL, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. Be careful though it's spicy my name is luke burbank i am your host coming to you from the madrona hill studios on this friday july 3rd it's effectively for us the 4th of july it's a holiday show i'm not even supposed to be here today we are here to celebrate all things americana and boom goes the dynamite not really uh we're actually here to um talk about the tbtl i guess that's a form of Americana. That's kind of how you think of this country. We've got lots of news. We've got some updates on the Thawne here on episode 4763 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. And we're also going to talk to this fella, the longest running co-bro of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He was wearing jorts yesterday during the show, and we heard about it from the audience. They have one request today

for him. First of all, you must wear pants

for this he's andrew walsh and he's joining me right now good morning my friend what's the

difference between cutoffs and jorts i think jorts is just maybe the en vogue term for jean shorts i see they don't have to actually they could just be denim shorts that were never full length pants

well jorts would have to be i guess you're right you know what they could be jean shorts them being cut off them having previously been long pants is not a necessary condition but they have to be denim as opposed to cutoffs you could cut off you you could be wearing some khakis and you could cut those off and they would technically be cutoffs they wouldn't be they wouldn't be george there you go we're your fact checking cuz is we sure are oh actually you know who is probably checking the facts on this is our friend and colleague tbtl employee numero uno john sklar believe it or not i'm a complete catch who is joining us here on this friday john welcome to the program hey guys how's it going do you uh do you wear uh jean shorts do you own any jorts

i can confidently say at this point in my life i do not own any shorts i did when i was in my youth my misguided youth in the 90s but not now and when you say jorts you're talking about cut

off jeans or you're talking about you went to the store and you bought shorts that are made of denim

Um, I think it's like a rectangle square thing. All denim shorts that are cutoffs are jorts, but not all jorts are cutoffs. And what were you rocking? No, jorts, because jean shorts.

Yeah, it has to be jean shorts. You could have had some Carl Kanai. Sure. Long. This is what I see you in. Some long black denim shorts. Let's say Carl Kanai. But those would be technically jorts because they would be jean shorts.

Yeah.

They don't have to be cut off.

No, no, correct. Yeah, sorry if I confused the issue. Yeah, no, I did own shorts. You know one of the most egregious kinds of shorts I owned back in the day? Yeah. In, like, my high school years? Sweatpants shorts were a thing for a few years.

Oh, I was into those.

They had, like, an elastic band. They were at the waist. Like, you kind of, like, with, like, the little thing where you press down and pull the string to kind of tighten it, if that makes sense.

Yeah. I had some Russell sweat shorts that I was big on wearing as a kid. And I actually had, I remember I wore cut-off jean shorts. Jorts. I wore jorts to something called Endfest. Oh, yeah. Which was the music festival for 107.7 The End. And it was actually at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds, not too far from where my folks live now.

Did Green Day play? I remember Green Day played at one of ours in Cleveland.

Well, no, because this was associated with specifically 107.7 The End.

But we had 107.9 The End. I have a feeling it was like owned. We had, you know, The End, I believe, was a brand of stations around the country.

Really?

Yeah, we had Endfest.

I thought they just called it that because it was the end of the dial. This is the first I'm learning that that might have been, you know, that there might have been, you know, more than one The End station.

I'm pretty sure they were a lot, because I remember 107.9 was something else, and I'll never forget what they did to introduce 107.9 The End as an alternative station, is they played The End of the World as We Know It by R.E.M. for 24 hours straight. I'm not joking, as a way of introducing 107.9 The End, which then stuck around. I don't know if it's still there in Cleveland, but it was like, you know, all throughout the 90s, it was like the alternative station.

Yeah, that's really interesting. I'm trying to see if, the internet is not telling me one way or the other on if those two stations were actually, I mean, they're playing the same kind of music. They're called The End. It stands to reason that they would be, have some kind of managerial overlap. but i was really into 107.7 the end and i went to end fest and the bands that played uh andrew and john were they might be giants the band x uh the band hammerbox uh i'm trying to remember who else played that that i think it was the inaugural end fest and i was thinking what to wear what to wear And so I wore jorts, cut-off jean shorts. I wore low-top Converse. You know, like, think of your typical Converse sneaker, but the low-top. And my Dick's Drive-In t-shirt. Oh, nice. From having worked at Dick's Drive-In. Because I wanted it to say, you know, I care about fashion, but not that much. But I'm also kind of a cool, casual guy.

What color do you remember? like what you know bright orange you mean the dicks shirt no no that that's awesome that's how i can picture it but that's a given we're all this talk of cutoffs in george and whatever you said something interesting to john which is you mentioned like they could be like black and you're right like that's what i see even to this day around my neighborhood right like it's got kind of very loose black cutoff jeans is something with usually with like a wallet chain and a dirty look to go along with it but when you're going to end fest in the 90s are you wearing are they black Are they blue? Mine are gray right now, by the way. Just to tempt you a little bit more.

I'm sorry. I was looking up Endfest lineups. Are you saying were my jorts or my cons? What color were you? Were they just blue jeans? They were. They were. You know what they were, believe it or not? They were not unlike this jacket that I'm wearing that's only John and Andrew can see. And I bet you even for you on the camera, it's hard to tell that this is actually. It's like a train conductor kind of stripes.

Yeah, very tight stripes.

Very tight stripes. I bought this at Harrods in London, by the way, not to brag. And also, you know what it's doing on camera? They never let me wear this on CBS because it's ombre-ing. Is that what that's called? The lines are too close together for the camera. But I was wearing, they were jorks that were basically this pattern of jean shorts. You've got to be careful with that.

It could look a little bit circus-y.

Oh, I think I also smoked like one and a half entire packs of cigarettes. So I'm probably green in the face and circusy in the outfit. Here was the lineup from this end fest. By the way, it was not the first one. It was the second one. August 7th, 1993, Kitsap County Fairgrounds. Belly. Oh, I love belly. I've seen them twice. The Catherine Wheel. These are not going to mean as much to you, John, as they might mean to Andrew and I. Yeah, so far, 0 for 2. Hammerbox. This is going to mean a lot to Camaro Kev, Andrew. Helmet. Oh, helmet, yes. My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult Remember those guys? Yes, I remember the name, yep Social Distortion I remember they played their cover of Ring of Fire And I thought it was a Social Distortion original I was unfamiliar with...

Actually, no, that was probably my first exposure to that song, too, honestly. They Might Be Giants, School of Fish, and X. That was the lineup that day in Kitsap County.

Now, this is going... I mean, so I'm seeing something here on Reddit that says, this is Cleveland Endfest. Endfest, May 1997. This plays a little bit more into what you're saying, Luke, because I remember going to some sort of free concert, downtown Cleveland. I didn't even go into it. I was on the other side of the fence. Green Day was playing. I think it was free. I'm not entirely sure. Maybe not. Forget the free part. But I remember that being like the end, you know, 107.9 The End. And I thought it was a regular thing. But now what I'm seeing on Reddit is somebody putting this in 97, which would be long after I was out of high school. Well, like two years after I was out of high school, which is not what I was remembering. And it says Endfest, May 17th, 97. Somebody posted this in the Cleveland subreddit. I went to a music festival put on 107.9 The End in 1997, trying to find the full list of who played, but the internet is coming up really short. The only evidence I can find is a little blurb that advertises, quote, Endfest will be held at Blossom beginning at 2 p.m. And by the way, the thing that I'm thinking of did not take place at Blossom Music Center or whatever it's called, an outdoor venue. With musical acts including the Mighty Mighty Boss Tones, Bare Naked Ladies, Soul Coughing, Moby, Sloan, and more. Shout out to Sloan, by the way. So anyway, that's maybe the thing I was thinking of with Green Day was something else that maybe didn't have the same brand. It might have been the Warped Tour.

It might have been Big Stink was something that Becca used to go to outside of Salem that would have Green Day played. In 97, the N-Fest in Seattle featured such bands. I won't read the whole list because it's long, but Foo Fighters, Matchbox 20, Radiohead. Wow, they had Radiohead. uh sky cries mary i was a big sky cries mary guy in high school by the way um it was just kind of um i don't know sort of kind of ambient i feel like every song was like 11 minutes long it was when i was also very much in my um cocteau twins phase oh that hasn't ended uh super deluxe the crystal method the dandy warhols and then the offspring so that was the 97 lineup for for my end fest nice uh did you ever go to like a music festival or anything like that john when you were

kid what were you listening to there in westchester um actually when i was like in high school i didn't really go to a lot of concerts my first concert actually was green day their american idiot tour at giant stadium and it was opened by uh jimmy world was the opener um but like the only like festival i've ever been to like you guys are describing that's a music station i was actually just looking up to confirm the lineup it's uh it was k rockathon 14 which is in syracuse new york at the new york state fairgrounds and uh the headline here was three doors down uh papa roach was there i don't remember that papa roach is that the kind of big bad voodoo daddies sound

no no just more like good charlotte that's not going to help you nope yeah kind of kind of like

pop punky kind of okay their their hit song starts off with cut my i'm not gonna sing it because i'm gonna spare the listeners but the first lyrics are cut my life into pieces

so them and then but the one band actually i didn't know going into it that was super awesome

was street sweeper social club which was a tom morello project okay and so i got to see him live and he was awesome.

I saw him on the black carpet outside of a Metallica show right before I stormed off. The last thing I remember was seeing Tom Morello before I threw my gear down on the ground and stomped over to the Del Taco.

I had his name a second ago and then I absolutely lost it. Who's the Aquaman actor? Jason Momoa. Jason Momoa and him were just hanging out on the black carpet smoking clove cigarettes. Yeah, exactly.

I've told this story a million times But the result of all that cigarette smoking That I was doing at N-Fest Trying to impress a girl named Melissa Goodman Which, by the way, unsuccessful Was that the next morning I woke up I remember, you know, at my house and everything In my bedroom And I woke up and I thought I could really go for a cigarette right now And I didn't have any cigarettes And I didn't reward that loop And I really think I would be smoking today if I would have had that cigarette the morning after N-Fest because I have no impulse control. And as you know, Andrew, that's a tough one to quit.

Yeah, absolutely. I don't want to spill too much tea here, but there's somebody in my life who is a, I guess, especially by today's standards, I think you would describe her as a heavy smoker. And she had to go to the hospital for, and I think, and this just happened, like I think she was in there for almost a week, if not totally a week. And I was texting with her and she said, you know,

I need a cigarette really bad but that was like on day one or two and in the back of my head I was like okay this is good like honestly by the time you're out of there like the physical I mean know that there's still I mean listen I was a smoker I know it's really hard to kick the habit but at least like you will be flushed of the physical you know the physical ramifications of needing a cigarette after that many days and I was discouraged to see the very first photo she sent me when she was out of the hospital was her racing back home to enjoy that first cigarette And I'm like, God damn it, man, you could have been so close if you could have. And again, I don't get preachy with people. I'm not in a position to get preachy with other people's habits. But it was a bummer. I was like, oh, I was hoping that you would maybe just try to parlay that. Just see if you could go a little bit further. Eat a carrot. God, nothing makes you want to smoke a cigarette more than the idea of replacing it with a carrot. Talk about a misunderstanding of what is needed. And we scared candy cigarettes. Yeah, exactly.

Well, my favorite fun fact that I've been boring everyone with lately, which is a fun fact that I've known for a while, is the Pez candy dispensers, that started off in Austria as a smoking replacement mint. So Pez, P-E-Z, is just a condensing of the German word for peppermint, which is like 74 letters long and involves a P, an E in the middle, and a Z at the end. So they shortened it to Pez And they were peppermint flavored Mints that came in this little dispenser And you were supposed to like When you wanted to have a cigarette You were supposed to pop one of these mints instead And they were a big hit in Europe

Do you know one of the funniest things I see Is a listener When you were telling that story I think I was reminiscing about how much I loved Pez's And a listener, and I'm sorry I'm blanking on their name Sent us a gift of Pez dispensers And I think it was a four pack of Pez dispensers And they were all Minecraft themed and i know that i gave i kept one myself whatever you call the little or maybe yeah i don't know where it is right now but the little black character and then genevieve kept a little green monster character then the other two i gave away to kids i think just random kids uh on the street you gave away my and luke's pez dispensers yeah i think i gave you your guys away but all that is to say you're being a real chicken jockey chicken jockey genevieve is still using hers she went online somewhere and bought like a whole thing of pez candy i mean these were sent to us years ago okay and genevieve is still on the pez train and here's what you're gonna love even more she keeps them so she's kind of got an old school style desk right but it's out in sort of our it's in our basement but she doesn't have a closed in office like i do so it's sort of like her desk setup is sort of in the corner and she's got kind of two screens because genevieve needs two screens and she's got her phone charging she's got all this stuff and then she's got this drawer to her right it's the top drawer right where her right knee would be and every now and then if you time it right you'll be walking by and you'll see her casually open that drawer and then she'll crack open the pez head but the thing is this is what's so amazing about it and i absolutely love it is she does she doesn't take the candy out and then put it into her mouth and she doesn't even bring the pez dispenser up to her mouth she bends over towards the drawer and does it like she's taking a hit of snuff or something like that there is something unbelievable like i don't know if she feels like she needs to be clandestine about it or something but there's something about seeing genevieve open this drawer like it seems very 1970s coated somehow and just kind of put her face in the drawer take a hit of pez and then just come back up and finish her day's work

Well, see, that goes to my ultimate point, though, about the smoking stuff and why I've heard it so hard to kick is because unlike drinking, which is hopefully for most people fairly contained to certain like social events and things that are going on. If you, my understanding is like, if you're a person who's a pretty regular smoker, it's your little treat throughout the day. It's your chance to step back from your desk. It's a chance maybe to stand outside and kind of chat it up with someone. It's like, and that's the part that's, I've heard very hard to give up because it's like, you know, it's, it's, you could just say, well, I'm not going to drink alcohol anymore. And when I'm at social settings, I'm going to bring an NA beer or I'm going to have a seltzer or whatever. But the whole scheduling and ritual and the break that a cigarette provides beyond just the kind of physical experience of it is something I think people say is pretty hard.

Yeah, or you can avoid those social situations if need be. Like, well, hey, I'm not going to go to this thing that is trivia night at the bar or whatever it happens to be.

Now, and forget about trying to quit smoking Pez. That's the hardest addiction, actually. The Mayo Clinic just put out a white paper on it.

She's got a little David Bowie mirror, and she crushes them up, and it's a whole problem. What would happen if you snorted Pez?

Probably you'd just get a headache.

Let's not encourage that. Yeah, you're right.

Someone has an answer to that. One to two children listening to the show. Hey, big weekend, 4th of July.

plans are you doing anything there in minnesota yeah we're actually tomorrow afternoon i think we're gonna oh no go ahead there it is you got it yeah oh i didn't want to like step on the or maybe layer tape i'm whatever jess tells me we're gonna get in the car and drive down to her parents house they live down on the river nice and get out on that pontoon boat throw the pups on the pontoon take them swimming and just uh hang out and have really exactly what the founding fathers

had in mind i'm actually not kidding that's good old-fashioned american fun yeah yeah how are the

dogs getting along by the way great yeah we're really we're really fortunate um manan and benny are getting along really well and they get along with my in-laws dogs yeah that's really good

they're gonna be a romp yeah they're gonna be are you are you pole sawing this weekend i think so

i'll tell you what um today friday um is i guess so you know our group of friends here up in north Seattle they do it or we I guess we we they do a neighborhood walk that's sort of like it starts at Camaro Kevin Anita's place and then they walk all the way across Northgate to our place here then we go to our friend Katie's place and they kind of have beverages along the way or whatever it's a great tradition I think I did it the first time and um and then I've I've participated in to varying degrees sometimes i'll i'll join them halfway through sometimes i think last year i just skipped everything drive alongside them and menace them yeah exactly just like you guys have you heard of cars they're so convenient um sometimes i just like to join them at the very end like at rodent's house for for some drinks and barbecue or something like that so i really don't know i will say i am feeling the pull of the pole saw i still haven't started that big project in the backyard but my problem is if i start that i don't know if i already said this to you last weekend i really wanted to do that project but i had evening plans again at the rodents and i was like i know that if i start this heavy yard project i can't just stop at five o'clock and clean or four o'clock and clean up and then go to a barbecue like these projects go into the evening as i'm cleaning up all of the debris and stripping the leaves off of the sticks so that i can burn them and i probably have a mariners game to listen to while i'm like deep into the dusk lighting a fire and continuing to clean up the yard so i don't know it's going to be some combination of fun times and yard times i think uh i'm going camping down on the oregon coast

down in manzanita uh with becca and some friends uh and uh i guess this is like fourth of july tradition that they've been doing for a long time so got to break out the uh figure out if i even have any of the appropriate camping gear anymore and uh yeah that's the plan for us where are you gonna go to the bathroom i think i mean probably in the sleeping bag yeah okay i just get a new

one every time i go camping you know is this like a camp is this like a camp ground that will have

some sort of here's what i know about it it's it's this is being organized and put on by uh some friends of ours and friends of Becca's who are, how do I put this? They are very put together folks. They have absolutely lovely home. They throw very elegant parties. Uh, they don't do anything sort of halfway. Uh, so my guess is that it's going to be the, it's going to be sort of glamping somehow. Like when we, and they'll have already been there for a few days. So I think what I know about these people is that, uh, they really do it up and they always do things in a really kind of like nice manner so i'm expecting that there will be a butler and somebody to do turn down service on my sleeping bag oh don't don't don't smell in there it's not good no no i'm i'm guessing that there probably uh are pretty adequate bathroom facilities this is not in the woods this is the oregon coast i'm i'm kind of hoping that the campsite is somehow in view of the ocean so it's more that vibe i think big sir more so than like uh you know the boundary waters or something where you're just in the woods, although it has waters in the name, so I don't know why I picked that as an example. I was trying to regionalize it to John. I was trying to make this conversation interesting for John by picking a Minnesota reference, but I picked an area that also has a lot of water in it.

I've hung out in the outdoors of the Pacific Northwest. I have a general vibe for it.

It's like the Dells. The Wisconsin Dells. Dude, you're getting the Dells. Did I make that joke a million times last year when we were actually in Wisconsin? I don't know. Maybe. Hello and welcome to Top Story. All right, our top story today on this special 3rd of July slash 4th of July show is that, of course, TBTelethon17 is coming up in mere weeks. TBTelethon17, jumping for joy. We are going to be in Valley City, Ohio at the Valley City. the frog jump, and at the former Liverpool Elementary School, Andrew's Actual. Have you found out, Andrew, I guess you won't know until you get there, we're not, as far as you understand, going to literally be in your classroom. We're going to be in the school you went to, but we don't know what room we're going to be in yet.

We don't know what room, but because the school is now some sort of a community center. And I see that they have, I was kind of Google mapping, and I see it looks like part of it is now some sort of a preschool maybe, or at least was recently. But we were talking to these two organizers who we're calling the Daves.

The Daves.

And they were telling us that we'll be in a conference room. Now, I don't remember there being conference rooms when this was a school. So my guess is, what is a conference room but a converted classroom? And so I'm not exactly sure. As long as they haven't changed the urinal height. Oh, my goodness. I mean, that is what I –

That's the ultimate check-in with your elementary school move.

Well, the original urinals, I mean, it's funny you say that because I do think about the urinals in that bathroom because they were the classic kind that went all the way to the floor, up to the chest or whatever. And it's rare to see those those days. And so that is sort of a standout feature. And I think about where that water fountain was. Sorry, we don't have time to get into too much nostalgia today. But like that's a huge thing. I keep thinking, I wonder if the water fountain is there. And of course it's not there. Like we live in a post-COVID world. And also that water fountain was probably from 1965. It was old when I was there. Right. But remember what a big deal it was to go to the water fountain? You would find excuse. You're talking about cigarette breaks. We took water fountain breaks. You would line up with your classmates. You couldn't wait to get to that point of the day.

Did you have one of those? We had at Bagley, I mean, we had a variety of water fountains, but we had one of those that was like, I don't know, six water fountains. You know what I mean?

One device? No, I don't think I knew about that.

One device with like six water fountains on it. You guys never had those? that school that i went to was ancient bagley elementary i mean i think it was like built in like 1910 or something um so it but then we would also do the move do you remember how the water fountain at least the ones that we had this is kind of hard to describe but you have the metal part that is kind of a shield over the top of it for whatever reason so nobody puts her mouth on

it that's it's a shield so the kids don't go i mean i would still put my mouth on i would just

have to crank my neck in an odd angle because I'd be so thirsty from like recess right you're running around you're all thirsty you're it's not putting out enough water fast enough so I'm just like putting my mouth right on there pretty much but then there was this weird little gap between where the water came out and then the little part that that focused the water yeah you could slide the skin of your hand in and you could constrict the water flow of the drinking fountain so that it would go way further than it was supposed to.

And people would stick paper in there as a prank. People would stick a little piece of paper, but you could leave it there, you know what I mean? And then the next person goes to use it and it shoots up in their face like a 1920s film. We're totally going to do that when we go to your old elementary school. We're pranking the hell out of those people. Yeah, we'll see. I have a feeling it's going to be somewhat unrecognizable in some ways. And as I've said before, there's the back part of the school that was ancient. Like, it was a tiny little country schoolhouse, and then they built it out a little bit more and sort of like, and we went to school often in the new wing when I was there, and we had some classes up in the old wing. And so the old wing, I don't even know if we're going to have access to that. I'm working on the Dave's.

Oh, we'll have access to it.

Yeah. Whether they want us to or not.

So, yes, we will be in Valley City. And, of course, one of the fun things about the TBTL-a-thon is that it's a chance for folks to call into the shows and also to chat it up with each other while the shows are going on. We're live streaming them. And then we like to do like a Zoom event, some kind of a get together. And this year will be no exception. John, what can you tell us about the TBTL-a-thon Zoom night?

Well, thanks for asking, Luke. I'm really excited to share that the Zoom will be Wednesday evening, the 15th. And I believe we confirmed it's going to be at 5 p.m. Pacific. So that'll be 8 p.m. East Coast time.

Yes, work it out if you're in the middle of the country. Yeah. You're not new to this.

Yeah. You know how time zones work. And then the whole idea behind the Zoom event, the reason to gather, as we all know, Andrew's favorite drug is nostalgia. and we will be in his hometown and not to rely too heavily on Andrew's personal memories necessarily, but we want to hear your memories.

Because they're disappearing as we speak. Well, no, I'm trying to retrieve some of them. So if we could actually, I'm going to need a session with you later, Andrew, where we'll do some hypnosis, some light hypnosis. For some reason, I'm under the table. Try to get some of those repressed memories back.

But, well, Andrew aside, we want to hear you and your memories and like a show and tell right so of like use uh of trinkets or items or objects from your youth or you know it doesn't have to your youth but from years back something that's memorable or meaningful to you we'd love for you to come to the zoom event and show it off and tell us what it's about and uh i think we talk about it guys whenever we plan these things it's just like a reason to hang out with the tens and like this is just the thing

behind that so um so i'm gonna be staying with my parents one night when i'm in town uh before you guys arrive and i know that my folks have a little attic a little like you have to get a ladder out i think it's in the garage it doesn't matter where it is but i just wanted to let you know and i believe i have one box of my old belongings up there still like i've been kind of you know as nostalgic as i am i don't save a lot of things for my childhood but there is like one box up I believe maybe some things related to my Boy Scout service or something. So I'm going to go through that box. Thank you for your service. I appreciate it. I do get to board the plane first. Yeah. So anyway, I'm going to go through that box or maybe go through my dad's office and grab some objet of my youth, and I will bring that. And so that's the type of thing we're looking for, something that you've held on to for a long, long time since you were a kid and here you are an adult. If you are a kid who is joining, maybe just grab something that you're enjoying right now. But, you know, that's the type of stuff we're showing off.

That kind of stuff that you might not even know why you've held on to it. You know what I mean? It's just kind of like it's made the move with you multiple times. For some reason, you just kind of can't part with it.

Yeah.

And, yeah, we just want to see those objects and talk about them and hear the story. And like you said, John, just mostly an excuse for us to all get together and chop it up on a Wednesday night.

And if you don't have anything to share Or you feel uncomfortable getting on the Zoom We'd love you to be there anyway The chat function will be open We'll be hanging out Just come hang out with your friends

Cameras on, cameras off Whatever you want, whatever you feel comfortable with Jorts, no jorts That one, I'm going to draw the line Only jorts? All jorts All jorts

Oops, all jorts

That could be a show title, I guess here on this 3rd of July show. Yeah, so it's going to be that Wednesday night. And so mark your calendars and we will see you there.

And also, as with these in the past, you have to register. It's free to do. It's just so you get the link to join us. So when you're hearing this episode today, there will be a button, Andrew, right at the top of our homepage at tbtl.net. There will be a link to the registration form on Zoom. Super simple. Take you two minutes, not even, to sign up. just so you have, like I said, the link, and that way you'll get the email reminders, too.

Throw in social mother's maiden name. Exactly what I was going to say. Simple, simple questions. No problem. Guys, we want this to be easy. First childhood pet. And also, because it's thawne time, of course, we have some thank you gifts that we would like to thank the donors with. And I will say that more than I was anticipating, And again, I did the least of this of the three of us, but more than I was anticipating, there was a significant amount of work and coordinating and logistics that went into, I'm thinking of one of the thank you gifts in particular, which I know we're all pretty geeked up about how it all turned out. But the announcement of the TBTL-a-thon gifts, the way that this news is first going to break is going to be in the TBTL newsletter.

That's right. Sign up for the TBTL newsletter. By the way, as we're speaking today on Friday, there won't be a newsletter today because of the holiday of it all. But next week, the newsletter is back in action, and it will be the only way you will learn what we are giving away. And not to, you know, I'm not a good carnival barker here, but we are psyched. Like, yeah, some of the art, the art that goes into a couple of these things, it has been really amazing. I'm thinking of a couple of things in particular. I want to say more. I'm trying very hard not to, but I'm not just building this up. This is a this is a memorable one. So make sure you sign up for the newsletter. If you're not already signed up for it, go to tbtl.net. Just click the newsletter button. And next Friday, all will be revealed in your inbox.

And the thing about the newsletter, I have to say, Andrew, because I'm a subscriber, every time I look at it, first of all, you are such a good writer. And, I mean, I know that it's like Thursday comes and you're just like, oh, man, what am I going to write about this week? I think you always come up with a great concept for it. It's also just very useful because it's got a link to every show from the week. It's got information about them. There's a 10 of the week in there. There's there's links to things. It's actually just like a really great little Friday kind of digest of everything TBTL that happened in the previous. week and if there was something that you were trying to remember or like I said a link to whatever it's like it's all there it's a really like useful little compendium

last week there was a photo of me in shorts standing in front of my hedge but he doesn't do that a lot

I'm trying to sell this thing well here you go Luke I'm also a big fan of the new the addition of the moment of Lucy that Andrew's the new little adorable little Lucy photo every week that helps too that contradicts the shorts photo I think

Yeah, although he has Lucy in shorts, and I don't think someone consented to that.

I saw a little dog in diapers. I was driving down Roosevelt yesterday, and I had to stop. You know how, like, in Seattle, not every cross, like, not every intersection has a crosswalk, but there's an implied crosswalk, especially in, like, the high foot traffic areas. And so there was somebody trying to cross kind of this busy one-way road I used to live on. And so I, like, stopped and let her cross, and her little, like, I don't know, it wasn't a poodle, but it was some sort of curly-haired dog just trotting away with its little diaper on. And our old vet is right around there, too, so I'm assuming that maybe they were just done with a visit to the vet. But I've got to say, it was pretty cute, and I started thinking about it, because there's something comical about that, right? But then you're kind of like, but I mean, obviously, the dog needs it, and it's like, the dog doesn't feel undignified. The dog's just taking care of what needs to be taken care of.

Andrew, you'll likely be dealing with that at some point soon, as well, us with Manon and Lucy,

because... Oh, I thought you meant me personally. I was like, dude, what do you mean in the future?

Well, female dogs, before you spay them, when they go through their cycles, before they go into heat. And like you typically like 18 months to two years is when you want to spay them. So like all their hormones... What? Oh, we were

told nine months. I thought we were getting a lot closer.

I heard it was

I thought you tried to get it before the... Well, whatever. Well, you can't be too far

before because then their body doesn't go through... That's what I'm saying. They need to kind of... In fact, some people say let them go through heat one time to be really super sure. I thought you were supposed to do it before they go

into heat.

I thought you were supposed to do it at home.

I thought you were supposed to do it at home.

Yes, and live stream it.

I may have gotten some bad information. I'll double

check. Speaking of bad information, Andrew, you just mentioned that kind of implied crosswalk thing. I grew up in Seattle, and that's how I think of streets and intersections that's a dangerous thing to learn when you move to other cities like because the number of times that like i've been in a city and lived in a city that's not seattle where that's not really the move that's not really how people operate and i'm like stepping out into the road and almost getting hit because i'm like i come from the land of like high high deference being given to the pedestrian that's like that's a big seattle thing and it's also

dangerous if you're new to seattle and you don't realize it it's dangerous for everybody involved if you're not if you're not stopping the way you know other cars might yeah absolutely one other

thing about this thon that's coming up of course is that we are going to be uh there sort of i guess you could say as part of the 65th i believe annual valley city frog jump did you as a kid Andrew? Did you go to this frog jump? No, I've never

been to it. I've never been to it. I went to the Valley City Street Fair sometimes, but not the frog jump. Okay, so this will

be a first for all three of us, and we are going to be entering a frog in the competition. We had our friend Simeon last week, who was our Frog Watch USA guy, was telling us the kind of frog to look for and how to take care of the frog so that the frog is, you know, as happy as can be, etc. And we've also been taking in submissions for frog names i i've heard that rosie the ribbiter is now maybe off the list because it's been used at the calaveras county frog jump in calaveras california which is of course famous for the mark twain story um what was the other one that we uh we liked uh i liked

mr frog dabolina we like that we also liked uh jackie jorp jump that's one of our favorites That was good.

Now it could be Jackie Jortjump, but okay.

Jackie Jortjump. Leap Day William. That was one that you gave Luke. Spark plugs from Taylor.

I tried to explain Leap Day William to somebody who doesn't watch 30 Rock, and let me tell you, that's a big waste of time.

Can we slow down for one second? The sneaking into the canon of Leap Day William. Is it William or Williams, by the way? Let's get that.

I think it's William. William, okay. Is the character, the Leap Day character?

Yeah. It's got to be, you're going to catch me saying Williams sometimes. I don't know why, but that happened off air last week. We got done with the show and Luke said, hey, by the way, I have an idea that I really like. And you mentioned it was, you're like, we got to talk about it. Leap day, William. That's really good. But then we. Since you said that, Luke, I saw at least one listener email me. I don't know if they emailed you as well, John, officially submitting that. So you kind of got like a – Was it Colin Jost? It was listener Chris. So, yeah.

Was it a subway take of Colin Jost? Yes. So that's, I guess, on the board, if you will, Leap Day, William. What other ones are you seeing, John?

Yeah, so we got some really good ones this week. A couple from our listener, David, Too Beautiful to Leap. I thought that was kind of cute. Oh, wow. That's pretty clever. David also said Beautiful Leaper. I thought that was kind of cute. Like, that's in Beautiful Dreamer.

Beautiful Leaper. Da-da-da-da. Is that Beautiful Dreamer?

I don't know. I'm lost on... Beautiful Leaper is the... There's a song called Beautiful Dreamer.

That's what I'm assuming that that's a reference to. But also with Too Beautiful to Live.

Yeah.

Do a Leaper.

Do a Leaper. I'm writing that down. I'm writing that down. um uh patrick listener patrick in california sent in frog doubt about it it's like frog doubt about it okay or the frog of war which is intense but i like that that's pretty good

we want to scare the other frogs exactly nobody is going to mess with us if our frog is called

the frog of war uh listener anna sent in kenny froggins you guys were talking about Oh, that's good.

It was recently, so that's pretty good. Frog is in Messina. Oh, that's also great.

Listener, Chris was the one who sent in Leap Day William, and then also Chris sent in I Say I Say What Up Frog, which I think we got that submission before. That's pretty good, too. And then also this one just – I don't know how much the pun works, but I laughed at it. Ladies Frog for ladies. I think I'm trying to do a straight accent. It's a ladies frog for ladies. It's a ladies frog. Yeah, yeah, sorry. I butchered the accent. No, that's great. That's pretty good. Laurel sent in two really good ones also Temple of the Frog but going back to the Mariners bit Randy Arosa Ribbit okay that's pretty good that's pretty good and even I love Randy as a player as a person so I mean I could get on board with that Eric sent in Jumpman Jumpman

them boys be jumping uh oh uh oh I think I need a Robitussin

love that uh jeff sent in doogie bouncer doogie bouncer which is really good i feel like i just immediately hear the um the emails of emails music right i feel like that frog is going to be a nerd

though what or genius i mean yeah but this isn't a frog genius competition this is a frog jump

competition okay okay next year we're entering our frog in the frog spelling bee yes and then we name of doogie bouncer can i have the nation of origin um listener dan down in miami also said jump man jump man that's great that's a good one uh this is a real obvious one that i don't know if anyone else submitted it but it's a great one missy said pod frog whoa like the pod dog right

pod frog oh missy oh i thought i thought the entire title was oh sorry said i was like i

don't understand the reference so pod frog pod frog okay pod frog gotcha um these listen levi i i um i this is a mea culpa i read a bunch of levi levi sent in last week and then he made a comment on the stent's facebook page about a few of them being overlooked so i apologize levi levi also sent in flash and lily lily really good lily pad kind of thing oh that could work um also this is just an update from one last week we got santos l hopper and we're all kind of look a little confused by that one Haley in Arizona sent that in and on Facebook pointed out that's a Simpsons reference where there's mail sent to Santa's little helper or Santa's little hopper at the Simpsons address so that was a reference

but what's the Santos

part? Sorry that's what the it was Santos hopper must have been the so okay let me back this up for a sec

Santa's little helper on the Simpsons

right and then somebody tries to send him an envelope through the mail and they get the name wrong somehow and on the end this is a deep cut people are sending us screen grabs of mail arriving at the Simpsons house and it's addressed to Santos L. Hopper is that right yeah I think something along the lines of that yeah so it's crazy that we didn't get that

yeah I was like well at least like put it back out there also my bad to our friend Lynn Lin's email hit my spam For whatever reason Which is ridiculous

I personally apologize Yeah no please

Lin sent in a really good one It's R-B-T-L But pronounced Ribbit-L

R-B-T-L R-B-T-L But they're pronounced like R-B-T-L R-B-T-L

I like that

Marion sent in I don't know if this will A listener Marion I'm wondering

I have a niece named Marion But maybe we have a couple of Marians

Sent in I don't know if this will fly in Valley City, Ohio Amphifa Like amphibian But it's amphibian I've been to some of their meetings don't say that on podcast the Justice Department that was like in reference to the protest frogs that was one at the reflecting pool so that was pretty good alright here we go only a few more from this a couple more that came in this last week Josh sent in long legged Larry like a launcher Larry which I think I saw somebody on Sten's page or Slack say today's the day Is that right? Or is yesterday the anniversary of Longchair Larry? I don't know.

We always get birthday, you know, Blur's Day messages. I think we got that a couple months ago. But maybe today is the day that he actually took flight or something. I don't know.

Yeah, every year a couple of listeners have it marked on their calendar, whatever the anniversary of it is, and every year I forget that we're coming up on it, and then Andrew seeks in the Blur's Day messages, and I'm always shocked.

I don't think the listeners send it in, But the difference is listeners are sending birthday wishes for Lawn Chair Larry on his actual birthday, which is not the same day that he actually took flight. And he took flight on July 2nd of 1982, which would have been a couple of days ago. Yeah.

Okay. Sorry.

You're right. Yesterday, yeah.

Yeah, I got my days confused. Days confused. Okay. Now, this is the last one I have. And I think this might be a winner just because of the conversations recently. Ian, a listener, Ian sent in Erling Hopland, like your favorite.

Like Erling Holland, the Norwegian soccer player.

I thought that was really good.

Sounds like a winning name, certainly. We're going to have to find a frog that's 6'8 with long blonde hair. My God, I'm already having bad dreams. Please don't put that into my nightscape. we just have a just a absolute chimera freakish six foot tall frog oh my walk it out there half man half frog uh okay so right there i'm pretty proud if i did no i love that one i i'm

keeping it on the list that's as the keeper of the list that is a favorite on the list right now

chimera mythological monster nice oh yeah i can cut is it ch is both of yeah it's like you know

Sometimes it'll be like a lion with like a dragon tail or, you know, any kind of like thing that's a combination of different badass animals. Like a griffin kind of thing? A griffin would probably be a chimera. All right. Thanks, everybody. Those are kind of promising. I'm trying to think where I'm still. I mean, Jackie Jor-Jump is still pretty high on my list.

I love it. Two of our favorite ones come from 30 Rock. I guess that's not a huge surprise. If we could just work Mickey Rourke in, Andrew. Yeah, oh, wait, hold on, can we?

Ooh, now I'm getting some ideas.

Yeah, gosh, I'm having trouble turning either one of those names into a pun, though. Well, we have time.

You've got all 4th of July weekend while you're working the pole saw, Andrew. While you're working the pole, think about this.

My folks did not want me to grow up to be working that pole saw, but here we are.

but you know it's uh keep my boy off the pole that's right um all right well listen that's uh i think that's probably all we need to get to today on this friday edition of the program and we've got holiday weekend recreating to get to so we better start that as soon as possible um thanks for listening this week everybody thanks for spending the time with us uh we're going to be back here on monday with more imaginary radio to you the last monday before the tbtl yeah it's it's happening so soon yeah it's coming up quick i just saw it just saw like a panicked look in andrew's eyes when i said the last monday before the tbtl i thought i'm feeling

better i spent a long time yesterday relearning how to stream thank you for doing that by the way

i can always tell when you like when you've just like gone into the dojo of thon you're just like sending these emails like okay this still works and here's how we do it and i'm like i can just picture you down there just like checking things off i got frog frog cam was live briefly yes no frog there will be a frog was live yeah uh when we do the thon so all right uh again thanks for listening excuse me thanks for listening everybody uh we'll be back here on monday in the meantime have a great holiday weekend take care of yourselves keep those fireworks away from the pets please and please remember no mountain too tall and good luck to all Power out.