#4654 The Leap Day Of Normal Years

Hey, now don't you tell me you don't remember me because I sure as heckfire remember you Not a chance NAD Needle knows Ned Ned the head come on buddy case Western high Ned Ryerson I did the whistling belly button trick at the high school talent show bing Ned Ryerson got the shingles real bad senior year almost didn't graduate Bing again Mad Ryerson I dated your sister Mary Pat a couple times to you told me not to anymore well Ned Ryerson Do you believe I got happy new year today? It's February I once got happy new year March First day seemed like a week In the second day seem like five days and the third day seem like a week again the comedy factors begs for itself It's just painfully obvious Yeah, it's a non-forfeal prophecy. It just has to be polite out much after that first step is in Well, all right. Hello. Good morning and welcome everyone to a Monday edition of TV TL the show that just might be Too beautiful to live is it too early to finish my name is Luke Burbank. I'm your host Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio Perched high above the mighty Columbia It's one of those godly did we ever have a A nice weekend particularly Saturday around here. It was like spring like And now we are sliding into that kind of it's not raining But it's very cloudy and everything just see I can I feel like I can actively watch moss growing On various surfaces in my yard here at the Madrona Hill studio but But we're ready on this Monday morning and feeling good by the way. Let's see this is cup of coffee number three So I'm I'm feeling supercharged as we arrive at episode 4,654 in a collector series. That's a fun begin Maybe I'm feeling good because I have found a new soothing sound that I've been listening to for I'm gonna say 10 to 11 hours per day On my telephone It's a real thing. I'm gonna really play you this sound later and See what you all think of it or at least see what Andrew thinks of it because I don't know if it's this normal behavior or not Also, I recently watched a secret mall apartment. So who needs a movie? It's documentary on Netflix about some art types in Rhode Island who built a secret apartment inside the Providence mall and what the implications are for public space and art and things like that So we'll get into that also. There's a there was an update. I think a new functionality as part of the iOS iPhone update that is Created quite a stir within the Hawke squad family text chain that I'm part of you got tell me part Lisa Take you on that journey as well and we'll say hello to this guy longest running co-bro of the show maybe best known for his depictions of The tall shit. I just want you to be normal and clearly you're not he is Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now Good morning my friend. Good morning, Luke. I was thinking this morning An absolutely absurd thought that I want to know if you will give me any Validation on and it's totally fine if you don't Okay, actually speaks well of you if you don't I think but First of all happy groundhog day. Thanks for reminding me that today is groundhog day I'm not happy though that apparently punk satani Phil saw his shadow. Oh, I didn't even read the news more weeks of winter Which this is just quickly if I can this is the journey that I go on with that It's like first while I never know what the quote-unquote rules are If if he sees the shadow is it good if he doesn't see the shadow is it good and Then I get mad when the reports are Not the outcome that I want which is I want winter to be over sooner rather than later and then I remind myself It's in the words of Jenny McCarthy. It's bullshit. None of it's a jib jab None of it's real. We don't know if the groundhog saw his shadow the guy Hold like holds the groundhog up to his ear and tries to divine if the groundhog is telling the human in the stove pipe hat If he saw his shadow or not none of it's real. Why do I care? Why does it make me mad? Why does it ruin my Monday morning if they've declared that the groundhog saw his shadow? I am so confused as to why you chose a famous anti-vaxxer as somebody who's calling this bullshit Is that why did you choose to drop her we used to play? Oh, is that Jenny McCarthy? Yeah, this isn't look at its plane and simple It's bullshit. Oh, see I didn't know that dropping I was like because I was in my head gonna make some joke about well. I'm not sure How scientific the groundhog shadow thing is well, but given what we take for science in the new World order. I was like well maybe maybe the groundhog Junior honestly only eats groundhog That's his recurrent recommendation for the new food pyramid is the top of the pyramid is groundhog And I believe they replace everybody at Noah with groundhogs. Yes, I'm pretty sure is what is happened So that's why I was and then to be I was just sort of thinking that the back of my head trying to formulate some sort of humerus observation and then you bring up Jenny McCarthy and I'm like I don't I'm lost Are you double whammying me here with conspiracy theories? But I mean that's by the way that speaks to Such a such a more innocent time in our society That was Jenny McCarthy. I believe maybe on the Larry King show or something and she was being anti-vax because she was one of the Early famous people to be out there leading this Scientifically unsupported idea that vaccines caus autism But it was such a fringe theory and it was coming from the person who had once co-hosted singled out Yeah, right that it was it was humorous for her to be getting worked up about it as opposed to oh This might become national policy, you know, they'd be like it's not It's not the we probably wouldn't I mean I still play that drop because As was proved by your reaction. I think most people don't even know the context No, I don't know why that I can say something is BS if I need to But but it's just like that was a that was that was a funny thing because it was so fringe and not it was so far from ever being What the real sort of law of the land might become you know Back in the day, it's not funny anymore because it's unfortunately now a mainstream theory amongst the right Yeah, it's right as our groundhog scientists So back to what you said back to my thought which is really my my hot take it. It's not hot Okay, we need let's do some level setting here This is like gonna be the coldest take possible so cold that I think you're gonna run away from it and go inside and throw yourself under a blanket But I was thinking that groundhog day is the leap day of normal years Okay, and I don't know exactly what that means and I'm sober But I think it all started because this morning I got a text from you that said Don't forget today is groundhog day if you want to use that groundhog day tape and I thought oh, yeah That's a great idea. I haven't heard Kenneth Jumping around the 30 rock office wishing everybody a leap day I believe a leap day William and it and maybe it's just because I think of these two holidays Primarily if not exclusively through which drops we play that day because aside from that I don't think about that Preparing a special groundhog day meal Leap day meal with Genevieve exactly. There's no there's no tradition around it other than oh Do we have an intro package for that and instead what I thought about doing today as I was playing The William I was gonna play leap day William and see if you stopped me to see if you could if I could just you're pretty I decided that you would pick up on it. You're a sharp kid But I did wonder like could somebody's brain just because we just it's so easy to conflate those two I just thought there was a chance I could slip a little leap day Williams passed you today without you realizing That's not groundhog day and that's what got me on that weird stone or theory Did you think that there was any chance that I would note that it's not groundhog day But that I would then get to the same meta joke you were making I kind of wonder that's four dimensional chess But what I decided to do instead was what I just did which is I played the regular tape and then I brought up this theory with you And I'm not convinced that you still have any idea what I'm talking about as far as me thinking that these two are somehow Spiritual holidays. I would totally agree with you that they're connected in a way because they're both first of all I I don't understand either of you on a fundamental level Like you know what I mean? Yes, like seriously I I forget every year what I'm rooting for from the groundhog Yeah, and the extra day and and I also don't know I I really don't fully understand Leap to it's once every four years right there's an extra day. So every so three three out of four years Three out of four years It's just a non-event It's like we don't speak of it because it didn't happen and then once every four years it comes around and we're like Oh, we got an extra day and what month is it in that's in February usually it'd be a February 29th now While I'm the topic of calendars. Did you happen to peep that this is not a test? This is not a quiz. It's fine But I just want to know if you know what I'm about to go off on because I got real obsessed with something like my ergonomics stool you did not see the newsletter this week. I take it. I am obsessed. I saw the headline. Okay. That's fine That's fine. Honestly, I'm actually glad that you didn't Take a moment to appreciate the hard work. No open up a calendar open up a calendar in front of you Look at the month of look at the month of February and tell me why it isn't the most beautiful thing you ever Don't see. I know what you look at this look at this sunday is the first All the way three four five six seven and then you get March 1st is another Sunday So it's not even so usually I like it when Monday is the first because it kind of hits the work we even But what in the shout out to listener Kennedy who sent this in It is the perfect month even though it is you know more proper sunday is the first There are no extra squares on the calendar. It's just four straight seven-day weeks Like it starts on a Monday or on a Sunday. It ends on a Saturday There's no extra squares. You don't have that like I don't know it's March 1st and so Wednesday So we have three squares in front of it. It is a perfect absolutely perfect beautiful grid Yes, I'm looking at it right now and I did by the way identify what you were talking about so there's a there's a wonderful beautiful I don't know it's not symmetry because it's not like the same on both sides, but it's something oh what was oh Fui I'm sorry. Why did I start that sentence? Oh When I couldn't quite finish it it was this idea of a player a Baseball player a euhenio suarez who may go back to the reds This the reds and that would be a palindrome career. Oh, I don't know about the palindrome career So so it would mean that their career arc goes the same forwards and backwards like it started with the reds It went to the whomever's it came to the marriage went to the whomever's it ends at the red so his career might be a palindrome I don't know if there are other teams in here, but it might have been Reds mariners Arizona mariners reds. I don't know whatever it is if he ends up at the reds And that's his last stop his career will have been a perfect palindrome. I thought you would have liked that I do well. I do like it. I don't like not knowing what we're gonna do at third base But that is probably not the conversation you're not gonna have right now Andrew is watching a Absolute iB statistical train wreck at the plate for almost all that bat's except for the occasional Hero grand slam right that much I can I mean I love the vibes We love the vibes and we love the guy. I really do like that guy I mean and when he finally hit that grand slam in the playoffs like the palpable relief And when he talked about like he was in the post game presser It's just like I don't think I could like a human being more than geno suarez But boy was it tough to watch him But his first stint with us was way better than anybody expected And he did a really good job. He was only with us for like two months Topps I think and yeah, it was pretty rough but he could have dropped off so hard for a zone of Arizona That was the tough he has to have that was the tough plot He was like he was on a streak where I think he had maybe the most home runs of anybody in baseball or like a three season arc or something Like we were getting like honestly. I thought he was a bigger get the nailer By the way, welcome to hot stovly right right no a lot of people when we got a nailer I remember a friend was like you need more than nailer. You need to get a you honey own as like yeah But nailer is also I was more excited about nailer for some reason And he has proved to be a fan favorite although we'll see what his performance is like Next season as well. It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough to live up to his hype at the It was magical. I mean he's gonna come back to earth and that's fine I mean I this think we're gonna be such a better team Going into this season then we were last year and I we know absolutely take nailer over over not having him But I think it'll be I don't know if he's gonna steal 120 bases this season. I just feel like the Majorly baseball may have figured out how to solve the Josh Nailer problem like he was he was He was he was he was it was a really really special run involving him But I'm expecting him to play a little bit more like a normal first base person of his let's just say particular Assets and liabilities. Yeah, it's interesting that you think we're gonna go into this season as a better team because if we don't have Anything at second or third base right now. I mean we have some young people like whole young that we're thinking about but anyway Listen, I don't want to get into the X's and knows of the season But I do want to say this because I didn't quite realize this I knew that we were getting to that part of the year where people were like Hey, you know pictures and catchers are reporting for spring training or whatever And I know that there's gonna be a just like you know Whatever they do before they start playing the actual scrimmages against other teams warm-em-ups. I suppose Yes, I knew that we're kind of in that Fungera that's broken out a lot of pepper being played It wasn't until this Saturday when I was talking to my buddy Hannah Brooks Olson And she's like you know we're like two weeks away from the first spring training game She said it's going to be She said when you consider the no, I think actual spring training game on the calendar and It's like mid-February and she said you know with the Super Bowl like we're gonna be going like a week and a half or something like that I don't mean to misquote her we were just off air but I Something like a week and a half or two weeks between the last Seattle football game and the first Seattle spring training game like we are very lucky I mean I cannot believe that we are knocking on the door of of actual spring training game February 20th San Diego Padres at Seattle Mariners Pioria sports com they call that a better cup preview I was texting with a friend of ours. I'll just say what was our friend stew was at the There was an impromptu concert in the Twin Cities that was Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello from rage and some other artists who were there to support All of the folks in Minnesota. It was an anti-ice concert and and stew's been kind of going through it as have Everyone in the Twin Cities, but especially our pal stew so I was texting with him And he said yeah, it's been a kind of a shit week But I did just I think pee next to Eddie Vetter at this concert. I said Of the Vetter Cup and he said the very same. Oh wow Wow, why is later on it turned out to just be a normal dude who looked like Eddie I was gonna say because that's I told you The story about how I was pretty sure I bumped into the guy from counting crows like I believe this My entire life if you bumped into I he had I mean he looked like him he smelled like what I expected to smell like him Dress like him he and it was at it was at la la Paloza this goes way back to That's that's that I was gonna be but now that I mean, but I've been to other festivals as an adult since then and even being there with you doing TbTL stuff and having like backstage You know access or side stage or whatever that artist area is I'm just like I don't know Would he really have been just knocking around with the common folks in 1994? Absolutely because maybe I my guess would be That whoever it was you were watching at the time or if you were wait you were he was standing next to you Are you in the restroom at the door? No neither we I believe I bumped into him as we passed each other I would absolutely imagine that he would like to go stand in a crowd to watch a band that he's a fan of as opposed to the side stage experience Yeah, I could see that seems he's I think he was a man of the people yeah And you know and and and it is and remains so I'm a I'm I'm a darts. I'm a darts fan. I am I'm really glad for him that he has shifted hairstyles because I think his His more recent look is really working a lot better for him and if anything it makes me More and for all the years that he didn't have his current hairstyle Because the I don't think that the locks were really I don't think they were selling they were we're working for him But um I believe what he's doing now is when I really tied beanie over his head and then putting like a fancy pim-pap over top of that right No, what he's doing now is one of those golf caps that has like a guy Fieri hair coming out of the top of it You buy it with the hair Yeah, no it's it's it's it's absolutely bleached bleached blonde it sticks straight up and boy it is It is a real it's a it's a comedic delight when you get particularly if you get a guy who's like kind of bald on top Really bald on top and he puts on the the golf visor with the with the hair included Yeah, and and hits the links. Yeah, there is a there is you know Actually, I'm not gonna get into my favorite prank of late because I know you're not a prank guy But there's a favorite prank is something other people are doing or something you're doing It's kind of fun. No, I'm not doing it, but it is kind of funny to me, which is golfers on the on the course Getting like a pretend snake and then some fishing line and then they'll kind of clip They'll clip it to their buddies like You know pants and then they'll go like hey, there's a snake over there And then the person turns and sees this this very Unconvincing if you know about the prank rubber snake, but what happens is the person goes whoa And then the more they move the more the snake moves with them And man you see some guys go right down into like literal ponds Trying to get away from the snake I could totally I don't know what I see scared of snakes what I see these videos all I could think of is like I've tried to Imagine how I would behave in the scenario because I think I'm I'm not like I don't think I'm phobic about snakes But I'm certainly not a fan like I would not I'd not like seeing a big snake unexpectedly next to me on the green But it's almost like I'm trying to retrain my brain right now That if ice if I'm golfing with some buddies which by the way would never happen Have any buddies who golf but if I was and somebody said hey look out for that snake I'm trying to program my brain to remember in that moment that it's a prank because I think I would totally Scream start running from the snake think the snake was chasing me and then eventually tumble down a hill into a retention pond What happens commonly with this prank what I like about the prank is it seems like it's punching laterally Like it's another golf bro is getting kind of pranked by his golf bro buddies You know what I mean? So it seems like it seems like it's an in an acceptable range of pranking to me Here's where you're not taking this seriously enough. They are undoing Years Decades millennia Uh-huh of evolution because what you're trying to do already and you're not even on the links You're already trying to retrain your brain. Yes, so not be scared of snakes right? I mean It's what they call an evolutionary imperative and you're already like all right I'm gonna see a snake I'm not the result of it. I'm gonna run a resort to the hundreds of generations of people who are Right the only reason I'm here. What are we doing? No, you're absolutely right. You're this is a very dangerous precedent to say I need that fear that is gonna keep me alive. That's gonna keep Adi alive My fear of snakes which he's already in the world actually that one's fine But like yeah, okay, well um along with trying to retrain my brain around snakes. I have been I Don't know if you would call this retraining Andrew, but I have been basking in a sonic experience for this is about the last two weeks That is frankly threatening to get slightly out of control and what it is is I have on my phone one of these I have an app that is like a white noise App and really what it is its main functionality that I've known about because I've never paid for it I've never like it's $20 a year, but I've been just using the free version. It's called bedtime fan I'll show you I'm holding it up to the screen or you can kind of see it. Yeah, just looks like a big fan and then you've got Low medium and high fan sound and that's all that I've been using for years and years This has been a thing that like if I'm in a hotel room or even if I'm at my house. I'll just play that fan To sleep that noise of that fan and But also sometimes it would it wouldn't ever play a commercial like an audio commercial during the fan But every time I try to shut the app down it would try to make me watch a commercial or I wasn't getting Like the I wasn't getting the premium experience and then one day I was like, you know what this might be I use this thing seven like I use it like seven nights a week all year long Maybe I should spend 20 bucks and just have the full functionality And when I did that it unlocked this whole other like Series of sounds. Oh wonderful like that one I Well, it's actually let's see. It's not well. There's a library the ones that they the featured ones are ones called sooth One's called deep sleep one's called ultra relax and one's called healing calm and then there's like a you could hit Library and go into more of them you can't mix them can you the way I had that one where I could add a little bit more Rain on a tin roof and then add a little bit more ocean, but then back off You can mix them with the fan you can't mix them with each other although we did have that it was the calm app right I think that we did ads for maybe I had a different one that was like it was um it had dozens and dozens of different But you could compose your own Which landscape with these little sliders I was obsessed with it I've done that too and that's very very like also very soothing yeah But I just clicked speaking of sooth I just clicked kind of like at random on this sooth And when I tell you Andrew that I have been sleeping with us every night and now this is where it gets weird Also walking around with it in my ears. Yeah, like For sometimes like if I'm in the airport or just like kind of doing things It's it's very clearly something that is quieting something inside my brain. It's Like Like when I tell you I have been getting the best sleep of my life listening to this and that Again like sometimes I'll have so I bought these I also bought these um sleeping Ear buds because like when Becca and I were in Miami or if I'm over at her house or she's at my house I have to be hearing either my fan noise or this right but she does not like that sound Like she wants total silence and so what I've been doing For a long time now is using my traditional Like air pods, but there's two problems with that one is Uh They kind of hurt my ears after a while there they're you know They're not really designed for you to be lying on like crushing on into your ear if you're side sleeping And also they die and they're not they don't last for seven to eight hours or whatever and so I find myself constantly fudzing with them, which is like sometimes I'll sleep with one in my top ear And then when I'm when I start thinking I want to roll over so let's just say that my I'm on my right side So my left ear is the top ear that one will have an air pod in it And then when I want to roll over to my left side I'll literally have to switch air pods So then now the top side has a different air pod in it And while which has been charging if this makes any sense And now is sending that sound in my ear, but like the complexity of this move at three in the morning It's like it does not lead to restful sleep So I finally broke down and I bought these they're called Oslo And they are first of all they last for ten hours on a charge And they're teeny tiny they fit like they're like designed to be inside of like they don't stick out from your ear at all And I got these things going now and I got this crazy sood sound And I'm like sleeping sometimes I'm just here by myself and I'm sleeping with the sleep I have headphones in or whatever you call them with this thing going And I am like out man. I'm like it's like I'm a sleeping so hard like But also I worry I feel like you want to talk about evolution and fear of snakes I feel like it's taking an increase it's an increasing amount of technological intervention for me To have a satisfying night sleep. This feels like the opposite of like thorough or wall that who did Walden pond Is that thorough? Yeah, thorough. I feel like I feel like The most healthy way for me to be is to just lie In a quiet room when it's time to sleep and my mind calms itself and I go to sleep And that's the most restful sleep But for me it's like no I need this app now that I'm paying $20 a year for I need these expensive in-ear headphones It's like I'm I'm adding so much technology To try to solve for the fact that my brain is an unquiet place I'm trying to figure I'd never read Walden, but I read a play That was about Walden and I was trying to say I could find that it was a full-body kind of well-known right? I don't know if I maybe it wasn't read Walden, but I remember that play I feel like being kind of well received at around the time Maybe when you and I would have become sort of aware of play. I'm I'm yeah It's driving me a little bit bananas because you know what I had was I had somehow and I didn't steal it on purpose, but I had a One of those library books loop which I don't even know if library books still look like this But it's one of those that was like part of a maybe there was a bunch of them or something and they all just had This simple red binding like the library got it and then it put that really rough red binding on it with a very simple little name Played on the front of it and it just made the books kind of indestructible and every now and then some of those books Just got into the general water supply and then you have one at home and around here somewhere I have one of those books again now even just thinking about the binding on that makes me feel nostalgic for a different era But anyway, I'm sorry to go off I know the feeling that you're talking about I don't have The ability to listen to sound at night, but if I have those tiny As we've talked about you mean you don't technic you don't technologically have it But you if you had them you I would sure I would because I used to like to put it on you know Just open air put my phone on the end table or something And problem is now earbuds jack up my ears I've told you about it and I don't want to go into detail But I can't really put things in my ears because it'll yeah Really pay people who are lactose intolerant I don't understand what it's like when they're like well. I kind of want a I want ice cream now So I'm gonna I'm gonna eat it But then I'm gonna pay for it later and I've never like experienced that kind of thing But that is how I had been the past year too with earbuds like I just don't feel like taking my big headphones to the ballpark I can just wear my earbuds for just the bus trip down and then like for weeks and weeks later my ears are all jacked up So I'm like you wear your big over the ear ones you're fine inside the ear exactly it's a problem So now you understand why I can't even wear regular earbuds to bed and I'm certainly not aware of those big over the ear ones because I'm a side sleeper Like you so anyway, so I appreciate this I think that I would slip into this as well But it did remind me of one thing that I sort of noticed or maybe have slightly been noticing you mentioned that you listen to the sound when you're Just bopping around the house or maybe even the airport or what have you yeah On the airplane is a big one for me and one thing for me is I so I have over the ear headphones I like their pair of JBLs and they have pretty good noise Canceling I know that you always say the noise canceling doesn't do much but the technology has come a long way from those first noise canceling headphones And they're it's only getting better and of course these are over the ear Headphones so it really helps the noise cancelling and they they can also go into opposite mode where you turn on It's called like spatial mode or something. It's like kind of a safety mode so you can hear what's in front of you and behind you while you're listening to music Like you can hear better right? Yeah, they can turn into a little aid up source exactly It's almost like they have little microphones in there, but if you turn on that function And don't turn any and any music it just sort of amplifies the sound around you Well, I don't usually turn that function on but I usually have the the you know sound suppression on or whatever sound canceling if you will And I have found more and more often I put these on I power them on and then I go out of the house And then I'm walking to the like the barber on Friday or you know I'm taking my walk to the grocery store or whatever And I get to the place and I realize I never put on any music I just like wearing these things and having noise cancelling on which is weird because I don't if I'm going for a walk through the neighborhood I don't want noise cancelling I want to hear the dogs barking in the windshield and what have you But I'm not even thinking about it and then I'm getting to someplace and just like oh, I guess I just sort of Wear these they keep my ears warm and they cancel some noise around me And I just end up in my own little world and I'm not even listening to anything Yeah, I was just doing that with my Where was I I was somewhere in public But I had the air pods in with the intention of listening to something But then ever I never got around to choosing The thing to listen to including my soothe sound it wasn't even my soothe sound It was just nothing in my ears. I was just wearing them just walking around for like a Significant amount of time in the world and just didn't I was like I was too lazy to pick something to listen to and I was too lazy to take them out of my ears And also I don't know on a certain level. It's a and this is probably kind of anti-social, but it's like it is To quote the far side. It's it's nature's way of saying do not touch. Yeah, it's kind of like hey Everybody just kind of I mean less so than you're big over the ear ones, which is a hundred percent A way to like just let folks know hey, I'm I'm listening to something right now But in its own small way it's still just kind of saying like I'm in my own world And and I'd like to just mostly stay in that world right now. Yeah, you know that reminds me I was gonna Sorry, the something I've done me on the in the grocery store in Friday that I guess I would like your take on although maybe it's a little bit sensitive but You mentioning that having my over the year headphones on is a sign to the world that like I can't hear you And I will say there are times where I find myself walking and I don't have anything any sound going through my ears But somebody might be trying to get my attention But I don't care to stop and I just think like oh good. I can keep walking You know, maybe somebody wants a dollar at the side of the road or something like that And I just keep walking which really makes me sound miserly But that's what made me think about this interaction. I had at the grocery store on Friday, which I thought was kind of interesting I was doing my own thing at the grocery store. Oh my god You didn't your own research at the grocery store. What led into this was you know how I have a flabotumus that I don't like and I try to avoid him at all cost I saw my bad flabotumus in the grocery store almost bumped carts with them. I don't think stars No at the small cute. I always say small But it's the at the QFC on Holman road the Holman road. Yeah, and they're really arts family center And they do have sort of smaller aisles in there and some of the aisles have these big pillars in the middle of them So it's kind of it's I like that grocery store, but it's it's a little bit it can be a little bit cramped in the aisle sometimes and He did not look at me and if he had I don't think you'd have recognized me He also hasn't served me in a while because I go in there now and the one the in the woman Yes, if I'm holding a baseball the woman Natalie recognized me because I squeeze a baseball so that she can take my blood She's like I got you. She is she is amazing by the way She always looks out for me. I feel like she's my own little like Primes night and gale. Yeah, I was gonna say Yeah, what do you call an angel that looks over you? Guardian angel but any who's holes? Whereas the other guy was a hell's angel. He was a he was the angel. He was a son of a barger He uh, I uh, he was at He was at what the hell was the What Monterey he was at Monterey. I got the joke out of everybody Give him shelter that's right Cultural references from the That's my fault. I was trying to flex on remembering a famous hell's angel Sonny barger. I only knew about from the hunter S Thompson book wait no altmo Is it altmo altmo altmo altmo I still have to that movie was give me shelter right because the Rolling Stones were playing I don't know about the movie. I just know about the event where they hired the hell's angels security and the Rolling Stones plater whatever Oh my god What a tortured riff that was on me. Nobody would leave that in their show and we're leaving it in Nobody Please do Andrew Currently experimenting with ways to grow the audience and this might that could be it that could be our I'm streaming innovation. I'm screaming Monterey over here. Is if anybody has any idea what I'm talking about okay Anyway, so here's my screen in the he's in the qfc No, this isn't even my story by the way. No, I'm just so fascinating I'm blocking down this this kind of narrow aisle and all of a nice see my phlebotomist the one that I don't like I mean he's even my phlebotomist He's the phlebotomist that I avoid at lab core and so I'm like kind of shook I'm like oh my gosh. Yeah, it's like seeing your teacher in the store or something So you know me like I talk about this a lot. I'm very I'm very conscientious about like my place for my body and my heart in a grocery store like I don't want to be in somebody's way so I kind of move over to sort of the end cap of an aisle So I'm kind of in the main area, but I'm I'm tucked all the way As close to the aisle as I can be and I pull out my phone because I'm about to text Hannah Brooks And she knows about my phlebotomist about the phlebotomist. Yeah, I'm just so yeah, I like to picture him Standing in front of like the the section which has all the canned peaches and he keeps pulling different cans of peaches But they're all wrong, but he's blaming the peaches It's somehow their fault that he cannot he cannot secure the proper can of peaches, but it's definitely their fault Yes, exactly So no, he's just we pass each other and I'm near the end So I kind of took a left and I parked my cart right in front of I want to say like the the tortillas or something like that or the pita bread or something And the end cap there and so and then I pull out my phone and I start texting Hannah and somebody behind me in a very a woman's voice kind of a very small sort of meek voice with this A bit of an accent although I don't know what kind of accent Says oh excuse me excuse me and I'm like oh shoot and so now I just in an instant I'm telling you a story that all of this is taking place in about 30 seconds by the way in an instant I feel terrible because I've been caught standing in somebody's way blocking them from the pita bread while I'm on my phone Which is like that's a bad look so I'm like oh my gosh, I'm so sorry So I push my card up a little ways and then I go to text Hannah again. She's like no no excuse me And I realized oh she wants to talk to me and it's it's a woman um, who's like kind of you know, I would just say like a Finally dressed woman not like she doesn't look like she's like living on the streets But she also doesn't look like a rich person. She just looks like a person and she's got her little daughter there And she just like gestures down to her grocery card and says like can you help me buy this stuff? Oh and and I was kind of like and I could I'm also like Look, I had just seen my phlob bottom is in the grocery store like I'm already shook I'm trying to text this. I thought I was in somebody's way So I'm shook about that and now I realize oh wait, I'm talking to this person and honestly like if somebody is struggling If I can buy them groceries, I feel like there's a very direct action you can take you know, they mean like I'm like Yeah, I'd be open to helping somebody buy groceries for sure But I'm also like in the moment. I'm kind of like well, I gotta I gotta get the hold of Hannah She's got to know about the phlob bottom of the situation. Yes And also I don't know what that's gonna run and then also what is I'm nearing the end of my grocery shopping So what are we gonna go up together and at first I'm picturing like yeah, I guess follow me up to the store But all of these thoughts are just passing me really passing through my head very quickly So I just looked down and I'm I always look grumpy when I'm surprised So I'm sure I looked really grumpy and I look down in her cart, which isn't moderate. I don't know it had some I don't know look like maybe some deli meats in there something else um And I'm like oh wait you need help buying this she's like yeah, I'm like all of this she's like yeah this I'm just like And then I just gave her 20 bucks. I was like I don't know what to do with this situation right now I don't mind helping somebody buy groceries and But then also in the back of your head is kind of like I also Is this I don't like to go through my world thinking like oh somebody's trying to scam me I feel like an absolute scam you know, this is a known thing see and then I thought though Oh is there somebody else is she working on behalf of somebody else who scamming folks? But then I was like you know what I just don't want to I just I just dismissed it. I'm like I'd rather be I'd rather have a little itch in the back of my head being like I don't know somebody scam me out of $20 and it wasn't for groceries Versus I turn my back on somebody who might have needed help for groceries. I was like it is what it is I'm not gonna be the dollar it's a $20 tax on being Out in the world and the various random things that might happen But what is the actual scam that you well there's I always just read so actually yesterday Becca and I were we're driving around Portland and we we had noticed that there's been a pretty large influx of folks that are You know at the freeway off ramps and it's almost always a mother and one to two children and they've got a sign and it's it's It's something that we weren't seeing a lot of in the area Kind of where she lives and now you're seeing it more and it feels like it's not a coincidence And then I was doing a little like in other words It's it's very likely the result of sort of like a group of folks who will kind of kind of move into an area And then disperse themselves to various points and do some panhandling and do some other things to to sort of like you know Generate money and there was a Seattle Times story about this not that long ago our children being used for panhandling and Again, I know the top is a topic is extremely fraught But I think that it's not a random coincidence that in a certain area you will start to see Uh a significant number of particularly kind of young women with their children who are doing some form of panhandling I think it's part of a coordinated effort and I don't think it's George Soros But yes this and this is a real question kind of puts you on the spot But I I should do some more reading about this because I will say in the I can't I can't stress enough It's kind of like I don't like going through the world. I feel like I kind of grew up in this Every panhandlers a scam or something you know what I mean like and like oh you got scammed and first I don't like the feeling of getting scammed and I think that maybe like I feel like as a kid who is very shy and often maybe take an advantage of by his peers Like I'd never like the feeling of one pulling something off or pulling something over on me sort of and so and I think that when this was happening I'm like oh this feels scammy to me like it felt scammy in the moment But also I'm but my thought was kind of like but What what is the difference between a scam and somebody? Yes applying good techniques for asking for money when they need it so in other words I would only consider to scam if this money is going to somebody who doesn't actually need money You know what I mean like where if this is this a coordinated effort where the money is going up to some rich kingpin or some sort of like drug related thing or Is there human trafficking involved or are there things like that I should know about or was it just people who are like I just sort of think like if you're spending your time going through a grocery store asking people for money That's not raising that much money at the end of the day. You must need it right like what I agree with you It comes down to the nature. Yes. I don't think again I don't think that that there is a In other words, I think that that $20 in one way or another ultimately would go to house and or feed This this woman her family, etc My guess would be that the likelihood is that this woman and her family live in a Like a rented home or apartment somewhere with some other folks who are part of the same project This is sometimes also associated with this I kind of I got to give him credit a genius scam where people will stand in a parking lot playing like the most incredible Electrified violin ever see Yes, we had it plugged into anything and then now the move is people will come up and like Like unplugged the violin and the music keeps going like this And so Yeah, I don't think it's like I don't think the money is going to drugs or whatever I don't think that the money is I don't know enough about this the system of where the money goes But I do think I think basically what it is is a group of folks and I'd be very delicate with how I'm talking about this Because it's an underlying point of this that I don't really want to weigh in on a get into But it is I think a group of folks Who this is the way in this particular kind of a group of people that typically Folks raise money and it's through some panhandling. It's through some stuff like what's going on there But it is literally to pay the bills or to get food or shelter. So it's not like it's again It raises the question of like is it a scam when really the money? It I don't know if the money is going to buy those groceries What's going to buy groceries probably you know It's going to some fun when as itself check out then I looked over and I saw her again and her card had a lot more stuff in it And again, I was kind of like I don't know and I guess I only feel Like again, some listeners are probably listening and just thinking like what a what an absolute rub Others know I don't think that's the most rude thing you could have done But it's just kind of honestly I just at the end of the day Whenever I have any interaction like that it always it always leaves me a little bit unsettled sort of like What any interaction that I guess I would describe is I don't fully understand what just happened. Yeah But all I thought about later was oh yeah that thing but I'm like, well Rather air on the side of caution for that because right now I'm in a position that I can give a woman $20 and think say lovey, you know Like I could have spent that $20 on pull tabs, you know Yes, and I didn't and so and again, I'm not trying to make it sound like I'm daddy war bucks over here And I'm just like throwing money around but also I spend a lot of money on a lot of dumb stuff that is incredibly fleeting So if I can give it to somebody who can help in some way and you know again The only thing that would bother me would be if this woman and her child were somehow victims Who were being sent out to collect money that would be a problem for me That's how this particular system works My guess would be that that money is going to go back into some sort of general account Either within her immediate family structure and and cultural structure or a slightly larger one But it is ultimately going to pay for For things for living expenses and things like that So like I don't think that I haven't read anything about it be about it being a kind of a human trafficking Sort of a deal and also Yeah, I feel like I feel like Um What I wanted to say was like I definitely do not buy into the idea that people who are Generally speaking asking for money are scammers, you know, you mean like it's a real specific It's down to the way the signs are filled out Andrew like literally the sign the particular kind of sign that a person who's part of this Movement will be holding at the off ramp of the freeway is it's like specifically written It's a whole thing that you can kind of track most you see somebody and they're standing there on the side of the free You know on the off ramp or on ramp or whatever and they're holding a sign or as it's called flying a flag 99% of those people are just trying to get you know a little food or a little something or just a couple bucks in their pocket for whatever it is They're using it for like yeah, I definitely do not subscribe to the idea that there are some kind of vast conspiracy of panhandler You know like that the people most of the people that I see in the world who appear to be suffering I think are really suffering and and so I'm not trying to sound like I think that there's this Vask and spirits I think there's one this one arm of it that is much more targeted and much more kind of like systematic And I'm guessing that that's the arm of it that you were interacting with it felt like I gotta say like in that moment I was like this isn't I just had a feeling it wasn't really like Well the fact that you saw her later with more groceries in the car right, but that could just I mean yeah like what is it yeah, but also like what does that mean? But is it still going towards groceries like for me would be like She has to help buying groceries and I'm like okay I can assess the situation here so many for groceries like again I guess I'm repeating myself here, but it was kind of like oh and there's somebody outside in a limousine and they're just gonna Shatter send her back and forth and she keeps bringing money out and then they're going to I don't know like yeah I don't think it's bad you certainly don't get into the policing of like because I'm actually trying to look for that Seattle Times article you're talking about and I can't find it, but I'm finding articles are like letters to You know advice columnists like how can I say no to a panhandler and explain it to my child and it just Basically the tone of a lot of these things I'm just kind of like I'd rather be a bit of a rub Then be one of these people who like sort of feel like look at these poor people taking advantage of us again Like I don't know what's going on with these folks. I don't care if that's gonna go Oh did that go towards some sort of in-app purchase for a game for the child and look what they're doing They're taking our money for groceries and and they're buying more virtual coins with it in a game called royal kingdom Which is just if you've been seeing all the ads for royal kingdom lately. It doesn't matter point is I don't know what that money went to but I don't think that anybody's getting a rich off of me No, I don't I don't think that it's I think it's somewhere between Like it's somewhere between the most legit thing I've ever seen and also like Some kind of a heinous scam that is you know Causing people to have you know limousines and drive off to big mansions, you know in the hills I think it's somewhere in between I think it's I think it's a way of of getting money that that this particular group of folks At least that you ran into I'm looking at these are older stories but like from the Bay area From a few years ago for some bark panhandlers begging is their job If you've commuted in the Bay Area rapid transit you've likely seen them women with babies begging for money The women are often seen swaying precariously on the rolling bar train baby strap to their chest approaching riders with the cardboard Signs such as no job before kids. Please help for food Etc. Etc. Like I think it's pretty it's sort of noticeable in a particular community when there's more folks kind of following this Kind of script or whatever if you will and then there was before and then my sense is that at some point That kind of moves on to somewhere else who knows but yeah I'm with you that at the end of the day if if the big knock on me was I was slightly a softer touch than I could have been I can live with that over I went through the world Thinking everyone was out to get me and I was gonna make sure to hold on to mine And make sure nobody got over me that's I think that's a much worse way to go through life This is such an unbelievably like Maybe liberal cuck way to look at things but like if not me who Like even like you just sort of said are you on the upto date? You just said like For like panhandling is the job or you didn't say that I think you're quoting the newspaper or something But point is like and when I think about that I'm but but I'm also like yeah But it's probably as you can't get a better job. It's like it's still not a good job That's what I'm always thinking I'm just like yeah, but it's like this You're not pulling one over on me because look at this guy cushy life standing along the freeway in the winter In Seattle with just buckets of rain falling on him and a soggy cardboard sign It's like oh look at this scammer. It's like well. That's not a good job Like this is what spurred the entire conversation yesterday with Becca and I which was we were getting off the free We're going on our way to go take a walk in the Mount Taber area of Portland And as we were exiting there was a woman and her two children With the particular kind of sign that I sort of recognized from other similar scenarios And we we went and we we had our whole walk it was a good beautiful Sunday finished got back in the car drove back and Got on the freeway where we got off the freeway same woman was there with her kids and I thought you know I was saying to Becca I wonder I wonder what this woman's actually able to bring in standing here for for these hours because it seems like a really A really hard way to generate whatever amount of money is generating and like if if I were her and I could snap my fingers I think I'd rather be going to a job on Monday morning that earned enough money to put a roof over our heads and feed us and spend this Sunday walking around Mount Taber Park with my kids Because it's a lovely Sunday like so yeah, I'm with you like the idea that like getting over by panhandling It's like I will I'll tell you what that's that sounds like a worse job to me. Yeah Then most of the normal jobs that are out there and and so I'm with you that it's like how it's maybe it's a quote-unquote scam But it is I would imagine that the the time investment in it and the way that you're in erupts What are the fun parts of life aka a Sunday afternoon in the park Seems to me like not worth the trade How much should I have given my phlebotomist? Well, okay, let's get back to that problem What if you just fully what if I saw her in the parking lot later like handing a wad of that will check out bottom is that would check out So you just like fully ducked him and your guys as pads never crossed no it was one of those so I always described the This specific part of this grocery store has these aisles just typical grocery aisles But like I say a little bit narrower and for some reason they have these load bearing beams right in the middle of this one I that's where you get the ketchup I think and so it's always awkward You can just barely pass a grocery cart on one side of it and maybe a grocery cart and a half on the other and so I come and it's always a little bit awkward So I'm I'm kind of leaving the the alley or the I'm sorry the aisle then he's coming into the aisle So he squeezes on a one side of the pillar ice squeeze on the other side of the pillar when we pass each other But he never looked at me and like I said even if he had I don't think you would have recognized me He he cuts a very specific figure. He's a he's a very short guy who's still wearing his like black scrub Do I remember a ponytail involved? No male pattern baldness. Maybe I just added that to a grumpy face a very grumpy face Well, that's also one of those things where it's like to think about how much larger he looms in your mind than you do Yeah, it's kind of wild too, right? It's like he's just He's just you know, he's just at work probably with untreated depression Just like doing his thing most days and has no idea That how unpleasant you found the experience of working with him was to the point where you've now created a whole non-verbal communication pattern right He like some with the other people that work there and he's just going through his life, you know buy his groceries or whatever There was no idea that like that like The yeah, he he looms so large in your mind. I have decided that the next time I am accidentally called because if Natalie isn't working the front desk and I like I've decided that The next time because I get my blood drawn so much drawing your own blood in the parking lot. Yes, exactly I'm just gonna go with the bag of blood Let's have a look at the block of your own blood. Do you remember that tic-toc name because I know a lot of people were I don't know how I happen to catch this tic-toc or one I thought I was watching the original but it turns out I was watching like somebody lip syncing to the original audio as is off in the case but just like a woman like slamming into her car and like outside of a blood bank somewhere just saying they keep on saying you need blood I offer blood and they know what you holds up a big bag of blood I did not I've no one with that name Thank you baby Hey, let's thank some donors These are folks who are sending in a donation to tbtl either on the monthly basis or maybe at fun time that is really the financial basis of this show if not for our donors there would be no tbtl This is a hundred percent listener supported and it's thanks to folks like Jesse LaPage In Cincinnati, Ohio it's our pal Jesse hey enjoy a euhenio sora's gonna say incoming your way you got good vibes in coming And by the way may and Jesse I offer this I mean yes, it helps that you're a donor and a long time friend of the show yes But I would say this even if you weren't May you get the best version of a euhenio sora's from the plate let me you get the a euhenio sora's who does not Frequently fall behind in the count oh two Like I hope you get the diamondbacks version of him And also Congratulations on cintoss I just realized last year that cintoss is from sin Sinati that's where the sin is I think so because watching I was thinking about the reds and I was watching a Mariners game but they were in cintinati and there were like advertisements up in the bleachers like not the digital ones But actual real it's funny that now we have to say I was watching a baseball game But I saw real ads not the ones that are super imposed on the field But I saw a bunch of what's the toss for pardon me what's the I know that to sin toss toss wiki I'm good wiki it up. It's got I don't know if I double check this but I got to be right I gotta be right that's my new country it says okay Let's see the early company years it was it began as the acme industry laundry company um And then yeah, let's see It's associate is it is based in Ohio by the way Uh, let's see I'm trying to get to the okay, it's yeah, cuz mason oh, I'll but I think mason is right outside of the suburb of cintinati maybe Let me do a little check here I'm trying to get to the I'm trying to get to the toss of it all because the sin makes perfect sense We used to get when I worked at a plumbing company In high school sin toss did your dad Avail did wall manufacturing use sin toss. Oh, yeah, I still have my sin toss Uniform shirt one of them this is andy on it We've talked about that like I had I paid for a sin toss Uniform that said Luke out of my own pocket when I worked at the plumbing place Wow, because I thought because that was right at that moment where that look was They were awesome in style. I would wear my shirt sometimes out because it was my work shirt It was okay. Yeah, so it's just northeast of sin s and adi but like you say probably they were totally I remember at this you know at this plumbing company they'd come around because all the real plumbers Just had their like grubby sin toss, you know Uniform that they'd like wear while they were crawling around in muck andy do frame style Calling through a mile of shit and then they'd just like throw him in some kind of a thing And then put on their clean one and then the new one would come back cleaned and I was like, yeah, what's the What's the policy on the shop guy which was my job getting one and they're like why would you need one? And I was like, I don't know what could I pay for it? And they're like, I guess yeah But you did not take advantage of the the laundry service though right you were walking no Because I didn't do enough of the actual real grunt work, you know, I was sitting in a basement Cleaning you want to talk about a scam. I was sitting in a basement cleaning plumbing fittings That were harvested off of job sites and that should have just gone into the recycler or the trash But we're being used on new plumbing projects. Yeah, it was a real New wine in old wine skins type of situation. I mean some of those are reusable like that was my job It would be like the guys would come back from Jobs at the some jobs site where they're building something and I sometimes my job mostly with bolts and fasteners and stuff And then I left it like put them in order and organize them on this wall of bolts Which as you would guess really spoke to me But also sometimes I'd have to go back into the pipe room and do the same thing You got you know a three quarter inch elbow or whatever you kind of like your back a little peach wrap But I don't feel but these were you know things for the Machines that this company was building and so they screwing themselves if they were using bad parts I guess totally this would be like a bunch of like copper elbow pieces that had been cut off Oh shoot and now we're gonna just be like I we would clean them and throw them in a pile and then it'd be like Well, we can torch we can basically weld this back on to a new job A new job site kind of a deal or whatever and it was very pacifian because The pile we would we'd sit there all day listening to David Bowie changes Bowie Um and and make the pile of the ones we had to clean out We would make that pile smaller because we would clean these things and then move them into these different kind of containers And then we'd go home and then the plumbers would come home from whatever the job will come back to the shop And then we'd come in the next morning and the pile would be the same size. Oh, yeah Just like you get the pile kind of smaller and then you come back and then the pile is grown again That's right you worked for Cicaphyan plumbing. I did yeah sure did Thanks also to Denise stock who's in export Pennsylvania. Oh nice export. We got a call the other day from somebody from media and didn't say media Pennsylvania and it was just like hi, this is Jane from media. It wasn't Jane. I'm blanking in your name. Sorry Uh, and it took me a while to figure out what media meant and export is in the same way right You kind of got to say the name of the state when you say it well except I feel like you've got three You got three names in Pennsylvania. I'm sorry. I just talked about this So I won't belabor this But you've got three places in Pennsylvania that I feel pretty confident if you just say the first name If you just say the first I know we're talking PA media would be one export and of course the third in the holy Trinity is intercourse intercourse media and export I'm I'm I'm Pretty much I know what you're talking about upon first reference as it were now those are are those all PA or those are just all cities that you know where they are I think those are all PA because I was gonna throw an industry as well, but that's California. Sure. Well, yeah, yeah city of industry Yeah, which is a which is a crazy name too. Thank you Denise. Thanks to Joey Capotia of Kilauea Hawaii. All right Must be nice there our friend broadcast Barry spends a significant amount of time over that way and This time of year I have to say it drives a wedge in our friendship when I see what his life and Sam's life looks like Compared to my life. Yeah, but you know they're they're working there. They're working. I know listen It's all like I just you know It's they're right to to spend significant time in a warmer climate But it's also this is how the first amendment works Andrew. Uh-huh It's Barry's right to post that stuff on Instagram and it's my right to resent him So I was a little should we talk about Barry here for a second or should we just move on it's going on with breaking Barry news Well, I was just a little confused about your text message with him this weekend But it was also a private text message so I'm trying to take you back So you were saying on the show a while back something that a phenomenon a cultural phenomenon that I was unfamiliar with About Sasquatch being sort of co-opted by the right sort of you said you'd see like kind of big trucks or sort of maga Coded things, but then you would see a Sasquatch given a piece symbol or a rock and roll symbol or something of the back hair in the US flag It's like it's basically like in the way I think about the movie Rambo. Okay. I am I was and and that's like it's basically like a kind of a person who's been Who's been mistreated by his government and now is just like is just a sort of the ultimate libertarian Just wants to be left alone is generally peaceful But will push back if provoked and they've overlaid the sort of John Rambo character on to Sasquatch like Sasquatch You know is and and that to me it's not exactly maga, but it's anti-government. It's kind of right It's right wing coded to me. I mean Rambo was literally just walking through a town when they decided that he was some sort of some sort of Yeah, like Not hippie scum, but sort of wanderer scum and so you understand why he'd be yeah Why he'd be suspicious of the government so I almost like don't think of Rambo I would think of like I guess my problem with Rambo like first blood is sort of like I feel like there's a really big difference between The character of John Rambo and first blood and then what the culture took away from Rambo, you know, and what ends up becoming to what Rambo ends up becoming in that series is much more sort of like what you describe But the first are you saying it doesn't get more nuanced as the As the various Seacoles and and three quills roll in where they eventually send him back to Russia. No to not oh not goes back to Yeah, I forgot I was confusing it by the way, okay. Yeah, so anyway Not to nitpick on that, but anyway, so so Barry sends us a photo this weekend And it is what you're describing like Sasquat It's like an image on the back of somebody spare tire on like the back of a Jeep or something Yeah, like this is our this is the lift that came to pick us up when we called a car And it's like, you know, a silhouette of a Sasquatch giving a rock a roll symbol holding a big American flag or whatever But Barry said he asked the lift driver about you know Whatever small talk and it sounds like this person was not in like that maga coded thing right He's sort of sounded more like a hippie lifestyle thing so and you said Oh, see this is what I'm talking about and I was like oh is this what you're talking about or is it just like is this Sasquatch imagery a big tent I would say it's probably it's probably a larger tent Then I'm then I had perceived it to be or given it credit for I think also this has to do with attitudes and latitudes Two of the things that we talk about the most on this show now Andrew. I think meeting this guy in Hawaii Because I believe he was their uber driver in Hawaii. I could see this so this guy and and just to be specific about what Barry said He said he was the nicest dude laid off from his job during the pandemic grew a beard describes himself as a hippie bought a sailboat that he's fixing up and also lives on I could see that guy Who's let's just I'm gonna guess maybe sort of a political Just kind of wants to live on his boat and and and grow his beard and whatever I could see this Sasquatch thing appealing to him I think where I live there's fewer of that dude So the guys around where I live that embrace it are more like I see them driving not so much jeeps But like big lifted trucks. Yes, and so I think I'm seeing the more I'm seeing the more kind of like at least in my perception kind of Right wing leaning or maga leaning version of the guy who thinks this this Sasquatch is cool And there's probably like guys in Hawaii that Barry's seeing who that's not Their interpretation of they think this Sasquatch is cool, but not for the same reasons as the guys who lived on the street for me Right, right so anyway, it is a bigger tent that is a big complicated tent But all of it has to do with maybe maybe seeing yourself as somebody who's not necessarily in the mainstream That's it. I think that's the that's the through line and you're right about that like somebody who feels like Maybe the mainstream is not really for them and for whatever reason they feel that way this appeals to them a little bit But it is a big tent just like TB chill. It's a tent that's Got room for everybody even people from Wellington, New Zealand Which is where Deborah Quinn is checking in from today one of our donors Thank you Deborah. Thanks Deborah. I appreciate that from all the hope Hope things are treating you. It's New Zealand there. They're also in they're in summertime They're in the absolute thick of it right now probably I'm looking up a weather right now. I bet you it's I bet you it is It's toasty in New Zealand. It's fair. It's 62 degrees. Well, what time is it though? Oh, it's 8 a.m. In the morning So well, okay. Yeah, what's the what's it gonna do today here? It's gonna go up to 68 by 3 p.m And you're sure that's and that's Fahrenheit. That's not Celsius. I am looking. Let me see it does say fair in height Okay, okay, wow maybe I guess New Zealand may not have the same Climate is Australia. I do seven them. Celcius. That would be a me. Oh God broiling Um, yeah, I guess I I because they're geographically somewhat close to each other I would figure they have similar weather patterns, but they probably don't I saw It was 113 Fahrenheit in Melbourne what a week or two ago and and so I guess I assumed everything on that side of the world was roasting I'm sorry Deborah. I'm just confused because now it's 53 degrees in Melbourne too So they might just be going through a bit of a cold spell, but it is Let's see here. Yeah, it looks like Yeah, no, Australia is warmer. It's gonna get up to 86 tomorrow. But anyway, um, I just hope everybody's doing well That's exactly what I'm thinking. Deborah, thank you. I'm the part of the show where I speculate on New Zealand weather I just hope everybody's having a good time Actually, that kind of gets into Andrew after we get on with the donors. I'll just uh, we can talk about secret mall apartment later I'll throw down what's been going on in the family text chain. It actually involves New Zealand So this is kind of foreshadowing thanks Deborah for that. Thank you for that Convenient transition into the the the rest of the show. Thanks also to Mike Krascha of Western Springs, Illinois Any are you curious as to what the weather is like there? Oh, I don't I don't have to be curious. I know it be cold It be 27 degrees. Yes, yes chilly out there in Western Springs. So hope you're staying warm Mike Thanks then also to justice gruno Up there in Thunder Bay, Ontario another place That I figure is probably on the colder side right now thunder Yeah, but should that'll give what bay is that is that lake Ontario presumably it's got to be a great lake right a great lake that goes 12 degrees in Thunder Bay That's Canadian though. That is famous. Oh, is that what the sea stands for? Yeah, 12 degrees Canadian exactly f stands for fanadian Yes, exactly. Maybe that's the show title. I don't know. Thank you justice. Thank you to all of our donors We really could not do TV tell without you Hello, and welcome to top story um actually Andrew. I was gonna explain in extremely What complicated terms that would be no help to our listeners Um about the visuals of a text message chain, but you've actually been on one of these chains I don't know if you could see it though because of the difference in your phone and my phone Did you notice anything in the criminals during the NFC championship game that negatively impacted your ability to participate in the text chain? I did not personally, but I now know what you're talking about because I was with a couple of the fun loving criminals in a person to watch that last game The championship game criminal in question exactly including your brother David from the basement and Camaro kev And Camaro kev was complaining about not being able to read the text messages on the chain anymore because of a background image That your brother David said uh, yeah, I did that and I'm like look at my phone and mine just still looked exactly like it always did With just a plain background with bubbles on it That I've never been more envious of you and your samsung galaxy because yeah day they're in the somehow in the um The latest iPhone update it allowed you and we're talking the other day about how you are officially the administrator of the tvt email account like if I need help from you it goes through you yes the book stops with you Somehow david is the administrator of both the criminals and hawk squad and how do I know this? It's because Clearly on the morning he learned he could do this which is Make the entire background of my phone screen when I was on hawk squad or criminals a random photo Which I understand In theory is fun and in fact he was doing a fun visual joke on the criminals what it was was that kind of a extreme close-up of John Ryan our punter throwing a touchdown in the NFC championship game off of a fake field goal where It worked he got the ball to our of the guy whose name is now eluding me at the moment Terry something or other It was a successful throw but in the in the throwing of the ball John Ryan looked about as uncomfortable as I've ever seen someone on a field throwing an NFC ball his tongue his tongue came waggle it out He's making the face I would make if they can't as me a football and said try to throw a touchdown You know So it's an incredible photo, but what it meant was I could not for the life of me I'm already struggling with like eyesight I was at the Warby Parker at the mall yesterday Andrew trying to see if I can get this figured out They weren't taking walk-ins for the optometry, but anyway I can't see for shit anymore and uh that John Ryan was killing me But I also thought I was funny, but also was trying to be go with the flow I didn't know if other people liked or didn't like it. I didn't want to weigh in But then the same thing happened on hawk squad because david's also the admin on that and he made that into some Photo of a shire in New Zealand that he and my dad had been to At a guide I just like Could not for the life of me Read anything, but again. I didn't want to I didn't want to be like Knit picking and or if everybody else was enjoying it I didn't want to I didn't want to like ruin it for other people if they were liking looking at the shire But finally, I'm just gonna be honest what happened back and I were in Miami We went out for dinner. I had a few small beers and I think I finally just hit my I was at my limit And so so basically this was the chain of events on the hawk squad so So people were starting to comment on the background photo and saying like they thought it was Cool or interesting or how did we do it? Oh, so my sister Hannah posted a picture of one of my nieces at a protest at one of the anti-ice protests And this was my response again, but you shared a photo though, right? Didn't change the background just shared a photo She didn't change the background. She shared a photo of of our niece the participating in an important social movement And my response was I said love to see it unrelated. We have to change the background's green I can't see these messages to save my life And then thankfully it was changed and then David said I get it you guys just all hate seeing the beautiful memories that our father and I shared together Because David and my dad went to a New Zealand together on a fun trip many years ago And then my dad goes oh that's where the picture came from I thought my late at my latest iOS update was messing with me because I saw Loader last week in the theater my dad's theory was that he had been he had attended Lord of the Rings in person And that had led his phone to change the photo behind hawk squad to something related to New Zealand Can I now I'm going to say something as if I'm right about it But I'm learning about this on the fly. Yeah, so I could be wrong But when you said that David is the admin of both of these I was like well That's a hell of a coincidence Maybe it's just that David is the only person who looked up how to do this So I just googled can anybody on a text chain in an iPhone change the background image and everything seems to point to yes The AI overview is telling me yes, and now I'm on the iPhone support guide adding messages I'm sorry adding backgrounds and messages on iPhones. It says other people in the conversation can see the background on their devices and Can change the background for the group. How about I mean, I know you like interactive radio and maybe this is just boring people to tears What if I walk you through changing that to something else right now on the fly now do you want to read it or on the criminal whatever you want I don't listen. I don't want to be no but but I hate these background things so you want to read a lot of plane I can get it through there. It isn't in plain. It's in we're in plain mode now. Oh, he took it He took it off he was David is David is a meant she was having fun. He immediately despite his Pretend protestations he returned it to normal Whatever white background mode or whatever you would call what about criminals is that still Criminals is back to normal too. We've we've like the the the balance of the universe has been restored And I don't wouldn't it be funny though if you the person who can play that suddenly just popped up on everybody's phone with a close-up of nobody Except David will even know about this conversation and he won't know about it for possibly days. Yes It'd just be me jumping into the house. Mate, let me consider it But the rest of this this is when I started to just go from like kind of a funny whatever oddity to a truly Andrew I would call it outsider art. Okay, so My my dad said my dad thought that the background had changed because he attended a Screening of Lord of the Rings which would be like insane if his phone was listening to that degree My mom or excuse me my sister Liz ever the supportive one said I'm very impressed with your text skills Dave me ever the reproachful one said David lost his damn mind is what happened absolute power corrupts Absolutely because I thought David was the admin. Yeah, I didn't realize that anybody could do this and then David Then change the background photo to a photo of his daughter Gemma and you said take that luca you're having a hard time reading that now. I love that from him I was wondering when I had a I had a feeling Gemma was gonna enter this chat So now we're looking at Gemma's adorable face, but by the way it continues to confound me when it comes to the reading because the problem is It's too much other stuff going on that's competing with the text no matter what the photo is unless it's a photo of like a white Dinner plate or something. It's always gonna have too much going on. So then I said to David I'm skipping ahead some messages. I said since apparently we're just posting our children now post this one David I dare you then I included a picture of Addy from when she was a little kid which to his credit David did post Okay, so now we're again, it didn't fix the visuals, but now the background photo is Addylade then my mom Just post a random picture of my dad kind of Confusedly not smiling but holding his mouth open and she says your dad has a sweet smile back Thanks to our local dentist worth it And what it took me like the better part of the afternoon to figure out was this was the evidence that my dad has just had like Some dental work done where he's had basically permanent implants replacing what used to be his kind of like partial You stuff to kind of put some part of his teeth in and out And I always knew Like like when remember when we we hung out with Chris Hayes at town hall Yeah, and we went and we got dinner later you and Genevieve and I but um my parents came backstage before the show I know my dad was like showing up and showing out when he had his full complement of Oh Because he wouldn't do it like if we're just here working on the house. Uh-huh He's like whatever. Yeah, and he doesn't have he's he's fortunate in that the teeth that that that he sort of was using like a Denture bridge with we're not like his front teeth. They were kind of side teeth Those are now legit. Uh-huh. He's got those all filled in nice So then somebody then Decides to make the entire background the new entire background Is now a photograph that is a picture of Addy With this photo of my dad showing off his dentures over Addy's body That's now the new background. So somebody is actually in Fenty Mirror. Yeah. Oh, okay. They have a Photoshop just head under her body or something No, they just screen capped. Oh, I see I see double layered image of like Addy in the background with now like grandad showing off his dentures This pretty funny. That's that's been that's been screen capped and made the background of the whole thing I wrote someday uh- years from now scientists will study this photo. We just ended up with like 30 layers of photos that were being photographed or they're being screen capped and then made the background photo until Eventually, uh, we just had to delete the entire hawkswad and none of us have been on it since we ruined it We've uploaded it now to super fun site just burned it down If you want to know where my sister Hannah fits into the discourse Hannah also ever the supportive one Chimes in and says it's been a challenging and emotional several weeks for our country This quote utter visual confusion brought a smile to my face This and the hawks going to the Super Bowl exo exo nice So at least it all made made Hannah's Sunday. So that's really what can now what you need is to Change the background yourself so that it's a photo of leap day Williams Hahaha Swatly that it gets the joke with your dad's new chompers. Yes over her face. Yes Apparently The new chompers might lead to a reduction in Sagar smoking oh Because he doesn't want to ruin him He doesn't want to what he said to me he was because he was considering you know Taking the leap day William on this taking the leap and paying a lot of money for my mom and dad, right? Yeah to Permanently replace these teeth that had been that were pulled at one point and he was replacing with a with a partial Bridge and he said if I go ahead and do that no more on the cigars So I'm not gonna spend all that money and then smoke the cigars. So I am like You know pretty psyched about that it will find out You know if in whenever the next time my parents come down and stay with me as we'll see if he's sticking to that or not Because he definitely loved his cigars. They were definitely his big reward. He looked forward to But this will be the test of if he was truly addicted to them or just You know they were they were optional as I just say I don't think nicotine's addictive So mind over matter thing Well, he also I feel like the last couple times he was here He also was smoking fewer cigars because he just didn't Have as many or something like it was it's kind of I do think he my dad has as far as I can tell a Highly non-addictive personality like when my when my mom got sober He just like just like no more beers for him ever and he didn't seem to miss it one bit You know even though they had kind of become you know they had enjoyed their Costco wine They would buy and he'd have like a Henry wine hearts when he was out there grilling and stuff But it seemed like that was no trouble for him to walk away from So I'm hoping that the cigars are the same thing just for his long-term health Do you know that I've been having cigarette cravings more now than I can remember having except for when I first quit smoking now that I don't know how long I go I quit smoking I'm almost wondering if I could look it up on my calendar because I quit smoking because I had You know they found some stuff on my tongue that was troubling and they had to have it removed and it wasn't cancer But it wasn't good and yeah, and so that scared the living hell out of me So I quit so if I went to my calendar I could probably maybe find that doctor's appointment that surgery date or dates Because I think I had to go in a couple of times and it was very unpleasant as you recall But that must have been at least eight years ago I think right like it's been a while If not a decade it's more than five years. I feel like and You know for the most part it was hard to kick it But I smoked by this point, you know Probably on average round five cigarettes an evening or something You know, maybe weekends hanging out with people I would smoke more than that maybe other nights I would smoke less than that, but you know Let's just say that I'm smoking a couple of packs of cigarettes a week or something like that and It sucks to quit But I did it pretty supposedly that's like one of the hardest things to quit people say yeah And then and I didn't really think about it too much now I do have like a little vape pen that has like literally the lowest level of nicotine in it possible And I hardly ever use it I just sort of have it and it's not like one of those things that you see to everybody now with these big pink things that are gripped like I have a old-fashioned little one that I can refill. I don't even know if I if I run out of the juice on this I don't even know if they would make it anymore because it was so low level, you know But it's definitely that for me is definitely more of a of a mental thing I just like to have that thing in case suddenly I want to start smoking again or something But that's not usually the case But the point is I don't know if it's because I've been reading books where people smoke a lot like both of the the longest book I just finished and the one I'm reading now they're smoking all the time been watching a lot of black and white movies Or at least I was over the holidays a lot of smoking in those and I don't know if that's it But I honestly And I didn't do this which is the only reason why I will tell you this is When Genevieve was out of town a couple of weeks ago I actually For a relatively brief but serious moment considered buying a pack of cigarettes Taking five of them and putting them in my shirt pocket and giving the rest to somebody at the gas station And just saying this weekend I'm going to smoke these five cigarettes or less or something like that and I'm glad I didn't do it Sure but but I was like well, I think I could probably navigate this without getting Without getting addicted again and by the way, I told Genevieve this story I'm not I mean I would know I would feel so weird doing it around Genevieve or even saying I'm going outside to smoke a cigarette That's the only reason why her not being home would have been a part of it I don't I think if I had done it I would have told her for whatever that's worth sure But I wouldn't do it if she were home And I think I was just having like this weird like little I was gonna call it up a boys weekend I almost called it a little boys weekend which is let's not do that But I was having a mini boys weekend where I was the mini boy and I was like oh maybe I was just like Buy a cigarette smoke it on that walking bridge over a roar or whatever and I'm glad I didn't do it But it was the first time in a long time that I actually was like should I just do that just go to the store and just buy cigarettes I can do that I bet you part of it is because The the pain and the fear of that event when you had to have those surgeries and when you were really nervous about what the diagnosis was going to be is further in the rear view yeah, you know I bet you every year that goes by I mean you obviously you remember sort of intellectually and consciously that It was really scary and also really a painful procedure and healing and all that but don't you think maybe That's a little bit of it that it's just it was a while ago And you successfully did quit and you haven't had a recurrence of issues And so maybe there's a little bit of a slight mental relaxation around it That's seemingly imperceptible what you're saying makes sense and I don't want to dismiss it entirely But I was I've been thinking about it and the funny thing is when I think about that surgery I still can really remember sort of exactly what it felt like when I was trying because it wasn't the surgery itself It was me doing the show with you afterwards and like Not being able to talk is it was the side of my tongue or hit my teeth And so I actually feel like I think what it was was a bit of The just the cravings coming back maybe because of the media that I have been like yeah absorbing I think also it was a bit of nihilism like I think that the state of the world has Jingle jingled and it's kind of an effort right in it I think it was sort of an effort thing but then I think With in that moment I was just like what the at like screw it just get some cigarettes But now in like um, you know here on a on a Monday morning I think about that I'm like yeah, but you know it would make all of this worse Having more of those surgeries or worse, you know what I mean like the one that one of the things I'm very lucky for is that I'm able to navigate all this with a good doctor who's like kind of looking after me now and As taking care of some health issues that I've had and how lucky I am at knocking on the door of age 50 That I'm just now beginning in my life to have to actually even think about my health and even minor ways like I've been so lucky Why in the world would I think well the world is burning? Why wouldn't I want somebody taking chunks of my tongue out of my face like are you kidding me like I don't want that So I think that that was maybe part of it in the moment I so understand that impulse though like this feeling of like nothing everything sucks nothing matters Why not and then thinking but is this gonna like Is this gonna be better with an insane hangover tomorrow right right right? Is this or in your case this could be better with you know Like yeah, if somebody trying to take chunks out of my tongue It's like of course the answer is no, but I completely understand that impulse of just being like if you know if not If not now when like again, it's you're right. It's nihilism in a way and it's and it's very tempting if your brain is wired the way my brain is of just being like Nothing matters. So why not you know, and it's like well because it does matter and also if it's gonna suck It's gonna suck worse. Yes, exactly. Yeah, I'm speaking of smoking. I watched Fargo last night Just to try to remember if it's the perfect film and the movie. Oh, yeah, it is. Yes. Yes, so yeah And First of all, I want to just give you credit for the various parts of the movie Fargo that you have isolated for Tbtl audio I think you're your decision making was flawless. Why did you watch it and you're like oh, I recognize this I recognize this I was like yes, I mean there's just so much everything. I mean the movie is literally everything anyone says Is a drop. Yeah, but like the one that we pull the guy who's called the police because he was at the bar Oh, yeah, I you know what I think you suggested that or somebody else did I don't I can't credit because we were I promise you just to like deflect a little bit of the glory here that you are Raining upon me I remember that was a specific intro that we used in Minnesota Because we were you know working in Minnesota at the time. Yeah, that was a very Minnesota. You drop and Somebody suggested that I think it was you But I and I because I had not remembered that part of the movie and I grabbed it and I was like it was perfect So I can't take credit for that. I think it maybe was stew maybe maybe it was Eric the Viking I don't know. We're working with John yet somebody I mean because because when I saw that scene I thought oh man Andrew pulled this and like this is so great And I didn't remember that scene until I was rewatching it. Uh-huh. That makes any sense but just I mean That movie is just it's incredible, but you know what I realized Andrew you want to go but if we can sort of Start to get on the glide path towards the end of today's episode With the kind of Sort of where the episode started with me talking about my like weird sound that I now listen to oh yeah, I'm to suit myself like You know what I realized? Fargo is uncut gems It's just The pressure is ratcheting up on on William H. Macy's character It's just everything that he's trying is going wrong more and more people are after him It's falling apart in every possible way in much the way that it's falling apart for Adam Sandler's character in uncut gems And yet when I watch these movies it somehow calms me. It's like taking Adderall To calm down your system. It's like you're taking something that's like speed Or whatever it is chemically To quiet your brain to calm your brain. It seems like it's the opposite But I was just realizing like oh my god. I love this movie so much. Talk about Fargo now And like it's just it's just going from bad to worse and he's getting more and more frantic in that way He's getting more frantic. He's trying more extreme measures It's he's getting thwarted at every turn the stakes are going up People are people are dying or I don't know if anyone's dying yet in in uncut gems But people are definitely his life isn't on the line I just thought like oh there's some similarities in this movie that I didn't think about and both It made me think I didn't do it. I was like I could do a double feature when this is over I could switch right on over to uncut gems or somebody do some sort of a crazy mashup of the two I see what you're talking about though because I'm picturing it It's been a long time since I've seen that movie But I watched that movie a lot in the in the 90s and 2000s and like I'm picturing Jerry Lunderguard in the In his office or his boss's office wherever in the sales department of this auto dealership and him just getting more like I know that I know that I know that like this sort of like a self-righteous Calling him over they can't read the vinn numbers on the cars that he's clearly running some scam on and you're actually right about the energy there It's just like that is he's just lying and his lies get more and more bald face and sort of like Crazy and he looks more and more I got to be the guy on this deal I got to be the guy on this on time to his father-in-law and the other guy about how he has to be the go-between for the money Oh my god, and then I love the role You know, I always like to say this that the ice scraper is like another character in the movie But like that ice scraper that is both like you see him in that scene where he's just like he's at his limit Yeah, and he's just like scraping but then later on is it that same ice scraper that marks where the money is along the side of the road Yes, yes, which I'm like that like stresses me out so much because I'm like you got to tie a rib Yeah, right or I'm like this ice scraper is gonna be a snow drift You're never gonna find that ice scraper like I literally wanted him like go in the car and like rip part of your shirt apart like you Got to get something on that barboyer fence, dude. You're never gonna find that ice scraper I know I've told you this before but when I go to visit my dad he still has a Chachkey from that movie we got him he loved that movie and I believe we his children or one of us got him that movie not even on DVD I'm pretty sure on VHS When it was new on VHS made around the holidays and they sold it with a snow globe Do you remember this and my dad still has the snow globe and it's the scene of The wood shipper and so when you shake it's got blood in it right when you shake the snow It's white snow with red snow. They're merches perfect. The water is turning yellowish all right I mean that thing about how old that is when did that you know come out or when did that hit VHS? Yeah, what's the what's the radioactive half-life of that red dye? Yes, I was put in the snow globe just the way and then I'll stop the way that his wife the way that she frantically chops vegetables So it's like it's so like so in the first time we see her It's like her dad has come over for dinner. I think someone unexpectedly So Jerry gets home and she's just like stress chopping vegetables in the kitchen But maintaining that kind of Minnesota nice, but doing you just see on her face like And then cut to a different day when I think her son is home and Jerry's not home And it's the daytime and I think that she's trying to give the son a pep talk about how he's not living up to his potential And she's chopping a different kind of vegetable who would say just unhinged energy You could tell like this is a person who's processing a lot through the way she chops food Uh-huh. It's just like I don't know just the touches on that filbert just like are just so phenomenal so I would um, you know if you'd like to watch a very kind of dark depressing film if that's your thing I will recommend the movie Fargo it really absolutely holds up Here I go once again with the email every week. I hope that it's from a female. Oh man It's not from a female I've got a message from a female My girlfriend actually and and this is where Andrew Listen, I love and treasure Becca But I don't know if she exactly knows how this show works Because like what we were in I think it when we were in Miami She said you got to ask Andrew if he does wordle on hard mode No, it's like okay because she loves wordle. I know you love wordle. You're on a wordle group. I would honestly like I would like to make an entree. I would like to make a connection where maybe she can be in that group because she's Got a lot of thoughts on wordle. She's a dedicated player Um, but anyway, she said you got to find out of Andrew does wordle on hard mode I said okay, but and then what if he does she goes? I just want to know if he does it on hard mode I was like I know I can't have a conversation with I don't understand you don't understand the question and you don't know how to respond to it Because I don't play wordle on any mode so I I guess what I'm doing is I'm asking you if you play it on hard mode You're gonna tell me and then I'm gonna report back to her and then she's gonna say whatever her thoughts are on it And then I guess I'm gonna repeat those thoughts to you at some point And I'm not seeing what the issue here is that works for me I mean, I'm happy to be the go-between. I got it. Hey, you know what? I got it I got to be in charge of this deal and through You gotta be in charge of this deal. This is gotta be my deal So she didn't explain to you what hard mode is. You can I explain you what hard mode is? And I could not grasp it. It had she tried very hard to explain hard mode to me And I couldn't wrap my mind around it seems to have to do with like if you guess wrong in hard mode You get less information about what made your guess wrong or something? Okay, just forget about just forget everything that you just said I need I need listen already forgot it. I need toblurasa here. Okay. I need a By the way easy. Okay, great. I got I don't got a thought in my head Okay, so when you're first looking down at a wordle board You see a bunch of squares, right? And you can start by just typing in any five letter word And then you're gonna find out if you chose the right word or at least if you got any of the letters right If you put in any letters and they're in the word But you have them in the wrong place. They will appear as yellow If you put them down and they are in the right place that letter will appear green So you know that there's an R in the middle of where it goes and you know it's green and so you know it goes there And then if you have letters that are superfluous Then it is just great out and you know don't use those letters anymore. Yep In easy mode you can just do that six times just put letters wherever you want and find out if you put them in the right place Or if they're in the word or not when you're playing in hard mode If you have put an R down right in the middle and it's green And then you're floundering around and you just cannot figure out what this word is you can't think of any words Or would be in the middle but you just want to eliminate some other letters too So you just put down some random word that you know cannot really be I see so you use that R spot intentionally for a letter you know doesn't go there You need to take off the letter you just put a K there because you know this isn't gonna be the word But you just want to eliminate some more letters because you're just going bananas. You're basically like intentionally walking right You're kind of making a strategic decision there would you put someone on base? Right, but you're also going to get information so you're gonna put a K there in the middle But you're gonna sort of eliminate some other things and then you're maybe hopefully get it on the next turn Yes, if you play in hard mode it doesn't let you do that The hard mode says listen. I already told you the R is green right in the middle of the word yeah You know that now you can't pretend you don't know that and so it won't let you Get down off that bounce bounce get out of that bounce bounce you know this exactly So did I explain does that make sense to you? Yes, that was like a really really clear explanation And I know exactly what you're talking about and I want to I want to thank you for that because yes, I totally get that now it also speaks to how Sort of I guess you could say Unsophisticated my approach to wordle has has ever been I mean I've played it a handful of times It never even occurred to me to do that move where Because once I knew where a letter was I was just like well that's I will always play that letter there It never even occurred to me to intentionally put a letter that I knew was wrong in order to get more information Yeah, so And by the chance your question yes, I play on hard mode because got I actually think it's a bit of a misnomer You as you just said I don't think it's harder. I think it is it Disciplines you to make sure that you don't waste a turn like hard road has prevented me From because sometimes you're spinning out of control and you're just like I just this can't be a word or whatever And then you start putting down like fake words and sometimes like the fake words will take and you're like shit I just wasted the his wasted a turn out of frustration And sometimes you might put down a word where you just accidentally Put the R back in a wrong place when you knew her or went and it'll say hey you can't do that And so for me I think of it more as a protection plan exactly, but it's called hard mode Well also one of the things that she does is she changes her starting word every single day And I think that sounds like madness No, this is this is a conversation So I used the same word I know we had this conversation recently forever and ever the word was a rise I like the aid the eye and the e in there and then it hit it was the first word a couple of months ago Yeah, right. I'm sorry I won on the first turn because it was the word a couple of months ago And then after that I was sort of out in the wilderness I was like how fun is this I'm not stuck to this word anymore And so I was just using a different word every day or I had a handful of them that I liked and that was killing me I have busted out of wordal like four times I I've ruined my streak like four times over the past like two months I think I would never go back to a rise Well, I don't like this is where things get really interesting Very interesting incredible almost two interesting I don't like the idea of using a starting word that has already been a word I like this the real of thinking hey this could hit because it'll never be the you'll never come up with it on It'll never be the first word again It'll never be the word again basically right though word sorry the word but I just saw a screen cap on reddit and now I'm looking to see if this is if I got fooled by the internet or if this is true Wordal or the New York Times apparently who of course makes the wordal game Apparently announced that they're gonna start reusing words because this has been a big conversation in our text chain is like Have I been have I been busting out a lot more because I am not relying on my starting word that I was very comfortable with Is it because the words are getting harder like we feel like there's a lot more people who are failing at wordal these days at least in our Friend group Because the they're scraping the bottom of the barrel on some of these words and so they're less common and I saw something that claimed that wordal is gonna start reusing Starting or start reusing words as answers because how many letters is it five six five Psych there is a finite number of five letter English words right and and if you you know I don't think they're hitting I don't think they're at their limit But they may have burned through the ones that are like easier to get here. I'm on um I'm on mashable.com Mm-hmm. There's a little blast from the past. I don't spend a lot of time on mashable these days Uh, and the headline is major rule change coming to wordal it takes effect on Monday Oh, and this was written yesterday. So today wow we are on the news. This should have been a top story This should have been top story uh wordal is your favorite game just changes rules as of Monday Previously played words may be reused So there you go today is the day I'm texting all of this to becah. I'm trying to get her response I said Andrew plays on hard mode, but he thinks it's easier Because you don't waste a guess and bec said I get that but if you're going for the least number of guesses it is harder Yeah, I said Any responses I should relay to him he thinks that the wordal is getting harder because they're running out of words She said, hmm. I'm not sure about that and then I said today is the first day where they will start reusing words How many did he need today? I have not done it today yet So I'm done actually you know what I take it back. This is good podcast. I love it I say great podcasting great and I am um sharing with the wordal group this news that's yeah That's actually it's it's wild that this Extremely disjointed conversation did lead us to the information the legitimate to our listening audience the legitimately Legitimately important important information that today of all days February 2nd Uh in the year of our Lord 2026 is the day of February that they're starting during the perfect February That they're starting to reuse words. That's big news. That's huge news and we got to it exactly how any professional broadcaster would yes It's Best broken roads that led us to this thing and to the end of today's episode Uh, alright that's gonna do it But we are gonna be right back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for all of you So please do tune in for that in the meantime May all your wordals go well have a great Monday Stay warm if you're somewhere cold stay safe if you're somewhere dangerous and please remember no mountain to tall and good luck to all You Power out