← TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live
TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live
#4478 Literally Edmonds And Culturally Lutheran
01:31:17
Jon joins Luke and Andrew to reveal Clue #2 in the Great TBTL Billboard Hunt! Plus, Andrew engaged in some questionable behavior at Tuesday’s Mariners game. And Luke’s flight home from NYC might have been the weirdest flight he’s ever been on.
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- [00:01]
Luke Burbank
So let's fire up the Batman mobile.
- [00:03]
Andrew Walsh
Go to a taco stand and eat some feelings. Okay, Okay.
- [00:07]
Luke Burbank
I just. I think it's Batmobile. Batman mobile.
- [00:11]
Andrew Walsh
Batmobile. That's what I said.
- [00:14]
Luke Burbank
Batman mobile.
- [00:14]
Andrew Walsh
You're putting the.
- [00:15]
Luke Burbank
There's no man. It's just Batmobile. Batman mobile. Batmobile.
- [00:20]
Andrew Walsh
Drop the man.
- [00:21]
John Sklarov
Batman mobile.
- [00:22]
Andrew Walsh
Batmobile.
- [00:25]
John Sklarov
Batmobile.
- [00:28]
Andrew Walsh
Tbtm. Guess what day it is. Guess what day it is. Friday, Friday. Gotta get down on Friday. You're singing that wrong.
- [00:42]
Aaron Goldsmith
How?
- [00:43]
Luke Burbank
I made it up. Ladies and gentlemen, meatloaf cake with only 433 calories, 52 grams of protein, and only 5 carbohydrates. You call hamburger steamed hams? Yes.
- [00:55]
Andrew Walsh
It's a regional dialect.
- [00:56]
Luke Burbank
This is not your mama's podcast. This is too beautiful to live. Were you just using a synthesizer?
- [01:02]
Andrew Walsh
Nope.
- [01:03]
Luke Burbank
So you mean to tell me that all of those sounds were coming from your ba' Adi?
- [01:07]
John Sklarov
Yup.
- [01:09]
Luke Burbank
I'm the president of Rap music, and I need to work with you right away. Well, all right. Hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Friday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. What's that?
- [01:24]
Aaron Goldsmith
What's that, brother?
- [01:25]
Luke Burbank
My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. I'm so excited about this show coming to you from the Madrona Hill Studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia. Oh, Ma.
- [01:36]
Andrew Walsh
Pa.
- [01:37]
Luke Burbank
It's just beautiful. It really is just beautiful here. My friends, this might be the first really, truly summery day that has been occurring when I have actually been here at the Madrona Hill Studio. And it is just absolutely giving me life on this Friday. And you're gonna hear that. You're gonna hear that in the presentation, in the enthusiasm, in the vim, and the vigor that we're gonna be bringing to episode 4478 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. Now, of course, to get here from the nation's capital, Washington, District of Columbia, I, of course, took an airplane. And that, of course, created some sky jinx.
- [02:20]
Andrew Walsh
Sky jinx.
- [02:23]
Luke Burbank
There was an energy force on my flight home that I've never fully experienced. It was a chaos flight for a variety of reasons. Now, one thing that wasn't happening on my flight, but that did happen on another flight that is becoming a whole thing on the Internet. You had a Delta flight that was delayed by hours, and people were stuck on the airplane. And it was one of those things where time is ticking and you realize you're missing your connecting flights. It was a whole mishigosh. And then they decided to give The PA over to, you know, the, like, public address thing over to a young lady who decided to sing Moana into the phone. I'm singing. I'm in a store and I'm singing and. Well, we've got thoughts and we're gonna share those with you. Plus, it's week two of the great TBTL Billboard hunt. Our friend TBTL employee numero uno John Sklarov to stop by with hint number two. Employee numero uno is going to have hint number dose here on this Friday. This is the hint about where in the country the TBTL billboard is going in so you can play along at home. This guy's always playing along from home, from his home studio. He is the longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He's Andrew Walsh. Oh, hey, y' all said my name. And he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.
- [03:53]
Andrew Walsh
Good morning, Luke. I rarely do this, but I realized that in my conversation with you on the show yesterday, I had some field notes from the Mariners game that I attended two nights ago that I did not end up bringing up. I feel like.
- [04:10]
Luke Burbank
Oh, you mean. You mean what I thought was going to be maybe our most dispiriting performance of the week, but I forgot there was also Thursday and tonight, Friday.
- [04:20]
Andrew Walsh
Do you know that your tone there, you took a tone, but the tone was directed at the Mariners, but it made me nervous for a second. Oh, no, I'm just coming. Sorry.
- [04:30]
Luke Burbank
That was a honk around, Andrew. That was a honk around.
- [04:33]
Andrew Walsh
You were honking around.
- [04:34]
Luke Burbank
Mariners are at the stoplight. I thought you were like, you're behind the Mariners.
- [04:38]
Andrew Walsh
When you went on a long story yesterday and you didn't say anything interesting. And I thought that was going to be the low point of TBTL this week.
- [04:46]
Luke Burbank
That was the point. The Mariners.
- [04:49]
Andrew Walsh
I like the idea of honking around. I feel like I could. Can we make a song called Honking around by the TBTL boys? Let's get a. I love that. Let's get John on later. See. See if we can harmonize.
- [05:01]
Luke Burbank
We are going to have John by. We'll have the whole band here.
- [05:03]
Andrew Walsh
It was one of those things where I was thinking about our conversation yesterday. I was like, oh, there. There were a couple of things I wanted to tell Luke that I thought he would find interesting for my experience at the ball game. But instead we ended up, like, talking about, I don't know, we were talking about my inability to speak sp or something instead. So I don't want to monopolize the top of the show again. But let me just give you two hopefully quick notes that I thought you'd find interesting. One. And I'm going to set this up by sort of spoiling the well a little bit. It's your sort of, let's say if we're talking in the terms of rants and raves, this is a common rant of yours. Or if we're saying yeas and nays, this is a common nay of yours. When institutions or companies that are providing a service to the public, they pull back on something that is handy or, you know, something that we enjoy using, but they blame it on, well, we're doing this for the environment, not the.
- [06:00]
Luke Burbank
Environment or the pandemic. Anytime my life gets worse as a consumer and they try to give me an explanation like this is for your protection or this is because of supply chain issues, I always assume it is actually just about them making more money.
- [06:15]
Andrew Walsh
Do you mean the way when you go to the Mariners official website and you look at their bag policy, you see that it's still a no bag policy because of COVID 19 restrictions? Is that what you mean? Like literally, if you go there right now on May 30, 2025, it says because of COVID Don't you turn me.
- [06:33]
Luke Burbank
Into an RFK junior Supporter. Getting close.
- [06:37]
Andrew Walsh
That's why I can't take a bag close. I can't take a bag into the stadium. But that's not even my complaint. Whatever. I don' need a bag. But they are now a strawless stadium. Now one thing that I've been doing in games, which is going to surprise people, is not drinking as much beer. I realized recently, I was like, I always buy beer at the baseball game because it's like I'm at the baseball game. You're supposed to drink beer here. But honestly, I'm entertained enough. I don't need any kind of brain numbing substance and I just love soda pop, especially if I'm going to be eating popcorn or something. Popcorn and beer does not go together together to me like popcorn and soda. And I like to make the mix them up sodas, you know. And so I usually what I do near the beginning of the season, like I did on two days ago when I was at the, at the game, I grabbed one of those big plastic reusable cups that I believe they call a collector cup. And then I think you can bring it back into the stadium throughout the season and get free refills. At least I think you're allowed to do that? Let's just say I do that. So maybe that's just a life hack for people.
- [07:42]
Luke Burbank
Well, they haven't confiscated it exactly.
- [07:44]
Andrew Walsh
Going through the door. So anyway, I. Well, this is also. This is like a field note 1A. I also went into the little Mariners concession area where they've had these for several years now. You can just walk in, tap your phone. I think it's an Amazon store. And then you just walk out with whatever you bought, but you don't even scan anything. And I've always been scared of them and like, I don't know how they work. I think in the past I might have had a less comfortable relationship with like, whatever, the wallet, the digital wallet on my phone. But I use that all the time now. I'm always using my phone.
- [08:20]
Luke Burbank
Do you think they have enough cameras in that one, though? The ceiling is like a thousand points of light. I saw this when I. And I went to the. There was like a Christmas light thing in T Mobile at. At Christmas time. And what I noticed was walking around the concourse was that Amazon store. And it is unbelievable how many cameras are mounted in the ceiling. Like, I understand that's how it works. Like, they need it, but it's like. It's like one camera every half of a square foot or something. It's wild.
- [08:50]
Andrew Walsh
I was still a little confused how it works, because I know that they have those kind of, what do they call them, contactless stores or checkout list stores or whatever. I mean, they actually have stores around Seattle where the same technology is employed. And for some reason it always made sense to me, like, oh, you have an RFID chip or something on a box of Tide laundry detergent. That makes sense. But I was like buying a hot dog in foil and one of these cups that I was going to fill up outside the store. I also learned that what they do is they. You scan your phone going in and it charges you a dollar right away just to go in there. And I think that dollar is maybe returned later, but they have to scan your card to make sure that it works or it has money.
- [09:30]
Luke Burbank
I think we can all agree, in the words of Martha Stewart, it's a good thing.
- [09:33]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, it's just. It's so great that I can then also just go there and support Bezos. I didn't know that it was specifically an Amazon, like Oasis within.
- [09:41]
Luke Burbank
It might not. Is it?
- [09:42]
Andrew Walsh
Do we. I think so, because I checked my credit card because I literally didn't know how much I paid for these things either. It's like, they make it sound like it a good thing for the consumer, but what it does is it makes the buying process so simplified that you don't know how much anything is. And you just grab a bunch of stuff and you walk out and they just make a bunch of money. It's not.
- [10:00]
Luke Burbank
And you just trust. But I mean, the thing is, you're just. You're trusting notoriously trustworthy person Jeff Bezos to make the call.
- [10:06]
Andrew Walsh
Right. So I literally, like, I kept meaning to go in and see, like, how much did I pay for that? I had no idea. I got a hot dog and a cup for soda, and then I finally looked at my bank statement, my credit card. You know, I went into my credit card system yesterday, and I guess I paid $20.21 if you count the $1 that's pending for a hot dog and a soda, which seems kind of expensive to me. But also, I think that's ballpark prices. I don't know if they jack it up for that particular store. Okay, that was just observation 1A. But I then go to fill up my soda, and then I asked the guy, where are the straws? There's a bunch of those lids. Now, they're plasticky lids, but they're all.
- [10:43]
Luke Burbank
The little, like a little nozzle on them, kind of like.
- [10:46]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, almost like a coffee cup with a little hole that you can tip. And for me, now, now listen, obviously it's the type of thing where they're going to say, yeah, we're saving the environment by not using straws, but they still have the plasticky lids. And the thing is, nobody in Seattle uses real plastic anymore. It's all that compostable now. Maybe if there's people who are. I find it hard to believe that there are people smarter than me on this topic. I'm somebody who just likes to drink from a straw. But I sort of feel like that seems like a cost saving measure to me more than a save the turtles thing, because I don't think they were legally allowed to use regular plastic straws anyway. They're just no longer providing the kind of straws that decompose or break down or whatever. And like, for me, like, that is a huge change. And maybe I'm just being a drama queen here, but that is a huge, huge change in the soda drinking experience for me. If I'm drinking a soda fountain soda, a huge part of that is sticking that straw in there and that experience, not sipping it through a hole in a lid. I am, I'm. I'm off put.
- [11:51]
Luke Burbank
I think you're feeling off put is, is, is absolutely justified in this because yeah, I also enjoy a heaping tall Diet Coke product at a baseball game. And you got all the ice in there, you're slurping it through the straw. It is absolutely part of the experience. The whole story on like why supposedly McDonald's Diet Coke is better than other Diet Cokes is because the straw is so much wider at McDonald's that it aerates the Diet Coke. I don't know if that's real science or not, but I do think the way that you, the way that you sort of draw the soda product into your system impacts the sort of your enjoyment of. In fact, in fact, frankly it impacts my enjoyment of water at Starbucks because I will often, if I'm at a Starbucks, I'll get like a Venti ice water. I'll get like the big, the big giant thing and have ice water because it's free and, and they switched over to the same kind of, you know, like lid technology and, and you know, in that case it's not the end of the world. I'm just, I'm probably driving somewhere and I can drink the water out of that thing. It doesn't really bother me. But if I'm going to the baseball game to have a very certain kind of experience. And you're right too that like the compostable straws also suck, but so to speak. But they, they're, they're effective enough. What happens?
- [13:13]
Andrew Walsh
Can I ask you? Do the fake plastic one suck? Because that's something I've never understood. Like there for a while people were using paper straws. Those were terrible. I can't really tell the difference. I guess they are slightly more.
- [13:24]
Luke Burbank
There's a compostable plastic one. I don't know if I've even.
- [13:26]
Andrew Walsh
Oh yeah, almost everywhere around here because they outlawed plastic in the city, which means only outlaws will have plastic. And so there are like. I think they're a little bit more brittle. Like if you were to bite the straw. I'm not a straw biter, so I'm fine with this. I think that like you might get a fissure a little bit easier in these. But if you just treat them mostly like a regular straw. It is like a plastic straw, only it's made from whatever that plant based material is so that it breaks down.
- [13:51]
Luke Burbank
Well, yeah, that's 100% a cost saving thing. That's cheaping out and I don't support it at all. I will say with the kind of paper Straws?
- [13:59]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [14:00]
Luke Burbank
I feel like I'm in a Tom Cruise movie. But the mission that is impossible is to finish my drink before the straw becomes totally unusable.
- [14:09]
Andrew Walsh
You really had me with that. I gotta say, I was a little let down. I was ready for a very long, drawn out analogy, but it was just Mission Impossible. That's what works.
- [14:20]
Luke Burbank
Well, no, it. Well, but I mean, listen, if I had the music at the ready, I.
- [14:23]
Andrew Walsh
Could play it for you.
- [14:25]
Luke Burbank
Probably add some of the drum, but you know what I mean? Like, it just feels like, you know. Hold on. I've. Let's.
- [14:30]
Andrew Walsh
I just realized I tried to make that music with my mouth and it was the farthest thing possible from the actual Mission Impossible music.
- [14:36]
Luke Burbank
Now I don't know why. Wait, this is not Mission Impossible. This must be some. This is called Mission Impossible in my system.
- [14:46]
Andrew Walsh
Now you're playing with the big boys. Going to the street. Gonna make.
- [14:51]
Luke Burbank
Are you gonna make a big noise? What? Okay, here we go. Oh, you know what that was. I bet you that was a commercial on YouTube.
- [14:58]
Andrew Walsh
You just didn't.
- [14:59]
Luke Burbank
That I forgot to cut out. Okay, that makes a lot more sense. But by the way, good TC Tuggers call. All right, Andrew, let's just kind of back this up.
- [15:07]
Andrew Walsh
Okay.
- [15:09]
Luke Burbank
I'll tell you, Andrew, every time I get one of those paper straws somewhere, feels like Mission Impossible. Your mission, should you choose to accept. Try to slurp down all of this soda through this paper straw before it just turns.
- [15:26]
Andrew Walsh
Yes.
- [15:27]
Luke Burbank
Into like a soggy spitball.
- [15:29]
Andrew Walsh
Yep.
- [15:30]
Luke Burbank
That is absolutely incapable of conducting soda.
- [15:34]
Andrew Walsh
I am. By the way, I don't know how you had that music at the ready. Did you know we were going to be talking about this? That was amazing production on your part. I love the analogy.
- [15:42]
Luke Burbank
I'm assuming that means you cut out the other part where I was playing the TC Tuggers tune. And. Thank you. And John, I swear to God, if.
- [15:47]
Andrew Walsh
You tell anyone, I will never.
- [15:49]
Luke Burbank
He knows. John Scleroff is just waiting patiently in the wings.
- [15:52]
Andrew Walsh
He's lurking in the backstage.
- [15:56]
Luke Burbank
But. But for real, all joking aside, I do. Those paper straws really are pretty bad. But even those. Even those. Because in Portland, like when Becca and I were seeing a friendship, I got soda. And you know, it's Portland, so of course that's the kind of straw I got. I was able to get through it. I'm. I'm just. I want to go back to. I want to honor and I want to acknowledge what you're saying, which is that switching people over to no straws at the baseball game when there is the possibility of a compostable straw that kind of works, that would, you know, become lodged in fewer sea turtles. I think that that is just obviously a BS cost cutting measure.
- [16:34]
Andrew Walsh
I think so too. In fact, you raising the movie theater experience is an interesting kind of counter example because I also want to see that movie here in Seattle. And again, I know Seattle has the same laws, but when I went to, I believe, an AMC theater, yes, I am a STUBS member. I need to start unlocking those things. I've been a STUBS member since you were knee high to a grasshopper and I've never done anything with it. I just keep on giving him my, my phone number and feels good. But like, I know I use plastic or plastic ish, you know what I mean? Ish straws. I don't know how they do it. I know what those scientists are using, but I know that they're not actual plastic. But you have that experience. And maybe I just need to get prepared for the idea that this is going to happen all over the place. And I think it might cut down on, well, I guess beer. I'm coming back to you. Beer. Because drinking soda, a cup like that is not. Or I'll get used to it and I'll back.
- [17:28]
Luke Burbank
Andrew, think about the irony of this. Drinking soda without a straw feels like you've just lost 50% of the fun of it. And drinking beer through a straw is deeply unsettling.
- [17:40]
Andrew Walsh
That is really unsettling.
- [17:41]
Luke Burbank
Like, oh, you see someone drinking beer through a straw, you need to put them on some kind of watch list.
- [17:47]
Andrew Walsh
Unless they're having like some sort of a, some sort of a major dental surgery or something. But even then, just back off the beer. Come on. Come on, imaginary person. You have a drinking problem. So anyway, I've already taken up too much time with this, but I was very disappointed in that. I was also like, I get my hackles up and maybe I just need to stop saying this, but I always think of myself not as a cheaper person, but I, I don't think you're.
- [18:12]
Luke Burbank
A cheap person at all in my experience.
- [18:14]
Andrew Walsh
I bet you though. So as we discussed yesterday, I was there with my buddy Neil and I bet you my hackles went. My hackles also went up later when they like they had these big things of popcorn. I'm like, I'll take one of the smaller things of popcorn. And they were like, we don't have the small size popcorn. And I wanted just to say, just take the big popcorn and pour it into a smaller thing. I just sort of feel like. And I, this is a terrible way to go through life. I do not like going through airports and movie theaters and complaining about the price of the concessions. Like that is. That's the deal. We all know it. And it's hacky to complain about it. I don't want to go to the game and complain about the prices of things, but because I have so much, I sort of, I don't know, built up animosity, one sided animosity towards the Mariners and their cheap spending on the field and then them gouging, you know, viewers and attendees in so many different ways, I kind of start to feel really suspicious. And then with this Amazon thing, I was just like, I think my, my hackles were just up a little bit and I was ready to like kind of be mad at them for being cheapskates or trying to gouge me in some way. So I need to.
- [19:18]
Luke Burbank
I appreciate you getting on board with me being deep, deeply suspicious of any time a corporation.
- [19:25]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [19:26]
Luke Burbank
Tries to explain anything they're doing in any way other than we just figured out we could make an extra point 0000 or save an extra point 0000 $0.01 every time somebody gets one of these sodas. And if you add those up, if you scale that up, you know, like that's. I like that. I've got another curmudgeon now in the fight with me.
- [19:47]
Andrew Walsh
And I am looking, I was like, what are these biodegradable plastic ish straws? And I see there's a brand called Plastic Less and they look, you know, they, even the ones I'm looking at now even have the little bend in them if you were to choose them and they look like a plastic straw. Again, there may be, you know, they might have some deficits, but it's not like those paper straws. There are eco friendly ways around this problem. They just don't care. Okay. My other observation, which I thought you might have interest in, is me observing my behavior and then reporting it back to you for a judgment call. So as I mentioned yesterday, not to brag, but my buddy found really, really good seats behind home plate sitting right in front of us, where, I mean, we're mostly surrounded by Mariners fans, but sitting right in front of us were two people who were Nationals fans. And by the way, don't anybody get nervous. This is not about me getting my hackles up about opposing fans or whatever Nationals fans tend to be.
- [20:43]
Luke Burbank
If there is, I think if there's a fan Base or they'd be in the group of fan bases that you do not wake up in the morning already mad at.
- [20:50]
Andrew Walsh
Exactly. I think the Nationals would be a fun team to root for if circumstances were different. I could see myself doing that. I actually think their logo and stuff is kind of cool. In fact, I saw a fella drying his hands in the restroom. I thought he was wearing a Mariners hat. It was a different color blue from the back. And I said to him, hey, can I see the front of your hat? And I was surprised it was not his hands. Okay. I said, hey, can I see the front of your pants?
- [21:12]
Luke Burbank
I was in the stall and I was tapping my foot, Larry Craig style, wide stance.
- [21:18]
Andrew Walsh
I'm like, hey, we're all baseball bros. No. This guy turns around, I thought he was gonna be a Mariners fan, but it's like a blue hat with a big W on. And I was like, what in tarnation is that? And he said, this is our. This is the Washington National City Connect hat. Oh, yeah, that's pretty sweet, sir.
- [21:33]
Luke Burbank
They got him.
- [21:34]
Andrew Walsh
Generally speaking, I feel like it's a pretty good look. These two people who are sitting in front of us, I'm guessing our father and son. The father seems like he might be, I don't know, somewhere between my age and 10 years older than me. I'll put him in his 50s, ish. You know, maybe late 50s. And then sitting next to him is a guy who I'm guessing is probably mid teenager kid. Now the kid is cheering his head off. Don't forget, like, we are getting shellacked as the Mariners and the Nationals are just putting up run after run after run, and this kid is just going crazy. And in another circumstance, if there. If this. If the stadium was filled with this kid, it would have been really bad. But it was him and his dad, and he just clearly was a huge baseball fan who was going nuts to have these amazing seats in the opposing stadium and watching his team do well. Right. So anyway, I didn't have too much animosity, although I do think that kid was maybe annoying some other fans around us at a certain point. But I'm more honed in on the father, who, by the way, is wearing a beautiful off white Nationals hat. It's got, like, the red W on it, but it's off white.
- [22:43]
Luke Burbank
It's really realized you got into baseball fandom for the hats.
- [22:47]
Andrew Walsh
I am. Yeah. I like that.
- [22:50]
Luke Burbank
In the pie chart of the things about baseball that fascinates you, hats, it's got to be 60% of the experience.
- [22:56]
Andrew Walsh
Well, the weird thing is straws used to be a really big chunk of.
- [22:59]
Luke Burbank
Well, you got it. And now something has to fill the void.
- [23:02]
Andrew Walsh
Exactly, man. No, it really was a really sweet looking, kind of cream color hat. And it was like their. I think they won. Did they win the world series in 2019? Either way, it was a World Series era hat. And I thought it was kind of a good look on this guy. And then. And this is where things get a little bit sketchy on my part. The dad is scrolling through his phone the whole time. It's unclear to me what this man's relationship with baseball is because when certain players are coming up to the plate, he's quiet, you know, kind of not quietly, but not making a big deal of it. Just lifting up his phone and sometimes taking a photo of the Nationals player at the plate. His son is doing that with a lot of the players and recording it. You know, he wants the home run. I. I'm not into that. You know, when like Shohei comes up, if you're watching a Dodgers game, everybody in the stand takes out their phone and starts recording it. It's like it's being recorded, guys. You don't need your own version. I would per. I personally would rather try to stay in the moment there, but whatever. People do what people do. But this dad mostly seems disinterested in the game. I don't see him cheer once as his team continues to just rack up the runs. He's just really, really chill and really, really scrolling on his phone. And I'm sitting right behind him and he's got a pretty big phone and the screen is like right there. And so I'm watching him scroll through Facebook and then I see him. Nothing scandalous, although I did see a couple of times where something that was slightly spicy, let's just call it Facebook spicy, would come up. And I did think that he was pausing on those posts a little bit longer than the other ones, but we'll let that go. But at one point I see that he sees a hat for Stetson, like an actual Stetson kind of, kind of cowboy style hat. And I watch him click on it and then I watch him go to the Stetson store and then I see him looking at different hats and then he's like kind of really circling around one that looked really nice. I couldn't pull it off, but I could just see this guy pulling it off and. And so it looked like he actually bought it or maybe put it in his cart, but maybe not. I'm not sure this is maybe happening in the third inning, but I'm thinking about it the whole time and I just, I think maybe it's because I also like this guy's Nationals hat. I think he just has good style. So at the end of the game, the very, very end of the game, it's over. It was nine to nothing, right? That was the score. I couldn't help myself. Me and Neil are starting to leave and I turned to the guy in front of me and I just said, did you get the Stetson hat? Did you buy the hat? And he, and he looked at me kind of surprised for a second. He's like, I didn't buy it yet, I'm going to buy it. And then he's like, we live in. And he's like, we live in Texas. I know that you wouldn't wear it around here. He's like, but down there. And he's like, but you got to be specific, like certain hats for certain times of the year. And this is a very lightweight. And he started telling me about this white hat and it really was a stylish looking hat that I could see him rocking. And I was just kind of like, I wondered what you would think about sort of spying on somebody scrolling through their phone the whole game and then sort of at the end. And I honestly did not mean it. I did not mean it in any way to make him feel uncomfortable. I really wanted to just sort of like joke with him about the hat, but I kind of did later think like, was that me sort of telling him, haha, I've been watching you the whole time? Because that was not my intent, but it could have. He seemed to take it like, we had a very nice conversation. So he seemed all right with.
- [26:12]
Luke Burbank
I think it's good if he takes it that way. Because if you take your kid to the baseball game, you should put your GD phone away and watch the baseball game with your kid. And if that creates for him a sense of that people can see what's on his phone when he's out with his son. And I'm not trying to police how people parent, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna blow the whistle on that one and just say like, why do you go to the baseball game with your kid if you're just scrolling Facebook the whole time? And so I don't think that's a bad thing at all for you to say. Even if, even if he took it, which it sounds like he didn't, even if he took it to kind of be like, oh, wow, that guy was watching me again. Maybe next time he'll be a little. Maybe he'll leave the phone in his pocket a little bit more. I'm just imagining if like. Like Walt and I had gone to a game when I was a kid, and of course, there weren't phones in those days, but, like, you know, I just remember when I would go to the game with my dad one time. This was, of course, the Mariners at the Kingdome. I was still a little kid trying to understand how you. How you should be as a person at a baseball game. Right. Because I didn't have a lot of experience with it. Certainly my dad was. This was not something my dad was going to mentor me in. Win. In fact, watching the baseball games with my dad when he's here is kind of fun when they're winning, but kind of challenging when they're losing because he does not care. And when you're watching a game and you care too much, as is the case with me, and you're watching it with someone who does not care, they invariably say something that makes you. That fills you with rage when bad things are happening on the field, because it's just the stakes are very low for them.
- [27:39]
Andrew Walsh
And you're like, you're not bleeding as much as me.
- [27:41]
Luke Burbank
Well, exactly. Like, I. I really am trying to work on it because I have to recognize, like, my dad doesn't care. And when he says, like, oh, man, Julio struck out again, or whatever it is, he says it's not even really what he's saying. It's that I am an open nerve at that point.
- [27:53]
Andrew Walsh
I was gonna say, because you.
- [27:54]
Luke Burbank
It's really. No, because I'm saying that on the.
- [27:57]
Andrew Walsh
Text chain, and you can't. It's hard to walk that fine line with the burbs because then if you're too negative, apparently, then, like, you block Andy for being too negative, but then you get mad, well, that's too positive.
- [28:07]
Luke Burbank
Well, no, not positive. My dad's. No, my dad's also being negative, but he's just being negative in a way that I just know none of it matters to him. And that for some reason that, again, I'm. I'm admitting that this is not the best part of my personality. And whatever all that is to say. Here's a vivid memory I have from being a kid at a Mariners game with my dad, who knew much less, even then, about the Mariners than I did as, like a 7 year old. I remember something happened and people in the Kingdom were mad and I mean, the Mariners fans and, by the way, all probably 50 of us at that game. The days when the Mariners used to lose 100 games in a season. And I remember saying, testing this out, going, kill the ump. But not yelling it, but saying, kill the ump. Because I kind of thought, like, maybe I'd seen that in a movie or I thought that's a thing people would say. But I didn't yell it, which is weirder.
- [28:56]
Andrew Walsh
Sort of.
- [28:57]
Luke Burbank
It's way weirder. I muttered it because I didn't. Again, this is all. You know, I'm trying to figure my world out in this moment. I don't know if you yell kill the imp. If you're allowed to say that. I sort of quietly said it, but I said it loud enough. My dad heard. He was like, you don't say that.
- [29:13]
Andrew Walsh
You say while you're sharpening your knife at home, listening to the game in your basement, kill the ump.
- [29:18]
Luke Burbank
I'm wearing an apron. Kill the ump. Wearing a leather apron, sharpening a knife.
- [29:22]
Andrew Walsh
All right, listen, I want to. And I did take up too much time with this, so we will. I will relinquish the remainder of my time to the gentleman from the Tri Cities area. But I wanted to.
- [29:33]
Luke Burbank
Not really Tri Cities, but.
- [29:34]
Andrew Walsh
Okay, well, I wasn't. I can't remember. I don't think we say the name of. I couldn't remember exactly how close we get to the name of your town.
- [29:40]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, there's. You know what? It's the confluence of three rivers, so you.
- [29:43]
Andrew Walsh
You.
- [29:43]
Luke Burbank
You. The tri part was correct.
- [29:45]
Andrew Walsh
Okay. Yeah. I just. I can't. I don't think we say the name of your town. Right. So. The gentleman from the Three Rivers Stadium.
- [29:52]
Luke Burbank
Yes, thank you.
- [29:54]
Andrew Walsh
I did. I want to defend this guy a little bit, but here's the deal. This I got from the casualness. And I don't know why I liked this guy's vibe so much, especially when you think about the fact that he was buying a cowboy hat. Right? Like, that's like. Usually I'm not, like, broing down with people who identify as cowboy hat wearers. But, you know, I got a sense of calm from this fella that was not a sense of disinterest. And I bet my take on the situation was this guy goes to tons of Nationals games with his son. And probably. And the fact that they're going to.
- [30:30]
Luke Burbank
They live in Texas.
- [30:31]
Andrew Walsh
They do live in Texas, but they were watching this one in Seattle. Like, I just got the impression that it wasn't that he's not a fan. I could be wrong, but just being there, it wasn't like a. It wasn't this negative. Like, I've been behind people and everybody's experience. I don't really. I don't think I'm as judgy at baseball games, but there are times where, like, K Pop night last year, Trust me, that stadium was filled with a bunch of people who did not give a shit about the game. Because I think that these K Pop stars were there who sang the national anthem, and they kept showing them on the jumbotron watching the game, and the crowd would just go crazy every time these kids were on the jumbotron. It was. It was really incredible.
- [31:13]
Luke Burbank
Say it was a Donovan Solano level of excitement. Electricity swept through the crowd.
- [31:19]
Andrew Walsh
Wait, that was the K pop singer Donovan salon. You know what?
- [31:22]
Luke Burbank
That explains why he's amazing at singing and terrible at baseball.
- [31:27]
Andrew Walsh
It's called K pop because he strikes out a lot. And so they call it K pop.
- [31:30]
Luke Burbank
You hear the pop of the ball going into the catcher's mitt as he fecklessly swings again.
- [31:36]
Andrew Walsh
And if he doesn't swing, it's backwards K pop. All right, so anyway, I just wanted to defend this guy a little bit.
- [31:41]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, you're defending this guy.
- [31:42]
Andrew Walsh
He just had the vibe, and his son was so into it that I just got the impression. And maybe because the seats were so good, now we got ours super cheap on the secondary market. Maybe they did as well. I just sort of got a casual. A casual relationship with the world from this guy that might have even indicated a certain amount of wealth. I have no idea. But I didn't get that bad feeling of kind of like, I don't want to be here. I'm just looking at this. He just sort of. Well, and like I said, he was taking out his phone also taking photos of certain players at certain times. He just seemed to be just a really chill individual.
- [32:14]
Luke Burbank
As a guy who wasn't there, I just would like to tell you that you're wrong. This guy is a terrible, terrible parent, and he's what's wrong with America.
- [32:21]
Andrew Walsh
In fact, I would say, what's wrong? Yes.
- [32:23]
Luke Burbank
He's all hat and no cattle. And I think.
- [32:26]
Andrew Walsh
Speaking of cattle there. Go ahead. Sorry.
- [32:27]
Luke Burbank
Speaking of youth baseball experiences, Andrew, you know, I have some weekend plans.
- [32:31]
Andrew Walsh
I know you do, and I'm so excited that you have those big weekends.
- [32:35]
Luke Burbank
Where does that audio file go with. From when we start the show to when I say big weekend plans? Because I somehow always spring it on you. At the wrong.
- [32:42]
Andrew Walsh
Because I have was. I'm also recording the show over here and I have a file open that is recording. I got stuff going on over here. I thought that was pretty smooth.
- [32:50]
Luke Burbank
That was. That was pretty good. That was pretty good.
- [32:52]
Andrew Walsh
Good.
- [32:53]
Luke Burbank
I'm going to see our beloved TBTL Junior Sluggers in the playoffs. Now, I do believe they let every team into the playoffs, but regardless, I am excited that this is going to be a rebirth of sorts for our team. We're going on Saturday, and I'm pretty excited about it.
- [33:08]
Andrew Walsh
That's great. What is your attire gonna look like? You're gonna wear a nice.
- [33:12]
Luke Burbank
Probably like a white suit, a stetson hat, right?
- [33:15]
Andrew Walsh
Exactly. And you're gonna scroll like slicked back hair. Oh, slick. Oh, a sloppy slick. Steaks.
- [33:21]
Luke Burbank
Sloppy steaks at Trafani.
- [33:22]
Andrew Walsh
I can never remember the restaurant, which is a different.
- [33:26]
Luke Burbank
Which is a different fake Italian restaurant than the one that's in Friendship, the movie.
- [33:30]
Andrew Walsh
By the way. I am. I know I cannot read. Could you recall?
- [33:34]
Luke Burbank
I can't either know.
- [33:34]
Andrew Walsh
It's like silly fries or something.
- [33:36]
Luke Burbank
Something like that.
- [33:37]
Andrew Walsh
I'm wondering, and I don't think you will do this because I think you'll think it might be a little bit too ostentatious, but would you wear your TBTL Junior Hugger Sluggers?
- [33:45]
Luke Burbank
Junior Huggers, They've asked us to do less of that at the game.
- [33:49]
Andrew Walsh
But you do have that TBTL hat that we gave away in the last thon, which is a pretty good.
- [33:53]
Luke Burbank
I love that hat, by the way.
- [33:54]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I love it too. It's a good look.
- [33:57]
Luke Burbank
Whenever that hat pops up in the wild, whether it's on our colleague John when he's recording something or just a listener who's out there doing something, it is. Man, Those hats turned out great. I love them. I would not wear one to the game because it would feel like I was trying to call attention to myself. So I will probably try to again. It isn't like when I show up at the game, everybody stops or something, but it would be embarrassing to me personally if I was chatting with a fellow parent and they said, oh, who's your kid? And I said, these are all my children. I call them the junior huggers. And also. And I'm wearing a TBTL hat, so I probably won't do that.
- [34:37]
Andrew Walsh
One set of footprints in the dirt between home plate and first, and it's mine. As I carry the team, I will.
- [34:45]
Luke Burbank
Be rooting, rooting my head off. I have. It's so weird, because this is youth Baseball. And maybe it's because the Mariners have just been on a, a kind of a rough patch where. So like I'm displacing something, but I'm like legitimately hoping that the Sluggers win on Saturday, which is such a silly thing. Again, it's. This is for fun. This is for sort of personal development for these kids. This, they're not the Mariners, but I have this kind of weird, low key sort of fantasy version of the postseason that it's like all of a sudden the Sluggers just like find their groove and they just win a bunch of games.
- [35:22]
Andrew Walsh
So I'm not one to give you advice, especially in the area of baseball, but I would say try not to mutter kill the umps.
- [35:30]
Luke Burbank
Well, Walt taught me not to do that.
- [35:32]
Andrew Walsh
So that would be really if that was disquieting thing to hear from a 10 year old Luke Burbank.
- [35:40]
Luke Burbank
Weirder it is from an almost 50 year old Luke Burbank.
- [35:43]
Andrew Walsh
Kill the umps.
- [35:44]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, exactly. So I'll have a full report on Monday about how that game went. I mean, I don't know, do we, we should, should we still have coach Ben, I mean, coach Ben does a real nice write up of these things. Maybe we can do a hybrid model or something. Right.
- [35:59]
Andrew Walsh
Oh y.
- [36:00]
Luke Burbank
About it. And maybe we'll, we'll figure it out. Maybe we can. If that. Heaven forbid, Heaven forbid, the season's over. But if the season does come to an end on Saturday, we need to have coach Ben on for a sort of a post morte exit interview.
- [36:16]
Andrew Walsh
I was thinking that too. Although you just said something that made me a little confused. So this is the playoffs, which means. Yeah, of course. So if they move on to a championship game or any of these teams that move on, it won't be this weekend. So the baseball season or postseason will continue.
- [36:30]
Luke Burbank
But if, if, if, if the unlikely happens and the Sluggers don't triumph, I'm saying it could maybe be their last.
- [36:38]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. Interesting.
- [36:39]
Luke Burbank
Their last, you know, game of the season. So we'll, we'll figure all of that out. But I'll have a report on that on, on Monday, so look forward to that. In the meantime, how's about we thank some dazzling donors and then we talk the great TBT Billboard hunt.
- [36:54]
Andrew Walsh
Love it.
- [36:55]
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. Razzle dazzle. All right. Let's thank those dazzling donors. These folks are donating a dazzling amount of dough. And it's how we can do this show day in and day out, week in and week out. It's because of the generosity of folks like Alicia. Land you'll in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Alicia says land you'll like. The land you'll part of Jerry Colangelo.
- [37:34]
Andrew Walsh
Which, as I sent this to you, I'm like, I hope you know who this is, because that does not help me.
- [37:39]
Luke Burbank
I think Alicia must have heard me make a Jerry Colangelo reference. Reference at some point on the show. He was the owner of the Phoenix Suns. And I want to say his. His son may now be the person in charge. But yeah, that was a name that loomed large in my. In my youth, because the sonics, the Seattle SuperSonics were in the same conference. I think. No, maybe we weren't. But we would end up playing the Phoenix Suns a lot in these kind of high stakes games. We'd go up against Danny Ainge and Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns. And one of my great angry moments of fandom that really shaped me, which at this point, I'm willing to admit this might have literally been a Mandela effect. I might have imagined this. But I have what I would say is a very clear memory. The Sonics were playing the Phoenix Suns and the Chicago Bulls, I think, had already qualified for the finals. And I could tell that the NBA was salivating over a matchup between Michael Jordan and the Bulls and Charles Barkley and the Suns. They wanted that matchup much more than the Sonics playing the Bulls. And my memory is that the Sonics and the Suns were playing in a playoff game that was not over, it had not ended. And NBC, I think, erroneously ran a promo that said, michael and the Bulls take on Sir Charles and the Suns. And that's when I knew the fix was in. Andrew.
- [39:00]
Andrew Walsh
No way. And. And they did end up. That ended up being the. The matchup.
- [39:04]
Luke Burbank
That ended up being the matchup, which also really kind of, you know, it was like one of those, what, Truman wins, like newspaper headlines.
- [39:12]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, sure, sure.
- [39:14]
Luke Burbank
No, it was the opposite.
- [39:15]
Andrew Walsh
It was the opposite. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [39:16]
Luke Burbank
It was the opposite, though, in that it ended up being the case. But it, in my mind was premature. Now, again, I might have. I might have, like, invented this in my mind, but also, I wouldn't put that past NBC and David Stern and just.
- [39:27]
Andrew Walsh
Just finger, like, just David Stern's. Was it Stern then?
- [39:30]
Luke Burbank
Was it Stern? It was David Stern then, yeah.
- [39:32]
Andrew Walsh
Okay. And his finger just like hovering over the button to Hit play on that promo.
- [39:37]
Luke Burbank
Just. And also some kind of remote control thing in the ball to make sure that, like, Sam Perkins would miss a three back, you know, in the critical three that we needed to move on in. Anyway, Alicia, that's your message. Thank you. That's what you get. You know what? Play Colangelo things. Win Colangelo prizes. Okay, that's on you. Here's what Alicia's actually saying. Hey, guys. I'm so excited to be a dazzling donor for the first time. Hey, welcome to the party. Yes, please enjoy your Diamond Club seating. Alicia. I'm proud of you business boys for striking out on your own at this point time. Last year, I was thinking about my own Independence. Turning 39 flipped a switch for me. I realized that I needed to make some major changes before I entered my 40s, so I went ahead, got a divorce, moved in with my folks, and started a business with my best friend. Doing a scary thing somehow makes the next scary thing easier to take on. Alicia, this is very bold of you, and I, for one, absolutely salute it. Now I'm looking forward to my next big leap. Quitting my day job to go fully independent, just like you. Getting rid of the things in my life that no longer served me felt selfish at first, but I've ended up in a much better position to care for my friends and family and community. The financial independence I gained has even allowed me to become a dazzling donor. We all win.
- [41:01]
Andrew Walsh
That's amazing.
- [41:02]
Luke Burbank
Thank you so much for being by my side through it all without even knowing it. What you do is so important. Ah, Alicia, thank you so much. And congratulations on all the new stuff that you're trying and way to not get stuck the way that so many of us can. Not doing things because it's scary. I don't want to. There's somebody already out there making a lot of money through the phrase, we can do hard things. So that's already taken. But I think that the point of this is that, yeah, you know, oftentimes when we have to push kind of out of our comfort zone, really interesting stuff happens. That's when growth happens.
- [41:39]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, absolutely. And I noticed that Alicia is not using this opportunity to advertise her business. And through a little Googling, I'm guessing that maybe it's more of kind of a business to business thing that might translate well to this particular message. But if you ever do want us to shout you out, Alicia, we're here for you. And I'm really happy to hear that you're doing so well. You Took a huge leap, and it's paying dividends. And not just for you, but for us as well. Appreciate it.
- [42:07]
Luke Burbank
I think I, I, I speak for a lot of us when I say it's time we talked about protocols, Career advice by men for men. That only works if you're a man, preferably a white one. Think of it. That's a recent post by Alicia on LinkedIn. So if you want to, if you want to get into that kind of business information, I think Alicia is, is going to be your person.
- [42:27]
Andrew Walsh
I can't, I missed that there. What were you, what were you reading?
- [42:30]
Luke Burbank
I'm on Alicia's LinkedIn page, and there was a post on LinkedIn that Alicia had written about Brodo calls, which my guess is because I'm not on LinkedIn, Angie. So I can't click deeply into the article, but my sense of it is with a name like Brodo calls, it has to be bad. I'm guessing that what Alicia is writing about is the ways in which workplaces are unequal and that maybe there are ways for people who are not bros to navigate that world better. And I think Alicia is probably an expert person in doing that. What I see in that headline, this.
- [43:02]
Andrew Walsh
Is something that, yeah, she liked on LinkedIn.
- [43:04]
Luke Burbank
No, she wrote it.
- [43:05]
Andrew Walsh
No, it's liked by Alicia Ling. Oh, and you clicked on it. It's written by Raina Brands.
- [43:10]
Luke Burbank
I can't click on it because I'm not on LinkedIn. How are you clicking on it? I don't know.
- [43:13]
Andrew Walsh
I'm not on LinkedIn either. It's just opening for me. Eventually I'll get to a page that it'll. No, I'm not, I'm not a LinkedIn person either. But, yeah, that's something that she liked. But I was just really confused because you also dropped a reference in this dazzling donor message. Who has the we can be strong, or what is the saying that you.
- [43:31]
Luke Burbank
Said, we can do hard things? I believe that's the work of Glennon Doyle. I think Glennon Doyle is a writer who is kind of a, I don't want to say motivational coach, because I just don't know exactly what she did, but I believe she wrote a book called We Can Do Hard Things, or she has a podcast, and it's a very, you know, it was a sort of a way of motivating for people, particularly a lot of women. I think that was really effective for them. There's also. Oh, who's the other one? That Addie is really. Her name is her whole thing this is a different. Mel Robbins is the name of the woman I'm trying to think of. And Mel Robbins thing is let them. So I guess the Mel Robbins philosophy boiled down is, hey, if somebody is acting in a way that's not really working for you, let them. Or if somebody's getting a promotion and it's kind of bumming you out because it doesn't feel fair, let them. I think the basic principle is try not to get hung up on things that are out of your control. It's the let them principle.
- [44:35]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, that's good.
- [44:36]
Luke Burbank
There's a couple of. There's a couple of motivational things that I half remembered now passed on to you at no charge. You didn't have to buy Glennon Doyle's book, and you don't have to sign up for Mel Robbins. You know, Patreon, you get it all here. Thanks to listener Alicia and her donation which spurred us on that entire conversation. Appreciate you, Alicia. Good luck with everything. Maestro, on your mark. On your mark. Get set, get set now. Ready?
- [45:03]
Andrew Walsh
Ready. Go.
- [45:05]
Luke Burbank
Everybody rattle. Settle. Look who it is. That's our pal Schaefer hall in Austin, Texas.
- [45:10]
Andrew Walsh
Hey, I have some new best friends from Texas, too.
- [45:13]
Luke Burbank
You do?
- [45:14]
Andrew Walsh
They're buying Stetson hats at baseball games.
- [45:18]
Luke Burbank
Why didn't you take the opportunity to tell them about the Front Page in Austin, which is Schaefer's amazing little pub down there? I don't know if we use the term pub in Texas. I don't know what the rules are. We call it a bar. A bar, restaurant, pub, tavern.
- [45:32]
Andrew Walsh
Could be a tavern.
- [45:33]
Luke Burbank
Front Page. Austin, by the way, celebrating their sixth anniversary. Yeah, it's an Austin pub, Andrew. That's what I told you. That's what I've always told you.
- [45:41]
Andrew Walsh
You've always said that. You've always said that to a point.
- [45:43]
Luke Burbank
Where, honestly, start every meeting with a land acknowledgment and pointing out that it's a pub in Austin. Things.
- [45:50]
Andrew Walsh
I am very jealous of listeners who are able to pop into the Front Page casually there in Austin, Texas. And if you're somebody who's in that area and this is news to you. Yes. Please check out the Front page. We've been on the website. It looks like a wonderful. I call it a pub. I don't know, Luke, how you would describe it. It looks like a wonderful pub, and I'm jealous of people who can just, like, hang out in there.
- [46:11]
Luke Burbank
I am looking at the menu here. I'm also trying to figure out what I want to make for dinner tonight. Like, I feel like doing something a little bit involved because I'm actually home. I've got some time. The Mariners will be on. And I am looking at this Nick, the Greek salad that they have at the Front Page in Austin, one of my favorite pubs, by the way. It's got romaine, lettuce, feta, olives, tomato, cucumber, mint, jalapeno, lime, onion, and red wine oregano vinaigrette. How great does that sound on a warm, you know, early summer afternoon? That sounds absolutely perfect. Also, it makes me so happy that Schaefer and the Front Page have made it to their sixth birthday, because if I'm doing the math correctly, they open that bad boy right at a time when things went pretty sideways around this here world. And the fact that they were able to ride that out and that they appear to be thriving, that is really, really cool.
- [47:04]
Andrew Walsh
Yes, it really is. I'm really happy to hear it because I remember hearing from Schaefer back at the time and just saying, like, we just opened our pub, and now there's a worldwide pandemic. I don' Know why he pronounced it that way.
- [47:15]
Luke Burbank
That was the. That was our high school secretary, Pam Dennick. She would not. She took. No. You try to bring in a note from your mom about why you were late. She was like, you did not mess with pandemic.
- [47:26]
Andrew Walsh
Anyway, I just wanted to reiterate what you said. It is real. I'm so, so happy for them, and it looks like such a great community.
- [47:32]
Luke Burbank
Absolutely. Thanks, Schaefer. Thanks to Alicia and Shaffer today for making TBTL possible.
- [47:42]
Andrew Walsh
Hello, and welcome to Top Story.
- [47:44]
Luke Burbank
All right, our top story once again on this Friday is that we've got another clue in the great TBTL billboard hunt. And here to help us is TBTL employee numero uno, John Sklarov.
- [47:57]
John Sklarov
Doing my job here.
- [47:58]
Luke Burbank
Wow. That. I don't know if I got. If that got louder since. If that got louder from the sound check or what? Or what. John, welcome back to the show.
- [48:06]
Aaron Goldsmith
Hey, guys. How's it going?
- [48:08]
Andrew Walsh
Great.
- [48:09]
Luke Burbank
How's life out there in the Twin Cities? Big weekend plan hands?
- [48:12]
Aaron Goldsmith
Actually, yeah, it's my wife.
- [48:14]
Andrew Walsh
Well, just. I mean, you're moving.
- [48:15]
Luke Burbank
That was not. I was not trying to mess there. That was not fair. That's on me. 100.
- [48:21]
Andrew Walsh
Actually, I thought that was a really good bird, so I would just take.
- [48:24]
Luke Burbank
No, I was not trying to burn you.
- [48:26]
Aaron Goldsmith
It's my wife's 20th college reunion, so we're going down for the day to her alma mater, her undergrad Alma mater to do a dinner there. So that'll be fun.
- [48:36]
Luke Burbank
Fun. Is that in the. Without getting too specific because I don't want the listeners to crash it. Is that in the state of.
- [48:41]
Aaron Goldsmith
Yeah. No, I, I don't think. Think it's troublesome to say she. For undergrad she went to Gustavus Adolphus University. It's a southwestern Minnesota.
- [48:52]
Luke Burbank
Okay.
- [48:53]
Aaron Goldsmith
Called St. Peter.
- [48:54]
Luke Burbank
So like an hour boy. Catholic much? Well, Gustavus Adolphus in the town of St. Peter. And also with you. Is that in. And also with you, County?
- [49:05]
Aaron Goldsmith
I think it's Lutheran, though, because she's.
- [49:07]
Luke Burbank
Oh, okay, maybe.
- [49:07]
Aaron Goldsmith
I mean, I could be wrong.
- [49:08]
Luke Burbank
Isn't that the same thing? Lutheran and Catholic? Oh, didn't they just announce a new Lutheran Pope?
- [49:16]
Aaron Goldsmith
My mother in law's mother told her that she wasn't allowed to marry my father in law because he was Catholic and they were Lutheran.
- [49:25]
Andrew Walsh
Whoa.
- [49:25]
Aaron Goldsmith
Or maybe it's the other way around. Somebody's parents said this and that. They said, like, you know, the Lutheran store guns in their basement or something. Like really inflammatory. Yeah, there was like a lot.
- [49:35]
Luke Burbank
It's so I used to watch that CBS show, how I met your mother in law's mother.
- [49:39]
Andrew Walsh
It's so weird that, like, the idea of religion would spur any kind of, like, I don't know, distrust or violence. It just doesn't track with my understanding of world history.
- [49:51]
Luke Burbank
I just also think of Lutherans, and we have plenty of listeners that are Lutheran. And I grew up in the Northwest. You know, there's a heavy sort of Scandinavian migration out there. So there's a lot of similarities between parts of Seattle and parts of like, Minnesota. I just always. The Lutherans I knew were the most. I mean, let's just say Rick Steves is culturally Lutheran. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know if he is.
- [50:12]
Andrew Walsh
And is he literally Edmonds? Is he culturally.
- [50:15]
Luke Burbank
He is called. He's literally Edmonds and culturally Lutheran. If you, if you're unfamiliar with the kind of personality type. Yeah, that's. That's just it in a kind of a nutshell.
- [50:25]
Aaron Goldsmith
So there were like. There was like a schism. Luke, again, this is all secondhand information I got, because I'm not. Obviously, you guys know I'm not. It's not my background. But there is like the Missouri Senate Lutherans, and they're super conservative evangelical. And then there's like, I forget what they call the more liberal or more moderate sector.
- [50:43]
Luke Burbank
Okay. This is. I didn't know any of this.
- [50:45]
Andrew Walsh
Me neither. Yeah.
- [50:46]
Luke Burbank
All right. We are here to Talk about the great TBTL billboard hunt. So last week was clue number one. We're trying to see if one of the listeners can guess where in America we are putting up a TBTL billboard. This all started because of Andrew's obsession with a Speros a pizza billboard near him. We then thought, well, maybe we'll do a funny parody of that. And then we found out how much it costs. And then we said, let's find somewhere else that we could do.
- [51:25]
Andrew Walsh
Let's find a funnier place.
- [51:27]
Luke Burbank
Yes, funnier read cheaper. You know, like Amazon taking the straws away from. From T Mobile Park. Us moving the billboard for comedic effect also saved us a lot of money. And so what was the. Can you remind me, John, what the hint was last week?
- [51:45]
Aaron Goldsmith
Yeah, it was really super specific. The billboard is somewhere in America.
- [51:50]
Luke Burbank
Oh yeah. So that was not just a Paul Simon record, but a. It sounds like a record he would write, but it is somewhere in the. Did anybody guess it based on that?
- [51:59]
Aaron Goldsmith
No, but we do have a bunch of guesses. And can I kind of read you a couple funny ones?
- [52:02]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [52:03]
Aaron Goldsmith
So these are just a couple of the ones that we got. One person said they believed it was within eyesight of Goldies in Shoreline. So can we definitively say it's not within eyesight?
- [52:17]
Luke Burbank
Are you comfortable officially ruling that section of Aurora out, Andrew? I mean, neither your life that would crimp your style.
- [52:28]
Andrew Walsh
Well, here's the deal. My only concern here is I am not familiar with like the powers of Superman. If super. And I need to lean on you guys here. If Superman were to be standing on, let's say, the roof of Goldies staring in the right direction. Does he have a super still? So no, not even still.
- [52:47]
Luke Burbank
The question is how far is within.
- [52:49]
Aaron Goldsmith
Superman has X ray vision, but not like super long. Yes, he does have super hearing though. He's got.
- [52:55]
Luke Burbank
Although if we were putting it up, if we were putting this sign up just above the dumpster that is now locked because of ancient. That would have been actually a pretty fake.
- [53:06]
Andrew Walsh
Unlocked it for me.
- [53:07]
Luke Burbank
What I, what I would say is, is the same, the same financial constraints that moved us away from where the Spiros billboard was, I assume would apply to that part of Aurora Avenue because that is highly traffic. That's. I mean that's, that's, that's got to be a very expensive billboard that seems like so much traffic. So yes, you can rule that out. Although I do back in the days when I was attending Goldie's More and playing poker along that strip that Also would have been an incredible flex to have a billboard up. I don't know what it would even say. Maybe like long time no eat or always split eights or, I don't know, some sort of gambling. Lukasm that would have been pretty dope.
- [53:49]
Andrew Walsh
Yes, it would. And intimidating to the other players as they walk under the gaze.
- [53:54]
Luke Burbank
If you came out of like the Hideaway card room, which is right there where that, you know, that plumbing company is, Andrew, they still have the big Plunger.
- [54:02]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, yeah. By the restaurant there. Yeah, sure. Yeah.
- [54:05]
Luke Burbank
Kitty Corner from that is a place called the Hideaway, which I'm guessing might still be a card room. And yeah, I wiled away way too many hours of my life there. But it would have been amazing if people came out of that room and then like looked up and saw a big billboard of us.
- [54:20]
Andrew Walsh
I'm confused. What was the one that's further on Aurora, on the same side as Goldie's that I always think of it was the Hideaway, but it wasn't. And now it's Aurora Drift On In. Ah, the Drift On In. I get those two.
- [54:30]
Luke Burbank
The Drift on in, which had Hollywood Casino next to it, which was also really funny because we would never start out wanting to go to Hollywood. We always started out wanting to go to the Drift on in because that was smaller. We kind of knew the people there, they would give us lots of food comps, which at the time seemed like we were really getting away with something. And then I realized, oh, these are $80 cheeseburgers we're eating. That's the amount of money we would have to even play with in those days. But then eventually the Drift On Inn sometimes closed, or maybe we would lose there too much. And then we'd go over to this place, Hollywood, which was this windowless, kind of cavernous place that was bringing the glitz and glamour of Hollywood to that part of Aurora. You've been in there, right? Andrew?
- [55:11]
Andrew Walsh
I have not been into Hollywood. I've passed it a bunch. And I went to the Drift On Inn with you once when it was still the Drift on. And I remember really being kind of impressed with that. I remember just thinking like, this is it. It's like a den of vice iniquity. I loved it. But I have some news for you, and I hope you're sitting down. I can see that you are. You might want to stand up and then sit back down. TBTL Breaking news, because you mentioned the Hideaway being Kitty Corner from that neon plunger. God, I love Aurora so much.
- [55:44]
Luke Burbank
The Hideaway. Actually the former Hideaway, the location of the restaurant in question.
- [55:49]
Aaron Goldsmith
Yes.
- [55:49]
Andrew Walsh
There is now the hidden door with the dumpster, which would also make sense with the name. Because I was like, I don't know the hideaway, but I'm like, kitty Corner is the hidden door, which has a similar name. And like, did you used to enter that place from the parking lot? That does not face all of them.
- [56:05]
Luke Burbank
Depending on if the cops were looking for me.
- [56:07]
Andrew Walsh
I wasn't sure. Yeah. So this literally is called the hidden door because their front door is no longer in use. You go around the back.
- [56:13]
Luke Burbank
But that is literally, Luke.
- [56:15]
Andrew Walsh
That is where the scene of the crime. I don't know who it was, but some Baltimore Orioles fan just dumped a small bag of rotting shrimp.
- [56:25]
Luke Burbank
They're looking for him.
- [56:26]
Andrew Walsh
They're still. We're looking for the guy who did this.
- [56:29]
Luke Burbank
Okay. So we, I think we were comfortable saying it's not close to Goldies or the Hideaway or the Hidden Door or Tic Tac Pho or Aurora Plumbing or any of those places.
- [56:39]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [56:40]
Luke Burbank
So good guess though. That mean. Here's why I think that's a good guess because. Because that is the kind of thing we would do, you know, if we could afford it.
- [56:47]
Andrew Walsh
Yep.
- [56:47]
Aaron Goldsmith
You want, you want me to throw out another place that. Another good one?
- [56:50]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, yeah.
- [56:52]
Aaron Goldsmith
This one just made me chuckle because I have the maturity of a 12 year old. Weed, California.
- [56:57]
Luke Burbank
Oh, sure.
- [56:59]
Aaron Goldsmith
California.
- [56:59]
Luke Burbank
Weed, California. Not super far from where my origin story originates down there in Humboldt County. It's. I don't think it's in Humboldt, but it's in that kind of general way, Northern California area where you're almost in Oregon. I, I was always as a kid, people be like, where'd you. Where were you born? I'd say Northern California. They'd. Or. And I would say like San Francisco. And I'd be like, no, no, no. Much closer than Medford and Grants Pass. Like this is essentially there's. To a lot of people, Northern California ends at, you know, like San Francisco Bay Area. It's like, no, there's a bunch more up there.
- [57:35]
Andrew Walsh
So. But we are not. Can I, can I say we are not putting the billboard in we California.
- [57:40]
Luke Burbank
We are not. We are not putting the billboard in weed. For now, anyway. As far as this. As far as this particular.
- [57:46]
Andrew Walsh
Exactly. Yeah. So. So where does that, where does that leave us?
- [57:51]
Aaron Goldsmith
Well, we had some other guesses, but, you know, we don't need to get them all. I guess it's time nobody guessed it.
- [57:55]
Luke Burbank
Right. Thanks.
- [57:56]
Aaron Goldsmith
No, right because that's, like, nobody guessed it right.
- [57:58]
Luke Burbank
I mean, it's more fun if we can kind of draw this out for a little while.
- [58:01]
Aaron Goldsmith
Yeah.
- [58:02]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. Okay.
- [58:03]
Andrew Walsh
By the way, I was. I just heard. Maybe I shouldn't say this. I was going over some of the clues with Genevieve at dinner last night, and she's like, oh, you don't want anybody ever to find this, ever. Her eyes were getting bigger and bigger. Like, I was crazier and crazier. And I think we decided that today's clue, which we have not shared yet, is.
- [58:29]
Luke Burbank
Is my favorite clue. We're gonna do it so difficult.
- [58:33]
Andrew Walsh
It's almost a negative clue. It is going to be so hard.
- [58:37]
Aaron Goldsmith
I do think. I think Andrew, like, not to discount Genevieve. I. I think by the time the fifth clue is read.
- [58:44]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [58:44]
Aaron Goldsmith
There will be, like, our audience, like, there, you know?
- [58:47]
Andrew Walsh
Okay.
- [58:47]
Aaron Goldsmith
I think some. I think someone's gonna get it.
- [58:49]
Luke Burbank
I hope so.
- [58:50]
Andrew Walsh
Honestly.
- [58:50]
Luke Burbank
I think someone might get it off of this one.
- [58:53]
Aaron Goldsmith
I don't know about.
- [58:53]
Luke Burbank
This is the hive mind of the TBTL listeners is. It's a. It's a beautiful mind in that they imagine a lot of stuff that doesn't happen, like in the movie. Movie. But no, also, I have faith that people will figure this out.
- [59:07]
Andrew Walsh
I hope so. I'm really rooting for the listeners here.
- [59:10]
Luke Burbank
And I also really love this clue.
- [59:13]
Andrew Walsh
Can I just tell folks that I suggested this clue not as a real idea. I say this in meetings a lot. I'm like, I have something. This isn't my idea, but maybe it'll spark a better idea out of one of you guys. And I said that, and Luke was like, no notes. That's it. This is the clue. So how do we want to do this? I know it's an audio clue. Do you want me to play it? Do you want to play it on your end, Luke, or do you want me to?
- [59:37]
Luke Burbank
I actually. I don't have it at the ready.
- [59:39]
Andrew Walsh
Okay. I got it right here. Yeah.
- [59:40]
Luke Burbank
It's also your idea, so I feel like you need to own this.
- [59:42]
Andrew Walsh
Okay. I'm gonna play. I'm gonna play the long version first. This is some audio that is both a clue and a moment in musical history that Luke and I have giggled over many times.
- [59:55]
Luke Burbank
Let me. Let me just, again, catch people up. This TBTL billboard is going in. It will be. When it is, you know, installed. It will be somewhere in America. And this audio tape you're about to hear also, in a certain way, if you can divine the tea leaves, if you can interpret this this will give you useful information to narrow down your search as to where it might be in America.
- [60:20]
Andrew Walsh
That's right here. I'm gonna play the short version first to keep this clean. Try to figure out what this means and how it could have anything to do with a location. Am I bugging you? No means I bug you. All right, email johnbtl.dot and sweet.
- [60:38]
Aaron Goldsmith
You know, Andrew, if I may, I think last week you said, like, oh, is it in Dublin? You made it as a joke. And. And the fact that Bon, you know, obviously, I don't know if it's giving anything away that that's Bono.
- [60:49]
Andrew Walsh
Yes.
- [60:49]
Luke Burbank
Well, it's not in Ireland. We've already established.
- [60:51]
Aaron Goldsmith
But we have an Irish band is one of the clues.
- [60:54]
Andrew Walsh
Really, John, I have been thinking about that. Of all of the things. Because you said it's somewhere in America, and I just wanted to. I. The first thing I thought of a place that's not in America. I said Dublin. And I have been kicking myself over.
- [61:07]
Luke Burbank
That all week because I knew that on the brain.
- [61:10]
Andrew Walsh
And I feel like maybe I was subconsciously thinking about our next clue. That's the only reason I can imagine that I would have picked that. Like, why wouldn't I have said Croatia, where I was just visiting last fall? Like, I have no idea why I said Dublin. But just to remind you, clue is.
- [61:25]
Luke Burbank
From Bronco Sicate, the Croatian fighter. So that might be. I mean, that would present its own issue.
- [61:33]
Andrew Walsh
Am I bugging you? Don't mean to bug you. Okay, so that's the actual clue right there.
- [61:41]
Luke Burbank
If somebody this week narrows their search down based on that and sort of accurately interprets that and then sends in a guest that has been informed by that in a way that is actually used for. I will be so impressed, and I will be so impressed with the way that the mind of that listener works.
- [62:02]
Andrew Walsh
I will not be. I will be calling the police. If somebody guesses that based on that, it means we've been hacked and we need some sort of digital security setup.
- [62:11]
Aaron Goldsmith
Now do we need to do cybersecurity training?
- [62:14]
Luke Burbank
You guys have got thoughts on that?
- [62:16]
Andrew Walsh
Okay, good.
- [62:18]
Luke Burbank
Here's the thing. Can we now play. Now, this is not.
- [62:21]
Andrew Walsh
Not.
- [62:22]
Luke Burbank
I want to be clear. This is not. I'm giving more information about where the billboard is going to be. This is just because this tape from YouTube, this is off the rattle and hum soundtrack, right, Andrew?
- [62:32]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. I believe the song is silver and gold. I think.
- [62:36]
Luke Burbank
I love that. I mean, I think angel of Harlem, I love that song so much. I. I thought Rattling hum the whole thing was a kind of a cool, you know, live album. But. But this we've talked about. We've played this tape on the show before because. Because it's after Bono gets done saying, I don't mean to bug you. He then at some point tells Edge, of course, the guitar player, for U2 to play the blues, which. What's hilarious is how much it's not the blues. And the blues is when you're talking about guitar. Look, I took a 12 bar blues guitar class at North. Then it was called North Seattle Community College.
- [63:14]
Andrew Walsh
It is Go Tree Frogs.
- [63:15]
Luke Burbank
Blues Blues are, are one of the. I mean you. There's a whole range of competence and I at the low range. But I could, if I grabbed a guitar right now, I could quickly play you a little blues shuffle that would.
- [63:28]
Andrew Walsh
Be passable based on the pentatonic scale. Right? Isn't that what those.
- [63:32]
Luke Burbank
I would be no Keb Mo. I would be no Robert Johnson at the crossroads. But I could pull it off. And I feel like of all the things that Edge could have played, there are a lot of them could have been bluesier than this. Can we play the whole thing?
- [64:01]
Andrew Walsh
I would like to point out I like this. I'm not a big fan of guitar solos, but I like this guitar solo more than I would like it if he had started playing the blues. I like it, but you are. So weren't you driving somewhere and this was on the radio? Were you with Becca and you were just like for the first time it hit. Because I'd heard this song a million times. I never thought of that before. That what he plays is not, I mean, is not the blues under any interpretation of the blues.
- [64:27]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, I actually, you know what? I'd forgotten that. I think maybe this was an original thought, an original observation that I had. As opposed to like it was going around the Internet already. Because I do have this vague memory of kind of like hearing it and just being like, wait, what? And then you wonder like, did they not talk about this beforehand? Like, Edge is clearly caught off guard.
- [64:48]
Andrew Walsh
By that's what I do.
- [64:52]
Luke Burbank
Because also it would make no sense based on the rhythm of the song. Like where the song's going. What? Who, let's see, who's The Larry Mullen Jr. Is he the. The drummer for U2?
- [65:04]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, I don't know.
- [65:05]
Luke Burbank
How am I. How do I know this much about U2? Like where the song is going. It doesn't lend itself to Edge going dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun da da. Like, there's no way Edge is in a no win situation here. He is. The song does not allow for him to start playing the blues. What he's playing works with what's going on. It's not. I really don't blame Edge for this.
- [65:27]
Andrew Walsh
No. And I don't think that this entire song was improvised. I believe that it was already written out, including the guitar solo. So I believe that this fully lands on Bono for just wanting to be cool there and. But, you know, before. Before he says all of this, he says some, you know, pretty important things, standing up against apartheid in South Africa and everything. And then he says, okay. And then now it'll always be funny to me when you hear this interpretation of the blues. No means of bugging. Okay, Edge. Okay, Edge, play the blues. We should edit this. We should put in some blues music there.
- [66:06]
Luke Burbank
Send it.
- [66:07]
Andrew Walsh
Send it to the YouTube with the subject line. Fixed it for you.
- [66:13]
Luke Burbank
Okay, so those are your clues. It's in America and Bono saying, am I booging you? I don't mean to boog ya.
- [66:21]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Forget about the audio part. That was just us playing. We just wanted to laugh.
- [66:25]
Luke Burbank
We are also allowed to enjoy ourselves on the show sometime.
- [66:28]
Andrew Walsh
Right. That break off a little something for us. Now, John, before we let you go, I know that you said that you have some secret tape that you want. Oh, yeah. Now you sent this to me because you don't have the ability.
- [66:41]
Luke Burbank
A secret chord.
- [66:42]
Aaron Goldsmith
Right?
- [66:42]
Luke Burbank
That's right off played before the Lord. Sorry, I'm. I went into a weird. Went into a weird Cohen place with that.
- [66:51]
John Sklarov
Yeah.
- [66:52]
Aaron Goldsmith
I'll just say this, you guys. All right, so I'll set it up this way. Way on Monday. I believe it was her on the Memorial Day show you guys were talking about. Maybe it was Friday show. Even after I got off. I don't know. It doesn't matter. You guys were talking about cameo and you kind of going like a deep dive into cameo.
- [67:09]
Luke Burbank
I think that might have been at the end of Friday. Friday show when we. After number one. I think we ended up going on and on about cameo after I jumped off.
- [67:16]
Aaron Goldsmith
And so over the weekend, I. I was like, oh, cameo I haven't looked at in a long time. And I started looking. You know, I tend to go to, like sports stuff and I'm kind of searching around and I found one. One. And I need to be very clear, this is not too beautiful to biz money. This is my personal funding. I purchased a cameo for you too.
- [67:34]
Luke Burbank
Oh.
- [67:35]
Aaron Goldsmith
And it's not that expensive, so don't I mean, but I just want to be clear. There's no embezzlement happening here. And I just. I thought it was fun. I hope it. I hope it lands, but I want to play it live for you guys without you guys seeing it before.
- [67:48]
Luke Burbank
Okay?
- [67:49]
Aaron Goldsmith
Because I thought it was a fun little thing. And it's referencing a person. It's a person who you guys referenced the week prior. Somebody that's a big part of your life.
- [67:57]
Andrew Walsh
So I've never a cameo before. This is very exciting. Luke, you've received one for your birthday, I believe, right?
- [68:03]
Luke Burbank
I received one from Jeff the Drunk from the Howard Stern universe. It's amazing that somebody named.
- [68:08]
Andrew Walsh
It's amazing that somebody named Jeff the Drunk has to be paid for him to say happy birthday to you. Jello.
- [68:16]
Luke Burbank
That's his catchphrase, is saying hello, like the word jello. And when I tell you, Andrew, that I was legitimately psyched that Jeff Kuro, AKA Jeff the Drunk, was reading, was reading a message to me, I was. I think there might have been somebody else on that too. Like, I think it might have been two cameos. I forget who the other one, Jeff the Drunk, is the one that stuck with me.
- [68:37]
Andrew Walsh
That's amazing. So I'm excited. So this is an actual cameo that you bought specifically for us with a private message or a personal message to us?
- [68:44]
Aaron Goldsmith
Yeah, but it's for the tens to look here. I mean, the tens can hear, too. And it's good. It's good video, too, because there's a visual element. I don't know, Andrew. Maybe drop it in the newsletter if you want.
- [68:52]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, sure. Or maybe you can there. Are you allowed to share cameos on social. Well, we've drawn this out too much. Yeah. So can I hit play on this, please? Okay. Secret cameo for tbtl.
- [69:03]
John Sklarov
Luke. Andrew. How you going, mates? It's Ryan. Roland Smith. I know you guys. And this is from employee Numero uno. That must be an inside joke or something. Numero uno. That means number one in Spanish, by the way, if you didn't know that. But look, Luke and Andrew, fellas, I just want to give you a quick. What's going on? And I know that numero uno wanted me to share a quick story from behind the scenes. So I just had this in front of me. I'll show you this, right? This is a little behind the scenes for you. So this is. I don't know how, like, maybe it's like something going on with my brain or something like that.
- [69:42]
Aaron Goldsmith
He's got, like, A little note at this point.
- [69:44]
Andrew Walsh
Okay. Yeah. I haven't seen it yet, but I guess we're about to see a notepad. It looks like he's probably doing this in, like. Is this. Do you think this is a home office? No, I think this is somewhere maybe in the facility. Yeah. Yeah, because there's, like, kind of. It's a little bit homey with some framed photos, but there's also seal, like kind of fluorescent lights in the ceiling. So I'm thinking this could be, like, broadcast booth adjacent. I'm not sure, but. Okay. He looks like he's about to reference something. Now, this is, like.
- [70:10]
John Sklarov
This doesn't make any sense. So this is me writing notes during the game. Right. So check it out. So this is my notes. Notepad. It's just got the most random crap all over it, like, headed to AAA West, Neski, Aaranghetti, Ryan Gusto, Rockies, Kirby, three and a third. I don't even know what this means. And if you. If I go through another page, the.
- [70:31]
Aaron Goldsmith
Notes are all kind of a mess. But there's another.
- [70:35]
John Sklarov
I don't know if you can see that, but it's just absolute scribble. And this is what I do during the game. It's so weird. Like, I'll get a thought. I'll just write it down. Down. I don't know. It's super random. The other thing, this is. This is a good one. I don't even think Goldie knows this one. A couple years back, like, a while ago, I was talking to these kids. I think it was in, like, a. It's kind of like a hotel, like. Like, conference room. And I'm sitting on the edge of this, like, table. You know how, like, the table that's kind of, like, screwed onto the wall, and I'm sitting on it, and I'm.
- [71:07]
Andrew Walsh
Talking to these kids.
- [71:07]
John Sklarov
I'm getting all serious, and they're all listening to me. There's, like, good, you know, 30, 40 kids, these Aussie kids here in the States, and I was talking about baseball and believe in yourself and what have you. Well, the. The table actually went snap and snapped off the. Off the wall. Right. It was so embarrassing. It was loud, and the kids were, like, trying not to laugh, and I just lost all credibility. Well, anyway, when. When we do a pre game, when we're sitting there at the camera, we actually sometimes, not always, like in Chicago, we stood up, but like, most places, we kind of sit on the deck desk. Like, you're kind of, like, sitting down on the desk. I am so scared one day it's just going to snap. And I swear I'm. It's PTSD from a couple years back. So every time we're like, yep, we're getting ready to. To do the pregame. Just a little behind the scenes for you. I don't have to care or not, but Australia is a wonderful check. Like, I'm down here, like, checking how. How sturdy it is, and I'll sit there and I'll, like, put weight on my feet. And Goldsmith's looking at me like, why are you doing. Doing that? So that's a little behind the scenes. So when you're watching the Open, like, right before we come on, talk about what we're looking for today, whatever. If you're seeing me, just know that in the back of my stupid head, I'm thinking this table is just about to snap because I'm way too heavy. But that's all behind the scenes. But anyway, look, Luke and Andrew guys are awesome. Team's fun to watch this year. Thanks for tuning in. And numero uno. I don't know what your real name is. Employee. Numero uno. That means number one in Spanish.
- [72:33]
Andrew Walsh
Over.
- [72:33]
John Sklarov
All right, fellas, all the best. I'll see you down T mobile.
- [72:36]
Andrew Walsh
See ya.
- [72:36]
Aaron Goldsmith
He says that twice, which is maybe my favorite part is two times he tells you that numero uno means number one in Spanish.
- [72:44]
Luke Burbank
John, I have to say, that was. Even if you were using TBTL money on that, that was a tremendously good use of.
- [72:50]
Andrew Walsh
I feel like we should reimburse you unless you can write that off on your taxes.
- [72:53]
Luke Burbank
I mean, honestly, you really. Yeah, that's. That's content, baby. I mean, really good looking out. That was really fun. I feel. Feel. Why is it that I feel excited when I hear him say Goldie? Because I know that Aaron Goldsmith, who I hold in high regard. I also think this is really a relatively affordable way that we can start to integrate more star power into tbtl.
- [73:16]
Andrew Walsh
Yes.
- [73:17]
Luke Burbank
Hire them from Cameo and make them say the things we want them to say. Because, you know, some of them, it's a few hundred dollars, but there's plenty of them that are knocking around for 50 bucks, 25 bucks. You know, like any. Like, I start. If there's somebody that we would love to just hear from on the show and they're doing Cameo, I think paying them to do something that we can play on this show is actually kind of an interesting approach.
- [73:38]
Andrew Walsh
Could we send them actual answers and then we can insert ourselves asking them questions later and essentially Come on, that's a bridge too far. But it would be like an interview.
- [73:49]
Luke Burbank
And then it'd be like, please read the following statement.
- [73:53]
Andrew Walsh
Yes, exactly. Pain. And then it's like Luke saying, hey, what's your favorite? Who's your favorite musical artist? And then the answer is pink.
- [74:03]
Luke Burbank
But you. Oh, right. You could trick them. We could just have them say a bunch of stuff that seems innocuous but that it could be like specific answers to things. I will also mention that that really endeared Ryan Roland Smith to me, actually. Like, I was certainly not anti, but I guess I would say I was just kind of like, I was just right down the middle with Ryan Roland Smith. I almost also felt inherently protective of him when that sports radio guy was being a jerk for no reason. But like, now I feel like I know him now. I feel like tonight when I'm watching the game, I'm going to analyze how much weight he's putting on the table when they're doing their kind of, you know, pre game thing. Like, I, I'm now officially a fan of Hyphen.
- [74:44]
Andrew Walsh
I, you know, and I want to say something that I think is going to make you like him even a little bit more because I'm kind of similar to you, Luke, about that. Like, I, you know, generally good feelings towards him, but I hadn't spent a lot of time thinking about him or his journey because he used to be, for a brief period of time, he was an MLB pitcher, right? Mariner pitcher, pitched for the Mariners for a while. He also was on American Ninja Warrior. He's got to be one of the fittest color commentators ever. But that's not what endeared me to him. I was listening to him. He was being interviewed on a baseball podcast, I'm going to guess locked on Mariners. I'll try to shout them out. And it was a really good interview because. Because it did not sound like Pablum. Like, you know how some people who are successful in various fields are kind of like, you just got to go out there and do it every day and kind of give you a coach speak or whatever. He wasn't like that, but the message was kind of similar, but it was very, very earnest. And it wasn't about him being a baseball player. It's about him trying to be a better broadcaster. Which is why weeks later, when the story about this kind of shock jockey sports guy drifting into town and taking the mic and like, making fun of the way he talks was hit especially wrong to my ears was because Ryan Roland Smith had done this interview and he was just like, listen, I know that he kind of was saying, like, I know I'm not the best broadcaster, but there are certain things I learned in baseball, but you just kind of have to just kind of keep doing it. And, and it was like, I didn't fall backwards into this. Like, I identified this as a goal of mine for a long time and he's just been grinding it out. And when I see like he has this little pre game show that is almost like a podcast and he's doing it clearly from his own home studio or whatever. And I haven't watched a lot of it, but when I think about that over, I'm like, this is a man who every time I think he's broadcasting, I think he feels lucky to be broadcasting. Maybe that's what I'm getting at here because he still feels like he's trying to be in the echelons of your Goldsmiths and you know, maybe Rizzes or whatever. And I think that he both feels lucky to be where he is in the world right now and also continuing to work hard to be better at the craft, which is something that I can't associate with at all.
- [76:46]
Luke Burbank
So I give him credit and I think that's a really interesting way to put it. Andrew. I think it also probably mirrors his major league career, which is he was not, you know, he was not a guy who was, you know, sort of going to win a Cy Young or like he was, he was in the league. He certainly, you know, got, he got some innings in, he was a pitcher. But it was probably really through just like a lot of hard work and a lot like he was probably maximizing what his abilities were and he's probably taking that same approach to broadcasting as opposed to being like, you know, whatever they decide to do with like Aaron Judge, when he's done being the best hitter in baseball, then he'll just probably, they'll just place him right on the, you know, Fox baseball number one team calling it. You know, there are those kinds of folks and then there's Ryan, then there's Hyphen.
- [77:30]
Aaron Goldsmith
I think it's a really interesting not to go too nerdy in the baseball talk, Luke, but like Alex Rodriguez or Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, they're like not great commentators. And you're probably right, like not that they didn't work hard in their career or whatever and take steroids, but they like, they like they already had such natural talent. That's why part of the reason they were the best so it's like they probably don't put as much in as a commentator than somebody like Roland Smith does.
- [77:54]
Luke Burbank
I could see that.
- [77:55]
Aaron Goldsmith
Right. Like, is that like a plausible.
- [77:57]
Luke Burbank
Absolutely. Because it's, you know, I don't. I don't want to say that it came easy to those players because I think what makes those players really crazy good is. And this is something I've only learned, like, kind of later in my sports fandom, is that you have people that are naturally talented and then you have people that are hardworking. And then like every once in a while you get someone who's naturally talented and crazy hard working. And that person is named LeBron James. James, right. That person is named, you know, probably Derek Jeter. You know, although he did spend a certain amount of time sending women home with gift baskets from various hookups. So maybe he was still keeping some time set aside for Derek. But you know what I mean? Like, I guess I used to just think, like, you know, why? Part of it is because I grew up in the era of Ken Griffey Jr. And Ken Griffey Jr. Was so preternaturally talented.
- [78:45]
Aaron Goldsmith
Yeah.
- [78:45]
Luke Burbank
That he famously didn't do shit when he wasn't playing baseball. And he was so good. I just thought that was most people. Most players. But the really good players are not doing it on talent alone, generally speaking, at this point. They're doing it on talent. And then like a bizarre, almost like pathological work ethic that's just like, again, Kobe is the one that gets a lot of attention for this because he would, you know, he was like, again. And if you watch that Jordan quote, unquote. Doc, you got a sense of it too. But yeah, I have more of an appreciation of how these really, really super spectacular athletes, how hard working they are. That being said, I think that somebody like Derek Jeter is not going to be probably a super fascinating announcer because he did so much on the field. This is probably not now his chance to really make it. Where for Ryan Rollins. Yeah, it's a. This is a chance to have a good, interesting career post baseball, which probably means a lot to him.
- [79:35]
Andrew Walsh
Can I jump in and draw a parallel here since we're just kind of nerding out on sports stuff now and we'll probably wrap up the show in a minute or two. Anyway, we just bury my commentary at the end. But that dynamic that you just discussed, Luke, about the really good players who just are going to be slotted in as soon as they're done, regardless of their competency in a Radio booth. Isn't that Brady? Yeah, because didn't he famously. And I'm probably going to get this wrong, but wasn't it Greg Olson who actually was doing a really good job in that role and kind of surprising people as a commentator and that was sort of the storyline while he was just getting kind of. And I don't know where he went or how it was shuffled around, but it was just no one seen him again. That he was nobody. He was just literally pulling.
- [80:14]
Luke Burbank
Pushed.
- [80:15]
Andrew Walsh
He was literally. No, he was figuratively pushed out of his. Pushed out of his chair. For Tom Brady who everybody's like, he's not as good. He's just Tom Brady. And that's why he has that role. But like broadcasting is its own talent and you know, thing you got to work at.
- [80:31]
Luke Burbank
Absolutely. That Greg Olson is a really good example because I mean, Greg Olson had a really good NFL career, but he was not a name the way Tom Brady was a name. But he just was so kind of good at it and probably worked really hard at it it that he had ascended. He was kind of the number one like color commentator on that network. That's Fox, right? Presumably.
- [80:51]
Andrew Walsh
Sure. Yeah.
- [80:52]
Luke Burbank
Because it seems like a Fox thing to dump a bunch of money on Tom Brady, doesn't it? Doesn't that seem Fox coded?
- [80:58]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I think I would assume.
- [81:00]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, that's a. Whatever. Yeah. What happened to old Greg Olson? One time Seattle Seahawk Greg Olson, although I'll never forgive him because when he was a Carolina Panther, I think it was he caught a last second like 50 yard touchdown in the clink that absolutely broke my heart. The Seahawks were winning and somehow left Greg Olson open over the middle. And I want to say it might have been Cam Newton, although I don't know. It couldn't have been Jake Delome. Right. Somebody. Greg Olson was involved in a particularly gut wrenching Seahawk loss once at. At. At whatever they called it then Central Ink Field.
- [81:36]
Andrew Walsh
The reason I was able to remember his name, as you know, I'm not good at recalling calling names, especially on the fly. But while you were talking, I was like, oh, this sounds like that Tom Brady. And I was like, who did Tom Brady displaced? And I was like, oh, it doesn't matter. Like, no, no, I know this guy. He's a tight end. And then I got there because I remember, oh, Genevieve named her fantasy team after him one year. What was it? Oh, it was the Olson wins. Greg Olson. That's great. I love the Olson wins as a teammate.
- [82:02]
Luke Burbank
That's a really good by the way, it was, it was a catch from Cam Newton. Newton. I guess it was only a 19 yard touchdown, but it still hurt real bad. Greg Olson hauls in laser throw for first. Oh, that's when he was a Seahawk. But also he did, he did break our heart. So anyway, that's. I guess that's how we're gonna wrap up the week. We're not gonna get to any of this skyjinx stuff. Maybe on Monday if it still holds. If not, there'll be another trip. I'm sure at some point I did.
- [82:30]
Andrew Walsh
I was intrigued. I will say, I will say this and this is not. Let me put it this your arm but I was intrigued by your setup.
- [82:36]
Luke Burbank
I'll just. If, if, if, if we, if this bears, if this forward promotion bears expanding this on Monday, I'm happy to do it, but it might not Suffice it to say I have never seen a group of. I was in coach but I was at the front of coach so I had a weird spot. I have never seen a group of people in coach more aggressively try to storm the first class bathroom despite being yelled at repeatedly, including a flight attendant literally yelling at one of them because she had a whole tray of drinks for the first class people. And this. They had the whole. They had the curtain down. Nobody respected the curtain. Also, the woman flying next to me in the middle seat spent the entire flight with a fleece blanket that had Christmas corgis on it draped over her entire body.
- [83:24]
Andrew Walsh
Her whole head.
- [83:25]
Luke Burbank
Her whole head. I have a photo of it, Andrew, because I knew she wasn't going to be in the picture so she couldn't really, she couldn't really complain. Plane. She, she, she. First of all, I was on the window and she kind of told Slash asked, but more told me to close the window. Which kind of bothered me because I feel like if you're on the window, you're in charge of the window. But I also.
- [83:46]
Andrew Walsh
But everybody was flying out of the plane. So you're like, yeah, well that.
- [83:49]
Luke Burbank
Oh, I forgot to mention the window was broken. There was a huge pressure issue. She sort of like got in her seat and then like looked at me. Me. Slash told me there was a bit of a language barrier, but she indicated to me that she wanted me to put the shade down. I complied because I just didn't feel like getting into it. I didn't want to, you know. Also, we're at the beginning of a six hour flight. But then I put the wind.
- [84:12]
Andrew Walsh
That's why you sit at the window like, that's your prerogative.
- [84:16]
Luke Burbank
This person didn't have a seat until, you know, very close to when we. We were taking off. You know what I mean? Because I was monitoring and the seat. The seat next to me was. Was wide open until right before the flight.
- [84:32]
Andrew Walsh
I mean, it's nice to be nice. I'm glad that you were nice there. But I do think that, I don't know if you're somebody who works really hard to land a specific seat and you're a window person, because, I mean, you are. Luke, when I say you're a window person, I don't even mean on airplanes. I mean, you are a window person. You need to look out that window and for you to, like, kind of be at the end of a trip and then, like, really work hard to get this seat. I'm sure, like, work hard, but, you know, I mean, like, navig the app and, like, can keep an eye on things constantly or whatever. And then you're there. And then somebody says, okay, we're basically, I'm taking away that window privilege from you by making you sit in the dark and looking at a piece of plastic. I'm glad that you're not carrying around a huge ship on your shoulder there. But, like, there's a conversation to be had about, like, again, we should be nice and obliging, especially to people in the middle seat. So I'm glad you did what you did. But there is a conversation about, like, well, how much? Who has jurisdiction there?
- [85:25]
Luke Burbank
Well, the problem was our friend Broadcast Barry was in Shanghai and he had to hear. He had to receive a constant stream of texts from me about how I was. Yeah, I weirdly wasn't as mad as I would have expected. I've texted you both separately a photo of me and we'll just call her blanket lady. Now, the thing was, when she then put the blanket over, I then started thinking, well, can I open the window because of the blanket? So then I would kind of open it. But it was this kind of unspoken thing where, like, I wasn't trying to get into a passive aggressive battle with her the whole time. Also, I held my water for five hours of this flight. But it was okay. I didn't have to pee. It was fine. But then in hour five, I was like, I kind of need to go. I hadn't disturbed my seat mates at all. I got up and by the way, as I mentioned, I was in the first row of Coach. You're very close at that point to where the first class bath was. Bathroom Is. And people were just like. They were like multiple people at a time. Sometimes two or three people would be busting through the curtain, going down there. It was like one of those, like, ads for, like, clash of clans or one of those games on your phone where people are curling themselves and the.
- [86:35]
Andrew Walsh
King is trying to fix the plumbing.
- [86:37]
Luke Burbank
And the castle walls. Just like.
- [86:39]
Andrew Walsh
Just.
- [86:39]
Luke Burbank
People are just like. It's just like thousands of people are trying to take over. It was just. It was wild. Of course, then I was like, well, I don't want to do that. By the way. I'm not that hung up on the rules around who gets to use the first class bathroom. It's just. What I haven't seen before is, like, when there's been an announcement, hey, you're not supposed to use that unless you're in first class. People are just disregarding it so wildly. That was what I was kind of. I thought was notable.
- [87:03]
Andrew Walsh
I can't imagine being yelled at publicly or even, like, reprimanded, like, just as an adult. I would just be. I would never get on an airplane again. I'd be so mortified. And these people are just like, no, I'm just not going to listen to you.
- [87:14]
Luke Burbank
There was this one woman in particular who I was wondering if they were gonna take her off, maybe in zip ties. She was. So she. She sort of started the whole issue, which is there was a guy standing. A guy from coach was standing at the. At the curtain. He was waiting to go up there and use it. And because it was occupied. And then this woman showed up behind him. And she just seemed on edge. She just seemed kind of just. I don't know, something might have been going on. And so she starts talking to the guy and says something to him. And then all of a sudden, sudden he now shoots up to the front of the plane to try to use the bathroom. And then she runs behind him and almost bumps into this flight attendant's got a full tray of drinks. The flight attendant yells at her. She is undeterred. So then the flight attendant chases her down, brings her back to the coach side of the curtain. She stands there. As soon as the flight attendant turns her back, she runs back to the bathroom. And then eventually, you know, leaves and gets another talking to. And then at some point, they went back to her, like, way later in the process, flight. Two flight attendants went back. And I think we're talking to her, and I think the person next to her might have moved. I don't know, something might have been going on there. But Here was the thing after all of this, when I finally go back to the bathroom in the back of the plane where I'm supposed to go as part of the, you know, second class citizens, I am in the bathroom that is assigned to coach. I get in there, I flip the little, you know, the little thing that says occupation occupied, which locks the door. I'm 10 seconds into peeing and somebody starts reefing on the handle to the bathroom in a way I've never experienced before while in an airplane bathroom. I thought they were going to rip the knob or whatever you call it, the handle off. It wasn't just like someone put their hand on it and realized it was locked. It was like for probably 20 seconds, like somebody like putting all their weight on it. I hear flight attendants going, that one's locked, that one's locked. Person just like going up and down, up and down. I'm telling you, there was energetically something going on. When I was walking back to the bathroom, one of the seats was empty. There was a full pack of Marbor cigarettes sitting on a seat. I've never seen that kind of stuff on an airplane. I'm talking a pack of cigarettes.
- [89:29]
Andrew Walsh
Right, right. And I guess you're allowed to have them. You just can't smell.
- [89:32]
Luke Burbank
I know, but it's a weird se. On.
- [89:35]
Andrew Walsh
Really weird thing to see.
- [89:36]
Luke Burbank
It was a crazy flight.
- [89:39]
Andrew Walsh
So are you telling me we might talk about this on Monday?
- [89:41]
Luke Burbank
Well, I just did the whole bit. It sounds pretty much it, but that gotten to it.
- [89:45]
Andrew Walsh
I'm glad we talked about that because we wouldn't have gotten to it on Monday.
- [89:48]
Luke Burbank
We could use the. You could use that photo I sent you.
- [89:51]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. I was like, oh, we can't use this before I saw it because it's got another person in it.
- [89:55]
Luke Burbank
No, that person is quite covered.
- [89:57]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. Unless. Unless the corgis deserve privacy, I think in good shape.
- [90:04]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. Anyway, so. All right, well, thanks for letting me get that off my chest. John, thanks again for all you do for the show and thanks for stopping by today. We really appreciate you.
- [90:13]
Andrew Walsh
Clue three next week.
- [90:14]
Luke Burbank
Andrew, thank you as well and thanks to everybody for listening. This brings us to the end of our broadcast week.
- [90:19]
Andrew Walsh
Let me. I'm really sorry about this, Luke. We never said how people can submit their guesses, which is important and I'm realizing this is a bad time to do it. But you, John.
- [90:28]
Aaron Goldsmith
Yeah, send me an email. John Jon tbtl.net Some people DM'd on Instagram. Don't do that because it might get lost. So email me jon.tbtl.net Great.
- [90:39]
Luke Burbank
All right. That's how you can put your guess in for the great TBTL billboard hunt. All right, thanks for listening, everybody. We're going to be back here on Monday with more imaginary radio for you. In the meantime, have a great weekend. Stay safe, take care of yourselves, and please remember, no mountain too tall.
- [90:50]
Andrew Walsh
And good luck to all. Am I bugging you? Don't mean to bug you. Okay, Edge, play the blues. Power out.