#4515 TBTL On The Record!

Summary

Podcast Summary: TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live – Episode #4515 "On The Record!"

Release Date: July 22, 2025
Hosts: Luke Burbank, Andrew Walsh
Guest: Harriet (Local Journalist)
Correspondent: John Sklaroff

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Introduction

In episode #4515 of TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live, hosts Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh, alongside John Sklaroff, delve into a mix of personal anecdotes, community interactions, and their ongoing fundraising efforts. The episode, recorded from Friendship, Wisconsin, offers listeners a behind-the-scenes look at the dynamics of their friendship and the challenges they navigate as a podcasting duo.

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The Wisconsin 106 Breakfast Contest [03:06]

Andrew Walsh shares his recent misadventure with a local radio contest:

Andrew Walsh [03:57]: "I lost the Wisconsin 106 Breakfast with Bob Question to Ponder contest this morning, and I thought I had it in the bag."

The hosts discuss the contest's question:

Andrew Walsh [04:24]: "According to a recent study, what should you do 20 to 30 minutes before you go to bed?"

Andrew’s submission: "Turn off your phone," a response he believed was correct. However, the actual answer revealed by the radio host Bob was:

Luke Burbank [13:14]: "The answer was wear sunglasses."

The couple humorously reflect on the unexpected outcome, emphasizing their resilience:

Luke Burbank [03:58]: "It's not how many times you get knocked down, Andrew. It's how many times you get back up."

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Fundraising Efforts: TBTL A Thon [02:34]

The hosts introduce their annual fundraising event, the "TBTL A Thon," highlighting the importance of listener support to keep the show running:

Luke Burbank [01:58]: "It's that one time a year where we get together with you, the tens of listeners, to gently remind you that this whole thing is 100% listener supported."

They discuss various donation tiers and associated thank-you gifts, including melodicas, harmonicas, and tambourines, all themed around music to resonate with their audience.

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Guest Appearance: Harriet from the Local Newspaper [61:00]

Unexpectedly, Harriet, a local journalist from the Friendship Times, joins the conversation live, intrigued by the podcast’s presence in town:

Harriet: "I write a column called Only Yesterday and another one called Harriet's on the Move where I go somewhere and report."

The hosts seize the opportunity to engage with Harriet, discussing local journalism and the authenticity of news reporting. Harriet questions the credibility of a recent People magazine article based on a Reddit post, reflecting on modern journalism's challenges.

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Interaction with Listeners: Ivan from Amsterdam [68:43]

A live call from Ivan in Amsterdam showcases the podcast’s international reach:

Ivan: "We got Marshall, Abby, Spencer, and a couple of us are going to be hitting the Amsterdam canals and doing a boat get-together this weekend."

Ivan expresses interest in the podcast's operations and hints at future collaborations, illustrating the deep connections formed with their "tens" community worldwide.

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Behind the Scenes: Living Arrangements and Airbnb [08:33]

The trio humorously discusses their Airbnb accommodations in Friendship, highlighting quirky features like low-hanging ceiling fans:

Luke Burbank [24:36]: "You do have the objectively speaking, the nicest room. Which I'm very happy for you to have."

Their lighthearted banter about room assignments and safety adds a personal touch, resonating with listeners familiar with group travel dynamics.

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The Billboard in Friendship [85:07]

A significant moment in the episode is the revelation of a billboard in Friendship promoting the podcast:

Andrew Walsh [86:37]: "We're sort of making a parody of like sort of a personal injury style billboard."

Surprisingly, despite being a month old, the billboard hasn't garnered any phone calls, leading to humorous reflections on its effectiveness and the hosts' promotional strategies.

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Recap and Closing Thoughts [89:05]

As the episode wraps up, Luke shares the origins of TBTL, tracing its roots back to a 2008 radio show before transitioning to a podcast following cancellation:

Luke Burbank [83:35]: "When the station was restructuring the schedule, it meant they were canceling the show."

Reflecting on their journey, the hosts emphasize the importance of community support:

Andrew Walsh [52:22]: "Thank you very much."

They conclude with a heartfelt appreciation for their listeners and a tease for future content, maintaining the episode's warm and engaging tone.

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Notable Quotes

• Andrew Walsh [03:57]: "I thought I had it in the bag."
• Luke Burbank [13:14]: "The answer was wear sunglasses."
• John Sklaroff [38:28]: "I'm always going to take her side."
• Luke Burbank [85:07]: "Nobody tell Air Supplies that their greatest hits album bears a striking resemblance to the TBTL greatest hits album, please."

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Conclusion

Episode #4515 of TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live offers a rich tapestry of humor, personal stories, and community engagement. Through candid conversations and unexpected guest interactions, Luke, Andrew, and John provide listeners—both long-time fans and newcomers—with an intimate glimpse into their podcasting world. The episode underscores the value of friendship and listener support in sustaining creative endeavors.

Transcript

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't want to sound weird, guy, but, I mean, you're just vastly becoming my very best friend. Dude.

[Luke Burbank]

Best friends are very cool to be.

[Andrew Walsh]

Very best friends are dope to be. What are you doing this weekend? Me? I need to check my Palm Pilot, but I think I'm just chilling. Yeah. TBTL we're doing okay, folks. I gotta admit, Bill Maher smoked me up again. I'm pretty deep in a couch right now. For the love of the flying spaghetti monster, donate before it's too late. Richard Dreyfus out.

[Luke Burbank]

Everybody calls it garbage.

[Andrew Walsh]

Most people call it a problem.

[Luke Burbank]

We call it our challenge.

[Harriet]

What kind of friend are you?

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm a cool friend. What kind of friend are you?

[Harriet]

I'm somewhat disappointing, but I have a good heart. Are you a connoisseur of art? I had a painted turtle when I was a kid.

[Luke Burbank]

Are you seriously detaining me again?

[Andrew Walsh]

Am I being rendered. No, you're being friendered. So just please accept our compulsory hospitality.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, hello. All right. Good morning and welcome, everyone, to a Tuesday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. It's an audiophiles nightmare. My name's Luke Burbank. I'm your host.

[Andrew Walsh]

Say hello to my little friend Luke Burbank on tbtl.net Coming to you once.

[Luke Burbank]

Again from beautiful downtown Friendship, Wisconsin.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now you have a friend in the.

[Luke Burbank]

Diamond business, courtesy of the Adams County Historical Society right here on Main Street. We've done it, folks. We've made it to episode 4515 in a collector series, Let the fun begin. And we are here, of course, as part of the TBTLathon 16, banding together. It's day two of this year's THON.

[Harriet]

One turkey, two turd, three turdy.

[Luke Burbank]

It's that one time a year where we get together with you, the tens of listeners to, I guess, gently, and sometimes not so gently, remind you that this whole thing is 100% listener supported. And, well, we need your support to keep it going. So we appreciate everybody who's been able to do that so far and also everyone who will be checking in throughout the week. One of the ways that you can check in with us is by giving us a ring. That's right. The Phone lines are open. 206-4414, tbtl Ahoy Hui. 206-414-8285. We've also got friendship in the news once again. Can you.

[John Sklaroff]

Can you verify. Can you give me some 411.

[Luke Burbank]

What is the cutoff in terms of time in Terms of late night hours of the night where you would not go pick your friend up from the airport. That is the question based on a real scenario. And I'm also going to be honest with you, I wonder if it's a real scenario. It's by way of People magazine. So play the bunk journalism sound effect in your mind right now. Speaking of what may have been bunk journalism, I was talking about my dear mother, Susie Burbank yesterday on the show.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'll say, what's up, dog?

[Luke Burbank]

And I guess she was listening because she would like to correct the record. Yes, Suzy Burbank has logged on and would like to make sure that I am accurately representing her. So we'll do that as well today on the show. Lots to do. But we can't get started before we say hello to this guy. Longest running co bro of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. It's so fitting that we're talking about friendship so much this week because he is a dear friend of mine.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know, what I've found over the years is that the facts are your friends.

[Luke Burbank]

He's Andrew Walsh. She's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good morning, Luke. I'm sorry if I sound a little bit down today.

[Luke Burbank]

Que paso?

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm okay. I just as I think you know, I lost the Wisconsin 106 Breakfast with Bob Question to Ponder contest this morning, and I thought, I thought I had it in the bag.

[Luke Burbank]

It's not how many times you get knocked down, Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's I know.

[Luke Burbank]

How many times you get back up.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know.

[Luke Burbank]

And then tune into the local radio here and then email them your answer to their what are you pondering? Question.

[Andrew Walsh]

Question to ponder.

[Luke Burbank]

Question to ponder.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was trying to win tickets to the Adams County Fair this morning, and I didn't win the tickets.

[Luke Burbank]

Let's enlighten the TBTL listeners on what the question was this morning on the local radio station what the question to ponder was.

[Andrew Walsh]

The question was, according to a recent study, what should you do 20 to 30 minutes before you go to bed? And I thought I had this in the bag. I was like, oh, I thought my only issue was gonna be not being the first person to get there with the right answer. Cause obviously the right answer is you turn off your phone.

[Luke Burbank]

That is what we have all been trained to believe. That is also what I thought the answer was. Yes, John, would that have been your answer? Oh, by the way, this was also here. TBTL employee numero uno and verified non headphone haver Friends are friends forever. John Sklaroff. It's the last day, my friend, that you won't have headphones. They are on the way. They should be here. They might even be arriving at the Airbnb as we speak. Welcome, my friend.

[John Sklaroff]

Hey, it's great to be here. Yeah, no, I appreciate you fixing my headphone situation by tomorrow. Some folks in the comments are very concerned. So, yes, I'll be joining you guys in the land of the hearing, I guess, tomorrow.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes.

[John Sklaroff]

As far as 20, 30 minutes before bed. I think you're supposed to turn your cell phone off like an hour before bed.

[Andrew Walsh]

Probably that was my problem.

[John Sklaroff]

I don't know. Eat a tub of ice cream. Is that. Would I not? Should I not?

[Luke Burbank]

That'll knock you right out.

[Andrew Walsh]

Drink a pint of whiskey.

[Luke Burbank]

Eat a pint of whiskey. Ice cream. Y from Raisin, which might have been on offer last night at it's five o' clock somewhere.

[Andrew Walsh]

Before we get to what the right answer was, Luke.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was kind of thrilling. Was it not to when I told. So you didn't know that I submitted a answer to this? You weren't even.

[Luke Burbank]

I thought you were having a normal morning.

[Andrew Walsh]

You were probably. I didn't know I was having a normal morning. I was trying to answer breakfast with Bob's question to ponder.

[Luke Burbank]

I didn't realize just how sort of high the stakes were.

[Andrew Walsh]

The stakes were high. You were probably listening to some morning edition.

[Luke Burbank]

Sorry, sir. I was literally listening to the New York Times audio app, the opinions who can the Democrats turn to for leadership?

[Andrew Walsh]

While I was listening to.

[Luke Burbank]

By the way, the question interesting conversation about the current governor of Kansas, who I believe her name is might be Rachel Kelly, who is very popular. She's a Democrat. Very popular in a very red state. Anyway, let's get back to the morning show.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let's get back to the morning show. Also, I'm going to do something a little bit awkward here and ask a favor of you, Luke. Could you turn the bass up in my headphones a little bit? I've always wanted to say that, but I'm actually being serious. Don't worry about the bass, but could you just turn the volume up? I'm the first knob there. I'm not used to not having the volume. That's a little bit too much.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, easy, Jay Z.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let's split the difference. Turn the bass down.

[Luke Burbank]

Turn me up. Turn that down. Brooklyn. How's that for you?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's pretty good. Thank you very much. And I'm going to do this here. So basically There is a little radio station that is right on Main Street. Now, technically, I guess I have to say this, it's not actually in Friendship.

[Luke Burbank]

No, it's in Adams.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's in Adams, but it's right on the main drag here. And it's a tiny little radio station that has a window. Exactly what your dream always was. And what we're trying to recreate here. We're, of course, in downtown Friendship, looking out on Main street in the Historical Society. But this is a little studio. I mean, it's just like in the movies. And it looks recently renovated.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it looks nice. They've got modern equipment, a nice soundboard, nice microphones. Yeah, it's a. It's a. It's a nice little scene.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, it absolutely is. And so we got done with lunch yesterday and we wanted to check out the radio station. So we walked by. Unfortunately, the DJ wasn't in there at the time. But we saw the board. I mean, it was lit up, it was playing music. We could hear it from the speaker outside.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I don't even feel like we set out to like, locate the local radio station. It just turns out that it's a fairly concentrated who rescued who. It's a fairly concentrated, you know, little area here between Friendship and Adams. And we went over to Becky's Sugar Shack.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

To get some lunch. And. And then we're just. We got out of the Sugar Shack after having our lunch and you said to me, andrew, would everybody, everybody be okay with about a one to two block little walk here?

[Andrew Walsh]

Because our car was directly across the street. And I said, what if instead of just crossing the street here, let's just walk up to the end of the block and just do a little. After you eat a. You know, it's kind of. It was. It was a good little corned beef sandwich, but, you know, it sits a little heavy, you know, at lunchtime. And it's like just a. I don't know, just like get in the car. Like hoist yourself into the car after a meal like that. You need to stretch your legs a little bit, I feel like.

[Luke Burbank]

So as we did that little loop, we saw that, yeah, there's this radio station here. And then, I mean, I became immediately obsessed with it because what they are doing there is, again, like you said, what we're trying to recreate here. We're doing this kind of with a certain amount of, you know, chicken wire and duct tape and what other foul animals. Duck tape, chicken wire, eagle soaring. I don't know, it just was like, it was this, like, very cool little setup with this studio. And then on the. I immediately went to the website and was looking at the lineup and it looks like they've actually got live DJs, local DJs, like, spinning tunes and doing stuff all day long, which. Which was very appealing. I did not realize, though, that this morning you were gonna take the leap and actually enter their morning question contest.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I couldn't find a way to stream it directly from their website. So I found sort of. By the way, you got Breakfast with Bob until 10am and then you got Patty on the air until 2pm Joe Casper is on until 7pm and look.

[Luke Burbank]

Who'S bringing it home.

[Andrew Walsh]

Delilah.

[Luke Burbank]

Shout out, Sweet spirits.

[Andrew Walsh]

Love, love, Delilah. So, anyway, so I was inspired this morning while getting ready to find a stream of Wisconsin 106, which is the radio station. And I did. And I was like, ah, you know, I don't know if this is going to work or not. And I was really thrilled. It started with like a. I can't remember. It started in the middle of a song that was maybe a yacht rock song or something along the lines of that. And then I was like, I don't know, am I even going to hear Bob? And then there. There was Bob. Breakfast with Bob, and he's bringing us the question of the day to ponder. The question to ponder of the day or something like that. And. And he said you can email and you could. They're really pushing the Facebook thing and I don't have Facebook. And so I'm recently back on Facebook.

[Luke Burbank]

So I might end up via Facebook tomorrow.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now, here's the deal. So I submitted my answer via email and I'm like, I don't know. Like, I feel like they'll just choose some other answer. But I thought I had the right answer. But then I come out to the kitchen and I tell you about all of this. And then, you know, I still have the, you know, radio going on my phone. So we stand in the kitchen and the song ends and Bob comes back on. He's like, we're getting a lot of answers. We're getting. I mean, I was. I mean, I was like, actually really on the edge of my seat.

[Luke Burbank]

I would say you were vibrating with excitement. And you put the. You had the phone on speakerphone. I started videotaping you and the phone in case this was, in fact a magical moment where you were going to be the winner of the question to ponder.

[Andrew Walsh]

I would have freaked out.

[Luke Burbank]

And then this is what Bob did, and this is why he's a radio professional and we're still languishing in the realm of podcasting. He said, we've got the answer to the question to ponder. And then he gave some examples of submissions that weren't correct, that were not right.

[John Sklaroff]

People were saying, recall what some of them were.

[Andrew Walsh]

I do. I think maybe like drinking some decaf tea was one of them. One of them was a little bit on the edges, sort of. So it was like.

[Luke Burbank]

Like having some. Some mommy and daddy take a steamy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Shower with your wife was one of them.

[John Sklaroff]

I think I was in the shower while you guys were listening.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, you were in there.

[Luke Burbank]

You were taking a steamy shower. That's how you start your day. And. And then this is what Bob did. He then just went into another song.

[Andrew Walsh]

He said, none of those are the right answers. Have the real answer?

[Luke Burbank]

Absolutely left us on red. And when I tell you that Andrew and I did not move an inch from that kitchen, we stood there like statues as the Alan Parsons Project played.

[Andrew Walsh]

The Allen Parsons Project.

[Luke Burbank]

And when that song was over, and.

[Andrew Walsh]

Then Bob comes back and he gives us a little information about Alan Parsons, saying that he was behind the board for a lot of your favorite Beatles songs, which actually I did not know as a Beatles fan. So I'll do some research on that. Maybe that'll be tomorrow's question.

[Luke Burbank]

By the way, I resumed videotaping Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

At this point because I really thought when we heard him list. I'm going to say seven to eight answers that are wrong. None of the wrong answers were what I submitted. So I'm like, this is obvious. This is obvious that I'm going to win this thing. I'm going to win these tickets. Now the fair is going on when I'm not here, so I guess I would give those tickets away to.

[Luke Burbank]

Currently you're not scheduled to be here, but that could change.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was saying if it was going on now, we would. I would certainly encourage you guys to join me in a venture through the.

[Luke Burbank]

The.

[Andrew Walsh]

What do they say? Elephant ears. And what else do they have at the.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, onion burgers. A lot of opportunities to. To buy a trampoline funnel cake. Lots of. Lots of knife demonstrations.

[Andrew Walsh]

Absolutely. But anyway, unfortunately, ShamWow next week, I think. But I did want these tickets. I mean, I'll find a home for these tickets. I want to win them first, find out what to do with them later.

[Luke Burbank]

We're going to offer them as a TBTL thank you gift for the THON this year.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I think I told you during that Alan Parsons project song. I'm like, we know we have the right answer. It's just like Will pick.

[Luke Burbank]

I also, by the way, submitted the same answer.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that's right.

[Luke Burbank]

You.

[Andrew Walsh]

When you found out about this, you also submitted. I would have been happy for either one of us to win. I'm not even saying that to be nice. I just wanted to win. And. And then it turns out the answer was completely something else. He never even. He didn't even list us no as an incorrect answer. Which really did hurt.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I don't think we've revealed what we have answer was yet. What are. What is one to do 20 to 30. 30 minutes before going to bed if they want to sleep easier. The answer. Looks like you're getting some. Yeah.

[John Sklaroff]

Do you want to take a break before you actually reveal the shriek?

[Andrew Walsh]

We'll give you the answer right after this. Feed the Tree by Belly.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, that would be Andrew's radio station.

[Andrew Walsh]

It is an eclectic mix they have there and I appreciate that. But are you getting a drum roll ready?

[Luke Burbank]

No, I was getting the disappointment sound ready so that the listeners can understand what our emotional state was when we found out that we did not win.

[Andrew Walsh]

That is good. The answer was wear sunglasses. What? Wear sunglasses.

[Luke Burbank]

Now, Andrew. I did a little research on their research.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you did?

[Luke Burbank]

And I found an article in the cbc. Can't fall asleep. Try wearing sunglasses at night, say researchers.

[Andrew Walsh]

So that's good.

[Luke Burbank]

Cbc, a reputable source.

[John Sklaroff]

Do we trust Canada?

[Luke Burbank]

I will mention this. It is more than ever. More than ever. And more than this place. I don't know if you've been following the news. This article though is from 2016.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, recent. I mean recent is within the last decade objective. Yeah, we call people who started listening to TBTL in 2016.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, but that's. But we have very low standards for ourselves. Are you telling me Bob in the morning was willing to present Breakfast with Bob? Bob of Breakfast with Bob was willing to present this as new research from.

[John Sklaroff]

2016 relative to the span of his of scientific research throughout human history. It's a very recent.

[Luke Burbank]

You mean on the geologic scale?

[Ivan]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Like if we can talk from a.

[John Sklaroff]

Galileo to today, it's very recent.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is it clear to you yet that John and I would die for breakfast with Bob? I mean, defending him to the end.

[Luke Burbank]

I just. First of all, I think that obviously everyone knows the right answer is turn your phone off, get that blue light away from your face. And I feel like.

[Andrew Walsh]

And take some of those little purple pills.

[Luke Burbank]

Sure. Yeah. Those. A little something to knock you out. Yep. I just. Again, I find this. I want to know what the research was. Or maybe there's a newer article that also kind of confirms this. Andrew, here's the thing. You might be on Bob's side. I'm on your side.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you. Oh, it's Luke on your side.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly. That's my new consumer rights segment I'm going to launch next week. If the thon goes okay, that's great. If we raise enough money this week to continue on with the broadcast, I am going to launch a consumer rights segment called Burbank. Burbank's got your back.

[Andrew Walsh]

Burbank's got your back.

[Luke Burbank]

It's called burbs on your back. Wait, what?

[Andrew Walsh]

That sounds like. Wait, I gotta. I gotta.

[Luke Burbank]

If you take too many of those blue pills Burbs, you'll have a Burbs on your back. So this is the plan, I think going forward, Andrew, is each morning. And that would be three more mornings. We got Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday still. Yeah, it sounds like you're going to enter the contest to see if you can possibly win those tickets.

[Andrew Walsh]

I need to win those tickets.

[John Sklaroff]

What was your answer to today's again, Andrew?

[Andrew Walsh]

It was. Turn off your phone.

[John Sklaroff]

What if every day from now on, you just send that in as your answer regardless of what the question is?

[Andrew Walsh]

Can I tell you guys something that you don't know about the story that I'm a little bit embarrassed about now. Now you gotta. Well, I guess sort of half picture this. I am submitting this. I'm like, I'm done with my shower. I'm dressed enough just for your imagination here. I'm dressed enough. Okay. But I am in the bathroom.

[Luke Burbank]

Can there be an enough of you being dressed?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's a really good question. I got a puffy coat on.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, more, more.

[Andrew Walsh]

I got an oversized basketball jean.

[Luke Burbank]

Getting closer.

[John Sklaroff]

You got a light crapped scarf.

[Luke Burbank]

You look like one of the monsters from space.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, good. I got that tarp Genevieve wanted to buy for the mulch. I've got that wrapped around perfect. But I am in. I am kind of getting ready. And I'm standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom. And I'm like, I think I'm getting ready to brush my teeth or something. I think my glasses aren't on. You know, the bathroom is a little steamy, but I'm hurry. I'm trying to get this answer in quickly on the machine that's also streaming the audio. And he said the email address once, and I was like, I think I Have it, I think, whatever. It was like [e-mail] I think. Why am I telling people that? That's more competition.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, we're trying to kind of have the focus be on this show this week and the fundraising.

[Andrew Walsh]

If a 10 wins, I'd take that too, honestly. But anyway, it's a win for the community. It's a win for the community. All of that is to say I'm just a little bit disoriented as I'm trying to get this out. And when I submitted my answer, I ended it with a question mark.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, no, you played Jeopardy.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's a very. That's a very. I was gonna say beta, but it was a very beta way to enter. I was just like, turn off your phone. Which I should. And you probably put an exclamation point or something at the end of the day.

[Luke Burbank]

No, I didn't go that far. But I still have the. I've still got the two exclamation points. I think that says everything. Here's what I put in the. You can see, in fact, it was the last email I put Q to ponder. Colon. Oh, I did. With a question mark as well.

[Andrew Walsh]

Turn off your phone, question mark.

[Luke Burbank]

Look, a couple of betas. Just a couple of beta boys over here. Two cucks.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

All right. Okay, thank you.

[John Sklaroff]

Can I ask a question about the sunglasses? How does that work? Right. Because I assume most people like me. Because I see most people like me. You go to bed, you like, maybe start reading, you kind of lay in.

[Luke Burbank]

There for a few minutes.

[John Sklaroff]

Are you wearing them in bed or like.

[Luke Burbank]

No, no, I'm going to tell you exactly what it is. And again, it supports my initial theory that the right answer is turn your phone off. One of the things that we know about the cell phones is that they have blue light. Right. It emits this blue light that is supposedly bad for us. Now, the kinds of sunglasses that you're supposed to wear are amber tinted sunglasses, also known as blue blockers.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh. So it's very specific.

[Luke Burbank]

What it is, is sunglasses that are blocking the. Yeah. So you could either walk around in your house with blue blockers on looking like an absolute nimrod, or you could, and I've never done this and I never will, you could just put your phone away a half hour before you go to sleep. I feel like these are two approaches to the same sort of solution. Less blue light entering your eyes and your brain. When it is time to start winding.

[Andrew Walsh]

Down, are we going to march down the street and Protest outside? Of Wisconsin106 this afternoon after all.

[Luke Burbank]

I would advise against that because what I'm hoping is that we can get on Wisconsin 106 before the week is over. I don't know if that's your plan for that. I was thinking when we're done recording today. And by the way, hi to everybody watching us on YouTube. Somehow through the magic of, I don't know, a friendship. The magic of friendship, Wisconsin. It seems like the feed is a little more clear today.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know. You know what's funny is yesterday I was enjoying having the YouTube up in front of me so I could read the comments. But now that I can actually see myself, I know it's unsettling, disconcerting. I don't want it. Yesterday we were just like blurry spots and I liked that.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it's kind of comforting to just be sort vague. Well, here was what I was thinking. When this show's over today, I was going to fire off a number of emails to the various local hosts over there and I was going to say, hey, we're a podcast, we're visiting from Seattle, Washington and we're big fans of the station. And if you. And this is something that I generally don't respond to particularly well when people do it to us.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right. But if you, if you're like begging.

[Luke Burbank]

Essentially, if you need anyone to help, you know, fill a little time or you know, you want us to stop by, we'd love to come by and tell you a little bit about what we're doing here in friendship.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

So that was going to be my pr. I am going to sort of be the brand ambassador for TBTL here in Friendship, Wisconsin. So that's why we shouldn't protest them because we need to say on their good side. Because I want to get. I want to get in that cool ass studio. Sorry I said it. Yeah, that cool studio over there, nestled comfortably by the way, just a few steps down from it's five o' clock somewhere.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. Our new watering hole.

[Luke Burbank]

My new favorite place to watch the Mariners. Absolutely implode.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. Well, implode makes it sound like they had built something to begin with.

[Luke Burbank]

Imploding. The thing about imploding is it indicates the existence of a ploding. Exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

There was just nothing. There was just nothing. They just sat there.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Hey, if we can go back to your bathroom times, Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, please. That's what the listeners want.

[Luke Burbank]

I want to talk about this a little bit. You were, you know, you were out of the shower and we hope, fully clothed and listening to the morning show here in Wisconsin in your bathroom that is attached to your room that you're sleeping in, which I had not actually been in so far this trip.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then my ensuite.

[Luke Burbank]

Your ensuite. And I needed to use it quickly, not for going to the bathroom, but for something more embarrassing, for applying my makeup.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I didn't. I'm sorry. I would have cleared off that sink for you.

[Luke Burbank]

John had just showered in our bathroom that we share. And it was. The ventilation in our bathroom leaves a little something to be desired. So I needed. I needed a mirror. And. And then I got. And I was like, this is a pretty nice bathroom.

[Andrew Walsh]

It is. I get it. You. I feel I have, like, whatever the. Whatever the definition of survivor's guilt is when it comes to having the nice room with the ensuite bathroom, I have that. Thank you, guys.

[Luke Burbank]

You absolutely. You absolutely deserve it, my friend. Like, you are such a sort of low key person when it comes to. If we. And we've. You and I particularly have stayed in so many Airbnb situations now, hotels, the whole thing. And you are just so low maintenance. As are you, John. And I am so high maintenance. And my. It's something I have to really fight and generally I don't. Generally I just let it. I just let it fly. But my tendency is to walk into a place and immediately assess what is the. What is the most appealing scenario that I can be in. And then how do I somewhat casually but forcefully make sure that I end up at that eventuality?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I think I always just say, take whatever you want.

[Luke Burbank]

And I usually do. And for some reason I just felt like I didn't know if it was gonna be John, you or Andrew who grabbed that room. But I just thought for once in my life, maybe I don't just try to go to the best room for full transparency.

[John Sklaroff]

Andrew did shove me in the face and say, that's my room.

[Andrew Walsh]

Jabroni.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Which is very in character for him, I would say. Yeah, the verisimilitude there is the jabroni. Yeah, you nailed.

[Luke Burbank]

We cannot get Andrew to stop saying jabroni if you say that. If we get on the local radio and you start using jabroni like you like to.

[John Sklaroff]

I was very happy also to let Andrew he. You deserve to have the nice things.

[Andrew Walsh]

Can I just mention, I don't know if this plays into your story or not, Luke, but when we all arrived at the Airbnb, I think you and John scoped out the place before me. For some reason I think we all immediately went out onto this back porch area just to kind of scope out the view and whatever and because we're kind of near a lake and. And then I think you guys came back inside immediately and I maybe lingered another minute or two. So when I came back inside, you guys just said, oh Andrew, you can take that room. And it sounded like the nicest one and I appreciated it. But I still don't. I haven't even been back to where you're. I don't even know what you're. No idea what you're. Because I want to respect your guys privacy.

[Luke Burbank]

Thank you.

[Andrew Walsh]

I haven't seen your bedrooms or what your showering situation is. I just know in my heart that I have the catbird seat.

[Luke Burbank]

You do have the objectively speaking, the nicest room. Which I'm very happy for you to have. I really am. I'm a little less happy this morning having seen how nice the bathroom is. My happiness for you went down from 100% to 75% but it's well deserved.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know, you want to keep your bathroom privileges.

[Luke Burbank]

I would. So to give you the layout for John and I. I think our rooms both have their pros and cons.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah. I will say for our bathroom, I was pleasantly surprised to find we have a dual sink situation.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes.

[John Sklaroff]

So you.

[Luke Burbank]

So we can do our hair together at the same time. And that's actually kind of convenient. But like. So John's room is very small unfortunately. But. But the bed looks pretty. The bed looks pretty decent.

[John Sklaroff]

It was. I was actually when I first got there, I was like, oh, this can be very uncomfortable. But I've slept very nicely the last few nights. It's actually very. It was pleasantly surprising.

[Luke Burbank]

Now my room is a little larger than John's but it also is the room that has bunk beds in it. And I'm sleeping on the lower bunk bed because it's the larger of the two beds. It's probably the size of like what we might call a. It's not quite a twin. It's a little larger than a twin bed. Maybe a full.

[Andrew Walsh]

Interesting. But the one on top of it, smaller. Oh, I've never seen a staggered sort of.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, if you ever came over to the other side of the track.

[Andrew Walsh]

If you ever came down cigarettes over there.

[Luke Burbank]

There'S a place called Lonesome Town. If you ever came down there.

[Andrew Walsh]

Andy, over to the bachelor arms over there.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly. My bed's a race car. So I kind of is in a way because I. So I Get all set up in the lower bunk, and this is night one, and we're all pretty tired, you know, you. And I particularly got up really early on the west coast to fly out and stuff, and I sort of got into bed and got all cozied up, and I was. It was one of those nights where I could just. I could have fallen asleep sitting down. Like, I was really, really gassed. And so maybe I didn't fully notice it when I got into bed sometime in the middle of the night as I was rolling around, I was trying to figure out what felt kind of different about this bed than I'm used to.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's a waterbed.

[Luke Burbank]

Ah. That actually would have been. That'd be an interesting plot development. I kind of thought maybe that, like, that somebody before me had left, like, a Twix wrapper in the bed or something. Like there was something kind of crinkly, something that didn't feel like, you know, didn't feel like my bed at home anyway. And through a little bit of research, I realized that you Googled it.

[Andrew Walsh]

I did.

[Luke Burbank]

Hey, Siri. Hey, Siri. Is there a Twix wrapper in my bed? I asked Gemini to write me an email to Siri asking if there was a Twix wrapper in my bed. And of course there wasn't. What there was underneath all of the sheets on my bed were another set of sheets, what we used to call, when I was a kid, rubber sheets. Sheets that often are. I feel like this has fallen out of fashion. Like, it seemed like a thing that was fairly common when I was young, anyway, that I just. You knew about it. You maybe you knew kids that had it, or you would stay somewhere and that would be the case. Whatever. I don't feel like I haven't encountered this in a long time, but I basically have.

[Andrew Walsh]

But why would you, though? You don't have kids, right? You're not saying you're a lot of kid places. I'm not saying you're wrong about that, but I'm almost like, why would you.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I mean, you. Honestly, you whiffed pretty hard on the question to ponder today, so can we trust anything that you're saying?

[Andrew Walsh]

That is a good point.

[Luke Burbank]

Tomorrow's question is about rubber sheets.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know what, Luke? You're right. I'm gonna start listening. I'm gonna listen today.

[Luke Burbank]

So, yeah, I have on my bed, like, those kind of rubber sheets that are in case, you know, somebody has an accident. Clearly, the owners of this Airbnb realized this is the room where the Kids are going to be staying and they don't want some kids, you know, having an accident in the middle of the night and ruining the bunk bed mattress.

[John Sklaroff]

It's a very kid friendly place. They have like games and toys and they have children's life preserve with life jackets for the water. So it's real family friendly getaway.

[Luke Burbank]

It's so family friendly. My room is so as to be adult dangerous because this has nothing to do with the sheets in my room. In my room. Rip. I'm sorry, Brian Wilson.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know that song in my room.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know it.

[Luke Burbank]

I just probably did a bad rendition of it. There's a place that I can go. One of the most famous Beach Boy songs.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't think I know that song.

[John Sklaroff]

I don't think I know that one either, really.

[Andrew Walsh]

I only really know Pet Sounds and then the.

[Luke Burbank]

I thought that was non pet sounds. Maybe it was earlier than that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe I'm just having a moment, but I don't think I know that.

[Luke Burbank]

I also don't think my rendition was doing us any favors. So I have one of those fans in my room, a ceiling fan. That's a light. I believe you have one in your room, Andy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Over your bed.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then you operate it with a remote control.

[John Sklaroff]

You have the remote control because you have the fancy room.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do I control all your fans? No, I'm turning.

[Luke Burbank]

Mine's on. Mine is on a switch, but I like having mine running because 1. It's a bit of a white noise. It also is keeping the room cool. Here's the problem. I'm. I probably going about 6 foot. I used to be 6 1. I might be about 6 foot these days. My ceiling fan is about 5ft 10 from the floor to where the ceiling fan is about 5ft and 10 inches. And if that thing is going. And I were. If and I were to not not duck. Oh man, it would. It would give me a haircut that I was not looking to have.

[John Sklaroff]

You just walking around with your head.

[Luke Burbank]

Tilted the whole time I am. When I pass through that part of the room. It's actually insane. Like, I know that they are planned that. The. The plan is this is the children's room, if you will. This is for people that are, you know, probably going to be pretty short their kids.

[John Sklaroff]

But you think the parents are going in there too to like check on the kids?

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

The parents are pulling a real Andrew. They're just staying down at the ensuite. Like whatever happens at the south end that is not our. No, but, like, I actually feel like. I mean, this place that we're staying has generally been fine, but I do feel like I need to send them a little email that says you really have to, like, figure out something else for the ceiling fan in this room. Because if a person over the height of 510 is in here, it is actually dangerous.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know, you sound like somebody who's in one of those movies where they're like under a helicopter. You know what I mean? And often it's like people who are like, again, I don't know if I can explain this. I feel like I've never tried to put words to this before, but it's something I've seen in movies so much that sort of fascinated me as a kid because you would see like some helicopter scene and usually it's, yes, there are people who fly the helicopter and they're used to it, but then you have like, I don't know, dignitaries or some. Or hospital personnel or whatever. They're rushing to the. And they're all bending over so that their heads don't get chopped off by the blades. And I just remember being a kid and again, I don't even know if I can explain it. I was, like, kind of confused by it. I'm like, well, it looks like if you stand up, you'd be fine. But is it an instinct thing or is it just a safety thing? Everybody tells you to do it by a helicopter. I bet you if it was spinning, well, you were.

[Luke Burbank]

You just told me you did a helicopter at the Grand Canyon. Do you remember what you did?

[Andrew Walsh]

I do not think the blades were spinning when we boarded the helicopter. So that was. That was it. Yes. You were talking about a helicopter ride on the show recently. And it reminded me that I have actually. The man who's afraid of heights and the man who brought the rock and roll edge to helicopters actually did take a helicopter ride on January 6th. As I was telling you, we knew that something was going on in the Capitol. Veebs and I were on vacation in the Grand Canyon. We, we. We went up for like a half hour tour or whatever it was. We came back down and Friends of the World had changed. It was a very weird day. But, yeah, I don't know, it sounds like you're sort of going in there.

[Luke Burbank]

That this is instinct a little bit. It's possible. Here's what I haven't done. I haven't tested it. I haven't walked into it while it's moving because I feel like If I'm, if I, my theory is confirmed, then you guys will just have to host the rest of the week without me. Yeah, but it definitely is not a, a good feeling.

[Andrew Walsh]

John, I didn't like your lack of confidence in me. I mean I.

[John Sklaroff]

Tough for me. I meant personally I was worried about stepping up responsibilities. I feel very confident in you. Unless you abandon us to go to Wisconsin106.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is the thing though, that happened off my. You're dropping off press releases. I'm dropping off my red.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, your demo tape. No, you're dropping off. You're dropping off your reel, dude.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right.

[Luke Burbank]

This is the thing though that I didn't see coming last night. Crawled back into bed. My plan was to take the rubber sheets off.

[Andrew Walsh]

Off.

[Luke Burbank]

Didn't get around to it. Slept like an absolute baby. And by that I mean peed in the bed constantly for probably six hours. No, I slept so great. I'm worried that by the end of this week I won't be able to sleep on a non rubber sheet bed.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh my God. How big is your bed at home? Do you mind me asking?

[Luke Burbank]

It's a king size bed.

[Andrew Walsh]

Andrew, do you think that they make these four king size beds?

[Luke Burbank]

I bet you they do because there's all kinds of reasons why you might need to protect the mattress.

[Andrew Walsh]

Then go ahead and get yourself one of those.

[Luke Burbank]

Is that the second recumbent bikes?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I think it's the same guy.

[Luke Burbank]

It's gotta.

[Andrew Walsh]

Every day around this time a guy goes by on a recumbent bike. We have a perfect view of Main street and all the people walking back and forth.

[Luke Burbank]

We really do.

[Andrew Walsh]

There was somebody walking back and forth before who was only wearing one sandal and we can't.

[Luke Burbank]

That was interesting. Yeah, it was a gal who pulled up in a pretty nice vehicle and then got out of the vehicle and had one flip flop on and then a barefoot and then just walked over to the tobacco shop.

[Andrew Walsh]

And just to be very clear, did not seem like somebody. And again, I'm struggling but it didn't seem like, you know, somebody who was like really hitting hard times or anything like that. It just seemed like a choice. And I really wish we had interviewed.

[Luke Burbank]

That person, you know, who is struggling. My dear beloved mother. And she's struggling with my description of her behaviors yesterday. Now I, you know, I've said this on the show before and Mom, I hope you're hearing this. I, I feel like my relationship with my mom is. It's, it's so rich and so kind of like rewarding. At my age of 49. And I'm really happy about that. I feel really lucky to have close connections to my whole family, including my mom. I love my mom so much, and I love that my mom is, like, increasingly interested in tbtl, as in recently joined the book club.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wow. Yeah.

[John Sklaroff]

Yep.

[Luke Burbank]

And, you know, was at the Philly show and got to meet a lot of tens, and it's just like kind of sort of becoming part of the show. But that also means my mom listens to the show a lot now, which means anytime I bring her up, I'm usually saying something that she does not exactly agree with with my version of events. And that was exactly what happened yesterday. We were talking about, like, Value Village and Goodwill and places like that. Those kind of, you know, like, you know, secondhand stores, thrift stores. And I was saying that there was this store in Seattle called Value Village, which was actually a for profit store and which was kind of shady because they. They made a lot of people think that they were a nonprofit and that the donations were going to help people who might need some help. And really it was just a private business that would just resell your store stuff that they hoped you would give to them. I told a story of my mom trying to take Value Village down by going, which I don't really even understand the finances or the math on that, but just, you know, I was free. I was freestyling. And I was talking about how my mom found money in a pocket of a garment at at Value Village and then took the money home and that now she goes there and she goes through all of the different, you know, pants and jackets looking for money. This is what my mom said yesterday. Hey, you listening to your podcast. And I only went through the one pair of jeans, found the 20 bucks, but never did it again because your dad was so displeased.

[Andrew Walsh]

And what's the displeasure?

[Luke Burbank]

We've talked about this on the show, and I don't need to get angry emails from Walt over this, but I think, listen, you're pinning your parents together. Belt and suspenders only barely begins to describe my dad's way of going through the world, which, again, I respect. That's a way to go through the world. My mom said he seemed to be okay if I bought the pants and then returned them because he figured whatever was in the pockets was officially mine if I purchased them. I started feeling like I am not that desperate. So it was a one off. Also, Value Village closed down soon after that event, to which I would say, exactly. So mom Managed to take Value Village down in my estimation of things. So good job, mom.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. I really feel strongly about this, and this is a weird thing because I don't. I mean, you're bringing. And I really don't want to cause any kind of stress or disharmony amongst your family members, but, like, the more you describe your dad and you know, you guys have been doing a lot of projects together and hanging out together and stuff, and the more I hear about your dad, the more I think of myself as a. Walt. Yes, very much so. There's so much. As I was setting up the gear yesterday or Sunday night or whatever it was and kind of being like, very specific about things, I was wondering if you were seeing me with some of the same emotions you had when your dad was trying to get the door perfectly right that you were talking about, which you were very. You ended up very happy that he would have such attention to detail about it. But at the time, you're like, it's probably just fine as it is. But like, Walt and I, we're attention to detail fellas. We're belt and suspenders folks, as you, as you said, certainly, and I think we both have a pretty solid moral compass, to be honest with you. But in this case, not only do I think there's nothing wrong with. With finding money in a pocket at a resale place, whatever that resale place may be, and keeping it. I mean, if it's goodwill, I might donate it to the Goodwill program. In fact, one of our listeners, Jackie, is on the board of a goodwill organization and said that this program that goes into kind of educating and training people for jobs is really a good service. So I'm glad to support that. But especially at a place like Value Village, which is a for profit place, I do not know what the harm at is. I do not know what the harm is at all of taking that money. But even more so, though, these details that I hear of, well, you should have bought them, taken the money and then returned them. That just is such a. With all due respect, Walt, I aim to be like you. But that seems like more of a loophole. It's the same end. I don't think that that really solves anything.

[Luke Burbank]

Also, we are getting that from my mom.

[Andrew Walsh]

Ah, okay.

[Luke Burbank]

So that's my mom's recollection of things which, you know, memory is a fugitive.

[John Sklaroff]

Can I jump in here real quick? I'm just going to be upfront. I'm very pro Susie on this for two reasons. I've had the great pleasure of meeting Susie a couple of times, I hope. Hey Susie, if you're there listening or watching, John is a big fan of yours. So repeat that. John adores Susie. She's a great person. And also, Susie Burbank is a monthly sustaining donor to tv. So as like watches the and this is just the purse of tbtl.

[Luke Burbank]

You're absolutely right.

[John Sklaroff]

I'm always going to take her side.

[Luke Burbank]

Imagine this like imagine if your throw your phone moment I'm talking to the listeners now was being generated by your actual son. Imagine how much that would hurt. And this is a woman who is still donating to the show despite the fact that I regularly misdescribe things related to her. Now that's love.

[Andrew Walsh]

As you were describing, as you were sort of explaining to me, like this version of events is your dad, your mom's version of events. But what your dad had said, it reminds me of course of Rashomon, which is kind of concept that you bring up a lot because of the one.

[Luke Burbank]

Thing I have to describe that actually that's not true. Miramar by Nagim Mahfouz is the same concept. Those are the two things I have to describe that.

[Andrew Walsh]

But it reminds me. I was scrolling on some social media recently and I'm sorry to just like quote Simpsons jokes that I've only read before, but there was some, I think a Reddit thread or something like what is the most like underappreciated Simpsons joke? And people were just posting screencaps and they show Homer saying Rashomon. Or I think maybe Marge is saying to Homer Rashomon. You hated that movie Homer. And he says that's not how I remember it. It's such a good joke just to like bury in an episode. That's great.

[Luke Burbank]

That is a Harvard grad Simpsons writer level joke. Hey, you know, if we are not if heaven forbid, if my many misstatements around my mom and her behaviors, etc. Etc. If that were to get to her and she were to decide to stop funding the show personally, she funds about 80% of the overall budget each year. I don't know if people know that.

[Andrew Walsh]

I heard trying to claw it back.

[Luke Burbank]

That would be. It's a rescission. Unfortunately, if she were to try to claw back that donation, it would become even more important that we had other folks donating. Right John? Right, John. Because here we are, it's the TBTL a thon and we are raising money to support the show. What we did not get into yesterday was all of the cool thank you.

[John Sklaroff]

Gifts and they are awesome.

[Luke Burbank]

They really are.

[John Sklaroff]

Not to like pat on backs or whatever, or we should, but it's. They. I'm. I think a lot of tens have been giving us a lot of great feedback on what they're seeing. And it's. It's a lot of fun.

[Luke Burbank]

I feel like what I'm hearing from folks is that there are folks that are donating at certain levels because they just want to get the thank you gifts, which is kind of the idea. That's sort of what we're trying to do.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's an incentive.

[Luke Burbank]

You might.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was trying to make bed music for you guys. I love that melodica. It wasn't going great.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, let's. Can you run? Let's do this. Because we've all. We're all. Well, let's see. I'm holding one of the thank you gifts. Andrew's got one. John, you just be the narrator on this.

[Andrew Walsh]

There we go.

[Luke Burbank]

Good.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right.

[Luke Burbank]

What are the different things that folks can get if they support TBTL during this tbtl A thon.

[John Sklaroff]

Well, I mean, since Andrew's going for it $35 a month. Or you can make the equivalent one time gift. Andrew's got the lovely melodica. Melodica.

[Andrew Walsh]

We're not tbtl.

[Luke Burbank]

We're going with melodica. The amount of our life we're gonna lose if we have to call it two things. Every time is gonna be up to 40 seconds.

[Andrew Walsh]

By the way. This thing, you can blow right into it the way I am. So I sort of look like. Like I said on Friday's show.

[Luke Burbank]

And let me throw this out too, before I wanna hear Andrew, before you do your song. Before you do your song. Hey, Andrew. The reason that these. We went with these particular thank you gifts is because the theme this year is TBT 16 band. This is a time where we really need to band together. We, the people who love each other and who are probably pretty. Pretty upset and anxious about a lot of the things going on in the country and the world. This is a time for us to all come together and really just love on each other and support each other. So everything that we're offering, at least most of it is related in one way or another to music. And in fact, tomorrow night, the zoom that we're doing is going to be. What's it called again, Andrew? Ten's Got Music.

[Andrew Walsh]

America's ten's Got Music stuff.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, that's right. It's all. We're all kind of going with this music thing theme. So the. The melodica is going. It'll say TBTL on it. Yeah.

[John Sklaroff]

These are all sample items, so they're not the finished premium for those of.

[Luke Burbank]

You watching the live stream.

[John Sklaroff]

So they.

[Luke Burbank]

The.

[John Sklaroff]

The Malacca will have a nice little TBFTL imprint on it.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. Andrew, can we hear your melodica concerto?

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't really know how to play anything, but I sort of know the keying for Smoke on the Water.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

And by the way, I want to mention you can kind of play it like you can hold.

[Luke Burbank]

It's a piano that you blow into. It's freaking amazing.

[Andrew Walsh]

And you can blow into it and kind of hold it like a clarinet or you can do this thing here. You take off that mouthpiece and you plug this little tube into it.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Set it in front of you like a. Like a keyboard.

[Luke Burbank]

Is that going to make it. Is that your. Is that your preferred way to play Smoke on the Water?

[Andrew Walsh]

I think that's the only way I'll be in to know how to do it.

[Luke Burbank]

Here we go. Okay.

[John Sklaroff]

That was. That was like legit.

[Luke Burbank]

That was really, literally. That was really, really good, dude.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yup. Nub.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, like, I give that two yub nubs up.

[John Sklaroff]

The melodica also comes with a little carrying case, so if you want to travel to show it off, you can.

[Luke Burbank]

Make a joyful noise with that. And one of the things that's fun about the melodica and this other thing that I've got, of course, which is the harmonica. What do. It's going to. TBTL branded harmonica. What. What's the donation level for the harmonica?

[John Sklaroff]

$10 a month will get you the harmonica.

[Luke Burbank]

I cannot play Smoke on the Water, but what I like about these instruments, either the melodica or the harmonica, is you don't have to be like a sort of musical savant to make a sound. Corn's getting high. This is down by the river.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. Phil Oaks.

[Luke Burbank]

Times they are a changing.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that was beautiful.

[Luke Burbank]

I. By the way, that's only the third time I've played harmonica. I don't know if you can tell.

[John Sklaroff]

No, couldn't tell at all.

[Luke Burbank]

And then John's got the tambourine. And now the tambourine is. It's kind of great for a few reasons. One, it is also very easy. When I was growing up and we were at Gospel Outreach Christian Fellowship and there was a worship service and there was somebody who really wanted to be part of the worship team, but that maybe. Let's say that they didn't know how to play like a guitar or piano or drums or anything like that.

[Andrew Walsh]

That.

[Luke Burbank]

But they they still wanted to, you know, sort of lift their voice. We just handed them a tambourine. Yeah, you can't. I mean, how wrong can you really go with a tambourine?

[John Sklaroff]

I have no music talent. I can at least go.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, love it. Oh, and the other thing that's cool about the tambourine is it is going to have the ones that you're going to have mailed to you. You, the tens of listeners, the folks who are able to donate. It's going to have this like, sort of tbtl. Chipmunks. Alvin and the Chipmunks. What? Artwork.

[John Sklaroff]

Artwork. I mean, I think that's even underselling it. It's a masterpiece created by our friend Max, who's done some artwork for the show before. And it's the three of us as the Chipmunks as inspired by our little viral moment with you guys cackling at the Mr. Tambourine cover.

[Luke Burbank]

Mr. Tambourine cover, exactly.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah. So that's what the camera gets you. And then there's also. If you go to tbtl.net donate. Did I say dot not tbtl.net donate.

[Luke Burbank]

Listen, hold on.

[Andrew Walsh]

Say hello to my little friend Luke Burbank on tbtl.net There you go.

[John Sklaroff]

Okay, so if you heard that, which I did not. There you go.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah, I forgot. You know, headphones. They are also raising money for John to get headphones.

[John Sklaroff]

If you go to the website, you'll see what the items will look like. The other thing is obviously also there. You'll see if you're giving $15 or more a month. Luke and Andrew will thank you on air during the year when we get to that.

[Luke Burbank]

And for $20 a month, we'll pronounce your name right. Yeah.

[John Sklaroff]

No guarantees on that. Don't hold us that. And then. But also a really cool thing is at $25 a month, which gets you the tambourine or $35 for the melodica. You also get TBTL's greatest hits album.

[Luke Burbank]

That's right.

[John Sklaroff]

Vinyl that we're producing. So you'll. So it's a package deal. So it's not just the instrument. You also get really, really great album, which has awesome artwork.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes.

[John Sklaroff]

That was designed by actually somebody I know in. In the Twin Cities.

[Luke Burbank]

Somebody who you found through your softball team.

[John Sklaroff]

It's my pit. The picture on my softball team's girlfriend. Yeah, she and I were just talking like a little while back, and I was like, oh, we're looking for this artist to do a very specific kind of thing for this project. She Goes well, I'm a graphic designer and I didn't know this about her, actually. Yeah, I met her a couple times and I was like, oh. I showed her what we were kind of trying to do. I was like, could you. You recreate this? And she's like, yeah, absolutely. And she. I think she really nailed it. So.

[Andrew Walsh]

And so it's kind of in the style of a 1970s soft rock.

[Luke Burbank]

Nobody tell Air Supplies that their greatest hits album bears a striking resemblance to the TBTL greatest hits album, please. But again, I think this is. This has to be uncharted territory for a podcast. For a spoken word podcast. To release a greatest hits album on vinyl.

[John Sklaroff]

It's pretty spectacular.

[Luke Burbank]

And, you know, I. I'm. I'm really proud of our creator. Creative thinking on this. And even if you don't have a record player, it will just look very. It'll look great. It'll look great on a. On a shelf somewhere in your house.

[Andrew Walsh]

And by the way, we will also release. We haven't figured out the. Okay, a couple of things on this album. We are still in the studio working on some things. Tweaking. We got the guy. Alan Parsons is the ones and twos. Yeah, I think we did. We get Alan.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, yeah, we got. Oh, big time.

[Andrew Walsh]

And so we are still producing this thing. So it is going to be dropping, as they say in the business, later this fall. So this will be coming out of kind of around November or something like that, right? No, yeah, no, yeah, yeah.

[John Sklaroff]

I just.

[Andrew Walsh]

You made a. You made a disturbing squeak.

[John Sklaroff]

No, I'm sorry. I just get very neurotic about this kind of stuff. So. So all the. The. The musical instruments.

[Andrew Walsh]

Turn the bass down in my head. Turn the mids. Down in my head.

[Luke Burbank]

Brooklyn trying to drown out John's anxiety is my.

[John Sklaroff]

The musical instruments will be arriving to folks between, like, September, October, kind of like they did last year. And yeah, the album, depending on a few facts. Yeah, November.

[Luke Burbank]

I think November's a fair listen.

[John Sklaroff]

I'm sorry.

[Luke Burbank]

I just got expectations. We will get it to them when. We get it to them when it's right.

[Andrew Walsh]

When it's right. We're still sweetening.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

But I did want to say, you.

[Luke Burbank]

Don'T just walk in there and record a podcast greatest hits album in one take and it's fine. This is a process.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is the important thing. And this is the point of. What I was trying to say, though, is even if you don't have a turntable, but you want to display this thing, but you also want to Hear this thing. We will also give you a digital download of the content as well. How we will do that, I don't know.

[John Sklaroff]

We're figuring that out.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's the easy Tales guy.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, that's the easy part.

[John Sklaroff]

The other thing, too, I'll say is these are all. Obviously, we're really excited about Max's artwork. We're excited about the vinyl, the melodic, all these cool things. But, like, if those are donation levels that just don't. Are not feasible, everyone who donates, including all those folks as well, will get a sticker.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah.

[John Sklaroff]

Recreates like a sticker of the billboard that we have here. Friendship. And so, like, if you're like, I really want to support the show, I just. That's just. I can't afford that. Totally cool. We understand, like, obviously we appreciate every dollar anyone could give, and you'll at least be getting the sticker for your support.

[Luke Burbank]

And the sticker is actually kind of cool. Like, I have been. I think I said this on the show a little while ago, but, like, since we sort of like, locked in on the billboard design, I, you know, was showing it to just about anybody who would take a moment to hear me out. And I kept trying to find it in my phone, and I would never had the picture where I thought it was and everything. This is. I'm gonna get one of these stickers and I'm gonna put it up probably on my laptop.

[Andrew Walsh]

Are you gonna get a sticker? Do we have enough for. I mean, we'll talk.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I'll get one.

[John Sklaroff]

We'll see if Susie will.

[Luke Burbank]

My mom gets one. I'll ask her if I can have her sticker. And then, look, the main thing here is just that, first of all, we really, really appreciate everybody who's already been stepping up. It's like, it's huge and very gratifying and also very relieving because, like, this is, as you all know, if you're hearing this, you're pretty plugged in, obviously, and you know that, like, things like our show things, again, we're not a public radio show per se, but basically just kind of like, interesting, weird, hopefully somewhat smart content that promotes love and joy in the world is under threat. And so, you know, there are shows all over the place, whether they're actually on public radio or whether other podcasts that are just going away. And it's really a bummer, and we would really like to stay here. And so I know that people are stressed about what the economy is going to do, and there's Just a lot of uncertainty out there. But I can tell you one certainty is that if we are able to raise the money we need to raise and keep doing this, we're going to be here five days a week doing this little thing. So if you're out there and maybe you've never had a chance to donate before, this is a really good year to do it because we've got somebody who stepped up to match that donation, which is incredible. I still kind of can't process that.

[Andrew Walsh]

And those are specifically for people who've never donated before or have. Haven't given in a while. Those donations will be matched. And that's kind of a big point of mine, too. And I sent out an email earlier today, kind of talking about this is like, I'm so proud of where we've come and so grateful. And we've done it because a kind of small fraction of our audience has supported us, like, super, super, super generously. And I just can't thank those folks enough. And so I'm kind of trying to talk to the people who love this show and, like, listen to the show and have a relationship with the show, but just haven't kind of gotten to that point yet. And I don't want to break the bank. Not everybod give. I don't want anybody to feel guilty if you can't give. But if you can, and you are just taking a little moment of introspection here and saying, you know what? This is pretty damn important, and you could give even, you know, at whatever you feel comfortable. Nobody's judging you. It's all. It's all love. So thank you very much.

[Luke Burbank]

Absolutely. TBTL.net, which is probably how most of you are watching this and listening to it right now. But you can go to tbtl.net, click on the button, and give us a donation. Andrew, is it possible that you actually sent the fundraising email to the morning DJ at the local station instead of your answer to the question to ponder? And that is why I did end.

[Andrew Walsh]

Every sentence in the newsletter with a question mark. Was that a problem?

[Luke Burbank]

Listen. Thank you, everybody. We really do appreciate you.

[John Sklaroff]

Thank you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hello, and welcome to Top Story.

[Luke Burbank]

All right. We are talking about friendship in the news this week because we are here in. In Friendship, Wisconsin, at the Adams County Historical Society. Just wonderful folks here. We just absolutely love these people that are running this place. I think it's largely volunteer, and they've just been absolutely, just tremendous to us to let us do this and getting here early to let us into the building and letting us store our Coke Zeros in the staff refrigerator, just as nice as can be. And yesterday when we did Friendship in the News, we highlighted a couple of newspaper articles here in the local paper that we found kind of hilarious. You know, Jay Leno used to have that headlines segment. We were kind of doing our version of that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Later on, I'm going to go out in the streets of friendship and put a microphone on people's faces, ask them questions about US History.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, exactly. But what we also realized was we wanted to make sure we were. We were giving the right sort of image of friendship because this is a really great place, Friendship, Adams, these two little kind of these communities that are very close together. It's a great place. So I'm not going to read you from the police blog of the Adams Friendship local paper or anything like that. I'm going to read to you from People magazine, which. This was the top story that came up when I did a search for friendship. Actually, that's not true. The top story that came up when I did a news search for friendship yesterday, and you both know this because we were talking about it at the Airbnb, was a New York Times article about a college student who had a very close friendship, you would say, with an AI Chatbot.

[John Sklaroff]

Right.

[Luke Burbank]

And. And it was talking about how she had kind of figured out the exact right, like, personality to kind of like give and coach this chatbot, to have. The chatbot, I believe was named. I think this one was Donatello.

[Andrew Walsh]

The first one you said was Donatello.

[Luke Burbank]

Donatello was the one that she was having a good relationship with.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. I see.

[Luke Burbank]

And in reading the article, it said that she was really happy that she had kind of figured out the right tone and everything for this chatbot. Donatello, who. Who was a Ninja Turtle, was part of its personality, I think, because she had previously had a really bad experience with a different chatbot where things had gotten pretty toxic. And that chatbot was Leonardo, a different Ninja Turtle. And I was. I just didn't expect that line that her previous chatbot. And I actually don't get the sense this relationship was romantic in any way. I think it was just a friendship thing. But that's just a lot of a Ninja Turtle sort of chat botting to do.

[John Sklaroff]

I think, you know, after sleeping on it, it makes some sense. Cause Lunar was the little leader of the ninja.

[Andrew Walsh]

Leonardo leads. That's from the song. Leonardo leads. Donatello does machines.

[John Sklaroff]

Exactly. So Donatello's the tech guy. So it makes sense that The AI Chatbot would align with Donatello. So that actually makes sense as I think about it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. What are the other. What are the other. What else is in the song? How well do you know the song?

[Luke Burbank]

I know that somebody is a radical dude.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah. Aren't they all radical?

[Luke Burbank]

Somebody says, give me. Somebody says, give me a break and does, like a backspin.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Do you. Can you. Oh, wow. Wait, where's the lot?

[John Sklaroff]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Heroes in a half shell, turtle power. And then there's no. See now.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, that was so not helpful.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, but Raphael's Raphael is rude but cool.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yes.

[John Sklaroff]

Michelangelo's a party dude.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, there it is. He didn't get you there. You know what? It was helpful. You had to get into the role 30 years.

[Luke Burbank]

So anyway, we chose not to do that story.

[John Sklaroff]

No.

[Luke Burbank]

Because we knew that we didn't know the song. So I went to the next result for a news search for friendship, and I got this from People magazine. Woman refuses to pick up friend after rebooked flight, tells her to call an Uber. I thought, well, that's actually kind of a good. That's a good talk show topic.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sure. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Let's hear the deets, airport rides, and the like. And just the whole kind of, you know, sort of rules around that. And then this is when I started to realize that journalism is. Is dead because the piece is all based on a Reddit post.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, there's no interviews. We have no idea.

[Luke Burbank]

There are no interviews.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is this like the Am I the A hole subreddit where people are like.

[Luke Burbank]

It's something like that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Half the stories are made up, if not more.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, this is from People magazine. It is using fully stock art. Yeah, I know this isn't helpful because this is an audio podcast, but like. Like, if you're ever reading a quote unquote news article and you notice that all the photographs are clearly stock photographs, like, they're not from the news event. They're just like. Let's say that two people are having a disagreement in the. In the news article. And then you look at the photo for the news article, and it's like two people in an office.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

With their arms crossed.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, like something, you know, right out of one of your, like, you know, HR training videos or something. That's one of the things that immediately tells you this is not probably very thorough original reporting. So what this is really is a right write up of a Reddit post that a person posted on Reddit. They don't interview the person. I think this, to be honest with you, the story doesn't fully pass the sniff test. Can I just lay this on you?

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe we should go back to the Turtle content because I can't hear.

[John Sklaroff]

Did you guys play this as bunk journalism yet?

[Luke Burbank]

The drop? No.

[Andrew Walsh]

We're all hearing it in our heads though.

[Luke Burbank]

I want to also, if I could, I want to get a little credit this week I'm actually switching hitting. I'm playing all the drops with my left hand, which is not my usual because I have to hold my microphone with my right hand because this alignment of this table and so normally I would be if I wasn't having to like deal with this microphone, I could be flying around the keys, I could be grabbing bunk journalism sound effect. But I can't and I don't want the listeners to judge me on this of all weeks.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, that's true.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, so here's the story as laid out on Reddit. This is a quote, I guess from the Reddit post. Last week I had agreed to pick up a friend neighbor at the airport at about 10pm the woman writes in her post her friend who doesn't drive, frequently relies on others for rides, intends to travel with excessive luggage. Quote 2 large check in bags as close to the 50 pounds max limit as possible and 3 carry ons. The woman also points out that her friend has a habit of booking the latest possible flights, often arriving late at night. Quote she likes to stay up late so always books the latest flight to arrive back in town. I First of all, that part doesn't really check out for me. You're a late night stayer upper would you book the latest flight in town because to town because you like to stay up late? Those feel like unrelated concepts to me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, no, I like to stay up late. I don't like to travel late.

[Luke Burbank]

I'd like to get home at one in the afternoon and then stay up late.

[Andrew Walsh]

Can I give myself some credit here? You sure can unimport for me to break your flow. But I just want to say based on you reading the first lines of that, I did some googling schooling and I was totally right. This is in the A I T A H M I V A hole subreddit.

[John Sklaroff]

Oh, a hole.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

That's not one word to them.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's interesting.

[Luke Burbank]

It gets its own letter. Interesting.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's a really good point.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, making matters worse, she's increasingly anxious about driving near the airport. This is the person who's supposed to do the Pickup doesn't like driving at night, by the way. That's starting to happen for. For me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. It started to happen to me a while back.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm starting to side with that kid that offered me the senior discount the other day. Yeah, I actually think he had a point. I don't like driving at night. I'm like, has it always been this dark out here?

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm telling you, at night in the rain. I just want. I just want to put the shield down and use the force. Honestly, I don't recommend.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, absolutely left handed, by the way. Everybody on YouTube. Can you see that? Left handed.

[Andrew Walsh]

How many yub nubs have I earned so far? I think three. Right, that's good.

[Luke Burbank]

So the friend is arriving now. Supposed to arrive at 9:50pm which actually means after getting her bags and stuff, it's gonna be more like 11pm The. The person in question, the person who's posted this thing on Reddit, says from the time that she lands, it usually takes her close to an hour to get her bags and get to the pickup area. Oh, my goodness.

[Andrew Walsh]

We have a reporter in here.

[Luke Burbank]

Are you.

[Andrew Walsh]

We have the press. None of this is on the record.

[Luke Burbank]

Are you. Unless we want it to be. Are you just observing us? Are you here to interview us?

[Harriet]

I told him I'd come and see what it was all about.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, would you like.

[Andrew Walsh]

You do know that we're streaming live right now, right?

[Luke Burbank]

You're broadcasting on YouTube right now.

[Andrew Walsh]

You are. You're trying to make sure you knew that you were walking into a broadcast.

[Luke Burbank]

What's your name? Harriet. What's your last name? Yeah, yeah, sure. And you're with the local paper here. Okay.

[Harriet]

Times reporter.

[Luke Burbank]

You are. Okay, well, this is awesome.

[Andrew Walsh]

We didn't know this was happening.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. Would you like to grab. Could we grab you a seat? John? Could we score a seat for Harriet? And then do you just want to kind of like hang out and see what the whole thing is about?

[Harriet]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is amazing, by the way. I want to make this clear, like, this isn't a bit for the listeners. We did not know that you were coming here today. This is really cool.

[Harriet]

I said that I would come because I'm here on Tuesdays because I do a column called Only Yesterday.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah, I was reading that.

[Harriet]

Yeah. And I write 5, 25, 50, and 75. And so anyway, this is the day I come because you come do some.

[Luke Burbank]

Research here at the Historical Society.

[Harriet]

Newspapers are here.

[Luke Burbank]

So you write a column that basically says, on this date here in Friendship, Adams, and you go Back through the decades.

[Harriet]

I love doing it.

[Luke Burbank]

That's great. Do you have any questions for us?

[Harriet]

I don't know, I'm just interested to know what you're doing or how you're doing.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, here's what we're currently doing. We're wondering, and you're a journalist, you might have a thought on this. Are you familiar with Reddit? It's just kind of a website where people post various things. Would you ever. For your paper, would you ever. We're reading an article that's being presented as a news article, but it's really just based on what one person posted on this website. Like there's not any original reporting. They haven't interviewed the person that would never make it into your paper. Right.

[Harriet]

I really, I say I work for the newspaper, but the only thing I do for them is that column and then I do another one that's called Harriet's on the Move where I go somewhere and then at the beginning of the paper, it's in the beginning of the paper.

[Luke Burbank]

Where have you been recently?

[Harriet]

Everywhere. I go everywhere.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, but like what was last Harriet on the move?

[Harriet]

We took it at the top of the stairs at Rosha Creek Park.

[Luke Burbank]

I heard that somebody burned those down with a cigarette last year.

[Harriet]

Started on that. Yes. But they just opened in May. Finally they fixed it. Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Did they catch this, this mysterious woman who threw her cigarette off the stairs?

[Harriet]

Joke. Who thought it was a joke? I, I don't know because I can't get any information about it.

[Luke Burbank]

Seriously. So let me tell you the story that I heard last night at it's five o' clock somewhere.

[Andrew Walsh]

Ah, I heard. Have you done a column on that place yet?

[Harriet]

No, I can't. I can't do a business. I can only do like I read with a second grader. So I go there, I read with the third graders or climb the stairs or you know, whatever.

[Luke Burbank]

But anyway, here's the story that I heard. I heard that there was somebody who was walking up the stairs at Rosha Cree, this big rock. And that this person who was described as maybe being an adult woman was smoking a cigarette going up these stairs and then threw the cigarette off of the stairs and then it caught fire. And that these 10 year old kids tried to put it out, couldn't, and then called their parents and then their parents called the fire department. By the fire department. By the time they got there, the stairs were significantly burned. Now I gotta tell you, I was a 10 year old boy. I'm wondering if this person on the stairs ever existed. This seems more like something that if I were a 10 year old boy and I were. And I was fooling around, messing around with, you know, cigarettes or lighters or doing what Again, as a 10 year old boy, I tended to do. And I. Things got out of hand, I might invent a mysterious one armed woman who was smoking on the stairs. You heard it here first, people. And we've got Harriet on the case now. What is your reporting found?

[Harriet]

Just that the. Well, that it was female. I don't know why I heard that.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Weird details, but.

[Harriet]

And then somebody else, the person I was climbing with, Katie said that those kids really ran fast down the stairs when the fire started.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, so they. So there were people saw that the kids were helping.

[Harriet]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. Okay, so we're here to clear. We're here to exonerate their name. We're exonerating the Rosha Cree too. Is there any chance that we could be maybe just mentioned lightly in Harriet on the move? Does this count as being on the move?

[Harriet]

Well, I'm here at the. Yeah, you can, but I have to. I. Yeah, and it's good.

[Luke Burbank]

You sound. You sound dubious and that's.

[Harriet]

That's. No, I'm just think. It's not a business, so.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it's not much of one that if it's.

[Harriet]

If it's a business. If I went to five o' clock somewhere or somewhere and took my picture, that would be considered advertising.

[Luke Burbank]

Like advertising.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you know anybody at the radio station? Because we're trying to get on there too. This week at 106. Bob in the morning.

[Harriet]

Bob in the morning.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you ever play that question to ponder game that he does?

[Harriet]

No, because I. I listen to when I'm exercising. I listen to Lawrence o' Donnell and Seth Meyers.

[Luke Burbank]

There you. That's good. Do you listen to Ezra Klein?

[Harriet]

Stephen. Stephen Colbert.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I know, right? You believe it?

[Harriet]

The other guy. Oh, Jimmy Kimmel, but.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, sure.

[Harriet]

Yeah, he's going to be next, I.

[Luke Burbank]

Guess he's trying not to be. Those are some good things to listen to though.

[Harriet]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you ever. Do you listen to Chris Hayes? Why is this happening? That's a really good. He's another MSNBC guy. Would recommend Ezra Klein, maybe tbtl. Have you ever heard of tbtl?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's us.

[Luke Burbank]

I was gonna see if she lied, you guys. That was a little quick.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sorry.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, well, what do you think, Andrew? Should we take a call?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right, we're taking calls.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm sorry, Harriet, you're not gonna be able to hear this because we don't have any headphones for you, but just trust us. Somebody's calling on the phone, phone. And just. We'll. We'll translate it for you. Okay?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. So if anyone wants to call, our Phone number is 206-414-8285. That's 206-414-TBTL. The phone lines are open if you want to give us a ring, but nobody's standing by right now.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. Oh, all right.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, that's a Yubnub. Are you did. So you were just in here because you heard us talking loudly and you had heard rumors that we were doing a podcast from here.

[Harriet]

The person that's the editor of the newspaper sent me a message on Monday, which is sort of my day off. Sorry, where do you want me to go now? But anyhow, she said, somebody said, could Harriet stop by? And I said, well, I'm going to be here on Tuesday anyway.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nice. Well, this is really cool. It's really a pleasure. I'm so excited.

[Luke Burbank]

Thank you for coming by. We really have been enjoying the paper. It comes out tomorrow again. Right. So we're going to be devouring it then. We are big fans of local journalism.

[Harriet]

And local media, and this group that's called Shakespeare, they do Shakespeare in the park. They were here. They were here on the 13th of July at Russia Cree. They've been to. They go to 17 parks in the whole state.

[Luke Burbank]

Wow.

[Harriet]

All summer, and they did Love's Labor's Lost. Anyway, supposedly they're supposed to be on the front page of the picture that I took.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, nice. So you're also a photographer for the paper?

[Harriet]

Well, that's what I. Yes, I take pictures and I write some stories.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Harriet]

But I. But they say that I'm not. I'm like an independent contractor.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you want to get a picture of us for the front page of next week's paper? Maybe.

[Harriet]

Well, if it may not be next week, but. But I have to be in the picture because, you know, it's Harriet's.

[Luke Burbank]

Harriet. Honestly, that would only make the picture more valuable, I think, to collectors.

[Andrew Walsh]

We're not getting any.

[Harriet]

Can you tell me a little bit about what you're doing so I can add that to you when people are like, what are you doing?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, we'll do it right now. So we are. We're a podcast. Oh, yeah. We got to get. We got to get some note taking materials for Harriet.

[John Sklaroff]

And we got here.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, there you go.

[Harriet]

Left my pens in the other room.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. I Think there was an issue with the phone line for a moment, but we got it working again now. So we do have a call that we can get.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, we're going to take a phone call while Harriet's getting her note taking set up and. And then we'll. Hi, you're on tbtl.

[Ivan]

Hey, guys, it's Ivan and Amsterdam.

[Andrew Walsh]

Amsterdam.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, my goodness. Ivan calling in from Amsterdam. Ivan, how are you?

[Ivan]

I am quite well. How are you folks doing? I'm tuning into the live stream. You're on the evening news.

[Luke Burbank]

Here we are, the evening news in Amsterdam. He says, not literally on the evening news, but we're effectively that. Because. Are you looking at us on your television, Ivan?

[Ivan]

I am indeed, yes.

[Luke Burbank]

I saw some pictures of this the last couple of days of folks that are streaming the show and I always just kind of picture it as they're.

[Andrew Walsh]

Streaming the show on their computer or their phone.

[Luke Burbank]

Or their phone. But then people, of course, because we have the smart technology of the phones are they can watch the, like, they can basically watch what we're doing here on their television, their big, like, living room television, which then makes me feel like we're doing a TV show, which makes me feel actually a little nervous. That's what you're doing in Amsterdam, Ivan.

[Ivan]

Whilst enjoying my evening. Yakisoba. Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Good. How do we look.

[Ivan]

In and out as far as the phone says?

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, no, we're in and out. Okay. Can you hear us? Do you have any questions for Harriet from the local paper? Paper, who does a column, Harriet Goes Places. Harriet's on the move. Any questions about Adams? A friendship? The larger Adam County?

[Ivan]

I guess I'm kind of more interested in the dynamics between you two right now. So I guess my question for Harriet is what do you think is going on right now? Like, what is this show? Who are these guys?

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, the question from Ivan in Amsterdam, Harriet, is what do you think is going on right now? Like, what do you think this show is based on? On your five minutes of observing it and being on it. What do I. Yeah, what in the world do you think is going on right now?

[Harriet]

I think it's kind of interesting.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, good.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's good.

[Luke Burbank]

That's good. We'll take it.

[Harriet]

I didn't know what it was, so I wanted to find out, so here I am.

[Luke Burbank]

Excellent. Ivan, is there anything TBTL related that you were looking to bring up or talk about or get off your chest?

[Ivan]

Just a quick update on the Amsterdam contingent of tbtl.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. You got what? Marshall is out there as well.

[Ivan]

Oh, we got Marshall, we got Abby, we got Spencer, and a couple of us are going to be hitting the Amsterdam canals and doing a boat get together this weekend. It'll be our first official gathering.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my gosh.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. A first official gathering of the TBTL10s of Amsterdam. Is there a chance that there's anybody out there in Amsterdam that you haven't made contact with? Could somebody be hearing about this for the first time? That would be incredible.

[Ivan]

I mean, I guess they've put out the homing beacon because we do have room for at least one more on the boat.

[Luke Burbank]

There's room for one more on the boat. I'm just repeating what Ivan is saying to the listeners who can hear. Ivan. I'm just in the mode of repetition. So there's one more spot on the boat in Amsterdam, in the canal. That sounds unbelievably picturesque, Ivan.

[Ivan]

Yeah, and one thing I deeply regret, and this would have, of course, been a huge ask of you guys, but. But one day, it's obviously our dream to get you out here for like a tbtl a thon on the Amsterdam Canals. And it just so happens that this year, this summer, they have this big boat festival that happens here every five years. And like next.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, it'll take us, Ivan. It'll take us.

[Ivan]

Happening in August, next month.

[Luke Burbank]

It'll take us five years of fundraising to get airfare out there. So that'd be perfect. We could. We could be there for the next one. The one in 2030.

[Ivan]

Yeah, that's right. I mean, the 2021 got canceled because of COVID So, yeah, fingers crossed that we don't have another global pandemic. But yeah, every five years. So hopefully we'll see you either next month or in five years. And one month.

[Luke Burbank]

One of the two, definitely. Ivan, thank you so much. Say what up to Rachel and we really appreciate you and all of the Amsterdam 10s.

[Ivan]

Thank you. Thank you. You guys have a good one, all right?

[Luke Burbank]

You too.

[Andrew Walsh]

Be safe out there.

[Luke Burbank]

So, Harriet, one of the. If you hear me throwing this term 10 around, that's not a. Some assessment of someone's looks or anything. All these people are all tremendously attractive when we. I mean, the people on the phone that we're talking to and the people who like this show, although, yes, the people of Adam's friendship are also a handsome bunch.

[Andrew Walsh]

We.

[Luke Burbank]

When we started out as a radio show, we were a nighttime AM radio show in Seattle. And we. And she's taking a note, everyone, this is going into the paper potentially. And we. We did not have a lot of people listening in the early days or in the later days, or really in any of the days. But we used to joke that we said we had literally tens of listeners. And then one day somebody sent us an email to the show and they said, I'm one of your tens of listeners. And we thought that was really funny. So that we started using that for the term for the people that listen to the show. And now a lot of the folks that like the show, they kind of call themselves the tens. So if they're in Atlanta, they might call themselves an atlanten or in Boston a boss 10. And so it's that when you hear me throwing that term around or that number around, that's referring to anybody who's a big fan of this show. And this week, what we're doing here in Friendship is our FundRaiser. We do one fundraiser a year. We do it for one week. We call it the TBTL. A THON. If you ever listen to the local public radio station, you're well familiar with what this sounds like. This is kind of our version of that. And our show is so associated with friendship because we're all friends and the listeners have become friends friends that we decided that it would be really fun to come to a town called Friendship. And it turns out there's about what, five of them, John?

[John Sklaroff]

Four, I think we found here.

[Harriet]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

New York Friendship. Yes. Yep, that's what we heard.

[John Sklaroff]

New York. And then there's also Maine, I believe, and then Tennessee, I think is the other one.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. So there are. There were a few different places we could go. We ended up here in Wisconsin because we've got a lot of listeners up in the Twin Cities and here in the state of Wisconsin. Wisconsin. But we are here in Friendship in this room, literally, because we just wanted to highlight the fact that our show is about friendship. So that's how we got here.

[Andrew Walsh]

And we saw. We were kind of googling around and this just looked like the most like kind of on the, you know, Google Maps. And it just looked like the ideal kind of almost Mayberry esque kind of downtown. I was very charmed the moment we put eyes on it.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. What do you think? Can. How long have you lived here, Harriet?

[Harriet]

Since 1974.

[Luke Burbank]

1974. Where'd you come from before that?

[Harriet]

Evanston.

[Luke Burbank]

Illinois?

[Harriet]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

What brought you to Friendship or Adams or wherever you teaching? Teaching?

[Harriet]

What Teaching? I taught in a. In a two room school. Four grades in one room for. I taught four grades in one room. A two room school for Four years.

[Luke Burbank]

Were you a back to the lander as well?

[John Sklaroff]

Michael was mentioned.

[Harriet]

He was back to the lander.

[Luke Burbank]

Like did you. Were you living a very rustic life when you were here?

[Harriet]

Living in a shack on the lake with the first four years.

[Luke Burbank]

That sounds pretty back to the land.

[Harriet]

It was just a little.

[Luke Burbank]

But you were teaching in a two room schoolhouse. Was that a public school?

[Harriet]

Yep, it was one of the districts, one of these district schools.

[Luke Burbank]

Wow. So it must have been all the kids in, in the town, first through fourth grade.

[Harriet]

Well, it was. It was actually north of town. It was 17 miles outtown.

[Luke Burbank]

Wow.

[Harriet]

So there were four great. I had. I had 19 kids in my first class first through fourth grade and then there was fifth through eighth grade in the other room.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you still see some of those kids around town?

[Harriet]

I do, yeah. I do.

[Andrew Walsh]

How they turn out? Yeah.

[Harriet]

Some of them are contributing members of society.

[Luke Burbank]

Hey, you know, honestly, some of them is not a bad success rate. Rate. Not a bad success rate.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's so great. Was that your first teaching experience too? Just like, wow. Head first in such a unique situation.

[Harriet]

I loved it. I loved it because I. I mean, I think that the kids it responsible. Of course, they were a lot of farm kids and a lot of them had responsibility and so if at home. And so then school was also, you know, your job. But you know, the little guys would learn from the older ones. And then some of the ones that had gone on like in second grade, they were like, oh, now I get it now that they're in second grade. And then they helped each other. It was like a little family. There was like 30 kids in the whole school.

[Luke Burbank]

Did you end up eventually in a larger kind of building and schoolhouse?

[Harriet]

The school was mysteriously burned in the middle of the night.

[Luke Burbank]

It seems a lot of mysterious fires around here.

[Harriet]

And then we combined with another two room school. The district had been trying to close those little schools, so we combined with another two room school. So then I taught first and second grade. I was principal of that school and two years at the other two room school and taught first and second grade. And then they decided to put the older kids in town. So then that school became fifth grade. So I taught fifth grade and then I went to Canada for a year in a Fulbright scholar teacher exchange.

[Luke Burbank]

Fulbright?

[Harriet]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

And then look at you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, I'm only half bright.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. Honestly, at best.

[Andrew Walsh]

How many times have you heard that as a Fulbright scholar? How many times have you.

[Harriet]

I've not heard that at all.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right.

[Harriet]

And then I came back and taught four fourth Fifth and sixth grade in Grandmarsh.

[Luke Burbank]

How do you think about this place? You know, it's got this really kind of iconic name, Friendship. And it's. We understand it's pretty small town, maybe around 700 people or something.

[Harriet]

Yeah, 600 and something.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. And. And, you know, how do you think about the folks that live here? What. What about it is appealing to people and kind of just what the. I don't know what the scene is here.

[Harriet]

A lot of retired people from, you know, south. South come north. Because a lot of the houses in that, like, out in the lake and stuff. Are those people?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, we're staying out in Quincy. Oh, is that. So there's a lot of.

[Harriet]

Where are you? And where are you?

[Luke Burbank]

Let me give you the address. It's on market.

[Harriet]

Is it a cottage?

[Luke Burbank]

It's a pretty. It's. It appears to be a manufactured home that's got a few saggy parts in the floor, we learned. But, yeah, it's out. It's. It's out in that way where it looks like there's a. A lot of folks that have maybe second homes and vacation homes and stuff like that.

[Harriet]

A lot of. And then Airbnb is a lot of people.

[Luke Burbank]

That's what we're using. Are you glad that you've. You've spent, you know, 40 plus years of your life here?

[Harriet]

Yes, I was. Well, I went to school in Southern Illinois, as far away from Chicago as I could go. So then I moved up here and I know. And I've made, you know, I've done a lot of things and made a lot of friends involved in the community theater. You must have passed by there.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Harriet]

And also the Sand County Players, which is a theater group.

[Luke Burbank]

And so you act as well.

[Harriet]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

What's your greatest role?

[Harriet]

Wow.

[Luke Burbank]

Or what's a memorable role?

[Harriet]

I like being Peppermint Patty when we did Snoopy.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's great.

[Harriet]

That's awesome.

[Luke Burbank]

Which particular version of Peanuts or.

[Harriet]

Well, see, because the first one was you're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. That was the very first show that the group did. And then it was 10 years later, and then they said, well, let's do Snoopy. And so it was. And so, yeah, Peppermint Patty was in there. Charlie Brown, everybody was in their Linus, you know, so.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I love that. We're also kind of relatively close to where Charles Schulz got his star. I mean, we're in the region of the country. Yeah. So you guys probably have some spiritual connection to his work. Are you still directing and doing.

[Harriet]

Yeah, I haven't. I haven't done. We did a show after. After Covid. We tried to do it for three years, but every time it was because of COVID and everything. So anyway, that was the last one called. It was called Ice House, but they've done numerous plays since then. I just help with ushering and sell tickets and stuff. I haven't done direct.

[Luke Burbank]

Does the community turn out? Is this a pretty supportive community?

[Harriet]

Yeah, there's a lot of people coming from Illinois that come up to see our shows.

[Luke Burbank]

Really?

[Harriet]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

What's the name of the Sand County Players? Is the Sand County Players.

[Harriet]

And then the Adams Community Theater is another group because that was a theater that was built in 1946 and then was a video store. And then a group of us as a fight, whatever that is, you know, nonprofit.

[Luke Burbank]

Sure.

[Harriet]

Bought the bill because we didn't want to have another.

[Luke Burbank]

Is that the one that's next to its 5 o'? Clock. So somewhere.

[John Sklaroff]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, sure. Everything comes back to that bar for us. It's not a great character reference for.

[Andrew Walsh]

The show one day. And by the way, if you need to reach me, just call the. It's five o' clock somewhere. I'll be.

[Luke Burbank]

Call Andy over there. He'll get. He'll get our guy on the line. Well, listen, as we wrap up today's show. And by the way, thank you for stopping by. This has been. Even if you. Even if you don't find us to be newsworthy, no hard feelings. This has been a true pleasure to get. To have you on the show and talk to you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

But do you have any questions for us? Is there anything that, that you'd like to know about what we're doing?

[Harriet]

Yeah, your names.

[Luke Burbank]

That'S a. Like, you know, that's Journalism 101. Well, my name is Luke Burbank, which is L U K E. Yep. And the last name is B U.

[Andrew Walsh]

R B A N K. I'm Andrew Walsh. H. Yep.

[Luke Burbank]

Yep.

[Harriet]

Wait, I gotta put. Checkered shirt.

[Luke Burbank]

Checkered shirt is Luke Y. Although here's the irony.

[Andrew Walsh]

You can say handsome man for Andrew Walsh.

[Luke Burbank]

Wait, no, no, Harriet, you've got, you. You've got Andrew with the checkered shirt. But. But I'm Luke with the checkered shirt. But I'm gonna. I going to. I'm going to further complicate things by telling you that his partner, she made this shirt that I'm wearing and she made it for him.

[Andrew Walsh]

It didn't fit.

[Luke Burbank]

Didn't quite fit. And then I was over at their house. Isn't it great.

[Andrew Walsh]

He's really good.

[Luke Burbank]

I will not. I refuse to take this thing off.

[Andrew Walsh]

He wears it around me all the time to make me feel.

[Luke Burbank]

It's just to rub it in.

[John Sklaroff]

And then I'm John Sklaroff. J, O, N. And then S, K, L, A, R. S, K, L, A, R, O, F, F. Yeah, it's a doozy, all right. You could say the other handsome one, I guess.

[Luke Burbank]

And the show is tbtl.net if you just go to the website, like T.

[Harriet]

Does, their names, the initials, it's.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, it's for Too Beautiful to Live.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

But that seems to even. I don't know, 4000. Today was our 4515th episode, by the way. Yeah. And even that many episodes in it seems impossible to explain to people what too beautiful to live means. So we just go with TBTL because it's a little simpler. Well, since 2008. So we.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah, 2008. It started as a radio show. I wasn't part of it then. It was Luke and a different band of characters on the radio, and then became a podcast. When they were asked, when they found out that the station was sort of restructuring the schedule, and essentially that meant they were canceling the show.

[Luke Burbank]

Here's exactly what happened. I was called into Rod Arquette's office. He was the program director. And he said, luke, we are shuffling around some things in the lineup. We're doing some adjustments. And I said, okay. And he said, well, we're taking your show off the air. And I said, ah, that's a bummer. The other night, I said, yeah, right. And then I said, well, Rod, okay, what are some of the other adjustments to the lineup? He said, it's just that. So they were just firing us was the adjustment. And. But we. But we then just started doing the show from my house on the Internet. And luckily, it was this very fortunate time where the Internet was functional enough that you could do a podcast and people could hear it on their phones pretty easily. But there were not thousands and thousands of podcasts yet. We were kind of in the early part of it, so we. We were able to, you know, bring some listeners from the radio show and then also. Also attract some new folks that were just. If we were trying to launch this podcast right now, we would be in a lot of trouble because there's so much competition. But we were in the very early days, so we benefited from having no competition, and people had almost no other choices, so they were stuck with us. And now here we are all these years later. I think. What is it? I've been using the word 17.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know if it's 17, 2008. Our anniversary is January 6th, I think.

[Luke Burbank]

Which is an auspicious day.

[Andrew Walsh]

I could be wrong. Maybe it's January 7th, actually. Please let it be that. From the record.

[Luke Burbank]

Please let it be January 7th. Yeah. No, please.

[Andrew Walsh]

I haven't written down.

[Luke Burbank]

That's off the record.

[Andrew Walsh]

But yeah. So it's 16, 17 years. Something along the lines of that. Yeah. And I was a listener, by the way. I was a listener and a fan of these guys. And then I ended up moving to Seattle and I think, what, 2012 or so?

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, my gosh. I just happened to check some of the Comments on. On YouTube and I have to say, I think it's. Dana. Thank you, Dana, for. For that. Harriet. Do you know that we have a billboard in town? We have had a billboard up for like a month in town out on Route 21. Yeah, it is a. It's a. It's a billboard of us. It's got the phone number of the show. It's right by. There's a little restaurant out there.

[Harriet]

Is it out this way, Antonio?

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah, just past the quick trip.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, yeah. We're right next to two brothers. Right where they're. Where that billboard is, is. And it's obviously been very effective because everybody in friendship and Adams has been not talking about it. Nobody noticed. Nobody noticed the billboard. But this is a picture of us standing in front of our billboard.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, we're sort of making a parody of like sort of a personal injury style billboard. And so that's been up there for like, I don't know, a month. And we just got into town.

[Luke Burbank]

Like it's got our real phone number on it. And I'd like to be clear, we have received zero phone calls to that number in the month that it's been up. I think about. Well, John would know.

[John Sklaroff]

Mid June, it went up and it will be up until about mid August.

[Luke Burbank]

And so, you know, if you did need to go somewhere to justify the column, you could go to the billboard. That would be going somewhere.

[Andrew Walsh]

I just looked down at my phone. I am getting so many frantic text messages from listeners saying, don't forget the billboard.

[Luke Burbank]

Tell Harriet about the billboard. We almost forgot to tell you about the billboard. Billboard. That would have been such a travesty because it was not cheap and it was supported by these donors, these listeners.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

So anyway, well, if you don't have any, we could also chat, you know, when this whole broadcast is done. Like, you know, normal people do. But if you don't have anything else, Harriet, I guess maybe we'll, like, look to wrap things up. Andrew, what do you think?

[Andrew Walsh]

Absolutely. That was so much fun.

[Luke Burbank]

Thank you. What a pleasant surprise, popping in. Yeah, just.

[John Sklaroff]

Quick mic. Michael, the president of the Historical Society, wanted us to point this out in the History of friendship and chapter four, the friendship gristmill.

[Luke Burbank]

Is this a volume one? This is volume one, written by Dennis McFarlane. Yep.

[John Sklaroff]

In 1856, Luther Stowell and Willard Burbank.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, my uncles.

[John Sklaroff]

Erected the first gristmill on the Little Rochach Rocha Creek. Thank you. Rocha Cree Creek at the base of Friendship Mound. So there's more in here about that.

[Luke Burbank]

But one of them was named Luther and one of them had the last name of Brad Burbank.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wow.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, yeah, that's true. Honestly, I think there might be. I might have some property out here I don't know about. I'm gonna look that up. Check the old family tree. All right. Well, and again, shout out to Michael Gock and and Jerry, who's been helping us out today, and everybody here at the Historical Society for letting us set up shop here for the week. Harriet, thank you as well. We really appreciate it.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's great.

[Luke Burbank]

Also thanks to all of you out there in listener land. Thanks if you've been able to. To support the show this week or if you're about to. We do appreciate it. We couldn't be here in Friendship, Wisconsin, talking to local journalists if not for all of you supporting this thing. So thank you very much. Hey, we're going to be back here tomorrow as long as things don't get out of hand tonight at its five o' clock somewhere or at the slip in which we've also been doing some recon on Lord Willing and the Creeks Don't Rise. We'll be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Harriet, do you have a car? Because we found ourselves a little bit trapped at a bar last night without a ride home.

[Luke Burbank]

We had to wake up the cab driver, Crystal, from a dead sleep and she came and got us a story.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is a tricky story. We'll tell you more later.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it'll be your next assignment.

[Andrew Walsh]

We might need you later. That's what we're saying.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, thanks for listening, everybody. Have a great Tuesday. Take care of yourselves and please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to all. Did we just become best friends? Power out.