B (2:24)

You gotta be kidding me.

A (2:26)

If that audio drop indicates my feelings about it. You kind of have a sense of things already. Which is. I don't think it's great. I don't think it's. I don't think it's a really positive development, but we'll talk about that. Here's a positive development. It's a Thursday AKA blursday, so we'll do the blurs day message. However, in case things get negative or I'm somehow I Don't know. Predicting the end of comedic events on network television, which is what I feel like the Colbert News really indicates. It's a har. Harbinger. Or harbinger. Is it short lived or is it harbinger? Anyway, my point is, if things get a little too negative in the top stories, we're going to get the nose up with the Blurs day messages because we love saying happy Blurs day to people on this show. So we'll do that with the help of this guy, longest running cobra of the show and newest dog, dad, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He told me this morning during soundcheck that he is absolutely exhausted. We're just blowing through nap time, aren't we? He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

B (3:33)

Good morning, Luke. I'm just doing something here at the top of the show to get out of the way so I don't lose my train of thought. I'm just going to just dump as many photos of our new puppy on you right now. I sent you just a couple. He was a little dog named Snuggles named, by the way.

A (3:50)

Oh, yeah. You want to do that?

B (3:52)

Well, let's see. I told you, right?

A (3:54)

Yeah.

B (3:54)

You know, you're not amazing.

A (3:55)

I know, but the listeners don't.

B (3:57)

Well, before you, before we say what the name is, what do you think of it? How do you like it?

A (4:02)

Love it.

B (4:02)

I love. I really like it too. A great.

A (4:06)

You know what I wanted to do there for some reason? Remember that weird thing we got into that we found on like YouTube where it would say the name of a city?

B (4:14)

Yes.

A (4:15)

A great name. I want to say Andrew and Viv's dog name. Andrew and Veev's dog name. A great name for a dog.

B (4:26)

I need to type in. Does that still exist? There was a time where whenever you tried to figure out the name of a city, you got this weird. It was almost like pre AI slop. Robotic slop. That was a song that supposedly told you how to pronounce things, but it didn't help because it was a monotone robot that was also trying to sing. Can those two things be true at the same time? I'm not sure.

A (4:49)

Remote Voice City Name Explainer. I mean, that's not going to get us anywhere. I mean, here's the thing. You're right, Andrew. That was a real kind of like precursor to what is now, like common on the Internet, which is like you'll just see something or hear something and it's got the robot voice and it's kind of just a little bit off. And you're like, oh, a bot wrote this for engagement. But this was something that was kind of before all of that. And yeah, it would just be us trying to figure out how to say a city, like, pronounce it, and then end up on YouTube on this bizarre. We never. I don't think we ever got to the bottom of, like, what was recreating it. But.

B (5:25)

And I'm looking. I just typed in. I was trying to think of a. A city. I just went with Tacoma, cuz I feel like Tacoma would be. One would be like, Tacoma, Tacoma.

A (5:36)

Oh, great name.

B (5:39)

But I can't find it. And it was everywhere. It was like Internet herpes.

A (5:44)

Yeah.

B (5:44)

I'm clicking. You hear stuff in the background.

A (5:46)

It's almost worse than real herpes.

B (5:48)

Are you.

A (5:48)

Are you clicking on this? How to correctly pronounce the city in America, hyphen Tacoma.

B (5:52)

No, I don't think I clicked on that one. Here, I can kill my music. Or wait, no, you.

A (5:55)

I don't know. I don't know what this is going to. Okay, this is something called pronunciation pro. How to correctly pronounce the city in America, hyphen Tacoma. So this here's what I think is promising about it. It seems like AI wrote that. How to correctly pronounce the city in America, hyphen Tacoma.

B (6:12)

Yes.

A (6:13)

Like, if a normal person did this, if a human did, they'd be like, how to pronounce Tacoma, Washington. But it doesn't look exactly like the ones that I remember from back in the day. I'm just gonna play it. I have a. We'll just find out together.

B (6:24)

Okay.

A (6:25)

Tacoma.

B (6:27)

No, that's not it. No, I like it.

A (6:29)

It's also not great, though.

B (6:31)

No, I'm still. I. I'm interestingly equally intrigued by that as well. But yeah. Yeah.

A (6:39)

So. Okay, well, listen, what I want to say is it's a great name for your dogs.

B (6:43)

I think you guys picked.

A (6:45)

Are you ready to talk about it?

B (6:47)

I am, yeah. So the cat is out of the bag, as it were. The dog is.

A (6:51)

Oh, you're letting bingo out of the bag now.

B (6:53)

I do want to give you some updates on that.

A (6:55)

I have a lot to just want to let you get fully ready. There's eight more seconds of the drum roll.

B (7:00)

Sounds good.

A (7:00)

Andrew and Jennifer.

B (7:01)

Am I just saying the name? Just the name of the.

A (7:03)

Say whatever you want. Starting now.

B (7:06)

I like turtles. Our dog's name is Lucy. Luke. Hey. I didn't even realize Until I said it right now how close Lucy is to Luke. No wonder you like it.

A (7:17)

You. And as if. As if that isn't a little nod to your old pal Luki.

B (7:23)

I literally had not said as if you and Luke next to each other. That is two out of four letters, my friend. I guess we need to take it

A (7:33)

as a high compliment.

B (7:35)

Oh, I love the name I was gonna call Lucy. The name is almost perfect. It could only be better if it was actually Luke. Luke.

A (7:42)

The funniest reveal.

B (7:44)

Luke Jr. That would have been what if this whole time and it was just Luke the third.

A (7:52)

I can't.

B (7:53)

Are you looking at the photos that I just dumped on you?

A (7:55)

I mean, honestly though, like, I feel like my ovaries just dropped.

B (8:00)

She is. She's really perfect, my dude, so.

A (8:04)

Oh, come on.

B (8:07)

You know that I have very little experience with, like, actual dogs other than, you know, petting other people's dogs. I love that. But to be responsible for a dog, it's been very few and far between for me. I've done some dog sitting here and there. Almost all of those. Almost all of those adventures went south in some way or another. Not always because of the dogs, by the way, but, you know, I just assumed that the whole time was going to be just chasing her, saying, put that down, put that down, put that down. But like, she's actually like, yeah, she does have puppy energy at different times of the day, but so far she has spent more time just snuggling Luke.

A (8:41)

How do you. I'm seeing some adorable shots of her napping in a sunbeam. Dude. A little on the nose.

B (8:47)

She was napping on my lap in a sunbeam about an hour after we brought her home. Or maybe 90 minutes. Zonked. I mean, zonked. Now. She probably had a lot of little. She probably had a lot of nervous energy on the ride home. It was about, you know, maybe 20 minute drive, half hour drive maybe. And so she sat on Genevieve's lap on the way home and she bonded with Genevieve immediately. I'm sorry. I really didn't get much sleep last night because of this. And I'll tell you how the night went, but I'm going to be bouncing all over the place, probably.

A (9:19)

But the fact that you named your dog after me, that's all. My heart is full.

B (9:27)

Honestly. That's all I ever asked. That's all I expected. So Luke Jr. Is on. I also like that she's a girl dog named Luke.

A (9:37)

Luke Jr. Everybody misgendering the dog at

B (9:41)

the dog park But I got to. So I drove home. And so Lucy was on Genevieve's lap in the passenger seat. And we did have a carrier in case it was needed, but it wasn't really needed. Now, Lucy has not really been outside much. I don't think I mentioned this to you, but her and her litter mates all got really sick a few weeks ago or maybe a month ago or something, which is. You might notice in some of the photos that she has little shaved bands that are still growing out on her arms.

A (10:08)

I saw that.

B (10:09)

Yeah, I think that's where they were putting fluids and stuff in her because she. And I think all of her litter mates got really sick. They thought it was Parvo, but it wasn't. It was. Obviously it wasn't because they're. They're doing well now, but they think it was a stomach virus or something like that. But they were very worried about it, the foster parents. So they. I know that she's been out in the world, like to that degree, but aside from that, she's only known this kitchen area, which was like a good place for her and her. Her litter mates to grow up. It was very spacious, you saw in that video that I sent you week.

A (10:42)

But like, I really want to figure out who made their cabinet.

B (10:44)

I know it's really. They're really beautiful.

A (10:45)

Blond, Danish, kind of.

B (10:47)

Dude.

A (10:48)

We got to midcentury.

B (10:50)

We got to that neighborhood early yesterday because we were so excited and we had about 10 minutes to kill. So we went up to Edmonds, which just has a lot of very. Let's just talk about houses and architecture for a while. It's very beautiful there and a lot of just like almost like mid century houses with a lot of ranches just. But very beautiful houses. But then we started, when we had time to kill, we started driving around and there's some huge area about the shape of a large amoeba. It would have to be a large amoeba because if it was a regular size amoeba, I wouldn't.

A (11:21)

No, you wouldn't even be able to see it with the naked eye.

B (11:25)

So, in fact, I would say this is an incredibly large, extra large because it's this huge part of like green space. It looks like a big ravine that's in, I want to say, Edmonds, although maybe we were slightly outside of Edmonds and it was all like fenced off. And it says that it's fenced off for like the water and sewer department of Olympic park or something like that. And we're driving around and there are straight up mansions. Like, there was a mansion that had what it looked like a tree house for kids that was nicer than our house. Now, again, this isn't exactly the neighborhood where we picked up Lucy. It was kind of adjacent to it in the kind of the neighboring areas.

A (12:08)

I wonder if you're talking about the Edmonds Bowl.

B (12:12)

Is that what that area is called?

A (12:13)

The Internet is saying the most prestigious, prestigious neighborhood in Edmonds is generally considered the Edmonds bowl, featuring high home prices, a walkability to the waterfront. And I wonder, and I wonder if it's called that because of the. Maybe that green space it would make.

B (12:28)

That would totally make sense because it's like they all surround this green space, which doesn't look like you have access to it. It's just like, maybe reserved, you know, like for nature. But, like, I don't know if I've seen such high cotton in Seattle. Like, maybe I have in some of the areas, like, where they won't let you in.

A (12:45)

Certainly Denny Blaine and the other areas of the highest cotton in Seattle.

B (12:50)

Genevieve immediately goes to the apocalypse. As we're driving around, she's like, if there ever is something and we need to come here because they already have gates and they're high up. And I'm just like, yeah, definitely as

A (13:04)

like a good ride or die dog in kind of a the road esque situation.

B (13:09)

I mean, I guess I got to get her a collar with spikes. But anyway, all that is bingo.

A (13:14)

Just driving like a murdered out dune buggy that shoots fire for some reason.

B (13:19)

I don't know how he grew that Mohawk, but it works in this scenario. It's badass. But anyway, so we did. We picked her up and on the ride home, she sat on Genevieve's lap. And so I do think that she bonded with Genevieve right away in a way that. I know this sounds ridiculous, but it was only like in the first four hours or so. I was a little bit worried. Not that everything has to be a contest of, like, which pet likes person more, but I didn't. There were a couple of times where, you know, I was playing with Lucy, but then she looked like she was a little bit, like, trepidatious around me, but so she would run to Genevieve for kind of like protection.

A (13:54)

Like she's imprinted on Genevieve maybe because that was the first lap she sat on and you may never be able to unimprint that or something.

B (14:00)

And again, I'm not worried about, oh, she might slightly prefer Genevieve over time or something like that.

A (14:06)

That would make her like most people that would exactly.

B (14:08)

If she didn't. Actually, I'd be concerned, to be honest with you. But I was a little concerned that she maybe wasn't trusting me for some reason. She was maybe a little skeptical of me for some reason. But after snuggling with her, literally all night, she is. So here's how it went. Now we brought her home. We're keeping her just in one room right now with all of her toys and a crate. We're kind of quasi crate training now. That's what everybody kind of says to do. But we're not forcing the issue.

A (14:40)

Right. Cause isn't it. It's been a while since I did something like this, but isn't the kind of idea on it that you have the crate there with the door open and you just kind of let them, you know, explore the space? Right. Like, if they want to go sit in there, they get to sit in there. But you're not. Isn't that. Isn't that the strategy that they're talking about?

B (14:55)

Yeah, definitely. You don't want to push him in there, and you want to put some treats in there and, like. And she is starting to treat it that way a little bit. But I think the idea is probably on the first night, you're supposed to maybe put a. Put her in her crate, and you should have already given her time to get used to it and then hopefully close the door on her and see how she does. But we've just been keeping her in one room of the house. This is also what they say, like, it's part of potty training, as well as dogs don't like to go to the bathroom in their own personal space. So if you just kind of put. Drop them in a whole house and say you have the run of the place, they're not going to think of it all as their own. They'll think of their crate as their own if you sort of, like, make that their space and kind of keep them cordoned off. So for. It's been not quite 24 hours yet. Keep in mind. So we're just keeping her in this one room that is like a kind of a second bedroom, but it's like Genevieve's sewing room. It's got a TV and a couch and a chair and stuff in there. And her. All of her toys and her crate is in there now. And we were worried because every time we left that we were, you know, playing with her and giving her a lot of attention, taking her outside and stuff. She was very. She had never stood on grass Before, I don't think we had asked. We had asked the. The foster mom or not. Not. Not. Not Lola, her actual mom, but, you know, the. The woman who's fostering the puppies. Like, well, did you let her out into the backyard? Is she familiar with that? And she said, no, she really hasn't done that. So I knew for a potty training. From a potting, potty training perspective, again, sorry, I really am running on fumes today. But then it's only 10:30 in the morning. But if they've only gone to the bathroom on, like, pee pads, which she has done her whole life, she associates that feeling under her paws with the proper place to go to the bathroom. And now it's our job to sort of break her of that habit and get her used to the idea of when you feel grass and the outside,

A (16:40)

which is why you've astroturfed that room.

B (16:41)

So we did. We planted. Not even Astroturf, actually.

A (16:44)

Real grass.

B (16:45)

Yeah. Are you familiar with soda?

A (16:47)

I am, actually. Yeah.

B (16:47)

I thought you might be. So what I did is I got sodden last night, which is what I think. No, but. So when we first took her outside, Genevieve and I were just taking her right on the grass right outside the house, and she just would look at us, and she would not go to the bathroom. And she just also just looked very nervous out there. She was taking it all in. A car would pass on the other side of the hedge, and she would look nervous. She'd hear dogs playing in the neighborhood, and she looked really kind of nervous. But that was the first hour or two that she was home, and she did have several accidents inside. She pees on the carpet. And the best we can do when that happens is kind of take her outside right away. But she still wasn't quite getting it. Like, oh, I'm supposed to pee outside. And the idea is you're supposed to just stay outside with her as long as possible. And then when she finally pees, then you really play with her and celebrate her and give her treats and stuff like that. And so Veeves and I, at one point, were outside for at least 45 minutes, and she was just kind of getting cold, and she didn't want to go to the bathroom or anything. I think maybe once she peed a tiny bit, and Genevieve kind of celebrated her and gave her a treat. And then we come in, and it's time to go to bed. And we're trying to figure out, like, what is the plan here? Like, do we put her in the crate? And if she crate, does she start crying right away? Because we found that if we both even left the room that she stays in, she immediately starts kind of whining and barking. And we don't want her to have separation anxiety. That's a really big thing for us. But she's also brand new, you know? And so I'm not trying to be overly concerned about it, but I'm also. Also trying not to, like, cement in any kind of bad habit. So we're like, I don't know. If you put her in the crate, just, like, leave her for the night, and you probably leave the room and just let her cry it out and just get used to it. And that's what Ves and I were thinking, but then I looked it up. I'm like, before we do this, let's make sure. And according to, like, many sources online, all the sources I saw was like, no, no, do not let them cry it out in their crate, because they will start to associate that crate with bad feelings. It'll be trauma. Like, she'll be in jail for. For the night. So. And it did say, like, some people put their crates bed. And we're like, well, we can't do that. But these. And I came up with a plan. These. Had spent a lot of time in that room with her watching Veep or whatever. And I said, well, you got to

A (19:02)

start him young on prestige television.

B (19:04)

Exactly.

A (19:05)

Get her on in the Loop. I said, it's a show.

B (19:07)

My God, have you seen that yet?

A (19:09)

No, I haven't. I just know that's the guy who made Veep.

B (19:11)

Yeah.

A (19:12)

Who made that about the British political system.

B (19:14)

They started on in the Loop, and then they went on to other things. You would really like it. It is so packed with jokes. I think it's a good airplane movie for you, if you'll take my advice on that. But anyway, the plan was Genevieve. When she was ready to go to bed, I would go in that room and maybe stay up for an hour and watch some TV myself. In fact, what I really want to talk to you about is the first episode of Saint what is it? DTF St. Louis.

A (19:38)

DTF St. Louis. Oh, you're. You're onto that now.

B (19:40)

Yeah. Because I was like, why? To sit there for an hour, I'm like, well, I might as well catch up on something. So I watched one episode. I don't know how many they've dropped, but I am so excited to find out where that story goes. I was pleasantly surprised with the major turn that that took in the middle thank you for not spoiling that, by the way. I didn't realize it was gonna be kind of a mystery, and I'll just leave it there. But anyway, so I'm like, I'll just watch an episode of tv and then Lucy will probably fall asleep, and I'll just gently get her into her crate, and then I'll stay in the room with her, but I'll close her in her crate. And that was my plan for the night. And I figured this probably isn't gonna work because I think that she'll wake up and start, like, whining and barking and stuff, but we'll just see how it goes. What ends up happening, of course, is she just snuggles with me on the couch, and then eventually I fall asleep. And is this that blue couch? No, the one that Jenna you hated that I liked that she still resents. She gave me a choice of, like, three couches to pick out, and I picked out the one that she didn't like, and we got it.

A (20:41)

The only reason I asked her, I'm trying to picture is this a couch that you can sleep on, semi comfortable. Is it big enough for you to kind of like lie down on, stretch out and get.

B (20:50)

I will say after spending the night on the couch, no. The answer is no. Actually, you know what? This is the Rodin's old couch. Actually, they got a new one. So, you know, this is like a couch that, like, in its. In its heyday, was, like, a very beautiful couch. But it. Just because of kids and pets and. And just the passage of time, they were ready to get rid of it. But it was kind of better than a couch that we had. So Viva's like, we'll take it. And so. So anyway, it turns out it's way too short for me, but it doesn't really matter because. Because Lucy is such a damn snuggler. Like, I have no. She and I have no issues anymore. There is no trepidation. She. I mean, she just wants to. She wants to burrow into you. She just wants. And she smells like. I don't even know how to describe her. She smells like peanut butter and coffee and puppy breath. And she just gets right in your face and just constantly needs to be leaning on you or just, like, shoving her nose right in your face. And so she. And then sometimes she goes down to the bottom of the couch and would sleep by my feet for a little bit. But I basically went to bed at 2 o', clock, slept somewhat. Is it fitfully? That means not so great. Right. Kind of constantly getting up. She's readjusting. I'm readjusting. It's not super comfortable. But of course, I'm also loving it. But then. And then I think she woke me up at first at like five in the morning. I'm like, all right, let's get you outside. I may be messing up some of the timeline, but nobody cares. It's my timeline. Just go with me on this. At one point, maybe it was the middle of the night, I take her outside, and I know that she probably has to pee, but she's not peeing. She's not peeing. So you know what I did?

A (22:24)

Luke peed.

B (22:26)

I peed. I just peed in the bushes. And she looked at me and she was like, what is going on with this guy? And then. And of course, I kept her away from it. And then. And then within a minute, she peed exactly where I wanted her to pee outside. I celebrated her. I gave her some treats. We maybe tried to go back to bed. I got at most four hours of fitful sleep last night because then she woke me up with the puppy energy that I was expecting that we hadn't quite seen because she was so zonked yesterday. She woke me up nibbling me. Not bad. But just like. Like at 6am she was, like, all over me, like, time to get up, time to get up. And so I took her out. She went outside and peed immediately. Again, we still are still having a couple of accidents. She still hasn't pooed outside. That doesn't mean she hasn't pooed. Just means she hasn't pooed outside. Sure, sure. But, you know, it's a process. It's been less than 24 hours, but, my God, this dog just wants to snuggle. And I don't know if I did the right thing by, like, again, I don't want her to be a dog that needs.

A (23:24)

What, you mean the peeing thing?

B (23:25)

No, that's fine. I don't know if it's great. I think we need to somehow get her to a place where she's comfortable being alone as well. Because if the default is that she's always connected to one of us and is always snuggling with one of us or playing with one of us, and then the second we turn our back on her, she starts crying. That's not going to be good for the long term. Right? We want an independent dog, obviously. But it's so early. It's so early, and it's her first time of not sleeping. Probably right. Snuggled up next to her brothers and sisters and mom. By the way, I did get to see your mom Lola again. And I got a photo of her. I'll send you a photo of her later. But. And so I'm like, whatever, we're just gonna snuggle on the couch all night. And my God, it was. It was so sweet. I am. I'm on fumes right now. I was telling you before the show, I feel like I was finishing a. I haven't had this feeling since, like, finishing a project in college where you literally stayed up all night and you're a little bit like, you know, or

A (24:25)

when we did the 24.

B (24:26)

The 24 hour anniversary show. Although I was so full of adrenaline by that. By the time I crashed, that was like an un. I don't think I crashed until like 8 in the morning or something. Like, until long after. I didn't have to. But anyway, that's the mode I'm in. But we snuggled all night. Karaoke after that, you know, we went to the gate, but I don't know if they were doing karaoke or not.

A (24:47)

That was insanity. We did.

B (24:48)

Yeah. We were.

A (24:49)

We were driving around in a van for 24 hours, broadcasting live, then did a live show, rolled up to the rebar, and then for some reason thought, well, we should still go to the mansion.

B (24:59)

Yeah. Because we had friends in from out of town who wanted to go to the live show at the rebar, and I missed the rebar. All right, last thing on Dog Talk. Yeah. I'm going to tell you about. We talked about the past. We talked about yesterday. It went well. I mean, we're all madly in love with each other. It's going really well.

A (25:14)

Excellent.

B (25:14)

But the. The big thing so far is the Bingo situation. Right. The only thing I was gonna ask about that. Yeah. The only thing that we're like, kind of of. That would salt this whole situation would be if there was like a really apparent issue between Bingo and Lucy, or specifically if Bingo was showing any signs of distress or anything. We don't want to, you know, bring another animal into the house that ruins the experience of an animal that we truly, truly love to death. So they haven't officially met yet. We wanted to give her maybe 24 hours in her room, you know, like, kind of sequestered. But they've seen each other a lot because at first we're carrying her outside. Now she's walking through the living room to go outside on a leash. And Bingo's, like, looking at her from across the Room, kind of keeping his distance, but not showing any signs of distress. There was one moment where I opened up Lucy's, the door to her room, and I didn't know that she was right there, and Bingo was right there. And there's one moment where she had some puppy energy and sort of, like, made a motion, and he. He bolted for a second, but then he immediately was right back upstairs. So after the show today, we are going to open that door. We're gonna put a baby gate there so that Bingo can go into her room if he wants to, because he knows something's going on. Like, he. He sees us spending all of our time and energy in that room. He smells her every time we say.

A (26:37)

I'm sure the house smells different to him.

B (26:39)

Oh, yeah. In that room. Every time we take her out, he goes in and kind of does a little patrol and smells and everything. And I think that's good. But we just want to make sure that he has space in case she gets really excited. So we're going to. As soon as I'm done with the show today, we're going to get Lola all tired out. We're going to play with her a lot so that maybe she'll be a little bit more calm, wait for her to get a little bit chilled out, and then we're going to introduce them through a baby gate and then hopefully maybe keep that baby gate open and give Bingo the opportunity to come and go, because he can jump over it and keep her in that room. And I got to say, so far, all signs are pointing towards a pretty chill situation. Like, she's way chiller of a puppy than I ever expected. And again, not that she doesn't have puppy energy at times, but she mostly wants to snuggle and cuddle. And Bingo is just pretty chill as a dude himself. And so, like, things are going. Things are going well. I hope I'm not jinxing it.

A (27:36)

I think. I think that. I think they're gonna get along famously. I remember when. When I was living in Bellingham and like, Rudy and Olive. And by the way, Olive was a. Like a barn cat. So that really was potentially concerning because she was just like, you know, basically pretty. Pretty feral. But what those two would, like, cuddle together and. You want to talk about. I'm talking.

B (27:58)

Yeah.

A (27:59)

Is it inter or intra species, cross species cuddling might be the cute.

B (28:04)

You think.

A (28:05)

You think cuddling within the species is cute?

B (28:07)

Yeah.

A (28:08)

Miss me with that. I want to see wildly different. I want to see a hippopotamus and a Flamingo.

B (28:12)

Absolutely.

A (28:13)

Spooning.

B (28:14)

Yes.

A (28:15)

We see a dog and a cat curled up. It's. It is the. And I see that for you, for you all in your future, because they both sound like. I mean, again, this is early in the time with Lucy, but they both just sound like they're. They're. They're pretty well adjusted, pretty normal little. Little animals for what they are, you know?

B (28:31)

Yeah. The only thing that I'm having any kind. And again, this is. Is not major. Just the only thing that I'm a little bit worried about is, is making sure that we somehow instill in her a sense of inner peace so that she doesn't need us around all the time. But frankly, this is going to be crazy. But, like, maybe Bingo helps with that. You know what I mean? Like, because he's another being if we leave, you know, I don't mean tomorrow, but I mean down the line if we have to leave for half a day or something and neither Genevieve and I are home, I kind of like the idea of maybe those two entertaining each little bit when we get to that point. I know it's not going to happen this afternoon, but hopefully if we do it right, I do sort of feel like you only have one chance at that. And I don't want, like, the Bingo's first experience to be, like, feeling intimidated or scared by her.

A (29:21)

I think there's a real chance that Bingo will be more interesting to Lucy than either of you.

B (29:27)

That would be interesting. Yeah.

A (29:28)

You know, like, I. You know, like, in a. In a good way. Like, I think. Yeah, I think that. I think they're going to be. Be. I think they're going to be pals. And. And I think.

B (29:36)

Yeah.

A (29:36)

Anyway, I'm excited to hear how. How the. How the meet and greet goes later today.

B (29:40)

But.

A (29:40)

But. But again, the other thing too is, you know, Lola is. Or, sorry, Lucy is a puppy. And I think it's. Isn't it also pretty normal for puppies to be. And like, it's like a baby in the sense that, like, of course, from a just evolutionary standpoint, they're kind of wired to be a bit dependent on the people that are providing them with their food and shelter. Like, that's an important thing to staying alive when you can't feed or shelter yourself. So I think it stands to reason that she'd be a little bit obsessed with you and Veeves and wanting you around, but I also think it stands to reason that that's something she'll grow out of. You know, I mean, I think that Seems like pretty normal puppy behavior, don't you think?

B (30:16)

I think so. And that's why. And Viv's and I are going to actually, you know, take her to some training classes and stuff when the time is right. And so we'll get more information. And I've been doing a little bit of reading. Oh, by the way, I have gotten so many emails from listeners with advice and encouraging words. I've tried to respond to a bunch, but I know I didn't respond to all of them, but do know that I went through all of them today. And I really do appreciate everybody reaching out and a lot. And the cool thing is, Luke, a lot of what I'm hearing is universal, whether it's people's personal experiences raising and training dogs or the stuff that I was watching online or reading online, like, everything. There's not a lot of conflicting information, which I really appreciate. But I haven't read anything much about, like, how do you go through a phase of. Yeah, she's a puppy. She's going to be dependent on us to. You know, I've known dogs, very sweet dogs. Some of the. My friend's dog. Our friend's dog, who I love to death. I know. You know Poppy, right? Our friend Katie's dog. I don't know how she's doing now, but I know for a big part of her life she had a lot of anxiety when our friend would leave for a while, you know, and she had a doggy camp so you could keep an eye on it. And I don't want. I just, you know, don't want that for any dog to feel anxious. You know what I mean? And so I don't know how you transition from, yes, we're here for you for any. Anything you need to, you know, you feeling like you have some sort of inner comfort when the humans aren't around as well. I. That's. That's the thing. But again, I'm sure there's an answer to that. We'll figure out.

A (31:44)

And I also think, I mean, a little bit of is the luck of the draw, right?

B (31:47)

Yeah.

A (31:47)

Like, just like people, we're all wired differently. And it seems like, like, you know, that can also be the case with animals. But I mean, it seems like you're giving this dog a really, really, really good start to its life with you. And yeah, I'm. I'm looking forward to. And by the way, you cannot. And pass this on to Viv. You cannot overwhelm me with photos of this animal. There is. I don't I don't know what your data plan is.

B (32:08)

I don't know if you need to

A (32:08)

send them on nights and weekends. If you need to add me to your five.

B (32:11)

Hey, could you make Luke a framley?

A (32:14)

Could you add me to the framily, please?

B (32:16)

Yeah, yeah. He wants to send photos of Luke Jr. Yeah, exactly.

A (32:19)

You named Luke Jr. For me. the very least, I should get some digital visitation with this puppy. Well, anyway, I'm stoked for you guys. We was hoping for some razzle dazzle. Razzle dazzle. That's right, man. Razzle dazzle.

B (32:31)

On your mark.

A (32:31)

On your mark.

B (32:32)

Get set, get set now. Ready? Ready. Go. Everybody.

A (32:37)

Razzle dazzle. Hey, let's thank some dazzling donors. These folks are donating a dazzling amount of dough to TB btl, which is the. The financial strategy of this program, if you will, is. And I've been. I've been talking to some. Some friends of ours offline, Andrew. Some friends of ours in the podcasting world who have. I'm not actually even joking with this. Who kind of said, hey, can we ask you some questions about how this whole TBTL thing works? Because the model and these are friends of ours who do professional podcasts, you know, kind of similar to what we do. And it's just because of how kind of chaotic it is out there and the way that all of the media landscape is shifting, that there's a lot of people that are in this kind of line of work that we're in who are trying to figure out how to make it all happen. And we are so fortunate that this little business model that we're using has sustained us for 4,702 episodes into the show anyway. And it's because of folks like. Like Kwaku Tago, who's in Auburn, Washington. Thank you, Kwaku, who says, hello, boys. I'm so happy to continue my dazzling donation to the bustling Biz Boys operation. I know that's a lot of bees. The fact that they provide me with tens of minutes of listening enjoyment daily.

B (33:57)

Sorry, I just thought. That's a funny way of putting it. I. For. I looked at it, I thought it said 10 minutes, and I was confused for a second, but I think that it's tens of minutes, right?

A (34:05)

Don't tell us, Kwaku, which 10 of minutes it is in the show, because what that makes me. Let's say the average show might be an hour and 15 minutes, an hour and 20 minutes. It means tens of those minutes are entertaining to Kwaku and. And then some aren't, but we. I don't want to know which ones aren't because then I'll get too in my head about it. Let's see. Tens of minutes of listening enjoyment daily and release episodes five days a week are just a couple of the reasons that I contribute and I will continue to do so. Keep up the good work. What you do is so important. Thank you very much. Kwaku says. I'd also like to take this opportunity to promote my residential general contracting business, Wolf Contracting llc. It's a design build company. By the way, Wolff is spelled W U L F F. It's a design build company with a focus on residential new builds, remodels and additions. With 20 years of residential construction experience and a commitment to customer satisfaction, Wolf Contracting is your go to for all your building needs. If anyone is planning to have work done on their home, consider contacting Wolf Contracting by emailing Kwaku, which is spelled K W a k u kwakuulffcontracting.com or you can visit the website wolfcontracting.com andrew this of course home remodeling, something that's been a long running theme on this show because I've been doing so much of it. And now you and Genevieve have also been ushered into the world of having a lot of work done on your house. And it's something that is pretty great when it's all done and also pretty intense while it's happening, even under the best of circumstances. I guess what I would say is if you can go with somebody like Kwaku who, who is also a TBTL listener, I think that you've, I think you've really, you've really hit on something there as the, the person who might be having some remodeling done. Because again, I don't want to get into, I don't want. How do I say this? Basically like there's always going to be bumps in the road with any remodeling project, but wouldn't you rather hit those bumps with someone who you could also just yell drops at?

B (36:12)

Right. Exactly. Even when things, when things are going off the rails, you can say California in an angry sort of way or I'm trying to think what would be.

A (36:21)

I'm not handling this well.

B (36:23)

Yes. That's.

A (36:24)

I'm slouching.

B (36:26)

I like your take on it because it's way more entertaining. But I was gonna say sincerely here, like who can you trust more than a fellow 10 in this situation? I don't even just. And it sounds like I Mean it, like, because we're good people. We, the tens, you know, using.

A (36:41)

Well, that is true.

B (36:42)

That is true. But even aside from that, it is a smallish community that we have. So, you know, like, there's a familiarity. Even if you don't know Kwaku personally yet, like. Like, you know, he's not going to do you dirty. And I'm not saying he would do anybody else dirty either, but I'm just saying, yes, tens are not going to do tens dirty because tens will find out.

A (37:02)

Yeah, precisely. And that's. That's why you heard me pause, because I was trying to. I didn't want it to sound like the reason that Kwaku and Wolf contracting was going to do a great job on the project is purely because of the TBTL factor and that if you took that out suddenly, we'd be dealing with some kind of a situation. But it's certainly not a bad insurance policy on the process. Like, if there's anything that I needed done in any part of my life and I had a chance to use a 10, whether it's real estate agent, somebody to do, you know, my sort of financial stuff or my taxes or anything like that, or contracting, in the case of Kwaku's company, it just isn't. The only one I wouldn't use personally would be therapy, because I feel like I'm already sharing over sharing with the listeners my personal problems and issues. And then if I was to also retain this because we have listeners who are therapists who are dazzling donors, for me, that would be a little bit. Maybe a little bit too much sharing with someone who also has a view into my life by way of the show. But short of that, there isn't anything else I wouldn't use the services of a 10 for. And I would feel really good about it because I'd be like, I know these people are going to shoot me straight and be great at whatever it is they do. So.

B (38:13)

And that applies to drugs as well, by the way. Like a drug dealer. I would absolutely. A 10 as a drug dealer, if there are any.

A (38:20)

Yeah, Well, I think tomorrow's dazzling donor is big push of the plug. And that's where. Well, the plug is the. Is the, you know, the cool term for the person that you get your drugs from.

B (38:32)

No, I didn't.

A (38:34)

Oh, yeah. Like, hey, I've been waiting. I'm waiting on the plug.

B (38:36)

Is that classic? Is that like classic slang or is it like new, New fangled?

A (38:40)

Well, let's put it this way. It got to my White ass about three years ago. So I don't know what its use is in the wider world was, but it made its way through the Internet. And to my ears, a few years ago, I started hearing it being called the Plug. And then. And then there just happens to be. There's a rapper who's called Big Push of the Plug, who's a kind of interesting dude that. That I. I like a couple of his songs of. So. But anyway, that's what that was all a reference to. I wanted to say. Kwaku signs it up by saying, sincerely, Kwaku Tago Wolf Contracting llc. Quote for all your building needs. End quote. So thanks, Kwaku. We really appreciate you and we couldn't do this without you. Maestro, on your mark. On your mark.

B (39:27)

Get set, get set now. Ready, Ready. Go, everybody.

A (39:33)

Oh, look who it is. We've got to thank Doug Prindle in Bothell, Washington for a lifetime.

B (39:42)

I just love hot Cheetos. I love Jesus, but I drink a little. The Mummy returns.

A (39:48)

You're a jackass like everybody else. So who needs a movie?

B (39:52)

Ahoy hoy. Bagel, bagel, beagle, boggle, boogle. To me, it look like a leprechaun.

A (39:57)

To me, he's not even levitating me.

B (39:59)

Down. Simmer down, Stu. Oh, my God, guys, we are crushing it. No, thank you, Rich Kazarian. Shaka Zulu.

A (40:07)

These aren't the droids you're looking for.

B (40:09)

I hate you, cuz. You look different. But seriously. Got it.

A (40:18)

We're going to go. We're in a Barbaro.

B (40:20)

Oh, no.

A (40:21)

This is a valley.

B (40:22)

This is a mega mix.

A (40:23)

It's a. It's a back to back Barbaro Thursday.

B (40:28)

Oh, wow. Right, right. Wow. Wow.

A (40:36)

My dad. Cannibal.

B (40:39)

Cannibal coming. Oh, do you think y' all can handle this? Sorry about that.

A (40:46)

Wow.

B (40:47)

Jolly. Ms. Molly.

A (40:48)

I may not be using enough juge. I don't know, man.

B (40:51)

That's right. Guest producer Doug Schreckenghas.

A (40:59)

I wanted to do hoodw stuff with my friend. I urge you to vote for me this November.

B (41:05)

The Miami Meat Tent.

A (41:08)

Geez, they all like Katie.

B (41:16)

Man, it is nasty out there. Man, it is nasty out there. How about like pranking an animal?

A (41:25)

That's why I live in a teepee. All right, there you go.

B (41:29)

That was the request.

A (41:30)

An audio journey courtesy of dazzling donor Doug Prindle. Thanks, Doug. We appreciate you. Couldn't do the show without you.

B (41:43)

Hello and welcome to Top Story.

A (41:47)

Well, while you, Andrew, have been settling into that dog's life, the life of Being a dog parent, I have been studying the future of comedy on network television and in particular late night television. Actually, the other day I saw this headline that the, you know, the Late show with Stephen Colbert is going away on cbs I think this spring, or maybe it's June. Actually, I think June might be when the final show is. I'm not exactly sure, but it's coming up. And you know, that was a very, very complicated and troubling announcement back in the day or back when it came out that they were going to be ending the Late show with Stephen Colbert. CBS said this was because it was not profitable. And I do know that those late night shows are pretty expensive to run. You know, like the Jimmy Fallon show. They don't, they don't do the show on Thursday nights or, sorry, on Friday nights anymore. It's like a Monday through Thursday. I feel like, is it fat? No. Fallon has the roots. Didn't one of them also even like lose their live band or there was an announcement that the live band was. Maybe it was Seth Meyers. Somebody lost their live music at some point. There's just all these cost cutting measures because we just don't watch late night television the way that we did once. So on the one hand that is somewhat valid that I do understand that late night TV shows are just not consumed the way they used to be. And so to keep making them like it's the tonight show circa 1979 maybe doesn't make the most sense when you

B (43:18)

had like a third of television watchers at least probably watching it because there were three now networks. Yeah.

A (43:25)

And, and, and they were, they were ca. You know, they were just like generating cash. It was a big cultural thing. You went on Carson as a stand up and then you got called over to the couch and it made your career. You know, it was like a really big deal. This is not the world we live in. I wish that was still the world we live in for some reason because it's familiar to me, but it isn't. Okay, fine. That being said, the Colbert stuff was, was really kind of troubling because, because of course this is at a time when Stephen Colbert is also being very vocally critical of Donald Trump. And it was very hard to ignore the fact that at his sort of maximum criticism of Trump, you also had the FCC coming down on Jimmy Kimmel. And in a way on Colbert you have David Ellison of Skydance, who then acquired Paramount and cbs and he's considered to be a good friend of Donald Trump's. It just the Thing kind of, thing kind of stunk to high heaven, honestly,

B (44:22)

because Colbert specifically wasn't just tough on Trump, but specifically speaking out about his own network's relationship with Trump and that merger. That stinky merger.

A (44:33)

Yes, precisely. So anyway, now they've announced, so that's a bummer. And like, you know, I mean I'm even, even as somebody who didn't, like, I didn't watch Colbert or you know, I didn't watch the Late show religiously at 11:30 again, but I did watch clips of it and I do think he is obviously a very, very creative and comedically talented person who I of course personally really appreciate being in the discourse. I don't know how much he's going to be able to be in the discourse writing the new Lord of the Rings movie, which you missed that because you were out of town.

B (45:03)

I missed that. Yeah. I saw the headlines about that. By the way, one quick note on that. And again, I didn't hear the show that you and David talked about it, but do you remember that we have a piece of intro tape about Colbert making a long joke about Smaug?

A (45:19)

Yes.

B (45:19)

And that's how I, that's why I was like, oh yeah, that's right. He's a Lord of the Rings guy. He's way into that universe and apparently

A (45:26)

not just a little bit into it. But David was telling me that he's literally written, Colbert has literally written basically scholarly articles on like he's considered a Tolkien scholar, like next level with this. So he's, he and his son are going to be helping co write like the, the new, the new Loader movie that's coming out with Peter Jackson. But anyway, all that is to say and have now announced that the replacement for the Late show is going to be Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed. Excuse me, America, do you mind? Now for those who don't know, Comics Unleashed is a very, very long running show that I think went away for a while and is now was sort of re, sort of reanimated and rebooted. I don't know, I want to say like a year ago I was talking to somebody. Oh, I think it was Alonzo Bowden and I were talking in Chicago before doing Weight Wait a few months ago and he told me he had just come off doing a bunch of Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen.

B (46:26)

I am, you said for those who don't know, and I am. Those who don't know, by the way, I know the name Byron Allen. That name is so familiar to me. But I am having Trouble placing it. And I don't think I was placing it with a property called Comics Unleashed because that sounds like something I have not heard of before.

A (46:44)

I remember, I'm gonna say from the 80s and the 90s, flipping around the channels and you would just see this roundtable show which was basically a riff fest for comedians. And it was always called Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed. The joke being that there was almost no area in which the comics were more leashed than on Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed. Like it is a show, it is an infomercial, it is a show that Byron Allen. So Byron Allen was himself, I believe, a kind of like semi successful comedian and then TV host. But what he really is is an incredibly shrewd businessman. So he, he realized at some point that he wasn't going to make a bunch of money in stand up comedy. But what he was going to be really good at was creating these shows that he would pay for the production of that he would then actually pay to place on network airtime and then he would be allowed to sell most of the commercial airtime himself.

B (47:44)

Interesting.

A (47:45)

He also acquired a lot of TV stations. He's a billionaire now. Byron Allen is from this kind of, this model of. I mean, he's got a lot of irons and a lot of different fires, but he's basically created this thing. So what's going to happen now? So what it is is it's a number of comedians sitting around and it's Byron Allen going like, imagine it's to our friend Alonzo Bowden, who has some story. Alonzo, I know loves motorcycles. He's a real, like, he's into motorsports. And if he's got some riff about his motorcycle riding that he's been performing in his like comedy show, Byron Allen will look over and go, Alonzo, I heard that you, you've been having some problems with your motorcycle. And then Alonz, that's Alonzo's cue to do his riff about motorcycles, whatever that

B (48:26)

is, which frankly, I mean, it sounds like this is a more unmasked version of my complaint with what a lot of the late night shows turned into as well. And I'm actually not talking so much about Colbert here because, because I think that he elevated everything. Although like you, I have to admit that I was not a regular viewer of that show. But like he was really, really smart. But like that was even as a kind of, as a young person, like, oh, these interviews are so clear that this is like, I will set you up for this thing. You want to talk about and have a. Have a bit on.

A (49:01)

Yes. This is the distilled version of that. Whereas there's at least a little bit of. Of the sort of pretense of we're just having a conversation when it's Fallon or whatever, Even Kimmel, probably. There's no monologue, at least that I know of. I haven't watched this show in a while. But there's no, like, there are no sketches. There's not. There's nothing really much going on on the show other than I'm gonna bring in these. Whatever it is, three to four comedians. Byron Allen is gonna have just a list of prompts that he's just gonna like, like, you know, wing at. Like not wing at, but he's just going to like present to these comedians and then they're just going to riff. But they're not really riffing. That's the thing. They're doing their act and they're. It's a very. That's why the whole joke about them being Comics Unleashed, it's like there's nothing unleashed about it. And the reason they can crank out tons of this show, tons of episodes of this show is because it is extremely formulaic. It's actually not like it would actually be kind of an interesting project, but challenging if you decided to just have three standup comics on and then just tape a half hour show with them that you didn't know where it was going to go. Mm, you might get some comedy gold. You might get some real clunkers. You'd probably need to do a lot of creative editing. You'd need to, by the way, you'd need to film for an hour. You need to film for like an hour and a half to get a half hour of good usable material. Like, it would be. It would be sort of a, you know, be a process. This is an extremely efficient, extremely kind of like planned out way to just create something on television that to the sort of. Not to the casual observer appears to just be like, again, comics who are being unleashed. The thing is, like I said, Byron Allen is paying for the airtime. So this is an infomercial. This is the new business model is Byron Allen will pay CBS to air his show. By the way, it's going to be two, it's back to back episodes of Comics unleashed. So from 11:35pm it'll be two episodes of comics Unleashed, followed by a show that he also produces called Funny you should Ask, which is a game show that's produced by Byron Allen's company. So we're gonna get, I think it's like an hour and a half or two hours of Byron Allen created content that he is paying CBS to air that then in turn he is allowed to resell the airtime at least a portion of it and make his own money off of the commercials that are airing during this thing. This is where we're going from. From Stephen Colbert, national treasure, comedy genius and sharp critic of the President to Byron Allen's comedy infomercial, to literally the,

B (51:35)

the AM radio overnight model or you know, like this is the equivalent or

A (51:42)

the Saturday morning estate planning.

B (51:44)

Exactly what I was going to say. This is the equivalent of turning on your radio. If you're, if you're like me on a Saturday morning and you were listening to the Mariners game the night before, but now you're listening to the hunting show and they're selling a lot of hunting products. In the ad breaks in between, it's like, wow, that is rough. Yeah.

A (52:07)

Here's Byron Allen's comment. I created and launched comics unleashed 20 years ago so my fellow comedians could have a platform to do what we all love, make people laugh. Mr. Allen said in a statement. I truly appreciate CBS's confidence in me. This is by the way, I'm reading from the article in the Times by Ali Watkins writing about this. Ali saying the move replaces a highly produced legacy late night show taped daily in a Manhattan studio with a live audience, aired hours later with a markedly less sophisticated product. Typical times droll delivery. Comics Unleashed has only sporadically recorded new material, taping an initial run of episodes in 2006, followed by dozens of tapings in 2014 and 2016. By the way, there, there was a version of this from the 90s that I watched. So maybe it was called Comics, you know, Free for All or something. But I can tell you that it goes back to well before 2006, this version.

B (53:05)

I was going to ask you because I've been looking, as you were talking about, because I've been looking for early episodes and everything that I'm seeing is that, is that the first run of the show went from 202006 to 2016. Well, you know what got picked up again. So I don't think it was 90s unless it was like a different version.

A (53:22)

Look up, do a Google of the Byron Allen show because what I see, here's what I think, here's what I think I'm thinking of. He's been doing a version of this for a long ass time and I think maybe the first run was called The Byron Allen.

B (53:34)

Oh, my God, I'm loving this font. It's so like, like the, it's very like late 80s, early 90s. And you're right about that. That's what you're. That's what you saw. 89 to 1992. The Byron.

A (53:46)

My sense is, I believe the Byron Allen show was also a pay to play type of a thing. It may have had an initial run of being something where he was hired to host the show, but like. And it was, you know, paid for by some network or whatever. But my sense is he, he, he hit on this business and I think what happened was, was much like the sort of the Maury Povich show went from being a general talk show to eventually just all paternity tests because that's what the audience wanted. My sense of the Byron Allen show was maybe it was kind of like a normal ish talk show and then eventually just became Byron Allen and three or four comics riffing and then was somehow eventually reconstituted in 2006 as Byron Allen's Comedians Unleashed or whatever. To continue with.

B (54:31)

Before you go on with that, though, I found an early episode of the Byron Allen show from 1990. Full episode, 44 minutes long. Can we listen to the whole thing? No, absolutely. He's got Whoopi, Christina Applegate, Richard Jenny and Smokey Robinson. I don't know who Richard Jenny is, but I just want to.

A (54:47)

He's a comedian.

B (54:48)

Oh, you know, okay.

A (54:48)

That's a legit lineup.

B (54:50)

It is. And so this is a 1990 episode. It was posted to YouTube five years ago. And I just want to hear and watch, watch the intro. I know the listeners can't see along with it, but I can tell you this. It begins with a very classic, like late night opening. You see a. A shot of Los Angeles at night and the buildings are lit up, you know, and then you can see traffic moving quickly. Like it's a. It's. What do you call it? A time.

A (55:12)

Time lapse.

B (55:13)

Time lapse video of cars moving quickly on the highways and byways of Los Angeles. Nestled among the majestic palm trees along the banks of the beautiful Los Angeles river, deep in the heart of Burbank. It's the Byron Allen Show. Yeah. Kind of setting that up like it's like a more pastoral.

A (55:39)

Well, the bank. Well, yeah, the banks of the Los Angeles river is a concrete slot.

B (55:44)

Right.

A (55:45)

That runs through la.

B (55:46)

I just drainage. I know that because I just recently watched a documentary called To Live and Die in la. Guests are star of film, television and comedy. The Unpredictable Whoopi Goldberg. I mean the graphics on this are exactly what you think. First of all, the 90s, nobody loved purples and blues more than the 90s, and nobody liked triangles more than the 90s. And so you have like kind of like Whoopi Goldberg's face like imposed on like the graphics of the show which are just kind of like this very pink scripty writing that says Whoopi Goldberg on top of a purple triangle. Married with children's promiscuous princess Christina Applegate. Wow. Yikes. Stand up comedy from the hilarious Richard Jenny and the music world's living legend, Smokey Robinson. Now turn your television up so loud that when your neighbors complain you won't even hear them. And welcome Byron Our. Well, Byron Allen does have his own band and I will tell you that the guy playing electric guitar in his own band is playing one of those guitars that does not have like the top of the neck. You know what I'm talking about?

A (57:02)

Yeah, the fret keys or whatever those are called.

B (57:06)

Yeah.

A (57:07)

So anyway, so yeah, he's had a couple of different. This is now from his Wikipedia page that he did have an appearance on the Tonight show and following that NBC cast to him as the host and reporter for Real People, his first role on a network primetime program. He co wrote and co starred in the 1988 CBS television film Case Closed. And he hosted the syndicated late night talk show the Byron Allen show from 89 to 92. In 93 he established a production company which would be devoted to producing low cost non fiction television program. The first one would be the syndicated talk show Entertainers with Byron Allen which featured him interviewing celebrities and was the beginning of his distribution under the bartered model in which he would offer the show to stations at no cost with revenue sharing on advertising sales. So there's been a few. Basically what I think my memory of this whole thing is that throughout most of my adult life there has been some fairly mediocre product starring Byron Allen playing at almost all times late night, you know, and, and the idea. And again, you know, no shade on the guy. Like he's out there, he's been very successful and you know, there are people who probably will enjoy this programming. It just feels like such from a creative and a comedic and a kind of cultural criticism standpoint, it's such a step down. It's not even like Fallon is being replaced with Comics Unleashed. It's like Colbert being replaced with Comics Unleashed is just again, which will be paying CBS to be on, I mean just put on The Slap Chop Guy.

B (58:46)

Yeah, right, that actually maybe be more entertaining. Again, I'm sounding judgmental here. I've never seen it. I'm just taking it at face value, everything that you're saying about this and I feel like I'd get more entertainment out of the Slap Chop Guy.

A (58:58)

Wait, actually in real life that Slap Chop guy is fascinating. I've seen clips of him.

B (59:03)

He's an is or a was. No, no, he is, he is. Okay. I just want to make sure. Okay, okay.

A (59:07)

One of those guys been through it a little bit.

B (59:10)

Let's see.

A (59:11)

Slap. Slap Chop Guy now. Yeah, I saw him. His name is Vince Offer. Actually his real name, Vince Shlomi, famously known as the shamwow guy. But he also I believe became the Slap Chop Guy and the pitch man for Slap Chop. Well, Andrew, he's running for Congress as a Republican in Texas 30.

B (59:31)

Oh, I bet you we have a

A (59:32)

lot of common ground as of, let's see, he's running on an anti woke play platform A to make America happy. Oh God. Maybe not the, maybe not the slap shop guy. Maybe.

B (59:45)

You know what, I'm going with Byron Allen. I was trying to figure out this. Did you get to the lawsuit part of. And this is.

A (59:51)

Oh yeah. Against McDonald's.

B (59:52)

Yeah. And I'm trying to, I'm trying to understand it. Do you want to. I set you up. Do you want to take it from there? Do you want me to read what I'm reading here? Because I, I don't remember this. Do you remember this?

A (60:01)

Yeah, I do actually again because I've been. I have a Google alert for Byron Allen.

B (60:06)

Yeah, apparently Byron pay later.

A (60:09)

I think his, I think that's actually a good show title. I like that. But I think that his lawsuit against McDonald's was based on the allegation that because he owns, you know, Allen Media and stuff and he's, he has, he owns a lot of advertising time and he felt like, like McDonald's was discriminating against black owned media companies in the way that it structured its TV advertising budget. And so basically that McDonald's was not spending the same amount of money on black owned media companies or was offering them less money for, for airtime and, and than they would on a, like a, A media whatever company that was owned by white ownership or so that's what that was. The case was settled out of court in 2024 according to Wikipedia too. So who knows, he may have had a point there. It's hard to know too because it's like there is something with these lawsuits where the if it's a company the size of McDonald's, you, your lawyers, who are generally speaking fairly smart, will like do a number. They will come up with a number of how much it will cost you to litigate this particular issue and if you can settle for an amount that is less than it would cost you to litigate the issue, they often and go with that. So they settled out of court. I don't know if that means that Byron Allen really had a case. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But that was what that was all about. There's a right way to rock and

B (61:36)

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

A (61:50)

Just remember

B (61:53)

life is much fun.

A (61:55)

You can be nothing.

B (62:04)

We have a very, very tidy little list of blurs day shout outs here today. Luke and I should remind people that if you are celebrating a birthday, yours or somebody else's, and you want us to share that joy on the air, you can email me. And I just want to say make sure to email me. I I'm woefully behind in voicemails and we don't do voicemail blurs days anyway and text messages get lost in the shuffle. So what you do is you email me andrewbtl.net, you put hey dummies in the subject line. And we got this note from Brian in Portland saying just wanted to wish a happy blurs day to my co bro Nate in Tacoma. These guys are longtime friends, often blursing each other. Hope we can get together soon, says Brian. Now what I found interesting is that

A (62:50)

Brian, our pedal steel.

B (62:52)

Yes, I believe that that is our pal Brian in Portland. What's interesting though is that came in, I don't know, sometime in the past week or so, but literally moments ago. Like literally minutes ago.

A (63:01)

TBTL Breaking news.

B (63:03)

I got it. Kind of breaking blurs or blurs day news. I got another email from Brian in Portland here saying sending a blurs day shout out to my co bro Christian. Happy blurs my dude. Hope it's a great one. So Brian in Portland spreading the love this week. Two tool player at the very least.

A (63:27)

Yeah. So happy blurs multiple tools. He's blursing out two different people. He's music producer extraordinaire. Musician extraordinaire.

B (63:35)

Exactly. Exactly so. And remember Brian, real people, pedal steel people. So happy blurs day to both Nate and Kristen from Brian and your friends at tbtl. Speaking of friends, our friend Lisa says I'VE enjoyed Lisa the winner of the where in the World is the TBTL Billboard contest from last year's Thon. Lisa says I've enjoyed many as a gift, by the way, or as a prize we gave.

A (64:06)

Is this Lisa who we did the show from her house in California.

B (64:09)

Yes, exactly.

A (64:10)

Before she lived in the greater Chicago area.

B (64:12)

And I also like the fact that we gave Lisa a mini billboard as a gift that weighed more than the real billboard. We gave her the heaviest mini billboard ever.

A (64:21)

We couldn't figure out why the billboard was so expensive. I kept John, this is what this costs and it's because it's made of titanium.

B (64:29)

Yes, exactly. Actually, is titanium famously light? Is it really strong?

A (64:34)

Honestly, I just was going with it.

B (64:36)

Call a metallurgist. Anyway, Lisa says I've enjoyed many wonderful new things because of my friendship with Faren, like chili mango Margaritas and Sharon McMahon. So please allow me to wish her. Who? Sharon McMahon.

A (64:50)

I don't know.

B (64:51)

Oh, I thought you laughed. I assumed a musician. So allow me to wish her a very happy blurs day via the best gift she's given me. Tbtl. Oh, I treasure her friendship and if it weren't for her, I would have a giant pod shaped hole in my life. I hope she has a wonderful birthday with lots of sparkling beverages and sweet treats. I look forward to the next time we get together. Maybe for some Mexican food and one of those cocktails.

A (65:17)

Looks like Sharon McMahon is a podcaster. Writer, teacher, among other things.

B (65:24)

Oh, I assume musician because I know that these guys.

A (65:27)

Well, yeah, they are music friends. I am guessing this is the first. This is the first search result that I get. And I'll tell you what, I don't like any bit of this because. No, no, this looks very dynamic and interesting and I don't like. I don't like the idea of Lisa and Faren suggesting to each other and turning each other onto other podcasts, probably, let's be honest, better podcasts.

B (65:49)

Yeah. Is that. Is that true for all media? Should our listeners not be recommending like audiobooks or even books? Books and just anything. I would shut it down.

A (65:59)

I would like to. I would. Well, no, I think we said this yesterday. I'm cool with our listeners consuming other media, but only after tbtl. So as long as.

B (66:08)

After they complete the TBTL backlog. Yeah.

A (66:12)

So as long as you're listening to your Sharon McMahon after you finish listening to every episode of TBTL, I guess I can't begrudge it, but definitely feels. Definitely feels like a competition to me.

B (66:21)

That's fine. I feel like you could listen to the backlog twice, but you can only

A (66:26)

watch your comics unleashed with Byron Allen after. After you've eaten your tb.

B (66:32)

You know, I have a Google News alert out Luke for just like the phrase tbtl. I might have one for too beautiful to live as well. And yesterday I got a little email as I think I often do. And you Sometimes TBTL means something else, like the theater by the lake. And I'm getting news that's too bad they're late. Or too bad they're late. Exactly. But sometimes it'll just grab some really old episode of TBTL and make it like a news headline. And I got one yesterday that linked to like episode 1413 or something like that. I remember looking at it. It came out in 2013 and the description was something like Luke went to the worst baseball game ever played. And I was trying to figure out what that would have been. Now 2013, I wasn't so into baseball and I also I'm looking to see if I can find it to here. I'm looking to see if the game was bad or did you get up to some sort of hijinks? Was the situation bad? I got the impression though that it was like a historically bad baseball game.

A (67:41)

Yeah.

B (67:42)

On the field.

A (67:43)

I wonder if it was. If it was presumably a Mariners game,

B (67:46)

because I don't think that's what I'm guessing.

A (67:47)

I wasn't going to like, you know, the Portland Pickles back then or whatever. So I'm guessing it was a Mariners game and I'm wondering if the Mariner just got pummeled.

B (67:56)

That's what I'm wondering too. And I'm sorry that I brought it up. I thought I'd be able to find it here. Oh, here's a Google News alert. Tbtl. Is this it? Yeah. Theater by the Lake news. You don't care about that. Episode 1323, World's Worst Baseball Game is the show title. I have to click through here to get to the show date. It's loading on Amazon Music for some reason. Oh, I'll accept your if you want

A (68:20)

us to blow up your Amazon Music music contracts.

B (68:23)

So here it is. That's right. So it was from April 17th.

A (68:26)

Wow. So April 16th.

B (68:28)

Yeah. Would have been the day almost to the day. Almost. Yes. Because it's April 9th as we speak. What was it?2013. So April 16th, 2013 would have been the day that you went to the game. Luca10's Statistically speaking, one of the most awful games in MLB history, it said and is secretly stalked by listeners.

A (68:51)

Okay, so presumably that April 17th show was a reference to the game on April 16th.

B (68:57)

That's what I'm guessing as well.

A (68:58)

So this is the Mariners lost to the Detroit Tigers 6 to 2. This was a 6 and 9 Mariners team. I'm going to some. Let's see. I want to see some stats on this.

B (69:08)

Yeah, because how could. I mean it's not like this low scoring. I mean, you know, one team got at least, least six runs.

A (69:15)

Let's see. Yeah, I mean what. I wonder what the. Let's see. This is also. Let's see. Aaron Harang took the loss. That was a long time ago. Doug Fister picking up the W for the Detroit Tigers. I'm looking at the score we gave up to.

B (69:33)

We gave up.

A (69:34)

Let's see, 12 hits to the tigers. We, we, we managed but four hits. That sounds. Actually I'd take four hits right now. Now this current Mariners team, that would

B (69:42)

be for the season, I take it.

A (69:44)

Yeah. I can't figure out on the fly here. I don't want to bore everyone. I can't figure out on the fly here what was so statistically bad about that game.

B (69:50)

But now do you. Did you use like a Google calendar back then? Can you actually look at your calendar and see like what you did? Cuz I can do that. Probably about to this time. I think once you get earlier than

A (70:02)

2013, I think attendance was 12,000 people.

B (70:05)

Whoa, that is low because we were,

A (70:08)

this is back when we were not very good.

B (70:10)

The park holds 40 right or 42 or something like that.

A (70:13)

Recap. Let's see. The recap is Miguel Cabrera's 4RBA night leads the Tigers past the Mariners. Doug Pfister has pitched enough in his career at Safeco Field to know just how difficult it is even with shorter fences to hit a line drive out anywhere near center field. But Miguel Cabrera made it look simple. Da da da da da. I'm just trying to see here. Let's see. This is interesting.

B (70:34)

This was right around the time they brought the fences in during the off season. So that must have been between 12 and 13 those seasons. That's really interesting. Well, anyway, here I have one other piece of data on this. I'm not going to hit play on it because I think that that'll just be rough for all of us. But in fact, I don't even know why this music is. Do I have more blur stays? We'll get to that in a second. What I was going to mention Was this is only 44 minutes long, the episode of TBTL. And so this is an era 2013. I'm pretty well on my way of doing this show with you every day. Right. Like, I think I started in 2012, but I'm wondering if, like, there were a lot of times where I was not there. I find it hard to believe that you and I together did a show that was only 44 minutes. I wonder if you were hosting solo, doing a solo dolo, as they say in comedy. Bang, Bang. And. And maybe just like kind of recapping your baseball experience. I don't know why. I think.

A (71:27)

Let me try one more thing here. So it was. What was the year again?

B (71:31)

2013. And again, the date of the show was April 6th, 17th.

A (71:36)

Well, I'm wondering if maybe. Oh, I wonder if this was more like it. I wonder if I went to the game. If it was like a day game on the 17th.

B (71:46)

It could have been it.

A (71:47)

What is that? Because that one we lost two to one.

B (71:50)

Okay.

A (71:50)

And I'm wondering if maybe in that game, the. Let's see. I'm trying to get to the stats here. We had one hit.

B (72:00)

Okay.

A (72:01)

No, that's not true. No, wait, what? No, Sorry. We had 11 hits. We had 11 hits in one run. Maybe it was that you. No one's ever gotten 11 hits and only one run or something. Maybe we struck out a lot. I'm wondering. It seems more like the actual. The April 17th game. No, that's a night game. There's no way that I would have. I don't know, Andrew. One of our stat geeks can maybe go back and. And I mean that with peace and love. Maybe one of our stat geek listeners can go back and figure out what was it. I guess. You know what else you could do? Somebody could listen to the episode.

B (72:30)

Yeah, I mean, I have it right here, apparently. Can you run it through, you know what's funny?

A (72:37)

Chat GPT and see if it mentions PETA and then west will listen to it. I was then email us.

B (72:42)

I was going to say I apparently wasn't using Google Calendar then, but I was just not. Just not. Like, is my schedule isn't as busy as it is now. But what I'm laughing at is if I go back to the week before, the week of the 8th, April 8th of 2013, there were two days where I have most of the day blocked out. It says fill in for Luke. So I'm thinking at this point they've already taken me as a producer and have started putting me in A host chair as a fill in. That was the week before. There's nothing for the week of the 15th. But then the week or two after that there was only one thing on the schedule all week and it says. I don't even know if I should say this, but I will. It says call Farhad. And I think Farhad was my weed dealer.

A (73:33)

Your plug?

B (73:35)

I believe so. But it's so weird that I would put that on my calendar.

A (73:39)

It's like a pretty relaxing week.

B (73:40)

At 4. At 4.30pm, May 9th it was. I had to call Farhad. So this is good. This is before.

A (73:50)

Yeah, this is before you've moved to la. Because if you're filling in for me on Cairo, then then presumably you're, you know, you're, you're in Seattle, you're Maybe the Andrew Walsh. Is the Andrew Walsh show already happening?

B (74:02)

I'm guessing not. Or wait, maybe. Maybe it was 23rd because I moved to LA in 2014.

A (74:09)

So yeah, maybe you're probably doing the Andrew Walsh show.

B (74:11)

You know what? That's probably. Maybe that fill in for Luke thing was less about me being a producer sitting in the host chair, but then moving me maybe.

A (74:19)

Yeah. Parts just to kind of.

B (74:21)

Yeah. Or I was filling in for you on tbtl even potentially by that point because I see some other things like Luke on vacation fill in or whatever. So anyway, well, this is just me going through my calendar. Do I have any more blurs days? I do. So that means I need to get this music going again. Boy, that was a weird place for me to take the show. I'm operating on very little sleep and I have to introduce a dog and a cat here in a little bit. Rhoda says I'd like to. This is the last one. Sorry to keep you waiting, Rhoda. I had to call Farhad. That was just really funny.

A (74:55)

How was Farhad doing that?

B (74:57)

That was a blasphemous. The past. The only thing is, when was weed legalized in Washington?

A (75:03)

Because 2004. Why were you still using Farhad?

B (75:06)

No, no, that's what I was going to say. Like if. Yeah, because if it was in Washington, it was legal then why this might have been a different Farhad Because I wouldn't have been calling him and maybe I was just checking in.

A (75:19)

You're all about. You're all about supporting local businesses.

B (75:23)

Yeah, because it was legalized in2012. Maybe that's a different Farhan.

A (75:30)

A lot of Farhads for you to know.

B (75:32)

I do know. More than one.

A (75:33)

You know that More than one Farhad.

B (75:35)

I do. And I'm trying to remember who the other one is. And it's kind of driving me bananas right now. Anyway, who knows? Actually, can I say this story to you without. Now that I've said his first name, I got to be careful here. But, boy, when I first moved to Seattle and weed wasn't legal, though, I would get it through this fellow who I mentioned. And first of all, I remember I shot. He was also a reggae promoter, and I shot with my camera. I rented some special lenses and shot a reggae show for him and took some promotional photos.

A (76:03)

Now, was that like a trade?

B (76:05)

Yes, that was a trade. And then also, what I loved about it was he also worked for a bread company. It wasn't his bread company, but he worked for a bread company. And he would set up or he would sometimes, like, work at the various farmers markets around town selling the bread. And the way it would work. If I'm just telling this story. Have I told you this before? It was, I think, off there. It's pretty cloak and dagger. Yeah. At this point, though, like, who cares? He would put. He would put the weed in, like, some bread, like, and so that you actually got free bread. He would, like, you would meet him, you'd call. You would call, I guess in advance and kind of set it up. And then he would take what you ordered and then put it in, like, the bottom of a bag with bread on top or whatever. And then you would.

A (76:53)

Oh, so it wasn't even the bread. He didn't hollow the bread out and

B (76:55)

put it in the loaf.

A (76:56)

Because that would be next level.

B (76:57)

That would be really next level. Or bake it into the bread. But that would be. So, no, it was really great because then you would show up and you would pay him for the weed, but then you got the bread for free, essentially. It was a really great deal. And it also just felt so cool. Just like, hey, you've got. Hey, remember I called ahead about my bread. Bread and then two loaves, if you know what I mean. I'm winking.

A (77:20)

Here's what I love. I love the idea of, like, actually, I don't love this idea. But what I can't help but imagine is this idea. And I know Farhad probably wasn't at the bakery baking the bread. Maybe he was maybe more on the distribution side of it. But imagine a world in which Farhad's dream is to bake the world's best bread. He's been working on it. But the thing is, the bread is just not taking off. All people want him for is the weed.

B (77:43)

Yeah.

A (77:44)

And so he's basically like. He's figured out a way to, like, he's just putting the weed in the bag with the bread, hoping someone will eat the bread. Because it's never. It's. It's always, where's the weed, Farhad?

B (77:54)

Not.

A (77:54)

Hey, can I get a loaf of bread? Farhad?

B (77:57)

I will tell you this, though. I do think that he might have helped make the bread again. It wasn't his company, but I think he was pretty heavily invested in it. And it was like, I mean, this is bread that you're buying at a farmer's market. You know? It was good.

A (78:09)

I bet.

B (78:10)

Damn. Bread.

A (78:12)

Was Farhad's real name Dave's killer.

B (78:15)

I've said too much.

A (78:16)

Is he the guy off the bag?

B (78:18)

Okay, that guitar. God, I hate that logo so much. And I assume you do as well. Rhoda says, I'd like to wish a very happy blurs day to my friend and co worker and TBTL daughter, Farhad. No, that's joke. Rhoda says, I'd like to wish a very happy blurs day to my friend and co worker and TBTL dollar daughter, Julie. Thank you as always for taking my suggestion to listen to TBTL all those years ago. I love having the secret language of the tens with you. It makes work more better. Good luck in Arizona. I'll take care of your spreadsheets.

A (78:52)

Come on.

B (78:54)

That's great. Now, Arizona is spelled in the traditional way here, but I'm assuming Rhoda wanted me pronounced Arizona. This is how we speak in Tucson, Arizona. Yeah. Boy, my imitation is that Matthew Barry is getting worse and worse. I'll tell you that.

A (79:09)

Mine aren't getting better. I'll tell you. Like, I can't remember what I tried to break out the other day, but it was, you know, there were Bill Clinton jokes aside, there were a couple of impressions that I could kind of hang in there for maybe half of a sentence with. And it was vaguely like the thing I was trying to do. But no, I'm getting worse. I think it's part of the onset of, you know, moving into the next phase of my life, like doing an impression. It is, on some level, it's a function of memory. Right. You're trying to remember how the person sounds.

B (79:40)

I've never thought of that. That's like George Michael saying that he'd be a good musician because he tells time. Well, right, because what is it? He's like, he can be. He thinks he can Be a percussionist because he knows how long it takes between beats or something like that.

A (79:56)

Huh. Right. Like focusing on the. Like, I can do good impressions cuz I've got a great memory.

B (80:00)

Yeah, you know.

A (80:02)

Exactly.

B (80:02)

Yeah.

A (80:03)

By the way, this is the last. The last dog content for the day as we're getting out of here. But I had texted Becca some of the photos of you all and Lucy and the response was omg, so, so adorable. Sorry, but that is not a foster.

B (80:15)

Oh, in other words, yes, this is.

A (80:17)

Yeah, she's not up to. She didn't hear yesterday's show. Basically, like, what she knows is that y' all are fostering a dog, but she's basically saying that dog's not going anywhere.

B (80:24)

No, I mean, at this point, something has to go majorly side.

A (80:29)

Probably you or Genevieve would move out first.

B (80:31)

Well, I mean, honestly, at this point, it would be like one of us would move to a different place and take one of the animals the other and then we would have visiting rights with each other and the pets or whatever. Because yeah, again, it hasn't even been. We brought Lucy home. I think maybe, maybe pause on the ground here at our place, maybe around 2:30, 3 o'. Clock. So we're not even at the 20, 24 hours mark. Like we're still four hours away from that or three hours away from that. And you know, I'm having trouble picturing my life without her. So. We'll see. We'll see how it goes.

A (81:03)

Yeah. Come on now.

B (81:05)

You love it.

A (81:06)

All right, that's gonna do it for today's episode of tbtl. But hut we'll be right back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for all of you. In the meantime, have a great Thursday, everybody. Happy Blurs day. And. And again, stay safe. Take care of yourself. We'll see you tomorrow. Please remember, in the interim, no mountain

B (81:25)

too tall and case closed. Oh, wait, sorry. That's the Byron Allen movie. Yeah. Good luck to all. Power out.