MISCHKE: Person of Interest (ep. 108)

Summary

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Garage Logic: MISCHKE – Person of Interest (Ep. 108)

Host: Mishke
Date: May 6, 2026
Network: Gamut Podcast Network

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Episode Overview

In this episode of MISCHKE: Person of Interest, Mishke explores the enduring human quest to be interesting versus feeling dull, riffing humorously on self-improvement ads, the lives of historical figures like Leonardo da Vinci, and the modern phenomenon of online "dinosaur grief". With regular asides and storytelling, Mishke uses quirk, wit, and imaginary personas to reflect on what makes a person (or epoch) fascinating. The episode also features a listener call with Kirk, a mailman, whose self-examination, nostalgia, and candidness bring heart and relatability to the abstract theme.

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Key Topics & Insights

1. The Pursuit of Being Interesting

[03:30 – 12:55]

• Mishke starts by mocking the idea of needing an app to become interesting, referencing a real ad seen online:

  "How to become an interesting person. I double checked and sure enough, way at the top it said advertisement. But then the headline, 'how to become an interesting person.'"

• He imagines the social awkwardness of being "the dullest person in the room", recalling times when people looked over his shoulder for better conversation.

  "It's clear to me they're looking for a more interesting person to talk to. I might not be on my game."

• Through the character Roger Slottopy, he parodies self-improvement, suggesting odd behaviors (covering the lawn in Civil War figurines, wearing wigs, pogo-sticking to work) as surefire ways to grab attention.

  "You can call me Roger Slottopy, or you can call me by my nickname in the neighborhood: Slottopy the Oddity." (10:45)

2. The Leonardo da Vinci Standard

[13:00 – 15:54]

• Mishke wonders if anyone can ever be "too interesting", setting Leonardo da Vinci as the gold standard of fascinating people.
• He humorously speculates about Leonardo's legendary status as both creative genius and social magnet:

  "Da Vinci wasn't hurting in [the dating] department. All the ladies wanted to date Leonardo, and half the men did as well… A date with Leonardo da Vinci was one interesting date." (11:38)

3. What Really Makes Someone Interesting?

[12:15 – 12:55; 15:54 – 21:50]

• The show pauses to ask: what are the actual traits of interesting people?
  • Seek out and pursue new experiences
  • Acquire new skills
  • Avoid dull small talk
  • Stay curious and keep learning
• Contrasts "the most interesting man" (da Vinci) with "the least interesting man" (the guy who reads books about staplers):

  “His autobiography is just his grocery list. He is the least interesting man in the world. Now you compare that to the most interesting guy in the world. My man, Leonardo da Vinci.” (13:21)

4. Biographical Sketch: Leonardo da Vinci

[14:04 – 15:54]

• A narrated segment provides a digest of da Vinci's famous accomplishments—art, anatomy, invention, engineering—and his boundless curiosity:

  "He was obsessed with flight. He designed gliders and even a helicopter like machine 400 years early…"

• Mishke then expands with colorful details, from da Vinci freeing birds at markets to his simultaneous abilities (writing and drawing), inventions, inventions realized decades or centuries later (parachute, scissors), and musical talents.

Notable Da Vinci Quotes (Mishke reading, [16:52]):

• "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
• "Learning never exhausts the mind."
• "Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art."
• On his own work:

  "On Leonardo da Vinci's deathbed, his last words were, 'I have offended God and mankind. My work did not reach the quality it should have.' Oh boy. High standards."

• A contemporary’s verdict:

  "Leonardo da Vinci wasn't a man. He was a movement, a universe of ideas in human form."

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5. The Rise of Dinosaur Grief

[22:20 – 33:05]

• Mishke pivots to a trending internet culture: "dino heads" who mourn the extinction of dinosaurs as if it were a personal loss.
• Explores why people—often young adults—feel sadness for a world that ended 65 million years ago, reading out some of their heartfelt, poetic comments:

  “Dinosaurs do not know that we have found them, that we love them with everything we've got, we love them. They'll never know.”

• Contrasts this to more typical nostalgia, such as older folks longing for the 1950s:

  "Some guys down at the neighborhood bar long for the 1950s, but I did not realize there were folks longing to go back to the Mesozoic era." (23:50)

• Mishke and Tommy transform the topic into comic absurdity, equating the collective loss of dinosaurs to having to put down a beloved family dog—extrapolating to asteroid-induced extinction:

  "I think about the creature in the Yucatan Peninsula who had to absorb the full impact of that asteroid... Just napping in the wrong spot." (29:19)

Telly Savalas & Tangential Grieving:

• The conversation derails (on purpose) into grieving for unrelated figures (Telly Savalas, Eva Braun) as a parody of collective nostalgia.

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6. Listener Call: Kirk—The Real Person of Interest

[38:10 – 58:13]

• [38:10] Kirk, a mailman, joins Mishke for a candid chat about being interesting, nostalgia, and authenticity.
• Mishke asks Kirk to self-evaluate:

  “Are you one [an interesting person]?”
  Kirk: “I think so.”
  Mishke: “Not a lot of confidence there.” (38:36 – 38:51)

• The struggle of Midwest modesty is discussed:

  "It's very difficult for Midwesterners to say nice things about themselves…I think you're a little bit interesting and a little bit dull." (39:00 – 39:29)

• Mishke praises the value of being ordinary and the liberation of not needing to be fascinating all the time:

  "To relax occasionally into the dull, to be a bore...celebrate how it makes us so much more human." (39:29 – 40:10)

• Kirk reveals his "interesting" stories, including playing for the family’s "green jacket" (a riff on the Masters golf tournament):

  "Mom made a green jacket. Dad and the two brothers went out to hidden green south of Hastings and played for the green jacket." (41:46)

• Extended playful back-and-forth about trophies, friendship, and the meaning of these rituals. Mishke jokes about the Masters awarding green panties instead.
• Kirk reflects on his work as a mailman, grappling with how changes in society and technology have shaped the job from what it used to be.
• Mishke and Kirk exchange childhood stories about finding and selling Playboy magazines, drawing out the humor in guilt and the universality of adolescent curiosity.

Mishke’s Philosophy on Life and Change:

"The reason spring is so magical…is because of the winter, not in spite of it, because of it. It's coming out of the winter that we're able to fully embrace this crazy, wild time with all that life blooming all around us." (47:20)

Mishke closes by affirming Kirk’s value:

“You actually sound like a fun guy. I don't know what interesting or dull is, but you sound like a…fun guy…a good guy to have a beer with…” (57:22 – 58:02)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On social awkwardness and self-awareness:

  “I've been in many a gathering where the person talking to me is looking over my right or left shoulder to see who else is in the room.”

• On Midwestern humility:

  "It's very difficult for Midwesterners to say nice things about themselves." (39:00)

• On da Vinci as the measure of interesting:

  "He could write a letter with one hand and draw with the other hand simultaneously." (16:39)

• On the oddity of ‘dino grief’:

  "There's a strange phenomenon underway in our culture...dinosaur grief is a real thing out there with a lot of younger adults." (22:30)

• On nostalgia gone absurd:

  "You want to hear some Telly Savalas clips, Tommy boy? I like to listen to Telly Savalas clips late at night. I'd play recordings of dinosaurs, but we don't have any." (32:33)

• Listener perspective:

  "I just live and breathe in, breathe out. I don't know, I'm really kind of boring now." (46:29, Kirk)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• [03:30] – Mishke introduces the “How to become an interesting person” ad
• [10:45] – Persona of Roger Slottopy, local oddball
• [11:38] – Parody: Leonardo da Vinci as the apex of interesting
• [13:21] – Contrasting the most versus least interesting man
• [14:04 – 15:54] – Narrated summary of da Vinci’s life and achievements
• [16:52] – Mishke reads and reflects on da Vinci quotes
• [22:20] – Introduction to modern dinosaur grief, “dino heads”
• [29:19] – Analogy between dinosaur extinction and putting down a pet
• [32:33] – Absurdist riff on Telly Savalas, Eva Braun
• [38:10] – Call-in with Kirk, the mailman
• [41:46] – Kirk recounts family Masters “green jacket” tradition
• [47:20] – Mishke waxes poetic on spring’s beauty after winter
• [52:13] – Kirk and Mishke’s stories about contraband Playboys
• [57:22 – 58:13] – Closing tributes, Mishke and Kirk

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Episode Tone & Style

The episode is brisk, winding, wry, and self-deprecating—blending satire and sincerity with a distinctly Mishke-esque flavor: jumpy, tangential, and affectionate toward oddballs, underdogs, and those pondering their place on the scale from dull to fascinating.

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Takeaways

• Everyone occupies a shifting space between interesting and dull; striving for da Vinci levels of intrigue is as unrealistic as it is unnecessary.
• Oddity, curiosity, and openness to new experiences are celebrated—but so is the simplicity and humanity of “just being.”
• Modern culture’s urge to mourn even ancient losses (like dinosaurs) reveals the strange, touching wideness of human empathy.
• The ordinary stories of listeners like Kirk hold deep value; humor and humility may be more “interesting” than any app or persona.

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Transcript

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

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[Mishke]

Hey garagelogic fans. I do a podcast on the garagelogic network that comes out every Wednesday and Friday. Now twice a week. But here's an important caveat. There is zero logic available in my show. In the formal definition of logic, of course. Life is a yin and yang kind of thing. There's the logic side and then there's the what the hell? Side, which needs to get its exercise. So come for the what the hell and stay for the. You've got to be kidding me. Mishke. Now Wednesdays and Fridays, twice a week.

[Commercial Narrator]

Everybody talked about it since I first moved to Oregon. The big one. The earthquake that trashed the whole West Coast. Total destruction.

[Mishke]

Officially calling it the largest natural disaster in American history.

[Commercial Narrator]

I just didn't know what would help me next. So I took it all. Even the gun. It was time.

[Narrator (Leonardo da Vinci segment)]

Cello American Afterlife, presented by Pair of Thieves.

[Mishke]

The number one fiction and drama podcast in America. Listen wherever you get your favorite podcasts available now. Do we absolutely have to have a theme song? Couldn't the program simply start? What's the importance of this? My name is Mishke. Hooty, hooty, hooty hooty hooty hooty hooty hoot. What if we were to simply stop the theme song right now? I tell you something, the thrill here is the power, the idea that I can simply stop the theme music, in essence preventing the show from progressing. I've shut this program down. Yes, indeed I have. This program's going nowhere right now, and only I can decide if it should proceed or if we should call it a wrap. Not just on this show, but on this entire career. I stand at the precipice, not knowing which way to go. An angel on one shoulder, the devil on the other. Okay, we'll keep going. The darndest ad popped up when I was online today. The reason I was online was I was looking at life and how precious it is, how precious time is, how brief an existence is, even if you get 80 years on this earth. I was thinking about how it just goes flying by, and I said to myself, why don't I waste some time online? So I went online and I was screwing around, just doing things that were not advancing my Existence one iota. And an ad popped up right in front of my face. It was a headline in black and white. How to become an interesting person. That's what it said. How to become an interesting person. I double checked and sure enough, way at the top it said advertisement. But then the headline, how to become an interesting person. And then under that, almost like an article starting, I used to feel like the dullest person in the room. Everyone had something to say except me. And then I found this app. And instead of wasting my life, I started spending time each day becoming more and more interesting. Now when I'm with people, I always have something smart to say, something clever. People listen to me. They find me interesting. I recommend that everyone try incorporating this app into their life. Well, then it names the app. I'm not going to name it. I'm not going to do a free ad for this company when I don't even know if they are capable of making people more interesting. I'm just intrigued by the idea that this is who they're going after. The dull. The dull out there, hoping to become interesting. Because if you're already an interesting person, you're going to blow right by this ad. But if you're dull like this person used to be, I used to feel like the dullest person in the room. That must be a terrible feeling. Say it's a room filled with people and you're there as the dullest of them all. How do people respond to the dullest person in the room? I used to actually notice what people did because they used to do it to me. Yeah, I've been in many a gathering where the person talking to me is looking over, looking over my right or left shoulder to see who else is in the room. It's clear to me they're looking for a more interesting person to talk to. I might not be on my game. I don't have the clever line that will keep them glued to my thoughts and insights. They're sensing that I'm on the duller end of things and they're looking for the more scintillating. So they're looking over my right or left shoulder. They see someone who seems quite interesting and they're thinking, how do I get away from this Mishki fella? They don't know I'm noticing. I could say to them, say, I notice you're looking over my shoulders trying to find someone more interesting to talk to. This is quite embarrassing for me, so I'm just gonna mosey on to the restroom. Here are my Recommendations for the most interesting people here. Dennis over there is quite interesting. Maggie. She's a real sweetheart and just glows. I don't know if you call that interesting, but she's fun to be around. Over there is Barb, smart as a whip. And Ken to the far right. Over there talking to Larry. Ken can hold court all day. The man is simply a font of extraordinary tales. I'm gonna head down this hallway to the biffy where the dull often congregate. I think my people are down there. Yes, I can see him waiting in line to use the bathroom. I'll be down there. See you later. I could have used this app. How to become an Interesting Person. Are you just a stuffed shirt? A tedious and tiresome person? The human equivalent of a flat tire. A drip, a drag? There's no need to live this way. You too can become an interesting person like me. My name's Roger Slottopy and I'm, well, interesting. How did I become interesting? Well, I used to be the dullest person in the room, I don't mind telling you. But I made a conscious decision that every day I was going to do something out of the ordinary. That's what interesting people do. For instance, I think mowing the lawn and cleaning the garage is boring, dull and what the ordinary tackle each day. So I covered my lawn with Civil War reenactment figurines. And I turned my garage into a museum of department store mannequins. Just like that, I became the true interesting guy in the neighborhood. Ray across the street comes over now to see what I'm up to. Don next door is always looking out his window. They never did this before Because I was a bore. They never did that before. Cause before I was a boar. No, they never did that before. Cause I was a flamin boar. But I am not anymore. I wear a Japanese uniform from the big war. I wear a blonde wig from Zsa Zsa Gabor. I use a pogo stick when I go to the store. I'm a dominant part of local folklore. All eyes are on me when I leave the front door. Yes, you too can be interesting if you're willing to take the risks and become a little different. Get outside the box. Break the mold. Two roads diverge in the woods. And you take the one less traveled by. And that makes all the difference. Go unconventional. Flip the script. Turn life on its ear. In fact, take life, put it over your knee and spank it. You get weird. You get out there, you hug the edge. You teeter on the Fringe. And man, oh, man. You suddenly become interesting, just like me. You can call me Roger Slottopy, or you can call me by my nickname in the neighborhood. Slottopy the Oddity. Do you like that? That's what the fellows call me. Slottopy the Oddity. Doesn't matter what you call me. Either way, I'm interesting. You, you had bacon and eggs for breakfast and drove to work. Talk about a snore fest. I pogo sticked all the way to the office. All while biting down on Peruvian coca leaves. That's right. Slothy the attitude. At your service. Ready to make you interesting. I might get the app. We all could probably get a little more interesting, huh? I mean, when are you really interesting enough? Is anybody out there Too interesting? Which person in history got more and more interesting and then suddenly became way too interesting? Leonardo da Vinci, in my mind, went a little far and got more interesting than he should have. He went past the stratosphere of interesting and now I can't reach him in any way, shape or form. I don't understand the man. I can't grasp his existence. He's a puzzle to me. Doesn't seem fully human. Leonardo, how'd you do that? They didn't even have apps back then. Even Michelangelo. I kind of understand. It's da Vinci who throws me a little bit. Put that in the advertisement. Would you like to become as interesting as Leonardo da Vinci? If you're having trouble getting a date, I gotta tell you, da Vinci wasn't hurting in that department. All the ladies wanted to date Leonardo, and half the men did as well. He was an interesting person, and he made life interesting. A date with Leonardo da Vinci was one interesting date. I'd love to tell you what a Saturday night was like, but I don't have time in this commercial. Let's just say things went to the edge and beyond in all the right ways. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. The next morning, the first word out of everyone's mouth was, whoa.

[Tommy]

Interesting.

[Mishke]

Folks didn't quite know how to interpret that. The people hearing it. What does Chuck mean over there? He dated Leonardo last night. What? Yeah. And Marge, what's her story? She was with him. It was three of them together. Three that I know. There was a shadow in there. I couldn't make out. Well, that's Leonardo. Interesting fella.

[Narrator (Interesting person advice)]

What makes someone an interesting person? And how can we make ourselves more interesting? Be more interesting? You might be really boring and trite and dull. Some people are just duds. If you're interesting, you can Attract new friends. You can avoid that small talk that you get bogged down in that most people hate. Be a more interesting person. Seek interesting experiences. Pursue your interests. Acquire new skills. Get past the mundane conversations that are just the worst.

[Mishke]

Are you people interesting or are you dull? Or are you right in between? Kind of a little of both. We can't all be Leonardo da Vinci, but we should try to avoid being the least interesting person in the world. Yes, that other end of the spectrum. How do you know if you're the least interesting? This person here reminds you of yourself. His idea of adventure is switching to a different brand of floss. His small talk has been used to sedate bears. He once read an entire book about staplers. He's never been out of his comfort zone and has no plans to. His autobiography is just his grocery list. He is the least interesting man in the world. Now you compare that to the most interesting guy in the world. My man, Leonardo da Vinci.

[Narrator (Leonardo da Vinci segment)]

One man painted the world's most famous smile, designed flying machines centuries before airplanes and filled notebooks with ideas that still amaze scientists today. That man was Leonardo da Vinci, whose life remains full of astonishing surprises. Leonardo was obsessed with flight. He designed gliders and even a helicopter like machine 400 years early, dreaming of humans one day touching the sky. He secretly dissected human bodies to understand anatomy. His drawings of muscles and organs were centuries ahead of medical science, revealing a fearless curiosity that pushed knowledge far beyond his time. Leonardo filled thousands of notebook pages with inventions, sketches and wild ideas. Many were never built, but inspired future generations like seeds planted centuries before they could grow. Sometimes the greatest ideas don't change the world right away. They wait for the right moment to come alive. Leonardo designed war machines, tanks, weapons and defenses. Even though he personally disliked violence, he was fascinated by water and designed canals, dams and flood control systems. Some of his ideas are still studied by engineers flowing straight from Renaissance notebooks into modern science. Leonardo believed everything in nature is connected. That belief shaped his art, science and inventions and still inspires creativity today, reminding us that curiosity has no boundaries. For Leonardo, understanding the world meant seeing it as one beautiful living system. Leonardo da Vinci wasn't just an artist. He was a thinker, inventor and dreamer far ahead of his time, constantly imagining a future the world wasn't ready for yet. His legacy reminds us that the greatest minds don't just follow their era, but they expand it.

[Mishke]

I could spend my life studying this guy and all he spent his time on. And he did it without the app. He did not buy the app. He was just interesting all on his own. Leonardo, of course, famous for the Mona Lisa and his painting of the Last Supper, but he hardly even considered himself an artist. That was way down the list of his talents. He thought these paintings remarkable for their harmony, their soft light, the sharpness of observation. Da Vinci was flat out a universal genius. An architect, an engineer, a polymath. His interests were so broad, so numerous, it just boggles the mind. He observed everything from the properties of herbs to the movements of the heavens. A century before Galileo, da Vinci was able to find new fundamental knowledge about timekeeping and to connect it with machines. Designing clocks that operated by weights, by sand, by water. In the fields of anatomy, botany, zoology, geology, hydrology, optics, mechanics, he was way ahead of his time. He wrote a book on the anatomy of horses. He loved all animals. Often when passing a market where birds were being sold, he'd pay for em and just let em fly away right then and there. He was so brilliant that one observer noted he could write a letter with one hand and draw with the other hand simultaneously. He invented scissors. He invented other things that weren't actually developed until many, many, many years after his death. The parachute, for instance, he invented that. In fact, in 1999, some English guy built a parachute to Leonardo da Vinci's specifications. Looked at his plans, made it exactly the way da Vinci said to make it, and it worked perfectly. They say looking at his drawings, looking at his designs, he could see into the future. He excelled in every single thing he did, including music. They say he sang divinely. He just had a beautiful voice. He played the lyre and the flute. He performed at gatherings of the nobility. A lot of his musical compositions have survived. He invented an organ viola, harpsichord instrument. He's the guy who figured out that you could learn the age of a tree by counting the rings on the trunk. In 1485, he was designing on paper an armored car. He invented a hydraulic pump, built a movable bridge. He designed the first bicycle ever. He was the first guy to explain why the sky is blue. No joke. Historian Helen Gardner said his mind and personality seem to us to be absolutely superhuman. The man himself remains a mystery. But what an extraordinary human being. In spite of all of this, on Leonardo da Vinci's deathbed, his last words were, I have offended God and mankind. My work did not reach the quality it should have. Oh boy. High standards. Some of my favorite da Vinci quotes. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Learning never exhausts the mind. I thought in life I was learning how to live, but I know Now I was learning how to die. You could spend a while on that one. How about this one? Where the spirit does not work with the hand. There is no art. Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence. Men of lofty genius, when they are doing the least work, are most active. And get this, he wrote thousands, not hundreds, thousands of jokes. The locals say he was one very funny man. Here's my favorite quote about Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci wasn't a man. He was a movement, a universe of ideas in human form. So there's your standard for interesting people. Leo is the standard. And we all fall somewhere in between him and. And the guy who reads books about staplers. Have you ever been to Fury Motors? If you're in need of a new car, I can't imagine why you wouldn't stop by Fury Motors. They have used cars in all makes and models. Beautiful, brand new cars. I just don't understand why you wouldn't stop there. There has to be a location somewhat near you. They're in Waconia. They're in Forest Lake. They're in Stillwater. They're in South St. Paul. What I'd like you to do is stop by Fury Motors, mention the show, and just let them know that this Mishke character got you to take a peek and that they ought to know about that. These ads are working doesn't mean you have to buy a car, but you should give them a shot. Poke around there. We're talking about a family operation that's been around since John Kennedy was president. You need a car, new or used. Give Fury a shot,

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[Mishke]

North American Banking Company. When I say that, what image comes to mind? Here's what should come to mind. A neighborhood bank around the corner from your house. There are six locations in the Twin Cities. There's got to be one around the corner from your house. North American Banking Company. A neighborhood bank, A community bank. A bank that offers everything all the big national banks offer, but more because they have that personal touch. They don't make their decisions based on a bunch of algorithms. They don't send the numbers that are laid out concerning your home loan or business Loan to somebody three states away for analysis. These are your neighbors. These are your people. They know where your business is. They know your neighborhood. They know you're good for it. That's what makes them decide to give you a loan. North American Banking Company does things the way they used to be done everywhere. It's been going away for a long time now, but not at North American Banking Company Member FDIC Equal Housing Lender. Well, we're gonna go back in time a little further now. We're gonna go well past the 1400s of Leonardo, way, way back. We're gonna go to prehistoric times. Why? Because there's a strange phenomenon underway in our culture. I don't pretend to understand it. Maybe you will understand it. The dinosaurs, the prehistoric creatures who met their end 65 million years ago, are currently being memorialized online by what they're calling dino heads. These are people, mostly younger folks, who mourn the mass extinction of the dinosaur. Fans share animated footage of dinosaurs set to somber music and people weigh in, commenting, saying things like the world was supposed to be theirs. How sad. Another comment. Dinosaurs do not know that we have found them, that we love them with everything we've got, we love them. They'll never know. Others wonder how it is they miss the creatures so much when they never even knew him. Dinosaur grief is a real thing out there with a lot of younger adults. They grieve a creature they never were close to knowing. These things went extinct 65 million years ago. And there are large numbers of people today who sit around mourning their loss, grieving their loss. This world was supposed to be theirs. Humans in the B.C. era knew dinosaurs existed because bones would be found. But paleontology really didn't get going until the 19th century. That's when they began to put the pieces together and create models of what dinosaurs looked like. And that really freaked people out. These lizard looking things in giant sizes, the idea that we shared the planet with them shocked people in the 19th century. There's a difference between finding the bones thousands of years ago and putting them together a couple hundred years ago into what you actually would have encountered. In the mid-1800s, the British sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins built these immense models based on fossil fragments. Their height and their heft frightened spectators, even though they were just models. But this swell of sympathy for dinosaurs today is new. People say it belies a sense of regret for a lost world, A sense that we know they existed as dominant terrestrial life forms and we never got to be with them, never got to know them. Millions of years they were here and we missed them. And there are people out there sad about that, man. I know some guys down at the neighborhood bar where I live who long for the 1950s, but I did not realize there were folks longing to go back to the Mesozoic era. That's leapfrogging quite a bit of interesting culture there. You're missing the Roaring Twenties. You're skipping past the Victorian era, the colonial era. All great times to have checked out, but no, you're on the move. You're going way back. You're even shooting past any and all civilization. In fact, you're shooting past human beings, period. You're going back 70 million years to hang out with the dinosaurs and get away from people. That's a little far back for me. I mean, I want to time travel as much as the next guy, but that's hitting the foot pedal a little hard. Let me off somewhere along the line when there are still people around. How about Florence, Italy, in the 1400s? You gotta get me off that train before all the people go away. I'm a people person, you see. I'm a people person. Some of you are more dinosaur type folk, all right, but you can't pet them. You know that, right? I do indeed, though find it fascinating, intriguing, hard to understand, but delightful in some way that people are lamenting the death of dinosaurs today, getting really sad about it. That's extraordinary. I think there's a lot there, much that I don't understand, but I'd like to know more about. Well, Tom, you gotta understand. Deborah and I, we lost our dog Roscoe last year. You see, we had to put him down. He was old. And it took us weeks to get over the fact that we had. We had to take him out. And Tom, that's just one creature. Millions upon millions of dinosaurs lost their

[Tommy]

lives in that asteroid that hit the Yucatan Peninsula.

[Mishke]

So you gotta think about our family's

[Tommy]

grief compounded millions and millions of times over. So much death of truly innocent creatures who never did nothing to nobody. But they suffered, sure.

[Mishke]

As if we dragged em all to the vet to have em put down. It's like we did that, Tommy. Like we took millions of dinosaurs and one by one took em to the

[Tommy]

vet and had em euthanized. And why?

[Mishke]

What was the reason? At least with Roscoe, I could say his hind legs weren't working anymore and

[Tommy]

he had stopped eating.

[Mishke]

But the dinosaur were thriving.

[Tommy]

And they all were killed. All of them. And those tears, Tommy boy, they reverberate through the eons. The Tears today are the echoes of the tears from yesteryear. You know what I sometimes think about, Tom? I think about the creature that was right there in the Yucatan Peninsula when the asteroid hit. The creature who took the brunt force right on the noggin. Bam. The creature at ground zero who had to absorb the full impact of that asteroid. Sure, it wouldn't have hurt for very long. I mean, it would have been over with quickly. But I think about getting hit by a rock thrown by my little nephew Benji. He threw a rock at me once, hit me right in the forehead. That stung for hours. Imagine the little creature in the Yucatan Peninsula just trying to rest in the shade and boom. Asteroid right to the face. And for what? For napping in the wrong spot. So, Tommy, we grieve all these losses, sure as someone might grieve the loss of. Well, you name it. Tele Savalas, we'll go with Tele Savalas. Remember Kojak? Who ever thinks about Telly Savalas anymore? Well, I'll tell you something we do in the dinosaur community. We think about Telly. That was a big loss. When he died, there was no more hearing stuff like who loves you, baby? Or quit your belly aching. Oh, he might have been tough on a street hooker from time to time, but in the end, he understood him because he grew up in the same mean streets. That was Kojak, and he's dead. And so is Eva Braun, Hitler's girlfriend. Whoever thinks about her? Nobody, because no one ever knew her. What does anybody know about Eva Braun? I mean, try and walk down the street and see if anybody can deliver one fact about the life of Eva Braun. No one knows anything. Hitler's girlfriend. That's it. Well, who was she will never know. She's dead. Hitler used to come up to her and say, who loves you, baby? Who loves you, baby? Just like Kojak. And at the end, when Eva Braun was reluctant to kill herself, when Hitler told her to take the cyanide and she wouldn't do it, he said, quit your belly aching. And he put that lollipop in his mouth just like Kojak. You know, Tommy, you ought to come by on Friday nights when we have our dinosaur grieving parties at my house. We play old Telly Savalas television shows and grieve the dinosaurs. Talk about Eva Braun. Pour some punch. Sing songs about the end of the dinosaur era. Bye bye, dinosaur. We don't have you anymore. You all got destroyed by an asteroid. By an asteroid. Heavens to Murgatroyd. You know those sorts of songs. We sit around and we sing them and we cry. We weep, all of us do. Hand boxes of Kleenex around given to people. Say, who loves you, baby?

[Mishke]

Huh?

[Tommy]

Quit your belly aching. You want to hear some Telly Savalas clips, Tommy boy? I like to listen to Telly Savalas clips late at night. I'd play recordings of dinosaurs, but we don't have any. We don't have any recordings of Eva Braun either. So we play Telly Savalas for the next hundred years.

[Mishke]

The biggest thing you'll ever buy is a pack of cigarettes.

[Tommy]

What do I think I'm talking about?

[Mishke]

Talk about murder, dummy.

[Tommy]

Every bookie, every street walker, they sneeze

[Mishke]

in the subway, bust their chops. Look, pussycat, never, ever, ever talk to me like that. You understand?

[Tommy]

Now, that was acting, Tommy boy. That was acting. That was back when people knew what acting was. People call that the dinosaur era of acting. Well, I grieved that era.

[Mishke]

Could I just ask one question? I am so terribly lost here. We were talking about mourning the loss of dinosaurs, and somehow we got into Eva Braun and Telly Savalas and Kojak. I missed how we got here.

[Tommy]

I think we got there via Roscoe. My dog had to put him down.

[Mishke]

Yeah, that still doesn't make any sense. Why are these other people even coming up?

[Tommy]

Did you know Eva Braun is where we got Braunschweig? Tommy, you ever have Monterey Jack cheese? You put Braunschweiger on that, it becomes Kojak cheese. If you have a belly ache, it'll take it away. Tommy, did you know Leonardo da Vinci invented dinosaurs?

[Mishke]

I have a really cool thing. You guys can win. You can do me a favor here and in the process, do yourself a favor. May is National Electrical Safety Month. Well, I want you to think about your electrical panel, also known as your breaker box, central nervous system. Of all the electricity in your house, I want to get you a new one of those. What you're getting is up to $7,000 in free electrical work. Minneapolis St. Paul Plumbing, Heating, Air and Electric is offering this. And what you have to do to get it is so ridiculously simple. Take a photo of your breaker box and plug that photo [e-mail] breaker. That's it. You do that, you're entered to win a new breaker panel, something that will make your house far safer and save you thousands of dollars. People don't realize how much it costs to put in a new breaker box. And it's a big deal. MSP Plumbing, Heating and Air is now MSP Plumbing, Heating Air and Electric. And to celebrate they want to give you the easiest job in the world. All for a chance to win a brand new breaker box in your house. Snap a photo of your breaker box. Plug that photo in@mishki podcast.com breaker. It'll be clear as can be what to do. Five listeners who don't end up winning the new breaker panel, five of you will get a free electrical evaluation from MSP. That's something that costs just under $400 ordinarily. Five of you, if you send in that picture of your breaker box, will get that inspection for nothing. Help out the show by taking a picture of your panel and sending it to MSP via mishkipodcast.com breaker.

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[Mishke]

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[Mishke]

You work on one very difficult task, and one task only. You become laser focused on one thing, because that thing is complex and you want to specialize and you want to get really, really good at this one thing. In fact, you want to become the best at it. At the well shire, they said memory care. That's what we're going to focus on. All the other problems people deal with in assisted living care facilities, in nursing homes, none of that is of interest to us. The complexity of memory care, of dealing with people through the different stages of memory care, we are going to create a world for these people. The well shire focused on one thing. Your loved one is the beneficiary. Do not place a loved one with Alzheimer's or dementia anywhere else until you've checked out the Wellshire of Bloomington and Medina. Well, I think it's time to go to the listener list and see who we can call. Kirk.

[Kirk]

Oh my God. Could this be the call I've been waiting for all my life?

[Mishke]

All your life, Merski. Kirk.

[Kirk]

Oh my God. I got goosebumps.

[Mishke]

Well, I've got weird things happening to me too that are of a physical nature.

[Kirk]

Then imagine what the topic is today. I can't wait.

[Mishke]

The topic is interesting people. Are you one?

[Kirk]

Well, I.

[Mishke]

You got to look yourself in the eye, look into that mirror and ask the question, am I, Kirk, an interesting person? Please Tell me the response.

[Kirk]

I think so.

[Mishke]

Not a lot of confidence there.

[Kirk]

Well, you know, I don't know. I. You can't be. Is it good to brag that you're interested?

[Mishke]

See, you're a Midwesterner. You. It's very difficult for Midwesterners to say nice things about themselves. I think that's kind of sad. What did Babe Ruth say? It's not bragging if you can do it, if you truly are interesting. That's not boasting. You're just mentioning a fact. But I think what's happening here, Kirk, and you can tell me if you think I have this wrong or not. I think you're a little bit interesting and a little bit dull.

[Kirk]

Yeah, you got that right.

[Mishke]

I would take great solace in that. I think we can all bask in that. Think of how hard it is to maintain that interesting person status 24 7. To relax occasionally into the dull, to be a bore, to be someone no one wants to be around. Bump on a log, wet rag, flat tire. We all should celebrate not only the first freedom of being able to be that from time to time, but celebrate how it makes us so much more human. I was mentioning Leonardo da Vinci earlier, and I thought, what a burden. What a burden being Leonardo. Whereas how hard is it to be Kirk? How hard is it to be you each day when you get up to get through those 16 hours each day? How tricky is that for you?

[Kirk]

You know, Misky, I gotta say, it's not that hard. It's peaks and valleys. It's called life. But I know and see other people that have harder times, and I'm grateful that I don't.

[Mishke]

Well, hard times, good times. That has nothing to do with being interesting. Being an interesting person is. Well, you're at a party, okay, and you're talking to somebody, and that person isn't looking over your left and right shoulder trying to find someone else to talk to. That's when you know you're an interesting person. Whatever's coming out of your mouth, that person wants to stay right there.

[Kirk]

You know, Mishki, I have. I have the gift of gab, and I do. You know what, Mishke? I am interesting because I can hold a conversation. And then, you know, people want to hear what's next.

[Mishke]

See how quickly now you. You found that you were interesting. There was no equivocation there. You all of a sudden realized, wait a minute. I'm Kirk. I'm interesting as hell. And you landed there just as easily as you landed in that middle zone between Interesting and dull before. Once you do find your slot, boy, you go there. I mean, like a horse getting into the starting gate at the Kentucky Derby. You know where you belong, and you're ready to roll. And that gate opens, and you walk into the party and say, hi, I'm Kirk. Who wants to spend time with me? I have the gift of gab. Let's roll. So the last time you spoke to someone, what interesting topic were you discussing?

[Kirk]

That would have to be the Masters. In the history of the Masters golf tournament, in the tradition and the prestigious of the green jacket, I work with a couple of golfaholics. So it was an interesting topic. And, you know, when we were kids, we played for the green jacket. Mom made a green jacket. Dad and the two brothers went out to hidden green south of Hastings and played for the green jacket.

[Mishke]

Don't you think one of the stranger things out there in the world of sport is the green jacket? I mean, think about it. You're a little kid. You've watched them hold up the Stanley Cup. In hockey, you've seen that beautiful world championship trophy. In Major League baseball, you've looked at the Lombardi. And then there's this one sport where they're just putting on a jacket.

[Kirk]

It's the green jacket. It's not just a jacket.

[Mishke]

It's an ugly green jacket.

[Kirk]

It's a jacket that has dreams that are fulfilled inside those sleeves. Mishke, people dream about winning that damn thing.

[Mishke]

Do they really dream about winning the jacket, or do they dream about winning the Masters? I think getting the jacket is the most embarrassing moment of the whole tournament. What the hell is happening here? Stand up now. I'll put this jacket on you. Where's the damn trophy? When you're growing up, do you ever go over to your friend's house and say, hey, can I look at your jacket case? That cool case with all the jackets you've won? No. We all know what a trophy case is. We all know what trophies look like. Beginning in childhood, when you win the Pinewood Derby in Cub Scouts, you know what the trophy looks like. Trophies are very similar. And then one day, you hit this little ball into a hole, and they say, here, let me put this on you. We also have a green pair of panties you can wear if you'd like to.

[Kirk]

There's not too many cases full of jackets. Only a couple guys have a few jackets in their case. So that's kind of prestigious.

[Mishke]

Yeah, well, I'd like to change it next year to winning the green panties and see who still participates. Who is that big fat guy who used to have the nickname the Walrus?

[Kirk]

That'd be Craig Stadler.

[Mishke]

Yeah. I want Craig Stadler to win the green panties. Craig, why don't you get out of those clothes there and put this on? Well, I don't know about that, Dick. Get him on, Craig.

[Kirk]

I think he did win a green jacket.

[Mishke]

I think he won a little green jumper. It was a little green parochial school girl's jumper. What are you doing there, crushing plastic?

[Kirk]

I'm a mailman. I'm delivering packages, Mishke. The mail never stops.

[Mishke]

Have you and I spoken before?

[Kirk]

No. But there has been a guy, a mailman on your show, though.

[Mishke]

Yeah. All of a sudden I thought I'd talk to you because I remember talking to a mailman while he delivered the mail.

[Kirk]

Yeah, I'm walking up to this house right here. No dog out today, so I got that going for me.

[Mishke]

What are you delivering there? It sounds like Cheetos or something. I haven't asked you about your life. I'm just learning now that you're a mailman. But I want to know more about you. So let's just start by saying, how would you describe yourself? What are you all about? Who the devil are you, Mishke?

[Kirk]

I've been trying to find that answer for years. I really don't know. I go to these meetings, I don't drink anymore. And I've been trying to find myself for years.

[Mishke]

Darkness has a hunger that's insatiable Lightness has a call that's hard to hear and I wrap my fear around me like a blanket I went to the doctor and I went to the mountains I looked to the children I drank from the fountains there's more than one answer to these questions Pointing me in a crooked line and the less I seek my source for some definitive closer I am define I'm wondering if those words might not resonate with you today, Kirk.

[Kirk]

Oh, yeah, they do. They do.

[Mishke]

Could you show a little bit more excitement? I was hoping this would be a life changing moment, a revelation, a pivot point in your existence.

[Kirk]

Well, just when the phone rang, it was a pivot point. I'm still starstruck right now, Mishke. I'll be honest with you.

[Mishke]

I think you're getting closer to fine every day, Kirk. I really do. Escape yourself. Yourself is in the way. It's in the way of freedom and exaltation. Now, you started to dump a little of yourself when you hung up the drinking mug. How long ago was that?

[Kirk]

Oh, that was 10 years ago.

[Mishke]

10 years ago. Now what you gotta give up is the search. It's time to relax into the mystery.

[Kirk]

Oh, absolutely, I agree with you there. I, you know, Mishki, I just live.

[Mishke]

I. Attaboy.

[Kirk]

I just live and breathe in, breathe out. I don't know, I'm really kind of boring now.

[Mishke]

We're right back to boring. Boy. For a second there, you were interesting earlier and you didn't last there long, but. But there's something joyful in realizing you're boring. Have you ever read a book about staplers?

[Kirk]

No. I did get your book though. The wife got it for me.

[Mishke]

She got my book, Winter Song for you?

[Kirk]

Yeah, yeah. I listened to you, Sushire and Common man and I have just about every personality in the Twin Cities books that they've written. Roy C. All of them. And now I got yours. Yours is in the library now. What other books have you written?

[Mishke]

I only wrote the one book and I'm quite surprised I wrote that. That's not what I was going to do with my life. That came out of nowhere. You know where that book came from? The first Covid winter. That was a very strange time. I looked at the winter coming and I said, this is going to be a long one, a long, long winter. What will I do with it? And I sat down every morning at 5am and I began to write and I wrote about the winter itself, the thing that was outside my window. I started writing December 1st and I stopped April 1st. That book saved me and I'll always love it for that reason. But I also have thought about winter all of my life and now it's the springtime. And the reason spring is so magical, so wonderful, so glorious, so precious, is because of the winter, not in spite of it, because of it. It's coming out of the winter that we're able to know and fully embrace this crazy, wild time with all that life blooming all around us. Winter is giving it to us. We need to thank winter for the very feeling in our hearts right now.

[Kirk]

Exactly. I like the cleansing spring and something to look forward to.

[Mishke]

Do you ever open other people's mail, personal letters, that sort of thing? Do you ever sense there's money in some of the envelopes and take it? Do any of the people ever get a Playboy delivered and you find yourself going in back of their garage and paging through it?

[Kirk]

No, I've never found any. Mail route porn, we used to call it. No, I have not.

[Mishke]

I don't believe Playboy was ever pornography.

[Kirk]

No, no.

[Mishke]

When I was a little kid, and I'm ashamed of this, but I was walking home in fourth grade with some fellas, and we looked under a Volkswagen Beetle, 1968 Volkswagen Beetle in an alley, and we saw a suitcase, brown leather suitcase. And me and the fellows, we opened it up and it was filled with Playboy magazines. Now, we can't possibly understand at this age why Playboys are in a suitcase under a Volkswagen. Years later, I've thought about it, and I think the fellow who lived in that house was hiding them from his wife. That's my guess, anyway. Unfortunately for him, we found him. And in fourth grade. That's quite something to discover. A suitcase full of Playboy. Are you kidding me? Where my dad sent me to get my hair cut, Playboys were on top of the men's coat rack. You couldn't get up there as a little kid. Oh, but the men could. We'd see the men reading it. We knew what they were looking at, but we couldn't get at them. Anyway, we found this suitcase, and I had the idea right away of making some money. I told the fellas what we do is we take a scissors and we cut the individual pictures out and we sell them on the playground for a dime. So the next day, I'm selling these pictures of scantily clad and completely naked women on the playground of my Catholic school for a dime apiece. And I got caught by a nun. I can't tell you how different it is, the way nuns react to these pictures than, say, my buddies in that alley. Two different reactions. Completely. Very, very different. Anyway, I was brought to the principal's office. My mother was called, and then I got the talk. That is what reminded me of this whole story. You said porn earlier. And of course, that's not what Playboy was. And the reason, you know, it wasn't is because in that principal's office with my mother, they gave me the old, the human body is beautiful. There's nothing wrong with looking at the human body. But these pictures are for adults, and we can't have this in the hands of young people on our playground. You should not have been selling them. And we'd like the money that you made from those sales. And I said, well, that's not happening, but you can have the pictures. The beautiful body thing. There have to be a lot of kids out there who got that talk when you got caught with a Playboy as a kid. Tom, the body is a beautiful and natural thing. I don't want to tell you there's anything dirty about this that woman's just standing there. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, give me that magazine. I'm taking it upstairs. Wait, dad, that's mine. Shut up. I remember one time, and I'm getting a little loosey goosey now. I shouldn't be telling these stories. I remember one time going into my father's sock drawer as a kid, and he had a real watered down version of a girly magazine from Germany. Is this a World War II relic? I don't know. But I found it, and I thought to myself, dad, do you really think hiding it in this drawer is a good idea? Mom does the laundry, she folds the clothes, she puts them away. This isn't some private place. Don't you have a stash? Where do you keep your pot? Wait a minute. My dad didn't smoke pot. The idea that he kept it in his sock drawer.

[Kirk]

I'm blushing, Tom. I don't know what to say.

[Mishke]

Blushing? You don't have any stories to match this.

[Kirk]

We didn't find a suitcase full. We found a trash bag full in the woods.

[Mishke]

Okay, then, stop your blushing. Let's not pretend as children we didn't all have experiences like this. Don't leave me dangling out here all alone.

[Kirk]

Oh, no, no, I wouldn't do that.

[Mishke]

Kirk, can I ask you about this mailman job? Is that a good job?

[Kirk]

I don't mind it. I like it.

[Mishke]

That's not what I asked.

[Kirk]

Is it a good job?

[Mishke]

That's what I asked.

[Kirk]

Well, in today's day and age, probably not. But probably 25, 30 years ago, it was a damn good job.

[Mishke]

What did the weather change?

[Kirk]

The times changed.

[Mishke]

Well, what changed? What happened?

[Kirk]

Email, Price of stamps?

[Mishke]

How would that affect your job?

[Kirk]

Apparently, there used to be a lot, a lot more letter mail. Now there's just advertisements and a lot of parcels. There's really not a. I don't get a whole heck of a lot of letters.

[Mishke]

So your feeling is people don't welcome you to the same degree because you're not delivering fun things. As you come up the sidewalk with the junk, they say, get out of here. Sic the dog on you. Why does what you're delivering matter in terms of how you feel about your job?

[Kirk]

Oh, I enjoy it. I enjoy this. I like the people and the. In the weather, I enjoy being outside.

[Mishke]

Are the mailbags kind of heavy?

[Kirk]

No.

[Mishke]

No. I used to have a paper route when I was a kid. And I don't mind saying, some days I said, I feel like a pack mule. I don't want to haul this thing over my shoulder, up and down the block. Isn't there another job I could get? Maybe selling pictures out of a magazine for a dime a piece?

[Kirk]

How many did you sell? Did you make any money on the playground?

[Mishke]

I made enough money to get my Dr. Pepper in my Archie comic book. I'll tell you that. I was one happy man when I was leaving the five and dime with my Archie comic book and my Dr. Pepper. I sometimes tell people about my love of the Archie comic books, and they look at me funny. They. They think, why wasn't I getting Captain America or the Hulk or some of these other guys, Superman? I wasn't into any of that. These Archie guys were my friends. They were at Riverdale High, and I wanted to go to school with them. I had a crush on Betty. I sold pictures of Betty for a nickel apiece.

[Kirk]

Hey, did you really play in a band?

[Mishke]

Yeah, when I was in high school, it was domestic euphoria. I was the drummer. And then when I got out of high school, I joined a band called Spirits of Adventure. One summer, I played the drums when the drummer played the horns, and I played harmonica. I had the 1968 Ford pickup the band needed to haul their stuff around. Certainly didn't need it for my harmonica, you know what I'm saying? But I played harmonica on Roadhouse Blues, you know, the Doors. Roadhouse Blues.

[Kirk]

Maybe if I heard it.

[Mishke]

Wait a minute. How the hell old are you gonna be?

[Kirk]

54.

[Mishke]

Forget the Indigo Girls. Forget their advice. We are going to get advice for you from Jim Morrison. That was the Indigo Girls earlier, giving you their thoughts. Here. The advice is different, Kirk. Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel. Okay? We're going to the Roadhouse. We're going to have a real good time. You see, Kirk, and this is critical. The back of the roadhouse there, they got some bungalows, okay? The back of the roadhouse, they got some bungalows. And that's for the people who like to go down slow, you know? You know what I'm saying? So, Kirk, let it roll, baby, roll. This is you in your life now. This is the advice from Jimmy. Let it roll, baby, roll. You let it roll, baby, roll. Kirk, all night long. Do it, Robbie. Do it. All right. Not enough people out there understand that. You got to roll, roll, roll. You got to thrill my soul. All right. Yeah, you got a roll, roll, roll. You got to thrill my soul. You got a ipa kona chucha con concha, got a bapa looba baba e chapa tuba. Eat kappa loo Kauncha. Yeah, right.

[Tommy]

Are you getting any of this?

[Kirk]

Yes, I am.

[Mishke]

All right. I've enjoyed talking. Is there anything you want to ask me? Kirk?

[Kirk]

Like I say, I'm starstruck. I thought this call would never come.

[Mishke]

Well, I often monopolize these calls, and I feel bad about it, but my job is to keep things moving. It's not like I'm in my living room and you're in your living room and it's two in the morning and it's just the two of us and we can just doze in and out and chat periodically and rest. We gotta. You know, we gotta make something happen. This is the big time. This is show business. So I feel bad sometimes the way I manipulate and dominate the calls. So every now and then I like to say. Would you like to say anything at all? Anything you want to add?

[Kirk]

Mischie, It's a. It's a pleasure to listen to you and. And I wish I would have. Wish I would have found you earlier.

[Mishke]

I've enjoyed our time together. I really have. You actually sound like a fun guy. I don't know what interesting or dull is, but you sound like a. You sound like a fun guy.

[Kirk]

Oh, thanks, Misky.

[Mishke]

You have that quality about you that you'd be a good guy to have a beer with, a friendly fella. Nothing too taxing about being with you. You wouldn't put any great weight on my shoulders. You'd just be a pleasant guy to shoot the breeze with and let the time pass as we cast our lines into the old mist. Drink an old Milwaukee. Well, you can't, Taveny. I'll have yours.

[Kirk]

Yeah?

[Mishke]

Yeah.

[Kirk]

Well, thanks, Mishke. And I'm honored that you called.

[Mishke]

I'm honored you took my call, and I wish you all the best.

[Kirk]

Hey, Mishke.

[Mishke]

Yeah?

[Kirk]

Thanks for calling.

[Mishke]

You're very welcome, Kir.