#4569 Say Yes To The Stress

Summary

TBTL #4569 “Say Yes To The Stress”

October 6, 2025
Hosts: Luke Burbank & Andrew Walsh

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Episode Overview

In this engaging and characteristically long (2hr+) episode of TBTL, Luke and Andrew navigate the chaos and anxieties of daily life—pet sitting for unpredictable neighbors, a contentious cat potty-training experiment, Mariners playoff stress, and the emotionally fraught world of sports fandom text chains. They blend personal storytelling, self-deprecating humor, and tangential deep-dives on everything from blood pressure scares to the moon in autumn skies. The episode’s unifying theme: coping with stress—both real and invented—while trying to keep it fun (and at least moderately functional) as modern adults.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Pet Sitting Chaos & Domestic Confusion

[03:30–15:36]

• Andrew’s Dog-Sitting Saga: Andrew recounts an awkward exchange at a restaurant supply store where he accidentally instigated a neighborly conversation about watching their dog, Maggie, only to discover a new puppy (with incomplete vaccinations) had also been added to the mix without his knowledge or consent.
  • Quote, Andrew [08:27]: “The addition of that [the unvaccinated puppy]...complicates things...Genevieve, can you get your arms around this?...we’re now, I do think, doing double the work, and double the fun. Potentially. But I don’t know.”
• Genevieve’s Feline Innovations: Frustrated, Andrew describes Genevieve’s unilateral decision to toilet-train their cat, Bingo—with new gadgets and techniques—disrupting a litter box routine that Andrew is already peacefully managing.
  • Quote, Andrew [15:36]: “Having an animal that is trained to go into a little box that you clean once with, like, in literally 45 seconds is like, that is perfect already. Like, I don't see a need to improve on that.”

2. Rituals, Anxiety, and Household Negotiations

[17:17–32:51]

• Andrew’s Apprehensions: He voices a sense of overwhelmed resignation: not consulted on recent household changes, dreading looming responsibility, and feeling like chaos is stacking up (dogs, cats, uncertain instructions).
• Luke’s Reassurance: Luke empathizes, suggesting ways to divide dog/puppy duties, stay positive, and “divide and conquer.”
• Memorable Moment: The hosts riff on dog bathing, the science of poop bags, and household division of labor, all underscored by Andrew’s self-aware grumpiness.
  • Quote, Andrew [21:14]: “I don't think I've ever just come off as such a goddamn grump in my life...I have not had this conversation....Suddenly, I'm talking to literally tens of people...I feel a little bit bad grumping about Genevieve.”

3. Sports Fandom, Rituals, and Mariners Playoff Anxiety

[32:51–79:06]

• Baseball Stress: Both hosts process the all-consuming anxiety brought on by the Mariners' playoff run. Luke likens the emotional toll of playoff baseball to a physical burden.
  • Quote, Luke [41:14]: “I was going to tell you that I don’t know if my blood pressure can handle these games…”
• Strategies for Coping:
  • Andrew and Luke share their personal playoff-watching rituals (superstitious behaviors, intentional distractions like TikTok or walks, the therapeutic impact of a baby as an “emotional support” device).
  • The unique pain and intensity of playoff baseball is dissected—“Every single batter that comes up is the highest stress moment, until the next batter.”
  • Andrew’s TV/bar calculus: weighing the comfort of home-vs-public viewing, and the importance (and peril) of “watching with your people.”
• Text Chain Drama: The emotional undertow of pessimistic group texts is discussed.
  • Quote, Luke [112:45]: “I had to look at my phone and I just saw...the most negative stuff you could ever see...I gotta jump off that train. Because it might be...I didn’t like that I had to live with it.”

4. Health, Blood Pressure, and Self-Diagnosis Spiral

[41:14–52:19]

• Luke’s Blood Pressure Journey:
  • Because of physical sensations and “bad readings” from home devices, Luke visits his doctor only to find his BP is perfect (“Olympic-level”). The anxiety and symptoms vanish.
  • They discuss medical device calibration, the anxiety-self-diagnosis feedback loop, and coping with middle-aged health baggage.
  • Quote, Luke [48:22]: “Since she [the nurse] did that reading…not once have I felt that...whatever that feeling was...I think it might have been an anxiety.”

5. Podcasting Marathon & Donor Acknowledgments

[32:51–41:12]

• A meta-moment: marveling at their streak of daily episodes, the uniqueness of their five-day-a-week format, and the vital role of listener supporters.

6. Is This Even Fun? The Philosophy of Sports Misery

[59:03–82:11]

• Andrew highlights the paradox of playoff fandom, referencing social media debates: Is the agony of watching high-stakes baseball actually enjoyable, or just stress with short-lived payoff?
  • Luke notes, “I guess I don’t know…the answer to that.”
• Anecdotes underline that being “locked in” with other committed fans can buffer the lows (or compound them), and that distractions (babies, partners, walks, TikTok) are invaluable for emotional regulation.
  • Quote, Luke [60:29]: “Having [family] there was really good for me...every time I would get too stressed, I’d just go play peekaboo with [the baby].”

7. Good-Luck Charms, Ritual Blocking, and Open Relationships?

[117:10–118:26]

• Luke crafts new Mariners rituals: posting a niece’s photo above the TV as a good-luck totem, and “blocking” negative friends from group texts during important games. The etiquette of “openly” managing sports relationships is praised.

8. Review: “Inherent Vice” & The Neo-Noir Mindset

[118:33–129:24]

• Luke attempts Paul Thomas Anderson’s film “Inherent Vice” but bails out 40 minutes in—thrown by a geographical mispronunciation (Arteza vs. Artesia) and losing the noir thread.
  • Andrew argues it rewards repeat/wired viewing, is intentionally convoluted, and fundamentally a "vibe” movie, not a plot movie.
  • They riff on Joanna Newsom’s narration, Gillian Bell’s cameo, and the TBTL ethos of giving difficult art (or chaos) another shot.

9. Embracing Autumn, Weather Anxiety, and Letting Joy In

[132:08–137:09]

• The hosts romanticize the current season—moons over the river, walks with moody soundtracks—while pledging to only let “the blues” in for the small window of deep winter, not to spoil the pleasures of fall.
  • Quote, Luke [136:49]: “I don’t want to feel sad about February 11th...until it’s February 11th. Because today is Monday, October 6th, you and I are talking...it’s lovely outside.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Andrew [10:22]: “Yeah, you know me, I love chaos. That sounds great.”
• Andrew [15:15]: “[Genevieve]’s obsessed with trying to better—not mouse trap—but poop trap, I guess.”
• Luke [31:22]: “It’s not like we have to constantly mine our own lives and endanger our own relationships just to keep the needle moving on this show, but...it’s relatable.”
• Luke [135:26]: “I just don’t see the need to expect the worst...if things turn out bad, deal with it then.”
• Andrew [134:13]: “I was just in a bit of a malaise...and I was realizing I was feeling really anxious about whether or not the sound is going to be on for this game.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Segment/Topic | |--------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:30–15:36 | Pet sitting, dog chaos, “toilet training” the cat | | 17:17–32:51 | Overwhelm & coping; dividing labor; dog bathing; household gripes| | 32:51–41:12 | Donor thanks, podcasting meta, reflecting on the show’s format | | 41:14–52:19 | Luke’s blood pressure/health spiral, anxiety unspooling | | 52:19–59:03 | Mariners playoff stress, group text woes, block/unblock rituals | | 59:03–82:11 | The agony/ecstasy of playoffs, sports fandom as self-punishment | | 82:11–99:53 | Mariners roster, X’s and O’s, relievers, hope vs. doom spiral | | 117:10–118:24| New playoff rituals: photo as totem, friend blocking practices | | 118:33–129:24| “Inherent Vice” review: art, vibes, and why it didn’t click | | 132:08–137:09| Embracing autumn, weather & joy, controlling future dread |

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Tone & Style

• Conversational, self-deprecating, “frenemy” banter
• Tangential, digressive storytelling with persistent callbacks
• Wry, emotionally honest reflection on adult anxieties
• Fandom-driven, but with universal resonance (of feeling overwhelmed and making attempts to cope, laugh, and foster hope anyway)

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For the Uninitiated Listener

This episode is a classic TBTL blend of personal storytelling, meandering comedy, and sports therapy with plenty of sidebars: from potty-training cats and neighborly awkwardness to the crucible of Mariners fandom. It’s about creating order (or at least, narrative) out of chaos, and, importantly, letting yourself enjoy the good days—despite, or perhaps because of, all the stress.

Power out.

Transcript

[A]

Young polar bear comes home from school. True story.

[B]

And he says, mother, am I really a polar bear?

[A]

She says, of course you're a polar bear. Go to bed. He comes home the next day, says, dad, are you really a polar bear? He says, of course I'm a polar bear. Good night. This goes on for weeks, for months.

[B]

Were your parents polar bears with their parents?

[A]

Am I, in fact, a purebred polar bear? The father finally says, enough. Why do you keep asking us these questions? He said, because I am freezing. Good evening and welcome to the pre taped Call in show, where we tape all our shows a week in advance. I'm your host, Ken Doral. And let's try it again.

[B]

Okay, so now we have two catch 22 situations simultaneously.

[A]

Is there even a name for that? How about catch 44?

[B]

Ooh, daddy's gonna dish out some daddy discipline. As a fellow daddy, I approve. Stop saying daddy.

[A]

You got it, Papa bear. I actually kind of like that one.

[B]

A lot of energy, a lot of motion, a lot of fun, a lot of high fiving, a lot of smiles.

[A]

You see what happens, Larry? You see what happens? See what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps? This way to the cafeteria.

[B]

Well, all right. Hello, good morning and welcome, everyone, to a Monday edition of TBT all the show. It just might be too beautiful to live. You've been living in the monkey house. My name's Luke Burbank. I'm your host.

[A]

As Jay would say, he's got flow.

[B]

Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia, where it's an absolutely spectacular October 6th.

[A]

Oh, ma pa.

[B]

It's just beautiful. Blue skies. The cows are out in the river, which you love to see. There's some cows that live near my house. And part of what really attracted me to this part of Southern Washington, I'd never seen cows living on an island who then, like, sometimes just like to go stand, like, ankle deep in the Columbia river and eat like seagrass. They're like grazing in the river. And it always just warms my heart. It always tells me it's going to be a great day, that we should celebrate it here. For episode 4569 in a collector series, Let the Fun Begin. Was a real roller coaster of a weekend watching my sports teams, particularly the Mariners. Everything about them just makes me nervous. I mean, in the words of Daniel glover In the 48 Hours movie franchise, I am very possibly getting too old for this stuff. I don't know if I can. If I can make it through A long, long, deep playoff run for the Seattle Mariners.

[A]

Do you think y' all can handle this?

[B]

I spent my Saturday, by the way, driving heavy machinery, including a huge bulldozer and an excavator, along with a bunch of other children down there in Clark County, Washington. Kids and fantasy at something called Dozer Day, which maybe I'll tell you about, too. Oh, and of course we're gonna say hello to this guy. Longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He is a soulful rocker from New Hampshire, isn't he? The best. Andrew Walsh. And he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[A]

Good morning, Luke. I see a neighbor is looking for a dog walker. I'm just checking my email here, by the way. Trying to take advantage of this time as best as possible. Don't want to let any second go by. I'm not multitasking.

[B]

No. About maximizing efficiency. So while I'm pouring my heart out about the cows in the river and I'm setting the scene for the show and I'm honestly, like generating a lot of content that you might want to refer back to, you're carefully checking your email about local dog walking opportunities.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm sorry, what'd you say? No, just joking. That was.

[B]

Did you offer your service?

[A]

That was a classic. No, I'm just. I did happen to see this. I'm blasting away some emails, as my dad would say, on a Monday morning with a full email.

[B]

Wait, I have a question about the dog walking. Is it a paid position?

[A]

I'm just looking at this now. It says, well, somebody in my neighborhood named Heather. I'm not going to say her last name, but maybe I opened up on it because it's. She's. Her full name is a famous Heather name. A very famous Heather. But this can't be the famous Heather. This must be a different Heather. But this Heather says I'm looking for a part time dog walker for my border Collie mix. The name is Lily. I can see me getting along with a Border Collie mix name.

[B]

Those are very, very active.

[A]

Yeah, well, that's why they need. That's why. Let's see, Fridays for sure. And if you want to do one or two other days, that's optional. Around noonish, but could be a little earlier or later for 25 to 30 minutes total. That's not bad. You could also just play with her in the backyard or in the house if you don't want to walk. Or if it's raining. She's 10 years old. So not super hyper. $20 per session cash. I wonder if they're missing a zero on that.

[B]

I would do a great job for a 12 year old.

[A]

Yes, 20.

[B]

I mean that non sarcastically. Like that's good money if you're, if you're a younger person and you like to play with dogs.

[A]

Yeah, but not you don't think for me, that's not, that's not. Well, super high efficiency.

[B]

Aren't you going to be dog watching coming up here soon?

[A]

You know, I talked to Genevieve about this when she was on the show. So I don't want to repeat too much stuff for the listeners who tuned into that episode.

[B]

This is when I was waylaid at the airport a couple of Fridays ago.

[A]

Yeah, in fact, I gotta tell you, I'm gonna do a very abbreviated version of the same story that I told the other day. Cause I gotta tell you how this went down, Luke. I was in the restaurant supply store that I go to about once a week buying some. Yeah, like buying some cups and bowls and stuff for the food service thing. And I was actually noticing this guy who was in front of me in a rather long line and I was kind of admiring his. He's had an old classic Camel cigarettes hat on that I was kind of admiring and I was like, notice me, senpai notice. I was even thinking like this guy kind of looks, he really looks the part. He looks like a Seattle sort of bartender or chef or something. And it wasn't until they call him up, there's two registers and he goes to the first register. And also I see his profile. I'm like, oh, that's my neighbor. That's. That's my neighbor. That's. That's my dude. So I'm like, hey man. But then I'm getting called to my cash register at the same time. And so now I've started this conversation kind of across this area where everybody can hear us. And I'm just like, hey, I liked your hat. I didn't know that Camel had a motocross or whatever. It was very awkward. Not very. It was like, I can get really awkward. This was like mid level awkward. And I was still okay with it. And then, and then right as he's like rung up, he's done, he's leaving the store. My cashier is still like kind of dinging up my groceries or whatever. And I yell to him as he's leaving the store, he's done. He's leaving the store. Going out the big sliding glass doors and I yell, hey, aren't we supposed to watch your dog? And aren't we supposed to watch Maggie? And he looks at me and he says, oh, yeah, we gotta talk sooner rather than later. Cause my girlfriend just brought home a new puppy and then walked out, then walked out of my life. And everybody in the line, like, I could hear people chuckling because I was just like, what just happened to me?

[B]

How fun.

[A]

I mean, maybe, but, like, I didn't know maybe.

[B]

Is there anything more fun than taking care of a puppy that also you don't even have to raise? You're just getting free puppy time and then you get to give it back to its actual owners days or weeks later?

[A]

Well, yeah, there are things better, which is like not being responsible for two living creatures when you. I didn't keep in mind, bring the.

[B]

Puppy down here, dude.

[A]

I didn't even know the. I didn't even know the scenario. All I know is Genevieve came home reeking drunk one night, happened to run into our neighbor in our driveway.

[B]

I don't think that detail was necessary, but I love it.

[A]

She was ridiculously drunk. And then she just kind of comes downstairs and this is like on a late Saturday night or something. This is weeks ago. And she's like, we're dog sitting Maggie. And I'm like, okay, sounds good. When she's like, I don't know. For how long?

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

Okay, love it. Sounds good. So that was a couple weeks. Then we just don't hear anything for like two or three weeks. And it's kind of living over my head. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, yeah, there's two dogs involved now. And then like, oh, okay, well, two dogs.

[B]

I think that says it all.

[A]

Yeah. And one of them is a new puppy who apparently doesn't even have his shots yet. Although I met the puppy this weekend over the fence and he's not like a brand new puppy. I don't know, it just sort of complicates things in this way that is like, Genevieve, can you get your arms around this? Can you figure out, like, what you signed us up for and why we're now. I do think it's something like when you're just doing somebody a favor just to be like, oh, now suddenly it's double the work like that is, and double the fun. I mean, potentially, potentially. But I don't know. I guess it is going to be for one week in October, kind of mid to late October, I think. So I will be telling you about it. On the show.

[B]

I am so excited for this. If anybody wants me to watch their puppy, email andrewbtl no, but I mean like now granted, I've occasionally been watching Gigi the standard poodle. Now, Gigi is not a puppy. Gigi is incredibly chill and, you know, doesn't have any bathroom accidents, is very excited to go on walks, but also isn't annoying if we haven't had a chance. So in fairness, my recent dog watching activities have been watching a very, very, very easy to take care of dog. But that being said, like, I just think that this sounds like an absolute blast. Like, I mean, and the thing is, it's not the rest of your life. So it's like, yeah, if it's a kind of a hectic week, if you get into a sort of a Charles Grodin Beethoven esque situation where there's, you know, hijinks and you come home and the dogs have been trying to do a bubble bath, but now the bubbles have completely filled up the bathroom. I assume that happens in the movie Beethoven.

[A]

You use too much soap probably while.

[B]

Too much soap, that's the. Maybe one of the things dogs have a very little concept of how much soap to use when doing a bubble bath. I see you as a kind of a beleaguered Grodin type, yelling Maggie as the dogs look up from the bathtub and they're both just almost more soap than dog at this point. Yeah, I love this for you. I think this sounds like a fun, like a fun kind of chaotic week.

[A]

Yeah, you know me, I love chaos. That sounds great.

[B]

But you do also really like dogs. I know this about you. That's why I guess I'm being totally serious. I'm a little bit surprised that you're expressing this kind of tepid feelings about it because I do. I've seen you around dogs and you're so sweet with them and you love them and you always kind of want to get more, you know, time of like interacting with them and stuff. So I would have imagined that you would just be looking forward to this with sort of unalloyed excitement. But it sounds like you're definitely a little apprehensive.

[A]

No, I mean it's, you know, it's a full week of, you know, I have no experience with dogs. Like, the idea was already like, okay, well, we're volunteering to watch one dog who I already know has kind of a lot of energy. I don't think that this is Maggie, the original dog who I do really like. And I'm looking Forward to meeting in like on the same side of the fence. I don't think Maggie and I have ever been. Oh, wait, no, no. I went over there for a birthday party one time and I played with her. But no, I am sort of looking forward to it. But I was also had apprehension about it. Like, she's got a lot of energy. They've got a fenced in yard where she usually hangs out and poops and gets cleaned up only about once every two weeks, which is gross to look at. And so I'm already, you know, I.

[B]

Was already thinking, you show Maggie an entirely new way to live in your yard.

[A]

And I don't think they really take her on walks because she does have a little yard to run around in. And I was like, well, I'm gonna enjoy this. I'm gonna. I've been going on walks, like, I've been going on walks, sort of like thinking, okay, I can walk back to the graveyard. Well, yeah, exactly. And I kind of have. I was actually even thinking like, as I was. I love this time of year. So I've been going on some like, longish walks, like, and it's been great. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna miss it. I don't do it during the summer and I don't do it during the winter, but during the fall, like, I just can't. I just can't stop myself. And I was also like, oh, this will be nice. We'll get a nice harness for Maggie. Harness for Maggie. And that was a combination of harness and leash. By the way, if you' what happened there?

[B]

Which by the way, you could save. We could all save a lot of time by just calling that a harnish.

[A]

A harnish, yes.

[B]

Like the auto group.

[A]

Is that a reporter on npr? I'm Steve Harnish.

[B]

Definitely. Could be.

[A]

Could be. Anyway, I just, I guess it was just a little surprising to me that it was just sort of thrown out and then now it just sort of sounds complicated. Now there's two dogs. One of them can't go on a walk because she's not fully vaccinated or something. So is that part of the deal? That's the young dog. And so it's just like, it's just sort of.

[B]

I didn't know that was the rule.

[A]

I don't know, it just sort of seemed like it really without really, I don't know, without anybody saying, hey, listen, do you still want to do this? Things have changed. It's sort of like, oh, yeah, you're watching two Dogs. And I'm just like, I didn't even know the dates of watching one dog, and it is just starting to feel a little bit. And then there's another thing going on that I didn't even want to talk about, but I'll mention it to you. I'm like, at first, I was just, like, ignoring it, but now I'm actually kind of rolling my eyes about it. And let's hope Genevieve doesn't listen to this episode. Everybody would be cool, but, like, Genevieve, seriously, this is going to be so up your alley. I didn't even want to talk about it because you're going to take Genevieve's side on this shit, and that's literally what we're talking about here. But Genevieve has decided to train Bingo, our cat, to use the toilet. And I know this is something you did.

[B]

I wish I still had my litter quitter.

[A]

Don't worry about it. Genevieve bought some new thing, and she's in the middle of training Bingo. This now. Now, here's the deal. Here's the deal with taking care of Bingo in his litter box. Genevieve doesn't have to worry about it. It's not even part of her life. She even made a joke one time that I actually thought was pretty funny, kind of at my expense. When we were at a party and people were saying, I'm thinking about getting a cap, but it's so much work. And Genevieve's like, it's not any work at all. The litter box empties itself, and she just pointed at me. And I don't mind that. Like, honestly, like, that. That's my responsibility. But it's like, Genevieve doesn't have to worry about Bingo using the box at all. And also, we're just coming off of a pretty long stint, a stint that was much longer than we thought it was going to be of having, like, this litter box upstairs in the house. Because Bananas, our other cat, was so sick for so long, and we had this litter box in a room where it didn't belong. And I was constantly. It was so messy, Luke. It was so mess. I was constantly vacuuming up all the what my dad calls shit seeds that would come out of a litter box. And it was just, like. It was this state of temporary but kind of gross disorder that I'm. You know, I miss Bananas. But one of the, like, literally, the only upside is we got to, like, go back to having one litter box that is in a special little room in the basement that Bingo can walk through. It's like, it's so Taken care of. I scoop it every day. I clean it. Like, it's just. It's such a non thing. It's part of my daily, you know, kind of. I call them my chores. Yeah. And Genevieve laughs like, I'm a kid doing my chores, but whatever. When I get done with the show, I have chores to do. And it's just like, such. Not a thing. But Genevieve is always introducing, like, well, let's try this. There's never some cat litter new device that Genevieve doesn't want to try. Let's try this robot thing. Let's try this other thing. Let's try this lightweight stuff. And I'm like, all this stuff is just making my job harder. Like, you don't have to worry about this. But she's obsessed with, like, trying to better not mouse trap, but poop trap, I guess.

[B]

Well, you feel like, as the one who is dealing with the cleaning the litter box, you probably should have a majority vote on the matter of Bingo going number two, because it only negatively impacts your life or only affects your life and your chores. And therefore, why is Genevieve trying to solve for something that does not really actually affect her?

[A]

Not a problem. And, like. And so Genevieve's like, this is me. Like, don't. Like, you know where his litter box is now is very close to my bathroom. And she's like, it would be easier if we did this in your bathroom. But I know you don't want to do that because it's this training thing where first you got to move the litter box to a bathroom. I'm like, no, I want nothing part of this. And so she's doing it up in her bathroom. And I go to use the bathroom this morning. I'm like, oh, great. Like, we were a house that finally had it locked in a litter box in a special room in the basement that the cat could slip in and out of. Nobody has to see it. And I clean every day. Now I'm stepping on shit seeds in a bathroom again. Like, we had the ideal thing, but now we're going to start this whole training process. Process so that Bingo can supposedly use the toilet instead of a litter box, which I don't think is really going to end up working. We've had to close off his. Where he used to use the litter box now. So it's like this whole training process. You can't give him the option of the other place. I just didn't need any of this. And I know I'm really throwing Genevieve under the bus here. And now, on top of It. We have. It's just like. I just feel like I don't need this much chaos. You know what I mean? And I don't even think the dogs are coming over. I think we're supposed to go over there.

[B]

Are you potty training the dogs?

[A]

No. No. I also don't know deliverables, and that's just kind of like. And maybe I'm just thinking about the huge mounds of turd that I see in the neighbor's yard that I'm going to be responsible for cleaning up in a couple of weeks. And I'm just like, I just don't need all this chaos right now. And I was totally fine with signing me up for one week or signing us up for one week of dog walking, but just this assumption that, like, I mean, I was making fun of Heather, famous last name in the neighborhood. Now she's offering 20 bucks. No, don't get me wrong. I would not accept money from the neighbors for doing this. I think I'm just grumpy and I'm getting wound up here, but I'm just kind of like. I don't know. I think it's just all on top of me right now. Just feeling like this is just a lot of chaos that is now looming in my life.

[B]

Now. Let me ask you this. If you can separate out, because I understand that what you're describing makes sense to me, and it's something that I know you are particularly not super a fan of, which is like a bunch of question mark boxes that are mysterious as to what's going to happen, how it's going to go, and you don't like having multiple of those things kind of piled up because it's an uneasy feeling. If you could separate out the dog thing from the. The potty training of Bingo. If you imagine a world in six months where Bingo is fully potty trained, I. E. Uses the toilet, and you never have to, even in your chores, Think about the litter box. Would that be like if. If you could snap your fingers and. And you never had to deal with the litter box again for the next 10 years of Bingo's life, Would that actually, in your mind, be an improvement?

[A]

Oh, okay. So.

[B]

Or over maintaining Bingo's litter box?

[A]

No, I don't care. I. I'm fine with. I think we have the per. You have a cat who is. Right now, we're a one cat house. He doesn't create that much waste. It's so easy to clean. I don't have to worry about it enough to worry about. Oh, did we accidentally close the toilet lid? Like, we don't have to retrain. It's just so simple right now. It's so perfect. And I don't know. I don't. I don't see any upside of him using the toilet other than we're gonna have to remember, oh, well, make sure the lid is up. And it just doesn't solve a problem that we have. Having a cat that, like, go, like having an animal that is trained to go into a little box that you clean once with, like, in literally 45 seconds is like, that is perfect already. Like, I don't see a need to improve on that. I don't look forward to it. Even if it were successful, I think.

[B]

I wanted to potty train. I guess it would have been Pagoda back in the day because at the house that Vanessa and I had, it was. I mean, it was a perfectly large house that had lots of areas to put things. But somehow, weirdly, it did not have an ideal place for the litter box.

[A]

Yes. If that's the case, I would see much more upside down in this. Yeah.

[B]

Because the, like with the basement was kind of inaccessible for various reasons to the cat, et cetera. So I was trying to solve for the fact that we. There was no good place. There was this little powder room bathroom when you were coming into the house, which is where it was living. But if that door got shut accidentally or if you went in there, you were as a guest, you were about to kick over a litter thing. I didn't want it in the kitchen. That seemed really gross to me. There was no solution. And that was where. And I will tell you this, I believe we got to the point, I believe Ann said that it violated Pagoda's essential cat dignity. They have to use the toilet. Which I disagreed with. I thought, if anything, it's the most dignified thing a cat can do is to sit on the toilet and use it like a human. But there was. I think I got to the point where the cat actually went to the bathroom in the toilet. Like, one time. Maybe it was still in the. Cause I bought this thing that's like a series of like, litter boxes, rings that you start out on the ground. This is what Veeves is doing too, I'm sure. Then you eventually move it to the toilet. The cat jumps up on the toilet and is going. But it's blocking up the toilet. You can't. You as a person couldn't use this toilet. And then you slowly take these little rings out until the cat's just going to the bathroom in the toilet. It doesn't even realize it. I think we may have gotten to the point where the cat was going to the bathroom in the tray that was set up in the toilet. And I'm gonna be honest with you. That was an unbelievable high for me to even see that happening. I felt like. Like one of those Russian cat trainers that gets them to climb to the top of a tower and do kinds of things, you know, that comes to town every once in a while, those trained cats. I was pretty psyched about it. But, you know, I hear what you're saying. I understand.

[A]

I don't think you know what the story. The headline here is. Like, Andrew woke up grumpy, and he didn't realize until he started talking to a microphone. I don't think I've ever just come off as such a goddamn grump in my life. Like, I'm just, like, straight up complaining about household things. I haven't had.

[B]

Very relatable.

[A]

I have not had this conversation. It's not like I was hanging out with friends last night. This didn't even come up, like, sudd. Like, I'm talking to literally tens of people. I decide to air all of this, and I feel a little bit bad grumping about Genevieve. Some of Genevieve's decisions lately, but. But no. Anyway, this is on me. I think I just woke up in a bad mood.

[B]

I am. I mean, not to.

[A]

Well, wait, hold on. Let's go back to the dog thing for a second. There's just, like, I'm trying to think how I can say this. And again, I don't think anybody would really hear this who would be a party involved. But I also want to be. It sounded like you were tisking me there, but I just wanted the audience to know that you opened up a bottle of carbonated water there. That was not you reacting emotionally or rolling verbally rolling your eyes at me, although you feel free to do that. It's like when we had a one dog responsibility. I was like, well, I know it might be a little bit difficult, but we'll bring her over here some. We'll see how she gets along with Bingo. Like, there's all that now. Like, the puppy can't come over here. Jenvi's like, well, we're not bringing in. You know, the puppy can't leave the house. The puppy's mostly because of the lack of shots. Because of the lack shots. And I guess it's a crate puppy, so it spends most of its time in a crate. I'm going to feel terrible the whole time that I'm over here and not over there. But I also, I've never been over there, but I'm not super comfortable in other people's spaces. So any puppy time I'm going to get is going to be, like, over there in some sort of a crate situation in a house that isn't mine. It doesn't sound like a fun deal. And then, sure, I can still bring Maggie around. And listen, Genevieve says she'll take care of it. Like, she's like, I signed up for this. I'll take care of it. And I'm sure she will. But, like, it doesn't sound like this joyful I'm bringing a puppy home feeling. It sounds like I'm going over to somebody else's house, a space that isn't mine, to let a dog out of a cage. And I know that crate pup. I know it's a whole thing. And puppies are happy if they're raised that way. And I'm not in the same way, like you mentioned. Like, is it undignified for a cat to use a toilet because, like, cats like digging? Cats do it that way because they're supposed to in a certain way. Like, it just feels like it just doesn't sound fun and cute and playful to me. It sounds a little bit like a bummer. And I sort of thought, well, we can bring Maggie more into over here. But now it's sort of changed. That's going to be like, no, it's basically going to be going over there cleaning up a lot of poop in the yard. It sounds like the puppies are, you know, housebroken and everything, but it just doesn't sort of have that same. Same joyful feel that. That. That I was sort of imagining when we volunteered to, you know, take a dog on some walks.

[B]

Here's a couple things. One, I think that as long as you. And you will, because I know you, as long as you stay on top of it in your yard, the poop situation does not ever have to become gross or out of control.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, you know, I've. I've had, you know, many dogs and many yards, and I've always been very. I'm. I'm very meticulous about that because it really grosses me out. Yeah, We've talked about this on the show so many times, but, like, our childhood, I know probably less for you living in the country, but it's just insane how much of my childhood was marked by stepping in dog poop. And then we had this massive cultural shift around like. Like pick up after your dog. And it kind of worked. You just don't see as much of it in public as you used to anymore.

[A]

But because of my ground the other day and I thought of you. How about that for your. Because I don't know if I love.

[B]

That being my brand.

[A]

I literally thought of this conversation. I thought. I also wonder if that's somewhat neighborhoody as well. I have a feeling the neighborhood you've lived in are maybe a little bit different than the neighborhood I lived in as I was stepping over some dog poo the other day.

[B]

Totally. And it's not that I'm never seeing it. I just feel like as a kid it was everywhere and like you'd be just playing and then you'd be like.

[A]

Oh, where did it come from?

[B]

Where did it come from? It was just kind of like always lying in wait. Whereas now you definitely see it when you're out and about. But it's like it feels like you can avoid it. I'm also not playing army men as much as a 49 year old.

[A]

Not as much.

[B]

Not as much. Yeah, but. But all that is to say I'm. I've always been very sensitive to that in my own yard environment. And so I've always been really, really like as soon as Rudy would go to the bathroom, pretty much I'd be out there picking up. And the thing is like, it's not just double bag. You know what I mean? Just get like the poop bags, get a roll of them and then just use two so that there's no chance of it getting. Because they are, as I also say, those poop bags are thin as gossamer wing. They are impossibly thin. So like use two of them. If you stay on top of that. I don't think it has to be gross for you. I think you're gonna really like the walking part. And then maybe what you could do is like I said, sort of divide and conquer. Like maybe you're on mostly on Maggie duty, which is the walking of Maggie and the kind of keeping Maggie's poop in your yard handled. And maybe Veeves has got to be on puppy duty of the going and the visiting the puppy over there. Maybe she's a little less sort of put off by being in someone else's home environment, et cetera. Maybe that would be a nice little kind of way. Now, I hadn't thought of the bingo thing either. So you're raising Andre Andrew, even though you're saying, or Andrew have you considered going by Andrew?

[A]

Makes me sound sm. Smarter and less grumpy. I like it.

[B]

Makes you sound like. Like a perpetual grad student.

[A]

Yes, exactly.

[B]

Oh, my friend Andrew. Yeah. He's studying for his dissertation. Didn't he already do that? Yeah, this is a different one.

[A]

Sounds like a real Wes Anderson character, actually.

[B]

But. But, like, I had. You're actually making. I know you're probably. You're worried that you're coming off as overly grumpy, but be. But to be honest with you, the more we're talking about it, I actually think you're kind of making. Making some good points, which is I hadn't thought about the bingo thing, which is, like, again, for me, having, like, Gigi here. Bubbles is not living here right now, so I. I am not, like, oh, no, is that gonna freak? Is Bubbles gonna just be cowering in a corner somewhere for the next week? And that's something you're thinking about with Bingo. Like, will Bingo and Maggie interact?

[A]

Yeah, that'll be after, like, introducing. And, like, honestly, if we didn't have any animals and we were only watching one animal, this would be a completely different scenario. And just a reminder, I was even fine when it was just Maggie. I just sort of think that, like, the. The addition of that can't leave the house is just. It's just really changed the dynamic of.

[B]

Like, battle Genevieve with that.

[A]

Right. But like. But also, if we had no animals over here, like, if there was no Bingo, which I don't even like to think about that scenario.

[B]

The dudes don't even speak of it.

[A]

He's so great. He just does this thing where he uses me as a fairy to get to the top of my closet every day. Now I open up my closet, he runs, and he jumps up on the shelf and then climbs up on a wine rack, and he waits until I beep, beep, beep back up my shoulder to him. He gently gets on my shoulder. I walk around my closet door, and then he jumps up in the top shelf of my closet every single day. Love that, dude. But if for some reason, there was no bingo in the equation and it was just like, oh, we're bringing Maggie over here to spend a week with us. And it's just, like, in our house, and we're our responsibility, and that's it. Like, I would. It would be a completely different scenario, but I know.

[B]

Yeah. And that's a scenario that I'm imagining.

[A]

Careful. Yeah.

[B]

Because that's what my home environment's like. So when I think about, like, Babysitting someone's puppy. I'm just like imagining the most fun thing, but it's because I'm not factoring in the other animal that lives in the house, et cetera. Now, that being said, Bingo seems to have the personality of a cat that is very unperturbed by life. And my feeling is Bingo and Maggie will do just fine together in the way that Bubbles, who is also unperturbed by life, does great with dogs and is in fact very right now is staying with Becca's brother and his wife in a home with up to two dogs and other cats. So, like, I think Bingo is going to be able to hang with it. Bingo doesn't seem like a particular.

[A]

No, Bingo is fine. Maggie is kind of afraid of. Bingo is the problem. I'm not even joking. Maggie's like a little pit mix dog. A medium sized kind of pit mix dog. Very, very sweet. I really do love her and I have no complaints about her, but she's a pretty. But she's got a little, she's got, you know, she's still kind of got some puppy energy. She might be about three or something. And, and when Bingo go looks at her through the fence, he'll like, want to touch noses or whatever, but she gets and kind of like runs away and is kind of scared of him. So it's more about like sort of keeping her calm around Bingo so that her anxiety doesn't sort of mess up his vibe, if that makes sense.

[B]

I'm very interested to see how this plays out, but my prediction is that they will absolutely find a vibe that'd be great and, and, and that'll be really fun and cute and you, you may be really enjoying. And again, yeah. Then I think for this, this puppy thing definitely complicates it because if the puppy can't be out and about because of the shots and everything, or lack thereof, then yeah, that sounds a little bit less fun. And that's what you gotta stick Genevieve with.

[A]

Do you know what? I'm actually. This is gonna sound counterintuitive after everything I just said about chaos and your beautiful setup of the Charles Grodin scenario. I actually have been thinking like, oh, I wonder if I could bring Maggie over here and give her a bath. I've never given a dog a bath before. And this is sort of sounding weird as it comes out of my mouth, but I like the idea of just like, I love a freshly cleaned dog. And I actually, actually, contrarily, I think I'm really. I mean, nobody loves a stinky dog. But I love petting dogs. But I really. After I pet a dog, if they're not immaculate, I feel the need to go. That is such a realistic sounding dog. I usually have to go wash my hands or whatever. And then that feeling of, like, petting a dog and then pulling your hand away and being like, oh, yikes.

[B]

It's kind of a combination of, like, oil and dirt.

[A]

Yeah, just that smell. And I assume that you don't want to overdo it. Like, you don't want to. I assume there's a reason dogs probably create certain oils or whatever.

[B]

They're kind of have a biome.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. I don't want to. Like, they're going to come back and, like, Maggie is so clean that she doesn't have any hair anymore. Look. Clean as your mama's forehead.

[B]

She's like a Howard Hughes. Just, like, no fur, but these long fingernails and, like, no ability to be in the outside world.

[A]

Yeah, no, but. And Genevieve did say that she's like, listen, this is on me. I'll take care of everything. So, you know, I guess I feel I'm having some regrets over how frank and grumpy I have been being about this whole thing. And I'm sure it will work out, but I do think that the vibe has sort of shifted or, like, as the. The new details have come to light about what the. What the responsibility actually is.

[B]

I appreciate your honesty. I think it is, like I said, very relatable not to, like, say that we have to constantly mine our own lives and endanger our own relationships with both our partners and neighbors to keep the needle moving on this show. But it's very relatable, I think, to people to just know what it's like to be anxious about something and to also be. Be part of a team where. And anybody who's ever been part of a relationship team knows that there's always going to be the times where it feels like maybe. Maybe we didn't all get as much of a vote in this thing as we kind of would have liked. You know, I think. I think it's something everyone can relate to, and everybody knows that you're absolutely crazy about your partner and your cat. And I think eventually Maggie and What's the puppy's name? Does the puppy have a name yet?

[A]

I want to say. Say Bluto, but that's okay. I think I just want to say that because I like that as a dog name.

[B]

That would be a great Louie.

[A]

No, that's also a good. Let me ask. I'll Ask Genevieve. I can't remember.

[B]

Bobby. For, for RFK Jr. Is the dog doing its research on the, on its vaccination? Is it? That's what I'm wondering. That's what I, I get scared when I hear about a dog not having their shots. I'm wondering if there is a Maha component to this.

[A]

There's something weird about, like, not giving the dog Tylenol, which I don't understand that.

[B]

I mean, ironically, I could probably give the dog Ivermectin if it needed it. I think maybe dogs respond well to that.

[A]

I don't. No, I don't think. I, I think that they're just like, I, I don't just, I don't know the deal with where this puppy came from. And it was kind of funny again, the way my neighbor sort of said, and I'm trying not to use their names. I don't know if I've let that slip or not, but he was just kind of like, yeah, she brought home a puppy, and it was kind of like, sounded like he was a little bit like. This was not also a family decision. I don't know. But it's not. But Genevieve's the one who went over there. I was at, I think, a Marine game or something when she went over there for the training. So, anyway, yeah, so I, I, I can't remember the dog's name. I don't remember what I was saying. But it, It'll be fine.

[B]

Let's thank some donors, and then let's. Speaking of our beloved Mariners, let's talk a little bit about this. I feel like the, the Mariners story has now risen to the level because we're, I'm always apologizing on the show that we get into too much Mariner talk because it's something you and I are, you know, very, very sort of engaged with during the baseball season. I don't feel like I have to offer that apology on this Monday because, like, everyone I've ever met in my life was messaging me this weekend about these games.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, people who care about sports, people who don't care about sports. I feel like it's almost like, in a bizarre way, almost a national story, that you've got this, like, team that's never been to the World Series, that's playing these games, and we know a city's hopes and dreams are riding on it, etc. So, so I do think it's fair game, so to speak. And let's do that after we thank these donors.

[A]

Thank you, baby.

[B]

Oh, there's that music that tells us it's time, it's time to thank the people that are supporting this program financially. I don't know. I had this weird moment, moment at the beginning of the show today, Andrew. I think it was when I was saying like, welcome to a Monday edition of TBTL that I thought, wow, we really do this five days a week. And like, I know that sometimes I get on about this, but like, as far as I can tell or think about, I don't know if there's any other five day a week podcasts like ours. There are five day a week podcasts. I mean, there's the Daily produced by the New York Times, but they feel like they're either either most of the other daily podcasts, podcasts that occur Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning, they're either a radio show that's just being downloaded to a podcast format or there's something like the Daily on the New York Times, which has a tremendously large staff of people that are producing it. Like sometimes we talk about there's that show, Keith and the Girl that's done a lot of episodes all. I think they might be on an every other day schedule. Like we've got our buddy Mike Pesca's show, the Gist. He's doing that five days a week.

[A]

But like Lebitard, I guess.

[B]

Lebitard. But again, I'd put that in the category of a very big operation.

[A]

Yeah. Their video. Yeah.

[B]

And like it's just, I don't know, it just. There were just these weird moments where I go, holy shit, man. We really. This really five days a week, this thing. And it kind of, for some reason it like shocks me as the person doing it.

[A]

Well, we gotta check our email sometimes. Luke, what would we do without the intro of a podcast to kind of really burn through some emails.

[B]

Exactly. And to thank folks like Jessamyn Bateman. Lino. Lino. Jessamine's been supporting the program and part of the TBT universe for years. And you think I'd know how to say their. The second part of their last name, but. Jessamine, thank you so much in the bureau in Washington. Appreciate you. You also, Jennifer Stockall, who's in Stockton, California.

[A]

Lot of, lot of familiar names, old home days here.

[B]

That's right. And I believe last year I pointed out the similarity between Jennifer's last name and the city where Jennifer lives. I won't do that this year. Okay. Nope, nope. I don't need to do that. I'll do that next year. Yes, it's A kind of. It's on an every, it's an every.

[A]

Three year cycle skips a generation.

[B]

That's right. Alice Davey is in Seattle. Locke, Washington. Thanks, Alice. Appreciate you. And then we're talking about Christy Elburn of Grand Rapids, Michigan. I believe Grand Rapids is on the COVID of the New York Times today headline being it's Michigan's second largest city, but it's affordable.

[A]

Oh really?

[B]

And my immediate thought was, and I know nothing about Grand Rapids, Michigan, other than I should probably move there. That's how my brain works, Andrew. I saw the headline, I thought, well, that's where I'm moving.

[A]

Before reading the rest of the article. You just went right to.

[B]

Before reading any of the articles.

[A]

Just right, just the headline. Just.

[B]

Or knowing that Christy Elburn is from Grand Rapids.

[A]

And listen, there's a very good chance that Christy was also burning a hole in her carpet as she was watching the playoffs yesterday. Yes, I thought about that and, and that's fine. We're all, we're all loving our teams and rooting for our teams and we're all getting along nicely and so Christy.

[B]

We are. Thanks for bringing that up, Andrew, by the way, and for, for, for connecting it with donor Christy. Because I was thinking about that this morning as I was sort of kind of playing the show out of my head and people don't, people don't understand that. Like I do an entire dry run through of the show in my mind each morning before.

[A]

Write it up and then you send it to me. I make some edits, I mark it up a little bit.

[B]

Yeah, I mean we do like, we, we pre plan the first 50 words of every show. So we're on basically a script for.

[A]

The first 50 words and it looks.

[B]

Yeah. Out now. We're off script. Shit. Now I don't know what to do. But I was thinking about the show and I was like, you know, I'm so gassed up about the Mariners and I'm so just like, I'm in knots about it. But I'm also like, well, you know, and then I remember, oh, we have a lot of listeners in Michigan or listeners who are just, you know, grew up Detroit Tigers fans. And I find the Detroit Tigers to be such a rootable team if they're not playing the Mariners. And it's kind of, I wonder what the experience is like for a person who is having all of the feelings I'm having about my baseball team, but they just happen to have those feelings about the team that is playing my team. And I hope I Hope that it's not a huge turnoff. Like if I listened to a podcast that emanated from Detroit, Michigan this week and they were. All they could talk about was the Tigers coming home and sweeping the Mariners taking the next two games. Like if they were just celebratory. But hey, we stole one on the road, you know, and now we're in prime position at point some etc. Would it be difficult for me to hear that? I kind of think the answer is yes. For me it would.

[A]

Yeah. I mean it really depends. But it's always. And I don't, I don't want to in. In us trying to talk about being measured. I don't want to by name specify other teams, other markets, other cities that I wouldn't have such a feeling about. But like, if I were to listen to. If I were to listen to the Detroit, you know, post Saturday game coverage and they joy, it would, it wouldn't be a great feeling for me. Saturday was a really rough night for a lot of Mariners fans, but it would be so much more listenable than if it were some of the other teams that I think about and how I feel about them, generally speaking. And in fact, this kind of ties into our next donor as well. Jeremy Jewell, if you don't mind me jumping ahead here, please. In Leawood, Kansas, you know what? I saw KS and I saw Kansas City, but that's not actually right. But anyway, potentially somebody who roots for the Kansas City Royals. Maybe.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I don't know. General by they would be the closest.

[B]

Geographically the closest major league baseball team.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You would think, to Leawood, Kansas, I assume.

[A]

And so the same deal with them. Like I would listen, you know what I mean? I would want to beat them if we were facing them, but it wouldn't be the same vitriol I would feel for some other teams and hearing them super happy. And that would absolutely destroy me down to my course. So I'm kind of glad that we're playing who we're playing and it's been, you know, it's been a hell of a series.

[B]

And by the way, Leawood, Kansas appears to be very close to the sort of larger Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, Missouri Metroplex, if we're going to call it that. So I think that's a pretty safe bet to say that listener Jeremy Jewels got maybe some skin in that game. And then of course, we're returning Andrew to the great state of Michigan for Laura Hahn, who's in Kanoki, Michigan.

[A]

See, this is starting to feel like fate as A matter of fact that we're. You know what, we're all coming together. Michigan fans, Seattle fans, or I should say Detroit fans, Seattle fans. We're all coming together under the TBT umbrella. It's a big tent.

[B]

It absolutely is. And I hope that, you know, as things continue on this, this fall and again, hopefully the marriage learners. Even though I do, I wonder if my blood pressure can take it. Oh, can I listen? Thank you to our donors. We really appreciate you. We could not do this show without you. That is absolutely the true story of this. This is only existing because of the listener support. So thank you very, very much. Appreciate you.

[A]

Hello and welcome to Top Story.

[B]

I was going to tell you that I don't know if my blood pressure can handle. Handle these games, but then I. What I was reminded of was I went to the doctor on Friday to get my blood pressure checked because, like, you know, you know how it is, Andrew. It's like I don't ever want to scare the listeners and. Or you, you could be a little more scared for me, honestly, it makes me feel.

[A]

You'll be fine.

[B]

Rub some dirt on it.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Walk it off. No, like, you know, we. You and I have been documenting a little bit our sort of like blood pressure home monitoring situation.

[A]

Oh, yeah, I gotta get back on that.

[B]

And so I got the cuff one and it was giving me a very like, low reading, which made me feel like, oh, okay. Everything's. Everything's kind of a. Okay. And then I went.

[A]

The wrist one. We should say the wrist one.

[B]

Yeah, excuse me, the wrist one. I should say that. And then we had a listener who's a nurse who said, actually those wrist ones are kind of not super duper accurate. So then I got the like, one that goes on your bicep.

[A]

Bicep.

[B]

And then that one was giving me a higher reading, which was, you know, kind of pretty close to being like. I would take my. I would take my like blood pressure and then I would like immediately go online. Like normal blood pressure. Male, 49, you know, and it'd be right at the upper range. And I'd been having this kind of strange experience of feeling certain days almost like what I was thinking was maybe hypertension, where I just have this kind of feeling of like. How do I describe it? Almost like I'd be wearing a baseball hat and it would almost feel for real.

[A]

You're saying in this scenario you are wearing a baseball hat or you just have a feeling of. Okay, gotcha.

[B]

In this scenario, I am wearing a baseball hat. But it almost feels like the hat's kind of too tight, like I gotta take it off. Like my skin was almost feeling a little bit like not stretched, but there was this. It's very hard to describe this odd feeling or sometimes what happened last week was I would be lying down to go to sleep and I would feel kind of almost like the. If I was horizontal, it would feel like a sort of a pressure in my head that felt a little uncomfortable and almost like it was related to my heart rate or something. So it'd be like if I'm walking around, if I'm standing up, everything feels fine. Like I feel perfectly fine right now, but.

[A]

But it's a handsome pullover you're wearing. Hey, thank you.

[B]

It's new. I appreciate it. Yeah, but I. But when I would lie down, like to go to bed, it would almost just feel like the blood was kind of not pooling in my head. That sounds intense. But I just felt a certain kind of pressure in my head that was a little bit uncomfortable. And I wondered if it was related to my blood pressure because I'd been kind of taking. And as much as I tried to use our friend Phyllis Fletcher's advice and imagine a pillow of pizza, it wasn't working. So what actually happened was I made an appointment like last Wednesday or something, something to go to the. To go to the doctor on Friday, Friday morning before our show. And I made the appointment and I got up early and I did my little morning stuff and then I went down to the doctor at like maybe 8:30 in the morning down in town. And I got in line and the very nice person at the intake said she looks. Gets my name and everything. And she goes, did you make this appointment yourself? And I said, I sure did, proudly. She goes, you made it for November 21st.

[A]

I was wondering how you were able to make an appointment so quickly.

[B]

Well, because I made it for November 21st. It was one of those things where the cat. Like a. I could have been a little bit more careful with what I was doing, but it should be the law of the land that if you are ever trying to make an appointment, whether it's to have your car serviced or to have your body serviced by the doctor people.

[A]

Is that what they do there?

[B]

The. The account? I realized how that sounded as I was saying. That's why I tried to fix it by saying the doctor people at the end. And I don't think it worked.

[A]

Listen, I'm not trying to bust your ch.

[B]

The calendar should have to start on the day that you are looking at the calendar and also this applies to airline tickets. I'm looking at you, Alaska Airlines. Weirdly, there are some of these calendar things that the default is not the day that you're logging into the system. In other words, if it's October 1st and I'm going to make an appointment with Kaiser, it should never be showing me November randomly.

[A]

Yeah, just start with the day that you, you're looking the day of should be highlighted. That's what we're used to.

[B]

Yes. I think in this case what it did was it probably jumped to the next day available. And again that's fair. I could have looked at the larger calendar and realized, oh, it's already skipping ahead to November. But instead. So anyway, I made the appointment for the wrong day and the woman was very nice and she said okay, well I can try to make you a new appointment or you can go on the app when you get home. And I said I'm going to do that when I get home because there's more, I could see more of the system than she could. She could only see the one location she was, was at in her computer. So I go home and I then later in the day because of course I had told Becca that I was going to get this appointment and you know, she was very pro, pro me having this appointment and then when she heard it wasn't happening, she was very pro me making another appointment.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so I did, I went on the system and it said I realized there's a whole other category which is just go in and have them take your blood pressure. It's not seeing a doctor, it's not a full on thing. It's just literally, literally they'll do your vitals, you can go in, they will take your blood pressure, they'll weigh you, they'll do like I guess, you know, they'll maybe they'll listen to your lungs or something. So I make that appointment for Friday afternoon because those appointments, they've got tons of them. And so I go back down after the show and after a bunch of other stuff I go in on Friday afternoon, I sit down, they take my blood pressure. It's 110 over 75. It's like Olympic level. Yeah, I'm trying to problematic.

[A]

You know I still do when I was taking my blood pressure every day though, I had a little chart saved on my phone so I could like always look at like what is normal progress because I can never, I can never remember what the deal is. But yeah, it should not wait is it ever in triple digits? That doesn't sound right.

[B]

Oh, yeah. I mean, oh, yeah.

[A]

Triple digits. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so you had 110, did you say?

[B]

Yeah, like 110 over 75 or something.

[A]

Okay, let's see.

[B]

Like, the nurse looked at me like I was crazy because I came and I said, I've been having this weird feeling.

[A]

Good. Oh, it's Olympic in a good way. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I was so confused there. And this is my problem. That's why I always have to look at the chart. I thought you were saying that it's incred, like Olympic level. Like it was skyrocketing, like it's incredibly high. No, no, you're in the green. You. I'm. I'm the envy of you.

[B]

It's like a. It's like somebody who's been. I don't know. Olympic level was a weird way to describe it. It was.

[A]

It's basically like. It's great.

[B]

It just means. Means that, like, I guess in this moment anyway, not only do I not have high blood pressure, I have very in the. In the green zone blood pressure, and it was lower even than when I was using the wrist cuff. And I asked. So. So then I kind of felt like an insane person because I was trying to explain to this nurse that, like, I'm worried that I have high blood pressure. I've been testing at home. It's coming in high. And she goes, yeah, this is absolutely fine. She goes. And by the way, she goes, those wrist cuffs. She goes, I know doctors were telling you, or they always are saying those wrist cuffs are not very accurate. She goes, them to be more accurate sometimes than the other one. And she said, you can also bring them in and you can calibrate your, like, home model against their, like, legit one.

[A]

That's interesting.

[B]

But here's the funny part. Since she did that reading on me, Andrew, not once have I felt that whatever that feeling was, whatever that hypertensive thing. I think it might have been an anxiety. It might have been an anxiety feeling that I was. Was associating with these blood pressure readings that I was getting that I was giving myself. That was then kind of winding me up on the topic. And maybe because she was like, yep, this looks. This is totally. And she said also, by the way. Cause the readings I was getting at home were like 130 over 95 or something. And that's really kind of like one. For a guy my age. 130 is really kind of the line they tell you. She told me Even if you were getting a 130 that would not explain the symptoms that you were describing. She's like, 130 is not going to give you noticeable symptoms like that. So it seems like I'm, by the way, I made an appointment to go to the real doctor to keep talking about this. I'm not just calling, I'm not just declaring this whole thing solved. But it was an interesting experience where all week I'd been kind of feeling a little off with this thing that I was associating with blood pressure that again, I honestly think might have been just low level anxiety. I don't want to call it a panic attack, but just probably a thing that's as psychological as it is physical. For me, that involves, involves managing stress and anxiety that was sort of or, you know, trying to manage it, which was then manifesting in this feeling and then also thinking this feeling is high blood pressure. I'm testing high with blood pressure. You know, my arteries are getting stressed out. I'm going online and I'm not a particularly like nervous person about medical stuff. You know, I don't. But you know, I'm doing, reading about what are the long term effects of high blood pressures. Like not good, you know, increased stroke risk and like really wears out your arteries and veins and things. Things. And then I go in and then I get this number that's 110 over 75 or whatever it was. And then I just like complete absolute absence of those symptoms, including Andrew watching two Mariner games and to a lesser degree a Seahawk game, which was kind of a bummer how that one ended. But like it has not come back since I've been doing this thing of that would you think would raise, elevate my blood pressure quite a bit. So when I'm jokingly saying I don't know if I can really handle this Mariners run from a blood pressure standpoint, it's not even that. It's actually more just like I don't know if I can handle it from a general anxiety standpoint. But funnily enough, it actually was not activating whatever this thing was that's been going on with me.

[A]

It is funny how the result, it's sort of what's the expression I'm looking for, not playing the results so much, but more like, oh, the readings affect the readings sort of. And like, you know, like if you're anxious about your high blood pressure, then you're getting higher blood pressure readings and then you had this on your mind. It was probably just like as you're dealing with whatever minor or maybe in some cases major stresses in your life and you're dealing with that, you're dealing with the other thing. But then in the back of your head, you always have this thing of, and I got to get to the doctor again because something's going on with me. But you just get one person to say, ah, you're looking pretty good, champ. And it just sort of takes that off the plate.

[B]

I mean, honestly, like, it was kind of nuts. I was like, again, I did, I did have a point where I said to the nurse, I. I go, I've been getting these high, kind of high readings on my home thing. I go, I'm just trying to tell you I'm not insane. And she goes, oh, no, no, I don't think you're insane. I feel like I've been telling a lot of people I'm not insane. Kind of seems like a number one sign you might be going insane. I was telling the people at the luggage claim at Alaska Airlines, I'm not insane. If I start telling you I'm not insane on this show, Andrew, I need you to kind of like flag that.

[A]

Because is it legal to be this insane?

[B]

That's a great question. Speaking of our beloved and yet sort of stress inducing Mariners, what did you end up doing for watching the games? Because when we parted ways on Friday, your, let's just say, somewhat extralegal means for watching the games, your preferred one seemed to be actually shut down by the FBI. You weren't sure what you were gonna do. What did you end up doing?

[A]

Before I answer that question, I just wanna say one thing and maybe we can circle back around to this later. But it's so related to what you were just talking about. Like, is this fun? Like, is this experience of watching these games, is it fun? We don't have. Let's maybe, let's come back around to that. I was very surprised to see today a lot of discourse in the Mariners social media circles addressing that in a very serious way and other people who are fans of other teams. In fact, I did see a Royals fan jump in and some other people who've been kind of like, you know, teams that don't make it to the playoffs all the time. And then what was your feeling during it? Was it fun? And a lot of people were like kind of really thinking about and saying, well, it was fun. In hindsight, it was, it was fun when it was over. Like in a certain way. Like, this experience we're having is almost not Fun. I'd like to come back around to that, but to tell you how I watch these two games. So I have a pretty embarrassing admission here. I guess it's fine because it gave us some content on Friday, but. But I told you that on, like, Thursday night, I went to watch one of the other playoff games on one of my, you know, links that provides streaming sports media to me in an unsanctioned way. Right. And I got the. The FBI has seized this site notification. And I was like, damn. I knew they were kind of going after this, but I don't know how I'd been able to still access it for so long. That whole drama, Luke, was because I think I accidentally clicked on an old link. Link that I had saved, I think I had. And it was still called Stream east, but it was the old Stream East. And I was able to. Later on, I was doing some investigating and I clicked on some other links and then I was like, wait, I still have this bookmarked. I think I just had an old one still bookmarked somewhere. And I overreacted on Thursday. So I learned on, I believe it was Saturday that I basically had overreacted. And I was still able to access all the games or whatever through my usual means, which are pretty solid and unpaid for. And so I had sort of tentative, I'll say sort of tentative plans to watch Saturday's game with a friend, a friend who likes the Mariners but is not locked in as much as you and I and somebody who is dear to us and listens to the show. I'll just say Houser. I don't know why. What am I particularly there? You know J Dog Howser? Yeah. And like, Howser is kind of like, hey, can I be your kind of fair weather baseball fan and watch the game with you on set? And I was like, yeah, that sounds fun. We got to figure out. Figure out if we're doing it at home or if we're going to. It sounds just like Hauser. It's amazing. It's so weird when you play that. It's like I'm hearing Howser, but I was like, maybe we'll go to a bar. But I had a lot of anxiety about, like, finding if we go out in public to watch this somewhere, finding a place that will be locked in enough to the game to make sure that the audio is on and everything, but also isn't an absolute zoo of humanity, so that it's uncomfortable for me.

[B]

As a humanity of sorts.

[A]

You would almost. You could almost call it a zoo. Manity. But, you know, like, I didn't want to in a place that's so crowded that it's uncomfortable, you know. And so I, I was really. I had literal stress dreams about it. I was trying to figure out, like, what am I going to do for the game on Saturday?

[B]

You're at the bar, but you have a puppy in a crate and I.

[A]

Have a puppy in a crate.

[B]

There's no seating.

[A]

And there. I can't use the toilet because there's some cat using the toilet and he's reading. He's reading Reader's Digest and won't get off the throne. So anyway, I as Saturday, I sort of. I woke up on Saturday after literally having stress dreams about this. And I just called Hauser. I'm like, listen, Hauser, I don't know what's going on. I think I'm gonna watch this at home. I've tested some streams. I can't remember if I had. If I had discovered my mistake. I think I discovered my mistake after talking to Hauser because I was like, listen, I just don't know what's gonna happen here. And I really want to be dialed into this game. You can come over. But just so you know, like, I still don't know what the situation is with my streaming, if it's going to work for me, if I'm going to be listening to the.

[B]

I'm having problems with my stream.

[A]

Having trouble, yeah, save that.

[B]

Talking to my doctor about, they say it's not blood pressure related.

[A]

And then I felt better, but I was kind of like, we might have to listen to the first part of it on the radio. And I think Hauser, being a very intuitive person, was like, listen, I think you need to go. Go on this journey alone tonight. Just like, watch it. I'll watch it at my place. Hauser took a bite of the Fubo apple, Luke. You'll be happy to hear he ended up, like, getting his own Fubo pack. At least temporary. And so I ended up just like with Genevieve. Yeah, Genevieve was here the whole time. I really stress watched Saturday's game. The fact that it went into extra innings was such a bummer to me. And then the eventual loss, I was like, this is such a terrible way to begin this series. When the game was over, I compartmentalized all those feelings almost immediately and just moved on and played a video game and listened to a podcast or whatever, whatever. And then I woke up in the middle of the night reliving the game. I. That. I don't think that's ever happened to me before. I just like, whatever. I was in a bad mood, but I just like. I didn't dwell on the game the rest of the night, but it snuck up on me. In the middle of the goddamn night. I woke up and I realized I was sort of having dreams about it. Then at some point I woke up and I just was fretting about it and thinking about Munoz and how we wasted him for six out. And I was just like. I was so. And I was like, man, this shit is getting to me. Me. And then on Sunday night, last night, I went to the Eagles to watch it and I was like, I think I need to be around people. And Hauser and I had plans to meet at the local Eagles. And I was like, this is going to be better because I'm going to be around people. His name is J Dog. I'm going to be around people. But I was also convinced we were going to lose on Sunday night's game. Not because of. Not even because of the X's and O's. Like you could actually say, like, oh, this matchup against this pitch pitcher is problematic. It was because I have so many bad memories of watching my team shit the bed at the Eagles. I thought that like by. I was like, I know we need to watch at the Eagles. This is the right place to be. But I also know that my heart is always broken at the Eagles. J Dog has a bit of a cold and that's what it sounds like when he. When he barks. So anyway, I did. I stress watched it at the Eagles, but it was the right move. There are other Mariners fans there. Hauser was there. Camaro. Kev ended up coming out because he was like. Like after several innings, he's like, I can't do this at home anymore. Like, anxiety was so high. But then when we ended up winning, it was just a really good experience. So so far, for two games, one was really dialed in at home, stress ironing pants at one point, literally in like the ninth inning or something. And then the other one was watching it with friends. And I'm really glad I did that. Even if we had lost. I'm glad I chose that and was very psyched to pull out the win yesterday. So how are you?

[B]

I wonder.

[A]

Scare you?

[B]

Well, I had a. Considering again how high the anxiety around it all was. And by the way, that's a really interesting question as to if. If this is something that is pleasant or not. It's weird. And I think there's something. There's something We'll. We'll talk about this in a minute, because I was thinking last night, there's something unique to baseball as a sport that is. It's a different level of anxiety watching it than watching an important football game or watching an important basketball game or what else you might be watching. Soccer match, I guess. But anyway, the Saturday night, I got to watch the game with my brother, dftb.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

And his wife and Gemma, my niece, who was dolled up in Mariners gear, which was honestly one of the cutest things I've ever said in my scene in my life. And it was sort of like. It was a really. Obviously, as you've already said, it was a stressful game. The Mariners lost in extra innings. David and I were. Were really bummed. But having them there was really good for me because it was the per. It was actually kind of like, as far as a game where the Mariners are going to not win, it was the perfect. It was a perfect situation for me because David and I were both 100% locked in. Alicia, who doesn't really care as much about the Mariners, was totally locked into. Like, she said, hey, if you want me to, like, make the dinner, if you want me to, like, whatever I need to do to facilitate you guys being able to really focus on this, she goes, I'm. I'm interested, but I'm not obsessed with this.

[A]

Love her.

[B]

And so it was just kind of like. It wasn't a thing where, like, we were getting judged for being so, like, into the game. We were just able to just really, really, really focus on it. But then we also had this adorable baby there who, like, every time I would get too stressed out about the game, I would just go play peekaboo with her. Or, like, you know, like, when. When the game was all said and done and we lost again, I felt really bad, but I didn't feel like David and I went to a dark place together. It was, like, time to. To get gemma in her PJs. They brought her back down. We read her a story. It was like a very emotionally healthy evening overall. Like, I could see how if I were you, and I'm at my. My place, and now it's kind of later on a. On a Saturday night, and it's like, you got all these feelings. It's kind of like, what am I doing? Where do I put these feelings right now? I had this big distraction that was my niece there and my brother and his wife, so that was good for me on Saturday night. It helped me kind of have some perspective and just kind of like not just, I don't know, sink into some kind of a super dark place on Saturday night. And I also.

[A]

Can I ask you a question about that?

[B]

Please?

[A]

I think it's maybe implied here, but just to put a fine point on, would have been very different if it was just you and David. Right? Because you guys kind of would have fed. Like, if Alicia and Gemma weren't there and it was just you two, you could have spun each other up much more holes, could have been punched into walls. No, I'm not trying to make it actually sound ugly like that, but I mean, I mean, you and David care about this team deeply. And we've all, you know, we've all vented on the text chain when the team drives us bananas and Dan Wilson drives us bananas, like there, there can be anger there. And maybe it was just helpful to have two human beings in the house who, like, you had to keep it together for them, which is a good thing.

[B]

Like, I couldn't yell super loud because the last thing I would want to do is scare Gemma.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

So, like, even when I was celebrating, there's actually this picture. I'll send you this picture. Picture from that night, which I think kind of typifies what the energy was, which was like, this is the moment that Julio hit the home run. This is so Saturday night's game. The Mariners went ahead one to nothing because Julio Rodriguez hit a home run. And I was like flipping out. But I also didn't want to scare the baby. So I just gave my brother this weird shocking from behind hug while he's holding the baby. So he's trying to not drop the baby, but I'm trying to hug him excitedly but not yell too loud. Loudly. There's a lot going on. I'll send you this picture.

[A]

Be careful. Yeah.

[B]

But yes, it definitely helped to have Alicia and Gemma there. I do think that if it would have been just me and David, I think I do have this. I have this weird. And it's got to be a self preservation technique. I have this weird thing where I guess maybe to try to keep the darkness away, I always go towards the best case scenario. I always go to the most positive case scenario that's possible. After this. What I think would happen is David and I would have been talking and talking and about talking, talking. I would have been pacing around like a maniac. And I would have been coming up with a theory where the Mariners could still do this. And it would have been like, if they beat Taral Tomorrow night, then they, we've taken their best shot and now they can't use Scubal again for two games. So we might actually be able to go back to Detroit and win the next two. Like, I, I think, I think, yes, it would have gotten darker if, if Alicia and Gemma were. That were not there, but I also don't think it would have gotten crazy dark because I have this weird, weird tendency towards, like, accentuating the positive until literally the very last pitch is thrown in, the game is over, and the series is over. I'm always going to be looking for some. And by the way, that's sometimes not the greatest. Like when Hillary was losing to the current president in 2016, and I kept saying, well, if she just gets Wisconsin, like, there are points where this becomes delusional for me. And anyway, so yes, that was Saturday night. Tough night. But then I knew that on Sunday, first of all, I needed to kind of be in my right mind on Sunday anyway because I was going down to the Portland Marathon to cheer on Becca, who was running the Portland Marathon and did exceptionally well, by the way.

[A]

Incredible.

[B]

Yeah, like, wow. Phenomenal. And she found out today that they made the marathon too long. Can you believe this shit?

[A]

What?

[B]

Everyone who ran the marathon, and she knows a ton of people in the running community, they're all running with these watches that are true tracking. No one had the marathon at coming in at 26.2 miles. Everyone had it coming in at a quarter mile long or maybe a half a mile long. So either every single tracking device that every single runner was wearing was off, or they got this a little wrong. And the reason that sucks is because people are trying to qualify for other marathons, like the Boston Marathon, New York City, this is a qualifying. And there were people that missed the qualifying by like a minute or two.

[A]

And I swear, I mean, listen, this is a world that I'm unfamiliar with. But couldn't this have huge repercussions in the running world?

[B]

I mean, yes and no. Yes, in that it's just unfair and uncool. It's not a marathon that, like, maybe the, the most elite runners in the world have circled on their calendar to come and run to get fame and fortune. That would be more like maybe the Chicago Marathon, certainly the New York City Marathon, the Boston Marathon. There are like the.

[A]

But the qualifying aspect of this, that's a real world thing.

[B]

If you missed. Yeah, if you missed. If you did not. Bq, as they say at this, at this. At the Portland Marathon. And I asked Becca, I was like, do they. Can they, like, can you file a challenge? And she's like, no, they just might apologize. I was like, so that was Sunday morning. It was a lovely day, though. She did great, as did her friend Kara, who she trained with. And anyway, it was really fun. And we went down there. The baby was there with a sign for Becca that Gemma came down. David and Alicia and Gemma. So it was a really. It was a really lovely little. It was also weird, Andrew just being in Portland, because after the marathon, we went back to Becca's place and then we went to get some lunch at this Mexican place by her house. And this is on the street where ice is. Andrew. I drove through, slash walked through the ice area. Guess what's going on there. Okay, I'm. I'm holding it together. There was absolutely nothing going on there. There's like 15 people sitting in lawn chairs. There's the media, and that's it. There's nothing going on there. There were no. There was the police, whatever. The troops were not battling the protesters. It was not overrun with antifa. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon where we went. Went and got a cactus salad at Cha Cha Cha and. And. And had a lovely little lunch and walk. And walked right by the place that the President of the United States is telling us is a war zone. We're in the war zone yesterday. And it couldn't have been more lovely.

[A]

They're trying to start a war. It's so.

[B]

And I'll credit to the people in Portland, they're not taking the bait, as far as I can tell. Like, there were people there. No, nobody's doing anything crazy. They're just hanging out, keeping eyes on it, but not, you know, whatever. So that was. It's just odd to forget. It's odd to be in Portland and to be literally at what we might call the tip of the spear. And to forget that it's the tip of the spear, to forget that it's the thing that is animating all of these decisions and all of this conversation, because you're just having some chips and guacamole on a Sunday. But anyway, so let's fast forward to Sunday night. I am now back here at my place, but I'm solo. So I have, you know, I've got basically the whole TV watching area to myself. And I have a. I have a different relationship with this game, which was, of course, no cute baby to look to, to calm me down, no emotional support baby. And so I would. What I, you know, what I found myself doing throughout the game Andrew was. Was. And this is kind of weird, but like, looking at TikTok as I think, like a stress coping mechanism, like, it was almost like, as you would say, I was kind of like watching the game sort of through my fingers of my hand. It was kind of like there were times where it built up to a point where I was like, I just kind of can't handle this. I need to. I need to look at something else that's not this. While this is also playing on a big tv.

[A]

Yeah, no, definitely. I mean, if you were to. Not for these games, but if you were to just put a spy cam in my basement, which, like, why, dude? Like, that's so gross.

[B]

It's such interesting stuff happening to even warrant that.

[A]

But you would see like, if it was like kind of a just a regular season game, you would see me sitting on the couch with the TV on with the game on the tv and me sort of like with my glasses off and holding my head and looking down at my phone for big chunks of games. And usually I'm looking at other people, people complaining about managerial decisions and other things going on in the game on blue sky. But also then you're just seeing other things about the world crumbling or whatever and you're just kind of scrolling and then like, it doesn't mean I'm not paying attention to the game. And you would think that I'm totally tuned out, but that's not the case. It's just kind of like sometimes you just need to take your eyes off it.

[B]

You cannot have all of your attention, all of the eggs that are your attention in the basket of this next high leverage pitch because it's too much. And this is the thing I was thinking about, and this gets to the question of is it actually fun to watch playoff baseball? And I guess I don't know the answer to that. It's certainly stressful because it's like if you're watching a football game, there are probably four plays in a game that are absolutely critical. They're a fourth and one play, they're a goal line stand, they're an interception. They're, by the way, when the interception is about to happen, you don't even know you're watching. The highest stress play of. Yeah, with baseball, every single batter that comes up, it is the highest stress moment until the next batter comes up. Because any batter could hit a home run. And if your team is trailing, you need every batter to get a hit or to get on or to somehow generate offense. And if you're the team that's leading, you need your pitcher to not allow the other team to do that. Every single moment, every single pitch holds with it the potential. Potential to completely shift the entire trajectory of this event. And there are. I should be able to do this math more quickly. There are what, 27. A minimum of 27 of those events for each team. As far as. I mean, I guess you combine them, you could do that math, too. 54 of these events like that would be if both. Both pitchers were pitching a perfect game. There's just too many times where a thing is happening that is the most high stress thing that you've ever thought of until the next thing comes up.

[A]

With the exception of blowouts, I will say that was one thing that really.

[B]

Surprised me, what I'm hoping the Mariners will start doing.

[A]

Right. Exactly.

[B]

For real.

[A]

Because there was actually something. And this is gonna sound so ungrateful. I don't mean it that way. I'm maybe grateful. The wrong word there, but like, the moment that the Seattle Mariners actually secured the division title was weirdly anticlimactic to me. And I've told you this. There was factors going on. I was at a bar where they didn't have the sound on. I was listening to a medium tempo Beck song, like I told you, like, it was just gonna. That was kind of part of it, but also it was a fait accompli because the Mariners were already well ahead in the game. It was. It wasn't all those moments. I. Can you remember what we beat Arizona by? Was it a 71 game or something like that when we end up clinching and the Astros were already well on their way to losing in a different part of the world. But it just like, oh, we saw that this thing was going to be locked up from a long way out. And so it wasn't like that pacing. But the last two games, the last two games we've watched, the first two games of this part of the postseason were not like that. They were so close up until the very, very end. To the degree that last night. I think I'm right, the very last hour by the Mariners to end the game was a quick little shovel pass to first base.

[B]

That from Naylor to.

[A]

Yeah. I'm trying to remember who our closer was. Oh, Munoz was out there. Yeah, yeah, to Munoz. And even that, like, I remember that moment because Naylor had kind of fumbled the ball earlier in a way that really, really took the game out of our hands. It was a terrible time for an error that really set us back and then to see it go to Naylor again.

[B]

Dude.

[A]

To see it go to Naylor again. And then little toss to. And whenever I see the pitcher running to first base, I'm always nervous about them pulling something. And I was just kind of like, this is either going to seal the game up or we could have very easily another little error that could absolutely almost not. Not end our postseason, but sort of definitely put a huge damper on any postseason dreams. And it was just like that moment alone, just the final out took. It took a year off of my life.

[B]

Yeah. I don't know about how I feel about the fact that the next two games for the Mariners are going to be in the middle of the day.

[A]

And potentially the next four games, depending on whether or not the Yankees win. Apparently we're going to have day games for. Even when they come back here to Seattle, because I guess it's just because. Is it an East Coast, west coast thing or is it just because Yankees get the favored primetime broadcasts?

[B]

I think it's a little of both. I think it's Major League Baseball trying to figure out what they think the marquee games will be. Also, the, the time difference matters because, you know, I guess. I guess, you know, if you were to put the Mariners on at night, that means, well, when are the Yankees going to be on? They can't be on later at night because I'd be really late back there. Again, why can't they alternate it? Like, it seems like it seems like you should have. You shouldn't have a. Potentially. Yeah, well, it'd be three more because there's only three more games left in this series. But basically, basically Tuesday, Wednesday and then possibly Friday might all be day games where we are. And that would be kind of a bummer because it's like people got to work. It's just a different energy. I don't know. It's sort of weird to me to think about this very important thing in my life as a sports fan unfolding at 1:08pm West Coast.

[A]

Because you're not. Because you're not a Yankee, basically. And that's kind of why.

[B]

Well, that's why. And I say this with peace and love to our colleague John Sklaroff and everybody else in Yankee Nation. But this is why we really need the Blue Jays to just wrap this up in three games. Because if the Yankees, Yankees are eliminated, then the Mariner game. Time shifts. Some of them, yes.

[A]

At least the Friday game, I think. Well, I think maybe Wednesday and Friday, the two. Yeah. If it Comes back to two home games would be. Both of those games would be affected by that.

[B]

Wait, how could we get two. We get two games.

[A]

Oh, I'm sorry. No, no, the last, the last. The fifth game here. Yeah, sorry about that.

[B]

But yeah, it's just. I mean, I don't know, Andrew. I don't know the answer to that question of, like, is this fun or not? Like, what would be. I think what would be fun would be if the team that we love, the Mariners, just went off in a game and just scored a bunch of runs and then just held the other team to not so many runs and then we could just like bask. Because what I will say about that game where we clinched the. The division, or, sorry, where we clinched getting into the playoffs, and if that game was not in doubt, that did not diminish my enjoyment of knowing that we were going to the postseason.

[A]

In other words, just so you know, I'm talking about the clinching of the division. This was a game after we'd known we were going to the playoffs. Just to make sure we talk about the same. It was like we already had clinched our playoff berth. But the actual clinching.

[B]

Oh, I see. You're talking about winning.

[A]

Winning the west, actually winning the west, which I just thought that was. I never during the season thought that was going to happen. I thought we'd sneak into the playoffs, but the fact that we were already in the playoffs and all the other circumstances that I described, this moment that I feel like I've been waiting for, for 15 years of winning those west fell a little bit short because that game was a blowout. That's what I was talking about, just to be clear about it.

[B]

Well, let me just say this. I didn't feel any less excited about us winning the west because it was. Because, because I wasn't chewing my fingernails, which, by the way, are in rough shape right now. Here's what I'm trying to say. Like, there is, of course, there's something magical about your team winning it in the bottom of the ninth inning. Like, there's something that's incredible about like a hard fought close game where something improbable happens and your team ends up on the upside of it that is like, you know, that's a drug that is very quick acting in the body and is a very intense experience. But I don't need to be shooting that drug up game in and game out. I will be just. I will be happy enough to have a Michelob Ultra, you know, which is the Mariners lead early and they maintain the lead throughout the game. Game. And then they win the game. That's like having a MC Ultra. That's a lower level of alcohol. That's not. Maybe as you're not flying as high, but you're also not falling as low when things are going wrong. Like when last night when through. It just feels like the quirkiest of circumstances. One of the things. And this is going to get into X's and O's a little bit. And this is why I actually, I feel generally positive about the Mariner's chances of beating Detroit. I mean, with the exception of the two run home run that Detroit hit on Saturday, it seems like everything that's gone right for them has been the quirkiest stuff you could ever do. It's like a weird Q ball hit down the first baseline because the guy was fooled on the pitch. That's what brought from Torkelson. That's what brought in two runs last night. Like, you know, a nailer error, which I don't think we'll see that again in the postseason. Like, I feel like the Mariners have been barreling the ball up pretty well and have, you know, been hitting the ball pretty hard. Hard. That first game, David and I were talking about it. Did you feel, Andrew, like the Saturday night game, the Mariners had more balls that when they were hit off the bat, you thought were a home run, only to be caught like in the outfield. Like, I was like, I don't know if it's the angle of these cameras or what, but there was like five times I was like, oh, he got all of that. Including Naylor. Naylor had a hit that he just watched. You know, that guy's not going to watch the ball if he doesn't think it's going out.

[A]

That one sounded. It was funny because right before that Nailer out, Julio hit his home run. Yeah, right. His first home run, I think. And. And the funny thing is was I thought that Julio's was gonna get caught at the warning track.

[B]

Totally.

[A]

And I thought Naylor's was going out. There's something about the sound of that. And I don't know. But I. Here's what I do think. I don't know if other people are saying this, so I. If it is an original thought, then I worry that maybe it's an ignorant thought. But I love that.

[B]

Like you don't want to be repeating someone else, but you're also. Don't trust your own.

[A]

Yeah, I know. I'm hoping that I'm maybe quoting somebody Else. Otherwise, I'm gonna sound like an idiot. I don't know. But, like, we are not used to playing games at home this late into the calendar year. And I think that the dynamics of the weather, as cliche as that is to sound, we start off our seasons here at this ballpark, and it's really hard to get the ball out of the park with the marine layer. But then as the summer kind of, you know, warms up and the weather dries up a little bit, the ball will travel better. Where here we are. Like, you can go outside. You can feel the difference in the air right now. And I think it's having an impact on these games.

[B]

Sure. I mean, the good news is it theoretically affects both teams.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

But I just feel like it's, you know, I feel like the Mariners have not quite hit their stride yet, and I feel like Detroit has been the beneficiary of some fluky, quirky plays. And what I'm hoping is that the Mariners, you know, the. We sort of settle into to, you know, having the firepower that we've demonstrated throughout the season, and that our pitching, I mean, our pitching has been pretty good. That's the thing. Like, I don't really. Other than a slip up by Vargas on Saturday, and I guess you could say a sort of a slip up by Brash last night. Although, again, it was just, you got to not walk people. That's the thing. I would. I would like the Mariners pitchers, I would like Matt Brash and Munoz to not walk the leadoff bat. I don't care what you have to do. Like when the. So, like, let's talk about last night's eighth inning. The Mariners are leading by two. I feel like this should be the approach from our pitchers. When the inning is starting and the Mariners are leading by two, here's what you do. You make them hit back to back solo home runs. You say, I dare you to hit back to back solo home runs. In other words, you pitch the ball so that it is a strike, even if that increases the chances of them making solid contact. Because I think it's a worse outcome when you're nibbling at the corners and you're missing, and then you walk guys and you put them on base. I feel like the Mariners relievers, unfortunately have gotten into this habit of walking guys because they don't want to throw a ball down the middle and give up a hit. But if you walk a guy and then Naylor has an error, now all of a sudden you're in worse shape. Than if you would have just pitched the guy strikes and run the risk of him turning on one. Because now you're. Now it's two to one. Let's say you pitch it. It's a little bit too on the plate. Guy hits a home run. That sucks. But it's 2 to 1. What is statistically improbable is they're. The next guy's going to also hit a solo home run. I feel like that's less probable than walking a guy. And then an error here. And now a base hit scores two runs. It's like, also, where was our right fielder playing on that Torkelson hit? And who is our right fielder? Is that Roble? Yeah, but I mean, must have been in Tukwila.

[A]

Well, I mean, he must have been playing. But that hit that, that thing curved out of. I mean, it hit fair. I mean that, that, that was a hell of a hit.

[B]

I mean, that ball was just out over there on the ground for an eternity.

[A]

Yeah. You're saying that it sat there for too long. Yeah, maybe. I mean, Cal's kind of hit, you know, late in the, in the next. In the next inning kind of goes the opposite field. That sort of does the same thing. Sort of. You know what that felt like were amazing.

[B]

Incredible. And let's talk about the positive. Our best players playing like our best players in the playoffs is phenomenal.

[A]

I mean, look at this. You and I never thought we'd see the day that Julio is clutch. Not saying that Julio is big, but Julio's runs and theatrics don't usually come during clutch situations. Until this series, man.

[B]

Not historically, but those two guys have absolutely done everything they can to win these games. They've both been hitting lights out. And you know what that reminded me of the thing that happened last night in the eighth inning when the Mariners, now they'd let them tie the game. And there was this sinking feeling we were all having, like, are we cursed? Will. Will we Seattle sports fans ever be able to. To just have something good happen to our team? Can we ever be the team that actually does the improbable and actually gets to the World Series? That was just like felt everything just felt bad and horrible and sad. And then you have, you know, Cal Raleigh come up and just like rope a no doubt double. And then Julio Rodriguez come up and do the exact same thing. And that felt exactly like the play against the Yankees in 95 when Edgar Martinez brought home Ken Griffey Jr. And I think Vince Cole Coleman to beat the Yankees in that series and it was a double down the exact, to the exact same part of the field. Granted, it was the kingdome. But like how beautiful and no doubt like how sweet the swing was and how like it was exactly like if you want to drop the platonic ideal of a double from a right handed hitter, that's exactly what it looks like. And now we just had those back to back.

[A]

How weird was it for you to see Joey Cora there though?

[B]

I mean also like you want to.

[A]

Talk about like freaking out as he flash. Yeah. As he's telling his runners to, to, to, you know, go ahead past third run home to tie the game and like what looked like, you know, in that moment just seemed like it could feel like a death knell to those of us who were who. I don't you know who was and who's on the sideline. But former. Because wasn't Joey Cora part of that 95, not just that team, but wasn't he part of that play as well? Was he on the base pads or am I misremembering?

[B]

I think he runs out and is part of the mob.

[A]

Oh, okay. He wasn't part of the play.

[B]

I think it was Vince Coleman and Ken Griffey Jr. Were the people on base. And Edgar Martinez, who's now our hitting coach, like hitting like, I guess he's our assistant hitting coach or whatever, hitting the. A beautiful perfect double, like just barreled up. But I do, I think I remember Joey Core like just running out from the dugout to be part of the mob. But like, yes, there are so many people that were on the field last night who were involved in one way or another in that moment in Mariner history. But it was very, it was incredibly encouraging to me to see because that's something else that I can't remember remember happening as a Seattle Mariner sports fan certainly in the last 25 years is our best players playing their like, their best selves when we need them to the absolute most. And this is the other thing that I've been saying about the Mariners in the playoffs in general is that. And what, what gives me hope is that we have now enough good players that even, let's just say that Cal and Julio were not having a particularly hot or like Naylor has not been very hot good from the plate so far this series. And certainly Eugenio Suarez has been absolute dog. But you know what? We also have a guy named Rango. Like, we have enough people who are good that it doesn't have to always be Cal Raleigh or Julio Rodriguez or Ayoheniosaurus. It could be Jorge Polanco. Like it was last night. Like that's what gives me hope. It's not that our top line guys are good, although it's super awesome that they're playing well. It's that you go down the line of and you're like, maybe this is the night that Julio, or excuse me, Jorge Polanco hits two home runs. Like off of Tarek Scuba. Like we just.

[A]

You.

[B]

It's hard to solve for the whole Mariners lineup because we have enough guys that have some pop.

[A]

Exactly. That you don't get. You don't get to get to that part of the lineup and just say, well now we can take it easily.

[B]

Autopilot.

[A]

There's always, there's always somebody there even at the very bottom of the order. Like I know Canzone didn't do anything on Saturday, but like he's still a threat and he didn't play yesterday. But like I still think that if he's the worst person on your lineup, that's a good. Worst person to have in your lineup.

[B]

Yeah. Good teams have a batting order where you're pretty. You're kind of nervous about. And like J.P. crawford's hitting ninth. I know I'm not. I don't like throwing to J.P. crawford if I'm the other team. Just whatever his average is. Like every single, just about every Mariner hitter has the potential to change the game with a home run or a well timed base hit. And I think that just puts a lot of stress on the other team's staff. The other thing is, and now we're just playing fully. Now we're just talking baseball. I think it's, I almost think winning.

[A]

Last night you covered. That's what had to say. The doggies got you covered, but in.

[B]

The most Todd Berry way. Hey, you guys, you guys, listen to Chris Mad Dog Russo. Yeah. You know the dog has got you covered. That's my Todd Berry.

[A]

Very good.

[B]

Talking about Chris Mad Dog Russo bit that I love to do in the comedy clubs of America. But like I almost feel like winning last night was somehow more important than winning the first game. And this is the story that I tell myself to make up for the fact that the first game was really gutting. It's that we beat the arguably the best pitcher in the American League, Tarek Scubal. And now they cannot bring him back out until probably the fifth game. I just think it would be too. He's. He was already on like a short rest for this Game, he would be on double short rest if they tried to bring him out. Right? Isn't that the.

[A]

Isn't that the theory? Almost 100 pitches. I couldn't believe how long they left him out there. I mean, to his credit, I guess. Yeah, but what did the final count end up being? 97 or something? I think I saw 95, so. And I don't think it was 100. So somewhere between those two numbers, that was incredible. But that is a long damn outing. So, you know, to bring him back for, you know, if there's a game five, he will be back out there for at least part of game five, I would. I would guess. But, man, he. He burned up a lot of pitches.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. They basically sent it out their most guaranteed W they could, and it didn't work. And now they've got to send out another. A couple of other folks who are not going to be as good as Tarek Skubal. I also think this is where, like, I was very nervous about the question of if having a bunch of time off was good or bad for the Mariners.

[A]

Me, too.

[B]

Like, you know, because there's that kind of feeling of like, well, when you're hot and you're in the groove, stay in the groove, keep playing. But of course, that wears you down, down, and that does tire your bullpen out and your arms and everybody. And poor Cal Raleigh's back there, you know, just like, catching games and hitting balls and taking all this physical beating. I think the next two to three games will actually be where that time off really serves the Mariners. Like, I just think that there's going to be these little intangible moments where a little more rest for our bullpen, a little more rest for our starters, a little more rest for Cal Raleigh. I mean, we're probably already seeing that in the first two games from California. I just think that's actually, we're back in the groove now, right? We're. Now we, you know, we're. We're. We're. The, The Mariners are back to playing baseball almost every day. They're. They're in the groove and their bodies are a little less worn out. And I think that is going to help us, you know, come like the seventh inning of Tuesday's game when we're just feasting on their bullpen in a way that maybe they're not feasting on our guys.

[A]

So, you know, I feel.

[B]

I feel encouraged.

[A]

One thing we didn't talk about, and it's a privilege to not have to talk about it after Sunday's game and knowing that we're back in this. I think what I was worried about was sort of the feeling of being cursed, the feeling of getting swept here, especially after the first game. Because the thing about that first game, the reason that we lost essentially was because of that two run homer by Carpenter, Carrie Carpenter, I think, and I know complaining about umpires is just like such loser talk and I don't love it. But like he was out. Like it was. It wasn't a borderline pitch, like he was struck out. It was a terrible call by the ump to call that strike a ball. And then what happens in the very next pitch? Nightmare scenario. Two run, home run. And I am mad at the ump for those two runs. I just don't think they exist if he was doing his job. And the fact that they're never accountable. Ball players lose a game, they have to be dragged out in front of the press and, and have to somehow articulate their feelings and some of the lowest lows of their life. These umps who can have huge impacts on the game never have to account for anything. But also, there was talk in the thread about how, what is Dan Wilson doing here? And I was kind of like, yeah, I don't know. I was vaguely thinking that we should have pulled Kirby before then. But then, did you read that piece by Adam Jude on Sunday Morning that was basically like, it wasn't. Yeah, the language is very measured, but it was basically saying he should not have been facing Carpenter a third time. Look at the history of these two. It's playoff baseball. That was a mismanagement thing. And I'm just like, people keep on telling people. Genevieve keeps teasing me and just saying how wrong I was about Dan Wilson because all she heard this season was me complaining about him. And I keep saying, we're here.

[B]

You're complaining about Dan Wilson with no mustache. This is a different guy.

[A]

And I keep saying, we're here despite him. Like, I can tell you, I can almost point to five games that he lost. Not that the players lost, that he lost. And I would say that this decision that like, again, this is Adam Jude. This isn't your. This isn't your Matt Culkin. Sorry that you had to catch a stray here. Whatever. Like, this is a very reasoned, reasonable guy saying, like, why was he. Why was our pitcher still out there? Why was George Kirby still out there facing him a third time? That's not how you manage this playoff game. And it led to two run.

[B]

Well, in the way that you know that that was probably a mistake is that we literally got to run an almost exact analog side by side on Sunday. And they did the exact opposite and it totally worked out. The same guy comes up in the same kind of high pressure situation and he goes out and he grabs Castillo and he brings inspire and he gets.

[A]

Him out because Castillo had just given up his ry. Castillo had a no hitter going. He gives up one hit and he's out. And that's the way it should work. And he.

[B]

That's playoff baseball.

[A]

That's what you do. Yeah.

[B]

And that's.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Clearly I wasn't tracking that because I was too busy playing peekaboo with Gemma on Saturday night. I didn't. Like, I wasn't watching the Kirby thing v. Carpenter and going like, oh my God, this is a mistake. Like, I was kind of not that locked into the.

[A]

Me too. I want to be clear about that. I wasn't familiar with like the history of those two in that matchup in particular, but I just had this vague sense of like, why is he still out here after, like starting to scuffle a bit?

[B]

I mean, I also. And maybe this will bring back, at least modestly, maybe this will bring some more interesting conversation back to people that don't care about the actual sports of this, but more about the weird sort of tangential stuff. I hate the fact that I have to listen to the quote unquote national announcers if I want to watch the game on TV so bad. I'm considering it's such a production and I'm considering just trying to like listen to the baseball broadcast while letting the TV feed go.

[A]

If you can get those synced up. Great. I actually saw a lot of people saying this on social media today.

[B]

It's so rough. Now listen, you and I are both men of science, Andrew. That's one of the things people know us for.

[A]

We're fact based.

[B]

Exactly. And we, you know, we believe. We don't believe in a lot of woo woo stuff except jinxes. And I swear to God, that first game, those announcers could not have been jinxing it harder. Every single. Like they were like, you know, I can't give you the exact example. Before Carpenter hit that home run, they said something that was incredibly jinxy that I heard them say. And I was like, please don't let that haunt me. Of course.

[A]

Boom.

[B]

Two run home run. Last night they flashed this statistic that said the Tigers had a only 20% chance of tying the game based on. We're going into the eighth inning, they're down by two. The Tigers only have a 20% chance of tying this game. And I thought, well, that just tied it for.

[A]

Yeah, I know.

[B]

What do they do? They get two runs. I know that that's not, Listen, I know that in reality it's not a jinx, but I can tell you, tell you this. Aaron Goldsmith is much more aware of not jinxing the Mariners then Tom Verducci and Adam Wainwright and AJ Persinski and, you know, whoever else they've got in that booth. Like it was, you know, those guys don't care. They're just talking, they're just yapping. They're just chopping it up. And it feels like they somehow are always chopping it up in a way that's adding to my stress levels where I know that Aaron Goldsmith is going to be delicate if you know about something, you know, to not jinx it. For me, he's, you know, I just trust them so much more.

[A]

Weird. Have you ever heard him, he goes on these things like, they're a little sensitive about that. Him and Gary Hill Jr. Will talk about like, we're not jinxing the game. Like, they get a little bit irritated. And actually that's fine.

[B]

If they say we're not jinxing the game, that unjinxes it.

[A]

But they're at least like kind of saying like, but they get a little sensitive about that because they get so much shit from fans if they're accused of like saying something and then that thing coming true. True. Or the opposite happening or, you know, the whole like, I, I, they've actually they talk about that a lot, about how like, it's like we do not have power over the game, but it's on their mind. And like you said, I think that they're somewhat delicate about it. Even if they do think it's B.S.

[B]

I appreciate that it's on their mind. And I also think if they say, Andrew, this is science. This is the exact kind of rigorous, peer tested science that I'm talking about. If they say we're not jinxing it before they say something, it undo jinxes it. Obviously, yes. The acknowledgement that it could be a jinx is what unjinxes it. So if you say, I think I know this sounds like a jinx.

[A]

The reason I paused those, I think they sometimes will say it as clean.

[B]

Up after they, oh, no, no, no, no. That's bad.

[A]

Yeah, that's why I was kind of like, that's terrible. I didn't know that long pause was like, do I need to like, tell you how this usually goes, oh, you sure do.

[B]

That's a completely different situation. And that's. That is dereliction of.

[A]

Now, they would never mention a no hitter. They would never specifically say a perfect game. They would never use those words. They would just say, you know, so many up, so many down. They would say, you know, doing a hell, you know, they. They would like say things to encourage you to look at the box score. The time I did it at the pub at Piper's Creek where there was some guy. I can't remember who our pitcher was, but he was pitching, I believe not. Just I can't remember if it was a no hitter or potentially could. Might have even been perfect up to that point. And Genevieve and I were both very clocked in on it. And we're sit at a table watching on a kind of a big screen. There was only one other guy who came in by himself to watch the game. And he's sitting at a table next to us. And I just kept saying, yeah, look at the box score, look at the box score. Then he's like, yeah, yeah, man, good game. And I could just tell he wasn't getting. I'm just like, yeah, man, just like, really check it out. And he's like, yeah. And it was fine. He didn't need to. He wasn't jinxing. But I was trying to let him in on it, but he was. And then at some point, you know, it ended right. They did not complete the game. And I was like, well, there goes the no hitter or whatever. He's like, oh, it was a no hitter. I'm like, dude, I kept telling you to check the box.

[B]

I love the idea of you, like, getting a coaster and writing no hitter down and sliding it down the bar to him and pointing at it and h. Beauty.

[A]

But I will say, yesterday, here's how I kind of won the game for us yesterday, which was. I was sitting at the. I was sitting at the Eagles. We were kind of. I was there with a crew. Most of them were sitting at another table. The ones who were more casually interested in the game were at this one table. And then I was like at this kind of high top that was right in front of the screen that was below a speaker. I couldn't hear much of the baseball analysis, but at least hearing the sound of the game was better than having the jukebox on or something, if that makes sense. Like, it was okay that I didn't hear exactly what the doofuses were saying, but I wanted the sound of the game. So I'm sitting right underneath the speaker watching the game intently. And then like, and then, you know, people can end up sitting around this area with me too. But we were like very locked in in the game. And then I got up to use the restroom and as I was coming out of the restroom and I didn't tie it right, and I was like, I don't want to miss the game, but I don't know exactly what happened. But I didn't do it during a commercial break. I was only in there for a moment. But I came out of the bathroom right as I'm seeing Cal Raleigh round first and get to second for that double. Yes, exactly. And so I'm like, oh, good things happen when I'm not sitting in that stool. So then I, then I think I came back over, but I did not sit back in my chair. Instead I kind of moved back behind my chair a little way. And there's this dog called Finney, a 17 year old Westie who I met yesterday named Finn, not Finny. And their pitcher's name at the time was Finnegan, I think.

[B]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[A]

And I remember I was petting this dog named Finn, saying like, we got this Finn and the pitcher's name is Finnegan, but I'm kind of like standing. And then that's when Julio gets. Was that a single or a double? His RBI double. That was an RBI double that, that runs. That runs the winning run in. And I was like, well, now I can't go back. In fact, there was some guy who was sitting nearby and he said to Genevieve, your boyfriend has to stay in the bathroom the rest of the game. Because he didn't know that I had come back out. I'm like, I'm over here, but I'm over here now. And I would not like leave. I wouldn't. It was me and Finn and the person who was with Finn, I didn't catch her name. That's less important than the dog's name. We're just like over. Like I could not move this area until the game was over. And so that's how I won the game for cs.

[B]

Honestly, you played that exactly right. And I support every single thing you've just said. And in fact, if I like again, this is why it's kind of like a bummer for them to be day games, all of them, because I feel like if I'm watching the game on Tuesday or Wednesday and something good starts happening and let's just say that I'm standing in my case kitchen, I'm staying In my kitchen, because that is clearly impacting the game. But standing in my kitchen, standing in my kitchen, pacing at 3:15 on a Wednesday, so much less fun than standing in my kitchen pacing at 8:15pm on that same Wednesday. Like, I don't know when it's dark outside and fall baseball is on and maybe a beer or two has been consumed. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's just this day game thing is just kind of a. It feels less fun and celebratory to me.

[A]

You know, it's interesting. We should actually talk about what our plans are for these games because first of all, Wednesday we might have a TBTB meeting right in the middle of the game that we might need to think about moving. But also like, I don't know, man, tomorrow's game we know is at one, it's not going to be moved at all. So we have that locked in. I record after these messages with Genevieve on Tuesdays, but we don't usually get rolling until 5 o' clock at the very earliest. Right. Sometime between 5 and 6:30 is when we start recording. But like I already want to see if we can pre tape like tonight or something because I win or lose. And this isn't even about like day drinking either. Like I know you could assume that, like maybe I want to go to a bar to watch it. It's not even that, like, I just don't know what mood I'm going to be. I just, I don't, I just don't want to watch a three hour baseball game in the middle of a day and know I have another podcast to record afterwards, which is insanely lazy. I mean, sports podcasts do that literally all the time. But like, I just don't want to like get done with that game and be like, okay, let's talk about commercials. I just want to be done with my day by the time that starts. Unfortunately it starts at 1 o', clock, so I guess I got to be productive before that.

[B]

Right. Because even if they win, you want to just be basking in that.

[A]

Yeah. Go for a walk afterwards, blow off some steam. Like either way I could see, as long as it's not raining, going for a nice long walk after the game, listening to post game if we win, listening, listening to Nick Drake if we lose, Like, I don't know.

[B]

Well, be careful with that.

[A]

Whatever. Yeah, but anyway, so I don't know, like I'm just. What I have feeling that you don't have that luxury. Even if I can get after these messages prerecorded you probably have like some sort of like livewire shit or something to do on Tuesday afternoon.

[B]

No, but I have a different problem. Which is. Well, one is I have a TV shoot on Wednesday in the afternoon that I have to go to. So that's.

[A]

Oh, you'll definitely, definitely miss it if it's a day game on Wednesday.

[B]

Unless. Unless the Yankees lose. And then it'll be 4pm and then I'll actually be able to watch it. But here's the, here's the larger problem for me, not problem, but just kind of like factor in all this, is that my dad is here working this week. In fact, even right now, I'm watching Walt unload his truck and who is my daddy and what does he do? And I love my dad so much and I enjoy so many activities with him. Watching sports with him stresses me out because he does not care about the sports. He cares a little bit. He would like the Mariners to win. He would like the Seahawks to win. But his. He has no emotional investment in it. And so what he'll usually do is he'll just be working or doing something else and he'll come and go, oh, how's it going? And then I'll say, ah, they're winning. He'll go, oh, cool. Or I'll say, they're losing. He goes. He'll go, ah. Huh. But it's like there's something about me needing. Here's what worries me. When there's an emotionally. When there's emotion, when there's a moment that has emotionally destroyed me, I have a really hard time relating to someone who is not emotionally destroyed by it. That's why watching the game with David on Saturday was perfect. Because if I was emotionally destroyed, he would be too. We would be in the same pit of despair. And like, it's really hard for me to be in the pit of despair when the, when somebody else is kind of just living their life and they're being nice and being thoughtful. My dad, my dad is smart enough. He would never say something like, you know, well, who cares? It's just whatever. It's just grown men, you know, chasing a ball. Like, my dad's not wired like that, thankfully. Like, he's not one of those people that's, you know, that's a non starter. And I could think of some people. I won't name them, but I can think of some folks that. That is their energy.

[A]

Or people will just be like, well, the Mariners always lose. I don't know why you're time that.

[B]

Oh, my God.

[A]

I still. I won't say her name because she used to be on the radio, although I don't think most of our listeners would know her. But I just remember being at a party in my Wallingford house. I'm talking. No, no. Yeah. Maybe it was Wallingford. Either way, this is. I'm talking about. I hold a grudge against somebody more than 10 years ago. Walked like Genevieve was having a summer party or whatever, and me and Ders and somebody else were watching a Mariners game. This is mid season. This isn't, like, important baseball at all. And this person just coming in, by.

[B]

The way, I had to block.

[A]

I wanted to get into that in a second. I had on the list. I. I wanted. I had a question about how long he was unblocked before he was blocked again, because it couldn't have lasted long. But I remember somebody just coming in and being like, the Mariners, what's the point? They always lose. And I was just like, get out of my living room right now.

[B]

I didn't say to them.

[A]

I didn't say them to that. And it's somebody I generally like, but I just, like. I hate that. So, like, just. Oh. And actually, it happened at a barbecue a couple. A couple of years ago. I was watching the Mariners game with our friend Liz, who we just thanked as a donor recently, by the way. And, like, we're watching it outside of the barbecue on my phone, and my friend's neighbor just comes over like, ugh, baseball. What's the point? And just, like, walks away. And I'm just like, what is the point of you? And have you ever been punched in the throat?

[B]

And might this be the first time for that for you? You know, I just. I don't like that energy. I don't like this. Like, you don't have to like it, but just that happens to me. Where were we? Oh, well, this is kind of similar, but related, but not related, which was. Becca and I were in the St. Paul Hotel. I told you, we were having some lunch there. And the Husky game, the Huskies were playing Ohio State, and I managed to get the bar to put it on the TV in there. And then I was watching the game, and this guy kind of comes over and he goes, what are you watching? And I said, oh, the Huskies are playing Ohio State. And he goes, oh, yeah, I'm a USC guy. And then I said, oh, okay. So, you know, we all used to be in the PAC 12 together or something. And then it was like, I forget exactly what his opening line was basically he was, like, throwing out some sports stuff, but then it became super clear super fast that he both didn't care about sports, kind of thought sports were dumb, but he had started the conversation, and then I wanted to have a conversation about the, like, fact that it's weird now that the Huskies are not part of the PAC 12 or PAC 10 or whatever, that we now play in the. Whatever league we are. We have a whole new set of teams that are our rivals. Like, basically what happened was this guy started a sports conversation that he did not want to be a part of and had no. Had no. Was like us in Iraq. There was no exit strategy.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And that happens to me a lot because people say a lot of. About sports that they can't back up with knowledge or honestly, even caring people say sports stuff because it's what you say in passing, in polite conversation, like, you know, God, the Mariners, whatever, you know, or the Seahawks always find a way, you know, like, the people just say something that I think what they're doing is making small talk, but what they don't realize they're doing is they're activating a part of my brain that has, in fact, a lot of thoughts. And I want to, like, I want to start now having this dialogue, and they realize very quickly, oh, I've entered into a situation with a madman. You know, that's what seems to happen to me.

[A]

Once again. You're telling people that you're not insane.

[B]

Yes. I almost told this guy I'm not insane. But anyway, I. Yeah, I don't like. I don't like that kind of energy, and I'm very thankful. That's not my dad's energy at all. My dad is a sweet, sweet man who would very much like these teams to win. He just. It just doesn't ruin his day.

[A]

But it's interesting, and it's.

[B]

The fact that his day is not ruined ruins my day.

[A]

You know what's interesting? And I, in all seriousness and earnestness here, I want to be a little bit careful because I know all of the people involved here, and I don't want to, say, set them against each other in a kind of comparison way, but, like, it was interesting, the dynamic on Saturday. You did have. Let's. With all due respect to Gemma, let's. Let's not count Gemma as somebody who's, like, sort of, like, balancing the pros and cons of watching baseball on a Saturday night at all. Right. But you have. You and David who are, like, super locked in, like, super, super locked in and then you have Alicia. And Alicia's kind of like your dad in that situation, I'm assuming. I don't know, am I wrong about that? But she. Does she feel more passionately about the game than your dad does?

[B]

I think she's probably like an empath. And what she senses is that her husband and the father of her child and then her brother in law, it's so important to us that it is important to her. So that I could never have seen a world and it didn't happen. I mean, that was a gutting loss. And at no time did Alicia make anything close to a false step. In my mind as far as, like, again, I recognize that what I'm saying is insane right now. I am being insane. I want to be clear. I know when I'm being insane and when I'm not being insane. And I know that right now I'm being insane insane. Which is that like when I watch one of these games, everyone in my life has to be on friggin eggshells so that nothing. It's like I could see a world in which something terrible has happened for the Mariners. My dad walks in, he's covered in dust, he's been like working on something and he goes, what's going on? I go, oh, we just gave up a, you know, two run home run in the bottom of the whatever. And then he goes like, ah, bummer. And he walks out. And for some reason that triggers me because I'm looking for something to connect my feelings with. None of that for Malicia. She was somehow maybe like again, not a person who spent the whole spring and summer obsessing over the Mariners, but understands, understood exactly what the energy should be so that nothing was made worse in that moment of Saturday night and that bummer loss.

[A]

Do you know that? So putting aside, putting aside the whole thing about people having to act a certain way.

[B]

I know. Which is. Yeah.

[A]

Which is like, I don't even want to defend that. But also I understand it to a degree as well. Whatever. But so just putting that, putting that sort of ugliness aside, I will say that the biggest. I think the best human trait one can have, or one of the best human traits is exactly what you just described with Alicia, which is reading a room and whether that room is a text thread, whether that room is a room or whatever. Like, I just love people. I mean, you know, Genevieve will also talk very much about the type of people who you just meet and they, you can talk to them for an hour and they never ask you one question about themselves. I know that's a huge thing for. For her, which makes a lot of sense to me. But just generally speaking, I think the people that I really have a lot of respect for, because, well, I guess I. As much as I like to make fun of myself, I think I'm actually pretty decent at reading a room, whether or not I can. Maybe I can't write a room, but I can read a room. You know what I mean? And I do think that. And it just means so much when somebody kind of can kind of kind of come in and just sort of like, oh, yeah, like, oh, this is the vibe right now. I can. I can run with that, because I. I don't. There's a word for this that I'm not. That's not coming to mind. But just.

[B]

I think situational awareness.

[A]

Awareness is just, like, really, really. I just think important. And. And so, you know, props to Alicia, I think.

[B]

Well, if you're wondering when I had to remove someone from my vision of our text chase because of what to me is. It's odd because, of course, our buddy Ders, we talk about a lot in absentia here, he probably. I would say, probably knows more about the Mariners and Seahawks than maybe anybody else on the text team.

[A]

He's smart. Yeah.

[B]

There's absolutely zero question about his level of intelligence. And his. The information he has about these games and these teams, it exceeds mine by a long shot. But I did have to. During the Seahawk game was actually when I had to block him because. Because. So, like I said, Becca and I were in a war zone. We were surviving antifa hellscape called Portland South Waterfront. While we were sitting eating chips and guacamole on a sunny day, having cactus salad.

[A]

Like a.

[B]

And a cactus salad. Nopales. Oh, I love that. By the way, have you ever had a cactus salad?

[A]

No.

[B]

It's so good. They take the cactus paddle. It's. It's very pickled, actually. And they, you know, they. They. They. They dice it up, and they. I don't know what the. How they exist exactly. Cook it, but it was so, so good at. This place would recommend cha cha cha, but because of that, I wasn't watching the Seahawk game. So then when I was starting to head home, that was when I engaged with the game, which it was basically kind of like maybe the beginning of the third quarter. So the Seahawks were actually losing to Tampa when I turned it on. But then they scored a touchdown, and then Tampa scored, and then they scored, and Seahawks were really Were really doing. Were playing well. And then I can't remember. Remember. I don't think we had even lost the game. I don't think even this, like, there was an interception. I don't know how much you watch it. You're probably at your pop up.

[A]

But, like, I know I didn't watch any of it. I listened to the first half on the radio and then like, people were following it at pop up. So I was here. I was getting constant reports.

[B]

Yeah, it was a real back and forth game and we had a bummer ending to it. We got this interception, but before that even happened. The nature of a back and forth game is like, there are the high points and the low points and we can kept like, you know, we were scoring a lot of points, the Seahawks were, but they were also giving up a lot of points to Tampa. And so, like, I get. I hadn't even looked at my phone because I'd been hanging out with Becca. And I look at my phone and I just see from Ders, like, like four, just absolutely the most negative stuff you could ever see about the Seahawks and then saying, this is going to shape up to be the worst sports weekend in Seattle history.

[A]

Yeah, this is for the big game, the big Mariners.

[B]

And before the Mariners had played and before the Seahawks had lost. It wasn't the mo. It wasn't the moment after which we had thrown the interception. And then given, like, it was before the Seahawk game was over. I think the Seahawks were maybe, maybe down 35, 28 or something. Or maybe they were up. Maybe it was like. It was like the seesaw was seesawing. And that's the thing that's hard for me is like seesaws. That's what they do. They see, saw. And when they're doing that, you. So anyway, I was like, I looked at my phone and I just saw, like. I just saw like three just like super duper, duper negative texts in a row, including the third one being like, this is going to be the worst sports weekend in Seattle history. And I was just like, yeah, I gotta. I gotta. I gotta.

[A]

I gotta.

[B]

I gotta jump off that train. Because it might be. And by the way, that text lived in my head for the rest of the day until the Mariners won. I was like, I really hope that text isn't true, But I didn't like that. I had to live with it. I didn't like that. I had to kind of like, shadow box with it as a. As a possible outcome. So that was. Yeah, we're back on block status.

[A]

Yeah, it was so funny because you had made a big deal about unblocking him. You made a video on your phone of unblocking Ders in a moment of celebration, maybe when we locked up the playoffs or something. And Ders was like, oh, yay. And then.

[B]

And he was so funny about it. That's what's so weird about this, is he does not seem to actually take it badly that I.

[A]

No, he doesn't. He's got a good sense of humor about it. And. And then a certain amount of time goes by. I'm guessing a week or so, because then I think it was on Saturday afternoon, he posted something about Naylor potentially missing the entire series because of paternity leave. And then I reacted to that. I'm like, yeah, this Naylor stuff is a bummer. And you said, why? What's going on with Naylor? And then Der says in the chat, oh, I think Luke blocked me again. And I'm like, oh, probably he unblocked you during a baseball feeling and then re blocked you during a football feeling. Because, I mean, listen. And I'll say to both of you guys, like, I can see it from both angles. Like, he's way too negative and persistently negative. One thing that I've noticed that he's changed a little bit. And I don't know if it's because of the pressure in the. In the virtual room, but, like, the one thing that bothered me about Ders wasn't all the negativity so much as the absolute silence on positive things. It was like, the only texts were negative. And that is not necessarily the case anymore. He's been, like, kind of using the text chain to celebrate good moments and stuff, which I appreciate that. I don't mind absolutely venting. But anyway, so all of that is to say I can sort of also see why you're like, I don't want this, because there are. There have been times where. And I don't like this either. I fantasize. So Ders was going around on the text chain and on social media before. After one Seahawks game. After the first Seahawks game, he was going around, and I saw him responding on social media to people just saying, oh, and to 02, as in saying that the Seahawks are going to be 02, like, days before the second game as even started. And I gotta say, after they won that game and maybe even won the third game or something, I think I had this fantasy of going back and finding every instance of him doing that and liking it on social media. Just so that he's had, like, what a weird thing.

[B]

He's getting a little. He's getting a little ugly.

[A]

Like, suddenly, like, we'll just say, oh, Andrew just went back into my replies and is liking all of the negative. All of the. All the negative things I said, which I still think he would find funny. Like, I would do it in a sort of a loving way, but it is funny how. But again, and you and I have said this, you know, privately, and I think on the show, it's clearly a stress response for him. Like, in the same way, like, he would be the first one to tell you. Like, he loves sports and knows a lot about sports, but maybe knows too much about sports to be happy. I don't know, you know, like, and it's so, it's relatable. I'm not trying to make it sound like I'm holier than thou on this, but it is pretty unrelenting, the negativity. And so.

[B]

Well, that's it. What it feels to me like is the sports version of someone driving past me with a really loud Harley motorcycle.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, I don't like someone deciding to inject something into my life that I don't. I mean, and again, I'm part of the text chain and I'm injecting stuff into other people's lives with my comments. So I'm also part of this. But it just kind of like, you know, probably this can be our new celebration. I have two new things that are going on here, Andrew. One is that I taped a picture of Gemma up above my television, that she's wearing a Mariner's jersey. I taped that up last night. And the Mariners are undefeated since I did that. So that is staying up.

[A]

I was wondering if that was a good luck thing or after our conversation today, if it was a stay sort of a balancing thing, as if I.

[B]

Intended it as a good luck thing. But maybe it's also. I mean, it's right there. If I'm looking at the screen, I'm also looking at this photo of my adorable niece. So maybe it kind of does two things. Yeah, actually, you know, that's a. Not a. That's a good point. But, like, maybe the rich. So that's one of my new rituals. And I'm really hoping that, like, I can leave that up for a good long time. And then also maybe I just will unblock Andy after victories and then I'll just block him, you know, as we're going back into the games. So that can be also part of the celebration process is the unblocking of. In fact, I could unblock him right now since. Since we won.

[A]

Sure, yeah.

[B]

I'll just block him before the game. It is one of these. I said this the other day on the show, though. Like, what's odd about it is. Or not odd, but I guess what's. What's. I like the openness. I like that he knows I'm doing it. I know I'm doing it. No one's feelings are getting hurt. It's making my experience better. It has no impact on his experience. It seems like a pretty good solution to this. Instead of me getting all mad at him in the chat, in the text, and just kind of like, that's a toxicity that you guys don't need. I don't want you guys to have to deal with me dealing with him in the text. It's like, it's. It's. It feels pretty healthy. We kind of. We've got boundaries and we're observing them, and everything seems kind of okay.

[A]

It's an open relationship. Relationship.

[B]

That's right. Exactly. It's a. What do you call, like, a eight octuple? It's probably. How many people are in criminals? How many people are in the text?

[A]

That's a good question. Oh, you know what? We. We're two hours into the show, so I want to hear about your experience tomorrow on the show. I want to hear your experience with Inherent Vice.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Didn't you sit down to watch that this weekend?

[B]

I sure did.

[A]

Did you watch. Did you watch the whole thing? And that's the only question I'll ask. And then we'll. We'll. We'll pick it up tomorrow maybe.

[B]

Couldn't do it.

[A]

No. Lost you. How far?

[B]

Maybe 40 minutes in. Will it ruin it if I tell you why? When I checked out, When I officially. Emotionally.

[A]

No, if you want to just have the conversation now, because I. When you told me you were watching it, I put it on again. And every time I watch it, I like it more. I'm just, okay. It's so perfect. But I only made it about. And it's a long movie. It's two and a half hours long, but I think I made it about 45 minutes in, and I was kind of doing other things. I might have even been watching it, and I have it set up. Playing darts or whatever. But, like, I was. I was watching it, and I've always said it's a very. It's one of those noirs, so it's just, like, so unbelievably. Complicated. But I was about 45 minutes and I think him and Benicio Del Toro are in the diner. Maybe it's right after that or something like that.

[B]

I think maybe I would consider rewatching it. And I think what I would need to do is turn the lights down, down low, make sure my phone is nowhere near me, and maybe eat a mushroom. Yeah, like, and watch it where I'm like, it's got my total and complete attention because I think I was watching, but I was taking pictures of it because I thought one of the actresses looked like Vi to me. I thought that, like. And then this is what, this is what killed me. And this is. This could have just been that I was in a mood and I was looking for something to put me off of the movie. But Michael K. Williams, you know, who of course played Omar in the Wire and Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire and stuff, he's in the movie and they have his character talking about a city in Southern Cal that everybody who has lived in Southern Cal knows. The city is called Artesia. And they have his character, his character calls it Arteza. And it just was such a complete and total continuity error for me. It was such a. Like you're trying to set this in. You're trying to. You're trying to put this. Although I guess they do have a made up town for where Joaquin Phoenix is. You know, he's living in a made up version of Manhattan Beach. So maybe the joke is that they've got a made up town called Arteza when there's a town called Artesia in California. Maybe I missed that subtle joke. But like, I didn't like a character in this movie that's supposed to be rooted. It's so rooted in Southern California. I didn't like that Nobody in the process caught the fact that the character is mispronouncing. The character doesn't know about this town, is mispronouncing the name of this town. That just hit my ear. So false that it kind of then started me thinking, do I really need to spend the next two hours with this?

[A]

That's my journey. You must not love it. First of all, I didn't know that reference, so that's totally lost on me. But that's like if somebody, if I'm watching a movie and somebody refers to Medina County, Ohio, but I love the movie, that's not going to turn me off.

[B]

I was already having trouble following it.

[A]

Yeah, it's complicated, but my God, it is so good. But here's the thing about, about it.

[B]

Is like, so you're just saying so good. I've never. I know that you've said it's a vibe. I guess I didn't know that. You also actually think it's. Well, it's. It's really a good movie.

[A]

Rewatching it. And again, I only watch up to 45 minutes. I'm probably going to maybe pick it up again later. Is this, like, I'm a huge fan of neo noirs. And the thing about, in noirs, generally speaking, and the thing about noirs is they, they are super complicated and they don't often try to think, is it the Big Sleep where Raymond Chandler even said, yeah, I know that everything doesn't add up in that, but it's like, it is the quintessential noir story. Right? The big slee. And even he was like, yeah, I don't think that all made sense at the end. But like, it kind of doesn't matter. That's part of the noir and neo noir thing. And so. But rewatching it this weekend and like, kind of thinking, oh, Luke is watching this. I want to kind of like, if you ask me about it, and I'm like, no, it is tight. I mean, it is confusing and complicated, but aside from maybe mispronouncing a town, there aren't any, at least as far as I got into it, any, like, kind of factual. Factual. Factual is the wrong inconsistency. There are no inconsistencies. Like, this happens, then this happens, then this happens. But the thing is, this is probably my fifth time watching the first half hour of it. Okay, so, like, and this time I was really trying to lock in a little bit more because I'm trying to think, like, it's like listening to an album when you recommend it to a friend. Like, how would I be hearing this with fresh ears for the first time? And so I was a little bit like, does this hold together? I'm like, oh, it holds together. It's not like, it's not some surrealist bullshit.

[B]

It is not a David lynch film. Not to say that that's surrealist bullshit, but just that he's not. He was not concerned with every plot point connecting up.

[A]

Yeah. And it could just literally be, well, this part is a dream or this part was dreamt or, you know what I mean? And you have to really accept that. Which I actually, as much as I love lynch, have a harder time than some accepting that probably not as hard of a time as you, but harder than some. But. But like, Mulholland Drive. I love that movie. But, boy, I was really disappointed by the ending the first time I saw it. I'm like, what? It's a dream box. By the way. That's not a spoiler, because I don't even think that's true anyway. But this movie isn't just, like, made like, kind of just like, isn't this gonna be weird? It's like, no, it holds up. And it follows the rhythms of a noir film in just like, kind of this sense. Let me ask you this other question. Did you recognize. Because I can't remember if we talked about this. During your obsession with everybody's live, did you notice, like, that that opening shot of his, a part of wherever he lives in Manhattan beach, is in the opening credits of. Of the Mulaney Show? Did you notice?

[B]

I did not. Oh, what a bummer.

[A]

I don't know if I fact check that or not, because I feel like I might have brought this up on the show before because I think I was watching Mulaney and I saw that and I think I told you, oh, that's from Inherent Vice. But I don't know if I ever fact checked it on the air or not, but I am. I feel relatively confident that that is one of the shots of the LA area that they use.

[B]

Okay, this is. You know, I'm going to revisit this.

[A]

At some point, but you also don't have to like it. I don't. I don't want that to be the thing. Like, you're wrong if you don't like it. It is an incredible, very long. It is a very long, twisty movie. And I just sort of told you, don't worry about the plot. Because somebody told me that watching it the first time, and it really helped me just appreciate the scenes and the. And the. The charisma between. Who's the famous actor who plays Bigfoot? The cop in it, you know, the second biggest character in the movie, Inherent Vice. Why am I blanking on his.

[B]

Oh, Josh. Brolin.

[A]

Brolin. Brolin. For some reason, I can never keep his name in my mind. Well, like, a lot of people's names, but I don't know. Just like his performance with Joaquin Phoenix, I just loved so much.

[B]

Yeah, I will. You know what? I want to like it, or at least I want it to, because there's so much about it. Like the fact that it's set in California. I love movies that are in California, that it's got a Manhattan beach kind of angle to it that, like, a lot of the actors are actors that I'm a fan of. Like, that. I. I wanted one battle after another. I wanted that movie to be six hours. Like, I. Right now, I'm in a mode where I feel like I can't get enough P.T. anderson stuff. So, like, I want to. I would like to. I would like to figure out a way to enjoy this movie. So I will rewatch, watch it again, possibly with the aid of a reasonable and responsible amount of psilocybin.

[A]

That might. Yeah, that's good.

[B]

Put me in. That might put me in the. In the right headspace for it.

[A]

I also wonder. Again, it might just not be your kind of movie, which is absolutely fine. But I also wonder if it's like, people are talking about Inherent Vice. I'm talking about Inherent Vice so much because we loved one battle after another. But I also have been saying, though, like, it's kind of the opposite. So if you're watching Inherent Vice to scratch the itch left behind by one battle after another, that also sets it up for failure in a certain way, because it's almost the opposite as far as energy is concerned, I guess.

[B]

Another thing that didn't totally click for me was the Joanna Newsom vo.

[A]

Oh, okay. Yeah.

[B]

Cause, I mean, that's a really huge. The narrator of the film is Joanna Newsom, and it's clear that pg, you know, has her doing this kind of a certain sort of, I don't know, disaffected Southern California. I don't want to say Valley Girl, because it's not a Valley Girl thing, per se, but, like, it's a certain kind of, like, way. A certain style of speech. And it didn't. I don't know. It wasn't propelling the movie for me. I was noticing it a little too much. Like, I was like, oh, I don't know if I. I don't know if that's the read I would have gone with for this part of it, you know? So that's like. That was also kind of. I mean, I'm a big Joanna Newsom fan. I love Joanna Newsom. Newsom's music. But that was also something I wasn't, I guess, totally, like, expecting.

[A]

I didn't even know who that was, to be honest with you. I didn't recognize her. And I don't even know if I know Joy.

[B]

Incredible, incredible singer and harpist.

[A]

Oh. Oh, yeah. You've mentioned. You've mentioned her on the show before.

[B]

Married to Andy Samberg, but what a power couple.

[A]

Oh. Oh. And did you. Geez. Gosh darn it, Luke, I can't talk about. Yeah.

[B]

Did you.

[A]

Did you get to the Maya Rudolph part? She did Quick cameo. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. Like the secretary at Doc Sportello's office.

[A]

Yes. I always forget how many people are in there. I forgot Omar is in there. I forgot Owen Wilson is in there. But anyway, yeah, I kind of like the narration. But again, I. I would say my liking of that narration at this point is probably what Genevieve would describe as fan wanking. Because I like. Which I don't know is a common term or not. But, like, we sort of use it as, like a. Well, I'll overlook this because I like it so much. And so you're admitting your lack of objectivity. And maybe the first time I saw the movie, I might have had the same reaction as you did to it because it is sort of stilted in this way. So I'm again, not to defend it, but the reason I think I like it on more on future viewings or repeated viewings is, like, it is the way that we get to hear the actual words of Thomas Pynchon. And it's funny at times, I'm assuming I just. The way. I have no idea if I'm right about that. I've never read Inherited, but there's a scene that I'll bet you it's a little bit past where you were, where he goes undercover at a party and he's pretending to be a photographer. Like a rock and roll photographer. Have you seen that part yet? Okay. He's wandering around the house, and that narration comes in, and it's asking, in this very kind of poetic language, the voiceover is saying, could it be that a man walks this distance to do this? And I can't even begin to do it justice. But it's like this long, philosophical qu. Question. And then the narration, the narrator just says, doc said, I don't know. And it's just like, there's something. And you can sort of feel the humor of the book in it. And I was kind of like, oh, okay, this is a little view onto that. And I do think I have confirmation here that Doc's house is in Mulaney's credits. So, anyway, I'll stop doing that. And again, I want to make it very clear, like, not at any point. It might not be.

[B]

At least to get to the part, I'm cruising the credits of the movie, and it turns out Gillian Bell is in it, too. Our favorite.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jingle all the Way. Short, stiff, and whatever.

[A]

It's like it's two words that mean the same thing. Like it's short, something and stiff, I believe.

[B]

But like just the fact that any Gillian Bell sighting I'm in for. So I'll have to. I will, I will. I will re. Re Engage with it and see. I could see myself liking the movie. I just think it depends on the mood. I need to wait until The Mariner Set 1. I've unblocked Ders and I. And I'm eating a mushroom that. Those are the, those are the thing. And it's a. And it's a. And it's a harvest moon, which I think we're actually going to see this week.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

Everything in the universe aligns. Then I'll watch Inherent Vice and I'll enjoy it.

[A]

I think it's a super moon tonight. Super moon maybe.

[B]

Dude. I woke up this morning at like 4 in the morning or something and looked out my window and the moon was enormous and it was setting over the river. So, you know, it had done its whole cycle and it was about to like be a. We never talk about moon setting. Like, we talk about sunsets, but basically based on like where my bed is and I have this kind of door that goes out to the deck that's, you know, kind of got glass. The middle of it is all glass. I just like opened up my eyes because I was like, something is bright in this room. It was the moon. It was the moon setting over Rainier, Oregon. It was kind of crazy.

[A]

Oh, man, I had such a moment. I, I, I love this time of year. So I didn't realize how much this might be my favorite fall or something. I, I feel like I always enjoy fall, but this time I'm just like, I'm really enjoying it. And I took, I just had to walk to my favorite grocery store, SARS or something on Friday night. And I was listening to some. You would hate it, but like some Sonic Youth record that has like sort of this ominous sound for folks who like it. It's called, Called Evil and.

[B]

Oh really? It's got an ominous sound.

[A]

It's love backwards.

[B]

The record's called Evil. Evil. Evil.

[A]

No. Anyway, it's totally not for you. I'm not, I'm not here to defend it, but I like Bull.

[B]

I like their most accessible music.

[A]

It definitely like the whole album has this sort of like kind of so sort of like a little gothic, not, not goth, but gothic in the traditional sense sort of sound to it. And I'm walking to the grocery store, like listening to this and the mood is not full but it's like you know, three quarters or it's like this big moon hanging in the sky and the clouds are in front of it. Like it's like it's a Simpsons still or something. And I'm walking and you can, it's like I don't even, you know me, I don't like Halloween but I like sort of the trappings of it or something. Like there was just, it just felt like a Halloween night to me as I'm walking alone listening to this record that I hadn't heard in a long time and looking at that moon. It was quite a moment.

[B]

Yeah. No, I'm really, I, I have to say that like. And listener Anna was messaging me. Our friend Anna who she had sent me somebody online, basically a woman on TikTok who was kind of like breaking down the things that we need to do folks like me to get through what is going to be some pretty kind of dark gloomy weather. And she was kind of doing a much more formalized version and thought out version of what I was proposing on our show which is for me personally to, to think about the autumn as being really lovely and like the fall, it's like it is, it's like the leaves change color. You still get some nice days. There's, you know, there's a lot to really like about it because historically what I've done is as soon as summer's over I kind of just start to fall into this like feeling bummed about everything weather wise and it's going to get dark earlier but if I really break it up, if I really think about it, it's like we're in a great season right now. This is awesome. There's no reason for me to feel sad about this. I can feel sad in January when it's getting, getting dark at 4:30 or whatever. But I don't need to be sad about that right now because right now is nice. So I'm really trying to do that. I'm trying to enjoy this nice fall cozy season. I'm planning like family get togethers in the month of December because that'll be exciting and something for me to look forward to. I'm really trying to only feel bummed out during the about 90 days of weather that are pretty hard to avoid for me feeling bummed out about but not the rest of the time. I don't want to start feeling bummed until I absolutely have to is I guess what I'm saying.

[A]

Well, let me throw. I don't want you to get too big of a head. But let me throw your own words back at you, because I was thinking about them this weekend, and I think they're smarter. At least they gave me something to think about. Yesterday, Genevieve and I took a lift to the Eagles to watch the baseball game, and I was in. First of all, I was just sort of out of sorts all day yesterday. I think the game on Saturday sort of had a delayed reaction on me. I think Sundays are sometimes just kind of tough for me anyway. And I was just, like, kind of. I could totally feel it and acknowledge it. I couldn't exactly put a finger on it, but I was just in a bit of a malaise all day yesterday.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

And Genevieve and I are in a lift, and we're driving to the Eagles to watch my beloved Seattle Mariners in game two of a real playoff series to be with my friends. And I'm in the car and I'm thinking, thinking, God, I don't know. Okay, so if we go in there and if the one bartender is working who doesn't like sports very much, and if he can even have the game on, and I know the game's supposed to be on, but he might not. He might want to put on a movie. And then also the game might be on, but if the volume isn't on, do I want to stay? And then if the volume isn't on and I don't make a big deal of it, I guess we can go to Teddy's. I can maybe see if Genevieve and Hauser would want to move there. Or do we come back to my house and I'm just like, I'm gaming out all this stuff, and I'm realizing I'm feeling really anxious about whether or not the sound is going to. To be on for this game at the Eagles.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I thought of you thinking. Because you were talking about, I think, sports optimism, but generally optimism in general at some point last week, and you just said, I just don't see the need to expect the worst. Like, what's the point? Like, why? You said something about, like, why. I mean, if things turn out bad, deal with it. When things are bad. But why? I worry in advance. Like, there's no upshot of that.

[B]

I don't even know.

[A]

I don't even know if you were talking about sports. I think you might have been talking about a real life scenario.

[B]

Yeah, I think we were. Well, I think we were just talking about the general state of the world and American politics and the way that it can produce a lot of Anxiety. I think what I said I'm trying to remember and trying to remind myself of is that if the worst case scenario happens, then. Then I will feel really sad about it and anxious about it when it's happening, but in advance of it or when it hasn't yet happened. I don't know why I want to waste any of my time or I don't want to feel bad for any amount of time longer than I have to is basically what it is.

[A]

It doesn't do any good. And so, yeah, if I waste, if I fall. Yeah, that's basically what I'm saying. Yeah, exactly.

[B]

Like why I don't want to feel sad about. I don't want to feel sad about February 11th, when probably the sunset will be at 4:45pm until it's February 11th. Because you know what today is? Today is Monday, the 6th of October. You and I are talking. The Mariners are, you know, like you said, they're. They're tied in a playoff series that I didn't think they were going to get to four months ago, three months ago. And it's lovely outside. And, and so I'll. I'll worry about. I'll worry about that day in February when I'm. When it is, that day in February. But if I can. If I can not allow that to impact how I feel about today, that feels like, to me, kind of like a good thing, you know?

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah. All right, here we go.

[A]

We did it again. 2 hours and 17 minutes. Love it.

[B]

You're welcome, America.

[A]

Yeah, I was just remembering an email that we got from our buddy Bean this morning that said, hey, what's with all the two hour shows recently? Can you tell me what's going on in the second half of them? Because I can't listen that long. The fact that he's listening to the beginning, beginning of shows is enough.

[B]

I love it. That is the most. That is the most Bean piece of feedback I could imagine, and I love it. All right, thanks for listening, everybody. We are going to be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio. Will it be one hour? Will it be two hours?

[A]

It's definitely going to be over by one, tell you that much.

[B]

Oh, good point. Anyway, so we'll see you then for that. In the meantime, have a great Monday. Take care of yourselves. And please remember, no mountain too tall.

[A]

And good luck to all.

[B]

Be honest. What is it about me that no one respects?

[A]

Is it my hair? Yeah, I'm thinking about getting a new.

[B]

Haircut, changing stuff up, maybe getting like an Arnie Schwarzenegger Jingle all the way. Type of haircut? You know, short, tall and stiff.

[A]

Kind of like how I like my men power out.