#4571 They Cats, They Birds, They Figure It Out

Summary

TBTL Episode #4571: "They Cats, They Birds, They Figure It Out"

Date: October 8, 2025
Hosts: Luke Burbank & Andrew Walsh

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Overview

In this episode, Luke and Andrew dive into a typically TBTLish blend of the mundane and the momentous: playoff baseball anxiety, the quirks of digital advertising, the realities of home maintenance and neighborly relations, and their ongoing existential reflections filtered through humor and self-deprecation. The Mariner’s playoff game looms large over the show, coloring both their mood and conversation, while side journeys into hummingbird maintenance, cats in the neighborhood, and the ever-present challenge of Yelp reviews keep the episode grounded in relatable daily life.

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Main Themes & Purpose

• Mariners Playoff Mania: The pair explore their high-strung emotional attachment to the Seattle Mariners' postseason, the psychological toll of fandom, and the rituals and superstitions that come with it.
• Digital Life & Media Annoyances: Frustration with algorithmic advertising and the persistent failure of AI to be truly helpful (or even logical).
• Daily Life Chronicles: Luke and Andrew recount stories about neighborhood cats, hummingbird feeders, problematic bathroom remodels, and neighborly communication about pets and birds.
• Podcasting & Community: Reflections on the podcast business model and gratitude for the TBTL community of donors and listeners.
• Existential Coping Through Sports: Sports fandom is explored as a shield against the bleakness of current events, threading into an ongoing reflection about the purpose and function of sports in their—and their listeners'—lives.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Neighborhood & Home Life

• Hummingbird Feeder Dilemmas
  • Luke’s confession about prioritizing hummingbird maintenance over more pressing issues (01:45)
  • Quote: “Yes, podcasting is my profession, but hummingbird maintenance is my real passion.” – Luke (02:10)
• Bathroom Remodeling & Digital Ads
  • Luke’s investigation into new vanities results in Instagram pushing ads for bathroom fixtures across his devices, leading to a discussion on cookies, Wi-Fi data sharing, and how ads “follow” users.
  • Quote: "Is that how cookies work? So it followed me from my laptop to my phone... Oh, it's the wifi." – Luke & Andrew (09:45–10:15)
• Neighborhood Cat Email
  • Andrew shares an email from a neighbor diplomatically encouraging others to collar their outdoor cats with bird-protective accessories (68:16), sparking thoughts about pet owner responsibilities and bird welfare.
  • Quote: “They birds, they cats, they figure it out. Maybe that’s the end of story.” – Andrew (68:21)
  • Discusses increasing empathy for birders as he ages and the non-confrontational, solution-oriented approach of the neighbor.

2. Sports & Media Rituals

• Mariners Game Viewing Madness
  • Luke recounts his elaborate efforts to watch the Mariners and Yankees/Blue Jays games simultaneously – TV on mute, radio broadcast playing via SiriusXM app through a Bluetooth speaker, another game on the laptop (11:52).
  • The duo commiserate about broadcast scheduling favoring larger markets (Yankees/Dodgers) and the indignities west-coast fans endure.
  • Quote: “It just feels like we all have to bow down to those two markets.” – Andrew (14:55)
• Superstition & Fandom Anxiety
  • Unpacking the psychological torture of fandom: jinxing, refusing to express confidence, grim rituals to “protect” outcomes, and the idea that the Mariners (and by extension, Seattle) are “cursed.”
  • Andrew’s guilt for texting confidence, then the Mariners immediately begin to collapse (“I will never text anything with confidence again." – Andrew, 27:36)
• Sports as Escape from Bleak Headlines
  • Framing baseball as an emotional counterweight to unsettling world events:
    • Quote: “It feels like my actual life is on the line when this baseball team is playing.” – Luke (40:50)
    • Andrew clarifies that for him, baseball is a shield to “not think about shit” in the news (42:29).

3. Fan Moments & Media Overexposure

• The ‘61 Home Run Shirt Guy’ Story
  • A Mariners fan catches Cal Raleigh’s 61st home run ball while wearing the perfect commemorative shirt – broadcast coverage is excessive, and fan reactions verge on overhype.
  • Both hosts display mild skepticism/desensitization about such viral fan-celebrity moments (“There’s a point at which something becomes over-covered for me” – Luke, 48:06).
• Celebrity Fan Canon
  • The only “celebrity fan” that matters to Andrew: the viral little girl with cotton candy at a Mariners game (53:03).
    • Quote: “She is... our one true celebrity fan that I can get behind.” – Luke (53:47)

4. Podcast Community & Business

• Sustaining TBTL
  • Reflection on the shifting podcast economy, the importance of listener/donor support, and pride at maintaining a community-centric model (55:15).
    • Quote (on donors): “Thank you all. We absolutely could not do this without you.” – Luke (65:28)
• How Deep Friendships Shape Their Worldview
  • Extensive digression about Ohio regional trivia, Cleveland lore, and the social awkwardness of explaining deep knowledge of someone else’s hometown.

5. Petty Grievances & Passive-Aggressive Triumphs

• Yelp Review Obsession
  • Luke recounts his “origin story” as The Yelper after a frustrating HVAC repair experience.
    • Quote: “This is how I become The Yelper, which is the new bad guy from the MCU. He’s a guy who wrote a Yelp review that the people he wrote it about, they don’t care about it.” – Luke (79:53)
• Andrew wisely counsels against emailing the negative review directly for fear of losing his “cool flex” (81:57).

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• Start of Episode Mock Skit: (00:00–01:24)
  Humorous role-play that launches straight into the core TBTL tone.
• Host Introduction:
  “Podcasting is my profession, but hummingbird maintenance is my real passion.” – Luke (01:45)
• Internet Advertising Woes:
  “Is that how cookies work? So it followed me from my laptop to my phone…” – Luke (10:13)
• Mariners’ Playoff Stress:
  “I will never text anything with confidence again regarding [the Mariners].” – Andrew (27:36) “It feels like my actual life is on the line when this baseball team is playing.” – Luke (40:50)
• Neighborhood Cat Discussion:
  “They birds, they cats, they figure it out. Maybe that’s the end of story.” – Andrew (68:21)
• Yelp Review Villainy:
  “This is how I become The Yelper, which is the new bad guy from the MCU.” – Luke (79:53)

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Memorable Segments

• 13:30: Frustration over Major League Baseball scheduling and market prioritization.
• 23:58: Extended discussion of baseball rituals, emotional coping, and the moment of near-collapse in the Mariners game.
• 40:50: Luke explains the existential weight placed on the Mariners and how sports become a proxy for hope as “the world gets darker.”
• 53:03: The canonical Mariners fan – the cotton candy-eating little girl – is celebrated.
• 68:16: Neighborhood email about bird-saving cat collars leads to discussion of suburban pet politics and empathy for birds.
• 79:53: Luke’s villain origin story as “The Yelper.”

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Tone & Style

The episode is quintessential TBTL: discursive, self-aware, gently neurotic, funny and filled with both pop culture references and confessional windows into the hosts’ daily lives. The banter is light, affectionate, and often domed with a layer of comic fatalism.

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For New and Longtime Listeners

• If Sports Is Not Your Thing: The Mariners chat serves as a window into anxiety, superstition, joy, and suffering—themes that apply broadly to the TBTL worldview.
• For Pet Owners & Birders: Enjoy nuanced discussion on outdoor cat etiquette and bird advocacy.
• Fans of Domestic Dramedy: Follow along with hummingbird feeders, bathroom renovations, neighborly diplomacy, and passive-aggressive Yelp reviews.
• Media & Internet Skeptics: Commiserate over the failings of targeted advertising, algorithmic logic, and the ever-present intrusion of notifications.

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Episode Title Inspiration

“They birds, they cats, they figure it out”
—Andrew Walsh, 68:21 (This encapsulates the blend of humor, laid-back wisdom, and everyday observation that defines TBTL)

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Key Timestamps for Reference

• 01:45—Luke’s professional passion for hummingbird feeding
• 10:15—Discussion on Wi-Fi, cookies, and targeted ads
• 13:30—Media scheduling, sports market complaints
• 27:36—Andrew’s superstition and confidence-jinx anxiety
• 40:50—Sports as emotional shield against bleak news
• 53:03—The definitive Mariners cotton candy fan
• 68:16—Neighborhood cat email, bird protection strategies
• 79:53—“The Yelper” origin story

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Power Out!

Transcript

[A]

Well, well, well, well, well.

[B]

If it isn't the big time hotshot lawyer man.

[A]

Oh, my God. I do not have time for you.

[B]

Yes, sir. We both have busy schedules, so I'll make this quick Ashant mince words with you for long. I am challenging you, sir, to a duel.

[A]

I accept.

[B]

Are you serious?

[A]

Now?

[B]

I accept your challenge. Do you want time to think it over?

[A]

No, no, not at all.

[B]

What time were you thinking of dueling?

[A]

Anytime is good.

[B]

Really.

[A]

I don't have.

[B]

You don't have time? Cause you would have to go out.

[A]

And get a proper gun. No, I have a gun. I actually keep one right here in the drawer.

[B]

You got one right there. I don't even see it. I like to keep it loaded because.

[A]

You never know who's gonna walk into a law office these days.

[B]

Safety first.

[A]

So let's rethink some things. TBTL Good afternoon, and welcome to Judgment City.

[B]

You just had quite a little journey.

[A]

So for now, relax and enjoy the ride. I swear, every time this guy talks.

[B]

All I hear is a turkey goblin. You look like Matlock.

[A]

No, I look like a young Paul.

[B]

Newman dressed as Matlock.

[A]

It's not great. It's fantastic. You totally undersold it. The pageantry, the costumes. Wow.

[B]

That is obviously what. It's clear that our view is. We don't support that view.

[A]

It stinks.

[B]

All right. Hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Wednesday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live.

[A]

Oh la la.

[B]

My name's Luke Burbank. I'm your host. A performance that I would put into the category of embarrassing. Coming to you from the Madrona Hill Studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia. Another Beautiful day here, October 8th. Oh, ma pa. It's just beautiful. I guess the temperature. Well, I read in the Oregonian that the temperature was supposed to drop by 15 degrees in Portland, but that's a little ways away from here. And things seem nice here. The blue skies, temperature is holding. Everything's great. Everything is ready, my friends, for us to present to you episode 4571 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. Sorry if I sound distracted. I am. While I am seeking to host this podcast, which is my job, I'm also out of the corner of my eye observing the hummingbird feeder here at the Madrona Hill Studio, and a hummingbird that is dipping its little beak into the hummingbird feeder and realizing that there is no more, like, hummingbird juice in there, which is just basically warm water and sugar. But early bird gets the worm, but who wants to live on worms? And what I'm realizing is that between these two hummingbird feeders that I have out, yes, podcasting is my profession, but hummingbird maintenance is my real passion. I'm pretty much just most of the stuff that I do is so that I'll be able to afford warm water and sugar to put out in these hummingbird feeders. Because it's one of my main concerns in life. It should be a lower priority than it is me and these hummingbirds. Anyway. Oh, hey, speaking of birds, let's talk about the longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He's totally, he's Teflon, he's bulletproof. He does not react to all of the slings and arrows that people, people are constantly bringing up online about him and the show.

[A]

I feel like a bird soaring over these haters.

[B]

You feel me, though? He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[A]

Good morning. That's a good reminder to not dip down into the trenches with the haters, Luke.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, all the haters that you and I have, I gotta say, I.

[B]

Just constantly have the haters coming for us and then we have to clap back and then it's just, it's. That's a mess.

[A]

So one thing that I've learned about me is, first of all, I think I'm getting generally more cranky. I don't know if this is a phase or not. I like to think it is cranky.

[B]

Yandy.com yes, before this development for you.

[A]

So that's part of it. But I have also noticed that one thing that I've sort of realized is I'm not good at taking feedback from listeners in the morning. And so some. So my routine is when I wake up, I probably sit in bed, you know, I open up my phone and there's like a million notifications. When you wake up, I don't know if you're living in the same kind of, you know, push notification nightmare that I am, but you wake up and it just looks like you're the most important man in the world, right? Like, you just have a million notifications and then like four of them are from ebay. Just saying, hey, you looked at this thing the other day. Are you sure you don't want to look at it again and maybe bid on it? And then, you know, there's a, there's some push notifications from some sort of journalistic outlet that will push things out that are so not breaking news. Like, I don't need a push notification just to say, like, read this feature about a man who lived as a chipmunk for four years. I'm expanding my fake headlines. Oh, sure, last week it was man chases squirrel. Now it's man lives as chipmunk for four years. But I don't need a push notification for that. So, anyway, you see where I'm going with this. Most of them are bullshit.

[B]

Mine are all, by the way. Mine are just things that I looked at online to purchase, like, on Instagram, that I. Then to get 10% off, I gave them that most special and valuable thing, which is my phone number and email address.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then I never bought the thing, but now they're just hitting me up on the daily.

[A]

Well, that makes more sense than. And I am getting to something here. But that makes more sense than this phenomenon that we've discussed on the show before that Genevieve just brought up with me again the other day. She bought, like, a. A new ceiling fan to replace the sort of hokey ceiling fan in our main room upstairs. And after she bought it from this company, she has gotten nothing but ads from this company trying to sell her more fans. And she's kind of like, I. I got the fan. Oh, you know what? I think I was telling her about our conversation about how AI should be better. Like, help. AI should be used to not sell me the same fan after I've bought a fan. Like, why can't we make that smarter instead of country songs at dozer days.

[B]

That's right. I mean, that's one of the failures of. I guess you could say the Internet and all of the cookies and all. Is that about the best thing they've thought up is, oh, you bought something. Let's keep showing you versions of that, which is, like, comes from such a faulty premise.

[A]

Yeah. It'd be one thing if it's like you bought a blue shirt and now they're showing you a striped version. Even that, like, well, that speaks to you and I. I think we like to lock in on things, especially you. But an appliance, like, hey, we see that you're really into stacked washers and dryers because you bought one recently. Do you want to buy two more? Like, no. It's kind of one literally referred to.

[B]

In economic terms as a durable good.

[A]

Right, Exactly.

[B]

Because you don't need to buy a new one every year. And they're trying sell you a new. I got hit. Sorry. I know you're going somewhere.

[A]

No, actually, you Know what? The more I think about it, Distract me. Maybe we get off this topic. Because I kind of don't like where I was going with it, to be honest with you.

[B]

I got hit the other day with it. Traveled from my. The sales pitch, if you will, Traveled from my laptop computer to my phone. So we are. I'm going to be remodeling this small, little bathroom in my house. It's the kind of the last thing in my house that hasn't been, at this point, sort of gussied up a little bit. And it's actually kind of a time capsule. When people come over to my place and I say, if you'd like to experience what this whole house was like, Please step into this bathroom that has been absolutely untouched. It's, like, very. Not for me. Paint colors. And again, just very. I don't know which. Is it a. I don't know the difference between a valance and a jabot, Andrew.

[A]

Then you must.

[B]

Not only is that a drop we play, but it's a reality of my life.

[A]

That might be one of my favorite. That's gotta be top five, top ten.

[B]

It's either a valance or a jabot, but it's not great. It was here from the previous owners. Anyway, so the plan is to finally. And the other thing is. So on the main level of my house, when you walk in, there are actually two bathrooms. There's this one that's very nice and new. That it used to be the kitchen. And then there's the one that is a time capsule. And whenever people are over, I think that they feel they don't want to use the newer bathroom. Maybe because it seems fancy. Maybe it's because the toilet talks to you. And the people are afraid of that. I have a toilet in that bathroom that's like a toilet that pee wee Herman would have. It's a little anthropomorphized.

[A]

I'm picturing cherry here. I'm picturing a more disturbing cherry.

[B]

Put all of your evil inside me.

[A]

I love it.

[B]

Waves arms. But also because there's a pocket door that goes between my bedroom and this bathroom. I think people think that's like Luke's. That's a special bathroom.

[A]

I could feel that. If it seems connected to the bedroom. My instinct in somebody else's house would be to avoid that one. That makes sense.

[B]

But I don't want that to be the case. I want people to feel free to use it. Because what's happening is everyone just ends up going to the one part of the house that I'm the least proud of now, which is this kind of not particularly appealing bathroom that's on the other side of the hallway. Well, anyway, all that is to say I'm starting to look at like vanities to put in there. We're going to tear everything out, put in some new tile and stuff and paint it and whatever. On my laptop, I'm looking up vanities of a certain dimension and a certain kind of blonde wood that would mirror this other vanity that I have in the new bathroom. And I swear to God, so I'm like just googling like, hey, what's out there? You know, in these dimensions? And then I pick up my phone later and I'm walking out to the car and I'm like scrolling TikTok because heaven forbid I am doing anything ever where I'm not looking at one of my screens. And I swear to God on my phone. Now it's just Instagram was just all ads for exactly those vanities that I'd been looking at. They were very. They're a very specific company. I'm not going to buy from there because it's wildly expensive. But is that how cookies work? So it followed me from my laptop to my phone.

[A]

Oh, definitely, yeah. If you're on WI fi, absolutely.

[B]

Oh, it's the WI fi. I'm not playing dumb here. I literally don't know how these things work. So that's really, that's, that's where the magic is happening.

[A]

You and I read a really interesting, detailed and complicated article going back like almost 10 years ago now, although not quite that far that I can't remember. I could barely grasp all of the details at the time and I certainly don't remember them well now. But I remember it being very, very convincing. Talking about how cookies and whatnot. The fact that I call it whatnot means I shouldn't be speaking on this topic. It's like me trying to describe AI yesterday but how they can travel around with you. Even if I remember there was an example of you might you think your phone is listening to you, like actively listening, like with a microphone device or something. But no, chances are you were over at your in laws house and something sort of came up and maybe somebody else googled it because you were talking about it, but you happen to also click onto their WI fi while you're over there there and like just like all these kind of complicated ways. And that was just one example of a million. But yeah, WI fi is definitely one. Like if Genevieve is shopping for bras I will get bra advertisements on my phone.

[B]

At least that's your cover story.

[A]

That is what I've been telling her.

[B]

So many people in braziers on your computer screen when Genevieve walks into your.

[A]

Office, when Genevieve is shopping for photos of people not wearing bras. I also get the ads. Not wearing bras is what I'm saying. So. But anyway, yeah, I do think that sharing a network like that will definitely happen.

[B]

Speaking of WI fi and media and this streaming world that we live in, my media situation yesterday during the Mariners game was. It was bordering on unhinged. The scene was okay. So I decided yesterday for the game that I could no longer tolerate the national announcers, the Fox announcers, because, I don't know, I felt like they were jinxing the Mariners a lot in game one. And they don't have the enthusiasm for the Mariners that like our announcers would have. And so I had the Mariners game going on, my television muted. And then I was playing the radio broadcast, the Mariners radio broadcast, but I can't actually, I don't have a radio anymore. So I was playing it through the Sirius satellite app on my telephone. But then it wasn't loud enough. So I played that through a Bluetooth speaker.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

In my house. And then on my laptop, which was also propped up, I had the Yankees Blue Jays game going just because you.

[A]

Wanted to see the outcome of that game. And it was a close.

[B]

I was hoping that the Blue Jays would win. It ended up actually not being that close. It was a weird game for them because basically the Blue Jays went up by five runs. And I thought, well, that's that. And then the Yankees came storming back and then the Yankees won by a pretty handy.

[A]

Oh, they did? Oh, I. I just looked at it when it was tied up. Cause I was like, well, I guess this is going to ramp up their series. And then, and then I looked and they were tied. And then I, LA leader, heard that they had won. I didn't know that they ended up coming back with four.

[B]

I was keen on watching that game because I wanted to know if I was going to be able to watch the Mariner game after my television shoot today. And the answer is no, because the Yankees won.

[A]

And so, so this is something that's media time slot.

[B]

Well, I mean, what in the world. I'm seeing a lot of this on like tick tock and stuff. It's making me feel seen and validated, I think. I mean, I mentioned this the other day on the show. I said it's weird to Me that Major League Baseball is having these playoff games happen at noon west coast time when people are supposed to be at work. Like, the NFL doesn't do that for the playoffs. The NBA does not do that for the playoffs. Somebody pointed out that March Madness is kind of that way. But that's because there's like a thousand games. But like NCAA football does not do that with its championship games or its bowl games or whatever. Why is Major League Baseball the only pro sports league that's like, sure, why don't we put these very important events on in the middle of the weekday workday for people? And of course, my anger around it is that they're prioritizing the Yankee viewer.

[A]

Experience and the Dodgers. I mean, that's because aren't those primetime games? That's probably why. Right. The Dodgers, Phillies have been. They're not going to. I guess there is some overlap in these games, but none of them start at the same time. Right. They're trying to stagger them to get viewers. And. And I'm guessing that the Dodgers have probably been taking up the primetime games and I know for sure that the Yankees won, so they're getting the prime time slot today. I mean, there's also West Coast, east coast time difference considerations, I suppose, but it does feel like we all have to bow down to those two markets.

[B]

Yeah. I have obviously a huge chip on my shoulder about the LA and New York media market preferential treatment as it is. But like, here's what I don't understand. If the Mariners are going to be playing the Tigers and they put that game on tonight, they put it on at like 8 o' clock Detroit time, 6 o' clock Seattle time or whatever. Won't they still get more viewers for that game? Even if it's going up against the Yankee vers and Toronto game, then they will get putting it on at noon.

[A]

Like you mean. I don't understand at the same time.

[B]

Stardom at the same time. Look, Major League Baseball presumably wants to get the most number of eyeballs it can on the most of its games. That's how they make their money. That's one of the many ways they make their money. So I guess the theory goes well, we'll put the Seattle game. We don't want these games overlapping because then you're dividing up your audience. But I think you would just have more people watching the Mariners and Tigers if they were on at a reasonable evening time. And then there'd be a bunch of people watching the Yankees and the Blue Jays. But I don't think they would cannibalize each other. I think you would. You would end up with more people watching both or at least the Seattle game because it would be on at a reasonable time.

[A]

I would be fine with that. Yeah. I don't know. All the reasoning and the reasoning I've even given is probably, probably only half assed and mostly coming from a butt hurt position because I do think that a big part of this is just making sure that those two coastal teams are getting the. Getting all the prime time slots. And prime I almost use as a generic term what you're saying would be fine with me. I don't know. But I also don't know everything that goes into it. I'm sure it's also about slicing and dicing who gets what for what series. Right?

[B]

Well, what do you mean who gets what?

[A]

Well, I know that this, our series is on FS1. Are all of FS1 and then FS2. We got bumped mid game yesterday because the Yankee.

[B]

I know, it's just another indignity. It's just like it just feels. And again, peace and love to our Yankee listeners and including even our colleague John. But like it just so. So first of all, we have this kind of crummy middle of the day Wednesday time that we're supposed to be playing because, you know, because like you said, I think that Major League Baseball wants to really highlight the LA and New York teams. Then we get this rain moving in which delays our game by like three hours. So now we're almost actually getting a better time slot for our game.

[A]

That really worked for me, by the way. I actually got some work done during that time that I know I would not have come back around to after the game. That was actually kind of sweet.

[B]

Yeah, I was more than fine with it because it was again, we were getting a better time slot thanks to Mother Nature. But then the game's finally on. I'm all excited. Then they start telling you, okay, but in 30 minutes the real team is showing up the New York Yankees. And then you're going to have to go scamper off to FS2. Like. And again, it's a, it's a minor inconvenience. I just changed the channel. It wasn't that big of a deal.

[A]

But they did it right in the middle of an at bat. Suddenly. Who was it? It wasn't men. If he's a football guy. Right. Who was it? Somebody just popped up in the middle of an at bat wearing kind of.

[B]

I want to call that guy Tom Brennaman, but he's not, because Tom Brennaman is the. Is the Castellano deep drive to left guy. But his name is like, Tom Brennan or something. It's confusingly close to the other guy's name.

[A]

And I want to say it was during Suarez at bat. It was at somebody's at bat that was, like, kind of, you know, significant. They're just like, suddenly a guy in a suit shows up. Yeah.

[B]

And he would look very somber. Now, of course, I had it muted because, remember, I'm listening to the Mariners home radio broadcast, so it's like the look on his face was like, the President has been shot.

[A]

Yeah, right.

[B]

He looked very. He looked very somber, whatever it was he was saying. And I'm assuming what he was saying was, if you're watching the Mariner Detroit game, you need to change the channel to FS2 right now.

[A]

Yeah. Which was a pain for me because, of course, I was watching some extra legal services so that I had to go.

[B]

But you were able to locate it on the other thing.

[A]

Yeah, it corrected itself pretty dang quickly. But anyway. Yeah. So you were. You were saying, though, you were in the middle of.

[B]

Well, I was like a DJ on the ones and twos. Because what kept happening was my radio stream was going out of sync with my TV screen. Like, one of them would get a little bit ahead of the other. Because think about it. I'm watching the Mariner game on FS2, but it's.

[A]

It's.

[B]

It's going through a satellite, it's coming down to the Internet, and then the. You know, I'm streaming this via Fubo, so there's a few sort of things it's going through. And then my. My radio broadcast of the Mariners is, as I mentioned, because there's probably an easier way for me to do it, but I'm just used to listening to it on my Sirius satellite app. They give all the baseball and football games, so I'm playing it through that. So it's going to the Sirius satellite people. It's going literally to their satellite. It's coming through their app, and it's coming down to my phone and then to a Bluetooth speaker. And so there was a lot of chances for, like, every inning, either the radio would be a little bit ahead of the tv, which I didn't want. I didn't want to hear, like, Aaron Goldsmith saying what had happened before. I saw it happen on tv, but I also didn't want them to be way, way behind the tv. So I'd be like pausing the radio and then letting the TV catch up, or pausing the TV and letting the radio catch up. It was a constant. It was like I had a pot that was always about to boil over and I had to keep taking it off the heat. But it worked, Andrew. And so I may have to do that again, at least for the first hour of the game that I'm able to watch today, because I have to try to recreate exactly the circumstances of yesterday.

[A]

Yes, exactly. And then you're not. You're not even going to be able to see the second half of the game or the last two thirds of the game or whatever it's going to be. Is that sort of killing you?

[B]

It is kind of killing me. I have a TV shoot that it was 50, 50 if it was going to happen. And then our producer yesterday emailed me, said, oh, yeah, that is happening. And I was like, easy for you to say, non Seattle Mariners fan. But yeah, I'm going to be interviewing someone in. I'll be down in Vancouver, Washington, and I will be low key, probably looking at Fubo on my phone. My dream is, Andrew, I'm knocking wood here. I would love, just love to see the Mariners jump out ahead again and maybe kind of like put this one more or less on ice and then I can just casually observe the game on my phone when I'm down at the shoot here and there, when it's convenient, as opposed to. I don't. I'm out of fingernails, by the way.

[A]

Like, I'm not a fingernail chewer, luckily, so that does not affect me.

[B]

I'm. I'm out of liver, though. Oh, you chew on your liver? Yeah.

[A]

Well, something does. Yeah.

[B]

I've got these, like. I mean, this is kind of gross, but I'm a pretty. I'm a pretty fastidious guy. I try to keep things pretty clean, but I do. People will be grossed out by this.

[A]

I will.

[B]

I don't, like, eat my fingernails.

[A]

Like, I.

[B]

When I say I chew them, I don't actually. What I do is I bite on the corner, I pull off a section of fingernail and then I flick it. And then eventually it gets vacuumed up or cleaned up. But there. I walked in to the living room today and looked, and there was just a giant fingernail piece that was sitting on the arm of my couch where I had nervously ripped it away yesterday watching. And by the way, yesterday's game was actually kind of what we had been talking about. The question of, is this fun? It was actually a very Fun game for me as a Mariners fan because the Mariners were doing well from pretty much the get go. So I'm here to report to you, Andrew, that that was fun for me.

[A]

I'm glad to hear. So, I serious, I'm quite serious when I say I've been sort of racking my brain this whole time we've been talking. What have we been recording? Less than a half hour now. Right. And I've been trying to think of other things I can bring into the conversation that is not baseball related. I know we got a very, very nice email. We've gotten several nice emails from listeners who are saying, listen, you don't have to apologize for the baseball talk.

[B]

Like, you're in mind the baseball talk. We don't like the ap, we don't love you. We don't lay off with the apologize.

[A]

They're like, we heard the fingernail talk and we would like more baseball talk and less fingernail talk.

[B]

If that's about really anything that is not fingernail talk, we'd like to see that prioritized.

[A]

Bring back Splooch the turtle if need be.

[B]

Anything.

[A]

Literally anything. No, I, I want to. I. But for listeners who maybe are a little bit tired of just even talking about our baseball experiences, I'm trying to rack my brain of anything else to talk about, but like, unfortunately, yesterday this was it for me. You know, like, I was, I was very anxious about the game. Like you said, the Mariners did end up getting a nice comfortable lead. And I sort of told you this in a text. And this is, this is the point of my story here is at one point, I think the Mariners were up for nothing. And I got a text from a friend of mine and he had just sort of said in the text, well, this is a pretty comfortable lead. And it was early in the game, it was like maybe the fourth inning at the latest. And I was just like, you shut. I didn't say this to him. But internally, I'm just like, you shut your face. You just shut your face. You never call for nothing, you know, early in a game of such import. A comfortable lead now. So anyway, I wasn't comfortable. I was watching the game, but I was enjoying it. Viva was able to watch a lot of it with me. Made some chicken wings that I bought from a. For a previous game that we never ate. And anyway, it was a good time. And then what was it? Luke going into the ninth, or maybe it was still maybe the bottom of the eighth. The Mariners had a. Was it at that point a seven run Lead, I think it was eight, one, maybe a seven run lead after.

[B]

Cal Raleigh hit his big home run.

[A]

Yeah, I wonder who caught.

[B]

Anyway, there's been very little coverage.

[A]

Somebody will find the guy. Somebody will find.

[B]

Why is it. Oh, let's put a pin in that.

[A]

Okay, we'll come back to that. But anyway, at this point we have a seven run lead and I.

[B]

And you.

[A]

You sent me a text message, the kind of off chain just to me. You were off the chain. And you just texted me, by the way, to answer our question from TBTL earlier today. Yes, I am enjoying this. And then I put in a text message to you. The little story that I just said here, I said, yeah, a friend of mine was calling a 4 nothing lead a. A comfortable lead. And I was not comfortable with that. But now I. I think I said, now I'm starting to feel comfortable. And that's when they put Turd Ferguson in, who immediately gave up three runs with no outs. Now I. We don't have to get into the why of that. It does make sense if you have one super weak spot of your bullpen, put him in when you have a seven run lead. I guess, you know, like it worked.

[B]

Yeah, well, it did because they had to eventually use Munoz.

[A]

Exactly. And he had to. To pitch the same number of outs anyway. But I guess if you're ever going to use a guy who can't pitch, that would be the situation to do it in and just hope why you'd.

[B]

Have a guy who can't pitch in the lineup. But. Okay.

[A]

Yeah, that's why I don't count that as a managerial mistake so much as a. Just a. Well, as they say in Batman 89, you see what I have to work with, you know, what are you going to do? You got a Turd Ferguson, you got to play a Turd Ferguson. Anyway, all of that is to say, Luke, I started. I mean, you know this because I texted you that I was mad at myself for. For texting you something, which was unfair.

[B]

I was the one that started that whole thing.

[A]

Well, you started it, but I said something with, you know, in. Not in confidence, but with confidence, you know, and something you rarely do. As I started to watch one run come in and then another run come in, I was like, I think actually the first one was a two run blast or whatever. But I started freaking out in a way that I'm not sure you fully appreciate. And Bingo might even just mute my microphone right now to try.

[B]

Bingo's trying to shut the broadcast down.

[A]

Did you see the tail go by? Is it like Jaws, only a big, floofy tail?

[B]

Yep.

[A]

All right. He launched himself up on the bookshelf. We're good now, Luke. But I was serious, so I texted you. I'm like, well, I'm comfortable now. And then as soon as I hit send on that, runs started coming in with no outs. And I remember earlier this season, the huge collapse of the Mariners when they were playing the Yankees in New York, and Wu had a no hitter going, and then we put the bullpen in, and I conf. I think I told you this. I am the reason they lost that game. We had a nice, comfortable lead. He had pitched a no hitter. The guy to my right at the Vibe Sports Bar and Grill said something like being nervous about going to the bullpen. I said, don't worry about it. We got Brash and Munoz. This isn't a problem. And we immediately shit the bed and lose. And it was a big loss, and it was one of the most painful Mariners losses, especially for a regular season loss. And I am 100% responsible for that with my. With my confidence. And I also remember. I mean, one of the most painful sports memories was, you know, in 2022, in the playoffs when the Astros came back. I can't remember how many runs we had on them, but it was a incredibly unlikely and painful comeback from them. And I am going back to. You literally cannot have a comfortable lead in this series. There's no such thing as a comfortable lead. We got away with it yesterday. But, Luke, if we had another collapse where we had lost, that would have been 100% on me. I will never. And I mean this. I will never text anything with confidence again. Regarding.

[B]

Put you into the category of this not being enjoyable.

[A]

Then I just looked at this. I just looked at Riverside and didn't realize that I've been in this position for a while. I am holding my.

[B]

My big fat is jumping on.

[A]

You just came down at that moment. I didn't even realize that I was gripping my bald forehead that whole time I was telling that story, because I am not. This isn't.

[B]

This is too much pressure for you.

[A]

This isn't. And I want to be very clear, healthy, and this isn't funny. I'm not putting it on. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not trying to make you laugh. I swear to God, Luke. But I was. I was melting into my. They're not melting. I was. I was. I was sitting in my couch, but I was convinced that I had ruined the game and that we were somehow. And we would always remember Game three as the just ultimate shitting of the bed. And the newspapers will always point to me texting you confidently before we shit the bed.

[B]

It's a picture of Truman holding up a newspaper that's got a picture of your text that says, feeling confident.

[A]

That says, andy. Andy defeats Mariners. I don't know. I think the analogy broke somewhere.

[B]

Mariners, Mariners win in laugher. Because I think what Truman is holding up is the newspaper article that was. That was overstating his demise, as it were. But no, this. See, this gets back to the essential question of is this actually fun? Because what you're describing is a grim battle between you and the forces of jinxing and a sense that if you allow yourself to feel enjoyment during the viewing of the game, or certainly if you were to express that in, say, a textual form, then you will have potentially lost the game for the Mariners by messing up the mojo. But then that just. I'm picturing you just, like, gripping the armrest of your couch for nine innings and just staring at the TV again with a sort of a grim determination. That doesn't sound fun to me.

[A]

Well, luckily, there wasn't nine innings of that. I did enjoy most of the game. In fact, I was so relaxed, I even went upstairs, so I had a radio going upstairs, so I went to make some food about halfway through the game. So it's kind of interesting. This was the first, like, kind of postseason game, game that I've been so comfortable with and not, not, not confident at that point, but comfortable with that. I was able to, like, leave the TV broadcast, go upstairs, make some chicken wings, put some tots. I bought some tots. Luke. I don't think I'd bought. I don't think I'd bought tater tots from the grocery store since I was a kid, in which case I probably wouldn't have been the one buying them. But anyway, you know, so I'm, like, kind of air frying some stuff upstairs, listening to the local broadcast, which was kind of fun. I hadn't heard our local boys in so long. And so it was kind of nice to go upstairs, and I actually even had this thought, like, oh, this is kind of like the baseball season. One of the things I like about the baseball season is you don't have to stare at every single pitch. You can also just listen sometimes and go upstairs and miss little bits and details here and there. And so I sort of even had a flashback. So I actually had a really good time yesterday. It was just that ninth inning where it looked like I had caused a collapse for the ages, that I was really. It was probably about. It was probably 10 minutes or less that I just. I kind of really shut down. And it was. After I sent you that text, I was like, I just can't believe this is happening.

[B]

So I'm. I'm so sad to hear that, that this, you know, you had this. This dark night of the soul. I was, of course, stressed out by the fact that Ferguson just was, like, loading the bases and giving up runs and incapable of throwing a strike in the ninth inning, but I did. I still didn't feel like we were going to lose the game, but I did have a creeping sense of, like, well, as they say, Andrew, stranger things have happened. You know what I mean? That's the thing, is that, you know, with sports, there is the statistical probability of, like, whatever is going to go on at a certain point. You know, it's like. It's like the Mariners probably had a 99% chance of winning going into that night thing.

[A]

If you.

[B]

If you took all the games in the history of Major League Baseball where one team has led by that amount going into the ninth inning, it's probably, you know, 99% of the time, that team has prevailed, maybe 99.9% of the time, but there's that little point.01%. Like, and you'd never really know as the. Certainly as the team that is, like, falling apart. It seems like it. You never quite realize that you're in the. That you're in the midst of that happening until it's happened, if that makes any sense. Whereas when you're the team that's coming back, like, I'm thinking about when the Mariners played the Blue Jays and that game where we were down by, like, seven or something, it's like we were, like, it was so exciting as we were climbing back and as we were getting more runs and as we were on the way. Like, I felt like I was witnessing a Toronto collapse that I was highly aware of. I was. I was. I was sort of observing an amazing comeback by our team and also a collapse from the perspective of the other team. But it sort of doesn't feel the same way when you're the team collapsing. In other words, like, I'm sitting there watching this guy last night, and I'm going, okay, well, they need two grand slams to tie the game. When has there been, you know, two grand slams in the same. But then it's like they just keep getting guys on, and now they're just getting runs and there's still no outs. And now it's like, am I witnessing a historic collapse that I'm not even aware is really happening until all of a sudden, you just look up and it's like they're dancing off of the field, you know?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Like, I had that feeling a little bit in the back of my mind. I was, you know, so I was able to mostly tamp it down. But I feel bad for you that you were really struggling.

[A]

And for me, it is tied up in this idea of. I'm not saying I'm right on this, but for me, it's tied up in this sort of notion I have of the Mariners kind of being cursed. And I know everybody who roots for their team. It's very hard for you and I to understand that somebody who roots for the Dodgers gets anxious during a game. Right. But they do, I assume. Yeah.

[B]

You know, they're people like you and me.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. When they're rooting for the Dojers, as. As they. As they just watch their team continue to win and win and win, you think, well, you never get nervous. And actually, the Dodgers might not even be the best example, because that's where they are right now. But, like, I got a text message from our friend and listener, Maggie, out there in Swarthmore, Right?

[B]

Oh, sure. So she's a Phillies fan.

[A]

She's a huge Phillies fan. No, Phil, during the season, like, will text me baseball stuff, and I know is a huge Phillies fan, and I'm assuming has been for a long, long time. And she texted me yesterday. I'm guessing she will not hear this conversation because she texted me and just said, listen, the Phillies are getting beaten up by the Dodgers, and I am in a lot of sports pain over here. And so I'm taking a little bit of a break from TBTL because I just can't hear. Like, it's just really hard for me to hear people happy about their team, which I actually understand. Although I didn't realize I sounded happy about my team. I thought I sounded close.

[B]

You get.

[A]

No, that is true. No. And this is what I tried to say in the show yesterday, and I didn't end up ever making any sense with my blathering, but I am happy. And I will always think of this season, of this couple of weeks of Mariners baseball, and it's going. No matter what happens, I do believe it's going to be a happy memory for me. I've seen friend groups and just the entire city come together in a way that I've never seen before about something that.

[B]

My daughter, who has no particularly strong Seattle sports allegiance. It's like, it is a really fun and kind of, it's an amazing thing to have happen to your city.

[A]

And again, part of it is like the Seattle fan base is not used to this when it comes to baseball, Right? Yeah. And so it's hard for me, and this is maybe what I was getting at with Maggie is like maybe it's a better example of the Phillies than the Dodgers. I think of the Phillies as a team, especially when you look at both football and baseball. But even just looking at the Phillies like they're pretty consistently making it to the playoffs, I know they've won the World Series a couple of times they've made it. I don't know how many times they've made it, but a lot. You know, and for me, I'm not trying to dismiss the fan anxiousness and pain that people like Maggie are feeling in that market, but for me, the fact that the Mariners have never made it, never ever made it to a World Series, it feels like the way Boston used to talk about the Curse of the Bambino, sort of, it felt, it feels like a curse.

[B]

Except our team is likable.

[A]

Except our team is.

[B]

Our fan base are good, freedom loving Americans. Exactly.

[A]

And so I feel like there's always. That's why I was so upset, even though, like, I totally agree with you about the 99% probability of winning last night. It felt like it could all collapse because I believe there's some sort of dark magic going. Yes, yes. And like more than baseball. Yes. And then at any moment we're going. Now it's ironic that I'm talking about that when a lot of people have credited an Etsy witch for the Mariner's success getting into the postseason. But I just can't ever shake the feeling that like, no, no, we are going to be cursed and it's going to be, it's going to be an almost laughable, if it weren't so painful way that we end up, you know, stumbling in some way so that we have to reset it all again next year or something. And so that's why even given the immense probability of a win with just three outs to go, I was absolutely losing my mind last night because I don't think about it in terms of baseball. I think about it in terms of the dark arts.

[B]

And also, and we've talked about this before, for me, anyway, I can say there is a feeling that the real, actual news of the real world is so bleak. And so like, every time you think that the final norm that can be violated and smashed through has been violated and smashed through, you just find out there's another one that they're gonna violate. And you've got Kristi Noem sitting on the roof of the ICE facility in Portland trying to get a photo op. By the way, that was actually really funny because There was like 10 people there, including the guy in the chicken suit who's gotten kind of famous.

[A]

Like, not the frog suit, the chicken. I've only seen the frog suit. I'm not following that closely.

[B]

This is a chicken suit guy who's been out there for kind of a long time. And. And like, they obviously made this video. The idea was it was supposed to show Kristi Gnome, like, staring down the antifa thugs. But first of all, there's like maybe eight people there like that are protesting and they're just kind of standing, looking at her on this roof kind of apoplectically like, there's no tear gas. There's no like, you know, it's not like, you know, these black clad rioters that are doing battle with the police. It's just some basically Portland liberals that are just kind of like, what are you doing up there? And then like, she looks down and then like, they. This is the video that they put out. This was the video that basically ICE is trying to use to show that they're, you know, getting Portland under control or whatever, or that Portland is a hellscape. And it's just, again, it's a guy leaning against the fence in a chicken costume just looking up at the roof like, huh, it's so perfect, actually.

[A]

How is the guy in the chicken the more normal of the two?

[B]

Well, I mean, without a doubt. But anyway, the world, and in particular America, is such a anxiety producing place for people of our persuasion. And it feels somehow like. It feels. What it feels like is that the darkest timeline is always playing out all the time, everywhere. And somehow if my Seattle Mariners were to go and win the World Series, even though it doesn't affect any of that stuff, it would somehow feel like some part of this darkness is sort of broken, some amount of light has gotten through. I mean, and I understand how crazy that sounds because one thing is real people's lives and real world events and families being torn apart. And, you know, all of the things that we know are going on out there, that's real life. The Gino Suarez getting off the Schneid is not real life. That really matters a whole lot. But I've now connected these things in my mind. I have connected. The Mariners doing well somehow is connected to how dark the world of politics is, and it's a sort of a counterbalance to that. And then when things like when Ferguson starts just loading the bases and getting no outs, it feels like Stephen Miller found a new way to rip families apart. And he's just doing it, and he just gets to do it because they. Cause, you know, they got the votes last time by a very small margin. So that's adding to this kind of feeling around this. Like, I swear to God, if. Like, if Kamala Harris was the president right now, I do, I would be very plugged into these games, but I don't know if it would feel. It feels life and death to me. You know what I mean? Like, it feels like my actual life is on the line when this baseball team is playing. And granted, I've always been. I've always been, like, too into this stuff. And I'm not saying that I wouldn't be freaking out about the Mariners playing in the postseason regardless, but I swear to God, there is an element to it that is. Feels unmanageable to me as far as how much I care about this, and I do think it's because of what's going on in the rest of the world.

[A]

That's interesting. I totally understand that, but I don't think that's part of it for me. Weirdly, I feel like maybe some of those thoughts creep in a little bit more with football, especially when I was more kind of engaged with football, more emotionally engaged with football. But there was also so many more explicitly political things happening in football during those years and still are, you know, like, whether is. Is it Joey Bosa who is like, the. The. The Big MAGA guy? Sometimes I can confuse these guys. There's two.

[B]

There's two of them. There's Nick and Joey, and I'm one for the maga.

[A]

Had. And it's literally has been appointed to some, like, stupid cultural committee by Trump or whatever. Anyway, it. Anyway. And.

[B]

And.

[A]

But I love that.

[B]

Weren't you the one that pointed out to me that you think it's hilarious that he has to play for The San Francisco 49ers?

[A]

Yeah, we were talking. I was kind of like, yeah, at least he has to. Where the San Francisco colors. He's not going back to. I don't know. I don't want to throw any other team under the bus, but anyway, a team that would maybe be less associated with the radical left.

[B]

It's the godless radical left, San Francisco. And it's pretty funny that he has to be on that team.

[A]

Yeah. But any hoozles? I feel it a little bit more because I think it's hard not to think about politics when I'm watching football. I'm not saying this to counteract what you just said, because I think I understand it intellectually, and I think I've had little bits. Bits of that here and there, but I'm not attaching that to this particular thing. I think for me, the only connection between the two is I am basically using baseball as this giant shield right now. Like, I haven't thought about shit.

[B]

I didn't rig. I haven't thought about shit.

[A]

I just haven't. Like, honestly, when you mentioned that video from Gnome, I'm just now remembering that Genevieve. I was doing some work in here, waiting for the rain delay to end, and I heard Genevieve say something about Kristi Noem from her computer, and I couldn't hear what it was. It's one of those things where she's probably talking to herself, slash, talking to me at the same time, because she saw this video, I'm assuming now flash across her computer or something like that. And I wasn't even. I didn't even say, watch that, honey. I don't think I call her honey. But, you know, I didn't even say, like, what is that? I just. Like, whatever. It's another. I just. I am not paying attention to all the. It's just. It's unrelenting. You know, I just. Again, I open up blue sky, and it's just like. It's just unrelenting. Just. Just news that is so beyond the pale. And also the. The. The irony of the people who are supporting and propping this up, what the things that they're propping up is the exact same things that they complained about when it was an imaginary thing coming from the left. Left. It's incredible when you talk about just like, you know, being scared of too much big government and we need guns because at some point the big government could come in and take over our cities. And now they're supporting a big government that's coming in with the army and taking over cities. It's bananas.

[B]

So why is it, Andrew, then, that you and I, who are looking for some kind of glimmer of good news in this world and things that make us feel good, why do I have the sense that you and I are both slightly underwhelmed with the story of the guy who Caught Cal Raleigh 61st home run and was wearing a shirt that said dump here 61. I mean it is a one in. I mean I don't know how many people are in that stadium. It's. It's a one in like 47,000 chance or something. Just literally based on the number of tickets, but then also that he would even just be exact. The ball would bounce one time. This is what happened in the, I think eighth inning of last night's game. Kyle Raleigh, of course, famous catcher now for the Seattle Mariners, hit a bunch of home runs this season. He'd hit 60. And he hits his 61st home run. It bounces in the bullpen, so it goes over the fence. It bounces once and it bounces directly up to a guy who's wearing a shirt that says like basically hit the. Hit the home run.

[A]

To me, Cal Dump here. It says dump here.

[B]

Yeah, 61.

[A]

Yeah, 61. And this 61st home run of the. Well, of the year, I guess.

[B]

And it's statistically just. It's so unlikely that that home run would be hit to that guy because also they're playing in Detroit. So there's going to be many more Tigers fans than Mariners fans. He's the only Mariners fan like in his immediate area. It's a pretty crazy story. And yet somehow I think you and I are both kind of like, eh. Why are we both eh. About this story?

[A]

Well, I. I don't know if I'm eh. I'm more of a. No, I. I don't. It's so I want to tell this story in a way that doesn't hurt any feelings because I had kind of confided something in you at the beginning.

[B]

You don't have to bring that up.

[A]

I wasn't. No. But I don't know if I'm about it. I guess for me I. I thought it was kind of funny. And this sounds like it's so. It's so rud. Who would have sent this in? But I kind of woke up this morning. We watched the game live, right? And we saw this guy who had the 61 shirt. And then after that he peels off his shirt so it says 62, like he's ready for the next home run. As you pointed out later, the likelihood of Cal Rally coming back up to the plate in this game if he were to hit a 62nd only have.

[B]

Been because of the very titanic collapse we described.

[A]

Exactly, exactly.

[B]

It would be such a bad situation if he had a chance to hit a 62nd home run.

[A]

And I also appreciated the fact that at a certain point he got cold and he had to put his 61 shirt back on over his 62.

[B]

Yeah, but situational awareness, my dude.

[A]

But anyway, I wasn't, I wasn't irritated or even meh about it. The broadcast just covered it like crazy. They kept showing it, kept showing it, kept showing it.

[B]

I was stoked about it in the moment. I was high fiving Walt.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

By the way, I had a really nice time watching the game with Walt.

[A]

Oh, good of him. I'm glad.

[B]

He seemed, he seemed equally, he did, he did do one thing. I think it was good that I went in, in the mindset of, like, I'm going to watch this game, my dad's going to be here. And because of the rain delay, too, like, he was, he'd knocked off for the day, so he was very, he was pretty plugged into the game. But he did come in the room. There was a point where the Tigers got a base hit. It might have been their first base hit of the game. And he walked in and he didn't realize that the Tigers were the ones in white. And he goes, oh, good.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

And you know that, had that been like an RBI double or something, like in the eighth inning, I could, I may have committed, you know, Patrick.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

But luckily it was early. And I was like, oh, no, no, that's. Those are the Tigers. And he was like, he was very apologetic, which tells you he knows how unhinged I am. It wasn't just like, oh, okay. It was like, oh, I'm sorry. It was like, no, dad, that's totally cool. That just there in the white, it looks like I could see how you think that was the Mariners upon first question, quick glance, but we had a.

[A]

Really nice sweet uniforms. By the way, Those, those big Ds on the front of it, the classic kind of script. Yeah, those are nice.

[B]

Absolutely. Again, I'm, I, I, I wish absolutely the best for the Detroit Tigers and the city of D2 Roy. Just not against this team. But anyway, I watched it with my dad and we had a fun time, but I was very psyched about this moment when the guy in the 61 shirt got the ball. So, like, I went to bed last night, like, very, like, oh, that was cool. What that, that happened to him. And then I woke up this morning and I found, I don't know, it just, it feels like everybody who's covering it kind of can't even believe how crazy it is. And it's like, it is really crazy. Like, I admit that, but for some reason there's just a point at which something becomes over covered for me where I just, it kind of takes a little bit of, I don't know, the fun out of it for me.

[A]

And also his comments on the homeless industrial.

[B]

That was honestly, can we get one rando fan who doesn't have bad politics, please?

[A]

No, I'm obviously joking about that. That's a callback to yesterday.

[B]

Savannah Bananas hat guy who was crying after games too.

[A]

It was not. I don't think this guy is a conservative radio host and active lives in.

[B]

Las Vegas, but he was raised just down the hill from me in Long Beach.

[A]

Interesting. But all I was going to say was kind of, I'm not even met on the story. For me though, I woke up and I was scrolling through blue sky and all of you know, blue sky is. I'm on there mostly for like Mariners content. So I follow all kinds of fans. And I think I was surprised at how much Mariners fans are still reposting the same thing over and over in the morning because I'm like, well, we all saw. And I guess I just sort of had this thing of just kind of like. And then somebody, you know, a couple of people were sending it to me and this sounds like really, really rude, but I was just sort of thinking like, that's interesting that you would send this to me on Wednesday morning. I was thinking like, do you, do you think that I missed this? Like, how. Obviously I didn't miss this. Like, this was like a huge. And I guess if you're in another market and you're not watching the game live and you don't realize how much attention has been on it. And also. And I don't.

[B]

And you haven't, you haven't been subjected to all of our TBTL conversations.

[A]

And by the way, I don't even think any. Liz, I don't have to really worry about. I don't think listeners were sending it in. Listeners know like the guys are clocking it. Like they, they're on this. But like some family members or whatever, like, hey, do you see this guy? And I was like, yeah, I saw this guy. He became like the star of the broadcast. Like it was in. It is inescapable. And it was all over social media in the moment. And I kind of got to remember, not everybody is in the moment as I am, but it was kind of this morning as people are still sending it in to me 12 hours later. I'm like, yeah, you know, I know I know about this guy. We all. We all know about this guy. But that's a little bit of a snotty thing. That's why I sort of had.

[B]

I know. Well, listen. Listen to how snotty I am. When I heard that he had also been to, I think, a game in Seattle with the shirt and hit and Cal hadn't hit the 61st and hadn't hit it to him, I kind of was like, well, if you go to every game and you wear a 61, you're going to get the ball. That's what my brain. Which is insane because I've never caught a home run. I've never even, you know, had a home run bounced to me. In a lifetime of going to professional baseball games, I have one foul ball that was from Ellis Burks, and it was because my friend Peter Williams kicked a businessman in the hand while I grabbed it and we were in foul territory like a unbelievably lightly attended Mariners game in the Kingdom. That's the one time that I can remember getting maybe in batting practice. That's not true. I think I've gotten a couple balls in, like, batting practice as, you know, a kid. You get there early. But basically, like, the chances of getting a home run are on, like, a personal basis. The chances of any one person getting home run are pretty small.

[A]

In Detroit.

[B]

In Detroit. And it being the actual. The 61st home run of Cal, Raleigh, and you having that shirt on, I mean, it's. It is. It is wild. It's statistically so improbable. And yet, Andrew, I'm so jaded that when I heard he'd been to other games with the shirt on, I was like, well, of course you're going to get it at some point. As in if that, like, as if that made. Made his chances 100%. I mean, this. What I'm talking about here is the fact that my brain is broken and that almost nothing really can bring me lasting joy anymore.

[A]

Well, it might just be kind of coming on like the. Coming on the heels of the, you know, crying Mariners fan from the game before then this one, it does. And I, you know, a couple of years ago in the run up to the playoffs, it was the kid who put his shoe on his head and he had just done that and called it a rally shoe. And the next thing, you know, the entire stad. In. In, you know, the fallopy games. Yeah. I mean, it ends up becoming a whole thing. There are still people who put shoes on their heads as some sort of comeback rally thing in Mariners Nation, and it's just because one person did that and then, you know, got the attention of the. Of the cameras in the moment, then got the attention of the, you know, press afterwards. And, you know, so I don't know. You have these organic moments, and I'm not even. This isn't me complaining about the coverage or whatever. I actually think our local media has been doing a good job. Do you notice how I just powered through that, by the way? You thought I was going to clear my throat. You thought I was.

[B]

I.

[A]

You thought that was. Clear your throat? I was.

[B]

I was. You know what? Honestly, New Mariners, new Andrew, like, see, this is a Mariners team that, like, our best players are playing well when we need them to play well. That's a totally different experience for us. And you just, like, you just had something glottal occur and you just.

[A]

I just powered through. I didn't even. I didn't even stop. That was. You heard a little Caleb Ferguson coming up, like, trying to. Trying to take my joy away. But I said, not today, Caleb.

[B]

No, you. You. You. You introduced. Enticed them. You induced them into the double play ball, and we were able to get off the field.

[A]

Anyway, all of that is to say I think the coverage has been nice. I just think that maybe you're getting a little bit, without thinking about it at the forefront of your mind, a little fatigued with the. Now this fan has their cute scene.

[B]

We can agree that the only celebrity fan that matters is the little girl who eats the cotton candy and goes super cyan.

[A]

Yes. How old is that kid? Now?

[B]

Do not ask about her politics.

[A]

Yes. Or her age, because, I mean, how old is that? Is that from the 20 teens? Maybe.

[B]

I don't know when it's from, but it's. If you haven't seen it, it's this little. It's this little girl at the Mariners game, and she's, like, eating, like, electric blue cotton candy, I think, and then, like, getting really hyped, and then somebody animated it so that it was almost like an electrical charge was shooting through her. And it's a very famous meme and gif, I should say, within Mariner Land. And she is. She's our only. She's our one true celebrity fan that I can get behind.

[A]

I don't even know about the electricity thing. I just know about the gif of her eating the candy and looking like her eyes are wide and she looks absolutely out of her mind as she's eating this crack candy and rooting for the Mariners. Is there one where she gets hit by an electric bolt or something?

[B]

Oh, you know what? Yeah, I'm looking at this now. I guess that the. It's so funny.

[A]

It is so great.

[B]

The unique. The like un retouched one. Well, there is one that I've seen where somebody went in and kind of like did this whole. Basically put this like electric charge going through her. And again, I think it might literally be something that happens in a video game.

[A]

I see. You know, I don't know if I've.

[B]

Seen that version, but honestly, you don't need it. The. Just her and the cotton candy is plenty. It's enough.

[A]

It's so good. Thank you, baby.

[B]

All right, let's thank some of our donors. This is 100 listener supported podcasting. And it's thanks to folks like I was listening this morning, Andrew, to Pablo Torre finds out who's interviewing Ira Glass.

[A]

I'm behind on that. Oh, really?

[B]

Yeah, I know it's. It's hard for me because it's like I was sort of friendly with Ira years ago. I mean, I guess we. You. You would say we're still friendly. We just don't talk that often. Mostly I ask him, hey, do you want to be on Livewire? And he says, ah, my schedule's really tight right now. But they had, they. This American Life adapted a Pablo Torre piece.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

For Tal. And now they're freaking thick as thieves out there in New York City. The two of them just besties. And I'm just sitting on the sidelines of life. Andrew.

[A]

I would say that Pablo Tori finds out takes. It's like the most. It's the. A podcast that's dedicated to sports that takes the most influence from this American Life. I wouldn't say it's like this American Life, but like sports podcasts tend to be people chatting about sports, you know, with maybe segments here or there. But it's a. Produced very much. You can tell that it's inspired by this American Life kind of style.

[B]

Absolutely. It's, it's. The stories are very well told and he's been a big this American Life fan. So he had Ira on. It was great. But they were talking about the business, the podcast business and how it's changing and how it's very rough out there. And Ira was saying, yeah, basically we're not making money on podcasting anymore. And so they started their own kind of membership group called Life Partners, which I think is a pretty funny name. And he said that it's really helped them out. But anyway, and they were just talking about the sort of business model of podcasting. And I'm just sitting on the treadmill kind of thinking, well, we got one that works somehow. It's. It's what we do at TBTL. And it's thanks to folks like Toby McPhail of Denver, Colorado.

[A]

Beautiful Denver. Love.

[B]

Lovely Denver.

[A]

Denver. Yeah. Sometimes I have that little electronic picture frame in the corner of my basement skylight. It's just always. Yeah. And it's always just sort of like shuffling through photos. And a bunch of them are photos that I took in Denver. Remember, we were there right in the beginning of. Or kind of right smack dab in the middle of summer, I think. Right. It's just beautiful weather. Beautiful.

[B]

Being oppressively hot, though, which I know Denver can get really warm in the summertime. I mean, it was the thawn, so presumably it would have been, what, probably.

[A]

Late June, early June. I don't know.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Anyway, I love Denver, Toby. Thank you. I love you too.

[B]

Thanks to Jennifer Bjrman of Jersey City, New Jersey.

[A]

Now, Jennifer, you just heard me say I love you to Toby, which is something I've never said during the on air donor thank yous. And now I worry. No, I worry. I will see. I. If I do it for everybody. I think it gets real weird real fast. But now. But Jennifer is the first name to come up since I told one donor that I love them. And I don't know what to do here. I feel like it's creepy if I say I love you, but it's withholding if I don't.

[B]

Yeah, you've really painted yourself into a corner for old Jennifer Bjrman and also for Claire Walsh, who's in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I was very dismissive of Red Sox fans earlier and I feel bad about that. Claire, I want to apologize to you for that statement and let you know.

[A]

That Andrew does love you, but in a familial way, because your last name is Walsh. So how could I not?

[B]

Exactly. And you may be related. It's possible. What about Welch? Did your family change it from Welch to Walsh at Ellis Island? Because we grew up. We have a Kelly Welch who's over in Sherwood, Oregon.

[A]

Ah, Kelly. Thank you. Was your last name ever Kokulska? Because I believe that was my original family name. It was changed when my grandfather was adopted. Walsh is a very Irish sounding name. There's zero Irish in my lineage.

[B]

Very Polish. You know what? When I was down at Dozer Day on. On Saturday, I was talking to this guy. I really liked him. He was Volunteering with Dozer Day. But he had a big. He had a Cleveland Browns sweatshirt on. And I said, are you a Browns fan? And he said, well, yeah, it's tough. But he had grown up in Ohio and he had moved out here for work. He ended up working in the kind of heavy equipment industry, which he's retired from. I think his name was lj, but he. He was like, oh, yeah. He's like, well, well, this was convenient day. I'm volunteering. And then I said, afterwards, me and my wife are going to go to the Polish festival in Portland. I was like, wow, you're really leaning into this. This Browns fan Polish Festival. I was like. And then this is. You know, the listeners sometimes, Andrew, talk about, like, what. How do they describe us to their friends? Like, how do they describe something they heard on tbt? Do you have to say, I heard it on a podcast? Or can you just say my friends were talking about it? Like, I run into my own. And by the way, you can just say, I was talking to my friends about this. You have 100% our permission to describe us as your friends. You don't even have to mention it was a podcast.

[A]

You can say we've dated. Absolutely. You can call me.

[B]

You can say we got to third base. Zach Jones of Conroe, Texas. You can say that we got the third base. I'm okay with that.

[A]

I'm drawing the line at second base for me personally. But you can say you got the third base with Luke.

[B]

But you're at second base. But you're taking a big lead. Yeah, you're taking. You're taking a big lead to see if they hit the cutoff man. Everything comes back to baseball, Andrew. Thank you, Zach, in Conroe. And thanks also to Michael Seaton in Andrew. Westlake, Ohio.

[A]

I know. I was looking ahead there. Look at this. We have a Westlake, Ohio. We have a Walsh in here. I mean, this is. This was a.

[B]

We could get Erie Screw company in on this somehow. We'd have the slam dunk. But this is the thing, Andrew. I realized in talking to this guy from Cleveland, and I'm talking about Samaski's pizza, and I'm talking about, like, I probably didn't bring up the Lake Erie Screw company, but it's like, I have. Have a. Oh, I was asking him if he listened to WMMS in the morning.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

Oh, yeah, of course. And he said, we were talking about Chuck and Little Big Chuck and Little John. He knew he got into Gulardi. Oh, nice Which I was able to tell him, that's Paul Thomas Anderson's dad. Which I had learned from you. But I go into this like he.

[A]

Didn'T know what kind of a Cleveland night is he.

[B]

But he was like, it was so interesting, or not interesting, but it was something, I guess, that, like the fact that I did not grow up in Cleveland, but because you and I have just spent so much, much time together talking over the course of this show that like, I know about wmms, I know about Big Chuck and Little John. Like, I just know all this stuff and I'm trying to. And I'm just. I'm just like whizzing him all these smokers of kind of like Cleveland and Ohio life. And then it's like, why in the world would I know this? And I was like, well, I've got a friend who's from Ohio. And that was as far as I went. Because I didn't want to get into like, I host, I co host a podcast with a guy who's from Ohio. And so I've got a lot of this information. I didn't feel like getting into the podcast, but so then instead I'm just.

[A]

Did you say we went to third base?

[B]

We went all the way. We got rounded third base and got to home.

[A]

Well, wait, when I was running into third, I felt a slimy turd. Yes.

[B]

Yeah, you felt a turd, Ferguson. But basically like what I ended up doing was just saying, like, I know all this crazy deep dive stuff about Ohio. Cause I have a friend from Ohio. But that story just doesn't pass the sniff time. Imagine that you just have a friend from somewhere and you're going to know that much about the place like it does. That doesn't check out. That isn't. I have friends from all over. I don't know nearly as much about their towns as I do about Cleveland and the greater Cleveland area because of this show. So I almost found myself in the position of being one of the listeners trying to describe something that I'd heard on TBTL without getting into the fact that I heard it on tbt. Yeah.

[A]

Once you're getting into like Big Chuck and Little John level, when you're getting into Gulardi level of broing down on Cleveland. Like the. That's definitely. And of a certain generation as well, obviously. I'm assuming this person was our age or older. A little bit older, certainly. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

And. But then also, let me put it this way, I really enjoyed talking to this guy. We end up interviewing him for the piece. He was great. But I also. I felt like I should have gotten a little bit more excitement out of my Big Chuck and Little John reference. Just because, like, he wasn't.

[A]

Was that getting near the edge of his. Do you think that he was maybe just nodding along to the Big Chuck?

[B]

No, no, he knew. Because I think I said Chuck and John. He said, oh, Big Chuck and Little.

[A]

Okay, good.

[B]

So he know. He definitely knew. He also had season tickets to the Browns on the. In the game where John Elway led the Denver Broncos. By the way, shout back out to Toby McPhail in Denver when the Denver Broncos marched down the field and scored a touchdown, I think, to beat. I think they beat the. The Browns.

[A]

Yeah, the drive.

[B]

He was at that game, and he was. And. And I also weirdly remember that game vividly. I remember where. This is like an Andrew thing, because you tend to remember where you were when you heard something or maybe you watched something.

[A]

There's certain things. Yeah. They just stick in my brain.

[B]

I was at the Cleveland Boys and Girls Club or Cleveland. I was the Greenwood Boys and Girls. That would have been very weird. No, I was at the Greenwood Boys and Girls Club. And I think that game must have been on a. My memory is it was on a Saturday. It could have been a Sunday.

[A]

It was a playoff game. So you're right.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. And there was nobody at the Boys and Girls Club except me. I remember it was just like. Because it wasn't like at school, you know, parents were not sending their kids there to basically have them babysat or whatever. It was just me. And it was one of those TVs that. You know, those kind of huge TVs that had all this wood. Like, it was almost like a cabinet.

[A]

Yes, absolutely. Yes.

[B]

And this cabinet sat on the ground. So it was an old tube television. It's probably color, but this would have been, like, over the air, you know? And there was no cable tv. This is me sitting. And it's like that the furniture is dingy. Cause it's like, it's the positive place for kids. It's like you got a couch that someone donated to the Boys and Girls Club. And I remember just, like sitting on this couch and watching this Cleveland Brown Denver Broncos game. And weirdly, like, having kind of almost a feeling of wistfulness. Cause I guess. Cause it's sort of like going to your school on the weekend. Like if you're kind of playing on your school playground, but it's not school time.

[A]

It feels weird. Right. You almost get this Feeling in your stomach, sort of. By the way, it was a Sunday. Really wanted to. I wanted it to be a Saturday so bad. But I looked it up. It was a Sunday, January 11, 1987.

[B]

And I just remember. Yeah, so I would have been. So that I would have been 11 years old, and I'm at the Boys and Girls Club, probably because it was just, like, nothing going on at my house. Also, maybe we didn't have a TV at the time. I don't know. But I remember just, like, sitting there and watching that game. And again, my association with that memory is one of a little bit of wistfulness for some reason. So, anyway, my point is, I thought that this. Between knowing a lot about that game and also knowing a lot about Big Chuck and Little John and Samoski's, I would have really.

[A]

I. Oh, he didn't know Samaskis. There's no way that's valid.

[B]

I don't know if he knew some.

[A]

That would be.

[B]

Yeah, that was. But the rest of it, I was very proud of. I was very proud of my Cleveland flex. And I'm very proud of our donors today for supporting tbtl. Thank you all. We absolutely could not do this without you.

[A]

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

[B]

Andrew. I'm not just putting this on for the show. My heart is broken right now as I'm watching a hummingbird repeatedly try to get sustenance from the dry well that is my hummingbird feeder.

[A]

You have to go refund.

[B]

And today, this morning, when I was on my little treadmill run listening to Pablo Torre finds out, I was like this. This has been happening constantly because the hummingbirds have gotten the memo that there's.

[A]

Free food here, here.

[B]

And. And so I was like, oh, that's empty. I gotta go refill that. And then I totally forgot before the show. And now throughout the show, they just keep coming up and they just keep, like, poking their little snouts in there and doing it over and over and over again and getting nothing out of there. And it makes me feel terrible.

[A]

Hey, while we're in the email vmail segment, and while you brought up the idea of neighborhood birds, let me share something with you. I got an email to the kind of neighborhood email list. You know, I received these things. So this wasn't for. To me, it was to the entire neighborhood, everybody who's on this list that I'd never really participate in, but I just kind of received These things. I know we have a neighbor and I think I actually know her husband, although I don't think I've ever met her in person before, who is an animal lover and definitely, I think has cats, but also truly cares about the birds in the neighborhood in the same way Genevieve does. Like, our whole yard is very much. It's bird first, human second. That's for damn sure. And. And this neighbor has a big concern about cats just being allowed to wander around the neighborhood because they can hurt the birds and the bird population and everything. Genevieve agrees with that. And that's why Genevieve would never agree to have an outdoor cat. But I thought it was interesting that I got, or we all got an email from this neighbor this morning that the subject line is just outdoor kitties. And then the text is, hi, here's a link for something you can put on your cats when they're outdoors to protect the bird population. I am happy to help purchase these items if needed. Thank you. And I thought this was very interesting. I don't even know that I have an opinion. I wanted your opinion on it because I think it's. It's 100% non pointing fingers or calling anybody out or taking any kind of tone. It's 100% solution oriented and even saying, I will. I'm happy to purchase this, but you can read between the lines that this neighbor is. Is pretty concerned about the fact that people are letting their cats wander around the neighborhood. Something that, I'll be honest with you, doesn't really bother me as much because I'm not following the ins and outs of the birds as closely. And I've always just been like, I don't know. They birds, they cats. Like, I don't know. Yeah, they figure it out. And they usually figure it out.

[B]

The birds they catch, they figure it out. Maybe that's the end of story.

[A]

So anyway, but I thought it was interesting. Like, I definitely don't hate this. I just thought it was an interesting. Like, clearly she saw something that she didn't like and wanted to put this out there and even said, hey, listen, I'll help buy it. I wonder if anybody will, you know, take her up on this offer. And by the way, this is something that I'm sure I didn't even click on the link, but I'm sure it's something that you put around the cat's neck that, like, creates. Oh, it's. It doesn't even create noise. It creates. It's like a very, very colorful, like, clown collar thing that you can put.

[B]

So the birds see it coming.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. And I gotta say, interesting. The. The website for it, it shows a cat wearing it, and I can't believe how grumpy they make this cat look. Look, they should. If they want to sell these, they should make the cat look happy to be wearing it. This cat looks so pissed off that he's wearing this collar. Yeah.

[B]

You know, I'm looking around here at the. Because we have a lot of this, like, feral cats that just live in my neighborhood that just kind of like live outside and roam around. And fortunately, I've not witnessed them getting too many birds. I'm sure they must do it sometime. We had listeners when. When I would let. Back when. When I was living in Bellingham and had Olive the cat, we had some listeners reach out and kind of say, like, hey, you know, cats are an invasive species. Really. Like, you put them. You let them go outside and roam around, and they're going to kill a lot of birds. And it's really sad and bad for the birds. And I think at the time, I remember thinking, all right, everybody calm down. I think I'm actually more inclined towards that theory now.

[A]

Yeah, no, I definitely understand it from living with Genevieve for so long. I'm more open to it.

[B]

And there were also. That was unfortunately, hard learned information because Olive would bring in animals that she had caught, and it was pretty. It was pretty upsetting. Honestly.

[A]

That might have been what happened to my neighbor. You know, my neighbor might have. You know, whoever sent this email out in the neighborhood might have gone out into her yard and saw a beloved bird, you know, on the ground. Like, I. I'm. I'm not trying to dismiss that, by the way. When I, you know, kind of say they'll figure it out. I know that it's grim for bird lovers.

[B]

Well, and. And the fact that they're offering to buy the thing, I think that's the. To me, that's the actually really smart part of this move is. You're right. It doesn't seem finger waggy. It. It doesn't seem like I'm writing a Yelp review. By the way, I've gone in and edited that for clarity and non. Insanity, just so you know. And I've added photos.

[A]

Oh, okay. Oh. Of like the damage they did to.

[B]

The damage of the Sheetrock.

[A]

I can't now.

[B]

What do you think about this? I. Which now it's fixed because I had my dad build basically, you know, put trim around the. Where the. The H vac unit is coming out of the wall. So you can't see that anymore. But, like, you know, that cost me $80 of Walt's labor to do it, plus the materials. But it's funny. I can't let it go with this company that came out and. And overcharged me and didn't figure out the problem. Like, I literally have gone back to that Yelp review that I wrote for them, and I literally edited it so that I seemed less crazy, because I want people to. If they see it, I want them to take heed.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And I. You know what I mean? Like, so I. There's a lot of things that I do when I'm triggered that I look back and I'm like, I really regret it. Whether it's a text I sent or maybe a post I post somewhere or whatever. This one, I don't regret it. I just want it to be as effective as possible. So I've gone in and, like, changed it. I changed it once, and then I added photos.

[A]

But I'm looking at these photos good. Close up on the damage that they did. I actually think that's. That's really fair. It's interesting because I was. I've never. You know, I know that TBTL has a Yelp page, as we recently learned. I was thinking about, should I claim this? Because you can claim it as your business. I'm like, I don't think I want updates as people are leaving reviews of tbtl. I think maybe I'll just let that flow.

[B]

I don't think we would. Definitely not in the morning for you.

[A]

Yes, exactly. That's why I was getting. That's what I sort of getting at. Like, if you want to send. Well, whatever I want to. I don't want to get on that topic because I won't be able to stop. But anyway, Felton Heating and Cooling must be getting notifications when you post something and potentially when you edit something, too, because a lot of people who run these companies will then respond to your complaint and say, hey, we're sorry that you had this situation. Why don't you get a hold of us privately? We'll make it good. Like, you see that a lot on Yelp. I don't know how much into the Yelp universe you are, Luke, but that's a pretty common thing. So you know that they are seeing this review, and they're probably seeing that, like, because we have listeners, like, 20. It looks like. Oh, my God. Yeah, it looks like almost, if I'm doing my math right, 60 to 70 people have reacted to this in some way. Like, that's. They're probably getting pings on this thing.

[B]

And so that's the thing, Andrew. I don't think they really care, because my guess is that they've been around for a long time. They probably have pretty steady business. Yes, they have a Yelp page, but, like, I don't think it's quite like a restaurant or something. Like, I remember, you know, when. When my. My sister and her husband were. They didn't own the restaurant, but they worked at this restaurant called Toro Bravo in Portland. That was like, a really big deal. And my sister Sarah, one of her main jobs was basically trying to kind of, like, mollify people in the Yelp comics.

[A]

Yeah, right.

[B]

Oftentimes people who. They. The people were kind of unhinged. But even so, like, her whole job was to try to keep their. Yeah, Yelp page pristine by. If you complained, you know, offering you a gift card or, you know, really kind of like, peacemaking with all these people. By the way, that show the Peacemaker, have you heard anything about this with John Cena?

[A]

Yeah. Are you joking?

[B]

Oh, I didn't know. Oh, so. Oh, you're into it.

[A]

Oh, yeah. I. Well, I haven't watched the second season yet, but I was. I thought. I figured it must.

[B]

Maybe we talked about this.

[A]

I don't know. I. I think so, because I was talking about how much I love James Gunn recently, and one of the reasons is because I. I love. Love the. The movie and the TV show that came out of the movie.

[B]

I was. I. I tried to watch it with my dad the other night. First of all, there was a really surprising sexual moment in the first.

[A]

Yeah, the first episode. Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

That I didn't see coming. I didn't really want to watch with Walt.

[A]

Yeah, right.

[B]

It kind of came out of. Came out of a complete left field. Maybe I should go rewatch it. I. Maybe. I don't know what my expectation. I mean, I really like John Cena as an idea, and I like that guy James Gunn. I'd heard him on the Howard Stern show, and he had said that the Peacemaker TV show is maybe the thing he's the most proud of, that he's made. So I think my expectations kind of were really high for it, because I like him, and. And then I just. I also haven't seen the movie. I don't know. It just wasn't clicking for me. And also, I think probably because I was watching with my dad, so I was hyper, concerned about things like very, very graphic sex scene between John Cena and some random galaxy. So maybe that put me off of it. But anyway, I was.

[A]

I.

[B]

It didn't quite work for me. Maybe.

[A]

I mean, when I say the movie, it's. The Suicide Squad was the movie that came out of. And then the TV show. I just want to make sure I'm not getting corrective emails on that. But because I real. I saw that in the theater. I was like, I don't know, I'll just go with Genevieve and see it. And then I. And I really did, like. It was like. I don't know how much you know this look, but there was a movie called Suicide Squad. I might be swapping these, but I'm pretty sure Suicide Squad came out and it had really bad reviews. And then they basically remade it and called it the Suicide Squad and got Tim Gunn in there. And some of the actors are. Sorry, James Gunn. No, Luke. They got Tim Gunn in there. Let me. That would be amazing. You've been living in the monkey house.

[B]

You've been living in the monkey house.

[A]

Anyway, I would love to see Suicide Squad directed by Tim. It was such an interesting decision just to be like, we can do better. And then they did, and it's incredible. And there's scene in there that is, like, so beautiful. I've never seen a beautiful action fight scene before. Anyway, so I was pretty into the movie. I don't. I wouldn't recommend it for you. But then this TV show just focuses on one of the characters. It's not like a continuation of the movie in any way. And then it builds its kind of universe around it. But I really liked it. But again, it's still part of the Marvel world. Is there any Marvel thing that you like? Like, I just don't see that as something that. That is like. I'm trying to think of what comic book movie do you like or any.

[B]

Property, you know, I mean, here's the thing. I can't name one. But it's not because I dislike them per se. It's because I just. It's just not content that I really think to engage with. I do want to see Guardians of the Galaxy, speaking of the Tim Gunn universe, because, you know, I've just heard really good things about it. People really like it. It. So it's. It's. I'm not like, on the record of saying I don't like the Marvel movies, or I'm not. I just. I just forget to see. I think I also maybe would like Deadpool. That seems like it's a very. It's very in on the joke.

[A]

Maybe. I don't know. I. And by the way, this is not. I, I did not watch most of the Deadpools. I only saw the last one, the Deadpool versus Wolverine. And none of this is judgment, by the way. And again, I want to make it clear, I'm not saying that you should like this stuff. It's just that it doesn't seem like I'm saying this completely judgment free, but it just doesn't seem like it's for you. Like, you are. You are. So now this sort of sounds like I'm going to be taking a shot and I don't mean it that way, but like somebody mispronounced a city that you knew in a movie and it turned you off. Like, I don't know. I can't. I can't ever see like, Alien. I can't see that, like funny aliens would ever appeal to you in a way that, like, that's something that you sit down to watch. And I know you, you're not making a point of saying, I'm Luke Burbank and I don't like Marvel movies. You don't want to be that person. I don't blame you. You don't want to say that this is part of my personality, but I can't imagine anything that I know about what you like about visual entertainment would lead you to anything that would be like, about superheroes, like even just the very idea.

[B]

Well, let me. Well, let me say this. I like, liked the Batman on an airplane. I think I watched like one of the Batmans, the recent ones. That's like Christian Bale.

[A]

Okay. Yeah. So there's a Christopher Nolan ones.

[B]

Yeah, I think I liked those. I think I liked that because it's kind of gritty and dark and it was interesting to me kind of cinematically.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

So, yeah, you know, I guess what I would say. Yeah, you described it accurately, which is I certainly don't want my personality to be like, I'm. The guy who does. Isn't into the Marvel, the MCU or whatever, but if I was into it, I would be watching it. So I guess that says something. The fact that I'm not naturally drawn to it.

[A]

Yeah, it doesn't seem. It wouldn't be something that I would recommend to you. But having said that, I happen to like. I happen to really like Peacemaker. I just think that, like, you can just the, the Luke. I can't think of a better word than panache, the certain panache that James Gunn brings to that kind of thing. I think is really interesting. But I'm also saying that as somebody who hasn't even started season two, which if it hasn't wrapped, it must be wrapping pretty soon.

[B]

So I don't know what I am drawn to. Andrew is constantly updating that Yelp review and trying to upvote it. And then this is the thing that's insane because I've, I've. I have. I walk around imagining the conversations or non conversations that are happening at Felting, Heating, felt and heating and cooling. And my sense this is where I've landed with it. I just don't think they're. They're not extremely online people. And so. And again, I think they probably have been around for a long time. They probably do a ton of commercial business and residential business, and they don't.

[A]

Their.

[B]

Their Yelp page is not essential to their continued success as a business. And therefore it's not really blowing their minds that they have a bad Yelp review the way that I would like it to. And that is where things start to become. This is. This is my origin story. This is how I become the Yelper, which is the new bad guy from the mcu. He's a guy who wrote a Yelp review that the people who he wrote it about, they don't care about it.

[A]

Yes. And you go around just. You, you're very judgmental. The Yelper goes around judging everybody and everything.

[B]

But it all started when he wrote one Yelp review and the people didn't even notice. That's what broke him.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And could you, when you introduced me, could you just. Could you just call me Yelper?

[A]

Oh, that's right.

[B]

But anyway, I'm considering, like, sent emailing the link to them, which is the is.

[A]

Is maybe the don't do that. They. They. Somebody got an update.

[B]

The most beta cuck move in the history. I mean, that might be the most impotent move in the history of the world is like writing a strongly worded negative review and then being like, you didn't notice it and then sending it to them and being like, see what I did, Luke? I'm not gonna do that. But I'm saying I'm tempted.

[A]

I'm telling you, this is gonna. I understand that feeling you have. You're so mad. And they really did do you dirty, like, in more ways than one. So I understand that rage that you feel, but let me tell you this.

[B]

This.

[A]

I counted them up. It looks like you have like 90. Now. There's four different choices of ways people can react to this. And I don't think that. I don't think it's 90 people, but they got 90 reactions on your post. All their other posts are. There's like eight other posts and maybe nine. They're all quick five star reviews and nobody has interacted with them. Like somebody somewhere their phone is pinging every time somebody says, I find this neck. And that is so much better because. Because they know now that you have some sort of audience. It might not be a podcast audience, it could just be an audience of friends and family, but they know that this one really negative review is getting like that is a message has been sent. They're not responding. Don't.

[B]

You're good.

[A]

You won.

[B]

I know, I know. Right now it's like I actually have this kind of cool flex, which is. I wrote this review. The review is getting a lot of attention thanks to the text and I just need to leave it at that. I know I would lose whatever slight cool flex I had would be immediately lost. If I emailed them the link. It was like, look what I'm doing over here.

[A]

Did you happen to hear, is this just straight up copyright infringement? If I just ask you the Wisconsin 106 Breakfast with Bob question to ponder today?

[B]

Okay, quickly, because we've got a. I've got to start doing my rituals.

[A]

Oh, that's right.

[B]

Taking my socks and things and getting.

[A]

Ready for 12 o', clock, 27 minutes away. Okay. Okay, here it is. We haven't even gotten to a TBTL email. That's totally my fault, My apologies. But if you do this at all, statistics show that you're most likely to do it on a Wednesday right around 7pm if you do this at all, you're most likely to do it on a Wednesday right around 7:00pm Luke, what do you think?

[B]

Putting aside the fact that I find all of these to be very, very hard to verify.

[A]

Yes, yes.

[B]

And that although I give our guy Bob credit because what I didn't realize at the beginning, but now I understand about the question to ponder is it has to be kind of like weird and unverifiable because that will spur on a lot of guesses. It can't be something that is knowable or is provably knowable because then it'll get solved pretty quickly.

[A]

The fun part is hearing all of the off the wall.

[B]

It's open ended for a reason.

[A]

Reason.

[B]

It's. That's, that's a. That's a. You know, what do they call it? That's a, like, you know, it's a feature, not a bug is what I'm trying to say. So anyway. Okay, well, something comes to mind is have a glass of wine for some reason.

[A]

My God. Wait, are you cheating? Where's my bell?

[B]

I really got it. Huh?

[A]

That's it. Drink wine. If you drink wine, statistics show you're most likely to do it on a Wednesday, right around 7:00pm I woke up early this morning around 6:00 clock and had to use the restroom. And I think I've told you this. I come downstairs to use the restroom because there's very little, like kind of noise buffering between Genevieve's bathroom and the bedroom. And so I like a little privacy. But six o' clock is a little bit early for me. So I came downstairs. Use the restroom thing. I was going to go back to bed and I saw that the time was like maybe it was like 6:09. And I saw in blue sky that Bob had just posted the question to ponder. And I was so close to firing up the app and listening in because I haven't done that in a while. But I was scared that if I did that, I would never fall back asleep. So I had to go back to sleep and then wake up this morning to find out what it was. And you're absolutely right. It was drinking wine. And I would. I was going to say before you even guessed it. Like that seems reasonable to me. That's one of the most reasonable answers I've heard.

[B]

It's probably why I was able to guess it, because it was an actually, you know, and I guess my thought process was, if you were to say to someone, what night would you be most likely to have a glass of wine? I would say Friday or Saturday. That would be most people's typical answer. So I thought, well, Wednesday is kind of a head fake.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But also why. And the 7pm thing was. Was leading me in something kind of. Something relaxing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And. Yeah, I'm listening. Listen, let's try to harness this energy, Andrew, this winning energy, and let's ride it right, right into this Mariners game.

[A]

Yes. That's about to start here because I had guessed. Drink.

[B]

What did you get?

[A]

Drink a grip of Jim Beam. If you're likely to drink an entire.

[B]

Grip, you're gonna drink a handle of Jim Beam.

[A]

Handle is the way. Is that. Am I making up grip or do they say is that interchangeable? That's that giant like two bottle jug of liquor. Right? A handle or a gray grip.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, no, that's. That's it. And also, when I was growing up. We would say if there was a lot of something, we would say you had a grip of it.

[A]

Oh, that's why I'm wondering if I'm making up the term grip as an official.

[B]

I like it, though.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Anyway, a handle is how much a handle is.

[A]

I don't know what it pours out to. Genevieve will buy handles of booze at Costco that we then decant into, like, little, like, you know, cork topped bottles that I believe are a fifth. So I think a handle is more than two fifths. Although I don't because I always.

[B]

I see people. I get a lot of sobriety TikTok now for some reason, and it'll be people saying I was drinking a handle of vodka a day. And that sounds like a lot to me, but I don't know. I guess I don't really know what a handle is. So.

[A]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's at least two fifths. And a fifth is like your. Your typical bottle of booze.

[B]

Oh, okay. Yikes. Yeah, that's a lot. All right, that's gonna do it for today's show. But guess what? We're gonna be right back here tomorrow with more imaginary RA for all of you. Please, if you can join us for that. In the meantime, have a great Wednesday. Take care of yourselves. Go Mariners. And please remember, no mountain too tall.

[A]

And good luck to all. Listen, please, please, please. If anybody doesn't know the difference between a valance and a Jabot, I really.

[B]

Need you to leave.

[A]

Power out.