#4490 That’s Bunker Journalism

Summary

Podcast Summary: TBTL Episode #4490 - “That’s Bunker Journalism”

Podcast Information

• Title: TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live
• Hosts: Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh
• Episode: #4490 “That’s Bunker Journalism”
• Release Date: June 17, 2025

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1. Introduction and Personal Updates (00:00 - 01:21)

The episode begins with Luke and Andrew engaging in their signature playful banter. Luke humorously pretends to be Genevieve Telford Warren, detailing an eclectic mix of jobs, setting a lighthearted tone for the show.

Notable Quote:

• Luke Burbank [00:05]: “I am a social media brand ambassador for myself from my own account and for a third party account as well... and I also just do negotiating brand deals for my own account as well.”

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2. The Bunker for Sale in Lincoln County (04:45 - 14:17)

The primary focus of the episode centers around a newly listed bunker for sale in Lincoln County, as featured in the Seattle Times. Luke and Andrew delve into the details of this unique property, originally housing intercontinental ballistic missiles during the Cold War, now being transformed into a living space.

Key Points:

• History and Features: The bunker, abandoned since the 1960s, has been converted into approximately 2,000 square feet of living space, including a "rumpus room" with a ping pong table.
• Skepticism About Staging: Andrew raises concerns about the authenticity of the staging in the photos, questioning whether elements like furniture were photoshopped.
• Personal Reflections: Luke expresses admiration for the cleanliness and functionality of the space but remains cautious about the true nature of its renovation.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh [05:53]: “I don't think it'd be for you. I know that natural light tends to play a part of my whole brand.”
• Luke Burbank [07:04]: “It's beautiful.”
• Andrew Walsh [10:47]: “You think it's photoshopped in there? Just like... look at this edge of the white.”

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3. Yard Work and Personal Projects (15:01 - 33:42)

Both hosts share updates on their personal yard work endeavors, discussing the satisfaction derived from maintaining their gardens and the challenges faced. Luke recounts spending eight hours meticulously tending to his yard, while Andrew details his efforts in laying river stones and organizing walkways.

Key Points:

• Andrew’s Projects: Laying river stones for edging, grilling in newly organized spaces, and enhancing the aesthetic appeal of his yard.
• Luke’s Efforts: Extensive yard maintenance, including mowing, weeding, and improvement projects to ensure the yard looks presentable from the studio.
• Family and Community Dynamics: Luke expresses concerns about how neighbors perceive his father’s paid labor on the house, seeking to clarify the professional arrangement to avoid misconceptions.

Notable Quotes:

• Luke Burbank [16:18]: “I almost texted you and asked you to send me a photo of your yard work.”
• Andrew Walsh [25:08]: “I really like Middle class, like, suburb. I don't even know, suburban, but... gives me these sort of warm, fuzzy feelings.”

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4. Donation Message: Summer Ash (38:38 - 47:25)

A heartfelt segment dedicated to Summer Ash, a dedicated listener and contributor to the show. Luke shares a personal message highlighting Summer’s role in supporting him and her involvement in the TBTL community.

Key Points:

• Summer’s Support: Luke praises Summer for her unwavering support and involvement in the TBTL universe.
• Personal Connection: The message underscores the importance of community and friendship, with mutual appreciation between Summer and the hosts.

Notable Quotes:

• Luke Burbank [46:52]: “She did an amazing job raising and supporting me and now I want to support her as things begin to get harder for her physically, mentally and emotionally.”
• Andrew Walsh [47:25]: “Thank you, Summer. We really appreciate you.”

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5. Exploring the Nancy Comic Strip (60:09 - 71:55)

Luke and Andrew dive into an in-depth discussion about the classic comic strip "Nancy," exploring its characters, historical context, and recent reboots. They reflect on the dynamics between Nancy and Sluggo, uncovering deeper layers to their relationship.

Key Points:

• History of Nancy: Originating in 1922 as a spin-off from "Fritzi Ritz," Nancy has evolved over the decades, maintaining its charm and humor.
• Character Development: The hosts explore the nuanced relationship between Nancy and Sluggo, revealing romantic undertones that were previously unnoticed.
• Reboots and Modern Takes: Discussion on how newer iterations of Nancy incorporate modern elements while preserving the essence of the original strip.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh [66:24]: “There is a cartoon where Sluggo is graffito tagging a wall... it looks like Sluggo loves Nancy.”
• Luke Burbank [70:26]: “It's, it's really after 10. Looks like Lulu's been repairing it again. I love that part.”

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6. Sports Rants: Mariners and Seahawks (71:55 - 88:46)

The hosts transition into a passionate discussion about sports, particularly focusing on the Seattle Mariners and their frustrations with the team's performance. They also touch upon upcoming football seasons and the interplay between different sports interests.

Key Points:

• Seattle Mariners: Critique of the team's current performance, ownership decisions, and the impact on fan morale.
• Football Season Anticipation: Mixed feelings about the upcoming Seahawks season, balancing personal projects with sports enthusiasm.
• Robot Umpires Debate: Speculation on the future of baseball officiating with the introduction of automated systems and their implications.

Notable Quotes:

• Luke Burbank [83:24]: “I think I'm going to see it in my lifetime. And I'm going to wonder if I'm going to be on the wrong side of history.”
• Andrew Walsh [84:35]: “I do like the idea of being able to challenge and then rely on the... robots or computer system to, like, confirm or deny.”

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7. Final Thoughts and Sign-Off (88:00 - End)

Wrapping up the episode, Luke and Andrew continue their playful interaction, reiterating their commitment to the show and expressing gratitude to their listeners. They touch upon future topics, hinting at upcoming discussions on the Nancy comic strip.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh [87:55]: “We need to remain hateful towards the Mariners.”
• Luke Burbank [88:46]: “Good luck to all. Power out.”

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Conclusion

Episode #4490 of TBTL, titled “That’s Bunker Journalism,” offers a blend of insightful discussions and the hosts' trademark humor. From dissecting the intriguing details of a military bunker for sale to delving into classic comic strips and venting about sports frustrations, Luke and Andrew provide an engaging and multifaceted listening experience. Their ability to weave personal anecdotes with broader topics ensures that both long-time listeners and newcomers find value and entertainment in each segment.

Highlights:

• In-Depth Bunker Analysis: A thorough exploration of the Lincoln County bunker sale, balancing skepticism with appreciation.
• Personal Touch: Authentic sharing of yard work projects fosters a relatable connection with listeners.
• Community Appreciation: Heartfelt dedication to Summer Ash underscores the importance of listener support.
• Cultural Exploration: Engaging discussion on the Nancy comic strip reveals layers beyond its surface humor.
• Passionate Sports Commentary: Candid rants about the Mariners and musings on future sports developments add dynamic energy to the episode.

Listeners seeking a rich and varied podcast experience will find Episode #4490 of TBTL both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Transcript

[Luke Burbank]

Hi, I'm Genevieve Telford Warren. Can you describe for the ladies and.

[Andrew Walsh]

Gentlemen of the jury what it is.

[Luke Burbank]

That you do for a living, Ms. Telford Warren? Sure. I am a social media brand ambassador for myself from my own account and for a third party account as well, which belongs to my dog, who's a pet, who I do also brand negotiation deals for him as well. And I do DJing also for party and event and corporate and personal and public. And I do also certified. I'm a lash tech also, but I haven't really done that in a while, but I'm still certified to do it. And I also just do negotiating brand deals for my own account as well, and commercial acting as well, as well as modeling and some acting as well. That's great.

[Andrew Walsh]

TBTL.

[Luke Burbank]

Started from the bottom. Now we're here. Started from the bottom. Now the whole team here, six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch, young money militia. And I am the commissioner.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, boy.

[Luke Burbank]

Who keeps putting Twizzlers in the fridge? I told. Is it Sarah? Crystal.

[Andrew Walsh]

Crystal does.

[Luke Burbank]

She likes them.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, well, Crystal, you and I are going to have Mr. Twizzler talk.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm sorry, but when I hear an.

[Andrew Walsh]

Undeserved compliment, it makes my ears want to throw up.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, your ears are always throwing up about something. Wait, what? So what was the exact question?

[Andrew Walsh]

I. I.

[Luke Burbank]

Don't worry about it. I'll move on. It's all fine. You're both little troublemakers. You're both huge in Japan. You probably have a lot to talk about.

[Andrew Walsh]

Go keep things light. Don't bring up your divorce.

[Luke Burbank]

All right. Hello, good morning and welcome, everyone, to a Tuesday edition of tbtl, the show It Just Might Be Too Beautiful to live. My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. It's an audiophiles nightmare coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia. Oh, Ma Pa.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's just beautiful.

[Luke Burbank]

Where we are looking at a beautiful Tuesday. And gotta tell you, I went ham on the yard yesterday. I thought I was just going to do a little bit of mowing, and then I started mowing, and then I started weeding. And then I started doing all kinds of other things. Weed, whacking. And I basically spent about eight hours getting things completely in check here at the Madrona Hill studio. And now things are looking very nice as I gaze upon the yard here and as I bring you episode 4490 in a collector series, Let the fun begin. I feel like I'm in a good emotional space to bring you this topic not just because of the yard, but because on Friday I was in Boston talking about mayonnaise, also known as. What were the things they called it? Bayonnaise. That was another thing they called mayonnaise back in the day. Want to talk to you about condiments and which condiments should be refrigerated and which ones don't have to be refrigerated. We got to get a longer version of that drop. Also known as There's a hidden Valley.

[Andrew Walsh]

Ranch party in my mouth.

[Luke Burbank]

We're gonna talk about condiments on the show today. Also we're gonna talk to this guy. Longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my God.

[Luke Burbank]

He admitted he's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Congratulate. Well, our congratulations in order, Luke, maybe. Well, congratulations. Are you. I saw you just absolutely horfing a couple of mini pickles right before the show, so I wasn't sure.

[Luke Burbank]

Not just any mini pickles. Nally fresh pack kosher spicy petite dill pickles, which I could not find for.

[Andrew Walsh]

Almost one year, though I have not seen that brand before. But those look right up my alley. It looks like there's even some little bit of like pickled peppers and other stuff near the bottom, maybe just to add flavor. Flavor to the whole jar. I'm not sure what's going on.

[Luke Burbank]

I had these last summer at my sister Liz's house and they were so good. And I was like, where'd you get these? She goes, I don't know, Costco. And then I spent the next 11 months wandering in the wilderness of non spicy petite dill pickle land. And then finally last, like maybe a week ago, Becca and I were in Costco and saw these and I grabbed, you'll be unsurprised to hear, I bought, oh, about four jars. One is at Becca's, which is insane that I like you got to that point. If I'm in the 503, I need to have access to these.

[Andrew Walsh]

Was it weird when you got to that point in your relationship? It's like, do I leave my jar of pickles at her house or not? Like, you know, where are we?

[Luke Burbank]

I put it in the medicine cabinet.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Hey, have you. I didn't let you finish where all your pickle jars are, but that's okay. Did you put that thing in the.

[Luke Burbank]

A full on garlic clove.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah. Don't eat that. Are you going to eat that? No. Are you. Did you See the thing in the Seattle Times today about the bunker that's for sale out in Lincoln County. It's a full on bunker. It's going for 1.5, maybe 1.25 mil. It's relatively affordable. If you think about housing in the city now, this is not in the city, this economy. This is an intern. This is where they housed one of those. What are they? Intercontinental ballistic missiles back during the Cold War. But it was vacated, I think it was vacated in the 60s at some point, maybe 1965 or 67. And there was some fella who was not like a prepper or anything. He was just fascinated by the idea of buying this and turning it into a living space. And it's like huge, but they've turned like 2,000 square feet of it or something into living space. And it sounds like in one area of the bunker, he's turned it into. They didn't use the term rumpus room, but I'm gonna use it. Sounds like there's a ping pong table in there. And I know it's weird to buy a bunker just so you can have a ping pong table. I feel like there's an easier way to achieve that goal.

[Luke Burbank]

You're. That's like both literally and figuratively, you're going deep on the basement there.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right.

[Luke Burbank]

That you would like. You'd buy a bunker just so it has the world's best basement, because the entire home is a basement.

[Andrew Walsh]

But it'd be so great. I mean, I don't think it'd be for you. I know that natural light tends to.

[Luke Burbank]

Play a part of my whole brand.

[Andrew Walsh]

But I gotta say, I had some fantasies about buying this. The only thing is, it's out in the middle of nowhere. Like, I want both. Luke. How. Why can't men have it all? I want a bunker, but I also want to live in the city.

[Luke Burbank]

Is it weird that I like that it was actually had a military purpose initially?

[Andrew Walsh]

Are you looking now?

[Luke Burbank]

No, I'm scroll. I'm scrolling the Seattle Times trying to find it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Could you send it to me if I can find it? Yeah, because I saw it on my phone.

[Luke Burbank]

It's like sometimes you'll see stuff like this come up. And if the. If a prepper built it and the prepper has right wing tendencies, then I dislike the bunker. But if it was designed by the US Military to show force to another country, I'm fine with it. Like, I like it better that it actually had a purpose before we saw it on the Seattle Times website as opposed to, you know, just some kind of wing nut built it because he thought that, like, you know, the trans bathrooms were coming for him.

[Andrew Walsh]

By the way, this does have men's and women's rooms. I don't know if that changes your interest in it or not. I will say they show a huge photo at the top. And what I appreciate. Appreciate right away is that it looks very clean. Now, this is a huge facility and they've shown one photo, but it's all painted, like, white. It still has some sort of a military seal on this one wall. Now, this is the other thing. I was thinking that this takes it to a very uninteresting place. But, like, this is from a real perspective.

[Luke Burbank]

This is right out of, like 2001 Space Odyssey.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right. See, it's all painted white. It's very kind of. Kind of. Yeah, kind of industrial looking, I guess, but very clean and clinical looking. But. So I think the fellow who bought this place, David McIntyre, he's gone now, I believe, and his kids are selling it or his kid is selling it or something. And it sounds like he just wanted to live underground. Oh, I was gonna say, isn't it the cat's pajamas?

[Luke Burbank]

Can you read to the last line of this piece?

[Andrew Walsh]

Isn't it the cat's pajamas to have this written up in the Seattle Times too?

[Luke Burbank]

100%.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now I'm reading the last line. When a neighboring cattleman. Oh, no, no, it's.

[Luke Burbank]

It's beautiful.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let's see here. He was. He died working on a project out outside of the bunker. Huh. Is that what I'm seeing here? And then a neighboring cattleman found him.

[Luke Burbank]

When a neighboring cattleman found him, Sperry said, McIntyre, the owner of this bunker, was under an open hatch door looking up at the sky.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh.

[Luke Burbank]

With a smile on his face.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, interesting.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, we should all be so lucky, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean, it's probably rigor mortis, but still.

[Luke Burbank]

Come on, give me this.

[Andrew Walsh]

Anyway, so the thing is, this is. This is the point. The TBT L. A. THON has to be very successful this year in order for us.

[Luke Burbank]

We are doing it from a bunker, you guys. By the way, the billboard is in a bunker.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's why it's gonna be hard. That's why that would be. Boy, that's the only billboard that's less valuable.

[Luke Burbank]

The only way it could be less helpful than where it is currently placed is if it was actually underground in Minot, North Dakota, in a. Some kind of a missile silo thing. Oh, this is really cool, actually. Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Anyway, so I was thinking though that we're not doing the thon from it, but if we raise enough money, we buy this and this is now the new home of tbt.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I actually like. Also I like the furniture in here. I got to give David McIntyre a lot of credit. Did you get to the dining room section?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I'm not seeing. Is that embedded in the article or are you following another link to. Because I'm not seeing.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm scrolling through the photos.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I see. It's a slideshow. I don't know how to use the Internet. All right. Oh yeah, this is beaut. Oh my God.

[Luke Burbank]

I was gonna bunker. This is how I would bunker.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh yeah, this is beautiful. Very clean, very open and again, very well maintained, it looks like.

[Luke Burbank]

Absolutely. This is why David McIntyre died with a smile on his face. And it wasn't Rigamortis. Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

Although I wonder, Luke, could they. I mean this is obviously a big realty thing. This is what I was getting at with the getting written up in the newspaper. Like that's such a boon for the people trying to sell this. I wonder how much of this furniture is staged too. Is this really the Bunkerman's furniture or is this what they want us to think the Bunkerman lived like?

[Luke Burbank]

Man, what a good question. I choose to believe. Although look at the. There is a photo on the television of like what is that? Like a. Maybe a C. C136. Like some kind of a cargo. Like a military cargo plane that's in perfect freeze frame.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And also. Yeah. What's with that feels.

[Luke Burbank]

That feels fake also. But on the other hand, couch that's a hundred percent photoshopped.

[Andrew Walsh]

You think it's photoshopped in there? Just like. I don't know. Look at this edge of the white.

[Luke Burbank]

Couch and look at the edge of the white couch as it relates to the wall. And then also that. You know what they've put in here?

[Andrew Walsh]

Weird.

[Luke Burbank]

They put in. Do you see that lamp in the TV room?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you remember when that lamp was sweeping the nation?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. These are the kinds of lamps that I think a lot of us had like kind of in our college days and post college days if you're our age, it's a.

[Luke Burbank]

For some of us very post college, I had one of those lamps up until about two years actually.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean we had one that kicked around for a long time too. I don't think we have any more. But they're the kind that are like the very skinny stick lamp, just a pole lamp with just like Kind of a, it looks like a thin plate on top and it shoots light up to the ceiling and bounces and has.

[Luke Burbank]

Down and has a, like a, the, the, the on off switch is just kind of right on the, the stick of the lamp. How would you even describe that lamp? If, if somebody, if some, if that lamp had kidnapped somebody in your life and you were trying to describe it to the police, how would you even call that lamp? I feel like that lamp was everywhere.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And now I don't even know how to talk about it.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm calling it a stick lamp points at ceiling in the Internet and seeing what it says. Not stick, though. That doesn't seem right. Stem lamp. I don't know. You're going for more pickles, it sounds like. Are we okay today?

[Luke Burbank]

I feel like, I mean we are, except the fact that I feel like they finding out that they photoshopped David McIntyre's living space. I went from not knowing David McIntyre exist, existed to being extremely invested in David McIntyre's lifestyle to now being hurt that they photoshopped. Like, do we think he. They photoshopped also the dining room.

[Andrew Walsh]

Here's what I'm going to say here, Luke.

[Luke Burbank]

The dining room looks legit to me, by the way.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah. Here's the deal. Here's the deal. And I don't think you're gonna like this too much. I think we're gonna fight.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think the lighting is really jank in this photo. And I think that in the dining room. Or no, I'm sorry, in the TV room. So the kitchen, the dining room looks like kind of like, kind of well appointed, like very, you know, kind of kind of sparse, but like nice furniture and stuff. Then this TV room, if they were photoshopping this stuff in there, why would they Photoshop this? This is a terrible job. It's like the opposite of the, of the other room. There's very little taste here. It's like one IKEA looking little shelf that actually, maybe that's kind of part of the industrialness of it. Maybe that's like. Maybe that shelfing unit is like kind of shelfing unit is from the bunker somewhere. No, the thing that the TV is on. I thought that that was just cheap IKEA at first, but now I'm looking at it. It might be, but there's something about those two couches and those pillows are. They look terrible. They're just like, they not fluffy randomly.

[Luke Burbank]

Sitting on the floor somewhere in some.

[Andrew Walsh]

Some of them are on the floor. Some of them are on this white Couch. That white couch does have a weird shadow behind it. But I think that they're also using flash photography here. And that flash is hitting that couch. I don't think it's Photoshopping.

[Luke Burbank]

Look at the cable management on his. You would never do a Photoshop or make this, like, pretend in this way and then leave the cables looking so bad.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. And that's why I don't think this is Photoshopped. It looks too bad in this. And unfortunately, I'm not going to use this as a show pick because this is like actual Seattle Times photo here, which I don't think we have the rights to. But yeah, I don't think that's fake, unfortunately. I think that whoever, like, staged the kitchen got really tired by the time it was time to stage the living room.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, but then it raises the question, did they take this photo at the exact moment when a C136 was flying on the television?

[Andrew Walsh]

No. That's the one thing that I'm wondering. It looks like they have it paused there. Probably. But it is hard to take a photo of a TV. Although it's easier with flat screen TVs. It's not like the two TVs. Remember back in the day, you literally couldn't take a photo of a tube TV because it would appear to have lines going through it. Yeah, I don't think the flat screens do that as much.

[Luke Burbank]

And then also, if you look up on the. On the wall above the television and over the doorway. Cable management gone a moke.

[Andrew Walsh]

Just disgusting. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. Better than this.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, who cares that the commies can't find you if you have to live like this?

[Andrew Walsh]

Right. How can you hide this entire facility underground, but you can't hide those cables? That's the question.

[Luke Burbank]

I was thinking of you deeply yesterday, Andrew. First of all, I almost texted you and asked you to send me a photo of your yard work.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is that. Yeah, I don't have. I. The thing is. Yeah, sorry. I don't want to steal your story. I've been thinking about things. I had a photo of my yard work that I almost used as a show pick yesterday. But honestly, it's not that impressive looking. It's only impressive if you knew what it was coming from. You know what I mean?

[Luke Burbank]

I can picture.

[Andrew Walsh]

What? It's not a showpiece. Let me put it that way.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I thought I was thinking of you yesterday because I started doing some yard work. Let's see, I. We did tbtl. I did Live Wire and then I knocked off of CBS stuff at around maybe 3. I stopped working in the yard at about 9pm I did a full on. What is that? What's that? Five hours? Six hours? Yeah, six hours of messing with the yard here. And I. And the whole time I thought, I'm being such an Andrew right now. Like I kept being like, I'm gonna be done with this. Like, okay, I've mowed, I've weed whacked. I've mowed, I've pulled some of the weeds in some area of the yard. Now it's time to just go make some dinner and calm the F down. And then I kept seeing things.

[Andrew Walsh]

You see one more weed? I'm just gonna get this weed. This one.

[Luke Burbank]

Honestly, I was like, I'll just do one more thing here. And I ended up doing. Because the plan was I would do some of it yesterday, do some of it today, and then a little bit of it Wednesday, and then call it good. I was. This was supposed to be a three. A three day project. I did all of the project yesterday. I. When I woke up this morning, I was hunched over like, like a cartoon. I don't know. Do you remember in. Was. Who was the in. In Archie? The, the. The. The woman who worked.

[Andrew Walsh]

Ms. Beasley.

[Luke Burbank]

Ms. Beezus. But did she have like a boyfriend?

[Andrew Walsh]

Let me see. I think it's Beasley though, right? Or is it Beasley?

[Luke Burbank]

I always call her Beezis. Was there a mystery? Not to go back to yesterday's show, but Is there a Mr. Beasley?

[Andrew Walsh]

Beasley boyfriend. Okay, you know, I forgot to type in Archie, so I just typed in Mrs. Beasley boyfriend. And I'm getting some really weird photos. I think Mrs. Beasley boyfriend. Mrs. Beasley was some sort of a doll. And it's a weird looking doll from the 50s or 60s. And there's.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, there's one of them in the photo of David McIntyre's.

[Andrew Walsh]

They have a Mrs. Beasley on the, on the, on the couch there. Okay. Anyway, so she. I didn't know Mrs. Beasley dated, to be honest.

[Luke Burbank]

I thought that there was. I thought that there was a custodian at the school at like. Was that Riverdale? Sure.

[Andrew Walsh]

He was somebody else though, right?

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, well, whatever that custodian's name is, I think of him as having forever back pain.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay. Let me look up the custodian.

[Luke Burbank]

And that's who I felt like today when I got up because I just kept going around and. And the other thing. First of all, I was thinking of texting you and being like, andrew, can you send me a picture, please, of what you did in your yard. I don't know why I needed, like, some sort of solidarity in this. But then I also thought the thing that kept coming into my mind was when I'm doing this show with you, I'm sitting in this. In the Madrona Hill studio, and I have a certain kind of, like, you know, perspective on the yard. And I kept wanting to make the yard that I can see when doing the show nice, because I was like, if. It was like, if tomorrow I'm looking at this yard and I'm looking at things that are unsatisfying to me, I will feel bad. And I've been out here for five hours. I have to make the part of the yard that I look at satisfactory.

[Andrew Walsh]

I dig that.

[Luke Burbank]

And it is good.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're having that moment. I did send you.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm having that moment. I want to put the yard furniture out, by the way, that I. That. That has not been out this whole summer. And I'm not even sitting in it. I just like to look at it.

[Andrew Walsh]

I did send you a photo of my. By the way, and also, just while we're on the archie thing there, Mr. Svensson, I believe, was the custodian. He is straight as an arrow. He has got great posture, so he's not bent over. He's got a great mustache. He's like a not.

[Luke Burbank]

He felt Popeye coded to me.

[Andrew Walsh]

He's not.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, my God, Andrew, this looks so good. Hey.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you're looking. You're not looking at Mr. Svensson. I thought you're, like, looking at. Mr.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm looking at your yard.

[Andrew Walsh]

It looks okay. I don't even think that's that great of a photo. But I did. I laid all that rock down bag by bag by bag. And I'll tell you what. So the last two. And I told you, when I got done doing this work the other night, I ended up grilling.

[Luke Burbank]

Pleased.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, she's very happy. Yeah. And I cleaned up all these other parts of the yard, laid more stone, like, different. I was buying, like, three different kinds of stones for different parts of the yard and, like, really cleaning up some walkways and stuff. And then last night, I grilled again, too, because we have this beautiful weather. And honestly, it was a little bit like your coat hooky moments, because I always grill in this one little area next door, a deck. But it's like where a walkway kind of used to be. But part of it was kind of becoming more and more grass. And that grass was sort of extending out. And I always thought, like, one of these days, I'm not just going to weed this, but I'm really going to tear this up and really extend this, like, little stone walkway, for lack of a better word, to right where I'm grilling. I should be standing on stones when I'm grilling. And the last two nights as I grilled, I was able to, you know, do exactly that. And I was like, this is kind of my. This is what I've been wanting to do for three years now. And so I am glad to have it done. It's very, like. It's a little hobbity, you know, Like, I lined it with some bricks that I found under the deck. It was. It's not like Dwell magazine y, but it's. It feels very satisfying to me to have everything kind of in order outside again.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, my God, it looks so great. Like, your hedge is now trimmed. Like, the border of walls in the.

[Andrew Walsh]

Area that I had to do. Yeah, unfortunately, if you get here, you'll see. Oh, and you will be here later this week, so that'll be fun. But I only trimmed the areas that I had to get to. Like, unfortunately, the hedges are still a whole nother project. That'll be several weeks. And then, you know, you were talking about doing yard work yesterday and. And, like, kind of starting with some sort of the basic stuff. I felt embarrassed. I was on the text chain with our friends on Saturday, and Genevieve was making plans to go out. And I said, well, Genevieve has to come home to admire my yard work before she's allowed to go out and play with her friends.

[Luke Burbank]

Dude. I sent back up many photos of the yard work that I did.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Little by little, you got to. It's, like, so satisfying. Right? You can never get the right photo to really capture what you're trying to show off. But then a friend of ours, Katie, drove by. She said, I want to see your yard work. So she just drove by the yard. But the thing is, all of the work I was doing was contained inside the hedges. Nobody can see this except people inside the hedges. The yard looks like hell from the street because I still need to, like, mow and trim the hedges and do all this stuff outside. So the thing is, I'm sort of hiding my light under a bushel. But for me, inside the hedges, for those of us inside the hedges is. It is very satisfying.

[Luke Burbank]

You're like David McIntyre.

[Andrew Walsh]

I like David S. Pumpkins. Who's David McIntire?

[Luke Burbank]

He's the guy with the. With the Silo.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yes. Oh, goldfish.

[Luke Burbank]

You forgot. You're like. This is like a. You open a hatch into your yard and then you enter it and then you see that like there is this. Great. No, this looks good also. I am in the market in fact, today I might have to go. How many bags? This is what the show has devolved into, Andrew, how many bags of those kind of white rocks is that kind of pathway that I'm seeing in the photo? How many bags was that?

[Andrew Walsh]

This thing here is 18 or 20. 18 bags, I think. 18 bags and the back.

[Luke Burbank]

Aren't those bags pretty expensive?

[Andrew Walsh]

This was just river stone. So the stones are different prices based on what you're getting. These are not the bigger stones that are like the size of a lemon or a. A, let's say lime. Somewhere in the spectrum between a lemon or citrus. Sure. I mean, what's the difference anyway? I guess lemons are a little bit bigger than limes. Anyway, point is, I did buy a couple of bags of those. Those are like the big kind of gardening stones and we need those for some of our kind of edging. But this is like river rock. So it's not that much bigger than like, you know, kind of almost like big gravel sort of, but it's rounded and it's kind of nice. If you were to walk on it with bare feet, it wouldn't be as like kind of pointy and jagged as some of the other stuff. And this stu stuff runs I think like five or six dollars a bag. And this took like, you know, I think it was 18 bags because I think I got 12 and then had to get another six or something to complete the job here. And then I got. I have three. Oh, I already mentioned this. I have three different stones going around in my yard, you know, one of which is a little bit silly, but I think. I don't know if you would be down with this or not, but we have this little area where we have a, I guess you call it chain link fence between us and our neighbors. Right. And I really like it. I love our neighbors. They have a dog. I like saying hello to them. I like leaning over the fence and pet the dog or whatever. But there's something so kind of old fashioned about our two little houses next to each other with this chain link fence between it. And there's a little walkway that had stone. I think it was graystone when we moved in, but there was something about it that reminded me of like my churches house in West Virginia growing up in the 80s or something. Just like, very, like, practical. Every time our neighbors come or go, I hear their little squeak of their gate kind of open and then clank close, which somehow is like the most comforting feeling to me. And I love it. And so I laid down those really bright white stones. Can you picture those stones? They're like marble.

[Luke Burbank]

That's where I started my journey of the. Basically, that's what I was thinking I was gonna put down in a certain area of my yard. But I like yours that I'm seeing in the photo more, actually.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, you might like these more. These are river stones, but those other white marble stones are, I think, maybe slightly more expensive. But there's something so retro about them to me. Like, so, like, I just like middle class, like, suburb. I don't even know, suburban, but, like, kind of neighborhoody again. I'm just sort of picturing this little neighbo outside of Wheeling, West Virginia, where my. Or in Wheeling, West Virginia, where my family was. And so it just gives me these sort of warm, fuzzy feelings when I'm in this one part of my yard that has these bright white stones that any chacha would love.

[Luke Burbank]

Aw. I love that. I love that you're able to create that whole thing. And again, I love that these. You said it's like $10 a bag.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, the river stone's about five. The white marbley stuff, I think it's called is. I think it's called marbly stuff. Was like 11 maybe, but I didn't have to buy as much of that. So price it up.

[Luke Burbank]

Because I was seeing some stuff. I was like, googling white landscaping rocks. Yeah, I was seeing, like. I was getting results that included $90 a bag. And I was like, that cannot be. Oh, how much rocks are.

[Andrew Walsh]

They might be bigger bags. And also, you might just be going, I'm just going to Lowe's, you know.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I'm gonna go to my. My local Home Depot, But I'm gonna get exactly what you got, Andrew. And I'm going to fill in this thing that you can't see, obviously, but I'm looking at right now, which is this area near where a bathroom in my house is, and then a hallway. It's got a tree, like a maple tree that's in full bloom. And I've put down landscaping fabric, and I'm gonna cover that in the exact rocks that you used for that little pathway. And I'm gonna send you a picture and Genevieve a picture, whether you guys like it or not.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, that's good. And also, I know you and Genevieve and Roden have a whole separate text chain that is without me on it.

[Luke Burbank]

Design based.

[Andrew Walsh]

All about. Is it design based and home. Home project based.

[Luke Burbank]

It's mostly. Genevieve does something incredible, Roden does something incredible. And then I just look at it. I have yet to put anything incredible into this.

[Andrew Walsh]

I find that hard to believe. You're doing. So you're doing tons of projects.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm doing a ton of stuff here. But. But I. I don't know. It feels. First of all, I'm not doing it. It's. It's my dad and some of it.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean, you're doing a lot of it. I mean, I was thinking about you as hauling these stones back and forth. Didn't you? I was like, I should probably get a wheelbarrow for this. Weren't you like wheelbarrowing stone?

[Luke Burbank]

I did wheelbarrow about £3,000 of. Of pea gravel down to the. So I did do that. And I did not send that to Genevieve and road. And I should have. But yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Anyway.

[Luke Burbank]

My dad apparently made friends with one of the neighbors here.

[Andrew Walsh]

Love this.

[Luke Burbank]

When I was gone.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I feel like the be. I feel like what's happening slowly but surely is my parents are moving into this.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

My mom did wonder if I had ended my own life and given them the house recently.

[Andrew Walsh]

Because you woke up a half hour late.

[Luke Burbank]

45 minutes.

[Andrew Walsh]

But still.

[Luke Burbank]

Come on, Sue.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is your mom now like, are you waking up and she's like putting a mirror over your mom.

[Luke Burbank]

She's standing over me when I wake up. Is that normal?

[Andrew Walsh]

And then as just slight look of disappointment. I mean, you wake up.

[Luke Burbank]

I was seeing it as happiness that I was alive. But you're right. If I think about did have a certain disappointed nature to it. My dad apparently made friends with one of the neighbors. I do have this weird thing where I feel like I need to let the neighbors know that I'm paying my dad to work here. And it's not because I want to take my dad down a peg. It's because I don't want them to think that I'm just some weird big city boy from out of town who has now forced his dad into just rebuilding his house for him.

[Andrew Walsh]

Uh huh. Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Because I wonder what they think. Like they just. Like there's a guy with a truck called signworks who comes here and just spends endless hours working on this house. And he's not the slightly younger guy who lives here occasionally. Like, what is the deal? I spend a lot of time worrying about what the neighbors think about what's going on here.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I can tell even on the show a while back, like it was very important that people know that you're not just your dad isn't doing this for free.

[Luke Burbank]

There might be dads that do. In fact, you know what? My dad is the kind of dad that would do that potentially. He does that for my other siblings, by the way. Like if my other siblings have a project, he will go just help them for free. But that's because it's a weekend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. This is a years long project so far.

[Luke Burbank]

Literally years. You know, this thing. The. The other part of my whole thing yesterday was for almost two years there's been a little area around the corner of the house that I'm looking at right now that has had decking, like lumber that is for putting on the top of the deck. It's actually a Brazilian hardwood. It's called tiger wood. For at least two years, if not more, there was tiger wood sitting in this area so that you could not really properly walk around one side of the house. House because there was all this wood and then these tarps over it. And it is finally now on the deck. We have now used all of the Tiger wood. And I have to have to buy $3,000 more Tiger Wood, by the way.

[Andrew Walsh]

I just, I just don't think tiger wood is ever gonna achieve the success that he once did. Ever since the accident. Tiger Wood. I can't believe there's actually.

[Luke Burbank]

Wasn't he leaving a Red Lobster? Was he leaving a. Like he was leaving. One of the things about that story that always struck me was I think. Or maybe he was dating someone who he met when they were a front, like a manager. Like they were the hostess at either a Red Lobster or a. What's the Italian Red Lobster.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, when you're here. Your framily. Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Hospital.

[Andrew Walsh]

Olive Garden.

[Luke Burbank]

He was. I believe he was dating. It was in Jupiter, Florida. He was dating a hostess from either either an Olive Garden or a Red Lobster. So I don't. Maybe he wasn't leaving the restaurant. But anyway, for many years now there has been just. And this is like we talk about this sometimes, like how when you just have something that's just in your life, like in your home environment for so many years, you kind of stop seeing. It just becomes part of the landscape. Literally yesterday I was. When I realized part of what made this like a six hour project yesterday was when I realized there was no lumber sitting in this area that was blocking everything. I became obsessed with. First I used a snow shovel to, like, get up. All because the. There was dirt that had just, like, compacted onto the pavement in this area of the house. I, I first I. I snow shoveled up the major dirt. Then I used a different shovel to get up the rest of it. Then I used a push broom to, like, sweep it all out.

[Andrew Walsh]

You were basically seeing this part of your deck for the first time.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly. Oh, this part of the part of the house. It's not even the deck. It's where stuff that was gonna become the deck was sitting.

[Andrew Walsh]

I see. Yeah. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And it had just been. And also, by the way, the tarps. It's right next to my bedroom. At least two times every night when I'm sleeping, the tarps would flap in the wind and wake me up.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, it was.

[Luke Burbank]

It, you know.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that sort of sounds nice, though. Sometimes those sounds can be nice. Sometimes they can be annoying going.

[Luke Burbank]

It was a little of both, actually. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it was. I didn't hate it, but there's something about the fact that this area of the yard or of the. I keep calling it the yard. It's paved. It's basically like. There's a poured. There's a huge poured, I don't know, concrete thing around this side of the house that I'm looking at. That part of the house area was. Had wood on it and then a tarp on the wood and then rocks on top of the tarp. So the tarp wouldn't blow away.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Some of the tarp would get caught in the wind. Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

And that just sounds like it's. That gives you that sense of, like, temporariness that you don't like, you want.

[Luke Burbank]

Everything which became permanent. It went from temporary to permanent because.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was there for so long. That's a really. That feeling that you're describing of cleaning it all off and then sweeping it. That is. Yeah. That's addictive.

[Luke Burbank]

It was so satisfying that I just. I brought out a little lawn chair and I sat in my yard in a lawn chair and looked at the part of the house that now did not have a tarp on it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

It felt very satisfying. But all that is to say, Walt has been working on this house for so long that it is somehow very important to me that the neighbors know that I have not just, like, you know, like, basically trapped my dad in some way into working on this house. I want them to know that he is also making a decent living doing this.

[Andrew Walsh]

And did. You were starting to say, though, that he's made Friends with these neighbors. Now he's cut it up.

[Luke Burbank]

And that's why I was like, did you tell him that. That. Did you tell him that I'm paying you? That was my first question when he was like, oh, yeah, Bob came over and was complimenting me on all the work on the deck. Because the thing that my dad's been doing of late is on a side of the house that my neighbor Bob can see. He's like, bob came over, and we were chatting, and I was like, did you tell him that I'm paying you to do this?

[Andrew Walsh]

You're a poor dad. Between, like, yesterday, your mom's kind of like, well, at least he's ugly. At least my husband's as ugly as I am. Or something along those lines. Those are not my words. I'm trying to paraphrase here. Here. And then you're just kind of like, you. You made the. You let the neighbors know that you are paid labor. Right? Like, these are. This is the most important thing.

[Luke Burbank]

Could not get a break. And yet his equanimity remains just absolutely unbroken. Like, he was. He didn't even in much. In the way that when my mom said, my husband's also ugly, and he just sipped his coffee without a response. Did. Did you tell Bob, I'm paying you? You're paid labor. You just work here. He just was like, oh, yeah, yeah, we talked about it. I was totally unfazed.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is. Sometimes I do slip into the thoughts about how I am like your dad. Now, keep in mind, like, I've met your dad many times. I love your dad, but it's not like we bro down. We're not. We don't spend tons of time together. But because of the show especially, I think I feel like I know him very well. And in the ways that you sort of, like, set up this sort of lifestyle dichotomy between the way you navigate your life and the way he navigates his life. And I definitely am more in the school of Walt when it comes to that stuff. And I was thinking about this. I was at the gym the other day, and I have. I mean, this is sort of like a little bit of. A little bit of you where the story starts, which is, my gym bag is super cute and super not functional for what I need it for. So when I was growing up, my dad went to a gym called Vic Tanny. I don't know if that was a regional thing or a national thing.

[Luke Burbank]

I've never heard those words.

[Andrew Walsh]

But he had, like, Tanny.

[Luke Burbank]

It was a last Name, I think.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I'm not even sure if I'm. I was over pronouncing it there. I don't even know that it was two words. I was just like, kind of. It does say, let's. Oh, yeah. Vic Tanny. Vic Tanny was an American bodybuilder, entrepreneur, and cultural advocate.

[Luke Burbank]

I knew when you said the word Vic V I c. I knew this was a bodybuilder.

[Andrew Walsh]

So my dad had Vic in this. Vic. Vic Tanny. Gyms, I think he went. But it was like a really old school, like, 1960s or 70s era gym bag. Like, leather bag. Relatively small, though almost in the style.

[Luke Burbank]

To get my hands on that bag.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I got to send a photo of my gym bag to you. Because Genevieve knew I was obsessed with that, and she found me one that. I can't remember what the brand is, but it's kind of. It's so. It's so sweetly designed. It's so cool. It's getting. I mean, it's literally vintage, so the handle is getting a little bit broken up around the leather. But I love this thing so much. But the thing is, is it's tiny, and I have, like, big feet. So when I put my gym shoes in there, the gym shoes take up most of the bag. I have a few other things I need in there. And then often, if the bag is full, I roll up a towel and I carry the towel on top of the bag because the towel doesn't even fit in the bag. But I love the design of the bag so much that I refuse to buy, like, a less coolly designed, functional bag.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm with you on this.

[Andrew Walsh]

So that's where it's a little bit like you. But inside the bag, I have literally a Ziploc bag that is probably like, three or four years old that is just so crunched up or whatever. And that's what I keep, like, my soap, my lock in, like, my combination lock, and, like, my deodorant or something like that. And I pull this thing out of the bag, and it's so Walt. I've just gone from total Burbank using a cute little bag that might not have the best function to me pulling out a Ziploc bag instead of a. What do you call it? A Dopp kit instead of a real Dopp kit. It's a plastic Ziploc bag that has just been opened and closed, like, a hundred times. And that's the Walt side of me. You know what I mean? I was thinking, like, I should get a better bag for this. I was thinking about how you didn't want to buy an extension cord for your road kit because it was going to be too depressing if it wasn't designy. And I'm like, I use this bag all the time and I just use the Ziploc bag. But it's functional in this way that I can jam it into the bottom of this tiny bag. If I had a proper bag in there, it would take too much room. And so it's just like this bag contains the multitudes of the two Burbanks.

[Luke Burbank]

That is, that is, that's both. That's me and Walt in, in, in one bag situation. That's right. Can I see a picture of this? This?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, the bag.

[Luke Burbank]

Vic. What's his last name?

[Andrew Walsh]

Vic Tanny. Now, my bag is not Vic Tanny, Brandy.

[Luke Burbank]

I, I, I'm assuming Vic Tanny is no longer with us, but I want to see a big Tanny.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you're actually looking for Victani, the fella, not the bag or the gym.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I assume that there's a Jack lalanne esque guy named Victni, who there are many pictures of him standing with a narrow waist and a large upper body. He probably goes about 5, 7 if he's a minute.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let me see here all the photos I'm seeing of him. He's already an entrepreneur, so he's in a suit while a bunch of people are sort of like working out in a gym behind him. And all the things that I see.

[Luke Burbank]

Is it T A N N E.

[Andrew Walsh]

Y just V I C T A N N Y. Vic Tanny.

[Luke Burbank]

Literally. I put Vic T into the Internet and I got.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, it knows. Everybody's looking up Victani after this episode.

[Luke Burbank]

You mean Victor Ayano, born in Rochester, New York.

[Andrew Walsh]

Ah, okay. Is that the middle name or is that Vic Tanny? Oh, that's his original name. I see.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. They, he changed it to Ellis island because it wasn't Italian enough.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right.

[Luke Burbank]

We was hoping for some razzle dazzle. Razzle dazzle. That's right, man. Razzle dazzle. On your mark. On your mark.

[Andrew Walsh]

Get set, get set now.

[Luke Burbank]

Ready, ready, go.

[Andrew Walsh]

Everybody rattle dazzle.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, let's thank some dazzling donors. These folks are donating a dazzling amount of dough, and it is how we are able to keep TBTL rolling. Thanks to folks like Summer Ash. Summer has been part of the TBTL universe, and I use that term advisedly for many, many, many years. I believe Summer found out about Luke Burbank and I am starting to Talk about myself in third person. That's a new thing I'm trying as well. Maybe back in the Bryant park days, I believe that Summer was in fact the, like the astronomy correspondent on the Bryant Park Project.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's my understanding too. Yeah. I had a. A conversation with Summer about that one time about how she was. She. I can't remember the specific. And of course you'll be listening to this, so my apologies for not remembering the details but called in to correct. Who was your newscaster at the time? It wasn't Allison.

[Luke Burbank]

It was Rachel Martin.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. Yeah. And I think she wrote in to correct something that was being sort of misreported, and I think it was in Rachel Martin's newscast. And then Summer sort of kind of became your guys's correspondence. So she's been part of the TBT universe since before tbtl, I would say.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly, exactly. She's like. She was there at the. At the, sort of. At the Big Bang, at the beginning of the Luke Burbank Media Project when it was just. Was just sort of emptiness. This is the one thing. And Summer won't like this as a actual. Sorry, I'm pushing through it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Andrew, you have been eating. You. You're still eating pickles.

[Luke Burbank]

I've been shotgunning Fresca and eating Ali's spicy pickles. This is not the recipe for doing a good podcast podcast. But Summer won't like this because I. The only thing about. I'm a. I think of myself as a science based person, but the one thing about science I don't understand, I don't understand is what was here before the. What was here before there was anything. In other words, when there was nothing, what was the nothing and how did the nothing. Like, the theory is that there's a big. There was a big bang, there was. There was nothing thing. And then suddenly everything exploded in the universe kind of flew outward. And we still see that because we can. We can track the ways that things in our universe are moving away from or things in our galaxy, I guess, are moving away from the sun. That's how we know that there was a Big Bang, because of the. The pace the at which stuff is basically separating what was happening before that.

[Andrew Walsh]

I googled it and I have an answer for you. According to Search Labs AI Overview, the question of what existed before the Big Bang theory is a show called Friends. No, I'm sorry, I don't even know if that's the right network.

[Luke Burbank]

Strong lead in. It wasn't. It probably wasn't. Because first of all, no, Friends is NBC, and the Big Bang is cbs.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is that cbs? Oh, right, of course it's cbs, because that's where young Sheldon is. Right. The question of what existed before the Big Bang is a profound one. And the simple answer is, we don't know for certain. So, Luke, you are amongst many, many great thinkers of our time.

[Luke Burbank]

And the problem is, and I'm not trying to RFK Jr. This, but, like, the problem for me is if we don't know about that, then what are the other things we don't know about? And it doesn't mean that I don't believe in gravity or cell phones or vaccines, but it's just that that one throws me because it's like, we know a lot about this universe, and we say that we know a lot about this universe, but then there's a major thing we don't know about, and that's the part that hangs me up.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Hangs you up in what way, though? Like, in that you think there's.

[Luke Burbank]

It makes it wonder if there is. It's the reason that I'm an agnostic and not an atheist. Like, I don't think it's a God, but I just don't think we know what it is. That puts me in agnostic territory versus atheist territory.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's interesting. I guess I'm just not intellectually curious enough to get hung up on that. I just think that. Well, there's a hell of a lot of things I don't know about. About science, and so we don't know that one. It doesn't make.

[Luke Burbank]

It just seems like the most major one that we don't know.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And now this is getting. This is not what you're saying. And I'm not. Good Lord. If I, like, slip into, like, debating atheism, because, by the way, that's one thing. I was just thinking about this, I think when I was working in the yard, and I don't know what I was listening to or. You know what? Some. Some church folks stopped. Stopped by, I think, last weekend. Really, There's a church in our neighborhood, and there's this whole. I'm really getting far afield here, but there's this whole, like, kind of culture in North Aurora where I live, where, obviously we live in an area where there's kind of a lot of crime and other, you know, societal ills or whatever. And then there's this group that is very hardcore into, like, making North Aurora kind of, like a nicer place to live. But a lot of that comes from this Group called nora, which is based on this church that is nearby, and there's this Christian coffee shop. And it's kind of like they. They don't put Christian stuff, like front and foremost on a bunch of stuff, but they have craft fairs and stuff. But I know it's all by this group that is sort of this very Christian run group that are kind of also lobbying and stuff. So I'm giving my own sort of opinion on things. I'm a little bit leery of them, but they seem like sweet enough people. They come by maybe once a year to remind us that they're there and ask us if we're interested in, I don't know, religion or something. And so Genevieve said hello to them the other day, and I was just sort of pondering that was like, you know, I don't believe in anything that would be considered religious at all, but I don't mind that other people do. Like, I would never be somebody who tries to talk somebody out of their religion. If somebody tries to talk me into their religion, I would say no. You know, I dabbled in religion. I went to religious schools and everything, but not for me. And that's fine. But I would never want to get into an argument of telling somebody. But this is why your belief in whatever religion is bunk. Like, it's just. It's none of my business, you know, So I don't want to get into that. But I guess my. While you kind of bring up this idea of, well, maybe I believe in religion because we don't know what happened before the big bang. I always have a big leap between, well, if it's some. It could be some sort of power. Like, everything is power, electricity is power. But like, the idea that it's something spiritual or something that I have to literally worship, seems that that's where I.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, that's the thing. And the thing is, you said said I. You were paraphrasing what I said, and you said believe in religion. And that's not even my point. I don't believe in religion because of it. I just. Yeah, I just think that there might be something bigger than us that we don't know about. We could just be. We could be living inside of a droplet of sweat on the back of a giant thing that's playing basketball right now.

[Andrew Walsh]

That'd be.

[Luke Burbank]

Would that be the darkest timeline for you?

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm just so. Let's see. That makes. Does that make my bunker a hair follower?

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. We're inside a drop of sweat, inside a bunker, inside a Torch lamp. Oh, that's what I think it's called. I think that used to be. Was that called a torch lamp?

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that kind of, that kind of lamp that we saw.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, that kind of lamp that. The guy that David cutting out his place.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm cutting out the first half of the show, so don't refer to the bunker anymore. Okay, sorry.

[Luke Burbank]

Let's just, let's focus on Summer Ashes. More message. Summer Ash, a person who is a scientist has now somehow launched my religious revival. And I don't know if she loves it, but it's happening. Summer. Summer's in Mill Valley, California and says, ahoy, hoy, friendos. It's your favorite space cadet. Last year at this time, I had just quit my job and a lot had happened between then and now. A lot has happened between then and now. The long and short of it is, is that I moved to the Bay Area and I moved my 83 year old mom in with me. As an only child with a single mother, we only really have each other. Have you considered paying her to work.

[Andrew Walsh]

On the house, Summer, and then let everybody know and make sure Bob knows? Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

She did an amazing job raising and supporting me and now I want to support her as things begin to get harder for her physically, mentally and emotionally. We are eight months into this adventure and I couldn't be happier with my decision. Aw, Summer. This is a really sweet, dazzling donor message, actually. I know she won't be around forever, so I'm cherishing every day we get to spend together. To top it all off, I've got her listening to TBTL from time to time. Goodness, Summer's mom, if you're hearing this, I apologize.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm sorry.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, you know, you did a great job raising Summer and you raised a free thinker. A free thinker who wants to subject you to a thing that no one should be subjected to in their 80s, which is TBTL. Every now and then she'll ask, what are the boys up to today? I finally have someone who doesn't think I'm weird for referencing you both in daily conversation. Thanks for always being there. It means so much these days to have something you can rely on. Love you guys to the moon and back. I assume Summer offers that. Also advisedly, Summer, love you to the moon and back. And shout out to Summer's mom if you're listening. Yeah, we love you too. And thank you for tolerating this. Now even Summer's moms can tolerate this. Oh, dude, I heard something in a. When I was in my Many hours of yard work. Yesterday I heard something. I was listening to a New Yorker piece like, you know, basically book on tape and they said culs du sac.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, like the plural of cul de. Cul de sac.

[Luke Burbank]

Like multiple cul de sacs. Culs de sac.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that's the proper way, huh? That is the way.

[Luke Burbank]

I guess I spent a good two hours. This is what's fun about yard work. You have many hours to then just like litigate things in your mind.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sure. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I almost grabbed the audio to play for you. And then I thought like, these people are insane. And then I thought, oh, no, no, this is like a. This is an intentional joke by the writer. It was a New Yorker piece, I think. About what? Like the. The long lasting effects of Doge.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay.

[Luke Burbank]

And it was talking about a part of Virginia and it said this and this and this and this and coles de sac.

[Andrew Walsh]

And wait, are you. I'm a little bit lost. Are you thinking that the. The writer really did put that in there as a little winky kind of literary joke?

[Luke Burbank]

I think it probably is both grammatically correct and I think that the writer put it in as a joke.

[Andrew Walsh]

I see. Is. So is the article a little bit. Bit. It has a little snark to it. Aside from.

[Luke Burbank]

It's not. That's the thing. There's no snark in it at all. It's basically like, what is the long lasting effect of Elon Musk and Doge on the US Government? Turns out. Andrew, are you sitting down? Summer's mom, are you sitting down? Not great. Yeah, not great because we've basically had a massive brain drain now. Like, it's not even that they fired a bunch of people who shouldn't have been fired, which also happened, but it's that a bunch of other people just left and they were the people that were going to tell the next generation how to do the jobs in government. Which the. Like, this is crazy. But the big takeaway from the Doge project is that the US government is shockingly efficient. Like the people that are there are doing a good job and they work really hard and they don't get paid enough. And there was not a lot of. There's way less fat in the US government than the Elon Musk's of the world thought there was. But also part of it. The problem is that now you. A bunch of people took the buyout and those are the people that were supposed to train the next generation, people of how to do this thing. But in that piece they Mentioned Coles de sac.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, that reminds me of something that I heard on a podcast while doing my yard work this weekend. And by the way, this. That was one thing that I was thinking about. I was listening to various things, including Dead Eyes. I'm finally listening to Dead Eyes, you recommended years ago. That fella, Connor Radcliffe, he's been popping up on all these other podcasts I listen to. Just.

[Luke Burbank]

It's really good, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And so I've kind of fallen for him as just sort of a movie kind of commentator on podcasts. And then I'm like, I should go back and listen to Dead Eyes. And it's really, it is really good. But anyway, I was thinking, like, one of the things I love about projects like this is whatever podcast I'm listening to, there are going to be moments that I always tie back to this very specific memory I have of working on this project in my yard. Like, I just, I kind of do that. And one of the things that I heard that I don't think I'm ever going to forget, although I guess ask me again in a year, was in my Tim Kirkshon podcast, they were debating whether or not it's RBI or RBI because technically it shouldn't be RBIs. You wouldn't say like, oh yeah, Julio actually got two RBIs in yesterday's day.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, you would never say that because it would never happen. Oh, bases loaded, one out.

[Andrew Walsh]

For a split second, I thought I really said something wrong because I'm always.

[Luke Burbank]

Very secure with my.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know. What a terrible. What a terrible example for me to use to get us off topic. Let's say Cal. Let's say Dominic canzone to RBI. You really don't have to say RBI as you say RB. He got two RBI because it's runs batted in. But everybody says RBIs. And even Tim is just kind of like it's RBIs. He got two RBIs, right?

[Luke Burbank]

He got three RBIs last night. Yeah, that's. That's. Oh, man, that's. That is one of those things that. What's another. Oh, champing at the bit versus chomping at a bit.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right?

[Luke Burbank]

People say chomping at the bit. We all know what that means. It means chomping or. Or we intend chomping, but technically it's champing. And it's like, am I going to be the person. I mean, I kind of am, but am I going to be the person who's low key correcting people being. Well, it's technically champing. Or are we going to just go with chomping? Which also kind of makes sense. Like, I'm chomping at the bit or I batted in a run. He got three RBIs. He batted in three runs last night.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And he got three RBI. I don't know if that was. I don't know if that's as much as a conversation stopper is champing. I think think.

[Luke Burbank]

I do think it would be weird if you said he got three rbi.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Even though that is. That is correct. I mean, that makes sense. But. But again, it's not a problem that we have to deal with with the current state of the Mariners because there will be no Rs bi for the rest of the season. That was the other thing. I was like, I was. I was getting mad at Rick Riz because my yard work was taking too long, which is totally unfair. Fair. I was just listening to the game and I was being mad at how he was calling the game, but it was mostly because it was still. It was 9pm and I was outside still, like, on my hands and knees pulling weeds.

[Andrew Walsh]

But you. And, but you were just nitpicking. You were in a bad mood because of the game, too. And he.

[Luke Burbank]

I was in a bad mood because of the game. And then I was also like, I can't believe I'm out here still yard working. And somehow he's taking it out on.

[Andrew Walsh]

Rick Riz and he's being too chipper for the state of the game.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. He was too excited about the fact that Raphael Devers hit his first career home run against the Mariners.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, right.

[Luke Burbank]

It's like nobody care. Well, actually, that is.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wait, wait, hold on a second. Not his first career home run.

[Luke Burbank]

His first career. The first home run Raphael Devers ever hit as a Boston Red Sox back in the day.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, I do remember him talking about that. Yes. I'm sorry I lost the.

[Luke Burbank]

And he was like. And it was like he was just being so glib about it as we were like, as Logan Gilbert was getting victimized for like an extra run that he shouldn't have. Like, he gave up basically a. A home run and then like a triple and then a hit to, I think Ben Williamson at second. That was like basically an inside. An infield hit. And as this is all going on, I felt like Rick Riz was just like, marveling at the fact that Rafael Devers, who's no longer a Boston Red. So I got his first home run against the Mariners and I was like, focus, Rick.

[Andrew Walsh]

And am I wrong in Remembering that the reason that came up is because. What's his name, Roman Anthony just got his first home run against the Mariners yesterday. So it was just kind of like. It was just like, oh, this terrible celebrating.

[Luke Burbank]

Too much Boston Red Sox lore.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. Including something that just happened.

[Luke Burbank]

That guy got a home run against us, which we don't like that happening. And Rick seemed unperturbed.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that was early on. Wow. You were irritated early on. That was like the second I woke up.

[Luke Burbank]

Irritated. Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

With your mom hovering over you, wondering if you're still.

[Luke Burbank]

And my dad, who I pay, working on the house. Thank you, Summer. We really appreciate you. Maestro, on your mark. On your mark.

[Andrew Walsh]

Get set, get set now.

[Luke Burbank]

Ready, ready, go. Everybody, it's our friend Jojo Moran Douglas out there in Nakano, Tokyo, Japan. Sagoi Jojo.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, Jojo.

[Luke Burbank]

Pronounced Worcester.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that's perfect. That's helpful. Thank you.

[Luke Burbank]

I was in Boston on Friday and somebody mentioned Worcester and I almost. I almost went into a whole TBTL diatribe about Worcester and Worcester and that people say pronounced Worcester. And I spared that person at the restaurant.

[Andrew Walsh]

This would have just been some random person that you were.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it was like somebody was. Well, I didn't even. We didn't get into the. My whole Friday because we pre taped Friday's show and then. And then I was here on Monday. But my Friday dinner was a whole situation. There was somebody talking about Worcester at an adjacent table. And then there was also two women that were watching without headphones, live coverage of Israel bombing Iran. And I wanted to say what the actual. Are you really doing this in this restaurant on Boston Harbor? But I didn't, because I didn't. I felt like if they're watching this, they're either Iranian or they're from Israel. Somehow this is a big thing to them. But I just thought, like, I can't say, could you not? Like, if they're watching TikTok, I could have said, could you not? But it was like they're watching like a war event. Like, maybe they have family in Iran or maybe they have family in Israel or something. But yeah, someone was also talking about Worcester. This was also triggering for me the, I guess, normalization.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know I've said this before, you know, I'm not going to go into a long rant here, but I'm sure it'll come up again. But like the normalization of just like blasting your content without headphones, phones is just it. It's it. Well, what weird bothers me.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it's usually like somebody on the bus who's watching like a tick tock or something. They're watching something that is. It's clearly of low importance in my opinion. Like, in other words, it's just like somebody's just watching some thing. These people are watching a thing. That's not. It's like people's, like, lives are on the line.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, of course.

[Luke Burbank]

But without headphones.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I was, like, so mad at it. But then I was like, I can't. I can't tell them to. To, to shut it because they might have people that are living in, you know, an area that is being bombed. And then I would, you know, I would not tell them to not care about that. So it was, it was. It was weird to have somebody watching something annoyingly. But that it also has very high stakes.

[Andrew Walsh]

I have a fantasy I would never do this, and it's such a passive aggressive thing, and I would literally never do this, and nobody should do this. It's ugly behavior. But when somebody's doing that. Remember I told you, like, I was a teriyaki joint, like, a couple of years ago? It was actually kind of funny because I was just in there. I was the only customer, with the exception of a table across the way that had two young women who were just watching Martin together as loud as possible on their phone, which was. I mean, it was 2024, 2023 or something like that.

[Luke Burbank]

And they're just watching Martin bombing Iran.

[Andrew Walsh]

Martin Rerun. Which is something charming about that. But also, like, the noise was just irritating.

[Luke Burbank]

Right.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I always have this fantasy of just like, not, not, not saying anything. Cutting. Just carrying around a whole bunch of cheap, cheap headphones that I can give away for free and just, like, handing them to people who are loving me. But that's a. That's an ugly.

[Luke Burbank]

Without comment.

[Andrew Walsh]

Without comment. Just give them the head on the.

[Luke Burbank]

Airplane if you forgot.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. Get to get a bunch of those. Obviously I would never do that. That's not the side of me that.

[Luke Burbank]

You know what, That's a thing that has probably stopped happening because we. We don't plug our headphones in any.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that's true. My new phone. Oh, shoot.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, you don't have a headphone out.

[Andrew Walsh]

No. And I need it for one part of one podcast that I do just one thing. Every two weeks. I need to play audio from my phone through my board. And this is the third week in a row that I have forgotten to buy the little dongle. So I can.

[Luke Burbank]

I was gonna say, is it dongle?

[Andrew Walsh]

It's Not. I need to get a dongle for it, but that really irritates me. But I guess this is the. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, I bought a new computer for my TBTL stuff. And. And the. My only. As I walked into the Apple Store, my first question was, does it have a headphone out?

[Andrew Walsh]

The computers still do.

[Luke Burbank]

The computer itself, the MacBook Air that I bought does have a headphone out. Yeah. Because, like, that's the whole thing of playing the audio that I play on the show. Like, I don't wanna. I'm not trying to mess with, like, a USB C to A. I mean, I guess that would just be one dongle I would buy and then it would be fine. But it just somehow I was like, does it have a sir? I'm yelling as I'm walking into the Apple Store in, like, you know, tigard. Org from. From. I'm down the hall. I'm basically at the Auntie Ann's and I'm yelling, does it have a headphone? Jack out.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, listen, I know we got to get to JoJo's message here. And so I'm gonna. I'm gonna not listen.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm here to do TBTL and eat pickles. So. So I got nowhere to be.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm not gonna say the thought that just popped up in my head, but if we're worried about time today, I'm not worried about time later on. I would like to talk to you about the comic strip Nancy and how I've gotten pretty into it and how I had a pretty huge revelation yesterday about Nancy that I don't know if everybody already knew or not. But let's get to JoJo first.

[Luke Burbank]

Do we want to? Because we're not. I don't think we're getting to condiments today.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

So do we want to put Nancy on as the top of the show tomorrow? Do we want to.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, we can do that, too. Yeah. I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

Let's talk about it after JoJo.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, after JoJo. Whatever. But I. All right.

[Luke Burbank]

JoJo is in. Is in Nakano, Tokyo, Japan. And JoJo says, as so many others have said, I'm grateful for TBTL for being an oasis of calm and a safe harbor when needed. And my Nancy content.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good. Perfect.

[Luke Burbank]

Nancy. That's not Kathy, though.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, Nancy.

[Luke Burbank]

I was thinking of Kathy when you said Nancy. Who's. What's Nancy look like?

[Andrew Walsh]

Kathy also had a bit of a reboot. I think a young person, like a younger person started writing the interview about it. Oh, you did? She's really Cool. I became a fan.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

I became a pretty Jamie Loft.

[Luke Burbank]

That's Loftus.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's Loftus. Who took. That's Loftus. I never made the connection because I knew that she took it over before I knew the name Jamie Loftus.

[Luke Burbank]

No, no, no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Loftus wrote a book about Kathy. Was not illustrating Kathy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay. But do you know that somebody took over the Kathy comic strip about five, ten years ago, and it was suddenly getting like social media retweet stuff because it was kind of modern. Like Kathy had a cell phone or I think I got the right comic strip. Nanc. Totally different. We'll talk about that in a little bit, though. We'll just keep teasing.

[Luke Burbank]

That I wondered if I know about if I know Nancy. You think I have I seen.

[Andrew Walsh]

Does anybody really know Nancy?

[Luke Burbank]

Can anyone really can JoJo Moran, Douglas and Nakano, Tokyo, Japan really know Nancy? As so many others have said, I'm grateful for TBTL for being an oasis of calm and a safe harbor when needed. Not to mention being a source of unexpected chipmunk, mariners and other talk to distract me from everyday life. And also getting a slab jacking bracelet last year that I kept by my desk brings repeated Joy. You're welcome, JoJo. I. Or let's be honest, probably a TBTL listener made that with love also. Let's see. It's truly a joy. Thank you. Last year I invited people to check out some of my electronic noises on Instagram. And I'm delighted and honored to have met other synth tens like Steven S and even had Melisande use some of my noises in her own art. What the heck?

[Andrew Walsh]

Nice.

[Luke Burbank]

What the heli. These. These listeners are. Now they're learning. They. They're collaborating now they're taking like melisande is taking JoJo's synth noises and putting it into Melisande's art. This is amazing. While I don't have anything for immediate release, if anyone would like to hear my bleepy and or atmosphere. Dude, there's almost nothing I love more than atmospheric noises. Do you know that I've been just power using Brian Eno's film score music? In other words, songs that Brian Eno wrote for movies. I'm just walking around all day listening to it right now. It is so atmospheric and it is so good.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, nice. Yeah, so nice.

[Luke Burbank]

So I'm gonna add JoJo to the list. If anybody wants to hear my atmospheric noises that I'm making, I'm on the ascendant social media platform Bluetooth. Blueski. I'm @jmoran and that's J M O R a N so J or sorry, J Moran on blueski. Thanks again. Is this where I say power out? It is where you say power out, Jojo. Nice, Jojo. Thanks for being such an awesome friend of the show for all of these years. I don't know if JoJo was our original Japan correspondent, but he's one of the Original Original Japan 10s and has been very important in this world for many years. So thanks, JoJo. We really appreciate you. Hello and welcome to Top story. I think 1 hour, 6 minutes and 44 seconds is the right time to bring you the top stories. So here we go. Okay, Nancy, Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

Forget everything I said about Kathy before. I was completely wrong. I want to just clean something up. We need to start with a clean slate here. So. So Kathy.

[Luke Burbank]

Three, two.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I said before that a young person back in like 2018 or something like that, or younger than the comic strip itself, which is obviously like 100 years old or something like that, started rewriting Kathy. That is not right. That is also Nancy. There was somebody named Olivia James, which I believe was a nom de plume, kind of rebooted Nancy in a more modern era. I can't explain to you who Nancy is, but can you look up Nancy and look at the photo? I think the comic strip started as a different comic strip that was focused on a flapper, which was her aunt in like the 1930s or 40s or something like that.

[Luke Burbank]

I never knew this character. I'm looking at. It was named Nancy. I would have said this was little Lulu.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I don't know who little Lulu is, but it sounds like something your mom would be into.

[Luke Burbank]

Are you kidding me? It's the exact way that I found out about Lulu. They used to. There was a little Lulu song that went. And I'm going to do this, though. Though. The clock says 7:30. She's. It's. It's really after 10. Lulu. Little Lulu. Sorry. Now I'm trying to remember the song. There was a Little Lulu song and it was a little Lulu. I love you, Lou, just the same. The same Little Lulu. I love you, Lou, just the same.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't think I know that, but I am going to look up little.

[Luke Burbank]

Lulu and tell me this is not Nancy coded here. How about this? Thank you.

[Andrew Walsh]

In always in and out of trouble, but.

[Luke Burbank]

But mostly always in. Using Daddy's necktie for the tail of your K. Using Mommy's lipstick for the letters Letters you write. The clock says 7:30. It's. It's really after 10. Looks like Lulu's been repairing it again. I love that part.

[Andrew Walsh]

Doesn't hold up well. Good.

[Luke Burbank]

It rhymes with Lulu. The same little Lulu. I love you, Lou, just the same. I'm trying sing.

[Andrew Walsh]

That was not super great.

[Luke Burbank]

Was I still behind the.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know what was happening there. It was all over the place. So this is not Lil Lulu. This is definitely not Kathy. By the way, I was totally wrong about somebody rebooting Kathy. That was wrong. That was also Nancy. And Nancy is a little girl with like kind of a big head of curly hair with a, like you said, a bow in it. And it was originally. Her character was originally like kind of an extra character in a comic strip called Fritzi ritzy back in 1922. And Fritzi Ritzi, I believe is. Is Nancy's aunt. And she was like a showgirl or something. She was like a real Fritzi Ritzy was like a real foxy woman and that there was a comic strip about her. But the real stars ended up being Nancy and her friend Sluggo. And so Nancy ends up getting a comic strip spin off which obviously, you know, survives much, much, much longer than Fritzi Ritzy. And Nancy is still around today as I mentioned, you know, about five, six, seven years ago, sort of kind of rebooted with a more sort of modern like kind of vibe to the whole thing. But I am now following old school Nancy comics on blue ski. And you can follow it to just look for Nancy comics by Ernie Bushmiller. And they are, I, Luke, am unironically loving these Nancy comics and they all show up with a year. So like there's one here that was published in 1954 and they were publishing ones from the 1940s it looks like earlier this week. And some of them are super, super corny. They're all super corny in a certain way. But honestly it's. I'm legitimately enjoying it. I think there are some great jokes in this original Nancy comic strip. And of course it features her friend Sluggo who's like an under educated kid her age who talks like, I'm here, let me read some dialogue. Hey Nancy, I'm coming along great with me education. I'm loining new words every day. And then it turns out the new words he's loining is he's going to the optometrist and trying to learn the letters that just test your eyes on the. I check chart and he thinks that they're words because Sluggo is not very smart. Anyway, here's my big revelation, which I never knew, and this is not going to be shocking to you because you didn't know who these people were five minutes ago. But apparently, according to a cartoon I read late last night, Sluggo and Nancy are a bit of an item. I thought they were totally will. They are one of friends. But there is a cartoon where Sluggo, Sluggo is graffito tagging a wall. He was born on the wrong side of the track.

[Luke Burbank]

Sluke.

[Andrew Walsh]

He's with another little girl and he's graffito tagging a wall. And it says Sluggo loves. And then suddenly from off screen, we see that Nancy has shot an arrow with her name on it and shot the arrow right into the wall. So it looks like Sluggo loves Nancy. Nancy is jealous here that Sluggo was going out with another little girl. But I had no idea that Nancy and Slugo at all. I thought they were just good platonic friends. And I am a little bit shocked.

[Luke Burbank]

Plot development.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. From 1937.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you know also that the. The character of Gilly, which was a basically a thing that Kristen Wiig did on snl, was based on Nancy? This is a real thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I don't know this.

[Luke Burbank]

So you do know she has a character called Gilly.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

That was one of her big characters. And she looks exactly like Nancy. She has of that kind. Kind of like hair. And the bow in the hair.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm looking at it now. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And she's basically just like, it turns out, a sociopath.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. Yeah, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, she's just doing insane things. And then she's like. Sorry, she's basically like. Like, what if Gilly. What if the Gilly character were actually real in life? And what would the implications be for the people in her orbit?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. And because, yeah, I mean, that's basically Nancy is a sociopath. Like, she absolutely is. The things she does. I mean, the science stuff that her friends put up with is ab. Well, Sluggo especially is absolutely out of this world. Nancy is almost unredeemable, except the little scamp is lovable because she really. I mean, she gets what she wants. She's almost a little bit like proto Ramona Quimby, a little bit with a little bit more of a nastier streak, I would say.

[Luke Burbank]

So. And these, these Nancy's that you're reading are not. They're not updated for 2025. These are just like you're reading old school Nancy's. And you're heavily invested in the plot.

[Andrew Walsh]

I am. Yeah. I mean, not the plot because they're not like, published in order on this blue screen.

[Luke Burbank]

The plot of her life.

[Andrew Walsh]

Just like the plot of her life. They're like. I honestly think they're legitimately good. And I'm not somebody who's been following this on. I really think you should. It's Nancy Comics by Ernie Bush Miller. I know that I feel less struggling for a power out here. I'm the one who got us into this mess and I apologize. Apologize. I wasn't sure how well versed you were in the world of Nancy. And then I did a terrible job of setting it up by confusing it with Kathy. But I highly recommend people getting into. You have a lot of backlogs when you finish the backlog of tbtl.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

Get the. Into some Nancy.

[Luke Burbank]

It's the TBTL of. Of comics in that there are thousands and thousands of episodes, most of them boring.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do not declare bankruptcy on Nancy is what I'm saying.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you care that I'm getting emails? This might not be a power out. This might be extending things. I'm getting emails from the Seattle Seahawks offering a chance for us. And by us, I mean anyone with an email account to come see training camp. How are you feeling about the Seahawks this year?

[Andrew Walsh]

You know, Luke, it's really hard for me to get interested in football during baseball season. And I think maybe it just has to do. Like, I know that. I'm quite sure that I'm on the. Out here because if I turn on. On the local sports radio stations, there's. Even during baseball season, there's probably a better chance that they're talking about developments in the football team. Yeah. Like off season. Just like speculation. And then, you know, of course, we're past the draft now and everything. Everybody gets really into it. And unfortunately, I am just a little bit like, I'm like Hearthstone. I didn't like building the decks. I just liked playing the games, you know?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I'm kind of that way as well. I actually don't really care that much, but I do. I was yesterday, during my thousands of hours of yard work, I did have this thought, which was, I'm excited for football season. I'm excited for there to be an early, like an early fall football game where the Seahawks do a good thing and then I go out and I stand on the deck and I revel in it. This is how my crazy brain works when I'm doing something I don't want to do. That's not true. I want to do the yard work, but I guess when I'm. When doing something that's kind of a hassle, I think. Yeah, but isn't it going to be nice? Like, I was. One of the projects I was doing was organizing the area underneath my deck, which is like, you want to talk about a low reward situation? It's like I was stacking wood and I was weed whacking, like, overgrown grass that's. That no one can ever see because it's underneath the deck. But then it had me thinking about the deck and then it had me thinking about a moment where the Seahawks do a good. And then I walk outside of my house and I stand on the deck and I feel. I feel happy. So I've been thinking about the Seahawks a little bit of late, but. But, but.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, you know, my, my. I'm almost more like how you usually are in this. I think when it comes to kind of weather and seasons, like, I love the fall and, you know, if I had to choose a favorite season, it's probably the fall. I, I don't sort of dread the end of summer. I don't start to like, in fact, like, the other day it was really hot. I even thought, like, oh, it's too hot. When will this hot weather pass? Which is not usually how you're supposed to approach summers. In Seattle, where it's really beautiful here, you're supposed to enjoy the weather as much as you can because it is going to get rainy again in the fall. I'm not somebody who's scared of that weather transition, but, like, I am feeling summer so much these past couple of weeks maybe because I feel like I've been like, trying to get this yard work stuff done and the sunny weather hasn't lined up perfectly. But then this last couple of weeks it has. So I'm like, really, really into it. And so the idea of thinking about football season right now actually gives me a little bit of the bad feeling, like I have too much to do. We can't be getting to the. I do not want to see the preseason games. I was looking at something like preseason games are going to be starting in August or something like that. I'm like, get out of here with that shit. Like, I'm just gearing up for summer.

[Luke Burbank]

I like this for you, though. I like that you're. I know you're not buying into the overall. The whole kind of like, summer is too short in the Northwest and the rain comes too quickly and we hate the weather, et cetera. But I like that you're buying into it a little bit, because I'm with you. There is a certain melancholy that comes with, like, it's mini camp. It's like, it's mini camp.

[Andrew Walsh]

Mini camp.

[Luke Burbank]

We're not even. We're not even, like, done with the summer yet. What are you doing? Trying to make this football happen.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is the. This is the time of year where we get angry at baseball teams. Thank you. We get angry at football teams, dude.

[Luke Burbank]

I. I mentally, again, you. You all were so lucky on the criminals chain that I didn't have my phone. Well, I had it in my back pocket, but I didn't have easy access to it because I was wearing gloves, because I wrote and deleted a million toxic texts in my brain listening to that game yesterday while I was doing yard work.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yep, I believe it. That was a tough one. I mean, they just kept. They do that. They just keep on getting runners in scoring position and then just leaving them there, like with runners in scoring position with no outs, and then they just score.

[Luke Burbank]

And the heart of the lineup coming up, you have JP Crawford, Julio Rodriguez, and Cal Raleigh. By the way, Cal Raleigh can do no wrong in my mind, but. But, like, he did some wrong in that. You know, you have basically our. We only have so many good hitters, and there's not. There's not a lot of them. But when you have the three ones that are semi competent coming up and none of them can bring a run in.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, just.

[Luke Burbank]

It's just crushing.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, it really is. So that is why we have to.

[Luke Burbank]

You're right. So this is.

[Andrew Walsh]

We have to remain hateful towards the Mariners.

[Luke Burbank]

That's right. We need to remember our seasons. This is the season that I'm mad at. Who. I don't even know who owns the Mariners. Is it Stanton, somebody?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, it's. It's an ownership group where there's some DNA left over, I think, from the Nintendo years, but it's not quite that. But Stanton is sort of the face of the ownership group, for better or for worse, because I, you know, and so I will often refer to Stanton, but it is a group. In fact, I was getting into a conversation with a friend, fella at the sports bar in Greenwood called Bleachers. I don't know if you ever go, oh, yeah, I've been to Bleachers with you before. I like, that's a good place to watch a game. By the way, Vivs and I went there after dinner a couple of weeks ago and just happened to sit next down. Happened to Sit down next to a guy at the bar who must be the guy who listens to Seattle sports radio, second only to me. We got into such a conversation about the. The quirks and ticks of all kinds of radio hosts.

[Luke Burbank]

How fun is that?

[Andrew Walsh]

Now he's more dialed into the KJR side as well, which is a big blank spot for me. But anyway, he was a very well informed Mariners fan, I think a longtime Mariners fan. And he was talking about how it's probably. You could almost trace. While Stanton takes too much heat. Because it's not all Stanton. You could almost blame the fact that it is an ownership group where not one person or one family sort of has the reputation on the line, because everybody's just kind of kicking it back and forth and nobody wants their bottom line hurt, and nobody has that passion. As opposed to. You think about who is it? The. The. It was the Buses who owned the Lakers. Right? Yeah, yeah. You know, just like all those, like, legacy families, like, somebody's name is tied to it, you know? Right.

[Luke Burbank]

And they might catch feelings.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, that's what you need. You need. You need a Jerry Jones. Honestly, not that it's been great for the Dallas Cowboys of late, but you need somebody. A one person or even, like, who's a guy who just died. The. The Colts owner, Jim Ursay.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, your guy.

[Luke Burbank]

You need somebody who. Who basically, like, it's their ego on the line. So then they will make emotional decisions.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

In a good way. You don't need a. A corporation that understands that if you win 51% of your games, it nets out to X number of butts in seats, and therefore you don't have to try to win more than 51% of your games.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Or you're also thinking of Jerry. That was Jerry. Right. Talking about the 54% of games.

[Luke Burbank]

He was like, no, that was something I saw.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, this is a different dude.

[Luke Burbank]

This is so weird. Rob Lowe of NFL Fandom. Fam. Right.

[Andrew Walsh]

Love the Shield. Root for the Shield.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, He's a. He's a big fan of the Shield. He was on some podcast where he was asking this again, the Internet has completely figured me out. He was on, I think, a baseball podcast where he was asking the host, he was like, what is with the Mariners?

[Andrew Walsh]

Really?

[Luke Burbank]

He was like, what is with the Mariners? Just kind of being middling. And I think it might have been. Maybe it was a Mariners podcast or something or a Seattle podcast. Because the hosts were like, dude, this is a real thing that happened. The. The hosts were like, yeah. Our ownership figured out that we only need to win. They said they were on the record as saying we only need to win 51 or whatever was 50 of games or some number. That's very uninspiring. They were telling that to Rob Love.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wait a second, though. I do think. And I could be wrong, and I have the clip here. We'll play it in a second. But there's a very, very famous quote from our GM, Jerry Depot, who said we have to win 54% of games in order to be competitive. And he was saying that. He said that in the press conference, I think the day after we lost out to get into the. Into the playoffs again. This is like two years ago, I think. And it's an incredibly. I mean, there are literally Mariners for fans who have jerseys that say 54% on them.

[Luke Burbank]

I wasn't aware.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, because he's like, what. Listen. What fans don't understand is we're actually doing them a favor. Like, he used all the wrong words. He's like, we're doing them a favor because the stats show that if you win 54% of games, then you will be like, over the certain amount of years, you will eventually make it to a World Series or whatever.

[Luke Burbank]

How do we get the GM who's on the spectrum, who's actually not good at GMing?

[Andrew Walsh]

It is banana. Take a listen.

[Luke Burbank]

That is such a. That's such a. That's such a bad read of the room.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's just like. Yeah. And the thing is, he might not. Not be wrong. Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

He doesn't know how to. He doesn't know, put it that way. But this is what you're talking about here. This is strange. This is Rob Lowe on some. Yeah, I don't. Who is he talking to here?

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let's take a listen. Oh, no. Instagram won't play hello or no Toil.

[Luke Burbank]

In such obscurity by design.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is that what it is? Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Their GM came out and said, we want to win 54% of games.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's their goal. Like when the Dodgers clubhouse first heard the Mariner say, our goal is to win 54% of their games.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, how.

[Andrew Walsh]

How do you think that went over? Oh, my God. Dodgers were probably, like, great.

[Luke Burbank]

And more teams like that. That helps us out.

[Andrew Walsh]

Can you imagine? But. And they're always kind of there at.

[Luke Burbank]

The end of the year.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, they're there and they're not. How do the Seattle Mariners toil? It's just re. It's just sort of that's the beginning of it again.

[Luke Burbank]

But by the way, the fact that Rob Lowe is using up any of.

[Andrew Walsh]

His time thinking about the Mariners being.

[Luke Burbank]

Kind of there, I'm just trying to get. Yeah, I don't know how I feel about that.

[Andrew Walsh]

He was on John Boy Media podcast, so I don't know what's going on.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, that's. That's a. I think that guy is. That's a. That's an ascended. That's also an ascended podcast. John Boy Media.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, John Boy's been a big thing for a while. John Boy is the guy who made that a documentary about the Mariners during the. During pandemic.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, that's John Boys.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, no, you're right. John Boy and John Boys. I get those two confused all the time. My apartment.

[Luke Burbank]

Apologies, but isn't it Jomboy J O N. Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Jon Boy is different. Which is the one who's the person who does all the data driven Mariners thing.

[Luke Burbank]

That's Boy's Boys.

[Andrew Walsh]

But John Boy is the one that does the lip reading. Have you watched it? And this does go back a ways. They'll, like, they'll show a fight between a player and an ump or something like that. And then he'll go in and he kind of does lip reading to like, kind of tell the story of how this bench clearing brawl started or whatever.

[Luke Burbank]

But by the way, I know that we need to get out of here, but I've still got a lot of pickles. I don't know if you can see.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, that is camera.

[Luke Burbank]

How do you feel, how do you feel about robot umps? Are you ready for them?

[Andrew Walsh]

You know, Luke, I think I am. Like, when I, when I'm angry at the umps, I'm just like, get out of here with this. Like, get these robots in here now. Although I do think I'm going to see it in my lifetime. And I'm going to wonder if I'm going to be on the wrong side of history of that I'm. Because, like, there is an argument to be said that like, the, the strike zone is a zone. It's an area. It's not as precise as that little box that we see on tv.

[Luke Burbank]

Right.

[Andrew Walsh]

And treating it like, treating it like a goal line in football, I think is a bit of a mistake. On the other hand, if you can.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, you know that I've never thought about this way until this conversation.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm being honest here. Like, that's a really good point. Point. Like, I think of it as that box and I get very mad when something defies that box and it goes against the Mariners. I'm not mad when it goes against the other team.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right. But funny.

[Luke Burbank]

But you're right. It is the essential. I'm really having this thought for the first time in my life as we're talking about it. Like, the idea is it's supposed to be a pitch that the hitter can hit. The reason it's a strike is because it was hittable. It's not in the dirt. It's not way over their head. It is a pitch that you could hit and you didn't hit it, and that's why we're calling it a strike. And that probably has a little bit to do with the size of the player, the. Where the player is standing. Like, there's a bunch of sort of other factors that the umpire. And I'm no Angel Hernandez apologist, but there are a bunch of other things that I guess that the. That the umpire is sort of taking into account that the robot will not take into account.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, I do like the idea of being able to challenge and then rely on the, you know, robots or computer system to, like, confirm or deny. Like, I think that's a good medium step in there. Like, you keep the. And that's what they were doing during spring training, and I think that's what they're doing during a lot of minor league games. I think depending on the technology at various parks. You know, not all minor league parks are set up for that. But it. I kind of do like that as an in between. Because. Because obviously, sometimes the umps are just, like, way, way wrong. I mean, way wrong. And you should be able to challenge that and say, come on, man, that's not how. And just like, no, I said it, therefore, I can't. No takesies. Backies, I think, is the baseball term for that. So I like the idea of challenging it and having some sort of computer system behind it, although that could become very tedious. I mean, you got to somehow put limitations on how many challenges, which I do believe they have. So I think that's fine. But you got to be able to eliminate. Eliminate the. Just these terrible, terrible calls that are so far outside the zone. But it's like, well, if you question my authority, you're going to get booted from the game I hate. Well, that's their power.

[Luke Burbank]

Did you see the guy that got tossed for tapping his head?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I don't think so.

[Luke Burbank]

So there was a player who. There was a bad strike call, or, you know, there was A bad call on a ball and strike. And the player tapped their helmet, which I think in the preseason season means we're gonna challenge. Oh, like, that's the way that you. You know how. Like, in. Yeah, in, like, they. What. What is it? Like the earphone thing?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, the manager will do earphones if he wants a review.

[Luke Burbank]

And so I guess that. I guess tapping your helmet in the minors or something, or not in the minors or the preseason or some other version of baseball is how you indicate that you want to challenge it. And this guy got a terrible call, this batter. And then he was kind of arguing. Arguing with the. But then he went back to. He's getting back in his batting stance, and he kind of tapped his helmet. And the umpire.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, really?

[Luke Burbank]

I was like, oh, they scared.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. So he tapped the helmet like he didn't do it. And at first, I thought you're.

[Luke Burbank]

Nobody even knew what he was doing. None of. None of us, the viewers understood what shade he was throwing at the umpire.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's interesting. At first, I thought you meant he just did it out of instinct because he had done it so many times during the. The spring.

[Luke Burbank]

That could also be the case, but.

[Andrew Walsh]

It sounds like he already got into a fight with the ump, and then.

[Luke Burbank]

He already kind of groused with the ump, and he was kind of shading the ump, but in a way that was hyper specific. Yeah, it was. Not to. To your point about the fact that, like, the ego of these umpires is.

[Andrew Walsh]

So fragile, so gross. Tapped your helmet and then you're getting booted. Like, that's.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, because, like, what, like, eight people in America understood that you were saying, like, let's review this.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Like.

[Luke Burbank]

And you tossed him over that. Like, they're just. I mean, next to police. They are. Their egos are so freaking fragile. What do you think is the pipeline between police.

[Andrew Walsh]

Police.

[Luke Burbank]

The police to umpire. Pipeline of the most fragile individuals who've ever done a job?

[Andrew Walsh]

I was gonna think that. I was like, yeah, that sounds like some major cop energy right there. Because I said so. That's. That's. That's the energy. It's. Because I said so.

[Luke Burbank]

That's how we know it happened. Wait, you tapped. You tapped your head. You embarrassed me right now in this traffic stop.

[Andrew Walsh]

Anyway, the point of all of this.

[Luke Burbank]

Is what a place to land the show.

[Andrew Walsh]

I believe Nancy and Sluggo. There are some feelings between them that I never realized before, and I'm gonna.

[Luke Burbank]

Start following it on Blue Ski today. And. And then we're. Tomorrow, it's going to be our top story. Will they or won't they?

[Andrew Walsh]

Will they or won't they?

[Luke Burbank]

Find they or don't they?

[Andrew Walsh]

They're children.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. Oh, they are. Sorry. I think that, I think that Kristen Wiig's character, Gilly, her catch line was sorry, she would just, like, do some horrible things. You go, sorry.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now that makes sense to me. I don't know if I saw that sketch, but it's basically saying, like, what if a psychopath like this little girl almost said Kathy Nancy, really was just like, navigating life in this way and then expecting to get off the hook? Sorry. All right.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. Thanks, everybody. And sorry for today's tbtl, that's on me. We are going to be back here tomorrow with more pickles and more imaginary radio for all of you. So please, if you can join us for that. In the meantime, have a great Tuesday. Take care of yourselves. Go make Mariners. And please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to all. Power out.