#4518 The Towel Of Babble

Summary

Summary of Podcast Episode #4518: "The Towel Of Babble"

Podcast Information:

• Title: TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live
• Hosts: Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh
• Description: TBTL is a daily show hosted by two longtime friends goofing their way through the world the best they can.
• Episode: #4518 The Towel Of Babble
• Release Date: July 25, 2025

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1. Introduction and Setting the Stage

In episode #4518, titled "The Towel Of Babble," Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh dive into a week-long fundraising event known as THON, held in Friendship, Wisconsin. The hosts express their gratitude towards their listeners, referred to humorously as "tens," who support the show through donations. The episode sets a friendly and engaging tone, emphasizing community and connection.

Notable Quote:

• Andrew Walsh [02:03]: "We've been talking about the history. We've also been profiled in the local newspaper. We've been on local radio. There's been a lot going on this week..."

2. The Great Towel Debate

A significant portion of the episode centers around a heated but humorous debate on the proper way to dry towels. Andrew advocates for using clotheslines to dry towels until they are almost starchy, believing it enhances their absorbency. In contrast, John Sklaroff prefers the convenience and softness achieved through tumble drying with fabric softeners.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh [14:59]: "There is nothing better than a towel that is dried on the clothesline. It's kind of starched."
• John Sklaroff [15:06]: "I'm opposite. I would never do. Towel, towel."

The discussion extends into personal anecdotes about laundry habits, the impact of different drying methods on towel quality, and the psychological comfort each method brings.

3. Housekeeping and Daily Chores

Beyond towels, the hosts and guests share their routines and challenges with household chores. Topics include dishwashing, laundry management, and the humorous concept of an "Andy Puttering Fairy" that magically tidies up Andrew's messes.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh [08:07]: "It's been five nights total, I think because we got here Sunday and already I've completely surrendered..."
• John Sklaroff [09:17]: "You know what's driving me crazy right now? Please tell me is I gotta..."

The conversation highlights the dynamics of shared living spaces and the often comedic interplay of responsibility and expectation.

4. THON Week and Community Engagement

THON week serves as the centerpiece of this episode, emphasizing the importance of listener support for the podcast's continuation. The hosts discuss their efforts to engage with the local community in Friendship, Wisconsin, including interactions with local radio and newspaper features.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh [22:00]: "We are returning to our normal form, which is many, many hours of very banal talk."
• John Sklaroff [25:05]: "I am lucky to have fallen in with you and your lot, Luke..."

The hosts express pride in their community-building efforts and the meaningful connections forged through the show.

5. Listener Calls and Stories

The episode features several listener interactions, adding personal and heartfelt narratives to the discussion. Notably, Cassie from Oakland shares her emotional journey with TBTL, highlighting how the podcast served as a cure for her loneliness during a challenging period.

Notable Quote:

• Cassie [28:14]: "It just truly is a cure for global loneliness. It meant so much to me."

These stories underscore the podcast's impact on its audience, fostering a sense of belonging and support.

6. Minecraft-Inspired Poetry Contest

A highlight of the episode is the presentation of a winning poem from a young participant in a BBC-hosted poetry contest. The poem, titled "A Friend Like Steve," intertwines themes of friendship with elements from the popular game Minecraft, illustrating the creative ways listeners engage with the show's content.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh [55:01]: "A Friend Like Steve, written by 7-year-old Miles of Wymanham, Norfolk, England..."
• John Sklaroff [55:56]: "That poem is like a user manual to me. I'm like, oh, what are all these things I gotta learn about this?"

The hosts and listeners react with enthusiasm and humor, celebrating young creativity and the blending of gaming culture with personal expression.

7. Technical Challenges and Lighthearted Moments

Throughout the episode, the hosts encounter minor technical glitches, such as audio overlaps and connection issues. These instances are met with good-natured humor, showcasing the hosts' ability to maintain their camaraderie and keep the conversation flowing seamlessly.

Notable Quotes:

• John Sklaroff [28:54]: "Cassie, take it away."
• Andrew Walsh [33:21]: "Hope you can hear us, Steve. This is tbtl..."

These moments add a relatable and spontaneous element to the episode, enhancing the listeners' connection to the hosts.

8. Fundraising Reminders and Thank Yous

As the episode progresses, the hosts reiterate the importance of listener donations in sustaining the podcast. They provide clear instructions on how to contribute and express immense gratitude for the support received.

Notable Quotes:

• Jermaine [43:13]: "If you're a monthly donor, there's a place on the website if you want to go increase or decrease wherever is best for your budget."
• Andrew Walsh [71:46]: "Thank you once again to all of you, the tens of listeners, for supporting this thing in whatever way that you can."

This segment reinforces the community-driven spirit of TBTL, encouraging ongoing listener engagement and support.

9. Closing Reflections and Farewell

As THON week concludes, the hosts reflect on the week's successes and the friendships formed. They express mixed emotions of joy and sadness as they prepare to end the event, looking forward to future episodes and continued community interactions.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh [72:39]: "No mountain too tall. And good luck to all."
• John Sklaroff [72:39]: "And good luck to all."

The episode wraps up on a positive and hopeful note, celebrating the show's achievements and the enduring bonds within its listener community.

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Conclusion: Episode #4518 of TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live offers a blend of humor, heartfelt stories, and community engagement. Through lively debates, listener interactions, and personal reflections, hosts Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh create an engaging narrative that underscores the importance of friendship and support. Notable moments, such as the Minecraft-inspired poem and Cassie's touching testimony, highlight the podcast's unique ability to connect and resonate with its audience.

Transcript

[Luke Burbank]

Tell me about yourselves. What sort of music do you guys like? Rock? Yeah. Funk?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Country? Yeah. Hair band? Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Synth? Yeah. Blues? Yes. Jazz?

[John Sklaroff]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. Jazz? Fusion? Yeah. You like sports, Jermaine? No. Brett. Sports fan?

[Andrew Walsh]

Not really.

[Luke Burbank]

Brett, you read? Yeah. What do you read?

[Andrew Walsh]

I read the newspaper.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah?

[Luke Burbank]

Favorite part of the newspaper? Jermaine, what is it? What? Favorite part of the newspaper. What is it? Pages.

[Nick]

Nop.

[Luke Burbank]

Articles?

[Andrew Walsh]

Mm.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Mm.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't really have a favorite part. Brett, you got a favorite part of the newspaper?

[Andrew Walsh]

Um, I like the stories about animals when they've escaped from the zoo.

[Luke Burbank]

Cool. So you guys got any questions you wanna ask me?

[John Sklaroff]

No. No.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, so I'll flip it back. You guys ever grow a mustache?

[John Sklaroff]

Tbtl.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do I look like I know what a JPEG is? I just want a picture of a God dang hot dog.

[John Sklaroff]

You know, when my wife and I.

[Andrew Walsh]

Try to remember what happened or the day before? Well, we don't agree on anything.

[John Sklaroff]

And you two, you not only agree, you use almost the exact same words to tell about it. Oh, boy. Who keeps putting Twizzlers in the fridge?

[Andrew Walsh]

I told. Is it Sarah? Crystal.

[John Sklaroff]

Crystal does.

[Chris]

She likes them.

[John Sklaroff]

Crystals. Okay. Well, Crystal, you and I are gonna have another Twizzler talk.

[Luke Burbank]

I think the only promotion I'm interested.

[Andrew Walsh]

In is promoting you guys to generals in my friendship army.

[John Sklaroff]

Yes, sir. If there's a better use for the Internet, I haven't found it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, hello, good morning and welcome, everyone to a edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. Ready to laugh and drop til your socks come off. My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. Peace and love. Peace and love coming to you for the final day from beautiful downtown Friendship, Wisconsin. Aw. Where we have made so many friends here in town and had such an absolutely magical experience. This week, we hang out like friends.

[Chris]

Like the friends from that program, Friends.

[Andrew Walsh]

We find ourselves at episode 4000, 518 in a collector series, Let the fun begin. And of course, that means this is also the final day of TBTLathon 16 oh la la. Banding together. This is the one week a year that we remind you all that this is listener supported podcasting and can only happen because of the incredible generosity and continued support of you, the tens of listeners who we would like to hear from today. We've had this phone line going all week at 206-414-TBTL. I'm trying to use the phone, but, you know, other things have gotten in the way, such as the history of Friendship, Tennessee, Wisconsin. I knew I was gonna do that again. Friendship, Wisconsin. We've been talking about the history. We've also been profiled in the local newspaper. We've been on local radio. There's been a lot going on this week, meaning we haven't gotten to as many phone calls as we wanted. So today, please call early. Call often. If you get a busy signal, stay in line. Stay in line at 206-414-TBTL and we'll try to get you on the air. Also, we do have news from friendship. That is news about the topic of friendship. A kid in England entered a poetry contest and won. The subject was friendship, and he had an interesting take on it. Kids and fantasy talk about that, too. And we'll talk to this guy. Longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. A lot of people don't know this about us. We met on a BFF app. We did. He is Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[John Sklaroff]

Good morning, Luke. I have some good news for you.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right.

[John Sklaroff]

That I have been sitting on all morning. I did not tell you about this.

[Andrew Walsh]

But this has just been a week of surprises.

[John Sklaroff]

Last night, I made a few phone calls. I canceled some flights. We live in friendship now. We are staying in friendship forever. Haven't completely cleared it with Pat and Michael yet, but I'm pretty sure we can stay here in the front room of the Historical Society. I'm planning on sleeping here for a while.

[Andrew Walsh]

So I saw that they're hiring a dishwasher at a family affair.

[John Sklaroff]

Are they really? I would be great at that.

[Andrew Walsh]

You would be.

[John Sklaroff]

I am great at that.

[Andrew Walsh]

You've been doing that pro bono at the Airbnb all week. And I have to say something, by the way, let's also introduce the longest tenured employee. In fact, he's employee numero uno of TBTB and he's our dear friend, Mr. John Sklaroff.

[Steve]

You seem to me to be a pretty righteous hombre.

[Andrew Walsh]

Who's right over there. Good morning, my friend.

[Jermaine]

Good afternoon, guys. I realized, I just, in this moment on day five, realized all week we've been saying good morning because that's you guys.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, there's a reason for that.

[John Sklaroff]

Well, I.

[Jermaine]

The bulk of our audience is on the west coast and it is morning there, but we three hombres are here in the central. It just occurred to me, I'm like, well, it's not morning where we are. So are we doing it for them or are we doing it for us.

[Andrew Walsh]

We're doing it for. We're doing it for consistency. Okay.

[John Sklaroff]

Because you don't trust yourself to, like, kind of switch up the first words, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't. I have to. This is a real thing. I have to say as close as I can anyway. Basically, the same little, I don't know, 10 to 15 words to get the show rolling every day. If I had to think of a new way to sort of phrase things or something, it would be a real disaster.

[Jermaine]

Yeah, it's like scripting the first plays of a football drive.

[John Sklaroff]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

I script the first 40 plays of TBTs.

[Jermaine]

And also.

[Andrew Walsh]

Which is why the show usually starts so hot, because we've got a plan.

[Jermaine]

Going away from that for just a moment. Just keeping an eye on the live chat on the YouTube. Andrew, just so you know, Bob down at Wisconsin 106 said, you're hired, so.

[John Sklaroff]

Nice.

[Luke Burbank]

That's it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, so I've got a job. Andrew's got a job. John, what are we gonna. You gonna work at the smoke shop?

[Jermaine]

I'm gonna go back home to my wife and dog.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay. Well, this. Sorry, this triad is falling apart rapidly. The thing I was gonna say, Andrew, is I can absolutely understand how your beloved partner of so many years, Genevieve, has. And again, I don't want to. I don't want to besmirch her reputation for, let's say, keeping things kept up around the home environment, but I can see how she may have sometimes when you'll describe kind of the division of labor at your place, how you tend to be the person who does a lot of the cleaning and maybe the laundry stuff and the.

[John Sklaroff]

I make the ice.

[Andrew Walsh]

Ice making a big thing. In fact, that was pretty cute. When we were on our way here, you were checking in with Genevieve about how you'd made some very annoying to make circular ice for a party she was having. You're like, the ice balls are ready to go.

[John Sklaroff]

I know she doesn't like taking the ice balls out of the ice. The thing that makes them. What is that? Silicon? The mold? Yeah, the mold. Sort of. I know she really detests that, so. And I also knew she was having a little get together on Monday or Tuesday this week. So I made sure to, like, take them, all of the ice balls of the ice spheres out and like, piled them up in, like, kind of Tupperwares and I put them under the sink.

[Andrew Walsh]

What's happening at the Airbnb?

[John Sklaroff]

That was a good joke.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is I'm wrapped. Wait, I missed that one.

[John Sklaroff]

More time, I said, I took all the ice cubes out and I put them under the sink. They would be water by time.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, gotcha.

[Jermaine]

I don't think we missed it.

[John Sklaroff]

I. I wouldn't say I'm missing it, Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

My point is that it is very easy to slip into, assuming Andy Times will take care of it.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

And by that I mean the well documented phenomenon on this show of Andrew Walsh always needing to be the last person to go to sleep.

[John Sklaroff]

You go to bed at midnight.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[John Sklaroff]

With a bunch of dishes laying around and you wake up in the morning and they're.

[Andrew Walsh]

A magic puttering fairy has done all of the dishes, has kind of just organized everything, has made it so nice.

[John Sklaroff]

Do you like the way I set the cherry tomatoes?

[Andrew Walsh]

I saw exactly what you did there. It was. It's amazing. Like, and because you had them on.

[John Sklaroff]

A paper towel, I found a little bowl for them and I put them in the kitchen counter kind of on display.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's been five nights total, I think because we got here Sunday and already I've completely surrendered and frankly immersed myself in the idea, embraced the idea that whatever chaos I leave behind, including many, many half consumed cans of club soda throughout the Airbnb, the Andy puttering fairy with his headphones on and his, you know, comedy bang bang playing in his ears or whatever goes on, will go around and clean everything up. And I, first of, I want to say thank you very much. And also, I'm sorry.

[John Sklaroff]

No, it's a compulsion. Compulsion, compulsion. It is true. I just, like, I don't really start doing it. It just starts happening. You know what I mean?

[Andrew Walsh]

We all benefit from it.

[John Sklaroff]

Putting away in the fridge. You're like, well, this doesn't belong here. And then you start all of a sudden, next thing you know, you're knee deep in the dishes and listening to your comedy bang bang. I don't mind it at all. I don't mind it at all. If I mind it, I wouldn't do it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I've now got to go back home to the Madrona Hill studio and start to pick up the pieces of my broken life because I will be the one who has to do the dishes and organize things and take care of everything so that it's not a complete disaster in the morning.

[John Sklaroff]

Yep, yep.

[Andrew Walsh]

What's the breakdown at your house, John, in terms of kind of who does what?

[Jermaine]

I actually do most of the dishes because for me, something about having my hands in the warm, bubbly water is kind of therapeutic. And so I actually enjoy doing them. Although I'm happy to acquiesce the responsibilities to Andrew this week because he seems to also. And I also do most of the laundry, just also because I work from home and my wife has to be in office most days. So just. I have the flexibility of moving laundry from the, you know, washer, dryer. But as far. And then cleaning, we kind of split those, you know.

[John Sklaroff]

You know what's driving me crazy right now? Please tell me is I gotta. I did a load of laundry right before we left, so right now it's just sitting in the washing machine wet.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, forget it, because game over.

[John Sklaroff]

I need to. After the show and after we tear down all this equipment, I gotta go back and then put it over into the dryer. But I don't want it to get that, you know, kind of sour smell.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you mean. Oh, you mean at the Airbnb? I thought you meant back home in Seattle. That's a lost cause.

[John Sklaroff]

Oh, goodness, yes. No, If I leave, I. What is your cutoff on that? For me, it's overnight. If I do a load of laundry at night and I forget to put it in the dryer before I go to bed, and now it's like seven, eight hours later, or let's see, it's me. So it's like 14 hours later, and I'm waking up, I'm like, nope, this is skunked. We got to run them through again.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I'd say it might be six to ten hours for me. And certainly if it's overnight, let's say that I wash the clothes on a Monday, and now it's Tuesday morning and they're still in the washer. Forget it. And I appreciate all of the folks who are sensitive to this, because for me, for whatever reason, there is not a more specific kind of smell that doesn't hit my nose particularly well than that. The smell of laundry that was washed but then left in the washing machine and then mostly dried out and then eventually thrown into the dryer. It's that, like you said, sickly sweet. It is so specific. And, like, I'll be in an airport. I'll be getting ready to board the plane, and they'll be. And let's be honest, it's typically a guy. There will be a guy, four people behind me boarding. I'll go, oh, that's a recently divorced man.

[John Sklaroff]

You know what's interesting?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's a guy who is doing his own laundry for the first time in a long time, and he doesn't know what he's doing.

[John Sklaroff]

We're Talking. We're clearly talking about the same exact smell. But it's interesting how it hits us differently because to me, it's not a sweet smell. It's like a stinging smell. Almost like a sharp, sharp smell. What about you, John?

[Jermaine]

I think this.

[John Sklaroff]

You ever try to grow a mustache?

[Jermaine]

I think it's more in the Andrew Campbell. I'll tell you something.

[Andrew Walsh]

Aggressive, outvoted again. Yeah, I. I'll tell you, by the way, I'm. I'm videotaping all of this as evidence. Yeah.

[John Sklaroff]

Oh, yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wearing your special spy glasses. Because once again, the two of you have teamed up against me, and people think I'm crazy when you guys gaslight me. But you can't gaslight me anymore because I've got this all on camera.

[John Sklaroff]

No, I actually think it's interesting. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying it is interesting. Like how senses, kind of. We're definitely describing the same thing. It just hits you differently. I really will say I don't like not knowing if you're recording me or not.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, you would know. Okay, I'm not recording you now. But, Andrew, if I am recording you, a white light will go on with the glasses.

[John Sklaroff]

Okay. Do I like making eye contact? Is that a skill of mine? Is that something I'm strong with?

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, well, I'll just videotape John then.

[Jermaine]

So can I finish this thought real quick? I'm sorry. When I was a child, our washing machine at my house broke. And I had a load of my. Cause I started like I was 12. Maybe I was doing my own laundry.

[John Sklaroff]

Really? Yeah.

[Jermaine]

Like, not, like, all the time, but.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, you know, they grow up fast there in Westchester County.

[John Sklaroff]

Great. I think that was a great skill for, like, I was not ever really taught it. I was an adult, and I was like, oh, I guess I got to do something with these. I was very spoiled.

[Jermaine]

I started doing it around then, probably, and. And my law. And the machine broke just because it was old and years of use. And it broke. And I had all my clothes, and it was just sitting in the water. It wasn't even drained. It was just like, the water. And because I was a kid, I didn't think, like, oh, I gotta take these out. And I'm thinking, I can't understand why neither of my parents said, take your clothes out.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Jermaine]

But nobody did. And so it sat in there for, like, two days until they came to, like. Until, like, the new one came to get a replacement washing machine. And at that point, like, that entire load of Laundry just had to throw it all away because you literally throw it away beyond.

[John Sklaroff]

Wow.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Because when I was a kid, we would beat our laundry against the rocks.

[John Sklaroff]

Down by the river.

[Andrew Walsh]

We didn't have, you know, washing machine. We did have. We did have a very strong culture in my family of. Of drying our clothes on the clothesline.

[John Sklaroff]

Oh, yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

My mom was really into that, I think, you know, to some degree, because she really loved the smell and the feel of it. But I think also because, you know, my parents were very sort of cost conscious and that was just one less big electrical appliance that was running.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

But now my neighbors down the street from me where I live have put up a clothesline and they use it every day. And it's got me thinking. Yeah, I might want to get. I mean, Andrew, this for you. You want to talk about puttering? Yeah, puttering. Perfection. You got the clothespins, you're pinning them up there, you're taking them down. I mean, it's a lot of like, sort of busy work around this.

[John Sklaroff]

We have one. I don't use it that often. Well, first of all, during the winters in Seattle, you're not really using that because it's so damp all the time.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my mom didn't let that stop her.

[John Sklaroff]

Oh, really? Yeah. Well, I.

[Andrew Walsh]

We often wore frozen underwear to school.

[John Sklaroff]

My problem is, because it's not a habit, I forget my stuff out there. I hung up like a shirt like this, like a button down, short sleeve shirt. I for some reason only had one in the laundry. And everything else in that batch I threw in the dryer. Except for this shirt, which I then hung outside. And I think I found it. I'm not joking. A week later. This was like, I don't know, a couple of weeks ago or something. And I think it might have already felt fallen to the ground by that point. So I need to. If you put your clothes outside, you got to remember it. I actually felt bad. I'm like, what must the neighbors think?

[Andrew Walsh]

There is nothing better than a towel that is dried on the clothesline. It's kind of starched.

[John Sklaroff]

See?

[Andrew Walsh]

A little bit.

[John Sklaroff]

I'm opposite. I would never do. Towel, towel.

[Jermaine]

I'm on Luke's side now.

[John Sklaroff]

Nope.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you. Okay, you know what? I'll stop recording you then.

[Jermaine]

I'm not every day.

[John Sklaroff]

No, I don't like. I like soft, fluffy out of the dryer.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, no, no, no. The problem.

[John Sklaroff]

Smell of downy.

[Andrew Walsh]

The problem with a towel that is too fluffy is that in my experience, it does not actually absorb the Water properly. Like you need to have like these. These towels that are allegedly fancy and that are too plain, plush. Sometimes they don't feel like they actually get the water off of your body.

[John Sklaroff]

I've had that kind of a towel before. But that I. I lay that on the construction and manufacturing of the towel, not whether or not I put it in the dryer or not. And I. I'm just sorry. Like I'm. You know, we finally did it. We got to hot talk radio.

[Andrew Walsh]

We sure did.

[John Sklaroff]

Tbtl. I just can't believe how wrong you guys are. And I will die on this hill.

[Andrew Walsh]

I feel like yesterday file management was the camel's nose under the tent of us. Let's be honest. Going back to regular TBTL programming.

[John Sklaroff]

Sure. Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

We've sort of been on our best behavior so far this week. We've been interview local luminaries here.

[John Sklaroff]

We've been.

[Andrew Walsh]

We've been talking to the tens. We've been having these great experiences and we've been meeting people with names like Big scoops.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Here it is Friday and we're. Let's be honest, we're regressing to the mean.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

We are returning to our normal form, which is many, many hours of very banal talk.

[John Sklaroff]

I just saw Breakfast with Bob just retracted his donation.

[Andrew Walsh]

And that's fair clawed it back.

[John Sklaroff]

Exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, do we have anybody calling in Andrew?

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah, we got somebody on the line right here waiting. I think you might have heard of this fellow before.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, hey, you're on tbtl. Who is this?

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Hey, guys, it's Nick from Connecticut.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my gosh, nick. The perfect 10 in Connecticut. Hey, buddy, how are you?

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

I'm great. How are you all doing?

[Andrew Walsh]

Good. I'm glad to hear it, man. What's the latest?

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Well, I wanted to agree with you first and foremost, and I know you just love hearing that. I do, but I have a clothesline and we use it all the time. And I'm with you. There is nothing better than like freshly dried sheets and towels.

[John Sklaroff]

Okay. You know, we're gonna go to another phone call here.

[Andrew Walsh]

Stay in line. Stay in line. Andrew muted you, but now you're back. I fought him because it's kind of. They're almost like a little bit crispy. Right. But in the good way.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Yes, yes. I like for all of my, like, work clothes and just T shirts and everything. Like everything that's besides my delicates and.

[Andrew Walsh]

My running clothes and your unmentionable goes.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Out on the line. Correct, Exactly. And it just. There's. And I think the smell for me, like especially coming in after like a hard day of yard work and then you're in freshly, you lay down on fresh sheets that were just like laying out in the sun and just kind of crisping up. Oh, there's nothing like.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you, Nick.

[John Sklaroff]

You know, I will admit now sometimes, every now and then if Genevieve does that, I will grab a towel and just take this big inhale of the smells of North Aurora on my towel.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Part of this problem could be because of Andrew's specific geography. What part of Connecticut are you in these days, Nick? Are you like in one of the cities or are you out in the hinterlands?

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

In hinterland. So I'm actually like a hundred feet from the Massachusetts border. So like I, on, on most of my runs I will actually go into Massachusetts and then just come on back over the, over the line there like.

[Andrew Walsh]

That and nobody stops you. There are any border border patrol or anything surprisingly.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Well, it's because I'm just, I'm running so fast.

[Andrew Walsh]

Uh huh. They can't see you're running a zigzag pattern blur.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

And are you, are you working, are you working in hospitality these days?

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

So actually I like the last time I called and I got a new job and I was at that, that swim school.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

And I have recently got a new gig. I'm the site manager for. It's called sbm. So basically I'm a custodial manager.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

That's the easiest way to put it.

[John Sklaroff]

Cool.

[Andrew Walsh]

So you manage folks that do custodial stuff.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Correct. Exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

And do they go out to multiple locations?

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

So I just within one building. So I'm within the. Stay with me on this. I'm with the CIGNA headquarters. So I don't work for cigna, I just work for the company that cleans the building.

[Andrew Walsh]

Cigna, the healthcare folks.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Correct.

[John Sklaroff]

And they're a client in that. And you, you kind of singularly focus on that client yourself. That's interesting. Exactly. I love that obviously because I am somebody who cleans a lot. The custodian custodial industry is very fascinating to me.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

I, so it's, it's. I, I absolutely love it. I, it's funny. On my very first job at Disney I was a custodian and here I am now a custodial manager. So it's funny how things come full circle. But I, the idea, like I actually have a cleaning belt that I wear that I keep like cleaning solution and rags and oddly enough I keep a tennis ball with me because we have Terrazzo as well. And.

[Chris]

We.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

And the best way to get up skunk marks from Terrazzo is using a tennis ball.

[John Sklaroff]

Wow.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nick, I think you. I mean, I love your close association with tbtl, but I think you just became Spotless's number one resource.

[John Sklaroff]

You're thinking. I think you just saved this episode of tbtl. That is really interesting.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's the. That's the tip is. Is if you have. Is it Terrazzo tile exclusively or any kind of tile, a tennis ball will get up like a kind of a mark.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

A shoe mark, to my knowledge. Terrazzo in particular, because if it's linoleum, it will. It's. It. You can still use it. Like what I also do for, like, stubborn stains as well. I will wrap the tennis ball in a microfiber cloth and then really put some elbow grease into it, and almost everything comes up that way. So it just. It shows you if there's a. It's kind of like the vinegar and baking soda of cleaning floors. Just. Just scrub really hard.

[John Sklaroff]

So you are walking around with a tennis ball all day. And also bouncing a tennis ball is very fun. Do you also just sort of fiddle with it and bounce it or you have a strict, like, this is a tool, not a toy policy?

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Oh, no. I. So I. Once in a while, I'll bounce it when I'm just walking around, but then when I get into the stairwells, I will Nice. Like, as I'm walking up the stairs, I'll throw it against the wall and try to. But then sometimes, like, the railings in the middle and then it hits that. And then, like, hits me in the head or I have to go back down the stairs.

[John Sklaroff]

This is great.

[Andrew Walsh]

Have you ever heard a health care executive declining coverage? And you just winged it at them. You just. Just fired it directly at them. I guess that's. I guess I was. I guess I was forgetting about some recent events in that space.

[John Sklaroff]

I was.

[Andrew Walsh]

I meant this in a. More of a throwing a tennis ball at a person away rather than doing them any actual physical harm.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

That is. I. Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know what? You know what, Nick?

[John Sklaroff]

Let's not riff. Let's not riff.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know what? I took us to a place that, in the words of Morrissey, I started something. Took us to a zone that we were really never meant to go. Any. What else is newer? What did you want to talk about today? What are you calling in for specifically?

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Well, I really wanted. This is kind of. Just because it is thon week. I wanted to. Just so I obviously renewed my donation thanks, buddy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Appreciate you.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

You, you all talked about something last week and it really, it resonated with me because it was something along the lines of between the three of you, your time in radio, I think it's been like, I think I roughly added up. It's like close to like 60 years or something like that.

[Jermaine]

Mostly those guys, all of you.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

And, and what I, what I mean by all of that is because is you. This show is so good and it's not by accident that you have so many, so many listeners. Like, I know we joke about tens, but like, there's thousands of people who listen to this every single day. And you know, you, you just said it a little, a little while ago. You said, you know, the banality of it all. But the banality is the best part. That's why we tune in every single day. So, like, it's. I really just want to. I. This is kind of encouraging other tens to. If you haven't, don't. You haven't donated. Please, please really consider this because we need this joy in our life to continue. Because I certainly, it helps me. We get through a lot of, A lot of hard days.

[Andrew Walsh]

They don't call them perfect 10 for nothing people.

[Jermaine]

That's really sweet of you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you so much, Nick. That's really sweet of you. We appreciate it. And you know, I have to say that, like, I've been feeling that way this week kind of a lot. Like, as we like to joke on the show, what is it called? Less Shame. Because we've gotten to kind of introduce a bunch of folks here in the town of friendship to the idea of tbtl, you know, people that are here at the Historical Society and our friend Bob in the morning down at Wisconsin, one of his.

[John Sklaroff]

Breakfast with Bob.

[Andrew Walsh]

Breakfast with Bob. I keep pushing him to think about changing the name to Bob in the Morning and he refuses. Our friend Harriet at the paper here, like, we've basically, when we came to this town, nobody knew what. Knew what a TBTL was. And over the course of the week we've been able to tell them about it and then watch it sort of dawn on them that this is a real thing and that we do have, you know, a, you know, a pretty decent number of listeners and by the way, just a very, very unbelievably loyal group of people that listen to the show who will all Jump on the Wisconsin106 website and Facebook page to try to guess for the question to ponder and everything. And like, it's just been like, it's filled me with this sense of real pride around the show and around the tens of listeners and this feeling that, like, yeah, we are pretty good at this. And even when we were on the radio the other day, sitting around in the studio talking about all of our careers and what got us here, I was like, yeah, we have kind of been doing this for a long time, both individually and together. Like, we do have a certain amount of, like, institutional knowledge about the topic of radio and podcasting and running a business now. Like, so I really appreciate you saying that. And this is a week that I think I'm kind of in an unusual turn. I'm kind of feeling proud of us.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah. And I would also say I am lucky to have fallen in with you and your lot, Luke, because I think that you and I just truly share the same taste in what we like in radio. And that's one of the reasons we have been vibing on Wisconsin 106 all week and hearing Bob in the morning, like, that's the kind of radio we like. It's very live, it's very loose, it's very personal. And we've been listening to that and actually, like, kind of, you know, kind of taking notes about, like, oh, this is kind of like what we do, or, you know, or. Or stealing ideas.

[Andrew Walsh]

This morning, Bob and his buddy were just naming their favorite Billy Joel lyrics.

[John Sklaroff]

That's right.

[Andrew Walsh]

A good 20 minutes.

[John Sklaroff]

It was so great. I love that. And I have a new idea for our show called the Question to Ponder is something I came up with last night.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sounds promising.

[John Sklaroff]

And that's going to be, like, hours now. I'm going to copyright that or patent it or whatever.

[Andrew Walsh]

I thought you were going to call it the Query to ruminate.

[John Sklaroff]

The Question to Query. But no, for real. And so I think I'm lucky that we have that, too. Not that a little creative tension is always the worst thing, but you and I just. We're doing what we like listening to.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, exactly. And we're here in the 16th iteration of the THON, you know, figuring out somehow how to keep this thing going for another year. And it's due to all of the really wonderful, you know, listeners of the show and folks like you, Nick, So thanks. We really do appreciate you.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Yeah, you're more than welcome. It's. It's so funny because I remember when I was. I was working at a golf course, and I remember it was the third thon, and it was. You had the Foreigner song Feels like the first Time, but you had Sha Dori do third over first.

[John Sklaroff]

I Remember?

[Andrew Walsh]

But it was a really good mix, though, right? So it sounded like you couldn't even tell.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Again, you. You didn't know if it was. If it was meant that way or not. But, yeah, it was incredible. It's always.

[John Sklaroff]

Wait, what's happening?

[Andrew Walsh]

I was trying to find. I was trying. I was trying to find the song, the. The Sha Dori mix, but it was somehow going into. Let me poop that little girl singing the song from Frozen.

[John Sklaroff]

Come on. Let's not let our Wisconsin friends know about that. Let's keep that for our third.

[Andrew Walsh]

Third. Third time. Third.

[John Sklaroff]

I'm not hearing it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Third. Third.

[John Sklaroff]

Which part is Sean?

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Yeah, exactly. Again, flawless is the best way to describe it.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right, Nick. Thanks, man.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Thanks, guys. See ya.

[John Sklaroff]

Thanks for everything.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, Andrew. Speaking of the listeners and their journeys with tbtl, I know that we received a little origin story voicemail from our dear friend Cassie.

[John Sklaroff]

Yes, we did. This came on the voicemail line, I think. Think yesterday, if I recall, or maybe earlier this week. But she just wanted to let us know about kind of her journey with tbtl. And I found this to be a bit of an emotional roller coaster, if I'm being honest with you, but very, very, very sweet. So here, take it away, Cassie.

[Cassie]

Hey, guys, this is your friend Cassie from Oakland. Loving the song. And I was just thinking. I was like, we've been friends. Love you guys. And I was like, I don't think I ever told them how I got into TBT all today. So a friend of yours who you guys refer to as Ders, and I were dating many years ago, and he said, kathy, you have to listen to this. You have to listen to this. I know you're gonna like it. Okay, Let me give it a.

[John Sklaroff]

My apology. Can I just pause here and just. I apologize for all of the noise that is going on right now. I was trying to take a call and keep it on hold while we listen to Cassie, but it's all coming through the same part of the board, and apparently I don't have the functionality I thought I had. So the listeners.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you want to just send me Cassie's.

[John Sklaroff]

No, we're going to start this over. It's all good. We're not taking phone calls right now. They're not going to hear any more phones ringing over top of Cassie's message. I like that we're starting it over. We're not live or anything, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, no, no.

[John Sklaroff]

We'll cut this all out.

[Andrew Walsh]

Absolutely.

[John Sklaroff]

We'll clean it up later. But I just feel like I really want Just to hear this without all the interruptions. Okay, Cassie, take it away.

[Cassie]

Hey, guys, this is your friend Cassie from Oakland. Loving the song. And I was just thinking. I was like, we've been friends. Love you guys. And I was like, I don't think I ever told them how I got into TBT all today. So a friend of yours who you guys refer to as Ders and I were dating many years ago, and he said, cassie, you have to listen to this. You have to listen to this. I know you're going to like it. And I was like, okay, let me give it a. Give it a spin. I did, and I absolutely loved the show. But devastatingly, but mutually, we broke up. It was my first adult relationship, and I was destroyed. I was just destroyed. And so I was, like, moving into my first or my first a studio apartment on Capitol Hill in Seattle. In between a balling my eyeballs out. I was just binging tbtl. I was also binging some liquor at the time.

[Andrew Walsh]

Correlation been there.

[Cassie]

And it just truly is a cure for global loneliness. It was. It just meant so much to me. I sincerely felt like I had, like, this group of buddies, and it helped me so much through truly. I was also unemployed at the time. What was like a devastatingly dark time in my life. So I just.

[Andrew Walsh]

It.

[Cassie]

And since then, I was like, okay, we're besties. I love this show. Also, as you see, your friend Ders, he did take a lamp from me. I was emotionally vulnerable, and I let him take this lamp that I got at an estate sale for $10. He loved it. I loved it. And I said, oh, screw it. You can have it during the move out. If you see that guy, if you're in his house, go ahead and steal that lamp. Send it on down to Oakland, please. I'm incensed. It's been almost 20 years. I'm incensed. Okay, not 20 years. You know what I mean? Fifteen, maybe 12, I don't know. Time. Okay. Love you guys. What you do is so important.

[John Sklaroff]

Okay, buddy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Cassie in Oakland.

[John Sklaroff]

Next thon, we're stealing the lamp back. Yes. That's the thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's the caper.

[John Sklaroff]

That's right.

[Andrew Walsh]

We always need there to be some sort of dramatic tension for the thon week. And like, this week it was, will they make friends in the town of Friendship, Wisconsin, next year it could be. Will they be able to re. Steal the lamp?

[John Sklaroff]

That must have been a great lamp for, like, them both Tawana and for Cassie to still be thinking about it this long.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, oh, oh, my friend. I'M thinking about many things from many separations. I'm talking post it notes that I liked, like. No, those were the good ones. Fine, you can have them.

[Jermaine]

TBT 17 Ocean's 11. Just going around heisting things.

[John Sklaroff]

Yes, exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, Cassie, thanks for leaving us the message. We love Cassie. We have Cassie on the show, you know, semi regularly, and it's always one of the most delightful.

[John Sklaroff]

Exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

Moments of tbt. Cassie is one of those persons who just. Everything she says is compelling to me. You know, like sitting outside of a Trader Joe's just like sampling different seltzer water.

[John Sklaroff]

Yes, yes, yes. And discovering a certain kind of grape that she likes because she doesn't usually like fruit. I mean, if I don't. I don't know if it's private or not. But we. So I. Maybe I won't promote it, but I used to follow Cassie on Instagram and it was definitely the best follow on my feed.

[Andrew Walsh]

She also has a dog named Dagmar.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Which tells you everything you need to know.

[John Sklaroff]

That's right. That's right. The phone lines are open again. As long as it's working, I'm not seeing anything come in. But if you've been trying, try again.

[Andrew Walsh]

206414 TBT.

[John Sklaroff]

Oh, yeah, we have to give out the number. We never give out the number.

[Andrew Walsh]

You gotta hammer the hammer. That number, my friend. That's an old talk radio truism. Just if. Again, not that too many of us are even probably listening to talk radio where they take calls anymore. That's sort of not the thing. But if you ever happen to hear the host just saying the phone numbers hundreds of times, it means that nobody is calling in.

[John Sklaroff]

I have some very good news for you, Luke, because the person who I hung up on rudely during Cassie's message has gotten through again.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. Excellent. Hi, this is tbtl. Who is this?

[Chris]

Oh, hi, it's Sarah Nichols smith.

[John Sklaroff]

Sarah, hello.

[Andrew Walsh]

TBTL's official real estate agent.

[John Sklaroff]

Realtor to the stars.

[Jermaine]

You refer to yourself as a star?

[John Sklaroff]

I just realized that I'm on my.

[Andrew Walsh]

What's that, Sarah?

[Chris]

I'm on my spy glasses.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right. Hold on. I'm going to put mine on too. And then I'm creeps.

[John Sklaroff]

You guys are creeps.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm going to. Sarah, I don't know if you're. I don't know if you're watching us audio on it. I don't know if you're watching on YouTube right now, but I have mine on now and I'm staring into the camera. And then you could stare into the YouTube and I think our glasses can talk to each other.

[John Sklaroff]

It's weirdly intimate.

[Chris]

You know, I was, but I'm actually walking at Sea Tac on the mile long walk between the light rail and the security right now with my kids.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah.

[John Sklaroff]

You got those glasses because of Luke's talking about them on the show, right?

[Chris]

I did. And then as I said in the chat, I think I outluked Luke by buying a second pair immediately because that's.

[Andrew Walsh]

How much you liked them, that you were like, I can never be without these. So if my child breaks the first ones, I need a backup pair.

[Chris]

Well, yep. Or so that like they can wear them and we can. Yeah. Do the same thing where we're both recording each other and the Internet has all of our data all the time.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know, that's the thing.

[Chris]

I'm pretty sure that they're as cheap as they are because meta than is collecting. Like they want everybody to wear them.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, it's awesome.

[Chris]

It's not like they're cheap, but they're less expensive than people would think.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I mean, this is the thing, Sarah. And also my friend Evan immediately got a pair he sent me. He just got them in the mail the other day. I did not intend to be the chief evangelist for any Mark Zuckerberg related situation, but I unintentionally did so because they are from a just like a functional standpoint, they are actually quite amazing. But again, they come from the pure pit of hell. They're like, you know, in Lord of the Rings, wherever that is, that they make those weird. I don't know if they're orcs or something Isengard. But that big like vat that are like, these guys are big. That's where they make the meta glasses.

[Jermaine]

Urukai.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, they. They birth.

[John Sklaroff]

That's what he said.

[Andrew Walsh]

They come right out of that pit and then I start promoting them and then many of the listeners of the show are out there buying them. So. Good job, Luke. Hey, what are you using them for, Sarah?

[Chris]

It's probably a better idea to donate to TBTL though.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nice. Thank you. Great messaging. But back to the glasses from the pit of hell. What is the primary. What's the primary use case for you these days, Sarah?

[Chris]

Okay, so the good one. So I'm renting, I'm renting e bike from a company called Wambi and they. It's like 200 bucks a month and I've got a setup for my kids on it. It's A really nice bike, but I am a little like nervous about cars pulling out and you know, if anything happens. So I've been recording our rides.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I see. Like a dash cam, but for a human.

[Chris]

Kind of. Yeah. And then also like yesterday. Have you ever heard of Heron Islands here in Washington?

[John Sklaroff]

I believe so.

[Chris]

It's a, it's. It's not as fancy as it sounds, but it's a private island with, you know, community and they've got one of their private ferries and I was just out there and they have deer that like run all around the islands eating out of your hands. And so I was like, I fed a deer an apple while I was recording it. So I had like both my hands free to, you know, I don't know, fight it off if it got aggressive, but.

[John Sklaroff]

Wow.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And then have you found yourself like.

[Chris]

I got a good, a good video of that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Have you listened to TBTL through them and does it sound better or more entertaining?

[Chris]

Well, it's funny because now I'm listening. I hear on both ears because normally I listen with like one earpod in.

[Andrew Walsh]

Uhhuh.

[Chris]

So it's more of a, like all surrounding.

[Andrew Walsh]

Were you not getting the Andrew side or the Luke side before?

[Chris]

You know, it depended on who I agreed with.

[Andrew Walsh]

On.

[John Sklaroff]

Can you weigh in on the towel situation? Did you hear a towel conversation earlier?

[Chris]

I didn't because we were on the light rail so I was, you know, in and out.

[Andrew Walsh]

I am very pro drying a towel on the clothesline and then pulling it off when it's almost kind of starchy and stiff. And Andrew is not a fan of that.

[John Sklaroff]

I like clotheslines for other things, but not for towels. I like towels would be tumble dried with downy.

[Chris]

Well, it's just when you're in Seattle, it's either like nine months out of the year you can't do a clothesline.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Chris]

You know it's raining.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. But for the few months you can. I do think it's. I mean, I don't have one, but I'm, I'm the new version of me.

[Chris]

Prefer a towel over a railing versus a. There's something about a towel over a railing as you dry off. You know what I mean?

[Andrew Walsh]

Like huh.

[Chris]

Like railing or a deck railing or a pool railing.

[Andrew Walsh]

That does say some. That says summer fun.

[John Sklaroff]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

And in fact, when we had the Burbank Siblings weekend, a lot of people were going in the hot tub and then a lot of towels were strung over the railing and it just, it felt like, you know what relaxation is happening in this place. There's the evidence of relaxation having happened.

[John Sklaroff]

Yes. I. When we were in Croatia, there was a pool, and there were about, I think, seven or eight of us sharing this house. And one of my favorite photos that I took on that trip and maybe one of my favorite photos I've ever taken, honestly, is everybody. There were these stair. There was these sets of stairs that sort of crisscrossed. You could see them all. And on all three levels, we had hung all of our towels. And it ended up. Nobody did it on purpose, but it ended up just like. It was such a vibe. It was so beautiful. And there is something I. You missed this, too. And I feel bad for you, Sarah. Maybe go back later and listen, because.

[Andrew Walsh]

There'S really no way for her to.

[John Sklaroff]

Ever hear this, but I was talking about making ice earlier and how I'm obsessed with making ice in my kitchen. And I use these really. I like to make ice spheres instead of. I don't think I'm saying that right. That word. Right. Ice balls instead of ice cubes. And so I have these really, like, hard to use silicone ice trays that make these things round, and you have to. And water goes all over the place when you're making them. So what I do is I grab a beach towel out of the, you know, linen closet or whatever, and I lay it down. This is. I do this, like, when I make ice every day or every other day, I lay a beach towel. Oh, my God, still want to live with me. Lay it down on the counter. And then I. And then I fill these things up, and then I press the lids down, and water kind of squirts up, and it gets all over and it soaks the towel. But my point with all of this is getting that towel out of the closet always sparks something in me because it's a beach towel, you know, and it's just. Just seeing the beach towel evokes fun times. Like you were saying.

[Andrew Walsh]

I just actually bought at Target a bunch of beach towels. Like, I don't think I've ever, like, owned eight towels that had stripes that were, like, pink stripes on them. And by the way, not that expensive.

[John Sklaroff]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Surprisingly affordable.

[Chris]

You gotta do the cost, though. You got to do the Costco beach towels.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[John Sklaroff]

Really?

[Andrew Walsh]

I didn't even know about this.

[Chris]

Epitome of the summer beach towel.

[John Sklaroff]

Oh, nice.

[Chris]

Every spring when they get all their summer stuff out.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, well, that's good to know, because I, you know, through being married for large, you know, sections of my life, and then being, you know, single or not living with a partner or whatever. I've been through various towel related scenarios where the other person was buying towels. They just sort of appeared where I was just toting like four mismatched towels through life because I just had those. And before my sibling weekend, I was like, everyone's going to be going in the hot tub. Why don't I just go actually buy some towels that are not for the bathroom. They are purely for getting out of the hot tub and drying off. And I put them in a little cabinet out on the deck and it was like, you want to talk about satisfying Andrew?

[John Sklaroff]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

I fold them up in a certain way now and it just like I this stare into this cabinet on my deck that has beach towels in it that all match and I just. Everything quiets down in my mind for about 30 seconds.

[John Sklaroff]

I have like a Pavlovian reaction to this day when I see a kid's beach pail. I know you don't like the way I say that word. A bucket or whatever, a plank toy bucket with the little shovel. Like I'm too old to play with those. But I still get the scene. Like I think there's one outside of our Airbnb just sitting on a picnic table or something. And I still, when I see it, I instinctively get excited because it means it's beachy times.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. Well, Sarah, anything else? Anything else you wanted to discuss with us before we get to our friendship in the news?

[Chris]

No, I should probably. I should probably go across the sky bridge here and get yelled at by security.

[Andrew Walsh]

Perfect.

[Chris]

I am flying to the Midwest, but unfortunately I'm going to not be at the picnic. I'm heading to St. Louis to see my family, so.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, that's also. That's also an important part of life. So safe travels and. And thanks for all of that, all you've done for the show over the years. We really appreciate you, Sarah.

[Chris]

Thanks. Yeah, this week was great. And we appreciate you all too.

[John Sklaroff]

All right, take care.

[Andrew Walsh]

Bonboy out there. There goes our friend, Sarah Nicholsmith.

[Jermaine]

Jump in real quick. Andrew, just so you know, just based on the chat right now, I think you're gonna get some calls into Spotless about the fact that you shouldn't use fabric softener on towels.

[John Sklaroff]

I know. Because you have to descale them. I know. I'm just saying. I wasn't thinking that, folks. I just didn't want to get Luke. I was getting this vibe from Luke. Like, we've gone deep enough into towel cleaning.

[Andrew Walsh]

Listen, I. I took it deeper. Talk my hot Tub towels. Hey, you know we are here trying to keep TBTL in business and this is the THON week And John, I know there was a couple of things that you wanted to sort of clarify for folks about donations and the like.

[Jermaine]

Yes, thank you. Just a little housekeeping reminders for folks just because maybe this is not me. Not always communicating the best to donors and listeners. So just to want to reiterate, if you're giving monthly already and you have been since last year or the year before and you're happy giving your 1025 whatever dollars it is a month, you don't have to do anything. You can just let it roll and.

[John Sklaroff]

It'Ll keep going and you'll receive your.

[Jermaine]

Gifts and you'll thank you.

[John Sklaroff]

As long as your address hasn't changed.

[Jermaine]

Right? That's another part of this is if you to anyone who's updated their address, please let me know. John jonbtl.net but as far as the gift thing goes, like if you're a monthly donor, there's a place on the website if you want to go increase or decrease wherever is best for your budget, your monthly gift, you can do that. It's right there with all the gifts so you can see everything. If you just want to make an additional one time donation, I've seen a lot of folks do that. Like hey, I give, you know, 10 bucks a month but I want to give an extra 25. That's also greatly appreciated. So you can do that there too. And of course, if you have any questions at all about your giving, please send me an email. But just want to reiterate that for donors who are giving monthly, like if you're happy where you're at, don't worry about doing the thing and you'll get your thank you gifts.

[Andrew Walsh]

Awesome.

[Jermaine]

And we're very grateful for and by.

[Andrew Walsh]

The way, John's response time, I don't want to put pressure on you, but John's response time is very, very rapid this week. Like the second that we're done sitting here with the microphones and the cameras and all that, John just goes into basically like sort of user experience. He's our chief experience officer here at tbtl and anybody who has any sort of question, no matter how complex or simple about their donation or what they can or can't do, or can you send the prize to this person, et cetera, the thank you gift, John is on the case. So email him and he will get you fixed up straight away.

[John Sklaroff]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, we have another call, Andrew. Should we?

[John Sklaroff]

Certainly do.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hi you're on the tbtl. A thon. Who is this?

[Nick]

Hey, guys, this is Steve in Alexandria, Virginia.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, what is up, Steve? How are you?

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Pretty good.

[Andrew Walsh]

How about you guys?

[Nick]

Sounds like you're having an awesome time over there.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's like we really are. Like, we're.

[Nick]

We're perfect.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. We are, like, madly in love with this town and the people. And just like this, we really. And this is a classic sort of TBTL style. And also just the way that the three of our brains are wired. We're already depressed about next year's Thawne. This one's not even over.

[John Sklaroff]

It won't live up.

[Andrew Walsh]

We were already trying to figure out how to top it this next year when we realized that it can't be topped. And so we're after this year. The show's over.

[John Sklaroff]

Oh, don't say that.

[Nick]

I'm surprised you haven't put a down payment on the house yet.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, you know what, Steve? It's funny you'd say that because we're staying in this Airbnb and it is. It's great for what we need. We got plenty of space. Andrew has a beautiful private bathroom and. But it's also pretty janky. Like, there is one part of the kind of dining room floor area that if you stepped on it, you could put very much, probably fall right down through to the ground, like, very soft. There are a million different kinds of bugs and mosquitoes and flies that set upon you as soon as you step outside.

[John Sklaroff]

There are also a million signs instructing you to relax. Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's one of those rentals where they're just constantly reminding you that you're near the lake.

[John Sklaroff]

Yes, exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

And Andrew said when I was. I was sort of low key complaining about something. And Andrew goes, well, we finally found a vacation place that you're not immediately trying to figure out how you can buy.

[John Sklaroff]

Yep.

[Nick]

You should maybe look down the street in Adams or something. Maybe. I hear this.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now listen, according to Bob, let's not get it twisted.

[John Sklaroff]

No.

[Andrew Walsh]

I have been on Redfin.

[John Sklaroff]

You have been on Redfin?

[Andrew Walsh]

I have. Oh, yeah. After the. When I retire to my room.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

I'll.

[Andrew Walsh]

Usually get on there and see what Castle Rock Lake real estate prices are doing, so. Yeah, no, I mean, I've got a couple irons in the fire. Steve.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

What's going on, my friend? You're the root bound guy, right? Yeah, that's me.

[Nick]

Even though, you know, this is, I have to say, as far as keeping telethon, the testament to what you guys have been able to accomplish to doing a show five days a week, every day for as long as a person becomes an adult. It's very impressive because I did about 100 and something weekly shows and now I've been on kind of an unexpected nearly year long hiatus. So it's hard to keep this up. It is only doing it weekly so well.

[Andrew Walsh]

And. But here's the thing, Steve. And this is sort of at the core of the whole thon. The reason that we're able to do it five days a week is it's our job.

[John Sklaroff]

Exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like this is. We get paid to do this. We wake up in the morning and then we go when it's time for us to make the donuts. This is the donuts.

[John Sklaroff]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

And. And if this were for us, just like a passion project or something that we really intended to do five days a week or a couple of days a week, like I'm amazed that you did as many episodes as you've done with Rootbound. Like that's a, that's an incredible accomplishment. But as you know, when it isn't your, your main job, it tends to like kind of move down the priority list for sure.

[Nick]

And it's hard. And then, you know, like, like everyone said in all of their messages here, it's been a particularly difficult year for everybody.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah.

[Nick]

And so like finding time for the hobby podcast is a challenge. I do hope to spin it back up maybe, maybe give myself a little more grace and not have to like do it every week because I was like, you know, actually inspired. Where you look to be like, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to be as regular as I can. And I did it. But now maybe I'll make it a little bit more like Loosey Goosey because it's fun. But when like, you know, you're scrambling last minute. Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

You don't want to feel like it.

[Nick]

Can be challenging pressure.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah. I'm also trying to get as regular as I can. I wanted to ask you a question.

[Andrew Walsh]

Based on how many, how many hours you spent in your private bathroom. Seems like it's going fine.

[John Sklaroff]

I wanted to ask you a question, Steve, and I'll try to let the listeners in on this too. But let me just ask you this. Remember Clubhouse, because I have you listed.

[Nick]

I do.

[John Sklaroff]

In the TBTL kind of phone bank here. I knew is you calling in because I have it as Clubhouse Steve or TBTL Clubhouse Steve. I assume, Luke, this means nothing to you.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think I remember this being a kind of a Hangout thing, Right. That folks could do?

[John Sklaroff]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

They could kind of get together in a virtual space. Was this sort of pandemic era. Hey, look at this.

[John Sklaroff]

We got some tens walking by the window.

[Andrew Walsh]

We got tens walking by the window here. That would be the third and fourth tens that we've observed here in friendship as of today. I think we've got some people that are coming in early for the get together tonight, and they figured they would come check out the broadcast. And what I'll say is the looks on their faces I would describe as underwhelmed.

[John Sklaroff]

Was that a Minnesota Twins? Yes, that was the new Star.

[Jermaine]

North Star on it.

[John Sklaroff]

Oh, really?

[Jermaine]

M with the North Star.

[John Sklaroff]

Oh, okay. But it's not the city connect. I thought the kid, the orange hat was. Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

Can we go back to towel talk?

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah. Anyway, so Clubhouse was like an audio only. It was strange because everything is like video these days. But for some reason, like, what, five years ago, this thing called Clubhouse sort of, like, kind of caught fire for a very brief period of time. And it was audio only, little, like, kind of groups and rooms you could go in. Right. Stephen, you organized one around tbtl.

[Nick]

It was. It was pretty cool.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

I mean, I liked it.

[Nick]

It just fell off because of pandemic of people having normal lives and also, like, seemed a very hard thing to monetize. And so they kept floundering. But it was a fun time. You know, it was a little magical moment of time. And actually listen to Ryan. If he's. If he's listening, shout out to him. Like, that's how we. That's how we ended up talking and realizing that we live, like, less than a mile from each other.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, nice.

[Nick]

We're good buddies now.

[John Sklaroff]

I love that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hell, yeah.

[Nick]

I did remember Justice. He was on the. Justice who called in from Spain. She had been on a couple of those.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, good. That's. That's that person's name. So.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah, the phone kept breaking up when justice was saying her name, so I wasn't.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I was there.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah. That's great. That's so cool. I mean, that you want to, again, talk about the heart of what we're doing here this week. Like, why are we in friendship? Because our podcast is. Is. Is. That's the basis of our podcast. You have made IRL friends because you guys are both listening to us argue about towels.

[Andrew Walsh]

Mm.

[Nick]

If somehow it happens. Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Also.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Shout out. Jen and Kelly were their original Washingtons, who I connected with when I moved to D.C. and, you know, we all get together a lot Less regularly these days. But, you know, we did get together last summer all as a group and.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nice.

[John Sklaroff]

Like.

[Nick]

Yeah, said Ryan. Ryan, we get together for dinner pretty regularly. And he was like, just a stone store away. But we didn't know that until we were, like, chatting on a clubhouse thing. So.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's dope.

[John Sklaroff]

Really Cool.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, listen, Steve, man, thanks again for, you know, being part of the show from, like, your days in Europe, I think, till you're, you know, coming stateside and you have a good memory.

[Nick]

I'm so impressed by how you remember everybody.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, there's not as many tens as maybe some would think. You know, I would like to say that's because I have total recall, but it's also because, you know, and also you guys are all out there living interesting lives. So of course it sticks in the mind a little bit because you guys are getting up to interesting things. So, Steve, we appreciate you, man. And, and thanks for being part of tbtl.

[Nick]

Well, thank you guys. And yeah, just, you know, to do that little NPR style fundraiser pitch. All those out there listening, if you, if you haven't supported before, think about supporting now. Every little bit counts. You can get that awesome sticker of the, of the billboard.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Looking forward to.

[John Sklaroff]

Yes.

[Nick]

And, but you know, it's. Think about how much this show has been your life. I've been listening to you guys for, like, so long, like, it's incredible. And I think there's a lot of people out there like that, too.

[Andrew Walsh]

So thank you, Steve.

[John Sklaroff]

I really appreciate that.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right, man, take it easy.

[John Sklaroff]

Take care. You know, what I love here is that we didn't really mention our fundraising efforts at all on the show yesterday. We were talking to Michael. We were talking about whatever we were talking about and kind of realized at the end of the show, oh, we never reminded people what we're doing here. We also didn't have time to take many phone calls. And now today we wanted to take as many phone calls as possible. And what are the listeners doing? They're, they're, they're, they're doing the messaging. Exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm getting almost emotional, honestly, making us look really good because we're not even the ones having to beg for the money.

[John Sklaroff]

Exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

They're begging on our behalf. You know, that's the kind of thing that happens, Andrew, when your billboard becomes a designated.

[John Sklaroff]

That's right.

[Andrew Walsh]

Historic landmark in Adams county like we found out yesterday. We have become. Our billboard is one of 80 historically preserved registered places now here in Adams county, officially, from the Adams County Historical Society that's right.

[John Sklaroff]

And people who are watching online can see that plaque designating, take that serial. That's right. What have you accomplished?

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly.

[John Sklaroff]

Hello and welcome to Top Story.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right. We've been doing stories of friendship. Friendship in the news this week because we're in friendship. And I saw a story this morning from the BBC, Andrew and John, about a poetry contest that was being held for young people from the ages of 7 to 11, and that the winner of the contest, the overall winner, was a young guy, I believe his name was Miles. This was the Latitude Festival, and it was in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire where they had this competition. And this kid Miles won the competition again. It was writing poems about friendship. And his poem was inspired by the world of Minecraft. And his poem is called A Friend Like Steve.

[John Sklaroff]

Oh, because Steve is the name of the. I didn't even know this. I've logged many, many hours playing Minecraft, but I don't really know much about the universe. I just know which creatures scare the heck out of me and I gotta run away from them in the game. And so I did not even know that there's a. That, I guess. Is that the main. That's the main guy playing Steve. When you're playing Minecraft, you're playing Steve.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're being Steve. Yes. And that's who Jack Black is in the movie.

[John Sklaroff]

Okay. Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

So this poem. Yeah, this poem about friendship is. Is inspired by Minecraft and it is called A Friend Like Steve. And I actually have the poem here, Andrew.

[John Sklaroff]

Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do we have any poetry music?

[John Sklaroff]

Well, this is what I. I'm on the YouTube. We didn't pick this in advance. And so I'm frantically here. I don't know if you saw over my Shoulder. I'm on the YouTube audio library. And you know what? Let's just do this, Luke. Okay, so there's free music you can use made by artists who contribute to YouTube and they say people can use this for their projects. And you can sort by genre and you can sort by mood. And so let's. We can choose as many as you want. Let's start with genre.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[John Sklaroff]

Are we looking for alternative and punk? I don't think so.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, it's a. This is a sweet poem about friendship based in the world of Minecraft.

[John Sklaroff]

Ambient?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, no.

[John Sklaroff]

Children's. No. Cinematic.

[Andrew Walsh]

Cinematic. If it was very kind of loving.

[John Sklaroff]

Okay, what we'll do is we're going to choose cinematic and then we'll choose a mood later. Then classical. We can call up some classical stuff. I'm going to Skip country and folk and dance and hip hop and holiday and jazz and hop and R B and soul and reggae and rock. We're going to go with cinematic and class. And then we're gonna go mood. Here, Luke, and here are your choices for mood. Are you ready?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[John Sklaroff]

Is it an angry poem?

[Andrew Walsh]

No. Is it opposite?

[John Sklaroff]

Is it a bright poem?

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean, it's a happy poem. It's about friendship.

[John Sklaroff]

Is it a calm? I'm choosing bright. Is it calm?

[Andrew Walsh]

I think there's some calmness there.

[John Sklaroff]

Is it dark?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, no, no.

[John Sklaroff]

Is it dramatic?

[Andrew Walsh]

No.

[John Sklaroff]

Is it funky?

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

I.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know what? I wouldn't describe it as funky.

[John Sklaroff]

Is it happy?

[Andrew Walsh]

I think it's. Plaintiff is plaintive.

[John Sklaroff]

It's not on the list. Okay, inspirational.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, definitely inspirational.

[John Sklaroff]

Romantic.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean, maybe.

[John Sklaroff]

Is there romantic?

[Andrew Walsh]

Is there a Mrs. Steve?

[John Sklaroff]

And is it sad? I'm gonna not sad. So I'm gonna hit apply now. These are our choices here. So it's called up, you know, with those filters. It's called up a whole. A whole bunch of stuff.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[John Sklaroff]

We have songs called Floating Lanterns. Ooh, that's Floating Lanterns. You want to try that?

[Andrew Walsh]

Let me hear Floating Lantern.

[John Sklaroff]

Okay. This is fun. Just do this. We could do a whole. A whole week of this kind of programming.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, it's a little bit. That's a little ambient.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah, I didn't.

[Andrew Walsh]

I didn't like, think about something that's more. Think about if there was an audio. You know, the, the.

[John Sklaroff]

How about this?

[Andrew Walsh]

You know the COVID of the Wind in the Willows? No, with like the frogs, I think. What about frog and Mr. Toad? You know, frog and Mr. Toad.

[John Sklaroff]

I think I can sort of picture.

[Andrew Walsh]

If you made that into music.

[John Sklaroff]

This isn't it, is it?

[Andrew Walsh]

It's closer.

[John Sklaroff]

Okay, how about this one? Dew on the Roses.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that's. Yes.

[John Sklaroff]

Here we go. It worked. The system works.

[Andrew Walsh]

Love it.

[John Sklaroff]

Love it.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is A Friend Like Steve, written by 7 year old Miles of Wymanham, Norfolk, England. A friend like Steve. If I had a friend like you we could build our own Minecraft villages. We could slay the Ender dragon and defeat the evil pillagers. If I had a friend like you we could search the caves for treasure. We could find an enchanted golden apple and jump around in pleasure. If I had a friend like you we could use elytra and fireworks to fly. We could zoom around the map all day through the fluffy clouds and sky. If I had a friend like you we could make a nether portal. We could find the totem of undying and make ourselves immortal. Chicken Drucky. It's beautiful. Right?

[John Sklaroff]

First of all, we chose the right music.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, right.

[John Sklaroff]

I'm very proud of that. I mean, that's all I contributed to that.

[Andrew Walsh]

That music screamed elytra.

[John Sklaroff]

What is I.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's. I don't know. I thought maybe you. You play Minecraft?

[John Sklaroff]

No, I. That poem is like a user manual to me. I'm like, oh, what are all these things I gotta learn about this?

[Andrew Walsh]

You're saying that you've not found the totem of undying?

[John Sklaroff]

I don't know what the totem of undying is. It makes. I have a feeling if I pick it up, my head is going to shrink down or something. Like in one of the Indiana Jones movies. I feel like I should not pick that up.

[Andrew Walsh]

John, do you mess with the Minecraft?

[Jermaine]

No. It's not a game I ever really got into, but I do see the appeal, especially for some.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're more of a Helldiver guy.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah. You were way into Helldivers. Oh, man.

[Andrew Walsh]

You should have seen John and our server at the local restaurant we walked to last night from our Airbnb. They are both gamers and they were really. They were. They were broing down.

[John Sklaroff]

They were indeed.

[Jermaine]

A quick pitch for anyone that wants to play Helldivers 2 with me on online.

[John Sklaroff]

Wow.

[Jermaine]

I mean, or just in general. It is if you are a person that like the movie Starship Troopers, you want a satirical approach at the American industrial military complex while killing bugs on foreign planets.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[Jermaine]

It's some of the most fun you're.

[John Sklaroff]

Ever going to have. What did you say to the server? What was the last thing you said to the server as we walked out the restaurant?

[Jermaine]

So the server.

[John Sklaroff]

Don't explain it. Just say what you told the server.

[Jermaine]

The last words I said quote. This won't make sense to you now, but when you unlock the laser cannon, use it.

[John Sklaroff]

I got chills. Any sentence that begins with this won't make sense to you right now. But when I was like, what a way.

[Andrew Walsh]

What a power out.

[John Sklaroff]

My dude. That was awesome.

[Andrew Walsh]

We then found out that our server has a new Twitch account because she had been shut down. She had been shadow banned from Twitch for yelling at a kid in a.

[John Sklaroff]

In the most profane way you can imagine. Whatever you're imagining now, make it more profane.

[Andrew Walsh]

And she just let this fly to us. She told us exactly what she yelled at the kid to get kicked off of Twitch and didn't seem to feel in any way apologetic about it. Andrew. She was just like. She was like, yeah, I said that. So now there's two M's in my. Two G's in my handle. She had to add an extra G to her name.

[John Sklaroff]

But also. And I'm going to say an adult word here. It's. It's not. It's not a bad word. But just a little bit of a warning there. But, I mean, this is while we're chatting, kind of as we're paying the bill or whatever, and so we're just friends there. But in her official role as server, she was telling us about their special of the day, the certain kind of special flatbread they had, and she described it as an orgasm in the mouth.

[Andrew Walsh]

Whoa.

[John Sklaroff]

Did you catch? You didn't catch? That's why I wanted to give everybody a little bit of a. Everybody a little bit of a heads up that that was coming at you. And then story. And I said, I'll have what she's having.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then ate them all himself. And then I ate them all, leaving us extremely frustrated.

[John Sklaroff]

Then I had a cigarette and I.

[Andrew Walsh]

Slept, asked us, was it good for you? And we were absolutely not exactly.

[John Sklaroff]

I think we have another caller here. Are you interested or did you want to talk about the story some more?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, no, I think I just wanted you guys to hear this.

[John Sklaroff]

Beautiful. I thought it was great.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was pretty awesome.

[John Sklaroff]

I actually really enjoyed your read.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I didn't realize until midway through that it was rhyming, I feel like.

[John Sklaroff]

But no, that's good. You don't want to like. It sounds corny. If you lean too much into that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I trust I may not have done our little guy any favors on the scansion, but, you know, we got it out there. All right. Yeah, let's take another phone call. Maybe this caller would like to have a little bit of inspirational poetry music behind that.

[John Sklaroff]

Oh, we got to stop that. We got to stop that. Where's that coming from? Oh, that's coming from YouTube. Okay, we're good. Hi.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hello. You're on TBTL.

[Steve]

Hey, it's. It's Chris from New York.

[Andrew Walsh]

Chris, you finally found a. You finally found a connection that you could talk to Assad.

[John Sklaroff]

That's right. During the zoom. You were breaking up pretty badly there.

[Andrew Walsh]

But wait, and John told me, Chris, that. That you then, like, screen capped what? Your, like, upload speed, like you ookla'd or something, and it was fractional.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

What happened?

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

Yes, it was like, less than a megabyte. I have no idea.

[Steve]

But it just happened to happen at that time.

[Andrew Walsh]

Of course it did.

[Steve]

The perfect Moment for.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right. Well, what were you going to talk about that we didn't get to talk about with you the other night? Oh.

[Steve]

So my show and tell item was a set list from my friend's cover band that plays at a cookout that.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

I go to every year.

[Steve]

Nothing special, but it's special to me.

[John Sklaroff]

That's cool.

[Jermaine]

That's really fun.

[Andrew Walsh]

What sort of songs do they cover?

[Steve]

They're like a pop punk and emo cover band.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nice.

[Steve]

You know, some Fallout Boy, some Jimmy Eat World.

[Andrew Walsh]

Heck yeah, dude.

[Steve]

Panic at the Disco.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[John Sklaroff]

Sunny Day.

[Andrew Walsh]

Have I told you this? Have I told you this story, Chris? I must have told this story on the show a few times, but it's. It's like it's sort of Taking Back Sunday related. It's because Taking Back Sunday is a band, right?

[John Sklaroff]

Yep, yep.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then Jimmy World is also a band.

[Steve]

Yeah, they're in that. They're in that genre.

[Andrew Walsh]

My first, and stop me if I've told you the story before, but my first ex wife is an artist and, you know, did various sorts of art gigs and was hired to do the art for a T shirt for a co headlining tour or a tour where Jimmy Eatworld and Taking Back Sunday, we're gonna be kind of playing together. So it was like, can you design a little T shirt, you know, for this? And she, not being a power punk, pop punk fan, just didn't know that Taking Back Sunday was itself a band and thought that that was like maybe the name of the record or something. And so what she made was a character. She'd made an illustration of a character named Jimmy that was pulling a wagon that had somehow Sunday in it. He was Taking Back Sunday.

[John Sklaroff]

Cool.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I think. I think they ended up like, liking it because it was so. It was so incredibly bizarre. But it was all based on the fact that she had almost no idea what any of the players in this T shirt idea were like a little weird guy taking back the idea of Sunday in a wagon or something.

[John Sklaroff]

Literal interpretation.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was a very. She was not a T shirt designer by trade.

[John Sklaroff]

Yeah, that's interesting.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right, well, anything else, Chris, that you've got burning on your heart that you'd like to share with us?

[Steve]

Not really. I just wanted to say thanks again for another year of keeping me entertained. And obviously I'll be maintaining my donation. Roll it over into the next year.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you. I mean, I would say if you have to choose between Wi Fi, reliable WI Fi and tbtl, make sure you take care of yourself. I feel like Wi FI is a utility. It's a right now. But if you do have that worked out, then yes, please keep your TBT donation going as well. Can I ask you a question, Chris?

[Steve]

Yes, sure.

[Andrew Walsh]

So I kind of was making this joke the other night when we were having our connectivity issues, but I do follow you on Instagram and I am always amazed at how much travel that you're doing. And I mean, this is, you know, from one power traveler to another, I feel like, how many miles did you fly last year? Like, how. How much travel are you doing?

[Steve]

You know, it's. It's funny. I can actually answer that question.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I know.

[Steve]

You can have like a flight log.

[Sarah Nichols Smith]

It's.

[Steve]

It was about140,000 miles.

[Andrew Walsh]

And this is obviously for work, right?

[Steve]

Some of it's for work, but, you know, a lot of it is taking the miles that I earn through work and, you know, using them for fun trips elsewhere. So.

[John Sklaroff]

Wow.

[Andrew Walsh]

So you just. Because the thing that's happened to me in the course of having so much travel associated with my work is I'm less inclined to travel now for like, you know, recreation. But it sounds like you are undaunted because every time I look up you on Instagram, you're like in a foreign country complaining about the airline service.

[Steve]

That tends to happen, but I roll with the punches on that. But yeah, I'm energized by travel. I really enjoy just seeing new places and meeting new people. And it really, it energizes me in a way that sitting around at home in New York doesn't.

[John Sklaroff]

Me too.

[Andrew Walsh]

That famously sleepy city of New York.

[Steve]

Actually, it makes me appreciate New York more. You know, I appreciate the time I spend here more.

[Andrew Walsh]

Are you still blogging and creating content around, like breweries and beer and things like that?

[Steve]

Yes, I am. Yeah. I still keeping the Brew York name alive. And I've now been to 3,832 breweries.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh my gosh.

[John Sklaroff]

So people can find that if they just Google Brew York.

[Steve]

Yeah, it's brewyork on wherever you get your social media. Well, on Instagram at least, and then on Blue sky or Blueski.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you.

[Steve]

Please, I'm just. Brew York one word.

[John Sklaroff]

Nice, Nice.

[Andrew Walsh]

Everybody go follow Chris. Go follow Brew York in those places. Hey, Chris, thanks, man. We appreciate you and all of your time that you've spent with us over the years, man, in person and virtually.

[Steve]

Thank you. Really appreciate all you do for the tens community and keep up the great work.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right, thanks, man.

[John Sklaroff]

Take care.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right, my guys that's it. I feel like we. John, you and I, we've got an appointment over at the grocery store to buy a lot of hot dogs and hamburgers and Boca burgers and buns. We don't need forks. Thanks to our official fork sponsor, Mike.

[Jermaine]

Shell, who also threw in plates as well.

[John Sklaroff]

What?

[Andrew Walsh]

Forks and plates. From our friend Michelle and Edina. Thank you, Michelle. Appreciate you. But, yeah, we're gonna have this get together later out at the. At the lake, Castle Rock Lake there in the park at the pavilion. And we. We're looking forward to seeing folks out there, so we've got to go run and do that. Andrew, I guess you've got some technicals, then. You got to, like, take this whole setup.

[John Sklaroff]

So I'm going to get the show posted then, I guess. You know, I don't know if people realize this, but I was just spoofing at the beginning of the show. We're not actually going to live here. We got to go now. I got to break this all down. That was a joke. Yeah, that was one of those classic.

[Andrew Walsh]

You really played with my heart, boys.

[John Sklaroff]

One of those classic Andrew jokes. But so not to get overly sentimental here, but this has been just a heck of a week, and I'm sad to break everything down.

[Andrew Walsh]

It is really bittersweet. You know, it's. We're relieved that this all went off without a hitch. You know, from a technical standpoint, the show got out there and people could watch it and call in. That's a. By the way, props to you, Mr. Andrew.

[John Sklaroff]

Well, sorry, I didn't mean that, like, you should congratulate me. I just mean that, like, I kept on wanting to say before the show's like, this is all working. Like, we didn't. We didn't ever have that panicky moment. I didn't want to say this because I didn't want to jinx it now if I just, like, mess up. If everything crashes now at the very last 60 seconds of the show, who cares? But we never had that scary moment. You know, there's always a scary moment where it's kind of like, yeah, I mean, John didn't have the headphones for a couple of days, which was a bummer, but it didn't sync the show. But like a hum that you can't place or the. The video not working at all or anything. We just really, really, really lucked out. It was part of the whole week.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I mean, you know, luck is what. The intersection of preparation and H. What do they say?

[John Sklaroff]

No, preparation and constipation.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, that's right. No, but I mean, it's worked out because, because of all of the thought that you put into it, Andrew, so thank you for that. But yeah, like, sometimes at the end of one of these weeks of doing the thon, it is, it's, you know, it's a relief and it's basically just sort of pure, I guess, happiness because we get to go home, sleep in our own bed. The listeners donated so that we know we can do this for another year as our jobs. And it's just kind of like, kind of a little bit of like, well, phew, that's over.

[John Sklaroff]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

And that is sort of not exactly the total feeling this week for me anyway, because it's like we have made some real friends here, you know, in this town. And like, this has been truly, I keep using this word, but it's been really a magical week. And, and so I'm, you know, I'm really glad that it's gone well, but I'm also uncharacteristically sad that we're not doing the show from here on Monday.

[John Sklaroff]

I had a little fantasy and of like, being in this area again in the future, like with Genevieve and being like, let's drive through friendship. I want to show you everything.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you think there will be maybe some sort of bronze statue of the three of us when we come back?

[John Sklaroff]

I mean, I assume, I assume so. We'll see. I mean, honestly, official historic designation. I mean, I don't think it gets much better than that.

[Jermaine]

Just one last time as the money guy, just plug. If you haven't made your donation yet, tbtl.net donate we're going to keep all the thank you gifts up and everything on the website, like throughout the weekend at least. So if you, if you can't get to today, but you want to get the harmonica or the tambourine or whatever, you'll still have an opportunity in the next couple days, but that's where you head over to take care of that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[John Sklaroff]

Thank you, everybody.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you once again to all of you, the tens of listeners, for supporting this thing in whatever way that you can. It is, it's truly humbling year after year to sort of go on this journey with all of you and to realize that, like, hey, it worked. We get to do this as our job for another year. So thank you, you so much for making that happen. It is. It's been like, you know, it's been the greatest joy of my, of my professional life, without a doubt. And I have a lot of professional lives. Too many, some would say so. To say that is. Is really. It means a lot when I say that. And it's true. So thanks again. All right, everybody, guess what? We'll be back here on Monday with more imaginary radio here.

[John Sklaroff]

But.

[Andrew Walsh]

No but back. Back in your phone because nothing stops a tbtl. We'll see you all for that. In the meantime, have a great weekend. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts. Take care of yourselves. And please remember, no mountain too tall.

[John Sklaroff]

And good luck to all.

[Luke Burbank]

Did we just become best friends?

[Chris]

Power out.