#4469 The Possible Over-Indexing Of Gordon Thomas

Summary

Podcast Summary: TBTL Episode #4469 - "The Possible Over-Indexing Of Gordon Thomas"

Introduction

In this engaging episode of Too Beautiful To Live (TBTL) titled "The Possible Over-Indexing Of Gordon Thomas," hosts Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh dive into a variety of topics ranging from sports broadcasting to film reviews, all infused with their characteristic humor and camaraderie. Released on May 19, 2025, this episode offers listeners a blend of nostalgic reminisces, current interests, and lighthearted banter.

1. Gorman Thomas and Baseball Musings (00:00 - 09:10)

The episode kicks off with a nostalgic discussion about Gordon Thomas, a beloved figure in Milwaukee's baseball history. Luke expresses surprise at the extensive representation of Thomas in the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame:

• Luke Burbank [05:25]: "It's very strange for me to think... that Dave Niehaus may have been younger than I am right now when he was calling Gorman Thomas."

Andrew joins in with some historical context, highlighting the age difference and reminiscing about past baseball moments:

• Andrew Walsh [05:20]: "I don't think i'm gonna be able to top that here on episode 4469 in a collector series."

Their conversation touches on the evolution of baseball broadcasting and personal connections to the sport, culminating in reflections on Dave Niehaus's iconic voice and contributions.

2. Movie Review: Friendship (09:04 - 35:49)

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to reviewing the new film Friendship, starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd. Luke shares his initial skepticism based on the trailer but was pleasantly surprised by the movie's depth and humor:

• Luke Burbank [23:27]: "What you know is it was an intense movie. But it's like, also, it just has some... for me, some of the most unexpectedly funny moments."

Andrew discusses his own reservations before watching the film but ultimately found it enjoyable. They delve into specific elements such as the soundtrack and character development:

• Andrew Walsh [32:16]: "I think they'll have something oddly akin to uncut gems soundtrack... pushing the movie."

Luke highlights the movie's ability to blend serious themes with comedic relief, making it a standout experience:

• Luke Burbank [31:54]: "It sort of felt in ways like, I think you should leave sort of sketch... it was like a piece of filmmaking, really."

Their mutual appreciation for the film is evident, and they plan to discuss it further in future episodes without giving away spoilers.

3. Personal Anecdotes and Experiences (35:49 - 73:32)

The hosts take a detour into personal stories, sharing experiences like Andrew's colonoscopy prep and subsequent recovery. Luke empathizes with Andrew's ordeal, providing humor and support:

• Luke Burbank [73:52]: "We were unsuccessful. But we'll revisit that topic at a different time."

Andrew recounts his wanderings post-procedure, meeting listeners and navigating social interactions, adding a relatable and human touch to the episode.

4. Dazzling Donors Shoutout (41:04 - 49:27)

In a heartfelt segment, Luke and Andrew extend their gratitude to dedicated listeners who support the show financially. They highlight Michelle and Mike Rundowitz from San Jose, and Mike Mead from West Lynn, Oregon, acknowledging their contributions and personal connections:

• Luke Burbank [42:31]: "I think that they're trying to, if you're a business owner, non-profit or human with any accounting or wealth needs, let's talk."

This section underscores the community aspect of TBTL, emphasizing the importance of listener support.

5. Technology and Social Invitations Rant (49:27 - 73:32)

Andrew shares his frustrations with the Partyful app, criticizing its invasive nature and the obligatory steps to RSVP, which obscures event locations:

• Andrew Walsh [51:23]: "It's very much like the old Evites, only it's on text... I have a strong feeling there's something about."

Luke joins the conversation, theorizing about the app's intentions and the possible exploitation of user data:

• Luke Burbank [54:53]: "They think you'll be intrigued that so... to figure out where it's at."

Their dialogue reflects concerns about modern technology's impact on personal interactions and privacy, resonating with listeners who share similar frustrations.

6. Closing Remarks and Upcoming Adventures (73:32 - End)

As the episode nears its conclusion, Luke and Andrew hint at upcoming adventures, including Luke's trip to Denver and their plans to discuss future topics. They maintain their signature blend of humor and sincerity, leaving listeners anticipating the next episode.

• Luke Burbank [81:46]: "And we'll have a report tomorrow. In the meantime, have a great Monday, everybody."

Notable Quotes

• Luke Burbank [01:02]: "You know, everything is not an anecdote."
• Andrew Walsh [06:08]: "Should we do the math? I'm terrible at doing math."
• Andrew Walsh [54:53]: "Do you have a beer with the popcorn or is it a soda?"
• Andrew Walsh [68:35]: "Right, Exactly."
• Andrew Walsh [75:22]: "And I have bought a couple of different brands that you, you know, come home and boil the water and whatever."
• Andrew Walsh [81:46]: "Good luck to all. Power out."

Conclusion

Episode #4469 of Too Beautiful To Live seamlessly weaves together discussions on sports, film, personal lives, and technology, all while maintaining an engaging and humorous tone. Luke and Andrew's dynamic interaction provides listeners with insightful commentary, relatable stories, and thoughtful critiques, making this episode a must-listen for both regular followers and newcomers alike.

Transcript

[Luke Burbank]

Excuse me. Can I talk to you for a second? How can I help you? My date's eating all the fully loaded nachos. All the ones with the meat, cheese and everything. The ones that are fully loaded. She's hogging them. So I'm mostly getting just like, just chips. Like, mostly just chips. Like, nothing on them but, like a little bit of cheese and maybe one little nugget of meat. Okay, can you say something to her? Say what? Maybe go up the table and just say like, hey, stop that. Or like, hey, that's not allowed. You want me to go over and say stop eating the meat on the chips? Don't just say the restaurant has rule. It's not you. It's the rule the restaurant has that if you get an item to share, you can't. One person can't just eat all the fully loaded ones. Like, don't look around, find the one with the most meat and always eat that one. Can't you just ask her to share with you? You just say the restaurant has a rule.

[Andrew Walsh]

TBTL in the next hour, we will present information that's both shocking and enlightening.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, everything is not an anecdote.

[Andrew Walsh]

You have to discriminate.

[Luke Burbank]

You choose things that are. That are funny or mildly amusing or interesting.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're a miracle. Your stories have none of that.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm a Grammy, Emmy, Tony and Webby award winning and nominated songwriter, artist, designer, director, editor, animator, producer, collector, party thrower. That was great.

[Andrew Walsh]

That was good.

[Luke Burbank]

You went for it. I appreciate that.

[Andrew Walsh]

You embarrassed me in front of Derek Jeter.

[Luke Burbank]

You embarrassed yourself in front of Derek Jeter.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I also think it wouldn't hurt you to talk to a therapist about your bathroom issues because there's clearly something going on there.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone to a Monday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. As Florence Machine says, the dog days are over. My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my God.

[Luke Burbank]

Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio perched high above the mighty Columbia, where it is just absolutely pouring out. It's. Didn't know you like to get wet, though. Just a absolutely awful day in the weather department. It looks like we're going to have a lot of that this week. If you heard me slightly gasp during my intro, it's because I was absentmindedly staring out the window where I observed my 71 year old father, Walter, hoisting an insanely heavy, like, I don't know what it is, like a 4x8 piece of pressure treated lumber onto the top of his sign truck, which I think I was supposed to help him put on there, but then I got distracted podcasting. Just watched him do it and I was gotta say, pretty impressed. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to top that here on episode 4469 in a collector series.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let the fun begin.

[Luke Burbank]

I do really struggle with questions about what my actual utility in the world is when I'm in this converted garage talking to all of you and my, my dad is outside doing real actual things most of the time anyway. All right, I'm going to. You know what else is part of my job? To go out and to experience the world and then to come back here and report it to all of you. And I was experiencing the world yesterday when I went and saw a film.

[Andrew Walsh]

So who needs a movie?

[Luke Burbank]

The new film from Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd and a guy named Andrew DeYoung who was the writer and director of this movie called Friendship.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm his best friend. Also co boss.

[Luke Burbank]

I was going to say it's from the people that brought you. I think you should leave. But it's kind of. It sort of is and it isn't. It's not produced by all of the same people. It features Tim Robinson who's kind of the star of that other thing, that Netflix show. But I saw the movie. I've got a lot of thoughts which I want to share with you and this guy. The longest running cobra of the show. Give me that. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. I'm joking. I'm joking. He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good morning, Luke. I have a hot uptake breaking news for you here via blueski TBTL Breaking news. I'm glad you used that because this is serious breaking news. Listener Annie is currently, as we speak, or at least as of seven minutes ago, wandering around the National Bobblehead hall of Fame. And you will be happy to learn that Annie reports Gorman Thomas is. Is well represented. We are getting photos on the blue ski app of various gorgeous.

[Luke Burbank]

Also in Wisconsin. Is Wisconsin somehow the. Is it the kind of quirky museum district?

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know where it's located. I'm just getting.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm going to look this up.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to do that thing where I'm holding. I'm wearing headphones now on both ears, but ignore that. Love it. I'm going to hold my one hand up to one of my ears. I'm going to say, luke, we're still waiting for.

[Luke Burbank]

It's in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Anthony.

[Andrew Walsh]

It is Wisconsin.

[Luke Burbank]

What is with the Badger State and the quirky museums? That's the reason that I wondered about that, is because, of course, Gorman Thomas was for many years a Milwaukee Brewer. He's beloved in Milwaukee.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's why the representation, or you might even say over representation almost possible over.

[Luke Burbank]

Indexing of Gorman Thomas of gt, as he was called by Dave Niehaus back in the day. It's very strange for me to think, and this is absolutely not what we're here to talk about today. Andrew. It's strange for me to think that it's possible that when Dave Niehaus rest in power, the hall of Fame broadcaster for the Seattle Mariners, the voice of the Mariners, as I was growing up, might have been younger than I am right now when he was calling Gorman Thomas GT and I was listening as a kid, like in 1984, let's say, maybe that might have been the era that Gorman Thomas is a Mariner. I'm eight years old. I. I'm listening on my transistor radio. David Niehaus may have been less than 49 years of age at that time.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right, should we do the math? I'm terrible at doing math, but I will tell you that he was born in 1935.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, well, 35. So he would have been, what, 55 and 85 or 50 and 85.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right. Okay, so it's 85. So it'd be 50. Yeah. I wasn't sure if it was 85 or 95, so.

[Luke Burbank]

So let's just say it was 84. He would have been exactly my age.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly your age.

[Luke Burbank]

And I thought he was, you know, I thought Dave Niehaus was born about 80 years old. Like, I thought, like, from the first time I heard Dave Niehaus's voice, I was like, well, there's a. A man of an advanced age who is calling these Mariner games. And yet he was probably for some period of that, exactly the age I am now.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm always a little foggy on Monday morning, so I never quite trust my tangents, but I'll try this one out. I was actually thinking about you and. And announcing bas the other day, literally, as I was listening to a baseball game, which I do a lot of these days, as you know, and I just sort of had this weird fragment of a memory lodge or dislodge. I'm not sure exactly how memories work.

[Luke Burbank]

But calved off of the glacier that is your memory. And unfortunately, your memories are shrinking, Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

It floated to the front of my lobe, whatever I was focusing on. And I was sort of quasi reminiscing about the time you and I went to a ball game together and we recorded a TBTL there, sort of. Now, I don't even know how well you'd remember this. This is during the time, I believe, before I even have my own show on Cairo. I think I'm producing Ross and Burbank with you. And the deal back then often would be you and I would work together in the morning at Cairo radio, then sometimes hustle back to your house and record a TBTL there. And sometimes it was like a Friday. We tried to make it a little bit fun with hell pizza or very.

[Luke Burbank]

Some sort of something that involved eventually heavy. Heavy alcohol. Exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

Funny how we really bent the show around that. And one time we. I do believe it was a Friday, and we started the show at your place, but we had tickets to go see the Mariners. Now, I would not have been much of a baseball fan at this point. Like, I enjoyed baseball, but I was very nascent in my journey of baseball and knowing, you know, hardly anything about it probably at this time. And I remember you and I going to a game, having decent seats along the first baseline, and because we were still sort of recording an episode of TBTL that you would sort of, like, stitch together later, you decided in the microphone to do a little fake call of what you were seeing on the field. And I remember being impressed by that being, like. Because you sort of had the patter. Right. And you had, like. You knew what people were saying. And the. The. I think the reason I was thinking about this the other day was I just miss you. Yeah, Obviously, I miss those times.

[Luke Burbank]

And also that actually was a pretty.

[Andrew Walsh]

Fun time in life. It was fun. It was weird time, but it was fun. A fun fuz. Little time in our life.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

But I just think how much baseball have I listened to since then, Professional broadcasting, you know, and maybe I was thinking, there's a big feature about Rick Riz in the. In the Seattle Times that I had sent you to that talked about some of the. The dark things that he's had to deal with in his life. It was a really interesting sort of shocking piece, actually. And maybe I was thinking about him and just like, how he's been, you know, doing the same baseball patter as a career for just decades and decades now. And I think maybe in the back of My head, I thought, like, could I do it? Could I fake even, you know, half an inning? Could I, could I fake half an inning and just do my version of what you did in the stands, whispering into the microphone? And I don't think I could because. And I think I could listen to baseball games for another hundred years and not have that because there, it's not just listening to something and internalizing it. There's also something you need called chutzpah. And I don't even think in the privacy of my own bathroom, if I, I put a bunch of towels up against the door and I knew nobody in the neighborhood was around, I would have the chutzpah to even.

[Luke Burbank]

You locked yourself in your bathroom. You drank eight gallons of souffle, you put tinfoil over the windows. Even under those circumstances, you couldn't.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. As I always like to quote, if every time God closes a door, he opens a window, it means he's probably going number two.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. But anyway, yeah, God light a match in here. Grief.

[Andrew Walsh]

Holy spirit. So I, Anyway, that's all I think I was like, you did it. You. I heard you cringe remembering that now, but I'm sure it was better than you remember. And I just don't think I would ever be able to. In the same way, if I'm in a room and people are singing karaoke and I'm sort of like singing along with them, but not into a microphone. And then somebody puts a microphone in my face, I shut up so quick, like I cannot stand the idea of my voice singing into a microphone. I don't think I could even fake it by myself. A radio esque broadcast.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I kind of, in a way, I guess I would say, I agree. I don't think it is that you do not have the ability. I think you have the ability because you've just, at this point, you've absorbed so much play by play and you, you know more, much more about the current state of baseball than I do based on just the fact that you listen to so many different games, not just the Mariners fact, you've been doing fantasy for the last few seasons. So I think you have the information and you have, you have everything you need to do it. Except that I think you would feel like a phony and it would, it would, you would shut it down. But, but not because you're incapable of it, but you're, you're incapable of allowing yourself to do it. It would be embarrassed take on the situation.

[Andrew Walsh]

How much of that memory do you remember by the Way how much of that little story that I told, I.

[Luke Burbank]

Don'T remember doing the play by play, but I definitely remember us going to Mariner games and also using it as an excuse to like, maybe do the show from there or knock out, you know, a secret show or whatever. Like, I remember that being a time where, where it's like, hey, if we can. I don't even know if we paid for the tickets or not. But, like, we can score a couple of tickets and we can kind of go have a fun afternoon and also be, you know, satisfying the requirements of hosting tbtl. I do remember that happening. I don't remember breaking into Play by Play just once.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't think it was a big part of the show. It just sort of stuck. Stuck out. You probably did it for one at bat or something.

[Luke Burbank]

It's funny because Becca asked me yesterday when we were getting in the car because I'm a FUBO man now. And so as we were going around doing various things yesterday, when there would be some downtime, I would kind of pull out my phone and I'd be kind of like watching, just kind of seeing how the Mariners are doing against the Padres. And then also we were driving around. I was listening to the play by play of the game at a very low level, like to where I was hearing the things that were important, but it wasn't like dominating the car. I don't know why this is important for me to clarify this point, but I would feel like it would be a little much for me just to be blasting play by play in the car. But to be playing it at a very soft, low level feels okay to me.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're talking to a man who shushes his partner when Connie Seleca comes on for intelligence, for your health. So don't worry, you're in the clear.

[Luke Burbank]

But she asked me, she goes, did you ever want to be a play by play announcer? And I said, did I? It was kind of my dream. Well, first I thought I was going to be a player. I thought I was going to be some sort of professional athlete, which was pretty delusional of me. But right next to that in terms of my kind of aspirations was I would have absolutely loved to have been an announcer of some kind. But what I was saying to her was, at this, like, in the way that it works now, you sort of have to be one of two things. I think. You either have to be a retired athlete from the sport that will get you into the color commentary part of the game, or you have to Be somebody who started doing this in high school. Like you were the kid at the high school Gabe who set up the little tape recorder and you were just calling these games. Or maybe there was a local, you know, like community radio station and. Or you maybe were doing on the high school radio station and then you know, you were just like, it has to be. I think it's a lifestyle choice from a very young age. I think if you were to go through with like all the, all the guys and to a degree, Angie Mentink, although you know she was also a player. She played for the Silver Bullets, which I think is a great footnote of her history. You know that, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

I didn't know. I knew she played for the uw.

[Luke Burbank]

She played for a hardball baseball team, all women's team called the Silver Bullets that toured around barnstorming and playing baseball against men's teams.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I was gonna say who did they play? Oh, that's interesting. No, I didn't know that.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, but so she kind of had like a whole. So I guess I'd put her in the ex player department. My point in all this is to say I do kind of like I'm, you know, I've been very lucky that somehow this is a job and my various job stuff is what it is. But that would have been a big dream of mine to be an announcer. But literally like by the time I was 25, I had already missed, I already missed my chance. It's the kind of thing that you would have to do for. Because you're also doing it for no money for so long. Like you know, you're just like you're first, you're doing it again at a. Probably in a purely volunteer capacity, then you're doing it for absolute peanuts. Maybe you're like a single A team or something and then you got to work your way up generally speaking, you know. But anyway, I am, I'm glad that you remember it as being not completely cringy. When I tried my.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I remember just being like, man, how do you like you were using phrases that I had never even heard also.

[Luke Burbank]

But you probably, funnily enough know those phrases now because of how much baseball.

[Andrew Walsh]

You'Ve consumed in some. Yeah, to some degree probably. I would lack a certain amount of confidence, I think parodying them. I like the idea. You know, you do talk about. You have the sort of. You have the play by play announcers and then you have the color commentators and it's usually like the, you know, you know, even Angie is more of a color commentator. Dave Valley, the former players. I love the idea, though, of you being the first. Not player coach, but player, play by play broadcaster, like you were. What if you were the first person to go into the Baseball hall of Fame both as a broadcaster and a player at the same time? Like you were calling. Somehow you were calling the games you were in? I don't know exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

I was sort of like a. You know, I was like a Bo Jackson or a Deion Sanders in that they played two sports. But for me, it was one of the sports was color commentating the games or announcing the games, and one of the sports was playing the same game. So when the Mariners had a night off, I had to fly somewhere so I could call the Phillies Marlins game. Is that what you're talking about?

[Andrew Walsh]

I have you calling the games you're in somehow. And again, we have just like a player manager. That's what I said, player manager. Not a player manager, though, but a player announcer. Like, somehow you're. You're doing.

[Luke Burbank]

Calling it.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're wearing the uniform. You're also calling the game. I love.

[Luke Burbank]

I need to. We. We really need to talk about this movie friendship, Andrew. But I have to say one quick thing to you on the topic of player announcers, and I don't. I'm treading carefully here, because I am. I am. If this was a cartoon, I'm lighting a fuse that's going towards a cluster of things that have TNT written on them.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm not going to talk about baseball. Is that what you're worried about?

[Luke Burbank]

No. You're talking about Apple TV having the Mariner game for the. For the Better Classic on Friday. This is me. This is me sneaking over and lighting a fuse.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, no, no.

[Luke Burbank]

Towards the big fig of TNT.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, come on. Trust me. I only have 65 minutes of reaction on the branding around the quote, unquote Vetter cup. No, go ahead.

[Luke Burbank]

But one of the things that they do when they put those silly games on Apple tv, which is a travesty, is they're, of course. And this goes for all of these different broadcasters that are not, whether it's Amazon for the football or these broadcasters or whatever. Was it. Was it Apple TV or. Who even knows what it was on the other day? But they have to add their own, like, sauce to it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right.

[Luke Burbank]

They've got to do something that the other normal broadcasters aren't doing. So they somehow, like, differentiate.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And so one of the things they do is they mic the players in the field during the game and they interview Them. And it. I mean, I have to be honest, to quote a TBTL drop, I hate to say it. It was pretty cool. But I also kind of hate, like, they miked Julio Rodriguez during the game, and I'm like, if him wearing this earpiece and talking to these announcers causes him to even be one tenth of a step slower getting to a fly ball, I will personally go to wherever the Apple headquarters are and burn the building down. Like, if you trying to get your access to this game in a way that differentiates your broadcast does anything negative for the fortunes of my Seattle Mariners, I will. I will. I will lose it. You know what I mean? Like, I don't like the player having to try to have a conversation while they're also running towards the ball. Like, I just think. I can't believe that that even got approved.

[Andrew Walsh]

I feel like we've talked about this before, though, because probably so I do think that there's another layer with Julio and your feelings towards Julio that I think is, well, Julio. But, like, I just think that, like, when he doesn't live up to the very high expectations that have been set by his contract and the hoopla around him, there's like, sort of a layer of, like, kind of even more.

[Luke Burbank]

I get a little.

[Andrew Walsh]

I get on him from.

[Luke Burbank]

I get a little sour, and I'll admit to that.

[Andrew Walsh]

But they started doing this in spring training a while back, I think, and then they started doing it during some games. Now, I want to clear up a couple of things, at least from my opinion. You mentioned, like, the Apple TV thing being a travesty. I actually am not against for folks who don't follow the details of this. I actually, from the bits that I've seen of the Apple broadcasts, and I think I watched the last game, I wasn't able to really pay much attention to this last Apple broadcast this weekend, but the one before that, like, generally speaking, I love the Apple broadcast. I love the. I love the analytics they bring. I think they have. I think they have just various little broadcast, little. What's the word? I'm looking for widgets that I like during the broadcast. I didn't know that they were talking to the players this Friday. I tend to like that, and I trust the players just to shut up and play when need be. I thought. I sort of feel like it brings me closer to the idea of being out there in the field and how, like, you can sort of, like, have a casual conversation while you're watching the action. And don't ever forget that that is what brought us this wonderful tape of Victor Robles last season?

[Luke Burbank]

Growing up, I was watching monkeys on tv and I saw like, half fun they doing, jumping around. And I describe myself. I. I look monkey and I save myself from monkeys, and I just say, sorry, guys, I have to make the play. Made the catch and threw a cannon back to the infield. Hey, you got to catch it. Okay, that is pretty amazing. It's pretty amazing. A little bit too harsh.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sorry, mate. Do you have monkeys running around the house?

[Luke Burbank]

No, they have their own house.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Honestly, that's pretty incredible. As long as. But I. I mean, I guess we just have to trust these players that they know how to. I mean, you're right. This is. What this gets to, is that my level of tension is so high when I watch these baseball games that it's just like any. Which is, you know, something I should probably address in my own life emotionally. It's like if. If. If I'm. If I'm just. If I'm so high strung while watching this, is this an enjoyable activity for me or should I try to re. Reimagine my relationship with it so that it's not. I'm not just like, you know, the whole time. Because that's what I was thinking as Julio was talking and Julio was, by the way, being delightful. And I was. One thing I was explaining to my parents because I was watching the game. My parents have been here this whole weekend, by the way. I think. I think my dad might have dadded the hardest I've ever seen anyone dad the other day, which was he has his phone hooked up to his iPad and he gets a. He gets a call on his iPad that says spam likely. He goes, oh, spam likely, huh? Click, answers it. This is Walt answering a spam likely call on your iPad, I think is maybe the hardest. That's the biggest BDE I've ever seen. Big dad energy.

[Andrew Walsh]

And to say, well, well, last four of the social is 9872.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, this is Walt. Like, I need. Like, I just. I just. I. I stood there absolutely stunned at the behaviors. But. But anyway, I was explaining to them how. And this is. Again, this is why we can't talk about this stuff because it just keeps going down these other avenues. But as Julio was being delightful in the interview, I was saying how it made me even more deeply, viscerally angry at that guy in the Mariner management who was talking Julio and Julio's English on like a Rotary Club zoom.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yep.

[Luke Burbank]

And it was like, how effing Dare you. And by the way, how's your Spanish MFer? Yeah, like, I just. I. I was, like, filled with this, like, righteous indignation on behalf of Julio. So I just want you to know that even though I do get a little. I get a little sour when I feel like Julio is not performing up to the standards that I would like to see him do, I am also. I'm also very much in his corner if anyone's going to question his English competency.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Kevin Mather. We got to put. We got to put a name on that guy. That guy.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly. That guy. Absolutely the worst.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, but fun. It was a fun week.

[Luke Burbank]

Speaking of baseball, I was supposed to attend the TB Till Junior Sluggers game this weekend, which was rained out. Oh, didn't know you like to get wet, though.

[Andrew Walsh]

So delayed. Postponed.

[Luke Burbank]

Postponed until next weekend. So I will be. We're going to be going next weekend, so I'm still gonna get eyes on this team. But, yeah, it was kind of rainy on Saturday, and so then Becca and I kind of switched up our plans, and we ended up going to see that movie Friendship, which is starring Tim Robinson from I Think youk Should Leave and Paul Rudd. And it's funny because I was texting you and Chris Hayes about this yesterday, and you. I was kind of surprised at your response that both of you were, like, kind of a little on the fence about it, because I feel like the. The. Or just about going to it or you'd kind of not heard a lot of hype or whatever. I can't remember if that was you or Chris. But it's funny because I feel like I've gotten the opposite experience of just, like, a lot of people in the orbit of, like, TikTok that I look at or Instagram or something, have been kind of saying, like, oh, man, this movie is really good. And even, like, Becca, who does not, like, give what I think of as the proper response when I send her a hilarious I think you should leave sketch, has said to me it's a little yelly at times, which, honestly, is kind of a fair critique, I think.

[Andrew Walsh]

But this show, not the movie.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, the movie also got kind of yelly, but. But I guess my point is even Becca had been hearing through her friends and social media life that this movie was really good. So this somehow sort of achieved escape velocity from just strictly the I think you should leave heads. Although we finally got.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, I was just gonna say, just to clear up what my sort of. What. What. What my feeling about this movie is is not that it. It me that people weren't buzzing about it. Because I remember when the tr. I mean, I remember the day this trailer came out for this movie friendship. It was sent to me by almost everybody in my life. My. My parents were like, I don't even know what this is, but it seems like something that you would be to know. And so we were sent this trailer. And my hesitation wasn't about the lack of buzz, my hesitation. And I'm happy. I'm happy to be wrong about this, but I didn't like the trailer that much. And that was my thing. I was kind of like. I don't know, this, like, kind of weirdness, this intensity. Like, I love. I think you should leave. But I was just like, I. Because it's Paul Rudd in him, right? And so I love both of those guys so much. And that's my thing. It's kind of like, I want this to be good. But the trailer seemed like sort of an intense ride. That didn't. I was just worried the movie wouldn't pay off. It didn't. It didn't appeal to me that much, I guess.

[Luke Burbank]

I agree that the trailer was a little bit kind of. I didn't know what to make of it. But I was sort of going off of the fact that, again, some people that I see on TikTok and stuff who, like the show had all seen previews of it and were, like, kind of raving about it and also just kind of having faith in, like, Tim Robinson and, I guess, Paul Rudd and this person named Andrew DeYoung, who wrote and directed the movie, whose name I'm unfamiliar with. And so I will say that. And so for those of you who don't know the movie is. Tim Robinson's character is this guy that's sort of kind of just trudging along in life. He's in a kind of a complicated marriage. He's got a kid, and, like, this family structure is. He's kind of underappreciated in his household. He's also kind of a weirdo. And this new guy moves into the neighborhood who's Paul Rudd, and they kind of become friends. And it really changes the Tim Robinson character's life. And then, you know, more stuff happens in the movie. But it is an intense movie. But it's like, also, it just has some. For me, some of the most unexpectedly funny moments. I have not laughed out loud at a movie like this probably in years and years that I can remember. And what I'll say about this movie is that it Never. It did not ever do what I thought it was going to do.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good. That's what I. That's what I want to hear. Because I saw that trailer and I thought. I sort of thought I had it summed up.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, you might have to. I'll be really curious if you end up seeing it. Kind of like I'm also really. Here's what I'm actually very nervous about in this conversation, Andrew. It's not spoiling it because it's not a. Who done it. I'm worried about somehow predisposing you to like this movie less. No, I don't want to overhype it because it's not a perfect film.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I think I'm going. I think. I mean, I'm definitely going to try to see this. You mentioned that one of the. I don't think that you've alluded to this on air yet, but you mentioned in our private conversations that also part of the cool thing is what a happening. It is that like everybody. It's not on all screens. So you kind of have to make a point of going to see it and everybody who's there is going to be pretty damn into it. Which means you sort of. My buddy Paulie saw it this weekend. He's like, oh, he invited me to go, but it was kind of the day after my colonoscopy and I had a feeling that I just didn't want to lock myself into any plans, but so I didn't go. But he said it was just so great because it was a packed house and he was there with his crew and he just felt like everybody in that theater was supposed to be in that theater.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, that's a very accurate description based on what happened with us. So we went to the first theater we went to. We didn't buy tickets in advance and we roll up to the Hollywood Theater in Portland and it's just like sold out. Dang. So then I think it's on 60 screens in America, which is not very many. And I. I had heard that it is the highest grossing per screen movie in America. I think it's grossing like 10,000 per screen. So it's not, of course, making the most money of any film in America. It's not even close. But as far as for the very limited number of screens that it's showing on, it's make. It's. It's basically doing better than any other movie that's been out this year, which kind of stands to reason because it's, you know, Cult thing. But, like, so then we get. I go online. I'm standing in front of one theater, the Hollywood Theater, and I'm going to this other theater online, and I like buying the tickets. Like, we got it. And then we get to the other theater, you know, and we get the tickets and we end up going in and we were there. Then we're like, kind of way early. Like, we were some of the first people sitting down. But then as the theater filled in, it was a happening. First of all, this is not really that important. But they were just playing in the cinema 21 there on 21st in Portland. They were just playing a Girl Talk album in the theater. Just front to back. Like, it was just playing as the background music. I just thought, well, this.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's family friendly.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, the movie's probably not that family friendly. So I don't know.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm sorry to be Pearl Clutchy there, but I just. I always think of, like, oh, every time I go to put on a. And it's been a long, long time. But I feel like anytime I'm like, hey, do you like girl talk? And you put on a song, you're like, how am I playing this for this person?

[Luke Burbank]

You know, it's really funny you say that, because as I'm running it in my. I was about to say to you, I don't think you're right about that. And then I ran a bit of it in my head, and I think you're right about that. I think you're right about, wait till you see my D. Wait till you see my D. So, yeah, they were playing, like, I just. And then people are filtering in, and I literally heard someone say, pretty much like this guy maybe said to his girlfriend or whatever, something like, yeah, everyone in this theater is pretty much, I think you should leave fan. If they're here there, I think you should leave it. And then this was the other thing. We were there for so long before the movie. One thing, I ate all my popcorn, which was kind of weird because we had like an hour in the theater before the movie started. And I was. I didn't have self discipline. I was also very hungry. I was just like, by the time the movie started, I was out of popcorn. That's never happened before. But. But we were surrounded by people, and it was a party atmosphere. You could tell maybe some people had been, like, at a bar before or something. And I started to get, like, a little nervous about, like, is it going to be too boisterous in this theater to watch the movie? Are people going to be talking over it? And then I had this. This sort of, like, as we would say in the church, the peace that passes understanding came over me. And I thought, no, if people. I feel safe with this group of people who like this show and like this Tim Robinson kind of world. It's gonna be fine, Luke. It's okay that everyone here is going to be respectful and enjoying this. It's not going to be. And. And that's exactly what happened. It was totally fine. Like, I felt like I was with a cohort that were into the things I'm into and therefore would also behave accordingly in my mind, you know? And that's exactly the people that were next to us. We started chatting with them because, again, we had so much time before the movie. They were seeing it for the second time. They had seen it on Friday night and then were coming back on Sunday to see it. So, yeah, the atmosphere around it was really fun. It just felt like, oh, a bunch of people who really liked this one thing. And really what I would say about the movie is it was kind of a. It sort of. It felt to me. It felt in ways like, I think you should leave sort of sketch. You know, Tim Robinson's character in the movie is certainly. You can see what his comedic tendencies are, you know, across the TV show and the movie. And. And it is a character who gets sort of. Gets out of hand a lot, you know, in the movie.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

But it also had. It was. It was in ways more serious. It was a. It was literally a meditation on, like, male friendship. Here's what I really freaking loved. I actually meant to look this up last night. I forgot to. The soundtrack is phenomenal. And I think I'll verify this. I think they got the same guy to do their soundtrack that did uncut gems.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay. So.

[Luke Burbank]

Which I love.

[Andrew Walsh]

So it's a really, like, present soundtrack. Because if I recall very gems. It's like that soundtrack is pushing. It's pushing the movie.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it's. I won't say it's quite as sort of front of mind or whatever as uncut gems, but it's. It comes up a lot. And it's. It's weird because it actually does. Not in a certain way. It doesn't fit with the style of the movie. But then that kind of works for me. So there'll just be like, something's happening. And then there's just like, a scene where she's kind of zooming in on, like, some power lines in this kind of very, like, nowhere town they're in, which is called Clovis, which there is a Clovis, California, but this is clearly set in, like, somewhere in the northeast. You just don't get. It's like. And then they'll zoom in on this, like, power lines, and then this, like, kind of electro pulsing music will be playing. That's kind of like the soundtrack of Uncut Gems, which I was really a big fan of. So it's just like, there's a lot of artistic choice. Like, I guess the movie, like, artistically kind of held up for me in a way that I wasn't expecting. Like, it wasn't just, I think you should leave sketch. It was like a piece of filmmaking, really. And. And also, like, you know, Becca, like, Becca was just laughing at like this morning. We were like, texting about things from the movie that we remembered that were like, so funny. And again, they're mostly throwaway moments, you know, where just kind of somebody says something kind of at random. Connor o' Malley has this one line in the movie that just get. I'm really excited for you to see the film because I. I want to kind of get your take on it. But, like, they're just these little throwaway lines in the movie that are genuinely, to me, some of the funniest stuff I've seen in film in years and years.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know what? I might go try to. I was just thinking, is it ironic or inappropriate for me to go see this movie by myself? A movie called Friendship, about friendship. And I'm going to go sneak off. But, like, today would be the perfect. You should do, like, kind of truancy day for me. I don't have any recordings on the schedule the rest of this afternoon. And it's playing. I'm really surprised. So I don't think this is going to be in theaters very long, but right now it's playing throughout the afternoon. Like 12, 31, 32, 34, 15. Like all downtown. And I'm looking at the schedule. Luke, how about this? I'm going to make you so jealous here because I think you have a busy day.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I'm just flying to Denver.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, are you getting on a plane today? How about this? I. The Mariners game starts at 4:40. I get the hell out of here. I take a train or the E line. My beautiful E line. I take my beautiful, sweet E line downtown. My big beautiful E line downtown to see one of these afternoon showings at Pacific Place. I eat that popcorn. I get out of there.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you have a beer? Do you have A beer with the popcorn or is it a soda?

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't like beer in a movie theater.

[Luke Burbank]

You don't do the beer in the movie theater.

[Andrew Walsh]

Soda, popcorn, that's.

[Luke Burbank]

That's my thing now, the Mariners game, that could be.

[Andrew Walsh]

Never mind. Beer down, popcorn up. This is how we like to watch movies.

[Luke Burbank]

That's a girl picture.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. Boy, I'm really glad I struggled for that.

[Luke Burbank]

No, no, I get it. I appreciate how vague you were for the children listening.

[Andrew Walsh]

Very careful there. But, yeah, I could see myself going there and then getting out, and then there's probably just some sports bar right around the corner. I mean, it's downtown, right? I can just go into some, like, kind of cheap, cheesy sports bar, sit down with some things, and.

[Luke Burbank]

And that sounds like a fun Monday that I think you deserve.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, let me see if I can make that happen. But also, I'm doing it not Luke, for me. I'm doing it for us. So that maybe if we do want to talk more about the actual ins and outs of the movie and a little. Maybe a. Maybe we give a little spoiler tag tomorrow or sometime later this week and we can chat about it more.

[Luke Burbank]

I like that very much. Let's. Let's plan on that, and we'll put a pin in that. Andrew, we'll circle back to it tomorrow and. And we'll get your thoughts because. Because, yeah, I'm really curious. Really curious. And I don't want to say very much more about the movie because I feel like anything positive I say could. Could kind of elevate this to a level that then would leave you a little bit. A little bit less than impressed. So we'll. We'll leave it there.

[Andrew Walsh]

It can. I just. I know you said you want to leave it there, but it did occur to me that.

[Luke Burbank]

Are you familiar with the term leave it there?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I have not. I am going to leave that topic there, but I'm not going to go to a break quite yet because I just wanted to say, literally, give me like, 20 second or two minutes on this. But I just had a really nice Friday I wanted to tell you about, and it also just involved running into, boy, did I feel like a celebrity on Friday. So, as has been very discussed on the show, I had my colonoscopy on Thursday and we talked about all about the prep and my anxiety going into it. And then I really thought that afterwards on Thursday afternoon, I was going to want to kind of go wild, at least in the food, you know, in the food. Regards. But I really was still a little bit wobbly and not hungry. Thursday after the procedure. But then Friday, I was ready to party. So we finished up TBTL in the. I think, very early afternoon. And so then I was like, what do I want to do? I charged up my various devices, my phone, my camera, whatever. And I'm like, I'm just gonna go on a little bit of a walkabout. And I was like, I don't even know what I want to eat, but I want to eat something sort of like rich now. And so I went to this place. I'd only been there once before, weirdly, the day after the election. Stanford's, which is like a chain. Oh, sure.

[Luke Burbank]

Over by Northgate.

[Andrew Walsh]

By Northgate. I guess it's like a steakhouse, I would say.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, you get yourself probably a hell of a wedge salad there.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, exactly. That kind of place. And so I will spare you all of the details of that interaction. Maybe it'll come up later on the show. But anyway, I mostly sit at the bar until somebody talks on their phone so loudly that I'm sort of pushed to a table. But I had this wonderful Friday where I had nothing on the agenda. Genevieve was off doing her own things, and so I went to Stanford, had this really kind of this nice steak sandwich of a lunch with some chowder and a Bloody Mary. It was like, exactly what I was looking forward to after all the colonoscopy prep. Then I'm like, I'm just gonna wander. I wander over. I'm like, now I'm full of food, and I'm a little bit drowsy. I need a coffee. I go over to the Barnes and Noble that has a Starbucks in it. I'm like, this is the only coffee shop I know of. I go into the Barnes and Noble. I'm reading a book I've been enjoying. I sit in the Barnes and Noble coffee shop section. I'm texting with Kamaro Kev. He's asking me if they have boxing magazines. I'm trying to go boxing magazine shopping with him. I run into listener Laura, who is. And we have a long conversation about my colonoscopy, and. And shout out to Laura. This is the same Laura, by the way, who ratted you out when you were. When you were trying to sneak in and get a viewing of your own house for sale. Years and years.

[Luke Burbank]

Wow.

[Andrew Walsh]

She was sheepish about that. She's like, my claim to fame is more of a claim to infamy. I run into her, then I just start. I start I keep wandering. I wander up to the.

[Luke Burbank]

So you didn't have to. I know, I know, I know we said on Friday, no more scatological stuff, but I hear steak sandwich. I hear Barnes and Noble. I hear a man who might need to go use the rest.

[Andrew Walsh]

I had control. I. I mean, surprise.

[Luke Burbank]

Isn't that a place that triggers you.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm at an age, yes, certainly, where I'm kind of like, well, do I need to kind of hightail at home after this big. After this big meal, plus coffee, plus books. But no, I was actually pretty good in that regard.

[Luke Burbank]

All right.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then I'm like, well, maybe I'll want wander to the Pinehurst Pub, try to catch the game there. As you said, great place to watch it. Great place to watch. Except it was Apple TV and they couldn't figure it out. They put out. I waited there for an hour. And they're so kind, but they were so busy. And then they put on the Astros game and they're like, it's on after this. I'm like, it's not on after this. It's streaming. It's not like ABC back in 1990. They're like, no, no, he says it's on. So it was like, weird where I made the bartenders, like, kind of jump through hoops to get the game on. They finally get Apple TV on, but they just don't fundamentally understand that Apple TV doesn't wait for one game to end before streaming the next. So I thank them a lot, left him a big tip, and then just left and then started wandering back. Oh, and that's where I ran into listeners Chris and Liz, and I'm just like, yeah, I'm just like running into. I'm just wandering around North Seattle. Like, I keep running into people. It was like. It was like I'm over my two minute limit and I don't have a power out other than to say it was the perfect. Sort of like not even Rolling Thunder. That's kind of gives it too much energy.

[Luke Burbank]

More of just a rolling wandering Thunder.

[Andrew Walsh]

More of a Wandering Thunder. Yeah, exactly. I just kind of kept running into people and just had this wonderful, wonderful Friday. So anyways, good to see everybody, and thanks for letting me not write the newsletter, everybody, because that's what that sounds really nice, buddy.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm glad your week after there was kind of a stressful week for you. And between the colonoscopy and cat stuff and everything, I'm glad you got to have a kind of a nice, chill Friday afternoon.

[Andrew Walsh]

Just one more thing Mm, just joking.

[Luke Burbank]

We was hoping for some razzle dazzle. Razzle dazzle. That's right, man. Razzle dazzle. On your mark. On your mark. Get set, get set now. Ready, ready, go. Everybody.

[Andrew Walsh]

Razzle dazzle.

[Luke Burbank]

Let's thank some dazzling donors. Sorry for the delay. Andrew saying bye to Walt.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, no problem. I just looked up. I thought maybe you were saying hello to a mail carrier.

[Luke Burbank]

No, I was trying to, in the 30 seconds of that intro, make the entire plan for finishing building the deck at my house with Walt. We were unsuccessful. But we'll revisit that topic at a different time because right now it is time for what is arguably one of the most important parts of the episode, which is where we thank the people who are paying for the episode, the Dazzling Donor. Today we're starting off with Michelle and Mike Rundowitz in San Jose, California. Michelle and Mike, thank you so much for your donation of dough. Hello from San Jose. We are longtime listeners and are happy to be supporters of the Small but Mighty podcast. That's a nice way to frame it. Yeah, I love that we're Small but Mighty. We don't have our own business or anything to plug. So I will use this moment to advocate for everyone to find ways to to incorporate more plant based options into their daily lives. Hear, hear. Rundowitz. Folks, I don't know if it's Michelle or Mike who's writing this or each one types one letter.

[Andrew Walsh]

You don't know where it's going to go, or one word.

[Luke Burbank]

One word. It's like an improv exercise.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

But whoever is typing this. Hear, hear. Whether it's the food you eat or the clothes you wear, there are unfortunately real lives at stake, even if they are not human lives. Don't let the perfect get in the way of the good. Just remember everything and anything you can do is worth it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Power.

[Luke Burbank]

I think I want to be very careful that I'm not in any way even inching near a soapbox with this Andrew. But I would just say I think that's a really good thing to remember. Don't let the perfect get in the way of the good. Just the idea that there are like tiny small things that we can all do that will possibly make the suffering lessened of non human animals on planet earth. And it doesn't mean I'm not telling anyone what to eat or where or where to go or not do. I'm just saying if you see an opportunity in a very small way in your own life that you could do something different and it doesn't make your life worse. Eh, might think about it, that's all. Because it can also be really overwhelming if you're like, well, what does it matter that I do this one thing a little different when there's so much suffering that still goes on or I'm still going to want to eat cheeseburgers or whatever. Like, I would just say any little bit in any direction kind of helps. So appreciate Mike and Michelle reminding us all of that. So thank you for supporting the show and thank you for being a friend to the animals.

[Andrew Walsh]

And go. San Jose Giants. I wish I was wearing. I wish I was.

[Luke Burbank]

Were they the quakes or something? Why do I think there was that? Weren't they the earthquakes?

[Andrew Walsh]

I think they play in the same league as the Quakes.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, but I don't know the Quakes then. Didn't you have a Quake's hat?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I have a San Jose Giants hat. Oh, you've always.

[Luke Burbank]

Might have been.

[Andrew Walsh]

They might have been playing the Quakes the night that I saw them. Oh, and to add even more confusion to it, I believe they were actually playing as the San Jose Churros that night as a sort of promotional thing. But honestly, one of the most. I mean, I've said. I say this every time San Jose comes up, but literally one of the most wonderful times, most memorable times I've had at a ballpark. I loved that game.

[Luke Burbank]

Actually, they were playing as the Las Vegas A's, but at a Sacramento State.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right, Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

These are the teams from. That's the California League, Andrew, where the San Jose Giants play. These are the other teams in the California League currently. And the Fresno Grizzlies, the San Jose Giants, the Stockton Ports. Down in the south, you got The Inland Empire 66ers, the Lake Elsinore Storm, the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, that's who they're playing for, sure. Yep.

[Luke Burbank]

The Visalia Rawhide. And then Andrew, of course. We would never forget the Modesto Nuts.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, firmer nuts.

[Luke Burbank]

Firmer Modesto Nuts.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. Jake Fraley, shout out.

[Luke Burbank]

Absolutely. Thanks, Michelle and Mike. Appreciate you. Maestro. On your mark. On your mark. Get set, get set now. Ready, ready.

[Andrew Walsh]

Go.

[Luke Burbank]

Everybody.

[Andrew Walsh]

Rattles dance.

[Luke Burbank]

It's. It's a mic party today and everybody's invited because look who it is. It's Mike Mead in West Lynn, Oregon. Pronounced rural juror, Mike says, hey, friendos. A dazzled that I've been able to dazzle another year. Fun fact. I named the Dazzling Donor. My family has settled in. I named the Dazzling Donor Was that a suggestion from listener I get?

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't remember the origin.

[Luke Burbank]

I believe that I think Mike would remember it more than we would.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right, Certainly. Yeah, it makes sense. I mean Mike has a strong connection to the show. Mike also, amongst other other notable moments in TBTL history, Mike was also the official, I believe like a ballot counter for the song of the summer at Chateau San Michelle one year where we actually like counted the ballots there on and announcement.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, he's also the parent of some of the most sort of widely played children on the show.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

It's all in the message. I've been a fun fact. I named the dazzling donor. My family has settled in well here in the Portland metro since we relocated from Seattle in 2022. We ran into Luke and Becca on our clandestine trip to consider the move, which is. That was so funny. Becca and I were just on a walk in Portland, kind of of near ish, the neighborhood called Grant park. And we just come down the street and Mike and Lauren are sitting there eating a burrito like on the like a little outdoor seating area. They're like, hey, Luke Burbank. I was like, hey, you're tens. They go, yeah, we're thinking about moving to Portland. And they said, we're Langley and Puddles parents. Let's see. Lauren, the 11 and I are kept busy with Langley and Puddle with volleyball, soccer, lacrosse and all things Taylor Swift. And the girls are frankly too cool to leave voicemails these days.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's not true.

[Luke Burbank]

Wow. I know this phase, Mike. I know this phase. They'll come back. They'll be leaving voicemail messages when they're about 25.

[Andrew Walsh]

I got one from Puddle not all that long ago.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, that's good. Langley and Puddle. If you hear this, our phone line is always open and it's tuned to the listening station. I'm continuing to lead the team of CPAs and advisors at CLA. That's Clifton Larson Allen and their Portland practice. If you're a business owner, non profit or human with any accounting or wealth needs, let's talk. Shout out to fellow CLA 10 Asia. For those in Seattle, please continue to sort my favorite cousin Hanley at respite. Would you go with respite or respite?

[Andrew Walsh]

I think respite.

[Luke Burbank]

I go with respite. My mom does something called respite care.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Which is where she goes and kind of like babysits kids. But the Navy pays for it for some reason. Yeah, it's a benefit if you're in the Navy. They live out near A big naval base, so they call it Respite. If it's good enough for Susie B, it's good enough for me. Her bottle shop and restaurant on Stoneway.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, Respite on Stoneway.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, that sounds lovely. That sounds like. I mean, might be a little bit of a far walk for you. Although if you're feeling frisky, a nice little walk around Green Lake on a sunny day, and then you just veer down Stoneway, you go past all those baseball fields, and you end up over there on Stoneway at Respite. That sounds like a real nice afternoon.

[Andrew Walsh]

That used to be my playground. I know exact where Respite is now. In fact, my favorite pot shop was right along the. The. And it was a very nice one, by the way. I don't know if that has sort of, you know, pot shops can run the gamut, but it was a. It was a nice one. And that was one of my favorite little areas there. Unfortunately, my pot shop's gone, and I no longer live in that neighborhood. But I know exactly where Respite is. I've passed it a bunch, and it's a beautiful little location there.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Mike says a few tens joined her wine club when she first opened after hearing about it here. And frankly, margins are tight. So buy your natural wine from her. Everybody loves the natural wine. Get that funky, natty wine from Respite. Get that orange. Get that orange funky, natty wine over there. And I'm sure everything else you could possibly want. So. Hey, Mike, thank you so much. Glad that everything is going well down here in the greater Portland area.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hello and welcome to Top story.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, we've got some top stories, per usual. But per usual, something more interesting has come up, which is, Andrew, you mentioned in the break that you had a. Would you call it an interaction? Would that be overstating and understating it?

[Andrew Walsh]

I want to be very, very careful here because this is one of those things where it's like, am I going to regret talking about this on the show? There are certain things that I just think are kind of like, you know, kind of good content as far as talking about, like, kind of. Of personal friend dynamics or what have you. But also sometimes you're like, well, we have listeners. I'm always. I'm kind of surprised. Every now and then, I'm talking to a list, a friend, not somebody who I consider a listener at all, just like, somebody I know irl, and they'll bring up something that I mentioned on the show, like, oh, yeah, I check in from time to time, I'm like, I didn't even know that you think about, you know, and so that always makes me a little nervous.

[Luke Burbank]

I've been having that happen lately a lot where the last person that I thought was gonna drop in on that episode does. And then they're just like, oh, you. You know, and it's like. It's probably because they got a sense they were gonna be talked about because we had been hanging out or something or whatever. I kind of space out on those things. And then, of course, we're just reciting our life here on the show. And so somebody will pop in. And it always seems like it's the least opportune episode.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. So I want to be careful here because I am going to talk about an interaction I had with a friend who will remain anonymous here, and I really don't want them to hear it. And in order they wouldn't stumble on this, I think, in the middle of an episode. Unless somebody.

[Luke Burbank]

Be cool.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Unless somebody figured out who I was talking about and we have a mutual friend. Like, please, I don't want any hurt feelings here. But I just. I was like, I gotta tell Luke about this interaction that's gonna happen on air or off air. So I'll tell it here. But it starts with a bit of a rant. And I think I'm gonna probably start by sounding like kind of an old fuddy duddy here and a bit of a Luddite, even. And I don't think of myself as somebody who usually runs away from the modern conven conveniences of technology. But one thing that I've been sort of ranting about privately lately, rant maybe being too strong of a word, is this. This new ish, I'm thinking, app that suddenly everybody is using to invite you to things, parties, get togethers or whatever. And it's called Partyful. I don't know if you.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I've never heard of this. I'm not getting invited to enough party.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I guess. So I went from probably not really hearing of Party Full probably, you know, a year ago to I feel like now suddenly it's like summer, and there's just a lot of invitations floating around and they're all coming to me directly via text message on my phone via app called Partyful. Now, basically, you know, we're all old enough. We lived through the Evite craze of the 2000s. Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Sure.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I think people even had, like, somewhat mixed emotions about that, so. Somewhat back then. But it was also such a Convenient tool, right? You put in a bunch of people's email addresses and you can coordinate. You get the RSVP and everything. And that's old technology now. So I have never used particle. Obviously I don't really plan parties or anything. So I ready to part a full.

[Luke Burbank]

With second reference for that today.

[Andrew Walsh]

So I. So I want to be careful here. Like, I'll bet you if you're somebody who planning something partiful is probably a very powerful tool for you to like kind of coordinate, like get RSVPs, you know. But there is something, and this is maybe where I'm just an old fuddy duddy. I don't, I don't mind when somebody uses, you know, if I. If I have a friend IRL and they know my email address and they use that in some sort of party invite thing. Like again, we've gotten used to evites. You're essentially giving my email address to, you know, a third party. But whatever. I don't even think twice about that. Know, man, my phone number feels different and I just sort of feel like. And it's not a huge deal. I haven't gotten any spam that I know of because of people doing that. But I feel like literally in the past couple of months, I've gotten at least six or seven, like partyful invites for various things. And I always am a little bit like, huh. So you just put my phone number into this thing along with my name. And I know that's just what people are doing these days. I mean, I'm mostly fine with it, but look, Luke, this is where my hackles get raised. Not at the people who are doing this, but with the app itself. So so far, I don't even know if I've clicked all the way through. Get this. You get a little text message on your phone that says so and so has invited you to something using the party Full app. Click here to view it. So you click there to view it. It's very much like the old Evites, only it's on text. And you're. You see somebody designed a little thing like come to so and so's gathering. Here's a little paragraph about what we're going to be doing or why we're celebr rating or whatever. And then it. When you go to look at like where the location of the event is, it always says, you must RSVP to unlock this information. Now I find this is why I really don't trust this app. I have a strong feeling there's something about. I don't know why the app forces you to engage with it before it will give you the location. But I think it has something to do with a technological version of inviting a vampire into your home. You know how vampires aren't allowed in until you, like, invite them? I have a feeling that, like, this thing probably operates because a third person or a third party has entered my phone number into this app. And I'll bet you there's some regulation about them using that information or not using it until I sort of accept the deal by clicking RSVP in some way. Now, I can rsvp, we cannot disclose.

[Luke Burbank]

The location to you until you hide all of the garlic in your home.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right, Exactly. Is that. Is that you jumped in there to say that you have a theory? Is that what your theory is as well, or something like that?

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, but my. Yes, but also my theory. This is my fairly uninteresting theory. You know, there's that New York Times show, Hard Fork that I really like, which is kind of a tech show. I'd put this more at, like, soft fork. That's kind of my. That's my tech futurism kind of analysis. I would just say that they. They. They've decided that the location is the most critical, is the most prized jewel of information that you want, and therefore they're going to put it behind. Not a paywall, but they're going to. They're going to force you to put your info in the system to get this thing. They think you'll be intrigued that so. And so is throwing a party, but you want to figure out where it's at. And they're not going to let you have that info until they've hoovered your information up into their systems that probably sell out to other people.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right. And they already have my information, obviously, because somebody else. The inviter. Right, but you put it in there.

[Luke Burbank]

But then you're opting in, essentially.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's my guess, because to me, it is so clickbaity. I mean, I guess this is just becoming a real theme with me, too. Like, I did the Seattle Times headlines not being like newspaper headlines at all anymore. Just like, clickbait. Like, you know, whatever. This college is about to be defunded. Like, could you just say the name of the college?

[Luke Burbank]

Please tell me it's Oral Robert.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's Oral Roberts University. So we are reading the same paper. Weird that the Seattle Times is going so hard on that story. But anyway, so I find that a little bit annoying, but for the most part, I just haven't engaged too Much. Now listen, there are probably some people listening who use that app and are big, like maybe party planners, even just in their private life. And they might be thinking, like, listen, when I'm inviting you to a party, it is hugely helpful for me to, for you to RSVP via the system because it really helps me plan this thing. And I understand that to a degree. But also the clickbait enos of this really upsets me. So usually, like, for example, a couple of friends use this for a birthday party a couple of weeks ago. And I knew it was at their house just by, just from, you know, they were saying, come on over for a birthday party. So I didn't have to click to unlock their address. I know where they live, their friends. Yeah, and, and so that was fine. And I think I just texted him like, hey, can't wait to be there, you know, or something like that. And that was fine. And I've done that kind of a couple of times. But then this weekend I got an invite and this is where it's going to get kind of specific. And that's where I want to be, is I want to give my friend the most benefit of the doubt here possible. But I got to say I was pretty surprised by a response. So a friend of mine is planning a picnic. I get an invite that says so. And so is planning a nice picnic at a park somewhere and you're invited. So I open it up and I'm kind of like, you know, this is not usually something that I would do, but, you know, this is somebody who invites me to a lot of things that I don't go to. We kind of were good, longtime friends, but we kind of just dance in different circles these days. And I always feel a little guilty about that. Like I should make more of an effort. So I open up this thing and I see that it's like a picnic on a Tuesday evening in the summertime. And I'm like, okay, Tuesdays are tough for us because that's a recording night for me and V. So I'm like, we can maybe rearrange it. Like, it would be nice to go to this thing. It's not going to be a shoes off party because it's at a park. You know, like, it seems like a pretty. It sort of seems like this is something that I could make. I could make a little bit of an effort, you know, I mean, because this is a person who like, you know, lives in the shoes off house. So it's like, no, I don't want to Come to a dinner party at your place and take off my shoes. It's just not what I feel like doing on a Friday night. So I tend to, like, kind of swerve on those types of invites. Now I'm like, okay, here it is. It's a nice picnic at a park. Like, I could on a what will hopefully be a nice summer night. Like, why not? Like, let's just do this. So I read, oh, okay. But then it's like, oh, it doesn't say what park. And like, every other invite I've gotten via this app, it's implied where the party is going to be. But in this case it says like, hey, you know, we're meeting at a small park. You'll be able to find us there. See you there. And then I'm like, okay, what park? And then it says, well, you must RSVP in order to find out the location of this picnic. And I'm like, well, that's. That's kind of weird because first of all, I'm not going to rsvp. It really depends on where the park is. If this is something deep in South Seattle, I'm probably not going to trek down there on a Tuesday evening. If it's in one of the many parks that are, like, just very walkable from my house, then we're definitely going to swing by. Like, that's a huge thing. But it's kind of like we're not going to tell you where this park is until after you RSVP to this. And again, this is the way the app is set up, and I don't think that the inviter has much of a choice in that. But I'm kind of like, oh, well, I'm not going to rsvp. I'm not going to opt into the system until I know where the park is. So I just text my friend directly. I say, hey, there. Thanks for the invite to your picnic. Unfortunately, the app won't tell me the location until I rsvp. Could you let me know what park it is? We usually record on Tuesdays, but I'll see if we can move things around that day. And my friend, God love them, responds a little bit later. Hi, I'm out and about, but if you click, maybe you can get the location and you can always change your RSVP later. And I like what you're out in a. Like, you wrote. You wrote all of that. You could have just written car key or Gasworks or also, what's the long. What do you think is the longest park name in Seattle. Like whatever the longest park name is, you have time to write that I just don't get. I'm out and about. So I'm not going to tell you the name of the park. Instead, I'm going to just tell you how to go back into the app and click.

[Luke Burbank]

This is the long. I'm looking at the map. This is the longest park name in Seattle. Lake Char Gog Mashaw.

[Andrew Walsh]

You got me. So anyway, I don't want to, like, turn this. This is a friend and also, like, somebody that could be identified. So I don't want to go full blast. But I was shirked, shirked and stunned to get that response.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm pretty shocked and stunned as well, because the person presumably knows what park they're having the party at.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Why in the. Why in the world would they ever withhold that information after it was asked, after you inquired about it, like you said? And also, and listen, I want to be very clear, I want to be transparent. Andrew. I am one of the number one abusers of I'm out and about. Like, because of my travel schedule for particularly the TV job, I very often lean on the excuse. I've been traveling like crazy. I'm sorry that I'm delayed on this. And I'm going to just tell you and the listeners that's kind of bullshit because truthfully, when I'm traveling, you know what I'm mostly doing? Sitting in an airport. I'm actually uniquely qualified at that point to return an email because I have nothing going on. Like, this idea that travel is. I'm running through the airport. Like, sorry to bring it up, but like an O.J. simpson in a Hertz commercial, avoiding other travelers and running.

[Andrew Walsh]

Or like, that's not really what happened to that guy.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know.

[Andrew Walsh]

He doesn't do the commercials anymore.

[Luke Burbank]

Lost track of him. But like, this idea, like, out and about is. I would say out and about is one of the biggest shams that's being perpetrated on the American public in the current day. Because what out and about means is I'm not sitting at my desk in my home office. But I promise you, you do have your phone. I bet you that a lot of being out and about is actually waiting. You're about to get some fun pho. You're out and about getting some pho. And the pho has not been brought out yet. And you are sitting at the table. And like you said, Andrew, you could easily type into the text function on your phone the location of the party Lake Char, Gog Man Chagog, Shao Boona, Gunga Mog. You could just say that like. Now here's my question. I actually, first of all, I have, I have theories. I have, I have some, I have, I have some theories about who we might be talking about. I can confirm those off air with you. I am. This is a stretch, but is there a possibility, is there a possibility that this is somehow this person is incentivized to have more people interact with the post? Is there a chance this person has monetized this invite?

[Andrew Walsh]

If not, that happens directly. I'm starting to. After sitting on this for a while, I started to develop some of the same theories and people who know the app better might know more about this.

[Luke Burbank]

Like there's some sort of a gamification. Whereas if you get X number of people to interact with the rsvp, you move up into a higher tier of whatever it is and you get more benefits or something. I. This person clearly wants you to have to go through, to jump through the hoop of clicking on this reservation thing. There is clearly something in that for them and the fact that they've also got. You can. You can RSVP and then change your. Well, oh, thank you for letting me know that I can change my rsvp. I as a still to this point free American and we don't know how much longer that will last. As a free American, I'm allowed to change my rsvp. Well, thank you very much but like I am. I feel like this person is somehow there is, there is something that they are trying to achieve through having as many people as possible have to RSVP for this picnic. And I also wonder and if it's the person I'm thinking of, is there a chance that this is actually some sort of sponsorship deal deal with this.

[Andrew Walsh]

Company that I don't think with this company of the app party, not a brand tie. But that. So I will just say I received this yesterday afternoon and I was like pretty. I like I say I was just pretty stunned at that response. I was kind of like, I know. You know, like. And again I kind of gave you all the build up that I kind of carry around some guilt for not being a better friend or making more of an effort because this is a person who's very outgoing and has a lot of kind of like kind of events and stuff like that. That. And so here, you know, I'm not trying to make it sound like I was a hero by responding to an invite to a nice thing, but I'm also totally fine always, always being in my basement playing darts by myself. Like, it's just never. Like, I never have fomo. Like, I'm just born that way. And so just in this case, I'm like, well, I should make an effort. Like, I could rearrange a recording schedule and go to this thing. And when I got this response that I was just like, what? Essentially, my question with too many words was, what park is this at? And there was the response was, I can't answer that now because I'm too busy, but let me explain to you how this app works so that you can find that. And by the way, I'll give a little bit of a defense for an out and about. I don't live a super busy life in the way that you talk about travel and everything or burning the candle from both ends, but I've dropped an out and about. I didn't even really realize that that's sort of a trope, but I've dropped it in, like, kind of like, hey, I can't get into the details of an answer right now, but just so you know, I got this. And, you know, we'll touch base later. But if somebody says, hey, you know, I don't know if my friend Cat, you know, our friend Cat Solon, hits me up and, like, I haven't talked to her in a while, she might send me a funny video. I might say, oh, we'll check this out as soon as I get home. Just because I don't. It's easy for me to, like, let text messages disappear once they are marked unread or whatever. So sometimes I'll throw that out there. And it's totally.

[Luke Burbank]

That's a reasonable out and about. Yes. If you. If you. You're. When I say. When I say out and about is a. Is a sham being perpetrated. I don't mean those scenarios that you've described. That's totally reasonable. I think a person not just saying it's at Green Lake. Yeah, that's not. That's not out and about. Does not cover for that in my mind.

[Andrew Walsh]

Especially when you have to spend more time typing out a complicated message about.

[Luke Burbank]

You just say, it's a Green lake.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm 100% sure that this is some kind of a brand tie in. This person. Person is partnered with these folks, and there's a certain metric that they need to hit with this event that will. Again, I don't know what it does if the brand will pay for the potato salad or what But I have a feeling that there's something else going on here, because that is just the most weird answer I've ever heard.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, my. You keep on saying these folks. I don't. I don't think that the app itself is a partnership, but it occurred to me, because this person is, I guess you'd maybe describe them as a bit of an influencer. And I'm looking and I was starting to say, I was like, really, like, kind of really surprised and shocked and then, like, trying to figure out why I received this message. I was like, was this. This doesn't seem passive aggressive. Like, they hearted my message, you know, like, it seemed all friendly. And so at first, I think I was just so flummox and a little bit upset that I couldn't wrap my head around it. Then later on, like, literally 12 hours later or whatever, I was kind of like, you know what? This person is tied into a lot of various kind of, you know, events kind of events and like, their own kind of brand making and, like I say, kind of influence. And I don't see much of that because I'm not on any of the apps anymore. And it occurred to me, oh, this could be tied to some other project. And I'm remembering now the invite said, oh, I plan on holding a few of these throughout the year. And I'm like, oh, I can see how this is tied in. So I don't think that it's a partnership with the app itself. That's partyful thing. But it did occur to me, oh, I'll bet you anybody who's used this app before has probably a lot of our listeners know more about it than I do. It's probably tied to your Instagram or some sort of socials, and it's probably about. About, you know, building up a certain amount of clout. And it might have something to do with how many people can respond based on my partnership with maybe a publisher or whatever this other person is working on. And it occurred to me, oh, later on, and I kind of almost didn't, like, I don't know if I like that more or less. I'm kind of like, oh, you know, even if this person just said, hey, listen, this is part of a promotional thing.

[Luke Burbank]

Thank you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Would you mind going through the app? I know it's a little bit. It's a little.

[Luke Burbank]

It wasn't Kool Aid.

[Andrew Walsh]

What's that?

[Luke Burbank]

It wasn't Kool Aid. It was.

[Andrew Walsh]

Was. It was flavoring.

[Luke Burbank]

You could fix this with one sentence.

[Andrew Walsh]

Just be like, straightforward and be like, oh, hey, listen, this is sort of part of this promotional thing, and I'm trying to. And like, who wouldn't support their friend in that way? And so it's kind of like, I. I don't know. I. That's speculating, and I don't want to.

[Luke Burbank]

If I was too harsh. I think you speculate correctly, sir. And, and like, that's all I would say if I was. If I was doing this, which, who knows, I. I would certainly. I. I couldn't rule it out, out in this fractured media landscape that at some point I, or even tbtl, we might be doing something like this. But what I would just say to my friend who said, hey, like, I just. What park is it at? I would say it's at this park. Could you do me a fave? Like, I need to have as many people RSVP so it hits this number, because then whatever. So I know it's kind of lame, but would you. Would you do me a favor and just RSVP for it too, so I can kind of get that credit?

[Andrew Walsh]

That would. And then I think, oh, I understand. Oh, I think you would leave that.

[Luke Burbank]

Conversation with a very different feeling than the one you had. Had.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. So anyway, I. I did not respond, and I will not.

[Luke Burbank]

So you're not going to this event?

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know where it is. And no, I am not going to this event, and I'm not going to the following event.

[Luke Burbank]

It's. It's like, I'm trying to think of, like, you know what? It's like, it's trying to, like, it's trying to stick up a bank that is staffed by gorillas using a banana as a gun. It's like, oh, you're giving me the thing I want, which is to not know where this event is and.

[Andrew Walsh]

Or go dare me to. All right, guess I'll just stay home and play dart. After recording, after these messages, it's like, you have.

[Luke Burbank]

So you have sorely misunderstood the leverage of this situation and the fact that I kind of would be just as happy to stay home. And so to hide this information from me in any way, shape or form only benefits me and allows me to have the Tuesday that I was kind of of would sort of, generally speaking, rather be having. It's. It's a very funny thing because it's like, you know, you do have people who are. Do love to go out and do things and be a part of stuff, and for them, withholding the information of the location of the event would actually be like, then they're going to do what they need to do to get the information. They just, they've really misread the situation with you vis a vis wanting to go to this.

[Andrew Walsh]

And yeah, we can, we should probably just leave it there. And again, I want to, I, I, everybody, again, be cool. This is not something that I want my friend to hear, but I did think it would be interesting conversation as far as human dynamics are concerned. But it also did make me kind of. Once I came around at first I was so confused and befuddled, and then I'm like, oh, well, that maybe makes sense. Go through the app. And then I'm like, well, if it's a marketing thing, just tell me that I'll be cool with that information. But then also then I started thinking about it more. It's almost like the third wave of me is kind of like, oh, you. I mean, again, I don't really care that much, but it's kind of like, oh, it's just, you're just leveraging my clicks here. You just put my personal phone number into this thing so that you can leverage it. It's not because I'm your friend who you want to be there. This is some sort of a business solution.

[Luke Burbank]

And again, all you have to say is this is a business solution. Like, hey, can you do me a solid? Because that's the whole, that's the whole point. It's like if you just kind of call it what it is, I think then you've taken all of the kind of maybe potential questionable feelings out of it for the other person or whatever. But if you go, I'm out and about. But hey, you can rsvp, but then you can change it. It's just like, it's just, it seems to me that it would be a much better scenario to just be, be transparent about it. And then, and then everybody knows what it is. And most people would want to help their friend out if they were like, yeah, clicking on this thing. This thing already has my information. I'll click on it just to, just to be a solid friend. But now I, you know, again, I, I don't know what Tuesday it is. And don't even tell me specifically because that would help the listeners zero in on it. But I look very forward to you enjoying the Mariners on that Tuesday from your recording from your root sports.

[Andrew Walsh]

Just picture me being a monkey wearing one of those green visors that you wear as at an old timey bank.

[Luke Burbank]

Only on but in your own house, outside of Victor Roble's house. Because you have your own house. The monkeys and you. The monkeys have their own house.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, that guy.

[Luke Burbank]

I know. Get better soon.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, here I go once again with the email. Every week, I hope that it's from a female. Oh, man, it's not from a female.

[Luke Burbank]

All right. Emails or vmails?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, as I told you, as I was gearing up for my colonoscopy, I was getting a lot of very helpful emails from listeners. So many messages from listeners kind of saying kind of what their experience was like, and it really did help center me and like, kind of got a broad kind of range of situations that people went through. Most of them very good.

[Luke Burbank]

Did you find out, by the way? And I don't want to violate any HIPAA here, but did you get your. Like when you have to go back for another one? Because.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I'm still waiting.

[Luke Burbank]

I was wildly off on mine. It was, of course, corrected by our friend and the keeper of the colonoscopy calendar archive. The colonoscopy calendar keep. Those are all spelled with a K, weirdly. Wait, no, we don't do things that have three K's in them. Yeah, one of them, our special colonoscopy archivist, Phyllis Fletcher, was like, luke, you gotta. You gotta go back in three years.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. What did you think it was?

[Luke Burbank]

Five? I thought it was five. Maybe I forgot three was an option. So I'm kind of like three. And also because we can't. We can't be making this whole production every three years. Like, part of the getting of the procedure was that it was kind of an entertaining, at least to me, plot for the show, but that we only get to do that. I get to do it once and you get to do it once. And now it can't just be like every three years. We go through this as like a. So what we're going to have to be doing now, Andrew, is something that an ex of mine used to say this. And she wouldn't even be able to finish the sentence before she would erupt in laughter. She would sometimes describe me jokingly as the strong silent type.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then she would laugh.

[Luke Burbank]

She wouldn't be able to finish the scene in the statement. It'd be like the strong sigh and then she would just. Peels of laughter. But you and I are going to have to. The next time we do this. When I do this in three years, I'm going to have to be the strong silent type. I'm just going to have to be out here drinking veggie broth and then going and getting a thing and not making it literally like an hour by hour update on the show because it's not going to be interesting.

[Andrew Walsh]

Don't forget, man, miso soup. I'm going to just start keeping that in the house. Anyway, that was so good.

[Luke Burbank]

If you, if you happen upon a good brand that you like, will you let me know? Because I love nothing more than miso. You know that I'm a double miso man now. When I go to, you know, Japanese restaurant or anywhere that's got miso, I order a double.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, oh.

[Luke Burbank]

Always. Because one cup of miso, one small bowl of miso is not enough for me. I just, it's my standard order double miso.

[Andrew Walsh]

I order a single tall.

[Luke Burbank]

I do a flat white with 1 inch of steamed oak. No, I love miso so much. But. And I have bought a couple of different brands that you, you know, come home and boil the water and whatever. I haven't been able to get something that has the, like umami or whatever. The thing is about a miso that I get if I'm at a Japanese restaurant.

[Andrew Walsh]

Are you buying this stuff that's all pre made in kind of a jug or you. Because we have two kinds. That's what I bought for.

[Luke Burbank]

I was buying, I think a powdered kind. Is that the mistake?

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe there's also a paste. Like I have miso paste. But honestly, the stuff that I was sipping during the colonoscopy was just like, you know, like a jug of broth. Like one of those cardboard square things of miso broth.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't think I even knew that was really good.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm send you a picture after the show. Okay, let me get into this because I know we're a little bit tight on time. I just want to share just Judith's story. I thought this was pretty interesting. Judith has said that she's had several colonoscopies over the course of her life. At 76 years old now kind of going over the various things that she had to drink for prep. Like, as far as like the stuff that they give you. By the way, I'm itching my eye right now. I'm also realizing that I think I started to get a little bit of a stye in my eye this weekend. I was like, my friend, I cannot do the redux of the colonoscopy followed by the redux.

[Luke Burbank]

Stop copying me, please.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's in a different place and it's small. I'm not super worried about it. But I really did have the thought I'm like, that's. We just. We just got through colon colonoscopy too. We don't need sty 2. Also, I would not do any of the stuff that you were going through. I would. I'd be too scared. Okay. So anyway, Judith says that this last time she mixed it maybe with some Gatorade or whatever had generally, as we've been discussing, had to drink tons and of tons and tons of stuff for prep and says that she had to drive to the local hospital about 30 miles away and the trip was incident free. Remember, after reading some of the materials, I was concerned about the drive to the facility because they made it sound like you might not have control of your bowels. For me, that was not an issue at all. And a lot of people say it wasn't an issue. And it sounds like Judith here had to drive 30 miles to get to her kolonoscopy, but it was incident free. But here's where things get interesting. As I awaited my turn in the surgery queue, the small city in central New York began experiencing an intermittent power outage throughout the area. No procedures were put on hold until the situation was stabilized, though my surgeon assured me that even though it was performed on auxiliary power, it would be perfectly safe. Hospital personnel came through several times.

[Luke Burbank]

Let me fire up the generator. Hospital personnel came through, diesel fumes wafting.

[Andrew Walsh]

Through the OR several times during the next two or three hours with an on again, off again update. When it looked like we had gotten to the final edict of the power is off again. The surgeon, aware that a reschedule would mean another prep session for me, offered to perform the procedure at another facility another 30 miles away. That's part of the same health care system. My IV hookups were left in place but disconnected. I touched base with my boyfriend and the driver about the new plan and proceeded to get dressed. As I stepped out of the changing room, the surgeon grinned and said, get your clothes off, woman. We're back in business. I've been waiting my whole life for somebody to tell me that. Yeah. They reassembled the necessary staff. Staff and got her done. I wouldn't say I love a colonoscopy, but I do love a good story to tell and I'm looking forward to yours. That was from Judy before my colonoscopy, but. So she ended up having to drive. Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, first of all, I like that that doctor was willing to go somewhere like 30 miles away to complete this because it would have been very easy. And if I were the doctor, I'd probably be like sweet free Tuesday. I'm going to get on the E line and go find some, go find some baseball and some beers.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm going to go watch them movie called Friendship by myself.

[Luke Burbank]

Right? Like, like, you know, that doctor could have very much just said, hey, I don't feel, I don't feel good doing this procedure unless we have reliable power. So they could have just like basically decided to write it off that day, but they didn't. They were like, we're going to go somewhere else. And then I love the fact, I love it when somebody gets invested in your journey that way. Like, what, Maybe it's a customer service person and they're just trying to fix something for you. Or it could be at the bank. Like, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna figure this out. You know, we're gonna, like, again, I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's JAMA approved to say, get your clothes off, woman.

[Andrew Walsh]

We're, we're back in business.

[Luke Burbank]

We're back in business. But I, as long as, as long as Jude was Judy, right? As long as Judy took it. Okay. I kind of, I kind of love that swashbuckling spirit.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, me too. I like that story. Oh, by the way, I was mentioning how on Friday I was wandering around North Seattle just aimlessly hitting all of the consumer tainment and then the dive bar, sports bars. I didn't mention also that our friend Mary. Mary, famous for writing into the Seattle Times rant and rave column many times per week. Mary showed up at Pop up on Sunday. Surprise me. Just volunteered the whole day. It was so great to hang out. And of course Anna was there as well as a. It was old, it was old home day at Pop Up. It was a lot of fun this weekend.

[Luke Burbank]

You really interacted with the listening public this weekend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, it was great. And also it was actually a huge help. We were a little bit shorthanded and then Mary just showed up, dropped off some vegetables and said, you want me to stick around? I'm like, yeah, that'd be great. So it was a fun weekend hanging with listeners. So there you go.

[Luke Burbank]

Awesome. Well, we should probably wrap things up. I am going to get on an airplane, fly to Denver and then go out to Longmont, Colorado and then fly back here tomorrow night. A quick trip for a little TV thing. But, but tomorrow we'll be joining you all from Longmont, so I guess we'll. Sure we'll have more adventures. By the way, there's an entire Saturday Night Live sketch about flying into Newark this weekend that was actually pretty funny. It was one of those, like pre done videos from the guys that are Please don't destroy. And it was funny because I. I know that that song wasn't about me, but I felt very connected to the sketch having just flown in and out of Newark. But this trip involves zero Newark. It involves Blucifer and the world's most remote airport, Denver International. So yeah, we'll have a report tomorrow. In the meantime, have a great Monday, everybody. Take care of yourselves. And please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to all. Power out.