#4551 Introducing: The TBTL Bad Lands

Summary

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TBTL #4551 – "Introducing: The TBTL Bad Lands"

September 10, 2025
Hosts: Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Luke and Andrew riff on an assortment of everyday adventures, personal stories, and podcast lore, officially launching a new show tradition: “The Badlands”—the segment synonymous with their most meandering, freewheeling tangents. They reminisce about live shows, discuss neighborly encounters, vent about quirky local businesses, and offer near-philosophical takes on modern annoyances like credit card surcharges and microphoning mishaps. True to TBTL’s spirit, the conversation is both hilariously aimless and strangely heartfelt.

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Main Themes and Discussions

1. Introducing "The Badlands" (04:06, 09:09)

• Origin: The "Badlands" refers to the segment at the end of their show where all structure drops away and any topic is fair game, formally embracing what was previously an informal "dregs" period packed with inside jokes and random stories.
• Luke: “Maybe we call it the Badlands. Maybe we brand it. Maybe we make it a feature, not a bug.” (04:23)
• Andrew: “We crossed the thin red line the moment I opened up my microphone.” (07:03)

2. TBTL Sports Text Chain Drama (07:06–15:16)

• Fun-Loving Criminals: Their sports group text, packed mostly with Mariners/Seahawks fans (and the occasional outlier), reflects fluctuating moods during sports seasons.
• StuBot's Vikings win sparks guilt after nobody acknowledges his message.
• Andrew: “Nobody said sh*t. Nobody acknowledged it. We all just either went on with our Mariners... or we... And that was Monday, right? ... It's been living in my head.” (12:27)
• Luke: Shares his complicated loyalties between friends with different, often-losing sports teams.

3. Listener Audio Throwback: The Chicago Live Show Prank (21:20–25:59)

• Andrew recalls his favorite TBTL live show moment: Luke prank-asking him for almond milk while he was prepping for a quiz, with Luke later delighting in the delayed reveal on stage.
• Key Quote:
  • Luke: “Me asking you about that was supposed to be where you were like, ‘No... oh, it’s my friend Luke who I work with.’ You looked up at me and you said, ‘I'm not using the almond milk.’ And you went back to your work.” (23:13)

4. Microphone Mishaps and AV Anxiety (28:01–37:06)

• Luke vents about the humiliation of talking into a dead mic on stage, the “low-level cold war” between stage hosts and sound engineers, and the need for trust.
• Luke: “For me as far as a way of not expressing to the audience that I got this thing handled...it just feels like it’s just short of tripping going onto the stage.” (31:22)
• Andrew contrasts his own careful muting practices, relishing a system where hosts feel in control.

5. Neighborhood Adventures: Dog Walking & Meeting Gay (41:59–50:39)

• Luke details heartwarming and humorous neighborhood encounters while dog-sitting Gigi, a standard poodle.
• He relays an extended, unexpectedly poignant conversation with his lonely elderly neighbor, Gay, who disarms him by admitting, “I don’t get to talk to many people anymore.” (47:34)
• This affirms Luke's belief in the small but meaningful impact of daily routines—especially dog-walking—on personal connection.

6. Scam Text Chronicles & RCS vs. SMS (52:13–57:57)

• Andrew gets a “wrong number” scam text and describes play-acting in response, only to possibly get blocked. They wonder about the security implications of RCS vs. SMS, and riff on scammers' generic charm: “I hope I didn’t disturb your beautiful day.”
• Andrew: “I am universe-building. World-building.” (55:47)

7. Local Newspapers & Small-Town Life (63:06–65:56)

• Luke details his subscriptions to local papers, the decline of regional dailies, and how supporting local journalism leads him to buying Camas, WA, chocolate (humorously named “Low Down Chocolate” or “Download Chocolate”).

8. Email and Listener Feedback: The Reese’s Pieces Legacy (89:02–90:22)

• Andrew receives an email from listener Gregory, the great-grandson of H.B. Reese, inventor of Reese’s Pieces, regarding Andrew’s intentionally mispronounced “Reese’s Peesees.”
• Gregory (Email): “I know you enjoy mispronouncing this candy, but… at least one person in your audience finds it somewhat amusing.”

9. Almond Opinions, Pistachio Nostalgia, and Snack Tangents (97:02–101:26)

• The Badlands go deep on snack opinions—Reese’s variety hierarchy, the forgotten red-dyed pistachio, and their favorite Blue Diamond almond flavors.
• Luke: “Who’s using the phone anymore? Loser.” (120:58)

10. The Credit Card Surcharge Saga (107:59–114:14)

• Andrew launches into a passionate Badlands monologue about a beloved Seattle wings joint that hit him with a surprise 2.91% credit card surcharge, spinning into a hypothetical future argument over whether they take cash—a scenario that escalates entirely in his own head.
• Andrew: “I don’t know if I can even defend myself anymore… But I will be so upset about that that I could see myself being like, well, then you’re not a business I want to do business with. And then leaving and then never being able to go back to my favorite wing place.” (110:04)
• Luke: “Do you have—have you considered just the next time you go just bringing like, $40 in cash?” (110:53)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“The Badlands came early today. We crossed the thin red line the moment I opened up my microphone.”
— Andrew Walsh (07:03)

“This is the part of the show where we do that. This is the Badlands.”
— Luke Burbank (113:18)

“Nobody said shit. Nobody acknowledged it. We all just either went on with our Mariners… or we… And that was Monday, right? … It's been living in my head…”
— Andrew Walsh on the unacknowledged text from StuBot (12:27)

“She goes, ‘I’m sorry, I know that I talk too much, but I just, I don’t get to talk to many people anymore.’”
— Luke recounts his neighbor’s confession (47:34)

“I am universe-building. World-building.”
— Andrew Walsh, responding to a scam text (55:47)

“For me as far as a way of not expressing to the audience that I got this thing handled… it just feels like it’s just short of tripping going onto the stage.”
— Luke Burbank on microphone mishaps (31:22)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–04:10: Podcast cold open; formal Badlands segment origin story.
• 07:06–15:16: Sports text chain and StuBot guilt.
• 21:20–25:59: Live show prank reminiscence (Almond milk story).
• 28:01–37:06: Microphone woes and sound check laments.
• 41:59–50:39: Neighborhood dog-walking and conversation with Gay.
• 52:13–57:57: Andrew’s scam text interactions and messaging tech confusion.
• 63:06–65:56: Luke’s local paper subscriptions and small-town support.
• 89:02–90:22: Reese’s Pieces: Listener Gregory’s family connection.
• 97:02–101:26: Blue Diamond almond flavor deep-dive and pistachio nostalgia.
• 107:59–114:14: Andrew’s imagined confrontation over credit card surcharges at the wings bar.
• 120:58: “Who’s using the phone anymore? Loser.” — peak Badlands proclamation.

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The Tone and Spirit

True to TBTL’s ethos, the banter is deeply self-aware, oscillating between heartfelt candor and unapologetic nonsense. The “Badlands” perfectly encapsulates TBTL’s enduring appeal: it’s not about the premise, but the journey. Their meandering tangents, affectionate ribbing, and layered inside jokes offer listeners both comfort and comedy—a safe space for the trivial and the profound.

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For First-Time Listeners:

If you’re just dropping in, this episode is a quintessential sample of TBTL’s blend of earnest storytelling, local color, and affectionate absurdity. You’ll find yourself in the “Badlands”—and, chances are, you’ll want to stay for the next wander through the wild.

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Power Out!

Transcript

[Andrew Walsh]

Hi, business boys.

[Luke Burbank]

This is Sarah in Silver Spring, Maryland, who is also a Baltimore Orioles fan. So I have a question. If I am wearing my Baltimore Orioles shirt and my TBTL hat, what are my shrimp related responsibilities? If you could clarify that for me.

[Andrew Walsh]

I would really appreciate it.

[Luke Burbank]

Thanks, guys. Bye.

[Andrew Walsh]

TBTL what comes before anything?

[Luke Burbank]

What have we always said is the most important thing?

[Andrew Walsh]

Breakfast.

[Luke Burbank]

Family.

[Andrew Walsh]

Family, Right. Thought you meant of the things you eat.

[Luke Burbank]

Now, the second thing that you'll see on the screen of your computer is a flashing square that's called a cursor. And it tells you two things.

[Andrew Walsh]

The first thing it says is the.

[Luke Burbank]

Computer is waiting for you to type. And the second thing it says is when you type, that's where the character which you type will appear. I feel like I have the power.

[Andrew Walsh]

Of a thousand cowboys running through my veins right now. Okay, what makes you laugh?

[Luke Burbank]

Comedy, obviously. And sometimes tragedy. Light tragedy, erectile dysfunction, non fatal hunting accidents, waving at someone you think you know but it turns out to be a stranger, that sort of thing. Mom, it's not real. It's a jib jab.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my God.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh my God.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh my God.

[Luke Burbank]

This is a whole new level of nerd. All right. Hello, good morning and welcome everyone to a Wednesday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. Guess where you just got into Cool guy zone. My name's Luke Burbank. I'm your host.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Oh, yeah, buddy.

[Luke Burbank]

Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia, where we've actually got the heat running here in the Madrona Hill studio for the first, but certainly not the last time. It's a foggy day here. High above the mighty Columbia. We've got the fog and a little, little chilly. I've got a kind of a jacket kind of thing going on. But I'm all ready to help bring you episode 4551 in a collector series, Let the fun begin. Gigi, the standard poodle that I've been watching this week, she's here as well. She was a little dog named Snuggles. Assuming the temperature in here is all right for her. I know that when we were out on our walk this morning, I got a little history lesson from my 82 year old neighbor Gay and I. I had a realization about something as well out on my walk this morning, which we'll maybe talk about also big story in the New York Times about the future of housing in this country and how it might be maybe the future of housing is printing Them like three dimensional printing. I've seen a version of this story going around for years and I have personally an issue with the way that we're using the term printing.

[Andrew Walsh]

You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

[Luke Burbank]

So we'll get into that as well. Oh, and we're going to talk to this guy. Longest running co bro of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He comes into this Wednesday episode with one goal in mind. Please don't be mean to Cleveland. He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good morning, Luke. I just found a little present to us in our inbox from listener Mike who sent us a compilation of all of the Mel's Hole appearances on the old Coast to coast show with Art Bell.

[Luke Burbank]

So there were multiple appearances?

[Andrew Walsh]

I believe so. I haven't listened yet. I'm just seeing this now. I'm forwarding it to my personal email account because Luke. Yeah, that sounds like weekend listening to me. That sounds like a great dart throwing weekend listening to me, my friend. Thank you, Mike, for sending that in.

[Luke Burbank]

For folks that missed the. Well, that was in the sort of way end of yesterday's show, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah. Mike was the only one listening.

[Luke Burbank]

That was.

[Andrew Walsh]

And sent him the show specifically.

[Luke Burbank]

What do we call that section of the show now? The Dregs? The Badlands.

[Andrew Walsh]

How about the Badlands?

[Luke Burbank]

You know what's really strange, Andrew? I thought of the word Badlands before I said the Dregs. In the back of my mind I said, should we call that the Badlands? I kind of like reference.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe we call it the Badlands. Maybe we brand it. Maybe we make it a feature, not a bug.

[Andrew Walsh]

What if we, we cross the thin red line into the Badlands?

[Luke Burbank]

Beautiful. I can't. I wish I could think of other Terrence Malick films. The Tree of Life.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then at the end is the Tree of Life. I have not seen the Tree of Life. But what's driving me crazy is I'm a big fan of his very first film which had a big influence on me. And I'm blaking on a sissy. Sissy Spacek. And Martin Sheen. What was the very first. Oh, wait, no, it is Badlands. Good morning.

[Luke Burbank]

You know what, Andrew, let's save this film content for the Badlands of today's episode.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, no kidding. What was I, what was I doing there? We had said Badlands and then I for some reason couldn't think of the word badlands. Anyway, hi.

[Luke Burbank]

We were in the badlands of yesterday's show, which is to say the very, very end where we just, I mean as, as freewheeling as this part of the show feels, there is an even less focused version that happens around probably the 65 minute mark where we just start talking about the Mariners and like any old thing that comes to mind. And, and so yesterday we started talking about something called Mel's Hole or did the listener bring it up? Was it an email or something?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, it was a voicemail from. Oh, right, blanking.

[Luke Burbank]

So we started talking about this thing which again for somebody who is myself a big fan of the Art Bell coast to coast universe, I was. I had never actually listened to the original Mel's whole conversation, which was a guy in actually Washington state who called in and said that his name was Mel and that he had a hole in his yard on his property that was, it was so deep that it was unknowable how deep it might be. He had, he acclaimed he had let down a fishing line of 80,000ft into the hole and it still not hit the bottom. And also that one of his neighbors had thrown a dead dog into the hole and then the dog had come back out alive. And so one of the questions I think you mentioned Andrew or you had was I wonder if this guy was a. Was a frequent caller to the coast to coast show or if it was a one time thing. And I think I said I didn't really know because I, I only found out about this stuff actually fairly late in the game from our friend the Stubbot who I was honoring today with.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, oh yeah, buddy.

[Luke Burbank]

This piece of audio which is actually him. So all that is to say it sounds like Mel's Hole was a frequent topic or that Mel was calling in on the regular there on coast to Coast.

[Andrew Walsh]

Can I get something off my chest regarding the Stubbot? I feel bad about something. This is really just a personal conversation. But that's what I'm coming in with.

[Luke Burbank]

Today is save it for the Badlands.

[Andrew Walsh]

We. Well, the Badlands came early today. We crossed the thin red line the moment I opened up my microphone.

[Luke Burbank]

The badlands came early, boys.

[Andrew Walsh]

Came early, early. Oh, those lands must be some real naughty bads to come this early. We have a sports text chain. We talk about it a lot on the show. It's called the Fun Loving Criminals. By the way, did you hear that Kevin Kremen produced some games earlier this summer? I love listening to the radio when Kevin Kremen comes back.

[Luke Burbank]

Did he bring his restaurant recommendations of the various towns they might be in.

[Andrew Walsh]

The weird thing is I don't know if he got any on air time. I assume he did at some point, but this is the form. Now I have to explain too much stuff. Former Mariners broadcast producer for years and years who was just held in such high regard in that broadcast booth that years after he's retired, he still is constantly coming up in conversation during baseball games. And so we named our text chain the Fun Loving Criminals after Kevin Kremen who did make an appearance this year in the broadcast.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you think he knows about the Kreminnal?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I don't think he. I think that would. That's very.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean like we have to be the only. And I say this with peace and love, the. The certainly the only sports tech chain and probably some of the only people keeping the flame burning for one time producer engineer Kevin Kremen of the mayor's broadcast.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, the broadcast team is definitely keeping the candle burning for him because they, I mean they can't get through a season without telling some story. He's like, he's like Bill Brasky to Rick Riz and everything.

[Luke Burbank]

He drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls.

[Andrew Walsh]

I sort of got. So here's why I feel bad about something that happened on the chain the other day. Most of the people, not every. Oh yeah, buddy. But most of the people on this text chain are rooting for the Seattle Mariners and the Seattle Seahawks. And then there are some outliers as well, right. People who root for different team in baseball or.

[Luke Burbank]

And then people who just bad people like my friend John Goodwin, CBS producer.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was trying to figure out how to describe him.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, bad person is what comes to mind because he for some reason feels comfortable and I'm the one that invited him into the text chain, which I regret deeply now. He feels comfortable trying to make it in Oregon football like as in the University of Oregon football space, which. That's something. No, I'm down for a Minnesota Twins conversation from our friend Stu. I'm down for the Minnesota Vikings and. And a few other outlying teams the Oregon Ducks have absolutely Nike University have no patience for.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. And he's, he's not, he's not afraid to throw that around. Certainly. Is there anybody on the text chain. Be honest with me that you don't regret inviting in at some point because I, I swear. No, I know I'm on the.

[Luke Burbank]

No, that's not. Andrew, that is true. You're the one.

[Andrew Walsh]

Text each other.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't Regret my brother David. Because my brother David, I feel like he and I are simpatico in our fury. Like he gets mad the way I get mad. But then we both also, I think, try to throw in some positives and like, I like David's contribution. I like your contribution. I really do. My brother Sam is a. He's a. Let's just say he's a. He's a low key presence.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

In the discourse. He doesn't get crazy in there, but he doesn't do anything. I wonder if Kamaru Kev has us muted.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was gonna say, you wanna hear something shocking? Kamaro Kev is still in the group. We just never hear from him. He's just like a. What do they call him in arrested Mumford man. What is the school that he went to. And he's always just Mumford men should be seen and not heard. Only it's not.

[Luke Burbank]

Is that where like.

[Andrew Walsh]

Not Tobias, not Job Buster. Buster goes. Yes, but. And it's not Mumford either. Sorry I'm messing everything up today.

[Luke Burbank]

But. But the point. I guess my question is like, and we don't know the answer to this, but I feel like. Anyway, you, you answered the question. You said that, that Kevin Kremen still looms large. Kevin Kremen in the, in the minds of the, the people that are the, the, the play by play hosts on the radio.

[Andrew Walsh]

At least the broadcasters who worked with him. I, you know, they have a lot of new people in there now, so maybe they don't, they don't talk about him as much. But I always think it's funny when I turn on a radio broadcast and Rick Riz is still like spinning some yarn about old Kevin Kremen. But anyway, that's just what we named our chain after. That has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that most of us have like during a Mariners game, all of our energy and usually especially at this point in the season and based on how the Mariners had performed on that last road trip, a lot of negative energy going on towards the mayor. There's a lot of grousing, a lot of complaining, a lot of like biblical sort of like gnashing and yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Rending of garments.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wailing is going on just like a lot of.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, a lot of wailing.

[Andrew Walsh]

So there was some of that going on the other day. Now I think that maybe the Mariners ended up pulling off a win on the day that this happened. Yeah. Because it was Monday night. We're go. We're all just obsessed with our little corner of the sports universe. And then the stew bot checks in. Quiet Stu, who doesn't. He doesn't dip in all that often. He chooses his moments very carefully, as he does. I believe in life and on podcasts. And he just dips in and just says, hey. I think he said in the. In the TBTL Producer bowl, my Vikings beat Chris Hayes's Chicago Bears today. Now, Chris is not part of our text chain. So that was just. That was just. It wasn't dunking on the Bears. It wasn't dunking on Chris. It was just Stubbot's way of saying, hey, guys, in my corner of the sports world, something went, okay. Something nice happened to me today.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

And nobody said shit. Nobody acknowledged it. We all just either went on with our marriage. Oh, yeah, buddy. Or we. And that was Monday, right? What's today? Wednesday. It's been living in my head. I'm not joking. I have been thinking at several points during the past couple of days, I've been thinking I should shoot Stu a note and just saying, hey, sorry for the radio silence. Congrats on week one to your Vikings. I also. Because part of it in the back of my head was also. Maybe the Seattle Seahawks fans on the thread might also still be licking their wounds a little bit on Monday and not ready to celebrate another football team or. It's just, like, the way life works. Nobody responded, but I feel guilty about it.

[Luke Burbank]

I had complicated feelings about how to respond to that text because I have sort of adopted the Chicago Bears as a team that I root for because they have just been in the absolute wilderness now forever. And because our friend, television Chris Hayes, is a big Chicago Bears fan. And it just seems like everything that can go wrong for that team has gone wrong for them over the last. You know, ever since. Ever since William the Refrigerator Perry was playing there.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's my one reference. That's what I was gonna say.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, it's just been forever. Our listeners in Chicago can probably confirm this. And so. And there'll just be. There'll be so many times, like, again, our friend Chris has a lot of things in his life have gone very well for him through hard work and good decision making. And he just is living a life that. That. That many people, myself included, admire from. Admire from afar. And sometimes up close, like when I'm chopping wood with him in the Hudson Valley, the one. I would say the one thing in his life that's not ideal is the Chicago Bears football team. And it'll just be like, just some absolute dog shit game that they're playing in against another lousy team, and somehow they'll still be finding a way to lose. And he'll just fire up a text, like, to you and me, like, it'll be a Sunday. The Seahawks are done. Maybe the Seahawks had a good game. They won 10 games last year. And it'll just be the Bears trying to, like, just somehow defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars. Actually, I don't know if the Jaguars are good or not. You know what I mean? Just like one of those games. It's just like two teams that aren't going anywhere are just kind of, like, fighting their way to the bottom.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And. And somehow the Bears will be the team that gets to the bottom first.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

So all that is to say I. I'm always kind of rooting for them in the back of my mind, because I'm friends with Chris and I want. And I feel.

[Andrew Walsh]

I.

[Luke Burbank]

What my feeling is that the Vikings have had more success, at least in the regular season. They've had kind of. They've had more success of late than the Bears. So I'm not saying I was rooting against Stu's interests, but I was. I was hoping it would be one of those games that was just a tie. They just played it out till overtime. Nobody won. And then I don't have to choose between my friends of who I'm supporting.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I see. And I don't have strong feelings. I think, if anything, the Stubbot sort of got us into rooting for the Vikings because I tend to root, you know, no, I guess some offense to Green Bay fans, but I tend to root against Green Bay. And the good thing is we don't have any connections to Wisconsin or anything like that.

[Luke Burbank]

We don't have any pending connections to Wisconsin.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, we don't have any past pending.

[Luke Burbank]

Or watch this space.

[Andrew Walsh]

But, you know, so I kind of got on the Vikings bandwagon very, very, very casually, whereas I've never really messed with the Bears one way or. Or another. You know, I never had any emotional. So I tend to be happy for Stu when it comes to that. Although the underdog Argum makes complete sense to me because that's also how my.

[Luke Burbank]

As of right now, the National Guard is not being deployed to the Twin Cities where it is being. I'm pro all things City of Chicago autonomy. I'm like anything. Anything that in any way helps Chicago push back against the Visigoths at the gates.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. What if they actually use the Bears to push back?

[Luke Burbank]

What if they actually. It's William the refrigerator Perry, Jim McMahon.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wouldn't it be ironic if the refrigerator was against ice?

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, now this is of course where I have to see if I can locate what the. The. Of course. You know.

[Andrew Walsh]

Working on something. Oh, does that roll into a second drop? Are we about.

[Luke Burbank]

I think it's rolling into.

[Andrew Walsh]

Whoa.

[Luke Burbank]

It's. Do you want to hear what it is?

[Andrew Walsh]

Uh huh. Of course, of course.

[Luke Burbank]

The way that I find little audio drops, this is probably the least effective way to do this. But I actually have to type in, by the way, the refrigerator was hard to find because I think I misspelled it. I type in some letters that may relate to the file and then it'll bring up anything that satisfies that search query. So FRID is what I'd put in. And I got this one. Fridge.

[Andrew Walsh]

Fridge.

[Luke Burbank]

Yep. And then it wants to go automatically into the next thing, which is something called Carl Castle Friday. Carl Castle, rest in power. One time announcer for Wait, Wait, don't tell me. The founding announcer for Wait, Wait, Don't Tell me. I don't know what this is. It just says Carl castle Friday. It's 48 seconds long. I am thinking maybe it's an audio. Like it was a promo for like we had Carl Castle on TBTL maybe or something. But let's just hear what this is.

[Andrew Walsh]

Ladies and gentlemen, this is broadcast legend Carl Castle. Welcome to a very special edition of tbtl, the show that's probably too beautiful to live tonight, featuring from. Wait, wait, don't tell me. Peter Sagal. Plus the music of very truly yours. First, though, your spirit guides for this vision quest. She loves Jesus, but she drinks a little. Jen Flash Andrews. He's known far and wide as Japan's number one mixer, Sean Detor. And your host for the evening, weighing in at 183 pounds, Luke Burbank.

[Luke Burbank]

You know what that must have been for? We did two live shows in Chicago.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay. It's definitely a live show. I was going to say that's because.

[Luke Burbank]

That'D be the only way we got Peter Sickle to come on the program would be we were in the town where he also lived. But anyway, that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Remember where you did those? Because when you and I did it years later, we did a Chicago show, but that was at the Ace. I'm sorry, not the Virgin. Virgin Hotel Theater.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, we. We did that one at a place called Schubert's, I believe, or Shuba's. Shuba's.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was that like. Is that more of like a kind of an old theater venue or is It. It's more like a club.

[Luke Burbank]

Like a. Like a rock club because we were kind of more rock and roll.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sure, yeah. No, yeah, I know you.

[Luke Burbank]

Shuba's Tavern Leather, I think. Slash Lincoln Hall.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

And I'm considering bringing that back. I'll give you an example. Let's. I'll give you a. Let's see, the who's playing Shubas lately. I'm trying to see if there are some bands we've heard of. You want to get a sense of what the Shuba's deal is and in fact, Andrew, I'm on their website and I don't recognize any of the bands because I am out of touch with music. Have you. I don't think you spend that much time anymore looking at like the rundowns for Lollapalooza or, well, the Capitol Hill Block Party.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mentioned it at the beginning of this summer when I was on KUOW because they wanted to talk about it and I was like, that is more like, it's just how I measure my aging now. The Capitol Hill Block Party Rundowns. It used to be, oh, wow, I know a lot of these bands and it's like, wow, I know a couple of these bands. And now I'm like, like sifting through the smallest print on the poster to see if they brought back some old band from the early 2000s that I might remember or have hear. I don't know anybody anymore.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I'm down to like maybe one band per bill on those. On those large, you know, festivals. And it'll just be like, because they decided to do something throwback and have Devo there.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right? Exactly. Like, yeah. Or like I say, for me, it's like, usually it's something. I'm trying to think of some, like, indie band that you and I both liked from the early 2000s.

[Luke Burbank]

We're having Guster.

[Andrew Walsh]

Guster. Is that it? That's a. Is that a 90s? Is that a 90s?

[Luke Burbank]

Guster seems to be having a moment. Well, a couple of things. One, I follow a friend of mine from the Cairo radio days who, I don't know how much you knew him, but Josh Kearns.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Compiles with Josh Kearns. And he is apparently the number one Guster fan in the ABS in the entire world because his. There's only two things that he only likes him, okay? He puts biggest fan pickleball. Every post he has is either about pickleball or the band Guster. I think he may have seen the man guster live like 20 times. Last year. So that's where I'm seeing it. And then also I'm getting Guster tiny desk performances popping up in my tick tock feed. That's why I threw. So I threw them out there.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, speaking of Chicago, I was reminiscing with some friends this weekend about a moment that they weren't there for, but you and I were there for. One of my favorite, favorite moments in TBTL history happened on stage in Chicago with you and me. Do you want to guess what it is? Do you want to hear it?

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I'd like to hear it. So this was at that Virgin.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Hotel show.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, I'm not going to even. I'm not even going to set it up because I'm pretty sure you set it up in the tape. This is a full chunk of tape here. This is two minutes long. And I believe I am in the middle of or just about to begin giving the listeners that we brought on stage a quiz. A quiz about Chicago that I had worked really hard on earlier that day. And we had the music going. The quiz music going, I think. And then you said, wait, hold on. Stop that music.

[Luke Burbank]

Can I have the floor for just one moment? Andrew, can you kill the music for a second?

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, shoot. Is this. Are we ending the show?

[Luke Burbank]

I know that Andrew did his research on this because today Andrew was in the coffee shop at this hotel, sitting at the window looking up suburbs of Chicago, actually looking them up on his computer. And the reason that I know this is because Andrew, Carrie and I walked up to you and I actually wanted to do a joke on you where I went up and pretended to ask what the shit? I wanted to ask for the almond milk from you because you were there typing away. I was kind of like you, who.

[Andrew Walsh]

Asked me for the almond milk.

[Luke Burbank]

You had no idea it was me. I took a picture of you to prove that I was there. That's you. This is not interesting radio.

[Andrew Walsh]

I thought that was so messed up that somebody said I was sitting next to the coffee bar and somebody's like, are you done with the almond milk? I'm sitting here drinking my tea, bro. I did not even know that was you. I was in the zone.

[Luke Burbank]

It was such a ludicrous question. Intentionally.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is only coming up now.

[Luke Burbank]

It was an intentionally joke question because you were clearly working on your laptop. Why would you be using the almond milk? Me asking you about that was supposed to be where you were like, no. Oh, it's my friend Luke who I work with. You looked up at me and you said, I'm not using the almond milk. And you went back to your work.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right, I'm going to stop it there. It goes on for another 30 seconds.

[Luke Burbank]

This is. This is. I mean, honestly, this is how you're able to create such compelling content like that Home Alone quiz or whatever it was.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I mean, not to bat you on the back too hard, but speaking of compelling content, I'm remembering a small little detail of this as well. We were already into the quiz. We had two listeners on stage who were competing against each other. It was some ridiculous quiz I made up that had something to do with Home Alone 2 or 3, I think. And we were into the quiz. Quiz music's going. We're, like, on question two or three. And then the people in the audience, and I believe the people taking the quiz were giving me a hard time about something I had put in my quiz regarding suburbs. And that's when you decide, wait, hold on. Stop this. I'm gonna tell you the story about what happened today. Like, how did you sit on that for so long? Were you. Is there a chance we get through the whole show and you never even bring that up? Or were you just waiting for the perfect moment to say, wait, don't give Andrew a hard time about not having his facts right here, because I know he was looking up these facts. It was perfect timing, but I wouldn't have the patience to sit on that.

[Luke Burbank]

Hold on, Andrew. Let me get my dartboard out. Let me set it up here. And let me say to you, it could have been both. In other words, I was planning on dropping that on you somewhere in the show. I was excited to reveal it to you. But it's also possible that I would have forgotten it in the fog of war, and I would have just gone through the whole show, and then we'd be done, and we'd be at a bar with Serengeti drinking rose. I would only then remember that I was supposed. You know, I do that a lot on the show. I'll have something that I'm really excited to talk about with you going in, and maybe I'll even promote it somewhere at the top of the show. And then I'll just get so caught up with the other stuff we're doing, I'll, like, forget to bring it up. So I was. I was so pleased with how that all worked out, and I was so pleased at how truly shocked you were, because it's possible that you could have just forgotten that interaction altogether. You were working. Somebody asked you about almond milk. It could have just been, you know, like something that your brain just deleted right after it happened. So I was. I was really chuffed that you. That you. That you were as blown away by the fact that you were talking to your friend and coworker Luke Burbank, that.

[Andrew Walsh]

I had a memory, like a. Just a vague memory of somebody asking me this dumb question, and then it ends up being you.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I was really happy about that. Like, that actually kind of. That really sort of played out as well as I could have hoped it would.

[Andrew Walsh]

What didn't play out as well as I could have hoped it would is my mic usage. Both of us. I'm a little bit disappointed in this recording, to be honest with you. I think we have higher standards usually, but me especially, I sound like I'm. I sound like I don't even have a microphone. Like, I'm yelling across the stage into your microphone.

[Luke Burbank]

That did not hit my ear the same way in that moment. And, you know, I guess I was actually glad that the crowd was. I don't know if you miked the crowd or just because our. We were using omnidirectional mics. I got the thought the crowds actually picked up. Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. I think we always have a mic point at the crowd. I remember. I remember specifically the setup for this one. We were pretty stressed out. It was kind of a smaller space than we were.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, you were sick, too. That was the thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sick. Yep.

[Luke Burbank]

You were kind of down for the count that weekend, and you, like, really.

[Andrew Walsh]

Rallied to do that show, remember? I. Because I remember being sick, and you. You went out or something, maybe with some mutual friends or something, and I stayed up in my hotel room watching Home Alone again. I want to say three, actually.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I think it was because Home Alone 2, they're lost in New York, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. And I don't know if I've ever seen that one. Yes. Home Alone three. And this. It doesn't even. Doesn't even have Macaulay Culkin in it. It has a remote control car that has some, like, spy secrets in it. And, like, the spies are trying to get it back from the boy who isn't Macaulay Culkin. Anyway, I argued that it might be better than the original. A lot of people didn't agree with me on that. But I do remember that was the first time we had ever been setting up in a space. We're doing all the mic checks, and the audio guy, whoever we were working with to set up the space, and he's going around. It was the first Time I'd ever seen anybody set up all of the kind of audio ins and outs in a venue using an iPad. I don't know if you remember that. I mean, you see. You probably see it all the time now with all the live stuff you do. But at the time, he's just walking around seeing like, oh, this monitor, this. Oh, I'll just slide this up and down. He's walking around the room making adjustments on an iPad. And I swear to God, at that moment, it was the most futuristic thing I'd ever seen.

[Luke Burbank]

It just happened the other day when I was at that. In a landscape, the classical piano performance that it was out in Silver Falls State Park. So this guy, Hunter Nowak, played this whole concert and then I was interviewing him on the stage where the piano was and you know, that kind of thing. You just sort of never know. I wasn't working with Livewire tech people. It was his tech people. They were great, by the way. But they bring out a couple of chairs, they put the microphones up. And my whole thing in that is always like, are we losing the crowd? In this 90 seconds that it's taking to transition from this beautiful piano performance to, like, me awkwardly. We were talking about body language. You know, when we're in sort of in front of people and in a performance mode, it's like me awkwardly standing on the stage waiting for someone to bring a chair for me to sit in and then positioning a mic and me kind of like feeding the mic cable around my back, the xlr where they're then going to plug it into something in the stage. And anyway, I was. What I really hate doing. This is one of my weird performance pet peeves that kills me. It actually happened to me the other night when I was at Kickstand Comedy in. In Portland. It's when I'm talking into a mic to a bunch of people and the mic's not on. Yeah, I don't know why that just throws me. Like, that's part of the. That's just part of the experience of having the kind of jobs that I have. It's going to happen. I should really just develop a system for it, whatever that is. But it's. It's like that. It's like when you think there's going to be one more step.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's the guy. I was trying to think of an analogy you like.

[Luke Burbank]

And because in a lot of cases, it's the very first impression of you that the crowd has. And I don't know how this is going to now devolve into like AV talk. But it is. That's just what's happening here. We're not even in the Badlands yet. This is the good lands, Andrew. Holy forking shirt balls. This is the good lands.

[Andrew Walsh]

Buckle up for the badlands, folks.

[Luke Burbank]

Wait for the Badlands. Right. But like it's. Part of it is. What's, what's shocking to me is I will often say there's not, thankfully not very much with Livewire because I've worked with our tech people for years now and they're great and they kind of also know my preferences. But there is a low level battle that is going on. It's a, it's. I guess you could call it a cold war. It's not yet a hot war, but it might be after I make this statement. Andrew, between the sound people and the talking into the mic people. And here's what it is. The sound people do not like the microphones to be on a second, a half, a second before it's time for someone to talk into them. Probably because of concerns about feedback, concerns about hot mics, about thumping anything like that. Yeah. Hand, you know, handling noise. Like the, the people that are, that are pressing the buttons and moving the sliders or the faders up and down on the soundboard, they really are into the mics not being on until the mic needs to be on. Now I, as a person who's going to talk into the mic and desperately does not want to be standing on stage, the first contact I have with the audience and I'm just talking into a mic and no sound is coming out and then people are going, we can't hear you. And then it's just like this is already now. Not the vibe. I'm sure this is, this is not instilling confidence in the crowd that I am going to be a competent host for this thing. Like, it just feels like it's just short of tripping going onto the stage. For me as far as a way of not expressing to the audience that I got this thing handled.

[Andrew Walsh]

It feels weak, right?

[Luke Burbank]

It feels weak a little bit.

[Andrew Walsh]

When you talk into the mic and you're just expecting to hear your voice, it actually can kind of happen in the studio too. On the rare occasion I don't unmute my mic or something and you go to talk and you're just like, you're expecting to hear yourself in your ears, but instead you just hear your puny little voice. Not amplified.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. And you whatever not to. I don't know why I have to Code this in some sort of a weak versus strong kind of framework. But, yeah, also, you just look a little bit feckless to the audience. In my feeling of it is. I'm sure that I overestimate that, you know, because it's my body up there talking and trying to talk into the mic. Feeling a little bit embarrassed then and feeling a little bit like, again, I look silly to the audience, which I will, believe me, I will look silly throughout the process to the audience. But that will be hopefully at my direction.

[Andrew Walsh]

Amplify the silliness, though.

[Luke Burbank]

At least that's what we're talking about. That's the TBTL motto. Amplify the silliness.

[Andrew Walsh]

You don't want. God, I could see that that's a good. It's like you don't want that awkwardness of the beginning of a bad wedding toast. It's like that kind of energy right when it's. And I also think that's one of the reasons why the sound people tend not to. I think that the thing is, most sound people are probably dealing with folks who don't have, like, a radio and broadcast background and are like, they're protecting the people on stage who don't usually use microphones. But the thing is, you're coming in and you use microphones all the time. And you need to, like, somehow convince them, no, you can trust me, turn on the microphone. I'm not going to tap it with my hand. I'm not going to thump it. I'm not going to rub it up and down my jacket lapel before I start talking into it. Just trust me in this.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, exactly. It just. So that's. I'm always saying to the sound people, hey, can you turn the mic on when you see me going on stage? Just as soon as you see me get on the stage, will you please turn the mic on? And that is sometimes it depends. Like, again, when I'm working with folks that I've worked with a lot, usually they trust me. They go, yeah, I've had people when I've been like, hired for events, places, and I don't really know the crew. I've had people basically not trust me just way too long. And then sometimes I'm talking into the mic and then no sound is coming out. And then I very quickly convert embarrassment into rage because when embarrassed, I feel small and powerless. And when I'm angry, I feel, I guess, large and more powerful. And so I am on stage. I've had moments where I'm on stage and I'm trying to talk into a mic and no one's hearing me. And this, by the way, it's under three seconds. It is under three seconds for me going, hey, are we this mic on? Are you guys able to hear me? Are you to. When my mic is now amplified, my voice is now amplified. And in that three seconds, I am reading the riot act to whichever sound guy with his iPad thought he knew more about how this was going to go than I did. I get so angry inside. But all that is to say, that didn't happen. It didn't landscape thankfully, and the guy had an iPad. And I said, oh, hey. I go, I go, are these mics going to be hot? This is in front of the crowd now. We're just standing on the stage and he goes, well, let's just see. And he pulls out his iPad and he hits a button. And my first thought is like, this isn't going to go well.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, you need to see the light as well.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm louching cables. Yeah, exactly. I would have put my hands. I would have put my hands in the side of this soundboard to verify. Boy, we're getting really biblical today.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And sure enough, he hits this thing on the iPad and actually watch it do this thing I'd never seen where it was like a. It was like powering up. It was like this little bar, kind of like when something's loading on the Internet. Just goes. And he goes, yep, your mic's on. And I start talking into it and the crowd can hear me and everything was perfect.

[Andrew Walsh]

See, that's the thing. It's a lack of control as well. And this is even true if you're hosting a show and you're like kind of across the glass from like the people, the producers or the engineers running the board. Like some studios, you can. You have an on off mic for your own microphone in the talk studio, and that's the way it should be. But you must have. And I'm trying to think of kuow was like this. I think KOW is definitely like this, in fact, because when I'm guesting over there, you can't control your own mic. You just have to trust that the people behind the glass are turning it on. And yes, and in those radio studios, they are turning it on. But I just know, like, I've seen like, even working with Madeline in LA when I was down there. I can't, can't believe that was more than 10 years ago now, by the way. But, like, I do think that I saw some insecurity from her of being like, can I trust that everything is going to be on? Like you're already dealing with the fact that I have to interview somebody maybe about a tough topic. Maybe, you know, you're thinking about the radio clock, you're thinking about this, you know, you're just trying to think of all these content related things. But also in the back of your head is can I trust the fact that when I talk into this microphone it's going to be on. Because when you don't have a button in front of you, there's no light. There's no indication. It's just purely a leap of faith. And I understand that getting into one's head for real. And I'm not in, by the way, I'm not in that position much. I'm just speaking from working with hosts.

[Luke Burbank]

Not being, but you know, you know what. And you, you mute our mics before we go on. Particularly if we're doing something like we, we're doing the thaw where it's a kind of, oh yeah, sort of extra live, you know, it's being streamed on the Internet or whatever. And you are phenomenal at unmuting the microphones. You have a very good system. I'm impressed by your system. You will tell everyone, you'll tell like me and John, okay, I'm muting our microphones and then you'll say, okay, I'm unmuting our microphones. I like your system. I wish you should set up some kind of a, like a masterclass, some kind of a training session for everybody else who's, who's, who's engineering and turning mics on and off of how to do it because I don't, I can't remember it ever, it ever having an issue when you were doing that.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean, I think the only issue is sometimes I forget to turn on my own microphone. But that might be some sort of subconscious sort of self hate thing going on.

[Luke Burbank]

I know that I have been like on and on about this whole like having a dog out here this week kind of a situation. So I don't mean to belabor it but I will just tell you this morning. So I'm dog sitting Gigi, this, this standard poodle and well, two things. And you remember how I, I told you I was on a walk down in town the other day and I encountered a woman who had a, a Snow White standard poodle and we met each other coming from opposite directions and she, and in no way acknowledged that I was walking the mirror image of her dog not even a nod. Not even a, like, hey, nice picture, nice dog, or anything. I thought that was kind of interesting. Well, later yesterday, I end up at Home Depot buying some stuff and I've got Gigi with me, which. That was a bit of a roll of the dice. I think the thing with Home Depot and dogs is don't ask, don't tell. It's much like the US Military and its policy towards LGBTQ folks back in the day. It's like, I don't think I could not. I was driving towards Home Depot and I don't like leaving Gigi in the car for obvious reasons. But what I'm willing to do is sacrifice the security and safety of my vehicle so that she is not gonna be getting overheated. By that I mean, like, I'll open the sunroof, I'll open the windows far too much so that a person with bad intentions could, like, reach into the car and open the car. Like, if it's, if it's the, if it's the choice between my car getting burgled and Gigi being too warm, I'm gonna go with risking the burgling of my car.

[Andrew Walsh]

What if they burgle the dog?

[Luke Burbank]

You know, Becca has talked about that at times.

[Andrew Walsh]

Really?

[Luke Burbank]

I think it's a very particular. It's a very particular criminal. Who's gonna dog burgle? Who's Gonna Burgle a 11 year old standard poodle?

[Andrew Walsh]

Dog nap.

[Luke Burbank]

But dog nap. But, but, but even with that being the case, I just, I'd rather bring her into places. She's also like the nicest, sweetest dog. She doesn't bark, she doesn't mess with people, she doesn't get into it with other dogs. She just is like a complete. She's the most chill animal that you could bring into a space. So I'm driving over to the Home Depot and I'm trying to find out. I'm talking to the phone, I'm talking to Siri about, like, what are the rules at the Home Depot about bringing a dog in? And I can't get a straight answer out of anyone. I can't get a straight answer from Home Depot corporate. I can't get a straight answer from the Internet other than it's generally okay if the dog is chill. But there's no. You know what I mean? There is not an official policy anywhere that I can find.

[Andrew Walsh]

I will say I see dogs at our Home Depot all the time, and I think the Lowe's as well. But I'm picturing the Home Depot right now. So, yeah, here in Seattle, they got the memo. And I've never seen a dog doing anything close to misbehaving. I just see people wandering around. The dogs are always on leashes. They're always well behaved. And sometimes they let me pet the dogs.

[Luke Burbank]

I have been to a Home Depot before. It might even have been the one down in my town. I have. I remember walking into a Home Depot somewhere that had signs they had put up that was like, clearly they had made them back in the office of the Home Depot that were like, basically, we're really sorry, but we can't have dogs in here anymore. And I'm guessing it was because there was an incident.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, if it says anymore. Yeah, something happened and it was like.

[Luke Burbank]

Something must have gone down. So I was trying to remember what the policy was and it basically just seemed like on officially, maybe it's not like 100% allowed, but also it's not disallowed. Like, everyone just be cool. What I basically got was, everyone just be cool.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, and don't ruin it for everybody else.

[Luke Burbank]

Don't ruin it for everybody else. Everybody just be cool. Like, let's just. It was one of those weird gray areas in life when it applies to a multibillion dollar corporation where it seemed like their advice, they were advising you to just be generally cool about shit.

[Andrew Walsh]

So the signs that you're describing remind. We've probably talked about this before, but it reminds me a little bit of the signs that will suddenly go up at the Eagles. Like these hand scrawled signs that say.

[Luke Burbank]

Something like, don't talk about politics.

[Andrew Walsh]

No talking politics. Like what? There's like, don't compliment Tim's beard or whatever. You're like, what happened? It's like they get more.

[Luke Burbank]

Don't mention Janice's shoes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right, exactly. You're like, what did I miss?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. So I'm walking Gigi in the Home Depot and right when I came in, it was. I came in through the self checkout area and there's like multiple orange aproned employees kind of, you know, manning that area. And nobody batted an eye. So I knew right away it was going to be fine. Anyway, I'm in the plumbing section, I'm looking at some stuff and there's a guy, older guy, and Gigi is kind of standing near him and then she starts standing kind of closer to him. I'm like, oh, hey, sorry. He goes, hey, no problem. I got a Snow White standard poodle at home. So I get it. And I was like, good. I Got my recognition that I wanted about this dog, just not from the person I expected it from. I got it from this.

[Andrew Walsh]

What if they're partners? What if, you know, we can't rule out. What if they live in the same home or whatever.

[Luke Burbank]

It's very possible, and that would be even better. I just wanted acknowledgment from someone in that household that it was interesting that we had poodles that were the opposite of each other. But anyway, all that is to say, this morning, I'm out on the neighborhood walk with Gigi, something that I really enjoyed yesterday because I got to meet some of the local kids in the neighborhood who were waiting for their school bus. I got to see some goats. I got to learn some stuff about this neighborhood that I didn't know before because I've only experienced it in my car and then sometimes on my little E bike. And I've got this neighbor. I've mentioned her before. Her name is gay. She is 82 years old. She's kind of the institutional memory of the neighborhood. She lives up the street from me. And what I thought was funny was when she introduced herself four years ago or something, she said, hi, my name is Gay, although I don't think you can say Gay anymore, so you might have to just call me Gail. And I said, okay, we'll just. Whatever you're comfortable with. It'll be fine. And. And then, since then, I've maybe chatted with her a little bit here and there. But one thing I know is that it's. If I start chatting with her, it will typically become. It will take a little bit of time to chat with her. And so there's a lot of. She has a dog. She has, like, a little Pomeranian, I think, named Cotton. And she walks Pomeranian up and down our street. And she gets down to, like, my. My house at the end of the block. So she'll get down to my house, I'll see her turn around. There's a lot of times I'm driving out of the neighborhood and I see her with her dog, and I'm tempted to roll my window down, but I'm also a little bit hesitant because I don't. Maybe it's not the moment for me to get into a conversation. And so I'll just wave at her because I want her to know that I see her and I acknowledge her, but I leave my windows up as this kind of subconscious indicator that I'm not there to have a conversation. But I am trying to be friendly, right? And so today I'M out with Gigi, and now we're coming back from the walk. We're coming down the road down the hill, and Gay is actually like, kind of at the. In front of where the driveway to my house is, because she has walked her dog all the way down the hill. Now she's turning around, and I realized, oh, this is going to be a time where I'm going to probably talk to Gay. Like, this is no. There's no rolling the windows up and waving. This is going to be us chatting. And so, sure enough, we start chatting. I'm telling her a little bit about Gigi. She's telling me about the neighborhood and about Ed. I was. I was asking her about the history of my house a little bit, and she was going back, like, eight owners of my house. And she's like. She's. There's a way of a person of a certain age in the state of Washington talking. And I don't know if maybe this is also just people of this age across the country, but they will drop the definite article when they're describing a family of people who live somewhere. So they were like, well, that was. I was almost gonna say Zelensky's, but of course, that's the president of Ukraine. But like, some name like Zelensky's. Like, well, before it was so. And so it was Zelensky's, and he was an electrician. And then before that, it was Gabriel's, and then before that, it was not the. Not the. Whatever. It was just. And she's describing all the different folks that. That had lived here. And. And how she really liked the guy who owned the house before me because he had a big vegetable garden, but he was never home because he was a commercial fisherman. And so he just told her, gay, come pick anything you want out of the garden. And I immediately thought, well, I got to grow a garden and let her pick shit out of there, too, because, I mean, I'm not letting this NRA magazine get in guy, be the popular. Be her favorite person who lives in this house. But we end up talking about the whole. She's explaining to me what, like, the history of the neighborhood is and also what it was like when she and her late husband moved there and how it was all like, hey, it was. It was hay fields everywhere around here, and there's. All of the houses that are near me are built in the last maybe 20, 30 years. Those are all new in her mind. And stories of, like, bears running through the neighborhood and all this stuff, and. And. And yes, she is the kind of person. Oh, she was telling me a story of her husband seeing a bear. And this is the way that she tells me a story, Andrew. She says, well, you know, Dale was on his way to work. It was early. It was probably about 7:30, because they had to be there at 8. He was working, you know, for the. Working for the highway department, where he was. Where he worked for, you know, 30 years. That was after he'd been a laborer. But being a laborer was good money. When we moved to this house, which this house was actually. This house was a World War II munitions shed from Portland they brought up here and put down. And someone had been renting it out when we moved in. And then we were able to buy it for about $7,000. This is going to make you mad, because we could have bought your house for about $9,000 then. And we passed on it, which I don't think that was a good decision. So this is how. This is the way that the information unfolds.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And now the thing is, Gay is also actually very witty and very smart. Like, she was talking about different things in nature and different things with gardening and stuff. And she is very clearly, very much knows what she's talking about. And there was a couple of times where she said something like she sort of misspoke or she tripped up on a word, and she goes, boy, my head. She goes. She goes. My head and my mouth are just not connected anymore. At 82 or whatever. Like, she's, like, actually a very fun person to talk to, but we're now in, like, minute 20 of this conversation, and. And I'm both enjoying it, but also starting to think, well, I got to get kind of going on the rest of my day and my work stuff and everything. And so anyway, I'm starting to do that thing where I'm looking for a little bit of an out from the conversation. And then so finally I say, well, all right. Well, you have a great morning, Gay. It was really nice to talk to you. And then she just says, like, she goes, I'm sorry. I know that I talk too much, but I just. I don't get to talk to many people anymore.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, wow.

[Luke Burbank]

I know, right? And I was just, like, so grateful that I got that, whatever, 15 minutes of my life to talk to her and, like, for her to have. And I don't want to overestimate how enjoyable this was for her, but, you know, just, like, she doesn't get to talk to a lot of people anymore, you know? Her husband's passed away, and she knows the people in the neighborhood. But I think most of the other people. Most of the other people in the neighborhood are a little on the younger side. We're all generally going somewhere when we're driving up the road. And again, I know that I'm just like, like consistently and repetitively saying this, but, like, this would not have happened if I wasn't out walking the dog. This is another example of this dog walking thing in the morning, all two days of it that I've done materially improving my life and improving to some degree, Gay's life. Because I would have been in. Had I been even passing by her, normally I'd be in my car, I'd be waving, I'd be trying to manage the situation. In this case, I had this really nice kind of. It also actually saved me an embarrassing phone call, Andrew. Because the name of my street is actually the last name of a family of people who, like, live in the area. And I was recently down at a carpet store down in town because I was going to be pricing some carpet for the upstairs of my house. And I was talking to the guy. Basically everyone I talked to now is north of 80. I was talking to the guy who owns this carpet store, and he's got to be north of 80. He knows the history of everything out here. And he. I wrote down my address because he was going to come up and, like, give me an estimate. And he said, oh, oh, I know that family, that road. And I said, oh, really? He goes, oh, yeah, yeah. You know, and he just starts telling, like, he just starts naming people in the family. And he goes, you're probably in their old house. And I was like, really? I go, that's. Oh, that's fascinating. He goes, well, let me give you his number. Let me give you so and so's number. You can call him up and find out about it. So he gives me a business card with the name. With the name and phone number of the people who probably lived in my house in the 1950s or something, or at least their parents did. And I was gonna call this guy because I was curious. I was going to be like, who built this house? Who, like, who lived here? What was the story on this? Anyway, I found out from Gay those people live in a totally different part of this neighborhood. The people I was going to call never lived in this house.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I thought you meant they just moved to a different part of the neighborhood. They never.

[Luke Burbank]

No, they live up the street from me. I know where their House is. But that's not. This house is not the house they lived in. Just even though the street is named for them, they're not here. And that was going to be a weird conversation for me to call somebody and say, hey, I live on the road that has your name on it. I think I live in your old house. And then we would have probably spent 20 minutes trying to figure out that I didn't live in their old house or their parents house or their grandparents house. So I got something out of the conversation which was I didn't have to make a weird phone call to some random guy and only to find out that I'm not even connected to his family history.

[Andrew Walsh]

What was the question you were trying to get answered about your house? Or was it just general?

[Luke Burbank]

You want just general? Like what was the deal? Because I mean she and her late husband moved to this area in the early 1970s and so. Oh, by the way, the story she was telling about talking about gay.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I just meant like why. Why I got lost by why you were going to call this phone number. What did you. I thought you were.

[Luke Burbank]

I guess I wanted to find out who built the house because one of the things about my house is it's very ramshackle and weird. It's like when we started pulling the floors up, we realized that like the footprint of the original house was tiny. It was like maybe it was like one bedroom, a tiny kitchen and a little bathroom. So much of what is the house now and it's still, it's not very big by square footage is clearly something that was tacked on later, you know what I mean? And you notice that when you pull the floor up because you're going like, wait a minute, this isn't the same subflooring. And look at the way that these floor joists are running. This is. Oh, they added this porch. Huh? Okay. Oh, they added this part of the house. Like this wasn't here before. So I just was curious about what the initial. Like was this like a summer place that people came to and. Yeah, I don't know, I was just, that's, I guess just general questions about the, the neighborhood and the street and the, you know, that's all I wanted to kind of ask this guy. But again, I was going to be calling this guy who was described to me as like a 60 something year old semi retired carpenter, which I don't know why that reads as gruff to me, but I was already like kind of thinking in my mind how am I going to open this Hi. This is weird, but I live on a street that I think has your last name. And I was wondering if the house I live in is like the house your grandparents built or something. That was going to be kind of my opening.

[Andrew Walsh]

And also, I have come into a fortune, which I'd like to share with you. But first, I'm going to need some money to unlock the fortune.

[Luke Burbank]

Can I. Can we move this conversation to WhatsApp?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. Oh, well, whatever.

[Luke Burbank]

Did you hear back?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, sort of. You were going to tell a story about a bear that's more interesting. No, I think I got blocked. I think I got blocked by a scammer. Luke, I'm not even joking. I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything untoward.

[Luke Burbank]

It was all toward. It was highly toward.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was toward. It was toward. No. You know, what happened is this gets into some technical talk that you and I are not great at talking about, or at least put it on myself. But you know how a while back, I'm going to say about a year or two ago, there was a big change in how our iPhones and Android phones talk to each other, and there started to be more. Some of the functionality that you're used to with iPhones. And it was because they went from, like, there's two different technologies, right? There's sms, which is the original texting technology, and then there's something called rcs, which is like sort of the more modern way that lets you add those little emojis and lets iPhones talk to Androids or whatever. Well, I'm always. Sometimes when somebody is kind of out of network or in some situation, it's like, hey, this RCS message isn't going through. Do you want to send it as a plain SMS text? And usually I'm just like, yeah, it's fine. It doesn't matter. Genevieve's hiking and I don't care if it's rcs.

[Luke Burbank]

This happens to me a lot when I send stuff to you. If I'm on. Well, if I'm on the airplane, it doesn't let me do it at all to you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, the airplane, okay. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

But also, just if I'm having trouble sometimes, particularly because my phone is different than your phone, I have to use this.

[Andrew Walsh]

So I don't. I can't tell if they're trying to string me into doing something off of RCS and onto SMS or if they just blocked me, because I told you this was yesterday. Was just yesterday. This was just yesterday. It feels like lifetime ago. I Got a text message during the intro. During your intro of the show, somebody with a random phone number just texted me, what's the plan for tomorrow? I recognize that as somebody who wants me to say, you have the wrong number. And then they start saying, oh, well, you sound nice. And then somehow they start, like, kind of warming up to you and get you to move over to WhatsApp. And then you hand over all your money or something. Right. But anyway, I always. Ideally, I play around with them, ideally for me. And so I get a random text, what's the plan for tomorrow? I told you. I responded, same deal as last week, except Jan is bringing snacks this time. And then they responded. I didn't tell you this, but they responded, I'm Jennifer. Are you Amy? Now, usually this is where I go, yes, I am Amy. So glad to hear from you, because I think that's funny. But that's not what the scammers want. The scammers, what do they want? They want you to say, no, you've reached the wrong number. I don't know why. I've done this a million times. And that's what they want. And then they say, oh, well, I'm sorry to have bothered you. I'm sure you're a wonderful person. And then you start chatting with them. Like, I know that they. But what I always do is I'm like, yes, I'm Amy. And I start cosplaying as whoever they think I am. And they have no use for that for some reason. So I thought I learned my lesson. And yesterday when they texted me, I'm Jennifer. Are you Amy? I wrote, nope, I'm Carol. And they wrote, if you are not kidding me, I should check the number. And I said, nope, I'm not joking. I don't know an Amy, but you're welcome to join our group if you're in the neighborhood. It's nice to meet you. And they wrote. So I'm just making this thing up about, like, we have some sort of neighborhood get together where Jan is bringing snacks. Right? I have no idea what I'm talking about here. I'm just trying to create an. Trying to create a universe. I'm universe building.

[Luke Burbank]

You are. You're world building.

[Andrew Walsh]

World building. And then they wrote, sorry, I dialed the wrong number. I hope I didn't disturb your beautiful day. And that's what they always throw, beautiful in where. Yes. So I tried to respond, not at all. I'm like, this is it. I'm playing. I'm playing the game. They want me to Play now. Yeah, I've said wrong number. Essentially they're like, oh, oh, I have the wrong number. Well, I hope I didn't ruin your beautiful day. And now they're saying things like beautiful. So I just wrote back, not at all. I'm like, let's tee this up. I wrote back, not at all. But I guess I waited about an hour to send that or maybe a couple of hours. I don't know what I was up to. Something important probably. But when I wrote back, not at all. It says, your message will not go through. You can try resending it or switch to SMS text. And then every time I resend it, as you know, this more rich text format, the RCS thing, it just keeps getting blocked. Now my phone is saying, do you want to switch to text message? Like the more old fashioned kind of text messaging? And that's where I don't know if that will work, if that will help me break through.

[Luke Burbank]

You got to try it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, but the thing is that starts to get, is there's some, this is where I'm dumb and I don't want to, I don't mind playing these little games, but I really don't want to. I don't want to do anything that would actually be insecure in some way as far as my privacy or whatever. And so I'm trying to figure out is there something, is there a reason they want me to move to, to the old SMS texting Just like they would maybe want somebody to move over to WhatsApp.

[Luke Burbank]

Is that somehow like yeah, them potentially a way into your phone or like, or just more of your data, information, etc.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like why is it something weird?

[Luke Burbank]

Is this part of the strategy? Because you've been, you have been messaging with them but you've been messing to the other thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, you know, the default setting. And again, this is just a theory I have. The other, the other thing here is they're just done with me. They just said, I hope I didn't ruin your beautiful day. And they're just like, I can't get any money out of this guy.

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe it wasn't even a scam. Maybe it was just a wrong number, someone to ruin your beautiful day.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, all the more I wanted them to join the potluck or whatever we're doing in my world.

[Luke Burbank]

Anyway, as you were world building, what snacks did you think Sandy was bringing?

[Andrew Walsh]

I thought Sandy might bring one of those layered jello things, you know what I mean? Where it's like the whole, all the colors of the rainbow with like a white dream in between. Jan, I think was gonna make that, but yeah, Sandy was gonna make her snickerdoodles.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, oh, okay. Sandy and the snickerdoodles. Jan with the jello. So everyone brings. Everybody brings something that's the same letter as their first name.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm bringing almonds. You baby.

[Luke Burbank]

Hey, let's thank some donors. These folks are making TBTL happen. By the way, our guy, chief business boy, John Scaro is working hard. Yes, he is out there in the Twin Cities to do all of the thank you gift fulfillment and which is I'm sure why he got into the. In the day, the public radio fundraising game and now the TBTL fundraising game is so he could box up thousands and thousands of harmonicas, tambourines. I saw the stickers, melodicas and stickers. And it all looks really good though, by the way, like, I'm really excited about these thank you gifts that are going out to our donors.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I want to say as well, I mentioned this in a newsletter recently, but to all of our listeners who donated during the thon and are waiting to get their TBT greatest hits vinyl record, I want you to know, and we mentioned this when we were talking about it during the thon. It is an ongoing project. We are working on it. We have a date set to do some tracking on that. We're doing a lot of production right now. I'm excited about it, but we're still really deep in production. And I know John is really fretting. He's like, we promise folks these. Yes, we need to get you in the studio. And he keeps saying, I know the tapes are yours, but what's on the tapes are mine. And I keep saying that's a YP and yeah, saying I don't speak language. And it like it's getting really tense. But no, John is really, really considerate of the listeners times and he's like, really?

[Luke Burbank]

John is doing a good job and we are doing the best we can.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. But we are working on it. We haven't forgotten about it. This is going to be like the joke about posters in 2018.

[Luke Burbank]

No, no, no.

[Andrew Walsh]

Whatever it was. Or earlier than that.

[Luke Burbank]

No, it turns out, I don't. Sorry, Andrew, I don't mean to step on you there, but there's so much about vinyl record production that I did not know or realize that we've kind of been delving into in terms of like runtime and how much because it's physical media. Like it's, you know, how much time it does the size of the record allow us to have, etc. So there's a few different things that are going on and, and, but yes, it's definitely, it is happening and we're.

[Andrew Walsh]

Probably thinking like, you know, even if we have, if we have all the production done by the end of September, I still think it'll take a little bit of time to get those pressed and sent out. So we are talking about, you know, mid to late fall or early winter at the very latest. But it will be a really good product and I just want to be transparent with everybody that we have not forgotten. We are deep in the production process on that and you will get it. But we want to make it good.

[Luke Burbank]

It is going to be just that mid winter pickup that we all need so much. It might just be like maybe after Christmas. I know this, this isn't really the way as I understand it, Andrew, that your brain tends to work in that For a lot of us people like me, it's like, like I, I, the year is, is very much marked by the like I love Thanksgiving, right. So I'm like looking forward to that. And then you know, the weather's changing but it's still kind of fun and folly. And you got Thanksgiving and, and then it's like Christmas and I, I am somebody who likes Christmas music and Christmas trees and things and I kind of got that going for me. And then, but then it's like January and like, and like January is just kind of like okay, well we, we're, we're, we're, we're settling in for about three, four months of pretty tough weather and darkness. And then it's like February, same thing. It's like there's not really much going on for me. So it's like we will, I'm happy to say that the later we go with this, Andrew, not that that's our goal, but the better it will work as a pick me up. Like if it ends up being January, that's great. That means you have something else to look forward to folks in the month of January, which is getting your TBTL greatest hits final.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And you just gave John a heart attack by the way, by saying January.

[Luke Burbank]

You know when people really need to pick me up, John, is sometimes May.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sometimes it's right before the next TVTL a thon.

[Luke Burbank]

Sometimes that's when people are really at their most vulnerable and they need the most. It's something, it could even be early June that people are really, really in need of some help.

[Andrew Walsh]

John, are you familiar with the dog days of August.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, exactly like, you know, let's see here.

[Andrew Walsh]

As Florence machine says, the dog days are over.

[Luke Burbank]

Hey, let's thank Mark Twee of Tarzana, California, first donor today. Thank you, Mark. Thanks to Hemiso, who's an Alameda, California represent, California. Appreciate you, Hemi. Also, Tiffany Johnson is in. Oh, Camus, Washington. I'm a Camas guy now, Andrew. Did you know that about me?

[Andrew Walsh]

What does that mean?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, it means I've been to Camas one time and I found it charming. And also I've been buying this delicious low carb chocolate it from Camas, Washington. It's like a husband and wife. They just. I read about it in the local paper. Do you know that I'm subscribing to two local papers now?

[Andrew Walsh]

Here is one of them. The Trader Joe's News.

[Luke Burbank]

No, the Flyer. The Flying Dutchman. I don't think it's the Fly. Is it the Flying Dutchman or the Flyer?

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm not sure. I don't get it. I'm not a Trader Joe's guy.

[Luke Burbank]

I subscribe to the. The Daily Columbian, which is the. The kind of Clark county newspaper that's mostly Vancouver, Washington and Camas. And then I get the T D N, the Daily News, which is the Longview, Washington paper.

[Andrew Walsh]

And those are. Are dailies or one of them must be a weekly, right?

[Luke Burbank]

They're both dailies, really.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, interesting. Yeah, great.

[Luke Burbank]

The Daily News. It is a bummer because I.

[Andrew Walsh]

They had the Daily News and I'm like, is it a weekly?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, it could be called the Daily News. That's now moved to a weekly.

[Andrew Walsh]

Honestly, as dumb as my question was, it's. In this day and age, it's not out of the question.

[Luke Burbank]

No, no, no. That was not a dumb question for that very reason. But the Daily News in Longview, it's, it's, it's. It bums me out because I drive by their old building sometimes. This is the same thing that happened when I lived in Bellingham. There was the Bellingham Herald, I think it was called, and like the Bellingham Herald building in Bellingham, their old building. It has Herald on the roof in huge illuminated letters. Like really just right out of like 1940s, 1950s kind of, you know, man movie, like a Batman movie. This big beaut at the time. Big beautiful high rise made out of some kind of marble stone. And then it's got Herald on top of it, you know, in bright lights. And this was, this was this incredibly profitable, robust operation. And. And now they're on One floor of that building. And really the only asset that the paper has is they own the building maybe. And the Daily News in Longview, I can see their old building. And it's not exactly like that, but it was huge. And it had all of this parking area which was for all of their newspaper trucks, you know, like, because the trucks would get all the newsprint and they'd be out and they'd be delivering it and. Or taking it to where the actual delivery folks picked it up. Like, and I drive by that all the time. And it's just. They sold the building and now they're in like one room of one of those kind of split level, 1980s office kind of buildings where there's like a. There's a balcony up top with some like a massage, you know, massage envy in it or something. And then like, it's just like, oh, man. But anyway, they're still. They're still happening. They're still going. I'm subscribing and doing my part to try to support local media out here if I can. And I read about this chocolate operation. I think it's called Low Down Chocolate or Download Down Low Chocolate. And I started ordering it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Weirdly suspicious name.

[Luke Burbank]

I've met some people, Andrew, met some interesting folks through Download Chocolate.

[Andrew Walsh]

You only get these chocolates for your secret lover.

[Luke Burbank]

That's right. I've been buying them for Larry Craig. That's my go to. That's my go to down low reference, obviously, because I've made it twice in the last three weeks.

[Andrew Walsh]

You can take the guy off politics road, but you can't take the politics road out of the Luke.

[Luke Burbank]

But I buy this chocolate from there. That's all. My point is, I'm a Camas guy now, Andrew. And just like Tiffany Johnson is a Camas person as well and a TBTL person. Thank you, Tiffany. Thanks also to Terry Hanburg in Meridian, Idaho.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right on the edge there. Is that what meridian means?

[Luke Burbank]

I'm assuming that it has something to do with either something longitudinal or latitudinal. The meridian. Yeah, but does the meridian just mean the. What does the meridian actually mean? It's associated with those kinds of things, but.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right. Well, I realize that I'm. I think I was maybe confusing meridian with median as well.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah. And then don't even throw mean in.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh my God. My goodness.

[Luke Burbank]

The median. The mean a meridian.

[Andrew Walsh]

A circle of constant longitude passing through a given place. So, yeah, we know about the meridian, but I thought it had a. More of a generic usage, but apparently not it's just the meridian.

[Luke Burbank]

What do you know about Bronx, New York? What's the definition of Bronx, New York? That's where Joseph Baruch Warren is. It's our friend Joseph in the Bronx.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, Joseph. Thank you.

[Luke Burbank]

In the boogie down Bronx. Thanks, Joseph. Thanks also to Kelly Blower or Blauer?

[Andrew Walsh]

Blauer, yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Kelly. Do people call you Blow? Do people call you Blau? Did you ever. Are you related to the guy who played third base for the Mariners? I guess that's it. It's blowers, though.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you're right. That's plural.

[Luke Burbank]

I think Kelly's family dropped the S at Ellis island because it was too Jewish. Went with Blauer. Thank you, Kelly. Kelly's in Whitehall, Michigan.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Whitehall, Michigan, that's a nice distribution. Today we got some New York, some Michigan, some Idaho, some California, and some Washington.

[Andrew Walsh]

You thought it was gonna be all California, but it was.

[Luke Burbank]

I did. I did. And then we got some other ones in there. Thank you to our donors for making today's TBTL possible. We just would not be here without you, that's for darn sure.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hello and welcome. Welcome to Top Story.

[Luke Burbank]

I know we're 69 minutes into the show. Boy, the first 60 minutes of the show really flew by.

[Andrew Walsh]

Really did. And it's just kind of funny.

[Luke Burbank]

We're in the badlands.

[Andrew Walsh]

We're in the badlands. You know, not to get super meta about it, but I stumbled right out of the gate today as if my microphone weren't turned on with my weird Badlands. We said badlands.

[Luke Burbank]

I think that was.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm embarrassed about that. It was a very weird. It was just a weird, complicated mistake to make. And I remember thinking, oh, wow, this might be one of those rare.

[Luke Burbank]

Got another hour to go.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And I honestly don't have those thoughts often. But, like, I. I realize, oh, I'm not really bringing much today, and I just don't have much. And, you know, then I play two minutes of tape from Chicago from 10 years ago or whatever, but that. Now here it is. We're 70 minutes into the show. I am shocked, and I've really enjoyed myself.

[Luke Burbank]

It really flew by today, didn't it? I want to do something here quickly, which is, as you like to say, Andrew, a little cleanup on yesterday. I did not. I didn't get to the top story that I promoted, which happens a lot somehow. It always bothers me. And yet I don't do anything to change it. I don't do anything to remedy that situation. But I had mentioned briefly the question of if the TSA precheck if it's worth signing up for TSA precheck anymore because of a few factors including the fact that we don't have to take our shoes off in the line anymore. Apparently the New York Times ran the numbers and the answer is kind of no.

[Andrew Walsh]

Great.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, exactly. That's probably why I was a little, I was a little tepid on the story. The story, as you know, Andrew, had been on the show sheet for a while already. But I just wanted to close the loop on that and say the answer is a resounding kind of. It's what they basically say in the article is. Well, the thing is there's now 22 million people who are registered for precheck. It used to be like a hundred thousand. And so now that there's 22 million people that are, that are checked in for this, it means it's a little bit less of a, a perk. It's a little bit less of a kind of fast pass to the front of the line. You add in the no shoes thing now for regular passengers, which I think is long overdue. And it's kind of one of those things where it saves you a little bit of time. Like particularly if you're one of the New York airports. This was a New York Times article. It could save you some time. What they basically said was you might as well sign up for it because it's really not that expensive considering how many years your TSA precheck thing is good for. And if it saves you one time now, this would never happen to you, Andrew, because you are not going to be showing up at the airport where there's even a remote chance that you would miss your flight. But for other people they're basically saying look, if you want to take an hour out of your day and by the way, you can sign up for precheck at the airport now a lot. Which they should have been doing that back in the day. I had to go to a weird building by the Costco in Soto when I got mine lo those many years ago. They're very easy to get now.

[Andrew Walsh]

Really? Maybe I should do it then.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. When you're walking through the airport, look around for like a person sitting at a desk or with a sign. There are now people that are in the airport saying you can get at least begin the process of your TSA pre check here and there. Again the times point was basically eh, you might as well because even if you don't use it, there might be that one time that you're. The line is crazy and it saves your bacon and that you're going to be really glad you have it at that point.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you know that this conversation just saved my bacon?

[Luke Burbank]

Ooh.

[Andrew Walsh]

Because you talking about this made me remember that I still need to get my real id. Because here in Washington state for the longest time, our regular id, driver's license, when you would get them, they didn't pass the federal muster for this law that passed in 2005 and is finally kicking in in 2025. You're always fighting the 20 year old battles, aren't you? And so anyway, if you just have a regular Washington license, you need to get either something called real id, like upgrade your license to that or travel with your passport. And I'm traveling next week, as you know, Luke. In fact, I should mention that I'll be out on Friday of next week. I think you'll be taking the reins solo or getting a guest on or something. But. But I had totally forgotten, like when we were getting ready to go to Wisconsin, it was like I had this checklist of all of these things to do because it was a work trip and a big one was don't forget your passport. But I totally wasn't thinking about that for this trip. And you bringing this up just. And I just pulled it out. Here's my passport right here. Luke. I don't know if you need to see it for me to do the show. Do you still check? Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Can you hold up? Just. I want to see the number and also your Social Security card if you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Could and only use SMS texting.

[Luke Burbank]

Thank you. Took a picture of that.

[Andrew Walsh]

But anyway, yeah, so thank you for bringing this up. I. But I really do. The reason I. Here's my thought process and it brings it back to your point, which is is for years I've been thinking, oh yeah, I should get TSA PreCheck. Genevieve has it. But I still think of it as, oh, Genevieve had to go somewhere, just like you said. Like somewhere down in Soto, I think.

[Luke Burbank]

The same place probably.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And it was a long time ago and I'm always like, ugh, it just sounds like such a pain in the ass. Do I want to spend an afternoon doing that? I also have a tendency to exaggerate the pain in the ass of these things. But then I was thinking, oh God, I need to get that real ID because I heard that truly is a pain in the ass. Although I heard the federal government is clicking along on all cylinders now, so maybe it's a smoother process than it used to be.

[Luke Burbank]

Definitely. Well, listen, don't get me started with the real ID because I know you would never. I know you would not leave it to chance this way. But I have it on good authority, which is to say my own eyeballs, that you can get through TSA without a real id. Even to this day. They were talking a big game. But I knew, Andrew, because I had a suspicion if you got into the language, that if you got deep in. And I actually just have a real id, so this was never going to affect me. But if you got deep into the language of what they were saying about real id, it was. Was you could be turned away. It was you. You. You could. If you don't have real ID and you're traveling, you might be turned away. You could be turned away. And that could. As you say, Andrew was doing a lot of work in that sentence for me, because when I heard could, I thought, yeah, but also, you might be able to get through. And here's what I've been seeing at the airport. I see these red cards, and they're on the other side of security. And they say, you do not have a real id. They're like a piece of paper, printed out, red card that clearly has been handed to a passenger, and it says, your ID is not a real id. The next time you're traveling, if you don't have a real id, you might not be allowed to go through security. And I see these cards on the other side of security, like somebody was able to travel without a real id, but they were given this card to remind them that they're supposed to get their real ID for the next time that they're going through security.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is just like that time you explained to me that we don't really have to pay income taxes. You're like, I did some digging.

[Luke Burbank]

You could be in trouble if you don't pay your income taxes.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's unconstitutional for the federal government to force us to pay tax.

[Luke Burbank]

I had heard, yes, I'm a sovereign citizen now. I had heard, Andrew, that all of the DMVs in Washington are, like, crazy booked out because of the real ID thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's what I heard.

[Luke Burbank]

Nobody could get an appointment forever and ever.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's why I. Now, Genevieve did get it around the time that she needed it. So it was during that. That big push when it would have been the biggest, you know, cluster. And she did end up getting it. But I do think it took her months. And I think that's what's been living in my Head. Which again is why I kind of jumped my. My brain jumped there because I was like, oh, the TSA thing sounds like a pain in the ass, you know, getting the pre check. And I've been just dreading getting this real idea. I just keep picturing myself in some long ass line. It's been a long time since I've had to just be in a long ass, depressing line at the dmv. Do you remember the one? I don't know if you. I don't know how many like offices there are around Seattle, but I feel like when I first moved here and maybe when I moved back I had occasion to go to the dmv that is right downtown.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you. Can you picture it? It's on one of those. It's on one of those streets that's on a pretty steep hill. Steep hill running down the water.

[Luke Burbank]

It's. It's one of the Jesus Christ made Seattle under protest streets.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's your Pike Pine. It wouldn't be maybe union. I don't think union runs that way, that far down. I don't know. Anyway, it's on one of the. But I just have these memories of just like. It is like a. Or it was. I don't know if it's still like this, but it was like a movie parody of a DMV office, right? Just like crappy chairs lined up in these rows, but standing room only. People who just look like they're at their wits end, like laying, like, trying to sleep on the floor like it's an airport because they've been there for hours or maybe days and it's just like. And so I just have that memory in my head and I just keep on thinking that that's going to be my real ID reality. But I don't. I don't know. I mean, I guess most of it might happen online now. I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

I was in one of those lines recently. Andrew, we never talked about this because. Because I went on my trip and then I got back and I was just kind of talking about England and everything, but we actually. We had to leave. We had to take our trip a day late because. Because Becca realized a little too late that her passport, it was not expired, but it was going to expire while we were in Europe.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh God, what time?

[Luke Burbank]

And we couldn't get. She could not get a sort of definitive answer as to like. So she made an appointment at the State Department in London. So the idea was gonna be, well, let's just fly over there and then we'll have to go to the State Department. You'll have to get your passport renewed at the State Department in London before we fly home.

[Andrew Walsh]

Home.

[Luke Burbank]

The big thing was, but we just want to get to England. We've got these tickets and. But then she got. Her sister is an attorney, and so she got her sister asking her sister's friends, who are immigration attorneys or experts on this thing, what's the rule? And everyone was like, it's unclear. It's kind of going to be the discretion of the airline. But don't. But you probably shouldn't risk it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, even to get out there. There's a chance that the airline would say no, even though this is valid right now, we know it's not valid. Mileage for your return trip.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. The airline could say no, depending on their policy. The, the London, the England, the nation of England. Like, they could say, we can't let you in the country knowing that your passport is going to expire while you're in the country.

[Andrew Walsh]

That actually makes more sense. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And so it was like, I kept. And you know me, I just gave you my, my spiel on income taxes. But, like, I, I, my. At first I was like, well, let's just get to England and work it out. And then I was like, we can't do that. Because the consequence is like, imagine you fly all the way over there, and then you're at, you know, customs and Immigration or whatever, and they're like, yeah, sorry, you got to go home. Like, the, the stakes were so high. So Becca was able to get an emergency appointment with this, the passport office in Seattle. There's only, I think, three of these, like, expedited passport offices on the West Coast. You'd think they just have one of these in every major city. They don't. There's one in Seattle. I think there's one in San Francisco going, maybe one in LA or something. But they're like. So we were supposed to leave on a Sunday. We had to actually change our tickets to Monday night, go to Seattle. And then her appointment was at, like, 10:30. And we get to the building in downtown Seattle where this stuff goes on, and there is a line. You can't even get into the building.

[Andrew Walsh]

Andrew, I've been to this place, too. Is it upstairs, by any chance? Yes, yes, yes, I've been to this place. Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Did you have to go before your Croatia trip?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, this was years and years ago, I think maybe when I got my first passport or something, but I don't know why I Had to go there.

[Luke Burbank]

And you know this place. Yeah, it's the same. I mean, it's.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's.

[Luke Burbank]

It's both for normal people getting their passports and then people like us. It is both, Andrew, as we love to say on this program. So. So, you know, this exact building. So we get there and it's like, we're kind of early. You know, it's the appointments at 10:30. It's like, let's say 10:20, 20. And we get there, and the line. You can't get into the building. Their line starts outside the front door of the building, and it goes kind of up the sidewalk and. And I'm like, oh, this is potentially really bad because we're not, like, we're not going to be in the building, in the room at 10:30 when they, like, call her name or something, is what I'm thinking. And so because, you know, I'm a. Somewhat of a nudge, I'm, like, not going to just stand in this line and have her appointment go by, and then we, like, can't leave for England. I go up to. I'm not trying to cut the line, but I'm trying to find somebody who looks official to just kind of ask them, hey, what's the scoop? And sure enough, there's a woman, a very nice woman, who I guess works at the passport office, who's like, kind of monitoring the entrance into the building. And I said to her, I said, hey, I'm just curious. We have an appointment at 10:30. Are we gonna miss that appointment if we're standing in this line at 10:30? And she goes, no, as long as your appointment is today, they'll honor your appointment. It'll be fine. What. What I found out when we got in there is they don't even know when anyone's appointment is. You get in the building, you get another number, as you know, and then you kind of get ingested into this whole system kind of a thing. This sort of. The number is a little bit. The. The specific time of your appointment is like a little bit of a. Kind of a fantasy anyway. But this is what ended up happening. I then somehow became the unofficial line captain because everyone showing up behind us, just imagine this is an office that is mostly issuing emergency passports to people that are probably le. Leaving that day. Everyone is running up with, like, a manila folder of documentation, and they're out of breath, and their appointment is in five minutes, and they're not even in the building, and they're freaking out. And. And then, like, somebody asked Somebody was like really worried. And I said, you know, I just spoke to the person and they said that as long as we have our. As long as we are in the office today, they will not cancel our appointment. Like, oh my God, thank you. Thank you so much. And then someone else shows up and then the person who I told the name, the. The news to goes talk to him. He knows. And so then I'm tell next person I've been told, it's okay. Somehow I end up like counseling slash talking down like four different groups of people who are behind us in the line. And my thought was maybe we put up a sign.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Why is this falling on me? To like, to kind of calm everyone's fears.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's weird. They give a specific time, but then it sort of is like the time doesn't really matter that much. But there must be a reason they do that. And maybe they don't want to over publicize the. The fact that it's bullshit.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, maybe so. And by the way, you know, and. And when you get up into that room again, you know this Andrew, it's just like. So you're waiting in this line outside the building, then you finally get in, you go up and then that room is the reason they make you line up outside is because the room is over full.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And then you get it undone.

[Andrew Walsh]

When I was there, I remember it being weirdly dead when I was there. And I don't know why, I just remember it being. I sort of feel like marble floors and maybe a stanchion, but I just like kind of zipped through the stanchion line.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I don't. I remember it being stressful for me for reason, like maybe whatever. I. They just always find some reason to say like, you didn't bring the right papers or something. I remember there was something going on with me where I was like, you gotta be kidding me. And so maybe I had to leave and come back or something. But luckily it wasn't the nightmare scenario of just like I say, like people in sleeping bags and, you know, giant pillows, like it's the airport.

[Luke Burbank]

It gave me this feeling of like, real, I guess, gratitude that we. I have the privilege of living. I mean, you know, for all of the things about this country that I just find completely and totally terrifying and unhinged, all I could think when we were waiting that line is like, think about being in another country where there is like legitimately an incredible amount of like, bureaucracy and graft and like, people do like It's. You go to this one office where the person, if they feel like it might. Might issue you this piece of paperwork that you need for whatever, and people are sleeping outside the building or having to pay someone off or you're never. You're not in any way in control of the situation. You just have to hang around and hope that someone takes pity on you for whatever. I mean, or to get your own.

[Andrew Walsh]

Money out of a bank, to get.

[Luke Burbank]

Your own money out of a bank to just do like anything like that. And like, this was one morning and it was actually, it was being efficiently run. But standing in that one line, I had this whole feeling of like, oh my God, I can't believe that this is a way some. A worse version of this is how many people in the world are living to just try to exist, just try to get through, to try to get whatever is due to them. You know, I was like, oh my God, this is. It is a such a privilege to be in this country again, warts and all. Because this is. This is unusual for me. This is not standard. This is not what happens every time I want to go get a permit to do X, Y and Z in my life in America.

[Andrew Walsh]

That you're. That your survival may depend upon.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly. And that, you know, so. And then when we got in there, the. The people that we were working with were pretty nice and we got the passport and got out of there and. And flew to Europe and everything was a. Okay, so.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I've added a. I just sent myself an email that just. So I. Here's my. My to do list these days. And just things that I need to get has just become me. Emailing myself. And then in all caps in the subject line, what I need I usually.

[Luke Burbank]

But texts. That's my entire to do list is text.

[Andrew Walsh]

See, texting. I text just Are ephemeral to me. They disappear too quickly and I'm not looking at it. So I like to keep a nice clean inbox. And so if I have a to do thing taking up space in my inbox, then I need to get it taken care of. Because what I started doing, let's see, about a month ago is I started one email chain to myself called Things I Want or Need. And on it is a heart, a brain. No, a water bottle. I still haven't bought like my nice water bottle. A beard trimmer.

[Luke Burbank]

I've probably acquired four water bottles in that time.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, exactly. A new Bluetooth speaker for the basement. That's something that I've been looking into or I've been meaning to look into forever an air purifier. But the thing is when it was just one email that I kept emailing, it didn't annoy me enough to take care of any of those things because I just never opened that email. So now what I do is I send myself a separate email for everything I need and that's going to live give like a little wart in my inbox until I take care of it. And so here's what I got.

[Luke Burbank]

Are you saying that 19,206 unread messages would create an environment where this wart wouldn't stick out far enough for you to remember?

[Andrew Walsh]

Can't even handle that because after the thon because I had a lot of to do emails to myself leading up to the thon and then after the thon I got home and was able to blast those away as my dad would say because he was like done, done, done or like this email that was related to. To gifts or whatever. We don't need it anymore. And so like my inbox was down to like six emails or something. For a while there I was like so good. But now I've got. I got it. Here's what's on the. I got real I.D. that's up there, small flower pots and soil because I'm some of these plants that I'm trying to like make little starters for need better soil I think. And I'm gonna get some cute flower pots for. For him. Ear nose hair trimmer. Luke. Oh yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I've actually been putting that on your list.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, thank you. Because I use those little grooming scissors but I want to go back. I used to have a really nice little. Do you have an electric for nose hair and ear hair?

[Luke Burbank]

I'm probably now getting to the age Andrew, where I need to do that more. I've just been such a non hirsute person in my life that I've never thought about it much. But there have been a few times Rebecca has to say say nicely. Hey, just so you know, you got a like a nose hair that's doing a thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh really? Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

So I should probably start to look into that world.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I think I used to have one that was part of my beard trimmer and anyway and it is a little bit like back a few months ago or whatever a year ago I would have just like gone onto Amazon and just like taking care of a whole bunch of these things. But I'm running into trouble because I don't want to use Amazon. So I Found one that I wanted and it was at like the, it was at the Best Buy near me. So then I tried to order it online and then the site literally just like crashed or hung up. I'm like, I'm finally sitting down to take care of this thing and then the technology isn't working. I swear to God, man. Best Buy is hanging on by a thread. I don't think they have any. I don't think they have any like what's. What I'm looking for like both in their physical plants and online. I feel like Best Buy is just a husk of what they used to be be.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it's, it's just the Geek Squad. That's what's holding that whole place together.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. It's more of a religion now.

[Luke Burbank]

As long as our parent, as long as our parents generation continues to not understand how to connect to their printer, yes, the Geek Squad will have a reason to exist and therefore Best Buy will still sort of have you. I mean I was in a Best Buy not that long ago. And yeah, it's, it's, it's grim to use our word, of the, of the last two weeks.

[Andrew Walsh]

Weeks.

[Luke Burbank]

It is, it's grim in there.

[Andrew Walsh]

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

[Luke Burbank]

All right, it's email and female time here on tbtl.

[Andrew Walsh]

Luke, I don't know if this came up recently or what, but I have mentioned that I like when I'm talking about the candy, Reese's Pieces. I like to pronounce it Reese's PC. And you know me, notoriously thin skinned guy. I remember like probably years ago now seeing people like sort of complaining about that in some sort of social media. Like does he not know that it's pronounced Reese's Pieces? It's not Reese's Pieces. And you know, I don't think that was sent directly to me. It was more of like a conversation online that I happened to see. And I just remember thinking like, is there no frivolity in your life? To the person who's angry about this, isn't it just fun to say Reese, Reese's Pieces?

[Luke Burbank]

And so I say things wrong sometimes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. Now in this poster's defense, I say a lot of things wrong on accident. So maybe, you know, it's a, it's a fair, I guess, argument to make. But anyway, I got this email from Gregory who says, hi Andrew, I know you enjoy mispronouncing this candy, but just be Aware that at least one person in your audience finds it somewhat amusing. HB Reese, who invented them, was my great grandpa. Whoa. I didn't get the last name, unfortunately, because I'm descended from one of his daughters who married a French Canadian.

[Luke Burbank]

The PC side.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right. This is from Greg Pisces. I am descended from one of his daughters who married a French Canadian hockey player with a French last name. I should mention that Greg's last name is Gretzky. That's all power out. No, obviously it's not Gretzky. But isn't that really interesting? One of our listeners is the green great grandson of H.B. reese.

[Luke Burbank]

Is he. Is Greg, like, getting that sweet, sweet Reese's PC's money.

[Andrew Walsh]

And it would be literally sweet money.

[Luke Burbank]

I know. I mean, that would mean every time that we buy a bag of those things, we're. We're essentially supporting listener Greg.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. And that's why we all have to buy more. Let me ask you a question. And then we should probably get out of here, because like you said, it's been a long show. What would be your Go to Reese's product? I mean, the main ones we grew up with were cups or Reese's Pieces. But then the other thing that became very common were the mini cups that you might have. Bowl of candy. I don't like that. You don't like those? You actually don't like those?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, it's too much. It's the. You know, it's a poor roi to me. Like, you're just unwrapping because this is the thing. Andy. Andy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, well, you're talking about candy. You call me Andy when you talk about candy.

[Luke Burbank]

That's right. This is the thing. Candy, Andy. I can really, really put away some Reese's peanut butter cups like I have been known to buy. Not a regular one of those, but like the gigunda one. That's like four.

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe it's four. Yeah, it's like a sleeve. It's almost like a sleeve.

[Luke Burbank]

A long sleeve.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's like pizza. Pizza, Right. You slide it out.

[Luke Burbank]

It's got a little dollhouse table to keep the wrapper from settling in the grease of the peanut butter cups.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I know what you're talking about.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I could absolutely just. I could just punish two of those sleeves easily. You give me a glass of milk with that. I am in hog heaven. And which, you know, it's probably. It's more. It's more of that peanut butter cup stuff than I should probably be eating in one sitting. But, like, so you talk about the little ones. I could eat 20 of those little ones, no problem. And. But think about the amount of foil that you're unwrapping. The amount of. And then you've got, there's like, you've got the foil. There's sometimes there's a little like paper cup. There's kind of dust in those ones, if that makes sense. When you unwrap them, sometimes there's like crumbs.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

So then I'm sitting there with like, I have the wreckage, the wreckage of like 11 of these mini Reese's peanut butter cups and then the foil and then the paper cup and then the whatever else. And like. So I'd rather go with the full size ones. In fact, I wish the full size ones were bigger.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you know I am now remembering you came in hot with this take one time, like, unprompted from me. I remember you came in one time. It was maybe even on the show sheet or something.

[Luke Burbank]

Same kind of take.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, no, no, same take exactly that. Like, you don't like the mini cups. And I'm going to say to you now what I hope I said to you at the time, which is you're off your goddamn nut. Like, speaking of nuts, do you like pistachios? Do you like to crack pistachios or do you not like them in the shell?

[Luke Burbank]

Listen, I've also ranted about this and really, you're anti. I can't be trusted. No, I love pistachio. Now nuts. I can't be trusted with a bag of those pistachio nuts that have already been shelled.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, so you like.

[Luke Burbank]

Because I need the shell in that case.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know that.

[Luke Burbank]

I know that. I know that I'm describing the same basic thing and that I. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. I should. I need the shell on the pistachio to control my pistachio intake and therefore I probably also need the wrapping on the Mini Reese's cup to. To control my intake. For one re. For some reason I don't like it.

[Andrew Walsh]

With the Reese's Cup. See? And so that you know why I was asking because of exactly that. Like, I love having a bow shell pistachios where you can crack them open. When I was a kid, they were dyed red for some reason that I still don't fully understand what happened to that. I grew up and I was like, why aren't they red? And it turns out only knew them.

[Luke Burbank]

Only knew them to be in your fingers would Be all red afterwards. What was. I mean, take you back to that America. Yeah, we're dying our pistachio nuts. We have totally stopped doing that.

[Andrew Walsh]

We were drawing lines on the back of our legs because we couldn't afford stockings. And we were dying our pistachios red.

[Luke Burbank]

For tying onions to our belt.

[Andrew Walsh]

And we were tying onions to our belt, which was the fashion at the time. But anyway, I. I am. By the way, I want to say I am not arguing here. I asked you this question, and now I'm attacking you. I asked you what. What is your favorite of Reese's Candy? And I am not arguing here that my favorite is those mini cups. By far, mine would be Reese's Pieces. I haven't had those in forever, but I got. I love Reese's Pieces. I like a peanut butter cup as well. But on the occasion that, like, visiting. It seems like something that I would be visiting my parents. And they might have a bowl of those things. Right. You're sitting there, you're watching the man who Knew Too Little or some sort of movie that you purposely picked out because you know there's not gonna be any sex scenes in there when you're watching it with your parents and watching Sexy Beast. Right, Exactly. But anyway, so you're. You're watching some. Some goofy, like, 90s comedy. You've got your can of sparkling soda there, and there's a bowl of these little Reese's cups next to you. You're picking them out. You're trying to control your intake a little bit, but every time you unwrap one, you take that old wrapper and you wrap it around the old wrapper, and your little ball of foil wrappers is getting bigger and bigger. That's kind of fun. Next to you. That's kind of fun. I kind of.

[Luke Burbank]

That I can go for.

[Andrew Walsh]

I need little things like that to kind of slow me down a little bit, I think, and. And, like, kind of become part of the. The process. Like, sort of, like, maybe sometimes why I like making a cocktail instead of just grabbing a beer or something. Like, I. And not. Not, you know me. I'm not overly these things, but there's something about the routine of unwrapping those things that I like. But I'm going with pieces, by the way. Those are. Those are definitely my favorite product.

[Luke Burbank]

Pistachios were historically dyed red by Middle Eastern importers to conceal natural blemishes and stains that occurred during harvesting and processing and also to make the nuts stand out on store shelves.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's really Interesting.

[Luke Burbank]

Now here's what again. This is AI so.

[Andrew Walsh]

Huh. Oh.

[Luke Burbank]

But the question is, why did they stop dying pistachios red? They stopped dying pistachios red because domestic US production in California eliminated the need for dye to conceal stains from the traditional Middle Eastern harvesting methods. The increased use of mechanical harvesting in the 1970s and 80s prevented stains, making the dye unnecessary, especially as international relations led to an embargo on Iranian pistachios.

[Andrew Walsh]

What?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Really learning something.

[Andrew Walsh]

Are pistachios one of those nuts that take a lot of water to grow and I should feel.

[Luke Burbank]

I know almonds do. Right story on almonds. I'm not really a big almond head anyway, so that's my. That's how I feel that I'm helping out with the environment is by not really caring about almonds.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you should be able to apply that to your carbon credits when you're flying.

[Luke Burbank]

That's definitely an offset. Every almond I don't eat is like probably what, like one Colorado river that I'm not destroying.

[Andrew Walsh]

I love almonds, by the way. I keep the lightly salted almond almonds in the car. A little can of those things. I don't like them flavor blasted. My friends are like, oh, you like lightly salted. Not enough salt. To me, the lightly salted is the perfect amount of salt on those.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm with you.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't want my fingers feeling all burnt and my lips feeling all Bernie from too much salt or flavor blast.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, not to mention that if you ever mess with that. The whole blue diamond universe.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's what I'm talking.

[Luke Burbank]

It's so. Those things are so flavor blasted. The like wasabi ones and stuff like that, that there was a while where I was trying to lean into that because they are high protein and low carb and they're very satisfying and tasty. But like all of the ones that are. That are flavored up, it's too much flavor.

[Andrew Walsh]

I would. I'm not trying to encourage you to eat a. More of a nut that is terrible for the planet.

[Luke Burbank]

Stop naming nuts. By the way, if anyone's wondering. Yes, this is the badlands you're in.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. If you were wondering, you're like, maybe I'll just stay. I'll just keep listening today and hear what the bad.

[Luke Burbank]

We're at the 99 minute mark. I think we're entering the Badlands.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're absolutely. Good call. Like, this is absolutely badland material. We should get out of here. But if you are ever in a situation, Luke, like Let's say you're. I don't know if you travel much, like for work or anything, but let's say you're traveling and I, I don't know how much you're like me with this, but often if I am traveling and like, I'm landing kind of late and I'm like, I just want, like, I just need to find one open 711 or maybe a CVS is better or something.

[Luke Burbank]

You know what it is for me? Me, it's the little snack alcove at the Marriott.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, right.

[Luke Burbank]

Everything else is closed, but they've got the thing that's mostly Rice Krispie treats and like odd amounts of wine, like room temperature red wine, but not in a full bottle size.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, yes, exactly. Now, I don't know if they'll have that, but I'm picturing like one of those bigger CVS's or what's the one that everybody goes to green. Anyway, one of the. Why am I blanking on it? What is the Walgreens. Walgreens. Geez Louise.

[Luke Burbank]

Badlands. We're in the Badlands.

[Andrew Walsh]

I can just picture the shelves, right? Like the, the Coke products are behind you and you're looking at the sort of picked over snack shelves. And there's the Blue diamond area. And you're absolutely right. There's the robust. Is it barbecue flavor or something like that? And the wasabi. And like, I used to sometimes eat those things because they were the only thing available at Avanti Market downstairs at Cairo Radio. You get the little shirt of them. But if you're actually looking at the cans and you can find a can, it's light blue and it says lightly salted. And lightly is very important there. Yeah, it might change your attitude about them because I think a plain almond isn't enough and the salted is too much. And the lightly salted blue diamond does it. Right. Anyway, give it a shot.

[Luke Burbank]

Here are some of your current options in the Blue diamond space. Andrew, you've got your standard roasted salted. Those are the ones you're saying are maybe a little too salty for you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I mean, I would go with that.

[Luke Burbank]

Second, probably then you've got your lightly salted, which is the one that you recommend. And I actually probably agree with you on that. You've got whole natural. That's unsalted. Come on out of here. Yeah, get out of here, hippies with that. But okay, fine, I guess if you like that. So that'd be a little too subtle for me. And then we get into. Then we get to. Then we're really playing around in the flavor space. Andrew. We've got the blue diamond bold Habanero barbecue.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, good Lord. Miss me?

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, it's the magic. Imagine the bat, the poor bathroom at Cairo. After you just power a couple of sleeves of Habanero barbecue.

[Andrew Walsh]

Imagine touching somebody's mouth, the computer mouse, after they've been sitting at their desk eating those things.

[Luke Burbank]

Then you've got bold salt and vinegar. Not regular salt and vinegar. It's bold. You've got Smokehouse. Now. I think I used to eat Smokehouse sometimes.

[Andrew Walsh]

The one that's the one that I used to eat at Cairo. Smokehouse.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, they're. They're good. But you're right, it's 2:40. Less smoke housing on these would be good. You've got bold spicy dill pick. Pickle. Because of course we, it's. It's pickles world and we just live in it now. Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's everything.

[Luke Burbank]

They've also got bold Sriracha because it's also Sriracha's world. And then bold wasabi and soy sauce, which I do believe I've had. And I think there was, it was too, too flavorful for me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yep, those, the smokehouse and wasabi I think are pretty common. Those are the ones. Those are the flavors you're most likely to see in little sleeves at like your, your Marriott or your Avante or whatever. Oh, by the way. Way. I don't know if there's a ceremony or something, but I guess I'm a bon voy member now. I don't know. I've stayed, I've stayed in plenty of Marriotts in my life, but for some reason I was booking this hotel for my trip next week and they were like, well, you can save. Thank you.

[Luke Burbank]

This is the official song.

[Andrew Walsh]

Appreciate Jalapeno. Jalapeno. Jalapeno.

[Luke Burbank]

Also a flavor of blue diamond almond that they have in the Avanti market at the Marriott.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. But I don't know why I never opted in before. But it was like, I don't know, you can save a few bucks bucks or something on each night's stay. If, like, if you're. It's like, I think it said, like, the lower price was for members. And I was like, okay, I'll just pretend I'm a member and see what happens. And then I went through and I was paying and they're like, okay, well you said you're a member, so if you're not a member, you have to become one. Now I'm like, all right. So I literally clicked one box and then I got an email that says, welcome to Bonvoy. And I was like, I'm in it. I'm in the club. I've. I've done it for this hotel that is just on Luke the strodiest strode between. I'm visiting my mom, who's kind of in some care facilities. And I chose it because it's right smack between these two care facilities. Like, literally it's like four miles one way is one of her places. Four miles is the other way. So I just grabbed this place. It's next to a Home Depot, and I can only assume some sort of vape emporium, although I can't. I can't confirm that.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, my goodness. But you know, God bless that broken road that led you to Bonvoy status. One thing also, Andrew, that I'll tell you, you do get the free WI Fi.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you don't get free. Wait, every airport has free WI Fi. Now, are you.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, you mean, you mean hotel or what?

[Andrew Walsh]

Did I say airport? Yeah, I can. I haven't paid for WI Fi.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, what I mean is. Well, I guess here's what I mean. In a Marriott, in a lot of the Marriotts that I've stayed in or ACS or what, you know, part of the Marriott world. When you go to sign up for the WI Fi, it will say it's free. If you're a Bonvoy member, it's, you know, $3 a day or $10 a day if you're not. And I think that they just assume you'll just sign up for it. You know, sign up for Bonvoy.

[Andrew Walsh]

So I must. It. Could it be that. Because, I mean, I am telling you, I am shocked to hear that there's any hotel that still charges, let's say non members or whatever for WI Fi. Because I, I've. I mean, not since like the early 2000s have I remembered ever being like, okay, I'll pay the three or four dollars a day. It's. I thought we're living in a world where it's just assumed at least some level of WI Fi. Boy, your mic. I'm just wondering apart there.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, sorry, I'm fixing my mic over here too. I must. I'm wondering if it's just. First of all, I think it's, it's, it's. It's Marriott by Marriott. And when I say that, I just mean anything in the chain. I think they all can set up their own, their own system for that so it's also possible that you just haven't happened to stay in a Bonvoy property that was deciding to do that for some dumb reason. But it literally just happened to me recently. And I. And I. Yeah. And the reason I remember is because I then, because I met. Whatever the status I'm at with them, I will click for enhanced Internet, which I've been told is a total scam. Like, it's not very much faster. But oftentimes, if I'm doing the show with you from a hotel, I'm certainly trying to get whatever the fastest Internet Internet they are putting out is what I want. And the enhanced Internet sometimes will be like, well, it's 1099 a day, or it's free if you're a Bonvoy Platinum member, which I am. But it causes me such anxiety, Andrew, because I always feel like it's not. The system is not going to understand that I shouldn't be charged that 1099, you know, because I'm basically saying, yeah, charge me $10.99 per day, but then take it off later because you're remembering that my status allows me to not pay this. And I have no faith in them remembering. I mean, it's a computer system. It should remember. But it's like, this is why I'm weirdly keyed into what some Bonvoy places are doing with their WI Fi, because it. It stresses me out every time I do it.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right, we're in the Badlands. I shouldn't do this now. I keep saying we got to get out of here. But I need to just tell you about an argument. Like, I was so worked up at one point, I'm trying to think of it was this morning or last night over a. A fake argument in my head that hasn't actually even happened yet. So there is a. I'm going to try to do this as quickly as possible because I don't hold it off for tomorrow because then it's going to be built up too much and it's not worth it. But here's the story. There is a wing place that I found here in Seattle that I've been going to lately. I've been there a few times, went with Pflech a couple of weeks ago. And bottom line is, I'm not super impressed, generally speaking, with wings, like hot wings that you get at a general, like, bar or whatever in Seattle. Like, most places have them on the menu, but they tend to be like these really oversized wings that are kind of slimy and not Cooked right and all this stuff. And I'm not a super picky eater, but it would just be nice to have some wings that remind me of the wings I grew up with. Kind of decent wings. While back I found this place that is sort of like down by the Waterfront. I think I was mentioning this to you off air recently and I've gone back a few times. I generally like their vibe and they basically say our wings are going to take longer than usual and they're smaller wings and they're good and they absolutely lived up to their promise. And I'm a fan of this place. The reason I'm going into all this is it is a place I've now gone back three times times in the past. Just few months of knowing about it and I plan on going back more. But I saw something and this all comes back to these little surcharges that everybody's adding these days. Yeah, I, I went over there on Saturday, got myself a couple of things, a wings, a couple of Miller High lives and had a nice little like in a late lunch and then I wandered around the waterfront. Great day I must have. When I was like kind of filling out the. The form or you know, using the box to pay with my credit card, I had them email me a receipt. I never really look at receipts because I'm just irresponsible. But since it was emailed to me later that day, I looked at the receipt and I saw that they charged me $1 as a credit card surcharge. It was actually $1.02. They mark on the thing here that the credit card surcharge is 2.91% of your bill. I know more and more people are doing this. More and more businesses are doing this. I don't like it. I think that businesses should just build in extra costs of doing business and put it up front into your prices. There's nothing on the menu that says if you pay with a credit card you're going to be charged a surcharge. You don't know until the very end when they shove a little computer in your face and then. And you don't even really see it then. Right?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

And so Luke, it's a dollar and two cents. I can afford that. I really, really. I don't know if I can even defend myself anymore because I feel like I am becoming very much a grumpy old man and it's, it's coming off as cheapness and I really don't. If the wings had each, each of the order of wings I had bought, if they had been $1 more, wouldn't have even thought about it. I'm just sort of irritated by these like, kind of, kind of hidden, kind of not mentioned fees that you get at the end. And just maybe I'm not changing with the time times enough. So it's been a little bit of a bugaboo for me for a while now. And when I saw that this place I like is doing this, I didn't love it. And this is the view. Sometimes you admit to like, going to weird, dark places that make no logical sense. I think it was last night I was thinking about this. I was like, oh, maybe I'll go back to that place on Saturday because Genevieve is going to be out of town. Maybe I'll recreate my Saturday, go back there. But then I remembered that surcharge. And lastly, night I had this whole fantasy about going there, sitting in my usual spot at the bar, giving them my card because they take your card when you first sit down because you're running a tab, right. And I thought about saying, I'm giving you my card now, but don't run the tab on my card at the very end. I'm going to pay with cash. Yeah, this is just a fantasy I'm having.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

And in my fantasy, the bartender says to me, me, we don't take cash. Now, I don't know if they do or do not take cash, but more and more businesses don't take cash. But I spun myself up into the scenario that I am talking to a bartender who says, yes, we have a surcharge on credit cards, but we don't take cash. And I was appalled by this thing that I don't even know is true, but could potentially be true. And I'm sort of wondering what if I do go to this place and because I'm on some sort of of a high horse about these hidden fees, I go with a pocket full of cash and I'm ready to pay cash. And they don't accept cash. And I walk out. That is, I got.

[Luke Burbank]

I was literally walking after eating the wings before.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, basically if I go in there because they take your card right away when you order your first beer, your first thing. So if I go in there and say, hey, I'll take a high life and let me see a food menu, they'll give me a beer and take my card. And if I say to them, okay, but don't run that at the end, I'll pay with cash at the end. And they say, and this is all just a fantasy of mine. They say we don't take cash. I will be really upset about that. And again, we're talking about $1 and 2 cents. You know what I mean? But I will be so upset about that that I could see myself being like, well, then you're not a business I want to do business with. And then leaving and then never being able to go back to my favorite wing, to my favorite wing place. That is just a story about me going more and more insane as I get older.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you have. Have you considered just the next time you go just bringing like, $40 in cash?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, that's what I'm saying. No, that's literally what I'm saying. I'm saying I will go with a pocket full of cash but not pay.

[Luke Burbank]

But you don't know for a fact you're unsure of what the policy is.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know what the policy is. And I also know that, like, if I'm paying with cash, you can't. They need to take a card right away when you sit down just to keep track of you in case, you know, somebody decides just to leave without paying their bill. You know that.

[Luke Burbank]

And then usually you pay with cash as you go.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean, I guess I could. They could ring me up each time. But us, usually how that works at a bar is you would say, here's my card, but I'm not going to be paying with that. I will pay with cash at the end. And that's where. That's what I'm kind of. That's what I was thinking about doing this weekend. But then it occurred to me that my stubbornness could lead me to hearing some information that I don't want to hear. And then me banishing myself out of embarrassment from a place that I stomped out of. Like, I'm so far down the line on a scenario that might not even be a reality.

[Luke Burbank]

I think, Andrew, though, this means that you owe it to the listeners to go to this place sometime in the next week or two, play this out and see how it goes. And the good news for you is you're having to go have wings and a beer for your job or I'm.

[Andrew Walsh]

Stomping out of a place for my job and. And not ever wanting to go back. Because I got to say, if I start the conversation and they tell me we don't take cash, I'm telling you, my next words are. Are going to be, so you're telling me that you charge extra to use credit cards, but you don't accept Cash. Because that's what I'm getting pre mad about. I think that is incredibly unfair.

[Luke Burbank]

It feels unfair to you.

[Andrew Walsh]

It seems incredibly unfair. Wouldn't that seem unfair to you?

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, absolutely. Yeah. You're charging a credit card fee and it's the only option for payment.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right. Assuming that's the case. And I just would not be surprised if a business did that in this day and age. I'm not even. I don't think I've said the name of this business because it's total slander. Right now. I'm totally making the scenario up. Maybe they gladly accept cash. I just kind of doubt it.

[Luke Burbank]

Now. Does this mean that you're actually afraid to go to this place?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, because I love.

[Luke Burbank]

You're going to have this conversation and then you're going to stomp out and then you can't go back.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's what, that's exactly the dilemma that I'm talking about.

[Luke Burbank]

So you can never go there again because there's a chance that if you go there again, you'll ruin it for future going back there.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. So I'm actually looking, I'm trying to look on their website here. Do they say anything about taking cash? But I think that, I just don't think they're going to put it. I don't think there's going to be anything on their website about credit card surcharge either.

[Luke Burbank]

Andrew, I have to tell you something. I think the Badlands is the best new segment we've launched in years and it comes naturally. I. Exactly. It's already been happening and now we've just branded it. And now instead of it seeming like, God, those guys are just talking about nothing at the end of the show, it's like, yeah, this is the part of the show where we do that. This is the Badlands.

[Andrew Walsh]

Should I call them and just ask if they take cash? Yeah, maybe I'll do that later. Maybe I'll do that later today because then if I want to get huffy with them, they don't know it's me. They don't know my face. I won't be embarrassed.

[Luke Burbank]

There you go. So you can get huffy. But, but my question there is if, if, if this, if it were to be the case that they, that they charge a credit card fee and they don't give you an option to pay cash on principle because that would be so frustrating to you with minus regardless of if you huffed out out or not, would you then still. Would you go there or would you, would you protest on principle? Well, Even if you hadn't had an embarrassing situation, I feel like.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know, I feel like what would happen is I'd be mad for a while but then eventually calm down, get hungry. And I'd get hungry, basically, because again, the wings really are good. I know you're not a huge wings person, but they're not like super precious or anything. But it's just nice to have good, well prepared wings in a way that I sort of miss. Do they also? I don't know. You know, I don't actually know. I don't think so. Because I remember hearing that they have game shows on quite a bit. One TV always has sumo wrestling on. And I don't love it because it also includes some sort of reality TV around the sumo wrestling. And it was like showing close ups of some like, sumo wrestler, like, picking at the scabs on his foot while I was trying to eat. And I was like, I cannot believe you are showing this in a restaurant while I'm trying to eat wings.

[Luke Burbank]

That's crazy.

[Andrew Walsh]

That was really bananas. Mostly it's just. That was the first time I was in there. I'm like, are you shitting me? This is what you're showing. But I think they, they must just have one tv. Somebody must be obsessed with sumo wrestling. And usually it's just matches now, by the way, also huge twisted tea place. I noticed last time I was there they have twisted tea trivia on Tuesdays. A waitress was wearing a twisted tea hat. Hat. What is with twisted tea in our culture right now?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, what's happening with it, Andrew, is that at least once a day I see twisted tea and I want to send you a picture. I know we've talked about this on the show.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's all over the place now.

[Luke Burbank]

It's everywhere right now. And it is so associated in my mind with you. It means that at a minimum, and I usually exceed this, but at a minimum, every single day I think of you at least once. Because I am in a store and I see a giant ass twisted tea thing. Or I just see a smashed twisted tea can on the side of the road. I'm walking. Gigi, you and twisted T are never far from my thoughts, friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you. Oh, they don't have a phone number. They're a little bit. You know what?

[Luke Burbank]

The more it's crazy.

[Andrew Walsh]

So here's the deal.

[Luke Burbank]

I really do sumo scabs and no phone number sounds like a place for me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, that's the thing, okay? We're in the badlands. That's the thing about this place is I really do like the wings. But everything else about and I, and I like the fact that they're upfront about saying hey listen, these are going to take a little bit longer than usual.

[Luke Burbank]

And by the way you mentioned this, but how did you find out about this place?

[Andrew Walsh]

I literally just wanted some. I'm just, I was really in the mood for wings I don't know, four months ago or something and I'm just like kind of disappointed. Unless you're like going to get like Korean wings somewhere or like there's very. If you just want old school kind of buffalo style wings. There's just not a lot of good places for them like at a place that's not known for them. So I just googled and this is the first place that came up and it was worth it in your area. But they're of kind, kind of have. No, no, this is down by the waterfront. And and so they were. Sorry, I, I just mentioned that earlier but. And because I had spent the day walking around the waterfront afterwards. A very nice day. But anyway. But it's right on the E line. Everything's on the E line. But they do have this sassiness. It's not kind of like hey, our wings are going to take longer. It's like, hey, just relax. Our wings take a long time. Why don't you just have a beer and whatever. If you're cool. It'll be a high life and a malort. Like they clearly have that. This like and kind of like. And no, we don't. They don't. We have our own blue cheese. We don't have ranch. You big baby. They're a little bit like sassy like that. Which I don't care about that. Cause I don't like ranch or blue cheese anyway. And I like the wings so I sort of don't mind that so much. But now that I'm looking at their website and I go to I want to contact them, I want to email or I want to call them. Right here's what their contact page says.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh boy.

[Andrew Walsh]

We do not offer online ordering. All orders are in store only our wings are best enjoyed fresh. Like everything has like this judgment. Like we know you want this but we're not doing it because we know better what's good for you. We do not offer a table, reservations, blah blah, blah, blah, blah. All of our wings are gluten free. So instead of the contact page has a bunch of information for you and then it says now all that being Said, do you really want to contact us in all caps? You sure? Okay, go ahead then. And they have a form to fill out if I want to contact them about anything. Oh, I've already got this. Now that I'm thinking about this. And I was like, you would hate the imagery. I wasn't telling you the name of the it. Not just to protect them, but also because I knew if you went on the website, you would hate these people immediately based on their logo and everything. But the wings are good. This is. You know what? This is what good wings do to you. I'm now starting to really hate this place now that I have to actually describe it honestly to you. I kind of don't like the sass.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it's the. Have an opinion jerk of foods.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

And there's a lot of this in our society now, which. Which is like, you know, badass brewing. And it's like, you know, it's got like the. It's a brewery and it's run by three guys with beards. But it's like all the beers have names that are just like, you know, bunghole, bunghole, basher.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, it's not like that here, though I will say they're. They're. They're. I don't know that I would go there. They just have hot honey barbecue buffalo, Hot buffalo or mango habanero, and then reaper sauce. Like, they're not really leaning into, like that crazy hot sauce.

[Luke Burbank]

I guess I meant just the name. The name of the actual establishment.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. And the. And the logo. And like the kind of. The scout. The skeleton logo or whatever. Yeah, and. And it says our wing. But the thing is, what they're describing, I like, which is our wings are fresh and are smaller than your standard frozen jumbo wings. And that's how we like them. We fry hard so they take time, grab a beer, relax, and have some fun. Oh, also, no ranch.

[Luke Burbank]

Grow up.

[Andrew Walsh]

Up. Like, I don't eat ranch. That doesn't. That doesn't personally insult me, but I don't like this sort of like, oh, grow up. If you like a certain food, like, oh, you put ketchup on your hot dog. You're a baby. Like, honestly have more important opinions about things than what I'm putting on my food.

[Luke Burbank]

Or it's like, have a more important opinion jerk.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

That's where I was going, yeah, yeah, I don't like that a. Because I am a ranch appreciator and be that kind of like. I mean, look, it's their. It's there.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sorry, big information here that I did not notice on their menu. This is. This is a very important piece of data for me. They do put on the menu that card transactions may be. May be subject to a 2.9 processing charge. So at least it wasn't. I thought that they just sprung that at me on the end, but if they did put it on the menu, then I feel a little bit better about.

[Luke Burbank]

I just think you're trying to find a way back into their hearts. Well, I mean, you're trying to find a way to not ban yourself from this place because you love the way.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I literally.

[Luke Burbank]

Good wings will do to you.

[Andrew Walsh]

I literally said before, like, that they don't tell you up front, and they do tell you up front. I think that's actually a pretty important, like, kind of thing. But I am wondering if they take cash.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. Well, again, I guess I could fill.

[Andrew Walsh]

Out the contact form, but I can't. I can't call them because they don't have a phone number.

[Luke Burbank]

Who's using the phone anymore? Loser.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Is it also on the website?

[Andrew Walsh]

It does say that, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, well, listen, I look forward to hearing the resolution of this. And are those the best wings you think you've had in Seattle?

[Andrew Walsh]

Probably, yeah. I think so. Now, a lot of people swear by the wing dome, which I've been to once, and I remember enjoying it. I. But. But, yeah, for some reason, I never went back, and I. It's not anything against the wing dome. The wing dome is actually way closer to me.

[Luke Burbank]

Although I don't go to that wing dome in Greenwood and meet Khmer O Kev there.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't think it's the E line, though, is it?

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe you have to get on a different line to go up there, but.

[Andrew Walsh]

I bet you that doesn't sound fun to me.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, thanks for listening, everybody. That's gonna do it for today's episode. But we will be right back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio. I'm sure I'll have more stories of dog walking for all of you. And we will, whether we want to or not, enter the Badlands together at some point. In the meantime, have a great Wednesday. Take care of yourselves. Go Mariners. And please remember, don't miss Mountain Too Tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to all. The E line goes to the Wing Dome. Or I can take the 40 to the 5. Perfect. Or the 40 to the 45 power out.